Again, our passage is Judges chapter six, verses one through 10. This is God's word. The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midians and Amalekites, and the people of the East would come up against them, they would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they would come like locusts in number. Both they and their camels could not be counted, so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent the prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, thus, the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all those who oppress you and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice." This is God's word. Imagine a marriage in which the wife does not love her husband anymore. does not want to stay committed and has committed infidelity. The innocent party has a right to sue out of a divorce for the wife of the covenant. She has broken her vows. She has forgot the covenant of God. We have here the first presentation of the so-called out judges, Gideon, Jetha, and Samson. Previously in the so-called in-group judges, and that is Atheneo, Ehud, Deborah, and Barak, Though they were less than perfect characters, at least they came from acceptable backgrounds. But not these. These come from ones with dubious upbringings. For Gideon, his father, erected an altar and a pole for Asherah. And Jetha was a son of a prostitute. And Samson came from the renegade tribe of Dan. And also, additionally, they had strong character flaws and disturbing weaknesses. What we have here, more specifically, is a prologue to Gideon. And it comes after the time of Deborah and Beric. when Barak had victory over the Canaanite iron chariots and opened wide the fertile plains. But what we have here, we notice that after a time of respite, a season of peace, that they began to take God's favor for granted and then they regressed and then rejected God. Our Westminster Confession says there's two types of people, those who are predestined to everlasting life and those who are foreordained to everlasting death. I would like to add a subcategory to the second group of people, those who are to reprobate. I would like to add those who are apostates. The main proposition of the text is, backsliding Israel incurs the consequences of covenant disobedience and receives a prophetic warning. Again, backsliding Israel incurs the consequences of covenant disobedience and receives a prophetic warning. divided the passage into two parts. First, backsliding Israel incurs the consequence of covenant disobedience, verses 1 through 6. And second, backsliding Israel receives a prophetic warning, verses 7 through 10. First, backsliding Israel incurs the consequences of covenant disobedience. In this Gideon episode, we see already there is a marked moral decline. For they just came off the heels of the Song of Deborah when they would praise, exalt, and glorify God. But then we see their fickleness when, in the very first verse, it says that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, for they are unwilling to resist the allures of the foreign gods. Instead, they succumb freely to the allures of these strange deities. And so much so the worship of the bears and the asteroids. They seeped in so penetrated into the lifestyle of the Israelites. And not only did they stop the war with the Canaanites, but they associated with them more and more, and they started revering the forces of nature of those foreign gods instead of the forces of nature of the one true God, Yahweh, who created all things and governs all things. And they knew better. They knew that Yahweh was motivated by his honor and he wanted to exalt himself in it. We have here, it takes place, the struggle between Israel and his enemies in the wide plain of Jezreel. And this is a natural sequel from the previous episode. But now there is a new kind of adversary. And there is a different kind of struggle here for control. What we have right here. It's those who have come into the land. Those who the Israelites they disregarded, thinking that they're so uncultivated, uncouth, and unintelligent. These are the Midianites. These are the Amalekites and those of the East. Those Arabians, and they were nomads, they were shepherd folk, and they were traveling people, and they depended on people for their sustenance. An easy way to get that was to steal it. So during the harvest time, they would pass through the Jordan, they would go into that wide plain, and it would destroy the increase of it. And then when they were satiated, they went forth going towards the plain by the seashore, eventually going up to Gaza, the land of the Philistines. And this went on for seven consecutive successive years. And Although it was much shorter than some of the other oppressions we had there, in some ways it was much more severe. Ford says here in a text that they came up with their camels and with their cattle and their tents as grasshoppers for the multitude. And with the camels and then themselves, they were without number coming into the land and they would destroy the increase of the earth. If you think about it, it was actually much worse than being exterminated, even more so than being conquered because what they intended to do was to plunder all of their goods. If we see here that they have cattle, they also have donkeys. They also have sheep. That was the entire financial base of the Israelites. And so the Israelites, what they would do, as it says in verse two, they would go now into the mountains and make dens, and they would make caves and strongholds. We can see that they descended so low. They are like animals now, scourging in the holes in the hills. What low how they become. We see that. They're not the ones up high anymore, but they've been brought down so very low. What has happened to these Israelites? As you remember, the covenant of curses has come upon them. Because as it says in Deuteronomy, that it should come to pass, that if you hearken not to the words of the Lord your God, to observe, to do the things which I commanded you to do, These curses will come upon you and they will overtake you. And we come to verse 33. And it says that the fruit of your land and your labors, a nation which you know not will come up and eat up and it will oppress you and crush you always. And we get to verse 43 to 44. And it says that the stranger that is within your midst, is gonna get up above you so high and you shall come down very low. And he will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. And he is the one that should be the head and you will be the tail. We see how Yahweh has used, even according to the Israelites, those that are most despicable, to use them, to chastise them, because the Israelites, they have made God, Yahweh, now their enemy. And then we see in dire straits, again, they call and cry to the Lord. Again and again they do so, but this is not a cry for repentance. They still do not want to disassociate with these Midianites or with the Canaanites. They instead have a sort of manipulative intent. They want to hold on to the idols in their heart. They just want their desires of having some peace and creaturely comforts. The question remains is, how will Yahweh respond? We've considered the backsliding Israel incurs the consequences of covenant disobedience. But now we will look at verses seven through 10. Backsliding Israel receives a prophetic warning. Backsliding Israel receives a prophetic warning. Yahweh's response is a bit surprising. Usually, in the prior three episodes, Yahweh gave a deliverance, but we see here he's not sending forth the motion and deliverance, he's not putting forth those wheels, but instead now he sends a prophet. And the prophet says to them that they have breached the covenant, and that's why they're going through all these chastisements. And as a result, they have forfeited their right to all deliverance. This messenger of the Lord, he says, thus says the Lord, that he has brought them out of Egypt, that he has brought them up from the house of bondage. He has delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians. He has delivered them from those who have oppressed them. And he drove them out before them. And he gave them their land. And he says to them, I am the Lord, your God, to fear not the gods of the Amorites, which dwell in your land. And then he says, but you have not listened to my voice. We see in this statement by the prophet, that it is a summary of Yahweh's deliverance from Egypt and from there all other subsequent deliveries unto the present time we see here in the text here when the prophet speaks that it is eerily familiar familiar to the preface of the Ten Commandments, which teaches us that the Lord is our God, and because he's our God and Redeemer, everyone is bound to obey his commandments. We see here that it is subsumed that the first foundational commandment, you shall have no other gods before me here, and then when it says, through the prophet, by the Lord, to fear not the gods or the Amorites, that is the essence of the second commandment, to not bow down, to make a graven image, and to not worship those foreign idols. And then emphatically, he saves to the very end, but you have not obeyed my voice. And the prophet, he lets them know, just because you have a mere cry, it doesn't automatically equate to repentance. So they will call unto the Lord, but the Lord will not listen because they regard iniquity in their hearts. They will plead, but their deliverance is not immediate. They will lift up their voices and pray and make supplications, but in their perspective, their future is not necessarily secured. For the call on the name of the Lord invokes a relationship which incurs certain obligations. Psalm 145, 18 says that the Lord is near all those who call upon him. But what's the obligation? It's those who call upon the Lord in truth. And the Lord He will fulfill their desires, their desires, those who fear Him. It's the Lord who will hear their cry, those and He will save them. But they, they don't have a broken heart instead of a contrite spirit. They don't have a crying out which has one with spirit-wrought faith. So they will call upon the Lord, but the Lord will not hear, because they are a covenant people. And a covenant people, a covenant is a divine. It's a divine agreement with sanctions and stipulations. And the covenants, the one covenant of grace always had these laws from Adam, from Noah to Abraham, and also to Moses. It was known in a general form at that time, but now it is in an explicit form written down for them. And they have not listened to those laws. because they have not performed those works with the Spirit-wrought faith. It was not one with good works as one which is like, has an example of their faith and obedience. These people cry unto the Lord, but the Lord will not hear and he sends the Prophet and the Prophet says with the formal indictment saying that they have breached the covenant. They've been not faithful there and therefore they have disavowed any kind of deliverance. It is the Lord, it is the prophet here that tells them that they have covenant unfaithfulness and therefore they have no right to think that they will be saved. What he's saying to them that they are indeed apostate. They are, some of them are of the reprobate. And it's not known right now whether God will save them or deliver them. What we have here is the future of the covenant nation of Israel. It is up for grabs. That's backsliding Israel receives a prophetic warning, verses 7 through 10. And the stickliness of the church, it even comes to the present time. There are those within the covenant community of the church, and they are enamored with the allures of the world. And I will say that's also including myself. And I have to repent of that. So whenever you feel that there's some special sin which wounds the conscience or grieves the spirit of God, or some sudden and feminine temptation which God withdraws the light of His countenance, that even those who fear the Lord walk in darkness and have no light. Take that seriously because we don't want to play with apostasy. It's risky business. But for those who are the elect, the ones that God has chosen, He will use those chastisements, and He will use it for the softening of their heart, to make them meet for repentance. But we must beware because also He uses the same means of those who are apostate, who are reprobate, and He will use it to harden them. So we must beware. Because understand, yes, this one covenant of grace, it was made with Christ, who is the second Adam, and with his elect as his seed. And we have our duty to make sure our calling and election is sure. We must. We must cleanse ourselves from all flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Because without holiness, no one will see the Lord. We must make sure that we perform these good works because they're evidence of our faith. We should make our calling and election sure. In the book of Hosea, the prophet says to his wife, that you should remain with me many days. Don't play the harlot. And you should not be with any other man, but I will be with you. And then he continues, because although God, he has a right to file for a divorce, he does not. Because for those, the remnant within the covenant nation of Israel, it is he who betrothed them forever. And he will betroth them in righteousness, judgment, loving kindness, and mercies. Let's pray.