From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, we'll learn how to avoid the danger zone.

Speaker 2

The big question: Are you heeding the warnings from the Lord that are given to us in His Word, especially in the Book of Judges? Verse 10 says, "All that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord nor yet the work which He had done for Israel."

I think Joshua's generation did tell the next generation, but the next generation didn't receive it. It's not that they didn't know about the Lord; they didn't acknowledge the Lord.

There is tremendous truth. There is hope that you always dream of love. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

Well, are you heeding the warnings from the Lord that are given to all and each of us found in the Book of Judges in the Old Testament? This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and today he continues in our new 10-message series called "Before There Were the Cost of Compromise."

Today, we'll hear four warnings from God through the Judges, served up to us over 3,000 years ago. These truths will help keep Christians accountable and on guard against apathy, complacency, and wandering away from the faith. The whole series is also our gift of thanks for your support of any amount to From His Heart.

This month, the 10-message series is available on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3s—your choice. Go to fromhisheart.org to receive your copy of the series.

Right now, though, open your Bible to the Book of Judges and turn to chapter two. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin explaining the cost of compromise when you wander into the danger zone.

Speaker 2

Now Judges Chapter two, I'll begin reading in verse six. When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went each to his inheritance to possess the land. The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel. Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110, and they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath Hares in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaesh. All that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel.

Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed themselves down to them. Thus they provoked the Lord to anger. So they forsook the Lord and served Baal and his Ashtaroth. The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went, the hand of the Lord was against them, for evil as the Lord had spoken and as the Lord had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord. They did not do as their fathers. When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. But it came about when the judge died that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.

So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. The big question is, are you heeding the warnings from the Lord that are given to us? Especially in the Book of Judges through his Old Testament people. Now I want to share with you four warnings that we see in the verses that we read. Four warnings and then a word of encouragement.

**Warning number one: Beware of religion without relationship.** Religion without relationship. Verse 10 says, "Again, all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which he had done for Israel." Now that's pretty amazing when you read that and you say, well, how in the world did they not know the Lord? They didn't know what he had done, the work that he had done for Israel. Joshua was faithful to teach the people, and all his generation followed the Lord. So it's hard to imagine that his generation wouldn't have told the generation to come about the Lord. I think they did tell them. I think Joshua's generation did tell the next generation, but the next generation didn't receive it.

You know, when it says that they did not know the Lord, that word is used in several instances and it's used to talk about intimate personal knowledge. Adam knew his wife Eve, and they conceived and gave birth to a son. It's that kind of intimate knowledge. It also means to acknowledge. Proverbs 3 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths." Well, these kids that grew up in this next generation, it's not that they didn't know about the Lord; they didn't acknowledge the Lord. They didn't know the Lord in a heart-to-heart way. They knew the Lord in their mind, as it says in Romans 1: "For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give him thanks, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

So beware of religion without relationship. You know, you've heard the expression, "God has no grandchildren." It's really true. Nobody's grandfathered into a saving knowledge of Jesus. God just has children and blood-bought children. Just because your mom or dad was a believer doesn't mean you're a believer. Sin is personal, and so is salvation. You have to personally decide for yourself. A mom and a dad can do so much for their children, but they can't believe for their children. Now they can teach their children, and we're commanded to do that. We can model Christianity before our children, showing them the shine in our lives, the way we live. Let our light so shine among our children so that they may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. But we can't make them believe.

There are lots of people in church who have a dead religion instead of a living relationship with Jesus Christ. That's all. I mean, all the difference in the world. James 2:19 says, "Do you believe that God is one? Well, you do. The demons also believe and tremble." It's not about what you believe in your head, facts and figures about Jesus. It's do you know him in your heart? Have you given your heart to Him? Proverbs 23:26 says, "My son, give me your heart and let your eyes delight in my ways." That's what God wants. He wants us to love him with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. Religion is all in the head. Christianity and a real relationship with God is in the heart. Have you given him your heart?

You know, Jesus was asked in his great high priestly prayer, John 17:3, he prayed this: "This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." That's what eternal life is, to know God. Jeremiah says, "Let not the rich man boast of his riches. Let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom. But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth. For I delight in these things."

Do you know God, or do you just know about him? That next generation, they didn't acknowledge him. It wasn't real in their hearts. They were suffering from spiritual hypocrisy. George Whitefield was the great preacher of yesteryear in the 1700s. He was part of the first great awakening. He came to America on seven different occasions. He was a powerful preacher, and kind of a weird-looking guy, a cross-eyed guy. My history professor said when George Whitefield would preach, because he was cross-eyed, you couldn't tell where he was looking. So he's preaching, and this person, this person, and this person all fall under conviction. He's looking right at me. You couldn't tell.

But George Whitefield, upon visiting America and the churches in America, said this: "I am verily persuaded that the generality of preachers talk of an unknown, unfelt Christ. And the reason why congregations have been so dead is because dead men preach to them." It's all just in their head, not real in a person's heart. Beware of religion without relationship. Beware of spiritual hypocrisy. That's what the Pharisees and religious leaders had. Jesus said, "You hypocrites! Rightly did Isaiah prophesy against you. This people honored me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Christianity is about the heart. Have you given your heart to Jesus?

So that is the first warning: Beware of religion without relationship, spiritual hypocrisy.

**Second warning: Beware of spiritual complacency.** Spiritual complacency. The scripture goes on to say in verse 11, "Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were around them and bowed themselves down to them. Thus, they provoked the Lord to anger."

Now, that is just amazing when you read it. How in the world could you forsake the Lord, the God who delivered you from slavery in Egypt, the God who brought you out of Egypt, who brought you into the promised land, who fulfilled all these promises, who did all these miracles? You say, well, maybe they didn't know about that. Everybody knew about that. The pagans in Canaan knew about the God who defeated the Egyptians. That was Yahweh, the God of the Jews, the God of the Hebrews. And they forsook that God to go worship.

Now you ask yourself, how does that happen? Well, it happens because of spiritual complacency. They were doing really well taking the land, but then they came against Canaanites who had iron chariots. We come against those sins in our lives that are difficult to defeat, those iron chariot sins. And if we do what they do, we just make friends with those sins. We just say, okay, will you stay over here? I'll stay over here. We'll just coexist together. God says, don't do that. You drive them out. I will give you power to drive them out. But they didn't do it.

So that next generation said, well, you know, we have all the land we need. I mean, everything is good. We're not in the wilderness anymore. We've settled down, and I have what I need, and this is good. We'll just live and let live. We can live with those folks. It's not any big deal. It's a huge deal because God had told them to drive them out. We need to remember this: partial obedience is still disobedience. You don't just do most of what God says; you do all of what God says.

King Saul, when the Lord told him to wipe out the Amalekites, he didn't do it. But he said he did it. "Oh, I have fulfilled the word of the Lord." And Samuel says, "Well, how come he told you to kill all the sheep and oxen? I hear this mooing, and I hear the baa of the sheep. I thought you said you killed them all." "Oh, yeah. Well, most of them." And you didn't kill the king, King Agag. "Well, I'm not going to kill that guy." Well, God told you to do what he told you to do. He didn't tell you to do some of it; he told you to do all of it.

But we can easily get complacent. You know, the dictionary defines complacency this way: feelings of smugness or uncritical satisfaction with oneself and one's achievements. There was complacency that set in to the people of God. You know, in the book of Revelation, the last seven letters to seven churches, in Revelation 2 and 3, the last letter is to the church of Laodicea. That was the church that made the Lord want to throw up. This is what he said: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth." Literally, I will vomit out of my mouth.

"Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing. And you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." They didn't see the real score. They said, well, we're fine. Everything's going great. I'm rich and have need of nothing. And God says, oh, you're not seeing this correctly. You're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked.

Now when you get complacent, you're not seeing the real score. We dare not get complacent in our Christian life. Listen, you mark it down: the Christian life is a continual battle. You never get to the place where you arrive in your Christian life and say, well, there's nothing else for me to do. You know, I don't contend anymore. I've arrived, and there's no more sin in my life. There are no more struggles in my life. You never get to that place. The Christian life is a continual battle.

Listen, just because you're saved and you've grown to a certain place in your Christian life, you can't begin to coast. If you begin to coast, you're going to start going backward. It is really important to keep moving forward. Every day you have to put on the full armor of God. Ephesians, chapter 6 says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Every Christian, until we die or the Lord comes in the clouds to get us at the rapture, we're going to be dealing with the world, the flesh, and the devil. That doesn't go away just because you've grown up to a mature person and you just rest on your laurels and say, well, it's good enough. No, if you're not continuing to move forward, you will go back.

So beware of not only spiritual hypocrisy but spiritual complacency.

**Third warning: Beware of spiritual apathy.** Spiritual apathy is a lack of interest and desire. You're just, eh. I don't really care. I'm just not really all that interested. You know what you find in the Book of Judges? You don't find anybody devouring the word of God. You don't find anybody disciplining himself or herself in the word of God. But you did find that in Joshua. When Joshua, in the Book of Joshua, chapter one, begins, the Lord tells him, "Hey, you want to know how to have success? Joshua, Joshua 1:8: This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success."

Hey, you got to devour the word, Joshua. It needs to be in your mouth, from God's mouth, and you put it in your mouth. You say the same words that God says, and you run that through your mind and your heart day and night, and you're careful to do it. Some people spend a lot of time studying the Bible, but they don't do the Bible. The Bible talks about that in the Book of James. Don't be a forgetful hearer. Be an effectual doer, somebody who takes the word of God and lets it change their heart, and then they put it into practice. "Okay, Lord, I'm going to walk in your ways."

Beware of spiritual apathy, of neglect of the word of God, neglect of the word of God and of prayer. Judges 3:7 says this: "The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth, the female counterpart to Baal." They forgot him. You know what's interesting? Moses had told them before they went into the land, "Listen, when you go into the land and God blesses you and your flocks and your herds, and everything's going great, be careful that you don't forget the Lord your God."

Joshua, in Joshua, chapter 23 and 24, when he is dismissing the people to their inheritance, tells them, "You need to make sure you don't forget the Lord. Choose you this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Don't forget Him. It is very easy if you're not constantly spending time in the word, talking to the Lord about that. You know, that's what prayer is. You just talk to the Lord. The best prayer is you take the word of God and you let it speak to your heart, and then you bring that back up to the Lord.

If you're not doing that on a regular basis, you will forget. You will forget. And you can't live off yesterday's quiet time. Somebody says, "Miss one quiet time, God notices. Miss two quiet times, you notice. Miss three or more, other people begin to notice." Why? Because the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him is not on your life anymore because you're not walking in the light as he himself is in the light.

As First John says, "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, guess what? We lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin."

So beware of religion without relationship. We call that spiritual hypocrisy. Beware of spiritual complacency. I'm good just the way I am, and you just rest on your laurels. Listen, the world, the flesh, and the devil are coming at you. If you stand still in a stream where the current is going against you, you are going to drift back. Nobody stays the same in the Christian life. You're either moving forward or you're going back.

And beware of spiritual apathy. Disinterest in the word of God. The Bible tells us, Paul told Timothy, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." Discipline yourself. It takes discipline to grow as a Christian. It takes discipline to stand, just like it takes discipline to do anything. My principal, Mr. Brown, told me one day, "Jeff, what I've learned in my life, if you ain't got discipline, you ain't got nothing." I said, "Mr. Brown, you were my English teacher. Thank you for that." No, he denied that he ever said that, but he did say that to me. And he said it just like that, I think for emphasis.

"If you ain't got discipline, you ain't got nothing." We need to discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness, and we need to dive into God's word. We need to meditate on it, memorize it, and do it to be careful to do it. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

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Very wise words, no doubt. Of course, prosperity doesn't and maybe shouldn't mean financial prosperity. But as has been said, prosperity comes when you appreciate what is really important: your love for God and for people. Then you'll be prosperous.

We're just halfway through today's message, "The Danger Zone," from Pastor Jeff's new series, "Before There Were the Cost of Compromise." This message is one of ten from the teachings found in the Book of Judges that remind us of what happens when we reject God's truth in favor of our own desires. In those days, it was a time of chaos—no king, no clear direction, just a relentless cycle of sin, suffering, and desperate cries for deliverance. Yet even in the mess, God remained merciful, raising up imperfect and unexpected leaders to call His people back to Him.

In the series "Before There Were the Cost of Compromise," Pastor Jeff unpacks the powerful lessons from Judges, warnings against apathy, the dangers of compromise, and the hope of redemption. The message is clear: when we stray from God's way, life unravels. When we turn back to Him, He is always faithful to restore.

This timely series is our gift of thanks to you for your support of any amount from From His Heart. This month, you can get all 10 messages, about 40 minutes each, on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 digital download. When you reach out to us with your gift today, simply call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Do that today and get this timely and convicting series, "Before There Were the Cost of Compromise."

Well, I'm Larry Nobles, and a big thank you for joining us today on From His Heart. We trust that you'll be right here tomorrow as he continues this revealing truth about the consequences of living in the Danger Zone. Join us on Tuesday when we'll again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His Heart.

Speaker 2

Real Love Real.

Speaker 1

From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

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