Who shall go up for us

The speaker mentions that their church had air conditioning units that needed to be replaced, so they are asking for donations for the building fund. They then transition to discussing the book of Judges in the Bible, specifically focusing on the transition from Joshua to Judges. They highlight the commitment of Joshua and the people to serve God, but now that Joshua and the elders have passed away, the people are asking who will lead them. The speaker draws parallels between the situation in the book of Judges and the current state of America, suggesting that America has turned away from God and may face judgment in the future. They then discuss how God had already delivered the land to the Israelites and emphasizes the role of God in their victories. one judges chapter one while you're turning there I didn't mention earlier about that we did have this last week to air conditioning units that went out our mind you today is building on the Bible says if you need something and so it will take about twelve to fifteen thousand dollars to replace the units and so today's building fund offering so if you've got a little extra that God helped you save yesterday on taxes and everything for all the money that you spend in the sales and everything you got a little extra this morning that our building fund offering will go in this box up here and you can help out with that judges chapter one judges chapter one we finished out of Joshua last week I thought I was going to kind of wrap things up and kind of finish that and we finished last week on really a high note Joshua had made the statement in chapter twenty four and verse fifteen if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the flood are the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord and so we see a man of commitment a man that has stood before the people and said man I am choosing God and all of the people that was there responded in verse sixteen and said God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods for the Lord our God he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and which did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way wherein we went and among all the people through whom we passed and the Lord drove out from before us all the people even the Amorites which dwelt in the land therefore will we also serve the Lord for he is our God jump down to verse thirty one and it said Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that overly of Joshua and which had known all the works of the Lord that he had done before Israel while you know that that's where don't you wish that there was a period and that was the end of it I mean this is we could ask for anything better the people are serving God everything is going great everything is on schedule they are possessing their possessions the blessings that God has for them but then it says if you read kind of between the lines it said they did it all of the days of Joshua and all of the days of the elders there's a slight change that is coming Joshua is fixing to die the elders and those that was around during these great days of revival and blessings are beginning to die off also and we do that process we come to the book of Judges and when we look at chronologically the life of Israel you go from Joshua to Judges they're actually two books that are actually in order and where they're supposed to be in the Bible chronologically and what we find in chapter Judges chapter 1 in verse 1 it says now after the death of Joshua it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them now when I was reading this and looking at this I thought man knowing everything that we know about Israel knowing that where we started way back at the beginning of summer in Deuteronomy where God said I want to be your God here oh Israel there is one God I am in and you are to love me with all of your heart with all of your soul with all of your might with all of your strength and all of a sudden Joshua has passed away the elders have passed away and now they are asking who shall go up for us who shall go up for us who was already going up for them right God had already said it was God that had driven everybody out it was God that had done all of the works it was God as I mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 6 that told them that I will give you the land that you just go up and possess it but keep my commandments and my statutes that your days may be prolonged here oh Israel and observe to do it that it may be well with thee and that thou may increase mightily as the Lord God of the fathers had promised thee in the land flowing with milk and honey and so as we look at this and we see this thing he says thou shalt love the Lord with all of your heart with all of your soul with all of your might you skip down to verse 10 and he tells them there he says and it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which you swear unto the fathers to Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not houses full of all good things which thou fillest not and wells digged which thou diggest not vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not when thou shalt have eaten and be full then beware beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name you shall not go after other gods of the gods of the people which are round about you for the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off of the face of the earth you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Mount Massa you shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded thee and thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers to cast out all thine enemies from before thee as the Lord had spoken you know the book of Judges is really not a happy book it's not one of them books that matter of fact I've been wanting all summer to get to Judges and the more that I study it and the more that I look at it I think we're going to kind of hit the highlight of Judges and we're going to roll out because it's not a happy book it's not a great time in the life of Israel and we need to understand that God had this glorious heritage for Israel God had this plan that he had worked out from the beginning of time and through the power of God they had broke through they had gone in they had conquered they had died and they received the promised land the land that flowed with milk and honey and God had given them liberty and freedom I think we today here in Kentucky Missionary Baptist Church in Saline County in the state of Arkansas in the nation of the United States of America I think we can find a lot of similarities between Israel and America and where we have been and where we are right now there's no disputing and nobody can even dispute the fact that America was founded not as a religious nation but as a Christian nation even though today they are trying to say well we've always been religious and you can have your religion no if you go back and you read you don't have to look very hard or very long to understand that we're not just a religious nation but we was founded on Christian principles and ideas there's no question whatsoever that God himself had a hand in the formation of the United States of America but when we turn to judges we find the people of Israel not appreciating the miracle not appreciating the heritage or the blessings of God and just like Israel of old I believe that America has denied the Lord who formed us who created us and we have defiled the land that he gave us and we have defied the law that he established upon us and as a result America is no more are quickly losing its Christian identity we no longer one nation under God and we like Israel have turned away from God who made us great and if we have gone after God's of our own design we're a nation that has experienced the great manifold blessings of God in the past we are a nation that will face God's hand of judgment in the future and I want to start and tell you this morning that I am not and listen to me very carefully I am not saying Israel and America are the same they're not Israel was God's chosen people but I also see there is a lot of similarities between Israel and America between God's blessings because as we are a Christian nation God promises in the New Testament that what the same way he blessed and cared for Israel the same way he will bless and care for us if we obey him and we follow him so I want you to see notice first of all in Judges chapter 1 as we start here this morning we come to verse 2 and they're asking the question who shall go up for us who will fight these Canaanites right we've all heard of the Canaanites and so who's going to fight these for us and the Lord said Judah shall go Judah shall go notice what's happening though if we study and you remember back in Joshua who even though Joshua was their earthly leader who did all of the leading all of the fight and all of the decisions that needed to be made it was God God had always gone before them if you remember what we go back to the crossing of the Jordan River where what was the first thing that went into the Jordan River the Ark of the Covenant which represented the presence of God when they got marched around the first city of Jericho what did they have right there before the people began to mark they had the Ark of the Covenant the presence of God God was already proceeding Israel God was already going in and working and doing things and it said in verse 2 Judah shall go up behold I have delivered the land into his hand okay if you want somebody to look up to if you want a leader to follow then Judah you are the tribe you are the elder you are the one that's going to guide them but no it's not Judah giving you the victory I have already delivered you it's already been done and then God performed for Israel skip to verse 4 it says and Judah went up and the Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand and they slew of them and 10,000 men wow God preceded them and then God performed God destroyed Canaanites and the Perizzites when you come back to America and you think for just a minute and our founding as a Christian nation I want you to hear the words of a man by the name of Patrick Henry if any of you heard of Patrick Henry he was one of the founders of this nation a matter of fact on March the 23rd 1775 he was standing before an assembly in Virginia and he lit the flames of the American Revolution with this statement he said it cannot be emphasized too much or repeated too strongly that America was founded not by religionists but by Christians not upon religions but upon the gospel of Jesus Christ now there's a lot of people and a lot of historians today that don't want to talk about that part of history they don't want to bring this up they don't want to mention this as a matter of fact you go just a little bit deeper to our very first president George Washington George Washington the founder of our the father of America the very first president the first one that was inaugurated to lead our nation after he was inaugurated you know what George Washington did? George Washington he took a Bible he read from that Bible he took his oath of office with his hand on that Bible and then he leaned down and he kissed the pages of God's Word and after he kissed the pages of God's Word do you know what his very first official act as president was? He led all of Congress and those that was there took the entire Senate the entire House of Representatives and they went to church and there in that church house they met and they stayed there for a two hour worship service worshiping and praising God and then George Washington said this It would be peculiar and improper to omit in the first official act my fervent supplications to the Almighty Being who rules over the universe who presides in the councils of nations whose providential aids can supply every human defect that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States and then he said no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States every step by which they advance to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency Now there's a lot of words and older words that is there but let me bring it down to you in plain Arkansas language He said God did it God established America Now I want you to listen to me very very carefully because I want to repeat this because I don't want you going out and saying Brother Donnie is comparing Israel and America and making them one I am not making them one they are two distinct countries and two distinct nations but there are a lot of similarities there's a lot of things that line up and look alike and America with our relationship with God with the blessings in the hand of God and America was founded on God's word and down through the years God has blessed America we sing it God has blessed America and our nation has enjoyed the protection of God our nation has enjoyed the power of God our nation has enjoyed the promises of God the provisions of God and many from the outside and the inside of America would love nothing more than to rip these facts completely out of the fabric of our nation's history they want to get rid of it they want to dispose of it America was a nation that was marked by glorious blessings and this stands as a stark warning to the promise of God that if we obey Him He will bless us and if we disobey Him the Bible says He will curse us He will curse us the principle is taught all through the New Testament in believers and so there was this time of deliverance but notice what happened to Israel not only were they delivered not only did God deliver everything for them did God provide for them did God bless them did God do everything that He promised that He would do but there also came a time of decline skip over chapter 1 they go in and we'll come back and hit a couple of verses there but I want you to go over to chapter 2 this morning because our text is really coming from these first four verses of chapter 2 this morning and it said, An angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bacchum and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your fathers and I said, I will never break my covenant with you and you shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land you shall throw down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this wherefore I also said I will not drive them out from before you but they shall be as thorns in your sides and their gods shall be a snare unto you and it came to pass and it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept now here's the question that I had as I was reading these verses what in the world would cause a nation or cause an individual even to turn their back on a God that has been blessing them that has been protecting them that has been providing for them and has given them and provided all of this power and all of these promises we've been talking a lot on Wednesday night about apostasy about the desertion of Christian people that turn their back on God Timothy, Paul told him in the last days there's going to be perilous times people are going to walk away from God people are going to be lovers of their self and we are seeing this being played out even in America today look at what he says in verse 7 of chapter 2 it says, and the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did in Israel we have a generation in verse 7 that is serving God they are seeing the hand of God they have seen the movement of God but then you jump down to verse 10 and also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done for Israel the sad fact of this decline is seen in Judges chapter 17 in verse 6 when it says, in those days there was no king in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes unfortunately, as we look at the book of Judges we find that there was no standard of morality everybody did whatever crazy thought or whatever crazy desire popped into their mind the term that we have today is called relative morality relative morality and the truth or falsely relative morality means the truth or falsicity of moral judgments or the justification is not absolute or universal but is relative to the traditions convictions and so forth have you ever heard this statement made what is right for you may not be right for me that is relative morality you don't know my situation my circumstance and so basically what relative morality says what may be wrong in one country or one community might not necessarily be wrong in another country or another community that you have to look at the community and what's going on in order to find out whether or not it is true or false as morality we found ourselves in a very scary situation today because what we're doing is this thinking is not just in our world but it's gone into our educational systems and this thinking is not only been in our educational system but I want to warn you this morning that this thinking is also starting to filter into our churches and I want you to understand we have a guidebook and a standard for morality that is absolute, that is true God tells us there's ten commandments that do not there's no gray areas and thou shalt not covet thou shalt not lie thou shalt not kill it's black or white it's there or it's not it's absolute and it doesn't matter what the situation or the circumstance is we've got people today even in our churches that are justifying abortions and different things that are murder because of the situation or whatever's happening there there is no justification for sin and we need to understand that what's happening here in the book of Judges Christians are arguing and we're dividing and churches are splitting over things that I never would have imagined when I started the ministry over 30 years ago that we would be fighting and discussing these things because the Bible is so plain and so simple on what is right and what is wrong but yet we find ourselves today doing the very thing Isaiah made this statement in Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 20 he said, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil that put darkness for light and light for darkness they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter how did Israel get there? how did they get there? that's what we need to understand that's what we need to do because listen, we are falling into the same thing and if you don't learn from history and you don't study history what's going to happen? you are apt to repeat history and go through the book of Judges God lays out for them right here in chapter 1 and chapter 2 exactly what caused them to get where God has now withdrawn His hand and is no longer working for His people there's a prescription here and you find out that guess what? over and over and over they repeat the same exact thing and if you look very very carefully you'll find that it is the same exact thing that we have done here in the United States of America what we have done here in the state of Arkansas in Saline County in our community and this is how it starts it first off starts with apprehension apprehension go back to chapter 1 and verse 19 and you're reading through this you kind of just jump over it it says, and the Lord was with Judah and He drove out the inhabitants of the mountain but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron you see, apprehension is fear but they looked and they man, God has said, what did God tell them? I will drive out everybody Judah's going to lead this deal and Judah's doing good and God is driving out people until they look over here and these Canaanites have chariots oh man, I don't know if we can really trust God here we've read it several times throughout this summer as we have been studying in Joshua what were they to do? they were to drive out the Canaanites they were to push them out of the land or completely destroy them now, when you think about that that seems cruel, doesn't it? why would God order go in and push and kill all of these innocent people well, I don't have time this morning but if you want to Google and do some research go and look up the Canaanites and what they did they were an evil people they were a wicked people and God says, I'm going to give you their land and you're going to drive them out or you are going to destroy them and all of a sudden Judah looks up and says wait a minute, they have chariots we don't have chariots, right? which is kind of ironic because they forgot who else had chariots? Egypt? do you remember what happened to Egypt and their chariots? every one of them including the one that Pharaoh was on was buried in the bottom of the Red Sea because God destroyed all of them because He was holding back the waters on either side until they all got in there and when they all got in that Red Sea He removed His hands and what happened? He said the waters came rushing in and destroyed the entire army they're still to this day just a couple of months ago I got an article I subscribed to a lot of archaeological things and stuff they are still finding chariots and wheels in the Red Sea just like God said they forgot about that now they get into the Promised Land all these years later and what happens? they've got chariots, we don't and so man, we can't do anything about it which leads us to the question because of this fear what do you do when you're faced with Canaanites that you can't deal with? when you're faced with these evil people and these evil ideas and these evil beings but they seem to be stronger than what you are we usually adjust ourselves to the situation and move on right? you go and you read here what did they do? they just kind of ignored them they'll go away or God will take care of this and we'll just move on to the next town right? you think about America this morning some examples that we have watched over the last several years the decriminalizing of alcohol and drugs and even legalizing them you know because why? drugs and alcohol are going to always be here right? people are always going to drink they're always going to take drugs and so you know what we need to do? we need to decriminalize it right? we shouldn't have to pay such a high price for something that everyone is going to do anyway and then what happens after it gets decriminalized? then it gets legalized right? now you can go and buy what have we watched with marijuana? we saw prohibition we saw alcohol over the last 80 to 100 years and guess what? we're watching the same thing with marijuana now to the point that well people are going to smoke it anyway so we might as well legalize it you know why they want to legalize it? so that they can make money and profits off of it not because it's good for us not because it's morally right or it's morally wrong because they can make money and a profit another example we see sexual orientation appearance that all of a sudden began to adopt and raise unwanted children you know what our government and what our secretary of health said several years ago? that these people that are confused about their sexual orientation they're going to take these kids that these good parents and parents don't want that are in bad homes and different situations they're going to adopt them and we're going to allow because it's not going to change their sexual orientation and where are we today? we've got a bunch of kids that are confused that don't even know if they're a male or a female where did it start? because we started allowing these chariots and these Canaanites to scare us look at verse 28 of chapter 1 and it came to pass when Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites to tribute and did not utterly drive them out neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them neither did Zebulon drive out the inhabitants of Kitron nor the inhabitants of Nahalo but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became look at this tributaries you know what a tributary is? a tributary is saying if we can't drive them out then let's accommodate them let's put them to work for us which totally blows my mind the thinking that is here, right? if you can't destroy them how in the world are you going to have power to make them slaves, right? and make them work for you and make them be a profit for you and so they became these forced laborers unfortunately do you know when I see a lot of correctional officers today I go in and out of prison we're starting back our tabby classes this Thursday night and I'll be back in there you know what I find in our prison systems? they, the guards and the officers that are there don't usually change the criminals it's the criminals that end up changing the guards when I walk in the very first thing that I do is I see a whole list of pictures of the people that have been fired for becoming corrupt and doing things that they're not supposed to do think for just a minute about our elections even here in Arkansas over the last several years with alcohol with gambling with marijuana if we can't stop it, right? people are going to do it how many of you know the gambling stuff? what do we hear? well man, they're going to drive across the state lines and do it, right? they're going to go right over to the next casino they're going to do this if we can't stop it then what do we finally say? let's profit from it let's profit so that becomes the pitch let's turn it into our forced labor it will work and provide for us do you know why the lottery if you've been watching and I don't know what it's worth right now I just caught a glimpse of it a couple of weeks ago and I think for the first time in history it reached billions of dollars for the lottery and everybody was saying I'm going to go get me a ticket and I'm going to go try that do you understand why the lottery gets to where it pays out millions and billions of dollars? you know what makes the lottery work? the government has convinced a bunch of people to take a chance you could be that winner you could be the one that wins that money so what do they do? well it's only two bucks so I'll take a chance, right? and so everybody goes and buys their ticket but what happens? nobody wins so what does it do? the money goes up so we get more people that want to take a chance until finally what happens? that pot grows and that pot grows and that pot grows until a whole bunch of people have lost money but one individual profits one individual profits the Bible teaches us that what? that we should lose so that the majority should profit not that we should give and take a chance so that one can profit go back and read the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit moved upon them they sold what they had their surplus and they gave to everybody else but this lottery deal is this idea that what we can do is then we will get all of this in and then you know out of that there's one winner and all of these losers but the government always comes out a winner and they get all of this extra surplus they get a percentage of every dollar they've convinced you to go and buy but note what it says in verse 32 of chapter 1 but the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites the inhabitants of the land for they did not drive them out apprehension turned to accommodation we're afraid of what's happening we're afraid of them they've got chariots so what are we going to do let's accommodate them let's put them to work let's do something for us but then notice what happens accommodation turns to acceptance acceptance now the Canaanites that they were supposed to drive out of the land that they were supposed to completely destroy now is living amongst them they're marrying them they're living with them they're working with them life is going on and it's great for the Canaanites James put it this way and I love James because of his simplicity he just calls it like it is he says you adulterers and adulteresses what is adultery? cheating on someone that you made a commitment to, isn't it? that's what adultery is and guess what? we have made a commitment to God I meant to bring it out but last week we signed that we choose Jesus those of you, if you wasn't here last week and you want to sign it it's out here in this foyer right here sign it but we chose Jesus but you know what? there's been times this week we chose other things besides Jesus, right? we cheated on God we went after other gods and other things and we have a church full of people that think that most sin is not really that bad you know how many churches today are taking and now accepting alcohol accepting drug use accepting sexual immorality accepting homosexuals as pastors as workers within the church you see, we have allowed our apprehension to bring about accommodation and our accommodation is quickly leading to acceptance this is the fastest, slowest way to destroy the blessings of God it doesn't just happen quickly I preached Wednesday night about the apostasy nobody is going to say no, I reject you God I'm going to live how I want to live no, what happens is it happens gradually well, because we see it but man, if I say something about it then I'm going to be carried to court if I stand up for God then they're going to challenge me and I'm going to be sued for it, right? and so what do we do? we can't get rid of them we can't fight them how can we work with them? and so what do we do? we start building things and doing things to accommodate and then the next thing all of a sudden we wake up and we find that they're dwelling and living amongst us when we decline and step away from God there has to be discipline there has to be discipline now, go back to our text in verse 2 and you shall make no league camaraderie alliances with the inhabitants of this land you shall throw down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice why have you done this? wherefore I also said I will not drive them out from before you but they shall be what? as thorns in your sides and their God shall be a snare unto you God says I am not going to bless you because of this I am no longer going to protect you because of this the New Testament Paul writing to the church at Galatia says be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap culturally America used to be a nation that had influence right? America used to be a nation that people looked to for foreign policy how do we deal with wicked people? how do we deal with wicked nations? how do we do all of this? and remember from the very beginning when Joshua went into Jericho when they sent spies into Jericho what did they meet when they what happened and what did they hear when they met with Rahab the harlot? we fear your God we fear your God we ain't messing with you because of the God we've heard what they did to the Egyptians we've heard how He has provided for you and America used to have that America used to nobody would do anything in the entire world without first checking and asking America what's your opinion on this? is this going to upset you? is this going to make you mad? we used to be a nation of influence and fear being feared but now our military and our foreign policy is laughed at and joked around the world in 2011 remember what happened our nation was attacked on their own soul for the very first time since that time we've watched ourselves die economically slowly allowing the government to own us and other nations to own us go look up that debt chart that is spinning out of control China is laughing because at any minute they've said over and over we can own you culturally we're in a huge battle with ideas and morals and X-rated material and forbidden lifestyles to be peddled in our local library divorce children born to single parents abortion, crime the list could go on and on it's skyrocketing in our nation go watch the news and unfortunately they used to show the weather first and then you could duck out of the news now they spend 15 minutes talking about all the evil and the wicked stuff that's going on and make you endure it it's the weather our government is spending millions of dollars to educate our children and sexual protection while also spending the same money to fight abstinence and marriage before sex as the safest measure of all think for a minute God's removed His hand in protection from America think about all of the floods the fires the earthquakes, the tornadoes the hurricanes now listen to me very very carefully I'm not saying God is doing this God may not be sending these hurricanes these fires, these tornadoes all of this because if you say that then you've got to answer this question what about the innocent people and the good people that are there that God is destroying in a month so God may not be doing it but here's what I can promise you God can remove His hand of protection and the weather and the elements of this world can destroy us because He is not there to protect us and hold it back I don't believe God is necessarily doing or causing this but I do believe His hand of protection has been removed and quickly notice in verse 4 and 5 we're out of time and it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept lifted up their voice and wept and they called the name of the place Bacchum and they sacrificed there unto the Lord folks we have a choice we have a choice and I am getting tired the older I get the more bold and the more cranky I'm getting but I am getting tired of Christians saying this is just the way it has to be God said there's going to be this falling away there's going to be this apostasy that's going to happen and preacher you just might as well get used to it that's what it's going to be we're living in the last days the Bible never says that it doesn't say everybody is going to fall away everybody is going to turn from Him everybody is going to be wicked it doesn't say that we have a choice and notice what happens here last week we took that step we chose Jesus we have the first choice to repent when the people heard this that God's hand is no longer going to be with them they became sorrowful they cried and then what did they do? they repented they began to sacrifice what was the repentance of sin? to sacrifice how do we prove that we are following God and we're sorry for living our life? we obey Him, right? Romans chapter 12 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you what? what God tells us to do and we're going to stay away from what God tells us to stay away from 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 9 says now I rejoice not that you were made sorry we've got a lot of people that are sorry a lot of people that weep right? a lot of people because they got caught or they know that they're into this addiction or they know that they're in this problem but Paul said I rejoice but that you sorrowed to repentance it wasn't just I'm sorry they didn't just hear the words of the angel and weep and it stopped right there no in the very next verse they started making things right they started sacrificing they started atoning for their sins for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us and nothing for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death for behold this selfsame thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea, what clearing of yourselves yea, what indignation yea, what fear yea, what behemoth desire yea, what feel yea, what revenge in all things you have approved yourselves be clear in this matter not only did the church at Corinth was sorry but they repented you remember a few years ago when we went through 1 Corinthians all of their problems then they had a lot of them they were church wrapped up in sin and Paul wrote the first letter to Corinthians to them and now he's writing back a second letter and he's saying you know what I'm glad they're here you didn't get mad, you didn't take it out on people you didn't seek revenge you didn't do all of these things but you repented you repented but the other choice that we have we can either repent or we can retreat we can retreat, look at what he says there in chapter 2 verse 10 and also all the generation were gathered unto their fathers and there arose another generation after them which knew not the Lord nor yet the works which he had done in Israel and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers which brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were round about them and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to anger and they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtoreth and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies whithersoever they went out the hand of the Lord was against them for evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord had sworn unto them they were greatly distressed it's pretty sad isn't it pretty sad to have the hand of the Lord removed to have his protection taken away from you and I want to tell you this morning this message is a heavy, heavy message wasn't an easy one for me to prepare it's not an easy one to preach but I want you to understand I as your pastor do not want the hand of God and his protection and his promises and his blessings removed from my life your life my children's life or my grandchildren's life I don't want that I don't want that I don't want the hand of the Lord to be hot against me it's one thing just to remove his protection it's something else when God says now I'm delivering you now I'm not just not protecting you but I'm helping them I'm with the enemy we have a choice but we have a hope we have a hope and I want to end on this happy note in verse 16 nevertheless nevertheless nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them you see if you look at America today don't compare America with other countries that's what we do as Christians we want to compare ourselves to other people and when we compare ourselves to other people we look pretty good don't we America's doing pretty good isn't she but let's compare ourselves to Jesus Christ let's compare ourselves to the kingdom of God and his word America's in bad shape our churches are in bad shape and we're in bad shape but let me put this into this and you go through the rest of judges and you look generation after generation would come and go come and go but no matter whether or not if they repented God took them in and forgave them if they didn't God delivered them into the hands of the enemy but even when he was delivering them into the hands of the enemy and I want you to get this nevertheless God always raised up judges to deliver them you might be that judge for this generation I might be this judge I am a judge I am warning you of the results that will happen if we don't repent and turn back to God you may need to be that judge in your life you may need to be that one in your family that stands up and tells the truth and holds the truth that says it doesn't matter what everybody else is doing I choose Jesus let me ask you three questions and then we'll sing verse of invitation three questions that you need to ask yourselves will you will you hear the warning will you hear the warning question two will you respond to the warning see Israel heard a lot the problem is that they didn't respond so it's not just only to hear faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God there has to be a response to what you have heard and then with that response there has to be obedience and when we obey everyone that you find in the word of God that came before Jesus said the same thing as the prophet Isaiah the same thing as the apostle Paul oh what a worm am I I am the cheapest of all sinners God all we have is God and if we put God out and set God aside we have absolutely nothing else not you Jesus and hopefully you will too I don't want this next generation it's getting worse because we have had Christians in churches that have set back because we don't want to rock the boat we don't want to end up in a lawsuit we don't want to offend we don't want to say listen the word of God says I don't say anything the word of God says and things that we are doing today we would have never even thought about 20 years ago stuff that you are watching on TV and listening to you would have never allowed in your house 20 years ago but slowly and surely what have we done we've allowed it into our homes and it's just become a part of the family well that's just the way it is right we've accepted it and we've accommodated it and God says we need to repent we need to get rid of these gods and if you go through judges you will find out not only did they repent but they destroyed the idols they destroyed the gods that they were worshipping they destroyed the things in their life that was taking them away from the God Almighty that's the fruit of repentance as we sing what hymn page 149