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You can turn with me in your 
Bibles to Judges chapter 2, the book of Judges chapter 2. Judges 2, I'll read beginning 
in verse 7, and I'll read to chapter 3, verse 6. So beginning 
in chapter 2 at verse 7. So the people served the Lord 
all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived 
Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, which 
he had done for Israel. Now Joshua, the son of Nun, the 
servant of the Lord, died when he was 110 years old, and they 
buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath-Heras, 
in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. 
When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, 
another generation arose after them, who did not know the Lord, 
nor the work which He had done for them. Then the children of 
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals. 
And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought 
them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods 
from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And 
they bowed down to them, and they provoked the Lord to anger. 
They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. And 
the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered 
them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them. And He sold 
them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they 
could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they 
went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, 
as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they 
were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised 
up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who 
plundered them. Yet they would not listen to their judges, but 
they played the harlot with other gods and bowed down to them. 
They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked 
in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so. 
And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the 
judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies 
all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity 
by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and 
harassed them. And it came to pass when the 
judge was dead that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than 
their fathers by following other gods, to serve them and bow down 
to them. They did not cease from their 
own doings nor from their stubborn way. then the anger of the Lord 
was hot against Israel. And he said, because this nation 
has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, 
and has not heeded my voice, I also will no longer drive out 
before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, 
so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep 
the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept 
them or not. Therefore, the Lord left those 
nations without driving them out immediately, nor did He deliver 
them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which 
the Lord left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, 
all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan. This was 
only so that the generations of the children of Israel might 
be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known 
it. Namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, 
the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from 
Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. And they were left 
that he might test Israel by them to know whether they would 
obey the commandments of the Lord, which he had commanded 
their fathers by the hand of Moses. Thus, the children of 
Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the 
Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And they took 
their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their 
sons, and they served their gods. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father in Heaven, we thank You for this Lord's Day. We thank 
You for the blessed privilege of gathering in the house of 
God to worship with the people of God and to rally around Your 
Word. We pray now that the Holy Spirit 
would guide and direct us and lead us into all truth. May we 
see this as a an example, an encouragement for us to go thou 
and not do likewise. Help us to be faithful as the 
church in this world and to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse 
generation and to hold forth that word of truth. Forgive us 
now for all of our sin and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Amen. Well, James, in James chapter 
1 and verse 27, he says that pure and undefiled religion in 
the sight of God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and 
widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the 
world. Well, the book of Judges serves 
as a wonderful illustration of not doing that. God saved these 
people, He called them out of the land of bondage, He gave 
them an inheritance in the land, He told them to dispossess the 
land of the Canaanites, and they were, according to Deuteronomy 
4, to mediate the blessings of Yahweh on the nations around 
them. But the book of Judges indicates 
that they did not keep themselves unspotted from the world, rather 
they became like the world. They increasingly became like 
the Canaanites that they were supposed to dispatch from the 
land. So it's a wonderful illustration 
for us. There's obviously differences 
in terms of God's direct covenant with the nation of Israel, the 
fact that they were a theocratic nation living in a land that 
had been promised to them, but there are certainly parallels 
for the life of the church in the midst of this present evil 
age. We're supposed to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. We're 
supposed to shine as lights in this crooked and perverse generation. The church in Laodicea, Christ 
threatens to spit them or vomit them out of his mouth because 
they were neither hot nor cold. They had no effect upon the society 
around them. So let's look at Judges chapter 
two. I wanna just first begin with 
just a bit of an introduction. I honestly hope that at the end 
of the sermon tonight, you'll read the book of Judges and you'll 
read it with some thoughts concerning what we're gonna bring out tonight. 
But chapters one and two are introductory in nature. Chapter 
one summarizes Israel's conquest of Canaan. Remember, Joshua was 
the man sent by God to function as the military leader, to go 
in, to lead the children of Israel into Canaan, to kill people, 
and to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. Joshua portrays 
a very favorable sort of description of the conquest. We get to the 
book of Judges, though, and we see that it's not as good as 
we might have expected. So chapter one basically rehearses 
or recounts the conquest up until this point. Notice the emphasis 
or the accent upon their failure. They were to dispossess the land 
of the Canaanites, and yet the author tells us over and over 
again that they didn't do that. Notice in chapter one, specifically 
at verse 19. So the Lord was with Judah and 
they drove out the mountaineers, but they could not drive out 
the inhabitants of the low land. Dropping down to verse 21, the 
children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited 
Jerusalem. Verse 27, however, Manasseh did 
not drive out the inhabitants of Bashshin and its villages. 
Notice in verse 28, we see the same sort of emphasis. It came 
to pass when Israel was strong, they put the Canaanites under 
tribute, but did not completely drive them out. Verse 29, nor 
did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gethsemane. Verse 
30, nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Ketron. Verse 
31, nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Akko. And then 
in verse 32, the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants 
of the land, for they did not drive them out. Verse 33, nor 
did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh. Verse 34, the 
Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain. So 
you see, the emphasis by God to the children of Israel was 
not followed through. So now you've got all these Canaanites 
living in the land. Israel is living in the midst 
of the land and they become spotted by the presence of the Canaanites. 
They weren't so holy as to affect positively the land for Yahweh. Rather, it was the negative impact 
of the people in the land that affected the children of Israel. 
And so chapter 2 then summarizes, verses 1 to 6, the conquest. Look at the end of verse 6. When 
Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went each 
to his own inheritance to possess the land. And then from 2.7 to 
3.6, this is a thematic overview of how the book is going to play 
out. In other words, chapter two tells us the pattern, the 
cycles that we'll obtain in Israel's history. In so far as they disobey 
God, God will raise up foreign oppressors to bring judgment 
to bear upon them. God in his mercy and grace will 
raise up deliverers, judges who will spare them. And the children 
of Israel will not follow along. They will find a temporary reprieve, 
but they'll go right back to the bales. They'll go right back 
to the asterisks. They'll go right back to their 
forsaking of the Lord. So that's the overview of chapters 
one and two. So in chapter two, beginning 
at verse seven, we'll notice the root of Israel's apostasy 
in verses seven to 10. Secondly, the description of 
Israel's apostasy in verses 11 to 15a. And then finally, the 
divine response to Israel's apostasy in 215b to 36. So you've got 
the root of their apostasy, the description of it, and then the 
divine response. And again, this is how the book 
follows from this vantage point. So each of the judges, each of 
the 12 men that are named as the saviors of Israel, they will 
see the same sort of thing happen in terms of their judgeship. 
Now notice the root. It is very simple, it is very 
obvious, and it comes to us very clearly in verse 10. This not knowing the Lord, it 
doesn't mean cognitively. They would have understood that 
they were Yahweh's chosen people. They would have understood that 
they had inherited this land based on the promises that God 
made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They knew this mentally, they 
knew this cognitively, they knew this in the mind, but they did 
not know it experientially. There's a similar account in 
1 Samuel 2 concerning the sons of Eli. They were priests of 
the living and true God. And they lay with temple prostitutes, 
and they stole sacrifices for their own use. Well, what was 
the root of their problem? They did not know the Lord, according 
to 1 Samuel 2. Now, they obviously knew who 
Yahweh was, they were priests of Yahweh, but they didn't know 
him experientially, they didn't know him experimentally, they 
didn't know him salvificly. You see the same emphasis in 
Romans chapter 1, when man refuses or rejects or turns away from 
the living and true God, he pursues and follows after all manner 
of ungodliness and unrighteousness. So after the death of Joshua, 
we see deterioration that obtains in the nation of Israel. Their 
past faithfulness is highlighted in verse seven. You've got the 
death of Joshua recorded in verses eight and nine, and then you 
have God's rejection of them in verse 10 because they did 
not know the Lord. Now, this goes back to them not 
obeying, not only in not dispossessing the land of the Canaanites, but 
not obeying the injunction, say for instance, of a Deuteronomy 
4, Deuteronomy chapter 6, that you are to teach your children 
when they rise up, when they walk by the way, when they lie 
down. They didn't have the conscious memory of the living and true 
God who had worked in their midst. And a couple of commentators 
hit upon this, and Daniel Bloch says, when people lose sight 
of God's grace, they lose sight of God and the sense of obligation 
to Him. All that follows in the book 
is a consequence of Israel's loss of memory. that they don't 
know the Lord is the vantage point from which all of the degeneration 
then follows. Dale Ralph Davis says, amnesia 
produces apostasy. That is why scripture is so frantic 
about the church, not forgetting what God has done for us. You need to be in your Bibles. 
You need to cultivate that walk with God. You need to be faithful 
and persevering. And you need to make sure that 
you don't fall prey to this simple cognition and yet without the 
experiential knowledge of the living and true God. So this 
was Israel's problem. This was the root of their apostasy. 
They didn't know the Lord and therefore they forsook him and 
they ran after other gods. Notice in the second place, the 
description of their apostasy. The author gives us the relationship 
that they bore with God. Over and over again, he highlights 
their special status as the children of God, the covenant people of 
God. Notice in the first place, his status as the God of the 
patriarchs. Verse 12, they forsook the Lord 
God of their fathers." Again, they should not have done this. 
The Lord Most High entered into covenant with them. He had blessed 
their fathers. He had brought them out of the 
land of Egypt. He had given them the tabernacle for worship. He 
had begraced them thoroughly, and yet they turned their back 
on Him. Notice that his role to them 
was as deliverer. The end of verse 10, another 
generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the 
work which he had done for Israel. The work which he had done for 
Israel is pinnacled in the redemption from Egypt. And then notice as 
well his establishment of a covenant. Look at verse 20. Verse 20, then 
the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he said, because 
this nation Don't miss this language. This evidence is God's anger 
that is hot toward them. He says it was hot against Israel 
and he said because this nation, he calls them the goy. That's 
a Hebrew word that typically refers to the Gentiles. It typically 
refers to the heathen. It typically refers to the outsiders. He is speaking this way because 
they are living like the heathen. They are living like the Goy. 
They have imbibed the very ethics of Canaan itself. So because 
this nation, not because my people, but because this nation has transgressed 
my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded 
my voice. So they have this special relationship 
that they bear with God, and yet they've engaged in apostasy. Notice secondly, under the description, 
their defection from God in verses 11 to 13. Verse 11a sort of functions 
as a topic sentence. We've seen that. In Ephesians 
1, for instance, Ephesians 1, 3, blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual 
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. General statement, 
and then the apostle fills it out with particular details. 
The Father chose us, Christ bled and rose for us, and the Spirit 
applies that redemptive work. Well, verse 11a functions in 
that same manner. Look at what the author tells 
us. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the 
Lord. That's the overarching statement. 
That's the general concern of the author. And now he'll provide 
for us specific details in what their apostasy or their defection 
looked like. Then the children of Israel did 
evil in the sight of the Lord. Notice, secondly, they served 
Baal. Verse 11b, they served the Baals. The Lord God had delivered them 
from Egypt. The Lord God had plagued the 
Egyptians, culminating in the death of the firstborn. The Lord 
God opened the waters of the Red Sea so that the children 
of Israel could walk through there without even getting wet. 
The Lord had done all this and yet they forsake him and now 
they turn to Baal. Why do you think they turn to 
Baal? Because their pagan heathen neighbors were Baal worshipers. 
And Baal was the god of storms, god of thunder, god of rain, 
god of fertility. And so they would see their neighbors 
bowing to Baal, calling upon Baal for rain, and if it happened 
to rain, guess what they would conclude? was Baal. So therefore, 
let us go to Baal. Yahweh has charge of the big 
stuff, but when it comes to things like rain, when it comes to things 
like crops, we'll go ahead and call upon Baal. We'll let go 
and let Baal. In fact, you need to understand 
something about Baal, and Davis explains it very well. Not sure 
that we get the connection between Baal and Ashtoreth, for instance. Now, some of this language might 
offend, but I'm sorry, it does depict what was offensive about 
this irreligion. That's the thing. We in the church, 
we get offended by the use of particular language, but we don't 
get offended by the fact that it's describing particular activities, 
right? He says, in Canaanite theology 
and agriculture, the fertility of the land depended upon the 
sexual relationship between Baal and his consort. The revival 
of nature was due to sexual intercourse between Baal and his partner. 
But the Canaanite faithful didn't simply sit back and say, let 
Baal do it. There was no let go and let Baal 
thinking among them. Instead, their watchword was, 
serve Baal with gladness, all ye lands. Hence, the Canaanites 
practiced sacred prostitution as a part of their worship. A 
Canaanite man, for instance, would go to a Baal shrine and 
have relations with one of the sacred prostitutes serving there. 
The man would fulfill Baal's role and the woman Ashtoreth's. 
The idea was that the copulating of the worshiper and the prostitute 
would encourage the divine couple. Mr. and Mrs. Baal would do their 
thing and thus rain, grain, wine, and oil would flow again. So 
when you read about them forsaking Yahweh and going after Baal, 
understand that there was something to that. Now it's sin, it's demonic, 
it's wicked, it's evil, and it's vile, but what would you prefer? The religion of Yahweh that says 
you had no sight, you had no vision, rather it's word-based, 
the word comes to you, you're supposed to not go after prostitutes, 
you're supposed to keep yourself undefiled, you're supposed to 
engage in the boundaries that God has established, or if you're 
an unconverted wretch, you could see the allure that Baal worship 
would have. So there was this perennial problem 
in Israel's history with reference to Baalism. So then notice they 
served Baals and then verse 12, they forsook the Lord God of 
their fathers. That necessarily follows. You 
forsake God when you go after an idol. You don't have God and 
the idol. This is likely the emphasis of 
Elijah at Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18. You can turn there, 1 Kings 
chapter 18. Remember that challenge where 
the prophet of God, dubbed as the Troubler of Israel by Ahab. 
No, Ahab was the Troubler of Israel, not Elijah. But Elijah 
proposes a contest, a God contest. Whoever's God reigns supreme, 
that's the God we submit to. But notice in chapter 18 at verse 
20, so Ahab sent for all the children of Israel and gathered 
the prophets together on Mount Carmel. And Elijah came to all 
the people and said, how long will you falter between two opinions? 
If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him. Most 
likely, it wasn't the case that they said, we absolutely positively 
repudiate Yahweh. We only want Baal. They were 
trying to engage in what's called syncretism. A bit of God here, 
a bit of this God. Whatever God helps us to cope, 
whatever God helps us to manage, whatever God helps us to get 
up out of bed each day, whatever God blesses us in work, whatever 
God blesses us in rain, whatever God is there, that's the God 
to whom we will submit. And Elijah says, no, you cannot 
do that. You don't serve Yahweh and Baal. 
It is one or the other. There's an exclusivity about 
this arrangement. And going back to Judges chapter 
two, they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who had brought 
them out of the land of Egypt. And they followed other gods 
from among the gods of the people who were all around them. And 
they bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger. That 
brings us then to what we find in terms of their rejection by 
the living and true God. You need to understand, brethren, 
this isn't mysterious. We don't get to the book of Judges 
and say, wow, I cannot believe that God is going to cut them 
off. I cannot believe that God is chastening them. I cannot 
believe that God is going to actually judge them for their 
sin. Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 
28. Those are covenant documents. 
They promise blessing for obedience and they promise curses for disobedience. So they knew all too well the 
terms of the covenant. They knew all too well the obligation. 
In fact, at the base of Sinai in Exodus 24, they say, everything 
that Yahweh has commanded, we will do, we will obey, we will 
comply. They got way ahead of themselves, 
brethren. They had no understanding what 
the hymn writer would say. I'm prone to wander, prone to 
leave the God that I love. They had no consciousness of 
the holiness of God, no consciousness of the depravity of their own 
heart. And so with reference to God's rejection of them, that 
was stipulated by the covenant arrangement. So again, verse 
13, they forsook the Lord, served Baal and the Asherahs, and the 
anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. He delivered them into 
the hands of plunderers who despoiled them. He sold them into the hands 
of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand 
before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand 
of the Lord was against them for calamity. As the Lord had 
said, See, they couldn't say, oh, no, this isn't fair. We didn't 
know. We were under the impression 
that we could have a bit of Yahweh, we could have a bit of Baal, 
and a bit of Ashtoreth. We thought Moloch was just another 
god in the sort of pantheon that we could bow down to. No, as 
God had said, as God had commanded, as God had stipulated, as God 
had declared. So everything that comes their 
way in terms of chastisement and judgment is stuff that they 
brought willingly upon themselves. And again, brethren, we're not 
in covenant with God the way the old covenant people are, 
in terms of a national identity, in terms of a theocratic construct. That's not true of us, but the 
church, in the covenant of grace, we're not in it in order to try 
and earn our salvation. We've been placed there by the 
goodness of our God. Justification is an act of God's 
free grace wherein He pardons all our sins and accepts us as 
righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ 
imputed to us and received by faith alone. We're justified 
freely by His grace. But as justified freely by His 
grace people, we're to let our conduct be worthy of the gospel. 
That's why in Revelation chapter 3, the Lord Christ indicts the 
Laodiceans. Because you're neither hot nor 
cold, I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth. You're not living 
up to the standard that you're supposed to be. Again, not unto 
or for salvation, but as one who confesses the name of Jesus 
Christ. The good works that we manifest 
are fruits. They're lively evidences of a 
true and living faith. They're not what completes the 
faith, they're not what makes the faith, they're not what secures 
us in terms of redemption, but our conduct must be the way that 
God calls us to be. So notice, we have the anger 
of the Lord, and this was promised in the second commandment. What 
does God say? If you go out and you go a-whoring 
from him, and you seek out other gods, God has anger. And we see 
that in a sort of parallel with reference to marriage. If a woman 
goes out and commits adultery, the man doesn't say, well, you 
know, that's just the way the cookie crumbles. No, he's incensed. He's angry. There's a jealousy, 
which is the flip side of true love. If you don't love, then 
there's not going to be any jealousy. And so Yahweh loves his people 
and demands exclusivity, so when they go whoring from him, Yes, 
he's angry. Yes, he expresses that justice 
and that righteousness. Yes, he shows his disfavor to 
them in terms of the repercussions involved of sinning against him. 
So the Lord is angry, but then notice that the Lord delivers 
them to oppressors. Verse 14b. And again, this specifies 
how the book of Judges proceeds. So 14b, he sold them into the 
hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer 
stand before their enemies. Now, two thoughts there. The 
first is that the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, if God is for 
us, who can be against us? There's a flip side to that as 
well. If God is against us, who can be for us? But the other 
thing we ought to observe is that God delivered them up to 
the oppressors. This wasn't an unlucky eventuality. This wasn't, wow, the Midianites, 
they've really gotten stronger, or the Philistines, they've really 
rallied together and have shown superior strength. They're under 
the sovereign providence of God Most High. which I think we can 
lift from that, put it into our current context and realize that 
what's happening globally in terms of this war against farmers, 
which why are we having a war against farmers? That is a war 
against mankind. This is under God's providence. God is sovereign in the midst 
of this. It's not as if he's on vacation 
now and the train is just sort of running down the tracks and 
all the whack jobs happen to be in high places. They're God's 
whack jobs. He put them there. He governs 
them. He owns them. And they are accomplishing 
his will. That's a tough pill for us to 
swallow, brethren, when we look out about us and we see the kinds 
of things that are going on. Makes a man want to wave up his 
hands and say, I don't know what's going to happen. God does. God 
is teaching. God is using these things for 
His glory, for the good of His church, and for the salvation 
of others. Sometimes, brethren, the church 
grows best when she's under tribulation. The church progresses more when 
she's under oppression. The church shines brighter when 
all the world around her is raising arms against her. And so God 
did this. It wasn't unlucky. It wasn't, 
wow, that's just a bad situation that we're facing. Or it wasn't 
the fact that the heathens got militarily stronger. God did 
this. God punished them, God chastised 
them, God delivered them. So the Lord summarized in 15a, 
wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them 
for calamity, as the Lord had said. So this is the result, 
this is the fruit, this is the effect of a people that reject 
God and go a whoring after other gods. Now notice, thirdly, the 
divine response to Israel's apostasy. Look at, first of all, their 
distress. This shouldn't surprise us. The 
end of verse 15, it says, and they were greatly distressed. Of course they were. Why would 
they be? Or why wouldn't they be? They're 
going out to war against these various nations, and they keep 
losing. They're going out against these 
various nations, and instead of dispossessing them from the 
land, they end up dwelling amongst them. And instead then of shining 
as lights in a crooked and perverse generation, holding forth the 
word of truth, they now have become like those same Canaanites 
that are going to Baal worship services, that are going to Ashtoreth 
worship services, that are engaging in that rite of prostitution 
so that they can invoke Baal to reign upon their crops. So 
God brings judgment to bear upon them. Of course they're going 
to be distressed. But notice what doesn't happen. The distress doesn't produce 
repentance. This is something that people 
have seen in the book of Judges. There's a series of cycles. There's 
12 Judges, and there's cycles. There's sin, oppression, most 
of the time people say repentance, and then deliverance. There's 
no repentance here, brethren. The accent falls in the book 
ultimately on the goodness of God. See, the book of Judges 
really is about salvation is of the Lord. These 12 men that 
functioned as judges were saviors of Israel, not because Israel 
deserved them, not because Israel was repentant, not because Israel 
said, we have sinned against our holy God, we repent in sackcloth 
and ashes. No, the distress is not there 
because they've sinned, The distress is not there because they forsook 
Yahweh and sought after Baal and Ashtoreth. The distress is 
there because it hurts. The distress is there because 
there's pain. The distress is there because 
they're being bested on the battlefield by these heathen and pagan. Turn 
back to the book of Exodus for just a moment to see a similar 
construction. Exodus chapter 2. We know that the people of 
God were oppressed under Egyptian oppression. Pharaoh was a wretch. He had a policy of extermination. 
Let's get rid of the male children. Let's destroy them. We don't 
want them to have an army that's strong enough to beat us. Notice 
in Exodus chapter 20, I'm sorry, Exodus chapter 2 at verse 23. 
Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt 
died. Then the children of Israel groaned. Why did they groan? Because they had sinned against 
God? They find themselves in this place of judgment because 
of their offense against God? No! They groaned because of their 
bondage, and they cried out. And their cry came up to God 
because of the bondage. We have to see and appreciate, 
we'll see this as we move through Judges 2, God's deliverance comes 
and it's not predicated on their repentance. It's not because 
they're sorry, it's not because they're sad, it's not because 
they feel bad for having hurt Yahweh, but it's because they've 
been hurt. They're in a state of sin, they're 
in a state of misery, they're in a state of bondage, and it's 
that which evokes their cry. So when you continue on in Exodus 
chapter 2, notice, It says in verse 24, so God heard their 
groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, 
and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children 
of Israel and God acknowledged them. So notice, he doesn't say 
he looked upon or heard their groaning, knew it was because 
they were repentant and they wanted to pursue holiness, so 
therefore he blessed them. No, it was covenant. It was that 
promise that he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was that 
promise that he bound himself to in terms of blessing these 
people, even irrespective of their condition, even irrespective 
of their repentance, even irrespective of their sin against him. You 
move through the book of Exodus, you see the same sort of thing. 
But back to Judges chapter 2. Verse 16 gives us a nevertheless. This is akin to Ephesians 2.4. After Paul illustrates, demonstrates, 
highlights, and describes what man and sin looks like in Ephesians 
2.1-3, he then comes on the heels of that and says, but God. Right? It's not that man with 
a little education can pick himself up out of that morass. Man with 
a little bit more knowledge can fix his condition. But God, nevertheless, 
look at verse 16. This is amazing grace, how sweet 
the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but 
now I'm found and was blind, but now I see. There's no reason 
for the nevertheless here, except for the grace of Almighty God. Nevertheless, they are distressed 
according to verse 15b, but they are then delivered by God according 
to verse 16. Nevertheless, the Lord raised 
up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who 
plundered them. So you've got Othniel, Ehud, 
Shamgar, Bereth, Gideon, Tola, Jer, Jephthah, Ibsen, Elon, Abdon, 
and Samson. Those are the men that the author 
is noting here. So the Lord raised up judges 
who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Now notice, do you think that 
fixed their problem? Do you think that helped them? 
Do you think that God's amazing grace meeting them in their distress 
would cause them to respond with the gratitude that was fitting 
and appropriate? No, they degenerate even further. See, Judges, again, 
is a snapshot of what happens to people who don't do what James 
tells us to do. Keep oneself unspotted from the 
world. Don't be like the pagans. Don't 
be like the heathens. You see, and again, when you 
look at Judges or Joshua, and you hear of God telling the children 
of Israel to go in and dispossess the land of the Canaanites, that's 
not because he's a bloodthirsty God who's got vengeance in his 
divine veins, and all he wants to do is crush his opponents. 
No, God the Lord made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
that he would give them the land. He tells them that they are to 
dispossess the land of the Canaanites because they're awful people. 
They're wicked people. This idea that the Canaanites 
were just minding their own business and living in society and doing 
their thing, they were wretches. They were vile. They were horrific. They were bad, bad people. So God tells Israel, I want you 
to go in, not because you're more righteous or more numerous, 
but because I've set my love on you. I want you to go in and 
I want you to dispossess the land of the Canaanites. Why? 
Because I gave it to Abraham in terms of promise. But as well, 
these wretches that are abusing the land, they need to be sent 
out. Now, lo and behold, as Israel increasingly becomes like the 
Canaanites, what does God do with them? God sends them out 
of the land too. It's not capriciousness. It's 
not arbitrariness. It's not that God has some axe 
to grind against the Hivites or against the Amorites. They, 
you know, they just, they really get under his skin. No, it's 
about justice. It's about righteousness. It's 
about obedience. It's about transgression. And 
so the none too righteous Israelites are called by God to go in and 
dispossess, dispossess the land of the Canaanites who are even 
less righteous. But when the Israelites become 
the Canaanites, then they too will be dispossessed from the 
land. And that's why Jesus uses the language in Revelation 3. 
Old covenant religion, the land was central to Israel's promise 
from God. And so when the land vomited 
out its inhabitants, it was a mark of judgment. It was a demonstration 
of God's righteousness. Well, so with the church in Laodicea. Jesus isn't trying to shock you 
by saying, I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth. Oh, horror 
of horrors. He is picking up on that theme 
from the land motif in Old Covenant Israel. The way that Old Covenant 
Israel, or the land rather, vomited out Old Covenant Israel when 
they sinned against God. So will Jesus vomit out those 
neither hot nor cold Laodiceans. I wanted to throw a TH in there. Maybe the King James jumped in 
my head, but they don't even put a TH in Laodicea. So the 
bottom line is, is that God raises up these deliverers, but then 
the people would degenerate. Look at verses 17 to 19. They 
would rebel, yet they would not listen to their judges, but they 
played the harlot with other gods. They bowed down to them. 
They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked 
in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so. 
Notice again the emphasis on the raising up of the judges, 
verse 18. And when the Lord raised up judges 
for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out 
of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. Now 
don't miss that, brethren. Not only does God raise up the 
judge, but God blesses the judge. Look at what the text says. And 
when the Lord raised up judges for them, verse 18, the Lord 
was with the judge. You're going to read as you move 
through judges, some unsavory things done by some of the judges. And you may be tempted to conclude, 
wow, those were wretches. Now God's not condoning their 
sin, I'm not suggesting that he is, but they are God's wretches. They are God's tools, they are 
God's saviors, and God is with them. I mentioned Samson last 
Sunday morning as he's there with the jawbone of an ass slaying 
Philistine after Philistine after Philistine after Philistine. 
Again, five would put me into a coma because I'd be so tired. But a thousand? How does Samson 
do that? Because Yahweh is with him. God is with him. When Samson 
goes to that harlot in Gaza, the text is not suggesting he 
lay with her. He's engaged in military strategy. When Samson ends his own life, 
not suicide, but he takes himself out in order to take out a whole 
host of Philistines, God is with him. So the unsavory things that 
are done by the judges, brethren, there is unsavoriness in every 
man. Any political leader, there's 
no perfect man, save Jesus Christ the Lord. Sometimes Christians 
get all bound up, well, we can't vote for him because he's bad. I've got news for you, brethren. 
We're all bad. Every last one of us. There is 
no good in us. But God, in his mercy, raises 
up Cyrus, king of Persia, and calls him his Christ. God raises 
up Nebuchadnezzar and calls him my servant. Those men were wretches 
too. So we don't say, well, you know, 
I can't believe. God takes crooked things and 
he does straight things with them. And so when you move through 
the book of Judges and you see unsavory things, just watch your 
heart before you get all judgmental about, say for instance, Samson 
or Gideon. God told Gideon how he was to 
operate. And Gideon, you know, wavering 
a bit, says, well, Lord, can you give me a sign? So he puts 
out the fleece, we know the story. And then he asks again. If I 
was God, I'd say, I've already, one, told you that that should 
be enough, but two, I've given you a sign, and now you're asking 
for another sign? But God doesn't respond that 
way. You know what God does? He gives them another sign. So 
you see, we need to be careful to be too judgmental about the 
saviors that God raised up in old covenant history to deliver 
his people from their oppressors. So God is with them. And then 
notice, the Lord was merciful to them, 18C. For the Lord was 
moved to pity by their groaning. because of those, excuse me, 
who oppressed them and harassed them. And then on the heels of 
that, verse 19 comes to tell us, this wasn't remedial. This 
didn't fix them. This didn't solve their problems 
in terms of ethics. Notice in verse 19, and it came 
to pass when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved 
more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve 
them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their 
own doings nor from their stubborn way. Sinful man really doesn't 
learn his lesson, does he? Probably his parents had one 
child among the flock that was like that. You know, the school 
of hard knocks mostly teaches people. Some people don't even 
learn it when they're in the school of hard knocks. Sinners 
are kind of like that. God gives them a judge to deliver 
them. The judge does deliver them. 
Vis-a-vis Samson killing Philistines like it was his job. And so God 
blesses in that regard and instead of them saying, what a gift from 
Yahweh. Praise God from whom all Samson's come. No, they just 
revert and they do more corruption and more wickedness and more 
evil. We need to make sure we understand 
what is in our hearts. We are prone to wander and prone 
to leave the God that we love. And then the passage ends with 
divine speech in verses 20 to 23. Again, the anger of the Lord 
is highlighted. And the anger of the Lord was 
hot against Israel. And he said, because this nation, 
the goy, the heathen has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded 
their fathers and has not heeded my voice. Notice what he goes 
on to say, the response, "...I also will no longer drive out 
before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died." 
In other words, you're going to continue to have these hindrances, 
you're going to continue to have these heartaches, you're going 
to continue to reap what you have sown. In a moral universe, 
brethren, when God tells you not to do something and you do 
it, there's typically chastening. Our brother read Hebrews 12 this 
morning. God chastens his people. And interestingly, in that Revelation 
passage, in Revelation chapter 3, probably the most severe of 
all the letters, in fact, you can turn there, Revelation chapter 
3, the letter to the Laodiceans. Probably good to get that in 
front of us to see how we ought to reflect on what God does. So the indictment, verse 16, 
so then because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, now 
the typical understanding is you're either a flat-out atheist 
or you're an on-fire Christian. No, the cold and the hot refers 
to water. You're not like refreshing cool water that's a blessing 
to people around you, and you're not like medicinal hot water 
that is a help for the people around you. You're just lukewarm, 
right? None of us like lukewarm, either 
like hot coffee or ice water. We like something hot or cold. 
It's not condemning cold that you're not cold. I'd rather you 
be a flat-out atheist than what you are. That's not the text, 
brethren. You're not hot, you're not cold. Basically, you're ineffective. 
You're lukewarm. You're just yuck. Just, yuck, 
bad, not good at all. So that's the indictment. And 
then notice, well, verse 16. I counsel you to buy from me 
gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, 
that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may 
not be revealed. And anoint your eyes with eye 
salve, that you may see. Now notice this passage in verse 
19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chase it. Therefore be zealous 
and repent. Same accent in Hebrews chapter 
12. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens. He loved Israel. He entered into 
a covenant with them. He's not forsaking them, but 
he is chastening them. He is disciplining them. He is 
judging them. He is conforming them to the 
standard they are to imbibe. So going back to the book of 
Judges, this is his response. I also will no longer drive out 
before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. 
Verse 22 in chapter two, so that through them I may test Israel, 
whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as 
their fathers kept them or not. This test wasn't for God. God 
knew exactly, always knows exactly what's going to happen. The test 
was for them. When God comes to Adam and Eve 
in the garden, who told you? God's not asking the question 
because he needs information. He's doing it to exacerbate, 
to highlight, to demonstrate, and to show them their falling. So the emphasis on testing. God's 
not saying, you're not gonna let all these pagans come around 
and just destroy you. And if you survive, if you make 
it, then you'll gain the prize. No, the test is for Israel. They need to understand what 
they were made of. They needed to understand who 
their God was. And then verse 23, therefore 
the Lord left those nations without driving them out immediately, 
nor did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua. I think the 
reference goes back and it will go forward. There's not going 
to be a complete vindication of the children of Israel in 
the land. And then there's a summary statement in chapter three, verses 
one to six. Notice verse one, now these are 
the nations which the Lord left that he might test Israel by 
them. That is all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan. 
This was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might 
be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known 
it. That doesn't mean military strategies. It doesn't mean how 
to use an M4 grenade launcher. It doesn't mean you've got to 
be able to operate an M60 machine gun. No, they needed to learn 
that in war, God delivered the children of Israel. They needed 
to learn that in war, their dependents came, not in horses or in chariots, 
but in the name of God Most High. That's what he means by they 
had to know or learn war. It's not vindictiveness on the 
part of Yahweh, but it is to demonstrate and underscore for 
them their God. The victory that they had amassed 
up until this point was from God. Read the book of Joshua 
and you'll see the emphasis is not on the savvy of the children 
of Israel. Move a few chapters to the right 
in the book of Judges. What does God say to Gideon? 
I want you to whittle down your forces. I want you to have 300 
men. And with those 300 men, you're 
going to go in and you're going to decimate the Midianites. Why 
does God do that? God could have done it with zero 
men, but God does it to show that he doesn't depend on numbers. 
He doesn't need bazookas. He doesn't need F-16s. He doesn't 
need B-2s. Rather, he is the living and 
the true God. And so the children of Israel 
would need to learn that in this phase or in this stage of their 
existence. And then the nations are listed, 
the Philistines in the Southwest, Sidonians in the Northwest, the 
Hivites in the Northeast, the Canaanites in the Southeast. 
Those peoples, incidentally, that shouldn't have ever been 
there. See, it ultimately hinges on their disobedience in the 
first eventuality. Remember Deuteronomy chapter 
7? In fact, you can turn there because this is how this chapter 
ends. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 7. 
Deuteronomy 7. The admonition, the exhortation, 
the command for holy war. Chapter seven, verse one. When 
the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to 
possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites 
and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites 
and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier 
than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, 
you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. Why are all these 
pagans still around? Because they failed to obey God. 1 Samuel chapter 15, Samuel, 
under God, tells Saul to kill Agag and the Amalekites. He goes 
to battle against them and he spares Agag and he spares the 
spoil. That wasn't part of the arrangement. 
You're supposed to destroy even the spoil. There's been no livestock. So of course, Saul's trying to 
fake Samuel. I've done exactly what God said. So Samuel says, why am I hearing 
these cows? Why am I hearing these donkeys? 
Why am I hearing these animals? If you had done exactly as you 
were told, it would be silent right now. So the fact that we 
get to the book of Judges and there's all these ites still 
in the land shows us that the fundamental misstep was their 
failure to carry out the demand of God in terms of holy war. 
Now notice in verse continuing on it says you shall make no 
covenant or verse 2 And when the Lord God delivers them over 
to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You 
shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall 
you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter 
to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they 
will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. 
So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy 
you suddenly. But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy 
their altars, break down their sacred pillars, cut down their 
wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire. Jump 
over to Judges chapter 3 and look at how this section ends. 
Verse 5 tells us, Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, 
the Hivites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and 
the Jebusites. They weren't supposed to dwell among them. They were 
supposed to dispossess them. Now notice what verse 6 tells 
us, And they took their daughters to be their wives. I'm sorry, 
didn't God say not to do that in Deuteronomy chapter 7? They 
gave their daughters to their sons. Again, a stipulation in 
terms of the mandate concerning holy war, and then look how it 
ends. And they serve their gods. Isn't that incredible? You do 
exactly the opposite of what God commands, and life doesn't 
go well. Solomon says the way of the transgressor 
is hard. And I think we can all testify 
to that, can't we? When I did what God called me 
to do, I didn't get, you know, billions of dollars and gold 
bars. But, you know, for the most part, life is decent. Life 
is good. But when I disobey, when I pursue 
sin, when I go a-whoring from God, when I, you know, spend 
countless hours on the internet searching for images that I should 
have no business looking at, when I engage in that kind of 
conduct that is contrary to the law and word of God, there is 
a hardness about the lives that we live. Now, in conclusion, 
just to recapitulate, the root of their apostasy, they didn't 
know God. When you don't know God, you live like a person who 
doesn't know God. And then the description of their 
apostasy, we could summarize it by they forsook God. And then in terms of apostasy 
itself, that means a defection, a falling away from, a turning 
away from. The text points at or portrays 
it as a forsaking of God, a turning to Baal and to Asherah. So here's 
the point for which I introduced the sermon tonight. Pure and 
undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this. 
Visit orphans and widows in their trouble. Keep oneself unspotted 
from the world. That's the calling of the Christian 
and the church in this present evil generation. That was the 
calling of the Israelite generation as well. Deuteronomy 4 tells 
us they were to be a city set on a hill. They were to radiate 
the blessedness of God most high. They were to be on display so 
that the nations around them would look at them and say, what 
kind of a nation is this that has such glorious laws, that 
has such a wonderful way about that? They would be led to their 
God. So instead of doing that, instead of shining as lights 
in a crooked and perverse generation, they rather didn't shine. They 
rather ate the generation or rather the heathen around them. 
They became like what they were told to dispossess. Davis makes 
this observation. He says, what began as toleration 
became apostasy. There's a warning here for the 
church today. We tolerate something here, it 
becomes something huge here. We tolerate a little bit, and 
apostasy is the end game. We're not supposed to tolerate 
sin. We're not supposed to tolerate 
abortion. We're not supposed to tolerate 
euthanasia. We're not supposed to tolerate 
sexual perversion. We're not supposed to tolerate 
theft. whether it's by individuals or by government. We're not supposed 
to tolerate that which God condemns. We're supposed to shine as light 
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. We're supposed 
to have the courage and the gravitas to hold forth the word of truth. 
We're supposed to avoid the Laodicean error wherein they were lukewarm. They were just yuck. They were 
something worthy to be spat from the mouth of our blessed and 
holy Christ. Back to Davis, what began as 
toleration became apostasy. What seemed so reasonable proved 
lethal. Living with Canaanites led to 
worshiping with Canaanites. Tolerate Baal's people and sooner 
or later you bow at Baal's altar. That's why we emphasize why the 
Bible does, why the confession of faith does, why you'll hear 
sermons in this vein as well. As believers, you marry in the 
Lord. I know we think we're the greatest 
missionaries ever and can marry a heathen or a pagan and see 
them converted. Now in God's grace, God's mercy, 
God's kindness, that does happen. But the admonition is, is that 
we're to marry in the Lord. Davis goes on later to say, they 
do not and apparently cannot keep themselves from the slavery 
of sin. They're held in sin's grip. They 
have Baal in their blood. Again, it began with a bit of 
toleration. Well, you know, it's a pluralistic 
society. That's just the way they are. That's just the way 
they do things. It won't hurt me to go to a Baal 
service. What happened when you went to a Baal service? It was 
fun. Guess what we got to do? It was 
wonderful. Baal was worshipped from the 
waist down. You can see the allure. You can 
see the attraction. You can see the passing pleasures 
of sin involved. Another commentator says, peaceful 
coexistence with the world leads to cohabitation and alliance 
with the world, which in turn leads to taking on the religious 
notions of the world. This is the rule. Occasions when 
the influence is in the reverse direction are the exception. He's right, it's the exception 
that our holiness affects positively the people around us. It is more 
typical for the unholiness of those we surround ourselves with 
to affect us adversely. Now, again, there's exceptions. 
You're holy, you're wonderful. You can go out and just spread 
abroad the goodness of God. Great, rest of us, we got issues, 
so we need to try and keep ourselves unspotted from the world. An 
older commentator made this observation. Our high calling is to be in 
the world, not of the world. It is not our being in the world 
that ruins us, but our suffering the world to be in us. Just as ships sink, not by being 
in water, but by the water getting into them. You don't sink because 
you're in the water, you sink because the water gets into you. The apostasy of Israel, as we 
review Judges 2, is obvious. You forsake Yahweh, you seek 
after the Baals and the Ashtoreths, it's not going to go good. Secondly, 
we need to praise God for His amazing grace. The nevertheless 
of verse 16. The people are distressed again, 
not repentant. They're just upset that things 
aren't going well. So nevertheless, God raises up 
judges for that. So the old acronym that is S.W.O.R.D., 
sin, oppression, repentance, and deliverance, ought to be 
modified as S.A.W.D. Sin, oppression, and deliverance. That underscores the gracious 
character of God Most High. And then thirdly and finally, 
one particular example of how the book is about the salvation 
or salvation is of the Lord. These 12 men, these 12 judges 
were saviors. They weren't like the judge that 
you see that sits behind the bench and they have the gavel 
and they, you know, hear a court case about, you know, a property 
dispute or even a murder or something like that. The judges of Israel 
at this particular time, these 12 men, they were like kings. They weren't kings, that wasn't 
in play at this particular time, but they were king-like figures. 
They had rule over the nation, they were the ones that led in 
terms of the battles and destroyed the foreign oppressors and that 
sort of thing. The one that I want to point 
us to as a type of our blessed Savior is Samson. If you know 
me enough, you'll know that that's not a surprise. Samson's one 
of my favorite people in the entirety of the Bible. Turn over 
to Judges 13. I want you to think of a couple 
of parallels between Samson and Jesus. Judges 13. It gives us two things 
that Matthew 1 gives us about Jesus. First, it underscores 
the supernatural character of his birth. Jesus was born of 
a virgin. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary. She didn't have the sort of relations 
that typically people have in order to have children. Well, 
Samson was a same sort of a fellow. Notice in chapter 13 at verse 
2. Now there was a certain man from 
Zorah of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah, and his 
wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared 
to the woman and said to her, indeed now you are barren and 
have born no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. That sounds exactly like the 
birth narrative of our Lord in Matthew chapter one. the angel 
comes and announces to Joseph that the woman you didn't have 
relations with is going to have a baby. The woman that you did 
not copulate with is going to be pregnant and she is going 
to bring forth a son. Now, Mrs. Manoah, she's never 
named in the narrative. She's got more fidelity in her 
than Manoah does because Mrs. Manoah just submits and honors 
and fears and listens to the angel of the Lord. So there's 
that supernatural birth of both Samson and the Savior. But notice 
as well the function or the mission. Verse 5, for behold, you shall 
conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head. 
For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall 
begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. 
Matthew 121, you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who 
will save his people from their sins. Each of these 12 judges, 
each of these 12 deliverers, each of these 12 saviors declare 
to us that salvation is of the Lord. And they point us typologically 
to the blessed savior who would come and deliver his people from 
their sins. The Book of Judges is not a book 
wherein we roll our eyes or we say, oh, it's so filled with 
blood and battles and war and bloodshed that I don't want any 
part in it. It's about God's grace. It's 
about God's deliverance. It's about God's mercy. It's 
about God's loving kindness. So go, read the Book of Judges. Focus on the mercy and the kindness 
and the goodness of God using cracked pots to affect his will. the only non-cracked pot in the 
history of the church, or in this history of the world rather, 
is Jesus. But for the rest, the apostle 
says that God has taken gospel treasure, put it in earthenware 
vessels so that the honor and the glory and the excellence 
goes to God and not to the cracked pot. When you see Samson do his 
thing, you praise God. When you see Jephthah do his 
thing, you praise God. When you see Shamgar do his thing, 
you praise God. Because it's God who gave the 
judges and it was God who was with the judges to deliver his 
people from their oppression. Well, let us pray. Our Father, 
we thank you for this book and the testimony that it gives us 
concerning not only man's sin, man's depravity, the church's 
faithlessness at many, many times and in many, many ways and occasions, 
but it shows and underscores for us the goodness, the kindness, 
and the mercy of God Most High. We thank you for your grace. 
We thank you for your provision of the Savior Christ. And we 
thank you for the salvation that you have blessed us with, wherein 
all our sins are forgiven, and we've received the righteousness 
that avails with you. We ask now that you would go 
with us into this coming week, help us to be faithful, help 
us to bring glory and honor to you, and help us, God, to do 
so for your praise. And we ask through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord, amen. We'll close with a brief time 
of meditation.