 with the Word of God, which has been given to them by God for their lasting good, and yet they compromise. He has given them the Word to build them up, not to tear them down, to give them the inheritance, not to take it away from them, and yet they compromise with the Word of God. Joshua, their military leader, has led them in a successful conquest of Canaan, taking the land that God is giving them. In chapter 2 verse 6, Joshua then dismisses the people, each of the tribes, when each to his own inheritance to take possession of it. They are under a strict command to drive out the people of the land. No one is to remain, no one is to remain. Now God has warned them. He's warned them if you don't drive them out, if you make covenants with them, if you do not rid the land of their idolatry, then their idols shall become snares to you. Your sons will marry their daughters. Their gods will become an idolatrous trap, a destructive trap, an evil insidious snare. So God says, do not fear them, do not pity them. God says, I have committed them to judgment, now drive them out from before you. God gives them this command for their good, and yet the children of Israel compromise. The Israelites, again, as their history shows over and over again, the Israelites are faithless and unbelieving. The Israelites fail to do all that the Lord has commanded them. And so at Bokeem, the place of weeping, the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, delivers the news. He says to them, you have not obeyed my voice. Therefore, God says, I'll not drive them out from before you. I'm not going to drive them out. They're going to become snares to you. They shall be thorns in your side. Their idols shall become a trap. And so, what did they do at Bokeem? They lifted up their voices then and wept. Rightfully so, right? Wept under the judgment of God. Now, what follows, as we've seen, is a record of the awful consequences then of Israel's compromise. We've gotten to a section of the text that deals specifically with what those consequences are for the nation. They have compromised. What are the consequences of compromise? Right? The first generation, the inheritance generation, they fare well enough. They do start off well. They serve the Lord all the days of Joshua. The Bible says, all the days of the elders then who, the elders of Israel who outlive Joshua. However, however, we see the bitter fruit of compromise in the next generation. Bitter fruit of compromise in the generation that arises after this one. Chapter 2, verse 10. When all that generation which he had done for Israel, the torch of faith had not been passed from that inheritance generation to the next generation. Now, how does this apply? How does this apply? We, so we consider these texts, again, they're written for our admonition, us upon whom the ends of the ages have come. These are examples for us. You and I must acknowledge that our sin can have a tragic and catastrophic impact. Our compromise can have a devastating impact. Not only in our own life, in our own circumstances, but our sin, our compromise, our failure, our neglect can have a devastating influence in the lives of those around us. Particularly in the lives of our children, in the lives of the next generation. A husband's sin can destroy a marriage. Not simply affect himself, right? Your sin influences affects your marriage. A husband's sin can destroy a marriage. A foolish woman pulls down her own house with her own hands, right? Her foolishness affects the entire household. A sinful son causes shame on his parents and brings reproach. Sin in the church will cause the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of Christ. The sin and neglect of Israel leads to the apostasy of the nation. The people of God serving idols. It's almost unimaginable, isn't it? When you see the decline of the children of Israel in the pages of Scripture, it is astonishing, isn't it? That the people of God, the covenant people of God are found worshiping the bails. Unbelievable, almost. If we didn't recognize, if we didn't acknowledge the corruption that remains in our own heart, we'd have to say it was almost unbelievable. We know that this is possible. Complacency, complacency in Israel is the sin of the day, right? When commitment to the Lord yields to complacency, it leads to compromise. I want us to remember that statement, right? When commitment yields to complacency, it leads to compromise. Devastating compromise, calamitous compromise, right? When commitment yields to complacency, it leads to compromise. The sin of our day is the sin of complacency. Oftentimes, in good, solid, sound, doctrine, Bible preaching, Bible teaching churches, the sin of the church is complacency. And when commitment to the Lord, devotion to the Lord, zeal for the Lord, for the things of God, when that commitment, when that devotion, that zeal, gives way to complacency, what follows not long after is compromise, compromise into sin. And that can have a devastating effect on a church. It can have a devastating effect on your family. It can have a devastating effect on the next generation, right? So we need to take heed to the lessons here that we're learning from Israel. These are very important lessons. Judges chapter 2, verses 11 to 15 now, record the horrific consequences of Israel's faithlessness in the lives of their children. And it begins with an almost unimaginable statement in verse 11. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bales. One generation is all it took. That generation that was alive under Joshua served the Lord. They compromised. There was failure and neglect on their part. They served the Lord. They served the Lord until all of that generation, all of the elders of that generation had died. Then another generation arose after them that did evil in the sight of the Lord, verse 11, and served the bales. One generation and God's covenant people have given themselves to idolatry. Almost unbelievable, right? Almost. When man makes a God after his own image, you get an aberration like bail. When man invents a religion, you get something like bail worship, right? When men come up with gods and religion for themselves, this is what you get. Greek pantheon of gods, absolutely no different. The Roman cult, absolutely no different. Even the Koran, Islam's depiction of Allah, borrowed from sub-Christian, quasi-Christian sex in the 7th century, 8th century, is nothing like the one-true and living God of Israel. It's made up. It's a figment of man's imagination, and that's what you get, right? A capricious, arbitrary, unjust, unrighteous, so-called God. It's a God of this world, right? It's an idol. It's pagan. Whereas the God of the Bible is transcendent. You thought I was altogether like you. God says no, right? Not anything like you. God is holy. God is undefiled, altogether separate from sinners. God is righteous. God is just. God is infinitely, immeasurably merciful. God is love. God is infinitely loving. God is a bounding in loving kindness, a bounding in grace. That's the God we serve, amen. Nothing like the gods of this world, certainly, certainly nothing like Baal. Baal, on the other hand, was the head of a Canaanite fertility cult. The false religion, a pagan religion. To the pagan Canaanites who lived off the land, fertility was everything to them, extremely important, right? Fertility meant children, meant livestock, meant crops, it meant life, health, wealth, prosperity. It meant all those things without good fertility. There was famine, there was disease, there was death. The name Baal, or Baal, means ruler or Lord. And so Baal became the imagined ruler, or the imagined God of the storm, rain, and the God of fertility. And he ruled as Lord with his female consort, Ashtarith, or Anat, or Astart. His incestuous sister is who this was. When men come up with gods, this is what you get, right? When we come up with religion, when men, wicked men, come up with religion, this is what you get, right? So Baal is in consort with his incestuous sister. Now to the pagans, the Canaanites, their own fertility, and thus their livelihood depended on the sexual relationship between Baal and Ashtarith, which in turn, that relationship depended upon the sexual worship of Canaanite men with cult prostitutes at the temple of Baal. So if you think about this and what this entails, we don't need to go into the disgusting details. When Moses rebuked the Israelites for the incident at Baal Pior with Moabite women in Numbers 25, you get a more complete understanding of what was going on there when you understand Baal worship and the fertility cult, right? Israelite men were said to have joined themselves with Baal of Pior. You know what that means, okay? Committed sexual immorality with the women of Moab. They ate sacrifices to the dead, and they became an abomination to God. Now think with me for a moment about all the works that God had done for them, right? The sin of this second generation is they did not know the Lord, nor the works that he had done for Israel. Well, that generation, the emancipation generation in the wilderness, they had heard God's very voice thunder from the mountain. They were terrified of God. They saw the pillar of fire by day, the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, right? They saw God part the Red Sea. They saw the plagues poured out on Egypt. And yet, they had the brazen audacity in their sin to commit sin with Baal of Pior, Moabite women, and to join themselves with a pagan idol. It's amazing, isn't it? Absolutely astonishing. And if there wasn't some hint of that same corruption in God's heart, you'd have to say, that's unbelievable. But it's not. It's not. We need the Lord, don't we? We need the Lord to preserve us, to keep us from this kind of pagan wickedness. You can also see, can't you, in understanding Baal worship, why this idolatrous paganism became such a pernicious snare to the children of Israel, right? Sexual immorality was a snare to the Israelites. Very little different from our day, 3400 years later. What is the snare of our age? Sexual immorality, right? We see it everywhere. We live in a highly canonized, sexualized culture. Very little different today, some 3400 years later. And you saw how the Lord dealt with it in their day, right? You saw how the Lord dealt with it then. Rather than going down to the cult temple today, men would rather sell their soul for what they can see on the internet, or what they can do in the privacy of their own room, right? The cult not unlike Baal worship. One commentator said this. He said, the conditions that fostered Israel's faithlessness prove as lethal to God's people in any age. We can't think of ourselves as that distant, you see, from them. Oftentimes, if you're outside of Christ, you've got to identify yourself with a Canaanite. If you're outside of Christ, you're a Canaanite, you're a pagan, right? If you've turned from sin to put your trust, your faith in Christ, brother, sister, take lesson from the children of Israel here and don't compromise with sin. Don't compromise with sin, right? To those who would compromise or sympathize with the Canaanites of our age, consider the compromise and failure and the devastating consequences poured out on Israel. Their failure in these areas led to their destruction, led to their judgment, right? Term of me to Psalm 106. Psalm 106 is a bleak record of this plunge into idolatry and an account of what the Lord thought of and what the Lord did to the children of Israel in their sin. Look at Psalm 106 and look there beginning at verse 34 with me. Verse 34, the Lord begins with their failure in verse 34. Listen, they did not destroy the peoples. That's essentially it. The inheritance generation go into the land to possess their territory. They did not drive out the people of the land. They failed to do that. They compromised. They did not destroy the peoples. That was God's command to them, right? And they didn't do it. They did not destroy the peoples concerning whom the Lord had commanded them. They compromised with the clear word of God. They disobeyed, right? They disobeyed. You can imagine they may have thought to themselves that they were justified in what they were doing, right? It's good. It's good to have them under tribute paying taxes. We need people to work. It's good that they should work for us. Listen, we can raise those sheep. We can take care of that cattle. That'll be food to us. It's good that we keep that stuff around, right? Is there any harm? We've got them under tribute. We've, you know, got them under our control. It's almost like Saul, right? With the Amalekites and the king Agag. The Bible says, the Bible says of Saul that he was unwilling to destroy them as God had commanded him. That's the sin of the Israelites. They were simply unwilling. They're unwilling. They know what God has commanded. There is no excuse. They're simply, like Saul, unwilling. He kept back. Saul kept back what he thought was good. He kept back the best of the sheep, the best of the oxen. And it says, the Bible says there that he destroyed all that was despised and worthless. Now, despised and worthless in whose eyes? Well, in Saul's eyes, but not in God's eyes. God had said what is despised and what should be destroyed. Saul had different ideas. Since when do we know better than God what is good for us and what is not? We don't. We don't know what is good for us and what is not. We need the Lord's clear instruction for that. And we have to trust Him in every decision that you make. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, think about. The Lord knows what is for your good. And we need to stick uncompromisingly to that. Don't let your personal desires, your personal whims, your personal thoughts get in the way of what God says is for your good. Don't compromise like the Israelites did. Don't compromise. Don't compromise. It's often that following our own desires in those circumstances leads to terrible consequences. Saul, following his own desires, led to devastating consequences, terrible consequences. But look at the downward progression in Psalm 106, okay? After they did not destroy, then verse 35, look, they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works. That's the problem, right? They mingled then with the Gentiles and learned their works. They served their idols. It keeps getting worse, right? They mingled, then they learned, and now they served. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. Mercy, verse 37, they even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. Wow, in a matter of three verses, you go from here to as low as you can possibly imagine. When you get to the point of compromise where you're sacrificing your own sons and daughters to pagan... Now, let me ask you, we may think to ourselves, well, that's not happening in this day and age. There's no way that people would do that. They're not going to sacrifice their sons and daughters. Today, like that would be... They're going to go to prison for that. It's happened 60 million times in our country since Roe v. Wade. 60 million babies worldwide, that number is about 50 million per year. Sacrificed on the altar of convenience, right? Sacrificed on the altar of personal whim, personal desire. 50 million babies sacrificed to bail by this Canaanite country, right? Don't think that we're so different. We're not different, folks. We're not different. They shed, verse 38, shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons, the blood of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. Now, people sacrificed the blood of their sons and daughters and sacrificed them to the idols of convenience, the idols of pleasure, the idol of sex, same issue, right? If you cut out sexual immorality and you maintain the credibility of God's institution of marriage between one woman and one man for one lifetime, you think you're going to have a problem with abortion in this country. Most likely, you're going to be born to families with a mom and a dad. The reason that we have abortion in this country is because of an unbridled sexual immorality among the people, right? It's what causes the conditions that we're in. They were, verse 39, defiled by their own works. They played the harlot by their own deeds. Therefore, therefore, when the therefore is powerful and terrifying and needs to be considered, therefore, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people so that he abhorred his own inheritance. That word, abhorred incredibly strong. Incredibly strong. His own inheritance he abhorred. Verse 41, he gave them into the hands of the Gentiles and those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand. Many times he delivered them, but they rebelled in their counsel. Look at the patience and mercy of Almighty God. Many times he delivered them, but they rebelled in their counsel, were brought low for their iniquity. My how far this next generation has fallen. That's because they mingled with the things of this world around them. They learned their works. They learned their idols. Their idols became a snare to them such that they themselves became idolaters. It's not a stretch at all, is it, to conceive of the myriad of ways in which this would apply to us today. Not a stretch at all to consider that. Be careful to faithfully obey the Lord. Listen, you and I, if you're in Christ, if you've turned from your sin to put your faith and trust in Him, you've turned from that. You were a Canaanite idol worshiper. You were sacrificing to the gods of this age, right? The god of this age, having blinded your eyes to the truth. You were a Canaanite. But what did God do, right? God comes to you in mercy and in grace with an offer of the gospel. And He causes you to be born again by His Spirit, grants you forgiveness of sin, turns you from your sin, gives you faith in Jesus Christ alone and saves your soul. Praise God. Now, brother, sister, listen, serve Him with all your heart. Serve Him. Praise Him. Worship Him. Thank Him. Be grateful to Him. And serve Him with zeal. Don't compromise with those Canaanite idols that you have turned from. You turned from idols to serve the true and living God. Serve Him. Walk in His statutes and judgments. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. Your life is hidden with Christ in God, right? Put to death the members, your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Beware of these things. The wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Put off anger. Put off wrath. Malice, blasphemy, filthy language. Do not lie, the Bible says. Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. Let the Word of Christ dwell on you richly in all wisdom. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands love your wives. Children obey your parents. Employees obey your employers, fearing God. And all of that from one chapter in Colossians, right? The Bible is full of that good instruction for us to keep us from being canonized. Apply those good commands and fight against the temptation to compromise. Because there may not be anything inherently sinful about watching a movie. But do not compromise with the lusts of this world. If there is a point at which that movie is working against you putting to death your members which are on the earth, then don't watch it, right? Cut off inducements to sin. The stories are a dime a dozen of men who saw nothing sinful in drinking a beer. Who then, through compromise with sin, twisted their liberty into license and became drunkards, destroyed their family and made shipwreck of their faith. I'm not being legalistic here. That has happened and it's happened too many times to count. Don't compromise with sin. There is a point at which your liberty may turn into licentiousness. Don't make provision for the flesh. Starts off seemingly innocent, James presumptuously innocent. Be careful that it doesn't lead to compromise. James says this in chapter 1 verse 14. He says, Each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. My beloved brethren, James says, be swift to hear, slow to speak. It's not legalistic to guard your heart and mind, right? It's not legalistic to keep yourself from compromise with the idols of this world. Do you not think, do you not think that their idols may become your idols? Do you think that you're immune from that or that you have a force field to keep you from that? Do you not think that their idols may become a snare to you? Think about what those idols are. Not difficult to imagine. What are the idols of our world today? Do you not think that those idols may become your snare, your trap? They were likely idols to you before you turned to Christ, right? Cut off tempting and ensnaring Canaanite idols. What are the things as they also lusted? Judges chapter 2. Verse 11, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and they served the Baals. What was the net effect of their sin with the idols of this world? Verse 12, they forsook the God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them. They bowed down to them and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord. They followed other gods. They bowed down and worshipped those other gods and they provoked the Lord to anger. They forsook the Lord. Verse 13, and served Baal and the asterisks. The same refrain repeated over and over again as if the writer, Samuel here likely, is struck by how shocking this is. They served the Baals. They served those other gods. They bowed down to them. They followed other gods. They can't have one foot in this world and one foot in the kingdom. It's all or nothing. It's all or nothing and you end up serving the Baals and the asterisks of this world if you compromise. Notice in verse 12, they didn't forsake the Lord their God. They forsook the Lord God of their fathers. They knew about God, the one who delivered their fathers from out of bondage in Egypt. They just didn't regard him. This is deplorable, like despicable, disgusting in gratitude, isn't it? Ungrateful for all that God had done. They didn't regard what God had done. It's not that they didn't know about it. Of course they knew about it. They didn't regard what God had done. They were the beneficiaries, if you will, of God's covenant faithfulness to his people over generations. And this generation at the top of the hierarchy, so to speak, this generation couldn't have cared less. In gratitude is a very slippery slope to Baal worship. In gratitude. Very reason that God gave the command to destroy the Canaanites was so that this calamity would not happen. That's the reason that God gave the very difficult command. Verse 14, So the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So he delivered them into the hands of their enemies all around so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity. How would you like to have God Almighty against you for calamity? I think with me, if you're not under the wings, under the shelter of the wings of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you stand with God Almighty against you for calamity. That's the position that you're in right now. Already condemned because you've not believed in the Son of God. Wherever they went out, the Lord was against them for calamity as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them, they were greatly distressed. This is the very thing that God had promised to do to them. God is faithful to His Word, faithful to blessing but also very faithful to cursing. I'll obey His Word and so God said that He would appoint terror over them. Listen to this from Leviticus chapter 26 in verse 17. God says I will set my face against you and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when no one pursues you. My God is absolutely faithful to His Word, faithful to His promises of cursing as He is faithful to His promises of blessing. He delivered them into the hands of plunderers. He sold them into the hands of their enemies. The Lord Himself was against them for calamity. The inheritance generation may have failed the next generation but listen, God holds that next generation themselves morally responsible for their own sin against them. It was the sin of that next generation that incurred God's judgment. The righteous wrath of God, think about it with me is the outcome of God's jealousy. If God's own name was not important to Him, think, if God's own character, if His own holiness, if His own nature, His own character was not important to Him then why would God care what they did? He wouldn't. But His anger, His wrath, His judgment is an outcome of His jealousy. A jealousy for His own holy name, for His own holy nature. He is jealous with a holy jealousy. Now also think with me here this jealousy also the fruit of God's perfect and infinite love. Jealousy is a product of fruit of love. What would you say? What would it say about a husband? Right if a husband, faithful husband let's say, married to a wife who committed adultery. What if that husband didn't care about his wife's adultery? What would you say about that husband? If there was no jealousy, there was no righteous anger. If he didn't care about what she did, if the husband didn't care, what would you say about the husband? If he doesn't, love her. He doesn't love her. But if he loves her, you would expect some righteous indignation over her adultery, right? He must not love her. One commentator said that jealousy is love burst into its proper flame. Jealousy is a fruit of love. Perfect love is righteously jealous and perfect love is righteously intolerant. God communicates this clearly under the law in Exodus 20. God says, verse 2, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. Period, right? You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Why? Because I, your God, am a jealous God. This is the covenant keeping love of God that expresses itself in jealousy, right? And intolerance for any pagan usurpers. God visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep his commandments, keep my commandments, right? Jealousy, a holy jealousy, because God has a perfect and infinite love. God is love and so God responds to this idolatry with a righteous indignation that is a fruit of jealousy. Jesus said this, right? Think about the words of Jesus. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. That is a righteous jealousy. God is a jealous God, right? Who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. You see God's righteous jealousy for his people in Deuteronomy 32. Turn there with me quickly. Deuteronomy 32, just a few pages back. Look at Deuteronomy 32, beginning in verse 15. This is from the song of Moses. And it speaks about what Israel would do to provoke the Lord to jealousy. Look at Deuteronomy 32, beginning in verse 15. He said, this isn't a song that they would sing. It's not like the hits that are written today. This is an oldie but a goodie. Verse 15. But Jeshorin, it's interesting that that name is used. Jeshorin is a name that means the upright one. The upright one. Jeshorin here is used ironically for Israel who is proven over and over again to be not upright. But Jeshorin grew fat, means they were prosperous, and kicked. You grew fat. You grew thick. You are obese. It's a picture of their prosperity. Where all that prosperity come from? It came from God. God blessed them with it. And they grew fat and grew lazy, grew obese. Then he forsook God. Commitment that does not hold fast gives way to complacency which leads to compromise. Here they became complacent. They forsook God. Scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation. They went to compromise and into total depravity. Verse 16. To jealousy with foreign gods. With abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons not to God. To gods they did not know. To new gods new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the rock who begot you they're kicking against the rock. Do you see? It's a feudal vain thing to do. They're kicking against the rock verse 18 who begot you. You are unmindful of him. That's this next generation. You have forgotten the God who fathered you. And when the Lord saw it he spurned them because of the propagation of his sons and daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation children in whom is no faith. It's terrifying isn't it? I will see what their end will be. I'm going to give them over. Verse 21. They have provoked me to jealousy by what is not God. They have moved me to anger which is the fruit of that jealousy by their foolish idols but I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation. And I will move them to anger by a foolish nation for a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn to the lowest hell. It shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Wow. How does this apply to us? We're not the nation of Israel but if we do not and if the next generation does not follow the Lord in faith then what God has in store for them what God has in store for you you do not follow him in faith will be far more terrifying than the horrific consequences of idolatry that we see in the temporal experience of Israel far more terrifying. The author of Hebrews asks this question he says of how much worse punishment do you suppose in other words he wants you to use your imagination now right? Use your imagination for a moment think about those temporal punishments that were poured out on Israel famines where Israelite mothers are eating their own children famines disease plaguing rampaging armies that come through and raise to the ground all the buildings that stand and take away captive people killing thousands imagine use your imagination for a moment and think with me of how much worse punishment than that do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sacrificed a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace it will be far more tolerable for a Canaanite in that day than for you what's being said here for we know him who said vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord and again the Lord will judge his people it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God my oh my how absurd we are to continue compromising with our sin compromising with the idols of this world compromising compromising compromising it's an absurd testimony the corruption that remains on our own heart is it not that we continue to have difficulty we need the Lord we need the Lord's help we need the Lord's sanctification I need to be continuously conformed I need His Word I need His help I need His wisdom we need preservation we need the Lord one pastor said this we value certain comforts we value certain conveniences but God is absolutely committed not to our conveniences not to our comforts nearly as much as he is committed to having for himself a people for his own possession who will live in a holy and upright way before him that's what God's priority is not your comfort, not your convenience not your certain way of life but a people for his own possession who will live holy and upright before him we must be entirely committed to living for him when commitment when that commitment yields to complacency what follows is compromise Lord please fuel our devotion grow and mature inflame our faith give us strength so now what now what well amazingly astonishingly, beautifully graciously, judges chapter 2 verse 16 nevertheless I love that word we need to take comfort and joy in that particular word nevertheless the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them that's not where the statement ends and we're going to get into that as we work through the book of judges but praise the Lord for His nevertheless the amazing patience, grace and mercy of God the one who delivered them into the hands of plunders to despoil them is the one who saves them out of the hands of their plunders Dale Ralph Davis calls it the miracle of the Bible miracle of the Bible that God the God who rightly casts us down to the ground should without reasons found within us stoop to lift us up praise God the only reason for His love mercy and compassion and that is most magnificently displayed at the cross His own sovereignty, His own perfect love His own mercy, His own loving kindness and that goodness that forbearance of God should lead us to repentance all praise, honor and glory to the one who condescends to save sinners through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ let's pray Father in Heaven Lord thank you for the lessons that you have given us here thank you for these books in the Bible that account those that went before us who struggled and failed and sinned and thank you for the testimony that is there of your great covenant mercy loving kindness lead fast mercy we praise you thank you and take hope in that Lord we put our faith and trust in the person and work of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ knowing Lord that you are faithful you've made this glorious blessed provision for our sin we trust Him we trust you for all that you've done in Christ to save us help us Lord to turn from sin to contain separation from the idols of this world to cut off drown out the love that remains in our heart for the things of this world help us Lord to flee idolatry help us Lord to cling to Christ help us Lord to follow you with great zeal, devotion commitment and keep us Lord from complacency keep us Lord from compromise we depend on you because apart from you we can do nothing you Lord you are our hope and stay our anchor a sure and steady anchor for our soul we're grateful to you Lord for these wondrous promises in Jesus name, amen