Living With An Incomplete Victory

Study of the Book of Judges

Sermon # 2 

“Second Generation Believers”

Judges 2:7-13 

How many of you are at least second generation believers? By that I mean your parents were Christians before you were. Some of you are even 3^rd or 4^th generation believers. Your grandparents and perhaps even your great grandparents were believers. In one sense that is a great blessing, a blessing of spiritual heritage. But within that blessing can lie a danger, the danger of taking your beliefs for granted. The danger is of not making your faith personal.

Perhaps this story describes your life,

“While I made a verbal profession of faith at a young age [age of seven], the truth of the matter is that several of the other boys in my Sunday School class were being baptized, and I didn’t want to be left out. In my growing years I acknowledged the truth of the doctrines of Christianity, but I had no relationship with Jesus Christ. In retrospect, because I believed my parents and they did not lie to me. I therefore believed them when they told me about Jesus. I had placed my faith in their faith; I was in a manner of speaking, God’s grandchild, not his child. My walk and the choices I made over the next several years gave little evidence of being born again.” [K. Lawson Younger Jr. “The NIV Application Commentary: Judges Ruth. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002) p. 49.]

You will remember that Joshua’s final Word to Israel were words of personal testimony regarding his own decision: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD¨(Joshua 24:15b).

Though the children of Israel responded very positively to Joshua’s words and personal example they failed to follow through. Turn with me to Judges 2:7. The good news was that “they served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD which He had done for Israel¨ (Judges 2:7). Now turn to Judges 2:10. The bad news was that after that generation had died out, another generation had come on the scene “who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.¨ (Judges 2:10). The phrase describing this generation as those “who did not know the LORD¨ has to be understood in the sense not acknowledging him. It was not that the people did not know ‘about’ God it was that they did not ‘know’ God! It was not they were ignorant of God it was that they chose to ignore Him and his word. It is more a case of indifference than one of ignorance. Four Principles for us today.

First and foremost, Every Generation Must Choose God For Themselves.

Some of the saddest words in all of scripture are recorded beginning in Judges 2:11, “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals; (12) and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger. (13) They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.¨

In only one generation the whole nation had gone from worshipping the one true god to the worship of idols. After Joshua’s death, his generation served God as they said they would but not so their children. This generation was changed by the pagan culture that surrounded them, rather than reaching their pagan culture with the truth. This new generation did not pass on the religious heritage to their children. They did not rehearse for their children all that God had done for them, they did not instruct their children in God’s word. In only one generation the children of Israel went from serving and worshipping the one true God to be immersed in the pagan culture around them living lives of open sin.

The second generation has a natural tendency to accept the status quo and to lose the vision of the first generation. The second generation has at tendency to lukewarmness toward the things of God and perhaps a complete abandon of the principles that guided the previous generation. All too often the second-generation also has a second hand experience with God. But, God doesn’t have any grandchildren. Clearly, God wants a first generation relationship with each of us.

Every Generation must choose God for themselves and …

Secondly, Any Society That Rejects God’s Standards Is Headed For Ruin.

You will remember from last week that the last verse of the book of Judges is a pretty clear summary of the whole time period: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes¨(21:25). Because Israel had rejected God’s standard; there was no standard. It seems obvious that this also speaks to our day as well. Look how far this nation has fallen in one generation. We have removed God from our schools, we have forbid our children from praying, we have rejected God’s word as a standard for our society. The old three R’s of the educational system of; reading, writing and arithmetic, have now been replace by games, guns and getting high. 

“Historian Arnold Toynbee stated that of the 22 civilizations appearing on the stage of world history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the present moral condition of the United States.

In 1973 Dr. Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled “Whatever Became of Sin.¨ The well-known psychiatrist sensed the loss of old-fashion morality in the unrestrained permissiveness of modern society and expressed his alarm.
      …. The president of John Hopkins University, Dr. Steven Muller asserts: Failure to rally around a set of values means we are turning out highly skilled barbarians. Society as a whole is turning out barbarians because of the discarding of the value system it was built on, to restore the value system America would have to return to its faith in God. There can be no value system where there is no supreme value that transcends man’s natural self-centeredness, where one man’s values are esteemed as good as another’s.¨ [As quoted in Donald Campbell. Judges: Leaders in Crisis Times. (Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1989) pp. 12-13]

The result today is no standard of conduct, in its place we have situational ethics. Everyone has to decide for them selves if something is right or wrong for them personally in their own given circumstances. The result of course is chaos.  Is it always wrong to steal? Well according to situational ethic, that depends. It depends on whether you are hungry and whether you have any money. It is up to the individual to decide based on their situation whether it is wrong to steal. There is a Greek word for that, ABSURD!!!!  

       American would be wise to listen to the Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn as he wrote about the fate that had overtaken his country under the Communists. He wrote, “Over half a century ago while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia. ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all of this has happened.’ Since then I have spend well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people. I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this happened.” [Alexander Solzhentisyn. Religion in Communist Dominated Areas. (New York: Research Center for Religious and Human Rights in Closed Societies, 1983) p. 54]

Notice with me the downward slide in the process of the degeneration of Israel.

The Process of Degeneration In Israel 

Joshua’s Generation
The people served the Lord (Judges 2:7)
?     Joshua stands as an example of that “one man, committed unreservedly to God and His Word, can make an enormous difference for good in the lives of people. One woman living her life for Jesus Christ can bring blessing to a wholegroup of people. … The truth is written many times in Scripture.” [Gary Inrig. Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay. (Chicago: Moody, 1979) p. 17] 

The Next Generation
They failed to model and teach their children (Judges 2:10)
?
The Next Generation

They did evil in the sight of the Lord and served other gods. (Judges 2:11)  

Moses had warned the leaders of the necessity of keeping God’s law in Deuteronomy. In the fact the term Deuteronomy is derived from two Greek words: deutros meaning “second¨ and nomos meaning “law.¨ Therefore Deuteronomy means a second giving of the law. In Deuteronomy the sixth chapter we find rather pointed advice for living a long and fruitful life. Moses tells them that he is repeating these laws and statutes so that they as well as the next generation may “fear the LORD your God¨ (v. 2). Moses did not want the next generation to repeat the mistake of willful rebellion that had kept the children of Israel for forty years in the wilderness. Moses said in verse three “There-fore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you….¨

Any Society the rejects God’s standards is headed for ruin and…

Third, The Only Really Effective Motivation For Our Conduct Is Our Love For God. (Deut 6:5-6)

Moses reminded them that their obedience to God should come for love for God and hearts filled with gratitude for His goodness. In Deut 6:5 we read, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (6) And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.¨ Moses knew that when this generation had settled down in the land that the temptation would be to forget about God.

The Only Really Effective Motivation For Our Conduct Is Our Love For God and… 

Fourth, Every Generation Is Accountable For Passing The Faith To The Next Generation. (Deut 6:7-9)

       I often tell people at a funeral that the most important thing you will leave behind with your children is not money, wealth, houses or property but a godly heritage. In Deut 6:7-9 we read, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. (8) You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (9) You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

This does not mean that they are to be continuously lecturing their children, it means that they are to continuously live out their faith on a daily basis. They are to use every possible opportunity to communicate their own love for God and their commitment to keeping His commandments. I fear that this is still a problem for us as believers today; to live out our faith in a consistent fashion before our children. To convince them by what they see of our lives what our priorities are. Children soon pick up on how important God and His Word is to you. If you ignore God’s principles in living your life you can be sure that your children will notice. If you allow other thing to have priority in your life ahead of your time to be in the place of worship they notice. They notice that church attendance is an option, but not a commit-ment. They notice how much you give to the church. And what is not very important to you will be even less important to your children. The sins that you allow they commit to excess.

Unfortunately the generation that followed Joshua did exactly what both Moses and Joshua had warned against. They failed to love God with all their hearts. They did not pass on their faith to their children and the end result according to Judges 2:13, was that Israel “forsook the Lord.¨ The book of Judges is the record of this tragic three hundred year period in the history of Israel.

Although the Lord was very angry with their decisions he never turned His back on their cry for help. The book of Judges is the record of the seemingly unending downward spiral of the children of Israel during this time.

First, Israel would fall into sin, then the resulting judgment or chastisement, would lead the people to repent and call out to God for deliverance. Unfortunately the tears they shed were more signs of regret for the penalty then they were tears of repentance. But nonetheless God always answered and delivered and restored his people. Then would come a time of rest and peace unfortunately only to be followed by Israel forgetting about God and falling into sin, and the process started all over again. But each time they repeated the cycle they spiraled downward. When the nation had reached its lowest point, God revealed his compassion and grace in the judges!

Conclusion
”We are living in the middle of a thick moral fog. Millions around us are committed to doing what is right in their own eyes. That is the path of personal and social disaster. God has called us to listen to His direction. The path of safety is the opposite [converse] of Judges 2:21-25. Not “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.¨ but “Everyone did what was right in His eyes.” When men in the time of the judges lived by that standard, God used them to bring freedom and victory to His people.¨ [Inrig. pp. 291-294]

The slogan of the Outback Steak House is “NO Rules - Just Right” … but I suspect that if you went into the restaurant and seated yourself ahead of those waiting in line, ordered things that were not on the menu and then left without paying you would discover that OutBack had rules after all.

As human beings we do not like to be told what to do, yet the truth is that we cannot live without rules, the question then becomes who’s rules are you going to live by.

I want to leave you with a few things to ponder:

1. The basis of moral behavior is of critical importance. Why you do what you do is as important as what you do. Why do I say that? Because if your moral behavior is not grounded on the absolutes of God’s word you will end of doing what is right in your own eyes.

2. Situational ethics is degrading and dehumanizing. It does not take a genius to figure out that our country is in trouble. We are terribly confused as a society, ethically and morally.

3. Right and wrong are not what man thinks they are, it is what God says that they are.