FBC Morning Worship Service

Well, good morning good to see you here on this Lord's Day. Thank the Lord for the beautiful day he's given to us and for all he has done in this past week to provide for us to protect us and To bring us together in his providence to this time and this place on this day

So we welcome those who will be visiting with us today and trust the Lord will Bless you in this service that your your heart will be drawn to him and he'll be lifted up in your sight a

Couple of announcements. I want to share with you just before we begin to worship service itself Grab my little cheat sheet here, but Next Sunday notice next

Sunday first Sunday of June got a couple things going on in the morning service We'll be having the Lord's Supper together but then instead of the

The typical six o 'clock evening service we have these two events the

YMSA fellowship that will be at the Foreman's at 530 so young young married single adults

There's there's a little more definition of that in the bulletin. You notice young married couples

Singles age 24 on up and those with children age 12 and under so we had to put that last thing in there because Sometimes, you know, what's the cutoff for a young married, right?

I Mean my wife and I are young marrieds. I mean we've been married 41 years almost but you know

It's what you feel right? So it's kind of like a help help with that. So Anyway, if you're wanting to attend that we just really need to know for the sake of food there is a light supper provided at 530 so you could sign up on the bulletin board and Let let let us know of that and then for those who are not in that group

We encourage encourage you to get together with others in the church. So invite somebody to your home

For a time of fellowship and how how many and exactly what all you do in that time is up to you, but I do

I will prevent prepare a Video devotional that you'll be able to watch online at the church website so you could you could do that encourage you to do that and then spend some time in prayer and Then fellowship just a fellowship with one another with some food a game time or whatever

But I just spend some time getting to know one another and don't don't wait to be asked or invited to somebody

So, you know do the inviting? Okay, but really and then and the worst case scenario is they say, oh, we're already going

All right, keep inviting. All right, let's get together next Lord's Day So and then other than that Tonight in the six o 'clock service be in the book of Mark so we started that a couple weeks ago and be back in the book of Mark tonight looking at the

Calling of the disciples and how we are called to follow Christ So to begin the worship service this morning

Psalm 63 verses 3 and 4 Say this because speaking to the

Lord because your loving -kindness is better than life My lips shall praise you thus.

I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name so let's worship our

Lord together and Sing this hymn of call to worship Jim.

Thank you pastor It's enough on page number nine in your blue supplements song books number nine

Call to worship. Let's please all stand together and sing all three verses together number nine

Oh Some to call your

King join the choir of saints above joy

Christian love give to God a glorious song hands extended

Strong We can hold your hand to raise

Sing your sacrifice of praise Lift your mind your heart your voice

Keep it happy Call rejoice Give to God a glorious song hands extended

As strong As Some take flight praise the father

God of life Praise the Savior Christ the son

Praise the spirit three in one Give to God a glorious song hands extended

Strong Oh Please remain standing for prayer brother damn

Duke our father again.

We're so thankful for your grace and your mercy this past week Father may we

Truly be open to the Word of God this morning May the

Spirit of God work in our hearts and our lives father. We so desperately need your word the word gives us

Direction guidance Gives us hope this world that is so many things that are happening father

But we know you're working a purpose in our lives May we look to you this day?

We pray these things in Jesus name Amen You may be seated

Our psalm reading this morning Psalm 47 and the back of your bulletin

Seth I think that number one number one is just a little too loud Seth I'm gonna turn that down a little bit a little little get a little echo.

So All right, Psalm 47. I'd like to read this responsively these nine verses

So I'll read beginning in verse 1 and then you respond with verse 2 and the odd the even number versus I'll read the odd Psalm 47

Psalmist writes Oh clap your hands all you people's shout to God with a voice of triumph

He will subdue the people's under us and the nation's under our feet God has gone up with a shout the

Lord with the sound of a trumpet For God is the king of all the earth sing praises with understanding the princes of the people have gathered together the people of the

God of Abraham for the shields of the earth belong to God and He is greatly exalted

Lord add his blessing to the reading of this psalm and then as we sing it together from the

Psalter Jim on page 99 in the red

Psalters All the earth exalt the King all three verses together

Your hands Raise a shout

Hear the best of trumpet blast Make the swelling tide of song pays him with the songs you see

Rulers of the world draw near you belong to him alone

Bring your pastor asked me as missionary the week to share a few requests

So I'm glad to do that just want to Make mention that we are back in the jails again.

That is in Whiteside County after all these months and we did have a little Reprieve back in August and September of last year, but then for six weeks closed down in Whiteside But now finally reopened and are back in full swing been in the temporary indirect visitation type of Contact with the inmates which has very limited effect

But the one -on -one that the contact the personal eye -to -eye and ear -to -ear contact is what really is very effective and very fruitful and Stan and I are glad to get back in the cell blocks and getting the

Word of God back out. Lee County is Still closed to direct contact.

We have a lot of indirect Bible courses literature and things that we're handing out in and coming back in passed out via the correctional officer

But again, we're we ask your prayers for open open doors again open

Bible studies The difference is that the catwalk separated by the bars in Whiteside County distancing with still with masks but Lee County is direct contact in in this in a

Bible study room and they're just hesitant and reluctant to let us do that.

So The other nine or the other ten jails in my region

There's two others that are open again But most are still closed down and and I know they're going through the same things

That we are that we've experienced in that. So without that direct contact that you don't really have

But it's a Spirit of God that moves hearts and minds. It's the Word of God that Gets into the mind and the heart so they still have access to these things that they can hand out and Please pray that there'll be some fruits in the future open doors as things are loosening up.

I I'm confident that we'll all get back in again and appreciate your prayers All right.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and want to remember to remember to remember

This particular holiday set aside for us to remember those who have given their lives who've lost their lives in service to our country in And Fighting to gain or maintain our freedoms and To protect our land.

So we are we are grateful for those who have given those Ultimates made those ultimate sacrifices for us and we'll remember them their families loved ones in prayer

Let's look to the Lord. Shall we our

Father in our God? we do praise you today because ultimately we know that you are the king of all the earth and That you and your

Providence you bring to pass or allow to come to pass the events on this planet none of them is apart from your sovereign hand and we are grateful that we can have that confidence because because when we think of the

The loss of life that has taken place over the years

For the sake of gaining freedom for the sake of protecting it for the preservation of a land a nation for the security of our people so many times that Those wars that loss of life has seemed to be senseless

It has always been extremely painful and yet father we realize that it is allowed for and sometimes directed by your hand sometimes

Lord we know these things are directed because We as a people need to be chastened.

We need to be drawn back to you. We have forsaken you sometimes these things are just a consequence of sin sometimes they are just simply because of We're living in a fallen world where our own

National sins are not the cause of the calamities but the sins of hateful people

Father we do. Thank you today for men and women who have served in armed forces of our land and Have given their lives

They certainly wouldn't have chosen many of them would not have chosen to Perish in this way but when called upon by duty and perhaps the the exigencies of the situation

They gave their life And father we are we are indebted to them for that there are some here in this room today who have lived through those horrors of war and They have experienced fellow soldiers who have have who have fallen and They will never forget that and for them this

Memorial Day season is particularly poignant But father it is also poignant for those of us who are followers of Christ Because he is the one who is the greatest giver of himself for the freedom the preservation and the security of his people

As he gave his life on the cross Gave his blood to be shed

Gave his body to those who smote him and to pierced him and father.

We are grateful to him today and So these who in the course of our human our national history

Have also done given their lives Whether they knew it or not They are expressing the kind of sacrifice that our

Savior offered on the cross a Self -giving self -surrendering sacrifice of life for the welfare of others

We thank you for them. We praise you for our Savior father

We pray today for your people who are hurting and in need We pray for I continue to pray for Jodi and and her slow and up -and -down process of recovery

We pray that by your grace you would so work in her body that she could be freed from all the sedative medications and that she could begin the process of real healing

And and be restored to strength and health We pray for Kyle this morning and uncertain of his need and condition right now, but just we pray for him and We know that he is in your hands.

We thank you for that. I pray that you give him and Yvonne a piece of mind and heart and all his loved ones who are very concerned about his welfare right now and In a state of uncertainty

I Pray that sir would be answers quickly and there would be a protocol for for Care, and he would be restored to health as well we pray for Kent and pray that you would strengthen him and encourage his heart and mind and Laurie as well in the family just meet their needs at this time

The father we pray for those who are shut in and cannot get out You think of Bob today and just pray that you would give him peace of mind and rest of in his body freedom from pain we pray for sue and sue cherry and Virginia Ludwig for Dean Kinneman And pray for their welfare and you would strengthen them encourage them for Maxine we thank you for how you have worked in her life, but continue to to bless her and the

Limited abilities that she has at this stage of life We also pray for Jed Hunsberger for Patricia Alvey we just pray that you would bless these folks who?

who just Cannot get out because of physical limitations have placed upon them

Lord meet these needs we pray and for Jim and those who serve with him in the jail

Ministry of Law and Grace I Pray that you would open up doors for them again to be back in the jails for one -on -one conversation and meeting with inmates

How vital that can be? We pray that in the meantime you would use your written word and the study of the word to open blind eyes may your spirit do his office work in the hearts and minds of inmates in these days

Again we pray that the doors would be open for them to be freely able to meet with the inmates and counsel them and Witness to them and point them to Christ bless that ministry.

We pray a Father we do. Thank you again for this opportunity on this Lord's Day to assemble together

To praise to pray and to hear from you. May we do so today in Jesus name.

Amen Before the message, let's sing one more hymn together in your hymn books number 65

Oh Worship the King let's all stand together and sing all four verses together number 65

Oh Bountiful care tongue can recite.

It breathes in the air, it shines in the light.

It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the during.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find thee.

Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end, are made.

Please be seated. If you would take your

Bibles and turn to the book of Judges in the first chapter, Judges chapter 1. Scripture reading this morning,

I want to read verses 1 through 13. Judges chapter 1.

Follow along in your copy of Scripture as I read these first 13 verses. It says,

Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, Who shall be first to go up for us against the

Canaanites to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand.

So Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me to my allotted territory that we may fight against the

Canaanites, and I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory. And Simeon went with him.

Then Judah went up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand, and they killed ten thousand men at Bezek.

And they found Adonai Bezek in Bezek, and fought against him. And they defeated the Canaanites and the

Perizzites. Then Adonai Bezek fled, and they pursued him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

And Adonai Bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table, as I have done, so God has repaid me.

Then they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died. Now the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it.

They struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the

Canaanites, who dwelt in the mountains in the south and in the lowland. Then Judah went against the

Canaanites, who dwelt in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba.

And they killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. From there they went against the inhabitants of Debar.

The name of Debar was formerly Kiriath Sefer. Then Caleb said, Whoever attacks

Kiriath Sefer and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Ahsa as wife. And Othniel the son of Canaaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it, so he gave him his daughter

Ahsa as wife. Our Father in heaven, I pray that from your word today, this book, we would be challenged by how to live, about how to live in our culture, in our day.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Some of you may remember that from the opening line in Charles Dickens' classic book,

A Tale of Two Cities. It was a story set in both London and Paris in the mid -19th century, centering around the

French Revolution. But the contrast continues. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.

It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Now there are some in our day who might read the last verse in the book of Judges, it's the verse of the week to memorize if you're doing that, and say, wow, what a wonderful period of time.

Everyone could do right in his own eyes. There was no king. Wow, this is wonderful.

I think, for example, of the individual I read this morning, even just this morning, and I've seen so many stories like this, a man who is in his early 50s, he's 6 '4",

I think it is, weighs 220 plus pounds, and he enrolled in a community college and is playing on the girls' basketball team because he says he's a woman, and he's transformed himself into a woman.

Why would he do such a thing? Because it's right in his eyes.

There are some who are extreme libertarians of our day who would say, well, if everyone can do what's right in his own eyes, this would be a wonderful thing.

You know, defund the police crowd. No, there's no king. We can really do what we want.

This is a wonderful thing. The anarchistic rioters.

We don't need authority over us. We don't need a king over us. They just cramp our style.

They just keep us from doing what's right in our eyes. So they might read this last verse in the book of Judges and conclude, it was the best of times.

No king. Everyone could follow his or her or their own truth.

Wow. They could do what they believe is right. No one to tell them what to do.

No one can tell them that they can't. No one can tell them that they are wrong.

Wow. John Lennon's imagine has come to pass.

Utopia. That had to be the best of times. Well, those who lived through those days would have a radically different perspective, to be sure.

Best of times? Hardly. The times of the Judges were awful.

The times of the Judges were a time of, as Dickens said, a time of foolishness, of unbelief, of darkness, of despair.

The book of Judges really is a book for our times. Realize that?

This book shows us the trajectory that our contemporary culture is headed on.

It's showing us where this thinking, this mindset of our world is taking us, what we can expect along the way, and how we who are followers of Christ, how we can respond, the necessary response that we ought to have.

This book shows us. It shows us that for all of the benefit that human leaders might provide for us and can help in a troubled land, we need the

King. We need the King. Now, let me,

I hope I won't bore you, but let me just give you some background to this book of Judges. I think it's helpful to understand what is going on here in the book and what's happening and so forth.

The title of this book can be misleading to us. We think of a judge as a robed character that sits high on a dais, on a bench, and he interprets the law and he renders verdicts.

Not the case here. The word that's translated, judges, as the title of this book, really means an executive leader, an executive leader.

Most of the judges in the book of Judges, they didn't sit rendering verdicts and that kind of thing at all.

The term expresses a form of government or a form of leadership among the various tribes, and they were temporary and they weren't universal.

In other words, they weren't over the whole land. We'll say more about that in a minute. Who wrote this book? That's a good question.

Nowhere is it said that this is the writing of so -and -so. There are some who have surmised that it was probably

Samuel. Samuel is thought of as the last of the judges, but again, we don't know that for sure.

It seems to be pretty certain that the book was compiled in the very early stages of David's reign as the king.

In the book of Judges, Jerusalem is never completely conquered. Remember, it was

David who finally conquered the city of Jerusalem and made it the city of David.

So the book of Judges was written and compiled likely before David accomplished that feat.

It was probably compiled, put together during those seven years of David's reign in Hebron.

It's an interesting time span that is covered in this book. It spans the years 1381

B .C. to 1050 B .C., a little over 300 years. Now think about that.

How long has the United States of America been a nation? Right?

250 almost years. So for longer than the United States has been a nation, the events in the book of Judges were taking place.

There's another way to think about that. Roughly 1050

B .C. is when the monarchy was established in Israel. So the first king is set up in that period of time.

That would have been Saul. 1050. And you remember when the nation of Israel pretty much disintegrated?

The city of Jerusalem was destroyed. 586 B .C. And that was already following a period of a couple hundred years of the nation being split apart with Israel in the north and Judah in the south and two different kings and all this kind of stuff.

So think about this. This is a 300 -year period that's covered in the book of Judges, and that accounts for three -eighths of the total time that the nation of Israel existed as a nation and even a greater fraction of the time that the nation of Israel was a whole nation.

That's quite a chunk of time. Some of the judges that are mentioned here in the book of Judges, they served concurrently or overlapping with other judges.

So there can be two different judges serving at the same time but in two different places in the land.

The overarching purpose. Let's think about why is this book in the Bible?

Why is it there? We know a lot of the names in this book, right?

Gideon, Samson, Jephthah, Deborah and Barak.

We know a lot of these names. They're somewhat familiar to us. But this book was not written so that those individuals could be glorified, so that they could be lifted up and extolled as these key players who were heroes in Israel's history.

That's not why the book was written. The overarching purpose of this book was to glorify to glorify the grace and the justice of the

God of Israel. To glorify God and not people.

There's a basic structure that I want you to get in this book. Three parts to Judges. The first part, the opening part, takes us through verse 6 of chapter 3 and it serves as sort of an introduction.

The biggest chunk of that introduction, chapters 1 and the first few verses of chapter 2, are kind of like a flashback to prior to the death of Joshua.

To the last days of Joshua. Yes, the book opens and says that after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel last sang thus and so.

So this is like right after the death. But then when you get to chapter 2 and verse 7, it says the people served the

Lord all the days of Joshua. Then verse 7, Joshua died when he was 110 years old.

So there's kind of like a flashback to these last days of Joshua.

But then also in chapter 2, verse 6, through chapter 3, verse 6, that section of the introduction functions as a sort of a foretaste of the cycle of the book of Judges.

If you've read this book and heard lessons or preaching on the book, you're familiar with that cycle.

You can call it the sin cycle or whatever you want to call it. But it goes like this, and it happens over and over again in the book.

There is a departure from the Lord. God's people depart from serving the

Lord, obeying the Lord, worshiping the Lord exclusively. There's departure from the Lord. That departure brings chastening from the

Lord. The chastening from the Lord brings the people to repentance, so they return to the

Lord. And then there is deliverance by the Lord. And then the cycle happens all over again.

So there's a foretaste of that cycle in chapter 2. The second part of the book, so the first part is an introduction.

The second part of the book, which is the bulk of it, and it's what we probably are most familiar with, the stories of the different judges, it's actually a series, chapter 3, verse 7, through chapter 16.

It's a series of seven oppressions and seven deliverances.

Seven occasions when people of Israel were oppressed by some foreign entity, and they cried out to the

Lord, and the Lord raised up a judge who delivered them. Seven oppressions and seven deliverances.

The last part of the book is the most troubling part. Chapters 17 through 21, these last five chapters, record essentially two incidents that illustrate both the religious and the moral decadence of the age.

And we'll say more about these two incidents in a few minutes. But they actually occurred, even though they appear in the writing late in the book, they occurred earlier in this time period.

But they just illustrate how decadent the time was. Again, we'll say more about those in a few moments.

You think about the theme of the book of Judges, it's always good to keep a theme in mind of a book of the

Bible, because that theme kind of helps you, kind of orients you to what's going on in the book, and how to understand it.

There are two ways of expressing the theme, and I just want to share with you how a couple of the study

Bibles I have, have tried to crystallize the theme of the book. The ESV study

Bible puts it this way, that without Jesus as the King in His kingdom, national and spiritual life spiraled downward into chaos, anarchy, and apostasy.

Without Jesus as the King in His kingdom, national and spiritual life spiraled downward into chaos, anarchy, and apostasy.

In the MacArthur study Bible, he turns it around a little bit, paints it in a more positive way, but same idea.

He says this, he says, God's power and covenant mercy in graciously delivering

His people from the consequences of their failures compels them to long for King Jesus.

Let me say that again. God's power and covenant mercy in graciously delivering

His people from the consequences of their failures, that mercy compels them to long for King Jesus.

If you want to get a sense of the theme very succinctly, it would simply be this, we need the

King. We need the King. Now that theme, we need the

King, is developed by emphasizing three main points. Let me just share these with you this morning.

Three main points that develop this theme that we need the King. And these three points are relevant to our day.

I'm not making them relevant, they just are. The first way the theme is developed is this, rugged individualism.

You've heard that expression before, right? We live in the United States of America, the land of rugged individualism.

Well, rugged individualism eventually corrodes society.

This is what is brought out to develop this theme that we need the

King. Here's rugged individualism in its most basic form. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Now, turn with me to chapter 17 in this book. Chapter 17.

Because that statement, every man did that which was right in his own eyes, actually bookends the third part of the book of Judges.

Remember I said that part three is the part that illustrates just the spiritual and moral decadence of the age.

And that section, chapter 17 through 21, is bookended by this statement that every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

So it shows up first in chapter 17, verse 6. It says, in those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And then you go to the end of the book, chapter 21, the very last verse in the book.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

So this statement, the statement of rugged individualism, everybody gets to do what's right in his own eyes.

There's nobody telling him what he has to do. There's nobody telling him that what he's doing is right or wrong.

Everyone does what is right in his own eyes. That rugged individualism corrodes society.

And it's illustrated here in chapters 17 and 18. And again, when we get there a few, several weeks down the road, we'll look at this passage in more detail.

But what I want you to see here today is that in these two chapters, this rugged individualism corrodes the religious thread that ties society together.

If every man can do what is right in his own eyes, that's going to show up in religion. And it does here.

As in chapter 17, you have this guy in the first five verses named

Micah. He's an Ephraimite. That is, he's of the tribe of Ephraim. And he does what's right in his own eyes by establishing his own shrine.

Now, all the worship of Yahweh, of the Lord, is to take place at the tabernacle.

There are to be no idols. There's to be nothing made in a likeness of God.

And God is to be worshipped in the one central place where the tabernacle is. The sacrifices are to be offered there, and so on and so forth.

Well, Micah is doing what's right in his own eyes by establishing his own shrine.

And you see this in verse 5. It says, the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod.

That would be a religious garment. He made an ephod and household idols.

And he consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. So here's this guy who says, you know,

I want to worship God. And we'll leave

God undefined for the moment. I want to worship God. How do

I worship God? Well, you can be a righteous

Israelite and go to the book of Moses, the books of Moses, the book of the law, and find out how does

God want to be worshipped. And then follow accordingly. Or you can say, how do

I want to worship God? Here's how I'll worship God. I'll make a priest of my own.

It doesn't have to be a Levite or an Aaronic priesthood. I can make a priest of my own son.

I'll have my son be my priest. And he makes his little household gods, and he sets up these images.

And he's got his son to serve as his priest. He's got his own church in his own house.

And he's worshipping God the way he wants, the way he thinks is best.

Does this sound familiar? Are there any contemporary parallels to this? It absolutely is.

Absolutely. So the Ephraimite, he establishes his own shrine as a way to worship

God. But then the story continues here. When you read in verse 7 that there was a young man from Bethlehem and Judah of the family of Judah.

He was a Levite. Oh, okay, there's one who needs to know, who does know what the law of God is.

And he will certainly make things right. Come on the scene, the hero of the day, the

Levite who is going to set the things straight. He's going to communicate the word of God so that the standard of righteousness that is given in the law of Moses, that will become the norm for this

Ephraimite when he gets introduced to him, right? No, no, no.

Instead, what happens is that this Levite becomes an opportunist.

Who's going to make me their priest? When the Levite doesn't even have a legitimate claim to the priesthood.

Not unless he's of a family of Aaron. So who's going to make me their priest?

Who will pay me to serve as his priest?

So he comes across this Ephraimite, Micah, who has thought it was a good idea to have his own son be a priest.

And all of a sudden this Levite shows up. And Micah starts talking to him. Who are you?

Where are you from? He says, I'm a Levite. Oh, you're a Levite. Well, listen, I will make you my priest.

Then I'll have a Levite for a priest. And surely God will bless me now because I got a Levite for a priest.

And the Levite says, wow, this must be this must be the blessing of the divine. Because after all,

I needed somebody to pay my bills. I needed somebody to give me food to eat. And now

I've got a house where I can go and serve as a priest. In other words, whereas the

Ephraimite worships God the way that he wants, the way that he thinks best.

The Levite serves God the way that he wants, the way that he thinks best.

The whole religious thread of the nation is corroded by this rugged individualism.

So this rugged individualism corrodes the religious thread of society.

But it also corrodes the moral fabric of society. And this brings up the second illustration in these last chapters of the book of Judges.

In chapters 19 through 21. Corrodes the moral fabric of society.

These chapters have to be the most dark, decadent, depraved stories in the scriptures,

I think. And what's going on in this passage is, in the first place, sexual behavior is individually chosen.

Sexual behavior. Rugged individualism, right? Everyone's doing what's right in his own eyes.

So when it comes to sexual behavior, I can do what I want. I can do what's right in my eyes.

Listen to the contemporary phraseology of this. I can do what makes me feel good.

I can do what I know is true to myself. I'll be true to myself.

And so what do you have going on here in Exodus 19 and following? What you have is another

Levite who takes a concubine and has this relationship with the concubine.

We read of that in verse 1. He was staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim.

But he took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. So you've got the

Levite doing what he thinks is best and right in his own eyes, sexually, by taking this concubine.

And the concubine does what's right in her eyes. She says, you know what? This guy's boring.

I mean, I don't want to be stuck having sex with this guy for the rest of my life. I want to branch out.

I want to explore. I want to experience new things. And so in verse 2, his concubine played the harlot against him.

Eventually, she ends up at her father's house back in Bethlehem. She's hanging out there for four months.

Who knows what's going on there in her playing the harlot during this time.

But while she's there, the Levite finally says, you know what?

I need to go find this woman. She is my property after all. So he goes back to her father's house, and sure enough, there she is.

And he's going to fetch her and take her back to his place up in the mountains of Ephraim. While he's at father -in -law's house, a whole bunch of guys from the city, they come together and they surround the place, and they insist that the host, the concubine's father, that the host deliver the guy, the

Levite, to them so that they can do with him what they want.

In other words, they're a bunch of homosexuals. They think it's fun. They think it's right in their eyes to practice same -sex stuff, even by force.

I mean, after all, this guy's a stranger. He doesn't belong here, so we should be able to do with him whatever we want.

And so they insist upon it. And if that isn't morally perverse enough, finally the guy, the father, and the

Levite, they say to these assailants, no, look, don't do that.

This guy's a visitor in my home. Take my concubine, the father.

Take my daughter. Do what you want with her. And so the men of Bethlehem who have surrounded the house, they take the concubine, and they spend the night with her, and they all abuse her.

And the abuse is so violent that she ends up crawling back to the doorstep of the house, and she dies on the doorstep.

Sexual behavior, individually chosen. Do what I want to do. Do what makes me feel good. Do what is true to myself, no matter whom it hurts in the long run.

Well, we're talking about the moral fabric of society. Morality is not only sexual.

Morality has to do with how wrongs are vindicated, how wrongs are corrected.

And so this concubine dies after being abused all night, and the

Levite says, you know what, I want to do something about this. What do I think would be right way to handle this?

So here's what he does. He takes her back home. He cuts her up into pieces, and he sends pieces of this woman's body to the different tribes and basically says, you've got to deal with this.

You've got to deal with this. Vindication, retaliation. It's up to me to figure out how to make it happen.

After all, there's nobody over us, no authority over us. It's up to me to decide.

I will do what's right in my eyes with this situation. It's individually pursued.

And so it is. Tribes come together. They all do battle against the

Bethlehemites, wipe them out, wipe out all the women and children, and there's 400 of them that are left or something like that.

And they have no, I mean, the tribe is going to die out. So after a while, we get a little bit disturbed by this.

One of the tribes is going to be completely wiped out. This is awful. We can't have this.

So what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Well, I suppose if you had any kind of a heart toward the

Lord, you'd go to the Lord and say, man, we have sinned. How do we deal with this? What do we do?

But that's not what we do because, after all, there is no king. And so we can do what's right in our own eyes.

So we figure out what to do. And so what we do is we find out, is there a city, is there somebody in our nation that didn't come help us fight against these guys?

Do battle against them? Oh, yeah. Here's this city. Here's what we'll do. We'll go to that city and we'll wipe out all the men of that city and we'll take the women from that city and give them to the

Bethlehemites so that they have wives. Reparations are subject to our whim, subject to what we think is right individually.

So is marriage. So they kill off a bunch of inhabitants of Jabesh -Gilead to get wives for these

Bethlehemites, but there aren't quite enough to go around. So then what do we do? Well, there's some young virgins that go out and they do this celebration at a particular feast.

So we'll lie in wait until they come out to do their thing.

When they come out to do their thing, then we'll kidnap some of them so that we'll kidnap enough of them to make up for the loss, to make up for the difference of Bethlehemites that don't have husbands.

That's what we'll do. Let me ask you something. Would you want to live in a society like that?

Is that the best of times? Cyril Barber, in his commentary on this, he said, the abandonment of traditional beliefs corresponds with a decline in values.

Is that 21st century or not? The abandonment of traditional beliefs corresponds with a decline in values.

Look, rugged individualism, it corrodes the religious thread of society, it corrodes the moral fabric of society, and it corrodes the political unity of a society.

Again, Barber, he made this comment, looking at the book as a whole, he says, instead of maintaining unity as a nation, so vital in the conquest under Joshua, remember?

All the Israelites were together fighting against the Canaanites, trying to take over the land and to occupy the land.

So vital was that unity that the two -and -a -half tribes that were given land on the east side of the

Jordan River, Moses said, you men, you fighting men, you can't stay over there, your fighting men have to come across the river to help take conquest of the land.

It is vital that the nation fight together, that we be one together. But this unity is not maintained.

Instead of maintaining unity as a nation, the tribes, in the book of Judges, the tribes fragmented.

Each went its own way. Only when facing a common enemy did some tribes cooperate with one another.

So one way that this theme, that we need the king, is developed, is by showing that this rugged individualism corrodes society.

A second way that the theme is developed is by showing that religious syncretism corrupts the faith.

Syncretism, what is that? Syncretism is when you take certain features of different religions and you pull them all together and you create a sort of a hybrid religion.

So look at chapter 2, verses 10 and 11, or I'm sorry, verses 11 to 13.

Judges 2, verses 11 and following. Here is your religious syncretism.

It says, The way you should understand that is they forsook the exclusive worship of the one true

God, Yahweh, the God of Israel. They forsook that exclusive worship of Yahweh, and what they did was incorporated the

Baals and the Ashtoreths into their worship of God.

Syncretism. Syncretism. Now by the way, and this is a good thing to keep in mind, the religious darkness in Israel at this time was not universal.

There were some who remained faithful, true to the Lord, doing what was right in His eyes, not their own.

And the book of Ruth is a bright spot that exemplifies that.

Remember, the book of Ruth occurred in the time of the judges. And it's a wonderful story of righteousness and a bright spot in this otherwise dark time.

But this religious syncretism, it corrupts the faith. How so? Well, one thing it does is it dissolves trust in Yahweh.

If we're going to accept the Baals and the Ashtoreths, these gods of the people around us, then that implies that we don't have exclusive trust in Yahweh, the

God who brought us out of Egypt, the God who brought us into the land of Canaan. We don't have exclusive trust.

It also destroys obedience to Yahweh. The moment another god is considered, looked upon, accepted, you have violated the first couple of commands in the

Decalogue. It destroys obedience to Yahweh. A third thing it does is it diminishes this religious syncretism.

It diminishes strength in battle. So look at chapter 1, verses 27 and following.

You have this repetition of an idea that I'll just show you in verse 27. It says,

However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and its villages, or Tanak and its villages, and so forth.

Verse 29, Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. Verse 30,

Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron. Verse 31, Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akko, or the inhabitants of Sidon, and so forth.

You see how this religious syncretism has sucked the strength, the vitality, the power out of the people, so that what they were supposed to do, what they could have done, what they should have done in conquering of the land, they were not able to do it.

Their strength has been sapped. Why weren't they able to do it? Chapter 2 tells us.

The Lord said in verse 2, I told you you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land.

You shall tear down this alders, but you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore, I said,

I will not drive them out from before you, but there'll be thorns in your side and their gods shall be a snare to you.

Diminishes strength in battle. And this religious syncretism corrupts the faith by demanding chastening from Yahweh, from the

Lord. The cycle that we read about in the book of Judges is summarized in chapter 2, verses 13 and following.

Notice it. They forsook the Lord and served the Baal and the Asteros, and the anger of the

Lord was hot against Israel. So he delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn to them.

And they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.

In summary of the cycle, demanding chastening. And this religious syncretism, of course, then demands repentance unto

Yahweh. Repentance unto the Lord. It's necessary.

It's vital to correct the faith. All right, so look, insofar as you, as a 21st century

American, or a 21st century professing believer in Christ, to the extent that you have looked to other religions, and you have bowed the knee to other gods, or you have incorporated the ideas and maybe the forms of worship into the worship of the one true

God, you need to repent of that. You need to repent of that. You need to turn from it.

Religious syncretism corrupts the faith. And then the third way that this theme is developed, the fact that we need the king, the third way this is emphasized, this theme is emphasized, is the idea that raised leaders, those leaders that God raises up, those raised leaders are flawed individuals.

They're flawed individuals. Remember the theme. What's the theme? The theme is not, we need more

Gideons, we need more Samsons, we need more Jephthahs.

The theme is, we need the king. So one of the ways that theme is developed is showing that these raised up leaders are flawed individuals.

Of all the individuals mentioned in the book of Judges, and of all the judges, other than perhaps

Samuel and Deborah, none of them, none of those judges were paragons of virtue.

None of them. Yes, many of them exemplified faith.

And you can read in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, chapter 11, verses 32 to 34, remember that roll call of faith, if you will.

Some of the judges are mentioned, itemized as expressing faith. And they did.

They expressed faith. What the writer of Hebrews is doing is not elevating them and exalting them as paragons of virtue, but he is illustrating how their faith was what was effective.

And it is true, their faith was effective. But their faith also was inconsistent and sometimes contradictory.

Again, Cyril Barber, he says this, he says, Because the judges did little, if anything, to arrest the downward spiral.

Some even accelerated it. You think of Gideon, you know the story of Gideon, but you know

Gideon is guilty of some pretty significant sin. Jephthah, Jephthah is another character, another one of the judges, but are you aware of the sin of Jephthah?

What about Samson? What about Samson? Samson is the last of the seven judges mentioned in the book of Judges, and the worst, the worst.

He was terribly flawed, terribly flawed. So what's then the conclusion of the matter?

If any raised up leader is eventually, some way, somehow flawed, what's the answer?

Yeah, right? The answer is the king. We need the king.

We need a righteous ruler. A righteous ruler is indispensable, utterly indispensable.

And here's the thing. The Lord planned, the Lord planned for a king.

He planned for a human king. Look with me back at Deuteronomy chapter 17.

Deuteronomy 17, verses 14 and 15. Deuteronomy 17, verse 14.

This, of course, is written by Moses on the east side of the Jordan River before going into Canaan.

And the Lord said this, When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say,

You say, I will set a king over me like the nations that are around me. The Lord says,

You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you.

You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother. So the Lord has a plan for a human king.

But his plan, look at verse 18. His plan is that that king would be faithful to him, to the

Lord. It shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priests, the

Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the

Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and the statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or the left, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

The Lord had planned for a human king, for a human king that would be faithful to him.

And you know the Lord also chose the tribe from Israel from which that king would come.

You remember Jacob as he blessed his sons before he died, he said to Judah that his tribe would be the one from whom the king would come.

In Genesis 49 verses 8 -10, Jacob said this,

Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

Your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you've gone up.

He bows down. He lies down as a lion. And as a lion, who shall rouse him?

Then this, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes.

And to him shall be the obedience of the people. The king is to come from the tribe of Judah.

Now why is that significant? Why is that significant? Because even in the book of Judges, even in the book of Judges, the

Lord hinted at the fulfillment of the king who would come.

How did he hint at it? There are two places in the book of Judges where the question is asked, facing a battle, facing an enemy, the question is asked, and we see it in chapter 1 verse 1, and the answer in 2.

The question is asked, who shall be first to go up for us against the

Canaanites to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up.

Why? And then in this war, this fighting against Bethlehem, the

Bethlehemites, remember when the tribes came together and they're going to wipe out the Bethlehemites? The question again was asked, who shall go up first to fight against the

Bethlehemites? And the Lord answered, said, Judah shall go up first. Why Judah? Why Judah?

Judah is the royal tribe. It is from Judah that the king was going to come.

And you know what else? In the book of Judges, the Lord's ruler, the king, he actually shows up.

He reveals himself. Oh, not yet as the ruler, not yet as the ruler, but he does show up.

In chapter two, are you there in Judges? In chapter two, verses one through five, it says, the angel of the

Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochem and said, look at what the angel, the messenger, the angel from Yahweh said.

The angel of the Lord said, I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land which

I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. The angel of the

Lord is here expressing his authority. And he goes on to the verses that we read earlier.

I said to you, I will not drive them out from before you. They shall be, they shall be thorns in your side and so forth.

Verse four. So it was when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to the children of Israel, all the people lifted up their voices and wept.

And they called the name of the place Bochem and they sacrificed there to the

Lord. In chapter five, verse 23, the angel of the Lord shows up again to reveal his authority.

Curse Meraz, said the angel of the Lord. Curse its inhabitants bitterly. The angel of the

Lord said, curse Meraz. In chapter six, verse 11, the angel of the

Lord comes to Gideon and he calls Gideon in verse 14.

And notice in verse 11, it says the, in chapter six, verse 11 says the angel of the Lord came and sat under the

Terebinth tree. The angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terebinth tree. Yes, because the angel of the

Lord, listen, get this. He came in the form of a man and sat under the

Terebinth tree. And when Gideon saw him, he saw, just as I am standing here and looking at a bunch of men today, he saw a man sitting under that Terebinth tree.

And this angel of the Lord appeared to him in verse 12 and said, Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor.

You know that Gideon's response and all that. But then look at verse 14. Then Yahweh turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the

Midianites. The angel of the Lord is the Lord's ruler who reveals himself in this, in this book.

He reveals his authority. He reveals his power. In verse 15,

Gideon said to the angel of the Lord, oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest, etc.

In verse 16, the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the

Midianites as one man. Even the victory of Gideon over the

Midianites is not attributed to Gideon, it's attributed to the king. The angel of the

Lord says, I will be with you in this. This one, this king, is the king we need.

The divine king. The king who will lead us in doing what is right in God's sight, not in our own.

Not in our own. So look, it's often been said we are children of our culture, of our age.

If you or I have bought into the modern expressions of doing what is right in our own eyes, to the extent that we have done so, we must repent.

We need to repent of that way of thinking. And instead, we need to turn our eyes upon Jesus.

We need to turn to Him and trust Him as our

Savior. If you haven't done so, confess Him as your

Lord, your King. Your King. The King that we all so desperately need.

Our Father in Heaven, our Father in Heaven, we do thank you for the

King, the Lord Jesus. Thank you that we're not left to try to figure out what is right in our own eyes.

Because there is a King. There is a King before whom we bow.

We must. Under whose authority we must submit ourselves.

Whose will we must follow. Whose righteousness we must extol.

Whose reign we must accept. Gladly, willingly, we pray that we shall.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Take your hymnals and turn to number 373.

373. Let's stand together and I'm going to sing the first and the third stanzas of Only One Life to Offer.

373, on the first and then the third. Only one life to offer

Jesus my Lord and King Only one tongue to praise

Him And of thy mercy sing Only one heart's devotion

Savior oh may it be Consecrated alone

Matchless glory Yielded fully to thee

And the last. Only one life to offer

Take it dear Lord I pray Nothing from thee withholding

Why will I now obey Thou who hast freely given

Thine all in all for me Claim this life for thine own

To be used my Savior Every moment for thee

The Lord will give you a good day of rest, good afternoon, and encourage you to be back at six o 'clock tonight as we go back to the book of Mark.

Let's pray. Now unto Him who is the blessed and only sovereign, the

King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in the unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion forever and ever.