Good morning, everybody. Good
to see you for the second time this week. If you'd like to,
turn over to Genesis chapter 25. That's not going to be our
text for this morning. Our text is actually going to
be out of Judges 4. I'd like to show you a few things before
we get there. I was listening to a message
earlier this week. It was a message by Greg Elmquist. He's the pastor
down in Orlando, Florida. And Greg asked a very interesting
question. It was profound, as a matter
of fact. And so I'm going to start by asking you that same question
here this morning. Every believer concerning his
relationship with his sin, is it a war that has already been
waged and won by the Lord Jesus Christ and our enemies, our sins
have been put down and they are gone? Or is it a battle that
we fight every day? That's right, Matt, both. The
answer is yes. I'm speaking to believers right
now, no one else. Right now, if all your hope is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, him and his shed blood alone, and you have nothing
else, absolutely nothing else, this is your reality. This is
the truth about you right now, presently, right now. You have
no sin. This is what it says in Hebrews
1.3. It says, when he, speaking of Christ, had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. You know what that means? Purged,
it means gone. absolutely and utterly gone. Our Savior was made the sins
of his people. He bore them on that cross. He
suffered under the just wrath of God. And this is where that
sin is right now. It's gone. It's purged away.
And he sits down. He sits down. We talked about
that on Tuesday night. We do not preach the standing
Christ. We don't preach a Christ who has something left to do,
one who's anxious, waiting on men to make a decision or do
something for themselves. We preach the seated Christ, the
one who completed his work. That means in your salvation,
there is nothing, absolutely nothing left for you to do. You
just rest in Christ. The war's over. The war's over. The victory has already been
won. Christ won it, and you won too. And yet, the battle daily
for us rages on. The war is over, but the battle
rages on. Paul said this in Romans 7, verse
24. He said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Not,
O wretched man that I was, before the Lord saved me and revealed
himself to me. Not a wretched man that I used to be, Paul said,
right now, presently, a saved man, a man who knew God, a man
who the Lord had saved, O wretched man that I am. That's all he could say about
himself. He would go on to say I'm the chief of sinners. That's
all he had to say. Now, this is a paradoxical statement,
but yet it is true for the believer that a battle does not begin
until the war is already over. Now, what do I mean by that?
The natural man has absolutely no knowledge of his sin. He can't
see it. Now, every man is born with a
conscience. We all have a conscience. We know the difference between
right and wrong. And when we sin, when we do that
which is wrong, our conscience is burned until we've seared
that conscience and it doesn't respect it anymore. Every man
knows right and wrong, but it gives him no true knowledge of
his true sinfulness before God. Every man gets ashamed. If he's
exposed for what he's done, he experiences shame, but that has
nothing to do with understanding your true sin before God that
is against God, that is all the time, that you can't get out,
that you're in captivity to sin. The natural man cannot know that.
It is only until the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes to you
and he reveals himself to you, the sovereign. the omnipotent,
the holy, the righteous, the one with a perfect sense of justice.
When God reveals himself to you, reveals Christ to you, and reveals
to you that Christ won the battle for you, he makes you to believe
the gospel. It's only then that the battle
in you, in your experience, actually begins. This battle with sin,
this battle with yourself. Now, here in Genesis 25, we get
a picture of that. It offers an explanation for
that. This speaks of Rebecca. This is Isaac's wife, and she's
carrying twins in her womb. She's carrying Jacob and Esau. And look what Rebecca says in
verse 22. It says, and the children struggled
together within her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? If it be so, if everything's
OK, If I'm healthy, if everything's fine, why do I have this struggle
going on within me? Why do I have this battle going
on with me? If the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior and He has
put away my sin, why am I struggling with sin now? Why? Why? Well, look what the Lord tells
her in verse 23. And the Lord said unto her, two
nations are in thy womb. and two manner of people shall
be separated from my vows, and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."
He says, Rebecca, here's the reason. You've got two people
in you right now. There are two manner of men,
and they are polar opposites. You have the elder, the one that
was there first, and you have the younger. And contrary to
the way the world works, the elder is going to serve the younger. That younger one is stronger.
This is what's going on. You have two manner of men inside
you, and as soon as those men come together, they immediately
start to battle. They immediately go into a struggle. That's why
the believer experiences that battle after the war is over,
because he has that new man. With that revelation of who Christ
is and what he has done for you, comes with that is this new man,
this spirit of God dwelling in you. Now this nature we're born
with, Our old man, that elder, here's who he is. He's sin and
nothing more. He can do nothing but sin. Everything
he thinks is wrong. Everything he says is a lie.
Everything he does is contrary to God. He will not bow the knee
and he never believes God. That's how every man is born
into this world with that old man. That's who he is. And here's
the thing. He isn't going anywhere as long
as we're still breathing in this world. And he's not going to
get any better. He's not going to change. As
long as we are alive, we're going to have this old man of sin,
and he's going to infect every aspect of us, every faculty we
have. But when the Lord reveals himself
to a man, and he reveals Christ to you, and Christ is your Savior,
and he saves you in your experience, you get this new man. This new
man is the polar opposite. Absolute opposite. He's holy
and he's righteous and he believes God all the time He cannot not
he can do no sin He voluntarily and willingly bows the knee to
Christ in all things and this man He's at war with the other
man and that battle rages on because that new man when you
have him is He exposes, he recognizes, and he owns the sin of that old
man. And that battle rages. Until
the Lord saves a man in his experience, he has no knowledge of his sin. This battle that rages within
us, it's healthy. It's a healthy sign of a believer,
a battle with sin. The natural man has no battle
with sin, only the believer can. Now, why does the Lord do it
this way? That's a fair question, I suppose.
Well, because he's God. That's why. Is it best that he
does it this way? Absolutely. Because he's God.
He'd do with all things, and he'd do them well. But someone
might ask, wouldn't it be better when the Lord saves us in our
experience if he just put that old man away? We wouldn't have
to deal with him all our life, always dragging us down? No.
No, it wouldn't be. The elder shall serve the younger. That old man, he has a purpose.
This is his purpose. To give us absolutely nowhere
to look, but Christ alone to keep us in constant need. When I look at myself, when you
look in yourself, when you're a believer, what do you see?
I am a sinful man. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? That's what we
see. And we have nothing to cling to, but Christ alone. He has
his place. He has his purpose. And the day
we die, we're going to put him off. Now, the question is this,
do we fight? There's a battle going on in
there. There's a struggle going inside us right now. Struggle
with sin, struggle with unbelief, struggle with apathy, struggle
with coldness. All these things, there's a struggle
going on. Do we fight or do we lay down?
If we do fight, what weapons do we use? How do we fight? We
do fight. Paul knew something about this
fight, and he told Timothy about it. I'm going to read you this
to you. This is 2 Timothy 4, verse 6. Paul said, For I am
now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. What do you mean, Paul? How do
we fight this fight? How do we finish this course?
I have kept the faith. Do we fight? We absolutely do.
How do we fight? We keep the faith. What does
it mean to keep the faith? It means that you just keep looking
to Christ alone. You keep coming to him. You keep
clinging to him. You just keep believing on him
day out every day. That's how we fight this good
fight of faith. That's what that means. I want
to show you that in a few scriptures. Turn over to second Corinthians
10. Second Corinthians chapter 10.
You can pick up in verse three there. Paul speaks. These Corinthians
or the church in Corinth had made accusation against against
him, and he was having to defend himself. And here's what he said.
In verse three, he said, For though we walk in the flesh,
and we do know We walk around, and we have the flesh with us.
We have that old man, that old man's sin. He's right there along
with us. Though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. We have a warfare to fight, but
it's not after the flesh. Look at verse four. For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. And Paul says, we don't fight
flesh with flesh. We don't implement fleshly means
in this battle. Well, what is that carnal weapon?
What is this fleshly warfare that we don't have anything to
do with? Well, I'll ask you a question. Man's religion, what do they
prescribe for the sin problem? The law. That's what man's religion
prescribes for the sin problem. You have a sin problem? Well,
here's what you need to do. Start keeping the law. Stop doing this,
start doing that, and what you'll find is you'll have more power
over sin, you'll be able to push it down, and you'll get more
holy, and more holy, and more pleasing to God, and eventually,
right, if you're real sincere and you work hard enough, won't
be a problem anymore, won't have to deal with it anymore. Here's
the problem with that, Romans 8, 3, for what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh. What's the purpose
of the law? It exposes sin, it doesn't control
it. What's the purpose of the law?
It exposes sin. No man can be saved by the law.
There's nothing wrong with the law. The weakness is not with
the law. The weakness is with us. We cannot keep it. And this
is what happens when you put a man under a law, or a man puts
himself under the law. You remember Mark 5? The gathering
demoniac? Came the Lord, he was howling
up in the hills, cutting himself, crying in the tombs. No man could
control him. They tried. They bound him with
chains and feathers. It worked for a while. It would
control the outward. Actions, but after a while, he'd
rear up, he'd burst those chains off, he'd break those fetters
off, and he was worse off than when he was before. No, the law
is not prescription. Our weapons are not carnal. And
what's the answer? What is this mighty weapon? That's
what Paul calls it. Mighty through God. Well, this
is it. It's the gospel. It's the gospel
of God's free grace. What is the gospel? This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ
came to the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Well, here's
this. Here's what you can do from that.
If you are the chief of sinners, if you're nothing but sin, and
you can't work your way out, you can't take a step toward
God, here's the case for you. Jesus Christ came to this world
to save you, and he did it. That's the gospel message. This
is that mighty weapon. When God wields this weapon and
he makes it effectual to a man's heart, oh, nobody can stop this
weapon. He wins the battle every single time. The gospel message,
this is it. How do I wield it? You believe
it. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what happens
when the Lord makes this message, this gospel effectual to you.
Right here, the first thing, verse four, it pulls down the
strongholds. This is what happens when the
gospel comes to a man in power. All those strongholds, what's
the strongholds we have? Self-sufficiency, good works,
self-reliance, free will. All those strongholds, those
things that we think make us acceptable to God, pulls down
all those strongholds, absolutely destroys them. Look at verse
5. Casting down imaginations. and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, everything that is contrary
to the knowledge of the true and living God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Notice it does not say to Christ,
bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ. This is
what the gospel does. It brings every thought into
his obedience. What's my hope of salvation?
What's my hope of standing before God and Him saying, I am pleased
with you? Christ's obedience. Obedient in every way and shape
and form. Obedient to the law, keeping it perfectly. Obedient
to his father in doing what his father sent him to do. Saving
everyone he sent him to save and doing it perfectly and completely.
His obedience, you look to him. This is our weapon, this is our
weapon in this battle, in this good fight of faith. You believe
the gospel and you look to Christ's obedience. I'm gonna show you
another one. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter six.
1 Timothy chapter six and look
at verse 11. Paul says, but thou, O man of
God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, meekness. Those are good things, aren't
they? Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life
whereunto that are also called and has professed a good profession
before many witnesses. Now, I want to make a statement
here. I want you all to listen to me very carefully. There is
no excuse for sin. There is absolutely no excuse
for sin. Here's the reality concerning
you and me. Every day, all day long, all I do is sin. My best
work, it is iniquity before God because it comes from me. It
comes from that black heart. But there is no excuse for it.
Absolutely none. Flee from sin. Do that which
is good. Don't do wrong. Do that which
is good. Paul said this, he said, I write
these things unto you that you sin not, sin not. That being
said, is this how I fight the good fight of faith, seeking
these things for myself, my righteousness, my godliness, my faith, love,
patience, meekness? Is that how I fight the good
fight of faith? Following after righteousness, is that how I
follow after righteousness? No. No, not in any way. This
is how I fight that good fight of faith. I look to Christ for
all these things, and I trust these attributes of his. Here's
the first one, righteousness. Where do we look? for righteousness.
Am I trying to work out a righteousness for myself? No, absolutely not. I'm trusting his righteousness.
This is what Paul said, Philippians 3, 8, 9, that I may win Christ
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. How do you follow after righteousness?
You look to Christ and you trust his righteousness because it
really is your righteousness if you're a believer. When he
walked the paths of righteousness, you did too. In him, whose do
we trust? We trust his. Godliness, follow
after it. You know what that means? Holiness.
Well, he's my holiness. I look to him for my holiness.
This is what Paul said, Hebrews 2.11. Probably not Paul, but
somebody else. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed
to call us brethren. Where's my holiness? It's in
Christ. With His holiness, I am holy. I look to Him for it. Faith. Make no mistake. I must believe
God. I must come to Christ. I must
cling to Him. You must do that. We must do
that. Or we're not going to have it, and we won't do it. And the
Lord's Lord gives us this gift of faith. It's His gift. And
you know what? When we come to Him in faith,
we come in faith. We also come for faith. Lord,
I'm full on belief. Strengthen my faith. Give me
faith. He's the giver of faith. He's the one we go to. But I'm
not trusting my faith. I don't have any confidence in
my faith. I have confidence in his faithfulness. That's where
my faith looks. His faithfulness in doing everything
his father sent him to do. Go save them. Do it all by yourself.
These people right here, they're my elect. They're yours. Go ransom
them back to me. And he did everything his father
sent him to do. He was faithful. Faithful at
all times. That's where my faith looks.
Love. Love. I want to love God and
I want to love you, but that's not the love I'm looking to.
I'm looking to his love. This is his love, John 15, 13.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his
life for his friends, trusting his eternal love. Because if
God can love a man, you know what that means? It means he's
always loved that man and he will never stop loving that man.
And if God loves a man, he cannot perish. It is impossible. I'm
trusting his love, not mine. Patience. I want to be patient. I want to wait on the Lord, don't
you? I would love, at least once in this life, to truly wait on
the Lord and not worry, and not be fearful, and not be anxious,
and just wait on Him. And I'll never do it. Not perfectly. But He did. Our Lord did. He waited patiently for the Lord. He waited perfectly on the Lord.
On that cross, the Lord Jesus Christ had absolutely no shine
from his father. There was no communication between
them. All he had was his father's crown.
He had his father forsaking him and turning his back on him and
throwing his wrath down upon him. He had no smile from God
in any way. And yet, he took it all patiently. He just waited patiently because
he believed God. He trusted his father that his
father would do what he told him he would do. If you go and
you pay for their sins and you die for them, I'll raise you
from dead. And so there on that cross, he
just patiently waited. Only man ever do it. I'm looking
at his patients. Makeness. If the Lord has done
anything for you and me, we will be make people before God, but
we'll never be making enough. We'll never get low enough. We'll
never see where we really stand between us and God. We'll never
actually see that. You know, Christ did. He truly became me. The God of glory. the one who
created everything we see, the one who is in sovereign control
of all things and all men at all times, who makes all decisions,
the ancient of days, for a people, for a miserable, sinful people,
he came down and he inhabited a human body. What meekness. Gets worse though. For those
same people He bore their sins in his body. He actually became
their sin, became guilty of it. And then a stoop began, meek
began, and then he died. The God of glory, the creator,
the omnipotent one, gave up the ghost. He truly became meek. You know, you and I will never
actually know what hell's like. If we're a believer, we'll never
actually know. We'll never actually know how bad our sin really is
because we never truly experienced it, not for what it is. He experienced
all that. He knows exactly what that's
like. I'm trusting his weakness. He touched bottom, rose back
up. That's my salvation right there.
Follow after him. Fight that good fight of faith.
Look to Christ for all those things. Now, I want to end our
message this morning in Judges chapter 4, if you want to turn
over there. Everything I've said up to this
point is illustrated In this chapter, here's what we covered
thus far. For every believer, the war is
over. It was over when Christ hung his head and said, it is
finished. You have no enemies. Your sins
are gone. If you're a believer right now,
that's the reality of justification. And yet the battle rages with
you every single day because you have that old man and you
will have him until the day you die and you put him down. And
we are to fight. We're in the midst of a battle,
and there's a battle to be fought. And here's how we fight. We fight
by fighting the good fight of faith. We look to Christ. All
that is illustrated here. We won't look at every part of
this story, but I'll just give you the back story. The children of Israel
had once again rebelled against God. This was the common theme
for them. They had had 80 years of prosperity
after Ehud, but then the scripture says they forgot their God. It's
a story that would mean a lot, isn't it? They turned to idolatry,
which was their way, and because of this, in response, the Lord
sold them into the dominion of a king named Jabin, king of Canaan. Jabin, in this story, is a type
of our old man, our natural nature. Jabin had a general under his
command. This general's name is Sisera.
Sisera means battle ray, and what that's talking about is
if you've ever been to a a military graduation, you've been in the
military. Matt, we went to David's graduation that was. Out on the
parade deck, you'll see all these troops lined up, and you look
out there and it just, it looks like there's an innumerable amount
of them out there. It's a full battle array, it's
many. Cicera represents our sin. Javin, our sinful nature. Cicera,
our sin, what we do, what we say, what we think. Our sins,
our transgressions, our iniquities. And Cicera was a very formidable
enemy. Had 900 chariots of iron. These huge chariots that would
plow through infantry like they were nothing. Had blades on the
wheels they'd spin, dice the men to bits. This was a terrible
enemy. And Jabin and Sisera greatly
oppressed the children of Israel. Greatly oppressed them. But the
Lord in his mercy, as he always did, he raised up the deliverer. He raised up a redeemer. He raised
up a judge. And that judge's name is Deborah.
Yes, she's female. Female judge. She was a prophetess. She's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Deborah, she calls on her general. She appoints
a man to this position and his name is Brock. Brock is a type
of every believer. Brock's about to go into battle.
Let's find out what happens. Look down to verse six. And she, speaking of Deborah,
set and called Barak, the son of Abinuim, out of Kadesh Naphtali,
and said unto him, hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded,
saying, go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee 10,000
men of the children of Naphtali, and of the children of Zebulun,
and I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera, the
captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude,
and listen to this, this is the promise of Deborah, I will deliver
him into my hand. Now first folks, this is the
ground of our faith. Everything Christ said. This
is what Deborah tells Barack. You go out there and you do war
with Cicero. And I've already given you the
victory. You have this promise, you will have the victory, go
and fight. But for us, it's even so much
better. This is the promise you have from Christ. I've already
slain all the enemies. Those enemies are already put
down. I put down all your enemies on the cross. Now take the field
of battle. Well, who will I fight? There's
nobody left to fight. Take the field, go fight, go
fight that good fight of faith. Why? because the end state has
already been decided. It's already been done. Christ
already fought the battle. The victories won. Go take the
field. Now look at Brock's response
and rock sit under her verse eight. If that will go with me,
then I will go. But if that will not go with
me, then I will not go. You know what you see there is
the origin of faith, because this is the truth about every
man. If the Lord is with a man, if he inhabits that man, if he
becomes that man, and he intervenes in him, and he gives him that
new spirit, that new man, and he causes him to believe, and
he causes him to come to Christ, come to Christ he will. If you
will go with me, I will go. The call of the irresistible,
invincible grace. If he goes with us, if he's with
us, and he's for us, and he draws us, we will come, no doubt. But
the inverse is true. If he is not with us, if he does
not intervene, if he just leads us to ourselves and doesn't come
to us wherever that, I will not go. And neither will you. Because
by nature, we cannot believe. Look at verse 9. Look what Deborah
said. And she said, I will surely go
with thee, notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall
not be for thine honor. For the Lord shall sell sister
in the hand of a woman. And Deborah rose and went with
Barak to Kadesh. You know what Deborah's telling
Barak this time? You're not going to get any glory in this battle.
You're going to go. I'm going to go with you. I've
already fought the battle for you, I've already defeated the
enemy for you, and even this act of going into battle and
fighting this good fight, I'm going to enable you to do that.
And you know what that means? It means you're not going to
get a speck of glory. You know who's okay with that?
Barack. He's just fine with it. Debra, if you'll fight all these
enemies for me, if you'll clear out the house, if you'll take
care of everything, all we have to do is take the field, and
you're even going to enable me to do that? Oh, that sounds great.
Never get all the glory. I love that. Well, it's the same
thing in salvation in Christ. He does everything. Name one
aspect of salvation, any of them, he did it. It's all up to him.
All God's work, therefore God gets all the glory. But that
means on us, folks, if you're a believer, there's nothing to
do. It's all done. Salvation's been
accomplished. The enemy has been defeated.
Now, look at verse 10. And Barak called Zebulun and
Naphtali to Kadesh. And he went up with 10,000 men
at his feet. And Deborah went up with him. Go down to verse
13. And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even 900 chariots
of iron, and all the people that were with him from Herashef of
the Gentiles under the river of Kishon. And Deborah said unto
Barak, Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered
Sisera into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before
thee? So Barack went down from Mount
Tabor and 10,000 men after him. Now, this is our confidence in
faith. Christ has already gone out before
us. When did he do that? Book of Revelations refers to
our Lord as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
He is before us. And in the mind and in the eyes
of God, he has always been the sacrifice of his chosen people.
He has always been our atonement. He has always been our satisfaction
before God. That means before one of his
people actually came to this world, was animated in this life,
and committed one sin, that sin was paid for. It was gone. He
went before us. He went before us in the covenant
of grace, when he agreed to be the surety for all God's people.
As soon as he shook hands, as soon as him and the Father shook
hands, and that covenant was made, it was done. It was done
because God cannot agree to something and not carry it out. It's over.
He went before us. He went before us on the cross.
And right now, he sits in heaven for having gone before us, making
intercession for us. Every time our names come up
before the Father, look at me. Look what I did for them. They're
acceptable to you. And the Father says, yes, they
are. Every one of them are. He's gone before us and finished
the work. Now, look at verse 15. And the Lord discomfited Sisera
and all his chariots and all his host with the edge of the
sword before Barak, so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot
and fled away on his feet. But Barak pursued after the chariots
and after the host unto Hereshaph, the Gentiles. And all the host
of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword, and there was not
a man left. That is the reality of your sins
right now. Not a one left. What I notice
here, though, Barak is both passive and active. Now he is passive
in this regard. Look back at verse 15 again.
And the Lord discomfited Sisera. Who fought the battle? The Lord
did. Who won the battle? The Lord
did. Who slaughtered the enemy? The
Lord did. You know when he did this? He
did it before Barak. You know what that means? It
means Barak and stood there while it all took place. Barak didn't
kill anybody in the story. He didn't conquer one enemy.
He didn't take anybody down. He didn't tip over one chariot.
Barak watched as the Lord discomfited all his enemies. He just watched
them all get taken out. In this thing of faith, we look,
we don't do. We simply look to Christ and
trust he's discomforted all the enemies. But notice, though,
he's also active. Sister goes on the run, and Brock
chases him, chases all the chariots, doesn't catch one of them. but
goes after and chases him, he is both passive and active. And
this is the scripture I thought of. Hebrews 4, 9, 11. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that has entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did
from his. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall at the same example of unbelief. Labor to enter in to rest. Is faith an active thing? It
absolutely is. We come to Christ. We leave any
hope of saving ourselves, any hope in ourselves whatsoever.
We cling to Him, but to labor Him to rest. How do we cling? How do we look? How do we come?
We simply rest and trust that He's discomforted all our enemies
and everything that's necessary to make me acceptable. He is. That's it. Now, look at verse
17. If this were a play, and they
were to call this an act and name it, they would name this
act the death of sin, because that's what we're about to see
here. Verse 17, how be it Sisera fled
away on his feet to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the
Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin
the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael
went out to meet Sisera and said unto him, turn in my lord, turn
into me, fear not. And when he had turned in unto
her into the tent, She covered him with a mantle. Now we're
starting to see a picture of the cross here. Here, Sister
comes along, in jail. She's been waiting. She says,
come in here. Come on in. He goes in, and she takes a mantle,
a robe, covering. She takes it, and she puts it
on Sister. What happened to the cross? The
mantle of God's people. That sinful, wicked mantle, our
sin, it was taken off of us, and it was put in Christ. Go
on reading, look at verse 19. And he said unto her, give me,
I pray thee, a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And
she opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and covered him. Who else said, I thirst? Our
Lord did. I thirst. He wanted water. What did they give him? Vinegar.
Cicero said, I thirst. He wanted water. He got milk.
Why milk? Everyone know that? Why milk?
Seems odd, doesn't it? You know what milk does? It makes
you sleepy. And I have no doubt that's Jail's intention here.
She is going to make Cicera sleepy because Jail has a plan. I'm
going to give you a spoiler here, but Jail is going to kill Cicera. And this is not a crime of opportunity.
She's not being opportunistic here and saying, oh, I've got
an opportunity. I'm going to take him out. She's been planning this
all day. She's got her tent right in the right spot. She's got
the hammer and nail lined up. She's got the milk ready. She
has the mantle all laid out. She knows exactly what she's
going to say. This is all according to jail's purpose and she is
just acting out her purpose. That's the cross. According to
the purpose and will of God, it took place just like everything
else. God was not caught by surprise
by the fall of man. Oh, look, they fell. I guess
I better come up with a plan B. Absolutely not. The fall of
man was according to the purpose and will of God. It's our fault,
but it's according to God's purpose that his chief purpose, his prime
purpose, his one purpose would come about. The cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that he might achieve his greatest glory. That's what's going on here.
This is the cross. Now, look at verse 20. Again he said unto her, stand
at the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man doth
come and inquire of thee, and say, is there any man here? Thou
shalt say, no. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took
a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went
softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened
it into the ground. for he was fast asleep and weary,
so he died. That is the death of sin. This is the song lyrics that
came to mind when I first read that. My sin, though the bliss
of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole,
was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the
Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. Sin is dead for every believer. He was nailed to the cross. And
this, what we just read, folks, is the object of faith, Christ
and his cross. What do you see? What is there? There is nothing there. That's
what jail would go on to tell Brock, come see the man you look
for. And he walked in that tent and there's Cicero, he's dead.
Nothing left. Absolutely nothing left. This
is who we trust and what we trust, what he did on that cross. It's
everything and it's enough. Now, Sisera is dead. Our sin. What about Javan? What happens
with Javan? I'm gonna look down at verse
23. So God subdued on that day Javan the king of Canaan before
the children of Israel and the hand of the children of Israel
prospered. and prevailed against Jabin, the king of Canaan, until
they had destroyed Jabin, king of Canaan. Now, Jabin represents
our old sinful nature, that old man. And notice here, as soon
as Sisera is dead, once he's put to death, Jabin's subdued. He has no power. He's impotent.
Now, folks, Sisera's dead. You're a believer. Your sin was
nailed to the cross. You bear it no more. Now, you
got Jabin right now. But he's subdued. He can't do
you any harm. He is the elder serving the younger.
He is serving his purpose, leaving you nowhere to look but Christ
alone. And in just a little while, just
a little while, when you die, Japheth's going to be destroyed.
He's going to go away. And you are going to be perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. You won't have that old
man to drag you down anymore. Nothing will hold you back. perfectly
conformed to his image. That is what every believer has
to look forward to. Now, until then, what do we do? You fight the good fight of faith.
How do you do that? You just keep looking to Christ,
just like you first did. I'll leave you there.