To the turn of your Bibles, if
you will, to the book of Judges, chapter six, Judges, chapter
six. Today, I want to talk to you
about the preaching of the gospel. I want to share with you, I hope,
what God has revealed to me about how God calls and makes a preacher. I'm sure you have heard the story
of Gideon many times. We will be using him as our text,
but this message is not about Gideon. It's about Christ. The Book of Judges is a wonderful,
wonderful book. I'm sure your pastor, if you've
been around long enough, have gone through the book of Judges.
It's a very unique period in the life of the children of Israel. I love the Bible. I love the
Old Testament. I love its writings. I love the
ways of God. You know, the Bible says God
is known by the judgments which he executes. And when you read
the Old Testament and you read them with the eyes of faith,
you see the faithfulness of God, you see his consistency. You
see his love and his grace and his covenant mercies. But we
are looking with informed eyes. We also see our Lord Jesus Christ
coming in the value of the book because it's written of him.
Now, I want to kind of lay a foundation for us as we deal with our subject
today. And my title is Gideon, a preacher
of the gospel of the grace of God. Gideon, a preacher of the
gospel of the grace of God. Now, Gideon is part of a book
called the Book of Judges, and there are about 20 judges that
are featured in the Book of Judges. These were not all the judges,
but there were about 20 judges, and Within the framework of these
20 judges, there were a number of very prodigious judges that
you and I know. All of these judges were men,
with the exception of one woman, Deborah. They were highly used
of God. Now, the Book of Judges must
be understood very carefully. The Book of Judges is a period
in time in the life of Israel when they were at a real ebb,
a real low, a real dark period in time, a real period of weakness,
a real time of affliction. That seems like it's a lot of
the people of God, isn't that true? We are at a real low very
frequently, but it's at that time at that time that God really
shines through His grace. So, let me say the first thing
about the book of Judges that will help you. The book of Judges
is a post-Joshua period. The book of Judges is life after
Joshua. Now let me see if I can make
that relevant. Joshua is a great, great, great
type of the Lord Jesus, is he not? In fact, New Testament Greek
equivalent to the Old Testament word Joshua is Jesus. And Joshua was the man who brought
the nation of Israel through the Jordan into the Promised
Land. It wasn't Moses, it was Joshua. And if you recall the
wonders the works that God did in the life of Joshua with the
people of God, you understand that that period of the book
of Joshua, them coming into the promised land, being established
in the promised land, subduing all their foes in the promised
land, and God making a name for Joshua above every name, it points
to that period in time where our Lord Jesus Christ had come
in His first earthly ministry executing God's will flawlessly,
demonstrating infinite power in the salvation of sinners,
in the healing of the sick, in the raising of the dead, in the
preaching of the gospel, in the power of the gospel. That period
of time where our Lord ministered was very unique. It was a wonderful
period of ministry where the disciples were observing God
in the flesh. doing things no man ever did. That three and a half year period
was absolutely phenomenal and it corresponds to or was foreshadowed
by the period we call the Joshua Era. Joshua's time was a time
of magnificent power and triumph. God called the sun to stand still
in the days of Joshua. Joshua subdued all the kings
of Canaan. The Bible said remarkable things
like this, all the land that God promised Israel was given
in the days of Joshua. The Bible said in the book of
Joshua things like, God has fulfilled all that he had promised to Israel. Joshua said this right before
he died. So when you read the book of Joshua, what you get
is this wonderful, unique period of a man highly used of God,
pointing very specifically to Jesus. And those men and women
that lived in Joshua's time were very blessed. Very, very blessed. But Joshua dies. And after Joshua
dies, the generation that did ministry with Joshua also dies. And now you have a group, a generation
of so-called believers, who have forgotten the words of Joshua.
And they were living on their own. And you know, it's one thing
to do ministry with the Lord Jesus Christ present with you,
as the disciples began to figure out. They were highly privileged
to have the Savior in their midst. But there was a day coming, the
Master said, when I won't be with you. And you find a marked
difference even in the book of Acts with the ministry of the
apostles and what they did, even under the work of the Holy Ghost,
a marked difference between their ministry without the Lord Jesus
Christ than what they were able to accomplish with Him present. So the book of Judges serves
for us as a model and a paradigm of the gospel age in which you
and I live. Let's bring it on home right
now. The book of Judges is where you and I live. And here's what
I like to say. The judges were probably God's
most desired form of government for the ministry of the gospel,
even above that of the monarch. I don't really think God was
all that pleased with the monarch. I think the monarchical period
of Israel was a very dismal period. I think it was a time when Israel
was caught up in the flesh, and they saw earthly things, and
they wanted to be like all the other nations of the world. And
I think God had a hard time with His people because they were
so blessed in the physical realm. I think the judges correspond
to our local churches today, where the judges stood as types
of gospel preachers delivering the men and women from the snare
of their weakness and sin and all their enemies round about.
So let's say this. The judges represent for us gospel
preachers. Gospel preachers. And Israel
had a pattern in their life that went something like this. They
rebelled against God. Isn't that common? And God gave them over to their
enemies. until they cried out to the Lord,
and then God delivered them through their judges. God raised up judges,
and in certain places of the judges, guess what God called
them? Saviors. God raised up saviors to deliver
Israel out of the hands of their enemies. Now the other thing
that's unique about the book of Judges, when you read it carefully,
is that all of these different judges were all unique. They
were all different. They had the same message. They
had the same methodology. They accomplished the same work,
but they were all different. You remember Ehan? Early on in
the ministry, look, we'll start with Achmed. Achmed was the first
judge of Israel. He was a unique individual from
Judah. Him and his wife were both Judahites,
and the Bible says that he was a good man. He was a well-favored
man, and he delivered Israel mightily in the early days of
the judges. And then there came a man named
Ehud. You remember Ehud? Ehud was that
fellow when Israel was being oppressed. by the nations round
about, he went home one day and he made this dagger about six
inches long, 18 inches as a whole. And he took that dagger and put
it under his cloak and he went to the king of Eklon. Remember
the big fat king of Eklon? And you know what he said to
the king? He said, king, I've got a message for you from God. And he had thrust him through
and he delivered Israel. That man, Ica, was a type of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but he also was a great type of the
gospel preacher, because you see, it's only through the preaching
of the gospel that you and I are delivered from our sins. There
was another man named Shamgar. We don't know a whole lot about
Shamgar, but you know what the Bible says about Shamgar? With
an ox goad. You know what an ox goad is? It's a big old piece of wood
you use to goad oxen. The Bible says he slew 600 Philistines
and delivered Israel by an ox gold and he judged Israel for
several years. Now why does God record these
kinds of events? Here this one man goes in secretly,
privately, destroys God's folk with an 8-inch dagger, 18-inch
dagger, another man with an ox gold. And then, you remember
Sister Deborah? Sister Deborah was judge in Israel
for 40 years, a wonderful woman of God, whom God mightily worked
through her and Barak, whom God raised up as a great type of
Christ, if you understand the language, to deliver Israel yet
once again from Sisera and the enemies of God. Why did God raise
up this woman? Now, if you believe like I believe,
God doesn't call women to be pastors. God doesn't call women
to be preachers. God doesn't call women to lead
over men. He never had. He never will.
But there was this exception to the rule where God raised
up this woman, Deborah. How does Deborah fit into the
scheme of this ministry of the gospel if the book of Judges
is a sort of type of the spirit of the gospel? Where it goes
like this. Judge that God raised up, God
raised up to deal with a unique and specific issue and controversy
of the time in which they were living. If you go back and examine
it, you'll see just exactly that. Deborah was dealing with, God
was using Deborah to deal with a time and period much like where
we are today. Feminism is prevalent everywhere. The exaltation of the female
species, not only equal with man, but above man, prevails
everywhere. You see it in your schools, you
see it on your jobs, you see it in your businesses. Everywhere
the woman is being exalted to have preeminence over men. Mother
Earth! Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now, all this is nothing but pagan idolatry that goes back
to the beginning of time. It's the New Age philosophy of
our present-day culture. Feminism is everywhere, is that
not so? Can't you see it? This kind of
egalitarian mentality that's prevailing in the world today.
And it has entered into the church! And in your churches today, men
are compromising the gospel to open the doors for women to preach.
We don't believe it. We won't stand for it. By the
grace of God, we will never compromise the truth. See, once you start
turning things upside down like that, you're asking for the whole
world to enter into a state of confusion and Babylonian rule. That's where we are today. Deborah
answered that issue. She answered that issue. There
was another man whom I really loved. He was a judge in Israel.
You might remember him. His name is Samson. Stamson presents
a great dilemma for self-righteous men and women. Do you know that?
He presents a great dilemma because when you don't have eyes of faith,
when you can't see how God works through sinful men to show other
sinful men where to get great from, you can't understand anything
about sin. Can I share something with you
before we go on into our discussion? Stamson is one of the greatest
sterling examples of the coming person and work of Jesus Christ
in all of the judges. From his birth, to his call,
to his qualification, to his love for sinful women, he pointed
to Jesus Christ, the lover of hell-bound, guilty, undeserving
sinners. How can a man be in love with
a Philistine woman? Well, here's the question. How
can Christ, the holy, harmless, sinless Son of God, be in love
with you and me? And how can a man's inner interest
go flagrantly to engage in such love theft that he almost seems
to have lost his mind to allow himself to be bound and tied
and fettered, ultimately having eyes plucked out for her? The
Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came in the likeness of sinful
flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned
sin in the flesh, that you and I might be the righteousness
of God again. Listen, I don't even know how to get over that.
You talk about oxymoron, you talk about contradiction, the
Holy God assuming sinful flesh, the likeness thereof, in order
to redeem us. See, that's union, folks. That's
union. See, you and I don't—we don't
fall over backwards when we think about that, because you and I
have never been to glory. If you were ever in glory like
the Son of God, the thought of the Son of God condescending
in such an infinite way to take on the weakness of sinful flesh
in order to have a bride for Himself, then you can begin to
see salvation. I always raise the question,
as we deal with the Book of Psalms, what does it require to deal
with a Philistine-like culture in which we live. It's a Sassanian-like
gospel to deal with a Philistine-like culture in which we live. The
book of Judges speaks to us about the power of the gospel. Now
here's the theme as we look at Gideon just for a few moments.
The theme of the book of Judges goes like this. It's found in
1 Corinthians chapter 1 around verse 18. It pleads God through
the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. The Book of Judges is about the
foolishness of God in the saving of sinners through the gospel.
Now let's look at Gideon a little bit. If you've got your Bibles
open, I just want you to think about Gideon with me for a moment.
As I said, every preacher is different. And when I looked
at Gideon, there's one thing that comes out in Gideon's life
that I think you and I can identify with. Let's look at Gideon and
understand that Gideon identifies with the people of Israel, as
all of God's servants must identify with the people of God, because
we're no different. The pastor and the preacher is
no different. There is no essential difference
between you and me, other than that God has called me to preach
to you, and he's called you to hear my preaching. That's all.
Other than that, we are absolutely the same. Which means, when you
look at Gideon, you see Israel. And when you look at Gideon,
here's what you see. Weakness. Weakness. Weakness. Gideon is a weak man. Gideon is a fearful man. Gideon
is a doubtful man. Gideon is a man who has no confidence
in himself. But that's precisely what God
looks for in a Christian. That's precisely what He looks
for. If you take your Bibles and look over in verse 11 of
chapter 6, here's what you find concerning Gideon. I'm in chapter
6, verse 11. And there came an angel of the
Lord and sat under an oak, which was an okra, not okra, okra,
that pertained unto Joash the Abiezarite and his son Gideon,
threshed wheat by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. That's valiant, isn't it? And
the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him,
The Lord is with you, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said
unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this
befalling us? And where be all his miracles,
which our fathers told of us, saying, Did not the Lord bring
us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken
us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And
the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might, and
thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have
not I sent thee? Gideon was explaining to the
angel, you know, one can't go too deep into the narrative because
the Bible doesn't tell us how he gains his composure. Maybe
it was because he didn't really recognize the angel as an angel.
He manifested himself as a man, and so Gideon is talking with
this man. But in Gideon's mind, two things. Israel was forsaken
of God. And you know, sometimes we can
think that, can't we? You can look out at the life
of the people of God, you can look at the church of God, you
can look at the church world in general, and if you look with
eyes of flesh, you can say, you know, I don't see God anywhere.
I just don't see him anywhere. And the other thing that he was
sure of, that he himself was not a mighty man of valor. There
was nothing in Gideon that gave him any sense that he was a mighty
man of valor. For Gideon, all there was was
weakness. Forgetting all there was with
what's being. But as I said to you earlier,
that's exactly what God's calling in his preachers. A complete,
total lack of confidence in themselves. That's one of the secrets to
the power of the ministry of the gospel. The pastor of a gospel
church does not trust in himself. Do you remember what Paul said
in 2 Corinthians chapter 12? He says, I would much rather
glory in my infirmities and in my weakness in order that the
grace of God and the power of God might be manifested in my
life. You know, you learn something when God has taught you that
it's in weakness His power is made manifest. He said in 2 Corinthians
chapter 13, these same words, when the Corinthian church, they
were looking for powerful, eloquent, strong leaders. And they looked
upon Paul, and they said he was contemptible, and his speech
was vain and empty, and there was nothing appealing about Paul.
And Paul says, now, if there are any of you who are seeking
a proof of Christ in me, let me let you know right now that
Christ works through weakness. In fact, the whole message of
the gospel is that it's through the weakness of God that God's
power is made manifest. So the first thing I want you
to contemplate in keeping your mind, if you don't already know
what this is, don't ever be impressed by the external confidence and
power of eloquence and words. They mean nothing. In the ministry
of the gospel, What you and I want to look for is the glory of God
in the person of Christ coming through the light and words of
that preacher. That's all we want to see. Here's
the secret to the preacher that is blessed with God in the preaching
of the ministry. He knows himself to be weak,
but in God's sight, he's mighty. The text said, Go thou in this
thy strength, O mighty man. You know what Gideon's strength
was according to the angel? The Lord was with him. The Lord
was with him. Can I say something to you? For
those of us who are in ministry and called to preach, the only
thing that we want to know 24-7, Lord, are you with me? Isn't
that right, Bruce? Isn't that right? Lord, are you
with me? Every step of the way, I want
the Lord to be with me. Every step of the way, I want
the Lord to be with me. I don't care what people think.
I'm just concerned with I know what it's like for the Lord to
not be with me. Do you? I know what it's like
for God to take His hand off of you just for a second and
lead you to the weakness of the vitalness of this flesh. Do you
know what I'm talking about, child of God? I know what it's
like when God has to teach you that your strength, your strength,
or His strength rather, is made perfect in my weakness. And you
come to learn that the excellency of the power must be altogether
of the Lord. One of the secrets of the gospel
preacher, therefore, is he has to trust Christ just like you
do. I mean, totally trust Christ.
just like you do. Here's a very strange thing,
too, that's going on, and I'll show you the next point. The
weakness and the fear and all of the inward troubles that the
preacher has in his seeking to know God and to know God's will
and to share the gospel with you has nothing to do with God's
ability to actually accomplish His will in that preacher's life.
Do you know how we found Gideon? We found Gideon in the threshing
floor. We found Gideon at the wine press. Do you know what Gideon was doing?
He was sifting the wheat. Isn't that what this text says?
He was sifting the wheat. Did you know what Gideon was
doing? He was actually foreshadowing the effectual work of gospel
preaching even before God called him to preach. See, the ministry
of the gospel is all about threshing and separating the wheat from
the tables. It's the gospel that does that.
It's the ministry of the gospel that separates the weak from
the dare. It's the power of the gospel that saves God's people,
brings them out of darkness into his marvelous light. And only
the gospel does that. Here Gideon, hiding in a cave,
doing what God called him to do. But the angel saw Gideon
doing that for God's people in the ministry of the gospel. It's
a great foreshadow, a great type of what he was called to do in
this. The winepress in our text speaks
to the shedding of Christ's blood. The winepress is where the wrath
of God is poured out upon sin. The winepress is where God trods
under the grapes of wrath. The winepress is where our Lord
Jesus Christ made atonement for our sins. I thought that this
was so wonderful. The angel of the Lord meets Gideon
doing something that Gideon didn't understand would actually foretell
the deliverance of God's people. Weak Gideon, weak you, weak me,
weak people of God, but a powerful God still getting the job done
anyway. All right, the next thing that
I want to call your attention to with regards to this is something
that I thought was quite interesting. Look with me over at verse 17.
Gideon has met the angel of the Lord. He probably senses that
this is an angel of the Lord. I don't know, but something unique
comes here that I think is instructive for us with regards to this ministry
called the Gospel. Listen to what it says. I'll
start at verse 16. And the Lord said unto him, Surely
I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites. Do you
see this? As one man. Surely I will be
with you, And you will smite the Midianites as one man. In
fact, you got to back up to verse 15, because in verse 15, here's
what he says. Well, actually it's verse 14.
And the Lord looked upon him and said, go this in thy mind,
and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have
not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord,
wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house." Do you
see it again? He's setting forth before the angel all of his demerits,
his inability, his lack of qualification. How am I going to be the one
delivering Israel? How am I going to set them free from the Midianites? Now, the Midianites were like
the sands of the sea. They were like grasshoppers everywhere.
For seven years, Israel was oppressed by the Midianites. There was
no way in Gideon's mind that he would be the man that God
would use to deliver him. But here's his qualification.
First, he's poor. He's poor. Blessed are the poor
in spirit. Isn't that right? First, he's
poor. Then he says, my family is the least of all the tribes
of Manasseh. See, for me, that points me way
ahead in the future to a man who also was poor, and who also
came from a very small tribe, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, though
thou be small among the tribes of Judah, yet out of you shall
come forth unto me him who shall be ruler in Israel, whose going
forth is from of old, even from everlasting." Who are we talking
about? The Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible
also says in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, yet though he were rich, Yet
for your sake he became poor, that we through his poverty might
become rich. Now, saints, you guys have heard
these things all the time, I'm sure. The idea of God's weakness
being stronger than the power of men. But please, hear it again
one more time, will you? Your hope and mine doesn't lie
in our power or in our ability. It lies completely in the power
of God. And as I talk to you today a
little bit about the call of the minister of the gospel, I'm
not simply asking you to sit on the sidelines here and evaluate
the preacher. I already said this, that the
preacher and the congregation are one and the same. As I exhort
you in understanding the call of the preacher as being weak
and being poor, I'm talking about you. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about us. I'm talking
about the body of Christ. Does that make sense? See, we're
all weak. We're all poor. And what the
preacher needs, you need. And what you need, the preacher
needs. And it's so very important for
the local congregation to have a real good idea of the struggles
of the pastor. how to identify with the pastor
so you can pray for your pastor. See, what you want here at Charles
Rose Grace Church is to see the power of God fully manifested
in the ministry of this local church. That's what you want
to see. And therefore, it behooves you
to also know, how does God work? He works through weakness. He
works through our fears. He works through our doubts.
Why? Because when you and I are weak
and fearful and doubted, He's a great and mighty Savior. He's
a great and mighty Savior. You guys remember that event
over in the latter part of chapter 6 where Gideon now, he's fairly
convinced that God called him to subdue the Midianites. But
he says, Lord, now, if you've called me to subdue the Midianites,
you've got to do something for me. You gotta give me a sign. Have you ever asked the Lord
for a sign? You don't have to tell me. Have
you ever, you know, because you're told today that, you know, it's
not the right thing to do to ask the Lord for a sign. I ask
the Lord for signs all the time. I ask him for signs all the time. I need God to affirm to me that
he's in my life. I need God to show me that he's
present with me. Don't you? I need God to confirm
in my life that he's walking with me. Gideon said, Lord, just
bear with me now. And you remember the fleece deal?
You remember the fleece deal? Look at it with me just briefly.
I think it's around verse 17 or so. Verse 17. Notice what he says over in verse
17. Listen to what he said. Behold,
I will put a fleece of wool in the floor. And if the dew be
on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside
then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand as you
have said." What is this? What is this deal of the fleece
and the dew? What is that? Why does Gideon
believe that if God would cooperate with this sign, that somehow
he'll know that God's on his side? Since every sign in the
Bible points ultimately to the finished work of Jesus Christ
in our life. The fleets, Gideon understood, identified with the
whole nation of Israel. Israel was God's sheep. Israel
was God's people. Israel were like sheep. Israel
were like dumb, stupid sheep like you and I are. God also
knew that God had to watch over his sheep and God had to bless
his sheep if the sheep were to experience the mercies of God.
The dew coming down from heaven, that dew coming down from heaven,
we heard it in Psalm 133, is the blessing of the Lord. You
know what Gideon was asking God? He was going to say, God, we're
a bunch of dumb sheep. We're a bunch of stupid sheep.
We get in trouble all the time. But you told us that we were
yours. Now show us that we have your
favor in our life. You know what the Bible says?
God called it to rain only on the place and not on the ground. Gideon understood that God was
with his people. And then he did the other thing,
which was quite unique, too. The next verse said this. Listen
to it. He said in verse 30, 39, and
Gideon said unto God, let not your anger be hot against me.
I will speak but this once. Let me prove, I pray thee, but
this once with the fleas. Let it now be dry upon the fleas
and upon all the ground. Let there be dew. And God did
so that night, for it was dry. upon the fleece only, and there
was dew on all the ground." God had done exactly what Gideon
had asked Him to do. And the dew now being not on
the fleece, and the fleece being completely dry, but the dew being
on the ground, speaks to this, and don't ever forget this, God's
favor upon the fleece is a sovereign favor. God sovereignly bestows
His favor. We don't deserve his favor. We
have not earned his favor. God's favor is not given to us
out of sort of a natural common grace. God's favor is a part
of our life because of God's sovereign mercy. Gideon knew
that. Because you see, Gideon understood
when God's favor was removed and Israel was under the suffering
hand of God. God's coming, Gideon, I'm with
you. And so Gideon is now ready to go to the world. All right,
let's ask another question. Going back up in the earlier
parts of the chapter, Gideon has come to understand and believe
that the person that he's dealing with is not just some some individuals
who's come along. He says now that he's dealing
with the Lord. And here's what he said in verse
17. And this, too, is quite remarkable
to me. And I want you to think about
it with me. He said unto him that is the angel. If now I have
found grace in your sight, then show me a sign that you talk
with me. Show me a sign that you talk
with me. Do you long for God to talk with
you? Do you long for God to commune
with you? Do you long for God to fellowship
with you? And here's a question that's
going to be quite probing, and I want you to think about this,
and again, I'm letting you in on the secrets of the ministry.
Does God commune with your pastor? Isn't that a germane question?
Why would you sit before a man who would speak to you week in
and week out and day in and day out, Wednesday and Sunday morning
and Sunday evening, and you don't know whether God talks to him? Isn't that germane? Let me ask
the question again before I seek to sort of develop this a little
bit before we go to our next point. Does God talk to the pastor? who's called to speak to your
eternity bound soul. That's something for you to pray
about. If you haven't considered what I'm saying, that's something
for you to think about. If you haven't thought this one through,
maybe it's time for you to take this issue and business of the
gospel and worship and the local church and your showing up every
Sunday, Wednesday, and Wednesday and going through the form of
worship much more seriously. In other words, let me put it
like this, children of God, rather than ask you the question, does
God commune with your pastor? You pray continually that God
would commune with your pastor. That God would commune with your
pastor. That when you show up to church on Sunday, in a Wednesday,
You will know that God has been speaking to my pastor. See how important that is? Listen
to what Gideon said. Gideon's been called. He's been
called to lead God's people out. Gideon has no qualification in
himself. He's completely without personal confidence. He needs
to know if God's talking with him. Or is this a dream? Is this
the one time he did? Are you really going to be with
me now and in the midst of my trials and as I seek to deliver
God's people? I don't know what I'm doing.
I don't know what I'm about to do. But I know this. You called
me and you said you'll be with me. Now give me a sign that you'll
be with me. See, this I know is the case
with every one of God's preachers. We desire God to speak to us. We want to know Him. We want
to know Him. We want to know Christ. We want
to know Him in the power of His resurrection. We want to know
Him in the fullness of His glory. We want to know Him in the communion
of the Spirit. We want to know Him in the exposition
and illumination of the Scripture. I want to know Christ in such
a way that my people, when they listen to me, know that God spoke
with me. You see, Gideon is in secret
now. The people don't even know him yet. He's been called. He's about to be manifested publicly
here in a moment. But before he's publicly manifested,
he has to be privately confirmed. This is what the Lord Jesus did
with the twelve for three and a half years. He walked with
them. He communed with them. He talked with them. He showed
them His glory. Johnson and John just the one.
And this was the first miracle that our Master did, turning
the water into wine. And He said, and this was the
beginning of the manifestation of His glory to His disciples. What did Jesus do for three and
a half years with the twelve? Manifested glory to them. Manifested
glory to them. They saw the glory of the Lord
in the healings. They saw the glory of the Lord
in the power of His saving people. They saw the glory of the Lord
in the turning of water into wine. They saw the glory of the
Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. You guys remember that? Peter,
James, and John says, listen, we're not telling you fables.
We're not telling you stories. We were with Him in the Holy
Mount. when the father spoke from heaven,
saying, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved son. Hear
ye hear. We were witnesses. We were witnesses. I'm telling you, Gideon is being
prepared for a mighty work, a mighty work, which God alone is going
to do through his life. Lord, show me a sign that you
talk with me. You know what Gideon did? Gideon
did what all the Old Testament saints do when they know that
they have an opportunity to commune in fellowship with brother. He went home and made a meal.
Isn't that what the text says? He went home and made a meal.
I want you to see this. Listen to it over in verse 19. And Gideon
went in and made ready a kid, an unleavened cake, and an ephor
of flour, for the flesh, he put in a basket, and he put the broth
in a pot, and brought it unto him under the oak, and presented
it." Know what he just did? He just fixed dinner. In the
Old Testament economy, in those Middle Eastern cultures, the
Aramaic cultures, that's what they did when they were wanting
to fellowship with you. You remember what Abraham did
when he met that theophany in Genesis 18? He hurried up and
ran and fixed the meal to fellowship with them. Isn't that right?
That's the same thing that Lot sought to try to do. Do you remember
what Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson did when they
talked with the angel? They ran and prepared a meal
too. Remember that? The idea of preparing the meal
is this. I want to enter into fellowship
with you. I want to have communion with
you. I want to sit and talk with you. Now listen to me. All of
God's servants have as their ultimate priority fellowship
with Christ. fellowship with Christ. See,
we can't say a thing to you that will bless your eternity bound
soul unless God himself speaks to us. I don't want to talk to
you if God hasn't talked to me. And I don't want to continue
talking to the people of God if God hasn't accepted me into
his fellowship. Listen to what it goes on to
say. Bear with me a few more minutes. Listen to it. I'm at
verse 20. And the angel of God sent unto
him, take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this
rock. Pour the broth out." And he did
so. Then the angel of the Lord put
forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and he touched
the flesh and the unleavened cake, and there rose up fire
out of the rock and consumed the flesh and unleavened cake.
Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. And when Gideon
perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, it should be the
angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for because
I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, The Lord said
unto him, peace be with you, fear not, you shall not die.
You know what Gideon just had confirmed to him? That he was
accepted before God. That he was allowed to enter
into communion with God. You see, that fire that came
up out of that rock, that signified the true and the living God's
presence. Isn't that what the Bible says? Elijah said, let
the God that be truly God answer by what? Fire. And in the Old
Testament, more than once, whenever God's people offered sacrifice,
whether that was Aaron, the high priest, or whether that was Solomon
in the temple, when God was pleased with their sacrifice, guess what
happened? Fire came down from heaven and
consumed the sacrifice to let the people know that God was
pleased with their sacrifice. Now, why was God pleased with
Gideon's sacrifice? It wasn't because of Gideon,
it was because where Gideon actually placed his sacrifice. You see,
he placed it on the rock, and that rock is Christ. See, you
and I are only accepted in the Beloved. Our fellowship is with
the Father through the Son. Gideon was told by the angel
what to do. in order to have his question
confirmed. And here's what you and I must
know. You and I only have fellowship with God through his son, Jesus
Christ. And Gideon did. Now listen to
me. You are highly blessed, people of God, when your pastor has
been accepted by God through Jesus Christ to enter into fellowship
with him. That's what happened with Gideon.
Gideon was told by the angel of the Lord, Peace be with you. Gideon now is filled with the
peace of God. Gideon now has a little measure
of comfort. Gideon has seen wonders this
night. Gideon is thankful for the grace
of God in his life. Gideon still has not actually
come forth. Gideon is still in that place
where God is proving him. But now there's another thing
that takes place. This will bring us to our last point. The call
of the gospel minister It's a call that's predicated upon him recognizing
he is completely weak and insufficient to the task. The call of the
gospel minister is predicated upon God coming to him and revealing
to him his glory and receiving him into fellowship with himself
through Jesus Christ. That's the call of the gospel
minister. The gospel minister must hear from God. But the call
of the gospel minister, publicly, is the preaching of the gospel.
by which Christ is exalted and made to be everything in the
presence of everyone, saved and unsaved. When God calls a man
to preach the gospel, he calls that man to stand for him in
the presence of all the people. I want you to see this. This
is quite remarkable. This is the last point in our
text. Look at it now. Notice what it says over in verse
25. Verse 24 says, And Gideon built
an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah Shalom.
You guys know what that means, right? The Lord is our peace. What a remarkable statement.
Given the fact that Israel had no peace whatsoever, the Midianites
were in absolute control, the Bible says they were oppressed
on every hand, and yet now Gideon, the servant of God, is walking
around with peace. Why? Because God has confirmed
his calling. Now watch this now. Verse 25,
and it came to pass the same night the Lord said unto him,
see God's talking with him, isn't he? God's talking with him, watch
this, take your father's young bullock, even the second bullock
of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your
father has cut down, that your father hath, and cut down the
grove that is by it. and build an altar unto the Lord
your 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." What is God calling
this man to do? What is he calling Gideon to
do? This is remarkable. Gideon has just experienced the
blessings of God in his life in terms of his call to ministry.
But before he will deliver, listen to me, before he will deliver
Israel from the Midianites, he's got to deal with the idol that's
in the midst of their worship. His duty is first to his own
household. So he goes home to his father's
house. in obedience to God, and he tears
down this idol that's sitting on a rock. Now that word rock
simply means a mound where all the people came to. In those
days, idols were called high places. High places were those
mounds where the people could look out from their houses and
they could see that abomination sitting there on the hill. and
all of these pagan gods that Israel had allowed to invade
their land and to bring them into bondage. The first job that
Gideon was called to do was to destroy the idols out of his
father's house. Now, listen to me. Our job is
the preaching of the gospel of the glory of God in Christ. Our
job is to make known the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our
job, in the first sense, is not to fight Aaron, fight false doctrine
and getting the apologetics and all of that stuff. You've heard
that before, ain't that right? Our job is the preaching of the
glories of God in Christ. But can I say this? You cannot
preach Christ without tearing down false doctrines. You cannot
preach the glories of God in Christ without dealing with the
idols that are in our lives. Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter
10, the ministry of God's servants are not carnal, but mighty through
God to the pulling down of every what? Stronghold. And saints,
I don't care what you say, we have stronghold. We have issues
in our life. We have idols in our life. We
have false gods in our life. We have false notions in our
life. You and I are idol factories. Our hearts are idol factories.
And the one remedy for the idol factories in our hearts is the
preaching of the glory of God in Christ. Am I telling the truth? And sometimes we have to make
it plain. Sometimes we have to simply make
it plain. And this is what Gideon is doing
because God has called him to do it, and God has strengthened
him for it. And do you know he went by night, don't get me wrong,
now he's still a little weak, he went by night, but he did it. He did it. Him and 10
men. Do you know what kind of grace
it takes to stand up and oppose the idols in your own household? What kind of grace it takes.
See, this business of the preaching of the gospel, I won't be with
you much longer, is this. It takes the power of God. You
really cannot be, you really cannot be a person who is not
persuaded that God is able to keep you. You cannot be a person
who is not completely and totally persuaded that the gospel of
the glory of God in Christ is the only gospel. You cannot do
this. with the idea of equivocating
and doppelating on both sides of the equation. God has to give
you grace to simply tell the truth as it is in Christ, unless
the chips fall with it. Is that okay? Is that okay? See,
I live in a generation in California where it's just like that. People
coming to our assemblies with all of the goofiest notions on
planet Earth. And sometimes I just have to
deal with it as it is. And you know what I come to find
out? Now watch this now. Watch this now. I might receive
a little opposition, I thank God for it, but ultimately in
the pulling down of false gods and false idols and false doctrine
and false teaching, and you know them all, God's sheep are liberated
and their hearts are made to be comforted by the unrivaled
glory of Christ alone. Can I show you that? Look at
the text. It goes on to say, this is quite interesting, this
is the last thing we'll talk about. It says over in verse
27, Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the
Lord had said unto him. And so it was, because he feared
his father's household, and the men of the city, that he couldn't
do it by day, that he did it by night. That's okay. And when
the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, I love
this, when they arose early in the morning, the altar of Baal
was cut down, cast down, and the grove was cut down, that
was fire, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that
was built. And they said one to another,
who hath done this thing? You know what's about to happen?
Gideon is about to be exalted. Watch this. Who hath done this
thing? And when they inquired and asked,
they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, hath done this thing.
Verse 30. Then the men of the city said
unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die. Do you see that?
Religious folk hate Christ. Religious folk hate Christ. And
religious folk hate when you preach a Christ that will not
have any rightfuls. Do you know in this generation
it's alright for us to preach Christ as long as we also accept
all these other false gods? Did you know that? Pluralism
is prominent today. But God hates pluralism. God despises pluralism. And God will not bless any ministry
that would contemplate having a rival with Jesus Christ. He
won't do it. He won't do it. The cause of
the gospel is so important, children of God, that your pastor and
you have to be ready to die for it. Do you young men hear me? Do you young ladies hear me? The cause of the gospel is so
important in this generation that we have to be ready to die
for. Die in all the ways you can imagine. We can be killed by infamy. We
can be killed by slander. We can be killed by ridicule.
We can be killed by ostracization. We can be killed by people cutting
us off. We can be killed by censorship.
You guys understand what I'm saying? See, I've explained all
this in California because we go to government schools, but
I hope you understand what I'm saying. We can be killed by all
the notions and methods that men do to try to play down the
gospel preacher. See what I'm saying? Play him
down. God loves his son. He loves his church. He loves
his gospel. And he loves the gospel preacher.
He loves the gospel preacher. He's with him, Brother Bruce.
He's with him. Do you know why? Here's my last
point. Because the gospel preacher and
the gospel church is the only entity in the world by which
Christ is made known. And God loves his son. Watch it. Watch it. They want to kill him? That's
how you know you preaching the gospel, by the way. Listen, then
the men of the city said unto him, unto Joas, bring out your
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.
I should say so. Our master did it, didn't he?
Did our master do it? Did our master, when he was called
to preach the gospel, go into the temple in the beginning of
his ministry and tear down all the money changers and those
that bought and sold in his father's house? Did our master do it?
He set that pattern for his disciples. And before our master gave up
his life on Calvary Street, by the same spirit that was in these
men, Let me show you what I'm saying look at it over in verse
37 Verse 31, And Joash said unto
all that stood against him. Now who is Joash? He's the father
of Gideon. Who's standing up for Gideon?
His father! Listen to it. And Joash said
unto all that stood against his son. Will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? He that will
plead for him, watch this, let him be put to death, while it
is yet morning. If he be a God, let him plead
for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. Therefore,
on that day, he, that is the father of Gideon, called him
Jerubbaal, saying, let Baal plead against him, because he hath
thrown down his altar. This is absolutely fabulous.
Gideon called by God. Gideon qualified by God. Gideon
is serving God. Gideon tears down the idols in
his father's house. And you know what his father
does? Exalts Gideon. That's exactly what our father
does when we obey the gospel. He exalts his son, Jesus Christ. He exalts his son, Jesus Christ.
See, this is a foreshadow of the destruction of the Old Testament
church under the economy of Israel, who were nothing but idolaters
and whoremongers. Now Israel is ready to be delivered
from the Midianites. Why? Because God had raised up
a preacher. A weak, foolish preacher, much
like his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came in weakness,
manifesting the power of God and the exaltation of God Almighty
in the person of Christ. Now the people of God are ready
to be delivered because the only one that they are looking to
right now is Jesus Christ. Isn't that good? That's what
you and I have been called to do. And I pray that as you guys
continue ministry, God would bless you to do just that. In
the name of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.