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up to her for judgment and she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoham out of Kadesh Naphtali and said unto him hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded saying go and draw toward Mount Tabor and take with thee 10,000 men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun and I'll draw unto thee the river Kaish unto thee unto thee to the river Kaish on Sisera the captain of Jabin's army with his chariots and his multitude and I'll deliver him into thine hand and Barak said unto her if thou will go with me then I will go but if thou will not go with me then I will not go and she said I will surely go with thee notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman and Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh and Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kadesh and he went up and he went up with 10,000 men at his feet and Deborah went up with him now Hebrew the Canaanite which was of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses had severed himself from the key nights and pitched his tent under the plane of Zainim which is by Kadesh and they showed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinim was gone up to Mount Tabor and Sisera gathered together all his chariots even 900 chariots of iron and all the people that were with him from Herosheth of the Gentiles under the river of Kaish on and Deborah said unto Barak up for this is the day in which the Lord had delivered Sisera into thine hand is not the Lord gone out before thee so Barak went down from Mount Tabor and 10,000 men after him and the Lord discomfited Sisera and all his chariots and all his hosts with the edge of the sword before Barak so that Sisera lighted down off this chariot and fled away on his feet but Barak pursued after the chariots and after the host unto Herosheth of the Gentiles and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword and there was not a man left albeit Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite but there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite and Jael went out to meet Sisera and said unto him turn in my Lord turn into me fear not and when he had turned unto unto her into the tent she covered him with a mantle and he said unto her give me I pray thee a little water to drink for I'm thirsty and she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him again he said unto her stand in the door of the tent it shall be when any man doth come and inquire of thee and say is there any man here that thou shalt say no then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand and went softly unto him and smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the ground for he was fast asleep and weary so he died and behold as Barak pursued Sisera Jael came out to meet him and said unto him come and I'll show thee the man whom thou seekest and when he came into her tent behold Sisera laid dead and the nail was in his temples so God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel and the hand of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan until they destroyed Jabin king of Canaan let's pray to Lord God just thank you for everything you've blessed us with just ask that you would be with our pastor now as he preaches I pray that you fill him with your spirit and please just bless the message and in Jesus name we pray amen amen okay we're in Judges chapter 4 and we're gonna come back to this story in just a bit but if you can go with me to Romans chapter 12 hold your place there in the book of Judges chapter 4 but go to Romans chapter 12 the title of my sermon this morning is permissible but not sanctioned permissible but not sanctioned this morning I want to talk about the principle that just because God allowed someone to do something it doesn't mean that he sanctioned it meaning that you know the Bible is filled with men and women doing great exploits doing great things for God God using them in a great way but the Bible is also filled with the same people doing questionable things right questionable things that would cause the reader to think maybe God was okay with it maybe that means that it's okay for us to do something like that and there's always throughout the Bible this somewhat of permissive silence from God that can cause people to think oh God is fine with this person committing this particular action fulfilling this particular role and more often than not you'll find that many times when people did things that seemed wrong questionable and you know God didn't correct them for it or something it's not that he sanctioned it it's but rather he just allowed it okay and allowing something doesn't necessarily mean that he puts a stamp of approval on it it just means that he's allowing man to exercise their free will it doesn't mean it's God's will it doesn't mean that it should be a template for how we should do things right it simply means that he allowed it now why would God do something like that why would he allow certain people in the Bible to do certain things that when we look at the plenary of Scripture would say well that was wrong how come God didn't correct them why didn't he punish him for that why didn't he actually say something why was there silence during the time well here's three reasons why and I already mentioned one of them and the first one is that there are times when God chooses not to intervene with with man's free will okay you know God is not a Calvinistic God where he is just controlling every person's actions and motives and you know essentially just making robots in this world he's obviously allowing man to exercise their free will and believe it or not man chooses their will to do wrong things to make bad decisions to commit sin to do things that are not pleasing unto the Lord and so sometimes God doesn't intervene because of the fact that he's given mankind the gift of free will but another reason why he would allow certain people to fulfill roles or do certain things that are not approved in the eyes of God it's because of the fact that actions have built-in consequences so it's almost a matter of God's not willing to punish them because they're already going to be punished their actions have consequences there are ramifications to the things that they do and in fact let me read you two verses here you don't have to turn there in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 31 says therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices Psalm 81 verse 12 says so I gave them up unto their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels showing us that there's instances where God says okay if that's what you want you can have it but you're obviously going to be filled with your ways you're going to suffer the consequences of your actions and hopefully they learn from it right but here's the last reason I'm sure there's other ones that we can come up with but here's the last one as to why God allows certain people to do certain things and that is because of the fact that you know if the person loves God if they genuinely love the Lord the Lord will work out their situation together for good not at the expense of the consequence but he will work it out together for good so even when people make mistakes they commit sin they do things that are not pleasing in the eyes of the Lord or they do something that is questionable but they continue to love God and they continue to serve God you know God can take those bad ingredients of the decisions they made and make something great about it okay not to say they're not going to suffer the consequences of their actions it's just the promise that we have in God's Word that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose and so that should be as a sign of relief for us because of the fact that we're not perfect we make mistakes we sin we make stupid decisions sometimes and it's not that we don't suffer the consequences of our actions but the reality is this is that if we continue to love the Lord and walk with God God can do something great with that not because he couldn't do it without it but just because he's working with sinful man and you know sinful man produces sinful ingredients and so we as Christians don't want to use examples of God's permissive silence to automatically think that God approves of their actions okay look at Romans chapter 12 real quick and we're gonna come back to judges for look at Romans 12 verse number 1 the Apostle Paul says here I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God they present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is a reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so he's admonishing the Romans the the the Christian Romans here he's telling them hey you need to have your mind transformed meaning that you need to know what the Bible says okay know what God's standard is know what the Word of God says don't be conformed to the philosophies in the doctrines of this world you need to have your mind transformed by the Word of God okay in other words look at everything through a biblical perspective judge all things based upon the Bible right not based upon philosophy not based upon your favorite secular speaker or whatever may be based upon the principles and doctrines that are found within the Word of God so our mind is supposed to be cleansed from the philosophies of this world and take the mind of Christ right and make decisions and view situations through the lens of Scripture okay and he says there they be transformed by the renewing of your mind listen to this that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God so there's a lot of benefits to having a mind of Christ but the one specifically that we see here is that he says you know you need to have your mind transform so that you can discern what is the good what is acceptable and what is God's perfect will and look obviously God wants his perfect will for your life right but because Christians don't read the Bible and sometimes they don't know what the Bible says and they don't necessarily study the Bible or put themselves under preaching and seek to actually look for the truth sometime and but they still love God sometimes they get the acceptable will of God or sometimes they get the goodwill of God okay and here's the thing good is good but it's not great acceptable is acceptable but it's not perfect acceptable is like you choose to make a decision that is contrary to God's Word but you love the Lord and so God will work it out together for good it's not God's perfect will but it's his acceptable will because you're obviously choosing to continue to serve God okay the point that I'm making here is that in the Bible there are instances where things are permissible but they're not necessarily sanctioned by God it's not God's perfect will it's an acceptable will it's a goodwill of God based upon the actions of men now go back to Judges chapter 4 now you say what does it have to do with Deborah and Barak you know I mean like how are you gonna tie that in well because Deborah is a leader in Israel and Deborah did a great work and she was used in a great way in the history of the children of Israel but let's just be honest if we're to take all the principles of the Bible in regards to spiritual leadership or any leadership for that matter women aren't supposed to be involved in that but yet you have Deborah who is now here's the thing before I get into that let me explain the system of the judges briefly before we get into judges for the book of Judges is a really just iffy time during the history of the children of Israel okay it's like that is that that dark period in the history of Israel the Israel is not really proud about okay you know like probably in your life you probably have some sort of segment in your life that you hope no one finds out about you know it but if we go you know far enough back in your Facebook on your Instagram we might we might find it and you're pretty ashamed of it or something and probably later on today you'll go through that and you'll delete all those well that's kind of how you know the book of Judges is for Israel because every man was doing that which is right in their own eyes there's like a lot of bad stuff that happened during that time and it's during this era that the children of Israel did not have a king they were still under what we would consider to be a theocracy meaning that God was their king he was ruling over them they didn't have an earthly king like all the other nations and so God instituted the system of the judges meaning that there are these men who were sanctioned by God to be somewhat like military generals but also to proclaim the judgments of the Lord to the people okay and what happened during this era is that you know the children of Israel they would backslide and get away from God and do that which is not pleasing in God's eyes they would worship false gods and so God will come and punish them and one of the ways he would come to punish them is that he would allow them to essentially be overtaken by a foreign nation to be taken captive and to be oppressed by some other nation some foreign nation for decades in some instances okay and so they worship false gods then God's like okay that's what you want then the nations of these false gods are gonna overtake you they're gonna oppress you and you'll be sorry and true you know years later the children of Israel would cry out into the Lord and be like deliver us and so what God would do is that he would raise up a judge who essentially had the Spirit of God upon them they operate as someone as a military general there would revolt against the you know the the oppressors of that time under you know God's authority and they would deliver the children of Israel out of the hand of the oppressor okay and then the cycle would just repeat itself over and over again so the book of Judges is primarily about those stories just backsliding you know worshiping false gods being oppressed and then God delivers them the judge rises up cool story and then later on they backslide again and it just kind of continues well prior to Deborah you have a HUD okay and he had did a fantastic job killing egg-lon if you know I encourage you to read that story but then after him of course the children of Israel did evil on the side of the Lord and then God basically sold him sold them to Jabin the king of Canaan for 20 years okay and then the children of Israel crying to the Lord again now when you look at all these judges there is one thing that is very clear and that is that they're all men except for Deborah now I could say maybe this is a coincidence in the writing but the vast majority of the judges when God when the children of Israel crying to the Lord the Bible actually says that God raised up a judge but it actually doesn't say that about Deborah it just says that she's a judge okay now let me go through this story we're gonna just go through this story and then I'm gonna give some principles and just to be look at verse number four the first thing we see is that Deborah is a prophetess judge of Israel look what it says in verse 4 in Deborah a prophetess the wife of Lapidoth she judged Israel at that time and she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Rhema and Bethel and Mount Ephraim listen to this and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment so a couple things that we see here we see that she is a judge it's not necessarily something that God raised up but here's the principle that we can learn here is that sometimes when the men or when a nation is absent of strong spiritual leadership unfortunately a woman takes over okay that's not just in a nation that's in a home that's in all facets of life they kind of just step up it's not right it's not sanctioned by God it's not something that God approves of but it's just the nature of the beast when the man when there's no judge in Israel who is capable of leading the children of Israel militarily and knows the judgments of God or maybe knows how to do both but doesn't have the courage to actually carry that out well now you have Deborah now it says here that she's a prophetess and you know obviously when you when you study the term prophetess throughout the Bible there's just different connotations the one that comes to mind is Jezebel in Revelation chapter 2 you know she's preaching the Bible but here I believe when it's saying prophetess it just means that she's a musician okay because another definition of prophet or prophesying should I say in the Old Testament is someone who's able to play with instruments or sing okay it because singing is just another word another way of preaching just doing it in song you say well you know how do you know that's true well the very next chapter is the song of Deborah and she's just like freestyling the song about this victory that they got it was a really good song you know but she kind of just came up with it and so she's very musically inclined but she's judging Israel and at the end of verse 5 it says that the children of Israel came up to her for judgment so you know Deborah is a godly woman and I believe she's in heaven obviously and I think she's a wonderful lady but you know when I think of Deborah I'll just be honest with you I think of Joyce Meyers you say why because every Sunday there are men that come up to Joyce Meyers for judgment people that actually go to Joyce Meyers church and not just her church all these other lady pastors that exist out there they are preaching I guarantee you there's a slew of men who put themselves under the preaching of those women but my question is is there not a man among you who is able to preach and lead and you know lead about a wife and a brother and a sister are you not capable of actually reading the Bible I mean God has sanctioned man to fulfill that role in a local New Testament Church and in fact the Bible specifically says when dealing with the office of a pastor or as the Bible also puts it the office of a bishop that they're supposed to be the husband of one wife how does that work with a woman it doesn't without perversion and so we have the clear qualifications in the Bible in 1st Timothy chapter 3 regarding a pastor you know but I'm sure 1st Timothy 3 verses 1 and 2 is a is a passage that Joyce Meyers stays away from and she probably also stays away from from 1st Timothy chapter 2 as well where it says that they are to keep silence and they're not to usurp the authority of the man now obviously Deborah is not a pastor but she's a judge and people are coming to her for judgment why aren't they going to some man in the nation of Israel is there not a man that knows the judgments of God during this era well apparently not and that is a blemish on the children of Israel during this era that in a nation filled with millions of people they have this woman leader who is teaching in the Word of God and look I believe that Deborah was probably greatly rewarded for her role that she played because she's kind of forced into the situation it's not her fault that the dudes are lame and weak during her era it's not her fault that you know she's surrounded by a bunch of limp-wristed dudes who don't know the Bible and the judgments of God she's just kind of fulfilling her role it wasn't right but it's forced upon her it was permissible just not sanctioned by God and I think that's important to know because of the fact that you'll have people they're like well what's wrong with you know woman preaching you know in church and you know you have Deborah I literally heard that in Bible College from a Bible College student they're like what's wrong with that you know that we have Deborah and I was just like Deborah's a judge and the last time I checked Hebrews 11 honors Barak not Deborah so when when Paul is like writing Hebrew chapter 11 the Hall of Faith which I'm gonna go over the second part this coming Thursday you just kind of left out Deborah talk about Gideon talks about Jephthah he talks about Barak it just leaves out Deborah now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Deborah but at the end of the day you can't use a woman as an example of how churches should be run today in 2024 when you're dealing with a nation that is doing that which is right in their own eyes they're serving false gods there's not a man among them who can teach the Word of God so she just kind of stepping up to the plate okay and let me say this you know one of the curses that God institutes upon a nation that forsakes God is he gives them women for leaders now this may not sit well some of you because of the public school system and you know I don't know you might like Joyce Myers or something you know but I'm telling you what the Bible says though and the Bible tells us you could look it up in Isaiah chapter 3 it talks about the fact that when God is cursing a nation he gives children to be their rulers and women he says women shall rule over you that's what it says when giving the qualifiers of a nation who is being cursed by God okay and so the you know in the future if we ever have a woman president you just know beyond a shadow of a doubt this nation is cursed I mean I believe this nation's cursed already but that'll be like the cherry on top to confirm this nation is fully cursed because we have a woman for a presidential leader now again I know the people don't like that but I'm just telling you what the Bible says and so you can either you can disagree with me but you can't disagree with the Word of God that's what the Bible says okay verse 2 go to verse 6 if you would so she's fulfilling this role she's a prophetess she's a musician and it's not like she's putting herself out there right because you know Joyce Myers and these other false prophets they put themselves on the pedestal right to be heard and all these things Deborah's not doing that she's chilling by a tree of Deborah she's just kind of being Deborah and then Israel's coming to her for judgment and so you know this is again when there's a vacuum of male leadership often women take over and I'm not saying it's right I'm just saying that is the nature of the beast and I'll give you an example okay a modern-day example you know in old IFP churches a big thing a big ministry in old IFP churches is Sunday school classes and a lot of the Sunday school classes the teachers who are teaching the children and the teenagers are women it's women who are teaching them and it's not right but you know what I guarantee you there are kids who have gone to Sunday school class grew up doing Sunday school class had a woman for a teacher and I'm sure they could tell you I was blessed by some of the stuff that they taught me they'll probably say you know they're a blessing to me and so what does that you said the does that mean that God's okay with it no it means that it's permissible but it's not sanctioned you know what God can use the pure motives of a woman who is trying to help a child learn the Bible and use the sincerity of a child who wants to learn the Word of God he can work it out together for good to the point where he learns Bible she's a blessing to him but just because there's good that comes out of it doesn't mean it's something that God approves of understand what I'm saying and this is a major thing you know in churches today where just because a church does something and it works somehow that makes it God approved or something you know you know I'll give you another example you know bus ministry bus ministry has been used greatly throughout the decades to reach a lot of children for Christ I was a bus captain at one point I was a bus worker but it's not necessarily a ministry that's sanctioned by God though and there's a lot of evil that comes out of it out of that as well children get molested you know there's just a lot of wickedness that takes place but then you have old IFP churches like you're not a fundamental Baptist Church if we don't have a bus ministry there literally say that like if you're a fundamental Baptist and you don't have a bus ministry don't even call yourself a Baptist but folks my church is as much a fundamental Baptist Church as any church that has a bus ministry even though we don't have one and in fact in some cases we're more fundamental and look I'm not gonna say the bus ministry is sinful because it's not it's permissible it's acceptable it's good you know I've had I mean we got former bus kids right here you know and some of you were reached the bus ministry I made a post earlier sometime last week about our visitors here and people were commenting they're saying I was I was reached to the bus ministry I got saved to the bus ministry and I'm still serving God amen but here's the thing we can't say well then all churches have to have bus ministry you know in order to do something great for God or something like that wrong no it's not true you know it's a permissible ministry but it's not you can't say that it's sanctioned by God and you definitely can't say that you're not a real church if you don't have a bus ministry let me just explain something to you when it comes to bus ministry and old IFP churches the reason they say that is because they want to relinquish their responsibility to be sole owners and preachers of the gospel and they want to relinquish that responsibility to the young people in the bus ministry so they don't have to do it and they rely upon the numbers that the bus ministry provides because they lump that in with the attendance so if you have a church that's running you know to 2,000 or a thousand people a large percentage of that attendance is from the kids in the bus ministry you see what I'm saying and so they rely heavily upon the bus ministry to keep their attendance numbers up now I don't want to chase that rabbit too much but the point that I'm making here is that just because it's permissible doesn't mean it's sanctioned by God look at verse 6 it says and she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoham of Kadesh-Neftali and said unto him hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded saying go and draw toward Mount Tabor and take with thee 10,000 men of the children of Neftali and of the children of Zebulun I will draw unto thee to the river Kaishon Sisera the captain of Jabin's army with his chariots and his multitudes and I will deliver him into thine hand and Barak said unto her oh my goodness if thou will go with me I will go but if thou will not go with me then I will not go what and she said I will surely go with thee now withstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor for the Lord shall sail Sisera into the hand of a woman and Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh so what's another thing that we see during this era well I've already mentioned it but let's just reiterate it Israel had male or excuse me weak male leadership during this time like Barak so Deborah is coming to him and it's just like hey God's commanding you to step up to the plate and deliver the people militarily and instead of being like Moses you know Moses is just like he's the one who tells God you know if you go with me I will go if your presence go not with me I will not go right because Moses is dependent on God but instead of doing that what it what is Barak do well Deborah I'll only do it if you go with me what are you going to the restroom or something isn't that what girls do like I need to go to Russia could you come with me or something like that so you tell you like if you go with me I'll go but if you don't and I can't do it what and so Deborah is just like okay I'll go with you but here's the punishment of your weakness and that is you will not be honored and honors an important thing to a man respect is an important thing to a man and honors an important thing to a man especially if it comes from God and Deborah says you know here's the thing I'm gonna go with you because you're whining about it I'm adding that into it you know this is my commentary you know you you're you're a weakling but you know Sisera is gonna be delivered into the hand of a woman though now that kind of you know probably dug into them a little bit because you know every they Barak wants the head of Sisera because that's an honorable thing like that's victory for the children of Israel if he's leading but he's she's saying that honor is not gonna be given to you it's gonna be given to a woman so aside from the fact that Deborah's leading the charge spiritually even when the war is fought against the Canaanites against Jabin against Sisera ultimately the person who wins the war was a woman by the name of Jael what does this show us it shows weak male leadership doesn't mean that women can't do great things for God doesn't mean that women can't lead multitudes to the Lord get a lot of people saved and in fact we would expect the women in our church to get people saved amen there's some great soul winning ladies in our church who know how to preach the gospel they're out there on a weekly basis knocking on doors leading men to Christ leading women to Christ leading children to Christ doing great things for the Lord that is God's perfect will you understand that's not even permissible that's just God's perfect will but in this situation we see that what's taking place is permissible and I'm sure God was upset at Barak which is why he gave the honor to a woman you know to kind of shake him a little bit wake him up a little bit and say take the charge already look at verse 14 verse 14 says endeavor set into Barak up oh man for this is the day in which the Lord had to deliver Sisera into thine hand is not the Lord gone out before thee so Barak went down from Mount Tabor and ten thousand men after him and the Lord disconfited Sisera and all his chariots and all his hosts and with the edge of the sword before Barak so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet so here's the thing is that you kind of wonder you know why does Hebrews 11 like honor Barak then in such a way when it talks about those who are at faith well because of the fact that at the end of the day like we're talking about the Lord used what little courage Barak had and when Barak actually exercised courage and he turned to flight the armies of the aliens that was a step of faith because he's a scared little guy he's kind of being a weenie being a little sissy you know he needs he needs a TED talk from Deborah to take care of business and so when he finally actually decides to turn to flight the armies of the aliens that was an act of faith so here's the thing is that even though this was not permissible by God you know it was it was excuse me it was not sanctioned by God because it was permissible God worked it out together for good for Barak because it gave him an opportunity to actually exercise some faith and turn to flight the armies of the aliens and actually fight back and stand up and and do that which is right and therefore he's honored for that particular faith okay which goes to show us in the New Testament that's like the one thing that's really highlighted about Barak not the other stuff and aren't you thankful that you know God highlights as far as we're concerned the good stuff about us and it doesn't highlight all the bad stuff about us and obviously we're not talking about salvation because there is nothing good and when it comes to our righteousness and so he used what little courage Barak had go ahead and turn on the AC I said 30 minutes but you gotta turn that thing on right now it's hot look at verse 16 he says but Barak pursued after the chariots and after the host unto Harosheth of the Gentiles and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword and there is not a man left that is him turned into flight the armies of the aliens verse 17 says how be it Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Canite for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor in the house of Heber the Canite. Jael went out to meet Sisera and said unto him turn in my Lord turn into me fear not and when he had turned in unto her into the tent she covered him with a mantle and he said unto her give me I pray thee a little water to drink for I am thirsty she opened the bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him and again he said unto her stand in the door of the tent and it shall be when any man doth come and inquire of thee and say is there any man here that thou shalt say no then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent and took a hammer in her hand and went softly unto him you know meek and quietly and smote the nail into his temples and fastened it into the ground for he was fast asleep and weary so he died that's pretty cool you know one if if we have another daughter I mean that's actually gonna be her name is Jael I like that name but it makes me think of you know Jael from the Bible here because what's happening is you know she knows that this is the enemy of Israel so she's being a little subtle about it and meek and quiet and she brings him in and she grabs a nail from the tent and this isn't like a nail this isn't like a Walmart tent nail you know the plastic little nails or whatever this is like a spike it's very thick made of iron very strong fortified right it's a legitimate tent nail and you know he's like he's like sleeping he's not on his face he's not he's not on his stomach he's not on his back probably sleeping on his side and we see in the next chapter that you know he fell asleep because she provided milk in a lordly dish so he asked for water she gave a milk so he thinks you know I'm fine she's gonna protect me or whatever and man she smote him right in the temple and the next chapter says that his head fell off so you just use your imagination you know if it's putting it right through the temple it's a pretty strong nail probably half of his head just kind of you know just use your imagination and let me just say this Jael's strong you know cuz she fastened it to the ground she's like you know she hit the nail right on the head right and so you know God's honoring Jael for her courage her subtlety and her ability to get rid of the enemies of God but obviously Bayrak was not honored in this manner now what can we learn from this story well it's a great story but you know we shouldn't use it as an example why we need women leadership okay and I'm gonna give a really important principle at the end of the sermon regarding these types of stories but Deborah is not an example for women to become pastors Deborah's not an example of why a woman is a better leader than a man or why she should be the head of the household or why she should do XY and Z or why you know these homesteaders who are trad wives and are doing so well and you know their husbands work for them and all these things oh you know oh yeah but you look at Deborah yeah but Deborah is in an era where every man is doing that which is right in their own eyes do you also want to use judges 19 as an example of how a nation should be because judges 19 you have you know sodomites raping people it's not a good example and just because the story is in the Bible doesn't mean it's sanctioned by God the Bible records the testimonies of people and in some instances when things worked out work out together for good it's permissible it's not sanctioned and we need to learn the difference okay go with me if you would to first Kings chapter 11 first Kings chapter 11 what are some other examples of this particular principle well let's talk about polygamy and concubines because this is pretty big even today believe it or not you know you have this concept known as throuples okay and if you've never heard of that it's it's a perversion where three individuals are consenting in a mutual relationship whether in marriage or they're not married they call themselves like a couple but it's like a throuple that's what they call it it's wicked but you know there's polygamous even in this country they're known as Mormons okay we obviously know that Muslims promote that Muslims participate in that but even in the United States of America you have an entire state known as the state of Utah that houses these perverts that participate in polygamy where a man marries multiple women has multiple spouses and you have people like what's the guy's name on the internet who weak dudes really like Andrew Tate you know he promotes a form of concubine having concubines and being a polygamist as well because he actually sees nothing wrong with getting married and he thinks marriage is a great thing but then he says but you know also have your side chick as well that's called a concubine okay because a concubine is essentially a woman who almost operates as the office of a wife but it's not a wife it's not legally your wife okay they're essentially like a secondary subservient wife so they get all the benefits of a wife as far as a husband taking care of her treating her like a wife but you know they never put the ring on the finger type of a thing understand that's what a concubine is and so you have guys like Andrew Tate and you know these stupid idiotic young Christian men who are using that philosophy and saying oh yeah you know cuz men in the Bible did it great men in the Bible did it and they'll point to David they'll point to Solomon they'll point to Abraham they'll point to all the patriarchs of the Old Testament who were great men of God because let's just be honest one of our favorite Bible characters of the Old Testament has to be David I said one of them right like he's like up there with a lot of people he's like a man's man he's a psalmist he's chopping heads off chopping other things off you know for dowries he is like a man after God's own heart like God loves David and like deep within every man we want to be like a David because he's manly but he's also has the tender hardness to love the Lord and he's very in tune with God type of a thing right but the guy was a polygamist though and people point to him and be like yeah but David is a great man of God look how successful he was and God loved him and he participated in polygamy this is what they'll say and not just polygamy he had concubines as well he had a bunch of live-in girlfriends he said well I mean if you have all these wives what's the point of having all these girlfriends it's literally for physical pleasure that's what they had him there for that's all they had that's the only reason they had concubines in the Bible there's no other reason they had a bunch of girlfriends just for sexual pleasure and that's it okay that's wrong but yet people point to that and be like you know and by the way Andrew Tate doesn't even believe the Bible he doesn't believe in God he doesn't believe the Bible he doesn't love the things of God oh how convenient though that when you want to justify your perversion and your sin and your garbage now you want to use the Bible as a means to justify that right and it's just like alright the Bible did it all the time you know yeah David you have all these people who commit a polygamy and you know they had their side chicks or whatever it's garbage and here's a perfect example folks yeah it was permissible by God but it was not sanctioned by God and yeah God didn't bring the hammer down a hard on David and Abraham and Solomon and all these other people who committed polygamy and had concubines yeah he didn't punish them right away and let me explain to you why he didn't punish them right away because they already had built-in punishments with it and it's funny how these guys want to leave out the details did anybody read the fine print go ahead and read the fine print of how those relationships went those guys suffered a lot they their life was a living hell okay and you know this is what happens when you go outside of the scope of what God sanctions to be marriage which is between one man and one woman to be one flesh you understand and let no man put asunder and obviously and then start adding all these other spouses for your lust and for your desires look at first Kings 11 let's look at the craziest example of this okay because Abraham did it David David collected concubines and wives like he was collecting what are those called what that's not what I was thinking I'll think in beanie babies but yeah I guess you guys collect Pokemon cards or something yeah we know what marks a hobby is not skinny yeah he was just like coins or so let's use coins pogs who remembers pogs anybody remember pogs you guys don't know what pogs are you guys are missing out I'm a 90s kid so you know literally like he would go to a city and he's going to war for the Lord and he's slain people left and right I mean the man can fight right the Lord taught his hands how to fight actually he was incredible with the sword he's incredible with a slingshot too he was a very strong man in the Lord he loved the Lord but after the war was done he's just like wife wife wife wife wife concubine wife why would you just he would just collect a bunch of them and just take them with them that's literally what he did and one of the funny stories that I see in the Bible when it comes to David is when he takes Abigail because Abigail's husband was a reprobate he was a child of Belial okay and he ends up dying so you know when you read it if you just read just a couple verses it's like oh how romantic you know I mean because he ends up marrying Abigail and she's such a godly woman she's so wonderful and it's like they live happily ever after yeah with all the other wives and concubines too you're just part of his collection of wives you know that's not in the fine print you know that's not at Hobby Lobby that's not a story that Hobby Lobby wants to highlight but you know what the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree because then you have Solomon his son who you know David marry wives little Solomon shall marry than much put it that way look at verse 1 of 1 Kings 11 but King Solomon listen to this loved many strange women so basically the Bible is just kind of putting his you know sins that he struggles with and one of them is the fact that he just loves women he has a lust issue and not just like any type of women he loves strange women meaning foreign women okay together with the daughter of Pharaoh okay that's an issue right there women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Zydonians and Hittites hey at least we know that he's you know he's not racist he likes black women he likes white women he likes red he doesn't care what color they are he just loves many strange women he doesn't care what you look like I mean I'm sure he cares you know but apparently he's not really that picky when it comes to what nation they come from of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel ye shall not go in unto them neither shall they come in unto you and people read them like oh man God's racist it's my stuff why he's against interracial marriage or what well why is he telling his people not to marry foreigners and why foreigners should not marry his people this is why for surely they will turn away your heart after their God so in other words if you know a Christian marries a Mormon there's gonna be conflict in that relationship not because you know the Mormon will I guess Mormons a bad example because they're all American you know white people you know let's what's a religion you know a Muslim okay that would be a major issue because there's gonna be conflict of beliefs there okay and here's the thing folks is that the man can say well you know we're gonna be Christians and we're gonna this is the way we're gonna go but at the end of the day you're spending decades and decades with that person you're gonna end up compromising on one way or another and I've known people who married into a you know married a person who was of a different faith okay they were not Christian and they had to compromise a lot going to Catholic Church going to a Mormon tabernacle or whatever that's majorly you know it's a lot of conflict there so you know be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers the Bible says so I God says that Christians should marry Christians let's get let's get specific say people should marry say people and here is a safe thing for you to do marry a fundamental Baptist okay and you know if you guys got married in here and one of you was not a fundamental Baptist I'm not talking about you but hey I'm telling the young people you should go for fundamental Baptist you know instead of going for your non-denom you know person or whatever you're still gonna have conflict you say how do you know because of the fact that you guys have different Bible versions so you're over here trying to put King James as the final authority in your household but then your spouse wants to do all these other modern perversions and so there's always gonna be some sort of conflict so anyways with this story God told them you know hey don't marry other nations because they have different belief systems that are gonna cause you to leave me that's what God said okay look what it goes on to say Solomon clave unto these in love so he's just enamored with all these women the dude has a chick problem okay and here's an issue okay because of the fact here's the problem because Solomon is powerful so when you have that much power that much money that much authority you're just like the most important person in the land nothing's really gonna be kept from you and who's gonna tell you hey didn't you write Proverbs no one's gonna come up to you and be like didn't you say you know something about strange women and stuff no one's gonna correct you if you're like the top of the food chain per se you're like the head honcho you're the big cheese in the nation no one's really gonna correct you and so he's just kind of given unfettered access to fulfill his desire of loving strange women now here's the thing is just that you know having two wives is bad having three is really bad having three and two concubines is really bad let's just say say having a hundred is bad let's see how many Solomon had verse three and he had 700 wives legal wives and you think of yourself like you think yourself okay that little excessive Solomon my lord the king you know that's kind of but hey we'll keep it at that right you know you should 700 should content my lord you know princesses and 300 concubines so a thousand just women at his bidding or whatever 700 of them are wives legally married the other 300 are just girlfriends that he has now here's the thing folks you know he's obviously not having any type of meaningful relationships with these women right because even to even be with them whether physically or emotionally for any length of time it would have to be at least two to three a day because it's a thousand you know these guys are like oh man that sounds kind of cool though you know having all those wives and all those girlfriends and man that's what a player you know that sounds great yeah why don't you ask him how he felt about that later on how his heart turned away from the Lord he was miserable how he had all this conflict and God ended up stripping the kingdom from him in the coming generations because of it and I guarantee you when you get when you get to heaven and you ask Solomon hey so how was it he's gonna be like I wish I would just stuck with one that's it because at the end of the day it's not glorified it's not something that's awesome having all these women around you folks one is enough okay and anybody who's married knows one is enough because it's not just like the physical really you know they're women they have emotions that crazy sometimes they're emotional they are women they're emotional hey imagine just having a thousand women what if what if they're all just emotional on the same what if like let's say 400 of them are emotional on that day what is Solomon gonna do he's like go play with the camels or something you know send him to the Apes and obviously he's taking care of them he's housing them he's feeding them their princesses you know he's giving them the royal treatment but folks that's a lot of it's a lot of talking it's all listening I was like oh that's where he found the time to write the Proverbs he's like I'm working on a project I don't want to be disturbed but the most the most the the the most devastating effect of having all these women is that his heart turned away from the Lord and folks it was when his heart was you know clave unto the Lord that God blessed him he blessed him with all the riches you know with peace and wisdom and knowledge I mean he gave him everything that he wanted and he even gave him beyond what he asked for he gave him exceedingly abundantly above all that he could ask her thing because God came to Solomon and said hey you know ask what you will not give it to you I mean think about that if God says you asked for it I'll give it to you no matter what it is and Solomon said I want judgment to judge your people and God was so impressed by his answer that said you know what I'm gonna give you that and I'm also gonna give you money I'm gonna give you fame I'm gonna give you the peace I'm gonna give you everything because you asked for the right thing but then all that's just basically taken away at the end of his life because he ends up losing the kingdom you know his descendants are gonna suffer the consequences of his actions because of that and so we can't look at a story of Solomon and say well Solomon had a bunch of chicks he had all these girlfriends he was he was pimping it he'd be a little player you know and he loved the Lord yeah but not for long he like well you know but yeah what about David though he loved the Lord all the way to the very end yeah but here's the thing David is a very unique case though and I wouldn't base my Christian life off of being just like David because Solomon is listen to this the wisest man that ever lived in the Old Testament and even he succumbed to it and by the way all the men you know these three men in the Bible the strongest man of the Bible the godliest man of the Bible and the wisest man of the Bible all succumbed to lust David Samson Solomon they've cast down many wounded the Bible says you know the the those who are strong those who love the Lord and so you know and by the way when they married these wives and had these concubines they were literally in direct violation of God's instructions for the Kings according to Deuteronomy 17 because he says don't God literally told him don't multiply wives now why would God say that because he knew you're gonna be popular you're gonna be famous I'm gonna be using you and so that the the temptation is to just start racking up the wives because all these women like you he's like don't multiply wives and don't multiply horses what a Solomon do okay multiplies wives concubines not just horses apes peacocks the guy had a freaking zoo at his palace he's like importing all these exotic animals into his palace and it's like God told him like I just told you not to do that but obviously this this comes with the territory of having too much power you see what I'm saying and so you know we can't use Solomon David Abraham just because there were godly man as an example folks God permitted it because at the end of the day you said well why did God permit polygamy and and concubinage to take place in the Bible why you know what's what's what's even they're beneficial about that well here's the thing is that you know think about this okay and it from a practical perspective and I'm not saying the polygamy is right I'm not saying that being a concubine is right okay because it's wrong according to the Bible but think about women in that situation which in that time if there were a widow if their town was pillaged and they survived if they didn't have any kind of authority you know it's either being someone's concubine someone's third fifth or in this case 700th wife or the other the alternative is prostitution being a harlot you know or some other evil that made me fall that so a lot of instances during this time you know these women they're just like well I'll be Solomon's cock because at least I'll be taken care of you know I'll have housing food you know I may see him one day out of the year because he has all these other women but hey at least I get to be at the palace and be taken care of you said so then God's okay with it no he wasn't okay with it and here is an important principle folks and that is that sin complicates things sin will always complicate things and people like they get into sin they suffer the consequences of sin and then it's just like they want an answer to just fix all their problems and it's just like here are your three options but they're all bad because anytime you sin any option is just bad you know it's like David when God is judging Israel and he's like here are your three options either you die by the hand of your enemy I plague the nation of Israel like I forgot what the other one he gave up or famine he's like here it is just like you know can I call a lifeline it was like is that can I call a brother or something like all those three options are bad and he ended up going with the best of them which is well let me now fall into the hand of the Lord because he knows that you would be merciful basically like God wouldn't punish him forever but when you sin folks it complicates things and so they're not the best none of them are the best option but what's another reason why he allowed polygamy and concubines to exist without punishment well here's another reason it's because the population grew think about this and I'm not saying this is right but the children of Israel are a result of polygamy like like oh man you know Israel had 12 sons yeah from like a bunch of different women now God's will was for the children of Israel to exist that was God's will but you know they went about it the wrong way okay I mean we could look throughout the Bible and how sons and daughters were born into men and it's not their fault but population grew because of it but here's here's the final reason why God would allow something like this to take place and that is God allowed it listen to me to serve as an example to future generations of why it's not a good idea so he allowed Solomon to do this he allowed David because he would think that maybe some of you young guys have some common sense when you read in the Bible and be like well that's a really bad idea I thought it was really cool to have a bunch of chicks and have a bunch of wives but I'm reading about Solomon and it looks like it sucked for him so he's allowing it because he knows that future generations will learn from the actions of others or he hopes that they will learn from the actions of others there's no I'm saying so a lot of times people who sin and did wrong in the Bible you know God didn't punish them right away because they will serve as a byword in a proverb in a future generation where young men and women will read that and be like well you know that didn't work for them and therefore I know it's not gonna work for me okay and by the way you can't afford 700 wives anyway so you know so it's permissible but not sanctioned by God okay God's will is for a man to leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife singular not wives okay and so you know another example of this principle would be divorce because you know the Pharisees came to Jesus you're like well Moses you know let us give her a right bill of divorce meant you know that means that God was okay with it no it he permitted it for the hardness of your hearts but from the beginning is what it was not so the Bible says in other words that's not God's original will but he allowed it because you guys are just stubborn and unforgiving that's why let me give you one last example here go to Exodus chapter 1 if you would Exodus chapter 1 and after Exodus 1 we're gonna go to act 17 and we're done I was gonna cover some more in here but you know times just not permitted me to do so but think about the the think about stealing it's stealing something that God just allows people to do obviously thou shalt not steal is the command the standard of the God has in the Bible right but you know the Bible says men do not despise of thief if he steal to satisfy his soul his hungry soul the Bible says so God is saying you know if someone steals food because they're hungry don't despise him it's wrong that he did that but you should not despise him because he's hungry so it's all you have to understand like God condescends the men of lowest state so even though he's not sinful he understands the sinfulness of man that we're weak and we make dumb decisions so he's in admonition people hey if someone steals because they're hungry and they're famished and they're trying to feed themselves don't despise them but here's the thing folks he's not giving he's not sanctioning being a thief he's just saying it's permissible if they're hungry but hold on a second let him that stole steal no more but rather than let him labor with his hands that which is good he may give to him that needeth so God is like I'm not gonna despise you but you better fix up your ways and actually be an honest person and not just be like this continual thief or whatever but here's another example lying bearing false witness is wrong we should know that as Christians right but you know there's Christians are just like yeah but there's people in the Bible that lied though and it seems like you know God was like cool with it you know he's fine with it he didn't punish him for it and some instances seem to bless them for it yeah because it's permissible but it's not sanctioned by God and I've literally heard people try to like finagle their way through these stories of people lying and be like well maybe it's permissible if we're doing it to the enemies of God though if we'd like lie to them it's not right okay it's never right to lie now I'm just giving this disclaimer because you know I might behave in a very sinful way against the haters of the Lord in the future okay and I'm just letting you know right now that I'm not perfect okay and if and when I do that you know just remember it's still permissible but it's not sanctioned okay I'm just saying that because you know the enemies of God just bring out the worst in me sometimes and I might just do things that are not pastoral okay I'll try not to but you know I'm a sinner look at Exodus 1 15 it says the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives of which the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Pua and he said when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the stools if it be a son then you shall kill him but if it be a daughter then she shall live so they were trying to do in fantasize here killed the children but the midwives verse 17 feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them but saved the men children alive and the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them why have you done this thing and have saved the men children alive and the midwives sent into Pharaoh because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women for they are lively and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them now that's a lie they're just saying that because they don't want to kill the kids but they're kind of giving that excuse so they don't get in trouble now look at verse 20 therefore God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty he's not blessing them because they lied he's blessing them because obviously they fear God and you know sometimes people who love and fear the Lord they have dirty hands they don't know necessarily how to do things the right way you understand and it's it's it's great that God looks upon the heart sometimes because I guarantee you you and I have done things out of zeal out of love for the Lord out of you know because we're just zealous for the things of God and it's probably not something that God would approve of but then God's like you know what I'll allow it not because he's approving of the action but just like the heart behind the action is obviously what's important I don't sanction it but I'll allow it and this is one of those instances he's not approving of their deceitfulness of them lying because that would contradict the rest of the Bible where God is completely against deception and people lying and bearing false witness but he's honoring them because at the end of the day that did fear God and even though they didn't do it the right way it worked together for good and you know another example is that Rahab when she hid the spies and then they came to like we saw them come here and they're like oh no you know I don't know where they went but she was hiding them she lied but she was still blessed in the long run because at the end of the day she favored God's people you understand what I'm saying and so the point that I'm making go to Acts chapter 17 and we're done the point that I'm making is that just because it's permissible doesn't mean it's sanctioned by God and we need to learn the difference between the two and this is not a sermon to say yeah go ahead and sin you know I mean permissible even though it's not sanctioned because the sins that you and I commit have built in consequences to them okay now here's a good verse for all of us passage look at verse 29 for as much then as we are the offspring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver stone graven by art and man's device now what is the Apostle Paul talking about well he's preaching to the heathen and he's trying to explain to them who the unknown God is and he's saying you know the true God of the universe are not these gods that are made of gold and silver and stones you know this is not who the God of the Bible is he says in verse 30 and the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent now what does that mean that he winked at it well in the Old Testament God viewed idolatry and paganism as being abominable but when it says he winked at it literally means like he overlooked it though no those people died and went to hell if they didn't get saved okay but he winked at it because it's just you know the way of the heathen he didn't come down super hard on them although obviously once they died they went to hell but he says but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent what is the major major difference well now because in the New Testament Jesus is revealed as being the Christ and now there's an aggressive campaign from God for his people to go into the world and evangelize the heathen so therefore everyone all around the world has heard about Jesus at one point or another so you know at the times of this ignorance God would wink at it but now commandeth now how does this apply to the sermon well here's the thing is that we can look at these examples of people who did wrong and did very questionable things but at the end of the day God now commands all of us to repent you say what do you mean by that well because of the fact that you know the people of the Old Testament were ignorant of certain things because they didn't have the full Bible you know if David Solomon and Abraham and all these other men had this to work with they probably wouldn't have committed polygamy or concubinage why because they have all these examples but we have the full Bible now so it's just like yeah God winked at their ignorance he kind of overlooked it he didn't punish them greatly but folks us in the New Testament to whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and we have way more to work with we understand way more about the Bible we have way more knowledge and we understand polygamy just didn't work for these guys so our standard is higher in the New Testament people always say oh the God of the Old Testament was so hard the God New Testament is so nice no it's actually the other way around God was God was actually more lenient in the Old Testament than he is for us in the new you know why because now we have the entire Bible to work with yeah but what about all that carnage then read Revelation there's more carnage in the book of Revelation in the three and a half year span then in the thousands of years that are recorded in this book put together because God is just destroying the entire world he's just going crazy and in the end times when he's pouring his wrath upon the world the point that I'm making is the fact that you know we are responsible for more in the New Testament we have the Word of God so these people who are saying well because the Bible says it therefore it is sanctioned by God God is okay with it you know they're gonna receive a greater punishment because they actually have a Bible that they can reference and read and see and they choose to ignore it you understand what I'm saying and so just because it's permissible does not mean that it's sanctioned by God let's pray father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the testimonies of God or as we can learn and we know the things that were written a fourth time a river our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come and we can read these stories and learn from them Lord and avoid the pitfalls and traps and the bad decisions of the patriarchs and others in the Bible I pray that you'd help us as your people to continue to develop wisdom Lord and and may you continue to give us knowledge and discretion and I pray you fill us with your spirit bless the remainder of our day our Sunday night service may we see many come back in Jesus name amen you starting your song books the song number 100