still nearer, close to thy heart. Draw me, my Savior, so precious
thou art. Hold me, oh, hold me close to
thy breast. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Shelter me safe in that haven
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, nothing
I bring, nor has an offering to Jesus my King. Only my sinful, now contrite
heart ? Grant me the cleansing thy blood
doth impart ? ? Grant me the cleansing thy blood doth impart
? ? Nearer, still nearer, Lord, to be thine ? ? I gladly resign ? All of its
pleasures ? Popped in its pride ? Give me but Jesus, my Lord,
crucified Give me but Jesus, my Lord, crucified. Nearer, still nearer, while life
shall last. Still safe in glory my anchor
is cast Through endless ages ever to be Nearer, my Saviour,
still nearer to Thee ? We're still nearer to Thee ?
Thank you. Morning. I'm gonna read Psalm 24. Psalm chapter 24. The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon
the floods. Who shall ascend in the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lifted up his soul
into vanity nor sworn deceitfully He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God from the God of
his salvation This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek
thy face, O Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your
heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors,
and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. Selah. Father, we come to you this morning,
thankful for this verse of scripture and Father, we're thankful for
the message that you brought us this morning, Father. And
Lord, we ask that you please let us know those six things
that you brought out in the message and Father, please don't ever
let us put our hands on it, get our fingerprints on it, because
that's just damnation if we have a hand in it. Father, we ask
that you always let us know that it is your work and your work
alone that saved a specific particular people. And Father, we ask that
you watch over us and open our hearts and our eyes. in our ears
in the next message that you bring us. And Father, as always,
we're thankful for our pastor and a place that you've given
us to come to hear your message. And Lord, we ask that you just
watch over us and care for us in Christ's name. Let's sing 326, more about Jesus,
326. It's been a while since we sang
this. ["326"] More about Jesus would I know. More of his grace to others show. More of his saving coldness see. More of his love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. Jesus, more of His saving boldness
see, more of His love who died for me. More about Jesus let
me learn, more of His holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher
be, showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus in his word. Holy communion with my Lord. Hearing his voice in every line. Making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving boldness see. More of His love who died for
me. ? More about Jesus on His throne
? Riches and glory all His own ? More of His kingdom sure increase
? More of His coming Prince of Peace ? More, more about Jesus
? More, more about Jesus Thank you. Good morning. Let's go to Judges
chapter 6. Judges 6, we're going to be picking
up in verse 25 to the end of the chapter. Now here in this
last portion of Judges 6, the Lord commands Gideon to tear
down the altar of Baal, to cut down the grove of Ashtaroth,
And then he's to follow this up with a proper sacrifice that
he is to make on the rock, the same rock that the angel of the
Lord used in opening Gideon's eyes when he had Gideon lay those
things out and sacrifice those pieces of the offering that he
made. And he used it to open Gideon's eyes to behold Christ
crucified. He saw the truth of God and what
the angel did. Now, when that was done, according
to the word of the Lord that the Lord instructed Gideon with,
we're told that the religious people of that city, they were
angry. They were angered by by Gideon's obedience to the Lord,
what was displayed in their midst in the sacrifice made upon that
rock by Gideon. But the father, his father, Gideon's
father, delivered him out of the hand of those that were angry. And then being delivered, Gideon
went on to further call the people of God. And they came and heard
and saw the Lord's work done in their midst. meaning that
we'll be looking at the golden fleece at the end there. It was
a comfort to the people. It's a comfort to the people
of God as well. Now, obviously, as we go through
this account, there's many gospel pictures that are laced throughout
these verses. And it outlines the accomplished
blessings that God works in his people through the preaching
of the gospel. It's the blessing of our Lord's gospel and how
he uses that to instruct the hearts of his people to deliver
them from death and dead works. to give them a hope in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so the Spirit of God has
revealed Christ to the eyes of our Savior through the preaching
of the gospel. And that's where we hear what
our Lord does for us, what he's done, what he's accomplished
in Christ. And we go forth with that glorious
message, declaring what the Lord has shown to us. and knowing
and seeing and trusting that the Lord, just in the obedience
of faith and preaching this gospel, the Lord gathers in his sheep
to hear the word and feeds and blesses them with that same word
that we were fed and blessed with in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, in preaching that gospel, the hope of man is torn down.
That which he's hoping in and trusting in is torn down and
he's angered by that because his confidences have been kicked
out. They've been removed from him.
But God will always provide deliverance for his people. We're just to
continue preaching the truth. So let's look first in Judges
6 verse 25 and 26 at God's commandment to Gideon. We're told here that it came
to pass the same night. This is after the angel of the
Lord departed to him, and the angel of the Lord taught him
and was speaking to him. That same night, the Lord said
unto him, take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock
of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy
father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it. and build
an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock in
the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt
sacrifice with the wood of the grove, which thou shalt cut down. So let's see the gospel picture
here and then what this means for us in our day. One of the
things that the Lord teaches us in scripture, one of the things
that we see repeated is this theme, this gospel theme, where
the second is preferred before the first. The second is preferred
before the first. For example, We know that Joseph
had two sons when he was in Egypt. He had two sons. Manasseh was
the first born, and Ephraim was the second born. And when his
father Jacob was older, Joseph brought his two sons to his father,
and he brought Manasseh in Joseph's left hand and Ephraim in his
right hand, so that when they got to Jacob, who was sitting
there facing him, Manasseh's head would be under Jacob's right
hand, and Ephraim's head would be under Jacob's left hand. But Jacob purposely, knowingly,
switched hands. And he gave Ephraim, the second
born, the greater blessing than Manasseh had. And Ephraim was
a greater, mightier tribe in Israel. So there we see that
Jacob set Ephraim, the second born, before Manasseh, the first
born. Again, Rebekah, this is before
Joseph, Rebekah conceived of two sons in her womb. And it
says, Paul writing about this in Romans 9, verse 11 through
13, the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. The firstborn shall
serve the secondborn. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. God passed by Esau the firstborn,
leaving him to his own natural devices, and he blessed Jacob. He did a gracious work for Jacob
that led to his experiencing the blessings of God's salvation
purposed for him. by God in Christ before the world
began. He passed by Esau and he blessed
Jacob, doing something for Jacob the second born that he didn't
do for the first born. Other examples in scripture are
the covenant, right? The Lord told the people by the
prophet, and this is recorded for us in Hebrews chapter 8.
In verse 8, he told them, I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah. He said in verse
9, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers,
And he told them the old covenant is going to be replaced with
the new. In that he saith a new covenant
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. God is preferring the new covenant
to the old covenant. He's preferring the second to
the first. And this principle is declared
throughout scripture. Why? Why does God declare this
or give us this principle of the second being preferred to
the first? Well, it speaks to what we are
in the flesh. It speaks to what we are in Adam. That this flesh is dead. This flesh is not going to bring
forth spiritual works, works of righteousness, works which
the Father is pleased with and receives. This flesh isn't going
to do it. We need to be born again. We
need to be born anew. We need a second birth, a birth
being made a new creature. That new birth is not something
we can do. We are dependent entirely upon
the grace of God to do that for us. This flesh brings forth nothing. It says that by the works of
the flesh, or no flesh can please God. By the works of the flesh,
we do not please God. It's enmity against God. We need
to be born again after that seed of Christ. We need to be regenerated
by the Holy Spirit who takes the seed of Christ, who is the
second Adam. In scripture, Christ is called
the last Adam. The first Adam sinned. The last
Adam gives life. It says, and so it is written,
the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. First Corinthians 1545. Brethren,
we must be born again. Born again. That which is first
born is done away. It returns to the dust from which
it came. But that which is born again,
that spirit of Christ in us, lives forever and is blessed
of God. These bodies will be raised again
and they shall be made new after the image of Christ. But this
first body perishes. It dies. It goes back to the
dust. And so in this we see here, when we see these words, It's
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ when we read, take that second
bullock of seven years old. You take the second bullock of
seven years old. The Lord said to Gideon, take
thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years
old. And we know seven speaks to the
perfection, the completeness. You take that which is perfect.
and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut
down the grove that is by it." When I read this a few times
in starting to study this thing, I didn't even see this at first,
but he's saying, you take that second bullock, and with it,
you tear down the altar of Baal. You hook him up, you harness
into that thing, and you tear down that altar of Baal. And when you cut down those groves,
you use that bull to haul those logs off. You take it away. You
use that bull, and he's going to rip down the idolatry, the
false works, the dead religion. He's going to take it, take it
away. You're going to rip it down with that second bull. And so we see Christ in this,
because through the obedience, through obedience to the Father's
will, Christ delivered his people. He's that servant. He's the one
who came, the lowest, who took the lowest place. in order to
do the Father's will perfectly. Everything that needed to be
done, Christ came and did it. And He's the one that delivers
His people from spiritual death, from idolatry, from false works,
from false religion, from traditions of men, through the works of
the flesh. He's the one that delivers His
people from that. He destroys it. through the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Christ we read in Hebrews
2 verse 14 and 15, For as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.
He came as a servant like this bull that's pictured here, that
through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Man's religion is
bondage. Man's religion just lays hard
works on you. It puts a yoke of bondage on
the neck of the people. And they labor and spend and
work to obtain some kind of comfort for their conscience, their guilty
conscience. They have no peace with God.
Christ destroys all that work. Christ takes all that away and
delivers his people out of that darkness and out of that bondage. And the way he accomplished that
was through the death of himself. He accomplished this deliverance
by the death of Himself on the cross where He made an atonement
for the sins of His people. He made an offering of Himself
to the Father to satisfy Him, to propitiate His anger and wrath
which was against us, to put it away by paying the debt of
our sins so that there's no more debt of sin to be paid by His
people because it's all been put away and having obtained
our redemption, he gives life and peace and comfort to his
people. And so he's made us new creatures
by himself. The scriptures declare that in
Christ Jesus, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. He's been made a new creation
by the Lord, and that new creation is preferred to what we are in
this flesh, that old creation of Adam. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become new. And being made new
in Christ, we rest everything on him. We trust in him wholly,
wholly. We look to him. Now the Lord
told Gideon to build an altar, having torn down those dead works,
which Christ does through the preaching of the gospel. Christ
tears down those vain hopes of man. And he told Gideon to build
an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock. in the ordered place." Brethren,
Christ is the altar. He is the rock upon which that
altar is built. He's the sacrifice that is upon,
laid upon that altar. He's the one who offered the
sacrifice as the high priest. He did it all. All these pictures
are showing us Christ. When the Lord said, take the
second bullock, that one that you tore down the altars, the
false altars, the vain altars, the idolatry with, take that
bowl and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which
thou shalt cut down. So that he's everything, brethren.
And you use that wood from the grove. What is that picture?
That picture is man's sin which was laid upon Christ. Christ
was made sin for his people. that we through him should be
made the righteousness of God. He's everything. He's everything. And so Gideon did that which
was commanded. Look at verse 27 through 28,
back in Judges 6. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants,
and did as the Lord had said unto him. And so it was, because
he feared his father's household and the men of the city, that
he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. Now, why
was Gideon afraid? Well, he wasn't. What it's saying
there is that he was worried that he was going to be prevented
or forbidden to do what he was commanded to do by the Lord.
He didn't want to deal with that, with them standing in the way
and trying to prevent him, so he did it at night. That's what
it's saying there, is that he did it at night so he wasn't
interrupted. And when the men of the city
arose early in the morning, when they now by daylight, through
the light that was given to them, when they could see what was
done, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down and the grove was
cut down that was by it. And the second bullock was offered
upon the altar that was built. And just so you know, as I understand
it, the groves, the reason why they planted groves by these
idolatrous things was to hide and to conceal what was going
on within the midst of the grove. It was just more of a protective
barrier to keep others from seeing it, the filthy works that they
were doing there. And so all that was cut down
and the bowl was offered upon the altar that had been built
on the rock in the ordered place, in the ordered place. And so
when Gideon did this, we find out that there was a lot of people
angry. They were mad. because Gideon had took down
their hope, because that bowl was used to take down that altar
and destroy that which they hoped in. Look at verse 29 and 30.
And they said one to another, who hath done this thing? And
when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon, the son of
Joash, hath done this thing. Then the men of the city said
unto Joash, bring out thy son that he may die, because he hath
cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down
the grove that was by him. And so a lot of people were angered
by this. They were angry because of the
work that Gideon had done. And it says it was in the morning
when they noticed it. So that through this site of
the preaching of Christ, when men hear, there's nothing you
can do to save yourselves. These works, this false religion
is idolatry. It's filthy works. You cannot
save yourselves. You need God to save you. You're
dependent on God to deliver you, to save you. That angers the
natural man. That angers the one who has not
the spirit of God. That angers this flesh. It pricks
this flesh because it says, I'm nothing. And it puts my face
in the dirt. And it exalts the true and living
God. And that angers this flesh. And except God be gracious and
merciful to us, we're angered by it. We're put off by it. We're
troubled by it. And we think, is that really
true? Is that true? Is there really nothing I can
do? Surely there's something I need to do. No, God says there's
nothing you can do. And if you lay your hand to it,
you've polluted it. You've polluted that work if
you lay your hand to it. And so they were angry when they
had that light in the morning. They had some light given to
them. And they said, I know what you're saying there. You're saying
my works are filthy, and everything I've done in life is worthless
to God. How dare you? How dare you? But though many were angry, some
were converted. The Lord took that what Gideon
did. in tearing down the altar and
in building the altar of the Lord and sacrificing that bowl,
he was declaring, proclaiming the glory of God. He was declaring
Christ crucified to the people. He was showing them that very
sacrifice that he had been shown. He was declaring what the angel
of the Lord declared to him. and revealed to him. He was being
faithful in that, and many were angry by it, but some were converted. Look at verse 31 and 32. And Joash, Gideon's dad, said
unto all that stood against Gideon, will you plead for Baal? Will
ye save him? He that will plead for him, let
him be put to death whilst it is yet morning. If he be a god,
let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
The reason why they were saying, bring Gideon out, he probably
was asleep, still in the house from having been up all night
doing that work. He probably didn't even know
what was going on. But his father saw it and was converted in the
same way that in the preaching of the gospel, There's many who
are angered, but there are some who are converted. Just like
on Mars Hill, when Paul preached the gospel there in Acts 17,
there were some who thought it silly and nonsense and didn't
believe, who thought, that's crazy, I don't believe that.
But there were some that claimed to Paul. They clung to him and
they wanted to hear more. There were some that were converted.
And Joash here is one who was converted. When he saw what his
son did, he realized, it struck him, and he said, yeah, this
is idolatry. This is foolishness. And if Baal
doesn't like it, let Baal deal with him. If he's a god, let
him strike down my son. And so he called them that day
Jerubael, verse 32, saying, let Baal plead against him because
he hath thrown down his altar. And you know, that name, Jerubael,
continued with Gideon. as a continual mocking of the
false god. Where is he? Let him strike him
down. But because he was a false god, he couldn't strike him down.
And so Gideon continued to live many days. And so here's the
point for us all. Like Gideon, our God has revealed
Christ, the rock of our salvation, the hope of the people of God,
that he is salvation, that we cannot save ourselves. But rather than us being angry
and going away under that glorious truth and seeing Christ crucified,
we've continued. We've been given faith. We've
been converted by the Lord, like Joash, Gideon's father. And we
believe. We've seen, too, what others
have seen before us and preached to us. We've seen it and believe. Like Gideon, we are to continue
preaching Christ crucified to the people. The visual there
is something like what Paul said to the Galatians, Galatians chapter
3 verse 1 and 2, when he asked them, O foolish Galatians, who
hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you? What does that mean? Did Paul
do something, some demonstration of crucifying Christ before the
Galatians? No, verse 2 says, this only would
I learn of you, received you the spirit by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith. In other words, Paul preached
Christ crucified to the people. And when we preach Christ, when
we set forth what Christ, who Christ is, what he's done, why
he did it. then the Lord's people hear,
and they're given faith. They hear it by faith and believe
that, yes, Lord, you are God. I'm the sinner. I can't save
myself. You provided salvation fully
in your son. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Lord, I believe. Where else can
I go? What else can I do? The Lord,
through the preaching of Christ, that's what we're saying. We're
declaring that the religion of man is dead. By the preaching
of Christ, man sees that everything he hoped in is dead. and they
get angry because it's like going, if you're leaning on something,
have you ever, when you're younger, you're leaning on something and
one of your brothers comes up and kicks it out from under you
and you fall down or you hurt your back or something, you get
upset because someone just knocked out that which you were resting
in, what you were hoping on, what you were Comforted by they
took it out. Well, that's what the preaching
of the gospel does it kicks out that which we in our flesh hope
in and have confidence in and lean upon and You get angry if
left in the flesh you get angry But if the Lord comes to you
in grace and mercy and says why are you angry? Why are you angry
look to the son? He's the one whom I've provided. He is the comfort of my people
Those things which you hoped in in your flesh, thinking that
they would save you, they were weighing you down, dragging you
to hell, and I kicked it out and showed you the truth through
my son Jesus Christ. Why are you angry? Why would
you be angry with God for declaring to us that he's in all the work
and that our works are foolish? They're wicked even. They're
not going to save us. They're corrupt. They're damning
to the one who comes to God in their own works because they're
saying, what you provided, Lord, I don't need. I've come with
something better. I've improved upon it. Or here,
take this instead. But that's a despising of the
son. It's a despising of him whom the father wisely, lovingly
sent to save his people. And so we preach the gospel.
And why should any of us be angry or upset when the Lord shows
us that what we're doing in this flesh is wicked, that our works,
our ways are ways of darkness, our ways are foolish, our ways
are full of unbelief and doubt and wicked things, but God raises
up Christ before us. He gathers his people together
to hear, Lord, I need you. Lord, I'm in darkness. Lord,
I'm out of the way. Help me. Have mercy on me. Draw
me to yourself. Let me hear, Lord, and let me
believe on him whom you've sent to save your people. And so many
will turn against the truth. They turned against the prophets
and killed them. They turned against Christ. They
crucified him. They turned against the apostles.
And most of them were put to death, except for John. They
turned against people throughout history. And so, yeah, they'll
be angry now. They'll be angry against us as
well. But for those few that do hear,
for those few that do hear and believe, it's a mercy. It's a
mercy and it's God's grace to them and so it's worth it for
them. And so that's what happened. Having seen this on a smaller
scale of how the Lord converted his father, now Gideon's even
more encouraged. And the few that believed and
were turned by what they had seen just as Gideon, as his eyes
were open, there were some there whose eyes were open in obeying
the Lord there and the preaching of Christ. And so, The Lord is
going to now bring this up. It's there in a small scale,
now he's going to ramp it up and more are going to hear the
same way. First, there comes trouble, verse 33. Judges 6,
33, then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children
of the east were gathered together and went over and pitched in
the valley of Jezreel. So we know that this is a picture
of man sin, right? They're mounting a counteroffensive
to push back against the Lord, whether that's others or our
own heart, our own flesh doing it, right? a counter-offensive
of Judges 6, 34, and 5. But the Spirit of the Lord came
upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet. And Abiezer was gathered after
him. Gideon blew the gospel trumpet. We stand here sounding forth,
preaching the gospel, proclaiming Christ crucified. What he has
accomplished and done for his people, the warfare has ended. Christ has done all the work.
And in the preaching of Christ, his people are gathered to him. They come being gathered to him
under the sound of that trumpet call. It says, verse 35, he sent
messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also was gathered after him.
And he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali. And they came up to meet them.
The Lord encourages his people. As we keep preaching the gospel,
he'll gather in his sheep. He'll cause them to hear. He'll
call them and give them faith, revealing in them that they are
his people and they shall be gathered together under the sound
of the faithful preaching of the gospel. And so we're to preach
Christ. That's the good news. That's
the good news that comforts your hearts. And as you were comforted
with that word, you preach that same comforting word to others. And as the Lord instructed you
with Christ, you preach that same instruction to others. Keep
showing them Christ. Give them no confidence in their
false works, in their vain hopes, but keep turning the eyes of
the sinner to Christ, to Christ, to Christ crucified. Why was
he crucified? Because we can't save ourselves,
we need him to do 100% of the work, and he'll call his people
out. He will settle them under the gospel. Now, in closing,
there's the fleece of wool. And you've probably heard many
accounts of this, so I won't say a lot about it. But one thing
to note is that it says Gideon asked for the sign. But if you
realize, well, Gideon just had called many people. And Gideon
had seen lots of wonderful miracles. And his family had seen something
as well. But now there's a lot of people
that were called who hadn't seen anything. And I think that's
why Gideon asks for this sign. It's to comfort and to give peace
to those who have been gathered together by the Lord in this
last call of the trumpet, of the trumpet sound. So with that
in mind, let's read verse 36 through 40. And Gideon said unto God, If
thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, behold,
I will put a fleece of wool in the floor. And if the dew be
on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside,
then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as
thou hast said. And it was so. For he rose up
early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wrung
the dew out of the fleece full of water. And Gideon said unto
God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak
but this once. Let me prove, I pray thee. But
this once with the fleece, let it now be dry only upon the fleece,
and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night,
for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all
the ground. So those people that were gathered,
they saw what they needed to see, and they knew that Gideon
was raised up of the Lord to preach the gospel, to do this
work and deliver Israel by his hand. Now, for us, though, first,
what is this fleece picture? Well, it's a fleece of wool.
And so we know that only sheep have wool. And so this has to
do with the sheep of God. This has to do with his sheep. The sheep are called and taught
of the Lord. They go through various seasons,
right? There's seasons wet with the dew of heaven and much blessing.
And then there's seasons of dryness. of dryness. And so, just like
this fleece, so are the people of God. But it's teaching us
here, as we saw in the beginning there, something about the second
being preferred to the first, and what the Lord does in his
gospel in sending out this word, and sending out this word forth
through all the world, and causing his people, wherever they are,
to hear this gospel. And that's really what's being
declared here. It teaches us something about
the old and the new. Something about the old and the
new. At first, that smaller area, which is the fleece, that's what
received the due of heaven. That's which had all the blessings. So that just like Israel of old,
they had all the blessings of God. They had the oracles, and
the prophets, and the law, and the sacrifices. They had everything. And they were wet with the dew
of heaven. They were blessed of heaven, of God, but the surrounding
nations were all dry. They were all very dry. They
didn't have the truth. But as the Lord said to his apostles,
he said, you preach the gospel beginning at Jerusalem and all
of the surrounding area of Judea and all of Samaria. And then
after that, go out to all the nations, preaching the gospel
to the Gentiles. And so that second sign pictured
the sending forth of that gospel. When the Lord had called out
his people, his remnant in Israel, they then became desolate and
dry and barren. But all the surrounding nations
then became wet with the dew of heaven, hearing that gospel. believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Israel was left desolate, but the surrounding nations were
blessed with the word of God and believed and received that
word of Christ. And so it's an encouragement
to us to preach that word because God is sending forth that gospel.
He's sending it out and he's calling his people. Many will
be angry and hate it and leave, but to whom the Lord loves, he
causes them to be settled down. and He causes them to hear it,
and to be turned from their dead, wicked ways, to hear, to behold
the sacrifice of Christ for them, to see their need in Christ,
and to believe that same word, which so many before us have
heard and believed, bowing down before the true and living God
and the Lord Jesus Christ. and hoping only in Him. So that's the blessing there
that we see in that part, in that text there. I pray the Lord
bless that word to your hearts, seeing Christ, resting in Him.
Amen. Let's pray and then we'll take
the Lord's Supper together. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. Lord, we see how that you do
all the work, how that you preach Christ to your people. You preached
it to Gideon, and then you called Gideon to go and preach it, to
set forth Christ crucified evidently among them, doing that work which
you called him to do, tearing down the false works of religion,
by Christ, that second bowl, taking it down, and how that
you make us to see the sacrifice, the accomplished sacrifice that
you have done to save your people. And Lord, we thank you for faith. We thank you for hope, for love
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to see him, to
trust him, to rest in Christ alone, and to have no other confidence
in this flesh in anything but to rest right there in him. Lord,
help us to hear it. Help us to believe. Help us to
come being called of your gospel. Give us a hunger and a thirst
for your righteousness. Give us a hunger and thirst for
your word and a desire to hear and to see what your people alone
hear and see that we may be counted among them. Lord, we need your
grace and mercy to do it. For without you, we're nothing.
Lord, we pray that you would bless now our hearts as we take
of the Lord's supper, eating of his flesh, drinking his blood,
Lord. Lord, help us to think about
what we're doing, to remember our Lord, to give thanks for
what you've done for us. And Lord, bless our hearts, our
minds in this time of fellowship as we eat a meal together. Bless
the food to the nourishment of our bodies. We thank you for
the provision of it and pray that you bless it again, even
as we were blessed the first time under the conference. We
pray that you would give us that refreshing and that comfort,
that fellowship with our God. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right. Brother Joe, if you
would hand out. And I'll be reading from 1 Corinthians
11, verse 23. Paul said, for I have received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when
he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This
is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of
me. Verse 26, for as often as ye
eat this bread, oh, sorry, verse 25, after the same manner also
he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament
of my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, Blessed Assurance, 255, Blessed Assurance. It assures it, Jesus is mine. Who would afford taste of glory
divine? Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight Angels descending
bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission,
all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above. Filled with His goodness, lost
in His love. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. Thank you.