 The title of our sermon tonight is No Hope Without a New Heart, No Hope Without a New Heart, Judges chapter 2, verses 16 through 23. So we consider this text tonight. If you've spent any time at all reading your Bible, you've been at one time or another struck by the seemingly hopeless pattern of sin and apostasy in Israel. It is a seemingly hopeless, destitute, deplorable pattern. You can see that pattern repeated over and over again in the record of the Judges. Rebellion, retribution, repentance, rescue, relapse. And it's not simply that the pattern repeats itself, but that the pattern worsens and declines over time. The downward trend is scarred and marred by increasing faithlessness, increasing evil, increasing rebellion. Judges are their rebellious, their rebellion abounds, right? Not just that they're faithless, their faithlessness increases. Notice the language of verse 19, and it came to pass when the judge was dead that they reverted. But they didn't merely revert, they behaved even more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. So what we see then in the self-destructive downward death spiral of their own sin is almost continuously wrecked by, they're almost continuously wrecked by, is the hopelessness of the human condition, the hopelessness of the human heart apart from a sovereign work of Almighty God. We see the hopelessness that we are ensnared and entrapped in apart from a sovereign work of God. External reformation will not provide the change that we need. We can't be externally moral and expect to be right with God. We need an internal transformation. External pressure, external restraint, external effort, external forces can only go so far in reforming us. It can only produce an external change. It can only produce external morality, and external formalism, and external ritualism, and external result. It can only whitewash the outside of what is already a tomb. We need internal spiritual renewal. We need internal transformation. We need to be made a new creation. We need a new heart. We need a new spirit within us. We need a transformed nature. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We need the law written on the very fabric of our heart. We need the grip of sin and death loosed from our life. We need God at work in us, willing and doing according to his good pleasure. We need a new covenant, a better covenant. We need a better way. We need to be remade. We don't merely need a moral makeover. We need a radical, miraculous, sovereign, supernatural act of holy compassion and holy violence by which God wrenches us from the power of sin and death and seats us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Otherwise, without it, we remain in a hopeless bondage to sin, a death spiral. Every faculty of our being polluted by that which is offensive to God. That's our state apart from Christ. Every faculty of our being needing reformation, needing transformation. And we need this reality by the sovereign work of God and by the sovereign work of God alone. We see this lived out or experienced in the history of God's own people, the nation of Israel. This need comes to the forefront in their own history. It's as if God, through the nation of Israel, is painting a picture for us of how desperately we need this radical transformation, right? These things are written for our admonition. They're our examples. God enters into covenant with them and what do they do? They break the covenant. The Lord gives them his law and what do they do? They rebel against his law. He warns them of judgment and they sin with impunity. He graciously provides for them and they spurn his goodness. They spurn his compassion. He sends them judges and they refuse to hear them. He calls them to repentance and they refuse to turn. This is the human heart. This is your heart. This is my heart apart from a sovereign work of God. This is the human condition. Notice in this, notice that these are not like the Canaanites. These are the Israelites, God's covenant people who are behaving this way. The Canaanites are entirely without him, right? These are those who have not merely sinned against God. They've sinned against God's grace. They've sinned against God's provision. They've sinned against God's gracious covenant. The Israelites are sinning not just like the Canaanites. The Israelites in effect are worse. They're sinning against grace. As we'll see in the text, it's through their seeming hopelessness that we are directed then to place our hope where hope belongs. Our hope must be placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text begins with very good reason to hope in verse 16. Look at verse 16 with me. Nevertheless, despite their sin, despite their rebellion, despite the fact that they've turned from God, turned from obeying him, nevertheless, verse 16, the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. If you remember from verse 11, the next generation, the children of the inheritance generation sinned against God and they served the bales. So in verse 14, then, God delivered them into the hands of the plunderers. He sold them into the hands of their enemies. Verse 15, the Lord set himself against them for calamity. And then in verse 16, now, a gracious, merciful, hope-filled, purpose-filled, nevertheless, that begins that verse, right? Thank you, Lord, for nevertheless. No hint of prior repentance. Notice their actions here don't warrant deliverance. But God steps in in verse 16 with a nevertheless. This is the sovereign intervention of divine mercy. God simply chooses to show them mercy. It wasn't because they were seeking so diligently after him, right? It wasn't because they were crying out, God, forgive us of our sins and that God responded with sending judges. No, there's just an intervention of nevertheless in verse 16. This is divine mercy. They weren't crying out to him. They weren't pitiable in their sin. God merely, in mercy, chose to insert in verse 16 and nevertheless. And so what does the Lord do? He raised up judges, Shafatim, their tribal warriors or tribal warlords who deliver them. These are warrior leaders that the Lord sends to the nation to deliver them from those who oppress them. And we'll look at how the Lord uses these tribal warlords when we get to chapter 3. But for now, in verse 16, consider the mercy of God. But consider the mercy of God, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy. The one who delivered them over to judgment for their sin, which was a righteous judgment, it's exactly what they deserved, is the one who now comes to them in compassion and delivers them from the righteous judgment that they rightly deserve, right? So in all of that, we consider that how then did the Israelites respond to God's display of mercy? Verse 17, yet they would not listen to their judges. It's almost shocking, isn't it? They would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other gods bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walk in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do so. So despite God's grace in raising up a savior, raising up a deliverer, despite God's patience, God's mercy, God's covenant faithfulness, the Israelites are described as responding here in three ways that display their depravity. Three ways. One, they refused to listen. They would not listen to their judges. The word order here is emphatic. The Lord is saying, even my judge, they refused to hear. I sent a judge to them. That judge delivers them and even that judge they refused to listen to. It's not that they couldn't hear him, right? The judge was preaching. It's not that they wouldn't hear them. They refused to heed what they were saying. They rejected what they were saying. They refused to listen, even to the judge who delivered them. There's a sense in which that if you consider the word order and consider what's being said, that that conveys how irrational and unreasonable and stubborn they were. They've been delivered from the oppressors who were oppressing them in the judgment that God had poured out on them. God sends a judge to deliver them and they refuse to listen to the judge. It is irrational. Listen, if you remain in your sin after hearing the good grace of the gospel preach to you, you are irrational to reject it. You are unreasonable to remain in your sin and keep plundering forward toward death. You are unreasonable. You are stubborn. The Lord graciously holds out an offer of salvation in his son. Turn from your sin and trust him alone. It is irrational. It is unreasonable. It is stubborn, hardhearted to stay in your sin. They, the Israelites, refused to listen. Secondly, it doesn't only say that in verse 17, they played the harlot with other gods. Notice in verse 17, it's not just that they committed adultery with other gods. You see that? It didn't just commit adultery. Their idolatry is characterized here as prostitution rather than merely adultery. They went whoring after other gods, right? Presumably for personal gain, multiple partners, that's what this is talking about, a habitual way of life, intentional, utterly, deplorably, disgustingly offensive betrayal to the Lord who had betrothed her to himself in love. And they whored after other gods, played the harlot. The Lord had warned them. If you remember the story from the golden calf at the mountain in Exodus 34, the Lord warned them at the mountain. Listen, don't play the harlot with foreign gods. When you enter the land, you go into the land of Canaan. Don't play the harlot with those gods of the Canaanites. And yet here they are. Here they are through the prophets Jeremiah, through Ezekiel, through Hosea. The Lord presses the limits of language and imagery to convey how horrific their betrayal against him was. Listen to this from Ezekiel, chapter 16, beginning in verse 30. Listen to the way the Lord describes their harlotry. Ezekiel, chapter 16, verse 30, he asks, how degenerate is your heart? It's more of an assertion, a statement of fact, and it is a question, right? How degenerate is your heart? It says the Lord God seeing that you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot. What's the problem in verse 30? It's their degenerate heart, right? How degenerate is your heart? It's a heart problem. Idolatry, harlotry is a heart problem. Rebellion is a heart problem. Verse 31, you erected your shrine at the head of every road and built your high place in every street. In other words, you had intentions to practice your harlotry all over the place. Everywhere you had opportunity, everywhere you could. And he says, you were not like a harlot because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men make payment to all harlots, but you made payment to all your lovers and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. It's amazing, isn't it? They played the harlot, but they didn't get paid for their services. They paid other lovers to play the harlot with them. He says in that you are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot in that you gave payment, but no payment was given to you. Therefore, you are the opposite. This is the bride of the Lord whoring after other lovers. It's amazing, isn't it? And not merely playing the harlot, but playing a brazen harlot, one so given over to this. This is this is the Holy Spirit authoring Scripture, describing the covenant people of God in this way. It's amazing, isn't it? They refused to listen to their judges. They played the harlot with other gods. Look at verse 17. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked in obeying the Lord. They were zealous in their rebellion. They were fervent in their rejection of God. They were eager to get on with their sin. They wasted no time at all in forsaking the one who had delivered them. The one who had provided for them and the one who loved them, cared for them, directed them. Look at verse 18. And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge graciously, compassionately delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge because the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning over their sin. Is that what it says? No, the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. The groaning in verse 18 is more about misery than it is about genuine repentance. I think with me about the mercy of God. Nevertheless, nevertheless, even though their groaning is more about misery and not so much about genuine repentance. Nevertheless, God has moved to compassion by their suffering. God takes action in pity for the sake of his people. He pities them and takes action. And bear in mind, the action here is entirely unwarranted. It's they weren't looking for it. It's entirely unwarranted. This is divine mercy. This is the intervention of divine mercy. This is for the sake of God's great name. This is the sake for the sake of his covenant with them for the sake of the fathers, not because they somehow earned it through a change in conduct. Right? They didn't earn it. What they had earned was judgment. What they had earned was the judgment that God had promised them, which was the exact judgment that God was now pouring out on them. What they didn't earn, what they didn't deserve was this display of divine mercy that he was showing them in verse 17, verse 18. So how did the Israelites respond to God's truly astonishing display of mercy, verse 19? And it came to pass then, when the judge was dead, that despite all this, right, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. And they did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. Now that is truly shocking, isn't it? It's, it's reasonable to be shocked by that, despite how good God was and how often God is good, right? The patience of God, the grace of God, the compassion of God. It's expected that we should be shocked by that. It is irrational, unreasonable that they would continue to conduct themselves this way. This is a picture. This is God painting a picture of the rebellion that is bound up in the heart of fallen man. This is what your heart, my heart is like, apart from a work of God. Those who reject the Lord and are lost, it's not merely that they are indifferent. They are God haters. Why? Because look at what God has done for them in grace and compassion, in kindness, in patience. Look at how God has provided for them. It's not merely that they are indifferent. They're irrational, unreasonable, rebellious and worthy of condemnation, right? It's shocking that we would respond to this way. They should have been moved to gratitude. They should have been moved to praise and worship when God delivered them. Instead, it says in verse 19, they reverted, they reverted and behaved even more corruptly. It's like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth, biting the hand that feeds it. That's the human condition. A rabid dog foaming at the mouth, biting the hand that feeds it. Natural, fallen, sinful man will not turn to the Lord. That's why Arminianism, for example, is such a pitifully pathetic excuse for theology. It is not the case. Man's heart, apart from a work of grace, is irretrievably wicked, irretrievably deplorably rebellious. We need a work of God's grace. We need the Lord to intervene with grace and mercy. The natural man, that rabid, frothing dog, does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. We need to be cured of our rabies, right? We need to come to our senses. The only way that that happens is by a work of sovereign grace. As soon as the external restraint provided by the judge was removed, in other words, as soon as the restraining one was taken out of the way, there is a precipitous plummet back into sin. They reverted, behaved even more corruptly than their fathers before them. I think often when we consider the condition, the human condition, we're easily deceived by the fact that there are restraints on human conduct that are built in to this creation, right? There are there are external forces at work to restrain men. Even the law of God is an external restraint on the wicked to keep them from from being as sinful as they could be, right? There are external forces, external pressures, external restraints in place to keep us from being as sinful as we could be. We need a sovereign work of God's grace in the heart of man to transform us, to create us anew in order for us to be saved. As soon as the restraints are taken off, what do they do? They plummet back into their sin, reverting worse than their fathers, worse than they did before. In other words, they cannot keep themselves from slavery to sin. Peter says of false teachers, they have eyes which cannot cease from sin. They are given over to sin, right? Verse 19 says that they did not cease from their own doings. They did not cease. Modern day example of this, and I think it's an example from the lesser to the greater, modern day example of this might be the jailhouse confession. The jailhouse confession, a lost person in bondage to sin commits a crime that lands them in prison. While in prison, given time to consider their ways, the wreck they've made of their life. Paying the external temporal consequences for their sin, they profess to turn to Christ in repentance and faith, and they profess to be believers, they profess to be saved, right? While in prison with restraints on their behavior, restraints on their conduct, firmly in place, they seem to do well. They read their Bible, they got all kinds of time on their hand, on their hands, right? Not a lot of distractions in prison. They pray, they run well, other guys in the same boat. But what happens when they're released from prison and the restraints on their conduct are removed? Many, many, many revert and behave more corruptly than they did before they ever made a profession of faith. In reality, they never actually turned from their sin. They never actually turned from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. Some, many of them wind up back in prison again, restraints back in place. Once they're back in prison, we've seen it, right? The restraints are back in place. They go back to a seemingly credible profession of faith. And a moral life, they profess to be Christians. They profess to be following the Lord Jesus Christ. The frightening reality is that which is terrifying is that that is nothing more than moral reformation. It is exceedingly deceptive and exceedingly dangerous. You are merely whitewashing the outside of a tomb. Well, brother or sister, you have external restraints. If you come to a church like this, there are external restraints on your conduct, external restraints on your behavior. How is it? How is it that you know? If what you're doing is heart obedience to the Lord, a fruit of the spirit or is it merely whitewashing the outside of what is already a tomb? Is it moral reformation or is it spiritual transformation? Jesus said, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, finding none. He says, I will return to my house from which I came. When he comes, finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes, takes with him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, they enter and dwell there. And the last date of that man is worse than the first. They revert and behave more corruptly than they did before, more corruptly than their fathers. Listen, we need a new heart. We need a new heart. We don't need merely our heart swept clean. We need a new heart. We need a spiritual, radical transformation. Moral reformation, a mere moral reformation without regeneration will result in eternal damnation, right? Moral reformation without regeneration will result in eternal damnation. Mere morality, apart from a new heart, apart from being born again, apart from genuine saving faith, is nothing more than works righteousness and it will not save. It won't save you. It will not save the inevitable. The initial picture is that of the Israelites in the wilderness, externally, overtly, absurdly immoral, right? But the inevitable historical illustration of this fact are the Pharisees or the Pharisees from overtly, the overtly immoral and idolatrous Israelites to the externally moral, religious, elitist Pharisees, right? Think about the extent of that spectrum from what we see these rabid dogs worshiping the gods of the Canaanites to Pharisees who only outside they prided themselves on being blameless, right? When that isn't what the Apostle Paul said, according to the law, I was blameless with the sinful idolatry, the sinful history of the nation under the judges as their backdrop with the sinful history of Israel under pagan kings as their motivation. The Pharisees demanded a strict morality, strict morality. They boasted in external conformity to the law of God. They boasted in being meticulously devoted to every jot and tittle of their legal tradition, the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee before his conversion to Christ, measuring himself according to the external adherence to the law and believe that he was blameless. They saw themselves as good people. They saw themselves as the best of people. We're the best, the Pharisees would say. We're the best seduced by religion, applying external pressure. They cleaned themselves up on the outside and they murdered the only one who could have made them truly righteous on the inside, right? They crucified their deliverer, the Savior that God had sent them. They crucified the ultimate judge. The owner of the vineyard said, I'll send them my son. I'll send my son. Surely they will listen to him after he had sent messenger after messenger after messenger, I'll send my son. What do they do? Said it's the air will kill him and take the vineyard for ourselves, right? They crucified the deliverer. They killed the one who dared to say that all their external formalism was an abomination to God. That's all that external, heartless, religious formalism is. It is an abomination to God. He said to them in Matthew chapter twenty three, verse twenty five. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish. But inside they are full of extortion and self indulgence, blind Pharisee. First, cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like white washed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly. But inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men. But inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. He calls them serpents, brood of vipers. How can you escape the condemnation of hell? You see the point, don't you? Right. We can see the point. This is the point of this experience of Israel in the period of the judges. The answer to immorality is not morality. Right. The answer to immorality is not morality. External morality will simply make you twice a son of hell. The answer to immorality is not morality. We need Jesus Christ. We need the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be born again in him. We don't need to stand before God with our own righteousness. We have none. The Lord is graciously pointing us to the very fact and the experience of our own sin before him that we need a new heart. We must be tested and tried so that we ourselves can see the waywardness of our own heart. Well, Lord does that for the Israelites. He does that for the Israelites. Look back in Judges chapter two and look at verse 20. He makes this point to the nation in Judges chapter two verse 20. Then the anger of the Lord after all this right after this after the way that they responded to him, the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. As it should be as it would be as God is righteous to be. Right. It's amazing. The anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he said because this nation has transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers and has not heeded my voice. I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died. Why? Why? That's interesting to think about this because one of the consequences of their sin and rebellion against them, one of the consequences of their idolatry was that God wouldn't drive out the Israel or drive out the Canaanites from the land and they would become snares to the Israelites thorns in their sides. Right. That was one of the judgments that God poured out for their disobedience. But what does God say in verse 22? Why did he no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua had left so that through them I may test Israel? That's interesting, isn't it? Which is it? Which is the reason? Verse 22 said I may so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord to walk in them as their fathers kept them or not. Therefore, for that reason, the Lord left those nations without driving them out immediately, nor did he deliver them into the hand of Joshua. Now this is, listen, a stunning display of divine sovereignty. A stunning display of divine sovereignty. It's not either or, it's both. It's both. God intended all along to use the failure of Israel to drive out the Canaanites. He was going to use their failure to drive them out to accomplish his own plans and purposes to test the nation. Interesting, isn't it? God used the failure of Israel to drive out the Canaanites to accomplish his own plans and purposes to test them. Why was he going to test them? He's going to point them to their greatest need. Their greatest need. What they meant for evil, God meant plan directed to creed for good. God meant it for good. Was the test designed for God to find out if they would follow him or not? No, God's omniscient. God knows who needs to know. They need to know. Everyone who would follow after them needs to know. You and I reading this book together, that's what we need to know, right? God is omniscient. Isaiah says he declares the end from the beginning, from ancient times, things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. God is sovereign. God knows. The test results were for them and the test results are for us. These things are written for our admonition. What do the test results say? It says we have no righteousness. No righteousness whatsoever of our own. We need the righteousness of another. I need not mere deliverance from those that may oppress me. Contrary to liberation theology. I don't need mere deliverance from oppressors. I need deliverance from my own sin that is killing me, right? I need a new heart. I need a new nature. I need a new spirit within me. I need Jesus Christ, the one to whom all the judges point. That's the one I need. The warrior, sin and death conqueror. Jesus Christ, right? So knowing the hopeless condition of the human heart, God laments the state of his people and intervenes with grace and mercy. It's interesting that all along, all along, this is what the law points to, right? This is what the law points to. I want to show you that from Scripture. We don't have time to turn there. Just listen, listen for a moment, okay? Under the law. It was the purpose of the law. Paul says to be our tutor, to drive us to Christ, right? To drive us to our need for righteousness in him. Drive us to our need for a new heart. The law, even under the law, the Lord is directing us this way. Listen to this from Deuteronomy chapter 5. The second giving of the law, Deuteronomy. You've got the inheritance generation, right? Now about to go in to the land and possess the land that God had promised to give to their fathers. And the law is given again. There's a covenant renewal taking place. What does God say? Deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 29. Oh, that they, Israel, had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever. What was God desiring in his people a new heart? A heart in them that would fear God and always keep his commandments. That's what they needed. They didn't need external constraints. External constraints weren't going to work, quote unquote, right? They need a new heart. He reasons with them then in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 12. Listen to this in verse 12. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. To keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good. What do they need in order to be able to do that? They need a new heart. They need a new heart. How likely is it they're going to do that apart from a new heart? Entirely unlikely. It's not going to happen. Zero chance, right? They need a new heart. He says in verse 14, Indeed, heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them and he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is this day. Therefore, because of all this that the Lord has done for you, therefore God says, Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff neck no longer. What is God telling them to do? Go out and get yourself a new heart. Get yourself a new heart. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart. You need a new heart, a new nature. For the Lord your God is God of gods and the Lord of lords. The external restraint of physical circumcision wasn't going to do what was necessary to deliver the people from their sin. They needed a heart transformation, right? After their failures in the wilderness, Moses warns them in Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 2. Listen, he says, You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants into all this land. The great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs and those great wonders, yet Moses bewails their condition. He says, Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive nor has he given you eyes to see and ears to hear to this very day. What does Moses say they need? They need a new heart. They need eyes to see. They need ears to hear. They need a heart to perceive. They need to be transformed, right? So the Lord himself then, gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, promises them in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 5, Then the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your father has possessed and you shall possess it. He will prosper you, multiply you more than your fathers and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul so that you may live. Where they fail at every single turn, God steps in in mercy and does what they need, gives them a new heart, right? Circumcises their heart. He commands them. Verse 10, this is the new covenant, right? This is the new covenant being prophesied here. Verse 10, He commands them, turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Listen to what he says. For this commandment, which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It's not in heaven that you should say who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it. Does that sound familiar to you? Yeah, it sounds familiar to me too. That Paul picks up that very statement in Deuteronomy 30 and it's the very same word that Paul refers to in Romans chapter 10 verse 8 preaching the gospel. Paul shows us what the Lord means by what the Lord says in Deuteronomy 30 by quoting that passage in Romans chapter 10 verse 8 where Paul says, but what does the word say? What does the word say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is Paul says the word of faith which we preach. In other words, the message of the gospel was there all along intended, the scriptures intended to save them through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says meaning verse 9 those words mean you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved amen all along all along that's what these lessons in judges are to teach us that's what we're to see it all points us to the one who is sent not to the righteous but to sinners in need of repentance not to call the righteous not to repentance we need a new heart in him we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ external morality is hopeless we must be made righteous through faith in him all praise, honor, and glory to the one who knew no sin and yet was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him let's pray Father in heaven thank you Lord for making provision for our sin thank you Lord that you have done exactly what we need exactly what we could not have done ourselves you have done it all in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ sending him into the world to live a perfect sinless life to die a perfect sinless sacrifice that we might become the righteousness of God in him thank you Lord for saving us from our sin thank you Lord for continuously Lord even now pointing us away from our own strength pointing us away from seeking righteousness in our own efforts in our own works in pointing us to the one who is our righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ I pray Lord that there's anyone here that's not saved they would heed this testimony of ancient Israel they would see that they are hopeless apart from you they would turn from their sin to trust you alone for this great work of salvation Lord you would do that work for your own namesake thank you Lord for the church that you have delivered us to your people here pray Lord that you would continue to build her up protect her, provide for her mature her, sanctify her that we might be with all the saints adorned as a bride for her husband walking worthy of the calling with which we've been called worthy of you Lord and that we would with you the marriage supper of the Lamb dressed in the white linen of his righteousness for your glory we love you and thank you for this time together in Jesus' name, amen