That's very mutual, too, that
Michelle and I really do like you. We not only love you, but
we do like you, brethren. And we look forward to coming
out here and spending time with you and all the brethren, getting
to see many of you again and some of you for the first time.
So I'm thankful to be out here. And I thank the Lord for that. Let's turn to Judges chapter
nine. Judges chapter nine. It's gonna
be after Joshua. Before Ruth and first and second
Samuel, it's right in there. Judges chapter nine. Now, this
is a long chapter. There's a lot of lessons that
the children of God are blessed to learn from Judges chapter
nine, but I wanna focus our attention on some words that I think will
encourage you as brethren, as a young flock together. Now, I know you've been together
for a long time, but a young flock with your pastor that the
Lord has sent you. There's a need for us to have
our hearts knit together as brethren, as brethren that the Lord gathers
and calls out of the world and out from other places and brings
them together as one, even with the pastor. And there's a knitting
of the hearts that the Lord works in his people. as he's establishing
you in that most holy faith, which he's given to us and caused
us to hear and to believe. Now, this book of Judges, since
I've not preached to you a message from this thing, and I haven't
said these things before, this book of Judges records the history,
the early history of the nation of Israel. And that word judge
simply means savior. Savior. The Lord raised up saviors
in Israel to deliver them from the hands of their enemies. And
these judges, these saviors, are pictures of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We see how that he delivers us,
he provides for us, he takes us out of the hand of our enemies
that would destroy us and gives us peace. Peace. in our Savior, peace with our
God, peace from our enemies, and peace with one another. And so most of the chapters in
the book of Judges were actually given a name, the name of a judge. And we're given details of how
the Lord raised up that particular judge and how he brings them
oftentimes from mean and low circumstances and difficulties
that the Lord blesses them through in spite of those things and
uses them to deliver his people, Israel. And so this chapter is
a bit different from all those other chapters and judges in
that there's no judge named. There's no particular judge named. And yet we see how that the Lord
blesses his church and delivers his church out of the hand of
her enemies who would destroy her. And so let's see this here. Let's begin now. At the beginning
of this chapter, we actually meet a man who is named and his
name is Abimelech. And Abimelech is a trouble to
the church. He thought very highly of himself. He thought he was all that and
that he was something special and he was gonna make himself
special to the people. He was gonna make a name for
himself among the people. And we can probably picture people
like this. We can think of somebody, but
so few times do we realize that it's our own selves. We're the
trouble. We can be just as much of a trouble
as anybody else. And so we pray, Lord, help me
to hear this. Help me not to hear it for someone
else, but help me to hear what I need to hear. because you teach
your people and none of us is exempt from any of these things. We need to hear Christ and hear
your gospel and believe your word of promise, which you make
to us, which you've made to me. Help me to hear that word, which
you've given to your people. Now, Abimelech was like the other
judges in that he was a person of low degree, if you will. He
was the son of a mother from Shechem, and this woman was a
concubine of Gideon. And you know of Gideon, and there's
many beautiful pictures of Christ in the accounts that were given
of Gideon at various stages and how the Lord used him. There's
blessed pictures there. And Abimelech was an illegitimate
son of Gideon. He was born out of wedlock to
Gideon's concubine. And when Abimelech grew up, he
goes to his mother's side of the family. And he has a conversation
with his mother's side of the family, people close to him on
his mother's side. And let's look at verse two.
He says to these men, to his brethren in the flesh, he says,
I pray you in the ears of all the men of Shechem, whether is
better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubael, and that's
another name for Gideon, Jerubael meaning, let Baal plead with
him. That's what his daddy said when
they were gonna put Gideon to death for destroying the idol.
of their little town there, and they wanted to put Gideon to
death. And his father said, let Baal plead against him. If he's
got a problem with him, let Baal take care of him. You don't lay
a hand on him. And so he got the name Jerubaal,
which means let Baal plead. And so that ended it because
Baal's a false god. He's an idol god that can do
nothing. And Drubail's sons were seventy. Three score and ten
persons. Seventy persons. Shall they reign
over you or is it better that one reign over you? Remember
this also. I am your bone and your flesh. Now, here's the issue with that.
This man was making an argument, which some would call a sucker's
choice. He was presenting them with two
options. He said, you guys got to choose one of these things.
Either they rule over you or you have me, who's of your own
flesh and blood, rule over you. And that's a sucker's choice
because the whole thing was based on a lie. It was all based on
made up facts that weren't true at all. Look up at Judges 8.23.
823 and Gideon said unto them, I
will not rule over you. They wanted Gideon to be their
king. He said, Nope, I'm not going to rule over you. Neither
shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you. But here we see that Abimelech
didn't listen to his father. He didn't care to hear what his
father said. He heard only what he wanted to hear. And so he
began to steer things that would be favorable to him. didn't hear his father's word,
he heard what he wanted to hear, and he began to orchestrate and
to steer things that would favor him. And these men of Shechem
gave their ear to Abimelech's voice. And the issue is that
they themselves were idolaters. They weren't hearing the Word
of God, they didn't trust the Lord, they were listening to
the voice of this imposter here. And so If you looked at Judges
8.33, it says, And so they were listening to the voice of other
gods. They were listening to voices that they ought not to
listen to. And so this whole insurrection, was founded upon lies and things
that weren't even true, things that weren't even valid or necessary
to worry about. They were just getting caught
up in things not profitable, not profitable for Israel, the
people of God. And so they helped him. They
began to give him aid. They gave him some money out
of the Temple of Baal Beereth, I think 70 shekels of silver,
and he goes and hires other vain people like unto himself. And
we're told in verse 5 that he went unto his father's house
in Ophrah and slew his brethren, all his half-brothers, the sons
of Jerubael, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone. Notwithstanding, yet Jotham,
the youngest son of Jerubael, was left, for he hid himself. And then Jotham was raised up
of the Lord to go and preach the gospel. He declared to them
the word of God and gave them warning that what they were doing
was not right. It was wrong. He went and and
declared to them the truth. In verse seven, we're told that
he went up on Mount Gerizim and he raised his voice and asked
them to hear what he had to say. And basically in verse 19 and
20, he said, if you've done that which is right, well then the
Lord bless you. Be happy. You go on and you be
happy and that's great. But if not, let fire come out
from Abimelech And devour the men of Shechem and the house
of Melo, and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from
the house of Melo, and devour Abimelech. Now, here's the thing,
and what we see is that the Lord is gonna bring that word to pass.
The Lord's gonna bring that word that he spoke to pass, and they're
gonna hear it and see that the Lord makes good on his promise. Now, here's the first lesson
that I wanna give you. This man, Abimelech, was of the
same family as his brothers on his father's side, and we're
told that he slew all these men on one stone. Now, it so happens
that this man himself is gonna be slain by one small stone being
dropped on his head, and he's gonna die from that stone, but
not before he wreaks great havoc in Israel and causes much harm
and much pain and much suffering in Israel. So what are we to
learn from this account as a body, as the church of the Lord's people? You here that the Lord has assembled
are a gathered people. You are the sheep of the Lord. You're his people and he has
made choice of you to gather you out of all the families of
the earth and out of the things that you were doing and brought
you together here as an assembled body of the Lord's people. And you could say that we have
different mothers, if you will. Some of us come from different
parts of the country. Some of us came up through different
types of families. Some of us are men and women.
Some of us have different education levels. We have different socioeconomic
backgrounds, some coming from wealth, some coming from poverty,
some coming from great difficulties, some coming from fairly easy
lives. We're all different. We have
different mothers, but our father is the same. We have one father. and we're brethren that the Lord
has assembled and brought together. And your father loves his people. He's chosen you and picked you
out on purpose and put you where he put you as it pleased him. And he's given you a pastor as
it pleased him. And he's brought him with all
his differences from another mother and brought you together
having one father. And the Lord's teaching us to
trust him, to believe him, even when there's difficulties, even
when there's challenges and hardships that arise, to believe your God. Don't put your trust in that
man, but put your trust in the Lord who gave you that man, that
he'll bless the word. And just like we see with Jotham,
who preached the word, who declared the truth of God, God brought
it to pass. after some time, not right away,
not quickly, but he brought it to pass. And the Lord does that
for you. He promises that he will bless
you. and keep you and is providing
for you. So wait patiently on the Lord,
trust him through all the difficulties, through all the hardships, trust
the Lord who has assembled you together. You know, I, being
from a new, fairly new work myself, I see my weaknesses. The Lord
teaches me how insufficient I am for this work, how unworthy I
am. And the Lord makes me painfully
aware of just how weak and insufficient I am. And I know the Lord does
that for your pastor as well. And he teaches me through foolishness
and through weaknesses and through saying things that maybe aren't
the best things to say or the right way to say it. But the
Lord is still teaching his people and the Lord is teaching your
pastor and the Lord is knitting your hearts together. Wait on
him. You know, I was thinking about
Paul. And when you hear of Paul's beginnings,
that man was tearing things up out there. I mean, there's people
getting angry. They wanted to put him to death.
They were ready to to be done with Paul. where he was. And then the Lord sent him away
for three years in Arabia and Damascus before Barnabas came
and found him and brought him up to Jerusalem to meet the apostles
again. And it took time for Paul's rough
edges to smooth out. You know, you brethren have to
endure with us growing up right before your eyes. We don't get
to go away into Arabia and disappear for a while till we learn some
things. We're learning them with you, with you. So be patient,
trust the Lord, trust the Lord that he sent this man and it's
for your good and it's for his good and he's brought you together. Now like we see in this passage,
there's going to be issues that come up. In this passage it's
described as one stone. Like I said, Abimelech is going
to be destroyed by one small stone. And this one stone here,
that sounds similar to that stone that takes Abimelech out, meaning
it looks like the gospel. It seems important. And he slays
all his brethren from his father on one stone. And what I see
there is that issues come up, an important issue, an issue
that's important to somebody, and they make an issue out of
it, and they're ready to just take everybody out on that one
stone, over that one issue. And that's what happens. Sometimes
we see things. We come and think this is important. This is the most important thing
right now. And this has to be this way.
And we see how much damage this man Abimelech did. So in other
words, let us not make an issue out of something that isn't the
gospel, but let us trust the Lord and be patient waiting upon
him. Paul said, for if you bite and
devour one another, Take heed that you be not consumed one
of another. This I say, then walk in the
spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Because, you know, we think that
we're doing right. And I've done this many times.
We think this is important. I'm ready to die on this hill.
I'm ready to die on this rock. And it's not that important.
It's not because it takes our eyes off of Christ. It takes
our eyes off of Him who is most glorious and precious to us,
the one thing needful, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us find peace
and harmony on Him who loved us and Him who gathered us and
blesses us and feeds us with His words. And so it's hard,
it's hard to wait on the Lord. But he addresses everything through
the preaching of the gospel, through declaring Christ to us,
and repeating that word, and reminding us again and again
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he makes that most precious
to us. And at first it isn't. At first
we think this is important and I need to hear about this and
I need to hear about that. But over time, the Lord settles
his sheep under that one message and our ear tunes to our pastor's
voice and we get used to hearing him and how he says things and
all the mannerisms that distracted us begin to fall away. And we
just hear Christ and we're made thankful so that all the issues
fall away and Christ is made precious unto us. We're made
healthy. It's nourishing us. It strengthens
us It calms us down and and settles us and we thank God Lord I'm
so thankful that you didn't let me get taken away with that thing
or Removed from that and I didn't go off in a huff over that thing
But you kept me here just looking to my Savior and blessing my
heart and I see how you bless the hearts of my brethren and
Lord, thank you. And it's made precious and it
endures for not only for you, but for your children and for
your grandchildren and for others that the Lord brings here. And
it's precious because there's peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if brother Kevin
ever said this to you, but he said it to me last night about
how in the army, everybody ate MREs. And the good thing about
that is that everybody ate the same food. And so everybody smelled
the same. No one smelled any worse than
the other and no one smelled any better than the other. They
all smelled the same because they were eating literally the
same exact food. And that's really a blessing
for us here because we're all feeding upon that same gospel. Nevertheless, whereunto you have
attained, let us mind the same thing. Let us be fed with that
same word and rejoice together with the Lord's feeding us, because
then none of us smells better or worse than another. We're
all sinners, saved by the grace of God." And so we see that there. And our Lord reminds us, and
as much as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it unto me. So how we treat one another is
how we treat the Lord. And he makes us to know that
and to understand that more and more. And so hearken, hearken
unto the voice of the Lord who gives you a pastor to preach
this gospel time in and time out again and again day in day
out each and every service that same message and he's growing
him and instructing him and he's growing you and instructing you
And be patient, because the Lord teaches him more and more every
day. And I can attest to it that I
don't think I'm ever going to arrive. I'm never going to be
satisfied with what I know or how I say it. But I trust the
Lord to give his people what they have need of hearing. So
believe him. Believe the Lord. Trust him.
Love your brethren. Let that love that you have be
without dissimulation. Meaning don't love one another
with hypocrisy, but in sincerity. And you know your own heart.
And I can tell you, I know my own heart, and that means I go
to the Lord. to pray and confess my own sin,
confess my own weakness, to pray for my brethren, to help me because
I have need of loving my brethren and loving them sincerely. I
don't know how to do that, except the Lord teach me and instruct
me and humble me and bring me low in myself so that I'm looking
up to see that my brethren are better than me. They are better
than me. That's by the grace of God that
teaches us that and makes us to know it. Be kindly affection
one to another with brotherly love and honor preferring one
another. Paul said to the Ephesians, walk
with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering for bearing
one another in love. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake. hath forgiven
you. And I was talking to one of you,
you, you brethren here, and who confessed the Lord got me off
the couch and brought me here. And, and he did the same for
me. There was a time where I sat on the couch for many years and
you read of love. It's, and you find it's really,
I love my brethren. Yeah, because you're never around
them. It's real easy to love people that you're never around,
but when you assemble together, you begin to not only rub shoulders,
but you kind of bump into one another. And sometimes you knock
one another over, or you're back into them, or you step on someone's
toes. That's where you're learning.
to love one another and learning to forgive one another. And you
only learn to forbear one another when you're forbearing one another.
You're only long-suffering to your brethren when you're suffering
long with your brethren. And knowing what I am in myself,
I see how the Lord is suffering long with me. and is patient
with me and is kind toward me and speaks peaceably to me. And that's how he speaks to us
in the gospel. And in all those other issues
and rough things that bother us or trouble us about another,
suddenly they don't, or they're just not important. And we realize,
I'm doing the same thing to my brethren. I'm bothering them
too. I'm not perfect. And so the Lord teaches us that. That's how we learn to love one
another. When there's things to love in spite of what we don't
love. And we learn by the grace of
God in that manner. So remember one another. Pray for one another. Pray for
your pastor, pray for your pastor's wife, pray for your pastor's
children. It's not easy to live under a
microscope, if you will. And they're no different from
you at all. And you're no different from
them. It's just they're the pastor and the pastor's family. But
be patient because the Lord has brought you together. for purpose
and blesses it. He will bring that word to pass. You'll see it. You'll see him
bring that word just as he brought Jotham's word to pass. By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love
one to another. I can think of no greater testimony
than for a congregation to love one another, to be at peace with
one another, to strive for that peace, and to strive that the
gospel be preached here faithfully, consistently, exalting the Lord
Jesus Christ over and over again. We're going to see that more
and more in this passage here in Judges 9. So verse 22 tells
us that Abimelech was ruling over Israel for three years. Three years. That means that
the issue wasn't fixed right away. In the first or second
Sunday, it wasn't fixed and resolved right away. It was for three
years that this particular thing had to be worked out and smoothed
out and the issue removed and dealt with fully by the Lord,
by the Lord doing it. Because again, there's no one
judge. There's no judge named here. It's just preaching Christ,
preaching Christ. And he settles you and teaches
you over the years. Now, The account that we're given
here is that this fire that this Jotham, this young man Jotham
spoke of is gonna come out of Abimelech and devour the men
of Shechem, and it's gonna come out of the men of Shechem and
devour Abimelech. And so real quickly, if you drop
down to verse 46 through 49 there, what it's telling us is that
Abimelech, the Lord gave Abimelech a bitter spirit towards these
men, and the men had a bitter spirit towards Abimelech, and
they got sick of him, and they were ready to be done with him
and appoint a new king. And so Abimelech breaks through
their defenses and he tears it down, and these men have retreated
to the Tower of Shechem. And we actually find out that
this tower of Shechem was actually dedicated to the house of the
god Bereth, Baal Bereth, a false god. And so we see there that
a false refuge is no refuge at all. It's going to come down.
It's going to be found to be worthless, worthless. You that
would put your hope and trust in other things than the Lord
Jesus Christ, it's no refuge for you. You that look to the
law, the law is no refuge for you. It cannot save you, it cannot
deliver you in the day of wrath. Lead to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Abimelech comes up to
that tower and he gets down a branch and he lays that branch up against
the door of that tower. And he tells his people with
him, you do just like you saw me do. And they lay branches
to that door and they set it on fire and burn the whole thing
down. And we're told at the end of
verse 49 that all the men of the Tower of Shechem died also,
about a thousand men and women. And so the Lord, after three
years, brings to pass this word of prophecy. And it's a picture. there that the Lord, over time,
brings to you the blessings of Christ. He shows you and affirms
to you over time in the preaching of the gospel, you just trust
him, but he reveals to you all the spiritual blessings. of the
Lord Jesus Christ, made unto you of the Father, given to you
by God. That's where the Lord meets with
his people and blesses his people, feeding them Christ, Christ,
and blessing them in Christ. But he does it over time. We
don't get everything and all understanding all at one time.
He teaches us over time, like we saw this morning, through
various trials, through various temptations, through various
afflictions, through low times and good times, fellowshipping
together, He's instructing us and making us to know everything
we have is in Christ. And we know that of a fact, of
a truth, because He's convinced us of this in our hearts and
he assures us through his gospel that he's all our salvation and
he's the one that destroys all our enemies. Trust him. Wait
upon him. Now, after Abimelech destroys
the men of Shechem, he gets even more cocky and he decides to
go after others and we're told in verse 50, Then went Abimelech
to Thebes, and encamped against Thebes, and took it. Now this
city is near Shechem, and we don't know why he turned his
eye upon Thebes, except it must have stuck out to him. In fact,
the name Thebes means conspicuous. It means conspicuous. So this
city was conspicuous to him, and the root word means brightness. It means brightness. The way
a fuller would bleach white fine linen and wash it white so that
it catches your eye. You know, when I was younger,
and you kids, you listen up to this. When I was younger, the
great thing to do, the wonderful thing was when you got a new
pair of sneakers. I think some people call them
tennis shoes. We call them sneakers in the Northeast. And I wanted
bright white sneakers. That was the thing to have. I
think today they get blues and yellows and reds, but white sneakers
was the thing to have because you could run faster and jump
higher when you had white sneakers, bright white sneakers, and they
were eye-catching. You really popped when you walked
into the room with those white sneakers. Well, this city here
was made white. It's eye-catching. And it caught
the interest of Abimelech, their enemy. And he decides, I'm gonna
go and destroy them the way I destroyed the men of Shechem. And so this
city here pictures you, who are the church of God. It pictures
the church of God, the ones that he's assembled together. Our
Savior says, you are the light of the world. And a city that
is set on a hill cannot be hid. It's conspicuous, it stands out,
and it catches the eye of your enemy. And we're not unaware
of the works and the vices of the enemy, how he sows deceit,
how he sows friction and makes issues out of things that are
no issues at all. And he causes trouble where he
will. But Paul says, we know, we know what he does. We know
how these things work. Let us be mindful of our Savior.
Let us trust the Savior. Let us look to Christ and let
us hear the gospel again and again and again. And now we're
told here in Judges 9 51 verse 51 that there was a strong tower
within that city. Now so far, everything's shaping
up the way we saw it shape up in Shechem, where the remaining
people fled to that tower. And yet we know it didn't work
out for them. They were burned down and they were all destroyed
there. So the one significant difference
in this though, is that their hope is not a false God. Their
hope is the true and living God. And you that are assembled here,
your hope is Christ. Remember that. You're not saved
by other things. You're not saved by your knowledge
and your wisdom of how this world works. You're saved by Christ
and you're kept by Christ. He is our strong tower. The scriptures call our Savior
and our salvation a strong tower. Psalm 18 verse 2 says, the Lord
is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength
in whom I will trust. My buckler, that means he keeps
you secure and keeps you in. He's the one wrapped around you,
keeping you. He's like a belt or a girdle
or a harness. And the horn or the strength
of my salvation and my high tower. And Proverbs 18, verse 10, both
of them, Psalm 18 and Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18, 10 says, the
name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth
into it and is safe. And so the Lord has allowed this
to come in, to enter in. Again, to affirm to you, to show
his people, there will be troubles, there will be friction and difficulties,
to show you who is approved of the Lord, to show you that his
gospel word is your salvation, that Christ is all and he's the
one thing important. So don't be surprised. I won't
be surprised if there's issues that have risen up. to show you
over and over again, Christ is the one thing needful. And we
got distracted with this and we got distracted with that,
but Christ is the one thing needful. That's what blesses my heart.
As many of you said this morning, just preach the gospel, show
me Christ, just declare to me again and again, that simple
message, how that Christ is all my righteousness, how that he
loved me and gave himself for me, how that I have no righteousness
of my own, but God is merciful to me for Christ's sake and he's
brought me here. and be merciful and compassionate
to me and is gracious to me and not only to me, but to my brethren
also. And I'm thankful for what the
Lord is doing here. That thankful heart rises up
out of seeing how the Lord blesses his people and comforts us and
keeps us through all the difficulties and challenges that arise up.
And I can tell you, it's not just you, it's every church. All these afflictions and trials
come up in every church, and they're brought to see Christ
is the one thing needful. And so we see Peter writes it
this way, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than a gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Now who's praising who? This
is us seeing, right? The Lord isn't proving faith
to see if you have faith. This is the Lord proving that
faith so that you know he's the one that gave it, and that he's
the only one that gives it, and that he's the one that keeps
you. that trial that we go through, and when we endure it, we see
God has kept me, that he's the one that's delivered me, that
he's the one who's revealing himself to me so that I would
know that he is all my salvation. And he's proving it to you. He's
proving it to you that it's given to you from him. It's his gift
unto you. Now, looking at verse 52 and
53, Abimelech came unto the tower,
and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower,
to do what? To burn it with fire. This vicious
raging man was now going to destroy them the way he destroyed others.
And he thinks, I've got it. This is it. I'm going to burn
them up just like I burned the people of Shechem. And so you
can imagine these people are in a tower. It looked hopeless.
It seemed this is it. This is going to be our end.
We're done for. We're ruined now. We're brought
to the end of it all. But we'll see here how that the
Lord uses the weak things and the base things and things which
are not to bring to nothing the things that are. As far as this
flesh is concerned, this is it. Abimelech has succeeded in his
evil endeavor to destroy this people. But the Lord's gonna
turn it over, right? When the enemy comes in like
a flood, he lifts up the standard. He preaches Christ. He declares
the gospel, and that drives back the enemy. and turns the enemy
away and causes them to flee away in an instant, suddenly.
And it says in verse 53 that a certain woman cast a piece
of a millstone upon Abimelech's head and all to break his skull. Now, who is this certain woman? She is the bride of Christ. She pictures the bride of Christ. John, the apostle John, in his
second epistle, when writing to the church, called her the
elect lady and her children. You are that certain woman. You are that woman whose ear
listens to the voice of her husband, her Savior, by whom you bear
fruit, by whom you trust. You don't listen to the voice
of Moses. You don't listen to the voice
of others. Christ is your husband. and you hear his word and his
instruction and his words of comfort to you and your keeping. It's all Christ our husband. She's the certain woman. And
now this word certain is often translated in the scriptures
as one. The word one is used. And it
signifies one of a kind, a peculiar one, a certain one. For example,
when God created Eve out of Adam's side, we're told that he took
one of his ribs. The Lord took one of his ribs,
a certain rib. That's the same word. And when
a man marries a wife, it's as when God brought Eve to Adam
and they became one. One flesh. A one-of-a-kind union
that God has brought together. Now this is a great mystery,
but Paul said, I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is
the church of Christ and she is precious to him. He has chosen
her out of all the others and loved her and draws her to him. And that's what the Lord does
for you that believe you are chosen of him. You are precious
to him. You are a peculiar people. a
people whom he loves, a people whom he laid down his life for,
bearing the insult of men whom he created, bearing the pain
of the cross and the torture of the cross, bearing the fiery
wrath of God for you whom he loves. And so nothing is too
great for him. He gives whole nations for his
people. He blesses his people. All things
are working together for your good, because God has called
you according to purpose, His purpose, to bless you, to feed
you, to nourish you. He's never going to let that
go. He's never going to leave you
to starve. He's never going to abandon you
nor forsake you. He'll never leave you. He's brought
you together. Trust Him through the trials.
Trust Him through all the difficulties. He's purposed it for your good. Now this certain woman possessed
the rock of her salvation, which is pictured in this piece of
the millstone. That rock is Christ. He is our
one defense. He is our one deliverer. He is
our salvation. He is the rock, the rock of our
salvation. and he's the one who delivers
his people. This picture's here, the declaration
of the gospel. That's all you're called to do,
brother, is preach the gospel, preach Christ, lift Christ up.
He is the rock, and he's the one that crushes the head of
the enemy. That's how we're instructed,
that's how we're taught. He is how we're kept, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is made precious to us, made precious more and
more because we see every time that there was trouble and difficulty,
the one who carried us through was Christ. The one who delivered
us from the trouble was Christ. The one who kept us is Christ. And it's learned through experience,
through years, through weeks and each service being brought
together to hear Christ again and again. And we're told that
this stone was a small piece. This woman didn't have much,
but she had the one thing needful, the one thing needful. And you
whose faith is but the size of a mustard seed, you have everything
you need. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's all
that you need. He's all your salvation. He's
all your robe of righteousness. He's the full dress that gained
you entrance into that wedding feast so that you may sit down
at the table with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, with Paul
and Peter and the other brethren and so many that we are thankful
for that went before us. You're gonna be right there in
the same spot at the table robed in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ, because he's everything to you and he's made everything
to you. Even if all you have today is
a small little piece of the stone and you think, I don't have nothing
compared to what others have. Nope. He's everything you need. It was enough for this woman
to deliver her from her enemy with that, that one piece of
a millstone, which is which is the gospel. It just pictures
the gospel, the preaching, the declaration, the proclamation
of Christ, who has delivered us and that he is enough. No,
no, I don't need anything more. I don't need to turn to the law.
I don't need anything more than what I've been given of my God,
which is his son, Jesus Christ. He's sufficient for me. He's
enough. Now this certain woman, she ran
to that strong tower which was raised for her defense and by
the word of his power dropped upon the head of her enemies.
He was scattered and ran and had nothing on her anymore. He
couldn't do any more harm to her. He died. In fact, look at
verse 57. And when the men of Israel saw
that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place. And just like that, it was over.
It was so terrifying, so fearful. We thought, this is it. And then
suddenly, it's not anything. It's over. The Lord has delivered
his people once again through the preaching of the gospel.
So I say that to encourage you, brethren, even when times are
hard, because you're going to go through difficulties, and
you're going to go through trials, and there's going to be a rock
of an issue that seems so prominent and so deadly, but the Lord will
deliver you again and again through one way, the preaching of Christ,
the preaching of Christ. And though it be by feeble lips
and though it be not the best, well, most well-delivered message,
it's Christ. And that is enough to deliver
his people from the clutches of the enemy who would destroy
them and rend them and drive them apart and scatter them.
No, you shall be kept again and again by Christ, the great shepherd.
the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sins of His people
to deliver them from eternal death and ruin. when he bore
the fiery roasting wrath of God's fury upon him, which wasn't for
his sins, but for the sins of his people, born in him in his
own body. And he did that willingly, gladly,
to deliver you forever from death. And on you, that second death
hath no more power. You live in Christ. And so love
your brethren, love your brethren, be kind to them. In Missouri,
we're blessed to have one of our daughters that has children
lives there. And she has three grandsons, well, three sons,
grandsons for Michelle and I, and we love them and we get to
see them interacting. And in their living room, it's
kind of small, it's a small space and these, Boys, they run around
and they jump around and they play like boys do. Pretty rough. And they fly around real fast.
But their youngest brother, who's only one and a half, and since
the time he was just walking around, eight months old, I noticed
that they would be so careful around him, not because they
were looking, they just always had a sense that he must be right
here because it was such a small space. And so instead of flying
around, they would back up gently and they turn and always miss
him. I always thought this is it, they're gonna knock him over
and he never got knocked over because somehow they had this
sense to take care around their more feeble brother and took
care to not knock him over and send them flying. And that is
a good illustration for how we are to be. Even when we think
we're something, that's okay. I mean, the Lord will teach you,
but you just be gentle around your brethren and move slowly
and carefully, minding their needs and being careful for them
and love them. Love your brethren because through
it all, the Lord's going to bless you. And he's going to give each
one of you, wherever you are, exactly what you need to comfort
you and settle your hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray
the Lord bless that and that you trust him and the God of
all peace will bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Amen. I pray. Yeah, all right, let's
pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
again for your grace. And Lord, I pray that you would
instruct us, I need to hear this over and over again myself, to
be mindful of the brethren, my brethren, whom you also love
and are keeping them and providing for them. Lord, help me to have
that heart that you have for your people, because I need it.
I need your forgiveness and your care and love, and all your people
need care and love and kindness in Christ. Lord, I pray that
your gospel would endure here, that you would send forth your
faithful gospel from this pulpit year after year, and that you
would bless it to the hearts of your people, knit their hearts
together, establish them in Christ, help them to be mindful of these
things, of what preciousness they have in Christ, and that
people would not make issues out of things that are no issue
at all, that the one issue is Christ, and that he would be
everything to us From this day forward and forever, Lord, keep
us, because we're not ignorant of the devices of the enemy.
But Lord, you alone are our deliverer, and you alone are our keeper.
We ask this in Christ's name, amen.