Judges chapter 6. A sinner is only fit to serve
God when he knows that all his strength is Christ alone. And the only way a sinner will
look to Christ for all his strength is whenever God makes him to
know that He has none. He's absolutely insufficient
in wisdom and in power. He has no strength. Now that's
what the Lord taught Gideon, and I pray that's what the Lord
will teach us. Let's read this together. Verse 11, And there
came an angel of the Lord, and sat upon an oak, which was in
Aphra, that pertained unto Joas the Absarite, And his son Gideon
threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee." We're going
to see Gideon's wisdom wouldn't let him believe that. He needed
new wisdom. And the Lord said, Thou mighty
man of valor, And we're going to see that Gideon was made to
see he had no strength, no might in himself in that regard either. And Gideon said unto him, now
this is answering that first question when the Lord said the
Lord is with thee. This was Gideon's wisdom right
here. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with
us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all His mercies
which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And
the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and
thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have
not I sent thee? That's our title. That's another
question the Lord asked the sinner. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord,
wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. That was
Gideon's answer regarding his own strength, regarding him being
a mighty man of valor. He said, Wherewith shall I save
Israel? I hold my family's poor in Manasseh, and I'm the least
in my father's house. And the Lord said unto him, Surely
I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as
one man. Now there's two things that hinder
you and I who believe. This was a hindrance to us prior
to God giving us faith, and it's a hindrance to those who now
have faith. Number one, we tend to look to
our vain useless wisdom rather than Christ our wisdom. And number
two, we look to our vain lack of strength rather than to Christ
our strength. Christ alone is the wisdom and
the power of God. And he's the wisdom and power
of God for God's people. So, we don't have any might in
wisdom. We need to be made to see Christ
as our wisdom. And we don't have any might in
strength and ability. We need to be made to see Christ
as our strength and power. These two things. Now what we're
going to see here tonight is only when the Lord purges us
of all self-sufficiency Will we trust the Lord, Jesus Christ,
for all? We have to be purged of all our
self-sufficiency in both wisdom and strength before we'll behold
Christ is the power and wisdom of God and before we'll believe
Him, before we'll be used to serve Him. Now, first of all,
we have to have our conscience purged from our vain wisdom To
behold Christ is our wisdom. For Him to be made wisdom unto
us. That's what we need. Now we see
our ignorance here in Gideon's vain understanding. In verse
12, it says, The angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said
unto him, The Lord is with thee. Now, the angel of the Lord again.
Anytime you see the angel of the Lord, it's capital L-O-R-D. It means the angel of Jehovah. And the angel of the Lord is
Christ. It's a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. Christ the Lord. Now, he appeared
here to Gideon. And he said to Gideon, the Lord
is with thee. The Lord is with thee. This first
statement he makes, we're going to see, has to do with Gideon's
vain wisdom. He got to be corrected, turned
from his vain wisdom. The second statement he says
is, he calls him a mighty man of valor. And he's going to have
to be made to see that that might's not in him. It's not in Gideon,
it's in Christ. But right now we're dealing with
wisdom. He says, now the Lord is with thee. Now, get the picture
here, literally, Literally, and it's just as so literally with
you and I who believe, but literally the Lord stood there with him. The Lord stood there with Gideon.
The Lord was right there, right then, with Gideon. And he said,
the Lord is with thee. That meant going forward, the
Lord is with thee, and it meant right here, right now, the Lord
is with thee, Gideon. And we all hear this gospel going
forth. This is the good news we hear
going forth for believers. The Lord is with thee. The Lord
is with thee. And that's what it declares.
Now, is Christ our wisdom so that we believe the Lord is with
us? Or do we look to our understanding
of things and say, well, no, the Lord is not with me. Gideon
looked to his own understanding. And that own understanding was
not based on faith. That understanding was by his
carnal sight. That's where our vain wisdom
comes from. It's our carnal sight. And so
this is what he answered. He couldn't believe the Lord
was with him. This is what he answered, verse 13. Gideon said
unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this
befalling us? Where be all His miracles which
our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up
from Egypt? Where's the miracles? But now the Lord hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Now
the Lord had allowed the Midianites to ravage the land of Israel. He really had. They came in like
grasshoppers, the text says. And the children of Israel were
hidden in the mountains and caves and in strongholds. They were
just anywhere they could find a hiding place, that's where
they were. And they were impoverished. They destroyed all their crops.
They destroyed all their cattle. Israel was impoverished. That's
why Gideon is behind this winepress hiding, threshing a little bit
of wheat and keeping that hidden from the Midianites. because
they were just ravaged by the Midianites. So by natural sight,
leaning to his own understanding, he couldn't understand that Christ
had come to him and Christ was standing there with him. He couldn't
understand that. In his vain understanding, all
he could do was deny the truth. The Lord said, I'm with you.
And all he could say was, if the Lord's with us, why has all
this happened to us? The Lord said, I'm with you.
He said, if the Lord's with us, where's the miracles? We've heard
our fathers talk about them. Where are they? The Lord said,
I'm with you. But because he was looking with
carnal eyes and leaning to his own understanding, all he could
say is, no, the Lord's forsaken us. He's saying that to the Lord. Now, how many times have you
heard sinners deny the gospel of God's covenant grace in Christ
using the wars and the evil deeds done by sinners and all this
evil. How many times have you heard
them use those things to justify why they don't believe the sovereign
grace of God? You've heard that. Well, if God
was a covenant God and God of grace, why does He allow all
this to happen? That's essentially what Gideon
was saying. Well, everything the Lord did
to the children of Israel. I want you to listen to this.
Have you ever thought, anybody here, maybe somebody here that
doesn't yet believe on the Lord, have you ever thought, if God's
sovereign and God operates under covenant grace and saves His
people by grace, if He's with His people, why then is there
so much of these wars and this pestilence and these evil things
that happen in the world? Why are all these things going
on? You know why the Lord allowed that to happen in Israel? Because
they sinned against God, breaking the covenant of works. They were
under a covenant of works, and they broke it. And God sent the
enemy in there, in judgment. In judgment. Look back at verse
1. 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. You see, Man sinned against God
in the garden. That's why God turned us, pronounced
a curse upon us. We sinned against God in the
garden. We broke a covenant of works in the garden and all men
broke it in the garden. Israel broke a covenant of works
and sinned against God and that's why God did this. And sinners
today, when you behold the judgment of God in this earth, bringing
wars, one nation against another nation, all that's under God's
sovereign hand. When you see Him permitting this
evil to come to pass or that evil to come to pass, it's because
sinners have sinned against God in Adam. And we've sinned against
God willfully in our rebellion against Him. Rebels have broken
God's covenant of works. And this is God's judgment. And
it's just. God does nothing that's not just.
It's just. It's just. But I'll tell you
this, and this is the truth of the whole matter, what you see
happening in this earth right now is nothing compared to what's
to come. You know, the Scripture says
for the believer, the Holy Spirit's the earnest. The Holy Spirit's
a foretaste. We're getting a foretaste of
what heaven and all heaven's glories will be. Well, the same
is true for the rebel. When the rebel looks at the judgment
God's pouring out on the earth, and you see the evil that men
commit in the earth, and God permits it to happen, that's
just a foretaste of what hell's going to be for the rebel. But
it's going to be a lot worse and it's going to be just. It
will be just. So yes, God did bring all that
to pass. But in the midst of Israel, in
the midst of that nation, God had an elect people that He chose
and that He put in Christ before the foundation of the world.
That's why God didn't destroy the world when Adam sinned in
the garden. He had an elect people that He put in Christ. That's
why God didn't destroy Israel at that time. He had an elect
people there. That's why God's not destroyed
this world today. He has an elect people. And for
that elect people, He's going to save them. Now, that elect
people were chosen by God's free, sovereign grace. That means there
wasn't anything in us good or evil. Grace. Grace. God chose His people by
grace. And He put His people in Christ,
and Christ entered covenant and became the surety of His people.
So God never looked to His people. He's always looked to Christ,
our surety. And Christ is the righteousness
of His people. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. God's always looked to Him and
looked to that sacrifice and looked to that triumphant redemption
He would accomplish for His people. And so God's always viewed His
people in Christ our righteousness. And therefore, because it's by
grace, because Christ is our surety, that everlasting covenant
will never change. It never changes. Yes, God had
brought judgment on Israel. Yes, God had allowed this to
go on for seven years. Yes, a lot of things had happened.
Gideon was suffering from it too. He was suffering the effects
of this judgment. But God was going to save Gideon,
and he was going to save all his elect in there, and have
mercy on them, because that grace towards them never changes. Even
though it may appear like it has by the judgment that goes
on in the world, it's never changed towards his people. The Lord
is with thee, he says to his people. That's just what he said
to Gideon, and that's so. Now, here's the sad thing. Well,
believers, this is the sad thing. We tell our unbelieving children
these things about what's going on in the world, and you're looking
at things with carnal sight, and you're seeing things in a
carnal way, but you need to understand these things in light of the
Scriptures, in light of what God says, in light of God's covenant
grace towards His people. Sadly, brethren, knowing this
is so, knowing God's covenant never changes, How often are
you and I frozen in our tracks from serving God because of what
we see? Because it doesn't appear to
our wisdom and our understanding like God's in this or like the
Lord's with us in this or that. Looking by Carl Sikes. So we
become frozen. We become frozen. What we're
going to see in Gideon is true of us. Our ignorance is just
an opportunity God to show us Christ is our wisdom. That's
all our ignorance is. We don't understand providence
a lot of times when we look at what God's doing. We don't understand
it. We think, well, God's not with us. That's just an opportunity
for God to show you and I once again Christ is our wisdom. The
way you think it is, that ain't how it is. So, in the first hour of grace,
God has to purge our conscience. He has to turn us from our vain
wisdom to Christ, make Christ our wisdom. And God has to keep
doing this all our days to keep us looking to Christ our wisdom
instead of to our vain wisdom. Gideon's might, first of all.
He talks here about his might. Gideon's might, his strength,
first of all, was the might of wisdom. The might of his wisdom. was not to look to his own understanding. There was no might there. You
see what his might was. Sitting there right to the Lord
saying, no, no, no. The Lord's not with us. The might
of his wisdom was Christ. And he's going to show him that.
Now look at this, verse 14. And the Lord looked upon him
and said, Go in this thy might. Now look at the last part of
that phrase. Have not I sent thee? The Lord looked upon him. Now,
there's life in a look. There is salvation in a look
to Christ. If you look to Christ, that means
you're not doing anything. You're not trying to earn salvation. You're not trying to merit salvation.
You're not looking anywhere but to Christ. There is salvation
in a look. Those serpents were biting them
in the wilderness, and the Lord said, you make a brazen serpent
and hold it up. The Lord said, even so must the
Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up that whosoever looks to Him.
shall not perish, but shall be saved." They looked to that serpent,
that one lifted up, that very thing that had been biting them.
They looked to that and they lived. We look to Christ who
has made sin for us, made the thing that was biting us and
killing us. We look to Him and trust He's the satisfaction to
God. And there's salvation in the
look. But before you'll ever look to Christ, He's going to
have to look to you. For we'll ever look to Him, He's going
to have to look to us in power. Gideon was looking upon the world,
he was looking upon the troubles, he was looking upon his enemies.
And that's where his wisdom was based on, what he saw. And the
Lord looked upon Gideon and He turned him from his ignorance
and made him look upon the Lord, his wisdom. This was just not
him looking. Remember what happened with Peter
when Peter denied the Lord the third time and the cock crowed
and the Lord looked at Peter? Peter went out, convicted in
his heart. That was power in that look.
There was power in this look right here. Gideon said, the
Lord has forsaken us. And the Lord made Gideon look
him in the face and behold, the Lord is right here, right now.
He hasn't forsaken you. right here, right now. I picture Gideon back there behind
his winepress. I picture him back there threshing
his wheat. The Lord comes to him standing there saying, The
Lord is with thee. Gideon is looking out over the land. He
is looking at all the crops that are destroyed. He is looking
at how there is nobody in sight because everybody is hiding and
the enemy has prevailed over them. And he is looking at that
and he has not even looked at the Lord. And he is saying, No,
no, the Lord has forsaken us. And the Lord takes him and looks
at him, and turns him to look the Lord right in the face. And
the Lord says, I'm standing right here. I'm standing right here. I ain't left you. And the Lord
said, the Lord makes Himself wisdom to us by speaking effectually
into our heart. The Lord spoke here. When it
says the Holy Spirit purges our conscience, We've got to have
our conscience washed. We've got to be washed in the
blood of Christ. We've got to be made to behold
Christ our wisdom. He's got to be made wisdom to
us. So that all that we call wisdom
just turns to us into nothing but just blatant ignorance. So
that we don't trust anybody but Christ. He's going to do that
by speaking to you. I pray He speak to you now. I
pray that He says this to somebody now. And here's our wisdom. He said, Go in this thy might,
have not I sent thee. He says, Gideon, here's the might
of your wisdom right here. Here's where true wisdom is.
I'm right here. I'm speaking to you and I'm the
one sending you. Now you know how it really is. Now you've got wisdom to understand
how it really is. Did you get that? Christ made
Himself wisdom to him, turned him from his ignorance. To those
that are called, Scripture says, Christ is first made to us wisdom. He made power too. We're going
to see that in the second point. But He's first made wisdom to
us. Our conscience has got to be
purged from our vain thoughts and our vain way and our vain
imagination, which is all our vain wisdom. And Christ has got
to be made wisdom unto us. That's the only time we'll look
to Him and trust Him, even though our carnal reason might say otherwise. Turn over to Proverbs 3. And
while you're turning there, I want to read something to you. I came
across this just before I came here tonight. Let me read this
to you from Hebrews 11. It says, he'd been talking about all these
things done through faith. And he says, he said, and he said, and what
can I say more? The time would fail me to tell
you about Gideon And he lists some other people, but he's talking
about Gideon. And then he tells what these people did through
faith. And one of the things he says is, through faith they
subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, they obtained
promises, they stopped the mouths of lions, they quenched the violence
of fire, they escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness
they were made strong. out of weakness. You see, out
of that weakness of his wisdom, by Christ making himself wisdom
to Gideon, Gideon was made strong in wisdom. And this was through
faith, through trust in Christ. Now listen to what the Lord says
to me and you. Proverbs 3.3. Let not mercy and truth forsake
you. Hold on to what you've heard
in the Gospel. with everything you can. I mean,
it's going to forsake you by this world coming in, by you
looking at things with the carnal eye, looking at the enemy like
Gideon was doing. That's how this mercy and truth is going
to forsake you. Now watch this. Bind them about your neck. That means, lock it around your neck. Look
at this. Write them upon the table of
your heart. So shalt thou find favor and
good understanding." You'll find good understanding in the sight
of God and man. When am I going to find good
understanding in God's sight? When Christ is my wisdom. And
I got it so bound around my neck and so written on my heart, I
can't be turned, even though it looks like the Lord's forsaken
me. I'm going to believe Him. I'm going to trust Him. Contrary
to what it appears. Here's what He's saying. Trust
in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy path." You think Christ is not wise
enough to direct our path? Sure He is. Sure He is. Lean to Him with all your understanding. All of it. All right. Secondly,
now let's hurry. When Christ has made our wisdom,
That's when we're also made to know Christ is our power. He's
our strength. Now, back in Judges 6, when Christ
appeared to him, he first called Gideon mighty. Judges 6 and verse
12 says, The angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto
him, The Lord is with thee. Now that, we saw Gideon's wisdom
regarding that. It was foolish. Now, the Lord
made this statement too. He said, Thou mighty man of valor. And then the Lord told him he'd
save Israel. He told Gideon, Gideon was going
to be a vessel used to save Israel. Look at verse 14. The Lord looked
upon him and he said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save
Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? Now, Gideon
now has some understanding. When Christ has made you wisdom,
that's when you're going to have some understanding of your inability.
And now Gideon's got some understanding of his inabilities. He sees now
how foolish he was to think what he thought about Christ being
with him. And so now he says this, verse
15, He said unto him, O my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel?
Wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. My family
is poor in Manasseh." Manasseh, we're going to see this coming
up. This was one of Joseph's sons
born in Egypt. And he was, Manasseh was a very
small tribe and a very poor tribe among the tribes of Israel. He
was poor. Small and poor. Well, he says,
in that midst of that poor tribe, he says, my family is the poorest
family. My father's house in that tribe
is the poorest house in the whole tribe. And look, I'm the least
in my father's house. Now that's poor. You're in a
poor tribe and your father's family is the poorest in the
tribe. And of all your father's children, you're the poorest
of them. That puts you on the very bottom. You're the least
of the least. When a man's brought there to
see he's the least of the least, he's in a mighty good place to
be. Mighty good place to be. Because when you and I have some
strength, we think we got some strength to do anything, we're
not going to get anything done. Not at all. You know, we have
a tendency to look at things and say, we can't do that. We
can't do that. I mean, that's just beyond our
power, any ability we have. There's no way we're going to
be able to accomplish that. I wish we really believed that.
Because if we did, we'd be in a good spot. Because it's not impossible with
God. Look here. Christ was made to be the might
of His power and His strength. Verse 16, And the Lord said unto
him, Surely I will be with thee. And because that's the case,
thou shalt smite the Midianites, all that big host of Midianites,
all that people that the Scripture says they're like grasshoppers,
there's so many of them. He said, you're going to smite
them just like they were just one man. Just like they were
just one man. The Midianites were the enemies
of the children of Israel, that's what they were. And they stand
here as a picture of all our enemies, brethren, of all our
enemies. The law is holy and just and
good. But because of our sin and our
rebellion, the law was our enemy at one time. How did we satisfy
the law? How did we honor the law? How
did we magnify the law? What was our might and our strength
to accomplish that insurmountable obstacle? Christ came and fulfilled
it in every jot and tittle for His people. He's the righteousness
of the law for His people. What about our sin nature? Our
sin nature was an enemy. We couldn't conquer it. We still can't conquer it. We
couldn't give ourselves spiritual life. We couldn't give ourselves
faith and repentance. And we still can't do it. If
we're left to ourselves and our strength, our vain wisdom and
our vain strength is nothing. It's no match against our sinful
flesh. Christ entered in and Christ
in you is the hope of glory because it is by His strength that our
old man is subdued. It is by His strength that we
have faith to look to Him. It is by His strength we have
faith to persevere in Him. Because whatever He started,
He is going to finish it. What about all our enemies we
face in daily life? What about the literal Midianites
we got to face? In this flesh and in this world?
What about Satan? What about death? What about
the grave? Just like the strength in all
this other is Christ. Christ is our strength. He said,
He that had begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. He will finish this work of saving
all His people and He will not lose one. He will bring us to
Himself. And the way it's going to be
accomplished is Christ. He's the strength. You know what
you and I have seen here? We've had some rich folks come
through this, come through this, these doors. Some have, some,
may have stayed, but most of them have gone. But you know
what the Lord's used them to show us? The strength of this
house is not the financial ability of any one house here. The strength
of this house is Christ. He's the one sustaining it, and
He's the one that'll keep it. That's what we learn. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? He's justified us. He's done all this for us. Who
could separate us from Him? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
That just about covers all our enemies, don't it? As it's written,
we're killed all the day long. We're accounted as sheep for
the slaughter and left to ourselves. Are we any more powerful than
a sheep? What kind of defense does a sheep
have? In themselves they have none,
but if they got a good shepherd, they're the safest animal there
is. Because that shepherd's going to stand between them and the
wolf. That shepherd's going to feed them, that shepherd's going
to lead them in green pasture, that shepherd's going to bring
them by the still water where it's nice and calm and quiet
and they can drink long still waters or deep waters. That's
Christ our shepherd. And with Christ as our shepherd,
we're protected. In all these things, we're more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. More than conquerors. It's His power and His wisdom. Now, Gideon wanted to know this
was all by grace. I don't have time to go into
it all now. I'll just sum it up to you. You can read it at
your leisure. But Gideon wanted to know this was all by grace.
Because Gideon, like you and me, he knew something about himself
now. He knew that I've seen now what my wisdom is. I've seen
what my strength is. He said, Lord, I want some sign
that shows me that I've found grace in your sight. That's like
you and me wanting that everlasting covenant. I want to know by an
everlasting covenant this thing is sure and certain and all of
grace so that when I mess up, you're not going to change your
mind. How do I know that's so? The Lord said to him, He said,
let me bring you a sacrifice. He said, go get it, bring it.
Everything about that sacrifice pictured Christ. Everything about
it. It was a kid. It was a lamb. It was flesh. The Son of God was made flesh.
It was with unleavened bread. Christ is the sinless Savior.
And when He brought it to Him, the Lord said, Now put it on
a rock. Christ is our rock. And He put His staff to it and
when He did, fire consumed that sacrifice and it went up to the
Lord. Let me tell you something, because Christ, the Lamb of God,
went to Calvary for His people and laid down His life for His
people. And He consumed the fire of God's justice for us. He consumed
that fire. Now, through faith, both we and
everything we do, all our feeble little service that's mixed with
all kinds of sin, it all comes up to God. accepted in Christ
Jesus our Lord because He has satisfied justice and is the
righteousness of God for us. And whenever He showed him this,
it's the same as Him making this covenant with you. When He's
made Himself wisdom and power to you, He makes this everlasting
covenant with you and says, because I've satisfied justice for you,
this will never change. It'll never change. And the next
thing says, Gideon found peace with God. And He calls the name
of that place Jehovah Shalom. The Lord is peace. He's my peace. He's my peace. Now I want to end with asking
you this question. No, I want to end with the Lord's
question. Everybody here, whether you profess
to believe Him or you don't, I want to ask you this. Can you
say this? Can you answer this? The Lord said, Have not I sent
thee? What do you say to that? The Lord is not going to send
anybody. He is not going to use anybody to at least empty us
of all self-sufficiency. Our wisdom has got to be emptied
and our strength has got to be emptied. We have got to be made
to see. We have got no wisdom and no strength in ourselves.
Christ has got to be all. All. All power, all wisdom, all
righteousness, all sanctification, redemption. He is all to His
people. If you can say, Christ is my
all. He is all. I have no sufficiency
in myself whatsoever. If you can say that from a true
heart, you can answer the Lord. Yes Lord, you have sent me. And I'll trust in your wisdom
and I'll trust in your strength. That alone. I'll tell you what you'll find.
You'll find an everlasting covenant of grace that will never be altered
and never be changed, but is sure. And when you find out that
it's all by cause of Christ, you'll find peace with God. Jehovah
Shalom. You see, when I'm weak, that's
when I'm strong. When I'm weak, that's when I'm
strong. Discouragement should be our greatest encouragement. Do you ever get discouraged?
I get discouraged. I think sometimes... I won't
tell you what I think. I don't want to discourage you.
But discouragement ought to be our greatest encouragement. When
I am so weak that I don't have any ability, I can't by my wisdom
figure this thing out. I don't know what's going to
happen. I don't understand it. But all I know is Christ is my
wisdom and my strength. That's all I can say. When you're
there, you're strong. When Christ is all your strength,
you're strong. You're strong. That's when you
can rejoice and you can say, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. If we ever look at anything and
we say, now we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. It won't
be long, we're going to find out. No, you can't. But when
you look at it and say, I can't do that. Christ can, but I can't. You're in a good place. That's
a strong place to be. I pray the Lord will bless it.