The Most Sobering Text In All The Bible

2011-5 DATE – JUST BAPTIST OUTLINES 8-15-10

THE MOST SOBERING TEXT IN THE BIBLE!

SETTLING DOWN WITH SIN – GETTING USED TO SIN

Judges 2:10

Jg 2:10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. (KJV)

INTRODUCTION: For the most part today’s Christian knows nothing of the mighty power of God. Our generation has repeated this tragedy just as we read it in this passage.

Jg 2:1 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. (KJV)

In Vs. 1 we see the appearance of “The Angel of the Lord”. This is a Christophony. An earthly appearance of Christ. The fact that God came to deliver the message Himself shows how serious the matter was with Israel.

The people of Israel, in the Book of Judges, did not experience crossing the Jordan – conquering the enemy – claiming the inheritance – they did not see the mighty hand of God.

Following WW2 America was a great and powerful nation. All the world respected her – God was on the verge of pouring out great blessings on her.

The churches in America did not grab hold of the opportunities handed them by God through the sacrifice and victory of the war. Instead they leaned back on her lees and allowed Satan to capture the opportunity given us by God. The churches were not willing to continue in the mode of sacrifice yielded the spiritual offense to the opportunity of pleasure and wealth. We rejected the gift God handed us. There is no way evil could have gotten the foothold it did had we continued on in an aggressive mode with the Gospel – The next 30 years following proved to be our waterloo because we allowed another generation to rise up which knew not the Lord, nor the works which He had done. Instead we as a nation raised our children to primarily be “freeloaders” depending upon the government instead of God – we looked to Uncle Sam for our manna instead of the God of the wilderness.

For the most part we don’t need God to supply for us. We can take our Visa card and acquire anything we want.

Instead of praying we pay 15 or 20 percent interest on our credit card.

Instead of waiting upon the Lord we have pushed him aside and said we can do better than He can.

Instead of teaching our children the mighty works of God we have handed them a carefree hope that can bring anything for free.

But just like in the Book of Judges God will bring us to our senses by captivity and hardships. We have so digressed in our spreading of the Gospel that now true believers are of such a minority that we are soon to be captive of a sinful world. America has wasted Her suffering. We didn’t learn from our past mistakes.

I. PROSPERITY EXISTED WHEN THE PEOPLE REGARDED THE WORD OF GOD. Vs. 7.

Jg 2:7 And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel. (KJV)

A. The People Sacrificed And Worshipped God. Vs. 5. Jg 2:5 And they called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD. (KJV)

B. They Preceded To Inherit Their Land. They grew in the ways of the Lord. They saw God’s hand bring victory time after time. They experienced God at work in behalf of Israel.

C. They Served God All During Joshua’s Days And The Elders That Outlived Joshua.

There was a great outpouring of God’s great and mighty strength in overpowering the enemy battle after battle.

These had seen the great hand of God. But then comes Vs. 10 and 11.

II. REBUKE AND CHASTISEMENT WHEN THEY REFUSED GOD. Vs. 10-11.

Jg 2:10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: (KJV)

There is a tone in these two verses that sound like the writer was writing with tears.

The Jews became so accustomed the sinful ways of their pagan neighbors that those ways didn’t seem sinful any more. The Jews then became interested in how their neighbors worshiped, until finally Israel started to live like their enemies and imitate their ways. For believers today, the first step away from the Lord is “friendship with the world” which then leads to our being spotted by the world. The next step is to “love the world” and gradually be “conformed to this world”. This can lead to being “condemned with the world”, the kind of judgment that came to Lot, Samson, and Saul. (Wiersbe –“Be Available” page 17)