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Men, Judges chapter 5 is a song sung by Deborah and Barak about the events that we read about in chapter 4 last week. So it starts out in verse number 1, then sang Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoham on that day, saying. So this is a duet of sorts, and so there are probably parts of it being sung by Deborah, parts of it being sung by Barak, maybe they both sing part of it together, who knows. But if you look at verse number 12, you can see this kind of back and forth, where it says awake, awake Deborah, so that's obviously Barak is singing that, and then awake, awake, utter a song, arise Barak, and lead that captivity captive, that son of Abinoham. So you can see where they're singing to each other, so this is a duet, and they're both singing their parts, obviously this is inspired by God. And so when we come to a chapter like this that's poetic, it's no less God's word than any other chapter. The poetry of the Bible is inspired by God, it's infallible, it's God's word, but obviously when we read a poetic portion of scripture, we have to realize that sometimes there are going to be things in it that are what we would probably call exaggerations, right? Hyperbole or things that are figurative or symbolic that are not to be taken super literally. So let's keep reading here, in verse number 2 it says, praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel when the people willingly offered themselves. And the first thing I want to point out here is that the Lord is praised and glorified and Israel is avenged when the people willingly offered themselves. God is always looking for people to choose to worship him, not to worship him because they're forced or serve him and work for him because they're forced to, but God loves the cheerful giver, the one who actually wants to volunteer and willingly offer themselves. That's why all throughout the Bible there's talk about the free will offerings and people offering things to the Lord of their own free will. And if you think about our Christian lives, God gives us so much freedom and once we are saved, it's not like we have to serve him in order to stay saved because our salvation is by grace and it's purchased by the blood of Christ and once we're saved there's nothing we can ever do to lose our salvation, nothing can separate us from the love of God. And a lot of people ask the question, well, you know, well then why would you even serve God then? You know, if you can't lose your salvation, if you're going to heaven no matter what, why serve God? Why even go to church? But here's the thing, that question isn't something that we sit around thinking about because we want to go to church, we want to serve the Lord, we love the Lord and so we're here because we want to be here, not like, well, better go to church so I don't go to hell. We're not going to hell no matter what. So you know, we're here because we want to be here. We love the Lord and so that question is coming from a heart of someone who doesn't really understand what it means to love Christ and to actually desire to serve him. And so God wants us to willingly offer ourselves unto him and here's the thing, being saved is one thing, being saved is easy, it's just believing in Christ, it's that easy. But obviously there's more to the Christian life than just being saved because there are other choices and other things that are difficult where we have to make a decision whether we're going to make sacrifices for the kingdom of God and God likes it when we make those sacrifices willingly because we want to. You know, why did God even put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden in the first place was because he's giving man a choice because he wants people to willingly choose him and choose what's right and I'm sure we can understand that as human beings. Would you want to be friends with people because they're forced to be your friend? Would you want to be married to someone who was forced to marry you and doesn't want to be in that marriage? Would you want people to come to your business or to your church or to your family and just they're doing everything for you because they have to? No, we want people to be friends with us because they love us. I want people to listen to my preaching because they want to listen to my preaching. You want people to patronize your business because they want to or you want your family to spend time with you because they want to. This is a totally normal, natural feeling and it comes from God because God feels the same way. You know, he wants people to willingly offer themselves and to choose to love him and serve him, not to just always be forced to do everything. He's most glorified when people do things willingly and so the people willingly offered themselves praise God for the victory. You know, God is the one who did the work and made it happen, but thank God for the people that willingly offered themselves. It's both. You know, God works through people who willingly offer themselves. They offer themselves and then God uses them. Humanly speaking, this battle that they won was not something that they really had a good chance of winning. Humanly speaking, the enemy had much better equipment, weapons, better troops. They had the 900 iron chariots. Israel is clearly the underdog here, but because the people willingly offered themselves, they believed the promise of God because God had prophesied and given the prophecy to Deborah and probably others that they were going to win. They trusted that. They had faith in that. They offered themselves and God did a great work through them. God does the impossible through people who offer themselves to him. Just to show how much of an underdog Israel was, look at verse number 28. You know, this is the end of the song, but it says in verse 28, the mother of Sisera looked out at a window and cried through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why Terry the wheels of his chariots? Her wise ladies answered her. Yeah, she returned to answer to herself. Have they not sped? Have they not divided the prey or to every man a damsel or two? To Sisera, a prey of divers colors, a prey of divers colors of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the next of them to take the spoil. Why so much talk about needlework and divers colors because these are women. This is what they think about fashion. They're thinking about the clothes, you know, they're thinking about the spoils of clothing that they're going to come up with. Notice there's no thought that even enters her mind of, well, the reason he's not back yet is because he's dead or the reason that he's not back yet is because they've lost. Basically everybody is thinking to themselves, well, surely they're just delayed gathering up the spoils. I mean, there's just so many spoils and there's just so much to do. Or maybe he is, you know, fooling around with these damsels or whatever. There's got to be some other explanation because we know Sisera didn't lose because he had every advantage on his side. And I think that that's part of why this portion is included in the song is just to show, hey, these people thought there was no way they were going to lose. And these are the type of victories that God loves anyway because he wants to get the glory. He wants it to be through his power, not because Israel had the superior force. They clearly didn't. But through the power of God, they won the battle. That's why it also says in verse number 19, the kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan and Tanak by the waters of Megiddo. They took no gain of money, again, the voluntary aspect of the force. In verse 20, they fought from heaven. The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. So again, the idea of God's divine intervention, allowing them to win this battle that they would have had no way of winning through their own strength. And so when we are doing the will of God, when we're fighting the Lord's battles, he's going to empower us. Anything that God tells us to do, anything that God commands us to do in his word, we know that he's going to give us the ability to do it. He's going to give us the tools and the resources to do it. And so we just need to have the faith to step out and willingly offer ourselves and show up and be used of God. You know, people who go out soul winning every week, it's not because they're just excellent speakers or they're just really great with people, charismatic personality. No, you know, they just, they show up, they willingly offer themselves and they go out there and they're used by God every single week. You know, every single week, obviously not every person gets someone saved every week, but every single week they get out there and God uses them. You know, they're filled with the Holy Spirit and you know, I've seen personally some of the shyest people that are not very good socially. I've seen them at the door do an excellent job of presenting the gospel, do a wonderful job, and I was, I was blown away like, wow, I never would have thought that this person would do so well at giving the gospel, but you know what? They just willingly offer themselves and God enables them. God gives them the ability that they need and, and, and makes them something greater than they could have been in their own strength doing the greatest work that there is, which is winning people to Christ. And so you willingly offer yourself and God gives the ability. He gives the victory. He steps in Bible says in verse number four, Lord, when thou winnest out of seer, when thou marches out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped. The clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord. And this is what I mean about not taking an overly literal view of poetic portions of scripture, right? Because obviously when it says the mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from the Lord God of Israel, much of this is just going to be hyperbole poetic. You know, the earth shaking, the mountains are melting. It's just giving you a picture of the mighty power of God that's there present. Now some of this also could be a foreshadowing of actual cataclysm and natural disaster in the last days and supernatural disaster in the last days in revelation where there's going to be literal fire and brimstone and there will be mountains that will melt, uh, and things like that. So some of that could be foreshadowed, but we don't want to just take an overly literal view of anything in the Bible that's poetry because a lot of times exaggeration is used to make the point and there's nothing wrong with that. And sometimes people, because you've got on one hand liberal people out there that just want to just turn everything is symbolic. Everything's figurative. Nothing's literal. They abuse that and basically just use that to just deny what the Bible is teaching or deny what the Bible is saying just by just calling everything symbolic, everything literal. Uh, everything is not literal, but we don't want to go too far in the other direction. You know, reacting to that to where it's just like everything's literal. Everything's super literal because guess what? That was the mistake Nicodemus made when Jesus told him be born again. He said, well, I got to go back in my mother's womb. That's an overly literal interpretation. We don't want to eat the flesh of the son of man. How could this man give us his flesh to eat? You know, it's not literal. The woman at the well, oh wow, I never have to draw from this well again if I drink this living water. Great. I'm sick of coming here every day and hauling water. Give me that water. Give me that living water. Obviously that's an overly literal interpretation, so we don't, we don't want to make the mistake of just thinking literal good allegory bad because the Bible is not that simple. A lot of things in the Bible are allegorical. They are symbolic, and so I think a good rule of thumb is to assume that things are literal unless it's clear that they aren't because most things in the Bible are literal. You know, when the Bible says that this guy got up in the morning and went to this, I mean that these things all really happened obviously, and that's the way they're treated in scripture as historical fact, but when something is a poem, when something is a song, when something is clearly symbolic, you know, uh, I saw, you know, a woman standing on the sun and you know, all these different things or a woman standing with the sun on her head and the, you know, crown of 12 stars, all these things. It's obvious, okay, this isn't literal. This is symbolic. So we want to make sure that we make that distinction. So the Bible says in verse number six, in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath. Now who's Shamgar the son of Anath? This was that judge that just got one verse back in Judges three 31 just about killing a bunch of Philistines with an ox goad. And remember how I said back when we were in chapter three, how this guy didn't really represent an era. He was just a warrior who did some great feats of strength against the Philistines. He defeated them, but that he wasn't one who judged Israel over a period of time. Like we have these eras like the Othniel era, E huds era, the Deborah era, right? He didn't really represent an era like that. He was just a great warrior getting honorable mention. So the Bible says in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of jail, the highways were unoccupied and the travelers walked through byways. Now why would the highways be unoccupied? Because they're not safe. What it's saying is that it wasn't safe for them to use the highway because they're going to be robbed. And so therefore they walked through byways. They're taking alternate routes. They're creeping around, sneaking around because the highway isn't safe. That's why it also says in verse seven, the inhabitants of the villages ceased. Why would the inhabitants of the villages cease? Because in ancient times the cities would have a wall or some kind of a defense plan against attack. Whereas the villages are just open and exposed to marauders, thieves, robbers, whatever. So a lot of times what would happen is when an invading army would come in, everybody would leave the villages and go to the city. Everybody gets inside the city where they can be behind those walls and be fortified. And so it's saying that, you know, you couldn't use the highway. It wasn't safe. It wasn't safe to live in the villages. People had to hunker down in cities. And then it says in verse number seven, they ceased in Israel until that I, Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel because obviously she was a godly spiritual influence toward turning back to the Lord. Verse number eight, they chose new gods. Then was war in the gates and the Bible is just teaching us there, look, you know, when you forsake the Lord, bad things are going to happen. There's going to be fighting. There's going to be violence. There's going to be suffering. They chose new gods. Then was war in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel? And what this is saying is that the population has been totally disarmed. You know, you could find 40,000 people and no good weaponry among them. You know, unlike the United States where I think there are more guns than people in the United States. You know, that's part of why Japan never even thought about invading the United States because they said that there'd be a gun behind every blade of grass. And so there, you know, there's, there are a lot of weapons in America because it's a free country. But in the Bible, there are times when they're not free and they're being disarmed. Like if you remember when King Saul and Jonathan were the only ones who actually had a real weapon, they're the only ones who actually had a sword. Someone else was using garden tools and they were sharpening them and just using just any kind of a pruning hook or any kind of an axe or a machete or anything that they could use because they had been disarmed. And even the Philistines did not allow them to have the blacksmith there or the silversmith or the weapon maker to make these things for them because of the fact that they didn't want them to be armed. You know, obviously an oppressive government doesn't want the citizens to be armed because then they could rise up and rebel at any time and they would have all these weapons to do so. And, uh, you know, throughout history, obviously there have been all kinds of laws enacted to take away people's weapons when you don't want them to fight back against an oppressive government. And if you think about this spiritually, you know, the devil wants us to be disarmed and the weapon is the Bible. You know, this is the sword of the spirit. So the devil doesn't want us to have the word of God. He doesn't want us to have it memorized or in our heart and he doesn't even want it to be in our hand. Now, here's the thing. The Bible is pretty prevalent in this world, especially in America. I mean, you could buy it at every dollar tree, every Walmart. I mean, it's everywhere and it's electronic. It's all over the internet. You can pull it up on any device and download it for free on any device, a King James Bible. And throughout the world in most places, Bibles are pretty easy to come by. Obviously there are some places though where the devil has successfully taken the Bible out of people's hands and made it illegal to possess a Bible. But in America, because it's legal to possess the Bible, what he's done instead is offer people a counterfeit Bible and get them using that to take the real word of God out of their hands. Say, Oh no, no, no, you don't want that. Here, let me give you this. And he gives them the NIV or the ESV or something. And if the King James Bible is sharper than any two edged sword, the NIV is the plastic butter knife. Okay. That's what that is. So it's not a usable weapon. You know, you say, well, this, this cuts things sort of sometimes a little bit, but here's the thing though. It's not even close to being a sword. And so the devil wants you using that doled blade called the NIV. He doesn't want you to have the two edged sword. You know, it's, it kind of reminded me of when you study the ancient inhabitants of North America and think about the Apaches and different tribes that lived in Arizona, you know, they used to be great warriors. And in fact, I was reading a firsthand account from one of the Spanish conquerors that was here that talked about how, you know, they could shoot an arrow so hard. They had these great big bows that were like as tall as a man. And who's ever seen those big Indian bows that are like almost six feet tall or whatever. And they could fire arrows with such force that they would go just several inches into a tree. And the Spaniards are wearing armor and they said that they would shoot the arrow, it could go into the armor, through the body and out the armor on the other side. And that they virtually never miss the target. I mean, these guys were just very accurate and they could fire an arrow that hard that it would be an armor piercing round and it would go through. And I mean, there are lots of accounts of that, but you know, one of the things that the white man did in order to defeat this formidable foe is to give them guns because on the surface, it seems like the gun is a far superior weapon, but you have to understand we're not talking about the guns of the 21st century. Now if they were giving them those kinds of guns, yeah, that is better than any bow and arrow. Okay. And what you have to understand is that the guns of the 1700s and 1800s were not that great of a weapon. They're not going to be near as accurate as the Indians were with the bow and arrow. And so by trading them guns and getting them to use guns, then they start shooting guns. They were way less deadly with a gun than they were with a bow and arrow. And then they start slacking on using the bow and arrow because they're using guns now. And then over time, they're not going to be as good at it because they used to be. That's all they did was just bow and arrow, bow and arrow, it was a much better weapon in their skilled hands, okay. But eventually, how the Americans really defeated the Indians was by giving them food, blankets. They started just giving them basically just money for free and put them on a reservation, give them everything they need, food, blankets, supplies, and then they, you know, what happens when you just start giving people everything, they start getting lazy. And they went from being mighty warriors that were a very difficult opponent to being people that were just easily conquered, easily subjugated. And so, you know, sometimes the attack isn't always going to be direct. You know, talk about killing them with kindness. Giving them free food and blankets was basically their undoing because if you don't have to work hard and fight for everything, then you're going to get soft, you're going to get weak. And that's how over time, you know, the Indians were reduced to what we see today. You know, the reservation is not exactly a play and I'm not, I hope I'm not offending anyone, but you know, the reservation is not exactly a place of booming industry unless you consider the casino a booming industry. You know, the Native Americans are great people and we love going up there and spending time with them. And there are a lot of cool things about their culture. We like to preach the gospel to them. We like to go soul winning with them side by side. Many of them are our friends. Many of them are great Christians and, you know, thank God that they are receptive to the gospel. But let me tell you this though, they are not mighty warriors in general. I'm sure that there are exceptions to that, but it's hard to even picture that sometimes when you think of the way things are today. How did they get that way? You know, because the weapon that they were good at was replaced with something else that might've seemed, oh, this is better, newer, better, more modern. So think about this, basically the jacked up 18th century rifle, that's the NIV. The King James was that bow and arrow piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, right? And here's the thing, oh yeah, that bow and arrow, that's too hard to use. That's too hard to aim that thing. You need something easier. Here we go. Here, look, you just pull the trigger, just point and click. That's your NIV, that's your ESV, the new King James, right? And did it work out for them? No, they lost. You know, if they would have stayed with the bow and arrow, they would have won a lot more battles. Okay. Anyway, I'm just bringing that up to show you how the weapon that maybe seems the best isn't always the best. And so, you know, the NIV, oh, this is easier, it's newer, it's more modern, it's better. Hey, it may not actually be that. Actually, the King James Bible is the one that actually is the word of God. And so I'm not, this is not a sermon about the King James, but I've done plenty of sermons about the King James where, you know, I've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that these modern versions are corrupt, they're junk, and they have totally, not only have they dulled God's word to where it's not sharp as it used to be, but they've actually removed entire sections, added things, made dramatic changes. And so the people are disarmed. That's why, hey, is there a shield or a spear seen among 40,000 in Israel? Saying, look, it was unsafe, everybody's hiding, villages empty, highways empty, no weapons. That's the picture that's being painted. Verse number 9, my heart is toward the governors of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord, speak ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment and walk by the way. Now, what about, what is this about the people who ride on white asses? Elsewhere in the book of Judges, we have, you know, important, wealthy people riding on white asses. It's just basically like a fancy beast to ride on a white donkey. I guess that was just the cool thing back then, right? You know, if you were important, if you're in the government, if you're nobility, you ride on a white donkey. All right. It doesn't seem that cool to us, but you know, it was cool back then. So ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment and walk by the way, they that are delivered from the noise of archers and the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel. Then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates. Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, utter a song, arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoa. And I wanted to just stop here and of course point out this important phrase, lead thy captivity captive. The reason why it's important is because this is going to be repeated in the book of Psalms and then it's going to be quoted in Ephesians about the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? So keep your finger here. Flip over to Ephesians real quick. Go to Ephesians chapter four is an important thing to mention, so might as well stop and touch on it. Look at Ephesians chapter four. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter four, uh, while you're turning there, I'll start reading verse four. There's one body and one spirit, even as you're called and one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended, he is Christ. When Jesus Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men now that he ascended. What is it? But that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and so on and so forth. So the Bible talks about here that Jesus led captivity captive and it brings up the fact that he ascended up to heaven, but the before he ascended up to heaven, he first descended into the lower parts of the earth. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross, a lot of people just think, oh, you know, he just went straight to heaven, right down on the cross and boom, straight to heaven. Well, no, because before he ascended, he first descended into the lower parts of the earth. Okay. Now we know that when he ascended was actually after he spent 40 days with his disciples, you know, showing himself alive for over the course of 40 days and teaching them and instructing them and then he ascended up and they all watched him go up in a cloud and then the angels came and told them this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven, right? So that's the ascension. What's the de-sension? Well, the de-sension is that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, remember he has the sins of the whole world upon him. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So Jesus Christ, when he's on the cross, took upon himself all the sins of the world. The Bible says he, his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. So when Jesus was on that cross, he in his body had all the sins of the world. I mean, he embodied all that sin. He became sin for us. So when Jesus Christ on that cross, that's why it became totally black and dark upon the face of the earth and Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why has thou forsaken me? So God the father basically turned his back on Jesus in that sense. You know that the Bible says that God is a purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity. And so because of the fact that Jesus Christ embodied all that sin and became sin for us and took upon him the sins of the world, that broke fellowship between God the father and Jesus. Fellowship was broken. You know, before that they'd had fellowship, you know, all, even before the world began, they had love and fellowship and communion. And then when Jesus on this earth, you know, he's in constant communication with the father, he's praying to the father, he's doing the things that please the father. The father even spoke from heaven a few times and said, thou are my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased and encouraged him. And so this is broken at the cross. There's this rift at the cross between God the father and Jesus. And so Jesus says, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken? He didn't say, did you forsake me? Why have you forsaken me? So guess what? He was forsaken because of the fact that he is being punished for the sins of the whole world. So God the father turns his back upon him. Okay. So when you think about Jesus Christ dying for the sins of mankind, dying with all the sins of the world upon him, you know, then it makes sense that when he died, his soul did not go to heaven. His soul went to hell for three days and three nights because of the fact that he's inundated with all that sin. You know, where, where is a sinful soul going to go to hell? Now obviously Jesus did not do any sins. There was no guile found in his mouth. But he who knew no sin became sin for us. So he, the Bible says, descended into the lower parts of the earth. That is referring to going to hell. And he was in hell for three days and three nights. Now the reason that this is using the word captivity is because hell is sort of like a jail cell. If you think about it, it's, it's a, it's a prison. And the Bible talks about the devil being in hell for a thousand years and the end times. And then it talks about him being released from his prison. Okay. So hell is referred to as a prison or as a jail. That's where souls are held captive there. They don't want to be there, right? Nobody wants to be in hell. They're being held there against their will. So that's a type of captivity. All right. And so we see here that Jesus led captivity captive. What does that mean to lead captivity captive? Well, if we understand the story about Barak, then it makes more sense. Barak starts out as a person who's living in a country that's not a free country. He is in captivity. Yes, the Israelites are in their own land, but they're still in captivity because they are captive to the Canaanites. And so Barak led his captivity captive. And what that means is that he turned the tables on the captors, right? So think about this. If you're a captive and then you turn around and you take your captors captive, you've led captivity captive. Makes perfect sense, right? So that's what Barak did. He gets them on the run. Now they're his captives. He led captivity captive. So what does it mean when Jesus led captivity captive? Well, Jesus went from being in hell to then three days later resurrecting from hell. But here's what he said. He said, I'm he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. Now that's leading captivity captive when you basically are sent there as an inmate, but then you end up with the keys. That is leading captivity captive. Jesus Christ went there with the sins of the world. That's how he went in, right? But then he arose victorious, having conquered death and hell and saying, I have the keys of hell and of death. And you know, when Jesus Christ, obviously the Bible doesn't talk a whole lot about this subject as far as, you know, what that was like or give us a vivid description of that. Obviously there are lots of descriptions of hell, but there's not a ton of information on Jesus while he was in hell. But here's what we know. We know that when Jesus was in hell, he said that he had hope because he knew that his soul would not be left in hell. He said to the father, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy one to see corruption. And of course the Bible says that God raised Jesus from the dead. Now some people look at this and they get confused because they say, well, over here it says that God raised Jesus from the dead and Jesus is relying on God saying, you're not going to leave my soul in hell. That's my hope. But then other places, there are statements like where Jesus says, you know, I have the power, you know, no man taketh my life from me, but I offer it up willingly. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. Or when Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. So we have a couple places where Jesus is saying, I will raise up this body. I will resurrect from the dead. I have the power to lay down and I have the power to raise it up again. But then we have a lot of other scriptures that talk about God, the father raising up Jesus from the dead. Many places. I'm not going to go through all of them for sake of time, but there are plenty. So you know, what do we make of this? And the Bible also involves the Holy Spirit in the resurrection. Here's what I believe is that basically the resurrection of Christ was a collective act of all three, father, son, and Holy ghost that they collectively, right, resurrected Jesus Christ from the Jesus. I don't believe that Jesus just resurrected from the dead all by himself on his own because otherwise, why does it say God raised him up? Referring specifically to God, the father, and also why would he say thou will not leave my soul in hell if he basically is just going to do it himself at any time. If he just basically does it all on his own, then he wouldn't be saying thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. So I believe that it was, but I do believe him when he says, I have the power to take up my life again and I will raise it up. But I believe that it was a collective thing where the father, the son, and the Holy, and the Holy ghost are all involved in the resurrection, which makes perfect sense because think about it. When we do a baptism, it's in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy ghost and the baptism pictures, the resurrection. And so it makes sense that when you baptize someone, you're invoking the father, son, and Holy ghost. And that's the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power of the father, the son, and the Holy ghost that they all participated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so I think it's, I think it's dumb when people have these doctrines that say, Oh well, you know, when Jesus descended into the lowest parts of the earth, when Jesus was in hell for three days and three nights, you know, he didn't suffer there. He's just, he's just, it was just a, he's just a victory lap. He's just enjoying it down there. That doesn't make any sense because he's saying, I'm just glad I'm not going to be left here. Thou will not leave my soul in hell. That's my hope. That's what is causing me to have joy that I know that it's going to end because God, the father is not going to leave me here. And so if it's such a great place or if he's just down there just having a party and just, he can just leave whenever he wants and he's just, you know, that doesn't make any sense my friend. He led captivity captive. He started out as the captive and he led captivity captive. He turned the tables, he left with the keys of hell and of death. And when Jesus was in hell for three days and three nights, it was not a picnic. He was not down there having a picnic. He was down there bringing the sins of mankind down to hell and conquering death and hell and he went there and people say like, well, he did everything on the cross. Look, of course the cross is what's emphasized in the Bible. Of course the gospel emphasizes the death on the cross, but what about the burial and what about the resurrection? You know, it's stupid when you try to cut up the gospel into little pieces and say, well, which part really saves us? Which part really paid for our sins? Hey, I just, is there a box for all of the above? Because that's what I'll take. It's just as silly as when MacArthur said, you know, oh, it wasn't his blood that saves us. It's just his death. It's just his death. It's the same thing when people say, oh, well, he did everything on the cross, so that means he didn't do anything about our salvation in hell. He didn't do anything to pay for our sins in hell because it was all done on the cross. Folks, no, it wasn't all done on the cross because what about by his stripes were healed? That wasn't on the cross. That was before the cross, right? I mean, didn't he have to be tried and mocked and flogged and wear the crown of thorns and put on the purple robe and have the purple robe removed? I mean, folks, just sit there and just say, well, it's all going to be on the cross. Hey, the cross is the key thing. That's the, that's the crux of this thing. But guess what? The virgin birth is part of the package. How about Christ's sinless life? Yes, the Bible says we're saved by his death. We're saved by the cross. We're saved by his blood. But you know what else it says? It says we're saved by his life. So we're not just saved by his death. We're saved by his life. Well, which one is it? The death of life? It's both. We're saved by his sinless life that he lived because that's the righteousness that got imputed unto us. But really specifically when it says we're saved by his life, that's specifically referring to the resurrection. And so to sit there and say, well, it was all finished on the cross. What was finished? Because he still had to resurrect, so you've got to get that finished in context. And so Jesus Christ died and was buried and rose again. Obviously that's the gospel on the back of a postage stamp. If you want to get the short version, here's the short version. Jesus died and was buried and rose again. He died for our sins according to the scriptures. That's the short version. But the long version includes a lot more than that. And the long version also includes the fact that while his body was buried, even though this is not the big giant important thing that the Bible just keeps emphasizing, it's still there that Jesus Christ during those three days and three nights descended into hell and he said, I was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore. He did not just die a physical death. He also died spiritually because of the fact that he didn't just die a physical death, but he also faced the wrath of God for us. Think about it. I mean, those who are unsaved experience God's wrath. Jesus experienced that. That's why he's even saying, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? That's why it became dark over the face of the earth. He became sin for us and took the punishment of God and experienced the wrath of God. And look, some people believe that he experienced the wrath of God somehow on the cross, that he did all that on the cross. And look, if people believe that, fine. Okay. But he certainly experienced the wrath of God for us. And the Bible is crystal clear that he went down into hell for three days and three nights. And it's also crystal clear that he was not having a picnic down there and that he's relying on God the father in some way, shape or form to not leave him there. Okay. And of course, all of the symbolism of the Old Testament points to this because you have all the burnt sacrifices and burnt offerings and the offerings made by fire. In fact, every single offering is made by fire. All the animal sacrifices, it's a burnt offering in some way, shape or form because even the ones where they ate it, they would burn the part that they didn't eat. They would eat the meat. Obviously, they don't burn the meat. They're not doing occasion style, but they would eat the meat and then they would burn the other part. Or there was the whole burnt offering where the whole animal would be burnt. You know, and somebody who was trying to dispute this doctrine said, well, if Jesus Christ went to hell for three days and three nights, why do we have no symbolism of that in the Lord's Supper? Where's the fire in the Lord's Supper? And the thing about that is like, well, where's the virgin birth in the Lord's Supper? Where's the resurrection in the Lord's Supper? Where's the flogging in the Lord's Supper? You know, it's just like, it's like, okay, the Lord's Supper is just pointing us to the broken body of Christ and the blood of Christ, just pointing us to two things. But what's so foolish about this anyway is the fact that there is fire in the Lord's Supper anyway because of the baked bread. Because you're not eating it raw. You're not eating a raw dough. It's not, you know what I mean? It's, it's been bacon in the oven with fire. And so, uh, that falls apart pretty fast. All the offerings in the Old Testament are made by fire. That's a picture of the fact that Jesus Christ's soul went into the fires of hell for three days and three nights and he paid for our sins. Yes on the cross, amen. But guess what? There's a whole big process that he went through of the virgin birth, the sinless life, fulfilling prophecy, going about doing good, preaching the word of God, being beaten, being mocked, standing before Herod, standing before Pilate, uh, dying on the cross, sold the sins into hell, conquers death in hell, right, resurrects through the collective power of Father, Son and Holy Ghost all working together to work about the resurrection. He comes up from the grave. He shows himself alive for 40 days. He ascends up to heaven. But even, even, you know, it's not even done yet because it's not over yet because he ever liveth to make intercession for us. So daily he's pleading and praying for me as the song says. And by the way, after Jesus rose from the dead, because they said, oh, you know, if you think Jesus went to hell for three days and three nights, you're denying the blood atonement. Folks, the blood makes an atonement upon the altar. And guess when Jesus put the blood on the altar? Not when he was on the cross. When Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood, he was buried and rose again. And then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat in heaven. He ascended into heaven and sprinkled the blood in the mercy seat because the temple down on earth is a replica, the tabernacle rather, is a replica of what's in heaven. So Jesus Christ actually took his literal blood up to heaven, sprinkled it on the mercy seat seven times in heaven. And the Bible teaches that the blood of Christ is still there right now in heaven on the mercy seat. And that is the blood that guarantees our salvation right now. It's up in heaven and it speaketh better things than that of Abel because Abel's blood cried to the earth for vengeance. Jesus' blood says being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. So Jesus' blood speaketh better things than that of Abel. Abel's blood said revenge. Jesus' blood says forgiveness, redemption. And so therefore you can't just take it is finished and just run with it because Jesus Christ is still up in heaven daily making intercession for us. His blood had to be sprinkled on the altar. He had to resurrect from the dead for crying out loud. And so if you actually look up the word finished in the book of John where it's found, it's used three other times in the book of John and it's always saying the same thing. Gospel of John, I've finished the work which thou gave us me to do. I'm here to do the will of the Father and to finish his work. Three times he talks about I'm going to finish his work, got to finish his work, finish his work, gets up on the cross, says it is finished. Hmm, I wonder what's finished. Let the Bible interpret the Bible. People want to just say, well that means everything for your salvation had to be, well is that, no, because the resurrection. The blood, the sprinkling, the altar, all that. And you know, the blood atonement, guess what the blood atonement is when he sprinkled on the altar. There's the blood on the altar to make an atonement for your souls. It's just a semantics, it's a word game. Straw man, you don't believe in the blood atonement. Who here believes that the blood of Jesus Christ is what saves us? Put up your hand if you think the blood of Jesus Christ saves us. Okay, put your hand up. Who here thinks Jesus Christ's death on the cross saves us? Okay, who here thinks is the resurrection that saves us, is that we're saved by his life? Well, can you guys figure out what you believe? Because obviously it's all of these things and it's a foolish question, is it which one is it? Which one is it? You know, basically, you know, you got MacArthur on one side saying it's not the blood and then you got these bozos saying it's only the blood. It's like, well, no, it's all of the above and it's a silly question to say which one is it. Well, when exactly, what exact moment did he pay for our sins or which part is it? Well, when he's getting flogged, he's paying for our sins, but not when he's descending into hell. It's like, well, you know, why don't you just read the Bible? Just go by what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't split these hairs. And look, what do we emphasize when we're out soul winning? We emphasize the death, burial and resurrection. But does that mean that we don't believe in everything else? We believe all of it. And so I'm not going to sit there and say, well, because one thing's emphasize, I'm going to ignore the other thing. You know, we believe the whole book. We emphasize what God emphasizes, but we believe everything that the Bible teaches. And so if you study Barak and you learn about this captivity captive concept from Barak and then you apply that to what Jesus did, it make perfect sense that Jesus Christ goes from being the inmate in hell, the captive to leading captivity captive, walking out of there saying, I have the keys of Helen of death. Now I'm the warden. Okay. And that's leading captivity captive. So anyway, I got to hurry up and finish. I wanted to spend a little time on that cause it's important, but jump back to judges five. We'll quickly finish up here. Judges chapter five, uh, lead thy captivity captive thou son of Abinoham. Let me jump down. Uh, for sake of time, it talks about in, uh, verses 14, 15, 16, 17, all the tribes that weren't involved. It just kind of explains how other tribes weren't really involved. But uh, in verse 18, Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeopardized their lives under the death in the high places of the field. So it's just specifically praising these two tribes for being the ones who willingly offered themselves and went out there and fought. And then if we jumped down to verse 24, it says, blessed above women shall jail the wife of Hebrew, the Kenai be blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water and she gave him milk. She brought forth butter and a Lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail and a right hand to the workman's hammer. Of course, we know from chapter four that she drove a tent spike through Sisera's head in order to kill him. And it says in the end of verse 26 and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. As I said last week, I don't believe there's any contradiction here between chapters four and five whatsoever. Some people would point to this and say, well, you know, chapter five represents an earlier oral tradition and so the details are a little different. But actually, no, there really is no contradiction here because in Judges chapter four, it talks about her going softly unto him, smiting the nail into his temples and fastening the nail into the ground and that he died. Well, here we get a little more detail. It says that she put her hand to the nail and a right hand to the workman's hammer and with the hammer she smote Sisera and then it says she smote off his head, but look at the next word, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. So there's a sequence here. You know, it's not that chapter five is some earlier tradition and then chapter four changes. No, no, because chapter five's got all the elements of chapter four. Chapter five is bringing up the piercing through the temples with the nail, but it's just saying when she had pierced and stricken through his temples, next, she smote off his head. Also if you read carefully, it says in verse 26, with the hammer she smote the nail, the hammer she smote Sisera. So what I believe happened, what is plausible is that she drove the tent spike through his head and then just kept hammering, probably because he started moving around and twitching around and just reflexes or whatever, sort of like the proverbial chicken with the head cut off and so what I believe probably happened here is that she drove the tent spike into the ground and then just kept driving and finishing the job and that basically, I believe when it says that she smote off his head, I don't think that she beheaded him as we would think of it. I think more just part of his head because of the fact that she hit it with a hammer, she smote off his head is referring to a portion of his head coming off. Also it says that her feet, he bowed, he fell, he lay down. It's possible that he flopped around or something because otherwise it would be hard to understand why I would say he fell at her feet. If he was already laying down asleep when she hit him with the nail, it's very likely that he just twitched or popped up and at least, I don't think he came to a standing position folks, but probably just popped up and fell over or whatever with part of his head missing. Okay, let's leave it at that. And then verses 28 through 30, we already talked about. Look at verse 31, we'll close with this. So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord. Let all your enemies perish like, like Cicero. Wow, that's a pretty intense statement. But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. Now we need to understand that God is a God of wrath and vengeance. We don't want to think that God is only sweetness and light. Now of course God is extremely loving. He's the ultimate in love. He's the ultimate in mercy. He's the ultimate in forgiveness. He's the ultimate in compassion, but it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, the Bible says. The same God who loved you so much that he sent Jesus die on the cross for your sins is the same God who led this woman to kill Cicero in this most brutal way. And she's not being criticized for this. She's being praised for this because Cicero is a wicked person, you know, and this is what God led her to do. She was justified in doing it. And obviously, uh, this is wartime. This is a battle. This is a, a combatant. This isn't just, you know, murder happening here. This is obviously in war, in battle, but think about that statement for a minute. Let all thine enemies perish over. You don't want to be God's enemy. You don't want to reject the Lord Jesus Christ as savior because basically this is how God is ultimately going to feel about you in the end. Now God so loved the world. There's no question that every single person who has ever lived on this earth has been the recipient and object of God's love. God so loved the world, but there comes a point where it becomes too late for people. And if you die without being saved, if you die without believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's too late for you. There's no second chance. You know, some people say, oh, well Jesus, you know, for those three days and three nights, sure, he descended into hell, but it was just to preach to the people down there. No, there's no second chance folks because everybody would come forward at that altar call. I mean, imagine if Jesus went to hell and preached down there and gives people a chance. No, I think I'll wait. You know, I've already been in hell for, it's like, well, I'm just not sure I'm ready. I think everybody's going to raise their hand and come down the aisle at that invitation. It didn't happen, folks. That's not what happened. When you go to hell, there'll be no second chance. If you're not saved, you're done. And so get saved while you can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved. He made it so easy to be saved. God loves you. He did everything. He made it so easy, but you got to believe him. And if you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, if you reject the gospel, then ultimately you will experience the wrath of God. You will not be in hell bathing in the love of God while you're on fire. It's not going to happen, my friend. You will be the object of the wrath of God. This is a curse. So let all thine enemies perish, oh Lord. So if you think it's gruesome what happened to Cicero, you think, oh, that's so gruesome. It is gruesome. And I'm, thank God there's no pictures. Thank God this isn't a video. Thank God it's just a book. I don't want to see that. I personally hate gore. You know, uh, just back in the day watching movies, whenever someone's got, I looked away when things were gory because it's, I don't like it. It's it's horrible. But you know, you look at this and we're like, especially those of us that are city dwellers and just really urbanized, we're not, you know, we're not used to this kind of stuff. I've never been on a battlefield or anything. And so, and I hope I never am. Amen. I want to live in peace. And so here's the thing though, you know, when you read about this gory bashing in of Cicero's head, smiting off of his head, piercing through with a nail, you know, then you read God saying, this is inspired by God friend. This isn't just Barak and Deborah just getting a little carried away as they flow at the mic here and, and this freestyle is inspired by God. By the way, this isn't some song that they crafted over the course of weeks or months. They sang it the same day because it was inspired by God. You know, God is leading them to sing this and this is coming from the Lord. So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord. You know, that shows how God feels about certain people that he wants to see a tent spike go through their head. Some enemies, all of God's enemies, ultimately, that's how he feels about them in the end. He loves them. He wants them to be saved, but once they cross that line, once they die without the Lord or once they become a reprobate or whatever, because they, you know, committed the unpardonable sin or whatever. The point is, my friend, that he is not playing games when he says, so let all thine enemies perish. That, those two letters there, so that's the whole tent spike story in those two letters. So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord, but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. What is the sun like? The sun is powerful, strong, warm, and it's virtually eternal. And obviously, we as God's children are not just virtually eternal. We're not just going to last another 4.5 billion years or whatever as they say the sun would if it were left to its own devices, but we will actually live forever. We'll have eternal life. And also the sun represents Jesus because the Bible calls Jesus the son of righteousness in Malachi 4, S-U-N, and what is he like? You know, we're supposed to be like Christ. We want to be like Christ. We're going to be glorified with Christ. So folks, there's not middle ground here. There's the enemies of the Lord that get the tent spike through the head. And by the way, going to hell is worse than getting a tent spike through your head. Or there are those that shine as the sun in the kingdom of their father. There's a big difference between being saved and unsaved. Huge difference. And look, those of us that are saved, we're going to get different levels of reward. I believe that people in hell are going to get different levels of punishment. Both of those things are taught in scripture. But let me tell you something. There's a great gulf between hell and heaven. The person in the lowest temperature in hell and the person with the least rewards in heaven are still light years apart, my friend. And so you better be on the right side of this thing. If you're not saved, you need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before it's eternally too late. Because it will be too late someday. And you know, you're just like, well, I just believe God's a loving God. I don't believe God's going to send anybody to hell. He's too loving. Is that what the Bible says? The Bible says that God wants a tent spike through certain people's heads and that God created hell and that whosoever's name is not found in the book of life is going to be cast into the lake of fire. That's what the Bible says. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord, and I pray that everyone who's here would have gained something from the sermon tonight, that something would stick with them. And Lord, we love you so much and we're so thankful for Jesus dying on the cross for us and being saved. We don't deserve it, Lord. Thank you for your grace and mercy that you've saved us and thank you for allowing us to be like the sun and that we are going to shine like the stars someday. And Lord, I pray that you would just help us to reach as many people as we possibly can, Lord, before it's too late, before they are just the recipients of your unbridled wrath. Lord, help us to save these people that you love, these people that you died for, Lord. Help us to be faithful out there preaching the gospel and reach as many people as we can. Lord, soften the hearts of the people of America, Lord. And I know that strange things are happening right now in our country and judgments are happening and catastrophes are happening, Lord. I pray that you would use every catastrophe to soften the hearts of people so that they would be more receptive to the gospel. And Lord, just help us to be faithful that as you soften the hearts through these events that we would be faithful to preach the word and sow the seed into that ground. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Let's all take our hymnals and turn to hymn number 10. Hymn number 10, Near the Cross, number 10. Let's sing it out on that first verse. Hymn number 10, Jesus keep me near the cross, hymn number 10. Let's sing it out nice and loud on that first verse, number 10. In the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river. Near the cross a trampling soul, love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning star sheds its gleams around me. In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God, rain its seeds before thee. Hell be lost from day to day, with its shadows forming. In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river. Near the cross I'll watch and play, hoping, trusting ever, till I reach the golden strain, just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river. In the cross I'll watch and play, hoping, trusting ever, till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river. I'll watch and play, hoping, trusting ever, till my raptured soul shall find, rest beyond the river.