God has been faithful. God has
been faithful to Israel, been faithful to His promises to them
to bring them up out of Egypt, take them into Canaan, promised
them, kept all of His promises. But will Israel remain faithful
to God? Well, they didn't, and that's
what goes on in this book here particularly. Because of their
repeated failure, it made known to them how desperately they
need salvation from without. And then also, because of the
great sin that they had, it made those who knew and looked forward
to the promised seed to come yearn for the Lord Jesus to come.
But I want to read here, starting at verse 6 and read down to verse
19, and you'll see what I'm talking about. You ought to read this
book. There's a lot of things happening
in this book. But I was thinking today, there
ain't no sin known to the human race that ain't made known in
this book. I don't care what it is. There's nothing new under the
sun. We think of all the sins that people commit and how detestable
they are. Well, they have these sins, and
men have done them in the scriptures. But here in Joshua chapter 2
and verse 6, and when Joshua had let the people go, the children
of Israel were never met under 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 hath 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 a hundred
and ten years old. And they buried him in the border
of his inheritance in Timnatheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the
north side of the hill of Gaash. And also all that generation
were gathered unto their fathers." Now listen to this, "'And there
arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord,
nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children
of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam."
And Balaam just means this. It means having an idol that
becomes your master. They had all different kinds
of idols, but Balaam in and of itself just means an idol that
becomes your master. And they forsook the Lord God
of their fathers, which brought him up out of the land of Egypt,
and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were
around about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked
the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and
they served Baal and Ashtoreth, and the anger of the Lord was
hot against Israel. and he delivered them into the
hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the
hands of their enemies round about, so they could no longer
stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went, the
hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had
said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them, and they were greatly
distressed. Nevertheless, The Lord raised
up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that
spoiled him. And yet they would not hearken unto the judges,
but they went out whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves
unto them. They turned quickly out of the
way, which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments
of the Lord. But they did not sow. And when the Lord raised
them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge. and delivered
them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the Judge.
For he had repented the Lord because of their groanings by
the reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. And it came
to pass, when the Judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted
themselves more than their fathers. And following other gods to serve
them and bow down unto them, they ceased not from their own
doings, nor from their stubborn way." It's the world today, don't it? Well, Joshua. That shows us when God took Israel
after they rambled around in the wilderness for forty years.
Joshua, after Moses died, the law couldn't take them into Canaan.
Joshua, Jesus, Jehovah Savior, took them into the land of Canaan,
that was the triumph of grace. Grace reigned there. But when
then we come to Judges after Joshua, and Joshua, Joshua's
about grace. Grace reigning, grace triumphing. Judges is about favor, defeat,
shame, about what a lot of people experience in this world because
of sin, rebellion, and unbelief. Now there's twelve judges in
Judges, but all together there's seventeen judges, and you'll
find that this don't end until you get into 1 Samuel. And in
this book, there's no other book like it in the Bible, and some
of the things that happen in them. We see how that Israel
rebels, and God raises up these judges, these saviors to deliver
them. But we're seeing throughout this book, there's a man named
Ahud, one of the judges. He comes up to a big fat king,
says he's got a message for him. He reaches up and puts his hand
around him, a little like he's whispering in his ear, and put
a dagger all the way through his heart. And the scripture
said that he pushed so hard that the haft went in after it. Fell
down dead. And all of a sudden, a man named
Jael, a woman named Jael, there was a man named Caesarea that
came in and was fighting and trying to destroy Israel, and
a woman named Jael brings him into her tent, says, I'll hide
you. And then he falls asleep there, and she takes the tent
stake and drives it through his head. And then Gideon, everybody
knows about Gideon. Gideon was the man who God told
him that he was going to be the one to deliver Israel at a particular
time. And he says, Lord, if you call me, I'm going to lay this
fleece out here. And said, you let it get wet
on the fleece and let every place else be dry. If you really want
me to do this. So he did, got up the next morning,
his fleece was wet and everything else was dry. Till the next night
he says, now let all everything be wet, but let my fleece be
dry. He said, I want to make sure.
He was such a kindly man. And yet, he let her go down that
point. And then he got him an army of 32,000 people. 32,000 men ready to go to war.
And God said, that's way too many. That's way too many. Get him, and I'll tell you, I'm
going to be with you. You don't need all that many.
And he kept reducing that army, and reducing that army, and reducing
that army, and it got down to 300 men. And God delivered Israel
with Gideon and 300 men. And all those men were scared
to death of their own shadows, but God used them anyway. And
then there was a man named Jephthah. I remember hearing Scott preach
from this one time. He had been off, and he came
back very prosperous, and he'd been to war, and he came back,
and God had prospered him, and God had saved him. And he was
one of the judges, and he raised up, and he says, I raise my hand
to God. That the first thing I see when I return home, I'll
offer it unto the Lord. And the first thing he saw when
he got home was his daughter. The only one he had. And oh,
he said, and I've lifted my hand to God and I cannot go back.
I cannot go back. And oh, and then we see him sensing
he's supposed to be this great and mighty man. And he was a
mighty man. He was a mighty man, but oh, he was weak in so many
ways. He was weak. Women would just
turn him to water, and he loved women, and he loved to brag,
and he loved to boast, and it eventually cost him his very
life because of that. We see the weakness of him. And
then there was a Levite. He was out one night and was
bringing his concubine home, his wife home. And some men came
in, and it was in the land of Benjamin, and they began to beat
on the door, and they said, deliver those men who came in there out
to us. And they said, oh no, be this
far from us if we do that. He said, I've got a daughter,
I'll send her out. Same thing happened in Solomon.
And that Levite, he took his wife, and he said, here, you
can have her. And they abused that woman all night long, and
she died the next morning. That man took that woman, his
wife, and cut her into 13 pieces and sent her, or 12 pieces, and
sent her all over to every tribe in Israel and said, this is what
Benjamin done to my wife. And this is a witness about it.
Cut her in 13 pieces, 12 pieces, and sent her all over Israel.
Those are the kind of things that happened in Israel. And
all God's people, Israel, He brought them out of Egypt by
the hand of Moses, gave them the land of Canaan, gave them
covenant promises, gave them their inheritance by the hand
of God, the hand of Joshua. And what in the world did they
do? When the last ones gone who knew God and saw His works, those
folks forgot Him that quick. Forgot Him that quick. Huh? They
began to rebel against God, go into awful idolatry, and enemy
after enemy after enemy overcome them until they get so degraded,
and more and more and more so. It's incredible how far a man
will go if God leaves him to himself. And then they began
to ask, pick up here in verse 1. Chapter 1 and verse 1, excuse
me. The people asked the Lord for
a leader to go up and for us against the Canaanites. They
wanted somebody to go up, said, Oh, we're going to fight. Yeah,
we're not going to give up. Now, to the death of Joshua came
to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying,
Who shall go up for us to fight against the Canaanites? First,
to fight against the Canaanites. They wanted to, you know, we're
going to fight. We're not going to give up. We're going to keep
on fighting. We're going to keep on taking the land, running out
all the people. But listen, they start out asking for somebody
to fight for Cain, and at the end of the book, you know what
they're doing? They're fighting among themselves. They're down
there in Benjamin, the land of Benjamin, fighting against their
own brethren, fighting with one another. And how in the world
can we understand this book? I want you to look with me now.
First of all, I want you to look in chapter 17, in verse 6. How can you understand this book?
And I never will forget the first time I read this, read this and
understood what it meant, understood to some degree what it was about. But here in Judges 17, 6, yes. In those days there was no king
in Israel, but every man did that which was right. his own
eyes. In chapter 18 and verse 1, in
those days there was no king in Israel. Chapter 19 and verse
1, and it came to pass in those days when there was no king in
Israel. That's when they destroyed that
man. And then chapter 21, verse 25, I never will forget, just
as quick as I read this, I called a couple of preachers and I said,
what in the world does that mean? In those days there was no king
in Israel, Judges 21, 25, in those days there was no king
in Israel. There, every man did that which
was right in his own eyes. That's the only way you can understand
how things happened in this book. When men are left absolutely
to themselves, it's unbelievable what they will do. You imagine
if God were to take His hand, and there are people that He
does, and it's awful the things they do. But you imagine if God
takes His hand and quits restraining men, quits restraining more and
more and more men. You know what it would be like
on earth? It would be hell on earth. It would be dangerous
to get out of your house. God just said, there's some places
and it's dangerous, and now if you are a stranger and you go
in some place, you're not coming out alive. And that's what we,
how do we understand this book? What happened to these people
for whom the Lord had done so much? When there was no king,
no authority, no power, no glory, no strength, no law, no one to
reign over men and women, to tell them, They did that which
was right in their own eyes. I don't have to answer to anybody. That's the reason for the great
failure of Israel. And then I'll tell you this,
what it says. I'll tell you what it doesn't say. It doesn't say
every man did that which was wrong in his own eyes. It doesn't
say every man did that which was wrong in his own eyes. We've
all sometimes said that's wrong, but we do it. But no, it didn't say that which
is right. Every man did what was wrong in his own eyes, you
know. It just prevailed. No, it said, every man did that
which was right in his own eyes. What's right to me? And anything
that he did was right to do. That's the vernacular today. If it feels good, do it. If it
makes you happy, do it. That's what they said. And all
you talking about showing the deceitfulness of the heart, You
see, beloved, we never do what's wrong. And why don't we ever
do what's wrong? Because we always make what we
do right in our own eyes. So it's awful hard to do wrong
when you can turn around and say, it's right in my eyes. And
oh, beloved, this world and Israel here done this they call right,
wrong, and wrong, right. They tried to live in Canaan
and serve God at the same time as a place of rest, and then
they were governed by their own wisdom. Governed by their own,
instead of God's revelation, they refused the counsel of wisdom. Followed the counsel of fools.
Instead of trusting the Lord, they leaned to their own understanding
and trusted what they thought was right. This is what they've
done in this book. But Proverbs, and I'll tell you
if you've seen it in your own writing, in your own lesson here.
Trust in the Lord. Proverbs 3, 5. Trust in the Lord
with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. Oh, God don't let me, oh, direct
my steps, direct my path. It's not in man to direct his
own steps, the scripture says. Then trust in the Lord with all
your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him. Whichever way you go, acknowledge
Him. Glory, if it's your will, I'll
do this. If it's your will, I'll do that. If it's your will, I'll
go here. If it's your will, I'll go there.
If it's your will, I'll acknowledge. Everywhere I go, I'm going to
acknowledge it. You're God. And I need you. I need your understanding. I
need your power. And you acknowledge Him in all
the ways. And He'll direct your path. Don't be wise in your own
eyes. Fear the Lord. And get just as
far away from evil as you can get. And, O beloved, as long
as Joshua lived, these folks served the Lord, did what was
right, until there arose a generation, when I read it to you already,
which knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had yet done
for Israel. I'll tell you a story that happened just this last
weekend. Greg and I went out Saturday afternoon over at this
park and run a little bit, and he stopped, and there was, in
this particular park, there was all kinds of kids out there,
young people, passing out tracts. A couple, three different boys,
young men, were preaching. And they was, Greg stopped and
started talking to a couple of them, because he knows the church
they went to, and they accomplished. And they were preaching and giving
out tracts. And he said, what are y'all doing? They said, well, we're standing
here serving the Lord. We'll be obedient to God. He said, you're
not honoring God doing this. You're shaming the Lord doing
this. He said, you think it's wrong to witness? He said, what
do you think I'm doing stopping here talking to you? And he told them, this is what
he said. He said, so I'm an Armenian. I accept Jesus. Somebody called
me to an altar, and I accepted Jesus into my heart. And I say I'm saved, that I'm
a Christian, and I'm trusting the Lord. He said, but you say
I'm saved, and you know what they said to me? Well, what kind
of lifestyle do you live? Do you live a good holy life?
You make no difference how you got converted. All they want
to know is how you live. And Acts 4 to the Scriptures,
they're doing that just right in their own eyes. He stood there
and took the Scriptures and showed them what they're doing right
in their own eyes. They don't care about salvation.
They didn't care about Christ. They didn't care about grace.
They didn't care about the blood of Christ and the righteousness
of Christ. They wanted to know you lived good enough to let
people know that you're living for Jesus. As Scott used to say, they didn't
see Jesus in Jesus. And that man is doing right in
their own eyes. And that's what explains it.
They knew not the Lord, nor yet the works God had done for Israel.
And we lived our lives. We forgot. We didn't know God
from a goat until He made Himself known to us. And I tell you,
beloved, I tell you, God left Israel, the enemies in the land,
so that He could prove them and learn from their experience.
Then hopefully, by God's mercy, that they would learn and say,
Lord, I want to trust you and I want to walk with you. But
they didn't learn. They didn't learn. If God raised
up a judge, he'd go right back. If He raised up a judge, he'd
go straight down. He'd die and he'd go right back. But all we
read of God's faithful to His covenant people, and that's what
He says, you know, He says there, nevertheless the Lord raised
up judges which delivered them out of the hand of them that
spoiled them. And God is so faithful to His people, how gracious,
how good, how merciful He is. Like as a father pitied his children,
even so the Lord pitied them that fear Him. For He knoweth
our frame, and He remembers that we dust. We sometimes forget
it, but He never forgets it. It's what we are. And He's merciful. And beloved, he always, always
shows his great displeasure against the sins of his people. Always,
always, always. Let's talk about the time of
Judges. Let's talk a little bit about the time of Judges. The
Judges, times of the period of the Judges here, after Joshua
died, until God raised up Samuel. And Samuel was the prophet, and
then he raised up Saul, the first king. But the time of the Judges,
covers a period of 230 years. 230 years. That's a long time. That's about
as old as America's, not much older than that. 1776, 1819. Yeah, really. And so 230 years. And it's not,
you know, it goes on through Judges and over in 1 Samuel.
But Judges, you know, and you go through here, and it started
out in the time of Judges, 230 years, and Judges ends with Israel. They go into the land of Canaan,
and it ends with Israel in a sad, sad condition. But you always,
and you know, I'll tell you something, that Ruth is immediately after
Judges. You read Joshua, and oh, how
God blesses them. And then you got this period
here of rebellion, and all this wickedness, and all this idolatry,
and then you got Ruth. Ruth was at the time of Judges.
And there was Boaz, and Redemption, and the promise of Redemption,
a mighty Deliverer and Saviour. So if you read Joshua and read
Ruth and Judges in between them, what a blessing it would be to
you. There's a story of our kinsman Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, oh, Joshua shows what God's going to do with us. He's going
to bring us into the land of the glorious rest, into the heavenly
kingdom one of these days. But Judges, Judges shows the
present condition, enemies within, enemies without, and our constant
need of the grace of God. Constant need of the grace of
God. And here's the thing, dear life, turn with me over to Romans
15 forward, just a minute. You know, the message, the message,
the message, the time of it is 230 years between Ruth and Joshua. In Romans 15 and 4, the message,
you know the scriptures are written, says Romans 15 and 4, for whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning.
And when he's talking about the things that are written four
times, he's talking about the whole New Old Testament. The
New Testament wasn't even written at that time. He's saying Genesis,
Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, all the
prophets, everything, whatsoever things were written the four
times were written for our learning, for us to learn from them. When
you read it, learn them. Sit down, you're going to school,
you're learning some things. And as we learn these things,
that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might
have hope. So when we read about judges
and the things that happen, that God always raised up a Savior,
He gives us hope that no matter what happens in this world, God's
going to send, at His time, He's going to save us from our troubles
and our sorrow. He's going to save us in our
time of great need. And brethren, I tell you, beloved,
We read about judges and Israel's failures. Oh, it says how they
continued in their stubbornness. They continued. Oh, how stubborn
they were. The rebellion, and the sin, and all their battles,
and their sorrows, and their shamefulness. They'd get ashamed,
they'd cry out, God's sin of us delivered. And then on him
dying, they would go right back to it, and then they'd get ashamed
and cry back again. God told them, He said, if you'll
come back to me and repent and be ashamed, He said, I'll see
you. Oh my, it's obvious that he was
the one that delivered them from Egypt. It's obvious that he's
the one that took them into Canaan. And that they couldn't have survived
one day in that land had not God kept them. And God has saved
us by his almighty grace. But listen to, how weak are we? How weak are we? How weak are
we? Huh? How sinful are we in our
thoughts? How sinful are we? And in so
many ways. How much unbelief is mixed with
our faith? And if we would have left ourselves,
you know how long we'd last? Got that line. You know why we continue in grace? Because God is gracious and glorious
and keeps us in grace. You know why we persevere in
faith? Because God perseveres in grace. You know why we continue
to walk in the way? Because He keeps us in the way.
You know why we continue to hold to Him and look to Him? It's
because He continues to hold us and look to us and keep us. That's the only reason. And there's
four things that Israel went through, four cycles. And it's
probably pretty much true in our own lives. And you go through
this, and you read this Judges in one setting if you can. And
there's cycles that people go through. First of all, when they
come into the land of Canaan, Judges begins with them in a
land of rest. And they stay in there 40 years,
and they had rest and peace and comfort. And Joshua gave them
rest. And that's where we begin salvation.
We begin salvation with rest in our Lord Jesus Christ, our
great, blessed Joshua. As He brings us into grace and
gives us salvation and eternal life, and He gives us grace.
Oh, what rest we have in Christ. And then next up, the next thing
that happens is rebellion. It wasn't long after Israel took
possession of the land of Canaan, they rebelled against the Lord.
God told them to drive out all the inhabitants of the land.
But they didn't do it. You know why? They said, well,
we'll let these fellows serve us. If we stay here, they'd have
to pay us taxes. We'll let them hew wood and carry
water for us. We'll make them to be our servants.
And it turns around that they ended up going and falling into
their sin and into their gods. And oh, beloved, they did what
seemed right in their own eyes. And they thought because God
saved them, they thought themselves to be better than others, stronger
than others, so they didn't have to obey in all things. You know
what they done? They cleaned the outside, and
the inside was still filthy, still filthy. And Israelites, instead of blessing
the Lord God of heaven, they began to bless other gods. They had been told to leave them
and leave them alone. they began to worship their gods,
and they began to forsake the worship of Jehovah. They used
God's name, they used His name, and then there's a verse in here
that says that they served God in their eyes too. Feared God
and served their eyes. And oh my, that's an astounding
statement. They feared God and served their
eyes. Fear God and serve their idols.
And then God would punish them. They'd sin, they'd go worshiping
them idols. God would come down and He'd
send enemies on them, and He would war against them. He'd
bring them into bondage and make them serve other people. And
He showed by doing that His hatred for sin, especially, especially
with His own people. And I tell you, beloved, sin
always brings punishment, but blessed be His name. He punished
our sin once and for all in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'll tell
you what the Lord does with His people. He does chasten His people
whom He loves. You may, you know, we may get
in pretty bad shape in this world, but I'll tell you one thing,
God will chasten us. He won't let us alone. He won't let us
alone. I heard Brother Don talking about
the miserablest two weeks he ever had in his life. God wouldn't
speak to him, and he couldn't speak to God. He said, I couldn't
read, I couldn't do nothing. He said, that was an awful experience.
And what chance did you know to be left alone? What if God
never moved in your heart, say for weeks at a time, to read
the Scriptures? Never moved in your heart to pray? Never moved in your mind to think
of Him? Never moved you in your heart to want to go worship.
It left you like that for about a month. You know what you'd
do? You would get so frightened that
you would pour out your heart and say, God, am I saved? Do
I know you? Have you left me to myself? Where
am I at? That would be something, wouldn't
it? Oh, God, don't do me that way,
please. But He chastens His people, and then not only would they
rebel, they'd go to rest, and they'd rebel, and He'd punish
them, and then He'd restore them. And oh, when God punishes His
people against sin, always followed by restoring them, bringing them
back. And oh, beloved, always restoring them. And there's twelve
judges mentioned here in the book of Judges. And all of them
were men except one, who was Deborah. And God raised them
up to deliver and save His people from all their enemies. The Scripture
tells us that they were all saviors. That's what judges mean. They
were saviors. He raised them up to save Israel
from their enemies. And they all acted as kings.
When they were ruling over Israel and judges over Israel, they
acted as kings. Samuel was a prophet. Eli was
a priest, and the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Priest,
our Prophet, and our King. He will deliver us, and He will
save us from all our enemies, and He will never, never, bless
His holy name, leave us to ourselves. And you remember that verse of
Scripture in Jeremiah 32, 40 that says this? He said, I will
make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them. I'm not going to turn away from
them. To do them good. I'm not going to turn away from
them to do them good. And listen to this, and I'll
put my fear in their hearts, and they won't do far from me
either. So, oh, what a salvation we have. What a salvation we have. No
wonder Paul says, you know, nevertheless the foundation of God standeth
sure, and the Lord knoweth them that are his. Oh, and let every
one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. And oh,
Israel, as they go on, they get more and more and more rebellious. And let's turn to chapter 21,
and I'll wind this thing up. Let me show you what happens
with these folks in Judges 21. You know, they just rebel more
and more and more. God does it, and they just get
more stubborn, more stubborn. And then, they just get worse
and worse. They sink lower and lower, and
they're just like rotten flesh. And when we get down here, and
this says here, They went into Benjamin and they
began to destroy Benjamin. And it says there in verse 46
of chapter 20, it says, So that all which fell that day of Benjamin
were twenty-five thousand men that drew the sword, and all
these were valiant men of war. And that's because of what Israel
turned against Israel. All the rest had turned, and
they'd fight among themselves. This wasn't an enemy. This was
Israel attacking Israel, fighting among themselves. And then it
says here in verse 3, no, excuse me, verse 21. Now the man of
Israel hath sworn an amiss by saying, There shall not any of
us give his daughter unto Benjamin the wife. Talking about the whole
tribe. And the people came to the house of God in a boat back
to Lebanon, lifted up their horses and wept sore and said, O Lord
God, why has Israel, O Lord God, why has this come to pass in
Israel that there should be today one day tribe lacking in Israel? So they fought and fought right
down to the very end. And wouldn't give husbands and
wives to one another. Just got in horrible shape. And
I'll tell you the scriptures tells us, and we have this flesh
to contend with. Oh, we have such flesh to contend
with. Paul said, we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm
carnal. The law is spiritual, I'm carnal,
so run to sin. For that which I do, I don't
allow. What I would, that do I not. What I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, if I do that that I would not, I can sit under the law
that it's good, it told me that I was wrong. Now, it is no more
I that do it, but what does it? Sin, sin dwelleth
in me. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, in this body, in this old fallen nature dwelleth
no good thing, nothing. For to will, to will is present
with me. But how to perform, how to be
committed, how to love Christ, how to honor God, how to live
to the glory of God, how to live without falling into sin and
rebelling against God, how to perform, I do not know. For the good that I would, I
do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. That I do. Now, if I do that
that I would not, if I do what I wouldn't do, it is no more
I that do it. That's why Paul, he says, I,
yet not I, so many places. Yet it's no more I that do it.
but sin dwelleth in me." I find in this law, this principle,
that when I would do good, when I would do good, and we're here
to do good, we're here to hear the gospel, we're here to study
God's blessed book, we're here to worship, we're here to sing
songs, and we come in here and evil comes right in here with
us. Where's it come with us? With this old fallen nature.
And I find then this law that when I would do good, evil is
right there with me. I do delight, I find great joy
in the law of God, the word of God in my heart, in my soul,
in this new man. But I see another law in the
body, in my members, in my thoughts, in my hands, in my flesh, warring
against the law of my mind. bringing me into the captivity
to the lost sinless in my members. But you know the story's not
over yet. We're going to go from Joshua, Judges, into Ruth. You know what happens in Ruth?
The story's not over yet. We've got a Redeemer. We've got
somebody who wants us to be His. He'll do all that our soul requires.
And why does God leave us in this world, in this condition?
Why does He do that? He could save us and take us
to glory and save us from this sinful nature in the snap of
an anger. But He hasn't chosen to do that. You know why He doesn't? To cause us to continually and
always look to Christ while we're in this world. To make us fall
out of love with this world. Confessing that we have no strength,
we have no righteousness, we have no hope, no acceptance with
God, only through our Lord Jesus Christ. And one of these days,
one of these days, every enemy will be destroyed. You know the
last enemy that God's going to destroy? Death. Death. And you know where He's
going to put death? In the bottomless pit. In the
bottomless pit. You read judges when you get
a chance.