God's people. God's people are sinners saved
by sovereign grace in Christ, the Son of God. By Christ, the
Son of God. For Christ, the Son of God. According to the promise of God
the Father to the Son of God. Paul stood in the synagogue of
the Jews at Antioch, Pisida, and here we have an outline of
what he spoke. In Acts 13, verse 17, he said,
The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted
the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt.
And with an high arm brought He them out of it. And about
the time of forty years suffered he their manors in the wilderness.
And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan,
he divided their land to them by lot. Now if God had not chosen
to entrust the people into Christ, we would have never chosen to
trust Him. If God had not made us His chosen
nation by His great love and according to His covenant promise
in Christ and revealed in us by the Holy Spirit that His people
are a chosen nation unto Him, His Israel, if He had not revealed
that in us, we'd gladly have taken our place among the heathen
nations of this world. Were it not for the fully accomplished
atonement made by Christ, our Redeemer, and witnessed in our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, there is no way we could have freed
ourselves from the bondage of Satan and sin to worship our
Lord. All the days that we journeyed
through the wilderness of sin before we ever knew Christ, If
it were not for the fact that for the sake of Christ Jesus
the Lord, the Lord God, the covenant God of heaven and earth, suffered
long, He long suffered with our rebellion because He had put
us in Christ and He viewed His people in Christ our surety.
And but for Christ our surety, He would have never suffered
so long with us in our rebellion. And then, if it wouldn't have
been for God Himself coming to us, through the Holy Spirit,
and in power, revealing Christ in us, and giving us the earnest
of our inheritance, giving us the Holy Spirit, so that we behold
that in Christ, because of what He accomplished, we're heirs
of God, and joint heirs with Him, with Christ. If He had never
done this, We would never have beheld that we have something
far greater than anything that this world can offer. And even
now, as we walk by faith, we're plagued by sin, within and without,
and we continually fail miserably in ourselves. And this world
endeavors to entrap us appealing to our flesh, to our old flesh,
and it's such a powerful, powerful thing that there's no way we
could continue in Christ. There's no way we could persevere
in faith, trusting Christ alone, if it were not for God preserving
us by His grace and continually delivering us in Christ our Deliverer. Did you know that that's what
the Book of Judges teaches? Did you know that the Book of
Judges teaches that very thing? God illustrates for the believer
throughout the book of Judges that if he left us to ourselves,
we would return to our former idolatry, we would return to
our former sins of immorality, the former lust of our flesh,
and it's but for his grace. It's but for the fact that Christ
has justified his people and made us holy and that that's
how we are accepted. We are accepted in the beloved
and but for the grace of God. Keeping us Christ our deliverer
who has saved us and is saving us and shall continue to save
us But for him doing that we would return back to our idolatry
this hour I Wanted you to sing that song I need thee every hour
every hour because that's the believers Confession every hour. I need him every hour I've not
yet arrived to the place where I don't need Christ. I've not
yet arrived to the place where I don't need my God to keep me
by His power. And I pray by His grace I never
arrive to that place. As Paul preached in the synagogue
at Antioch, that's exactly what he declared to the Jews and the
Gentiles concerning the true children of Abraham after they
were delivered into the land of Canaan. Verse 20 is the main
portion of our message tonight. We find there, he says, and after
that, from this time that's given here is from Egypt to their deliverance
into Canaan, after about the space of 450 years, the Lord
gave unto them judges until Samuel the prophet. Now here's what
I want you to get tonight. Everything which Paul declares
in the synagogue to Jew and Gentile as he gives this survey of the
Law and Prophets. We're given an outline of it
here. And as he gives this survey of the Law and Prophets, he's
telling us that God saves His people according to His promise. That's the title of the message,
according to promise. God saves according to His promise
in spite of the sin of His people. And God does it through the person
and work of Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, we've seen here already,
as we've looked at this opening outline of Paul's sermon, we
saw that what Paul said there in the beginning was, our fathers
didn't choose God, God chose them. In his son, Christ the
seed, the children of Israel began with about 70 men, starving
to death, who went down to Egypt. But God multiplied them into
a nation, just as he exalts his children. And in his son, Israel,
his son, who as a prince has prevailed with God and men. That's
what it means. The children of Israel were in
bondage and God redeemed them through the blood of His Lamb.
Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. That's what we learned
there. The children of Israel wandered
through the wilderness of sin and rebellion and rejection of
God, just like we did before we ever were brought to a spiritual
understanding of who God is. And God was long-suffering with
His people, with you who believe. In all that time of rebellion,
because He put you in Christ and Christ had redeemed you. The children of Israel could
not have overcome those seven nations which were more mighty
than they, but God gave them the victory and delivered their
inheritance to them by lot, just as God has made His children
heirs and joint heirs with Christ and given us the earnest of our
inheritance in the Holy Spirit. And now Paul says not only this,
but the children of Israel, in them we behold that they were
totally unable, totally incapable in themselves of continuing obeying
God. Even after he'd done all that
for them, they were unable to obey him. He had to keep them. He had to keep them. I know that
some of you have probably been taught that once the Holy Spirit
enters into you, He enables you somehow to keep God's law now. If that were the case, there
would be no need for Paul when he preached to say, don't yield
your members to the lust of this flesh. If the Holy Spirit enabled
you to trust, to obey His law, there would be no need for for
a word that tells us to remember. Don't yield to these members. What He does when He enters into
us is He gives us faith. He gives us strength to behold
by the eye of faith His Son. And in His Son, we behold that
He has completely, totally fulfilled the law of God for us as our
representative. And He has satisfied the justice
of that law as our substitute. And in Him, we are holy and accepted
by God Almighty. And He enables us through that
Spirit to stay on Him. And we turn in our flesh to the
left and to the right, and He keeps us right there. He brings us back to Christ.
And that's what we see throughout the Judges. Last week, last Sunday
morning, Brother Pete aptly brought out the fact that this world
that we're in, as he read from the Psalms, this world we're
in is the valley of the shadow of death. That's what it is. And for the believer, we start
out this earthly journey and this life of faith, and we think
like the children of Israel did, over in the book of Judges. We're
going to see that in just a moment. We think like they did. We're
excited. We see Christ. We behold what
our Lord has done for us, that He has truly delivered us and
made us His sons and that He's given us an inheritance in Christ.
And we're strong and we take off and we're bound and determined
that we're going to honor our God and serve our God and we
will not compromise. We will not fall back into that
sin and that rebellion anymore. Stay on him from here on out. But very soon we realize that
as long as we're in this body of death, in this valley of the
shadow of death, in this world, we're in the valley of Bokom. The valley of weeping is where
we are. The book of Judges opens with
the children of Israel gladly asking the Lord, who shall go
up against the Canaanites first to fight against them? They can't
wait. The Lord has said, you're going
to destroy the Canaanites. All these different nations that
are dwelling in the land of Canaan, you're going to wipe them out.
I want you to destroy them when you go in there. Don't compromise
with them. destroy them. And they're so
excited, they're so full of joy and rejoicing at what God has
done for them in delivering them that they said, who do you want
to go up against them first? And very shortly, in a very brief
amount of time, one by one, one by one, they began to make covenants
with the people. and leaving them there and compromising
with them. Now look at Judges 2. Judges
2 and verse 1. What happened? Judges 2 verse 1. And an angel
of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum and said, I have made
you to go up out of Egypt. and have brought you into the
land which I swear unto your fathers." He does this according
to promise, doesn't he? He said, I did this according
as I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break
my covenant with you. That's what the Lord God of Glory
says in the hearts of His people when He makes His covenant with
you. He says, I will never break my covenant with you. It's not
a bilateral covenant. It's not Him saying, I'll never
break my covenant with you, Michelle. If you promise me, you won't
break your covenant with me. If that was the case, we'll see
here right quick that we wouldn't have any hope whatsoever. But
when God makes His everlasting covenant in the heart of His
people, He says, I have sworn by myself. God can't lie. And He gives us
an assurance that by two immutable things. He swore by Himself. He made His promise in His Son. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit in covenant with God, in covenant with God,
who cannot lie. And He says, I'll never break
my covenant with you. I have saved you. I have chosen
you. I have redeemed you. I have bought
you. You are mine." And that's the
end of the story. You're going to be with me in
glory and that's how it is. And he says now, I made my covenant
with you. I will never break my covenant
with you. And you shall make no league with the inhabitants
of this land. Don't make a covenant with this
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 thorns in your sides, and their God shall be
a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the
angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of
Israel, that the people lifted up their voice and wept, and
they called the name of that place Bochum, the Valley of Weeping,
and they sacrificed there unto the Lord. They were not to enter
into league with the Canaanites in any way. Not sharing land,
not in business, not in marriage, and certainly not in worship.
The Lord was clear. Entering into league with them
would not result in the Canaanites worshipping the true and living
God. It would result in the children of Israel worshipping the Canaanites'
God. I know she's not a believer,
but my son's a believer and I think if they get married, maybe he
can witness to her and eventually she'll... Lord will save her. God said, you will end up worshiping
their gods. They won't end up worshiping
your gods. And the fact of the matter is this, it's not what
if God will or what might God do. This is what God has said.
Don't enter into a covenant with Him. Period. Now what do you
think He's going to bless? Us entering into a covenant with
Him or not? Apply this to yourself personally.
Just to you personally. Just think about this personally.
You worship God. You've been brought into a saving,
vital union with Christ. And you put away the big sins. You put them away. You mortify
your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, lust, and covetousness, and all
those things. You put those things away. sort of make a league with those
little sins. You make a covenant with your
flesh and say, well now, those other things are little sins
like anger and wrath and malice and blasphemy and filthy communication
and lying. Look at this big stuff I've done
away with. Now that stuff is small, small potatoes compared
to what I've put away. And here's how we generally justify
doing what is right in our own eyes. That's what they did. They
did what they thought was right in their own eyes. Here's how
we justify it. Well, now let's talk about this, fellas. We've
driven out most of the people. Just like you're looking. Well,
I've driven out most of those sins. We've driven out most of
the people. But it won't hurt now if we leave
a few of these folks. We've come into a land that's
a dry land. We're used to cultivating our
crops down in Egypt, where it's very fertile and wet. What if
we don't grow any crops this first year? How are we gonna
support ourselves? We leave a few of these folks here, make them
pay tribute. Read Judges chapter one. We make
them pay tribute. We make them pay taxes to us.
And we'll save up that money, and that way if our first year
doesn't pan out, we don't have many crops. As if God, who delivered
them into that land, wouldn't give the rain that they needed
to grow those crops. But in my own eyes, and in my
own wisdom, this sounds like a good plan. Now we can leave
a few of these folks here and make them pay tribute. I mean,
we've run almost all of them out of here. This is not a religious
thing we're talking about, folks. This is a secular choice. This
is a business decision we're making here. This don't have
anything to do with God. Now, it's just business. We can get these folks to pay
tribute, and you never know. You never know. They may just end up worshiping
with us. be a witness to them by being
so gracious to them that we bring them over and they worship our
God. And folks hear that, they say,
you know, that's gracious. Surely God wouldn't blame us
for wanting to leave them here to get this money like this because
we're trying to provide for our sons and our daughters. Oh, he's
a family man. That's good. We're doing this in case our
crops fail. We'll have some money saved up. We're thinking ahead.
You know, he's a businessman. He's a wise businessman. We give
our blasphemy pretty names. We call it real pretty things.
God calls it whoredom. That's what He tells them right
here. It's exactly what He called it. Where does disobedience to
God lead us personally? Where does it lead our children
personally? Where does it end up? Where does
it end up? Paul's told the Romans the end
of those things is death. Isn't it? The Lord shows us where
their compromise ended, and He does it by showing us where their
next generation ended up. He shows us the fruit of our
disobedience, the fruit of our sin, by showing us where their
fruit ended up, where their children ended up, their fruit. I'm just
saying now, think of this as just us, just me personally,
you personally. Think of when a little sin began,
where does it end up in us? Well, here's where it ends up.
Judges 2.10. Judges 2.10. And also that generation were
gathered unto their fathers, they died, and there arose another
generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the
works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam. And they forsook
the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the
land of Egypt. and followed other gods, of the
gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves
unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger, and they forsook the
Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth." Be sure you understand, it does
not say they forsook using the name of the Lord God of their
fathers. It does not say they forsook
the form of worship which the Lord God their fathers had given
them. That's not what they forsook
any more than they forsook the land which the Lord God had given
them. They merely added to what the
Lord God had given them. It started by simply leaving
a few folks in the land, just a little disobedient, just a
little bit. And they allowed these folks
to live among them. Just like we allow a little sin.
We just allow a little. Whatever our ism is. Everybody's
got an ism. Whatever ours is. We allow that
ism. Just a little bit. But slowly,
the children of Israel became accustomed to the precepts taught
by those heathen people. And they became accustomed to
their way of life. And they got used to it. And
it seemed normal to them. And it became the standard. And God allowed other nations
to ravage them to show His true sons and daughters that sin always
results in our own destruction. Now, you sitting here tonight
that know Him, that have been saved by His grace to believe
on Him, learn from this. And you who don't know it, listen
to this. It starts out small. It starts
out just a little bit. And we'll excuse it with some
name that just makes it seem not nearly as bad. There's a
day when you have off work. And let's say there's a time
you could go worship on that day that you're off. And instead,
you load up your family and you take them to watch a Titans ball,
Titans, I'm still in Tennessee. You take them to watch Philadelphia
play. The Eagles play ball. And we say, well, I'm just trying
to be a family man. I'm just trying to spend time
with my children. Think about it this way. Whenever
we meet to worship God, and it's just an example. When we meet
to worship God, God, if He meets with us, He's bringing us into
His presence to teach us, to edify us. Well, it don't hurt
to just miss one day. It doesn't. It doesn't hurt.
What if that one day is the day He's bringing us into His presence
for all eternity? What if that's the day that He's
returned and it's the day that He's bringing us in? Would you
in that day say, Well, I'm not going to go that day. I'm going
to go to the ball game." Well, you'd say, boy, I wouldn't do
that. He says, well, then don't make
light of coming into my house and worshiping me. any more than
we'd make light of lying to somebody or make light of any other sin. It's the same as just making
light of it. We excuse it and we give it some
name to make it sound honorable and to make it sound not quite
so bad. Well, He says here and He shows us it's going to end
in, if He allowed it to go on, it would end in destruction.
But in God's dealing with these children of Israel through the
judges, He also teaches us His faithfulness that He, because
He's satisfied with His Son, Christ the Lord, who perfectly
fulfilled His will, completely, who never had any guile in Him,
never had a double mind at all, a double heart at all. God the
Father deals with His justified sons and daughters as just that,
justified sons and daughters. That's how He deals with His
children. He turned them over and used nations to discipline
them just as you would turn your child over your knee and correct
them with a belt because you love them and you won't allow
them to be condemned with the world. And after He turned them from
their false way, He brought them to the point to where they cried
out. And then He did this. Look at
what Paul says in Acts 13.20. And after that, He gave unto
them judges. Now listen. Look at Judges 2.16.
It says, Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered
them out of the hands of those that spoiled them. What a word! Nevertheless. There's a word that magnifies
just how free, just how sovereign, just how sure God's grace is
for His children, that He's everlastingly love. Nevertheless. I'm not telling you, brethren,
that there's a point to where you can You can mortify the deeds
of your flesh to the point that you put away sin. I'm not saying that. I'm encouraging
us to do that. I'm encouraging us not to yield
our members, to give everything we've got not to. But the fact
of the matter is, as long as we're in this body of death,
we can't do it. We can't do it. But nevertheless,
nevertheless, The Lord raised up judges which delivered them
out of the hands of those that spoiled them." In spite of the rebellion of
his children, the rebellion that the believer still is in this
flesh, our faithful Father raises up Christ our Deliverer, and
that word means Savior. And He's our Deliverer continually. Look down in verse 18, Judges
2.18. And when the Lord raised them up, judges, then the Lord
was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their
enemies all the days of the judge. For it repented the Lord because
of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and
vexed them. Whenever he would raise up a
judge, a deliverer, the one who went forth and conquered their
enemies on their behalf, who saved them from their enemies. Whenever that judge was present,
they worshipped and they were steadfast in the Lord. But look
what happened. if they didn't have that judge.
Whenever that judge was out of sight, look what happened, verse
19, and it came to pass when the judge was dead that they
returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers in following
other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them. They ceased
not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. In the synagogue, as Paul was
there preaching, there sat before him folks who had rebelled against
God. Folks who didn't see their deliverer,
who didn't know the judge, and who didn't have any man to really
teach them the truth. Their fathers had The Pharisees
and the rulers, when Christ came, Paul will say that. We're going
to look at that later in another message. But Paul will say, they
at Jerusalem, they didn't know Him. They didn't know the prophets.
They didn't know what the Word of God said, and they crucified
Him. These were your leaders. These were the ones you thought
were your judges. But as Paul is preaching that
to them, Paul and Barnabas are men whom God has raised up to
truly teach them and who came forth with the message that God
has truly raised up the Savior, the Deliverer. And thereby, God's
going to save some folks in the synagogue. He's going to save
some folks right there that Paul and Barnabas are preaching to.
He's going to do it by telling them about their Deliverer. And
we come to this place week in and week out because as we do
so, What God is doing is when He blesses the message to your
heart and He causes you in your heart to behold your Judge and
your Deliverer, Christ Jesus your Savior, He causes you to
behold that that That one Satan who had you bound, who constantly
pointed out your sin to you, who constantly pointed out to
you your rebellion, who constantly made you to see that you can't
please God, who constantly whispered in your ear and said, you can't
serve God, you can't come into God's presence, you're no good.
He said, I've bound him, I've conquered him, and I've delivered
you from bondage. And I did it because I took your
sin upon myself, the deliverer said, and I went to the cross,
and I bore the wrath of God in your place, and I put away your
sin. And the only strength that devil
has is sin. That's the only tool he's got
to use is sin. Why is it men stand in pulpits
and preach the law as if you either have to keep it or you
can't come into God's presence? Because that's the only tool
Satan's got, is to make you feel like you're full of sin and you've
got to do something to get out of it. The deliverer comes to
you and says, I've taken you out of it. I've delivered you
from it. I've freed you from your captives. I've set you free.
I've set you in Mount Zion with me at the right hand of God and
you're free now. And when he does that, as long
as he lifts up the judge, as long as he makes you behold the
deliverer, as long as that judge is before your face and he's
teaching you in your heart and he's causing you to look out
of yourself to him, You'll serve Him. You'll follow Him. And He teaches us here through
these children, through these children in this nation of Israel,
that whenever that temporal, literal man wouldn't be there,
that God, He died because He was a man. Whenever that man
would die, just a regular man, when He would die, They'd go
right back into their rebellion, right back to worshiping other
gods, right back into captivity, right back into their enemy's
hand that spoiled them. But, when God would raise up
another judge, they would worship God. What's that telling us? That's telling us if God does
not raise up the judge before our eyes, if He does not cause
us to see Christ our Deliverer continually, brethren, if He
left us for one minute, We'd go right back, corrupting ourselves,
right back into the hand of the enemy, right back to that law,
thinking, well, I've got to do something. I've got to do something
to amend my way and fix my ways. And this message, this is the
only message. Through this message. You know
what God caused them to do? Even though a man, a believer,
cannot do it perfectly, through this message, it gives us strength
because of the love of Christ that constrains us to say, I
don't want to yield my members to whatever that is that I've
been doing. I don't want to do that anymore.
But when the Deliverer is not exalted, when He's not exalted,
we look at the gods of this world, we look at this world's religion,
and we begin to think, well, that's how I'm going to have
to amend my ways. And all we're doing is delivering
ourselves right into the hand of the Canaanites and making
a covenant with them and saying, okay, I'll bow down to your God.
I'll bow down and worship your God. But He brings us back. He lifts up somebody to preach
the gospel and He brings Christ into our heart and we behold,
I'm accepted. I'm holy in God. And we behold
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts and we say, this
is what's making me not want to walk the way of this world.
This is what makes me want to serve Him. God delivers His people in spite
of us. And Paul declared God's grace
in the Judges. And he said, I'm going to deal
with this next part next time. I'm not going to go into it.
I'm going to stop right here. But I want to show you something
over there in Judges. Look with me. Let me find this. Judges 1. It just occurred to
me as I was preaching this message. I tried to look at this today
and all week I saw it. I kept trying to come back to
it and it just occurred to me. It just occurred to me. Look
at Judges 1.22. And the house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel.
And the Lord was with them. Now, that's important. The Lord
was with them. And the house of Joseph sent
to descry Bethel. Now the name of the city before
them was Luz. And the spies saw a man. This
is the spies from the house of Joseph. They saw a man come forth
out of the city. This is a Canaanite man. This
is one of the men they're supposed to destroy. And they said unto
him, Show us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we
will show thee mercy. Now, it's important to note here,
the Lord was with them. The Lord was with them. They were to do one of
two things. They were either to kill the
people or drive them out of the land. That's what they were supposed
to do. And they said to this man, they
said, if you'll tell us how to get into this city, we'll show
you mercy. The Lord's with them. We'll show
you mercy. We'll let you go. Well, aren't
they making a covenant with him? Nope. You know what they're telling
this man? We will not kill you, but you getting out of this land.
You have got to get out of this land. And look what this man
did. And when he showed them the entrance
into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword,
but they let go the man and all his family. Now listen to what
this man did. This is a heathen man. This is
an idolater. This is a man that don't know
God. Listen to what this man did. And the man went into the
land of the Hittites. He left Canaan. He went into
the land of the Hittites and built a city and called the name
thereof Luz, which is the name thereof unto this day. Why did
God put this here? Before it, it tells us that Benjamin
did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem, but
the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem
unto this day. Right after it, it goes through
every tribe telling who they made covenant with that dwells
among them. But it says here, they said to
this man, you're going to have to get out of here. You can tell
us and we'll spare you and your family, but you've got to leave
this land." And the man left the land. He left Canaan and
went to the land of the Hittites and there he built a city. The
Lord was with them. He told them to go to the house
of Joseph. Why did the Lord put this right here in the midst
of all that? A heathen, idolatrous man stood for his idolatrous
God and wouldn't join himself with the children of Israel and
left that land and dwelt with his own people in his own city
apart from them because he wouldn't compromise with them. And God
says, now if an idolater will do that, how come you won't do
it whom I've shown all this mercy to? You see that? This man did what God, this heathen
man, did what God told them to do. When he was shown mercy,
he separated himself from the children of Israel, and he went
to his own people, and he dwelt among his own people, and he
wouldn't join himself with them and compromise with them. And
the Lord's showing us, now, when you consider the mercy that I've
shown to you and my son, don't you go joining yourself with
them. This man didn't even know the true and living God, and
look what he did. Now, you who know me," he said,
what are you going to do? Are you going to just look over
this thing called rebelling and this thing called not obeying
me and not trusting me? Or are you going to continue
in it? Do you see that? Is that clear? Our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul is
teaching here, I read some of the writers and different scholars
say that Paul was appealing to the Jewish people because he's
telling them how favored they are. When I preach the Gospel,
I preach the grace of God to show how gracious God has been
to His people. But at the same time that Paul
is preaching the grace of God, he's saying, But it wasn't due
to your fathers, and it ain't due to you. You see what grace
is when you see just how rebellious our fathers were and how rebellious
we are. He did this because he's going
to save according to promise. We'll pick up there and look
at the rest of it next time.