Good morning, EFC. It's good to see you all this morning on this memorial weekend. Glad you can make it with us. You aren't traveling this week, and so you're sticking around town. It's really great to have you all here. So let's start out this morning by reading the word of the Lord and letting that wash over us. We're going to read from Psalm 107, verses 1 through 9. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in. hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. For he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for this opportunity to be gathered here in your house of worship. We pray for safety for those on the road who aren't able to be with us this morning. For those of us who are out of state or with family, we pray for your mercy, your travel blessings to be with them. And for those of us here this week, I pray that this would be a time of encouragement, a time of blessing, and just a time that would strengthen us throughout this following week. I pray that we would be encouraged and we would just continue to strive after you as you have commanded in your name we pray. So with that I pray that we would all stand and we will sing whom shall I fear God of angel armies You hear me when I call. You are my morning song. Though darkness fills the night, it cannot hide the light. Whom shall I fear? You crush the enemy. Underneath my feet You are my sword and shield Though troubles linger still Whom shall I fear? I know who goes before me. I know who stands behind. The God of angel armies is always by my side. The one who reigns forever, he is a friend of mine. The God of angel armies is always by my side. My strength is in your name For you alone can save You will deliver me Yours is the victory Whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear? I know who goes before me. I know who stands behind. The God of angel army is always by my side. The one who reigns forever, he is a friend of mine. The God of angel army is always by my side. And nothing formed against me shall stand. You hold the whole world in your hands. I'm holding on to your promises. You are faithful. You are faithful. And nothing formed against me shall stand. You hold the whole world in Your hands. I'm holding on to Your promises. You are faithful. You are faithful. You are faithful. I know who goes before me. I know who stands behind. The God of angel armies is always by my side. The one who reigns forever. He is a friend of mine The God of angel army Is always by my side I know who goes before me I know who stands behind The God of angel army Is always by my side The one who reigns forever He is a friend of mine. The God of Angel Army is always by my side. The God of Angel Army is always by my side. will enter the land. The battle belongs to the Lord. No weapon that's fashioned against us will stand. The battle belongs to the Lord. And we sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory, Now I'm straight to the heart And we sing, glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing, glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. When your enemy presses in hard, do not fear. The battle belongs to God. Take courage, my friend, your redemption is near. The battle belongs to the Lord. We sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. We sing glory, honor, power and strength to the Lord. When we walk with the Lord, in the light of His Word, in the glory He sheds on our way. While we do His good will He abides with us still And with all who will trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies, but his smile quickly drives it away. Not a sigh nor a tear Can abide while we trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Not a sorrow we share, but our joy he doth richly repay. Not a grief nor a loss, not a frown nor a cross, but is blessed if we trust and obey. Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey But we never can prove The delights of His love Until all on the altar we lay For the favor He shows And the joy He bestows Are for those who will trust and obey Trust and obey For there's no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at his feet, or we'll walk by his side in the way. What he says, we will do. Where he sends, we will go. Never fear, only trust and obey. Please be seated. Good morning, everyone. Are you all blessed? Count your many blessings. They're new every morning, new every day. I'd like to welcome everybody, especially those online that can't be with us. We are anxious to see you, and we've been praying for you. We love you, and the Lord loves you. It's good to see so many faces here, too. I'd like to remind you about the tangent forms on the end of each of the chairs here. Be sure and fill those out and just leave them on the end of the chair. They'll be picked up later. Okay, we have a new member letter. that I'd like to read to you. It's dated May 27th. It says, Dear Members at Oroville EFC, the Board of Elders and Deacons recommend the following individuals be accepted to the membership of the church. They have confessed with their mouths Jesus as their Lord and Savior and believe in their hearts that God has been raised from the dead. And that person, we have one person, if you would stand, Debbie Billington. If any member of the church believes there is just cause to reject the individuals on this list into membership of the church, please contact any elder or deacon or me, Pastor Greg, during this upcoming week. Your fellow servants in Christ, Pastor Greg Hensel. So we're started the process and then we'll confirm you. Hopefully. I don't know of anything yet. Okay. We have a few announcements. One before I forget that came in last minute that Christina Bamford is going to lead the VBS drama group. So if anybody's interested or might be interested in doing that, she's just going to meet over here on the restroom side of the sanctuary after the service. So if anybody would like to gather there with her. Okay, women's ministry. I don't know if we got those up there or not. We'll have their weekly prayer meeting this week on Thursday, June 3rd from nine to 10 a.m. And see Carol Hensel or Peggy Schultz if you have any questions. And all women are invited to come and pray. Women's ministry is encouraging all women to get involved in reading and discussion groups this summer. They are reading A Place to Belong, Learning to Love, the local church by author Megan Hill. And more books are being ordered. And if you would like to prepay for a copy, please see one of the members of the Women's Committee. And the cost is $10. The King's Men are meeting again next week from Tuesday from 6 to 8. And this meeting is available to all men age 16 and older. Please come. Enjoy dinner, fellowship, Bible study, and fun in the Lord. And more copies of How to Eat Your Bible have arrived. We ran out of the first 25, and more have been ordered. They're already here. And their cost is $5. And you can see Mark Lundberg after the service. He's holding that. If you all know Mark. If you don't know Mark, he's that guy right there with the book. How to eat your Bible. How to eat your Bible. Okay, the youth will be having a mission trip to paradise June 13th to 18th. I can't believe that's coming up so soon and Brian and Alyssa are in Mississippi. Yeah, they've been catching catfish. I'm sure they've been eating a little catfish and just visiting with family. It's a vacation for them, but when they come back right away, they're going up to paradise. We wanted to thank everybody for the successful spaghetti dinner and dessert auction. It went really well. They had funds for the mission trip and for the summer camp for our youth. Fellowship time is back. You smelled the coffee when you came in this morning. I think Carol put it together this morning. We'd like to encourage anyone that would like to participate in that. It's pretty easy to help out. Many hands makes for light work, so appreciate your volunteering for that. The pastor's class will be held today during discipleship hour in the music room, and we continue the series, A Journey Through the Bible, Discovering the New Testament. And everyone is welcome, and there's plenty of room. It's a big class. Offering box is in the back for anybody who would like to leave an offering. If you want to designate giving, there's blue envelopes there to fill out. Okay. Invocation passage today is Psalm 96 verses 1 through 10. Would you all stand as I read the Lord's word? Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. I hear an amen over here. All right, you may be seated. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? We want to continue to thank the Lord, Father, for your many blessings and blessing. on this church and our church family. We thank you for full fellowship now and for blessing the school year in our time together. Thank you for the coffee fellowship. Thank you for blessing the ministries of the church. We just thank you that we can come together and love one another and support one another and disciple one another. We want to thank you for the EFC youth ministry, too, Father. Thank you for Brian, Alyssa, and the many helpers there, Jason. We just thank you for the enthusiasm of the youth. And Brian, Alyssa, we pray for rest for them. and that they would come back ready to hit the ground running, have a busy summer planned. We want to thank you for being able to freely worship you in this country and continue to do that. We pray that you would continue to work in the lives of those you have put over us in the government and that you would guide and direct their feet, Father, their thoughts and their pursuits, and that they would be in line with your will. And we continue to pray for the deacons and deaconesses, Father, that you've given us and entrusted to us. We pray that you bless their work and their endeavors, Father, and their desire to serve you in this body, and that you would just bless the church through them. We pray for the women's ministry, too, Father, that you would mobilize and encourage the women throughout the summer for growth in the Lord and fellowship with one another. We also pray for those who are currently ill and hospitalized. We thank you that Christina Wolburn is doing better with her infection, Father. Difficult time, but you are faithful. And we thank you for her healing, Father, continued healing. And others that are homebound, Father, We just pray that you would make them very aware of how much you love them and care for them and guard them, protect them, and how effective they can be in our church body through prayer. And we do continue to pray for spiritual awakening. that you would use your church and that you would open eyes, open hearts to your message, your love, your gospel, that you would use us and our part in that locally, Father, and any outreach that we might have, that you would, again, bless the nations in Christ, Father. Thank you. And we pray for the sermon, Pastor Greg, this morning, that you would bless his words, that they would be your words, and that he would be encouraged in your spirit, and that we would all be open and eager to come under your guidance, Father, and that we would all desire to grow in Christ and to serve you. And Father, we just all together would agree on these things and we say amen in Christ. Zach. Well, thank you, Jerry, for bringing that to us at this time. The children are dismissed to Sunday school. You know, earlier today, Megan was telling us that the next song we're about to sing is every time she's up here is a song that she ends up singing, which, you know, we all got a good laugh out and we were joking about it and everything. But it got me thinking, as self-centered as we are, is this the kind of song we should be singing once a month or is this the kind of song we should be singing every day? And so with that, let's stand and sing, yet not I, but through Christ in me. What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer? There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom. My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus For my life is wholly bound to His Oh, how strange and divine I can sing All is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me The night is dark, but I am not forsaken For by my side, the Savior, He will stay I labor on in weakness and rejoicing, For in my need His power is displayed. To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me, Through the deepest valley He will lead. Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome, yet not I, but through Christ in me. No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future's sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon And He was raised to overthrow the grave To this I hold, my sin has been defeated Jesus now and ever is my plea All the chains are released, I can sing I am free, yet not I, but through Christ in me With every breath, I long to follow Jesus For He has said that He will bring me home And day by day I know He will renew me Until I stand with joy before the throne To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus All the glory evermore to Him When the race is complete Still my lips shall repeat Yet not I, but through Christ in me To this I hold My hope is only Jesus All the glory evermore to Him When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. You may be seated. Good morning, everyone. It's a delight to be back again with you here in the house of the Lord. Carol and I had a delightful weekend away last weekend celebrating our anniversary, and we're thankful that we could. We were in the beautiful foothills in the little area of Garden Valley, which is a little north of Placerville. And it was just a fantastic time together. And thank you for allowing us the opportunity to get away for a couple of days. And I also want to extend a thank you to Pastor Brian, who always does such a fantastic job and pray for him as he and his family are enjoying a good time of vacation. And I just am so thankful for the partnership that I can have with him and his family. We enjoy serving the Lord together here. A special word of thanks as well, or I guess remembrance on this Memorial weekend, we give thanks for the freedom that we have in Christ, the freedom that we have to worship. And we're thankful for the Lord that was keeping watch so that those that went out could keep watch over us. And ultimately, all the thanks goes back to Him. And I was thinking this morning that as we have the freedom to gather, and many of us choose to do so, would we choose to do so if it were more difficult? For we know that many believers around the world, even in difficult times, choose to gather regularly, week by week. And I hope that would be our commitment as well. Well, with the rise of the internet and social media, there is so much more information available to us today. But the availability of that information does not necessarily translate into us being more educated or actually being more wise, or even more mature. I think it's only made the awareness of our frailty and our failures more widespread. And that includes the church. It's exposed the painful reality of moral and spiritual compromise among those who claim to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in recent years, it seems with ever-increasing rapidity, we hear of Christian leaders, pastors, those who are overseeing Christian organizations falling into disgrace and bringing dishonor to the name of Jesus. There's a real sting in compromise. It's painful. It brings shame, guilt, dysfunction to all who are involved. And yet we know this is not a new problem. This is something that's been going on not only in the church for a long time, it's been going on in humanity for a long time since the fall into sin. The threat of compromise is all around us. The story is told of a soldier who could not decide what side to fight for during the American Civil War. So he put on the coat of the North and the trousers of the South and marched off into battle. And guess what happened? He got shot at by all sides. You see, that's ultimately what ends up happening to the one who compromises, to the person who tries to live in two worlds. According to dictionary.com, the definition of to compromise is to expose or make vulnerable to danger suspicion or scandal. It is to make a dishonorable or shameful concession. And the fact of the matter is that if we're honest with ourselves, we are all vulnerable to compromise. And therefore, we need to be vigilant over ourselves, over our families, over our ministries, over our thoughts, over our actions, over our decisions. And it's often at the point where we think that we are the strongest that we need to pay the most attention because it might be right at that point that we are more likely to compromise because we are blind to the weaknesses that we have, or blind to the greater picture that is out there. Well, that's not a very great way to start a sermon, is it? It's not a very great way to start a sermon series. But what if there was a better way to live? What if we were to have eyes to see God as He is, that He is truly in charge, and that He is working to keep His promises to His people even when, and I would say especially when, they fail continually in their service to Him? Well, that is the story and the hope that we find in the book of Judges. a book that we will begin today and study throughout the summer. And as we begin this series, it seems like now is a good time for us to just pause and pray and say, God, will you lead us as we study your word? Will you join me in prayer? God, we turn to you this morning because we know we must, but indeed we want to. Because we know the fickleness in our own hearts, we know the shallowness in our own minds, We know how susceptible we are to turn left when you say right, to stop when you say go. And so Father, we ask you to watch over everything that happens, not only in this moment and in this service, but all that happens as we walk through this book that you have given us together. that we might see this book of Judges as a gift from you through your Holy Spirit, and that we would seek to understand its message and be challenged by what you have for it. And so, would you be our teacher, would you be our guide, and would you be our comfort as we open up this word together? We commit ourselves to you and pray in Jesus' name. The book of Judges itself comes after the book of Joshua, the life of Joshua, who was a hero and model of the faith during a turbulent time in the history of Israel. And the book of Judges covers a period of over 400 years between the departure of Joshua and the arrival of Samuel. And because it covers such a long period of time of Old Testament history, if we want to have a better understanding of the history of God's plan, his plan of redemption, how he is working, how his storyline is moving forward. We need to study this perhaps lesser known book of the Old Testament. But let's look a little bit at the background. As the book of Judges begin, the people of God have entered the promised land and are starting to take some of the cities of Canaan. But let's take a step back from there and look at where the book of Joshua ends, the one just before. Under the direction of God, Joshua is showing the people how the land is to be divided up. And he shows the borders and divisions for the nine and a half tribes that will enter into the land of Canaan. You'll recall that there are two and a half tribes that remain on the other side of the Jordan. And what we know as Jordan today, Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh. And let's listen to the charge that Joshua gives to the people under the inspiration of God in Joshua 23. Behold, I have allotted to you an inheritance for your tribes, those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off from the Jordan to the great sea in the west. The Lord your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land just as the Lord your God promised you. Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or to make mention of their names. of their gods, or swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. But you shall cling to the Lord your God, just as you have done to this day. For the Lord your God has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. The Lord says again and again that he is the one who will drive them out, but he says, Do not compromise with the nations by intermarrying with them, or adopting their practices, or entering into agreements with them. For if you do, he says, you will lose my blessing and my favor. And so at the end of the book, at least the last action that we see recorded by Joshua, we're told that Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance. Joshua remained faithful throughout his life, but the people didn't. So what do we see as we're catching up now at the beginning of the book of Judges? What has been happening in the history of God's plan? And that is that the people of God were in exile. Did this just go off? We're still on here. Back on, we're okay? The people of God were in exile and they had been led out of Egypt. They wandered the wilderness for 40 years because of their constant disobedience and rebellion. And now they're entering the promised land, and there's been a few victories that have come, but that rebellious and stubborn spirit remains strong among them. And so Joshua is not optimistic about the future of the people. In fact, in Joshua 24 in verse 19, he says, you are not able to serve Yahweh your God. But he is optimistic about the Lord. And he knows that whatever happens, he knows the Lord will be faithful to his word. And therefore, we get now to the beginning of the book of Judges. And I've entitled this series, Decadence, Despair, and Deliverance, the message of the book of Judges. And we will see that through a series of stories given by God, inspiration that we will see that the people of Israel had a very difficult time following the prescriptions of God. We will see that they were led more by the flesh and by their earthly passions and by anything that resembles the spirit of the living God. And this gets them into constant trouble again and again. And God has to intervene to bail them out again and again. And so perhaps we could even make the case that instead of saying the Book of Judges, perhaps we could call it the Book of Deliverers. Because in fact, there's more emphasis on deliverance than what we might properly understand as judging or ruling. But we'll accept the title as it's been given to us, but these judges or deliverers are sent by God to bring relief and deliverance to the people who then become enslaved again and again to sin, to moral compromise, and to spiritual idolatry. And there are several cycles that will take place in this book showing that the people keep moving away from God and becoming enslaved. And so each cycle will go something like this. The people do evil in the sight of the Lord. The Lord gives them over to oppressors and those oppressors change throughout the book. The people are in bondage and they serve the oppressors for a set number of years. Then they cry out to the Lord, but not always in repentance. Often they're just crying out because they're in pain. And the Lord raises up a deliverer and puts his spirit on him, and the deliverer defeats the oppressors, and then there's peace in the land for a limited number of years. Now, not every cycle will have every one of these elements, but we will see many of them as we work through these different cycles. But here's the sad thing. The people do not learn from their hardships. They don't learn from these times of oppression. And so across generations, over a period of 400 years, the same pattern continues. And things do not get better over time. We might be tempted to think that the book of Judges is just a series of up and downs. No, it's not. It's a series of plateaus and descent, plateaus and descent, plateaus and descent. It actually gets worse and worse and worse over time. And really the high point in Judges happens right at the beginning. And then it's all downhill after that. And so we need to see it that in the overall storyline of the Bible, we see that one of the main problems going on in the book of Judges is the lack of a king. There's no king to lead the people. Israel's had its patriarchs. They've had Moses and Joshua. But now they have no one like that. And so God sends deliverers. And the story of Judges shows the need for a good king and the longing for such a king builds throughout the book. Because there's oppression and deliverance, oppression and deliverance. And so Judges prepares us, as it were, for the books to come, namely 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings. But then we realize when we get to 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings, that it's not an earthly king that's going to bring about ultimate redemption, and that's going to cause the longing to grow that will ultimately be satisfied in the King of kings, the one to whom all of these promises ultimately point. There's a lot in the book of Judges that is not easy for us to hear today. And some of these passages will be very difficult for us to go through. But it is good for us to go through them. Because God, in his goodness and wisdom, gave us this book. And he wants us to feel the revulsion that he feels towards sin. How ugly rebellion and compromise really is. He wants us to be disgusted by sinful behavior. so that we emphasize why we needed a Savior and why the world still needs a Savior today. The people of God in the day of the judges were in a state of moral and spiritual compromise. Instead of having a leavening effect that they were intended to have on the culture, they became more like the culture. And indeed, one of the storylines that we'll see in the book of Judges is instead of Canaan becoming like Israel, Israel becomes more like Canaan. Instead of working together for the common good, the tribes are isolated and independent in their stubbornness and rebellion, not working together. Instead of turning to the Lord and walking in His ways, they continually relied on their own way of thinking, acting, living, worshiping, and in words that should haunt us. Several times we are told that each one did what was right in his own eyes. The painful reality, my friends, is that such a statement describes us more than we would like it to, and more than those who claim the name of Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. You see, being in a state of compromise is a miserable place to be. You can't enjoy the goodness of this side or this side. You just muck it all up. And the unfortunate thing is, if the statistics tell us anything, There are far too many in the church today who are living in a state of compromise. The book of Judges teaches us that God will raise up deliverers for his people, but he wants them to understand that he alone is the true hero of every story. He alone is the hero of the book, because only God keeps his word perfectly. Only God follows through on his promises. Only God is the true deliverer. And so we'll see that this book, it starts out okay, and the judges start out okay, but then just like the people, it gets worse over time. And so it's my prayer as we go through this book, it will force us to take a deep look at what's going on in our own lives, what's happening in our community, what's happening in our different ministries, and what's happening in the world, and what is our relationship to those things in the world. And consider the path that we were on that we would continually seek God truly, fully, and wholly. Well, with all of that as an introduction, let's go ahead and take a look at the first section that we will consider in this book, Judges 1. And if you've not already, you can find the outline in your bulletin and follow along as we walk through the first 26 verses. Our first point is Judah, let's get the show going, verses 1 to 10. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to just read each section as we walk through it, and then we'll look at it in more detail. So beginning with Joshua 1, verses 1 to 10. And after the death of Joshua, the people of God inquired of the Lord, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites to fight against them? The Lord said, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. And Judah said to Simeon his brother, come up with me into the territory allotted to me that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you. So Simeon went with him. And then Judah went up and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands and they defeated 10,000 of them at Bezek. And they found Adonai Bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adonai Bezek fled. But they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adonai Bezek said, 70 kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem and he died there. And the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. And afterward, the men of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country in the Negev. and in the lowland. And Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron. Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba. And they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Telmai. Judah, I'm sorry, Joshua has died. This is a time of transition now for Israel. Joshua and Caleb were the last two men who remained from the generation that had left Egypt. They took God at his word and continued in the blessing of God. And God promised victory, promised Joshua that he would enter the promised land and said, lead my people. And Joshua went forward with that confidence. But he reminds them that before they enter the land, they are not to make any covenants or enter into any alliances with the people of the land. Why would God do that? Well, as we work our way through the book of Judges, we will see that the people of Canaan were not good people. Sometimes in the contemporary dialogue, they talk about, well, what about God commanding genocide of the Canaanites? As if somehow they were just people living peacefully, not bothering anyone, and God was unjust to bring judgment upon them. My friends, it's not true. They were among the most barbaric, wicked, evil people on the planet at that time, participating in all kind of disgusting and degrading things, and God was right to judge them. But He doesn't want His people to get compromised and mixed up with Him, that's why He commands them to separate and to put them to death. But now Joshua, their leader, is gone, so how are they to continue? And thus we see God's storyline for Judah. The people of the Lord, we see they inquire of the Lord, and this is a good sign. And actually, if this is all we knew, we start out with the word of hope that the people are approaching God and saying, what should we do? They give us a good example that before the people of God do anything, they should seek the face of God and let him guide them. Now, we're not told how they sought the Lord, and we're not told how God responded. We're just said that they did, and he did. And who shall go up first, they ask. And I hope you're following along in your copy of God's word. And the Lord said in verse 2, Judah shall go up. Behold, I have given the land into his hand. And here we see a biblical storyline unfolding. You see, the fact that a leader would come from Judah was predicted in Genesis 49. Thus, it is fitting that the first tribe that would be called to start conquering the land of Canaan would come from Judah, or would be the tribe of Judah. Moses did not come from Judah, neither did Joshua. Judah was to be the leader and among the first to conquer the land, and that would be a sign of something even greater to come. For as the storyline grows throughout the Old Testament, this leader who would come from the tribe of Judah, we are told, will have an eternal kingdom. We're told he will be the ultimate priest-king. We saw that a few weeks ago when we looked at Psalm 110. This one who would come from the line of Judah will be judge over all, have perfect righteousness, perfect justice. He will be revealed as the Lion of Judah, who is also the Lamb of God. But here, in this moment in time in history, it needed to be Judah that went up first because that's what God said would happen. But then immediately we see compromise and retribution. Now it's subtle, but Judah begins with a compromise. God says, had promised in the book of Joshua, had promised here in Judges, Judah shall go up. I have given the land into his hand. It's singular for him. And what does Judah do? Judah turns right around and says, hey, Simeon, come and join me. Why don't we fight together? Now the temptation might be at this point to say, but isn't that a wonderful sign of unity and cooperation? Shouldn't people work together? And I would say, yes, as a general principle, that is true. But that's not what God said. God said Judah was to go up. And through Joshua, as we've already read, we learned that God had given land to each tribe and told each tribe to take its territory. And now here we see Judah, which happened to be the largest, the most powerful tribe in Israel, asking for help from the smallest. You see, my friends, when God speaks, he doesn't speak with a forked tongue. He speaks and says, do it. And our job is to do it, not to try to improve it, not to take a survey and figure out the best strategy, because God knows best. Now, what we do see is that God is gracious. He keeps His promises, even when His children do not. And so, there is a victory that we have in these next several verses as we consider this section from verses 3 to 7. They conquer a certain king by the name of Adonai Bezek. Now, names are important in the Bible. They have meaning. And notice the name here of the king comes from the word Adon. Adon is the Hebrew word for master. Adoni, the master of me, is Bezek, is what his name means. I think we have a subtle reminder here from the beginning that the people of Judah did not have an earthly Adon. They had the heavenly one, who is the Lord of the heavens, not just of a small territory. Now, this particular king, Adonai Bezek, has been ruthless. He even boasts about the victories that he has. He boasts about torturing his enemies, cutting off their big toes, cutting off their thumbs. It's really difficult to grab a weapon without toes and without thumbs. It's really difficult to feed yourself. It's an act of humiliation. He even draws reference to the fact that they ate scraps under his table. He was treating them like dogs. and then the tables are turned. And he's the one now experiencing judgment. And here's an amazing thing, he recognizes it. Verse seven, as I have done, so God has repaid me. Isn't it amazing? Beginning of the book of Judges, this time of great spiritual confusion, it is a pagan king who speaks the truth about God's justice. But I think it's also a rebuke to Judah. Why? Because this was a cultural expression of punishment. That's what the Canaanites did. Here Israel's acting like Canaan instead of acting the way God had commanded them. They were not supposed to just cut off his thumbs and cut off his big toes. They were to cut off his life. The book of Judges starts with a message of hope. They sought the Lord, but then they immediately start making very human-level decisions. And so even in victory, the door has been left open because of compromise. And yet God will continue to be gracious. And so we see that they were heading south. And they move southward from a direction going east to west, and they conquer over different areas. It talks about Jerusalem. There's different things we could talk about Jerusalem as we move through this book. They have victories in the hills. They have victory in the lowlands. That's a key statement because God said he would give the whole land to the tribes of Israel. And they make their way to Hebron, which will be a city of great importance in the Old Testament. And we'll loop back to that as we move through the book of Judges. And so we see our first point, let's get the show started. Secondly, we have Othniel and Aksah. Please, sir, may I have some more? Let's read from verses 11 to 15. From there they went against the inhabitants of Deborah. The name of Deborah was formerly Kiriath-sephir. And Caleb said, he who attacks Kiriath-sephir and captures it, I will give him Aksah, my daughter, for a wife. And Othniel, the son of Canaz, Caleb's younger brother captured it, and he gave him Aksah, his daughter, for a wife. And when she came to him, she urged him and asked her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, what do you want? She said to him, give me a blessing. Since you have sent me in the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the two lower springs. So who is it that conquered this city? It's a man named Othniel. Who is he? We're told that he is a Kenizzite, a son of Kenaz. He was Caleb's nephew, but Othniel was not a native Israelite. The Kenizzites were descendants of Esau, who was the father of the Edomites. They came from Eliphaz, who was Esau's older son. Now over time, those that were of the, many of the tribe of the Kenizzites converted and joined the Judahites, the tribe of Judah. And Osnia would be in that number. So isn't it interesting that one of the first main characters in the book of Judges, the one who brings deliverance, is not even an original Israelite, ethnically, but one who has joined the covenant community by faith. But does that not fit with the story that we have from the beginning? The promise that God gave to Abraham that he would be a blessing to the nations? And while God, of course, was certainly working through the line of promise, certainly working through Moses and the people of Israel, they were not hermetically sealed, and God couldn't work outside of them. So as the story moves along... Sorry, I forgot to put it up there. God is not limited to Israel. As the story moves along through the Old Testament, there were those who would join the people of Israel by faith. And God, from the beginning, has always had it that he would be glorified in the nations among his people. And that is true in the Old Testament. It is true in the New Testament. A little bit more about who Caleb is. Because he's mentioned here. Caleb is a brave and courageous man. He's been a man of faith in the midst of the people who have been cowardly, but he never lost his resolve to the Lord. And now he wants to pass on that faith and that godly inheritance to the next generation. And he's looking for someone who will also take care of his children, someone of similar faith. And so he issues a major challenge. Whoever captures this city will be my son-in-law. And that would have been a position of great honor, and so we should not be surprised that men would step up, but we're told of one, Ophnia. And so we see that Caleb, who is this model of faith himself, as we'll see later, was not also originally from the 12 tribes of Israel, but we'll get to that later. God is God of all the nations. And His plan is going to go forward as He wants, so that He gets all the glory, And we just bow down before, wow, Lord, your ways are good. So we finish out this part of the section, we see the girl's got some spunk. Othniel captures Kiriath Safer and gains his reward from Caleb. It's a Hollywood ending. He gets the land and he gets the girl. But this Aksa is also a Kenizzite. because she's Caleb's daughter. And we are told in Numbers 32 and in Joshua 14 that Caleb came from Jephunneh, the Kenizzite. Isn't it interesting that God in his goodness has been grafting people in by his grace into his people so that his plan will go forward. So imagine being Aksah. She has seen her father. Imagine the stories that were told around the campfire and that family. She's seen his wisdom, his courage, his strength, and we see here a biblical example of passing on the faith from one generation to the next. But as she looks over her newly gained inheritance, she's glad that she has some land. She's glad that she's going to have a husband who will be brave and heroic, but she also knows that while land is good, having some water with it is even better, because she was given a piece of dry land. So she seems to be a woman of practical thinking and forward thinking, and so she asks for more from her father, saying, Look, I'm in the desert, give me some water. Now, this seems like just a small request. And on one level it is, it's a very wise request, it's a strategic request, but it also would be ongoing in its impact. Because you understand the importance of land that gets passed on from one generation to the next. And so not only will this be a blessing to her immediate family, it would be a blessing to those who would come after her and the foresight and wisdom that she practiced. I find it interesting that in this little section here we see so many of the important themes of the Bible come together. Bravery and hard work. Wisdom and commitment. Marriage and the family. Land and blessing. Isn't it kind of God to weave this all together in this wonderful tapestry so that His plan goes forward? He really does care about every aspect of our lives. That brings us to our third major point here. Who let the outsiders in? Verses 16 to 21. And the descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of Palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negev near Arad. And they went and settled with the people. And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites, who inhabited Zaphath, and devoted it to destruction. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Judah also captured Gaza with its territory, and Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. And the Lord was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron. And Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. So now we come across this people group called the Kenites. We've just seen the Kenizzites from Kenaz. Now I have the Kenites. Who are they? Well, they're the descendants of Jethro, who is the father-in-law of Moses. Moses, you recall, after he ran away from the Pharaoh, married a Midianite named Zipporah. And at times, Zipporah shows more faith than Moses. But these descendants of Jethro had come with, they were invited to join with the people of Israel when they left their time of bondage and moved towards the promised land. And this particular group of people, the Kenites, joined with the people of Judah and lived with them in the desert. And so, by the grace and mercy of God, these so-called foreigners had a vital role to play in inheriting the land. They helped to conquer, among other places, what we call the Gaza Strip today, some cities north of the Gaza, and even some in the hill country. And I find it interesting that if we have eyes to see, how often it is that God wants us to see that it is often the outsider and the unlikely who give us the best examples of faith. Because in the background color of what's going on in this storyline would be people like the wife of Moses, and the father-in-law of Moses, and these Kenites, and these Kenizzites. And they were faithfully doing what God had commanded His people to do. How would the book of Judges had turned out differently if the people of God had done what God had commanded them to do? But His ways are above our ways. And those he is bringing in, even today, to us, we should not turn away, because God is at work, continually drawing a people, forming a people for himself, for his glory. We get to verse 17, and we have finally a clean victory. The Kenites have been working with the people of Judah, with the people of Benjamin, they attacked Zathoth, and they, quote, devoted it to destruction. You see that, don't you, in verse 17? And that is what they were supposed to do. wipe it all out. The Canaanites were not good people, as I've said. They were not innocent. They were barbaric, highly wicked, and God was right to judge them. And He wanted to use His people to bring judgment upon them. And so finally here, an effort that did what God commanded, and the city therefore was called Horma. Horma means destroyed. If the people of God had done what God had commanded, there would have been many more cities that would have had this label, Horma. But because they didn't, it would plague them for generations and generations. Now, so far, the story is mostly good. We're starting out okay. Not perfect, but we're starting out mostly okay. But then look at verse 19. We're told that Judah could not drive them out because the Canaanites had chariots of iron. Now I ask you the question, is that an acceptable reason or is that an excuse? Remember, that's why I read Joshua 23 before we started. Did not God say, I will drive them out? I am with you, I have given you this land. Did not God not promise that he had already given them the land? God did not tell them to fight until it became difficult. He told them to fight until the job was done. But it seems that perhaps they put their eyes in the wrong place and therefore they saw the wrong thing and measured their own strength against the strength of the enemies instead of measuring the strength of their enemies against the strength of their God. How hard is it for God to drive out iron chariots? He who upholds all things by the word of his power. The people of Israel were very clearly told to conquer the land for that had been given to them and they became disobedient again and again, continually turning to the Canaanites and their ways of doing things, their practices. But I wonder, do we have iron chariots in our own lives today? And we focus more on them instead of on the power of the Lord. You know, we're very good at trying to come up with reasons for why we get the exception clause about living fully and wholly for the Lord. If I read the statistics right that just came out from Ligonier Ministry about the state of the church in 2020, it seems that most people who claim the word evangelical take comfort in mediocrity and just living along at the basic minimum As if somehow there's a line, if they could just put the nose over the line, they could spend the rest of their lives living the way they want to live. Why is it that we lift up those who are mediocre, but those that are excited about the Lord, we're like, hey, you better calm that down now, just take it easy, all things in moderation. Or we come up with excuses. Well, those people out there, Those Hollywood people, those politicians, those media people, they just make it too hard. They make it too difficult. We can't live for the Lord today the way we're supposed to. Is that an explanation? Or is that an excuse? Are we really allowing the Iron Chariots to get in the way of the Lord of Heaven's armies? We contrast that by what's with the Anakim in verse 20. The Judahites failed to drive out those in the plains, but notice Caleb in verse 20. We're told that he takes over Hebron, including the three sons of Anak. Now, why is that important for us to notice? You see that the sons of Anak were the Anakim, and the Anakim were the reason why the Israelites didn't take over the promised land a generation earlier. If you look at Numbers 13, you look at Deuteronomy 1, the people of Israel looked at the Anakim and said, we can't do this. We look like grasshoppers in their eyes. They're too powerful. We can't take over the land. It was Caleb who said, the Lord is with us. Let us go and conquer. But they wouldn't listen to him. Nope. Nope. Pragmatism says, let's just, Hang out here in the desert, maybe if a little rain we'll get some poolside property. What happened to those that wandered the desert? That left Egypt? They all died. Now it's just Caleb. And Caleb once again is facing the Anakim, and what does he do? He goes up and defeats them, all of them. He drove the giants out of the land, why? Because he had great faith in a great God. So I ask the question, are there Anakim in our life that are keeping us from fully following the Lord joyfully, obediently, with great power because our God is able? Are there things that you're not willing to face in your own life? Are there things that you're afraid to face in your own life? Do you see them as the Anakim that somehow you are like a grasshopper in their eyes? Or do you look at the Anakim and look at your God and say, okay, Lord, let's go. Remember the Lord has commanded them to do this. And so the question becomes then, can't or won't? Jude and Benjamin were called to clear out the land. But it seems they were not willing to do the hard work that was required. And this will set the tone for the rest of the book. They left some of the Canaanites in the land. And this will not end well for them. Compromise never works. But I just wonder, I search my own heart, I look at the time that the Lord has given for me to serve Him and being in ministry, and I look at my own heart, and I look at things that I've experienced, and then I wonder, is the church any different today? Because the church has been commanded to make disciples of all nations. The church has been told that the Messiah will reign over all the nations and will judge all the nations and will receive everything for his glory as an inheritance. But are we doing any better than the Judahites, the Benjaminites, the Israelites who were told to conquer the land? We're told to make disciples of all the nations. And there's 17,000 ethnic groups in the world today. That's the biblical word for nation, ethne. 17,000. Seven and a half billion people alive today on planet Earth. And yet in 2021, there still remains almost 7,000 ethnic groups who are unreached, un-evangelized, outside of a direct witness of Christ, composed of over 3 billion people. But we're told to declare His glories among the nations. We are told to make disciples of all nations. We are told to go. We are told to be witnesses. We're ambassadors for Christ. And that great commission will not be done until there is a group of believing disciples in every one of those ethnic groups. But do we set up our own projects? Do we set up our own excuses and we get bogged down? Oh, it's too difficult. You know, those people are dangerous. You know, they're crazy. They don't like Christians. You know, they want to kill and put Christians in jail. That might be true. But so what? Are we not bought by the precious blood of Christ? Do we not belong to Him? Do we not trust and obey, which we sang a little while ago, where you send, we will go? Do we really mean it when we sing it? How many of us would even consider stopping what we're doing in listening to the voice of God and going? Or how many of us would even consider stopping if God were to place His call on our children or our grandchildren? Are not our children given to us from God to raise in the ways of God, to release back to the service of God? So the command is there. Now friends, our blessed hope is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. I look forward to that day. I see the evil that is all around us, and I look forward to that day, but let me ask you this. Should we not at least have the same amount of passion for the three billion people who have not heard about the first coming of Christ before we get all excited and amped up about the second coming of Christ? Is it not possible to have passion for both? I think it should be, that we want to go out and see that people will hear about Christ, because we are still called to make disciples of all nations until Christ returns. And may he find us busy in that task. Lastly, we see Joseph clean up the mess, verses 22 to 26. The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the Lord was with them. And the house of Joseph scouted out Bethel. Now the name of the city was formerly Luz, and the spies saw a man coming out of the city. And they said to him, please show us the way into the city and we will deal kindly with you. And he showed them the way into the city and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man go and all his family. And the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city and called its name Luz, that is its name to this day. So Judah has been somewhat successful, but not completely. They brought some degree of deliverance, but we're hoping for more and ultimate deliverance. Benjamin was not quite so successful. They didn't drive out the people of Jerusalem, the Jebusites. They did subdue them, but they did not conquer them. But the command of the Lord still stood, you had to go and wipe them all out. So what about this Bethel? you can begin to see that the moral slide is on. Compromise has already started to take root. And it's gonna get worse, especially over the first three chapters, but it'll reach a point of the lowest of the low by the time we get to chapter 17 to 21. The fact is that no tribe did fully what it was commanded to do. But we're told that Joseph went to war against Bethel, which was also called Luz, Now, you'll have heard the name Bethel because it's important in the biblical story. Jacob was getting ready to leave to go get a wife from his uncle Laban, and he stops at a place that he would call Bethel. And in that dream, Jacob sees a ladder going up to heaven. And the Lord says, look around. All that you see, I'm going to give to you. And he recognizes then that God has given him a promise, and so he names that place Beit El. Beit, the Hebrew word for house. El, the name for God. Bethel, the house of God. And so this is important to the biblical storyline. Well, here we have Joseph, the tribe of Joseph, at Bethel. So you'd think that they would learn that treachery is not needed. The spies of the city, spies of Joseph, take a man of the city and we are told in very clear terms they made an agreement with him. What were they told not to do when they entered the land? Do not enter into any agreement with the people of the land. They were commanded to destroy the whole city and to leave none alive. They were under a covenant agreement with God. He tells them that. Therefore, they were not to make any type of agreement with anyone else. And so they disobey. They say, well, it's just a small number. It was just a man and his family. It's no big deal. But my friend, God's ways are best and can't be improved upon by the so-called wisdom of men. He gave the battle plan and the orders were to follow it. And so we see that compromise is costly. The man does show them the secret way into the city, and the inhabitants are killed, but not all of them. This man and his family survived. And that should cause us to think of another story that would have happened shortly before this. You remember that the spies went into Jericho, and they made an agreement with Rahab, the harlot. She'd heard about the power of the God of Israel. She'd heard that her city wasn't gonna be under judgment. And we're told that she had the fear of the Lord. And when the battle was over, she joined the community of Israel. And she's now held it as an example of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. But what did this man do? Did he join the community of faith of Israel? No, we're told he went to the Hittites, the enemies of Israel who live north of Jerusalem, and he built another city. And did he call it Bethel? Did he call it Jerusalem number two? Did he call it the place where God dwells? He called it Luz, the very name of the city that he had left. You see, when you compromise, there's defiance. And there's a reminder that remains that you have compromised. And the city of Luz, which remained until the writing of the time of the Book of Judges, would be a sign of compromise on the part of the people. Compromise has a long-lasting effect, just like obedience does. And so as we consider then this first section of what we have here in the Book of Judges, what are some things that we can take away? First, we need to recognize that God works through all kinds of people. Not the ones that we might think He's going to work through, but the ones that He chooses to work through because He will get the maximum glory out of how He does things. Secondly, God is bigger than any obstacle we face on the way to obeying Him. You see, there's always gonna be a test. There's always gonna be a challenge. If you're gonna obey God, there's gonna be a challenge as you obey Him. But God is bigger than those obstacles, bigger than those challenges. And He deserves our obedience. Thirdly, deal with the sin now in your life and in your family. Just be clean with it, come clean with it. We have a great Redeemer who lavishes and cleanses and forgives and restores. And sin is never a good thing to hang on to, to coddle, to play with. Don't have compromise in your life. Fourthly, God makes a claim to be the Lord over every aspect of your life, including how you will work, where you will live, what you will do, who you will interact with. Because compromise is always costly. We're tempted in our age to follow pragmatism. Well, whatever works, just get her done. But that's not wise. We need the wisdom of God to do what is right because it's right in the right ways for the right reasons with the right outcomes. We need to be careful that we don't substitute the idols that our hands have made, the things that we've built up in our hearts, the thinking that we've allowed to take root in our lives, to not allow us to see God's methods, God's ways, God's holiness, God's character, and God's promises. As we stand at the beginning of this book of Judges, I pray that God will speak to us in a way that just shows him to be so glorious, and his promise is so true, that we would see that obedience is a privilege and a joy as we walk with him. Let's pray. Father, as we turn to you now, we thank you for your word that you have inspired, that is inerrant, that is our authority, and that will last forever. And so in our limited time here on this earth, we surrender to you and the truth of your word. And even when it makes us uncomfortable, Father, thank you, because that's a reminder of how much we need you. That's a reminder of the redemption that still needs to be affected in our own lives, and we look forward to that day when the fullness of redemption will come in the new heavens and the new earth. But until that day, Father, with every breath and day that you give us, may we serve you well. And in this week to come, I pray that you will root out of our hearts attitudes that need to come out. that you will root out of our minds faulty thinking that we have accumulated, that you will root out behavior patterns that until now we've not noticed that are offensive to you. We so desire, Father, to be holy in your sight and to joyfully walk in obedience to you. Will you help us this week to do that? As we pray together in Jesus' name. Well, thank you, Pastor Greg, for bringing us the word. We could stand and we'll sing and close with this final song. Oh, I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can peace afford. Every hour, stay now nearby. Temptations, if they come, win by. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most Holy One. Oh, make me Thine indeed. ♪ The blessed Son ♪ ♪ I need Thee, oh, I need Thee ♪ ♪ Every hour I need Thee ♪ ♪ Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee ♪ I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to thee. and a joy to be with you this morning in the house of the Lord. Plenty of opportunities for you to get involved. There's books that you could purchase to get involved in Bible studies this summer. It's a good cup of coffee out there. You can enjoy fellowship with one another. And I'll be starting my class at 11 a.m. over in the music room. We're going to look at the gospel of Matthew today. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let us go in peace and have a wonderful Lord's Day. you