Eroded Faith
Notes
Transcript
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Last week we went through Chapter 1 through verse 5 in chapter 2. This week we will cover 2:6 through 3:6.
Is it just me or has anyone else recognized a serious lack of maturity in Christ throughout the church?
It seems like we have some pastors and leaders in the church who are still on milk. Some we might question if they even have a saving faith in Christ!
I have repeatedly expressed in many venues one of the reasons we are seeing this happening in the church. During the great evangelical push that started in the ‘70’s, there was a huge emphasis on getting people to proclaim their faith in Jesus.
There was little interest in discipling them or even ensuring their proclamation was even a genuine saving faith. Did you say the sinner’s prayer? Have you placed your faith in Jesus?
Yes, great here’s a Bible and a script, now go tell other people what this says and get them to say they believe in Jesus. Get them to say the sinners prayer. Get them to say they believe in Jesus.
Then came the attractional model. Big stage, big lights, elaborate programs that always needed to be reformed. Just get them through the door.
People were chosen to lead the programs based on worldly abilities more than spiritual gifting. Nobody really cared if they actually had a saving faith or not.
They knew how to organize and put together a program that attracted more people. That’s all that mattered. Still no discipleship happening at all.
Even elders and, in far too many cases, pastors were chosen more for their ability to produce programs that brought people through the door than for their spiritual maturity. Yes, there was a half-hearted attempt to make sure they were biblically and doctrinally sound.
The problem is by this time nobody remembered what it meant to actually be a mature Christian with a true saving faith. When a mature Christian does come along, most of the time they are rejected by leadership. Or they are pushed out of leadership and the church.
A lack of discipleship has led to an apostate church. A church who worships numbers, financial success, and ideology more than they worship God. Even older churches are not immune to some of these issues.
The current state of the church parallels what’s going on in our passage today. We’re going to discuss how the parallel relates to and even effects the church in three areas.
No Discipleship, No Faith
God’s Mercifully Intervenes
God Tests Faith
Discipleship is a core responsibility God has commanded. In Deut 6:6-7 and Deut 11:18-19 God tells the Israelites almost verbatim they are to disciple the younger generations.
6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Discipleship is one of the key areas where the Israelites, the Jews, and the church have failed miserably.
No Discipleship, No Faith
No Discipleship, No Faith
Let’s look at the first part of the passage Judges 2:6-10
6 And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each to his own inheritance to possess the land.
7 So 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 works of the Lord which He had done for Israel.
8 Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old.
9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
10 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.
Wait!! Didn’t chapter one already tell us Joshua died?
How can he suddenly be alive again?
No, Joshua wasn’t resurrected like Lazarus!
In chapter one we get the perspective of Israel’s conquest and failures from a worldly, Israelite perspective. In chapter two the author, through divine inspiration, circles back and gives the account again from God’s perspective.
There’s no concern about political or economic factors. The only concern, the primary focus, is spiritual.
It’s important to understand, while Joshua was leading Israel all of Israel stayed together and fought together. After taking much of the land, Joshua settled into his inheritance Timnath Heres and sent each tribe to finish possessing their portion of the land.
As I prayed over this and studied this passage, something jumped out at me.
After Joshua died the elders who were with him kept the conquest going. They served the Lord, however, they fell short of occupying the entire land.
There’s a hint to their failure in verse seven. “The elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord.”
There’s a difference between seeing God do great work and experiencing God do great work. They trusted Joshua’s faith in the Lord instead of seeking that same faith themselves.
How many people in the church today do the same thing? They have their favorite preacher or teacher and in many ways they idolize the person.
How many people have had their faith crushed because that famous preacher or teacher falls to fleshly desires? If they would have sought Christ instead of the famous person they wouldn’t have had their faith crushed.
When it came time for the elders to rely on God instead of Joshua, they failed. They compromised and fell short of possessing the land.
They failed to disciple the younger generation growing up. They didn’t experience the great works of God for themselves and failed to teach the younger generation how to experience God through faith.
The consequences for the lack of discipleship are found in verse 11. It led to a generation that “did not know the Lord.”
Lack of discipleship led to no faith. No faith led to doing “evil in the sight of the Lord.” And verse 12 says “they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them.”
God, righteously so, is a jealous God. Forsaking God to serve Baal and Ashteroth provokes Him to anger.
God actually worked against them and rose up enemies against them. God delivered Israel into the hands of their enemies. They found themselves barely able to survive.
Even in their apostasy God still mercifully intervenes.
God Mercifully Intervenes
God Mercifully Intervenes
16 Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them.
The reason God didn’t provide a successor to Joshua is because He wanted the entire nation of Israel to have faith in Him as their king. Israel was supposed to turn to Him and trust in His authority.
Instead they immediately began to compromise and it only went downhill from there.
God was faithful in His covenant with Israel. Even in their apostasy He raised up judges to deliver them from their enemies.
17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so.
It’s important to understand, God didn’t raise up the judges because Israel repented. There’s no repentance here.
“They played the harlot with other gods.” They were basically like prostitutes for other gods. God raised up judges Because He is faithful in upholding the covenant He made with Israel.
Do you think we have some in the church who are playing the harlot with other gods?
The one constant we can rest on is that God is faithful to uphold His covenant with the church.
18 And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them.
“The Lord was with the judge.” It doesn’t say the Lord was with Israel, just the judge. He faithfully delivered them through the judge.
In His mercy God was moved to pity. The Hebrew word translated “moved to pity” here means to be grieved. He was grieved by Israel’s groaning.
He’s grieved because Israel isn’t groaning in repentance. No, they’re groaning because of their oppression.
Verse 19 says “when the judge was dead, they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers.” The longer God’s people go without discipleship, the more corrupt they will become.
If God were to raise up a revival in the church today, how many churches and people in the church would revert back to where they are now or even worse?
It takes heartfelt conviction that causes a pit in your stomach to cause a change in direction. Just like Israel in Judges, most of the church today wouldn’t feel any conviction. They would only complain about the oppression they feel.
Verse 19 ends with “they did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn ways.” I believe there is a portion of the church today that is in the same spiritual condition today.
Even while God is in the process of delivering Israel from their oppression, they continue in their own stubborn ways. It’s not that they aren’t grateful for the deliverance, the issue is they don’t recognize God’s hand in their deliverance.
It reminds me of the man running late for an important meeting. He pulls into a packed parking lot and prays “God help me find a parking spot.”
He drives down the rows and there’s a parking spot in the perfect place right next to the door he needs to enter. As he pulls into the parking spot he prays, “never mind God I’ve got it.”
How often are we doing the same thing? How often do we fail to recognize God’s work in our lives?
If God orchestrated some great revival right now, how many churches and Christians would not recognize God’s great work? How many of them would think it was their compromises that led to the revival?
You want to make God angry? Pretend you’re on His same level. Keep doing what is evil in His sight. Keep doing your own thing as if you’re a better judge of right and wrong than God.
20 Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice,
“The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel.” How angry do you think God is with the current state of the church right now? His anger was hot against Israel.
Have you ever been so angry with your children, your spouse, your siblings, your parents, or anyone else that your instinct was to do bad things to them? You wanted to punish them for what they did?
I remember one time my son did something that was reeeaally bad. I was so angry at him that I told him I thought abortion should be legal until you’re 18.
I’ll never forget the look of utter shock on his face. I might have had some justification for my anger, but my instinct and reaction was not okay.
God’s anger over our indiscretions is righteously justified. His response is holy and just. He allows us to be tempted and tests our faith.
God Tests Faith
God Tests Faith
21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,
22 so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.”
They will be a thorn in your side and their gods will be a snare to you. God wants total obedience. God wants total commitment. God expects an unwavering faith.
The nation of Israel was becoming more and more evil with each passing generation. They were turning further and further away from God.
Each generation had less faith in God and were less commited to God than the generation before them. There was no commitment. There was no discipleship.
So, God leaves the nations to test Israel’s faith and remind them they are to worship the one true God. Those nations and their gods are still among us today.
Those nations and their gods still test our faith today. Will we compromise with society and allow society to change the gospel? Or will we remain faithful and let God change society through the gospel?
23 Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.
“Nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.” This statement isn’t judgment upon Joshua’s faith, nor does it imply that Joshua failed to drive out the nations.
This statement is about the contrast between Joshua’s faith and the faith, or lack there of faith, the later generations exhibited.
If the nations were to be driven out by God it would be into Joshua’s faithful hands, not the unfaithful hands of the elders. And definitely not the later generations continually less faithful hands.
The later generations would not simply inherit the blessings of a previous generation’s faith. They must demonstrate their faithfulness to God themselves.
Each generation needed to have an unwavering faith. A faith that allowed them to experience God. A faith that is lived out for the next generation to see.
They must disciple the next generation so they too, not only see God’s work in the older generation’s lives, but actually experience God’s work in their own lives.
In Judges 3:1-2 it explains why God leaves the nations to test Israel.
1 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan
2 (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it),
I love verse two. Have you heard the expression hard times make hard men, hard men make soft times, soft times make soft men, soft men make hard times? Did you realize it was a biblical principle?
Did you realize the spiritual implications? God left the nations to test whether Israel would obey His commandments He gave to their forefathers.
Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted Heb 4:15
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus stood firm in God’s commandments. Jesus did not allow temptation to pull Him away from the Father. He was sacrificed so that our giving in to those same temptations were redeemed.
God could have removed those temptations from us the moment we first believed. Where do you think those temptations come from?
Those temptations are directly related to the nations God left to test Israel and their Gods. Verse six sums up the utter failure due to compromise.
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
This is equivalent today to churches embracing the LGBTQ movement and so much more. It all starts with small compromises and no discipleship.
We all have doubts from time to time. It’s how we handle those doubts that make the difference.
We can compromise and seek worldly solutions, or we can trust fully and step out fully in faith. However, there are times where our motivations, our ideas get elevated to God’s will.
When we desire something those emotions are strong. We can mistake our desire for God’s will. We have to check our motives and our desires when seeking God’s will in our lives.
Maybe you’ve never done this, but I know several times in my life I was sure God wanted me to do something, only to find out it was only my desperate desire.
You know I can’t put my finger on why, but those times never seemed to work out. I say this because we are a part of the body of Christ.
He has a plan for us and I believe we are in His will. But I need all of you to be praying for God to guide us, and to pray for God to guide me as your spiritual leader.
Pray that God gives me the wisdom and discernment to follow His plan and not my own ambitions. Pray that God fills all of our hearts with a desire to serve in His plan.
