Introduction to Judges | 09/13/26

One of the most significant thought

movements in the history of western

civilization was the age of reason or

the age of enlightenment or sometimes

just called the enlightenment for short.

The enlightenment refers to the

transition from the old way of thinking

that predominated Europe in the dark

ages and in the middle ages to a new way

of thinking that came about in the 17

and 1800s. See, in the old way of

thinking in Europe during the Middle

Ages, everyone believed in God. If you

were a peasant in, let's say, Germany or

France, you believed in God. You didn't

really leave your village. You probably

spent your entire lifetime within a 50

mile radius of where you were born. And

you believed in the authority of the

church. And you believed in God. There

was actually no other option. There was

nothing else to believe in. That was the

only reasonable explanation for

everything that existed.

You believed in the authority of your

king or your lord and you worked your

little plot of land and you didn't

complain or try to rise rise above your

station and you lived and died in that

village your whole life. That's just the

way the old world was.

But then there was a burst of scientific

discovery in the 17th century that

history now calls the scientific

revolution.

A major leap in scientific advancement

was followed by a wave of philosophers

who thought out the implications of

these scientific discoveries.

Men such as Voltater or Jeanjac Rouso or

Renee Deart. Most of us have never read

a sentence by any of these guys. But did

you know that your thinking and the

thinking of our society is probably more

shaped by those three men and others

like them than any other person?

These philosophers among others

introduced the west to the philosophies

of empiricism and rationalism. Now those

are big words. Let me just explain those

very quickly. Empiricism asserts that

you can only know the truth by

discovering it through your five senses.

You you have to experience something for

it to be real. In other words, anything

that can be known has to be learned

through science. Sound familiar?

Rationalism says that you discover the

truth through human reasoning.

And so if you combine these two

philosophies, what you end up with is

effectively no need for God to explain

any of this.

Humans no longer needed a god to tell us

anything. We can discover truth on our

own through our own powerful reasoning

and through our own senses using the

scientific method.

This is what the German philosopher

Friedrich Nichi was referring to when he

famously declared, "God is dead."

God is dead. Now, Nichi was an atheist.

He didn't believe there ever was such a

thing as God.

He didn't believe that God really died.

Rather, what he was referring to is how

man no longer needed a belief in God

because the universe could finally be

explained apart from him. In Nichi's

opinion, the Enlightenment had killed

God.

Now, there's usually a significant time

lapse between when philosophers are

theorizing about things and when the

masses adopt it wholesale and start to

act on those philosophies. There's

usually a significant gap between those

two things.

In the case of the enlightenment

philosophy, it has taken 300 years for

the west to begin to feel the

consequences of these philosophies.

Nichze even predicted that this would

happen in his parable of the madman that

he wrote in 1882.

He said, "Have you not heard of that

madman who lit a lantern in the bright

morning hours, ran to the marketplace,

and cried incessantly, I seek God. I

seek God.

As many of those who did not believe in

God were standing around just then, he

provoked much laughter.

Has he got lost? asked one. Did he lose

his way like a child? asked another. Or

is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he

gone on a voyage? Thus they yelled and

laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and

pierced them with his eyes. Where is

God? He cried. I will tell you, we have

killed him. You and I, all of us are his

murderers. But how did we do this? How

could we drink up the sea? Who gave us

the sponge to wipe away the entire

horizon?

What were we doing when we unchanged

this earth from its sun? Where is it

moving now? Where are we moving? Away

from all suns. Are we not plunging

continually backward, sideways, forward,

in all directions? Is there still any up

or down? Are we not straying as though

through an infinite nothing? Do we not

feel the breath of empty space? Has it

not become colder? Is not night

continually closing in on us? Do we not

need to light lanterns in the morning?

God is dead and we have killed him. How

shall we comfort ourselves, the

murderers of all murderers?

What was holiest and mightiest of all

that the world has yet owned has bled to

death under our knives? Who will wipe

this blood off us? What water is there

for us to clean ourselves? What

festivals of atonement? What sacred

games shall we have to invent? Is not

the greatness of this deed too great for

us? Must we ourselves not become gods

simply to appear worthy of it? Here the

madman fell silent and looked again at

his listeners and they too were silent

and stared at him in astonishment. At

last he threw his lantern on the ground

and broke it into pieces and went out. I

have come too early, he said. Then my

time is not yet. This tremendous event

is still on its way. Lightning and

thunder require time. The light of the

stars requires time. Deeds though done

still require time to be seen and heard.

Nichi's point was that the madman was

too early in the 1800s.

To claim that the rejection of God was

leading somewhere dark and bad

made no sense back then when Nichi was

writing when the residual light of the

belief in God was still shining bright

at that time.

The darkness of the death of God needed

time to permeate the world. The chaos

had not yet come. The confusion had not

yet begun. Morality had not yet decayed

enough. But if the madman were to show

up today in 2026, he would be right on

time.

He would no longer be considered a

madman.

We would need his lantern because the

dark the world is indeed dark that we

live in now. The irony of ironies is the

enlightenment

for all of its good introduced a growing

darkness in our world because it removed

the western person's perceived need to

believe in God.

Now in the west, 300 years out from

rejecting God, we are starting to feel

the consequences of this.

We're starting to feel the darkness

closing in. We now live in a society

where a man can decide that he is a

woman. It doesn't matter what God says

about that. You can just decide. It's

your choice. You can do whatever you

want.

A society that will give mistctomies to

teenagers.

A society of no fault divorce.

A society that is no longer ashamed of

our abortions, but instead boasts about

them. A society that dedicates an entire

month to celebrating queer sexual

orientation. a month named after the

worst sin in the Bible, pride.

A society where there is no longer any

capital T truth. There's only your truth

and my truth.

If Nichi's madman were here today, he

would ask, "Don't you feel untethered?

Don't you feel confused about what's

going on?

Aren't we drifting into the darkness?

Don't you feel as if as if we're

floating further and further from the

gravitational pole of God? When you kill

God, you must become a God yourself. And

that's what our society has become

today.

Each of us is our own God.

We in the West, we're not the first ones

to do this, though. Did you know that?

We're not the first ones to try to kill

God and see what happens several

generations later.

It's not only post-Enlightenment and

post-Christian US and Europe that have

done this before. The nation of Israel,

God's own people have done this before.

They have tried this experiment.

And that's what the book of Judges is

all about. Israel becoming their own

gods.

Our text this morning is one verse. I'm

not going to get into the book of

Judges. This is more of an introductory

sermon to the book. But our one verse

that we're going to look at today that I

think sets up the the book of Judges

well is Judges 21:2. The last verse in

Judges 21:2

the book of Judges.

We read in those days there was no king

in Israel. Everyone did what was right

in his own eyes.

Here's

the main point of this sermon and I

think the main point of Judges. When the

throne is empty, there is no choice but

to sit on it yourself. When the throne

is empty, there is no choice but to sit

on it yourself.

This morning, we're going to have a

different kind of sermon. This is not an

exogetical sermon like we typically do

on a Sunday morning. And this is not a

topical sermon like we've done for the

last five weeks. This is a biblical

theological sermon. Meaning, I'm going

to trace a theme through several books

of the Bible, and we're just going to

see what we can learn from God there.

The biblical theme I want to trace

through the beginning of the Bible is

the theme of Israel, the nation of

Israel. We're going to examine five

phases of Israel. We're going to look at

Israel's creation in Genesis and Exodus.

We're going to look at Israel's

formation in Leviticus and Numbers.

We're going to look at Israel's promises

in Deuteronomy.

We're going to look at Israel's

provision in Joshua. And then we're

going to look at Israel's downward

spiral in Judges.

Now, since we're covering seven books of

the Bible this morning, clearly I'm not

going to be able to go very deep into

any of them. I'm going to reference a

few verses in each to try to give you a

picture of this theme. And then we'll

dive into the deep dive of Judges next

Sunday as we get into chapter 1. So

let's go back to the very beginning and

look at Israel's creation in Genesis and

Exodus. Let me take you all the way back

to the very beginning of the Bible. In

Genesis 1 verses 26- 28, we read, "Then

Genesis 1:26–28

God said, let us make man in our image,

after our likeness, and let them have

dominion over the fish of the sea, and

over the birds of the heavens, and over

the livestock, and over the over all the

earth, and over every creeping thing

that creeps on the earth."

So God created man in his own image. In

the image of God he created him. Male

and female he created them. And God

blessed them. And God said to them, "Be

fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

and subdue it and have dominion over the

fish of the sea and over the birds of

the heavens and over every living thing

that moves on the earth."

This is what theologians refer to as the

creation mandate.

This is God's task that he gave to

humans at the very beginning. We are

made in his image. And because we are

made in him his image, when he tells us

to be fruitful and multiply, he's

actually telling us spread my image

around the world. I've made this earth

as like a temple to me. And I want you

to fill it with image bearsers. Meaning

have children, have more image bearers,

and fill it up with worshippers. That

was the task given to humans. have

children, make more worshippers.

He gives us right out the gate of the

Bible, he gives us a strong hint as to

where the the universe is headed.

It's headed to a place where God lives

with humans. That was the goal from the

very beginning. We saw that in the

heaven series that that is the end that

we are all driving towards in this

universe.

God and his imagebearers enjoying each

other forever. That was the dream. But

then if you know the story of Genesis,

you know what happened to that dream.

Humans, the ones entrusted with filling

the earth with the image of God,

rebelled against their creator. Adam and

Eve disobeyed God and introduced sin

into our planet. And since that day, sin

has been conceived into the hearts of

every human being who has ever been

born. We are born with sin in our veins,

and it grows as we grow.

This instinctive desire to disobey God

and to do what we want instead is in our

blood.

And now because all humans are being

multiplied on the earth, we're being

multiplied with this faulty nature.

These broken images of God are now

spreading and filling the earth.

The sinful instinct is going abroad.

We're generating more and more sinners,

more and more broken images. And so God

moved to the next phase of his plan, the

salvation of mankind.

The salvation of mankind from sin. Now

the plan was simple enough. He would

create a nation, a very special nation

that would be dear to his heart. And

from this nation, he would raise up a

messiah, a savior who is his own son who

would send he would send to the earth to

rescue mankind from our sin. Was a

simple plan.

He had to create this nation first.

a nation that would stand out from all

the other nations that were being

formed.

This would be the nation with whom God

himself would live in their presence

while he was on earth. He would dwell

with them in a tabernacle and then later

in the form of Jesus Christ. This nation

would receive his special blessing. They

would receive his laws and they would

have to order their society after his

desires. They'd be given the prime real

estate on the earth. They'd be given the

wealth of the nations around them. Most

importantly, the savior of the world

would come through this nation. That was

the plan. And so to in order to create

this nation about 4,000 years ago, God

chose one man to start with, a man named

Abram. And he promised Abram four

things. He promised him blessing. He

promised him offspring. He promised him

land. And he promised that through Abram

all the nations of the earth would be

blessed, which was a hint that the

Savior would come from Abram<unk>'s

descendants. We see this in Genesis

12:es 1-3.

Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from

your country and your kindred and your

father's house to the land that I will

show you, and I will make of you a great

nation, and I will bless you and make

your name great, so that you will be a

blessing. I will bless those who bless

you and and him who dishonors you I will

curse and in you all the families of the

earth shall be blessed.

A few chapters later, God appears to

Abram again and he shows him the land of

Canaan that he's going to give to his

special nation. And we read in Genesis

15:es 13-16.

Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for

certain that your offspring will be

sojourers in a land that is not theirs

and will be servants there, and they

will be afflicted for 400 years." A

prediction of the book of Exodus. But I

will bring judgment on that nation, on

the nation that they serve, and

afterward they shall come out with great

possessions.

As for you, you shall go to your fathers

in peace. You shall be buried in a good

old age, and they shall come back here

in the fourth generation, for the

iniquity of the Amorites is not yet

complete. The Amorites is a collective

term for the inhabitants of the land of

Canaan. So what we have so far in God's

plan to bring about the savior is first

that he has chosen Abram and from Abram

he will create the nation called Israel.

That nation he will settle in the land

of Canaan but not for a while. They have

to undergo 400 years of affliction

first.

He's using this special nation to punish

the inhabitants of Canaan. He was

waiting for the sin of the Amorites, the

Canaanites, to reach a breaking point.

So he delays for 400 years. And during

these 400 years, the Canaanites are

increasing in their wickedness, offering

child sacrifices to their false gods,

and God storing up wrath for them.

Meanwhile, Abram's descendants have

settled in the land of Egypt, and

they've become slaves there. And that's

where the book of Exodus picks up. If

you remember from our study in the book

of Exodus last year, that's where really

Israel really begins to grow.

They came from the land of Canaan to

Egypt with 70 people. By the end of

Exodus, there are potentially millions

or a million as some estimates will say.

They really begin to grow. What was a

promise and just a seed form in Genesis

has become to has come to blossom in

Exodus.

In the beginning of Exodus, Israel was

in captivity. They were enslaved to

Pharaoh. Pharaoh who was working in

tandem with Satan to try to destroy the

nation of Israel, God's special nation

from which he was going to raise up a

savior. Satan and Pharaoh colluded

together to destroy Israel so that no

seed of the woman, no Messiah, no savior

could come and rescue mankind.

But despite Pharaohs and Satan's best

efforts to commit genocide on Israel,

God caused Israel to increase and be

incredibly fruitful

to the point where in 400 years, Israel

grew from one man to an entire nation

built up of 12 massive tribes.

In the book of Exodus, God foreshadows

the salvation of the world from sin by

rescuing Israel from slavery. God

punishes Pharaoh and Egypt with plagues

in order to force their hand to release

the chain of slavery from Israel. And

more than that, the way that the Exodus

ended, the way that Israel left was they

asked their Egyptian neighbors for their

wealth. And the Egyptians were so eager

to get rid of them that they just gave

it all. One of the wealthiest nations in

the world just said, "Yeah, take all of

our stuff and leave." And so Israel left

wealthy as God had promised. The

promises are starting to be fulfilled as

they exit Egypt and head toward Canaan,

towards the land that God had promised

them.

This is how the nation of Israel was

created. It went from one man with a

handful of promises to a large nation

marching toward their promised real

estate inheritance,

wealth in their hands.

That's Israel's creation. Let's now look

at Israel's formation.

In the book of Leviticus, we see God

give Israel a long list of very specific

laws.

And I think the point of all of these

laws can be summed up in Leviticus 19:es

1-2.

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying,

"Speak to the congregation of the people

of Israel and say to them, you shall be

holy as I am holy."

You shall be holy as I am holy.

God's purpose in creating a special

nation was so that they would stand out

from among the other nations. That's

what it means to be holy. It means to be

different, to be set apart,

to be a contrast to the rest of the

nations. All of the other nations were

following headlong their their sinful

instincts that they inherited from Adam

and Eve. But not Israel. It wasn't to be

so with them.

They were supposed to be different. They

were supposed to be like God.

So God gave Israel so many laws to

distinguish them from the nations. And

this is important to keep them from

becoming like the other nations. The

laws were meant to protect Israel from

becoming like their neighbors.

So much of the law was designed to

prevent the Canaanization

of Israel.

The laws were for their protections.

They didn't end up like the nations that

God was about to punish for 400 years of

rebellion.

So God in Leviticus and Numbers begins

to shape and form the society of Israel

in this phase of Israel's history that

it's that this is where God really

fleshes out the priesthood in Israel.

He forms their worship practices. He

forms a society with himself at the

center. Now that is so important. The

way that God sets Israel up is he says,

"I am the king. I am the center.

Everything revolves around the worship

of God." That's how the society was to

function. That's how the nation was to

to rule. He was to be their king. He was

meant to be enthroned in their presence.

He was meant to live with them in the

Holy of Holies in their tabernacle,

sitting on the mercy seat. That was

God's designated place in Israel.

And the priests were supposed to

facilitate that. They were supposed to

ensure that that happened.

But we will see by the end of Judges

just how corrupt the priesthood becomes

in the days of the judges

once God is no longer enthroned in

Israel.

So first we saw Israel's creation in

Genesis and Exodus. Then we saw Israel's

formation in Leviticus and Numbers. Next

look, let's look at Israel's promises in

Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy, God tells

Israel if they would be that holy

nation, if they would obey and be

distinct and set apart from the other

nations, then they would experience his

abundant blessings.

In Deuteronomy 28:1-6, we read, "And if

Deuteronomy 28:1–6

you faithfully obey the voice of the

Lord your God, being careful to do all

his commandments that I command you

today, the Lord your God will set you

high above the n all the nations of the

earth. And all these blessings shall

come upon you and overtake you. If you

obey the voice of the Lord your God,

blessed shall you be in the city, and

blessed shall you be in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb

and the fruit of your ground and the

fruit of your cattle, the increase of

your herds and the young of your flock.

Blessed shall be your basket and your

kneading bowls. Blessed blessed shall

you be when you come in and blessed

shall you be when you go out.

All of these promises if they would

obey.

That sounds amazing and it sounds so

simple. Keep God at the center of the

nation. Keep him on the throne of your

life, Israel. and receive blessings.

But what would happen if you drift away

from God? What would happen if you

removed him from his throne?

Deuteronomy 28:15-20.

Deuteronomy 28:15–20

But if you do not obey the voice of the

Lord your God, or be careful to do all

his commandments and his statutes that I

command you today, then all these curses

shall come upon you and overtake you.

Cursed shall you be in the city, and

cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed

shall be your basket in your kneading

bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your

womb and the fruit of your grounds, the

increase of your herds and the young of

your flock. Cursed shall be when you

come in, and cursed shall you be when

you go out. The Lord will send on you

curses, confusion, frustration in all

that you undertake to do until you are

destroyed and perish quickly on account

of the evil of your deeds because you

have forsaken me.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God makes

promises to Israel, promises of blessing

if he is their king, and promises of

curses if he's not.

The same is true in our nation.

The same I think has been true in any

nation that has ever existed on this

planet.

The same is also true in our personal

lives, your individual life, not even

talking about society.

But don't you feel the confusion of

Western civilization right now?

God says you'll be confused if you

abandon me, if you forsake. You'll be

confused.

You'll be cursed.

Many of us are confused as individuals.

It it has become harder to discern what

is right and what is wrong if you're

simply taking your cues from our

culture.

We have the Bible telling us certain

things are wrong and yet it seems like

everything else in our culture says no,

no, no, that's right. The Bible has it

wrong and vice versa.

God said this would happen 1500 years

ago when Moses wrote Deuteronomy.

God said this would happen

right before Israel is about to enter

the land that God promised them way back

in Genesis. God also gives very specific

instructions to Israel not to intermar

with the Canaanites.

He says in Deuteronomy 7 1-4, "When the

Lord your God brings you into the land

that you are entering to take possession

of it and clears away many nations

before you, the Hittites, the Gegosites,

the Amorites, the Canaanites, the

Perizzites, the Hivites, and the

Jebusites, seven nations more numerous

and mightier than you. And when the Lord

your God gives them over to you and you

defeat them, you must devote them to

complete destruction. You shall make no

covenant with them and show no mercy to

them. You shall not intermar with them,

giving your daughters to their sons or

taking their daughters for your sons.

For they would turn away your sons from

following me to serve other gods. Then

the anger of the Lord would be kindled

against you and he would destroy you

quickly.

See, we will see throughout the book of

Judges

that this promise of God gets

continually forgotten. They just like

forget you're not supposed to marry a

Canaanite

and they end up marrying Canaanites.

You'll see the judges do this. Even the

judges that we're we like,

they forsake this.

Not only that, but they fail to drive

out the Canaanites completely

and then they marry them. And of course,

as was predicted, they are led astray by

them.

We'll see so many of God's promises in

Deuteronomy come to pass in Judges.

Okay. So, we've seen Israel's creation.

We've seen Israel's formation.

We've seen Israel's promises. Let's now

look at Israel's provision in the book

of Joshua.

In the book of Joshua, God finally

brings Israel into the land that he

promised them. And as they enter the

land, God commanded them to stack 12

large stones on top of each other at the

Jordan River as a monument to remember

the help that God provided in their

escape from Egypt and then everything

that happened in the wilderness. This

will become a common practice in elder

in Israel's history, stacking stones as

a memorial. Later in the Bible, Samuel

will set up a stone monument and he will

name it Ebenezer. Ebban is the Hebrew

word for stone. And eer is the Hebrew

word for help. And so Israel was in the

habit of raising an Ebenezer, a stone of

help.

Something to remember. God helps me. He

has helped me in the past and he will

help me in the future. And I need to

look at the stone to remember that.

It's a testimony of God's past

deliverances and therefore the assurance

of his future help. Anytime Israel ever

had doubts about whether they could

conquer a nation that was more mighty

than them, all they had to do was look

at the stone and remember, "Wait a

second, the world's superpower, Egypt,

was conquered by God. We were set free

from them. Surely he can take out the

Amorites."

Anytime something looked too

overwhelming, they could look at their

Ebenezer and say with the hymnwriter,

"Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy

help I've come and I hope by thy good

pleasure safely to arrive at home.

Vanessa and I have a few Ebenezers in

our life. We have a 135lb rock in our

front yard that a friend gave me when I

graduated seminary.

I have a a small it's a much smaller

rock uh in my office. It's not 135

pounds, but I have a smaller rock that

has January 18th written on it. the date

that we adopted Olivia. We we've

collected rocks throughout our lives to

remember momentous things and they

remind us of God's faithfulness in the

past. I wish we had kept a rock for

every single time God provided

financially for us when we were in a

hard situation. We'd have a we'd have a

mound so big

and that would remind us anytime we're

stressed about finances. Okay, look at

our Ebenezer. We don't have to worry.

He has been our help in the past. He

will be our help and our hope in the

future.

Having a physical visible reminder that

God has come through for you in the past

and can help you. That can help you with

your doubts and your anxieties about the

future. I encourage you guys to have an

Ebenezer. It doesn't have to be a rock.

Maybe it's a plant. I don't know. Figure

it out. What whatever works for you. But

have an Ebenezer. Something that reminds

you of the faithfulness of God.

Back to Joshua though, Israel finally

enters the land under the leadership of

Joshua and they begin to drive out the

inhabitants of the land. Now, we don't

like that today.

Like some people today will accuse God

of being a genocidal God because he

commanded the Israelites to utterly

devote all these nations to destruction

to put them to the sword.

We find that really offensive. We find

that morally offensive that God would

use one nation to destroy other nations.

But you have to remember that God was

using Israel to punish. This was an

arbitrary destruction. He was using them

to punish the Canaanites for 400 plus

years of wickedness. He waited for he

stalled for 400 years

showing mercy for that long

while the Canaanites for centuries

stored up wrath.

And here's the other important thing to

remember about that. We'll get into this

more in Judges, but God shows zero

favoritism.

You'll see that in the rest of the

Bible. shows zero favoritism because the

nation of Israel, his special nation

that he uses to drive out the

inhabitants of Canaan, guess what

happens when they become unfaithful?

When they stock up centuries of

wickedness,

what does God do with them? He sends

other nations in to drive them out. God

shows no partiality. He is completely

just and completely fair all the time.

In the case of the Canaanites, he has

waited long enough and now his wrath

spills over. The Canaanites were

notoriously wicked and so God tells

Israel to wipe them off the map

completely. I can't tell you it's not

appropriate for church to talk about the

the crimes, the sins of the Canaanites.

It's gruesome stuff. It's stuff that

history wants to forget about.

In Joshua, we see Israel conquer nation

after nation in Canaan until finally

towards the end of the book, we read

this in Joshua 21:es 43-4.

Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the

land that he swore to give to their

fathers and they took possession of it

and they settled there. And the Lord

gave them rest on every side just as he

has swore he had sworn to their fathers.

Not one of their of all their enemies

had withstood them. For the Lord had

given all their enemies into their

hands. Not one of all the good promises

that the Lord had made to the house of

Israel had failed. All came to pass.

Joshua is a pretty optimistic book. It's

like the the opposite of Judges. It's a

pretty optimistic book. It shows Israel

what they could be if they continue to

follow the Lord.

If they keep him on the throne, they

will have the blessings of Deuteronomy.

If they remove him from the throne, they

will have they will have to themselves

ascend the throne each as an individual

of of his or her own life and they will

have to rule their lives which will

bring the terrible curses of

Deuteronomy.

Now the interesting thing about the book

of Joshua is that it shows the victories

of the nation of Israel over the

Canaanite nations and it speaks as if

they completely conquered these nations.

It talks about it like it's a done deal,

like they just completely obeyed.

But what we see in the book of Judges,

and we'll see this as we dig into Judges

is that Israel made some compromises.

They took some shortcuts.

They didn't completely obey God.

And it's not as though God failed to

deliver on his promises. Rather, they

failed to uphold their responsibility.

God promised to give them victory if

they went out to battle.

You have to go out to battle though for

God to give you the victory.

Every time they did go out to battle,

they were victorious.

And every time they made peace with a

nation or compromised with a [snorts]

nation, that nation became a thorn in

their flesh and a temptation for them

later on. There were many nations that

they failed to drive out completely.

I wonder if you can see a parallel in

our Christian life.

God promises to deliver us from

temptation

if we will fight.

God's sovereignty over the battle and

our responsibility to fight in the

battle are two sides of the same coin.

If you have some corners in your life

that are unconquered,

if you have made secret alliances with

some hidden sin,

something that you've permitted to live

in the dark, you already know this. It

will haunt you. It will be a thorn in

your flesh.

It will drive you to misery

unless you drag it out into the light

and hand it to God and say, "Will you

kill this? It's too strong for me. It's

too mighty for me.

Unless you drag it into the light and

ask him to do it, it will stay hidden

and it will stay alive and it will grow

and it will thrive. But if you can bring

it into the light and ask God to kill

it, he is mighty to save and he will end

it for you.

As we go through the book of Judges, I

want you to picture yourself as the

nation of Israel.

Paul tells us to do this in first

Corinthians that everything that happens

to Israel in the Old Testament, it was

all an example for us Christians. God

was obviously doing so much with Israel,

but he's also doing something for you

today in everything that happened to

them.

We are Israel in Judges. Let's remember

that as we go through this book.

So, this is the book of Joshua. God

finally lives with his people in the

land that he promised. It took 500 years

and five books of the Bible, but it

finally happened. Six books of the Bible

counting Joshua.

Let's now look at Israel's downward

spiral in the book of Judges.

Now, I'm not going to spend much time

here this morning uh because this is

what the whole series is going to be

about. But let me just give you a crack

the door a little bit to the book of

Judges. As I mentioned earlier, the

message of the book of Judges is

encapsulated in the very last verse of

the book. Judges 21:25.

Judges 21:25

In those days, there was no king in

Israel. Everyone did what was right in

his own eyes.

Judges shows Israel rejects God as their

king.

And then the deterioration

of Israelite society as a consequence

follows. In fact, we could say it even

stronger. God has spent 500 years

creating and forming this special

people. And then the book of Judges

shows Israel decreating and deforming

themselves.

That's what Judges shows us. They're

just desecrating everything he just

consecrated.

They're decreating what he created and

the deforming what he formed in just a

few generations.

Israel was supposed to be holy as God is

holy. They were to be a light that drew

all the nations to God. Instead, Judges

portrays the canaanization of Israel.

And this is very relevant for us because

we are often in danger of the

Americanization of the church. Now, I'm

not trying to knock the US. I love our

country.

But I'm calling out the danger of

adopting the ideals of the culture

around us.

Like Israel, we can adopt the gods of

our land, the god of materialism, that

we live in the capital city of the god

of materialism.

Or like Israel, we can be tempted to

look to human politicians to be our

saviors.

I want us to learn that in judges. No

human politician will ever save you.

No human politician will ever save our

civil our civilization from itself.

There is one savior that can do that.

judges will show the absolute ineptitude

of political leaders to ultimately save

a nation from a downward spiral.

Now, I'll be upfront with you. Judges is

kind of a depressing book.

Full disclosure,

and it gets worse as the book goes on,

so get excited.

But I think it's extremely important for

us to study the book of Judges.

because it explains so much of what we

see in our world today, of what we see

in the West today. I don't think there's

any other book in the Bible that quite

nails it like Judges does.

Israel in Judges was a few generations

away from their rejection of God. And

then you see all the consequences of

those actions, of those belief systems.

We see in Judges some of the same things

that we see in our day today. sexual

confusion, wholesale sexual confusion,

the mistreatment of women and children,

the narcissification of society where

everyone does what is right in his or

her own eyes.

Because in the absence of a belief in

God, all of us are forced to be God's

ourselves.

and the burnout,

the mental illness that results of that

kind of pressure. We all feel it.

I have to recreate myself all the time,

be a better version of myself all the

time.

I have to not fail ever in any way.

That's all in judges. And that's all

around us today in the West. When

everyone is sitting on the throne of

their own life, each one does what is

right in his or her own eyes. And then

there are serious consequences for that

because we make horrible gods. We're not

good at it.

We are not good kings or queens of our

own lives. We make horrible decisions

and we can't stand up under that kind of

pressure.

And church, that is why Christ came.

He was the only one who was worthy of

taking the throne, the throne of Israel.

on the throne of your heart.

Christ is not his last name. It's the

Greek word for king. Messiah is not just

a title. It's the Hebrew word for king,

the anointed one. He is the anointed

king. This is frankly all that it means

to be a Christian is to be a subject of

King Jesus. And so when you get baptized

in the waters of baptism, what you're

saying is guess what? King Jason is

dead. What was risen now is a subject of

King Jesus. He reigns,

not me. I'm off the throne and he is on

the throne. To be a Christian is to be

under the reign of King Jesus. You are

his subject. Being under his reign,

guess what? You're under his protection.

You have his provision.

You have his purpose in your life. He is

the only one who can deliver us from the

downward spiral.

There's only room for one on the throne

of your life.

If Christ does not rule there, then you

must take the throne yourself. As Nichch

said, unknowingly, I think about how

right he was, must we ourselves not

become God simply to appear worthy of

it.

If you take the throne, then you must

also assume all of the responsibilities

of God. So consider the cost. You must

assume all of the responsibilities of

God if you were going to take the

throne. That means you must give

yourself your own meaning in this

universe. Why are you here? Why do you

exist? If not for God, make up a reason

and try to live that reason out and see

how quickly you get depressed.

You must atone for your own sins. You

must discover what makes you happy and

pursue it with all your might. In a

world where nothing can make you happy

except God.

And this is the picture of the book of

Judges. And this is the picture of

Western society.

Everyone trying to figure out how to be

the king and queen of their own life.

Christ came to save us from ourselves.

Are you trying to run your life in your

way? If so, get off the throne.

Get off the throne and let Christ take

his rightful place.

Judges will show us in graphic ways the

misery of living life with an empty

throne.

When a throne is empty, there's no

choice but to sit on it yourself.

Let's pray.