Compromise is identified as the root cause of Israel's spiritual and national decline, as detailed in the book of Judges. The sermon explains how the Israelites' failure to drive out the Canaanite nations, as commanded by God, led to a cycle of toleration, admiration, and eventual conformity to their wicked practices. This compromise resulted in Israel's impoverishment and oppression by their enemies, illustrating how spiritual enemies like worry, pride, and deceit rob believers of their inheritance in Christ. The message concludes by emphasizing that genuine salvation and restoration come only after acknowledging one's sin and crying out to God for help, mirroring Israel's eventual plea and Gideon's calling.
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one of Judges chapter six. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel, and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had shown that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the east, even they came up against them. And they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Giza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, ox, nor ass.
For they came up with their cattle and their tents. And they came as grasshoppers for multitude, for both they and their camels were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. We've been taking up the book of Judges in the last Sunday night or two, and we expect to continue in this book, especially in connection with Gideon, likely for four or five maybe longer Sunday nights. Last Sunday night we were giving the background, or more or less the setting, for this remarkable character, Gideon.
We presented more or less the frame, and now we'll try to put the picture in the frame. In fact, we may spend just a little more time on the frame because I think the dark background of his days brings out the brightness of this amazing character. One of the ladies came up to me after the meeting last Sunday night after we mentioned the seven outstanding nations in the land. God says that our seven great and mighty nations, we gave you the names of those nations, and if I remember they are these, there were the Canaanites, The Amorites, the Hittites, and the Hibites, the Gergesites, and the Jebusites, and the Peresites. They all have a very significant meaning. But then this sister asked me about the Gibyanites.
Where do they come in? They're not among the seven nations, the large nations, but here you find the Gibyanites, or the Midianites rather. And you have the Philistines. You have other nations. Well, I'm going to show you, if you'll just turn to one passage of Scripture, that is in Deuteronomy chapter seven. The seven great nations that we were speaking on last Sunday night, and then I'll explain what I have in mind as the result of that sister's question to me. Chapter seven of Deuteronomy and verse one. When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and have cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Gergishites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Penasites, and the Hibbites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou.
They are the seven nations we were speaking of. The point is that those seven great nations, more or less, were divided up into smaller nations. For instance, we think of the United States. It's one nation. yet you have Alaska, you have also many other states, fifty-one states, there is now fifty-two, and you could speak of the Texans, you could speak of the folks in Alaska, kind of separating them from this one great nation. Now these seven great nations also were divided into a number of smaller nationalities. For instance, you have, if you were to go through this book of Judges, those of Mesopotamia, the Moabites, and also the Midianites, And you have the Philistines, you have the Ammonites, and many others.
So don't be confused when you read more than these seven great nations to think there's any contradiction because there isn't. But here are the major enemies of Israel. These seven great and mighty nations were the major enemies of the children of Israel. These others were more or less minor in character, yet just as destructive. So you have Israel's major enemies and Israel's minor enemies, and they were all dangerous. I want to say this, Christian, there are major sins, and there may be minor sins, but they're all sins. And you'll find oftentimes that the minor sins will act under cover of the major ones, and they'll do their destructive work.
And so I believe there you have the explanation for what I was trying to say. These various other nations referred to in the book of Judges besides the seven great outstanding nations. In reference to this book of Judges, you'll find that compromise was really the cause for the deterioration of the nation of Israel, ending up with the last verse of this book that every man did that which was right in his own eye. And the word compromise or concession is the real word to more or less epitomize or summarize the contents of this remarkable book. For the sake of any strangers, we might say that here you have Joshua.
He had crossed over the land, over Jordan, into the land of Canaan. God had promised this great land to his people, the people of Israel. Moses wanted to go over into the land, but God says, No, Moses, you can't go. You sinned against me at the waters of Merida, and you cannot go over into the land at this time. You get up to Mount Nebo, and there... I'll take care of you, and God buried Moses. And no one to this day knows where Moses was buried. But fifteen hundred years later, you find Moses and he's in the land. Who is he in the land with? If you turn to the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, you find Moses in the land, and he's in the land with Jesus Christ.
But on the Mount of Transfiguration you see Moses and Elias and Zeus. So here is Moses. Fifteen hundred years later he got his request granted to him. He's in the land in company with Jesus Christ, not in company with a rebellious sinful nation, the children of Israel, which he would have had the company of, had he had his request many, many years before. So it's always best to leave things with God. But here is Joshua. He brings the children of Israel across Jordan into the land. God says, I want you to dispossess these people. Drive out these nations. Don't tolerate them. Eradicate them. Root and branch.
Don't spare them. They're a wicked. They're an ungodly people. They're like a cancer working in the anatomy of the human race. Disposions. Well, did they do it? No, they didn't. They compromised. And the Bible says, and seven times or six times in Judges, you read these words, they drede them not out. They drede them not out. They did not carry out God's precious word. Now, that's a compromise. How does compromise begin? I think you might say compromise begins in this way. First toleration, then admiration, and then conformity. God says, now drive these people up.
If you don't, they'll become tricks in your eyes and thorns in your flesh the rest of your life. Get rid of these enemies once and for all. And the spiritual significance is this. And... The land of Canaan was Israel's inheritance. God has given a wonderful inheritance to Christians today. Not a literal inheritance. Not a material inheritance. Not those things that we can handle down here. He's given us a wonderful spiritual inheritance. Oh, the vastness of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. The untold treasure in Jesus Christ. God has given you a book, sixty-six small books, all packed into one.
It's an involved personality. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ and all the spiritual blessings you have in him. Friend, it will take us all eternity to enjoy the vast inheritance we have in Christ. You know, it's a wonder we don't enjoy these things more. You can't exhaust what you have in the Son of God as a Christian, but I was saved the age of nineteen. I started studying my Bible. I thought, well, I'm going to go through that Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And I did. I went through it three times one year. And I thought I knew a little bit about the Bible. But you know, the longer I live and the more I read this blessed book, the more I find out how little I really do know.
And how much more the vast expanse of stretching out in front of me that I haven't even touched. All the wonderful inheritance we have in Jesus Christ. And here it is, but... And yet we as Christians are not enjoying all that we could enjoy in the Lord Jesus. We're not carrying out God's word. Now, God says there are going to be enemies that are going to deprive you of your inheritance. They're going to rob you. As long as you permit them to abide with you, they rob you of your inheritance. That's why God said to Israel, fly about those nations. They don't belong in this land at all. This land is yours. But they tolerated them. They praised them, not... First of all, you find that they dwell with Israel.
Then later on, Israel dwell with them. Lord, you're writing out the meaning of these names, these nations. First of all, the Canaanites speak of worry. Mind when they tell you worry is a real enemy. How many Christians are robbed of their enjoyment of the things of God through worry? They're not enjoying those spiritual things. those spiritual riches, those heavenly delights that they have in Jesus Christ, enabling them to sing, enabling them to sing day and night, and be happy all the way, as Paul says, rejoicing in the Lord always. Why is it that Christians are not more happy today?
Why do Christians are constantly living defeated lives instead of living victorious lives, these enemies? That first one worried. And the next one we spoke of was the Amorites, the talkers. the talker. You and I have talked ourselves out of fellowship with God more than once. We've allowed that little thing known as the tongue to get us into trouble and out of touch with God and what an enemy that tongue, that talkery. We haven't controlled it as God would have us to do. But you know, referring now to an unsaved person, quite often you run across some real talkers. That's the reason they're not saved.
I could mention the name. I won't do it. But this body lived right across, still does, right across from one of the families of Christians that come here in the chapel. This man and his wife came quite regular last fall and requested a visit. I went to see it. You know, the whole time, factually, that I was there, he did the coffee. And I almost had to be rude once or twice to break in. I thought I'm not wasted in my visit. But he just talked, and how he enjoyed the sermon, and how he enjoyed the chapel, just what we've been looking for, just what I wanted, just what I need. I know I'm not a Christian. I know I should be.
There are many things in my life that need to be adjusted. And all he talked, and all he talked. He was a real talker, and he still talked. He hasn't been back since that visit. I don't know whether I said some things kind of blunt or not, but nevertheless, he's one of those people that just talked. Do you know the person who really gets saved is a person who stops talking and starts trusting? The Bible says that law was given that every mouth may be stopped and all the world becomes guilty before God. And when a sinner stops talking, trying to defend himself, trying to tell you how good he is, and what a loss the world would be without him, and how empty heaven will be if he's not there, but oh how they can talk, and build up their own importance.
Talk about their good life and their good deeds and so on. Then they'll never get saved ever. When a sinner gets his mouth shut and he takes his stand before God and says, I'm a guilty sinner, Job says, I will hold my hand upon my mouth. I've said too much. I'm just a foolish sinner and nothing at all. That's when God will save them. All the time they're trying to argue and defend themselves. They're not ready to salvage. But when their mouth gets shut, they're ready and right for God to save. The only word they can say is the Lord God of guilt. God is a merciful leader for all of us.
Then you have fear. You mentioned that the Hittite means fear. Hittite means deceit. Gurdazite means wordliness. Gurdazite means pride. Gurdazite means set for salvation. Here are the enemies that we assist in at the fight with. All these things are trying to rob us of our inheritance, of our enjoyment of the things of God. How many times we spared these tenors? Now we don't fight today like they did then, killing these people off with literal swords, no. Our battles, our conflicts, our spiritual. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.
Spiritual wickedness is in high places. In other words, you can't handle worry. You can't handle fear. It's not something tangible and material. Things of that kind are seek, pride. Oh, these are spiritual, unseen, invisible, yet powerful enemies. They attack us in the night. They attack us in the dark. If we can handle them with our hands, our literal hands, we'd be glad to do it. But you've got to handle them by faith. And it's only through the Lord Jesus Christ you can handle these enemies and defeat them. and thus enjoy your inheritance in Christ Jesus. But it all begins with toleration. Compromise. You know, that's quite a word for the day.
Compromise. Concession. Tolerating. God says, now drive these people out. Well, we'll just tolerate them. They need to live. They might as well live among us. But God says, drive them out. Just closer than kill them. Well, I'll hate to do that. Just let them stay here. There are only a few families. They're human beings. Let them stay here. All right. They did. They stayed there. And, you know, of course, they tolerated those people. They were their enemies. But after a while, they began multiplying and growing. Until, first thing you know, they became of equal strength with their possessions.
And Israel now begins to admire them. Well, they're all right. First, we just tolerated them. Now we're admiring them. They're not so bad, as good as we are. Then they became conformed unto them. They took their sons to be their sons-in-law, and their daughters were given to the other folks that are not to admit stuff married, and they became conformed until finally you didn't know anything to do. There are the three steps, toleration, admiration, and conformity. It all begins with just a little compromise. You know, I've known people who've got TVs, and as I said this morning, TVs have their advantage, but they have their great business advantage.
You need to discipline yourself. But I've known some Christians, and they told me, well, I just don't like that program. My child likes it, and I'm always just tolerated. You know, you just can't bother with everything, and the Christian parent just tolerated it. But you know, after a while, you'll find mother, she's trying to cook the dinner, but she's running into the Lord. The first thing you know, she comes in and parks down in front of the TV too. She's caught along with a kid. She's against an admirer. After a while, she's in there from the beginning of the program to the end. She's conformed herself to it. It all started with that little bit of toleration.
The same thing with a book, the same thing with an individual. Sometimes you tolerate an individual, and then after a while you get to like the individual, and you admire them, and then you become conformed. What I'm getting at is this. That thing's going on in the world today, and that's the tactic of the devil, to get God's people to tolerate certain things that God contends until the first thing you know you're admiring that, and then you become conformed to it under the shed. And these very people that the children of Israel should have driven out, they tolerated them, Then they admired them. Then they became conformed under them. And Israel became weaker. And they, their enemies, became stronger until now.
If Israel dwelling in the land, and these nations were the stronger. A little while before it was these nations were dwelling. And Israel was the stronger, indeed. But now the tide has turned. And Israel says, we can't drive them out. They're too strong for us. Why didn't you handle them when you could handle them when they were weak and you were strong? You tolerated them. You admire them. And now they're too strong. You can't do anything about it. Knock on them there. Now you're conforming. Let me say something. Catholicism and a lot of other isms are working that very same way. False cults. I remember the time when a Catholic was tolerated.
just tolerated. Then the tide began turning and this, and this began admiring me. The time soon coming when we're going to be conformed with it. And Rome is getting stronger, and Protestantism is getting weaker. And we're going to be in bondage too. That's the secret of the ecumenical concept. That's what Rome has given in to us. things they've held for hundreds of years, certain governments. They've held them for centuries, and they said that God gave them to them in the beginning, tradition, not from the Bible. Oh, God gave them to them.
And the Church of Rome has put Protestants to death. They've mocked many of them, because Protestants wouldn't knuckle under to these doctrines of theirs, some of them. You know, today Rome's giving some of those things up to the ecumenical council. They're saying, well, we'll profit. They're compromising with Christians. Hoping some of them will give up more than they're giving up. Why are they giving up those things that God gave them to us hundreds of years ago? Things they put people to death for if people didn't adhere to them. Now they're giving them up. Well, we'll just stop that.
If that's offensive, we'll drop it. We'll make a concession. We'll compromise. But in the end, Protestantism is going to make the big compromise. According to this blessed book, the book of Revelation, the Scarlet Woman of Revelation, is going to dominate. It all began with compromise. Adoration! Adoration! Then conformity! Here is the children of Israel have been displaced now by their enemy. You know when a Christian gets out of fellowship with the Lord, he gets displaced. Paul says, I keep under my body, I keep it black and blue, lest if I preach, when I preach to others, I myself should be disciplined or set on the shelf and someone else take my place.
You know, if you're a Sunday school teacher or doing a work for the Lord, wonderful if you stay in fellowship with God, But if you get out of fellowship with God and your life becomes inconsistent, you get replaced. That's the point. Displaced. Displaced. All because of the failure of overcoming these enemies. Then finally despair. For seven years we find Israel under the whip of these Midianites. You know, God brought them to it. Notice the last of that verse six. And Israel was greatly impoverished because the Midianites and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
That's what God was waiting for. He was waiting for that cry. So often Christians, you know, instead of crying out unto the Lord because of their gothic and their spiritual poverty, they're like those in the Church of Laodicea, in that latitudinarian position and condition, they're earthly-minded. Instead of crying out... in their need for God's help. Oh, they say we're rich and we're rich with good. We need of nothing. We get along fine. We've got the best church in town. We've got the best preacher in town. We've got the best choir in town. We've got the most money in town. We've got the most intelligent people in town and members of our church. We're getting along wonderful. We're organized to a high degree. We have need of nothing.
We're rich and increased with good. God says, is that so? Turn and read it for yourself in Revelation chapter three. He says, And know us not you self-satisfied people. You say you are rich and increased with goods and a deed of nothing, and know us not that are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Why are you in desperate conditions, conditions spiritually? When Israel cried unto the Lord, then God hurried to their head. And no father ever hurried. to the side of his son when his boy gave a shriek, out in the street, of an audible dark field bore down upon him. He left out a stream that dad hears.
No father ever hurried to the side of his son for a cry of help quicker than God hurried to the side of the cliffside. He cries out to God for help. Lord, I sin. I disobey, and like the prodigal in Luke fifty, Lord, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight I am no more worthy to be called thy son, and make me as one of thy entire service. The father ran and he fell on his neck and had his sister. He brought the son in, and now you know the rest of the story. He saw it waiting for that cry of heaven. Lord, I get into a mess.
I dishonored your name. I disgraced your name. I compromised. These enemies have got me, but I'm helpless. I'm out of fellowship. I'm not enjoying my inheritance. Lord, can I get back out of the den and go on to the mountain top of sunshine and fellowship with you again? Yes, but God argued. He gave you the chance. And Israel cried unto the Lord, and God did the rest. David says, heed, restore of my soul. I can't do it. I'm the one that gets away from God, but God's the one who brings me back. be alone to this. And I trust that we as Christians will do some part searching as we continue our studies next Sunday night on Gideon.
How God used Gideon in a mighty way to deliver Israel from a ruthless cruel enemy. If you're not a Christian here tonight, if you've never been born again, if you know not the Savior, he's waiting for a cry from you. There's only one cry you can make, and it's the cry of the public in In Luke eight weeks, God be merciful to be the sinner. If you cry out tonight, and mean it from all the depths of your heart, Lord, I must live. I've lost. I can't save myself, but I want to be saved. Have mercy upon you, Lord. God will hasten to your side also, and he'll put away all your sins.
He'll give you everlasting life. He'll write your name in the Lamb's book of life. You shall never perish. you'll be his child henceforth he wants you to live becoming those who have passed in death unto us now so we pray our heavenly father in the name of our lord jesus we come to be we ask thy blessing upon thy word how solemn are these lessons we learned from thy dealings with israel thou hast told us in the new testament what prayer was written was written the four times was written for our learning We too comfort that the Scriptures might have hope. And so we are comforted tonight to know that when we get into trouble, that thou wilt get us out.
When we see our own need, our own helpless, our own unworthiness, and we call upon thee, we cry unto thee, that thou with all thy power and love and grace and mercy, we will restore it unto thyself, for the days of sunshine may again be ours. For all our hearts and people who want to hear tonight are more than one who is unfaithful. Holy Father, and may that one be brought from darkness and delight. We accept in our Lord Jesus Christ that favor of Lord. We ask it in his name. And forty-six. Chapter six. And verse six. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Just sayeth the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage. I delivered you out of the land or hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and draed them out from before you. and gave them their land. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites in whose land he dwells, but ye have not obeyed my voice.
There came an angel of the Lord and sat under an oath, which was an altar, that pertained under Joach, the Abba Israelite, and his son Gideon, fresh feet by the wine-thread, to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Lydian said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this the fallen us? And where be all his miracles which our Father told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
The Lord looked upon him and said, Go, in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my father is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. The Lord said unto him, Surely I will be redeemed. Now shall smite the Midianites as one man. He said unto him, If thou have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my presence, set it before thee.
He said, I will carry until thou come again. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, an unleavened cake from beneath a flower. Flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oath, and presented it. The angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh in the unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh, an eleven-teenth. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.
When Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face, the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Behovah Shalom. Until this day it is yet an author of the Abba Israel. And I was going to say the meaning is, God shall send peace. That's the meaning of Behovah Shalom. Now this is our third message, and tonight we start into the real heart or kernel of the subject on Gideon.
You have the cutting words of the prophet, the rebuking prophet in verses eight to ten. And then you have the curing deeds or the healing priest in verses eleven to twenty-four. When we refer to a priest, we're not referring to those today who are called priests. Recall these were the old Jewish priests, but their priesthood ended when Jesus Christ came and became the great high priest. First of all, you have these cutting words. After Israel cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent this cross. And what he said wasn't too comforting, it was rather cutting. God reminding them of their sin and of their departure.
You see that principle throughout your Bible. First of all, you have the cutting words, and then you have the message that mollified or healed. For instance, take Hebrews chapter four. Verse twelve, you'll immediately read that remarkable verse. The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner or a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. Here is the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, and how it plays, it cuts, it moves.
That's what God's word does for you. And there's nothing like the word of God to criticize a person. I challenge any man to divide soul and spirit. Who can? No man can, but the Word of God can. This is the sharp two-edged sword. You know, people don't like to hear the Word of God speak when it comes. We don't mind a preacher getting up and taking that sword of the Word of God and smashing it and displaying his oratory or reaching it over and slapping them with a flat side of it. But to use that sword and punch it in, they don't like that. They don't like to be cut. They don't like to be wounded.
They don't like to be made to bleed with the truth of God. And yet it's necessary. Following that remarkable text I have read in Hebrews chapter eleven, what do you read in the next verse? For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched by the means of our infirmity. But he was tempted and tried in all points like this we. yet been a part. You see, it comes from that cutting statement about the sword of the Spirit, and then you have healing of God. After he's opened up the womb, after he has stabbed the heart, now he says, I'm ready to leave.
But I want you to see what you really are. Therefore, he refers to himself as that great high priest who is touched with a very feeling there. of our eternity. God's method and God's principle in dealing with man has always been that way. He first wounds and then he heals. He first breaks down and then he lifts up. He first kills and then he makes a line. Or to speak of terms you're more familiar with, he convicts and then he converts. No one has ever converted unless he first of all convicted of sin. There is no birth without travail, and no one is born into the family of God, unless he has known what it is to be convicted of his sins and or something of soul trouble or soul travail.
It's this that people don't like. For instance, remember in the course of God, the Lord Jesus is talking to this woman at the well, and the conversation is drifting along so pleasantly, and she is so taken up with what she's hearing, she's been a wicked woman, She's had five husbands, and the one she's living with now is not her husband. And of course she's forgotten all that when she listens and as she listens to the wonderful words falling from the lips of the Lord Jesus. And all of a sudden he stopped. The conversation seemed to come to an abrupt end, and he said, Go call your husband. And the woman seemed to be brought back from another world.
She had been carried to great heights. when he had been speaking about this living water, that if anyone would drink her off they would never thirst. Why, within her heart she's thinking, I'd love to have that. I long for satisfaction. And she says, give me that water that I thirsted off. Neither come hither at all. He says, go call your husband. He took the sword and he plunged it deep. Why did he do it? She said, I don't have a husband. When she was able to speak. She blurted it out. I don't have any help. No, you thought. But you had what? Right now you're living in sin. Now why didn't you do that?
Because he wanted her to realize that she was unworthy of that living water that she craved. He couldn't give her what she wanted without any acknowledgement of her sting and of her unworthiness. We'll call last husband. He used the sword, and she didn't like it. But odd resulted in her stoundation. Well, finally she says, Well, we know that Messiah comes, but he says, I, that she come to be as me. And she received Christ, and she went her way, and told it in the city of Samaria, how the Lord had met her needs. You know it's that cross that the young sage rose.
They don't like the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. They don't like to be told they're sinners, they're lost, they're unworthy, they're undeserving. Well, you'll have to acknowledge that before you can be saved. There'll be no salvation without it.