Untitled Sermon (2)

So, in essence, we have the faithful generation, the unfaithful generation, and God’s judgement upon Israel. The first chapter through 2:6 lays out the why of the problem, and then 2:6-3:6 grants us overview of the book through the theological implications of their failure to listen to God.

Verses 6-7 show us a brief flashback about this faithful generation. These were the ones who rallied behind Joshua following the death of Moses. If you remember, because of the Israelites’ hardness of heart and Moses’s frustration and abuse of his God given power, Moses was not granted opportunity into the promised land. This was the Lord’s punishment for him. After his death, God raised up Joshua, and this generation submitted unto his leadership and military bravery. This faithful generation saw the great works of God. One example is found in Joshua where the Jordan River stands up in a heap way upstream, and they cross the Jordan Riverbed on foot following the ark of the covenant, which is the presence of God among them. They had seen his great works, and these things strengthened their confidence in the Lord. God often would strengthen the confidence of his people before calling them into something difficult. Recall the ten commandments. How are they given to Israel? He starts with this, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.” Before God declared these well-known 10 sayings, He reminded them of the great works He had done before them. The main reason this generation under Joshua was faithful was because they remembered.

Church today, remember what the Lord has done in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then from that remember what great things God has done in your life! His provision of your needs. Recall your testimony of the moment or the process through which you came to understand the Gospel for the first time. Remember! Remember! Is this not what the Psalmist does in Psalm 42? As the Psalmist writes about the deep depression, he finds himself in, what does he do in the middle of that Psalm? He reminds himself of the places where He saw God work and move! When he led God’s people in worship to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise!

This remembering should not only be done whenever we hit moments of trial. Rather, I am trying to emphasize the type of remembering that is like walking in a constant awareness of God. You could even consider it like a constant conversation with the Lord. Brother Lawrence, a monk in Paris, France in the 1600s, calls it practicing the presence of God. He says this, “We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.”

Christian, would it not be a beautiful thing to constantly walk in an awareness and joy of the Lord? Not merely remembering but walking in a state of remembrance. Your mind is just full of what God does and He has done because it is focused on fellowship with Him.

Verses 8-10 – Joshua dies at the ripe age of 110, and the faithful generation that served under him also died and was gathered to their ancestors. In verse 10, we learn that the children of this faithful generation did not pursue the same path as their parents before them. This next generation did not know the Lord or the works He had done for Israel. While Joshua was alive, there was a sense of peace and prosperity for the Israelites that were living in the new land they had taken from the Canaanites. How in the world did they fall so quickly from what they had seen and been taught in the Lord in a single generation? We know this younger generation failed to drive out the rest of the surrounding nations as God commanded, but why did they fail? It doesn’t seem that the writer of Judges is clear on this, but perhaps what we know about the track record of Israel’s forgetfulness, we can nail down a very likely reason. **SLIDE**A failure of family discipleship. In the Old Testament family discipleship was just as vital as it is today. The Lord clearly commanded the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:6-9:

**SLIDE**6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The law and commands of the Lord were to be the central topic of the home. It was to be spoken about among all Israelite generations in the home. Look at the language here: impress them up your children – talk about them when you sit at home – when you walk along the road – when you lie down – when you get up. God’s word was meant to accompany the rhythms of a family’s life. They were to be written around the doorframes!

The children of this generation were there clearly witnessing the conquering of the promised land, so isn’t witnessing enough to teach them how important it is to be faithful to the Lord? Of course not.

Parents, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are the front lines for evangelism and discipleship in your children’s lives. If your children do not see the Gospel lived out, they will have a difficult time deducing that it is truly reality if all they hear is a one-hour lesson on Sundays during CHC kids. Build in rhythms in your week and evenings that gathers your family around the Lord. Praying together, singing together, reading Scripture together. Make the things of the Lord and Christ the centerpiece of your home.

Building these rhythms make require certain actions on your part – cutting out your evening TV routine or maybe it’s allowing that laundry to pile a little bit higher. Maybe it will require stronger actions. Perhaps you work 60-hour weeks to sustain a lifestyle that the world will commend, and you feel compelled to sustain it to live in a certain comfort level, take extravagant vacations, or so that you might look successful in the eyes of others, yet all the while, the souls of your children are restlessly searching for answers in the world. So, while your 401k may be busting at the seams, the soul of your child lays dead before his/her iPad.

You cannot personally save your children, but you can place as much kindling (discipleship) as possible around them, so that Lord willing when one day the Gospel clicks in their hearts and the Holy Spirit of God is poured out on them, it turns into a blaze!

At CHC we care deeply about the discipleship of our kids and young adults. I believe it is also vital that your children have relationships with other adults inside our church. Having other adults speak the word of God to them and over them will not only offer more helpful perspective, but it will also strengthen their sense of belief in community. If you’ve been here, you know we’ve held weekly kids’ classes in the past. Please pray as we look to get these discipleship hours for kids ramped back up, because we truly believe they are a vital part of our church. Pray for volunteers that are excited to pour into our kids, and please deeply consider getting here an hour early once they start for your child to enjoy these times.

Kids, soak up every opportunity your local church offers at your age. As I think on some of my favorite mentors through my childhood, I think on the adults who faithfully invested in me week in and week out – sharing their lives and teaching me about Christ.

Back to Judges – remember, we are now looking at how this unfaithful generation lived.

Verses 11-13 – We will continue to see this phrase repeated again, again, and again in this book – verse 11 - “The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” The writer makes it clear what he means here: Read verses 12-13. The Israelites gave themselves over to idolatry. Idolatry is simply this: ***SLIDE*** Trusting, serving or givingworship to something that is not God.

In this time and context, the Israelites were worshipping Baal and Ashtoreth, which were the gods of the Canaanites. Baal was the sun, storm and fertility god. Canaanites depended up on this god for crops and fertility. Baal worship was extremely sensual and wicked. It defaced the image of God in people through temple prostitution, and at times, appeasing Baal required sacrificing one’s first born. Another ritual included self-harm through cutting oneself, and we see this happen in Elijah’s story in 1 Kings. Ashtoreth was a female deity, often depicted as the goddess of love and war. This also involved sensual worship through ritual prostitution, along with fortune telling and divination. In other words, if there was anything further from worshipping Yahweh, this was it. Worship of these gods permitted sexual immorality and murder. In fact, it celebrated these things. We now understand why the writer of Judges says of the Israelites during these times: “In those days there was no king in Israel, everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). This type of worship deeply angered the Lord.

For us, we still struggle in the same way at the heart level. There are still demonic forces that beckon us to give ourselves over to trust, serve, and give worship to the things of this world. You may say well we don’t worship or call on other gods by name. This may be true, but the same thing is still happening at the heart level. We trust, serve, and give worship to the things that are contrary to God’s design. We create idols of our work and find satisfaction only when we are getting great results or when we receive raises, recognition, or promotions. We create idols of stuff, and we find ourselves always seeking more things to satisfy the itch we always feel for something new. We take sex and corrupt God’s design and intention for it, so that we become enslaved and lack any self-control. This is manifested most often in our society today through pornography. Which is not only in our society, but yes, it is inside the church. A quick note on pornography as I feel it parallels the downward spiral we see in judges. In 2019, according to Barna research:

Among each of the generational groups, young adults 18-24 are the most frequent porn users. Almost six in 10 young adults (57%) seek out porn either daily, weekly or monthly. This is compared to a little over one-third of teens (37%), and almost 3 in 10 adults 25+ (29%). They are also the least likely to say that porn is very bad for society (14%). The next closest are Gen-Xers at 24 percent, but the largest gap is a 23 percent differential between young adults and Boomers (37% compared to 14%). Like teens (16%), young adults (17%) are also the least likely to say porn is “somewhat bad” for society.

In other words, according to this study, as we move from Baby Boomers to teenagers today, it seems that there is a failure to recognize the plague that pornography is on society. In other words, it’s becoming okay and more appropriate. I mention this about pornography because sexual perversion had become so rampant among Israel, that it would be inappropriate for me not to mention the same battle we have today.

Pornography does not often satisfy, and it will typically lead into deeper sins. Not only does it lead us to desire deeper, more twisted sin, but it creates a market for it. This evil objectifies humans, and it completely disregards that men, women and children are made in the image of God, and they are worthy of utmost dignity and respect. Oftentimes when you view it, you may not realize it, but you could be watching unwilling participants who have been sold into sex trafficking. Yes, this happens in America. Yes, this happens in Raleigh-Durham.

People of God’s church are viewing pornography. We are not immune to the temptations of it. Statistics regarding the church vary if you do research, but just know that at least in the evangelical church in America, pornography has built strongholds in the hearts of many men and women.

You may be sitting there thinking, “Wow, Jackson, why do you have to set a mood of such gloom and despair.” Because this is what the book of Judges is doing. We are so numb to Old Testament statements such as child sacrifice and temple prostitution from an ancient context, that we have to bring it to bear and connect the bridge to today. You need to understand the tone of this book in order to grasp and be amazed by the faithfulness of our gracious, merciful and patient God! Understand today that if you are viewing or using pornography, there is grace upon grace for you at the cross of Jesus Christ. No matter what you have viewed or done, there is sufficient grace found at the cross. You cannot out sin the mercy of God, yet you can run from it and stay in the shadows. Please don’t leave here today without confessing this sin to a pastor, deacon, or leader. And yes, this may even mean you need to confess this to your spouse. It is of utmost importance to always confess sexual immorality that you have committed against your spouse. Bring this to the feet of Jesus today, and do not buy into the lie that Satan is telling you to keep quiet and stay in the shadows.

*Back to the text – this was Israel, church. Full of sensuality and murder. Doing whatever they felt was right in their own eyes.

Verses 14-15 – This passage alludes to what God promised would happen to them if they disobeyed him and did not submit to his commands:

14 “But if you do not obey me and observe all these commands— 15 if you reject my statutes and despise my ordinances, and do not observe all my commands—and break my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will bring terror on you—wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will sow your seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. 17 I will turn[c] against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even though no one is pursuing you. Leviticus 26:14-17

The discipline of the Lord will follow persistent and unrepentant disobedience. If you look at the rest of chapter 26 in Leviticus, God is quite clear how thorough he will be in discipline if we turn from his ways.

Application: Praise God that He does not relent when we are walking in disobedience. If you are a child of God, He will not let you get away with reckless living, sinful indulgences, or idolatry. The Lord is faithful to discipline His people. Even in the NT, we read of a practical example of Paul to the Corinthians: “This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep. If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world.” – 1 Cor. 11:30-32

Discipline from God comes so that condemnation may not. Discipline can come in many forms. We see it come in the form of a rebuke from one Christian to another. Sometimes it may be that physical sickness, or an ailment may come upon you in the form of discipline. Perhaps the Lord causes your fountain in Him to feel dry and missing. The Psalmist has much to say about being in sin and feeling far from God, but then confessing his sin, rightly repenting, and then feeling a renewed sense of God’s grace and presence.

Verses 16-19 – This passage we could delve deeply into, but for the sake of time, try to see the pattern of Israel crying out in the midst of God’s discipline, God hearing, God delivering, and Israel then turning away again, falling into deeper sin. Two things I want you to pull from here primarily for now:

1. **SLIDE**There is only one perfect judge. These judges were not sufficient to turn the people from their evil and obstinate ways. Remember, there were great things and beautiful moments of faith these judges display, but there are also very sad and terrible acts of leadership these judges commit. There is only one perfect judge that can not only save man from his enemy, but he can also cause and empower man to genuinely turn from sin and look to God in genuine worship. His name is Jesus Christ.

2. **SLIDE**God remains faithful to Israel, even after Israel has totally abandoned him.This is remarkable considering that Israel is now doing the very things that God is eradicating Canaan for. God remains faithful to the covenant he made with Abraham in Genesis 15. If you know this story, you recall that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Abraham before the ceremonial act of the covenant. Only God passed through the divided animals that night, which communicates that the covenant is totally and 100% dependent on God’s action and faithfulness. God always keeps his promises, as it would go directly against his character to not.

Verses 20-23 – God’s anger burned against Israel because they continued to turn away and run towards the idolatry of the nations, they became entangled with. Why does He do this? Because Israel violated the covenant that God made with her ancestors. There was no regard for the things of the Lord for this people, and as you will see near the end of the book, the wickedness of Israel is rampant across the nation. It will leave you asking, “How in the world can a Savior that will be a blessing to all nations come from this people?”

Verses 11-23 offer an overview of the book of Judges for us. It sets up the pattern that we will see – disobedience, discipline, crying out, God’s mercy, REPEAT. As punishment, God leaves the nations in Israel to test them. They are left with a choice – will you choose Yahweh? The one who has brought you out of Egypt and out of slavery? Or will you choose the gods of the nations that dwell among you. They offer you nothing but brokenness, lies, and ultimately death. If you are here today and you have not given your life and trust to Christ, understand that this is your application today – what will you choose? Will you look to Christ and ask Him to become the Lord and Savior of your life? Or will you follow the fickle and destructive road of the world? The truth of that road is everchanging and devolving. But the truth of Christ stands forever, and if the Holy Spirit is working in your heart today, you know that it pierces your innermost being.

Verses 3:1-6 – Briefly, we get a reiteration and conclusive paragraph of what we read, but the writer becomes more descriptive. He specifically names the nations left among the Israelites, but he also writes of another purpose of why God left these nations among Israel – “This was to teach the future generations of the Israelites how to fight in battle, especially those who had not fought before.” -verse 2. This verse is sandwiched between the two statements: “The Lord left them to test Israel, to determine if they would keep the Lord’s commands, he had given their fathers through Moses.” In the context of Judges, keeping the Lord’s commands involved driving out the surrounding nations through the instrument of warfare. Very often, God shows Himself powerful through granting Israel some very unlikely military victories that upon the surface did not seem to be in their favor. So don’t simply view this as a statement that sits by itself, but I think it is connected in tandem to the testing of Israel, which is ultimately asking the question, “Who do you trust?” Through war in this moment of redemptive history, this question is playing out practically. If you find yourself struggling with the fact that God called Israel to drive out these nations through the use of force and war, please remember that this is also meant to show us a picture of God’s divine judgement. These were very wicked nations practicing cult prostitution and child sacrifice. For 100s of years, God patiently waited in mercy for this nation to relent, but they did not. In the Scriptures, we often see God being merciful before judgement, and many times He is also merciful within the judgement. Think on the sparing of Nineveh through the unwilling prophet Jonah. One day, God will ultimately judge all men, and this moment in redemptive history is pointing us towards that – sinners will receive the just judgement they deserve. Those who have not trusted in Christ will receive full judgement of separation and death in hell. Those who have trusted in Christ will receive his mercy and pardon, and it will be a day of glorious praise and adoration of God.

SLIDE: If you want to read more about this, check out this fantastic resource on TGC “God’s justice in the land of Canaan”.

Main Point: Remember the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In this chapter we see that the Israelites who were unfaithful did not know the Lord nor the great works he had done. Therefore, how could they remember?

Apply: