Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today.
A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us. We're glad that you're here,
and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we've become convinced that there's no one so good.
They don't need God's grace, and no one's so bad that they can't have it,
which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word.
We are continuing our series in the Book of Judges, completely unrelated to the Book of Judges.
Today is June the 9th, and I've been reflecting on the fact that it was June the 7th of 2017
that my U-Haul arrived in Colorado Springs.
And it was June the 12th, Monday of 2017 that was my first day of work at Cheyenne Mountain.
So I'm hitting seven years.
Thank you.
And so I've been reflecting on that, and I just wanted to say I'm so grateful to be with all of you
and to still be here in Colorado Springs, Cheyenne Mountain.
We're continuing our series in the Book of Judges.
You'll remember that the Book of Judges is about a number of things.
It's about the need for constant renewal and revival among God's people.
It's about the need for a faithful and true king,
a king who can do what no human can do, which is to change the hearts of men.
And it's about the power of spirit-filled leadership.
And it's about God's mercy to hard-hearted people, people like you and me.
Last week, we looked at Judges chapter 19,
and I told you that Judges 19 is arguably the most tragic, the most violent,
the most gruesome story in the entire Bible,
out of all 66 books and almost 1,200 chapters.
And we saw that that is, in fact, how it all ends
when everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
That is the end state, the ugly fruit of autonomy and individualism.
And I told you that we cannot have a beautiful community
and also demand what is most convenient for us.
That's the sober warning that comes at the end of the Book of Judges.
Now, this week, as we head into chapter 20,
we're going to see the nature of sin, the ugly nature of it,
and what happens when we leave it unaddressed,
when we refuse to fight it or put it to death.
And with that, I invite you to turn with me to Judges chapter 20.
You can turn in your worship guide.
You can turn on your phone.
You can turn in your Bible.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.
And God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold,
even the finest gold, and it's sweeter than honey,
even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And so that's why we read now Judges chapter 20, starting at verse 1.
Then all the people of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba,
including the land of Gilead,
and the congregation assembled as one man to the Lord at Mizpah.
And the chiefs of all the people of all the tribes of Israel
presented themselves in the assembly of God,
400,000 men on foot that drew the sword.
Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.
And the people of Israel said, Tell us, how did this evil happen?
And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered,
answered and said, I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin,
I and my concubine, to spend the night.
And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me
and surrounded the house against me by night.
They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead.
So I took hold of my concubine and cut her in pieces,
and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel.
For they have committed abomination and outrage in Israel.
Behold you, people of Israel, all of you,
give your advice and counsel here.
Verse 8,
And all the people arose as one man, saying,
None of us will go to his tent, and none of us will return to his house.
But now this is what we will do to Gibeah.
We will go up against it by lot,
and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel,
and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand,
to bring provisions for the people,
that when they come they may repay Gibeah of Benjamin,
for all the outrage that they have committed in Israel.
So all the men of Israel gathered against the city,
united as one man.
And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout all the tribe of Benjamin,
saying,
What evil is this that has taken place among you?
Now, therefore, give up the men,
the worthless fellows in Gibeah,
that we may put them to death and purge evil from Israel.
But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers,
the people of Israel.
Then the people of Benjamin came together out of the cities of Gibeah
to go out to battle against the people of Israel.
And the people of Benjamin mustered out of their cities on that day
twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword,
besides the inhabitants of Gibeah,
who mustered seven hundred chosen men.
Among all these were seven hundred chosen men
who were left-handed.
Everyone could sling a stone at a hare and not miss.
And the men of Israel, apart from Benjamin,
mustered four hundred thousand men who drew the sword.
All these were men of war.
Verse 18.
The people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God,
Who shall go up first for us to fight against the people of Benjamin?
And the Lord said, Judah shall go up first.
Then the people of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin,
and the men of Israel drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah.
The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah
and destroyed on that day twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites.
But the people, the men of Israel, took courage
and again formed the battle line in the same place
where they had formed it on the first day.
And the people of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until the evening.
And they inquired of the Lord,
Shall we again draw near to fight against our brothers,
the people of Benjamin?
And the Lord said, Go up against them.
Verse 24.
So the people of Israel came near against the people of Benjamin the second day.
And Benjamin went against them out of Gibeah that second day
and destroyed eighteen thousand men of the people of Israel.
All these were men who drew the sword.
Then all the people of Israel, the whole army,
went up and came to Bethel and wept.
They sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening
and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
And the people of Israel inquired of the Lord,
for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days.
And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron,
ministered before it in those days,
saying, Shall we go out once more to battle against our brothers,
the people of Benjamin?
Or shall we cease?
And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.
Verse 29.
So the men set in ambush around Gibeah.
So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah.
And the people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day
and set themselves in array against Gibeah as at other times.
And the people of Benjamin went out against the people
and were drawn away from the city.
And as at other times,
they began to strike and kill some of the people in the highways,
one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
And in the open country, about thirty men of Israel.
And the people of Benjamin said,
They are routed before us as at the first.
But the people of Israel said,
Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.
And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place
and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar.
And the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place from Merah Geba.
And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel.
And the battle was hard.
But the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them.
And the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel.
And the people of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day.
All these were men who drew the sword.
So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated.
The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin because they trusted the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.
Verse thirty-seven.
Then the men in ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah.
The men in ambush moved out and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.
Now the appointed signal between the men of Israel and the men in the main ambush
was that when they made a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city,
the men of Israel should turn in battle.
Now Benjamin had begun to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel.
They said,
Surely they are defeated before us as in the first battle.
But when the signal began to rise out of the city in a column of smoke,
the Benjaminites looked behind them.
And behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.
Then the men of Israel turned and the men of Benjamin were dismayed.
For they saw that disaster was closed upon them.
Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel in the direction of the wilderness.
But the battle overtook them.
And those who came out of the cities were destroying them in their midst.
Surrounding the Benjaminites,
they pursued them and trod them down from Noha as far as opposite Gibeah on the east.
Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell,
all of them men of valor.
And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the Rock of Rimen.
Five thousand men of them were cut down in the highways.
And they were pursued hard to get them.
And two thousand men of them were struck down.
So all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword,
all of them men of valor.
But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the Rock of Rimen
and remained at the Rock of Rimen for months.
And the men of Israel turned back against the people of Benjamin
and struck them with the edge of the sword.
The city, men and beasts, and all that they found.
And all the towns that they found, they set on fire.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven, we do thank you that you haven't left us alone
as orphans in a merciless universe,
but instead you've given us your word.
You've given us the Old Testament and the New Testament.
You've spoken to us to guide us and challenge us and instruct us,
and most of all, to show us Christ.
That we would know and see and understand our need for His grace
and how He meets us at that very same place of need.
And so we ask that you would do that this morning,
that you would use your word in a powerful way,
that we would see your beauty and your glory and your mercy more than ever before,
that it would lead us to love you, to worship you, to follow you.
We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
You'll remember that our story last week ended on a particularly gruesome note.
As the Levite takes his concubine, who has been violated,
he cuts her into 12 different pieces,
and then sends those pieces all throughout Israel.
And we have this chilling statement at the very end of chapter 19 in verse 30,
which reminds us of how terrible this is.
And it says,
Such a thing has never happened or been seen
from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt
until this day.
Consider it.
Take counsel and speak.
And we see here at the beginning of chapter 20
that this graphic statement that the Levite makes
certainly has the impact that he has intended.
There are a lot of things going on in chapter 20,
and we will certainly not be able to get into all of them this morning.
But if there's one thing that the author of Judges wants us to know,
it is this.
Israel has incredible unity.
And in fact, we hear it and see it over and over.
Verse 1,
All the people of Israel came out.
Same verse.
The congregation assembled as one man.
Verse 7,
Behold you people of Israel,
all of you.
We saw in verse 2,
the chiefs of all the people,
of all the tribes of Israel.
Verse 8,
All the people arose as one man.
Verse 11,
All the men of Israel gathered,
united,
as one man.
You think that we've heard it enough?
Nope.
Verse 26,
All the people of Israel,
the whole army.
And in case we missed it,
we're also told,
verse 1,
they came from Dan to Beersheba.
Dan being the northernmost point of Israel,
Beersheba being the southernmost point.
In other words,
over and over again,
the author repeats this,
so that we know
Israel,
in the midst of a book full of their factions
and selfishness and infighting,
are finally gathered together.
With, of course,
one exception.
Verse 3 reminds us,
Benjamin was not there.
Why?
Well,
the men of Gibeon are Benjaminites.
And so they decide not to show up
to answer for the actions
of their own people.
And as we read this
and think and see
that Israel is finally gathered together,
they finally have one mind
and one mission,
there is this sadness
and this irony
that we're meant to feel.
Why couldn't they do this
back in chapter 1?
Why does it take
such a gruesome
and violent action
for Israel
to finally be
what she should have been?
And in fact,
it's not just a question
of why did this not happen
back in chapter 1.
No, even more than that,
there are echoes here
of chapter 1.
Now, I know it's been
a long time,
it's been about a year
since we started
the book of Judges,
and so you have to think
all the way back
to what we saw
at the very beginning.
But the reason that Israel
is in this problem
is because they refused
to do what God
had told them to do.
They refused
to drive out the Canaanites.
And what is it
that we read
at the very beginning?
Not just chapter 1,
verse 1,
they go to God
and they say,
who shall go up first
for us
against the Canaanites?
And God answers them,
verse 2,
Judah shall go.
In case we miss it,
here in chapter 20,
we see the exact same words.
Verse 18,
who shall go up first
for us to fight
against the people
of Benjamin?
Same verse,
Judah shall go up first.
As I've told you many times,
bookends are extremely powerful.
It is not a coincidence
that we see this
in chapter 1
and chapter 20.
The author is telling us this.
You would not drive out
the Canaanites
in chapter 1.
You wouldn't fight
God's enemies
in chapter 1.
Well, guess what?
Now in chapter 20,
you get to fight
each other.
You can either fight
your enemies
on the outside
or you can destroy
yourself on the inside.
Those are the only choices.
Last week,
we said this is how it ends
when everyone does
what is right
in their own eyes.
This week,
we get to see
this is how it all ends
when sin is not
addressed.
You can fight sin now
or you can fight it later,
but you will fight it
one day.
You can face enemies
on the outside
or you can self-destruct
on the inside.
In fact,
the principle
that we've waited
20 chapters to get to
is this.
Sin
does not
just sit there.
It grows
and grows
and grows.
I have
two
personal characteristics
which are
a bad combination.
One of them
is that sometimes
I can be a little bit clumsy
and the other one
is that I like
to drink a lot of coffee.
And when those
two traits interact,
what that results in
is I get a large number
of coffee stains
on my clothes.
The good thing
about that though
is this.
Coffee is one
of the easiest
stains to get out.
It's contained.
It's not going to spread.
It's not red wine.
I can wash it today.
I can wash it next week.
I can wash it next month.
It is going to come out.
As long as I don't wait
six months,
as long as I
don't wait a year,
it's going to be fine.
It's not going to get worse.
I'm going to be able
to address it.
I can do it
on my own timeline.
The problem is this.
Sometimes we think
about sin that way.
It's contained.
It's going to be there
when I want to deal with it.
I can address it
when I want to address it.
And when I choose
to address it,
I'll be able
to get rid of it.
While I wait,
nothing will get worse.
Yet the problem is this.
Sin is not a coffee stain.
Sin is in fact a cancer.
Sin is like mold.
It grows and grows and grows.
The longer it is left unaddressed,
the larger it gets.
There's a domino effect to sin.
Israel refused to drive out
the Canaanites in chapter 1.
They have become
like the Canaanites
in chapter 20.
Their failure,
their refusal
to drive out
the pagan nations
has finally come home
to roost.
They left it alone
and it grew
and grew
and grew.
Israel thought
that she could have
her cake
and eat it too.
She thought
she could have
a halfway compromise
with sin
and still have
all the benefits
of God's people.
And now we see
at the very end
of the book,
you can't have it
both ways.
You deal with sin now.
You deal with it later.
One of those
is much easier
than the other.
And so there's
a sadness here.
What would have happened
if Israel had been
obedient in chapter 1?
How many lives
would have been saved?
How much dignity
would have been retained?
And yet what happened?
They didn't understand
the threat.
Israel didn't see
the urgency.
They didn't see
the need to obey
in hard ways
that God had commanded
them to go
and be bold
in battle
and take out
the foreign nations.
If they had been
this unified
in chapter 1,
the story would have
been very different.
And so there is
a warning here
as we come to the end
of the book
and that's this.
There is great danger
in spiritual complacency.
There is great danger
in refusing
to address sin
because it will
only get worse.
It may be hard
to confront
scandal
and abuse
in an organization
and if you do not,
it will get so bad
you cannot hide it
anymore.
You may shut yourself
off to others
and think that you
can have connection
and community
one day
when you choose it
on your own terms.
and then you wake up
and you realize
that your heart
is hard
and closed off
and you're all alone.
You can face
the consequences
of your selfishness
in your marriage
now
or you can face
it later.
The longer you wait,
the harder
it gets.
We can choose
to ignore
compromise
and error
in God's church.
And not only
will it not go away,
it will get worse
the longer
we wait.
You can refuse
to discipline
your kids now
and the problems
and the challenges
will only grow
with each year.
you can refuse
to reconcile
with your brother
or your sister.
The distance
will only increase.
The challenge
will only be more.
Sin collects
interest
day by day,
year by year.
You'll see this
on page 10
of your worship guide.
Albert Einstein
is famous
for saying
the most powerful
force in the universe
is compound interest.
We might say
that the most destructive
force in the universe
is compound sin.
The longer we wait,
the worse
it gets.
sin
is on a relentless march.
It's not stopping
and when you ignore it,
it gains ground.
The cancer
that has been
killing Israel
for 19 chapters
finally gets so bad
they can't turn
their eyes anymore.
It's finally
metastasized.
It's finally
terminal.
They have become
worse than the nations
around them.
And so the point
is simple.
Christian,
deal with it now.
Obedience
is hard.
Disobedience
is even
harder.
again on page 10
of your worship guide,
be killing sin
or sin
will be
killing you.
If Israel
had done
that very thing
in chapter 1,
chapter 20
would look
very different.
Thankfully,
we don't simply
see a sober warning
in Judges chapter 20.
we also see
one of our
major themes
for Judges
that has come up
again and again,
which is God's
mercy towards
hard-hearted people,
people like you
and me.
And the good news
is that even
as everything
is finally
hemming in
on Israel,
God
has not
given up
on his people.
God is still
at work
guiding
and protecting
them.
Verse 35
at the beginning
gives us
the author's
interpretation
of this chapter.
He tells us this,
and the Lord
defeated
Benjamin
before
Israel.
God
still brings
justice
to
and for
his people.
God is still
active
in the story
of Israel,
and even more
than that,
God still
gives guidance
to his people.
Note what they
do here
that they
haven't done
for some time.
They inquire
of God
three times.
Three times,
God answers.
Verse 18,
verse 23,
verses 27
and 28.
And in verse 28
he tells them this,
go up,
for tomorrow
I will give them
into your hand.
And then
verses 29
through 48
we see this
ambush
that they set up,
their final move
that brings them
success
and all its
after effects.
Which reminds us
of this,
in the midst
of imperfection
and sin
and failure,
God
still
hears
his people.
In the midst
of Israel's
mess,
God
has not
given up.
Which returns
us
to something
we haven't
talked about
for a few
chapters now
which is this,
no matter
where you are
and no matter
what you've
done,
because of
God's
grace,
there is
still hope.
Now there's
some odd
things here.
There's three
different battles.
The first two
battles,
Israel loses
and loses
a bunch of men.
It's not
until the end
that they
actually have
success and
that raises
this question,
like why is
it that God
doesn't allow
them to conquer
in the first
battle?
There's all
sorts of
different theories
at work.
People have
different ideas.
Ultimately,
we don't know.
We're not told.
What we do
know is this,
God still
listens to
his people.
God listens
to his people
despite the
compromise of
Benjamin,
the fact that
they're not
willing to
hand over
this subset
from Gibeah.
God listens
to his people
even though
the Levite
runs a spin
story and
changes a bunch
of the facts
about what
happened with
his concubine.
God still
listens to
his people
even though
they have
let the
influence of
the culture
around them
twist them
and change
them and
shape them.
That reminds
us of what
we already
read for us
this morning.
Hebrews 10
verse 19.
Therefore,
brothers,
since we have
confidence to
enter the
holy places
by the
blood of
Jesus.
Why does
God listen
to his
people?
Not because
they've earned
it.
Not because
they deserve
it.
They don't.
No, he
listens to
them.
He stays
in their
story because
and only
because of
his great
mercy and
grace.
His grace
to hard-hearted
people,
people like
you and
me.
Because we
have a
true and
faithful
king.
A king
who can
do what
no human
can do,
which is to
change the
hearts of
men.
It's the
promise of
the gospel.
It's the
promise for
you if you're
in Christ.
If you're a
Christian following
after him and
you know that
you haven't
deserved it and
you haven't
earned it, but
instead you
look in faith
to Christ who
lived the
perfect life that
we should have
lived and who
died the death
that we
deserved, we
know that
God's words in
2 Timothy 2 are
true for us.
If we are
faithless, he
remains faithful
for he cannot
deny himself.
love.
Let's pray.
Our Father in
heaven, we do
praise you and
thank you for
your great mercy
and your grace,
your mercy to
Israel in the
midst of their
failure, your
mercy to us in
the midst of our
failures.
We ask that you
would remind us of
that truth and
that you would
grow our faith and
trust in it, that
we would follow
you more and
more with love
and obedience.
We ask these
things in the
mighty name of
Jesus Christ.
Amen.