I know that I don't need to relate
to you how very much Shelby and I enjoy being with you and in
your company. God's allowed us the privilege of having our lives
mixed with yours for a long, long time. And I thank God for
you. There is no greater blessing
God can give to a people than to establish in their midst a
faithful gospel ministry, gospel church, and a gospel preaching. And very few, very, very few,
very few churches historically succeed from one pastor to another
to hold to the gospel of God's free grace. God has preserved
the light of this candlestick for many, many, many years through
many faithful pastors. I shouldn't say many, through
several faithful pastors. And you are greatly blessed of
God. Thank God for what he's done here and I am full of anticipation
with what he shall do. We pray for you. Thank God for
putting you here and for bringing your hearts together in the fellowship
of the gospel. As you have observed, Larry and
I kind of like to pick at each other a little bit. Some of my
friends are more openly honest than others. Several years ago,
I went up to preach for the Bruce Crabtree up in Muncie, Indiana,
Newcastle, Indiana. And he got up to introduce me,
and he said, it's so good to have one of God's choice, choice
servants with us today. Heaven only will tell what God
has done by the faithful, diligent, hard work of this faithful servant. And it's so good that she brought
Brother Don with her, too. I have good friends. Open your Bibles, if you will,
to Judges chapter 17. How often you and I commend people
for doing what they think is right. I have often said myself
I admire someone who tries to do what he thinks is right. I've
said many times in recent years, especially to my wife and others,
if somebody were to run for political office whose principles I abhorred,
and they would just act honest and do what they think's right,
I believe I'd vote for them. We commend folks who do what
they think is right. We say to our children, if you're
convinced something's right, do it. Don't let anyone stand
in your way. Well, I want to talk to you today
from the book of God about that very thing. The title of my message
is, When People Do What They Think Is Right. when people do
what they think is right. Our text will be the last five
chapters of the book of Judges, perhaps five of the most difficult
chapters to understand written in the word of God. When we were
driving down here the other day for our reading for that day,
Shelby read these five chapters to me. And when she got done,
she said, what does that mean? referring particularly to the
Levite who took his wife, who had been raped by the queers
among the Benjamites and slaughtered by them. And then he divided
her in 12 pieces and sent her body to the 12 tribes of Israel. And I said to her, gave her a
brief answer. I said, now, if you want to wait
until Sunday, then I'll deal with it more. And then when I
got down here Thursday night, Friday night, Pete asked me,
he said, what does that passage mean? I said, well, I'll give
you the short answer or the longer one, Sunday. So he said, I'll
wait till Sunday. That's my passage today, Judges 17 through 21. But I want us to turn back for
a minute to Deuteronomy 12, the passage I asked your pastor to
read for our scripture reading this morning. In this twelfth
chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses, God's servant, is giving the
children of Israel God's commandments, God's statutes of worship as
they must worship God after they came into the land of promise.
He said these are the things you must do when God gives you
your inheritance. And in that chapter, he speaks
as does the Spirit of God throughout the sacred volume, telling us
that we must worship God alone and that we must worship Him
in precisely the way He prescribes. now understand that if we worship
God we must worship God alone as he reveals himself in this
book and we must worship him in the way he prescribes in this
book not in the way we think not after our own imaginations
but worshiping God as he really is as he reveals himself in his
true character in the way he prescribes in this book otherwise
we do not worship God and what we do in the name of God and
in the house of God is utter hypocrisy and pretense Now as
you well know when the children of Israel were brought into their
land of possession, the land of Canaan, that's a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Moses could not bring the children
of Israel into Canaan because Moses represented the law and
the law must be put aside because the law could never bring us
into heavenly glory. But Joshua, our Lord Jesus Christ,
typified by him, brought Israel into the land of their possession.
And with Joshua, they had rest from their wilderness journeys.
So it is the Lord Jesus, by his grace, without the works of the
law, brings chosen sinners into the blessed rest of faith in
him. Now let me call your attention
to several things Moses tells us in this 12th chapter of Deuteronomy.
Number one, we cannot worship God if we do not worship Him
alone as God. We cannot worship God if we do
not worship Him alone as God. If we do not utterly hold in
contempt all who are rivals to him that men call gods. Now as you read through these
chapters in Judges you will find that the children of Israel when
they committed gross idolatry still said they were worshiping
Jehovah. They still use the name of Jehovah. You go through Sylacauga,
Alabama today, and you will find churches everywhere. Baptist,
independent, fundamentalist, conservative churches. Roman
Catholic works churches. Reformed works churches. You
will find Pentecostal works churches. And they all claim to worship
God, to worship Jesus, to worship in the Spirit. But the God they
call God, the Jesus they call Christ, the Spirit they call
the Spirit of God, does not slightly resemble the God of this book. If we would worship God, we must
worship Him alone as God, as He reveals Himself in the book
of God. And we must hold in contempt
all rival gods and all false religion. Second, if we would
worship the true and living God, we can do so only in the place
God prescribed. Nowhere else. God will not be
worshipped except in the place He prescribed. As your pastor
read this 12th chapter of Deuteronomy, over and over again, God says
you shall not worship in any place. You shall not choose out
just wherever you will and worship. You must worship God at the place
that I shall choose. And the place where God will
be worshipped is Jesus Christ, our mediator. God will not be
worshipped except in and by and through Jesus Christ our Mediator. In, by and through the effectual
sin atoning death of his own dear Son. In, by and through
the perfect righteousness of his Son. God will not come to
you and you cannot come to God but by Jesus Christ. Christ is
the place where God meets with sinners. You remember in Exodus
25, God gave Moses commandment saying, you'll build me an altar.
Make me an altar. Not an altar, but an ark. And
put on the ark the mercy seat, over which he makes the cherubim
to look down. And the ark and the mercy seat
speak of Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins.
And God said, there will I meet you. Only there only upon the
mercy seat only upon the propitiatory Sin atoning blood of Jesus Christ
will God meet with men turn back to Exodus chapter 24 minute Exodus
20 Just after God gave the law to Moses He describes how we
must come to him upon the altar of his making look in chapter
20 of Exodus and verse 23 and You shall not make with me gods
of silver, neither shall you make unto you gods of gold. An altar of earth. Well, that's
not very pretty. An altar of earth shalt thou
make unto me, and shall sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings.
Not an ornate, lavish, beautiful altar, but an altar that's repugnant
to men, an altar that no man would naturally choose. and you'll
offer there your burnt offerings and your peace offerings thy
sheep and thine oxen and all places where I record my name
I will come unto thee and I will bless thee verse 25 and if thou
wilt make of me an altar of stone still the earth and the stone
is that which God has made thou shalt not build it of hewn stone
now watch this if thou lift up thy tool upon it thou hast polluted
it You remember what Uzzah did when David was bringing the ark
of God up to Jerusalem? David thought to build a house
of God, and he brought the ark of God up in a new cart with
oxen that had never pulled a cart before. And as the oxen crossed
the little ravine, it looked like it was going to fall over.
And all Uzzah did was reach out and put his hand up there to
brace that ark. That's all he did. That ark, remember, represents
God's salvation through Christ alone. And Uzzah said, God's
ark needs my help. And for that, God killed him. And God will kill anybody who
puts his hand to Christ's work. He'll send you to hell for trying
to work your way to heaven. Did you hear me? God will send
you to hell if you try to work your way to heaven. You do not
lift up your tool upon it. If you do, you've polluted it.
Verse 26. Neither shalt thou go up by steps
unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered. Don't go up
by degrees. People have this idea that you
go up by steps to the altar. Several years ago, I was preaching
out in California, and the pastor, first time I'd been there, he
said, he said, I'm going to be preaching before you this morning,
and I'd like for you to critique the message. I thought, oh, no.
But I thought it wouldn't be too bad. And he got up and preached,
and he preached on steps to salvation. And it was works from the first
word out of his mouth to the end of it. And I've got to get
up and preach after him. I had Brother Gene Harmon sit
behind me. I said, I'll give you $100 if you preach. Now let
me stay here. And I didn't have any choice,
I had to get up and deny everything the man said and look him square
in the eye and tell him, Bob that's works religion, it's damning
to your soul. And I believe God spoke to his
heart and he repented and he's been a faithful friend ever since.
But I'm telling you, I'm telling you, you don't arrive at Christ
by degrees. You come to Christ by faith,
not on steps of your making. When you start to move up, all
you do is expose your nakedness. God said you can't come up to
me on steps of your making. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us everything God requires. Everything we need. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. We have an altar. We have an
altar. It's not an altar at the papist
church, and it's not an altar at the front of the Baptist church,
and it's not an altar in your living room. We have an altar
in glory whereof they have no right to eat which serve the
tabernacle. I'm telling you, you cannot worship
God at the altar of Christ Jesus and worship God at any other
altar. I am the way, the Savior said.
I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. And understand this, if we would
worship God, the true and living God, if we would serve Him, if
we would be saved by Him, we must worship Him with willing,
joyful hearts of faith in Christ. Oh, my brother, aren't you happy
to come to God with nothing but Christ? To come to God with nothing
but blood atonement through Christ our Redeemer. Nothing but perfect
righteousness through our blessed Savior. The Savior said, ye shall
rejoice in all that you put your hand unto. Thou shalt rejoice
before the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands
unto. What does that mean? If we are to be accepted of God,
we must be delighted to be accepted of God in Christ alone. Now turn over to Philippians
chapter 3. I'll give you an inspired commentary on what our Lord tells
us through Moses in Deuteronomy 12. Philippians chapter 3. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord, to write the same thing unto you. To me, indeed,
is not grievous, for you it's safe. Beware of dogs. Dogs. If you read the book of
God's law, that's referring to male prostitutes. Beware of dogs,
especially those that wear collars. It'll take you a while, but you'll
get there. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Evil
workers? The concision? Who are those?
Who are those? Folks who mutilate themselves.
Folks who injure themselves. Folks who think that by harming
the flesh they can make themselves holy. Folks who think that by
the works of the flesh, by denying this and denying that, they can
make themselves holy. Folks who think if you don't
eat pork or chew tobacco or drink wine, you can be holy. The concision. Folks who mutilate themselves.
For we are the circumcision. We're God's true people. We're
God's Israel, which worship God in the Spirit. In the Spirit. We don't have any crosses or
pictures of Jesus or any of that nonsense. We worship God in the
Spirit. Well, we wouldn't worship those things, they'd just help
us. That's called worshipping those things. That makes us spiritual. No, that makes you carnal. We
worship God in the spirit, by his spirit, in our spirit, without
carnal aid, and rejoice in Christ. That is, we trust Christ and
have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in what we know,
no confidence in what we feel, no confidence in what we do,
no confidence in what we experience. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Alright, now back in Deuteronomy chapter 12 again, verse 8. Here
the Lord God gives a very strict prohibition. A prohibition that
must be continually observed if we would worship God and serve
Him. We cannot worship Him if we do
not heed this strict prohibition. Ye shall not do after all the
things that we do here this day every man whatsoever is right
in his own eyes. You shall not act according to
what you think is right. You shall not worship God according
to what you think is right. You shall not serve God according
to what you think is right. You shall not believe according
to what you think is right. The fact is, he that trusteth
in his own heart, the wise man says, is a fool. Everything that's
right in your own eyes. Are you listening to me? Everything
that's right in your own eyes is dead wrong. Everything that's
right in your own eyes is wrong. And that is most especially true
with regard to spiritual religious matters. The way of the Lord
is right, or the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. But he that hearkeneth unto counsel
is wise. There is a way which seemeth
right unto man, a way. But the ends thereof are the
ways of death. The whole religious world around
us. When I came to Danville, Kentucky, and the folks there
talked to me about coming as their pastor 32 years ago this
month, 32 years ago next week. And they called me their pastor.
I said to them, you make certain what you're doing. If there's
any place in this town or in a reasonable driving distance
of this town where you can go worship God, where you can go
hear a man preach the gospel, don't call me as your pastor.
Dissolve this band and go join them. Because if you call me
as your pastor, you're saying to me, Brother Don, we recognize
that the ways of the world is wrong. It's death. Death. Well, brother Don, we
have lots of religions. I know. It's all the same. It's
all the same. I don't care whether you go to
the Baptist Church down yonder or wherever the Papist Church
is or the Methodist Church or the Pentecostal or the Presbyterian.
I don't care which one you go to. Their way is all the same. When all's said and done, when
all is said and done, they wear different costumes and they play
different games and have different ceremonies. But when all's said
and done, somewhere, something that's required by God is up
to you. of their ways is death, eternal
death. Twice we're told that in the
Book of Wisdom. Every way of man is right in
his own eyes, Proverbs 21 tells us. But the Lord pondereth the
hearts. All right, with that in mind,
let's turn to Judges chapter 17 through 21. These chapters were not written
just to fill up space. And they were not written just
to give us historic information about a bad time in Israel. They
were written to bring us to Christ our King, our Redeemer, and our
God in faith. These last five chapters of Judges
are placed before us here chronologically after the death of Samson. But
they clearly did not take place at that time. These things, these
terrible evil things, this terribly evil period of Israel's history
took place sometime between the death of Joshua and the first
of the judges that God raised up, Othniel. Chronologically,
probably these things took place around chapter two, verses 10
through 13, probably. Look at chapter two of Judges.
It shouldn't surprise us that these events are not revealed
in chronological order. You see the book of God is not
intended to give us a chronological history. It is a mistake to try
to interpret the book of God as a chronological history. Read
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and you'll see Matthew speaks
of things in this order and then Luke comes along and he puts
this miracle way over here. Well, none of them got it wrong.
No. Their purpose is to show something different. And Mark
puts it in a different place. That's not a matter of lack of
knowledge. It's a matter of writing by divine
inspiration for a specific purpose. Now, this is the chronological
order. In the scriptures, these events in Judges 17 through 21,
it appears to me, most reasonably, fit right here. Judges chapter
2, verse 10. And also all that generation
were gathered unto their fathers. And there arose another generation
after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which
he had done for Israel. They were called Israelites,
but they didn't know God. They heard about things God had
done, but they had not experienced them. And the children of Israel
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Balaam. and
they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them
out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods
of the people that were round about them and bowed themselves
unto them and provoked the Lord to anger and they forsook the
Lord and served Baal and Ashtoreth and that's just what we find
here in Judges chapter 17 through 21 and here's the first thing
I want to point out The things recorded in these five chapters
is placed here at a time when the children of Israel had no
king in Israel. There was no king in Israel,
and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. We're told in Judges 17.6, Judges
18.1, Judges 19.21, and then in the very last verse of chapter
21, there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which
was right in his own eyes. Now really, that statement is
not true. Really that statement is not
true. There was a king in Israel Terry Israel just didn't acknowledge
him. There was a king in Israel Israel
just refused to bow to him Israel preferred to have another king
the Lord God said I Will be your king and he was king He was king
the children of Israel would not bow to him. Now. Will you
hear me? There is a king who reigns over
you and You may do what's right in your own eyes and refuse to
bow to the King. But there is a King who reigns
over you. His name is Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. God, our Savior in human flesh,
is seated today on David's throne at the right hand of the majesty
on high, and He is King in Israel. And this is what He demands of
you, the surrender of your life. That's what faith in Christ is
no more and no less than the absolute surrender of my life
to him Trusting him for everything trusting him in everything Submitting
everything to him turn to Luke chapter 14 these people got into the mess
they were in hearing judges not by every man doing what was wrong
in his own eyes but by every man doing that which was right
in his own eyes and when people do what's right in their own
eyes the results are always the same as the things recorded here
judges 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 reveal idolatry Idolatry. The children of Israel
learned from Balaam how to mix the worship of God with the worship
of idols. And that which is the result
is idolatry. Moral debauchery. The homosexuality
of these men recorded here in Benjamin, these Benjamites, reminds
me of our day. Where does this come from? Where's
the fault? Read the first chapter of Romans
and you'll find it laid the blame at the doorstep of religion without
God. Religion without Christ. Man's
religion. That's the result. Homosexuality,
moral perversion of every kind. And the reason is because men
have been taught that man takes the place of God and God's the
servant of man. And it's just the other way around.
God is king and you will serve him you will serve him one way
or another Willingly or unwillingly you will serve him believers
Gladly bow to Christ the king the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our king Oh God give me grace Every day and in everything to
bow to him look here in Luke chapter 14 verse 25 There went
great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them,
if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and
wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. What on earth does that mean? Does that mean, John, you ought
to hate your wife and daughter and sisters that are beside you?
Just exactly like God hated Esau. What did God do to Esau? Was
it mean to him? No. He just gave him no consideration. He loved Jacob. Now this we must
do if we serve God. That dear lady sitting right
there. She's the apple of my eye. I believe I'll gladly lay
down my life for her at any time where it need be. Believe it
would. but she cannot come into consideration
when it comes to me worshiping and serving God. If she doesn't
like it, that's too bad. If she doesn't like what I'm
doing, that's too bad. If she doesn't go along, that's
too bad. And if you don't believe that's
so, just ask her when service is over. That's just too bad.
No consideration. My own life, what I want, what
I prefer. My difficulty with this matter
of faith in Christ as a young man was not that I didn't want
to go to heaven when I died. Is there anybody here who wants
to go to hell? Anybody? Your problem is not that you
don't want to escape hell. You want to stay out of there
if you can. And you'll do anything you can to stay out of hell.
Your problem is not you don't want to go to heaven. Everybody
wants to go to heaven when they die. Everybody does. The difficulty
is you will not bow to Christ. You want to be your own boss.
Control your own time. Control your own life. Control
what you do. I won't have you tell me what
to do. And you live with your fist in
God's face. And you say every day, God get
out of my way. And you will never know faith
in Christ. You will never know what it is
to trust Christ as your Savior, except you bow to him as your
Lord and King. Read on. Luke 14, verse 27. And whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Now skip down
to verse 32. Or verse 33, rather. So likewise,
whosoever he be of you, that forsaketh not all that he hath. cannot be my disciple. Ralph Barnard used to tell a
story about a missionary laboring among the Cherokee Indians out
in Oklahoma and this missionary kept reasoning with folks and
one of the Cherokee chiefs got under conviction and scared of
God, scared of hell, and scared of eternity and he came and he
brought to the missionary his tomahawk and he said missionary
man, chief give him tomahawk to Jesus And the missionary looked
at him and he said, Chief, Jesus don't want your tomahawk. He
came in later and he brought his headdress and said, Chief,
give him headdress to Jesus. And the missionary looked up
at him and he said, Chief, Jesus won't have your headdress. And
he walked out in a huff. Middle of the night he came back
and he said, Chief, give himself to Jesus. That's it. Christ demands you. all of you in absolute surrender
there is a king in Israel and if ever you bow to him you will
quit doing what's right in your own eyes all right look at this
the events recorded in these five chapters out of order chronologically
yes but they're exactly right in order of divine revelation
Moses, the law was dead. He died in the wilderness because
the law of God can't bring us salvation. Joshua brought Israel
into the land of Canaan, and Joshua portrays Christ our Savior. God had given Israel 12 judges,
deliverers, saviors, kings, who typified our Lord Jesus Christ
in his continual deliverance of our souls. The last of those
judges was Samson. As Samson brought deliverance
by his death, so our Lord Jesus brought redemption and eternal
deliverance for our souls by his death. Then in these five
chapters we see the corruption, depravity, idolatry and debauchery
that possesses all men by nature. I said it exactly the way I intended. Corruption and depravity, idolatry
and debauchery. You who are here without Christ
Oh God help you now to hear this preacher. You're corrupt at the
very core of your beings and I can't describe what debauchery
possesses you. Every evil imaginable is what
rules your life. Everyone. Even God's elect. Before God saved us, we are all
exactly the same. children of wrath wrathful God
hating men and women by nature and then We get to the next page
in the book of God and we see our great Samson revealed again
in the book of Ruth in the person of Boaz Blessed be God Christ
Jesus our kinsman Redeemer will yet do all that is required for
our souls and All right, next let me show you the things people
do when Christ is not acknowledged, when Christ is not worshipped,
when Christ is not served, when everybody does that which he
thinks is right in his own eyes. Now repeat, these folks didn't
get into trouble by doing what they thought was wrong. They
got in trouble with God by doing what they thought was right in
their own eyes. Now let me call your attention
to what you can always expect when people do that which they
think is right. And when I get done, there'll
be plenty of room for more preaching. But I want you to see these four
or five things. First, look at chapter 17. There's a man here by the name
of Micah. Not Micah the prophet. Micah, an Ephraimite. Ephraimite. I got it right there.
Chapter 17, verse 1. And there was a man of the Mount
Ephraim whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother,
the 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which
thou cursed, and spakest also in mine ears. Behold, the silver
is with me. I stole it. I took it. And his
mother said, blessed be thou of the Lord, my son. And when
he had restored the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his
mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from
my hand. Mark that. I had wholly dedicated,
this is all the money I had. And I had given this wholly to
the Lord. Dedicated it to the Lord, watch
this, for my son. To make a graven image and a
motif. I dedicated everything I had
to make me some gods for my son. Now therefore I will restore
it unto thee. Yet, he restored the money unto
his mother, and his mother took 200 shekels of silver. That sounds
about right. I've dedicated it all to the
Lord. Now, let me see. She took 200 shekels of silver
and with those 200 shekels of silver she gave them to the founder
who made thereof a graven image and a molten image and they were
in the house of Micah and the man Micah was tickled to death
with his gods Micah had a house of gods and made an ephod, a
priestly garment, and a teraphim, gods for his priestly garment,
and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. Now, I've
got a god and I've got a priestly garment, I need a priest. Son,
Micah Jr., you be my priest. In those days, there was no king
in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. Micah's mother, did what she
thought was right. She pretended to be what she
knew she wasn't. She pretended to be what she
knew she wasn't. She pretended great things of
herself. She pretended great devotion. She pretended great adoration
for God. Yet she was a base idolater,
a self-serving woman. First time I preached in California,
this was back in 1990 I think, the Bible conference and these
are statements I got from different men. I'm talking about within
a couple of days I got these statements. Fellas walk up to
me, they'd heard me on the radio and gotten tapes and stuff and
I guess they wanted to impress. This one fella said, he said,
you know I'm very strong in the Lord. I said, well I guess you
are. Another fella said, I'm really very spiritual minded. Another fellow came up to me,
he said, after talking a little bit, he said, you know, you'd
be very surprised how much I know. One of them said, I'm really
a holy person. Can you imagine that? I'm really
a holy person. God's people don't pretend great
devotion. Not God's people. Find me somebody
that brags about their Bible reading and their devotion and
their dedication and their godliness. I'll show you somebody that doesn't
know God from a billy goat. God's people know themselves,
Lord, vile, wretched sinners. And the more we know Christ our
righteousness, the more clearly we understand something about
our unrighteousness. The more we know of His devotion
to us, the more we know of our lack of devotion to Him. The
more we know of His love for us, the more we understand how
little we love Him. Micah himself thought it was
right to worship God any way he saw fit, so long as he said
he was worshiping God. He thought Repentance was being
afraid of God. He thought repentance was having
guilt exposed. He thought repentance was telling
his mama he had done wrong. Repentance is much more than
the fear of going to hell. Repentance is the loathing of
what you are and turning to Christ away from yourself. Micah thought
it was fine to worship God in his own house. I've got a house
plump full of God's look here look y'all look at my devotion
I built an altar right here on my farm for God Everybody come
right here and see my God and see how godly I am y'all come
and watch Micah in his house God said don't worship me except
in Shiloh know the place know the place I hear people, I travel
a lot, and I found out a long time ago it's a whole lot easier
to be somebody's pastor when I live 5,000 miles away from
them than it is when they live 5 miles down the road. And folks,
they say, well, we worship God in our house. We get together
and we worship God in our house. I doubt that. I doubt that. No, I don't doubt it. I'm telling
you, no, you don't. No, you don't. God's people meet with God's
people in worship. God's people meet with God's
people. I understand that some of God's people are isolated
and have no place to worship. And I thank God for the means
we have of getting the gospel to them so that they can where
they have to worship alone. But God's people gather where
they can. Last year, I sent Brother Clay Curtis down to Australia,
where I'll be going in a couple of weeks. Shelby and I will. And
there's a church down there they met for years, met together. Oh, 5, 10, 15, finally about
20, 25, watching our videos. They had no pastor. They called
a pastor. And they wanted me to come down.
And I couldn't go last year. I just didn't think I could make
the trip. And I suggested Brother Clay Curtis. He went down. There's
another family. I've been hearing from them for
years. I thought they lived somewhere in the Netherlands. The name
was Egglestead. And this man and his wife and their 28-year-old
daughter and an old man had been meeting in their home for years,
watching our video. They lived 80 miles south of Nora, where
these folks in Australia were meeting. And they read our bulletin,
and Brother Fay was coming. And they drove up. That 28-year-old
lady came up to Brother Clay before services, tears in her
eyes. She said, tonight, for the first time in my life, I
get to hear a man in person preach the gospel. What's that worth? They've been
driving 80 miles ever since. They drive it up to here. Can't
come every other week. They're right there. Because
God's people worship where God says he'll meet them. And God's
only promised to meet his people one place. And that's where two
or three are gathered in my name. Micah thought he could make an
effort, a righteous priestly garment for himself. He thought
he could dress himself up so that God would accept him. Micah
thought he could come to God and be accepted by God by a priest
of his own choosing and his own making. So he consecrates his
son to be his priest. At least he thought his son would
do until he found a better one. And soon he found him a preacher
for hire. Alright, look at that. Here's
the second thing. When people do what they think
is right in their own eyes, they find a preacher for hire. And
there are always plenty of preachers who can be hired. There was a
young Levite from Bethlehem, Judah, looking for a place to
preach. A preacher looking for a church. Oh, you don't want
that. A preacher looking for a church.
And Micah hired this young Levite to be his priest. He hired him
for minimum wages, a new suit of clothes, lodging, and groceries. Look at verse 10. Judges 17,
Micah said unto him dwell with me and be unto me a father and
a priest and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the
year and a suit of apparel and thy victuals so the Levite dwelt
with him. I could preach on that a while
but let me just say a couple of things. God's servants aren't
hirelings. They're not hirelings. You want
to get my dander up, talk to me about hiring a preacher. God's
servants, none of them are looking for a place. They wait on God. And hirelings can always be hired
by somebody else. This particular preacher, this
Levite, this priest, got a better offer from the Danites. Danites
came to him and said, they said, shh, keep your mouth shut. Put your hand over your mouth.
Don't expose us. Come be our priest. After all,
is it better for you to be a priest down here in Sylacauga, Alabama
to 25 people? Or to go up to First Baptist
in Birmingham and preach to a whole bunch of folks? He said, I believe
I'll go to Birmingham. I feel the Lord calling me to
the bigger place. And we'll give you more money. We'll give you
more money. And he went. He went. Here's the third thing. When
people do what they think is right, They always find peace,
security, and satisfaction in empty, meaningless, dead, worthless
religious ritualism. Look at verse 13. Then said Micah,
now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite
to my priest. His gods were as useless as his
religion, but his gods and his religion meant everything to
him once he got his priest and his ceremonies. Look at chapter
18, verse 24. He said to these Danites who took his gods, you've
taken away my gods which I have made and the priest and you're
going away and what have I more? What can I do? What's this that
you've done to me? You've taken all I had hope in.
Look at verse six, chapter 18. And the priest said unto them,
go in peace before the Lord. is your way wherein you go. Verse 7, then the five men departed
and came to Laish and saw the people that were therein, how
they dwelt careless under the manner of the Zidonians, quiet
and secure. And there was no magistrate in
the land that might put them to shame in anything. And they
were far from the Zidonians and had no business with any man. Verse 10, When ye go, ye shall
come into a people secure, into a large land, for God hath given
it into your hands, a place where there is no want of anything
that is in the earth. You see, religion without Christ
makes men careless, quiet, and secure in shameless behavior. Religion! I've got a refuge.
I've got a refuge. And they're quiet. at ease and
secure in shameless behavior in shameless behavior you can't
imagine more degrading debauchery than we read in these chapters
and these folks are quiet and secure and at peace because they
can always go back and put a little more money in the offering box
and make a little more sacrifice, say a few more Hail Marys, or
say a few more prayers at night, or read a few more chapters in
the morning, and get everything alright. And then tomorrow, go
out and live like hell. Religion that trusts ceremonialism
is religion that's just debauchery. One of the old writers in the
Church of England, I can't remember which one it was, I believe it
was James Hervey, he was convinced of works, religion, of law, religion,
he said, I preached law, and preached law, and preached law,
till I could hardly find a sober man in the parish. Everybody
preaching works, works, works, works, works. And the more they
preached it, the more debauchery. And so it was here. When we get
to chapter 19, the story gets even worse. The Benjamites, these
men of the tribe of Benjamin, remember they were doing what
they thought was right in their own eyes. They lived in utter
debauchery and open homosexuality. and collectively brutally raped
this Levite's wife but thank God and here's the fourth thing
the story doesn't stop here another Levite appears in chapter 19
let's look briefly at this other Levite who is a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus Our blessed Savior is not a priest after
the order of Levi. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. And yet, the Levitical priesthood
portrayed Him who is our true priest before God. Christ alone
is our priest to represent us before God. God accepts no sacrifice
except the sacrifice He brings. Christ alone consecrates us to
God. Alrighty, chapter 19, verse 1.
And it came to pass in those days when there was no king in
Israel that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side
of the Mount Ephraim who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem,
Judah. And his concubine played the
whore against him and went away from him unto her father's house
to Bethlehem, Judah, and was there four whole months. And
her husband arose and went after her to speak friendly unto her,
and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple
of asses. And she brought him unto her
father's house. And when the father of the damsel
saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. And his father-in-law, the
damsel's father, retained him. And he abode with him three days. So they did eat and drink and
lodge there. Now here's our great Levite,
the Lord Jesus. Isaiah says, for the Lord is
our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king. He will
save us. This Levite does a strange thing. He took for his wife a woman
who was just a harlot. I think I recall another man
doing that. It was a prophet by the name
of Hosea. And God told his prophet, go yet love a woman, beloved
of her friends. Why would God have a Levitical
priest to choose a harlot for his wife? Why would God tell
his prophet to go down to Red Light District and fetch him
a harlot to be his wife? He said, I'm doing this so that
I can show you the love of the Lord toward you. I'm doing this
so you'll understand my love for my people. I have gone into
the world and I have found a people utterly depraved, utterly corrupt,
and I've chosen from among the harlots of this world a people
for myself. Now, though she fully deserved
to be put to death, this Levite went after his whoring wife,
were told to speak friendly to her. the margin of your Bible
you'll have this translation to speak to her heart to speak
to her heart he went down to speak to her heart and his reason
for doing so was to fetch her back to himself now hear the
Savior's own words Thou has played the harlot with many lovers,
yet return to me again, saith the Lord. Thou has played the
harlot with many lovers, yet return to me again, saith the
Lord. This Levi found no place of lodging. among the rest of the people
who were in his own, in this city who were his kinsmen and
his own people. They should have known he was a Levite. This old
man did. He was wearing the garments of
a Levite. If they had wanted to, they could have recognized
him right away. And so our Lord Jesus came to his own, and his
own received him not. They should have known this is
the Christ. Every prophecy was fulfilled
at this time concerning Christ. All they had to do was count
up the days in the Old Testament, and they'd know this is the time
when the Messiah must come. But they shut their eyes to him.
And then there's an old man coming home from work. who met this
Levite and asked him where he was going and he said I'm going
to the house of the Lord now look at verse 20 in chapter 19
and see a wonderful picture of substitution and the old man
said peace be with thee howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me
only lodge not in the street Hear me hear me hear me the Lord
Jesus says to you Let everything you need follow me Let everything
God requires from you follow me Let every need of your soul
be found in me. That's what it is to trust my
Savior Come cast everything on him somebody says is Christ enough
Oh lady said if he's all you got he is if he's all you got
he is, oh Christ be indeed all to my soul and then these wicked
Benjamites of Gibeah when they could not have this man took
his concubine, his wife and raped her and murdered her. You want
to get some idea how utterly morally perverse this commonly
accepted notion of homosexuality is in our day? Now you young
people listen to me, listen to me. Hold to. You listen to me. I know in this
perverse generation we're expected to accept these things and keep
our mouths shut and leave them alone. After all this is just
another lifestyle. It's another way of rebellion against God.
And God commanded that they be put to death because of the utter
destruction of society by their perverse ways. Well, how perverse
is this? Rather than give this man to
these homosexual perverts, this man says, take my daughter. Take
my daughter. Oh, what a horrid description
of behavior. but they took her and they raped
her again and again and again until in the morning at the dawning
of day she crawls through the door and just has her hands on
the threshold of the door of her husband where he's staying
with this old man and when she did the Levite took her home
and when he got home he took a knife and cut her in twelve
pieces and send her one piece to every tribe in Israel. What
on earth for? The children of Israel rallied
as one man. They rallied as one man. I mean,
they came together as one man. And if you want to read something
in the book of God about the history of Israel, they rarely
came together as one man. They rallied as one man and said,
we'll kill these Benjamites. Shall not God avenge his own
elect? Let me show you one more thing.
In chapters 20 and 21, the book of Judges closes with a sad but
blessed portrayal of God preserving his elect, even in such terrible
days as those we've seen described in chapters 17, 18, and 19. I
said to someone the other day, who was I talking to? I can't
remember, one of you men. This is the best day there's
ever been for us to serve our God. John, I wouldn't trade places
with anybody anywhere in history in the world. This is the day
the Lord's made for us. And he's put us here in this
day to preach the gospel to this generation, because there is
yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, whom God will
call out. Wouldn't you like to be an instrument
in God's hand by which he calls out his own? Here in this day
of debauchery, though it appeared that no man knew, worshipped,
and acknowledged God as king, that every man did that which
was right in his own eyes, that wasn't entirely the case. There
was an elect remnant even then, and thank God there is always
a remnant according to the election of grace. When confronted with
the wickedness of those Benjamites of Gibeah, all Israel united
together as one man. And there was a terrible warfare
between Israel and Benjamin. And it looked like Benjamin was
going to win. It looked like these Benjamites were going to
win the day. They put Israel to flight. The
next day, they put Israel to flight again. They slew thousands
and thousands and thousands. And it often appears to us, look
here, look right here, this small building, can't fill the seats
in it. Go down the road to any idle
temple you want to, and then figure a way to fill it up. And
it looks like the battle is lost, doesn't it? Man, it looks like
the battle's lost. We do everything we can to preach the gospel to
folks around the world. I mean, everything we can to
spread the gospel everywhere we can. And we have a few folks
here and there who listen, pay attention. God bless His word.
And it looks like the battle's lost. Looks like Satan's won
the day. Don't ever think so. Don't ever imagine such folly. Lord Jesus said, upon this rock
I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. What's God doing in this day?
What's he doing? Why the decadence? Why the idolatry? Why the heresy? He is constantly separating the
precious from the vile and constantly gathering his elect. And it does
it even by destroying the reprobate. Always remember, Ham is servant
of servant to Shem and Japheth. That doesn't mean that because
a man's got black skin, he ought to be a slave. I know that was
once a common theory amongst folks in the South. It never
was true. Ham represents the reprobate
of this world who constantly expose evil cause they are but
Ham is cursed of God and shall be servant of servant to Shem
and Japheth and Japheth now possesses the tents of Shem God's gathering
his Israel out of the four corners of the earth saving his elect
exactly as he will So there was a day when God added to the church
daily such as should be saved God still adds to his church
daily such as should be saved and he does it even through what
takes place by the hands of wicked Benjamites look at chapter 20
verse 18 the Lord commanded Judah to lead a battle The children
of Israel arose and went up to the house of God and asked counsel
of God. That's a good thing to do. And
said, which of us shall go up first to the battle against the
children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah shall
go up first. Reckon why? Because our Lord
Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And he always prevails
against his foes. I've got to quit, but let me
show you one more thing here. In chapter 21, Israel, that is
Israel's God, stopped short of completely destroying Benjamin.
You can read the rest of the chapter, but he stopped short
of completely destroying Benjamin. There were 600 Benjamites who
escaped to the rock Rimmon, and the children of Israel said,
we can't destroy them all. we can't destroy them all but
we can't give them our wives because our daughters to wife
because we've we made a vow to god we wouldn't give these benjamites
our daughters to wife so they went down some heathen and destroyed
the heathen tribes and took four hundred virgins and they went
up to these benjamites who were cowering down scared for their
lives and they said boy come on out here we've come in peace
look what we brought you we brought you four hundred virgins to take
for your wives so that benjamin would not destroyed and this
is the reason that they gave because benjamin must have an
inheritance with israel benjamin must have an inheritance with
israel well when you get to the foundations of the new jerusalem
the gates to the city are the names of the twelve tribes of
Israel. Twelve. Not one tribe in Israel
can be lost. It's not talking about Herbert
W. Armstrong's notion about physical Israel. No, no, no. He's talking
about God's elect. There are 144,000 people in the
earth who must be saved. That is all of God's elect after
the number 12 of the children of Israel. All of them must be
saved. And God will save them all. He will save them all. So we
go on preaching the word and waiting on God. Preach the word
and wait on God. Preach the word and wait on God. Preach the word. Well, let's
see what we can do now. No, don't start a program. You'll
mess up. Preach the word. Well, let's,
let's. Boy, the young people need something.
Yeah, they need the gospel. Well, I'll take my children down
to the big church because they have lots of parties for the
kids. Take them to hell with the party if you want to. I'll bring them
here to hear the gospel. Take your choice. Take your choice.
What's the church supposed to do? Preach the word, Larry, and
don't let anybody turn you from it. Preach the gospel of God's
grace with every fiber of your being, with everything God gives
you. Preach the gospel and watch God
work. Watch God work. Oh, watch God
work. He will save his people at each
one at the appointed time of love, calling them out by his
grace. And the scripture says, and so
all Israel shall be saved. All Israel. The Lord said to
the children of Israel, don't be afraid. I've redeemed you.
I created you for myself. I've called you by name and you're
mine He said I gave Ethiopia for you And I gave Egypt for
you. I gave Saba for you. I gave men for you and people
for your life Whatever it takes Whatever it takes God will sacrifice
it to save his people back in 1994 There was a young couple who
were dating, I don't think they were engaged yet. One of them
was in the Soviet Union, Brother Eugene. His family was the first
family out of the Soviet Union after the wall was torn down
between East and West Berlin. His family was the first one
out. Came over here. His wife was from Poland. And her family escaped, came
over here. And she lived, I think, in Chicago.
He was living out in Colorado, somewhere out West. And they'd
listen to me on radio. And I preached a sermon called
Basic Bible Doctrine. And he got hold of the message,
got the tape, and called up this girl who he hoped would be his
wife. She is now. He said, Natalie,
you've got to hear this. He called her long distance,
held that recorder up to the phone. She listened. And I didn't
meet him for a long time, about eight years ago, seven years
ago maybe, maybe less than that. I can't remember. I was preaching
down in North Carolina. And Eugene and Natalie, and their
two boys, came to hear me. They were in the church there.
I had some correspondents I recommended they go there. They'd been in
church for a while. These boys at that time were
I think maybe 10 or 12 years old and I called them out after
the last service like we had here this morning I called him
by name and I said you probably won't remember this but I hope
you can't forget it our God turned the world upside down just so
you could hear the things you're hearing turned the world upside
down just so you could hear it don't forget that well God saved
the older boy I just read a letter from him last week he wrote and
said pray for my brother he doesn't know God God does everything. for the saving of his elect and
he will triumph at last and all Israel shall be saved and we
have no reason to even think about compromise no reason to
even think about doing things differently we worship God as
he said at his place in Christ Jesus the Lord and we wait on
God to build his kingdom and do his work Let's stand together
for prayer. Oh God, my Father, how I thank
you for your matchless, free grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. How I thank you for revealing
Christ in us. For these here who do not know
our Redeemer, who yet live in rebellion to God, Lord God, subdue
their hearts as only you can. Give them life and faith in Christ.
Grant your blessings upon this assembly. I thank you for them. Thank you for knitting our hearts
together in the sweet fellowship of the gospel. Thank you for
bringing they and Larry together. And I ask my God your blessings
be upon them for the glory of your son, for their everlasting
good, and for the increase of your kingdom. Amen. Thank you
again for your attention.