We're gonna continue our study
through the different books of the Bible in the book of Judges
this morning. Now in the book of Joshua, we looked at that
last week, the promised land is given to us as a picture of
the believer entering into rest in heaven. In Judges, the promised
land is given to us as a picture of the believer living in this
world. Throughout the book of Judges, we see a picture of the
constant warfare that goes on in every believer, the warfare
between the flesh and the spirit. The warfare between the old man
and the new man. If you take the time to read through the
book of Judges, you'll see many shocking and shameful things
going on that I don't find anybody really having any explanation
for. But I do know this, when a believer looks inside himself,
he sees many shocking and shameful things because of the sin and
rebellion and unbelief that's still alive and well in all of
us and that old man that we carry around. Now, as long as Joshua
lived, Joshua led the people into the promised land, divided
out their inheritance. As long as Joshua lived, the
children of Israel followed the Lord. And as long as the elders
who served under Joshua and lived after Joshua died, as long as
they lived, the children of Israel followed the Lord. But not long
after they entered the promised land, Joshua and those elders
died, and Israel almost immediately fell into idolatry. And thus
begins the picture of the warfare between the flesh and the spirit.
And I tell you where this whole problem came from. It's in chapter
17 of Judges, verse six. In those days, there was no king
in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. Now, you notice every man didn't
do what was wrong in his own eyes. He did what was right in
his own eyes. Well, whatever we think with
the natural mind is right, you can mark it down, it's always
wrong. Just do the opposite of what the natural mind tells you
to do, because it's always wrong. The people leaned on their own
understanding rather than trusting in the Lord, and they fell into
idolatry. And each time the people fell
into idolatry, they suffered. And eventually they suffered
enough where they cried unto the Lord. And the Lord sent judges,
different judges to deliver them. And he delivered them and as
long as that judge lived, the people followed the Lord. As
soon as that judge died, they fell back into idolatry. And
that's the picture we see all throughout Judges, this constant
internal warfare, civil war between the flesh and the spirit. That's
what the book of Judges is all about. Now look back at Judges
chapter six. Our lesson this morning is going
to be on the life of Gideon. And I want to answer this question.
How can we be delivered from the power of our sin? How can
we be delivered? How do we have peace from this
civil war that's going on in us between the flesh and the
spirit? Well, you know that the answer to that question is our
Lord Jesus Christ. And all the judges in this book
give us a picture of Christ in some way. So this morning, I
want us to see Gideon, the mighty man of valor. Begin in Judges
6, verse 1. 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. And the hand of Midian prevailed
against Israel. And because of the Midianites,
the children of Israel made them dens, which are in the mountains,
and caves and strongholds. Now Israel didn't have peace
because they sinned against God. It got so bad they're hiding
in caves and dens, just a desperate time. And this is what sin does
to people, it makes us run and hide. That's what Adam did in
the garden, he sinned, he's hiding from God, running from God, man's
been doing it ever since, running scared. The moment Adam sinned,
he lost all peace. He lost peace with God, he lost
peace in his conscience, and he's been trying to get it back
ever since. Now verse three, and so it was when Israel had
sown 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 into Gaza. It left no sustenance for Israel,
neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle
and their tents and they came as grasshoppers for multitude.
For both they and their camels were without number. and they
entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished
because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried
unto the Lord. Now, the Midianites and the Malachites
are pictures of sin. They came to Israel to stay.
That was their intention. There are too many of them to
count. That's just like our sin, isn't it? Sins come to stay,
and there are sins too many of them to count. And they brought
with them devastation. They took what they wanted for
their own use, and the rest of it they just destroyed, just
for fun's sake, they destroyed. They couldn't use it, but they
didn't want Israel to use it, they just destroyed it for fun's
sake, and left Israel in utter poverty. And that's what sin
does to us. Sin leaves us with no spiritual
food, no spiritual life, and nothing to sustain life. Sin
leaves us impoverished, so we're spiritually bankrupt. We've got
a sin debt we cannot pay. There's no spiritual goodness
in us at all. And sin, when it comes, comes
to destroy. When it's finished, it brings
forth death every time. And the Lord's gonna bring all
of his people into this miserable condition, this miserable, impoverished
condition for this reason, so that we will finally cry to him. We will never cry for mercy until
all of our resources are gone. And God makes us see sin has
taken away everything we have, and then and only then will we
cry to him. And in verse seven, here's how
the Lord answers his people when they cry. He sends them a prophet. It came to pass when the children
of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that
the Lord sent a prophet 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 draved them
out from before you, and gave you their land. And I said unto
you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites,
in whose lands you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice."
Now this is the problem. God sent his prophet with God's
message. And he told him, this is why
we're in this condition. It's our sin, it's our own sin.
Damnation and death by sin, that's our fault. That's our doing,
that's the result of our sin. Salvation, eternal life and deliverance,
that's all God's doing. God said, when I brought you
out of Egypt, you didn't just leave, I brought you out. You
didn't just come to the promised land, I brought you here. You
didn't take it and start living here, I gave it to you. See,
that's all God's doing. And that's God's message. His
messenger always preaches that message. Death by our sin, salvation
by God's grace alone. And I tell you, it's always a
good indication that the Lord's getting ready to show mercy to
somebody when he sends a prophet to town, when he sends one of
his preachers, because faith cometh by hearing. Now, verse
11. And there came an angel of the
Lord, and sat under an oak, which was by Ophir, which pertained
unto Joas the Abizerite. And his son Gideon threshed wheat
by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites." Now I'll show
you this in a minute. This angel is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. This is a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. This angel I got ahead of myself. Look at verse 12. And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is
with thee, thou mighty man of valor. This angel is the Lord,
the mediator between God and men. This angel, the Lord Jesus,
is the one who brings peace. And you know, the first words
out of his mouth ought to have immediately encouraged and comforted
Gideon, because here's Gideon. He got him a little bit of wheat,
you know, that hadn't been destroyed yet. It grew up and ripened.
It hadn't been destroyed yet. And he's hiding behind the wine
press, trying to hurry and thresh it out so he can make some bread
before the Midianites come and take it and destroy it and leaves
his family hungry. And here this angel comes, and
says, the Lord is with thee. Oh, how this man hiding behind
the wine press ought to have been comforted and encouraged.
The Lord's with you. But look here at verse 13. Gideon
said unto him, oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then
is all this befallen us? And where be all the miracles
which our father 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. I can identify with old Gideon,
can't you? You feel like... It just doesn't
feel like the Lord's with us. It seems like the Lord's forsaken
us and left us alone. You know, when you feel like
that, be careful. Just be careful. This is why
Gideon, he feels forsaken by the Lord, doesn't he? and he
doesn't realize it yet, the Lord's so near, he's talking to the
Lord. That's how near the Lord, he's
always near his people. When you think he's forsaken
you, that might be when he's the nearest, you're talking to
him. In verse 14, the Lord looked upon him and said, go in this
thy might and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites,
have not I sent thee? Now the Lord looked upon him.
Here Gideon complained, the Lord's forsaken us, And the Lord looked
upon him. I'm just, no, this was a look
of love and grace and pity. It was a look of compassion and
tenderness on Gideon because the Lord knew what he was getting
ready to do for Gideon and what he was gonna do for Israel by
Gideon. And he told him, now you go in
this thy might. Now what might is the Lord talking
about here? Is he talking about Gideon's might and strength?
Is he talking about the strength of this fellow hiding behind
a wine press, trying to thresh out some wheat? No, he's talking
about his might that's in him. He told Gideon, you go, for I've
sent you. This is why you're gonna be successful,
because I've sent you. This is the might of the Lord.
If the Lord's on our side, victory's assured, isn't it? If God be
for us, who can be against us? Well, verse 15, and he said unto
him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? My family is poor
in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my father's house. Just like
David, I'm the least in my father's house. There's lots of men who
are bigger and stronger and more valiant than me, and you could
have chose them, not me. Now Gideon's a mighty man of
valor, but he's weak in faith. You often see Gideon weak in
faith. He's always needing a sign. He's
always needing assurances. I sound like anybody you know,
always needing assurance, always needing to hear from the Lord
again. But Gideon also shows genuine humility here. This is
not fake. He shows genuine humility. And
he should show this genuine humility. He knows he's nothing. He knows
he can't lead Israel and deliver Israel from this band of people,
there are too many to count. But you know, this is encouraging.
That's who the Lord always chooses to use as a tool to accomplish
his purpose. The Lord always chooses the weak
things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And
we'll see that by the end of Gideon's life here. The Lord
does that so he gets the glory, not men. But this is a way that
Gideon is a type of Christ. He said, I'm nothing. I'm the
least of my family. I've come from this poor family
that's nothing in the poorest part of the country. That was
our Lord Jesus when he came, wasn't it? People thought, this
man can't be the Savior. He's just a man. He's a weak
man. He's a nobody. He's uneducated. He comes from a poor family. He comes from the line of David,
but the line of David is the poorest line in the whole house
of Israel. Just a root out of a dry ground. He must not be the Messiah. Look
how weak he is. Just a man. Now verse 16, the
Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite
the Midianites as one man. Now here's another way Gideon
is a type of Christ. He's going to defeat the army
as one man. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ,
our savior did. He defeated the army of all the
enemies that against us, the army of our sin, the army of
Satan, all those enemies he defeated them. as one man. He defeated
them as the representative man, as the representative of his
people. What he did, his people did in him. When he obeyed the
law perfectly, you who believe obeyed the law perfectly in him. When he was obedient, you who
believe were obedient in him. He's the representative, the
representative man of all of his people. And when Christ won
the war by himself as one man, His people won the victory in
Him. We who believe are more than conquerors in Christ. He
won the battle as one man, one representative man. You don't
have to go out and defeat your sin by yourself. Christ already
did it. And we're gonna get a picture
of that here in just a minute. Now verse 17. 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 that
word present there means meat offering. Could be Gideon starting
to realize this is more than a man he's talking to, I'm gonna
bring a meat offering. Read on verse 19. And Gideon went in
and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour, the
flesh he put in the 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
cake and lay them upon this rock and pour out the broth, pour
the broth over it. And he did so. Then the angel
of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand and touched the flesh and 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.
And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord,
Gideon said, alas, O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel
of the Lord face to face. Now Gideon's terrified because
now he knows who he's seen. He's seen God. And he knows the
story of Moses, what the Lord told Moses, no man can see me
and live. And he thought, well, I'm going
to die. Now all that fear, Him being afraid he's gonna die is
the result of sin. It's the same fear and shame
Adam felt in the garden. And the reason we feel that fear
and shame is because we've got Adam's nature. We're just like
him. We're made guilty in Adam. And
that first Adam, the first representative man, what he did, we did. And
that's why we feel the shame and fear. That's why Gideon feels
all this fear. God's gonna kill me. And he's
afraid because he knows I'm a sinful man. That's what I deserve. It's
sin that brings this warfare between God and men. And Gideon
knew what he deserved. But look at verse 23. The Lord
said unto him, peace be unto thee. You're not gonna die, fear
not. Thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there
unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. unto this day it is yet in Ophrah
of the Abizurites. Now Gideon did see the Lord face
to face. Why didn't he die? Because of
the sacrifice, because of that meat offering that he brought
became the burnt offering and he was accepted in the sacrifice. That meat and that unleavened
bread that was on that rock is a picture of the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That sinless body of Christ was
offered as a burnt offering for the sin of his people. And Gideon
had some understanding of that. He knew he had peace with God
because of that sacrifice. And he named that place Jehovah
Shalom. The Lord, our peace. The Lord
is peace. Now remember the question we're
trying to answer is how can we be delivered from the bondage
of our sin? It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we have
peace from this civil war between the flesh and the spirit that's
going on in us? My friend, peace. Is anybody interested in peace?
This feels like to me has to be one of the most unpeaceful
times there ever has been. Are you interested in peace?
I tell you where you find it. Looking to Christ. Peace with
God is found in the sacrifice of Christ. Peace in the conscience
is found by looking to the sacrifice of Christ. He has made peace
for us through the blood of his cross. Now look to him. Look to his sacrifice and have
peace. If you see Christ crucified for
your sin, you have peace because you know his sacrifice put your
sin away. Christ our peace. This is where
peace is found. But you know, this is far from
the end of the story. This is just the beginning. The
moment the way of peace is revealed in the heart of a believer, the
warfare begins. There hadn't been war before
now. Now there's going to be warfare. See, before a person's
born again, there's no civil war going on inside of you because
there's only one man, the old man. He's not fighting against
himself. But when that new man is born, that new man is the
opposite of the old man in every way. That new man is holy. He cannot sin. He will not sin. That old man, he is nothing but
sin. He'll never do anything holy.
The new man, he loves holiness. He hates sin. The old man loves
sin and hates holiness. The new man loves Christ. The
old man hates Christ. These two men are gonna war against
each other with everything they have because they're opposites
in every way. The warfare begins. the moment
the new man's born, because now the old man's got somebody to
fight with. And they're going to fight. They're going to fight
till they're separated when the body dies. So as soon as we're
born again, there are two warfares. First, there's the warfare with
idolatry. I'm not just talking about the
warfare with idolatry out there. I'm talking about the warfare
with idolatry in here, in that old natural heart. That's what
we see in verse 25, as soon as the way of peace was revealed
to Gideon, look what happened. 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 he built an altar under the
Lord thy, and built an altar under 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 shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten
men of his servants, and did as the Lord said unto him. And
it was so, 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
rose early in the morning, behold, 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 that was built. And they said one
to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they inquired
and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this
thing. Then the men of the city 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.
Now, can you imagine the look on the faces of these men of
this city when they get up in the morning, they saw their idol
was destroyed, it was all cast down, and the nice grove that
they'd made, you know, for their idol was all clear cut, it was
gone. And they said, oh, this means war. Who'd done this? Whoever's
done this is going to die. Well, that's true. This means
war. The question is, who's going to win the war? Now, they've
declared war. Who's going to win it? Well,
I can tell you this idol's not gonna win it. He's powerless.
He already proved powerless. Gideon went down and just knocked
him down, destroyed him at nighttime. And that's what Joash tells these
men, verse 31. Joash said unto all that stood
against him, will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? He that will plead for him for
Baal. Let him be put to death while it is yet morning. If he
be a God, if Baal is really a God, then let him plead for himself,
because one hath cast down his altar. Therefore on that day
he called him Jeroboam, saying, let Baal, or Jeroboam, I suppose
is how you actually should say that, plead against him, because
he hath thrown down his altar. And Joash told these men that
wanted to kill Gideon, now you let him alone. If Baal is really
a God, then Baal's plenty capable of defending himself. You just
let Baal deal with Gideon. But if Baal's not a god, he doesn't
have the ability to defend himself, and why would you want to defend
him? If he's proven he's powerless, he's just an idol, why would
you want to defend him? Now that is every idol. In some way or another, that's
every idol. An idol is always dependent on
a man in some way. He's dependent on a man to make
him. He's dependent on a man to keep him up, you know, keep
him propped up. And I tell you, the worst idol
that's in this world today is not some ceramic or stone statue
somewhere. The worst, most dangerous idol
that's preached today is this Jesus who wants to save everybody
if you let him. That Jesus is dependent on you
in every way. He's dependent on you to save
yourself. You've got to make a decision
to let him into your heart, don't you? He's dependent on you. And
I tell you this, That Jesus isn't enough to keep you safe. You've
got to do that yourself. You'll be lost if you don't live
a moral enough life because he's not able to save you. You've
got to be constantly trying to prop him up. You're constantly
propping up your own righteousness so you'll be saved. Just as futile
as constantly trying to prop up a dead corpse. I don't care
how much you prop him up, he's still dead. That's an idol. And why would you defend him?
Let him defend himself. You know, we preach the God of
the Bible. I feel absolutely no compulsion to defend Him in
any way. We're just preaching. And let
His power defend Himself. Let His power call out His people
Himself. Our Savior, the true and living God, doesn't need
the help of men. Now, He'll use men as instruments, but He doesn't
need the help of men. He wins this battle by Himself. He sets His people free from
the power of sin by Himself. And he gives his people peace
by himself. Now as soon as the way of peace
is revealed, the warfare with idolatry that's in our heart
begins. And the way of peace from that warfare is by looking
away from the idols and looking to Christ. If you look to Christ
crucified, you won't look to those idols anymore. That's where
peace is found. But the moment the way of peace
begins, there's a second, or the moment the way of peace is
revealed, there's a second warfare that begins. It's a warfare with
sin. The warfare with sin that's in
our hearts, that's when that warfare begins. Now, from Wednesday
till this morning, have you fought with sin? Has that been a constant
problem? Well, how do we have peace from
that warfare? I woke up this morning, I mean,
the alarm went off, and I woke up in just sinful thoughts. I thought, oh my goodness sakes,
this is the fellow that's supposed to preach, waking up with these
sinful, wretched thoughts, just ugh. Where are you gonna have peace
from that? Where are you gonna have peace from that? Well, look
in chapter seven, this is where we see where peace from this
warfare against our sin is found. Chapter seven of Judges, verse
one. Then Jeroboam, 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 Morah in the valley. Now Gideon's name is changed
here. He's changed to this one who fights against Baal, just
like Jacob's name was changed to Israel. Saul's name was changed
to Paul. This is more than just, calling
them something different. They got a new name because they're
a new creature. They got a new name because they've
got a new nature. Gideon has been shown the way
of peace in Christ and he's going to fight against Baal. He's going
to fight against this idolatry and he's going to fight against
sin too because God has showed him the way of peace and this
battle that's going to be fought. is gonna be won by Christ alone.
You wanna know how to have peace from this battle of sin that
you're in, this battle against your own sin that you fight constantly?
It's by looking to Christ alone. Let's see if we don't see that
here, verse two. And the Lord said unto Gideon,
the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the
Midianites into their hands, lest Israel want themselves against
me, saying, mine own hand hath saved me. Now therefore, go to
proclaim in the ears of the people saying, who serves fearful and
afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And
Gideon went and told him, if you're afraid, you're going home.
Well, there returned to the people 22,000. Gideon had amassed an
army of 32,000 men. He said, if anybody's afraid,
you're going home. 22,000 of them went home, just
left him with 10. That's a huge decrease in his
power to fight, isn't it? His fighting force. Well, verse
seven, the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many,
bring them down into the water and I'll try them for thee there. And it shall be that whom I say
unto thee, this should go with thee, the same should go with
thee. And whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with
thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people
under the water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that
lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him
shalt thou set by himself. Likewise, every one that boweth
down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped,
putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men. But all
the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink.
And the Lord said unto Gideon, by the 300 men that lapped, will
I save you and deliver the Midianites into thine hand and let all the
other people go every man unto his own place. Well, now Gideon's
fighting force is reduced to practically nothing, isn't it? Just 300 men going against an
army of people that can't be counted. And it's very interesting
to me here that the men that God told Gideon, take with you,
are men that laughed like dogs. They lapped up the water like
dogs. That's who God uses. God will never use you in his
service until you find out you're a dog. The men and women that
God uses know they're just dogs. Well, what did God do with them,
verse eight? So the people took victuals in their hands and their
trumpets. It's interesting, this army is
not taking any weapons, are they? They took victuals, they took
some food, and they took their trumpets. And he sent all the
rest of Israel, every man into his own tent, and retained these
three hundred men. And the host of Midian was beneath
him in the valley. Now 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. If thou fear
to go down, go thou with Phura thy servant down to the host,
and thou shalt hear what they say, and afterwards shall thine
hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. And he must have
been afraid, because he went down with Phura his servant unto
the outside of the armed men that were in the host. And the
Midianites, and the Malachites, and all the children of the east
lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitudes.
And their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside
for multitudes. And when Gideon was come, behold,
there was a man that told a dream. Gideon's hiding off in the weeds
here, hearing these two men talk. And one man tells a dream unto
his fellow, and said, behold, I dreamed a dream. And lo, a
cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and
came into a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned
it that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered, he's
going to interpret the dream, and said, this is nothing else
save the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, a man of Israel.
For into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host." Now,
this is very interesting. Gideon had already seen Christ,
the way of peace, hadn't he? Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our
peace. He already knew how Israel was gonna have peace. The Lord
promised him, Gideon, you go down to battle, you're gonna
win. He had gotten a confirmation from the Lord. He told him to
tear down the idol's grove and stuff. All that was successful.
The Lord kept his word at every turn to Gideon, and now he comes
to fight this great army, and he's afraid again. And the Lord
told him, now if you're afraid, I'm gonna give you a sign. You
go down, you listen to what they're saying, and you'll be confirmed.
Your courage will be raised up. Well, what does all that mean? What does that mean? You know,
Gideon was a man known for asking for signs. He asked the Lord
for a sign, stay until I bring my present. You can read this
at your leisure if you want, the end of chapter six, he asked
the Lord for a sign with the fleece, you know, not once, but
twice. Now he's getting another sign. What does all that mean? Well, you know, God still gives
his people signs and encouragement today. but it's not through fantastic
miracles, you know, sky parting or I mean, whatever kind of miracle,
you know, healing of sick or, you know, some crazy thing. The
confirmation, the miracle that we get today that encourages
and strengthens God's people for the fight is the preaching
of the gospel. I just mentioned from Wednesday
to today, if you fought with sin, the unbelief and wickedness
that's in your heart, The Lord couldn't have saved me. The Lord
can't save. He couldn't save somebody that thinks like me,
acts like me, does the things that I do. What confirmation
do you get? It's the preaching of the gospel.
The preaching, Christ saves sinners. That's me. That's our encouragement. That's our comfort. And that's
the encouragement to Gideon God. It's the preaching of the gospel.
And we see a picture of that here in the rest of this chapter,
beginning in Well, verse 15, and it was so when Gideon heard
the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, he
worshiped. And he returned unto the host
of Israel, he got his sign, he got his confirmation from the
Lord, he was encouraged. And he told all those 300 men
that were with him, arise, the Lord hath delivered into your
hand the host of Midian. And he divided the 300 men into
three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty
pitchers and lamps with the pitchers, no weapons, And he said unto
them, Look on me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the
outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye
do. When I blow a trumpet, I and
all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also in every
side of all the camp, and say, This is our message, this is
our cry, 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 had
but newly set the watch, and they blew the trumpets, and broke
the pitchers that were in their hands. And the three companies
blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the lamps
in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands,
to blow withal. And they cried the sword of the
Lord, and of Gideon. And they stood, they didn't go
down into the valley to fight, they stood every man in his place
round about the camp, And all that host, all that host of the
Midianites and Amalekites ran, and cried, and fled. And the
three hundred blew the trumpets. And the Lord set every man's
sword, all these Amalekites and Midianites, He set every man's
sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host. And
the host fled to Bethsheda in Zarephath, to the border of Abel-Mehoah
unto Tabath." Now here's how Gideon won the battle. He won
the battle by never firing a shot. How do you have peace with the
sin that's in you? You're not gonna get peace by
doing better. You're not gonna get peace by pushing that sin
down and not doing it no more. You're gonna have peace with
the battle of sin that's in you through the preaching of the
gospel. That's how we have peace from our sin. Now Gideon, his
army didn't take any weapons. They took trumpets. and pitcher
emptied, earthen pitchers and lamps, torches. Now those clay
pitchers, this is all a picture of the preaching of the gospel.
Those clay pitchers are God's preachers. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the glory is not of us but of God. The
trumpets, that's the sound of the gospel being blown. And those
lamps, they're torches. That's the flame of God the Holy
Spirit who reveals Christ the light of the world. The sword
of the Lord and of Gideon, it's the word of God, that's our only
weapon. And when God, the Holy Spirit, he blesses his preacher,
he's preaching Christ, the word, Christ, the light of the world.
When that message is preached, blessed by the Holy Spirit, the
war's won and we have peace. And that's what was here, this
victory that Gideon won was supernatural. I mean, you don't destroy your
enemy by them all killing each other. Gideon did, because that
victory was supernatural. Those men that went with Gideon,
they weren't soldiers. They just blew the trumpets.
They were trumpet players. And they held up the light, and
they just stood still. They stood in their place and
saw the salvation of the Lord. And God wanted a victory for
them. And that's how the believer's going to have peace. You're never
going to have peace until you stand still. You've got to be
still. and see the salvation of the
Lord. We stand still, we don't do a thing because the Lord Jesus
Christ did it all. Our Savior won the battle by
Himself. His sacrifice for His elect won
the battle. And we have peace because our
sin has been wiped out under the blood of His sacrifice. When
we see His blood, there's peace with God and peace in the conscience. And the only way we have that
peace is through the confirmation that we receive through the preaching
of the gospel. That's Gideon, the mighty man
of valor.