A lesson this morning will be taken from Judges 6, verses 1-10. Judges 6, verses 1-10. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel.

And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them dens which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had sown that the Midianites came up and the Amalekites and the children of the east Even they came up against them, and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass." They planted, and they came up and just trampled it down, and they killed all the newborn of their flocks and herds. They came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude. For both they and their camels are without number. And they entered into the land to destroy it.

And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up out of Egypt, I brought you forth out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all that oppressed you. And I drove them out from before you and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice." Now, let's see if I can set the stage as to what's going on both in Canaan at this time and at this very present time in this place where we're gathered, in this very day in which we live.

God has an elect people. He calls them the Israel of God. Spiritual Israel, sometimes preachers refer to them. Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, is typical of all God's people. In Romans 9, verse 11, God said this to Rebekah about her son Jacob before he was born or did any good or evil.

And he said it, now listen, that the purpose of God according to election might stand. Not of works, but of him that calleth. There were two babies born. They hadn't done any good, they hadn't done any evil. God's going to establish his election. He called one, he passed by the other. And he said this, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Election sets a man apart for the grace and mercy of God.

There's no difference here between the Midianites and Amorites And Israel, they both did evil in the sight of the Lord. That's how he begins this verse. Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. There's no difference. What made the difference? God's election. God chose a people. He chose them to salvation. And he blesses them in all things, in his providence, in his word, in sending them. He sent them a prophet. He didn't send no prophet over there to the Midianites. Even though they were both doing evil, God sent one. He sent him a prophet. He didn't send anybody over here. He just left them to themselves. And God said to Jacob's mama, he said, the elder is going to serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.

And every man born of Adam is a cursed man. The scripture says, by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men. All men are cursed of God. They're cursed from their birth. They suffer things in this world that brought on by sin.

They're not set apart from it. Do the ungodly die of cancer? So do believers. There's no difference. The only difference is the grace of God. Death passed upon all men. Here's the evidence, all have sinned. In Romans 3, Paul describes the mind and heart and attitude of all men. Verse 13, he says, there's none righteous.

No, he said, not one. Not one. Somebody's always got somebody they think righteous, don't they? A dear old grandma, old grandpa, somebody. Sweet uncle, sweet aunt. And he said, there's none righteous, there's none that understand it. And there's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way. They're together become unprofitable. There's none that do it good. No, not one.

The only difference here between Canaan And even here in Louisville is the God of all grace. That's the only difference. If it wasn't for the God of grace, you and I'd be doing exactly the same thing they do down at the First Baptist Church. We might vary a little bit in church government, but we're going to have an Arminian message. We're going to promote the free will and works of men. We're going to do exactly what they were doing. The only difference is the grace of God.

Paul wrote to the saints at Corinth, and he said, who maketh thee to differ from another? Huh? What have you gotten that you haven't received? You think you just dreamed this thing of grace up? No. No, he didn't say what makes you different. He said who. Who? God intervened. He didn't leave you to yourself. He could. He has. He does. Look around. How many millions of people has he left to himself?

I look at my internet at the churches that God's established, and believe me, if somebody somewhere was preaching the gospel, we'd know about it. If you look at the center of this country, the whole middle part of this country is void of a church. There are no churches there, and nobody over there preaching the gospel. As far as the middle of the United States, you can start down on the Mexican border, and you have to go all the way to the Canadian border in the center of the United States to find the church.

And there's about 30 people up there meeting together under Moose Park up there at Great Falls, Montana, clear up on the Canadian border. Nothing in between. Nothing there. And as far as I know, there's nothing clear out to California. You got to go clear to California to find another one. Why is that? The God of all grace. And he didn't have to establish a church anywhere. It's by his grace that he has. And it's not all he does.

Who maketh thee to differ? That's what Paul's asking. What have you gotten that you haven't received? And if you received it, why do you act like you didn't? That's what we want to do is we want to make people think this whole thing was mine. This was all my idea, my learning, my wisdom. No. No, I don't. If somebody starts in with that self-righteous, that self-taught thing with me, I just walk away. I don't want to hear it. In verse 9 of our text in Judges, God clearly states, I've given you their land. Who has the right to do that? God alone. I've given you their land. It's a land. This is a land that they cleared. Yvonne and I know something about clearing land. We've been doing that all spring. They cleared this land.

They didn't have chainsaws. They were out there with an axe or whatever they had to do it with, and a mule or a horse or whatever they had. And they cleared that land, these Midianites, the Malachites. This was their land. They cleared it. They sowed it. They built houses on it. They raised families on it. They worked hard for it.

And God took it away from them. Why did he do that? Because just like Israel, they did evil in his sight. It belongs to God. Everything that we have in this world is the gift of God. We didn't earn anything. Natural man thinks he's earned stuff. These people thought they earned that ground. They deserved that ground. They worked on that ground. You don't deserve anything. It's all a gift of God. What have you gotten that you haven't received?

1 Corinthians 3.21, he said, let no man glory in men.

Now watch this. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death. or things present or things to come, all are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's. That's how you have what you have, by the grace of God. So what do we have? All things in Christ. What are you saying?

I'm saying Israel had a right to that land because God gave it to them. The world, this world in which we live, will ultimately be inhabited by God's elect. Did you know that? John said he looked. The Spirit of God carried him out and allowed him to see. He said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Isn't that what he said? Wherein dwelleth righteousness, no sin in it. It's ours right now. Did you know that? That's what Paul just got through saying. The world's yours. It's yours.

Canaan belonged to natural Israel. It belonged to them. God gave it to them. But it was still inhabited, and it was inhabited for this reason, that God might prove his people. He left them there on purpose. We're in this world full of sinners for the same reason. Nations. God left, he said, to prove Israel, even them who had not known the wars of Canaan.

We weren't there when the victory was won. These children weren't either. Their fathers were there. Their fathers fought and swung the sword and pulled the bow, but not them. And we weren't there when the victory was won by Christ. I didn't fight in that battle at all.

But we're heirs of God, and God is going to prove it by our association with the heathen. He's going to call us out of darkness. And we'll suffer their persecution, their hatred. We'll be oppressed by their ungodly rule and rebellion. But God will deliver his people. And they shall have that inheritance that he's promised, for their enemies to be like grasshoppers.

If you read Hebrews chapter 11, that's the chapter that deals with faith, he talks about the faith of those who lived in dens and caves of the earth. That's exactly what we're looking at here this morning. Believers. Believers who were forced to live in dens and caves of the earth. God's provision for them includes all the heathen And all that the heathen does, they lived in houses that they didn't build. And these houses were in cities that they didn't build. And they ate of the crops that they didn't sow.

And he told them that long before they ever got there. Told them that's exactly what was going to happen. And then I want you to understand this. They deserve what they got, and so do we. We're born into this world. We don't know God. We're just like these children of Israel. We've not known anything about God. And we're doing evil in His sight. And God calls us out, teaches us these things. And we deserve what we're getting, whatever it is.

We had a guy that had multiple sclerosis. He used to stand up and thank God for multiple sclerosis. He said, if it wasn't for this, I'd have never heard the gospel. He was an engineer for Boeing aircraft, making a fortune. His life was set. Everything was set. He was married, had a beautiful daughter. Everything was set for him, and God took it all away from him.

And his wife left him and took his daughter with her, and this man, was forced to move back to Ohio where he was from, and he was living there in an old house. And just out of desperation, I suppose, he was trying to find some help and some comfort and stuff. He turned the television on, and Henry Mann was on there preaching, heard the gospel. Had somebody drive him up there, and he heard, and the Lord saved him, and he moved up there. faithful member of that church till he died.

Here's what he said. Here's the problem. How come all these things were happening? Look at the last line of our text in Judges chapter 6, verse 10. But you have not obeyed my voice. There's no joy in faith without obedience. Huh? Romans 6.16 said, no, you're not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are.

To whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. Is this the government under which All men serve. That's what he says. You're either going to serve sin unto death, or you're going to serve Christ, one or the other. Obedience unto righteousness. No obedience of the law, but obedience of faith. Obedience of faith produces repentance. That's how you know the man believes. He repents. It turns. It's effectual.

Romans 6, 17, but God bethanked you were the servants of sin, serving the lust of the flesh, desires of the flesh, and empty wants of the mind. But you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered you, being then made free from sin, free from its condemnation, its curse, and its power, have become servants of righteousness. not our righteousness, his. We serve him. We want to promote that righteousness, that righteousness of faith. It's the only righteousness there is. There's no acceptance with God apart from that. We serve that.

Now listen to me. Natural Israel was suffering from what people call bad luck. Boy, I never seen this man got nothing but bad luck. Their enemies got a foothold. They couldn't do anything about it. They were pushed into dens and caves of the earth, planted crops, and they trampled them down. Everything they did, God wouldn't bless. Nothing. The seed they planted, nothing. Their crops were destroyed. Their lambs and calves were killed. slang, they had nothing to eat and no promise of something in the future.

How come? Because they did evil in the sight of the Lord. It wasn't bad luck, it was God's just and righteous chastening. If God bypasses a man like he did Pharaoh, if he just passes him by, he's cursed. The beginning of his punishment, he's going to be punished forever, but the beginning of his punishment he's already bearing.

He's bearing his own belief and his fault in nature and his ignorance and all these things. The wrath of God abideth on you. He that believeth not the Son. He's not going to see light. The wrath of God abideth on him. Already. Already. Now it's nothing to what it's going to be, but it's already bad. But that man that God has chosen in His Son, He's not going to let him go. He's not going to bypass him. He's going to chasten him. He's not going to get away with what he's doing. God's going to chasten him. My dad didn't chasten the neighbor kids. He chastened me. Now, they might be with me doing the very same thing and saying the words that we shouldn't be saying and so on, but he didn't say anything to them. But boy, he did me.

God ordered his providence to cause his children to see their need of him. That's why he brought these things on them, to see their need of him. They thought this whole thing was just of them. They thought it was just, well, that's just, what's the word I used earlier, luck? We're having good luck and they're having bad luck. That's not how it is. I hear at all times, luck would have it.

Well, what else do you got to do? Here they are. They're suffering. They're starving. They're living in dens. This is his people. He's made full provision for them. But he allowed this to happen to them that they cry unto him. What happened? They cried to him. They cried to him. Every sinner that God does a work in is going to cry to him.

He's going to bring you to the place. Write it down. He's going to bring you to the place, whatever it takes. He may have to send you in this. He may have to do something else. I don't know what he's going to do. But I tell you this, you'd be a lot better off if you just come to him now. But you're coming if you're one of his. He's going to bring you. He may have to put you in a cave to cause you to cry unto him, but you're going to cry. You wanna cry?

You know what God did next? He didn't let them win the battle. What'd he do? Send them a prophet. You know what he sends his elect today? His prophet. Isn't that what our Lord said? You had the prophets. If you believe Moses, you believe me, he wrote of me. That's God's testimony, the prophets. Later on, the apostles joined with him, and now we have the complete canon. We got the whole complete word of God. But he sent them a prophet. You know what the prophet said?

Now I'm going to tell you something. No, that ain't what he said. He said, thus saith the Lord. I don't care if you're a prophet or a preacher, I've just got one thing to say to you. Thus saith the Lord. I don't have anything. I ain't got anything to add to it, do you? No. No, that's all we have. And that's what he said, thus saith the Lord. Well, what did the Lord say?

I told you the truth and you wouldn't listen. You had no excuse. I told you the truth. I've done nothing but show mercy to you. I brought your fathers here. You wouldn't even be born if I hadn't brought you out of Egypt, let alone be in Canaan living in somebody else's house. He'd been nothing but gracious, merciful to you. I told you not to serve these other gods and to fear these other gods.

The fear he's talking about there is worship. We fear God. He's not giving us the spirit of bondage, again, to fear. He's giving us the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. But fear, in this sense, when a man, the fear of God's a beginning of wisdom. He's talking about knowing God, entering into some knowledge of God. So what did God do? He sent him a prophet. And so what's that mean?

Well, that's the voice of God he's talking about that they wouldn't hear. God didn't speak, and then they didn't listen to him. He sent a witness, a prophet, and they told him the truth, but they wouldn't listen. You wouldn't listen to him. And you're going to hear a man. I'm telling you the truth. You're going to hear a man, and you're going to hear him, and you're going to obey him, and you're going to listen to him, or you're going to hell. One or the other. And that's exactly what God's telling them in this verse. You would not obey my voice. What did Christ say when he sent those 70 out? They didn't know everything. They weren't theologians. They knew a little something, and Christ taught them, and he sent them out into these places to bear witness of him. And he said, he that heareth you, heareth me. I don't care if that man likes me or not. You may not, but I tell you what, you better care whether or not he likes you or not. Huh? That's right.

What'd this old prophet tell them? He told them there's all sinners. You've overlooked something, he said. You overlooked the hand of God that brought you here and the hand of God that's fed you and kept you and defeated your enemies all these years. You kind of looked over all those things. Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now let me tell you, the Lord gave me a little insight on this, and I hope you'll listen to me. They did evil in the sight of the Lord.

When my kids were little, and their friends would come over, or they'd go over to their friends, I knew they were going to do certain things. Anybody that's got kids knows that. They're going to go over there, and they're going to do what they're not allowed to do here. I knew that. But I'm going to tell you something. And I was tolerant of that. But when my kids come home and right in front of me did something like that, that ain't gonna stand. This is what he's telling them.

You did evil in my sight, knowing that I'm looking, knowing who I am and what I require, and you did it anyway. You did evil in the sight of the Lord. Boy, that's a different story, ain't it? God said, you thought I didn't see. That's what you said in your heart. He don't see. He ain't got eyes. He sees. But it's a whole different story when you know he's looking, isn't it? And did it anyway. They did evil in the sight of the Lord. I'll tell you what that'll bring on, chastening. Chastening. That's pure, unadulterated rebellion. That's standing up and talking back right in your face. My daughter slammed the door in my face one time. She never did it again. She told somebody, said, my daddy kicked my butt. She said, what did you do? She said, I slammed the door in his face. They said, you got off easy.

That's just standing up saying, I'm going to do what I want to do, and I don't care how you feel about it. They lived the way they wanted to live, did what they wanted to do, worshipped who they wanted to worship, and how they wanted to worship. And what happened? What was the result of it?

Living in a den. Living in caves of the earth. No provision. I'll tell you where he's going to bring the sinner. He's going to bring him to see that he has no provision because of his attitude and conduct. He got no provision. You thought you had all kind of provision. There's a church on every corner. Anybody ever told you that? Why you drive away over there? There's a church on every corner. Is there? I think there's just a building on every corner. I don't think there's a church. His church is his people.

So what made God favor Israel over the Midianites and the Amorites? The election of God. Listen to this verse. Peter said, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men say he is, but he's long-suffering to usward. That's his elect, that's his people.

Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repent. One of the things Paul uses to describe our sin in Romans 3 is down in verse 16. He said, destruction and misery are in your ways. If God leaves you to yourself, you're going to self-destruct. But God won't leave his people to themselves.

He's going to push them out into dens and caves. He's gonna stress you until you cry unto Him. Gonna make you desperate. I tell you, as long as a man thinks he has a way out, he's not gonna cry out to God. He'll exhaust everything he thinks he can do. And God'll let you exhaust it. He'll bring you right down, one preacher said, to the end of yourself, wherever that is. He's going to bring you down to the end of yourself.

And when you see you can't do anything, then you're going to cry out to God. I fear that we have some are exactly where Israel found themselves. They won't listen to the word of God. and won't acknowledge who says it. And I'll tell you exactly what's going to happen. You're going to crawl back in that little den. That's yourself. That's where men hide in themselves, in their mind, in their imagination.

Crawl back in that den, and you got no provision. There's nothing there to eat. You're not going to eat. You don't have anything to eat. You're in a cave. Nothing grows in a cave, does it? You're starving to death while others are talking about how tasty God's grace is. Huh? Sitting all alone and can't figure out why. Well, here's the reason. You've not obeyed God's voice. That's the reason. That's always the reason, isn't it? I don't care what you've done. That's the reason. We won't obey his voice.

There's complete instruction for every situation in this book. May the Lord be gracious today and cause you, as old Israel did, to cry unto the Lord. I sometimes just feel absolutely helpless when I stand up here to teach. I know what it takes to save a sinner and, well, put that aside, just to turn a sinner. I know what it takes, and I ain't got it. But God does. God does. And that's my only hope, when I stand up here to teach, that the Lord will bless his word and do in you what you can't do for yourself. All might the Lord