Continuing our study of Judges,
turn with me to chapter 9 tonight, if you would please. Last week
we finished looking at the narrative, the history of Gideon. Gideon
left behind 70 sons with his many wives. In verse 31 of the previous chapter,
We're told about one specific concubine who bore Gideon a son
and, well, it's not verse 31 anyway,
it says, and his concubine that was in Shechem, she was a Canaanite
woman, she also bear him a son whose name was Abimelech. Last
time we touched on the fact that the name Abimelech means my father
is king. And I would have you notice tonight
that Abimelech is a picture of the false gospel. He pictures
false religion, man-made salvation. He's a picture of what man does
for himself. After Gideon died, the position
that Jehovah alone was the ruler of his people was once again
forgotten and set aside by Israel. That's what the book of Judges
has shown us time and time again. Let's remind ourselves once again
that Israel would fall into idolatry. They would worship false gods.
They would cry unto the Lord. The Lord would send them a judge.
The judge would deliver them. The judge would die. And then
again, they'd fall right back into idolatry. What a picture
of man's depravity. And what a picture of you and
I by nature. Israel's real desire was to have
a king to rule over them, not God, who is the king of kings
and the Lord of lords. And Abimelech considered himself
to be the man for the job, as we'll see. You know, even if
Gideon had accepted Israel's offer to be king, which he didn't,
remember what he said? He said, I'm not gonna be your
king, and my son's not gonna be your king. He said, the Lord
is your king. and the Lord was their king.
But even if Gideon had accepted Israel's offer to be king, Abimelech
would have been the last on the list to succeed him since Gideon
had 70 sons by as many wives that were ahead of him. But Abimelech
pictures those who desire to reign in their own lives, to
be their own god, their own ruler. You know, that's part of the
curse, isn't it? Men desire to be their own God, provide their
own salvation, determine their own destiny, provide their own
redemption. Sound familiar? That's a desire
of all in false religion today. What a picture of man's nature
we see in Abimelech. Natural man's inquiry has always
been, anytime the gospel is preached, and the scriptures, man's inquiry
has always been, his question has always been, what must I
do to be saved? It's inbred in us by nature to
want to do something to earn salvation. That rich young ruler,
he took it a step further. And he said, what good thing
must I do to be saved? It's all about, man by nature
is all about doing something good. Something that would appease
God. Only one problem with that. There's
none that do it good. Not a single one. So we see that
Judges chapter nine here opens with Abimelech, the illegitimate
son of Gideon by his concubine feeling an entitlement to be
king. Abimelech's mother is a concubine,
not a true wife, not a true bride. She's not of the true church,
the bride of Christ. She's a counterfeit wife, if
I may use that language. She's a mistress, one loved only
by the flesh and by the world. And Abimelech pictures all that
which is false. She gives birth to Abimelech,
who's an enemy of his own father, Gideon. God's chosen judge, who,
as we've said, is a picture and type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here in Judges 9, verse 1, we read, Jerubabbel went to Shechem unto
his mother's brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family
of the house of his mother's father, saying, Speak, I pray
you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, whether it is better
for you, either that all the sons of Jerubabbel, which are
threescore and ten persons, seventy, reign over you, or that one reign
over you. Remember also that I am your
bone and your flesh. and his mother's brethren spake
of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem." All these words,
and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said,
He is our brother. And they gave him threescore
and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith,
wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons which followed
him. And he went into his father's
house at Orphra, and slew his brethren, the sons of Jerubabbel,
being threescore and ten persons upon one stone, notwithstanding
yet Jotham, The youngest son of Jeroboam was left, and notice
those last words of verse five, for he hid himself. And all the
men of Shechem gathered together in all the house of Melo and
went and made Abimelech king by the plane of the pillar that
was in Shechem. So we see here that Abimelech
murders the 70 sons of Jeroboam, Gideon, And that name Jerubabel
means the enemy of Baal. Just as the Lord hates all man-made
gods and idols, and will not share His glory with another,
so do all God's people. And the number 70, as you know
the number 7 is a number of completion, the number 70 is clearly here
a picture of the church, and only the true church is complete. Only the true church is whole
and perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I found in this study
and studying these verses that there are many pictures and parallels
here in Judges chapter 9. So Bimelech goes to his hometown
Shechem, which is a Canaanite city. And he goes to his mother,
who's a Canaanite woman, and whose father was a Canaanite,
the enemies of God. And Abimelech, whose father Gideon
was an Israelite, he establishes a meeting with his Canaanite
relatives in order to recruit them and ask them for help. And being from Shechem, Abimelech
hopes to get support of his hometown in pursuit to be king. You know,
in most presidential elections, usually every candidate that's
running always wins the majority of votes in his hometown. And
this is what Abimelech is counting on. So Abimelech gathers support
for becoming king by swaying the leaders of Shechem, conveying
to them that it would be better for him, a local boy, to be their
leader. But Abimelech has several problems,
70 of them to be exact. So what does he do? He wants
to get them out of the way. Bimelech being a Shechemite made
it easy for the men of Shechem to join him, and they gave him
money to contract hitmen. That's what these men were, just
hitmen, to overthrow the house of Gideon, according to verse
4. And you know, friends, every effort The false religion, every
dime spent on anything other than the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace is an effort to dethrone the true king of
kings. Every false gospel desires to
worship the creature more than the creator. Abimelech and his
hard killers killed 69 of Gideon's sons, but Jopham, the youngest
escaped, for he hid himself. Now, it's in Jotham that we see
the gospel tonight. The name Jotham means Jehovah
is perfect. Isn't that amazing? The names of scripture are so
encouraging. They mean something. Jotham means
Jehovah is perfect. It means Jehovah is righteous. Jotham is no doubt a picture
of Christ, and his name designated him to be a preacher of the truth,
and we'll see that more clearly, Lord willing, in our next study
when we look at his parable of the trees that he tells here
in chapter nine. But this, dear friends, is the
gospel. Jesus Christ is perfect. Perfect. That's something we
don't know much about. We don't know much about good,
much less perfect. I, the sinner, must be perfect
to be accepted of God. In order to be reconciled to
a thrice holy God, I've got to be perfect, as perfect as God. And I'm far from it. I'm wicked,
I'm depraved, fallen in sin, dead in trespasses and sin. I
can only be accepted in the Beloved. And Jesus Christ is God's beloved
son. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. Oh, listen to what
God says. Jesus Christ is God's beloved
son. I must have Jesus Christ to be
accepted. That's our message. This is not
a difficult message. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. We say that all the
time. But it's so true and it's so plain and simple. So I have
to have Christ. I must have Christ. He's all
my righteousness. He's all my perfection. What
does Christ do for chosen sinners? You know. He does for them what
they cannot do for themselves. And that's provide the perfect
righteousness that God Himself requires. God made Christ's sin
for His people. That they may be what? The righteousness
of God in Him. That's where my perfect righteousness
comes from, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my surety. He's my salvation. He's my satisfaction before God. God's satisfied with Him, and
He's satisfied with me in Him. That's the message of substitution,
as Gene so ably preached Sunday. And Christ, like Jopham in our
text, has hid Himself. How so, preacher? He's hid Himself
from the natural man. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned,
spiritually hidden. Men by nature cannot know, understand,
or receive the things concerning the Spirit of God. They're foolishness
unto Him. You tell people of the world
that are blind, natural men and women, about the God of the Bible,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and they'll call you foolish. I had a man
tell me one time, he said, so you base everything that you
believe on the Bible. And I said, every single thing. He said, that's the most foolish
thing I ever heard. It's foolishness to the world.
But unto you and I that believe, it's the power of God unto salvation. These things have to be spiritually
revealed. We have to all be taught of God. All God's people will hear and
learn of the Father. That's what the Lord said. And
they will all come to Christ, John 6, 45. All the secret things
belong unto the Lord our God. But those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our children forever that we may do all the
words of this law. Brother David, have you kept
the Ten Commandments? I've never kept one of them. But in Christ,
I've kept them all, and I've kept them perfectly. Isn't that
good news? That's why it's called the Gospel.
To the people of God, the Lord said, for there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed. and hid that shall not be known,
Matthew 10, 26. And our Lord said, I thank thee,
O Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and the prudent and has revealed
them unto babe. Oh Lord, reveal your gospel to
us. Enable us to see more clearly
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul wrote,
but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
a knot with flesh and blood. It wasn't flesh and blood that
taught you this. No, it wasn't. You didn't teach yourself this
either. God taught you. Taught of God. You've learned
of Him. Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. And the Lord Jesus replied, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. You didn't figure
this out on your own. No. My Father, which is in heaven,
He revealed it to you. He taught you. You've learned
of Him. The Lord must reveal Himself
if we're to know Him. And He does so through the preaching
of the gospel. And the world calls it foolishness.
It's by the foolishness of preaching, what the world calls foolishness,
that the Lord saves them that believe. Foolishness to them,
but not to us. It's the most precious thing
we ever heard. God requires perfection, we can't
perform it. God's eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. That's why God forsook his son.
The sin of his people were upon him. Proverbs 20 verse nine,
who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin. The answer, only those who have
Christ as their perfect substitute and sacrifice. All the sin of
all the elect throughout all time was upon Christ and all
God could do and remain just was to pour out his wrath and
his justice upon the Lord Jesus. That's what we see up on Calvary.
Look to Calvary, that should have been you there. But me being
there wouldn't have paid for one sin. But Him being there
put away all the sin of all God's people throughout all time. That's
why in heaven there'll be a number that no man can number. Oh. No doubt Abimelech and his
assassins laid hold of the elder sons and sacrificed them first. They were the most prominent
threat. It says they were each laid on the same stone and killed. This stone was a man-made altar. Bimelech and his assassins sacrificed
Gideon's sons to Baal on this makeshift altar. And what a counterfeit of the
truth this is. You see, that's what every false
god requires. That's what all false religion
calls for, a sacrifice at the hands of a sinner. Something
that you do in order to appease God. Can't be done, brothers
and sisters. Can't be done. It's a counterfeit. But God's people have been taught
that they have nothing to offer God. The hymn writer said, in
my hand no price I bring. So what do we do? We simply cling
to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Rock of Ages.
There's nothing that we can sacrifice that a thrice holy God can or
will accept. It's gotta be perfect to be accepted.
That's why Christ is our only salvation. He's the only perfect
one. He's the propitiation for our
sins. And here in his love, not that
we love God or sacrificed anything to him, but that he loved us
and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. I wish folks could learn that
salvation is not what men do for God. I grow so tired of hearing
men talking about all they've done for God. Salvation has nothing
to do with what we do for God. It's not a cooperative effort
with us helping God to save us. I heard that all my life. Salvation
is God doing everything, everything for the sinner who's dead in
trespasses and sin. Because what can a dead man or
woman do? that has to be true for one who is dead can do nothing
because they are dead. Was the dead man at Nain's gate
given life because he arose? Well, what a ridiculous question. He was dead and he couldn't raise
himself up, but the Lord Jesus touched his casket and he said,
young man, I say unto thee, arise, and he that was dead, set up and began to speak. Was
Lazarus given life because he came forth? Absolutely not. He
was given life before he could come forth. And the Lord Jesus
commanded Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came forth. He was dead, but he's not dead
anymore. And you and I were dead, dead
in trespasses and sin, but not anymore. Not in Jotham, Jehovah
is perfect. It's absurd to think that we
did something to save ourselves. Now again, verse six, and all
the men of Shechem gathered together in all the house of Melo, and
went and made a Bimelech king by the plane of the pillar that
was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham,
He went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up
his voice and cried and said unto them," now listen to this,
listen to these words, "'Hearken unto me, you men of Shechem,
that God may hearken unto you.'" That's what the Lord Jesus says
to sinners. Hearken unto me that God may
hearken unto you. That's the gospel. We must hear
his voice. Jotham ascends Mount Gerizim
and he cries out to the leaders of Shechem, the ones who had
just financed his assassination plan. to kill him and all his
brethren. And he speaks to them a parable.
And the result of this parable is the judgment of God against
the men of Shechem and Abimelech, unless they repent. And they
don't. They don't repent. And we'll
see their end in another study. And you know, I was thinking
about Jopham, Jehovah is perfect, going up into Mount Gerizim.
Our Lord went up on several mountains. We find Him up on a mountain
preaching to a multitude of people in what we call the Sermon on
the Mount. He revealed His glory and His
grace in the longest recorded sermon of the Lord Jesus. And what a sermon it was. And
we find the Lord taking Peter, James, and John up on the mountain
of transfiguration. And it was there that the Lord
unveiled His glory and revealed the radiance of His deity. And Peter, James, and John were
blinded and they fell to the ground, hiding their faces. We
can't stand in the presence of God in this flesh and live. No
man shall see His face and live. But He's placed us in the cleft
of the rock. Isn't that what He told Moses?
And He said, I'll call all my goodness. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ to pass before you. And it was there on the Mount
of Transfiguration that Elijah and Moses were there. And the Lord spake with them
on what would be accomplished in Jerusalem and His crucifixion. You know, all the Old Testament
prophets had promised would be yea and amen in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what the Old Testament's
about. There's one coming. There's one gun and he is. the one mediator between God
and man. He's the only one that can save
his people from their sin. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name, his name is who he is. We've
seen that many times. Whosoever believeth in him shall
receive the remission of sins. Moses and Elijah are seen no
more when Peter, James, and John look up. And there stands Jesus
only. That's the only hope of our salvation.
Jesus only. Jesus only. Salvation would be
accomplished not by the law, not in anything that the prophets
did, not by anything that we ourselves do, but by Jesus only. The one mediator between God
and man. Oh, dear sinner, hearken unto
Him that God may hearken unto you. There's another mountain
which the Lord reveals to us our salvation. You know, interesting
enough, it was the same mountain, Mount Gerizim, that Jochem spoke
from. It was up on that same mountain
where the Lord met that Samaritan woman at the well. Isn't that
something? She said, our fathers worshiped
in this mountain. But you say Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship. And our Lord said, oh, it's not
the place where you worship. True worship is how and who you
worship. You must worship God in spirit
and in truth. And friends, Jesus Christ is
the way, the truth, and the life. For such the Father seeketh to
worship Him. Whosoever drinks of the water
that I give you, the Lord told that woman, shall never thirst,
but shall be in them a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. Jesus Christ is that water, that
river, that fountain. He said, I that speak unto thee,
I am, I am. Christ is a blessing to all who
will hearken to him. Christ is a curse unto all who
will not. She hearkened and said, is not
this the Christ? She went home, she told everybody.
I had a man tell me all things that I ever did. Is this not
the Christ? It was. It was the Christ. And yet there's another mountain
upon which our Lord went where He reveals Himself. The mountain
of all mountains, Mount Calvary, where our Lord laid down His
life for His sheep. our sin bearer, our substitute
who put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. There where the son
of man must be lifted up. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so the son of man must be lifted up
because all who look to him shall live. Just as all who looked
at that serpent of brass lived. They were stung with the poison
of the serpents, and we've been stung with the poison of sin,
and we're dying. But oh, there's life in a look
to the Savior. Look to Jesus Christ and live. Whosoever believeth in Him shall
not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved that He
gave His only begotten Son. Did He die for the whole world?
No. He died for whosoever believes in Him. They shall not perish,
but have everlasting son. God didn't send his son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him,
through Jesus Christ, might be saved. Are you trusting in Christ? Are you relying upon him as your
sin bearer? And then the last mountain the
Lord stood upon was the Mount of Olives. And it was there that
the Lord ascended 40 days after His resurrection. And He's gone
to prepare a place for His people, that where He is, they shall
be also. He has gone that He might sit
at the right hand of God. and He ever lives to make intercession
for us. Isn't that an amazing thought?
Right now, my Lord and my Savior is sitting at the right hand
of God in all power and majesty, interceding on my behalf and
your behalf. Every time we sin, He tells His
Father, I died for them. I died to put that sin away.
He's perfect. He's perfect in me. Oh my. Jophim, Jehovah, is perfect. What a picture He is. The Lord requires perfection
from us. And it's the Lord who provides
perfection for us. In Christ, there's hope for sinners. He is the perfection that God
requires. We have nothing to offer but
sin. Christ is our only perfection. In Isaiah 42, we read the verses
a minute ago, God says, Behold, My servant, whom I uphold, mine
he left, and whom my soul delighted, I put My Spirit upon him. He
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry,
nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. For
as the Lord is not begging sinners to let him have his way in their
life, He's not pleading with sinners to let Him into their
hearts. I would have never let Him in. He busted the door down. And
I'm glad He did. He divinely intervened. I would
have remained lost had He not. He alone fulfilled the law and
satisfied the justice of God by the shedding of His blood.
God required a sinless sacrifice, a lamb without spot, without
blemish. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Jotham. Jehovah is perfect, and I'm perfect
in Him. Hearken unto Him, and God will
hearken unto you. 2 Samuel 22, 33, God is my strength
and power, and He make it my way perfect. Why? Because He is the way. Psalm 37, verse 37, Mark the
perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Mark the perfect man, for the
way of that man is peace. It's a peace that passes all
understanding. I don't understand this peace.
But every time I begin to look within and see what I am and
see what I deserve, and I think about Jotham, my Jotham, my Jehovah
who's perfect, who's made me perfect, I have peace. And it
passes my feeble understanding. And it keeps my heart, my mind
and heart on Christ. He's our perfect substitute.
He's our perfect Savior. He's the one with a perfect nature,
a perfect righteousness, a perfect wisdom and understanding. He's
perfect, and I'm perfect in Him. except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. The only way
my righteousness shall exceed theirs is if my righteousness
is Jesus Christ. We cannot and need not try to
add anything to a perfect work. I've told you this before, I'll
never forget the illustration Brother Darvin made one time. He and his wife were up at one
of the big museums, and I forget where now, and they were looking
at the works of the masters. And he said, I was sitting there
looking at that beautiful work of these famous artist, and he
said, I thought to myself, how ridiculous would it be for me
to take a crayon out and go up and try to improve upon one of
the masters. That's just what, that's exactly
what we do when we try to add to the perfect finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're taking our little kindergarten
crayons and trying to improve upon what the master has done. It's ridiculous. The gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace and the perfect person of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only message in all the world that declares
God to be God. That's what we're doing when
we preach the gospel. We're declaring God to be God.
We're declaring God to be the salvation of sinners. All other
preaching of salvation makes God to be dependent upon man
for something which robs God of His glory. Anything that's
added to perfection corrupts. Paul said, your glorying is not
good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. Man by his own free will
does not pick himself up by his bootstraps. Stephen Hawking,
so-called Albert Einstein of our day, was a self-proclaimed
atheist, a brilliant man. A genius. He died not long ago.
This brilliant man who was an atheist once said, if there is
a God, there can be no such thing as free will. Well, he was right
about that. But Mr. Hawking, there is a God.
But you were right about man's free will. The Gospel declares
that our Jopham, Jehovah is perfect, who by His perfect and righteous
work put our sin away, and there's nothing we ourselves can do to
earn God's favor. Why would we even try when the
work's finished and accomplished for us? The child of God delights
in bowing to their sovereign God and their sovereign Savior. We rest in knowing that Christ
finished the work of redemption for us. And we say it all the
time, when can a man and woman rest? When their work's finished. When their work's finished. You
ever, on a Saturday afternoon, thought, man, I'm gonna take
me a big, long nap. And then you go, I gotta mow
the grass. Can't rest until the work's finished.
And Christ finished the work for us. No, we dare not add to
the perfect work that is finished, but we simply rest in that perfect
finished work. Because Jehovah is perfect. We
fall at his feet and we say with Thomas, my Lord and my God, what
good news this is. If I must add to it, then it's
not good news. Did you hear me? If we've got
to add to it, that's not good news because we cannot add to
it. We have nothing and can do nothing
to add to it. It's finished. The conflict's
over. The victory's won. Jesus Christ
is Lord. Herein is love made perfect,
not that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. How thankful we are that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, gives unto
us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him, if
Christ, the Lord Jesus, Ephesians 117. And one day, very soon,
every tongue, even the unbelieving tongue, We'll confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father.
Those who all their life says, I will not have this Christ to
rule over me. One day, in the judgment, they're
going to stand and say, Jesus Christ is Lord. But it'll be
too late for them. Be too late. That's why today
is the day of salvation. Today is. We're not promised
tomorrow. Thank God for Jehovah who is
perfect. Personally, we don't know much
about perfection. But by God's grace, we know Him
who is perfect. And that's all we need to know
to be saved. Not what we know, it's who we
know. May God be pleased to make it so for His glory, our good,
and for Christ's sake.