Good evening. Let's go to Judges,
Chapter 6. Judges, Chapter 6. Let me just say thank you for inviting
Michelle and me to this conference. It's an honor and a joy to be
here, and I thank you. Tonight, I want to bring you
a gospel message from this chapter. It gives us an outline here of
what our God does to save his people, his chosen elect people,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord God enables it, he
will make his salvation effectual to you, his child. And you're
going to know these six things, which are outlined here in Judges
chapter 6, regarding how the Lord saves sinners, and how he
saves them by grace, provided freely in his Son, Jesus Christ. Let me rattle these six things
off, and then we're going to drill into them in the message. He's gonna show his child, he's
gonna show you that you are a sinner, that your works, your good works,
your righteousnesses stink, and they are not received and accepted
by God, and your works cannot save you. Second, if God makes
you to know your sin, he's going to reveal his gracious purpose
to you as to why he's shown you your sin. He's gonna show you
that gracious purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord shows his people their
sin to drive us from our filthy works of sin that cannot save
us and to drive us into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
to bring us to the Savior. We're not the Savior. We've got
to be driven to the Savior. Third, to accomplish this great
gracious purpose, our God sends his word to his people, and he's
going to bring you to hear that word. Fourth, The Spirit of God
attends that word. He must attend that word to make
it effectual to the heart of his child. He's gonna make you
to know that the Lord is speaking to me. What he's saying concerns
my soul, and I need to hear this, Lord, help me to hear this word. It's because he gives his child
life. to hear that word and he makes it effectual to them. Fifth,
the spirit is going to testify of Christ to you. The Lord shows
his children in his word Jesus Christ and him crucified. You're going to behold the savior
of sinners. You're going to behold him who
died your death as your substitute to obtain eternal forgiveness
of your sins and to give you life in himself. And sixth, God
makes his child to build their altar of worship on Jesus Christ
alone. You're gonna look to God and
the Lord Jesus Christ having no other hope but the hope of
sinners in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what God
does for his children, these six things. Let's go through
this outline now in Judges chapter six. First, you're a sinner,
your good works stink and they cannot save you. Let's read the
first five verses. I wanna go through five verses,
because I want us to get into the context of this word that
we may see the salvation, which the spirit has outlined for us
here. 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. God has a purpose
in this. Verse two, and the hand of Midian
prevailed against Israel. And because of the Midianites,
the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains,
and caves, and strongholds, these being the works of man, his good
works. his righteousnesses, his saving
works that he tries to do to save himself. 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 thou come unto Gaza and 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. So the children of Israel are
a type of the children of God in this present wilderness. This is not ancient history.
This is relevant to us this very day. And when we encounter their
enemies in scripture, such as the Midianites and the Amalekites
and the Amorites and the Jebusites and the Philistines, These represent
the very enemies of God and his people. And more specifically,
it speaks to the enmity in my own flesh. It speaks to what
we are by nature and the enmity, the hatred that we by nature
have against the true and living God and his Christ. It's not your nasty neighbor
next door. It's not the town council that doesn't let you
build a third story on your shed. It's yourself. It's your own
flesh, my flesh and your flesh. And the Lord makes his child
to know that far from my religious works being pleasing to the Lord. and saving me and doing good
for me and putting away my sin. Far from that, the truth is that
what I do is, as it says in verse one, evil in the sight of the
Lord. My works are filthy rags. Even the best of my works are
but filthy rags in God's sight. In Galatians 3.22, there's a
scripture which declares this. The scripture, the scripture
hath concluded all under sin. When you read this word, this
book, the Bible, from beginning to end, if you're paying attention,
you're gonna notice these people are awful. They're sinners. They're really sinful people.
You have Abraham, he sinned. Noah sinned, Moses sinned, David
sinned, Peter sinned, Paul sinned, all the disciples sinned. They're all sinners. And the
scripture shows us that. It's concluded all under sin.
Why does God show us their sin and why is he showing me my sin? It's because God has a gracious
purpose in showing us that we are all sinners, that we've all
come short of the glory of God. It tells us that the scripture
hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. What's this promise? That God
may be gracious to the sinner in the Lord Jesus Christ to turn
you from trusting your works. If I'm ever going to hear this
salvation which Christ has provided as good news to me, then I'm
first gonna hear what the scripture says to me, man, you're a sinner. You've offended holy God. God is gonna make his child to
know I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. My works are
wretched in God's sight. My sins, like the Midianites,
which entered into the land to destroy it, have occupied the
whole of my being from head to toe, and I don't have the strength
to drive them back. I don't have the strength to
drive them out. I have no strength at all. God, help me, a sinner. Save me, Lord. The Lord is showing
us that we need a savior. Second, God has a gracious purpose
in making you to know that you are the sinner. To drive you,
here's his purpose, to drive you from your filthy works and
to drive you to him who alone saves the sinner, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at Judges 6.6. It says,
and Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites. Because of their own sin, they
were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked And
the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. You know, religion
calls men sinners to make converts to their religion. God calls
men sinners that he may be gracious to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. To turn us from dead works and
to turn us to the Savior. Our sins are as grasshoppers
for multitude. Our sins are encamped against
us. They've camped out against us
to destroy the increase of the earth. In this body of dust,
I can bring forth no fruit unto God. It's all rotten. It stinks. It's full of fruit
flies and dead things. It's like picking a tomato after
the first frost. It's no good. It's no good. It
says, the children of Israel made them the dens which are
in the mountains and caves and strongholds. They were laboring
to save themselves. They were working hard to put
away some fruit, some fruit of their labors against the judgment
that had entered and was raining upon the land. They were doing
what they could. lay up a store for themselves. But it says Israel was greatly
impoverished because of the Midianites. Their sin left them empty and
it made them to cry out to the Lord for mercy. Now I ask you,
in looking at this trial of adversity, and looking at their struggling
and their suffering and the pain that they felt as a result of
these Midianites, and that they had no fruit, no sustenance,
nothing to save them. This adversity which they were
going through, which caused them to cry out unto the Lord, is
that punishment? Or does God have a purpose of
grace in it? Is God being gracious to show
them their sin? Could it be that the struggles,
the difficulties, all the opposition which you are going through these
days, it's because God has a gracious purpose in declaring to you his
word, in turning you from dead works which cannot save, to behold
the servant of God, the Savior whom he has sent to save his
people from their sins. Third, To accomplish this great
gracious purpose, to teach his people, God sends his word to
his people. He makes us to hear his word,
to hear his word preached. Look at verses seven and eight.
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 a preacher. unto the
children of Israel, which said unto them, thus saith the Lord,
the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought
you forth out of the house of bondage. And verse 10 adds, but
ye have not obeyed my voice. If God has sent his word into
the land, it's because God has a people to whom he will be gracious. There is a gospel church here,
it's because God has a people to whom he will be gracious,
because that's how he feeds his people. He feeds them the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel. Amen. You know, it says
in Luke 10, verse 1, there's a verse that we often just read
right on by. We just go past it and don't
think much about what we're reading. And it says this, after these
things, the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them to and
to before his face into every city and place, whither he himself
would come. These men went to different cities
and preached the gospel where Christ would come. And so that's why he sends his
gospel, because that's where he purposes to go, because he
has a people to whom he will be gracious. Does it ever seem
that things are so bad that God is fighting against you, that
God is your enemy? He's always against me. And yet
here you are tonight to hear his word preached. May the Lord
be gracious to fall upon his people to do them good in the
Lord Jesus Christ this night and this weekend in the preaching
of the gospel. Fourth, the Spirit of God will
attend that word because it's the Spirit of God who alone makes
that word effectual to the hearts of his people. Many people hear
the word, but it's the Spirit of God who gives life to his
child and makes that word effectual to our hearing, to our receiving
it, to our believing what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Let's see this in verses 11 through 14, and we'll have comments as
we go through each verse. Verse 11, and there came an angel
of the Lord and sat under an oak, which was an ophrah that
pertained unto Joash the Abba Israel. And his son Gideon threshed
wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. What
is God communicating to us by telling us that an angel of the
Lord sat under an oak? Why give us that detail that
he sat under an oak? Well, it says, what the Lord's
telling us is that your God is in perfect, absolute, sovereign
control over everything. What's going on in the land?
The enemies of God's people have overrun the land. They're making
a mess of everything. They're destroying everything.
The people of God are going to die. in their sins, unable to
bring forth anything to give themselves life and deliver themselves
from death. And there sits God in perfect,
absolute, sovereign control over all things. He patiently sits
under an oak and his eye is on Gideon. It's right on Gideon. He's looking at Gideon. Now,
The Lord has sent his word to the people, right? That word's
come in there, and that prophet is preaching and declaring the
word which God has sent him to preach. And yet Gideon is still
working, laboring, spending, striving to provide a salvation
for himself. And that's how it is. When the
word goes forth, there are oftentimes many people who yet don't hear
that word. who don't hear what the Lord
is saying to his people. They haven't received it by faith.
And I'm reminded of a word spoken by the prophet Isaiah, who said,
and therefore, therefore, will the Lord wait that he may be
gracious unto you. And therefore, will he be exalted
that he may have mercy upon you. you may have sat under the preaching
of the gospel for a long time, many, many years. And because you've never heard
it before, you've never heard God speaking that word to you,
you think either God isn't real or God has no interest in me. But don't ever turn away your
ear from hearing that word. It may be he's just sitting there
under the oak, and that in the day of his grace, he's gonna
come and make that word effectual to you. So seek him forth, pray,
ask him that this weekend, that that word be heard by you, and
that he make it effectual to you. Because there's gonna be
people here who hear that word and are blessed and fed, and
you wanna be one of them. You wanna be one of them. Next
we see in our text that, That word preached in the land by
the prophet, God brings this word effectually to the heart
of Gideon. Look at verse 12. And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto Gideon and said unto him, the Lord is
with thee. He's with you, Gideon, thou mighty
man of valor. that the Lord is making Gideon
to know today, Gideon, is the day of salvation. This is the
day that I've purposed to be gracious to you, to cause you
to hear my word, to make it effectual in your heart, for you to hear
what I say to my people, the word I preach to the churches,
and they hear it. I'm making you to hear that word
today, Gideon. And so, like many who begin to
hear that gospel word, Gideon has many questions. Look 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 his miracles which our fathers told us of? See,
he heard what the preacher was saying, because the preacher
was telling him, behold, I did this. I delivered you from Egypt.
So he heard that word. And then he says, did not the
Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord hath forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. He's saying, I have so many questions. I don't understand everything,
Lord. I need to know all the answers to these questions before
I can be settled and assured. It's like Rebecca, who conceived
two children in her womb, and she said, if all is well, why
am I thus? Why am I all torn up and having
a war within me? Even Paul said, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I thank God. through Jesus Christ. In all
these questions and doubts and fears, God remains faithful to
the sinner. He's got a purpose of grace and
he doesn't upbraid Gideon, but he's gracious to Gideon. He reaffirms
that word of truth to Gideon. Look at verse 14. And the Lord
looked upon him. That look is a look of love and
pity. You know that look that you had
when your little girl was, when they were little, your children,
or when your grandson is crawling into one of those toy cars and
they can't get their leg up over properly and they just sort of
fall in it and they're just laying there and they can't get their
legs unstuck and they don't have the strength to push themselves
up. And you behold them, and you look at them with love and
with pity. And you go over to them, and
you set them right. And you make it all right for
them. That's how the Lord looked upon
Gideon. That's how the Lord looks upon
his children, with love and pity. And he said, go. Go in this thy
might. And thou shalt save Israel from
the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? The Lord your God tells you,
trust me, trust him, trust the Lord. He says, I will show you
the way, the truth and the life, all that you seek because I'm
the one who gave you that desire. I put that desire in your heart
because I will show you him who is the salvation of my people. and you shall have life in him. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Fifth, the spirit will testify
of Christ to you. He's gonna show you Christ crucified,
the one who died in your place as your substitute to obtain
your eternal forgiveness of your sins and to give you life in
the Lord Jesus Christ." Gideon had a lot of doubts and questions. And the way I read the next few
verses, we won't look at them all, but the way I read the next
ones, what he's saying is, would you stay a while? I've got a
lot of questions. I'm going to go make some food.
You just settle in because I'm coming back and we're going to
talk this, all these questions I have. I want to know everything.
And the angel says, all right, go ahead. I'll be here. And he
comes back, and in verse 20 and 21, the angel of God said unto Gideon,
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 the staff that was in his
hand and touched the flesh of 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." Well, what just happened? What just happened
there? It all went so quickly. Well,
to answer and satisfy all those questions and all those doubts
and wonders that Gideon had, the Lord gave Gideon a picture. He gave him a sign. He didn't
ask for a sign. The Lord gave him a sign. And
what he saw was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He beheld Christ crucified. That flesh is a picture of the
Lamb of God who the son of glory, who laid aside his glory and
took upon him flesh, the likeness of this weak flesh, yet was without
sin, as said in the unleavened cakes. Leaven in the scripture
speaks of sin that puffs up that bread. Well, Christ is unleavened. He's without sin. And the unleavened
cakes picture the sinless one. He is the unleavened bread. of
heaven. You know, in John six, our Lord
was speaking of that bread of heaven, which the Jews ate. And you know what that bread
signify, what it is. If they didn't have that bread,
they would have died. of hunger in the wilderness. They would not have made it to
the promised land. They would have died. So that
bread was their salvation. And so when Christ said, I am
the bread of heaven, he's declaring, I am the salvation of my people. We eat of him, we partake of
him. He is our salvation. He's everything
to the believer. He's all, and it's because of
him that we are preserved of the Lord and brought to that
promised land, that eternal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. This broth, what is this broth? This broth pictures all that
opposes us, all that made our salvation impossible for me to
save myself. At this time of year, it gets
pretty windy and rainy and cold and branches start dropping out
of trees. And I go into the yard and I
gather up those branches and I set them up in a pile and I
set them ablaze and burn them up. One thing I've never done
is taken a hose and hose that thing down before I set it on
fire. I just don't do that. It's opposing.
It's contrary to what I'm trying to do. Well, this broth pictures everything
that opposes us, everything that makes our salvation, us able
to save ourselves, and it's laid on Christ. Christ took the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. He took all that opposed his
people, that prevented his people from being saved, everything
that stood in the way, including the death we ourselves had to
die, and he went and died in our room instead, a room instead
of his people. And he is that rock who is the
refuge in whom the people of God are hid. and kept protected
and saved. As he went through that fiery
wrath of God, we were in him. The scriptures say we were crucified.
The Lord's people were crucified with him. We were put to death
with Christ. And in him, we are righteous.
And in him, we have salvation and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the angel had Gideon place
these things out, just as it was with wicked hands. that took
and crucified the Lord of glory by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. It was the sins of the Lord's
people that put Christ on that cross. He didn't go there for
any other purpose. He wasn't there for his own self.
He was there for his bride, whom he loved and gave his life for. And so with that view of the
atonement, the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight And
it says in verse 22 and 23, when Gideon perceived that he was
an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, alas, O Lord, for because
I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said
unto him, now this is by faith because the angel already departed.
The Lord said, peace be unto thee. Fear not, thou shalt not
die. The putting to death. of Christ
for the sins of his people, that's not our condemnation, brethren,
that's our salvation. That's our salvation. It's the
very reconciliation and peace that God has provided for every
sinner who looks to Christ and comes to him crying out, Lord,
save me, help me, have mercy on me, deliver me from my sins. It's Christ that gives us that
cry. It's in Christ that we live. And by His grace and power, we
do cry out to Him and look to Him. And so that's how the Lord
God comforts His people, showing them the sacrifice of His Son,
that in Christ, all is at peace. God is at peace with us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sixth, God makes you his child
to build all your hope and worship upon the rock that is Jesus Christ. Judges 6.24, then Gideon built
an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah Shalom
unto this day. Jehovah Shalom means the Lord
is peace or the Lord is our peace. because the Lord Jesus Christ
was sent to the Father to make peace between holy God and his
sinful people. He reconciled us, purchased us
with his own blood so that now we are delivered from that death
and we have life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look to
him who is the rock of our salvation. Peter declared to Christ, give
all the prophets witness, that whosoever believeth in him shall
receive the remission, the forgiveness of sins. You that hope in Christ
shall never be ashamed in trusting in him. build your altar right
there and worship the true and living God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the salvation whom the
Father has provided to save his people from their sins. So if God will be gracious to
you, you his child, you shall know I'm the sinner. And he makes you to know that
you are the sinner to drive you from your dead works and to drive
you to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He does this by sending
his gospel word and causes you to hear it. And he makes that
word effectual to you, his child. He tells you this word, this
salvation is for you. Look to my son, believe him. He's everything you need, everything
you need. And he shows you the Lord Jesus
Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. You're going
to know that this was for you and you will worship God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.