In the sixth chapter of the book
of Judges, as we go through here, we found in verse 1 that the
children of Israel once again did evil in the sight of the
Lord, and that Midian came in and it just vanquished the place. This group of people were like with grasshoppers, just like
grasshoppers. And they took all of the food,
they took all of the stock, and it was a very impoverished place. In fact, we find that the Lord
uses that word here in our scripture, that it was impoverished. They
were brought very, very low. And then the Lord gives them
a favor. He blesses them in a very special
way, the same way that He blesses all of His lost sheep sometime
in their life. And that is, He sends a prophet. There in verse 8 it says, The
Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel. And we mentioned
last week that this prophet's name is not even mentioned, and
for good reason. The prophet isn't the importance. It is the word that the prophet
has that is important. It is beginning at the same place
and preaching Jesus. That's what's important. And
so we find the prophet came and he declared something very special
to the children of Israel. He declared, as it says in verse
8, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. He had a message. It was not his message. Of all
the studying he did about philosophy, and all the studying he may have
done about economics, and all the study he did about sociology,
and all the other stuff, that was not the message he was called
on to deliver to the children of Israel. It was a message from
the Lord God, from Jehovah Elohim. I brought you up from Egypt. And we're going through here,
and it tells us several things that the Lord did for Israel.
And I brought you up from Egypt. I brought you forth out of the
house of bondage. This is all the Lord's activity.
They were not anything but recipients. And we find that that is so true
as we go through the scriptures, that God's people are recipients
of God's grace. We're not the participants in
God's grace. And so he says, this is what
I did for you without your help. And I didn't need it. And in
fact, I didn't want it. It would have done nothing but
put you in the ditch if I got your help. So he said, I brought
you up from Egypt. I brought you forth out of the
house of bondage. And I delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all that oppressed
you and grave them out from before you and gave you their land. If we just go through there,
what an outline God gave us through this prophet about God's great
work on our behalf. Step by step, this is what God
did for his children Israel. And then it says, and I said
unto you, I am the Lord your God, fear not the God of the
Amorites. And we're going to find out that
they had followed after the God of the Amorites in particular
after Baal. We're going to have a judge and
a savior by the name of Gideon. And he is this close in his family
to people worshiping an idol. Now, whether he did earlier,
God removed that idol from him. We read that Abraham worshipped
idols when he lived in Ur. Before God called him out, he
worshipped idols. He was no more or no less than
anybody else. He was a Gentile, if you please. down in Ur of the Chaldees, worshiping
all kinds of idols. And God called him out. I like,
and I've mentioned this so many times, but I like how it's depicted
in the book of Acts when Stephen talks about this, the God of
glory appeared unto Abram in Ur of the Chaldees, the God of
glory. So he called him out. And you know, as the Lord dealt
with him and saved him, Abraham believed God. It was counted
unto him for righteousness. There was no need for that idolatry
anymore. Just as we read in the first
chapter of the book of 1 Thessalonians. They turned from dumb idols.
There's no longer any need for that. That idolatry is a works-oriented
religion. Every bit of idolatry is works-oriented. And Christianity is God-oriented. There is works, yes, His work. He has performed every bit of
the work, it is finished. And that's what we find in the
scripture. So the Lord, verse 10, I said unto you, I am the
Lord your God, fear not the God of the Amorites, in whose land
you dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice. Now, that is really
a statement because the Lord uses this statement in His personal
ministry and His public ministry. He says, My sheep hear My voice,
and they follow Me. Now, we're going to be introduced
to one of His sheep. His name is Gideon. He's going to be a
a call to judge, and he's going to be a savior, a deliverer of
the people of Israel. God's going to use him in a mighty
way. God's going to use him in a mighty way. So we have here
this whole scenario. You've not obeyed my voice. My
sheep hear my voice. And then we're introduced right
now, verse 11. And there came an angel of the
Lord and sat under an oak, which is an okra, that pertaineth unto
Joash the Abizrite, and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the
winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. Now we find that
he's providing some food for his family, but he's doing it
in a very careful manner that he doesn't want to raise the
attraction of the Midianites and have it taken away. He is
in hiding, in other words. And so when we read the very
next verse of scripture, we find out how interesting the words
of the Lord are with regard to Gideon, because the Lord uses
some words about Gideon that Gideon didn't know about himself.
In fact, he was just, that's not me. Because it tells us there,
the angel of the Lord appeared unto him. So we have a very specific
appearance the angel of the Lord appears unto a very specific
person. You know, we could follow this
in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
how often he was in a great crowd of people, but there was one
person out of that great crowd of people, maybe two, that were
affected by his presence. That's the same way we find here.
There is going to be a lot of people in Israel But there's
gonna be one person that's gonna be greatly affected by this appearance,
and that is the angel of the Lord. Now, before we get too
far and say, well, what about this angel of the Lord? We find
in verse 14, it answers the question for us. And the Lord looked upon
him. So the angel of the Lord or the
messenger of the Lord is the Lord himself. He is declaring
his own self about himself. I wish I could quote that little
article or that little thing that we have on the front of
our bulletin, but there's no better guide to the Bible than God himself. He's the guide to the Bible.
So here we have the Lord looked upon him, the angel of the Lord
how he appeared, what appearance he came to him was, and how long
it was while he sat under that oak tree before he made himself
known, because we found in the New Testament that the Lord often
was with people and did not make himself known unto them. He did
that a lot with the Gentiles, I mean, with the lost people,
but he did that with his saved ones, his disciples. He hid himself
from them from time to time. And so he's there, you know,
all I know about it is, is what we read. in the book of Galatians
with regard to the salvation of Saul of Tarsus, when it pleased
God. That's when he revealed himself
unto Gideon. When it pleased God. Galatians chapter 1 verse 15. And in Ephesians chapter 1 verse
11, according to the eternal purpose, which he purposed in
Christ Jesus the Lord. So he revealed himself at the
right moment to Gideon. He's there, he's kept himself
away from Gideon's persona, and now there's gonna be a revelation
as it looks here. The Lord, the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord, and did you notice,
I appreciate what Mike said the other day from the pulpit. Norm's
always saying capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah. This is Jehovah. You know, this
name for God is only ever applied to the God of heaven. The rest
of the names, we can look out and find that particular name
is applied to various gods, idols. But this name is applied to God
and God alone. This is Jehovah, the self-existent
one, the self-contained one. And he says, the angel of the
Lord appeared unto him and said, the Lord is with thee. Now the next statement is very
interesting to me because he's making a revelation about Gideon
that Gideon doesn't realize now. He said, thou mighty man of valor, you're threshing wheat here in
a hidden place so you won't get seen. They won't take your food
from you. and I'm calling you a mighty
man of valor. You know, as we think about it,
we find out that he had the same right to be called that as you
and I have the right to be called the sons and children of God. It's not our doing. Now we're gonna find out that
Gideon is going to be a mighty man of valor, but it's not his
valor. He's going to be a very exciting judge and a savior for
Israel. He is going to listen to the
Lord. Can you imagine having several thousand men at your
disposal and the Lord says that's too many? Guess what? Getting agreed with the Lord.
That's the most difficult thing for people to do, is to agree
with God, and that can only come after regeneration. To agree
with God on everything, not to be argumentative about God's
will and purpose. And so Gideon said unto him,
Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us. Now we're going to think
about that for just a moment, but would you travel with me
into the New Testament for just a moment into the book of John
chapter 1 verse 12. John chapter 1 verse 12. we read
here about this wonderful term, this name that God gives to his
people. In the book of John chapter 1,
John chapter 1 and verse 12, we read this, as he was called
a mighty man of valor. And it wasn't something he understood,
realized, But the Lord told him that and is going to reveal that
unto him. And the same is true about God's
people, God's beloved. He says, but as many as receive
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Now,
in order for us to ever receive him, we have to have what we
know as enmity taken away. We will not receive God until
He deals with our enmity, our hatred for Him. So when He does
that, we can receive Him. We can actually say, Lord, come,
Lord Jesus. And He says there, gave the power,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name. Oh, you mighty man of valor,
and then to look upon us as children of the dust, as worms, as totally
depraved, as totally against God, without hope and without
God, and say, in an instant, we are revealed to us by regeneration
that we are the sons of God. born by God's great power. And this turned with me, if you
would, to chapter 3 of the book of John. John chapter 3, as we
look at this again, as we find that we have We have no right
to it, but it's given to us. We have no claim to this title.
It's not something that's up for claim. It's not something
up for vote. It's up for God's gift to us
to give us the knowledge that we have been born or begotten
of the Father, that we're children of God. Here in the book of John
chapter three and verse one, oh, excuse me. In the same chapter, it uses
that term that we should be called the sons of God. Well, one more time, mark that
up to norm. Travel with me to the... Do you
have it? First John, oh thank, well that's what I have here.
First John, I'm sorry. First John chapter three verse
one. First John chapter three verse
one. My goodness. First John chapter three and
verse one it says, behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us. You know, as I read this about
God, the angel of the Lord coming down, sitting under the oak tree,
then revealing himself or appearing unto Gideon, what manner of love
did God demonstrate by appearing unto a man here on this earth
and revealing himself? And here it says, the Father
bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God Therefore
the world knoweth his thought because it knew him not. The
world doesn't understand how people become sons of God. Religion
has it educated into. The Bible says it is a birth. It's called the new birth. It's
called regeneration. And God has always had his people
marked out as his sons. but that revelation that comes
that causes us to know that we have that privilege of knowing
that. The truth of that, children of
God, by faith in Christ Jesus. So as we think about Gideon's
hiding away there by that wine press, threshing out a few sprigs
of grain, going to make some flour, make some bread, and the
Lord comes up to him and says, I'm with thee, thou mighty man
of valor. Well, going back to the book
of Judges, chapter 6, Judges chapter 6, and there in verse... Is it 12? Verse 13. And Gideon said unto him, said
unto the Lord, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen
us? And where be all his miracles,
which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? but now the Lord has forsaken
us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. I cannot
help but think that Gideon had some knowledge of verse one of
this chapter. And the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord delivered them into
the hand of the Midianites. There is a knowledge that God
gives to his people There's a knowledge that God
gives to His people of why people are the way they are. Israel
did evil in the sight of the Lord. There's a knowledge that
God gives to His people in regeneration of why people are the way they
are. And I find out that they do not
blame someone else for it. They don't blame the devil for
it. It is at their feet. We're only
sinners saved by grace. The Lord is going to raise up
judges, and he is going to raise up this man, Gideon, to be a
judge. And he's going to be a mighty
man of valor when he does that. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Deuteronomy chapter 20. Deuteronomy chapter 20. And verse 1, the angel of the Lord said, I
will be with thee. I will be with thee. And here
in Deuteronomy chapter 20 and verse 1, when thou goest out
to battle against thine enemies and seest horses and chariots
and people more than thou, be not afraid. Be not afraid of
them, for the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee
up out of the land of Egypt. You know what? You can take that
to the bank. That is given to God's people. That was given to Gideon. That
passage of Scripture is just as valuable to us as it was to
Gideon or it was to the children of Israel. Now the only people
that didn't understand that and the only people that didn't believe
that are the people that God never revealed Himself to them.
As we find, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I'll
go along with this one because He has revealed Himself unto
me. The Lord does as He pleases. He did put the children of Israel
here. He sold them out to the Midianites.
But we find that the Lord was with Gideon. He has said, I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's what we read in
the book of Hebrews chapter 13. I am come, I am staying, I will
be with you. We will throw this Midianites
off. And the Lord, he it is that doeth
so before thee, he will be with thee. He will not fail thee,
neither forsake thee, for neither be dismayed. So the Lord comes
with great courage to give to Gideon because of his word. And
we find that his word is so firm and the foundation is so great.
So Gideon says, why has this all befallen us? And we find
there in the book of Judges chapter one, that the children of Israel
again did sin before the Lord. And we have to assume As God
reveals the truth to His people, they are given the understanding
that God is dealing with sinners when He saves them. They're not
perfect people. They are sinners. And they're
sinners who are going to be saved by grace. And we find out that
Gideon would understand just like you and I understand. And
yet we cannot completely understand the heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? And that word
desperately is incurable. There is nothing that can offer
a cure on this earth. No preacher, no tests, nothing
can change that. It's an incurable situation,
and the Lord alone can deal with that. In Jeremiah chapter 16,
would you turn there with me? Jeremiah chapter 16 and verse
12. Jeremiah chapter 16 and verse
12. Again, we find the problem. We
may look around us and say, why? Well, the Scriptures tell us
very plainly that why are things as they are? Why are the situations
like they are? Why are people like they are? Well, the Scriptures are quite
plain on this, and here it tells us in Jeremiah 16, verse 12,
it says, And ye have done worse than your fathers. For behold,
ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they
may not hearken unto me. It's an impossibility for a natural
man to hearken unto the Word of God. It's not in his chromosomes. It's spiritually discerned. The
natural man receiveth not the things of God. They are spiritually
discerned. We just have it in our makeup
not to trust God, not to believe God. That's just part of us.
That's what we got from the fall. And so we find it is a great
thing when the prophet comes and preaches to us and then the
Lord appears to us and said, I will be with thee. What a blessing it was for Gideon
to have those words. And then we read in the book
of Genesis chapter six and verse five, that God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. Now, how close
was this wickedness that brought this Midianites upon the children
of Israel to Gideon? How close was the idolatry to
him? At least to his father. His father
had an idol and a grove, and they're gonna come out and say,
we're gonna have to kill this man Gideon because he's cut down
the grove and he's destroyed the altar. So that's how close
it was. Now I have a feeling that Gideon,
before the Lord appeared to him, was right in the middle of that.
He was just like everybody else. He was just in the middle of
that. Job said, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one. So we need help in this whole
situation. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Can a leopard change his spots?
Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. So
here we have a serious problem. There's no way out whatsoever
on our own And then we have a prophet sent with the word of the Lord,
and you know, it was not all that comfortable. Ruined by the
fall is not a comfortable message. But the other are, redeemed by
Christ is a very comfortable message. And regenerated by the
Holy Spirit is a comfortable message. but ruined by the fall
that gets to where we live. And we're not necessarily in
love with that kind of thought. I don't think Gideon was going
to blame anybody but himself. I like what Daniel had to say
over in the book of Daniel chapter nine. Would you join me over
there in Daniel chapter nine? Daniel chapter 9 verse 17. Daniel is in quite a position
as we've been hearing Sunday morning. He has a lot of authority. He has a lot of respect from
the king. He's been put in a position by the king to virtually rule
over certain segments of that kingdom. A very powerful person. And yet when we hear his prayer,
when we get to listen to him pray, we see that he puts himself
in the group of people that are sinners. Look with me here in
the book of Daniel chapter nine, verse 17. Now, therefore, O our
God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications. and cause
thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's
sake. Oh my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes
and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy
name. Can you almost hear Gideon say
this? It's almost the same thing. He happens to be living in the
land where this city is. Daniel's been taken out of the
land But boy, they're having the same kind of problems here.
For we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness,
but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive,
O Lord, hearken, and do defer not for thine own sake. O my
God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And while
he was speaking and praying, excuse me, while I was speaking
and praying and confessing my sin, number one. He wasn't saying these guys are
rascals. Those guys that just would not
follow God, they got us into this mess. He said, Lord, I'm
confessing my sin and the sin of my people. and presenting
my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain
of my God. I was confessing my sin and the
sins of the people. He was making intercession, if
you please, but the first thing that needed to be dealt with
was Him. And I can't help but think that
that's where we're going to find Gideon over here in the book
of Judges. There are three verses of scripture
very close together in the 119th Psalm that deal with, before
I was humbled or afflicted, I went astray. It was good for me to have been
afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. I know, Lord, that
thy judgments are right and that thou faithfulness hath afflicted
me or humbled me. Psalm 119, verses 67, 71, and
75. Before I was afflicted. When
I was afflicted. And that word means humbled.
I was humbled. And Gideon is going to be humbled. You know, that's one of the blessings
that God gives to every one of His children, is a dose of humility. and exaltation of the Lord. The Lord looked upon him. Let's
go back to the book of Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. Verse 14. The Lord looked upon him and
said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the
hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee by my authority,
by my word? And he said unto him, O my Lord,
wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's house. Was it
Amos? I was, when the Lord called me,
I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. And you know
what? He was a good herdsman, and he
was a good gatherer of sycamore fruit, and he had no plans whatsoever
of being a prophet of the Lord. But when the Lord called him
as a prophet, he became a prophet. Gideon had no plans whatsoever. He didn't have any newspapers going out, little
hidden newspapers, follow me, gather around me and we'll take
care of the mess. He understood what the mess they were in and
he's hiding himself. I am the least of my father's
house. And the Lord said unto him, surely
I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the Midianites as
one man. You know, we can find in this
a whole lot about our Savior too. The pictures, the types
and the shadows of Gideon as a picture of our Savior. You
know, the Lord had promised that by himself he would take care
of the problem. He would take care of sin. By
himself he would do that. And it was in his purpose that
all of those disciples would leave him on that night that
when he went to the cross there was nobody that was lending help
to him. 17 And he said unto him, If now
I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou
talkest with me. 18 Depart not hence, I pray thee,
until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it
before thee. And he said, I will tarry until
thou come again. What a gracious thing that the
angel of the Lord said unto Gideon, I will stay here because of your
word. Fear thou not for I am with thee. And then he went in and he said
he made ready a kid. Isn't it interesting the food
that he did have? A kid, unleavened cakes, of an
ephah of flour, And flesh he put in a basket, and he put a
broth in a pot, and he brought it out unto him under the oak,
and presented it. And the angel of God said unto
him, take the flesh and unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this
rock, and pour out the broth, and he did so. I think there was a lot of faith
given to Gideon to take all of that good food and put it on
the ground. This is his family's food. And the Lord says, put it on
that rock. So he took this kid and all that
bread and all of that sweet juices from the meat and put it on a
rock, the unleavened cakes, and laid them on the rock and poured
out the broth. And he did so, what faith God
gave to him, just like faith he gives to his people today.
Faith to believe God, faith to trust God, faith to say, I don't
understand this, but I believe you. And the angel of the Lord
put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand. and touched the flesh and the
unleavened cakes, and there rose up fire out of the rock, and
consumed the flesh and unleavened cakes. Then the angel departed
out of his sight, and when Gideon perceived that he was an angel
of the Lord. Gideon said, alas, oh Lord God,
for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said unto him, peace
be unto thee, fear not, thou shall not die. I have seen the
Lord face to face. But there it says, Verse 22, and when Gideon perceived,
what a grace word that is, to see. He perceived that it was
an angel of the Lord, the angel of the Lord. He perceived it
was the Lord. What a revelation God gave to
Gideon that day that he would understand that this is the Lord
and realize too what a blessing it is to stand in the presence
of the Lord and not be consumed. The Lord said unto him, peace
be unto thee, fear not, thou shall not die. And this is a
common thing that the Lord brings to his people In fact, we read
that he is called the Prince of Peace. He is the Master of
Peace. He brings peace to his children,
brings peace to the church. He brought peace to Peter after
he denied him three times. And then it tells us here, and
Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah
Shalom. Unto this day it is yet an orpha
of the Abizrites. Jehovah is peace. Jehovah shalom. We're going to
stop there tonight and we'll pick this up. We'll review a
little bit about that food being put there on that rock and the
consumption of that. And we'll look at that from a
gospel sense. But tonight we'll stop there.