If you have your Bibles, brothers and sisters, would you turn with me back to the book of Judges? We've had a few weeks hiatus here. You may remember back in Chapter 9, we were faced with the reign of Abimelech, a self-proclaimed judge in Israel who brought to the land three years of horror and sorrow. In Chapter 10, how does God respond? What do God's people learn as a result of it? Chapter 10. We begin just reading verses 1 through 9. We'll work our way through this passage. It's printed in that insert if you didn't bring a Bible with you. Hear the word of God. Judges chapter 10. After Abimelech, there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua, son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, And he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. And he judged Israel 23 years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir. After him arose Jair, the Gileadite, who judged Israel 22 years. And he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 cities called Havoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died and was buried in Caman. The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Asherah and the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hands of the Ammonites. And they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For 18 years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. And the Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. Let us pray. Father, we ask that you would open our ears to hear your word today. Strengthen us inwardly by the work of your spirit and open our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I think I can safely say, I was going to say most parents have seen this scenario, but I think I can safely say any parent has seen this scenario. A child who has been told to stop whatever and just won't. Back to it again and again and again. picking on their little sister, pulling hair of their brothers, pulling things down that they're not supposed to be touching, taking things that they've been told to leave alone, giving an excuse over and over again for everything that they're refusing to do, talking back through warning after warning until finally, in our case, it was the spoon that comes out. Okay? Spoon gave us time to think. Okay. Is this defiance or is this irresponsibility? And, you know, go to your room, just time to think, okay? But what you're hearing is, I'm sorry, Mommy, I'm sorry, Mommy, I'm sorry, Mommy, I'm sorry, as soon as the spoon comes out, right? Now, if you think what has taken place is a change of heart in that child in those intervening seconds, then one, you are deluded, two, you are in for certain disappointment, and three, you are going to get more of the same from this particular child. The problem is it doesn't just happen with little children. Confronted with the consequences of our sin, some deception that's been uncovered, some outburst of anger and the pain it's caused, the patterns of behavior that are repeated over and over and over again, the procrastination, the lack of self-discipline, the habits and attitudes that come out of that, the hurts that alienate others, the things that leave us uncomfortable, the sin we repeat time after time after time but won't do anything about it. And we turn to the Lord and we say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Today's passage forces us to ask, are we confessing our sorrow over the consequences, over the effects of our sin of dealing with it, or are we confessing the attitude of our heart that are really the offense to God? We want to be free from the consequences of sin. We don't necessarily want to work on or address or be rid of the sinful mind or heart that keeps driving those behaviors, causing the struggles. We just want the suffering to end. As I say, I think it's children, it's adults, it's nations that can behave that way. Now, our passage opens in chapter 10 with an interesting, I think, a marvelous picture here. A picture of compassion is where it opens. We're introduced to two minor judges. Now, I'll call them minor judges like we speak of the minor prophets. Minor being their messages are shorter or the amount of ink devoted to them is shorter, but not that the message is any less important. Just because it's brief doesn't mean it's less valuable or profitable. Two minor judges, Tola. Now, what do we know about Tola? Well, we know his parentage, we know his tribe, we know his home, and we know that he judged for 23 years. It's a long time. He's followed by Jair, we know his home, and we know something of his ambition. We get a little more insight here into Jair. Multiple wives, multiple sons, 30, as a matter of fact, that he puts on donkeys. Now, we're doing something like the kings, multiplying wives, multiplying children, putting them on donkeys. You know, these are the king's sons, giving them 30 cities, even to that day, that were called the Havath Jair. that is the cities of Jair. He's extending his influence, if you will. He's working to secure his place, I think, in history. He wants to be remembered. He wants a legacy. All I could think of was one of our hymns, Father, all my life is portioned out for me. Content to fill a little space, if thou be glorified, I'm not sure that's exactly where Jair was, but Lord, give us the hearts that can say when we've done everything we were supposed to do, we're unworthy servants. We've only done what was our duty. But these minor judges give us a picture of, I think, major grace on the part of God. For 45 years, the legacy of Abimelech is averted. Now, if the rulers that followed Abimelech were like him, it's hard to imagine the suffering that would have ensued on the people of Israel. They might have gone into captivity 500 years earlier than they did. God responded to the suffering of his people by giving them 45 years of stability in these minor judges. But we read on. It seems they can't break the pattern of sin. And so we're brought right back to that picture of oppression. They return to idolatry. And this time, it's not just, they began to worship the Baals and the Astra. No, this time, it was the gods of Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammonites, Philistines, they were just multiplying their gods, this expansion of their whoring, the word is used in scripture, of this idolatry. This isn't run-of-the-mill. They're really working at it. They're going after every set of gods that they can find. They're not going to miss a one. They're going to bow down to everything. They'll worship the gods of everybody indiscriminately. And it tells us that they forsook The Lord, they did not serve him. Now, it seemed in the past that the Lord kind of had taken a back seat. They were still, you know, he was just one of them, but he seems to be left out of this pantheon altogether. And so the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. It burned against them. And he sold them to another owner, goes into the ownership of somebody else. They can do whatever they want because it's not his property. anymore is the sense you get. We were married over 20 some years before we bought our first house. And we worked hard to do what we wanted, make that our home, tearing out walls and fixing things, blah, blah, blah. Well, when we moved here, obviously, we sold that house. Some years later, Dale had occasion to go back and drive past it. And they had ruined it, of course. absolutely ruined it, and added things to it, and it didn't fit to the house, and it didn't fit to the neighborhood. And it's like, oh, what do they do to my, oh, it's not my house. They could do whatever they want with it. Should I really care? God sold them. It's the same concept as God in Romans 1, turning them over. The things that they said they wanted, the things that they desired, He gave them over to Him and they got exactly what they wanted. Would it satisfy them? Absolutely not. They could drink of it as much as they wanted, but it would never satisfy. No matter how hard they worked at it to make it so. They were deceiving themselves, as 1 John 1.8 says. If we say we have no sin, This is a terrifying verse. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. It's exactly what they were doing. And so the Lord used the Philistines and the Ammonites as an instrument of judges when it was supposed to be the other way around. Israel was supposed to be driving out the idolaters and cleansing the land so that they would know the blessing of God. Instead, they become, now they put themselves in the place of being under judgment. And it affected all of Israel. It wasn't just the tribes that were east of the Jordan in Gilead. They cross over, and they come into Ephraim, and to Judah, and to Benjamin, and so all Israel is going to suffer. For 18 years, they continued to bow down to the gods of the nations. Their behavior didn't change. thinking that their futures would. Maybe if we find more gods, we'll finally get out of this situation. Now understand, we're at Chapter 10 of the Book of Judges. This pattern, quote-unquote pattern, has been going on now for 350 years. We disobey. We come under oppression. We cry out. The Lord restores. The Lord raises up a judge. 350 years this has been going on. When is it going to change? Now, if that isn't the definition of insanity, I don't know what is. You keep doing the same thing expecting a different result, right? Isn't that how they define it? Serving other gods has repeatedly left these people in misery. Adding Yahweh to a list of gods has done nothing but serve to bring oppression. to them. And at this time they are, we can translate it, shattered and crushed as they've now multiplied these gods. And I am not mocking them because you and I see it every day, sometimes in our own lives, The sin from which we cannot break free, but we won't ask for help. We'll just keep doing it. We'll just keep going back to it. Surely, we see it in the lives of those around us. And I'm not just thinking of the bondage of alcohol or drugs. I remember being, you know, and Rob talks about it, too. There were times when we, period, when I was going to the gym very consistently, which I need to do again. It didn't matter if I went Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. It didn't matter if I went in the morning, the afternoon, or the early evening. You saw the same people there every day, thinking that somehow this is going to make me, what, it's going to satisfy me. I'm going to get this body in such incredible shape. Did it satisfy? If it did, maybe they'd take a break now and then. How many people have we seen that cannot be happy outside of a romantic relationship? But before they settle the longings in their heart, the things that are driving them and leading them and misleading them before they deal with those sinful desires, they're jumping from one unhealthy situation to another. They can't be happy. They can't be content unless they're in a romantic relationship and then they make bad choices. and misplaced loves, and it dooms them. Oh, yeah, we've seen it. Think of the devastating power of pornography. We know the power. Psychologically and physiologically, it's well-known, and it leaves people, sadly, more and more women as well, you know, used to think it's the guy's problem. No, it is not, and it leaves people with the inability to function in real intimate interaction and engagement and relationships. You're broken emotionally and physically. It leaves you dissatisfied. It leaves believers with enormous shame. And yet they keep going back. Thinking, well, there'll be some satisfaction, some fulfillment. This time it'll be different, but it never is. Trusting something other than the living, loving God of creation and life to satisfy our longing and needs does not work. But we keep going back to the same things. As I say, yes, I pity them, but I'm not mocking them for all those years. And so finally we come to what we hope is a picture of repentance. Israel cries out again, verse 10. Israel cried out to the Lord saying, we've sinned against you because we've forsaken our God and we have served the Baals. And the Lord said to the people of Israel, did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also and the Amalekites and the Moanites oppressed you and you cried out to me and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods. Therefore, I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress. And the people of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. And it should have stopped right there. Only please deliver us this day. So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And he became impatient over the misery of Israel. We're going to talk about a few things here, but there's one thing you have to grasp. So get this if you don't hear anything I say for a while. God's compassion is not tied to the sincerity of our repentance. That may sound strange, but let me explain it, I hope. Israel cries out. Now, this has happened before. How many times in the last 350 years This time, we have sinned. That's the first time we've seen that. We have chosen poorly. But their cries haven't included that statement before. It seems like a good place to start. But like the little child saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I think appearances can be deceiving. It has the form of the repentance in a way that's not been heard before, at least by us. But I think the Lord sees and he understands something else. He does not answer with, finally, you're acknowledging your sin. No, instead they receive a rebuke. Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sedonians, the Amalekites, the Mahanites who have oppressed you? I saved you out of their hand, but you have forsaken me. And then this terrifying statement. because they've come to him essentially as their last resort. They've tried everything else. They've tried all of these other gods. They're probably still trying all those other gods. They may as well try the Lord. Apparently, they have not changed. And the Lord says, I will save you no more. It's terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. No more? Go to the gods you've trusted and served. You're finding out what kind of masters they are. You chose them. You live with them. Now, if you're like me, you're saying to yourself, I am so glad that I I'm not under that old covenant, but I'm under the new. When I cry out for forgiveness, there's grace sufficient in Jesus, my Lord. He's delivered me from the bondage and the penalty of sin. I don't have to fear this at all. I can sin all I want and still come back to the Lord and be forgiven. That better not be our attitude. And we need to understand that God's grace was at work through the law as well. because God gave them that law to reveal his nature to them, so that would show them the depth of their sin, to point them to that need of a savior, to point them to the Messiah, the one who, the only one who could really save them. And that law would restrain them from sin, or at least it should, showing them what was just and right, guide them to what was pleasing to God. You see, it's possible for us to presume on God's mercy as New Testament believers too. In other words, it's really possible to turn from sin in a sinful way. That's why we read Simeon. Simeon made the profession, Simeon's following along in the church, but boy, something was not right. He said and did all the right things, but he was still acting, living in regard to what he had to gain. It was not an unconditional surrender. Thy will be done, Lord. For many outside the church, and I fear for many inside as well, the attitude is, well, if God is real, if God is good, he simply has to come to my rescue if I follow the formula. I give up whatever it is that I've been doing or trusting and I tell God I'm sorry and the suffering should be finished. God's obligated to help me now. No, he's not. The Lord clearly and powerfully dispels that notion with the terrifying, I will save you no more. Now, I am a New Testament believer and I do trust and rest in Christ. And I know that like the prodigal, I can come back and must come back. But the prodigal did not come back with demands. The prodigal came back with humility and submission. You treat me like one of your servants, Lord. But because of that love, because of that sacrifice made, he is not treated like an unworthy servant, but like a son. There is our hope. not in my ability to satisfy God, but in God's enduring, redeeming love. Did the people repent, really repent? It happens again in verse 15. And the people of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. In other words, we are in your hands. I don't know. I wrestle with this. I really am wrestling with it. I would like the period to be there, right there, without the only deliver us. But that's who we are, isn't it? It's the foxhole conversion. There's an intense honesty there. But in some ways, these two sentences, these two statements don't really belong together. Do whatever you know is best. And we say that to the Lord. And then we say, but don't make me share this with, you know, or don't do Lord, whatever you know is best. But don't send me to this place or to do that. But let me have just this one thing. Why we do it all the time? No, Lord, do what seems good to you. And so they put away the idols. It was the right and good thing to do. I'm not sure it was the first time they'd done it. But what we do seek, what the Lord seeks, is a true repentance, a sorrow for the sin of the heart, not just the consequences that they are experiencing, a change of heart that leads to a change in behavior. In other words, a true and genuine sorrow for sin in the heart. Repentance comes with no conditions. And God does welcome those who truly turn away from sin, confessing I'm sorry because I have to tell you that, but the sin of the heart that rebels against God's truth and coupled with belief, specifically in that Messiah, in the Savior, the Son of God who died to take away the punishment of sin, it does lead to eternal life. But it necessarily and inexorably brings a change in our motivation and action. Simeon didn't fool the Lord. He didn't fool the apostles. His heart commitments were still to economic gain and self-promotion. It hadn't changed. And he was in grave danger if he didn't repent and believe. True and saving faith says, I'm in your hands. Do whatever seems good to you. Even if in the midst of it, it doesn't seem good to me. I'm not convinced their repentance was genuine, that the Lord was given that place of rule that they claimed to seek because of the way the passage concludes. Look at verse 17 and 18. And the Ammonites were called to arms and they encamped against Gilead. Okay, things began to change and the Ammonites saying, whoa, we got to stomp this down fast. And they gathered together and the people of Israel came together and they encamped at Mizpah. And the people, the leaders of Gilead said to one another, who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be the head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. Did they turn to the Lord? No. No, they turned to one another. Do they really have the Lord first in their minds and hearts? Do they seek the Lord to find his choice? For the judge who would rule, because except for Abimelech up to this point, it was the Lord who raised them up. And it was the Lord who brought them Tola and Jair, that they might have those years of peace. No, they were total pragmatists. What will it take to get somebody to lead the fight? Offer them the position of head over everybody. He can't be worse than what we have now. Don't they wish? Even now. The Lord relents. And we've been dealing with this tension throughout the book of Judges, and that tension is still there. The Lord relents. Back to verse 15. And the people of Israel said to the Lord, we have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. In verse 16, they put away their foreign gods from among them, and they served the Lord. And what does it say? He heard their cry and received their repentance and responded. No, it says he became impatient over the misery of Israel. It wasn't because their repentance was so good. It was because his love was so strong. He had made a promise to Abraham to make from him a great people. And in spite of that, in the midst of that tension, he could bear their suffering no longer. God acts on our behalf, not because of our sincerity or because we've earned it by our good works or our wonderful works of repentance, but because of his love and compassion. He responds out of love for his son and for what his son loves. Do not lose sight of the fact that Christ died for us while we were sinners. Do not lose sight of the fact that these Israelites, if they were going to be saved, truly saved, was because there is a Savior who would pay the debt of their sin and rebellion. The Lord Jesus Christ, they would look ahead to that Savior just as surely as we look back to the cross. And so there is a picture for us of deliverance here. Not just a picture, but the reality of it. We have the tension of verse 13, God in his holiness and justice can say rightly, no more, no more. Enough with this wickedness and sin. This is what justice would merit. crushing oppression they had chosen. They rejected the living God, trusting and rushing after false gods, and so the judgment against them would be fully just, as it would be against us, and is against us. But he is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. These are his people. Will he abandon them to despair and destruction? You see, we feel that tension. But he does not. I can't resolve that tension. I can't make myself righteous and holy and therefore satisfy God. God would have to resolve that tension to satisfy his justice and to fulfill his compassionate love. So it is of necessity that God would resolve that tension which he did so gloriously in a savior. in whom righteousness and peace would kiss, where holiness and love meet, where one meets the perfect, the demand of perfect obedience, meets all the demands and expressions of righteousness and holiness. Without any sin of his own, he would bear the wrath of God against sin. the Israel knights needed to look ahead, to lay hold of the compassion of God, to believe His love was given that full and perfect expression in Jesus Christ and in the blessings that He has brought for in love He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Christ. prodigals who come without demand to the Father through Christ, who are received and clothed in robes of righteousness. Does the Lord call us to repent and believe? He does. In the Valley of Vision, one of the prayers is on confession and repentance. And he wrote, I need to repent of my repentance. I need my tears to be washed. I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness. I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace, I'm always receiving change of raiment. That means a change of clothes, children. For you always justify the ungodly. I am always going into the far country and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me. And you are always bringing forth the best robe. Every morning, let me wear it. Every evening, return in it. Go out to the day's work in it. Be married in it. Be wound in death in it. Stand before the great white throne in it. Enter heaven in it, shining as the sun. Be robed in that righteousness. Rest in the compassion of God, his justice satisfied in his son, your savior. Repent and believe. Father, indeed, bring us to that true repentance. For you call us to it. But it is your love that brings us even to that, Father. how we praise you and give you thanks, that in pictures that we see so clearly what we deserve, you, Lord, have shown compassion and mercy and grace abounding. Lord, may we repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.