Let's begin our service opening
our Bibles to Psalm 29. Psalm 29. Hopefully you've seen in the
bulletin that on Saturday, July the 27th from 1 to 3.30 PM, there's
going to be a bridal shower for Clara Floyd. I wouldn't say Clara
and Isaac, but let's face it, it's for Clara. It's going to
be at our house, and Janet says stop by when you can, stay as
long as you can, and hope we can give them a good turnout,
a good start to help them start their life together. Alright,
Psalm 29. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty.
Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto His name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The
God of glory thunder. The Lord is upon many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh
them also to skip like a calf. Lebanon and Siron like a young
unicorn. The voice of the Lord divided
the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh
the wilderness. The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. The
voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth
the forest. And in his temple doth everyone
speak of his glory. The Lord sitteth upon the flood.
Yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. The Lord will give strength unto
his people. The Lord will bless his people
with peace. All right, let's stand together
as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship. Thou whose almighty word, chaos
and darkness heard, and took their flight, hear us we humbly
pray, and in the gospel day, shine forth thy glorious ray,
let there be light. O blessed incarnate word, gird
on thy mighty sword, conquer thy foes. O Mass of Grace Divine, subdue
this heart of mine, and may Thy glory shine, let there be light. Spirit of truth and love, life-giving,
holy dove, speak forth thy flight. Shine on thy chosen race, by
thy almighty grace. Dispel the dark of night, let
there be light. Thank you, you may be seated. I lost my order of service. What
is the first one? Ladies of all Faithful. 51. 51,
right. Praise the Savior. I remember
now. Page 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He, for conflict, fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing arms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor guile can sever
Those ye love from Him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving
To Thyself and still believing, Till the hour of our receiving
Promise joys with Thee. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not now or could
be, soon shall be our own. Now let's turn back to 40, age
40. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness,
O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning
with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions,
they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever
wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning, new mercies
I see. I have need that thy hand hath
provided, Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Summer and winter and springtime
and harvest, Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above Join with
all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy
and love. Great is thy faithfulness, great
is thy faithfulness, morning by morning All I have needed, Thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Pardon for sin, and a peace that
endureth, and to guide. Strength for today and bright
hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand
beside. Great is thy faithfulness Great
is Thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies
I see. All I have needed, Thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. If you would, let's open our
Bibles to Judges chapter 7. You may want to mark your Judges
chapter 6 and 7 and Hebrews chapter 11. We'll look at both of those
together this morning. Our scripture reading will be
taken from Judges 7, beginning in verse 19. So Gideon and the hundred men
that were with him came into the outside of the camp in the
beginning of the middle watch. And they had but newly set the
watch, And they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were
in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and
break the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hands and
the trumpets in their right hands to blow with all. And they cried
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And they stood every
man in his place round about the camp. They didn't run in
there and kill the enemy. They stood every man in his place
round about the camp. And all the host, all the host
of the enemy ran and cried and fled. And the 300 blew the trumpets. And the Lord said, every man's
sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host. And
the host fled to Bethshedda in Zerath and to the border of Abel
Maloah under Tabath. And the men of Israel gathered
themselves together out of Naphtali and Asher and out of Manasseh
and pursued after the Midianites. And Gideon sent messengers throughout
all Mount Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites and
take before them the waters under Bethbara and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered
themselves together and took the waters under Bethbara and
Jordan. And they took two princes of
the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock
Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb, and pursued
Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on
the other side, Jordan. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this another day, another opportunity that you've given
us to meet together with our brothers and our sisters and
to worship you. Father, I pray that this morning
that you would give us a spirit of worship. and that you enable
us to have a true worship service this morning. That by your spirit,
we be enabled to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and
in truth. Father, I pray that the name
of Christ be lifted up and magnified in our midst this morning, in
everything that we do, in the reading of your word, in the
singing of Psalms, in our prayers, and Father, in the preaching
of the gospel. Cause the name of Christ to be
magnified. And give your people an ear of
faith and a heart of faith to hear and believe the things that
we here preach this morning and enable us to leave here this
morning with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God-given faith
to believe him and to rest in him. Father, how can we begin
to thank you for the unspeakable gift of your son? that you'd
send your Son into the world to be the light of the world,
to be the Lamb of God who'd come to take away the sin of the world.
Father, how we thank you. And we pray that you'd forgive
us for our murmuring and complaining, just like the children of Israel
of old are murmuring and are complaining. We ask you to forgive
us for our excessive work. worrying about the things that
our Father's in control of. And see us and hear us only in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Forgive us, Father, for His sake,
for the sake of His blood that cleanses us from all sin. Accept us in Him as perfect in
Him. And Father, what we pray for
ourselves, we pray for all of your people who are meeting together
today to worship you. Bless your word. Bless your people
for your glory, Father. And Father, for those who are
in a time of trouble and trial, we pray for them. It seems that
right now there are so many. And Father, we pray for your
hand of healing. We pray for your hand of comfort
and pray that you would lead and guide your people. We're
in the valley, the deep and dark valley. Father, don't leave us
alone. But lead us and guide us. We don't know how to go or
where to go. It's too dark for us to know. But Father, lead and guide your
people and be with them and enable us to learn what you would have
us learn in these times of trial and trouble and provide a way
out. It's your will. Father, we thank
you for the many, many, many blessings of this life that you've
given to us, and we pray that you give us the wisdom to use
these things wisely for your glory, for the good of your people. Deliver us from a selfish attitude,
but give us a liberal, gracious heart. Father, we pray for our
upcoming classes with our young adults that you bless in a special
way. Bless this time we have together. Bless it for your glory and the
good of our young adults. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In my darkness, Jesus found me. He touched my eyes and he made
me see. He broke sin's chains that long
had bound me. He gave me life and liberty. Oh, glorious love of Christ my
Lord. That made Him stoop to save a
soul like mine Through all my days and then in heaven above My song will silence never, I'll
worship Him forever, And praise Him for His glorious love. Oh, amazing truth to ponder, reconciled to God in Him. Lord of heaven, God's Son, what
wonder He became this sinner's friend. Oh, glorious love of Christ,
my love divine, That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine. all my days, and then in heaven
above. My song will silence never, I'll
worship Him forever, and praise Him for His glorious love. And praise Him for His glorious
love. And praise Him for His glorious
love. Alright, let's begin turning
in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. The title of the message this morning,
Gideon's Faith. Now we've been looking at the
different examples of faith that the writer has given us. We saw
last week, or last time I preached here, how Joshua had come in
and taken the land. taking the land that God had
promised them, set Rahab the harlot free. And as long as Joshua
lived, the children of Israel followed the Lord. They had a
good leader, a leader who followed the Lord. As long as he lived,
the children of Israel followed the Lord. As long as the elders
who served under Joshua lived, Israel followed the Lord. But
soon, I mean the moment all those leaders died, Israel fell into
idolatry. And each time the people fell
into idolatry, the Lord made them suffer for it. And they
suffered for it until finally they cried to the Lord. And when
they cried to the Lord, the Lord would send them judges to deliver
them. They didn't have kings at this
time. The Lord gave the people judges. The Lord would raise
up a judge who would deliver Israel from whatever current
trouble they happened to be in. And then as long as that judge
lived, the people followed the Lord. They had a leader who followed
the Lord and the people followed the Lord. But the very moment
that judge died, the people turned to idols again. And that cycle
is repeated many times. Just rinse and repeat, rinse
and repeat throughout the cycle, throughout the history of Israel.
And one of the judges that God sent to deliver Israel was this
man named Gideon. We read about him in Hebrews
11 verse 32. And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, of
David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. He says, time would
fail me to tell of Gideon. Look back, if you would, at Judges
chapter 6. We're going to look and see what we can find out
about this man, Gideon. Gideon's faith, Gideon is held
up to us as an example of faith. Well, Gideon's faith is the same
faith that all of God's people have been given. And I see 10
marks of faith that we see in this man, Gideon. And if God
has given us this same faith, we'll see these marks in ourselves.
And I know 10 points seems like a lot. I promise you I'll be
brief, but I do not see how you can leave any of these 10 out.
This is a golden chain of faith that we see. And the first point
is this, faith, will see my sin as my fault. Judges chapter six,
verse one. And the children of Israel did
evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into
the hand of Midian seven years. Now Israel could not blame anyone
but themselves for being in bondage to Midian, could they? It was
because of their own sin. The Midianites are modern day
ISIS. It's the same bunch that bought
Joseph as a slave And I would imagine it is a horrible thing
to be in bondage to these awful people. But Israel was in bondage
and is their own fault because they fell into the sin of idolatry.
That was the evil that they had fallen into. Now sin, all sin
is rebellion against God. That's what all sin is. It's
open rebellion against God who has been nothing but good to
us. God never given anybody a reason to sin against him. And that
is certainly true for Israel. God had been so good to Israel,
how he had delivered them and given them everything he ever
promised. And as soon as they could, they would begin worshiping
an idol instead of God. Hard to understand, isn't it? Except it's not. Because you
and I have the exact same nature, a nature of sin, a nature of
idolatry that will worship anything but God. And our sin is our fault. I know Adam's sin made me guilty.
I understand that. But my sin is not Adam's fault.
It's my fault. I got nobody to blame but myself.
I sin and I do it willingly. Nobody ever made me do it. My
sin and my fault and yours is too. And my punishment is my
fault too. God punishes me. He damns me. He's given me exactly what I
deserve. I can't complain about it a bit.
And nobody will be saved until they see that their sin is their
fault. And God would be just to damn
them. Everything we do is sin. Everything. So our sin is without
number. So we can't defeat it. We can't
put it away. And that's pictured in verse
five. They came up, the Midianites, they came up with their camels
and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude.
Both they and their camels were without number, and they entered
into the land to destroy it. That's our sin, isn't it? Our
sin is without number, and it's come to destroy us. Now back
up verse two, it says, the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. And because of the Midianites,
the children of Israel made them dens and caves, which were in
the mountains and caves and strongholds. And so it was when Israel had
sown its own seed, planted seed, that the Midianites came up and
the Amalekites and the children of the East, even they came up
against them. And they encamped against them
and destroyed the increase of the earth. Till they'll come
unto Gaza and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor
ox nor ass. The Midianites came in, the Midianites
are a picture of our sin, and they destroyed everything in
the land. Israel planted crops, but the
Midianites came and destroyed those crops before they ripened,
or they waited till they were ripened. As soon as they were
ready to harvest, they took it, and Israel had nothing to eat.
Israel was starving to death. I mean, this is a horrible bondage
that they're in. But that's exactly what sin has
done to you and me. Sin has destroyed everything
in us. Sin has killed us. I know we're
alive physically, but we're dead spiritually. Don't ever confuse
physical life for spiritual life. Don't ever confuse being able
to make some choices physically for the choice spiritually to
decide to let God save you. There's no such thing. We're
dead spiritually. Sin's already killed us. And
everything that we try to do to earn life from God, spiritual
life, is destroyed. by our sin. It's made useless
by our sin. And faith knows, I'm in this
boat. It's my fault. My sin has done
this to me. I got nobody to blame but myself.
Well, here's the second thing about saving faith. Saving faith
cries for forgiveness. Verse six of Judges six. And
Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites and
the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Now, sadly, You
know, that's the only time we'll cry into the Lord. We'll only
cry to the Lord when the Lord makes us miserable. We'll only
cry to the Lord when He takes away all hope in anything but
Him. And we'll never cry to the Lord
as long as we think that we can do something about our sin. And
the Lord's going to convict us of it. And conviction of sin
is a miserable experience. But it's the best thing for us.
The best thing for us. God will not let his people live
in rebellion against him. He won't do it. He's going to
make his children miserable because of their sin. And it'll be painful. Just like this bondage with Midian. It's going to be painful. But whatever means the Lord uses
to make us cry to Him, it's a blessing. No matter how painful it may
be, it's a blessing if it makes us cry to the Lord. And faith
will just cry. Faith will never make excuses
for our sin or promise to do better next time because there's
no excuse and we won't do better next time. We're gonna do the
same thing all over again. Faith cries for forgiveness. God, forgive
me. to sin, me to sin. And you know,
the Lord will answer the cries of his people. He will answer
those cries for forgiveness. And you know how he's going to
do it? By sending us a preacher to tell us the gospel of Christ. That's what happened here. Verse
seven, the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and it came
to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because
of the Midianites that the Lord sent a prophet. He sent them
a preacher unto the children of Israel, which said unto them,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and
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 drave them out from before you and gave
you their land. And I said unto you, I'm the
Lord, your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites and whose
lands you dwell, but you've not obeyed my voice. Now, when we
hear this message, thus saith the Lord. The prophet came and
he told them who God is, didn't he? I'm the Lord. I'm Jehovah. I'm God that's delivered you
from the house of bondage. I'm God that brought you here
to this land that I promised to give you. That's who I am.
And who are you? You're the ones that rebelled
against me and started worshiping a stone idol. That's who you
are. That's who God is. That's who
we are. But you know, when God lets us hear that message, thus
saith the Lord. Not thus say some man we respect,
thus sayeth the Lord. God's getting ready to do something. God lets us hear that message.
God's getting ready to do something special. He's getting ready to
reveal Christ the Deliverer, Christ the Savior to us. And
this is so encouraging to me. God told us who he is, told us
who we are. We're a mess, aren't we? After
all God's blessings to us, we want to worship an idol. God's
people crying to him and he still hears them. He's still merciful
to his people. Where sin has abounded, God's
grace will always much more abound in forgiving him. Faith cries
for forgiveness. Faith does not just cry to be
saved from trouble. Faith doesn't just cry to be
saved from the pain. Faith cries for forgiveness,
forgiveness of sin. Where's the third thing? Faith
and humility go hand in hand. Verse 11. And there came an angel
of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was in Ophrah that
pertained unto Joash the Abysarite. And his son Gideon threshed wheat
by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. And the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord
is with thee. Thou mighty man of valor. And
Gideon said unto him, 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 hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. And 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? And he said unto him, O my Lord,
wherewithal shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Now here's
Gideon. Gideon knew he was a nobody. He knew he's nobody special.
Gideon somehow got him a little bit of wheat. And he was trying
to thresh it behind the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon wasn't being like Rambo,
just out there daring the whole army of the Midianites to come
to him and I'm going to kill y'all. No, he was hiding. And
if he didn't hide behind that wine press, the Midianites would
have come and took his wheat just like they took it from everybody
else. Gideon wasn't anybody special. He was a nobody from nowhere. He knew he was from the poorest
family in the poorest tribe of Israel, and he was the least
of that poor family. And Gideon knew he didn't know
anything. Gideon did not know what God's purpose was in putting
Israel under the hand of the Midianites. And I think we'd
be wise to remember that. It amazes me How many people
know exactly what God's doing when God's trying somebody else? No, I'm afraid we don't. And
we'd just be a whole lot better off if we said like Gideon, I
don't know. I don't know what God's purpose
is in this. And I don't know why God isn't working the miracles
He worked in the past. Why isn't God miraculously delivering
us from these Midianites like He did the Egyptians? I don't
know. Gideon didn't know. So how can this angel, and this
angel, I'll show you this in a minute, is a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ? How can this angel, call this
fella, hiding behind the wine press, the least of the poorest
family, the poorest tribe of Israel, how can the Lord say
Gideon is a mighty man of valor? He's hiding behind the wine press.
Look like a mighty man of valor to you? How can the Lord say
this nobody from nowhere that doesn't know anything is going
to go save Israel from the hand of the Midianites? The answer is by faith. It's
by faith. When I am weak, then am I strong. There's a reason the Lord came
to a nobody from nowhere. He didn't come to somebody who's
brave and thought if I just get a chance I could deliver Israel.
No, he came to a nobody who's weak When I'm weak, then am I
strong, because when the Lord makes me weak, then and only
then will I trust Christ. And if I'm trusting him, I'm
mighty. See, God saw Gideon as mighty
because he saw him in Christ, not in himself. He saw him in
Christ. And Gideon was going to go deliver
Israel because God sent him. God said, I sent you. That's
why you're going to deliver Israel. Gideon's going to be sent in
faith, depending upon Christ. That's the only way Gideon could
be mighty. And everybody God saves, He's
going to bring them to the point they see themselves like Gideon.
I'm a nobody from nowhere. There's nothing about me. There's
no reason I can find anywhere in me that God would look upon
me with favor. None whatsoever. There's nothing
about me that could commend me to God. It makes me think I'm
better than somebody else. It makes me think, you know,
God might choose me instead of somebody else. There's nothing
about me that would commend me to God. I don't know anything
about anything. I really don't. And how can somebody
like me come to God? I mean, I'm nothing. I got nothing.
I'm the worst of the worst. I'm from Adam's race. And whatever tribe you want to
put me in, from Adam's race, I'm the least in that. I'm the
greatest sinner in that tribe. How can I be saved from my sin? I'm a helpless sinner. How can
I be saved? Want me to tell you? By faith
in Christ. By faith in Christ. We're saved
in Him. In His work for us. Not what
we can do, but what He's done for us. It's not by what we can
do to win the battle. Salvation is through faith in
Christ, who is the mighty conqueror. And we are more than conquerors
in him, not in ourselves. Faith and humility go hand in
hand. If you see Christ, if you have faith, faith in Christ,
you know who he is, right? When you see him, you're gonna
be humbled. in comparison to him. Faith and
humility have to go hand in hand. Right, the fourth thing, faith
is in one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, the Lord said
unto him, surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the
Midianites as one man. Now the Lord said, you're gonna
smite them as one man. Now I see the gospel there. The gospel is all about one man. The gospel is all about representation. Remember when David went to fight
Goliath, this thing was a battle of one man, one victor. Whoever
won the battle, his people would win the battle. Whoever lost
the battle, his people would lose the battle. It was all in
one man. That's the gospel. The gospel is all about representation. God sees the whole human race
in two men. He didn't see us in ourselves.
He sees the whole human race in two men, either in Adam, the
first man, or in Christ, the second Adam. And what one man
did, his whole race did, because he represented his race. When
Adam disobeyed God, everybody he represented, which is all
of us, the whole human race. When Adam disobeyed God, all
of us disobeyed God. When Adam disobeyed God, all
of us sinned. And we are sinners. We commit
sin because we were made sinners in Adam. We did what our representative
did. We have his nature. That's why
we sin. Well, when the Lord Jesus Christ
obeyed God's law, all of his people, everybody he represented
obeyed God's law in him. So they are righteous. Not because
of what they did, but because of what their representative
did. They are righteous. And when Christ died for the
sins of His people, His people died in Him. And justice is satisfied
because we did what our representative did. The gospel is all in one
man. If you hold your finger there and look over Romans chapter
5, I can show you this. Paul tells us this so clearly
in Romans chapter 5. Verse 18. lays hold on one man, on one
hope, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not what Christ did plus
what I can do as one man. One man. Faith is fully persuaded
that Christ is our righteousness. It's all in Him, not anything
we've done. Faith is fully persuaded that Christ is our salvation. We're saved from sin in Him. We cannot perish. We cannot perish
if we trust Christ. Now I reckon everybody in this
room knows that. We cannot perish if Christ died
for us. If Christ put our sin away, God
cannot condemn us. There's nothing left to condemn.
Christ put it away. That's true, isn't it? That is
so in the heart of every believer. Every believer everywhere believes
that. But this is also true. We live
in a real world, don't we? A real world of sin and real
bodies of sin. So here's the fifth thing about
faith. Faith needs assurance. Look at verse 17, Judges chapter
six. And he said unto him, if now
I found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest
with me. 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'll tarry until thou come again. Now Gideon
here asked for a sign. You know why he asked for a sign?
He asked for some assurance. This is really the Lord speaking
to me. I mean, are you really the Lord?
Is this really a message from the Lord? Because he said, I
tell you, this sounds too good to be true. So can you give me
some assurance? Can you give me some assurance?
And the angel said, I will. And Gideon often does this, ask
for a sign, for assurance. Look over at verse 36. And Gideon
said unto God, if thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou
hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor,
and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all
the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel
by my hand, as thou hast said. The Lord asked, or Gideon asked
for a sign, assurance of faith, and the Lord gave it to him.
And then the very next day, Gideon asked for another sign to assure
him. Verse 39. And Gideon said unto
God, let not thine anger be hot against me, and I'll speak but
this once. Let me prove, I pray thee, but
this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the
fleece, and upon all the ground, let there be dew. And God did
so that night for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there
was dew on all the ground. The very next day, the Lord gave
Gideon another sign to assure his faith. Now, we can be hard
on Gideon like this if we want to. But you know, we all, every
believer, every child of God needs constant, constant reassurance
from the Lord. We need assurance. because our
sin is so great. We need assurance, don't we?
We need assurance because we're so weak. Oh, it's so shameful. I think, how can somebody who
knows the Lord be as weak as I am? I need assurance of faith. We need assurance because it
seems too good to be true that Almighty God would have mercy
upon me. A young woman called me one time,
asked me to baptize her. She made this statement. She
said, I haven't listened to you preach pretty good while. She'd been listening to several
of our brethren, listen to some good preachers. She hadn't listened
in a long time. And she said, right from the very beginning,
she says, I saw this. I saw that God's God, that God's
holy, that he's just, she said, she said, anybody can read the
Bible and see that. That's obvious. And she said,
right from the beginning, she said, I saw I'm a sinner. She
said, I read God's word. And she just kind of laughs and
look at myself. She said, that's obvious. That's obvious. Anybody
can see that. And she said, right from the
very beginning, she said, I could see that Christ is the savior
of sinners. He came to save sinners. She
said, anybody can read the Bible and see that that's just obvious.
You don't need to be very smart at all to see that. She said,
but this is why I've been battling this whole time I've been listening
to you preach. How could God do something so
great for somebody like me? I still need assurance of that,
don't you? How could that be? I need assurance of my faith.
So I don't believe we'd be doing right to be hard on old Gideon,
you think? Do you know God another time gave Gideon a sign? Gideon
didn't even ask for it. Look over at chapter 7, verse
9. And it came to pass that same
night that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto
the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou
fear to go down, go thou with Phura, thy servant, down to the
host. And thou shalt hear what they
say, and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened. You're
going to have some assurance here to go down unto the host.
Then he went down with Phura, his servant, unto the outside
of the armed men that were in the host. And the Midianites
and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along
in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude. And their camels
were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude.
And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream
unto his fellow. Gideon was there overhearing
this, hiding, overhearing this. And he said, behold, I dreamed
a dream. And lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of
Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and
overturned it that the tent lay alone. And the fellow answered
and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon, the
son of Joash, a man of Israel. For into his hand God hath delivered
Midian and all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard
the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that
he worshipped. And he returned unto the host
of Israel and said, Arise. For the Lord hath delivered into
your hand the host of Midian." The Lord sent Gideon down here
on purpose to hear these two Amalekites or Midianites, whoever
they were, talking. One of them dreamed a dream.
And the other one could interpret it. God enabled him to interpret
it, gave him the right interpretation. He said, that's Gideon. Gideon's
coming to destroy this place. He's coming to destroy our army.
And Gideon heard that. And God assured his faith that
he would have, God would give him the victory. Now when we
want assurance, assurance of our faith, I'll tell you how
it won't come. Assurance of our faith will never
come from us seeing a miracle. Not gonna happen. If that was
so, that'd be sight, not faith, wouldn't it? Isn't that right?
So that's not how faith is assured. The token God gives his people,
the token of assurance is the gospel. Our assurance comes from
hearing the gospel over and over and over again. It's by hearing
of Christ over and over and over again, because our assurance
is in who he is. So our assurance comes from hearing
the gospel of Christ. And if you go looking for assurance,
you just think, I want assurance. And you go looking for it, you'll
never find it. But if you go looking for Christ, you'll have
assurance. So look to him. That's the token that God gives
his people. But that brings me to my sixth
point. Faith sees the sacrifice of Christ as the sacrifice I
must have. Back in chapter six, verse 19,
Gideon went and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah
of flour. The flesh he put in a basket
and he put the broth in a pot and brought it out unto him under
the oak and presented it. And the angel of God said unto
him, take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this
rock and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel
of the Lord put forth the end of his 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 the
unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed
out of his sight. Now Gideon's present here is
a sacrifice. That's what the word means, a
sacrifice or a meat offering. And all of this sacrifice that
he brings is a picture of Christ. That's easy to see this kid that
he brought. That's a picture of Christ, the lamb of God, the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the lamb slain
as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. But the flower and
the unleavened cake, that's also a picture of Christ. The flower
is Christ's sinless body. He had a real human body. And that body was ground up just
like the flower was ground up. That body was ground under the
wrath of God and it baked in the heat of God's wrath against
the sin of his people. And Gideon's sacrifice was accepted
of the Lord, which is a picture of Christ. His sacrifice was
accepted by the Father. Here's how I know this angel
has to be a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. No mere angel would
dared touch that sacrifice. That sacrifice was a meat offering
unto the Lord. No mere angel would have dared
touch that. But Christ would because he is
the sacrifice. And when he touched that sacrifice,
a miracle happened. Fire came up out of a rock and
consumed the sacrifice. And when he did that, you know
what he showed? Gideon, I'm accepting your sacrifice. The fire of God
came and consumed it. That was the sign Gideon needed,
that he was accepted in the sacrifice. That was the sign that he needed.
So that brings me to the seventh thing. Faith finds peace in Christ. Verse 22, when Gideon perceived
that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, alas, O Lord God,
for because I've seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And
the Lord said unto him, peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou
shalt not die. You'll not die because that fire
just consumed the sacrifice. The sacrifice died in your place.
You shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom. And to this day, it is
yet an ofrah of the Abizrites. Gideon named that place one of
the seven names of Jehovah, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. Christ is our peace with God. Everybody in this world wants
peace. Oh, people, they'd give anything
to have peace and calm, calmness of mind, calmness of heart. Oh,
if you'd have peace, look to Christ. Look to Christ. He made
peace for us by the blood of his cross. Christ reconciled
all of his people to God by the blood of his sacrifice. And if
you are trusting Christ alone, all your salvation My friend,
you have peace with God if you're trusting Christ. But if any of
your works are part of the equation, if you think any of your work,
something can be done, you know, make yourself have more peace
or in a better standing with God, you'll have no peace because
God will never accept our works. But if your only hope is Christ,
you'll have peace with God. Faith looks only to Christ. And faith sees Christ as our
peace. Now, like I said a minute ago,
if you want assurance, look to Christ. If you want peace, look
to Christ. If you want assurance of God's
love, if you want assurance of the forgiveness of your sin,
look to Christ crucified. Look to Christ to sacrifice.
Because this is what we know about the sacrifice of Christ.
The Father accepted it. We know that, don't we? How do
we know that? Christ rose again the third day. As evidence, the
Father accepted his sacrifice The sin that had been laid on
Him is gone, or else He never could have rose again. Well,
if the Father accepted Christ my sacrifice, then He's accepted
me. If He's accepted my sacrifice,
if Christ has put my sin away, the Father's accepted me. If
the Father's accepted the sacrifice of Christ for my sin, that's
the assurance I need to know the Father loves me. He has to. He sacrificed His Son. That's
the assurance. If God's accepted you, he's accepted
your sacrifice. You have peace. Oh, but let me
warn you. The very moment you have peace
with God in the heart, the warfare is going to start. Warfare with
the flesh is going to start as soon as we seek Christ by faith. The warfare begins and the idols
of our flesh have got to be torn down. Look here at verse 25. And it came to pass that same
night that the Lord said unto him, take thy father's young
Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old and throw
down the altar of Baal that thy father hath and cut down the
grove that is by it and build an altar unto the Lord thy God
upon the top of this rock in the ordered place and take the
second Bullock and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the
grove, which thou has cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his
servants, and did as the Lord said unto him. And so it was,
because he feared his father's household and the men of the
city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold,
the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that
was by it, and a second bullock was offered upon the altar that
was built. And they said one to another, Who hath done this
thing? When they inquired and asked,
they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, hath done this thing.
Then the men of the city came unto Joash and said unto Joash,
Bring out thy son, that he may die, because he hath cast down
the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that
was by it. And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will
you plead for Baal? Will you save him? He that will
plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning.
If he be a God, if Baal is a God, let him plead for himself because
one hath cast down his altar. Therefore, on that day he called
him, he called his son Gideon, he called him drovable, saying,
let Baal plead against him because he hath thrown down his altar.
Now, faith in Christ cannot exist with idols. The idols have got
to go. They've got to be exposed for
the idol that they are. And that's not me being a narrow
bigot. That's not me being unloving toward people that worship idols.
That's just so. From God's word, the idols got
to come down because God will have no rivals in the hearts
of his people. Christ will be all. And the idols have got to go.
And I tell you, here's a pretty good clue that your God's an
idol. If your idol can be torn down,
if your God can be torn down, He's an idol. If He can't defend
Himself, He's an idol. And when we tear down the idols
of our flesh, our flesh is going to try to build up a new one.
Faith's constantly going to have to be tearing it down, constantly.
Our faith will constantly get rid of those idols and make us
look and trust Christ alone. That's the civil war that the
Apostle Paul describes in Romans chapter 7. It's constantly going
on between the flesh and the spirit. But the spirit will prevail.
It will. Because unlike an idol, the Lord
Jesus Christ cannot be torn down. He's plenty able to defend himself
and his people. So faith finds peace in Christ
and his sacrifice alone and won't look anywhere else. Well, here's
the eighth thing. Faith gives Christ all the glory.
Here in chapter seven, Judges verse one, the indescribable
who is Gideon and all the people that were with him rose up early
and pitched beside the well of Herod so that the host of the
Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Mora
in the valley. And the Lord said unto Gideon
that the people that are with thee are too many for me to give
the Midianites into their hand. Not too few. He said too many.
Last Israel bonked themselves against me, saying, mine own
hand has saved me. Now, therefore, go to proclaim
in the ears of the people saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid,
let him return. You don't have to go to the battle.
Depart early from the Mount Gilead. And there returned to the people
20 and 2,000, and there remained 10,000. And the Lord said unto
Gideon, the people are yet too many. Bring them down into the
water, and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that
of whom I shall say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the
same shall go with thee. And of whomsoever I say unto
thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.
So he brought down the people into the water. And the Lord
said unto Gideon, everyone that lappeth of the water with his
tongue like a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself. Likewise,
everyone that bowed down upon his knees to drink. And the number
of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were
300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their
knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon,
by these 300 men that laughed, will I save you and deliver the
Midianites into thine hand and let all the other people go every
man into his place. So the people took victuals in
their hand and their trumpets, and they sent all the rest of
Israel, every man into his tent and retained those 300 men. And
the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. Now Gideon
had gathered together an army. People started hearing about
Gideon. He gathered together an army to go defeat the Midianites.
He had 32,000 men. And the Lord whittled them down
to 300. And you know why the Lord did
that? So everybody would know he won
the victory. Lord said, you can't take this
large army down there with us. Too many for me to give you the
victory because the people are going to say that they won the
victory by their own strength, by this large army. They're not
going to give God the glory. So Lord willed the army down
to 300 men. I mean, it's impossible for 300 men to defeat this army
that came like grasshoppers upon them. And he did that. So everybody
would know Israel didn't win the battle. God won the battle
for them. And that's saving faith. Before
the Lord saves anybody, He's going to whittle them down to
nothing. He's just going to whittle them down to the nub. The Lord's
going to make us see that our best works, our best righteousnesses,
those things that we do to try to commend ourselves to God are
nothing but filthy rags and deserve hell. That's what we deserve.
The Lord's going to make us see we can't contribute anything
to our salvation and we're totally dependent upon the Lord. And
when we see that we're totally dependent, that we're helpless,
then the Lord will save us. Because then, that way, God can
get all the glory. That's what your pastor says.
God will save everybody and get all the glory and save them.
He's gonna have the glory. And faith never has any question
about that. Faith gives God all the glory for saving a wretch
like me. Now here's the ninth thing. Faith is received through
the preaching of Christ. Chapter seven, verse 16. And he divided the 300 men into
three companies and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty
pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them,
look on me and do likewise. And behold, I come to the outside
of the camp. It should be that as I do, so shall ye do. When
I blow with the trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow
ye the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and say
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred
men that were with him came into the outside of the camp in the
beginning of the middle watch, and they but newly set the watch,
and they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers that were
in their hands. And the three companies blew the trumpets and
break the pitchers and held the lamps in their left hand and
the trumpets in their right hand to blow with all. And they cried
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and they stood. They
didn't run into the camp, they stood, every man in his place
round about the camp. And all the host ran and cried
and fled. And the three hundred blew the
trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow,
even throughout all the host. And the host fled to Bethshida
in Zerath and to the border of Abel-Miloah unto Tabath." Now
the lamps and the horns that these men had in their hands,
that represents gospel preaching. The horns, that's the sound of
the gospel being preached. That's how men hear from God.
And God gives light. This is what the torches represent.
God gives light through the preaching of the gospel. He gives light
to see Christ. He gives light to see ourselves,
to see our need of Christ. He gives light to see his sufficiency. The word of God, that's the means
that the Lord uses to give light. The only way to see is in the
light of Christ when he's preached in the gospel. And the men cried
the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. That's the preaching
of the word of God, the sword. And when they cried that and
they let that light shine, they cried that and blew those trumpets.
Something supernatural happened. They just stood there and all
the host of the Midianites killed themselves. They just killed
each other. Israel never fired a shot. God gave them the victory. And this is what faith knows.
The gospel is all I need. The gospel of Christ is all I
need. I don't need anything else. When
the gospels preach, something supernatural happens. God gives
light and life to the dead and dead sinners live and believe. The gospel preaches the means
that God uses to do that. Then lastly, faith receives the
victory in Christ. Verse 24. And Gideon sent messengers
throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, come down against the
Midianites and take before them the waters under Bethphara and
Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered
themselves together and took the waters under Bethphara and
Jordan. And they took two princes of
the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock
Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb. and pursued
Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on
the other side, Jordan. Now at the end of this battle,
you know what Israel saw? All their enemies were dead and
the princes of them were displayed openly in victory. And that's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ triumphing over his enemies and
making a show of them openly. Faith in Christ will see the
victory. Don't let dark days now discourage
you. Faith will see the victory in
Christ. Faith, and this is the victory
we'll see. Christ has destroyed all of our sins and it's gone
forever. And in glory, we're not going
to live with sin. We're not going to live with
the effects of sin anymore. Because Christ our Gideon, that
mighty man of valor, put it away by winning the victory for us.
All right, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we
thank you for your word. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Gideon, the mighty man of valor, who's won
the battle for his people and put away our sin, given us the
victory in him. Father, I pray that this morning
that you would give us here the faith of Gideon. the faith to
look to and depend upon and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ our
Savior. We ask this great blessing, the
blessing of faith in Christ, the blessing of forgiveness of
sin in His blood for the glory of the name of
Christ our Savior. It's in His precious name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and turn to 175.
We'll do the chorus after the even verses, two and four. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let His praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing on the promises
that cannot fail When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail
By the living word of God I shall prevail Standing on the promises
of God Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. I'm standing on the promises
of God Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord Bound to Him
eternally by love strong Standing on the promises of God Standing
on the promises of God I cannot fall. Listening every moment to the
Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all
in all. Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing
on the promises of God my Savior, standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises
of God. so