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All right, we are in judges chapter number two. If you remember, we started the book of judges two weeks ago and we started with chapter number one. I gave you a brief overview of what the book of judges is about and I just want to review with you regarding that just so we can get caught up to remember and to understand why the book of judges is here and as I mentioned two weeks ago, this is taking place prior to the earthly rule of kings in first Samuel but right after the death of Joshua and it's really when the nation of Israel goes into decay, it begins to atrophy, it begins to just really take a downward spiral morally to get away from God, generations that outlive Joshua and even those generations, they just begin to corrupt themselves so much more. Now one thing you have to understand about the book of judges is that as you read it, you're going to run into some crazy stories and some of these stories you kind of think to yourself, man, what in the world is happening here? Why is this taking place? What's going on? And really it's just a testament to show you what happens to a nation when every man does that which is right in their own eyes. And that perfectly describes the nation of Israel during these times. Now some of the books that really are tied into the book of judges, obviously we have the book of Joshua prior to judges, we have first Samuel that takes place after that, we have Hebrews chapter 11 that gives some characters that are derived from the book of judges but you also have the book of Ruth. Now the book of Ruth, though it comes after the book of judges in the Bible, the book of Ruth actually takes place within the times of the book of judges. So that's basically just another story that was not placed in this book that comes after the book of judges but it's actually found within the time period that we see here. Now let me give you an overview of the book itself. It can be really broken down into three separate parts. You have chapters 1 through 3 that really talk about the failure to conquer. So what do we have here in the book of judges? What we have is God allowing his people to inherit the promised land and what they're supposed to do is go in there, take out the inhabitants, destroy the people from off the land, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, all the Ike brothers and they're supposed to basically rid themselves of all of them because of all of their abominations, their bestiality, the faggotry, the idolatry, all these things that are taking place in these nations, God told his people to go in there and wipe them all out. Now they failed to do that. Now not completely, obviously they go in, they take out Jericho, that was a success, they had a hindrance at Ai but then thereafter the generations to come begin to fail at that commission, they begin to basically make tributes and affinities and leagues with the inhabitants of the surrounding nations which ends up being a snare to them and ends up causing them to stumble and really at the end of the day causes the wrath of God and the judgment of God to come upon them. So chapters one through three highlights that. Chapters three through sixteen is where you get into the meat of the book of Judges. Why is that? Well because through those chapters you have God explaining who each of the judges were which are twelve judges. Now here's the interesting thing about that is that six of those judges are just kind of talked about in passing, not a whole lot is explained about them but the other six judges are talked about pretty detailed. You have Othniel, you have Ihud, Deborah, you have Gideon, you have Jephthah and of course probably the most famous judge is Samson and the book of Judges spends a great amount of time talking about him, of course there's a lot of lessons we can learn from that. Chapter seventeen all the way to the end of chapter twenty-one you really have the depravity of Israel because of the fact that you have the story of Micah and his temple, you have the tribe of Dan coming in to plunder them, they burn a city of Laish which is the city of innocent people for no reason. Chapter nineteen you have the fags, the sons of Belial and then chapters twenty to twenty-one you have the story of the first civil war taking place within Israel. And so that's really a bird's eye view of the book of Judges and last week we basically went over chapter one and a lot of what chapter one is talking about is simply what's taking place after they inherit the promised land and some of their failures. Chapter two is basically kind of giving a synopsis of that as well and a lot of it's being reiterated what we see in chapter one and some of the stuff that we see in the book of Joshua but it really shows us kind of like a panoramic view of the book of Judges. So you can basically take chapter two and input it in every single chapter in the book of Judges and that's exactly the state that it's in because it's not really going into detail with characters, it's not really going into detail with the judges themselves, it's just giving you an overview of what's taking place throughout all these generations. Now look at verse one of chapter two it says and an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you unto the land which I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant with you. Now right off the bat I want you to notice that in the beginning of the chapter the first verse there it talks about the angel of the Lord. Now this is something you'll frequently see throughout the Bible and specifically when you see it in the Old Testament you know it could it could really be three people okay. It's either an actual angel which we would consider to be a celestial being like Michael or Gabriel. It could refer to just a man who is a messenger you know prophet of the Lord or it's actually referring to what people would refer to as a pre-incarnate Christ, it's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe that in this verse it's actually referring to Jesus Christ himself. Now the reason for that is because in the same verse you have this angel of the Lord speaking in the first person. Look what it says it says and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant with you. You say well how do you know that that's not referring to a prophet? Well typically when a prophet speaks he says thus saith the Lord right he begins to quote the Lord as this person is actually speaking in the first person and he's referred to as the angel of the Lord here. Now to further prove this let's go to Exodus chapter 3, Exodus chapter 3 if you would. Exodus chapter 3 in the famous story of the burning bush when Moses comes he's keeping the flock of God of Jethro his father-in-law and median and he comes across the burning bush right the bush that's on fire but it's not consumed. Look at verse number 2 it says and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush and he looked and behold the bush burned with fire the bush was not consumed and Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt and when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said Moses Moses and he said here am I and he said draw not nigh hither put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where on the place where on thou standest is holy ground. So you see that God himself is referred to as an angel of the Lord and we obviously would understand that that is Jesus Christ. He said well why would I call him the angel of the Lord though? You know what people commonly know and as these celestial beings these beasts that the Bible talks about in the book of Revelation why would I call him an angel? Well simply for the fact that an angel doesn't just mean a celestial being it just means a messenger a person who brings a message okay. For example you have even in Spanish the word for gospel is Evangelio which what do you have within that word angel? You say well give me an English example. Okay well you're looking at an angel right now amen. Can I get an amen? I'm just kidding. I'm the evangelist of the church and guess what you find dead smack in the middle of that word angel because an evangelist is someone simply someone who brings the message of the gospel to someone right is preaching the gospel is sowing and that's exactly what it is so an angel simply who's someone who's bringing a message from God. Now you have examples of men who are angels even in the Bible you look at Revelation chapter 21 Revelation chapter 22 and John falls down prostrate before the angel right and the angel tells them hey you know I'm paraphrasing here he's like I'm like one of thy brethren I'm one of the prophets he says so that even goes to show us in Revelation chapter 22 that there's going to be an angel who's actually a prophet possibly from even the Old Testament who's delivering the message to John so it's not always this celestial being obviously there are times when it is so how do I know which one we're dealing with you just got to look at the context amen so that we see that in Exodus chapter 3 verse 2 but you also see in Joshua chapter 5 in verse 14 you don't have to go there or Joshua sees the captain of the Lord of hosts right and he says be for us or for our enemies and he says basically nay and that same person tells Joshua put off thy shoes from off thy feet from the place where I now stand is is holy referencing Exodus chapter 3 verse 2 so it's the same exact person this is how we know that the angel the Lord there is referring to Jesus Christ and I believe it's referring to the same person here in chapter number 2 now let's read on here so it says an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you unto the land which I swear unto your fathers and I said I will never break my covenant with you now keep in mind that Gilgal is the eastern border of Jericho so this is a place where the children of Israel chose to encamp and inhabit after they crossed the Jordan River so this is basically like their headquarters their base camp okay and what God is basically telling them like hey I brought you out of the land of Egypt I swear to the land that I swore unto your fathers and he says I will never break my covenant and let me ask you a question did God break his covenant no he never did now here's the thing you have Zionists they will try to use this to say well that's why the Jews are still God's chosen people because God never broke his covenant with Israel but hold on a second in order for a covenant to even be you know still in power still have authority you have to have a covenant is an agreement so if one person breaches that covenant even if the other person keeps it guess what it's still breached so he's stating a fact here the he will never break his covenant with them but you know what it was broken and in fact God made a better covenant in the New Testament because of the fact that they breached it now here's the funny thing is that you talk to people who are Zionists and they want to swear up and down God will never break his covenant God will never break his covenant he's never going to do it he's never going to do it God's just you know these people if they really think about it and they need to be careful they're actually even denying the Bible why is that well because of the fact that if you don't believe that that covenant was not breached then you don't believe that we're in the New Testament because the New Testament is just another word for New Covenant we're in the New Covenant so here's the thing if you want to say well God never broke his covenant well hold on a second we're in the New Testament so are you even a Christian so did Jesus Christ even come because of the fact that what started off the New Testament what started off the New Covenant the death of Christ go to Hebrews chapter 8 can't talk about this without going to Hebrews chapter 8 look you can't talk about the covenants and the New Covenant without realizing first that the old covenant has been done away with okay and I'm not saying that God broke his covenant because he didn't I'm just saying that he made a better one and in fact that's what God is saying look what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter number 8 and verse number 7 and look if there was no breach in the covenant then we don't need the New Testament we don't need the New Testament if there was no breach in the covenant did you know that look what it says in verse number 7 for if that first covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second it's like look if there's nothing wrong going on there then we don't even need another covenant we don't need a New Testament which they're synonymous they mean the same thing are you saying that God is at fault no let's keep reading it says here verse 8 for finding fault with them so whose fault was it it was the Jews fault now look you say how do you know that well because of the fact that the old covenant began when Moses brought the laws of God from Mount Sinai okay you know those ten commandments that's considered the covenant well how can you say you know there's still God's chosen people well what's the first commandment of the ten covenants of the ten covenants of the ten commandments what's the first commandment of the ten commandments thou shalt have no other gods before me I mean obviously they were guilty of adultery they're definitely guilty of stealing they're guilty of all kinds of things but the number one thing that they were guilty of you read in the Old Testament is that they all had other gods before God the true God and in fact in this very chapter of Judges chapter 2 what do you see that they were turned aside serving Balaam and Asheroth so that's what that's called it's called a breach in the covenant that's a breach in the contract you breached the contract you broke the very first commandment oh but he said he'll never break his command yeah but you did you had another you had other gods you were serving other gods so how can they call how can they say they're serving the true God when they're actually serving other gods you can't have both you can't serve God and mammon Jews for either he will hold to the one and love the other or he will hate the one or in love the other I'm misquoting that but the fact of the matter is look mammon is what money isn't that true today of the Jews that they hold to that but they hate God so look what it goes on to say for finding fault with them he says behold the days come saith the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt what is that referring to that's referring to the Ten Commandments now obviously there's a lot more than it that involved that but the very first commandment was thou shall have no other gods before me and they broke that okay because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord what does it mean when he says he doesn't regard them he doesn't notice them he doesn't regard them as his people okay and if you read Romans chapter 2 28 to 29 it tells us that the Jew who's according to the heart whose praise excuse me is whose praises not of men but of God right so it's talking about the fact that God doesn't recognize Jews that are according to the flesh but rather he recognizes those who are Jews circumcised in the heart whose praises not of men but of God go back to judges chapter number two so he's right he will never break his covenant with them but that doesn't mean that they can't breach that covenant they can't breach that agreement okay so this is not just like an ironclad even if you break it I'll never break it because look and people think like the Jews or Israel of the Old Testament was just this lifelong generation throughout from Genesis or you know all the way up until Malachi we're talking about different generations here so you know what he did with the generation if they had another God he just wiped them out and then started anew with a new generation because it wasn't like a perpetual generation that was just you know going back and forth it's basically telling that when it talks about Israel it's talking about a nation but you got to keep in mind these are different generations within that nation so one nation would serve you know Asheroth and Baal and what would happen they would die off a new generation would arise and they would have the choice of either having God as their God the true God or serving the God of their forefathers on the other side of the flood now look what it says in verse number two now here's the breach and ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land ye shall throw down their altars but ye have not obeyed my voice why have you done this wherefore I also said I will not drive them out from before you but they shall be as thorns in your sides and their gods should be a snare unto you now a lot of times when you see that word league you know it's synonymous with the word affinity and if you remember from chapter number one what's one of the things that they were doing why were they keeping them around what would they do they would conquer a land they wouldn't kill them but they would put them under what tribute right it was like well we'll just we'll just tax them okay we don't like them so we'll just tax them that's why we're keeping them around but that's not what God told them to do and look that's not and it doesn't stop there because not only did they put them under tribute they made leagues with them and you know what that typically includes it includes marriage giving your daughters unto them and their daughters unto you that's what it means to make an affinity okay they begin to intermingle and marry amongst the inhabitants of the land and what happens it becomes polluted now why are you teaching racism no I'm not teaching racism though there's some old IFB'ers that would use something like this to teach that you shouldn't you know marry someone outside your race hey newsflash we're all everything oh I'm lighter and they're darker well that just means that they got more sun or something you know your skin color can mean less to God we're all intermingled we just found out the other day that Marco Sanchez has Congo in him right he's black there you go you guys all thought he was Mexican you know well here's the thing everyone's everything obviously it's a variation and everything like that but I don't even know how I got off on that oh we're talking about leagues here the reason he was saying don't make a league or don't make an affinity with the inhabitants of the land was not because of racial issues but because of religious issues because of the fact that they served other gods and he knew that if you married into a family that served Astaroth or Balaam eventually you would too you know you marry a Catholic woman and you know she's gonna end up taking you to Catholic Church and you're gonna end up compromising and serving that God and curing the wrath of God upon yourself you know in the New Testament that hasn't changed be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers the Bible says for what what agreement hath you know light with darkness with righteousness with unrighteousness what Concord hath Christ with Belial right we need to make sure that as God's people we always emphasize to keep it in the family and I'm not talking about incest either I'm talking about spiritual family right making sure that the people you marry the man you marry the woman you marry is saved okay saved they have the true God they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that's how it needs to be well you know I'm dating this person and she's not saved or he's not saved but I'm just trying to win them to the Lord you know forget that I've heard that that's an old song okay and it never works out and in fact most of the time when that happens sometimes the person even lies to you just to try to get with you they'll lie to you and then you find out later that person wasn't even saved to begin with ruins your life you don't want that we need to make sure that you that your children or maybe if you're single yourself but if you're married that your children you instill that discernment in them to say hey we're only supposed to marry saved people and look I think take it a step further marry a Baptist you know that's the that's the cream of the crop in my opinion it's the best kind amen right Sarah I'm just kidding you guys didn't get that you know Baptist hey I take it a step further independent fundamental Baptist new IFB Baptist you know I don't see nothing wrong with marrying someone from your own church you know she probably look for people to marry who are part of your own church now look if there's another church out there that has a godly young lady who has the same views as you or a man there's nothing wrong with that either but I'm talking about you know there's people who just marry into some non-denom you know weakling of a church and they have a different Bible version and just like you know that's different at that point it's just like no good don't do that okay now thankfully through social media you can't kind of know what a person is like to a certain extent you see what I'm saying but what I'm saying is hey the the commandment that we see here is not to make any to not make any leagues with the inhabitants and not only means hey don't have any affiliation with them you should even marry into them because eventually they'll take you off course I mean think about Solomon right Mary he married a bunch of unsaved ladies and they drove his heart away from the Lord you know and that ended up very bad for him that says in verse 2 and he shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land ye shall throw down their altars so one he's saying hey don't have any affinity with them to throw down their altars be active in fighting against them you know in other words you said what's the New Testament had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them so it's not just a matter of not being part of all you know we don't want to associate with the non-denoms and these liberals but we don't want to criticize them either no we got to do both you criticize people of course yes because of the fact that the Bible tells me not only to not have fellowship with them I'm supposed to reprove them to correct them to rebuke them to reprove them you know that's what that's what he's telling them to do it's not just hey don't intermingle with the inhabitants make sure you throw down their altars just I not only don't like you I'm breaking your altars you know just like just destroying stuff I'm not gonna marry you and here's your stupid God and just destroy it oh that seems a little too radical that's the kind of people God wants you know radicalized people a radicalized Christianity Baptists who are radical a peculiar people zealous of good works and a good work is to throw down an altar that's pretty zealous right there and this is God saying this throw down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this now the reason he's asking that is because if you read the latter end of the chapter of chapter 21 of Joshua excuse me chapter 24 of Joshua you see Israel saying hey whatever you say we'll do and we're gonna obey you we're gonna obey you we're gonna obey the commandments of the Lord not make a league with these people not have affinity with them and then what did it do a couple chapters afterwards that's exactly what they're doing and God is just basically saying why have you done this look what it says in verse 3 wherefore I also said I will not drive them out from before you so it's like those people who you want to be around so much okay you can have them and in fact when you're sick of them they're still gonna be there it's like people who want to backslide and then want to go back to their old buddies or their old lifestyle God's like alright that's what you want and they're gonna be thorns in your sides and pricks in your eyes they're gonna vex your righteous soul okay this is but they shall be as thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare unto you now that phrase a thorn in your side simply it's just another way of saying that they're gonna vex you okay so you think of a thorn in your side is this something that bothers you it's causing you to suffer and that's exactly what's gonna happen here because of the fact that yeah although they're benefiting from that tribute they're benefiting from getting a wife or a husband from these inhabitants the long run you know in the long run what's good what it's gonna produce is not good why is that well the Bible tells us here that their gods shall be a snare unto you what does that mean well once that generation dies off who knew Joseph and his works and God the generation that rises up will be a watered-down version of that and at that point when the Bible talks about the God or their God shall be a snare unto you that's reiterated in Numbers chapter 33 as being pricks in their eyes in other words they can't see so what does that mean well if you think about in the New Testament you have 2nd Corinthians 3 and chapter 4 talk about the God of this world has blinded the minds right so they unless they should come to the knowledge of the glorious gospel so in like manner when they make leagues or affinities with the inhabitants of this land they die off their offspring continue and what happens the gods become these gods become a snare unto them they begin to blind them and at that point you raise up a generation that's not saved that's sad you know to point you can get to a point where your third generation fourth generation offspring is not saved and in fact they're not only not saved they're serving Devils they're serving false gods they're serving Satan right that's the extreme of what we see here because they're serving bail and Asher off so that becomes a snare unto them you know I think of like people who want to get out of church you know for whatever they want to take a season off or maybe they're discouraged or depressed or whatever you know and this has happened in times past where they get out of church and then you know they raise they raise their children but not in church and their children don't even know about God I mean my wife's spoken to people like that children are just like who's Jesus I don't know who Jesus is that's a sad that's a sad testimony you know God forbid that that should ever happen to any of us you know how can I prevent that well don't make a league right and you you you fervently zealously teach the Bible to your children make sure make sure they know who Jesus is make sure they know the Bible so they don't forget these things in the generations to come look what it goes on to say in verse number four and it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept and they call the name of the place Bokem and they sacrificed there unto the Lord they're weeping because they're like man you know we messed up they're they're repenting right but look what it goes on to say verse number six and when Joshua had let the people go the children of Israel went every man into his inheritance to possess the land and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel and Joshua the son of Nun the servant of the Lord died being 110 years old and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Harris in the Mount of Ephraim on the north side of the hill Geash and also all the generation excuse me and also all that generation were gathered unto their father so what do we see we see three generations right Joshua passes away then there's a generation right it says in verse number seven that outlived Joshua and then you have verse 10 and also all that generation the generation that came after those who outlived Joshua were gathered unto their fathers and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord it didn't take very long Joshua was gone those who outlived Joshua and then that generation and then there rose another generation after that who knew not the Lord it only takes a couple generations okay after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel so look how could it did how could this been have been prevented well if they told him about the works of the Lord you know we have heard it from our fathers our fathers have told us the great works that the Lord had done you know you're gonna you need to make sure that in your family you talk about the works of God well God has done for FWBC LA the works that God has done in your life and talk about them talk about it frequently oh you know but we get bored we need to talk about something else what like novellas or something you talk about Hollywood gossip you need to talk about foolish jangling I mean what do you what what thing do you have to talk about better to talk about the works of the Lord to get that ingrained into the hearts of your children you see you want to make sure the church God the Bible is real to your children not only when they're in church like oh yeah when we go to church we put our church clothes on and we're doing church no one needs to be real at home too you know as excited as you get here you should be excited at home as well about the things of God for the sake of your children okay because things are rather caught than taught you can teach your children to do right but you know what the better way to teach them is how you live because things are rather caught they'll copy an example rather than obey a word okay look what it says after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel so they didn't know the Lord but it didn't stop there now did it and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and serve Balaam so what do we see just as we see that their decision to put them under tribute it didn't stop there did it they made a league than an affinity also here we see that not only did they not know the Lord what's the byproduct of that now they're serving Balaam okay that's what the Bible tells us that he wants a holy people what is the holy people are people that are separated from something unto God so it's not just a matter of separating from this world or the ideologies of this world the sins of our flesh we need to be separated unto God because our natural design is that that's exactly what we do when we forsake something we have a desire to be with something else something has to fill that gap so that's why it's important look when you get rid of your old buddies find some new buddies not just new buddies find some buddies at church make buddies at church you know oh yeah I got away from all my wicked associations alright so who are you new ones because you need new ones you know oh I just I got away from this bad church I don't go there anymore okay so what church are you going to you can't just like not do something and not replace it because the natural propensity for a person is to forsake something but to fill it fill in the gap with something else just as we saw here they knew not the Lord and they served Balaam who's Balaam the god of the Canaanites so God knew what he was talking about now didn't he when he told him hey destroy all the Canaanites why because eventually Balaam the god of the Canaanites will be your God and that's exactly what we see take place here verse 12 and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were round about them and bow themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to anger and they forsook the Lord I mean he's just like just re-emphasizing this and served Baal and Astaroth now think about this why did he say to make sure to destroy the people because if not Baal will be their god right but was it just that that was gonna happen no they would do according to the abominations of all the inhabitants what do we see in the book of judges we see faggotry taking place in in judges chapter 19 that is the natural byproduct that happens when you forsake God and you serve Devils are you insinuating that the homosexuals yeah they're serving Satan because they're forsook when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened this applies not only to an individual it also applies to even a nation okay it says in verse 14 and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel you ever been so mad that your face gets hot yeah you know your face gets red but you're actually warm you know well that's what he's saying the only difference is God gets madder than you you know the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them he plundered them and he sold them into the hand of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies you know what's interesting about that when you think about a reprobate for example you know they forsook God or they chose not to believe in Christ right and he gave him over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient okay so basically it was he gave them to their own hearts lust to do those things which are not convenient well that's the same thing we see here like oh you want you want to make a league with the inhabitants of the land okay I'll just sell you to them and I'll let them to spoil you and they'll reign over you there'll be a snare to your side I'll give you your hearts fill of these people of the land that's basically what he's saying there it's very scary so they could not any longer stand before their enemies so at one time they had him under tribute now they're just like they're being vexed by these people right look at verse 15 with us whoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for evil I mean talk about you know people who have a problem then they move to another state or something to get to get away from their problem it's basically the same thing they're gonna find the same problem there because the hand of the Lord was against them with us whoever they went now what does that remind you of what reminds me of First Thessalonians when it talks about the Jews how the wrath has come upon them until the innermost why because no matter where Jews go the hand of the Lord is always against them no matter what location they're in oh I know that's because they're being persecuted you know they're being persecuted look if I told I saw a really great post the other day and it said if I told you that I was fired from like 39 jobs and I told you that I was evicted from this many you know apartments or something you would say there's something wrong with me you would say no there's nothing wrong with the bosses it's nothing wrong with the jobs there's something wrong with you why is it you can't take that same standard beloved juice oh they're being persecuted no they're wicked the hand of the Lord is against them he said it here and he's saying in First Thessalonians as well handle Lord is against them okay where the server they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn into them and they were greatly distressed verse 16 nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them now what people misunderstand here is they don't understand that this is actually another generation that rises up because not like he just lets them become spoiled for like a week you know you're in timeout for like two no this is like takes takes place over a span of many years even when these the people in that prior generation die off their offspring grow up and then he raises up a deliverer okay so this is not the same people the hand of the Lord was against them or I'm sorry verse 16 nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them and yet they would not hearken unto their judges but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord but they did not so so look God is being gracious he raised up a judge and it doesn't specify what judge in a specific chapter because of the fact that it's just giving you an overview of what all the judges were doing because this is a vicious cycle that takes place throughout the book of judges and he's saying this is what happened they would go whoring after other gods God will raise up a judge to deliver them and to judge them that's what they're called judges right he would deliver them what would he judge them say you're doing wrong this is wicked this is vile you're disobeying God he would judge them and what would happen as soon as that judge would die they would go back and go whoring after other gods again quickly out of the way verse 18 and when the Lord raised them up judges then the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge for repent of the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and begs them so God was being compassionate to these new generations that would rise up but here's the thing it was like a losing battle because of the fact that they're growing up already with the ideologies that their fathers believed already ingrained in them so just keep that in mind look when you choose to get out of church or you choose not to follow the commandments of the Lord that what you do in moderation your children will do in excess you get out of church a little they shall get out much you sin a little they shall sin much because that's exactly how it works the Bible tells us that they got out of the way quickly as soon as that judge is there all right let's party let's serve Baal let's serve Asheroth let's not serve the God of our father's wife because it was already ingrained in them that that's the example that their fathers gave now people can take this and say well yeah yeah that's why I struggle so much man I just it's my dad's fault no it's not it's they they have a responsibility but you also have a responsibility too and God will not hold you guiltless for the things that you do even if it was to be blamed on the bad training of your parents okay verse 18 and when the Lord raised them up judges I'm sorry verse 19 and it came to pass when the judge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers and following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them they cease not from their own doings nor from their from their stubborn way only one other time is this phrase found corrupted themselves go to Hosea chapter number nine if you would Hosea chapter number nine Hosea chapter number nine look at verse number nine now in Hosea's time they're basically in the same rut sinful rut you know we talked to the book of Hosea a couple months ago they're in the same rut that we see what's taking place in the book of Judges now look what it says in verse number nine they have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah therefore he will remember their iniquity he will visit their sins the Bible says I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness I saw your fathers as the first ripe uh in the fig tree at her first time but they went to Belpeor and separated themselves into that shame and their abominations were according as they loved so in verse number nine it says that they have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah now what is Gibeah? Gibeah is the region where the Benjamites dwell so it's giving you a picture of what corruption he's referring to because you're corrupting yourselves as in the days of Gibeah and the Gibeah is referring to that region in which the Benjamites the sons of Belial the ones who raped the woman in Judges chapter 19 that's where they lived now is it any coincidence that in Hosea chapter 9 they corrupted themselves more than they of in the days of Gibeah and then they went and served Belpeor and what do we see in Judges chapter 2 the same exact thing why are they corrupting themselves because they're serving other gods this is the this is what we see here when a when a nation becomes reprobate go to go to Romans chapter number one if you would Romans chapter number one look at Romans 1 and verse 21 and look at let's look at this this these next couple verses through the lens of the nation of Israel in Judges chapter 2 because that when they knew God verse 21 they glorified him not as God neither were thankful you know they weren't thankful for the judges that delivered them right you know a judge today would be considered what like a preacher a soul winner who comes to give them the gospel to save them neither were thankful we became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God you know how they corrupted themselves the uncorruptible God into an image made like a corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness so in Judges he gave them up too didn't he who did he give them up to the Canaanites and what do they learn from the Canaanites the abominations gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who was blessed forever amen so you're looking too much into that that can't be applied to the book of judges for for this cause God gave them up to vile affections for even their women to change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burning their lust one toward another men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was meat that's what happens in the book of judges and this is the byproduct of a nation who forsakes the true God and they serve a false god are you saying that all the fags out here you know they're serving satan well either knowingly or unknowingly yes they are because you know they probably they themselves are their own god and the ones who are high up there and principalities and powers you know the rules of the darkness of this world who are fags yeah they're serving satan and they know it so we go back to judges the book of judges so we see the correlation there that the principle applies to both an individual and a nation when it comes to reprobation i didn't want to for that to rhyme but hey that's not pretty good verse 19 it came to pass when they judged the judge was dead that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers and following other gods to serve them and to bow down into them they cease not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way and the anger of the lord was hot against israel and he said because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which i commanded their fathers and have not hearkened unto my voice i will also henceforth excuse me i will also not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which joshua left when he died now there is a twofold purpose as to why he's not going to drive them out obviously we understand because it's of their because of their disobedience right what is he doing to them he's chastising them and look what it says in verse 22 that through them the inhabitants they don't drive out i may prove israel what is another word for prove test them now who is he testing is he testing the benjamites the fags no because remember though a nation could be reprobate not every person found within that nation is reprobate like we would say america's become a reprobate we would say america's wicked but is everyone in america wicked no because we have bible believing christians a remnant who believes in god right and though god can judge a nation like america and allow catastrophic events to take place allow this nation to be judged for the wicked it is judgment for us as individuals is to prove us right to prove us for what that through them i may prove israel whether they will keep my way of the lord to walk therein as their fathers that keep it or not so one thing that god is what thing that god does to allow this to happen is to prove the righteous right to see if they're grounded in the word of god if they're willing to stay in the way no matter what happens even if god is judging the land they're still going to stay faithful they're not going to follow a multitude to do evil they're going to remain faithful to god amen so this is the way we could apply today god is judging america by allowing fags to just have a lot of preeminence in the country he's judging america but you know what are we going to go along with the with this wicked ideology and this garbage tolerance and acceptance towards the sodomites and the reprobates no we're going to keep the way of the lord no matter what so that's number one what the reason why he does this why does god judge a nation because he is proving the righteous to see if they will keep the way of the lord or not okay let's keep reading therefore the lord left those nations without driving them out hastily neither delivered he them into the hand of joshua so basically saying you get no deliverance but you also get no victory okay so you said what's the second reason well look at verse one of chapter three now these are the nations which the lord left to prove israel by them even as many of israel as had not known all the wars of canan only that the generation of the children of israel might know to teach them war at the least such as before knew nothing thereof so what was the other purpose as to why he was allowing these nations to overcome them to teach that generation previously the ones who didn't know anything about war what was he doing he's teaching them to fight that's pretty cool so he's like i'm gonna allow these people here because you guys are a bunch of softies you know you never punched a guy in the nose in your entire life you never got in a fist fight so i'm leaving these people here so you can learn how to war so he's doing it to prove them to test them to see if they remain in the way but he's also doing it to train them to learn how to fight he said what war are you talking about well a judge is a what a deliverer he's like a general and a judge operates as a general of an army so when that judge rises up they would basically do like an uprising and fight against the inhabitants of that land so these little young bucks who wanted to do right but they don't know how to swing a sword well you better learn how to swing a sword down because the judge is here he says we're going to war so you better learn how to fight now what's the application there well maybe you've never fought any battles in your life about when i say punch to the nose i'm not talking about that's what you need to go do though it wouldn't hurt every once in a while to get in the fight okay but what i'm saying is you know that's not the kind of fight you know we we don't war against flesh and blood right you know the weapons of our warfare are not carnal mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds so if you've never been in a battle if you've never experienced the stress of having enemies or being persecuted now's not the time to tuck your tail between your legs and run now is the time to keep the way of the lord and learn how to go to fight learn how to fight learn how to war learn how to stand up for righteousness learn how to stand for truth why because that's what god's doing it for he's allowing this war here for such a time as this to teach you to be a big boy put your big boy pants on put the boxing gloves on and it's time to fight you know and you know what fighting is not just you being on the defensive it's also casting down the altars throwing down the altars rebuking them not just not have fellowship with the unfulfilled works of darkness we need to reprove them because a fight is when you not only defend but you also fight back throw a knee an elbow a spinning back fist or do something learn how to go to war spiritually is what i'm saying okay so that was the two reasons why so obviously the wicked of the of the land you get wiped out god's going to destroy you but the righteous of this reprobate nation who's become a reprobate because generally speaking they were all in a sense that nation was worshiping a false god you know god's telling you hey i'm proving you though you better keep the way of the lord and you better learn how to duke it out put up your fists dirt up thy loins like a man it's time to fight amen that's pretty much it let's pray father we thank you so much for your word thank you for judges chapter 2 and the principles founder of and i pray god that you'd help us lord we could look at the nation of israel during this time and make immediate application to the united states of america because we are being judged as a nation the wicked are ruling the righteous are not in power and for the united states of america it's just being destroyed but for the righteous remnant the purpose of this is to prove us to see if we will remain in the way of the lord but also to teach us how to go to war if we've never experienced some sort of spiritual battle well this is good grounds to learn and i pray god that you help us to be strong in the lord and the power of his might and help us not to draw back and i just pray god that you you continue to be with us as a church and for the wars ahead and in jesus name we pray amen