Judges 2 and the Bible reads and an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to
Bochim and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you unto the
land which I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant
with you and ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land you
shall throw down their altars but ye have not obeyed my voice why have you
done this wherefore I also said I will not drive them out before you from
before you but they shall be as thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a
snare unto you and it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words
unto the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept
and they called the name of that place Bochim and they sacrificed there unto
the Lord and when Joshua had let the people go the children of Israel went
every man unto his inheritance to possess the land and the people served
the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived
Joshua who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel and
Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died being in hundred and ten
years old and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath
Haris in the Mount of Ephraim on the north side of the hill Gahish and also
all that generation were gathered unto their fathers and there arose another
generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done
for Israel and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and
served Balaam and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them
out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people
that were round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the
Lord to anger and they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Asheroth and the
anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the
hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their
enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their
enemies whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for
evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them and they were
greatly distressed nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered them
out of the hands of those that spoiled them and yet they would not hearken unto
their judges but they went a whoring after other gods and they bowed
themselves unto them they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers
walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord but they did not so and when
the Lord raised raised them up judges then the Lord was with the judge and
delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge for
it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that
oppressed them and vexed them and it came to pass when the judge was dead
that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in
following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them they ceased not
from their own doings nor from their stubborn way and the anger of the Lord
was hot against Israel and he said because that this people hath
transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers and have not
hearkened unto my voice I also will not henceforth drive out any from the before
them of the nations which Joshua left when he died and through them I may
prove Israel whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as the
fathers did keep it or not therefore the Lord left those nations without driving
them out hastily neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua dear Lord
thank you for bringing us to church tonight please open our hearts and open
our ears to hear your word and to be edified and I pray father help us to go
out different than we came in tonight in Jesus name we pray amen men and judges
chapter 2 we're continuing the introduction of the book of Judges if
you remember chapters 3 through 13 or excuse me 3 through 16 are the meat of
the book of Judges from 3 through 16 we go through all the different judges in
order and their stories so chapters 1 & 2 serve as an introduction it starts
out in chapter 2 verse 1 and an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to
Bochim and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the
land which I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant
with you now let me just stop here and explain that the word angel in the Bible
simply means messenger it's not always what we would think of as an angel from
heaven or some kind of a supernatural heavenly being I did a sermon a while
back called angels that are human and then I did another sermon that same
evening called angels that are not human and if you listen to those two sermons I
kind of break this down and go through all the different mentions but like for
example in the New Testament when we have the letters to the seven churches
and he's writing to the angel of the Church of Ephesus the angel of the
Church of Smyrna he's simply writing to the messenger of that church the one who
brings the message the one who preaches at that church that's why he even has
some negative things to say toward the preacher in some cases and so when we
see here the angel of the Lord coming up from Gilgal notice this is not an angel
Lord coming down from heaven the thing that clues you in that this is just a
human being that's just a preacher or a prophet of God is the fact that he
starts at one geographic location and he ends up in another you know he's going
from and he and it even uses the word up you know so he's not descending from
heaven or anything like that and if you study the word angel throughout the
Bible you'll see that often it just means messenger and it could be a human
being it could be a preacher or a prophet so that's what this is now
notice when the angel of the Lord begins to speak he's using the first person
pronouns speaking as God okay so that's why it's calling him an angel because we
want to understand that this guy is not speaking on his own behalf but he is
speaking God's message and he's saying I made you to go up out of Egypt now
obviously the guy who's actually saying that isn't the one who made them go up
from Egypt it's God that made him go up so a lot of times the angel of the Lord
or the messenger of God the prophet of God will speak for God okay now a lot of
people today would balk at this and say well you know who are you to speak for
God but here's the thing when we have the word of God in our hand we can speak
for God this is what God said and we have the authority to open our mouths
and just repeat what he said thus saith the Lord is the phrase that comes up
over and over again and so can we speak for God yes we can every time the Bible
says thus saith the Lord well you know what we can speak for God there and say
this is what God says and we have that confidence you know a lot of people say
well you know no one can know the mind of God the Bible says we have the mind
of Christ you know it says who with knowing the mind of the Lord that he may
instruct him but we have the mind of Christ so we do know what God thinks
about things we don't have to wonder God's opinion or even have some kind of
a supernatural encounter with God ourselves in order to know what his
opinions are he's laid it down in Scripture and when the messenger of God
just repeats the word of God then he speaks for God we are ambassadors for
the Lord we're ambassadors for Christ and so that's where we get this I made
you go up I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant
with you look at verse number two so this covenant that he made with them is
not a one-sided deal hey I brought you out of Egypt I'm not gonna break my
covenant with you okay but you've got your end of the bargain to do and you
shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land you shall throw
down their altars but you've not obeyed my voice why have you done this now what
is a league well we probably would typically use the word league in regard
to a sports league right but a sporting league you know the this league that
league the major league the minor league it's basically people who've gotten
together and they've made an agreement together to work together and in the
case of sports to play together but they've come together and they've united
into a confederacy and God does not want that to happen he doesn't want them
to make this little like United Nations of Palestine or United States of
Palestine he wanted them to wipe out the Canaanites and the high fights to make
no peace treaty with them no accord with them no league with them now if you
would flip back over to Exodus 23 keep your finger in Joshua or judges rather
because we'll be back here but go back to Exodus 23 and in Exodus 23 while
you're turning there I'm going to read for you from Deuteronomy 7 1 when the
Lord thy God shall bring me into the land whither thou goest to possess it
and at and have cast out many nations before the the Hittites and the
Girgashites and Amorites and the Canaanites and the Parisites and the
high fights and Jebusites seven nations greater and mightier than thou and when
the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee thou shalt smite them and
utterly destroy them thou shalt make no covenant with them nor show mercy unto
them neither shalt thou make marriages with them thy daughter thou shalt not
give unto his son nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son for they will
turn away thy son from following me that they may serve other gods so will the
anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly but thus shall
you deal with them you shall destroy their altars and break down their images
and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with fire for thou art an
holy people unto the Lord thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a
special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the
earth look down at your Bible there in Exodus 23 verse 31 Bible says in verse
31 and I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even under the land of the
Philistines and from the desert under the river and I will deliver the
inhabitants of the land into your hand and thou shalt drive them out before
thee thou shalt make no covenant with them nor with their gods they shall not
dwell in thy land lest they make thee sin against me for if thou serve their
gods it will surely be a snare unto thee now here's the thing in general we have
scriptures in the Bible telling us to get along with people the Bible says as
much as lieth in us as much as possible we should dwell peaceably with all men
God teaches us to get along with people and to be at peace and not to cause
trouble to obey magistrates to be ready to every good work but you know there
are certain groups of people and certain situations where we are not to compromise
and we are not to make any kind of an agreement or peace or treaty in certain
situations you know one of those is that we should never compromise or unite with
false religion okay other gods people were and I'm not saying you know people
that are a little different than us but that are saved born-again Christians I'm
talking about people that are part of another religion okay we are not to yoke
up with them so I'm not going to join the ministerial Association you know
here in Arizona or Phoenix I'm sure I'd probably not be invited anyway but I'm
not gonna join all right I know you guys are dying for me to be down there but I
won't do it but you know the point is though I'm not gonna get together at
some kind of an interfaith meeting where I'm gonna team up with Jews Catholics
Buddhists Hindus Muslims Mormons whatever I'm not going to team up with them to
achieve some common goal now I'm not saying that I would never talk to those
people witness to them or whatever but obviously the false prophets of these
religions are typically going to be a reprobate according to scripture anyway
but the point is I'm not going to team up with them say to fight against
abortion or team up with them on some kind of a conservative initiative or
team up with them hey let's work together to make the community a better
place you know I don't want to be yoked up with them because they're they're
wicked people you know I always think of Jeroboam he made of the lowest of the
people priests unto his false gods that he made and the Bible teaches that false
prophets and false teachers are the lowest of the low and God does not want
our church yoked up with a false religion or the pastor yoking up with
other pastors of other religions that is not what God wants God wants us to come
out from among them and be separate and not to join up religiously with false
prophets and false teachers and other gods so we cannot compromise that way
now the Bible also said in the scripture I read in Deuteronomy you know
don't give your sons unto their daughters or take their daughters for
your sons because of the fact that God does not want our children marrying
unsaved people right we need to make sure that our children marry a saved
believer now I don't believe in parents arranging the marriages of their
children that's not biblical we don't believe that around here but I will say
this you know we do need to veto the ones that are unsaved or wicked or
ungodly you know my children can marry whomever they want as long as it's a
godly Christian you know and they can pick from that pool of saved born-again
children of God but the last thing I want and it would be just I would be
just strongly against and fight them every step of the way to see them marry
an unbeliever why is that because of the fact that the Bible says it'll be a
snare unto them you know whose life they would be ruining their own it would be a
snare unto them we need to be not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers so we don't want to yoke up with the false religion but also we can
make no league with or no compromise with or no union with reprobates okay
remember why is it that God wants to wipe out these people in Canaan anyway
the Bible teaches that they were reprobates they were perverted they had
indulged in not only worship of false gods but also in the worst possible
perversion that is enumerated in Leviticus chapter 20 he goes through all
these horrific things and you're wondering why is God even telling people
not to do this stuff who would even do this stuff and then at the end he says
all the nations that you're gonna inherit the land from they did all this
stuff and then it's like whoa man no wonder they're all getting wiped out no
wonder God wants these people to be completely destroyed there there can be
no compromise or friendship with reprobates and you know what I'm talking
about when I talk about the reprobates I'm talking about the sodomites because
Romans chapter 1 teaches that the reason why men burn in lust toward other men
and women would go after other women is because of the fact that they have been
given over to a reprobate mind they what you know they didn't even want to
retain God in their knowledge they're haters of God and they've been given
over to that reprobate mind and they do the things that of course these
Canaanites did the Leviticus 20 type things and of course we're all familiar
with chapter 20 verse 13 that specifically refers to a man lying with
mankind as he lies with the woman and the Bible says they've committed an
abomination they shall surely be put to death their blood shall be upon them
that's Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 and so we in 2020 should not be in any way
trying to get along with the sodomites or placating them or appeasing them or
somehow you know coming to some kind of terms with them look I refuse to
tolerate homos and I never will I will not tolerate them I will not act as if
it is normal I will not come to some kind of an arrangement or an agreement
or some kind of a truce or a ceasefire it's not happening I hate them they're
disgusting and they should be destroyed okay and God will one day destroy them
it's not our place to take care of that because you know we don't wrestle
against flesh and blood we are nonviolent people but you know what
we're praying and one day God will wipe them out and cleanse our land from that
filth that is destroying our country destroying the morals destroying our
children and you know what if you have a soft spot for them you're not right with
God and if you want to hang around with them and be buddies with them and reach
out to them then you know what you're not right with God and you don't know
the Bible and you're also an idiot there I said it because that's what the Bible
teaches you're a fool if you don't take heed under what God is clearly saying
about these horrible disgusting wicked predators okay and you know why I have
to get up and preach hard about this because the world's out there
brainwashing you the opposite all the time and so it's good to hear what the
Word of God has to say the Bible says do not I hate them Oh Lord that hate thee
and the Bible says they're haters of God and the Bible every time it describes
them they're they're harming someone they're abusing someone and that's why
God said look you can't coexist with these people you cannot get along with
these people these people need to be somewhere else you know don't let them
dwell in the land among you it's not just that they worshiped other gods but
they were also these horrible perverts and he's saying do not have peace with
these people and so they broke that go back if you went to judges chapter 2
that was the deal that was the Covenant he's saying look I'm gonna give you the
land but you got to wipe out these wicked people for me and God was using
the nation of Israel to wipe out these wicked people and then Israel's not
doing the job that he gave them to do to destroy the sodomites to destroy the
wicked Canaanites that indulged in many other perversions in addition to that
perversion and so the Bible says in verse 2 of judges chapter 2 and you
shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land you shall throw
down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this
and you know that's the question that's asked throughout scripture why and do
you ever just ask yourself that question like why can't people just be normal why
can't people just serve God why can't people just do the right thing why do
people have to be violent why do people have to steal why do people have to kill
why do people have to be a pervert you know why can't they just do what's right
and God's looking at his people to say why didn't you do what I told you to do
he gave him the tools to do it he gave him the strength to do it and it's just
like why didn't you do it verse 3 wherefore I also said I will not drive
them out from before you he's basically saying look if you're not gonna do it
then I'm not gonna do it for you now we've probably all heard the saying God
helps those who help themselves and a lot of people just want to sit back and
let God do everything you know they think wait on the Lord means just kind
of just do nothing and just let it all happen no God has given us some
commandments and some things that we need to do we need to make things happen
in our own life it's not a lack of faith to work for God and make things actually
happen okay God wants us to get out there and do something and move and get
things done go out knock doors and win souls to Christ he wants it you know he
wants us to serve him and if we won't do it ourselves he's not gonna do it for us
okay that's why he said here you've not why have you done this by not throwing
down their altars and stuff and he says well I will not drive them out from
before you in verse 3 but they shall be as thorns in your sides and their gods
shall be a snare to you he's saying now you're gonna have to live with the
consequences of not clearing this stuff out and not getting rid of these people
then you know America you can you can you know cringe when I get up and rip
face about the homos or whatever or think it's too mean but you know what
America is gonna live with the consequences of tolerating these people
you know America is tolerating them and and wants to have them around and let
them thrive and let me tell you something we're gonna live to see the
consequences of that we're living to see it and it's gonna get worse and so you
know God is saying if you don't get rid of these people then you're gonna live
with the consequences they're gonna be a snare to you you know what a snare is
it's something that catches you it's like a trap right think of those jumping
cholla or something you know you walk by and just kind of grabs you okay a snare
is something that catches you and grabs you and claws at you or it could be a
man-made trap you know something that just gets you and so God said these
people are a snare unto you it's a trap my friend trying to get along with
reprobates is a trap you know trying to unite with a false religion is a trap do
not be ensnared and it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words
unto all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept
now that's the right reaction they ought to be weeping because they've
messed up royally and God's giving them some very negative news saying hey I'm
not gonna help you I'm not gonna go with you I'm not gonna defeat these nations
you're gonna have to live with all these weirdos now and they're gonna be a snare
unto you well obviously the proper reaction to that is to be sorry and to
weep so they're weeping and they called the name of that place Bokem which means
weepers and they sacrificed there unto the Lord now watch out for verse 6 here
because this could kind of throw you off it's kind of jarring it almost feels out
of place at first it says and when Joshua had let the people go it's like
what Joshua what are we talking Joshua died a couple chapters ago right so what
the Bible when you see something like this what the Bible is doing here is
signaling us that we're basically changing time frames or going to a
different point in the chronology okay it's sort of like when you're reading
Revelation and then all of a sudden you get to chapter 12 and we get to the
birth of Christ that tells you whoa we've just jumped back in time so what
this is doing is jumping out of the chronology and backing up and doing a
recap okay so here's the deal if you look at Judges chapter 1 verse 1 we
started out the narrative here with now after the death of Joshua right and then
after the death of Joshua we talk about these battles that the children of
Israel do Adonai Bezek all the different nations that they failed to cast out and
because they failed to cast out those nations and because they kept them
around as tributaries then this angel of the Lord comes and rebukes them so
basically from chapter 1 verse 1 all the way up to verse 5 of chapter 2 we're
basically in order explaining what happened after the death of Joshua okay
but in verse 6 we're jumping backward in time which is signaled by mentioning
Joshua once again and you'll see why in a moment it'll make perfect sense but if
you would keep your finger there and just go a page to the left in your
Bible to Joshua 24 verse 28 Joshua 24 verse 28 because this is where we're
gonna connect Judges chapter 2 verses 6 with a timeline it says in Judges 2 6
and when Joshua had let the people go the children of Israel when every man
into his inheritance to possess the land look at verse 28 there so Joshua let the
people depart every man into his inheritance now do you notice that
that's virtually the exact same statement depart means he let let them
depart means let them go they go into the inheritance they go into the
inheritance so these two statements are the same thing so chapter 24 is at the
end of Joshua's life where he calls the congregation of the children of Israel
all together and he makes a big speech to them and he gives them the famous as
for me in my house we will serve the Lord speech and he demands that they put
away all false gods and were serve the Lord only so he gives this big speech
and then he lets them depart and then what's the next verse verse 29 and it
came to pass after these things that Joshua the son of none the servant of
the Lord died being a hundred and ten years old okay so we see that Joshua
ended with Joshua letting the people go and then dying right then it's like okay
here's what happened after he died in chapter 1 verse 1 all the way to 2 5 now
we're gonna back up and talk about this in a different way doesn't that make
sense so it's like okay this is all stuff that happened after he died ok now
let's go back to his death and look at this from another angle and when Joshua
had let the people go that's chapter 24 verse 28 of the book of Joshua and when
Joshua had let the people go the children of Israel when every man into
his inheritance to possess the land that's the stuff they're doing in
chapter 1 of Judges and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua
and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua who had seen all the
great works of the Lord that he did for Israel that's the events of chapter 1
everybody understand we're backing up and taking kind of a bird's-eye view now
and saying okay you know Joshua as he lived they served God but even after
Joshua died there were still the elders that served under Joshua that were good
men of God that were solid guys they kept them worshiping the Lord so in
chapter 1 they're continuing to worship the Lord now of course they're failing
and making mistakes and and not taking over all the land like they should not
defeating all the enemies like they should but in chapter 1 they're still
worshipping the Lord they're not on some other false god or false religions
everybody understand that so in chapter 1 of Judges we're on that period of the
elders who outlived Joshua okay and we're in that phase after the death of
Joshua they're inheriting land and they're still serving the Lord look at
verse 8 and Joshua the son of none served the Lord died being 110 years old
they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath here as in the
Mount of Ephraim on the north side of the hill Gaiash verse 10 and also all
that generation were gathered under their fathers and there arose another
generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done
for Israel so again now we are beyond chapter 1 because in chapter 1 that was
just right after Joshua died so that was still that generation was still alive
the elders were alive there was now we're going beyond that there's a new
generation that doesn't know the Lord and does not know what God has done for
Israel look at verse 11 and the children of Israel did evil on the side of the
Lord and served Balaam and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which
brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of
the people that were round about them and bowed themselves unto them and
provoked the Lord anger now isn't this exactly what God predicted would happen
he said look if you leave these people around in the scripture we looked at it
Exodus 23 he said they will make thee to sin against me for if thou serve their
gods it will surely be a snare unto thee in Deuteronomy chapter 7 he said the
same thing they're gonna be a snare unto you because they're gonna get you
serving their gods you're gonna start to be like them if you have them around you
you're gonna be influenced by them so exactly as God predicted because the
generation in chapter 1 that still served the Lord they're not worshiping
Baal they still serve the Lord but because they did it wipe out the enemies
because they did not rebuke the enemies and keep the enemies at bay and
destroy the enemies then what happened their children ended up growing up and
following after these false things so here's the thing this is why we don't we
kids have a positive only preaching in the house of God or a positive only
child-rearing we have to teach our children what's right but we also have
to teach them what is not right we also have to rebuke sin and iniquity and
wickedness and we also have to purge some things out of our lives and out of
our homes and out of our church and out of our family because of the fact that
we don't want to just have this attitude this is well you know we're we're we're
worship the Lord till the bitter end okay but we want our children also to
understand that other religions are not okay so you know III remember being
corrected one time by a ministry leader who said you know just preach that you
don't have to preach against the Catholic Church just preach what's right
you don't have to say everything that's wrong just preach what's right just
preach the truth just just say what salvation is but you don't have to say
what it isn't no we need to say what it isn't you know it you know you can get
up and say hey salvation is by believing in Jesus is by faith alone it's not of
work so city mention but oh see I already brought in a little negative not
of works but you know we need to point out hey Roman Catholics you know what
they don't believe the gospel see what if I don't point that out what if I
don't teach but well then what if my kid just see some cross around some
girl's neck or something just things oh a fellow my fellow Christian and it
turns out she's Roman Catholic or whatever and he hasn't been educated on
that and you know here's the thing you know I remember when I was a teenager
naively thinking that a lot of religions were saved you know before I'd gone out
soul-winning and talked to a lot of people and understood a lot of the
doctrines you know now my parents obviously drilled into me that Roman
Catholics weren't say they drilled into me that the that the Pentecostals who
believe you can lose your salvation are not saved that they're trusting in their
works that's why they believe you can lose your salvation and so you know
certain things they drilled into me but you know I looked at a lot of other
denominations and just I just kind of naively assumed that hey as long as
they're not a tongue-talker and as long as they're not a Roman Catholic or a
Mormon or Jehovah's Witness you know we should be good to go
Episcopalian no problem you know Methodist no problem Presbyterian no
problem and here's the thing obviously there could be saved individuals amongst
these groups but the thing about it is though by and large these mainline
Protestant denominations are filled with unsaved people if you go out soul-winning
and talk to them you realize they ain't Baptist they ain't evangelicals they've
got some very sketchy salvation doctrine and they're often going to be mixing in
works and and having a lot of wrong doctrines in regard to salvation and so
you know want to make sure that our children know you know what is a real
Christian now here's the thing if your kids go out soul-winning with you that's
a great education right there in how to check somebody's salvation because when
we knock on somebody's door we check if they're saved we if they're not saved we
attempt to get them saved and so you know what that's what our children can
do with their friends you know they can ask their friends about their salvation
and they can witness under their friends and get their friends saved you know
what could be better than children and teenagers winning their fellow teenagers
and children to Christ winning people to the Lord even as a child what a blessing
both outdoor to door and on the playground or just in the neighborhood
or at school or wherever that's a great soul-winning opportunity for young
people so we need to not make the mistake that they made here obviously
for us it's figurative this is a literal we got these weirdos just dwelling in
the land of Israel but figuratively this is just talking about just basically
just having a tolerance for and being okay with false religion reprobates and
whatever and letting that stuff come in and influence your family and your
children it can have disastrous consequences okay now obviously I'm not
saying that people of other religions are reprobates I'm saying that the
architects of false religion are reprobates the the the the Catholic
priest himself is almost assuredly a reprobate okay you know probably 99% of
the time okay the the actual purveyors of false religion and that's a whole
another sermon where I could prove that from many places in the Bible second
Peter chapter 2 would be a big one but but the thing is obviously most people
in a false religion are not our enemy okay they're just blinded they're just
deceived they need to be illuminated they need the light of the glorious
gospel shined okay but we need to understand that it's a false religion
and and here's the thing yes we want to witness to them and get them saved but
we don't want to yoke up with them we don't want our children to marry them in
their unsafe condition in a false religion we don't want to yoke up with
them and be best buddies with them you know what we ought to be friendly to the
unsaved people of this world and reach out to the unsaved people of this world
you know the 90 some percent that are non reprobates the vast majority we're
reach out to them show them the love of Christ but let me tell you something
though we don't want to be best buddies with them our best buddies ought to be
fellow believers our best buddies ought to be Christians people that are saved
we don't want to get super duper close with unsafe people okay what fellowship
had light with darkness you know we're we're saved they're not we shouldn't and
if we just have so much in common where we're just best buddies with them maybe
we should check ourselves maybe we're not really living that Christian of life
we have so much in common with unsaved people that that's who we want to be
around all the time and just make them our best bosom buddy no our best bosom
buddies should come from church ideally either this church or other godly
churches is where our closest friends should come from you say well pastor
Anderson I've been coming here a while and I'm having trouble getting plugged
into the social scene at faithful word look it's super easy to get plugged in
here it's called show up for soul winning and every time you show up for
soul when you get paired up with somebody different you making a new
friend making friends making friends all day long also you know you could
always approach people and and and start the conversation but hey it's easy to
get plugged in through soul winning and make friendships and and and build
relationships that way and and get a social life going at church plus you
know we have a lot of activities to try to help facilitate that so we see that
just as God predicted they forsook the Lord in the next generation they
followed other gods God becomes angry it says in verse 13 they forsook the
Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth now Ashtaroth is the word referring to the
female goddesses of Canaan so basically Ashtaroth is the feminine equivalent of
Baalim so Baalim is a masculine plural false gods of Canaan the various Baals
that they worshiped because they have the Baal of this area Baal Zebub Baal
Ekron Baal Ashdod they have the various Baals because the word Baal simply means
Lord okay so that's their false Lords their false gods of Canaan are known as
Baalim that I am is that plural masculine ending well the OTH is a
female ending that's plural as well so you'll see elsewhere singular Ashtaroth
and then this is the plural Ashtaroth just like you have Baalim okay so
they're worshiping Baal and these other female deities of Canaan land right
because if you look at paganism it typically involves not just gods but
goddesses as well whether we're looking at India or whether we're looking at the
ancient Greek and Roman pagan gods and goddesses there's a mix of male and
female that's what they're worshiping it says in verse 14 and the anger of the
Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of
spoilers that spoiled them now the spoilers that spoiled them this isn't
their grandparents you know buying the presents and so forth you know this word
spoil is the exact opposite of your grandparents it'd be if your
grandparents came and took all the nice things out of your house and left okay
these are like the anti grandparents the spoilers so spoiling them or
despoiling them has to do with just coming in and taking all their nice
things taking all their money taking the gold taking the silver taking the cattle
just coming and robbing them of their possessions now being robbed is a
terrible thing you know you work hard you save up you spend your money and to
have someone just come and take it away from you it's pretty sad isn't it's
pretty depressing well that's what happened the spoilers came in and
spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies roundabout so
that they could not any longer stand before their enemies whithersoever
listen this verse verse 15 whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was
against them this is not the Canaanites folks this is the Israelites God's
people the Israelites remember the people that he just said in Deuteronomy
7 were the special people above all people on the face of the earth well you
know what now they're special because he's gonna especially fight against them
and especially hinder them and especially stop them from prospering
now how would you like to be in a situation where whenever you go out
every time you leave the house God's hand is against you for evil can you
imagine that can you imagine it's having that kind of dark cloud over you where
you just you go out of the house and just everything you do fails now we've
all had days like that right you go to work it's just like everything you do is
just you you just every single time you don't have the right tool you don't have
the right part every single job you go to there's some reason why you can't get
it done you don't have the part you don't have the tool you know or you know
you climb all the all the ladders up to the roof you climb up and then it's like
you don't have the screwdriver that you need and you got to go back to the truck
and you're just wasting time wasting time getting nowhere getting nowhere or
you get in the car and you go to drive to the job and it's like you just keep
getting lost and you're going in circles and wasting maybe that's just me I have
a bad sense of direction but I remember just getting lost you know before GPS
with the Thomas guide getting lost a lot and just wasting time I'm just like man
I just wasted an hour waste 45 minutes you know how would you like everything
you do to fail and you know God says elsewhere he says that if you meditate
on the Word of God and if you'll follow the Lord and trust him you know he talks
about how whatsoever you do will prosper he talks about giving you success and
making your way prosperous you know God can really make a huge difference in how
your day-to-day life goes you know you could have days where everything's just
falling into place you've had those days right where everything just falls into
place just boom I have exactly what I need just the part I need whoa I made it
without getting lost you know everything's just going perfectly you're
hitting every light green you know what I'm saying and and you know proverbially
speaking you have those days where everything's going great you know look
if things are going bad it doesn't necessarily mean that you're not right
with God because obviously God allows us to go through trials and tribulations
and problems but the point is we need to understand that God controls your
destiny God is the one who controls your destiny so God can either make things go
great or he can make things go terribly and it depends on whether or not you're
pleasing to him if his anger is hot against you he can make your life
miserable he can make everything go bad and you know you might just say look you
can't escape from God you can't hide from him if God's upset with you he'll
make you fail it doesn't matter how smart you are you could diversify your
portfolio out the wazoo he could make you lose every cent you could take every
supplement known to man he can destroy your health snap his fingers and destroy
your health you can you know you could be like Howard Hughes or the boy in the
plastic bubble or something and never be exposed to any germs and he could just
give you disease if God's got an in for you you're done and on the other hand if
God wants to bless you no one can stop that anyone no enemy can stand up to you
all attacks on you can fail and all attempts to hold you back can be
thwarted and you can have great success you know at the end of the day we just
need to make sure God's pleased with us that's the number one thing how can we
be successful just make just keep God happy number one make sure God's not mad
make sure he's happy make sure he's pleased with us because you don't want
his hand to be against you every time you go out and the other thing is that
you know these are the precious special chosen ones and this goes to show that
the children of Israel even in the Old Testament did not have a carte blanche
to just do whatever they want and just remain blessed by God simply by virtue
of being the chosen people yes there were a special chosen people chosen to
serve him chosen to do his work and to do his will not just chosen to be
enshrined and just oh aren't they great aren't they great I mean aren't they
though no that wasn't just to idolize them they were chosen to do work well in
the New Testament we've been chosen to do his work who's doing God's work right
now is that the Jews or is it Christians Christians are doing the work
of the Lord we're the chosen people were the elect God has chosen to use us he
chose the disciples to do his work okay he chose them to do his work he didn't
just choose like I'm just gonna choose 12 guys and just kind of just lift these
guys up and exalt them and we can just talk about how great they are now there
were 12 men that were chosen to work hard preach and suffer and sacrifice and
so the Old Testament chosen nation of Israel was chosen to be the light to the
Gentiles they were chosen to be his vessel and his tool and they when they
disobeyed God did not get a pass so why would we think that today is any
different if anything today they have less going for them because we're not
even under the Old Covenant now we're under the New Covenant but even back
under the Old Covenant let's pretend right now that John Hagee's right and
that the Old Covenant is still a thing okay let's just make believe for a
second okay John Hagee's right the Old Covenant still think then you know what
they still be under the curse of God God's hand would still be against them
whithersoever they go out to stop them and fight against them and punish them
because they are not right with him they don't worship him they worship
another God and don't miss this the Jews worship another God no no they worship
the same nope scripture says they worship another God because the Bible
says that if you don't have the son you don't have the father anybody who says
the Jews have the same God as we do you know what they're basically saying it's
possible to have the father without having the son that's what they're
saying oh they have what's the verb there have let's analyze this they have
the same God okay he that hath not the son the same hath not the father so how
can you say that they have the same God when the Bible says they have not the
father who do they have you know they have the father well so is the did the
Bible lie when it said that you can't have the father without having the son
then they don't have the same God do they they've got somebody that they're
praying to but it isn't God the father it's their father the devil and the
Bible says you're of your father the devil and that was directed at
rabbinical Judaism that's who that was directed at in John chapter 8 verse 44
the rabbi he understood it no problem in March into Zion
Leo rabbi Leo Abrami he understood John chapter 8 44 no problem that it was
directed at the Jews if only evangelical Christians could get his discernment of
that verse he knew then you know what it reminds me of I was just reading the
book of John yesterday and it kept saying you know well the Jews knew that
he spake of them and I'm thinking when's everybody else gonna figure it out you
know he knew they knew he'd spoken this word because you know the book of
Matthew he's telling all these parables and they're like wait a minute he's
talking about us and then now you listen to evangelical Christians come up with
all these other interpretations of those parables and never realize he's talking
about them and then rarely do you hear those parables actually get preached
with respect to the Jews but the Jews are sitting there thinking well he's
talking about us stone them with stones you know this guy's ripping on us and
then I get up in 2020 I'm like he's ripping on them and then Baptist like
huh I've never heard that before so we see here that even in the Old Testament
the children of Israel could be under a curse from God they weren't always just
blessed all the time just by virtue of being Jews because here the children of
Israel are being cursed by God but nevertheless you know God's a merciful
God and he's not just gonna remember he said I'm not gonna break my covenant
with you I'm not just gonna just completely utterly forsake you and he
never did because even when he comes with the New Testament to replace the
Old Testament when he replaces Old Testament with New Testament he lets
them in on it he basically gives them an opportunity to transition into the new
because what do you do he spent his three and a half years on ministry
preaching to who yeah he said and even told the Apostles hey don't go to the
Gentiles don't go to the Samaritans go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel so he gave them first dibs on the New Testament so it really isn't fair to
say well he forsook his people or he cast away his people no he didn't has
God cast away his people God forbid because there's a remnant according to
the election of grace the ones who actually believed on Christ and received
Christ and he gave him first dibs the gospel was preached to first unto them
and so they got first spots in the New Covenant but guess what the old covenant
expired and if they hadn't have gotten if they didn't get signed up on the new
system then they're left out and that's where they are today so we see here that
God was against them for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn
unto them you know the Bible says that God swore that he would curse them he
swore that he would fight them and be against them so let me ask you something
he did did God break that promise and now he's just I'm for you Christ
rejecting Israel I'm for you folks if God right now is for Christ hating
Christ rejecting Israel then you know what he broke his oath because he swore
he swore in his wrath he swore to be against them so is God gonna break his
promise you know oh you you replacement theology guys you think God broke his
promise to Israel no no I think God kept his promise to Israel his promise to
fight them his promise to be against them his promise to ensnare them his
promise to destroy them if they worshiped other gods and turned away from
him he kept his promise in 70 AD he kept his promise in 135 AD folks God kept his
promise to Israel but it's just not the promise that you think it's this oath
that he swear that's a pretty this is a pretty cool verse because it says the
Lord has sworn unto them that he would be against them for evil do you see that
there it says with us over they went out the hand of the Lord was against them
for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them don't miss
that folks that's profound underline that and they were greatly distressed
verse 16 but in God's mercy because he's not gonna utterly forsake them just like
I said in the New Testament he didn't even utterly forsake them he gave them
first dibs but it says nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered
them out of the hand of those that spoiled them so God in his mercy sends
prophets he sends judges he sends leaders to rally the people back to God
and yet they would not hearken unto their judges verse 17 but they went a
whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them they turned quickly
out of the way which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of
the Lord that's their fathers did but they did not so that was the children
and when the Lord raised them up judges then the Lord was with the judge and
delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge for it
repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that
oppressed them and vexed them so notice that God is moved with the feeling of
our infirmities you know God when he hears his people begging and pleading
and praying and asking for help you know the Bible says that because of their
groanings it says it repented the Lord it repented the Lord you know the Lord
basically is changing his mind feels bad about what he's done and is willing to
give them another chance so we see God's empathy there in verse 18 where it
repented him because of their groanings so God listens you know when we cry to
the Lord you know the song does Jesus care oh yes he cares you know when we
cry and groan and and even when we did it to ourselves even if we messed up our
own life even if we destroyed our own situation when we get right with him and
ask for help he still cares he still listens thank God for his mercy and it
came to pass when the judge was dead that they returned and corrupted
themselves more than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and
to bow down unto them and they cease not from their own ways nor from their
stubborn from their own doings nor from their stubborn way so basically what we
see is a cycle being introduced here where in verse 16 the Lord raises up
judges verse 17 they don't hearken unto the judge they don't listen to what he
has to say verse 18 the Lord's with the judge and delivers them because at least
a segment of them wants to get right and so the judge gets everybody right okay
but here's the problem it everybody doesn't actually get right it's more of
an outward all right let's follow the judge but not everybody's on board in
their heart the proof of which is that when the judge dies they go back to
their old ways does everybody see that but here's the thing about this cycle
and you know whenever preachers talk about the book of judges whenever
anybody teaches this book they always bring up the cycle because it's it's the
main thing as you go through chapter 3 4 5 6 7 is the cycle of they that you
know they did evil in the sight of the Lord God raises up the judge delivers
them everybody's serving the Lord judge dies they do evil you know they're
afflicted they're punished they're in bondage God sends the judge judge
delivers them now they're doing right again okay judge dies they do wrong back
into bondage Canaanites Philistines Amorites whoever comes in and so that's
the cycle but but here's what I want you to notice that you may not have noticed
before is that it's not just that there's a cycle but the cycle gets a
little worse each time because of the fact that it says it came to pass when
the judge was dead verse 19 that they returned and corrupted themselves more
than their fathers so there's the previous generation that has been
corrupt they corrupt themselves a little more so what we see is that not
only is there are this cycle but it's also getting worse worse and and here's
what you have to understand is that we're in a similar cycle today because
human nature is human nature people are people there's nothing new under the Sun
and that's why the book of judges is very relevant because we even have
something similar to this cycle in America where you'll have kind of
corrections you know where it's like things are getting worse and more wicked
and more wicked but then you'll have a correction so it's kind of like a two
steps forward one step back where every once in a while the weirdness will get
so much that people will react a little bit and things will get a little more
normal and I think we're kind of due for a correction yeah I mean it's got to be
coming soon right I mean surely the correction will come because of the fact
that it just gets you know it's getting more and more sinful but you know you
could look at times in our history where like say and maybe just roughly you
could say that you know say in the 1920s or something it was like a pretty sinful
time right but then basically the depression came and people got a little
bit more right with God and you have a little bit more of a cleaner generation
going into the 50s and and and and the 60s and then you get into the late 60s
and all of a sudden what do you have you know you've got all the dope and all the
the the long hair on men and you've got the no-fault divorce law and you've got
abortion in the early 70s and you got all kinds of just nudity and drugs and
fornication drunkenness divorce whatever and then you have all that and then in
the 80s there's like a little bit of a correction where basically a little bit
of that rained in and and it you know things weren't quite as weird as the 70s
and then it's like you just kind of but it but you see how it just kind of keeps
going down though even though you have these little bits of correction and you
know right now we've been blasted with this sodomite agenda for a long time but
I think people are getting sick of it and I've even seen statistics where
young people are getting less tolerant of homos every year in fact because of
the fact that you know the pendulums got to swing the other way when they push it
that hard and that far but we have to understand though that our world in
general is on a downward spiral until Jesus comes okay date you know until
until David came you know and of course David pictures Jesus you know the nation
of Israel's on kind of a downward spiral getting worse and guys like Samuel and
Saul and ultimately David get it back on track and then it starts to kind of
spiral down again that's just the way things are and so we see here the cycle
and and here's the cycle in modern terms with Christians and church okay you
could basically have godly Christian parents serve the Lord and because God
sir because they serve God then God blesses them right I mean if I serve God
God blesses me I prosper things are good and then my children are raised in the
blessing of the Lord and the danger is that they because they grew up in a
blessed home could grow up to be a spoiled brat they don't really know what
it's like to to struggle or go through hard things and then they grow up and be
a spoiled brat and then basically they could turn away from the Lord and then
God brings hardness into their life and punishes them and they suffer and then
the suffering brings them back to God and then they can raise up kids that
want to serve God now this but we don't want to live this cycle nobody wants to
have this cycle where every other generation in their family goes bad like
okay so I'm serving God so then my kids are gonna go to the devil and then
they're gonna suffer and then you know you know what we need to learn to do we
need to learn to serve God when things are going good and not wait until he has
to beat up on us to get right with him you know and you young people you
teenagers you children that are growing up in a prosperous situation you want to
know why your parents love God and are serving God that's why you're blessed
that's why you're prospering okay and if you grow up and reject your parents
values and godliness that they're teaching you and bringing you to a
church like this and reading the Bible to you and praying with you and so forth
you know if you reject that you're gonna suffer greatly so don't don't throw it
away don't be a fool all right you've got to learn to do right when things are
good so that God doesn't have to bring the punishment so you can break the
cycle at least in your generation okay and this is what I you know what I fear
for my kids is I just fear that their life is too good and that they have it
too easy because of the fact that we're so blessed by God you know but it's like
I want to be blessed by God though you know and I don't want God to stop
blessing me I don't want to stop doing right but it's like doing right brings
the blessing of God and then the blessing of God brings peace and
happiness and prosperity which can bring complacency taking things for granted
getting so comfortable and then you turn away from the Lord because you're too
stupid to just enjoy the blessing of God and keep serving him and keep doing it
you take it for granted and it's it's sad you know to see it's like you know
you want to just love God serve God and for him to bless you but then it's like
you worry because then it's like your kids have it so good you know there's no
they have no battle and there's just like please be wise children and just be
like a King Solomon at least you know who inherits the blessing and builds on
it you know he inherits what David hands him and he just lives and just 40 years
of peace you know that's what's wrong with that life you know what's wrong
with just enjoying peace and we see it in judges where it's like they had the
land had rest 40 years the land had rest 80 years kids if you're smart your
parents and look some of your parents came out of a wicked sinful worldly life
they fought that battle so that you don't have to so you need to enjoy the
80 years of rest enjoy the 40 years of rest don't mess this up okay and don't
be in this cycle so look what it says in verse number 20 it says in the anger of
the Lord was hot against Israel and he said because this people has transgressed
my covenant which I commanded their fathers and I'm not hearkening to my
voice I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations
which Joshua left when he died that through them I may prove Israel whether
they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their fathers did keep
it or not therefore the Lord left those nations without driving them out hastily
neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua so he's saying look he's
leaving them there to prove them whether they will keep the way of the Lord or
not look don't make God test you like this don't make God prove you whether
you're gonna keep the way of the Lord or not you know what just decide you're
gonna keep the way of the Lord no matter what and just enjoy the blessings and
the prosperity of your parents faith and decide you know what I'm gonna do I'm
gonna take what my parents are giving me I'm gonna build on it I'm gonna continue
in the faith and don't think oh well you know what do they know and start
envying the wicked and like I preached about on Sunday night and then next
thing you're following in the heathen ways and then God has to punish you and
then when you're 30 and 35 now you're groaning and moaning and yeah God's up
in heaven and it's gonna repent him when you start groaning and everything but
why do you want to waste 15 years of your life why do you want to waste 20
years of your life why do you want to get diseases and injuries and harm and bad
memories that you can never get rid of why don't you just be smart dwell in the
land do good follow the Lord don't be stupid don't ruin your life fear the
Lord and his goodness so don't be that guy who God has to hurt you in order to
get your attention because you know when God hurts us he always has our attention
right I mean look if you know if you ever just have a serious sharp pain in
your abdomen and you don't know what it is all of a sudden you're all of a
sudden you're praying and seeking the Lord am I right I mean if I just had
some sharp pain in my abdomen and I'm just in the worst pain ever all of a
sudden I'm seeking God big time everybody is at that point that's when
atheists are seeking God okay but here's the thing wouldn't it be better
just to seek God when you feel good and there's food in the pantry and there's
money in the bag and your health's great why not just stop everything and just
drop on your knees and start thanking God and praising God and you know what
God's gonna look down from heaven and say I don't have to do anything to this
guy because this guy's already soul-winning he's already reading his
Bible he already loves me he already it fears me you know why don't we fear the
Lord and his goodness you know I tremble before the Lord when things are going
good so that it doesn't take something bad to get me to tremble before the Lord
because I'm you're gonna trouble before the Lord no matter what at some point in
your life you will tremble you will fear God so you can either fear God when
things are going great because you're like hey God let's keep this going I
don't want to rock the boat and you're begging God for his mercy when things
are going perfect hey God likes to see that what he doesn't want to have to do
is mess with you and and and and and do damage to you to get your attention you
know wouldn't it be great if our nation just said you know what even though
things are oh yeah I forgot things aren't going good but you know what
wouldn't it be great if our nation just said you know what hey even though
things are going great even though we're not being invaded you know we just need
to turn to the Lord we're weak let's turn to let's turn to the Lord let's
have a revival as a nation but you know what that's not human nature is it human
nature is that it's got it's gotta be 9-11 and then all of a sudden it's all
right everybody let's start praying right but but my friend don't you be
that person you be smarter than that right you're smarter than that where you
when things are going perfect are gonna just stop everything drop on your knees
and beg God to be merciful unto you and to be good to you and you're gonna just
read your Bible when things are going good and when you could be out doing
something fun you're not gonna wait till you're in prison to read your Bible
because it's the only book that you've got right and you know what how many
times have you run into people out stolen he oh I read the Bible in prison
well you know what don't make God put you in prison before you read this thing
I'd rather read this thing out of prison and not have to go to prison and I don't
want God to look down be like you know what pastor Anderson he used to read his
Bible so much he's not really reading it that much anymore I'm gonna put him in
prison things gonna get more reading done I want him to read the Bible like
he used to you know I and you know I think about that I think about that I'm
just like I've even prayed and say hey God you don't have to send me to prison
because I'm reading my Bible like a prisoner I read my Bible so much I'm
reading it like I'm in solitary confinement so you don't have to put me
in solitary confinement I'm already doing the reading and you know I'm not
even kidding I've prayed that I pray God don't send me to prison because I'm
already reading folks fear the Lord and his goodness those birds and I've ordered
prayer father we thank you so much for this book of Judges Lord it's it's so
incredibly relevant to the day we're living in our nation man we're filled
with the parasites and high fights and Jebusites you know the god-hating
reprobates the sodomites the weirdos Lord you know that that dwell among us
and we're on a cycle that's trending downward Lord but help us Lord personally
to break that cycle Lord I just pray that every teenager and every young
adult in this room would just break that cycle and say you know what I'm not
gonna be an idiot that just you know where my parents did one thing I'm gonna
do the other I'm gonna I'm gonna build on the heritage that they've given me
and Lord help every single one of us adults as well to do good and seek you
and and literally fear and tremble before you when things are perfect in
our lives help us to be smart enough to do that in Jesus name we pray amen amen
let's grab our hymnals and turn to number 426 him number 426 I heard the
bells on Christmas Day let's sing it on that first verse number 426
Oh
you