The Ministry Of The Called

Will turn with me to Judges Chapter 6. Everybody's all read up on Judges Chapter 6, right? Almost can quote it. I think we may reverse things this morning. The lesson I always try to get somewhere around 30 minutes. I'm going to have to go a little over that this morning. So I'll stay short with the second message. So we'll just kind of reverse the time. The lesson this morning is very special to me because it resonates with my own experience of grace.

It doesn't say in our lesson how Joash was converted. That's Gideon's father. It doesn't say how he was converted, but it's obvious that he did because he defended his son. When they come to oust his son and kill his son, Joash stood up and defended him. In fact, they blamed the whole thing on Joash. and came down to his house and told him to bring his son out, that they were going to kill him for what he'd done.

But what happened with me was the Lord revealed his gospel to me, revealed Christ in me. I've been raised in religion. The Lord set me free from that mess, showed me what it was, showed me what it was all about, just absolutely destroyed it in my mind and heart, and showed me the truth, showed me Christ. Salvation's all together in Christ.

So I went home thinking my dad would just rejoice with the good news. But it didn't happen that way. He was angry. He looked at me like I'd joined a cult. And he was very angry. And he was very well read in the scripture. Don't ever suppose that Armenians are not well read in scripture. They are. And most of them will turn you upside down with these things.

But anyway, I brought him some messages by Henry Mahan and left them with him, asked him to listen to them. And I couldn't go around him because he was so angry. The minute if I came over there to eat supper or something, there wasn't going to be a supper because it was going to be a cross-examination. So I finally told him, I said, I'm not coming over here for that. And so we just stayed home for quite a while.

One day he invited us over for dinner and I came over and he came up with tears in his eyes and put his arm around me and he said, for whatever reason, he said, I believe what you're saying to me is true. And so he left that church and came up and started going, sitting under Henry Mahan and stayed there until he died.

Now last week our lesson was on the calling of God. All the miraculous, irresistible calling of God. There's nothing like it. Nothing like it. Matthew, here's a man. He's a tax collector. He's sitting at the bench. He's got it made. He's skimming money off the public. He lives in a big, fine home. He's got everything he could ever want. The Lord comes by and says, Matthew, follow me. And then Matthew went through about a two-year wrestling over whether or not he got up immediately and followed Christ. He left the tax table, followed after Christ.

Here's two more. They're in a boat, James and John. They're in a boat. They're fishing. Excellent fishermen. Been fishing since they were little kids. Their daddy was a fisherman. Made a good living fishing. They were in their boat, had their nets. The Lord come by and he said, I'm going to make you fishers of men. Follow me. And so they thought about it for months and reps. No. No, they climbed out of the boat and followed him. I'm telling you, the calling of God is a miraculous calling. It's a miraculous calling. It's an irresistible calling. It's the calling of God.

There's never a link in Holy Scripture, not even a hint of anything in the Word of God of men going through years of wrestling over the calling of God. That's something these old writers write down and men wrote down about them, talking about them wrestling for years over this. That's not the calling of God. That's all made up junk by religious men. Now, I don't care what their name is or how much doctrine they know, it's junk. I'm telling you. When God calls a man, he calls him.

Now, my mom used to come to the stairway, and we would sleep upstairs. And she said, honey, get up. Breakfast is ready. And I'd lay there in bed. It was cold. We lived in northern Ohio. It was cold in the wintertime. I didn't want to get out of bed. And she might come over two or three more times.

But I tell you, when my dad came over the stairway and said, get up, we got up. That's the difference in the calling. When God calls, you know it's God calling. And you're not going to refuse him. You're just not going to do it. It's an irresistible calling.

Nobody simply turns to the Lord. I've heard men talk about that. Nobody simply turns to the Lord. Nobody just all of a sudden changes their mind and realizes they need to change their course in life. Nobody. Nobody, by thought and wisdom of the flesh, are going to reconcile themselves to God, going to come into some kind of a mutual understanding with God. Salvation has to do with God intervening in the lives of chosen sinners.

They're all headed to hell. They're all headed one direction. Read Ephesians chapter 2. You hath he quickened who were dead. What do you mean dead? Well, you walked according to the course of this world. You walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That was your life. That's your history. You're going this direction. When God intervenes, he turns you around, and you go in the other direction. You can't do it on your own. Nobody does. And they stand up and give all the testimonies in the world. It's not going to make any difference. God says they don't. And not one example does he leave in scripture of any man saving himself.

And the calling of God, that's what we talked about last week, is accomplished by God revealing his son in us. Paul said God called him by his grace to reveal his son in him that he might preach him among the heathen. And today I want us to focus on the ministry of the called. That's what God's showing us here in the book of Judges from verses 17 all the way through 32, through the end of the chapter. This is what he's showing us. Over in 2 Corinthians 4, 1, Paul said, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, how did we get it? God called us. He called us to his son. When he calls you to his son, he calls you to his ministry. God ministers his son to chosen sinners. Does that make sense? We're all called into the ministry in that respect.

In Ephesians 4.1, he tells us to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we're called. He didn't say we're called to it, though we are. He said we're called by it.

How do you get called by a vocation? Well, vocation don't just mean occupation. It don't just mean the job that you do. It don't mean your trade. That word vocation has to do with a strong urge. The dictionary uses the word summons. Summons. And that's what Paul's saying. He summons you through the ministry.

It's the ministry of God. It's active. It's real. It's not something you just talk about. It's not something you join a school to get. It's something real and active. It's something that God's doing every minute, every second, every day, every hour that we live.

Saving sinners. He's doing a work. He just makes you aware of it. And as soon as he does, you're in it. And this calling necessitates a certain attitude. When God calls a man, he gives him the right attitude. It's the way he saves him. It's that work that he does in his heart. It leaves him with a certain attitude. And here's the attitude that Paul said we have, long-suffering, meekness, forbearing, that is, putting up with one another in love, and doing whatever it takes to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Now in our text this morning, we have this man Gideon raised up of God to be a judge in Israel. And these judges, as I've told you, are forerunners of pastors in the New Testament. In Judges 6, 17 through 32, the Holy Spirit gives us a picture of this ministry. And I want us to look at five things this morning that sum up this ministry.

The first is a godly perception. The second is an altar erected. The third is a necessary task assigned. Are you in the ministry? Then you have a task. The fourth is the sacrifice. There's going to be a sacrifice if you worship God. And fifthly, the offense of the cross. So let's begin here with a godly perception. The account before us begins with a messenger from God. a messenger from God.

It's always God who makes the first move. When you listen to a man's testimony, and you're going to hear him, if this work begins with him, tune him out. Tune him out. It doesn't begin with you. It begins with God. God's going to set you up in his providence to hear. It's always God who intervenes. You're not going to intervene. You're not going to change. God sends an angel. That's a ministering spirit, whether he's an angel or a man or the Lord himself. And all those sent of God are received that way. Now don't take my word for it. I want you to look in the scriptures at them. When you get home and you want to check me out, you go in there and look. Look at the accounts of the kings. Go through the book of Kings and 1 and 2 Samuel and so on. Look at these.

This was an evil king. This man did evil. And he built these altars and groves. And then God will raise up a righteous man. What happens? He tears down the grove, he tears down the altar, and so on. And you read it, it's all through there. It never changes. It's always the same.

In Galatians chapter four, verse 14, Paul said this. He said, when I came to you, you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ. What a statement. That's what he told these Galatians. Now they were opposed to him. Somebody come in preaching lies, and they began to question the Apostle Paul and his office and his preaching and everything that he did.

He said, who hath bewitched you? You began in the spirit. Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Why is your testimony changing? And here he is. He's deformed in some way. He has an infirmity in the flesh. I know it had to do with his eyes, but who knows what that did as far as his facial expression. And he didn't talk real clear either. And so he said, but I came to you in my infirmities, and you received me as an angel of God.

And now you question my apostleship. Now you question my message. Who has bewitched you? I want you to hear me. There's a difference to listening to a man talking about his convictions and his interpretation and hearing a man with a message from God to you. There's a difference. And this difference is what I'm talking about. It's a godly perception. The Holy Spirit gives you that. He confirms whoever's talking to you to be a son of God.

How does he do it? I don't know. I don't know. He just does. I used this expression. Nate was sitting out in the congregation one night, and I was talking about something in the Old Testament. And Nate couldn't talk real clear. He said, that's right. Well, that's what I'm talking about. What made him say that? Was that just Nate?

No. No, that's God confirming that message in your heart. No man can make another perceive this. Can't do it. Only God can do that. I can stand, I can talk, I can study to show myself approved of God. And yes, you'll know by the word of God, whether I'm telling a lie or not, it'll be in perfect harmony with the word of God, what I'm preaching. Otherwise, I wouldn't give you references to look at. But as far as that man perceiving you to be sin of God, that's of the Holy Ghost. No man can do that. I don't care who he is. Paul said, we renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. And we don't use the word of God deceitfully. But he said, I preach the gospel to you, and I commend myself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. in the sight of God. What's God going to do to that conscience when he hears the truth?

That's what will make the difference. You know, that's the difference in sitting down and eating supper and sitting down being hungry and eating the supper. God hath from the beginning chosen you, Paul said, to salvation. How's he going to do it? Through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the truth. You don't believe anything until you believe that man's sin of God. Then you're going to hear him. What we preach is the revelation of God in Christ. What the Spirit does is to make us meet to be partakers with enlightened saints. That's it. That's what he does.

And he convinces us through the truth that this man is speaking to us of sin of God. And he has a word from God to me. Gideon perceived, verse 22, look at it there. Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord. This was a messenger of God. This was a ministering spirit sent to him of God. And then a godly reverence entered into his reasoning. And that's what it has to be.

The Lord said, come let us reason together. No reasoning apart from the spirit of the Lord. How are you going to reason? You just reason with yourself. I've had very close siblings say to me, that's your opinion. That's your interpretation. But none of God's elect ever said that. God's people have ears to hear and hearts to understand. Listen to this, 1 John 4 verse 5. He said, they are of the world. Now, what he's doing here, he's telling us to try the spirits, whether they be of the Lord. He's talking about these preachers. And here's what he's saying. He said, they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world. Now listen, and the world hears them.

Here's a man preaching something contrary to the Bible, totally contrary. Works is contrary to grace. Law is contrary to grace. And they're preaching something totally contrary, but the world hears them. Amen, amen. I've sat in that pew and done that very thing. Give my assent to what they were saying without looking at the word of God. They're of the world, and therefore the world hears them. We are of God, he said. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that's not of God heareth not us.

And Paul said this about his, he said, who's sufficient for these things? Huh? You think about it a minute. God calls you into the ministry, and you stand up here and open that Bible, And you're talking to a soul who's dead in sin. He has a nature of nothing but sin. He hates God. His mind is enmity against God. And you're sin of God to birth children of God. Paul said, I've begotten you through the gospel. This man's going to be convinced by what you're saying to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no other way he can do it.

You think that ain't a burden? What will I say? Paul said, well, who's sufficient for this? Nobody. He said, our sufficiency is of God, talking about God the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit, that's our sufficiency. And I'll tell you, you're spitting in the wind if you think you can just decide to preach and go study a few things and get up and start talking. Because that's not going to get it done. If the Holy Spirit of God don't attend your ministry, you don't have one. Oh, that's your opinion. Well, it sure is. All right. Secondly, I want us to see that an altar must be erected to minister to chosen sinners. The altar is the first thing you come to in the courtyard of the tabernacle. You remember I was studying on the tabernacle?

Over in the book of Exodus, God gave that design to Moses. He said, see that you build it according to what I showed you, the image I showed you on the mount. You're going to build it. This thing is a picture of Christ. And they got that linen fence going all around the tabernacle. And the first thing, when you go through the gate, first thing you run into is the altar. The altar is the way. That's the way. I'll never forget this old man preaching, the Arminian preacher. And he preached this message. Boy, he was on fire. He was jumping up and down, carrying on. He got done. And we had a mourner's bench at the front of the church.

And they had an altar column. Folks would come up here and kneel down at that altar. be it they call it an altar. And he said, pointed to that altar, and he said, there's no efficacy in this altar at all. It's just a place where men meet God. Boy, I went home and started thinking about that. I'm going to tell you something. If you can find a place where a rotten, vile sinner can meet with God, you've got a place with more efficacy than you know what to do with. And the only place he can do that is in Christ.

Christ is our altar. That's what he tells us in the book of Hebrews. We have an altar, he said, that those who eat from that old altar don't have a right to. We have an altar. Our altar is Christ. He's the way. And I can't minister reconciliation to men without telling them the way, without establishing the way. And Christ is the way. And pastors must, in their ministry, establish the way God saves sinners, substitution, representation, and eternal union with Christ.

And having established this over in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 10 through 14, you remember those verses. By one sacrifice, he perfected us forever. And then he goes on and he says in verses 21 and 22, having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our conscience sprinkled, sprinkled, that evil conscience sprinkled, sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Having that blood apply, let us draw near with full assurance of faith in Christ.

Christ has made the way. It's a new and living way. He's made the way for us into the holiest of all. And the pastor, in his message, assembles the altar in his preaching. And the Holy Ghost makes it a reality. Makes it a reality. Thirdly, a necessary task is assigned to the minister. That pagan altar and the grove beside of it has to be taken out of the way. There can't be two ways, there's just one way. Christ said, I am the way. Not one of the ways, the way. He said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And there's no mixing grace and works, and Christ is not the result of man's works, but the free gift of God, the unspeakable gift.

And we're all by nature children of wrath, even as others, Ephesians 2, 3, but God, who's rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. Now listen, by grace ye are saved.

That's what that means, that quickening together with Christ. How? By covenant union, by an election of grace, by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who chose us to be blessed with full provision in his Son. But how do we know if we're chosen? Verse 7, he said that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And because we're sons of God, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

Gideon's altar was a physical altar that he had to tear down. It must be destroyed. The one we must destroy is spiritual. Spiritual. 2 Corinthians 10, 4, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. He's not talking about going over to Rome and tearing down the Vatican. What he's talking about here is spiritual strongholds.

That hope that people, it's a hope, a hope, a hope. It has no foundation, but they still have it, and it has to go. It has to go. Casting down what? Imaginations. That's where that word image comes from. Baal was an image, and so are these false hopes we have. They're idols.

And the gospel, in a spiritual sense, tears down the imaginations and the strongholds, and every high thing that exalteth itself above the knowledge of God. and brings into captivity. It not only defeats the enemy, but it puts a chain on him. Brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Oh my.

God will not mix the glory of his son with the works and will of men. He won't do it. So I'm not going to share my glory with another. And it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And the way of Satan has deceived men. It has to be destroyed. It's deception. It's harmful. If it wasn't harmful, I wouldn't talk about it. It's harmful. Oh, it won't hurt me to go down to that church. Go down there and find out. It'll hurt you. The way of Satan and deceived men must be destroyed and the altar of Christ erected. And the grove around it has to be cut down.

Well, what on earth is the grove all about? When you read that, did you even think about it? What's this grove? There's a grove beside the altar. What's it all about? Well, it's kind of what men and women call today a visual aid. That's what it's all about.

The Grove had two satanic purposes in false religion and still does. First of all, it makes their ungodly worship seem attractive. What they're doing is ungodly. I tell you, if you were driving down the road today and you looked over there and there was a bunch of Indians singing and jumping up and down around a totem pole, you'd laugh. You look at it, it'd be so ridiculous you'd just laugh.

But what religion has done is made it seem attractive, made it to make sense. A wise old preacher said to me one time, I was asking him on these very things. And he said, the more you have inside pointing to his heart, he said, the less you need on the outside and pointed all around the room. The less you have inside, the more you need out here.

The grove was designed by Satan's inspiration to set hideous religion in a good light. The second reason for the grove was to hide what they were doing. that it was a grove of trees with a garden inside. It was thick. You couldn't see through it. It was to hide what they were doing. And the awe and pageantry of religion is designed, it's inspired by Satan, to disguise their lies and blasphemies. That's what it does. You remember, the disciples were so impressed with the temple They were just in awe over the temple. You remember what our Lord said? Not one stone going to be left on the other in that day. Not one.

Take a man and dress him up in a priestly gown and put him up in front of the congregation, and suddenly he appears as the servant of God. You haven't heard a word he said, but boy, you're sitting there, man, This guy's got something to say. Why? He's got on a big robe.

Take a building and put some stained glass windows in it, fill it up with candlelight, play some soft music, decorate the walls with fine paintings, and suddenly there's an aura and reverence about the building. As soon as you walk into it. I went up to see that National Cathedral, big Catholic church up in Washington, DC. You got to stand back a block and a half just to get a picture of it, so big. And I was listening to people, and when I walked through that door, oh, man, look at this. It was the building itself. There was nothing going on in it. It was empty.

But it gives off an aura, and immediately it becomes godly, and a reverence is set in your heart about this place. It's the necessary task of a pastor to tear down the grove with the altar and take the scrap wood from the grove, put it in the altar, and offer the right sacrifice to God.

Maybe what Paul was talking about over 1 Corinthians 3.15, he said, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. You're going to take your works and throw them in the fire and burn them up. Only work left is his work. Only sacrifice left is his sacrifice. And fourthly, and I'll try to be brief, I want us to look at the sacrifice.

Gideon was to offer his father's second bullock. When you read that, did that stand out to you? Why the second bullock? Why not the first? If there hadn't been a first, there couldn't be a second, right? What happened to the first bullet? Why didn't he offer it? Because it was set apart to offer the bail. That's why.

God's sacrifice is always second to men, isn't it? Everything concerning God is always second to men. It's second to the world. It's second to your family. It's second to your religion. It's always second. But not with worship to God. It's first. He's going to make the second the first. He's going to make the second the one and nothing else. God won't have anything associated with pagan religion except maybe the scrap wood to fire up his altar. That's it. And then lastly, the offense of the cross. Now to say the least, when the pagan worshipers there saw their religion in a heap, they wanted blood. Here's that sacred altar of Baal that they've been offering their children on and everything else. And now it's in ruin. It's upside down. The grove's been cut down. Looks like some of this property when the timber cutters get done with it. It's just a mess. There's nothing left but scrap. And that's the grove. Here it is. It just whacked.

So they all got together in a lynch mob and went down to Joash's house after Gideon. But the Lord caused the most unlikely of intercessors to defend Gideon, his father. Now if you read this passage closely, you'll find out his father's the one who built the altar. His father's the one who planted the grove.

Well, isn't that the same with us? Isn't our religion when we're growing up, isn't that the religion of our father? Exactly what it is. And Gideon has to tear it down. That same thing happened to me. I couldn't talk to my dad till his altar was destroyed. He had to see it for himself. Now, I don't know how God did this. I just know that he did. Otherwise, Joe Ash wouldn't have been defending his son. He'd have brought his son out and said, here he is. He didn't do that.

Men of the city arose, verse 28, early in the morning. beheld the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar. This bullock wasn't set apart for offering to Baal. They had the wrong sacrifice on the altar, and it was on a new altar.

And they said one to another, who had done this thing? And when they'd inquired and asked, they said Joash had done this thing. And the men of the city said to Joash, bring out thy son, that he may die, because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cast down the grove that was by it.

Now listen to this. I'm accused of this all the time. You harp too much on false religion. I want you to listen to what he says. Joash said to all that stood against him, will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? You going to save your God? Isn't that what Arminianism is all about, trying to save God, trying to save his sacrifice, trying to save his honor? You can't save God. What kind of God do you got? That's what Joe Asher said.

He that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it's yet morning. If he be a God, let him plead for himself. because one cast down his altar. And so they called Joash Jerob Baal. Let Baal plead against him. That's what the name means. Turn you over to Baal.

I hope you'll hear me this morning. Every false god in this world needs saving. Listen to him talk. They all need saving. God alone saves, and none can stay his hand or even question his counsel. He saves. Defend God? I think God can defend himself. I might defend what we preach and defend our people and their faith, but I'm not going to defend God. He defends me. Only a pagan that wants to stay a pagan defends a pagan god. May God be pleased to burn this lesson into our hearts and turn us to the true and living God.

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