All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians 4. This is where we'll begin. Let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our gracious Father, Lord, we pray you would help
us. Strengthen us. Thank you so much for your blessings. Lord, be with your people today. Comfort them and strengthen them. We thank You, Lord, for mercy.
Thank You for Your Son. We pray Your blessings be upon
the Word today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. 2 Corinthians 4-5. Paul says, we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord. And ourselves, your servants,
for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. This is so of those the Lord
uses to actually stand in the pulpit and preach. And it's true
of all his witnesses, all of his people. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Let's go over now to Judges chapter
7. When the Lord used Gideon and
the men that he used to defeat the Medianites, the Lord did
it by light shining from broken vessels. Light shining from earthen
vessels that were broken. In verse 16, Judges 7, 16, when
he divided the 300 men, when Gideon divided 300 men into three
companies, And he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty
pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. That's what Paul just
said. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, not
of us. He said to 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. You know, we do what Christ did
when he walked this earth. Christ preached Christ. Christ
preached Christ. We look to what He did, and that's
what we're sent to do. Verse 18, when I blow with a
trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets
also on every side of all the camp, and say the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men
that were with him came unto 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
the trumpets and break the pitchers and held the lamps in their left
hands and the trumpets in their right hand to blow and they cried
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. This lamp, this light,
typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our light. He is our light. Christ the light is typified
by this light, this lamp. And the trumpet and the shout
typifies the preaching of the gospel of Christ. It typifies
the preaching of the gospel, the shout blowing the trumpet.
And the vessel broken typifies God's preacher and his people
earthen vessels broken in heart so that we trust Christ alone
and we preach Christ alone. God uses broken vessels who preach
Christ and Him crucified. That's what Paul said. We have
this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Look with me at 1 Corinthians
1. Why is this so? 1 Corinthians
1 verse 18. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness. It's foolishness. But unto us,
unto us which are saved, it is the power of God, the gospel
of the cross. Why is the preaching of Christ
to him crucified the power of God to us? Look down at verse
24. He said, unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God. That's why. Because Christ is
the power of God and the wisdom of God, and he used this gospel,
and you experience that power. Look at verse 26. For you see
a calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He's talking
about you and me, broken earthen vessels. He's chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
Base things of the world and things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Here's
why he saves this way. Chapter 2, verse 5, that your
faith shall not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. Now let's go back to Judges 7
and see what the Lord did here. First thing we see here is God
uses sinners who he has called by the gospel, sinners who he's
called by the gospel, who he's broken. who he's broken, broken
in heart, made to see we're weak, foolish, helpless sinners who
depend entirely upon Christ to save. That's who he's going to
use. Helpless, weak, humbled, broken-hearted
sinners that depend on Christ entirely. Verse 12, Judges 6,
verse 12. The angel of the Lord appeared
unto Gideon and said to him, now listen to what the Lord said
to him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Now listen to Gideon's reply,
verse 13. And Gideon said to him, O my
Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen
us? And where be all his miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. The
children of Israel were in bondage due to their sin. But when the
Lord said to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with thee. thou mighty
man of valor." But when he said that to Gideon, Gideon didn't
agree and say, well the children of Israel have sinned, but yes,
I'm a mighty man of valor. That's not what he said. Gideon
owned himself to be a sinner right along with his brethren.
And he said, Lord, why has this happened to us? He counted himself
with them. Verse 14, and the Lord looked
upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save
Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And listen
to Gideon's response again. And he said to him, O my Lord,
wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. The Lord
said, Go in this thy might. Part of Gideon's might was he
had no might in himself, and he knew it. That was part of
his might. He knew he didn't have any strength. He owned himself to be the sinner.
He was broken in heart. He was an earthen vessel. He
was incapable of delivering anybody. He said, oh my Lord, wherewith
shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's house. That's the
broken and contrite spirit of our Lord, our mighty Gideon.
That was his spirit. He made himself the least. Our
Lord Jesus did. He made Himself the least and
laid down His life for His people because He trusted the Father.
He trusted the Father. That's the Spirit of our Lord
within His people when He's formed in us. The Apostle Paul said
this, he said, unto me who am less than the least of all saints
is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Unto me who am the least of the
saints. Moses, when the Lord came to
call him, he said, Oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither here
before nor since thou spokest unto thy servant. I'm slow of
speech, I'm slow of tongue. The Lord said to him, Who's made
man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore
go, I will be with thy mouth, he said. and teach thee what
thou shalt say. Jeremiah. Let's look at Jeremiah
1. Jeremiah was called of the Lord
and listen to what he said. Jeremiah 1. In verse 4 it says, Then the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God, behold,
I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said to me, Say
not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,
and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of their faces, I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand
and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have
put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee
over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull
down and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.
You know what the Lord meant by that. Jeremiah didn't have
power to pull down kingdoms and root up kingdoms and plant kingdoms,
but Christ does. And he's going to do it through
the word, through the light shining through the broken vessel that
he's in. But the greater thing, and that
is the greater thing that was Gideon's might. The first thing
was he saw himself as a sinner, broken, undone, with no might. But the second thing that made
him mighty, and this was the greatness of his might right
here, is the Lord said, have not I sent thee? The Lord Jesus
was Gideon's wisdom and Gideon's power. And that's so of God's
messengers. Verse 16, the Lord said to him,
surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites
as one man. This is the promise of our Lord
Jesus to each one in whom he abides. When our Lord Jesus comes
and abides in his people, this is his promise to you. Surely
I will be with thee. That's the Lord's promise. He's
the life in His people. We would not have life without
Him. He's the life in His people.
He is the strength of His people. He was with us in eternity when
we became surety for His people. He was with us when He came down
into this world, and every step He took in this world, He was
with His people. He was going to the cross with
us on His breastplate, laying down His life for His people.
He was with us when He went in the grave. He was with us when
He came out of the grave. He was with us when He went to
the right hand of the Father. He was with us when He interceded
for the Father before we ever knew Him and sent the Gospel
to us and then sent the Spirit to us and made us to hear the
Gospel of Christ. He was with us. And He promises,
I will be with thee. He's with His people every step
we take throughout this life. He said to Joshua, There shall
not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy
life. As I was with Moses, so I will
be with thee. I will not fail thee nor forsake
thee. That's his promise to us, brethren.
He says to every worm. Now if you're a worm, let me
read this to you. This is what he says if you're
a worm. In Isaiah, Isaiah 41. Listen to what he says to us.
Isaiah 41.10, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them and shalt not find them. Even them that contended
with thee, they that were against thee shall be as nothing and
as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying, Fear not, I will help thee. Fear
not, thou worm, Jacob. And ye men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel. And what's he sending us forth
to do? What's he gonna do with his people? Behold, I will make
thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shalt thresh
the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills
as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them.
And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shall glory in the
Holy One of Israel." He's promising, brethren, He's going to bless
the preaching of the Word. He's promised He will save His
people. He will call out His people using
us broken vessels that He's going to shine the light through. You
know, there was a multitude of Midianites. And they had Israel. God had turned Israel over to
the Midianites. There was a multitude of them.
But the Lord said to Gideon, you shall smite them as one man. He said, you're going to smite
them like it's just one man. Just one man. The Lord's nigh
to them that are of a broken heart. He saveth such as be of
a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth
all his bones, and not one of them is broken. This is the word
of our Lord to you who are his people." This is his word to
us, brethren. All right. Secondly, go back
there with me now to Judges. The reason our Lord's conquering
through the gospel, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 1, is so that
no flesh shall glory in his presence. But those that glory are going
to glory in the Lord in spirit. No flesh will glory in his presence,
we're going to glory in the Lord in spirit. Look at Judges 7 and
look at verse 2. Judges 7, 2. And the Lord said
to Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me
to give the Midianites into their hands. lest Israel vault themselves
against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me." He uses
earthen vessels, he's using foolish things like us, and he's saving
through the gospel, and the world calls this foolishness. But the
reason he's saving this way is so that no flesh shall glory
in his presence. So that in spirit, by him, we're
going to glory in the Lord. This is why he saves this way.
And each one God saves through the gospel will give him all
the glory for doing the saving. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and in the Lord shall they glory. God
forbid, Paul said, that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. So to keep his children from
glorying in self, the Lord whittled this army down using three kinds
of trial. Three kinds of trial. The first
kind of trial he used was a proclamation. Look there in Judges 7. Verse 3, now therefore go to
proclaim. This was the first way he willed
it down, a proclamation. Proclaim. That's what we do when
we preach. We're proclaiming the gospel. Go to proclaim in
the ears of the people, saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid,
let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there
returned of the people 22,000, and there remained 10,000. When the Lord Jesus proclaimed
that the work of God is to believe on him whom he hath sent. When
he proclaimed and said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. And he told them, they began to murmur. And he said,
murmur not amongst yourselves. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me drawing. And he said, and except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
That's what he told them. And when he told them that, multitudes
went away at that proclamation. They said, this is a hard saying.
Who can hear this? And they went away. And they
walked with him no more. But those in whom he had worked,
when he asked them, will you go away? They said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We have to have the words. We
have to have the gospel. This is eternal life to us. We could sooner do without food
than do without the gospel. We could go without water rather
than not having the gospel. We've got to have the gospel.
That's how vital the gospel is. These are the words of eternal
life. And he said, and we believe and we're sure that thou art
that Christ, the Son of the living God. Most who reject Christ, most
who go back in our day do so because the gospel of Christ
we preach gives Christ all the glory and doesn't give man any
glory. I mean, it gives Christ the glory in every part, and
man none. That's exactly why God says He's
saving this way. And that's why most go back.
Well, the second way the Lord whittled them down was using
a trial of sovereign grace. He said in verse 4, Judges 7,
4, And the Lord said to Gideon, The people are yet too many.
Bring them down into the water, and I will try them for thee
there." It's God doing the trying. God said, I will try them for
thee there. And it shall be that of whom
I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go
with thee. And of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not
go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the
people to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, everyone
that lappeth of the water with his tongue as a dog lappeth,
him shalt thou set by himself. Likewise, everyone that boweth
down upon his knees to drink. Now, all the Lord said to him
was, there are going to be two different ways these people are
going to drink. All that drink this one way, set them over here.
All that drink this way, set them over here. Gideon had no
idea why. There was nothing good or bad
in these men in the way they drank the water. That had nothing
to do with it. That was just to get in, show
this is one group, this is another group. He had no idea what the
Lord was going to do. But the difference was manifest
here and was made by God only. God only made the difference.
He chose whom he would. God didn't elect his people for
anything in us. It wasn't because he foresaw
some would drink one way and some would drink another way
or anything. He chose us by his sovereign
choice, by his grace. The Lord doth put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. It's the Lord. Who maketh thee
to differ from another? Nothing you did, nothing you
said, nothing you will ever do or say will make a difference
between you and any other sinner in this world. You know, in water,
you see your reflection in water, and when you look face to face
with man, you see your reflection. That's what the scripture said.
You look at wicked men in this world, and scripture tells us
you're looking in a mirror. There's no difference between
us and anybody else in this world that we made, none whatsoever. It's all of the Lord. He's the
only one that makes us to differ. And then next was a trial of
faith. And this would be easy to skip
over, but I want you to see here, the number of them that lapped,
putting their hands to their mouth, were 300 men. But all the rest of the people
bowed down upon their knees to drink water. So you've got this
whole group of people that drink one way and you've got only 300
people that drink this other way. And the Lord said to Gideon. Now Gideon at this point doesn't
know who the Lord's chosen. And the Lord said to Gideon,
buy the 300 men that lapped while I save you and deliver the Midianites
into their hand. I will do it, God said. I will
do it. and let all the other people
go, every man unto his place. So the people took victuals in
their hand and in their trumpets. You see this trial of faith,
they believed God and they went forth to the battle. And he sent
all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent and retained
those 300 men and a whole big host of million was beneath them
in the valley. You know, if you were sitting
there and you saw the Lord divide out 300 and you saw him divide
out this great multitude, it's going to take faith, you know,
you're thinking, is it going to be the 300 that he's going
to send against this big host? And if you're in that group of
300, you're thinking, are we the ones he's going to send against
this big host? But faith hears and believes
the Lord. The Lord said to Gideon, by these
300 men, I will save you and deliver the Midianites into thy
hand. They weren't going to do it.
It didn't matter if he had just chosen one or two. They weren't
going to do the saving. The Lord said, I'm doing the
saving. And that's what faith believes. Those God uses to spread
his gospel. We have no strength in ourselves.
That's why God chose base things. But through the gospel, God's
going to make Christ the power and wisdom of God to us and to
those he makes to hear. And therefore, the same way that
we receive mercy by this power of God, that's how we faint not.
by God, by the power and wisdom of our Lord, we go forth with
no other weapon but the cross of Christ, the preaching of the
cross of Christ. That's all. That's all. No flesh
glory. We glory only in the Lord. And so the victory is entirely
won by Christ. It's entirely won by Christ through
the gospel of Christ alone. Look here in verse 21. I've jumped
down there since we read the other part already. They go to
this camp, you know, and all the Midianites are there, and
they're in the middle watch of the night. And so Gideon told
them there he divided the 300 into three groups of men, and
they went around the camp. And he told them, he said, now,
you do what I do. He said, when I blow the trumpet
and shout the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, he said, you break
those pitchers and that lamp that was inside those pitchers
will shine forth. And so that's what they did,
Judges 721. And they stood every man in his
place round about the count. And this is when they had blown
the trumpet, they had cried out the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon, they broke the pictures and the light shined forth. And
they stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all
the hosts ran and cried and fled. They went to running in confusion.
And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord said,
the Lord said, every man soared against his fellow. That's talking
about just the people among the Midianites. He sent them fighting
each other. even throughout all the host.
And then the host fled to Beth Shaddai and to Zerath in the
border of Abelah and Tabith." Now here's what we see from all
that. Christ makes His servants stand
in our place. He said there, they stood every
man in his place. The Lord makes us stand on Christ
the Rock, unmovable by the power of the Lord. And they blew the
trumpet, and they broke the vessels with the light inside it, and
they shattered the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. Our light
is Christ. Our light is Christ. The sword
of the Lord is the gospel of Christ's name crucified. The
Lord set every man's sword against his fellow. The Lord did that.
He made the Midianites turn their swords on one another. This is how God's broken vessels
let our light shine before men. Your light is not your light.
It's Christ's light. It's Christ's light. So that
those He calls, glory in Christ alone. And so when the Lord visits His
people in divine visitation and breaks their heart, through you
preaching the gospel and speaking the truth of Christ to people.
When He breaks their heart and brings them to faith in Christ,
your feet will be beautiful to them. You know why? Because you
didn't use the means the world uses. You preached the gospel
of Christ. You gave all the glory to Christ
and declared His glory. And you prayed and begged God,
blessed to draw bones, Lord. And you waited on the Lord to
do the work. And that is totally sanctified
from the way this whole world operates. That's totally different. That's the light of God's people.
Christ our light. We preach, not ourselves. Let's go back to 2 Corinthians
4. Let's read it. Let's go back there and read
it. We'll end just where we started. 2 Corinthians 4-5. And you know
brethren, this is so if you're correcting your children, use
it as an opportunity to declare the gospel to them. If it's somebody
you work with, use it as an opportunity to declare the gospel to them.
Whatever it is, we ought to always begin declaring the gospel of
Christ. Because this is the word by which
he saved us. This is the word he's going to
bless to the hearts of his people. Verse 5, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, here's why we
do so, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels in a broken pitcher that the
excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It's not by might, it's not by
power, the Lord said, it's by my spirit, said the Lord through
his gospel. Why? It pleased God to save through
the foolishness of preaching. All right, brethren, let's go
to him. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for choosing this wise way of saving your people. Lord,
you cause us to see how powerful your gospel is. Because you see
us, make us behold Christ, who is the power and wisdom of God.
And by it, Lord, you make us hunger and thirst to hear your
gospel. You make us need it above all
else. I'm thankful, Lord, that you
continue to save us through this means, that you keep on declaring
to us this good news. Lord, don't ever, we beg of you,
don't ever let it become foolishness to us. Don't let us grow weary
of hearing the good news of Christ. We thank you, Lord, that you
put this joy in our heart through this gospel, that you keep it
new in our hearts. And we pray, Lord, you'd bless
this word. We ask you to bless your people wherever they are
and right here in this place. And Lord, if you have lost sheep
that are yet dry bones, we beg of you, Lord, cause them to hear,
cause them to live. And any that are despondent and
cast down and like they were in that valley of dry bones,
Lord, We pray, Lord, you would cause us to stand and revive
us and cause us to know that you're working through your gospel.
Make us behold Christ and freshen our heart. Thank you, Lord, for
continuing to work, continuing to do this work for us and in
us. And Lord, we give you the glory
and honor. Thank you for saving us from
us. Lord, we ask you, please forgive us our sins. Wash our
feet today. Keep us looking to Christ. For
the sake of our advocate, we ask it. Amen.