Let's turn again to the book
of Judges. Judges, chapters 17 through 21. In chapter 17, we
have seen this man, Micah, and his behavior behavior of the people reflecting
the fact that there is no king in Israel, every man doing that
which is right in his own eyes, that is, the fact that no one
acknowledged and recognized God the King in Israel, but rather
holding to their own will, choosing their own way. holding religion,
but holding God in contempt. Every man did that which was
right in his own eyes. Micah made him an effort, a righteous
robe, and hired him a priest, a hireling priest, to come to
his house, wear the robe he had made, and make intercession to
God so that he would worship God in his house. conveniently rather than at Shiloh. And he worships Jehovah, he said. So significant. So significant. Not once did these who were named
among the sons of Abraham openly deny that they worshiped Jehovah.
But all the while they served Baal and Ashtoreth, and served
the gods of their own making. They said they were worshipping
Jehovah who brought them out of Israel. And then some Danites
came along and they hired Micah's preacher away from him. They
hired his Levites and they stole his gods and his righteous effort. They stole it all. Now he was
in a pickle. He was in a pickle. He didn't
have a priest, and he didn't have a God, and he didn't have
a temple, and he didn't have a robe for his priest. Everything's
gone. In verse 24, chapter 18, he said,
You've taken away my gods. You've taken away my gods, which
I made, and the priest that I heard. You took them. You took them. Now, I felt I ought to recognize
that if somebody can steal his God and his hope and his priest
and his righteousness and his peace, they're not worth spit. But after all, these are my gods.
It's all I've got. These gods represent my hope. It's all I've got. This priest
represents my acceptance with God. The robe he wears, that
effort that I made, my righteousness. If you take this away, I've got
nothing. And Micah's terribly disturbed. They asked him, said,
what aileth thee? He said, you've taken away my
gods, which I made, and the priest, and are gone away. And what have
I more? And what is this that you say
to me? What aileth thee? Well, they didn't pay much attention
to Micah because they wanted his gods. They were fancy and
pretty and costly. And they wanted to establish
a place for them to worship. After all, they're God's little
children too. And they are accepted with Abraham,
too. We can't deny them what they
want. They take Michael's gods and his priest, his ephod, all
those things, and they want a place to settle in. And so they go
to Laish and found the people there, of course, every man doing
what's right in his own eyes, who are comfortable and secure. wanted nothing, and they were
so holy they didn't do business with anybody else, and they said,
let's kill them. And so they destroyed Laish and
established a place and changed the name of it to Dan. Now look
at verse 30. Look at verse 30. And the children
of Dan set up the graven image, and Jonathan the son of Gershom,
the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe
of Dan. until the day of the captivity
of the land." Now that was a long time. That was a long time. This goes from the days preceding
the first judge in Israel, Othniel. This goes from the time that
Joshua died until you get to the taking away of Israel into
Babylonian captivity. That's how long it lasted. That's
a long time. That's a long time. And they
set them up, Micah's graven image, which he made. Now look at this. What a sad, sad, sad commentary. All the time that the house of
God was in Shiloh. There's the mercy seat. There's
the true priest. There's the holy of holies. There's
the brazen altar. There's the place where God said,
I'll meet you. There's the place where God said, I'll be gracious
to you. There's the place where God said,
I'll speak to you. You speak to me. There's the place where
God established his name and his worship. And all the time,
all that time, they kept up their house and their place of worship. and their gods, and called it
worshipping God according to their priest in Shiloh. There is not a sadder section of the Bible dealing
with Israel's history than these five chapters found in the last
part of the book of Judges. But bless God it doesn't end
there. In chapters 19, 20, and 21, there
is another Levite and another people. All right, let's begin
there in Judges chapter 19. And it came to pass in those
days, while they got Micah's God over yonder in Dan, their
place of worship over yonder in Dan, the house of God Shiloh
despised in those days, when there was no king in Israel,
that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount
Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem, Judah. And
this concubine, now quite literally this is not just taking a concubine
like men often did. The word that's used here certainly
implies that this woman was taken to be his wife. 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 to her, and to bring her again."
If you have a marginal translation in the margin of your Bible,
Her husband arose and went after her to speak to her heart, to
speak to her heart and to bring her again, having his servant
with him and a couple of asses, and she brought him into 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 within three days.
And so they did eat and drink and lodge there." Now, all scripture
is given of God, written in this book for our learning and for
our consolation that we, through patience and hope, patience and
consolation of the scriptures, might have hope. Our Lord told
the disciples, as he walked along the way to Emmaus what the scriptures
meant, as he opened the scriptures and taught them in all the law
and in the prophets and in the Psalms things concerning himself,
opening to them the scriptures. For what does all of this have
to say to us for our consolation and for our salvation and our
hope? What does all this have to do
with God revealing His purpose of grace in Jesus Christ to us? And I want to be careful in my
choice of words when I say things that seem so utterly dogmatic. But listen to me. Listen to me.
If all you see in passages such as this before us tonight, is
a sad story about a sad time in Israel's history when they
went away into idolatry and God brought judgment upon them for
it. You haven't seen anything right. That's not what this is
written for. It is written to teach us things
concerning Christ our Redeemer. The message of this book is God's
free grace in Jesus Christ our substitute. I don't understand. I do not understand why men and
women object to that. I cannot imagine anyone objecting
to the teaching that the Scriptures show us the person and work of
Christ everywhere. Who wouldn't want to see Him
everywhere? Who wouldn't want to see His beauty every time
they got a chance? Who wouldn't want to relate everything to
His goodness every time they got a chance? Does that mean,
preacher, that you take all the types and pictures and parables
and make everything that's written to say something directly about
Christ and His work? Of course not. Of course not.
Things illustrate and typify our Redeemer in a general picture. And this we have before us. First,
we see here a Levite who took for his wife a woman who was
nothing but a harlot. As I read this, I couldn't help
but to think of a prophet by the name of Hosea, whom the Lord
God commanded to go love a woman who was loved of her friends. I recognize that Folks get real
upset with that and try to explain that away. And they say, oh,
you can't say that, you can't say that. You give license to
men to go marry outside the faith and marry harlots and all that
stuff. Well, stick it in your pipe and smoke it. I don't care
what you think with it. God Almighty commanded Hosea to go love a
harlot. How come? Because he said, I
want you to see a picture of my love for you. And that's a good picture of
you, and you, and you, and me. A harlot. A harlot. What can be considered more loathsome,
more vile, more disrespectful, more contemptible, more dirty. A harlot. Until you can take your place
there, you'll never take your place in the arms of God's Hosea.
You just won't do it. You're too good to take your
place there. You're too good for Christ. You're too good to
take your place in the lowest depths of human depravity. God
hasn't yet revealed Himself to you. The Lord God said, Hosea,
you go do this, and I'm going to teach you and will teach my
people something about my love for my people. Now though this
woman fully deserved to be put to death, this Levite went after
his whoring wife. And he went after her with nothing
but gracious determination. Not to punish her, not to destroy
her, but rather to speak to her heart. To speak to her heart. The Lord Jesus told Hosea, He
said, you love this woman like this, and you go and find her
and allure her to yourself. Because this is the way I love
my people. I will allure her into the wilderness. And I will
speak comfortably to her. I speak to your heart. Oh, Son
of God. Come by your spirit through your
word and speak to the heart of your people. When he speaks to
your heart, you will hear his voice. And I'll tell you what
he'll speak. When he speaks to your heart,
he'll speak pardon and peace. and grace, and forgiveness, and
mercy, and tenderness, and love, and compassion, and faithfulness,
and righteousness, not yours, His. And then when you see Him,
your heart will be ravished with Him. And you will be brought
to mourn over your sin as He embraces you in His tenderness. He comes to speak friendly to
her and to bring her home. His purpose is to fetch her back
to himself. Now hear what our Savior says
in Jeremiah chapter 3. You don't need to turn there.
He says, Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith
your God. That's our Redeemer. That's our
Redeemer. Now, this Levite came going through
the land of Israel among the children of Benjamin in Gibeah,
and he found no place of lodging, no place of rest among those
people who were his own kinsmen. They should have recognized him.
He was a Levite. He had all the evidences, the
physical characteristics, the physical requirements in dress
that God gave to the Levites. They should have known this man's
a Levite. And he comes among them, and
he's a man who's God's servant. And being God's servant, it's
not a matter of pride, it's a matter of God's honor. He's not about
to ask anybody for anything. He's not going to do it. He's
not going to do it. Not a matter of pride, it's a matter of God's
honor. He's God's servant. He's God's servant. And God required
that Israel take care of those Levites. God required that Israel
feed them and lodge them and clothe them all their days. But
here he is, going through the land of Israel, among the children
of Benjamin in Gibeah, and nobody offers him a roof for his head.
Nobody offers him or his servants a piece of bread to eat. And
so he just pitches camp right in the middle of the streets.
Right in the middle of the streets. Oh, our Lord Jesus came unto
His own and His own received Him not. He came here and He
demonstrated unmistakably He demonstrated in his genealogy. He demonstrated in his work.
He declared in his words. He demonstrated by the miracles
he performed. And he demonstrated in his character.
He demonstrated it by the angel of God speaking of his birth,
the angel of God singing of his birth. God creating a star especially
to mark the place of his birth. God Almighty changing the course
of history to fulfill the scriptures when he came into this world.
And nobody paid any attention. If they had wanted to know, they
could not have missed the fact this is the Christ. This is the
Levite of whom all the Levites spoke. This is the sacrifice
of whom all the sacrifices spoke. This is the King God promised
to send, but nobody received it. Nobody. Our Lord Jesus is
still such that men today will not receive and will not embrace
Him. Men today still will not bow
to Him, will not believe Him, except He graciously forced them
to believe Him. You wouldn't, and I wouldn't. And the sad fact is, we still
won't, unless He puts His hand in by
the hole of the door and causes our hearts to yearn for him. We still won't. Oh, blessed Savior,
come, force your way into my heart all the time, and cause
me willingly to receive you. But there's another man in this
land of Gibeah among the Danites. He saw this Levite out here,
and he said, who are you? He said, I'm a Levite. I'm God's servant. I'm going
down to Bethlehem, Judah. My wife's been gone for a little
while. I'm going to go bring her home. That's all you need
to know. He doesn't say a word concerning
that, what his wife's done. This old man, he said, don't
stay in the streets. You come into my house. And there
is a beautiful picture here, again of redemption and grace.
This old man says in verse 20, let thy wants lie on me. Let your wants lie on me. Oh, Son of God, thank You for
graciously calling me to let all my wants lie on Thee. Children of God, take all your
soul's needs, all of them. All of them. Redemption and righteousness. Grace and pardon. Mercy for today. Strength for the day. Light for
the day. Bread for the day. Water for
the day. Peace for the day. Cast it all
on Him. Let all thy wants lie on me. And then, while he was in the
house, of this old man. These Benjamites come out. Remember,
the chapter begins telling us, no king in Israel. The king's
not recognized. Nobody bows to the king. Every
man does what he wants to. Here are these Benjamites. Who
are these fellows? Why, they're fine children of
God. They're good Christians. They've
been members of church all their They know the Lord as well as
anybody. Just ask them. They'll tell you. Good Benjamites,
children of Abraham, go to church all the time, maintain their
religion as faithfully as you do. I'm as good a Christian as
you are. I'll tell you that right now.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. They come beating on
the old man's door. Said, we want that man. They're
sodomites. They're Sodomites. These fellows,
homosexuals. These fellows came like those
men in Genesis 19 against the door of Lot, after God's servant,
going to rape them. And they said, we want him. And they told me, oh no, you
can't do that. Don't tell us what we can't do.
We don't recognize any authority. or any law beyond what we want
to do. After all, we're consenting adults. And the man said, this can't
be. This can't be. And he does the
same thing that Lot did in Genesis 19. Lot said, here, take my daughters. Take my daughters. Don't do this
thing. This is worse. than taking my
own daughter, raping her. And the men take this Levite's
wife and pass her one to the other all night long, raping
her repeatedly. And in the morning she comes
to the door of the old man's house and she falls at the threshold
of the door, dead from the brutality of these Benjamites. You see,
they hate God. That's the reason they won't
bow to Him. wear his name, but won't bow
to him. And the men and women of this world, religious and
irreligious, live with hearts continually that are enmity against
God. They can't get to Christ. They
can't get to God. So they live continually in persecution
of his church and his people. Revelation 12 tells us it was
that way from the beginning and it will be that way to the end
of the days. And they persecute and slaughter
and harass and murder and torment and destroy God's people throughout
the ages. But that's not the way things
are going to be forever. This Levite, takes his wife's
body, goes home and takes a cleaver
and divides her body into twelve sections. And he sends it to the twelve
tribes of Israel. What a barbaric, cruel, inhuman
thing to do. This Levite is determined to
avenge his wife's blood upon those who destroyed her. And
I'm telling you, he who is our great Levite, the Lord Jesus
Christ, will avenge his own elect. He will answer the blood of his
people that cry unto him from the ground. You say, but preacher,
Christ wasn't a Levite. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't.
He was a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He was a greater
priest than any of the Levites. But he is that one represented
in the Levitical priesthood. He's the only one who represents
us before God. He's the only one who brings
sacrifice to God. He's the only one by whom we
can worship God. And Israel is called to judgment
by this Levite sending his wife's body to the 12 tribes of Israel. And the children of Israel rallied
to the cause. They rallied to the cause. Look
in chapters 20 and 21. It appeared that no man knew,
worshipped, and acknowledged God as King. It appeared that
every man did that which was right in his own eyes. But that
wasn't entirely the case. There was an elect remnant even
then. Thank God there always is. God Almighty doesn't leave Himself
without a witness. Elijah thought he was the only
one left. He cried and said, I'm the only
one left. God, they killed all your prophets. I'm the only one
left. And God said, Elijah, quit whimpering. I've got 7,000 whose
names you've never heard who haven't yet bowed the knee to
Baal. God never leaves himself without a witness. When confronted
with the wickedness of those vile men of Gibeah, look at chapter
20, verse 8. All is real. united as one man. And all the people arose as one
man, saying, We will not, any of us, go to his tent, neither
will any of us turn to his house till this thing is done. Verse
11, So all the men of Israel were gathered together against
the city, knit together as one man. Oh, is there not a cause? Let all God's people rally as
one. Is there not a cause? Indeed
there is. There was a terrible warfare
going on. A terrible warfare going on between
men and women, all of whom named the name of Christ. All of whom
named themselves as worshippers of God. But these Benjamites
were sons of Belial, worshippers of Baal and Ashtoreth. And the
children of Israel were rallied together as one man against them. At first, as you read this chapter,
verses 21 through 25, it looked as though Benjamin was going
to destroy Israel. Day after day, they went out
to war against Benjamin. And day after day, Benjamin prevailed. Day after day. And so it is. in our warfare. We are at war in this world,
my friends. Not a warfare of carnal weapons,
of swords and spears and guns. We're at war with the world,
the flesh, and the devil. A spiritual warfare. And the
warfare rages more than anywhere else right here. Right here. And most of the time, James,
it looks like Benjamin's going to win. Most of the time, Benjamin puts
Israel to flight. Most of the time, it looks like
nothing but hopelessness and despair in my day-by-day experience. But blessed be God, that will
not be the case. We cry, surely the Lord's forsaken
me, my God's forgotten me, but not ever. He said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. After all, the wise man said,
the race is not to the swift, and the battle is not to the
strong. You remember what the Lord told Jehoshaphat? He said,
you won't fight in this battle. You just stand still and watch
what I do. The battle is the Lord's. Look in verse 18 of chapter
20. The children of Benjamin, or
the children of Israel, went up to the Lord, went up to the
house of God. They cried out to the Lord, what are we going
to do? Shall we go after Benjamin? He said, go after him. And they
said, who goes first? And the Lord said, let Judah
lead the battle. Wonder why? Judah was appointed to lead the
battle because the Lord Jesus, who according to the flesh sprang
out of Judah, goes out to fight before his own. He is the Lion
of the tribe of Judah who has prevailed, is prevailing, and
shall prevail. And so they go out and fight
against Judah, fight against Benjamin, and they prevail against
Benjamin. And finally, Benjamin's destroyed. Just utterly destroyed. Rid the
world of that vile, base, Sodomite land called Benjamin, who has
done this thing in Israel. All except for some. In verse
45, when these Benjamites saw they could not possibly prevail,
not a chance of them winning this battle. They went and fled
to a certain place, the Rock of Rimmen. Now, just stick that in your
mind here for just a minute. I'll come back to it. The twelve tribes of Israel,
however, lament over Benjamin, chapter 21. Oh, what are we going to do? What are we going
to do? We can't destroy Benjamin. Can't
be done. God said there'd be 12 tribes.
And 12 tribes there must be. But the Lord brought a breach
in Israel. Now what will happen? Shall Israel be destroyed? For
if one tribe is destroyed, the nation's destroyed. What will
we do? And they went to God. And they
cried out to God. And the Lord gave them direction. Which of the children of Israel
did not come up with us to fight against these sons of Belial?
Who was it that didn't join us in opposing Ashtoreth? Who was
it that did not swear with us they would not tolerate this
thing in Israel? And they counted all the people
again. There wasn't anybody from Jabesh
Gilad here. Fellas, before we go home, we've
got one more job to do. Take your swords and clean them
off. We're going down J. Beshige Lake. And kill everybody
there. Everybody. Man, woman, and child. Everybody there. Except those
women, who've never known a man. And we'll take those virgin daughters
and bring them to Benjamin. and preserve Benjamin alive.
Turn to Isaiah 43. Now folks talk about common grace
and common mercy. They talk about God's common
love for all men. People have you to believe that
somehow God's grace is common and everybody gets a little bit
of it. You just get a little bit more. There's nothing common
about anything in our God. His grace is not common. His
love is not common. His mercy is not common. Everything
God has, he has for his Israel. Everything God does, he does
for his elect. He'll even sacrifice nations
for them. Look at Isaiah 43. Now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior." Now watch this. This is what all this means.
This is what it means. When God says, you're mine. When
God says, you're mine. When God says, I redeemed you.
When God said, I made you mine. I called you by your name and
you're mine. I made you honorable. I'm your
God. This is what that means. If Egypt
is needed, I'll gladly kill them for you. I gave Egypt for you. Ethiopian Saba for you. You were
precious in my sight. You've been honorable. I made
you honorable. I've loved you. Therefore, will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. If that means slaughtering everybody
in J-Basic Elite, we'll just slaughter them. Oh, you can't tell that
to people. They'll think God's a monster. Not God's people. Not God's people. No. Anybody getting in the way
of your sons and daughters, what are you going to do with them?
What are you going to do with them? I love him too much, I
just let him run over him. Oh no, oh no, uh-uh, uh-uh. What kind of father is that?
God Almighty says there's nothing and nobody I won't sacrifice
for you. Because you see, God has purposed
12,000 out of every tribe of Israel. They're named 144,000 who must be saved in Revelation
chapter 7. You mean there's only going to
be 144,000 saved? I mean there's only going to be 144,000 and
there's going to be 144,000. I'm not talking about literal
numbers. I'm talking about a whole number of God's elect. Not one's
going to be missing. If you had to slaughter J.B.H.
Gilead, you would just slaughter him. Egypt will just slaughter
them. In the New Jerusalem, there are
12 gates to that city. And on the name of one of those
gates, on the name of one of those gates, is Benjamin. Benjamin. Benjamin can't be destroyed,
because God's purpose of grace can't be frustrated. So what
they did is they took these 400 virgins, chapter 21, verse 12, and they brought them to the
sons of Benjamin who were hiding in the rock. Oh, flee away to the rock, Christ
Jesus. Take refuge in the only rock
of refuge there is, and there God provides everything for your
soul. Read the last verse of the book
of Judges, and understand things are exactly the same still. Nothing changed after the battle.
Nothing changed. Nothing changed. And nothing has changed today.
In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that
which was right in his own eyes. Still, there is sweet consolation
from the two verses preceding it. all is well in Zion, Benjamin
went home and possessed his inheritance. Verse 24, the children of Israel
departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe, every
man to his family, and they went from thence, every man to his
inheritance. And God's people, every blessed
one of them, every man, shall go home to possess the inheritance
of free grace in Jesus Christ exactly according to the purpose
of God by the operation of His grace. All is well inside. To sum up, I would not have you,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest
you be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened
to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be brought in.
And so all Israel shall be saved. Everything is going to turn out
all right. God's purpose is not going to be frustrated, not by
Micah or his wife or some fake hireling Levite preacher, not
by the sons of Benjamin and the rogues of the world, not by hell
and not by earth. God's purpose will be fulfilled
by the very men who oppose it. All Israel shall be saved. After all, this is what God said,
there shall come out of Zion the Judge, the Deliverer, the
King, and shall turn away ungodliness, every bit of it, from Jacob.
For this is my covenant to them, when I shall take away their
sins. And soon, blessed be God, He will take away our sins and
all the consequences of them from us experimentally in the
glory of complete salvation. And we shall, every man in Israel,
go home to his house and his family and his possession and
his inheritance in Christ Jesus the Lord. Amen.