6/3/18 Judges 20-21, "Sin Affects Everyone"

have you guys heard about how many of people are moving to the valley the stats that you've probably seen it on on like Eagle Road and Fairview right how many people are moving here sitting in traffic and all that it's I remember when I moved to Meridian in 1999 there were 30,000 people here and now it's a hundred so that's not much time you know for that many people I understand that last year in the valley there were tens of thousands of people that moved here from elsewhere and just in the city of Meridian it's about 500 new people a month that are moving here and then amazing it's a lot a lot of people now one of the problems with all of you Californians moving here you know in your excitement to escape the People's Republic of California that you can think that this is like utopia you know or wherever people are coming from and it is a great place you know I've heard it you know I've met so many folks in my role here that are coming from other states and they're like it is so great here the people are so nice you know my neighbors I know my neighbors I never knew my neighbors in Texas or you know when I'm on the Greenbelt everybody says hi and it's so nice you're so nice and and and I can prove to you that it's so nice here because I'm in my backyard the other day and I look up in the sky and I see this see it's really it's just nice and happy here isn't it it's great and you know I'm just kind of messing around but it's it is beautiful here I mean I like it it's there we still have a lot of freedom here more than some other places are it the taxes are a little bit lower than other places the cost of living is pretty reasonable there's still sort of a conservative religious influence here that you know people enjoy right freedom and but I say all that and I think we can all agree that it's not shangri-la here there's still a lot of sadness you know teenagers it's kind of kept really quiet but there's a lot of teenagers that commit suicide in this valley people are hooked on meth here too there's poverty there's violence you know Katie VB just look at the website there's violence there's a lot of divorce people still drown themselves in alcohol here and most of that stuff that I just said is as a result of sin that's not perfect we still live we're following people living in a fallen world and I'll tell you what it's gonna continue to get worse as our culture as this valley turns away from God because that's where people flee from is there just a little further along you know as people turn their way away from God it gets worse and worse and I'll tell you what when God is ignored everything goes bad everything and that's really what's happening in chapter 20 and 21 in a nutshell and and and the real sad part is what I called this Bible study I called it sin affects everyone and of course it affects the ones that are doing it but it also you know you you can be completely innocent of it and still be affected by saying it and just look around we are the heartache that it causes and people that we know and and and those kind of things and so what I would like to do is we go through these chapters and I'm gonna go through them fast in chapter 20 I want to focus though the focus is that God is serious about sin and I hope that you walk away from this thinking that you should be serious about it to write such chapter 20 and then chapter 21 is different the emphasis and talking about how sin affects everyone the emphasis in chapter 21 is to be wise and how you respond to it okay respond to it how God would have you respond now how you and I think we ought to respond so hopefully that gives you an overview and we'll start here in chapter 20 of Judges and I'm gonna start reading verse 1 through 9 God is serious about sin and you should be too so all the children of Israel came out from Dan to Beersheba that means from north to south it's the whole country as well as from the land of Gilead and the congregation gathered together as one man before the Lord at Mizpah you might want to note they're gathered together as one man everybody is unified and the leaders of all the people all the tribes of Israel presented themselves and the Assembly of the people of God four hundred thousand foot soldiers who drew the sword now the children of Israel heard that the children of Israel I'm sorry the children of Benjamin heard the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah then the children of Israel said tell us how this wicked deed happened so the Levite the husband of the woman who was murdered answered and said my concubine and I went into Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin to spend the night and the man of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house at night because of me they intended to kill me but instead they ravished my concubine so that she died so I took hold of my concubine cut her in pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel because they committed lewdness and outrage in Israel look all of you are children of Israel give your advice and counsel here and now so all the people arose is one man there it is again saying none of us will go to his tent nor will any turn back to his house but now this is the thing which we will do to give you we will go up against it by a lot okay we jump into something that was happening and just I want to get a set here with the context before I go on and that's that all these leaders of Israel are coming together because of what happened in chapter 19 so if you weren't here and you haven't read that you need to go read that on your own but just generally what happened there is this this town of the Benjamites called Gibeah horribly treated the guests that were there this Levite and his concubine his his we think it's like his second wife and treated him so horribly that they actually murdered her raped her and murdered her horrible things that they did to her and so what the Levi did he's so mad that he when he gets home with her body instead of burying her he cuts her up into 12 pieces and sends her those pieces to the 12 tribes of Israel it's a radical reaction to what happened there now just as a side note nobody's saying that what he did is a good thing or that you should do that you know like that's what he did and the scripture documents what people do even if it's not of the Lord right matter of fact we see a lot of times we see it because this isn't what you you're not supposed to do but that's what he did and so there were told in verse 11 that all these tribes the leaders of them come together as one man right United and I think it's good that they come there I mean if you got a foot in the mail you'd probably go to you know everybody is to find out what's going on right and so what I'd like you to do what I'd like to do in here in chapter 20 is take you through what I call three in encouragement encouragement that you know as I said God is serious about sin and you should be too so I'm going to take you through three ways that you could also be serious about sin like God is and here's the first one and it's that everybody should get united against it one of the things that I admire that what they're doing here is they're seeing that it's a huge problem and so they're united against it they come together as one man you know oftentimes we read these things you guys as a new covenant Church and you're like how does this apply to me well here's a way and that's that we ought to have the same seriousness about how bad sin is in unity together and not think it's not that bad and that everything's nice it's fine everything's NOT fine it's bad and it's it's eating away at our culture so they're they're they're united against it now the Levite when he tells the story if you know chapter 19 does he tell the whole story no he doesn't he leaves out some details actually his Park Inn at the part that he's responsible for he doesn't talk about that he makes himself look good it's like our kids you know do your kids ever like I know your kids do this because my kids have done like they leave out key details when they're retelling you about something that happened and they make themselves look good while they're doing it you know and it's not until you like question them more that all the details come out and their role in it right well that's what he's doing he's leaving out some things and the thing that he's leaving out is that he was a coward and he wanted to protect his own skin so he gave them his wife instead it was horrible but he doesn't tell that part he just says that they were after him and then they killed his wife and that that part is essentially accurate so the leaders were told they're in verse nine they decide that they're gonna go threaten that town of Gibeah because of the horrible crime right okay so now what I'm going to do the rest of this chapter kind of fast-forward through it because we don't have a lot of time here to cover it all it's a lot of a text and you should read it on your own but all I'd like to do here is just give you a sense of what's going on and to explain what these things mean and then to try and apply it to us okay so if you would move with me down to verse 13 I'll read to 15 it says then the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying what is this wickedness that has occurred among you now therefore deliver up the men the perverted men who are in Gibeah that we may put them to death and remove the evil from Israel but the children of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brethren instead the children of Benjamin gathered together from their cities to Gibeah to go to battle against the children of Israel in the Old Testament law the the Lord had told Israel to be aggressive against sin in the community it's over and over again in the Old Testament law remember God is serious about sin and he wanted them to be he wants us to be and so they're doing what's right here they're like give us these men who have done this atrocity we want to take care of it we want to we're going to do something about it but what does the tribe of Benjamin do instead they decide to fight instead they'd rather fight than change isn't that amazing when I was a kid growing up in the 70s there was they used to have cigarette commercials and and cigarette ads and magazines all the time I don't think they do that anymore but there was this one for ad for Tarrington cigarettes and we have a picture of it right there and remember it's a I would rather fight than switch right so they'd have actors and they'd have a you know blackened eye and the idea was you know I'm so devoted to this product that I'd rather fight you then have you take it away from me right well I immediately thought of this because that's exactly what they're doing they're so devoted to evil and sin that they'd rather fight then change and that's so sad when people are doing that isn't it and it's sad when we're doing it you know if I picture you know one of us me where someone's like trying to correct maybe it's at home and I and I see that I've done something that's not right and our tendency when we're called out on things is just to get mad right or to to argue or try to defend our behavior just to fight well what did you do you know that's the same thing as they're doing essentially I'm gonna fight you instead of changing and I'm supposed to be humbled before God and be willing to change what's even worse here is they're taking the side of evil and protecting it one of the takeaways that we can do we can just apply it to today here is through you guys we need to beware of defending evil in the world and we see that in the church at large especially sort of the theologically liberal Church today you know they're trying to defend wrong and evil and and and you know what it does it pulls you into it and the Lord won't stand for this you know he will remove people from those fellowships if they try to say that evil is good and it's going on all over the place and it's really sad and and so here's our second encouragement for you to to be serious about sin the second one is to be careful who you align yourself with careful who you align yourself with you know know what they were doing it's not good and know what's going on all around us and I'm not saying we we hate people who are doing evil things God doesn't hate them God wants to them to repent and turn to Christ but we don't align ourselves with that and we're gonna see as we go on now these because they're aligning themselves with it and gonna be pulled into it they a Benjamin has huge odds stacked against themselves now I didn't read this part but there's there's 26,000 Benjamite soldiers and there's 400,000 of the remaining Israelites they're outnumbered fifteen to one this is not going to go well for them well look down at verse 18 with me would you it says then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God they said which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin and the Lord said Judah first okay so they do what we should all do when we're trying to decide about something is they pray first right so that's a good thing you should pray before you do things and and so because they sought the Lord then he tells them exactly what they should do and through this he's gonna teach Benjamin a lesson well look at verse 20 and 21 if with me would you he says in the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin and the men of Israel put themselves in battle array to fight against them at Gibeah then the children of Benjamin came out to Gibby and on that day cut down to the ground twenty-two thousand men of the Israelites what wait a second I thought they prayed that the Lord said yep send Judah up against them but day one they lose twenty two thousand man what's going on we're gonna have to read further to figure this out look at verse 23 says then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening and asked counsel of the Lord that's good saying shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin and the Lord said go up against him okay well again it's good they they're like wait a second this didn't go well on day one this is a devastating loss so our we are we here in this right are we supposed to go against our brother Benjamin right and God says yes tells him what to do would you move with me down to verse 25 and re to 28 it says in Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day on day 2 now and cut down to the ground 18,000 more of the children of Israel all these drew the sword then all the children of Israel that is all the people went up and came to the house of God and wept they sat there before the Lord and fasted that day until evening and they offered burnt offerings and Peter peace offerings before the Lord so the children of his inquired of the Lord and we're told also as a side note there the Ark of the Covenant of God was there in those days in Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron stood before it in those days he was the priest saying shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin or shall I cease and the Lord said go up for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand okay so 18,000 more are killed by Benjamin so that's 40,000 now in the total so they're like Lord I mean you do this - you're like what's going on are you gonna do something here and I thought you said that you're in it with us you told us what to do and that's why they're crying out to him that's why they're fasting and praying that's why they're offering sacrifices so what's happened here you know I've always thought that if you follow after the Lord you should have victory in your life well eventually you do but sometimes along the way it's pretty bumpy this is I think the key to chapter 20 is right here in what we just read and that's that the fallout of sin affects everyone sin affects everyone and that's why it's such a serious matter and God wants us to take it seriously I think of when I was praying and you know gonna teach this I was thinking of how sin is sort of like an atomic bomb you know an atomic bomb just has fallout that affects everybody in its path anybody that's near it will be affected by the radiation and the things that atomic weapons would do it's like fallout from it and sin affects everyone even these guys here now and so here's my third encouragement if you would call them that and in how God wants us to take it seriously and that's when it comes to sin everyone loses number three when it comes to sin everyone loses and what I mean is that you can be like the Israelites here and be on the right side of things and still suffer losses you know you could lose a relationship because you just you know it's interesting that the the New Testament teaches the church to not continue to have fellowship with someone who's an unrepentant sin that calls themselves a brother or sister and the reason isn't to be like mean and hateful it's to draw them to repentance God wants us to draw them to repentance and so sometimes you can lose relationships with people because of these things you suffer loss even though you're not doing it it happens how about I can't tell you how many people I've met that we're working for an organization a company and wouldn't you know mislead their customers because the product that the owners were trying to to get them to say things about it wasn't really true so they sort of refused to do it and then they would lose that job or they wouldn't make the kind of money that somebody else was who that was free to just lie about what this product would do even though it couldn't do that you know whether it's a car or vacuum or or whatever and so people suffer a financial impact you know because of sin everyone loses in a way you know a hardship that people have and I think of my brothers and sisters in foreign countries you know I get the voice of the martyr magazine every month and we actually give to it in our church here you guys give to the voice of the martyrs because there are Christians all over the world that are suffering mightily for the Gospels sake beaten tortured in prison hated it by their communities because of their love for Jesus Christ and they won't recant that and so it's just hardship after hardship after hardship for them and they're not doing it wrong but there's sin and when sin everybody kind of loses but there is victory coming one day it will be all wiped away God is gonna cast sin into the pit with everything else be done away with there is victory coming and that's what we see here he said there in verse 28 he promises them victory there is victory coming you're going to have it and and it might be tomorrow it might be a year from now it might be fifty years from now but we will experience victory over that and and hallelujah I'm looking forward to it well look with me at verse 31 it says so the children of Benjamin went out against the people and were drawn away from the city they began to strike down and kill some of the people as at the other times in the highways one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah and in the field about thirty men of Israel and the children of Benjamin said they are defeated before us as at first but the children of Israel said let us flee and draw them away from from the city to the highways and then look down to verse 34 says and ten thousand select men from all Israel came against Gibeah and the battle was fierce but the Benjamites did not know the disaster was upon them they think they're they're gonna went you know the first two days they have these great victories and they're like yeah here it comes again because they got a few guys you know but they're blind to the fact the disaster was coming and that's what sin does it doesn't it it blinds people to devastation that's just around the corner destruction and that's why God is serious about it and why he wants you and I to be serious about it it may not be you personally that have things going on but our world sure certainly does and so he wants us to be serious well skip if you would to verse 35 it says the Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel you might want to circle that the Lord defeated Benjamin and the children of Israel destroyed that day twenty five thousand one hundred Benjamites all these drew the sword so the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated the men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah and then go to verse 44 an 18,000 men of Benjamin fell all these were men of Valor I read a bunch of commentaries on this as I was preparing to teach as I always do and a lot of them tried to explain away the fact they were saying that Israel was doing wrong by going up against Benjamin but I just read that the Lord did it he wanted them to do it they inquired of the Lord a few times and they did it right now that doesn't mean that this is what we do today but that's what they were supposed to do right and that's what we are supposed to seek the Lord and his word about how we respond to things that were going through so because so god defeated them now if you're doing the math there's less than a thousand Benjamites left now because they were wiped out devastating but just know this they did it to themselves to themselves you see what happened is they love sin more than they love God and when you love sin more than you love God there's destruction right around the corner and and then you can know that you're doing it to yourself God doesn't want that but that's the result well let me finish the chapter verse 46 says so all those who fell of Benjamin that day were 25,000 men who drew the sword all these were men of valour but 600 men turned and fled toward the wilderness at the rock of Rimmon and they stayed at the rock of women for four months and the men of Israel turned back against the children of Benjamin and struck them down with the edge of the sword from every city men and beasts all who were found they also set fire to all the cities they came to okay so if we if we if we rewind the tape the sin was really limited at first to just this pocket of really evil men the Scriptures call them perverted but then it spread to the rest of the tribe and here's why because they refused to take action as a matter of fact they joined with them they actually condone the actions of those men by entering into it with them they don't admit their guilt they don't want to change in fact they fought instead so what did God do he brought judgment upon the whole tribe and so when that happens everybody loses such a bummer and let me just say this and then we'll go into chapter 21 god is serious about sin and we should be to one day he's going to judge it all you know as a matter of fact the in in the book of Revelation chronicles the coming age when everybody will be judged according to their deeds but God doesn't want everybody to be judged according to their deeds that's why he sent his son and he urges all people everywhere to repent and believe on Jesus Christ and be forgiven so that we can experience freedom from that and eternal life with our Lord the God who created us and enjoy forevermore and not only is it's great for the future but it's good for our nation it's good for our community it's good for our church and it's good for our families if you're a believer in Jesus today and maybe this isn't really pointed at you because there's nothing that's going on right now that you know that you need to do something about but maybe there is maybe you know something and God is patient he actually gives us a chance to turn from things and maybe you're at a fork in the road right now and it's a time for you to take deliberate action a preventative action against these things just why don't you just spend some time today and acknowledge the problem to God and then listen to him about what steps to take to correct it maybe it's pornography maybe it's bitter heart against someone maybe it's you're a gossiper you know whatever the thing is God loves you and wants to draw you out of that because it just ends up rotting away at you okay so that's chapter 20 God is serious about sin chapter 21 is we're gonna cover be wise how you respond to these things so I'm gonna do is show you three three ways that you can be wise in how you respond here in chapter 21 now we're told here in verse 1 now the men of Israel had sworn an oath and Misbah saying none of us shall give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife okay so they start to feel bad now for the remaining Benjamites that they don't have any wives and they're gonna die off because they won't reproduce right and the reason is because they made a vow that they wouldn't let their daughters married the Benjamites because of what the Benjamites were doing so they made this vow and it was sort of like punishment you know now just so you know God didn't tell him to do that they just took it upon themselves they're there they're wanting to do something to to punish these people that God never intended to have happen so our first wise way to respond to sin you know maybe it's your kids that you're working with or our spouse or someone that you know like oftentimes you we can we can be really harsh and rash but here's the first wise way to respond to sin is and that is avoid overreacting because that's what they do they overreact and it's gonna lead to all kinds of problems in the rest of this chapter God doesn't want us to overreact I'm gonna seek the Lord about what's the proper response if my you know twelve-year-old is lying all the time mine isn't I ever told she's not lying all day but what if she is what do I do about that so what they did is they made these vows promises to God and you know previously we learned in judges that I'm making vows to God is usually not a very good thing to do you guys remember that because vows are hard to keep to God and in your and you put yourself under this thing that you were not intended to be under a law and because when you make a promise to God then you're supposed to keep it even though he didn't want you to make that promise in the first place and the problem is we really can't keep them you know it's like I picture a person on January 1st going lord I swear on a stack of Bibles that I'm gonna get up at 6 a.m. every single day and read my Bible swear God promise January 1st it's good January 2nd good but over time you know by the tenth oversleeping got a rush off to work you know and then you know what happens with that stuff you're like Oh guilty and ashamed and condemned you're like am I even a Christian still and you know just all these kind of things and you're not supposed to live like that it isn't necessary to promise God in order to obtain his favor actually you know vows are a way that we trust in ourselves instead of trusting in God because people have this misconception about God that that I need to make them you know of him a big promise in order to get him to do good things for me and it's not true God loves you he loves me he does things that are good for you on the basis of His grace not on the basis of you keeping promises if he waited for me to keep promises to do good things he'd be waiting a long time so it's not necessary to bargain with God and vows are not really trusting in God's grace they're trusting in our flesh but they made the vow right I made the vow they're overreacting none of our daughters are gonna marry those nasty Benjamites you know well see what happens with that verse 3 8 - then the people came to the house of God and remained there before God until evening they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly and said O Lord God of Israel why has this come to pass in Israel that today there should be one tribe missing in Israel well I can tell you how come because they did despicable things in Gibeah that's why this happened III am amazed at our culture you know that sin is just rotting away at our culture and everybody gets on social medias trying to figure out what the problem is I can tell you what the problem is just read the Bible it's pretty clear now a key point here is that they ask God why it's happened but they don't ask God what they should do and the rest of the chapter is they're just acting on their own here and that's where the trouble comes from they don't really seek the Lord for what we should do next and cry out to him help us solve this problem they just go and act on their own and there's all kinds of issues with it so don't blame the rest of this chapter on the Lord this is people doing what they think that they should do verse 4 says so it was on the next morning that the people rose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings the children of Israel said who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up with the Assembly to the Lord for they had made a great oath concerning anyone who had not come up to the Lord and Misbah saying he shall surely be put to death did you see they're making another promise and this time the promise is who didn't come to church this week we're gonna kill them and you think it's bad here when somebody goes so where you been the last couple of weeks at least nobody's going you know if you don't get to church and did you notice that they offer the burnt offerings and peace offerings for the vow right it's they didn't seek God's way they want God to bless their way we're gonna be careful of that it's like they're offering him a bribe hey let's offer some sacrifices for what we want to do and get him to bless it you know well go to verse 6 and the children of Israel read 212 grieve for Benjamin their brother and said one tribe is cut off from Israel today what shall we do for why for those who remain seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters as wives and they said what one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up from his butt to the Lord and in fact no one had come to the camp from jibby jabish Gilead to the Assembly for when the people were counted indeed not one of the inhabitants of jabish Gilead was there so the congregation sent out their 12,000 of the most valiant men and commanded them saying go and strike the inhabitants of jabish Gilead with the edge of the sword including the women and the children and this is the thing that you shall do you shall utterly destroy every male every woman who has known a man intimately so they found among the inhabitants of jabish four hundred young virgins who had not known a man intimately and they brought them to the campus Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan Wow when God is not in control of people anything can happen they've made this vow not to give any of their daughters but it's like we can take other people's daughters that's what they do they're trying to beat their vow and they're way overreacting here to solve a problem that they've essentially created well go to verse 14 it says so Benjamin came back at that time and they gave them the women whom they had had saved alive of the women of jabish and yet they had not found enough for them and the people grieved for Benjamin because the Lord had made a void in the tribes of Israel then the elders of the congregation said what should we do four wives for those who remain since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed and they said there must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin that a tribe may be not be destroyed from Israel however we cannot give them wives from our daughters for the children of Israel have sworn an oath saying cursed be the one who gives a wife to Benjamin okay you see what's happening here they went and grabbed four hundred right but there were 600 men so they lacked 200 and you're like how are we gonna do this without breaking our vow what a mess I will be I'm so glad this is the last week in judges I have a question that kept percolating in my mind is that was going through this section and so now I'll just say it to you maybe you thinking the same thing why are they trying to solve Benjamin's problems shouldn't Benjamin do that for themselves they they were the ones who got themselves into this mess why is the rest of Israel doing this here's the second way that you can respond wisely when it comes to being serious about sin and that's mind your own business number two mind your own business and you know this is biblical because Paul talking to the church at the Thessalonians in 2nd Thessalonians he told them mind your own business you know work quietly with your hands you know and it's not that we don't pray for one another it's not that we don't help one another it's not that we don't come alongside to disciple those but don't try and solve everybody's problems because I don't have the solutions to those things when so when someone comes to me for counsel I don't give them I try not to solve their problems or tell them what to do what I try to do is get them to seek the Lord that's the best thing that can happen you know when it comes to your kids your folks that have adult children or your spouse or other people that you know I avoid be careful getting all involved in everybody else's business we want to get him to seek the Lord well because they're in everybody else's business they hatch another scheme so let's look at that verse 19 to 21 it says then they said in fact there's a yearly Feast of the Lord in Shiloh which is north of Bethel on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem and south of Lebanon therefore they instructed the children of Benjamin saying go lie in wait in the vineyards and watch and just when the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances then come out from the vineyards and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh then go to the land of Benjamin aren't you ladies glad that you don't live in the ancient world are you kidding me yeah as ones grab and just grab her that's dancing is ones dancing just grab her you know that's a good plan just kidnap them Wow again I was thinking of this one question I mean there's a lot of questions here but one is you'd think that it would occur to one right minded person there that as they're abducting women to take them back that somebody would go excuse me is this the right thing to be doing here what what are we doing you know but but they don't and so we come down to our third and last way that we can be wise about how to respond to sin and this one is don't look for loopholes don't look for loopholes you know ways around the situation because oftentimes that can make it worse just like we see here just getting worse and worse and worse because they're making it up as they go along looking for loopholes I know this guy who when he was a young man he was an alcoholic and he was just destroyed his life in alcohol and drugs and one day Jesus Christ came into his life and forgave him of all those things and and began to restore his life and it was awesome and and he met a young gal and they got married and they had a little family and and God gave him a career and was really blessing his life but then over time because he had so much blessing from the Lord this is when the when the attacks usually come he started thinking well I can go out and have a few beers with my buddy he's like lots of people do Christians do those kind of things too you know why can't I do those things and so he began to do those things and sure enough as you can mine expect it became the spiral down to darkness and destruction in his life that God had set him free from all because he's looking for a loophole and we have to be careful of that you know God has set you free from rage then don't go back in that arena again let's stay away from it don't look for loopholes they'd source things well they explain themselves here in verse 22 it says finish shall be when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain that we will say to them be kind to them for our sakes because we did not take a wife for any of them in the way for it is not as though you have given the women to them at this time making yourselves guilty of your oath he's like you know you're not giving them we're taking them so it's okay I wrote in my notes good grief Charlie Brown you know this is such a mess but this is what happens when you know folks are not guided by God's principles you just make it up sin seeps in you guys it affects everyone whether or not you're guilty of it and this is the passion that God had so much that he sent His only Son into the world to redeem human beings from doing this to ourselves and it's good for the church to know these things even though it's painful to study it sometimes and read through it this is good for the church we would know just how bad it's not all nice everything isn't all sweet and perfect there's a lot of problems it's just hidden often well let's invite the worship team back up and we'll finish she rose through the last couple verses 23 to 25 and the children of Benjamin did so they took enough wives for their number and those who danced whom they caught then they went returned to their inheritance and they built the cities and dwelt in them so the children of Israel departed from there at that time every man to his tribe and family they went out from there every man to his inheritance and this is the key to the whole book of Judges in those days there was no king in Israel everyone did what was right in his own eyes the book of Judges covers 400 years and what it does is it chronicles what happens when there's radical individualism what happens when they when people reject God's standards and do whatever they want it's awful I mean let's just for imagine for a moment what do you think would happen in the treasure valley if we didn't have any laws for say one year let alone 400 let's just say one year let's say there's no police no traffic laws no courts no nobody enforcing anything everyone can just do whatever they want without being held responsible for it I mean can you imagine what this place it might take a little while but it would be anarchy right we need a standard of truth we need a standard of morality we need a standard of justice and God is the standard that we should all long for and so you know it's awesome here we're the ones who get to introduce people to it we get the key pointing him back to the Lord he's the solution to everything that ails us and we can start by living it out ourselves first you can start by doing what we learned in chapter 20 and that's to get serious about sin because God is serious about it right and oh just look the other way and then secondly that we would be wise in how we respond don't just respond how we think we should respond but how does God want us to respond and that's a good balance there because we won't be overly harsh and we won't be overly you know lackadaisical about it we'll be right where we should be

Channel: Calvary Chapel Meridian Idaho

Views: 801

Rating: 4.6923075 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Troy Drake, Bible Study, Sermons, Meridian, Idaho, Bible, Church Service, Religious, Speak the Truth, KIDH, 97.5fm

Id: zvY6EIH7B9g

Length: 49min 18sec (2958 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 03 2018