There's so much in this chapter,
and this just caught my eye. There's just a few verses here
of Scripture, but it has much to say. And beginning with verse
22, in the house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel,
and the Lord was with them. Now, this is the only reason
for the success of the house of Joseph, and it's the only
reason that we have success, as the Lord was with them. And
we find that the Lord has had a purpose in all of this going
through the book of Judges, as he has in every other passage
of scripture, he's had a purpose in it. And it shares with us
in the book of Jeremiah, it shares with us that, has he not thought
it, will he not bring it to pass? And this is how he does his business. He has a purpose, he had an eternal
purpose, And he's carrying out that purpose. And here we find
that going again, Joseph, the house of Joseph, they went up
against Bethel and the Lord was with them. And the house of Joseph
set to describe Bethel. And that word describe means
to spy out. And I have some verses of scripture that I was gonna
go along with that. And hopefully I can add to it in just a moment.
But they were going into the city, They sent some spies out. This is a common practice that
we find in the scriptures It happened with the children of
Israel Moses commanding that it happened with Joshua going
into Jericho and here we have the the house of Joseph they
sent to describe or to spy out or to investigate this and the
name of the city before was Luz and the spies saw a man come
forth out of the city and And they said to him, show us, we
pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we will show thee
mercy. Now, mercy, as we so often find
it in scripture, has to do with someone who is guilty. In this
particular passage, we find that we will show you mercy if you'll
show us the way. Now, God never trades with mercy. That's one thing we'll find out
about God's mercy, it's not a trade. He doesn't expect us to do something
and then he shows mercy on us. We find here, human mercy, that
these spies of the tribe or of the house of Joseph, when they
saw this man, they said, if you'll show us the way into the city,
we will show you mercy. And it was a clear trade, you're
alive for some information. Well, I'm thankful that that's
not how God does his business with us, that it's not a trade.
God's not trading mercy for our prayer. He's not trading mercy
for our confession. He's not trading mercy for our
going forward. He's not trading mercy for any
of those things, but he is simply going to have mercy on whom he
will have mercy. and whom he will, he hardeneth."
And then he goes down here and it says, and when he showed them
the entrance into the city. Now, there must've been some
type of cave work or there must've been some secret entrance. There
must've been something about this that they could not discover
on their own, but they had clear help from this individual that
was inside the city coming out. And it tells us there that they
showed them the entrance into the city And then the family
of Joseph went in and smote the city with the edge of the sword,
but they let go the man and all his family. And the man 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."
Now that verse of scripture is what caught my eye, that this
man was befriended He was delivered. He was given mercy by this house
of Joseph. He was permitted to continue
in his life. And you know, you would think
that he would just say, this seems like some good folks to
be around. But the man went into the land
of the Hittites. And you know, whenever we find
that name in scripture, we do not find it is a place that God's
people want to be or need to be. It is a place that is filled
with idolatry. It is a place that is filled
with sin. It is a place that God has nothing
to do with. In fact, this is a group of people
that he intended to have removed out of Canaan. And there are
those that did part of that. The Lord kept his promise in
all of this. He never, in fact, the first verse of the next chapter
is he kept his covenant with Israel. Israel did not keep their
covenant with God, but he kept his covenant with them. So they
went off into the land of the Hittites. And we find as we look
at this, that there is many places that could be just like that.
Tonight in our Zoom meeting earlier with Richard and Bill Parker
and Brother Bob too, there was a verse that was brought up that
I want to go to, and it's over in the book of Acts. In the book
of Acts, if we're looking for a place where there is no consolation,
If we're looking for a place where there's no hope, if we're
looking for a place where there's just idolatry, just like this
guy did. He left the land, the land of
promise. with mercy all over him with
his family and went to the Hittites. And sometimes we make acquaintances
with people and they share with us their great interest in the
gospel and in the word of God. And before you know it, they're
camping with the Hittites. And there's nothing that is in
a person that knows the gospel that wants to go to that place.
Well, here in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter six, I believe
it was, Acts chapter six, There was a verse that came out that
I want to read that goes along with this. Acts chapter 7, excuse me. And
it is found, just as the children of Israel go into the land of
Canaan, excuse me, into the land, into the Sinaitic area. They're
real near Sinai. In fact, we find that Moses is
up on Mount Sinai, and in verse 41, in verse 41, Or verse 40 and verse 41, it's
just like that man who went off to the Hittites, stuck in my
thoughts. This says, saying unto Aaron,
make unto us gods to go before us, for as for this Moses, which
brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has
become of him. We don't know where he is. Well,
most of them did. He's on Mount Sinai. And they
made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol."
And notice the last phrase of this. This is what happens in
the Hittites. This is what happens in the land
of the Hittites. and rejoiced in the works of
their own hands." How this declares what that man did when he left
the family of Joseph and went into the land of the Hittites
and he built another city by the same name, called it Luz. Well, they called it Bethel from
that time on, which means house of God. And so they took off,
but here we find a whole bunch of Hebrews. We find a bunch of
people without the gospel, in every sense of the word, doing
exactly what that man left and went to the Hittites. They were
rejoiced in the works of their own hands. You know, as we think
about this, when Paul was in Greece, he was in Athens, he
was in Mars Hill, And when he started talking to them, he's
just describing, once again, the land of the Hittites. And
he says, I perceive that you're too religious, because you have
a God here, or a... You have a place here to identify
the unknown God, and the pantheon that they had of gods was just
tremendous, just like the Hittites had, and they were all rejoicing
in the works of their own hands. So we have here that in the book
of Acts, Paul is dealing with exactly the same situation that
they're dealing with when this man took off. I just can't help
but think that, you know, he'll probably settle down with us.
We've shown him mercy. But now he's left and he's gone
to the Hittites and those guys are no good at all. So, they
made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idols
and rejoiced in the works of their hands. Well, this is what
happens when we go to the Hittites. That's where we're born, that's
where we'll live, and that's where we'll die if the Lord doesn't
intervene with us. All right, thank you, Nancy. In that, going back to the book
of Judges chapter one again, if you would with me, I wanted
to say a few words about that first that first verse, verse
22. We mentioned it just briefly
last time, and we went over to where it says that the Lord was
with them, the house of Joseph, and they also went up against
Bethel, and the Lord was with them. Dr. Hawker commented about this,
that in the Chaldean paraphrase of this passage, it is said,
the word of Jehovah was with them. Well, you know, that same
vein, that's all we have is the word of Jehovah. We don't have
a voice speaking to us. We don't have a picture. We don't
have an idol. We don't have any of those things.
We have the word of the Lord. That's the only thing that we
have been given by God to direct our paths and to let us know
that God was with them. And we read a verse of scripture
over in the book of Revelation chapter 19, and I'd like to read
that again. because it speaks so much to
this passage of scripture about the word of the Lord was with
them, that the Lord was with them. And if you have the Lord
and you have the word, you have either way, we have him with
us. And whatever happens is just
as real to a believer today as we find it in scripture, as it
was to Peter, James, and John when it happened. So in the book
of Revelation chapter 19, verse 11, the book of Revelation chapter
19 and verse 11, we have these words. And we read this, but
I just want to go over it again. And I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And
his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his head were many crowns,
and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And that is so true to us today. Was it that the Lord Jesus asked
Peter, Who do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Now, he didn't know that by nature. Most of
the people around him had no idea who this was. That when
he revealed himself to Peter, Peter was able to say that, and
the Lord responded by saying, You didn't learn this in Sunday
school. The flesh did not reveal this unto you, but my Father,
which is in heaven. So no man knows the name of the
Lord God Almighty, except it be given to them. And then it
tells us there in verse 13, and he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, which certainly declares his redemptive work.
He redeemed us by his own blood, the blood of the Lamb, and his
name is called, and it's in capital letters, in our translation,
the word of God. He is the very word of God. And
we find that in John chapter one, verse one, and down through
those verses of scripture, and the word became flesh and dwelt
among us. So we have this word and the word of God is just as
much of a vital and vitality, has the vitality of God coming
to us and speaking in person to us, just like he did with
the saints of old. to Moses or to the rest of the
saints in the Old Testament. So we don't have to go there.
We have it. We have a record of it. We find, and I just mentioned
it, there's a verse in the book of Jeremiah that I'd like to
go to. I didn't have the first memorizer.
I'd certainly have read it. or quoted it in Jeremiah chapter
four. And this is such a statement
about our God. When we get to thinking about,
when we get to looking into the God of heaven and what he has
done as we see things unfold around us. I was in conversation
by text and I love that because I know I'm not interrupting anybody,
but I was in conversation with text with a friend of mine and
we got to the point and I said, you know, If the Lord doesn't
come back, if the last sheep is not saved soon, and the Lord
come back, then this old body that I have is just going to
be food for worms soon. And that's the truth, because
that's what God said about it. We're just not going to live
in this old flesh forever. So we have that, and God's promised
about it. But Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse
28, we have these wonderful words, Jeremiah, Chapter four and verse
28, the statement that the Lord makes with regard to himself,
and that just is a guide for life. It is that bright and shining
star that led the wise men to Christ. For this shall the earth
mourn, excuse me, Jeremiah. Oh yes, and the heavens above
be black because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will
not repent, neither will I turn back from it. So whatever the
Lord has purposed, whatever the Lord has determined before the
foundation of the world, he will not change his mind about it,
and neither will he turn back from it, and it will be carried
out along the same vein over in the book of Ezekiel. We have
this passage of scripture that shares with us just as the Lord
was such a blessing there and his success was, it will come
to pass. Whatever is going to happen here
will come to pass. It is a miracle from our standpoint
that just as those spies were going to go look around the city,
God causes the man to come out of a tunnel somewhere. I just
said, now that's interesting. How often will that happen? As
often as the God Almighty determines it to happen. All right, Ezekiel
24. Would you turn with me to Ezekiel
24 in verse 14? Ezekiel 24 and verse 14, how
in the world did our paths cross? How did our paths cross with
God Almighty? Because he determined it and
purposed it. It tells us here in Ezekiel chapter
24 and verse 14, I the Lord have spoken it. I am determined before
the foundation of the world that when those family of Joseph come
up looking for a way to get into that city, I've already given
to them there'll be a man come out that knows how to do it.
I just amazing. And he does that all the time.
How God does that is his business, but he does it. I, the Lord has
spoken it, it shall come to pass and I will do it. I will not
go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent according
to thy ways and according to thy doings shall they judge thee,
saith the Lord God. So the purpose was this city
would be taken. The Lord was with them and a
man comes out of some cave, some way, some crevice that he knew
the way in and out of. Now, the people inside the city
were probably not all that happy about it because it meant their
defeat. But God intended that from the
very beginning anyway. So here's the man that came out.
The Lord has done this in the book of There in verse 23, we
find that that word, decry, means to spy out. Back to the book
of Judges, chapter 1, verse 23, these words about What's going to happen here?
They sent out spies. They have some intelligence about
them. They just don't rush into this. I'm sure that there was
a lot, just like God leads us to do, a prayer about it. I really
appreciated the lesson on Sunday about prayer. And really, we
don't know how to pray as we ought. But we really depend on
the Holy Spirit because that's what God makes us depend on.
And then it is He that causes us to pray according to His will. And so these people are being
led by the Lord. They are led by the Lord to take
this city and he has worked out everything with regard to it
in advance. We even find that concerning
ourselves that he has knowledge of what we have need of before
we ask. We are encouraged by him to ask, but he already has
it all worked out. So there is concern, yes, but
the Lord is with them, and he has prepared the way already.
There in Judges chapter one and verse 23, it tells us that they
prepared the house of Joseph, sent to describe Bethel, an old
English word, which means to spy out the land. You know, this
is the same word that Moses asked 12 men to do. When he sent them
off into the land of promise, go in there, spy it out, reconnoiter. Well, and we also find that that's
the word that 10 of them came back with an evil report. They
spied it out and didn't like what they found. They didn't
believe the Lord. In verse 24 of Judges, it says,
the spies saw a man come forth out of the city and they said
unto him, show us, we pray, the entrance of the city. We will
have mercy, and as I mentioned, this is a trade, and often we
do this in our flesh. We do this with our friends,
we do this, if you do this for me, I'll do that for you. I'll
be merciful, I may even pay you, and so forth. But when it comes
to God, he never, ever has traded mercy for works. He has never
brought that up. God's direction, God's purpose,
and God's interception here is on course. God hath not cast
away his people which he hath for knowledge of. Turn with me
to the book of Romans chapter 11, if you would. God always
shows mercy to those he has foreknown and no others. Here in the book
of Romans chapter 11, Romans chapter 11, the scriptures share
this about our God and what his purpose is. And there is so much
in the lines that we follow here with regard to the subject that
it is not the definition of words. It is the absolute need to go
against everything that we know about the English to put verses
like this behind us. We have to put away the very
language that God has given us if we're not going to pay any
attention to these. And we do by nature. We'll just
decry them. We'll put them aside. But here
we have in the book of Romans chapter 11 and verse Verse two,
God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. He is going
to have mercy on the people he foreknew. What, ye not, that
the scripture saith to Elias? How he maketh intercession of
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek
my life. And what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. So we have
this great promise that God has given here as we find it throughout
the scriptures and as we find it over here in the book of Judges.
These people were called on to do something and the Lord was
with them, and this is how they are successful. In that same
book of Romans, chapter eight, and we read these verses of scripture
so often because they are so comforting to us. They are the
counsel of God on our behalf. I believe it's in Deuteronomy,
it says, that the secret things belong to the Lord. That's true. But isn't it wonderful that he
reveals some of the secret things? that he will share with us, this
is how I'm doing this. It reminds me of going over to
the first chapter of the book of Genesis, and it simply says,
and God created, and we get into the second chapter of Genesis,
and we have Jehovah Elohim, we have how, the revelation, we
have the Lord's side of this, how he reveals the purposes of
God to us. And so God does it, yes, and
then he reveals it to us through his son, the Lord Jesus. Well,
here in the book of Romans chapter 8 and verse 29, for whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. Now, whatever is happening here
from a physical context, we can see it from a spiritual context
and see that everything that worked out with regard to these
family of Joseph and the overtaking of the city was plainly, clearly
worked out by the providence of God and by his determinate
counsel, his foreknowledge and his predestination. For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. It is by no mistake. that this
man came out at the right time. Just like we find in the ministry
of the Lord Jesus, it was no mistake that the woman went to
the well at that time. It was no mistake that Jesus
went into the pool of Bethesda at that time. It was no mistake
that the Lord healed one leper or 10 lepers and one came back.
It's just no mistake. It continues on and on and on.
These spies showed mercy to this man It was a trade so different
from the mercy of God, but it was for them and beneficial to
him, even with the trade, the information for your life. Look
what this man does with it. He moves to another terrible
place. I was reading this afternoon
about our brother Lot. And a discussion that the sheep
herders of Lot and the sheep herders of Abraham got into,
and it was causing a rift between the families. And Abraham says,
you make a choice. And he went and looked at the
well-watered plains of the Jordan down near Sodom and Gomorrah.
And it was a terrible place. And yet the Lord was merciful
and protected him in that place, and he's called Just Slot. Here
in the book of Judges, chapter one, and verse 24 and 25, we
find the results of the kindness of these men. Doesn't give us
the name of anybody except there was the family of Joseph. Going
back to the book of Judges here in chapter one, and we read there
in verses 24 and 25, that this... The spies saw a man come forth
out of the city. How providential! How wonderful! And they said to him, Show us,
we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we will show mercy
unto thee. And when he had shown them the
entrance of the city, they smote the city with the edge of the
sword, but they let go the man and all his family. You know,
we go over to the book of Joshua, and we have a lady who's spared,
and all are her family, Rahab the harlot. Here we have a man
spared and all his family, and they had every right because
of his relationship to the city to destroy him, but they didn't. They spared him, and then we
find that what he did, it says there in verse 26, and the man
went into the land of the Hittites and built a city, and called
the name thereof Luz. The man went to the city of the
Hittites." This place, wherever the Hittites
were, was not a place of endearment. God never put His grace upon
it. But we find out this man went there, and you know, it's
ironic. that in Ezekiel chapter 16, Ezekiel
the prophet said this about Israel. Turn there with me if you would.
Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel the prophet had this
to say about his own family, his own nation. Now it was going
down through that book of Acts and chapter seven today with
regard to Stephen. And all the way down through
there, our fathers, our fathers, our fathers, until he got to
the end of that, and then he said, your fathers were uncircumcised
in heart. Stephen made a complete change
when he realized, when we realized that God has circumcised our
heart, given us the new birth, there's no longer that relationship
that we have with this world and with our own family. So here
in the book of Ezekiel chapter, 16 in verse three, we read these
words, and I don't know what the people thought, because when
Stephen brought up the history of Israel, they took him out
and stoned him. And all he had to say was, you know, our family
was a pertinent rotten family. They turned around to idols every
opportunity they got, and they didn't listen to Moses every
opportunity they got not to listen to him. Our family is just depraved. Our family is the family of Adam. And it was the God of glory that
appeared unto Abraham. There was no reason that he should
leave Ur of the Chaldees, except the God of glory appeared unto
him. All right, Ezekiel chapter 16, verse three, it says, and
say, thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and
thy nativity is the land of Canaan. Now that's where they've been
from. Your father was an Amorite and
thy mother a Hittite. Now if you got that letter from
the pastor of the church declaring that's what you are when you
think you're religious, what would you think? I think a whole
bunch of people were pretty upset with this preacher. They didn't
like words like that. Your father is an Amorite and
your mother is a Hittite. And those are both the folks
that God said to Israel, take them out of the land. If they're
around you, there'll be a thorn in your side and a spear in your
eye. As we mentioned, Athens was just
like that. In Galatians chapter two and verse 25, we have the
same thing brought up as the Apostle Paul is going through
the genealogy. There are two sons here of Abraham. In the book of Galatians chapter
four and verse 25, we have two sons here, and they're both related
to Abraham. Galatians chapter four, verse
25, and yet we have this mentioned about Jerusalem in an allegory,
Jerusalem answers to these Hittites, the same kind of thing. For this
Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which
now is. Agar was an Egyptian. She is the handmaid of Abraham's
wife and she's from Egypt. And she is typified, allegorized
as Jerusalem that was in extant at that time and still is. If
that's what people want is religion, the Jewish religion or legalism
or whatever, says in answer to Jerusalem, which now is, there's
not a wits bit of difference between this Jerusalem and the
land of the Hittites where that man moved to. says here, which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. So everyone that
was a descendant of Agar is a picture, a type, and a shadow of Jerusalem
that is worshipped by so many at that time, the people whose
who crucified Christ were from this Jerusalem. The people who
stoned Stephen are from this Jerusalem, and the people that
know not the gospel are from this Jerusalem, and this is just
like that place where that man that was befriended, mercy was
given to him, his family was spared, he was spared, instead
of sticking around and saying, I wonder what makes these folks
so special, He left for the Hittites. You know, it was part of Moses'
family that came into the promised land, but not all of Moses' family
came into the promised land. We have a few of them mentioned
that came in there and settled down. Well, we have Hagar from
Egypt, and we find that Esau, we find him so often in scripture,
we mention him from time to time, right there in the book of Micah,
the book of Romans, we have a mention alongside of his brother. And
that man went and married a Hittite and his children were Hittites. So this is just so common throughout
the world and the religious world, it is so common to have people
that just will give up everything to go down and live with the
Hittites. There is no God there, there's religion, there's idolatry,
there's everything that will please man And just as those
people dancing around the golden calf, they worshiped the works
of their hands. And that is a common thing that
happens throughout the Bible. Sometimes the saints, we just
stand in awe at how people would leave the promised land to go to the
land of the Hittites. You know, when I first came here,
twice I can remember very well that I had some grave clothes
on, and a friend of mine helped me take them off both times.
And one time, there was a couple attending our church down in
the old building, and it was brought to my attention that
they would like to become part of us, but there was one thing
that stopped them from becoming part of us, and that was an element
of the Lord's Supper. So being green and looking for
some advice, I called Brother Mike and I brought it to his
attention and he said, simply said, you know, that's not a
big issue, but what are we going to do next time someone wants
to change it? And it was like being Polacks,
an old mule being Polacks. That was right. And you know
what? Those people never came back.
because of one issue. It wasn't the right issue. They
went off to the land of the Hittites. I'm just using that metaphorically.
But we just see that. And I've compared notes with
a number of pastors that the things that people call up about
and ask for information about your church. And I have never
had. I've never had Brother Gary.
I've never had Brother Bill. I've never had Most of the preachers
I have knowledge of ever have anybody call up and say, what
do you say about Christ? What do you say about the gospel?
What is the gospel? What do you preach down there?
It's always something very lame. What do you have for kids? Now,
we had another. In our new building, we had a
couple come with some children once. And because we didn't have
anything for the kids except smiling faces in the gospel,
they left. But you know what? They were
put into a position that many years later, a number of years
later, a couple was attending that church and they said, where
can we go to hear something? And the man says, I know where
you can go. You can go to Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and hear
something. Now he was very settled in where he was, but he knew
where something was better. He continued moving on there.
So we just have this statement made in the scriptures. You'd
think that this man who was delivered from total destruction, that
city was totally destroyed. By the edge of the sword, they
destroyed everybody in it and renamed it and started over.
And it's known as Bethel. You would think that he would
have enough good sense, but you know what? That is not a common
thing. It is God-given to have sense,
to have wisdom, to have knowledge. So he packed up his family, he
packed up his belongings, probably is pretty well to do, and he
went to another place marked out another city, built some
more city walls, called it the name of the town he just left,
and it just happened to be in the area of the Hittites. Well, you know, that's all it
said here in our scripture with regard to this, and it's enough
said for us, as we go back there to the book of Judges one more
time, book of Judges one more time, it is enough said, because
at that point, there in Judges chapter one. And then we start with verse
27 and through the end of this chapter, almost verse for verse
for verse. Neither did Manasseh drive out
the inhabitants. Neither did those who had Abraham
as their father follow the word of God. They did not. And we
just follow this down through here as we brought out last time.
Neither did Ephraim, neither did Zebulon, neither did Asher,
neither did Naphtali, neither did There's no end to it, neither
did. But here we have one family of
Joseph that went up and destroyed this city of Luz. According to
the purpose of God, a man met them coming out of that city,
probably sneaking out, and they intercepted him and they said,
we will trade your life, for information, and they gave it
to him, and instead of settling down and enjoying the sweet blessings
of the Lord, they moved to the land of the Hittites, and not
a word is ever heard from them." What a statement we have in here.
Turn with me, if you would, to the very next chapter, Judges
chapter two, and with this, we will stop. An angel and an angel
of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochem and said, I made you
to go up out of Egypt and have brought you unto the land which
I swear unto your fathers. And I said, I will never break
my covenant with you. Now that's God speaking. And he never broke his covenant
with Israel. They broke their covenant with
God every day. And that's why we find he finally
said, I regarded them not. And it just to prove to us what
grace is. God will not break his gracious
covenant. There is eternal life, and we'll
speak on this at the next time. So we'll close there. Don't move
to the land of the Hittites.