Be Killing Sin or It Will Be Killing You

We are starting a new series in the book of Judges this week called “Rebellion and Rescue”…

And I’m going to state the obvious right out of the gate: the book of Judges is probably not one of those books you typically go-to for your quiet-time with the Lord...

“Ooo… I need a real pick-me-up today, I’m going to go read the book of Judges!” Said no one ever.

The truth is, Judges one of the most overlooked books in the Bible, most-likely because it is one of the hardest to look at.

I don’t just mean in terms of hardest to understand… but rather the hardest to swallow.

In fact, as I was creating the reading plan, I literally felt the need to put a warning on some of the readings because they are really traumatic… (that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read them, you just need to be spiritually prepared to read them).

And the reason it’s so hard to look at is because Judges is a picture of what it looks like to increasingly give into the sin that exists in all of our hearts.

In this study in Judges, we are going to take a long hard look at a topic we don’t naturally like to talk about: sin.

And not just the sin of some underdeveloped… unenlightened… primitive neanderthals from thousands of years ago...

We are going to see how the cycles of sin that went on in Israel during the time of the judges STILL play out in our lives today...

We still haven’t gotten rid of them… we haven’t moved past being prone to sin because we all have a sin nature.

You see, sin is like a weed in our hearts that chokes out a healthy life with God… I’m dealing with this in my back yard right now [SHOW PHOTO]...

This photo doesn’t really do it justice because the sun is shining so brightly, but maybe you can see just how patchy my grass is.

And if it were raining when I took this photo, it would look like a mud pit.

Over the past few years the clover and nutsedge and wild violet has been getting worse and worse...

And for a while I just put it off… I thought, “It’s not that big of a deal. Who cares about having a pristine lawn… that’s for people who have more money than I do...

A few years later, I thought… “Well, it’s getting kind of bad… but there’s nothing that can be done about it anyway… I share a backyard with too many other homes… their weeds are just always going to come into my yard.”

Then I thought… “Well maybe I should TRY to do something about it, but I realized I didn’t have the right tools to do it.

I even had a bottle of Weed-B-Gone For Lawns sitting in my garage for THREE YEARS… but didn’t apply it because first I didn’t have a hose hook-up… then I didn’t have the right length of hose…

But last year, as the weeds got even worse… and my kids played in the yard more, I ended up having less and less yard and more and more mud.

And so I thought, “Well… I guess I have to do something…” so I finally sprayed the Weed-B-Gone for lawns one time… kind of a half-hearted attempt… but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money.

Well guess what: it didn’t improve things. In fact, things got WORSE.

Especially since we got a big dog in November.

So on Monday, I was at Lowes… and I saw they had the whole year-long Scotts Turfbuilder lawn program on sale… along with seed… and I thought to myself, “It’s time to do this and do it right.

So I called my dad who ALWAYS had a well-maintained lawn my whole life… and we came up with a plan: I’m planning to rent an over-seeder in mid-April… and to do lawn treatments four times… and maybe plant more seed in the fall… and then I’m going to have to maintain it after that.

It’s WAR on the weeds in my backyard this year...

Because I’m finally tired of living with a back-yard full of mud.

And I think my lawn is a good picture of our relationship with sin sometimes:

We start out minimizing the problem…

Then we assume that because we live in a sinful world, there’s nothing that can be done about our sin… sin is just a part of human nature and we don’t need to fully deal with it.

Sometimes we don’t feel like we have the right tools… maybe we feel defeated in our fight against sin because we’ve gone a few rounds and lost a few battles...

Sometimes we make some half-hearted attempt to kill sin… or at least minimize it… but it doesn’t have much lasting effect.

Have you ever seen these things in your life? Raise your hand… be honest. I know I have!

And it’s not until we get serious about it… until we go all in and buy into God’s full program of rescue from our rebellion… that we will really start to see some progress.

Do a little personal gut-check right now… how would you rate your ambition for fighting sin that is in your life today?

[PAUSE]

I’m praying that all of us get to the place in our spiritual lives this Spring (that I’ve come to in relationship with my lawn): that we are ready to do WAR on the thing that is destroying us… that is making a mess of our lives… and that is our rebellious sin.

The great Puritan Pastor and Theologian John Owen said this of sin (it’s the title of today’s sermon): Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.

In fact, he wrote that in a whole book called, “The Mortification of Sin in Believers” which we’ve added to our Judges resource page (in updated language for you… it’s a free ebook and I’d HIGHLY recommend it).

Owen was talking about remaining sin that exists in the life of the believer.. even though we will not see it entirely gone from our lives until we see Jesus face to face, we need to make every effort to put sin to death…

Owen understood how dangerous it was for the believer to entertain sin. He knew that it just left our lives like a yard full of mud.

“Be Killing sin, or it will be killing you.” This stuff we are talking about here in this series is a matter of life or death.

Your joy in the Lord… your experience of his salvation… your next steps as a disciple… is dependent on your understanding of God’s rescue from your rebellion.

So before we jump into the book, I want to set up our vision for this series… as a church… why are we studying this book? What’s does God want for us through the study of this part of his word?

I believe it is this: [that we would be] Seeking God’s merciful rescue to break the cycles of our rebellious sin.

We need to understand that every sin in our lives is an act of rebellion against the one who created us and sent his Son to save us…

And we must seek God’s rescue to break the cycles of that rebellious sin… we can’t do it on our won… here’s what that will look like on a practical level if we really get serious about it:

Individual: A regular practice of genuine confession and repentance in our lives.

We are going to see that in Judges, everyone did what was right in their own eyes instead of God’s eyes.

And it was only when they experienced the consequences of their sin... and they called out to the Lord… that they experienced his deliverance.

We want to learn to move more quickly in our walk with Jesus to CALLING OUT TO HIM in confession and repentance.

We are dependent on HIS deliverance.

That’s going to lead to the way we live in our...

Gospel Communities: Leveraging gospel accountability to help put patterns of sin to death.

A lot of you took the Pathway Self-Assessment at the beginning of this year.. and that was a TOOL you could use to see where you might take your next steps of growth next...

But it was never meant to be a tool that we looked at by ourselves and read some resources and figured it out on our own: it was designed so that you would know what to ask the other people in your Gospel Community for accountability for as you consistently met with them in mutual ministry...

I pray that you are still leveraging that gospel accountability to help you take your next steps in following Jesus…

We need CONTINUITY in our ACCOUNTABILITY to see GROWTH…

So throughout this series, I want to help us better use that mutual ministry time in our Gospel Communities to see genuine growth.

Because there’s an increasing problem that we are going to see that in the book of Judges: they forgot to see themselves as a unified nation… as God’s unified covenant people… and so they were all just doing their own thing and not pointing each other back to the covenant they had made with God...

And that intensified their rebellion.

But when we help one another take our next steps in the way of a disciple TOGETHER, we will begin to see VICTORY.

Which leads to this last goal:

Whole Church: Increased celebration of the gospel because we see it's great value in place of our sin.

Judges is the perfect backdrop to the gospel… because the summary statement is found toward the end of the book: “In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25)

This book is in the Bible to show us how much we all need a Savior King... whose name is Jesus.

And even within the book of Judges itself, we see this LONGING for a deliverer who is a king.

We see this cycle of rebellion, followed by God’s merciful rescue through an unlikely judge (or probably better translated: deliverer), followed by a period of peace, which was then followed by continued rebellion.

The judges weren’t enough… in fact they were very flawed people who needed a deliverer themselves.

And what happens in those times of peace is that God’s people forget the goodness of the Lord to save them.

They forget the source of their peace… they forget to celebrate God and instead turn to worship idols.

And so we need to learn to use our times of peace… especially when we are gathered here on a Sunday morning away from the cares of the world... to CELEBRATE the victory of the Lord instead of forgetting him.

In order to seek God’s merciful rescue to break the cycles of our rebellious sin, we are going to need to...

Develop a regular pattern of confession and repentance...

Leverage gospel accountability...

And celebrate the gospel

This is going to take resolve. Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

I can’t think of a better quote to summarize Judges chapter 1 which is what we’re going to study today.

Big Idea: The Lord is with you in your fight against sin: fight to the death.

We have to start out with this sense of confidence: The Lord is with us in our fight against sin: therefore we must (and we CAN) fight sin to the death.

Your Bibles are open to Judges 1...

Today we are going to cover the first half of the introduction to the book which extends from 1:1-3:5

The book of Judges picks up Israel’s history at the death of Joshua and recounts Israel’s history until the time of Samuel and the first KING of Israel, King Saul...

Prior to the book of Judges, God has delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt under the leadership of of Moses...

He’s brought them into the land of Promise under the leadership of Joshua...

And under Joshua, he charged them to drive out the inhabitants of the land…

These were wicked, idolatrous people… God had given them time to repent… but now was the time for their destruction and for God’s people to take their place.

And he warned Israel saying, “If you don’t devote these people to utter destruction, they will live among you… and you will start worshipping their idols… and you will fall away from me. I know your sinful hearts.”

This whole conquest was about eradicating idolatry and all of its satanic practices so that they would follow God purely.

But they failed to do that… and Judges is the warning of Joshua coming true in all of its gruesome reality… Israel falls deeper and deeper into idolatry and becomes unrecognizable as God’s people.

One commentator suggested that the theme of Judges is the Canaanization of Israel… what it looks like when God’s people give into worldliness and forsake their relationship with him.

Does that sound relevant in our society today?

Judges 1:1-3:5 show us how that begins to happen.

We are going to cover 1:1-2:5 today… let’s start with verses 1-20 [Read Judges 1:1-20]. [STAND????]

The Lord is with you in your fight against sin: fight to the death.

Maybe in the midst of all those weird names and places, you had a hard time seeing it… but I hope you see it REALLY clearly by the end of the day today.

Today we want to see three principles for fighting sin to the death… the first is this:

1) Our fight against sin is not dependent on our ability, but the Lord's presence. (1:1-20)

Explain: The book starts out on this bleak note - after the death of Joshua.

The one who had the same Spirit that Moses had resting on him… this great and godly leader named Joshua… is dead.

Joshua was a military leader… he was a political leader… but most importantly, was a spiritual leader: He challenged Israel to consistently love and serve God alone.

There was no one like him in all the land.

If you ever wanted to put your hope in a person, it was Joshua.

And now Joshua is dead. And there’s no one to replace him. Do you feel the concern in verse 1?

What does this mean for God’s people? What does this mean for taking over the rest of the land God had promised? Will they continue to see military and political and spiritual victories?

Is it hopeless? Are they doomed?

This is what they are asking in verse 1 - who is going to lead us into the full enjoyment of God’s promise?

And the Lord is like, “The same person who led you before: ME!

Ultimately I’m going to be your leader… your king.

And as such, I’m raising up the tribe of Judah to keep fighting until the job is done… I have given the land into his hand.

The author of Judges wants us to understand that they have all they need in order to do what God called them to do: they have the Lord himself.

So Judah says, cool… we’re all in… Simeon, my brother, why don’t you come with me! (of course these are not individuals, but whole tribes within the nation of Israel helping each other to obey God’s command)...

Israel was divided into 12 tribes and Judah and Simeon were two of them… and they enter this fight TOGETHER.

Now I want you to know: this is a rare moment in the book of Judges… the tribes working together.

By the end of the book, they are constantly fighting each other.

Even later in this chapter, the tribes are going to be looking out only for themselves… not helping each other out… and that will be part of their downfall.

But for a sweet moment, the tribe of Simeon helps the tribe of Judah fight, in God’s strength against the powers of sin… and the results are great!

They defeat the Canaanites (which is sort of a catch-all term for a lot of different people groups), and specifically the Perizzites, along with their leader Adoni-Bezek.

Now this guy’s name is important… it means “Lord of Bezek”... and he boasts of having ruthlessly tortured and subjected 70 kings by cuttting off their thumbs and big toes.

These “kings” would have been rulers of other City-States… leaders of small people-groups.

When you think of Adoni-Bezek, think “mob boss” - This guy really thinks he’s something…

This guy was the undefeated heavyweight champion of the Canaanite world.

He viewed himself as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But now he is put in his place by the Lord.

What no other warriors could do… JUDAH AND SIMEON did because the Lord was WITH them.

Ain’t nothin going to stop you when the LORD’S on your side! Amen?!?!

Next we see God help them capture Jerusalem…

Talk about an critical moment in history: Jerusalem is the important city where David would reign as king…

Where God’s people would be carried off into exile and return...

Where Jesus would die and rise again…

Where one day Jesus will return and set up his Millennial Kingdom...

Where God will cause heaven to meet earth in the age to come.

Here in Judges 1 is where Jerusalem becomes part of Israel… and it happens as God helps Judah obey him: such an important moment in history.

And then in verses 11-20, we get three stories about God’s work in the lives of those who fought for God in the past… they receive their full blessing in the promised land.

The first story is about Othniel.

We’ll learn more about him in 2 weeks… he is the first of the judges mentioned in chapter 3.

But this story is actually a flashback to the middle of the book of Joshua in chapter 15.

Caleb was a faithful leader alongside Joshua. He wanted God’s people to obey God’s voice. And so he offered a reward: The warrior who obeyed God could marry his daughter.

Sounds like the type of guy you’d want for your daughter.

And so Othniel did it. He attacked Kiriath Sepher and won. And he got to marry Acsah…

and Acsah knows how much her daddy loves her… and so she goes for the double blessing… she asks her dad for some land with springs on it… and he gives her that too.

There is double blessing in Othniel’s obedience to the Lord.

Then we learn about God’s faithfulness to the Kenites… descendants of Moses’ father-in-law.

Some places he is named Jethro. And he was not an Israelite… he was a wealthy idol worshiper…

But he turned from all that when he met a guy named Moses… and he took Moses in… and he gave Moses his daughters’ hand in marriage…

The Bible suggests that he started worshiping Moses’ God… and left his land of origin to be with Moses and God’s people… and he supported Moses in God’s calling on his life… and God promised him blessing in the promised land for his descendents.

And here that promise is fulfilled.

Finally we see God’s faithfulness to Caleb and his descendents as Caleb had obeyed God in the past.

Like I said before, Caleb had been a faithful leader alongside Joshua… before Israel even entered the promised land...

Some of you might remember the story… 12 spies were sent to scout out the promised land…

When they returned, 10 spies had said, “We shouldn’t go into that land… there are giants there. Trying to conquer them is a death wish.”

But Joshua and Caleb were the only two that said, “If God wants to give it to us, he will do it. We should obey God.”

That was the right answer: trusting God’s ability.

And God promised to bless Caleb with a certain plot of land called Hebron… and here we see God making good on that promise.

God is with his people as they obey… as they stand on God’s side in the fight against sin… and God blesses their steps of faithful obedience… and Caleb and the Kenites and Othniel all demonstrate that!

Listen: this series is not about God taking something from you… joy, pleasure, fun...

This series is about God RESCUING you from what would promise FALSE pleasure in order to give you the TRUE pleasure of his presence.

When God calls us to fight sin, he is not doing it to take something FROM us, but to give something better TO US.

In these three stories from the past, we see that our fight against sin is not dependent on our own ability… our own resources… our own assessment of things… it’s dependence but on the Lord’s presence with us.

Now I want to draw your attention to two statements that tie this whole first section together:

Verse 2 [pause]- The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold I have given the land into his hand.”

Verse 19 [pause]- And the Lord was with Judah and he took possession of the hill country…

Our obedience… our fight against sin is not dependent on our ability, but the Lord's presence.

Remember… this whole thing was about getting rid of idolatry from the land of Israel…

Their obedience to conquer the land was about their devotion to the Lord and the Lord alone.

It was about their fight against sin.

And God was with them in that!

So often I think we view ourselves as ALONE in the fight against sin.

We say things like, “Sure I sin… it’s human nature.”

Or we look at a pattern of sin in our lives and wonder how we could ever see victory in it because we’ve struggled with it for so long.

But God does not call us to fight sin alone… he gives us himself… and he gives us his people.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, he nails our sin to the cross… he seats us with Christ in the heavenly places… he gives us his Holy Spirit… and he says, “Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.”

Not only that, but he gives us his church.

Just like Judah looked to his brother Simeon and said, “Help me drive this idolatrous people out of God’s territory,” we can look at our brothers and sisters in Christ and say, “Help me drive this idolatry out of my heart…it’s God’s territory now.”

Do you ever feel like sin is just too big of a thing to deal with?

Maybe there is an ongoing pattern of sinful desire in your life… pride, lust, pleasure-seeking, some sort of controlling behavior… whatever it is…

And it’s keeping you from doing what God has called you to do...

And you’ve grown in all these areas in your life… but that one area still remains untouched.

That’s the thing God wants you to go after this Spring as we get into this series.

Maybe it’s not an ongoing pattern of WILLFUL sin… maybe it’s something that God has called you to do that you are slow in obeying...

Remember the Way of a Disciple… if we are going to take our next step in the way of a disciple, we are going to have to put off some sin… put it to death… in order to put on put on the new life in Christ.

And maybe there was something that God was leading you to do at the end of last year or the beginning of this year… and you still aren’t doing it because you aren’t willing to put off some desire that is standing in the way.

Maybe the Lord was calling you to get around more unbelievers to tell them about Jesus…

But because you are gripped by controlling fear, you still haven’t taken that next step. That fear is something that needs to be put to death.

Maybe the Lord was calling you to start discipling a newer believer in Christ… or to serve in ministry in some way... or to take up some leadership role in our church...

But because of a desire to maintain your comfort… or a desire to do prioritize your idols… or a desire to pursue your own personal sense of success, you have said, “No God!”

Maybe the Lord was calling you to grow in your role in your family...

But because of unbelief that kept you in shame from the past, you didn’t take your next steps...

Or because of some unforgiveness in your heart, you are unwilling to grow in those relationships.

Listen: Sins of omission are still sins… and underneath that unwillingness to take the next steps in what God is calling you to do, there is usually sin that needs to be put to death.

[PAUSE]

But if you look at these things in your life and you say, “How am I EVER going to take that step foward? How am I EVER going to make progress and take new ground?”

I want to assure you: God is with you. He is fighting sin with you by his Holy Spirit.

Now is the time: Enter battle clothed in his presence… ask a brother or sister to help you… and fight sin to the death.

God cares more about rescuing you from sinful idolatry than you do. [repeat]

Which is actually the problem that we see in the next section...

Read 1:19-36

Here’s the second principle we need to understand if we are going to fight sin to the death:

2) Our failure to fight sin is not due to the Lord's unwillingness, but our unwillingness. (1:19b, 21-36)

Explain: This is the problem that sets the stage for the whole rest of the book of Judges; the Israelites were unwilling to completely drive out the Canaanites and devote them to destruction.

That’s what the Lord called them to do, and they didn’t do it.

They wanted the rest God had promised while not fully obeying the command God had preached.

They stopped short of fighting to the death.

I see them doing three things that ensure their defeat… and we can do the same things… first:

We make excuses (v. 19b)

So Judah sees all this victory… but in the second half of verse 19, they stop short of driving out the inhabitants of the plain because they have chariots of iron.

I’m sorry… but that’s lame! these guys, with the help of YHWH, just took down the mob boss, Adoni-Bezek.

You mean to tell me some iron chariots are standing in the way of the LORD???

No… this is an excuse.

We know, because it starts a pattern of other tribes not fully driving out the Canaanites that we’re going to talk about in a minute.

But this is where we start revealing our unwillingness to defeat sin: we make excuses.

“That sin is just the one that I deal with… I’m just a naturally angry person… I can’t defeat it.”

“I don’t have enough time or emotional energy to deal with my sin… i’m just dealing with a lot. I’ll get to it later.”

I’ve seen all THIS victory… can’t I just sit back for a while?

These excuses lead us to a second type of thinking that ensures our defeat...

We make it look like we are fighting, but don’t cut out the root of sin (v. 22-26)

So the Benjaminites fail to drive out the Jebusites… the author just sort of mentions that in passing…

And then we have this story about the house of Joseph...

They go up against Bethel, which is the burial grounds of their forefather Jacob...

And the Lord was still with them… he hasn’t stopped offering his help for their obedience… but they come up with their own scheme...

They find someone who is willing to be a traitor to the city of Luz (which it the former, non-Hebrew name of the city)...

And they cut him a deal… you help us, and we’ll help you.

This is REALLY similar to the story of Rahab and Jericho if you are familiar with that story…

But there is a MAJOR difference… Rahab starts worshipping YHWH… This guy just rebuilds the city of Luz somewhere else and keeps worshiping idols.

Here’s the problem… the house of Joseph was unwilling to trust YHWH and fight to the death...

They LOOK like they defeat Luz… but really they just allow it to be rebuilt somewhere else.

And so often we can do the same thing with our sin… We LOOK like we are gaining victory over some area of sin…

maybe an addiction to pornography… maybe a toxic way of relating to people… maybe a sinful way of dealing with money…

We gain victory over some area of sin… But because our trust isn’t rooted in GOD… and we are fighting sin in our own power, the root of sin is not destroyed and it just shows itself in some other area.

We stop the addiction to pornography, but pick up an addiction to social media… or some other addictive behavior.

We end the toxic friendship only to find another one.

We stop overworking to feel like we have enough money, only to replace that with a compulsion for having the right number in the savings account.

Fighting sin is not merely shifting appearances… its fighting to the death at a ROOT level… at a HEART level.

Ultimately, when we refuse to fight to the death...

We compromise our calling (v. 27-33)

We see this over and over again… tribe after tribe did not drive out the inhabitants of the villages…

And often, instead, they subjected them to forced labor. Sometimes they didn’t even bother to do that… sometimes they just decided to live side-by-side.

And maybe they are thinking,

“God, maybe we didn’t do what you asked… but we did something BETTER… we decided to be NICE to them… you like that, right God???

Or we were financially prudent… we were “Good stewards of our resources” by making them our slave labor...”

But God’s like, “I didn’t CALL YOU to make them your slaves… I CALLED YOU to drive them out! I CALLED YOU to be agents of my judgment against their sin. And I CALLED YOU to drive them out because I didn’t want you to start worshiping THEIR gods and participating in THEIR sin!”

(which is how it always ended up for Israel, by the way).

The results of compromise are never better than fully obeying God’s command.

You may think that God’s way seems crazy and you can come up with a way to have your cake and eat it too… but it never works!

You may think that you will be able to maintain a little bit of sin in some corner of your life and it won’t hurt you or others… but unwillingness to fight sin always leads to defeat.

We are never neutral to sin... we are either making progress against it, or it is taking over our lives. It’s like a stick-shift car on a hill...

If you put it in gear, but you never put your foot on the accelerator, you are going to stall or drift backward.

The only way to make progress is by actively putting on the gas until you’re all the way up the hill.

When we make excuses… when we fail to deal with the root… when we give into compromise… the result is always that...

Result: We are subjected to defeat (v. 34-36)

By the time we get to the tribe of Dan in verses 34-36, not only is Dan failing to drive out the Amorites… the Amorites are pressing them back...

One commentator described this as almost a reverse conquest.

Utter defeat.

Sin will always take more from you than you originally imagined.

All this happened because they were unwilling to do what God called them to do. God’s presence was still with them, but they stopped short of fighting to the death.

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

So let me ask you: Do you ever see these patterns in your own life?

Do you ever find yourself making excuses for why you can’t see victory over sin?

Do you ever make it LOOK like you are fighting sin when really you are just changing things on the surface level and the root of sin remains?

Do you ever find yourself making compromises?

I need to warn you… that always leads to defeat.

Sin will always take more ground than you intend to give it.

That’s why we must fight to the death.

Never let up on the gas.

Until you enter the grave, your fight with sin continues.

And yet, when we have failed in the past… when remaining sin does rear its ugly head again and again… that CAN feel defeating…

We can see God’s disgust with sin and feel legitimate guilt and shame over it and wonder what to do with that...

And in that moment: don’t forget… the Lord is with us in our fight against sin.

If he disciplines us, it is for our good. He’s not calling you to fight sin to take something FROM you, but to give something TO you...

He is more committed to this than we are!

And we can remember this third principle for fighting sin:

3) Our fight against sin is not won by our past performance, but by our current dependence on Christ. (2:1-5)

[Read Judges 2:1-5]

Explain: The Lord is rightfully angry.

If Israel’s relationship with the Lord was dependent on their perfect performance, they would have never made it out of Judges 1.

In fact, they would never have made it out of Egypt.

But God, in his anger toward sin, is merciful to rebuke his children. He is merciful to call his people back to faithfulness to him.

He is merciful to discipline… but not destroy… his people.

Here he sends the Angel of the Lord to rebuke them… many theologians believe that when we see the Angel of the Lord, it is a visible appearance of God himself… often specifically the second person of the Trinity.

It’s called a Theophany or a Christophany. This is the Son of God before he took on flesh.

And we can tell that it’s God himself because he speaks in the first person saying, “I brought you up out of Egypt.”

God is saying, “I didn’t save you for no reason. I didn’t rescue you from the oppressive hand of idolatrous people so that you could be oppressed by other people and worship their idols!”

And because Israel didn’t fight sin to the death now, it would be even HARDER to fight sin later.

These people would continue to be a thorn in their side… the consequence of incomplete obedience.

Their gods would continue to lure the people of Israel into idolatry.

The fight against sin would be harder later because they refused to fight now.

It would be harder for them… for their kids… generations would pay the price.

But all was not lost… in verse 4 we see the people lifting up their voices and weeping. It’s a sign of brokenness.

And not only do they weep before the Angel of the Lord… they SACRIFICE to the Lord.

This is SO important: They make a death payment for their sin.

This is the cycle again and again. Israel sees the mess they’ve gotten themselves into… And again and again the Lord shows mercy when his people call out to him.

That’s what he’s looking for.

Don’t get me wrong… he wants the FULL OBEDIENCE that results from that weeping and sacrifice...

But it starts with this dependence upon the Lord.

The turning point is always calling out to him… he is only ever as far away as us turning and seeking him.

You see, just like THEY needed rescue from their rebellion, so WE need a rescuer… ultimately, the rescuer THEY needed is the same one WE need today: and his name is Jesus.

Their sacrifice for their sin pointed forward to the greater sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

When we see our sin, our first response MUST BE to turn to the sacrifice that we need in our place.

We weep over sin, because God hates sin… it destroys his perfect creation... but we do not wallow over sin helplessly.

There is a difference between weeping and wallowing.

Weeping motivates us forward. It is godly grief that leads to repentance.

Wallowing keeps us stuck in the cycles of sin, guilt and shame.

Weep, don’t wallow.

Our way out of this cycle is not dependent on our past or present performance, but upon our genuinely seeking the Lord...

On our genuine reliance upon Christ and his past and present work for us.

We need to both weep over sin and depend upon the sacrifice that has already been made.

The Son of God… the one we see here as the Angel of the Lord… took on human flesh.

Not just human or angelic APPEARANCE… he REALLY BECAME HUMAN in the person of Jesus.

And he was the perfect spotless sacrifice...

He perfectly obeyed God...

And he laid his life down as a sacrifice by dying on a cross...

And Colossians says that in that moment, he disarmed the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places… the ones who wage war against our souls.

He fought them to the death… and put them to open shame by triumphing over them.

His triumph came through the cross… the record of our sins does not stand against us for all time like the people in the book of Judges...

The record of our sin was nailed to the cross.

And his triumph came when he rose from the dead.

And when we put our faith in his sacrifice, the Bible says that we DIE to sin and become ALIVE to Christ.

If you are still relying upon yourself and your ability to perform to save you… you are bound to repeat the cycles of sin we see in Judges.

But if you rely upon the once for all sacrifice of Christ, you are set free from the power of sin.

Paul wrote to the Colossians...

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these things the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:1–5, ESV)

Fight sin to the death. Be killing sin or it will be killing you.

The turning point in fighting sin is always relying upon the finished work of Christ…

The Lord is only ever as far away as us turning and seeking him.

So will you seek him with a heart of dependence?

Are you ready to do war on your sin?

Do that gut check again… are you more ready now to fight sin to the death than you were an hour ago?

If so, then lay hold of the power of Christ’s rescue by confessing your sin to him… by trusting his finished work to save.

I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to do a work in every single one of our hearts through this series… what is it for you?

What sinful heart desires does he want to put to death?

What patterns of thinking or sinful motivations are keeping you from securely dwelling in all the blessings of the gospel the Lord has promised you?

Let’s take those things to the Lord and start the fight through dependent prayer.

Prayer based on Judges 1:1-2:5

Adore: (Father, Hallowed be your name…)

Lord, you are stronger and better than _______________________.

You are with me in my fight against ______________________.

(Fill in the blanks with a specific sinful heart desire)

Align: (Your Kingdom Come, your will be done)

Help me to see _______________________ like you see it.

Because you hate my sin of _______________________, I mourn over it, hate it, and want to see it gone from my life.

(Fill in the blanks with a specific sinful heart desire)

Ask: (Give us... Forgive us... Lead us…)

Give me victory over _______________________ in the power of Christ.

Help me to depend on Christ when I see _______________________ this week when I am tempted to feel defeated.

Give me a brother or sister to help me defeat _______________________.

(Fill in the blanks with a specific sinful heart desire)