We were ruined by the fall. Adam's sin defiles us all. By our deed as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. ? But the blessed Son of God
? ? Came as man in flesh and blood ? ? He fulfilled the law's
demands ? ? And in death stretched out his hands ? ? On the cross
of Calvary ? ? Christ redeemed and set us free ? In the time
which God had set, the Spirit came for His elect to regenerate
and call from the ruin of the fall. By His power and by His
grace, we were born for God's own praise. ? Now your purpose
we fulfill ? ? Saved according to your will ? ? Sing this song
of joyful praise ? ? For the glory of your grace ? ? Blessed
holy triune God ? ? Hear our praise through Christ our Lord
? Please be seated. Good morning. Let's open our
Bibles together to Judges chapter 7. Judges chapter 7. I've titled this message Confirmation
for the Fearful. Confirmation for the Fearful. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on his word. Our Heavenly Father, we come into thy holy presence
thanking you for our full acceptance in thy dear son. We thank you
for his accomplished work of redemption on behalf of your
people. We thank you, Lord, for the work of intercession that
he accomplishes even now as we come before your throne of grace,
knowing that we have our savior, our substitute standing
in our stead before thee and offering our prayers to you in
his name, making them perfect in thy sight. Lord, we thank
you for the promise of your Holy Spirit. And we pray that you'd
be pleased this morning to open the eyes of our understanding.
We pray that you would open your word and the mystery of the gospel
and shine the light of your grace in our hearts and reveal to us
the glorious person of your dear son and his his finished work
of redemption on behalf of sinners. Lord, we thank you for the forgiveness
of sin and we thank you for this blessing of being able to gather
together in worship. And Lord, we're completely dependent
upon you in order for this to be to your glory and in order
for us to be profitable to our souls. We ask your blessings. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Confirmation for the fearful. Judges chapter seven, the Lord
has called Gideon to deliver the children of Israel from the
Midianites, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ delivering
us from our sin. He has spoken audibly to him. He has revealed his will and
purpose through that sign that we looked at last Sunday on the
fleece that Gideon put out. And Gideon's still afraid. He
needs God to speak again. And I think of our experience
in faith, how wavering our faith is and how even after God speaks,
we find ourselves needing for him to speak again and again
and again. And in mercy, the Lord doesn't,
he doesn't rebuke Gideon any more than he rebukes us. but
rather he confirms to Gideon the same thing that he had said
to Gideon on several occasions before. Psalm 103 says that as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knoweth our frame and he remembers
that we are but dust. And how patient and how merciful
he is to just continue to remind us of the same thing over and
over and over again. He remembers that we're slow
of heart to believe. He remembers that we are living
in a world that is contrary to everything that we hold dear
in our souls. And so he declares the same message
over and over and over again. I was talking to Marvin the other
day, Mark, and he said there was a brother in his church that
had said, I wish I could come up with something new and clever.
And Marvin said to him, if you did, it wouldn't be any good.
It wouldn't be true. It wouldn't be true. If it's
new, it's not true. If it's true, it's not new. And
I'm reminded of what the apostle Paul said in Philippians chapter
three, when he said, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord,
for to write the same thing unto you, to me is not grievous, but
to you, it is safe. It is to the safety of your soul
to hear the same story over and over and over again. And that
word, that word safe is the word certain. How we need to be made
certain again and again. How prone we are to wonder, how
quick we are to forget. And the Lord just declares the
same thing. That's what we have here in our
text. The Lord in his mercy takes compassion on Gideon. And rather
than rebuking him for his fears, he gives him the same message
in a different form. And you know, the problem is
not that God doesn't speak. The problem is that we don't
hear too well. And we know that the hearing
ear is a gift from God. And so we have to go before the
Lord and say, Lord, I know you're speaking. You're speaking in
creation. You're speaking in conscience.
You're speaking in providence. You're speaking most clearly
and most particularly in your word, the preaching of the gospel. the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord give
me eyes to see and give me ears to hear. If we don't hear from God, it's
not God's fault. Not God's fault. And you know
sometimes people want to use election to put on
God the responsibility for those reprobates who were not elected. But election is always only unto
salvation. It's unto salvation. The fact
that God doesn't elect a man doesn't mean that God's responsible
for his damnation. His sin is responsible for his
damnation. That's the only thing that'll
separate a man from God is his sin. God does not bear the responsibility
for a man's lost condition. God is speaking. And of course,
if he leaves us to ourselves, we have no means by which to
hear. And so we have in our texts another story of the Lord showing
his mercy to one of his servants and giving him the same message in a different form. The Lord's already told Gideon
to go and and lead, you know, he's whittled
his army down from 32,000 to 300, and he's told Gideon to
take those 300 men and defeat the army of the Midianites of
300,000, or 100,000. 100,000 Midianites against 300
Israelites. And the Midianites had weapons and Gideon didn't
have any weapons. And so you might think, well,
yeah, I'd be afraid too. Maybe I misunderstood what the
Lord was saying here. And so in 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 have delivered it into
thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou
with Phura, thy servant down to the host." Take your servant
with you. What an encouragement we have,
one with the other, when we are able to fellowship in the gospel
and lift one another up, encourage one another, and say to one another,
I understand. I have the same fears, the same
weaknesses, the same doubts that you have. I don't want to hear from a preacher
who acts like he doesn't have any. You know, I want to hear
the gospel from a man that's dealing with the same problems
I'm dealing with. And it's true if he's honest. If he's honest, it's true. And
so the Lord said, if you're afraid, take Furah with you, thy servant,
and go down to the host. And thou shalt hear what they
say. And afterwards, thine hand shall
be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then when he downed
with Furah, his servant, and to the outside of the armed men
that were in the host." Now it's dark. Gideon and his little band
of 300 men are up on the hillside, and the whole valley is filled
with their army of the Midianites. And Gideon slips down, unbeknownst
to them, and he's at the edge of their camp. And the Midianites
and the Malachites 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 of the sea for multitude. And
when Gideon came, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto
his fellow and said, behold, I dreamed a dream and lo, a cake
of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian and came unto
the tent and smote it and it fell and overturned it that the
tent lay alone. And his fellow, now these are
two pagan Baal worshipers, didn't know that Gideon and his
servant were in earshot of what they were talking about. They
couldn't see him. The Lord gave these men, this
one man, a dream, an odd dream, a barley cake. And barley was
poor man's food. Remember when the Lord took those
two loaves and five fishes? John, I think, is the one who
tells us that they're barley loaves. Barley was used mostly
for feeding cattle. It wasn't the kind of thing that
men usually ate, unless they were extremely poor. And a cake here is, the word
here is the description of a tortilla sort of bread that was cooked
quickly on a rock, on hot rock, a flat bread. And so, and the
word that rolled means that it tossed through the, so here we
have a tortilla flying through the air, coming down the mountain
and hitting a tent and destroying the tent. What a picture of how the Lord's
pleased to use small things to accomplish his purpose, that
he gets all the glory. He's not going to share his glory
with another. He loves his, you know, the natural man will rob
God of his glory. They will, uh, They will take
it on themselves for the accomplishment of their salvation by making
salvation a matter of choice or a matter of works or something
else that they do in order to be saved, robbing God of his
glory. But the Lord loves his people
too much to allow them to do that. And so he, Job, I think it was that said,
the Lord has stripped me of my glory. That's what he does when
he makes you a barley cake. Poor man's bread. The gospel
is for the poor and the needy, isn't it? Look at the interpretation
in verse 14. And this fellow answered and
said, this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the son
of Joash, a man Israel, and into his hand hath God delivered Midian
and all the hosts. And it was so, when Gideon heard
the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that
he worshiped, and he returned unto the host of Israel and said,
Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian."
The Lord had already told Gideon that this is what he was going
to do, and Gideon was afraid. and Gideon need to hear again. Most of us here have heard again
and again what the bread of life has done in accomplishing the
salvation of our souls. And we've looked to him in faith
and trusted, and yet the circumstances of life and the flesh that we
bear has caused us in this world, once again, to be afraid, to
doubt, to wonder. And so we come back. We come
back to hear again what the Lord has already convinced us is true. And yet, Lord, I need to hear
the old, old story. Gideon is a sinner, just like
you and I. And as a sinner, he's plagued
with doubts, just like we are. You know, the truth is that as
long as we're in this world and as long as we have two natures,
our faith is going to be fraught with unbelief. You remember the
man who brought son to the disciples who was possessed with a demon
and the disciples were not able to do anything and and the man
brought his son to the Lord and the man said Lord actually I
think he called him master if thou can't do anything help us
and the Lord looked at him and said oh no that's not the problem
if thou can't believe Anything is possible to them that believe.
And what did that man say? Crying with tears, he said, Lord,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Isn't
that the believer's life? Lord, I do believe. My new man,
my spirit, that man that's born of God, believes God. And yet he's, he's a, precious
treasure in an earthen vessel and we have a body of death strapped
to our back and we have this flesh and Lord I believe help
thou mine unbelief that's where Gideon is Gideon believed God
when he gave him those signs with the fleece he believed God yet the Lord knew Gideon's heart
he knew he was still afraid Confirmation for the fearful. The child of God knows nothing by his experience
of perfect faith. He looks in faith to the only
one who had perfect faith. And by faith, he believes that
there is a faithful servant who stands in his stead and represents
him as his substitute before God. But left to himself, or
even not left to himself, even in his born again state, he doesn't
know anything by experience of what perfect faith is. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. Courage is always plagued with
fear. Faith is always plagued with
doubt. The sure promises of God are plagued with our own insecurity.
And the Lord, in his tender mercy, does what a faithful father will
do for his child who keeps forgetting the instructions that the father
gives him. Logan, I bet you you've never
said to either one of your boys, I'm done with you guys. I've
told you that a hundred times. I'm not going to tell you again.
You don't do that, do you? You love them, you embrace them,
and you remind them again what you've told them many, many,
many times. And as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them who fear him. I need to hear again,
Lord. I need to hear again. He didn't
rebuke Gideon. Turn with me to Psalm 73. Psalm
73. David is praying. In verse 14, he says, for all
the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. Lord, this old man just won't
leave me alone. And if I say I will speak thus,
behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
If I, I mean, we're talking in general terms, but we're not to express the specifics
of our doubts and fears with one another. Not to do that. Number one, you can't help one
another with those things. What I'm saying is, don't tell
me your sins. You're a sinner, you've got,
yeah, but we don't use another man as a priest to try to, to
try to salve our conscience by, well, if I just admit to them
what's going on, then somehow that'll help. Priestcraft is practiced in every
form of religion, but it's, it's contrary to the gospel. David
said, I'm plagued, but if I tell another man what I'm really thinking,
the fears that I really have, the thoughts that I'm really
struggling with, All I'm going to do is be a stumbling block
to them. That's what he's saying. And besides that, they can't
help me. They can't help me. You know, in religion, there's
a big thing to have accountability groups, you know, let's get together
and let's, you know, let's, let's throw up on one another and tell
each other all of our horrible sins. And somehow we'll, we'll
be able to straighten each other out. Don't do that. We don't
do that. You bear your soul to God. And he already knows. You're not gonna tell him anything
he doesn't know. He knows your thoughts before you think them.
So don't hesitate to pour out your soul to him. David's saying,
I'm plagued every day, but if I tell another man what I'm really
struggling with, all I'm going to do is be a stumbling block
to them. In verse 18, or verse 16, when
I thought to know this, it was too painful for me until I went
into the sanctuary of God. Then I knew their end. If you read the previous verses
that we didn't read, David was jealous of the prosperity of
the wicked. He thought, they don't have the
struggles that I have with. They've made a covenant with
death. They don't wrestle with their old man. They don't have
two natures like I have. They're living their life, and Lord, But then I knew their end. I knew their end when I came
into the sanctuary of God and I heard again of the gospel of
God's free grace and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
and of his mercy and of his grace. And he spoke peace to my heart. Oh, the false prophets love saying
peace, peace, when there is no peace. I've said this before,
I'll say it again. If a man has to convince another
man that he's a believer, the man that's doing the convincing
is trying to convince himself. He's not a believer. You come
to me and say, well, I just don't know if I'm saved. I'm not going
to tell you you're saved. That's the work of grace that
only the spirit of God can do for you. But when he speaks peace
to your heart, then you have peace with God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. But isn't that so common in religion,
everybody going around trying to shore each other up about,
you know, whether or not they're saved. And we're very careful
about who we call brother, aren't we? Yet every religious person
I know wants me to call him their brother. I don't do it. I don't
do it. I don't call my own blood brother,
brother. That term is reserved for my
brethren in Christ. I mentioned this recently, 365
times you will find the two words, fear not, together in the scriptures. What do we say? Ignorance is
bliss. Person that says, I'm not afraid. Well, I'm sorry that
you are too ignorant to be afraid. Because if you knew what was
really what you really were and what really is at stake here,
you would run to Christ with your fear and with your sin. Our Lord is patient, he's long-suffering,
he's full of mercy, he's loving, and his loving-kindness is everlasting. That's what he's doing here.
And the Lord has to humble us in
order to bring us to that place. When Peter, the knight of the
Last Supper before our Lord, was crucified, arrested that
very evening and crucified, The Lord made it clear to the disciples
that he was going to be arrested and put to death. And Peter,
in pride and self-righteousness, said, those other men right there
around the table, they may forsake you, but not me. Not me. Oh, Peter, before the cock crows
in the morning, you're going to deny me three times. be of good cheer, for I have
prayed for you that your faith fail not." What was the difference
between Peter and Judas? They did the same thing that
night. The Lord had prayed for Peter. He'd left Judas to himself. Lord, pray for me. Lord, I'll
do what Peter did. Pray for me. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. John chapter 17, father,
I pray not for the world, but I pray for them which thou hast
given me out of the world. Oh, we're so very thankful that
we have a savior who stands at the right hand of God almighty
and serves as our intercessor. Praise on our behalf. who said to us, I will never
leave you or forsake you. Yes, you're gonna waver in your
faith. Yes, you're gonna deny me. Yes, you're gonna wander
about in this world. Yes, you're gonna carry the burden
of your flesh. Yes, you're gonna be tempted
with sin and you're gonna fall. I'm not gonna leave you. I'm
not gonna leave you. I'm never gonna forsake you.
I'm gonna do for you what I did for Gideon. I'm gonna speak the
same message to you again. And I'm gonna give confirmation
to your heart for your doubts and for your fears. True saving faith can never fail.
It can never fail. They say one saved, always saved.
That depends on who does the saving, doesn't it? Depends on who does the saving.
If my salvation is determined by a decision that I made or
a prayer that I prayed or a work that I performed, then no, one
saved is not always saved. But if God does the saving, and
if by grace we are saved through faith, and that faith is not
of ourselves, it's a gift of God, not of our works, the Lord's
not gonna let that faith fail. Oh, it'll falter. It'll wander. And it is often weak. Well, the Lord say to Peter,
when he began to sink in the water, why did you doubt? Oh, you have little faith. And
then he calmed the seas. He calmed the seas. If God gives us faith, that faith
is eternal. The other thing we see here is that
our God is a God of means. He's a God of means, and the
means that he uses are not impressive to the natural man. The natural
man is looking for great demonstrations of power in order to think that
something's going to be done. And God says, do not despise
the day of small things. I'm gonna use the smallest things
imaginable so that man cannot glory in my work. And the Lord
brought down the greatest nation in the world with things like
flies and frogs and lice. Here we have a barley cake, a
tumbling flying tortilla, falling into a tent. And we have pagans
who, you know, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord
and he directs it whithersoever he wills. These unbelievers,
this man was given the strangest dream and he remembered it. And his associate guard there
gives the interpretation. This is nothing more than the
sword of Gideon who God has given to, Nobody heard that, but Gideon
and Furah. Gideon believed God. Time and time again, our God
uses small, impressive means. Job is the one who said, you
have stripped me of my glory. The Lord makes us to be sinners.
We have nothing. We can't do anything. We don't
know anything. We're completely dependent upon
him for everything. That's when he blesses, glorifies
himself. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1,
let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Where is the wise? Where is the prudent? Have I
not made foolish the wisdom of this world? When man by wisdom
knew not God, God through the foolishness of preaching. What
we're doing right now, comparing scripture to scripture and holding
up the person of Christ and his accomplished work of redemption
and his mercy and his grace is the means by which God gives
faith to his people. The world's not interested in
what we're doing here today. God's people are. Gideon, you
remember when the Lord called him out at the beginning of chapter
six, said, Lord, my family is the least family in the nation
of Israel, and I'm the least in my family. You can't get any
closer to the bottom of the barrel than when you chose me. Yep,
that's what I'm gonna use. And Samuel went to Jesse's house
to choose a king from the sons of Jesse. And Jesse brings his
stalwart sons of these men that, I mean, they were kingly looking.
One at a time, he brings them before Samuel. And Samuel says,
no, God chose Samuel. He said, no, not that one, not
that one. And God says to Samuel, men judged
by outward appearances, but God judges by the heart. Don't be
impressed with these men just because they look like they're
good leaders. They're head and shoulders. Saul,
who was the king, was head and shoulders above everybody else.
One to be desired. What kind of king was he? And
finally, after all the boys come through, Samuel says to Jesse,
you got any more? Well, Kind of got to the end
of the rope here, but you know, I've got a little boy out in
the yards taking care of the sheep, but surely that's not the one.
Bring him in. That's him. David. Man after God's own heart. Sweet
psalmist of Israel. The least impressive of all the
ones. See, God does that. That's why
he chose you. Me. He uses the least of the
least. The disciples were lowly fishermen
and despised tax collectors. And when they came before the
elites of the publicans, the Pharisees, excuse me, they said
that they observed that these were ignorant and unlearned men,
but that they had been with Jesus. They'd been with Jesus. The world's
not impressed with the things that God chooses. Moses was tending
sheep on the backside of the desert. God called him. And then when God chose to come
into this world, when the fullness of time came, The Lord Jesus wasn't born in
a castle to royalty. No, to the contrary. He is born to a humble, poor
maid and her carpenter husband. And there wasn't even enough
room in the inn for them. So they had to go out in the
barn. And the Lord was laid in a feeding trough with all the
stinking animals. You know, we've sterilized that
scene, haven't we? I've been in barns before. They
don't look anything like the little stables that men love
to think about when they want to think about the Lord coming
into this world. And that was a barn. It was a
filthy barn. And that's how our Lord came.
Picturing how he comes into this world of sin and into our lives. He grew up unknown. And when he declared himself
to be the Messiah, they said, well, he's the son of Joseph,
we know him. And when he stood up in the synagogue
to show that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 61, the scripture
says that they all with wonder, could this be the Messiah? gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth they were amazed until he declared the absolute sovereignty
of God and saving whomsoever he wills and then their amazement
was turned into fury remember that's where the Lord said in
Nazareth. I mean these people knew him.
Nazareth is a small town. I'm sure he knew every single
one of them. Been to the synagogue on many
occasions and read scripture and now he opens it to Isaiah
61, declares himself to be the Messiah and says in the days
of Elijah the prophet there were many widows but God showed mercy
on none except that Gentile woman, the Gentile woman. And there
were many lepers in the days of Elias. God showed mercy on none except
for Nahum and the leper, that Syrian. Oh, and they wanted to
kill him. God will save his people by bringing
glory to himself. through the shame and the suffering
of his own son on Calvary's cross, despised and rejected of men. The gospel is poor man's bread
for poor men. The world is unimpressed. The
world will choose things like great denominations. And I was
thinking about the men that presidents choose to be their spiritual
advisors. You ever listened to those men?
My goodness, they don't know anything, anything. But they've got influence and
power in the world. What I'm saying to you, brethren,
is this is where God does his work. Among these little hills
scattered all over the world. We're not saying this is the
only place he's working, but impressive denominations, powerful
men, influence on the world. God doesn't, he doesn't, no.
He uses small things. Little assembly of believers
here and there. And God uses pagans just like
he did here. God used Cyrus, that Persian
king, to send the children of Israel back to rebuild
the temple. What a glorious picture that
is. And Lord used Felix to finance
Paul's trip to, God had already said, you're gonna have to testify
me in Rome. And then he used Felix to finance
the trip for him. Send him to Rome. Lord's at work. He's at work. What do we say? We often say
the devil's in the details, don't we? Meaning that, you know, it's
the hard part of this job is working out the details. I hope
I never say that again, because the truth is that God is in the
details. Every detail. Every detail of
your life and every detail of this world, he is accomplishing
his purpose for the salvation of his people and the glorification
of his son. And no man can stay his hand
or say unto him, what doest thou? His eternal purpose and his mercy
toward his people is being accomplished in a way that the world doesn't
see. God's people see it. They see
it. Do you see it? Do you see what
the Lord's doing here for Gideon, the children of Israel? Is He
doing that for you? Our Heavenly Father, bless Your
Word to glorify Thy dear Son and Thy people. For it's in Christ's
name we pray, Amen. Bye.