What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. ? For my part in this I see ?
? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? For my cleansing this my
plea ? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is
the flow ? ? That makes me white as snow ? No other fount I know,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. ? Nothing can for sin atone ?
? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Not of good that I have done
? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is the
flow ? ? That makes me white as snow ? No other fount I know,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Thank you. We're going to be in Judges chapter
7 this morning. This part of the chapter we'll
be looking at is where the Lord tells Gideon who shall go with
him and who shall not go with him to fight against the Midianite
army. Before we do that, I just want
to quote something that our Lord said in Luke chapter 18, verses
24 through 27. where he said to his disciples,
how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God. For it is easier for a camel
to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said,
who then can be saved? And he said, the things which
are impossible with men are possible with God. The point is that by
nature we are fat with pride. We have an abundance in ourselves
with skills and things we think are useful and profitable and
good. for the kingdom of God, but in
reality, things which are of this proud flesh have no value
in his kingdom. Rather, the things that we come
with in our flesh, thinking that these are something to recommend
us to God and for God to make use of, they serve to pump up
our heads full with ideas about ourselves, full of pride, and
they actually make it impossible with these things to enter into
the kingdom of God. And the only way that a fat-headed,
proud, arrogant sinner like me, like you in the flesh, the only
way that any of us will enter that kingdom is if God does a
gracious work to save his people. Paul said in Ephesians, but God. We are what we are in this flesh,
sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, going the course and way
of this world, but God. But God who had a gracious purpose
for you. would be merciful to you according
to his good pleasure, but God determined to save you and deliver
you, and he makes his children fit for the service. We see in these first eight verses
in Judges 7 a picture of what the Lord does in delivering the
man of his choosing from vain fleshly confidences. but he does
for each child of his. And he does this by whittling
down the flesh of his child till all we can do is glory in the
Lord. All we can do is glory in him
and only then are we made fit for his kingdom. And that's what
we'll call this message, made fit for service. Let's begin
in verse one. And then Jerubael, who was Gideon,
and all the people that were with him, rose up early and pitched
beside the well of Herod. so that the host of the Midianites
were on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. Now, the first thing that we
notice is this name change. This had just come up at the
end of the last chapter where Gideon is now called Jerubal,
which means let Baal plead against him. If Baal has a problem with
what he did in tearing down the altar through the preaching of
Christ, Let Baal plead against him, and it's a mockery of Baal
that Baal is but an idle god who can do nothing except God
permitted to come to pass, the true and living God, the sovereign
God Jehovah. The name changes of the believers
happens in scripture typically, always, when there's a remarkable
event. Something major has come to pass. For example, Abram was called
Abraham. His name was changed to Abraham
when God established that covenant in grace. Abraham was asleep. And yet God established with
him a covenant of grace. And his name was Abraham. from
that day forward. Jacob was called Israel. Jacob, that one who was a tricky
fellow, became Israel, prince with God, when he wrestled with
that angel and asked him to bless him. And the angel changed his
name, gave him a new name, Israel, prince with God. Saul became
Paul after his conversion and calling by the Lord. And now
Gideon is called Jerubael. When the Lord calls his people
to himself, he gives them a new name. In the same way that a
bride takes the name of her husband, so the Church of God takes the
name of her Savior. She takes the name of her God
and Savior. And there's great blessing. in
the name because it speaks to the blessings we have of our
God, that we have been made partakers with our God in life, in glory. in his inheritance. What is his
is made ours, given to us to know him and have fellowship
with our God. Listen to these verses. First,
in Isaiah 62, verse two, it says, and thou shalt be called by a
new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. The mouth
of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Word of God. And he tells us in Revelation
3.12, I will write upon him, my child, the name of my God,
and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem,
which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write
upon him my new name. The Lord's people shall be called
by a new name, and it signifies a new creation. what he has done
in delivering his people from darkness, from dead ways, from
dead-letter religion that cannot save. And he gives life by his
power in his child. He said, by the prophet Jeremiah,
I will give them in heart to know me, that I am the Lord,
and they shall be my people. And I will be their God, for
they shall return unto me with their whole heart, a new heart. Whoever is in Christ Jesus is
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are become new. And this name which we are
given is the name of our Savior, the name of our God. And so we
are called by him because his people are born again, they're
made new creatures. Now, when we look at Gideon and
his army, we're looking at a picture of what the Lord does for his
people, the church, and what he does for you, each child who
believes in him, who's been given hope and faith in him, what he
does for you personally. That's what we're seeing here
in these verses, what the Lord our God does for you in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is very relevant to us.
Verse 2, Judges 7-2, And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people
that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites
into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me,
saying, Mine own hand hath saved me. Vont means to glory, to glory
in themselves over the Lord, to attribute their salvation
and deliverance to themselves. God's not going to do that with
his child. He's not going to leave you to
glory in yourself. And so he confronts our pride. He deals with our riches in this
flesh that we naturally have confidence in. and delivers us
from that vain hope, that vain confidence, to find every hope
and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where you want
to be. You want the Lord to be your
God, to deal with you, to strip away the riches and the confidences
that we have in this flesh. That's a blessing. That is the
blessing. That is the life and the hope
that we have in Christ, that he is our God and he's done everything
necessary for us. The Lord is going to whittle
down the strength of his people. He's going to remove that glorying
that we do in self and he's going to instead make us to glory in
Christ. It'll be a real glory. It'll
be a real rejoicing, a real hope because he's worked it in us. It'll be more than just words
that we say with the mouth because we think these are the right
things to say in front of one another. We'll know God hath
surely done this. He's the one that brings it to
pass. And so the Lord said to Gideon, the people that are with
thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands.
I mean, he wasn't saying it's impossible for me. He's saying,
I'm not going to do it lest Israel vaunt or glory in themselves
against me. saying mine own hand hath saved
me. See the natural man glories in
himself. He trusts in his strength. He
trusts in his wisdom. He trusts in his decision. He
trusts in his thoughts, his understanding, his strength, his riches. He
trusts in natural fleshly things that have no part in our salvation. We're not our righteousness.
We're not our sanctification. The Lord is. The Lord is. There's
a teaching in some churches that say that by the things we do,
we sanctify ourselves. We make ourselves fit for blessings. And they forget that if I pray,
if I seek the Lord, if I see my faults and cry out to the
Lord for mercy and grace, the reason why I cry out to him is
grace. It's his spirit that stirred
me up, that showed me what I am and showed me my need of him.
And if you're not stirred up and have no desire for the Lord,
you should wonder and cry out, Lord, what's going on? Why am
I so cold and so distant and so uncaring of you and your kingdom? Why don't I care for what is
going on here in my life? And so salvation belongeth unto
the Lord. That's not just a nice verse
to remember. It's the truth. It's the truth.
Salvation in every part from A to Z, beginning to end, first
to last, is all the Lord's. All of salvation is the Lord's
work. Now the Lord makes his people to know their weakness. He makes us to know I have need
of stripping. He brings us low. He humbles
us. Sometimes we don't know we need
stripping until we've been stripped or in the process of being stripped
down and brought low. Now, it's said in verse one,
this phrase here that really jumped out to me. It says that
Israel pitched beside the well of Harod." Israel pitched beside
the well of Harod. And what that means, the well
of Harod, it means it's a fountain of water. And then the word Harod
means fear or trembling. Israel was brought to pitch to
camp out by the fountain of trembling, the fountain of fear. Now, I've been told from previous
jobs and things like that that I come off as a very confident
person. People look at me and say, you're
pretty confident. And it's true. I actually am.
I am pretty confident in most things. But the truth is, there
have been key times where God in grace and mercy has brought
me to camp, to pitch my tent by the fountain of fear and trembling. So that there are times, whatever
I cast or put out or projected that I'm confident, there were
many times, for long seasons of times, where I was fearful
and trembling. And God did that to humble me,
to strip me of vain fleshly confidences. He does that for his people.
In the same way that he brought this body, this army there as
one, he stripped them down to humble them, to make them to
see that I don't save myself. I'm not so great, or I don't
have this or that, and this isn't helping me. God made me to see
I don't need that, the Lord says, I don't need that. I'm not dependent
on you having that, that riches or that skill or whatever it
is that you think is so great. I don't need that. In fact, I'll
take it from you. I'll remove it from you. I'll
strip you from that very thing. And so the Lord does that for
his people. He pitches them at the time by
that well, that fountain of fear and trembling. And it can be
a different fountain. Whatever he chooses to put you
by, he'll put you by that well, whatever it is, in order to teach
you, to instruct you, to strip you of some vain fleshly confidence
in this world and make you know that's not helping you. That's
not your salvation. I'm your salvation. All of it. All of it. Cry out to me. That's
what he does for his people. You know, when it says in 1 John
2, verses 15 through 17, the apostle said, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the
world. and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever." When I read those words, I tell you the truth.
I have nothing to glory in. I can't make myself not love
the world. I don't have the skill or the
ability in me to just turn it off. to just avoid those things. It's not my will. It's not my
wisdom. It's not my smarts or understanding
or abilities or righteousness to deliver myself from the corrupt
allure of this world and its passing pleasures, its momentary
passing pleasures. I don't have that ability. I
need the grace of God, and you do too. The only way we hear
that and love the Father and love His Son and love His people
and want and desire to serve Him and to be found in Him rather
than this world is by the grace of God. And He stirs His people
up through strippings, through chastenings, through trials,
through difficulties, through setbacks to show us Lord, I don't
need those things. I did need them. That's what
I desire. But now, Lord, I see I need you. I need your grace. Save me, Lord. Help me. Fill me with your spirit.
Keep me looking to your son, lest I love this world and go
right back in it like Demas, who's forsaken me, having loved
this present world. Deliver me. because so many people
love the world and go right into it and get just sucked away.
And they'll sit in churches for decades still, having no heart,
no desire, no love for the Lord. But the Lord knows how to bring
his people providentially and camp them out by the fear of
trembling, by the fountain of trembling, and strip them down
or whatever fountain he needs. He'll use it to strip his people
and to knock them down. And so God brings his people
there by a place where he withers the flesh, and he makes his people
to know their mortality, to know just what we are, our weakness,
just how foolish and full of sin we are. He does that, and
then he makes us to know. He fills, he strips away the
flesh and fills us with that knowledge of what Christ is.
what he's made unto us. As it says in 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 30 through 31, but of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, that according as it's written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Let him glory in the Lord, and
that's where we want to be, glorying in the Lord, not loving this
world, not loving this world. God does it, God does it through
the preaching of the gospel, through his providences of stripping
us down and bringing together that word preached, what we need
to hear, and he takes us through in life and shows us, see what
I'm saying? Do you see what I'm saying? I'm
showing you the truth. And I'm doing it for your good,
to keep you from death, because I've purposed to give you life
and inheritance in my son. And though in the flesh it's
hard to see it, when he's proved that work in his people, when
he's brought it to pass, we're thankful for it. So that even
in great trials and in great strippings of the strength of
this flesh, we say, Lord, Not my will be done, but thy will
be done. And I'm thankful that you did
it. I'm thankful that you did it because it was for my good.
And I see it now. I didn't see it then when I was
weeping and crying out, why me, Lord? Why this way, Lord? But
now I see. Now I see. And that's because
he's gracious. And he's given that to you in
love and in mercy in Christ. And so those who hope in Christ
are never gonna be ashamed, never gonna be ashamed. Those who come
in their own righteousness and continue on in dead works, they'll
be ashamed, but we're gonna know that the Lord's done this for
us. Joel 2.27 says, and ye shall
know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord
your God and none else, and my people shall never be ashamed. And so you that whose hope rests
wholly on Christ, you shall never be ashamed. Though you're weak
and small in yourselves, you shall never be ashamed, whose
hope is Christ. Now our Lord's ways are contrary
to man's ways, and this is made known in that stripping. Look
here at verse 3. Now therefore go to proclaim
in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid,
let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. and their return to the people,
22,000, and there remained 10,000. Now remember, we're seeing a
picture here, a spiritual picture, of how the Lord drives the strength,
our fleshly strength, from us, from his people. He deals with
each one of us as his child. He drives away the strength of
this flesh, and that's what's being pictured here in Israel,
camping out by this well, this fountain of fear and trembling.
There was about 100,000 Midianites in the land of Israel at that
time, men, who came up and camped out in Israel. And Israel only
had 32,000 to begin with, and the Lord removes two-thirds,
just like that. He takes away two-thirds of their
army and leaves them with only 10,000 men. In this, what I see in this,
what the Lord was showing me in this is that we think we're
pretty humble. I think I've been humbled and
I've learned my lesson well, but the truth is the Lord always
has a way of finding more flesh and rooting that flesh out and
showing me just how proud I still really am. and how confident
I am in self. He has a way of finding that
out, even after we think we've learned a lesson pretty well. But thankfully, what we see in
that is that the Lord doesn't hit us all at once. He doesn't
remove everything, but in measure, in wisdom, in measure, he strips
away some flesh, and then he strips away more in time, and
strips away more, and he brings his people down the way that
he will bring them, so that we were glorying in Christ as we
have need according to measure, never more than we can handle.
You know, Paul learned this as well. At the beginning of his
calling, the Lord said to Ananias, who went and ministered the gospel
to Paul, he said, I'm going to show Paul, I'm going to show
him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. how
great things he must suffer. And you see, Paul suffered. I mean, you see it in Corinthians,
you see it in Philippians, where he's made content and endured
those things that, when you or I look at it, just reading it,
not being called to that, look at it and say, wow, how could
he endure such things? The stonings, the rejections,
the insults, the shipwrecks, the being, beaten and naked and
going hungry and unappreciated. I mean, like the guy went through
a lot, but the Lord gave him grace and he did it in measure.
He did it over time. And finally, Paul said in 2 Corinthians
12, 10, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I
am weak, then am I strong. And it's true, right? When I'm
doing well, this knee doesn't bend. I don't think about calling
out to the Lord. But when I'm going through tough
times, that's when I'm praying. That's when I'm groaning. That's
when I'm breathing out, Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Lord, keep me. It's through those
difficulties that he does that. John the Baptist said, I must
decrease, but he must increase. The Lord taught him that. The
Lord gave that to him, and that's what he gives to his people. So we're being taught by our
God, by his power, that it's his power, his glory, him doing
the work of salvation for us and leading us in the way that
we should go. And what it said in, I'll quote,
in Revelation, I think this is true of every child and every
generation. It's not just for some future
date, this is true of us here now just as it was true for our
brethren throughout history when it says, they overcame him. Who? The accuser of the brethren.
They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of
their testimony. And they loved not their lives
unto death. God gives his child that. He
makes them fit so that we keep seeing again and again and again,
Christ's blood is all. It's what I need. It's sufficient
for me. And I need to hear his word,
to hear the word preached, and have the Lord minister that word
to my soul. Help me to hear it, Lord. Let
it not go in one ear and right out the other, but Lord, turn
me from death, from dead dark ways, to behold your son. And
though they loved not their lives unto death, even the stripping,
the crucifying of this flesh by the works of our God for our
good, Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. I'll trust him. because I see
that he's not doing it to punish me. He's doing it in mercy. He's doing it in grace. Now,
verse four, Judges 7, 4 says, and the Lord said unto Gideon,
the people are yet too many. Bring them down unto the water,
and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that of
whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall
go with thee. Whomsoever I say unto thee, This
shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So the Lord is
saying, I'm going to prove to men that my name be glorified
in your midst. Now, these 10,000, they had a
heart for the battle, but the Lord was not going to give Israel
the victory with that many people. He was going to strip them down
even further so that it was clear that only God could have done
this. It wasn't our strength. Only God could have done this.
Now, when we come to the Lord, there's a lot of things that
oftentimes are driven from us pretty quickly. things are easily
dismissed in this flesh and they go away fairly quickly. Things that we see and recognize
as sinful or foolish or just not necessary, those things go.
But the Lord tries his people with the water. Through the preaching
of the word he teaches us, through various trials he teaches us,
and he makes sure that he gets to the heart of his people And
what he's doing there is he's circumcising the heart. We can't
circumcise the heart. I can't make myself get this. I can't make myself. be gung-ho
for the Lord and sold out for Him. I'm desperate for the grace
of God to stir me up and to keep me stirred up and to put me in
the service focused on the things I need to be focused on rather
than just doing something in the strength of my flesh. I'm
desperate for the grace of God to do that as every child of
His And so we need him to circumcise this heart where only he can
reach by his spirit and no fleshly cutting that we normally do in
religion is going to get it out. God's got to do it. For he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one
inwardly. and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. And so when the Lord was done
whittling these men down, there was less than 1% left. There
was, it went from 32,000 down to 300. So less than 1% was even
left of the people. And the gospel picture in that
is simply that faith parts with everything but Christ. The Lord
drives everything away so that we're left with Christ in the
narrow way and Him alone. We're on a narrow way where only
He fits and so we're going to follow Him and everything else
is going to be shaved off conforming us to the image of Christ. He
does that. Now let's look at verses 5 through
7. So He brought down the people unto the water. And the Lord
said unto Gideon, every one that lappeth of the water with his
tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself. Likewise,
every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number
of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were
three hundred men. But all the rest of the people
bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said
unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you,
and deliver the Midianites into thine hand, and let all the other
people go every man unto his place. Now, I've read a number
of commentaries on this. And there are some interesting
insights as to what that may have signified, what the spiritual
picture is in how these men drank the water. But at this point,
it's not very clear to me exactly what it is. And I think that
actually fits very well with the message today for us, because
the kingdom of God cometh not by observation. We can't just
pick out and say, you've got it. You don't got it, you've
got it and you over here have it and you don't and we can't
do that because truth be told, if we were to surround ourselves
with people, we'd choose probably the infidels and the people who
don't know the truth because they put off an air of excellence
and an air of strength and riches and things that they have. But
the Lord knows what we have need of. And he gives, he assembles
his people together as he assembles his people. People who don't
have things to boast of in glory and who are weak in themselves
and whose strength is the Lord and whose hope is the Lord. He
knows the heart. Now the only thing I can see,
so I think it's good that at this time I don't see what it
is really because We're weak in ourselves and we depend on
the grace of our God. But one thing that was made clear
in the verses is that they were all likened to dogs. Every one
of them was likened to a dog. Everyone that lappeth of the
water with his tongue as a dog lappeth. You know, is it speaking of their
loyalty, their companionship, perhaps, but we also know that
dogs, when rightly understood, dogs are not recognized for very
much. We don't put an animal's life
over a human's life. We recognize that there's a value
And so as dogs, especially throughout history, a dog isn't recognized
of much. And it's usually a demeaning
or derogatory term of someone that's loved. Like when the Syrophoenician
mother had a need for her child who was sick, and she came to
the Lord seeking mercy and help from the Lord to save or deliver
her daughter. And she said, help me, Lord.
And he answered and said, it's not right for me to give the
children's food, the Israelites, to give their food and to throw
it to the dogs. He was calling her a dog. And
she owned it. She said, truth, Lord. But even
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
Lord, would you throw me a crumb? That'll be sufficient. That'll
be sufficient. And it shows what we are in this
flesh. That what we're made by the Spirit. We're made dogs. To see, I don't
deserve anything. I don't deserve the good things
that I have. The abundance of good things
that I have. But Lord, I don't deserve anything but would you
give me a crumb. Would you feed me today? Would you feed me with
Christ today? And would you keep me coming
back for Christ each and every day, Lord? Because that's what
I need. Lord, keep me. Even if I'm not the most confident
Christian, but Lord, would you keep me? Would you keep my wandering
heart? Would you teach me and instruct
me and lead me and use me as you see fit? Though I'm so far
where I am now, but Lord, I have no righteousness but Christ.
I have no hope but Christ. Would you keep me and lead me,
Lord, and bring me in your kingdom? And the Lord was very merciful
to her, saying, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee,
even as thou wilt. And her daughter was healed from
that hour. She received that which she asked
of the Lord. And so the truth is, we are dogs. We'll say that we're dogs. And
we don't really put much weight in when we say it. We know we're
saying it most of the time, just because we know it's the right
thing to say. The truth is we are dogs and truly we need his
grace. Just even the way we say things
so with emptiness just shows how much we need his grace and
mercy to keep us because we don't even know the half of it. We
don't even know the half of how awful we are. And so The Lord
tells us in the scriptures, I won't read it all, but in 1 Corinthians
1, from verses 21 to 29, we see in there just how that the Lord
calls his people. And they're not wise. There's
not many noble. but rather we're foolish, we're
weak, we're base, we're despised, and we are the things which are
not in this world. But the Lord does it, and he
brings us to see that that's what we are so that we don't
vaunt ourselves, we don't glory in ourselves over the Lord. In fact, the Lord called Jacob
a worm, and he said, I'm gonna take you, thou worm, Jacob, and
I'll thresh mountains. I'll tear things down with little
worms. And so it's where we want to
be. We want to be called to the Lord though we be humbled and
tried and brought low in ourselves. The fact that it's the Lord doing
it is a blessing. It's a blessing because He's
revealing in us Christ through it all. He's showing us how desperate
we are and need Christ Jesus our Lord. He says he does this,
that the hand of the Lord hath done this, for us to see that
the hand of the Lord has done this. Now, after the Lord whittled
down his people, verse 8, we read there, so the people took
victuals, which is food, in their hand, and their trumpets, and
he sent all the rest of Israel, every man unto his tent, and
retained those 300 men, and the host of Midian was beneath him
in the valley." Now, if you read scriptures, in almost every case,
whenever Israel was scattered or returned back to their tents,
it was a fleshly thing. Something bad was happening.
It was not a good thing. It was a picture of the flesh,
just as the tent is a picture of the flesh. And so most of
the time in scripture, it means that that was the flesh which
goes back to its temp. And that's what we see here in
this. The Lord had driven back the flesh. We're still in this
flesh, but he drives back that flesh, brings us low in ourselves
to see, Lord, I don't, I'm not hoping in what I bring. There's
nothing to boast in here. All I have is Christ. That's
all that remains is the new man, the new man which Christ has
made in his people. And so the good news is that
Christ has subdued all our enemies. God isn't looking to you or me
and our righteousness and what we bring to the table. He looks
to the one whom he sent. to provide everything needful
for his people. He's looking to Christ. And that's
where you and I are to look, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who
came willingly because of the love he had for his bride, for
his people, and he sacrificed himself to put away the sins
of his people, to make them righteous in himself, to give us a hope
Him to believe him to look to him for all our salvation He's
conquered the enemies the battle is won the works are finished
in the Lord, and he's just He's just teaching us What we are
in him what he's done for us. He's showing us over and over
in in him what he's accomplished for us and so Look to Him. Look to Him whom the Father looks
to. Trust Him whom the Father trusts. Believe Him because God
sent Him and He has accomplished your salvation. He doesn't need
your flesh. He calls you to believe Him.
He calls you to give, to do what you can here, but it's all Him,
by His Spirit, by His grace, by His power. And all our enemies
are beneath the feet of Christ who has conquered them. I'll
quote from 1 Chronicles 29 11. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for
all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. Thine
is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Amen. I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts, brethren. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you. For your wisdom, Lord, we confess
our folly. We confess, Lord, that we are
in our flesh so rich, rich with vain riches, rich with folly,
rich with pride and arrogance and things that cannot save or
do the thing, do the work. But Lord, we see your wisdom,
your gracious providences, which bring us to camp out to pitch
our tent by that fountain of hay dad or whatever it was, Lord,
that well of fear and trembling. Lord, we thank you that in your
wisdom you've done that for us in many ways, many times, to
strip us, to bring us low, to make us see our need and to fill
us with Christ, making him everything to us, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Lord, help us to stay right there,
to see the blessing in it, to keep looking to you, even when
it's dark, even when we're scared and frightened. Lord, let us
not be turned to the world and things that cannot save, but
let us be turned to everlasting things, our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ and his righteousness alone. Help us, Lord. You know
that we're but dust. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Okay, brother. It's in the hymn. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 472, Heavenly Sunlight, 472. You. Sunlight, all of my journey,
over the mountains, through the deep vale. Jesus has said I'll
never forsake Thee, promise divine and never can fail. Heavenly
sunlight, heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing
His praises, Jesus is mine. Shadows around me, shadows above
me, never conceal my Savior and God. He is the light, in Him
is no darkness, ever I'm walking close to His side. Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Alleluia, I am rejoicing, singing
His praises, Jesus is mine. In the bright sunlight ever rejoicing,
pressing my way to mansions above, singing His praises, gladly I'm
walking, walking in sunlight, sunlight of love. Heavenly sunlight,
heavenly sunlight, flooding my soul with glory divine. Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, singing
His praises, Jesus is mine. Thank you.