In chapter 6 we saw the great initial victory in the conquest of Canaan, a story that most of us have known all of our life, the capture of the city of Jericho. And we saw a mighty miracle performed there in response to the faith and the obedience of the people of Israel. As they marched around that city, for seven days, they did nothing of a war-like nature. They simply marched in obedience. They said nothing until they gave a shout of faith and victory on the seventh day. But they marched around that city in full sight of the inhabitants of it, and God wrought a great victory. There's no question about that. And the end of chapter 6 speaks of the widespread fame of Joshua, the new commander in Israel. All throughout the land of Canaan, they were speaking about this great general that had been raised up by God to lead the army. armies of Israel. Now, when you come to chapter 7, there's a letdown. And that is quite normal. And that's one thing I want to point out. Very often, after a real victory, there is a letdown. I believe it's the same in the physical. When you have to put forth a special effort physically, Your body is tired, it's worn out sometimes, it's fairly exhausted. Now, I have learned the experience that just the same emotionally and spiritually, when there is something that drains our emotions, maybe something that fills us with great joy and elation, I have seen again and again in my own experience and experience of others that after that there's a real letdown. And I have had to counsel with a good many Christians through the years regarding that. They could not understand, but it's simply this. Just as our body is drained and we're tired physically, our emotions are drained, and we are tired emotionally. Now we have to recognize some of these things. deep psychology. We don't need deep psychology. All we need to do is to learn the simple lessons that are in the Bible, because God knows far more about the human mind and the body than any man will ever know. And he's told us that right here, now it's the same spiritually. Again and again, I've seen in my own experience, on the experience of other Christians and of assemblies, when there real time of victory, there's very often a letdown, so that we find them here in the seventh chapter, and they're defeated. Now, here's another very simple, but a very practical lesson. The enemy in chapter six was great and strong and formidable. I would take it, that was possibly the strongest fortress there was in the country, and yet they had overcome it. Now here, a few miles distance, is a little town that just has 12,000 inhabitants in it. Now looking at a thing humanly, you'd expect that Israel would have a hard time defeating fortress, and a comparatively easy time in connection with that little town up there in the hills. But it was the very opposite. And I have learned this. It's not usually the great temptations that overcome us, brethren. I haven't had any trouble whatsoever in 50 years about getting drunk. Haven't had a bit of it. And there are a lot of are big things that I've had no trouble with whatsoever. All I had to do was just go on in fellowship with God. They followed the ark around the city. They walked as God told them, and they won the victory. And I found that by doing that we win the victory over these great formidable enemies of the Christians. What I found in my life, and I've seen it in the lives of so little things that get us. It's not Jericho, it's Aeon. And so often we are stumbled by some little thing. It's all through the Bible. I'm not going to take time to remind you, but you remember Peter. There's Peter, he can go out in the Garden of Eden and face that mob of men that had come to rest the Lord, pull his sword and cut the evil. off a man. He just missed or he had taken his head off. But just a few hours later, and he's cringing in fear before a young servant girl. You see, he was brave at Jericho and cowardly at Aon. Now that's true. It's the little things that we've got to watch. You have the words in the Song of Solomon, chapter 2 and verse 15, take off the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines of tender grace. And so often it's the little foxes. I say again we could go through the Word of God and so often references made to some little thing that cause failure and defeat. Now that's what we've got to watch. Why were they defeated by 12,000 men when they won the great victory at Jericho? Two reasons. One was secret sin. That's what I dealt with in my last message on chapter 7. There had been secret sin. And you know the story how Achan saw that beautiful Babylonian garment. He saw that wedge of gold, he saw those shekels of silver, he coveted them, he took them and he hid them. One man in the midst of at least a million and a half people. But at the beginning of chapter 7, you have only the glance of the first verse to see that God says, Aiken as sin. No, he didn't. He said, Israel as sin. And the whole nation is charged with the sin of one man and his family. Now, if that was true of the nation, and it was, you read that chapter 7 again, and you'll see again and again how God refers to this. to verse 11. Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I command them. For they have even taken of the curse of things, and have also stolen, dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. They, they, they, what they might have said, why, Lord, we didn't do it. Achan did it. Ah, but he says one of Israel. Now, we've got to learn, brethren and sisters, that no man liveth to himself, and no man dies to himself. And you and I are members of the body, and what we do affects the entire body. And one sinner destroyeth much good, and one Aiken in the camp can bring a charge by God against the whole assembly. That's why there has to be discipline. And the elders of this assembly have to carry out discipline in the fear of God. We can't let sentiment or friendship or anything like that interfere with the carrying out of discipline according to the word of God or this work will come to a stop. Look at verse 12. Therefore the children of Israel, I'm hearing chapter 7, therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their backs before their enemies because of accursed, neither will I deal with you anymore except he destroy the accursed thing from among you. We cannot count on the presence of God with us. Brethren and sisters, if we don't have the presence of God with this assembly, we might as well disband right now. That's the only thing that's worthwhile, and the only thing that will make us any use for God in Greensboro is the presence of God with us. And as sin is allowed unjudged by anyone in the fellowship of this assembly, it's going to rob us of the manifested presence of God. Look at the verse 13, just the end of the verse. O Israel, thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. The world, the flesh, and the devil will get the best of this assembly. as well as the best of any of us individually if we don't judge our sin before God and confess it and put it away. And the whole story of Chapter 7 is this judgment on unconfessed secret sin. Akin, as we saw, finally confessed, but it had to be dragged out of them. But when he did, then God dealt in judgment with him, not with the whole assembly. You see, it was Achan that ended up under that pile of stones in the valley of Acorn, because Achan had sinned. Now, you see, God held the nation responsible until they judged it, and when they judged it, God held the transgressor himself responsible, and he was put to that. I think there's another very solemn lesson for us here, too. Not only did Achan die, but his sons and his daughters did as well. It's rather striking to me there's no in the chapter of his wife. Apparently she was dead. I think that would be the logical inference from this. No mention of her. But there is of the sons and the daughters. You say, well now, was that fair? Was that just? Was that righteous? Well, now, if we were to go back to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 24, and I think it's verse 16, distinctly says that the sons were not to be put to death for the sins of the fathers. Now, vice versa. So the very fact that the sons of Acre were stoned to death here is a clear indication that they too had sinned. Now, that's the tragedy. What you and I do as parents, is going to have an influence on our family we're either going to lead them on for God or lead them astray and if they see you and me taking what belongs to God and using it for ourselves as Aiken did they're going to do just the same thing and poor Aiken not only ends up under that pile of stones but is so sons and his daughters do as well. But now there was another reason for the failure and the defeat at Aeon, and that was self-confidence. There are many contributing factors that we can't look into. You will find, if you read this carefully, that after the great victory at Jericho, they didn't go back to Shiloh. I shouldn't say Shiloh. The word flips my mind right at this moment where they... It's a much stranger thing. I've preached on so many times the city where they were circumcised. signs. Gilgall, thank you. Just thank you very much. You will find if you read through chapter 8 now, where there's another victory, you'll find they go back to Gilgall. And you'll find after all the victories they go back to Gilgall, but they didn't after Jericho. Now, Gilgall was the place, you remember, the flesh was judged, and the sharp knife was put to the flesh. It's so there's such a danger after a victory when we're carried up in a great surge of elation at that which has been accomplished, there's such a danger of not judging the flesh. And before we know it, we get proud and self-satisfied, and self-sufficient, and self-confident. And there's no sure road to disaster in the things of God and pride and self-confidence. If God is pleased to give us victory, we must go back to Gilgal and judge the flesh and see to it that we have no confidence in it, as we read in Philippine chapter 3 and verse 3. But here, without going back to Gilgal, they did after the victory at AI, but after the victory at Jericho, there's no mention of going back to Gilgal. And instead of that, without any direction from God, Joshua up to Aeon. And they come back and they say, Oh, it's just a little town. 12,000 people. Don't take all the army up there. Don't make all the men labor. I just send up a view. Why, they can handle that. Quite easily. After we've overcome this great fortress of Jericho, why a little thing like that? There's nothing to that. And So they send up 3,000, and the next thing they knew, they're coming back home as hard as they can run. Yes, the only defeat that they suffered in the conquest of Canaan was at A.I. that little town. Oh, how self-confidence can destroy our usefulness and the things of God. As soon as we begin to think we can do something ourselves without God, we're done whole. There's no mention of the ark going up. You remember the ark led the way around Jericho. But why bother to send the ark up there? They are that little town there. We can take care of that. Just give us 3,000 men. We'll take care of it. As a result, they got a good whipping. So will it be with you and me. Just as soon as we begin to get self-confident, brethren, if we think we know something or we can do something or we are something, right then we're on the highway to disaster. And so they're defeated. They come back without going into all the details of it. But God puts his finger on the cause that there was secret sin. It's judged. It's put away. And we began reading in verse 8 here a lovely word to Joshua. He just thoroughly discouraged. We were looking at the words that he had spoken in chapter 7. You can hardly believe a man of God like him saying why we ought to have stayed on the other side of Georgia. Why weren't we just content? You ever feel like that? You determine that you're going to do something for God. You're going to get out of this wilderness journey just easily. along as an ordinary Christian, you're really going to be something for God. And right then Satan hits you. And you can't understand it. Oh, I've seen that again and again. I've known Christians that determined they were going to live for God. And it seems as soon as they did one thing after another started to hit them. And they've come to me in utter frustration. Wondering, well then, here I was, and I had just totally committed myself to the Lord, and this happened, and that happened, and the next happened. They say, I've been saying why, Brother McKay, I've had more trouble than I've ever had before in my life. Well, God encourages Joshua. Joshua says, we just ought to have stayed over there. No, we shouldn't. No, we should go on. God still has great things for us. And these difficulties that Satan and the world and the flesh will put in our path, these difficulties can be used as stepping stones for greater victories for him. And so you have a word of encouragement at the beginning of our eighth chapter here. And what you'll notice, that's why I've been leading up to this. He's told in chapter one of verse eight, take all the people of war with thee. Don't you think you can do it with a little handbook? It's going to take all you've got. And that's the emphasis all through the chapter. I picked out a few verses there and we read them together, 30,000 chosen men, 10 times as many as they sent before. But it wasn't just 30,000. They were just the ones that were to go around behind and lie in ambush. And Joshua is to lead the whole army, all the people against this little town. Brethren, sisters, it takes all of us to go on for God. It takes the whole assembly. Don't sit on the sideline. Don't stay in the camp. Oh, you say anybody can do that. That's just a little thing. Listen, friends. The smallest thing that's done for God is greater than the greatest thing that's done for the world. And it takes all that a Christian is and has that all the Christians are if we're going to keep on going for God. And so they all get together the whole camp, and they're all engaged in this. But there's one thing more I draw your attention to. At the end of verse 13, there are already the whole army and all the nation, the camp of Israel, have all been set in their place. Now look at the end of verse 13. And Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. If you've been looking for this great general, the one that at the end of chapter 6, his fame had spread about throughout all the land. He'd been looking for him that night and say, where's your commander? He's out there in the valley. Yes, he'd learned his lesson. He'd learned that you've got to get low if you're going to win victories for God. And he spends the night out there in the valley. What he was doing, we don't know. For God draws the curtain over his dealings with his servant. There are things that God does in the life of each one of us that are between us and God. And that's what it should be. I'm always a little suspicious and a little afraid of this parading of the inner experience instances on the part of Psalm. When you deal with God, and God deals with you, it's too sacred. You're out there in the valley alone with God. But as a result, there was a great victory one. The place was completely destroyed, and they move on, victory to victory, and the rest of the book apparently they had learned their lesson or how we knew if we feel we have been defeated in our own life if we feel an area of our life we have been defeated maybe we need to do as joshua did towards the valley alone of god it may be the valley's humiliation it may be the It may be the valley of rededication. Whatever it is, there's a valley for you and for me. If we go out there in the valley and have dealings with God, God will send us out to win victories for him. There's a little couplet of them coming to my mind a great deal this past week. He that is down needs fear, no fall. he that is low, no pride. He that is humble, ever shall have the Lord to be his God. Yes, if we keep low and humble. Down before him, brethren and sisters, God can use any and every one of us. to his glory but let's never get thinking that we are something now we can do something in ourselves doesn't matter who we are no no matter how big we might get personally or collectively we're just a little speck in comparison with the almighty god of heaven but thank god he's our father he loves us. He wants to lead us on in trying. It will just humbly follow him. God grant us to learn some of these practical lessons that we might continue on in victory for our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Shall we pray?