Judges 2:18-19 (NIV) " 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them.They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
We are going to start a new series on the Book of Judges.
This book is believed to have been written by the prophet Samuel around 1050 to 1000 BC.
It presents to us a very sad and turbulent period in Israel's history.
It is very different from the previous Book of Joshua that we just studied.
Joshua is a book of victory, triumph and success in claiming the promised Land.
Judges however shows the failure of Israel to conquer their enemies, claim their inheritance, and the huge effect that this had on their life and relationship with God.
That is true in our lives.
We not only have victories but we also experience failures and disappointments in life.
And most of the times, because of wrong choices, our failures are much more than our victories.
Throughout this entire book of Judges, we see a repeated cycle, one that we will call ‘The cycle of sin’.
In these two verses that we have just read, we find the pattern for the entire book – a pattern of sin, bondage and repentance that would last for nearly 350 years (around 1380 to 1050 BC).
For instance, one of their enemies is Mesopotamia or the king of Aram.
They were in bondage for 8 long years because they forgot the Lord and served idols.
But then, on their lowest moment, they cried to the Lord and God heard their cries.
He raised up a judge named Othniel who delivered them and gave them rest for 40 long years.
This is found in Judges 3:7-11.
In this series, we will study his life and the lives of other judges such as Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephtah and Samson, among others.
Actually, these are called judges but in reality, they don't really judge.
When we think of the word judge, we think of someone who makes legal judgment just like our Judiciary system in the court of Appeals.
But here in the Bible, these judges are actually military leaders who inspired Israel to go to battle and attack the enemy because of the bondage of slavery from their enemies.
Only God has the power and the authority to judge justly and fairly.
The often repeated verse of Scripture in this Book of Judges is this – ‘Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD…’
That means, they have chosen to do evil rather than to act righteously before God's sight.
That word "again" refers to a repeated action due to bondage of sin.
In short, the entire book of Judges is about Israel going through a cycle of sin.
And this cycle of sin is always true in our Christian lives.
We have the tendency to commit sin, then repent, then give our devotion to God, then when all is well and we are prospering, sin again take control and we fall into bondage.
It goes on an don.
That is the human nature written in every one's heart.
It is very difficult to break free from such bondage because we have no power of our own to do that.
But there is a greater power from God through Jesus coming to rescue and deliver us from the cycle of sin.
Another way to look at this cycle of sin is this:
First, Israel falls into idolatry, then, Israel is enslaved, then, Israel cries out to the Lord, then, God raises up a Judge, then, Israel is delivered, finally Israel served the Lord.
When the judge or deliverer after a short life span dies, the people who put their complete trust on this judge or deliverer again fall into sin and bondage.
The cycle repeats itself.
Here is a question for you to think about.
Why was there a cycle of sin during the time of the Judges?
What was the reason for this cycle of sin?
One of the reasons was probably the lack of a strong military and moral leader after the death of Joshua.
Compared to the situation at the time of Moses who had already prepared Joshua to take over his position long in advance.
But when Joshua was about to die, there was no mention of a successor being groomed to take over his leadership.
And so, after the death of Joshua, all hell broke loose to destroy Israel.
When they were hounded by the strong moral pressures from their enemies, they were not strong enough to defend themselves.
There was no one who would remind them of God's Word.
No one who would remind them of their covenant promise that they have made upon that rock in Shechem.
"That as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
It was all forgotten and erased from their memory.
They were not able to follow-through with their commitment.
It was all a lip service and a show.
Instead, they made a wrong choice by deciding to rebel against God, forsake their covenant and serve the idols of their neighboring nations.
Hence, it resulted in moral decay, in civil war and wickedness.
If only the people had demonstrated the zeal to serve and obey the Lord, their history would have been very different.
This truth is very much evident in the lives of many Christians today.
We too had the tendency to forget the Lord especially when no one is reminding us of our responsibility as Christians.
When everything is all right, we are happy and feel contended.
But when pressures mount and the temptation becomes overwhelming and our moral fiber is weak, we tend to revert back to the old life of sin and compromise.
But suddenly, we realize our failures and call upon the name of the Lord.
He comes to us, He rescues us and He pulls us back on our feet until one day, we slipped again into sin.
Then, the cycle goes on and on.
This is who we are.
But don't despair.
The cycle of sin can be broken.
It can be crushed and demolished.
We need not stay slaves of sin.
This is the Good News I want us to learn today in our introduction to the Book of Judges.
There is power, greater than all of us who could destroy this cycle of sin.
Jesus - who conquered sin and death by His death on the cross is alive forevermore and interceding for all of us.
And so, in our study for today, we will talk about three things:
1. The effects or consequences of sin is long lasting.
2. Our lives on earth is short.
3. Only Jesus can break this Cycle.
THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER:
1. THE EFFECTS OF SIN IS LONG LASTING.
Judges 2:19 (NIV) 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them.They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
The first thing we need to remember is that we have the tendency to be overcome by sin.
And when we commit sin, the consequences on our lives and the lives of the future generation is devastating.
In this verse, Israel has been overwhelmed by the corruption of sin in spite of the fact that that they had the law and the covenant.
After the death of Joshua, we find Israel in moral decay.
The words used in this verse concerning the downfall of Israel: FOLLOWING, SERVING and WORSHIPING other gods.
Let us look at these in detail.
To "follow" means to pursue or to chase after an idol.
During this time, the place of the Almighty God in their hearts was slowly being replaced by man made idols.
Instead of resisting to the evil forces invading their hearts, they followed and pursued after other gods.
We must avoid pursuing after idols.
The next word, to "serve" means to assist, to minister or to attend to other gods.
During this time, Israel was not just pursuing after idols, but they were comfortable serving them and caring for these graven images.
Instead of serving the true God, they began to give more time on serving their idols.
They have really gone down deeper into sin.
And, the third word used, "worship" has the element of adoration and devotion.
They deteriorated in paying homage to their idols and lost touch in worshiping the true God.
It was a sad day.
Worship should have been given to the Almighty God.
We have been created to worship and to glorify Him.
And God is a jealous God.
Replacing the worship of God with other things in our hearts is idolatry.
No wonder, God was angry with His own people.
The next sentence says: "They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways."
It means that even though they were being rebuked or chastised on their evil practices, yet, they rebuffed and repudiate strongly any correction to challenge their evil practices.
They would not even listen to any form of correction or reproof.
They just hold on tightly to their evil practices.
They just closed their minds and pretended they could not hear God's voice.
Their hearts become callous and their consciences were seared or numb.
And this is what sin can do to people who are blinded from the truth of God's Word.
Brothers and sisters, this is a warning to all of us regarding the consequences of sin.
That is why we must avoid following, serving or worshiping idols of any kind.
In fact, the Bible calls this situation as slavery to sin.
And many people without knowing it are caught up or trapped in this cycle without a way out.
Consider these verses from the Bible.
NO POWER TO DO RIGHTEOUS ACTIONS.
Romans 6:20 "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness."
That means a person who is controlled by sin has no ability on their own to do what is right.
They just keep on doing what is evil.
NO ABILITY TO OVERCOME THE DOWNWARD PULL OF SIN
John 8:24 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin."
That means a person who is controlled by sin keeps on sinning.
ALL ACTIONS ARE FOOLISHNESS TO GOD. Titus 3:3 "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another."
Look at those down ward pull of sin: "foolish", "disobedient", deceived" and "enslaved".
It is like being sucked into a hole of total darkness without any possibility of deliverance.
That, my brothers and sisters is the condition of our hearts without Christ.
And there are many people who have no knowledge of Christ and His deliverance.
They only live for the present.
They are not aware of their spiritual condition.
And so, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
If you have been delivered by Christ, we need to bring the message of salvation to them.
They need the Jesus Jesus Christ in their hearts.
We must reach the Lost with the Gospel.
This is the Great Commission that God has given us to fulfill as a church.
Our manpower and all our resources must be directed towards this goal of seeing people come to know Christ.
We need to see people being delivered from the bondage and cycle of sin.
And with proper training and wise planning, we can do it.
May God use our church to win souls for Christ.
2. LIFE ON EARTH IS SHORT.
Judges 2:18-19 (NIV) " 18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them.They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
The second thing we can learn from this Book of Judges is that life on earth is short.
It said that when the people repent from their sins and turn to the Lord for help, God listens and answered their prayers.
God would relent because of the afflictions of Israel.
God loved His people so much and He has been waiting for them to repent from their sins.
God would then raise up a judge to deliver them from the hands of the enemy.
But it said that when the judge died, the people returned to their old ways.
This is the human limitation of the deliverer regardless of how good they were in the past.
Human leaders get sick, make mistakes in their decisions as they grow old and eventually will die and fade away.
Human leaders are not here forever.
They will rule today with all the charisma and brilliance, but they will be gone tomorrow.
When they fade, all their supporters disappear with them.
Their programs and projects gone forever.
That is exactly what our lives on earth will be.
Our time on this earth is short.
We will not stay long on this earth.
We get sick, we make mistakes, and someday, we too will die and fade away.
I read that when a terrible plague came to ancient Athens, people there committed every horrible crime and engaged in every lustful pleasure they could because they believed that life was short and they would never have to pay any penalty.
The pagans do that because they don't know the meaning of life.
But not for us Christians.
When we understand that life is short, we must use every single second to do good, abhor evil and to serve God every single day.
Whatever good we can do today, let us do it now for we might not pass this way again.
Here are some Scriptures that briefly compares what our lives are.
OUR LIVES ARE LIKE SMOKE OR VAPOR.
James 4:14 " Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
The words "appears for a little while" refers to the limited time we have left on earth.
It is compared to a vapor like haze, mist, steam or moisture that has been diffused or suspended in the air for some time.
OUR LIVES ARE LIKE BREATH.
Psalms 144:4 (NIV) " They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow."
Think of it. Our breath is short lived and so are our lives on earth.
The word "fleeting" means brief, momentary and transient.
OUR LIVES ARE LIKE GRASS THAT FADES AWAY.
1 Peter 1:24 (NIV) " For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall.'
When it rains,, the grass grows over the hill but after a few days, they are gone.
That is what life is like.
Our glory is only for a moment, someday, we will fade away.
OUR LIVES ARE LIKE AN EVENING SHADOW.
Psalm 102:11 (NIV) " My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass."
An evening shadow can refer to an image that has been cast by a setting sun over a horizon.
After a few minutes, when the sun is gone, so is the shadow.
All these verses above point to the short and brief stay of man on this earth.
All our accomplishments, all our projects, all our ideas, all our dreams will someday diminish when we die on this earth.
All that we will leave behind are memories of the past to a few who remembered us.
And if we die when we are in bondage to sin, what have we accomplished on earth?
Nothing.
Our lives have been useless because we have allowed sin to dominate it.
I pray to God that you will aim for significance.
How? By turning your life to Jesus to help you.
Let Him deliver you from that bondage of sin.
Let Him make your life fruitful and productive in God's service.
Only Jesus can give us an abundant and a fulfilled life.
And if you are already a Christian and you want to accomplish much for Christ, win souls for Him.
We are an extension of Christ's hands on this earth.
There are people who need the gospel and as we share the message of salvation, some of them might receive Christ and be released from the bondage of sin.
Let us do our part.
Let us organize ourselves to win souls.
Let us grab every opportunity to serve Christ while we are still alive.
3. ONLY JESUS CAN BREAK THIS CYCLE OF SIN.
Ephesians 1:19-23 "19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
These verses of Scriptures are amazing.
There is nothing on earth that can break this cycle of sin except Christ.
You see in the Old testament, they have the law and the prophets.
But they have no ability to break free from the dominion of sin.
They were still looking forward for the Messiah to be born in the future.
At the same time, there was no presence of the Holy Spirit abiding in the lives of men and women.
But praise be to God.
During our time, we get to know Jesus as our Redeemer.
He gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts.
There is no power greater than the power of Christ.
Look at this slide. "All power is given to Jesus Christ."
That power is the same as the mighty strength when Christ was raised from the dead.
He has the power over all ruler and authority.
He has the power over all name and dominion.
He has the power not just in the present age but also in the one to come.
Everything has been placed under His feet.
He has been appointed to be head over everything for the church.
And He fills everything in every way.
And so, when we come to Christ with all our weaknesses, sin and misery, that tremendous power has been made available.
The bondage are broken and the cycle destroyed because of Christ.
The prisoner is set free.
The blind is able to see.
The dominion of darkness has been demolished and shattered.
And after you have been delivered by Christ and you share the power of God to others who are in bondage, the same chain is destroyed and the grace of God is made manifested.
Brothers and sisters, the cycle of sin must be broken and replaced by the cycle of salvation.
And you and I have the power to do that.
We have to keep on sharing the Gospel to the unbelievers so that the cycle of sin is broken.
And once their cycle of sin is broken, we must teach them to share the gospel message to others so that others would be delivered as well.
The more we share the gospel, the more this cycle of salvation is made a reality.
Luke 4:18New International Version (NIV) “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free."
When we have the Spirit of God in our hearts, we are anointed to proclaim the Good News to the poor in spirit.
When we have the Spirit of God, we can proclaim freedom for the prisoners.
When we have the Spirit of God in our hearts, we proclaim recovery of sight to eh blind.
When we have the Spirit of God in our hearts, we can set the oppressed free.
Do you have the Holy Spirit in your life?
Are you willing to help us share the Gospel to others?
I would like to tell you a story of a man named Tommie Scott.
He was formerly a notorious LA Gang member and a drug dealer who had been transformed by the power of Christ.
He grew up with an abusive father who was constantly in and out of jail.
He was just 12 and he was already initiated into a faction of the Crisps, one of the biggest and most violent gang in the US.
He became known as the "Hit man" and spent years trapped in this cycle of crime and jail time.
In an interview to a Christian magazine, he said: "My life was in chaos. At that time, a lot of fear plagued the city.
My father is one of the first generation of Crisps, which played a big part in me.
Joining a gang was like a tradition.
I was rooted into this life from birth.
That was the time before the Watts riots and the Rodney King beating.
Crack cocaine had its nasty grip on a lot of parents of the youth of our community, or the parents were locked away in prison, which would leave children helpless."
He continued. "Many of my friends were killed by guns, knife and drugs.
I became numb to death when my best friend Lee was shot 16 times.
I knew that I would be murdered soon.
Every day, I saw another tragedy or some form of chaos going on - fights, shoot outs, running from the police, hiding from the helicopters or just committing senseless violence. The cycle of sin just keep on going.
So, I did drugs and drank all day to drown out reality.
Los Angeles has close to 1,500 gangs with hundreds of thousands of members.
In America, we have close to 15, 000 murders a year, most of which are black crime.
We are the porn, alcohol, suicide and drug addict capital of the world.
We need revival."
But despite of the legacy of this cycle of sin and extreme violence, he became a Christian during his stay in prison.
It was that time when several members of a local church came to share the forgiveness and the grace being offered by Jesus.
Tommie accepted a call to give his life for God.
After his conversion, he began right away ministering to his fellow inmates by leading Bible studies and prayer meetings.
He saw many more once violent men came to faith to Christ and bondage broken.
He is now so passionate in spreading the Gospel.
"If you knew you could do something that would impact a life for an eternity, would you do it?"
Matthew 9:37-38 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Pray that you will be one of the workers in the harvest field.
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Pray that you will be like Christ whose desire is to seek and save the lost.
May God help us in our desire to win souls for Christ.
I would like to end this message with five quotes:
1. "You have never truly found Christ if you do not tell others about Him." Charles Spurgeon
2. "If you had the cure to cancer, wouldn't you share it? You have the cure to death, get out there and share it."
3. "God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with." Billy Graham
4. "To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world."
5. "Suppose you could gain everything in the whole world and lost your soul, was it worth it?
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