Sermon Tone Analysis

Exclusive Allegiance

Lawson Younger describes our relationship to the Lord as an exclusive allegiance that Christian struggle to maintain.

He says,

“True worship of the Lord requires an exclusive allegiance.

An allegiance to any other thing is a transgression of his covenant, old or new.

Unfortunately, there are many Christians today who want to be associated with Christ while their allegiance in everyday life is to another god.”

Lawson Younger

God has commanded his people, all of his people, both Old Testament Israel and the New Testament saints, to love Him with all of your mind, heart, and strength.

To love Jesus in this way is to have a single minded, heart united, loyal love for Him.

This kind of love joyfully obeys his commands, and when sin gets the better of you at times, this kind of love is more concerned about the shame brought to Jesus than the consequences of disobedience.

Younger says, the problem in the church today is that too many professing believers are not loving the Lord with a single minded heart united loyal love.

Many professing believers want to be spiritually associated to Christ, but do not want his sovereign Lordship over their life.

They are not willing to give him exclusive allegiance.

In many regards, they are acting like their spiritual forefathers, the Israelites in Judges 2:6-3:6.

Israel has moved into the land and been there some time.

Joshua and his generation has been faithful to remember God’s works.

Joshua dies, as well as the rest of his generation, and the the next generation syncretizes Yahweh’s commands with the religions of the Canaanites.

That is, they have mixed Canaanite religion with God’s commands that they are God’s people by name only.

They are nominal Jews.

They are not serving Yahweh with exclusive allegiance.

The sad reality to this is God has such good plans for his people, and he has the power and ability to make those plans a reality.

His people, however, reject the living God, for a dead false God that cannot deliver on anything.

So it is with the church.

It is odd for us to receive the risen Savior and his benefits of eternal abundant life only to give Him up for short lived pleasures like health, wealth, prosperity, achievement, and celebrity that promise so much but cannot deliver.

Thankfully, God is steadfast in love toward his people.

His arm is never to short to save, and his fatherly heart will not let us go out of his reach.

Judges 2:6-3:6 reveals to us the compassionate love of the Father who will chase after his children who are prone to wander and the God who loves them.

This morning, I want you to see that,

God exercises compassionate discipline on those who don't set their hearts on Him with a single minded heart united loyal love.

Christian, have a Single Minded Heart United Loyal Love like Joshua (Judges 2:6-10)

Faithfulness of Joshua and the people (Judges 2:7)

Joshua was a faithful servant of the Lord.

He stood with Caleb to exhort the people to enter the Promise Land when the rest of the recon party cowered in fear (Number 13:25-33; 14:5-12).

He stood walked with Moses as he ascended Mt Sinai (Ex 24:13) and He stood outside as Moses spoke to the Lord (Ex 33:11).

When the people challenged Moses authority, Joshua stood by Moses (Numbers 14:30, 38).

As a consequence of his faithfulness, God commissioned Joshua to not only enter the Promise land, but to lead the conquest (Numbers 27:12-23; Deut 31:1-29).

In Judges 2:7, we read that Joshua is once again and example of singleminded, heart united loyal love to Yahweh.

Furthermore, Joshua lead his generation to be as faithful as he was.

William Law captures single minded heart united loyal love when he says,

“Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted, to God.

He, therefore, is the devout man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life parts of piety, by doing everything in the Name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to His glory.”

Faithful Devotion describes Joshua and his generation in verse 7.

In verse 10, however, the next generation forgets the works of God.

Forgetfulness of The Next Generation (Judges 2:10)

Moses strictly commanded Israel in his last sermon to pass on the works of God to the next generation so that Israel would not forget and disobey his commands.

Moses says

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (ESV)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children...

In verse Judges 2:10, the text says their arose another generation who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for them.

It would be hard to imagine that the next generation did not have knowledge of Yahweh.

It is likely that they knew of Yahweh and they knew of the Exodus from Egypt, the Red Sea Crossing, and the Conquest.

The forgetfulness spoken of here is more of a lack of reverence for God.

God’s redemption was no longer relevant to them, or seen as precious and awesome.

There are three things that likely contribute to their forgetfulness.

They were comfortable

God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey.

He promised them rest from famine, enemies, disease, and wild beasts.

There would always be enough health, wealth, and prosperity.

But God warned them to not let their comfort lead to complacency.

In the same text that Moses told them to teach the next generation, he also says

Deuteronomy 6:10–12 (ESV)

“And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build,

and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full,

then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Comfort can lead to complacency, and complacency can lead to the kind of forgetfulness that looses sight of the mighty strength and awesome power of God.

God becomes small compared to your comfort.

There is good reason for Jesus to describe the wya of faith as a narrow road that is difficult and few people find it.

The broad way is so much easier, more comfortable, and self-relying.

The narrow road forces you to on the one hand acknowledge your weakness, while on the other hand, depend on God’s might strength.

It is not good for a Christian or church to be comfortable for too long.

You will not only forget the greatness of God, you will not pass it on to the next generation.

The older generation did not provide intentional spiritual formation

When your faith becomes complacent, God is not worth talking about.

You talk about what excites you, what treasure you love.

Complacency gives fertile ground for idolatry.

If sports are what you love, you will spend a great deal of time talking about sports with your children, getting them into clinics, making sure they make the select team, organizing your finances and schedule around their sports.

Jesus will take a back seat.

There will be little if any discipleship.

That is what was happening in Israel.

The gods of the Canaanites became more attractive and worthy of their time and conversation than Yahweh.

The next generation did not receive intentional spiritual formation

It is also like that the next generation did not receive what instruction was being taught.

It would be difficult for the younger generation to take the commands seriously when their parents, extended family, and neighbors are becoming nominal followers of Yahweh.

It is also just as likely that they had a rebellious heart toward the Lord.

When a generation walks away from the faith of their parents, it is almost always a combination of these three things: complacency, no spiritual formation, and a rejection of spiritual formation.

Timothy Keller describes the decline as such,

“Mistakes made by a Christian generation are often magnified in the next, nominal, one.

Commitment is replaced by complacency and then by compromise.”

Timothy Keller

Their compromise led to halfhearted unfaithful love to the Lord; this is manifested in doing what is evil in God’s eyes.

It is imperative that the church have a robust family ministry.

As a church, we need to commit our time, talent, and treasure to being a champion for marriages, parents, intergenerational relationships, men/fathers, training singles, and caring for spiritual orphans.

Single minded, heart united, loyal love is as much taught as it is caught.

We need to be both passionate and intentional in our ministry to families if we are going to help the next generation be faithful to the Lord.

Otherwise, we set the next generation up to become halfhearted unfaithful disciples of Jesus who eventually walk away from the faith.

Christian, Know That a Double Minded Halfhearted Unfaithful Love Leads to Apostasy (Judges 2:11-15)

What is evil in God’s eyes?