If you're here this morning, you have an interest in the things of God, have a concern for your own soul, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Judges. The book of Judges. prepare these studies to convince folks that I do study. God knows whether or not I do what I'm supposed to do. But I don't prepare these things to convince folks that I study or to supply you with all the intellectual answers that you can spout off to your friends and co-workers and make ourselves all swell up with pride that we know this and know that. I have these studies to point you to Christ and give you a genuine hope before God. This book is full of examples of folks who said they believed God and didn't really enter into any understanding of who God is or how God saves sinners or why he saves sinners.

They were just religious. traditionally religious. Their folks were religious, their grandparents were religious, and so were they. And they go here and go there and do this and do that because that's what they were told to do. When Israel came into the land of Canaan, they came in among idolaters, these heathen idolaters. They had been worshiping their god for as long as they could remember, the same as Israel.

In Acts chapter 10, verse 43, Peter spoke of the apostles' ministry, who were eyewitnesses of Christ, who was ordained of God to be judge of the quick and the dead. And he said to him, give all the prophets witness. So these books that we're studying back here, the books of Moses, and then Joshua, and now Judges, all of these books here All of these prophets who wrote these things are giving witness of Christ. And what did they witness?

They witnessed, it says in Acts 10.43, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall have remission of sins. At that time, they were looking forward to the coming Redeemer. He's promised all through the book.

In fact, the Old Testament has this theme, somebody's coming. That's what it says. It says it's from Genesis chapter three all the way through Malachi. Somebody's coming. You come in to the New Testament, it says somebody came. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared in this world. And then in the rest of the Bible, it tells you somebody's coming back. Somebody's coming back. And that's what we're here this morning to study. We want to see this somebody. We want to see what he's doing. who he is, where he's at, how he saves sinners.

And I would say this, that this church is not a social club. It's not just a group of people trying to reform their lives. They have social clubs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Halfway Houses and different things. These are for people who are trying to reform their lives. That's not what a church is. We're not a halfway house.

We're a local church. which God says is the pillar and ground of the truth. That's what we're to proclaim, the truth. And the truth is in a person. Our Lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So whichever of these three we're searching after or seeking after, we need to know that he's the answer. He's the object. He is the way. I don't want to miss the way, do you? And that's what his own disciples said. We don't know the way. We don't know where you're going, and how can we know the way? He said, I am the way. I'm the way.

And everything we do here involves the ministry of God to chosen sinners. Here in the book of Judges, we have a story that almost seems out of place. If you read this with some traditional religious concept in your head that God's trying to save everybody he can and so on and so forth, this thing's really going to seem out of place to you. I listened to several messages and read several commentaries on these verses, and they were all good. Every one of them, they were good. Everything they said was true. But none of them were in keeping with the context of what's going on in the book of Judges, or in any kind of harmony with the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ.

The book of Judges follows the book of Joshua. It's like a continuation of Joshua. Israel's come into Canaan. This is their inheritance. God's dispensing their inheritance to them, and they're conquering heathen idolaters. And what this all represents is God establishing his kingdom in the hearts of his people.

Well, what's the problem? In the heart, we're idolaters. We're irreligious. We're full of all kind of religious corruption. That's what the problem is. And in order to establish a kingdom, a righteous kingdom, that enemy has to be overcome. And that's what this book of Joshua and all these wars, and I used to read about these wars in there, and I'd think to myself, what on earth does this have to do with being saved? Well, it has everything to do with it. Everything to do with it. The kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

He led Israel into their inheritance, openly defeated the reign of the heathen, and then Joshua died. Joshua is the Old Testament name for Jesus. So Joshua is a type of Christ. He's a picture of Christ, and we saw that in the book of Joshua. And he led them through all these battles, his church. He was with them. But he died, and Christ died. And he's not among us anymore. Joshua wasn't among the children of Israel anymore. But he was in his name. The name Joshua stayed there. And they respected him and so on.

And even those who, it uses two different words. One of them says those who outlived Joshua. And the other one says those who overlived Joshua after Joshua died. And so he's describing to us here the state of New Testament believers after Christ died. That's what's going on here in the book of Judges.

Now, they'd come in, overcome the enemy, but they didn't run all the inhabitants out. There were still some of those former inhabitants that occupied the land and they gave them trouble. They were a threat to them and a threat to their souls and the Lord through Joshua warned them about this. Warned them about it. So the book of Joshua and Judges is about receiving the kingdom of God. It's about walking with God as believing heirs and children of God. The old inhabitants were still left in Canaan a picture of Israel. And why did God leave them there?

To prove Israel. That's what he said. He left them there on purpose. He's going to prove Israel. He's going to prove that new man in you. He's going to prove that salvation, that faith that he gives you. God's going to prove it. How's he going to do it? With trials, troubles. He's going to send you troubles. And he's going to prove his work in you. How will he do it? How will the Lord walk with Israel now that Joshua was not here? The scripture said he raised up judges.

Now, if you'll take your time when you get home, if you're really interested in it, you can go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And Paul's talking there to men and women who wouldn't hear the gospel. They were opposed to it. Contrary, it was totally opposite to everything that they ever had ever been told, and they were just rejected it. And it says that the natural man, in verse 14, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto them.

Neither can they know them because they're spiritually discerned. If you reject these pictures, these types, the way that God has set forth this coming Redeemer, if you reject these things, how can you ever come to a knowledge of Christ? Neither can you know them. They're spiritually discerned.

And how does the spirit set these things forth? Here a little and there a little. That's what he said. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual is the word that the apostle used in that chapter. And then after that, he talks about the believer being judged of no man. He said he's a judge of things, the believer is, And what that word means is a discerner. A judge is a discerner.

It means he understands all things because God's opened them up to him. He can see them. He's receiving the things of the Spirit of God. But to this unbeliever, this man who wouldn't receive these things, he said, the believers understood or discerned by no man.

So this word judge has to do with discern. So when God raised up a judge, it just simply means that he gave a man some discernment, and he raised him up to teach his people Israel. How will he do it? Through judges. Now, if you will, look down here in Judges chapter 3. We'll be looking at verses 12 through 30 of Judges chapter 3. As quickly as we can, let's read these verses. Judges chapter 3, beginning with verse 12.

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, this heathen king, against Israel because they'd done evil in the sight of the Lord. And he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and smote Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees. So the children of Israel served Eglon, this evil king, the king of Moab, 18 years. They were in bondage to him, served him, did whatever he said to do, they did. But when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer. Ehud, the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man left-handed, and by him the children of Israel sent a present to Eglon, the king of Moab." God raised up this judge named Ehud. And God revealed to them what he was going to do.

He said, you're going to make out like you're going to take this evil king a present. I got gifts for him, gifts for him. But Ehud made him a dagger, which had two edges, a cubit in length. That's about 18 inches. And he hid this under his raiment on his right thigh. He was a left-handed man. He put that dagger down here on his right-hand side, covered it up with his raiment, took it and concealed. And he brought the present. We're never told what the present was. But he brought the present to Eglon, king of Moab.

And he was a very fat man. I love the truthfulness of the scripture. You know, we'd say he's a bit heavy or a bit overweight. God said he was a fat man. He just tells the truth, don't he? We like to say, well, we ain't always done the right thing. But God said we're sinners.

And when he made an end to offer the present, that is, they brought the present, they gave it to the king. Ceremony was over. The king sent all the people away. But he himself turned again from the quarries, and this is talking about Ehud now. He gave the king the present. Evidently, he was walking away. with the king and the quarries were out there that they mined all their idols and stuff from. And he turned from the quarries by the way of Gilgal and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king.

And the king told all of his servants to keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. They all left him alone with Ehud. And Ehud came unto him, and he was sitting in his summer parlor, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose from his seat, and Ehud put forth his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.

And the haft, that crossbar at the back that keeps you your hand from sliding up on the blade. The haft went in after the blade. The whole thing, even the handle, went into the belly of this old fat king. And it says the fat closed upon the blade so that he could not draw it out of his belly, and dirt came out.

Then Ehud went forth through the porch, shut the doors, and of the parlor upon him and locked the doors. And when he was gone out, his servants come. And when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlor were locked, they said, well, surely the king covered his feet.

He's in here taking a nap. We don't want to disturb him. So they didn't bother to open the doors. And they tarried till they were ashamed. They got to feeling guilty about not looking in on the king. And behold, they opened the doors of the parlor with a key. They opened them, and behold, the Lord was falling down on the earth dead. He was gone. He was laying down there with this big knife in his belly. And he had escaped while they tarried and passed beyond the quarries and escaped to see Ira.

And it came to pass, when he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim. And the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them. And he said unto them, follow after me, for the Lord hath delivered your enemies, the Moabites, into your hands.

And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan, and turned Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over. Now, you know what fords are. That's a shallow place in the river where men could pass. And they went down and took that over, and they wouldn't let anybody come across. And they slew Moab that time, about 10,000 men, all lusty and all men of valor. And there escaped not a man. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, And the land had rest four score years, 80 years. They'd served O'Eglon for 18, and now they had rest. The rest of a man's natural life, they had rest.

And in these verses, there's a theme that's going to be repeated throughout the Book of Judges. God's elect will be renewed in the spirit of their mind, They'll serve the Lord among the heathen. And then another generation will come along who are corrupt and know not God. And they're going to do evil. And God's going to raise up another judge. And he's going to do the same thing. That's the story of believers from the beginning of time. God saves sinners. Why does he call them sinners? They're corrupt. They're corrupt. They know not God. That's why we preach to them. If they knew God, I wouldn't have to preach. They don't know God.

And God reveals himself in his sons, Jesus Christ. He's the image of God. That's what it says. He's the image of the invisible God. So how will God deal with Israel after Joshua dies? He's going to deal with them with judgment. And several men say that the judge represents Christ, and I don't have a problem with that. You're talking about discernment. He's the word of God. He has all discernment. All revelation is in him. But that's not what he's talking about with these judges. These judges are pictures of pastors who preach Christ. They represent Christ. Listen to this scripture, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. Paul said, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.

What's an ambassador do? He represents whatever country sends him, whatever person sends him. He's an ambassador. They're not going to talk to the president of the United States. They're going to talk to the ambassador, whoever he is. And we're ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you and Christ did be reconciled to God. Our Lord sent out the 70 to preach, and they were going out into all those cities where he himself would come.

And here's what he told them. You can read it for yourself. Matthew and Luke both write the same thing. He said, he that heareth you, heareth me. These judges spoke on behalf of God. They were judges. And there are a picture of pastors raised up to teach their generation, this generation of God's elect in my lifetime, whoever they are, of the way of God and to tell them the works of God for Israel and how God saves sinners.

Salvation, if you'll pardon the expression, is God butting in. That's what salvation is. God buts in. If he leaves you to yourself, that's the worst possible thing that could ever happen. And religion cries from the rooftop that everything's all up to you. God's done all he can do. Really? The living God has done all he can do and now it's up to you?

You won't find that in this book. This book says he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or even question what he does. Those who found salvation over in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 found out that they were predestinated unto this adoption according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. God not done all he can do. But when he does what he does, he has his way in it, whatever it is.

And then another generation will rise up after them, and they know not the Lord, and they'll do evil. And the Lord will raise up another pastor, another good. I'm crawling up on 80 years old. I don't have a long time left. But I expect after I'm gone, unless this is the end of time, which it could very well be, but the Lord will raise up another pastor. wherever his elect are. He's going to raise up a pastor, raise up a congregation to support him, and he's going to preach and call out God's elect and teach them, just the same way these judges did.

Now, it says they did evil in the sight of the Lord. What did they do? It tells you in here what they did. But if they did evil in the sight of the Lord, what are they talking about? They're talking about fornication, homosexuality, drugs, alcohol, perverts. What did they do? What did they do that was so evil in the sight of the Lord?

It says they served Balaam. Huh? Oh, we thought the danger was down here in the bar. No, the danger is down here in the church. I'm telling you the truth. False religion. Verse 12, they followed the gods of other people. What other people? Any other people. Didn't matter.

There wasn't but one people who knew God, and that was Israel. God revealed himself to them through the prophets. They're the only ones who knew anything about God. All the rest of the nations were heathen, idolaters, Gentiles. They followed gods of other people. That's what they were warned about. They followed the god of this world, and it has endless forms. That word Balaam is a plural word for Baal. It just means all kinds of false religions. That's what it's talking about. The god of this world can take just endless forms, But in one respect, it's always the same.

It comes forth from the imagination of natural man. It's an image conjured up by a fallen sinner, and it changes the glory of God into an image made like unto man or birds or four-footed beasts and creeping things. It just goes downhill, don't it? And the fruit of such religion is perversion. Perversion of life, immorality, abortion. Is that what we're seeing today? I'm telling you, we've got more religion in this country than we've ever had. You would think the influence of that would be a perfectly moral country, but we're not. You look around and see the effects of false religion. What is it? Abortion, killing unborn babies. Freedom of lifestyle. Huh? There ain't but one lifestyle. God created man and woman. He didn't create man and another man and then a woman and say, here, take the pig. Know what he did?

We've got people crying free will. You don't have a free will. Your will's in bondage to your nature. You can't go above your nature. Israel murmured at Christ because he said he was the bread come down from heaven. And he said, don't murmur. He said, no man can come unto me except my Father draw him. Your nature's not going to let you come to Christ. He has to bud in. He has to intervene. He has to stop your progress. We're going downhill. Downhill. Oh.

Worship any way you want to. There's a church down in Spring Hill, Louisiana. They formed out of one of the bigger churches out there because they wouldn't let them worship the way they wanted to. That's false religion. Worship any way you want to. We'll just start a new building. So if you want to come in here. eat a candy bar while I'm preaching or whatever. Just anything you want to do, any way you want to do it. And why do we do such things? Because we love ourselves.

You want to know who Eglon is? This is Eglon right here. This is the old man, the old king. You know why he's fat? Because he serves himself. That's who he's worried about himself. He's the only one that had that big bed in that summer parlor. He's probably the only one that had a summer parlor. Boy, he worries about his own benefits and his own comfort. Big old fat king, he's never had any resistance.

You know, that's exactly what Christ said our condemnation was. He said, you love darkness rather than light because your deeds are evil. That's why you love this stuff. That's why men love religion, because their deeds are evil, and it caters to them. Before there can be any walking with God, in Christ or hope of salvation, this old man has to die.

And that's what this passage is teaching. That's what it's all about. Israel was in bondage and served Eglon for 18 years. That's about the age of a person when he comes to the age where he's able to reason and make decisions, isn't it? About 18 years old. That's when they began to be able to reason for themselves a little bit.

Well, let me just briefly give you the figures here. This is all figurative. This is all symbolic language. If you read the Old Testament and you look at these battles, they actually happened. I'm not saying they didn't happen. But I'm saying they're not here to teach you how to go to war. They're here to tell you about Christ, tell you about sin, tell you about gospel truth.

So let me just give you the figures here, and you can fill in the blanks. Eglon is the old man of the flesh. That's me. He represents the bulk of our lives being under his reign. And his reign, he's reigned so long we don't know anything. But Eglon, there were children born under his reign who didn't know anything else. And we don't either. I grew up in false religion. I grew up in a world that was, and still is, influenced by false religion.

So whatever he tells us is true, we lay hold of and hope in. Whatever he says he needs, we give him. Whatever he says he wants, we try to supply it. That's the old man, the old king. He says, do this, we do it. Eglon has to die. Not going to be any welcoming of God until Eglon dies. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying we have to die.

Now, here's what men think. Men think like the old king thought. They thought this preacher, this pastor, they thought he was coming with gifts. Oh, he's got a gift for me. He's gonna give me this. He's gonna let God. I heard that the other night. Gonna let God do something. You ain't gonna let God. What kind of God you got? He has to get your permission to do stuff? He's God. He's God. Oh, my soul. But here's this old gang after us. He's got to die. But he thinks his pastor's up here giving him some gifts. That's what he come for. He's waiting on the gift. Where's the gift? I got your gift right here. Boom.

A dagger in the belly. Eggman has to die. Now before somebody runs out here and says he's crazy and he's telling us to go get a dagger and stab all unbelievers in the belly, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking in figurative language, that this old man has to die.

Put off the old man. Isn't that what he said? Put him off. Get him out of there. He can't rule. You can't walk with God and walk with him. You can't do it. That old man has to die. Well, how does he die? On the cross. That's where God killed him. That's our representative dying on that cross. He's bearing my sins and his own body on the tree. That's the old man dying. Paul said to the Colossians, you're dead. When did we die? You died in Christ. Your life is hid with Christ in God. But you're dead. You're dead. And the first work of a pastor preaching the gospel, the first work of God in the hearts of his people is to slay the sinners.

He has to die. He has to die. Well, couldn't he be of some benefit? Couldn't he have used that old fat king and his influence? No, he ain't going to use him. He's going to lay him on the floor dead. And he's not going to use this old flesh. But that's what religion says. He's going to fix you up. He's going to fix you up. He's going to enable you to do this and do that and do something else. Now, he's going to kill the sinner, and the sinner's dead. Oh, what's he say? He said, put on the new man. Who's that?

That's Christ. Well, how in the world does Christ live in me? By faith. All my hope, all every believer's hope, hangs on Christ. He's my hope. Not my good works, not my reformation, not anything else. Christ, that's my hope. Now, I'm going to tell you something. Anybody who has that kind of hope will purify themselves even as they're pure in him. You know why? Because you're going to see him as he is, see him as he's set forth in the word of God, and you're going to want to be like him. Huh? If you don't have that, you ain't seen him.

But the first work this old judge has to do for Israel, the first work, this is what God sent him to do. He said, you can go down there and carry this present. And you can hand it to him and he can have it. But here's the message. He said, I have a secret errand for you.

It's secret. Men don't know what's coming. You think that old king knew what was coming? Neither does any saint ever call to God. He don't see it coming. God slays the sinner. Bam. He's gone. He's gone. And we come to Him helpless, hopeless, ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinners. All of our hope's in His mercy and in His grace. We turn to Him and look to Him for all things. He's our righteousness. He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. You see what I'm saying? I'm not all religion just so hard, so difficult. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's just looking to Christ, trusting in Him alone. Him alone. He's all my whole.

The dagger is the gospel. Now, let me tell you something. This is a miniature sword, if you will. He likens the word of God to a two-edged sword. All this inspired volume here. It's a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. It pierces. It'll divide a thunder soul and body it sharper than any two-edged sword. But he arranges and fixes, just like I go home and prepare the gospel, he prepares the daggers.

What I prepared for you this morning is the dagger. And it's concealed. People don't see it. They see a pastor, they just see a man. They don't see a man with a dagger. You see what I'm saying? It's concealed. And then he gets up and he preaches, and that dagger, boom, right in the belly. He didn't have time to run. He didn't have time to think. He didn't have time to do anything. Pow. God killed him. He slayed him right there. And that's how men, they're slain by the gospel. The real gift is the slaying of the sinner. That's the gift. Did he not bring a gift? Yes, he did. He slayed the sinner.

Baptism, one of the two ordinances given to the church, is to confess our death with Christ. Isn't that what we're confessing? We died with him. We were buried with him by the hand of another and raised to walk in newness of life. You're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.

And then watch this. Seeing the hand of God working through this man, all the people followed Ehud. When did they follow him? When he blew the trumpet. Now I challenge you, you go through the scripture, every time you hear a trumpet blown in Israel, it's the gospel. That's what he's talking about. And he preached that gospel on that mountain of Ephraim, and they heard it, and they come running, didn't they?

And they followed him. And that's what Paul told the Thessalonians, I know your election of God. My gospel came not unto you in word only, but it came in power, and it came in the Holy Ghost, and it came with much assurance. And you become followers, he said, of us and the Lord. You saw the Lord in that man, and so did Israel. They saw the Lord, they saw the Lord's ways, and they followed Him.

He taught them something about how God saves sinners, didn't He? May the Lord Himself give us an understanding and slay this old man and give us rest. That's what happens when He slays the sinner, shuts him up to Christ. He's got nowhere else to go but to Christ. Shuts him up to Christ. He lays hold of Christ, and he has rest for the rest of his days. Four score years, 80 years. Oh my son, may the Lord give us some understanding of it. Thank you.