The Book of Judges John Kane

Welcome everybody. Thank you that you're here to fellowship and worship with us this morning. Some new faces here and we're blessed that you were here to join us. We are here at Bate Bible Church for those that we're recording these for other folks that are able to come.

That they can still be a part of our fellowship so hello to everybody that isn't here and Whenever you're watching this, we're thankful that you have the means and ability and they are Blessed to have you here this morning.

Praise God. She's one of our saints. Has been here almost since the beginning of the beginning of time. As we shared last week we're going to continue to hold Our needs in the church and our pursuits and things we discussed in the meeting last week.

And so just keep that on your prayer list as we go forward. Consider what the Lord would have for us in the future As we prepare to worship this morning. I'd like to read Psalm 146 to kind of direct our hearts.

Gives perspective on Not only our time of worship, but also how we are to respond to the things that are going on around us.

And.

Gives us hope really that's all convinces down. We have hope in Christ and that's that's the greatest gift. Praise the Lord. You can just listen if you'd like praise the Lord. Praise the Lord on my soul.

I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes in the Son of Man in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs he returns to the earth on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob whose hope is in the Lord his God. Who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them who keeps faith forever? Who executes justice for the oppressed.

Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners.

He upholds the widow on the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever. Your God will sign to all generations. Praise the Lord. That's what we're doing this morning.

You're gonna praise his name. So before we begin, let's let's have a prayer. Lord God, we thank you father to have brought us here. Or that you have purpose for each one of us to be here this morning Lord you stand in awe of your majesty and your goodness your grace and your righteousness father.

For you are above all things and that as we walk on this earth Lord. We we meander we find our selves in the ditch every once in a while Lord. But you are always there to help us out or to guide us into records.

So we thank you prepare our hearts this morning father that we can honor you with our voices. With the things that we hear or we pray for Pastor John as you Lay a burden on his heart to minister to us this morning father.

May we be encouraged may he be encouraged Lord and sharing of that truth from your word. We thank you for the word father and may we worship you this morning in spirit and in truth that our hearts would know Your grace in a greater way father in a deeper way and be pleased Lord with our offering service this morning.

Jesus name. Ephesians 5 says be filled with the spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I know let's let's stand and I know that some might say that your voices aren't very strong. And that you don't have a very good voice it really doesn't in the Lord's economy. That's not what he's looking at.

We can worship from the heart. So let's do that this morning. We're going to sing come. Christians join the same. Praise to the Lord the Almighty. Mercy's not tender how firm to the end our maker defender.

Worship the King.

Judges 2:1-10 and the Warning Against Covenant Unfaithfulness

This morning is judges chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. Judges chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. Now the angel the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokom. And he said I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers.

I said I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?

So now I say I will not drive them out before you. But they shall become thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare to you. As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel The people lifted up their voices and wept and they called the name of that place Bokom and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

When Joshua dismissed the people the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land and The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel.

And Joshua the son of Nun servant of the Lord died at the age of 110 years and they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath, Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim north of the mountain of Gash.

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers and there arose another generation after them Who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.

For voicing that so let's stand again, we're going to continue our worship in song Lord my rock and my Redeemer. Some of you may not have heard this before. It's somewhat familiar with Bible Church.

But.

There's great theology in this and it really comes to a crescendo toward the end when he said he rose. And just just meditate on the words as you're singing through these and if you don't know the tomb just You know read it through in your mind, okay God's people said.

What a blessing in Christ alone. Well, if you have your Bibles, please open them and turn them to the book of Judges.

The book of Judges.

The Book of Judges as a Cycle of Sin, Servitude, Supplication, and Salvation

Now we're doing something in our church a series because I've been the interim pastor here three months and I was talking to Victor and Harold the elders and Praying about. You know, what am I going to preach on.

Because I'm preaching in our church through the gospel of John. Our service is at 9 o 'clock in the morning and nobody wants to say goodbye. So we have to like be rude and leave. And drive the 25 minutes down here and I didn't want to put my family through the same sermon.

My daughters looked at me kind of like We listen to you enough.

So.

Just talking to Victor and Harold I decided to go to the Old Testament and I'm just saying this for the sake of our visitors today I'm going through one book of the Old Testament every Sunday. Now with a couple of them, I took two Sundays, but judges we're going to cover the entire book of Judges.

This morning. How about that? And What we're doing is we're not down on the ground in the book of Judges. We're in an airplane and we're gonna fly over it not at 35 ,000 to 40 ,000 feet where airliners fly.

But down low where a small plane flies, okay but we are going to get through all 21 22 chapters of the book of Judges right now and all of God's people said I. Are you taking bets? You know, I was read about this man.

He was talking to God. And he said God How long is a million years? And God said well to me it's it's about a minute. God how much is a million dollars? Well to me, it's about a penny. So the man said God may I have a penny?

God said wait a minute. Do I need to tell it again? And the reason I want to start with a little bit of a laugh is Because if you know the book of Judges at all. Then you know, it can be kind of a downer to read and that's because Judges listen to me carefully.

The book of Judges is essentially 300 years of God's people just like us and I want you to get this Old Testament. Old Covenant believers got that New Testament New Covenant believers. So people that would if they were here today would say I believe in God.

I'm a Christian 300 plus years of those kinds of people saying God we promise to obey you and turn right around and.

Disobey.

God we love you. We're gonna obey you and turn right around and Disobey over and over and over and over for over 300 years. So when you read the book of Judges you have over 300 years of the history of the people of Israel.

Saying we're gonna obey you. Not once one generation then disobeying. Not once not twice not seven times you ready for this 12 generations. How about that? We have three generations here. We have grandparents here.

We have their kids and we have their kids 12 times and The background of what happens in judges goes all the way back to the book of Joshua. Where we read in Joshua chapter 5 and I'll get to judges 2 in a moment.

Listen carefully to Joshua chapter 5 for the children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness. That's documented in the book of Numbers till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed.

Listen an. Entire generation of people that left Egypt listen carefully were consumed. Because they did not obey the Lord. So this is Joshua chapter 5. Why did Israel spend 40 years in the wilderness wandering around?

Because they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And Why in judges do God's people spend another 300 years? Generation after generation after generation. Having all kinds of problems being invaded being put into slavery.

Same reason now look at judges chapter 2 and We run again and again and again into this judges 2 verse 2 God says you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars.

But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this look at verse 17? Yet they would not listen to their judges. This is a snapshot looking forward to the rest of the book. But they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them.

They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walk in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so go to chapter 6 verse 10. Chapter 6 verse 10. I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

But You have not obeyed my voice.

Wow.

Anybody that's raised kids knows exactly. What we're talking about don't you parents? Did I not tell you to clean up your room? But you have not obeyed my voice. Did I not tell you not to touch those cookies?

But you have not obeyed my voice. Did I not tell you to not install that app on your phone. But you have not obeyed my voice. So in the book of Judges God's people Israel keeps saying they're gonna obey God and they don't.

God warns them and he punished them by means of trials and these trials come in the form of Pagan nations invading them and taking them over. Very often putting them into slavery and so they cry out to God God save us just like they did in Egypt, right?

They turn to God when things get really bad. They repent God delivers them and then it happens again. And then it happens again and Then it happens again and again and that's why I wanted to start with the penny joke.

Because it gets it can get depressing 300 plus years of Israel's history. Cycling over and over remember merry-go-rounds. They took the merry-go-round out of Galleria. I used to take my daughters on that merry-go-round.

It's gone.

And.

When I when they were little I would ride it around and around and I never got tired of it because I loved my daughters. Right, but as they got older they got tired of it. That's the book of Judges. Round and round and round and round cycles.

Let's pray Father thank you so much for this day. This blessed time that we can worship together people of every race creed and color one in christ. May the holy spirit be our teacher today. May he do in our lives what we cannot do father only you can do.

Open up our understanding help us to stay awake alert. That the word of god might minister to our hearts. We pray in jesus name. Amen.

The Meaning of Judges, the Judges’ Role, and the Need for the Perfect Judge

Now.

When you have a smartphone and you punch in where you want to go. Maybe you did that to get to the church if you're visiting from filipino international baptist church.

But.

Very often they'll have waypoints. So you go from a to b but in between you're going to stop for gas, right? Or if you have an electric car you start to you stop to get it charged up. You see those they plug them in like a lamp.

So in judges God remains faithful, but his people remain unfaithful and it just keeps going on and on around and around like a merry-go-round. Secondly when you think of the book of judges, it involves 12 judges.

There's 12 judges. Maybe 13 some scholars call it 13 because there's a man Horrible man named abimelech and he's called himself. Maybe he did it to himself that he was a king. So 12 or 13 leaders of israel, okay.

And understand that the judges when you see this word judge, they weren't judges like we think of judge, you know, the the president Nominated a supreme court a new supreme court justice on saturday, right?

And it could look by all intents and purposes that i've read a solid solid person that believes in the constitution, right? So, um, they're not judges like that. They're judges in the sense that they ruled over israel when there were problems people went to them and they said this is right.

This is wrong. They settled disputes. They provide leadership like a king or a president. Okay, so they're not judges like we think of a judge today. They provided spiritual guidance. You look at the story of gideon.

Who helped conquer the moabites all kinds of things like this go on but these are rulers spiritual directors at times also tradition. Attributes the authorship of this book to samuel who was a prophet anybody know a book in the bible called samuel.

Yeah, it's that guy first samuel and second samuel most likely wrote this book. Now the message what is the core central message and teaching of this book? For 40 years israel had wandered in the wilderness till that generation died off they cross over the jordan river into canaan.

So for about 300 it's really more closer to 325 years.

From.

1373 bc To 1043 bc. Now stay with me here. I'm not going to try to trick you up. In the wilderness they were wandering geographically. In judges, they're wandering with sin. So wandering In the wilderness geographically no home in judges.

They have a home. They have their cities. The land has been divided up by the tribes. Now. We have wandering in the spiritual sense. Judges is the record of the cause the course and the and the curse of spiritual deterioration.

And israel's ever increasing lawlessness. Now a merry-go-round just goes around and stays at the same level, right? This is very important to get. A merry-go-round cycles around and stays at one level.

The sin and the cycles of sin that you read about in the book of judges Is an ever.

Decreasing.

Spiral of sin worse and worse and worse. Does that sound familiar? How about the united states of america? Just when you think it can't get any worse.

Beloved.

Do you understand what's going on in the united states of america? Right in front of your face. Do you understand that. Just please listen. Do you understand that a few years ago they legalized homosexual marriage?

That a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman. And the governor of the state of california Just last week or week before signed a bill.

That says.

Men Who sexually abuse children Will be identified differently than other men Who sexually abuse children? What's next? Let's release criminals. Let's release murderers. Do you understand? You talk to anybody over 70 that lives in this country and they sit there and shake their head and say what in the world's going On.

Well, it's exactly what happened in judges. It just gets worse. And worse and worse. Apart from what? The gospel of jesus christ.

Amen.

You see judges. Is the record of imperfect judges? Pointing us to the perfect judge.

Gideon.

Ehud all these judges deborah point us. They're imperfect judges that point us to the perfect judge who is the lord. Jesus christ. You understand remember to understand judges. Don't think of a judge in a black robe behind a bench.

Think of a judge that's ruling over people giving guidance and direction. And who is to do that in our lives today. The perfect judge. King lord. Jesus. Amen. Now you got the message I can close the service.

You want to go home. I'm done. That's it. In a nutshell. Judges is the record of imperfect judges. Little g pointing to the perfect judge. Capital j.

Real quick.

I have so much to say but real quick old testament promises made new testament promises kept old testament imperfect rulers moses david solomon kings prophets and judges all pointing to king, jesus the judge Prophet priest and king right?

That's the whole flow of the old testament. So the people and judges they sin. They're punished. They reap the consequences of their sin. They cry out for deliverance. Does that sound familiar? Do you remember the day? That you cried out To god to save you from your sin.

I do. It was in a hotel room in rochester, new york. They are desperate. They cry out and god raises up a judge to deliver them. Who is an imperfect judge who is there to point Everybody through human history to the perfect judge the lord.

Jesus christ. The judges in the book of judges are human. They're imperfect and they're temporary. The judge dies.

That leadership.

Fades from the scene. The people turn to sin. The cycle starts over.

Sin.

Here it is sin. Servitude supplication salvation. That's the cycle but it's ever increasingly going down worse and worse. God raises up a judge. The judge dies the people start sinning again things get bad again.

The people cry out to god again, then he raises up another judge to deliver them and we have this cycle of sin servitude supplication. And then salvation. 325 years, okay. Four points if you want to follow along in your notes.

I made over 50 copies. Hopefully you have a set. So if you want to take notes if you don't have the notes point number one cycle number one is sin. Four cycles the first one is sin. Now two quick points first of all.

Chapter two.

God.

Warns the people about the consequences And the dangers of sinning. I mean this happens with your kids, right? Don't touch the stove. Are you as dumb as me when you were a kid. Don't touch the stove. You'll get burned.

I mean I was the. I can't tell you how dumb I was. Because my kids will make fun of it the rest of the day. So god blesses his people. God blesses his people. He delivers them out of the wilderness. He takes them out of egypt, right?

He leads them into the promised land. Victory. The walls of jericho fall. And notice what god says. Chapter 2 verse 1. The angel the lord came up from gilgal to boke him and said I led you up from egypt.

I brought you To the land of which I swore to your fathers. And I said I will never break my covenant with you. And here's what you're to do. You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land.

You shall tear down their altars. So you have this very sober warning make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land. And here's the deal. Like a loving parent god had given people warnings. Like this many times.

When he first gives the law in the book of exodus god says you shall have no other gods before me. He also tells him in exodus 20. You shall make yourself no idol. You shall not Make for yourself an idol.

Then you get to the book of deuteronomy the giving of the second law. Remember deuteronomy duet the second law right given again. And in deuteronomy he tells the people Specifically what they need to do in order to obey the first two commandments.

He says when the lord brings you into the land looking ahead to the time that we're at now joshua. They go into the land here. They're now in the land and before that ever happens.

He says.

When the lord your god brings you into the land of the hittites the girgashites the amorites the canaanites and all those guy guys. When the lord your god has delivered them over to you. Listen. And you have defeated them.

Here's what god says. You must destroy them totally. And you go that's horrible. Why? Don't make a treaty with them. This is not me speaking. This is deuteronomy. You can look it up for yourself if you want to make a note.

Deuteronomy 7. When the lord god has given them into your hand you are to destroy them totally. You are to have no Mercy on them. You are to not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons.

Do not take their daughters for your sons. Listen.

Why?

I'm telling you now Before you ever get there They will turn Your sons away from following me to serve other gods and the lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly Destroy you. You talk to any pastor.

I bet you I don't even have. He doesn't even know what i'm preaching today. The number one marriage counseling a pastor does is between a believing wife and an unbelieving husband. Young ladies you must Must pray that god gives you a believing husband.

You cannot be unequally yoked. How much clearer can god be. Totally destroy them make no covenant with them show no mercy on them. How much clearer can you be. If your right hand causes you to sin. If your right eye causes you to sin.

Joshua.

Before he dies repeats the same warning. So final jeopardy question ready. Ready. Final jeopardy question. What do the people do in spite of these warnings? The opposite. And your order and your. And your bet is the full 27 000 that you've won.

You just got your final jeopardy answer. In spite of the clear warnings and the consequences and the dangers of sin the people sin. Anyway, they don't obey. And when you read the first 18 verses. Everything is well, by the way, the first 18 verses everything is great.

The barbecues are lit. They're barbecuing the steak mowing their lawns. Right watching the football game. They're going to church. All of that israel's conquest of the territory of canaan continues. Look at chapter 1 verse 19.

Look at this. It's wonderful. So The lord was with judah. But a sad word Comes halfway through this verse. And it is a word a single three-letter word that should strike fear into every believer's heart.

And it is the word but. And some translations have the word nevertheless. 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 and that is a rabbit trail. But look at verse 21 But the children of benjamin did not drive out the jebusites who inhabited inhabited jerusalem.

Verse 28 And it came to pass when israel was strong that they put the canaanites under tribute. What's that? That's a treaty. Exactly what cod told him not to do he they put the canaanites under tribute, but Did not completely drive them out nor did ephraim completely drive out the canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, so the canaanites dwelt in gezer among them nor did the zebulun drive out the inhabitants of kitron or the inhabitants of nahala.

So the canaanites dwelt among them and were put under tribute and you go on through the rest of the chapter. Chapter and it goes on but israel did not but israel did not. And see here's the deal. I don't know if you're like me.

The first few times I read judges before I was ever teaching in the old testament years and years ago as an as a young christian I was pointing look at these people god warns them. This is me doing my morning devotions.

Look at these people god says do this do this and then they don't do it. Can I encourage you to ask yourself a question?

Oh.

We're told to forgive.

Have you forgiven that person that hurt you so much those years ago? We're supposed to hunger and thirst for righteousness. How much time have you spent in god's word this week? See the people sin precisely how god repeatedly warned them not to sin.

They partially obey. Christians are to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I guess it's enough if I just thirst for righteousness. God didn't really mean the hunger part. They omit a crucial step of obedience by not exterminating totally the canaanites.

And god warned the consequences. Verse 2. You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars. That's what I told you to do, but you have not obeyed my voice.

Why have you done this? Therefore I also said back in deuteronomy. And also back in joshua.

I will not.

Drive them out before you. But they shall be thorns in your side and their gods shall be a snare.

To you.

The pagan gods were a snare. Terrible sins follow. They join with the canaanites and others in idolatry. And as chapter 2 continues This this story kind of recaps this descent into sin. And this is so important to understand because when you're first reading the book of judges you can get confused.

Because this continues from one generation to the next generation to the next generation. Look at verse 7. So the people serve the lord all the days of joshua. And all the days of the elders who outlived joshua.

That's one generation Who had seen all the great works of the lord which he had done for israel. Now joshua the son of john the servant of the lord died when he was 110 years old. And they buried him within the border of his inheritance in timnath harries in the mountains of ephraim on the north side of mount geash.

When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers. Another generation arose after them Who did not know the lord nor the work which he had done for israel. Then the children of israel did evil in the sight of the lord and served the bales.

And they forsook the 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. And they bowed down to them and they provoked the lord to anger.

They forsook the lord and served bale and the ash to us. What's going on in the united states of america. This is exactly. What's going on in the united states of america? The message and story and lessons that we can learn from judges fall out of these cycles round and round.

We go first one then another. God gives the israelites rich blessings. And they return his love By disobeying him. And that leads to the second cycle. Cycle number two servitude. See one of the messages of the bible.

See.

If you know anything about the church in america, if you've been a christian any length of time. You understand that one of the main messages of the church at large is that god is a god of love. He loves everybody and in fact the verse that everybody quotes all the time is john 3 16, right?

But see that's only part of the gospel. For god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But you know, there's another part of the gospel romans 6 23.

The wages of sin is Death, there's another part of the gospel hebrews. Where it says it is appointed unto men once to die. And after this the judgment. See one of the central messages of the bible. Is that god is not indifferent to people's sin.

And the punishment described in chapter 2 summarizes what you see in fact chapter 1 and chapter 2 is kind of a Overview of the book. Look at chapter look at verse 14. And the anger of the lord Was hot against israel.

Is god a god of love? Yeah. Does he get angry? Yes Pastor john. I thought god was a god of love. Well, he's also a god of anger and it's not just passive anger. It's hot. So, what did he do. He delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who despoiled them.

And he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out the hand of the lord was against them for calamity as the lord had said.

And as the lord had sworn to them, they were greatly distressed. And this example of god's anger and discipline repeats over and over through the whole book. And god uses not just the canaanites. He uses a number of heathen nations to punish israel.

In chapter 3 he uses the mesopotamians and the moabites in chapter 4. He uses the canaanites in chapter 6. It's the midianites in chapter 10. It's the amanites in chapter 13. It's the dreaded philistines.

It keeps getting worse and worse. The philistines were the most most ruthless of the bunch. And this is the book of judge.

Judges.

Heathen nation after heathen nation that israel should have destroyed Being used by god to punish put his people into servitude the very nations that he warned them about by name back in deuteronomy 7 The very nations he said to exterminate and show no mercy to Did in fact corrupt them? And then he turns around and he uses the very same nations to punish them.

You reap what you sow. What does all this have to do to those of us living in 2020? John, this is heavy. Yeah.

It is.

You see.

Look at your own life for a minute. I had to do that this week and it's not comfortable. The pagan nations. They represent and point to the very sin that so easily besets us. You see? Oh the canaanites.

There's nothing like that. Yes, there is. There's the internet. There's movies. There's wealth. The almighty dollar the truth. That a little leaven leavens the whole loaf. Is right here in the book of judges in hd tv.

I don't know what the pixels are now with the tvs. What is it 10 million? Do you know dave? Do you know victor? What is it 10 million pixels now and you go to costco for 500 bucks? Do you know? Yeah, whatever it is those tvs that are very bright when you walk into costco right here in the book of judges.

The first book of judges cycle number three SAP. Those who are already a German citizen. They're called on to go to a church.

They go to a church and they go there and they say There's something wrong with me. You know, there's something wrong with me.

There's something wrong with me.

There's something wrong with me and you say, oh okay, alright, okay.

8 years under the oppression of the king of Mesopotamia, chapter 3, verse 9, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel who delivered them, Atheniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

So, after 18 years, under the Moabites, verse 15, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, so a whole generation passes, right, just in a few verses, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite.