Let's turn in our Bibles today
to the book of Judges, chapter 4. The Book of Judges is a history
book of the nation of Israel. It covers about 300 years, not
quite 300 years. It was a very chaotic period
in the history of the nation. There are two texts in this book
which pretty well describe the situation. In those days, there
was no king in Israel. But every man did that which
was right in his own eyes. Man is a fallen creature. And man needs a king. He needs a government. The Apostle
Paul in Romans chapter 13 tells us that all power is ordained
of God. And this nation, they had a king,
but he was invisible. That is, God was their king.
It was a theocracy. God was their king. God had made
a covenant with the nation at Mount Sinai when he brought the
nation out of Egypt. He brought them to Mount Sinai. And that's when, actually, they
were constituted a nation. Before that, they had been basically
a family, a very large family, yes, but the family of Abraham
Isaac and Jacob, but then when they came out of Egypt, God delivered
them, brought them to Mount Sinai, and gave them his covenant, which
is the Ten Commandments. The problem is that that covenant
was written on tables of stone. The new covenant, God writes
his law on tables of flesh, that is the tables of our heart. And so we have a desire, an inward
desire, to serve him, to honor him, to follow his word, the
teaching of his word. They didn't have that. And it
was a very chaotic time. And we see time after time after
time this same thing happening through the book of Judges. They
would sin, that is, they would usually fall into idolatry. They'd go after some God that
they could see, some idol, and worship it, and then God would
sell them or give them over into the hands of one of their enemies,
a nation that was sometimes in their midst, sometimes around
them. You see this here in chapter
four, the first two verses. And the children of Israel, again,
As I said, it's just a repetition time after time after time through
the book of Judges. The children of Israel again
did evil in the sight of the Lord. When Ehud was dead, Ehud
had been a judge that God raised up to deliver them. But now he
was dead. And every man did that which
was right in his own eyes. The Lord sold them into the hand
of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor, the captain
of whose host was Sisera, that dwelt in Herosheth of the Gentiles. Now, now they're sold into the
hand of this king. And God raised up a judge this
time who was a woman, Deborah. And she called for a man by the
name of Barak. and told him that God was going
to deliver Israel again from the hand of this king. And of
course, he said, well, if you go with me, if you go with me,
I'll do this. And so she went with him, but
she told him, you, a man, are not going to get the glory for
this victory. It's going to be given to a woman. And so there's a woman in these
two chapters, chapters four and five, by the name of Jael, and
she destroyed this leader of this King Jabin. His leader,
commander-in-chief, was named Sisera, and she destroyed him,
and she got the glory. As far as a human is concerned,
we know that God got the glory. If you look in the next chapter,
We have a hymn of praise. This whole chapter five is a
hymn of praise that was offered unto God by Deborah and Barak. And notice verse two, praise
ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel when the people willingly
offered themselves. God raised up two of the tribes
of Israel And they defeated the army of Jabin. And this woman, as I said, she
destroyed the commander in chief in her tent. You know the story.
And so this whole chapter five is a praise. You can read through
it at your leisure if you'd like. But I want you to look at the
very last verse. I saw this for the first time
this past week. You know, that's a wonderful
thing about the Word of God, about the Bible. You can read
it year after year, day after day, and yet it's always new. And you see things that you haven't
seen before. And I saw a line in this last
verse here that is going to serve as my text this morning. If you
notice, so let all thine enemies perish. Now here's the line,
O Lord, But let them that love him be as a son. And I looked at that and I thought,
now who is it? Oh Lord, let them that love him,
that is, who love the Lord. Who is it who loves the Lord? God's children. God's children. We love him. The apostle John
tells us we love him because he first loved us. He first loved
us in old eternity before the world began. God set his love
upon a people and chose them in Christ and blessed them in
Christ with all spiritual blessings. This is what the word of God
teaches. Those who love him, But this
is sort of a prayer or a petition. Let those who love the Lord be
like the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And I started thinking
about that as believers to be like the sun, like the sun that
you see every day. If you go outside and the sun
is shining, there's no clouds, that's the petition that's put
up here in this hymn of praise, O Lord, let thine enemies perish,
those who are enemies of God. And that's all men by nature. All men by nature are enmity
with God, enemies of God. And only Christ reconciles us
unto God. There is no peace with God apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the peacemaker. He is our
peace. He reconciles enemies. He reconciles his people unto
God by his blood, by his shed blood. You know that. But here
it says, O Lord, let them that love him, that love thee, be
as the Son, when he goeth forth in his might. And I started thinking
about this, and I thought, I'm going to bring a message, if
the Lord will allow, and I'm going to show us this morning
five parallels between the physical Son and every child of God. everyone here in this morning,
their similarity between the physical son and you, if you
are one of his children. The first thought I have is this,
both have a creator. Both have a creator. You know
the story, but turn back with me to Genesis chapter one. No one should be so foolish as
to believe that the sun doesn't have a creator. I know that there
are people who profess to believe that the sun, like all of creation,
is a result of a big bang. But you know that's not true.
That's foolishness. I was glad this past week, I
don't know if you heard this or not, but the Prime Minister
of England, he spoke out about the foolishness of this day when
people can decide whatever sex they want to be. You get up one
day and you were born a male, but you just decide you want
to be a female. And so you are female. I was
happy. that finally a leader of a country
had the guts to stand up and declare the foolishness of what's
going on in this world. I mean, against nature, people
are believing things like that. And the same thing is true about
that Big Bang. It's foolish. You know, I heard
this years ago, and I've not forgotten it, The Big Bang Theory
is like saying that there could have been an explosion in a printing
office and out of that explosion we have a dictionary, Webster's
Dictionary. How foolish, right? How foolish
and how foolish to believe that God's wonderful creation doesn't
have a creator and the sun. As a creator, like all of nature,
like all of creation has a creator. We read about the sun's creation
here in the first chapter of Genesis, verse 14. And God said, let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. And let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and years. and let them be for lights
in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.
And it was so. And God made two great lights,
the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule
the night. He made the stars also." Don't
you like the way he made the stars also? While he was making,
he made the sun. to rule the day and made the
moon to rule the night. And while he was at it, he just
made the stars also. The power of God, his creative
power in speaking this creation into being. God said, and whatever
he said came to pass in that week of creation. The sun has
a creator. And every one of us who love
the Lord, we too have a creator. Someone made us. If you are a
believer, God made you a believer. If you are one of his sons this
morning, his daughters, God made you his son, his daughter. Now I know all men are created
by God. I understand that. And all men
are created for God's glory. I understand that. But I'm talking
this morning about God's spiritual children, those who love the
Lord. We too have a creator. We didn't make ourselves a believer.
We didn't make ourselves a Christian, if we are. God did that. The sun didn't make itself, did
it? No, of course not. And the same thing is true about
every child of God. Look with me in Ephesians chapter
2. So this is one parallel that
I have thought about is that as the son has a creator, the
physical son had a creator, so you and I, if we are God's children
today, It is he who hath made us, and not we ourselves. We
are his people, the sheep of his pasture. It is he who hath
made us, and not we ourselves. Here in Ephesians chapter two,
the chapter here begins, the way it is divided, with showing
our condition by nature, dead, spiritually dead. Now can a,
A dead individual do anything? Can a dead individual make anything? Can a corpse that is dead, can
that corpse make himself to breathe? For his heart to start pumping? For his pulse to start running
through his body, can he? Of course not. And that's exactly
the condition spiritually that the Apostle Paul, writing to
these believers in the church at Ephesus, tells them, this
was your condition. And listen, you would stay in
that condition if God doesn't do something. Man can't quicken
himself. Man cannot create spiritual life
in himself. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein, that is, in sins, in
time past you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And all lost
individuals are children of disobedience. That is, they're children of
Adam. He disobeyed God. And we fell in Adam. And so we
come into this world spiritually dead. And we walk according to
the course of the world. It's just like a fish, a dead
fish. You're never going to see a dead
fish swim against the current. No. You see a dead fish and the
river's flowing this way, that dead fish is going this way.
And the world is going to hell. And we come into this world and
we are born into it, into this current, and that's the way we
will go unless God intervenes, unless God does something. We
have to have a creator. What's created? Well, let's read
on here. Among whom we also all had our conversation in times
past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. But God, amen, but God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you are saved. and hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved through faith, And that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now
notice, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. God comes to an individual, quickens
that individual and creates a new person, a new man. The old man
is still there, but he creates a new man. That's what we call
the new birth, isn't it? Being quickened, being raised,
being made alive. How does a person know if he
has been quickened, if he's been made alive? Well, I believe there's
two sure signs. Number one, is Christ precious
to you? To you which believe, Peter said,
he is precious. Is he precious to you? Not just some historical figure.
Is he precious to you? And a second sign, I believe,
is a love for the word of God. God's people, when made new,
when created new in Christ Jesus, have a love for this book, for
the Word of God. I've seen it too many times.
I've experienced it myself. When a person is born of the
Spirit of God, they just love the Word of God. They want to
read the Word of God, they want to hear the Word of God taught
and proclaimed, and they love the Word. Because it's God's
word. It's a word of their Heavenly
Father. They love the word. So that's the second or the first
parallel. Both have a creator. The physical
son has a creator and every child of God, everyone who loves the
Lord, has a creator. And that creator is Christ. That
creator is the Lord God. The second Parallel is both have
their dark spots. Did you ever think about that?
Both have their dark spots. We're told that the sun has its
dark spots. You can't see them, I don't guess,
with the naked eye. But the scientists tell us that
the sun has its dark spots. And they tell us, as far as they're
concerned, what causes these dark spots. They say, really,
sunspots are areas that appear dark on the surface of the sun. They appear dark because they
are cooler than other parts of the sun's surface. They're cooler. That spot, that dark spot, On
the sun is there, according to the sciences, because that part
is just a little bit cooler than the rest of the sun's surface.
We who love the Lord like the sun, we have our dark spots. As I said, God creates a new
man within us, those he saves, but he doesn't remove the old
man. The old Adam is still active, still alive and still active
in every child of God. And so we have our dark spots. And I couldn't help but think
maybe our dark spots are more apparent when we become cooler.
Our love for Christ, when it cools down, when we don't have
that fervency of love and for Christ and the things of God
that most new believers have. Most people, when they're first
converted, they just have a love, a zeal for Christ. If we're not
careful, as time goes by, we cool off. And that probably causes
a lot of the dark spots. You may not be able to see them.
You can't see the dark spots in me, maybe. Maybe you can. I can't see them in you. I look
at this congregation, people that I love and people I've preached
to for years and known for many years, and I don't see any dark
spots. I mean, I can't think of a better
group of people that I'd like to be with than right here. But I would imagine if you're
like me, you can see some dark spots. When you look in the mirror,
you can see some dark spots. And the reason is because you
know yourself better than anyone else knows you other than God.
You know yourself. You know thoughts that you have.
You wish you didn't have them, but they come into your mind.
And sometimes you think on those things and don't drive them out
immediately. I remember reading one time Martin
Luther made a comment something like this. Someone said, you
can't keep the birds from flying over your head. That is, those
thoughts from coming in. He said, no, but you can keep
them from building a nest. You can keep them from building
a nest in your head. But those thoughts come, don't
they? And things that appear dark to you, but you know, The
Apostle John said, if we say we have no sin, I don't have
any dark spots. I'm pure. I'm as pure as the
freshly driven snow. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We have our dark
spots, but we also know this wonderful, wonderful truth that
in Christ, We have no spots. We have no spots. And God sees
us in Christ. We are accepted in the beloved. In ourselves, yes, like the sun,
we have our dark spots. But he had no spots. Not the
Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the scripture says,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself. Now notice, without spot. to God. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the eternal son of God, was made flesh. He walked in this world.
He didn't have any spots. He didn't have any sin, but yet
he died for sin. He died for the sins of his people,
those who trusted him, those who looked to him. And one day
we have this wonderful hope that all our spots will be gone. In
fact, the scripture says that Christ gave himself for us, that
he might present it, that is the church to himself, a glorious
church, not having spot, all gonna be gone. In Christ, we
have no spots today, but in ourselves, yeah. In Christ, he is our sanctification,
isn't he? He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And we are as holy as He is in
Him. We have no spots, but in ourselves,
as we see ourselves, we've got our spots. But one day we won't. One day we'll be like Christ,
we'll be made like Him. Christ gave himself for us that
he might present it, that is the church to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. A third parallel that I wanted
to mention is both have a race to run. Both have a race to run. I want you to look in Psalm 19
with me. One of our favorite Psalms, it
speaks to us of the glory of God. But in Psalm 19, we read this, and of course this
is a metaphor, understand that. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth knowledge. There's no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. You see, God testifies
to his being throughout his creation, doesn't he? There's no place
in the darkest, darkest place on earth that God doesn't witness
to himself and testify to his being. There's no speech nor language
where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through
all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them
hath he set a tabernacle for the son, which is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to
run a race. Every morning the sun comes up
and It comes up to run its race and you follow it across the
sky and it always runs that same race day by day. Do you know
those of us who love the Lord, his children, we also have a
race to run. In fact, Paul in Hebrews says,
wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, What's he talking about, that cloud
of witnesses? He's talking about those Old
Testament believers, those who believe God. And he mentions
through that 11th chapter, one after the other, how they ran
their race. And by faith, they ran their
race. By faith, they were victorious.
By faith, they conquered. Seeing that we are compassed
about by so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us lay aside every
weight. Just like a man, you know, they
wore those robes back then and they would tighten the robe up
and they'd gird up the loins of your mind, Peter says. Why? To run the race. Young teenage
boys, they liked, I guess teenage boys, maybe older men too, I'm
not sure. They liked to buy those weights.
and strap them on to their ankles and start practicing jumping,
don't they? Jumping, jumping for basketball. And then the day comes for the
game, they take those weights off. Why? Those weights will
hinder us or hinder them in jumping and dunking the ball. Let us lay aside every weight
Those things of this world that distract us and hinder us and
hurt us and run in the race that God has set before us. And every
sin that does so easily beset us. I know some men have believed
that every believer has one besetting sin, just one sin that seems
to be a giant to them. Others, and I'm one of these
others, that sin that does so easily beset all of us is the
sin of unbelief. Just not believing God. When you think about it, unbelief
is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Not to believe
God, a God who cannot lie, A God who is the truth for us not to
believe him? That's crazy, isn't it? Sure it is. Well, sin is crazy. Let us lay aside the sin that
does so easily beset us and let us run with patience. Patience. Now, the sun comes up in the
morning and at seven something right now, and it has to patiently
run across the sky, run its race until it's time to go to sleep. It's time to go to bed. And we
too are in this world and God has set the track for us to run. And each one of us have a special
lane in which we are to run. By God's providence, he's placed
us where we are. And let us run this race with
patience. The Apostle Paul, at the end
of his life, was able to say, I've finished my course. I've
kept the faith. Finished his course. Ran that
race that God had set before him. And his race was one of
suffering, wasn't it? Many times put into prison, many
times being beaten and and things like that. But he finished it. He finished it. Sailed into port
with his flags flowing, didn't he? I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. Henceforth,
there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness. Here's the
fourth thing. Both give light. The sun, the
physical sun, it gives light. And you know when, think about
this, when God created the son in that first week of creation,
the fourth day, he created one son to rule the
day. Why? Because that one son is
a picture, a type of the son of God. There's only one son
of God that is a son of God that is equal with the father. He
only has one, only, begotten son, only one son without a beginning
and an end, eternal as he is. And that one son is the light
of the world. He said, I am, and that's his
name as God is, I am the light of the world. He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
There's only one light, eternal light. And you know, in heaven,
there's no need, the scriptures tell us, there'll be no need
of electrical plants, power generators, no candles, no lanterns. Why? Because the Lamb is the
light of that city. He is the light. Yes. He gives light. The moon, Moon
doesn't give any light, does it? It reflects the light of
the sun. And what is that a picture of?
That's a picture of his church. We don't generate any light. We are to reflect the light that
comes to us from him. He is the light. Our Lord told
his disciples, you are the light of the world. And then he said
this, let your light so shine before man that they may see
your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. Every believer, every child of
God is placed in that particular place where God has us by his
providence. And God has told us to shine,
to give light. There's someone wherever you
are, Wherever you are placed, there's someone that God will
use you to give light, to give light, to speak about Christ,
by your good works, to glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
One last thing. Both, that is the physical son
and everyone who loves the Lord, both have warmth to bring. to bring, warmth to share. Now
on a cold morning like we haven't had in a long time, don't we
love to go outside when the sun shining comes up and just feel
the warmth? It just feels good. It just feels
good, the sun does. Shines, brings warmth to our
bodies. And a believer, those who love
the Lord, we are to bring warmth. And what does that mean? Love.
Love, that's what it means, to share our love. Believers are
not compared to icicles, but to the sun, for the warmth
that we may bring. Love is a fruit of the Spirit.
And the love that God gives us is love to share with others.
Believers, God's children, are loving, caring, sharing people. That's just so. We're like the
sun. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts to all of us here today.