Bethlehem, Calvary, all of it
tells Oh, what a Savior is mine Mountains and plains with His
praises shall swell Oh, what a Savior is mine Oh,
what a Savior Oh, what a Savior Oh, what a Savior is mine unto the uttermost wonderful
glorious oh what a savior is mine dying for only his elected bride
oh Offered up as the lamb slain
before time Oh, what a Savior is mine Oh,
what a Savior Oh, what a Savior ? Unto the uttermost ? ? Wonderful,
glorious ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? ? There on the cross where He stood
in my stead ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? Securing salvation when He rose
from the dead ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? Oh, what a Savior ? Oh, what
a Savior ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? ? Unto the uttermost ? ? Wonderful,
glorious ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? The battle is over. It is finished. There'll be no more
war. It is finished. The end of the
conflict. It is finished. And Jesus is
Lord. Oh, what a Savior! Oh, what a
Savior! Oh, what a Savior is mine! Unto the uttermost, wonderful,
glorious, I think we can go home now. Thank you, Caleb. I was thinking as you were singing
what James said, when sin is finished, it bringeth forth death.
And the Lord Jesus saves his people to the uttermost. We cannot
sin to the uttermost. But sin was finished with him.
And it brought him to his death. We might have life. What a hope. Y'all remember to pray for Caleb.
He's going to be going out to Montana in a few weeks to preach
for the church out there. I looked at my weather app yesterday
and it was minus 5. I told him this morning. So, hope he's got some warm clothes. Let's open our Bibles together
to the book of Judges, chapter 2. Judges, chapter 2. And I've titled this message,
From Gilgal to Bochen. From Gilgal to Bochen. Gilgal was the place where Joshua
settled right after crossing the Jordan River before the destruction
of Jericho, where God met with Joshua and renewed the covenant
promises that he had made all the way back with Abraham. And
Joshua there at Gilgal circumcised all the men of Israel. They had never been circumcised
during their 40 years in the wilderness. And so the covenant
of God's free grace, whereby he circumcised the hearts of
his children, was renewed at Gilgal. It was the place of hope. It was the place of salvation.
Though physical circumcision was happening there, it symbolizes
for us the work of grace in the heart. When God cuts away from
us any hope that we might have in the works of our flesh for
our salvation. The difference between physical
circumcision and spiritual circumcision is that when that when men circumcise
themselves they put the hope of their salvation in something
that they've cut out of their lives. Some fleshly thing, well
I don't do that so therefore I must be, I must be okay, I
must be saved. And What a difference. This is what Gilgal is a picture
of. It's a picture of the Spirit
of God cutting from the hearts of God's people any hope that
they would have in fleshly means for the hope of their salvation.
It's a place of grace. It's a place of covenant. It's
a place of renewal. It's a place of hope. Bochen,
on the other hand, translated means weeping. And when the Lord points out
the sins of his people, they find themselves moving from Gilgal
to Bochem. And in Bochem, they pour out
their souls to God for forgiveness. And in Bochum, a sacrifice is
made. And in Bochum, their hope is
renewed. And here's the message this morning.
The people of God live in Gilgal and in Bochum. We have two natures. We have
the hope of our salvation in the work of Christ who lived
out a perfect life of righteousness and offered himself on Calvary's
cross to his father for the sacrifice of the sins of his people. There's
our hope. There is now, as I read earlier
in Romans chapter eight, verse one, no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. Turn with me there. We'll get
to our text in a moment. Turn with me to Romans chapter
seven, because this is really what I want to try to say this
morning. And I hope the Lord will encourage us and teach us as the people of God, that we
live both in Gilgal and in Bochum at the same time. Here's what the Apostle Paul
says in verse 21 of Romans chapter seven. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. And I've got this old
man that's always there. I would be holy and without sin. He says in verse 22, for I delight
in the law of God after the inward man. The new man looks at the
perfect law of God and longs to live that way. Oh, we love
God's law. God's law is holy. God's law
is just. And God's law is good. But we
know that God's law cannot make us holy. And God's law cannot
justify us in the sight of a holy God. And God's law cannot add
any goodness to our old man. The law of God exposes us for
what we are. And we love the law of God in
the inward man, the new man, the man created in the new birth
in Christ Jesus. But I see another law, verse
23, in my members. That's in my flesh, in my old
man, in this body of death in which I live, warring against
the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members. This sinful nature that I have,
I can't get away from it. And the child of God longs for
that day. When this old man will be put
back in the ground and we'll be given a new body, a sinless
body, a perfect body. We'll see him in the fullness
of his glory and be made like him. But here in this life, We
keep moving back and forth from Gilgal to Bochum. And that's what Paul is talking
about here. He's describing his experience in Bochum. And he concludes this description
with, oh, wretched man that I am. He didn't say, oh, wretched man
that I was. Now that I'm a believer, I don't
have to struggle with this anymore. No, no, we're like Rebecca. When Rebecca was pregnant with
Esau and Jacob, she went before the Lord and she lamented and
she said, Lord, why am I thus? These two babies in my womb are
fighting one another. And the Lord said to Rebekah,
because you have two nations in you. You have two natures
in you. And the child of God didn't know
he had an old man until he received the new man. And so Paul's saying, here's the good news about what
the Lord told Rebekah. He said, the older. which was
Esau, a picture of our old man, shall serve the younger, Jacob,
the new man created in Christ Jesus. So it's the old man that
keeps driving us back to Christ for more grace and more hope
and more, Lord, why am I so cold? Why am I so attracted to the
things of this world? Why do I have these thoughts?
Why am I so unbelieving? Why am I thus? And the Lord says
to you and me, because there's two nations in you. But the older
is gonna serve the younger. That old man is gonna be the
one who's gonna drive you again and again and again back to Gilgal. where the covenant has been established,
and grace has been poured out, and circumcision has been made,
and God has assured us of our salvation in Christ, our Joshua,
who led us across this river. Look at, oh, wretched man that
I am. Who's going to deliver me from
the body of this death? Now, the picture here is, as
I understand it, from one of the old Roman punishments that
they would give to someone who was guilty of murder is that
they would strap the dead corpse to the back of the murderer and
make them walk around with this corpse, this rotting corpse strapped
to their back. You say, well, that's awfully
gross. Not as gross as what you're experiencing in your spiritual
battle. Who's going to deliver me from
the body of this death? I thank God through Christ Jesus
our Lord, though so them with the mind, I myself serve the
law of God. But with the flesh, the law of
sin, my flesh can't get any better. It's just, just a rotting corpse. But my new man, there's my hope. My hope is in my new birth. My
hope is in my new nature. Look what he says in verse one
of chapter eight. Therefore, there is now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. And some people read that and
say, well, you know, I don't know how much of a spiritual
life I'm really walking. You read the rest of chapter
eight and what the Lord is talking about there and walking after
the flesh and walking after the spirit is minding the things
of the flesh as the hope of your salvation. They that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. In other words,
they're looking to their own circumcision, to the fleshly
things that they've cut out of their lives for the hope of their
salvation. And then that are after the spirit
are looking to that spiritual circumcision that God did when
Christ was cut off from among the living for the sins of his
people. And he's their only hope. And
their hope of standing in the presence of a holy God is to
be found in him, in him. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
five. Look at verse 16. This I say
then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh. Walk in the spirit and you shall
not fulfill the lust of the flesh. What is the Lord saying to us? The lust of the flesh is always
gonna be there in the flesh. The lust of the flesh is that
which lusteth after fleshly things. But if the Lord gives us the
grace to look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. Does that make the flesh any
less sinful? Does that make me any less sinful? You see, here's
the thing about sin. People think that sin is just
fulfilling the lust of the flesh. No, sin is the lust of the flesh. The Lord said, you've been told
that if you murder someone, if you take someone's life, you're
committed a murder. But I say unto you, that if you
have ought in your heart against your brother without a cause.
Now, how many times have he had ought in your heart towards someone
without a cause? You're just in a bad mood. And
it was everybody else's fault. You had ought in your heart,
without a cause. You've already committed murder
in your heart. You've heard it been said of old, that if you
take your neighbor's wife, that you're committed adultery. But
I say unto you, if you lust after a woman in your heart, you've
already committed adultery. For man looks at the outward
appearance, that's minding the things of the flesh. Minding
the things of the flesh is considering my sinful problem just in fulfilling
the lust of my flesh. When God makes you a believer,
you know that your sin problem is the lust of your flesh. And you can't get away from it.
That's what Paul's talking about in Romans chapter seven. He's
not talking about living a life where he's fulfilling the lust
of his flesh. He's talking about the lust of the flesh, never
been able to get away from it. It's always there. And the Lord
says, if you, he goes on in Galatians chapter five to say, the law,
the strength of sin is the law. You put yourself under the law
and that's going to be, you'll be sure to fulfill the lust of
your flesh. But the fruits of the spirit against such which
there is no law is love. and joy and peace and long suffering
and temperance. This is the work of the spirit
of God in the heart. And this is the only hope that
we have to not fulfill the lust of the flesh. But there's my
sin problem. And that's your sin problem.
It's the fleshly desires. Go back with me to our text. Judges chapter two. And the angel of the Lord. Who is the angel of the Lord?
It's the same one that came to Abraham and secured the covenant
of grace with him. It is a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This word angel means messenger. It is the messenger of God. It
is the Lord Jesus himself. And he often appears in the Old
Testament as the angel of the Lord. Let me show you that. Turn
with me to Malachi chapter three, the last book of the Old Testament.
Last book of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter three. This is so, so clear. Verse one. Behold, I will send
my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord
whom ye seek shall suddenly come into his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. But who may abide in the day
of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller soap. And he
shall sit as refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify
the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. That's the
angel of the Lord. That's the messenger of God.
This is the same one that Jude speaks of when he talks about
Michael, the archangel. Michael's name means who is like
God. And you remember that the devil
wanted to contend with Michael over the body of Moses. He's
not talking about the physical body of Moses. He's talking about
the law. The devil wanted to contend with the Lord Jesus Christ
over the keeping of the law. And it's the keeping of the law
that he uses to accuse the brethren. But we're
not under the law. We're under grace. Shall we continue
in sin? That we're because we're under
grace? God forbid. God forbid. But here's what the Lord Jesus
said as the angel of the Lord, as Michael, he said, he said,
the Lord rebuke you. You want to accuse me of not
keeping the law, you go talk to my father. He saw the travail of my soul
and he was satisfied. He knows I kept the law. You
got a problem with the law, you go to God. And that's the same
thing you and I say, brethren. When the accuser of the brethren
wants to accuse us of our sin for not having kept the law,
take your accusations to God. My Savior kept the law on my
behalf, and he's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. And the only hope that I have
is that he satisfied all the demands of God's holy law. This
is the angel of the Lord. This is God Almighty himself
speaking. Where else are you gonna go to
hear the word of God? The politicians, the educators,
the philosophers, the psychiatrists, who are you gonna go? The world
is full of talking heads. Just turn the TV on. They'll
tell you everything you wanna know, but they'll not speak the
word of God. They'll not speak the word of God. What hope can
we have in what they have to tell us? Here's God Almighty
speaking. This is the angel of the Lord
speaking to his people, saying to them, thus saith the Lord,
thus saith the Lord. What else, child of God, do you
need to know other than this is what God says? And the believer
says, amen, that's all I need to know. God said it, that's
good enough for me. That settles everything for my
soul. is the Word of God. The angel of the Lord came up.
He came up from Gilgal to Bochan. And what did he say? What did he say? Oh, he said, I made you go up out
of Egypt. I brought you into the land which I swear unto your
fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you. These are all the things that
I've done. And you shall make no league with
the inhabitants of this land. You shall throw down their altars,
but you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Now,
the Lord's not asking this question because he's looking for information.
He's asking this question to show us his mercy and his grace. It's the same reason he asked
Adam, Adam, where art thou? He knew what tree was behind.
He knew exactly where he was, but Adam needed to know where
he was. Adam needed to know he was lost and undone. The Lord
asked the children of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah
and through the prophet Ezekiel, he said, why will you die? Why will you die? I give you
life. What is our Lord saying? He's saying to His children,
all your sin is all on you. I have been nothing but merciful
to you. I've shown you grace and kindness
and mercy. I've provided for you everything
that you could possibly need. And you continue with the inhabitants
of the land. Why? And the child of God answers
that question. Oh, wretched man that I am. That's why. See, the Lord made it absolutely
clear to Joshua. When you go into the promised
land, you kill everything and everybody. Don't leave a living
soul. And go back with me to chapter
one. Look at verse 27. Neither did Manasseh drive out
the inhabitants of Bethsheb. Look at verse 29. Neither did
Ephraim drive out the Canaanites. Look at verse, look at verse
30. Neither did Zebulon drive out
the inhabitants of Kitron. Look at verse 31. Neither did
Asher drive out the inhabitants. Look at verse 32. The Asherites
dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, for
they did not drive them out. Verse 33, neither did Naphtali
drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh. They didn't drive
them all out. They left a bunch of them in
the land and these people became a snare to the children of Israel. They became a constant temptation
to them. Now look over in chapter two
at verse 21. And I also will not henceforth
drive out any from among them of the nations which Joshua left
when he died, that through them that I may prove Israel, whether
they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein as their
fathers did keep it or not. Therefore, the Lord left those
nations without driving them out hastily, neither delivered
he them into the hand of Joshua. So they were guilty of not driving
out the nations, and the Lord said, I'm gonna leave those nations
to prove you. Now, how does living among the
pagans of this world prove us? It causes us time and time again
to find ourselves in Bochum. Looking back to Gilgal for the
hope of our salvation. It's the angel of the Lord that
comes to us and says, I've done everything for you. Why do you
remain so unbelieving? Why are you still so attracted
to the lust of this world? And the child of God says, oh
Lord, forgive me for Christ's sake. Put away my sin. Put away my sin. For Christ's
sake, Lord, save me. This is the believer's lot in
this life. That's why I said, and I'll say
it again, the child of God with two natures lives in Gilgal,
where he's able to rejoice in the gospel. And he lives in a
pagan world. Flesh lusting against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh so that we cannot be what we
ought to be and what we want to be. Oh, just like Rebecca,
two nations struggling within us. And the Lord asked you and
me, why are you thus? Why do you do that? Why do you
keep looking over your shoulder? Why do you keep forgetting about
me? and you come to this place, and you hear once again of God's
wonderful mercy, and His grace, and His finished work of salvation,
and you say, oh, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver
me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God. Thanks be to
God. There's a Gilgal. I took you out, I brought you,
I made you come out of Egypt. Now what is Egypt? It's the taskmasters
of sin, the slavery of sin. You remember the Egyptian slave
masters were requiring, they kept upping the quota for the
children of Israel so that they could never satisfy the demands
of the law. Every time they'd get close to
making the number of bricks that the Egyptians wanted, they just
increased the number. And then when they get close
to that, they took away their straw. They were making it impossible
for them to satisfy the demands of the law. You're either living in Egypt
right now, or you can remember when you lived there. And Gilgal by definition means
a rolling away. Turn with me to Joshua chapter
five. Joshua chapter five. Verse 10, and the children of
Israel encamped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th
day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did
eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover
on leaven cakes and parched corn in the self same day. And In this passage, the scripture
tells us that Gilgal means a rolling away. I can't find that verse right
off, but it's, what is it, verse five? Nine, verse nine, look
at verse nine in Joshua chapter five. I am completely off my
notes, so I can't even find where I'm at. in my notes. But look
at verse 9 in Joshua chapter 5. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Wherefore,
the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. The word
Gilgal means a rolling away. And now the Lord's saying, why do you keep going back? Why
are you keeping Going back to the inhabitants of the land,
I made you, go back to our text. I made you to come out of Egypt.
I satisfied the demands of the law. I was that Passover lamb. You remember the children of
Israel were instructed of God, you take a lamb and you bring
it into your house and you watch that lamb carefully for three
days. And you make sure that that lamb's
not sick, that it's not crippled, that it has with no spots and
no blemish on it. You inspect that lamb carefully.
And at the end of three days, you slay that lamb. And you take
the blood of that lamb and you put it on the doorpost of your
home. And you take the flesh of that lamb and you consume
every bit of it. And whatever you don't eat, you
burn it with fire. That's how I'm going to bring
you out. Oh, the spotless Lamb of God
was inspected for three years. Not a blemish could be found
on Him. He was without spot, perfect before God. God Almighty
took the sword of His justice and slew Him on Calvary's cross
and shed His blood and put His blood on the mercy seat. And
the fire of God's wrath consumed Him, satisfying God's holy justice
I brought you up out of Egypt. Look at what all I've done to
save you. And yet you keep going back to Bochum. Oh, the old flesh, it just won't
leave us with it. I brought the plagues. You remember
those 10 plagues that the Lord sent? God wasn't punishing Egypt
with those plagues. Those plagues, if you look at
all 10 plagues, those plagues were identifying all the gods
of Egypt. Those plagues were for the Israelites,
not for the Egyptians. God's going to slay all the Egyptians.
He was demonstrating his power over the gods of Egypt. showing
that this one God who shed his precious blood is the only hope
of your salvation. And all these gods of Egypt,
the flies and the frogs and the hail and the fire, all those
things, the river, those are the gods of Egypt. They're nothing.
They're nothing compared to this God. You remember the first plague
that God sent was to turn the river, which was their number
one God, into blood. And the last plague was the shedding
of the blood. It's all about the blood of Christ. All about his blood. Here's our
Lord saying, I did all this for you. I brought you out of Egypt. I slayed my own son. I brought
the plagues to show you how useless and how weak and beggarly those
gods of the world are. And you see it and you know it. And yet you've still got that
old man. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. Delight in the finished work
of Christ. Place all our hope in Him. And
we have no confidence in the flesh. Because our flesh is nothing
but sin. I made you, we're back in our
text now, in Joshua chapter two, verse one. I made you to go up
out of Egypt, and I have brought you into the land which I swear
unto your fathers. I brought you to this land that
flows with milk and honey. What is the Lord saying to you
and me? We're not talking about that land over there in the Middle
East. We're talking about the New Jerusalem, this land right
here. What is milk and honey in the
Bible? As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of my word that
you might grow thereby. And what is honey? The prophet
ate the scroll, which was the word of God, and it was sweet
to his taste and bitter to his belly. And the belly is a picture
of the flesh. What is God saying to you and
me? I brought you to the land that flows with milk. The nourishment of God's word
and that flows with honey, the sweetness and the delight and
the joy of God's word. You never could have found it
anywhere else. You never could have heard it
from anyone else. I brought you here. I took you
out of Egypt. I brought you to the place where
you could hear and rejoice in the only hope that you have,
the truth of God's word, revealing the glory of his son. And I said, I will never break
my covenant with you. God Almighty made a promise to
Abraham in Genesis chapter 15, when Abraham said, Lord, you're
gonna have to show me. You have to give me a sign. And
the Lord said, you take a heifer and you take a she goat and there's
one other animal, and then you take a turtle dove and you cut
them in half. And you place them on the ground. And God put Abraham into a deep
sleep. And Abraham had a vision of a
burning candle and a smoking furnace going between those cut
animals. And Abraham had to keep the ravens
away from the carcasses. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're keeping the ravens of this world off of the body
of Christ. Because those animals that were
cut in half represented what the Lord Jesus would do on Calvary's
cross. And the smoking furnace and the
burning flax is a picture of the prayers of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what smoke's a picture
of in the Bible. His prayers go up to the Father. And what
did the Lord say to Peter, who went from Gilgal to Bochum? Peter denied the Lord, and the
Lord said, Peter, Satan has asked to sift you, but I've prayed
for you. What was the difference between
Peter and Judas? They did the same thing that night. The Lord
said, I prayed for you, Peter. I didn't pray for Judas. He was
a son of perdition. He's like Demas. Demas left the
gospel for the love of the world. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
prayed for his people and he continues to pray for them. The
scripture says that he's seated at the right hand of God as our
intercessor, praying for us. In John chapter 17, he said,
I pray not for the world, I pray for them which thou hast given
me out of the world. Thine they were and thou hast
given them unto me and I've kept them. Here's the covenant. I swore unto you, I made a covenant. covenant promise to my father
that I repeated unto you and I sealed it by the sacrifice
of myself on Calvary's cross and I've offered up my prayers
and the and the and the fire is a picture of the light of
the gospel which shines in our hearts in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ oh here's what our Lord saying to his people the
angel of the Lord came down to Gilgal where the covenant was
renewed. He said, I made you come out
of Egypt. I sent those plagues. I sacrificed
my son. I brought you into the land that
I promised you, a land that was flowing with milk and honey.
You could not have heard the gospel anywhere else. No place
else to go for it. And I'll not break my covenant. Even though you are fickle. Your
faith is so weak. You got that old man strapped
to your back. And you've got it. You live in
a world where the nations have been left behind. And I've not
driven them out. Because I'm going to use those
nations to prove you. To prove you. The proof is that
every time The flesh and Satan and the world draws us away from
Christ. We find ourselves in Bochum,
weeping in repentance, crying out for more of God's mercy and
more of His grace. That's the believer's life, isn't
it? Look at verse two. And you shall
make no league with the inhabitants of the land. You shall throw
down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice.
Why have you done this? Wherefore, I also said, I will
not drive them out from before you. but they shall be as a thorn
in your side, and their God shall be a snare unto you. And it shall
come to pass when the angel of the Lord spoke these words unto
the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice
and wept, and they called the name of the place Bochem, and
they sacrificed there unto the Lord for the hope of their salvation."
That's the sacrifice of Christ. That's the sacrifice of our lips. That's the prayers of the saints.
Always rejoicing. And always confessing. Always agreeing with God. And
he's right, we're wrong. Lord, we live in Gilgal, thank
God. And we live among the inhabitants
of this world and of our own flesh. We find ourselves weeping
in Bochum. That's the life of a child of
God. You know, this idea that, oh, we're just gonna, you know,
everything's gonna be wonderful and everything's gonna be easy. No. No. No, you never had a battle in
your life until you become a child of God. You don't know what it is. You
don't know what the lust of the flesh. All you know is the fulfilling
of the lust of the flesh and the consequences of that sin
in your life and wanting to get away from that. But when God
shows you what the lust of the flesh is, you know that you've
got a dead corpse strapped to your back that you can't ever
get away from. And you're always in need of those covenant promises. that God made and fulfilled in
Christ Jesus. Our merciful heavenly Father,
bless your word to the salvation of our souls. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. 268, let's stand together, 268. We'll skip verse 3, just go right
from 2 to 4. affirm a foundation ye saints
of the lord it is can he say, and to whom he hath
said, to whom you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? The only, not dismayed, For I
am thy God, I will still give thee aid. While strength and
deception Can cause thee to stand, Upheld by thy gracious call, And through thy retrials, thy
pathway shall lie. Thy praise, all-sufficient, shall
be thy supply. my soul I will not, I will not desert
to his foes that soul. Though a hell should endeavor
to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake.