Judges 2 Bible Study (Israel's Disobedience/The Lord Raises Up Judges) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Good evening, guys. It's good to see you. Do you have your Bibles? Good. One person?

That's okay. Judges. That's where we left off. That's where we started last week. Judges chapter two.

We started a new journey and a new book as a as a church, as a bible study through this incredible book. And last week, we talked about, the overview of it, and we're still in the prologue. We're still in the entry point where the Holy Spirit is setting up the stage for us to see the meat of this text and to understand what it is exactly that he wants to teach his people throughout all the generations. What we learn up to this point is that Joshua is now dead. The leader's gone.

There's no successor. Every tribe for himself. There are still Canaanites in the land and now every tribe has a choice to know what to do with their inheritance. Are they going to completely obliterate every single one of the enemies of God or are they going to choose to keep them as neighbors, as slaves? And what we learned last week is that they planted seeds of compromise.

They chose to keep some. They chose to to, in their own minds, come up with their own version of what God really wanted from them. And we learn, we emphasize this point that these early seeds would have repercussions for generations to come. And as we step into chapter two of Judges, we're going to see God's perspective on the matter. How how does Judges one end?

Look at verse 29 of Judges one down to verse 36. Tribe after tribe after tribe being told by us, by for us rather, that they have chosen to not drive out the inhabitants, but to keep them. And after all of this, God steps on the scene and he gives his commentary. In fact, he confronts the people about these seeds that they have planted. So let's look at verse one here of Judges chapter two.

Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim, and he said, I brought you out from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

Now I hope that you are going to pay attention in the first few words of verse one because it's gonna get theological in a moment here. We're not gonna jump into the practical. There's a lot of practical, but this is bible study. We wanna learn about God, not just in what we need to do, but who he is. Look at this title here in verse one.

Now the angel of the Lord. This angel appears on more than one occasion in this book. He appears here. He appears with Gideon. Then he's gonna appear with Samson's parents.

So he's a prominent figure in this book. But he's not only found in the book of Judges, he's found throughout the Old Testament and people debate who this angel is. Some will say he's merely a creature, a mighty creature, representative of God, in in a specific way where he goes out and he sends particular and very important messages or performs a work that is crucial to God. And so they would say he's simply an ambassador, a heavenly ambassador. Here's the issue with that.

When you read in some context who the angel of the Lord is and the attributes that are given to him and the activities that he displays, you can't say that he is merely an angel. You can't say that he's merely a representative. You can't even say that he is merely a creature. He's more than that. Now this is where we have to be careful.

Not every instance where angel of the Lord or angel of God appears denotes the fact that he is something more than a creature. But in many contexts, if you read carefully, you will come to the conclusion that this angel is in fact God himself, is in fact God manifesting himself as a messenger delivering a specific message to a specific audience. And that's kinda hard for us to understand and perhaps you're on the edge of your seat right now because you think that I just said God is an angel. Here's where we have to understand the term angel. It does not mean what we think it means.

When you think angel, what image pops into your mind? A figure with wings and perhaps a halo. Right? That is what we've learned. That's what we've seen in cartoons.

That's what we've seen in movies. That's what we've pictured in our minds, but you will find no physical description of such for an angel in the Bible. You won't. You'll find wings for the seraphim. You'll find supernatural characteristics for the cherubim.

But oftentimes when an angel appears on the scene, he looks like a man. And sometimes he manifests in a specific way where he's obviously more than just a man who appears, but you don't see these wings, you don't see these halos. An angel, according to the scripture, simply means what? Does anybody know? Messenger.

Old and New Testament, the word angel simply means messenger. And it's interchangeably used between heavenly messengers and even human messengers. Here's an example in Genesis 32 verse three. Jacob sent what? Messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

So there we see that the word messengers is the same word used for what? Angels. It simply means one who goes out to carry or deliver something, one who was sent by somebody else. And so that helps us at least understand what conclusion we're trying to make here with the angel of the Lord. If the word angel simply means messenger, then we know that it's possible for God to function as one who sends a message.

It's not impossible. We're not saying that God became an angel when we're saying that the angel of the Lord is the pre incarnate Christ. We're saying that he did assume the role of one who is sending a message on behalf of who? God. That's not a foreign concept to us in the New Testament, by the way.

Look what Jesus says in John eight eighteen concerning himself when he was in the flesh. He says, I am the one who bears witness about myself and the father who sent me, the father who sent me bears witness about me. So even when Christ in his earthly ministry, when when he when he did take on flesh, said of himself, I was sent by the Father. It's the same idea of being a messenger. I've been sent to declare a message, to reveal something about God.

Now this is important because if we believe that the angel of the Lord is in fact God himself, you know what that implies? That God is a multi personal being. So we're getting a preview of the trinity here. And it's not really a preview. It is the trinity.

Why? Because the angel of the Lord, that very title tells us that he is a representative of who? The Lord. But if he's the Lord himself, then how do we deal with that? We either have major contradiction.

We we have an issue here about the character and the nature of God, or the Holy Spirit wants to teach us something about who God is. He's a triune being. So the angel of the Lord to be Lord and to represent the Lord is not an issue for chinitarians. It is an issue for those who believe that God is one person. We believe God is one entity, but he is what?

Three persons. And so can we prove that? It's it's easier to prove it than it is really to explain it. Because if you can just show it in the scriptures, then that's enough to to say to us, okay, I may not be able to figure it out and put language to how God and who God really is, but at least it's there as evidence. So we're in Judges.

Let's go forward to Judges chapter six when we talk about Gideon. This is extremely important when we're trying to discuss the doctrine of the Trinity. Go to verse 12 of Judges chapter six. This is the scene with Gideon, and look who appears to Gideon when he wants to send a message on behalf of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, what?

The Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valor. Do we see it? Here's the angel of the Lord stepping on the scene and declaring a message on behalf of who? The Lord to Gideon. Gideon, God wants to let you know that God is with you and that you're a mighty man of valor.

Now we read that and again, if we don't have this understanding that the angel of the Lord is the Lord himself, we go, yeah, this is an angel of a certain rank that is coming on to give a message on behalf of God for this man, Gideon. Well, go down to verse 14. Gideon gives a response. He has questions. He has doubts.

And then look what the the text tells us. And who? The Lord. Isn't that what it says? The Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Do not I send you. Well, hold on. We just learned it was the angel of the Lord. Now the text is telling us who. It's the Lord.

Why? Because he's a second person of the Trinity. And so the angel of the Lord is God himself. Assuming the role of a messenger on behalf of the father and speaking to Gideon to comfort him and to commission him as a deliverer for the nation of Israel. So what are we getting here?

We're getting Trinitarian truth. We're getting Trinitarian truth. Now I know you may you might be sitting there being, okay, Trina, tell me how I should live my Christian life. Listen, you need to know this. You need to know this about your God.

Nobody would dare say I love so and so and you want nothing to know about them. You want to know every detail about who they are. And here's the truth about God, he's triune and we're seeing evidence of that here. Now there's a natural practical question. Right?

Why would God ever assume the role of a messenger? Does any have thousands upon thousands of angels that can do that for him? Does it does any have just an army to to to fulfill that role for him? And absolutely and we think to ourselves, if a king is really a king, he's gonna have messengers to to do that work for him. Yes.

But I believe there's one simple reason why we can believe that the angel of the Lord is God and how he's still king. If I send a messenger to anybody to deliver a message, it's it's important. Right? But what does it say if I myself come to deliver that message? That means it's really important.

And so for the Lord himself to come and to deliver this message says something about the the quality and the urgency and the necessity to receive what is being said. And that is certainly true in many instances with the angel of the Lord. And for the angel of the Lord to appear over and over again in the book of Judges says something about the urgency of the message that he carries over and over again throughout this book especially. Now we might be thinking this and saying, okay. It's getting a little complicated.

Can't we just believe that the angel of the Lord is an angel? Do we have to really go there? And some some don't believe what what is being said here. But here's the issue. If we say that the angel of the Lord is simply an agent, then we have some complications.

The angel of the Lord is not merely an agent. Why? Because an agent, a representative of somebody else, never in that role of representing, claims to be the one that he represents. He never claims to be the one he represents, And he never is allowed to be, attributed to or given certain privilege or honor for the one whom he represents. So here's an example.

Let's go all the way to the end of our bibles. Let's go to Revelation 22 and look at John's interaction with an angel. Not the angel of the Lord, but an angel, a messenger. And I want you to look at verse eight of Revelation 22. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.

And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. So this angel is revealing things to John and he is so overwhelmed by what he saw. He's so overwhelmed by the authority that this angel carries that John himself now falls into idolatry. Now before we prove how this is making the case for the angel of the Lord, I want you to think about this. John the beloved, John whose head was resting on the the bosom of Jesus Christ on the earth, In two occasions in the book of Revelation near the end, falls down and worships an angel.

An angel. Now if there is any gross sin throughout the scriptures, it is idolatry. If there's any sin that God continually hammers against, it is a sin of idolatry. Right? And here you have arguably one of the closest people to Jesus Christ.

And this man, even John, was tempted to worship a creature on two occasions. This should make us tremble brothers and sisters. Do you know why? If John was tempted to worship something other than God, what makes you and I think that we can't? If John the beloved who witnessed Christ, not just on the earth but in his glory in Revelation one, what makes you think that you and I are not tempted to love something, honor something, exalt something or someone more than God?

Be very careful. If anyone thinks that he stands, let him take heed lest he falls. We need God's grace minute by minute, minute by minute. So then he comes and what does he do? He falls down to worship this angel.

Then we read in verse nine, but he said to me, this is an angel. You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this workbook, worship God. So immediately this angel, who is clearly an agent, a created being, rejects worship, corrects any false idea that he is somewhat divine, and says, no, no, no. I am a fellow servant of yours.

Get up and worship God. Now that's an angel. Right? You don't see that same language with the angel of the Lord. Go back to Exodus.

Now let's go to that famous chapter in chapter three. And let's look at verse two of of Exodus chapter three. When Moses is about to encounter that burning bush, look what it said. Verse two of Exodus chapter three. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

He looked and behold the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And what does Moses say? Moses said, I will turn aside to see this great sight why the bush is not burned. And let's look at verse four. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, who called out of that burning bush?

God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am. Now let's go back to verse two though. What are we told in verse two? And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire. So is it an agent that represents God or is it a synonymous term where in verse four we are told that God was the one who spoke out of the bush?

It's God. He's God. He's just coming as a messenger to represent the triune God. And in fact, when we go to verse five, look what we're being told by God from the burning bush. Then he said, do not come near, take your sandals off your feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

That's worship. That's worship. That's reverencing, that's honoring, that's esteeming someone. No angel would dare say, oh, take off your sandals, you're standing on holy ground. Never.

But the angel of the Lord, it's a different story. And so we see here that on more than one occasion, we can spend the next twenty minutes just looking at verse after verse after verse proving that the angel of the Lord is far greater than a mighty creature representative of God. He is the second person of the trinity, preincarnate Christ, and it's a beautiful, beautiful truth. And we have to go beyond just angels who represent God, would never receive worship or praise. The apostles who were sent out as what?

Messengers. They are sent out once. Never will you ever see it recorded in the scriptures that any, including Paul, said, I'm Jesus Christ. And we know this that they never receive worship even when men were tempted to worship them. An agent never assumes that kind of privilege.

Does not have the same prerogatives. But the angel of the Lord, it's a different story because he is the messenger of God who is God himself. Now, we're proving that, I hope. I hope we're becoming more comfortable today. I hope we're convinced of that, but this is bible study, so let's come back to Judges, our text, chapter two.

And here's my question for us tonight. In verse one, if you just had verse one and you can cross reference, but just from verse one, how can you prove that the angel of the Lord is God himself? From verse one of Judges chapter two. If you have an idea, just you can lift your hand. Yeah.

Lina, go ahead. Good. Did you hear her? The answer is found in what the angel of the Lord says, and he says at least two vital things. Number one, he says, what?

I brought you up from Egypt. That's careful reading. And two, what does he say? That I swore to give to your fathers. There is no way that a mere representative, ambassador, agent can ever say those things of himself.

And now all you have to do to make the claim that this is in fact God himself is now cross reference to where God said these things. So let's look at number one. He says, I'm the one who brought you out of Egypt. Right? If you're taking notes, look at Exodus 20 verse two.

And what does God say? Exodus 20 verse two, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. So either this creature is committing blasphemy and he's ready to be judged by God for daring to give himself the same power, authority, and historical deliverance on the level of God or he is God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, Exodus 22. And then later on, we read in Deuteronomy eight verse 18.

Moses says, you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day. So when the angel of the Lord appears and we understand what those texts have said before, we understand, wow, this is God. This is God because only God was the one who delivered them out of Egypt and only God was the one who made a covenant with the people, plain and simple, full stop. Saying, okay, why is this important again? We're Trinitarians.

You have to prove that. You have to show that. And here's what a lot of the argument is. Well, the trinitarian idea is that's a New Testament emphasis. You'll never find that in the Old Testament.

Study the angel of the Lord. Prove the case that he is in fact God and prove that he is a multi personal being and and there you are now convincing somebody of the nature of God more and more clearly. Amen. Now we come back to Judges chapter two. We're told, now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bachem.

Question, why is that important? Do we really know do we really need to know the fact that he traveled from one location to another? It is important when we understand what Gilgal signifies. We've been studying Joshua for the past few months and there is a reoccurring place over and over throughout the text. Gilgal, Gilgal, Gilgal, Gilgal, Gilgal.

And now we come to Judges chapter two in the middle of an apostate nation that the angel of the Lord, who is God himself, travels from Gilgal to Bauchim. Why are we being told that he traveled from Gilgal to Bauchim and here is at least one idea why. We have to understand what Gilgal represents. Tell me, what does Gilgal represent? What happened at Gilgal?

Just You can just say it out loud. If we remember Joshua, Gilgal has a lot to say to us. What what does it what does it signify? What happened at Gilgal? What happened upon the entry into the promised land?

What did they do at Gilgal? Thank you brother. They set up 12 stones out of the Jordan River. No? That there would be a perpetual remembrance through these stones of God's what?

Faithfulness and goodness. God brought us into this place. God made a way where there was no way. And they would continually be faced with that truth whenever they were in the conquest. They would continually come back.

Remember? Over and over after battles, they would come back to Gilgal. And Gilgal is another place, rather a place that signifies something else. Anybody else know what happened at Gilgal after that, which is Joshua chapter four? What else happened at Gilgal?

What did they do after they crossed the Jordan River? It's a very painful experience, especially if you're a grown man. Circumcision. Joshua, as a leader, had all the men circumcised to make what? To establish a covenant with God and to say this is the moment, this is the entry point, this is the commencement that we will live totally dependent upon the Lord.

We will live by faith. And it was an act of faith, remember? Because they stepped into the land of Canaan and that's where they were called to make that sacrifice of circumcision. Why didn't they do it before the Jordan? Wouldn't it have made more sense?

You know what happens if you're if you're circumcised? You can't move for days and here you are in the enemy's camp without strength, without stability, without balance and and now you're making yourself vulnerable to the enemy. Lord, can I offer you some wisdom? Isn't that how we pray sometimes? Lord, I have some advice for you.

Wouldn't it make more sense if we we did the circumcision thing before we crossed the Jordan River? Why after? Because it's faith. I'm asking you to make this radical sacrifice and to trust that I'm gonna protect you as you recover. That's why.

And so this place, Gilgal, holds great significance, and it was a place that was visited often by the generation under Joshua. And it holds so much precious, thoughts towards God, about God. They would go there to refresh their faith and their fellowship with God, And then all of a sudden we come to Judges chapter two and we are told that the angel of the Lord left Gilgal to Bachem. And I believe the reason why we're being told that is because, in some sense, the angel of the Lord was in Gilgal and he realized for quite some time that it was vacant. He realized for quite some time that it was not visited by the people.

He realized for quite some time so even though it wasn't a permanent place, on a soul level, they were detached. And so he leaves that place. He leaves that place to say that I'm gonna come where you are right now because you're not here. And he confronts the people in a backsliding condition that have forsaken, not just Gilgal physically, but what it meant spiritually. And remember, we're talking about Israel being backslidden.

Right? Doesn't this teach us something so significant about backsliding? I can tell you this much, that when you or anybody else or myself begin to forsake or begin to pull away from what Gilgal represents, you're heading down. You're heading down. When you fail like the Israelites to continually bring before you God's faithfulness, God's goodness, his deliverance, what he wants for you, what he has planned for you, When you fail to forget, when you come to a place where you don't realize anymore that you made a commitment to cut off the flesh from your life, like those Israelites did with their own flesh, when you fail to realize the cross of Jesus Christ and the extent of his sacrifice and his shed blood to ratify a covenant, there's only one direction for your life and it's not towards God's will.

This shows us, at least in some part, that the reason why the people were in the condition that they were in is because they have in their hearts forsaken to bring before them continually to meditate upon what Gilgal represents. You lose sight of the goodness of God, you lose sight of the cross of Jesus Christ, you lose sight of the commitment that he's called you to, anything can happen. And that's exactly what's happening here. The angel of the Lord meets them in their condition and he speaks a harsh word to them, a much needed word. And when he confronts them, in essence, what he's saying is in what's in verse three.

He says what? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare to you. Here's what God's saying. You don't wanna drive out the nations? You don't wanna eliminate what I told you to eliminate?

Then let's make a deal. I'm not gonna do it either. You don't wanna do it? Then I'm not gonna do it. Please remember this truth.

God will assist you. God will provide for you. God will energize you. God will empower you. God will direct you.

But there's one thing God can't do for you and that's your maturing. God can't do his your maturing for you. He can help you as you set yourself towards that goal, but he's not gonna pick you up and make you do it. He'll meet you at your desires. He'll meet you at your desires.

And at this point, Israel desire to what? Have the nations with them. In other words, to keep their sin with them. And And God says, you want your sin? You want it that bad?

You really want it? What have we learned throughout the Old Testament up to this point? If you really want something, even if it's contrary to God's will, he'll let you have it. Take it. Take it.

There are some people, maybe even in this place, that there's a particular person, friends, whatever it is in your life that God has clearly warned you about over and over and over again and you still don't wanna take the warning and you're gonna go in that direction anyway. God say, okay, do it. It could be a job. It could be a direction in your life and God clearly makes it so obvious you're not supposed to move there. You're not supposed to take that opportunity.

You're not supposed to head into that direction. And he sends warning, warning through leaders and counselors and friends and you still say, no, I want it. God says, go take it. Take it. I won't intervene even.

I won't even bother your conscience. This is how God disciplines, in one way at least. You know, I was reading Hosea the other day and I always come to this one little verse and it strikes my heart every every time I read it. More than God sending fire from heaven, more than God opening up the earth and swallowing up rebellious people, here's one verse that I pray would never be a reality in my life or yours. Hosea four seventeen.

Look what God says about Ephraim, which represents Israel. Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone. Can you imagine that? Ephraim is joined in partnership, clinging to idols and this is what God's decree over Ephraim, let him stay there.

He wants it that badly. He wants it cling to them so hard. Let him keep it. And I thought to myself, Lord, why would you ever do that? Why would you why would you leave somebody without bothering their conscience, without interrupting their lives and trying to circumstantially or even clearly deliver them?

Why would you keep somebody in their state of sin like this? And here's why God would do it. God will do it only for somebody to know the coldness and the emptiness and the vanity of a life with sin, so that through the sin and their participation in it, they would crave the warmth of God's fellowship and favor. That's why God would do it. So to some degree, God will allow this with the hopes of restoration.

Doesn't mean restoration is automatic. It's just a strategy in God's wisdom to hopefully bring a person to a place where they say, what am I doing with these idols? What am I doing with this crowd of people? What am I doing with this way of life? I want to go back to God.

Here's proof. That is the final act of church discipline for an unrepentant sinner. So it's not just an Old Testament way of God dealing with his people. It's how the church should operate when a person has passed through all the phases of not repenting from their sin. The church leadership under the wisdom of God and the leadership of the Holy Spirit says, because you do not want to repent and you so want to hold on to your sin, go where sin abounds and be with the devil and his people.

And they excommunicate the individual. For what reason? To destroy them? No. For restoration.

Because of their disconnection with the warmth and the goodness and the love and the protection and the peace that comes, you have to make a choice. Either you want that with God and his will or you want the things that sin offers. You can't have both. So God says, I'm not gonna deliver them. My judgment towards you and your rebellious state is to keep you exactly the way you are.

Think about that. Here's proof of how this is the case. Look at Jeremiah five twenty five. I love this verse because it talks about the nature of sin and the nature of holiness. Jeremiah five twenty five.

Look what the prophet says. Your iniquities have turned these away. Now look at this. And your sins have kept good from you. Oh, you think that God is keeping good from you by telling you not to do this and not to go there.

If you believe that sin is good on any level, you have not entered into Christian maturity yet. If you believe that there's something about sin that is good, you've not reached the point where God wants you to reach and you will not know true victory continually over sin. But if you believe this, that what sin does is rob you of good and strip you of joy and disarm you and harm you, then you'll know something of greater victory. Jeremiah says, do you realize that your idolatry, all your false worship and your sexual orgies and your drunkenness and your parties and all these different things, do you realize that all you're doing is robbing yourself from good? These sins have kept good from you.

And what God does when he says to Ephraim or Israel at this point or any other Christian today, when he says, you want your sin so badly, you want your idol so badly, you want your way, go for it. He wants you to realize, I'm only robbing myself from good. I'm only keeping myself away from the pleasure that God wants me to truly know. Some Christians come to that conclusions and some, unfortunately unfortunately, in that state of discipline destroy themselves. It's not an automatic answer, but it is a means that God uses.

And that's what he's doing here. God says, I will not drive them out. And in the case of the Israelites, they wanted to keep the Canaanites as their neighbors. God would allow them, but without no consequence. Because what does he say?

I will not drive them out before you but they shall become thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare to you. That's the result of them choosing this this way of life. And this is important because we think that when God punishes anybody for their habitual sin, he does it this way, like sin is good and it's pleasurable and then God adds misery and God adds pain to try to teach you a lesson. That's how we think. It's like it's actually good.

It actually has something to offer us, but the misery and the pain that comes with it is only added by God as a way to show us that this is not what pleases him. Have you ever considered tonight that in the package of sin when you participate in it, it has enough poison on itself? God doesn't need to really add anything to it. He says, they shall become, future tense. Right now as the as the Canaanites are living among you, they're not thorns.

They're not snares to you, but they will become. You've planted the seeds, chapter one, and I'm telling you, if you stay this way and you don't dig it up and remove it, they will become thorns to you and they will become traps to you. So he's he's forewarning them, but notice he's informing them about the nature of sin. You cannot divorce the penalty of sin with the pleasure of sin. If you want the pleasure of sin, which is fleeting, you will inherit the penalty of sin.

And this is important to understand because God can discipline you directly, but as we're learning, oftentimes the pain from sin is from the sin itself. Because that's just a law. That's just the way it works. You can't cheat on somebody and it go well. And it's not because God is adding misery and God is adding guilt and God God is adding brokenness to the person that you harm.

It's just part of the package. And that's what he's saying. You want sin, you can inherit thorns and a snare. Have you ever had a thorn stuck in your flesh? Ever?

Have you ever stepped on a thorn? You ever got one in your finger? If you have, no matter how small it is, it's extremely annoying. Discomforting. And in fact, it can be so small, but it can bring your whole body into subjection to that pain.

It can make you so aware of it even though it's so tiny, it's just puncturing a part of your skin. It does not matter. That's the nature of sin. Big or small, if you let it stay there, it's gonna hurt. It's gonna harm.

It's gonna annoy you. It's gonna drive you crazy, especially if you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. And it's not gonna go away until you're aware of it and you choose to pluck it out of yourself by the power of God. Sin is a thorn. Sin is a thorn.

And you know what it is for most of us? We see it and we see the rosy part. Right? Isn't that beautiful? Look how harmless.

Look how precious oh, the fragrance and you grab it. And every time you hold on to sin, I guarantee you according to the authority of the word of God, you will inherit thorns always. And next thing he says is that their god shall be a snare to you. You know, when you step into a trap, maybe you have, maybe you haven't, when a creature steps into a trap, what does it do? It paralyzes them.

It keeps them in place. At one In one moment, they went from free to victim. They went from autonomous liberty to what? Being prey. And they are now stuck in one place.

Sin will paralyze you from the will of God. It will keep you from advancing. Anybody who knows what it's like to be in sin for a period of time knows that you feel like nothing moves forward in the things of God and it's true. It keeps you in place. And what's amazing about God telling the people that their god shall be a snare to you is that this would have been absurd to them at this point.

You know why? Look at Judges one verse 28. Look what they were thinking. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor but did not drive them out completely. So the Israelites thought they were strong and mighty.

They thought that they can control the Canaanites. They thought that they can tell the Canaanites what to do, when to do it, how long to do it for. They thought that they could manage the Canaanites. God has a different perspective on sin. He steps on the scene and he goes, because you've allowed the Canaanites to live, you're going to step into a trap.

And where you thought you were leading and you thought you were in power, the roles are going to flip soon enough. And what you thought you had management over is now gonna manage you. And now the Canaanites are gonna determine your way of life where you thought up to this point that you can determine how the Canaanites live in your life. Wrong. That is true for sin.

If you think that anger is not an issue, and you think you can control your anger, and you think that you can control your emotions, and you and and you know yourself to have outbursts when you react to something that is not according to your desires, and you don't bring it before God and think I got it, it's not an issue, you'll be surprised by how it will become a trap trap in your life. Greed, lust, pride, jealousy, envy, you name it. If you don't see it as an issue to bring before God to see deliverance in it, if you don't fight against it, if you think that you can bring it to forced labor, here's the word that God has for you. They will become a snare to you. That's just the nature of sin.

And so deceiving a sin that it will make you think that you have control over it. You hear it all the time. Oh brother, just one more time. Oh brother, that was the last time. I'll never do it again.

I've talked to enough addicts where they have told me almost every single one. You know what they tell me? I can break this off whenever I want. Have you heard it? I can stop whenever I want.

And they say it so confidently. Just like the Israelites who thought that they could take care of the Canaanites and they'll never let them take over. I can tell them what to do, when to do it. Do you realize that they're in subjection to us? That's how people talk about their sin.

And God says, you're fooling yourself. You're fooling yourself if you're thinking this way. If you don't bring immediate action to this, you'll be surprised by the trap that it will become in your life. Powerful exhortation. What's the response of the nation?

Let's continue in verse four. As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Baukim and they sacrificed there to the Lord, revival. Because weeping means revival. Right?

Because the evidence that a sermon has worked in your heart is that you shed tears and it was emotional and you were broken. Right? I mean this is a minister's dream for people to weep after a message and not only just weep but come to the altar and to sacrifice the Lord and saying, God, we worship you. Seems like an appropriate response. Seems like something to be desired.

Seems like God is satisfied with this response. Listen, weeping is a beautiful response to conviction if it's followed by sacrifice. But weeping has no value if it's followed by nothing. Because if you just weep and you cry, all that proves is that the conviction lasted as long as the tears were dripping. And we're gonna learn in Judges chapter two that weeping doesn't really mean much if it's not followed by action.

If this was a a room filled with ministers, I would say don't gauge the success of a message by people's emotional response. You grow out of that. You do grow out of that because you learn something. There's a lot of weepers that don't change. There are weepers who do change and it's a beautiful thing.

It shows a tenderness and a sensitivity to the things of God. I'm not against it. I'm not against emotions. God gave us emotions and people who are anti emotions, my question to you is where do your emotions go then? Is it okay to weep for the things of the world and to be excited about the things about in church?

No. It's the flesh. Oh, really? Oh, really? But I will say this, crying and snotting and weeping, whether after a conference or after a Bible study, means little to nothing if it's not followed by a plan of action.

I can tell you this. I've seen some people who have not wept at all, but are more repentant than those who can make the carpet wet with their tears. Don't feel guilty about weeping. Just make sure that you do something about it if God convicts you about a matter. They weep.

They weep and they sacrifice, and we think, sure enough, this is where judges should close, but it doesn't close there because you come down to verse 10 and we seek something that should make us weep. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, the ones that were under Joshua's leading, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. If, the Israel. If, the condition of the nation of Israel was like this, verse 10, if it was a graph, proves that it just went like this. This is the ultimate turning point in the book of Judges.

A This is the ultimate turning point in the book of Judges. A new generation rises up. The old ones who still prove to have some kind of sensitivity to the things of the spirit, weeping and sacrificing to the Lord in the state of their backslidden condition. Now we have a generation that rises up, that is gonna show us that their hearts are a little bit more hardened than their parents for two main reasons. They didn't have a historical understanding of God, and they didn't have a personal knowledge of God.

They did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And it's very difficult for this group to see the need to turn back to God when they themselves have not experienced God. And you think to yourself, well, whose fault is it for this generation to come to this kind of a place? I would like to ask you that tonight. And before you give an answer, consider the fact that the last thing that we were left with concerning the first generation is what?

That they wept and that they sacrificed the Lord. And then come down to verse 12. And what are we told about this new generation? And they, this new generation, abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers. So who abandoned them?

They abandoned them. Them. They abandoned God and his laws. So what case can we make? Was it the new generation or did the old generation have a part to play in it?

And if you're gonna say the old generation, I would say why. I would ask why. There is an extended truth to the fact that maybe there was a lack of teaching and a lack of discipleship. So maybe there's an absence of teaching and discipleship again, using scripture to prove that. And you are getting closer to the core of the reason why.

If you read on past the first part of verse 12, we'll get an answer, I believe. And they abandoned the lord, the god of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. Now look at this. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them. Do we see it?

What was the stumbling block to this new generation? The presence of the Canaanites that their prior generation did not remove. That was the stumbling block. So then now let's just backtrack and let's go back to the response to the convicting message of the angel of the Lord. And as soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words, verse four, to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept and they sacrificed the Lord.

But what did they not do? Remove the Canaanites. So how should it have read if it was true repentance? And they lifted up their voices and they wept and they sacrificed the Lord and they drove out the remaining of the Canaanites, but they didn't do that. What did they do?

What many people do in the house of God when they hear a convicting message? They respond with explosive emotional reaction and what? Partial obedience, not complete obedience. So they'll change something here and there. They'll add something.

They'll come to church more frequently. They'll read their Bible more, but they won't get to the root level of their sin. They won't drive it out. They won't pluck it out. They won't fast about it.

They won't pray about it. They won't go to war with it. They'll just think that God is pleased with their tears and some additional sacrifices here and there. And here's the issue with that, because they did not uproot the root, the root survived and the fruit came in the next generation. Serious.

This is serious. True repentance deals with deep rooted change by the power of God when we come into partnership with him. And they failed. They failed there. And because they failed there, the next generation will fail as well.

What would it have looked like for the next generation if those Canaanites were removed? You know what it proved to the next generation? This is what it proved. The first generation made it more difficult for the next generation. Why?

Because the next generation learned that God is not really worthy. God is not really worthy to be so sacrificial and radical. He's not truly worth obeying. And because of the presence of all these ungodly pagan worshipers, they now had hindrances in their lives to see God for who he truly was. There was mixed messages.

Mixed messages. And so now they had a choice and obviously they chose what the flesh desired. And again, it makes us think about what our current repentance and pursuit of holiness will do to those who will follow us. What messages are we telling the next generation? What is the standard of our spirituality teaching our younger brothers and sisters in Christ?

And so we move on from here and we read something very important between verses 14 down to verse 19. There is a rep Repetition of the cycles that we talked about, so we won't go over that again, but I want us to look at verse 12. This is just a side note, but we're told here at the end of verse 12, and they provoked the Lord to anger. They provoked the Lord to anger. Now here's another theological truth about who God is.

We see over and over in scripture concerning God and his response to things. When it comes to his anger, it's often told that he is provoked to it or that his wrath is kindled. Why is that important? Because God's anger, God's wrath is not what? His natural disposition.

You know what I mean by that? You don't have to fear on a random day of the week to approach God and to think that he is enraged or that he's filled with fury or that he's gonna lash out to you for no particular reason because it's not his natural disposition. It's provoked. It's stirred up within him because of what? His holiness and his justice.

What is his natural disposition? What are we told in first John four eight? That God is what? Love. God is love.

You know why that's important? You don't do anything to provoke his love. It's automatic. You don't do anything to to stir up his love toward you. His love is not the same as his anger.

Are we not told that in Deuteronomy seven seven to eight? What are we told when God describes his love for his people? If you've ever wanted to know the deep question, why does God love me? The answer is found in Deuteronomy seven seven to eight. You ready for this?

It's so profound. I love this answer. We're told, it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. You weren't impressive. There was nothing that drew you towards me.

But look at verse eight. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers. Did you see the answer? Lord, why do you love me? And here's the answer, because I love you.

But why? Because I love you. Why do you love the church? Because I love her. But why?

Because I love her. Why do you love sinners? What do they do to receive your love? I love them. Why?

Because I love them. You're not gonna find an answer to what provokes God's love to you because he is love. And that that's what he dispenses by nature. But his wrath, that's provoked by our disobedience and provoked by our sin. And you and I have no reason to fear to think that God will pour out his wrath upon us unless we've given him a reason to do so, because his wrath is not the same as his love.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. So we read between verses 19 fourteen and nineteen about the cycling. Right? It's it's setting up the stage. It's setting up the narrative, the thread that is common throughout the book of Judges.

But let's let's end here in verse 21 down to verse 23. Look what the Lord says at the end of this scene. I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died. So we've already covered that in the beginning of the chapter. I'm not gonna drive them out because you don't want them out, then keep them.

But look at the additional reason why. Verse 22. In order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not. So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. You know, you read this, and I and I was reading this and I thought to myself, Lord, wouldn't it have been easier if you would have just completely eradicated the Canaanites?

I mean, it's obvious that the presence of the Canaanites are the sole reason why they are in rebellion. And Lord, they're not capable, like little children, of comprehending what their actions are gonna lead them into. So Lord, can't you just step on the scene, perform a couple plagues here and there, and just finish the job once and for all? You're gonna heighten the potential of their obedience and their love towards you. Lord, why don't you just clean the mess up for them and let's just have a happier story because they are not having to deal with the temptations around them?

Because we're giving God advice. Right? And we might be thinking, Lord, if I'm saved, just take me to glory. Why do I have to deal with this flesh? Why do I have to deal with the temptations of this world?

If I'm sealed, if I'm if it's a done deal and you want me to love you perfectly and you want me to worship you perfectly, just rapture me now. A pre rapture to the rapture, just take me. Take me. Lord, why do I have to stay here? Why do I have to remain in this world?

Why do I have to remain with this flesh? Can you give me a little boost here and maybe give me a whole new body altogether so I can live this whole holiness thing out perfectly and show people that you're worthy to be praised, and and we want God to give us a way out. And God will give us a way out eventually. But here's God's wisdom. Here's God's answer for the presence of the Canaanites to remain when he could have just plucked them out.

I'm leaving them to see if I'm still worth it. I'm leaving them to test you to see if I'm still worthy. I'm leaving them to test you to see, will you be faithful to me even when everything else will call for your attention and your devotion and your affection? Is God playing games here? No.

It's something called free will, and it's something that God wants to see men exercise as a demonstration of their love for him even in the presence of wickedness, compromise, and depravity. In fact, do you remember Deuteronomy 13 when God gave warning after warning about different invitations to apostasy? And in Deuteronomy 13, he says if a false prophet comes up to you and he performs signs and wonders and he tells you even through his miraculous work, come, let us go and worship other gods. He says in verse three of Deuteronomy 13, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you. For what?

To know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Lord, you could've could've you could've put a barricade. You could've put a shield around the nation of Israel that no false prophet could ever enter enter or penetrate or deceive. Why? Why turn on the television and see so many people misrepresenting the name of God and deceiving masses?

Stadiums filled with false teachers and even those performing false signs. Why? Why not get rid of them? Because god is testing to see are you gonna honor the word, honor how he has revealed himself more than what's popular and what's pleasing to the flesh. We would all like to live in a little community, right, and be in some kind of a mountaintop that removes us from all the evil influences of this world and have a conference, not just one weekend, but every weekend and every all the time.

It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing to desire to be amongst the community of saints. But amongst the many reasons why God leaves his people, even saved people, especially saved people through this corrupt, twisted, perverse generation, yes to be salt, yes to be light, yes to proclaim the gospel, But don't forget this truth, to see that when everybody else wants to compromise and people are running after the desires of the flesh, what will you do? What will you do? I was thinking about this truth, and maybe it's not as revelatory or profound, but I was meditating this morning on this one simple truth as I was staring out my window just reading my Bible.

I only have one life. I I only have one life. I was telling a couple of the guys today, I don't believe I'm 29 years old. I feel like I'm 23 still. Like, if you were to ask me how do I feel inside, I would say, like, 22, 23.

And I hope that doesn't say something about my maturity. I'm just saying that's how I feel with energy. The same way I was at 23, I still feel that same energy and vigor and strength. I'm talking like I'm 60, but I'm just trying to make a point here. But I thought to myself I thought to myself, 29 years old?

Where did the time go? And I'm I I read the scriptures chronologically. I go from cover to cover, and and I revisit the books that I've read around the same time last year, perhaps, depending on the pace. And I'm thinking to myself, I've read through this and and I'm I'm thinking, Lord, I only have one life. There's no reset button.

I don't come back as another person. I only have one shot, one shot to love you in this world, one opportunity to bear fruit for your name, one chance to burn out for god's glory, one highlight reel to live for your name in a time of history where there's so much chaos and confusion. I just thought to myself, one shot, One opportunity. Lord, don't let me waste it. I wanna live for you.

I wanna live for you. I wanna make the most of this one life. I've read enough books by dead men to realize that you have only one shot to burn out for the glory of god, I don't wanna waste it. So, God, if my life is a test, not for salvation, thank God for the grace of God. But, Lord, if I have one opportunity to prove to the world that you're worthy to be loved and cherished and adored, Don't let me waste it.

And I'm not talking about sin being the waste. I'm talking about the weight that Hebrews 12 talks about. Go to Hebrews 12 verse one and two, and we'll close here. I love this verse. Hebrews twelve one to two.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, that's in Hebrews 11, Let us also here's an invitation. Let us also, like Abraham, like Jacob, like Sarah, like Rahab, like Gideon, like David. Let us also, like them, lay aside every weight. Now to us, that that doesn't mean much because we we interpret it this way. We skip every weight and we go to this part.

And let us lay aside sin which clings so closely. Right? Before he goes to sin, he talks about something else. It's called weight. That's not sin.

There's two things here that we should lay aside, weight and sin. Well, what's what's sin? We know it. First John tells us that it is a violation of the commands of God. Transgression of the law.

But what's weight? I argue weight is anything in your life that hinders you from running to the capacity and the ability that you can for God, and that doesn't have to be a sin. Think about the things that weigh you down, that keep you from sprinting and running further and faster for the things of God. Again, let me make this argument. Christian maturity looks at weight and sin.

Christian immaturity just looks at the sin and not the weight. That's the fundamental. That's the basic. That's that's level zero. Lay aside sin.

You can't be a Christian if you don't lay aside sin. So what's maturity? I see the sin, but I see the weight. And and I don't wanna be weighed down. I don't wanna I don't wanna miss out on territory and I don't wanna miss out on opportunities.

I don't wanna miss out on going further, not because of sin, but because of silliness and stupidity and projects that waste time and have no eternal value. Ever tempted? Not just with sin but with weight, let me remind you of this truth. One life. Not through two, not three, not 10, not '6, '1.

And you don't even know the expiration date. We would all live differently if God says eighty years, eighty five years, ninety years, sixty years. Oh, you know what we would do. Right? Gung ho for the wait until 55 if I have 60 and then the last five, no wait.

Right? God is so wise. No knowledge of the expiration date. One. What are you gonna do with it?

That's up to you. That's up to you. And God will leave you in a world filled with temptation and distraction to see what you're gonna do with it. To see him I'm saved? No.

Don't worry. You're Are are you Did you put your faith and trust in Christ? Good. Just want to wake you up a little bit. What are you gonna do with the inheritance that Christ has given you?

Think about it. Meditate on it. Your day feels a lot different when you think about it. Take it from me for my morning devotion. One shot.

One life. Let's pray. Before we pray, let's meditate on how rich the word of God is. Isn't it rich? Isn't it amazing?

In one verse, you could talk about the angel of the Lord and theology, and then in the same verse, you could talk about practical truths for holiness. It's amazing. Father, your word is amazing. We bless you, lord. We honor you, lord.

We pledge our allegiance to Christ. We kiss the sun tonight. Lord, with everything within us, lord, we have no fear of condemnation. We have no guilt, no shame. Lord, we see all the false messages, not just through false preachers, but celebrities and actors and politicians that try to give a message that is contrary to the word, and you test us with the presence of so much falsehood and presentation of pleasure to see, will you love me still?

Will you hold on to me still? God, we pray that in this place, we would hold on to you still and that we would prove to not just you, but this world, Lord, you're worthy to live this one life that we have completely for you. Lord, if there's anything that we wanna do tonight is to tell you that from our hearts, not just with tears, not just with the sacrifice of praise, but, Lord, deeply in our hearts with the roots that are there, maybe roots of habit, roots of friendships, roots of things that we should not be doing to uproot them by your power and your help. Lord, thank you for the truth that you are willing to drive out the Canaanites as long as they desire to drive out the Canaanites. You will meet us at our desires.

If our desires are not completely conformed to you, change our desires and meet us there. Lord, we just wanna worship you. Just give you everything within our hearts just to tell you that you are worthy. You're lovely. You're beautiful.

You're amazing. There's none like you. Receive our worship, Lord, from hearts that are ready to give up whatever you want us to give up and to give whatever you want us to give. We worship you in light of this study, oh god. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Listen. In freedom through the cross of Jesus Christ, just worship the lord tonight. Love the lord tonight. The world is confused and scared and Twittering and tweeting and Facebooking, trying to figure out answers, and they're not finding it.

Just you have truth. You have the gospel. Love the Lord tonight and thank him for it.