The Destructive Power of Secret Sin

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. 7th chapter of Joshua. Now just leave it open on your lap there if you will.

The destructive power of sin, we're going to see it so clearly in the 7th chapter of Joshua. Now look this way if you will please. When the children of Israel in chapter 6 went up against Jericho, you'll find this admonition.

This is what Joshua said speaking for God. He said to the children of Israel, and ye in any wise, keep yourself from the accursed thing of anything that's under the ban. The new American standard says under the ban, things under the ban.

Lest you make yourself accursed when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and you trouble it. He said, I'm going to tear down those walls. And he said, I don't want you to touch the accursed thing.

And here's what God was saying. Inside those walls of Jericho, Satan is ruling as king. Everything that he has touched, the houses are cursed with demonic powers.

Everything that's in there, the silver, the gold, the vessels, everything in that city and everything it touches, there's a spirit behind it and I want you to go in and I want you to tear it down, I want you to burn it. And what he's trying to say, these are habitations of evil spirits. This is a stronghold of Satan and I want you to take away the devil's habitation.

So there's nothing to dwell in there again. It will be burned down and the evil spirit will have to flee and the stronghold of Satan comes down in Jericho. Now, the Lord knew exactly what would happen when those walls came tumbling down.

He knew what's going to happen when the battle's over. And Joshua sent from door to door to collect the spoils. They were to be gathered into the treasury of the Lord's house.

All the silver, all the gold, all the vessels, everything is dedicated to the Lord and only that way can the curse be removed. It was dedicated to the Lord. And he knew what was going to happen.

There was going to be widespread temptation because these Israelites that went in, they were wearing the dried clothes of the wilderness they'd had for years and they had been drinking out of these beaten, tattered cups, chipped pottery and they're going to see these intricate golden vessels and silver vessels with all these beautiful carvings. They're going to see ingots of gold. They're going to see minted coins.

They're going to see robes that they've never seen from Babylon in China that have beautiful embroidery and even embroidered with gold. And he knew that there was going to be tremendous temptation. And no doubt, probably a great majority of those Israelites, when the horse came down and they go in and they're collecting the spoils, I'm sure the enemy said to one after another, just a little pearl, stick it in your pocket.

As a momentum of this great occasion you can show your grandchildren. Pick up that little thing. Your wife deserves a souvenir of this bottle.

And there was a temptation to take a little bobble, a little piece of silver, just a little something to remind her. No doubt many of them stuck it in their pockets. But when they got to the camp, the Holy Ghost convicted them.

They knew that God said, if you touch it, there's a spirit behind it. And if you touch it, you're going to trouble Israel and there'll be a curse on the camp. But one man, one man gave in to the temptation.

Chapter 7, verse 1. But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zaddi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. The Bible says in verse 21, look at verse 21, He saw among the sparrows, 721, He saw among the sparrows a beautiful Babylonian garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight.

By the way, the Bible said, put aside every weight, I wish he'd have laid aside his weight. Did you see him walking out, weighted down with all these shekels, the silver and gold? He coveted them, and he took them, and he hid them in the earth in the midst of his tent. Now look at this, Achan took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.

Not just Achan, but God brought the whole camp of Israel under guilt. God charged the whole camp of Israel for the sin of one man in the midst. On the surface, what this man Achan did, now look, I don't know whether he tucked it in his tunic or what, he's got a Babylonian coat under his tunic, he somehow manages to get out of the camp, with these shekels and this big ingot of gold, of some shekel power, and the Bible says, the children of Israel committed a trespass.

It doesn't say Achan committed a trespass, the children of Israel committed a trespass. Only one man did it, the children of Israel are found guilty. Now, it looks a little insignificant at the time.

Why did what appears to be a petty thief bring such judgment of God? Why would God say, I'm not going to be with you anymore until this is dealt with? Why would God bring 3 million people under guilt? Why would God charge 3 million people with the sin of one man? Brother, sister, it was not an insignificance then. It was so incredible, so dangerous, so wicked, God had to leave the camp. Verse 12, Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed from among you.

Now, before I go any further, let me tell you something. Achan is still with us today. I'll say it again.

Achan is still with us tonight. He's here in this church, represented by Christians, men and women. Now, I want you to listen very closely.

That spirit that was on Achan is on some that are in this very building tonight. There are preachers and teachers who believe the Old Testament has no relevance for today. They see the swift judgments of God in the Old Testament as we're going to see here.

And they say, well, we're under the Day of Grace. God doesn't move like that now. God doesn't destroy sin like that.

After all, this is under the Day of Grace, and we're all forgiven at the cross anyhow. That's the thinking of many people. But I'm telling you right now that both the Old Testament and the New Testament came out of the same heart of God.

And the sins God hated in the Old Testament, He still hates and condemns in the New. In the New Testament, we see Paul turning over transgressors to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the soul could be saved. We read under the Old Testament that those who disregarded the law of Moses died without mercy before the witness of two or three people.

But under the New Testament, let me show you what the Scripture says. How much sore or more severe the punishment, suppose you be not worthy, for those who have trodden underfoot, son of God. That's in the New Testament.

He says, in the Old Testament, they died suddenly without mercy. He said, now under the New, how much sore, how much quicker is the judgment of God? The accursed thing is still being brought into the house of God. There are people who sit among us here today They sit here calling a secret sin.

Lord may need me to name some of these sins tonight, I don't know. But they sit here tonight, and they're calling this thing they're holding on to, the secret sin. And they go in and out among us.

But the heavenly wrath of God abiding on them right now. And they're going to cause trouble on all sides. Because those who sit among us, who call a secret sin, and claim to be a part of the body of Jesus Christ, they can bring upon the house of God a troubling.

Just as we see in this Old Testament, I want to prove it to you. You say, surely, not in the New Testament could the sin of one believer, the secret sin of one Christian, hinder God's blessing in this day of grace. Surely, it's every man now responsible for his own sin, and judged for his own sin only.

Not so. Not so. The scripture said, for none of us live it to himself.

Romans 14, 7. Paul, when he's speaking to the Corinthians, he said, there was sin in the Corinthian church, and he said, you're not grieving over it, you're not weeping over it, you're not dealing with it. And he said to them, a little leaven in the church, leavens the whole lump. A little leaven, leavens the whole lump.

One Christian in your midst who claims to be a part of the body of Jesus Christ, coming to worship and raising his or her hands and saying, I belong to God, I'm a part of this body, and still harboring secret sin, is leavening the whole lump. Also, the scripture says, there are many members, but there's only one body. And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

Now, you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. You and I are members of one another. We're all a part of the same body.

The scripture says, all these things happened to them for our sakes, upon whom the ends of the world were come. Remember when Jesus looked at the multitudes that denied him? He charged them with the blood of every prophet from Abel to Zacharias. Jesus said, upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.

You slew them. Now, all these prophets died before they were born. And Jesus said, you killed them.

You're responsible. Because they knew of the sin, they knew what caused it, and they had the same spirit of rebellion upon them. Now, we as pastors have been charged just as Joshua was.

Joshua 7, 10, 11. I want you to read it with me. 7, 10 and 11.

The Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up. Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned. They have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them.

For they have even taken the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and lied. Dissembled also means lied. And they have put it even among their own stuff.

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you any more, except you destroy the accursed from among you. Now listen to me please.

Here's the setting for that charge to Joshua. They had a great victory. Remember Jericho.

God was with them because they had been sanctified. The reproach of Egypt had been removed. They had been circumcised.

And because they were walking in righteousness, there was no sin in the camp. God was with them. And the walls came tumbling down.

A great victory. And now they're approaching a little town, 12,000 soldiers. Town of Ai.

Now Ai in Hebrew means trouble. Ruin. And also it means crooked.

Something crooked. Something ruined. And there's something crooked now in the camp of Israel.

Achan has stolen this and bagged it in his tent. And Achan brings this seal into the camp of Israel. And when Achan brings this accursed thing into the camp of Israel, God moves out.

God moves out. He's no longer with them. And I want you to see what happens when, either in the choir, musicians, pastors, I don't care where it is in the body, when there are those who hold to secret sin and won't let it go.

It brings trouble to the camp. It brings trouble to the body. He said, you'll bring folly to Israel, he said.

Look what it does to the camp of Israel. First of all, it brought a spirit of prayerlessness. Not Joshua, not the leaders, not any of the people, sought God for direction.

They have no prayer. They send some spies up and the second thing is, they lost their discernment. They didn't even know God had left.

They didn't even know there was sin in the camp. The third thing that happens, they downplayed the power of the enemy. The most dangerous thing you can do as a Christian is to downplay the spiritual warfare that you and I are in.

You know what they're saying? That's just a little town. Just send three thousand up there. In other words, we'll be home for supper.

It's mistaken. We hear people joke about the power of the enemy. We don't joke about the power of the enemy in this church.

We don't attribute him more power than God has permitted. He has been robbed of his power as far as the newcomer is concerned. But for those who have sin in their heart, there is a battle.

And you better not underestimate that battle. You better not take it lightly. And this is exactly what happened.

They take it lightly. They go up against AI. And they lose their power.

They start fleeing before AI. Thirty-six soldiers are killed. And when they came back weeping, their army came back weeping, the scripture said, Therefore the hearts of all the people melted, and became like water.

Their leadership was flabbergasted. What went wrong? Hasn't the Lord said, He's our captain? I saw him, I took off my shoe. Joshua said, And I handed over to him, I surrendered my authority to the captain of the Lord's army.

He was with us just in Jericho. The walls came down. A great miracle.

He said, We came over Jordan. We died the sin in the Jordan. More than that, we came under the knife of God, at the hill of the four skins.

At Gilgal. He said, The reproach of Egypt was gone. What's wrong? Why aren't our prayers being answered? Why is the road blocked now? Why isn't there victory? Why is the enemy having ascendancy, and we're coming down? What's going on? Joshua could have very easily done what many shepherds do today, and that's to excuse the little losses.

Justify the setbacks. And he could have said, Well, look, we're bound to lose a few. We just had a great victory, and this is going to be a long war.

You've got to expect a few defeats, and maybe this will keep us humble. No. No.

And I'm going to ask you a question. Why aren't the shepherds in America today on their face crying out, Oh God, why aren't prayers being answered in the church? Why are the altars vacant? Why are they empty? Why aren't the preachers in America weeping, saying, Oh God, where have you gone? Where is your presence? Well, thank God we have his presence here. Thank God these altars are packed.

We give God the glory for that. But you look out in the land, and you hear the crowd, the people. There's nobody being saved.

Our altars are empty. Joshua got on his face before God, and he began to weep. Do you know it's up to the shepherds to seek the face of God and find out why the Lord's presence lost? Why so many defeated? Why the heavens become brass? But you see, there comes a time that God gives the people an ultimatum, and he says, You deal with sin or else.

Or else you own your own. Or else the enemy's going to take you. And when Joshua got down and asked God what's wrong, he said, Lord, I wish we'd never left Egypt.

He said, when the enemies find out, they're going to come in all sizes. They're going to surround us, and they're going to swallow us up. And brother, sister, if the sin hadn't been dealt with, that's exactly what would have happened.

They would have been swallowed up and annihilated. And God comes to his shepherds, and he comes and he said, Something's wrong. God speaks to him in verse 13.

Up, Joshua. Because Joshua said, Oh, God, there's something wrong. He's crying and weeping.

Listen. We can have people. We have all night prayer meeting in this church, Friday night.

And I thank God for you. Prayer morning is a prayer all night. We thank God for you.

Come in the mornings and pray, seven in the morning, during the day, through the week. But you know, we can have people. If we want to go out with the Lord, we can have people praying all night long.

We can have them praying all night long, seven days a week. But if there's sin in the camp, that prayer is not going to avail. The prayers will not be answered.

The clinics will not be shut. The theater will not open. There'll be trouble in the home.

There'll be trouble in the camp. So God comes to Joshua and he said, Up, Joshua, off your knees. This is not the time to pray.

This is the time to deal with sin. Deal with it. Up, Joshua, sanctify the people and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow.

Get ready. Tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel.

Thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. Now please understand the significance of what was happening. The leadership under the guidance of the Holy Spirit was about to get to the bottom of things.

God's call had been so... They had started so right. There'd been such blessing, and now there were signs that something was wrong. The revival had been glorious, but suddenly, there's something, just something went wrong.

And running in the ears of Joshua, these words from the Lord, Joshua, neither will I be with you anymore. All those are solemn words, aren't they? Neither are you hearing it? This is not just for me, it's for you, it's for the church. Let it ring in your own heart.

God's speaking to you now. Neither will I be with you anymore. Put your name on it.

Except you destroy the accursed thing from among you. And tonight, I hear that same challenge ringing in my ear as a pastor, when the pastor of this church, the Lord is saying, sin will cause me to hide my face from you. Sin will cause me to hide my face from you.

I want you to go with me to Deuteronomy 31, please. Go left to Deuteronomy 31, just a few pages. Deuteronomy 31, verse 16, beginning to read.

This is about the most quiet I've ever heard this congregation. Deuteronomy 31, verse 16, beginning to read, And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods and the strangers of the land, whether they go to be among them. Don't forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I'll forsake them, and I'll hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured. Many evils and troubles shall befall them, so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us? Isn't that awful? Our God's not with us anymore. Can you imagine anything worse than God not being with you? Can you imagine anything else than being on your own in front of the enemies that we face in these last days? Verse 18, And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they have wrought and that they have turned unto other gods or idols.

Now therefore, write this song for you and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths and this song will be a witness for me against the children of Israel. Would you skip over to chapter 32 now? Verse 18, beginning to read.

32 verse 18, Of the rock that beget thee, thou art unmindful. Who is the rock? Of the rock that beget thee, thou art unmindful and has forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.

Do you understand that that secret sin has been provoking God? And I said, verse 20, I will, what? I'll hide my face from them. I will see what the end shall be for they are very forward, perverse generation, children in whom there's no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God.

They provoke me to anger with their vanities. And that word vanity is idols. And I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people.

I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation for a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest hell. Isn't that, those are awful strong words. Now listen, look this way, if you would please.

Isaiah the prophet, speaking for God, said to Israel, When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear them. Your hands are full of blood.

Listen, becomes a child, I tell you, you can be coddled secret sin. And I tell you, if you coddle that secret sin, you raise your hands, you can talk in tongues, you can pray all you want. God said, I'm not hearing.

I'm not hearing. I'll hear your cry of repentance, but I'm not going to hear that. He said, wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doing from before my eyes.

Cease to do evil. Then Isaiah went on to say, Behold, the Lord's hand is not short that it cannot save, neither is it heavy that it cannot hear. You see, God's anxious to work.

God's anxious to perform miracles. God's anxious to hear prayer and answer it. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He'll not hear you anymore.

Listen, please. How did God view aching sin? Now, it had to be more than just those stolen ingots, those stolen coins in that garment. It had to be more than that, because all the spoils have been gathered, and they've been sanctified to the Lord.

It says not that at all. But you see, Joshua had said to Israel, in one of the verses, listen to it now, he said, Cursed be, this is in Joshua the sixth chapter, and the last verse, verse 26, you don't have to turn there, but here's what he said, Cursed be, listen close, Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth the city of Jericho in a costume as firstborn and as youngest son. He said, Cursed is the one that rises up, who tries to build Jericho again.

Now let me show you what the Holy Ghost showed me. Now I'll tell you, I was laying on my face, and when God came to me, I knew what He was saying, I'd never seen it before. Watch, aching as He picks up those pieces.

The devil's watching him, now remember, like Bob said, this money, the idol is nothing, there's a spirit behind it. It's controlled by a spirit. And he picks this up, and the devil's watching, others have been taken.

Now the devil has to have a habitation. He's about to be cast out, everything burnt, every living soul is going to be killed except Rahab Nahali. And the devil had to release her because she turned her heart over to God.

So she gets out of the city, he can't go out with Rahab. He has to have a body. He has to preserve the spirit of Jericho.

And the only way he can do it is to find a victim. He's got to find a willing heart. And he's playing with this, he's flirting with it, just like you flirted with your sin.

And you played with it. And God told you it was wrong. And you went back to it.

I don't know how many times he walked back and forth, he knew it was there. And finally, the devil watches, he sees this temptation, he sees him lingering by that temptation. And a lion spirit comes to him and says, you only go around once, take it.

Go for it. You ever heard that? Life is short. You're the only one who knows it, go for it, you deserve it.

That's what every adulterer says when he has another man, another woman in a secret affair. Your wife doesn't understand you, your husband doesn't understand you, you have a right to talk to somebody that understands you. And you see, when you start listening to the lion, the devil knows what's happening.

And actually, he stands right there, and what he's doing, he's knocking on the gates of hell, and he's saying, I'm a candidate. And the moment he picks it up and cuts it in his throat, he goes out, you look at Aitkin marching out now, he goes right past the camp, he goes right past the placeways to lay the squirrels, and I don't know how he walked, he was weighted down. But you know what? He buried it in the tent.

But that's not where it was buried, it was buried in his heart. What he got was the infection of Jericho, he got the spirit of the devil. The devil possessed Aitkin, a soldier involved in spiritual warfare.

And Satan possessed him. How else do you describe, how else do you explain what he did? When he could stand against the prophet of God, Joshua, right after he'd seen the walls come down, the greatest miracle a man could ever see, he sat under that miracle power. He heard the prophet of God saying, if you touch it, you're going to be a curse on the camp.

You're going to curse the whole camp. How do you explain the man walking out in spite of that word? How do you explain it other than demon possession? You could have gone to Aitkin, and you could have stopped him, and you could have said, wait a minute, Aitkin, don't you know what God said? Don't you know this is going to destroy you? You're going to lose your family, you're going to lose your place in this army? Aitkin, you marched wrong, he wouldn't have heard you, an angel couldn't convince him because he's possessed now. Joshua couldn't have stopped him at that point.

He's driven. Bob called it, rather smart of being, out of control. The Lord said it again tonight, and what's happened? He raises up Jericho because the devil succeeded in doing something.

Look what he's done. He's planted right in the heart of the camp of God, the spirit of Jericho. He's raising up Jericho again.

How else do you explain what's happening in this church? When the word of God is coming across this pulpit, as clear as any pulpit on the face of the earth, there's no fog. There's no way to get around it. You have never in your lifetime sat under a ministry where you've heard the word of God like you've heard it in this church.

Not in your lifetime, not because we preach it. But you know you've heard it. Never in your lifetime have you sat under such conviction of the Holy Ghost.

Never have you been bathed in such light. What explains then that you can go out and still smoke coke and still drink? How do you go out of the house of God saints after being bathed in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and then go home in front of an idol and sit there and watch pornography? How do you explain it other than demon possession? You say, can a Christian be possessed of demons? If you do it, I can do it, yes. Absolutely.

I'm convinced of it more than ever. God deal with me this week in prayer. It's because you have gone right to the gate of hell.

You have rejected every message. And what's happened now, the devil has closed your ears, closed your eyes, and given you a hard heart. You won't hear anything I say tonight.

If you've reached that deadline where the Holy Spirit comes to you time and time again, how patient God has been with some of us. He's been here a year and a half with some of you. And I say it with a broken heart, and I say it with love.

So God, what does it take? And God warned me tonight not to soften this. Not to soften it. What does it take? That you know that God's about to expose you.

And I'll tell you what, when God moves with the people, decide to take them out like He did in the day of Pentecost, and He's doing a new work in the land. You can mark it down, they don't ask Him, if I'm going to drop dead. You can mark it down, He's going to expose everything and He's going to do it quick.

And I promise you, I promise you, in the name of the Lord, because He loves this church, He loves this church, and He's taking the people into the firmness of Jesus Christ, after this night, if you don't heed the word of God, I promise you, it won't be 30 days before God exposes you to somebody somewhere. There goes your family, there goes your children, there goes your job. It's a high price to end up in the shame that Bob talked about this morning.

Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey, His servants you are to whom you obey? Whether of sin unto death, of obedience unto righteousness, there it is, He said, if you're going to just keep yielding to this thing, you're not yielding to that, you're yielding to demonic influence. And if you keep it up, that harassment will become possession. Oh, I'm convinced now, that there's some Christians, oh, I know, I heard a minister once, who was having an affair, and you know what he justified, he had it for about 4 or 5 years, you know what he justified it? He said, I'll tell you what, we get together, we have prayer meetings, and we're praying, and God told us it's alright.

How can a man believe that, unless he's possessed? How could the devil dare believe, he could convince somebody of that, unless he's already in residence? I think some of us here tonight, better begin to think about, what has a hold of our heart. You better start thinking about, I'm about to give myself over, to total demon possession. Because you walk right out, of a Holy Ghost meeting, and run right to your sin.

Hallelujah. You know, Saul, Saul is driven by an evil spirit, and then he goes up to Ramah, the spirit of God comes on him, and he prophesies all night. The next morning, he goes right back to his sin.

You say, well I talk in tongues, and I praise the Lord, and I worship. Saul did, Saul, lay before the Lord, under the immunity of the Holy Spirit, all night long. But he's full of the evil.

But you know, Joshua didn't coddle sin, he was quick to expose it, and deal with it. So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken, and Achan the son of Carmi, and the tribe of Judah was taken. Well, how many times Achan had an opportunity to repent? Look what's happening, God is casting lots now, God says, I'm going to expose it.

Now look, there's no way that pastors can, I don't know where sin is, I don't, nobody said a word to me, no one has said a word to me about anybody, or to these pastors, we don't know where it lays. Joshua didn't know where it was. All he knew, God was speaking.

But there was a cursed thing in the camp. But you see, God says, I'm going to expose this thing. I want you to call the whole camp, I want every tribe to pass by, and I'll tell you, if they can go by, whether they're innocent, or you hold them back.

And, he watches, he knows, he's standing right there, and he knows God's narrowing it down. And he watches tribe after tribe go by. And his tribe, he's standing there with the tribe of Judah, and suddenly, the tribe of Judah, when he stands before Joshua, something in Joshua's heart, begins to turn, and he begins to weep.

He says, oh no, this is it. Judah, stand by. Akin's in that tribe.

All the other tribes go to their tents. Judah now stands before the leadership. And each clan now has to pass by, because tribes had clans.

And now God's narrowing it down again. And now, the clans go by. I don't know if there were a hundred clans or not.

A clan was about a hundred to a thousand people. And now they come by the thousands. And the clan, approx a thousand, the clan, is gone.

And he still doesn't repent. And he's standing there, and that's down, not three million, not a million, not six hundred thousand, it's down to a thousand now. And out of the clan, his family is finally gone.

Akin! He still doesn't repent. Until he stands before Joshua. And Joshua's heart broke, and he said, My son! I hear the pathos of the prophet in that.

And he says, My son, tell me what you did. Tell me. What the Bible said, Be sure your sinner finds you out.

And then he said, It's me. He said, yes. And I'll tell you what.

You look at God. God said, I'm going to just keep narrowing it down. And you know what God's doing right now? He's in the process of narrowing it all down.

He's narrowing everything down now. You're in the line, brother. You're in the line, sister.

If you're going to, the time's going to come, you're going to have to face this issue. And I want you to pray to God to help you face it tonight. He said, You've wrought folly in Israel.

You've wrought a great folly in Israel. They go to the tent. They dig it out.

The Bible said they came and laid it before the Lord. And that's exactly what God's doing here tonight. He's digging it out to lay it before Him.

They laid all that root out before the Lord. Achan, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his cattle, and all the things that he had, they're taking down to the valley of Acre. Acre.

To be judged. Look at verse 27, chapter 7, verse 25, 26. Read it with me.

Just follow me, please. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? Look this way for a minute, please. Let me show you.

Those who call sin are bringing destruction on their families. Destruction on their families. Trouble to the church.

I, for one, don't want to be guilty of holding up the blessing of God in the camp. I, for one, don't want to stand there troubling Israel. I don't want to be a troublemaker.

I don't want to be a troublemaker of Israel. Now, all his children, all his family, everything that he owns, it's all in front of Joshua now. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day.

Now, Israel stoned him with stones, then burned him with fire, and after that, had stoned him with stones, they raised over him a great heap of stones to this day. You know what God's saying? Stone it. Burn it.

Bury it. God's trying to say something to the church about secret, hidden sin. Stone it.

Burn it. Bury it. Thrice dead.

Don't spare. They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned away from the fierceness of his anger.

Wherefore, the name of the place was called the Valley of Acre, unto this very day. Do you know what the prophet said to David? Nathan said it when David was caught about his secret sin. He said, You did it secretly, but I'm going to expose you openly.

He said, For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. He said, I'm going to tell the whole world what you did, David. And you and I, look at David now, we're still talking about his sin after all of these centuries.

Oh, what a different story it would have been if Achan would have confessed. I wonder what it would have been if somewhere along the line he got convicted. He said, Oh, I can't.

I can't bring trouble to Israel. I've sinned. And God had dug it up and brought it to Joshua.

And said, Joshua, I've sinned against God. But you see, the problem is most people wait until they're caught. The Valley of Acre means a place of trouble and anger.

But I'll tell you what, there's some good news in this. Do you want to see it? All right, go to, some of you are ready. Hosea, I'm going to ask you a question, while you're finding that.

Are you in Achan? Are you under some demonic spell of a secret sin? Is there something buried deep within you? I'm telling you there's some hope for you. Because the Valley of Acre is where you're going to find the cross. You're going to find a door of hope.

Hosea 2 verse 14 beginning to read. Verse 14. Therefore behold, I will allure her.

He's talking about his church. And bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from fence and the Valley of what? The Valley of Acre for what? Door of hope.

And she shall sing there. Now Achan died there. She shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

Now let me tell you what I believe that means. God is saying to you, do you want to get rid of your secret sin? Do you want the victory in your life? He said, oh I want you to go down the Valley of Acre and that's where the cross is. Hallelujah.

What else is a door of hope but the cross of Jesus? Now you're not going to get stoned tonight physically. I don't have a bunch of stones back here to bring you up here and we're going to stone you to death. But you've got to die.

You're going to have to die. The Bible says you approach that cross and you crucify that old man. You crucify that thing.

You know what that means? It's very simple. We try to make it very complex, but you know what it says when you crucify? Lay it down. Give it up.

God wouldn't tell you to do something he didn't know that you had his power and authority to do it. He said, you lay it down. I'm sick and tired of all these complicated ideas.

Well, we are helpers. We can't do anything. Why would God command us to obey him if he didn't know we could do it? That's a cop-out.

You know what Daniel said? He said, I beheld the throne. Thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool.

His throne was like a fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. And a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. You know what that is? God's a consuming God.

Isn't that what the Bible says? And I believe there's a fire in these last days issuing right before him. It's going to take everything out of the way. And you'd better get to the cross.

You'd say, Jesus, I know you died for my sin. Legally before you, Lord, if I believe in what you did, if I accept that legal transaction before the throne of God, I receive your righteousness. But, Lord, you have to also teach me to obey, to lay this thing down.

God's not going to lay it down for you. See, that's your part. That's my part.

Hallelujah. He said we're going to be saved just by fire, for God's a consuming fire. Now, I'm going to close in just a minute.

But I have to tell you, just before I came to the service, the Lord gave me an added word, and I want to share it with you right now. Within this church, first of all, within this church, I don't care if you're an usher, anybody in this stage, choir, and the leadership of this church knows that you're living in sin, we'll ask you to sit down. We'll ask you not to be in a choir, not to play, not to be an usher, until you deal with that.

Now, if we don't know it, we've preached about it. And if it's there, and you're not going to deal with it, you need to sit down, lest you endanger yourself and the body of Christ. You need to sit down.

Don't leave, but sit down and say, God, I've got to have victory over this, and I want deliverance. And I want you to know what the cross does, deliverance over every part of the enemy. Every demon spirit has to flee, but I'll tell you, as God said this morning, you can pray and cry and cast out everything you have until the idol's laid down, nothing's going to change.

This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. Lay it down.

Whether it's a thing or a person, lay it down. And secondly, here's where I grieve. And I'm not shouting at anybody, I'm not screaming.

And my wife would be pleased that I'm not yelling right now. Because she reminds me I get pretty loud. But she does it in love.

But I grieve for some of you tonight because of what you're about to miss. You're going to go on holding on to your secret sin, and you're going to miss something glorious God had prepared for you. You'll find it all in the eighth chapter.

When they got the sin out, the cursed thing was dealt with, all that God had. God came back to Israel and made them absolutely invincible against the enemy. Ai was burned to the ground.

Right to the ground. Gibeon surrendered. Five kings came against Israel and the five kings were defeated.

They were locked in a cave. The man of God, Joshua, lays them all down and he calls the captains of Israel and puts their foot on their neck. And there's Israel standing on the foot of their neck and God said, No man shall stand against you again.

No man. Not an enemy can stand against you again. And more than that, the Lord was so with Joshua, He commanded the son to stand still.

You talk about closing a clinic? You talk about moving into a theater? The Bible says, and there was no day like this before or after that the Lord listened to the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. Listen. Here's where I grieve.

Some of you that have been floating with sin, God has something for you so glorious. He's got victory after victory. He wants to bless your family.

He wants to bless your children. He wants to raise them up with the fire of the Holy Ghost in them. He wants to make them shining lights in this last day.

God wants to make you fruitful. Your wife beside you strong and powerful in Christ. And you're going to miss it all if you keep filling with your sin.

You're going to miss it all. You're going to wind up despair. You're going to wind up divorced.

You're going to wind up in shame. Having missed the glory that the Lord has for you. That's the only reason God brings forth messages like this, because He doesn't want to miss the glory that He has prepared for you.

If you knew the good things God had for you, or if you knew the riches of His glory, if you knew the revelation that He wants to give you, if you knew that God was going to use you to lay hands on the sick, they're going to recover. If you knew how many souls you'd win to the Lord and have to sit on an ass and someday miss it all because of a secret sin. I've got to tell you, when I was a young preacher, I didn't have anybody come to me.

I wish I'd have heard somebody with enough courage and brought it in to thunder at me. God kept me from so much, but I could have gone astray because I had the seeds of that in my heart. And I was preparing this message, and oh God, I wish somebody, I wish somebody in my young years, I could have been such a stronger preacher for the Lord, I believe.

But you're hearing it tonight. You heard it this morning, you'll hear it almost every time from this pulpit. When, I ask you, when, when does it end? When does the sin go? Are you going to come week after week after week? When does it end? Tell me, tonight or ever.

We've had so many preachers come here and confess they've been living in sin. I mean, just, we had it again this morning. Living, when Bob said, you know, he spoke about some of you with multiple relationships that have been bad.

Oh, so many confessed that this morning. Going from relationship to relationship. Some of you have had problems with lust so long.

And I want to tell you, don't you dare pray for deliverance from lust if you're going to go home and sit in front of that idiot box and drink it in again. God will never deliver you if that's the problem. Never.

We can lay hands on you, cast every demon out of you, you go home and get seven more worse than them. Now, why is God cleansing the church? Why is he trying to remove the accursed thing? You know why? So he can start hearing our prayers and walking with us. God with us.

I'll tell you, God's been with this church. And the reason this message is being delivered, God's preparing, God's just a step ahead of the devil. He's just a step ahead.

Some of you, some of you, he's just warning you, he's preparing you. You say, brother, I'm not an adulterer. I'm not on drugs, chemical or medical drugs or anything.

I'm not on anything. I don't drink, I don't curse. I'll tell you what, I pray that God delivers some of them a bad mouth.

I hear Christians in New York say things that are... I hear women talk, supposed to be Christians that make me blush. They sound like they want to be smart like their friends, their man friends. You can't walk with Jesus with a foul mouth.

You say, well, I'm not like that. Are you criticizing the church and its leadership? Are you grumbling, are you complaining? Thousands of Israelites died as a result of that. Thousands.

Why don't you lay it down? And say, Lord Jesus, I'm not going to stand in the way of the blessing of God. I honestly believe with all my heart that God's waiting for some of us to go all the way, lay everything down, and then watch, the heavens open. Watch what God does in this church.

Watch what He does in this city. Hallelujah! Watch what He does in your house. Watch how He heals your marriage.

Watch, brother, when you lay everything else down. Lay that flirtation down and see how much you fall in love with your wife. She'll look prettier.

You know what she's going to say? I knew it all along, honey. Welcome home. I can't help it, brother, sister.

God's drawn a line. He's drawn a line right now. Are you going to cross it and say, Jesus, it's gone.

No games. I'm going to my funeral tonight. This is going to be a burial ground.

We're going to have a mass funeral. There's a mass grave right up here at this altar tonight where you're going to come and bury your sin in the blood of Jesus Christ and ask God to deliver you from every demonic spirit and every evil spirit and set you free in the name of Jesus. Stand, please.

Beloved, don't you want to walk with the people who want everything Jesus has for us? I don't want to be a part of games. I don't want to be a part of foolishness. I want to be a part of the people who say, oh, God, I want clean hands and a pure heart.

God, I don't care what the rest of the world does. I'm going all the way with you. Listen to me.

When I was preaching tonight, did the Holy Spirit put a finger on your heart? Did He put a finger on you? Did He put a finger on you? Did He say that you, there's an accursed thing in your life, unless you remove it, I can't walk with you anymore. I can't be with you anymore. You're on your own.

And that's the way it's going to be, saints. God said to Joshua, I can't be with you anymore until you remove that accursed thing from your midst. You feel that tug? Well, I pray.

Up in the balcony, go to the middle section, come down. Come down, either eye. And up here, come and bury it tonight.

Please don't come unless you feel the pull of the Spirit and you're ready. You're saying, Jesus, tonight, this is life and death with me. The games are all over.

Lord, tonight I die to my sin. I'm going to crucify Him. And I'm going to the Valley of Acre tonight where there's a door of hope for me.

Heavenly Father, send the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, come. Breathe on this house.

Bring conviction, Holy Spirit. Don't let anybody walk out the way they came in. Lord, expose it now before it gets out in the public.

Expose it before you rather than before us. Lord, let us come to you and have it exposed to lay down every idol, every secret sin. Wherever you're at in the building now, let's just sing.

Come on. Let God do it. Let God do it before it's out in the open.

Get it out now before, so God can wipe it clean. Let the Holy Ghost expose it rather than man. Put yourself, that's what David prayed.

Oh God, don't put me in the hands of man. I want to be in your hands. Judge me, Lord.

Don't let man judge me. That's it. Come on.

Search me, oh God, and know my heart today. Try me, oh Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. Save me, let it be some way can heal me.

Cleanse me from every sin and sorrow. I want to share something else. There's some other people that need to be at this altar.

It's grieved me for some time and I just couldn't help. I'm deeply grieved inside. There's a sin in the camp in addition to what's been spoken tonight.

I don't know how to define it. But I want to ask some of you a question. How do you amen when God speaks about the curse falling on certain individuals? There's not many, but I hear the voices.

And I'm saying it to you in love. I'm not saying... I don't know who you are. But there are individuals in this church when a message comes forth and God's going to deal with sin and He's going to bring... And I hear a loud amen come forth.

How do you do that? How do you do that? What's hard in your heart? See, I'm glad God's going to judge sin. But oh, where's the compassion for those that are in sin and want to break free? And I feel it so strongly, David. I feel the Holy Spirit dealing with it.

It's got to be dealt with in this church. I, for one, when I hear it from this point forward when I'm preaching, I'm going to address it. Listen, there's a time to amen.

We like to hear amens. But oh, where's the compassion Joshua had? My son, Akin, what have you done? Where's the hurt and pain? And if you've been sitting in churches and I say it because some of you that are doing this have done it in other churches. You've just come to this church and you're doing it.

And God's saying to you in love, there's a hardness in your heart. You may not be committing adultery. You may not be doing some of the other things.

But there's a hardness that's settling in your heart. Oh, listen, when God's going to bring judgment on America, when He's going to bring judgment on the church, do you rejoice? I don't. I'm glad God's cleansing things up.

But it ought to bring a sorrow. God wants to... If He's going to be powerful in this church, there has to be a sorrow over sin. There has to be a weeping.

Daniel went before God and he prayed. He said, Lord, we've sinned. There's got to be a sharing of the grief of sin.

And I'm praying that God bring that. I pray He brings it to every one of us, the whole congregation, that we so hate sin. When we see somebody afflicted by it, we're broken.

Are you hearing me? We're broken. We see people come to this altar and they pour out their hearts. We're broken.

I'm just asking you before God, and I know the Holy Spirit is saying this to you. If you're one of those who's quick to amen when judgment comes forth, you need to be at this altar. You need to let the Lord bring... That's the sin in this camp.

It's got to be expunged. You let the Lord begin to... He wants to soften your heart. See, because I know, I know you're not enjoying the real reality of the joy of His presence.

David said when this message came to him, he laid down before God and he began to weep. The pastors that bring a message about sin lay down before God and we weep and we cry over it if we have to preach a hard message on sin to this congregation. Now, I'm not going to go on with it, but it's so strong on my heart, please.

Lay it down tonight. Let the Holy Spirit deal with you about the hardness. Have the courage to step out and say, God, that's me.

And I want to be included. I want to be included in the cleansing tonight. Would you do that? Don't we? I was going to have just those who came forward raise their hands, but let's all lift our hands to Him right now.

Let's raise our hands and say, Lord, give me that compassion. You that are up here say, Lord, I lay my sin down. But while you lay it down, may God give you compassion for those of us around you.

Lord Jesus, tonight, sometimes we don't even know what we're doing. Sometimes we don't even know because we're so zealous for you. We so want your honor and your glory.

We do things, Lord, just because it comes out. But, Lord, help us to be baptized with your compassion and love tonight. Lord, take all the sin out of the camp.

Take all the sin out of the camp. But, Lord Jesus, do this for us tonight. Let us weep with those who weep.

Let us sigh with those who sigh and cry with those who cry. You that are up here right now at the altar, you've come up here tonight to lay something down. Will you pray with me right now? Jesus, I come to you with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and I want to be delivered from everything unlike you.

There's something in my life that you put your finger on, and I want to be delivered from every evil spirit, every lying spirit. Protect me. I claim victory and deliverance in the name of Jesus and the breaking down of every stronghold of the enemy.

Now you just stand there with your hands raised. We're going to ask God's authority right now. Lord, we take your authority over every lying spirit, over every stronghold in every heart tonight, and break it, Lord Jesus.

Break it. Drive out, Lord, everything that's unlike you, everything of Satan, everything that's evil, wicked, vile. Drive it out, Lord.

We lay it down. We lay it down. Beloved, confess it right now.

Lord, I confess it. I give it. I bury it.

I crucify it right now. Lord, take it. I crucify it in Jesus' name.

That's an act of faith. Will you do it right now? An act of faith. I'm going to ask the Lord by His Spirit to bring us all to the cleansing fountain and pray, Oh Lord, turn the light on.

Let there be no wicked way in me. And I'll tell you what, there's such a cleansing that comes. The Lord brings His joy then to our hearts.

Will you thank Him for hearing you, Lord? Thank you. Sanctify all of us, Lord. Sanctify us before your holy presence.

Sanctify us. I, to enlarge just a moment on what Brother Phillips said, say of God, whether you're a man or a woman, do you know of anybody that you'd want to see cut off from the body? Do you know of anybody you would want to embrace tonight and say, I want you to have victory? I believe that if you really love the Lord, that's what has to come forth in your heart. I want you to make it, brother and sister.

I want God to bless you. I want you to enjoy the victory that I've felt in my life. I'm no better than you, but I know there's victory.

Hallelujah. I know you can live in victory. Do you believe there is victory? You can live in victory before the Lord? You don't have to live as a victim to sin or as a slave to sin anymore, but yielding your members as instruments of righteousness.

Hallelujah. Lord, that brings joy to your heart. If you accept that by faith right now, the joy will come into your heart right now.

And just thank Him. Lord, we thank you. Give us the joy now.

The joy of the Lord Jesus in our heart. The joy of the Lord in our hearts. The joy of Jesus.

Hallelujah. I'd like to know how many of you that came forward tonight are up here for the first time. You've never come forward in this church before.

Would you raise your hand, please? Raise your hand. You're up here tonight for the first time. All right.

We have counselors right backstage who'd like to just share with you. We don't ask you to join. We'd like to pray with you.

Would you come right up this way up these steps right past me and up those steps right behind the curtain right here. We've got counselors waiting to minister to you the life of Jesus Christ. You don't join anything here.

We just want to strengthen you in prayer. God bless you, dear. God's doing something for you right backstage.

Amen, brother. God bless you. God bless you, son.

God bless you. Brother, God bless you tonight. Hallelujah.

Yes. Thank you, Jesus. God's going to do it, isn't He? Hallelujah.

You coming with an open heart, brother? Amen. God bless you. Anyone else here for the first time on this side and over here? God bless you.

Isn't it wonderful to see what God's doing? There's a deep work of the Holy Spirit. A deep work of the Holy Spirit. We thank Him for that.

Glory to God. Hallelujah. The joy of the Lord is my strength.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. Listen to me now. I'm going to ask you a question.

How many of you believe God has brought you through to a place of victory in Christ? Raise your hand, please. All right. If that be the case, if that be the case, then you ought to be the most joyful person on the face of the earth.

I mean, there ought to be joy flow out of you. Let's sing it. The joy of the Lord is my strength.

Sing it, please. Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength. This is the conclusion of the tape.