Good morning, let's all stand
and sing as an opening hymn to our second service, 446. 446,
satisfied. Satisfied. All my life long I had panted
for a drink from some clear spring that I hope would quench the
burning of the thirst I felt within. Alleluia, I have found
Him whom my soul so long has craved. ? Jesus satisfies my
longing ? ? Through his blood I now am saved ? ? Leaning on
a husk around me ? ? Till my strength was almost gone ? ?
All my soul for something better ? ? Only still to hunger on ? Alleluia, I have found Him, whom
my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. ? For I was and sought for riches
? ? Something that would satisfy ? ? But the dust I gathered round
me ? ? Only mocked my soul-sad cry ? ? Hallelujah, I have found
him ? ? Whom my soul so long has craved ? Jesus satisfies
my longings, through His blood I now am saved. ? Well of water never springing
? Bread of life so rich and free ? Untold wealth that never faileth
? My Redeemer is to me ? Alleluia, I have found Him ? Who my soul
so long has craved Jesus satisfies my longings. Through his blood
I now am saved. Thank you. Brother Scott is home, ill today
with the temperature. We wanna remember him in our
prayers and those that are traveling and away from us, remember them
as well. I'm gonna read our text from
this morning's message. It's in Judges chapter eight.
Judges eight, and we're gonna pick up in verse 22 and read
to the end. Then the men of Israel said unto
Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's
son also. For thou hast delivered us from
the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I
will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The
Lord shall rule over you. And Gideon said unto them, I
would desire a request of you. that ye would give me every man
the earrings of his prey. For they had golden earrings,
because they were Ishmaelites. And they answered, We will willingly
give them. And they spread a garment, and
did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey. And the
weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand
and seven hundred shekels of gold beside ornaments and collars
and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian and beside
the chains that were about their camel's necks. And Gideon made
an ephod Nephod thereof and put it in his city even in Ophrah. And all Israel went thither a-whoring
after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his
house. Thus was Midian subdued before
the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no
more. And the country was in quietness
forty years in the days of Gideon. And Jerubael, the son of Joash,
went and dwelt in his own house. And Gideon had threescore and
ten sons, or seventy sons, of his body begotten, and he had
many wives. And his concubine that was in
Shechem, she also bare him a son whose name he called Abimelech. And Gideon, the son of Joash,
died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulcher of Joash
his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. And it came to pass,
as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned
again, and went a-whoring after Balaam, and made Baal-bereth
their god. And the children of Israel remembered
not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands
of all their enemies on every side, neither showed they kindness
to the house of Jerubal, namely Gideon, according to all the
goodness which he had showed unto Israel. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace. We thank you, Lord, for your
continued mercy to your people. We see in Gideon a picture, a
type of ourselves and our folly and our foolishness. Lord, we
see how At one time we could be so faithful
as to do that which is right and then so quickly turn right
around and do that which is wrong. And yet, Lord, we see your grace
and your mercy to keep your people walking in faith, looking to
the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Lord, we ever need your grace. We ever need your spirit, your
power to keep us. We're so quick to wander and
to go away. And if it be our work, if it
be of our hand, of our strength, it shall surely fail and come
to nothing. But that which you do, Lord,
is is eternal, and it's good, and it's perfect. And so, Lord,
we ask that you would keep us, that you would pour out your
spirit upon us, and that you would turn us from dead things
and turn us to the living Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and keep
us walking in him by faith. And Lord, we do think of our
brethren. We think of Brother Scott now,
who has a fever and a hurt foot. Lord, we ask that you would heal
him, Lord, we ask that you would be with those who are traveling.
We think of Michelle and Abby and the boys, that you would
bring them home safely to us. And Lord, we think of those that
are ill in other ways and struggling. And Lord, the various temptations
that we have, we pray, Lord, that you would be merciful. Lord,
that you would encourage your people, that you would strengthen
your people in Christ. that you would draw them to yourself
and bless them richly in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord,
to be kind and good toward one another, to love one another
in Christ. And Lord, that we would be faithful
with the light that you've given to us and that we would gladly
and happily minister the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ with any who you open a door for us to speak to. Lord,
we do pray concerning just the various things that we see in
this life, in this world, things that are going on, things too
great for us to know and to understand and to be able to fix or solve. But Lord, we know, we are comforted
and know that you have all things in your power, in your control,
because you are sovereign and everything's working according
as you have purposed it to. Help us, Lord, to walk in the
light, in the faith which you've given us in Christ. Bless this
people here. Bless this work here. Establish
us in the gospel, in the light of Christ, in the blood of Christ,
and that this would be a place where sinners Come, lost sinners
who have no righteousness of their own, where they would be
drawn by your grace and power to hear Christ, to feed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless your people. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 287 like a river glorious. 287. Like a river glorious is God's
perfect peace, over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it floweth fuller
every day. Perfect yet it groweth deeper
all the way. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as he promised perfect
peace and rest Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand Never
foe can follow, never traitor stand. Not a surge of worry,
not a shade of care. Not a blast of hurry, touch the
spirit there. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as He promised, perfect
peace and rest. Every joy or trial falleth from
above, traced upon our dial by the sun of love. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. Thank you. And him really blessed my heart.
I like the arrangement. I found that this morning. Sweet,
thank you. I really enjoyed that. All right, let's return to Judges
chapter 8. Last week, we looked at the brethren,
the men that were with Gideon. They were faint, yet pursuing. They were believing the promises
of God and walking in faith, looking to Christ, their triumphant
savior. And the scriptures teach us that
Christ, even now, is our king. Men speak of Christ returning
and that when he returns, he'll be king. Men speak of making
Jesus the king of your heart or the king of your life. But
that's not in the power of man to do. And man can't do what
God himself has already done. He has made Christ the king over
all. And so Christ is even now the
king over this whole world. over heaven and earth and all
things are subject to him and he's conquered our foes and secured
for us an everlasting inheritance and everlasting righteousness
in him and we know that that is prepared for us even now on
the other side of Jordan. That work's been done on the
other side of Jordan. And he is with the father seated
on the right hand of the majesty on high even now as the mediator
between God and his people. He's right there now interceding
for his people, providing for us, caring for us, taking care
of us. and that he does till his enemies
are made his footstool. Let's see this in Psalm 110.
We'll come back to judges, but let's see this truth in Psalm
110, and we're just gonna look at the first three verses, one
through three, where our Lord confirms this
right now, that Christ is the King. the Lord verse 1 the Lord said
unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool now watch this the Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion the rod he's ruling right now out
of Zion rule thou in the midst of thine enemies so right now
He is the king, just like where there are kings in history and
in a land, there's enemies around. There's people that hate them,
but they're the one ruling. They are still the king. They're
not any less of a king. They are the king. And so he's
ruling now in the midst of his enemies. And he says, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. There may be many
enemies of the king, but his people are willing. made willing
by the grace of God in Christ. Today's passage is a reminder
to us who believe, to us who have no righteousness of our
own. But we believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. We believe that he is the very salvation of God. And it's a reminder to us that
as we are here in this flesh, we ever need the grace of God
to keep us. We are ever dependent upon his
grace and mercy because we go astray. We, this old man of flesh
is nothing but sin. This old man of flesh, this body
is not yet redeemed. It will, it's going to be transformed,
but this body is still left in this flesh right now. When we
see the works and the effects of sin in this vile nature, in
Adam and we wait for Christ's return. Now we're alive in the
new man, the new man of the spirit which believes and can only believe
and cannot sin. The new man cannot not believe. All he can do is believe because
it's the work of Christ. It's the creation of Christ that's
which is born of Christ's seed. He's done this and so by grace
we are children of God but we see the weakness of this flesh
and the folly of And that becomes very apparent here in the final
verses of Judges chapter 8. And one thing that we do see
here. In this whole book of Judges is every time the Judge dies,
and Judge here means Savior. Every time the Savior that God
raised up for the people, every time that Savior dies, the people
go right back to idolatry. Immediately, they go right back
to idolatry. Well, thankfully, God has provided
the Savior, the judge who does not die. He died once and rose
again, never to die again. And so he is the eternal Savior,
which continuously intercedes for and delivers his people from
death. Because we would go right back
to idolatry. We would go the way of the wicked leave our God, we would apostatize
from our God if it were possible. When it's of the flesh, that's
exactly what we'll do. When it's of the flesh, that's
what we'll do. And we see in this text, we see the works of
man's flesh, which comes to nothing, and we see the folly of the Lord's
people, but the Lord keeps them. We see his grace for his people
here. And so, We're thankful for the
intercession of our Lord. We're thankful for that grace
of our Savior. Now from verse 28, we know that
Midian was subdued. Midian was put down and never
raised its head again, never took authority over Israel again. And that's the case with our
enemy, the enemies of sin and this grave, of death, I should
say. Of death and this grave, they're
put down. Christ has won the victory. He
has conquered death and the grave. That's why Paul would say, oh,
death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? You've lost your power to hold
my people. You have no more power over them. Now this body is still subject
to the law of sin and death. It'll die. It'll go back to the
dust and be buried. But when Christ returns, he shall
raise up his people again to forever be with the Lord. And so we read in scripture that
speaks of this victory For those who are born again of the grace
of God in Christ, those who are born of his seed, we read of
this victory where we see in Revelation 20 verse 6, blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. We
died with Christ and were raised with Christ when He rose from
the dead. That's the first resurrection. And that life of His has been
wrought in us through the new birth. We've been born again
by the regeneration of the Spirit of God in us. We are partakers
in the first resurrection. On such, the second death. When
the devil and his fallen angels and all the wicked are thrown
into the eternal lake of fire, that's the second death, it has
no power over us. We've been delivered by our conquering
king. We soon see, as we see in Judges
8 here at the end, that this old man of flesh is still very
much an enemy. He's still yet doing his tricks
and getting into that which is sinful. And it's only by the
grace of God that we are kept and delivered because God is
gracious to his people, not because we're perfect, not because we're
sinless and that we've turned it around and do things right
now, it's because of Christ. It's for Christ's sake. And we
are never to forget that the salvation of God for his people
who are sinners and violent themselves, it's for Christ's sake. He is
the interceder. He makes intercession for us
right now. Now, in some respects, Gideon
is a wonderful type of Christ. We've seen him as a wonderful
type of Christ. And that continues when we look
at verses 22 and 23. Let's read these again. Then
the men of Israel said unto Gideon, rule thou over us, both thou
and thy son, and thy son's son also. For thou hast delivered
us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I
will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The
Lord shall rule over you. And so why do I say that this
is a type of Christ? Well, because these men, by their
own will, wanted to make Gideon their king. God wasn't making
Gideon their king. They wanted to make Gideon their
king. And that happened to Christ as
well. That happened to Christ as well.
There were men who wanted to make Christ their king. And the Lord Jesus Christ had
nothing to do with it. For one thing, man can't make
Christ the king because God has already made Christ the king.
He is the king. Whether you think he's your king
or not, whether you think you're subject to him or not, Christ
is the king. But man likes to boast of what
he does for the Lord. He likes to boast in his decision
and what he allows God to do. That's what man thinks he's doing.
He thinks he has the power over God. But wherever the flesh is
involved, whatever man would do, fickle heart of man would
do, it comes to nothing. They wanted Gideon to rule over
them, and it came to nothing. And so it is that we know the
truth of our God that He's the one who makes His people willing
in the day of His power. You that believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ don't believe because you've made a decision. You believe
because God has been gracious to you to turn your wicked heart
to the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe on Him. We would remain
in death and darkness. As we saw this morning with the
prodigal son, we would remain in absolute death and darkness,
but Christ was sent of the Father to come into the world and to
seek that which was lost. His people, precious to him,
chosen of God and given to Christ before the foundation of the
world. and that we are predestinated
unto this mercy. Ephesians 1 verse 4. and five,
and so God saves whom he will according to his election of
grace, and in time, when it pleases him, he delivers them from the
bondage of death and darkness, from the shackles of utter corruption
in Adam, giving them his spirit, and the spirit, through absolute
sovereignty of God, delivers his people, irresistibly, effectually
calling them out of that death. And so when man would make Christ
a king, that work is vain and it comes to nothing, except God
intervene, except God intervene and deliver us from thinking
we've done something for God. And we're brought to see, nope,
God's done something for me, for me in grace and mercy. Now,
let's see what I'm talking about. Turn over in John 6. John chapter
6, verse 15, where we see this type pictured here, where
men would make Christ king. When Jesus, therefore, perceived
that they would come and take him by force to make him a king,
he departed again into a mountain himself alone. And that's really
how it is. Man is happy to make Christ a
king while he's multiplying barley loaves and fishes by the basketball.
They like that. They like it when Christ is just
making riches for them and feeding them and giving them abundance
and taking care of them in that sense, in the things of this
world, the things that profit this flesh. But what about when
the Lord says to his people, if thou wilt be perfect, go and
sell all that thou hast and give to the poor. And then you shall
have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. Do men want to
follow Christ then? What about when he says, he that
taketh not his cross daily and follow me, is not worthy to be
my disciple. You know, when we first hear
that, the natural man is excited. And like those people who received
the law from the hand of Moses, they said, all that the Lord
hath said, we will do it. Sure, absolutely. We'll do everything
God says for us to do. But we see over and over and
over again that, no, we won't. We are lawbreakers. We cannot. Fulfill and keep the righteousness
of the law we can't do it sure we can do a few things here and
there but we cannot keep the righteousness of the law and
Love God perfectly and our neighbors perfectly as the as the spirit
of the law is we cannot do it Because soon enough we either
are offended by persecution or the word just is forgotten by
us quickly or the cares of this life grow up around us, and like
weeds, they choke out the word so that we become unprofitable
and unfruitful. And so it does not take, it didn't
take the Jews very long, right? They were excited for Christ
at first, but it didn't take them long before they grew tired
of him. And they asked that a murderer
and an insurrectionist be released unto them and that Christ be
crucified. What shall I do with the Son
of Man? What shall I do with this One
whom you call Christ the King? Crucify Him. Crucify Him. We're
done with Him. When man makes Christ his King
by his fleshly decision, it isn't long before his heart hardens
being tempted and his carcass falls in the wilderness. That's what
happens when man makes Christ the King. But God has made Him
the King. And when God delivers you from
death, it'll be an eternally fixed union between your Savior
and you. Now, it's not as though we that
believe on Christ can do these things that the Lord says to
us. In fact, we're given to answer
Him when He says, will you also go away? In our flesh we would,
but by the grace of God we answer him, Lord, to whom shall we go? We know that you alone have the
words of eternal life, and that you are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. We're convinced of this, Lord.
Where else can we go? And I realize that it seems contrary
to our nature because when we read in the scriptures and we
hear the exhortations of our Lord and we think, I should be
like this, this is what I should be, but we see instead the works
of this flesh and we see instead what fools we are, how easily
we fall into all manner of temptation and distractions and adversities,
it's contrary to us But the Lord allows this, lest we should think
more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but that we
would think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith. And we easily forget the truth
of God, and we are prone to wander, but the Lord seeks us out, he
finds us, and he'll even provide a thorn in the flesh, like he
did to Paul, lest we should become puffed up with a big head and
that thorn comes and just pops the head. And we seek the Lord
to remove it, but he says, my grace is sufficient for you.
My grace is sufficient for you. And so while we don't see in
ourselves what we ought to see, it humbles us and makes us to
cry out to the Lord, have mercy upon me, save me. And so by the
grace of God, we are taught like Paul to take pleasure in infirmities
and in weaknesses and disappointments because we see that truth that
when I'm weak, then I'm strong. When I'm strong, I'm confident
in myself and I'm going in my own strength and power, but when
I'm weak, my mind is on the Lord and I'm asking him, Lord, save
me, have mercy upon me. And that's necessary because
back in Judges chapter eight, at the end of the chapter, if
you go to the end, we see a picture of apostasy. In verse 33-35 we
see that many here in Israel were apostates, they turned from
God. They wanted to make Gideon a
king and it all came to nothing and they apostatized from God
in the end. It came to pass, verse 33, as
soon as Gideon was dead that the children of Israel turned
again and went a whoring after Balaam. and made Baal-bereth
their God. And the children of Israel remembered
not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hands
of all their enemies on every side. Neither showed they kindness
to the house of Jeroboam, namely Gideon, according to all the
goodness which he had showed unto Israel." And so we see here
just how quickly man will turn to idolatry. Gideon dies, and
they immediately turn to a false god. It's as if they couldn't
wait for the man whom God had sent them to die and to be done,
to be gone, so that they could just get to doing the things
that they did in the old days, to just have things be the way
that they were. While Gideon was alive, they
just were biding their time until they could return to the things
of death. They didn't say it, but their
heart was saying, we'll not have this man reign over us. We're
done with him. We're ready to move on and get
to our own thing. And so they turned to this Baal
Beerith, which means the Lord of the Covenant. And that tells
me it had some semblance of the true religion that they had received.
There was some understanding and probably Israel throughout. Every time that they went astray,
there was a mixture of true things and things that were pictures
of Christ and the gospel and what he does for his people and
a bunch of flesh and a bunch of lies. And so, This should
alarm us, and it does alarm us, because we see, wait a minute,
these people here should not be turning from the Lord, and
yet they're falling away. And the Lord gives us admonitions
and exhortations to this point, telling us things in the scriptures,
things like we read in James 1.27, keep yourselves unspotted
from this world. And the Apostle John says, Brethren,
keep yourselves from idols. And again, Jude says, keep yourselves
in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life. But while the religionists can
do those things, we recognize, Lord, I can't do those things. That's really the difference.
One hears and says, I'll do it. I'll do everything you say. And
the other one says, wait a minute. I'm in trouble because I can't,
I don't have the power of myself and my flesh to do this. But
the Lord says this to show us our weakness and he brings us
to cry out, to breathe, Abba, Father, Lord, save me, have mercy
on me. The Lord's showing us that without
me, you can do nothing. We hear the word, we want to
do that, and the new man, we want to follow the Lord. We want
to obey his voice and do what he says, but we don't have the
power in our flesh. And we see how weak we are, but
the Lord does that to show us that without him we can do nothing.
We're not trying to do it on our own. We're seeking him for
his grace and mercy. And he brings us to cry out,
like that father of a son who said, Lord, I believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. And we're made like Peter, who
went out to the Lord. When he saw him walking on the water,
doing these miracles, and he said, Lord, I want to come to
you. Let me come out to you. And how long before he said,
Lord, save me? I'm afraid. He became afraid. And he said, I'm starting to
sink, Lord. And that's what we do. Anytime we hear the word
of the Lord and we're venturing out to just go do it, we're doing
it in the strength of our own flesh. But the child of God is
made to say, Lord, I need your help. I cannot do it. I need your grace and mercy. And so he does that. He brings
his child to see, because he's made. When man makes Christ their
king, they perish. But when God makes one his child
by Christ the king, they shall live upon him forever. They'll
live upon him forever. And by that spirit of adoption,
they'll cry, Abba, Father, save me, Lord. Save me. Now what this
means is that only a living faith will do for the believer. It's
not about puffing up our chest and making bold statements that
we'll never do that again. Here on forward, I'm going to
be like this. No, we're not. It'll be very quickly before
we see ourselves fall flat on our face that we're nothing.
But we need a living, breathing faith. It's not about you that
don't need faith and can stand on your own. That's not what
God's looking for. He's calling his people to see their need
of Christ, to behold the servant of God whom he has sent, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's a walk of faith. ever looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we're weak. That's
why the Lord makes us weak, and why we have thorns in the flesh,
and why we won't see ourselves as we think we should see, because
we're constantly being made to see, Lord, I need you. I need
your grace. I can't do this on my own. Otherwise, we'll remember not
the Lord. And there are times when we do get just like that,
where we remember not the Lord, and we forget all his kindnesses,
and we fall. And we're brought to nothing.
But for the believer, they need a living faith. They need a living
faith. And so that's what we see here
in Gideon, actually. Coming back to after he said,
I won't rule over you, the Lord will rule over you. But watch.
As soon as he says this, listen to what comes out of his mouth
next in verse 24. Back in Judges 8, 24, and Gideon said unto them,
I would desire this one thing of you, that you would give me
every man the earrings of his prey. For they had golden earrings,
because they were Ishmaelites. I don't think asking for this
in and of itself is sinful. It's not bad, but it does become
a snare to him. We'll see. And they answered,
we will willingly give them. They were happy to do it. And
they spread a garment, and they cast therein every man the earrings
of his prey. And the weight of the golden
earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold beside
ornaments and collars and purple raiment that was on the kings
of Midian, and beside the chains that were about the camel's neck.
Now, 1,700 shekels, I'll just tell you, it's over, in today's
value of U.S. dollars, it's over a million
dollars, and quite possibly up to two million dollars. So Gideon
instantly becomes a millionaire. And Gideon, with this money,
he made an ephod thereof and put it in his city, even in Ophrah. And all Israel went thither a-whoring
after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon and to his
house." Now, we're not told exactly why Gideon makes this ephod.
It wasn't the whole thing of gold, because it's like, close
to 50 pounds of gold. I don't think the whole thing
was made of gold, but he used some of that gold to make it.
And they don't tell us why he made this. Now, an ephod, if
you're familiar with the Old Testament, was worn by the high
priest. The high priest wore an ephod
to consult with God and the umim and the thumim. And God would
speak to him as an oracle to answer questions in times of
need. And Gideon puts this thing in
Ophrah, which is in the tribe of Manasseh. My understanding
is that at this time, the tabernacle was in Shiloh, in Shiloh, in
Ephraim. And maybe Gideon didn't want
to go there. They had some words before that
Gideon spoke roughly to him, and maybe he said, you know what?
I've sacrificed to the Lord, right? He sacrificed the second
bowl to the Lord on the altar that God told him to make, and
it was consumed with fire. So Gideon's thinking, maybe I
can do this thing, and I'll just sacrifice to the Lord here in
my hometown, and I'll just avoid Ephraim altogether. And so maybe,
maybe it was for religious purposes, you know, that he could sacrifice
unto God himself. Others think maybe he did it
as a memorial. Maybe it was just a memorial
to remember how the Lord had, by his hand, delivered Israel
from the Midianites and delivered them from that. But at that time,
typically, when they wanted a memorial, they would just set up a pillar
of stones. You could just set something
up down there by the banks of the Jordan River as a memorial. But in either case, whatever
we see here, we see how easily we can stumble, right? If it's
a religious symbol, well, we know the idolatry of our heart.
We see how people get into religious things and think that this lifts
them up into a holy sense and in awe, right? And they wear
crosses or crucifixes or have stained glass or put up steeples
and crosses on the walls and things to remind us, things like
that. But religious symbols, become
a snare. It doesn't matter if they're
Christian religious symbols or some other false religious symbols. They become a snare because we
look at them in a superstitious way. And by wearing a cross or
doing those things, it's not like God's giving us any special
grace. There's no sprinkle of grace
because you've done, you know, that you have these religious
things. And so it became a snare to him. And if it's for a memorial,
well, that's also a danger for us. When all we do is put so
much weight on some past religious experience. When the Lord tells
us we're saved every day, we need the deliverance of God every
day to keep me. We have present mercies now that
I need. Give us this day our daily bread,
Lord, lest I should forget. And so we put a lot of confidence
in religious things by nature. We put a lot of confidences in
past experiences and put too much weight in those things.
But the Lord tells us it's a walk of faith. It's not a one-time
thing of faith, but a walk of faith. And so brethren, we see
just how easily we would, how we are ensnared by the things
of this world and the things that this world counts as precious. And the Lord says, I don't need
those things. I've got that which is precious, the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Come in Him. And you're received
by God in Christ, for Christ's sake. Now what's encouraging
in this, we're not gonna look at the many wives and the son
of Gideon today, but what's encouraging in this is that in spite of the
faults and the failures of Gideon that are laid out for us here
in the scripture, Gideon never fell away. The Lord speaks very
graciously of Gideon. We know he's listed in Hebrews
11, the chapter of faith, so we know that, but even here in
this chapter, we see God's testimony of Gideon. When we look at it
here in the Old Testament, we think something's wrong. This
guy, what was he thinking? What was he thinking? And when
I think like that, I'm reminded how many times could it be said
of me, what was I thinking? What are you thinking, Eric?
Just like Gideon, it's so true. And so, here's the testimony. Look at verse 32, Judges 8, 32.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age, and was
buried in the sepulcher of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abbaezrites. Now, that description, Gideon
died in a good old age, that's a description that describes
that he died in grace. grace now the reason why I say
that is turn over to Isaiah 65 verse 20 the scriptures here
in Isaiah 65 20 describe those who die in grace right now it
says here he died in a good old age but look Isaiah 65 20 there
shall there shall be no more from that time from thence, an
infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days. For the child shall die an hundred
years old, but the sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be
accursed." And so we saw when we looked at this a few weeks
back, a couple months back, that the meaning here is that even
if you die, at a young age, an early age. But if you die in
grace, you have lived a good old age because you live eternally. You'll never die. You'll never
perish. You're not cursed at all just
because you died at a young age. There's no such thing for the
children of God. There's no such thing that, I
mean, people might say it, but where they say like, well, he
died too young. He died before his time. Not if he's in the
Lord, truly. If he's in the Lord, it's fine.
The Lord brought his child home to be with him. There's nothing
to be ashamed of that. Those who die at an old age in
grace, they yet live eternally. They are blessed. They have fulfilled
their days. They filled their days. But the
man who believes not, he might die to 100 years old. We've all
seen people and maybe even known some people, but heard of people
that were rebellious sinners who hated God and lived to be
100 years old or longer. know and just did all kinds of
abuse to their body and yet lived and yet that one right people
would say well they were blessed they had a good long life well
if they died outside of grace they're a curse just because
they lived a long time means nothing if they're if they die
outside of Christ they are cursed and cut off from the true and
living God. And so we see just again how
ensnared we can be in this flesh. But Gideon, whenever it was that
Gideon died, he died in grace. He died in grace is the point.
God have mercy on him. In spite of this folly, in spite
of this snare, in spite of his foolishness in setting up this
ephod, it just shows us It's not to give us permission
and license to sin, but we see the grace of God in him. That
in spite of us, it's not what we do or don't do. It's not my
decision or what I don't do. I mean, the Lord brings all his
people to call upon the name of Christ. If you're his, you're
going to call on him. You're going to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to trust him for
all your righteousness. That's our hope, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But the other things that are
seen and witnessed That's no testimony necessarily. The Lord
will produce fruit, he'll bring fruit, but that's not our salvation.
Our salvation is the blood of Christ. That's what he's done
for us. And that's what the Lord shows
us, that he saved him. And so in spite of our failures
and shortcomings, when we look in the Old Testament, and you
can see this when you read Hebrews 11, when you look at these men
and women described in the Old Testament, the Lord is very honest. and shines a light on their folly,
their sin, their shortcoming. I mean, look at David. It really
lays out how sinful we are. And yet, these men and women
are described in Hebrews 11. as faithful believers, people
who walked in faith. And so you see the ugliness described
in the Old Testament. That's true, under the law, we
are sinners. But in Christ, we are blessed
and children of God and received of him and die in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why when Christ separates
the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25, it says, then shall the righteous
answer and say, when, Lord, when, when? When did we see thee in
hunger and feed thee? When did we see thee thirsty
and give thee to drink? When did we see you naked and
clothed thee? When did we see you in jail or
sick and come and visit you? When did we do these things,
Lord? And he said, as much as you've done these things unto
the least one of my brethren, one of the least of my brethren,
you've done it unto me." And so the Lord, he knows exactly
what he's doing. He's able to save his people,
deliver them to the uttermost. And yeah, we see the stink and
the filth of this flesh. And we're always going to see
it, because we see it. And the Lord uses it to keep
us humble and to not think of ourselves more highly than we
ought, but that we would continue to look to Christ, continue to
breathe, Abba, Father, save me. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Lord, save me. I'm afraid. I'm sinking. And the Lord does
that for your good, for your good. Because when you're weak,
then are you strong. And so I pray that that closing
verses there in Rome, Judges 8, you see the gospel there. You see the grace of your God
to care for you in Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer. And then have a hymn. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace. Lord, we see the
folly in Gideon, and Lord, like a mirror, we see the folly in
our own hearts. We see how easily we are distracted,
how easily we go astray, how full of folly and sin we are
in this flesh. But Lord, we also are encouraged
at your grace and mercy, not because we deserve it by our
works, not because we've earned it, not because we've merited
it, but because you freely give it. It's grace and you freely
give this salvation and forgiveness and strength and mercy in Christ
and in Christ alone. And Lord, we, seeing this, Lord,
we confess our sin. We confess that we are but fools
and have no excuse for what we do. But Lord, we thank you for
your grace and mercy in Christ. Keep us, Lord, in him. Let us never become too strong
that we would apostatize and fall away. But Lord, keep us
in the blood of Christ, rejoicing in him. thankful for what you've
done in him. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 514. We're marching to Zion. 514. Come we that love the Lord and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord. Join in a song with sweet accord. And thus surround the throne. And thus surround the throne. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Let those refuse to sing who
never knew our God. But children of the heavenly
King, But children of the heavenly King, May speak their joys abroad,
May speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, Beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
The beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand
sacred streets Before we reach the heavenly fields Before we
reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets Or walk
the golden streets We're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful
Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Let our songs abound and every
tear be dried. We're marching through Emmanuel's
crown. We're marching through Emmanuel's
crown to fairer worlds on high. to fairer worlds on high. We're marching to Zion, beautiful,
beautiful Zion. We're marching upward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. Thank you.