I have been struggling just a
little bit with the opening of this message. Well, that song
was just so perfect. That was my opening. Because
what we're getting ready to do is look at the story of Gideon. And it is a story about how God
saves sinners. And these sinners are not just
sinners, they're vile sinners. And we can go as far to say they
are evil. They are evil. That's our story,
we're evil. And in that song that he just
sung, he sung about how good God is to Israel. And if that's what we can leave
with from this message, boy, we will have been blessed. Our
story is a story about Gideon, and I've entitled this message
Gideon's Gospel. It is a story about sinners. And as I said, not just sinners,
but vile sinners, about evil, evil sinners. If you tell a man,
or if you ask a man, are you a sinner? Well, yeah, yeah, I'm
a sinner. Are you a vile sinner? Are you
evil? But we're talking about men who
are evil. We are born evil by birth. The wicked is estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. That's me. We are born evil by
nature. Paul says we are by nature the
children of wrath. We are by nature evil. And I
think maybe the most condemning and the hardest is that we are
evil by choice. Job says that we drink iniquity
like water. Now, we are not just born evil,
but we are also born blind. We thought we knew God. We thought we knew the truth. And we were also in the bondage
of religion. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, and that's the way that we went. It was a way that
seemed right. But God, but God, God the Lord
sent us a faithful gospel preacher. And that preacher did two things,
and we're gonna see it in their text. First, he tore down the
false gods that was in our heart. And then secondly, he preached
Jesus Christ and him crucified, the true God. And that is gonna
be our message tonight. Now our text is from Jude, I'm
sorry, Judges chapter six. But if you would, I want you
to first begin in Judges chapter two. And I know our text was
really long. We're not going verse by verse
tonight. In Judges chapter two, just briefly,
look at verse 11. The children of Israel did evil
in the sight of the Lord and served Balaam. Look with me at
chapter three and verse seven. The children of Israel did evil
in the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and
served Balaam and the groves." Look at verse 12, same chapter.
And the children of Israel again did evil again in the sight of
the Lord. And then Judges chapter 4, verse
1. And the children of Israel again
did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now turn to our text, Judges
chapter six. And let us read the first verse.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. and the Lord delivered them in
the hands of the Midianites seven years. I told you that this was
our story. How many times before this had
Israel murmured and did evil in the sight of the Lord? How
many times did Israel murmur and complain against Moses and
against God. Time and time and time again,
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now, that is our
story. Now look, let's read verses two
through six. And the hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel, And because of the Midianites and the children
of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains and
caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had
sown that the Midianites came up and the Amalekites and the
children of the east, even they came up against them. And they
had camped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth, till
thou come to Gaza, and left no substance for Israel, neither
sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle
and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for a multitude.
For both they and their camels were without number, and they
entered into the land to destroy it. Verse six, and Israel was
greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. And the children
of Israel cried unto the Lord. Notice with me in verse four,
it says that they had no substance. Who had no substance? The covenant
people of God had no substance. These that were chosen by God
the Father and given to his son were greatly impoverished. They were hungry. They had nothing
to eat. They were naked. They had nothing
to wear. And we ask, why were they so
impoverished? Well, they were impoverished
from verse three because of the Midianites. and of the Amalekites
and the children of the East. These were idolaters who had
come to take all that they had. And is it not true that in our
day that there are idolaters that come to take what we have? They come to take, and this is
what they ask. They want to tell you what you
must do for God, and not what God must do for the sinner. You turn your TV on, and they'll
take, and they'll take, and they'll take. These are idolaters, and
they do not preach the living God. And not only are they idolaters,
And they take, but they give nothing. They give nothing to
the sinner. All they do is take. Turn with
me to Ezekiel chapter 34 for just a moment. I want to read verses one through
four and see if this is not the characteristics of what we see. And the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel,
prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord unto the shepherds,
woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves. Should
not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and you clothe
ye with the wool, you kill them, they are fed, but you feed not
the flock. The disease have you not strengthened,
neither have you healed that which was sick. Neither have
you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again
that which was driven away. Neither have you sought that
which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have you ruled
them. That is the nature of these Midianites
and of these Amalekites and those who preach another gospel. Now, not only are they false
preachers and false prophets, but also notice what it says
in verse 5. For they came up with their cattle
and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for a multitude. For both they and their camels
were without number, and they entered the land to destroy it. Have you ever seen so many preachers
in the land? They are like grasshoppers. They are everywhere. Everywhere
you look, when we bought this building, we moved in, this fellow's
a neighbor, his son's a neighbor. You hire out the work, they come
in, well, their son's a neighbor, their brother's a preacher, and
their son's a preacher. We call the inspector, he's a
preacher. Everywhere you go, somebody's
a preacher. You go to work, he's a preacher,
and he's a preacher, and he's a preacher. One time, me and
Rita, we was having our driveway paved, and it was a family. They
come together, maybe 15 of them, and they was paving our driveway,
and I got to talking to them. Well, he was a preacher, and
well, that one was a preacher, and that was a preacher, and
that was a preacher, but their wives were preachers. And I thought,
well, who in the world sits and listens? They were all preachers.
but they're like grasshoppers. They are like grasshoppers and
they cover the land and they come to take and to consume that
which belongs to the children. I feel sorry for Gabe and I feel
sorry for any other man who has to go out them doors and say
that I'm a pastor or I'm a preacher and that's a terrible thing to
say because I am afraid somebody Affiliate me with all of these
grasshoppers. What a terrible name. And what
a terrible thing they have done to the name of Christ and his
gospel. But, there's another issue. The Lord, let's read verse eight. Verse seven, and it came to pass
when the children, when Israel cried unto the Lord because of
the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children
of Israel. About 11 years ago, the Lord
sent a prophet to Kingsport. And did you know, in the last
several years, the Lord has sent a prophet to Sarasota. And here,
back in the fall, I was privileged to go with Gabe down to southern
Arkansas. And there I met a man named Joe,
who lives in Springfield, Missouri. And they are hoping for a work
to be begun there. And you know what he talked to
me about? He talked to me about the grasshoppers. He talked to
me about false religion. He talked to me about the bondage
that he had been under. And you know what he desired?
He desired that the Lord would send them a gospel preacher.
And I'm so thankful to say tonight that here in just a couple of
weeks that we're going to get to send our pastor to Springfield,
Missouri, to preach the gospel. Come, you children, hearken unto
me, and I will teach you to fear the Lord. Read verse 10. Read
verse 10. And I say unto you, and this
is the prophet, this is his message, and I say unto you, I am the
Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. And then Psalm 34, it tells us,
come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the
fear of the Lord. You see, these Israelites, They
feared the God of the Amorites. And they feared the God of this
world. But did you know that the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom? The second message
that was preached here in Kingsport, I'll never forget it. The title
of that message was free will or free grace. free will or free
grace. And do you know what our dear
Pastor Finn was doing? He was tearing down the God of
free will that he might declare the God of free grace. Now, we don't have enough time
for to go through 11 verses 11 down to verse 24, but we will
pick up at verse 25. And verse 11 through 24 is the
calling of Gideon. This is the Lord who comes to
him. We read there before the message
how the Lord come to Gideon and he called him up. But I want
you to look at what the Lord has called Gideon to do. Let's
read verses 25 and 26. And it came to pass, verse 25, And it came to pass the same
night that the Lord said unto him, unto Gideon, take thy father's
young bullock, even the seventh bullock of seven years, 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 has cut down. Now there's one thing we
want to note about these false images that were built. This is who Israel thought God
was. You know what an image is? An
image is something that you imagine. It's something you think. And
from that image comes an idol. So you build what you think. And these people had built who
they thought God was. They imagined God was a certain
way, and that's how they made him. Isaiah 55, 8 says, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are my ways thy ways. You see,
these men were blind to who God really was. They thought that
they were right. If you, let me turn over here
and read this. This is the last verse in the
book of Judges. It says, in those days, and this
is talking about the time of Judges. It says, in those days
there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which
was right in its own eyes. They thought this was right. This idol that they had built
and this grove which is a goddess, they thought that's who God was.
That's who they thought who God was. Well, Gideon is called to
do two things. Tear down the false image. tear down. They thought they
were right in their imagination, but God called Gideon. The first
thing to do is tear down the false god. There's no compromise. Gideon could have went in and
built an altar here beside those gods. And they would have got
along just fine. Things would have been just fine.
But God said, you tear down, and this is for the sake of Israel.
This is for the sake of God's elect. You go and you tear down
the false idol. And in that place, you build
an altar. So that's the first thing. Well,
notice the reaction of the people. Verses 28 through 30. And when the men of the city
arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down
and the grove was cut down that was by it. And the second bullet
was offered upon the altar that was built. And they said one
to another, who have done this thing? And when they inquired
and asked, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, had done this
thing. Then the men of the city said
unto Joash, bring out thou son that he may die, because he has
cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down
the grove that was by it. When the gospel preacher comes,
and he preaches the gospel, it makes men angry. When he reveals
to us the truth and when he tears down our God that we had from
our youth, it hurts. It's violent. The kingdom of
heaven is taken with violence. And it is, it's violent. If you
could see what goes on in the heart of a man when he's first
hearing the gospel, when he's first hearing who God is, he
don't like God. He likes the God he had, not
the God of the Bible. Every man in his mind is at enmity
against God. We, by nature, have wrong thoughts
of who God is. And until the gospel preacher
comes and declares to us from his word who God is, then we'll
never know him. And when he does, unless God
be merciful and give us a heart to receive it, we'll not like
him. And then the people's reaction,
of course, that they were angry and that they were violent. And
this would be a terrible place to stop. Because, but God, when he tore
down that altar, when he tore down those idols to those false
gods, he was to build something else. He was to build an altar
unto the Lord. Read verse 26. 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 sacrifice with the wood of
the grove which thou has cut down. Why was this bullock slain? Why was this Bullock killed upon
this altar? Was it just a bull? It is because God had a covenant
people and who had done evil in his sight. And you see this
Bullock is Gideon's gospel. This Bullock is Gideon preaching
Christ and him crucified. You know, we read of all of those
evildoers time and time again. And just like you, when I read
those verses, the children of Israel, I think of a whole nation.
I think of millions of people, millions. And I think of millions
of evildoers. But did you know that there was
one among them who was numbered with the transgressors who had
no sin? all of those evildoers in Israel,
but there's one who's been numbered with them. But you say this is
800 years before the Lord came. You're looking the wrong way.
He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was
given for his covenant people. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bear the sins of many. He hath purged, he hath poured
out his soul unto death for us. That bullock that was sacrificed
on that altar by Gideon is our Lord Jesus Christ who was given
in our stead. Now, do you know all of those
evil people? that done evil in the sight of
the Lord. Did you know that when that bullock
is sacrificed, that they become the righteousness of God, that
all their sins are put away. And just like Gabe sung there
at the beginning of this service, all God's goodness It's up on
them. They do evil, and they do evil,
and they've done evil, and they've done evil. But the Lord has put
away our sin, and he in mercy and grace and goodness has nothing
but goodness for his people. He was made sin. We knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God. I didn't take notes on
this. I didn't think that would get
this far. But that's the message. But I do want to tell you one
other thing if I could have, but I didn't. If we would have
went into chapter 7, you know what we would have seen? We would
have seen how the people were gathered with Gideon, 32,000
of them. And they were going to go up
against the Midianites. And the Lord looked and said,
Gideon, there's too many of you. You know why He said that? Unless
Israel doubts themselves and say that they saved themselves.
You see, when God comes to save the sinner, and when He gets
done saving us, All the glory is going to go to him. Every
sinner that he saves, he's going to say, salvation's of the Lord.
Salvation's of the Lord. But anyway, that's our message
tonight. Amen.