Once again, we're going to be
in the book of Judges, the book of Judges. And this has just
been a fascinating book. It's been a fascinating study
so far. And I trust that as we go through
this book, it will continue to open up as the Holy Spirit gives
us understanding with regard to it. It is in our Bible on
purpose. God intended to have it there.
though it has some issues in it about natural man, that's
just the way we are. Natural man is just that way,
and so we have this clear record of it. And we have traveled down
through here just a very few verses in our study, and we're
down to verse 12. Now this verse of Scripture is
brought up also in the book of Joshua, and we mentioned that
last time, that the Lord is so gracious to us to bring up the
subject of grace time and time again. to bring up the subject
of Christ time and time again, the covenant of grace over many,
many times, the gospel just continuous throughout the Bible. And he's
faithful to do that for us, to remind us, to keep us in constant
attention to the fact of his word and what he has to say about
himself. In verse 12, we looked at Caleb
last time and we've been acquainted with him several times in our
studies. And particularly recently, as we've gone through the book
of Numbers, we found Caleb there, and it's a wonderful thing to
read about him. We're wonderful. I was visiting
with Brother Mike Richardson yesterday, I believe it was,
and he brought up the point about those two spies that had faith,
that God had given them faith. They're not looking at that land
when they went to spy it out as maybe we can be here. They're
just looking for a place to settle down. because that land had been
given to them. To the other ten, they're looking
for all the negative things they can see about it, and they come
back with an evil report. But God's people are always looking
for God's providence in a place. And that property had been promised
to them for centuries. It had been promised to Abraham,
and to his children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and
so forth. Well, we come up with Caleb here, and he was the chief
prince of the tribe of Judah. As he's pointed out, he's the
one that God used to go in and look the land over and come back
with a report. God is able, God is able, let's
follow the Lord. And we noticed that in our study,
and we find out that he said, as we find record over in the
book of Joshua 2, that Caleb said, he that smiteth cur jath
suffer. and taketh it to him will I give
Axa my daughter to wife. And Othniel the son of Kenaz,
Caleb's younger brother, took it and he gave him Axa his daughter
to wife. What an interesting passage of
Scripture here that we find is repeated for us. Joshua judges. This almost word for word is
repeated because no doubt there is much to be said in this passage
of Scripture. And I thought of it as we read
over in the book of Galatians that the Apostle Paul was led
to use a Greek word to describe Sarah and Hagar's relationship.
Turn with me, if you would, over there to the book of Galatians
chapter four. We will return here to the book
of Judges, but in Galatians chapter four, we find that the Apostle
Paul was called on to use a word that we use in our everyday language.
It's a Greek word, and the word is allegory. Here in the book
of Galatians chapter four, now, When we read in the book of Genesis
about this whole experience, in many ways it was a terrible
experience for Sarah, it was a terrible experience for Abraham,
it is a terrible experience for Hagar. But we find out in God's
providence that this all worked out so that it could be used
in the New Testament era to explain the difference between law and
grace. Here in the book of Galatians
chapter four, we read these words as the Apostle Paul was led to
write this letter to the churches of Galatia and point out that
there is only one gospel. It has never changed. It has
always been the same, Old Testament, New Testament, before the flood,
after the flood, before Christ, after Christ, In our day today,
it is the same gospel, and he's making that clear. It is not
part works and part grace. It is all of grace. And he spent
most of his ministry, as the Holy Spirit led him, to deal
with the people that he was saved out of. The Apostle Paul said
all of that stuff that he had was nothing more than dung when
it come to Christ. And he is speaking to a people
that are where he was. I had mentioned today, or a fellow
mentioned to me, he said, I am like you was. And I said, that
is right. I am like, he is like I was. And so we have that commonality. Well, here, Galatians chapter
four, beginning with verse 21, we read these words. Tell me
ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, and it is very pointed out in this passage of
scripture, as well as if we went over to the book of Genesis,
that this woman that bore this son, the first son of Abraham,
was a slave woman. She was, well, it says, a bond
woman. And it tells us here, and Paul's
gonna bring this out, and the Holy Spirit led him to come to
this conclusion, Everything that happened there is an allegory
for us to point out the difference between law and grace. And how
many times it may have been used between the time that it happened
and the Apostle Paul, it would be easy for other people to draw
the same conclusion that was led by the Holy Spirit. He's
not bringing up something new. It would be very easy for the
prophets to bring up the same thing. It would be very easy
for the apostles to bring up the same thing. And the Apostle
Paul brings it up, it's recorded for us. For it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman and the other
by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, but he that was a free woman was
by promise. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants,
the one from the Mount Sinai, which genders bondage, which
is Hagar, and this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answer to
Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children.
So he's saying the law puts people in bondage, it's a constant thing
that the law brings up. But the verse 26, but Jerusalem,
which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. So we
have an allegory. And I think as we go back over
here to the book of Judges, Judges chapter one, we're going to find
out that there is some wonderful statements made here with regard
to Caleb and regard to Othniel. And also with regard to a daughter
who becomes a wife, there is a picture here. There's something
for us to look at, something for us to consider. And it is
very important once we see it, that God has worked out one more
time, a statement about grace and a statement about a great
need. And there's someone that can
fulfill that need. All right, as we go back over
here to the book of Judges chapter 1, and there in verses 12 and
13, we find out that Caleb said, he that smiteth. Now, no doubt
there have been many times when this activity has been done with
cities, with kings and princes. There's a difference between
what he says in this verse of scripture, he that smiteth it
and taketh it. Now, there's a lot of difference
between going after a city and taking the city. There's a great
difference between attacking a city and winning that city,
defeating that city, burning that city or whatever it is.
So we find out that that Caleb here says it's not enough to
go up with an army and fight against it. The necessity, the
necessary part in order for my daughter to be given in marriage
is that city is not only fought against, but defeated. And it
appears to me in this passage of scripture that this is a pretty
important city. And like lots of times in, battles
that go on over a piece of property, there is one key city, and if
it falls, the rest of them also fall. So I'm looking at that,
that this Kirjath Sefir is one of those places, that here is
a key city, and Caleb says, someone come up, he says, he uses two
words, and they're different words, and they mean different
things. He that smiteth it and taketh it. So we need this completely
fulfilled, or my daughter's not part of the deal. So the picture
here about this Caleb, remember his name, faithful dog, giving
his daughter to Othniel, and it's interesting that Othniel's
name means lion of God. So we're gonna have some really
interesting pictures here about the Lord Jesus Christ about the
covenant of grace, about the father-the-son relationship,
and we also have that Othniel is not going into battle without
volunteering. He's doing it on purpose. He's
volunteering to go into battle. And so let's follow this out.
We have this beautiful picture. We have this allegory that Caleb,
number one, he is the chief prince of Judah. And when we think about
it, to be married into the family of the chief prince of the tribe
of Judah was very great honor. There's nothing negative about
this. The chief prince of the tribe
of Judah is this faithful dog. And we traced his faithfulness
back to the time that God gave him a new heart. That's when
faithfulness began. Now he may have been a nice neighbor
and a good guy to be around before that, but his faithfulness to
God began when God gave him a new heart And from then on, he trusted
God, he believed God's word, and he believed what God said
he had power to fulfill. And he watched that being fulfilled.
He wandered in the wilderness for another 38 years, but when
he got into the Promised Land, he asked for his lot. his part
because he believed God. All right, so it's going to be
a great honor to be married into this family. Now, someone of
the same family is going to marry into this family. I think that's
important too. We have Othniel, who is also
of the tribe of Judah. So, very, very interesting and
very important. So, Caleb the chief prince says,
he that smiteth, courgeth zephyr. And that word smite, it says
go forward, smite or strike it. Well, he didn't, I just have
to reemphasize this. He didn't stop there. He said,
we must, it must be total victory. There can be nothing else. And
as we follow through the scriptures, we find that a lot of people
have gone up against cities and they've struck at it, they have
went forward against it, they have smitten it, but they have
been defeated in doing it. And that's just a common thing
among natural man. And you know, when we look at
that city as, I like what, was it John Bunyan in his book on
the Holy War, the name of the city was Mansoul, and there was
Eye Gate and Mouth Gate and Ear Gate and all of these things.
That is just, that's an allegory that really is interesting. But
I find that here too, that this city is a picture of you and
I. And we have a father that is
interested in the salvation and deliverance of his people. And
we have a son, a kinsman that is interested in not only going
up and fighting against it, but completely defeating it and making
it his place. And the reward for doing that
is the bride. and the right is the church.
All right. The number of human thoughts
and human plans and religious organizations that have made
plans to attack this place under a scriptural conversation is
multitude. The plans that go in, you know,
In January of every year, religious organizations set out their goals.
You know, the goal of the church is to preach the gospel. It's
not winning a thousand so that they can have a thousand more
tithers. The, what is it, 8,058, and make
all of them tithers was a pledge of one of the great religious
organizations in the United States. You just listen to that stuff.
The plans they have for taking the city And all it is is fluff
against it because it never does anything to take the city. There's
only one thing that takes the city and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ and by his blood. This is a place that needs to
be attacked and it must fall. It cannot be left half standing.
We cannot allow, God will not allow anybody that he brings
his grace against to half stand in their own flesh. I've got
my works and you've got your grace and we're okay. No, that's
not going to work. There has to be total defeat. And God has promised that he
will bring total defeat to every person that he ever brings the
message of grace to. They will not depend on anything
of their own. They will depend upon Christ
and Christ alone. So it must be total defeat, or
God's not working. That's all there is to it. The
place mentioned by this chief prince of Judah is a key city,
and when it's taken, the rest will fall. When God takes over
the rest of us surrender. We fall, we come to grips, we
just bow before him, and that is what it takes. The attacks
by every generation against this city, and you just go through
the scriptures and you find out the different ways that man comes
up with ideas on how to take care of the city, and there's
only one way. It must be completely defeated
by someone who is able to defeat it, and it cannot be us. We cannot do it. We need someone
to take our place because we're too involved. We're too involved
in our own flesh to submit ourselves to the Lord. We will not. We
will not. We will not bow and we will not
go along with what God has to say. The natural man receiveth
not the things of God. They are spiritually discerned.
So we have here what happened in the Garden of Eden Adam's
rebellion stands firm and fast unless we have someone who is
able to go up against that rebellion. And we have a city that shut
up. Think of Jericho. They were shut up. They didn't
leave the doors open. It was shut up, and that's just
like natural man. We don't have any doors open
to God. We don't have any ears to hear. We don't have any eyes
to see. We don't have any feet to go. You know, this old saying
that used to go around, God has no eyes except our eyes, and
God has no mouth except our mouth, and God has no ears except our
ears, and has no hands but our hands, and no feet but our feet. What a terrible God that is. That is worse than having no
God at all, is to have a helpless God. God dependent upon humanity
to perform His work. That's not what He intends to
ever have said about Himself. He intends for us to declare
He is God and beside Him there is none else. And He will appoint,
He will bring this place down. Jesus died for everybody. It's
just one of those assaults that comes up against the city and
it doesn't have any effect at all. They just laugh. That's
a laughable situation. If Jesus Christ died for everybody,
I had that young man bring that up today. And he said, you know,
you bring up a paradox. If I say that Jesus Christ died
for everybody and people go to hell, how am I going to deal
with that? How are we going to deal with
that? You can't deal with that. You can't make heads or tails
of that. You have a defeated Christ before you even get started. So it's wonderful what we find
in the scripture There is the appointed time to attack and
it must be defeated. It cannot stand. It cannot have
any doors left open. It cannot have any windows left
in. It cannot have any defenses of any kind. It must be completely,
completely, completely submitted to the person who is in charge
here. And that's what we're going to
find out. It is going to be destroyed. And I'm thankful that that's
the purpose of God. The purpose of grace with regard
to his lost sheep is to completely have them submit, have us submit
to the grace of God and be thankful for it. All right. We need someone
now, as it tells us there in verse 13, verse 13 of that It
says, and Othniel, the son of Kinnos, Caleb's younger brother,
now look at those two words, took it. That means defeated
it. That means to completely overthrow
it. It means to completely come up
against the city and defeat it wholly. Well, we find out that
Othniel's name means Lion of God. He took it. The Lion of
God took it. Turn with me, if you would, over
to a verse of scripture in the book of Revelation chapter 5
that we've often referred to because it's just one of those
verses that shares so much about our Savior. Revelation chapter
5 and verse 5. This book of Revelation is such
a sweet book. It's such a comforting book.
The church receives comfort from this. The church that John wrote
to in his day, whatever period of time it was, You know, it
doesn't bother me if it wasn't written in 90 AD, if it was written
in 70 AD, 60 AD, or 100 AD, that doesn't make any difference at
all, because it is a book of complete blessing to the church.
There was a group of people that needed comfort, and God gave
them comfort through this book, and part of it is found in this
verse of scripture, in Revelation chapter five and verse five.
And one of the elders said unto me, weep not. It looks bad. I'm not sure that
we're gonna have any success here. Maybe we should go home. And one of the elders told John,
He's the weeping one. He's the one that looks at it
and says, now we're going to get so much comfort in this.
He says, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed. Now that's exactly
what we read with regard to Othniel. Not only did he go up there and
declare war against this city, but it says he took it. What
does that mean? He prevailed. He prevailed over
that city. He prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. He's the revelation. He is the revelation of this
book. He's the revelation of those books. He's the revelation
of those seals. Everything about him is going
to be revealed in these seals. Behold, don't weep, John, the
Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed. And if you'll turn
with me over to the book of Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah chapter 11. Let's go over there to the book
of Isaiah chapter 11, and let's read this verse of scripture
that shares so much about the root of Jesse, this Lion of the
tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God. So many names are attributed
to or given to the Lord Jesus Christ, and every one of them
is a term of endearment for the church, a term of graciousness,
a term. So here in the book of Isaiah
chapter 11, verse 10, the word of God shares this, and in that
day, there shall be a root of Jesse. Well, we know who Jesse
was. I think he's the grandson or
great-grandson of Ruth. He's the father of David. And this one, Jesus Christ came
through him. He is of the tribe of Judah. He has all of the earmarks. And this, what does it say there?
This root of Jesse. which shall stand for an ensign
of the people." I can just see Othniel as he goes in and leads
the defeat of that city, he's standing on a bulwark and saying,
the victory is ours. We have defeated this. Go ahead
and burn the place. We're going to show that this
place will stand no longer. We are defeating this place because
we have this one that stands for an instant of the people,
and it also says that and it shall the Gentiles seek, and
his rest shall be glorious." So in the defeat of this town,
the city, the rest is going to be glorious. It's not going to
be a thorn in our flesh any longer. It will not be keep your eyes
over your shoulders to see if we're being attacked from that
place. We have total defeat, total victory, total defeat in
this very thing. And we read with regard to the
Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Hebrews chapter 9, He put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So our every enemy has
been taken care of. And it's so pictured there as
Othniel goes up there and it tells us he took it. And that
word again means it was defeated. He defeated that city. He defeated the king. He defeated
the princes. He defeated the army. He defeated
the inhabitants. And so it is, as we see here,
a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Lion of the
tribe of Judah, has done on our behalf. Caleb's near kinsman,
Othniel, accepted the challenge freely. I will take it. You know, it
took a lot for him to do that, but you know, the Lord Jesus
Christ and the covenant of grace is, I will take that city. I will defeat that city. I will
defeat everybody whose names are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life, and they all think they own themselves, and they are
all self-important, and all self-powerful, and all self, self, self. I will go against every one of
them, and I will defeat every one of them, and they will all
be defeated, and the outcome will be they will be my bride,
and they will be glad. What a thing that this great
battle makes everybody glad that they've been defeated, that they've
been won, that they have been put on, all right? This kinsman redeemer that we
have, Caleb's nephew, Othniel, turns out he's gonna be the first
judge. Caleb's nephew, as it's recorded, you know, I've read
commentaries and they, Nine out of 10 are contrary to what plain scripture
says. This couldn't have happened because
the law was against anybody marrying close relatives. You know, it
was against the law for Naomi's sons to marry Moabite women. It was. They were not supposed
to do that. They were followers of those
strange gods. And yet, by the grace of God,
one of those ladies, God saved by his grace, and she is now
a child of Abraham. She's always been that. Now she
knows about it, and she's willing to go home. Does not this remind
us of a near kinsman that, came in on our behalf and went against
the city that natural man delights in. You know, there's some identifying
marks of this city. It holds with all its power,
free will. This natural city, this city
that is made it by natural man, our own inclination is that we
have free will. That is an inherent part of us,
that we have free will. And today I said again, you're putting free will in a
neutral position. We've got choosing Christ or
rejecting Christ. And by my free will, I can do
either one. And I said, you don't have will
in its proper place. It needs to be in the side of
man that is dead in trespasses and sin. But natural man doesn't
believe that. Natural man believes we have
a free will. And every religion in the world believes that. I
mean, every religion believes that we have a free will. Well,
we have, the Bible says, he makes us willing in the day of his
power, or we would not have any will towards God. It is he that
makes us willing in the day of his power. Another identifying
mark of the city, is that it's works are incorporated with grace. You know, there's another place,
I believe it's in the book of Ezekiel that says that they built
a building and they didn't, the mortar is not, there's not enough
mortar. It just can't stand. Well, that's
grace and works. It will not stand. It will not
stand the test. Well, as much as we built it
up, we feel that it's okay. Well, I'm thankful for men like
Othniel that come up against it, not only with the intent
of striking it, but destroying it. That's what he does. And
you know what? When God does that, in Christ
Jesus, on our behalf, we find out that our will is just as
dead as we were, spiritually speaking, and we also find out
that, Grace and works cannot be together. They are so opposed
to each other. We cannot have grace and works. There's no works. What does it
tell us about our works? not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but it also tells us that the works that
we have after he saves us are works according to his purpose
before the foundation of the world. We are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which he hath before
ordained that we should walk in them." So it's not by our
works, but it's his works in us. So works is out. You can't
have it. You can't have it. We have a
song, if there's one thread of our righteousness in that rope,
we don't have the rope of righteousness. One thread. Well, we think we
could hide that one thread. Well, not to the one who can
notify one man among all the people that were at the wedding
supper, one man. Nobody else noticed it. But the
king of the feast noticed it. He noticed that he did not have
a proper garment on. And in the end, he's cast out
into outer darkness. Bind him up and cast him out.
And you know, nobody, oh, he looks good to me. That's a nice
coat he has on, but to God, they, he knows. All right, so we find
out that this is a city that is not cannot be of works and
grace. And the city hates God. You know,
that's one thing that we find out by nature, we absolutely
hate God. This city hated those Jews that
came into the land. This city hated Caleb and hated
Othniel, and hated everything about their God. They had their
own, they're happy with these gods, and they hated the God
of heaven. You know, we, by nature. But
I love that passage of scripture over in the book of Romans chapter
eight. And we know that all things work together for the good of
them that love God. You know what? God makes us lovers
of God. That city hated everything about
Israel, everything about Caleb, everything about Othniel, everything
they said. And that's why Caleb said, this
city needs to go. And Othniel says, I will take
it. And we find out he did. So this
city hates God. The city hates grace, all of
grace. It hates grace, total grace. And then we find out that that
city hates God's word. You know, God could have said
to that city a dozen times, this city's gonna fall. And they say,
we don't believe a word of it. God's word is something God's
people fall in love with. Whereas before so often we are
so picky and choosy with God's word. We pick out verses that
are favorites and we'll drive them through the wall and have
no substantiating verses to support it. Or we'll be like that King
in the Old Testament that when he started to have it read to
him, he just took out his pen knife and started cutting pieces
out and throwing it in the fire. What did he have left? The margins. That's all he had left, was just
the margins. You cannot cut out one verse
of scripture and expect to have the rest as your Bible. So this
city hates God's word and says in no wise, we will not take
this. Well, turn with me if you would
to John 17 verse 14. John chapter 17 and verse 14. John chapter 17 and verse 14.
It's a great sermon on the, excuse me, the great high priestly prayer
we find in John 17. John 17. What a battle the Lord
has ordered against every one of his lost sheep. It is a battle. They will not submit on their
own. It must be a battle. And God has ordered it and it
will happen. Here in the book of John, chapter
17, verse 14, we read these words. I have given them thy word. The world has hated them because
they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Did
you notice that? I have given them thy word. That's the most
precious thing, to have the word of God, to have his word, and
to believe it, and to say, you know, I know a lot of people
disagree with me over this, but this is what the word says. We'll
just have to stand on it. It is God's word. And we don't
go picking and choosing verses of scripture. And if we find,
we think, and you know, the commentaries just create this by the droves,
try to create doubt in God's word. I think that's probably
what their mission in life is, by and large, is to create doubt
and say, well, this really couldn't have happened. It couldn't have
been that number. It couldn't have been this. I'm just going to trust the Lord
and say His word is, there, we'll just use it. But here we have
a whole people that do not, this whole city doesn't like the Word
of God. Our natural inclination towards God's Word is, it's not
right. I've appreciated what some people
have said about Paul. I think Brother Ed was telling
me, one of his friends, Paul is just outdated, just outdated. You know, if he lived today,
he wouldn't be writing that stuff. Well, we have to realize he didn't
write that stuff. God gave him the word to write.
And if we have a fuss with it, we better take it to God, because
Paul is innocent. I just wrote what I was called
on to write. It's not my word. All right.
So this city is of the world and full of idolatry and religion,
all opposing God. That's one of the things, the
verses that we're gonna be looking at at the end of chapter 33 of
the book of Numbers, one of the things that God says is destroy
even the pictures. He uses the word picture. Well, we're gonna talk about
that. But when you go into the land, destroy all of the idols,
all of the groves, and why didn't they? They agreed with them. They said,
well, it's okay to have this. It's okay to have that. It won't
hurt anything. If they had of trusted God and believed God,
they would have destroyed every one of them. But why did they
leave any of them? Because it's not gonna hurt that
much. In fact, you know, maybe. I'm
tired of going down to Jerusalem to worship. I think I'll just
worship right over here at this grove. It's just as good as going
down there. I'd go to the early service and
get that over with. I've had people tell me that.
All right, so the city is of the world and it is full of idolatry. There's a beautiful verse of
scripture over in the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter one,
though, that we need to go to along this very line, 1 Thessalonians
chapter one, and we find out we're all idolatrous by nature. We have our own idols. We have
ourself as our number one idol and all the other things that
go with it. We have our interpretation of word, we have our degrees,
we have this, we have that, we have our philosophy, we have
so many idols. We don't have to have a stone
idol or a wooden idol. We have plenty of our own. And
here, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in this
first chapter of the first letter to the Thessalonians, chapter
one of verse nine, for they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we had into them, and how ye turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God. How you turn to God from idols. Every one of us were idolatrous
by nature. And now he has given us Christ
to worship. Those idols, you know, people
bring up free will or Bible doctrine? Does it agree with the Bible?
We just go along? We have what the Bible has, and
even though we may not understand all of it, it certainly helps
us decipher a whole bunch of trash that comes down the line.
And we can say, no, no, no, sorry. We don't fall for the idols. We have the Lord Jesus Christ.
So this great city, every aspect of the city has been overcome
by the great lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's go back over here. Let's
go back over here to the book of Judges chapter one, verses
12 and 13. We have Caleb, we have Othniel,
We have Caleb's making two comments here about the city. It needs
to be smitten. Yes, someone's gonna have to
go against it. Someone's gonna have to go against it. But we
can't stop with just going against it. It must be taken. There's
no victory if it's not taken. If it's taken, there'll be victory.
And that's what God does for us. He just doesn't come up and
ask us, would you like to have? Would you vote for me? He comes
up serious, and then he takes it. Now, Othniel, the son of
Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it. He took that city. He defeated it. He overthrew
it. The Lion of God overthrew it,
brought it down, defeated it, and, you know, put it into the
ashes. We have nothing there that we
want to go back to. I just, I love the Apostle Paul
when he's writing, and I'm sure as he wrote, by inspiration,
he said, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. That's right,
everything that I ever worshipped was a false god, a false deity. And when the Lord saved me on
the road to Damascus and he gave me a new heart and I was able
to have a mind to love God and a heart to love God, I could
see in his word the mistakes I made and all that stuff is
done, but I'll never ever go back. I cannot go back. I will
endure all things for the gospel to the elect's sake. I will give
my life for this position. I will never recant. He couldn't. God's people can't do that. So,
here Othniel, and now, what is given? Now, I looked up this lady, her
name, and I decided I'm not gonna bring up her name because one
dictionary said this and another dictionary said that. So I'm
just going to say, there was a bride given. There was a bride given. You
know, when Jesus Christ went to the cross, he knew exactly
why he was going to the cross. He was going to the cross for
a bride. He was going to defeat all the enemies of this bride,
everything about her that was against him. We read in the book
of Hosea a great picture about what we are by nature. And that
Hosea was given God's grace to continue to go after her and
to win her back. I will Winner back and he did
well, we find that the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross with
the full knowledge that he was going to defeat Mansoul and sin
and death and hell in the grave and as a result of that He has
a bride God promised him a bride the covenant of grace promised
him a bride. Well, let's go over to the book of Revelation chapter
21 Revelation chapter 21. Now, what he got by nature, it
was not much, but what he's going to do with that bride, now that's
glorious. Inherit eternal life. Be presented
spotless. Be presented without spot or
wrinkle. I'm gonna make her completely
over. She will love me, and she'll be glad she loves me. All right,
here in the book of Revelation chapter 21, Revelation chapter
21, and there in verse one and two, Revelation chapter 21, verses
one and two, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Now,
if this isn't encouraging, This book is for encouragement. This
is encouraging the saints in whatever straits we may be in,
or if things are going well, it's still a good encouragement,
all right? It says here, and I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. What a glorious
bride, a glorious city, the city of Jerusalem, which is above.
And so Othniel took his bride. Jesus Christ has a bride. Everyone he died for on the cross
makes up that bride. And he will, she's his now. She has ever been his, will always
be his. And yet, as we read here, there's
gonna be a time when the knowledge between the bride about the Savior
is going to be enhanced 10,000 fold. We shall know him as we
are known. And without sin, to hamper our
view of the great Savior Jesus Christ. We love Him now, but
we are hampered in our love even for Christ by our sin. We pray
to Him now, but we're even hampered in our prayers. If we don't have
the Holy Spirit take and present Him, they don't get above this
ceiling. So, how glorious. I just have
to go back over there to the book of Judges one more time,
and we'll close this. Judges chapter one, verses 12
and 13. And remember, this is a repeat
of the book of Joshua. It was brought up there too.
And Caleb said, he that smiteth courage as suffer and taketh
it, smiteth it and taketh it. To him will I give Aksa, my daughter
to wife, and Othniel, the Lion of God, the son of Keniz, Caleb's younger
brother, took it and he gave him Axa, his daughter, to wife. And the church said, hallelujah. He's defeated the city, and not
only defeated it, but he made the city his bride. We'll stop
there for tonight.