Now in Judges chapter 3, in verse
1, we read, Now these are the nations which the Lord left. These are the nations which the
Lord left. Look down at verse 3. Namely,
five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the
Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwell in Mount Lebanon, from
Mount Belharmon until the entering in of Hamath. Look down at verse
5. And the children of Israel dwelt
among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and Hivites, and Jebusites. And after Joshua died, the Lord
took him home. The Lord left some enemy nations
in the land with the children of Israel. He left some enemy
nations there in their land. And likewise, after Christ laid
down His life and God raised Him from the dead, the Lord left
some enemies surrounding His people in this earth. For His
children that are born of the Spirit, we have some enemies
surrounding us. In those days, the Lord left
various kinds of enemies. And likewise, the Lord has left
various kinds of enemies surrounding His people. Our flesh, our new
man, created of God in true righteousness and true holiness, dwells in
a body of death. And in our flesh dwells no good
thing. Even after we've been born of
the Spirit of God, Romans 8 tells us the body is dead because of
sin. The lusts of our flesh are our
own worst enemies. And then there's this world.
This world is an enemy to the believer. It's vain religion,
it's riches, it's poverty, it's many attractions are all alluring
to a believer. And they're the enemy of the
believer. And then there's unseen enemies. Believers face many
enemies that we can't see. Powers, principalities, the rulers
of darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. On
the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ conquered every enemy for his
people. He conquered every enemy. He
could have destroyed every enemy and delivered us from them all
forever, once and for all, right then. But He didn't. He didn't. God left enemies. That's our
title. God left enemies. Why? Why did He do that? This is what
we see in this text, what we're going to try to glean from this
passage. In this life, God left enemies. surrounding his children to teach
us that we have no strength in ourselves and to teach us that
his grace is sufficient for us. I've divided this into three
divisions. First of all, God left enemies
to teach his children war. God left enemies to teach his
children war. Secondly, God left enemies to
teach his children, or to prove his children, I'm sorry, God
left enemies to prove his children. And then thirdly, God left enemies
to teach his children to continually cast all our care into his hand. Now, God left enemies to teach
his children war. Look here in verse one. 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. Only, or for this reason, that
the generations of the children of Israel might know to teach
them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.
When God first delivered Israel into Canaan, when He first brought
them in there, God cast out seven nations mightier than they. That's
what He's talking about here when He said, the wars of Canaan. God did it. God did it. And He
did it through Joshua, whose name means Savior. Picture Christ
and the work He did. He did it through Joshua. And
the generation of children that were born after, you had Joshua
died, and then all those that were alive when Joshua was alive,
they died, and then their fathers died, and then this next generation
that was born, they didn't know the Lord. They didn't know Him.
And they had never, they had heard about those wars, but they
knew nothing about them. God didn't drive out these nations
before those people, these ones that didn't know the Lord. He
turned them over so they could experience what war is about,
so they could experience what it is to have to fight on their
own without the power of God helping them fight. That's what
He did to them. But you just think about it.
These ones who were there that had heard their fathers speak
about those wars in Canaan, they heard it. And some of the ones
before this generation probably believed it, but they didn't
experience those wars in Canaan. They didn't see God fighting
for them. They didn't know it. They didn't experience what that
was like for God to go in there with Joshua and those armies
of the Israelites and defeat their enemies. They didn't know
what that was like. And so God left enemies in the land that
the generations of the children of Israel might know. to teach
them war, to teach them war. In those wars of Canaan, we've
got a picture there of what Christ accomplished for His people on
the cross. Christ cast out our enemies on the cross. That's
what He did. Christ Jesus accomplished the
warfare of every chosen child of God on the cross. By burying
our sin in His own body on the tree, Christ conquered Satan,
Christ conquered the sins of His people. Christ conquered
the law for His people. Christ conquered death for His
people. Christ put away our sins. He
justified us. And Christ Himself is the fulfillment
of the righteousness of the law for His people through faith
in Him. Look over at Romans 8, just a
moment. Romans 8 in verse 3. Romans 8 verse 3. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, because we couldn't do
it, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." That means He conquered
it, Robbie. He condemned it. That the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit." God sent His Son to fulfill the
righteousness of the law. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us through faith in Him. That's
what He did. And like this new generation, they were taught
by their fathers. about the wars of Canaan. Just
like that, like they were taught by their fathers about the wars
of Canaan. Those who truly believe, we've
been taught the gospel. God sent someone to teach us
the gospel, and the everlasting Father taught us the gospel through
His Spirit. And we've heard, and we've believed,
and Christ even conquered us. He made it known to us that He's
cast out seven enemies mightier than we are. Seven signifying
that our enemies have been defeated in perfection. Perfectly they've
been defeated. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. that her iniquities pardoned,
for she's received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
And here in that message, Christ conquered us. He conquered us. The Spirit came forth and renewed
us, regenerated us, and gave us life, and we believe Him.
And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
work, Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in His sight, if you continue in the faith grounded and settled."
That's going to prove that He did it for you. That's going
to prove He did it for me if we continue grounded and settled
in the faith. And be not moved away from the
hope of the Gospel. Be not moved away from Christ.
Be not moved away from that hope of the Gospel which you've heard.
Well, we must continue in faith. But like that generation, like
this generation, this new generation in Canaan, we've been taught,
and we've heard, and we've believed. They didn't believe. We've believed.
But the believer knows nothing of this warfare. The new believer
knows nothing of this warfare. We know the doctrine. We know
it in heart. We know it in spirit. We've been
taught it. We understand it. We believe.
It's been revealed in our hearts so that we believe Him. But until
we face the enemy in this life, ourselves, we don't realize the
reality that God has conquered our enemy.
and that God himself must conquer every enemy we face in this life. So God left enemies around us
that the generations of the children of Israel might know to teach
them war, to teach us war. The life of the believer is not
all milk and honey. It's a warfare. It's a warfare. And the art of war is best learned
by experience. That's how we're going to learn.
You know, you run track. We've got some young people here
that run track now, William and John. You run track. And when you start running track,
you don't start out running long distances. You start out running
shorter distances. And you build up your stamina. You build up your strength to
be able to run those longer distances. Well, a similar thing is so in
this warfare. Let me read this to you from
Jeremiah 12, 5. If thou hast run with the footmen,
and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And if in the land of peace wherein
thou trustest they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the
swelling of Jordan? You see, these things are going
to get progressively more difficult. So how are we going to run? How
are we going to fight this warfare? How are we going to survive in
this warfare? By God's grace. We got to be
taught war. We got to be taught war. We got
to be taught how to fight the good fight is what we have to
be taught. So God controls our enemies. He controls every one
of them. So that it's not the strongest
enemies that comes up against us at first. At first, He only
allows the less powerful enemies to come up against us. You take,
for instance, a new believer. They are excited, and they're
full of joy, and they can't wait to go tell their friends what
they've heard, and this gospel that's just filling their hearts
with joy. And they think that this Christ who's filled their
hearts with joy, surely He'll fill the hearts of their friends.
Their friends, you have so much else in common with your friends.
Surely they'll rejoice in this message that's thrilling your
heart. And you go run to them and you
tell them everything you've heard. And you find out that you don't
have everything in common. They don't like the message.
They hate it. And you try to explain it to
them. You try to talk to them about it. And they hate it more
and more. And you try to explain it more and more. And you don't
know what to say. You can't come up. You don't
know where to show them in the Scriptures these things. And
you end up getting in a big argument with them. And you end up acting
more like a child of hell than a child of God. But you learn some things from
that defeat, don't you? You learn that not everybody
loves the gospel. You learn that the enmity against
God that's in the natural heart is a real thing. And you learn
that you need to be in God's Word to be able to know where
to turn in God's Word, to be able to talk to somebody about
God's Word. And you learn you need God's grace. You need His
grace. the next enemy that comes will
be a little stronger, and a little stronger, and a little stronger.
And we experience a lot of sad defeats along the way. But that's
how we learn. The Lord doesn't give us more
than we can bear, but He sends these enemies, these lesser trials,
and God prepares us for those greater afflictions and those
greater trials that are coming. Always remember, the Lord has
left us in this body of death, full of sin. He's left us in
this world, full of sin. And we're facing these enemies
because God is teaching us war. He's teaching us war. I'll say
a bit more about that toward the end. Let's look here secondly.
God left enemies to prove His children. Verse 4 says, "...and
they 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." Look over at Deuteronomy
chapter 7. How would you place there and
turn over to Deuteronomy 7? When the Lord delivered the children
of Israel into Canaan at the first, the Lord gave these commandments
by the hand of Moses. Deuteronomy 7, look at verse
2. When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou
shalt..." You see that? Thou shalt. There's a command.
"...thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them." Thou shalt
make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. In other
words, don't compromise with them. He says, verse 3, neither
shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt
not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto
thy son. Why not? Why is he saying all
these things? Why is he giving these commandments?
Now get this, verse 4, for they will turn away thy son from following
me, that they may serve other gods. They will turn away thy
son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will
the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee
suddenly. But thus shall you deal with
them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their images
and cut down their groves and burn their graven images with
fire. For thou art a holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because
the Lord loved you. And because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore,
know therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God. The Lord
thy God, he is God. There is no other. The faithful
God. which keepeth covenant and mercy
with them that love him, and keepeth his commandments to a
thousand generations, and repayeth them that hate him to their face,
to destroy them. He will not be slack to him that
hateth him, he will repay him to his face." That's what Brother
Scott just read. He's not slack concerning his
promise. He said he will repay them to
his face. Thou shalt therefore keep the
commandments and the statutes and the judgments which I command
thee this day to do them. These enemies worshiped gods
of their imaginations. These enemies that were round
about God had revealed himself in this one nation. But he didn't
have to do anything to these other nations. They created gods
of their imagination. Every man's religious by nature.
Every man's got a God in his mind of what he thinks God's
like. And he'll worship that God unless
the true and living God intervenes. That's the God he's going to
worship. That's the God he's going to go to hell hanging on
to. He may try to convince himself
it's not a God, that there is no God, but that's his God. But
every man worships a God. They worship themselves. That's
who they worship. Any man that has God figured
out in his mind who he's really worshiping is himself. That's
who they worship. They worship the works of their
hands. They're no different than those
who call on a Jesus they can't save unless a man lets him do
it. They're no different than those
who worship a Jesus who died for all men and yet can't save
those that they say he died for. No different. They're no different
than a Jesus who accomplished nothing by his death unless the
sinner makes his work effectual. There's no difference in that
and what these folks were doing. There's no difference than a
Jesus who didn't perfect forever his people, but depends upon
the sinner to perfect himself. by his works of his flesh. No
different. They're both idolaters. They're
both worshipping God of their imagination. They're both will
worshippers. They're both worshipping the
works of their own hands. Both of them. Because it's not
the true and living God. It's not the God of this Bible.
They're worshipping the God they've thought of, the God they've imagined,
the God they think in their mind. Now have you ever wondered why
There are so many different kinds of religions in the world. Why
are there so many heresies in the world? Have you ever wondered
why? You know there's only two religions. There's only grace.
That's the true and living God. The grace, saved by grace. It's
all Him. And a sinner does nothing but
sin. That's all he does. It's all of His grace. Salvation
is of the Lord. And then every other religion
is the work of men's hands. Every other religion requires
a man to do something. for his God. That's works religion. All of them are that way. Every
one of them. But have you ever wondered why there are so many
religions in the world? Couldn't God have prevented that?
Well, sure he could have, but he didn't. Why? Judges 3, 4 says,
this is why he didn't. Judges 3, 4. That he might prove
the children of Israel. That he might prove His children,
whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord,
which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses." In 1 Corinthians
11, 19, Paul said this, listen to this, there must also, there
must be also heresies among you. That's it, there must be heresies
among us. Why? That they which are proved
may be made manifest among you. There must needs be heresies
among you that they which are approved may be manifest among
you. God already knows them that are
His. It's not so God can find it out. God washed them, God
regenerated them, God gave them a heart and approved them and
accepted them in the beloved. It's not so God can find out.
Why are all these works religion around? It's around, they're
around, their heresies are among us that those that are His may
be manifest among us. That's why those that He's called
that we might have an understanding of those He's called and approved.
Notice what the children of Israel did. Look here in Judges 3. Now,
you think, we're going to try to figure out, you know, you
look in the Scripture, and you look back at a time like this,
and for some reason we think people acted differently back
then, or that, you know, wonder how that came about. Well, it
came about just like it comes about today. Verse 5, And the
children of Israel dwelt among them. They dwelt among them. They've got the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, and
the children of Israel just dwelt among them. They just lived beside
them. They were supposed to go in and
just rid the whole place of them. That's what they were supposed
to do. But they just moved in and said, it's all right. Y'all
just stay right over there. We're going to stay over here.
And they just lived by them. And they got to know them. They went
out in the morning to get the morning paper, and that one was
walking out getting his paper, and they said, they talked a
little bit and got to know each other. And he put his pants on
one leg at a time, just like the other fellow did, and they
thought, he's not all that bad. I kind of like him. And those
sons of the enemy, ooh, they were handsome boys. And those
girls, man, they were good-looking girls. And one day, that Israelite
son came home, and he said, I want to marry that Canaanite girl.
And his daddy said, now son, God has told us they'll turn
away thy son from following me. And he said, they'll serve other
gods. They'll turn you away, son, from
following the true and living God, and you'll serve their gods.
Oh, but then that Israelite daughter came home, and she went to blinking
at daddy, blinking them pretty eyes at daddy, and she said,
daddy, Oh, that Jebusite boy has stolen my heart. I got to
marry him. He's asked me to marry him. I
want to marry him. And Daddy said, well, I guess
that'll be all right. You can marry him. Go ahead.
And then the Israelite son came back and said, well, Daddy, if
she can marry, why can't I marry this Canaanite girl I'm wanting
to marry? And he said, well, I guess it's OK. Go ahead. So
they got married. And they took their daughters
to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons. Verse
6. And then that little Israelite daughter, she brought that first
grandbaby home to that Israelite father and she brought that grandbaby
home and she said, Here, Papa, look what I got. And he looked
at that baby and the sweetest thing he ever saw in his life.
And she said, Dad, you are cordially invited to a sprinkling ceremony
over in the first grove of the Jebusites this Sunday. And she said, now, Daddy, don't
be old-fashioned. I know you want to worship like
Grandpa did and like Grandpa Joshua did and Uncle Caleb and
all that. You don't have to be so old-fashioned.
You're going to like it over there. They worship like we do,
Dad. And he said, alright, we'll go.
And so the Israelite family went over there and they sat there
in that grove and they got to thinking while they sat there
and they thought, this is nice. It's shady in this grove. We
get to see the priest here. We don't have to wait on him
to go in the holiest of holies and wait for him to come back.
And we even get to participate. We don't have to depend on the
Levites to do everything like we were doing. This is nice. I feel like somebody here And
so they started worshipping with them. And verse 7 says, And the
children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot
the Lord their God, and served Balaam and the groves. That's
how it happens. Isn't that how it happens in
our day? That's how it happened. Now the children of Israel were
under a covenant of works. They were under covenant of works.
They were required to keep those commandments of Moses in order
to gain God's favor and stay in His favor. They had to keep
those commandments. But in the day that God makes
His everlasting covenant of grace in the heart of His child, He
reveals in us that we're not under the law, we're under grace.
And He does it by revealing to us that Christ has fulfilled
the law. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to us. And He does it by revealing to
us and assuring us that Christ shall never let us go that we've
been married to Christ and we're His. And so in each fiery trial
that we come into as we're going through this life, and when we're
tempted, to turn away from Him. Christ sends forth the right
Word at the right time, and He speaks in our heart, and He reminds
us once again. He reminds us, I'm married to
you. You were like Gomer. You were a spouse to me before
the foundation of the world, but you played the harlot. You
went away after your lovers. You turned away from me. You
said, I'll go after my lovers that give me my bread, and my
water, and my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink. But you
didn't know I was the one supplying you with the corn, and the wine,
and the oil, and the silver, and the gold, which you took
to worship your idol God. And he said, but I hedged up
your way. Christ reminds you, he keeps
telling you, I hedged up your way. with thorns and I made a
wall around you that you couldn't find your paths. And I took all
that you trusted in and I made you to see it was all vanity.
And I discovered to you your lewdness in the sight of your
lovers. And you tried to get away from me and I wouldn't let
you go. And I caused all your joy to cease. And I caused you
to look upon your false religion and your self-righteousness and
all your worldly lovers and see that none of them had profited
you anything, and that none of your lovers really loved you. And I've made you to see you're
an adulteress. You're a sinner. I made you to
see that. But I loved you. I loved you. Though you committed adultery
on me, I loved you, and I came forth. In the fullness of time
He was made under the law, made of a woman to redeem you. And
I came forth and I went to Calvary's cross and I laid down my life
and I redeemed you from all iniquity and put away your sin completely.
And He said, and I allured you and I brought you into the wilderness
and I spoke comfortably unto you. And I said to you, thou
shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot.
Thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. From here on, I'm never leaving
you. I'm never going to forsake you.
And I'm going to see to it you never leave me and you never
forsake me. And Christ comes to us and he
tells us this in our heart through his gospel, just like I hope
he's doing right now. And so by His grace, working
affectionately in our heart, in the believer's heart, He keeps
all these commandments. The believer keeps these commandments,
all these commandments that Moses gave. We keep every one of them
by keeping the one commandment of grace that He gives us and
sustains in our hearts. You know what it is? 1 John 3.23,
and this is His commandment. that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave
us commandment. How am I going to keep His commandments? How am I going to keep all the
commandments that Moses gave? I'm going to believe on Christ.
That's how. because Christ fulfilled all
righteousness and He's the end of the law for righteousness.
And when we pass through these fiery trials and we come and
we're tempted to turn away from Him, the way we're going to be
kept depending on Him and trusting Him, you see, He's got to give
us grace and keep us by that grace to even keep this one commandment,
to believe Him and to love our brethren. And the way that he
does that is when we pass through the fiery trial, this one who
has feet of brass, this one who's already walked through the fire,
he appears in the fire with us just like he did Meshach, Shadrach,
and Abednego. And when he appears in this fire
with us, he continues to allure us and bring us back to him and
draw us back to him. And we utterly destroy our enemy. Just like God commanded Moses
to tell them. We utterly destroy our enemy.
How? By trusting Christ, who destroys
our enemy in our hearts. By faith. By faith. When faiths look into Christ,
there's no room for the enemy's gods, and so their gods are destroyed. We make no covenant with our
enemy, and we show no mercy, no compromise with our enemy.
One way. You know how? Trust in Christ
to keep us faithfully looking to Him. That's the only way.
That's the only way. Keep us looking to that everlasting
covenant of grace that He's made with us so He won't let us go.
That's how we make no covenant with Him. We enter no marriage
covenants with the sons and daughters of our enemy. Only one way. By
trusting Christ to keep us ever faithful to Him according to
the everlasting covenant of grace. You get what I'm saying? That's
the only way we're going to do these things that God commanded
Moses and Moses told them to do. We see what we'll do if we're
left to ourselves. We'll do what they did. We destroy
the vain altars of our enemy. We don't go out and burn down
churches and destroy altars and all that. If you did, it wouldn't
help. That would be a work just like
Just like any other vain work. How's that altar going to be
destroyed? Through faith in Christ. Trust in Christ to keep us abiding
in Him and to keep us stayed upon Him who's freed us from
the rudiments of this world and from the vain altars of this
world and from the vain traditions of men. That's how we're going
to be kept from it. Peter said, your adversary the
devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast. Well, how are we going to do
that? In the faith. In the faith. That's the only
way you can. The only way we can resist the devil is believing
on Christ. That's it. Cast all your care
into his hand who careth for you. When Christ comes between
us and the adversary, when Christ comes between us and the enemy,
when Christ comes between us and that thing that we're about
to reach out and grab and destroy ourselves, that's when we're
protected from that thing. And so the only way we fulfill
any of these commandments is through faith in Christ. Do you
believe that? Do you believe that? I hope so because it's
the only way we keep them. The only way. And we also love
one another by believing on Christ. That's how we love one another.
Because we show the greatest love we could possibly show for
another by remaining steadfast in faith. Holding fast the profession
of our faith. Because by that, we're showing
one another an example. We're showing one another that
there's nothing, nothing, no religion, nothing, nothing new,
nothing old, nothing anybody can come up with that a man can
come up with that men can make that is worth parting from Christ
for. Nothing. And that's what we're
showing one another. That's the greatest love you
can show another person. You parents, you mothers and
fathers, you husbands and wives, you're showing your children
love and example of faithfulness by staying together, aren't you?
Well, that's what I'm talking about. As believers, we show
another believer an example of faithfulness by staying in this
marriage union, by looking nowhere else but to Christ to whom we've
been espoused. And because we do so by His preserving
grace only, you know what we cry? Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and for Thy
truth's sake. And that's what God said. He
said, of me you're in Christ and of me Christ is made all
unto you that as many as glory will glory only in the Lord.
And that's what He did. Any other way that you keep these
commandments, you're going to glory in you and I'll glory in
me. If it's up to me to do it, I'm
going to glory in me and you're going to glory in you. But we
keep them simply by this gift of faith that He's given us and
by this grace sustaining us and keeping us trusting Him. I've been young and single as
a believer, and I know that's tough. That's difficult. That's
hard. The hardest thing in the world,
one of the greatest trials of faith is to trust and wait on
the Lord to send you someone who loves Him and delights in
His Gospel. That's a tough thing. But remember
that our Savior promises this. Now listen closely. If any man
serve me, Christ said this, if any man serve me, him will my
father honor. That's what he said. You believe
him? I believe him. I believe him. Proverbs 27, 18
says, Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof.
That's just a simple analogy. Whoever keeps the fig tree go
eat of the fig tree. And he said, So he that waiteth
on his master shall be honored. You see? And remember this, it's
not called a trial for nothing. It's not easy. It is a trial. It's difficult. Very difficult. But remember where our sufficiency
is. Look to Christ. Look to Him. Just look to Him. That's the
only place to look. And all the joy of having a faithful
spouse. Christ is that faithful spouse. He'll love you, and He'll keep
loving you, and He'll keep turning you to Him, and He'll keep sustaining
your faith, and He'll keep you, and He'll keep you, and He'll
keep you, and He'll keep you. And if He's pleased to send you
a believing spouse, there's nothing like it, nothing like it. To have somebody that knows Christ
and believes Christ that you can speak about. Somebody that
loves Him more than they love you. When you get angry at one
another, and the pressures of this life come in too tough on
you, and one of you runs off to one end of the house, and
the other one runs off to the other end of the house, you're thinking
the whole time, you're thinking, Christ died for her. I can't
be mad at her. I'm the dummy in this thing.
And most of the time, that other one's meeting you halfway when
you come back, saying the same thing you're saying to them.
I'm sorry. I'm acting so stupid. Forgive
me. Because you both know there's
something more important than either one of you. It's Christ. It's Christ. Alright, thirdly, briefly, I'll
show you this. God left enemies to teach His
children to continually cast all our care into His hands.
Look at verse 8. Therefore the anger of the Lord
was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Chushen
Rishethem, king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served
him for eight years. Our faithful Father is not going
to sell us, but He will chasten us. He will chasten us. You ever
force something out of your child's hand? He'll force everything
out of our hand. He'll destroy every vain refuge.
And it might cause great sadness and cause great pain, but He'll
bring His child to cry unto the Lord. Verse 9, And when the children
of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer
to the children of Israel. That's where He's bringing us
every time, to cry to Him. And when His child cries unto
the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer. He raised Him up
in our hearts, raised Him up before us on the cross, raised
Him up before us in His sovereign throne, ruling and reigning.
He raises Him up in our hearts. We see Him. We believe Him. And
each time He raises up Christ in our hearts, before the eye
of fate, He defeats our enemy. Verse 9. Who delivered them?
He delivered them. He delivered them. And when He
delivered them, look down at verse 11. The land had rest forty
years. That's where He brings us, to
rest. I want to show you three scriptures. This is the lesson in all these
warfares and all these proving. This is the lesson. It's threefold.
We learn it over and over. Look at Judges 2 and verse 3.
First we learn that our sufficiency is of God. Look at Judges 2 and
verse 3. Wherefore I also said, I will
not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns
in your sides, and their God shall be a snare unto you. God
gave Paul a thorn in the flesh, you remember? Do you remember
what it was for? It was this. lest I should be
exalted above measure, because He revealed His grace to me so
abundantly. There was given a thorn in the
flesh to messenger of Satan to buffet me. For this thing I sought
the Lord three times to remove it. And He said to me, My grace
is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee.
Most gladly, therefore, I'll rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Each battle in the warfare, each
trial, teaches us our sufficiency is His grace. It teaches us the
power of Christ is our sufficiency. It teaches us that when we're
weak, that's when we're strong. Secondly, look at 2 Corinthians
10. 2 Corinthians 10. Each battle, each proving that
He sends us through teaches us this, the weapons of our warfare
are of the Lord. Look at 2 Corinthians 10 verse
3. Though we walk in the flesh,
we don't war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought through the obedience of Christ." You know what the
obedience of Christ is? It's Christ's own obedience.
Everything God does, He brings us to see, to trust that He is
the righteousness we need to enter into glory. He brings us
to see that His obedience is our righteousness. And so He
brings us to trust His faithfulness. He brings us to use only the
Gospel and keep our mouth shut. And look, verse 6 says, "...and
having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience
is fulfilled." When He brings us to that place, to the feet
of Christ, when we fail in this warfare and we fail in these
trials, He brings us to the feet of Christ again and again. The
one that we're ready to avenge, revenge, is our own personal
disobedience. Our own personal disobedience.
In other words, it makes us ready to put off the old man with his
deeds, our wisdom, and our works, and our will, and put on Christ. Put on Christ. That's the weapon
of our warfare. It's him. It's not carnal. And
then thirdly, Turn over to Ephesians 6. We learn that our armor is of
God too. Our sufficiency is of God, the
weapons of our warfare are of God, and our armor is of God. Verse 10. Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord. and in the power of His might. Do you see that? Put on the whole
armor of God. It's His armor. That you may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God. that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore,
this is a warfare now, stand therefore having your loins girt
about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. We got our loins covered with truth, we got our breastplate
covered with righteousness, we got on the gospel of peace on
our feet. And above all, taking the shield
of faith, we've got to have a shield in this warfare, take the shield
of faith, wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Do you see that? This is what we learn in this
warfare over and over. It's not just a new believer,
it's a believer ongoing. The trials get tougher and we're
learning more and more. We're learning less and less
to trust us and more and more to trust Christ. So as the trial
progresses, we trust him more and ourselves less. Because our
sufficiency is God, our weapons of our warfare is of God, and
our whole armor is of God. That's what we're learning. That's
what we're learning. I pray now that God will bless
these words and deliver one of his tried saints. That's what
I pray. Amen.