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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 Oh Oh Oh you