If you would turn with me again
to Judges chapter 2. I want to read the first five verses.
Judges chapter 2. Judges 2 verse 1. And an angel
of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum and said, I made you
to go up out of Egypt. and have brought you unto the
land which I swear, which I promised unto your fathers. And I said,
I will never break my covenant with you. And you shall make no league
with the inhabitants of this land. You shall throw down their
altars, but ye 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 storms
in your sides, and their gods 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 Bokom, and they sacrificed there unto the Lord. From our study in Joshua and
from our first couple of studies in the first chapter of Judges,
Israel, rather than believe God for victory over their enemies,
they chose to keep them alive and to keep them near to them. We saw that in the last study. Why? Well, as we saw for the
gain of the world, to acquire wealth and riches, they made
them tributaries. They endeavored to serve two
masters, both God and mammon. Friends, you can't do it. You
can't serve God in this world. There are many ways to serve
two masters and many do so without even knowing it. And I was surprised
to find that Webster actually defined that term to serve two
masters by, in this way, it says to give equal support to two
different causes. But to do so is actually impossible. The Lord Jesus said so himself.
Our Lord said, no man can serve two masters. We don't have the
ability to serve two masters. No man can. No man has the ability. And this is why, when all is
said and done, the Lord said, he'll hold to one and forget the other. Leave the other. Despise one and let the other
go. They'll cling to one and let
the other go. You cannot love two things the
most. That's what I'm trying to say. We saw that in Jacob and Leah
and Rachel. Laban had two daughters in the
name of the elder Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel,
and it says that Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and
well-favored. You remember the story. Jacob
served seven years, thinking it was for a hand in marriage
with Rachel. And then Laban deceitfully gave
him Leah. And Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, I'll serve these
seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Ladon said, well,
it's better that I give her to you than that she should be with
another man. So abide with me. Go ahead and
work seven more years. And Jacob did that. He served
seven more years for Rachel. And the Scripture says they seemed
as just a few days to him because he loved her so much. So again, you cannot serve God
and mammon, you cannot love two things the most. Especially when
they oppose one another and you can't hold on to two opposing
things without yourselves being torn apart. That word mammon
in the original Greek language means wealth and riches. And
Paul told Timothy, he said, but they that will be rich fall into
temptation and a snare. and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts." We see folks that are well off in this world and they're
the most miserable people in all creation. No matter how much
you got, it's never enough. And he said, it's a temptation
and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown
men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil. Money itself is not. We've got
to have money to live. But it's the love of money, which
while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows. And again, we know
from the Scriptures that all Scriptures for the benefit of
God's people. May God enable us to learn from
the mistakes of Israel, who picture and typify God's people today.
These things, as we've said many times in our studies of the Old
Testament, were written aforetime for our learning. Oh, that God
might allow us to learn some things. Sometimes I wonder if
I've learned anything at all. The way that I act and carry
on myself, you know, in my own mind, the things that I think
The things that upset me, just light affliction, and yet they
upset us so. And this is why we're always
ready to preach the Word of God instant, in season, and out.
Paul said for reproof, conviction, I love preaching that convicts
me. He said for rebuke, for correction,
I love preaching that corrects me and teaches me. and then also
for exhortation, encouragement, and comfort. And I definitely
love that kind of preaching. I need to be encouraged and comforted.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Why? That the man of God may
be perfect, mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Now again, verse one, and an
angel, a messenger of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum
and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt and I have brought
you into the land which I swear unto your fathers. And I said,
I'll never break my covenant with you. Now here, Israel is
confronted by a messenger of God and his words are not only
reminders, but warnings. The Word of God is full of warnings.
And this messenger is said to be the angel of God, God's messenger. And it says that he came up from
Gilgal. Well, what's the significance
of that? Well, if you remember, Gilgal was the place where the
Lord renewed His covenant Israel, and it's where the people that
were born in the wilderness, the 40 years that they wandered
in the wilderness, it's the place where they were circumcised,
the males were circumcised and consecrated to the Lord. And
the name Gilgal means a wheel, a wheel rolling. I was thinking about that. The
Lord rode away the reproach of Egypt upon Israel. God raised
up Egypt and Pharaoh for that very purpose, that He might show
His power in them and His deliverance of Israel and that His name might
be declared throughout all the earth. The important thing to
see there is that God Himself was their Deliverer. And to me,
this can be none other than the messenger of the Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because He's the only one that
can bring up out of Egypt. He's the only one that can bring
in to the land of promise. He's the only one that can covenant
with His people. And He's the same yesterday and
today and forever. He never changes. And that's
why that we, the sons of Jacob, that we are, are not consumed. The Gibeonites, well, actually,
Rahab saw this in Joshua chapter 2, and the Gibeonites saw it
in Joshua chapter 9, and they saw, and their hearts didn't
melt with fear. You remember that? That's what
they both said. We've heard about you, your God.
And our hearts didn't melt when we heard that you had come into
our land. The nation of Israel was God's
people. And the church of God today,
the true church, is God's people. And the Lord was on their side.
And friends, the Lord is on our side. The messenger of the Lord
came down, or came from Gilgal to Bochum. Now the word Bochum
means weeping. And sadly, because of unbelief,
Israel rode their former bondage from Egypt right on with them
like a wheel all the way from Gilgal, where God's blessing
was upon them, to Bokom, where they're called Weeping, a place
of weeping. This is the road that so many
travel. The road from Gilgal to Bokom. From blessings, to weeping. I'd call your attention to three
things here in particular found in verse 1. These three things
concern the Lord God of Israel and they belong to God alone.
First, deliverance. The Lord said, I made you to
go up out of Egypt. Moses wasn't the deliverer. Moses
was the instrument that God used to deliver Egypt. God was the
deliverer. Oh, don't ever get your eyes
on a preacher, or put more trust in a preacher, he's just a man,
he'll let you down. Keep your eyes on the Lord who
delivers. Second thing, salvation. The
Lord said, I have brought you into the land which I swear,
the land which I promised. The Lord's promised a place for
His people. He said, I go to prepare a place for you, and
where I am, you shall be also. It's the Lord. Salvation's of
the Lord, isn't it? And then the third thing here
is faithfulness. The Lord God is faithful. The Lord said, I will never break
my covenant. And He never will. This is the
language of God. This is the language of glory.
He said, I made, I have, I will, I swear. What positive words
of assurance that only the Lord Himself can speak. Now we say
things like, I will, and we have good intentions. I've heard that
good intentions pave the road to hell. But when my Lord says, I made
and I have and I will, you can count on it. Positive words of assurance that
only the Lord could speak. God delivers his people from
their bondage of sin. It was God who said, let my people
go. It was God that made Israel to
go up out of Egypt. It was God that sent the plagues.
It was God who divided the Red Sea. It was God who stopped the
powerful flow of the Jordan River when its banks overflowed in
the season of flooding. It was God that gave Israel the
land of promise. It was God that defeated all
their enemies. God did it all. Exodus 20 verse
2, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. He tells us who delivered
Israel. And He tells us in this book,
everywhere in it, who delivered us out of bondage. He did. The second thing, salvation of
the Lord, it was God who brought Israel in the Promised Land.
And the believer's salvation, it was Christ who died. The just
for the unjust to what? Bring us to God. The only hope
that you and I have of ever being in the presence of the God that
loved us and gave Himself for us is that Christ died for us.
He being the just One, us being the unjust, that He might reconcile
us to God and bring us before His presence justly. He's a just God and a Savior. Exodus 13, 5, And it shall be,
when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites,
and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Habites, and the Jebusites,
which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee a land flowing with
milk and honey. If He promised to give it, you
can write it down. You're going to get it. Exodus 13, 11, And it shall be,
when the Lord shall bring thee into the land. It's the Lord
that brought them into the land. as He sware unto thee and to
thy fathers, and shall give it thee. Know ifs, ands, and buts
about it. Exodus 23, 31, And I will set
thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the Sea of the Philistines,
and from the desert unto the river. For I will deliver the
inhabitants of the land into your hand. and thou shalt drive
them out before thee." Joshua couldn't take credit for this.
The men of war couldn't take credit for this. It was the Lord
that did it. We can't take credit for our deliverance. We can't
take credit for our salvation. It's God Almighty that saves
us and delivers us. He gets all the honor and glory.
Leviticus 14, 34, When ye be come into the land of Canaan,
which I give to you for possession, All that we have in this life,
God gave us. And all that we'll have in the
next life is God that gave it. What do we have to brag about?
What do we have to boast in? Numbers 15, 8, speaking to the
children of Israel and saying to them, when you come into the
land with her, I bring you. Our deliverance is the same.
It's God that has brought us. 1 Peter 3.18, for Christ also
has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God. How? Being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. That's how we live eternally. We're put to death in this flesh.
We've got to put this flesh to death. And we have to be quickened
by the Spirit of God. Oh, if you're here tonight and
you love Christ and you trust in Christ alone, it's God that
did that. It's God that put that life in
your heart. The Lord Jesus said, another
sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also must I bring. Them must I bring. Also, John
10, 16. Salvation is by God's grace. Let's never let that be just
a cliche or something we'd stick on a bumper sticker or whatever.
Salvation is by God's grace. And that grace is a gift to us. God didn't have to give it. Well,
if you have to give someone a gift, it ceases to be a gift, doesn't
it? Why do dead sinners try to take credit for what God has
done? I don't understand that. Then the third thing is, God
is faithful to promise. God says, I'll never break my
covenant with you. Know therefore that the Lord
thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant mercy
with them that love Him. Paul wrote, God is faithful by
whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord. There is no temptation taking
you, but such is common to man. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that ye are able,
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that
you may be able to bear it. There's nothing that we face
in this life that we're not able to bear with Christ as our Lord,
and as our Savior, and as our Provider, and our Sustainer. Sarah was given a child when
she was past age, as the Scripture said, because she judged Him,
God, faithful. Faithfully promised, Hebrews
10, 23. He's faithfully promised. Everything
that He's promised, He's faithful to fulfill. I think the problem is, well
I know the problem is, I don't think, but I know the problem
is, we don't think He is. Not like we should. Now in the
next verse, we see three things here concerning natural men and
women. This is talking about every one of us. By nature, this
is in all of us, verse two, and you shall make no league with
the inhabitants of this land. You shall throw down their altars,
but you've not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? By nature, every man and woman
born of woman loves the world and the things in it. That's
the first thing. That's exactly what Israel did. They made leagues,
they made covenants with their enemies. Instead of destroying
them as God told them to, as God commanded, they made them
tributaries as we saw in the last study. And instead of killing
them, they taxed them. They did this for their own financial
gain. They loved Mammon more than God.
Worldly riches had become their master. You know, when I've paid
my taxes in the past, I've said more than once, these taxes are
killing me. But I would certainly rather
pay taxes than to be killed. And I've before said in a way
of jesting that I'd rather take a beating than to pay my taxes.
That's not true. I've learned to be thankful I
can pay them, but yet I still complain. In Egypt, Israel had
taskmasters, and now in Canaan, they've become taskmasters. They
had become no different than Egypt. Remember, these things
were written aforetime for our learning, our reproof, conviction,
our rebuke, correction, and for our exhortation and encouragement.
Secondly, every man and woman is an idolater by nature. They
again did what the Lord charged them not to do. This brought
about a rebuke from the angel of the Lord. God said, throw
down their altars. They should have destroyed their
altars when they first came into the land. When they captured
them, destroyed them in the beginning. They took several cities under
the command of Joshua. They should have cast down all
their idols then. In doing so, they would have
showed their disgust and their hatred for idolatry and their
love and commitment to God. But again, they did not do what
God commanded. Which brings us to the third
thing. Men and women by nature are disobedient. God said, you have not obeyed
my voice. That's pretty simple and plain,
isn't it? Pretty direct. You have not obeyed
my voice. You know, it'd take a whole series
of studies to cover all the times that Israel disobeyed God. And
before we're too quick to jump on Israel's back, I'm telling
you, it would take even more studies to cover all the times
that you and I have. The Lord asked a very pertinent
question here, the last sentence in verse 2. Why have you done
this? Have you ever asked yourself
that question? I have. Why did I do that? Why did I do that? And it's important
to understand that the Lord's not asking this question because
He doesn't know the answer. He's not requesting information. He knows everything. This is
actually a question of love and mercy and grace. It's like the
Lord calling to Adam and saying, Adam, where art thou? He knew
where Adam was. I have no doubt in my mind that
when he called for Adam, if Adam had came before the Lord and
fell on his knees and asked God to forgive him, that God would
have. I just don't have any doubt about that. But he didn't, did
he? He said, the woman you gave me,
she gave me to eat and I ate because of her. Well, what do
you have to say, young lady? Well, the serpent beguiled me.
It's everybody's fault but ours. Amen or oh me. Why have you done this? It's like the Lord saying to
His people through Ezekiel, why will you die, O house of Israel?
Why will we die when we've got life right in front of us? This addresses the unbelievable
thought of sin to a people who have been so blessed. How much more miserable is a
man's sin who has experienced the gift of grace? How could
one blatantly disobey God who's been given so much by God's love
and mercy and grace? Well, I'm guilty. You know, I never wanted to disappoint
my father. I loved that man, and there's
no doubt in my mind that he loved me. He would have died for me. But Chris, there were times I
did disappoint him. And I remember one time in particular
that I did, he was so upset with me. And the reason he was is
because he expected so much more from me. And he said, son, why have you
done this? And it still hurts my heart to think about it. I
know why I did it, because I wasn't thinking about anybody but myself. Then in verse 3, we see the results
of their disobedience and ours. Sin and disobedience, we've said
this so many times, it always has consequence. It does. But
to a child of God, It falls under the gracious category of chastisement. The Lord chastises, He corrects
those that He loves. If we could just see it for what
it is. For mercy's sake, they had to be punished for their
transgressions. But chastisement from the Lord
is gracious punishment. The Lord allowed the Canaanite
nations to grow strong so that they grievously oppressed Israel. Verse 3, wherefore I also said,
I will not drive them out from before you. The same God that
had said, I've delivered all your enemies into your hand.
They're yours for the taking. He knocked them off their horses
with hailstone from heaven. Well, we're not going to kill
you. We're just going to collect some money from you. We're going
to keep you around for our own personal gain. And the Lord said,
I'm not going to drive them out from before you. They shall be
as thorns in your sides, and their God shall be a snare unto
you. And that's exactly what happened.
What a warning this is. And here's another one of my
mama's sayings for you. I heard it all my life. You made
your bed, now lie in it." That's what the Lord's saying. You made
your bed, you lie in it. In other words, you made your
decision, so accept its consequences. Israel got what they asked for.
It's as if the Lord said, you desired riches, you desired their
riches. I'll turn those riches into thorns
in your side. If you want to embrace strange
gods, go right ahead. I'll make them a trap to you. It's the same as saying, I'll
give you what you wanted. I remember some 30 plus years
ago when I first, Teresa and I and our family started attending
this church. Hard to believe it's been that
long ago. 1989. And I heard a man in this
church, he was a believer, he's no longer with us. And I'll never
forget him praying, Lord, deliver me from my will. He said, don't give me what I
want, Lord. Give me what you want. I've never forgotten that. But sadly, in most cases, most
of the time, we don't know what's best for us. But we know the
one who does. And we need to learn to pray,
Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. Learning to lean. I listened
to that little course today. I found it and listened to it
again. I thought, Lord, that's what I want to do. I want to
learn to lean on You. Finding more power than I ever
dreamed, I'm learning to lean on the Lord Jesus Christ. I am
learning. I'm just a slow learner. Now look at verse 4. 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 sang. Did they lift up their voice
and dance? No, they lifted up their voice
and wept. You know, disobedience in the
believer always brings about the same result. When our idolatry and our unbelief
is exposed to us by the one who truly loves us, just like my
dad did me. He pointed something out to me
and oh, it broke my heart because I knew I disappointed him. But
when our idolatry and unbelief is exposed to us, the one who
loved us and gave himself for us, the tears will steadily flow. I'm disappointed, my God. And why do we, why do these tears
flow? Because we see and understand
that there was no rhyme or reason for our actions. Sadly, which
sadly makes it even worse, really. There was and is no excuse for
our rebellion. Teaching us to pray. The Lord
Jesus said, pray after this matter. He said, Lord, holy, right, and
just is Your name. Hallowed be Thy name. The Lord's
holy. We're not. We've got to be holy
in order to be reconciled to Him. He's got to make us holy.
Lord, You're always right. You always do what's right. Forgive
us our debts, our sins. They're debts. They're debts
to a holy God. For we know that our sins and
our debts are many, and they just keep multiplying. Every time the news shows those
rapid-clicking numbers of our national debt, you ever seen
that? Just click, click, click, click, yeah, and there's more
going up all the time. I think about the sin of this
world. If correctly tallied, man's sin would be much more
than 32 trillion. Thank God that Christ paid for
all our debt. Past, present, and future. All of it. Teach us to pray,
Lord. Teach us to pray, Lord, Thy will
be done. Not my will, but Thy will be
done. Not our sinful will, but Your glorious will. After all, His will is to do
us good. Why wouldn't we pray for His
will? Our will does us harm. Lead us not into temptation.
Lord, don't even let us be tempted, for we know we'll fail. So, don't
even let us be tempted. Lord, deliver us from evil. Deliver
us from ourselves, because we are evil. We love darkness rather
than light. Why? Because our deeds are evil. Well, brother, I just don't think
I'm that bad. Well, I hate to tell you, but
you're worse for not knowing that, that they're bad. Lord, you know what we have need
of before we even ask. That was part of that prayer.
We're so needy, aren't we? Lord, have mercy on us for Christ's
sake. Verse 5, and they called the
name of that place Bokom, weepers, what it means, and they sacrificed
there unto the Lord. Boy, that's a wonderful thought
there. How many professing believers
experience Gilgal, the blessings of God's providential will, but
wind up residing in Bokom, a place of weeping. And we don't have
anybody to blame but ourselves. Did you notice here in verse
5 there that they sacrificed and invoked them unto the Lord? The sorrowful weeping of tears
can't put away sin. Christ is our only hope of forgiveness.
Our sins cannot be undone, but they can be forgiven. They can
be put away. We can't undo them, but God can. Verse 5 says, Israel sacrificed
unto the Lord. And there's a great lesson here.
The forgiveness, the atonement of sin can only be found in the
great sacrifice of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. We sacrifice
unto the Lord. What do we sacrifice? The Lord.
We offer Him up as our sacrifice. That perfect sacrifice. The only
sacrifice that God will accept. He puts away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. That is the gospel. Christ doing
for us what we could not do for ourselves. Shelly, we like that
definition, don't we? We can't do what God requires. Christ did it for us. That's substitution. And that's
my only hope of being saved. Now in closing, I want you to
look at verses 6-10, and here we see the differences between
Gilgal and Bochum. The difference between joy and
weeping. The difference between blessing
and cursing. The difference between comfort
and pain. Verse six, and when Joshua had
let the people go, the children of Israel went every man into
his inheritance to possess the land. And the people served the
Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that
outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord
that he did for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the
servant of the Lord, died being 110 years old. and they buried him in the border
of his inheritance in Timnath years, and in the mount of Ephraim
on the north side of the hill Gash." Verse 10, and also, all
that generation were gathered under their fathers, and there
arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord,
nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. You see, when
Joshua was alive, Israel was kept in remembrance of all the
great things that God had done for them. Don't you just know
that in the camp of Israel, as they sat around the fire at night,
that that's what they talked about? I still remember us being
in Egypt, and God sent those plagues, and God sent flies,
and God did this, and God did that, and He did it for us. But when Joshua died and the
elders, they continued conversing the glorious preaching of what
God had done and pretty soon they died off and there arose
another generation. And verse 10 says that they knew
not the Lord nor the works he had done for Israel. And this
shows the importance, the crucial importance of teaching our children
in this younger generation. When they left Gilgal to Bokom,
other gods, idols, the idols of these Canaanite nations, entered
into their world. How did this happen? It happened
because, first of all, Israel, for the love of money, the root
of all evil, kept these heathen nations around and they infiltrated
the minds of the younger generation. You know, I saw a statistic the
other day on television. that said just a few years ago,
60 to 65% of folks under the age of 30 years old thought attending
church was important. Now, I won't go into all the
details of that as far as, I'd say attending some churches is
probably not good. But you know what I'm saying.
At least the overall opinion of people at that age was, yes,
it's important to go to church. And that number today is down
to 30%. half of what it was just a few short years ago. This world
and the prince of this world has infiltrated the minds of
this younger generation and they have no interest in God, they
have no interest in Christ, they have no interest in the gospel.
Things are accepted today that in my younger days, which I know
is beginning to seem like a long time ago, but they wouldn't be
tolerated. This is one of the big reasons
why nobody has a need for God today. Everybody's doing okay
on their own. Everyone's doing quite well.
So beloved, let's make it our business to avoid compromise
at all costs. Teach our children to strive
to make this younger generation aware of the God of this Bible. I told you this past Sunday that
that all I ever heard about growing up in church was about a God
that wanted to, was trying to, loved everybody. Nobody loved
Him back. He just wrung His hands and He cried and He wept and
said, won't somebody love me back? And I got to the point
and said, I ain't worried about that God. He's not going to be
able to do anything to me. I'll just make Him change His
mind. Lord, let us keep Gilgal fresh
in our minds. The wills of providence bring
great blessing for those that trust in Christ. Did you hear
me? Lord, don't let us compromise
our lives in Bokom. It'll only bring about sorrowful
weeping, I can assure you of that.