FBC Morning Worship Service

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Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning. Good to see you on this Lord's Day. We thank the Lord for his goodness to us and his grace, his kindness.
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Boy, have we not seen the truth of what we read in Lamentations, that his mercies, his loving kindness, his steadfast love, the evidences of it are new each day.
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Great is our Lord's faithfulness, and I trust you see that and sense that, even in your own life in this past week.
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So we're glad that we can worship together today and praise our
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Lord for his faithfulness, his goodness, to reflect upon his love in that he loved us in this way.
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He sent his only begotten Son into this world that whoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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We're going to reflect this morning on that work on the cross that allows for us, enables us to have that everlasting life.
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Before we begin the worship service itself, though, let me grab my little folder here, but also make a couple of announcements or highlight a few in your bulletin.
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Today is the first Sunday of the month, and so what we started in May is on the first Sunday of the month, these evening times, instead of having the regular six o 'clock evening service here at the auditorium, there's a group that formed, a new group that formed last month.
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We just call it the YMSA group. We're so creative. We're just so creative at these things.
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You can tell I did not get a degree in marketing, and somebody who does have a degree in marketing out there has not come up with a better name.
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So the YMSA, young, married, and single adult, we've talked about who qualifies for that, and I think it's in your bulletin as well.
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But anyway, they're meeting tonight at 5 .30 at the Foreman's. There was a sign -up sheet.
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I think it's still on the board, but if you did not get signed up for that and would like to attend, please see
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Eric or Deb after the service today. Let them know that you would like to participate at their place this evening.
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And then I encouraged everyone else to gather in homes, invite someone to your home to have a meal or whatever together, and not only just for a time of fun and food, but also for some spiritual fellowship.
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As a body of Christ, this is a vital component to our walk with the Lord and with each other.
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So to kind of enhance that or encourage that time of spiritual fellowship tonight,
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I've done a devotional, a video devotional. It'll be available at 6 o 'clock this evening or any time thereafter, and that's available on the church website as well as on our church
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YouTube channel. So again, any time after 6 o 'clock this evening, you can tune into that, watch that devotional, spend some time praying together, share some prayer requests with each other, maybe some blessings and testimonies.
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One of the things you could do in that get -together is just ask one another to share your personal testimony about how you came to Christ.
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I think that would be a blessing to hear that from one another. So anyway, that's this evening. Now Wednesday night, for the rest of the summer months, on Wednesday evening, we're doing this
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Torchlighter series, it's called. It's a new series that's just recently been produced and a series of a dozen different characters, individuals from church history that are profiled.
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Each of these things is about 30 minutes long. They're animated, so they're very suitable for children to watch as well, but beneficial for all of us.
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So doing that Wednesday nights in the midweek service time, so meet at 7 o 'clock, we'll have time for prayer requests and so forth, and then watch one of the
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Torchlighter episodes. And this week, we'll be looking at Augustine. This is an individual from church history from back in the fourth century, and a lot to be gained from looking at his life.
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Now there is, with that series, there is an activity book for kids. And I think we have five or six of those books available.
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They're only five bucks a piece, and they have a bunch of different activities that kids can do for each character.
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So like this week, we're doing Augustine, so a good thing to do might be to get one of these books for your kids and work on the activity projects or pages that are related to Augustine.
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Those books, by the way, are available on that shelf on the missionary wall where books are for sale.
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Just pick one of those up and take it with you. That would be fine. Well, again, we've gathered together to worship the
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Lord, and we're going to do so with song, with scripture, with the
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Lord's table, and with giving. Our giving today, the benevolence offering that we collect on the first Sunday when we have communion together, the benevolence offering today is going totally to Bob and Jody Knapp.
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They've been through an awful lot, and Jody continues to go through a lot, still in his place in Sycamore.
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And expenses are just, you can imagine, outrageous. Bob drives out to be with her every day, and that in itself is very helpful to her, to her health and recovery.
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And Jody, of course, she's not working, and there's a significant source of income that's lost there.
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So we want to be a blessing to the Knapps, and so the benevolence offering today will go completely to them, and I would just encourage you to give as the
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Lord has prospered you. You can do that, of course, in the offering plate as you leave today, there's an offering plate on the little table, benevolence sign under it, put your gift in that.
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Another way you can give is online, on the church website, you can go to the church website, there's a place to give online, and you can give to the love offering.
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There's a little tab for love offering, and choose that tab, and any amount that you want to give, and it'll be recorded.
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As we open Psalm 107, verse 2 says this, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
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The Lord has redeemed you, say so today as we sing together and worship our
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Lord. Jim, please come lead us. Thank you,
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Pastor. It's number 36 in your blue supplement, number 36,
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I greet thee who my sure redeemer art. Let's all stand together and sing all four verses, number 36, please.
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I which surely trust and validate his faith from death,
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O my poor, O sake, I pray thee from our hearts our cares to take, the mercy and the grace, grace,
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O King, and sway us with the light of thy pure which alone we live, and all our substance and our strength receive.
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Sustain us by thy faith and hope, and give us strength in every trial.
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Be perfect gentleness, no harshness, and no bitterness.
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Please remain standing, Brother Ed. Our Father, we just thank you,
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Lord, for looking down from heaven and beholding the earth and hearing the groaning of the prisoners, and just thank you for freeing those who were appointed to death, and we just want to give you all the glory,
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Lord, for rescuing us. And we just thank you for this church. I pray that you would just be glorified in our worship and praise this morning.
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We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. If you may be seated.
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For our psalm reading today, we want to read Psalm, first eight verses of the second psalm. It's one of the psalms that does prepare us for the
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Lord's table. On the back of your bulletin, you can join with me in reading.
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Let's read this in unison together, shall we? First eight verses of Psalm 2. If you found your place, read together with me.
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Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the
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Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.
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He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision.
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Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure.
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Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree.
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The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.
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Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.
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Lord, add his blessing to our reading of this psalm and then to the singing of it from our
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Psalter. And that's in your
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Red Psalter book, hymn book on page number four. Number four,
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Why do the Gentile nations rage? From Psalms 2 that we just read. Sing all four verses together.
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War against the king supreme. Christ his son they would deny.
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All ascending rulers say their decree would us defy.
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Let us cast the yoke away. Scorn them all.
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Come, he sits in yoke and high. Soon his wrath on them will fall.
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I have set my king on his holy hill.
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My anointed I sustain. This his word shall be known.
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God's decree, his son and I shall be confessed.
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And your foes over this and judges of the earth.
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Learn to serve the Lord with fear. Is the son blessed on your way?
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His consuming wrath should break. But supremely blessed are they.
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Christ their refuge make. As we pray together today,
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I want to pray for our missionary of the week, Scott Williquette. And I want to particularly remember the school of church planters.
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Scott was here a couple of weeks ago. He talked to us about that, giving us an update on his ministry and shared with us the work of the school of church planters.
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It's like a three -day conference where men are trained to do a lot of basics and essentials in planting churches on the foreign mission field, as well as in the
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United States. That conference is happening this week. So we want to pray for that church planters, the school of church planters and Scott's ministry with that.
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We also want to continue to pray for Jodi Knapp. We thank the Lord for the progress that has been made there.
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And we saw her report this week that the doctors expect her to make a full recovery.
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It's a long road to go yet, but nevertheless, that's a welcome news and a wonderful blessing to hear that.
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So pray for the Lord to continue to strengthen Jodi and to heal her. And also want to pray for Kyle.
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And so Yvonne just came in, and I'm sure there's been a lot of care for dad over the last week.
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Been praying much for Kyle. Just ask the Lord to completely heal him and strengthen him and see him fully recover and get back to full strength as well.
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Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Our Father and our
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God, we do thank you today that though the nations rage, and especially in our world today, we're hearing more and more raging against the
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King and against his authority, against the Lord Jesus and his rule and reign, his righteous principles and truths and precepts and commands, vilified and hated.
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And yet, Lord, we know that he sits on the throne and that he reigns, and that eventually every knee will bow before him, every tongue confess.
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We would pray that today, on this Lord's day, in this place, that every knee would be bowing before him, that every tongue would be confessing that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to your glory, oh Father. And we pray that should there be one in the midst today, in our midst, here in this building or watching by a live stream, and they realize that they are not children of the
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King, they are not Christ's, and that they need him. Oh Lord, I pray, open their eyes to the depths and the degradation of sin and its eternal consequences, but also open their eyes to the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus and what he has done on the cross to save sinners from eternal perdition.
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And may souls come to trust him today. May they kiss the Son, lest he be angry.
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May they receive him as their savior. Father, we thank you today for Scott Williquette and for his ministry with Baptist Admissions and the
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Pastoral Enrichment Program. And this week, as he conducts the
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School of Church Planters, he and some other teachers, I pray that you would use that work, use that ministry, and those that are in attendance, may they gain much that will help them in the planting of churches that would be solid biblical local churches in this country and abroad.
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So use that ministry this week, we pray, and continue to use Scott and meet his needs.
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And we also pray for Victoria and pray for her health, and we thank you for sustaining her in her earlier bouts with cancer, and I pray that you would continue to give her strength and victory over that disease.
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Father, we pray for Jodi today and ask that you would continue to bless in her recovery.
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Thank you so much for all that's happened in this past week. We pray that she would make a full recovery indeed, and that the progress from here on out would be surprising to all, except for those of us who know
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Christ and know your power. Lord, do a great work in her life, we pray. We pray for Kyle, continue to strengthen him.
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I pray that you give him rest and freedom from stress that might cause problems, and I pray that he would make a full recovery as well.
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Father, we also pray for others who can't be in our midst today, for Bob Klein, encourage him, continue to sustain him, we pray, with not only health but strength and a good spirit about him.
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And continue to strengthen Kathy and heal her. And we also pray,
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Father, for the shut -ins who can't be in our midst, Lord, how we long for them to be able to have company again and even be able to get out.
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Lord, I pray meet their needs this day, we ask. Father, we pray that as we will partake here in a moment of the
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Lord's table, that this would be a time of great blessing, spiritual refreshment to us, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.
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To prepare our hearts for the Lord's table, Jim's going to come and lead us in another hymn from the supplement book,
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How Deep the Father's Love for Us, Jim. That's on page number 32 in your blue supplements.
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How Deep the Father's Love. Let's all stand together again, please, if you would, and sing all three verses together.
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Number 32, How Deep the
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Father's Love. As wounds which mar the chosen one, bring many sons to glory.
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Behold, my sin upon his shoulder, ashamed
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I hear my mother's call.
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It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished.
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His dying breath has brought me life is finished.
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I will not boast in many things, no gifts, no power, no wisdom.
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But I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death, his interrection.
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Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer.
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But this I know in his wounds have paid my ransom.
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Please be seated. Luke's Gospel, chapter 23.
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Read a few verses together. Says, when they had come to the place called
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Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
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Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And they divided his garments and cast lots.
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And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, he saved others, let him save himself if he is the
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Christ, the chosen of God. The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the
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Jews, save yourself. And an inscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, Latin and Hebrew.
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This is the king of the Jews. Then one of the criminals who were hanged, blasphemed him, saying, if you are the
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Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, do you not even fear
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God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
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But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
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And Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today you will be with me in paradise.
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Now it was about the sixth hour and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
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And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands,
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I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last.
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The night before this event, the Lord instituted the ordinance that we are partaking of today.
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He took a loaf of bread and he broke it and he shared it with his disciples. And he took a cup of wine and filled it and shared it with his disciples.
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And he says, do this in remembrance of me. And as often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me.
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So we don't have a single loaf of bread that we're passing around and each one tearing a piece off.
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But we have nevertheless the symbols in this little cup. You have one of these and have prepared to partake of it.
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And in the top of this little cup, you've ripped back the little piece of plastic. And there's this wafer.
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And it's not very palatable, but it serves as a symbol. It reminds us of the body that was broken in our behalf.
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And the Lord Jesus, passing around that loaf of bread, said, this is my body broken for you.
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Take and eat. Having eaten that loaf of bread, he then took the cup and he passed the cup to the disciples.
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And he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. All of you drink from it.
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Our Father and our God, we reflect back on that night, that ordinance that you instituted, that we obey and we carry out even today.
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And we realize that the disciples reclining around that table, they could not grasp the significance of what was happening right then and there.
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They did not understand the significance of the broken bread, the cup of red wine.
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They could not grasp it. We look back with the vantage point of hindsight and we see, we understand far better.
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And oh, Father, this morning as we have partaken of these elements, may our hearts be filled with gratitude and joy and thanksgiving that Jesus, our
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Savior, gave his body to be broken for us. That he gave his blood to be shed, this blood of the new covenant.
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And because of his work on that cross, we can know the joy of that eternal covenant, the joy of eternal life.
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We praise you and we thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. Before the message this morning, we want to sing just one stanza of 383 close to thee.
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Jim, please. Again, number 383 in your hymnals.
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Just verse one. First verse of number 383. How my everlasting portion, more than friend or life to me.
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All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with thee.
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Close to thee, close to thee, close to thee, close to thee.
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All along my pilgrim journey, Savior, let me walk with thee.
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And then if you would, in your Bibles, turn to Judges chapter one. For our scripture reading this morning,
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Judges one. It's hard to know how far to read to get the whole, get the sense of this passage and chapter.
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So I didn't want to do all of it, but I want to do the first 19 verses nevertheless.
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Judges one, verses one through 19. I encourage you to follow along in your copy of scripture as I read.
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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
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Canaanites to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah shall go up. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand.
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So Judah said to Simeon, his brother, come up with me to my allotted territory that we may fight against the Canaanites.
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And I will likewise go with you to your allotted territory. And Simeon went with him. Then Judah went up and the
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Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. And they killed 10 ,000 men at Bezek.
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And they found Adonai Bezek and Bezek and fought against him. And they defeated the Canaanites and the
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Perizzites. Then Adonai Bezek fled and they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes.
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And Adonai Bezek said, 70 kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to gather scraps under my table.
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As I have done, so God has repaid me. Then they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died.
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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.
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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.
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Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron was formerly
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Kiriath Arba. And they killed Sheshai, Haman and Talmai. And from there, they went against the inhabitants of Debor.
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This name of Debor was formerly Kiriath Sefer. Then Caleb said, whoever attacks
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Kiriath Sefer and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Ahsa as wife. And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it.
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So he gave him his daughter Ahsa to wife. Now it happened when she came to him that she urged him to ask her father for a field.
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And she dismounted from her donkey and Caleb said to her, what do you wish? She said to him, give me a blessing.
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Since you have given me the land in the south, give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
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Now the children of the Kenite, Moses' father -in -law, went up from the city of Palms with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south near Arad.
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They went and dwelt among the people. And Judah went with his brother Simeon and they attacked the
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Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called
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Hormah. Also Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory and Ekron with its territory.
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So the Lord was with Judah. And they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland because they had chariots of iron.
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Our Father and our God, I pray that our eyes would be open to see what's really going on in this passage of scripture today, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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Success can be such a deceptive thing, can't it? Do you remember the, maybe you don't, maybe you could care less, but do you remember the
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Super Bowl of 2017? So, yeah, right. That was four years ago. How could
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I remember that? Well, okay, maybe you don't remember that in general, but how about that Super Bowl was the one where the
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Atlanta Falcons played the New England Patriots. Now, some of you who are somewhat interested in football, you may remember that one pretty well because in the first half of that game, the game was over.
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I mean, everybody knew at halftime, this game is over. The Atlanta Falcons, they had succeeded at everything they tried.
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They scored four touchdowns. The Patriots, all they managed was a meager field goal. The Falcons were winning 28 to three.
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Well into the third quarter, they were still winning 28 to three. Into the fourth quarter with eight minutes left in the game, over eight minutes left in the game,
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Falcons were still up 16 points. It was 28 to 12, but then it was 28 to 20.
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And then by the end of regulation, the Patriots had come back and tied up the game and went on to win 34 to 28 in overtime.
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Success can be such a deceptive thing, especially initial success, early success.
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It can kind of lull you into thinking that, oh, this is all good.
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This is good as done. All is well. I'll surely succeed the rest of the way.
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And it can lull us into thinking that, you know, we must be doing what we're supposed to be doing.
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We must be doing the right thing. We've got this. We've got this.
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But here's the thing. The seeds of failure are often sown in the season of success.
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Have you realized that in your own personal life? That's what's going on in Judges chapter one.
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Looks like success. It seems to be success. They're getting off to a good start, this new chapter in the life of Israel and the history of Israel.
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Joshua has died. He's passed off the scene. And now there's a new chapter that is being written in Israel's history.
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And it looks like they're getting off to a good start. Well, it seems like they are.
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But success can be such a deceptive thing. So think about when you became a
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Christian, very early in your Christian life. I mean, this was a tremendous victory, a tremendous experience, an event in your life, wasn't it?
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You came to the place where you saw yourself as a sinner, hopeless sinner, doomed sinner.
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And yet you also then saw Jesus for who he is, the son of God who came into this world, sinless, sinless, and was a sinless sacrifice on a cross to pay the penalty of your sin.
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You saw this. You'd heard about it many times before. But you never saw it. And you never saw it as it applied to you personally.
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And finally, the spirit of God, having opened your eyes to see this and opening your mind to comprehend this, you bowed your head in humble shame and repentance, and you turned from your sin, and you turned to Christ, and you became a
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Christian. And at that point, you began the conquest that we call the
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Christian life. And pretty early on, your life began to change dramatically.
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If you're genuinely converted, there's some stuff you quit doing. There's other stuff you've never done before, but all of a sudden, you started doing it.
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There were new relationships that began to be forged in that early stage of your conquest of the
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Christian life. And it also involved the breaking of some old relationships when you realized how harmful they would be to you.
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You cut them off. You're off to a great start. You're off to a great start.
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But if you're not careful, wherever you are in the stage of your Christian life, that initial success can be deceptive.
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You could be sowing, even today, however old in the faith you are, however far in the conquest that we call the
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Christian life that you are, even today, you can be sowing some seeds of failure, even though it seems like you're very successful.
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Judges chapter one shows us how you can be off to a good start, but it can just be apparent.
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You just seem to be off to a good start. Here we are at the beginning of this chapter, the beginning of this book, and you know what's coming.
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If you've read the book of Judges, you know what's coming later. You have this terrible cycle of sin and degradation, and it keeps spiraling downward.
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It keeps getting worse and worse, and the book ends horribly, horribly. So you know what's coming, but you don't see it here in chapter one, do you?
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Because in chapter one, as things begin, there's so much promise.
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It shows us so much promise. How so? Well, because here you acknowledge the beginning of verse one.
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Acknowledge the Lord's rightful place. After the death of Joshua, it came to pass the children of Israel asked the
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Lord. They asked Yahweh. They came to the Lord and said, okay, what are we to do? Who's to go first?
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But they recognized the rightful place of the Lord. They recognized that Yahweh is the commander -in -chief.
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The Lord is the commander -in -chief. They recognized it wasn't Joshua. They recognized the commander -in -chief is not some other man.
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They went to the Lord. He is the commander -in -chief. They were in the land of Canaan.
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And in the land of Canaan, there were Canaanites and Perizzites, Hittites, Amorites, and so forth. There were all these ites, and each of the ites had their own god.
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But they didn't appeal to any of the pagan gods in the land. They went to Yahweh, the commander -in -chief.
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And they also did not ignore him as if he is irrelevant. They went to him.
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They recognized his rightful place. Oh, as you begin, you can begin with the promise, with so much promise, recognizing the
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Lord in his rightful place, and then looking to him for guidance.
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And again, that's a different thing, isn't it? It's one thing to say, I know that the
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Lord God is supreme. I know he is authoritative. I know he is all powerful.
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I know he is sovereign. I know he knows everything. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. And I affirm it all.
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But you got to go next step. The next step is they went to him for guidance. They came to the Lord, and they asked him, who shall be first to go up for us against the
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Canaanites to fight against them? It seems that these Israelites have learned from some failures of the past.
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You remember the failure at Ai, right? They had great success at Jericho, but then they just assumed that they could figure out how to conquer the little village of Ai, in comparison to Jericho, is nothing.
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And they never asked the Lord's help. They never asked for guidance from the Lord, and they were routed.
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And then also, what about the... Remember the situation with the Gibeonites? They were the
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Gibeonites who lived in the land of Canaan, but they came to... They sought out the Israelites and pretended like they came from a long way away.
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And they wanted the Israelites to make a covenant with them, a league with them, because they knew we're under a death penalty here, so we got to do something about this.
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So they deceived the Israelites. And Joshua and the Israelites, even though they acknowledged the
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Lord's rightful place, they didn't go to him for guidance. Not here, though. We're off to a good start.
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This is a start that offers so much promise. They're recognizing the Lord's rightful place.
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They're going to him for guidance. Who shall go up for us first?
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Now, think about this in your own pre -Christian life, if you can think back that far.
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I realize some of you came to Christ at a young age, and this would not be your experience.
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But others of you came to Christ later in life. Think about before you came to Christ. You might have acknowledged that there was a
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God out there and so forth, but did you ever go to him for guidance in the decisions that you needed to make, everyday decisions and even lifetime decisions?
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When you were a junior or a senior in high school, did you spend any time in prayer asking God, what of my talents and gifts and abilities do you want to use and shape and grow into a particular career?
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What would you have me to do with my life? Did you do that? Not before you were converted.
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Didn't even occur to you. Ah, but now, here you are. You acknowledge the
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Lord's rightful place. You go to him for guidance. And then, having heard from him, you're sensitive to his will.
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You're sensitive to his will. First part of verse two, the Lord said, Judah shall go up.
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Judah shall go up. Now again, watch. With each of these steps at the beginning, it's one thing to do this.
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It's another thing to go to the next step. It's one thing to acknowledge the Lord's rightful place and then to ask him for guidance.
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But it's another thing altogether to be sensitive to his will. It's one thing to pray and ask for guidance.
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It's another thing to actually listen to that guidance. Isn't it? What if what you hear, you don't want to hear?
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Are you really going to be sensitive at that point? The Lord says, Judah shall go up.
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Now, on the one hand, you might conclude, well, that was sort of a no -brainer. Judah was the largest tribe.
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We're not going to take the time to do it, but you could go back to the book of Numbers. And at the end of the book of Numbers, one of the chapters that has a bunch of numbers in it is the chapter that takes a census of the different tribes at the end of the wilderness wandering period.
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And the tribe of Judah is the largest tribe by far. So you might read that and say, well, of course, it's kind of a no -brainer.
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Choose the largest tribe that they're most likely to have the greatest success. Let them go first.
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But that's not why the Lord chose Judah. The Lord had Judah go first because Judah was to be the tribe of the king.
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Remember that? The tribe of the king. The scepter was going to come from Judah.
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And this is very much a symbolic thing. But you're sensitive to the Lord's will. Sensitive to the
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Lord's will. There's also in the last part of verse two, there is this implicit faith in the promises of God, believing the promises of God.
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The Lord says, have Judah go up first. He says, indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand.
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So they're hearing this. And what they're hearing is, this is in God's mind and will and his sovereign work.
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It's a done deal. We haven't even set out to battle yet. And it's already delivered into our hand.
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This is what the Lord says. I have delivered him into your hand. I delivered the land into his hand. And the promise is heard and it is implicitly believed.
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It's not the first time they heard this promise. Heard it back chapter 23. You can turn a page or two back in your
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Bible. In chapter 23 is before Joshua died. He basically said the same thing.
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He said to the people in verse three of Joshua 23. He says, you've seen all that the Lord your
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God has done to all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God is he who has fought for you.
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See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain to be an inheritance for your tribes.
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From the Jordan with all the nations that I have cut off as far as the great sea westward. And now look at verse five.
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And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight.
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So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. So Joshua said, before Joshua died, he said, you're going to succeed here.
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You're going to drive out the Canaanites from the land. Now Joshua's passed off the scene.
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The land has been divided up, the tribal territories and they've taken some of it, a good chunk of it, but there's much yet to be conquered.
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And so the Lord comes to him and says, I have delivered. It comes to him and says, I have delivered the land into his hand.
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And they implicitly believe what the Lord has promised. And there have been occasions in your life, and I hope many of them, when that's been your experience.
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Can you remember some of those times? Sometimes I think we're more tuned into that implicit belief in the promises of God the younger we are in our
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Christian faith. And then thereafter, it's almost more second nature to us as we grow in faith and grow in grace.
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And we don't stop and think about it so much anymore. That, well, God's promised it, I believe it, you know?
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And, but can you believe, recall implicitly believing in the promises of God?
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Well, again, it's one thing to acknowledge the Lord's place, to go to him for guidance, to hear what he has to say, sensitive to his will, be sensitive to his will and implicitly believe the
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Lord's promises. But then it's another thing yet to act on that, isn't it? Well, they do, they do, verses three and four.
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So Judah said to Simeon, his brother, and said, let's go, let's go get my territory.
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Now, we might say, well, was this a failure on the part of Judah to get Simeon to go with him? Some think so, others look at it this way.
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Judah was the largest tribe, Simeon was by far the smallest tribe. They, if you compare the census in chapter one of Numbers with the census at the end of Numbers, the beginning of the wilderness wanderings and the end of the wilderness wanderings,
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Simeon lost the most number of people, it was the smallest tribe. And because of its minuscule size,
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Simeon's territory was within the tribe of Judah, was within the territory of Judah.
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So it was like these two tribes, they just sort of became one, if you will.
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So off they went together, but they went together, see, they went, the Lord said, Judah shall go up, so Judah went up,
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Judah went up. And when they did, we read at the end of verse, what do we read in verse four?
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They went to, the Lord delivered the Canaanites, the Perizzites into their hands, and they killed 10 ,000 men at Bezek.
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It's success, success, right? And the success, as you continue on in the chapter, the success continues too.
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In verse eight, the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it. Verses 10 and 11, they went against the
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Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron, and they went against the inhabitants of Debor, and they conquered Hebron, and they conquered
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Debor. And verses 17 and 18, Judah went with his brother Simeon, they attacked the
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Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, they utterly destroyed it. They took Gaza with its territory,
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Ashkelon with its territory, Ekron with its territory, in the realm of the Philistines, the Philistia.
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Success, the success, the success furthered success, the success just continued.
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And their success motivated the other tribes to act on their responsibility of going in and getting their territory.
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So in verse 22, the house of Joseph also went up against Bethel.
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That would be, the house of Joseph would be the tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph.
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They went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them, and they took the city of Bethel.
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And verse 25, this guy they got coming out of Bethel, they got him and said, where's the entrance?
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So they showed him the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword. And then the rest of the chapter is talking about the different tribes and territory, cities or territory, that they endeavored to take.
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So it was like the success of Judah motivated the response, the obedience of the house of Joseph, and then the other tribes, it motivated them to go do what they needed to do.
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And the Lord gave success. But here's the thing, that apparent success can be deceptive.
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It can be deceptive. Because what apparent success can do is it can mask the corrosive weaknesses and failures that are beneath the surface.
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They're hidden. They seem to be masked by the great success.
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So look, for example, in verse 19 at the deceptive success.
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The Lord was with Judah, and they drove out the mountaineers.
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But, oh, but what? They could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland.
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Why? Because they had chariots of iron. And look at verse 21.
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The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem.
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Now, just by way of explanation here, we read earlier how Judah had conquered Jerusalem and wiped everybody out there.
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Well, what does this mean that they're Jebusites? Apparently, with the passing of time, we don't know how long, but Jebusites who lived right nearby
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Jerusalem came in and occupied the city. So Judah went in and they wiped out everybody in Jerusalem, but then they left.
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They didn't, in turn, occupy the city. They left, and they left the city open, left it vulnerable.
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And the Jebusites came in, and they shored it up, shored up their defenses. Along comes the tribe of Bethlehem to try to deal with the
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Jebusites that are in Jerusalem, and they can't do it. Benjamin fails. But then in verses 27 through the end of the chapter, you have one expression of failure after another.
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Look at it, verse 27. Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and its villages, or Tayanak and its villages, and so forth.
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Verse 29, nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer. Verse 30, nor did
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Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahal. Nor, verse 31, did
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Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akko or the inhabitants of Sidon and these other places.
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Verse 33, nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh or the inhabitants of Beth -anath, but they dwelt among the
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Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land. And verse 34, and the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley.
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What in the world has happened? What has happened? Started off so well, it seemed there was such great success.
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So, what happened that now they just can't drive everybody out?
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They can't drive anybody out. They can't get the territory. They can't conquer what they're supposed to be able to have. Why? What has happened?
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Well, let me give you seven different factors that can enter into the undermining of initial success.
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Number one, number one, you capitulate, you capitulate, you give in to the morals and practices of the culture.
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Let me show you what I mean in verses six and seven. Seems like this is a reasonable thing.
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The tribe of Judah, they conquer Bezek, this city, and they found
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Adonai Bezek. That means the name Adonai means Lord. In the
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Old Testament, when you see the word Lord, speaking of God, with a capital
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L and lowercase O -R -D, it's typically the Hebrew word Adonai. So, this is the
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Lord of Bezek. This is the king, the ruler, the governor of Bezek, okay?
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So, he gets away in verse six, and they pursued him, and they caught him.
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The Judah pursued Adonai Bezek, caught him, and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes.
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Why in the world would they do that? Well, because Adonai Bezek did that to others. Sounds like a reasonable form of retaliation.
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But wait a minute now, wait a minute. What instruction did they get from Yahweh?
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What was the command of the Lord related to the Canaanites? Was it to do to them as they had done to others?
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Was it to torture as they had tortured others? No, the Lord's command was pretty clear.
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Eliminate them. Now, again, in our very sensitive 21st century, that sounds horrible.
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Why would you just eliminate all these people? There's a whole history here, and just to summarize it and remind you, the
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Lord said, before Israel ever got to Canaan, the Lord said, I haven't taken you to this promised land.
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I haven't given it to you yet because the iniquity of the land is not yet full.
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So here's the deal. Israel was simply to be the hand of judgment of God on the part of the
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Canaanites. The iniquity of that land had become so gross, so great that Israel was to be
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God's hand of judgment on that land. Sort of like pre -flood.
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Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually, and God used a flood to exterminate all the human race, save Noah and his family.
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So remember that. Just keep that, bear that in mind as you read through this passage that the
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Israelites are supposed to be the executioners of God's will, of God's judgment on the part of these
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Canaanites. So what did they do when they got to Adonai Bezek? They not only just simply cut off his toes and his thumbs, but they let him live.
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They let him live. It says at the end of verse seven, they brought him to Jerusalem and there he died.
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So they adopted this pagan practice of torture, and they certainly could have rationalized it this way.
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This is just equitable retaliation. Adonai Bezek did this to all these other guys, so he should get what he gave to others.
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No, he should get what God said he should receive. Now, here's the thing.
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As New Testament 21st century Christians, we can also capitulate to the morals and the practices or the lack of morals and practices of the culture around us.
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So, for example, we can engage in angry name -calling rhetoric when we are the victims of angry name -calling rhetoric, right?
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We can respond in kind. We can become so filled with anger and rage over the increasing marginalization of conservative biblical
01:00:49
Christianity and the religious intolerance that's going on in our world. We can respond to all of that in the way that the world responds when their perspective and their way of life is criticized and not appreciated.
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We can respond the same way. Is that how we are to respond? Do you remember what
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Jesus said in Luke chapter six as part of the Sermon on the
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Mount? Read Luke's record of that passage in Luke six, verses 22 through 23.
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Jesus said this, blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and they revile you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake.
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The Lord says to do this, respond in kind, right?
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No, no. That's not what he says. He says, rejoice in that day and leap for joy for indeed your reward is great in heaven for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
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It's like Jesus is saying, yeah, when you are on the receiving end of religious intolerance and oppression and this vitriol and this rhetoric and expressions of angry hatred and all that, you're to respond by saying, thank you.
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I appreciate that. Because you're treating me like a
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Christian should be treated. We don't think like that, do we?
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Not naturally. Why? Because it's so easy to capitulate to the morals and practices of the culture that surrounds us.
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But that, I suggest, is a seed of failure that can be sown even in a season of apparent success.
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Secondly, number two, second contributing factor is that you tolerate what you should eliminate.
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Again, verses six and seven, this Adonai Bezek. The Lord gave very clear directions back in Deuteronomy chapter seven.
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In Deuteronomy seven verses one and two, the Lord, Moses says to the people of Israel, when the
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Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the
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Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you.
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And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.
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You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. That's very clear.
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It's very clear what the Lord tells His people to do. And yet again, you look at verses six and seven, they're told they need to eliminate
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Adonai Bezek. And what do they do? They tolerate Him.
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I suggest we can do the same thing. We can tolerate what we should eliminate. I think, for example, in the
01:04:08
New Testament in 1 Corinthians five, remember the problem that Paul addressed in the church at Corinth where there was the man living in incest and he was a church member.
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And the church was priding itself on its mercy and its kindness to this guy.
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And Paul says, no, no, you need to eliminate that sin.
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Don't you know that a little leaven corrupts the whole lump? Cast that man out.
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He's unrepentant, cast him out. Or what about Romans 13, verse 14?
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Paul says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires.
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And yet this is what we are to do. We are to eliminate the provision for the flesh lest we fulfill its desires.
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But what do we do? If we're sowing a seed of failure in a season of success, what we do is we tolerate what we should eliminate.
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There's a third factor. A third factor is we get immersed into what we should separate from.
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Get immersed into what we should separate from. Let me show you. Look at verse 16.
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It says in Judges 1, 16, it says, now the children of the
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Kenite, Moses' father -in -law, went up from the city of Palms with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south near Arad, and they went and dwelt among the people.
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That is the children of the Kenite went and dwelt among the people who lived in the south near Arad.
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They were Amorites, or I'm sorry, they were Amalekites that lived in that area. And so here's what's going on.
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Before Moses passed off the scene, he told his father -in -law, you and your family come with us and we will do you good.
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Because, I mean, it's his family. Jethro, his father -in -law, was a believer, seems to have been a believer in Israel's God and had great respect for, and so forth.
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And so Moses made the promise to Jethro, you come with us, we'll take good care of you.
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And so when it came, when the Israelites passed into the land of Canaan, the promised land,
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Kenites came along with them. Here's the problem. The Kenites did not accept or adopt the descendants of Jethro.
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His children and grandchildren did not adopt the faith of the
01:07:09
Israelites. Well, they were grateful for the blessings that came being surrounded by the
01:07:15
Israelites, but they did not accept the faith of the Israelites. And so what they did, the
01:07:21
Kenites, is they went into this land where the Amalekites were, and instead of obeying, again, what
01:07:29
God had said to do, which was eliminate the Amalekites, they immersed themselves into the
01:07:36
Amalekite culture instead of separating from it. And this, as one commentator said, this sowed seeds of Canaanization that sprouted and flourished later.
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Do you know where you see that most pronounced? In 1 Samuel 15, 1
01:08:01
Samuel 15, the end of the period of the judges, Saul is now the king, first king in Israel, and God came to Samuel and told
01:08:11
Samuel to tell Saul to go wipe out the
01:08:17
Amalekites. This is something that should have been done years ago, and it wasn't.
01:08:25
Why? Because the Kenites went into Amalekite territory and immersed themselves into that which they should have separated from.
01:08:38
And the problem of the Amalekites continued even for Saul. Number four, a fourth factor that can undermine success.
01:08:50
You can conclude that your evaluation supersedes
01:08:55
God's promises. What I'm getting at is what you read in verse 19. The Judah drove out the mountaineers, the people who lived in the mountains, but they could not drive out the inhabitants because they had chariots of iron.
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The way you should understand that is the children of Judah, the tribe of Judah, they saw these inhabitants in the lowland that they had chariots of iron and they concluded, we can't drive them out.
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They've got chariots of iron. Does that sound vaguely familiar? Think back, think back 40 years plus, 40 plus years.
01:09:43
Children of Israel have come out of Egypt, wandering through the wilderness. They're on their way to the promised land.
01:09:50
They come to Kadesh Barnea. They're about to enter in and take the land of promise after just months leaving
01:09:59
Egypt. Here they are at the boundary line, the southern boundary line of the land of promise.
01:10:05
And they send spies into the land to check out, see how great it is. And it is indeed great.
01:10:11
It is a wonderful land. They come back with a report of how great it is, how beautiful the cities are, how abundant the produce is.
01:10:20
And look, look at this grapes, look at this cluster of grapes. It's so heavy, it's taken two of us to carry it. But then 10 of the spies say, we can't do it.
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We can't go into that land. Those people are huge. We're like little grasshoppers in the sight of those people.
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We cannot do it. Wait a minute. Joshua and Caleb said, wait a minute.
01:10:42
What did God promise? He promised that we can take the land.
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Let's go take it. No, the other 10 say we can't. And the whole nation, the whole group of the two million strong of Israel says, oh, we can't do it.
01:11:02
We're just little grasshoppers. So the evaluation, the way they evaluated the situation at Kadesh Barnea resulted in 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.
01:11:15
But guess what? Here we are again. Judah's looking at the lowland and looking at the people with the chariots of iron.
01:11:22
And even though God said, I will drive them out. He said, we can't do it.
01:11:30
We can't do it. They're too powerful. And they either ignored or they forgot the promises of God.
01:11:42
Look back in Joshua chapter 17 at verses 16 through 18.
01:11:50
Is that when we read earlier about how the Lord said, I'll drive out everybody from you.
01:11:57
Well, once they get into the land, here's Joshua leading the tribes in the land, dividing up the territory and so forth.
01:12:05
And verse 16 of Joshua 17, the children of Joseph, this is
01:12:10
Manasseh and Ephraim. The children of Joseph said, the mountain country is not enough for us.
01:12:16
And all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley, they have chariots of iron, both those who are
01:12:23
Bethshean and its towns and those who are the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua said, now look, Joshua said to the house of Joseph to Ephraim and Manasseh saying, you are a great people and you have great power.
01:12:37
You shall not have only one lot, but the mountain country shall be yours. Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down and its farthest extent shall be yours.
01:12:47
For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong.
01:12:55
Doesn't matter how strong it seems that they are. You have the promise of God behind you.
01:13:01
You have not only the promise of God behind you, you've got the God of Jericho behind you.
01:13:06
Remember the power of God exhibited at Jericho, walk around the city walls, just walk, blow a trumpet and boom, the walls fall down.
01:13:16
The city's taken. Wow. Yes. Chariots of iron.
01:13:24
But that doesn't mean we can't take them. Because God can take them. And he has made his promise known.
01:13:32
And the problem with this kind of evaluation on the part of Judah at this stage of the game is that even though, listen, watch, remember, their success motivated the other tribes to get busy and to get at it.
01:13:46
Their failure to evaluate things and draw conclusions contrary to the promises of God, it also influenced the thinking of others.
01:13:58
And so again, verses 27 through the end of the chapter, you have this repetition. Manasseh did not drive out.
01:14:06
Ephraim did not drive out. Zebulun did not drive out. Asher did not drive out. And all the way down to Dan, who didn't even try to drive out.
01:14:19
You conclude that your evaluation is more significant than the promises of God. Number five, number five.
01:14:26
You conclude that the Lord's help means failure isn't a big deal.
01:14:36
Again, verse 19. The Lord was with Judah. They drove out the mountaineers.
01:14:43
There is success. There's the Lord's help. So because the
01:14:49
Lord has helped me, then my failure to drive out the charioteers is not really that big of a deal.
01:14:59
And the problem here is that the perspective has become clouded. I'm enamored of my success, my apparent success.
01:15:06
I'm enamored of that success. And because I'm so zoned in on the euphoria of this measure of success,
01:15:15
I don't see, it clouds me from seeing the significance of my failure.
01:15:22
I don't see it as that big of a deal. And this can happen in a contemporary world where a man experiences great success in his career and he's getting promoted and he's getting raises and all the rest of that kind of stuff.
01:15:38
And he's concluding, well, the Lord must be with me. The Lord must be blessing me. He must be prospering me. Or you gain some measure of popularity or some measure of respect.
01:15:47
Or you have a, quote, good family. Everybody's towing the line in the family. God is blessing in my home.
01:15:54
God is blessing in my family. So therefore, God must not care a whole lot with, about my sin that I'm not dealing with.
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It must not be that big of a deal. That is a seed of failure that's sown in a season of success.
01:16:17
Number six, I can conclude that physical conquest today will be permanent even though the spiritual root lives on.
01:16:32
Say that again. I can assume that the physical conquest that I enjoy today, it'll be permanent even though the spiritual root of sin lives on.
01:16:46
Let me show you what I mean in verses 23 through 26. We got this situation with the house of Joseph.
01:16:52
They're wanting to take over the city of Bethel. And in verse 24, the spies, the house of Joseph spies, they see a man coming out of the city and they say to him, show us the entrance of the city and we will show you mercy.
01:17:09
Problem number one, what did the Lord say about the
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Canaanites? Show them no mercy. These guys say, you show us the entrance of the city.
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And by the way, how could they miss the entrance to the city? I mean, there's only so many ways to get into a city.
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How could they miss the entrance to the city? But anyway, they say, you show us the entrance of the city and we will show you mercy.
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And they mean by mercy, they mean not merely we'll have pity on you.
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They use that word hesed, that word covenant loyalty. We will show you the loyalty of the covenant.
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Even though you are a Canaanite who has no interest whatsoever in becoming an
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Israelite. You have no interest, he has no interest in it. But nevertheless, we will show you covenant mercy, covenant loyalty.
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And so that's what they, that's what he does. The guy says, okay, cool, great. Here's the entrance to the city. Now, let me go.
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Okay, have at it, go off. And the guy goes off and he takes his Canaanite -ism, which was
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Luz, remember the end of verse 23, the name of the city before Bethel was
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Luz. He takes his Canaanite -ism, Luz, and he simply moves it to another place and plants it there, plants it there.
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And the house of Joseph that let this guy go and plant
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Luz somewhere else, they have no idea what the long -term impact of that decision will be.
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The spiritual root of destruction, the spiritual root of Canaanite -ism, if you will, lives on.
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Even though we are experiencing a physical conquest today, what's that gonna mean?
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What is that gonna mean? So in a practical application of that for our 21st century
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Christianity, I can quit certain practices.
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I can stop doing certain things. And just out of sheer self -discipline and willpower, because I know that outward practice is wrong and it would be hurtful to somebody else or whatever,
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I know it's wrong, so I stop it, I stop doing it. I can stop doing it, but I can fail to deal with the sin that lies beneath that practice in my heart.
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Just for example, before conversion, before becoming a
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Christian, I may have had this compulsion to shoplift, go in a place and just see, oh, can
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I do this? Oh, I see that, I want that. And I figure out how I can just put it in my pocket or whatever, and I steal this stuff, shoplifting.
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And when I become a Christian and I realize, you know, that's stealing, I can't be shoplifting, so I gotta stop that practice of shoplifting.
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So I don't shoplift anymore, but I go into the store and I see this thing that I want and I covet it. The covetousness is still there, you see.
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The covetousness is still there. I want it for myself, I wanna take it for myself. I'm not gonna do it because, you know,
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I don't wanna get caught, I don't want the police to come, I don't wanna embarrass anybody, so, but boy,
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I want that, I really want that. I want that bad. You see the problem? I have assumed that the physical conquest that I'm experiencing today is going to be permanent, even though I haven't dealt with the spiritual problem that lies beneath the surface.
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And then number seven, finally, number seven. I can rationalize that the perceived benefits of allowing this seed of failure, the perceived benefits outweigh complete obedience.
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I can rationalize that the perceived benefits of disobedience outweigh complete obedience.
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And what am I talking about? Look at verse 28, verse 28. It says, it came to pass when
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Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.
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You have that same idea repeated throughout this passage. Look at the end of verse 30.
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So the Canaanites dwelt among them and were put under tribute. Verse 33, the end of the verse.
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Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were put under tribute to them.
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And the end of verse 35, when the strength of the house of Joseph became greater, they were put under tribute.
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All right, let me ask you something. Let me ask you a very logical, simple question here. If they were so strong, if the
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Israelites were so strong that they could put these different Canaanites under tribute, which means forced labor, why were they not strong enough just to obey and eliminate them like they were told to do?
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Here's why. Because you know what? It's really beneficial to have a bunch of slave labor.
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It's very helpful to us to force these people to do work that we don't wanna do. Let's not get rid of them.
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Let's hang on to them. Let's keep them around and we'll just make them do what we want them to do. But that failure, that failure to obey may have seemed like it was bringing great advantage to us to have these laborers.
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But that failure to eradicate is disobedience. It's disobedience.
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Can we do that in the 21st century in American Christianity? We sure can.
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We can see benefits that are ours, that come to us by some fudging, some little peccadillo, some little thing that we don't think is such a big deal, but we know, we know it's really sin.
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And yet, there's such an advantage to it. How can I get rid of this?
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How can I stop doing this? It's such, there's so much benefit that's coming from it. How? Why?
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Well, because complete obedience demands that I do so. Now look, the utterly, the ultimately, ultimately, destructive consequences of these different factors are subtly masked.
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Do you see this? They're subtly masked by today's apparent success. Israel couldn't see the tribes.
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They couldn't see what was coming down the road. Maybe they didn't want to see it because they were just enjoying their success.
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Let me close with the comments of one of the commentators, a red Daniel Block.
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I found his conclusion on this chapter to be most helpful and challenging. He says this, and listen carefully.
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Instead, he says, instead of reshaping their world after the image of Yahweh's will, they live in and with the world.
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Can you and I do that? They live in and with the world, and before long, they have taken on the characteristics of the world.
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Instead of making this the land of the people of God, they become like the people of the land.
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This serves, he says, as a permanent reminder of the deadly consequences of compromise and disobedience to all who claim to be the people of God.
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We take that warning seriously on this Lord's Day. Our Father and our
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God, I pray that just by allowing our eyes to see this in the pages of Scripture, you would also open the eyes of our heart to see these same factors, seeds of failure when they're being sown in a season of success in our own lives.
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Father, I pray that we would not allow the apparent evidence of success to cloud us, to cloud our vision, and to distort our thinking into believing that these seeds of failure really don't matter.
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Oh, but Lord, they do. May we see it, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, would you take your hymnals and turn with me to 366, 366.
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I just wanna sing the second and fourth stanzas of this hymn of, this prayer, really, of consecration,
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Have Thine Own Way. Let's stand, shall we, as we sing stanzas two and four. ♪ Have thine own way,
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Lord, have thine own way ♪ ♪ Search me and try me,
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Master, today ♪ ♪ Whiter than snow,
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Lord, wash me just now ♪ ♪ As in thy presence, humbly
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I bow ♪ And the last. ♪ Have thine own way,
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Lord, have thine own way ♪ ♪ Hold o 'er my being, absolute sway ♪ ♪
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Fill with thy spirit, till all shall see ♪ ♪
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Christ only, always living in me ♪
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The Lord blesses you with a good remainder of the Lord's Day, and I do hope that you'll take some opportunity this evening to fellowship with one another, and may the
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Lord bless richly in that fellowship. And don't forget to watch that devotional tonight, encourage you to do that, and tune in on the church website or our
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YouTube channel. Let's pray. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
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To God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.