For it is the law, and the law,
and the law, and the law This thing of receiving the Word
of God, you know, a couple of the brethren and I were talking
about rejoicing over the thought of Christ Himself preaching to
us of the gift of God, and what a blessing that can be. And we'll
be forced to say, concerning every single passage that deals
with it, some say, I'll just get a half of that. And tonight's message is certain,
you know, except for that, we will not even wait and we'll
leave this ocean of glory here. Well, the purpose of this story
As with all the Scriptures, Paul said in Romans 15, what sort
of things are written for our learning that we through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope? The children of Israel here,
in this story, God's people, were in a seemingly hopeless
situation. I mean, they were in a mess.
And it was because of their own sin, of course. That's why they
got in this predicament. But we're going to see that they
had hope. They had a good hope. But God
helped their hope. And we got the same hope. All
right, look at the first six verses with us again. It says,
"...children of Israel will be equal in the sight of the Lord."
The Lord delivered them into the hands of Midian for seven
years. Seven years they were besieged
by this enemy. The hands of Midian were being
prevailed against Israel. It says they wailed in heathens
and mountains and caves and strongholds. That means the veil, that's what
we've been studying here in Matthew, will be revealed later. Remember
it says they wandered back and forth in heathens and mountains
and caves and heathens and so forth. Time will tell us the
veil will tell us heathens and so forth. That's who Paul referred
him to. Well, he's the Israelites, the
Jews. It said that, verse 3, the Midianites and the Malachites,
Jehovah's Witnesses, everybody was in Israel. Everybody was
in Israel. And camped against them, destroyed
the increase of the earth. It seemed like they just couldn't
get anywhere. When everybody's mind was destroyed. They just
stood by, didn't eat. And the enemies were without
hunger, it said. So many, and yet so few. And
Israel was greatly impoverished. There were four people immediately. Sinful people. Philadelphia. And the world was in Israel.
And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. All right, here they are. And
here we are. Right? Sinful people. Sin against the
Lord. Whatever befalls us, The world is against us, wandering,
dwelling in this world, strangers and pilgrims, sojourners, impoverished,
poor and needy, and yet believers cry unto the Lord, cry unto the
Lord. And what does the Lord do? Look
at verse 7 of that. It came to pass, when the children
of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, the
Lord sent a prophet, a preacher. This was the Lord's message to
those poor and needy and believers and troubled and tried and persecuted
and wandering people. He sent a preacher. Now I know
that this is God's people, you know. How do I know that? Because
just like Paul said of us, he said, I know, brethren, beloved,
your election of God, because our gospel came to us. And not
word only, but in power. Now Holy Ghost is much to that. And so I know this is God's people
here, because God sent God to them. He didn't send it to the
Midianites or the Amalekites or the people from the East.
He sent it to these people. These poor, needy people. All right? And look at what the Scripture
said to them. All He did, or all He said to them was to just
remind them of what God had done for them. Right? To just remind
them of what all God had done for them. He rehearsed the person
and work of God today. Look at it. Verse 8. And the
prophet said unto them, and the Lord said unto the prophet, and
the children of Israel said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel. Here's God's message to you.
I brought you up from Egypt. I chose you. I predestinated you. I called
you, I brought you forth out of the house of bondage, I delivered
you, I called you, I predestinated you, I called you, I justified
you, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians,
I ransomed you by my blood. And out of the hand of all that
oppressed you and dragged them out from before you, I took away
your sin, what it says it speaketh, and gave you there on earth everything
you have by my grace. From your cradle till now, everything
you are and have is by my grace. Now they, they have forgotten
the mercy of the Lord. And the prophet just reminds
them of God's past mercies to them. And like Barnard said,
anything inside of him, mercy. We have no cause for complaint
in whatever situation we get into, because God's been merciful
up to this point. Great mercy, abundant mercy. And if he stops it, if that's
a problem, there's no complaint. So what the Prophet does is just
remind them, now I've been rather good to you up to this point. And not one word of my promise
should fail you. Not one word. Your faith is faith. And you have faith. And I have
faith in my Father. Our God has faith in his Father.
And so he reminds them of all he has done for them. And surely
he will continue to do so. Verse 10, he said, I say of you,
and here's the thing that he most reminds him of. He said,
I say of you, I am the Lord your God. Hear me? I am. Hear me? I said I did. I told you. I didn't
say this to anybody. I didn't say this to anybody. I didn't say this to anybody
but you. Thou, Bethlehem, Bethlehem
Catholic, are very smallest among the nations. I didn't choose you because you
were more than me, but you were the least. Another place said,
because the Lord died for God and loved him dearly, therefore
he chastened him, because he chastened him. But the Lord says unto his people,
the Lord reveals himself unto his people. He said, I tell you,
I am not, fear not. I didn't tell that to anybody. And I know about all these people
in the world today who say, who claim, that Christ never said
he was God. And he didn't speak to it. He hasn't spoken to it. He hasn't
revealed himself to everyone, but he's revealed himself to
everyone. And what he's told us was the same thing. I know you're not. Most don't
believe Christ is God. That's why he never said so,
but he says that plainly to his people. He said, I know. Opened
up again and said, I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the door. I am the break. I am. I am. He said, you call me Lord and
Master, you say what I call you. I am. He tells his people that. As Brother Nye recorded that
one time, he said the same process that his people on anything else
was. You remember? We're going to see you all the
way through here, same horse, same person. All right, this
word came to the people through a prophet. All right, the prophet
was the one that was saying it, but who was speaking it? Christ spoke it. But it was from
a man, wasn't it? And Paul said, I thank God, and
at first that's all he said, I thank God that when he received
the Word, he received the Exodus, the Word, that I'm not poisoned. And this prophet was speaking
of his God speaking. And he said he'd always speak
for two or three or four or five or ten. That was through a man,
he'd always speak. All right, about the words of a man, an angel of the
Lord, and now here's the angel of the Lord in the beginning,
all right? Verse 11, "'For there came an
angel of the Lord, and it sat under an oak,' and that pertains
unto Joash, or that is, on the land of this man named Joash,
a by Israel. and his son Gideon, fresh wheat
by the wine press, to hide it from the pit in him, an angel
of the Lord." Now, there's several Old Testament appearances of
the angel of the Lord, several. There's two appearances here
in the Book of Genesis. A wonderful criticism. If you
recall, the other one is in Genesis 13, and we know of his wife.
It's not a more wonderful passage, a more clear gospel message in
all the Bible than we know of his wife, from the angel of the
Lord, Peter thinks. Well, who does this signify?
How does none other than Jesus Christ himself, by the appearance
of Jesus Christ himself? How do they know, Preacher? Because
whenever a man hears and sees God, he's coming here to see
what God's about. Now, nobody that's seen God is
found in the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father. And in Him dwells all the fullness that God did. So when his body appears, which
is plain that it's the Lord, that's Christ himself. When Christ
appears to a certain chosen man, Gideon is his name. Gideon. And my, my. We talk about types of Christ
here, everything in this story is a type of Christ. Gideon is
a type, the angel is a type, the sacrifice is a type, the
altar is a type, everything in here, because Christ is all in
him. But in many ways, Gideon represents
Christ, but deliberately, you know, as we read, Gideon was
sent to deliver the people. But I believe he best represented,
Gideon best represented either the gospel preacher or every
believer who receives a revelation of Christ to himself. And the
angel of the Lord, now this is Christ and the priest. They don't
mean to tie it. He's here in person. Huh? Thanks
to the Lord. Now Gideon means this. Gideon
means El. Not, that's not country for feller. F-E-L-L-E-R means feller, means
feller who fells truths. All right? Feller, that's what
it's in there, feller of truth. Well, that's convenient, because
the gospel in the hands of the Lord, or in the hands of the
instrument of the Lord, is what he uses, like John said, to get
to the roots of the matter. The ax is in God's hand. The
axe doesn't boast itself against all the wheels it can. The axe
is merely an instrument in the hand of the Lord, and that's
the gospel of the gospel preacher, and the gospel gets to the root
of the matter, the heart of the matter. Well, the Lord said to
this fellow, Get it. He said this to Peter in verse
12. I ask the Lord to appear unto him and sit unto him. The
Lord is with thee. Thou mighty man of valor. He calls him a mighty man of
valor. Why? We're going to sit here
in a moment. He's firm. Right. He read it. He read it with it.
He... He battled it. He spread it. Why didn't the
Lord call him a mighty man of valor? Because the first thing
he said to him... The Lord is with thee. The Lord
is with thee. Without Him you can do nothing
but... God be for us. There's no standing
in front of you. Nothing. The Lord is with you
today. That was His mind. That was His
mind. Our Savior was Noah. Noah. If I was Noah, anybody
or anything, I would have found it very sad to die. Right? What about everybody? People
75 years old, I would have wrote to them. Huh? God was here that
day and man called him and that was the night. What about Moses? 40-year-old shepherd on the back
side of the desert. Couldn't speak a leaf. How's
he gonna speak without a husky? God was here. What about Joshua?
On and on it goes. And the same holds true for us.
Though we be little, though we be small, though we be nothing,
it's God who's with us. Hear that? And so it was, or rather he was,
with Gideon. And no one would stand before
Gideon. And in this sense, Gideon is a type of prophecy. And God
was in Christ reconciling the world. It says in the beginning,
so John pointed this out to me, in the beginning was threshing
wheat by the wine press. He was there by himself, threshing
wheat in the wine press. Well, I've heard that before.
That Christ walked that wine press of God's right hand. And he was sent by God to deliver
us. God was in Christ, rectified
in the world. He's a mighty name in the Bible,
the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, from here Gideon represents,
he's a type of all who are called by God's grace. And I'm just
pretty sure that's everybody. Because in him, here we're going
to see, he was unbelieving. Well, he was fearful. Don't sound
like he didn't believe a word that God had said or done or
forgotten. Didn't he? And it's obvious he did not yet
fully know who this was that he was talking to. He did not
know who this was. Until the Lord revealed himself
in sacrifice. Well, and he thought this was
just a man, as soon as he thought this was, not the angel of the
Lord. I mean, get in questions in verse
13. Get in instead of the answer. Oh, my Lord, or sir. Notice all
the words in the letter to 9th chapter. Oh, my Lord, or sir,
if the Lord be with us. Why then is all of this a problem
for us? I mean, why do you say so? Why
are we in this state? Where be all these miracles which
our Father has told us of? The preacher just said, just
reminded us of how the Lord brought us back from Egypt, and how the
Lord had forsaken us and delivered us in that way. He forgot that
they were on the side of him. It was very bad, it was. I don't
know. He'd forgotten to get what he
was dedicated to. And I was reminded of the disciples,
you know, that the disciples asked the Lord many foolish questions,
and Peter in one night rebuked the Lord saying, Ah, you don't,
you're not one of those people, you're not one of those people,
okay, everyone got it. And have you ever asked any foolish
questions? Is there anything foolish going across your mind?
Huh? So these questions are the result
of our unbelief about God. Why me? Where's the role? There are sins
that separate us from God. Right? Isn't it? You're where
you are because that's what you deserve, but you're not getting
half of what you deserve. The Lord has not given us 45
minutes. None of it. None of it. And you're going
to see He's going to give us another 45 minutes. But you are
where you are because that's where you need to be to see the
glory of God. You've now loved Him. You can
see God now. But get it for God alone. He's in there. See it? All right,
but look here, verse 14, and the Lord looked upon him. Peter, that was immediately around
him, when Peter denied the Lord, and the Spirit of the Savior,
the Lord turned and looked upon him. That's all it is. One look from the Lord And Peter was filled with shame,
and victory was seen when I left him from him. One looked on the
Lord and had his help. Now we look to him, one looks
to the Lord of Sight, and one looks to the Lord of Vengeance.
Vengeance, anger, and courage, and comfort. But look at what
he said. Listen to what he said. The Lord
looked upon him. He said to him, look at this.
And so the angel of the Lord, just before the capital letters,
looked upon him and said, Go in this by mine. He doesn't really
explain it, does he? He doesn't have to do the school
before he responds. He just says, Go. I said, Go. Go in this by mine. What mine? So the Lord said to
him, Thou mighty man of valor, go in this thy might, and thou
shalt save Israel from the hands of the Midianites, had not I
sent thee. It's the type of Christ, it's
the type of believer, it's just interchangeable, huh? Does this
not picture our Lord, whom God sent, Christ rose and showed
up, sent one, whom the Father had sent countless times, John
Russell, whom the Father had sent to save His people from
their sins, huh? But I want you to listen here,
OK? The angel of the Lord hears your cries, and I want you to
listen to the voice, alright? This is what I want you to take
note of now, as we do this here at the funeral. Listen to this
Lord, and see if you haven't heard this before. He says, Have
not I sent thee? And over in John 6, verse 70,
I hear a voice that says, Has not I chosen thee? Over in John 20, verse 21, it
says, As the Father hath sent me, so send I you. Has not I chosen thee? I send thee you, South America. I've heard that voice before.
Read on, verse 16. And the Lord said, he continues
to speak, the voice of the Lord said unto him, surely I will
be with thee. Matthew 28, 20, I hear someone
say, no, I am with thee, even unto the end of the world. Same one, same one. And again, this is the name of
the Lord, bodily presence, yet the Lord Himself is speaking.
And verse 15, He said unto him, verse 15, O my Lord, wherewith
shall I, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is
poor, I am released. I am poor, I am less than released. But listen over the four words
of the Spirit, and the least shall be called the greatest.
In verse 16 he says, you're going to smite the Midianite. Here's
the strategy. Now here's what you're going to do. You're going
to smite the Midianite as one man. Where does it, you know, where
do we draw the line here? This is Christ who smoked all
by himself when he had by himself heard the first sin. This one
man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, I'm sure
he would have said that, had he not obtained eternity with
him. By one man, we were saying, right?
Had it by one man. Well, and God's people, Gideon,
Preachers, people alike, all believers, they are in unity
as one that is in Christ and found in Him. And if I want a
man, that is what you say. Verse 17, and he said unto him,
Gideon said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight,
show me a sign. You know, the Lord should have
stated right there, what I've said to you is enough, you don't
need a sign. I've learned to do that. But, Lord have mercy
on me, I'm going to get so angry, I'm going to get super angry.
Okay, I'll show you a sign. What sign do you need? Huh? What sign? Well, it was the gospel,
what it gave. Sign of God's grace, sign of
God's favor, sign of God's acceptance in the gospel. That's what it
gave. Verse 19 and 20. Gideon went
in and made ready a kid. Oh, this is Christ and his son,
Sid. Christ was made ready. that that lamb slain before the
foundation of the world, Christ, who was that bandit cast, made
ready. Another 11 pegs, that's Christ,
the sinless one, the bread of life, the ephod flower. But this
is a believer who pleads Christ to sacrifice. And he brought
this kid and his son, Leavened Cakes, and he put flour in the
flesh. He put it in a basket. Look where
he put it, Joe. He said he put the broth in a
pot, brought it out, put it under the oak, presented it to him.
The angel of God said unto him, take the flesh, the son of Leavened
Cakes, lay it on a rock. Or at least not completely put
it on a rock. Slain animal, unleavened bread,
on a rock. It all sounds very familiar to
me. This is the gospel. He's free to come home. Verse
21. And then the angel of the Lord
put forth, put forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand. Oh, thy rod and thy staff, they
come to thee. The Word is the staff which touches
the sacrifice and cleanses the blood and makes it not fire.
Thus, if not, my word is a fire. And there arose up, he touched
the flesh, or that is, the sacrifice, and the unleavened cake, and
there arose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh,
or that is, received the sacrifice, and the unleavened cake, and
the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. People, this
is exactly what happened to Manoah. Same exact thing happened to
Manoah in his life. Same exact thing, Elijah, when
he offered that sacrifice on Mount Carmel. And remember when
we poured the water over the sacrifice and it dried up in
the sand? This is the accepted sacrifice. We are accepted into
the body. Accepted in the kid, in the bread,
on the rock. That's where the fire fell on
Christ, the sacrifice on the cross. And the same sign which
he gives to us, same sign, same sign he gave to the apostles
after he went to the cross, he went to the cross and then was
sacrificed and ascended up to the Father in the gospel. Slain lamb, original. It's lame
lamb, what is it called? And look at Gideon's reaction
here. And this is the reaction of every true child of God. When
Gideon perceived, when he saw through this woman, when he perceived
that whom he had heard from, when he perceived or saw the
marriage of the here and the here, and he saw the sacrifice
on the altar, He said, Alas, O Lord! The same direction all
of us people appear. We were struck with fear. See, this is that wisdom that
makes a man wise in salvation, but fear of the Lord is his beginning
wisdom. Don't give any fleshly familiarity
here, no foolish nonsense, don't carry it on, but this is a man
realizing what he is before Christ, Holy God, and seeing Christ crucified
in his stead, Christ giving what he deserved, all of his acceptance
in Christ, the events of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
He said, Alas. The Lord said, Alas,
O Lord, Alas. Listen to this verse. Have you
heard this verse before? Verse 23. Have you heard this
verse before? And the Lord said, I thought He meant it. 500 days,
he said, yeah, oh no, he said, yeah, he said, and here's what
he said, peace. I've heard that voice before,
haven't you guys? Fear not, unto all those that
look for him shall he appear in the same. and without saying,
Peace to Yahweh. That's exactly what the Lord
did when He appeared to His disciples after offering up that bloody
offering and ascending into hell. He came and said, Peace to Yahweh.
Fear not, be not afraid, it is I. And look at verse 24. Yet
he built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah. And who is this Jehovah? Well, these so-called Jehovah's
Witnesses, they don't know Him. They don't know Jesus. I told
you about those who came to my door one time, I began to tell
those names to them. I said, do you know who Jehovah's
Witnesses are? He said, no, we've never heard
of that. They have never heard of Jehovah's Witnesses. They
have never heard of Jehovah's Witnesses. Well, do you know
who Jehovah God is? No, I can't say I've never heard
of that. I don't get to speak to you in
that. And the real exception is Genesis 22, but everybody's
afraid of that. Huh? Jehovah Shalom, you
know who that is? Jehovah? I'm Jehovah's Witness. Oh yeah, I'll tell you who he
is. He said, he said, peace I will
give you, my peace I will give you. Paul said it a little more
succinctly, he said, in Colossians, he is our peace. Yehoshua was none other than
Jesus Christ the Lord. Well, after hearing, and seeing,
and being called by the Lord, and witnessing this gospel, Gideon,
well, look what Gideon must do. Something has to be done. Look what he does. He's going
to have to carry out his father's advice. False God. He may have had something
to do with that. I mean, he may have been in on
that. Because he was around, he tolerated it. But he turned
from Isaac to serve the living God. And he's going to tear him
down. Look at verse 25 and 26. I love
this. Judges 6, verse 25 and 26. It
says, Came to pass the same night the Lord said unto him, Take
your father's book, The second book, the seven gears, throw
down the altar of Baal that your father had. Cut down the grove,
his past, build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top
of this rock in the order of this place, and take the second
book and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the grove which
you should cut down. Make an offer to the Lord thy God and
sacrifice everything on it. On this same bloody rock, everything
is going to be consumed on this bloody rock. And in an orderly
manner, you see that? In the ordered place, on this
rock, in the ordered place. Didn't He tell Moses up on the
mountain, He said, see that you make all things as the order
of things. One Lord, one faith, one way
of worshiping, one manner, one word of worship. Right? One way. One way. All the others are falsehoods. Well, Gideon tore down his dad's
religious eyes. He tore down his dad's eyes.
And you know, I think he's opening his dad's eyes. Did you read that with me? Look
at verse 30 and 32, through 32. The man of the city said to Joab,
he said, hey, bring out your son, he may die. Uh-oh, and all
this is a picture of Christ. He said, it ain't time. He says,
well, this is the reason Paul stayed, isn't it? And he crucified
and said, how in the hell am I supposed to tell him again?
Remember when he said that? He said, we don't have time to
tell him that again. Well, this is all a picture of
Christ, but in the context here. Joash said, or the men of the
city said to Joash, bring out your son that he may die, because
he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and he hath cut down the
grove with him by it. While he tore down, you're gone.
And Joash said, Now, wait a minute here. Are
you saying that Babel can't save unless we let him? That's exactly what Joe Adams
came to the conclusion. Wait a minute now, we're going
to have to, we're going to have to, we're going to have to plead
for Babel? Why doesn't he do it? That's what he said, Joe. You mean you want to fight for
it? He can't save unless we let him? Is this mere man going to
mess up his plans? Well, that's how you run a business.
You're going to fail if you don't plan. If he'd be a God, do you remember
Elijah said, well, he must be tired of the business. He had a business to attend to. If he's a God, let him lead for
himself. A few little men cast out his
altar. And he opened his eyes, I believe,
and that day he called his son, Jerome. He said, Let the blade
of a plea with me now. Let the blade of a plea for himself.
It's his author. Oh, my hand is sore. I don't
want to be seen here. Let me just conclude with this.
Verse thirty-four. It says, The Spirit of the Lord
came upon Gideon, and he loved Christ. and the people were gathered. They were gathered in the sandpit. And he called seven messengers,
and they all gathered around and came up to him and said, Our Father, we rejoice and marvel
at Your Word, which is, we hear things like Paul said, that are
just impossible things, too wonderful for us, as Job said. And as it has never been told,
we should thank You for what You have revealed unto us, and
ask that You would plant it in our hearts to increase
our thanks. Lord, we plead in the name of
the Lord. And that's all we can say. We thank your forgiveness, because
you've done such wonderful things for us up to this point. And surely, since you've called
us by your grace, revealed your son to us, and we won't die,
and you'll be with us forever, we thank you. In Christ's name,
amen.