L1 of Old Testament History II

[clears throat] Let us pray.

Our gracious, loving, heavenly Father, we thank and praise Thee, oh God, for the new semester that You have ordained before the foundation of the world for us to study Thy holy word in this Bible college. We pray, oh Lord, for Thy Holy Spirit to help us, especially the students, throughout this entire semester, that they must never forget that they are studying the word of everlasting life, even though the Bible may appear as a textbook along the way. Put the fear of God in all their hearts, helping them, oh Lord, to always give their very best unto Thee. Preserve and protect the Bible college against the wiles of the devil, both from within and without. That the college will remain faithful and true to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the training of Thy servants and in the proclamation of Thy inherent, infallible, divinely inspired, and preserved word of everlasting life.

Cleanse us and wash us, oh God, of all our sins by the blood of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray, Father, for Thy Holy Spirit to be our teacher once again tonight. Help us never to lean on self nor our own wisdom, but always upon Thee and Thee alone to grant us understanding. And with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in every child of Thine, may the word of God truly come alive and be the milk and meat to our thirsty and our hungry soul. We commit tonight's study of Thy holy word unto Thy loving hand; may it fall on good ground. And may the word of God sanctify every heart for Jesus' sake. In Jesus' most precious and holy name, we give thanks and pray. Amen.

All right. Please make sure that you have a copy of the book for our study, Old Testament History, Part Two, Course Requirement, to have an overview of God's plan of salvation. Continuing from OT History Part One. Those who have not taken Part One, it's fine. You can continue from Part Two and then Part Three and then go back to Part One because they are independent units based upon the complete books that we're going to study. And OT History Part Two, we shall focus from Judges all the way to the end of 2 Samuel, that means the end of David's life. This is to help the student have a good overview of the Old Testament. We need to have a good overview of the Old Testament in order to understand the New Testament and each and every individual book of the Old Testament as well. Overview is always very important so that whatever you teach, you know that it is within what you have learned and understood before and after.

English Bible in the Authorized Version will be our primary focus. All your quizzes will be taken from the King James Bible. Don't forget that. Course notes, please take note. All your exams will be from the course notes. The exam will be two hours long. You will have a couple of hundreds of fill-in-the-blanks, multiple-choice, as well as essay questions. Requirement of the course. I have eliminated the need to write a research paper. Required reading: you have to read through from now onwards, Judges all the way to 2 Samuel, only once. Weekly quizzes will commence next week Monday. Please take note of the schedule. So next week, we're going to have the first quiz, Judges 1 to 3. There will be 11 questions. You will be upon 10. And so question number 11 is a bonus. If you get one wrong, you can get 10 upon 10. If you get all correct, you should give yourself 11 upon 10. All right? So, the 11th question will be asked of you. So, one extra bonus for you to just maybe make a mistake, and if you make mistakes, you can catch up with the next quiz because there's an extra bonus point for you. So, work hard.

Please take note of the grading system. The quiz is 30% of your overall grade. So, please make sure you work hard throughout. Don't be lazy. No last-minute study. Please, this is not secular subjects where you can just do last-minute study and then spot some topics and then maybe you spot the right topic and when the right topic comes out, voila, you did well in your exam. But all the rest of the other topics you're ignorant of, you spot right and you got it right and that's it. And so, even though you may get A+, but you know in your heart of hearts that the other parts of the subject you did not study, you spotted so that you can study just for the sake of passing the exam. This is not a secular subject book written by man. This is the word of God. And that's why the exam has so many questions, a couple of hundred, so that you will have to study everything. Because bad habits are very, very hard to get rid of. And some of you might be very desperate to pass and do well. Some of you may have already received a warning letter from the principal because you are below your GPA that you need to have for your course. Bachelor's 3.0, I think, or is that Master's? Whatever it is, you make sure you need to do well in order for you to boost up your overall GPA, or else you could be sent home. And when you are sent home, it could be very shameful. And you do not want to be shamed by your failure. Because when you go back and your loved ones and family members who may have sacrificed to buy you your plane ticket to come here, and they ask you, "What happened? Why are you back so soon? Are you going back to complete your studies?" You've got to tell them the truth. I have failed so badly that I have been sacked. I've been asked to leave the Bible college. And out of this desperation, you may want to cut corners. You may want to cheat. Don't you succumb to that temptation. You do not want to begin a ministry of preaching and teaching God's word where holiness and righteousness is the hallmark of all servants of God. You do not want to begin your ministry by cheating and by lying. Oh, you will succeed, probably, to cheat and deceive us lecturers. We are not omniscient, but the one that you should be most concerned with is God. And He knows. And if you are born again, your conscience will continue to prick you, and you will never have peace in your heart for the rest of your life until you confess. But would you confess? You might get zero. You're going to get zero for a grade, or you're going to carry this burden of sin for the rest of your life. Like the brothers of Joseph, they killed Joseph by selling him to the Egyptian slave traders, thinking that that's how they're going to get rid of him. They thought they killed him. They deceived the father, put blood on his coat of many colors, and then they lived with that lie, that deception for the next 22 years until they met up with Joseph, and Joseph revealed himself. That was the only time when peace returned into their soul. So, you do not want to begin your life of ministry by cheating in your studies. Please, don't ever let that happen.

Never study for the sake of passing and get a grade. Always study because this is the word of life. You study with the right reason, for Jesus' sake, that you may know Him better, know God better, and do your best and trust God to take care of the results, the grades. You study and you write papers to please your lecturer; you are already on the wrong path. You never study or do anything to please any human being. You study to please God. You write your papers to please God. Don't write your paper, "If I write it this way, that way, what will Reverend Quack do? What will this lecturer do? Will the lecturer pass me? What does he think? How will..." You don't do any of these things. The moment you do that, is that what you're going to do when you start your ministry and start preaching, pleasing the congregation, pleasing men? Is that what you're going to do? Please men all your life? That's a hilling mentality. You have already transgressed by your carnal philosophy of life and ministry of pleasing man. You study God's word because this is God's word. You do your research paper because there is one portion of God's word that you have always wanted to find out, and now is the best time for you to dig deep into the research to find out what exactly this passage means. That should be your attitude to learn and to discover the truth that is found in God's word. So, don't forget that in the busyness of your study where you're going to be graded, it's so easy to forget that the Bible is the book of life and not just a textbook that I could fail from. So, please don't forget. Remember this: there will be a final exam, as already mentioned, 60%. So, please take note: 10, 30, and 60. There is no need for you to keep a reading log. At the end, there will be your exam. The first question that you are to answer when you get your final exam is: "How many percentage of the assigned reading did you complete?" Honesty system. Again, if you want to lie, you put 100% when you only read 85%. I'll give you full marks. 10 upon 10. Last semester, some of you are not very smart. You didn't complete your normal reading, this is reading God's word, and you get full marks, 10%. Some of you only 70%, 65%, some even zero. They didn't read, or they read, but they didn't bother to mark it. I got, I gave them zero. I'm not going to call you up and ask you, "Hey, did you forget to mark how many percent?" This is not kindergarten. This is a Bible college. It is your responsibility. If you have read it, you put it. You forget, you fail. You get zero. Even though you read it, I won't give you any mark. You get zero because you did not record it down properly. So, please read it. That 10% of the overall grade, it's all yours. If you do not read it, the maximum you can get is 90%. I guarantee none of you will be able to get it perfect. 200 over questions plus essay. No way you can get it perfect. So, the moment you don't complete your reading, 10%, the maximum you can get is 90%. 90 is a minus. And since you're never going to get it perfect, the highest you can get is 80 plus. 80 plus, the highest is B+. B+, that's it. You get A, you get full 4.0. You get B+, 3 point something for two credits. And if you need to boost up your low GPA, you should try and get 4.0. Okay? So, make sure all these assignments are all up to you. The first week of your semester, you should obtain all the assignments for the rest of the semester. Get your planner and mark down all your submission dates and then mark down your complete date. When do you plan to complete all your assignments? And give yourself a buffer so that when it is time for you to submit, always submit on time. Discipline yourself because in the ministry, when you are given a speaking engagement, you cannot say, "I forgot. I'm late." On time, it's very, very shameful to be late. There was one incident, a funeral. The pastor was supposed to conduct the funeral was half an hour late. It was shameful. And when he arrived, there was no apology. He was smiling as if it was very funny. What's so funny about coming late for the burial of a loved one? The last day of a funeral is always the most painful because this will be the last time they're going to see their loved ones on earth physically. The moment you cover the coffin, it's done. That's why the last day is the most painful. And this pastor was late, and then he laughed, and he smiled, no apology. And then the whole service was conducted so shamefully. I was there. I didn't even bother to greet the pastor because it was so shameful. He's supposed to be comforting the bereaved, to focus on Christ, to encourage them, to bring to remembrance the promises of God's word that the loved one is safe in the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as you sorrow, do not sorrow without hope of meeting your loved one again, and then to share the gospel with the bereaved, those who are not yet saved. None of these things was spoken. It was just laughter, and he talked about himself rather than to comfort the bereaved. Don't you ever, ever do things like that. This is shameful and so hurtful. And the bereaved family members will remember this moment for the rest of their lives. "This was how my loved one was buried. So terribly done." Be sensitive. You are being trained to be a servant of God, to comfort God's people, feed them, protect them, nurture them. And if you don't even bother to discipline yourself to have a right attitude toward God's word, do you think God will want to trust you to look after the souls of men, women, and children that He redeemed with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Would He want to trust you? You can't even take care of something that is, to me, insignificant. You pass, you fail. It's just a piece of paper. Now, you pass, you get a grade A, you fail, it's just an F, red in color. That's it. Only person who gets hurt is yourself. Work harder next time. But once you're in the ministry, you fool around. You do not do your due diligence and prepare your word, the word of God, properly, last minute, half-hearted, no preparation. You think the Lord doesn't know? You think He's blind and deaf? You hurt God's people by abusing God's word. You stand here, don't forget this is holy ground. That's what the Lord reminded Moses in the burning bush. He saw nothing. "Take off the sandal, for the ground thereon you stand is holy." But all he heard was the voice of God teaching us what? Everywhere where the word of God is proclaimed, you better look down at your feet. This is now holy ground. You're now proclaiming God's word on behalf of the Almighty. So make sure that every word that you speak is properly well-prepared and it is accurately proclaimed according to holy scriptures. If it is not, you're misrepresenting God. You're telling a lie. You're deceiving people. So, work hard and study hard. There are no half measures.

Okay, I removed the research paper. You probably will return in Part Three, maybe. Because OT history, when I first started, is usually in the morning, three hours per semester. So there should be only two research papers, but then it is divided into two hours each. So instead of two, now it's three research papers. And some of you, your English is so poor. Told you last semester, no usage of AI or anything. But last semester, when I marked some of the research papers, oh, I passed you, but when I talked to you, you can't speak properly. But then when I looked at your research paper, near-perfect English. What happened? You mean the filling of the Holy Spirit was so powerful that you can't speak English properly on a day-to-day basis, but then suddenly when you write research paper, it comes out near perfect. Should I give you zero or full marks? Hmm. Should I pass you or fail you? You tell me. If I give you zero, oh, I got caught cheating. The lecturer caught me. Okay, I got zero. Problem done. You repent. That's it. But if I give you a passing grade, 85%, 90%, you carry this deception for the rest of your life. Right? And so, some of you, I passed. So now you carry this deception for the rest of your life. You are told, "Cannot use AI or any of these tools. You write your own." But some of you did not. Some of you did, and you failed because your thoughts, your ideas were all jumbled up. But at least you were honest. Those who were dishonest, you passed. But now you carry in your heart that deception. You're going to tell the truth. You tell me the truth. This time around, I will tell the office, "Give this person zero." Or you're going to carry this burden. You get a good grade. But then in the ministry, every time you want to talk about, preach about what? "Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not tell lies." You know you're talking about your own self, and you have no moral authority to preach that kind of message because you are a liar, a cheater yourself, a cheat. And then you know the Bible tells us, "If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord will not hear you." You render yourself spiritually completely useless, all because of what? A grade. Is that how cheap you regard your ministry and your integrity? Just a grade and that's it. Work hard and improve. Study hard. Don't do anything that you're going to regret. The Lord watches. We talk so much about Him being the one living and true God. It's true. He is the one living and true God. That means He sees, He knows, He hears, He watches. And you're here as Christians, right? So represent Christ properly in your heart and in your life. Don't lie. Don't cheat. So, I removed the research paper so you don't have to lie. I don't have to cheat. All right.

Any question? No question. Let's begin. Page one. OT history begins with God's creation. Genesis 1. When God created the world, the world was perfect. Adam and Eve were the apex or the climax of His six-day, 24-hour creation. And then God said it was very good. Before that, it was just good. When He created Adam and Eve in His own image, He said it was very good. When God created Adam and Eve, what relationship did God have with Adam and Eve? Parent and child. They were God's children. Don't forget that it was not a creator-creature relationship. How do we know that? Because God said, "Let us make man in our own image." Remember how God created the rest? All of them will reproduce after their own image, right? The horse, just male, female, they will reproduce after its own image. And so, when God first created Adam and Eve in its own image, it means the relationship was parent and child, father and children. Adam and Eve were God's children. That's why the prodigal son parable, returning home. So, when you become a Christian, you were basically returning home, returning to the Father. When they sinned, Eve was the one who sinned first in Genesis 3. She was deceived, but the sinful nature did not fall into her because her eyes were not yet opened. She was not the representative man. Adam was only after she ate, she took the fruit and gave it to Adam. After Adam ate, then both their eyes were opened, according to the Bible. That's where the sinful nature entered into Adam and Eve. And the fall was complete. It was not a very slow, gradual fall from perfect and then slowly less perfect, less perfect, and then maybe 100 years later, very, very depraved. The moment they fell, it was total depravity, immediately evident by the murdering Cain. Cain, who murdered his own brother Abel in Genesis 4. When man fell, God already gave the first gospel in Genesis 3:15. "The seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent, but in the process, the serpent will bruise his heel." That means the seed of the woman will die, but it will not be a permanent death. That is the Lord Himself. And from that point onwards, the rest of the Old Testament will be God's way of revealing to us bit by bit throughout hundreds and thousands of years the identity of the Messiah, the seed of the woman. It was supposed to be the lineage of Abel, but because Cain killed Abel, God replaced Abel with Seth. And then you have the line of Seth in Genesis clearly revealed to us. And then, sadly, tragically, before the Messiah could come, the world, after 1,656 years after God first created it, became so evil and so bad that God had to destroy the old earth by water in the days of Noah in Genesis 6, 7, and 8. And because of that, God gave man a new start. Noah built the ark. Only eight souls were saved inside the ark. How many people were there, conservatively speaking? When we studied Genesis in America, our lecturer, Dr. John Wickham, said maybe there were a billion people. Maybe. Why? Because people in those days lived hundreds of years old. Methuselah, 969 years he lived. Can you imagine? 8, 900 years. That's how long people lived. They will probably most likely grow same as us up to the age of 18 or 21, same kind of speed, same kind of pace. But then after that, from the age of 21, they will grow very, very, very, very slowly until they all die at the age of 800 plus or 900 plus. This body, same body, that can live 8, 900 years if God so permits. But can you imagine the problem? If you are good, you are godly, you have 8, 900 years of godly service. Very good. You're a good preacher, 8, 900 years of preaching, teaching God's word. But if you are a murderer, if you are a rapist, if you are a thief, you also have 8, 900 years of mastering the craft of killing and stealing and raping. That's why the world became so evil so fast, only 1,656 years. And so God said, "I have to intervene and stop this." And He did. It destroyed the whole world and then restarted it, this time with only eight souls. And all of them were born again. Genesis 9. And from that point onwards, we know the messianic line will come from one of the sons of Noah, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. It will come from Shem. And then God will give us the lineage of Shem, beginning from Abraham. That before that, after God told the eight souls when they came out of the ark, "Go out now, replenish and repopulate the earth," they did not. After some time, the first ecumenical movement recorded in Genesis 10 and 11, they tried. God had to come down and stop it by the confusion of tongues, babble. The ecumenical leader was called Nimrod. The tribe of the descendants of Shem, they still speak Hebrew. The descendants of Ham and Japheth. Suddenly, when they woke up, they could not understand nor speak Hebrew. They spoke a different language. What the language was, we do not know. And because of lack of communication, by default, they all went their separate ways. The descendants of Japheth went up north. The descendants of Ham, they went down south. And the descendants of Shem, they stayed where they were. And they continued to speak Hebrew. And then God needed a nation for His Son to come into this earth. He cannot be born without a nation. Jesus cannot come and then be what? What nation do you come from? None. God did not take a nation that is rooted in idolatry from the Gentiles, capture it, occupy it, renovate it, and then make it His own. He will have to design His own nation for His Son, the Son of God, to come one day from scratch. And so He began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that's how the Bible ended in the book of Genesis. Through this man, God will teach him faith and taught us also faith. From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, at the end of Genesis, there were only 75 souls. God brought them into Egypt. And Egypt will now become the womb that God will increase and multiply 75 souls to more than two million to form a nation. You need three things: a lot of people, constitution, and the land. So, at the end of 430 years, the gap between Genesis and Exodus, 430, God mushrooms 75 souls to more than 2 million. And now it's time for them to come out of Egypt and go to the promised land to become a nation. And that's how we ended when we concluded with the book of Joshua. They came out by God's strong, mighty hand. God had to do everything. When God brought them out, God stationed them at the foot of Mount Sinai about a year after they came out of Egypt. After a few months, they came out of Egypt. They stayed and made camp at the foot of Mount Sinai for about a year. And while they were there, God gave them the constitution. God gave them the blueprint for the tabernacle. God appointed the priests. God organized the entire 2-plus million Israelites into their tribes, 12 tribes plus the tribe of Levi, 13, to do spiritual work. And then they continued to march all the way to the promised land, led by a man called Moses, with his assistant-in-training called Joshua. They conquered Transjordan. Transjordan, Cisjordan. Transjordan here is known as present-day Jordan. Okay, this part. Edom, Moab, Ammon, not allowed to touch. They're all related to Israel. Edom, twin brother of Jacob. Ammon and Moab, the incestuous relationship of Lot, nephew of Abraham. So, God said, "You coexist with them. They attack you, you defend. Okay? But if they don't, you leave them alone." The rest of the part of the promised land. Two and a half tribes on this side. The rest on this side. The tribe of Levi divided into 48 cities. 11, six of them will be cities of refuge. Their duty: preach and teach God's word. You look after the spiritual well-being of the 12 tribes. The 12 tribes will look after the physical well-being of the priests and the Levites. The tabernacle will be located in the city of Shiloh. The 12 tribes, the first fruits go to the priests. Your tithe, 10%, will go to the Levites. The Levites are not allowed to own any farm. They lived in 48 Levitical cities. All they have to do was to study God's word and teach God's word and to do the work of the tabernacle. The priests will stay in Shiloh where the tabernacle was located. Nation of Israel was under God as king, known as theocracy. Moses failed the Lord because he sinned against God by smiting the rock when God told him to speak to the rock. Joshua completed his mission, and that's how the book of Joshua ended. He conquered the bulk of Cisjordan, and then he divided the 12 tribes by lot, and each and every one of them have been given their own tribes, I mean, own portion of land. Manasseh here, Zebulun, Asher, and so on. Naphtali, Ephraim, Dan, Judah, Simeon. Two and a half tribes on this side: Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh. All given. Now it's up to them because when Joshua conquered, there were still pockets of resistance that they need to mop up and destroy completely. The command from God was, "I want this nation from which My only begotten Son is going to adopt His nationality, to begin on a very clean note." That's why when you conquer, every man, woman, and child must die. Every place of idolatry, you destroy. Every idol, you destroy. Joshua did most of the work. Wherever the tribes inherited their lot, their duty was to mop up. And so, for example, the Danites, they're supposed to destroy the rest, the Philistines. Those who occupied Jerusalem, they have to destroy the Jebusites. God will still give them the strength to do it. Because when Joshua died, Joshua was not able to completely destroy all those small little pockets of resistance. All the tribes were tasked to do it, and God said, "I will still be with you to get them done." And that's how the book of Joshua ended. And that's where we are going to begin the book of Judges. And the title for tonight's study is: Every night there will be a title, a theme for our focus. Opportunity Comes, Opportunity Gone. Okay. Opportunities. Whatever that is in front of you, please understand the impact of your decision for that generation that came after the generation of Joshua. Joshua's generation was a good, God-fearing generation. They did their part. But the generation that took over, that had been tasked by God through Joshua to mop up and kill all the rest of the remaining Canaanites. If they did that, when God said, "I will still be with you to give you the strength to overcome them," then the nation of Israel, under God's rule as king, theocracy, would begin on a very, very clean slate, like a white piece of paper, not a spot of blemish. If only. That's the opportunity. Only once, never to be repeated. Their sons and daughters were not given that privilege because they were too young. It would be their parents, the fathers and the grown-up sons who were fighting men who fought during the time of Joshua's conquest. They will now be given the simple task of cleaning up the remaining Canaanites. Wipe them out. That was it. Very simple. And God said, "I will still be with you, just as I was with Joshua, and before that, Moses." That's all you need to do. If they have done it, there will be no such thing called the book of Judges, where everyone will do what is right in their own eyes. But if they do not do it, then the future generations to come will have to live with the decision made by this generation. Consequence. You have to know this. The consequence that you and I act upon, our sons and our daughters. If the Lord tarries, we will have to live with it. Like in this case, all future generations of this generation that succeeded Joshua's generation will have to live with the mistake and the blunder of the decisions they made. Opportunity comes. It's up to you now. You have to decide. You don't have much time. And once you decide, there will be consequence. You decide right, the consequence will be good for future generations. You decide wrong, the consequence will be very bad for future generations. Not the end, but it will be very bad. Please bear this in mind. Same thing. The BP movement started because our founding fathers earnestly contended for the faith. Reanto taught us that, reminded us that he came back from America. He understood the danger of the World Council of Churches, which basically was the seat of the ecumenical movement. When he came back after his studies, he was in the leadership with all the Presbyterian churches of Malaya, then now called Malaysia, Singapore was part of Malaya then before the split in 1965. He told them, "Don't join." They went to MOA for discussion and debated and debated, and Reanto lost. He and a small group of collaborators started the Bible Presbyterian Church of Singapore because when Reverend To went to America to study, he went to Faith Theological Seminary, which was the seminary of the Bible Presbyterian Church of America. And so he borrowed the same name. He was not a missionary sent by them, but he borrowed the same name. The only link that we have with the American BP movement was just a name. No money was involved, no salary. He was not a missionary sent by them. He went there from here to study, and he got trained, and then he embodied the spirit of the 21st century reformation. And he came back and he started this church. Life Church was the first, and then very soon the Bible college, and then more and more BP churches were founded. But look at the state and condition of the BP Church of Singapore today. Founded on a very good note, but somewhere along the line, the problem became so horrendous, in-house fighting, and all kinds of nepotistic problems. 1988, October, the whole BP Singapore was dissolved. And from that point onwards, every BP church was now permitted to do what was right in their own eyes. And some BP churches have hated the King James Bible. Very soon, immediately after the dissolution of the Senate, they openly broadcast to their own congregation, "We are now going to replace the KJV with the NIV." I read the 25th anniversary magazine of the mountain churches, Mount Carmel, Mount Hebron, Mount Garizim, whatever mount. Very quickly, they openly in their magazine gave all the arguments why the King James is no good, why the NIV is better. And from that point onwards, they replaced officially. "This will now be our new official version of the Bible, NIV." Everyone was strike in their own eyes. And now you go to the website and look at some of these BP mountain BP churches, how they worship, whether it is still conservative or whether they are very, very contemporary and very much like the world. Go and see for yourself. You don't have to visit them. Just go to the website, listen to some of their messages. I listen to some of their messages once in a blue moon just to see what has happened. I do that. Pick BP churches, whatever, then listen to see what it's like when they preach God's word. One of them used a movie called Fiddler on the Roof as the basis of his message, where the Bible verses were just thrown in here, a bit here, a bit there, and that's about it. The whole sermon was based upon this movie called Fiddler on the Roof on marriage, a Jewish marriage in Russia. And that was it. Where is God's word? Consequence. The dissolution of 1988, October. From that point onwards, every BP church will do what is right in their own eyes. That's a consequence. And all of us who come after that will have to live with the consequence of that decision. And we are still living it right now. Consequence. Opportunity comes. How you decide. If they had held on, and the Senate still remained earnestly contending for the faith, where all the BP churches will have to submit and obey the Senate, keep them in line, the whole BP movement would have been a very different movement today. But that is one big "if," isn't it? Consequence. When you are confronted by an opportunity to do something for the Lord, you bear in mind how you decide. The Bible gives us enough information to decide according to the scripture. All you need to do is to study and search the scriptures, and the answer will be there in front of you. But do you have the faith and the courage to decide? Or are you going to use your own ideas and do whatever is right in your own eyes based upon your own situational ethics principle? Make a decision right now to control what you think may be the outcome. That's the way of the world. And now you're bringing it into the church. And if this is your philosophy of life and ministry, you are already done. Anyone who takes you in with that kind of mindset and mentality, you will be the best person for the devil to use to destroy that ministry and that church. Guarantee. I've seen it happen over and over again. The word of God is not an appendix in our lives. It is the heart and soul of our very existence. You can't know God and Christ and the Holy Spirit without God's word. You can't love properly. You can't pray properly. You can't do anything spiritual properly without God's word. It's more than just simply regarding God's word as perfectly inspired and preserved and so on. These are empty words. If you do not live your life according to the correct interpretation and understanding of God's word, bear it in mind. "Not everyone that said unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that continue to do the will of my Father which is in heaven." Where do you find the will of God the Father who is in heaven on this earth? The Bible. The Bible. And that's what you must never, ever forget.

Page one. From the first verse of the book of Judges, we see the spiritual thermometer of the Israelite. What does it say? "Now after the death of Joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, 'Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first to fight against them?'" All right, the hotspots, those remnant. "Who shall now continue?" One teacher said, "Joshua made a big mistake because he did not appoint a successor." Did the Bible not tell us to pass it on to faithful men? Right? Joshua failed because he did not pass it on to faithful men. Do you agree? The "pass it on to faithful men" is for the church witness. This is not a church witness. Please understand. Joshua did not fail. He did not do anything wrong by not appointing a successor to Joshua. Joshua was appointed by God to succeed Moses because Moses failed to complete the mission of bringing the people of Israel into the promised land. That's why God had to replace Moses with Joshua. And Joshua finished his mission. That's why when you look at the book of Joshua, at the very beginning, God called Joshua the minister of Moses. At the end of his life, after he had done so much, God then called him, "Joshua my servant." Very difficult to earn that title where God Himself regards you as His servant. You have to earn it by your hard work, faithful ministry, and courageous service. So, therefore, don't say that Joshua failed because he did not appoint a faithful man, as God taught us in the New Testament. The New Testament is for the church witness. Get the context right. If Joshua were to appoint a successor, okay, fine. Let's say, for argument's sake. What would you call him? What would you call him? Governor? King? Definitely cannot be king, right? God is king. It's a theocracy. Governor? Govern what? God through Joshua already gave them the instruction. Each and every tribe where you have received your location by lot, which means God had already picked for all of you where you're supposed to be stationed, all the cities and all the homes. Wherever you find those remnant of Canaanites like the Philistines and the rest, you are supposed to destroy them. That was God's instruction, not to appoint a successor for Joshua. That would be sinful and unbiblical and wrong. And that's why they asked this question, and the Lord said, "Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the land into his hand." And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, "Come up with me unto my lord." And so, God permitted them to even combine their tribes to get rid of the enemies. Simeon was here. Judah was here. All right. So, Judah approached Simeon. "Can we join forces?" And then, "Can that was what they're supposed to do." God permitted them to do that. You have to wipe them out, men, women, children, all of them, and destroy all their places of idolatry and every idol, so that Israel will begin as a nation that is completely squeaky clean, without any semblance of idolatry. Because if you don't get rid of the idolaters, the idolaters that is idolatry inside the heart, they're going to resurrect and rebuild all the places of idolatry and their idols. It's only a matter of time. That's why not only must you destroy all the idols and the places of idolatry where they worship, every high mountain, under every tree, wherever they put the altar, destroy, destroy, destroy. And then the idolaters as well. Because if you don't destroy the idolaters, then the idolaters with idolatry in them will rebuild. That's why the men, women, and children all must die because they were very idolatrous. Did they do that? They did not. Opportunity was there. God gave it to them, and God said, "I'll be with you to help you." But they did not. And what happened? Everything was captured, and it was temporary. Verse 28: "And it came to pass when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute and did not utterly drive them out." That's the problem. That's the problem. Now, we are studying OT history, okay? Don't forget that we're not studying Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. If we were to study that, then we will study all the judges in detail. But this is OT history. So, it's going to be a historical approach. And so, we're going to select a few of the judges for our study to have a flavor of what it's like. But what they did when the opportunity was there in front of them to get rid of every Canaanite so that they could start the nation of Israel on a very good, free of idol worshippers and free of idolatry. But they decided to experience what it's like to be a master, so that they're going to have slaves or servants and collect tribute. You know what tribute is, right? Tribute is annual tax that you collect from your subject. If you allow them to live, if you do not, we're going to kill you. And so now, Israel was powerful with the Lord on their side. They decided to do what was right in their own eyes and disobey God's clear instruction of destroying all the Canaanites. They decided to be masters. And so they tore all these remaining bits and pieces of Canaanites. That's why the city of Jerusalem was conquered over and over again until it was finally permanently defeated and conquered only during the time of King David, which we are going to study in 2 Samuel. I mean, that's how bad it was. They conquered, they did not hold on to it, and then these Canaanites, they came back, and then they reconquered, and they got their cities back. So, right now, at the very onset, they wanted to be masters and collect money, and so they make a deal with them. There are two types of covenant in the Bible: pari and suzerain. Pari means between two equal partners. Suzerein, two unequal partners where the stronger party will dictate all the terms. So, Israel right now was making a suzerain covenant. "We will now dictate the terms to you Canaanites, to the Philistines, the Jebusites, or Hivites, whatever, whoever these are, the terms. Every year, every whatever period of time, you pay us so much money. We let you live. We let you go on with your life. You can have your idol worship, you can have your farming, you can keep your city, you can live in your homes, but you pay us money. You don't, right now we kill you." And so they accepted the offer of the Israelite masters, and that angered God. That was what they did. Tribe after tribe. Verse 29: "Neither did Ephraim, neither did Zebulun, neither did Asher, neither did Naphtali." Verse 33: "All the way, one by one, one by one, one by one." Chapters 1 to chapter 3, I call it the prelude. That will introduce us to the book of Judges, giving us an idea and understanding why they were so strong. That is, the Israelites were so strong, so powerful during the time of Joshua, and then how suddenly they ended up so weak and so fragile where they have to endure the oppressors from chapter 3:7 onwards. Judges chapter 1 all the way to chapter 3:6 will be the prelude to give us the understanding of why the transition from a very strong and powerful nation that came out of Egypt, conquered and occupied at the end of the book of Joshua, suddenly they ended up so weak and so frail. That's what these chapters 1, 2, and 3 up to verse 6 reveal to us. Because the opportunity was there for them to start on a very good note. They failed. The opportunity, the moment that they made these Canaanites their servants or their slaves and collect tribute, it's over. It's over. From now onwards, they are never ever going to get rid of these Canaanites. The Lord will no longer help them. The Lord will not give them the strength and the ability to get rid of them. When they had the strength, with the Lord's help, to get rid, they failed and they did not. Now they pay the price. Bear this in mind in your individual life as well as the life of the church. When this church, the first of all the BP churches, Life Church, was founded, it was good. But somewhere along the line, during Reverend To's time, there was an in-house fighting where the assistant pastors decided to believe the Bible has mistakes. When Reverend To taught and believed the Bible is perfect, they fought within the leadership, and then they lost, and they were voted out, and True Life was born. And from that point onwards, Life Church will now head in the direction that they have chosen on that particular morning of election. "The Bible has mistakes." So, for the next generation of generations, if the Lord tarries, this church will continue to believe and earnestly contend for the Bible with mistakes. Will it ever change? I don't think so. I say I don't think so because all things are possible, right, with God. So that's why I say I don't think so. Even if that is 1% chance, it's still 1%. Because these leaders who believe the Bible has mistakes, guarantee they're going to bring in the next generation of leaders who also believe the Bible has mistakes, right? They're not going to bring in the next generation of leaders that will replace them because this present generation that got rid of Reverend To are getting on in years. They're not going to live forever. And so they have to make sure that the next generation of leaders will be exactly like them, if not worse. Now, if they were to bring in the next generation who all believe the Bible is perfect, that would be foolish on their part. Just like we believe the Bible is perfect, we're not going to choose the next generation of leaders who are going to believe the Bible has mistakes, right? So, once you make a decision to believe the Bible...

Has mistakes, the following generations to come will have to live with it. Do you want your sons and your daughters to be taught by teachers who teach them the Bible's mistakes or not? You think God will bless this kind of preaching and teaching where they believe the Bible has mistakes.

Salvation is of the Lord. Everything is of the Lord as far as everything spiritual is concerned. You can preach all you want. You can shout all you want from the rooftop. If the Lord does not take your word and bring conviction and conversion, that is absolutely nothing anyone can do. You're just playing church. You think the Lord will bless such a church that believe that God makes mistakes? Is that the God of the Bible? He makes mistakes. Is that what you believe? The people who come. If you were in that kind of church, would you stay or leave? Who will stay to me? Goats will stay because the Bible tells us my sheep hear my voice and they follow me according to the gospel of John right very clear my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and the word there is voice you know not hear my word voice what does that mean you see you and I have the ability to look at two verses or two passages of Bible say this oh this is King James this is NIV I reject NIV I reject KJV That's not what Jesus meant when he said that, "My sheep hear my voice." What Jesus meant is the explanation of the text. All right? First, you use a KJV. That's good. But how you explain the verses in the Bible, that is hearing the voice of the Lord. That means the preacher and the teacher when they begin to explain the word of God, a child of God who is truly born again will be able to recognize that this is accurately correctly interpreted, explained, executed. That's what Jesus Christ meant. That's why my sheep hear my voice, not my sheep able to recognize and distinguish between KJV and NIV. Not the written scripture, but the explanation of it. And only those who are filled with the Holy Spirit can explain and understand God's word correctly. And those who are born again will be able to hear it, recognize it and say, "Amen. This is correct. I will obey." Those who are goats, they can't recognize it. They find even offensive. They can't distinguish. They fail to realize that this is not the word of Christ. This is the word of the pastor, the man himself. And if that is true, those who are born again will say, "No, this is wrong. I'm not going to believe." And if the pastor continue to preach like that, he's going to leave. Those who stay because they can't recognize it. They think it is spiritual food when it is chaff, not wheat. Because they are goats. They can't recognize. That's why the explanation of the word of God is so important. And that's how you receive God's word. If you can't recognize and distinguish, you better check your salvation, dear friend, whether you're born again or not the explanation of God's word. When you read an article, when you read a book, when you read a commentary, all these things are explanation of God's word. Are you able to know that this is correct? This is not correct, I reject, this I accept. This is the voice of my savior. This is not. Are you able? That is how tragic when a wrong decision is made at the crossroad of ministerial life that will impact an entire church just as much as it can impact your individual decision. Whoever you are, whoever you are.

Some of you are here. Look at the graduation list, the alumni list of FEBC for the past few decades. Sadly, majority of them are bad. You mean majority of the people who came through FEBC, who graduated from FEBC are bad? Yes. If it's 50% 60%, how many of you are here? 60% of you will be rotten by statistics percentage wise you know that but but what but this is FBC FEBC so what so what you think FBC is perfect you think we don't preach wrong doctrine you don't think we teach wrongly I used to teach when I first came from America the Bible has mistakes do you know that the first time I ever heard and was taught the Bible's mistakes was in FEBC. All my young Christian life, I always thought the Bible was perfect. The first time when I heard and I was taught the Bible has mistakes was in FEBC when I studied Hebrew or sorry Greek reading. That lecturer taught us the Bible has mistakes. And then when I studied Hebrew element and then Hebrew reading the same thing went to America for three years the same thing. So when I came back in 1992 when I was tasked by Reverend to teach Hebrew reading I taught exactly what I was taught. The Bible has mistake and the Hebrew Bible I use was the Hebrew text underlying all the modern versions not the King James and I was taught the intentional mistakes and the unintentional mistakes and I go to memorize them because it came up for exam and I taught the students the same thing for the first few years of my teaching life here in FEPC until I was taught the doctrine of preservation. Then I have to throw away all my notes, replace the Hebrew Bible with the King James one and not the one that is known as the BHS, Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in Stuttgart where we were taught for seven years, four years in FEBC for my bachelor of theology and three years in America for my double masters both times from the Hebrew text and the Greek text of the modern versions not the King James and I taught the same way that I was taught. So you think FBC is perfect? Far from it. So you better have the discernment when you listen to every lecturer. You cannot afford to be so myopic and foolish. be discerning and listen whether what you are hearing from the teacher preacher is it the voice of my savior that's the perilous times of the last days you think every is so holy and so righteous that the devil dare not invade there is no place on earth that the devil will not invade not even your mind and my mind correct that's why you see in in our mind we think awful thoughts where do those thoughts come from from the seductive power of this world where the devil is the god of this world. And so when you read of this what happened in the period of judges, understand the opportunity came for them to do what was right, they did not. And the moment they did not, the opportunity was gone permanently and forever. And they have to live with it until they die. And their sons and daughters will have to live with it until they die. and so on and so forth for the next 350 long years. That's how long the period of judges lasted. 10 minute break and then we come Judges chapter 2, the Lord's response and reaction to their sinful behavior. And the angel of the Lord that is the Lord Jesus himself came up from Gilgal to Bochim from the root word baka which means to weep to cry. Bochim is plural. How did the term Bochim come about? Well verse one to verse 5 explains. I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your fathers. And I said, "I will never break my covenant with you." And so the Lord said, "I kept my part. I kept my word. I gave you clear instruction on what to do upon the occupation of the promised land. And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of the land." That's the condition. Very simple, very clear. Ye shall throw down their altars, but ye have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Okay, very simple. So the Lord now called them to stand before him and give an account. Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you. Opportunity came. With the Lord's help, they could have driven out all the Canaanites and started their life as a nation of Israel on a very clean, unblemished note of holiness. But when the opportunity came, they failed. They lost it for good. I will not drive them out from before you. So that's it. No more. But they shall be as thorns in your sights, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. For how long? For as long as you are in the land. You see the problem? These idols will no longer plague you and be the thorns on your side when you leave the land. 70 years of captivity during the time of Jeremiah. then the idols and everything in the land of promise will not bother you anymore because they will be in the land of bondage in Babylon. Because of this decision, for the next hundreds of years, throughout the entire period of judges, throughout the entire life of King David, 40-year long reign, an entire period of the monarchy from the time of King Solomon all the way right up to 586 BC when they were destroyed and cast into Babylon as slaves to the new Babylonian masters. this decision and we have to live with it. Consequence that lasted hundreds of years. You bear this in mind how important your decision is. If you're a leader, if you are just a child, the previous leader made the decision for you. There's nothing you could do. But when your time comes for you to make your decision, bear in mind the impact that will have on your sons and your daughters. If the Lord tarries, of course, if the Lord returns, that's the best. Everything will come to an end. The final seven years of the tribulation will begin at rapture. that whatever decision you make will now be completely stopped by the Lord by the final seven years of this world's existence before the Lord destroyed it and to begin the millennial kingdom. But when that has not happened, the consequence of what we decide right now will impact future generations. And it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spoke these words unto the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept. Did God change his mind? No. You can cry all you want. You can repent all you want, but the consequences will stand. Please understand the difference between forgiveness and consequence. Just because you have sinned and God has forgiven you doesn't mean that there is no consequence. When Moses struck the rock twice when God asked him to speak to the rock, he repented, the Lord forgave him. But the consequence of you not permitted to complete your mission and enter the Jordan part to complete the conquest that remains. Moses prayed and prayed and prayed for the Lord to change his mind. The Lord said, "Stop praying. It's not going to happen. I'm not going to change my mind. Joshua will finish it for you. And you are not allowed to use your old age with your weak body and your blind eyes as an excuse. That's why when he died at the age of 120, the Lord told us that his eyes were not dim and his body was still physically strong and healthy. So he could not use health as a reason, a legitimate reason for not finishing the conquest. Because the people were asking, Moses, your eyes are still so sharp. Your body is still so strong. Why don't you finish the mission? because I sin. He cannot lie. He cannot say, "Well, I'm going to retire. I'm going to let this young man Joshua to take over because my health won't allow me to finish. You need to fight." You know, God will not allow him to make that excuse. Consequence. You can cry all you want. There are consequence in what you say, what you do, what you write. Bear that in mind. And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went, every man unto his own inheritance to possess the land. They have to live with it now. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. of Joshua and those who outlive Joshua, that generation who lived with Joshua, fought with Joshua, served with Joshua, it was a good generation. But when that generation passed on, which always happens, right? The devil knows it too. when that first generation of God's servants who earnestly contended for the faith and started and founded let's say a new ministry whatever it is BP movement whatever movement Baptist church whatever the devil knows these old earnestly contended contending servants of God they're not going to change their mind no matter what the devil will do to them they are doctrine they are steadfastness will remain strong and they're going to be steadfast and faithful all the way. But the devil also knows they're not going to live forever. When they are gone, younger ones are going to come and take over. And so he will target the younger ones, right? Where are they found? Bible college seminaries because that's where the future generation of leaders, pastors will come from. And so he will target and he will undermine seminaries and Bible colleges. So much so that right now when you go to America many of our seminaries and Bible colleges that used to be very strong and fundamental they are gone. They are gone. Really, they are gone. Because when fundamentalism dies, when fundamental churches are shrinking, reducing in numbers, very few people in fundamental churches go to church Sunday after Sunday. That was not the case in the 1950s after the Second World War. Not the case 1960s, even into the 1970s. And so when you have strong fundamental churches with a lot of attendance, a lot of people, there will be many who will be called to full-time ministry and they will be sent to all the fundamental seminaries. When the fundamental churches die off one by one, when the numbers shrink, nobody will go into full-time ministry, no students in seminaries, seminaries close down because all these seminary professors, they teach God's word full-time. They are not part-time like us with the church. to look after as pastors. This is Reverend To's brainchild. He doesn't want lecturers who are full-time. He can see the danger in America when they teach theoretically because they have no practical life experiences. And so in America, seminaries of the seminaries are all dead. Faith Theological Seminary, it was dead long ago. Even when we were there in the 1980s and early 1990s, gone. We went there to visit. The library was big and nice, but the roof had a big hole and then the water was coming down. The books, the floor, all damaged, hardly any students. When we were there, we saw a few students carry their own bed together with a few lecturers carrying their own bed. Maybe five or six students in a huge compound that was six, seven times the size of this compound or more, 10 times bigger. big premises but no students. When we were there, we tried to attend a BP church nearby. When we were studying in Philadelphia, that's where the BP was founded in Philadelphia, very near Philadelphia. The closest was a small little home church two hours from where we lived. Small little church in a house less than 20 people. Two hours away, one direction and another two hours back. My wife and I decided we cannot go there because we are not familiar with driving in the snow for two hours with two young children. So we just simply look for a as conservative as church as possible that is closer because we cannot afford to drive two hours there and two hours back. Especially when in Pennsylvania the snow can be so scary - 10 - 20° and you wake up in the morning your whole car covered in snow. You spend the next 10 minutes or 15 minutes scraping away the snow and then turn on the engine because inside is like a freezer cold like mad. And then to drive all the snow and all the slush all covered up. Some you can't even see the drain. You can't even see the road. And in the night very difficult. So we didn't attend any BP church when we were there. None. Only a few minutes drive from the seminary, right? Seminary. You should have a lot of BP churches around the seminary, isn't it? But not in the 1990s. We came back in 1992. So be 1991, 1992. I think some of you not born yet, right? That's how bad it was. Consequence. And is dead is dead. You can weep and you can cry. God is not going to change his mind. Verse 9, verse 8. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died being 110 years old. Please note that servant of the Lord, huh? He earned that. It took him his entire life. So next time when you introduce someone to speak in your pulpit, don't be so free and easy to call him servant of the Lord. Joshua hears you, Joshua is going to be upset with you. I spend my whole life serving the Lord, fighting God's battle before I finally earn this title before I die. And here you and I just simply call this person servant of the Lord. That person servant of the Lord. You think so easy? You think the Lord wants you to be his servant? Look at you. Look at you. Really? The Lord wants you to be his servant. So next time you introduce somebody, just simply say the messenger is so and so. The speaker is so and so. Don't so freely use the phrase servant of the Lord. You don't even know him. You don't even know him at all. Right? You become servant of the Lord because of what? What did he do? So don't be so free and easy to use that term. Be very stingy. Okay, maybe after he's dead lying in the coffin and then you up here to say a eulogy then maybe you can call if you have seen his life known his life if not better don't say Joshua took his entire life to earn this title from God okay God called him that and they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres in the mount of Ephraim on the north side of Gaash Okay, Ephraim is here in the middle, the largest of all the tribes. Verse 10. And also all the generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation. You see, target the next generation, the old first generation that fought and fought and fought. They're not going to budge. They're not going to change. But the next one ah the next one once they are corrupted once they are taught errors and they believe in it they're going to be the new leaders and they're going to teach the error that they have been taught in the seminaries and the Bible colleges and that's how churches die one after another not by the present generation of old folks who are stubbornly steadfast never go to budge. The devil will wait and wait. There arose a new generation after them which knew not the Lord. Of course, they knew the Lord in name, but knew not the Lord means no experiential knowledge, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. In other words, they deliberately ignored. They didn't care. Heck knowledge they have because it's recorded in the Bible. All the works that the Lord did the book of Exodus, they knew, but they ignore it. That's the problem. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baalim. You see the problem? When you have idol worshippers as your servants, that generation may be strong. You may have a suzerain covenantal control over them. But that is not necessarily true. When you are gone and your sons and your daughters, they take over. and all you need is for these Philistines and all the Hittites the Jebusites to rebel and you are in trouble. And that was exactly what happened. And then they ended up serving Baalim because now when the tables are turned, the Philistines will become your master, your oppressor. You now become the servants, the weaker ones. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, and brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. This is a summary of the period of judges. That's why I call it the prelude. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. Ashtaroth is the feminine, the wives of Baal. Baal is the masculine gender. Ashtoreth is plural for the feminine gods, the wives of Baal. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. And he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them. That will be the oppressors. And he sold them into the hands of their enemies roundabout, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies for Israel's own good. He's a good God. And now because they are idolatrous, they started to worship and bow down to the Baalim and the Ashtaroth. God said, "I have to take away the comforts of their lives. I'm going to send oppressors to make their physical materialistic life miserable so that they will look to me and they will repent and they will cry for help." Chastisement from the Lord. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them. They cannot run because of the evil as the Lord had said and as the Lord has sworn unto them, and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges which delivered them. Because the moment they repent, the Lord will raise up judges. Now, the Lord called them judges. They are not called prophets. They are called judges. which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges. But they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them. And they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not sow. So the word of God was still there, but they did not obey. They did not listen. And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judges. For they repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. So they repented. They beg God for intervention. They beg God for mercy. The Lord sent the judge. And it came to pass when the judge was dead, then they returned to their sinful ways. So when the judge was alive, they behaved. The moment the judge dies, they went back to their idolatrous ways and corrupted themselves more than their fathers. And so every corruption after every judge that came and gone, it got from bad to worse. That's the nature of sin. First one layer, you sin again. The next generation add another layer. Another generation, another layer, another layer. That's the nature of sin. It gets from bad to worse. in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them and they cease not from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. They just won't. The transformation and change was only temporary when the judges were alive. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. And he said, "Because that this people have transgressed my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice, I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died, that through them I may prove Israel, test them now, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it or not." Therefore, the Lord left those nations without driving them out hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. That's the prelude to give us a very simple understanding why the period of judges occurred. And here you have a simple overview of the judges. The texts are there. Othniel, Samson, Ibzan, Deborah, Ehud, Abdon, Tola, Gideon, Jephthah, Elon, Shamgar. You turn to page four. You have the list of judges, the years of oppression, some are given, some are not, who the oppressors were, and then the Bible reference. Please note that all the judges none of them were about the whole nation. They are all localized. So Shamgar will be this vicinity. Samson will be here. Othniel will be here and so on. Okay? And that means some of these judges could be occurring at the same time. Don't forget that. That's why when you add up all the years and so on that addition is not accurate because there will be overlap. There will be period where the judges they serve at the same time in different parts of the land of Israel. All right? So none of them involve the entire nation even though the term Israel was used. Sometimes it may be a few tribes together. Sometimes it may be just one tribe like Samson will be just Dan, the tribe of Dan against the Philistines. Jephthah will be a few tribes. So it depends on the case by case basis. So when you look at the book of Judges, when you study it, don't forget to remember they overlap. How the overlap occurs, no one knows. Okay? because the Bible didn't say. Okay. So, we just do not know which judge and which judge overlap. Whenever you see someone making a suggestion is just a suggestion. You cannot be 100% definitive. And so for our study of Old Testament history, we are just simply going to single out some of these judges for our study, especially those that have more chapters for our understanding. All right. But chapter two of the book of judges is basically a very important chapter that will give you the background of why the period of judges occurred. How God dealt with his people who live in this very very sad and tragic vicious cycle. When they were idolatrous, God sent the oppressors. They suffered. And then when they suffered enough, they repent. And when they repent, God showed mercy and God sent a judge. And then when the judge defeated the oppressor, the people behaved while the judge was alive. But the moment the judge dies, the people went back to their way of idolatry. And then God will send oppressors again. And then they repent. And then God will send a judge. And then they behave until the judge dies. And then and go on and on and on, part by part by part, same story. They just won't learn. And when you look at the nature of how God picked the judges, you will also see that the first few judges seem to have some semblance of godliness. But as you go on to the final few chapters of the last few judges like Jephthah and Samson, they were rascals. They didn't even have one ounce of spirituality. They were carnal and yet they were born again because their names are mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11. But when you look at their lives, their conduct and their behavior, it was atrocious. But that's exactly what happened in the period of judges. And if you are to ask me, well, if you don't ask me, I will still tell you, the main culprits were the priests and the Levites. Their failure made it worse. Yeah. The people wanted to experience the life of a master over the servants. Yes. But subsequently, who were the ones who had God's word? Who were the ones who were supposed to study God's word and teach God's word? The priests and the Levites. The system was set up by God very simply. The priests and Levites no land. Therefore, they cannot make money from the land. No crops, no shepherding, none. Their duty was simple. pass it on to your sons one generation after the next in the study of God's word and in the teaching of God's word so that the 12 tribes will understand the spiritual significance of what it means to observe the feast of tabernacles the feast of Passover all the feasts they carry spiritual significance and they have to keep on teaching their generations of the generation the meaning of sin offering burnt offering peace offering and thank offering when they bring them. But when they fail to teach them and then the people will now become very very carnal and when they are carnal carnal means they are greedy. They are all thinking of money and more money and only their own personal livelihood. And when they do that, they will probably stop giving their first fruits to the priests and their tithe and offering to the Levites. And when they stop giving this food to the priests and the Levites, the priests and the Levites will become very hungry. Their wives and their children will be crying and asking their fathers, "Please, we need food." But what could they do? They don't own any land. They do not have any animals to do shepherding and so on. So they have to go out and find food. And when they go and find food, what do you think will be the outcome? They stop studying the Bible. And when they stop studying the Bible, they themselves also do not know the Bible. And therefore, the 12 tribes will not be taught the word of God. And the whole vicious cycle go on and on and on and on. And so the 12 tribes, they don't have God's word. They continue to do what was right in their own eyes. And the priests and the Levites, they don't have any land. And so they would to go out of their Levitical cities to look for food, to look for jobs. You see the problem? That's exactly what happened. God gave them a very good system. But the good system was managed by people. God needed people to be obedient to God's word. When they are not obedient to God's word, even though God gave them a good biblical system, the system will fail. When the people who are living in the system, managing the system are not spiritual, they are carnal, the system won't work. Same for the church, the system that God gave us is get the most spiritual people in the church to look after the spiritual well-being of God's people. That's the Presbyterian system, which I believe to be the biblical pattern. The spiritual qualifications are given to us in 1 Timothy 3. The elders, the deacons, the deaconesses are all there. But when the people who are leaders who look after God's people do not follow these qualifications and they replace these qualifications with their own set of qualifications, then you pay a very very painful and heavy price. When you put deacons and elders based upon some carnal worldly qualifications rather than the Bible qualifications and you force them to make spiritual decisions when they themselves are not spiritual, where do you think they're going to base that decision on? what they know best, worldly philosophies and ideas. How will and how can a church survive when the leaders kept on making decision after decision that are based upon the standards and the philosophies and ideas of the world. And that's exactly what we see in many churches today, including our BP church. Our BP churches, same thing. The qualifications are there. It's not nine out of 10. It's 10 upon 10. And you don't say to them, well, you come into the leadership as elders and deacons, then behave like this in the qualification. You make sure they behave like this first before you bring them in. You bring them in and they are not like this. When you bring them in and then ask them to become like this, that's not what it's supposed to be. You look for godly men based upon these qualifications that are listed there. And if it is one shot, then he's out. But we need leaders. Yeah, you need leaders. You need right leaders. You don't just simply put a leader in out of expediency and convenience when you know that person doesn't qualify. That is the best way to destroy the church. Because once you put in position of leadership, he's not going to step down. You know, he's not going to give it up because the power that he's going to face and experience over the lives of people is very very delicious. It's very sweet. He won't let go. The pride in him will not let go. and you are dead. And I've seen this in my short 34 years of ministry. 1992, we came back. Now it's 2026. Seen this. And it is sad and it is tragic. Because these leaders are carnal, but they are not fools. They are very good in political games. And they will entrench themselves into this. I'm going to ask the office to print and give each one of you one. Okay? So, don't worry. Okay? Next week, I'm going to pass it to Kristen and ask her to print for you and pass it to you next week. All right? For easy. Okay? This I did on my own. I drew this. Okay? I did this for myself to make it easy for me to have an overview on paper when I study the book of Judges myself. when I study. So where are these judges and where are they located on the promised land? I do this myself. So my architecture came useful when I do all these things. I like to draw. I still like to draw. So bear this in mind the consequence. Okay. It's painful when you have leaders who are carnal. Do not put them up in the position of leadership because they are very successful out there in the world. They have university education. They have very very good jobs and they are very rich and wealthy. So therefore when they come to church and they are very very involved. So put them up as leaders. That is the best way to destroy your own church. Look for spiritual qualifications. Whatever jobs they have out there is completely irrelevant because it's not found in the in the list of qualifications, family life is if this man cannot look after his family, you look at the wife, look at the child or children, how they behave, then you will know because God understands the church like a family difference size and numbers. And this person whom you want to make him an elder when he can't even look after his small family of four or five people. You think he's going to look after he's going to take care very well. God's flock, they're definitely bigger than his family of four or five. God is never wrong. He may have all the rest of the qualifications, but when you look at his family, he cannot look after the family. He's out. But all the other qualifications doesn't matter. Every single qualification must matter. God is never wrong. You think you're smarter than him. You want to pick and choose out of this list of qualifications. Okay, this one not important, so therefore it's okay. The rest important. Who are you to just pick and choose? Which one to remove and which one not to remove? Then God put it there. You make sure you follow that list and look at the person. Check, check, check, check. Nope, this one cannot. Then he's out. He's out. You rather have no leader than a bad leader. The bad leader will ruin you and give you a headache that you do not want to have. We have had bad full-time workers before and it was a nightmare. You spend hundreds of hours trying to solve their nonsensical issues and problems. They're supposed to lighten your load. They make your load so heavy and you try to solve all these unnecessary headaches that at the end of it, it has no positive benefit other than to teach you a lesson. Make sure you don't repeat the same mistake and get the wrong person into the ministry, full-time ministry, or else you're going to experience the same thing over again. I'd rather work harder and teach God's word harder. a lot of positive benefits than to put out the fire of this wrong person in the full-time ministry that creating problems for you that you don't need. Learn so that your life will be a blessing to others. The period of judges learn from it. Page five of your notes. The Lord raised up Eglon, king of Moab. Judges 3:12-30. The judge Ehud. Eglon was fed the children of Ammon. Okay. Where is Ehud? Where do I put him? Here, Ammon is here and Amalek and they smote Israel. That means this part of Israel was under attack. This portion, the Ammonites, okay, here is here. And they were miserable for 18 long years. Okay. 18 years. Why won't they just simply repent after 8 years or one year or two years? Why must they suffer oppression from the Ammonites and the Amalekites for 18 long years before they finally cry to the Lord and beg God for intervention and for deliverance, right? Why 18 long years? If they were to cry and beg God for mercy after one year, two years, God would have intervened. But they have to stomach and tolerate all these oppression for 18 long years before they cannot stand it anymore. And then they look up and they cry to the Lord for mercy. But that is the way of sinful men, isn't it? That's the way of all of us too. Don't forget that. Don't please don't think that we are so much better than them. Please don't think that way. And I'm sure you know maybe in your own life to repent is one of the clearest evidence of a person who is born again. The failure to repent, the failure to ask God for help and for mercy is a very good evidence that you are most likely not born again. And the longer you delay, the more comfortable you are in your failure to repent, the worse it gets for you. And for them 18 long years before they finally look up and ask God for mercy. And so the Lord sent Ehud, a Benjamite. He was a left-handed man. Page five, the middle of your notes 3A. Through him, he was asked by the children of Israel to send Eglon a gift. Tribute. This was probably an annual tribute that Eglon imposed upon the Israelites. Okay. Tribute, right? So you wanted to be a master. They pay tribute. Now it's your turn. You now pay tribute. And so Ehud hid his double-edged 12 to 18 inch long dagger under his garments on his right side because he was left-handed. Right? You put your sword on this side if you're left-handed. If I'm right-handed, I put the sword on the left side. Pull it out this way. And so when he went in there, usually the people thought that most of us are right-handed. They look no sword on the left. So he was probably okay, right? He went to bring a tribute, a gift. He didn't carry any weapon because they looked to the left. Nothing. Ehud hid the sword on the right hand side because he was left-handed. And so when he went there, point C, Ehud told Eglon that he had a secret errand for him, and the room was cleared of all the king's men. Ehud then said to Eglon, quote, "Huh, I have a message from God unto thee." And he arose out of his seat, and Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. Please take note from this quote the repeated usage of the conjunction and that means every part of it carefully considered and deliberated and executed. Then Ehud shut the door after he killed this fat Eglon and locked it to make it appear as if Eglon was still alive and that he was in the bathroom. Eglon's men waited for a long time and opened the door and they found that their king was dead by that time. Ehud had already left and returned home. Ehud by then had escaped and gathered his men and they returned to defeat the Moabites in the battle. 10,000 of the Moabites died. Okay. Apparently Moab and the Ammonites, they joined hands together. And after this, the land of Israel had rested for the next 80 long years. And this kind of setup will repeat itself over and over again. Very sad, very tragic. They just won't learn. What about us? Are we better? Are we teachable? Will we learn? Or are we so set in our erroneous ways where pride will not allow us to humble ourselves and repent and learn from our mistakes? It's up to you. If you are just an ordinary church member in the pew, your family will be the one who will suffer the consequence of your pride. But if you're a leader in the church in any capacity, bear in mind the consequence, the opportunity may have come for you to repent and apologize, but you refuse. The opportunity is now gone. And if you dig your heels in and you continue to head in the direction of error, keep on preaching and teaching error after error after error, there will come a point in time of no return. And anyone and everyone will listen to you. The sheep will see through you and they will say goodbye. The goats will not. They will remain loyal because they are blind. They are spiritually blind and they will remain and they will be with you until you all will perish together on the day of judgment when the Lord will cast all of you to hell. Don't play the fool with God's word. We're living in the last days. You're going to find more false prophets. This will be the leaders, pastors, preachers, Bible college teachers and the false Christ, professing believers. Many of them by their lives they do not reflect the holy image of Christ but a carnal Christ based upon their erroneous understanding of God's word. That's what Jesus says, right? Matthew 24:24. And we are living in that period. My sheep hear my voice. The Lord says your ability to discern when you listen to messages, whether it is the voice of the Lord or someone else. Do you have that nobility? If you have, good for you. You're a sheep. If you don't and you think the voice of man is the voice of your savior, you are in serious trouble. Very serious trouble. May God help us throughout our study. Let us pray. Our merciful loving heavenly Father, we thank thee for this first class of history part two. As we study some parts of the book of Judges, may the Holy Spirit continue to instruct us. May we learn from the lives, the mistakes, and the good points of your judges that you have recorded for our learning. And through it, may our lives be sanctified by thy truth. For thy word is truth, giving us the wisdom and the discernment to avoid all the mistakes and the strength and the courage of heart to obey all the good points so that this life that we live will truly reflect the Christ of the Bible. Forgive us, oh Lord, of all our sins and be with some of us as we make our way home tonight. In Jesus most precious and holy name, we give thanks and pray. Amen.