I invite you again this evening to open your Bibles to Judges chapter two. Judges chapter two, page 201, and the Bible's in the seats. If you have your own Bible, I don't know what page, but it's after Joshua. We're looking for Christ in the Old Testament. We're looking for progress and promises. We're looking for types and themes. We're looking to compare and contrast. and see how he is revealed in God's word. The context, as we saw this morning, the beginning of the post-Joshua dwelling in the land, and the immediate context is the sin of God's people. You ever break a promise to anyone? Ever anyone break a promise to you? Here in our text, God promises, I will never break my covenant with you. Listen to the word of God, Judges chapter two, verses one to five. Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Boheme, 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 shall 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 lifted up their voices and wept, and they called the name of that place Bohem, and they sacrificed there to the Lord. This is the word of God, and having heard from God and his word, let us seek him in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we pray that we might understand not just how you deal with your people of old, but how you deal with us. We pray that you would instruct us by your word and your spirit. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to invite you as a first point of application as we consider these five verses at the beginning of Judges chapter two, is to pray that the Lord will come up. Pray that the Lord will come up. It begins, interestingly, now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. It pictures a messenger walking on a road in the promised land. Normally, when there's an angel who comes, the angel just appears, but for some reason, and we don't know exactly the reason, but there may be some hints in the text, we have here, the angel of the Lord went up, moved along the road from Gilgal to Boheme. This angel of the Lord was probably Jesus. Notice, The angel of the Lord says, I brought you up. I brought you to this land. It seems most likely that this is the same figure that Joshua saw that we looked at last time. That man who was standing outside of Jericho with a drawn sword and Joshua said, are you for us or for our enemies? And he said, neither, but I am the commander of the armies of the Lord. Take off your shoes for you're standing on holy ground. It seems likely that this is another appearance of Christ in the Old Testament before his incarnation. And he went up from Gilgal. What happened at Gilgal is where God's people were circumcised, is where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. And he came up from Gilgal to Boheme or Boheme. A place that probably was near Bethel, where the sanctuary later settled. And we desperately want and desperately need Jesus to come up into our lives again and again. And so pray that the Lord will come up. And what did the Lord do? What did this angel of the Lord do as he came up? And how does that apply to us? We'll pray that the Lord will come up to remind of his protective care. To remind of his protective care. One writer says this, if this was the same divine person, believing as I do, that it was in fact a pre-incarnation appearance of Christ, a Christophany, then God's challenge was clear. When you obeyed my word at Jericho, Jericho right outside of Gilgal, when you obeyed my word at Jericho, you were victorious. Obey me now. You make commitments of faithfulness at Gilgal. Keep them now. And he came and he reminded them of his protective care. I rescued you from Egypt. I brought you to the land of promise. And how is it that Jesus has cared for you? How is it that Jesus has granted you his protective care? Certainly if you've come to faith and repentance, he has rescued you from bondage to sin and to Satan. And if you have not come to him in faith and repentance, today is the day of salvation. Come to Christ, receive his protective care. But what else do we know? We know that he's now preparing a place for you, and that he will come and take you to himself, and that he cares for you along the way. I'm sure it would be a rich time if we were to just talk about the particular protective cares that Christ has granted us in our journey in this life. Some of those protective cares even in the heart of difficulty. I was reading this afternoon a post from the wife of an elder in the Stillwater, Oklahoma congregation. that's battling what, unless the Lord intervenes, will be a terminal brain tumor. And she was recounting the protective care of the Lord, even as they seek to adjust to a new normal, in which the words from her husband, when I'm gone, are always there. And yet she spoke of the Lord's protective care. That may not be your lot, but what a rich thing it would be to recount, to be reminded of the protective care of the angel of the Lord to you and to me. Pray that the angel of the Lord will come up to remind of his protective care and to renew his promises. I will never break my covenant with you. I will never break my covenant with you. What do you do if someone says to you, I'm never gonna break my promises to you? Maybe you say with a bit of Lost hope? Sure. Sure you're not. I know you. I know you have. I know you will. I don't believe you. It's nice for you to say that, but it's not going to happen. Or maybe you think with more hope than that, I hope you don't. I love that you're making that sort of commitment, and I hope it's a commitment that you keep. Maybe you say, you better not. You better not break your promise to me. If you break your promise to me, you're going to have to deal with me, and it's not going to be pretty. The angel of the Lord says, I will never break my covenant with you. And again, as we read in the text, the context is God's people sinning. The angel of the Lord did not come to God's people who were in their sin and say, that's it. I will no longer keep my covenant with you. No, the angel of the Lord came to the people who were engaged in sin and said, I will never break my covenant with you. You've broken covenant with me. You promised to keep covenant with me and you've broken and you break it again and again. But I will never break my covenant with you. It's not that the angel of the Lord is coming to the people and said, you're doing a really good job. You are really keeping your promises to me, and since you are, I'm gonna keep my promises to you. I'm gonna reward you because you have been so obedient. That's not what's going on here. The angel of the Lord is coming to a sinful people, to a people that fail, and saying, I will never break my covenant with you. The angel of the Lord comes to renew his promises. And we know that all the promises of God are yes in Jesus Christ. What promises of God might you need to review? What promises of God might you need to be reminded of? Not because he has or ever could fail, but because you and I forget. I came up with 10, could easily be 20 or 30. I will never again destroy the world with a flood. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am with you always. I will strengthen you for all that you need to do. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man, but I am faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted will give you a way of escape so that you can stand up under it. I will remember your sins no more. I will send the Comforter and he will guide you into all truth. I will meet all of your needs. Whatever you ask in my name and the implication and the instruction from the rest of scripture is whatever you ask in my name and according to my will, the Father will give you. As you abide in me, you will bear fruit that remains for eternity. Those are at least 10 of the promises of God to you, his people, and he will never break his promise. The angel of the Lord came up, came up to remind of his protective care, came up to renew his promises, and came up to repeat his commands. God came to his people who were in the midst of sin and reminded them that they needed to turn from that sin. I will never break my covenant, but you have broken covenant with me. You have not obeyed, so obey. And that's the constant call of God in the scripture. Because I am your covenant God, therefore obey. the beginning of the Ten Commandments, the Lord spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, you shall not, or you shall have no other gods before me. Because I am your God, because I have delivered you from slavery, obey me, obey me. Jesus says in the New Testament, if you love me, keep my commandments. Paul writes under the inspiration of the spirit of the Romans, therefore, don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you obey its desires. And don't offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God and the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness, for sin will not rule over you, for you're not under law, but under grace. The angel of the Lord repeats his commands to his people, and God continually repeats his commands to you and to me. And he calls you to obedience. And you know that you can't do that on your own, and so you take hold of the means of grace. You come to worship. You come to the assembly of God's people to meet with him and to be strengthened as you sing and as you pray and as you hear the word read and preached. You give yourself to prayer, whether it's in your private or your family prayer time, whether it's in the corporate assembly or the prayer meeting on Sunday evening or Wednesday nights. And as you pray about obeying God's commands, if you need something to pray, because perhaps you're struggling, as we all do at times, to obey God's commands, I was reminded of this text this week. The prophet Hosea says this. Sow righteousness for yourself and reap faithful love. Break up your unplowed ground. And I think the picture is don't be hard to the things of God. And then he says this. It's time to seek the Lord until he comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain. It's time to seek the Lord until he comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain. As you remember the commands of God and you're aware of your struggle to obey them in and of yourselves, pray and keep praying. Lord, I'm gonna pray until you rain down righteousness on me. I need your help. to obey your commands. I need your righteousness rained down on me. And I recognize that it's time to seek the Lord until he comes and says righteousness on you like the rain. Pray that the Lord will come to renew, to remind of his protective care, to renew his promises, to repeat his commands, and to review his righteous judgments. For at the end of these verses, He gives a warning. He gives a rebuke to his people in their sin. These of the nation that you have not driven out will be thorns in your side and their gods will be a snare to you. And God had twice told his people that would happen if they failed to follow him. And yet there are warnings all through the word of God. Disobedience to God's commands that we sometimes think might bring freedom brings bondage. And you, young people, you in your 10s and your teens, you need to recognize that early. And we who are older need to remember it as we're older. But there's an attractiveness to sin. And it seems like it's gonna be fun. And it seems like it's gonna bring freedom, but it brings bondage. And as God reviews his righteous judgments, as the angel of the Lord comes up to give warnings, that pattern continues all through the scripture. I don't have a list of 10 from the New Testament, though I could, but let me give you four. Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered. You can treat your wife however you want. God says it's going to hinder your prayers. And you don't want that. I don't want that. Peter writes, encouraging his readers to supplement their faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness with love. And then he says why. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful. And the implication is if you don't keep these qualities in increasing measure, you will be in some way or another useless and unfruitful. Even though you profess to know Christ, there are warnings to disobedience. Or Jesus writes about that man who hears his words and doesn't act on them. And you know the story. He says it'll be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded on that house, and it collapsed. It collapsed with a great crash. There's a warning. You crash and collapse if you turn away from the righteous judgments of God. And the author of Hebrews, writing to Jewish Christians who are struggling with wanting to go back to Judaism, which was good in the Old Testament, but not good enough, and so God did more. And they were struggling to understand that. And the author of Hebrews writes this, if we deliberately go on sinning, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversary's strong warnings in the New Testament about heeding the righteous judgments of God. And the call in all of these things is to flee from the sins of the world. flee from the sins of the world. I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. I brought you to this promised land. I promise you that I will never break My covenant. I gave you My command. Make no covenant with the world. Make no covenant with the people of the land. And you have not heeded My commands." And so the urging of Scripture is to flee from the sins of this world. I wonder if any of you have had to run for your life. Very sad account that I remember from my younger days. I don't remember how old I was. Probably in my later teens, maybe in my early 20s. There was a holdup in a robbery at a restaurant in Indianapolis where I lived. And one of the employees ran. And they ran into a tree in the woods as they were fleeing for their life from these who were coming with guns. And they were killed. I've never had to run like that. But the call of the scripture is to run like that, away from the sins of the world. Flee sexual immorality. Flee from idolatry. Flee from quarrels and envy and slander and evil and suspicions and the love of money. Flee youthful passions. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And perhaps you say, I don't have the strength to flee that way. I don't have the strength to resist the devil. Then cry out to the angel of the Lord, Jesus himself, who said to Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. but I have prayed for you so that your faith will not fail. Flee from sin, resist the devil and he will flee from you, and in your weakness, in your struggle, when you recognize, I'm having trouble resisting the devil, ask the angel of the Lord to pray for you so that your faith will not fail. What are the particulars in our text here in fleeing from the sins of the world? The first is just that, don't covenant with the world. Don't covenant with the world. These people of God, whom God had made an unbreakable covenant with, were making covenant with the world around them. And scripture screams at us not to do that. Don't give in to the world and the flesh and the devil. Everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. Don't give the devil an opportunity. Flee the world and the flesh and the devil. And again, for you young people, this call is particularly to you. Not because we who are older don't need to flee the world and the flesh and the devil. but because sometimes in our youth, we either think we're strong enough to stand when we need to only stand in the strength of Christ, or we think it's not really that bad. You know, I can be a little bit in the world and a little bit in Christ. No, you can't. No, you can't. Don't covenant with the world. Friendship with the world is hatred toward God. The context of our call to worship was those who broke covenant with God, and he calls them back. He says, don't fear other gods. Fear the Lord. Don't covenant with the world. And then, weep. Weep with godly sorrow over your sins. May it be that there are places in your life that you name Bohem, the place of weeping. One writer put it this way, Israel fled to the Lord for grace and forgiveness and in the presence of the eternal Son of God, the angel of the Lord. That's what you and I are called to do. Turn from sin, but when you sin, weep with godly sorrow over your sins. When did you, when did I last weep over my sin? We say, I sin every day in thought, word, and deed. I'd suggest you ought to weep every day over your sin. Weep with godly sorrow. There's a worldly sorrow that leads to death, but a godly sorrow that leads to repentance and leads to life. And so weep with godly sorrow as you move toward change because your sorrow is godly. And having wept, worship. Having wept, worship. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord. They heard the angel of the Lord. They heard the rebuke and the warnings and the judgment because of their sins. And they wept over their sins and they named the place where they were weeping. And then they called on the name of the Lord. In the presence of the angel of the Lord, probably in the presence of the second person of the Trinity, they called on the name of the Lord. So like I mentioned this morning, sometimes when we recognize our sin, we think we have to do something. We have to beat ourselves up for a little bit before we can come back to the Lord. Somehow we have to make it right in and of ourselves, and if we could do that, we wouldn't need a Savior. And so after you weep over your sin, worship the Lord. Repent, to be sure. Repent of your sin. I'm convinced that the more we repent and the more we forgive, the better our Christian life is, and it may seem like it doesn't make sense, and I don't know if it makes sense to me, but I've experienced it, experienced it in my life, experienced it in my marriage. The quicker you are to confess and the more lavishly you grant forgiveness, the better you will be. and having repented, repented to God and the people you've sinned against, having sought restoration as you are able, come to worship. Don't ever be one who stays home on the Lord's day because of your sin. If you're becoming hardened in your sin, you need the presence of the people of God even more. But if you're weeping over your sin, come to worship. As we considered in the second hour class this morning, if you're weeping over your sin, come to the Lord's table. Come and taste of the body and blood of Christ. Come and be nourished by Christ himself. Having wept, worship. And then rejoice. Rejoice that God will never break his covenant with his people. And the reality, and Hebrews tells us this reality, is that the unbreakable covenant promise of God is made more unbreakable, if that were possible, because of Christ. Because it's Christ who is the mediator of the better covenant, of the new covenant. Hebrews 8.6, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. And we need to understand that. It's not as if the old covenant, well, what is the old covenant? Let me back up just a minute. It's not the Old Testament, and it's not the covenant of works. Rather, it's the Old Testament administration of the covenant of grace. And it was heavy with law. And it called people to obedience. And again and again and again, God's people realized they couldn't do it. And God knew all along that they couldn't do it, though he promised early on that they need it and he would give them circumcised hearts, that they need it and he would give them a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone. But in the Old Testament, there's a promise of a new covenant. And the author of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31, that promised new covenant. And Christ is the mediator, that is, he's the go-between between God the Father and us in that new covenant. And it's in Christ that the unbreakable covenant of God is made more unbreakable. When you say how can it be more unbreakable? It's a better promise. It's made more clear that the covenant of God is unbreakable because Christ is that mediator, is that go-between. And so Christ says in his invitation to the Lord's table, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And in that new covenant, we're promised that God will put away our sins and remember them no more. In that new covenant, we're promised that the law will not merely be written on tablets of stone, but will be written in our hearts. One writer pointed out that that's the way Adam was created, but when he sinned, he then needed the law written on tablets of stone because it was no longer written on his heart. And in Christ, the law is rewritten on the hearts of those who are his. One writer said this about this new covenant reality. He says it's new in the sense that it fulfills everything that was promised in the earlier covenants God made. What does that mean? He says, well, it's the law that's written in our hearts. The law didn't change. The Ten Commandments are still there. But God, through the Spirit's ministry, writes them on our heart. And so the instinct, the desire, the power to live in fellowship with God, that is written on the hearts of believers. That's what Christ has done for you. That's what Christ has done to secure God's covenant promises so that they will never be broken. He mediates this new covenant so that the instinct and the desire and the power to live in fellowship with God is written on your heart and my heart. and the Spirit of God reminds you and helps you to obey that. What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering in order that the law's requirements would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. God's covenant is secure in Jesus, always and forever. God's covenant is secure in Jesus, always and forever. Rejoice with me in prayer. Our Father in heaven, thank you that you never break your covenant. Thank you that Christ has secured a better covenant on better promises Thank you for the work of Christ in writing your law in our hearts, enabling us as we abide in him to obey your commands. And Lord, when we don't, let us weep, and having wept, let us worship, because you are a God who forgives your people. who placed our sin upon Christ so that we can stand in your very presence. We pray in Jesus' name.