THROUGH THE BIBLE - Judges 2..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, my dear brother, my dear sister. Once again, the Lord has extended His grace that we can be gathered here and do all of these things that we may not do these things just in the flesh, just for the sake of ticking a box, just for the sake, my dear brother or sister, just doing something that we do every Sunday.

But rather, I hope that the Lord will move our hearts to genuinely desire to see our faces, to be gathered together, even to pray that the Lord will bring all of those brothers and sisters who, for some reason, are not able to be here, and to be joined on this Lord's Day. This time, this opportunity, we're going to be, as I said, addressing Judges chapter 2, And I want to speak to you about this power of this exposing power of the hand of the Lord. The hand of the Lord has power in different ways. But I want to speak to you about this exposing power that we are going to see, I think very clearly in Judges chapter two, as we progress with this narrative of the history of the people of Israel. And last week and I...

wanted to show you from Judges 1 how it was necessary for the people of Israel to have a leader. It was necessary for them to have a person that was speaking the words of the Lord and was reminding the people of Israel of all the things that the Lord had done. As we move now here to Judges 2, my dear brother and my dear sister, we're going to see a very interesting chapter. Chapter number two and even chapter number one are very interesting chapters because they do not develop so much in a sequential narrative way. There are not so much narrating events that happen one after the other, but rather the author of Judges is trying to present to us the foundation that is going to serve us to understand the narrative of the book of Judges that will start in chapter number three.

The main idea or the main intention of the author of Judges is to communicate an important point. And that point is made very clear here in Judges chapter 2. And that is the failure of the people of Israel. The people of Israel have broken the covenant of the Lord. And because of that disobedience, which is seen in the fact that the Israelites now they have entered in fellowship when covenants with the Canaanites, you remember, the Lord had told them to destroy the Canaanites.

He had given them the promise that he was going to drive out the Canaanites. And because of this promise, the Israelites were to take faith and to be courageous and to drive out all the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Jebusites and all of these people from the land. But the people of Israel have failed, and because they have failed, now the Lord is breaking that covenant, is bringing judgment upon the people of Israel. And the way that this judgment will come upon the people of Israel is by giving these people, the people of Israel, over to the nations. The nations are going to come and oppress the people of Israel and they're going to groan in their suffering, in their bondage that they will have to all of these many nations, they will groan and when they groan, the Lord will have pity on them and He will send a judge, a deliverer, a savior who will temporarily rescue the people of Israel from the bondage of these nations that have been used by the hand of the Lord to bring judgment upon the people of Israel."

But who are these people of Israel who have broken the covenant? Who are they? That is a very important question that needs to be answered for us to understand the book of Judges. And as we're going to see here in Judges chapter 2, my dear brother and sister, this is not the generation who conquered the land. But rather, this generation that we can call the judges generation is a disobedient generation that was born, that started this new generation and they did not have a preacher.

They did not have a prophet that will remind them of the works of the Lord, just as the conquest generation had Joshua and the elders who constantly preach and reminded them of the things that the Lord had done and all of the power of the Lord. This new generation that we see, this judges generation, if you want, is a generation now that do not know the Lord. And because they do not know the Lord and they have forgotten what the Lord has done, Now they are given themselves unto the passions of their carnality, just as every human will do, besides the grace of the Lord. I want us to read very carefully all of these details in these 23 verses. And from there to speak, brethren, about this exposing power of the hand of the Lord.

So let us come at your brother and sister and let us read by paying attention to each one of the words here, the failure of the people of Israel, of this new generation here in Judges chapter two. Let us read, paying attention to each one of the words and by faith, by the Holy Spirit. This is Judges chapter two. Let us read together. Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Boquim, and he said, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give 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 break down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their God shall be a snare to you. As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept, and they called the name of that place Bokim, weeping, and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. and they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnat-Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers.

And there arose another generation after them, who did not know the law or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people, that is the new generation, and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger.

They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. And He sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored or prostituted themselves after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies and all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them.

But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers. Going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them, they did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he said, Because these people have transgressed my covenant, that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left them when he died. in order to test Israel by them, by the nations, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not.

So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua. Amen. This is the mighty, powerful, yet fearful word of the Lord, my dear brother and my dear sister. From Gilgal to Bochim, you remember, Gilgal, this very important place. The Lord is going to come in the presence of the Lord, the manifested presence of the Lord is going to come down to this very important city, this very important place, Gilgal, the angel of the Lord coming from Gilgal to this other place that is called Bokim, that means weeping, that means crying, from this place in which Joshua had established his camp, from this place in which many of the battles had been won, this place Gilgal, that represented the victory of Israel, Now, the angel of the Lord is going to come to this other place that is called Bochim, that represents the crying or the weeping of the people of Israel.

The angel of the Lord, who is God himself coming down, is going to bring this accusation to the people of Israel, that they are covenant breakers, that this new generation has broken the covenant, they were supposed They were expected, the people of Israel, my dear brother and sister, to pass from generation to generation the commandments of the Lord, the instructions of the Lord, the words of the Lord. It was required of the people of God to instruct their children and to teach them to remember. If you remember, that was the ministry of Moses and the ministry of Joshua to remind the people of Israel of the mighty things that the Lord had done, yet, When the conquest generation died, this new generation that arose forgot the ways of the Lord. They were left without a preacher. They were left without a prophet.

They were left without anyone who will come to bring remembrance to their minds of the things that the Lord had done. And when the heart of man is deviated from the word of the Lord, when man finds more wisdom in the things of this world and in the things of religion, rather than in the words of God. Then the heart of that man, even if he's a professing Christian or a professing person that belongs to the family of God, deviates in ways of corruption. And that is what happened to this generation that deviated from the knowledge of the Lord and gave themselves to the natural impurities of their hearts. They were now entering in covenant in fellowship with all of these nations with your brother and sister, that if you read Leviticus chapter 18, you will see how wicked and despicable they were.

Yet the people of Israel will join them in all of those things and even worship their own gods. The Lord is going to come and accuse them and bring judgment upon them because they are disobedient and they have broken the covenant. My dear brother and sister, and I don't know if you paid attention, but did you pay attention to the severity of the hand of the Lord when He comes with judgment for those who have broken their covenant? Things that we are even at times uncomfortable to say. We know from the Scriptures that the Lord does not change His mind.

And we know from the Scriptures that He does not lie. Yet here in this chapter, we can easily see in verse 1 that says, I said, I will never break my covenant, verse 1. And then in verse 3 says, But now I say, I will not drive them out. the God who does not change, the God who does not lie. Now, because of the disobedience, because remember the people of Israel was required to perfectly obey, He's going to bring judgment upon them now by changing the promise that He had given them.

I'm going to drive them out because of your disobedience, I will not drive them out anymore. If you quickly go there to verse 14, my dear brother and sister, the displeasure of the Lord against a disobedient people. It says in verse 14, So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, the people of God, that were the object of the pleasure of the Lord. It says in Psalm 149 that the Lord takes pleasure in the salvation of His people. And speaking of the people of Israel, yet it says that the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people of Israel, and he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies.

And verse 15, it says, the Lord was against them every time that they went to battle. The one that was on the side of the people of Israel now has become the enemy of the people. Why? Because of the breaking of the covenant. Because this generation now has given themselves in their hearts and in their minds to the wisdom and to the appealing things of the Canaanites.

And now they have been taken over by their gods, their culture and all of their things. And they have deviated in their ways and they have rejected the ways of the Lord. But why? Why has this taken place? Why all of these things have taken place?

We are told something very fearful there in the last couple of verses that perhaps you would have seen. We are told here that the Lord left those nations in Canaan for a particular purpose. the Lord who knows all things and who knew that this generation was going to be born and that this generation was going to be tempted by the Canaanites and by the practice of the Canaanites and by the gods of the Canaanites. He knew that there was this possibility of disobedience. He left those nations and removed from the land with a particular purpose.

And it says there in verse 21, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left them when he died, in order to test Israel by them, by the nations, whether they will take her to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did or not. So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua. The reason why this God who knew all things, the reason why He did not drive out all the nations, but rather decided to leave some of the nations in the land. He was going to drive them, not quickly, but He was going to, not very soon, but He was going to do it after that. The reason why He left those nations in the land was with the purpose of testing the heart of the future generations of the people of Israel.

He left all of these gods and all of these practices and all of these Canaanites with the purpose of revealing that which was inside of the heart of this generation. With the purpose of expose the real substance of the heart of this future generation. because it was not expected an external obedience to the gods or to the Canaanites or to the things that were taking place in the land, but rather it was expected that every single Israelite from the moment in which the covenant was given, even the future generations will obey the Lord from the heart. that the commitment of the person will be from the heart, that the commitment of the person will be not something that is temporal, that is conditioned upon the leader that is present and the one that is commanding the army of Israel, but rather it was expected that every single person in Israel will obey and submit themselves to the Lord. My dear brother and my dear sister, here we can see the fearful power of the hand of the Lord that many times consciously and subconsciously for the person leaves around things that are going to be test to the heart of that person to reveal the truth of what it is inside of them.

God is not interested in having people who provide lip service and who confess with the mouth that they are following the Lord. God is interested, humanly speaking, in people who have given their hearts to them and independently of the circumstances are going to follow the Lord in all His ways, according to what He has said. These words, my dear brother and sister, that we have there in that verse 22 and 23 is very powerful. Test. It could also be translated training.

And that is because that word has two purposes. Test the substance of the heart of those who profess to be the people of God and to train those who indeed are the people of the Lord, because from these old people that we see in this generation, they would have been a remnant of people who through the many difficulties and the many adversities that they're facing, the people against the people of Canaan and the Amorites, they would have been trained in their faith. Many of these people are even going to be given over to the judgment of the Lord because of the disobedience of whole Israel. But this remnant is going to be trained and purified. God has always been in the business of revealing to the heart of men the inability, the complete inability that we have to please the Lord and to come before the Lord in our own flesh with an own effort.

For that reason, He reveals the substance of the heart of the Lord. And it is necessary, my dear brother and sister, that the grace of the Lord will always take that revelation that the Lord gives us of our heart and of our condition to point us to the person of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Because the inability of the people of Israel, my dear brother and sister, is the inability of every single human being under heaven. No one is able to obey the commandments of the Lord just because the commandment is given. No one is able to follow the righteousness of the Lord just because the righteousness is uttered or put in a book or put in a practice of religion.

No one is able to please the Lord just because religious practices are practiced. But rather, the grace of the Lord is necessary to come and pierce the heart of a person, to transform completely that person from the inside, so that the manifestations of obedience of that person will not be temporal and conditioned to the circumstances, but rather will be enduring. as the one who, when saw the joy that was set before him, endured all sufferings until the end, for the sake not of his own will, but the will of the Father, that he will rescue a people unto himself. The same exposing power, my dear brother and sister, that operated in the midst of the people of Israel, revealing their crookedness, revealing their unrighteousness, and revealing all of their ways that are not according to what God desired, is the same exposing hand. that will continue to work in the heart of those who profess to be Christians until the end.

Because just as the Lord was interested in purifying the people of Israel under the New Covenant, how much more will He be interested in purifying His bride under the New Covenant? And the church, my dear brother and sister, the one that is going to be taken out of this wilderness, is going to be both trained by trial, tribulation and endurance of temptation, according to James chapter one. And it's also going to be purified of those who claim to be Christians. And because of the pleasures of this world, prefer to give themselves unto the passions of the Canaanites that are the same passions that they have in their hearts. and just professing to be in God, professing to be in Christ.

But at some point, the exposing hand of the Lord will reveal the real substance of their hearts. The question is, my dear brother and sister, is the convicting power of the Spirit enough for you or my dear soul within the sound of my voice? to surrender before Christ when the exposing, convicting power of the Spirit comes upon you now, or when you hear these words, or it is necessary that you will be exposed on the day in which you die and you have to give an account before God and in which the book is going to be exposed and all the works are going to be made clear. Is it necessary that that day will arrive? Are we going to surrender before the Lord and bow our knees before him when there is time for us to confess that Christ is Lord and that he's the judge of heaven and earth and everything that is in them?

And there is a day in which he will come to destroy all Canaanites, Amorites, Jebusites and Jerbusites, those being types and shadows of the inequity that is inside of us and that is outside of us. What is the Canaanite to which we are surrendered, my dear brother and sister? Who is the Canaanite or what is the Jebusite or who is the whatever Canaanite town or city or nation that we are giving ourselves unto? Let us take heed and set our minds on things above, because when we think that we have everything in place in our heart, the Lord is always in the business of purifying His people. And just as these words that I'm saying could be words of judgment upon myself in a month, a year, two years, the same words can be words of judgment upon your heart if we do not come upon the Lord.

Let us, with reverence, my dear brother and sister, always, with humility, come before this Lord of ours. He is the only one that can transform our hearts. He is the only one that can give us eternal life. Religion, practices and doing and not doing cannot transform us, cannot change us. It is only the hand of the Lord in our lives, the one that can give us eternal life.

May He have mercy. Amen.