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Amen All right tonight we conclude the book of judges and it's been a great book to study And to be quite honest with you as I read or as I read through the book of judges It answered to america which now is okay. It's very reflective of america of today And especially towards the end of this chapter. We see that ring true even today in our country But let me just go over what's taking place here in chapter 21 And before I do so, I just want to remind you what took place in chapter number 20 Which is the fact that there's a civil war taking place between the 11 tribes and the tribe of benjamin the tribe of benjamin are characterized As the sons of belial because of the fact that they desire to rape a man and in turn they actually abused a woman Killed her this folly was done in israel The children of israel all 12 tribes they banned together as one man and the civil war breaks out They overtake the children of benjamin the third time of their attempt and ultimately they destroyed them now Look at judges 20 and we'll read verse 43 It says thus they enclosed the benjamins roundabout and chased them and trolled them down with ease over against gibeah toward the sun rising And their fellow benjamin 18,000 men all these were men of valor And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of rimen and they gleaned of them in the highways 5,000 men And pursued hard after them unto get them and slew 2,000 men of them So that all which fell that day of benjamin were 20 and 5,000 men that drew the sword all these were men of valor But 600 men turned and fled into the wilderness until the rock of rimen and abode in the rock of rimen four months And the men of israel returned again upon the children of benjamin And smote them with the edge of the sword as well as the men of every city as the beast and of that Came to hand also they set on fire all the cities that came to now if you remember what they did in the strategy they had Was they went into the city of the benjamites and they drew them away. They acted like they were going to retreat Okay, these 11 tribes they basically began to retreat making them think the children of benjamin making them think oh they're retreating We the fight is ours the battle is ours. We're going to strike them down But what they basically did was put liars in wait behind the city So when they drew away the warriors from the city the liars in wait came out Burned the city destroyed the people they're in and then they were basically caught on both sides They're right in the middle of you know to the left and to the right of them of their enemies And that's how they were that's how they were destroyed and that's how they put wickedness away from The nation of israel is by destroying these sons of belial but it says in verse 47 that 600 men Turn and fled to the wilderness. So there's 600 men that still survive this now Were they sodomites? I don't know Maybe they were the part of the group that decided to back them up If you remember there was a group that was part of the tribe of benjamin that refused to turn them in To the rest of the children of israel and in fact decided to join them. Okay And it potentially could be that these six six hundred men were those people there So now in chapter 21, we find a really weird story now There's a lot of weird stories in the book of judges or not a lot of weird events that take place And chapter 21, which is the last chapter is no exception to that because if you read that it's like It doesn't have a happy ending No chapter In this book has a happy ending chapter 21 does not end in a happy way. Okay, because what's taking place here? Well The the tribe of benjamin is mostly destroyed But this patriotism comes out of the children of israel and basically they don't want one tribe to be lacking from israel So they're trying to create a solution as to how can they you know fix this? How can they give them their wives or what wives can they give them so they can procreate? And the children of benjamin could basically grow again. Now. Here's the thing who cares You know, god didn't care That there was all these people that they were destroyed God doesn't care that there were 600 god doesn't even care if those 600 did not have wives You know why because god did not care if wicked people were destroyed because they were the reason why the children of israel were forsaking god This patriotism that came out of the children of israel was not from a godly sword It wasn't based upon the bible because god didn't say hey, you need to go look for wives for these guys So there's one tribe is not lacking from the children of israel. I can care less and to prove that to you today We don't have any tribes, right? No one can say they're from the tribe Of you know, they're from the tribe of manasseh or they're from the tribe of benjamin or they're from the tribe of whatever And you say well, hold on a second, you know, but there's jews out there. They can't tell where they're from They don't know where they're from they can claim that But like when people ask me what race you are I tell them look just to kind of help them figure out also when my parents are from guatemala, but reality is I'm, probably more than just guatemala. I got 10 Armenian in me You know, my great grandfather was you know was from armenia I have a great great grandmother who's from germany Blonde-haired blue-eyed that's probably why my third son is white as he is At the end of the day, there's no pure race Because god does not care about that. Okay, so he doesn't care Over the fact that there might be one tribe lacking from the children of israel. That's their fault Because at the end of the day god can raise up these stones unto the children of abraham He can raise up whoever to be his people It doesn't matter if they're part of a race. It matters if they follow the lord. They love the lord. They know the lord That's what matters to god, but what matters to these patriots is that the tribe of benjamin still exists They want it to still exist to thrive to be a legitimate tribe. God doesn't care about those things But here's the thing look at verse number one. It says now the men of israel Had sworn in miss puss saying that there shall not any of us give his daughter unto benjamin to wife So they put themselves in a difficult situation Because they don't want one tribe to be lacking from israel But then they're also not willing to give of their daughters and their people to basically enjoy themselves to marry these people You know what? I mean in order for that tribe to survive so they they do this Excessive oath and this vow that no one should do that. And if they do their curse he says in verse number two and the people Came to the house of god and abode there till even before god and lifted up their voices in web sore And said oh lord god of israel. Why has this come to pass in israel that there should be today one tribe lacking in israel Well, it's because of your wickedness Because of your idolatry, why are you asking why? It's like pastors today they're like why is this wickedness come upon america why has america departed from god? Oh, it's because of you It's because you didn't preach hard enough against sin It's because you you tolerated sin you took a weak stance on areas that god did not want you to take a weak stance in You're part of the problem Okay, so don't ask why? Ask why me? Why didn't you do something about it when you could have done something about it? You know, oh, you know, I remember back in the day all the homos used to stay in the closet Yeah until you stopped preaching against the homos That's your fault Okay So it's kind of hypocritical here that they want they want to make sure That you know the tribe of benjamin, you know does not go extinct But they're not willing to give up their wives and they're kind of like why is this happening? It's like Pastors today who want to complain about the moral depravity of america But they don't want to actually want to preach hard to try to fix it They want to complain about gay marriages They want to complain about all the filthiness and the wickedness and all these things that are taking place But they're not being a part of the solution by actually preaching the word of god Lifting up their voice like a trumpet crying out loud and sparing not and showing america their transgression They just want to complain about the problem but not be a part of the solution Okay That's basically what the children of israel are doing here. It's like why has this happened because you allowed idolatry Don't you remember what dan did just a couple of chapters ago? Don't you remember what the rest of israel is doing how they're serving false gods. It's your guys's fault not gods Don't give god the credit for something. He didn't do okay because he you know in verse 15 He says the people repent of them for benjamin because that the lord had made a breach in the tribes of israel God didn't make that breach you guys made that breach Look at verse number four and it came to pass on the morrow That the people rose up early and built there an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings And the children of israel said who is there among all the tribes of israel that came not up with the congregation unto the lord For they had made a great oath concerning him That came not up to the lord to miss but saying he shall surely be put to death So in other words like whoever didn't Jump in the fight when we're supposed to fight. They're going to be put to death. Okay You know, whoever didn't participate now that we're not going to go to that extreme for the fall program. Okay Whoever didn't participate you guys are going to be put to death, but they did they're just like, you know Whoever wasn't a part of that battle You know the death penalty Verse six says and the children of israel repented them for benjamin their brother and said there's one tribe cut off from israel today How shall we do for wives for them that remain? Seeing we have sworn by the lord that we will not give them of our daughters to wives And they said what one is there of the tribes of israel that came not up to miss put to the lord And behold there came none to the camp from jay bishgilead to the assembly now jay bishgilead Pertains to the half tribe of manasseh So you have all these sub tribes that are found within the actual 12 tribes and these people did not participate They didn't go up to battle. They didn't go up to fight, you know They numbered the people they realized this tribe did not do that now I think this was an excessive punishment where they actually went and they destroyed the man But they also destroyed the women and the children the women who were married or had known man Were put to death along with the children. This is excessive The children should not be put to death for the fathers the bible says, right? They should not suffer for their fathers But he received that when a people strays away from the word of god They place a burden on the people that god has not placed They place a standard upon the people that's not biblically based You know, they start making the rules as to what is sin You know what god approves of whereas god said nothing of the sort, okay God didn't say to put the children to death. They didn't have any Involvement in that okay, you know the children can't go to fight Children can't go to war but yet they're putting them to death because it's just this excessive punishment that they're imposing upon the people Now, why are they doing this? Well So what they're doing is they're going into jay bishgilead They're putting the men to death they're putting the women to death They're putting the children to death and they're looking for all the virgins because that's who they want For to offer to the tribe of benjamin. This sounds bad But you know what? This is the state that israel's in at this moment. Okay, where they're making these weird decisions Look what it goes on to say here in verse number 10 it says in the congregation sent thither 12 000 men of the valiant And commanded them saying go and smite the inhabitants of jay bishgilead with the edge of the sword With the women and the children and this is the thing that ye shall do Ye shall utterly destroy every male and every woman that hath lain by man And they found among the inhabitants of jay bishgilead 400 young virgins that had not known. Uh, excuse me that had not Excuse me They had no no man By laying with any male and they brought them onto the camp of shiloh which is in the land of canan And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of benjamin that were in the rock women and to call peaceably unto them And benjamin came again at that time and they gave them wives which they had saved the life of the women of jay bishgilead And yet so they sufficed them not so basically they get these 400 wives and it's not enough why because there's 600 Of the tribe of benjamin that still survived. So guess what that still leaves 200 Right that still left so it didn't suffice that so they still have a problem here Look at verse 15 the people repented them for benjamin because that the lord had made a breach in the tribe of israel now verses 16 to 24 really strange Okay, and what it is it's when a nation tries to normalize And make acceptable You know their failures basically they're trying to normalize and they're trying to mask their failures Because what they decide to do Is they decide to go to shiloh and apparently there's a feast in shiloh where the women are dancing And they this is weird. I don't know. I'm just reading i'm just repeating what the story's saying. Okay These ladies are dancing and the men of israel encouraged These 200 men that were left to basically go and kidnap these women. Okay as they're dancing. They just run up You know and just snatch them and just take them. Okay, and we don't know if it was like a voluntary thing where That was just part of the culture You know, it was it was known that you know Once they took them or whatever that they would marry them or if this was pre-planned We don't know exactly but it says that they took them and You know when the fathers come they're like, hey, what's going on? Look at verse 22 says and it shall be when the father of their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain That we will say to them be favorable unto them for our sakes Because we reserve not to each man his wife and his in the war For you do not give unto them at this time that ye should be guilty So in other words, he's just this is a form of eloping Where they don't get permission from the fathers. They don't get permission from the parents They just go ahead and get married and let me just make a quick comment about that in our church. Okay I'm, not for elopement. Don't ask me if i'm for elopement or not. I'm not for that I believe Okay That if you're going to get married you should ask the permission of the father have the decency to ask permission of the parents You know why because that is the the authority You know be a man And go talk to the dad Why are you afraid to go go ask the dad to see if you could marry a young lady? You know if you're afraid then guess what? You're probably not ready to get married Because you can't be a fearful man if you can't face your father-in-law And look i'm not just speaking this by by my opinion I live this okay You know, I had to go to my father-in-law Obviously, he was not my father-in-law at that time my pastor and ask for my wife and get my face ripped off And you know get humbled by him and persist to keep going back and keep going back Because he permitted me to until he just gave in okay But you know, I believe in that I believe you should go to the parents because those that's the rightful authority. Don't elope You know don't just go and look if you've known pastors who have done that in the past I guarantee you asked them that now they said that you probably shouldn't do it that way It's not best You're going out from under authority You know when my daughter grows up, you know, and some guy comes and he's just trying to steal her heart You know that guy better come talk to me if he's looking to marry my daughter And i'm not saying like i'm going to put her in this bubble and you can't even like look at her Don't even dare even look at her and make friends with her. No i'm saying if you want to marry her You know if there's a purpose behind you talking to her and you want to marry her, you know, you better come talk to me first Because I am the god-given authority to protect my daughter from wicked people and I need to filter those people Now look if you guys if someone here eloped, you know, then Whatever, you know, it doesn't mean you're a wicked person But just understand this is that biblically speaking that girl has parents that you should go to to go talk to and ask for it Okay It shouldn't be that you just do your own thing Okay That's going over like a screen door in a submarine, but that's okay. And look let me just say this if If you do that in our church I'm, not going to like rip on you or anything like that. I wouldn't even go to you I wouldn't even say anything to you. Now. Let me say this if that girl's parents If they come talk to me prior to getting you got you know The couple getting married if they come talk to me and they say this they say hey, we don't approve of this Then this is what i'll say. Well, i'm not going to marry them then Because obviously if that person's if that girl's living under your roof is under your authority I don't want to circumvent that I don't want to bypass that I want to make sure that we're doing this the right way And you know what? I won't marry him in our church Now if they want to go get married and do their own thing This is not a baptist church where we just police people's private lives Whereas like what are you listening to where you're at home, you know, don't be listening to steve anton where you're at home and stuff There's people who are like that weird Okay for me. It's just like you do whatever you want. You're a grown man You're a grown woman you guys do whatever you want if you want my opinion if you want my advice i'll give it to you You know and i'll tell you what's what I think you should do or what the bible says about it obviously But at the end of the day i'm not going to tell people what to do Okay, what kind of tie should I wear? I don't care What girl should I go for the one you believe is the one you should go for I don't know don't ask me I got sermons to prepare I'm going to believes. Okay, you're like I got other stuff i'm doing But here's the thing the balance is this is that I believe in biblical authority And we never want to take the extreme to that but we want to be balanced in that and look If anybody comes i'm just going to give you video power i'm going to give it right back I don't want veto power over your life Well, I don't have a spiritual dad. I don't have a spiritual mom. Well, then you're going to have to grow up And learn to make decisions on your own Okay Come get advice, but don't give someone beetle power where they just make the decisions for you I don't believe in that and i've seen that in times past. It's not good. It's not a good template It's not a good way to live because at that point the person you're giving beetle power to Becomes the standard of what is right and what is wrong? Because they're going to tell you what they think is right and wrong You need to determine that on your own But i'll just tell you this is that in our church and this is what i'm preaching here Because this is what I believe. I don't believe in a little bit. I don't believe you should do that I don't believe you should just run off and go get married at a shotgun wedding over in las vegas or whatever drive through marriages You know where you get like a voucher for All you can eat lobster and shrimp or something I don't believe in that. Okay. I don't believe you should do that I think you should always go to the parents and ask them and oh the parents don't like me Then you better you better try to win them You better you better win the mom win the dad or do whatever you can to win them over because guess what? Once you get married, that's family That's your mama that's your daddy unless you guys live like states away then hey god bless you that's good Okay Is that personal testimony back there? Please guys praising the lord back there. Where's your where's your in-laws? I'm just kidding Alaska Good man, all right What i'm what i'm saying is this is that? You know, well, I don't get along with them and they don't like me then you need to make yourself likable to them If you want to marry the daughter Right make yourself likable and if you don't feel it's worth it, then maybe you shouldn't get married to that person Maybe you should move on Okay, be willing to pay the price, you know And if you feel that the the dad's standards are too high for you then don't complain about it just move on Okay, you know the standards that were placed upon me to marry my wife in my opinion were too high But you know what? I wanted her to be my wife. So I paid the price Paid the price Okay And so what i'm saying is this is that hey young men in our church have the stones Have the guts to go face your in-laws your future in-laws should I say You know, oh they don't they don't speak my language then you figure it out sign language something You know, you need to make sure because here's the thing you always reap what you sow You know why I decided to to to just tolerate all those standards that I was placed on her Because I knew one day i'd probably have a daughter too You know and I want her to obey me I don't want her to run off and I don't believe she ever will I don't want her to elope. I don't want I don't want I don't want her to do those things But I want to make sure that we do it, right Okay So that's the standard that I have for my family and I don't impose that standard upon you But if you ask me i'm going to tell you this is what I believe And if you're eloping, you know, don't tell me you're eloping If you want to get married because here's the thing automatically if you tell me you're getting married with someone And you ask me, you know, can you marry us? I'm gonna say yes. I'm like, yeah for sure. That's great But i'm not gonna ask questions because I got other things to think about I'm, not gonna interrogate you I'm, not gonna be like well, what's your background? You know, what what's up with her dad? What's up with her mom and all these things You need to figure that out. Okay But look if they call me And they say I do not approve of this message And I and I say who are you and they say i'm the father i'll be like I'm for you then I won't do it But here's the thing if the father tells me well, you gotta forbid them to just ever get married. I'm not gonna do that either Because that's your job dad You know you need i'm the authority in the church and I kind of dictate what takes place in the church But at home you need to take care of that Okay, so i'm not gonna be like, okay, don't worry dad I'm gonna go ahead and tell that person that you know They need to go do this and not get married at all. And this is you know, veto No, that's that's between you and your children and you need to make sure look That's what look this that's like doing that's like the old IFP with sunday school class where the parents just leave their children To some other authority to teach them what they should be teaching them Oh, could you correct my child? No, you correct your child You do it Can you teach my child the bible no you do it You teach the child the bible obviously they'll get it from the pastor in the main service But you know what the vast majority of the teaching should come from the parent You know, this is one reason I don't even agree with like bus ministry I understand the great works have been done through bus ministry. I was a bus captain I was part of the bus ministry. I saw a lot of kids saved. I saw many children baptized I discipled a lot of those teenagers and children and you know what it was good for that time But the philosophy as a whole is is is flawed Because here's the thing what they're doing is they're going to houses And picking up the children and basically separating the children from the parents and you know what the parents see it as a free babysitting service That's what it is You know, they're just like well come take care of our children on sundays You basically give the parents a day off on sundays what you're doing That's what it is Now obviously they're learning the bible. Hopefully maybe Hopefully they're learning something and they're learning good disciplines of going to church But here's the right way to do it. The right way to do it would be to win the parents The right way to do is to win mom and dad Disciple mom and dad and guess what if you get mom and dad you get all seven of the mexican kids Think about that You know, I remember someone taught me that a long time ago. They're like we don't believe in bus ministry We just rather just win the parents and the parents bring the kids with them And then we don't have to worry about you know Little uh kid little john. Sorry john. I just looked at you. I said, you know little john or a little hike You know getting into trouble and you have to correct them and then they you know Not good What i'm saying is this is that let's go back to the old ways of where parents raise their children Now where the sunday school teacher did now where the bus captain did, you know And I understand there's bus captains out there and there's christians out there who are well-meaning They have a good heart. They love people but you know what it's never right to do wrong to do right What they need to do is win the parents And the parents need to decide for their children. Okay The parents need to be take full responsibility to do that I don't even know how I got off on that What i'm saying is this is authority is important Okay Don't circumvent the authority go to the parents is what i'm saying You know if you have a problem go to the parents, okay, if you want to marry a girl go to the parents, all right now If a girl wants to marry the guy the girl doesn't go to the parents And look I don't even recommend for the necessary the girl to pursue the guy You know that meme it's like Okay You know, I don't I don't recommend that at all And i'm giving you my opinion here. Okay. I'm not giving you bible doctrine. I know okay, but guess what? This is my pulpit. This is my church. I can give you my opinion You're stuck listening to me for the next couple minutes. So just enjoy I don't agree. I don't think you should I think the man should be pursuing the woman You know by obviously getting permission, but he should be the aggressor Okay, he should be the one Who's seeking out a wife trying to marry a wife find a wife so on and so forth And so and I know that's not popular in 2019 Where girls are taught to be these feminists who just you know, do their own thing and they go get their boy and all these things You know, that's not biblical That's not biblical And look we shouldn't teach our daughters to be that way either Look you teach your daughters to just be the right type of woman and she's going to attract the right kind of guy Yeah That's just the way it works teach her to walk with the lord to love. Hey, hey Wives teach your daughters to love and respect their dad And serve their dad, right? Well, what's the purpose of that because of the fact that once she gets married that will transfer over to you Yeah smart think about that Look however, she treats her parents the way she treats her dad is the same way. She's going to treat you That's how it is Okay, and maybe ladies out there, you know For you if that's you then now, you know like oh, okay Well, that means I got to make sure that I renew my mind and change my way of thinking If you know, that's me. Okay, because look If you have the propensity to do that that can change so you're not just subject to having that type of character flaw or whatever We can change. Amen. But what i'm saying is this is that let's do it the right way, okay You know If people in our church get married they meet like one week and then they're getting married the second week I'm not necessarily against it, but i'm not for it either Like I said, that's on you if that's what you want to do Now if you were to come to me and ask me hey, what's your advice on this? I always tell people this Well, you're either going to pay for it in the beginning or you're going to pay for it At the end, you know at the end you're going to pay for it somehow Because if you get married at the very beginning, hey you get married you got your wife But you know what now you got to deal with The problems that often come when two young christians who don't know much about the bible don't know much about life Don't know much about each other There's going to be problems that arise from that or You can pay for it in the very beginning by waiting a little bit getting to know each other and then getting married afterwards You know at an appropriate time, what's that appropriate time? You know, it's up to you Okay but you're going to pay for it somehow so And don't don't look if you got married like three days after you guys met You know, hey, it looks like you're happily married now. So guess what you're the exception to the rule And i'm not going to i'm not saying these people are wicked or those people are bad for doing that I'm just saying generally speaking. Okay This is probably the right way to do it Don't go to shiloh and go jack yourself a wife and then just like Marry her. Okay, go kidnap a wife and then just get married right away That's not the best way to do it because that's when every man did that which is right in their own eyes There's nothing wrong with getting to know someone over a period of time and even extending that period of time to six years six years whoa I'm, uh, i'm having flashbacks of my courtship You know getting to know each other for six months or whatever And then planning at that time and by the way if guys if you're gonna get married it'd be good if you have a job You know, it'd be good if you had a job it'd be good if you can keep a job It'd be good if you weren't lazy It'd be good if you had character And guess what? Let me just take it a step further. It'd be good if you're just in church Right Like you have the character to actually come to church spiritual disciplines Because leading a wife doesn't just require financial stability. It requires spiritual stability as well You got to lead your wife spiritually. How are you going to get your wife to come to church? If you don't even come to church, buddy Hello How are you going to get your wife to read the bible if you can't even get your carcass out of bed on sunday morning? To read it yourself or to even come to church That's a good place to start Well, I just don't want to burn. Okay, get some character But you know what if you're gonna get married get some character first at least Learn to lead yourself because guess what marriage is leading another human being Of the opposite gender A woman who is not like you Right, so you have to have the maturity the patience long suffering The spiritual aptitude to be able to lead that person And inspire that person to follow you and inspire that person to serve the lord with you Not making them come to church. I don't make my wife come to church. I don't make my wife read her bible I don't make my wife serve the lord. You know, I try to do I try to inspire my wife to do that Because I want my wife to have a good time serving the lord with me. I don't want it to be a drudgery. Okay? So what i'm saying is this is that we need to make sure we follow order and don't be like these people are just like They're just oh, you know, I just gotta go under the radar Behind my the authorities back and just get married real quick because if not, it's not gonna happen You know, you're setting a really bad example for yourself in the future in the long run. You're gonna have problems later on. Okay So anyways, that was a rabbit we chased but I thought i'd mention that because You know, I gotta talk about that Okay, there's a lot of young people in our church young men and I hope every young man if you desire to gets married You find yourself a godly wife and you know as our church grows You'll have more options. Okay, but you know do it, right Do it the right way Okay, and learn to take advice and you know ask for advice, obviously But you just got to make sure that you do it the right way. Okay All right. What verse are we in here? So they try to normalize and master failure by doing this these women are dancing in shiloh And they basically come they're like go ahead take the one you want, you know And they go in they take their wives and they elope with them and they get married And then then the children of israel try to appease the fathers of these people who are doing this very strange story Uh, and by the way, this is what happens when you make a bad decision and you just keep making more bad decisions after that It just gets worse That's why when you sin or you make a bad decision Repent and just get it right So you don't have to do weird stuff afterwards You know, you don't have to keep lying You don't have to keep sinning to try to mask the problem. Just fix it Just fix the problem right then and there. Okay. This is what I would have done like well you guys should have thought twice You should have thought about it before you joined the benjamins the benjamites In the fight so you guys go look for why why are these guys playing the courtship police? To go look for wives. They're playing love connection Love connection Those of you who are young don't know What i'm talking about how many know what love connection is? Okay Raise your hand paul pause all Okay, if you know love that's from like the dinosaur ears, okay You know, they're trying to play love connection here By helping the tribe of benjamin not go extinct But in doing so they make these weird decisions and then the the story ends there now Verse 25 is the culmination and sums up The condition of israel perfectly. Why is it that these weird stories are in the book of judges? Why is it that these strange things are happening here? Why did they do this weird, you know? Eloping process where they're kidnapping their future wives. Why are they doing these things verse 25 in those days? There is no king in israel and every man did that which is right in their own eyes So this was right for them They didn't see a problem with this This was like for them. It's just like this is a great idea. Whoever came up with this was great This is awesome Thousands of years later. We're like a bunch of idiots But to them in their own eyes, they're thinking hey, this is great. We're saving benjamin You know, we're helping them get wives We're appeasing the fathers and everyone lives happily ever after no, actually you're a byword and a proverb now Of what we should not do now What does this? Tell us what is this? What can we learn from this last verse and what can we learn from the book of judges? Aside from the fact that obviously every man did that which is right in their own eyes. This is called moral relativism Moral relativism is didn't just you know sprout up 50 years ago 100 years ago or whatever. It's always been around Just remember this folks. Nothing is new under the sun You know, sometimes when people will say oh I wish we used to live in the 50s and america was just so great America was wicked back then too Look i'm reading a book right now on tombstone. Okay tombstone was is south of arizona It's a little city. Have you ever heard of tombstone white herb and doc holliday? Okay, and i'm reading the stories and this this is taking place during the 1800s. It's basically called the last gunfight of the the wild west And i'm reading this book and you would think that this is just traditional It's when you know america was just you know They had this umph and they had vision and they were you know They were traveling west because they wanted to have so much ambition and all these things but they were wicked This is during a time when whorehouses were just rampant You know people say oh, I wish we lived back in the days when you know marriage was valued in the 1800s It wasn't they had concubines then That was rampant in the 1800s in the wild west where they would literally have these live-in girlfriends and they would call them their Wives, but they would never legitimately get married You know, they would have prostitute houses all over Okay So what i'm saying is this there's nothing new under the sun Don't think that just because it was 50 years ago and you know, it's black and white That everything was just hunky-dory You know, they were closer to god back then look folks homos have always been around since genesis 19 Oh, you know america was so great all these homos no, no homos have always been around because sinners have always been around reprobates have been around Okay, the devils have have always been around So these sins You know have always been around you have intervals of periods of time in history Or maybe a nation turns to god and to become a righteous people but eventually that interval ends And wickedness begins to reign. That's the interval that we're in right now Where it's becoming wicked. What is the only difference? The only difference is technology That's the difference Back in the 1800s You know, they didn't have the internet. They didn't have youtube. They didn't have all these they didn't have sin You know at their fingertips Necessarily the internet has allowed these things to spread basically. So is there a difference between Now in the 1800s, the only difference is this is that sin can easily be accessed faster than back then That's all it is, but it's the same sense And what i'm saying is this is that You know moral relativism is not a new thing We see the book of judges every man did that which is right of their own eyes They're basically saying well it may be wrong for you, but it's right for me That's what moral relativism is you say it's wrong for you. I say it's right This is when people say well you think that's abortion is murder You know For us. I don't see it as murder. Then you're basically an idiot Oh, you shouldn't call people that you're killing the baby inside the womb call it what you will it's called murder And the bible says thou shalt not kill moral relativism is garbage Because the reality is at the end of the day there is absolute truth There is only one god One bible one way of salvation. Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life No, man cometh unto the father but by me and gandhi. No and buddha. No just by me That's an absolute truth. You know, it doesn't look more relativism in the days of jesus pilot. What is truth? Isn't that what he said what is truth mr. Philosopher himself You're looking at him What is truth he's right in front of you He is the epitome. He's the source of truth Could even see it even though he was right there in front of his eyes, but that's moral relativism He's basically saying what's true to you is not true to me That's what he's saying You know isaiah go with me if you went to the book of isaiah chapter number five Isaiah chapter number five this offends people and people don't like this but the reality is this no matter what you say Murder still murder lying is still lying stealing is still stealing Wickedness is still wickedness and look the bible tells us on isaiah 5 20 Woe unto them that call evil good And good evil And they put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight what's that called? He's talking to people who believe in moral relativism Because they're putting evil for good good for evil They're putting bitter for sweet sweet for bitter and they're wise in their own eyes They're saying this is right to me and god's saying but it's evil to me and you know whose opinion matters most gods Well, god doesn't exist and you know, that's an ancient book and all this stuff If you don't believe that murder is wrong It doesn't make it right even though you believe that Your opinion does not change reality Look if you don't believe murder is wrong, then you wouldn't mind if anybody just came up and capped you But you know what you would have a problem with that now, would you? You would have a problem with someone killing you You know why because it's wrong And look oh, but you know, what about societies, you know, there's there's Before even christianity came there's all kinds of religions that taught murder was wrong. It didn't originate with god Well, you know why because the law of god is written in their hearts So even though they didn't have the written law of god they had the law of god that was written in their hearts They know it's wrong And look if someone says that those things are not wrong where god's what god says is wrong number one either they're lying Because they know it to be wrong or number two They're so desensitized And so fooled in this illusion by this world that they've actually accepted the evil is good Like roman empire the greece the grecian empire where sodomy and pedophilia was just normalized and tolerated You hear that all the time You know anytime pedophiles and sodomites try to legalize or they want to push for the legalization of sodomy or even pedophilia They'll always say back in the days of the romans ancient roman empire and the grecian empire. This was normal to them Yeah, because there's no new new thing under the sun But it doesn't matter if millions of people yay billions of people think it's right if god says it's wrong. It's wrong bottom line, okay go with me if you would to Go to roman chapter 2 we're going to look at that And look we're not a church that's going to use Apologetics to try to prove to people that it's right We're not going to debate atheists and agnostics And critics of the bible to try to win them over to teach them the moral relative, you know be Moral relativism is wrong. No, we're just going to tell them what the bible says And if they reject it we reject them Look what the bible says in roman chapter number two Verse number 11 says for there is no respect to persons with god for as many as have sinned without law Shall also perish without law And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law For not the hearers of the law are just before god But the doers of the law shall be justified for when the gentiles which have not the law Do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves Which show the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing One another in the day when god shall judge the secrets of men by jesus christ according to my gospel. So look These people who claim that abortion is right. It's funny. It's hypocritical and it's funny that these same people are alive Yeah I don't understand feminists. They they're lacking neurons or something They're like a choice and you know abortions, you know, we we should have the choice to do abortions Well, that's funny because your mom didn't choose that And aren't you a living testimony Of the people you're actually fighting against You know, you're fighting against people who want to you know, say that Who believe that the children are still they're considered people It's a life and that we should not abort babies and yet you're a testament of that No one aborted you You know, you're a hypocrite So what i'm saying is this is at the end of the day There is a standard And the standard is god. Who are we we are the standard bearers We're the ones that just bring the standard of the word of god and would say this is what god says No, you know, you need to get with the times. You need to modernize yourself. Nope Nope Sticking with the bible and if god says it's wrong it's wrong. No matter what the culture says no matter what television says No matter what music says we're just going to stick with what the bible says because what happens when we decide to take That left turn into that way of thinking every man does that which is right in their own eyes In their own eyes and then you get this stuff You get all these things that take place in the book of judges a society that just becomes completely depraved Foolish and and and just sinful and wicked and people die because of it. Okay So hope you enjoyed the book of judges. I did you know and it's basically a textbook to show us what we shouldn't do Okay And how we need to make sure That we don't tolerate these things that we make sure that we uphold the law of the lord that we continue to make him Our god right as a nation and we make him our god our savior We recognize that the word of god is pure and it endures to all generations And in spite of what all the other tribes are doing we need to make sure we stick in with the word of god. Amen Inspire heads and have a word of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word And thank you for the book of judges And lord even for the mistakes that are found there in because it teaches us even today Thousands of years later. It's still relative to us today because of the fact that there is no new new thing under the sun And sin is still sin wickedness is still wickedness righteousness is still righteous And uh lord, I pray god that you'd help us Uh to continue to live for you and bless our church lord Help us to continue to reach people for christ and in jesus name we pray. Amen