For our call to worship this
morning, turn with me, if you would please, to Psalm 8. Psalm 8. While you're turning there, the first line of that psalm
is the last line of that psalm. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent
is thy name. And as I read that last week,
and because of Greg's sermons recently on judges looking at
the names of Christ or the names of God, Jehovah Jireh, our God
will provide, Jehovah Nisi, our banner, Jehovah Sid Canu, our
righteousness. I looked up the Lord here, and
the first Lord, capital L-O-R-D, is Jehovah. The second Lord is
Sovereign. So basically it reads, our Jehovah,
our Sovereign, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
It points out that Our Lord is sovereign in all, in everything. Let's read it together. O Lord,
our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who has
set thy glory above the heavens? Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies,
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I
consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou has ordained, what is man that thou art mindful
of him and the son of man that thou visited him? For thou has
made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him
with glory and honor. Thou made him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands Thou has put all things under his
feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field, the
fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes
through the gates, passes through the paths of the sea. O Lord,
our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Oh Lord, our sovereign, how excellent
is thy name. Father, your names are your attributes. And Father, they point out to
us who you are. And Lord, we are so thankful
for who you are and what you are, and that you are sovereign. that you are sovereign in everything,
from everything that happens to our salvation. Father, we
pray this morning that thou would be with us, that the worship
that we have this morning will be acceptable unto thee, the
Holy Spirit will cause it to be acceptable unto thee. Father, we pray that you will
be with our pastor, Greg, as he opens the word to us, the
word that you have given to him, the word that you have given
for us to hear. Father, that you would give us
listening ears, open ears, that we may hear these words and see
Christ. Father, we pray that you would
be with us and bless us throughout this week. In Christ's name,
we ask it. Let's stand together, we'll sing
hymn number 158 from your hardback teminal, 158. Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, With
all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love In these
cold hearts of ours. Look how we crumble here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go. In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues. And our devotion dies. Dear Lord and Savior, at this foredying rate. Our love so faint, so bold to
thee, and thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, and lead us With all thy quickening powers,
Come shed abroad the Savior's love, And that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. ? Your word, O God, I love to read
? ? For here the Bible read to me ? ? Earth's greatest privilege
indeed ? ? To have the book declared to me ? A word is like a fire to melt
My heart so cold and make me grow Its power is like a hammer
felt And breaks this stubborn heart of stone God speaks again,
His Word reveals, A substitute for sinner's slain. Forgiveness, my, His blood it
tells, A balm to heal my heart's great pain. Spirit of God, my
teacher be, give eyes of faith always to see the Word's great
truth and mystery in every line show Christ to me. ? Dear Lord, my thanks I give
to you ? ? For your inspired and holy word ? ? My reverence
and allegiance to you ? ? It claims the mighty word of God
? Thank you, Tom. To have the infallible word of
God in a book lying in your lap right now, to be able to stand
here and read from God's word and pray the Lord will open our hearts
and our ears and our eyes, enable us to see Christ. We're going to begin this morning,
this hour in Ephesians chapter six, but we'll be moving back
to the passage in Judges that we've been looking at now for
several months. Judges chapter seven and eight.
We saw the first hour that the gospel is a mystery hid in a
parable and that the parable is often written as a historical
narrative. The battles that the Israelites
fought, like we've been looking at it with Gideon and the Midianites,
is a parable. The gospel is hid in that parable.
It's a historical narrative. It's an event that actually took
place, but To those who have eyes to see, it reveals the mystery
of the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. And I hope that the
Lord will do that for us this morning. When we get to that
passage, that we will come to some understanding as to this
spiritual warfare that we are all engaged in. The things at
stake, in this warfare are not temporal things like lands and
power. The things at stake in this spiritual
warfare is the truth. Not your truth or my truth or
someone else's truth, but the truth. The things at stake in
this spiritual warfare is the glory of God. The things at stake
in this spiritual warfare are the souls of men, your soul. and my soul are at stake in this
spiritual warfare. The enemy in this war is sin,
Satan, death, hell, and the grave. These are the enemies that must
be conquered in this spiritual warfare. The weapons used in
this warfare are not manufactured in a bomb factory or stored away
in some armory. The weapons used in this warfare
are words, words, words spoken to God's people from God's word. and words spoken
to God from his people. Prayer and preaching, those are
the weapons of this warfare. Those are the means that the
Lord uses to reveal the truth and to glorify himself and to
bring salvation to his people. These are the weapons, words. Unlike the wars of men that have a starting point and
an ending point, this spiritual battle began when Satan said
to Eve, did God say? That was the beginning. And it will end when the Eastern
sky splits and the trump of God sounds. And the dead in Christ
are raised, and those of us which are alive be caught up together
with them in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
And until then, this warfare rages on. It rages on. You have your Bibles open to
Ephesians chapter six. Let's begin reading in verse
10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the
power of His might. The battle is not yours, it's
the Lord's. It's His power, it's His grace,
it's His glory. We are dependent upon Him if
we're to survive this spiritual war. For Put on, put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. Satan himself is the, is the
enemy in this spiritual warfare. But God has given to his people
armor to protect them and weapon, a weapon to use against their
enemy. Here they are. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood. This warfare is not between husband
and wife or between employer and employee. It's not between
one political party against another. Those are carnal battles that
men fight in this world. This is a spiritual warfare. What is at stake here is the
immortal souls of men. What is at stake here is the
glory of God. What is at stake here is the
truth, the truth. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Oh, the natural man can't see
these enemies. Here again, this is the mystery
of the gospel. It's a spiritual battle. Wherefore,
in light of this, take unto you the whole armor of God, don't
leave any part of it out, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and having done all to stand. Lord, in the day
of judgment, I want to be able to stand in the presence of God. I want to be accepted into his
presence. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth. Truth. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man come to
the Father but by me. And John put it like this, he
said there, They're lost because they have no love of the truth,
of the truth. We live in a day of relativism
and that's not new. That goes back to the beginning
of time. Modern man thinks that he's so
clever and so intelligent and so informed with so many things
that men didn't know in the past. Men are the same today as they've
always been. their own standard of judgment,
their own God, and their own truth, their own truth, and how
foolish it is that a man would stand in the presence of God
and choose his truth over God. having on the breastplate of
righteousness. I've got to have the Lord Jesus
Christ as my righteousness to protect the vital organs of my
breast. And your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. If I'm going to stand, I've got
to have some, I've got to have firm standing. I've got to have
my feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, standing
on the rock of ages. Above all, taking the shield
of faith. Wherewith you shall be able to
quench the fiery darts of the devil. Oh, he's going to keep
shooting them. He's going to keep hurling accusations
and temptations and the shield of faith. What is the shield
of faith? What is faith? Faith is believing God. That's
what faith is. It's just believing God. Whatever
God says. Faith is not believing. You know,
the definition of most people's faith today is, well, you know,
if I just believe something strong enough, God will reward that
faith and make it happen. No, that's presumption. That's not faith. Faith is believing
everything that God has said, taking God at his word, the shield
of faith, able to quench the fiery darts of the devil, the
wicked one. Look at verse 17 and take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. In this spiritual armor, there's
only one weapon. Everything else is defensive.
There's only one offensive weapon and that is the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God. What a blessing. God's given us his Word, and
it's a double-edged sword. It kills and it makes alive.
It cuts both ways. Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication of all the saints. This is a
This is a conflict. This is a, this is a life that
all of God's people, all of God's people experience. This walk
of faith, the spiritual battle. Paul put it like this in Galatians
chapter five, verse one, he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. I'll go back to the law. Stand
in Christ. Look to Christ. Believe on Christ. Rest in Christ. He said in another
place, the Lord Jesus Christ said to the disciples, he said,
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And the disciples, remember,
thought he was rebuking them because they didn't take bread
with him in the boat. And then they realized he was
talking about, he expounded unto them that parable. That was a
parable, the leaven of the Pharisees. He said, a little bit of leaven
leavens the whole lot. What was the leaven of the Pharisees?
Salvation by works. Salvation by something that you
do in order to earn favor with God. The real evidence of depravity
is not the bad things that men do. and men are capable of doing
some horrible things, the real evidence of depravity is the
good things that men think they have that will earn them favor
with God. That's the real evidence of depravity,
and that's the nature of all men until God shows them Christ. Surely there's something I can
do to win over acceptance with God. That's the evidence of man's
depravity. Paul said, I have fought a good
fight. I have finished the course. I
have kept the faith all his life. He wrote that in second Timothy,
which was the last letter that he wrote. So he's an old man
now. Said, I'm ready to be offered
up. I fought this fight all my life, the fight of faith. Henceforth, he said, there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall
give unto me, and not me only, but all those who love his appearing. And in loving his appearing,
they continue to engage in this spiritual battle. In the next verse, He said this,
he said, Demas hath forsaken me for he loved this present
world. Let me ask you something, child
of God, are there, are there things in this world that call
for your attention, for your affection, for your, draw you
away from Christ? Yes, sure there are. Sure there
are. Or don't let me be a Demas. Demas
was Paul's right-hand man in Rome, and he forsook him because
he said he loved this present world. He gave up on the fight
of faith. And here's our hope, believer. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter
one, verse six, I am confident of this very thing. that he who
began a good work in you will complete it until the day of
his coming. If God started you on the path
of faith, you're going to stay on the path of faith. He's going
to see to it. Does that mean that there's not
going to be battles and struggles and more? No, no, it doesn't
mean that at all. It means that the victory is
already settled. Paul said in 1 Timothy chapter
four, we labor and we suffer reproach because we trust in
the living God. And then he said this, he said,
these things command and teach the brethren. So we teach the
whole counsel of God, don't we? I, you know, I have people say
to me sometimes, yeah, I just want to hear this. And I just
want to hear that. Well, I'm, you know, I just want to hear
about Christ, but I'm responsible for, for the whole counsel of
God. We, you know, we can't just decide
what part of the scriptures we, we like. And we, all of it points
us to Christ. But the scriptures are filled
with admonitions and rebukes and corrections and instructions
in righteousness and encouragements. One of the reasons why we try
to go verse by verse through the Bible so that I don't choose
my favorite passages and just camp out there. preach the whole counsel of God.
Now, with this spiritual battle in mind that you engage in and
I engage in, turn to me, if you will, to Judges chapter seven. Gideon is a type of Christ with
his 300 men, which is a picture of the Triune Godhead, have gone
against an army of 100,000 Midianites. The word Midian translated means
strife. So here again, we have a parable,
we have a picture of the strife and the conflict that we are
in in this life. Gideon with something simple
as trumpets and torches and and clay pitchers and a shout. The preaching of the gospel,
the light of the gospel has gotten the victory over the enemy. The outcome now is determined.
It's a picture of the victory that Christ got on Calvary's
cross over our strifes and over our sin and over our enemy. But
now what's going to happen? Now that the battle has been
won, or at least the outcome has been determined, that's what's
happening here. The outcome of this war is already
determined as it is for you and for me. And yet there's still
some conflicts that have to take place in this struggle against
the Midianites. What were the results of this
victory that Gideon got with his 300 men? Well, look at verse
22. And the 300 blew the trumpet
and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow even
throughout all the host, and the host fled to Bethshedah,
in Zerath, and to the border of Abel, Merolah, unto Tabith." The outcome of this battle, the
outcome of the cross, the outcome of the death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the enemies of God will turn
on themselves with their own sword. Now the sword in the Bible
is a picture of the tongue. The sword of the spirit we just
saw in Ephesians chapter six is the word of God. When the
Lord Jesus Christ is shown returning to this earth, the scripture
says that his tongue is like a flaming sword. And so what
do we see here? These enemies of God turn their
swords against one another. What does the scripture say?
By your words, you shall be condemned. And by your words, you shall
be justified. What men say about Christ. You see, but that's what men
do. They turn against the gospel. They turn against one another.
They turn against God and against his people. and they blaspheme
with their tongue. This is the outcome of the gospel. You see it with your friends
and family members. You see it in the religious world
today, that men will say blasphemous things about God and about the
gospel. What are they doing? They're
just turning their swords on one another. Proverbs chapter
28, verse one says, the wicked fleeth when no man pursueth. Now that's what we're seeing
happening here. These wicked men are fleeing, nobody's pursuing
them. Gideon and his 300 men are standing
still, and yet they're fleeing and thinking that they're under
attack. How many times I've seen someone accuse someone else in
the church of having offended them, and that's why they're
not coming. In fact, what they're doing is
they're running from God. They're running from God. If
you're gonna leave the church because somebody offends you,
well, you might as well leave now, because it's gonna happen,
and it's probably gonna be me that's gonna offend you. But a guilty conscience always
is looking over his shoulder, isn't it? The wicked fleeth when
no man pursueth. No one's pursuing you. No one's
angry at you or wanting to yell toward you. God's people love
God's people. They're gonna offend one another,
but that doesn't mean that. No, men flee from God. They're
fleeing when no man's pursuing. You see that, don't you? Exodus chapter 15, verse nine,
when Moses is singing that song of deliverance, he talks about
the Egyptians. And he says this in verse nine,
he says, the enemy says, I will draw my sword and I shall possess
them. Now that's exactly what we hear
in the free will gospel. They come up with secret prayers
and sinner's prayers, you know, a formula. Well, I'm gonna draw
my sword and I'm gonna possess God. If I just say these words,
then I can obligate God to save me. I'll give him permission
to save me is what I'll do. I will draw my sword and I will
possess them. This is the outcome of the gospel. of the successful work of our
Gideon and his 300 men who have conquered the strife of sin and
death and Satan and hell, that many will draw their swords and
turn on one another. They will rob Christ of his glory
by claiming that their will or that their works has somehow
earned them favor with God, or they will sit and listen sympathetically
to the words of others that deny Christ his glory and salvation.
This is under a false gospel. or their boast in the things
that they're doing for God, confident that that proves that God's pleased
with them. This is the way in which men
draw their sword. This is the way in which the
Midianites turn on one another and turn against God to their
own destruction. Scripture says, they that observe
lying vanities forsake their own mercy. That's what's happening
here with these Midianites. No one's pursuing them. No one's
chasing them, but they're drawing their sword and out of fear and
out of shame and out of guilt. They're, they're, they're taking
their swords against themselves and against one another. And
they're forced and they're, they're, They're observing lying vanities,
and in so doing, they forsake their own mercies. The fruit of our lips, on the
other hand, the sword that we draw, are the words that we speak
about Christ. When the scripture says that
a good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and a bad tree bringing forth
bad fruit. You could tell a tree by its fruit. In religion, we
used to go around fruit inspecting one another to see what kind
of exterior works you had that would give evidence of your salvation. That same passage goes on to
talk about the fruit of your lips being your confession of
Christ. He's talking about what we say
about Christ. The child of God says, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe he's the sovereign,
successful savior of sinners. I believe that he's my surety.
And if they don't speak these words, when they hear them, they
say, amen. That's what I believe, preacher.
Thank you for putting what I believe into words. Thank you for making
them audible. Thank you for expressing them
the way I believe them to be. The Lord Jesus Christ is my sin
bearer. He's my substitute. He's the
only one that I can look to that satisfies the demands of God's
holy justice on my behalf. And he's the only one that satisfied
the demands of God's holy law on my behalf. He's got to put away my sins
or I have no place else to go. That's who Christ is to me. He's
everything. He's all in my salvation. He's all in my salvation. Notice in our text, not only
did they destroy themselves with their own sword, but look in
verse 22, and the host fled to Beshidah in Zeroth. Now you can look up these words.
You remember the word Shidomwood? also known as acacia wood, it
is the wood that the Ark of the Covenant was made out of. Moses
and Aaron carved the Ark of the Covenant and put the ophar of
manna and the rod, Aaron's rod, and the tablets of the law in that
ark. It was made out of shidom wood.
What does that shidom wood represent? It represents the humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ because you couldn't see the Shittimwood
when you looked at the Ark because it was overlaid with pure gold. What does the gold represent?
The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This word Beth Shittah means
the house of Shittimwood. What do men do when they deny
the gospel? Everybody loves the humanity
of Christ, The baby Jesus, the God who they can sympathize with
and he sympathizes with them and the God that they can feel
sorry for, for his sufferings on Calvary's cross. Everybody
loves the humanity of Christ. You thought that I was altogether
such a one as thyself, but that's all they love about him. They
deny his deity. These men ran to error that was near the truth.
They confess the humanity of Christ, but they denied his deity, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do believe that Jesus Christ
is the son of God. I believe he is the glorious
self-existent I am, that he's independent, that self-sufficient. He's not, he doesn't need anything
from me. If he didn't save, people say,
well, you know, Jesus, yeah, I believe he's the son of God.
I believe that he's God. I believe in the deity of Christ.
And then they will redefine deity. They will redefine God and they
will make God something, God dependent upon something else.
That's not God. That's not God. So they ran to the house of Shethamwood,
confessing the deity of Christ, or confessing the humanity of
Christ, but denying his deity. You see, they also ran to Zarebeth,
which translated means oppression. So they're still under the oppression
of sin. They're still under the judgment
of God. They're still under the wrath of God. And notice also
in this text, this is where they ran to, and to the border of. So these places that they ran
to were near, they were near Abel-Nilah and Tabath. Abel-Nilah means a place of dancing
and Tabath means to celebrate. Men will settle for a partial
gospel and they will not be able to dance and celebrate and rejoice
and rest in and delight in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
outcome of the gospel of the cross. This is what the enemies
of God do. They turn their swords on one
another and they go to the wrong place. The spirit of God gives you liberty Christ makes you free, you're
free indeed, and where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.
What celebration, what dancing, what freedom, what hope, what
comfort we have. Here's what we labor, we labor
to enter into His rest, don't we? Notice in verses 23 and 24, this
is again, This is a parable of this spiritual
warfare that we're engaged in. And this is what the enemies
of God do in verse 22. This is those who lose the battle. Now, what do all the children
of Israel do? They stand together. In verse 22, and the men of Israel
gathered themselves together out of Naphtali and out of Asher
and out of Manasseh and pursued after the Midianites. And Gideon
sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, come down
against the Midianites and take before them the waters unto Bethbara
and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered
themselves together and took the waters unto Bethbara and
Jordan." What's Gideon telling me? Cut them off. Don't let them
get to the water. Cut them off before they get
to Bethbara. That was a Ford in the Jordan
River, where if the enemies got to that, they would have water
to sustain them. And all of Israel gathered themselves
together to say, no, they're not going to drink of my water.
They're not going to drink of my water. What do the, those
that compromise the gospel, what do they do? Well, you know, there's
some gospel truths in every church. And, uh, You know, yeah, they
may believe in free will, but you know, they believe in Christ
also. There's thousands of examples, aren't there? You know, let's
just all agree to disagree and just get along. We're all brothers
and sisters in Christ. No, we're not. No, we're not. If I let the enemies of God get
to that river that I'm drinking out of, then I compromise my
own salvation. I lose my hope. If they're saved,
I'm not. Look at verse 25. And they took two princes of
the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb. And they slew Oreb upon the rock
of Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb, and pursued
Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on
the other side of Jordan." The battle that we fight is that
Christ is all. He's all, and He's in all, and
He gets all the glory, and He's all our salvation. And in that,
the heads of the enemies have to be cut off. And preaching
of the gospel leaves no other option. And I don't want to be
a person known for just preaching against stuff all the time. I
want to be a preacher that's lifting up Christ. We cannot lift up Christ without
exposing the error of the false gospel. It's not Christ plus anything.
It's not Christ plus my decision or Christ plus my works or Christ
plus, no, Christ is all. And that's what Gideon saying
to Ephraim said, you cut them off from the river, and they
captured the princes, Oreb and Zeb. Oreb's name means raven. You remember Noah and the raven? When the waters began to assuage
and Noah went to the window and he let out the raven, the raven
didn't come back. Why? Because the raven was able
to feed off of the rotting carcasses and corpses that were left from
the flood. The dove, on the other hand,
picture of peace came back. There was no place for him to
light his feet. You know, we get our word ravenous from the
word raven because they have a ravenous appetite for dead
flesh. And they, And they're very clever
in how they find their food. They're very intelligent animals. So this Oreb is a picture of
that, of that raven that is not looking to Christ for their bread
or for their life. They're willing to eat anything. They have a ravenous appetite
for things that don't, honor Christ in the gospel. Fleshly
methods of salvation. Fleshly methods of salvation.
They've not been circumcised in the heart, the cutting away
of the flesh. They're still looking to their
fleshly things, what they do for the hope of their salvation. And they're very clever. figure
out very complicated ways to do things. And is that the way
the false gospel is? They're very clever. It's very
complicated. It's hard to understand. It says one thing and then it
says something else. It speaks of the sovereignty
of God and man's free will at the same time. Speaks of God loving everybody
and God sending most of the people that he loves to hell. You see,
it's complicated, isn't it? It doesn't make sense at all. Or it'll speak in such a way
that you really can't even understand what they're trying to say. Zebe. Zebe's name translated means
wolf. Wolf. Now wolves are skillful hunters. And what did the Lord Jesus Christ
say about the wolf? He said, beware, beware of the
false prophets, for they are wolves in sheep's clothing, presenting
themselves as ministers of righteousness, as angels of peace, angels of
light. Here's what I'm trying to say,
brethren. God teaches you the gospel. The head of Oreb and
Zeb will be cut off. It'll be cut off. And it'll be
cut off by what you believe and who you believe. You'll not be
deceived by the angels of light and ministers of righteousness
and wolves in sheep's clothing. And you won't be looking to fleshly
means for the hope of your salvation. all of your hope will be in Christ.
But this is the battle, isn't it? This is the struggle because
the enemy is always presenting himself in a more enticing way. And the Lord put on the whole
armor of God. This is what this battle is all
about. Now, let me show you one more
thing in verses one through three of chapter eight. And the men
of Ephraim said unto him, The men of Ephraim are speaking to
Gideon. Why hast thou served us thus,
that thou callest us not, when thou wentest to fight the Midianites,
and they did chide with him sharply? Now this is no minor disagreement. This is a full-fledged argument
of anger. by the children of Ephraim towards
Gideon. Strife. Why didn't you let us
know when you were going against the Midianites with those 300
men? We would have went with you and we would have gotten
some of the glory for ourselves. And he, Gideon, said unto them,
what have I done now? comparison to view. Is not the
gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezar? Now Abiezar is the family that
Gideon was from. So what's Gideon saying? Gideon
was saying, what have I done in comparison to what you've
done? You know, I just, I just, you know, went and, and brought
in the harvest. You're the one that that brought
about the vintage, the wine. God hath delivered into your
hands the princess of Midian and Oreb and Zeb. What was I
able to do in comparison to you? Then their anger was abated toward
him when he said that." Here's what I want to try to
say in closing. Because we are sinners, there's always going
to be the possibility of strife among God's people. But mark
it down, just like with Ephraim, strife always comes from vainglory. Always. Always. You get angry
because you think you didn't get your due. You get angry because
you didn't think somebody treated you like you thought you should
have been treated. That's why I get angry. Isn't that why you
get angry? Strife and vainglory always go
together. And Gideon, what a wise man. Oh, a soft answer turneth away
wrath. May God give us the grace to
esteem one another more highly than ourselves. That's what Gideon
was doing. Gideon was trying to abate their anger by saying
to them, who am I compared to you? You've accomplished so much
more than what I could have accomplished. You took the head off of Oreb
and Zeb." And their anger was abated. Now
in closing, turn with me to Galatians chapter 5. You see, what I'm trying to say is that
this battle is a picture of the battle that you and I fight every
day against our enemy, sin and Satan, our flesh, not only in
our own experiences, but against one another. And Galatians chapter five, look
at verse Look at verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
There's no law that denies these things and then no law that can
provide these things. Say, well, I'm just going to
be more temperate. I'm going to be more loving.
No, this is the fruit of the spirit. It's the fruit of the
spirit. Lord, give us your spirit. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live
in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another and envying one another. Strife and vain glory. That's one of those battles we
fight, isn't it? We're all vain. I remember this,
man at his very best state is altogether vanity. Vanity. Oh, if the Lord enables us to
stand before Christ and be sinners in his presence, we'll be like
Gideon. What am I compared to you? Our Heavenly Father, I pray that
you would bless your word to our hearts Give us your spirit and the fruits
of your spirit, and give us, Lord, the spiritual armor that
we are dependent upon to walk this walk of faith and to have that crown of righteousness
placed on our head in the day in which you come to deliver us
from this world and from this flesh. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. 268 in the hardback teminal. Let's
stand together.