Would you join me tonight, then,
in the book of Joshua. Excuse me. The book of Judges.
The book of Judges. Someday I'll get that over with.
I even put it in my notes. We're in the book of Judges.
We had kind of an introduction last week to the book of Judges,
and we noticed that Judges is mentioned in the Scriptures,
and it was the time of of Ruth, it was in the times of the judges
that there was that great famine and that family was caused to
move over to Moab and there they met Ruth. We have it mentioned
a number of times and we have even in the book of Hebrews,
four of the judges are mentioned. And you look at them and there's
some of the most nefarious of the judges. So I'm thankful that
we can read with regard to Lot. just lot. And that means, that
word doesn't mean he was the only one, it means he was justified
lot. So we're thankful for the grace
of God. Here in the book of Judges chapter 1, I want to read the
first four verses here and spend some time on the subject that
is brought up here in Judges chapter 1. And it says here in
verse 1, Judges chapter 1 verse 1, now after the death of Joshua
it came to pass. Now How this is set up chronological,
I don't know, but we do find in the second chapter of the
book of Judges, would you just go over there for just a moment
to the second chapter of the book of Judges, Judges chapter
two, and there in verse six, Judges chapter two and verse
six, and it tells us here, and when Joshua had let the people
go, the children of Israel went every man unto 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 Timnatharas, in the Mount
of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gesh. So we have
here his death and his funeral service and the extent of his
leadership of the children of Israel. But as we go back to
the first chapter, we find that this incident appears to have
taken place after this great man of God, this great man who
trusted the Lord. He was one of the faithful servants
that came back and said, you know, we don't know how God's
going to do it, but God said he would do it. He'll give us
his land. And when he got over there in the land, he is mystified
at how this is gonna take place. And then the captain of the Lord
met him and said, the battle's not yours, it's mine anyway.
So they went on and took the land. So we have the death of
Joshua here, but in this verse one, it says, Israel, the children
of Israel asked the Lord saying, now, when I read that, it kind
of, I have the feeling that it appears in this verse that the
children of Israel were truly sincere and they were concerned
at what they wanted. They said, who shall go up for
us against the Canaanites first to fight against them. So even
at the time of Joshua's death, there was many of the Canaanites.
And I just had to refresh myself. The Canaanites were the people
that were living there all the time. They're the ones that were
living there when they went into the land. And we're going to
look at this as a type, because when the Lord saves us, we still
have a lot of Canaanites. And that's what we deal with
every day. We deal with that which we had when we were born
physically. We're going to be dealing with
the flesh. Who will go up for us against the Canaanites first
to fight against them? And the Lord said, Judah. So they inquired of the Lord
how grand it is for these people to inquire of the Lord. And then
we have the Lord come back immediately and say, Judah shall go up. Behold,
I have delivered the land into his hand. Now Judah as the tribe. And then it says in verse three,
and Judah said unto Simeon his brother. Now this is his true
brother, his full brother. He said unto him, come up. Now
the tribe of Simeon is there. close relatives come up with
me into my lot that we may fight against the Canaanites and I
likewise will go with thee into thy lot." So Simeon went up with
him and Judah went up and the Lord delivered the Canaanites
and the Perizzites into their hand and they slew them in Bezek
10,000 men. Well, we're going to stop there
with our reading because we want to spend some time on this subject
of who it is that is going to go up and what the problem is.
There were many Canaanites remaining in possession of the land of
the children of Israel, and they asked, we need somebody to be
our leader to go up. and they go to the right one,
they go to the Lord, they ask of the Lord, and the Lord's decision
is that Judah will go up. Well, it's so fortuitous, it
is so providential that Judah was the one that was requested
by the Lord, because we're gonna find out that it's Judah that
was led to bring the Son of God into this world. So he's really
speaking about the ministry and the salvation that we have in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The children of Israel asked,
they were given the answer and it appears that they had a sincere
request to be made known and who shall go up to finish off
the Canaanites or to bring more of them into subjection. And
we find as a result of this that 10,000 were taken care of. 10,000
of the Canaanites, it doesn't mean that all of them were taken
care of. We're going to be spending some time here in the book of
Judges with that very thing. Would you turn with me to the
book of 2 Chronicles at this moment? In the book of the 2
Chronicles chapter 32. In 2 Chronicles chapter 32, we
have a very interesting passage of scripture that shares with
us how wonderful the grace of God is to his people. How wonderful
it was that he chose Judah to throw off these Canaanites. How
wonderful it is to find out that Judah is really speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only
one that is able to restrain our own inheritant nature, and
that is the flesh that we have. In the book of 2 Chronicles,
chapter 32, beginning with verse one, we read these things. After
these things and the establishment thereof, a Sennacherib king of
Assyria came and entered into Judah and encamped against the
fenced cities and thought to win them for himself. And when
Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come and that he was purposed
to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes
and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains that
were without the city, and they did help him. So there was gathered
much people together who stopped all the fountains and the brook
that ran through the midst of the land saying, why should the
kings of Assyria come and find much water? Also, he strengthened
himself, and built up a wall that was broken, and raised it
up to towers, and another wall without, and repaired Milo in
the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance. And
he set the captains of the war over the people, and gathered
them together to him in the street of the gate of the city, and
spake comfortably unto them, Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid. Now it's interesting
how much preparation he made, but he realized, Hezekiah realized,
as we're going to find out that these people of Judah did, that
the battle really is the Lord's. Be not afraid. Be strong and
courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
the king of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him.
For there is more with us than with him. With him, Now notice
this verse eight, with him is the arm of the flesh. What a
statement Hezekiah makes about the king of Assyria. And we're
gonna say, we could say that truly about the Canaanites. With
them is the arm of the flesh. But with us is the Lord our God
to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah King of Judah. What a gospel message
Hezekiah preached. And truly those, as we see here,
they rested upon those words, and that's what the church does.
Rests upon the word of the Lord. Rests upon our true Hezekiah,
the one who has promised that he will do everything on our
behalf. Now they had their battle shields,
and they had their swords, and they had their preparation made,
but they realized that even at that, we have the sword of the
Spirit, I mean, there's no more powerful sword than all the world
has ever been is this sword that we have, but we don't have the
control over its use. We are only requested. And I think probably more strong. We are demanded. We are demanded. If we know grace, we are demanded
to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the outcome
of that is not in our hands, but we have, as it says here,
We don't want to go in the arm of the flesh, but with us is
the Lord our God to help us. And that's really what a statement
is made for our everyday life, for our monthly life, all of
those offerings that we read about on Sunday, the daily, the
Sabbath, the monthly, the yearly, several yearly ones. All of that
is truly commanding us to rest upon the grace of God. So God,
for the Lord our God to help us, with Him is the arm of the
flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight
our battles. And what a statement is made.
And you know, by the grace of God, we can trust that. Now our
flesh will reel at that sometimes, but God has given us the grace
to trust Him in that. The people rested themselves
in the words of Hezekiah, King of Judah, just as the church
rests in the words of the Lord. The Lord says, peace, be still,
fear not. And many times those kinds of
words come up and the church, the battle is not ours. The battle
is the Lord's. Now, as we go back over there
to the book of, We remember that they were going to fight against
the Canaanites. And I asked the question, who
are the Canaanites? What does that have to do with
us today? And they are those who already were dwelling in
the land. And we really get a grip of that
when we think about what we have when God saved us. He gave us the land. He gave
us salvation. He gave us free salvation. He
gave us salvation by grace. He gave us all of his salvation.
but He didn't do anything for our flesh. The only thing He
does for us in our flesh is causes us to understand what wretched
beings we are and it's only grace that can save us. And secondly,
that He is the only one that can restrain it. He, by His grace,
restrains us. I'm just thankful for that. I'm
thankful for restraining grace every minute of every day. And
when he doesn't restrain me, I can just be thankful that he's
going to sometime. So this restraining grace, what
is to be done by the saints when it is known that even though
we are blessed with the great salvation we find in our flesh,
There are still great numbers of Canaanites. We still have
those that we had when we were given the new birth. We still
have those what we have when we were born. We still have all
of that. Well, we find out, turn with
me to the book of Romans, if you would. Romans chapter seven
and verse 18. We notice here that the apostle
Paul was led to deal with this. Today, I, I just, when I spent some time
with a young man today, I said, we're going to start with the
first time we meet Saul in the Bible. And that's in the book
of Acts. And those people threw their coats at his feet as he
consented to the death of Stephen. And then we find him absolutely
insane with hate toward the church. And he went about to do all kinds
of destruction with the church. And there was great persecution
came on the church of Jerusalem. as a result of this man. And
then we went down to the scriptures there two or three places and
we ended up there in the chapter where he's on the road to Damascus
and he has stopped. And then we went over to the
man Ananias there in Damascus, who was scared to death of this
man coming down. He was afraid of what he had
planned on doing. And the word came to him and
he understood that this man came not to bless them, but to capture
them and haul them off to Jerusalem. And the Lord comes to him and
says, I want you to go over there and visit with this man because
he is a chosen vessel of mine. He went over in the first words
out of Ananias his mouth to this Saul of Tarsus was brother Saul
Things have happened and Saul is Paul went on to write in the
when it pleased God We went down that whole line And I said show
me in here where Paul exercised free will to choose God and it's
exactly the opposite Anyway, he was used by the Holy Spirit
to write this statement here in the book of Romans chapter
seven. He was mightily used of God because he had such a reputation. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Now, when we read about that
Pharisee saying, I thank God that I'm not like other men,
Saul of Tarsus would say that 10,000 times more potent. I'm
thankful that I tithe. I tithe more than anybody else.
I thank you that I pray. I thank you I do all these things.
That guy is just a very small piece of Pharisee-ism compared
to Saul of Tarsus. And when God saved him, he quit
arguing with God and he quit finding fault with God and he
bowed to him as the Lord made him willing in the day of his
power. Now, I do want to get over here to the book of Romans.
Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter seven in verse
18, we read this. Paul said, for I know that in
me, that is in my flesh, I have lots of Canaanites. Dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. Now, before
he was saved, he didn't have a problem like that. He didn't
have that issue come up. There was no issue like this.
But when he was saved, he had this issue, this battle, because
he had Christ in him. He had the Holy Spirit in him.
God does not create a perfect man in us. He gives us the man
Christ Jesus. He gives us the Holy Spirit.
So he's not making us better somewhere. He's giving us something
that is altogether lovely. And now we have this flesh. We
have the Canaanites. And what should we do about it?
Take it to the Lord. He says, plead Judah. Go to Judah. Well, we know who
Judah represents. We'll get to that in just a moment.
So, for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. And if we'll go on just a little
bit more, we find that the Holy Spirit gave this man again these
words, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 17. The book of Galatians
chapter 5 and verse 17 we have this man who didn't have any
problem at all with this problem before he was saved but now he's
bringing it up and the Holy Spirit is calling on him to write about
this because this is the issue that we all have and There is
the land, yes, and God gave it all to us. Yes, we have saved
and we have as much salvation now as we will ever have. But
in this life that we have, we still have the Canaanites. We still have that nature. And what does that do for us? It humbles us. God would be merciful
to me, a sinner. God would be merciful. And I
just trust him that he's going to take care of this problem
for now and eternity. We will not have that problem
because he's going to take away that part. We'll have a new body
like unto his glorious body. Well, here in the book of Galatians
chapter five, for the flesh, verse 17, for the flesh lusteth
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. What's that
mean? They do not get along. You cannot, Uncle Mo says, you
cannot serve the Lord and the devil at the same time because
they're going in different directions. Well, he says here, the spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the
other. The inhabitants of Canaan, the
Canaanites, and the children of Israel that came in, they
worship totally different gods. Now we're going to find out that
a bunch of those Israelites went ahead and adopted all those,
but as the type, the picture of the children of God, there
was total difference on this. God is in heaven. He rules and
reigns. He's the absolute sovereign over
all things. And the Canaanites said, well,
we got this idol and we've got that idol and we've got this
idol. Well, The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the
other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Paul
brings that out. The things I would do, I do not.
The things I would not do, those are the things that I do. Well,
we'll get to his issue in just a moment, but turn with me, if
you would, as the Lord speaks on this subject in John chapter
six. Now, in John chapter six, we
find that this subject is again brought up, and it tells us that
we cannot use the flesh, we cannot use the flesh to serve God. It's
incompatible. There is such a contrary spirit
about the flesh and serving God. Now we can worship Him with our
spirit, but we cannot worship Him with our flesh. We pray to
God that He keeps it restrained, because it is the spirit, verse
63, it is the spirit that quickeneth. That's what gave us that life.
It is the spirit. John 6 63. It is the spirit that
quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. It didn't make any contribution. There was nothing the flesh had
that it could contribute to what we have in Christ Jesus. The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew
from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should
betray him. So the absolute omniscience of the Lord about all things.
But he said, it is the spirit that quickeneth. Go back to John
chapter three. It's the spirit that quickeneth.
We go over to the book of first Peter. We're quickened by the
spirit. So we have this, but we still
have what Israel had when they came into the promised land.
We still have Canaanites. We still have this nature. And
it is contrary. I'm so thankful that God gives
us his grace to restrain it. And we don't put our hands around
ourselves and restrain ourselves. It is God that restrains us.
Going back, we find that as they asked the Lord saying, who shall
go up for us against the Canaanites is fortuitous, is so glorious
that here in the very beginning of the book of Judges, the tribe
that the Lord said will go up for us. is the representative
of the one who is able to deal with the problem. The lion of
the tribe of Judah. There he says, Judah shall go
up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. Judah
shall go up. Well, as we follow the subject of Judah in the scriptures,
turn with me for a moment, if you would, to the book of Genesis
chapter 29. In Genesis chapter 29, we have Leah's children. Now, I have to admit, I didn't
realize when I was reading this that Judah and Levi were full
brothers. That's kind of interesting. It
was to me. But in the book of Genesis chapter 29, in Genesis
chapter 29, beginning with verse 31. Now, when Jacob married, On his
wedding night, his father-in-law messed with him. And he put the oldest daughter,
Leah, in the tent. And they're married. And then he got Rebecca. But notice here, when the Lord
saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb but Rachel was barren. I said, Rebecca, it's Rachel. And
Leah conceived and bare a son and called his name Reuben. For
she said, surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction and
now therefore my husband will love me. And she conceived again
and bare a son and said, because the Lord hath heard that I was
hated, he hath therefore given me this son also. And she called
his name Simeon. And she conceived again and bear
a son and said, now this time will my husband be joined unto
me because I born him three sons. Therefore was his name called
Levi. And she conceived again and bear
a son. And she said, now will I praise the Lord. Therefore
she called his name Judah and left bearing. Here we have those
four sons listed, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. And much is
written in from here to the next place we're going about Judah.
And he's a scoundrel. He's immoral. He's a scoundrel. And yet we find in what Jacob
was able to do that I don't find very many people throughout the
scriptures had the gift that God gave him. And that was to
have all 12 of his sons stand in front of him and tell him
what kind of men they were, how they're going to turn out. Well,
it is brought out in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 49. In Genesis chapter 49, we have
20 chapters later, we have that Jacob is in front of his 12 sons. He's about to die, and he has
this to say. The only one I want to read is
about Judah, chapter 49. And there in verse eight, chapter
49, verse eight, as Judah, it says, Judah, thou art he whom
thy brethren shall praise. Oh my goodness. Hmm. Thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies. Hmm. Thy father's children shall
bow down before thee. Hmm. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art
gone up. He stooped down, he couched as
a lion, as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up? And verse
10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet until Shiloh come, and until him shall the
gathering of the people be. Binding his foal upon the vine
and his asses cold upon a choice vine, he washed his garments
in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. Now in that
few short verses, we have a number of prophetic statements about
the Lord Jesus Christ using Judah as the type and Christ as the
antitype. Now we find out that Jesus was
born of the tribe of Judah, and we'll get to that in just a moment.
So Judah was called on by the Lord to go up and deal with these
Canaanites, and we find out that he is a type and a shadow and
a picture of the only one that can deal with the Canaanites.
He is the one that has trusted that the Lord will do his job
and his business. But before we move from this,
I want to go back to the chapter 43 and 44, because Judah does
something in these two chapters that are such pictorial, so pictorial
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, he was there when his
brother was sold into slavery. He was there when his brother
was thrown in the pit. He was there when his brother
was sold into slavery. And he is with the ten when they
go down asking for food. They're having a terrible, terrible
famine in Canaan where the Canaanites live. That's where Jacob and
his family were living to begin with. That's where Abraham was,
Isaac was, Jacob and the 12 sons, and all of Jacob's daughters
were there. And so we get here in the book
of Genesis chapter 43, and we find in verse eight that they're
down bargaining with the brother and don't even know it. They
don't know who he is. Now he dressed like an Israelite and
he speaks Egyptian and he kept himself from revealing himself
till the very end. So it's been years. This young
man, he's gone from a boy to an adult and he's second in command
down in Egypt and they find out this is our brother. Well, as
they're dealing with him, it tells us here that this brother
that they don't know is their brother said, is there another
son? Do you have another brother?
I won't sell you any more food unless you bring him down here.
Well, it turns out that Joseph and that brother are full brothers.
And he makes the statement, I will not sell you any more food until
that brother comes down here. Well, notice what Judah does
here in Genesis chapter 43, verses eight and nine. And Judah said
unto Israel, his father, send the lad with me And we will arise
and go that we may live and not die, both we and now, and also
our little ones. I will be surety for him. What's that mean? If there's
any punishment that is due, I will take it. You know, that's exactly
what Christ did for us. He is our surety. We couldn't
pay the price, but he did. He can, and he is. I will be
a surety for him, of my hand shalt thou require him. If I
bring him not unto thee, I set him before thee and let me bear
the blame forever. All right, let's go to the next
chapter and we find out in chapter 44 and verse 32. This Judah,
this one that is born to Leah and to Jacob, His brothers are
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. And here in chapter 44, verse
32, the scriptures share this. He says, for thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father, saying, I will bring him not
unto thee. If I bring him not unto thee,
then I will bear the blame to my father forever. He became
the surety. Now, none of the other brothers
volunteered for that, but it truly with his name being Judah,
is a true picture of the real Judah, the line of the tribe
of Judah, being our surety, being the one that would stand and
pay the cost, pay the price of our redemption, and that is to
pay for sin. Now, Mr. Hawker mentioned this
is the third promise of grace in the Bible. Number one, Genesis
chapter three, verse 15, that the, You will bruise his heel, but
he will bruise your head. And Genesis chapter 22, he shared
with Abraham, in you, in thee, all the nations of the world
will be blessed. That's another statement out of every kindred
nation, people, and tongue. And then we have this, a scepter
shall not depart from Judah. Now, once the Messiah was born,
there was no more need for the tribe of Judah. We don't need
him. Now there are no doubt people
that are or were of the tribe of Judah, and some of them were
saved. But we don't need that genealogy anymore. We don't need
the rest of the tribes of Israel. In fact, the Lord says, I regarded
them not. And if they want to trace their line, that's their
business. But there's very few that are actually true Jews anymore. So there was this one Judah. Now, as we think about God telling
the children of Israel I choose Judah. Now this is interesting
because when we get to the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews
chapter 7, in the book of Hebrews chapter 7, someone was going
to come up with the thought that said, well, he's not the right
tribe. He should be of the tribe of
Levi. if he's going to be the priest? Well, here in the book
of Hebrews chapter seven, the Holy Spirit brings this subject
up and shares with us, shares with us, Hebrews chapter seven,
verse 14, for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah. Now he comes through Judah, David,
and down to Mary and Joseph both. And that's one reason we have
them going to Bethlehem because their ancestor, David, they must
go to the house of their ancestor and their ancestor is David.
They're of the tribe of Judah. and they must enroll for taxation,
and that's why Jesus is born in Bethlehem and not in Nazareth. Well, it was prophesied that
that's what was going to take place. It is evident that our
Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing
concerning the priesthood. And we say, well, hallelujah. We're not under the Levitical
priesthood. We're under the tribe of Judah priesthood, and this
priesthood is like, as it goes in the next verse, it is yet
far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchizedek
there arises another priest. So we have the tribe of Judah,
we have the similitude or a type like Melchizedek that neither
father nor mother, beginning of days or end of life. So we
have that and we have As a result of that, backing up to verse
12 here, it says, for the priesthood being changed, there is made
of necessity a change also of the law. And the church says,
you know, that's good news. That is really good news. What's
the law of the Lord? Trust me. What's the law of God? Believe
on me. It's a command to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a command. to love him, and yet he gives
us that to do. And then in the book of Revelation,
the book of Revelation chapter five, we have this brought out
in Revelation chapter five, verse five. In Revelation chapter five
and verse five, this glorious statement made here with regard
to the one who can prevail or who did prevail, and we want
to be on the side of the prevailer, We want to be on the winter side.
And he certainly did prevail because it shares with us in
here in verse four, I wept much because no man was found worthy
to open and read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the
elders said unto me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah of the root of David hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,
sent forth into all the earth. So we have a lion of the tribe
of Judah, and at the same time, we have the lamb. Behold the
lamb of God. So we have a prevailer. We have a lion of the tribe of
Judah. the prevailer. So it's no wonder
that over there in the book of Judges, that when the request
is made, who shall go up for us? God Almighty said, Judah. Judah will go up for you, and
he will defeat those enemies. Now, we must ask, who will undertake
for us against our Canaanites? Who will undertake for us? And
you know what? The same instructions are given
to us and to them. The battle's not yours. The battle
is mine. You cannot win over one sin.
If we could, we'd do that, but we can't. So we have all of this. And just turn with me, if you
would, to the book of Hebrews again, as we read this continuing
saga of this great line of the tribe of Judah, the savior that
came to deal with the problems that we can't deal with. We,
it's not enough to have someone say, do the best job you can.
That's not enough. The issue is, we must be as holy
as God is, or we'll not see God. So we need a prevailer. We need
someone to take care of the problem. So here in the book of Hebrews
chapter nine, Hebrews chapter nine, Hebrews chapter nine, Verse
26, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26. I want to back up to verse 25. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every
year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world Hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself? By the sacrifice of himself,
he has taken and put away sin. Oh, that's our problem. That's
our Canaanites. Now all the sin that we have
ever committed and will ever commit has been taken care of
at the cross. And we have the instructions
from the Lord, go and sin no more, knowing full well that
we cannot keep that. There's only one that could keep
that. So we have that great encouragement. When we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Well, turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two is this
subject is continued to be dealt with in the scriptures. Someone
has been chosen. the line of the tribe of Judah.
We have someone has been chosen to deal with this. We have Jesus,
whose name means Savior, and the very name is brought up in
the book of Matthew, chapter one, for he shall save his people. Now he's a surety for them already.
In eternity past, he is the promisor that I will pay their debt. In
time, in the end of the world, he paid the price and here, we
have in the book of Colossians, another issue that we have against
us, and it was taken care of. In the book of Colossians chapter
two, Colossians chapter two, verse nine, it says, for in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Who is this? Get Judah. He's the one who'll
go and fight for you. Get Judah. I prescribed Judah.
That's what God said. Well, we're going to find out
in a while. Most people won't take God. What did God tell Samuel? They've not rejected you from
ruling over them. They've rejected me. It says,
for in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead body. I can't
get my hands around that. The fullness of the Godhead. in a bodily form. Every characteristic
and every attribute that we can read about God was in this man,
Christ Jesus. He was like unto us, yet without
sin. He came as our surety and paid
for the price. And ye are, verse 10, ye are
complete in Him. If you ever want to write a hymn,
take that verse. We, ye in him, ye are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in
whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead
in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us." Handwriting,
thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not,
thou shalt not. Sorry, I broke that one. Sorry,
I broke that one. Sorry, I broke that one. Sorry, I broke that
one. Sorry, I broke that one. I broke all 10 of them, and more than
once in one day, I've broken all of them. Well, he says, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the
cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly, triumphating over them in it. Everything about
Judah, this Judah, is a triumph. He triumphed over all powers
and principalities, everything that would hinder. He's the one
that has overcome all of that. And that's who we have as our
Savior. Now, the Apostle Paul was used
again to write this to Timothy. And he's writing it to us in
our day in 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. And verse 10, something else that Judah did
for us. He abolished death. He abolished the fear of death.
Do you know what death to the believer is? It's a portal. That's
what it is. It's a portal from here to glory.
All right, it says, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and
hath brought life in immortality to light through the gospel."
Who's that for? Everyone that Jesus Christ died
for. That is theirs. This is the lion
of the tribe of Judah. It is not a mistake that God
would choose Judah to go up against the Canaanites. They're first
off in the book of Judges. It is providential, it is glory
to the fullest that he would have his son come and deal with
the problems that we have. It is providential, it is the
Lord of glory. And you know, the Apostle Paul,
and I read the other day and I had a man tell me just recently
in the book of Romans chapter seven, verses 24 and 25, that's
the Apostle Paul before he was saved. The Apostle Paul didn't
have those thoughts before he was saved. You know what his
thoughts were? Kill the Christians. That's what his thoughts were.
I'm doing God a service. I'm doing God a service. I am
a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin.
I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. I have circumcised the eighth
day and I have it down pat. He didn't have this conflict
until after he was born again. So join me if you would in the
book of Romans chapter seven. In the book of Romans chapter
seven, We have the Apostle Paul led by the Holy Spirit once again
to share with us this wonderful blessing that God has for us. And it is found here in Romans
chapter seven, verse 24. It says, oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then the next
verse, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with
the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the
law of sin. It is the Lord and the Lord only
that can bring us into the state of salvation. And as a result
of that, he has promised to deal with our Canaanites. We will
continue in this glorious book, next few verses, the Canaanites
were dealt with by the tribe of Judah and Simeon. All right, we'll stop there for
tonight.