Judges chapter 6 please. Tonight we're introduced to one
of the great heroes of faith. His name's Gideon and he's mentioned
in the great hall of faith as we call it in Hebrews chapter
11. Let's begin reading here in Judges
6 in verse 11 and we'll go through these verses and I'll make some
comments along the way. And there came an angel of the
Lord and sat under an oak which was an ophra that pertained unto
Joash the Abiezarite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by
the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. Now in the appointment
here of Gideon by the Lord as a judge and a savior of Israel,
we see that he's no different than any of his family, any of
his tribe, or any of Israel as a whole, he's fearful and he's
harvesting his crop in hiding. If you remember last week, we
looked in the first of this chapter with the Midianites, they were
a different kind of enemy. They didn't just come in and
fight and take over Israel. They came at the harvest season
and stole their crops, took their cattle and sheep and goats or
whatever. And this was a real, they were
a real thorn in the flesh to Israel. And so Israel went into
the high places They planted secret gardens and crops trying
to keep that from happening. And that's what's happening here.
Gideon is threshing wheat. And the thing that came to mind
as I read that is that there's nothing special at all about
any of God's elect that would cause God to choose thee. in
and of ourselves, no difference in any of us. The only difference
between any of us, as you well know, is the difference that
God makes. I think about the Apostle Paul's
questions that he asked in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. He said, who makes
you to differ from another? What do any of us have that God
did not give us? And if that's the case, then
it is. It's God that makes us to differ.
It's God that gives us all that we have. And because of that,
why is there any reason for us to glory or take pride or get
puffed up as if we did not receive it from Him? There is no reason
for us to be arrogant or prideful. The only thing that makes a believer
special is that they're in Christ. That's it. But special you are
if you're in Him. Now when Paul asked, who maketh
thee to differ? That phrase, maketh to differ,
means who distinguishes you? Who differentiates? Who discriminates? Who determines and makes a distinction
between you or anyone else? And we know the answer to that.
It's all through scripture. It's God who has mercy on whom
he'll have mercy, and compassion on whom he'll have compassion,
and whom he will, he hardened. You know, in today's society,
the Lord God of the Bible would be considered politically incorrect,
wouldn't he? Well, you're not supposed to
distinguish. You're not supposed to differentiate. Well, God does. And God has the right to as God. Does He not have the right to
do what He will with His own? And it's all His. All of it.
The earth and the fullness thereof and all that dwelleth therein,
it belongs to God. He doesn't have to apologize.
He does whatsoever He wills. He answers to no one. And He's
not affected by mankind's thoughts of Him. Gideon is not chosen
of God because he is superior or on a higher level than anyone
else in Israel. He's threshing grain in secret,
hiding so that the Midianites will not rob his family of their
sustenance. And in verse 12 we read, and
the angel of the Lord appeared unto him. And he said unto him,
the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor." Now, none of God's
servants, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron,
Joshua, Caleb, David, right on down the line, differed because
of anything that they themselves did. There was nothing within
any of them. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, but he was no different than anyone else on earth. The
Lord calls Gideon here a mighty man of valor because he was going
to make himself. God's callings are God's enabling. I don't know who wrote that,
but it's good. God's callings are God's enabling. We have no
ability or willingness, for that matter, to do anything. With God's call comes His enabling
power. We are made willing in the day
of His power. If God doesn't give His power
and give us life, we don't have any ability or willingness. No
man can come, no man will come to me that they might have life.
A dead sinner has no ability to pick themselves up by the
bootstraps. Whenever I hear somebody say
that, I just, I laugh with inside because we can't pick ourselves
up by our bootstraps or anything else. A dead sinner has no willingness
to do anything because they're dead. and dead in trespasses
and sin. The soul that sins, it shall
die. And that's what we are. Sin is what we are. And it's
our sins that have separated us from God. Isaiah 59, 2. That's what this book teaches.
Being separated from God, we have no life in us. That's why eternal death is just that. It's being separated from God.
A soul will live forever, but death is being separated from
God. And because of our dead condition,
God gives us life and He equips us for the special work that
He gives us to do. And that's the case with Gideon,
and that's the case with you and me. Again, what proof That
our function in the church of God is God's prerogative. It's God's appointment. It's
God's will. It's God's purpose. And it cannot
be accomplished by the strength of our flesh. Isn't that what
the Scriptures say? Not by might, nor by power. but by my Spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts." Zechariah 4, 6. And Paul wrote, finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. That's where our strength comes
from. It's the Lord's strength, not ours. We have none. Now,
verse 13, and Gideon said unto him, speaking to the angel of
the Lord, he said, oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then
is all this befalling 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." You
know, every believing sinner still has a great deal of unbelief
in them. I'm amazed, and shouldn't be,
because of the God that they serve. But men and women today,
they talk so much about their faith and what they're doing
for God. It's ridiculous. And our prayer
should always be, Lord, I believe. Help Thou my unbelief. Because
we've got so much of it. So much unbelief. In verse 13,
Gideon reminds us of just that. This gives us some real insight
and knowledge of ourselves. In the midst of a trial, it's
near impossible to deal with anything but the specific trial
that you are in. If you're going through a trial,
regardless of what it is, it's hard to think about anything
else, isn't it? It's hard to concentrate on anything else.
except for the problem at hand. And in a hard trial, it's very
easy to see ourselves as a victim. And we forget that in most cases,
if not all, it was our own sin and rebellion and disobedience
that more than likely brought it on. That's the case with Israel
time and time again. they'd begin to worship idols,
and the Lord would send them trouble, and they'd cry unto
the Lord, and the Lord would send a judge, and the Lord would
deliver them, and then the judge would die, and then the people
would start the cycle all over again. Matter of fact, we titled
our study last week, Here We Go Again. And that is so true
of our lives. And it's difficult to see the
blessings of God's providence in a trial when there's nothing
but trouble and ruin and decay and sight and all around you. It just is. When the evil of
the wicked comes against the child of God, for them, God works
and means that wickedness against them for good. That's what he
said, Romans 8, 28. Oh, we love to quote that verse.
But I think sometimes we have difficult living there, don't
we? All things work together for the good of them that love
the Lord in the first trial that comes along. We're victims. We're
just victims. People say, why do bad things
happen to good people? Well, first and foremost, you're
not good. You're not. Only in Christ. And secondly,
if the Lord is working it for your good, then that's good.
That's good. Regardless of you being good.
God blesses us in His divine providence in spite of us. And that's what makes the gospel
so glorious. That's what makes grace unmerited,
undeserved. When the evil and the wicked
comes, it's for our good. And that's why all things work
together for our good. Who? To those that love God,
who are be called according to His purpose. God meant this trouble
for good. And when you find yourselves
in trouble, remember that. God sent this trouble for your
good. God sent this sickness for your good. God sent this
affliction for your good, regardless of what it is. That's what Joseph
told his brothers that sold him into slavery. He said, you meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good. And Joseph went, as
you know, from the pit to the palace. So have you. So have you. So have you. That's what God
purposed and what God purposes always comes to pass. Verse 14. And the Lord looked upon him,
Gideon, and said, go and this thy might. My might? And thou shalt save Israel from
the hand of the Midianites. I shall save Israel? And then
he says, he shows us here why we can say that or why Gideon
could say that and we can too. He said, have not I sent thee?
He sends us in his power and his might and by his Spirit.
And this obviously seemed foolish and unattainable to Gideon because
the same Lord who claimed to be with him, the same Lord who
promised to make him great, appears to have abandoned Israel. And Gideon, his family, and Israel
as a whole are hiding from the Midianites. Running through Gideon's
mind is, why should I believe the Lord is with me? when the
same Lord is allowing these many a nights to afflict us this way.
You ever thought that? You ever thought, why am I experiencing
this? If the Lord loves me so much,
why am I experiencing this difficulty? Well, we've already answered
that, haven't we? It's for our good. Somehow, someway it's for
our good. And most of the time, after it's
all, the dust has settled, and we look back, we go, that was
for our good. That was for my good, wasn't
it? And it always is. It always is. Now, in verse 14,
the identity of the angel here is revealed, because we're told
very directly that the Lord looked upon Gideon. Just as Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord, so did Gideon find grace, and
so does every believer. We don't find the Lord. I've
heard folks say, you know, I found the Lord. I got saved. I found
the Lord. No, no, you didn't find the Lord.
He wasn't lost. You're the one that was lost.
He found you. Grace found you. You found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. Gideon found grace. You and I
find grace. How comforting it is to know
that the Lord looks upon us with compassion. with mercy and grace,
giving us life and giving us the power to do what He's purposed
for us to do. He said, getting you go in your
might. That's God's might in Him. And you save Israel. That's God saving Israel through
a man. That's the means God uses. It's the same with preaching.
It's the means God uses to save those that believe. It's not
the message of the man. It's not the power of the man
that saves. We can't give anybody life. We're
dead sinners just like everyone else. It's God through a man. And that's just the way God ordained
it. That's the way God does it. Why
should we ever doubt? The Lord said, have not I sent
thee? Now look at verse 15. And he,
Gideon, 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." Not only
are we poor, but I'm the least in family. I'm the worst of the
bunch. Paul said the same thing. Let
me show you that. Hold your place here in Judges
6 and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3. I want you to see
this. Ephesians chapter 3. We'll look at verse 7. Let me say while
you're turning, whatever God purposes our role to be in the
fervence of the gospel, it's always a gift to the unworthy
given by His power. It's God's gift to us. Ephesians
chapter 3, verse 7. Look at what Paul writes here.
He says, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his
power. That's exactly what we see here with Gideon. He said,
unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace
given. That I should preach among the
Gentiles the insearchable riches of Christ. and to make all men
see what is the fellowship of the mystery." Is it Paul making
them to see? No, it's the Spirit through the
preaching that Paul did that did. Make all men see what is
the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ. And you see, friends, it's the
same Lord that sent Paul that sent Gideon. And it's the same
Lord that sends you and the same Lord that sends me. Gideon received
the gift of the grace of God. It was given to him by the effectual
working of God's power, the same as it was to Paul. And that's
what Paul just told us there in Ephesians chapter three. Gideon
said, my family's poor. I'm the least in my father's
house. God won't use a man's might, but he'll certainly use
a man's meekness and a man's weakness. It's so with every
believing sinner, the power of grace has made them meek. Gideon's a meek man. And being
the frail vessels we are, we're so frail. Every child of God
is doubtful that they're worthy to do anything for God. Moses,
you remember what Moses cried? He said, Lord, I can't speak.
I'm not a good speaker. You want me to go and preach
the gospel to Pharaoh and tell him to let my people, I can't
even speak. I maybe had a speech impediment. That's what a lot of the commentators
say. Paul cried, who's sufficient for these things? Remember what
Barack told Deborah in a couple studies ago? He said, if you
don't go with me, I'm not gonna go. The believer is constantly
humbled by the thought that they'd be used of God to do anything.
I've told you the story about Todd Niber going to a doctor,
turned out to be a guy that I went to school with. And he said,
Todd told him, he said, I know a guy that comes from your hometown. The doctor told him where he
was from, and he told him his name. He said, well, I went to
school with him. We played baseball together. He said, what's he
doing now? He said, he's a preacher, and he said he dropped his stethoscope. He said, of all the people I
went to school with, I wouldn't have thought David Emerson would
be a preacher. You know what? I wouldn't have
either. I wouldn't have either. I cannot speak who's sufficient
for these things. If you don't go with me, Lord,
I'm not gonna go. Okay, back to Judges chapter
six, verse 16. You know, a believer never talks
about what they do for God. Not a true believer. They talk
about what God does for them, or what God's done for them.
Judges 6 verse 16, and the Lord said unto him, and here it is,
surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites
as one man. And he said unto him, if now
I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou
talkest with me. Now it's common, it was common
to ask for a sign in the Old Testament, the Word of God was
not fully revealed at that time. Even in the days when our Lord
ministered on earth, His message and His work was accompanied
with signs and wonders. This was the means of authentication. But since the work of Christ
has been completed, the need of those things that have passed
and ended. Listen to what Paul wrote in
1 Corinthians 13, I won't turn you there, verses eight through
10. He said, charity never fails, love never fails, but whether
there be prophecies, talking about men telling future events
before they happen, he said, whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. There's gonna be a time when
they stop. He said, whether they be tongues,
they shall cease. That word tongues there is a
Greek word called glossa, glossia. It means a language. Now, speaking
in tongues in the New Testament is not the gibberish that is
practiced in some churches today. If someone was preaching the
gospel in a language that they did not know, or someone is hearing
the gospel preached in their native tongue that the preacher
did not know, that's what tongues was. And that's very obvious
when you read the scripture, especially 1 Corinthians 13,
I believe. And then Paul goes on to say,
whether there be knowledge or a word of knowledge, A supernatural
gift of the knowledge of divine things. That's what that's talking
about. It shall vanish away. In the authentication of the
gospel, God gave these particular gifts, but they're no longer
needed today. And this is why. Because Paul
said, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when
that which is perfect is come. Speaking of Christ. Speaking
of His Word. then that which is in part shall be done away
with." There's nothing for us to do, friends, but to trust
in the perfect One, the Lord Jesus Christ. This book tells
us everything that we need to know. We don't need any further
authentication. God says it right here. God in
sundry times In diverse manners, different ways. In the times
past, spoke through the prophets. But now, He speaks to us through
His Son. This book. The written word. The living word. The word of salvation is finished,
accomplished. The only sign of wonder needed
is done. What sign and wonder that is.
The sign and wonder that Christ lived and Christ died and was
buried and rose again and ascended on high to sit on the throne
of God at the right hand of God in all power to rule and to reign
until his enemies have in the end been made his footstool. And listen to this, he says,
For by one offering, the perfect One hath perfected forever them
that He sanctified, and He's put His laws in our hearts, and
He's written them in our minds, and their sins and iniquities
I will remember no more." That's on proof we need. The Lord sits
at the right hand of God. God accepted His offering. God accepted His sacrifice. And
He accepted us and healed. You ever heard any better news
than that? No more need for an offering
for sin. We now enter with boldness by
the blood of Christ, and we draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith. And we can hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Why? Because God is faithful
that promised. Okay, verse 18, Judges 6. Gideon
speaking, says, depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto
thee, speaking to the angel of the Lord, or the Lord. And don't
leave, Lord, until I bring forth my present and set it before
thee. And he, the Lord, said, I'll
tarry till thou come again. And Gideon went in and made ready
a kid, a small goat, and unleavened cakes, of an epithet flower,
the flesh he put in a basket, the kid, the meat from the kid,
he put in a basket and he put the broth in a pot and he brought
it out unto him, the Lord, under the oak and presented it. And
the angel of God said unto him, take the flesh and the unleavened
cakes and lay them upon this rock. and pour out the broth
poured out on the meat and the unleavened cakes. And he did
so. 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 fire out of
the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then
the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. And when Gideon
perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas! Now that word is a word used
for expressing pain or fear. Alas! Oh, Lord God, for because
I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." Gideon was scared
to death. You know why? Why did Gideon
fear? Because he knew that this was
the Lord God, and he knew that no man shall see God face to
face and live. And he was afraid that he's going
to die. You remember Manoah and his wife? Same thing. The angel
appeared to them and then disappeared smoke, and Noah said, we're going
to die. We're fixing to die. No man sees
the face of the Lord and lives. That's what the Lord told Moses
in Exodus 33, verse 20. He said, thou canst not see my
face, for there shall no man see me and live. But friends,
there's a place by God, a place where we can stand upon a rock, And God places us in the cleft
of that rock. Rock of ages, cleft for me. And
He covers us with His hand. That place is in Christ. That's
who that's talking about. And miraculously, Gideon had
seen the face of God and he lived. How could that be? Well, to see
how is to see the Gospel. Gideon asked for a sign so that
he might know it was the Lord Himself that he spoke with, verse
17. And he desires fellowship, so
he asked the Lord that He wouldn't leave him. And the Lord promised
that He wouldn't in verse 18. And hadn't the Lord promised
us that He'd never leave us nor forsake us? He'd never broke
a promise, not one. So Gideon goes and he prepares
a meal. He prepares the meal, called
a present, in verse 18. Present in my margins means meat
offering. But now this is important to
understand. This was not Gideon offering a sacrifice. You see,
Gideon was not a priest. Nor was this place they were
at, under this oak tree, a place for sacrifice. It didn't have
an altar. Gideon made ready a kid and unleavened cakes. He put
the meat in a basket, He put the broth in a pot, He made unleavened
cakes, and He presented it to the angel of the Lord. And in
verse 20, the angel instructed Him to lay that meat and that
unleavened cakes upon a rock, and to pour out the broth upon
the meat and the cakes, and He did. And I'll add this, every
child of God is made to be obedient to the command of God. He did
it. And He did it, it says. And then
verse 21 tells us, And 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 fire out of the rock,
and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel
of the Lord departed, out of his sight. I read that verse
again on purpose. Do you see the gospel in that?
Jesus Christ is the rock upon which the fire of God fell. He's
the mercy seat upon which the blood was poured and offered. No, this was not an offering
that Gideon was making. This is a picture of the sacrifice
and offering that Christ himself made for his chosen people. The Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God,
sacrificed Himself. He voluntarily laid down His
life. He said, no man takes it from
me, I lay it down. He told Pilate, Pilate said,
don't you know I've got the power to crucify you? He said, you
don't have no power at all that wasn't given you from heaven.
You don't have the power to do anything with me. I am God. I'm giving you the power to do
this to me. The Lamb of God sacrificed Himself. He became flesh of our
flesh and bone of our bone. And He that knew no sin, listen,
there was no leaven of sin in Him. That's what those unleavened
cakes picture. No leaven of sin. He was made
sin. The broth, I think, very well
pictures the blood poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our
rock, our altar, our mercy seat. And you remember the story of
Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 18. Elijah made a sacrifice to the
Lord on Mount Carmel. That's when all the priests of
Baal came and they did all their hoodoo stuff and cupped themselves
and danced around for hours. Baal never came to consume their
sacrifice. But Elijah prayed and the fire
representing the wrath and the judgment of God consumed the
sacrifice. It consumed the wood. It consumed
the stones. It consumed the water in the
trenches around the altar that they'd filled up three times.
They had saturated the ground. And when the fire of God fell,
it lapped up all of it, including the water. This reveals to us
that God poured out all His wrath and all His judgment and accepted
Christ as our substitute and sacrifice. When the fire and
wrath and judgment of God fell upon Christ, our Lord, Savior,
Sacrifice, the judgment and wrath of God was consumed, satisfied,
and extinguished. And verse 1 tells us that the
Lord departed out of Gideon's sight. Our Lord Jesus Christ's
sacrifice was accepted. How do we know? Because of where
He sits. He's out of our sight, but He's
not out of our hearts, is He? His ascension into heaven at
the right hand of God is the proof that God accepted His sacrifice. And now there's peace. Peace
between God and the sinner. Because justice has been satisfied. Holy justice is appeased. God
is no longer angry with those for whom Christ died. He that
was angry with the wicked every day is no longer angry with those
for whom Christ died. Look at verse 23. And the Lord
said unto Gideon, Peace. Peace be unto thee. Fear not. Thou shalt not die. How do we see the Lord and not
die? Right there is how. That's how. The Lord had departed
and yet He speaks. I thought about that. How can
that be? Well, He speaks to our hearts
through the written Word of God. That's why we meet together,
isn't it? We come, we open the Word of God, we ask God, as we
did in the beginning tonight, to reveal Himself to us through
the Scripture. Verse 24, then Gideon built an
altar there unto the Lord and he called it, now look at this,
Jehovah Shalom. And unto this day it is yet in
Ophrah of the Abbey of Zerite. Jehovah Shalom. The Lord send
peace. The Lord, our peace. Our peace with God. Peace that
passes all understanding. You say, I don't understand that
piece. You're not supposed to. It passes
all understanding. And it keeps our hearts and our
minds through Jesus Christ, Philippians 4, 7. Jesus Christ is our peace. He said, peace I leave with you.
My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth. The
world doesn't have any peace. The world cries, peace, peace,
when there is no peace. Christ has the peace. He is peace. He's the peace of God. He said,
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled. Let it not be afraid. Neither let it be afraid. Why do we? Why do we? No man comes to the Father but
by Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. Let me wrap this up. I want you
to turn to one last scripture, Leviticus chapter 10. Leviticus chapter 10, verse 1. Leviticus 10, verse one, and
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his
censers, speaking of Aaron's censer, and put fire therein
and put incense thereon and offered strange fire. Now, most of the
commentators believe that that was fire that was started with
kindling of their own and not from the holy incense from the
sacred bronze altar. They started this fire. In other
words, they lit it themselves before the Lord, which He commanded
them not. They were commanded not to do
that. There was a way to do things in the tabernacle. God had instructed
them how to do things. And there went out fire from
the Lord and devoured them." Burn them up. And when I think
of devoured, I mean there's nothing left. And they died before the Lord. And look at verse three. Then
Moses said unto Aaron, now this is his two boys. He lost these
two boys. He said, this is it that the
Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come
nigh me. Now listen, we're either gonna
come God's way or no way at all. You see that? That's pretty strong
evidence of that. We're gonna come God's way or
we're not gonna come at all. God's way is through Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. There is no other way. Every man or woman that comes
to the Father comes to the Father through Christ. No man coming
to the Father but by me, our Lord and Savior. Only one way
to God, and for God to be just and still justify sinners. God
said, I'll be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before
all the people, I will be glorified. Only one way. Well, you're a
pretty narrow-minded preacher. No, I'm not. That's what God's
Word says. God's pretty narrow-minded when
it comes to salvation. It's in Christ alone, no other
way. Narrow is the way. Narrow is the way that leads
to life. Only one way. Aaron stood there
and watched his two sons die, and he didn't say a thing. He
was silent before God, the Scripture says. God's way is always the
right way. There's only one way to come
to the Father, and that's by Christ, who is the way. The payment
for sin was laid on Christ, and that was the only way that God
could remain a just God and also be a Savior. There's only one
sacrifice that God will accept. How many? One. Just one. Not two. Not one and you throw
a little something on it for good measure. No. There's one
fire and judgment that God justly sends. No strange, common, man-made
fire is going to be tolerated. You can't add nothing to what
Christ has done. You better not. There's one offering
that God will receive. And you come that way or you're
going to die in your sin. Salvation is not given how most
people think. You can ask ten people, how are
sinners saved? And you very well probably get
ten different answers. It doesn't come by what you do.
It comes by who you know and who you have, I should say. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Isn't that so plain and so simple? There's no peace with God apart
from Christ. Jesus Christ is our peace. Our
Savior, Jesus Christ, is Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, our peace. May God be pleased to give you
peace in Christ, dear brothers and sisters. For His glory, your
good, and for Christ's sake.