Good day to you. Let us summarise the Book of Judges. As you finished reading the entire book, did you feel a sense of heaviness in your heart? When I read the Book of Judges, I felt a profound sense of heaviness. The entire tragedy escalated, resembling a melodramatic soap opera. Everyone did as they saw fit, acting according to their own desires and making a complete mess of things.

The entire Book of Judges expresses a state of knowing nothing and simply making a mess of things, which can be summarised as everyone did as they saw fit. It started with the Israelites' willingness to compromise. They did not completely disobey, but rather chose to obey only in part. This was a fatal mistake, as God had commanded them to drive out all the inhabitants of the land, but the Israelites only drove out some and left others.

Opening the Door to Compromise

Once a Christian opens the door to compromise, the result is a steady decline, with each generation worse than the last. After Joshua died, the Israelites opened the door to compromise. Even during Joshua's time, managing this group of people was not easy, because as soon as things got straightened out, the Israelites would mess things up again. Our church needs to seriously reflect on whether we are a group of people who are making a mess of things.

I often feel distressed because I see that people are uneasy unless they are messing things up themselves. That's why, over the past two to three years, you have often heard me talk about understanding, about being filled with the knowledge of God in understanding, and about having sufficient faith in understanding. If a person does not know God in understanding, they may have a good experience of God, but ultimately it is useless because they know nothing. Sometimes, our pastors pray for people and they are healed, but they know nothing about the Word of God, and that's where the tragedy begins.

A powerful statement of the Chinese Mingding Doctrine is that God does not make mistakes, and neither do demons. Only we ourselves make mistakes. Messing things up will never have good results. So, in the Book of Judges, once the people opened the door to compromise, God allowed the Gentiles in the land of Canaan to become splinters in their bones and thorns in their flesh, pricking them every day. In our lives, we encounter this prick and that prick, living a very difficult life. This issue today, that issue tomorrow—it's just endless.

Can such a state be the Promised Land? Six hundred thousand Israelites died in the wilderness. Later, they entered the Promised Land, and the Promised Land became splinters in their bones and thorns that brought them to tears, pricking them whenever they had nothing to do. Sometimes, God has a hard time. If He doesn't prick us with thorns, it is difficult for us to change. We must not wait until a melodramatic soap opera has already formed, the script has been written, and then we start playing the leading role in this soap opera. By that time, you have no choice but to act.

In the Book of Judges, the Israelites would worship idols as soon as they had a good life, so God would allow them to experience disasters, pricking them with thorns, and then they would turn back to God. What kind of life is this? Later, I discovered that people can only be incapable of enjoying blessings, but they are never incapable of suffering. Opening the door to compromise is fatal. Once a person has a habit of compromise, it will never end. We must cultivate good habits, so that even if knives are falling from the sky, we must still walk in God's ways.

Once people start opening the door to compromise, they won't think there's a problem. On the contrary, they will think it's good. They committed a sin yesterday, and nothing happened today. They offended God yesterday, and nothing happened today. If you made a compromise yesterday and things are fine today, it just means the time hasn't come yet. So, once the judges opened the door to compromise, they continued to act it out, eventually forming a melodramatic soap opera. The church must not compromise. The Chinese Mingding Doctrine is a theology of no compromise. We will do as God says.

Over the past years, I have had a deep understanding of the word compromise. For example, we work from Monday to Friday and rest on Saturday and Sunday. How do we move house? On Sunday? I will never start this. Because Sunday is to observe the Lord’s Day. The time is for me to arrange and decide, then since it's up to me, why must I schedule things to happen on Sunday? Actually, this is an attitude issue.

When I encountered disasters, I cried out to God, and God really answered me. Some people cry out to God when they encounter disasters. God says, I am on vacation. Because when God called on you, you were on vacation. We are an online church, and you can arrange and decide the time yourself. Can't you properly observe the Lord's Day during your vacation?

In fact, this is a response of faith. If we open the door to compromise, we are starting to do something extremely disadvantageous. It's not a small loss; it's a big loss. Since I started believing in the Lord thirty-four years ago, I have never missed a Lord’s Day. There were times when I couldn't get out of bed, times when I was in pain, discomfort, or sick. But I still insisted on getting up in the morning to attend the meeting. God is faithful. That church was not very victorious, but when I came back, I got well quickly.

So, once you open the door to compromise, God makes a decision not to drive these things out of the Promised Land, and you will experience thorns that bring tears. The Israelites feel that God does not understand them. For example, my son is dating a Canaanite daughter. We should have good relations, so why is God so picky? God doesn't understand this.

Of course, don't misunderstand me. I am talking about the Israelites, because God commanded them to go to that place and drive them out. They think these people are very kind and simple, and they are not bad. Why drive them out? If you think this way, it is terrible, because you are seeing the mother of your future daughter-in-law, and they are all very nice. When we interact with people, those who do not believe in the Lord are actually very nice.

Now the question is whether we choose to act according to God's Word or according to man's word? In the New Testament, this choice is even more difficult. Jesus said, Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. How many can do this? None. So I won't do that either. You might also think, God, why don't you understand me so well?
God's words stand firm in the heavens. If He does not accomplish them, they will never return void. Do you want thorns that bring tears? If you want thorns that bring tears, then you start with opening the door to compromise, and then continue to do it. Whether it is a Bible study you heard on WeChat or forwarded to you, I don’t know if you can accept this. I will give you a suggestion, Try your best to diligently observe all His commands that I am giving you today. The LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God. However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you.

I have carefully observed in service and found that many people's problems are because they have violated God's Word. Everything is your own choice. The Israelites played a melodramatic soap opera in the Book of Judges, which started from compromise. At first, those judges were still presentable, but the judges that came after, like Samson, became more and more chaotic, and there were all kinds of people. The best ones were just these few judges, and the rest became worse and worse, and later it was even more chaotic.

I am very moved by the word compromise. If people do not have Mingding Doctrine, they will think that these are all important pursuits in life. Why do people think it is important? Because they don't know those things are vanity. All that man does in this world is vanity of vanities. Some people don't think so. I have negotiated a business deal with Yushu Technology, and I have also negotiated with Deep Search. The contracts have all been signed.

Some people say, Teacher, I am going to take a civil service exam next month. I am very busy. Others say, Teacher, I have to receive the guests, receive this person, and receive that person. I am moved that people don’t know that these things will eventually turn into a melodramatic soap opera. We don't recognize the true face of Mount Lu, because we are in this mountain. If you jump out of this life, like a somersault cloud, go to a satellite, and then you look at the earth, you will find that nothing matters.

Some people say, Teacher, I am under great pressure. Then I want to ask you, Do you think you are holding up the sky? Are you the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King? In fact, you can't hold anything. A small virus can wipe people out. A small piece of phlegm stuck in the heart's blood vessels, and people could die. So when people can't control things, there won't be any pressure.

Therefore, I have a very deep recognition of pressure and the feeling that people are involuntarily caught up in it. People have no God, rely on their own small arms and legs, and can't do anything. In the end, they can only put on a melodramatic soap opera. So, being blessed is a very difficult thing. God's will is for us to prosper, but we just can't prosper. Because as soon as people prosper, they go down a path of evil. As soon as you prosper, you attribute all the credit to yourself, and you think you are great. Then you start to expand, wings grow, hair grows on your face, and horns grow on your head.
We have all had the experience of climbing out of the valley of the shadow of death. Blessed days are good, but being blessed is conditional. We must diligently obey God's Word, diligently obey without conditions, which means overcoming one compromise after another in life, and not opening this door for ourselves.

Everyone Is Self-Righteous

The people in the Book of Judges have one characteristic: they like to make an ephod, because they are playing politics. In the same way as people all over China used to snatch the jade seal. The jade seal was made with the jade disc of He Shi, and then they polished it and made it into a jade seal. When Sun Quan's father, Sun Jian, got the jade seal, it does not mean getting a jade seal makes you emperor. The Israelites thought themselves that they could not owning a jade seal, but they could carve one themselves, even if it was a rubber one, and that’s a rubber stamp.

The Israelites made an ephod, but it ended up with problems. People often don't know where they went wrong, and you won't do what you think is wrong. Whether we are teaching assistants or group leaders, we will start arguing because we don’t think we are wrong, and we all think that we are right.

Later, I summed up these people as stupid people, because they don't know they are stupid, and they all think they are smart. Sometimes people are so stupid to such an extent that they already owe a lot of money, but they still think they are smart. Lazy people don't know they are lazy, stupid people don't think they are stupid, and smart people don't think they are smart. These things are quite interesting to think about.

So the line-up of Israelite judges – Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, then his son Abimelech, Tola, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, Micah, Jonathan the grandson of Moses, and then the Gibeahites and thugs, not knowing death was at their doorstep, that's just how I do it.

To this day, I find self-righteousness particularly difficult to deal with, because you do something, you think it's right, but others think it's wrong, and then you insist on it. Later, I discovered a philosophy that says: external causes can only work through internal causes. If you don't know you're stupid, you'll never become smart. If a person doesn't know he's doing wrong, he'll never do right.

If the ox doesn't want to drink water, pressing its head into the trough is useless. I might as well save my energy. So you'll find that I serve for a while, then stop, because I've made a decision – without an internal cause, my external cause is useless. Sometimes, I raise a question: Are you a little lazy? If your reply is that you are not, then from now on I won't mention it again. I say: You didn't do this right. If you think it's right, I won't say another word.
People don't even know how they die, it's simply a tragedy. For example, Micah did a great thing – made an idol and said it was Jehovah. Moses' grandson, a Levite, said he wanted to return to the temple of Jehovah God, but was that God's temple? It was an idol made by Micah. He really thought it was God's temple, much like our situation now. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes, I certainly believe in Jesus. Then what do you believe about Jesus? Can't explain it clearly.

Some time ago, while ministering, I met a very interesting person. I asked him very directly: Can you go to heaven when you die? He said: Yes. I said: Why? He said: Because of justification by faith. I said: Then what kind of faith is it? He said: I don't know, and I'm really not much like Jesus. I said: Who are you more like then? I think you're more like Samson, or more like Micah. So today, if God is with people, it is clearly visible.

It's a tragedy if people don't know what they're doing. No matter what you're doing, often ask yourself, am I doing it right? So Chinese Mingding Doctrine, first: never compromise. Second: reflect on whether you're doing it right? This is called gentleness and humility. If there's an evil streak in you, you'll certainly think you're right, then you're finished. Right or wrong, it must be according to God's Word.

Many people don't follow God's Word, and don't even know who they're imitating. Perhaps they're imitating Saul a bit, disobeying God's Word without even knowing it, and still firmly believing that they are carefully keeping and following God's Word. Don't think that putting up a sign makes it a church? It could also be Micah's idol.

Often ask yourself, am I doing this right? If the things you do are like what Jesus did, then it's about right. Moreover, we're not like Him, and still think we're right, isn't that courting death? So the first concept of our Chinese Mingding Doctrine is that we are not self-righteous, is this the right way to do it? Often challenge and question yourself. Perhaps you'll find that the teacher has changed. He said it that way the year before last, how can he say it this way today? Because a few years ago, that was the level of cognitive understanding, it grew a little last year, and this year there's been another breakthrough.

Some time ago, a person came and said: I've listened to all the pastor's courses, I'm very clear, I'm very clear. Later I asked, and he doesn't study the Bible. He's listened to my 101 course, 201 course, and 102 course. He thinks he knows everything, don't you think that's a bit self-righteous? And we ask him to take notes, but he doesn't. But I understand, after working for so many years, never writing a word, it's really painful to ask him to take notes. But how can you learn if you don't write?

I'm very touched that people don't study the Bible properly, but just read a few of my courses and think they've become experts. So our Chinese Mingding Doctrine's seminary studies the Bible book by book. If you don't study it book by book, reading it roughly ten times is useless, because you've only read the surface. So our study of Judges is constantly abstracting, summarizing, and then extracting the key points. Recently, in Judges, we caught Moses' grandson Jonathan.
There are thousands of Micahs in the world, does he know about curses? Yes. Does he know about blessings? Yes, too. But he thinks that the whole idol can solve the problem. So Chinese Mingding Doctrine must study the Bible properly and carefully keep and follow God's Word. God's Word must be carefully kept and followed. Keeping means carefully exploring, carefully understanding, and then doing according to God's Word after understanding it. You will receive God's grace throughout your life and live in God's goodness throughout your life.

If you want to become smart, study the Book of Proverbs carefully. If you want to become shrewd, study 1 and 2 Samuel carefully. If you want to do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah, read 1 and 2 Kings. If you want to get out of self-righteousness and doing as you please, read Judges. The courses I teach only provide a framework, you still have to read the Bible yourself.

So brothers and sisters, don't learn from Peter, don't learn from Moses' grandson Jonathan. This Peter in the Bible has also been caught by me, I've caught him, in Northeast dialect, we call it burying them. Thirty years after Jesus ascended to heaven, Peter ministered for more than thirty years, but he still couldn't write. If he started reading from elementary school, he should have at least gotten a doctorate after thirty years.

Some time ago, an old lady in her nineties, who wasn't doing too well, got better after I prayed for her. I went to see her and saw her writing with a pen, writing the Lord's Prayer. So Chinese Mingding Doctrine is a learning theology, a learning church, to be filled with the knowledge of God in understanding, to have sufficient faith in understanding. Learning is one of the great joys of life, it can make people grow.

People must grow if they want to be joyful. So how can they grow? They must solve problems. How can they solve problems? They must learn. We must put in the effort to learn, and then we can be happy. But those who eat, drink, and be merry will eventually sow a seed of disaster for themselves. Those who eat, drink, and be merry will certainly not agree with what I say. They like to sing and dance together in bars. In the past, eating, drinking, and being merry produced a foolish son, now eating, drinking, and being merry leads to senile dementia in the family that no one can handle. So be a learning person, only growth can solve pressure.

The People in Judges Can't See Through

A person who sees through this life and lives in eternal life can carefully keep and follow God's Word. Slowly think about it, those people in Judges have long turned to ashes. You don't even need to go to Judges, people from just over a hundred years ago have turned to ashes, so there's no meaning.

A few days ago, a few good friends and I were together, and one person suddenly passed away. We were in a group chat, and one day he himself sent a message saying: My dad died. I thought his dad had died. Reading the words below, it turned out that the son used his phone to send the message.
How can a person suddenly disappear? Calculating, about five to ten percent of the people in the same class have passed away. So what's the meaning of people living? I can't find much meaning. Precisely because I can't see what great meaning there is in this trifling matter of people living, I willingly and gladly love God and carefully keep and follow God's Word. You must see through.

Someone said: Teacher, why do I feel more comfortable inside every time after I pray with you? Because every time I lead you in prayer, I keep talking about seeing through, putting this matter down. But why can you put it down? Because this matter is not important, so you put it down. Then why did they start compromising? Because God's Word is not important, those things in their lives are important. People just don't know that God is a treasure.

If people see through living, see through life and death, then you won't love this world, won't compromise, won't be ignorant, and won't be self-righteous. You will do everything you can to love the Lord your God. After reading Judges, you will feel that living life this way is actually meaningless.

If God is upholding all things with His hands, can He uphold you? If you let go for God's sake, there won't be any problems. But if you pick up other things and let go of God, God will certainly arrange some tearful thorns for you. For example, people are afraid, afraid of the boss, why are they afraid? Because that salary is in the hands of their boss, I have to have money to live, I have to work hard, I'm not afraid of what my boss does. Actually, you don't have to be afraid, because the boss is also in God's hands.

For example, Gideon played a set of political tricks, very skillful. Then he trained his son Abimelech, also very skillful. What they pursued were all these trifling matters of the world, and in the end Abimelech's end was very miserable. But those who fear God and trust in God lack no good thing.

The people in Judges can't see through, so they often compromise, often not knowing what they're messing up. So building a church is to build according to God's Word, serving is to serve according to God's Word, living life is to rely on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Chinese Mingding Doctrine explains these things to everyone in the hope that everyone can have a long and blessed life in this world.

Finally, turning a dog-blood drama into a comedy, but turning a comedy into a dog-blood drama, that's a tragedy. You must remember these three points, first: don't start compromising, second: don't be self-righteous, third: start learning to see through.

May God bless everyone!