Jephthah's life demonstrates how faith and the Spirit's power lead to victory, even after personal rejection and national oppression. The sermon traces Jephthah's journey from being cast out by his brothers to becoming a deliverer, highlighting his negotiation with the Ammonites and the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him. The core lesson is that genuine repentance and reliance on the Holy Spirit, not human might, are the keys to overcoming bondage and achieving God-given victories. The message concludes by applying these truths to believers today, urging them to walk in the Spirit for true liberation and effectiveness.
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Thank you, Brother Mark. It's certainly nice having you with us. What a message in song. And how true of our great God. He giveth and giveth and giveth again. No one can outdo the giving of the God of all grace. I'm thrilled when I think of it that I belong to him by matchless grace. And when I talk of matchless grace, I'm simply saying he wanted me when I didn't want him. And the one who really needed him is me. What a blessing to be a child of God. So we're in Judges chapter eleven.
We're taking a look at the great deliverer by the name of Jebta. There are many things that we want to say about Jebta. And we began last week looking at this character in the word of God. And tonight we get into the central portion, as it were, regarding him, and we notice how he stands up under trial. We begin at verse twelve of Judges chapter eleven, and we read through verse thirty-three. And Jebtha sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me that thou art come against me to fight in my land?
and the king of the children of Ammon answered the messengers of Jebta, because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt, from Armin, even unto Jabak, and unto Jordan. Now therefore restore these lands again peaceably. And Jebta sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon, and said unto him, Thus saith Jebza, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon. But when Israel came up from Egypt and walked through the wilderness unto the Red Sea and came to Cadesh, then Israel sent messengers unto the King of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land, but the King of Edom would not hearken thereto.
And in like manner they sent unto the King of Moab, but he would not consent, and Israel abode in Cadesh. Then they went along through the wilderness and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon. But came not within the border of Moab, for Arnon was the border of Moab. And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land unto my place.
But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast. But Sihon gathered all his people together and pitched in Jihad and fought against Israel. And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel. And they smote them so Israel possessed all the land of the Emirates, the inhabitants of that country. And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Javak, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan. So now the Lord God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should thou possesseth?
Will not thou possess that which Kimash thy God giveth thee to possess? So whosoever the Lord our God shall drive off from before us them will be possessed. And now art thou anything better than Baalek, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, he did ever strive against Israel, nor did he ever fight against them. Well, Israel dwelt in Heshpan and her towns, and in Aria and her towns, and in all the cities that belong by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years. Why, therefore, did ye not recover them within that time? Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou dost me wrong to war against me.
The Lord the judge be judged this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. How be it! The king of the children of Ammon hearken not unto the words of Jephthah, which he sent him. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. And Jephthah vile they vow unto the Lord and said, If thou shalt, without fail, deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be that whatsoever comeeth forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon shall surely be the Lord.
and I will offer it up for a burned offering. So Jebs have passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from Ariar, even till thou come to Minot, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. May the Lord bless his words. Now I invite you to turn with me to the eleventh of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter eleven. This is a very interesting verse in Hebrews eleven, or should I say a few verses here, in Hebrews eleven we want to read beginning at verse thirty-two.
The reason I say it is an interesting verse, it is the only verse where I find this Holy Spirit of God handicapped, as it were, if I may use that expression, handicapped for time. Time is a real essence to the Spirit of God here. For he had listed the names of the heroes of faith from the Old Testament, those who made the honor roll of faith in Hebrews eleven and when you come to verse thirty two he says what shall I more say for time would fail me the spirit of God has taken account of the activities of these people and here he says time would fail me if I were to write what I could say concerning these heroes of faith and then he adds to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jebsah, of David also and Samuel, and of the prophets.
Now notice verse thirty-three. Who threw faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mobs of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, and then he goes down the list. Now amongst this list of men, we find Jebsah listed with David, with Gideon, and with Samuel. His name is there. So you'll notice that Jebsah, and when I saw this in Hebrews eleven, and in my reading of it, I thought, I better study on just what the word of God has to say concerning this man Jebsah.
He was a man of faith. Now these men of faith, they subdued kingdoms, they wrote righteousness, he obtained promises. And we have to look at this life. What in Jebta's life made him a mighty man of faith? What made him this? You see, and we have to look and we have to examine his life. Now let's pray together. Our Father, as we continue now to look at the life of Jebta, We pray, O God, that I will enable us to grasp the truth that is here on the page, that we may apply it to our own hearts in this another dispensation of thy mighty acts among thy people, so that we may walk as children of God, and may we apply these truths to our own lives.
For Jesus' sake. Amen. Last week, it was our privilege to examine the circumstances of the early life of Jebedah. Now, the circumstances of his early life were beyond his control. His father was of Gilead. That means he was reared, born and reared, on the other side of the Jordan River. The eastern side, where two and a half tribes, the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, received their inheritance. They received the inheritance that belonged to Ahm king of Bashan and Sihon, the king of the Amorites.
When that land was subdued, that's where they got their inheritance. But because... Jebsah's mother was a harlot. His brethren said to him, you're not going to inherit with us. And they cast him out. And while he was cast out, he had a group of men who were joined to him at a place called Tab. And there they were a lot like David was. They were soldiers of fortune, as it were, protecting God's heritage, the people of God. But the elders of Mizpah, who had joined with his brethren to cast him out, they needed help for eighteen years.
They were under the heel of the children of Ammon. There was servitude for eighteen years. And they go for their help. Now Ammon is coming up to subdue them again and to take what they have gleaned from harvest and their cattle and things of this nature. And as they were coming, they went for help. Who can return to? And the only deliverer they knew was this man, Jebda, the one they had wronged. And the first principle that's laid down here is if we're going to receive blessing from God, there must be repentance. There must be repentance of former acts.
And former acts have to be made right. And that's the lesson that we really learned last week as we examined the life of this man, Jezebel. We don't hear much about repentance today. We don't hear much about the making of right of things that are wrong. But they have to be if we're going to experience the blessing of the Lord. In other words, if the church of this day is going to be delivered from the bondage that she is in, If we're going to experience a genuine revival that is God sent and Holy Spirit filled, we're going to have to know something about genuine repentance.
We're going to. Now, as we look at Jebser tonight, we notice that victory follows genuine repentance. Now we want to see faith as it operates in the life of this man. Now later on I'm going to have to say more about this, but I'm going to inject something right now, which I feel is very important. What upon what was the victory dependent? It was dependent first of all on the repentance of the people. The people were in a frame of mind before the Lord to honor him.
But second, and I don't want you to miss this. It is in verse twenty-nine. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jebta. Here is an expression that you read time and again in the book of, in the Old Testament. This is said of three other men in the book of Judges who were deliverers, who were deliverers. Authniel, the younger brother of Caleb. He was, or should I say, yes, it was Caleb's younger brother. He was the first judge. He, it is written of him, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
Of Gideon, it is written, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And now it is written of Jephthah as well. Now when you read that expression in the Old Testament, it has reference to what we call today the filling of the Spirit. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I want you to notice how this works in the life of Jephthah from the New Testament, what it says concerning the filling of the Spirit. And I invite you to turn... to Ephesians chapter four.
Ephesians four. In Ephesians four, you have the things that grieve the Holy Spirit. Ephesians four, verse thirty is one of Brother Sutton's favorite texts. And I don't blame him. It should be one of everybody's favorite texts. For it says, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption. That's Ephesians four, verse thirty. What does it mean to grieve the Spirit of God? It means to make him sad. The Spirit of God is a person. He is one of the persons of the Godhead.
And here his personality comes through, in that word, grieving. You can't grieve a force. or a power. You grieve a person. And to grieve when a person is grieving, they are sad. They have been made sad. Now the Spirit of God, who is grieved in the life of a child of God, is not happy, and therefore the child of God does not experience the Spirit's power operating in his life. He's indwelled. but he's not filled.
Now what grieves the Spirit of God? How do we grieve the Spirit of God? I want you to just look back in the chapter for a few moments. In verse twenty four, he says, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Recognize what you are in Christ. But now notice the next verse. What grieves the Spirit of God? Wherefore, putting away lying. Speak every man the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Who is this written to? This is not written to the world. This is written to Christians. I want to ask you a question. To Christians lie. To believers lie, I'm sorry to say they do. Now believers may tell white lies, but there is no such thing. Because white lies are just as black as another, as any lie. Furthermore, believers make a, you know, they are great at making excuses.
And you know what an excuse is. An excuse is a skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. It is like sausage. You see, when we talk about sausage, you know, it has a skin and then you're just stuffed, well, now I've talked about good Pennsylvania sausage. you know, the link stops it, you know, is the skin soft. And that's exactly what an excuse is. God says if you're dealing, see, the Spirit of God's on the inside, and he knows us better than we know ourselves, and he certainly knows us better than the people we're making an excuse to. You see, and he knows what the real reasons are, because he knows all about us.
So God says, wherefore, putting away lies. If you want to be filled with a spirit, you've got to put away lies. If you want to know something of the power of God in your life in witness, put away lies. Speak every man the truth with his neighbor, for we're members one of another. That's the first thing. The second thing is, he says in verse twenty-six, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. There's nothing wrong with being angry. God made us that way to express anger. Our Lord Jesus was angry.
He was angry at the Pharisees that you read about there in Mark chapter three, at the healing of the man with a withered hand. He was angry because of their obstinate ways and because of their genuine unbelief. But our Lord didn't sin. You know, usually when we're angry, we're not like the Lord. We do sin. And then he makes the expression, if you do sin, don't let the sun go down before you make it right. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. That's what he's really saying. Make it right before you go to bed at night. Don't live with unconfessed sin.
That's how you grieve the Spirit of God. These things grieve the Spirit, and they hinder the work of the Spirit in the life of the child of God. Now, he adds in verse twenty-seven, neither give place to the devil. Don't give place to the devil. In other words, what he's saying is, don't let the devil get a toehold in your life. You know in wrestling, If you can get a toehold on a man, you can control his whole body. And if the devil can get a toehold on you, and you see, for the devil to get a toehold on you, it means you're walking where you shouldn't be walking.
Or you're standing where you're not to be standing, where someone says, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners. And so Satan gets a toehold in the life of the believer. Then verse twenty-eight he says, Let him that stole steal no more. But rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing that he's good, that he may have to give to him that need it. You know who's able to give to the work of the Lord? The person who saves money and doesn't spend it on himself. In order he saves it, in order that he can give.
to the preaching of the gospel around the world. It's an amazing thing, beloved. And the Word of God in the early church, there are those, and you have this especially in the Thessalonian epistle, Second Thessalonian III, that those who thought they can quit work and wait for the Lord to come. You see, now the truth of the coming of the Lord is a wonderful truth. but God expects us to work. Let him that stole, steal the more, but rather let him labor working with his hands that he may have to give to him that need it.
Then in verse twenty nine he says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Dr. Frank Logsdon, that dear brother who was pastor of Moody Church after Dr. Harry Ironsides died. He became the pastor of Moody Church. And I knew Brother Frank Logsden well. What a Bible teacher he was. He's not with the Lord, by the way. I think he died within the past year. But you talk about a man who could preach. If you were to talk to him normally, he stuttered. But when he got to the platform, I never heard him stutter once on the platform.
And he knew the book. But he told the story of a group of preachers that were having a convention, and the ladies were with them, and when the ladies left, one of the preachers said, now that the ladies are gone, I have a story I want to tell you. And Harry Anside was in the group, and Harry Anside said, oh, just a minute, sir. He said, if the ears of the women are too delicate to hear what you have to say, There's someone living within me who's far more delicate than any woman that I know. The blessed Holy Spirit of God. He said, I don't want to hear your story.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to edify you. Now, beloved, when you go down this list, what have you learned? We learn of the things that grieve the Holy Spirit of God. You see, when we translate that back into the book of Judges chapter eleven, the way in which the brothers tweeted Jephthah grieve the spirit of God. But that genuine repentance brought an ungrieved spirit into their presence, and now Jephthah is filled with a spirit.
Having said that, now I want to go over that which is here. How do I know it was filled with a spirit? How do I know this? And to me, this is what becomes quite evident in the text. First, there is negotiation with the enemy. Real, we're able to just overlook that, but most of chapter eleven deals with that negotiation. He tried to negotiate with the enemy. Now, Jeb's was a military man. And he had a band of fighting men. That's a very thing that you wouldn't expect. You'd never expect a military man to try to negotiate with the enemy.
You see, the New Testament says, Blessed are the peacemakers. Not the troublemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers. for they shall be called the children of God. You see, Jebson now had the opportunity to show off what he really was. He wasn't wanted. Now they needed him. Now they brought him back. Let's get in there and show him what I can do. That's the natural way of doing it. But you see, Jebson is just the opposite. What a lesson here for us. Just the opposite. No, he didn't do it.
In other words, here is a man of war who tried to negotiate peace and avoid war. You see, natural personal pride would have had Jephthah show off what he could do. But he didn't do what was natural. He did what was spiritual. You know, often we hear people make a statement, it was natural of me to do that. I said, I wish we could say it was spiritual of me to do it, that we'd be walking in the spirit in accordance with the word of God.
Now, a good leader does not put his men in greater danger than he's necessary. And Jephthah proved by his negotiation, here's a good leader. He wasn't going to jeopardize the life of his men. Now, the manner of Jephthah's working is quite remarkable. First, he worked through messengers. He sent messengers. He began by asking the Ammonite king why he was coming against Israel. And the answer he got back is because Israel seized the land at the time that they came out of Egypt when they were coming through the wilderness.
Now, Jephthah's reply to him contained two great responses. Israel did not take any land from the Ammonites, and he didn't take any land from the Moabites. Ammon and Moab were brothers. They were the descendants of Lot to his two unmarried daughters. They were descendants of Lot by incense, if you remember. And what he shows him, that at the time that they came out of Egypt, he had to bypass the land of Edom.
Edom wouldn't let him go through his own brother. And you remember what happened when they couldn't go through the land of Edom. They had to go marks all the way around the land of Edom. all the way around and you remember what happened in numbers twenty one they complained about the way in which they were led the children of Israel and they complained about the food with which they were fed and God sent fiery serpents among them and when they were bitten many of the people died and it becomes that we have the beautiful type there In Numbers twenty-one, at that time of our blessed Lord Jesus in John three, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.
Now, they hadn't taken any land. The second response that Jebsah made was, he indicated that Moab, Ammon's neighbor, had not made any claim at all. in three hundred years. They didn't take any land of Moab, the very neighbor of the children of Ammon, and Moab had not said a word in three hundred years. Now that three hundred years in that passage, by the way, if you note things in Scripture, is a very important three hundred years because it establishes the date of the Exodus.
Anyone who reads some of the scholars knows that scholars of our Jews of an early date of the Exodus and a late date of the Exodus. Not everybody accepts the Bible on face value. And I'm one of those who believed in the early date of the Exodus. And this reason, here we have three hundred years transpired from the time that Israel was coming through the desert until the present time that Jebsah was there. And we know that Jephthah, he lived in the early part of the eleventh century. And three hundred years to that would make the Exodus in the early part of the fourteenth century, which would be the early date of the Exodus.
You see, what a blessing it is to just pick up these little things that the word of God gives us by divine inspiration. Now I want you to notice his victory over the Yemenites. Why was their victory? You see, two matters come into focus immediately. When we think of the victory, that was his. First, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Here is a man who not only had seen repentance in the nation, But here is a man who also himself was walking in fellowship with God.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon him. This was true of Gideon. This is true of Apneel. And it also became true of Samson at a later time. In other words, this is what makes the victory certain. Before you go to the battle. The matter of the Spirit of God in the light. In other words, one thing should concern us very much. Am I walking in the Spirit? For I'm commanded to do it. Galatians five says, walk in the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the rest of the flesh.
And I should be asking myself the question, am I walking in the Spirit? Now we've gone over those things there in Ephesians four that grieve the Spirit of God. And if the Spirit of God is grieved, I'm not going to experience His power, and I am not going to experience His blessing. So the first response, or the first matter that comes into focus here in the great victory, is number one, the Spirit of God came upon Jephthah. Years later, in Zechariah chapter four, what a chapter to study.
Zechariah four. It is a chapter where you read that great expression that you often hear, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. You know what you have in that chapter? You have the God who makes little things big and big things little. You may say, oh, I don't have much. I serve the God who can take little things and make them big. Or you may get the idea, oh, I have an awful lot that God can use. God can take an awful lot and make it an awful little.
Very small. Why? Not by might. God isn't interested in our might. God regardless not the strength of a horse nor the legs of a man. I read in the book of Psalms. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. Beloved, we can have the best of preaching. We can have the best of everything else. But if we don't have the power of the spirit, we may as well stay home. Just going through motion.
Jephthah wasn't going through motion. It was real. It was real. But the second thing is, Jephthah didn't go alone. He made a recruitment. For you'll notice that he went over the various two and a half tribes from Nisba of Gilead over Gilead and the other places that you read about in verse twenty nine. He recruited helpers in his army. to go and meet the children of Ammon. Now there is no indication of a great army. We don't read that Jebda had a mighty army, but we do read that God superintended the battle.
And you see what God uses means. God uses men. I was talking with Brother David today about a book. It's called Power Through Prayer by E. M. Barrow. If you don't have it, you ought to sell your boots and buy it. It's one of the greatest books that has been republished. It's been republished many, many times. But he embounds when he begins in his book. He says this. God, God's method is men. The church is looking for better methods. But God is looking for better men. The Spirit of God does not anoint machinery.
The Spirit of God anoints men. Men are God's business. Not machinery, but men. And here in the life of Jephthah, we see men. He recruited men. God uses means. And beloved, God has ordained that they who have been saved by the gospel go claim the gospel. And you have that in a definite way in the tenth chapter of the Romans. Now, Israel, beloved, was so successful in this campaign, they subdued the children of Ammon before them. God gave them victory.
And Ammon himself was so humiliated that he did not even have the vital cities of protection left that he wanted. Well, one or two things very quickly in closing. Let me emphasize again, this great victory was a result of genuine repentance. Oh, how necessary repentance is. Second thing is, this victory brought relief from an eighteen-year bondage. Can you imagine being in bondage, eighteen years? You know, when I turn to the fifth chapter of John, I find the impotent man there who was in bondage for thirty-eight years by the pool of Bethesda.
I wonder tonight, are you in bondage? Are you genuinely free? Are you in bondage? Israel, the people of God, were in bondage for eighteen years. Let me ask you, how long have you been in bondage? And if you are, why not repent now and believe on the one who like Jeb to really liberate? And that one is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ who says, Come unto me, all ye that labor in our heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
The deliverer of John five is the Lord himself. The Lord, when He began His public ministry, He could say, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to bring deliverance to the captives. Do you need deliverance? He's the answer. Let's make that a little different. He's the only answer. There isn't any. Jephthah was a mighty deliverer of all because of his relationship with God.
And that relationship is manifested in the expression the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Oh, that God would do the same with each of us for his glory. And I tell you the song that Mark sang tonight, the reality of it. He give us more grace. He give us, and He give us, and He give us again. Why? Why? Because God is the God who makes little things big and big things little. For it's not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, say it, O Lord.
Now let's pray. Our Father, it's a delight to look at a character like Jebza, to see the Spirit of God speak of him there in Hebrews eleven, and then to examine his life and see how it worked. Oh, that thou would work in each of our lives in the same way to the honor and glory and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.