Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 20 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymnal, number
20, Saved by Sovereign's Grace. And let's all stand together. Long, long before the world was
made, God chose to save me by His grace and blessed me in His
covenant head with every blessing of His grace. In Christ my surety
was found, a ransom for God's chosen one. Deliverance was then
proclaimed, and God's great work of grace begun. In the due time my Savior came
to do His Holy Father's will. A body was prepared for Him that
He might righteousness fulfill. When Christ had righteousness
brought in, He took my awful load of sin. Dying for me upon
the tree, My Savior put away my sin. Though I was born a child
of wrath, depraved and helpless, dead in sin, and though I chose
the rebel's path, despising God and loving sin, My Savior's love
could not be quenched. He sought and found me by His
grace. Awakened by His Spirit's call,
I'm saved, I'm saved by sovereign grace. Amazing free and sovereign
grace, In love Christ Jesus took my place. Chosen, redeemed, and
called by grace, To Christ alone I give all praise. ? My only hope, my only plea
? Is that Christ lived and died for me ? In him alone I am complete
? To Christ alone my praise shall be Please be seated. There's a line in that hymn we
just sang in the second stanza that says, dying for me upon
the tree, my savior put away my sin. We're going to be looking
at the images of the cross tonight in scriptures illustrated by
the tree. But before we do that, let's
turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. We'll begin reading in verse
one. And after these things, I heard a great voice of much
people in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor
and power until the Lord our God. For true and righteous are
his judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication. and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they say,
hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and 20 elders and the four beasts fell
down and worshiped God that sat on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, hallelujah, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and the
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, For the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto
me, write, blessed are they that are called unto the married supper
of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these things
are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship
him. And he said unto me, see thou do it not. I am thy fellow
servant and thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus,
worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven opened and behold
a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he doth
judge and make war. Let's pray together. our merciful and glorious heavenly
father. We pray that you would once again
this hour direct our hearts and our minds to that war that was
fight at Calvary's cross and the battle that was won and the
glory that thy dear son has earned for himself and for thee. in
his conquering death and sin, Satan and hell. Lord, that you
would comfort the hearts of your saints as we find our hope and
our rest in your accomplished redemption. Lord, we pray for
the situation in the world today. We know, Lord, that the heart
of the king as is the heart of all men, are in thy hand, and
that you direct it whithersoever you will. We know, Lord, that
you are working all things together for good, for them that love
you and those that are the called according to your purpose. We
know that you reign sovereign over the armies of heaven and
all the inhabitants of the earth, and that no man can stay thy
will, thy hand, Lord, we ask for your mercy. We ask for your
direction and for the comfort of your peace. And we pray that
you would direct the governing authorities in a way that would
bring peace and life to this world. For we ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. number 239 in your hardback timbrel,
239. Let's stand together again. Art thou weary, art thou languid,
art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming
be at rest. Path he marks to lead me to him
if he be my guide. In his feet and hands are wound
prints and his side. Is there diadem as monarch that
his brow adorns? Yea, a crown in very surety but
of thorns. If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask him to receive me, will
he say me nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is he sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes. Please be seated. I was just thinking about this
passage in 1 Timothy chapter 2. If you'd like to turn with
me there in your Bible, this is not the message for tonight,
but I think it'd be a word of encouragement to us in light
of our current circumstances in the world. The Lord said there
would be wars and rumors of wars, and there has been all throughout
the history of mankind. until that final war that we
just read about in Revelation 19, when the Lord himself comes
and brings an end to all things. But here he tells us in 1 Timothy
2, I exhort you, therefore, that first of all, supplications,
prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
for kings and for all that are in authority. Now, Daniel chapter
four says that the Lord has put over the nations the basest of
men. We ought not to be surprised
when we see the character of national leaders. They are men
that God has chosen, and he of his own testimony said that they
are the basest of men. But we're still to pray for them,
and we're to respect their authority. And so for kings and for all
that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty. But this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God, our savior. The Lord remind us to pray for
our governing authorities and know that they are puppets in
our God's hands. But he has he has given us the
privilege of the responsibility of of praying for them and that
we might live quiet and peaceful lives in this world. Let's open our Bibles to Judges
chapter 6. Judges chapter 6 and we'll be
at verse 11. And I've titled this message,
The Tree. The Tree. The tree is mentioned
time and time again in the Scriptures, but we're going to try to limit
our comments tonight to the oak tree, which is also mentioned
many times in God's Word. As we know, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, the Lord has given us types and
pictures and shadows, all pointing to the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he accomplished there at Mount Calvary. in saving
his people and putting away our sins. And so everything before
the cross points to Christ hanging on Calvary's tree. Everything
since the cross points us back to Christ. The cross is the reason
for everything, everything. So as we read God's word, we're
looking for Christ and him crucified. Certainly he is. the subject
of this book. And he's the author of it, and
he's the subject of it. And to find him, to know him,
and to rejoice in him is life eternal. Judges chapter six, look with
me at verse 11, if you will. And there came an angel of the
Lord. Scripture's clear that this angel of the Lord is none
other than the Lord himself. Look down at verse 16, and the
Lord said unto him, this is that angel speaking. This is a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of an angel
sent from heaven to reveal Christ and him crucified. So there came
an angel of the Lord and sat under an oak. He sat under an
oak, which was in Ophrah. that pertaineth to Joash the
Abizarite and his son Gideon threshing wheat by the winepress
to hide it from the Midianites. And we saw Sunday that these
Midianites is a picture of our sin. And, uh, Our flesh and Satan
and this world and all the things that would take us away from
the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we have Gideon, whose
name translated means hewer. So Gideon, by profession, would
cut down trees and hew those logs into beams and boards that
could be used for construction. Or, as we're going to see in
this verse, for a cross. The Lord is calling out Gideon,
who's threshing wheat. We know what that's a picture
of. The threshing of wheat is a picture of God winnowing the
chaff from the wheat, dividing those that he has called, those
that he has saved, from the reprobate and the chaff. So there's what
Gideon, this hewer, this hewer of logs is hiding out from the
Midianites behind a winepress. We know what that's a picture
of. The scripture makes it clear the Lord Jesus Christ, he was
pressed out all by himself in the winepress. There's a picture
of the wrath of God. coming down on the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross. And as the wine from the grapes
flowed from the wine press, as those grapes were being pressed,
so the Lord Jesus Christ's blood flowed freely from his body as
a covering for the sins of his people. So that's what all of
this is to point to. This isn't just telling us about
some man that's winnowing wheat. This is all the gospel, isn't
it? This all points us to Christ. So here we have the Lord calling
a hewer to hew, if you will, a log. into a tree or into a beam that
will be used as a cross. And that will be the, the, the
standard by which the Lord winnows his wheat and gathers his wheat
and puts it into the barn and takes his people home to glory.
And through the means of which the blood of his, of his sacrifice
is being, is being stamped out in the, in the wine press of
God's wrath. The tree, as I mentioned, is
often referred to in the scriptures. We have the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil that was in the garden, that the Lord commanded
our father Adam not to eat of, and he ate of it. And it's a
picture of the law. And men are still putting their
hand to the law. Adam thought, well, I can, I
can, you know, I can eat of that tree. I can, this is the knowledge
of good and evil is the law. And so he, and it was the only
thing that, what is the standard of the law? Thou shalt not. Was
not the knowledge of the tree of good and evil the one thing
that God said thou shalt not eat of? And so men are still
trying to reach to godness, reach the way to heaven through the
keeping of the law. That's what all men do by nature. Apart from the revelation of
Christ and the grace of God, all men by nature will try to
earn favor with God by their lives. I was talking to a dear sister
today, she's probably watching now, she lives in another city,
and she said, you know, she said, before the Lord saved me, before
he called me, if you would have asked me, you know, aren't you,
are you saved? She would have said, she said,
yeah, I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not doing anything
wrong. You know, surely, you know, my
life is a reflection of a Christian. And we both agreed on the phone
as we were talking today that she had done enough wrong when
she was sitting wherever you're sitting right now in church to
send her to hell. I'm doing enough wrong right
now. And what I'm doing, standing up here trying to preach the
gospel to send me to hell. This idea that, well, I'm not
doing anything wrong. I can, you know, I can stand before
holy God. No, you can't. But men still
think that way, don't they? They still think that way. They
still think that they're going to be saved by the law. They
put their hand to the knowledge, to the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And then we have the tree of
life in the garden, which they were allowed to eat from until
after the fall. They were allowed to eat of that
tree of life is Christ. He's seen back in the book of
Revelation, bringing forth his fruit and his leaves being for
the healing of the nations. And once man had fallen and you
and I fell in our father, Adam, and Adam all have died, we could
not partake of the tree of life. until God did a work of grace
in our hearts and killed us. Adam physically had to die, and
so do you and I. But we die spiritually when the
Lord makes us to be sinners, don't we? And we realize that
everything about us is death. So this tree is... This tree of life that we see
in the garden is the tree that we're talking about. It had to
become the tree of death. The Lord Jesus Christ had to
bear in his body the sins of all of his people, all their
sins of every generation. And he had to hang on this tree
that was hewed out by Gideon. And tree of life had to become
the tree of death before we could have life. And that's exactly
what all these trees point to. Galatians chapter three, verse
13 says, Christ hath redeemed us. Hath, past tense. Christ
Jesus the Lord hath redeemed us. What is the redemption? A
redemption is a purchase. What was the price that God demanded
for the purchase of our souls? Not silver and gold. No, the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ who was pressed out in the wine press of God's
wrath. Calvary's cross and God took
that's that that blood and put it on the mercy seat and God
said here on me with you right here on me with you so Galatians
313 says Christ hath redeemed us we've been bought with a price
the price of the precious blood of Christ being made a curse
for us He redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us for as it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. This oak tree that
the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting under is a, is a symbol of the
cross. It's repeated over and over again
in the scriptures. Every time this tree is brought
up, it points us to the cross of Christ. And, uh, and so curse
is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. And John the Baptist,
when he was preaching said, the ax has been laid to the root
of the tree. And, uh, you know, that tree
had to be, had to be chopped down. But the life of the tree
is in the root. And the Gentiles are the wild
olive tree that was grafted into this root that continues to live. Peter, when he stood before the
Sanhedrin in Acts chapter five, you remember they said to him,
they'd already arrested him and put him in prison. And the Lord
came and brought him out of prison. And the gates were still shut.
The guards were still in place. The Sanhedrin sent for him. And
the guards came back and said, he's not there. We don't know
what happened to him. We arrested him. We put him in prison. The
guards have been up all night. No one came, but they're not
there. And then someone else came and said, they're in the
synagogue preaching. So they sent the police to get
them. This time they arrested them quietly in fear of the crowds. And they brought them back before
the Sanhedrin. And they said, did we not tell
you not to preach this doctrine? For you fill the whole city of
Jerusalem with this doctrine. And that's when Peter said, you
decide for yourself what's right or wrong. As for us, we must
obey God. We've got to do what God's called
us to do. And then he preaches the gospel to them. And he says,
the God of our fathers raised up Jesus from the dead, whom
you slew and hanged on a tree. So there's the tree. The very
first time Peter preaches to the Sanhedrin, he said, you slew
him and you hanged him on a tree. In Acts chapter 13, when Paul
goes to Antioch of Pisidia, he goes into the synagogue and he
preaches to the Jews there and he says, and when they had fulfilled,
he's speaking of those Jews in Jerusalem, he said, and when
they had fulfilled all that had been written of them, see when
they took their wicked hands and crucified the son of God
on Calvary's tree, they were fulfilling all that God had ordained
for them. And so they were fully responsible
for having put the son of God to death, but they were fulfilling
the ordained purpose of God, to send his son as a sacrifice
for our sins. And so Peter says to this group
in Acts 13 and verse 29, he says, and when they had fulfilled all
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in the sepulcher. So the cross is referred to as
a tree. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ in Judges chapter 6. And we're going to be looking
at the life of Gideon for the next couple of weeks. And what
a glorious picture. This picture just keeps repeating
itself over and over again in different ways. But it's the
same story. And so we have the Lord Jesus
Christ as the angel of the Lord sitting under an oak tree, revealing
himself and calling to himself a hewer who's threshing wheat
and he's hiding out behind the wine press. Now that's where
you and I need to hide. We need to hide behind the wine
press, don't we? Where God has pressed out. the wrath and judgment
of God and the winepress of His wrath, and we're the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if we do, it'll be because
we've looked to Him on that tree. Everything points us back to
Christ and to Him crucified. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
35, the first time that an oak tree is mentioned the Bible is
found in Genesis chapter 35. Jacob has now left Laban's, he
has escaped in God's providence, his brother Esau's wrath. He
has wrestled with the angel of the Lord at the river Jabbok,
and the Lord has left him a limp to remind him of the weakness
of his flesh. And now Jacob has his whole family
together, all of his children, his wives, his cattle. And guess
where he's gonna go? Back to Bethel. Bethel is where
the Lord revealed himself when Jacob was fleeing from his brother
Esau. And remember that's where Jacob
made for himself a pillow out of a stone and the Lord showed
him a ladder going up into heaven and the angel of the Lord ascending
and descending upon that ladder. And he called it Bethel, the
house of God. God is, and now Jacob is going
back to Bethel with his whole family. But before he gets to
Bethel, something has to be done. And here it is in Genesis chapter
35, and God, verse one, and God said unto Jacob, arise, go up
to Bethel and dwell there and make thee an altar unto God that
appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau
thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household,
And to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that
are among you and be clean and change your garments." There's
repentance. Repentance towards God and faith
towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from your idols, put them
away from you and look to Christ. and the robe of his righteousness
for all of your acceptance before God. And let us arise and go
up to Bethel and I will make there an altar unto God who answered
me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which
I went. And they gave unto Jacob all
the strange gods which were in their hand and all the earrings. which were in their ears. You
see what this, uh, the strange gods in their hands. That's that's
works. Isn't it that your hand is a
picture of your work and, and they're putting away any hope
of salvation in being able to accomplish it by the works of
their hands, by their own works, their own righteousness and the
earrings. Well, you wouldn't know if that's
a picture of. The hearing ears of the Lord and faith comes by
hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. But by nature,
men listened to all so many different voices. And so the Lord says,
give me the works of your hands. Give me the things that you've
been listening to. And I'm going to do something
with them. Which were in their ears and
Jacob hid them under the oak which was at Shechem. Now the
word Shechem means back or shoulder. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross who bore on his back, if you will,
we bear on our back nothing but a dead corpse. That's what Paul
said, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death that's strapped to my back? That's all I've got
to carry around is a dead corpse. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he was suspended between heaven and earth, bore on his shoulders
at Shechem, on his back, all the works of his people and all
the error of their hearing. And he buried them under the
oak tree at Shechem. That's where our sins are, brethren.
They're buried in the depths of the sea. They've been separated
from us as far as the East is from the West and God remembers
them no more. This is the first mention of
an oak in the Bible. It's the place where our sins
have been put away under the oak, never to be found again. What a comfort, what a hope.
And then the second time an oak is mentioned, the oak tree is
not mentioned, but maybe a dozen times in the Bible, but two of
them are right here back to back. So now he buries all these idols
and all these earrings under the oak tree at Shechem, where
Christ bore our sins and put them away. And then he takes
his family down to Bethel. And when he gets to Bethel, Deborah,
It's not the same Deborah that we just studied in the book of
Judges. This is Rebekah's. You remember in Genesis chapter
24 when Abraham sent his servant to Laban's to get a wife for
Isaac? And Rebekah said, I will go. And the next verse says, and
Rebekah and her handmaid, which was Deborah, left. So Deborah
has been at Rebekah's side from the very time she left home.
And now Deborah dies. Look at verse eight. But Deborah,
Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under
an oak. And the name of it was called
Alan Bachuth, the Oak of Weeping. Does not the work that the Lord
Jesus Christ did and the sacrifice that he made of himself bring
weeping? Sure it does. Our weeping will
be turned to joy. But there was weeping in heaven
when the Lord Jesus laid down his life. The angels in heaven
were prepared with swords drawn to come and destroy the whole
world to deliver their Lord, but they weren't allowed to.
And there was weeping in heaven. There was weeping among his father.
When the Lord cried out, my God, my God, whilst thou forsaken
me, was there not sorrow in the heart of his father? Was there
not weeping among the disciples and among his mother? And is
there not weeping with us? Our weeping, like I said, has
turned to joy, but blessed, the Bible says, are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. There's no comfort until there's
mourning. There has to be a sorrow and a brokenness and a revelation
of our sinfulness before God and what that sin has done to
our Savior on Calvary's cross before we can rejoice. Turn with me to last book of
the Bible, Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 12. Zechariah chapter 12. Look with
me at verse 10. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and of supplication. Now here's God's promise. I'm
gonna pour out. upon my people, the house of
Israel and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is the church,
a spirit. And that spirit is gonna be a
spirit of grace and it's gonna be a spirit of supplication.
And as a result of that, they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one that mourneth
for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is bitter for his firstborn. That's the spirit of repentance.
That's the spirit of grace that the Lord gives to his people.
When he brings to your heart, the realization of what you are.
Lord, I, I've got nothing but sin. And it was my sin that put
Christ on Calvary's cross. In that day shall there be a
great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad and
Rehman in the city of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn every
family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their
wives apart, and the family of the house of Nathan apart, and
their wives apart." This mourning is a work of grace in each individual
person's heart. We're not looking for a, you
know, some sort of a mass mourning. We're not looking for, you know,
where each man, each woman, every child has to deal with God one-on-one. And when he pours out that spirit,
Verse 13, the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives
apart, and the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart,
and all the families that remain, every family apart, and their
wives apart. Look at verse 13, chapter 13,
verse one. And in that day, there shall
be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. You see, there's
the morning turned to joy, but there has to be a morning Deborah
was buried under a great oak in Bethel, in the house of God,
which is where we are. And that oak was called the Oak
of Mourning. Weeping. Weeping. Whenever Christ is preached,
there is some weeping. There is some sorrow. spirit of grace is poured out
on Jerusalem there is a sense of Lord this is this is all on
me and he says nah put it all on me and there there's reason
now for rejoicing. The third time that oak is mentioned
it is the name of the valley and we'll just you know the story
it is the name of the valley where David slew Goliath the
name of that valley was the valley of oak and you know what that's
a picture of David as our representative head stood as our substitute
against Satan, against sin, against hell, and against the grave.
And he got the victory all by himself, for all of Israel. All of Israel enjoyed the benefits
of what David did. when he took Goliath's own sword. Now, you know what the sword
is a picture of? It's a picture of the tongue. It's a picture
of words, the sword of the spear, which is the word of God. And
now what's the Lord doing? He's taking, by your words, you
shall be condemned, and by your words, you shall be justified.
And so the Lord's taking the very confession of the false
gospel, the freewill works gospel, and he's using it to cut the
head off of the giant. And the Lord Jesus Christ gets
the victory. Where did he get it? He got it
in the Valley of Oak. He got it on that oak tree. You
know, people speculate what kind of tree the cross is made of.
I don't have any idea. I know it was a tree and I suspect
that it may have been an oak tree. But nevertheless, this is where
the oak is mentioned in scripture pointing us to that tree where
the Lord Jesus Christ died. That story of David and Goliath
is a picture of substitution and satisfaction. The Lord Jesus
as our substitute satisfied everything that was necessary for the salvation
of Israel. when he slew the giant by himself
in the Valley of Oak. The angel of the Lord, Judges
chapter six, verse 11, is sitting under an oak. He's calling out
a hewer who's threshing wheat behind the wine press. And he's
giving us another picture, another picture of the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The next time an oak is mentioned
in the Bible is when Absalom stands up in rebellion against
his father. Now, we've looked at Absalom
before, been some time, but Absalom's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's what the Bible says about Absalom. It says that all Israel
praised him for his beauty. That's what the Bible says about
Absalom. All Israel praised him for his beauty, for from the
sole of his feet to the crown of his head, there was not a
blemish. And Absalom, what brought Absalom
on the scene? You remember when Amnon took
advantage of Tamar. And Tamar was Absalom's sister. And the Bible refers to the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Song of Solomon as the sister
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Absalom in defending the
honor of his sister kills Amnon for having taken advantage of
his sister. Is that not what our Lord has
done? For in contrast to him from the sole of our feet to
the crown of our head is nothing but putrefying sores and wounds. But all Israel praises him for
his beauty, for not a blemish is to be found on him. He's the
lamb of God that is without spot and without blemish. And he went
to that tree on Calvary's hill and he laid down his life Absalom,
name, Abba, father, Salome, peace. You want my father's peace? You're
gonna have it through this story. What is the story? Well, when
the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of in Song of Solomon chapter
five, the scripture says that his hair, was His glory, and
it was black like a raven. And then when we read of the
Lord Jesus Christ in Revelation, we see His hair white, demonstrating
His wisdom, but it's also His glory. And the Bible speaks of
the hair being the glory of the woman. And it speaks of baldness
as being shameful in the Bible. And so this picture of the hair,
is a picture of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what
happened to Absalom? What happened to him? He got
his hair hung up in an oak while he was fleeing from David's men. And he was hanging there in that
tree by his hair in the bow of an oak tree. By the glory, the
Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on a tree. by his glory. And Joab saw him and said, and
thrust him through with three darts, the scripture says. Thrust
him through his heart with three darts. Do you see God, the Father,
God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit were all participants
in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. That covenant of
grace that goes down, that goes back before the foundation of
the world was an agreement between God, the father who would choose
a people and God, the son who would redeem a people and God,
the Holy spirit that would, that would empower the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Messiah. And then, and then give the knowledge
of the gospel to his people. Those are that they all three
participated in the death of Christ. And then the scripture
says in the same verse, after Joab put three darts through
his heart, he said, then 10 of his men came and slew him. You know what the number 10 is
a picture of? It's the law. It was the law of God that slew
the Lord Jesus Christ. When God's law saw your sin and
my sin on Christ, on his shoulders, on Shechem, he had buried them
in his body on that tree. It was the law that slew him
after God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit,
all were in agreement that this sacrifice must be made. The law
came along and slew him. And if the law found sin on the Lord Jesus Christ
and had no choice but to slay the Son of God, what do you think
the law's gonna do to you and me if it finds sin on us? And like I said earlier, there's
enough sin in what we're doing right now for the law to judge
us guilty and condemn us to hell. This is why the angel of the
Lord is sitting under an oak tree. This is what this tree is all
about. Now, the cross, this oak tree,
has been an object of idolatry. We see that in religion. That's
why as believers, we don't put necklaces on with crosses on
them. We don't put crosses on our churches. We don't do that. Why? You remember when the fiery serpents
came into the camp of the Israelites in the wilderness and the Lord
told Moses, you fashion a serpent out of brass and put it on a
pole. And if any man look, he shall live. Uh, or when he looks,
he shall live. And, um, you know, they kept
that brass serpent for 700 more years, 700 years from the time
of Moses to the time of Hezekiah in the seventh century BC and
Hezekiah was a good King. And he, and he took that thing.
And the Bible tells us what he called it. I forgot the name
of it. It's a little big, some big old
long name, but the interpretation is a piece of brass. That's what
he called it, a piece of brass. And he broke it up and destroyed
it with all the other idols that the children of Israel were worshiping. That's all the cross is, the
physical cross. We don't put up physical cross.
Why? Because that's just a piece of wood. Or a piece of plaster,
a piece of metal, whatever. That's all it is. No, it's the
one who laid down his life upon that cross that accomplished
the work of redemption for his people that we're worshiping.
And we don't fashion. Something that our eyes can look
upon. We've got to have the eyes of
faith to look upon Christ. Men love having they that are
of the flesh do mind the things of the flesh and they that are
of the spirit, the things of the spirit. We can only see the
Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary's cross
through the eyes of faith. And we don't fashion something
that we can look at with our physical eyes and try to get
some comfort from that. It's nothing more than a piece
of brass. Men have been doing it. Men have
been doing it for centuries. Turn with me to Ezekiel chapter
16. Let me show you something here. Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter six, I'm sorry. Ezekiel chapter six at verse
13. When the Lord reveals himself,
In verse 13, it says, then shall you know that I am the Lord,
when their slain men shall be among their idols round about
their altars upon every high hill and in all the tops of the
mountains and under every green tree and under every thick oak,
the place where they did offer sweet savor to all their idols. How many men are going to, are
going to meet the wrath and judgment of God because they made their
sweet savory sacrifices to God under the idol of a cross. A thick cross, a thick oak. You know what that means? That
means that they won't, they won't, they won't give it up. They won't
give it up. That's a strong oak tree. It's
a thick oak tree. And men that are addicted to
it will not turn from it. They will not turn from their
idols to worship and serve the living and true God, unless God
does a work of grace in their heart. And when he does, oh,
they turn happily. Happily, they're made willing. In First Chronicles chapter 10,
Saul and his sons are an example of that. You remember Saul was
injured in a battle with the Philistines. He had a mortal
injury and one of his servants came along and he tried to get
a servant to kill him and that servant refused to lay his hand
to the king and so Saul fell on his sword and his sons fell
on their swords with him. And the Philistines found their
bodies and they disgraced their bodies and they decapitated them
and put their heads in the temple of Dagon. And then the men of Jabesh, the
men of Jabesh translated means dry place. came and got their
remains and buried their bones under an oak tree at the dry
place Jebish." What does Saul picture? The Israelite who's not of Israel. The tares among the wheat. Disgraced. And yet they're finally buried.
How many men, I mean, we go to the, we've been to the, you've
been to some of these places, cathedrals around the world where
they, where they bury their heroes in the very, under the very floor,
under the pulpit, or we've got the, the, the, the things all
around, you know, buried their bones in a dry place where there
was no water and no life. What a glorious picture of our
Lord who reveals himself as an angel sitting under an oak tree,
calling out a hewer of wood to fashion for himself a pole upon
which he will die and press out the winepress of God's wrath
and winnow his wheat. It's what all of scripture is
about. It's what all of our life is about. Christ and him crucified. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that you bless your word and cause us to rejoice in Christ
Jesus. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. 232. Let's stand together. 232. Christ, our Redeemer, died on
the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul with the blood
of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood When I see
the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you ? Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will save ? ? All he has promised
that he will do ? ? Wash in the fountain opened for sin ? ? And
I will pass, will pass over you ? ? When I see the blood ? When
I see the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass
over you ? Judgment is coming, all will be there ? ? Each one
receiving justly his due ? ? Hide in the saving, sin-cleansing
blood ? ? And I will pass, will pass over you ? When I see the
blood When I see the blood When I see the blood I will pass,
I will pass over you O great compassion, O boundless
love, O loving kindness, faithful and true, find peace and shelter
under the blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood When I see
the blood When I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you