Well, spending very much time at all reading through the stories of the Bible, it doesn't take long, does it, to develop a certain affinity for particular individuals that we read about.
All of us probably have people that we would say, well, this is my favorite person to read about in the Bible, or this is the person that I love the most.
And there's many people that we read about in the Scriptures, our love for them, our concern for them is really rooted in the fact that they are such great examples to us.
None of them are perfect examples, but we look up to some of them, right, as spiritual examples.
We see David against Goliath, and we want to be that courageous for God, right?
We see Paul and his efforts in serving the Lord in so many missions endeavors and the way that he sacrificed even his own health and body for the good of the Lord and the good of his kingdom.
And we think that's such a wonderful example of how I would love to live my life, and we love those characters because of that.
We're not enamored with them so much because we relate to them, but because we want to.
We hope to. We want to be like them.
They feel much like biblical mentors to us in our Christian walk.
But they often feel a lot like ideals to pursue more than peers that are walking alongside of us, don't they?
Then there's a different kind of person that we love as we read through the Scriptures,
and it's not so much that we look up to them because there's not always a lot to look up to.
A lot of times it's because we find them immediately relatable in their various weaknesses and failures.
And I find that one of the most relatable individuals in all the Bible is this man, Gideon, who's at the heart of this section of Judges.
Gideon was a cynic who was consumed with fear and lived in constant need of reassurance from God.
His life was a spiritual rollercoaster even.
He has moments, as we read through these next few chapters, he has moments of incredible faith and of strong leadership that is exemplary.
And then there's also times of great spiritual dearth in his life.
Times where he commits sin that devastates his family.
And not only his family, but the nation as a whole as they look to him as a leader of sorts during this time after he defeats Midian.
He's just up and down as far as his spiritual life is concerned and his obedience and faithfulness to God is concerned.
He's not typically a person that comes to mind when we're trying to rank the people of greatest faith in the Bible.
Yet he still makes it into that great chapter of faith in Hebrews chapter 11.
But he's not really the one that immediately comes to our mind, is he?
That makes his life a helpful reminder, I think, to us that it's not the strength of our faith that ultimately matters.
It's the object of our faith, isn't it?
I don't know if you ever go through life and you sit in church and where you look at these people that you follow on YouTube or Facebook or whatever.
And you just think, man, these people are just like, they're so much better Christians than me.
I can never be like that.
And then you start to mess with your mind a little bit and you think, you know, maybe I just don't have it.
Maybe the love of the Father isn't in me because I'm not like this other person here.
I don't think like that.
I haven't grasped things like this other person.
And it beats us down.
We beat ourselves down in that.
And sometimes we need somebody like Gideon to come along the way and say, and just remind us, you know,
this is not about if you have more faith than another person.
It's not about what you do.
It's not about the strength of your faith.
It's about the object of that faith that brings us through.
And, of course, that matters when the object is the Lord himself.
I love Gideon because I am Gideon.
I very much like him.
And in the end, Gideon's story reveals to me God's incredible, indescribable, incomprehensible grace.
That seems to be a theme through our service this morning, doesn't it?
I didn't intend for it to be that way.
A lot of churches are, today is Reformation Day, right?
As Tuesday marks the anniversary of Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg 500 years ago or so.
And a lot of people are celebrating that, which puts a huge emphasis on grace.
To be honest with you, every Sunday at Lakeside Bible Church is Reformation Sunday.
Every Sunday is a Sunday that's focused on grace and on the grace of God.
And I find that in Gideon's story, that's really what begins to come to the surface, as it does with all of the other judges.
We see tremendous grace and patience and love and mercy from God, which encourages me.
Because on the days when I'm most like Gideon in his failures and in his weaknesses,
I can look to a passage like this and be reminded of the great, marvelous grace of our Lord.
Lord willing, we're going to spend the next few weeks looking through these chapters that cover the Gideon cycle in Judges.
And what we want to do is keep one eye on the big picture, and that is what God is doing in and through the nation of Israel.
So we don't want to forget that.
We don't want to lose the big picture.
We don't want to lose the forest for the trees, okay?
But we're going to keep the other eye on the trees, too, right?
The other eye is going to be set on the finer details of how God is working through his servant, through Gideon.
So we want to see God working on the big scale through Israel,
and then we want to also be mindful of how God is working through this man, Gideon.
And today we're going to consider God's call of Gideon,
seeing both his design in it for Israel and then also his grace toward this man and other cynics like him, okay?
First thing I'd like for you to see is a message from God.
A message from God.
Look at verse 11 with me again.
The angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Ebiah's right,
while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
So the story opens with Gideon struggling under the oppression of Midianite,
these Midianite marauders, which we studied about last Sunday.
Just as a reminder, for seven years, God allowed this coalition of semi-nomadic tribes led by the tribes related to Midian.
They would invade the land of Israel every year.
They would invade its territory.
They were stealing all of its harvest.
They were stealing all of its livestock.
They were laying waste to the land as they came in, so there would be nothing to recover from thereafter.
They were quite literally stealing food from the mouths of the Israelites,
and many of them were having to go and live and retreat to these mountain caves
until it was safe enough for them to come back to their homes,
perhaps specifically in the region around the Jezreel Valley.
And we're introduced to Gideon here through the eyes of this messenger of God,
this angel of God who looked on as Gideon tried to hide a portion of his family's harvest.
He's beating out the wheat, but he's not doing it on the threshing floor.
Typically, this would be done on an elevated place, somewhere where there's lots of wind,
and they could easily divide the chaff from the grain and so on and so forth.
Gideon isn't doing it there.
Did you notice where he's actually beating out the grain?
He's doing it in the confines of the wine press.
Why?
It tells us.
He's trying to hide it from the Midianites.
See, it opens here with this in view.
Gideon, this man who has suffered for seven years now,
whose family has suffered for seven years.
We get this picture of a frustrated, beleaguered individual doing everything he can just to survive.
That's his situation.
Look at verses 12 and 13 now.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him.
After watching him a little while, perhaps he came down to where the wine press was.
I don't know.
And he says,
The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.
Now, that's an unexpected title.
Because this mighty man of valor wasn't very mighty when he's hiding in the wine press, beating out the grain.
Interesting, isn't it?
Verse 13.
And Gideon said to him,
Please, my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?
Where's all of his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted, saying,
Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?
But now the Lord has forsaken us, given us into the hand of Midian.
It's a real Debbie Downer here, isn't he?
We learned in our previous study last Sunday
that when we look at God's discipline through the lens of Scripture and with a heart of faith,
it moves us from despising the discipline of the Lord to rejoicing in it.
And then Hebrews chapter 12 cautions us about this.
And it notes for us that an alternative perspective of our trials
and the things that God allows us to endure this life,
even as it relates to his corrective discipline,
that an alternative perspective than a heart of faith
actually hardens our hearts further.
And what it produces in us is bitterness rather than growth.
Let me just read this verse to you.
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 15.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God,
that no, quote, root of bitterness springs up and calls us trouble,
and by it many become defiled.
You can go back and study that passage this afternoon.
This is set in the context of the discipline of God,
the chastising hand of God for his people.
And the bitter root that the writer refers to,
it alludes to a passage in Deuteronomy,
which describes someone who turns away from God
and then spreads their rejection quickly like poison to others.
That's the picture in Deuteronomy 29.
And the writer of Hebrews, he's playing on that,
and he says if we have a different perspective of the difficulties of our lives,
if we have a perspective that's not filled with faith,
it's going to produce this poisonous root.
We're going to become embittered toward God,
and then we're going to spread that poisonous bitterness
toward the other people in our lives.
In other words, what he intends to say is that misinterpreting God's discipline
can lead to a deadly, contagious form of apostasy,
something that we might call spiritual cynicism.
And I think we find a bit of this here with our friend Gideon.
Gideon acknowledges here the angel of the Lord,
says the Lord is with you,
and what is it that he immediately says?
Yes, yes, this is, it's all the Lord's fault.
He acknowledges,
the Lord has given us into the hand of Midian.
But how can you possibly say that the Lord is with us?
That's his response.
Instead of listening to the message of the prophet
from verses 8, 9, and 10 in this same chapter,
Gideon becomes a cynic
who denies God's goodness,
denies God's love.
God's messenger proclaimed that God was with Gideon
and hinted even at Gideon's future
as a mighty warrior for God's people,
but Gideon responds cynically.
He makes a complaint against the Lord instead.
Yeah, if the Lord's with us,
where is he now?
I've listened to my parents and my grandparents
talk all about the wonderful deeds of the Lord,
but where is God when I need him?
He seemed to have been there for mom and dad.
Where is he now?
If the Lord was with us,
we wouldn't be in this mess.
So I don't know who you are,
but I can say for sure,
the Lord is not with us.
The Lord has forsaken us.
Does that complaint sound very familiar to you?
You ever read your Bible
or listen to somebody give testimony
about the goodness of God
and all you can do is just kind of roll your eyes
because you think, you know,
it's really wonderful that they think
that there's these good things happening in their life
and that God's responsible,
but where's God when I need him?
You know, if the Lord was really with us
as we've been singing all morning,
I wouldn't be in this terrible mess that I'm in.
We develop this hardened cynicism,
just like Gideon.
And fortunately for Gideon and for us,
the messenger of God presses on.
Look at verse 14.
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 sin to you?
And he said to him,
please, Lord,
how can I save Israel?
Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh
and I'm the least in my father's house.
We see this often in the scriptures too,
don't we?
Through his messenger,
God declares that he was raising Gideon up
and that he was going to empower him
to fight against Midian,
but Gideon misses the whole point here.
The emphasis of God's message
through the angel of God
was that he was sending Gideon
with his power.
That's the emphasis of what
this messenger is saying.
The might of yours
that he says here in verse 14,
that's not something significant
about Gideon.
That's not something significant
about his strength
or about his accolades
as a warrior.
That has nothing to do with Gideon.
It was a promise of empowerment
from God himself.
Go, Gideon.
Do not I sin to you, Gideon.
But Gideon completely misses the point.
In an episode that's reminiscent
of Moses' encounter with God
in the burning bush,
Gideon judges this message
from the messenger of God
on the basis,
not of God's strength,
but on the basis of his own weakness.
Notice how he responds.
He says,
what are you talking about?
My family,
we're the lowest on the totem pole
when it comes to the tribe of Manasseh.
And guess what?
Manasseh's not really glowing
as far as the 12 tribes are concerned.
And even among my family,
I'm the least.
I'm the runt.
What do you mean
I'm going to be the one
to do something with Midian?
You see,
his cynicism robbed him
of an ability
to comprehend the weight
of God's message.
But still,
the greatest promise
is still yet to come.
Look at verse 16.
Here's how the Lord responds.
He's so patient, isn't he?
And the Lord said to him,
but I will be with you
and you shall strike the Midianites
as if they are just one man.
One of God's most important
and most prevalent promises
in all the scriptures
is this phrase,
I will be with you.
I'll be with you, Gideon.
The promise of God's presence
and his power
is sufficient
to overcome
all of our weaknesses.
It's sufficient
to overcome
all of our failures,
all of our sinfulness.
There's a lot of people
who foolishly
put faith in themselves.
They would have been
the ones who,
when this messenger comes,
says,
well, of course
I'm going to be the one
to defeat Midian, right?
Put a lot of pride
in themselves.
But a cynic
doesn't put faith
in anything,
including himself.
He says,
no.
Nobody's going to beat Midian.
You know why?
Because the Lord's
not actually with us.
That's Gideon's perspective here.
That's his position.
And here's the thing.
Whether your problem
is pride
or cynicism
or something else,
God calls us
to trust in him alone.
It remains the same.
What's God saying
to Gideon?
Trust me.
I will be with you.
Dale Ralph Davis
has this great paragraph
in his commentary
on this passage.
He says,
basically,
God has nothing else
or more to offer you
in relation to this phrase,
I will be with you.
You can go through
a lot with that promise,
he says.
It doesn't answer
your questions
about details.
It only provides
the essential.
Nothing about when
or where
or how
or why.
Only the what
or better,
the who.
But I will be with you
and that is
enough.
This is part and parcel
of the gospel message,
isn't it?
Mere religion
relies on
man's strength
to deal with
the problem of sin
and death
in our lives.
agnostic cynicism
says that there's
no possible way
to ultimately deal
with sin
and death
in our lives.
There's no way
to fix it.
We're just doomed.
But the Christian gospel
looks at the person
and the work
of Jesus Christ
who's already defeated
sin
and death
on our behalf.
And it's through
Jesus
that God says
to us,
I will be with you.
I will do
what you will
never be able
to do for yourself.
Trust in me
alone.
Gideon,
trust in me
alone.
Christian,
trust in me
alone.
Cynic,
trust me.
It's a message
from God.
Number two,
we see a sign
from God.
Sign from God.
Look with me
at verse 17.
Gideon warms up
a little bit
and he says 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 the angel
of God said,
I will stay
till you return.
So the message
from God
had officially
grabbed Gideon's
attention,
right?
But his fear
and his skepticism
again,
would not allow
him to trust
God's word
apart from
some supernatural
sign.
And all through
this story
and into chapter
seven and chapter
eight,
we're going to see
that Gideon
is in constant
need of
reassurance
from God.
Always asking
for a sign
to confirm
God's promise.
Hardened
by his
circumstances
perhaps,
filled with
fear,
Gideon
lacks
the faith
to simply
take God
at his
word.
What is it
about us
that demands
that God
put his money
where his
mouth is,
so to speak,
every time
he gives us
a promise?
It's like we
can't trust him
unless there's
always some new
sign,
always some new
writing in the sky,
some new
revelation,
temptation,
or he's
not trustworthy
anymore.
Has God not
done enough
to prove himself?
Has he not
done enough
for you?
Has he not
given us
enough reason
in his word
to trust him?
He's got a
100% success
rate on
delivering on
his promises,
yet we still
find it so hard
to just simply
rest in those
promises.
Now I think
Gideon is
demanding a sign
here in part
out of fear.
I think it's a
weakness of fear,
it's a lack of
faith,
I think his
cynicism is
playing a role
in this as
well,
and sometimes
that's what
we do.
We sense
maybe through
the preaching
of the word
or reading
of the Bible,
we sense
that there's
something in
our lives
that God
is dealing
with and
God wants
to do or
God is
convicting us
of,
and we're
demanding that
God do
something else
to confirm
what he's
actually telling
us in his
word,
and that's
coming out of
a heart of
fear.
We're afraid
to look foolish
perhaps,
we're afraid
that maybe
we just
haven't figured
it out just
right,
or we're
just filled
with sin,
maybe whatever
it is.
Sometimes that's
why we demand
these signs,
and we want
something that's
unique and
personal to
us,
but other
times we
demand a sign
because of
this innate
cynicism that
I think is
evident in
Gideon here
as well.
A cynic
demands a
sign,
100%
indisputable
evidence of
God's
existence and
God's
goodness and
God's
trustworthiness,
and the
reason they
demand such
a sign is
because they
don't think
such evidence
is actually
possible.
This is the
heart of a
cynic,
right?
You see
what the
word says?
That doesn't
matter.
They hear the
testimony of
others,
that doesn't
matter.
only what
matters is
that they
can make
their demand
on God
and say,
God,
I will only
follow you
and obey
you and
believe you
if you do
this and
this,
and they
make it so
impossible,
of course,
nothing's
impossible for
God,
but they make
it so
impossible because
they don't
actually think
that God's
ever going to
answer that.
They don't
actually think
that any of
that evidence
is actually
possible for
them.
So what they're
doing is they're
making a demand
for a sign
in order that
they may defend
their cynicism
because at the
end of it,
they can say,
look,
we prayed and
we asked for
God to do
all these
things and
look,
he hasn't
done any
of it.
In fact,
our lives
are worse.
I was
right.
Here's what
the cynic
does,
right?
We demand
size.
We want
this thing.
Last night,
I went to bed
thinking about
this last night,
but there were
these two teenagers
that came up to
the popcorn table
at the event we
were working at
last night.
They were 13
years old.
One of them
was a Muslim
and the other
girl,
she's 13 years
old.
And as we're
chatting just
briefly at the
popcorn table,
she tells me
that she's not
religious at all.
She's not
interested in any
kind of religion.
And so I gently
pressed on that
just because I was
curious.
How does a 13
year old just
decide that they
don't want any
kind of religion
at all?
And we had just
a brief conversation
and at some
point I said
something along
the lines of,
what I would
encourage you to
think about is
that there must
be some kind
of truth out
there.
There must
be something.
Even if you
disagree with what
I believe,
there must be
something.
And she looks
back and she
doesn't try to
defend that.
She looks back
and she just
says,
no,
no.
That's all she
would say.
she has so
hardened her
heart,
even as a
13 year old
girl.
It's not that
she denies that
there is truth
there.
She just doesn't
want to believe
it even if she
sees it.
It's that
cynical heart,
isn't it?
Gideon is getting
there.
I think there's
some different
things going on
with Gideon too,
but some of us
maybe are there
in a position
like that.
You're making
these demands
for God
because you
don't think
God's actually
going to do it.
He might not.
But the issue
isn't with what
God's willing to
do.
The issue is
with your
hardened heart.
But God's so
very patient
with us.
Notice how
long-suffering
he is with
Gideon's demands.
Look at verse
19.
So Gideon went
into his house
and he prepared
a young goat
and unleavened
cakes from an
ephah of flour.
That's a lot
of flour.
That's 22
liters worth of
flour.
This is a
massive cake.
The meat he
put in a basket
and the broth he
put in a pot
and he brought
them to him
under the
terebinth
and presented
them.
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.
I don't know
what Gideon
was expecting.
Certainly it
wasn't something
like this,
right?
He runs into
his house.
This would have
taken time.
This would have
taken a lot of
time.
He runs into
his house.
He prepares this
enormous meal,
no doubt as we
see in other
places in the
Old Testament.
He presents it
to the angel of
God as an
offering or a
show of respect
in order that he
may get a sign
from him as
payment in regard
for this show
of respect,
right?
And he brings
out all of this
unleavened bread
and he takes care
of the goat and
he prepares the goat
and he sets it out
there and he brings
the broth and
then the angel
of God doesn't
treat it like a
meal.
That's what's
strange,
isn't it?
He treats it
like an offering
and he begins to
instruct Gideon
on what to do
and he says,
take the stuff
and the broth
and pour it over
the other stuff
and put it on
this rock and
Gideon does all
this stuff.
So he instructs
Gideon on what
to do and then
he takes the tip
of his staff and
he touches the
meat and suddenly
fire burst out,
not from his
staff,
from the rock.
It just bursts
into flames.
It consumes all
the meat and
all the bread.
Gideon,
no doubt in
astonishment at
that moment,
looks up and
suddenly the angel
of God has
vanished.
He's nowhere to
be seen now.
He's completely
gone.
There's your sign,
Gideon.
I don't know what
you were looking
for, but here it
is and I think it
begins to soften
Gideon's heart,
doesn't it?
God was very
patient to do this
for Gideon.
I don't think we
should take that to
mean that he will
always do that for
us.
Sometimes that's what
we expect, right?
We go to a passage
like this and we
say, well, if God
did all that for
Gideon, then surely
he'll do it for me.
So we just encourage
ourselves in the
demands that we
give to God and the
truth is God's
probably not going
to do any of that
for you.
You know why?
Because he's already
done enough for you.
The sign we have
now is the sign of
the Spirit that
comes and transforms
our lives.
God calls us to
trust him, not test
him.
And that's something
we need to learn.
In his kindness, he
does often answer even
our most faithless
prayers.
But his desire is that
we trust his word,
relying even on how
he has proven himself
to others that we
read about, even
Gideon.
Number three, we see
the peace of God.
So we've seen a
message from God, we've
seen a sign from God.
Now we see the
peace of God.
Now we have to be
careful, let me just
preface what I'm about
to say with this.
We have to be careful
not to read new
covenant realities into
an old covenant
narrative.
That can be a very
dangerous thing to do
and you don't want to
do that.
But if we were to use
gospel language to
describe this scene,
I think this would
be akin to what we
would say would be
Gideon's moment of
conversion.
Or at least it gives
us a significant
parallel to what
conversion looks like
for us who are under
the gospel of grace
and in the New
Testament time.
And I want you to
keep that in mind.
Look at verse 22.
Then Gideon perceived
that he was the angel
of the Lord.
Gideon said,
Alas, O Lord God,
for now I have seen
the angel of the
Lord face to face.
This is a markedly
different response
than we saw before.
Alas is an expression
of grief and concern.
Gideon gets his sign
but he's not excited
afterwards.
He's terrified
afterwards.
Having realized that
he had been in the
presence of this angel
from God, Gideon was
now afraid for his
life.
But his fear wasn't
of Midian this time.
Now his fear is of
God.
I have stood face to
face with God
through his messenger.
Gideon's saying,
and he expects now
to die as a result.
How foolish,
says Barry Webb.
How foolish all his
anger seems now.
And how dangerous.
If only he could
retract his outburst
about everything
being God's fault.
But it's too late
for that now.
All he can do
is blurt out
his fear
like a condemned
man.
I love this statement
from Dale Ralph Davis
as well.
There is nothing
amazing about grace.
As long as
there's nothing
fearful
about holiness.
What is it that's
happening with Gideon
here?
The holiness
of God
is a terrifying
reality
for those
whose eyes
are open to it.
That's what's
happening with Gideon.
The Lord has been
gracious to actually
open his eyes
to the Lord's
holiness.
And when our eyes
are open to God's
holiness,
an encounter with
God,
it does not
initially bring
feelings of hope.
It brings feelings
of despair.
because when we
encounter the
holiness of God,
when we're awakened
to it,
it simultaneously
causes us to
come to grips
with our own
unholiness.
And when this
moment comes,
all we're left
doing is crying
out for mercy.
Alas,
O Lord God,
have mercy
on me,
O Lord God.
He has no other
cry to make.
How foolish
and dangerous
our faithless
cynicism seems
when we finally
have a genuine
encounter with
God.
The God we have
thus far
denied or
rejected or
being
embittered
toward.
But it's through
this despair
that we can hear
the voice of God
speak his peace.
Look at verse
23.
But the Lord
said to him,
Peace be to you.
Shalom,
Gideon.
Do not fear.
You shall not
die.
Then Gideon
built an altar
there to the Lord
and called it
Yahweh is peace.
To this day
it stands at
Ophrah,
which belongs
to the Abiezrites.
Now why does
Gideon call the
place Yahweh
is peace
or the Lord
is peace?
It wasn't
merely about
the announcement
of peace.
It was the
experience
of that peace.
Because of his
earlier statements,
Gideon trembled
at the realization
of encountering
God through
his messenger.
He viewed
himself as
worthy of
death before
the face of
God.
But it was a
declaration of
peace from God
that he heard,
not a declaration
of condemnation.
Isn't that amazing?
Peace be to you,
Gideon.
Do not fear.
You're not
going to die.
I'm not
going to kill
you.
Gideon
experienced
God's grace.
And then it
produced in him
a very genuine,
perhaps for the
first time in his
life,
a genuine
moment of
worship.
Now isn't this
how the movements
of the gospel
work in our
lives?
We have an
encounter with
the holiness of
God,
which produces
fear.
We see his
holiness.
We see our
sinfulness.
All we're left
to do now is to
cry out for
mercy.
And then that
moves us to
this experience
of peace.
God speaks
peace through
the gospel.
And then what
happens immediately
after?
We're driven to
genuine worship.
True
worship.
Now some of
you have been
trying really
hard to
worship.
But you
can't help but
get the sense
that something
just isn't
right.
You're doing
your best to
sing the songs
and to pray the
prayers and to
follow the
readings and to
understand the
sermons and to
hear the word.
But deep down at
the end of the
service, every
Sunday, Sunday
after Sunday
after Sunday,
you know that
you have not
had a genuine
worship.
You have not
truly worshiped
and you know
it.
It's like you're
pulling on the
rope if you go to
the old churches
with the church
bells, right?
But you know
what I mean?
You send the kid
or whoever it is
and they go and
they ring the bell
and that's what
your worship feels
like Sunday by
Sunday.
You're running to
the rope and
you're singing all
the songs and
praying the prayers
and you're listening
and you're taking
the notes, you're
doing all this
stuff and you're
pulling the rope
and nothing's
happening.
There's no bell
donging up there.
It's just quiet in
your heart.
It feels forced.
In fact, it's not
even really all that
interesting to you.
You're just doing
whatever you can to
get through it and
you're pulling on
that rope and
nothing's happening.
And maybe it's
time for you to
consider whether
or not your rope
is even attached
to the bell.
You cannot truly
worship in spirit
and truth as
Jesus said in
John chapter 4
until you have
had a genuine
experience of
grace.
An authentic
moment of
knowing the
peace of God
after realizing
what you deserve
is the wrath
of God.
That's the only
thing that can
move you to
true worship
but it's only
through the
gospel of
Jesus that you
can actually
experience that
grace.
We sing about it
all the time.
Christ our hope
in life and
death.
What truth can
calm the troubled
soul?
God is good.
Where is his
grace and
goodness known?
Not in the
goat and the
unleavened bread
and the broth
that suddenly is
consumed by fire
that shoots out
of a rock.
That's not where
his grace and
goodness will
ever be known
for you.
His grace and
goodness is known
in our great
Redeemer's blood.
Our sins as
Gideon knew
well makes us
God's enemies.
It sets us on
the path destined
for God's eternal
wrath but in
love God sends
his sinless son
to take his
wrath in our
place.
On the cross
Christ suffers
as an atoning
sacrifice for
our sins so
that through
him we can
now truly have
peace with God.
It is through
the cross of
Jesus that God
says to us
peace be to
you.
Peace be to
you.
Not because of
you and not
because of some
sign but because
of Jesus who took
your place
peace be to
you.
This is what
Paul was on
about in
Colossians chapter
one.
God was pleased
through Christ to
reconcile to
himself all
things whether on
earth or in
heaven making
peace by the
blood of his
cross.
And then he
graciously invites
us into this
peace through
simple faith in
what Jesus has
done.
You know what
the cross says?
It says I will
be with you.
Trust me.
It's God's
promise.
You know how
it is received?
Simply by
believing it.
That's Romans
5.
Therefore since
we have been
justified by
faith we have
peace with God
through our
Lord Jesus
Christ.
There will
continue to be
remnants of
Gideon's sin
and fear
throughout the
remaining
chapters but
the importance
of his call
here cannot be
overstated.
Through it we
find these
glimpses, these
gospel glimpses
that is
fulfilled in
Christ.
We see again
and again the
wonder of God's
mercy and love
towards sinners.
we find in
Gideon's call
that God can
transform the
most embittered
cynic.
I don't know
all of you.
I don't know
exactly what
has happened in
your life or
why you're angry
with God if you
are angry with
God or whatever
it may be.
What I do know
is that God's
peace, God's
peace can even
change your heart.
He can transform
your heart.
He can give you
a new heart
action.
He won't answer
all your
questions.
He never
promised to do
that.
And he's not
going to make
everything in
your life better.
That's a false
gospel.
That's not what
he does.
He didn't make
everything in
Gideon's life
better.
In fact, things
are going to get
real hard for
Gideon real fast.
But what he says
is I will be with
you and if you
will trust me,
you will have my
peace and you
can trust him.
Alistair Begg said
one time I was in
a service that was
on, the context of
it was on suffering
and he said when
you cannot sense
his presence, you
can always trust
his word.
And maybe you're
here and you just
need to repeat
that to yourself a
few times.
I don't feel God's
presence in my life
right now.
I don't feel that he
is with me.
The messenger on
Sunday morning
preaching Judges 6
said that the Lord
is with me.
I don't feel that
today.
But what you
need to do is
not take my
word for it.
You need to
trust his word
for it.
You may not
sense his
presence but you
can trust his
word.
The other thing
that this teaches
us is that
God's power
can use the
weakest
and most
fearful of us
as his
instruments of
grace.
That doesn't
get any better
for Gideon and
it's almost
comical to see
how many times
he keeps coming
back to God
with this
just deep
need for
reassurance.
I'll save it
for those studies
to explore it
and laugh at it
but it's just
amazing how
truly weak
Gideon actually
is.
We think of him
as this mighty
warrior.
It's really not
what he was.
He was weak.
He was like us.
Weak.
Cynical.
Constantly in need
of reassurance.
And look at the
way that God
used his life
as an instrument
of grace.
So all praise
to him.
Amen.