Judges 1:1-3:6 Prone to Wander

[0:00] We'll be in Judges this morning, and we will be taking a particular look in the book of Judges in this series, in Christ as Christ is promised and the shadow of Christ in the Old Testament.

[0:14] There is, throughout all of Scripture, a unifying theme of a redemptive historical theme of unity of Scripture, and it is through that lens which we will look at, Judges, that unifying theme of redemption, of redemption in Christ.

[0:32] And as such, we will see, and hopefully better understand, the glory of Christ in the glorious Gospel. So it will be a Christ-centered examination of the book of Judges, more specifically how the book of Judges points to Christ, how Christ is needed, and how glorious Christ is.

[0:53] Now, before we jump into Judges, by way of introduction, I want to read for you out of Acts chapter 13, 20.

[1:05] We have a very brief snapshot of this era and what is occurring. So in 13, starting in 16 to 23, Then Paul stood up and motioned with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

[1:27] The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with an uplifted arm, he brought them out of it.

[1:40] Now, for a time of about 40 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them by allotment.

[1:52] After that, he gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet. And after they asked for a king, so God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years.

[2:07] And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.

[2:20] From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a savior, Jesus. Now, it is in this brief snapshot that we see everything working towards a savior for God's people, and that being Jesus.

[2:40] And in verse 20, it is a very short section, and it says, after that, he gave them judges. So, we are going to examine judges as it points towards Jesus.

[2:53] And in Luke 24, 27, it says, And beginning at Moses in all the prophets. So, this encompasses all of the Old Testament. And beginning at Moses in all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

[3:07] Now, this is Jesus speaking on the road to Emmaus. So, from the Old Testament, Jesus demonstrated how the Old Testament speaks of himself. So, Jesus is testified in the Old Testament.

[3:21] Also, in John 5, 39, it says, You search the scriptures, and these are they which testify of me. So, again, the scriptures at this time, in John 5, 39, of course, the New Testament hadn't been written.

[3:35] What we are reading in the New Testament is what occurred. It's a narrative. So, while that was occurring, it had not yet been written. So, the scriptures which he is referring to is the Old Testament, the entirety of the Old Testament.

[3:47] And these are they which testify of me. So, in the book of Judges, we are going to see how it testifies of Christ. That is, the promise and shadow of Christ. And if you've read Judges and recollect what it's about, you might think, How can this possibly speak of Christ?

[4:03] It's a very troubling thing, and we are going to read of some very shocking things which occurred. And they're so flawed. The Judges, in the book of Judges, were so flawed.

[4:15] So, how can they point to Christ? How can they be the shadow of Christ? But that is exactly the point, and I think it's important to keep in our minds as we work through this series, Is that the Judges weren't the Christ.

[4:26] The Judges weren't the Messiah. They weren't the one who was promised in Genesis 3.15 to fix the sin problem. So, they themselves were not the promised seed of the woman who had crushed the head of the serpent.

[4:41] They are not the promised Messiah. But, in the office which they held, the way in which they delivered God's people, And other things which we will draw out as we work through it, We will see that it's what they signify that paints a picture of Christ.

[4:55] Each judge, in that situation of how they deliver Israel, points a picture, And then the book, as a whole, paints an even bigger picture of Christ. So, as we begin, today's sermon will be more or less an introduction, Or setting the stage for this sermon series.

[5:15] And if you start in Joshua 24, So, the conquest has occurred. Israel crossed the Jordan River in 1406 BC.

[5:25] And then the conquest is dated at 1400 BC. And at the time of the conquest, God had delivered his people out of the house of bondage, Out of slavery, out of Egypt, Led them into the land of promise.

[5:44] And this is what we hear, starting in verse 14. Now, therefore, fear the Lord, Serve him in sincerity and in truth, And put away the gods which your fathers served in the other side of the river and in Egypt.

[5:58] Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, Whether the gods which your fathers served, That were on the other side of the river, Or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

[6:12] But as for me and my house, We will serve the Lord. So the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God is he who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, From the house of bondage, Who did those great signs, Those great signs in our sight, And preserved us in all the way that we went, And among all the people through whom we passed.

[6:40] And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, Including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, For he is our God. But Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the Lord, For he is a holy God, He is a jealous God.

[6:56] He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, Then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, After he has done you good.

[7:07] And the people said to Joshua, No, but we will serve the Lord. So Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves, That you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve him.

[7:19] And they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore, he said, Put away the foreign gods which are among you, And incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel. And the people said to Joshua, The Lord our God we will serve, And his voice we will obey.

[7:36] Now if you flip over a couple of pages to Judges 2 chapter 11. Judges 2 verse 11. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, And served the Baals.

[7:52] And they forsook the Lord, The Lord God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt. Now jump down to verse 16. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them Out of the hand of those who plundered them.

[8:07] Yet they would not listen to their judges, But they played the harlot with other gods, And bowed down to them. Our great God, we thank you for your word, And we pray that as we look to your word, That you would indeed illuminate it to us.

[8:21] And pray that you would lead us into all truth. And I pray, Lord, that you would be at work Through the preaching of your word, Make it effectual to all the hearers, For the edification of the saints, And for the advancement of your kingdom.

[8:34] We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So we will be going over a large amount of text today. More of an understanding of the context of what's happening.

[8:49] Leading up to the judges, The role of the judges, And setting the stage for it. So what we are going to be particularly looking at, What this is about, Is that God's people of Israel were prone to wander.

[9:03] And they were in need of a skull-crushing saviour to deliver them. So God's people of Israel were prone to wander, And in need of a skull-crushing saviour to deliver them.

[9:15] So we're going to see, From chapter 1, 1, Through to chapter 3, 6, We're going to see the conquest compromised, The canonization cycle, And copies or types of Christ.

[9:30] Now if you remember from the beginning, In Genesis 3, 15, After the creation, Was sin. There was the fall because of sin.

[9:42] And from the fall, The world was cursed. And in the declaration of the curse, We see there the promise of the gospel. We see there the promise of The skull-crushing seed of the woman Who would crush the head of the serpent.

[9:57] And as that promise of the gospel Is revealed by farther steps Throughout scripture, Leading up to the coming of Christ, There's always the question, Which we know now looking back, But if we were to put ourselves in their shoes, There's always the question, Is this going to be The skull-crushing seed of the woman?

[10:19] Is this going to be the one Who will deliver us from the sin problem? Is this the one Who is going to deal with sin And sorrow and death? So that question Would be raised With Noah, Noah, Who though Noah and company Were in the ark, Led safely through judgment To new land, Perhaps they asked the question, Is this the skull-crushing seed of the woman?

[10:44] But, It was not. Because it was not The new creation, While it was a type of new creation, It wasn't the new creation without sin. There still remains sin, There still remains the sin problem, There still remains the need For the skull-crushing seed of the woman To deliver from sin.

[11:06] So, The sin problem And the fulfillment of what remains Still remains to be accomplished. Now, When we put judges Into perspective Of God's plan of redemption, Particularly in the Old Testament, God made covenants With mankind To advance mankind's Position Or relationship with God.

[11:31] God, for example, Made a covenant with Noah. And in the Noahic covenant, God stabilized all of creation For his plan of redemption. God, By his judgment, He destroyed wickedness And he made a promise That the world would be stabilized As he worked out his plan of redemption.

[11:50] So, By the Noahic covenant With Noah, Creation was stabilized For redemption. And then, We see Abraham, God made a covenant With Abraham, Where God promised to Abraham Multiple descendants And Inheritance of a land And then also The coming of the Messiah, That is, The coming in the flesh Through whom The families of the nations Would be blessed.

[12:14] And then, We have the Mosaic covenant At Sinai Where God made a covenant With Israel Of how they were They whom were Abraham's multiplied descendants Were to be governed In the land To be inherited.

[12:31] And then, The next covenant Is the Davidic covenant Where God made a covenant With David And through that The promise of God That one of David's descendants The son of David Would sit on the throne Forever And is through the covenant With David That all the covenant sanctions All the threats Or promises of reward Are focused on one particular person So that is Israel's obedience And disobedience Through the king Which was David So David now As a federal head This points us Towards Christ Who would be the son of David Who would be the federal head Through whom The blessings Or the threats Of the covenant Would hinge Based on obedience So where we are In the book of Judges Is between the Mosaic covenant And the Davidic covenant So Past Noah Past Abraham Past Moses Past Sinai Past the wilderness Past Crossing The Jordan The conquest Has Has begun

[13:31] But There is yet Monarchy Set up in Israel So there is No king In Israel So this is between The death of Joshua And the rise of monarchy Saul Was king In 1020 So the conquest Was 1400 BC And Saul Was king In 1020 BC So it is The duration Between these periods And who Who were the judges We might When we hear the word judges We might think of Like a court system And judicial Jurists Who Who preside over matters And make decisions But that is Not who these judges Were These judges Were military leaders Who delivered People Or God's people They were military leaders To effect deliverance From enemies Who were threatening evil So our first point Is conquest Compromised The conquest Has begun They have crossed Over the Jordan The conquest

[14:31] Compromised Now something That we need to understand When we think about The conquest Is we have to understand The distinction Between Old Testament Israel And the New Testament Church The New Testament Church Is not called To engage In the positive law In which Old Testament Israel Was called to They had positive law In that their conquest Was by sword and spear To drive out The nations The church Is elect exiles In a world Where we are pilgrims This is not our home And we are not To advance the kingdom By sword and spear But by the word of God So Israel Was a theocratic Geopolitical nation It was a particular nation In a particular place Who were under God And they were to drive Out the Canaanites Because the Canaanites Were pagan They were pagan nations Which we'll see Further Is Their evil practices Their very evil practices Now in Deuteronomy 7 1.5

[15:32] Is where we find God's command For Israel To drive out The inhabitants Of Canaan To leave None behind And in Judges 1.1 Is where We see more details About that conquest The conquest Starts off Pretty strong In Judges 1.1 It says To go up for us Against the Canaanites To fight against them So here we have Israel According to the Commandment of God To enter into the land And drive out The pagan inhabitants To drive out The evil that is In the land And they start off Strong It talks about How they killed 10,000 men Of Bezek And how They captured Adonai Bezek Who was a Canaanite king Now If you have time Later Look up Deuteronomy 7 1-5 Which is their command To drive out All the inhabitants To drive out All the evil And we can see Where it starts To compromise here And the compromise Becomes greater And greater And what effect

[16:32] That has In the land The first compromise We see is In their taking Of Adonai Bezek The Canaanite king And instead of Driving him out Or destroying him What they did was They cut off his thumbs And his big toes And this is what He did to his enemies And that is what They did to him So instead of Putting him to death Which God commanded Them to do Instead they cut off His thumbs and his big toes And then they brought him To Jerusalem Next they took Jerusalem by the sword Which again is According to the command Of God According to the conquest But we can see The compromise Starting to increase They took Jerusalem With the edge of the sword And then beyond Geographically beyond They drove out The mountaineers In verse 19 But then it says But they could not Drive out the inhabitants Of the low land Because they had Chariots of iron Now in Proverbs It talks about The sluggard Who says he can't Go to work Because there's a lion In the street And it's a ruse

[17:32] There was no lion In the street He was just Putting up a ruse So that he could Excuse himself From having to go to work And it's similar What's going on here Now they surely did have Chariots of iron They did have Advancements in warfare Technology But the ruse Is that they could not Overcome these Chariots of iron While in earthly And worldly senses Chariots of iron At that time Were advancements in warfare And gave them An upper hand They had God's command To drive them out God, the almighty God Who had just Delivered them Out of Egypt Out of slavery Out of bondage Who delivered them Through their wilderness Wandering And had Who promised To deliver their enemies To him It's not that God Has a kryptonite It's not that God Was incapable Of gaining victory Over these chariots Of iron This is the Lord God almighty The God of hosts Mighty in battle The creator

[18:32] And upholder Of all creation The armies Which were their enemies God created And upholds The very iron Of their Of their Warfare technology All of it is By God's creation That any of it Exists And God's Sustaining Of all of these things And then in verse 21 It says But the children Of Benjamin Did not drive out The Jebusites Who inhabited Jerusalem So the Jebusites Dwell with the children Of Benjamin In Jerusalem Till this day We can see The conquest Being compromised Even further Now they're not Even driving out All the inhabitants And the inhabitants Are dwelling With them And so also Their evil practices And then And Luz They struck the city Of Luz With the edge Of the sword But they let The man and his family Go And Luz Essentially just Took one step To the side And remained There

[19:33] So the compromise Continues And the next In 27 Said that they Did not drive out The inhabitants Of multiple villages It goes on Into detail About how they Compromised The conquest Or the command That was given Them Given them by God That they did not Drive them out And it's village After village After village Where they did not Drive them out So The pagan Practices Continued And again We're probably Wondering What are these Pagan practices That was so Important to drive out And we'll Get to that But for now We're seeing how They did not Obey God's command They Compromised On the conquest And that's important Because we are going To see the consequences Of compromise As it unfolds But as it describes How village After village They did not Drive out The inhabitants As God commanded To drive out The evil It even gets to the point Where Dan The children's of Dan They were driven Out to the mountains

[20:34] By the Amorites By the inhabitants So what this Demonstrates Is that all of These villages Which they were Commanded by God To take over By conquest By them not Driving out The inhabitants It's widespread Geographical Spiritual cancer To the people Of God Who are to be A theocratic Nation That is A spiritual cancer In all of Israel This is the setting In which we're Preparing ourselves For in the book Of Judges So they all Co-inhabited the land Because they did not Drive them out They did not Dispossess all the Paganites When they were to be A nation under God A theocratic nation So we might ask The question Is it not good To show compassion Is this not just Compassion Is it compassion Or is it a Compromised conquest Again in Deuteronomy We see the command That is given And it's a failure To obey the command Of God This was divine

[21:35] Command that was Given Now Adam Adam was to Keep the garden He was to protect The garden He was to work The garden And Adam failed To do so Adam failed To drive out The evil That was in the garden And the consequences Of that Resulted in The fall Sin And death So Israel Also compromised And Israel Also failed In driving out The evil Now The children Of Benjamin It says The Jebusites Dwelt With the children Of Benjamin And there We see How the compromise Starts to have An effect On the children Of Israel Who were to be A theocratic nation And as we read Through Judges We're not going to Do all of this Today But if you recall How Judges Ends Judges Ends With Something that Occurs in Benjamin That is Very

[22:36] Very similar To Sodom and Gomorrah It's strikingly Similar to what Happens in Sodom and Gomorrah And with Sodom and Gomorrah God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah With fire and Brimstone Because of the Evil That was There And it's God's prerogative To do so Something very Similar happened In Benjamin Such a Level of Perversion And sin Except God Did not Completely destroy Them God did not Completely destroy Benjamin But What occurred From where the Compromise began To the point Where Benjamin Came to this Place Where It Resembled So much Sodom and Gomorrah The The issue With the Canaanites With the Inhabitants Of the land Was their Pagan Practices Their Pagan Gods Their Pagan Way of Life And we

[23:36] Read of The Baals And the Ashtoreth Which is Essentially The gods Of weather And fertility So they Believed That it is Through These gods In which They had Prosperity Earthly Prosperity In life Whether that Be agriculture Or animals Or within Their own Fertility For having Children And they Had Without going Into detail They had Practices Of temple Prostitutes To engage These gods The Baals And Ashtoreths So what These pagan Gods were Were graphically Pornographic That's what Occurred That's what They failed To drive out And that Was the Compromise Which Had this Effect On Israel Which led To Benjamin Being in The state Of which It was Where the Whole town Was so Consumed With With a Moral Sin And thus Benjamin Was to be In a state Of such Intense Pornographic

[24:37] Corruption So again If you have Time Read Deuteronomy 7 1-5 God's God's Command How they Compromised And then Read the End of Judges To see The effect That that Had So that Brings us To our Second Point Which is The Israelites Did not Drive out The pagan Inhabitants As God Commanded And a Little Leaven Leavens The whole Lump So the Second Point Is the Canaanization Cycle The first Two Chapters Of Judges We see The cycle And then As we Read through Judges We see The cycle As it Occurs And each Time the Cycle Occurs It's a Downward Spiral Into Corruption The Canaanization Cycle Is Israelites Being Canaanize The influence Of the Canaanite Pagan gods As it Remained In the Land And the Effect That it Had On the People And it

[25:37] Is described As evil The evil Pagan Worship And pagan Practices That is Their Lifestyle Which was Not For God's People It was Not faith And obedience Rather It was Idolatry And Immorality So from The time Of Joshua's Death After Joshua's Death Joshua was A leader Who led God's People And God's People Did God's Will But after Joshua's Death There was No longer A leader And there Was no Covenant Mediator And there Was no King in Israel And everyone Did what was Right in Their own Eyes We could Say that About Today's Day and Age That everyone Did Everyone Does What is Right in Their own Eyes So to Quickly Work through The first Two Chapters Of Joshua To understand What happened We're not Going to Work in Detail But Judges Two One To four We see Israel's Disobedience So Actually Let's read One to four Judges Two One To four Then the Angel of

[26:37] The Lord Came up Came up From Gilgal To Bauckham And said I led you Up from Egypt And brought You to The land Of which I swore To your Fathers And I Said I Will never Break my Covenant With you And you Shall make No covenant With the Inhabitants Of this Land You shall Tear down Their altars But you Have not Obeyed my Voice Why have You done This Therefore I also Said I Will not Drive them Out before You But they Shall be Thorns In your Side And their Gods Shall be A snare To you So it Was When the Angel Of the Lord Spoke These Words To all The Children Of Israel That the People Lifted Up Their Voices And Wept Israel Disobeyed And then Furthermore In Judges 2 Verses 11 To 15 We see In detail How Israel Not only Disobeyed But they Did What was Evil Contrary To what God Commanded Them They Served And bowed Down To the

[27:37] Baals And they Forsook The Lord Their God The Compromise Is getting Even Greater And the The Corruption The Canaanization Is starting To spread So This Cycle Begins And what The cycle Essentially Is Is that God Gives Them Judges God Gives The People A Judge Who Will Deliver Them From Their Enemies Will Save Them From Their Enemies So The Judges Delivered Them And Then They Played The Harlot With Other Gods And Bowed Down To Them And Then There Was Covenant Sanctions That Is The Threats For Disobedience Against!

[28:19] To Their Enemies And Then Under The Oppression Of Their Enemies They Groan And Cry Out Under Oppression And Then The Lord Raises Up Judges As Military Leaders To Deliver Them From Their Enemies And Then The Cycle Continues Again Being Delivered From Their Enemies No Longer Under Oppression They Then Forsake The Lord They Serve The pagan Gods And Then God By Covenant Sanctions Hands Them Over To Their Enemies They Are Oppressed By Their Enemies And They Cry Out And So The Cycle Continues But This Cycle As We See It Beginning Here In Chapter 2 This Cycle This Cananization What It Is It's Fast Paced Apostasy It's Actually Quite Scary How Fast The Apostasy Sets In So Remembering That God Had Just Delivered Them Out Of Egypt He 2

[29:41] Verse 10 It's The Very Next Generation Those Whom Settled In The Land Their Very Next Generation This Is What It Says They Did Not Know The Lord Nor The Work Which He Had Done For Israel It's Not That They Didn't Know Who God Was It's Not That They Didn't Know That God Was The God Who Saved Them It's That It Wasn't Personal It Didn't Mean!

[30:11] God Themselves They Knew About God But They Did Not Know God And Then In Chapter 3 Verse 6 Israel Having Compromised On Driving Out The Evil This Is What Follows This Is Remembering The Command That Was Given To Them In Deuteronomy As Well As In 2 1 To 4 With That In The Back Of Mind This Is What Happens Already In Chapter 3 And They Took Their Daughters To Be Their Wives And They Gave Their Daughters To Their Sons And They Served Their Gods And D.

[30:47] Ralph Davis Calls This Generation Degeneration The Very Next Generation Because The Compromise Is Degenerating And Being Canaanized Israel Has Been Canaanized Israel Had Been Delivered From Egypt The House Of Bondage But Now Israel Is In Bondage To Sin And Israel Needs To Be Delivered Which Brings Us To Our Third Point They Need A Man To Lead Them Which Points To King David Who Points To Christ The King Of Kings Their Need Of A Man To Represent Them And To Lead Them Points To David As The King Who Was Their Federal Head Who Represented Them And Led Them Which Points To Christ The Head Of His People Who Is Not Only King He Is The King Of Kings So Again They Needed A Man To Lead Them Which Points To King David Who Points To Christ The King Of Kings So Third Point Is Copies Or Types

[31:47] Of Christ Now The Beginning Of The Sermon I Read For You John 5 39 Which Says You Search The Scriptures And These Are They Which Testify Of Me And This Is Speaking Of The Old Testament Testifies Of Christ The Old Testament Testifies Of Christ And We Have The Benefit Of Reading John 5 39 When We Interpret The Old Testament We Have The Benefit Of Knowing That The Old Testament Testifies Of Christ Knowing This And To Read The Old Testament Without Knowing That It Testifies Of Christ Or How It Leads To Christ Is To Derail The Intended Purpose Of Anticipating The Text Fulfillment In Christ And Therefore It Misses The Point In The Unity Of

[32:47] Scripture The Unity Of Scripture How All Of Scripture Testifies Of Christ In God's Plan Of Redemption So In The Book Of Judges There Are Copies Or Types Or Shadow Of Christ These Words Are Words Which The New Testament Uses Copies Types Shadow But We'll Explain The Word Type Now When You Think Of Type Maybe The First Thing That Might Come To Mind Is When You Have A Keyboard In Front Of You And You're Typing On The Keys Or Maybe You're Fear Of A Previous Era Perhaps Typing Is More Of A Single Single Finger Finding The Types Which If That's You Then You'll Probably Be Familiar With Type Writer With The Type Writer It's The Type Writer When You Hit The Key There's A Mold Which Hits The Paper And It Leaves A Mark On The Paper Or It Leaves An Impression On The Paper That Mark Or That Impression Is The Type Is

[33:51] The Mark That's Left Behind Which Points Towards The Mold Or The Letter Which Is The Thing Itself Types In Scripture Are Not The Thing Itself So In The Old Testament What Is A Type Of Christ It Points Towards Christ And Christ's Fulfillment Of That Thing So A Biblical Type Like The Impression Of A Type Writer Leaves On Paper Is An Old Testament Sign!

[34:21] Old Testament Truth So An Example Could Be The Sacrificial System That Is True Narrative That Occurred Is An Old Testament Truth Which Signifies Atonement The Necessity Of Atonement Which Then Typifies Christ With Christ's Shedding Of His Blood To Atone For Sin So A Biblical Type Is An Old Testament Sign That Signifies An Old Testament Truth Which Prefigures And Points Forward To Something Different And Greater The Old Testament Truth Which Functions As A Sign What Is What It Signifies So An Easy Example Which I've Used Before Is Smoke Smoke Is A Sign That Signifies Something Else Sign Signifies Fire It Signifies Fire It Sign It Sign That Points Towards Fire So Also Types In The Old Testament Signify Or Point

[35:21] Towards Something Else Something Different Something Different And Something Greater And How It Is Fulfilled In Christ Which Means And It Also Indicates What That Means For All Those Who Are In Christ So The Sign And Its Signification Have Their Own Meaning And Purpose And Their Immediate And Provisional Context Which Serves As The Basis For The Revelation Of Something Greater In A Messianic Context A Type Ultimately Terminates In The Anti-type Fulfillment So To Summarize That What That Means Is That The Type Points Towards!

[35:57] And Terminates Something Other Terminates And Something Other And Something We're Just Setting The Stage We're Not Going To Look At All The Judges And How They Point To Christ And Terminate In Christ Who Is Other And Greater But In Verse 216 We see That It Says And So All That To Say Judges Are Copies

[36:57] Or They're Types And Shadows Of A Flawless Deliverer As We Read To The Book Of Judges We're Going To Read Some Pretty Crazy Things Some Pretty Crazy Things That Occurred Narratives That Are Going To Be Quite Shocking And As We Do Keep In Mind That What We're Reading In Judges It's Not Normative It's It's A Narrative We're Going To Read Things That Is Not Normative For Israel To Do Or It's Not Normative For Christians To Do But It's A Narrative Of Things That Did Occur This Is An Old Testament Judges Is Not Prescriptive It's Descriptive It Describes To Us It's Narrative It's Not Prescribing Things That We Are Going To Do So As We Read Through Judges There's Going To Be Some Pretty Crazy Stuff That We Read But In These Settings We Will See How The Judges Delivered

[37:57] People From Their Enemies And What We Read Paints A Picture Of The Greater And Other! Fulfillment Of Deliverance Of God's People In Jesus Christ Who Is A Flawless Deliverer The Flawless Deliverer Is Christ The Savior Of Sinful Mankind!

[38:17] Who Are Prone To Wander So Some Concluding Uses For This Introduction First One Is Repentance Israel Did Not Repent And That Canaanization Cycle Which We See They Continued In A Downward Spiral Of Corruption Without Repentance We See That They They Groaned Under Oppression That They Were In Sorrow But They Did Not Repent They Did Not Deal With The Sin Problem They Did Not Deal With The Baals And The Sin That Still Need To Be Dealt With Needing To Be Fulfilled Israel Took The Autobahn To Apostasy It Was Fast Paced Apostasy God's Wrath And Covenant Stipulations Followed Their Apostasy And Then Enemy Oppression And After Enemy Oppression There Was More Sorrow And

[39:17] Groaning This Was Not Repentance And We Can See That As The Cycle Continues And The Level Of Corruption In Which Which It Leads To Israel Did Not Repent It Was Downward Spiral Which Gained Momentum Like A Snowball As A Snowball Goes Down Hill It Picks Up Speed Picks Up Weight Picks Up More Snow Except In This Case It Was More Of A Spiral A Downward Spiral And Their Corruption Picked Up Speed Picked Up Momentum As It Went So What Is Repentance If What We Read In Israel If Their Groaning And Their Sorrow For Oppression Was Not Repentance What Is Repentance Because We As Mankind In This World Might Groan Because Of The Consequences Of Sin The Consequences Of Sin Being Pain And Suffering And Sorrow And Death And We Might Groan Because Of The Consequences Of Sin But Such Groaning Is Not Repentance The Baptist Catechism

[40:17] Gives Us A Helpful Definition Of What Repentance Is The Baptist Catechism Number 92 It Says Repentance Unto Life Is A Saving Grace Whereby A Sinner Out Of A True Sense Of His Sin And Apprehension Of The From It Unto God With Full Purpose Of An Endeavor After New Obedience Israel Did Not Turn From Their Sin True Repentance Is Turning From Sin To God With Apprehension Of The Mercy Of God So Israel Didn't Sin Israel Certainly Groaned Under The Consequences Of Sin What Do You Do Do You Merely Groan Under The Consequences Of Sin Are You Merely Affected!

[41:04] By The Curse Of Sin And The Sin Cursed World That Causes You To Grown Out Under The Oppression Of Sin And Sorrow And Death Or Have You Repented Have You Turned From Sin To God For For For For The Bible Makes It Very Clear That Ever Since The Fall All The Descendants Of Adam All Adam's Posterity Are Born Into Sin We Are Born Into A Sin Cursed World We Are Born As Sin Sin And Adam Because The Fall Adam Fell Short Of The Glory Of God And All Fall Short Of The Glory Of God And That Is We Certainly Struggle With The Question Of Why Did God Even Permit Sin To Begin With Why Did God Permit Sin That There Would Be The Consequences Then Of Death And The Pain And The Sorrow Which Accompanies It Well Sin Did Enter The World According To God's Providence According To God's Sovereignty And The Consent Of Sin Is Death And All Who Are Born Sinners Do Actually

[42:04] Sin And Because Of Our Sin We Are Under The Condemnation Of God Death Is Real And Death Is Imminent There Is Still There Still Remained After The Book Of Judges The Sin Problem The Deliverers Delivered God's People From Their Enemies Did Not Deliver Them From The Sin Problem Did Not Deliver Them From The Enemies Of The Spiritual Forces Of Darkness Which Is Why We Required Divine!

[42:31] Intervention We Required God To Intervene To Be Delivered Which Was Why There Needed To Be The Skull Crushing Seed Of The Woman Who Was Promised In The Curse To Deliver All Of God's People And For That To Occur Of Course Required The Son Of God The Second Person Of The Trinity To Take To Himself A Body That In Our Nature In The In Flesh The Two Natures The Son Of God And Man Were United Together In The One Person Of The Lord Jesus Christ Who Was The Promised Skull Crushing See To The Woman Who Would Deal With The Sin Problem Who Would Gain Victory And Deliver His People And It Is In Christ's Life In Which He Perfectly Obeyed God's Law That Which We Did Not Do He Accomplished And Fulfilled What We Failed To Do And He Gained A Positive Righteousness And Merited Everlasting Eternal Life And A State Of Blessed Glory And He He

[43:32] He Took Our Place On The Cross He Took The Place Of His People And The Suffering And Shedding Of His Blood To Fix The Sin Problem The Sin Problem That Remained From Genesis 3 15 All The Way Through The Old Testament The Sin Problem Which Plagged The Canaanites The Israelites With The Canaan Pagan God Practice The Sin Problem That Plagged Israel Through The Time Of David As Their King All The Way Up To The Coming Of The Cross And Shed His Blood And Poured Out His Life To Pay The Price To Fix That Problem That All Those Who Are United To Christ All Those Who Turn To Christ For Salvation Will Be Saved They Will Be Saved And What We Read In Revelation 21 Is True Of All Those Who Turn To Christ For Salvation Those Who Repent Of Their Sin And Turn To Christ Will Be Saved And Will

[44:32] After The Veil Of This Flesh Is Drawn From Us Be Ushered Into The Presence Of Our God And The People Of God Will Be In The Presence Of Their Savior And They Will Behold His Face His Glory They Will Have Joy Forever Unspeakable And They Will Have Blessed Fellowship And Communion With God In A Kingdom Which Is Unshakeable Indefectible Which Cannot Be Corrupted Cannot Be Defiled And Will Not Fade Jesus Christ Came To Fix The Sin Problem Jesus Christ Is The Promised Skull Crushing See To The Woman And Jesus Christ Is The Deliverer Who Saved His People He Is The One Whom The Judges Point To They Are Not Him But They Point To Him And Paint A Picture Of Christ Do You Know Of The Saving Grace Of True Repentance And Faith Have You Turned From Sin To God For For For For For For For Second Concluding Use Is Compromise Israel Compromised

[45:33] And We See The Effects Of That Compromise Israel Did Not Drive Out The Canaanites As Commanded By God And A Little Leaven Leavens The Whole Lump This Is Equally Important In The Church And The Church Which In Christ By The Keys To The Kingdom Or What We Know As Church Discipline The Church Is To Remove Or To Drive Out The Evil Those Who Deny The Gospel By Unrepentant Heresy Or Unrepentant Sin Through Unrepentant Scandalous Conduct Church Discipline Is The Keys Of The Kingdom Which Is Granted To The Church For The Health Of The Church And It's Also To Restore Brothers The Bible Tells Us That There Will Be Those Who Come Into The Church Into

[46:34] Compromise The Canaanization Compromise To Serve Other Gods We Might Envision This As Being As The Ashterith Of A Little Figure Which Someone Carved But Idolatry Is Serving A God That Is Not The God Of The Bible That Is Not The God Of Creation And The God Of Redemption In Jesus Christ Compromise Is Compromised By Toleration Tolerating That Which God Forbids And When We Think Of Compromise And The Health Of The Church It's Very Easy For Us To Point Fingers At Other People Or At Other!

[47:16] Churches That Compromise It's Easier To Point Fingers At The Sin Of Others Than It Is To Point At Our Sin In This Present Evil Age Christians Live In A Pagan Land And Face Temptations Every Day In A World Where Everybody Does What Is Right In Their Own Eyes With No Regard To God Romans 12 2 Says Do Not Be Conformed To This World But Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind That You May Prove What Is That Good And Acceptable And Perfect Will Of God Third Concluding Use Is Catechized Or Canaanized We Saw The Fast Paced Apostasy Of Israel They Took The Autobahn To Apostasy The Very Next Generation After Being Delivered And Entering Into The Land Of Promise The Very Next Generation Defected And We See The Effects Of That Compromise And We

[48:17] Read That They Did Not Know God Or Did Know Of The Works Of God And This Is In A Theocratic Nation This Is In A Nation Which Is Governed Under God They Did Not Know The Lord There Was No Experimental Or Affectionate Knowledge Of God Nor His Works In The Very Next Generation Translate That Into Our Lives Into Our Day And To Our Children We Do Not Live In A Theocratic Nation We Live In A World Which Is Organized Against Christ We Are Pilgrims In A Sin Cursed World Which Is Not Our Home And We Live In A World That Hates Christ Children Need To What Catechism Is Or What Catechizing Is Catechizing Is Instructing To Catechize Is A Systematic Instruction And There Are A Variety Of Different Catechisms That Came Out Of The Reformation Era And And children in all of life and sitting down to eat and all that we do and walking in the way.

[49:51] And in all of life we are to teach our children. There is a need, there is a command for us to teach our children and there is a need and there is also the threat of the canonization compromise of living in this world. Children need this systematic instruction and it is the parent's duty to teach them. The fourth concluding use is that the judges delivered the people from their enemies but they were not the promised skull crusher. They died, the judges died, and when they died Israel no longer, when they died they no longer delivered the people. They had their deliverer, each judge was raised up to deliver the people, but of course when that judge died they didn't deliver their people because they were dead. And as a result they would again take the autobahn to apostasy and the canonization cycle would continue. So the problem with these, another problem with these judges is that first of all they were flawed, but the second of all is that they would die and when they would die they would no longer be there to lead and deliver their people.

[51:00] So there is the need for a deliverer who will not die. The cycle continued in a downward spiral but Christ alone is the perfect, flawless, final deliverer of the church. Christ who is the only mediator between God and man died to pay for sins. He did not remain dead as the judges did, but he rose from the dead victorious over sin and death. Our enemy, the gates of hell, will not prevail against Christ, his church, and his new creation kingdom. Lord we thank you for your word. We thank you for the unity of all your word and how all of scripture testifies of Christ. We thank you for the glorious gospel of salvation, of redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ, that all those who receive the Lord, who look to the Lord, who in faith turn to Christ alone for salvation, will be saved. We thank you that we have our deliverer, that we have the one who is victorious over sin and death, the one who delivers from our enemies, the one who will not die but who has been raised from the dead, ascended on high, and who is seated on the throne with all power and all authority. We pray for the advancement of your kingdom and we pray that you would come Lord Jesus. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. If you'll take your hymnal and turn to 335.