Our lesson this morning is found in the last verse of Judges chapter 3, very last verse. We looked at verses 12 through 30, and this morning I just want to concentrate on a single verse in Judges chapter 3, verse 31. Let's read this verse together. And after him, him who? Well, he's referring back to Ehud, the man used of God to slay the old king of Canaan. We saw that in our lesson last week. And after him, it says, was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew the Philistines 600 men with an ox goad, and also delivered Israel. Now, I titled the lesson this morning, A Man of Little Note. Not so much in his calling.

He had a high calling. That's what Paul called it, a high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If you have a calling at all, whether it's call to be saved, or a call to preach, or whatever it is. If God does the calling, and he does, then it's a high calling.

And my title is not concerning his calling. It's not concerning his office. He was as much a judge as Samson or Gideon, both of which the Lord extends whole chapters to describe their work. And it's not in light of the power of God, which was exercised in him. But I titled this lesson. We're looking at this book of Judges as being typical of pastors.

And a pastor is due his honor. He's due to be honored among the people. But in the overall scheme of things, He's of little note. I might say in the overall scheme of things, your faith is of little note. I can't compare my faith to the death of Christ or of his eternal appointments.

You understand what I'm saying? And that's how I want us to look at this. That's what I believe the lesson is concerning this judge who's a picture of a pastor. So we're looking at pastors in all different You know, it's like the Holy Spirit's just taking us around the pastor and he's showing us different views and different situations, different circumstances concerning his work. And this man, he only gives one verse of scripture concerning this man. He's of little note in the overall scheme of things in God's eternal purpose of grace.

Now, after the death of Christ, who accomplished our redemption and his glorious resurrection, which declared our justification, it says in 1 Timothy 1.10 that Christ abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He revealed what was still hidden back here in the book of Judges. What we're going to see in the book of Judges is typical of the gospel, though it doesn't show that gospel in all of its various stages. But it shows us the gospels that's being proclaimed by a preacher.

I'm handing a little note. The church, as did Israel without Joshua, dwells in a world without the physical presence of Christ the Lord. Now, I know that he promised to meet with us, and he does, but his presence with his people during worship is by the Spirit. We don't have his physical presence here. I think we'd all be shocked at his physical presence. We ought to be shocked at his spiritual presence. And I don't want to lay aside the work of God for his people, but I want to show you the work as it's totally unrecognized by so many in our day.

God ministers to his church by his pastors. That's how God ministered to Israel after the death of Joshua, who was a typocrat. He ministers to his church by pastors and evangelists. And usually, not always, but usually the evangelists are also pastors. Henry Mayhem was a faithful pastor for many years up at 13th Street Baptist Church. But he did the job of an evangelist. A lot of times, he'd be gone 25 weeks out of the year, half a year gone on the road preaching.

And I'm by no means trying to encourage pastor worship. Somebody hinted that I was attempting to. He said, you may not mean to be doing it, but you're encouraging pastor worship. Well, I'm not trying to encourage pastor worship. I try to encourage Christ worship. I try to point men to Christ. And what I'm laboring to do this morning is to teach us all what this book is about and show us the glory of God in it.

After the death of Christ, the Spirit came on the Lord's day, carried the apostle John to see in seven visions what these last days had in store, what must shortly come to pass, he said. And in the very first vision, he sees Christ standing among seven candlesticks glorified and holding stars in his hand.

Now that's what was going on right then, right that second. And that's what was going to continue to go on until our king comes again in his glory. And so it is with the Book of Judges. He's showing us temporary, if you will, the means of God, these pastors or judges or whatever you want to call them, until the coming king, which was David. David's a type of Christ. He's the king. He's going to show us the return of the Lord. He's not coming in his humility this time. He's coming in all the glory of his Father's house. So he sees in his first vision, he sees the Lord standing among the candlesticks. And in Revelation chapter 1, verse 20, he tells us what these seven candlesticks and these stars represent, his local churches and their pastors.

Everything that he had to say from that time forward, he said, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the angels of these churches. The churches are the pillar and ground of the truth, and their pastors are his under-shepherds, and they're the means God has chosen to speak to his people. And by their gospel, he will deliver his people from this present evil world. They are the medium of his authority, his wisdom, and deliverance of his elect in this world. Paul acknowledged the election of the Church of the Thessalonians, and here's what he said.

He said, our gospel came not unto you in word only, but it came in power. It came in the Holy Ghost, and it came with much assurance. And you become followers of us and the Lord. Now, only the Lord can do that. And he said, you having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost.

And this affliction is no doubt in reference to those who contested it, those who persecuted, all those who promoted it and preached it. God ministers to his people by pastors. They're God's ascension gift or Christ's ascension gift to his church, that's what it says in Ephesians chapter four, verses eight through 10. And all this takes place, what they do and their deliverance that God uses them for, it takes place again and again and again.

Now we tend to want to thank, when I first read that, I was thinking of churches that God has formed in this world, and when their pastor dies, he starts another church somewhere else. But that's not always the case. And really and truly, if you want the whole meaning of this, he's talking about every time that pastor stands up to preach, there's a deliverance. We come in here with feeling bad about how we reacted to certain things during the week and so on and so forth.

And the three things that the Holy Ghost does, he convinces you of sin and then of righteousness, not yours, but his. And judgment satisfied. And he does that every time the pastor stands to teach. That's in the gospel. He has to reconvince us of sin every time we're sinners. But we don't see the depth of it. But we do as we go on. And so there's a deliverance. And it takes place again and again.

As in God's providence, a new generation comes along and they go the way of fallen men. And when God shuts them up to his grace and mercy, he raises up for them a judge or a man of discernment who points them back to the salvation of the Lord. And throughout the book of Judges, he pictures his people with and without these judges. Without this man set apart by God, the people are miserable.

They're ignorant. They're always in bondage to the enemy. Always. Oh, where's natural man out here without a pastor? What's he going to do? He's going to find something that satisfies his natural affection. And whatever it is, he'll join himself to it. And that's where he'll stay till he dies if God doesn't intervene.

And that was the route of Israel. But God, in his providence, made them miserable. He made them miserable. They saw what was going on. They were being used. They were being oppressed by these men. And God would raise up a deliverer. And he just repeats this theme throughout this whole book. If you'll notice, it always says, again, Again, they did this, and did evil in the sight of the Lord. Again, and again, and again, all through the book. And he'd raise up a judge who would deliver them, and they'd become victorious and at rest and in harmony with God. And each of these judges were different, and there were different circumstances so that when we When we're all done with this, we should have a well-rounded view of the pastor and his ministry. So may the spirit himself be our teacher.

Now, we have this morning a two-fold glimpse given to us of this man, Shamgar. First of all, I see here a man, not a god. He's not the object of worship. He's just a man. Chamgar, when I looked up to see what his name meant, when they named men back there, they had meanings. And I looked up his name, and it said undecided. There was no explanation, no definition of his name. His name was meaningless. Now, his father's name is Anath, and what that means is taken from the dust. So by that, I arrive at this. He's the son of him who was of the dust. He's the son of Adam. That's what he's telling us. He's the son of Adam.

And every pastor begins his life as a son of Adam, ruined by the fall. By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. And representatively, we all sinned in Adam. And having done so, God judged us accordingly. In Romans 5, 18, this is a verse that's an explanation of what he just stated about sin coming into the world and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and so forth. This is an explanation of that. And he said, therefore, by the offense of one judgment came upon all men the condemnation.

Verse 10, by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. How does God make a man a sinner? It's his nature. He just leaves him alone. That's all God has to do to make a sinner, just leave him alone. He goes astray as soon as he'd be born, speaking lies. That's what the Bible says. Man at his best state, he's altogether vanity. And so his final verse is this, therefore sin reigned unto death. That's the beginning. That's where the pastor, that's his beginning.

And Shamgar was but a son of Adam. God didn't look among his people. This is what religion teaches. God looks among his people, and he sees the potential. This man has potential, so I'm going to call him. Everything in religion is based on time. Circumstance has to be just right. You're lucky. That's basically what it said. God didn't look among his people to see who had the potential to be a judge and find in Shamgar what he was looking for. More than likely, Shamgar was the least likely of all men to be a judge.

That's what Paul said, I'm less than the least of all saints is this grace given. It could be that this man's whole ministry is summed up in one verse because he's not the object of God's glory, but the means God has chosen to an end. Now we're talking about pastors. I'm talking about this man, Shamgar, and why the Lord only describes his work with one verse of scripture. He's such a man of little note. Our Lord took water and turned it into wine, didn't he? It was nothing but water. Probably wasn't even good water.

He sent death to Lazarus to manifest the glory of his resurrection. He took a few fishes and loaves and fed the multitude. He took twelve apostles and turned the world upside down. And Shamgar, he was just the son of Adam. He's a nobody. He was the son of him taken from the dust.

And his very existence in this world was by the will and wondrous work of the Lord. In him, Paul said, we live and move and have our best. We're not far from him, not at any time, because he's everywhere present. God's all around us. Paul said this. He's talking about the gospel. And I know he's addressing pastors and elders in the church. And he said, examine your calling. Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.

1 Corinthians 1.27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen. yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Why would he do that? Why wouldn't God just pick out a wise man and call him and use him? Well, here's why, that no flesh had glory in his presence.

God doesn't fill his book with the praises of pastors, but he doesn't remit them either. This book records, now listen to me, this book records the blood of bulls and goats and sheep from one end to the other. Does it not? Though it plainly declares that it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, then why mention them at all?

Because they are a means to an end. That's why. Patterns of things in the heavens. figures for the time then present. And pastors are not objects of worship, but they're a means to an end. And they're not to be ignored. Shamgar's name is recorded in the Word of God.

You know, I was thinking about this in my studies. If you were to take Let's say some college-ruled notebook paper like this. I bet you two sheets of paper hold every man's name mentioned in the Bible. I bet you if you went from one cover to the other, I bet it wouldn't take more than two sheets of paper to write all those names. This book does not set forth the praise of men no matter who they are or what they do. But oh, what an honor to have your name in the book. Shamgar's name went in God's book. He wrote it there. And it's amazing to me that any son of Adam has his name in the Bible, and he wouldn't if his name wasn't written in the Lamb's book of life.

So here's the first glimpse we have of the pastor. He's just another man generated by the sin-filled sons of Adam. He's just another sinner. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. None righteous. No, not one. Somebody said a preacher is just one beggar telling another beggar where he got his bread.

That's him, though. All right. Here's the second glimpse. Now, we looked at him from one side. Now, let's look at him on the other side. Here's the other side of the man. Nobody, but nobody could take an ox goad. That looks like a broomstick. It's about six or seven feet long. It's got a nail on the end of it. Nobody's going to take an ox goad and slay 600 hardened soldiers.

But Shamgar did. And pastors do what can't be done. Paul said, I've begotten you through the gospel. I can't do that. But it happens, don't it? It happens. Pastors do things that can't be done. And that's the other side of Shamgar. This man, it says, delivered Israel. He doesn't even say that of Joshua. But he says it of Shamgar, and he says it in one verse. He also delivered Israel. He not only slayed these 600 hardened soldiers with an ox goad, but he delivered Israel. The ox goad is a picture of the gospel. How so? Well, what is the gospel? When you stand before the enemy, what is the gospel to him? Absolute, total foolishness, is it not?

And there he stands. What's he got? He don't have a sling. He don't have a sword. He don't have a bow. He don't have anything. He's a farmer. How do you know that? Because he has an ox goat. Nobody else has any reason to even own one but a farmer. God called this farmer to be a pastor, a judge in Israel.

Raised him up. And here he stands, and here's the enemy, the Philistines. All through here, warns of the evil of the Philistines. Well, here they are, 600 hardened soldiers standing there looking at him. He's standing here holding a broomstick with a nail in the end of it. Can you picture those hardened soldiers looking at him?

What you going to do with that? Huh? I can see the smirks on their faces. I've seen it when I stand up here to teach and preach the gospel. I've seen the smirk. Young men, young women, they get a smirk on their face like, who's he think he is? What do you think he's going to do? Huh? Can you picture these soldiers looking over there?

I can hear them chuckling. I know he's standing still now, but just give him a minute. Give me a minute. It's a picture of the gospel. It's not a very intimidating weapon. And I tried to imagine these soldiers looking at this farmer with this ox goat in his hand. I almost see their smiles and smirks and questions. What you going to do with that?

And let me tell you something, in any one of those men's hands, that ox goad would have led to his demise. He couldn't have done anything with it. But in the hand of a man that's called of God and accompanied by God, he could slay more than 600. How many was it Samson? slayed with the jawbone of an ass. The gospel, Paul said this, is the power of God unto salvation.

Try to move a sinner. Try to do it with your arguments and debates. Try to do it. Take your finger, hold it. Sometimes I want to just get them by the hair of the head and say, look. Look at this. See what this is? You can't convince them of anything. And you can pile scripture up on them like cordwood. Just pile it up all around them. Doesn't have any effect on them whatsoever.

But oh, let the Holy Spirit move. Let the Holy Spirit move with his gospel and watch what happens. He slays the sinner. That's what happens. He slays him. The gospel convinces us of sin, not just that we transgressed the law, but of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He shows you a picture of yourself inside now. That's what he does. He lets you see what you really are.

Here's condemnation, Christ said. Light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light. My sin, my ignorance, The depth of it, I'm talking about the exceeding simpleness of it. We're talking about how God slays the sinner. He shows him what he is. He's nothing. God is love. God is merciful and gracious, kind, compassionate, long-suffering, forbearing. And sin is against love. It's against mercy. It's against kindness. It's against compassion.

Death is not just because God can't tolerate disobedience. Death is because we've trodden underfoot the Son of God, counted the covenant wherewith we sanctified an unholy thing and done to spite under the Spirit of grace. He's going to show you the exceeding sinfulness of your sin. That's how he slays the sinner. Actually, the sinner, through the work of God, slays himself. Sin is against your own soul. Did you know that? Sin's against your own soul. It's the reason behind your rebellion, and it's the costume you wear to hide it. The gospel, it allows you to look into the mirror of his word and see yourself for what you really are.

Like the whited sepulcher, he said. Beautiful on the outside, on the inside, full of dead men's bones. Corruption. Poison of asthma under your lips. We speak so kind sometimes, and Yvonne and I both know. She's got some relatives, and I do too. And boy, they can just get so flowery with that tongue. Huh? Looks like a coral snake. How pretty is he to look on? but deadly if he bites. The poison of ash, he said, is under your lips.

When God slays a sinner, he's in full agreement with God. And I'll tell you what else he convinces you of. There's no room for that sinner in the kingdom of God. This man slew those 600 Philistines. That's a picture of every chosen sinner that God has chosen. And he's going to slay them. And the reason he's going to slay them is because they've got no place in the kingdom of God. There's no place for this flesh in the kingdom of God. We better get that in our head because, boy, we love to feed it in this world. I love to pamper it in this world. But there's no room for it in the kingdom of God.

I'll tell you what God's going to do. He's going to slay every sinner. Now you wait and see. When we get done with our study in this book, every time these people were taken captive, they were taken captive by false religion. That was the danger God warned them of. And that's exactly what happened. They got swallowed up with it.

In God's providence, he reveals to them that they're being oppressed and used by these people. And then they cry unto the Lord. And then the Lord raises up a judge. He raises up a man with some discernment. And through his ministry, they're delivered.

And the way God does it, he always gets the glory. It's always through a man. whose name is absolutely meaningless, but God's chosen him, and he uses him, and God gets the glory. Sinner has to die, and the gospel in the hands of a man chosen of God is sufficient to get the job done.

Where's the gospel in Judges 3.31?

It's in the ox goad and in the outcome. That's what it is. That thing that appears absolutely foolish to men slays the sinner. Huh? The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Now look at this ox goad, a seven or eight foot pole. Now it has to be light, it has to be like a broom handle. You're not going to take a tube of four and hold it out with one hand and hold it out and get eight foot long. It's not going to do it. It's something small, about the size of a broom handle or a large stick. It's got this old nail in the end of it.

And to the perishing, it's absolutely foolishness. But to those that are being saved, it's the power and wisdom of God. And the pole picture is the cross. The empty nail signifies one who was nailed to the cross, but he's not there anymore. It's an empty nail. This is a simple picture of God's gospel slaying every chosen sinner he brings to hear it.

And I'm going to tell you something. I never heard this man's name before last week. I know I've read it because I've read the Bible through. That name had no place in my mind, Shamgar, until I began to study this text last week. Yet what God did through this man is absolutely astounding. Is it not? 600 soldiers with a Knoxcoat. Huh? Sound like something Samson would do, don't it? No, just old Shamgar. Old farmer.

And on top of that, delivered all Israel. We preach the cross of Christ, Christ crucified. Shamgar had only one weapon, the ox goad. I just have one message, Christ crucified. Do you know that ox goad was not just a weapon? It actually had a useful purpose.

That ox goad is how you prod that ox to get him to move. and you use it, you show it to him on either side, and he knows what that nail's all about. All you gotta do is show it to him, and he'll go that way. You can steer him where an ox goes. You make him go, and you can steer him. And he uses his gospel the same way.

David said, I was as a beast before him. That's what we are, just a bunch of ox. But God moves us, don't he? If he didn't, we'd sit the rest of our life. But he prods us. He'll poke us with the ox goad and we move. And then he'll lead us in what direction he wants us to go. Our message is the gospel of Christ.

So the lesson for these judges has to do with the nature of sin in us. And their ministry, as simply as I can define it, is to reconcile men to God's reconciliation. That's what they forgot. They forgot what their fathers already knew. Their fathers saw the works of God. They knew something about this reconciliation of God. They knew something about the power of God to deliver them. But this new generation didn't. They were ignorant of it. So what these judges are doing is reconciling this new generation to the reconciliation that God's already accomplished. And that's what pastors are doing. Just keep pointing your back to Christ. Point people back to Christ. Oh, may the Lord teach us all what this is all about. Thank you.