Tola And Jair

Our lesson this morning will be in Judges chapter 10. The first six verses in Judges chapter 10. And after Abimelech, there arose to defend Israel, Tola the son of Pua, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar. And he grew up in Shamer in Mount Ephraim. And he judged Israel 20 and 3 years and died and was buried in Shamer. And after him rose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel 22 years. And he had 30 sons. that rode on 30-ass colts, and they had 30 cities, which he called Havoth, Jer, unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jer died, and was buried in Canaan.

And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam and Ashtabath, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zion, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the Lord, and served him not."

I want to begin our lesson this morning by pointing out a few chosen words in the text The first is the word arose. You see it up there in verse 1? There arose. There arose a man. God's people, especially his pastors, are men risen out of spiritual death. And they arise out of the congregation. They arise out of the elect of God. And God raises them up. He gives them. You know, so many people in our day are so ignorant of the pastorate and of these mysteries of God that they actually believe if you have a longing to preach, then you can go down to the seminary and get qualified. And the seminary will recommend you to a church, and they'll hire you as a pastor, and now you're in the ministry. But that's not what God does. He'll raise a man up out of a congregation.

How does he do it? Well, he does it in his providence, number one. He creates a situation for him to do this, kind of shuts him up to it. He may not be seeking it at all. We studied the one man back here. When the Lord called him, he said, no, he said, He was arguing with the Lord about the Lord being with him. And Gideon, he put up all kinds of arguments. He said, I'm not qualified to do this.

Well, you're right about that. You're not. But God told Gideon, he said, surely I go with you. You don't ever think you're going to be qualified because you're not. These men are not dead physically, but spiritually and judgmentally. You hath he quickened, Paul wrote, that we're dead. How? In trespasses and sin. Judgmentally, we're dead. We're already judged. We were judged in Adam. And Adam all died. How come? Because that's God's judgment. You can read about it over in Romans chapter 5. By the offense of one, judgment came upon all men. That is, all men represented in Adam. By the offense of one, many were made sinners.

We're already judged, and judgmentally, we're dead. There's no hope. People talk about a hope in judgment. There's no hope in this judgment. You're already judged. You're already dead. You have to quicken who are dead. And we're dead spiritually. We're dead to any kind of understanding of God. We're dead. We don't have any more understanding than those folks out there at the cemetery. were dead. Dead in trespasses and sins, were dead spiritually by nature, children of wrath, even as others.

That's the story of man. Sin entered and death passed. But the story of grace is that some are risen. Risen from what? Risen out of this judgmental death. We're a new creation in Christ. Old things have passed away. What things? Our old standing. It passed away if I'm in Christ. That judgment in Adam doesn't apply to me anymore. I'm also represented in Christ. Old things. Risen from this judgmental death, this spiritual death, And listen to this, wherein you walked according to the course of this world, the broad road, the way of sin, by nature children of wrath, even as others.

And according to the prince of the power of the air, that's how we walk, being deceived. Walked in the vanity of our minds, convinced that we're Christians. I'd like to know how many people I've met in my life who Sincerely believed, including my own father, that he was saved. He's a Christian. Christian man, lived a Christian life, so-called. Were deceived. Paul thought he was. Paul thought he was one of God's elect. Actually thought he was somebody special among the elect.

And this spirit now worketh in the children of disobedience. False religion, idolatry, antichrist religion, men walking in the vanity of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's in them. But God raised up a man. Totally. Raised him up. I used to hear a man preaching. In the church I went to, they weren't quite Pentecostal, but they sure leaned that direction.

And when a man so-called got in the spirit, he would talk and talk and talk until he didn't have any breath anymore. And then he'd take a big breath, and he'd talk and talk and talk some more. And that was in the spirit, see? No thought of anything in between. It's just coming out.

And he'd get all wound up, and he'd said, I'm made to believe. Well, what was he made to believe? He said, I'm made to believe that man has a free will. I'm made to believe that God has made salvation possible for all men. I'm made to believe that men are saved by their own decisions. Their destiny is in their hands. Well, I have no doubt he was made to believe that, but who made him to believe that?

The God of this world. Antichrist religion. Men are deceived. They're deceived. They've been hearing it since they were babies. Can't help but hear it. It's on the commercials on TV. It's on preaching on Sunday morning on television. It's on every track in every hospital that they ever built. You're bombarded with it. It's in the schools. It's everywhere.

Satan, it says this about his ministers. They're transformed into ministers of righteousness. They go about talking about doing good, don't they? Yeah. They encourage you to go out and do good. And then you call that righteousness before God. The problem with that is there's none good. None good.

If you're not good, you can't do good. that young man came to Christ, the disciples were all looking at him as though if anybody were going to be embraced by Christ, it was going to be this rich young ruler. Boy, he was a standout in the crowd. And he came up to Christ, and he said, good master. And Christ stopped him dead in his tracks, didn't he? And he said, why callest thou me good?

There are none good. but God. This whole thing, I'm telling you, men are deceived. They think they can do good. You can't do good. There's none good. Christ is good. Tola and Jer arose. How were they risen? The scripture said, through the faith of the operation of God who raised us from the dead, over and Colossians 2.12, baptized with him, buried with Christ, and risen again through the faith of the operation of God. That's God's work, this raising. Second word I want you to see, besides this word arose, is defend. He arose to defend.

That word means to open wide. It means to free. It means to succor. It means to deliver, to preserve, to rescue. But its chief meaning is this, to save, to save. I'm going to read this again to you in about a half hour, but I'm going to read it to you. It's OK to hear it twice.

Over in 1 Corinthians 1.21, it says, after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It doesn't say to try to save as many as you can. It says to save them that believe. And Tola and Jerob were raised up to be saviors in Israel. not saviors in the same sense as Christ is by the putting away of sins, but in the sense of how men are saved through the gospel.

There's a vital union. There's a spiritual union formed between Christ and his elect. It was a covenant union in the beginning, and then it become a physical union when Christ came into the flesh. And when you hear the gospel and you're born again, that which is born in you is Christ. And now you're one man. Now that union becomes a vital union. That union becomes a saving union. And it comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And here's another name for you to study, Tola. It means worm. Both these men knew they were worms. Whoever named them knew what they were, too. I don't know that I named my boy Worm, but I know he is. But in this case, a very special worm, or so I'm told, Coccus elixus. technical name for it, but this worm, well known in the Middle East. We don't have it here, but it's well known over there.

This thing, when it becomes pregnant, it comes up and fashions itself to a tree. You can't pull it off the tree. It becomes one with the tree. It fashions itself to the tree. And it's filled with a scarlet liquid. And when these babies are born, they feed on that. They feed on that. And when everything's said and done, and you take that thing off the tree, there's a big red stain on the tree.

The only thing left on the cross is the red stain in it. And how did he save his people? Fastened to a tree. Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He become a curse for us. And his children are going to be born. They're going to be born. Toled and Jer. We're not told much about Jer, but we do know a few things. First, he was from Gilead, which means the place of rocks. If I'm looking at him as a son of God, and if he's a pastor, he's a son of God. If he's a judge, he's a son of God. God didn't select ungodly men and make them. He saves them first. And Christ is our rock. He's the chief cornerstone. He's the stumbling stone. He's the stone. He's the rock that followed Israel all through the wilderness. He's the rock out of which the water flows. The smitten rock.

And he won't be smitten twice. Moses found that out. And then secondly, we're told that Jer had 30 sons. He was a spiritual father, wasn't he? A pastor's a spiritual father. He has sons and daughters born of the gospel. And they were all honorable sons, renowned sons with great positions. That's what he says about the sons of Jerry. They all had cities. They had ashes that they rode on. They were something else. Men of renown. Now, I copied my title from Pastor Tim James. He wrote a book on this book of judges, and I read it along with others.

He titled this message simply, Tola and Jer. Now, Tola's father and grandfather, he mentions both of them. His father's name means renowned, renowned. And his grandfather's name, let me think for just a minute. I've already forgotten. Anyway, it's even greater than the father's name. And we're sons in that respect. And our father, we think about our father. And we even think about these old, the fathers of Israel, the fathers. Paul talks about that.

But in these few verses, we're told all we need to know about these men. First of all, they were judges. I get so weary when People start questioning pastors for this, that, and the other reason. Pastors are just men just like you. They're only special in one respect. God set them apart as ministers. That's the only thing special about them. All the rest is no different than you. They all got tempers. They all got problems, all of these things.

And so I believe that's why I told his daddy, named him that worm. So don't judge pastors too harshly. What they're called to do is quite contrary to their own nature. I can tell you that. But here's my point in all this. God raised them up to be judges, and judges they were. It's more than apparent to me that the children of Israel didn't think very much of these two men.

Why you say that, Pastor, don't say that in text. Well, here's what it does say. As soon as they died, they went back to their idolatry. Now, in the exhortation about Gideon, It said they didn't remember the kindness that Gideon had done unto them as a judge. It's a kindness of God that he shows you by allowing you to have a minister. Otherwise, you'd have never left your idolatry to start with. But my point is this.

If God calls a man to an office, he's going to see to it that that man becomes whatever he's called to do. God's going to do it. And he's going to do it in a very special way. Early in my ministry, Brother Mahan gave us Saturday evening, and one of us preachers in the school would stand up and preach every Saturday evening. We had to lead the singing. We had to do everything that a pastor might have to do if he's pastoring a church. And he wanted it done a certain way, and we'd get up and do it.

But if God calls you to be a pastor, he's going to make you a pastor. That's what's going to happen. You can learn all kinds of things, but you're not going to be a pastor apart from the work of God. He has to give you a heart for it, a mind for it, a revelation for it, a temperament for it. And then he teaches pastors the same thing he teaches you, patience, long suffering.

And these judges, we're told, were judges in Israel. To judge a matter is to discern or to understand. And we cannot truly make a judgment without discernment. So he gives these men discernment. I know that about him. One of the qualifications of a pastor is to study to show thyself approved of God, rightly dividing the truth. Now you can study from now on, and some men do. Scripture talks about it, ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. You can study from now on, that don't make you a pastor. But when a man studies and the Lord blesses that study and gives that man a message, now God is showing his approval of this man. whether anybody believes him.

He's showing this man's approved of God. And God don't just give a man a longing to preach and then leave him to himself. He doesn't just give a man a burden for souls and leave it up to him to figure out what to do. If he calls a man to the ministry, he'll make him a steward of the mysteries of God. He's going to enlighten him.

And he's going to press these things so heavy on his mind and heart that he can't help but declare them. The old evangelist said this. He said, you can't tell what you don't know anymore. You can come back from somewhere you haven't been. And that's so true. So true.

First Corinthians 15.3, Paul tells the saints at Corinth, he said, I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received. If he hadn't received it, he sure couldn't deliver it. You see what I'm saying? Well, where did he get it from? He got it from Christ. That's where he got it from.

And here, he said, here's what I first received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. God has chosen the means of preaching to save them that believe. And there's a word in the introduction of Tola worth consideration. It's the word defend. It means to save. To save. Please God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And what God has taught me about his gospel is that it's of little consequence except as a warning to the world, yet it's the power of God and salvation to them that believe. He taught me that.

I can't make you believe. I don't care how strong my argument is. I cannot. It has to be revealed. It has to be the work of God pressing these things. You can know them and quote them. You know, monkey see, monkey do. That's true enough of religious men.

But to actually rest in it or have these things pressed into a walk before God, that's the work of God. To actually rest in Christ, I mean rest in him. That's the work of God. And believing is the work of God in us. By grace are you saved through faith and that, not of yourself. I don't know when we're going to actually believe that. It's the gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man should boast.

Paul writes to the Colossians, and he gives thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers. That is, given us the ability to be partakers of the inheritance of enlightened saints. The Enlightened Saints talk about their inheritance. They talk about inheriting the grace and favor of God, the glory of God. We're heirs of God, joint heirs of Christ. That's Enlightened Saints.

And Paul says, I come and preach to you, and I thank the Father because he made you meet to be partakers of what these men are talking about and what I'm preaching. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, he tells us, he said, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what he does. And we have this treasure, he said, in earthen vessels that, or in order that, the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. These two men are remembered and recorded by God the Spirit as a means to an end, and nobody's going to be saved apart from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and nobody's going to believe in him and on him apart from preaching. It's just not going to happen.

Romans 10, 14 says, how are you going to call on him in whom you have not believed? How are you going to believe in him of whom you've not heard? And how are you going to hear without a preacher? I'm asking those questions, but I'm asking them because the Holy Ghost asked them. And how's he going to preach if he's not sent? Preaching is a miracle of God, is what it is. This is God, his means to actually birth His people. Now, how you going to do that if God don't send you?

You think anybody else in Israel other than Moses could have held that staff out and watched that sea split? No. God didn't tell everybody in Israel to do it. He told Moses to do it. Everybody else benefited from it. Everybody else walked the cross because of it. Everybody stood on the other side and watched all of the Egyptians who were a saying to go after them, they watched them all drown in the sea. But nobody held that stamp out but Moses. And he held it out because God told him to.

These two men are recorded as saviors in Israel. Not saviors like Christ, but saviors, according to the gospel. Paul says, he uses these words in 1 Corinthians 3, 5, ministers by whom you believe according as God has given to every man. Having served their time in God's place, as God's means, Israel found rest for 45 years. Tola preached to them and was a judge in Israel for 23 years. And then Jer took his place after he died. And he was a judge in Israel for 22 years. So for 45 years, Israel had rest because of these two men.

God favored them above all that they could imagine. And again, as all the times before, when the judge died, Judges 10, 6, The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord. And they served Balaam, and Ashtoreth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zion, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistine. And they forsook the Lord and served not him.

In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul makes a similar statement, lumping all these gods into one lump. He said in 2 Corinthians 4, 3, if our gospel be hid, that's our ministry, that's our message, that's the reason behind our calling, that's why we preach. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to the lost.

It's not hid to God's elect. He reveals it to them. He makes it effectual in them. Isn't that what Paul told his Thessalonians? His gospel was affection. But if it's hid, it's hid to the lost. What's their problem? The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Oh, God gives every man a chance.

He did in Judas, and he did in Esau, and you can go on and on. There's untold millions that have died in this world, were born here, practiced idolatry their whole life over in a jungle somewhere with a bone in their nose or a saucer in their lip, and they danced around a totem pole and ignorantly worshipped a false god and died in their sins and never one time ever heard the gospel. There's only one God in this world, one creator, one supreme being, one father of all, Paul said, who is above all and through all and in you all, talking about believers. But there are untold gods in men's imagination, and all of these images Paul calls the God of this world. That is, it's the God of men's imaginations, natural man, the world. This is the God of man's imagination, blinds the minds of men. That can't be right. I've heard this since I was just a little boy. That can't be right. You saying that this man down here is right and all the rest of the world is wrong, that's what God said.

We are God and the whole world lies in wickedness, that's what John said. When it comes to Satan, idolatry is the heart of his ministry. And wherever God has no servant, the people abound in idolatry. They abound in it. We're not told that the people return to be drunks or return to be adulterers or thieves or extortioners. It says they turn to other gods. They turned to other gods. They may well have practiced all kinds of sins, but their chief sin was idolatry.

You know, he tells you over in 1 John 5 verse 20, we know that the Son of God has come and given to us an understanding that we may know him that's true, that we're in him that is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, he said, and eternal life. You know what the next verse is? Little children, keep yourselves from idols. You know who God is. Now keep yourself from idols.

And preaching is not only accompanied by regeneration, but also by spiritual growth. He gave some evangelists, pastors, teachers for the perfecting of the saints and for the work of the ministry. Now listen, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. And he did it till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man.

Who's that? That's Christ. I hope nobody here thinks they're going obey God, and in doing so, eventually going to reach this plateau up here of perfection. They're going to stand up there and say, I made it. Now that perfect man is a knowledge of Christ. It's unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men.

And there's also in this thing a restraining grace that accompanies the ministry. Israel, though they were filled with unbelievers, were restrained by the ministry. I've known ministers who are dead now, and their churches were restrained by their ministry. And as soon as they died, a big chunk of them went haywire.

Why is that? Because his ministry was part of God's restraining grace on that congregation. That's why. Most folks are restrained by things they know at least in their conscience that are ordained of God. And if they were in your yard, They'd say something, but they're not going to do it at church. I'm not going to do this at church, but I'll do it in my front yard. Ooh, what's wrong with that? What's that saying? That's saying you're restrained by the ministry of God, is what that's saying. If they were by themselves, they'd do it, but not in front of the congregation.

And when Gideon died, it says, as soon as Gideon died, as soon, immediately, I think is the word he used. immediately after he died that all the children of Israel turned again and went a-whoring after Balaam, and made Baal-barith their god." Now listen to Paul's farewell address to the elders of Ephesus, Acts 20, 29. He said, for I know this. I'm not speculating about this. I know this is so, that after my departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And Canaan is a picture of God's kingdom being established in the hearts of men. And though they possessed their inheritance, yet their enemies still dwelt in the land. And the chief danger of the enemy was idolatry. Idolatry. May the Lord used me to the same end that he used these two men, Tola and Jer. Thank you.

Tola And Jair

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Tola And Jair

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