Why Have you Done This?
The Book of Judges • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsThe importance of obedience and God's justness to remove his hand of blessing from those who disobey.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The Lord has done great things for you and I in Jesus Christ. We have redemption from the consequences of hell, we have forgiveness and acceptance in the beloved, we are adopted into God’s family, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit to help us walk right, we promised the continual presence of Jesus with us every moment of everyday. However, don’t you find that you fall into sin anyways. Why have you done this, the Holy Spirit questions us.
The account of Judges 2:1-5 paints a very similar picture with the nation of Israel.
Judges 2:1–5 “And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass, when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the Lord.”
D. God deserved Israel’s complete and whole hearted obedience, and he deserves our complete whole hearted obedience too.
P. We must be totally surrendered to God.
T. Tonight I want to look at Israel and what happened and make some applications to our lives. Because like Israel we are tempted perhaps with different temptation of idols and partnerships with unbelievers, but they are still part of what we face.
Through this message I want us to see God’s faithfulness to his promises and how his people’s actions affected how he kept those promises.
Historical Telling of the Story
Historical Telling of the Story
The children of Israel have live for nearly 50 years in the promised land. Joshua died and all the elders that outlived Joshua have passed off the scene. As these pillars of the nation have died, so has the commitment to worship the LORD exclusively.
The Lord is concerned with the state of his people and the angel of the LORD, a Christophany goes to the people leaving from Gilgal to Bochim near Gilgal. The angel has come with solemn sermon to repent. The angel claims responsibility for making the nation leave Egypt, bring them in the promised land according to his promise to their forefathers, and promise to never break his covenant. He reminds them of two simple commands they were to fulfill as they inherited the land he promised them. What were they? Don’t make an league or be in military alliances/partnerships, and throw down the altars of their false gods. But what had they rendered to God for all his goodness towards them? Psalm 116:13–14 “I will take the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord Now in the presence of all his people.”
Unfortunately, that is not what they did. They took the cups of idols and trusted in them for salvation. They intermarried with the heathen making leagues with them. They did not do as God commanded them.
When we disobey God in an area of our lives, what area of our life does God use to punish us? Not the areas we were being obedient in, but the sin which we thought we could toy with and get away with, that we liked. That is what the angel of the Lord pronounced as Israel’s judgment. Those sinful nations would no longer be driven out by God, because Israel first decided they liked those people and their immoral gods. They had beautiful daughters they had gods that were appealing to their flesh. They trusted these false gods more than they trusted the God that saved them from bondage in Egypt. Huh???
What stupidity? Isaiah 66:3 “... Yea, they have chosen their own ways, And their soul delighteth in their abominations.”
The angel of the Lord reveals no longer will he be with them to drive out the inhabitants of the land before them. The people weep loudly hence the name Bochim, weeping. They sacrifice to God and return home where they will be tested and the thoughts of their hearts will be revealed in their doings.
What can we learn from this sad account.
1. God will fulfill the good of his promises to us.
1. God will fulfill the good of his promises to us.
Explain:
God has redeemed us off the slave market of sin.
God has granted us victory in Christ to triumph over our enemies.
The Christians enemies are sin, the world’s system, and the devil.
The lusts of our flesh. What we naturally gravitate towards that is in opposition to God’s Word.
Psalm 119:30 “I have chosen the way of truth: Thy judgments have I laid before me.”
Psalm 119:173 “Let thine hand help me; For I have chosen thy precepts.”
The children of Israel learned the values of the heathen they were to exterminate from the land, instead of living by the revealed word of God. Perhaps they thought God’s law outdated, irrelevant to their time and culture, as not up to date with the cutting edge of science and religious practice? What is your attitude towards God’s Word. Do you love it?
The world’s system.
The values Michigan Laws are different than the Bible.
Exaltation of murdering the unborn as a human right.
The demanding of rights for the sexually deviant from God’s design of one man and one woman and the audacity to blaspheme God’s holy Word and his people and say He’s changed his values or downright lie and say he never has forbidden it.
The belittlement of marriage with no fault divorce. When God’s Word says what God has joined let no man put asunder. Matthew 19:6
The idea that lying is okay.
Devil
The blatant contradictions of the lies of the Devil with the Word of God.
The ability to mix error and truth to make it look good and innocent.
Argue:
Human rationalizations.
2 Corinthians 10:5 “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
Illustrate: I help you clean your room if you will work on it too.
Apply:
God gave salvation to Israel from their physical enemies.
God has given us salvation from our spiritual enemies in Christ. While I believe it is unbiblical to teach the loss of salvation. I strongly believe that those who have no changes in their lives never possessed salvation in the first place. The Bible teaches that genuine salvation is not marked by just tears of remorse, but by a changed lifestyle.
2. God permits us to enter partnerships with his enemies and ours.
2. God permits us to enter partnerships with his enemies and ours.
Explain:
Argue:
Illustrate:
Apply:
3. God permits us our participation with his and our enemies.
3. God permits us our participation with his and our enemies.
Explain:
Argue:
Illustrate:
Apply:
4. God fulfills the negative aspects of his promises upon the disobedient.
4. God fulfills the negative aspects of his promises upon the disobedient.
Explain:
Deuteronomy 28 gives a list of curses for disobedience.
Disobedience brings afflictions - Deuteronomy 28:48 “Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.”
Destitute Land.
Defenses trusted will fail. Deuteronomy 28:52 “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.”
Disease - Deuteronomy 28:59 “Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.”
Destroyed - Deuteronomy 28:62 “And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God.”
Driven out of their land Deuteronomy 30:4 “If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:”
Distressed - Deuteronomy 28:65“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:”
Deceived by their sin Deuteronomy 29:18 “Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;”
Argue:
These are curses upon Israel under the Mosaic Covenant which covenant we as believers are not under. However, there are parallels I see in principal which are similar in the Christian life when we don’t obey God.
Illustrate:
Apply:
How do I avoid such calamities as Israel.
Listen to God
Love God
Live for God
NT APP
Listen to God.
Turn off the other voices you are listening to. HOW?
Get alone with God in prayer with your Bible.
Take some time to fast and pray.
Go to church faithfully.
We have the whole counsel of God sufficient for life. Are you listening and living by it?
Acts 17:30 “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:”
Return to your Creator. Receive and Listen to the call of Jesus to repent.
Love God.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Delight in obeying God.
Choose Him above all others.
What profit in the things of this world. Mark 8:36 “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Serve the Lord in truth with a whole heart.
1 Samuel 12:24 “Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.”
What keeps us from loving God?
anger/entitlement/ expectations
bitterness
money
Love of the worlds pleasures are enticing and extravagant, but empty.
Live for God.
It is easy to listen and say I love God it is different thing to do it. Your commitment will be tested when you go home.
Things you might live for: grandkids, sports, job, money, God’s glory.
What are you here for? God’s glory. Seek God to know how to do it.
a living sacrifice Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”
Living by faith 2 Corinthians 5:7 “(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”
Live for God’s glory Revelation 4:11 “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Isreal became enslaved by what they toyed around with. They thought they could handle the influence of sin, but it enslaved and conquered them instead. Deal with sin in your life as God convicts you of it. Woe to the person who is never convicted of anything.
How will you live the truth of the message this week. Will you reap the positive or negative of God’s promises. Are you partnering with the world about values. Have you participated as a Christian in what God has forbidden.
If the angel of the Lord preached to you tonight what would he say about your life.
Applications:
Yet, don’t we do that in our lives. I have saved you from the sins of anger, bitterness, lust, filthy speech, drugs, etc. and that is our nemesis.
Why? We have chosen what we loved more than God.
