Good evening. It's so wonderful
to be here tonight as we continue our study in the book of Judges.
We're in Judges chapter 5. Judges chapter 5, we have a song
of Deborah and Barak at Judges chapter 5 and verse 1. Then sang
Deborah and Barak. So, we have this song that they
sing. Apparently, Deborah is the author
of it, and Barak gets to join in. It's a song that we have
recorded here. But before we go into the book
of Judges, we've mentioned the name Barak here. I would like
you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews. Keep your place here
in Judges chapter 5. But turn with me to the book
of Hebrews, if you would, the book of Hebrews chapter 11, and
you'll recognize that right away as being the chapter about those
who God had given faith. And in the book of Hebrews chapter
11, verses 32 and 33, We're going to be acquainted
with some of these judges already, some of them are in the future,
but one of them that we've been studying about, Barry, is mentioned
here in this passage of scripture in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews
chapter 11, and there in verse 32, the scriptures share this,
and what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon." And Gideon is going to be our next judge in
Judges chapter six. And of Barak, here is the one
that we're studying about here in Judges chapter four and chapter
five. He is one that's going to be
singing this song. And then we have Samson and Jephthah
and David, also of Samuel and the prophets. who through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions." It's such a blessing to read over here in the book
of Hebrews from the mercy standpoint, from the grace standpoint, from
the act of God standpoint, and read about Barak being a man
of faith. and Gideon, and Samson, and Jephthah. And as we go back in chapter
four, we found that Beric was kind of timid. He was not all
that interested, and he had to be encouraged by Deborah. So,
we have him mentioned over here. God gave him faith, It is perfect
faith that God gives. Our faith is imperfect. It's
unacceptable. It will not contact God, but
His faith given to us will. All right, let's go back here
to the book of Judges, chapter 5, and we'd like to go through
this chapter, this song that is given to us. This entire chapter,
chapter 5, is a song of praise and thanksgiving for the victory
that God gave Israel over Sisera and the cruel king Jabin. And we can find in that how God
wins the victory over all our enemies and how thankful we are
and how we praise Him and it's incumbent upon us to sing songs
of praise unto Him. As we go through this song we
will come to the conclusion once again that God is gracious even
with so much that opposes God's presence. All right, here in
the book of Judges, Judges chapter 5, and let us start here in Judges
chapter 5 with verse 8. In verse 8, it tells us this. Now, in this song, and this was
written as a song, a lot of metaphorical words used in this, Just as in
any song, Amazing Grace, there's a lot of metaphors in there,
a lot of pictures, types, and shadows. But here we have in
this song of Deborah and Beric, it says, and they chose new gods
when then was war in the gates, was their shield or spear, even
among 40,000 in Israel. So they chose new gods, and the
old ones soon wear out. or get lost. Only the eternality
of God and His blessings will satisfy the saved. So if you
don't know Christ, if you don't know God, if you don't know the
gospel, we're going to be trading around gods. Even if we stay
in the same church, we're going to be trading around gods. It's
just never satisfactory. We no longer look for a new God
once the Lord saves us. We are pleased to know more about
the God. And we're going to find some
of that here in this song of Deborah and Beric. But keeping
that in mind, turn over to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32.
Deuteronomy chapter 32, verses 30 through 33, we have these
words written about the difference between the God of gods, the
God of the church, the God of believers, the God of the saints,
and the God of the world, or gods of the world, I should say.
Here in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32 and verse 30, the
Word of God gives us this information. How should one chase a thousand
and two put 10,000 to flight except their rock had sold them
and the Lord had shut them up? So how can two, one enemy or
two enemies run so many only when the rock is so limp. In
verse 31 it says, for their rock is not our rock. So they have
the new God, our God is the old rock, even our enemies themselves
being judges. For their vine is of the vine
of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall,
their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons
and cruel venom of asps. It is not this laid up in store
with me and sealed up among my treasures." What a statement
it makes there in verse 31 that their rock is not our rock. And the translators did us a
favor when they put their rock, small case R, is not our rock,
large case R. And this is what we read with
regard to Israel. Spiritual Israel has the rock.
and the world, religion has the small rock. So this is always
the ones that are choosing the new gods. They chose new gods.
Now, have you thought about this scene? Here we have Deborah and
Beric, and last week we read about Deborah and Beric jail
I Wonder if there was anybody that wanted rid of the 900 chariots
of iron Plus that army of the Canaanites that had been there
Been a thorn in their side for so long Thought that deliverance
would come in the way that God brought deliverance through two
women and a half-scared man we have Deborah and jail and we
have barrack and Now Barak is told to us that he has faith,
and we take that to the bank because God gave him faith. But
from a human standpoint, he was half scared. And he was encouraged
by Deborah to get involved. We hear in this song, verses
1 through 11, the celebrating the victory. the human means
that was used, the leaders led, followers followed, and we find
that always God works in the same way that we, as recorded
in Matthew 9, verse 38, pray ye therefore the Lord of the
harvest that he will send forth labors into his harvest. So he's
the one that drew up this great army of thousands that was going
to be led by Barak and then we're going to be victorious in this
battle. And we just find that constantly the Lord reminds us
that it's he that raises up the people. He is the Lord of the
harvest. He will send forth his laborers
into his harvest. And that's exactly what he did.
What does 900 chariots of iron look like to God? Dust on the
balances. We have an outline of how God
defeats the enemy. And just remember, God's promises
are just as good as his performance. What he says, he will do. What he promised, he will perform.
And we get to look in on how he does his business and who
he uses to do it. and who he does it to. So we're
going to see in this song, as we saw in the previous chapter,
we're going to see how God does his business. It's totally different
than we would have designed it, but it is victorious, and God
takes care of business, and he uses human instrumentality, and
so often it is weak human instrumentality. And then he takes the enemy,
and he does it to them. He performs his word on them,
And they are in total defeat. There's not one left. And we're
going to see that as we follow this whole principle to the cross,
that once he went to the cross and he laid down his life, a
ransom for his sheep, that he took care of every enemy. There
was nothing left. They were all defeated. And to
the world, that was a mockery. To the world, it showed weakness.
To the world, it showed that he couldn't deal and perform,
but to God it was his means and manner of taking care of the
sin issue. As we look here in the book of
Judges chapter five, as we think about the song as it goes on
through here, we find in verse 10 of Judges chapter five, verse
10, that there's quite an army raised up What do we have here? Judges chapter, chapter 4, excuse me, chapter
4, Judges chapter 4 and there in verse 10. In Judges chapter 4 and verse
10, this is the army that's going to go up against 900 chariots
of iron and the entire army, the Canaanite army. It says here,
Barak called Zebulon and Naphtali to Kadesh, and he went up with
10,000 men at his feet, and Deborah went up with him. So it looks
like a large army, but in comparison, It's a small army, but much is
little when God is in it. And we find that God moved upon
10,000 to join the army. They were willing to go in the
day of his power. And that's what the Lord says.
And with regards to being made willing in Psalm 110, verse three,
thy people shall be willing in the day of his power. And in
Philippians chapter 2 and verse 13, for it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So these
people that were drawn up into this army of 10,000, we find
that God was behind it. He's the one that called them.
He's the one that moved in them. They volunteered, but he moved
in them to volunteer. God worketh in you both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. In verse 16 of this chapter,
we read this, of chapter 5, verse 16 of the book of Judges. We
read this. It says here, Why abotest thou
among the sheepfolds? Now there's a whole group of
people Instead of coming to help with the battle, they stay with
their sheep. They stay among the sheep. They
hear the bleedings of the flocks. Why is the question that's asked
here in this song, do these people stay? And these remind us of
those who virtually say, well, I'll have to pray whether I want
to do the Lord's will or not. And so they didn't answer the
call. They didn't have a heart to answer the call. And that's
people that we meet all the time that are religious, that are,
they have no interest in the gospel. They have no interest
in serving the Lord. And when you've talked to them
about it, well, I'll pray about that. I'll pray whether I should
have told that lie or not. I'll pray whether I should have
done that or not. I will need to pray about serving
the Lord. Excuses reveal an unsteady heart,
an unhealthy heart. What conclusion do we come to
when after encouragement to serve God, it will be a blessing for
you, and the response is, I don't have any concern? So this is
what we find in this song, much about that. And in verse 19,
the kings came and fought. They fought the kings of Canaan
and Tanak by the waters in the ghetto. They took no gain of
money. And verse 20, they fought from
heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. As the metaphors go on, we find
out that God uses many things to perform his acts, to perform
his will. And here it's a metaphor of the
stars are even involved in this. And we find out that God has
used the sun, God has used the stars, God has used the moon
to perform his will and on his behalf. And as we look at this,
we find that that continues on in this chapter. In verse 21,
the river of Caishon swept them away. As we read over there in
the book of Judges chapter four, that they were defeated no one survived. And yet it's
interesting that we find how God did that here in this chapter. They were swept them away. Now
whether that's a metaphor or not, I don't know. Some of the
commentators said this actually happened. This is how God defeated
them. We know that the 10,000 that went after them, there was
none left How many drowned? How many were taken by the sword?
We find here that the river Kaishan swept them away, that ancient
river, the river Kaishan. Oh my soul, that was trodden
down strength. Then were the horse hoofs broken
by the means of the Prancines, the Prancines of their mighty
ones. God speaks here about how he took care of the army, how
he took care of the horses, how he took care of the soldiers.
He protected his, he defeated the rest. And if you'll just
roll down through here to the last verse of this, It says,
"...but let them that love Him be as the Son, when they goeth
forth in His might..." And the land had a backup to the first
part, I apologize. "...so let all thine enemies
perish." And that's the Word of God concerning this. Enemies
of the church are called on to perish. The enemies here, they
were perished. The Lord delivered Sisera into
the hand of Barak, and there was a total disconfit, as we
find that he disconfited Sisera completely by the hand. God worked
in His glorious way of dealing with these folks. And then in
verse 24, backing up to verse 24, we have that other lady mentioned
in this song. Deborah is mentioned. and how
much she was involved. She was a mother in Israel. It
wasn't a position, it was a care. She had great care for Israel.
She had the care of Israel like a mother would have for their
children. She wanted the best for them. She wanted them to
serve the Lord and so forth. And here we have Jael for her
part of this great victory. She was used of God to throw
off the yoke of bondage. And the description is given
here of what she did. Sin is never good. And so sin
was taken care of and taken care of in this way We go to the cross
sin was taken care of by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross
and it's so Important for us to remember those things that
are there as the Lord went to the cross There is a verse here that i
want to read because it has so much to say about it tells us about the uh rehearsing
about the righteous acts Going back to chapter 5 and verse
11, I apologize. This is quite a song, and there's
a lot mentioned in here, and we're trying to deal with a whole
lot in just a short period of time. But I want to, as we think
about what happened here, about the defeat of 900 chariots of
iron, the defeat of Sisera, the defeat of the great king of the
Canaanites, and how everything was defeated, how he used Jael
to defeat Sisera. It just goes on and on. We are
brought to this point here in the book of Judges chapter 5
and verse 11, they that are delivered from the noise of archers in
the places of the drawing water, There shall they rehearse the
righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts towards the
inhabitants of his villages in Israel. Then shall the people
of the Lord go down to the gates. You notice with me in that verse
of scripture in verse 11, that there shall they rehearse the
righteous acts of the Lord. You know, as I think about that
and I think about this song and we go through and read about
the victory of God and we read how God used people and we read
about the total defeat of the enemy, really... That's what
we do when we get together and we go over the gospel. When we
hear the gospel, when we bring the gospel, when we read the
gospel, we are really rehearsing the righteous acts of the Lord,
the righteous acts towards Israel. This is our business, is to rehearse
these great acts. It's not incumbent upon us to
rehearse history or politics. It's not incumbent upon us to
do any of those things. We are called on to rehearse
the righteous acts of the Lord, how His righteousness was displayed
when He had our names written down in the Lamb's Book of Life,
how His righteousness was displayed when He had a lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, and how His righteousness was
displayed there in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 when He promised
to deliver knowing full well that Adam and Eve, when he created
them and put them in the garden in his purpose, they sinned.
And now we have the Savior promise, the Savior coming, his righteous
acts, all of the prophets in the Old Testament, the law, the
Psalms declared the coming one someone's coming the lord jesus
christ is coming we know him as the messiah coming we know
the fulfillment of his coming he came and was born of a virgin
the righteous acts of god he would not bring his son into
the world through the natural generation but he would bring
his son into the world by a special deliverance by a virgin the righteous
acts of God and How he spoke and preached and demonstrated
who he was Time and time again, and eventually he gave himself
over to go to the cross the righteous acts of God This is all God's
performance on our behalf and so it is with these three that
we read about here in this song that it was Barak and and Deborah
in jail. The Lord, through some of the
simplest, some of the most unlikely, he used to deliver
his people from the slavery that they were in there
in the land. And so, it is his righteous acts
that we rehearse all the time when we get together. And I hope
you do that when you're out ruminating, that you will rehearse the righteous
acts of God. As we look towards the end of
this song, we find here in verses 28 through 30 that Cicero's mom is brought up in
this song, and you know, she's wondering where her son is. And
it's brought to her attention that probably he's getting the
spoil. Well, unbeknownst to her, her son had been taken care of.
God had put him to death through jail, and victory was had. And as we conclude
this chapter, we read here in verses 28, 29, and 30, it says,
the mother of Sisera looked out at the window and cried to the
lattice, why is the chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the
wheels of his chariot? Her wise ladies answered her
and said, she returned, answered to herself, have they not sped? Have they not divided the prey
to every man a damsel? They were convinced that once
again, they'd win the victory, but they were going on their
own gods and the children of Israel was going on the rock. the God of heaven. He's collecting his prey, he's
collecting his clothes, he's going to come home decked to
the nines. And then in verse 31, so let all thine enemies
perish Lord but let them that love him be as the Sun when it
go forth into his might and the land land had rest 40 days Now
there's a couple of verses in this reading that I would like
to look at As it's brought out in other places Here in the There in Judges chapter
5 and verse 11, we mentioned about the righteous action, and
that's exactly what we do when we review the gospel. And then
in Judges chapter 5 and verse 12, would you turn there with
me? Judges chapter 5 and verse 12. We have the term, and lead
thy captivity captive. This is what Barak is called
on to do, and it's in a song. Whether they chanted it, whether
there was a tune to it, it was written in verse, it's a song.
It's not the Song of Songs, Song of Songs is Solomon's, Song of
Solomon, but it was a song that they sang and they rejoiced in
and were thankful for, brought up a lot of things, the people
that were involved in the victory, the people that were involved
in the defeat, and the one who gave them the victory and the
defeat, Almighty God. And here in this verse of scripture,
it shares something that we find in a couple other places that
relate to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first place
that I'd like to look at is found in the book of the Psalm, Psalm
68. In Psalm 68, this is written about his ascension, Psalm 68,
and it brings to our attention what it says there, Barak lead
thy captivity captive. So he took all of the the ones
that had put them in captivity and led them out and destroyed
them. And here in the psalm, Psalm 68 and verse 18, Psalm
68 and verse 18, we read this, it says, Thou hast ascended on
high, Thou hast led captivity captive Thou hast received gifts
for men, yea, for the rebellious, also that the Lord God might
dwell among them. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. We might just leave that alone,
but the Apostle Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to comment,
bring that verse of Scripture into the New Testament, and the
Old Testament saints that the Holy Spirit had revealed this
to understood it. And as we look at it with New
Testament eyes, in the book of Ephesians, it's brought up again
And it shares with us the great act of God when it came to the
resurrection and what he did on the behalf of the church.
In the book of Ephesians chapter 4, and there in verse 8, Paul,
led by the Holy Spirit, brings this verse of Scripture from
the Old Testament, the book of the Psalms, into this book of
Ephesians. Now, there's much else to go
with this, but I'm just gonna break in on this verse of Scripture,
verse eight. Wherefore, he saith, when he
ascended up on high, he led captivity captive. When he ascended up
on high. Now, what does that mean to us?
does that mean to us, that he led captivity? When he came out
of the tomb, when he came out of the grave, when he was victorious
over sin, death, hell, and the grave, when he cried, it is finished,
what does that mean to us? Well, we find in this verse of
Scripture that he is the one that took care of captivity,
and he led it captive. Now, I asked myself this afternoon
as I was going through this, what is it that Christ led captive
that I had? And I went through a list here.
What held mankind in captivity after the fall? Well, it doesn't
take us very long in the scriptures to find out that our heart is
held captive by the fall, by death. And when we read about
the Lord Jesus, he took what held us captive, he took it into
captivity. We're gonna find out that everything
that we read about with regard to what he did is for our benefit
and for his glory, and he's gonna deal with sin. He's gonna take
sin captive and he's gonna lead it, As we read there, he's going
to leave captivity captive. He's going to take it and hold
it by a strong man. He's going to defeat it. He's
going to overpower it. So he's going to deal with our sin that
captivates us. He's going to deal with death.
that captivates us, doesn't seem any way out, and yet we find
out that death is dead in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to deal with the heart
and give us a new heart. He's going to deal with sin.
He's going to lead all these things. Captivity, captive. He's going to take care of incompleteness. fullness. He's going to take
the mind that was darkened and enlighten it. He's going to take
it out and give us new. He's going to deal with every
evil work. He's going to deal with every
false religious religion that we could think of. He's going
to deal with that, and we're going to be united around the
foot of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to be there in total
agreement. He's going to teach us. He's
going to teach us his word. He's going to teach us his doctrine.
He's going to teach us about Jesus Christ in everybody that
he teaches. He's going to teach the same
thing, and there will be unity. about the work of the Holy Spirit,
the work of God, the work of the Son, there will be total
unity. He's going to take and lead captivity captive. He's
going to take our pride that has captivated us, and we've
been captive by it. He's going to take our pride
and take it away. He's going to take our self-righteousness
away. He's going to take it and lead
it captive, captivity captive. Everything that has hindered
us or causes to be enmity with God is going to be led away.
He's going to deal with it. He's going to deal with it in
such a way that there's no longer anything to deal with. It's like,
we're going to read a verse of Scripture in Isaiah 63, verse
1. If you go over there, there's
a question asked here in Isaiah chapter 63, And verse 1, who
is this? And that's certainly a question
that is asked all the time, particularly when someone hears the truth
of the gospel. Who is this? Who's this about?
Well, in Isaiah chapter 63, the question comes up, Isaiah 63
verse 1, who is this? Well, it doesn't take us very
long, and we read here of the great attributes of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Basra, that is glorious in his
apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? You know, when
he went to the cross, he was traveling in the greatness of
his strength. We know that he had been beaten,
we know that he had been maligned, we know all the things that had
been done to him, but still he cried with a loud voice. It wasn't
a meek, mousy voice when he said things from the cross. It could
be heard for a long distance. He is traveling in the greatness
of his strength. On the cross, he is traveling
in the greatness of his strength, and it is there that we he he
says an eye that speak in righteousness mighty to save so this one coming
from eden with dyed garments from basra is a picture a type
and a shadow of the lord jesus he is the one that leads captivity
captive he's the one that the cross and i i don't mean to belittle
uh the lord at all but i i just see him as he's on the cross
says bring it on Bring sin, bring death, bring pride, bring religious
captivity, bring mind darken, bring death, bring everything
that is opposed to God, bring it on. assail me with it, charge
me with it. And he's just the challenge that
went on. He is traveling in the greatness
of his strength. And when he's on the cross, we
have the greatness of God's strength demonstrated that he was able
to take on all comers, all enemies of the church and deal with them
in such a manner that his children would not be charged with them.
So we have the privilege of rehearsing this before us as we're rehearsing
the righteous acts of the Lord. We have the privilege of reading
and hearing about one that led captivity, captive all the things
that were against us and opposed to us and opposed to our position
before God. He took care of that. And then
it says here, wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy
garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat? Well, I've trodden
the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with
me, for I will tread them in my anger and trample them in
my fury. And their blood shall be sprinkled
upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." So here
he is, as you see him in his apparel of traveling. Now, I
don't believe the Lord is sitting at the right hand of the Father
with blood-stained garments, but metaphorically, he's taken
care of all our sin. Just like God took care of all
the enemies of Israel 900 chariots of iron, you know in that day
and time those were like having 900 tanks stationed outside your
village God took care of them, all the hosts, the enemy. And
with 10,000 plus a freighty captain that God called into his service
and two women, he overcame the enemies. And it tells us there
in the last verse of chapter five, and had peace for 40 years. Now God took care of that physically.
He gave them peace for 40 years. And we're going to read in the
very next verse, the first verse of chapter six, and the children
of Israel sinned again. God took care of them many times
physically, but when he takes care of people spiritually, takes
care of them takes care of sin, that doesn't happen any longer.
They don't fall back. If they do, they've never been
saved. So he's going to take care of them physically. He's
going to be a long suffering to them physically. They're going
to fall back into their sin again. He's going to send someone else
until finally he says, I'm going to make a covenant not like that
covenant. I'm going to regard them not.
There's no longer Is there going to be any work with this people?
I'm just going to treat the church. It's going to be that. I've always
dealt with the church. I've showed and demonstrated
through Israel. If God of heaven dealt with them
and gave them so much, it didn't change their heart one bit. And
I'm just going to say, that's enough. But he's going to deal
through the book of Judges. He's going to be long suffering.
and share with us more and more of His grace and His mercy. And
so, as we read there in the book of Judges chapter 5 and the last
verse of Judges chapter 5, we find that the conclusion of this
whole song is summed up in these words, Judges chapter 5, and
the last verse, verse 31, the last words of the song, and the
land had rest 40 years. And what a blessing, God gave
them this victory. And then we're gonna read in
the very next verse, they sinned again, God put them in slavery,
and then he's gonna raise up another judge. And each of these
judges have some picture or pictures of the great God and our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, thank you once again for
joining us, and we pray that God's blessing will be upon you.