Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 18 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book, number 18, The Bible is a Book of Christ. Let's all stand
together. God gave His holy, inspired Word
for only one great end. The prophets and apostles, too,
revealed the sinner's friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old report
God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace
set forth the woman's seed. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. The types the great redemption
show, Christ's blood and grace now bring. The Bible is a book
of Christ, it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us
Christ, it only speaks of Him. Behold the Lamb, the Baptist
said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. Our substitute obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in his word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. Please be seated. Good evening. If you'd like to
open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter five, we'll read a passage
of God's word that will affirm what we just sang. Martin Luther once said, there's
not a word in the Bible that can be understood without reference
to the cross. not a word in the Bible that
can be understood without reference to the cross. Look at Ephesians chapter 5,
beginning at verse 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart
to the Lord. What reason we have for doing
that. all that he's done for us, giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have a lot to be thankful for,
and really all things are to be thankful for. Submitting yourselves one to
the other in the fear of God, Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men love their own wives
or love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself for no man ever hated his own flesh, but
nourishes it and cherishes it even as the Lord, the church. For we are members of his body
and of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife
and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. Everything
we just read is a parable. It's a great mystery. But I speak
concerning Christ. and the church. Nevertheless,
yes, this is this is Christ and his church. Nevertheless, the
things that I said are still true. Let every one of you in
particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that
she reverence her husband. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you that once again, you've called us out of our homes and brought
us here to this place, to the house of God, where we can join
our hearts together in worship and in praise and thanksgiving.
Lord, we come before your throne of grace and we ask that for
Christ's sake, you'd be pleased to send your spirit and power
that you would enlighten the eyes of understanding, that you
would cause your word to be sharper than any two-edged sword, that
it would be effectual in revealing to us the glory of thy dear son,
and that you would cause us, Lord, to find our rest in knowing
that you have made the church his bride, his body, his flesh. Lord, that we have union with
him that we have acceptance with thee by our union with thy son. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 17 in your hardback hymnal, 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Raised about, I'm fixed upon
it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger Interposed
his precious blood O to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm
constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. Please be seated. I wanted to open the service
tonight with that passage of scripture from Ephesians 5, because
the message tonight is about Christ and His church. And we're going to find our text
in Judges chapter 8, if you'd like to open your Bibles to Judges
chapter 8. We're reminded once again that
this book only speaks of Christ. Everything in it. how the Lord spoke to the people
in parables, and the disciples said, Lord, why do you speak
to them in parables? And he said, because it's not
for them to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for
you it's made to know. And we've seen over and over
again, especially in our study of Judges, how these historical
events that took place in the life of Israel back before the
kings, are parables of the gospel. And we find one here revealing
the glory of Christ and what he's done for his church. Everything
in this world exists for the purpose of Christ and his church. The glory of Christ and the salvation
of his people. Scripture says that everything
else is ultimately vanity. It's temporal. It's fading away. The only thing
that's eternal, the only thing that will last forever is Christ
and His church. In Hebrews chapter 12, the Lord
speaks of the things that are made. He is shaking. so that
the things that are not made cannot be shaken and that they
will stand. He's talking about the physical
world. This physical world is always
being shaken by God to show us what a faulty foundation it's
built on so that that which cannot be shaken might stand. What cannot
be shaken is Christ and his church. The Lord Jesus Christ revealing
himself through, by, and in his church, the calling out of his
people, the saving of sinners is his ultimate glory. And it
is the reason for everything. Everything. So when our Lord
gives us these stories. We're always looking. I like
what Charles Spurgeon said one time. He said, I take my text
and I make a beeline to the cross. How quickly can I get to Christ
and Him crucified? And we're reminded again of what
the Apostle Paul said when he said, I determined not to know
anything among you save Christ and Him crucified. It's everything
for you, For me. So when we read about Gideon
and we've come to the end of his life here in Judges chapter
eight, we're reminded of how he pictures for us the Lord Jesus
Christ delivering us from the Midianites. Now Midian translated
means strife. And these enemies of Israel had
come in and caused great conflict for the children of God. And
the Lord raised up a man by the name of Gideon, put together
an army of 300 men and completely destroyed the nation of Midian. He put away the strife. You know,
we often quote that passage, that passage on the New Testament
that speaks of strife and vainglory. And we know that among men, whenever
there is strife between individuals, it's always rooted in vainglory.
Somebody's not getting the credit that they think they should get.
Well, the strife that men have with God is born out of vainglory. Man wants to have credit. for
his salvation. He wants to take glory in something
that he's done, a prayer that he's prayed, a work that he's
performed, a knowledge that he's come to. He wants to make some
contribution to his salvation. And as long as he has vain glory,
there will be strife between him and God. And so what Gideon's
picturing for us here, notice in verse 28, Thus was Midian subdued before
the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no
more. And the country was in quietness
40 years in the days of Gideon." Here's what our Lord did. What
is the opposite of strife? Peace, quietness. rest. And that's what we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were at enmity with God. We had strife with God because
of vainglory and because of our inability to satisfy the demands
of God's law. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He
silenced He silenced the cursing of the law against us, so that
what was once strife is now peace." Notice how this medium was subdued
before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their head,
no more. The strife was put away. Sin was put away. The conflict
between us and God was satisfied and settled in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Gideon that destroyed
the strife so that now we can come boldly into the throne of
grace, knowing that we have access and acceptance in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no We have no more enmity
between us and God. We have no more fear. Perfect
love, the scripture says, casteth out fear. And we don't have to
fear the wrath of God or the judgment of God. The Lord Jesus
Christ has suffered that wrath fully. He has quenched that fire. He has, he has sheathed the sword
of God's justice in his own heart. And so that there's, there's
no more enmity. There's no more strife. Midian
has been subdued and they can, and Midian can't raise his head
or his hand against the people of God for whom Christ died ever
again. You know, the Midianites are
never mentioned again. You know, we studied the Bible,
you know, some of these nations come up and then they're kind
of made quiet for a while and then they come back and Midian
is completely subdued. They slaughtered all of them.
They never raised their hand against the people of God ever
again. And so has the strife that we had with God's law. Because
of our vain glory, we come into this world wanting to be God. We come into this world wanting
some glory unto ourselves for our salvation. And when the Lord's
pleased to open the eyes of our understanding and reveal to us
the glory of Christ, we just bow. We bow, we submit, and we
repent and we confess that we have nothing to do with our salvation.
And he gets all the glory, all the glory. What a glorious picture here.
And notice that for 40 years, we've seen this in the book of
Judges already, when God raises up a judge, he gives the children
of Israel 40 years of peace. 40 in the Bible is a time of testing.
We know that Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days. being tried by God. The Lord
Jesus Christ was in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights fasting. 40 is a generation. We're tried in this world for
a season, for a period of time. And the Lord says for those 40
years, they had rest. The, The period of time between our
Lord manifesting Himself as the Savior of His people in 30 AD
to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD was 40 years. And the Lord gave that one generation
of Jews that period of time to hear the gospel before Judaism,
as it was always known, came to an end. And there had not
been a sacrificial system among the Jews since 70 AD. So this
40 years is a period of testing. The Lord, when he rose from the
grave, appeared to the disciples. You
know, between he was crucified at Pentecost, I mean at Passover,
and ascended into glory at Pentecost, which is a 50-day period of time,
but 40 of those days he tried the disciples. He appeared and
disappeared to the disciples during those 40 days until he
ascended into, well, I say he ascended and then 10 days later
was the day of Pentecost when when the Holy Spirit came. So
this number 40 is where we are. We're living in that number right
now. And notice the last part of this
verse, and the country was in quietness 40 days, or 40 years
in the days of Gideon. Pray the Lord will enable us
to rest and be quiet. Notice in verse 29, and Jerubabbel. Now, Jerubabbel
is Gideon's nickname, if you will. They gave him that name
after he routed the Midianites the first time. And jerubbabel,
translated, means the enemy of Baal. And so, here again, we
see a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as our jerubbabel. Because
the strife of the Midianites is really driven by their false
worship of a false god. And so, jerubbabel, the son of
Joash, went and dwelt in His own house. Here we have a picture. These are parables, aren't they?
This is Christ and his church. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
ascending back into glory when he left the disciples there on
the Mount of Olives. And he said, they said, Lord,
is it time now for you to establish your kingdom? They were still
looking for an earthly kingdom. They didn't understand the parables
of the gospel. And until after Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit came. And so what our Lord say, it's
not for you to know the time of the season. You go back into
Jerusalem and the Holy Ghost will come upon you and you'll
be by witnesses, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and other
most parts of the world. That's going to be your lot for
40 years. 40 year period of time, you're
going to rest your soul in Christ and you're going to labor in
the gospel. He ascended into glory and the
angels appeared and they said, oh men of Jerusalem, why stand
you here gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which has been
taken from you is gonna come again in like manner. He went
home, he went to his rightful place. He took his rightful seat
at the right hand of the majesty on high. He heard his heavenly
father say, sit down here at my right hand until I make mine
enemies to be thy footstool. Now all of us by nature are at
enmity with God. We're at strife with God because
of our vain glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to one by one by one by one, make each one of those who
are at enmity with him. He's going to make them to sit
at his footstool, which is what we're doing right now. We're
sitting at the footstool of God, listening to his word. hoping
and praying that the Lord will be pleased to speak again, peace
to our hearts. I go and prepare a place for
you. Now what he said, John 14, if I go and prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, so that where
I am there, you may be also. Lotus in verse 30. And Gideon
had three score and 10 sons of his body begotten for he had
many wives. Now, just like the number 40
is extremely significant in the Bible, so is the number 70. Three
score and 10 is 70. Seventy is the life of a man.
It's the fulfillment of life. The number seven is the number
of perfection. It's the number, it's the day
of rest. God rested from his labors for
he had finished his work. And the Lord Jesus Christ rested. He is our Sabbath. And we rest,
we take our rest in him, knowing that he has defeated the Midianites. He has satisfied the demands
of God's law and he has put away our sins. And so this number
seven and the number 10, the number 10 is the number of the
perfect law of God. And so we put these two numbers
together and you have the number 70. the Lord Jesus Christ giving
us again rest. from the wrath of God and the
judgment of the law and the condemnation of the law. There is now therefore
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter
eight, verse one. So here's what this is a picture
of. This is everything in the Bible.
We just sang it. It only speaks of him. And God
gives us these stories and these parables over and over and over
again to teach us the same message. the victory of Christ over sin,
the glory that he gets, the union that we have with him, the hope
of salvation that we have as a result of his victorious work
of redemption. Here's what this is a picture
of. How many times we, the words,
the number 70 here is a picture of the body of Christ. It's the
elect of God. Moses, when he went up on Mount
Sinai in Numbers chapter 11 and in Exodus chapter 24, took with
him 70 elders, representing the body of Christ. So these 70 sons
that came from the very body, you see that in that verse, look
at it again. And Gideon had 70 sons, three
score and 10 sons of his body begotten for he had many wives.
You know, I think about those many wives and I think about
Solomon and the scripture says that, you know, he had what,
700 wives and 300 concubines. And the scripture said he loved
them all. And I think about our Lord, you know, that he loves,
he loves his wife and he loves every one of his wives. That's what we just read in Ephesians
chapter five. No man ever hated his own body,
but he nourishes it and he cares for it. And so has the Lord done
for his church. So this number 70 speaks of the
body of Christ. The children of Israel were 70
years in Babylon, picturing the church being in this world, waiting
for the Lord to take us home. When Daniel, in Daniel chapter
nine, when Daniel was given a vision of the coming of Christ, when
he would come and make an end of sin, the scripture says that
he would appear in 70 weeks, 70 times seven, 490 years. And
exactly 490 years later, the Lord Jesus Christ was born in
Bethlehem. So this number 70 is a very,
very significant picture here. It reminds us of the body of
Christ, all birthed by God from his very body, members of his
body. When Joseph sent for his father,
Jacob, and all of his siblings and the descendants of those
siblings, the scripture says that that tribe of Israel, 400
years later would be probably in the number of a couple of
million where 70 souls, exactly 70 souls came from Israel and
began their journey in Egypt. This is the church. This is Gideon
giving birth to his church. In Luke chapter 10 at verse one,
the Lord expanded the ministry of the disciples when he chose
70 men and divided them up two by two and sent them out to preach
the gospel. It's the church. Gideon had 70
sons of his own body. Exodus chapter 15 speaks of a place called Elam.
And Elam translated means palm trees. And the scripture says
there was 70 of them there. And in the Psalms, the Bible
says, and they, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ shall flourish
like a palm tree. And you remember a palm tree
is really not a tree. A palm's in a grass family. Tell
them they're grass. Tell them they're grass. You
see these pictures the Lord gives us over and over again. He's
just affirming in His Word the simplicity of Christ and His
church, and how God gets His glory through the saving of His
people. We're not looking at a book that's,
you know, that's complicated with a lot of different no it
all comes back to the same thing i love it when paul said i i
fear i fear lest lest as eve was deceived by the serpent in
the garden that you should be drawn away from that simplicity
that is in christ oh if the eye be single the whole body should
be full of light that the Lord would give us just a, you know,
the world's complicated. Life is complicated. There's
a lot of, there's a lot of uncertainties and there's a lot of things that
we have to deal with every day. But when we come here, when we
come here, we're brought back to the simplicity of Christ and
his church. And all that other stuff is going
to be shaken by God. It's all going to be burned up.
It's all vanity of vanities as Solomon said. The one thing that
will stand sure is Christ and his church. That's what this
is a picture of. Now, notice in verse 31 of our text,
and his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a
son whose name he called Abimelech. Now Malak is the word for the
pagan kings. And Abba is the word for father. And so Abimelech's name, there's,
by the way, there's four different Abimelech's in the Bible. This
is just one of them. But Abimelech's name means my
father is king, but he's not talking about God the father.
He's talking about submitting to a pagan king. And Abimelech
wants to be king and he's going to be king for three years. He's
going to buy his way in and he's going to become king. Think about those Pharisees who
said, we have Abraham as our father. And you remember what
the Lord said to them? No, your father's the devil.
If you were fathers of Abraham, I mean, if you were children
of Abraham, you'd believe on me. Well, this is what we're
gonna end up with, a Bimelech. The concubine in the Bibles are
pictures of those women who come in to the harem, if you will,
but they don't have the same privileges as a married wife.
And their children don't have the same privileges as the married
wife. And it pictures the tears among
the wheat. It pictures those who profess
to be united to Christ, but not by marriage, not by union, only
by profession. And Abimelech's gonna end up,
in our passage here, if you've read ahead, Abimelech's gonna
kill every one of Gideon's sons, all 70 of them. And he kills him. Notice in verse... I think it's over here in verse
five of the next chapter. Yes. Look at verse five of the
next chapter. And he went into his father's house at Oprah.
This is Abimelech. This is the son of the concubine.
This is the illegitimate child. This is the one who's not really
birthed as it would be from the body of Christ. He's got some
familiarity with Gideon, but he's an illegitimate child born
of a concubine. And in chapter 9, verse 5, And
he went into his father's house in Ophrah, and he slew his brethren,
the sons of Jerubabbel, Jerubabbel, you remember, is Gideon, being
threescore and ten persons upon one stone. Has anything changed? Is the child of the bondwoman
any less angry at and seeking to destroy
the child of the free woman. Turn with me to that passage.
Turn with me to Galatians. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians
chapter 4. We have this picture repeated
with Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was a child of
Abraham, but he wasn't a child of promise. He was a child of
the flesh. In Galatians chapter four, verse
22, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid
and the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, and he was after the free woman was
by promise. which things are an allegory
for these are the two covenants, the covenant of works and the
covenant of grace. Abraham, Sarah, God had promised
them a child, but they thought, well, you know, we need to, we
need to help God out. We need to do our part. And such
a picture of works religion. Yeah, we need to be saved, but
we need to do our part. We need to help God out. He can't
do it all by himself. He's got to have our cooperation.
He's got to have our participation. And so the world has been suffering
from the Ishmaelites ever since. But Ishmael is born of Sarah
as a result of that. And he says, he's a child of
the flesh. Works of the flesh are man's
contribution to his salvation. This is an allegory. This is,
again, this is a parable. The whole Bible is such. You
know, we're not suggesting that these historical events didn't
take place exactly like they did. They did. They literally
took place. But they didn't take place for
us to just learn the historical event. They took place for us
to learn the gospel. They point in detail, great detail,
to Christ and his church. So he says, these things are
an allegory. They speak of the two covenants,
verse 24, the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,
which is Hagar. Sinai is the mountain of the
law. Hagar is the bondwoman. Ishmael is the product of Abraham's
you know, putting his works to the flesh. And it's a picture
of the works gospel, which, which most of the, you know, this is,
this, this goes, this goes right back to Abimelech, who was the
child of the concubine, who's going to kill all the sons of
Gideon. And he's going to kill them all
on one rock. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. The child of the concubine, the
child of works religion are threatened by those who come from the body
of Christ and are part of the body of Christ. Look, let's read
it together. Verse 25, for this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and
is in bondage with her children. So he's speaking to the Jews
that are still looking to their law-keeping for the hope of their
salvation. They're not looking to Christ.
They're looking to what they're doing and what they're not doing
and what, you know, what contribution they're making. But the Jerusalem
which is free above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Oh, Gideon had many wives. Here's the bride of Christ. This is a great mystery. I speak
of Christ and his church, and this is a spiritual Jerusalem.
This isn't something we can set our natural eyes on. This is
something we have to have spiritual eyes of faith to see, this spiritual
Jerusalem that comes down from heaven. You're not gonna be able
to put your eyes on it, your physical eyes, and say, well,
there it is. That's what I'm doing. Here's my hope. No, this is a work of God, of spiritual work. We look not on the things which
are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal. We look
on those things which are not seen. The things which are not
seen are eternal. And that takes a miracle of grace
to see what God is telling us here about Christ and His church. For it is written," verse 27,
"'Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not. Break forth and
cry, thou that travailest not. For the desolate have many more
children than she which hath a husband.'" Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then, he that
was born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the spirit,
even so it is now." Nothing's changed. Those who are looking,
those who are the children of the concubine will still seek
to murder the 70 children that came from the flesh, the body
of Gideon. the freeborn children, the children
of promise, are going to be persecuted by the children of the flesh. Why? Because they're threatened
by Christ. They're threatened. They hate
Christ, and they're threatened by our gospel, and they're still
going to... Nothing's changed. He killed
them all on one rock, and they're still doing that, aren't they?
It's like I said Sunday, if we live in a different era and a
different place, we might be suffering physically what we're
talking about right now that men can only do to us. you know, in reputation. They
can kill your reputation. They can speak all manner of
evil against you for my name's sake. Your enemies will be of
your own household, the Lord said. Father against son and
brother against brother and mother against daughter. Why? Why? They slay the freeborn children
of Gideon, the one born of his wife, his true wife. all on one
rock. That rock is Christ. He's the
rock that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness.
He's the rock that was smitten by the rod of Moses, the law. He's the rock, the scripture
says, that's higher than I. He is the rock of ages. And he's
that rock on which we stand and on which we build our lives.
If a man build his house on this rock, then when the storms come
and not just the storms of life, they cannot be compared to the
storm of God's justice and judgment that will come on judgment day.
That's what he's talking about. Standing on that rock to withstand
that storm. Verse 32 in Gideon, the son of
Joash died in a good old age. Now that's just Old Testament
language for he had fulfilled the purpose of his life. A good
old age. Doesn't mean that If a person
dies at a young age, that they haven't fulfilled their purpose.
I'm talking about old Testament language here. You know how that
works. A man lives to be, you know,
a certain age he's he, and he dies in peace. And, and it's
a picture. It's a picture. Sometimes God
takes his children out of this world long before that, but whenever
he takes them out, they will have fulfilled the purpose of
their life. And here we have a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
having fulfilled the purpose of his life. He came into this
world to die on Calvary's cross. He set his face like flint towards
Jerusalem. Nothing could deter him. His
time was set and he was in control of all the circumstances surrounding
his death. And so he fulfilled his purpose
and he died in a good old age. And he was buried in a sepulcher.
Our Lord was put into a sepulcher, wasn't he? He was put in a tomb,
put in a grave. And God could not allow his Holy
One to see corruption. He was, you know, the Lord rewarded
his son for having accomplished all that he came to do in saving
his people and fulfilling the demands of his law and putting
away our sin. by raising him from the dead. Look at verse 33. 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. Now the word bereth is the word
for covenant, a promise, an agreement. These people were obviously just
following a man because as soon as Gideon died, they went back
to their Baal worship. They had nothing spiritual in
their hearts to motivate them or drive them or lead them to
follow after God. As soon as Gideon died, he was
their leader. How often we see that today,
men following after a man. rather than following after Christ.
We're thankful that the Lord raises up men to tell us about
Christ, but those men will say exactly what Paul said. You follow
me only as I follow Christ. They'll say exactly what John
the Baptist said. I must decrease, he must increase. Behold, the Lamb of God was taken
away the sins of the world. You followed Christ. Don't follow
a man. That man dies and your faith
dies with him. You didn't have faith in God. I love what scripture tells us
in Jeremiah chapter 31 and Hebrews chapter 10, is the Old Testament
Israel was different from New Testament Israel. Old Testament
Israel was made up mostly of unbelievers. And that's why they
went right back to their bail worship. As soon as, as soon
as their leader died, but it doesn't happen with new Testament
believers. I will make a new covenant. They went to bail beer
off the covenant of bail, the promise of false worship and
a false God. Isaiah chapter 28. We've made a covenant with death. And with hell, we're in agreement.
And when the overflowing scourge comes, it's not gonna overthrow
us when the judgment of God comes. We've made an agreement with
Baal Baroth. Our hope of salvation is based
on a promise that we made to God. We entered into a covenant
relationship with him. And what does God say in Isaiah
chapter 28? I'm going to disannul your covenant. And when the overflowing
scourge comes, your promises and your covenant are not gonna
be sufficient to save you. They went right back to their
old works gospel. And they voted Abimelech in to
be their king. Matter of fact, they took, They
took money out of the treasury of the, of the temple of Baal
and gave it to Abimelech and he becomes king and he uses that
money to, to hire, uh, uh, what was the scripture, uh, vain and
light persons, uh, in verse four of, of chapter nine. Abimelech
hires these, these vain men to make, to make up lies about the
children of Gideon. And here again, we see what the
public and what the Pharisees did in hiring vain men to make
false accusations about Christ. And nothing's changed. It's still the same now. But
here's our hope. Though we be slayed by the Abimelech,
the child of the flesh, the works religionist, we're all slain
on the same rock. put to death on the same rock,
and we're glad to be put to death on that rock. And Paul said,
I died daily, daily. We die to ourselves, we die to
our own righteousness, and we're made alive in Christ, being slain
on that rock. We're not looking to the covenant
of Baal-Beeroth. We're not looking to a covenant
promise that we made with God. We're not looking to a prayer
or decision that we ever made for the hope of our salvation.
We're looking back a whole lot further than that, aren't we?
We're looking back to the eternal covenant of grace when God the
Father promised before time ever began to give his son a bride.
The Lord Jesus Christ entered into that covenant relationship
with his Father. This is before the angels were
made. This is in eternity. And he said, I'll redeem them.
I'll purchase them with my own blood. And the Holy Spirit entered
into that covenant relationship and said, I'll regenerate them.
I'll go. And in the right time, I'll open
the eyes of their understanding and I'll bring them irresistibly
to faith in Christ. And not one of them, but all
70 of them are gonna be killed on the same rock. They're all
gonna be saved. not going to lose one of my sheep,
not a single one. What a glorious parable this
is. What a glorious picture of the gospel we have given to us
again and again. These men were following, they
didn't know God, they were following Gideon. Listen to what Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus, the Lord, and to ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. We're not preaching ourselves.
We're not lifting up a man. We're lifting up the man, the
perfect man. Mark the perfect man for the
end of that man is peace. I planted, Apollos watered, God
gave the increase. Notice in our text, In verse 34 of chapter eight,
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 shown unto them. And Abimelech, Abimelech,
Melak is my father. Abimelech, the son of Jerubbabel,
went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren and communed with them
and with all the family of the house of his mother's father,
saying, Speak, I pray thee, in the ears of all the men of Shechem,
whether it's better for you that either that all the sons of Jeroboam,
which are three score and 10 persons, reign over you, or that
one reign over you. Remember also that I'm your bone
and your flesh." So he's working himself in. There's no evidence
in the scriptures that the sons of Jeroboam, the sons of Gideon,
had no interest in being king. Gideon had already told the children
of Israel, God, you're king. You're not gonna make me king.
And his sons didn't show any evidence of wanting to be king,
but Jeroboam, I mean, Abimelech, the son of the concubine wanted
to be king. So he begins to work his way
into that position. Verse three, and his mother's
brethren spake unto him in the ears of all the men of Shechem,
all these words, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech.
And they said, he is our brother. And they gave him three score
and 10 pieces of silver out of the house of Baalbeereth, wherein
Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.
And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah and slew his
brethren, the sons of Jeroboam, being three score and 10 persons
upon one stone, notwithstanding yet Jotham." And Jotham's name
means perfect. Jotham's gonna be the prophet
of God now. The youngest son of Jeroboam
was left for he hid himself. And we'll pick up here on Sunday
and see how this gospel message continues as Jotham, the man
who represents the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ, goes
up on Mount Gerizim and he pronounces judgment against Abimelech. And how the Lord defeats Abimelech
at the tower at the end of this chapter with a millstone. And
what a picture. This picture of Christ and his
church just continues. Here's the message that the Lord
speaks to us over and over again. It's a great mystery concerning
Christ and his church. Everything else is vanity. Everything else is temporal.
Everything else is passing away. The Lord has given us allegory
after allegory, parable after parable, story after story to
point us to Christ. And to show us, yeah, like the
sons of Gerubal, or like the sons of, yeah, Gerubal, Gideon. They're going to slay you. But
we're going to all get slayed on the same rock. And that's
a good place to die, isn't it? Is to die on that rock. Our Heavenly
Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for that eternal
covenant of grace that we have for the anchor of our soul, the
Lord Jesus Christ, having fulfilled that covenant, be in our surety. Lord, we pray that you would
bless us with that 40 years of rest and 40 years of peace. We
ask it in Christ's name, amen. 186, let's stand together, number
186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and by birth. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. He lack from every nation, yet
one are all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy brew, and to one hope she presses, with every grace
and dew. Mid toil and tribulation, and
to vault of her work, She waits the consummation Of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious Her
longing eyes are blessed, And the great Church victorious Shall
be the Church at rest. Yet ye on earth have union With
God the Three in One, And mystic sweet communion With those whose
rest is won. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we Light them the meek and lowly On high they dwell
with thee