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00:05 Got it now. Okay. I was going to say thank you Pearly for reading that scripture. However, I must
00:12 say that is one of the saddest, most depressing chapters in the Bible.
00:18 I'm glad we did have a very uplifting time of worship earlier because this scripture passage, at least
00:26 when we first hear it, it just sends us down because we see the
00:32 obedience, the disobedience and the effects of the disobedience of the
00:37 people of Israel. It would be so much easier, so much more enjoyable to listen to victorious living
00:45 and accounts of how people are experiencing daily the love, the joy, the peace, the meaning in life that
00:52 comes from walking with God. But that's not what the book of Judges
00:59 is about. The message of Judges is about the total opposite.
01:04 The very opposite of what happens if you walk with God. We see in Judges when
01:11 people don't walk with God. We see the terrible consequences that will come our way even to the
01:19 people of God. When we turn our back on the one true God, the ultimate source of life and
01:25 goodness. When we turn to idols, we can expect problems. When we attach our
01:33 loyalties to anything higher to something else other than God, we're
01:39 going to be in trouble. The book of Judges, I must say, contains a lot of
01:44 terrible stories. If you want to get depressed, read the last three or four chapters of the book.
01:51 Maybe better not, but it just stories of sin and degradation. And the further you
01:56 go in the book of Judges, it seems like the further down the people go and the
02:02 worse they sin. This shows how low you can go if you turn away from God.
02:10 The downward spiral is evident as you read through the book of Judges.
02:15 Now, there are some interesting, adventurous, heroic stories in the book of Judges. I can remember as a child
02:22 really being fascinated with stories of Samson the strong man and wishing I had
02:27 muscles like that or the story of Gideon and how he defeated a huge army with
02:33 just a few men or the story of Deborah. But when we look at the judges, almost
02:40 all of them we see that they also had some serious flaws, failures, sins in
02:46 their life. And some of them turned their back on God even after God had
02:52 delivered them. So if the book of Judges is so depressing, you might ask, why then are
02:58 we as a church doing a series on the book of Judges? And to that I'll have to answer,
03:05 I don't know. You'll have to ask Dr. Peter. I just got an email saying I was on to preach for
03:12 today. But there's another question that I can at least partially answer that might be
03:19 similar to the answer that he might give you if you were to ask him. Why is the book of Judges in the Bible when it has
03:26 such terrible stories? That is a good question. We need to see
03:31 that the Bible doesn't just paint a rosy picture of heaven. It also shows the
03:38 reality of sin and the effects on our life. I'll give a couple of reasons why
03:43 I think the book of Judges is in the Bible. One, it shows an important period of time in the history of the children
03:49 of Israel, an important time in salvation history. So when we look at
03:55 the chronology of the Old Testament, which is the time leading up to Jesus, we see at the very beginning was
04:01 creation. God created everything. Everything was good. But then the first
04:08 people sinned and that good relationship with God was broken and evil entered
04:13 into the world. Death entered into the world. Sin spread to all their descendants.
04:21 Later we'll see roughly 2000 BC God called Abram and he said that through
04:27 Abram and through his descendants or more specifically through one descendant Jesus he would be bringing blessing to
04:34 all peoples of the world. Abraham had a son Isaac who had a son Jacob. Jacob had
04:40 12 sons. Jacob also known as Israel. So his sons and their descendants known as
04:46 the children of Israel. They became slaves in Egypt. God called Moses to
04:52 deliver them from slavery in Egypt. He brought them to the land that he had promised Abraham that he would give his
04:58 descendants. And then under the leadership of Joshua, Moses successor,
05:04 the land was conquered almost, but not entirely. And at
05:09 Joshua's death, God speaking through Joshua told the people to go ahead and finish the process of conquest. Get rid
05:17 of all of the idols. Get rid of the people that will be a detriment to you,
05:23 bring you down. And that's where we come in our study of Judges. Just to look at
05:30 a brief timeline to the very far left,
05:35 we don't know when, but way back sometime, the world was created. Roughly 20,000 is when Abraham would have lived.
05:43 Roughly 1,500 would have been the time of Moses and the Exodus. Now, these dates anything to
05:50 the left of 100 BC are up for discussion and might vary as much as a couple
05:56 hundred years. But then the time that we're looking at is the time after the death of Moses and Joshua and before the
06:04 time of the United Kingdom. Now, that's not the UK as we know it today, but the
06:09 United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, David, and Solomon.
06:14 And then after Saul, David, and Solomon, we'll see that this kingdom split
06:20 because of the sin of the people. Just like in the days of Judges, the people are punished, sent into exile. Then
06:26 they're released from exile. And then finally, everything that the Old Testament has been pointing to, the
06:32 coming of a savior, Jesus, then that happens roughly four to six BC. So the
06:39 period that we're looking at is an important time in the salvation history because it shows what happened is what
06:46 is happening after the people who have been delivered from slavery are now settled into the promised land that God
06:53 had given them. But there's another important reason why Judges is in the Bible is because there
06:59 are some important truths that we can learn. Let me go on past this slide.
07:05 the important truths that we can learn in the Old Testament. Some of the truths are good examples
07:13 that we can see, but some of them are bad examples. And that's what we're looking at in Judges. We can learn from
07:20 the mistakes of the people. Paul in writing in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, is talking about
07:27 the disobedient people of God after they had been freed from slavery in Egypt. And he said God was not pleased with
07:34 them. But these things took place as examples for us,
07:40 so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolattors as some of
07:47 them were. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did. We must
07:52 not put Christ to the test as some of them did. Now these things happened to
07:57 them as an example, but were written down for our instruction.
08:02 Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Therefore, my beloved, flee from
08:10 idolatry. So, I think that's one reason the book of Judges is in the Bible. It's to warn
08:17 us. It's to help us understand what happens when we go after other gods. And
08:24 the book of Judges will help to motivate us and encourage us to turn from idols
08:29 and to choose to follow God. So today in the sermon I want to go back
08:34 and look at the scripture in a little bit more detail that we just heard read and then towards the end of the sermon
08:40 I'll draw a few conclusions some things that we can learn and apply in our life.
08:48 The text started off where the Lord is speaking to the people and he reminds
08:53 them, "I brought you up from Egypt. I brought you into the land that I swore to give your fathers. I said, I will
09:00 never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the
09:06 inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars, but you have
09:11 not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?
09:18 This passage was mentioned in the sermon a couple of weeks ago when we started our study on the book of Judges.
09:27 And we see that in this passage, God is holding the people accountable for their
09:32 sin. And he points out two specific types of
09:38 sin. A sin of commission and a sin of omission. The sin of commission. They
09:46 did something they were not supposed to do. Do not make a covenant with these
09:52 people, but they did it anyway. A sin of omission. They did not do what
09:58 God told them to do. Do break down their altars,
10:04 but they didn't do it. And if you remember from a couple of weeks ago in the sermon, the end of chapter 1 gives a
10:12 whole list of examples of the people not obeying God with reasons why they did
10:18 not. And it's almost like a spin is being put on that from the Israelite
10:23 point of view, saying, "Well, God, this is why we didn't obey. This is why we
10:28 didn't run the people out. They were too strong. They make good slaves." You remember from a couple of weeks ago the
10:34 reasons that were given the people giving excuses to God why
10:42 they did not obey but God tells them
10:47 you disobeyed me. The people are saying these are the reasons why we have good reasons we
10:53 really couldn't help ourselves. Sound familiar?
10:58 Any parent with children will hear that. You tell your children to do something and they don't do it. Sorry, I I
11:05 couldn't help it. You tell them not to do something and they do it. And again, making excuses. I
11:12 I'm I I couldn't help myself. There's no there's good reason why I didn't do it.
11:18 But it's not just parents with children that do that.
11:24 We too are sometimes like the Israelite people. God tells us not to do something
11:31 and we do it and then we try to make excuses and explain, "Well, I just couldn't help myself.
11:38 God, I know I cheated on that business deal, but let me tell you why.
11:45 God, I know I was unfaithful to my spouse, but let me tell you why. I just couldn't help myself. The temptation was
11:51 too strong. I just couldn't resist." or we do not do things that God tells us
11:58 to do. For example, we know that God wants us to forgive those who trespass
12:05 against us. But yet, no, we're not going to forgive that person. And then we try to explain
12:11 to God, no, of course I didn't forgive that person. Let me explain to you why.
12:17 You need to understand what he did to me. or we know we're supposed to share the
12:22 gospel with all peoples, including those from other ethnic and religious groups, to those from other social economic
12:29 backgrounds than we have. And yet, we say, "No, we're not going to do it. God, let me explain to you why it's
12:35 impossible for me to share the gospel with that type of a person."
12:41 But God's going to tell us the same thing he told the Israelite people. You
12:46 have not obeyed my voice. It's not that you could not obey,
12:54 it's that you would not obey.
12:59 You see, God had promised the Israelite people again and again that if they obeyed him that through his power, he
13:06 would drive the people out of the land. Through his power, they would be able to break down the altars and get rid of the
13:13 idol worship that was so prevalent in that land. And it wasn't that the
13:18 Israelites could not obey God, although we see some reasons they tried to give
13:23 the end of chapter 1. It's that they would not. They did not want to obey
13:29 God. It's easy to deceive ourselves. It's
13:34 easy to make dis excuses for our disobedience. And we might even be able to convince ourselves that we have good
13:41 reasons and that we couldn't do any differently. But God sees our heart.
13:47 He knows it's not that we can't be obedient, but that sometimes we just
13:53 choose not to be. We won't be obedient. Just a moment ago, I read the passage
13:59 from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that talks about these stories are given as an example or as instruction for us.
14:07 There was one verse in the middle of that passage I left out because I want to emphasize it now. After he had said
14:15 that these stories are written as an example, then in verse 13, he said,
14:21 "There's no temptation that has overtaken you that is not common to man.
14:26 But God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted above your ability, but with
14:31 the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to
14:36 endure it. Therefore, flee from idolatry.
14:44 The excuse, God, I just couldn't help myself, doesn't work with God. God tells us, he
14:51 gives us an open door to escape the temptation to deal with the trial
14:59 without sinning. God will give us the strength. He'll give us the opportunity
15:04 if we want to take it, if we want to be obedient. So God spoke bluntly to the people of
15:11 Israel and he just told them you have not obeyed my voice
15:17 and then he asked the question what is this that you have done now that's a
15:24 very strong statement and we have heard that statement those exact words earlier
15:30 in the Bible do you remember some place earlier in the scripture where God asked
15:36 what is this you have done. Well, there's a lot before Judges, so
15:43 I'll help you think back to the very beginning, Genesis.
15:49 God created a perfect world. The man and woman placed in a beautiful garden,
15:54 given everything they would need. Everything is yours to enjoy except just
16:00 one thing. Stay away from this tree. And yet the people disobeyed God.
16:10 The relationship they had had with God was perfect. They walked with God. The relationship they had with each other
16:16 was perfect. The relationship with nature and the world was perfect. No natural disasters. Everything was great.
16:24 And then they sinned, destroyed everything. saying, "And when God confronts them, he asks them, "What is
16:31 this that you have done? They destroyed his creation. They broke
16:37 the relationship with him. The relationship with each other was now broken. And now the relationship with
16:43 nature and the world was broken. What is this that you have done?" God is
16:50 now asking his people thousands of years later when God has freed them from
16:56 slavery, given them a new start, placed them in a wonderful land, a land of
17:02 promise, a land flowing with milk and honey, and now they have destroyed the
17:08 relationship they could have had with God. The land as God has promised him is
17:13 now going to be cursed because they did not obey him. What is this you have
17:20 done? You see, God had told the people earlier
17:25 how much that he loved them. And he had told them how he had brought them out of
17:31 Egypt. And look what he says in verse five. Therefore, if you will indeed obey my
17:38 voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all
17:44 peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests
17:50 and a holy nation. The Lord had brought the people to this promised land.
17:57 So much potential, so much possibility for good. They're God's special
18:04 treasure. a holy nation and now they're unfaithful to God.
18:12 All of this is ruined. What is this you have done? And nothing was the same
18:18 afterwards. You see, actions do have consequences
18:24 and also inactions, things we don't do, we should do, they also will have consequences.
18:30 Sin does bring pain and heartache, suffering, enslavement
18:38 and as we know from the scripture ultimately it will bring death.
18:43 So God told the people after saying, "What is this you have done?" Then he
18:50 said, "Now I will not drive these other nations out before you, but they shall
18:55 become thorns in your side, and their gods will be a snare to you."
19:02 It's ironic the people got what they wanted, but sometimes
19:09 what we think we want isn't really what we do want. The people thought they
19:15 wanted to have a covenant with these other nations. Don't run them out. Make them slaves. Get some free labor from
19:21 them. Well, they got what they wanted. They got the company of these other people who then ended up being stronger
19:28 than them and oppressing them. And the Israelites thought it'd be kind of nice to maybe experiment with, you
19:35 know, some of these forms of idol worship that appear to be so attractive.
19:41 They got what they wanted and they ended up being enslaved, and snared by these
19:46 idols. And we see God re telling them, "These things will be thorns. They will
19:52 be snares for you." And I'll come back to that a little bit later.
19:58 When the people hear God's words of judgment, this is their response.
20:05 The people lifted up their voices and wept and they called the name of that place boim and they sacrificed there to
20:14 the Lord. When confronted with their sin, the people wept and made sacrifices.
20:23 Or should I maybe say, when they were confronted with the consequences of
20:28 their sin, they wept and made sacrifices.
20:33 Which was it? Were they truly sorry for their sin, or were they just sorry they got caught
20:40 and were now going to have to suffer the consequences? Or was it perhaps both?
20:47 We really don't know. The scripture doesn't say. There's no more commentary
20:53 given. We can't judge the heart of the Israelites.
20:58 But we can look at our heart. When we are confronted with sin in our
21:04 life, how do we react? Do we repent with true sorrow because of
21:11 our sin? or do we wait until the consequences of the sin kick in and then we're sorrowful
21:19 because we're having to reap what we've sown. There's a difference in being sorry
21:27 for the sin and the rebellion or being sorry that you're going to have to suffer because of that. Paul talks about
21:34 this in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. He talks about the people grieving to
21:41 repentance. He said that's a godly grief. Godly grief produces a repentance
21:48 that then leads to salvation without regret. Whereas worldly grief produces
21:54 sorrow. So did the Israelites truly repent?
22:00 We really don't know. On the surface, it appears that they did. And it's quite
22:06 possible that that at that moment they truly were sorry both for their sin and
22:11 for the consequences. But it is possible that they made
22:17 sacrifices, performed religious rituals because they
22:22 were hoping to buy God off. God will give you these sacrifices if
22:28 you take away this punishment from me. God, I'll do this for you if you will
22:34 bless me and not make me suffer. And we try to then bargain with God. God, if
22:40 you let me off the hook this one more time, then I'll do this for you.
22:47 Not only back then, but also today, some people have the impression that we can bargain with God, that we can manipulate
22:53 him, that we can get him to do what we want him to do. Now, we can't judge the
22:59 motivations the heart of the Israelites. We don't know if the sacrifices were genuinely from repentance and faith or
23:06 if it was just an attempt to buy God off. But we can look at our own heart.
23:13 Is my service to God motivated by his grace and love for me and my love for
23:18 him? Is it motivated by my desire to see his name glorified among all nations of
23:24 the earth? or is my service for him more self-centered and more selfserving?
23:31 Am I doing business with God with the hope that he will then do everything for
23:37 me that I want him to do for me? So, while there's nothing in this immediate passage that talks about the
23:44 motive or the heart of the people, when we do get to verse 10 and following, we
23:51 do see that the people of Israel once again did evil in the sight of the Lord
23:57 and they turned away from him and they worshiped idols. Verse 5 ends this very first section of
24:04 the chapter. When we get to verse six, then it's like a break has been made and
24:09 we go back and start all over again. As a matter of fact, verse six takes us even further back than we had the very
24:16 beginning of the book of Judges because it repeats or recapitulates the end of
24:21 the book of Joshua. The end of the book of Joshua is basically repeated here and
24:28 talks about Joshua having convened the people. And it was at this last time
24:34 where Joshua met the people that he had told them, "Choose today
24:39 who you will serve. You can choose the idols that some of your ancestors worshiped years ago. You
24:46 can choose the idols here in this land of Canaan, but I recommend you choose God. As for me, in my house, we will
24:53 serve the Lord." Joshua exhorted the people then to put away other gods and idols.
25:01 The people at that time responded, "We will serve the Lord."
25:06 And we see that in verse 7, the people did serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders
25:14 who outlived Joshua who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.
25:20 Then we see in verse 8 and N that Joshua died. He was buried. And in verse 10, we
25:26 see that the generation that was basically Joshua's contemporaries, they
25:32 also died. And then we come to one of the most sobering texts
25:39 in the entire Old Testament.
25:44 As a father with children and now a grandchild,
25:50 this verse makes me stop and think. There arose a generation after them
25:58 that did not know the Lord or the work he had done for Israel.
26:06 Imagine that. People that are faithful to God, serving God, and then their children go away. What could be more
26:13 heartbreaking than that? No. Here means more than just know
26:19 about. It's not that they did not know about God. Surely they had heard about
26:24 God. He's not talking about just factual knowledge.
26:29 He's talking about experiential knowledge. Knowing God in a personal way,
26:36 experiencing his work in your life personally on an intimate level. Its
26:42 knowledge is based on the personal response to God's grace whereby you repent of your sin and
26:47 self-centeredness. Trust him in faith, acknowledging him to be the one and only rightful Lord and
26:55 master of your life. The older generation, it seems, knew God in this
27:00 way. They served him. They followed him. But the next generation or at least the
27:07 majority of it did not know God. They did not serve him. They did not give
27:14 their undivided allegiance to God as the one and only rightful authority of their
27:22 lives. Instead, they did what was evil in the sight of
27:28 the Lord. They served the bales. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, the one who had brought them
27:35 out of the land of Egypt. These are sobering verses, really scary
27:42 verses, because we know all too well that that could happen again. It could happen in
27:50 our lifetime. It could happen in the lives of our families, in the lives of our children,
27:57 our grandchildren. Back in the early 1900 in Wales, western
28:04 part of Great Britain, there was a tremendous turning to God, a tremendous revival. Many people came to faith
28:13 and their coming to faith brought about major changes in their lives. The whole
28:19 country of Wales was transformed. There were dramatic effects on the population.
28:25 And this revival spread to other countries and had influence on many other countries.
28:31 But just two or three generations later, I was in Wales
28:37 and saw very little left over from what had been a tremendous movement of God
28:43 with people serving God fervently with a passion just a couple of generations
28:48 earlier. Few years ago I was in northeast India. I
28:55 was in a place where a missionary from Wales had gone. Someone who had been
29:01 transformed by this revival in Wales in the early 1900s had wanted to take the gospel to a place in India and they had
29:08 shared the gospel and basically an entire tribe of people there came to faith in Christ. Tens of thousands of
29:15 people came to faith in Christ. There are still descendants of these
29:21 early people from over 100 years ago in India that are Christian today. Many, many, many that are still Christians.
29:28 And I was attending a meeting of the convention of one of the Christian denominations made up of people from
29:35 this tribe. And I was interested that at this convention, one of the things they were talking
29:41 about was, you know, the Welsh people brought the gospel to us. Maybe we should consider
29:49 sending missionaries back to Wales to take the gospel to them. They don't know the Lord.
29:57 But that's not the only thing that came up during that convention. During that meeting of convention leaders,
30:05 they also talked about we are losing our children.
30:10 What can we do? What can we do?
30:18 The first generation of Israel have evidently somehow either failed to pass
30:23 on their faith in a credible, believable way or else the second generation just had a
30:29 hard heart and rejected or possibly a combination of the two.
30:36 There possibly was a failure on the part of the parents. And there's definitely, we'll see in our
30:42 text, the hardening of the hearts of the children.
30:47 The older generation had heard these words from Moses. Love the Lord your God with all your
30:53 heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And I think for parents, that's a
30:59 key for us to help pass our faith on to our children. We don't have to be
31:05 trained theologians and be able to answer every question that our children have about faith, but our children will
31:11 notice if we truly love the Lord.
31:16 And here's another key that will help us as parents. The generation, the first generation of
31:23 Israelites that also heard these words from the lips of Moses himself. He said, "The words I command you today shall be
31:29 on your heart." Not just in your mind, on your heart.
31:37 The words of God should be such an integral part of your life. You don't
31:42 separate Sunday morning from the rest of the week. You don't just give lip service to God.
31:48 The way we live at church is the way we live throughout the week. The children can see if we're consistent or
31:55 inconsistent. If God's word is truly in our heart or if we tend to be
31:60 hypocritical. Let God's word impact all aspects of our
32:06 life. As is seen as we continue with the words that Moses spoke. This first
32:12 generation in the promised land had heard these words too. You shall teach these words of God diligently to your
32:18 children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when
32:26 you rise. We see here that the primary place for Christian instruction is the home.
32:34 Now, we want to sometimes delegate that to the church. And yes, the church can
32:39 and does play a very beneficial role in the education of our children, helping
32:46 them to be exposed to other people who love God, showing them the truths of who God is. But the church can't really
32:54 replace the home. Now, I don't think that this text means we need to constant be constantly be
33:01 lecturing our children about God. doesn't mean that every time we do anything we have to be giving them some
33:07 kind of a biblical lecture. But when we see what he's talking about here, basically he's saying your walk with God
33:14 needs to influence every aspect of your daily life.
33:19 The word of God applies to real life, to our daily routine. all day long, seven
33:26 days a week, our children will see our values, our priorities, our goals, and they'll see
33:34 if those priorities are Christ centered or not. They'll see how our relationships are
33:41 and are our relationships affected positively by our relationship with God.
33:47 And with our children, we want to be able to speak comfortably and easily and naturally about God because he is such
33:54 an integral part of our lives. You see, Christianity is caught as much as it is
33:60 taught. Not only do our children need to hear our words about the Lord, yes, they need
34:06 to hear that too, but they need to see it in our lives. Some of the first generation of the
34:12 Israelites may have done a great job of parenting, just don't know. It doesn't say,
34:18 but for some reason, the children did refuse to follow God.
34:24 Now, we do need to realize that every person has to personally make the decision whether or not they're going to
34:31 accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, repenting of their sin, placing their faith in him. Children need to learn
34:37 that they are not automatically Christian just because they're born into a Christian home.
34:43 Parents, help your children understand this. They need to recognize their sin, repent, ask God's forgiveness, let God
34:50 take control of their lives. There's no guarantee that our children,
34:55 our grandchildren will accept Christ. We cannot force that on them. They do have
35:00 free will. They must choose to accept or reject.
35:06 But we as parents can, as these verses say, love the Lord with all our heart.
35:11 We can let God's word penetrate our heart so that it becomes a part of our daily life. So that our relationship to
35:19 God permeates all aspects of our lives. And we can pray for our children.
35:27 Pray that it will not be said of the generation after us, they did not know the Lord.
35:38 In verse 11 and 12, we see the younger generation abandoned the Lord. They
35:44 served the Baales. And in verse 13, it once again repeats
35:50 that they abandoned the Lord and served the Baales and the Asteroths.
35:57 Now, a brief word about the Baales and the Asteroths. These were the gods that the people of Canaan worshiped. the the
36:03 altars to these gods were the gods that the Israelites were supposed to have broken down.
36:09 But instead they adopted these gods and started to worship the gods in the same
36:14 way the Canaanites were worshiping them. The Canaanites were polytheists.
36:22 They believed in many gods and goddesses and the most common of these was Baal.
36:28 He was believed to be the most powerful god. He was the rain god
36:34 and he was also the god of fertility making animals the land and also people
36:40 fertile. And the ashorth that's a female deity
36:46 also a fertility deity. Now you may ask why is a little fella
36:52 like that so attractive? Why would anybody want to worship little fella like that?
36:59 Well, two things. One, remember Baal, they thought
37:07 was the god of rain. Israel is a land that's prone to drought
37:13 more than it is to flood. You need rain to have crops, to have
37:19 food to eat. You need rain to be able to have livestock. In other words, it makes
37:26 economic sense to worship Baal. If we want to be financially prosperous, if we
37:34 want to be successful, we need rain. Therefore, we will worship the God of rain. And if we do, then we will have
37:41 prosperity. The second possible reason that they
37:46 wanted to worship Baal, especially the men, sensual pleasure. You see, you
37:53 could live an immoral lifestyle and feel good about it.
37:58 You could be committing adultery and think, "Hey, this is my religious duty."
38:03 You see, the people believed in a sympathetic magic. If you wanted the
38:09 land to be fertile, if you wanted the livestock to be fertile, then you needed
38:14 to practice some kind of a fertility right. So, what do you do?
38:21 You go to the temple of Baal and there you can find sacred so to speak
38:27 prostitutes both male and female and you can practice your fertility right with
38:33 one of these people. The Canaanites practiced male and female
38:39 sacred prostitution to worship their fertility gods and goddesses. So the
38:44 Israelites thought that if they serve the bales and if they serve the asteros then this religion would provide them
38:51 with both sensual pleasure as well as prosperity.
38:56 What else do you want? But they were mistaken. They found out
39:02 that they did not prosper. Just the opposite. And rather than
39:08 having continuous pleasure, they suffered greatly.
39:15 The verse here talks about the great distress the people resulted when the
39:21 people disobeyed God and worshiped other gods. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he gave them over to
39:27 plunderers who plundered them. He sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer
39:33 withstand their enemies. And when they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them as the Lord had warned, as
39:40 the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.
39:47 Not pleasure, not prosperity, but distress. So then we see God's grace, his mercy,
39:55 as he raised up judges who would save them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Excuse me.
40:03 And we see in verse 18 that when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and he saved them
40:09 from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because
40:17 of those who afflicted and oppressed them. So in these verses, verses 11 through
40:24 18, we see a cycle that happens over and over again. And in these verses, we
40:31 basically see a brief summary of the rest of the book of Judges.
40:37 Not only the rest of the book of Judges, but we also see it happening again in the monarchy in the days of the kings
40:45 some years later. This era of the judges is marked by this cyclical pattern of rebellion,
40:52 oppression, and deliverance. You see, the people disobeyed God. The result is
40:58 judgment. The Israelites are then oppressed by the neighboring peoples.
41:04 They're sorry either for their sin or the consequences or maybe both. So they cry out to God.
41:10 God raises up a deliverer and through God's power, Israel is
41:16 delivered. Then Israel experience a type of peace
41:22 and then it all happens all over again and again and again and again.
41:30 Little bit easier diagram to remember because all of these words alliterate just single words. Rebellion. They rebel
41:37 against God. Then there's retribution. God punishes the people. Divine
41:42 retribution. The people repent. Then they experience the redemption of
41:47 the judges. Then the land experiences a period of rest.
41:54 But it's not just a repeating cycle. It's more like this diagram tries to show. It was a downward spiral. Because
42:01 as we continue reading through the judges, each time that they were redeemed, it
42:07 seemed like the people got then worse and worse and worse.
42:14 You see, even after the judges saved them, when the judge died, the people
42:20 became more corrupt than their fathers had been.
42:26 So, this is a brief summary of the rest of the book of Judges.
42:32 The results of their rebellion, the results of their stubborn refusal,
42:37 the anger of the Lord was brought against them.
42:42 And he did this in order to test them. He let these
42:48 other nations remain in the land. He let these other nations get strong and
42:53 oppress them in order to test the Israelites.
42:58 Now, sometimes when we think of the word test, we think of that in a negative connotation, but it's not necessarily
43:04 so. Whether or not they will walk in the ways of the father, they have a choice.
43:11 They have another opportunity. Okay, you failed this last test. I'm giving you
43:16 another test. God says, "Cry out in repentance and let it be true repentance
43:21 and then serve me faithfully." But no, they failed the test again.
43:28 When we have tests, when we experience either divine retribution or when we
43:33 just experience difficulties in life, that's a test for us. And we can respond
43:40 in repentance and faith and trust in God or we can respond like the Israelites in
43:46 rebellion. And unfortunately throughout the book of Judges, including in the
43:52 chapter three that we heard read earlier, they continued to fail the test. They did not respond to God's
43:58 grace. A sad story. So, there's a few things that we can
44:03 learn to apply to our lives today. We look to the scripture, but we too are
44:09 living among idols. And when we're living among idols, the first thing I want to point out is that we want to
44:16 focus our attention on God. It may not be obvious when we read the
44:22 book of Judges that one of the major themes in the book of Judges is God, his love, his grace, his mercy because we
44:29 get caught up in the details of these sorted stories. But in our text today, we do see God's great love for his
44:37 people. So, we want to remember God's love. We
44:42 saw that in the very first verse where God points out that he had redeemed them
44:48 from slavery. He had accepted them as his treasured possession. He had brought them into the promised land and he made
44:55 a covenant with them he would never break. Remember God's love. He has also
45:02 redeemed us from slavery to sin. He's made a covenant with us that will never end. He has accepted us as his treasured
45:09 possession. and he has promised us eternal life with him. God does the same
45:15 for us today. We also see God's compassion when he saved the people from the hand of their
45:22 enemies. God had a deep love, a great compassion, mercy for his people.
45:29 He has that same compassion for us and he's willing to save us.
45:34 And when living with idols, we want to focus not only on God's love. We also want to remember God is a holy God. We
45:42 sometimes have a skewed picture of God. It needs to be balanced. God is love.
45:48 God is also holy. God cannot accept and tolerate sin. You
45:55 see, back in the first verse, God had promised, "I will not break my covenant with you." And he didn't, showing his
46:00 love. But he also points out his holiness. I will not drive these people
46:06 out. There is judgment for sin because God is holy. There is judgment.
46:15 We see the judgment again with the anger of the Lord being kindled. So since we
46:20 are living among idols, we want to also focus on God on his great love also
46:27 on him. A second thing we want to be aware of is
46:32 we need to beware of the allure and the danger of idols.
46:38 Now living in the Clang Valley, it's easy to see a lot of physical idols. Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, Dowist
46:44 temples, traditional Chinese religions, their altars. We see statues and figurines. And if you come from a
46:50 background from one of these other religions, you know what idol worship is
46:55 like. And there's the possibility that you still might struggle some with that today.
47:01 But even those of us who do not come from that type of a background, we too struggle with idols. We're all guilty of
47:09 idolatry because anything that demands our highest priority and allegiance is
47:14 an idol. Everything that we love more than God is an idol. Anything that
47:20 dictates our values and our actions more than God is an idol.
47:26 Everything that you do not want to surrender to the lordship of Christ is an idol.
47:32 An idol is something other than God that we think will bring fulfillment to our lives. So we worship these idols because
47:39 we think they will satisfy our needs, our desires, our wants.
47:44 In a sense, worshiping idols is really worshiping ourselves. We worship them in
47:50 order to get what we think we want. The idol could be related to our physical
47:56 desires, pleasure, materialism, wealth. It could be related to our psychological
48:03 desires, the desire for power, control, desire for approval, recognition,
48:10 desire for comfort, security. An idol could be a career, a
48:16 relationship. An idol is something or someone or some cause that we make the center of our
48:22 lives, the center of our hope and affection, something that then absorbs our time,
48:29 our energy, our thoughts. What are the idols that you are
48:34 struggling with? What tends to want to claim the highest
48:39 priority in your life? What idols are more important to you
48:44 than God? What are you not willing to surrender to the lordship of Christ?
48:52 Idols can be quite appealing. Beware of their allure. Just like Baal was appealing. Sensual pleasure, prosperity,
48:60 you've got it all. But their allure is misleading. We don't
49:06 get what we want. Idols are dangerous. They do not deliver their prom on their
49:13 promises. Earlier I said I would come back to this verse. Talks about idols being a thorn,
49:20 a snare for us. Thorns bring pain.
49:26 Idolatry brings pain and suffering can blind us to reality. And idols will
49:32 ensla enslave us and snare us. Think of the irony. The children of Israel had
49:38 just been set free from slavery and now of their own free will. They
49:43 enter into slavery again. This time into the slavery of idolatry. And when you
49:49 get enslaved by an idol, it's hard to get out. It's like a drug addict who
49:55 just can't do without the drugs. Or the alcoholic who cannot do without the drink or the compulsive gambler who's
50:01 losing everything but just has to try once again. We know we need to give it
50:06 up. We know that we want to be freed and need to be freed. But yet on the other
50:13 hand, we really don't want to give it up because the idol becomes such an inordinate all-consuming desire
50:21 controlling our lives and we just can't part with it. So if that might be your condition
50:28 today, you know what this verse is talking about.
50:33 So since we are living among idols, be aware of the allure, their danger and
50:40 then also respond to God in repentance. Respond appropriately to him in faith.
50:49 Sometimes when God blesses us, you would think we would be thankful and
50:54 respond in faith. But sometimes the danger if we are enjoying blessings is we forget God. And that's exactly what
51:02 happened with the people of Israel. God had warned them when you get to the promised land, don't forget who it was
51:08 that brought you there. Respond appropriately, remembering Paul
51:15 tells us in the book of Romans, God's goodness is to bring repentance.
51:21 How do you respond in times of suffering? We see the Israelites crying out for
51:27 mercy, crying out for God's deliverance, but then they turned their back again.
51:33 When we suffer, whether it's our fault or whether it's the fault of somebody else or just the fact we live in a sinful world,
51:39 we have a test and we can pass that test and respond in faith to God or we can,
51:46 like the Israelites, fail that test and go the other way.
51:52 We want to respond in repentance. When we share the gospel with people, we emphasize repentance is important in
51:59 order to enter into a relationship with God. But it's not just the entrance into that relationship with God. It's a
52:06 continuing thing. A few years back, I was talking with a Catholic priest. Had quite a good
52:12 conversation with him. This is in the US. And he had some viewpoints that I
52:17 was surprised he had because they were very similar to an evangelical viewpoint. But he said one thing I won't
52:23 forget. He said, "Many times you evangelicals when you preach about repentance, you speak about that as if
52:30 as if it's a one-time experience at the beginning of your walk with God."
52:35 We like to teach our people it's a daily thing. Yes, you need that first experience,
52:42 that one-time beginning of the walk with God. But daily, we want to respond in
52:47 repentance and faith to God. When we repent,
52:54 we will also give up our idols. And giving up idols is not as easy as it may
53:00 sound. I was in India a few years back and I was leading a seminar.
53:07 people who were being sent out as missionaries to several different countries.
53:12 And to help me with this seminar, I asked a Hindu background believer to come and share some of his experiences
53:19 as he had been successful in working with Hindu people. And he was talking to me about many many
53:26 people that he had seen had come to faith. Many Hindus had come to faith in Christ. But he said sometimes it's
53:33 difficult for them to do away with their idols. And sometimes, especially parents with
53:40 young children, you'll see that they have some kind of an amulet or a charm or some kind of a token that's supposed
53:45 to bring good luck based on their Hindu religion. And they have that on the
53:51 baby. And he says, I could go and tell them, get rid of that. Get rid of that. That's an idol. and they'd do it
53:59 at least when they were around him. But then at home it would be different.
54:06 We can't just get rid of our idols. He said the problem is not that they're
54:11 putting a charm on their baby. The problem is their heart is not right with God.
54:17 The problem is they are filled with fear. They don't trust God. They don't know
54:23 that God will protect that baby when their heart changes and the idol will be
54:29 gone. Which brings me to the last point. We need to accept God's provision for
54:36 deliverance because we cannot do this ourselves. In the book of Judges, God
54:42 provided re deliverers, but they were flawed. Their deliverance only lasted a
54:47 brief time. This is all pointing to the ultimate deliverer that God would send, Jesus
54:54 Christ. And in Jesus, we see God's love and his holiness combined on the cross
55:04 as sin is punished through death. But God offers his grace, his love to all
55:10 who respond in repentance and faith to Jesus. What are the idols in your life?
55:18 Bring them to God. Accept his provision for deliverance. Let him change your
55:24 heart and give up the idols. Let's pray together.
55:31 Almighty God, as we look at our lives, if we're honest, we'll admit there are many things that at least from time to
55:38 time are idols in our lives. I pray that right now you would point those out to us.
55:44 pray that you would change our heart. Help us to trust you. Help us to love
55:50 you more than we love these idols. Change our heart.
55:56 Father God, if there's someone here this morning who has never yet accepted you in faith, I pray that today they would
56:02 respond in repentance and faith to you. And for those who are in your family who
56:07 have accepted your grace, I pray that we would walk daily with you. repenting
56:13 daily, getting rid of our idols, asking you to be sovereign and Lord of all our life.
56:20 In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
