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All right, this evening we continue with the book of Judges and we took a break for a couple of weeks. We had, of course, the ordination, just different things and so we're picking up again in chapter number 10. Now, we're going to do something a little different tonight. I'm actually just going to give you a synopsis, a brief synopsis of chapter number 10 and after I'm done with that, we're just going to jump into chapter 11 with the prominent character of the next judge, which is Jephthah. Now, one of the reasons I'm going to do that is because when you read or as we read in chapter number 10, you see that it's not necessarily that it's lacking information, but we do see that the two judges that are talked about after the death of Gideon, not much detail is given about them. There's not much that we can say about these two judges, which is Tola and Jair. There's only about four verses dedicated to them in this passage of scripture, so there's not a whole lot of detail that we can give about them. And I'm going to explain to you why I think that's the case, but let me just put us up to date as far as where we're at here. Now, in the book of Judges, we've been talking about different judges. Of course, the first one was Othniel, then we had Echad, we had Deborah and Barak, then we have Gideon, and then we have Abimelech, who's Gideon's descendant, who actually was trying to be a judge, but really just wanted to be this oppressing dictator who really just wanted a position more than anything else. We see that the curse of Jotham comes upon him when a woman casts a millstone upon Abimelech's head and breaks it, and then that ends up becoming a byword and a proverb in Israel throughout the next generations. We see him being used as an example, even with David in the book of the historical books of Judah. But then after this, we see that Tolah, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, comes up, and he judges Israel for 20 and 3 years. He dies, then we have Jair come up, and he judges Israel for 20 and 2 years. Now you say, why is it that not much is said about these two? Well, first of all, let me say this about Jair, who's the second judge. One thing that we can tell about this, aside from the fact that obviously he was a judge, he probably had some political power. He was probably some sort of mayor, or had some predominant position in Israel, because if you look at verse number 4, it says that he had 30 sons that rode on 30 ass-cults, and they had 30 cities, which are called Havoth-Jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. So we see that this man was not only like the sheriff, he was like the judge, but he also was like the mayor. Why? Because he owned like 30 cities. Not only did he own 30 cities, 30 of his sons were reigning over those cities. He said, what are those cities called? Havoth-Jair, named after him. So we see the second base, so he probably has some clout, probably has a lot of money, and he's governing this area, but he's also judging the children of Israel. Now when you read the book of Judges, one of the common themes that we see of the judges themselves is that they were to judge Israel, but also what? Deliver them from the hand of the oppressors. That's what Othniel did, that's what Echad did, that's what Gideon did with his 300, but we don't necessarily see that in chapter 10. And that's really where the crux of a story is what we read, right? When you hear about the oppression, how they deliver them, and they rescue them, you know, Gideon and his 300 going in there and taking out the enemies and delivering them from the hand of the oppressors, but we don't necessarily see that in chapter 10. Why is that? Well, I think there are potentially two reasons as to why. One is because Tol and Jair were just good judges. We said, what do you mean by that? Well, if they're judging the people correctly, the people are not straying away from the Lord. And if they're not straying away from the Lord, God does not have to judge them and send oppressors, right, to put them in bondage. So therefore you see that they're judging Israel, there's peace in the land, and you know, there's an absence of conflict, there isn't any enemies that are arising. And another reason could be just because Jair is in charge of so much land, so many areas, who's going to try to fight him? You know, who's going to come up against him and his 30 sons, 30 cities? You know, it seems as though that there are no oppressors there. So they're basically doing their job, they're judging Israel. And this is a basic principle that if you just follow the Bible, guess what? The Bible tells us that if we obey the Lord, if we live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with them. Now obviously, we don't live in a perfect world. And in a perfect world, there'd be no enemies at all. But you know what we can say is that there's going to be seasons in our Christian life where when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with them. You know, there's going to be seasons in our life where we're not always fighting, though the majority of our life is going to be fighting, right? And this could be likened unto that. And what caused this, you know, peace or this absence of conflict, right, judgment? When you preach the Word of God, when you teach the people, you judge them correctly, they obey the Lord, guess what? They don't get judged by God. God doesn't have to send these foreign nations to come and oppress them and whoop them and chastise them for the Lord. So that's what we see with Tola and Jair. And because of this, there is an approximate amount of 45 years of just an absence of conflict where nothing's taking place here. Now, again, one of the common themes that we see in the book of Judges is that the children of Israel, they obey God, then what happens? Well, they, you know, start serving other gods. God allows them to be delivered into the hand of the oppressors. They cry unto, you know, for X amount of years, they cry unto the Lord. God raises up a judge or a deliverer. They come, they judge the people, deliver them out of the hand of the oppressors. And then there's peace for, you know, X amount of years, and then the judge dies. And then the vicious cycle of rebellion and disobedience continues on and on and on. This is the common theme. And so four verses are dedicated to talking about Jair and Tola, but then what happens after that? And the children of Israel did evil again on the side of the Lord and served Balaam and Ashtoreth and the gods of Syria and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon. Good night. I mean, they just, they're just taking it on. And the gods of the Philistines and forsook the Lord and served not him. Big surprise, right? As soon as the leader goes away, they're like, all right, time to serve other gods. And this is the common theme of Israel in the book of Judges. Now we're not going to go verse by verse because much of what we saw in Judges chapter 10 is pretty self-explanatory. Okay. They serve other gods. God is displeased with them and God is going to judge them. And actually he's delivering them ironically into the hands of the children of Ammon. He said, why is that ironic? Because they're serving the God of Ammon. So they forsook God and they're going for the God of Ammon, but Ammon is actually going to be used to oppress them. It's like someone who, oh, I just want to, I don't want to be in church anymore. I want to go out and I want to drink and party and smoke and all this stuff. And that actually ends up putting them into bondage. They think that's freedom. They think that's fun. They think going out there and living a wild life and sowing your wild oats is fun and everything. But when it's all said and done, what happens? They become the servants of sin instead. You know, bread stolen in secret is sweet, but afterwards thy mouth shall be filled with gravel, the Bible says. So you know what? Sin is pleasurable for a season, but guess what? Only for a season. And once that season is over, thy mouth shall be filled with gravel. In other words, it's not pleasurable after a while. You actually become a servant of sin, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter number six, that sin will begin to have dominion over you. And you know what the Bible tells us? What fruit have ye done in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is what? Death. Okay. So we see that principle there. And we're not going to get too much into Judges chapter number 10. But I do want to talk about one principle that we can learn from this chapter here. Now go with me if you would to verse number 13 of chapter 10. This is God speaking. As yet ye have forsaken me and served other gods, wherefore I will deliver you no more. That's not something you want to hear God say, right? You're just like, I'm done with you. You know, on Sunday, we talked about the castaway. That's basically what he's talking about. He's like, you guys are going to be, I'm going to cast you away, you guys are done. Now one principle that I want to talk about in regards to this verse is that one thing we got to know about God is that he's immutable. What does that mean? God never changes, right? In essence, in divinity, in power, he never changes. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. The Bible says that every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of lights and whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. God never changes. In spite of what the dipstick say, they'll say, Oh, you know, the God of the Old Testament is all wrath. And the God of the New Testament, Jesus Christ, he's lowly and meek, but they forgot to read revelation, which is in the New Testament. And Jesus is the one pouring out wrath. In fact, he does it for three and a half years. You know, we serve a God who's the same throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Right. However, the Bible also teaches us that God can change a course of action. God can change his mind. You know, we would say that God can repent. Amen. Now, there's a false doctrine out there that says that anytime the word repent is used in the Bible, it's always repent of your sin. Right? They always say, well, you know, when the Bible says repent, it means we got to repent of our sins. We got to stop sinning. Well, that's foolishness and folly because the Bible says that even God repents. So what does repent means if it means that God repents? Because obviously, we understand that God cannot sin, he's not a man that he should lie. Right? What does it mean? It means he can change his mind. Now, given, there are times in the Bible where the word repent does mean repent from sins. But let me say this, anytime that that's mentioned in that context, it's always for Christians, not unbelievers. So the command to repent of sin is only for Christians. For example, the Bible tells us in the book of Proverbs that he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. So God tells us if we confess and we forsake, God will be merciful to us, right? But when it comes to unbelievers, the Bible says repent and believe the gospel does not say repent of your sin and believe the gospel. It just says repent and believe the gospel. Why does it say that? Because we have to repent of what we're trusting in and place our faith on Christ. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter number six, talking about repentance from dead works and faith toward God. But you never see the word repent of your sin. Now again, a proof of that is the fact that God repents and though the word is not used explicitly here in Judges chapter number 10, the concept is there. Because there he says, I will deliver you no more, but look at verse 16, and they put away the strange gods from among them and serve the Lord. And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. And what do we see afterwards in chapter 11, that God uses Jephthah to deliver them from the hand of the oppressor. So in verse 13, he says, I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm not delivering you. Well, what do they do? They change their ways, right? They put away their false gods. They confess their sin. They drew nigh unto the Lord. They serve the Lord and that changed God's course of action. Now, let me just say this, this is an important concept. Why? Because there's going to be times in our life where we need God to change the course of action for us. Maybe because we made a mistake or we sinned or we just made a stupid decision and we need God's favor. We need God to be gracious to us. We need God to be merciful to us. But you know what? It's conditional. It's based upon the actions that you take. So in order for us to get God to change his actions, your actions got to change first. The Bible tells us resist the devil and he will flee from you, draw nigh to God and he'll draw nigh to you. It doesn't say, you know, God will draw nigh to you no matter what happens because he loves you and you're the best thing that's ever happened. You're the best thing since sliced bread. No, you have to change. You know, cleanse your hands you sinners, purify your hearts, ye double minded. So in order for God to draw nigh to us, to favor us, to bless us, the Bible tells us that we have to change, okay? If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, you know, then I will turn and heal their land. You see, it's always conditional and for example, you know, God is judging Israel and he's going to judge Israel and he's doing it here in the book of Judges. But you know what? We can, just as these people did, they can actually hold off the wrath of God on the nation just by obeying him in that generation. And like man or America, America is on its way to hell in a handbasket. It's going to hell in a handbasket as a nation. You know, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God, the Bible says. But you know what we can do as Christians is live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord, serve him and you know what God says? Okay, I'll hold off my judgment for a little bit because we're serving him, amen? Seeing people saved, trying to live a holy life, trying to live a life that's pleasing unto him and we could actually change God's mind because who knows, maybe God wants to destroy the world, you know, in our generation. We're not for a generation that rose up to serve God, maybe that withheld the judgment of God, okay, for the time being. But I want you to notice there that it says in verse 15 that the children of Israel sent unto the Lord, we have sinned, do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Oh man, that's a pretty bold prayer, is it not? They're basically saying, look, we'll put away our gods, hey, and look, that shows faith right there, right, because they're saying, look God, whatever you want to do unto us, whatever seemeth good unto you do. That shows a lot of faith and you know what, that shows they're being serious because they're like, this is what we deserve, but we've sinned, we're going to put away our false gods, we're going to serve you and whatever you want to do, whatever judgment you see fit, you know, let it be. And that's why the Bible tells us that his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. And what happens is that he actually answers their prayer, he delivers them by the hand of Jephthah. Great story there, great principle there. And may I say this, is that the mistakes that you've made in the past, they can change. You know, sometimes there's consequences that we can't change, but you know, sometimes the mercy of God can actually override some consequences in our life. Even over the sins of omission or commission, things that you knew or things you didn't know, he can change them, but it's all based upon what you do. We can make God repent, amen. We can influence God to repent and change his course of action based upon the actions that we take. Let us not be forgetful of that. Let us always remember that, and you say, well, you know, I'm making good decisions now. Well, amen, stick to it. But you know what? We are fallible beings, we will make mistakes, and when we make mistakes, we need God's mercy because it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. And in order for us not to get consumed, we need to make sure that we're serving God and doing that which is pleasing in his sight. So I wanted to mention that because I believe that's an important aspect, good principle that we can learn here from Judges chapter 10. Look down at your Bibles at verse 17, it says, Then the children of Ammon were gathered together and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together and encamped in Mizpah. And the people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin a fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be the head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Now if we just finish this story today, that would be like a good cliffhanger, right? Because it's really sending us up for the judge to come. It's like, who's going to be the head? It's like it's Jephthah. Look at verse number one of chapter 11. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. Now Jephthah is a character in the book of Judges that is known in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 11 as being one of those in the faith chapter. And in fact, in that chunk of that verse, the majority of the people in that verse are people from the book of Judges. We have Samson, you have Gideon, you have Barak, and then you also have Jephthah. And you see the exploits that they did, they wrought righteousness, they escaped the edge of the sword. The Bible tells us that they turned to flight the armies of the aliens, okay? And this is not referring to Predator, you know, E.T., or, you know, any other sci-fi character. Aliens is just like the foreigners, okay? And I believe that specific phrase is applicable primarily to the book of Judges because that's exactly what these judges were doing. They were fighting these armies, these foreigners, and they're returning flight the armies of those aliens, okay? So Jephthah is used in the hall of faith as a man who had faith, right? But here's the thing, when you read that chapter, Hebrews chapter 11, you know, most of those guys are known for the faith that they had, you know, Gideon in his 300. You know, you have Barak, you know, and all these things, but, and that's what they're known for. However, Jephthah is not known for that, unfortunately. You know, obviously he's known for having faith. The primary reason why Jephthah is known is why? It's for the vow that he made that cost him the life of his daughter, okay? The foolish vow that he made that cost him the life of his daughter, and we'll talk about that in just a bit. So let's talk about Jephthah. Verse number one, now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor. So right off the bat, starting off good, he's mighty, he's a man, amen, and he's valorous. What does that mean? He's courageous. This is the man that's going to deliver, you know, Israel from the hand of Ammon. Oh wait, by the way, and he was the son of a harlot, and Gilead begat Jephthah. So God just inserted that little phrase right there. He's a mighty man of valor, and he's the son of a harlot. He said, what is a harlot? Well, in modern terms, that would be a prostitute, a woman who sells her body, a whore, okay? And so we see here that, you know, he's a bastard child. He was born of fornication, okay? This is not necessarily a very noble title. This isn't something very good that's memorable about Jephthah, right? I'm sure, you know, he caught a lot of flak for that. We're going to see that in the coming verses, but the principle that we can see here, and I think what God is trying to tell us here in this chapter regarding Jephthah, is that God can use anybody, because he used Jephthah to deliver them from the hand of Ammon, but he used someone who's not only a mighty man of valor, he used someone who was the son of a harlot, okay? And look, this is the common theme that we see throughout the Bible, that God can use anybody. God can use any vessel. Don't worry about, well, you know, I didn't grow up in a Christian home, I didn't go to a Christian school. Well, thank God for that, amen, you know? I didn't go to Bible college, and I didn't do this, and I'm not the son or a daughter of a pastor, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know what? God used Jephthah, and he can use you too, you know? Being the son of a harlot is not necessarily a very noble trait, but you know what the Bible tells us? In chapter 1, it tells us that you know your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. He has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty, right? The base things of this world, the things that are despised, have God chosen to bring to naught the things which are, why? So that no flesh should glory in his presence. So what the principle is teaching us there is the reason God uses people like Jephthah is so God can get more glory out of them. You know, never look down on your past. Now if you're some fag, yeah, God can't use you, okay? And we don't want to use you either, okay? But look, I'm just talking about normal, regular sinners who maybe had a rough background, you know? It's okay. God can still use you. In fact, you are a candidate to be used of God. Now again, the principle that we see there in the previous chapter is that it requires our obedience. It requires our service, us putting in the work that we need to do in order for God to use us. You know, the Bible tells us that if a man purges himself from these, he shall be sanctified and the Bible says, honored and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. So we have to purge ourselves from these, right? Touch not the unclean thing, live a life that's pleasing unto the Lord. So Jephthah was the son of a harlot and you know what? God can use the harlots too, amen? We see that in the New Testament, you know, this is foolish, you know, self-ordained wannabe pastor in Jacksonville, Florida, who literally ordained himself. You know, and by the way, he ordained himself the same day that I got ordained. If he's gonna do it, I'm gonna do it too. Yeah, but guess what? A pastor ordained me. I was actually sent out of a church with the approval of the pastor himself. I actually did it the right way, okay? Whereas this guy, he literally had his men in the church, which are like half modalist, half flat earthers, ordain him. In fact, one of the guys in this church, because they have all these modalist sympathizers in their church, he literally said, you know, there's some people are Trinitarians, some people are oneness, we're somewhere right in the middle. What in the world? And this is the guy who laid hands on him. This is the kind of guys that he has in his church, you know? And you know, it's funny because this same guy a year ago preached that harlots or whores can't be saved, that they're like reprobates. It's like, have ye not read Matthew 21, 31, where Jesus actually told the disciples that the publicans and harlots shall enter into the kingdom of God before you? That's that man's life verse. God can use the harlots, you know? You think of Mary Magdalene, of whom went out seven devils and different, Rahab the harlot. These people were still used greatly of God. Yes, obviously they lived a sinful life, maybe they were involved in fornication and adultery, but you know what? God can still use them, God can use us, doesn't matter what background we have. Now obviously, look, my children, I don't want them to be involved in fornication. I don't want them to be involved in adultery, I don't want them to ever smoke a joint or ever drink a beer, and you know what? God can use them as well, right? But here's the point is, is that God can use anyone as long as they submit unto the Lord, right? Because here's the thing, I know Christians who grew up in a Christian home, and they were an independent fundamental Baptist church, and they were born in the nursery, they went to Sunday school class, and they're garbage Christians, they're whack. They're lukewarm, they don't want nothing to do with the Lord, they're like CCM and all this other garbage, they prefer the watered down version of church rather than real church. God's not gonna use people like that. So we see here right off the bat, he raises up this man Jephthah, who's a mighty man of valor, he's the son of a harlot, Gilead begat Jephthah, the Bible says there. And again, the principle there is that God can use us. So look, no excuses, amen? No excuses not to serve the Lord. Well, you know, I just, you know, I just haven't read the Bible, then read it. I just haven't read the Bible as much, then read it much. Well, I just don't know how to sew and then learn. Excuses are like armpits. We all have them, and every once in a while they stink. It's the truth. Just trying to get a point across here. What I'm saying is no one has an excuse. And you can make an excuse as long and as many excuses as you want. But the reality is, if you draw an eye to God, he'll draw an eye to you. If you're willing, he can use you as long as you put in the work to be used of God. He did it with Jephthah. Verse number two. And Gilead's wife bare him sons, and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah and said unto him, Thou shall not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman. Then Jephthah fled from his brethren and dwelt in the land of Tob, and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah and went out with them. So one thing you'll notice if you pay attention to a lot of these characters is they will share similarities with Jesus Christ. You know, it's sometimes very symbolic of Jesus himself. And Jephthah is a good example of that, because of the fact that the Bible tells us here that his own brethren booted him out. They didn't accept him, right? He says thou, for thou, excuse me, shall not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman. Just as Jesus Christ came into his own, his own received him not. His brethren did not want him. And although it was true that Jephthah was the son of a harlot, it wasn't true with Jesus. But you know what? That the Pharisee said that. Why would he be not born on a foreign occasion? What are they insinuating? That he was, right? And they cast him out. They didn't want nothing to do with him. So that same persecution that we saw with Jephthah is the same persecution that we see with Jesus, the fact that his brethren did not want him. So he leaves and he gathers himself these vain men, verse number four, and it came to pass in the process of time that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. It was so that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Toph. Oh, how the tables have turned. Because remember, because it says that he's a mighty man of valor, we can safely assume that this is probably something that was well known. I'm thinking Jephthah was probably rough around the edges, something that everyone knew. So right when trouble comes, Ammon, or when Ammon comes, they're like, okay, go get Jephthah. He knows how to fight. Verse number six, and they said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? And why are ye coming to me now, when ye are in distress? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore return again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the Lord deliver them before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The Lord be witness between us, if we do not sow according to thy words. Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head, and captained over them. And Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord, and misbucked." So basically, it's this little deal, it's like, look, if I'm able to do it, you'll let me be your leader. But we'll take you as a leader. And look, God was already going to deliver Ammon to the hand of Jephthah, okay? It's already done. This is the reason why he's being raised up. This is the purpose. He came to the kingdom for such a time as this. So you know what? He didn't need to make a vow. The vow was useless. And they're already telling them, hey, you're going to be our captain. Yeah, everything's good to go. So verses 12 through 24 is basically a dialogue, a discourse between Amnon, the king of Amnon, the children of Ammon, and Jephthah. Now let me just, I'm not going to go through the whole thing, we're not going to read through the whole thing. I'm just going to give you like a brief synopsis of it. Basically he comes and he says this, well, let's read this. I'll read just the beginning at least. Look at verse 12. And the king of Ammon answered unto the messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, what is thou to do with me that thou art come against me to fight in my land? And the king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, because Israel took away my land. When they came up out of Egypt from Amnon, even unto Jabok unto Jordan, now therefore restore those lands again peaceably. So he's saying, look, the reason we're coming to fight you is because you took our land. You took it from Amnon all the way to Jabok and you took it, so we're here so you can return the land peaceably. Now here's the thing, he's lying. This is not a true statement. These are not factual statements that he's making, accusations that he's making. He's lying. Now here's the thing that's very noble about Jephthah. He knows his history. By the way, this is why it's good to know the Bible, man. So obviously he knows some of the Bible because he knows the history of what actually took place. Now what the king of the children of Ammon is referring to is actually something that took place 300 years ago under the leadership of Moses. It's like when the IRS comes after you like 10 years after and just say, hey, you didn't pay at this. It's like, oh, man, I don't even remember. What in the world? And they try to come at you with something that you just have no records of or whatever. But what if you bring out those records and say, actually, here it is. It's like, oh, sorry, I lied. Well, it's kind of like the same thing. Or how about when your wife brings up some fight that happened like 10 years ago or something. You're like, I don't remember anything. It's like, what in the world? That's not how I remember the whole situation. I'm just kidding. But basically he's perverting the history of actually what actually took place. And luckily, even for Jephthah, he knows what's going on. He's like, no, that's not what happened. And he basically explains to them, look, when we left Egypt, we were trying to pass through the land of Moab. We're trying to pass through the land of Sihon, the king of the Amorites. And no one would allow us to pass by. And then he's referring to himself as the nation as a whole. He's like, no one would let us pass by. We asked Sihon, the king of the Amorites, hey, we just want to go by. We don't mean any harm. We just need to get to our destination. Can we cut through here? And Sihon, the king of the Amorites refused. And not only did he say no, he's like, we're going to war with you guys. So he just decided to pick a fight with Israel just because they're trying to pass on by. Now luckily for Israel, of course, God kind of preordained this and he used this conflict to basically give over the Amorites into the hands of Israel so they could possess that land. Okay. So they not only possessed the land of Sihon, the king, but the surrounding cities as well, which included those of Ammon. I know I'm giving a biblical history here, but this is good to know, amen. Pay attention, all right. In fact, go to Numbers chapter 21. Let's look at specifically what they say. This is where we find this. Look what it says in verse number 21. It says, and Israel sent messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorites saying, let me pass through thy land. We will not turn into the fields or into the vineyards. We will not drink of the waters of the well, but we will go along by the king's highway until we pass thy borders. They say, look, I'm not going to go into your vineyards and eat your grapes. I'm not going to take up your well. We're just trying to use it as a shortcut to get to where we need to be. Okay. Verse 23, and Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel into the wilderness and he came to Jehaz and fought against Israel. And Israel smote him with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabok even unto the children of Ammon for the board of the children of Ammon was strong. And Israel took all these cities and Israel dwelled in all the cities of the Amorites and Heshbon and in all the villages thereof, for Heshbon was the city of Sihon, the king of the Amorites who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon. Go back to Judges chapter number 11. So we see here, it's just like they picked the fight with the wrong people because God is on their side. It's just like, Hey, let us go peace a bit. They're like, no, we want to fight. And then they just get knocked out. You know what I mean? They picked the fight with the wrong person. God used that and he actually ended up giving them that land. Okay. This is the event that this king is referring to over in Numbers chapter 21. And Jephthah just corrects him and says, no, that's not how it happened. I know the Bible. I know the history. We got the manuscripts. This is actually what took place. Okay. By the way, the principle there is this, know your Bible, amen. So when people tell you, Hey, the Bible says you got to repent of your sins to be saved. It's like, no, that's not what it says. It's not what it says. Okay. Look at verse 22, skip down to verse 22. So that's basically the briefing of verses 12 through 21, look at 22, and they possess all the coast of the Amorites from Arnon even unto Jabok and for the wilderness, even unto Jordan. Let me second here. So now the Lord God of Israel had dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel and should have stopped possess it. So he's saying, look, you guys got whooped 300 years ago, and you think you're going to take it now? Verse 24. Will not thou possess that which Chemosh thy God giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out from before us, then will we possess. Now he's getting kind of like disrespectful there. He's like, why don't you ask Chemosh your God to give you a land? Because every land that God promises us, we get. Every area we go to, we possess. Kind of mocking their God would rightfully so, amen. I like it. He says in verse 25, and now art thou anything better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel? Or did he ever fight against them? Now what is he referring to here? Well, when Israel whooped the Amorites in Numbers chapter 21, Numbers chapter 22 is where we enter into the story of Balak. This king that he's referring to here, Balak, the son of Zippor. And this king was the king of Moab. And basically in chapter 22 of Numbers, he's like afraid, because he hears about what the children of Israel did to Ammon. And the Bible says that he's like in distress. He's afraid. And he's like, man, what am I going to do because they're going to come here. They're going to take my land. And he even tells his people, this company shall lick up our people as the grass of the field. In other words, he's saying they're going to wipe the floor with us once they come here. So what is Balak the son of Zippor do? He tries to hire this false prophet, which is Balaam, the son of Bozor, right? And he goes to him and he said, hey, can you like curse the children of Israel for me because I don't want them to come. I want to be able to defeat them. Can you curse them for me? And even this false prophet says, I can't curse whom God hath not cursed. And he offers them money. He offers them all these things. And at the end of the story, Balaam basically says, look, I can't curse them, but this is how they can be cursed. If you can cause them to get into idolatry and fornication, then God will curse them. So that's basically how they end up overcoming the children of Israel is because they cause the children of Israel to get into fornication and idolatry. Therefore they incur the wrath of God upon their lives. And here's the thing, Balak didn't even have the guts to go fight Israel himself. He had to go to some third party to go do that for him because he knew that God was on their side. So that's why he's saying there, are you anything better than Balak? Balak wasn't even supposed, did he try to go against this and you're going to try to do it? Look at verse 26, while Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns and Aroer and her towns and all the cities that belong, be along by the coast of Arnon, 300 years, look what he says, why therefore did you not recover them within that time? He's like, you're coming 300 years later? You just so happened to decide to come on a 300th year to come and take your land? Why didn't you do it between those times? And you say, well, yeah, why is that? Why are they doing that? Well, the reason why is because they're just looking for a reason to go to war. They're looking for a reason to fight. Like America, when America goes into these foreign nations and they create this false reason as to why they're going over there, oh, the terrorists and Muslims and they bombed something over there, we got to go fight them. And it's like a lie. They're just creating some sort of straw man and this lie in order to have an excuse to go to war. And look, if people don't know their history and how history repeats itself and they don't know about the military industrial complex, they're going to be fooled into thinking, oh yeah, maybe this guy's right. Maybe the king of Ammon, that is what happened. No, that's not what happened. You have 300 years to possess the land, you chose the 300th year to do it, doesn't make any sense. You're just looking for a reason to fight. You're just looking for a reason to do war, to come and take our land, to come and possess us and your sense of history is misguided. And look, there's people like that today. There's people whether on a scale of a nation such as America that tries to go into foreign nations and create these wars so they can take their oil, so they can oppress them and so they can show them a better way of life, bring the light of America and show these barbarians and these heathens how they should actually behave, they look for reasons to go to war. This is the spirit of Ammon right here, where they misconstrue history in order to have a reason to go in and take what they want. So he tells them, he's like, why didn't you recover at that time? Verse 27, wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me. The Lord the judge bejudges the state between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearken not into the words of Jephthah which he sent him. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh and passed over Mizpah of Gilead and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. So what does this mean? What is the result of the spirit of the Lord coming upon him? We're going to war. It's time to fight. Oh man, you know, fighting's not good, you know, you shouldn't fight. Well here it says that the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah to go to war. You know what, obviously we don't war against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and you know what, but the spiritual battles, we're just supposed to get involved in them. So when you see us fighting and exposing these heretics and preaching hard against sin, just mark it down, it's the spirit filled man doing it, because once the spirit of the Lord comes upon a man, we begin to fight the Lord's battles. Why don't men of God, and they're soft-spoken and they don't want to fight, they don't have the spirit of God, they have the spirit, you know what the Bible tells us, they have the spirit of fear. That's what that is. Because the spirit of fear causes a pastor, a preacher, to coward, to shrink, and not talk about, not ruffle any feathers, you know what the Bible tells us, that he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. That guy's crazy. No, I got a sound mind. You see how he's screaming, he's crazy, no, it's a sound mind, you know, and this is what we see, the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, because he's preparing these people to go to war, okay. Now it was short-lived, okay, because look at verse 30, and Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. You know, he got ahead of himself, and he basically said, look, God, if you deliver Ammon into my hand, anything that comes to this door, obviously he's thinking animals, he's thinking sheep or something, obviously they have livestock, wild animals that just come in and out of their house, and he's probably thinking that's what was going to happen, he's like, I'll sacrifice it, I'll offer it. And here is the downfall of Jephthah. This is unfortunately became the byword in the proverb of Jephthah, because of the fact later on we see that it's his daughter who walks through, and he actually has to offer up his daughter as a burnt offering, okay. Now what are some principles that we can learn here? Well, first and foremost, get used to weird things like that in the book of Judges. And remember, the book of Judges highlights a time period in the nation of Israel when every man did that which was right in their own eyes, but it also shows the byproduct of that mindset. I mean, wait till, you think that's weird, wait till we get to Judges 19. When they start rolling out the really weird stuff, okay. But this is what happens when a nation forsakes God, okay. And he does this valve, now, what's the principle that we can learn here, this will be the last principle that we can learn from this story, okay. Because obviously we see later on, his daughter walks in, and he's like grieved because of the fact that now he has to offer up his daughter. Now one thing that we can say that's good about Jephthah is that he's a man of integrity. Because he vowed the vow, and guess what, he kept the vow. You know the Bible says, talks about the man who will speak truth in his heart, the Bible also says that he swereth to his own hurt, and he changeth not. It says that in Psalm 15. So this man swore to his own hurt, man of integrity, okay. But this is precisely the reason why God forbids in his word to make any vows whatsoever. The Bible tells us in the New Testament, let your yay be yay, and your nay be nay. What is a vow? It means to bind oneself by an oath, saying I will do this, I promise to do this, this is what I'm gonna do, and I vow unto the Lord that this is exactly what I'm gonna do. God does not take pleasure in that. And look, if you do vow a vow, you better make sure you pay it, okay. Go with me, if you would, to Ecclesiastes chapter number five, let's look at some verses here, Ecclesiastes chapter number five. I'm gonna read to you from Psalm 15, because it's a short chapter, it says, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor, and whose eyes a vile person is condemned. But he honoureth them that fear the Lord, he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved. You know, we as God's people shouldn't just make vain vows. And if you make a vow, you better make sure you keep it. If you make an oath unto the Lord, that's something that God takes very serious. Look at Ecclesiastes 5, four. When thou vowest to bow unto God, defer not to pay it. For he hath no pleasure in fools, pay thou which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Therefore should God be angry with thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands. For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God. So what is he saying? Look, even if you make a vow and you don't keep it, you can't be like, well, I made it, it was an error, it was a mistake, I didn't know what I was saying. No, God still expects you to keep it. That's how serious this manner of a vow is. Now, let me say this. This is the primary reason for me why we do not have altar calls in our church. Now how many of you know what an altar call is? Anybody know what that is? At my old church, and look, not just at my old church, most of you who came from an old high B church had altar calls, okay? Now look, I'm gonna explain to you why it's wrong, but let me say this. I was part of the altar calls. I did altar calls, I went down to the altar, and let me say this, I made good decisions when I went, in fact, the first time I ever went down to the altar was when I got saved. I came down to the altar, someone was there for me, they led me to the Lord, I got saved, and I could think of various times throughout my life where I actually went down to the altar and I made a good decision. But let me say this, I guarantee you there are times that I made vows that I did not keep, and I could probably look back at the consequences that I faced throughout my life as a Christian and link them to the fact that I did not keep certain bells. Probably fact, okay? But here's the problem with altar calls. Number one, altar calls are not in the Bible. You know, having people come and just worship at my feet and just kneel down and make all these decisions, you know, it's not in the Bible, you don't see New Testament church doing that, okay? You never see that in the Bible, but here's the danger of the altar call, is that preachers will have their people come down and make a decision, coax them into making a decision, peer pressure them, and to make a decision for God, whether it's giving a certain amount of money. You know, who will give $100, it's like, man, I'm negative 100, but yeah, all right, he's looking at me. Okay, who's going to give it, and people like are raising their hands to like, you guys know what I'm talking about, you know, donate all kinds of money, and then it's just like, I can't pay that. Well, you just made them out. And you wonder, we wonder why so many churches are just crazy in debt, because God can't bless a church that promotes vows that they don't keep. Now, I got saved at a youth conference, okay, and I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for the decisions that I made at the altar call, obviously, ignorantly, but one thing that I do remember is altar calls at youth conferences, I mean, scores of teenagers and adults just coming to the altar, giving their life to God, I'm going to be a missionary, I bow to God, I'm going to be a pastor, I'm going to go start a church, I'm going to get the sin out of my life, I'm going to start reading my Bible, God, I promise, fill out a little sheet, I promise I will read my Bible every single day, and those same teenagers don't even come back to church the next week or something. They backslide. Not good. So these pastors, they coax these people to make these vows, these spiritual vows, but because these kids, these teenagers don't have the character to maintain that vow, they actually sin, they cause their flesh to sin, and then they end up suffering the consequences because of it later on, okay? This is very dangerous, and this is something that was done constantly, I mean, you have, for example, missions conferences, right, where they do like a faith promise, you guys ever heard of that? Or this is really old IFB, like faith promise? Okay, let me explain, back in the old IFB, we had this thing called faith promise missions. You fill out a card, and you're going to give this amount of money for, you know, X amount of weeks, and on a weekly basis, and then you do your major, you know, missions offering ones, which is like a thousand bucks or whatever, you know, and they give you all the slides there, we didn't use slides, they actually had videos, and then you just, they pull your heart strings, you're like, oh man, those poor little Southeast Asian kids, you know, they don't have the gospel and stuff like that, yeah, I mean, if they're 50 bucks, I'll figure it out somehow. You know, people sometimes don't keep those vows. Building programs, well, they have you give money to the building and vow, and look, there's a reason they have a card, so to bind you. And what they'll do is they'll like, they'll have a card, right, and they have you write your vow on one side and your vow on the next side, then they'll go like this, throw this into the offering, and you keep this for your personal records, in other words, this is to remind you that you just bound yourself to this vow, okay, that's how it works. And look, people who do it, some people do it ignorantly, like myself, but we need to get back to the Bible and recognize this is not good. Better to just, better to just not vow and give whatever you can at whatever time you want, right? You know, we're not gonna have offering Sunday here where you gotta make sure you vow that you're gonna give tithes, that's between you and God, because if you don't tithe, the devourer comes, that's on you, you know, and look, me, I don't know if I've even preached a full length sermon on tithing, I probably did it when I taught through 1 Corinthians, but that's not a sermon that you hear very often, right, I mean, am I mistaken, can someone prove me wrong on there, like, well, I remember this one sermon, I really don't talk about it, why, because I'm not fixated on money. And sometimes these churches, they constantly preach, you know what you constantly preach on? That's what you're always thinking about, that's what you're always thinking about, that's why sometimes these church services, the sermon is about money, and then when the guy comes up to pray for the offering, they give a little sermon in about money, the beginning of the service, got to give a verse about money, everything's about money, because that's all they're thinking about. No, you know what, if we want God to bless our finances here, obviously we're gonna talk about money when the time calls for it, but let's just serve God, why don't we just stand for, why don't we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things shall be added unto us, oh, but you don't understand, Pastor Bruce, you know, these things doesn't include a nicer car, these things don't include nicer suits, and these things don't include bigger houses and all these things, yeah, it includes food and raiment, which the Bible tells us is there to be content. The reason they keep pumping these people with all these vows of making money, because the pastors are greedy of filthy lucre, they want to make some money, I was gonna say loy, is Cambodian for money, sorry, they want to make some money, is what they do, okay, look, I want to be rich spiritually, I want to be rich in faith, and just let God take care of my needs of food and clothing, I just want to have fun serving God, preach whatever the heck I want, sowing and win people to Christ, give me my two meals a day, you know, and give me something when I'm cold, you know, just live a normal life, and be rich in faith, that's what we want, well don't you want like tens of thousands of dollars to be poured into this ministry, yeah, of course, but not so I can have like a Mercedes Benz, it's so we can take missions trips, it's so we can get gospel tracts, it's so we can make documentaries, it's so we can get the word out, it's so we can serve God more efficiently, that's what we need, it's to pay the bills, it's to keep this light going, it's for the lame AC unit in the back, you know, it's to keep the operation going, but you know, we don't have to make a vow to get that, to get those things, keep those things running, we just serve the Lord, you know, so what if you need something extra, then look, this is what we do, if we want something extra, we look to see if we have the money, if we have it, we get it, if we don't, we don't get it, well don't you want to do like a faith promise where they fill out the sheet and they put their signature, no, I don't think we need to do that, you know, I'm not for binding people to an oath in order to coax them into giving to their missions program or their building program, you know what I mean, that's not what I'm for, and look, there's good churches that do that and there's nothing wrong with them, but I'm talking about like old IFP churches who literally do it and they just waste the money, you know, the missions money is going to some lame missionary over in the 1040 window to some dude who is discipling some convert who's not even a convert, the dude's not even saved, don't even get me started on this, I'm talking about investing money into lame missionaries who go to the mission field and just waste our missions dollars to do coffee house discipleship where they start in Genesis and six months later the guy's not even saved yet, foolishness, it exists, in fact I remember a guy that the church plant that I came from they sent out, oh no I'm sorry, they were going to send him out, he was like I'm going to China, he's like I'm going to China and they got the stand up banner and he made the video and had his prayer cards and the church gave him a huge love offering, huge love offering, faith promised to give to this guy, didn't even go, never even went, so what did he do with the money, spent it, he didn't even have to go to China, he's like ha ha got my money, never went, now he went prior to that on a missions trip to China and boy was he exposed by the people in China, in fact the missionaries, I know the missionary family that he went with, the sons literally told me all he did while he was here is play video games with me until like 2 o'clock in the morning, garbage, that's where the money's going right there, you know and look the guy's still here, he never went to China, bury my heart in the China field Lord, that's his song, because his heart's over there supposedly but his whole entire body's here though, his entire body is here and they want me to make a vow to give money to some weakling, slothful missionary like that, hey we're taking a missions trip to Belize in November, I'm going to be a missionary for 4 days with brother Milan and brother Eddie, brother Robinson, we're going to go scope the land, he said what are you going to do, 2 things, 3 if you add sleep, 1 win people to Christ, 2 eat good food, 3 eat good food, you should live an aesthetic life, don't eat while you're out there, why, we need fuel, let's eat the fat of the land, amen, win people to Christ and say hey man that was a good area, let's have a church wide missions trip to Belize and look we don't have to do deputation, we don't have to take faith promise, we just look at the bank account, yeah there's enough let's go, let's go to Mexico, I don't have to make a video promoting my mission field, all the statistics, I mean I'm like wondering what the people are thinking like hey do you guys remember when we were supposed to send this guy out to China and he never went, what do you think about that, isn't that weird that we just gave him a bunch of money, we just gave him a group of money to sit on his fat rear end and just go to McDonald's more than he usually goes now because he has all this money, it angers me, it upsets me a lot, hey that's why I'm thankful that you know Faith for Worth MP is doing a missions conference, a real deal missions conference, amen, like hey man I'm bringing my checkbook, no checkbooks, this is real missions, every day of that missions conference is going to highlight a different continent and they're going to teach us how to do missions like how to learn a language, how to put a missions program together, how to do sowing in a foreign mission field, that's good stuff and not once is money going to be mentioned as far as I know, because it's not about the money, you don't have to be called to be a missionary, we're all missionaries amen, it's just that he just tells us to go to different parts of the world you know and go win people to Christ in that area, I don't know what that has to do with the book of judges, I don't even know how I got off on all that, can someone redirect me back to L.C., don't make a vow, don't make a vow, okay, don't make a vow, don't make a vow, you know the Bible tells us in Matthew chapter 5 verse 33, again you have heard that it had been said by them of old time, thou shall not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine oath, but I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil, you know what that means, if you vow you're being presumptuous and the Bible calls presumptuousness sin, that's evil, okay, and this is exactly what Jephthah does and unfortunately he loses his daughter because of it, now he's a man of integrity because he did it, but it's a sad story, it's his only daughter, he had no sons, no daughters other than her and he actually lost her because of that, because of that foolish vow, and look, we don't have to vow for something that God is already going to give us, I'll serve you if you just provide for my needs, I vow to serve you as long as you pay my bills, it's just like, just do what he tells you to do, seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and these things shall be added unto you, he's vowing unto you to do that for you, you don't have to do it to him, in fact it's dangerous if you do, and so we'll continue with Jephthah in chapter number 12, very interesting story in chapter 12, but we'll be finished with that, let's pray, Father we thank you so much for your word, and Lord thank you for just the example that we see in Jephthah that even though he came from a rough background, you still use them in a great way, and God I pray that you'd help us to recognize that, that whatever failures or flaws that we have, that we try not to magnify them and allow those to hinder us from serving you, help us to look at the silver lining in every experience that we've had in our lives, that would propel us forward to serve you, and help us not to be as Jephthah with making vows, help us to understand Lord that our communication should be yay yay nay nay, may we not make any vows that would harm our family, ourselves, our walk with the Lord, and I pray God that you'd help us to do so, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.