Compare & Contrast | Sunday, February 4, 2024

Amen, amen. There is some good news in that song. Thank you, Anthony. Good morning, Cross Connection. Welcome! You can be seated. We are so glad that you are here with us this morning.

We're going to be getting into the Scriptures in just a moment, but before we do, I want to mention two quick things. Of course, Pastor Garrett mentioned in the announcements that we are looking to add a third service coming up at the end of March on Easter Sunday, and we need all your help with serving.

One of the other things I wanted to put in your mind is that just after that, in the beginning of April to mid-April, we will be starting our springtime of growth groups here at Cross Connection Church. I hope that you keep that in mind for about eight to ten weeks, from April to May and into the beginning of June. We will be doing our growth groups again, and we would love to have you be involved with those. Maybe even consider opening up your home or helping by being a host.

Also, if you would, please be praying for the people who live in the middle section of our state. I am on a group text with a group of friends who pastor from about Thousand Oaks through Northern Santa Barbara. My friend Chuck had to cancel services today because they are expecting ten plus inches of rain in the Santa Barbara mountains. Cry Chapel Santa Barbara had to close their services today because their church is flooded. My friend Lance was teaching at Cary Chapel Fremont, which is more in the North Bay Area, and just as he was getting ready to teach, the power went out at the church. They are being inundated.

Thank God that He said He will not flood the world or destroy it with a flood again, but there are some pretty crazy things happening, amen?

So, if you would take out your Bibles this morning, if you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are beginning a study, or we started last week, in the Old Testament Book of Judges, which is the sixth or seventh book of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then Joshua and Judges. Judges is where we are, and we will probably be there for most of the rest of this year.

I think every person here in this room, no matter what kind of generation or age group you are in, probably has some movies and characters from those movies from your past or your childhood that you really remember. If you were like me, I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and back then, we didn't have DVDs; we had those VHS tapes. If you were really cool, you had a rewinder where you could take the tape out and put it in there to rewind.

The tape brings back memories of those movies that many of us watched repeatedly as kids because we loved them so much. I was thinking about this last week, particularly about a couple of trilogies that stand out to me. You might remember the epic tale of Marty McFly in "Back to the Future." I loved those movies. Another trilogy that comes to mind is the well-acted story of Daniel LaRusso in "The Karate Kid."

You might be wondering how I am going to connect this to the Book of Judges, so just wait. I was reflecting on "The Karate Kid" because, if you remember, in the first movie, Daniel moves from New Jersey to Los Angeles. He gets picked on and beaten up, but eventually, he becomes the Karate Kid. As kids, we would watch those movies and then immediately go outside to pretend to fight each other for an hour until we were bloody, all convinced we were ninjas.

In the movie, of course, the grand finale features Daniel's great victory at the Hill Valley Martial Arts Tournament. He wins, and it's an awesome moment. The next movie, "Karate Kid Part II," opens with a callback to that previous victory, showing the exact scene of him winning the tournament. Then, in "Karate Kid Part III," after Daniel's great victory in Okinawa at the end of Part II, the story begins with another callback to that victory. It serves as a reminder of the great triumph he had.

Now, in the Book of Judges, it begins with a callback to the previous book. Judges is the sequel; it is part two of the Book of Joshua. In Joshua, we see an incredible victory for the children of Israel, particularly through one great man of God named Caleb. Caleb has a daughter whom he gives to a man named Othniel. We studied this story back in Joshua chapter 15 around September of last year if you were with us.

Judges chapter 1 opens with a callback to that entire situation that took place in that passage. If you have your Bibles, open to Judges chapter 1. It sets the stage perfectly for the director or producer to plan this new sequel story, just like with Daniel LaRusso.

With the Karate Kid reminding us of Israel's high point, their victory as they came into the Promised Land under Joshua and Caleb, we read in Judges chapter 1, verse 1: "Now after the death of Joshua." This sets the timing of this book. Joshua was the one who, after Moses, led the children of Israel into the Promised Land. They were victorious under his leadership, and they took their place in the land. However, they didn't fully take the land. In fact, Joshua had told them near the end of his life that there remained much of the land that needed to be possessed.

They had their stronghold in the land, and now they were going to take it little by little, which is what God said through Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 7: "Little by little, you are going to take possession of the land and hold on to it."

So, after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked of the Lord, saying, "Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites?" The Canaanites were the people who mostly held the land, which was called the land of Canaan. It was promised to Joshua and to all the descendants of Abraham, a promise made back in Genesis 12. Now, many hundreds of years later, they came into the land of Canaan and began to take the possession that was theirs. God had given it to them.

Now that they were in the land and Joshua was dead, the people gathered together, the heads of the tribes of Israel. There were twelve tribes, and they said, "Who shall go up first against the Canaanites?" The Lord said, "Judah." This becomes an important part of the story because, from this point on, we will see that the tribe of Judah among the children of Israel would become the primary leadership tribe. This was predicted and prophesied hundreds of years earlier in Genesis chapter 49. God had promised that the Messiah would ultimately come through the line of Judah. We refer to Him sometimes as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

So, the children of Israel are in the Promised Land, and it is from this base that God is going to bring the Messiah and bring redemption to the whole world, just as He had promised hundreds of years before. Now that the children of Israel are there, their first order of business after Joshua's death is to go to God in prayer. The heads of the tribes of Israel ask, "Who should be the one to go up first?" God responds, "Judah. Indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand."

Judah then said to Simeon, the head of the tribe of Simeon, "Come up with me to my allotted territory that we may fight against the Canaanites, and I will likewise go up with you to your allotted territory." And Simeon went with him.

Judah went up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands. This is important because when the children of Israel were preparing to enter the Promised Land, they were clearly the underdogs. They didn't have a well-trained army or a lot of weaponry. They had not been experienced in battle for decades; they had been wandering in the wilderness and living in tents. Now, they were coming into the Promised Land, where the people had been established for centuries. These inhabitants had great fortresses and cities built up, strong armies with chariots, and they knew how to fight and defend their territory.

It would have been improbable for the children of Israel, as a group of nomadic tent dwellers, to come into the land and overtake these people who had a stronghold there. The story of Israel taking over the land of Canaan is a story of God enabling His people to do something that they could not do in and of their own strength. Here they are, in a similar situation, having just begun to take hold of the land. God says He wants Judah to go up, and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands. They killed 10,000 men at Bizek, which is one of the regions in that area.

They found Adonai Bezek; "Adonai" means "Lord." He was the ruler of Bizek. They fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adonai Bezek fled, but they pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. You might wonder what that was all about. Adonai Bezek had said that he had cut off the thumbs and big toes of seventy kings, who were then used to gather scraps under his table. He acknowledged that as he had done, so God had repaid him. They brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

What is going on here? Adonai Bezek, the Lord of Bizek, had been a conquering king or ruler in that area. He had established great strongholds and achieved victories in battle. When he overcame someone who came against him or whom he sought to conquer, he would cut off their thumbs and big toes. Why would he do that? It was so they could never fight again; they could never hold a sword or run in battle again. It was a way of hobbling them, making it impossible for them to fight back. Adonai Bezek had done this to seventy different rulers, and now it had come to his door.

The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it. They struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Afterward, the children of Judah went down to fight.

Against the Canaanites who dwell in the mountains in the south and in the lowland, Judah went up against the Canaanites who dwell in Hebron. The name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath Arba. They killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. From there, they went up against the inhabitants of Debir; the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath Sepher.

Caleb, this great man of God, was introduced to us previously in the Book of Numbers. Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses sent twelve spies to scout it out. You can read the story in Numbers chapter 13. There was one spy from each of the twelve tribes, and among those spies were Joshua and Caleb. The twelve spies returned after forty days of searching the land and shared their report with the children of Israel. They described it as a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a great and wonderful land.

However, ten of the spies said there were giants in the land, that they had strongholds, and that there was no way they could overtake them on their own. When you think about it, the ten spies were right in assessing the situation but wrong in underestimating God. Joshua and Caleb, the two faithful spies among the twelve, declared that God had given the land into their hands and urged the people to go up and take it. Unfortunately, the people did not heed the minority report of Joshua and Caleb; they listened to the majority report of the ten spies and became discouraged. As a result of their discouragement, they did not trust God and failed to enter the Promised Land. Instead, they wandered in the wilderness for thirty-eight years, and that entire generation, except for Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness.

Years later, when Joshua and Caleb were now in their eighties, they were able to enter the Promised Land. Joshua led them in, and Caleb also fought for his inheritance. At eighty-five years old, as we learned back in Joshua chapter 15, Caleb took these cities as his inheritance. He declared in Judges chapter 1, "Whoever attacks Kiriath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Aksah to wife." Othniel, the son of Kenaz, was going to take on this challenge.

Caleb's younger brother's son took it, and so Caleb gave his daughter Axa to Othniel. Axa's name means "a lion of God." What a great name!

Now it happened when she came to him, when Axa came to Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. She wanted a blessing from her father. She dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to him, "Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the South, give me also the springs of water." Caleb gave her the upper and the lower springs.

This story is like a high point for Israel. It is told in Joshua chapter 15 and retold here in Judges chapter 1 to set the stage. It is similar to the way that "The Karate Kid" was set up, where you have the victory of Daniel LaRusso at the beginning of part two to remember what happened in the previous story.

When you read this, and you come to Judges chapter 1, you read about their victorious entry into the land, with Judah going forward and Caleb and Othniel. You might think, "Oh, this is going to be a great story of victory." Unfortunately, that's not how it's going to play out, as we will see.

As I shared last week in my introduction to the Book of Judges, the children of the Kenite, Moses's father-in-law, went up from the city of Palms, which is the city of Jericho, with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near Arad. They went and dwelt among the people.

Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they attacked the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and they utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah. Also, Judah took Gaza—sound familiar?—and its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. These are the chief cities, three of the five chief cities of the Philistines. We will run into them some more later on. They took Gaza; they took Ashkelon.

So the Lord was with Judah. As the Book of Judges opens, we are reminded of a high point, a victory for the children of Israel, and it sets the stage for what we will see as we go through this book over the next weeks and months.

As I said previously, I can think of no better way to direct and produce the sequel to the Book of Joshua than this. What a wonderful way for the children of Israel to begin! We see it there in verses 1 and 2. Look back there again real quick after the...

After the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked of the Lord. Would you reach over and highlight in your neighbor's Bible those words? They asked of the Lord, saying, "Who shall be first to go up against the Canaanites and fight against them?" The Lord said, "Judah shall go up; indeed, I have delivered the land into his hand."

This is a reminder to us at the opening of the Book of Judges that Israel's conquest of the land of Canaan, their taking of the possession that God had promised to their father Abraham hundreds of years prior, was all by the hand of God. It was not by their own ingenuity, power, plan, or strength. The Book of Joshua, which we studied previously last year, was a story of Israel's obedience and their faith leading to victory and blessing.

There were times in the Book of Joshua, if you were here with us in the story, where they did not trust in the Lord or seek the Lord, and they would fail. However, those stories were few. For the most part, the Book of Joshua is the story of the children of Israel faithfully pursuing and following God, obediently seeking Him. As a result, they experienced blessing and victory, just as God had promised.

When the Book of Joshua opens, before the children of Israel came into the promised land, God spoke to Joshua, and Joshua relayed the message to the people of Israel. He said to them, "God has told us to be strong and very courageous." It was not to be strong and very courageous to fight; it wasn't to be strong and very courageous to wield the sword. It was to be strong and very courageous to observe and do all of the law which Moses commanded.

God instructed them not to turn from the right hand or to the left from His law. When you do that, God told Joshua, and Joshua relayed to the people, when you obey God's word and do not turn to the right hand or to the left, you will make your way prosperous, and you will be successful. The Book of Joshua is the story of the children of Israel applying those truths and experiencing God's blessing, provision, protection, and the rest that He ultimately gives to them.

"Be strong and very courageous; do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go," God said in Joshua chapter 1.

Though there were a few low points, as I mentioned in the Book of Joshua, it is the story of obedience and faith leading to victory and blessing. If you're taking notes this morning, point number one: I've talked about this many times before over the last several years—the Deuteronomic principle, the Deuteronomic equation. What Deuteronomy, the Book of the Law, teaches us is that the Deuteronomic equation portrayed in Joshua is faith plus obedience equals victory times blessing.

Now, you don't need to raise your hand this morning because I think I know the answer, but how many of you would like to have victory multiplied by blessing in your life? I think that's what I want—victory multiplied by blessing. That's what I would be looking for. What the Scriptures teach in the Book of Deuteronomy, and what is illustrated in Joshua and further illustrated in other books of the Old Testament, is that faith plus obedience equals victory times blessing.

We see that in this passage. It is the simple rule of sowing and reaping. As Paul mentioned in the New Testament Book of Galatians, if you sow to the Spirit—that is, if you plant in your life that which is revealed by the Spirit of God, His truth, His principles, His Word—if you sow to the Spirit, you will of the Spirit reap life. But if you sow to the flesh, if you plant things that are of this world and of your own carnal nature, you shall of the flesh reap destruction.

If obedience leads to blessing, that was the predicted promise of Deuteronomy, specifically in Deuteronomy chapter 28. You can go read it later. In that passage, God says through Moses to the children of Israel, "If you do this and this and this in obedience to My law, then you will experience blessing times blessing times blessing." However, as is also seen in Deuteronomy chapter 28, the opposite is true as well. The passage also speaks of punishment; it speaks of cursing to those who disobey, rebel, or turn away from God's law.

If faith and obedience lead to victory and blessing, then it is also true that unfaithfulness and disobedience lead to defeat and cursing. Joshua was the story of the children of Israel taking faith and obedience and putting those things together, experiencing victory and blessing.

Point number two, if you're taking notes: the Deuteronomic equation portrayed in Judges is disobedience plus...

Compromise plus rebellion equals defeat times cursing. It's very clear; it's an if-then conditional equation, the dynamic principle, the law of sowing and reaping. This principle is seen throughout the Scriptures, and it's something that we can observe in reality as well.

But how would this happen to the children of Israel? I mean, we have this great high point that Judges starts off with. How could they possibly end up in this place of defeat and cursing? How could they find themselves in a place of disobedience, compromise, and rebellion? What would bring them to this place?

Well, there are a couple of things that we should take note of right in the opening chapter of Judges that begin to answer that question. The first thing we should take careful note of, and I kind of highlighted it a little bit, is how the children of Israel began in this passage. After the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of the Lord. They gathered together as a nation, the heads of the tribes from Simeon and Judah and all the other tribes in Israel. They gathered together, probably at the place called Shiloh, where the Tabernacle was, or Gilgal at that time, where the Tabernacle was, and they asked God, "What do you want us to do?"

They sought the Lord. If you want to experience victory in your life, then you need to apply this reality and this truth as well. The best first step in any endeavor to experience the victory and blessing of God is to go to God in prayer and seek Him. This is not just an Old Testament principle; this is a New Testament principle as well.

In the New Testament book of James, the Apostle James writes in James 4, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and buy and sell and make a profit,' whereas you do not know what will happen to you tomorrow. For what is your life

I've experienced victory and blessing, and at other times, I've faced defeat, which could be described as cursing or difficulty. I often see a direct correlation between my prayerfulness or lack thereof and my preparation for the challenges I am stepping into.

You ought to say, "If the Lord wills," but how will we know what it is that the Lord wills? What does He want? I know that many Christians desire to understand God's will for their lives, and I think that's a really good place to be. But how will I know?

I love what Solomon wrote 3,000 years ago in a passage that you would do well to memorize if you haven't already. You've probably heard it if you've been around church for a while. In Proverbs 3:5, Solomon says, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart; lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path." The children of Israel did this in Judges chapter 1. They sought the Lord and asked, "What do you want us to do? We are acknowledging you in our ways," and God directed their path.

Point number three this morning is that the path to faithful obedience begins with a faithful and prayerful pursuit of God. In my message last week, if you were here, you might remember it. If not, you can watch it on our YouTube channel. I ended the message with five things that I believe you and I could do in our lives, or as a church, that would help move our culture toward blessing.

This right here is like a prelude to those five things; it is the starting point. I mentioned last week that we need to renew our minds through Scripture. We need to endeavor to be salt and light in a dark and distasteful world. We need to create Christ-centered and countercultural communities of faith—that's the church. We also need to engage and invest in the lost generation—those are people we know: family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors who are not walking with God or do not know Him. Finally, we need to engage the culture persuasively with the gospel.

However, a pre-step to those five things is to seek God in prayer. Every great endeavor for God must begin with seeking Him.

Prayer is far too frequently overlooked in my life, and perhaps in yours as well. I've observed that many Christians in various churches do not make prayer the first thing they do; it often becomes the twenty-first thing. I wonder how much easier our paths or tasks might be if we went to God early in prayer.

I can certainly look back in my own life and see points in my walk with the Lord where I felt like I was just running into a brick wall over and over again. I tried everything in my strength and ingenuity to figure things out and fix them, only to finally say, "Well, maybe I should pray." It was as if, immediately, the obstacles I was banging my head against began to dissolve, as God, by His power, was able to break down strongholds through prayer.

Prayer is a mighty weapon. I think we know this theoretically or theologically, but have we actually practiced prayer? Going before God is a path toward blessing and victory, and it begins with that faithful and prayerful pursuit of Him. Conversely, every path toward compromise, ending in disobedience and rebellion, often correlates directly with the moment we stop seeking the Lord.

For the children of Israel, we can ask how they reached the point we will see later on in the Book of Judges, where they are in constant defeat and experiencing the cursing of the Lord. First, we see that they sought the Lord in prayer. However, this contrasts sharply with the remainder of the passage.

In Judges 1:19, we read that the Lord was with Judah, and they drove out the mountaineers. However, they could not drive out the inhabitants of the lowland because they had chariots of iron. These chariots of iron will come up again later in this passage in the Book of Judges; they become a real snare for the children of Israel.

They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said, and then they expelled from there the sons of Anak, who were giants in the land. But in verse 21, we see that the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem. As a result, the Jebusites dwell with the children of Israel, or the children of Benjamin, in Jerusalem to this day.

They began to find difficulty in driving out those who were in the land and were determined to stay. I am reminded of Paul's writing to the church at Galatia, where he says to them in Galatians 5, "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? What stood in your way?" They had chariots of iron. The enemy was determined to stay in the land; they were strong and too big.

In Judges 1:27, we read that the tribe of Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Bet Shean and its villages, or Tanakh and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, for the Canaanites were determined to remain in the land. Verse 29 states that Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites. Verse 30 notes that Zebulun, the tribe of Zebulun, did not drive out the inhabitants. The Canaanites dwelled among them and were put under tribute. The children of Israel would not drive out those who were inhabiting the land, and eventually, they said, "Well, they're too hard for us to expel. We'll just put them to work for us; we'll put them under tribute." But that's not what God called them to do.

Verse 31 tells us that Asher did not drive out the inhabitants. Verse 32 explains that the Asherites dwelled among the Canaanites, for they did not drive them out. Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants, as stated in verse 33. They dwelt among the Canaanites; nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath were put under tribute to them. Verse 34 reveals that the Amorites forced the tribe of Dan, the children of Dan, into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down into the valley. The Amorites were determined to dwell in Mount Heres.

Point number four on your sermon guide is that the long path to destruction and exile begins with minor degrees of compromise. It's just a little bit of sin, just a really small community or town over here. It's just an occasional failure. I mostly have this under control. I've got power over this; I can quit at any time. It doesn't control me; it doesn't master me. No one else knows about it; it's a private thing. It's not hurting anybody else.

In that passage in Galatians, where Paul said, "You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?" just after that, he says, "A little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump." Leaven in the Scripture...

Yeast is often pictured as a type of sin. Just a little bit of sin allowed to remain in our lives can bring great destruction. We might say, "Well, it's just a little thing. It's just this small territory over there, this group of Philistines or Canaanites." But God said, "No, I want you to completely uproot and expel them from the land to take full control of the land."

How did the children of Israel end up in a place of defeat and cursing? As we will see in the Book of Judges, it was one small compromise after another. How did the church in America lose its position of power and influence in the culture? It was one small compromise after another. It wasn't always the big, huge major failure; oftentimes, it's the little small degrees of compromise where we stop doing this or start doing one small thing. Over a period of time, these things stack up and become a snare.

How do we return? How do we fix this? We will see that cycle in the Book of Judges as well to answer that question. The path into faithful obedience begins with a faithful and prayerful pursuit of God. After that, you can begin to do the five things I talked about last week: to renew your mind through the Scriptures and to be salt and light in a dark and distasteful world. All of those things come after that.

This concept is the same thing that Jesus would write to the church in Ephesus in the Book of Revelation. Revelation chapters 2 and 3 contain seven letters to seven churches given by Jesus. To the first church at Ephesus, a strong church with a great testimony of all the wonderful things they did, they started to have little compromises. One compromise led to another, to the point where they had left their obedience and faithfulness to God whom they loved.

Jesus writes to them and says, "Repent. Turn back to me," which is what repentance means, "and do the first works, the beginning things that you did at the very start. Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove my presence from its place. I will remove my presence from you."

Jesus's exhortation in Revelation chapter 2 was an exhortation to the whole church at Ephesus, and I think all of us could say that the entirety of the church in America needs to hear that.

Exhortation: The Big C, Capital C Church needs to hear that exhortation. We must repent and do the first works and return to the Lord. You may see Christians in the news or read something about some big-name pastor who does something foolish, and you think, "Oh, that church needs to repent." However, we also need to consider this individually. We need to go before the Lord and pray the prayer that David prays in Psalm 139: "Search me, O God, and see if there is any wicked way in me."

Reveal to me if there is anything in my life that is hindering me from trusting in You or faithfully following You. This is what Christians have long called the process of sanctification or growing in Christlikeness. It requires us to consistently and regularly go before the Lord and say, "Search me, O God, and see if there is in me any wicked way."

Let me tell you something: I know from experience that is a hard prayer to pray. At every point in my life where things do not seem to be going the way I think they ought to—because I am a child of God, I serve God, and I am a pastor—it feels like things should be going better than this. I'm sure none of you have ever had that experience, but you find yourself in that place where it just should be so much easier and better than this.

When I finally come to the place of asking God if there is something wrong in my heart or attitude, I wonder if there is something hindering me from Him. I cannot think of a single time when God has not answered that prayer, but I also cannot think of a single time when I really liked His answer.

Is there anything in my heart? Is there anything in my life that is keeping me from growing in Christlikeness, that is preventing me from producing the fruit of the Spirit in my life? My prayer for myself, and also my prayer for you as your pastor, is that we would grow in Christlikeness, that we would grow into maturity, and that we would become a fruitful people.

When we talk about the fruit we want to see manifesting in our lives, it is undoubtedly the fruit of the Spirit that Paul speaks of in Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—all things that we see in abundance in Southern California. You see a lot of patience in Southern California, right?

California, how about self-control, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness? You see a lot of that sort of stuff? No, we don't see a lot of that sort of stuff, but it ought to be seen in me. If we're going to see it anywhere in San Diego County, it should be seen in the church. These are the identifiable marks of a person who knows God—not just knows about God, but knows God.

How do I know that you know Jesus? How do I know that you actually do have a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? It is that you begin to display this fruit in your life. Peter says it like this: "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to your virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love."

Again, the fruits of the Spirit are listed here. Add to your faith these things, for if these things are yours and they abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know that you know Jesus to an increasing degree? By the enabling power of the indwelling Spirit, I should see in you—and you should see in me—the increase of love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are the things that people should see.

Now, for a very long time in Protestant Christianity in America, there has been a predominant view of the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. The marks that people often look for are the gifts of the Spirit, and those are important; those are helpful. But a lot of times, we say that person's mature because they speak in tongues, or they have the gift of prophecy, or they seem to have a gift of the word of knowledge.

Listen, all those things are good and valuable, and I think that God still uses those things in His church today. However, the marks of a person that knows Christ—the greatest of these is love. You can speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, and you are a sounding brass and a clanging cymbal. You could have all faith such that you could remove mountains, but if you have not love, you are nothing. This means that people can manifest spiritual giftedness and be very far from love.

God, if you're not walking in step with Him, it will be clear. You will be an impatient person; you will lack control, faith, goodness, kindness, and love. You will be without joy. So, God help us.

Israel's long path toward destruction began with a series of compromises. First among these was that they did not seek the Lord in prayer when they started to fail against their enemies. When the Canaanites were determined to stay in the land and the Perizzites refused to move along, what should they have done? They could have put them under tribute and let them stay, but maybe they should have gone to the Lord and asked, "Lord, is there something we ought to be doing differently in this situation?"

They stopped seeking the Lord's guidance for His direction and protection. They did not obey the Lord's command to subdue the land fully. Instead, they allowed their enemies to remain, dwelling among them and trying to make their enemies work for them.

Look at Judges 2:1. Then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bim and said, "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore, I also said, 'I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"

As chapter 2 goes on, and I shared a little bit of it with you last week, the Canaanites whom the children of Israel allowed to remain in the land among them drew the children of Israel away from the one true God to their idols. Look at Judges 2:11. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. The Baals were the chief god of the Canaanites. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed the gods from among the gods of the people who were round about them. They bowed down to them and provoked the Lord to anger.

If anything is clear in considering the story of Israel here in the Book of Judges, it is...

Any sin that is allowed to remain will inevitably become a snare. Just as it was allowed to remain among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, it will become a trap for us. This is frightening and should be sobering, as it invites and arouses the anger of God. One small point to take careful note of is that it is unwise to anger God.

Judges chapter 2, verse 13 states, "They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Asherah." The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, so He delivered them into the hands of the plunderers who despoiled them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, and they could no longer stand before their enemies. Whenever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said and as He had sworn to them. They were greatly distressed.

Note those words in verse 15: "as the Lord had said." He told them this is exactly what would happen. In Exodus, He told them again in Numbers, and He reiterated it in Deuteronomy. Israel's calamity, which they would experience in the Book of Judges, was predicted. God told them this is exactly what would happen. Deuteronomy chapter 28 makes it very clear; it was promised that if they served other gods, as stated in Exodus 23:33, it would surely be a snare to them.

Their calamity was predicted, it was promised, and therefore it was expected. This is the hard truth: it was avoidable. They didn't have to experience this. We should be thankful that all these things were recorded and written so that we could learn from them. Isn't it so much better to learn from the mistakes of someone else and not have to experience it yourself? Yet, oh, how many times do we find ourselves having to experience it anyway?

All these things were written for our instruction. For those of us who are living in this day and age, these events may seem thousands of years away and many hundreds or thousands of miles from us. So why should we study these things? Because all these things were written for our instruction, that we would learn from them. Therefore, be careful when you think you stand, lest you fall. Their calamity was predicted; it was promised, it was expected, and it was avoidable. The anger of the Lord was against them.

Now, one final observation, and I'll close. We read here that the hand of the Lord was against the children of Israel; His anger was aroused against them. Over the years, I've had more than a few conversations with people who are not yet Christians, or maybe once walked with the church or were a part of the church and have left. They have done what people now call deconstructing, which in past times would be called losing their faith. They are no longer walking with Jesus.

I've had people tell me who are in that place that they have rejected the God of the Bible. They have rejected the God of Abraham because they cannot serve a God who is angry and vengeful and punishes people. Maybe you've run into that; I certainly have had that conversation more than a few times.

On that point, I want to say that a distant God who does not judge is an impersonal and unloving God. It is the God of the deists, the God who is far off somewhere beyond the universe and is uninterested in these things. He is uninvolved, unengaged, apathetic, impotent, ignorant, and He cannot and does not save.

But a personal God, as God is revealed in the Scriptures, a personal God who loves, cannot not punish. The author of the New Testament book of Hebrews understood this. In Hebrews chapter 12, he writes, "And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as children: 'My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.' If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not chasten? But if you are without punishment, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons."

God chastens and punishes those He loves. If you experience the chastening...

Of the Lord, it's because God loves you. The second thing to consider about this punishment of the Lord, when you look at the Scriptures and consider the concept of the punishment or the vengeance of God, which is a frightening thing to consider, is that there are at least two kinds of punishment from God.

One is what we would call active punishment. It is what you see when Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, or when a city is destroyed by a flood, or when Egypt is taken out by the plagues of Egypt. That is the active judgment of God. It is what the prophets in the Old Testament would call the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord is any time when God intervenes in the realm of man for judgment. The Bible pictures a great and terrible day of the Lord that will one day come.

However, there are times in history, as the Bible shows us, where God actively punishes a people, such as with the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the plagues of Egypt. Thankfully, those instances are relatively infrequent and short. The day of the Lord is short; that's a good thing to know. It is a day of the Lord and not like a century of the Lord. Thank God it is a moment where God intervenes in the realm of man for judgment.

But there's another kind of judgment, which I would call the passive judgment of God. This is where God steps back and allows you to reap the fruit, the consequences of your sinful actions. In this case, I think it is observably true that the United States is experiencing the punishment of God—not His direct and active punishment, but His passive judgment, where He steps back and says, "I'm going to let you do it on your own." We see the result.

What do you say to someone who is in that place? Well, God said to Israel when they were in that place through Isaiah, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not short that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have separated you from God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear you." I don't think God can affirmatively answer the prayer, "God bless America," at this time.

This moment is not only true for America; there are many places where the rejection of God has invited the passive judgment of God. What ought we to do? The prophet Joel says, "Now therefore," says the Lord, "turn to me with all of your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. Rend your heart and not your clothing. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and he relents from doing harm. Who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him?"

The scripture makes it very clear: faith plus obedience results in victory and blessing. However, it also makes it clear that disobedience, compromise, and rebellion bring defeat and cursing. The path to faithfulness is to return to God in faithful, prayerful pursuit, seeking Him. When you do this, the most awesome thing happens. If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to pardon, forgive, and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

That cleansing is a pruning work where God removes from us the dead branches of our lives so that we might bear fruit. What kind of fruit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control—those kinds of things. But God has to come and sometimes clear away all that other stuff. He has to prune and cleanse.

If you confess your sins, what does that word "confess" mean? It comes from a Greek compound word, homo loo. "Homo" means same, and "loo" means to say. It is when you come to God not with excuses. For example, saying, "I didn't have self-control because that person is such a jerk and they deserve my anger and wrath." You make excuses, but God says, "No, that's not confession."

Confession is when you come and say, "Regardless of what that person did, said, or didn't do, I sinned. My anger was sin. God, would you pardon and forgive me?" He is faithful and just to do that, and He will cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Twenty-five years ago this month, my good friend Pastor Tony, who is here somewhere—there he is—asked me. Actually, it was the last week of January 1999. He said...

I was asked to teach the junior high ministry, and I really wanted to say no. So, I gave a Christian response: I said I would pray about it, just like many of you do when we say we really need your help to serve. When we mention that we are going to add a third service, you might say, "I'll pray about it," while sitting on your hands, hoping we won't ask again.

However, I respected Tony, who was my friend and mentor, so I actually went home and prayed about it. I didn't want to do it, and God spoke to me through a passage of Scripture. I don't say that God spoke to me very frequently; there are maybe five times in my life when I can look back and say the Lord spoke to me. He spoke to me through the passage I was reading at that time, which is the primary way that God communicates—through His Word.

I was in 1 Samuel chapter 12, and I read this. The context was that I prayed, "God, Tony wants me to teach, and I don't want to do it. Give me a reason to get out of it." I don't remember the exact prayer, but it was probably something like that. I asked Him to show me something in His Word.

1 Samuel 12:23 is what God spoke to me: "Moreover, as for me," Samuel said to the children of Israel, "far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king."

So, 25 years ago this month, I prayed, and God said, "I want you to teach and preach My Word and pray for people." This is what I want you to teach them: "Only fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth, for consider what great things He has done for you. If you don't, you'll be swept away."

It's not always the message we want to preach, but that passage says, "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to do it." So, I will continue to do it until He says, "All right, you're done." He hasn't said that yet, although I've asked Him to a couple of times.

There is no hope for us individually, corporately as a church, or as a nation without a return to God in repentance and faith. Oh God, help us. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? God, we do need You.

Grace, we need Your Holy Spirit to enable and empower us to be lights in a dark world and salt to a distasteful culture. God, would You move in us by Your Spirit? First, give us the desire, because You work in us to desire and to do Your good pleasure.

Maybe we don't even yet have the desire to do it because we're fearful, anxious, or whatever it may be. God, would You stir in us a desire to shine brightly as lights—not our own light, but reflecting Your light, the light of Your grace and truth to the people of this world?

God, I don't think there's any person here at this moment, or even within ten miles of this building, that would like to see cursing and destruction. None of us want to see that; we would love to see blessing and victory. God, would You lead us in the path towards those things? Direct our steps, do work in our hearts, renew our minds by Your Word, and transform our lives so that we bear fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Make those things abound in my life and the lives of my brothers and sisters here, we pray. We ask this today in Jesus' name. Amen.