Would you turn to the book of
Judges? Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges. When I was speaking to the preacher's class
in Mexico, One of the classes I introduced by saying the apostles
did not have a New Testament to preach from. All they had
was the Old Testament scriptures, and that's what they preached
from. The Old Testament. There's a passage in Galatians
chapter 4 where Paul tells about a story that took place in the
Old Testament when Sarah said, God's promise is
not seeming to take place and we need to do our part. So you
go into Hagar and they had Ishmael and Ishmael is not regarded as
a son. Remember when Abraham, when the
Lord said to Abraham, take now my son, my only son, Isaac. And
Paul tells us about that passage of scripture that it's given
to illustrate law and grace. Now, if I read that without that
New Testament commentary, I would just think it's another one of
those unusual kind of strange stories in the Old Testament,
but no, it's given to picture the gospel. And that lets us
know that every Old Testament story is given to picture the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's its purpose. I've entitled
this message Gideon. You've heard of Gideon Bibles.
You've seen them in hotels and it comes from this character,
Gideon, the sword of the Lord and Gideon. The scriptures are
called the sword of the spirit. He is the man who inspired this
Gideon tract society that puts out Bibles in hotel rooms and
so on. And Gideon is a delightful character
in the book of Judges. One of the men God raised up
to judge and deliver Israel. Now in the book of Judges, there
are 12 judges. Like there were 12 apostles,
there were 12 judges. And there were 12 tribes. And
these are the men that God used and it covers a 400 year period. And Gideon was a very humble
man. That is evident when you read
the history of Gideon. And when the Lord told him something
he was going to do with him, Gideon never trusted himself.
Did you really say that to me? I need proof. I'm afraid. Look in Gideon or Judges chapter
six, verse 16. And the Lord said unto him, surely
I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites as
one man. And he said unto him, if now
I found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest
with me. He couldn't even believe the Lord was talking to him.
He said, I need a sign that you're even speaking to me. Look in
verse 36 of the same chapter. Now, the Lord had promised Gideon
that he was going to use him to deliver Israel once again.
And Gideon said unto God, if thou wilt save Israel by my hand,
well, he said he would. He said, now, if you will, as
thou hast said, behold, I'll put a fleece of wool in the floor.
And if the dew be on the fleece only, And if it be dry upon all
the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel
by my hand as thou hast said. He needed a sign. He wanted something
to prove to him that it would take place. And it was so. For
he rose up early on the morning and thrust the fleece together
and wring the dew out of it, the fleece a bowl full of water.
And Gideon said unto God, let not thine anger be hard against
me, and I'll speak but this once, let me prove I pray thee, but
this once with the fleece, let it now be dry only upon the fleece,
and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night,
and it was dry upon the fleece and only, and there was dew on
all the ground. He had to have this sign answered.
And there could be a whole message preached on this. The dew couldn't be on all the
ground and in the fleece. Fleece would be dry. Or if the
dew was only in the fleece, all the land would be dry. You know, sin can't be two places
at once. If it's in Christ, it's not on us. And if it's on us,
it's not in Christ. Look in chapter seven, verse
nine. And it came to pass the same
night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down into
the host, for I've delivered it into thy hand. But if thou
fear to go down, the Lord knew what he's like. He said, if you
fear to go down, go thou with Thura, thy servant, down to the
host, and thou shalt hear what they say. And afterwards shall
thy hands be strengthened to go down into the host. Then when
he downed Mathura, his servant, unto the outside of the armed
men that were in the host, and the Midianites, and the Amalekites,
and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like
grasshoppers for multitude. And their camels were without
number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. And when Gideon
was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow."
Gideon was listening. Behold, I dreamed, and dreamed,
and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian,
and came into a tent, and smote it, that it fell, and overturned
it. And the tent lay along. And his fellow answered and said,
this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash,
a man of Israel. For into his hand hath God delivered
Midian and all the host. And it was so when Gideon heard
the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, he
worshiped and returned unto the host of Israel and said, Arise,
for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of the Midianites. So we see that this man was a
humble man when he'd hear the Lord speak to him. He'd think,
did he really speak to me? And he would need these proofs
as it were. Perhaps you will remember that
Gideon had 32,000 men in his army. And the Lord said, that's too
many. And you know, he whittled it down to 300. 300 men against all these hosts like
grasshoppers, the scripture says. And there's a beautiful picture
of the preaching of the gospel. You know what they did? These
300 men blew a trumpet. And they had an empty picture
with a light in it. And when they blew the trumpet,
they would break the picture and the light would be shown.
The preaching of the gospel. That is how God delivers his
people through the preaching of the gospel, the light of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That light that lets me know
that God can accept me for Christ's sake. What light there is there. Now this story begins in Judges
5, but look in the last verse of chapter 4. And the land, the last sentence,
and the land had rest for 40 years. This had been a prosperous
time. There were no enemies. Verse
1, chapter 6. I'm sorry, that should have been
chapter five, verse 31. The land had rest 40 years, chapter
six, and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the
Lord. And the Lord delivered them into
the hand of Midian, seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel. And because of the Midianites,
the children of Israel made them the dens, which are in the mountains
and caves and strongholds. And so it was, when Israel had
sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the
children of the east, even they came up against them, and they
encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till
they had come unto Gaza. Gaza and Gaza left no sustenance
for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. They had nothing
to eat. Nothing. Verse 5. For they came up with
their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers
for multitude, for both they and their camels were without
number, and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel
was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And the children
of Israel cried unto the Lord." Now, I pray that takes place
tonight. We're impoverished. And we cry unto the Lord. They
had no means of protecting themselves. They had nothing to eat. They
were brought to the end and they cried unto the Lord. Verse seven, and it came to pass
when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the
Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel,
which said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought
you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of
bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians
and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them
out from before you and gave you the land. And I said unto
you, I'm the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites
and whose land you dwell, but you've not obeyed my voice. And I'm thankful for that. And aren't you doesn't end there. You all got yourself into this
mess. Get yourself out of it. He didn't say anything like that.
Did he? And thank God for that word. And, and there came an
angel of the Lord and sat under an Oak, which was an Oprah. that pertained unto Joash the
Abizarite and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress
to hide it from the Midianites. Now here we have Gideon and he's
threshing wheat in secrecy, knowing that if he's found out, the Midianites
will take everything he had. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, Thou mighty
man of valor." Now, what we read would not seem to think that
he was a mighty man of valor. He was not very confident when
the Lord would speak to him. He would think, I don't even
know if he's really speaking to me. Is this my imagination?
He was hiding in fear from the median eyes and you wouldn't
think that he's a mighty man of valor. But notice what the
Lord says. The Lord does not say, the angel
does not say, you're a mighty man of valor. The Lord is with
thee. He said, the Lord is with thee. Valor, the mighty man of
valor. And I can say that to every believer. The Lord's with you. That makes
you a mighty man of valor. You might not feel it, but what
God says is the way it is. And if the Lord says he's a mighty
man of valor, He's a mighty man of valor, a man of faith, as
we're going to see. The Holy Spirit inspired the
writer to the Hebrews to put this man's name in this great
hall of faith. The Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valor. Now look at Gideon's reply. And Gideon said unto him, O my
Lord, if the Lord be with us, Why then is all this befallen
us? And I love his language. I like this word, befallen. Everything that has happened
to us has fallen down from heaven. It's our fault, but everything
that's happened to us has fallen down from heaven. And everything
that's happening to us right now doesn't appear to be good. Why are you calling me a mighty
man of valor when I'm here in hiding? threshing the wheat and
all of Israel is being oppressed and we're afraid of our oppressors
and we have to hide. And verse 13, 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 Midianites. Now he understood, as every believer
understands, everybody that knows the Lord, Lord Sovereign. He
said, you've delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
He wasn't taking away from his own personal guilt in what he
had done, but he was saying, you are the one who's in complete
control over this. Everyone who knows the Lord Nosey
sovereign, absolutely the first cause behind everything. You
know, it's just, it's who he is. Only he is sovereign. Sovereignty, you know, power
belongs to him, so does sovereignty. He's absolutely sovereign. And
Gideon acknowledged that when he saw all the things that were
happening and what a low state Israel had fallen into. Verse
14. And the Lord looked upon him
and said, go in this thy might. What's his might? The Lord's
with you. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Go in this thy might. Be strong in the Lord, Paul said
to the Ephesians, and the power of his might. Do you know if
you believe the gospel that that's as much a miracle or more of
a miracle than the creation of the universe? You think of the
power of his might exerted on you. And the Lord looked upon him
and said, go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from
the hand of the Midianites. What I think is interesting,
if you read Young's literal translation, he says, you have saved. You
have saved. You see, whenever the Lord saves,
it's done before it takes place. He's eternal. Everything he does
is eternal. He said, thou shalt save, you
have saved from the hand of the Midianites. And then here's,
have not I sent you? Can anyone stand before me? If
I've sent you, is there any way that you can be defeated? I've
sent you. And you couldn't, you can't help
but think of how the Lord, he's a type of Christ here. The father
sent him. I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me." And whatever
the father sent him to do, write this down, he did it. And he
is telling Gideon at this time, have not I sent you? You know,
if the Lord sent you, what confidence? You know, it's not you, it's
him. And he said, oh my Lord, wherewith
shall I save Israel? How am I going to do this? He
was incredulous about this. And look what he says about himself.
He said, behold, my family is poor in Manasseh and I'm the
least in my father's house. I'm at the bottom. I'm the weakest. I'm the most poverty stricken.
How are you going to save Israel through the likes of me? I'm
the least. I'm the lowest. I'm the last. What a blessing when God gives
us the grace to see that about ourselves. Oh, may the Lord impress
that upon our heart. We're so proud. I'm so proud,
I know that. It's an arrogance, it's a thinking,
self-importance. Gideon had been brought down
to where he saw he was the last. Verse 16, and the Lord said unto
him, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites. How? As one man. Now here's the gospel. What the
Lord did, this is such a beautiful type of the gospel. He said, you're going to smite
the Midianites as one man. Do you remember when David fought
Goliath? It was one man fighting Goliath. And if this one man wins the
victory, All of Israel wins. And here it said to Gideon, as
one man, the Lord, I love that scripture. When he had by himself
purged our sins, Hebrews 1.3, you know what that means? You
didn't have anything in this great act of salvation except
being saved. You didn't contribute any. When
he had by himself, as one man, purged our sins, he sat down
at the right hand of God. We are not dependent on our works
or our armies, but by the work of the one man, the one man the
Lord sent, the one man who was He was with the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus Christ is victorious,
we're victorious. I saved by one man. How do you
feel about that? I love it. I love being saved
by one man. I love being saved by what he
did all together. That has nothing to do with me.
That gives me joy. That gives me peace. Saved by
one man. Verse 17. And he said unto him, if now
I found grace in thy sight, show me a sign that thou talkest with
me. That's amazing. I mean, here the Lord is talking
to him. He says, show me a sign that you're talking to me. He
had such a mistrust of himself and he held himself so suspicious.
He said, show me a sign that you're really talking to me.
And here's what he says to do. Depart not hence, I pray thee,
until I come unto thee and bring forth my present. The word present
in my marginal reading says an offering and that's what the
word generally is translated. It's the same word used of Cain
and Abel when they brought their offering before the Lord. and said it before thee. And
he said, I'll tarry until I'll come again. And Gideon went in,
verse 19, and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an epheth
of flour and flesh. He put it in a basket and he
put the broth in a pot and brought it out unto him under the oak
and presented it. And the angel of God said unto
him, take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this
rock and pour out the broth. Make sure everything is dampened
with the broth. And he did so. Then the angel
of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And there
rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cakes. They were gone. Fire came out
and they were gone. the acceptance of the offering,
the acceptance of the sacrifice. You remember when Elijah had
the oxen doused down with water and he prayed for the Lord to
show that he was God's prophet at that time. And he said that
God and that Baal was false. And he said that God that answers
by fire, let him be God. The people said, okay, but when
Elijah put the oxen on the altar and doused it down with water.
The scripture says the fire came down from heaven and consumed
the sacrifice, the rocks, the dust, and licked up the water.
There was nothing left. Well, that's what Gideon saw
at this time. And that speaks of the complete
acceptance of the sacrifice. Then the angel of the Lord departed
out of his sight. Now Gideon knows who this is
he was seeing. This was a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ and he sees that now. And when verse
22, and when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord,
Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for because I've seen an angel
of the Lord face to face. And he's talking about seeing
God face to face in the person of his son. God said, no man
should see my face and live. No man has seen God at any time.
And he did not understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is a person
who could be seen, but he knew this was God. And he thought,
I'm going down. I'm gonna get killed for this. Verse 23, and the Lord said unto
him, peace be. unto thee. Fear not, thou shall
not die. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom, Jehovah our peace. Jehovah our peace. And to this day it is yet an
Oprah of the Abizarites. And this is one of the eight
names of Jehovah. When the offering was consumed
and accepted, it meant that God accepted the sacrifice. And the only place peace is found
for me or you is in God's acceptance of the sacrifice. Did God accept
what Christ did? Was he pleased? He's pleased
with everybody that was represented by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
as I said, this is one of eight names of Jehovah in the scriptures,
the self existent one. I love to think of just his name
as being self existent. He has no needs. He doesn't need
you. He doesn't need me. Think of how dependent you are.
He is utterly independent because he's God. He has no needs. We read of Jehovah Nissi, the
Lord our banner, the Lord our message. You see, as the Lord
enables us, We're not trying to convince people of our doctrine,
we're preaching who he is. And when it's seen who he is,
everybody will believe the doctrine. They will bow to the doctrine
when they see who he is, the Lord, our message, the Lord,
our banner. He's called Jehovah Ratha. That's
what David called him. The Lord is my shepherd. And because my shepherd is the
Lord, I shall not want, because my shepherd's the Lord. Jehovah-Rapha, I am the Lord
that healeth thee. By his stripes, we are healed."
That's not talking about the healing of our bodies. Now, if
I'm healed, the Lord healed me physically, but I'm gonna die
sometimes. Something's gonna get me. But by his stripes, we're
healed. This is talking about our spiritual
healing. And then There is Jehovah Shama. The Lord is there to Ezekiel.
The Lord is there. This is talking about his omnipresence.
He's here. He's everywhere. You can't go
anywhere where he's not. And every believer always has
his presence. Thou art with me. The Lord is there. He's here. He's present. And then there
is Jehovah's Atenu, the Lord our righteousness. How glorious. This is the name
wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. This
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. You know, the only time you're
going to have peace is if you have perfect righteousness. And we have the
Lord our righteousness. Just as my sin became his, his
righteousness becomes mine. Jehovah Tsukinu, the Lord our
righteousness. And Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. All he requires of you, he will
provide. Now, this is one that's not mentioned
very often. Jehovah Mikadishakum. I think I'm saying
that right. Jehovah Mikadishakum. I am the Lord that sanctifies
thee. I'm the Lord that makes you holy.
You know why you're not just part holy? Because he did it. He didn't do anything halfway.
Christ is made into us holiness, sanctification. That is the heritage
of every believer. And here in our text, Jehovah
Shalom, the Lord, our peace. Now, you remember in Hebrews
chapter seven, when he's introducing Melchizedek. He said his name
is first, King of Righteousness. After that, King of Peace. Now, if I ever see that he is
my righteousness, you know what's going to come from that? Peace. Peace. All that God requires,
I have. Perfect righteousness. Sinlessness. I stand before God without sin
because He's my righteousness. King of righteousness. After
that, king of peace. Only when I'm perfectly righteous
before God do I have peace. You know anything about that?
Seeing that you're perfectly righteous before God. Not seeing
it, but believing it because the gospel says it. And the only
time you and I will ever have peace is if we see we're perfectly
righteous before God because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called the gospel of peace. That's the title of the gospel,
the gospel of peace. And God is called the God of
peace. And Christ is called the Prince
of peace. He is the one who made what the
scripture calls the covenant of peace. Jehovah Shalom. The sacrifice has been accepted.
peace. Now turn with me, I want to look
at a few passages of scripture in closing in the New Testament.
Colossians chapter one, verse 20, Colossians chapter
one, verse 20, and having made peace through
the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven and you that were sometime
or aforetime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now, right now, hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in love. How? Because he made peace by
the blood of his cross. Ephesians 2.14 says, he is our
peace. The angel of the Lord told Gideon
there was peace because of the sacrifice accepted. Now, would
you turn with me to John 16? Verse 29. His disciples saith unto him,
Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb? Now
are we sure that thou knowest all things? Now, wait a minute.
Now are we sure? That's pretty much calling a
question mark on what he said. You know, the disciples were
like us, really stupid. And they demonstrate that here. Now are we sure? I'm sure the
Lord is thinking, I'm really happy to have your all's affirmation
now. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and neither
is not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe thou
camest forth from God, And Jesus answered them, do you now believe?
You're talking big. Do you now believe? Behold, the
hour cometh, yea, is now come that you shall be scattered every
man to his own and shall leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone
because the father is with me. These things have I spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. The only place there's peace
is in him. These things have I spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. Now the only way I have
peace is if I am in him. That's what Paul meant when he
said, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him. All I want is this. This is all
I want. I want to be found in him. These
things have I spoken unto you that in me, you might have peace. This is the peace of. justification. He says in the world you'll have
tribulation, be of good cheer, I've overcome the world in me.
Think of this scripture, therefore he was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification, therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he heard that Christ was
his peace. Now I'm simply gonna read what
he did at the end. Turn back to Judges. Now the Lord said, fear not,
peace be unto thee. That's where he raised up that
altar. Now look in verse 25, Judges chapter six, verse 25.
It came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him,
Now that he hath this peace, take thy father's young bullock,
even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the
altar of Baal that thy father hath. Now when there's peace
with him, there's going to be throwing down the idols. That's what's
going on. You throw down the altar of Baal
that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that's by it,
and build an altar of the Lord thy God on top of this rock,
in the ordered place, Take the second bullock and offer a burnt
sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou has cut down.
Then Gideon took 10 men of his servants. There's a significance
to that 10. He now has a perfect righteousness
before the 10 commandments. But he took 10 men of his servants
and did as the Lord said it in him. And so it was because he
feared his father's household and the men of the city that
he couldn't do it by day, he did it by night. At least he
did it. He was afraid to do it during
the day, but he did it at night where nobody could see. And when
the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar
of Baal was cast down and the grove was cut down that was by
it. And the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was
built. He had demonstrated a complete disregard for their religion,
tore it down. And they said one to another,
verse 29, who had done this thing? And when they inquired and asked,
they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, had done this thing. Then
the men of the city said unto Joash, bring out thy son, that
he may die, because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because
he hath cut down the grove that was by it. And Joash, his father,
said unto all that stood against him, will you plead for Baal? Will
you save him? that will plead for him, let
him be put to death whilst yet mourning. If he's a god, let
him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
If he's a god, let him take care of it. Therefore on that day
he called him Jarrah Bale saying, let Bale plead against him because
he had thrown down his altar. And that was Gideon's name after
that Jarrah Bale. And I pray that the Lord will
enable us to be Jarrah Bales. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word, how we thank you for the gospel that's revealed in your
word. Lord, we ask that you would be
our teacher, that by your spirit you would give us hearing ears
and receptive hearts. And Lord, enable us to be as
Gideon throwing down the false altars and preaching the gospel. Bless us for Christ's sake. And
Lord, enable us to do that. Enable this assembly to do that.
Enable all your assemblies to do that. Bless us for the Lord's
sake. In His name we pray, amen.