It's good to see you. My text
is found in Judges chapter 3. Judges chapter 3, so that's after
the first five books, and then Joshua, and then comes Judges. We'll be looking at the first
11 verses together. I'm going to begin reading verse
1. Now these are the nations which
the Lord left to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel
as had not known all the wars of Canaan. So we see here that
these nations were left by the Lord. and they were left to prove
Israel. And this was done for a generation
that hadn't been part of that generation that fought and battled,
that generation of people who were given a warfare. They were given into war to battle
and fight their way into the land that the Lord had given
to them by promise. And this generation that came
up, they weren't part of that. They weren't part of that warfare.
And so verse two says, only that the generations of the children
of Israel might know to teach them war. At the least, such
as before knew nothing thereof. So God left these nations there
for this next generation to teach them war. And I've never been in war, but
I'm certain that in war, there's always loss, there's sorrow,
there's trials, there's weary days and difficulties that you
go through in that war. Now this generation, this generation
in Israel, this word spoken of them is a word spoken to you
and me, the church today and our generation. Paul said in
Romans 15 verse four, whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And so this word to
you in this generation is a word to give you comfort and hope
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this generation here that's
being spoken of, they're going to learn by experience what they've
only heard by the ear. Things that they've heard in
the ear, they're going to now learn by experience. And they're going
to start off doing things their way. They're going to be left
to themselves and they're going to do what they think is right. And in the end, we're going to
see that they compromise the truth of the gospel. being left
to themselves, they compromise the truth of the gospel, but
they're going to learn through suffering three things. Three
things, and this is what the Lord teaches all of his people. He teaches us our total depravity. He teaches us that we, ourselves,
are sinners. And he teaches us our great need
of his grace. Lord, help me. Save me, Lord. I'm the sinner. I need salvation.
And in the end, we see this beautiful truth that the true and living
God is my God. He's my God. And I'm his child. And he did this for me. He shows
us that. So I've titled this message,
Proved by God. Proved by God. Let's pick up
in verse four. And they, these nations which
the Lord left, were to prove Israel by them, to know whether
they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded
their fathers by the hand of Moses. So we see in the reading
of these verses that all our trials and all our difficulties
and our sorrows, they are given to us by divine appointment. God gives us these trials. God
gives us these difficulties. God brings these sorrows upon
us for our good. These are sent according to God's
will and purpose, and they affirm to us that truth in Romans 8,
28, which says that we know. We know. How do we know these
things? Because the Lord teaches us these things. We know them
because the Lord makes us to know them. And we don't learn
them just by hearing them in the ear. We know by going through
it and proving the word of our God to us. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who
are thee called according to his purpose, his purpose. So these people had heard what
mighty things the Lord had done from their parents and their
grandparents. They heard of the accounts of how the Lord mightily
overcame their enemies and defeated all their foes and gave them
the inheritance which he gave to their fathers by promise,
by promise, because the covenant of grace is given to the Lord's
people by promise. not according to our works, but
according to his good pleasure, according to his will, according
to his promise. But they themselves that were
hearing these things, they had no experience of it. And I was
thinking about this and realizing we have generations that are
coming into the church all the time. And that's very clear here
in this congregation. I was with the founding families
when Brother Clay was called and I remember you children and
I know you well and here you are, the young adults that are
now taking on much of the responsibilities. I see emails from Sarah and just
seeing what you're all doing and partaking of and you're having
children now as well. So there's generations coming
into the church all the time, and they've got to learn, by
warfare, they've got to learn what the Lord has taught the
generation before them. Some of you have heard, many
of you agree that Jesus is the Lord and Savior, and many of
you have made a profession, calling upon the Lord, even being baptized
and calling upon the name of Christ to cleanse you of your
sins. And that's a wonderful, wonderful
thing because we know that salvation is a spiritual work. It's not
a work of man. It's not according to our works.
It's not according to our will, but it's by the grace of God
that works mightily in us, meaning he's overcoming terrible evil
and darkness and wickedness that's in our own hearts to save us
and to deliver us from that darkness. But understand, this, that it's
one thing to hear that Jesus is the Lord and to believe that
Jesus is the Lord and to make that profession, and it's another
thing to hear those promises of God and then to be taken out
into the field to prove those things, to prove the promises
of God, to be pressed out of measure and brought into difficulties
and to experience that God does make good on his word to his
people. He does exactly what he says,
and it's real easy to believe it when there's nothing going
on, but it's another thing when things start flying and difficulties
come. I think of soldiers. I've never
been in war but I've seen movies and they're accurate, right?
So I've seen them and one of the things that I remember seeing
a lot of is that in basic training they try to simulate things that
you're likely to experience in war and I have this vision in
my mind of of having to dive in the muddy dirt and get grit
and filth in your mouth, crawling under barbed wire and you've
got bullets whizzing, maybe a foot or two overhead, live ammunition
rounds flying overhead and maybe some explosions going on to simulate
the sounds and the smells and things that you're going to experience.
And that's good. We can think how we're going
to behave and we can know in our minds how we're going to
behave, but then when you get put out there and have the enemy
that's actually trying to take your life, you don't know how
you're going to react and it's difficult. I guess that's the
difference between unripe green soldiers, right, they're unripe,
and battle-hardened soldiers who have gone through it, and
once they've gone through it, they've been able to prove that,
you know, at least some of their training was helpful and good
and it worked, and sticking together as a team and doing what you're
supposed to do can save your life. Well, the Lord makes good
on his promises, and when you go through that warfare and those
difficulties and trials, yeah, it's difficult, and it's terrifying
a lot of times, and it's hard, but you prove what the Lord has
said in his word, and you see his faithfulness to you, and
you know your unworthiness, and you know that he's faithful,
and when you call out upon him how he comes through exactly
how he says he's gonna do, and he blesses your heart with Christ,
and he draws you closer to your Lord. So the Lord's gonna prove
his people, and he's gonna reveal these truths in us. Job 42, verses
five and six, Job said, I've heard of thee with the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eyes see it thee, and I abhor myself. I hate my flesh, and I repent
in dust and ashes. And so that's what our God is
gonna teach each of you, in each generation, as you're going through
it. You've heard what your parents have said, and then now you're
gonna go through it. And then you're gonna teach your
children, and they're gonna hear what their parents have said,
and their grandparents have said, and then they're gonna go through
it, whom the Lord recalls by His grace. We're gonna see our
total depravity, our utter sinfulness, our darkness, We're going to
see our total need of the grace of Christ. We're going to prove
those words which Christ said in John 15, 5, without me, he
can do nothing. And we're going to prove and
find out that the true and living God is my God. And I'm his child. That's what he shows each one
of his children. The generation of Israel before,
they were faithful. They believed God. They went
to war doing exactly what the Lord said, and they proved those
things and were blessed. But through it all, they were
learning their depravity, their need of His grace, and that God
is their God and that they are His children. And it's no different
for us today. Now, this new generation, they
didn't want to fight. They didn't want to fight. Things
were calmed down and they saw themselves as a more civilized
people now. They knew how to get along. Look
at verses five and six. It says, the children of Israel
dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites and Amorites and Perizzites and
Hivites and Jebusites. And they took their daughters
to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons and served
their gods. When they thought about mommy
and daddy, they said, well, they were just zealous barbarians
holding forth the word of truth. They wouldn't compromise and
people were angry with them. They had trouble in the land
and people didn't get along with them. But we now know how to
do things in a more civilized manner. We know how to get along.
We know how to compromise where compromises can be made and do
things better. We're just going to get along.
But what happened? What happened? Did everybody
become Christians? Did everybody believe on the
true and living God? Let's see what the Lord tells
us in verse 7. He says there, the children of
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord
their God, and served Balaam, which is many gods, and the groves. They forgot their Lord, the Lord
their God, and they did that which is evil. And Paul tells
us, he says, be not deceived, evil communications corrupts
good manners. And we think that by compromising
and by taking it easy on people that we know and speaking in
a different manner than what we've heard and what we rejoice
in and hear in the gospel, we think that the Lord will bless
it, and that they'll come around, they'll see that we're cool people,
and they'll see that we're easygoing and nice people, and they'll
believe, they'll come around to seeing things the way I see
them. But we see here that that's not
at all what happened. When we compromise the truth,
when we depart from the things that we heard, they were hard
for us to hear. It's hard against the flesh to
hear that you're nothing. to hear that we need the Lord,
that salvation is all of the Lord, that my works are filthy
rags, and that my will is darkness and evil, and my ways are corrupt
and vile before the true and living God. It's hard to hear
that in the flesh, but it's exactly exactly what we need because
the Lord takes of those things and he destroys the pride of
man. He puts our face in the dirt. He makes us to see, Lord,
I'm a sinner. Lord, I need your grace. Father,
have mercy upon me. Because we want to compromise.
Not only do we think that we can compromise and others will
hear and believe, even though we know it's not true, that's
not how we were saved. We were saved by the Lord putting
his word, his glory, right in our faces and declaring what
Christ had done for us. That's how we were saved. But
we also compromise because we want to preserve ourselves, if
we're being honest. We want to have ease and comfort
in this flesh. And we know that if I say this
thing, if I say it this way, As well-meaning and sincere as
I can say it, I know that they're not going to want to hear it.
And really, there are people that will hear it. It's usually
the ones that you don't think are going to hear it, they'll
hear it. And the ones that you think surely they'll believe
are the ones that reject it and turn against you. But we're trying
to protect and preserve our comfort, our peace, our way of life. And the thought of going through
warfare and trials and difficulties is honestly not appealing to
the flesh. If you're wanting trials, you're
not understanding. You don't know what you're asking
for. We pray for grace. Lord, I need your grace because
the trials are going to come. The Lord's going to teach his
people and we beg the Lord for grace and mercy to help us to
be faithful in the hour of temptation. But our Lord said about compromising
and about preserving ourselves, He said in Mark 8.35, Whosoever
will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose
his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save
it. And so it's this compromise with
the world is the very thing that destroys men's souls. This love
of this life is the very thing that destroys men's souls. And we need the grace of God
and He gives us grace because that's what He's delivering us
from. That darkness, that evil, that unbelief, that willingness
to compromise with this world and to serve their gods and to
marry their children and have our children marry theirs. It's
all the compromise that we do with this world. Peter said it
this way, dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. And they
do war against the soul. And Paul told Timothy, thou therefore
endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Because the
warfare comes from all angles. It comes from without, and it
also comes from within. It comes from this heart of ours. But endure, endure. You believe
Christ, you trust Him. You've called upon Him. Believe
Him, because He'll prove His Word to you. Yes, we see that
we can do nothing without Him. But He says, if you abide in
Me, and My Word abide in you, you shall ask whatsoever you
will. and the Father will give it to you. Because you see, I'm
nothing, Lord. I'm totally wicked, and I need
your grace. I need your salvation. Save me
from this hour of temptation. Lord, deliver me in this trial.
Show me your promises and how you fulfill your word to your
people. Turn to that scripture, 1 John
2. 1 John 2, verse 15. First John 2.15, John says, Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the
world. and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but
he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And so we confess
this, we read this, we believe it, we confess it as true, but
we don't really understand it until the Lord teaches us and
shows us our love of the world and shows us that we need his
grace and we need him to keep us every hour. And so learning
faithfulness to the word of truth, that's where we experience hatred
for this world, when we're made faithful and we declare the truth
and we see this world doesn't love the Lord. This world doesn't
love me. And this world doesn't care for
the truth of the gospel, but this is what they need to hear.
This is what saved me. This is where the Lord taught
me and preserved me. and provided for me according
to his word and according to his promise. And so we learn
through that because we see I'm the depraved one. I don't want
to open my mouth here and say this, but I don't know what else
to say to these people. And so we learn our own depravity. We learn our own need of his
grace to uphold us and keep us. And through it, we learn that
we are the people of God, that he's keeping us and preserving
us according to promise. And so regarding this battle,
our Lord, regarding salvation, our Lord tells us that he gives
us the spirit of promise. And that spirit of promise is
the spirit of adoption. And so as we see our depravity
and as we see our need of His grace, that spirit of adoption
which is given unto us is the very spirit within us that cries
out to the Lord, crying out to Him for mercy and grace. Romans
8.15 says, you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we
cry, Abba, Father. And so, as the Lord shows us
our weakness, our shying away from warfare, from declaring
the truth to sinners who need to hear it just like we needed
to hear it, as we shy away from that, the Lord showing us our
weaknesses, that spirit of adoption is, we cry out, Father, have
mercy upon me. Help me, Lord. Save me. Keep
me. Even as I declare the truth,
to others. And he says just a little while
later in Romans 8, 17, that we're joiners with Christ, if so be
that we suffer with him. We're not looking for suffering.
We're not trying to bring it on us on purpose. But it'll come. It'll come. That we may be also
glorified together with him. Because he appoints it for our
good. You know, so few venture upon
the true and living God to make good on his promise. But he promised
at the foundation of the world, when Adam fell there in the garden,
he promised the seed of woman would come and crush the head
of the serpent. And when Christ came, when he
came in the flesh, God fulfilled his word of promise unto us. to put away our sin, to deliver
us from darkness, to defeat our enemy, to put away our sin, to
put away the enmity that's in our heart that fights against
the true and living God. And he reveals Christ unto us,
the glory of the Lord, to behold the Son of God, who faithfully
came and fulfilled the will of the Father for you and me, who
have no righteousness of our own, who are totally depraved,
ruined sinners in Adam, ruined sinners by our own works and
filth, and put away that sin, and gave us a heart to cry out
to him to see our need of his grace and mercy, to give us a
hunger and thirst for his righteousness, and gave it all in the death
of himself, and died for our sins and rose again for our justification
and now sends the spirit of adoption into our hearts whereby we cry,
Abba, Father, save me, have mercy upon me. And so he died our death,
putting away our sins, bearing the curse that we earned, the
curse that we deserve, that death, that eternal death, he bore that
to put away that curse from us. Why? Galatians 3.14 tells us
that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. And so God is faithful to you.
He's faithful to your parents, and teaching them the gospel,
and bringing their children here, and you bring your children here.
He's faithful to teach you that the way of this flesh, the way
of this world, the course of this world, following after the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience in this
world, that is the way of death. Don't love this world, don't
love that way. You believe the promises of God
which are declared to you in the Lord Jesus Christ and fulfilled
unto you in the Lord Jesus Christ and you stay upon him, crying
out to him when you see your own weakness and your own need,
you cry out to him and he makes good on his word. you'll prove
it, and God will prove it to you in proving you that which
he's given unto you, that faith which he's given unto you, he'll
prove it to you through the fiery trial. In fact, turn over there
to 1 Peter 1, 1 Peter 1.7. 1 Peter 1.7 says that the trial
of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found. The only way
you're gonna find or the way you're gonna discover that faith
which God has given you is in the fiery trial. It's not for
him to see that you're his. He knows them that are his. It's
for you to know your depravity, your need of grace, and that
he is indeed your God. that though it be tried with
fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, ye love, and whom though
now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable,
full of grace, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. You know, this generation that's
spoken of here, they didn't see the importance of God's Word,
and so they compromised and they forgot their God, and were told
in verse 8 and 9 that God put them in subjection to an evil
king that punished them and brought them into miserable subjection. Look at verses 8 and 9. Therefore
the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them
into the hand of Chushem Rishitham, king of Mesopotamia, And the
children of Israel served that king eight years. And when the
children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up
a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even
Athenael, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. And so we see
here through this word that they saw their depravity, they were
brought into subjection, they saw the error of their ways,
and they cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard them. because
he is the God of promise. And he says to his people, when
you call out to me, I'll save you. I'll save you because we're
saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who put away our
sin and obtained for us eternal redemption according to the grace
of our God, not according to our works, not according to our
worth, not according to our will, but because he's faithful to
his promise, which is made unto you who now believe him. Though
in yourselves you see yourselves sinners, you see yourselves weak. You see yourselves in need of
his grace. God is faithful. He's faithful
to sinners, He's faithful to the weary, he's faithful to the
weak, but those who have no strength and no power of themselves, but
who call upon the living God for Christ's sake, believe in
Christ, he is faithful, faithful to his promise, believe him,
believe him. And we see this in verses 10
and 11, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him, Anathneel,
the judge, the savior, and he judged Israel, he saved Israel,
and went out to war, and the Lord delivered Shushan Rishathayim,
king of Mesopotamia, into his hand, and his hand prevailed
against Shushan Rishathayim. And the land had rest 40 years,
which is about the space of a generation. Anathneel, the son of Kenaz,
died, Now, Othniel is a type of our Savior. He's a type. He's Aksa's wisdom. He's the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ of his bride, of his church. And we have life. He gives life
to his people, saying, because I live, ye shall live also. John 14, 19. And so we're not
saved by light decisions that we make. We're not saved by our
good works. We're saved by the grace and
the power and the glory of God. That same resurrection power
that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that
raises us up from spiritual death. And if you want a picture, you
look at Lazarus. He was in the grave four days
stinking. Picture of what we are in our
nature, in Adam, in this flesh. We are stinking, rotting corpses
full of death and darkness and wicked. And Christ said to Lazarus,
Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus arose. That power
that causes us to stand in awe that a man would raise a man
from the dead who was dead four days, that's the power that God
has and uses to raise us up from spiritual death, all by the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ, by Him, by the grace in Him. So
don't faint. Don't faint when you're proved. Don't faint when
you see your total depravity. Don't faint when you see your
need. Call out upon Him. Call out upon the Savior because
He's faithful to save them who call upon Him. those who believe,
not on their own goodness, not on their righteousness, but believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray He bless that word
to your hearts, brethren. Amen.