The Need for Leaders (Part B)

Though he slay me, I will trust him. Some of you have been there. You know you felt that God has ripped you off, he's cheated you, he's turned his back on you, he's lied to you, yet you're still praying to him. You're still seeking him.

You're still trying to serve him because you know he's real, he's true, and the flawed reasonings that are standing by, ready to pounce on you, have been repelled by faith and is nothing Satan can do. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Rick is currently teaching through the book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now, here's Pastor Rick with part two of his message, The Need for Leaders, as he teaches through Judges chapter 10. So the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

See I have to say it that way because if you say Baals, you think you're out there worshiping, you know, these blocks of straw. So they forsook the Lord and did not serve him. Again, not so much as to allow the most higher place among the idols, which in one way is good, but in another way is an evil perplexity about that. And these were serious crimes that brought much sorrow and much horror into the land.

Their lifestyles changed, the way they did things changed. We get a lot of that in the Minor Prophets with Micah talking about, and the other prophets, the priests becoming thugs and robbing people and just the insanity that came from it. We look at corrupt politicians and we link that to their view of God. The Lord had given Israel victory over their enemies. When we get to verses 11 and 12, we'll find seven different nations in their history that he defeated on their behalf, but still here they are worshiping a variety of different pagan gods.

Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines. Those are the gods they shopped for and those are the ones they got. Where were the leaders?

Where were the leaders to say, no, we will not do that and we will enforce the law? Had they not heard of Joshua and Eud and Gideon? They certainly had. Some churches are not different. They behave as though they never heard of Peter or Paul or John. They of course have.

That's the crime. They have heard, but they pretend that they did not by just dismissing what they had to say, by accusing them and attacking them, calling them ancient, narrow-minded, and a host of other names. But look at verses 11 and 12 and we'll come back to seven in a minute. Yahweh said to the children of Israel, did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, from the Amorites, from the people of Ammon, from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians, the Amalekites, the Mayonites oppressed you and you cried out to me and I delivered you from their hand. So it was in their history. God knew it so he brings it up.

They knew it too, just like we know, you know, about Washington and other heroes and the national heroes. They had them also, but God was directly linked to these victories and they knew it. Again, what foolishness to worship the gods of your defeated enemies. So no wonder God's anger was hot against them, verse seven.

So the anger of Yahweh was hot against Israel and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon. God is not an ecumenist. God does not think that all religions are the same. He doesn't think that it doesn't matter what religion you have, just live and let live.

It is the contrary, very much so. You know, we have these intolerances as Christians that we're supposed to exercise. We are never to be tolerant of other people's gods. We have to sometimes be tolerant of the people, but never their gods. And you really cannot serve the Lord if you're hiding your Christianity because you're afraid to let other people know that you don't tolerate their gods. Why does Christianity stand out as the irritant amongst religions in the world? Because we won't tolerate other gods. You know, even Islam tolerates. You don't know that. They suppress, but they have some wacky stuff going on in there too.

If you dig a little bit, you'll find it. The Philistines that are mentioned here, this is an ominous mention of the Philistines. They really haven't been too much of a problem yet, but this is the beginning of woes for the Jews and this particular people that are still living in the Promised Land. It will heat up in the rain, not the rain, but the judgeship of Samson, and it will continue. David will finally subdue them.

They still pop up a little bit after. After the Maccabees, they're really gone because they've been absorbed by the other peoples in the lands. The Assyrians had much to do with that, and also the Babylonians and the Jews, all three of them together over time, just subduing them, subduing them till finally as an identifiable people, they're gone. Today's Arabs, the Philistines, that gets into the Latin and the emperors trying to mock the Jews how the name Philistine still survives in its form. The bottom line is there are those that are trying to claim that they're originally the part of the Philistines, the land is there, and of course they're totally unable to do that. They have no history.

There's nothing they can pin on this. It's just they are Arabs. They are Jordanian Arabs that moved into Israel's territory and stayed there when the Jews in 1948 came back to that land. And of course, enemies of Israel have tried to revise the history and assign a Philistine status to these Arabs.

That's the way it is. Ammon is trans-Jordan. The Philistines are in the promised land. Ammon, you cross over the Jordan going east out of the promised land, and we'll make a brief distinction between Ammon and the Amorites in a little bit.

Verse 8, that year they harassed and oppressed the children of Israel for 18 years, and the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead. Eighteen years. That's the consequence of their apostasy.

That's a long time. So long that Jesus was emphatic about it. Jesus healed someone who had an ailment for 18 years, and you know, the Pharisees, one of them, how dare you.

You know, there's six days in a week that a person can come and get healed, but the seventh day, he thought his reasoning was so sound, and Jesus said, well, I'll just read the verse. So, Jesus speaking, Luke 13, 16, so ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, think of it, for 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath? On the day that we worship God, you're saying it's wrong to defeat Satan? On the day that we worship God, you're saying that it's wrong to defeat Satan?

Because you've come up with a formula that works good for you. Never mind her. Never mind God. Jesus picked fights. He provoked them.

He would intentionally go into the synagogues, on the Sabbath, look around, and then provoke them with a healing, because he wanted to bring the fight out into the light, and he wanted to say to the people, this is what you're dealing with. This is not God. This may be religion. It's not God.

And we're supposed to do some of this, too. It's not malicious. It would be malicious to know it's going on and just leave it there. Don't say anything. Don't make any waves. They'll kill you if you do. Stephen was killed because he provoked them. Which of the prophets do you not obey? Which of the prophets do you not disobey? And they gnashed at him.

They hated him for calling them. How dare you? How dare you point to who we are?

To this truth, to this day. Verse 9, Moreover, the people of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, also against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was severely distressed. The Ammonites are descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham. They're coming from the east side of the Jordan, and these three tribes, Ephraim, Benjamin, and Judah, they're together towards the south of the promised land, so they're just cutting a swath through these tribal territories. Of course, to them, they're not saying, well, this is Ephraim.

They're just cutting through the land. Two distinct peoples, though, the Ammonites, they dwell pretty much all over the place. There was a large concentration of them in the promised land. They had been all the way up to Babylon.

In fact, it's believed that Abraham, Abram, his given name, is an Amorite name. Whereas, again, the Ammonites, who occupy primarily east of Jordan, and don't go beyond that, a descendant of Lot and a brother of Moab, two different people. So, verse 8, the Amorites found as far as Babylon, and the Ammonites, who remained east of Jordan. The Amorites were east of Jordan, too, but not only there. Judah is now mentioned, not since chapter 1 have we heard about Judah, and they'll, you know, well, here's Judah.

Just leave it at that for now. So the invasion is the outcome of their apostasy. They brought this on themselves. But you couldn't tell them that. You couldn't say, hey, these people are attacking you because you attacked Yahweh. To this day, you tell people, listen, you messed up like this because you will not give in to your God. And it can be wasted for a very long time. Don't give up.

Keep at it. Verse 10, and the children of Israel cried out to Yahweh saying, we have sinned against you because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals. An understatement. How much sorrow, how many child sacrifices did you have to offer up before you came to this realization? This wasn't just people sitting in a room saying, you know, I like this God, you like your God. These were people saying, I don't like your God anymore. I'm going to like this God.

I'm going to do these reprehensible things that my God likes. And that's, of course, today we have, you know, serial killers is what they are. Planned Parenthood is one of the largest serial killers ever in the history of humanity.

Stalin and Hitler together got nothing on these guys. Evil is evil. It always is here. It just learns it's a chameleon. It adapts to its environment. When it can be exalted, it is a tiger. But when it has to be, you know, subdued, it is a fox. It's sneaky, but it is just as deadly.

Chicken doesn't really care if a tiger has killed him or a fox has killed him. The war is on in this country. I mean, there's so much evil. As you know, the planet can't sustain this. The end has got to be coming. Well, verse 10, they cried out to Yahweh, having sopped up all the idolatry on the plate that they could get, and now it's made their bellies hurt.

They're sick. They had been cruelly oppressed as a result of their disobedience, of sopping up the idolatry. And God allowed them to look for peace in their self-made gods. It did not come for 18 years as we read in verse 8. It did not come until the pain meter began to reach the level of, as it says here in verse 9, severely distressed. Once the pain meter hit severely distressed, then when it ticked in that red zone, they called out to Yahweh.

Okay, we'll take that. We won't say, no, you know what, you've had your chance. Never what the Christian response is to the soul that repents. The thief on the cross forever preaches against such foolish thinking. I mean, how much evil did he do to get up on that cross? And Jesus doesn't bring any of it up, and he's not even in heaven yet. He forgives him right there in front of everybody.

What a Savior. So long as the people prospered without Yahweh following the fake gods, they never thought about repenting. It was when the pressure was on. They did not look at their prosperity as a result of Tola and Jair's obedience.

They never connected that, no. They just lived for the moment. Deuteronomy, God warned the people. He says, listen, have a spirit of gratitude when I bless you. It's going to sustain you if you have a spirit of gratitude, but if you become a bunch of ingrates, it's not going to work well. Deuteronomy 8 verse 10, when you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you. I don't know about you, but after meals, I do say, thank you, Lord.

Sometimes I forget because I'm doing stuff for you. See? See? The virus could not kill this humor. It's back. Anyway, you say, excuse me, what humor?

What humor? We're waiting. Anyway, they departed from Yahweh because their hearts were seduced by abundance.

That's what tripped them up. Who needs Yahweh? I can get it myself. I don't have to pray. Look at that crop, that field.

I have a bumper crop this year. Ezekiel said this to the people concerning this very thing. He's warning them. He goes all the way back to Sodom and Gomorrah to say this is something that is not in the land where people are because it's in their hearts. He says, look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And you know where that went. They had so much stuff, they figured they could just do anything. You ever see some of these entertainers they think they can name their kids anything? They think they can wear anything? They think they can do anything.

There are no rules on them. Not only the entertainers. Some of the very, very rich just think that nothing binds them.

There are no boundaries. And it's because they think that they're so self-sufficient. Well, this was the problem of Sodom and Gomorrah. Is anyone then surprised that the people who do these things are also rank sinners?

So immoral that you want nothing to do with them. Well, it was only under the beatdown of calamity that they sought Yahweh. If they continued to prosper, who names him? You know we can prosper in gratitude. That's what Deuteronomy 8 10 was telling the people. When I bless you, it's okay to be blessed. Rejoice in the blessing and just remember where it comes from. Don't bite or ignore the hand that feeds you. Maybe you know that might be alright in a pet. A pet comes and eats your food and then doesn't want to let you pet him.

He runs away and you don't see him until he's hungry. That's fine. It's not created. It's not right in people. That's why I'm trying to get to something that I can't find it. It's not good in that we're of a higher intelligence. We are created in the image of God.

That's what I was looking for. And as a nation, they admitted his glory every time they mentioned the nation's name. Every time they said Israel. That was a sermon, a testimony to their history.

Every time they mentioned one of the tribes, it was a story behind each name. Sons of Jacob and the two sons of Joseph, they were bearing testimony to God's truth, but it didn't register with them. As we see today, people drive by churches, see a cross, it doesn't register. They hear the name of Christ, they use it in vain.

It doesn't register. They become calloused to this. Paul warns about that. Their hearts would become calloused. They wouldn't feel anything concerning righteousness and Jesus Christ.

Well, they feel something for each other. Jesus said, you know what? When the end comes, they're going to still be getting married and giving each other in marriage.

Life's just going to be this hunky dory thing. And then the rains will come. And just like in Noah's day, they can beat on that ark all they want. They won't get in.

It'll be too late. These truths again were wasted on them. Unbelief would again creep in. Flawed reasoning can go a long way for a human being. It can go from the time of the age of reason, personal age of reason, to the grave. Flawed reason always, it sounds like I'm saying Floyd reason.

This guy's name is Floyd, his last name is reason. But when reason is flawed, damaged, it always has standing by a reason to not believe God. It is one of the reasons why we as Christians suffer.

There are several reasons why. One is we must, we have to be identified with sinners even though we're saved sinners. If Christ was identified with them, we will be identified. Imagine if nothing touched us. You're sick, huh?

Well, not me. I'm a Christian. Of course people would be becoming Christians just to avoid being sick. They wouldn't care anything about Christ.

But we go through hardship. You know you're a Christian when you feel abandoned by God, by the Lord Jesus Christ, and you still love and worship him anyway. That's when you know you're a Christian. You're not going anywhere. Though he slay me, I will trust him.

Some of you have been there. You know you felt that God has ripped you off, he's cheated you, he's turned his back on you, he's lied to you, and yet you're still praying to him. You're still seeking him. You're still trying to serve him.

Because you know he's real, he's true, and the flawed reasonings that are standing by ready to pounce on you have been repelled by faith. And there's nothing Satan can do. Coming to that realization will not turn the faucet off, incidentally. It will not be, oh I have an epiphany, I understand now why I'm suffering. Oh, then when I realized, everything started getting better. It doesn't always happen that way.

It happened that way in Psalm 73. I mean, he was just crazy. I'm so sick of these people. They get away with everything. They don't care about God.

Look at them. Big houses, big cars, look at the size of that donkey. And here I am, suffering, trying to just get by your oatmeal every day. And he says, then I realized when I went into the house of the Lord. But he still had to live the rest of life and all that it will throw at us. Verse 11, so Yahweh said to the children of Israel, did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? We don't know who delivered this message. It was someone. It's written down. We don't know how it was delivered. Did he preach it to the leadership and they published it? Did he publish it and give it?

We don't know. Not recorded, it is recorded and it is delivered because God says, in this case, the main thing is the message, not the man. It is really always that way. But we don't want to trivialize the messengers because God doesn't trivialize them. It's just in this case, he conceals the messenger. It's like a concealed message. You thought I was going to say weapon. It is a weapon. The message is a weapon. The Word of God is a sword, but the messenger is concealed. And I love it because the part that comes out about this, our curiosity wants to know, but God says, I'm keeping the main thing, the main thing here.

You know, sometimes you just got to do without because the main thing has to be the main thing. You said you don't believe. You said, you said that baptism does not save us. Okay, I'll put you in a place where you can't get baptized. Let's see if you still believe that because it's true.

The blood of Jesus Christ, the belief on Jesus Christ, his cross, his resurrection, his ascension, his return, these are the things that will get you saved because unbelievers can get baptized and stay unbelievers. And so God puts us to the test sometimes. He takes something away.

Let's see what you really believe. It doesn't mean he trivializes the rights that he's given to the church. He's just enforcing the main thing. And this is some of that is here and not much.

I kind of went a little crazy with it because I enjoy it. But anyway, he sent the messenger to rebuke the people for their lack of loyalty in light of all that God had done. No loyalty in return. You'd expect something, right?

You'd expect, you're not surprised when a two-year-old, you sit up all night with a two-year-old and in the morning they don't say, I feel better. Thanks for staying up with me. I know that was a tough duty you pulled last night. The mess I left behind, thanks.

No. But an adult, you do expect that. You do expect, thank you, I know, you know, you're just doing this labor of love, thank you. And God is saying, you know, I did all this for you, how about a little thank you?

A lot, actually. Verse 12, also the Sidonians, the Amalekites, the Mayonites, oppressed you and you cried out to me and I delivered you from their hand. Again, listen to the language, did I not deliver you from? This is what God says to these people, the Egyptians, the Amorites, the people of Ammon, the Philistines. He removes the plagues from the people of God, well, the people who were supposed to be the people of God, just for them to be like Pharaoh and turn back to their old ways as soon as they can. He says, and you cried out to me and I delivered you from their hand. When Asaph was writing his Psalm, he remembered the history of the Jew in the wilderness in Psalm 78, he says, but he, God, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.

Yes, many a time he turned his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross-Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there, and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. You can search for Cross-Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app, or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.