FBC Morning Worship Service

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Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning. See on this Lord's Day, thank the Lord for his goodness in providing this opportunity for us to gather together and to worship him today.
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I hope you've had a good week and able to see the Lord's hand of blessing in some way or another in this past week.
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How has he answered your prayers this week? Any left lingering?
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I'm sure there are some that you're holding out to, holding on to, and persisting in prayer.
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That's always a necessary part of our Christian walk. But if you look back on the week, how has
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God graciously answered? That's always a blessing on the Lord's Day to do that kind of reflection and then to worship him, praising him for all he has done and is doing in our lives.
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Well, as we have come together to worship today, I want to just, before we begin, emphasize a few things in your bulletin.
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One of them is the Wednesday night time together. We've been looking at these videos on the
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Torchlighters series, looking at different individuals, characters from church history. And this week we're looking at a person
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I never, I don't think I'd ever heard of him before. I don't know why. But Samuel Morris was a young man converted at the age of 14 as a result of some work of some missionaries.
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And so he came to Christ and then he wanted to be a missionary to his own people. So what he planned to do to be prepared for that and be effective in that was to come to the
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United States from Liberia and prepare for the work of the ministry and then go back to his people.
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And well, you just have to come to find out how that turned out for Samuel Morris.
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But that's Wednesday night and encourage you to come and join in on that time. Now, next Lord's Day is the 4th of July.
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Of course, it's a day we celebrate our nation's independence, but more importantly, it's a day that we celebrate our spiritual independence, our spiritual freedom from bondage.
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But the message of the morning next Lord's Day will be by Ron Burnett and encourage you to be here.
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You've heard him before. He's been here frequently. I was planning to be gone, but we've kind of changed our plans a little bit and I think we will be here next
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Sunday. So nevertheless, Ron's going to be speaking in the morning service. And then in the evening, it's the first Sunday of the month.
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And we've been doing the young married and single adult fellowship meetings on those first Sundays and meeting at the
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Foreman's. Next week won't be any exception, even though it's the 4th of July, but note the time change.
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Meeting at 4 .30 and be doing a cookout and having a good time together.
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There'll be some games and prizes for the kids and so forth. They ask you to bring some meat for grilling and a dish to pass if you're planning to attend.
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There's also a signup sheet on the Foyer Bulletin Board just to let them know how many to plan for.
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Encourage you to join in for that. Now they promise that anything organized will be done well in advance of being able to go to fireworks if you're so inclined and not going to just go home and go to bed.
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I mean you've got time to do that too, but you can do the fireworks as well. So if you're not in the
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YMSA Fellowship Group, I encourage you to take advantage of that, the holiday celebration.
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Have someone in your home and have a little get -together. Maybe a get -together going also to the fireworks if that's your thing.
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But just take advantage of these times to get to know one another and to fellowship with one another and to grow in grace and knowledge of the
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Lord Jesus Christ by iron sharpening iron. Use that opportunity. Other than that I just want to emphasize that on the missionary wall in some of the pockets there are some new missionary prayer letters from the
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Williquettes, Hammermeisters, and the Stroops. And this is the best way to keep in touch with and keep up to date with what's going on with the missionaries.
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Pick up their prayer letters. I encourage you to grab those on your way out today. Alright, we've come together to worship the
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Lord and as we begin I just want to read this from Psalm 70 verse 4. Speaking to the
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Lord, let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say continually, let
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God be magnified and let him be magnified in our worship today.
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Jim, come lead us in our opening hymn. Thank you,
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Pastor. It's on page number 26. So let us all stand together and sing this praise unto the
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Lord together on page number 26 in your hymnals, all four verses. Praise to the
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Lord, O let all praises be poured.
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Please remain standing. Brother Ed, would you lead us? Our Father, we just do thank you,
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Lord, for daily loading us with benefits. We just do thank you,
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Lord, for the beauty and the abundance of your creation in supplying our needs.
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And our, the Bible, Lord, your word, that we can know you and know more about you.
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We just praise you for that and pray that you would speak to us from your word this morning. And that you would just help shape our thoughts to be in line with your word,
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Lord, and make us like Christ. We just praise these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated.
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We want to read in responsibly Psalm 71, the first eight verses.
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If you want to follow in your bulletin, in the back of your bulletin, the first eight verses of Psalm 71.
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Reading responsibly, I'll start and then you pick up verse two and we'll go back and forth. Let's read the word together,
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Psalm 71, verse one. In you, O Lord, I put my trust. Let me never be put to shame.
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Be my strong refuge to which I may resort continually. You have given the commandment to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
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For you are my hope, O Lord God. You are my trust from my youth. I have become as a wonder to many, but you are my strong refuge.
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Let my mouth be filled with your praise and with your glory all the day.
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Let's sing that Psalm put to music in our Psalter number 151,
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Jim. Again, 151 in the red books, the
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Psalter. We'll sing just the first three verses, one, two, and three of 151. Lord, in you, you can take and rest, righteous, and save me.
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From the past to the same.
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Speak of this, and strengthens all, as proclaiming yours, our hope.
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As we pray together, we want to remember our Missionary of the Week, the Hammermeisters, Darren and Elizabeth, serving in Surrey, British Columbia, right outside of Vancouver.
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In their prayer letter that's available this week, they mention that they're actually able to hold services again and gather.
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You know, Canada has been really, really strict and tight, especially with churches.
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You know, it's like other things there you can be pretty lax about, but churches, they've been pretty hard on.
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And Darren and Elizabeth are rejoicing that they can meet together with their people. A lot of the people have come back to church as they've regathered, and they've recently received some new folks into membership, and so that is a great blessing to them.
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But just pray for God to continue to use their work in British Columbia. And then we want to continue to pray for Jodi Knapp.
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Jodi was serving in Sunday School this morning. Jodi was moved this past week to a rehab facility, but then last night, in the night, she fell and hit her head, and they ended up having to transport her to Swedish American in Rockford.
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And she was, this morning, in intensive care. I don't know if she's been moved yet or not, but I want to continue to pray for Jodi and for Bob, that the
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Lord would encourage him. Jodi's also been struggling with a great deal of confusion, as she's kind of come out of the couple of months of sleep and medication.
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So pray for God to give clarity to her mind. And then pray for Kent Foster.
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Kent was in the hospital Monday through yesterday, came home yesterday, still struggling with some fluid problems and oxygen, needing oxygen and so forth.
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So pray for the Lord to continue to strengthen Kent as he recovers.
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Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? We do thank you, our
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God, that you are our refuge, you are our strength. And we thank you that in your grace and in your kindness, you have brought us to this place, not only here locally, but this place in our lives.
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We were dead in trespasses and sins, and those of us who have come to faith in Christ have done so because, by your grace, you have worked a miraculous work within us, where we were dead, but you made us alive.
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We were blind, but you gave us eyes to see. We were deaf, but you gave us ears to hear.
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And you, in your grace, granted us the faith to trust in the only
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Savior, the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, gracious Father, for your mercy, for your grace that has brought us to this place.
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We thank you for what you have provided and done in this past week. We thank you for the needs of our lives that have been met.
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We thank you for prayers that have been answered, and we certainly see those answered prayers in the lives of both
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Jody and Kent, even in the last couple of days. But these folks are still in great need, and we pray that you would undertake in their behalf, you would touch their bodies, and in Jody's case, also her mind, give clarity to her thinking.
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I pray that the clouds would lift. I pray that she would make connections and gain understanding, just help the fog to dissipate.
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And I pray that she would be able to think and see and understand clearly. Also pray for healing to her body.
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And for Kent, we ask also that you would continue to strengthen him from this last episode this week.
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I pray that, again, the fluid would dissipate, the oxygen would serve its purpose, and he would be able to regain his strength physically.
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We just pray for him and pray that you would be gracious to him. Encourage Lori as well as she cares for him.
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We thank you, Father, for the missionaries that we support and the work that they are doing.
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I think particularly of the Hammermeisters in British Columbia. Thank you, Father, that they can assemble again and do so without fear of the government's interference.
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And I pray that you would bless their assembly today. I pray that you would use Darren in the preaching and the teaching of the
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Word. I pray that those who attend would hear and they would grow and understand.
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We pray for souls to be converted. And we thank you for those who have and for the recent additions that they've had in their church.
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And just pray that this would continue. They'd continue to see fruit and fruit that remains.
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Bless that work, we pray. We pray that you would provide for them as well in their support needs and I pray that others would come alongside and see the importance of that work and share the burden that they carry.
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Father, we thank you for those who are shut in today and yet we pray for them.
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We pray that you would encourage them today. We pray for Sue Cherry and pray for Jeannie Ludwig.
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We pray that you would meet the needs of these ladies and just, Father, encourage them in these long months of isolation.
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We pray for Dean Kinnaman and for Bob Kline. We pray that these men would sense your presence and your encouragement among them.
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Jed Hunsberger, pray that he might soon be able to come back to fellowship here.
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Pray that you would encourage him in his living situation as well.
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For Maxine Gomer, we thank you, Father, for the strength that you've given to her and yet we pray for ongoing strengthening of her body.
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May she soon be able to come back and join us in church as well. Father, thank you for each one who is able to attend today.
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Thank you for the health and strength that you've provided. Thank you for the interest that you've given us in the desire as your people to assemble together, to worship you, to serve you with our praise, with our attention, with our response to your word.
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Bless as we've come together for that purpose today. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Pastor, it's on page number 55 in your supplement songbook, number 55,
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Relentless Love. And we'll all stand together, if you would. A reminder to those that would have children, and we have a children's church.
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And at the end of the last verse, you can dismiss your children in good care there.
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We also have the parents' lounge. Did I get it right?
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The parents' lounge. And let's all stand together and available to you as well.
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Let's all sing together four verses of number 55, Relentless Love. Unbound, unfailing love, love raised above, my
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Savior's sovereign love for me. Relentless love affirmed my heart,
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I would have, was unreturned, returned by Christ.
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Grace unsought, my rebelled soul was caught, redeemed by love that would not be denied.
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My Savior's sovereign love for me. Relentless love preserves my life unbelief, sustains me through my sin, my doubt, my grief.
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Since Christ has done it all, no feeble hung at all.
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His wounded hand sold me, sinner's cheap. My Savior's sovereign love for me.
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Relentless love transforms my soul and is divine, exceeds the fleeting joys which once survived.
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Held by His love for me, a home which sets me free,
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I'll have my heart's desire, that is pride. Revealed, my
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Savior's sovereign love. Our scripture message, our text today,
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Judges chapter 2 verse 11 to chapter 3 verse 6.
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I encourage you to turn in your Bible and as we read together, Judges chapter 2 verse 11 to chapter 3 verse 6.
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I encourage you to follow along in your copy of scripture as I read beginning in verse 11 of chapter 2.
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It says, Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they forsook the
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Lord God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them.
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And they bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the
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Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel.
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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.
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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.
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And they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who had plundered them.
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Yet they would not listen to their judges. But they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them.
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They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandments of the
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Lord. They did not do so. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the
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Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the
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Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
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And it came to pass when the judge was dead. That they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them.
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They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. Then the anger of the
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Lord was hot against Israel and he said. Because this nation has transgressed my covenant which
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I commanded their fathers and has not heeded my voice. I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which
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Joshua left when he died. So that through them I may test Israel whether they will keep the ways of the
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Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not. Therefore the Lord left those nations without driving them out immediately.
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Nor did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which the Lord left that he might test
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Israel by them. That is all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan. This was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war.
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At least those who had not formally known it. Namely five lords of the Philistines, all the
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Canaanites, the Sidonians and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon. From Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
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And they were left that he might test Israel by them. To know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
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Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the
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Hivites and the Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons.
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And they served their gods. Just a brief prayer. My father
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I pray that from this passage before us we would take seriously the sober warning that is found therein.
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We pray in Jesus name. Amen. I think infidelity has to be one of the greatest heartaches in a marriage relationship.
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Coupled with that is a depth of pain that is probably unsurpassed in human experience.
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The depth of pain that the one that has been spurned, they experience.
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It's said to be greater than if the spouse had died. It's a pain that may never go away completely.
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It's a pain that has plunged the spurned lover into despair, depression, sometimes even harmful behavior.
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Harmful to the spouse, harmful to the other partner, even harmful to oneself.
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It's a pain that calls out for the lover to return, to repent, for the love to once again be reciprocated.
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In this text, in Judges chapters 2 and 3, the Lord is responding to those who have spurned his love.
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They claim to be his people. They profess him on one hand to be their
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God. But his love, his love they've abandoned for that of other gods.
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The passage serves as a warning to all who profess to be believers in Jesus. And the warning is this, to beware lest you spurn the love of the divine
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Savior. So let's establish, first of all, the fact that in this passage, the
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Lord is the consummate lover. He is the lover of his people. To understand that, we have to ask ourselves a series of questions.
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Like, why are these people, the Israelites, why are these people in Canaan in the first place?
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What are they doing here? Why are they here? Well, the obvious answer to that would be, well,
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God gave it to them. We know that. God gave them this land. Okay, but why have they been given this land?
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Why these people? Why did God give the land to these people? And if you know your
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Old Testament history, you know, well, because God promised that he would give the land to...
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He promised originally to Abraham that he would give his descendants this land. And he reaffirmed that promise to Isaac and to Jacob.
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So, you know, he promised it. So he's keeping his promise. Okay, but why?
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You know, why? Why did he promise to give the land to these people?
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To answer that question, we need to go back to Deuteronomy 7. Turn there with me, please.
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Deuteronomy 7. And look at verses 6 through 8. In Deuteronomy, just a reminder,
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Deuteronomy is the words of Moses on the east side of the Jordan River just prior to the
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Israelites, the people who are now in judges in the land. So these are the words that Moses speaks to the
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Israelites before they cross the Jordan River years earlier to begin the conquest, to begin to take over the land.
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And so as he speaks to God's people, he says in verse 6, You are a holy people to the
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Lord your God. For the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples of the earth.
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The Lord did not set his love upon you, verse 7 says, nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples, but because the
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Lord loves you. Because the Lord loves you. In other words, why?
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Why are these people in this land? Because the Lord loves them.
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The Lord loved them so much and in this way. He chose them to be the people that would occupy this land.
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He set his love on them, not because of anything in them. Remember the song we just sang.
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He loved me. He set his love on me when there was nothing lovely in me. And this is what
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Moses is telling these people. He says the Lord chose you and the Lord brought you, is bringing you into this land.
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He chose you to go into this land and to have this land, not because of anything good in you. The Lord didn't look at you and say, wow, this is a wonderful people.
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These people are so much better than everybody else on the planet. I think I'll give the land to them. And he didn't say, well, these people are a bigger group of people than any other group of people, so therefore
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I'll give them this land. No, it has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with him, with the
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Lord. The Lord set his love on them because he set his love on them. And that is it.
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He is, I say, the consummate lover. Now notice, I want you to notice as you continue here in Deuteronomy 7, that it is that gracious, redeeming, electing love that is to serve as the motivation for faithful obedience.
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In other words, the people of Israel are to respond to this consummate lover, this great love which
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God has poured out on them. They are to respond to that love with faithful obedience.
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It is to motivate them to faithful obedience. So, for example, you see this in verse 9. So he says, the
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Lord did not set, verse 7, the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were such and such, but he loves you because he loves you.
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Now, verse 9, therefore, therefore, because of this love of the
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Lord, know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God.
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He says, therefore, because the Lord loves you, know that God. Know him.
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Know him. Now you think later about how that exhortation, that consequence of being loved has been spurned by his people as they don't really get to know him.
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They don't come to know him. They don't want to know him. But he says to know them.
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And then in verse 11, he says, therefore, again, therefore, because of this great love that God, the
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Lord, God has had for you, therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, the judgments, which
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I command you today to observe them. Faithful obedience is motivated, should be motivated by this love of God, the consummate lover.
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Going back to our text in Judges chapter 2, he, the Lord, the consummate lover, is a spurned lover.
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He's a spurned lover. I want you to see in this text three ways that you can spurn his love as they did, these who profess to be
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God's people. You can spurn his love in the first place by ignoring the faithful examples that he has provided for you.
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Here's what I mean. The previous generation, we talked about this last
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Lord's Day, the previous generation was faithful to the Lord. And they were the faithful examples that this generation and the subsequent generations had and should have looked to and should have emulated in their walk with their
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God, their lover, the one who loved them so well. But instead of doing that, they ignored him.
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These examples that went before them, notice in verse 10, how they knew the
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Lord and his works by experience. Verse 10 says, when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the
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Lord. So the previous generation that passed away, they knew the Lord, they knew him by experience, and they knew his works by experience.
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But if you spurn the lover, this consummate lover, the Lord God, if you spurn him, if you spurn his love, then one way you do that is by refusing to trust him.
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Hence, you have no real relationship with him. Now, one of the ways that this subsequent generation ignored the faithful example that went before them is when, again, back in chapter 1, the tribe came to this particular area and they saw all of the chariots of iron by the
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Canaanites. And they said, we can't deal with the chariots of iron, we can't do anything about them, so we won't even try to attack them, we won't even try to take that part of the territory.
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What was the problem? What was the problem? They refused to trust the
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Lord. They didn't really know him by experience. If they had trusted the
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Lord, they would have remembered that God has not only conquered chariots of iron in the past, but he tore down walls,
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Jericho walls. He's done so much more than mere chariots of iron. They did not trust him.
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And because they did not trust him, they did not experience his works. They had no relationship with him.
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One of the ways you spurn the love of God is by ignoring the faithful examples that he has provided for you.
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Examples that knew the Lord and his works. Examples of those who served the
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Lord faithfully. Back in verse 7, it says, The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived
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Joshua, but not now. Not now. You forsake him.
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You forsake him by serving other gods, gods of your own making, as in verses 12 and 13.
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They forsook the Lord God of their fathers who brought them out. They followed other gods from among the gods of the people.
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Verse 13, they forsook the Lord and they served Baal and the
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Ashtoreths. These gods of human making. You spurn the love of God by ignoring those examples that have gone before you who served the
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Lord and served him only, exclusively. You, on the other hand, forsake him by serving gods of your own making, if you spurn the
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Lord's love. And they spurned the Lord's love by ignoring those faithful examples who had obeyed the
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Lord. This is brought out in verse 17, the end of the verse. It says,
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They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the commandment of the
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Lord. They did not do so. They did not do so.
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Here were their fathers before them, the generation before them, the examples that provided wonderful examples for them in obeying the
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Lord and walking in his way, listening to his word, heeding what his word had to say, discerning his will, following his will, but they did not do so.
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One of the sad ways that you spurn the love of the consummate lover is by ignoring faithful examples who have gone before you.
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You think about that in the context, in the modern context of the
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Christian home, the Christian family, and the Christian church, a place where the word of God is faithfully proclaimed, a family where the word of God is, and the relationship with God is paramount, it's primary.
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Parents who do their best to model Christlike behavior before their kids, they do their best to obey the exhortations of Scripture to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the
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Lord, make sure that their children are faithfully in the Lord's house on the
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Lord's day, and instructing their children in the things of the Lord, and yet, when the children have the opportunity to go off on their own and to fly with freedom, where do they fly?
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How do they fly? Do they follow the faithful examples that have gone before them?
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Or do they spurn the consummate lover, the Lord of their parents, the
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God of their parents? This is one of the ways. Another way that the Lord is spurned, and you can spurn
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His love, is by abusing His divine mercy toward you, abusing
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His divine mercy toward you. In verses 16 and 18, and we'll develop this more in a few minutes, but notice how the
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Lord expresses His mercy. It says, verse 16, Nevertheless, in spite of these things, the
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Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. This is the Lord's mercy in verse 18.
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The Lord raised up judges. The Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge.
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The Lord was moved with compassion. So the Lord expresses mercy toward His people.
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He expresses mercy toward you. But that love expressed in mercy is spurned when
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His mercy is abused. You see this in verse 19. It says,
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It came to pass when the judge was dead. Look at what they did. Look at how this mercy is abused.
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It's abused by reverting back to a sinful lifestyle.
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When the judge was dead, they reverted. They reverted. They reverted.
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It's like 2 Peter 2. Peter writes about this, how this happens in the
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New Testament context. 2 Peter 2, verses 20 -22.
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It says, For if they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome.
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The latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
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But it has happened to them according to the true proverb. A dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire.
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Peter is talking about those who make a profession of being a Christian and they escape for a while the pollutions of the world as they know the
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Lord and they have some measure of knowledge of the Savior, Jesus. But they revert back to it.
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They go back to it. Now, what Peter is not talking about, he's not talking about an occasional failure where we're drawn away of our own lust and our own desires and we're enticed and we fall into sin.
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He's not talking about the occasional failure where we yield to temptation in a moment of weakness.
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That's not what he's talking about. He's talking more about a settled way of life. It's like the difference between David and his son
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Solomon. David, as you well know, yielded to temptation with Bathsheba and he sinned against God and against Uriah and against Bathsheba and against his own wife.
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Well, I guess he had more than one. But nevertheless, he sinned against all these people. And he himself said,
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I've sinned, you and you only have I sinned against to the Lord. And David did.
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He yielded to that temptation. He fell into that sin. He did. He chose it.
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He pursued it. But how did he handle it? How did he handle it?
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When confronted and convicted about his sin, he repented. And we have Psalm 51 as a wonderful expression of that deep repentance.
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And you have not another example. There's not another example after that of David having yielded to that temptation of lust to follow his sinful lust.
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But what about his son Solomon? Solomon, well, he knew everything that David knew.
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He grew up in David's household. He knew David's God. And in the early years of his reign as the king,
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Solomon, you know, he showed great love for God. He built a temple to the Lord and all the rest of the stuff.
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But there came a point where Solomon turned away from that exclusive love of God and he loved other women.
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And his love for other women caused him to worship their gods. And when you come to the end of his life and the testimony of Solomon is that he had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of women.
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And he had erected altars to unknown gods, to various gods.
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How did these two men respond? One responded in repentance. The other responded in idolatry.
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And what Peter is talking about that is a New Testament example of what happened in Judges 2 is that there was, in the abuse of the
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Lord's mercy, there was a reversion to sinful living. They went back into it as a settled way of life.
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Mercy is abused also, as you look back in Judges 2, verse 19, by escalating the sinful lifestyle.
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It says they reverted and they behaved more corruptly than their fathers. More corruptly than their fathers.
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And in doing so, they followed other gods to serve them and to bow down to them.
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Behave more corruptly. You get the sense that the book of Judges is like a downward spiral.
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You know, it starts off bad. And then there's this judge, and he delivers them.
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And then it gets bad again, but it's worse than the bad that was before. And there's another judge.
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And God delivers them. And then it gets bad again, but it's worse than it was before.
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It's this downward spiral. And by the time you get to the end of the book of Judges, you feel almost like you need to take a bath.
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It's just so, the corruption is so pervasive. It is so dark. It is so deep.
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And what happens is they don't merely revert to the sinful lifestyle, but they escalate the sinful lifestyle.
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You abuse the mercy of God not only by reverting to sin, but by escalating the sin, by escalating it.
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They followed other gods. Notice in verse 17 how the
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Lord describes that behavior of following the other gods. He says, they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods.
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They played the harlot with other gods. Needless to say, you understand the imagery.
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It's like they went after prostitutes. This is an appropriate description for this behavior, this escalating behavior of following after other gods.
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It's an appropriate description for a couple of reasons. One reason is that God couches his or expresses his relationship with his people in the terms of a marriage relationship.
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The Old Testament saints, Old Testament Israel, he says he's espoused them unto himself.
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He uses the prophet Hosea and Hosea's marriage to an adulterous woman.
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He uses that as an illustration of his relationship to Israel.
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His bride, Israel, has been adulterous. He couches this relationship
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God does between him and his people in the context, in the terms of a marital relationship.
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He does that in the New Testament as well, doesn't he? Maybe Ephesians chapter 5. What is
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Paul's exhortation to us men who are husbands? Husbands, love your wives.
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How? Even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle.
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He pictures the church as a bride. And then you go on down further in that passage in Ephesians.
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And Paul, after talking about the husband -wife relationship, he says, I'm speaking about Christ and the church.
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Christ and the church. So this relationship between God and his people is couched in the form of, in the relationship of, a marital relationship.
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So when God's people who are supposed to be married, espoused to him, faithful to him, go following after other gods, it's like they're going after prostitutes.
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It's like they're committing adultery against him. Spiritual adultery.
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That's one good reason for using that expression. Another one is a very, much more practical and visual,
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I guess, expression. And that is that the gods that they went after were gods that were considered to be gods of fertility and gods that would provide abundance of harvest and crops and so forth.
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And the way those gods were worshipped, one of the ways in which those gods were worshipped, was through what they called cult prostitutes, male and female.
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They'd have these different shrines set up throughout the land and the worshipper would go and they would worship
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Baal or the asterisk by paying the prostitute and having relations with the prostitute.
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And God says to his people, you are playing the harlot. You are praying the harlot.
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So you can abuse the mercy of the Lord who loves you by reverting to sinful lifestyle, by escalating the sinful lifestyle, and by continuing in that sinful lifestyle.
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So verse 19 again, at the end of the verse it says, they did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.
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They refused to stop their sinful practices.
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Even if and when confronted, their response is, yes,
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I know. I know what you're saying. I hear what you're saying. Have you ever heard someone trapped in or who has chosen a path of sin who has said that to you?
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You have challenged them about this. You've confronted them with this sin. You've said to them, look, you know this is
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God's word. This is God's standard. This is what God says.
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This is what God commands. This is what God expects. You know this is what gives God pleasure.
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This over here. And you are doing this over here. And this is in contrast.
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This is contradictory to what God wants. And you know that you are sinning against God's righteous standard.
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And they say, yeah, look, I know. I know what that says.
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I know. But this I want. This makes me happy.
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This gives me pleasure. Whatever their excuse, whatever their reason, maybe to couch it in modern terms and modern way of thinking, this is my truth.
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That's your truth. That's your truth. I reject your truth. I want my truth.
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Continuing in the sinful lifestyle by refusing to stop those sinful practices and refusing to change the set direction, you're headed in a path of destruction.
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You're headed down a path of destruction. Well, so you say.
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This is the way I'm going. Stubborn, how does he put it? They refused, they did not cease from their stubborn way.
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Their stubborn way. So you can abuse the mercy of the Lord who loves you by reverting to a sinful lifestyle, by escalating that sinful lifestyle, and continuing, persisting, stubbornly persisting in that sinful lifestyle.
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All of this is a way of spurning his love, abusing his mercy, ignoring those faithful examples who've gone before you.
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But you can also abuse or spurn the love of God. You can spurn his love by failing the divine test that he has established for you.
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This test is established in chapter 2, verses 21 and 22, and then it's elaborated on in chapter 3, verses 1 through 6.
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Look at the nature of this test, if you will. In verses 20 and 21 of chapter 2, it says, and has not heeded my voice.
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Here it is. I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died.
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So I'm not going to fight for them and drive out the nations. So that, verse 22, through them
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I may test Israel whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not.
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So notice, as you think about the nature of this test, this test as it exists is a consequence of the iniquity.
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It's a consequence of the iniquity. In other words, if God's people had been faithful, if the succeeding generations had followed the example of their fathers before them, they obeyed the
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Lord, they trusted the Lord, they counted on the Lord's work, they saw Him work, they knew
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Him by personal experience and so forth, this test wouldn't be there.
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It wouldn't be a test. The Lord says, I'm establishing this test as a consequence of the infidelity, of the unfaithfulness.
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And it's a test, as He explains in chapter 3, verses 1 through 3, it's a test that involves a real -life, everyday struggle.
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It's a real -life, everyday struggle. These are the nations which the Lord left, verse 1 of chapter 3, that He might test
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Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars of Canaan. In other words, they are going to have ongoing, perpetual struggle, war.
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It's a test in a real -life, ongoing, everyday struggle.
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Now verse 2 says, Now this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it.
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Now what that means is this, it does mean God left these nations so that succeeding generations might learn how to be warriors.
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They might learn how to fight. He left them so that they might know the significance of this war.
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You see, know the significance of this war. He wasn't so much concerned that they might learn the tactics of warfare, but that they might learn the significance of this war.
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This is not a war simply between a couple of enemies. This is a war between God and Satan.
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This is a war between righteousness and unrighteousness. They need to understand and learn the nature of this war.
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It's a war between holiness and sinfulness, righteousness and evil.
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It's a real -life struggle. And in the nature of this test, with the ongoing, continuing presence of the
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Canaanites, here's the question. Are you going to accept
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Yahweh as your sovereign? You're looking around, you're seeing the
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Canaanites, and they're bowing down to their bales, and they've got their ashtoreths, and they're doing all their corrupt, horrid stuff in worship of their gods, and they are looking at their gods as the one who provide them with harvest and crops and all this kind of stuff, and rain in its season and everything else.
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Are you going to trust Yahweh as your sovereign, or will you bow down to the bales and the ashtoreths?
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Are you going to accept your responsibility in fulfilling
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Yahweh's agenda, or are you going to shrug it off and do your thing?
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See, that's the thing. That's the question. That's the nature of this test. Will you follow
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Yahweh? Will you accept your responsibilities before Yahweh, or not?
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The purpose of the test, brought out in verse 22, you see, of chapter 2, is that he says, that through them
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I may test Israel whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.
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This is elaborated on in chapter 3, verse 4. He says, and they were left that he might test
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Israel by them to know whether they would obey the commandments of the Lord which he had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
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The purpose of the test is that it's going to reveal, it's going to show, how deep is your loyalty to the covenant.
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What is the true condition of your heart? In the
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New Testament context, we might put it like this. The test, as you and I are in this world, but not of this world, the test is an opportunity to prove my love for Christ.
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Will I demonstrate love for Christ? Will I demonstrate loyalty to Christ?
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Or will I go after the gods of this world that are all around me?
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Will I shun my responsibility as a professing Christian to do what
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I want to do, to go after my agenda? Well, the results of this test in chapter 3, verses 5 and 6 are rather sad because they get a big
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F. A big F. Three counts of failure.
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Look at the results. Verse 5, the children of Israel dwelt among the
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Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites. They dwelt among them. One of the failures is intermingling.
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They dwelt among these people. Was this God's command? Was this what God wanted them to do? Was this what
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God expected of them? Was this the plan? Was this the program that the
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Israelites were to go into this land of promise and they were to settle down with those dwelling?
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That's a rhetorical question. You know the answer to it. No, that wasn't what
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God told them to do. No, they're intermingling. They're dwelling among the people.
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Second way they failed is intermarriage. First part of verse 6, they took their daughters to be their wives and they gave their daughters to their sons.
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Intermarriage. This, again, was in direct violation of what God had ordered them.
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Again, Moses on the east side of the Jordan River in Deuteronomy 7, he said when you go into the land, you're to cleanse the land.
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You're to purge the land of all the Canaanites and the Hittites and the
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Amorites. All of them. You get rid of all of them. And you are not to take their daughters to be your wives and you're not to give your sons to their daughters or your daughters to their sons.
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You're not to intermarry at all. Period. No exceptions. That's what
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God said. What do you read? Just the opposite. Failed miserably.
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And that failure is going, we're going to see this in the book of Judges. It's an ongoing problem.
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It creates ongoing problems in this book. Think, for example, of Gideon. Gideon. You know
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Gideon? Gideon with 300 and the torches and all that kind of stuff and has a great victory.
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Yeah, but Gideon took a Shechemite concubine and the result of that relationship was
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Abimelech. And Abimelech was nothing but a problem and a cause of great distress.
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And you might know the judge Jephthah. You might know him because of his vow and we'll get into that eventually.
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And what a mess that was. But do you know who Jephthah's father was?
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His name was Gilead. Do you know who his mother was? We don't know her name, but we know she was a prostitute.
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And that relationship created problems, all kinds of problems. And then there's Samson. Oh, Samson.
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Marries a Philistine woman. Has sex with Philistine prostitutes.
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Ends up dying because of his relationship with Delilah. I mean, what a mess.
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What a mess. All because of this big F in her marriage.
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And then the third failure is in the very last statement in verse 6. They served their gods.
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So you've got intermingling, you've got intermarriage, and now you've got interreligion.
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Interreligion. They take the idols that are around them and they incorporate them into their worship of God and then eventually that idolatrous worship that balloons and eclipses the worship of the one true
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God. One of the commentators summarized this failure in this way. He said the territorial accommodation, intermingling, had resulted in ethnic integration, intermarriage, which has yielded spiritual integration, interreligion.
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A way to think about that in our context is put this way.
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Peaceful coexistence. We talked about this earlier in the adult Sunday school class, didn't we? Peaceful coexistence with the world leads to cohabitation and alliance with the world, which in turn leads to taking on the religious notions of the world.
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Let me ask you something. Why is the church in the
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United States of America in such a mess? Why?
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This very reason. Peaceful coexistence with the world that has led to cohabitation and alliance with the world, which in turn leads to taking on the religious notions of the world.
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And it's like everywhere. Everywhere. But don't let the reality of the everywhere problem blind us to the potential of the personal problem.
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A personal problem where if I personally come to a place of peaceful coexistence with the sin and wretchedness of this world in which
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I live, it's going to lead me to comfortable cohabitation and then alliance with this wretchedness of this world which in turn is going to cause me to develop and accept the religious notions of this world.
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And I get the F. Well, the
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Lord is the consummate lover. He's the spurned lover. But I want you also to notice in this passage how the
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Lord is the jealous and just but merciful lover. He is rightly jealous.
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Verses 13 and 14 and then verses 19 and 20 bring out the passion of his jealousy, right?
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Verse 13, they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtoreth, and the anger of the Lord was hot.
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Verse 19, the end of the verse, they didn't cease from their own doings or their stubborn way.
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Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. His anger was hot.
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You say, well, this doesn't sound like the God of love. Oh, yes, it is the
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God of love. Why? How? He's got this hot anger against Israel.
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Yes, it's an expression of the depths of his love, the passion of his love.
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You see, this anger is hot because his love is immense.
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One writer put it this way. He says, this must be interpreted against the backdrop of the incredible mercy and grace, the magnificent displays of love and faithfulness and holy undeserved blessing.
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If you think of the immensity of the love, then you can understand the heat of the anger.
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Anger is hot because he has been replaced. He's been replaced.
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How can God, who has so deeply loved and greatly loved these people, how can he stand idly by while those things that are not
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God's entice them and steal his people away? How can he ignore his people in their adulterous affairs with no gods?
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He said at the beginning of the message that there doesn't seem to be any pain as great as that of marital infidelity.
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But one of the responses of the partner whose love has been spurned is not only deep pain, but intense anger and righteous anger at that because the love that was so great and so committed has been so abused and rejected.
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He's rightly jealous, God is, and he is truly just. He's truly just. He does not allow this rebellion to go unpunished.
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And we notice in the last part of verse 15 that wherever they went out, the hand of the
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Lord was against them for calamity as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn to them. He's just. You see, the
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Lord said, if you're unfaithful, you're going to suffer for it.
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If you're unfaithful, you're going to face these enemies and I won't go out with you to fight against them.
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Now, if he said that as a warning and they turned their back on him, they spurned his love,
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God would not be just to say, Oh, well, that's too bad. No, he warned them and he kept his word of warning and he then applies the appropriate punishment.
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See this at the end of verse 14 and on into verse 15. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.
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Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity. They were greatly distressed.
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What is the appropriate punishment? He delivered them. He sold them.
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The hand of the Lord is against them. Do you get do you get the significance here?
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The real enemy at this point is not the Canaanites, Jebusites, the
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Hivites, the Hittites. The real enemy was God. It was
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God. He delivered them. He sold them.
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The hand of the Lord was against them. The real enemy was God. And they made him.
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They, these unfaithful, the unfaithful, the spurners of his love made him their enemy.
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Just as James said, as we saw again, we saw earlier in Sunday School, right? To be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God.
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You make God your enemy. When you spurn his love. Reminds me of the opening line and lines in James Weldon Johnson's poem,
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The Prodigal Son. You know that poem? Young man, young man, your arms too short to box with God.
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He goes on telling the rest of the prodigal son story. Your arms too short to box with God. You spurn his love.
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You shake your fist in his face. You turn your back on him. You go your own way. You say,
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I don't need to follow him. Your arms too short to box with God. He's truly just.
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Ah, but he's also patiently merciful. Patiently merciful. You see this in verse 18.
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The Lord raised up judges for them. And he did so. Why? Why?
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Because he sees the plight. They are oppressed. They are harassed. He hears their cry.
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He has pity on them because of their groaning. He acts in mercy because of his compassion toward those whom he loves.
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And in doing so, he provides what you don't deserve. Judges.
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He raised up judges who delivered them. Verses 16 and 18 tell us. How have you responded to the love of God?
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The love that he demonstrated by sending his only begotten son into this world to be your
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Savior. How have you responded to that love? What an immensity. What immense love.
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What amazing grace. Have you responded to his love with repentance and faith in that Savior?
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Who is the expression of his love? Have you? Or are you responding to his love with a heart that says,
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I want my things. I want my way. I want to follow my gods.
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You spurned his love? Or have you received his love? And experiencing him and his works for yourself.
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Oh, my friend, beware of spurning the love of the divine Savior. Don't spurn that love any longer.
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If you have not received Jesus as your personal Savior, if you have not come to that faith in Jesus Christ today, let me implore you.
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Come to him. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out, Jesus says.
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Come to him. Come to him today. Don't spurn that love any longer. Let's bow together in prayer, shall we?
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Our Father and our God, this is a sobering passage. Those of us who know
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Christ and love Christ and are following after Christ, it creates within us even a sense of, it could create within us even a sense of anxiety lest we spurn that love.
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Father, I pray that rather than a sense of anxiety, it would build within us and create within us a sense of urgency and desire, a longing to be faithful and to pursue fidelity to you, our
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God, who loves us and whom we love. Father, I trust that if there is one here in this room today who has not responded to your love by receiving
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Jesus as their Savior, I pray that even now, in the quietness of this moment, they would recognize that great love, that immense love, that amazing grace, and that you would break that heart of stone, that you would open those blind eyes, and that that one, even now, in the quietness of this moment, might call out to you, call upon Jesus to save him or her, trusting him today, spurning his love no longer.
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This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take our hymnals and turn to number 390.
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I just want to sing the first two stanzas of this hymn of, really, consecration.
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All to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him, the stanza says, in his presence daily live.
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May that be the commitment of your heart today. If you're one who has the need to trust
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Christ, and you never have, and you're not sure what all that means, don't hesitate to ask.
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Ask me after the service, talk to me. One of the deacons, Ed, who led in prayer today, he's one of the deacons, he could share with you.
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Others, don't go out of here without trusting Christ. Don't spurn his love any longer. Let's stand together as we sing.
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390, first two stanzas. All to Jesus I surrender, all to him
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I freely give. I will ever love, in his presence daily live.
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I surrender all, blessed
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Savior. I surrender all to Jesus, I surrender.
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Humbly at his feet I bow, worldly pleasures all forsaken.
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Take me, Jesus, take me now. Blessed Savior.
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May the Lord give you a good afternoon of rest and refreshment, and encourage you to be back tonight, 6 o 'clock.
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We'll get back into the Gospel of Mark. And now may
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Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, so that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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This we pray in Christ's name. Amen and amen. You are dismissed.