Passing The Test
Gtcotr/ss081504
With all of the devastation our world is waking up to day by day, it almost seems like Jesus should be coming soon.
Our new millennium began with more than three dozen ongoing major wars, add the minor wars and conflicts and over ½ of our world is in some type of civil or military unrest. (Source: The Center for Defense Information, www.cdi.org)
In the last month the countries of Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal have all encountered huge invasions of swarms of locusts threatening crops, livestock and blamed for a drastic increase in mass allergy attacks in humans. (Sources: Aljazeera & USA Today)
The Asteroid named, 2002 NT7, we are told, is on an impact course with earth and could strike the planet on 1 February, 2019 with enough force to completely obliterate one continent and cause global climate changes. (Source: BBC News)
Earthquakes and famine continue to plague many nations of the world.
Then there are the mammoth storms. This week Hurricane Charley delivered it’s own unexpected and unwelcome devastation on Florida and the whole East Coast of United States.
Wars & Threats of Wars, Plagues & Pestilence, Earthquakes & Famine, Signs In The Heavens ---
Perhaps the last grains of sand are trickling out in the time piece on heaven’s mantle.
Our text this morning will come from the book of Judges, Chapter 3
While you are turning there, I have two key scriptures for us today:
Key Scriptures:
John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (NKJV)
1 John 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (NKJV)
I believe that Jesus is coming soon but before He gets here, we will most likely be faced with challenges which we need to overcome.
I know that If I can get you to trust God, then you will have a chance.
Text: Judges 3 (NKJV)
1 ¶ Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel by them, that is, all who had not known any of the wars in Canaan
2 (this was only so that the generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least those who had not formerly known it),
3 namely, five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
4 And they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.
The next verse says that the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel
I. The Five Lords Of The Philistines
A. It stands to reason that if God’s children are unable to recognize and neutralize their natural enemies, then they will never be able to discern and defeat their spiritual enemies.
B. Perhaps it was not so much the adversity or war that God wants His children to experience in this life, but rather the supernatural intervening all powerful deliverance of God for those who live right and call upon His name.
C. But at any rate, in this life, there is:
1. A Certainty Of Adversity
2. A Pathway To Success
II. The Devil Is Deceptive
A. God has a set time to deal with the devil - until then - evil will be present with us.
B. One day, as the song says, ‘We Will Study War No More’
* Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3
C. One day nation will not lift up sword against nation
D. One day they shall beat their swords into plowshares
E. One day God will say it is all over and will chain the devil up -
F. One day we will study war no more …
G. But this is not that day!
III. God Wants His Children To Be Ready For The Battle
A. Able To Recognize The Enemy &
B. Able To Neutralize The Enemy
IV. God Has Choices
A. It was God’s choice to leave the 5 Lords of the Philistines among the children of Israel.
1. Not to defeat His children
2. But to prepare them for the greater battles of life
B. God proveth us by afflictions, Non ut ipse sciat, sed ut scire nos faciat, not to better his own knowledge, but ours. Augustine
V. Five Lords Of The Philistines
A. Samuel names them as:
1. Ashdod
2. Gaza
3. Ashkelon
4. Gath
5. Ekron
B. Judges 3:5 tell us they are represented by: … the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites
C. Whatever their names, nationalities or natures, their goal was to do one thing:
1. Make War With The Children Of God!
2. In efforts to defeat them
3. And defeat them they did
* Not by conquest
* But by consent
VI. The Process Of Being Overcome - or - Failing The Test
Judges 3
5 Thus the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons; and they served their gods.
7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs.
A. 5 Departures From God
1. Dwelt Among Ungodly Nations
2. Intermixed, Intermingled & Intermarried
3. Did Evil In The Sight Of The Lord
4. Forgot The Lord Their God
5. Served The Baals And Asherahs
B. They Became One With The World Around Them
1. One in Community & Business
2. One in Politics & Culture
3. One in Vice & Habit
4. One in Leisure & Pleasure
5. One in Worship & Religion
VII. We Cannot Be Like The World And Be Like Jesus
A. We Are To Be In The World - Not Of The World
B. The Enemies Of Christ Are Your Enemies
C. New Testament Theology On ‘Passing The Tests Of Life’
2 Corinthians 6
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people."
17 Therefore "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty."
VIII. Overcoming In Today’s World
A. Do Not Be Unequally Yoked
B. Do Not Be Assimilated Into The Worldly Collective
C. Do No Evil
D. Do Not Forget Who And Whose You Are
E. Have No Other Gods In Your Life
If ever the prayer, Lead me not into temptation, was warranted, now is the time.
We don’t want God taking time out of His busy schedule to show us what we are made of.
Let’s just follow Him. Obey Him. And when tested, pass the test!
God is preparing you for a greater day of battle.
Don’t be overcome by the world!
