the 11th chapter of the book
of Judges. But before we travel over there,
I would like to read three verses in the 11th chapter of the book
of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 11. And it's
gonna set a bit of background for us over when we get over
to the book of Judges chapter 11, because we find in this passage
of scripture that the judge that we're looking at was a man of
faith. It tells us here in the book
of Judges chapter 11, beginning with verse 31. Rahab's going
to come up again tonight, so we want to make sure we read
that part. It says here in Hebrews chapter
11, verse 31, by faith the harlot Rahab perish not. You know, I read this whole verse
tonight, and I don't think I've ever seen this, because it goes
on to say, perish not with them that believe not. When she had
received the spies with peace, God had worked a work of grace.
She kept those spies by faith. She trusted the Lord that she'd
be spared. That faith had been given to
her. She was spared. And we find her in the lineage
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. All right, beginning with verse
32, we have some judges mentioned here. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and of Jephthah, of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. Those judges are in
the group with the prophets, with David, with Samuel. Who
through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the army
of the aliens. So we find these words that were
written by, given by the Holy Spirit with regard to these people
listed in this section of Hebrews chapter 11. It just is part of
the great book of Hebrews chapter 11 about those that God gave
faith to and the events that took place as a result of exercising
that. All right, just keeping in mind
that Jephthah is one of those, he's a judge, but he's also mentioned
here in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, a man of faith, who through
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
and stopped the mouths of lions. All right, join me, if you would,
back in the book of Judges chapter 11. In the book of Judges chapter
11, we have here some very interesting thoughts with regard to that
Jethro. It tells us here in Judges chapter
11, beginning with verse one, Now Jethfah, the Gileadite, was
a mighty man of valor. And we looked at that word valor
a couple of other places in the Old Testament last time. And
we find that it's some of the highest commendations about his
abilities are mentioned in that word. And he was a son of a harlot. And Gilead begat Jethfah. Now,
as we think about this, I had to ask the question, and I knew
the answer already, but I wanted to ask the question, who was
it that had this description of Jephthah recorded in the Bible? And we know that it was the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit called upon the
author of the book of Judges to have this section written
in the Word of God. It then means that there is some
significance to that verse of Scripture and the description
that we get in that verse of Scripture about Jephthah's mother. Now it's It's not the best circumstances
that surround Jephthah's birth. They were not ideal. We're going
to find out that the rest of his brothers didn't think that
that was ideal at all, and they're going to kick him out. But we
find that Gilead counted Jephthah as one of his sons. There's no
response here from Gilead about, well, this is my harlot's son
and therefore he's going to be second class and we'll keep him
out. It's just that it appears very
much that he's just as accepted as the rest of the sons. Now
he's the oldest one. Jephthah is declared the oldest
son because we have the rest of them born by a wife of Gilead
and it tells us there, and Gilead's wife bare him sons and his wife's
sons grew up and they thrust out Jephthah and said unto him,
thou shall not inherit in our father's house. for thou art
the son of a strange woman." So they looked at this as very
poor, and they were not going to have Jethro inherit with them. The Lord, and we're just going
to make this statement, the Lord loves, saves, and uses those
that are the most unlikely the most unlikely. Now Jephthah is
the son of a harlot and yet he is recorded in the book of Hebrews
as having great faith given to him. Any faith from God is great
faith. Now, our faith is worthless.
It will not accomplish the necessary acts. It just can't get there
from here. But the faith of God's elect, God's given faith is great
faith, always great faith. I hear these sermons about little
faith and baby faith and all that. My goodness, God doesn't
give that kind of faith. He gives great faith. He gives
God faith. He gives the faith of God's elect.
Now, we may not exercise it as much as we will eventually in
our life, but it doesn't mean that we've added to that faith.
It just simply means that we got to see more of it, and we're
more evident revelation about the faith that God has given
us. So once he saves us, we have all faith. and yet we're going
to spend some time learning about what that faith is. The Lord
loves and saves and uses those that are the most unlikely, which
truly demonstrate grace and its true meaning. When we find out
that God loves, God deals with, God saves those that are the
most unlikely, we have an inkling of what grace is. There's nothing
about this man Jesper that would cause God to bend over and say,
I think I'll take him because look at what he's doing. He's
the son of a harlot and he's soon going to be kicked out.
Now there's a passage of scripture that we often refer to about
this time and that is over in 1 Corinthians. Would you join
me in the book of 1 Corinthians as we think about God's choice
of people, God's choice of leaders, God's choice It was interesting
in the Bible study earlier that I was involved in that was mentioned
that God gave Israel a king like the rest of the folks, Saul. He was a king like the rest of
the kings. But when that was finished, he gave him a king
after his own heart. He gave him David. And it's so
symbolic that we, in our own natural state, will choose our
own king. And it might be our will, it
might be our thoughts, whatever it is. But God, if he's going
to save us, he's going to give us the real king. He's going
to give us Christ the king. And we no longer look at Saul,
quote unquote. He's going to give us David.
All right, here in the book of 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, for
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. What great power it was to save
a people. What a great power it was to
save Jephthah. He was a sinner. He was born
a sinner, but he also, his parents were sinners. And they exercised
it, very obvious in what they did, that they are sinners. Now,
when we compare their sin with the sin of some of the priests
and prophets, not prophets of God, but prophets that went after
other gods, strange gods, you know, they're on holy ground.
And these prophets and these people that have other gods before
them, they're the ones that God is going to come and judge very
highly. For it is written, I will destroy,
verse 19 of chapter 1, for it is written, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God..." Now let us just say here
for just a moment that most people, anybody with any authority, would
have never chosen Jethfe because of his background. He just doesn't
have good pedigree. He just is not the kind of person
that we want to have in this office. And they're going to
demonstrate that in this verse following there in the book of
Judges chapter 11. But as we move on here, it says,
for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God. This is how he does his business.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. to save them that
believe. Now preachers have said it's
not by foolish preaching. It's by the foolishness of preaching.
God chose that people were going to be saved after hearing the
truth of the gospel through the mouth of someone that he has
revealed the truth of the gospel to. He is just simply sharing. She is just simply sharing what
God has done and what God has done and given. And so the only
message we have is the report, the word of God. That's all we
have. And you know, to many people that we talk to, that's very
frustrating, because we can't get off into an experience, we
can't get off to a profession, we can't get off into work, because
that is not from a biblical standpoint. All we have is the Word of God,
and it's incumbent upon us to always bring the subject back.
You know, as Jesus did with regard to the woman at the well. She
had a lot to say about her religion and Messiah is coming, but he
directed her attention back, back, back to himself. And then he revealed himself
to her. So that's our ministry is hurting a little bit, bringing
it back to that very thing. I'm so impressed in reading the
book of Acts that every time that Peter has been preaching
in Acts chapter 2, 3, and 4, it's always the same message
to a different crowd. He didn't change it. Now it's
interesting, too, that that same crowd probably saw him withered
by the question of a maiden. Aren't you one of those disciples?
No, I'm not. So here we have him not mature,
but given grace, understanding the gospel. All right, as we
go on here, it says, for after that at verse 21, the foolishness
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to say them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the
Greeks foolishness. And it seems at times unto the
Jews a stumbling block and foolishness, and sometimes it appears that
unto the Greeks a stumbling block and foolishness. The Lord Jesus
covers all of these things that people have in their mind. But
unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men. So we may look at Jephthah and
say, oh, What a bad representative of the Lord there. And yet the
Lord says he is the representative that I have ordained, called,
and placed into a position during this time among the Jewish nation
in the book of Judges. God chose him to do what he's
going to do. God saved him, because no man
can be recorded in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews that God
didn't reveal Christ to. They, by faith, they are recorded
there. So because, verse 25, because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men, and God is not weak, and he's not
foolish. He's just giving us an illustration there. For ye
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh Not many noble, excuse me, not many mighty, not many
noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. Why was Jephthah called? He has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. Why would anybody call
on this man to do anything? And yet we find out that he is
chosen of God. And you know, Jethro is a wonderful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ because he came unto his own
and his own received him not. They kicked him out. They didn't
want to have a thing to do with him. Well, when he saves people,
they want to do something. They have him. Verse 28, the
base things of the world, the things which are despised have
God chosen. So everything that God has chosen,
He's done it on purpose, and He's working it out for good
to them that love Him, to those who are called according to His
purpose. Now why is this? Verse 29. that no flesh should
glory in his presence. He's not going to put up with
that. If it's glorying in his presence, if our flesh is glorying
in his presence on what we have done or what we've accomplished,
that is not good. Hear that no flesh should glory
in his presence. So we're going to follow the
life of Jethro and we're going to find out nobody can glory
in the presence of God over this man. We can only glory in God
over this man. All right, as we travel back,
we find that last week we looked at some examples of God choosing
and using the most unlikely. Rahab the harlot, the most unlikely,
and yet God gave her faith. She did not perish with those
who did not believe. She is spared. And she put that
crimson cord out her window. Those two spies identified that
crimson cord and said, there she is. And when that wall came
down, they brought her out with her family. Now, her family really
needs to thank God for grace because their physical life was
spared. I don't know about their spiritual life, but their physical
life was spared and the rest of them all died. Everybody else
in the city of Jericho died. All right, as we look here, we
find that the Gentile Ruth, how God blessed her, not supposed
to have a Gentile marry a Jew, and yet God chose the foolishness
of this world. He went against. He stood up
and God brought into the family Ruth. Now she had a whole lot
more to say about the glory of God in her confession to her
mother-in-law than all of the other Jews put together. Your
God is my God. Where you go, I'll go. Where
you worship, I'll worship. Your God is my God. So she had
a great deal. God had revealed a great deal
to her and she was a pagan, a Gentile. So God blessed us by having her
in that. Mary Magdalene, we get to the
New Testament when we read about this woman who was God cast out,
Christ cast out seven demons. And I don't think her life was
all that good. before the Lord came. And if
we follow that out, we find she was the first person on Christ's
post-resurrection agenda to see him, the woman Mary Magdalene. What a blessing God gave to her
to have her name recorded in the New Testament as one who
got to visit, speak to, and be blessed by the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is a book in the Bible
that shares a whole lot about this very principle that we've
been reading about here, that Jephthah was born of a harlot. Another person called the mistress
of this man, whatever it was, God said she's a harlot. Well,
there is a book called the Book of Hosea. So if you'd travel
with me over to the Book of Hosea, the Book of Hosea deals with
this very subject. The Book of Hosea brings up this
subject. In fact, we find out that one
of God's prophets is commanded, let's just go over there, in
the Book of Hosea, Hosea chapter one, verse one. Once again, we have this said
about this man, the word of the Lord that came unto Hosea. Who gives us this book, the Holy
Spirit? It has great value because in
this book, it shares with us how God saves his people. Now,
it shares with us right on, very quickly, of what kind of people
he is going to save. But he also shares with us how
he does that. So, as we look here, the word
of the Lord came unto Hosea. Now, he's the son of Barai, and
he's in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah,
in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, the king of Israel.
So we have a time period that this man is raised up, and we
have the prophet Hosea. Now in verse two, the beginning
of the word of the Lord. Now notice that word Lord. We
have Jehovah speaking to him. the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea,
go, take unto thee a wife of Hortems and children of Hortems. Now, why did God require that
of Hosea? Because he wanted to. And he's
going to illustrate a wonderful point. Just as we follow the
life of Jephthah, his beginning was not the best, but from God's
standpoint, it could be no other. Well, here, Hosea is required
by the Lord to go out and marry a woman by the name of Gomer.
Now, Gomer does not have a very respectable life in the area,
but did you notice who commanded Hosea to go and marry this woman? It's God, it's Jehovah that did
this. And it goes on to say, go take
of thee the wife of the whoredoms and children of whoredoms, for
the land hath committed great whoredom departing from the Lord.
Now he's going to use this picture as a type of his people, Israel,
but also those that are going to be in the church. Those God
has marked out from before the beginning of time. those he's
recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, they have this same background
because we all fell in Adam. We have that background. We could
very easily say that Adam was the first adulterer because he
chose his own ways instead of God's ways. He was very unfaithful
to God. So in verse two it says, so he
went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dabilim, which conceived and
bear him a son. Now she's going to have two sons
and a daughter, and their names are significant. They mean something
in regards to God's dealing with Israel, but also God's dealing
with the church. that Israel is a type and a shadow
of the church. And the disrespect that Israel,
the disobedience that Israel had for God is just so pictorial
of what the church has with God before He saves them. They have
no compunction to serve Him. In fact, it tells us that it
is impossible to follow His law. We have nothing in us that is
able to do that. So they displeased God, and that's
all they could do. So he went unto her, and she
bare a son, and verse 4, and the Lord said unto him, Call
his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the
blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease
the kingdoms of the house of Israel. And we find that this
name that God gave them or ordered him to have means God sows. So God's gonna do what he's gonna
do here. He is the one that's in charge
of this. And then it goes on to tell us in verse five, and
it came to pass that that day that I'll break the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again, the
type goes on, the picture moves on. We find that Hosea was commanded
Demanded to marry this harlot, the woman of Hortum by the name
of Gomer. She has a son and now she's going
to have a daughter. And who's the father? Hosea. It's Hosea. This is his family. All right. She conceived again
and bear a daughter and God said to him, call her name, Laura
Hama. I've heard some names almost
like that. Gomer has a daughter named directly by God, and it
means no mercy. God is going to have no mercy
on a certain group. And then in verse 7, it says,
call her name Laruhama, for I will no more have mercy upon the house
of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. But I will have
mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord
their God, and will not save them by bow, or by sword, or
by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen." What's he saying?
I'm not going to save them by their works. I'm going to save
them by grace. He's going to demonstrate that.
And in verse 8, now when she had weaned the daughter, she
conceived and bare a son, and then said, God, call his name
Laomai. And this particular name means,
not my people. So God is using this situation
to be a wonderful illustration about how he's dealing with Israel
and how he deals with the church. And he uses this situation of
Hosea commanded to go and marry this woman. Now, I don't know
how his will felt about that. But Under God's instructions,
he did it. I am convinced he had no free
will in this. There was God's will and no one
else. So he did what God commanded
him to do. Well, let's go on here and it
says, it is such a blessing to know that Jesus was and is and
ever will be the first, constant, and last only the husband of
his church. Jesus is the only husband of
his church. Whatever idols our poor souls
in fallen state, in our unregenerate state, our unrenewed nature may
go after, still God does not lose sight of his people. So
we're going to find that as we follow this scene out. Three children aboard, two boys
and one girl. Now, in the book of Judges, Let's
go down here for just a bit more There's so much more here that
we need passing over some of the best Okay, here we go In Hosea chapter 2, verse 2,
Hosea chapter 2. Hosea 2, verse 2, plead with
your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her
husband. Let her therefore put away her
whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from between her
breasts. lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that
she was born, and make her a wilderness, and set her like dry land, and
slay her with thirst. And I will not have mercy upon
her children, for they be the children of Hortens. For their
mother hath played the harlot. She hath conceived them that
done shamefully. For she said, I will go after
my lovers." What lovers? Previous. her boyfriends. I'll go after
my lovers. that give me my bread and my
water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. Now, it's interesting
that that very thing is gonna be played upon by the Lord, because
he's gonna say, she didn't know I was doing that. She didn't
know I was giving her this. And verse six, it says, therefore,
behold, I will hedge up that way with thorns. Now, the Lord
does this for everyone that he's ever gonna save. He is going
to hedge them up and make sure that they go where he intends
for them to go. Here he uses this, he's going
to hedge up with thorns and make a wall that she shall not find
her paths. He's gonna take care of that
she does not get to accomplish what she hopes to accomplish.
And then we find here in chapter three and verse one, then said
the Lord unto me, go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend,
yet an adulteress according to the love of the Lord toward the
children of Israel who look to other gods and love flagons of
wine. So I bought her to me. for fifteen
pieces of silver." Now what did the Lord do for His church? It wasn't with silver. Not silver
nor gold hath He obtained my redemption, but by His own blood. And for an omer of barley and
a half omer of barley. And I said unto her, Thou shalt
abide with me many days, and thou shalt not play the harlot
and thou shalt not be for another man, so will I also be for thee. For the children of Israel, in verse, what is it, chapter
two, verse 14, let's go back over there, it says, therefore
behold, I will allure her. and bring her unto the wilderness,
and speak comfortably unto her. And I'll give her her vineyards
from thence, and the valley of Acre for the door of hope, and
she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and as the
day when it came out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be that
at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi,
and shalt call me no more Bailey. for I will take away the name
of Balaam out of the mouth, and they shall no more be remembered
by their name. Well, he shares with her, Hosea
shares, that he's the one that provided all of the goods that
she was attributed to everyone else. Well, what a story, what
an account we have here of this type of woman that Jephthah is
born from. So it's no problem that as we
look here, that Jephthah is also going to illustrate this point.
Going back to the book of Judges, Judges chapter Judges chapter 11. Judges chapter 11 verse 2. And Gilead's wife bare him sons,
and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah,
and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house,
for thou art the son of a strange woman. but they have no right to do
this. But they do kick him out, just as we find with regards
to the Lord, it reminds us of the Savior sharing with us in
John chapter one and verse 11, he came unto his own and his
own received him not. Remember who's throwing him out,
his half-brothers. This is not a cousin, this is
not an uncle, this is his half-brothers. They share the same father. It speaks very lowly of the will
of the father. The will of the father is that
this boy be treated like the rest of the family, and yet they
follow that not. By the fall of Adam, nature of
sin, all people lost all apprehension of God. And we find out, as we
read in Psalm 14, that God looked down, the Lord looked down from
heaven. Is there anyone? Let's just go over there to Psalm
14. Psalm 14. In Psalm 14, we find
that God looked down. God looked down to see if there
were any. All the people lost all apprehension of God and became
ignorant, both of themselves and their maker. Just as we find
here, these boys, how many there are, are ignorant of their maker. They're ignorant of their father
and the father of this young man, Jephthah, who is the same. All right, in Psalm 14, there
verses one and two, we read these words, the fool hath said in
his heart, there is, is in italics. So I wanna just leave them off
for a second. The fool hath said in his heart, no God. That's very emphatic. They are
corrupt. They have done abominable works.
There is none that doeth good. That is the most difficult thing,
and in fact, we will never convince anybody of that truism. It's
an impossibility for us to convince any other person that they cannot,
will not, and will never do good in their present state. Because
they'll raise their hand and say, I put some money in the
Salvation Army bucket. And that's how they measure it.
That's not the kind of good that God is talking about here. He
goes on to say, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek
God. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. God's words on the subject. So
we have this truism in the scripture of how far humanity has fallen. Back up just a little bit to
Psalm 10. Psalm 10. In Psalm 10, we read
this, verse 4. Psalm 10 and verse 4. It says
here, Psalm 10 and verse 4 says, the wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in
all his thoughts. Now there's, where you put little
G-O-D, but this God, Elohim, the sovereign God, he's not in
their thoughts. He is so foreign, so the wicked
through the pride of his countenance, look who I am, will not seek
after God. Now the worst person in the world
is able to say, I may be very, very bad, but I'm not as bad
as that person. There's always a comparison going
to go on. So the wicked through the pride
of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all
his thoughts. So as we look at this scene playing
out here in the book of Judges, that they take these other sons take and kick out. Jephthah, get him out of there. We are thankful for God's omnipotence.
And it tells us in Psalm 110 and verse three, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. So all these other verses
are set aside when God's power comes along and influences us
to trust him. In Judges chapter 11, going over
to Judges again, chapter 11, verse 3, we find out what those
other brothers did with Jephthah. And we notice here, who is it
that gathered around Jephthah? In the book of Judges, Judges chapter 11, Judges chapter 11 verse 3 Then Jephthah fled from his brethren
and dwelt in the land of Tob and there were gathered vain
men to Jephthah and went out with him and Now when Jethel
left and he fled to the land of Tob, Tob means good. They were vain men. They were
empty in the sense of having nothing. It doesn't mean that
they're foolish or out of sorts. It just means they have nothing.
They're poor and they're needy. And this speaks very highly of
who comes to the Lord, who is drawn to the Lord. They are needy. They are poor. They have nothing. And we find that there's a passage
in the book of 2 Samuel. If you'll turn with me to the
book of 2 Samuel, we find here with regards to David. Look who
gathered around David. It's 1 Samuel chapter 22. These
are the folks that gathered around David when he is on the run.
As Jephthah left, he is like the Lord Jesus. He came unto
his own. His own received him not. He's
kicked out. He goes to a good place. And
I don't know how many gathered around him, but a considerable
number. And they are poor. They're in need. And they believe
he can help them. Well, over here in the book of
2 Samuel chapter 22, 2 Samuel chapter 22 verses 1 and 2. 1 Samuel, excuse me, 1 Samuel chapter
22. I'll get there eventually. That other didn't read right.
Read good, but it wasn't right. 1 Samuel chapter 22 verses 1
and 2. David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brethren in all his
father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And
every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt,
And everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him,
and he became a captain over them. And there were with him
about four hundred men." Now, to most people, they're not the
highest quality, but they're the ones that gather unto David.
What does it say? That's in debt. in distress and
discontented. They are quite a group of people. Now when we follow the Shrew,
the folks that followed after Jephthah, the folks that followed
after David, would it be incorrect for us to find that the Lord
Jesus had the same kind of people gather around him? The antitype
is going to be more poignant than the type. So let's just
go over to the New Testament for a little bit, and we find
out that those who've gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the book of Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9, and as
we follow this out, we're going to find out that religious people
are the ones that are upset about this. You would think that anybody
taking care of the poor, the welfare needs are being taken
care of by this person, that people would like him. He's doing
for these people what we don't want to do. He has a following
of some of the poorest people in the realm, but we don't like
it. They should have liked it. He
says, well, come park in my backyard. Well, all right, going over here
to the book of Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. Matthew
chapter 9, there are verses 10 and 11. Matthew chapter nine,
verses 10, 11, it came to pass as Jesus said at meet in the
house, behold, I like that word, many publicans and sinners came
and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees
saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners?" You know, as long as those publicans and sinners
were there, they didn't give any problem to the Pharisees.
But they couldn't see through that. Why does your master, why
is your master associated with publicans and sinners? And in
the book of Luke chapter 15, let's go over to the book of
Luke chapter 15, and we find a group of people just about
like who gathered around Jephthah, just about like who gathered
around David in that day. And here in the book of Luke
chapter 15, verses one and two, we have again a group that's
gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ. How would you represent
yourself in gathering around the Lord? We have to say, there's no good
in me. I have no righteousness to come with. I have nothing
to present. It's only by grace that He calls. So here in Luke chapter 15, verses
1 and 2, it says, And they drew near unto all the publicans and
sinners for to hear Him. Who was to hear him? And the
Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, this man receiveth sinners
and eateth with them. And then he goes on to speak
a parable. What a statement they make, what a revelation about
their heart, that they have no interest in going over around
this person. And he has the best teaching
that's ever been brought to the earth. and yet they don't want
to hear it. And they're finding fault with
those who do come around. And then just a few chapters
later in chapter 19, if you go there with me, chapter 19, who
gathers around the Lord? Republicans and sinners, harlots. That's who gathers around the
Lord. Those are the ones He's chosen.
Sinners is who He's chosen. Not many wise, not many grand,
not many of what we'd think. But here in the book of Luke
chapter 19, verses 5, 6, and 7, and when Jesus came to the
place, He looked up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house."
Would Zacchaeus have ever come out of that tree while the Lord
was standing there if the Lord had not called him? No. Now he would have waited until
he was gone, but he would not have crawled out of that tree
while he was there. The Lord called him out of that tree.
and make haste, and come down, and received him joyfully. And
when they saw it, they all murmured, saying..." That word murmured
is almost the sound that this makes. They murmured, saying that he
was gone to be a guest of a man that is a sinner. Who gathered
around Jethro? Same kind of people. Who gathered
around David? Same kind of people. And who
gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ? Publicans and sinners. There's one passage left that
I would like to look at, and that's found in the book of Matthew,
chapter 11. In the book of Matthew, chapter 11, Jethro was the son
of a harlot. His father regarded him as his
son. The Father in heaven regarded
the Lord Jesus Christ as His Son, but when He came unto His
own, His own received Him not. To whom was the arm of the Lord
revealed? Very few knew who He was. He's rejected, refused, they
have no interest in Him. And here we follow the ones that
gathered around Him, they were revealed to Him, He's the Savior,
we're the sinner. In the book of Matthew chapter
11, Matthew chapter 11, and there in verse 19, Matthew chapter
11 verse 19, the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they
say, behold, A man gluttonous and a wine-dibber, and now notice
this, a friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified
over children. A friend of publicans and sinners. So that's the group that's going
to gather around him. Now, when we get back to the book of Judges,
we're going to find out those folks that kicked him out are
going to say, I think we ought to go call him. I think we should go get him.
and he's going to come back and help them with the enemy. Well,
he's such a picture, a type and a shadow of our Savior, the Lord
Jesus. He was not a, I hate to use the
word normal person. Jesus was not the norm. He is
perfect in every way. Jesus is not the normal religious
leader. He has public and sinners scattered
around him. Why? Because they, he can do
something for them. He can forgive all their sins.
So we're gonna have Jethro come back and lead in the battle.
We're gonna have Jesus come back, take on the enemies of the church. Sin, death, hell, the grave,
gonna take on the enemies of the church and win. Just as we're
gonna follow Jethro out, he's gonna win the battle. All right,
we'll stop there for tonight and we'll pick up with this,
Lord willing,