What happens when one person’s sin affects an entire community? In this episode, Rick Hughes takes a deep dive into Christian criminality and its impact on modern-day believers. Using the biblical account of Achan and Jericho’s fall, Rick outlines how disobedience can sever divine blessings and lead to profound consequences. Tune in for insights into living a life aligned with the teachings of faith and avoiding the pitfalls of temptation.
Welcome to the Flatline with your host, Rick Hughes. For the next 30 minutes, you’ll be inspired, motivated, educated, but never manipulated. Now, your host, Rick Hughes.
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Good morning and welcome to the Flatline. I’m your host, Rick Hughes, and would like to ask you to stick around for a few minutes, about 28, 29 minutes worth of inspiration, some motivation, some education, and as we always say, no manipulation. That’s right. We don’t con anybody, so we’re not trying to get money. We’re just trying to give you some accurate information that’ll help you verify and identify the plan of God for your life. And if you’d like to orient and adjust, then that’s good because my job is to simply do that, get it right, give it to you right, and beginning with the good news, the best news I’ve heard in my life. that Jesus Christ, the anointed Son of God, redeemed me and you out of the slave market of sin. Our debt to God has been paid, and we are free from the penalty of death and the power of sin by receiving Christ as our Savior. If you do that, in effect, you accept the offering made on your behalf, and it’s free, no charge whatsoever. That’s why the Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It’s a gift from God, not of works, lest any man should brag about it. Paul wrote about it again in Titus 3, 5 and 7, not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Christ our Lord. So it is a wonderful thing to know that you have eternal life. The Bible says in 1 John 5, these things are written so that you might know that you have eternal life. If you’re listening to me today and you’re not sure of that, you’re not absolutely 100% confident that if you died today, you would go to heaven, it’s the simplest thing in the world to fix. The Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And in the privacy of your own home, in your car, wherever you are, you can simply bow your head and pray and ask God to save you. You can tell God the Father you believe Jesus Christ is his son and you’re willing to receive his sacrifice on your behalf. And your faith in Christ will be the ticket to heaven for you. That’s faith perception. You believe it by faith. The Bible said it, the Holy Spirit revealed it, and you believed it. You believe that, and the Bible clearly says, he that believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And he that believeth not the wrath of God abides on him already. Do you believe that Jesus is the anointed son of God? And have you accepted his finished work on the cross for you by faith? That means you can’t do anything to earn it yourself. You can’t do anything to impress God because the Bible says all of our good works are like filthy rags in God’s eyes. There are none that are righteous, not even one. So there’s nothing you can do to gain the approbation of God only through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. and the evidence of his own personal resurrection are we guaranteed eternal life. And it’s a fact, it’s true, and it’s real. So I trust you will put your faith in Christ and make that decision. We’ve been studying on this radio show Christian criminality and the impact of criminality in America today, the impact of criminality in our life. How do we handle it when we are abused by criminals or what’s the mindset of a criminal? Why can a person that’s a Christian even be a criminal? Are there criminal Christians? The answer is yes. If you’re a criminal, can you be saved? The answer is yes. People have sin nature trends. Remember, we all have a sin nature. Every one of us got that from Adam and his original sin passed on to us. For by one man sin came into the world and death by sin and now death has passed on all. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So we all have a sin nature. And I don’t know what your sin nature trend is. Some people have a trend towards lasciviousness. Some people have a trend towards power. Some people have a trend towards alcohol or drugs. Some people have a trend towards money lust. Whatever that lust pattern in your life is, that’s what Satan will use to promote your independent thinking of God’s plan. He will entice you with that until he motivates you to your intentions to perceive and get as much of it as you can. And particularly in this case we’re going to study today, we’re going to see the lust for money. This comes out of the book of Joshua 6, verses 16 through 19. This has to do with the battle of Jericho and the preceding battle that followed after that as the Jews went into the Promised Land. Here it goes. At the seventh time when the priests blew the trumpets, by the way, let’s remind you of this, the Jews walked around the walls of Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, seven times. So on the seventh time when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And then boom, the city shall be under the ban. And it and all that’s in it belongs to the Lord. Listen to that carefully. It, that’s the city, and all that’s in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But as for you, listen carefully, Only keep yourselves from the things under the ban so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. Here is a warning. Do not take anything out of the city. Destroy the city, destroy the inhabitants, all except Rahab and those in her house, and do not keep anything. And here it specifically says, All the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, and they shall go into the treasury of the Lord. However, there was a sin committed here. And Joshua 7, 1, But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regards to the things under the ban, because Achan, A-C-H-A-N, Achan from the tribe of Judah took some of the things under the ban, and the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. This is called national discipline, national discipline. The United States of America is probably under national discipline today. The way we have rejected the Word of God, the way we have rejected the claims of Christ, the way we have continued down the road of the my way, highway, human viewpoint thinking, trying to come up with some sort of crazy concoction that government can solve the problems of man. We’ve kicked God out of the public square. We can’t even have a nativity scene at Christmas. We can’t have a cross on the government property. We can’t say a prayer in a school. We are out of our minds. What do we think is going to happen? And so there’s a trouble here in Israel. Here’s what God said, Joshua 7, 11. Israel sinned, they have transgressed my covenant which I commanded them, and they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have stolen and deceived. Usually a thief, when he steals, will deceive you. He doesn’t want you to know he’s a thief. He doesn’t want you to know that he’s stolen from you. And some of these things can go on for years before you find out. Moreover, the Bible goes on to say, they put them among their own things. Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, and they turn their backs before their enemies, for they, let me go to the next page, have become accursed. they have become accursed. The Hebrew word charim, it means they have become appointed for destruction. So the Lord went on to say, I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. Well, now we’re in trouble. The Lord brought them out of Egypt. The Lord promised a land. The Lord took them through Jericho. And now they’re up at a city called Ai. And big trouble is brewing. My goodness. Who did it? Achan. What did he take? Gold and silver and fine garments from Babylon. And then what do we do about it? Well… Joshua had to get rid of the thief and his family. So here it’s exposed. The sinner is exposed. Joshua says to Achan, my son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to him. Tell me what you did. Don’t hide it from me. Achan answered Joshua and said, truly, you’re right, I have sinned against the Lord. Remember this, when you sin, it’s always against the Lord. It’s not against me, it’s not against your mom or your dad or your neighbor, it’s against the Lord. As a believer in Jesus Christ, if you sin, you break fellowship with God, you quench the Holy Spirit, And you try to live the Christian life in your own energy, your own flesh, your own production, and it doesn’t work. So I’ve sinned against the Lord. He admitted the God of Israel, and this is what I did. Now he owns up, he ponies up. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful mantle from Shinar, and I saw 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, 50 shekels in weight, I coveted them and took them, and they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” Wow, did he ever mess up. Now the discipline is administered, Joshua 7, 24 and 25. Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkey, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day. So all Israel stoned him with stones, burned them with fire, and after they had stoned them with stones. This might not sit too well with you. Capital punishment might not be something that you cotton up to. But this was capital punishment. And this does not mean God was unjust in his punishment. Fair warning was given in Joshua 1.18. do not take anything it all belongs to the Lord listen again whosoever that doth rebel against the commandments and will not listen to thy words in all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death Only be strong and of good courage. There’s the warning right there. He was told beforehand, you will die if you take this stuff. You know, this is interesting. Criminals think they can get away with it. They really think that God isn’t aware of it. You may have had people steal things from you, from your home, from your family, from your business, and they think they got away with it. No, they have not gotten away with it. Nobody gets away with anything in God’s plan. Now it’s not to be assumed that this man’s children were little babies because Aquin was an old man and his children therefore were most likely past the age of accountability. So I think what the Bible is insinuating here is the whole family knew what was going on. It wasn’t just one man. They weren’t being put to death because of what their father did. They all were involved in it. His punishment was severe. in order to serve as a detriment for others who might be tempted to similarly sin in the future. I read an article that described it like this. Think of it like this. This is the article I read. It’s not original. If I tell a lie to my child, there’s little or no consequences to me. If I tell a lie to my spouse and caught, the consequences of my sin might be night of sleeping on the couch, maybe even a divorce. If I tell a lie to my boss, I could be fired. If I tell a lie to the government, I could be tried for treason and imprisoned. In each case, the sin remains the same. It’s simply a lie. But also, in each case, the authority of the one with whom I offended was greater. The greater the authority offended, the harsher the punishment. Now imagine the offense against a holy God who is infinitely more holy, more powerful than any boss, any spouse, any government official. Put into perspective, this sort of punishment is indeed reasonable. And here’s the bottom line. The bottom line is that our sins affect those around us. They affect the people we love the most. That’s who. The people we love the most experience the most damage as a result of our own personal sins. This is an inescapable principle. One, because of the sin of theft that Achan committed, 36 men died. 36. So you thought it was just something that they stole. No, it resulted in 36 men being put to death in the battle and the whole army being defeated and deflated and fleeing from the scene in fear. because the Lord had left them, and they were on their own. They went down the highway, we say. Listen, you try to stand in the devil’s world on your own, and you will be defeated every time. Sin puts you on your own. Sin puts you out there in left field by yourself. And this is what happened to the whole army of Israel. So this sin of Achan resulted in 36 warriors dying. Joshua 7, 5. The men of Ai struck down about 36 of their men and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the descent down the hill. So the hearts of the people melted and they became as water. Total national fear. Wait a minute, God. We thought that you were going to be with us and we were going to take the promised land. You told us to go, and now what happened, God? Look at this. Look at everybody’s running, 36 men dead. What happened? Where are you, Lord? Sin has put the fire out. Sin has quenched the Holy Spirit. The sin of that one man removed God’s blessing from the congregation. Adam and Eve’s rebellion destroyed the perfect communion with the home human race For anybody that could have enjoyed it with God, that sin of one person was the reason that the Lord Jesus Christ had to come, Genesis 3.15. And the sin of one person can destroy God’s blessing from a congregation in a church. If there’s one man in that church committing adultery, if there’s one man in that church who’s a thief, who’s stealing money with a scheme, if there’s one man in that church who’s a liar, he can defeat the whole congregation. His sin can be a blotch on that whole church. These precious metals were to be added to the treasury of the Lord. And when he stole them, he robbed God directly. That’s interesting. God gave Achan a night to consider his sin and come to him in repentance, Joshua 7, 13. But Achan did not avail himself to God’s mercy and patience. The gold and the silver that Achan coveted had a stronger pull on his allegiance than his God did. So is it any wonder that in the face of such insult, God would choose to destroy him and his family, who most likely helped him hide the spoil to start with and were in fact probably an accomplice to the crime? Is it any wonder? How many nights has God given you to consider your acts? I had a friend call me not too long ago and admit a sin, a crime to me. I was shocked because it was a person that I trusted and had known for a while. And the person ponied up and said, this is what I’ve been doing. What have you been doing? That’s the question. What have you been trying to hide from God, thinking no one knows about it and maybe none of your friends know about it? Maybe your wife doesn’t know about it, your husband don’t know about it. Maybe your kids don’t know about it. But God knows. We fool ourselves and we think our sin affects only us. But this disobedience in the believer’s life can ruin even upon the innocent. It can bring ruin, I’m trying to say, even upon the innocent. Sin’s effects go beyond the initial center. Let me say that again. The effect of sin goes beyond the initial center. Did you hear it? The effects of sin go beyond the initial center. Proverbs 15, 27, whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household. But he who hates a bribe will live. He who is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household. The person that called me and admitted to the crime, I cannot even begin to tell you the trouble that came into his household. And he’s in prison today. It’s a sad, sad thing to see. Greed overriding the doctrine in a person’s soul. That’s exactly what Akin did. The faith of Israel was undermined by the effects of this secret compromise. By a single person’s deed, 36 people lost their life. And this man and his family who stole these things. You know, just like a single mature believer can bring blessing by association to an organization, and he can, if you have one mature believer working in a company, God can bless that individual individually. and his cup runneth over, and surely goodness and mercy follows him all the days of his life. So if you can hang around a mature believer, you’re going to get some overspill of the blessing. So a single mature believer can bring blessing by association to an organization, but on the contrary, a single person’s hidden sin can bring trouble to a Christian organization or local church, like a member who might be involved in a serious crime, and thus, when it’s exposed, brings negative publicity to the church. Achan and his family chose possessions for security rather than trusting in the Lord to meet his need. That’s nothing but simple greed. That’s all it was. In 1 Corinthians 5.11, but actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be a fornicator or greedy or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler, not even to eat with him. There it is. Paul lays it right out. Don’t hang out with this sort of people. I want to read it again. I wrote you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be a fornicator or greedy or an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler. Don’t even eat with him. Why? Because sin infects and rots like adding leaven to yeast. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump, the Bible says? Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5, 6, and 7. In Galatians 5, 9, a little leaven will leaven the whole lump of dough. And in Paul’s case, the leaven was the spread of legalism via requiring any convert that Paul had to Christianity to have circumcision if he was a man. And this was a demand that the Jewish Christians were putting on Paul’s ministry. You need to circumcise these men to follow the law of Moses, and that was crazy. Also, the thing about baptism was crazy. Paul said, I thank God I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas. And he said, if there’s any more, I don’t know who they were. And he went on to say, God did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with the wisdom of words. That’s the cross of Christ. should be made of none effect. So legalism can leaven the whole deal and the spread of legalism and it could have destroyed Paul’s ministry and it would affect the next generation and the next generation and convince them that in order to be saved they would need to be baptized or even circumcised. See that’s how the lie gets started and Paul put that to rest really quick. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump of dough. You know, in the Passover bread, no yeast was to be used. So the Israelites had to leave Egypt very quickly. They did not have time to allow their bread to rise, so they made it without yeast. God’s word is clear that haste was a factor in the unleavened bread of the first Passover. In Deuteronomy 16, three, you shall eat no leavened bread. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in haste and that all of the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. So when they have the Passover and they remember their rescue from Egypt, they remember how God delivered them and the quickness that had happened, and they do not put yeast in the bread. In the Bible, yeast is almost always associated with sin. When there’s sin in the camp, it spreads throughout the people. It overwhelms them, enslaves them, and plants bitter roots and can take over more than just a single person. It can infect the whole community. So in Exodus 12, this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generation, celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove the leaven from your homes, for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. This is a covenant law called permanent ordinance. It’s not to be broken. Just like the commandment of God to Joshua, keep yourselves away from the items I ban so that you don’t covet them or take them and bring discipline on your nations. Same thing. And he did not do that. Achan did not do that. Carefully obey the Lord your God, Deuteronomy 28, and faithfully follow his commands. If you do so, then he will bless you. But then in verse 13 of Deuteronomy 28, you don’t do it, and then you’re going to have trouble. Always big trouble. The Lord will trouble you. Do everything I’m commanding you today. Never worship other gods. Never serve other gods. And here is the principle before we wrap it up. Total obedience is a consistent Bible theme. Even though this was specifically written to a young nation called Israel, it does have application to the church today. God’s blessing on nations and individuals is connected to those who are faithful to and obedient to his commands. Fidelity and obedience is essential. The Bible says, children, obey your parents. The Bible says, obey God, not men, in Acts 5, 29, when Peter rebuked the high priest and the council of Sanhedrin after they were put in prison for preaching in the temple. They have to obey God. The Bible says in Hebrews 13, 17, obey those in authority over you. And the Bible says in 1 Peter 1, 22, your soul is purified by obedience. Obedience is the principle that God is looking for. Whatever you may be hiding from God, if you will confess it now, then he will be faithful and just to forgive you. And you can move on, or you can continue to hide it, and you will face severe consequences. That’s fair warning. I sure hope you’ve been listening. I’ll be back next week. We’ll continue this message on Christian criminality. We’re going to look at David and some things that happened in his life as well. I hope you’re learning and I hope you’re listening. Write if you have a question. Until then, this is your host, Rick Hughes, saying thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
