We've now reached some of the darkest times in
Israel's history. The last two weeks we have
looked at particularly dark, dreadful, horrible
encounters where God's people have hurt themselves,
really walked away from the Lord. And we looked
at last week and I mentioned how Really, we need
to remember that everything that's about to happen
happens not amongst a people that are like God's
covenant people, called to be God's people and
focused on God, but a people that are going home
from whatever they're doing to worship their
false gods that have taken concubines, that have
idols in their house, that worship all over the
place in the high places instead of where God
has called them to worship. Thankfully, that
means that there is no reason why we have to
fall into the traps that we're about to see today.
And yet, I will caution you that in many cases
the church has. You may even see some of what
we're about to read today in our own midst. And
I think if that is the case, we need to repent
of that and instead trust in the Lord. So grab
your Bibles and go with me, if you would, maybe
a little who to holler amen as we go to Judges
chapter 20. Amen. Thank you so much. This is
God's word. What we read today and we are going
to read 28 verses is part of the larger story.
And then if you will listen to what God has to
say, you will for sure be affected. God's word
does not not affect people. It always affects
people. OK, so Judges chapter 20, beginning in
verse one. We ended with last week. Consider
it. Make a plan and speak up. The Levite was
calling them to act upon the horrible. action
that he was telling them that the benjamites
had done where they killed his concubine we know
that there were more details than that we looked
at them last week but the bottom line is asking
them to act and now they're going to act verse
chapter 20 verse 1 then all the sons of israel
from dan to beersheba including the land of gilead
came out and the congregation assembled as one
person to the lord at mizpah so they're all there
represented not everybody but all there many
representing all the tribes pretty much are represented
And the leaders of all the people and all the
tribes of Israel took their stand in the assembly
of the people of God, 400 ,000 foot soldiers
who drew the sword. Now the sons of Benjamin
heard that the sons of Israel had gone up to
Mizpah. Now remember, the wickedness that happened,
the thing they're about to discuss that they're
concerned about, happened amongst the Benjamites,
right? So the sons of Benjamin now are, uh -oh,
they're talking about what happened. And the
sons of Israel said, Tell us, how did this wickedness
take place? So they're asking the Benjamites
to answer for how what the Levite says happened.
How did that happen? So the Levite, the husband
of the woman who was murdered, answered and said,
I came with my concubine to spend the night at
Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. But the citizens
of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the
house at night, threatening me. He leaves out
the detail about what they actually tried to,
would like to have done to him. He says, they
intended to kill me. That may or may not actually
be true. We know they intended to have relations
with him, but whether they would have killed
him afterwards is unknown. Instead, they raped
my concubine so that she died. And I took hold
of my concubine and I cut her in pieces and sent
her throughout the land of Israel's inheritance,
for they have committed an outrageous sin and
a vile act in Israel. Behold, all you sons of
Israel, give your response and advice here. Then
all the people rose up as one person, saying,
Not one of us will go to his tent, nor will any
of us go home. But now this is the thing which
we will do to Gibeah. We will go up against it
by lot, and we will take ten men out of a hundred
throughout the tribes of Israel, and a hundred
out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten
thousand, to supply provisions for the people,
so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin,
they may punish them for all the vile sin that
they have committed in Israel. So stop there
for one second, make sure we understand what's
happening. So out of this, this huge army is
going to go up against Gibeah where the evil
thing happened. And one tenth of it is going
to be responsible for supplying all the goods
so that they can do that. Somebody's got to feed
the soldiers, right? Day two, people start getting
hungry. So they have a plan. One tenth of them
will provide for all the other 90 % so they can
go up against Gibeah and produce justice or their
version of justice. Okay. Verse 11 says, So all
the men of Israel were gathered against the city,
united as one man. So that four thousand man
army is going to go against this one city. It's
way more than enough to destroy it, raise it
to the ground, whatever. Not sure that's their
plan just now. They want to see justice done,
supposedly. So they don't necessarily have to
destroy the city to make that happen. They want
to deal with the people who committed that grievous
crime. That's what they're trying to do. Notice
also that they did make an oath. And they said
that no one would go home until this problem
is dealt with. So when you make that kind of
a promise before God, now you're kind of stuck,
right? You're kind of committed into it. So they're
pretty heavily committed to this. Or otherwise,
in theory, they would answer to God. Mind you,
at the same time as they did that, they're also
into idolatrous worship, syncretism, sinning
against God in so many different ways. And so
maybe breaking the oath wouldn't necessarily
mean anything to them. But they made the oath
as a larger group of people all together. The
tribes of Israel sent men through the entire
tribe of Benjamin, saying, What is this wickedness
that has taken place amongst you? So they're
asking everybody. They're getting to the bottom
of it. Now then, turn over the men, the worthless
men who are in Gibeah, so that we may put them
to death and remove this wickedness from Israel.
So this actually doesn't sound too horrible.
They have the manpower. They're standing on right
ground. And they're saying, turn over the criminals,
right? Let's deal justice. But the sons of Benjamin
would not listen to the voice of their brothers,
the sons of Israel. Instead, the sons of Benjamin
gathered from the cities to Gibeah to go out
to battle against the sons of Israel. So the
one tribe, Benjamin, is now gathering up their
soldiers to go and fight against all the others.
From the cities on that day, the sons of Benjamin
were counted 26 ,000 men who drew the sword.
Besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted
700 choice men. Out of all these people, 700
choice men, so not specifically the 700 from
Gibeah, but across the 26 ,700. Out of all these
people, 700 choice men were left -handed. Each
one could sling a stone at a hare and not miss.
which is to say they were very dangerous, right?
Verse 17. Then the men of Israel, besides Benjamin,
were counted 400 ,000 men who drew the sword.
All of these were men of war. So we've got one
side 26 ,700, the other side 400 ,000. Verse
18. Now the sons of Israel set out, went up to
Bethel and inquired of God and said, who shall
go up first for us to battle against the sons
of Benjamin? Then the Lord said, Judah shall
go up first. So I want you to see the question.
We're not going to drill down on it too heavily,
but look at the question. They asked God, who
shall go up first to fight? Did you notice anywhere
in the story whether they asked God whether or
not they should fight? Whether or not they should
gather together 400 ,000 strong? So that didn't
happen. So they're now already sort of in the
midst of doing this. They've already gathered.
They've already made their threats. They've made
their oaths, etc. And now they ask God, who should
go up first? And God says, Judah shall go up
first. So the sons of Israel got up in the morning
and camped against Gibeah. The men of Israel
went to battle against Benjamin, and the men
of Israel lined up for battle against them at
Gibeah. Then the sons of Benjamin came out of
Gibeah and struck to the ground on that day 22
,000 men of Israel. I want to be real clear,
so you get this picture in your head. That means
that outside Gibeah, there was nowhere that you
could stand that was sure footing. that you were
not either standing between bodies or literally
standing on bodies. The math of it is they were
standing on dead bodies. From now on in the story,
as they're fighting, they might pile the bodies
up overnight so that they could have places to
stand to fight the next day and the piles will
get higher and higher. Okay? 22 ,000 men. And
by the way, it was 22 ,000 men killed by the
men of Gibeah and the Benjamites. So they are
winning. against this massively superior force
currently their wing. But the people, the men
of Israel, showed themselves courageous and lined
up for battle again in the place where they had
lined themselves up on the first day. And the
sons of Israel went up and wept before the Lord
until evening and inquired of the Lord, saying,
Shall we again advance for battle against the
sons of my brother Benjamin? So basically, they
lost 22 ,000 guys. Now they're going to ask God
if they should fight. And the Lord said, Go up
against them. So the sons of Israel came against
the sons of Benjamin on the second day. And Benjamin
went out against them from Gibeah the second
day and struck to the ground again 18 ,000 men
of the sons of Israel. All of these drew the
sword. So now they've killed 40 ,000 men from
Israel. Remember, they were 26 ,700 strong themselves
to start. And they've surely had losses, although
we're not tracking what those are, really. Right?
But they've now killed 40 ,000 men, bodies from
all the tribes of Israel, strewn across the ground
for miles in every direction from this relatively
small town that could only field 700 soldiers.
Okay? Then all the sons of Israel, all the people
went up and came to Bethel. Now Bethel is right
by Shiloh, and this is kind of like where the...
Tabernacle was in that day. And they wept and
remained there before the Lord, and they fasted
that day until evening. And they offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
And the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord,
for the Ark of the Covenant was there in those
days. So they bowed down before the Ark of the
Covenant, begging God, asking God, what do we
do now? What do we do now? 40 ,000 men. The countryside
is covered in the bodies of our brothers. What
do we do? 28. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,
Aaron's son, stood before it to minister in those
days, saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle
against the sons of my brother Benjamin, or shall
I stop? And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow
I will hand them over to you. So after they lost
40 ,000 men, they begged God, Shall we go up
again? And God says, yes, go up for tomorrow.
You will have victory. Now we stop there with
our text for the day. But there's a couple of
things that I want you to see. So first of all,
before we get into the actual application of
it, I want you to realize that there are some
battles that God literally calls us to. Things
that you're actually supposed to stand up for
that matter. Some things that we should say,
I'm not going to be part of that. I'm not going
to participate. You're on your own if you're
going to do that. But I entreat you, please don't.
It does not honor the Lord. There are moments
when compromise is not faithfulness. But you
can't say, okay, well, I'll come halfway with
you. We'll do this. We'll do it my way. Or we'll
avoid going too deep into this. We'll do a little
bit of it. You can't do that. There are moments
when somebody has to say, no, this is wrong.
But there is another danger. And I submit to
you that it probably more often occurs. Sometimes
while we are standing up or fighting against
evil, We can become so sure and convinced that
we are right that we stop checking ourselves.
We stop asking, as I fight this battle, as I
stand up for what's right here, am I right? Not,
am I right to fight? We already covered that.
It's the right thing to do. But am I right as
a person? Am I right by God? And the Israelites
went up against Benjamin, as we see in this text,
a perfect example, not right by God, and suffered
day after day tens of thousands of losses. And
so that ought to be a precedent for us to realize
that you need to check yourself. Without getting
too deeply onto that, we need to realize that
the real problem here in this text is not that
everybody's wrong, even though that appears to
be the case. So the Israelites, when they're
sinning against God, they're worshiping idols,
they're not right. The Benjamites are protecting
the guys who would have raped this man all night
long and eventually did rape his concubine all
night long and killed her, and they're protecting
them. Nobody's right. There's nobody in the story,
in the two sides of the battle, that are right
by God. But I submit to you, that's not actually
the problem. The problem is not that they're
both wrong. That might be why they suffer so
heavily, right? Because they suffer the losses.
because they are in the wrong place. But the
real problem is that they think they're right
because they see that the other side is wrong.
So when the Israelites come out against Gibeah,
was there an atrocity? Yes, there was. Did that
wickedness need to be removed from Israel? Yes,
it did. And that's why they came out, allegedly.
But I submit to you that similar atrocities were
occurring all over the 11 tribes. That there
were men there who were out to battle who had
concubines, wives with no rights, at home that
they were keeping. There were men who had come
out there to battle who were falsely worshiping
God. They were in evil. They were wicked to the
core. But, you know, Gibeah is so bad because
they did something wrong that we can unite and
go and destroy them. That's the real problem.
That they could find justification, to go and
destroy them because they're wrong while themselves
also being wrong. And you could reverse the other
side of it. You could say Gibeah. Gibeah was
right. Should they allow brothers in the kingdom
of God, covenant brothers, to be destroyed? No,
they should not allow the Gibeahites. How do
you say that? The people from Gibeah. Let's just
say that, right? Those people to be destroyed,
they should defend them, especially because they
have some really good warriors there who would
fall on... Like my brother from Gibeah, I'm not
going to let him die. He fought alongside me
at the battle of so -and -so. And I stand up
for him no matter what. I don't care if he did
rape that woman all night long. Nobody's going
to touch him. Him and I stood together in battle
or whatever. So somehow or other, they justified
defending these people who had committed this
wicked crime because the people that were coming
were coming against Israelites. They're saying,
not against my family. Is my family wrong in
this? Yeah, they're wrong, but I'll not let you
touch my family. Because they were all part of
a larger family, and those who were coming were
also family. They were just family from a little
further away. And so we wind up with a huge battle
between two sides who essentially both think
they're right, and they justify, they could know
that they're not right with God, but they justify
the battle and the action because the other side
appears to be wrong. So then there's two applications
out of this text. And the first one is I want
to show you and I'm going to show it to you kind
of a little tongue in cheek because it's how
to do it, but don't ever do it. OK, so I'm going
to show you how to do it, but don't ever do it.
The process of spiritually becoming the judge,
jury and executioner. Now on the surface, you're
like, I don't ever want to do that. I don't want
to be the spiritual judge. I don't want to be
the spiritual jury. I don't want to be the spiritual
executioner. Right. But in reality, in life,
sometimes we're doing it. And so you need to
sort it out and figure out, am I doing it? If
it is, you repent and turn away from it. In Judges
20, we see Israel gathering together. They come
together as one people. They hear what has happened.
They ask, essentially, how did this evil happen?
They get motivated. They ask then for Benjamin
to deal with the problem, and they don't. Then
later, they'll ask for Benjamin to actually give
them the men so they can deal with the problem.
Judges 20, verse 13 says, That's what they asked
for. Sounds reasonable, sounds righteous, sounds
like justice. Benjamin says no. That begins then
our first application. How to become the spiritual
judge, juror, and executioner. There's a process.
And it usually doesn't begin with murder or anything
like that. It begins with self -righteousness.
You think of yourself as right. So step one to
becoming the spiritual judge, jury, and executioner
is this. Sound right rather than worrying about
being right. So we're in church on Sunday and
we use words like baptism, sanctification, preaching.
We quote verses from the Bible. We talk about...
Good things that we do. Maybe we speak out an
inspirational moment. We preach a sermon, whatever.
But our lives, not right. We sound right, but
then we're not right. So step one is to sound
right because that's how you get people to rally.
That's how you get people to agree with you.
Yeah, he sounds right. That makes sense. We elevate
our behavior by our intentions. And then we let
our intentions kind of like sit in the background.
But God looks at our intentions, meaning God
judges our heart. So we say, I'm going to go
and I'm going to give peace of my mind. I'm going
to tell her. Or I'm going to get her kicked out
of the church. That's what we start thinking.
But our actual heart, our motivations behind
that, that's all wrong. But God is not. If you
say she did something wrong, he did something
wrong, and now you're cutting them out or you're
saying you've got to go on your own. I'm not
going to help you. I don't want nothing to do
with you anymore. You're pushing them away from
you. And you're doing that out of a wrong heart.
God sees the wrong heart. It doesn't matter if
the reason, like the person was actually in sin,
they did wickedness, whatever. They might be.
You might say, I'm not going to be part of the
wickedness that you're part of. But God is looking
at your heart. And then you can say, well. Yeah,
I did. I did cut them off or I did say that mean
thing or whatever, but I didn't mean to hurt
them. I was just trying to show them that they
were wrong. Or you could say to somebody else
who sees you being mean or vicious, why are you
being like that? And you're like, well, you don't
understand what happened. You know how bad they
hurt my feelings, right? Or they came after my
kid or they came after my friend or they came
after my buddy, right? Or they came after me.
And you can express that you have good reasons
for why you're doing what you're doing. But God
is looking at your heart. Being able to explain
yourself because the other person is wrong does
not make you righteous. Which is why when somebody
does something wrong to you, there is literally
no excuse to do something wrong back to them.
Because if you're doing something wrong, it's
still wrong. Once it comes out of you, your heart
is in a messed up place. Being able to explain
yourself does not necessarily make you righteous.
Step one then would be to profess or to speak
like you're right while not actually being right
in yourself. Step two then is to do what the
world knows is wrong while still claiming a connection
to God. So, yeah, I'm doing this. Let's use the
story for an example. Israel is wicked. They
are idolatrous. They're synchronistic, which
means they're adding other religions to... following
God at best. And a lot of them were just cutting
God out completely. They were taking concubines
and condoning sin all over the place. But then
when another evil looks bad enough, they all
get together to point fingers, draw weapons,
and start to kill people, right? These people
still knew the name of Jehovah. They still knew
who God was. He was the God who parted the river.
He was the God who parted the sea. He was the
God who sent the plagues. He was the God who
gave the Ten Commandments. He was the God who
struck down those who dishonored him. He's that
God. And yet they claim the name of Jehovah,
but they're living in daily wickedness. But then
they unify to go and cut down Benjamin when Benjamin
will not provide the bad guys so they can cut
them down. It's a sobering warning that as a
Christian, you can say, I am a follower of Jesus.
But then you can be living in wickedness at the
same time. I love Jesus as my Lord. A Lord is
a person who tells you what to do when you do
it. That's what a Lord is. If you say Jesus is
your Lord and Jesus tells you to do something
and you don't do it, that is a lie. And lies
don't save people. And so that's what happens
in Christianity when we think we are right and
then... We call on the name of Jesus and we keep
doing the things that we want to do or fulfilling
our own desires. It's possible to have the right
vocabulary, to say the right things about Jesus
and actually have wrong behavior in your life.
It's possible to say, I love God while refusing
to obey God. Jesus said this in Matthew 7. He
said, not everyone who saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
will enter the kingdom of heaven. So he already
knew in his day, in the midst of him being crucified,
buried, resurrected, feeding the 5 ,000, feeding
the 4 ,000, walking on water, calming storms,
bringing Lazarus back to life. While all of that
was going on, there were people who were saying,
Lord, Lord, but they didn't actually have a Lord
in Jesus. Calling ourselves God's people does
not make everything we do work. It doesn't make
everything we do righteous, and it doesn't make
everything we do God's way. Then all of a sudden,
you find a group of evildoers who can be differentiated
from you. So we've got three steps so far. The
first one was sound right rather than be right.
The second one was speak it, speak the words,
and you start doing what the world knows is wrong.
So Christians are doing what the world knows
is wrong, but you still speak the words and claim
the connection to God. And then the third one
is... You find somebody that you can, a group
that somebody can hammer against. We got some
really big groups like that in the world right
now. And there are pastors who will be in the
pulpit this morning. They'll preach against a
certain political agenda. And their churches
are growing. Because people want to hear that.
They want to hear me stand up here and bash a
certain thing that people don't agree with. Whatever
it might be. And it doesn't even have to be in
the Bible. Right? We can do that. In fact, I
once had a woman accost me after service on a
Sunday and said, next Sunday, you need to preach
against smoking, smoking cigarettes. You need
to preach against smoking cigarettes. And I said,
well, first of all, why would I do that like
ever? And she said, well, because a lot of people
are dying from it. People are getting sick from
it. People are getting addicted from it. It's
a bad thing. It's an evil. And you need to preach.
Your next sermon needs to be preaching against
smoking. And I said, I'm sorry. I can tell you
right now that ain't going to happen. I said,
I might preach what the Bible says, you know,
your body's a temple, that kind of thing. But
the odds are I probably won't mention smoking
at all because that's not even a very good example.
That's taking those verses out of context. Now,
should you smoke? Probably not. Could it be a
sin? Almost certainly. But the Bible doesn't
address it directly ever. And I'm not going to
preach a sermon against it because the Bible
never addresses it directly. Exactly. So we're
going to let Jesus teach people those kinds of
things, not me. That's not my job. And she wasn't
very happy with me. And our relationship did
go south from there. And then she eventually
left the church. But the bottom line is, you
can find a group of people to hammer. And then
as you hammer them, other people who want to
feel like they are in the right will jump on
board with you and hammer them. Just like these
guys were going after Gibeah. Just like these
guys were going after Benjamin. And suddenly
everybody has an enemy. And if we can have a
common enemy, there was one couple a long time
ago. that I was doing marriage counseling with,
and marriage Bible study, I don't do counseling,
I was doing marriage Bible study with them, and
about two -thirds of the way through marriage
Bible study, I realized they really weren't,
you know, they weren't really on board, they
really weren't doing the text, which we just,
all we do is read the Bible, and what does it
say, what does it mean, that kind of thing, and
they really weren't with me. And then it blew
up, and I found out that I had offended her.
And I found out that similarly, at the same time,
I had offended him. And they both decided, overnight,
just like that, that they hated me. Just like
that. One day we're working together, we're trying
to figure out what the Bible says, and overnight
they decided that they hated me. And guess what
happened? No. Their marriage became fine. They
no longer had any trouble in their marriage.
Because now they had an enemy. They decided together
that they became unified in attacking me. And
they were fine. I said, I'm praying about that.
I asked the Lord, what on earth? He said, you
know what? You did it. You succeeded. You brought
about peace in their marriage. All they needed
was a common enemy. Think about the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, Herod, Pilate, all of them. They
were in constant political bickering all the
time. And the first time they ever had peace
was when they crucified Jesus. You don't need
a common enemy. What you need is a relationship
with the God of the universe. And he'll get you
right. If you need a common enemy to go after,
then you're probably more on the road to becoming
a spiritual judge, jury, and executioner than
you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus did not come to condemn, and nor should
we. needs to ask, who is my enemy? Because sometimes
the person that's facing you, sometimes a person
who disagrees with you, sometimes a person who
corrects you, they're not your enemy. Faithful
are the wounds of a friend, scripture says. A
faithful friend might hurt your feelings. They
might tell you something that you don't really
want to hear. They may say something that's hard
to adjust to. But that very wound might then
become an evidence of their love for you. The
person will take the time to correct you when
you're screwing up. There's somebody you should
probably trust, not trust like you trust the
Lord. Don't trust any humans like that, right?
Because we all have our weaknesses. But if they're
willing to talk to you and get you back on the
right course, then they are of value to you in
your life. The next step then is to consult God
midstream to authorize what you have already
decided to do. You notice that's what they did.
They finally inquire to the Lord after they already
were moving against Gibeah. And you can do that
too. You can decide, I'm going to go, I'm going
to attack this person, or I'm going to go on
this course of action, ignoring this person,
what they have to say, and then you can, along
the way, ask God. And here's the funny thing,
as we see in this text, God may say, go ahead
and go. You got it in yourself already, a plan
to do it, you're going to do it, go ahead and
go. And I'm saying it like that way on purpose,
because they win. back out and they lost 22 ,000
men. And every one of those 22 ,000 men wished
they had not gone to battle that day. And all
their wives and all their children, probably
even their concubines, and all their servants,
every one of them, and all their would -be descendants
for generations to come. And God said, go. And
they went and they all died. 22 ,000 of them
died. And sometimes God may let you do that.
If you've decided to do what you're going to
do anyway, regardless of whether or not God authorizes
it, then God's going to say to you, all right,
go ahead. Knowing that after you suffer some
more, eventually you're going to turn back to
God and say, okay, God, now what? And that's
what God is waiting for. God is waiting for you
to actually ask him, now what? And finally they
do. They ask God whether to continue. And finally
he says, yep, now you see what I've decided to
do. We have to learn the difference between consulting
God midstream of what we are already doing and
seeing whether or not he's going to authorize
it and asking God in advance whether we should
do something. And the latter is permissible in
the kingdom of God. And the former may be permissible,
but it certainly is not profitable. Trust the
Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own
understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge
him. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Get out of
bed tomorrow morning and say, Lord, I don't know
what the heck I'm doing here. Because that's
the reality, isn't it? I'm just following you
the best I know how. Leave me wherever you want
me to go. And I'll not do it in my own strength.
I'll do it in yours. And then I'll give you glory
for it. Everybody pays in this story for the
pride of the people who refuse to humble themselves.
Who refuse to go to God and say, God, should
we go up or not? But they're on both sides of
the battle. They're on both sides of the battle.
Once you've found that group of evildoers differentiated
from you, you can feel fully authorized. You
can complain against them. You can unite against
them. And then you'll be perfectly fine. You
may not be right by God, but you'll be fine for
months or years even. You might be sitting here
today because you think Christianity is so much
better than those idiots over there at the mosque.
Or at the temple. Or in their living rooms this
morning streaming more TV. Now if that's your
position, that's not right. Let Jesus sort that.
Follow the Lord. Then, there is another action
plan that is clearly laid out in this text. There's
another action plan that's clearly laid out in
this text. And you can go just the other way.
Right. And the people of Gibeah, they decide
essentially to stand up for something that they
believe in. And in standing up for something
that they believe in, they dismiss justice. They
dismiss mercy. They dismiss humility. When in
reality, we need all three. They come out and
man, they do a good job of it, don't they? Those
26 ,000 men that kill. 40 plus thousand of the
Israelites before they quit fighting. And all
day long, both of those days, they were thinking
to themselves, see, see, we're right. It doesn't
matter how many of you there are. While they
were defending the wicked. And you could be doing
that same thing, sitting where you're sitting
right now. There's wickedness in your life. There's
something that you're doing that's not right.
And all the while I'm preaching, you're saying
to yourself, Ah, it's okay. Nobody knows about
that. Or it's no big deal. It doesn't stop me
from being faithful to God. Jesus came to die
for all my sins, not just my sins of the past
or the future, but my present sins too. And you're
justifying not faithfully following the Lord.
And if someone would start to call you on it,
you might get your craw up a little bit. You
might defend yourself. Just realize that when
you do that, you might be defending yourself
against the God of the universe. We were once
objects of wrath, and we have no desire to be
that now. So we can come to the point then where,
just like they did, we turn the weapons at our
disposal against an enemy who was never meant
to be the enemy. Either somebody who was doing
something wrong. And you start to judge them
and you start to attack them. You say things
that makes you feel better about the things that
in your life that you're doing that are wrong.
You're not coming humbly. You're not trying to
constructively help them. You're not coming alongside
them. You're not caring about them. Maybe you're
not praying for them. By the way, the surest
way to make sure there's a little mercy in your
relationships is to pray first for the person.
Pray for their genuine needs. And that'll help
you find a little compassion when you do go to
talk to them. Or you might be on the other side
of it and say, yeah, I'm doing the wrong thing.
and they don't like what I'm doing, and I don't
want them to think of me. You get mad because
they think of you a certain way, or they say
a certain thing, or maybe they correct you, begin
to get you going in the right direction, and
you defend your wickedness. And the same thing
can happen during a sermon. It happens during
a Bible study, right? Sometimes it happens when
we're praying. God is convicting you and bringing
something out that you're doing, and you're saying
back to God, no, God, that's no big deal. Yeah,
I'm trying to fix that. And by the way, yeah,
I'm trying to fix that is not an excuse. So,
that brings us then to action plans, neither
of which we want to be a part of. But notice
then God says, in the middle of the text at a
certain point, it's too late for reluctance now.
There is another detail in Judges 20, after the
first battle, after 22 ,000 men, then another
18 ,000, and only after they fall down before
God, they weep. That's good. But think about
how much better it would have been if humility
had arrived before they went to battle. 40 ,000
men. There is a kind of humility that comes before
consequences. You need to hear this. I needed
to hear this. There is a kind of humility that
comes after consequences. which do you have?
Do you have the kind of humility that says, God
is in charge, and I want to do what God wants
me to do, and I want to be right by God, I want
to serve God, let God live in me, let God reign
in my life, before you start to do things that
don't honor God? Or do you wait until after you've
done things that don't honor God, and God corrects
you, and now you're humble? And you're like,
oh, Lord, I knew all along that I need only you.
Only you can sustain me, Lord. Praise you. Only
you are God. I'm not God. But your actions hours
before or days before were saying you are equally
God. Because you were not coming humbly to the
Lord before you set about on your course. Both
types of humility like that are better than pride.
It's better to be humble after you get chastised
than it is to be prideful. It's better to be
humble before you get chastised. It's best. One
of those types of humility costs far less. You
can learn humility from scripture like this one
and others, or you can learn it from disaster.
You can accept correction from God, or you can
wait until your decisions produce consequences
that you cannot undo. 40 ,000 men died, and they
walked on the first 22 ,000 all day long while
they fought again. wickedness in their hearts,
not humble before God. You can bend your knee
voluntarily, or eventually life may force you
to your knees. The wise person chooses the first
way, humility before destruction. The reality
is that civil wars kill kingdom citizens. Israel
was... not fighting to fulfill the boundaries
of their kingdom. Realize this is the book of
Judges. They're still supposed to be conquering
the surrounding enemies, not taking them as wives.
They're still supposed to be moving the borders
back and finding the full land that God has given
them. They have a 400 ,000 man army that instead
is pitted completely to destroy one city. for
one sinful act while they themselves are indulged
in sinful acts so often. That same army could
have expanded the territory to where it was supposed
to get. They weren't conquering new territory
even though God had commanded them to do that.
They weren't fighting an invading army even though
they have fought those time and again. By the
way, throughout the book of Judges at this point,
how many times has Israel been warred against?
How many times have they been abused? How many
times have their crops been stolen? And in all
that time, how many times did they sum up an
army of 400 ,000 men? Only a couple. And it took
a powerful judge to do it. They are not advancing
the kingdom in this fight. They are fighting
themselves. Civil wars kill kingdom citizens.
That principle is still true today. Every church
conflict over anything at all, it doesn't matter
what it is, never ever produces righteousness.
When five or six people get their craw up about
the pastor won't preach a sermon on smoking,
or the pastor talks too long on Sunday, or the
room color isn't right, or the carpeting, or
the instruments, or the music is too loud, or
it doesn't matter what it is, and people get
together and they decide that they're upset,
they get a poster child of a problem, those disagreements
never bring about justice or righteousness. In
fact, Every disagreement does not need an enemy.
Every correction does not need a war. Sometimes
the greatest victory is not defeating the person
who disagrees with you. Sometimes the greatest
victory is keeping the relationship with the
person who disagrees with you. If you and I sat
down, everybody in this room, every one of us,
if we sat down and talked for a couple hours
looking for something to disagree over, we'll
find it. I guarantee it. Because I'm an opinionated
person and I'm looking around this room and I
see opinionated people. 100%. We would all find
something if we sat down and worked it. You sit
down with your wife and say, okay, let's talk
about it. Let's find something to disagree with.
You will find something that you think and he
or she disagrees. And then you've got to either
come to a conclusion where the two of you can
work it out and figure out where your actual
position is or one of you has to give up their
preferences or you have to agree to disagree,
which is not biblical. Every family argument
does not produce justice. Every disagreement
does not need an enemy. And every correction
does not need a war. Get off your soapbox unless
you are talking about Jesus and God's word. In
fact, Proverbs 15 .1 says, A soft answer turns
away wrath. James said it this way in chapter
3, The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
of them that make peace. There are people who
know how to win arguments. Some of you will debate
me under the table. But God calls us to become
people who know how to make peace. Blessed are
the peacemakers. And that brings us then to a
conclusion. What they didn't have was a king.
I'm not talking about a human king. They had
God as king, and then they gave that up. They
quit having God as king. We are called to one
king, one standard, one way. Judges is ultimately
a book about what happens when Israel does not
have righteous leadership. We have righteous
leadership. We have Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. We have God the Father, God the Son, God
the Holy Spirit. Literally, we have the definition
of righteous leadership. Again and again, the
big problem of Judges comes out. In those days,
there was no king in Israel. Every man did what
was right in his own eyes. Except there was a
king. It was God. And the reason there was no
king that was God was because every man was doing
what was right in his own eyes. It's not like
God stopped being king, and then they started
doing what was right in their own eyes. God was
king, and they stepped away from him. They stopped
following God, stopped letting God be king. And
they began to do what was right in their own
eyes. And it has led them to this point, the
worst probably point in the history of God's
people in the promised land, where they're not
being killed by enemies. That was terrible in
the Philistines. That's terrible. When all the
other tribes gathered together and formed an
army, there was camels as far as the horizon.
That was terrible. But when it's Israelites killing
Israelites, that's terrible. When it was the
United States Civil War, it's said to be the
most. Damaging war in the history of America.
Because everybody that died was an American.
And some history buffs will escalate that number
far beyond the actual track number, which is
like 600 ,000. And they think in reality it was
maybe millions who died in the Civil War. And
it was Americans killing an American. And everybody
that died pretty much was an American. This is
what happens. When people do what's right in
their own eyes, rather than doing what God calls
us to. Benjamin did what seemed right to Benjamin.
Israel did what seemed right to Israel. Everybody
had a justification. Everybody had a grievance.
Everybody had a reason. But the goal is not for
everybody to become better at defending their
own version of righteousness. To say, well, I'm
going to learn what the Bible says so I can be
right. And then people will think I'm right.
You should just leave off the last part. Learn
what the Bible says so that God can make you
right. Don't worry about whether other people
think you're right or not. There's only one advantage
in that. If people think you're right, they might
be a little more likely to listen to you about
Jesus. That would be advantageous. They might
be a little more likely to glorify your Father
when Jesus comes again. That would be advantageous.
But the truth is, all you've got to do is speak
for Jesus and let them decide whether or not
they're going to listen. The goal is to come
under God's standard of righteousness. We need
authority in the right places. We need accountability
practiced by all. If someone you know is in sin,
you go to them in kindness and speak with them
about it. Go to them in peace. I get it. It's
going to put you out of your comfort zone. You
might be frustrated. You might be upset. You
might want to go in strained because you feel
like, oh, I feel terrible that I have to have
this conversation. But the problem is, that's
you being reluctant. You're only feeling that
way because it's you being reluctant to do what
God commanded you to do, which was go and show
them their sins so that they can repent. So it
has nothing to do with their sin, but you'll
go, feel it all consternated, all upset, all
frustrated, right? And you'll get mad all over
them, sloppy. Say it wrong because you're frustrated
because you have to do what it is that God called
you to do. Whose problem is that anyway? We need
humility. We need repentance. We need truth.
We need mercy. And ultimately, we need one king.
Not me, not you, not our group, not our feelings.
One king, Jesus Christ. There is one king and
one standard of righteousness. There is one way
we receive that righteousness. Not by you doing
better today than you did yesterday. That's not
how that works. Not by proving that we are better
than somebody else. That's not how that works.
We receive the righteousness through faith in
Jesus Christ. Even the righteousness, the Bible
says in Romans 3, of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. That changes the way we fight. Because
when I know that my righteousness was received
from Jesus, then I don't have to manufacture
righteousness by defeating you or anyone else.
Let me say it this way. If you're spending any
portion of your time thinking about whether or
not somebody else is wrong, you're missing. Your
purpose in life, which is to become right yourself,
to walk with Jesus. You don't have time. Now,
should we also be concerned about other people?
We need warriors. We do. We need to take the
gospel. We need to take right living to other
people. We need to show up in the midst of people's
trials and lead them to a life that is Jesus
Christ and help them. Maybe bring food. Bring
support like from the police or from somebody.
Get them out of a difficult situation, whatever.
We need warriors. But we need humble warriors.
We need people willing to stand. But we need
people willing to kneel first. We need people
willing to advance. But we only want the advancement
in the direction that God has commanded. We need
people willing to confront sin. But we also need
people willing to repent of their own sin. We
need people willing to fight. But we need people
who know what is worth fighting for. And we need
people who don't just want to win. We need people
who want to help somebody else find the way home.
God has given each one of us the heart of a lion.
In getting saved, your regenerated heart became
the heart of a lion. And with that heart of a
lion, you can conquer every little sin, everything
that ever held you back, your flesh, your crazy
mind that goes all over the place sometimes or
seeks after things that aren't good for you.
Your heart can reign over it all. Your heart
has the heart of a lion, the kind of heart that
can create universes. They can destroy difficulties.
They can move mountains. You have the heart of
a lion. And so you want to fight. But you're
called to humility to the God of the universe
first. The next time you think about saying something
that sounds a little bit mean, don't say to yourself,
well, it may sound a little bit mean, but I've
got, you know, there's a reason for that. Just
realize it's just mean. It just actually is mean.
It doesn't just sound a little bit mean. It actually
is mean. And you're called to gentleness and
kindness and goodness and self -control, which
are all fruits of the Spirit. You can't produce
them, but by embracing God through the spiritual
disciplines and His Word and spending time with
Him, those things grow in you. The next time
you see somebody who's doing something wrong
and you feel compelled to correct it, a little
bitterness in your voice might do the trick.
They'll slam a pot or a pan or a door, right?
Or turn your back on them. Or give them what
for? You should have realized those are all weapons.
And they are given to you for your use, but they
are not meant to be turned inward. You know who
needs you to kick his butt super bad, like every
day? Satan. You know who needs you to step on
his throat, to crush his skull? Every demon,
evil spirit that ever rose, fell, would be a
better verb there, right? That ever came to walk
the earth. And your heart of a lion, that's what
it's for. Don't you turn the weapons that God
has given you against your loved ones, against
the church. Don't be divided. Wrath of man never
brings about righteousness. Come in love. And
bring peace. Jesus said, my peace I give you.
Not as the world gives, but forever. In this
world, you will have trouble. But fear not, for
I have overcome the world. I'm going to close
with an illustration and I'm done. The United
States of America Civil War, I mentioned it earlier
on. The president... During the Civil War and
immediately after for a short time. No, I got
that backwards. The president at the beginning
and throughout the Civil War was Abraham Lincoln.
I'm not a historian, but I'm going to quote him
anyway. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln gave an inaugural
address. And he was addressing the fact that
the United States of America was fighting against
the United States of America. And in the end
of his inaugural address, he used this phrase.
He said that they would fight the fight, that
they will win the war, that they will reunite
the nation. And I'm paraphrasing that part. But
then he said this. He said, with malice toward
none, with charity for all. And that is how you
and I need to learn to fight. Because the goal
is not victory over what someone is doing or
what you don't like or what's bothering you.
The goal is peace. Peace that passes understanding.
Peace that leads to an eternity with God in heaven
forever. Before you fight the fight, make sure
that you're fighting the right way. And don't
turn the weapons that you have, whatever you
have at your disposal, against those who you
should be loving. A legitimate cause does not
guarantee a righteous response. Instead, humbly
come before the Lord. Is this my fight? How will
I fight it? How far am I meant to go? And then
do what he tells you. I ask the praise team to
come forward. And lead us in exposing him. But
as we are singing today, maybe the Lord is impressed
upon you. Maybe you've been. It's the very thing.
You've turned your weapons against your loved
ones or against the church, these people that
you know, and you realize that's not meant to
be those weapons. We're defending you. We're
defending the church. We're defending the kingdom.
We're attacking the enemy that actually is the
enemy, which is not a community, ever. Repent.
repent and humbly come before your God and just
say, okay, God, from now on, when I see something
that needs to be dealt with, I want to deal with
it in you, by your strength, by your methods,
and that's the only way. Maybe God has come to
you and said you have some sin, something that's
in your heart. It's wickedness. And you've kept
it. You've held on to it. You even defended it
to him over the years. Maybe you've begged him
to forgive it over and over and over again. And
God is now saying, repent. repent of that thing
and be done with it. Repent and turn to me. Repent
doesn't just mean turn from a sin. It means turn
to God. Think differently now. Now I'm turned
to God. Because if you turn from one sin, you're
likely to just turn to another one. But if you
turn from sin and turn to God, then that's different.
So you know what that thing is and you've been
defending it, stop it. Say no more to that. I'm
done defending it. I'm going to submit it to
the Lord and let him deal with it. Or maybe the
Lord's calling you to start a ministry or go
talk to somebody specific about Jesus or whatever
it might be. He's saying, whom will I send? And
you say, okay, Lord, you can send me. I don't
know what that's going to look like, but you
can send me. And you let him know that today.
Maybe you need this to be your church home. Maybe
you need to be baptized. Maybe you need to be
and serve whatever. You make your decision publicly
so that God can support you, so that God can
come out and Pour on the resources. And you and
everyone else in the world. As we sing this song,
the Lord is speaking to you and wants you to
respond. And you come forward, share with me.
Otherwise, you just sing and give God the glory.
Right? Stand and sing with me. But that thy blood
was shed for me. That'll get it done. That was
enough. Come to me, O Lamb of God, I come. You're
here today and you're giving your life to Jesus
Christ for the first time right now. In your
heart, you still got pride? You say, yes, Lord.
And then you come to me, and we'll pray together
right now.