As you're turning into your Bibles
to Judges chapter 6, I wanted to speak today about peace with
God. In Judges chapter 6 we have Gideon's
journey to peace with God, and he erects an altar a memorial, and we'll finish
our time together by having a memorial, a remembrance of our peace, who
is our peace, and how we can have peace with God. It's an
extraordinary thing to think, isn't it, that as we meet here
today, throughout this world, there are billions of people
who this week have gathered together in some assembly, some solemn
assembly, some place where they think they are worshipping God. And in their gathering together
and under the message that they are hearing, they are hearing
a message of peace and they are hearing a message from each other
of peace. And yet the scriptures are so
abundantly clear that there are multitudes, countless billions
of people who will delude themselves with a sense of peace from God. For some it will be peace on
the basis of their association with various religious organisations.
For some it will be on the basis of their understanding of particular
doctrines. For many it will be on the basis
of things that they believe the Word of God says to them. But as God's servant, to your
souls, I want for you to have a peace with God, a peace with
God that Gideon had." The Lord's servants have two
things uppermost in their minds always, don't they? They have
the glory of God. They want God to be glorified. They want for people to see Him
high and lifted up. And the people who have met Him
long for others to know Him and to find Him, as the Lord Jesus
said. He says, in me you have peace. To have peace with God. To have
peace with God is to see Him as He is, to know Him as He is. As we've been going through Galatians,
the question that is in a sense laid before those believers nearly
2,000 years ago is, who do you listen to? Who are you following? We have no doubt from history,
even the history recorded in the scriptures, that by the time
the Apostle John came to that region 50 years after Paul had
written the letter to the Galatians, the majority, it seems, of the
people in those places who professed to be Christians would not stand
as one with the Apostle John. And from this distance you look
back and you are just horrified to think the people could be
so close, so close in proximity and so close in history. These
people had access to the apostles who met the Lord Jesus. They
had access to John, who was with him for that three and a half
years, who was with him, was the only apostle who witnessed
the death of the Lord Jesus. He was there, he saw the spear
plunged into his eye, he saw the blood and the water flowed
out. And what a remarkable thing that
these apostles needed to write to defend themselves and to defend
their testimony about who God is and how He saves sinners. It's a remarkable witness, isn't
it, to several things. It's a remarkable witness to
the depravity of the hearts of all Adam's children, to the depth
of their captivity to Satan, being led by Him. And also it's
a remarkable testimony to the grace of God in the lives of
His people, that He leads them into the truth and He guides
them into the truth. And of course the truth is Him. I want for the Lord's people,
when they leave our services, to have their eyes fixed on Him. I want for the Lord's people
to look to Him and find Him delightful. to find Him all in all." I want
for the Lord's people to have that peace, that peace that passes
understanding, but a peace that comes from God and not a peace
that comes from men, not a peace that comes out of the delusions
of this religious world or even the delusions of our heart. And
in Judges chapter 6, here we have the story of Gideon and
at the end of verse 24, verse 20, I'm sorry, he gives, Gideon
built an altar there unto the Lord and he called it Jehovah
Shalom. The Lord is our peace or the
Lord send peace. For Gideon was a man who came
to a place where he had peace with God. And for Gideon, his
peace with God is in the verse 23, isn't it? And the Lord said
unto him, Peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou shalt not die. The peace is to see God and not
die. That was the remarkable thing
about Paul on the road to Damascus. He saw God and did not die. Ever. Didn't die ever. Such is the blessing of all the
Lord's people. Gideon is famous for all of the
great victories that he had, but this morning I would just
like us to follow him on that journey to that place of peace. We might start reading in verse
1, and we don't have time to expound all these 24 verses.
I just want to touch on the highlights of it that might be helpful to
you and helpful to us in the mercy of the Lord. So I've entitled
this, The Journey to Peace. But as the Lord Jesus said, my
peace I give. My peace I give. He doesn't give
as the world gives peace. The world gives and what the
world gives you cannot take with you forever. But when the Lord
gives, He gives and it's never taken away. I love what Romans
11.29 says, it says, the gifts and the calling of God are without
repentance. They're irrevocable. When God
gives, the recipients receive the gift. And the gift, of course,
is Him. In chapter 6 we read, And the
children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the
LORD delivered them into the hand of the Midianites seven
years. And the hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel, and because of the Midianites the children of
Israel made themselves dens which are in the mountains and caves
and strongholds. And so when it was, when Israel
had sown that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites and
the children of the East, even they came up against them. And
they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the
earth till they had come unto Gaza and left no sustenance for
Israel, neither sheep nor ox. nor ass, for they came up with
their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers
for the multitude. For both they and their camels
were without number, and they entered into the land to destroy
it. And Israel was greatly impoverished
because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried
unto the Lord. The journey of the children of
Israel is so typical of the journey of God's people through this
world. The Midianites, remarkably, were cousins of them. They were
in fact, if you read in Genesis, you'll find that after Sarah
had died, Abraham married a lady called Keturah. and from she
and other women, Abraham had many other children. Ishmael
was not the only unelected son of Abraham. So these people were
cousins. Out of the family of Abraham
came both those who were God's chosen and those who were the
bitterest enemies to the children of God. In fact, it was the Midianites
who we led In the days of Balaam, if you read in Numbers 22, you'll
find that after Balaam was caused to curse Israel, he couldn't
curse Israel, all he could do was repeat the blessings of God
to Israel. Balaam is notorious in the scriptures
as a false prophet. But the way Balaam caused the
children of Israel to be led astray was for them to just be
encamped next to the Midianites and the Moabites. And then they
ended into idolatry. So the most dangerous things
are things that are close to us in so many ways, aren't they?
And the Midianites by the time of Numbers 31, the Midianites
had been almost utterly destroyed. They are a picture in some ways
of the sins that sort of oppress us and beset us, aren't they?
By Numbers 31 they had almost been wiped out under the command
of God. under the leadership of Moses.
And here we are in Judges 6, probably a mere 200 years later. And it's the Midianites who are
like grasshoppers for multitudes. And they're camels without number.
And Israel was greatly impoverished. Of course, Israel Israel's impoverishment,
in chapter 1, in verse 1, Israel's impoverishment is because of
their evil. And as we'll see later on, the
great evil of Israel, like the great evil of all of the sin
of God, is just simply unbelief. It's the root of it, is unbelief. Unbelief allows for men to go
in the most extraordinary directions. And Israel, verse 6, was greatly
impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried
unto the Lord. Seven years they were oppressed.
It took seven years for them to cry unto the Lord. And I love the Lord's response.
And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto
the Lord because of the Midianites. What does God do? when he's going
to bring peace, when he's going to raise up before the people
a deliverer, someone to deliver them out of the hand of all this,
he actually sends a prophet. And I love the fact that the
prophet doesn't have a name. So many of the Lord's prophets
will not be named before the people of this world. We don't
know who he is, we don't know anything of his background. He
wasn't obviously esteemed in much ways, but he was a prophet
sent of God. He sends the weak things of this
world, doesn't he? He sends those which are despised. And he sent a prophet unto the
children of Israel. And said unto them, see the prophets
always have the same message, don't they? The prophets of God. Thus saith the Lord God. See this is the authority of
the Lord's prophet, isn't it? They just speak God's words and
nothing more. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. And he just rehearses before
them what God's history with them had been. Thus says the
Lord God, I brought you up, just listen to the things that God
says he did, I brought you up from Egypt and I brought you
forth out of the house of bondage and I delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all that oppressed
you and drove them out from before you and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the
Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. See, God was there in judgment.
He says of the people of Israel, He says, My people are bent to
backsliding, Isaiah 11.7. I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods or the Amorites
into whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed My voice. So the Prophet comes. He just
rehearses their history. He just reminds them yet again
of the greatness of our God, that He is the God of Israel.
He is a God who has a particular people. He is a God who delivers
a particular people. He delivers them at a particular
time. He delivers them such that He
gets all the glory. He delivers them in such a way
that it's not the power of men that causes the delivery. He
is the Redeemer. He is the Rescuer. He alone,
He alone is the one who must redeem. He is the one alone who must
rescue his people. It's not a cooperative activity.
It is God in covenant mercy and love must come, must come to
earth. And he does come in verse 11,
and there came an angel of the Lord. and sat under an oak which
is in Ophrah." You see the angel of the Lord, look down to verse
14 just quickly. Who's the angel of the Lord? Who is the one mediator between
man and God? See the Lord looked on him, Jehovah
came. The angel of the Lord, the visitations
of the Lord to His people in the Old Testament are always
the visitation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all you will see
of God ever, and all you'll ever need to see of God. It was He
who walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day. The angel
came. What a glorious thing when God
himself comes. He's promised, hasn't he, to
come to his church where he gathers his people together to hear his
gospel. He promises to come. Let's listen
to what he does. And he sat under the oak tree,
which is in Ophira, that pertained under Joash the Abazite, Abazirite,
and his son Gideon. And where was Gideon? Gideon
thrashed wheat by the wine press. Now a wine press was just a great
big vat and you put the wine in and it was a stone either
hewn out or made of stones and you put the wine in and then
people, slaves and others just trod the wine and trod the wine
and it ran out and into another vessel and it was collected.
See wheat is normally thrashed out on a big open area, bigger
than this. Quite big areas, and the oxen
used to walk over it. It's a hardened piece of ground.
They still do it in India. And the oxen walk over it. In
fact, in India they leave the wheat and some other grains on
the road, and the trucks drive over them, and the cars drive
over them, and oxen and other things drive over them. And then
you can gather the wheat together and thrash it. And you try and
thrash it when it's a windy time and the wheat heavier falls and
the chaff is blown away. Here's Gideon in a time when
there was no wine in the wine press. There were no grapes to
be had, nothing to gladden the hearts of God's people. And Gideon
hiding, he was hiding his wheat, this little bit of wheat that
he had, hiding it from the Midianites. So many of the children of Israel,
they lived in dens and caves and they lived as an oppressed
people. oppressed in a sense in this
place because of their evil of unbelief. And the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him, and I love what he said to him. He said,
the Lord is with thee. What a remarkable thing. I love
the way, and I've spoken about it many times, but at the end,
of Matthew's Gospel as the Lord spoke to them. He says, All power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. He has all power over
everything. There's not a thing that's happening
outside of His control. He says, Go ye therefore and
teach your nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always. For God to come and say He's
with you is to say that He's with you always. He never, ever,
never, ever leaves nor forsakes His own. What a remarkable piece
of comfort. And then, here's this man, hiding
from the Midianites, living in a house of idolatry, as we see
a little bit later on in Judges 6 and 7, living in a land of
idolatry, living in a land of deep oppression. And what does
the Lord say to him at the end of verse 12? He says, The Lord
is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Isn't that remarkable? There he is, a coward, hiding
away, hiding in the mountains and the nooks and the crannies,
hiding now in a winepress, and the Lord describes him as a mighty
man of valour. Such is the Lord's description
of all of his people, isn't it? It's what the Lord describes
us as that matters. Not what the world says, and
it doesn't even matter what we think of ourselves. It's the
Lord's description of us. It's the Lord's naming of us
that matters. Mighty man of valour. And Gideon
said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then
is all this befallen us? You see, the mighty men of Valour,
like all of the God's prophets, if you read the prayers of Daniel
and read the prayers of Nehemiah, they always describe themselves
as an us. He wasn't separating himself
from the sins and the wickedness that had befallen them under
the justice of God. If the Lord be with us, then
why is all this befallen us? And where be all His miracles
which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. It might be seen As Gideon complaining
about the circumstances, it might also be Gideon acknowledging
the reality. He doesn't say that this has
happened outside of the absolute sovereignty of God. See the Lord at the end of that
verse, the Lord has delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And then verse 14, and Jehovah. Jehovah looked upon him. What
a glorious thing. For God who is of two purer eyes
than to behold iniquity looking. What a powerful thing the scriptures
reveal it is of the Lord looking upon His people. It says, when
Peter had sinned, the Lord looked upon him. I cannot help but believe
that it was a look of grace and a look of compassion and a look
of love. The Lord looked on him and he
said, Go in this thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the
hand of the Midianite. What is the might? What is the
might of this mighty man of valor who is hiding in a winepress? I have sent That's the strength
of God's servants in this world, to be used of Him for His glory
and the good of His people. God sends them. That's the strength. Go in this thy might. He receives
these promises, doesn't he? You shall save Israel from the
hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent thee? And he
said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Just look
at me. Here I am hiding in a winepress.
My family is the poor in Manasseh. Here we are, the poorest family
in Manasseh. And I am the least in my father's
house. There are a lot of others in
this father's house. Send them on the least. It's so easy for us, isn't it,
to be caught up in our thoughts about the flesh, isn't it? And
we say what a mighty, powerful speaker that person is and what
great intellect and wit and wisdom and what great powers of oratory
does he have. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord
doesn't look on the outside things ever. He looks at the heart. Gideon's a mighty man of valor,
despite what Gideon says of himself. What it is for us, isn't it?
I love what 1 Corinthians says, it says, for the preaching of
the cross, verse 18, is to them that perish foolishness. But
unto us which are saved, I love that description of God's people,
they are saved. They are all saved in one remarkable
event at the cross. They are all saved in eternity. But unto us which is saved, it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? And God's people love it that
way. For that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God. The world and all of us
figuring out and all of us working and all of us wonders and all
of its deeds, it knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men. and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren."
This is something that the Lord's people see and know, isn't it? That not many wise men are of
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world confound
the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world,
and the things which are despised, God has chosen, yea, the things
which are not, to bring to naught the things that are." And there's
a purpose in all of this. And we'll see it later on as
you read through the rest of that marvellous next couple of
chapters. You'll see that the purpose of
God choosing a Gideon out of a winepress, that no flesh, no
flesh ever should glory in His presence. No flesh will come
and boast and say, look what I have done, look at me and look
at all the works that I bring along with me. But of him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That word glory
is to boast. Let him boast. Let him boast
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Back to Judges 6. And the Lord
says it again, doesn't he? And the Lord said unto him, Surely
I will be with thee. And thou shalt smite the Midianites
as one man. And he said unto him, Now if
I have found grace in thy sight. He knew that that was an exact
description of Noah. That's where that phrase is used,
isn't it? What was the difference between Noah and the rest of
humanity? What was the difference in Noah
saving that eight people in that ark? He found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He wasn't more clever. He found
grace. Grace that humbles and grace
that causes the people to look to Him. If I have found grace
in thy sight then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. You
might say that this is in unbelief that Abraham did exactly the
same thing in Genesis 15 and God was pleased to reveal it. But the sign is glorious here
and I want to spend some time contemplating it. Now if I find
grace in thy sight show me a sign Show me a sign that you're with
me. Show me a sign that your promises are true. Show me a sign that you talk
with me. Depart not hence, I pray thee,
until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it
before thee. And he said, I will tarry until
thou come again. And Gideon went in and made ready
a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ether of flour, the flesh
he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot and brought
it out unto him under the oak and presented it. And the angel of the Lord said
unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes. and lay them upon this rock. Don't forget, it's a particular
rock that the Lord God Jehovah says to lay them on. 1 Corinthians
10 and many other places will describe the rock as the Lord
Jesus, the rock that followed them through their wilderness
journeys. The rock that was split that
Moses could hide and see the afterglow of the glory of God. And when Moses is talking about
the rocks that the other peoples had, he said to them, their rock
is not like our rock. Isn't that exactly what happens
when we speak about the Lord Jesus to people? They say, your
rock's not like our rock, and it's dead right. Their rock's
not like our rock at all. He put the broth in a pot and
brought it unto him under the oak and he presented it. And
the angel of the Lord said unto him, so the angel of the Lord
accepted this. He says, take the flesh and the
unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock and pour out the
broth. And he did so. And then we have
this remarkable instance, haven't we? Then the angel of the Lord
put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched
the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And there rose up, listen to
it brothers and sisters, there rose up fire out of the rock
and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. What a glorious
picture this is of the Lord's salvation. You see, you've got
to keep remembering, if the Lord allows, this is the journey to
peace of Gideon, and this is the journey to peace of all of
the Lord's people. We don't have to be geniuses
to see that the staff in the hand of Jehovah is like the staff
that Moses had. It's a staff of judgment, isn't
it? And the staff of judgment falls
upon the flesh and the unleavened cakes. and there rose up out
of the rock a fire, the Conscendum. What a glorious picture we have
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The judgment of God fell upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Fire came up out of the rock. and consumed that. What a glorious thing it is to
contemplate what our Redeemer went through under the judgement
of God. You see the essence of the picture
of course isn't it, is that God must do something with God before
he can do something with you. God must appease God. And that's the glory of the Incarnation. That's the glory of the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ that God's children boast in. One of the wonderful things about
this offering of Gideon's is that in the book of Leviticus
when you read about peace offerings, they're actually an offering
that's consumed in communion. It's a picture of our union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. In the peace offerings, both
God and the people commune together. And because of God accepting
that sacrifice, that sacrifice that comes from the judgment
of God, that comes out of the rock that is touched, that fire
comes out of that rock. The Lord Jesus Christ took the
fire of God, the intense holy wrath of God upon himself and
he consumed the fire and it will never ever fall upon God's people
and the smoke of it goes up to heaven, acceptable to God, acceptable
to God. And then the angel of the Lord
departed out of his sight. And Gideon, verse 22, perceived
that he was an angel of the Lord. Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God,
because I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, Gideon feared, you might remember
later on in Manasseh, I mean in the story of the birth of
Samson. I'm trying to find it now, I've
been reading it a lot and now I can't find it. With Manoah, with Manoah and
his wife. Manoah made an offering, it's
in chapter 13, verse 15. Manoah said unto the angel of
the Lord, I pray thee let us disdain him until we have made
ready a kid. He makes an offering in similar way and Manoah asks
the name of the Lord. And Manoah took a kid, verse
19, and he offered it upon a rock unto the Lord. And the angel
did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. For it came
to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the
altar, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of
the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked
on it and fell on their faces on the ground. But the angel
of the Lord did no more appear to Manoah and his wife. Manoah
knew that he was an angel of the Lord, and Manoah said unto
his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. Which is what Moses said, isn't
it? You won't see the face of God and live unless you see the
face of God in a mediator and a sacrifice that's acceptable
to God. So Gideon thought that now that
he knew that he had seen God, he was going to die. The God
of the Scriptures is infinitely more holy and infinitely more
awe-inspiring than our puny flesh can possibly imagine, and especially
what this puny religious world makes of Him. He is, our God,
a consuming fire. He is infinitely holy. And the Lord's words to Gideon
After the sacrifice is made, after the offering is accepted,
after God has done what God alone can do, after fire has come from
the rock, the Lord said unto him these glorious words, peace
be unto thee, peace be unto thee, fear not Thou shalt not die." Such is the glorious peace, that
peace that passes understanding, that peace that God alone can
bring to his people. It's a peace that He alone can
give. It's a peace that is His to give
and His to sustain. It's a peace that comes when
Gideon, like all of the Lord's people, had been exposed before
God for what they are. It's a peace that comes when
God's sacrifice is made. and God's sacrifice is acceptable. It's the peace that can only
come from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is deeply troubling, isn't
it, to think that so many people we meet can have their supposed
peace and their supposed religious peace taken away from them by
people wanting just to bear witness to who the Lord Jesus Christ
is in His covenant love and His covenant mercy. It is God who
must seek out, and it is God, as he's done to Gideon and did
to Manoah, it's God who must come. It's God who must come
and bring peace. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto the Lord, and he called the altar Jehovah Shalom. And if it was Samuel who was
writing this, it's there until Samuel's day. was there unto
this day, yet in Ophrah of the Abbey of Isaac. And now Gideon, now Gideon who
has peace with God. is set on the journey and we'll
see, we don't have time to look at it, we'll see Gideon's first
activity is to take the oxen that his father had that they
were sacrificing to Baal and sacrifice it upon a rock and
to destroy both the temple, the pillar of Baal and the grove
of Baal around about. God's judgment begins with the
household of God. You see, the problem for the
Israelites, and it's a problem for us, is not the surrounding
Midianites. The problem is unbelief, again
and again and again, and it's laid out before the scriptures
in great clarity. And we see, as you know, and
go on through Gideon, you'll find that the Lord's people prevail. They prevail in a way where God
gets all of the glory. Gideon, having destroyed his
father's idols, having been, as it were, cast out and become
an enemy to those people, he then gathers that great army
and then God whittles that army down to 300 men. And then those 300 men go into
battle against this horde of Midianites. And what do they
go into battle with? How do they prevail against the
Midianites? You see, they take a trumpet,
they take a light, and they take an earthen vessel. One thing
that you can't do when you're carrying all those things in
the dead of night, brothers and sisters, is take a whole bunch
of weapons of war. See, our weapons aren't karma. Our weapons are spiritual. The trumpet, of course, is the
Gospel. God's people go into battle proclaiming
the Gospel. Those who proclaim the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ have the very light of God, the very
truth of God, the very revelation of God in an earthen vessel. And then the light does its work
when the earthen vessel is broken. and the victories all to do with
God and nothing to do with Gideon. Peace. Peace with God. What would you give to go home
and have peace with God? Peace in His presence, peace
in the knowledge of Him, peace that causes you to know that
He is with you, to know that He speaks to you. to know that
He guides and directs you. You, like Gideon, will be brought
to a place where you are made to be weak, and then you'll be
strong. What peace the Lord Jesus gives. What would it be like to lie
down on your pillow tonight? Some questions I think Henry
Mayon asked some years ago. to go home and know that your
sins are completely forgiven forever. And God remembers them
no more. He's laid them on his son. The
rod of God's justice, that fire of the rock, has consumed them
forever. They don't exist. in God's memory,
brothers and sisters. I can rest on a pillow like that.
That God is not angry with you. That you are completely reconciled
to God. That not only is He not angry
with you, that He looks upon you with a delight that He can
hardly contain. He always has and He always will,
because you're one with His Son. To be loved as His Son is loved. What would it be? To know that
you have a new nature, that this awesome, holy God lives in you
by His Spirit. that he's taken up residence
with him. That's what it means for him
to say, I will be with you. As Isaiah 3 says, he says, say
unto the righteous, it is well with you. Well in every circumstance
of your life, every circumstance that's ever been, it is well
with the righteous. Well now, it is well with the
righteous on the day of judgment, because they had nothing in their
hands to bring, simply to the cross they cling. It's going
to be well with the righteous into eternity. Say unto the righteous,
Not because they're righteous in anything, as I've been saying
so often, there is only one righteousness that God has ever acknowledged
or ever will acknowledge and that's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the robe that he robes his
people with. Peace. What would it be to know
that on the Day of Judgment you will have peace with God and
that death is going to be the greatest blessing. In death the
Lord's people no longer have the Midianite boards of the sin
of our flesh assailing us. The Midianites of this world
assailing us. that death will be a great release
and a remarkable blessing. We'll see him as he is. To know the peace of God that
passes understanding. To know that your greatest trouble
is past. The greatest trouble that you
could ever have in this world is past. Your guilt and your
sin is removed and taken away. To know that your greatest enemy
has been defeated. Satan has been defeated by the
Lord Jesus Christ and that your God reigns. That's what Gideon
came to see, didn't he? That he can stand in the presence
of the holy, infinite, immortal, immutable, unchangeable, glorious
God and know that He has made promises
and He'll keep every single one of those promises. There is the
Prince of Peace. He is called the Lord Jesus,
the Prince of Peace. And I love that the Holy Spirit
is called the Comforter of God's people. I need comfort. You need comfort. We, like Gideon,
spend so much of our time hiding in a winepress. So much of our
time with so many issues that are around us and surround us
and assault us. I love the fact that my dog reigns. He reigns over all those things. I love the fact that in this
world to travel in any way of peace and safety I need wisdom
and I have none of my own but to have the very wisdom of God,
to have Him as my sanctification, to know that His sacrifice is
accepted. There is remarkable description of the blessing of
the Lord's people, and as is often the case in the scriptures,
it comes from the mouth of someone who's an unbeliever. You don't
have to turn there, but when Jacob was leaving, when Israel
was leaving Laban, Laban, his father-in-law, he wants him to stay. He wants
him to stay. But he says, for I have learned
by experience that the Lord has blessed me for thy sake. So that was the altar that Gideon
put up, wasn't it? That we have learned, like Laban,
by experience, that the Lord has blessed us for Jesus Christ's
sake, for the sake of His Son, and for the glory of His Son.