I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the book of Judges and the second chapter. If you're using the Bibles in the seats, that's page 201. Judges chapter two. We're continuing our search for Christ in the Old Testament, looking at each book of the Old Testament. We're looking for Christ because he tells us that he's there, particularly in Luke 24, but other places in the New Testament as well. I've suggested and will keep reminding you because I want them to be in your mind when you're reading the scripture, either in family or private worship, as well as corporate worship, six ways that we might look for Christ. It's not an exhaustive list. But two Ps, we look for the progress of redemption, we look for promises that are fulfilled in Christ. Two Ts, types, that is people, places, or things that point to Christ in the New Testament, things in the Old Testament that point to Christ, or themes in the scripture in which Christ shows up. And then the two Cs, to compare or to contrast the way that God works with his people in the Old Testament and the way that Christ deals with his church, particularly in the New Testament. Judges is a continuation of the conquest and distribution of the promised land to the people of God. If you look back in chapter 1, verse 1, we see that Judges begins immediately after the death of Joshua, though that death is recounted here in chapter 2 in a little bit more detail. The land is mostly conquered, but not entirely. And chapter 2 of Judges is in many way a summary of the book, and we'll see that. as we see a cycle, a pattern of behavior in which those named by God as his people engaged. Now, if you come to the book of Judges without any biblical ideas, you might be a little bit wondering. Often in our day, when we think of Judges, we think of a robed individual, a man or a woman presiding over a courtroom. Hopefully, for most of us, that image is only something we've seen on the screen, or read in books, and not actually had to stand before the judge, and make a plea. You might wonder, if that's your view of a judge, why we have a book about judges, and why we need a judge. But a judge in the Book of Judges, as most of you, if not all of you, will know, was not merely ruling over a courtroom, but a ruler over a country, or part of a country. A lesser magistrate than a king, but a ruler, a magistrate nevertheless. And in this Book of Judges, we are looking for the judge and king that we need. So listen to the Word of God, Judges, Chapter 2. Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they will become thorns in your sides and their God shall be a snare to you. As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lift up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bohem, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And 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 that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-Haris, in the hill country of Ethreum, north of the mountains of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them, who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashteroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from 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 afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back. and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he said, because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive them out before them, any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did. or not. So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. This is the word of the living God, and having heard from God, please join me in prayer as we seek his help in understanding his word. Our Father in heaven, we come to look for Christ. We come to hear from Christ. We come to hear from you, from your word. And so may it be that the words of my mouth and the meditation of our heart together would be pleasing in your sight. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. One of the statements that God gives in this text before us is that the Lord tests his people. The Lord tests his people. We know from the whole of scripture that God never tempts us. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by the Lord. For God does not tempt anyone, but God tests us. And God may even lead us into temptation, though he is not the author of that temptation. And so as we think about Israel, we need to also think about ourselves. How do you respond to the tests that God brings into your life? Will you ultimately, when tested, remember who you are? That God is your God and you are his people. That in Christ you have forgiveness of sins. That in Christ you have victory over temptation and over sin. How do you respond to God's tests? And I mentioned some of the tests that God gave here to his people. Will we keep covenant with God? Will we keep covenant with God? God's covenant relationship with his people expressed all throughout the Bible can be summarized in the phrase, I will be your God and you will be my people. And we'll look a little bit more in detail this evening at that first announcement here in this text of that covenant in which God says, I will never break covenant with you. We'll look at that more this evening. But how is it that we will respond to God's gracious, unbreakable covenant? How is it that you will respond when tested, when tempted in light of God's covenant relationship with you as people? Will you remember, as Peter states, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Will you hold on to words like that when tested and tempted? Will you say, I will Keep covenant with God, who has made covenant with me. The God who has given me this imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance, who keeps that in heaven for me, I will remember that covenant and will respond in obedience. What are some of the particular ways that you and I are to keep covenant with God in today's Christian age? will you bring your children to be baptized, a sign of the covenant, a sign of inclusion in the belonging to the public visible people of God. And children, as you have been baptized and grow up, grow up to trust Jesus, you then come to make covenant with God publicly as you profess your faith before his church. As you, the members, have made promises when we receive members and when we baptize covenant children to care for them, to care for one another, to, as we read in Hebrews, encourage each other daily. It's only daily as long as it's called today. So you can get by with only doing it seven days a week. That's part of the way that you keep covenant with God. The first Lord's Day of each month, we come to the Lord's table as humble and repentant Christians remembering this cup Jesus said, is the new covenant in my blood, do this in remembrance of me. Will we keep covenant with God, remembering that he is our God and we are his people? The second test that I suggest the Lord gives to us, his people, as he gave to Israel, is will we teach the generation to come? Will we teach the generation to come? In verse 10, there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. If you have a list of some of the saddest verses in the scripture, that verse should go there. Will we teach the generation to come? God's people And this is not dependent on us, but we are engaged in the work that God is doing. God's people are always only one generation away from extinction. They followed Joshua. They followed the elders that survived Joshua. And then there rose up a generation who did not know the Lord and did not know the things that he had done for Israel. At an opportunity, though, I had been told a couple of weeks ago, and told I'd be given a reminder, and the reminder never came, but on Thursday, I got a text that said, Did I send you the link for the podcast? And it was from Barry York, three guys theologizing, 3GT, and he had talked about interviewing me on their podcast about the family worship guide that I put together for the church here. And I said, no, you didn't. And he said, I'll send you the link. And I said, is this today? And he said, yes. And so I got online, and we had a delightful discussion with Professor York, Pastor York, Professor Kyle Borg from Winchester, Kansas, and then Elder, I'm going to draw a blanket his name, from the Marion, Indiana congregation, Scott Hunt, who is a prosecutor. And we talked about family worship, and how important family worship is to teach the generation to come the things that the Lord has done. So that doesn't come up a generation that doesn't know the Lord and doesn't know what he has done for Israel. We talked in that conversation about the Westminster Directory for Family Worship, which wasn't put together by the entire Westminster Assembly, but by the Scottish Church after the Westminster documents were completed. And they make a statement in the beginning of that directory how vital it is for public worship and how necessary it is for private and family worship. And the reason that they say it is so vital for those is that national reformation be advanced. You've perhaps heard the expression, the way the family goes is the way the church goes, and the way the church goes is the way the nation goes. May it never be that there is raised up among us a generation who does not know the Lord, nor what he has done for his people. I don't particularly care if you use Worship Connected each week in family worship, but I care that you have family worship, that you make it a regular practice in your life. One of the things that I found as I researched family worship or household worship in general as I was preparing for my doctoral paper that I submitted was how consistent the teaching of, and it appeared to be, the practice of family worship in those post-Reformation days. Some of you have heard of the poet Robert Burns. And Robert Burns, in 1785, wrote a poem called cotter's Saturday night, and a cotter was a poor peasant who was given a cot to live in in exchange for his labor. Let me just read the first couple stanzas, or one and a half stanzas, of this poem. It's expressed as though this is the normal practice of the Scottish people in Robert Burns Day. The cheerful supper done with serious face, they round the fire, form a circle wide. The sire turns over with patriarchal grace the big hall Bible, once his father's pride. His bonnet reverently is laid aside, his gray side locks wearing thin and bare. Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, he selects a portion with judicious care. And let us worship God, he says with solemn air. I don't think Robert Burns thought much of the singing of the Scots of his day, because then he says, they chant their artless notes in simple manner. But then he makes a very profound statement. They tune their hearts by far the noblest aim. And then he says, as perhaps Dundee's wild warbling measures rise, or plaintiff martyrs worthy of the name, or noble Elgin beats the heavenward flame. Dundee, Martyrs, are still tunes that we use in the book of Psalms for worship. You can look in the index later and maybe sing those wild, warbling measures. But it was the practice of many in the church to gather their children around the table and say, let us worship God. And the poem goes on to talk about the various places they might read, the various peoples they might encounter in the word of God. They came together to praise their Creator. They came together to teach their children. Is that your practice? Now, is it a guarantee? Am I saying that if you just have family worship with your kids, they'll grow up to love and serve the Lord? No, it's not a guarantee. Some of the Wayward Covenant children in this congregation that we pray for regularly heard about God in their youth. We're led by parents in family worship, but it is a means of grace. It is a means by which we ought to expect that we can teach the generation to come about the Lord and about what he has done for his people. God tests his people. Will we keep covenant with him? Will we train the generation to come? Will we walk in his ways? Verse 22, specifically he said that he would test them. Will they walk in my ways? Teach me, Lord, the meaning of your statutes, and I will always keep them. That is to be the heart and the mind and the commitment of the Christian. When we are tested, when we are tempted, the question comes, will I walk in this particular manner, matter, in the ways of God? Temptation, again, does not come from the Lord, but testing does. And often in testing, there is a temptation. And in our testing and in our temptation, this question arises, will I walk in his ways? Sometimes, even when we want to walk in his ways, many of you have memorized the first part or the second stanza of Psalm 119, how could a young man keep his way pure by keeping your words? I've treasured your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you. I have sought you with all my heart. Don't let me wander from your commands. It's one who's committed and yet knows there's a danger. I don't want to wander from the commands of God. And as you are tested, as you are tempted, as I am tested, as I am tempted, will we walk in his ways? Of course, we can do that because we have not a judge, not a king, but a priest who is also king and judge. But Jesus as priest is able to help you when you're tempted. He's able to help you whenever you are tempted. He promises that you will not be tempted beyond what you can endure, but you will be given a way of escape. And so to walk in his ways is not something you or I do all by ourself, just as to train the generation to come is not something that we do all by ourself. Keeping covenant with God is not something we do all by ourself. It's something we do in our union with Christ as he helps us overcome those temptations. But the reality is in too many ways we fail. It's not just that Israel failed. We fail. Many of us say it came in our morning prayer this morning. We sin daily in thought, word and deed. May that reality never become an excuse. And so I make the point here, not just they Israel, but we. We, because we fail, we need a judge. We need a judge because of our cycles of sin and we need a judge to avoid our cycles of sin. We need a judge because of and to avoid. our cycles of sin. And here in the middle of chapter 2, we have this downward cycle of sin that the people of God engaged in. First, they did evil. They follow other gods. And we don't need to just look at Israel and say, shame on them. We need to ask ourselves, what evil do I do? What are my idols? How are my idols leading me to do evil? John Calvin said that our heart is a factory for idols. Identify your idols and understand how they're enticing you to do evil. Though there is debate among Christians about Romans chapter 7, I'm convinced that it describes the Christian struggling against this cycle of sin, this doing of evil. So Paul writes that the things that I want to do, I don't do. And the things that I should do are not the things that I practice. This temptation to do evil, to follow after other gods. And then in this cycle continues, God delivers his people to their enemies. The people of God are delivered by God to his enemies, as perhaps we are as well. Why is America less Christian than it was when I was a teenager? Perhaps because even the people of God have strayed into evil and wickedness. Why is Europe not the Christian continent that it once was? Why is Scotland now not a place where family worship is regularly practiced, but a place that those in Scotland say is quite secular. I read a recent news article by someone making the point that it's in the last 50 or so years that Scotland has become so secular. That's a generation. There arose a generation that did not know the Lord or the things that he had done for Israel. I think it used to be that God bless America was a prayer, not just an add-on to a patriotic speech. Now you can say, you can ask, will sin always lead to national bondage? No. God will do what God will do. But God's pattern throughout history is to deliver his people to their enemies when his people sin. And so at times, when we look at the increase in unrighteousness in our nation, we need to look at ourselves. Are we contributing to this? Is God bringing judgment because of our sin? The cycle, though, continues. Do evil, follow other gods, be delivered by God to our enemies, and cry to the Lord in our distress. Cry to the Lord in our distress. We read that all through the book of Judges. Chapter 3, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. Again, later in chapter three, they cried out to the Lord and he raised up another judge. Chapter four, the Israelites cried out to the Lord. Chapter six, the Israelites cried out to him because of Midian. Chapter 10, they cried out to the Lord saying, we have sinned against the Lord. We have abandoned our God. We have worshiped the Baals. Let's make the distance between A in your outline and C in your outline as short as possible. When you fall into sin, the response of the Christian should be to immediately cry to the Lord in your distress. Don't wait to see if there's going to be punishment. Don't wait to see if there's going to be some kind of external discipline applied by love by a father who loves his children and will discipline them. But make that distance between sin and crying out to the Lord as short as possible. It's a video message talking about the Christian life, and someone in this was speaking about a pattern that sometimes Christians get into. What do you do when you sin? Well, he wasn't advocating this, but he said, sometimes I spend three or four days beating myself up, and then I go to the foot of the cross, and I repent, and I rejoice in my forgiveness. Don't do that. Don't spend those three or four days acting as if Christ's sacrifice wasn't sufficient. When you sin, cry out to the Lord in your distress. Go to the foot of the cross, repent, and remember, remember your forgiveness, and rejoice in that forgiveness. We see Paul writing in Romans 7, what a wretched man that I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death? and immediately following. Immediately after acknowledging that wretchedness, that struggle with sin, he says, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with my mind, I'm serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin. And then, even though our Bibles have verse and chapter separations, it goes immediately into, therefore there is now no condemnation. for those who are in Christ Jesus. Don't get stuck in this cycle of sin and this cycle of despair. When you see sin in your own life, cry to the Lord in your distress. Remember, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Plead with Christ who is able to help you in your temptation to rescue you. But the cycle continues here in Judges 2. After they cried to the Lord in their distress, God in his mercy, in his mercy, raised up judges to deliver them. I think if I'd been God and judges, I'd have said no, just stew in your problem for a while. But God is a merciful God. He will judge, he will judge justly. But in dealing with his people, he remembers his covenant. And he deals in mercy. And so we have throughout the book of Judges, and many of you have read it, it's full of stories of deliverance, of power, of men and women who we want to emulate. Twelve judges in Judges. not particularly given in sequential order entirely. I think we could separate them as we do the prophets, six major judges and six minor judges, six and six. Not all of Israel was under each one of them, but God raised up judges to deliver his people. He raised up judges to deliver his people. Now it's not exactly the same now in our lives. Elders and pastors do some of the tasks that the judges did in the book of Judges. We read in Ephesians 4 that Jesus gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ. Jesus gave elders and pastors of the church to do some of the work that judges did in the Old Testament, and some of the work that the judges did is done by civil authorities. We read in Romans 13 that there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. Rulers are not a terror for good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval, for it is God's servant for your good. And we long for that. We pray for that. We groan under ungodly rulers and ungodly laws. Some of you perhaps heard the swearing in of our new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He said this at his swearing in at the end of his remarks. I want to end by thanking Almighty God and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is truly the singular purpose of our lives. It's the most important priority. It's the only thing that will matter when we take our last breath on this earth. Now, even secular journalists haven't completely figured out whether Rubio is Catholic or Protestant. I don't know his heart, but I rejoice in his words. And we pray for that kind of words through those God sets over us. People did evil. They followed other gods and delivered from God to our enemies, cry out to the Lord in our distress. He raises up judges to deliver. and the judge dies and the people do evil. So in your outline, there's an arrow going back to the top. But it's not merely a circle. It's a downward spiral. You continue to read the book of the judges. You read that even when the judges lived, the people sinned. And then when they died, it seemed like their sin was unhindered, unbound. You read the last five chapters of the book of Judges. And you hate to read them out loud. You hate to read them to your children because they're so filled with wickedness. This downward cycle showing the depth of depravity that all of us tend toward apart from the work of Christ. Just as the people of Israel did in the days of the judges, so we need an eternal omnipresent judge. We need an eternal. We need a judge who's not going to die. And we need a judge who's present everywhere, who can deal with us. And we have one. And his name is Jesus Christ. And he is the one that God has raised up. We read this in Paul's last exhortation in his second letter to Timothy. I charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ who is to judge the living of the dead and by his appearing and by his kingdom preach the word. He goes on to say at the end, the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me a crown of righteousness on that day. And not only to me, but to all who love his appearing. There is an eternal, omnipresent judge, Jesus Christ, and he is the only hope that we have. for breaking our cycle of sin. He is the only hope that we have to turn away from that cycle of sin. And what we know is that Jesus is judge and Jesus is king. And we need not only a good judge, but we need a good king. There's some tension in the book of Judges and in the book of 1 Samuel. In 1 Samuel, in the end of Judges, we read that there was no king in Israel, and because of that, people did what they wanted. And yet we read when the people wanted a king, that God understood that they were rejecting that he was their king. And first he gave them a king after their heart, and then he gave them a king after his heart. And it's that good king that we need. I never thought much about kings until we moved to Australia. That's why I wore my Australian tie this morning. Because we're thinking of one who is not only a good judge, but a good king. Elizabeth was my queen. Charles is my king as a dual citizen, a citizen of both the United States and Australia. And though Australia was divided among royalists and republicans in general, they loved the monarchy. They loved Prince William, and while we were there, he married, as many of you will remember. In an article the day before that royal wedding, written by the Gospel Coalition, said this, it's not enough to have a king with the proper line of succession, or with the legal right to rule, people want a good king. They want a king with some dignity, who doesn't bear a checkered past of divorce and sex scandals, and it's not just the king's subjects who care, Hundreds of millions around the world will be watching tomorrow. We need a good king, a greater magistrate even than a judge. We need one who is king of kings and lord of lords. And why do we need one? Lest we do what is right in our own eyes. That's the phrase that you read twice at the end of the book of Judges. There was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. How do you decide what to do? You follow King Jesus. Jesus helps us do what is right in His eyes, not what is right in our eyes. Because of our union with Him, as we abide with Him and His words abide in us, as we seek the means of grace that He has given us, we find that we can turn away from our own sight to a spiritual sight and do what is right in the eyes of Christ. We need a good king lest we do what pleases us. Samson would have been one of the major judges, for no other reason than his story takes up several chapters and is so well known. And in Judges chapter 14, we have a phrase twice that's translated in the New King James and other translations, as he pursued a wife from the Philistines, she pleases me. She pleases me. But it's interesting, the Hebrew and the ESV adheres very closely to that. It's very much like everything that was right in their own eyes. It's, she's right to my eyes. When I look at her, it seems right. But in Christ, we change to what pleases Him. We become like Him. I have a dozen Reformed pastors met here for lunch on Thursday of this week, and it's a Reformed pastors' luncheon that we hope to do about every three months. One of the men had introduced himself to the group, said he grew up in Western Pennsylvania, and like his parents, he follows, and then he named a sports team, a Western Pennsylvania sport team. He was like his parents in many ways. But we don't want to be just like our parents. What's good in them, imitate, as they imitate Christ, imitate them. But we want to become like Jesus. Jesus, the one who says, I delight to do your will, O God. I don't want to do what pleases me, I want to do what pleases you, Lord Jesus. And in you, I can delight to follow your kingship and to submit to your rule. We need a good judge. We need a good king. And Jesus is the judge and the king that we need. And yet some even hearing this will say, no one is going to tell me what to do. But Jesus has and Jesus is. And the command that he gives from the beginning of his public earthly ministry is repent. Acknowledge that cycle of sin in your life and repent and believe the good news that Christ died for sinners like you and sinners like me. Disobey and ignore Jesus as the ultimate judge and the ultimate king at your peril. He is King of Kings. He is Lord of Lords. He is my Lord. He is my King. He is my God. Is he yours? Please pray with me. Now, Father in heaven, Judges is in many ways a sad book. And that there are glimmers of hope all through it. your covenant love, your covenant faithfulness, your covenant promises. You're hearing the cry of your people who cry out in distress, even when the distress is a result of their own sins. And so, Lord, may we cry out to you. May we cry out to you, not after we sin and are in distress, but when tempted to sin, may we cry out to you. Lord Jesus, help me in this temptation to do what pleases you and not what pleases me. Lord, would you cause us to remember your faithful love, to come again and again and again to the foot of the cross, remembering that we are forgiven in Christ. And will you help us do what is pleasing in your sight, because Christ is our King. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.