THROUGH THE BIBLE - Judges 6..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, my dear brother and sister and soul within the sound of my voice. As we now progress through this story of this history of the people of Israel, we arrive here to chapter number six.

And I hope and I think it's very clear this pattern that we can observe with the people of Israel, the ones that have now made it or enter into the promised land. And we have gone through the book of Joshua. We see that once the Lord has covenanted them with this pattern of disobedience, that the people of Israel will disobey the covenant that the Lord has given them. And as a result of that disobedience of the people of Israel, God is going to bring judgment upon them. He's going to choose different oppressors or different enemies of the Lord that will come and to take the people of Israel in bondage and will bring oppression over the people of Israel.

Initially, it was the king of Mesopotamia, then it was the king of Moab, then it was the Philistines, and in the last couple of chapters, it was the Canaanites. Now we find ourselves here in chapter number 6, and we see how that pattern or that cycle of the people of Israel is going to repeat once again. We see now that the people of Israel has done evil in the sight of the Lord after 40 years of peace. that you remember that we read last time. After 40 years of peace, the people of Israel once again will do evil in the sight of the Lord.

And the evil that these people have done is horrendous, my dear brother and sister, as we're going to read now in chapter number six. These people have built unto themselves altars of Baal." For me, Baal, Baal. And not only that, but they have given themselves over to Baal to praise and to worship this God of the Canaanites and of the nations. And it's such is the depravity of the people of Israel, may be your brother and sister, that God has now given over these people to the Midianites.

Seven years will come of oppression and a heavy hand of judgment of God upon the people of Israel. These Midianites, they have been enemies of the Lord. And my dear brother, my dear sister, it's quite interesting because both the Midianites and the people of Israel are the offspring of the same father. If you carefully go to Genesis chapter 25, not now, but when you have the time and you read the first six verses, you will realize that Abraham, after Sarah is dead, he will marry another woman, Keturah, and he will have offspring with this second wife of him. And one of the sons of Keturah, of Abraham, is going to be Midian.

And in those very first six verses of Chapter 25, we're told something very important, almost in a prophetic sense. Abraham, knowing that the sons that he had had were going to have enmity with Isaac, in whom the people of Israel was and the promise was going to be given, asks and removes his sons to send them to the east, to separate them from Isaac. Then we're going to be told that the Midianites are the people of the East. These are the offspring of the same men. And from that very point, from that enmity that was not only between Isaac and the sons, we see this rivalry that exists between the sons of Abraham and Isaac as the offspring, my dear brother and dear sister, because he's going to be the elders of the Midianites that will join the elders of Moab if you remember in Numbers chapter 22, to try to bring a curse upon the people of Israel by hiring Balaam, if you remember that.

The Midianites were in the business of destroying the people of Israel. If you remember the matter of Peor and the matter of Cosby in Numbers chapter 25, the Midianites will bring all of these horrendous practices in the midst of the people of Israel, and even the Israelites corrupted themselves, prostituted themselves, because of the influence of the Midianites. Such was the influence of the Midianites that the law is going to require Moses to bring vengeance upon the Midianites. And if you remember in Numbers chapter 31, we see the mighty hand of the Lord bringing vengeance upon these Midianites that were destroyed by the people of Israel. It only took that the people of Israel will do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord for the Lord to raise once again these Midianites brethren.

that had been destroyed already to be raised as the instrument of the judgment of God in the hands of the Lord because of the crooked ways of the people of Israel. And we see, my dear brother and sister, as we're going to read here, that the oppression of the Midianites upon the people of Israel was such that as we're going to read it, you will feel sorry for the people of Israel. If we were going to summarize the oppression of the people of the Medianites over Israel, we can use the word a plague. You remember the plagues that God sent to the Egyptians because of the people of Israel? There was a plague of locusts, if that is the way you pronounce it in English.

These Midianites are compared and use the language of a plague of lacustre because they were many in number. And every time that they will come, they will bully the people of Israel. They will take their food. They will take their possessions. They will take absolutely everything.

Such was the oppression of the Midianites that were in the hand of the Lord as an instrument of judgment to the people of Israel. That day, the Israelites decided to go into the caves and to hide themselves from the people of the Midianites. Actually, that is the way that the Lord is going to find Gideon, hiding himself from the Midianites. trying to get a little bit of food so that the Midianites will not come and take the food from them. Such was the disobedience of the people of Israel and such was the judgment that they were hiding themselves from these Midianites.

So the Lord is going to come down and visit Gideon and is going to appoint him to be the deliverer of the people of Israel. As we're going to see here, he's going to be instructed with something very important. And that something very important is to destroy one of the altars of Baal. an altar that had been built by Gideon's family. by His Father.

That is the mission that was entrusted to Him as we're going to see how this begins. So my dear brother, my dear sister, having that clarity in our minds, let us pay careful attention now to these 40 verses that we have in front of us, and then I want to speak to you about the power of the flesh. This is Judges 6. Let us read this chapter paying careful attention to each one of the words. May the Lord teach us and instruct us in this story of Gideon.

This is the Word of the Lord. The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Geza, and leave no sustenance for Israel, and no sheep or ox or donkey.

For they would come up with their livestock under tents, and they would come like locusts in number. Both they and their camels could not be counted, so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites, the Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel, and he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery.

And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, I am the Lord your God. You shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed my voice. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the turban at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Beasrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty men of valor. And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are His wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Do not I send you? And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's house. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you. And he said, I will stay till you return. Zechariah went into his house and prepared a young goat and eleven cakes from an ephah of flour. the meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the turban, and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.

And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord.

And Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, Peace be to you. Do not fear, you shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abyss Rites.

That night the Lord said to him, Take your father's bull and the second bull, seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has. and cut down the Asherah that is beside it, and built an altar to the Lord your God on top of the stronghold with stones laid in due order. Then take the second boult and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down. So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he, Gideon, was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, Who has done this? And after they had searched and inquired, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing. Then the men of the town said to Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it. Brethren, these are Israelites.

But Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal, or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down. Therefore, on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, let Baal contend against him, because he broke down his altar. Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.

But the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the shofar, or the trumpet, and the Abishites were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. Then Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand. As you have said, Behold, I am laying thy fleece of wool on the threshing floor.

If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.' And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, Let not your anger burn against me. Let me speak just one more.

Please, let me test just once more with the fleas. Please, let it be dry on the fleas only, and on all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night, and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.

Now, brethren, as we have progressed through these chapters here, I think that we can see this pattern that repeats, that has two important sides. One side for the people of Israel, a pattern for the people of Israel, and the other side of this pattern for the Lord. The side of the people of Israel, this pattern is in the depravity of the heart of the people of Israel. That it does not matter what God does for them on their behalf, on their side. It does not matter what God manifests of Himself.

These people of Israel will continue to manifest a depraved heart, to continue to disobey and disobey and disobey. On the side of the Lord, we continue to see this pattern of his long suffering that leads to salvation, the patience of the Lord that leads to salvation, that it does no matter what the people of Israel do, what they do. The Lord will come and respond to the crying out of the people of Israel, and He will send a deliverer to rescue them from the oppressor. And as we see, my dear brother and sister, this long suffering of the Lord that leads to repentance, or better, that leads to salvation, there are certain things that we need to note. The first one is that this long-suffering of the Lord, this patience of the Lord is with the initial purpose of bringing physical deliverance.

That is the main purpose of this long-suffering of this patience of the Lord, to bring physical deliverance. That is that He's going to remove the physical oppressor that He has ordained to come and bring judgment upon the people of Israel. It was the king of Mesopotamia, it was Moab, the Philistines, the Canaanites, in this case, the Midianites. The long-suffering of the Lord in responding to the people of Israel brings, first of all, physical deliverance of removing the oppressor. But more importantly than that, than physical deliverance, my dear brother and sister and soul, is that the patience of the Lord that leads to salvation or the longsuffering of the Lord also brings a spiritual deliverance to the people of Israel.

Because every cycle we are told that the people of Israel enjoyed a time of peace. In this case, we know that they have enjoyed now 40 years of peace. And those 40 years of peace are not only years in which they did not have an oppressor over them, but rather it's also a time in which they were obeying the covenant of the Lord. And we know that because as soon as they disobey, then the judgment of the Lord will come, as we have read there in verse 1 of chapter 6. When they do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, then the judgment of the Lord will come upon them to deliver them to another oppressor."

So the long-suffering of the Lord that leads to salvation brings, first of all, physical deliverance, but also a spiritual deliverance that empowered the saints or the people of the Old Covenant to obey for a particular period of time. And both of these things, the physical deliverance of the people of Israel and the spiritual deliverance of the people of Israel, were pointing, of course, prophetically and eschatologically to something that was going to come. They were a shadow of that deliverer, of that judge, of that Savior, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was going to come and to take the oppression of the oppressed, the sin and Satan and death and the world, remove it by giving Himself to rescue these people unto Himself. So all of these things that we see, of course, my dear brother and sister, are a type, a shadow of those things that are to come, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

But my dear brother and dear sister, seeing this type and this shadow in the Lord Jesus Christ also teaches us something very important. That in the people of Israel and their dealings with the Lord, we can see a shadow of how the people of God will relate to the Lord Jesus Christ through history. What I'm saying is that that which we see in the people of Israel in the book of Judges is also a shadow of how the church will relate to Christ and to God before He comes. Why? Well, because human depravity remains the same.

Human nature remains the same. And even though, of course, we're members of a better covenant that has the power of the Holy Spirit is much better than the old, but the old covenant is still my dear brother and sister. Salvation under the old covenant under the new covenant is exactly the same. It was by grace through faith. And we share the same human nature than the saints of the Old Testament had.

Of course, the people of God were less compared to the people of God in the New Covenant. Speaking of the Old Covenant, my dear brother and sister, we see a type and a repetition of the conflict and of the problems and of the difficulties of the flesh of those who profess to be people of God. And we can summarize, my dear brother and sister, that conflict in just one simple word, and that is grace. The saints throughout the ages, it does not matter that it was under the old covenant or under the new covenant, all of them had been in the urgent need of the powerful grace of God. Every single saint, it does not matter the covenant or the dispensation or whatever you want to call it.

Every single genuine saint of God has depended upon a genuine manifestation of the powerful grace of God. Apart from the grace of God, my dear brother and sister, we're going to be given over to the conflict that exists within us. Apart from the gracious hand of the Lord sustaining us and empowering us, is going to happen exactly the same thing that happened to the saint of the Old Testament. If we do not have the grace of the Lord that initially saves us, but also conforms us to the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are absolutely nothing. And the same conflicts and difficulties that the saints of the old covenant had are going to be the same conflicts that the saints in the new covenant will have because we share the same flesh and the same wicked heart that is still in us.

That is what the apostle says in Titus chapter 2. If you quickly come with me, please, to Titus chapter 2. In Titus chapter 2, we can see the power of the grace that is needed. The power of the grace that is needed for all saints of all times to be able to operate and to obey the Lord. If you remember, and I think this is something that Brother Joshua read in a call to worship I think like two months ago.

Titus chapter 2. A very important verse that teaches us something about grace, my dear brother and sister and soul within the sound of my voice. Titus chapter 2 from verse 11. We are given powerful doctrines that speak to the life of every saint. Not only under the old covenant, genuine saints who had put their trust in God, but also saints under the new covenant, those who by grace through faith had been united to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it says in verse 11 of chapter 2 of Titus, "...for the grace of God has appeared." Bringing salvation for all people. That is how salvation takes place, right? It is by grace.

But brethren, pay attention to verse 12, because in verse 12 we see the power of grace. The power of grace is not only to save us initially, but we see here in verse 12, it says that that grace that has appeared to all men unto salvation, verse 12, training us or teaching us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to leave self-control, upright and godly lives in the present age. How? Waiting for a blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of a great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to justify us, yes, but more comprehensibly, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. In other words, grace is not only that which saves us initially, my dear brother and sister, but grace is the powerful manifestation of the life of God in the saints of all the ages that empower us to live lives of obedience, to renounce all ungodliness, and to renounce all worldly passions.

My dear brother and sister, how is a saint going to live their lives before the Lord? By pure grace. Because, my dear brother and sister, until the moment that we die and we are taken up to glory, we are going to have inside of us the conflict of our flesh that is present not only for the saints of the new covenant, but that was also present for the saints of the old covenant. And we can see it very clearly in the life of Gideon. Think about him.

40 years of peace had taken place. Remember after Deborah and what's his name? Barak? 40 years of peace. And remember what I said to you.

Deliverance was not only physical. Deliverance was also spiritual because during those 40 years, the people of God were obeying the Lord. Otherwise, the judgment of the Lord would have come earlier, right? It's when they disobeyed the voice of the Lord, when they did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, that the Lord brought judgment upon them. 40 years of peace.

Now we have seven years that they have been given over to the Midianites. And we are told, my dear brother and sister, that Gideon lived in a rather very wicked and unrighteous house, right? His father and his family had built an altar unto themselves. And they were the ones that were inviting people to come and worship God and all of that. We don't have much information about the age of Gideon here, but we are told something very important.

We are told that he had servants, and that he was strong enough to go and destroy the altar. So we conclude that he was perhaps older than seven years old, right? He would have been perhaps a young man, a strong man who was able to have servants and who was also able to go and destroy the altar. So that means that these men that we have here, Gideon, had enjoyed the times of peace that were the result of the deliverance that God had brought to the people of Israel through Deborah and Barak, right? Because he's older than seven years old.

Even when he's speaking in the first encounter with the Lord says, Where are all these mighty deeds that our forefathers have told you, that you brought us out of the land of Egypt?" He had heard the words from the forefathers that had explained and preached to him about the deliverance that the Lord God had given to the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. This man would have witnessed with his eyes how society and Israel were continually falling into disobedience. He would have seen with his eyes how his dad, who was walking in the ways of the Lord just 8 or 9 or 10 or 15 years before that, how he was now so wicked and unrighteous that he decided to build unto themselves an altar for Baal. He would have seen how the whole transformation of the land was just simply going in ways of unrighteousness and unrighteousness and unrighteousness.

And this would have been a fight that was inside of him. Now pay attention to how the details go through the chapter. The people of Israel cried out to the Lord. And the Lord sent this unnamed prophet. Did you pay attention to that?

Gideon is not the first. He's this unnamed prophet. An unnamed prophet that will come to prophesy to the whole population of Israel, and to bring the accusation of the Lord, and to say, you have disobeyed the voice of the Lord, and that's why the Lord has delivered you unto the Midianites. You, the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the Lord who manifested his condescension and his grace in rescuing you from Egypt, this is the one that you have disobeyed. This is the unnamed prophet that Gideon would have heard.

And the people continue just with the accusation of the Lord. Then we find ourselves with this encounter between God and Gideon. And we can learn something there very important, my dear brother and sister. First of all, if you return there very quickly to the chapter, chapter number six, Pay attention to the response of these men who have been exposed to all this level of unrighteousness and all of this level of wickedness. The response after Gideon has seen the transformation of the land, and after Gideon has seen the prophetic afterlives of this unnamed prophet, and after he has heard from the forefathers what the Lord had done for them.

Pay attention to the response of Gideon to the Lord. It says, In verse 12, And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, O mighty men of valor. And Gideon said to him, Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all these wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

The Lord has forsaken us, brethren. The Lord has forsaken us and given us over to the hands of the Midianites. Well, it is true that the Lord has brought the Midianites, but my dear brother and sister, who forsook who first? the Israelites, and he saw the whole thing happening. You know, I don't know how many years, but he saw how the people of Israel moved from obeying the Lord and from following his commandments to this disobedience and the judgment of the Lord coming upon him.

Yet the grace of the Lord, as you read this chapter, is incredible because the Lord will never bring an accusation against Gideon, but rather he will say, oh, you're a valiant warrior. You're a strong man. You're going to deliver the people of Israel, and you're going to do it as if they were just only one. And then this person continues to doubt and to doubt and to doubt, and the Lord continues to empower him. The grace of the Lord bringing to completion the work that he wanted to bring for the people of Israel.

And after he has been empowered to go and destroy the altar of his father, did you pay attention that he was fearful of his family, that he was fearful of the men of the city, so that he decided to break the altar at nighttime and not at daytime? After he had been empowered to do all of those things? Then we are read and we are told something very interesting. All the people are upset, and of course, they want to kill the person because now they are so depraved. They're so wicked that instead of having zeal for the Lord God of Israel, who eight years before was the God, now they have moved in seven years to be zealous for Baal, brethren.

And now they want to, of course, kill the one who has destroyed the glorious temple or altar of Baal. And now we're told in verse 33, brethren. Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. And now pay attention. But the Spirit of the Lord clothed or enveloped or empowered or covered or wrapped Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abizrites were called out to follow him, that is Gideon.

And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. Gideon in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God has come upon him. He has been empowered now to blow the trumpet.

Now let's come and fight. This man is now walking in the power of the Spirit. But yet, the next verse that comes, my dear brothers and sisters, is a verse not of certainty, but a verse of doubt. It says, verse 36, Then Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, give me another sign, basically. Are you serious, Gideon?

You have seen the angel of the Lord and you did not die. The angel of God himself has manifested to you and you did not die. The angel of the Lord has empowered you to go and destroy the altar of your father, of your family. The Spirit of God has come upon you to empower you in such a way that people have joined you to go and fight. Are you serious, Gideon, that you are going to now doubt the Lord?

That you are going to ask for another sign to confirm? Oh, my dear brother and sister, if it is not through the glorious and powerful grace of the Lord, even after having beheld the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will also doubt. Because grace is that which saves us initially, and grace is that which empowers us to renounce all ungodliness and all worldly lusts of this present evil age, as we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he has redeemed us, not only justified us, but he has also redeemed us, that we will be a people zealous for good works. Good works are in Christ.

That is to die to self and to have the Lord Jesus Christ enthroned in our hearts. And that is all the work of pure, powerful grace, my dear brother and sister, so that the saint will find that glorious place in which we are weak, needy, feeble, and we are fully aware of that. Not that we will say, oh Lord, I don't have the accolades, as Gideon was just simply giving those excuses. Did you read that? Did you pay attention to that?

Oh Lord, you know, I'm from the smallest of the clans of Manasseh. Oh, my family, I'm the least in my family. It's not about you, Gideon. It is about the grace, powerful grace of the Lord, that works in His people, in the old and in the new covenant, His remnant in the old, and His people in the new covenant, bringing to completion the decree of the Lord for the glory of the Father, the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the redemption of the church, and the fulfillment of His decrees and all His judgments, so that on that day we will say together with all the saints from all tribes, all nations, and tongues, He is the just and the justified and the ungodly, and all of that is by grace. Amen.