“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  This important phrase from the last chapter of Joshua has been matted, framed and displayed as décor in many households.  Someone once said that a familiar quote like this could easily fall into the nether regions of our minds or lull us to sleep if we are not careful.  In context, Joshua is warning the people to put away their idols – two kinds of idols in particular – because the Lord is a jealous God.  Nipping at the heels of this admonishment is the book of Judges.  In Judges we get a glimpse into the vicious nature of idolatry.  We are able to witness what it looks like when everyone does what is right in their own eyes (21:25).  In this session we will be reminded to turn from past idols and pass by present idols for God’s glory.

Well, thank you so much for attending this morning. It is a humbling experience for my family just to be here. We're so grateful, let alone to be able to open up the word with you this morning. And so again, uh, My wife is here. She's a daily reminder of God's kindness toward me.

I'm a beautiful Children on. I'm also thankful to have my my father in law mother in law with us today. So seven years ago we moved from the Ozark Hills of southern Missouri to northern Utah to participate in the gospel in a difficult area to labor in those lands and so it is a land flowing with with mountains and ward buildings and temples and it is a place where idolatry is truly unhinged and it reminds me of the book of Judges which is will be our assignment today so I would like to open in prayer one of the reformers once said that perhaps God would have us hunger for his word before he would feed us and so I'm gonna make Psalm 1 our prayer this morning. So Well, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season its leaf does not wither and whatever he does he prospers the the wicked are not so they are like chaff which the wind drives away therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment nor centers in the assembly of the righteous for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." And oh Lord that we would delight in your word this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, a few years back, my wife took a large canvas and painted the phrase, bind my wandering heart to thee, from the hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. And it hangs in our living room as a daily reminder to our family of the ongoing reality that we were made to worship and thought, word, and deed, and each day we will either worship God or idols.

There's just no other way about it. And as such, that there should be no neutrality and no syncretism and no blurring the lines as we go about this endeavor of worship. The song says, oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it.

Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, taken seal it, seal it for thy courts above. And I don't know about you, But I feel the struggle of those words deep in my bones. And over the years, the Lord has been faithful to remind me that even though I love him, and even though I desire him, and even though I'm a new creation in Christ with all the perks of the regenerating work of the gospel and even though I know I've actually been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son according to Romans 8 that my heart is daily and to be honest with you I really moment to moment prone toward idolatry. It's prone to wonder, and so this has been my prayer for our time together, that God's goodness would bind our wondering hearts to thee.

You know, it's actually because of the reality of adult idolatry in my own life, that I understand why Luther began his 95 theses with the entirety of the Christian life is to be one of repentance. And I actually think it's in light of my propensity toward idolatry that passages like Deuteronomy 6 makes sense to me that from breakfast until bedtime, every day of the week, both formally and informally, that I am to be reminding myself and my family of who the one true God is, that we should love him with all of our being, and that we should be constantly saturating our lives with what he has said. And I know my family is probably alone here in a context like this, but if the maddens don't remember the goodness of God and diligently seek to heed the words of Deuteronomy 6, it doesn't take us long to run off the rails and to begin to do what is right in our own eyes. And so Dr. James White in his book, The Forgotten Trinity said this, since sin and rebellion are always pushing us toward false gods and away from the true God, we must seek every day to conform our thinking and worship around God's straight edge truth, his standard of truth revealed so wonderfully in Scripture.

And so with that said, we will be in the third chapter of the book of Judges. It is the seventh book in your Bible. You have Moses with the Pentateuch, then you have Joshua, and then you have Judges. And in case this book isn't always in your regular preaching and teaching rotation, I'll do my best to sort of set the stage for us. I'm from the Bible Belt, I did not grow up in a Christian home though.

I first heard the gospel when I was 18 years old. And so when the Lord Jesus became irresistible to me. I had zero biblical knowledge. I truly just knew him and him crucified. But I was really hungry, really hungry for his word.

And one of the most difficult things for me was reading the Old Testament. And My primary hurdle, I think, was trying to understand the chronology of people and events, but once I began to get a solid biblical framework and an understanding of the storyline of the Bible, it certainly made things much easier. So I've put a chronology on the overhead for you. It's a chronology I try to impress to my children. It's been a really helpful one, so if that's something you're interested in, you can Google it.

It's the pictorial survey of the Bible by Buzz McNut. But it goes like this, and it'll just help us get into the context of Judges. And so it goes, creation, fall, flood, tower, babel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Jacob and family go to Egypt, slavery until Passover, Moses leads the people out of Egypt, God part of the Red Sea, God provided water and manna, the tabernacle in the wilderness, spies sent into the land, wandering in the wilderness, conquest of the land, and then we get to the period of the Judges. Israel has no king and then we have Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, the divided kingdom, so on and so forth. And so Judges is set in the context of about a 350-400 year period between the book of Joshua and the period of the kings or the monarchy.

So leading up to this, as you will well know, through miracle after miracle, God through Moses had led the people out of Egyptian slavery into the wilderness, but because of their unbelief did not get to lead the people into the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. Moses dies, Joshua's the next leader of God's people, Joshua takes this new generation out of the wilderness and across the Jordan and into the Promised Land, and as they enter, they take over cities such as Jericho and the like, and the book of Joshua records this account for us. Now it's at the end of Joshua that we get this wonderful, what I would call wall hanger type verse that we all know so well. And it goes like this, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We all know that, right?

We know it so well. Doug Wilson in his book Future Man once said, famous phrases have a way of falling into the nether regions of our minds. We think we know them because we've heard them so often, but we really don't. Rather than true scriptural knowledge, such phrases usually lull us to sleep. This is certainly the case for the phrase, as for me and my house.

And he goes on to say, this is not an inspirational quote. It is a decision which exhibits a repentance broad enough to include the whole house. Let me say that again. It's a decision which exhibits a repentance broad enough to include the whole house. And if we're not careful, Joshua's point can easily be missed because of its familiarity and with this in mind I just want to read that text to you in Joshua 24 verses 14 and 15 to set the stage for judges is so important.

Joshua says this, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord choose for yourselves today whom you will serve whether the gods which your father served which are beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And so in context Joshua has gathered the people and he's reviewed for them a couple things. He's reviewed the history of their nation, beginning with the idolatry of Abraham's people. And secondly, he's reviewed God's constant goodness toward them in Egypt and the wilderness and the conquests of the land, and that's his basis for his exhortation. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

So in light of God's goodness, Joshua charges the families to put away their idols, and essentially two kinds of idols. They were to turn from the idols they had retained from their past, their father's idols, which were essentially the gods on the old side of the river, and secondly, they were to pass by the idols on the new side of the river, the idols they were to encounter as they entered the promised land. So the admonition was to turn from past idols and to pass by present idols as they pursue their living God. So it's in the opening chapters of Judges that we learned that Israel pretty much did everything but live under the familiar words of Joshua. And Judges ends up being a sermon illustration on what happens when the words of Deuteronomy are not heated.

Deuteronomy 7 commanded Israel to utterly remove the land's inhabitants, but in Judges chapter 1 we learned that the tribes didn't. They enslaved the inhabitants instead. In Deuteronomy 12, they were commanded to utterly destroy the Canaanite places of worship, but according to the angel of the Lord in Judges 2, we find out they did not. In Deuteronomy six, the people were commanded to saturate their children with the love of God and the word of God, but again in Judges two, it tells us that a generation arose that did not know the Lord or the work he had done. In Deuteronomy seven, they are commanded to not intermarry with idol worshipers, but in Judges 3, articulates clearly their disobedience to this command as well.

And the tragedy then of Israel's history is that instead of worshiping and obeying their good God, drawing the nations to life under his rule and reign, they were instead drawn to the idolatrous ways of the nations. They were covenant breakers according to Judges 1 and 2. And so Judges sort of reads like a bucket list of things not to do and as a result the anger of the Lord burned against his people they provoked him and wherever they went the hand of the Lord was with them according to chapter 2 verse 15. And in Judges we see Israel stuck in this vicious cycle of idolatry that seems to get worse each time it's repeated. And the cycle sort of goes like this.

God's people sin against him. God judges them by raising up a sinful nation and a wicked king to oppress them. God's people cry out in agony because they're tired of being under the heavy yoke of a merciless and godless foreign power. And God in his goodness then raises up a judge, a savior, a warrior empowered by the spirit to deliver them from their oppression. I think it's Hendrickson that uses a memory tool called the R cycle.

It's relapse, retribution, repentance, and rescue. And this cycle will occur in full at least seven times as this historical narrative unfolds for us. My memory tool is a little bit different. Does anybody in here like stock car racing? This will be easier for you if you don't.

Keep in mind I grew up in the southern hills of the Ozarks in Missouri, so my mind's a little bit warped from that experience. Plus one of my co-elders used to race stock cars, and so I used this to help him understand judges. And so I think of it like this, you're at a race, where I come from at least, and there's usually a bunch of wild, pleasure-seeking, entertainment-driven folks doing whatever they want in the bleachers. They're watching a bunch of thrill-seeking, adrenaline junkies drive as fast as they possibly can in circles, and this repetitive fiasco goes on for hours and hours, typically lasts until everybody in the stands has spent all their money on Slim Jims and pork rinds and corn dogs. The leader guy starts waving a checkered flag, they shut down the cars, the fans are covered in filth and dirt, there's a couple fistfights in the pit, everybody's exhausted, they go home, They wake up the next morning and they can't wait to do it all over again the following Saturday.

That is the book of Judges. A predictable circle. And it's the last verse of the book that really sums up things well. It's not an inspirational wall hanger type verse, like ask for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. But maybe it should be a wall hanger to stand as a reminder to our families and to our churches of the dangers of idolatry, it says, in those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Now, there is certainly a political application or tone to this statement due to the coming monarchy, but there's also clear moral implications as well, which is essentially what becomes the story of idolatry and what it looks like when folks decide to depart from the rule of the Lord, when moral relativism reigns, and when confusion and apostasy becomes the norm. Now unfortunately, we can all relate to this type of culture, can't we? So could the reformers, and actually, it is actually just the posture of humanity since Genesis 3, Okay? Now there's a lot of speculation about the nuts and bolts of the Book of Judges from authorship to purpose to application, but at the end of the day, if you don't take anything else away, I would love for you to remember this. It's a crucial takeaway.

By the time we get to the end of the chapter the book of Judges 21 chapters we should all be so my father used to say I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired we should be so sick and tired of idolatry and rebellion against God and his good rule that we find ourselves deeply humbled deeply broken and crying out for a judge, for a savior, for a warrior, for a king, from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David who is anointed by the spirit, who can deliver us from this vicious cycle of idolatry once and for all, a final and everlasting redemption for the people of God. So judges should make us long for Messiah, to make us long for Jesus, to make us long for His kingdom to come once and for all, to be like the people in Thessalonica, where the gospel came in power and in the Holy Spirit with full conviction. And the text says they turned from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.

And so I know that's a long introduction. I'm thankful that you're hanging in there with me and we will get to the text. At the heart of the text in Chapter Three, Judges Chapter Three, the power and sovereignty of God is really on display and it's it's magnificent because although this time in the book of Judges seems chaotic, it seems like full-blown anarchy really, we get a bird's-eye view from the text that God was in total control of Israel's history the entire time. It reminds me of Psalm 2. Why are the nations in an uproar?

The kings scoff and they take their stand and they plot against the Lord. God sits in the heavens and he laughs and he scoffs at them. And so a couple things about the sovereignty of God as we enter into the text, we're going to see, we're going to get to watch as the Lord raises up and strengthens and employs an idolatrous nation and king as a simple but effective instrument to discipline Israel because of her idolatry. Proverbs 21 verse 1 says, The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord, and he turns it wherever he wishes. And we actually get to see this in action in a Moabite king named Eglon.

Secondly, the Lord is going to, by his sovereign hand, raise up and empower a man that I pronounce Ehud, a deliverer of Israel, who seemed to be sort of an odd duck, and we'll see that as we get into the text. Sort of a tongue-in-cheek, it's almost a comical situation, but he will bring a crushing victory to this idolatrous nation that God had just raised up to discipline his people. So when I see the power of God on display in texts like Judges 3, for some reason I'm always reminded of Habakkuk 3.4, which Habakkuk makes this bizarre statement, I'll just read it. His radiance is like the sunlight, he has rays flashing from his hand, and there is the hiding, or the ESV says, the veiling of his power. And it was A.W.

Pink that said this, the prophet in vision beheld the mighty God, and imagine scattering the hills, overturning the mountain, which one would think afforded amazing demonstration of his power. What is meant? As he says, nay, nay, says the verse, but rather it is the hiding, rather than the displaying of his power. What has meant this? So inconceivable, so immense, so uncontrollable as the power of deity that the fearful convulsions which he works in nature conceal more than reveal his infinite mind.

He says there's infinitely more power lodged than the nature of God than is expressed in all of his works. And I think that's a profound text, a profound thought from that text. He goes on to say, to openly defy Him who is clothed in omnipotence, who can rend us to pieces and cast us into hell at any moment He pleases, is the very height of insanity. Judges 3 reminds us of these great truths about God. He's sovereign over all, he has the power to match, and he is good, and I hope to keep reminding us of the nature of God, especially his goodness, because I think it's a critical piece in guarding our hearts against idolatry.

So, disclaimer before we read the text, this is not one I'm quick to read at the dinner table with my kids. It's quirky, it's a raw story, it would make like a good action comedy slasher movie probably, but because it's so vivid it has often been used by the Spirit in my life to remind me of the call of Joshua that as for me and my house, when our hearts are prone to wonder, we should be quick to turn from and pass by idols and worship the living God. So let's walk through Judges chapter three, beginning in verse 12. Says this, now the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So here's the stock car race, The new cycle begins.

The sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened, see the sovereignty of God, strengthened the Glon, the king of Moab against Israel because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon, Amalekite, and he went and defeated Israel, and they possessed the city of the palm trees. The sons of Israel served Aglon, the king of Moab, for 18 years." Now, the Boabites originated from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter. They became known for their immorality.

The Ammonites were descendants of Lot's younger daughter and the Amalekites were from the eldest son of Esau who were among the first to attack Israel way back in the day. So this is sort of like an old Western, it's like a bad guy roundup that's going on here. And then remember with me, when Israel first crossed the Jordan, where did they come into, what city did they take? The city of the palm trees, the city of Jericho. This is where God made the walls miraculously fall down.

They're in all our children's storybooks. We love the story, beautiful story, but listen now. Now it has become a sad and very humbling situation. This is now where Iglan has set up his throne, and for 18 long years the people lived under his oppression, and this is what idolatry essentially leads to. So God graciously again reminds Israel that they will either live under his good rule or under the heavy hand of their idols.

God's yoke is easy in comparison. In fact, they will beg for it as we see in this text. Verse 15, when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord, note the repetition coming up, the Lord raised up so the rider's screaming at us, the Lord again is raising up, he raises up a deliverer for them, he had the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. Now remember, metaphorically speaking, it is by the Lord's right hand that he swears to bless his people and to destroy their enemies. It is by the Lord's right hand where there are pleasures forever.

According to Psalm 1-10, it is where his chosen one sits. It is his hand of power, glory, and blessing. But now we have a left-handed man. In some way, he has been restricted on his right side. So this begins to look like good Hebrew irony.

He's a Benjamite, which means son of my right hand, so EHud is the son of my right hand, a left-handed man, and you sort of get the idea that EHud might not have been the first guy picked for the softball team as you go through the story. So He seems like even he's a bit shady, maybe a mysterious man, and as we will see, he's sort of like the biggest hillbilly in the Bible, and it sort of takes one to know one, I know, but he carries a large knife on his belt, he goes out and does crazy stuff alone, he's left-handed, race car drivers, all they do is turn left, and then there's bathroom language that seems to follow him wherever he goes. On this side of the story, from our perspective, We know that the battle is the Lord's. He's sovereign over all, he's raising up people and nations, he's doing whatever he wills and pleases for his glory and for the good of his people. And so we continue reading.

And the sons of Israel sent tribute, taxes are an offering, they sent tribute by him to Iglon, the king of Moab. He had made himself a sword which has two edges, a cubit and length, so about 18 inches, okay? And he bounded on his right thigh under his cloak, so maybe if he's frisked, they might miss it, it wasn't natural. Verse 17, he presented the tribute to Iglon, the king of Moab, now Iglon was a very fat man. I'm reading from the NASB, by the way, so.

Odd details, right? Maybe he became this way because of the last 18 years of Israel's servitude toward him. But it came about when he had finished presenting the tribute that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute, but he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal. I just want to note the irony one more time. Gilgal, if you remember, is the place where the Lord dried up the river.

It is where he brought Israel into the land. Remember the Twelve Stones, Passover, circumcision, covenant renewal, but now it is a place where they make and worship idols. The land is like the king, it is fat with idols. It's a sad day, right, in the life of God's people. And he says this, which we're at Gilgal, and he says, this is Ihad speaking, I have a secret message for you, O king.

And he said, keep silent. And all who attended him left. He had came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber, and he had said, I have a message from God for you. And he arose from his seat, and he had stretched out his left hand. He took the sword from his right thigh, and he thrust it into his belly, and the handle went in after the blade and the fat closed over the blade for he did not draw out the sword out of his belly and the refuse came out." Too much information, right?

Too much information. Iglan, King Iglan, he got the point that day, 18 inches, that he was somebody right for 18 years and he's reduced to nothing literally in a matter of 18 seconds. And again, the vicious nature of idolatry. Verse 23, he had went out into the vestibule, shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them. When he had gone out, his servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked, and they said, he is only relieving himself in the cool room.

So in simple terms, let's just say the king, they thought the king had a stomach ache. There's a whole lot of things going on in my mind right now I'd like to say about that, but better to remain silent and be thought a fool, right? Than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. So it's a messy situation. Let me leave it at that.

I just want to, we've got to grasp the vivid imagery of this. It's a take-home. I know it's not what we, it is a take-home. It's been often used by the Spirit in my life to remind me of idolatry. Verse 25, they waited until they became anxious, or embarrassed is another way to say it.

But behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. Therefore, they took the key and opened them and behold their master had fallen to the floor dead. Neihed escaped while they were delaying and he passed by the idols and escaped to Saraw." Again a repetition of terms here. And it came about when he had arrived that he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country and he was in front of them and he said to them pursue them for again the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hands And they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan opposite Moab and did not allow anyone to cross and they struck down at that time about 10, 000 Moabites, and listen to the emphasis, all robust and valiant men, a left-handed comedian, right, versus these guys because the battle is the Lord and no one out of those valiant and robust men escaped. The story is framed for us verse 19 and 26.

I just want to emphasize repetition is sort of screaming for our attention. The death of the king here is bookended with reference to his impotent, silent, helpless gods that do nothing, literally, as he had turns from them and as he passes by them. And idols again will let you down every single time." And this was an 18 year long lesson for Israel. They're slow learners and I don't know about you but I can relate. Verse 30 is the climax here.

So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel and the land was undisturbed. My Hebrew professor once said the land was relieved from idols for 80 years, 80 years. Every time I read this almost comical story, I'm so reminded that God takes idolatry very seriously. In fact, I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there's a lot of very serious bathroom-type language in the Bible, and it's almost always used in reference to idolatry, man-made religion, works-based salvation when people begin to do what is right in their own eyes. Just for some samples in 1 Kings 18, Elijah versus the idol-worshipping prophets and priests at Mount Carmel challenges issues to whose God would answer and the true God would answer by fire.

So the prophets of Baal shouted and cut themselves and their idol didn't answer, right? And Elijah mocked them and the ESV in context brings out his trash talk and he says, well maybe your God is only relieving himself, right? Maybe he's stuck in the bathroom. Isaiah 64, the prophet, speaks to an unrepentant people and says, all your righteous deeds are like filthy garments, like filthy rags, and I'm not going to go into details there, but it's not a pretty picture. In March 7, Jesus, when engaging the religious elite whose traditions has taken place of the authority of the Word of God, used a picture of bowel movements to make the point that the cleansing people need to be concerned with is not on the outside, but what is on the inside, in the heart.

We have an internal and idolatry problem, and our plumbing is bad, and no amount of external morality or religious rituals can fix that problem. And in Philippians 3, the apostle Paul is so fired up in dealing with false teachers, the dogs as he calls them, who are promoting law-based works righteousness to be justified before a holy God. He drops a unique word, it's often translated rubbish or dung. Excrement is really the idea and it's pretty sharp in tone. And we could go on and on with that sort of lingo.

But just to say this, the Lord has tough words. He has descriptive words. He has serious words. Words that are meant to shake us up and get our attention. It's when we get away from the authority of his word and begin doing what is right in our own eyes.

And this is the storyline of the Bible, is that God does not wink at or tolerate any form of idolatry or those who propagate such things, and he does not spare any words, does he, to make this point crystal clear. In Romans 1, verses 18 through 25, the apostle Paul reminds us that Idolatry is not just one transgression in the mix of sinful humanity, but is what is fundamentally wrong with the human heart. It's why the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And Martin Luther's larger catechism, he explained that the reason idolatry is the first of the Ten Commandments is that because we never break the other commandments without first breaking this one and his concluding sentence in that was, let this suffice with respect to the first commandment which we have had to explain at length since it is of chief importance because as said before where their heart is rightly disposed toward God and this commandment is observed, all others will follow. Right after Joshua says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, he goes on to say to the people, I think a foreshadowing of the rest of the Old Testament and the nature of man in general, he says, you will not be able to serve the Lord, For he is a holy God, he is a jealous God.

If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done good to you. So if we're to be serious, I think, about Reformation, we had better have a healthy understanding of the reality that we are prone, we are prone, aren't we, to leave the God we love and to chase after counterfeit gods and it is such a big deal as we have heard all throughout this conference but it is certainly nothing we should be flippant about. I want to examine idolatry a little bit more closely, just, and you know, fortunately for us, you don't have to do a big biblical overview of idolatry, you can just read Judges one and two, and you get a real honed in global picture, I think, of what idolatry is. It's described as when somebody trusts, when somebody obeys, when somebody follows, when somebody serves, when somebody listens to, when somebody accepts or cozies up to, when somebody bows down to, when somebody practices the ways of, when someone becomes ensnared by, anyone or anything besides God and his word, and all of those terms I just referenced there are used multiple times just in Judges 1 and 2.

It's quite an umbrella that we're given there in Judges. So there's many angles I think we could look at idolatry from but for a simple-minded guy like myself, a pretty good working definition for me from the book of judges is, it's failing to trust our good God by doing whatever is right in our own eyes. So failing to trust our good God by doing what is right in our own eyes. This makes for a pretty easy question for my family and my church family. We can apply every day really in a plethora of situations both small and large in an attempt to bind our wanting hearts to these.

The question for us is are we doing what is right in our own eyes or are we doing what is right according to God's Word? And these are these are these are questions I want to be knee-jerk in my life to be to be questioned in the moment. Francis Schaeffer once said that the Christian life is to be lived moment to moment by faith and faith is believing the specific promises of God. It's no longer turning our backs on them, no longer calling God a liar. So a moment to moment viewing life through the lens of God's word and faith, trusting that he is wise and good.

And I want to flesh this out now a little more practically, this moment to moment faith in trusting our king. Several years back, my oldest is 15 now, but I think when he was probably four or five, we was at the in-laws visiting. It was raining really hard that day. And so we started surfing some channels. We're a sucker for animal shows, so that's what we were looking for, and that's what we found.

And there was, you know, I don't remember the guy's name, but you know, these guys go bazonkers when they're chasing these animals through the deserts and along beaches and all sorts of stuff, and really cool, cool creatures. And it comes across this leaf-tailed gecko. And it was fascinating. It had this real tree, cabela-type camo. Awesome.

It had this leaf, this tail that was shaped like a leaf, hence the name, leaf-tailed gecko, really cool. But it didn't have eyelids, it couldn't blink. And so it used its tongue as a windshield wiper. And at that moment, I really, I just broke out into doxology. My son is sitting here next to me and this is a fantastic creature and I says, Gavin isn't God incredible how he can create something like this out of nothing he just speaks X and a helo and and boom it comes into existence isn't God incredible and in the same millisecond the same millisecond, it's the same moment that I broke out in doxology, the man on TV also broke out in doxology, and he said, isn't nature amazing how this stuff can evolve from millions of millions of years out of nothing out of nothing.

We were looking at the same object right but through two completely different sets of presuppositions. Two authorities were at work, two foundations were in play. We each had assumed something about cosmology that greatly affected, didn't it, the attention, the affection, and direction of our worship. Through my worldview framework, my knee-jerk In the moment was what is right according to God's eyes concerning origins. And that broke out in worship.

Through his worldly framework, his knee-jerk moment reaction was what is right in my own eyes. We each had answered questions and determined, the way we each answered those questions determined the object of our worship. Now that's an obvious example, but I can tell you without hesitation that over, that Paige and I, my wife, over the last 19 years, we have often, often been quick to do what is right in our own eyes, which has greatly affected our worship, and when we considered and looked at things like our household, When we looked at our roles and responsibilities in marriage, when we looked at how we viewed children, how we viewed the discipline of our children, how we approached issues like modesty, hospitality, stewardship, our posture toward widows and orphans, our responsibility, my responsibility as an elder, ecclesiology, our approach to missiology, and so on and so forth, I just would be real honest with you, our knee-jerk reaction has often not been what is right according to God's word. And in every instance, we've realized this about ourselves, that we were in the moment, if you'd have asked us in those moments, We would have said we were claiming to believe in the sufficiency of scripture, but we had a disconnect regarding its functional reality, a disconnect between our confessional faith and our functional faith, a disconnect between our orthodoxy and our orthopraxy, a disconnect between our belief and practice.

They often, we see in our lives, have not been merging together like they should be. Sanctification, that's sanctification, right? Of being conformed to the image of the Son of God. Let me illustrate this a bit further of an example from earlier in our marriage. Please keep in mind, we're, my wife's here so she can vouch for, we're really slow learners.

Like the story of the two fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, the older fish nods at them and says, morning folks, how's the water? The two younger fish swim on for a bit, one of them looks at the other and says, what is water? And that, we have done that, folks, more times than I would like to let on. And I've often had to come back to my family and my church family and admit my failure and seek the forgiveness because I did what was right in my own eyes. And so last time I was at Ridgecrest was well over a decade ago.

I must have been in my mid-20s. And I wasn't too much older than the youth group that I had brought with me, and it was a worldview conference of all things. And at the time, I was part of leading a numerically growing purpose-driven church in the Bible Belt that was well equipped with every age-segregated program that had ever been invented by mankind. In fact, we had just built this beautiful, detached youth building adjacent to the main campus, renovated the bus barn into a pre-teen center. I practically lived at the church campus.

My identity was wrapped around my ministry title and busyness and I was derelict and irresponsible on my duties as a husband and a father, certainly disqualified from ministry, no doubt. Paige and I had two little ones. Our view was a boy for me, a girl for you, praise the Lord, we're finally through. She had a degree in interior design, very talented, and was pursuing those, things were taking off for her in that realm as well. We had just purchased 10 acres of land and we was about to build our dream home, one that Paige had designed, And the reason we bought the land in this area was because the property was located in the very best school district.

Now there's a host of things in that scenario that should be sort of worked through, but I just want to take that education of children piece for a second as an example. At the end of the day, we was just going to educate our children the way we thought was best, which is essentially what everybody else was doing, everybody we knew, because that was what is right in our eyes, And we had even intended to go the extra mile and make sacrifices to give them the very best in our eyes. And so here's the problem in all of that. We purchased that property in large part for the purpose of our children's education. We have never, we had never to that point ever entertained for a moment the question, what is right according to God's Word?

Not even once had it ever dawned on us to ask that question. In one of the most critical and significant areas of family life. We had never thought to ask, what does God's word say about this? And in the midst of this, really, by God's sheer grace, we looked at these two wild little creations climbing all over our legs that we called children, and God got our attention. And we thought, well, maybe God would have something to say about their discipleship and education.

Maybe, just maybe, the one who spoke the universe into existence, knit them in together in their mother's womb, who is sovereign over the affairs of men might just happen to have a few thoughts on the matter of discipleship and education. We'll come to find out. Much to our surprise, God has quite a lot to say on the subject and the Spirit. I don't know how the Spirit works in your life, but it's often a woodshed experience for me. He sort of takes the Word and rakes me over the coals with it.

And so we glean from the Word things like this. God speaks to us of our responsibility that children are a gift of the Lord and parents have been given the responsibilities to secure, guide, and control their education that they might be equipped in this world in all areas of life to think God's thoughts after him and to walk as Jesus walked. Secondly, we realize that God speaks of how our commitment should be, that this parental commitment toward children is a daily, word-saturated, gospel-driven effort that begins at breakfast and doesn't conclude until bedtime, And parents should diligently pursue their children in this way from birth through maturity for the glory of God. We realize that God speaks of, that we are to immerse them in truth, that the Lord has clearly expressed that neutrality is impossible, especially in the realm of education. And parents, therefore, have this joyful obligation and great privilege to immerse their children in the knowledge of God and hold Christ preeminent in all things.

Regardless, then, of whatever our children learn, from math to science to history to social studies, literature and arts, parents have a God-given duty to see to it that their children learn it as much as humanly possible with the perspective and application of a Christian worldview as derived from the Bible. We also realize that God's word tells us that we are to guard them or protect them from wolves. Parents, along with local churches in general, are charged with a solemn mandate to guard their children in their care from false prophets, corrupt teachers, bad company, and ungodly world views. And biblically speaking, if parents delegate any part of their children's education, it should be done with the utmost caution and thoughtfulness. Now, We could go on and on all day.

Things like this, I just want to say, things like this really got our wheels turning and it caused us to begin to ask then a whole bunch of questions about our lives and we realized that we had been approaching this critical area and many others, to be honest with you, solely from the lens of what is right in our own eyes. And there's a difference between Bible students, we read the Bible, eisegesis. We actually put our thoughts, we lay our lives over the word and we make the word say what we want it to instead of exegesis bringing the word out and laying the word over our lives and allowing the Bible to mold us. We were just simply reading the Word and molding it instead of allowing it to mold us. And once we begin to address this, we quickly realized some painful realities that we had some idols to deal with.

Idols on both the old side of the river, idols from our life before Christ, and idols that we were facing on the new side of the river, which, to be honest, were numerous, and we had a lot of junk to work through. And as for me and my house, there were things that we were trusting in, serving, listening to, following, bowing down to, practicing the ways of, accepting as the norm, just blindly following the spirit of the age, to be honest with you. And Paige and I had been educated in a certain way, and so had pretty much everyone that we had known. And I'm being very generous here, but I would say that 90% of the professing believers that we knew at the time were just like us. They had never given one of the most important decisions a family could make a moment's thought.

Never considered that God in his goodness might have given his people commands and principles to guide us in this area for his glory and our joy, truly like fish swimming in water and we didn't know it. Now Paige and I had functionally, we had functionally believed that scripture was insufficient for these kinds of decisions, obviously. And when this happens, ultimately and logically, subjectivism begins to set in because the foundation of the word is absent, right? And so, because there's no foundation, we realize that in our mindset, if for instance we wanted to delegate our kids' education to a local mosque with an imam, an extremist sect of Islam guiding the coursework that that would be no problem. We realized that If we wanted to delegate their education to a local ward where the Mormon bishop was the facilitator, not an issue.

To a witch doctor living in a tent outside the outskirts of town, why not? To a secular humanist system in an approved government building, No problem. Or to the idol-worshipping Moabites, whose headmaster is the king Aglon, not a problem. This is exactly what Moses meant in orthopraxy from the text in Deuteronomy 6, right? No.

Since we believe functionally that God has nothing to say about the training and discipleship of our children, then everyone is free to do what is right in their own eyes in this area of life. And as such, to question that freedom in education, for instance, today can create quite a stir, can it? In fact, this topic can get a church leader fired or removed quicker than committing adultery or stealing from the offering plate. Does that make sense? These are called sacred cows for a reason, right?

Not practicing the sufficiency of scripture leads down the slippery slope of chaos and anarchy and moral confusion in areas like this and a whole host of other things. And we just we realized very quickly in our home and in the American church at large that there are areas that we have been unwilling to let the word of God challenge, areas that are off limits, untouchable, areas that have made us too uncomfortable to even have healthy conversations about, areas that have not been on the table for discussion in our lives, areas that we're where we proclaim that this is mine and the Lord has no right or authority to speak into these areas of our lives. Now We obviously would never articulate those words out loud, but truth be told, that is what we believed in practice, and over the years we realized this tension in our lives, and even the last couple days that we've been in this conference we realized this tension. And so it's difficult, it was difficult for us because it attacked some of our core idols in our hearts which set off this chain reaction. I once heard that idols are like spiritual addictions.

They're like a drug. The most painful times in our lives are when idols are being threatened or removed. It wasn't easy for us to stand up like Joshua and say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We had been worshiping at another altar for a long time and it just simply was not easy. So what should be our response when we find ourselves doing what is right in our own eyes?

Someone once said that the first duty of intelligent men and women is a restatement of the obvious. In many ways this is what the Reformation is about, isn't it? It's what this conference is about. And I think Judges helps us restate the obvious. And four words come to my mind.

When I teach my children to read the Bible, I teach them four words. God, man, Christ's response. What does the text say about God? What does the text say about man? How does this point us to the person work of Christ or his example?

And then what should be our response? Always repentance and faith. So as we close, I just wanna restate some obvious things. One, regarding God, judges reminds us that he's sovereign over men and nations and history, he's always in control, even when things seem chaotic, and we're reminded of his awesome power, no one can thwart his plans, and you know what's really cool? That's even true for our sanctification.

In Romans 8, it says, those who are in Christ have been predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. That is the destination of which the sovereign God has placed in our lives. So there's great comfort in me for that, that he is not going to leave me alone in this process. And so I'm also reminded very vividly that he is a holy and jealous God and as such he does simply not tolerate any form of evil or idolatry. It's serious.

Idolatry is serious before our King and we should be careful to turn from and pass by idols. As the tagline in 1 John 5 21 says, little children, guard yourselves from idols. When we begin doing what is right in our own eyes, each time, isn't it? It's a failure to recognize the goodness and wisdom of God. So when we stop asking questions like, what is right according to God's Word?

We're telling the Lord in no uncertain terms, God I don't trust you that you are good. I don't believe that you are wise nor do I think it would be prudent or helpful for me to embrace your words. And on a micro level, it's kind of like my two-year-old looking at me and saying, Dad, I think you're a fool, and I'm not going to listen or consult you or what you have to say because I don't believe it's good for me. Right? So instead we should be seeking this posture of moment to moment practicing the opposite of what we're reading in Judges 1 and 2 in particular, to trust, obey, follow, serve, listen to, accept, bow down to, become ensnared by God and his word scripture alone.

What does this say about man? I think the text reminds us of our nature, right? I too am prone to wonder just like the Israelites, and I am not above, and I hope you realize this too, we are not above being swept up in idolatry. We're not above chasing after counterfeit gods that tickle our ears. Not above even seeking to please men instead of God.

Not above swimming in water and not even knowing it. We must always be reforming moment to moment. What does God say? That our knee jerk in every issue, big and small, be what does the word of God have to say about this? I need to be quick to recognize that weakness and to abide in him, remembering out of Deuteronomy 6 that He is Lord, I should love Him with everything I got, and I've just got to be saturating my life with His word all the time in the life of those who've been entrusted to me.

God, please forgive that I would be unwilling to repent for 18 long years of hard discipline or even for 18 days or 18 minutes, God please help me to be aware of and looking for patterns or cycles of idolatry creeping into my life and the life of my family, my church, when we're aren't submitting to his word. God please put people in my life like Joshua who will walk with me and remind me to be on guard against idols, people who, like the writers of Hebrews 3 says, that they'll encourage one another day after day so that their hearts won't be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And God, please help me to be courageous enough, like Joshua, to warn my fellow brothers and sisters of the dangers of idolatry. Christ, God, man, Christ. Judges reminds us of the gospel, right?

The incarnate one. God the Son remained who he was, which was God, and he became who he was not, which was man, fully God and fully man. He alone is qualified to be our judge, our savior, our warrior, our king. He alone can deliver us from this perpetual cycle of idolatry once for all, and to put us in right relationship with the Father. He alone can stir up my hearts with the gift of repentance as Spurgeon noted, a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it.

It is in fact a change of mind, a very deep and practical character which makes the man love what he once hated, that was God, and hate what he once loved, which is idols. Thomas Watson said it this way, repentance is a grace of God's spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. God's grace alone is key to our reformation. O to grace how great a debtor daily I am constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.

Titus 2 says that God's grace appeared bringing salvation. It's actually instructing us, training us, it's constraining us to denying godliness and worldly desires, showing us how to live sensibly, righteously in God in the present age. And it's what's also motivating us, he says, he purifies the people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. And our response, and I'm out of time, several minutes out of time, leads us to this, our response and by God's grace, I'm thankful that this has been, the topic of the conference is repentance, right? Let me just close with Colossians 3.

It says that Christ has been raised up Because you have been chosen by God as his beloved, then set your minds on him. Put off sexual immorality and morality, evil desires and greed, which amounts to idolatry, and put off that and put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, love, bearing with and forgiving one another. Why? What is our motivation? Well just as the Lord forgave you, you can look all over the scripture.

You have a trouble with greed? Well look at Christ who poured his life out. You have trouble with idolizing yourself and pouring your life out for others and grumbling and complaining. We'll look at the incarnate one who gave it all up and went to the cross. Constantly, repentance and faith, that is our motivation and is our response for the glory of God.

I'll close with this. Several years ago I was at a brother's church and Richard Owen Roberts spoke and he said this. He was an old man at the time I heard this, an old man, and he said, I've been preaching repentance for a lot of years and this has always stuck with me. He says, but I've only seen a handful of men repent, repent. And so my prayer is that the goodness of God, the goodness of God would motivate and bind our wandering hearts to thee for his glory and our joy.

And with that, let me close in prayer and I'll be dismissed. Lord, I'm reminded of a period in Thomas Watson, in his writings he says, Let it not be said that repentance is difficult. Things that are excellent deserve labor. Will not a man dig for gold in the ore, though it makes him sweat? And Lord, I pray that that would be our posture as a people, that it wouldn't be difficult.

It deserves our labor, our moment-to-moment faith, our moment-to-moment saturating our lives with your word, giving all of who we are to you, remembering who you are. And Lord, though we dig for gold in the ore and it makes us sweat it is worth every ounce of it you are so beautiful and so worthy of our worship and we love you it's in Christ's name I pray amen thank you guys Pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you guys.

Thank you Adam. It's always a blessing to listen to somebody that you know is in Scripture when they can take judges and things about entrails falling out and bring it to Scripture and not skip over it. And you know that he's doing that in his church body at home and you know he's doing that in his home at home with his children, which is a blessing. So we appreciate you taking the time to do that and bring this to us. So if you do have any questions about where to head next, please don't hesitate to grab me.

There's a whole bunch more breakouts going on before we do the main thing. And I'm just gonna pray before we head out. Father, we are so grateful for this day. Father, I'm so grateful that you brought Adam and his family here safely. Father, we do pray for his children that aren't feeling well that you would bring healing to them.

Father, we pray for his ministries that he's involved in back home. But Father, we thank you, Lord, for his heart to remove the idols from his life and help us Lord to see the idols in our life the real idols Lord of of things like parenting and modesty in Church and church life and what we're doing in real life Lord So father we Thank you for this opportunity you've given us to learn today, and I pray, Lord, that we would all consider to search our own hearts and our own lives on these matters. In your mighty name we pray, amen. You are dismissed. Thank you.

Session going in here?