Good morning. Thank you, Joy.
Let's open this morning's service with hymn number 16 from the
Spiral hymn book. Number 16, let's all stand together. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? died he for me who caused his
pain, for me who him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that
Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it
be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me. Tis mystery all the immortal
dies who can explore his strange design. In vain the first bold
sheriff tries to sound the depths of love divine. ? Tis mercy all, let earth adore
? ? Let angel minds inquire no more ? ? Tis mercy all, let earth
adore ? Let angel minds inquire no more. He left his father's
throne above So free, so infinite his grace Emptied himself of
all but love and bled for all his chosen race. Tis mercy all immense and free
for oh my God it found out me. Tis mercy all, immense and free,
for O my God it found out me. Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening
ray, I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off,
my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed
Thee. My chains fell off, my heart
was free. I rose, went forth, and followed
Thee. No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal
throne, And claim the crown through Christ my own. Bold I approach Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be in the book of Judges this morning, chapter 7. If you'd
like to turn with me there in your Bibles, Judges chapter 7,
and I've titled this message, Your Warfare is Accomplished. Your Warfare is Accomplished.
The battle that the Lord Jesus Christ fought on Calvary's cross
won the elect of God. It won the victory. It put away
the sins of God's people. And Judges chapter seven is a
parable. It's a parable. It's an actual historical event
that took place in the life of Israel, but it serves us as a
parable in that it illustrates what the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's
cross. You remember the disciples asked
the Lord, Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? And the
Lord said, because it's not for them to know. The mystery of
the kingdom of God is for you to know. So apart from the spirit
of God opening the eyes of our understanding, we'll not understand
the parables for what they are meant to teach us. Let's go to
the Lord and ask him for his mercy and grace. Our heavenly
father, You have put into the hearts
of your people a desire to worship. And yet, Lord, what you require
and what we desire, we are completely dependent upon you to provide.
We pray that you would open the eyes of our understanding. We
pray that you would reveal to us the glorious person of thy
dear son, and his accomplished work of redemption on Calvary's
cross. We pray that you would open what
no man can shut, open your word, open our hearts, open the windows
of heaven and come down. Lord, cause us to find our comfort
and our hope and all our salvation, the forgiveness of our sin in
thy dear son. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. One of our favorite passages
of scripture is found in Isaiah chapter 40, when the Lord told
the prophet and he speaks to all his spokesmen when he said,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem. I want the Lord to comfort us
this morning. And I want to speak comfortably. I want to speak
from my heart, and I pray the Lord will speak to our hearts.
Tell them their warfare is accomplished. The battle against sin was won. The battle against death and
hell and Satan was accomplished. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
on Calvary's cross was not an offer of salvation. It wasn't
an attempt to save a people. He actually accomplished the
salvation of his people. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. And he goes on to say, to tell
them their iniquity is pardoned. Their sin has been paid for and
that they have received of the Lord, of the Lord's hand, double
for their sins. God made him who knew no sin
to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. There's the double blessing that
God imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin bearer, our substitute
on Calvary's cross, the iniquity of all of his people. And he
imputes to his people. righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ so that we can stand in the presence of God and have
our acceptance in him. That's what this battle is about
that we read of in Judges chapter 7. When a country is at war, We're
reminded of this as we watch the news even today of the war
in Ukraine. The outcome of that war, humanly
speaking, is the ability of the leadership, the commanders, the
strategy that is employed, and the weapons that are used. So it is in the war of all wars,
the spiritual war for the souls of God's elect, the commander
and the strategy and the weapons that are used in getting the
victory for that war are illustrated for us here in Judges chapter
7 as God leads Gideon and his 300 men against the Midianite
army. Notice in verse 16 of Judges
chapter 7, and he divided the 300 men into three companies
and he put a trumpet in every man's hand and with the empty
pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them,
look on me and do likewise and behold when I come to the outside
of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall you do. When I blow with the trumpet,
I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on
every side of the camp, and say the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came into
the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch.
And they had but newly set the watch and they blew the trumpets
and break the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three
companies blew their trumpets and break the pitchers and held
the lamps in their hands and the trumpet in their right hands
to blow with all. And they cried the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his
place round about the camp. And all the hosts ran, and cried,
and fled. And the three hundred blew the
trumpet, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow,
even throughout all the hosts. And the hosts fled to Bethshedah
in Zerath, and to the border of Abelmillah unto Tadath." Who directs a war and the strategies
that are used? And the weapons that are employed
determine the outcome of the battle. We have a commander. We have one who has never lost
a battle. The Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah
chapter 55 verse 4 says, Behold, I have given him for a witness
to the people and a leader and a commander to the people. He did not lead his army from
the safety of his glory in heaven. Like Gideon, he led his army
himself. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He was born of a woman, God incarnate. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
commander of his army, and he got the victory when he went
to Calvary's cross and laid down his life for the sins of his
people. That's what this is a picture of. On the one hand, the battle was
fought and won 2,000 years ago. at Calvary's cross, when the
Son of God got the victory over sin and over Satan and over death
and over hell. And on the other hand, he continues
to lead his people as they walk the walk of faith, battling in
this world, their own flesh, Satan and sin. And here's the
good news. This parable makes it absolutely
clear that the Lord Jesus Christ always gets the victory. He always
gets the victory. What did he say to these men? He said, look on me and do what
I do. I'm going to lead you into victory. 300 men against 100,000
Midianites. The odds were insurmountable.
There was no way that they were going to be able to get the victory
over such an opposing army. And yet, what is the Lord saying
to us? The battle's not yours. It's
the Lord's. It's the Lord's. Tell them that
their warfare is accomplished. And then Paul goes on to say
that I've I fought the good fight. So this walk of faith is a fight
against mainly our own sin and our own flesh and our own unbelief.
The believer walks in this world crying, Lord, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. Lord, I've got this body of death
that's strapped to me. And so we look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and the victory that he got for his people, not only
securing the salvation and accomplishing the salvation of his people,
but we walk every day. Salvation is not a one-time experience
for God's people. Salvation is their life. And
as Job said, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. He gets all the glory for it. We don't make any contribution
to the salvation that He accomplishes. And what He accomplishes in our
lives every day, it's He that works in us, causing us to will
and to do of His good pleasure. And the good work that He began,
He will complete to the day of His coming. And so, He gets the
glory for the victory won on Calvary's cross, and he gets
the glory for the victories that he gives to his people every
day as he brings them again and again and again to faith in Christ,
to looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation. Scripture says that the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered the contradiction of sinners. A body thou hast
prepared for me. He lived in this world in the
weakness of human flesh. He hungered. He tired. He suffered. Particularly when
he went to Calvary's cross and he suffered all of the sufferings
that God poured out on him there. the Lord Jesus Christ felt those
things. We have not a high priest who
is unable to sympathize with our afflictions, but was in all
ways tested and tempted even as we are, yet he was without
sin. So we have a successful commander. He cannot fail. Turn with me
to Isaiah chapter 42. We quoted that first verse from
Isaiah 40, but I want you to look with me at Isaiah chapter
42, if you will. In verse one, behold my servant. Now that's just another way of
saying, God's saying to his people, look to Christ, look to Christ. Look to your successful commander,
whom I uphold. God the Father upheld the Lord
Jesus Christ so that he had to succeed in what he came to do. What is it that he came to do?
You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. That's what he came to do. I
know something about you. in that I know what your greatest
need is. I may know something about you
that you don't know about yourself. I don't know. Maybe you think
your greatest need is some problem that you're having in this world.
That's not your greatest need. Your greatest need is the forgiveness
of your sin. That's my greatest need and that's
your greatest need. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came to do. to save his people from their
sins. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. The Lord Jesus Christ
was God's chosen elect savior of his people, and his soul delighted
in him. What did the father say? Audibly
from heaven, this is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased,
hear ye him." Isn't that what Gideon said? Gideon said, you
do what I do. When I speak, you follow. I have put my spirit upon him.
That's the anointing of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Messiah.
So he's got the pleasure of the father, The second person of
the triune Godhead made flesh, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that are cursed by the law, and now we have the
anointing of the Holy Spirit. The triune Godhead. Is there
any possible way that God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, as they work together, could not succeed in
saving God's elect? No. Any other image of God is just
a false God. It's another God. Our God succeeded. And look what he says. He shall
come forth, or he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
You know what the center of every worship is? Sacrifice. Sacrifice
is the center of every worship. All men know that there is a
God with whom they must do. All men know that death is coming. All men know that they're sinful
in the presence of a holy and just God. And so men attempt
to reconcile themselves to God by making sacrifices. God requires
a sacrifice. No question about it. The problem
is that the sacrifices that we bring are not sufficient. They're
not sufficient to satisfy the demands of God's holy justice.
The only sacrifice that God's pleased with is the one that
the Lord Jesus Christ made. The sinless savior, the lamb
without spot and without blemish, who went to Calvary's cross and
laid down his life. No man took it from him. He laid
it down willingly for his sheep. Look at verse two in Isaiah chapter
42. He shall not cry nor lift up
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. The Lord Jesus
Christ is not looking for a following. He's not like the religious hucksters
of today going around trying to persuade men to let him have
his way in their lives. No, he doesn't have to do that.
Now, when he's ready in the day of his power, he makes those
whom God chose in the covenant of grace willing, and they come,
they come. Men will not by nature come to
God. God has to do a work of grace
in the heart. And he does that through the foolishness of preaching.
He does that through the means of what we're doing right now.
Preaching Christ, lifting up Christ. The Lord Jesus said,
and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." So
God says, look. And yet once again, everything
that God requires, everything He requires, He requires us to
look, He requires us to worship, He requires us to obey, He requires
us to have faith. Everything that God requires,
God must provide. So even when we're enabled to
respond to those things that God requires, He gets the glory
for that, for He provided it. He provided it. God's not waiting
for us to make our contribution. He requires nothing more than
the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will settle for nothing less.
And so He gets the glory. He gets the glory for having
accomplished the salvation of his people on Calvary's cross,
and he gets the glory every day as we are given the grace to
look and live. When the spirit of grace and
supplication is poured out upon Jerusalem and upon the house
of David, they will look upon him whom they have pierced and
they will mourn after him as one mourneth for his only son.
That's the work of grace. That's our hope. We preach and
we pray, we water and we plant. God must give the increase. Amen? God must give the increase. It's
all in vain unless God makes it effectual to the heart. We're
not trying to convince anyone. We're not trying to debate with
anyone. We're just declaring what God
has said, knowing that if God's merciful, he'll make it effectual. Turn me, Lord, and I shall be
turned. Cause me to believe, Lord, and I'll believe. Give
me repentance and I'll repent. The gospel of work says, if you
believe, then God will save you. We're saying God has saved his
people and he will make them to believe. If you repent, God
will forgive you. Isn't that what the world says?
The religious world, if you repent, God will forgive you? No, no,
that's just backwards. I have forgiven you and you shall
repent. You shall repent. That's our
hope. Our confidence is that God has
a people. We know he still does. We know
there's still lost sheep in this world. Because when the last
of God's lost sheep is brought to faith in Christ, this world
no longer exists. It has no other reason for existence. It has no other purpose. God
will bring this world to an end suddenly when the last of his
sheep is called into the fold. So our confidence is that there's
some lost sheep out there and that God will save them. And
we declare the truth of Christ. Waiting and watching for that
time, the Lord shows his mercy. And for those sheep that have
been found, oh, they need to hear again and again and again
about Christ, don't they? They need to be brought to their
salvation again and again. I suppose the most often prayer
that I pray is, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sin. Save me
from my unbelief. We don't look back on a past
experience for the hope of our salvation, do we? Peter put it
like this, to whom coming. Always coming to faith in Christ. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
as our commander in chief is he destroyed, the scripture says,
the works of the devil. He put away the sins of his people.
He suffered all the horrors of hell. He conquered the grave
and he destroyed death by going through it himself. What a commander. Is it possible that he could
fail in what he came to do? No, no. The success of all wars
are determined by the ability of its commander. Is there any
way this warfare could not be successful? Even now, we have the promise
of our commander in chief who says, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. Oh, you're going to struggle
in this world. You're gonna, the war, the battle, the battle
is not over. The weapons of your warfare are
not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds and by bringing the captivity, every thought
to the obedience of Christ. And so the Lord keeps bringing
us back again and again and again to the obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In John chapter 13, when our
Lord washed the disciples' feet at the Last Supper, he said to
them, I have given you an example that you should do as I have
done. God makes his people to follow
after him. That's what Gideon said. He said,
look on me and do likewise. Follow Christ. Follow Christ. We have a sure hope, brethren,
an anchor for our souls who entered into the veil of the holies of
holies and put his blood on the mercy seat. And God says, here,
I will meet with you. Our commander was successful,
and it continues to be successful. He cannot fail. He will not be
discouraged. Oh, there's our hope. The second
thing we see in this story that we read from Judges chapter seven
is the strategy that was used. It was a very simple strategy.
You have a trumpet in one hand. You have a clay pitcher in the
other hand. Inside the clay pitcher is a
torch. And at my command, you blow the trumpet, you break the
clay pitcher, you show forth the torch and you cry, the sword
of the Lord and of Gideon. And you stand still. Don't move,
stand still. The battle's not yours, it's
the Lord's. They're not gonna get any glory for it. They didn't
do anything but blow a trumpet and break a pitcher and cry. The army turned against itself
and destroyed itself, didn't it? Stand still. Yeah, it's the hardest thing
for men to do when it comes to being saved. In religion, you
have things like invitations and sinner's prayers and programs and works. And you talk
to your religious friends, and what are the first thing they
tell you? All the wonderful things they're doing for God. And they're
all the successes that their church is having in this and
in that. Men have to have something to
do. And so they make out of their worship services an entertainment
center, and they do all sorts of foolish things in order to
have something to do. I've got to perform a work. I've
got to make a decision here. I've got to do something. Gideon
said, you stand still. Don't move a muscle. Exodus chapter 14, when Moses
had the children of Israel right there between a rock and a hard
place. I mean, they were, they had the
Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them.
And they came to Moses and they said, what have you brought us
out here in the wilderness that we should die now? Moses. said to them, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. And that's what the Lord did.
He opened up that sea. Nothing's changed. These are
parables. This battle is a parable. That's
a parable. They're all pointing to the spiritual
warfare that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on behalf of his
people. In Joshua chapter three, when Joshua was bringing the
children of Israel across the Jordan River, he told those priests
that were carrying the ark, he said, now, when you get to the
brink of the river, stand still. And they stood still and God
opened the Jordan River and they crossed into the promised land.
Stand still, that's the strategy. The strategy is don't do anything. When Elihu was preaching the
gospel to Job in Job chapter 37, he said, hearken unto me,
O Job, and stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. That's
what the scripture says. Be still and know that I am God. Quit trying to save yourself.
Quit trying to atone for your sins. Quit trying to earn favor
with God by something that you do. It has already been done. Stand still and see the wondrous
works of God. And if the Lord gives us eyes
to see, he'll get all the glory, won't he? Oh. Religion is full of all sorts
of things to give men something to look to. Salvation can only be seen by
the eye of faith. That's why we don't try to create
things in our services to draw attention to the eye. We don't
have statues and beautiful stained glass windows and all the things
that men, you know, put together to appeal to the flesh. The gospel
doesn't appeal to the flesh. It only appeals to the regenerate
heart. And that is work of grace. The battle's not yours, it's
the Lord's. Not by might, nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the Lord. Now that's a glorious truth that
the natural man can't, he can't enter into. Well, surely I've
got to do something. No, stand still and see the wondrous
works of God. He's going to get all the glory.
Here's the strategy. The strategy is don't do anything. Cain and Abel brought their sacrifices. Cain, I said a while ago that
sacrifice is the center of worship, and it is. But God's only pleased
with one sacrifice. That's the blood sacrifice of
that Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. When I see his blood,
then I will pass by you. Not when I see your commitment,
not when I see your dedication, not when I see your sincerity
or your works or your will. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. And Abel brought a sacrifice
of blood, a lamb, and God had regard for his sacrifice, and
Cain brought the fruits of his labor. He brought the things
that he had grown and picked in his garden. It wasn't a blood
sacrifice. And it was the result of the
labor of Job, of Cain. You see it again at the Tower
of Babel, don't you? Men trying to build a tower up
to God, and they had brick for stone and slime for mortar. They'd fashioned with their own
hands bricks, trying to build a city and a monument to heaven. It's just another parable. It's
another parable. It's a picture of what men do
when they try to earn favor with God by their own works. And God's
saying, here's the strategy for success. Here's the strategy
for the defeating of your enemy. Stand still. Don't do anything. Behold the wondrous works of
God. Then we have the weapons that
are used in this warfare. The weapons are very simple.
There was a trumpet, there was a clay jar, there was a torch,
and there was a cry. That was it. And as I quoted earlier, the
weapons of our warfare are not fleshly. We don't use fleshly
weapons. We don't, I remember in years
past, so dishonest. We trained people. Brian, you
were part of that. We trained people to be a witness. You don't have to train a witness. You witness what you know, what
you've experienced, what you've seen and what you've heard. But
that was our weapon to try to evangelize the world. We had all sorts of fleshly means
that we would use. These are spiritual weapons.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty.
They are powerful through God to the pulling down of those
strongholds and bringing into captivity every imagination of
the heart to the obedience of Christ. Now we're looking to
his obedience, his perfect obedience to the Father. And he was obedient
even unto death, even the death of the cross. So we're not looking
to our obedience for the hope of our salvation or measuring
the success of our salvation by our obedience, but the obedience
of Christ. These weapons First one you have
is the trumpet. The trumpet was the call to war. It's a picture of the effectual
call of the spirit of God. We extend the audible outward
call to all men and God commands all men everywhere to believe
and to repent. And men are without excuse before
God if all they've ever heard is the outward call. They still
stand without excuse. If they've never heard the outward
call, according to Romans chapter one, is all they know of God
is what's in the conscience. They're without excuse. If all
they know of what of God is what they see in creation, the created
order of things, God says that men are without excuse for he
has made himself known in creation. He's made himself known in conscience
and men stand before God without excuse. The natural man will never know
God through what he sees in creation, nor by what he knows in his conscience. Man will only know God with the
sound of the trumpet, the inward call, the effectual call. Men
will prepare for everything in their lives. They'll prepare
for vacations, they'll prepare for retirement, and they'll have
no concern for their souls until God the Holy Spirit makes them.
That's the inward call. That's the call of God, giving us faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. To most, what they're hearing
now is just an uncertain sound. It's just the sound of a trumpet. To others who have received the
inward call of the Spirit of God, it is a certain sound. I've got to have Christ. Got
to have Christ. If I'm going to stand before
God, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have to stand in my
stead. I'm going to have to be found
in Him. Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness, which is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the inward call. God makes
his people to come. The second weapon. So what I'm saying to you right
now is that the first weapon is what we're doing right now.
We're preaching Christ. And the second weapon is connected
to it, for it is the torch. And that's the light of the gospel
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world
of darkness, shining his light by his word. Thy word is a light unto my path. It is a lamp unto my feet. the
volume of the book it is written of me." When we go to God's Word,
we're not looking for just to study historical events or learn
some theology or some doctrine. We're looking for the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did he do? Who is he? I've got to have him. Tell me
about Christ. The Lord told those Pharisees,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life, but these are they which testify of me. You've missed
the meaning of the Bible if you haven't seen Christ. That's the
torch. Christ said, I am the light of
the world. Light has come into the world,
but men love darkness rather than light because the light
reproves their deeds for being evil. And that doesn't mean the
shameful things that men do, although the light of the gospel
does shed light on that. But it also reveals the sinfulness
of the things that men are trusting in for their salvation. The light
reveals the righteousness of men as filthy rags. He must command the light to
shine out of darkness, just like in creation. The world was without
form and void. You and I, left to ourselves,
are without form and void of any understanding or any light
or any truth before God. And God said, let there be light. Let there be light. Same thing's
true now, isn't it? You know, I was thinking light,
light reveals what is there. And darkness not only hides what
is there, but darkness creates things that aren't there. Think
about it. The imagination and the fears
of men that come as a result of being in the dark, they're
creating things that aren't there. And that's what men do by nature.
They create, they create gods that aren't there. when they're
walking in the dark. The light just reveals what is
there. The light reveals the truth.
That's what this torch is about. And very quickly, the clay pot. We're gonna continue this in
the next hour or so. The clay pot, you see what that's
a picture of. It's the earthen vessel. in which
we have this precious treasure of the gospel. It's the body
of our flesh, it's the body of Christ's flesh. This body is
broken for you. The light could not shine, and
it did not really shine until the day of Pentecost, until the
body of the Lord Jesus Christ had been broken on Calvary's
cross. Simple weapons. Simple weapons. These are the
weapons that God still uses. This battle, as with all the
battles that the Old Testament Israelites engaged in with their
enemies, is a parable. It's a parable. And the truth
of that parable is the most relevant, necessary thing that you and
I have right now. Right now. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you would bless your word, make it effectual to our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.