While I'm getting organized, we can turn to Judges Chapter 8, please. I didn't realize how long it's been since I've been preaching to judges for a while now. I hadn't, I just sort of forgotten how long ago it was, but actually it was October last year when I did the first four verses of Chapter 8. So we might have to do a little review today. It took me 45 minutes to do the first four verses, now I'm going to complete the chapter. Look, the book of Judges, at this point, has started to make that downturn. And I'm not trying to be a revisionist historian. I know in Sunday school, if you've been raised in the church, you heard about the wonderful deeds that Gideon did. And he is in the Hebrews book of the Hall of Faith, so he's a believer. But from here on out, it just seems to go downhill with him. Things seem to get increasingly you sort of wonder where he's coming from. So it sounds like it might be a negative sermon, but actually it's a sermon of great grace because the Lord, even through all of these problems that he has, he's working this out for his glory, right? I mean, this is all the story, the whole of the Old Testament is that story of redemption being continually revealed or slowly revealed up to the point of Christ and the New Testament. The point of this morning, the two points I want to make this morning is that even though Gideon was called to deliver the Israelites from the Midianites, even though he started well and ended poorly, as an imperfect judge, his struggles are a lot like our struggles. Okay, that's the main point. Particularly when we're always inclined to start trusting in our own strength to live the Christian life. It's a persistent problem with believers. So I think the sermon will eventually be encouraging. The other point that I like to make sometime toward the end of the sermon is the comparison between this imperfect and struggling Gideon and our perfect judge, right? We have a perfect judge that has come, the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. So to look at his work in comparison to Gideon's work should be another encouragement as well. But we have to do the little background first, so we'll try to get through this without being too hasty. You all remember, hopefully, and maybe not, that's why I'm reviewing, but Abraham was called from Babylon, from the whole further eastern side of the Middle East, to the land of Canaan. When he got there, there was a promise that his son would become a great nation and that they would possess that land, the land of Canaan. Canaan is that area that the nation of Israel is in located now. We call it by different names, Palestine, promised land. It's also called the promised land. Why? Because the Lord promised it to Abraham and his descendants. So we'll try to use that term, promised land, from here on out. So what happened? Abraham and his wife Sarah got very old, didn't have a child. Well, finally they birthed a child named Isaac. Isaac had a child, several children. One of them was called Jacob. Jacob wrestled with God. We're just really moving fast here because we want to get to the actual Gideon part. Jacob wrestled with God and God called him. Your name will now be Israel. So we get the term Israelites from the name of Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons, right? What do we call the 12 sons of Jacob? the 12 tribes of Israel. One of those children was Joseph. What happened to Joseph? His brother sold him into slavery to go to Egypt. He went to Egypt, God blessed him, and he became second ruler of the whole kingdom, gave him the wisdom to save a bunch of wheat and things like that. A great famine came along. Abraham, or rather Jacob, and his brothers were starting to starve and they came to Egypt to buy bread. You remember how that goes, right? And so they moved to Egypt in the best part of the land and they lived there for 400 years in Egypt. They prospered. 70 men, women, boys, and girls left Canaan to come to Egypt. After 400 years, there were several million. The pharaoh decided this is a threat to us because there's more of them maybe than there are of us, and they're really strong. So all of those things happened there, and the Egyptians put them under slavery. God called Moses to be the one who would rescue them out of slavery. That's sort of like what the judges were doing. So Moses called them. I can't recount all of those issues, but called them out of Egypt. They were allowed to escape. They ran. They came to the edge, as we just read in Deuteronomy. They came to the edge of the land. They rejected God's promise, wandered for 40 years till all that generation passed away, came back to the land. Moses was not allowed to enter the land. So Joshua was the one who was going to lead them into the land. They conquered the land. Joshua led them in battles against the kings of Canaan and their armies. So there's this great series of battles, fascinating to read. defeated all the kings and all the armies, they entered the land, they lived there, but Joshua was about to pass away and he said, okay, now remember, your job now is to get rid of all the rest of the Canaanites. Meanwhile, back to those 400 years where the Israelites were in Egypt, that whole period, what was going on in the promised land or Canaan? Well, when Abraham was there, he preached the gospel as he understood it, right? It was faith in Christ, faith in the future salvation of Christ to come. It wasn't as clear as we have it today, we understand that. But he did preach faith in Yahweh, or the Lord God, the one true God. He preached that to the Canaanites. And it's speculation, but it is assumed that even after he left to go to Egypt, there were certain Canaanites that still were believers. Because 430 years later, when they came back, they ran into a believer there, a Canaanite believer. So that's a little bit of a conjecture. But in my personal opinion, I think there was at least a small, very small gospel representation within the land of Canaan for those 400 years. Ray had the harlot, right? She was a believer. So there was some kind of a gospel presence there. Again, the same gospel we hear, except it was in the future Messiah. Our gospel is because of what Christ has done. What was the response of the Canaanites? They totally rejected, obviously. They got worse and worse, as a matter of fact. So when the Israelites were brought back to the land, when Moses brought them back, and then when Joshua defeated all the armies, there was two purposes there. One was, obviously, because we call it the promised land, God was fulfilling the promise he made to Abraham. They entered the land. It's their land now. The second reason for them coming back was, and there may have been many reasons, obviously, that's one of the things, wonderful things we know about the Lord is that there are many reasons why he does things. Even this sermon today will affect all people in different ways. But at least there's two ways we know for sure, a return to the promise, fulfilling the promise, and also to judge the Canaanites. They'd heard the gospel for 400 years. Now, interesting, I don't think the Lord owes the gospel to anyone. We're all condemned. But he was very gracious with the Canaanites. Okay, so when unbelievers say, well that's a horrible thing, they went in there and killed all the Canaanites. It wasn't that simple. This was God's judgment on the people of Canaan. It wasn't, it was a horrible thing of course, but God does kill people. There was a worldwide flood, right? This sermon is not supposed to be an explanation of why, or trying to be defensive about why all these people were killed, but that's, just so you understand, that's where we're going here. This was God's purpose in history. But what did the people of Israel do? Okay. Joshua defeated all the enemies, the major armies. He was about to pass away. He told the people, hey, you need to pay attention and continue this eliminating or driving out, perhaps, of the regular people, not the armies. That's already happened. But the regular people are still living there. Well, what did they do? Keep your finger in judges and turn to Psalm 106. Psalms, sort of poetry, but still is history in Psalms. I won't read the whole psalm, but if you go to Psalm 106, verse 34, here the psalmist is recounting what happened at that period, the period that we're about to talk about, starting in verse 34, I think. Sorry, for the they, that is the people of Israel that remained after Joshua passed away and after the major armies were defeated. They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned their practices and served their idols, which became a snare to them. This is prophetic because before it all happened, God said that would happen to them. Verse 37, they even sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons. They being the Israelites, the people of God, the people that the Lord had intended them to be a reflection of his glory. They're doing this. Verse 38, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood. Thus, they became unclean in their practices and played the harlot in their deeds. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his inheritance, and he gave them into the hands of the nations. This is speaking specifically about the book of Judges now. The Lord gave them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power. And he continues, he says, many times he would deliver them. They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, and so sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless, the Lord looked upon their distress. When he heard their cry, and he remembered his covenant for their sake, and relented according to the greatness of his lovingkindness." So this is what's going on in the book of Judges. Let's turn back to Judges. So the Canaanites continued to reject the gospel. The Israelites entered the land, did not do what the Lord told them to do and drive all of the Canaanites out. They started appropriating their worship practices into the worship of the Lord. Okay, just to be specific, they were accepting it into their worship. Okay, there was two things now. They were worshipping Yahweh, the true one God, but they were also taking the Canaanite gods and worshipping them as well. When any church starts doing that, Not only is it false worship, but it also affects how they behave and how we can accept other things morally, like killing babies. They're the same. So they did not eliminate the people, and the Canaanites became snares to them. So that's the historical situation in the book of Judges. So the pattern of the Judges is where people who should be strictly worshiping God and following his law slip into idol worship and those wicked violations of God's law. God does what he promises and disciplines his people. He disciplines his people today as well, which is something to remember. He still disciplines his people. I'm happy that it does not send enemies into the country, but there are enemies within as well as without. But it says in Hebrews 12, it says, if you are true sons and daughters, He will discipline you. In their case, in the Israelite case, in Canaan, in the promised land, sometimes using foreign oppressors and sometimes using people inside the nation. And there's two purposes in that, of course, was to remind. Okay, so the nation has declined into idol worship. Two reasons why he sends the enemy into the territory to oppress his people. I think there's two reasons. Probably more, like I said before, the Lord is infinite. One of the reasons is to remind, because there were believers still, there's always this little thin line of believers, even in Israel all these years, this thin line of believers, is to remind those believers, hey, remember to keep your worship holy and remember to be obedient. But also, it's a reminder to the unbelievers, Israel is not It's a type of the church, but in Israel, the nation of Israel, there were believers and unbelievers. Remember that? You've heard this before. There were unbelieving Israelites that were circumcised, and there were believing Israelites that were circumcised. They were all of the nation. So the Lord is directing this discipline to believing Israelites, to remind them to be faithful to the unbelieving Israelites. He's warning them of the judgment to come. Hey, these people, in this particular case in Gideon, they were coming and stealing their harvest. stealing their food. Well that's sort of painful, but it's not as bad as eternal judgment. That's a whole lot worse. So it's a way, it's something the Lord is doing to help them understand there is a judgment to come. They are in danger of that greater judgment at the day, at the day, at the final day. So at that point, In the judges, we're still talking about a general cycle. Judge after judge after judge comes Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon. There's a whole series of them in the book. They fall away. They start worshiping idols. God sends an oppressor. When they cry out for relief, God sends a man who is called, in the book of Judges, a judge. I think probably a better word to use might be one who is sent to rescue his people. These judges were primarily, as you read through the judges, military leaders, but also were called to a spiritual leadership as well, to lead the nation back to right worship and right living in obedience to God's commands. And like I said at the very beginning, some judges were fairly poor spiritual leaders. So, okay, now let's talk about Gideon, now that we're halfway through our time. And he's called by God to deliver his people from the oppression of the Midianites, stealing their food and livestock every harvest time in Judges 6. We've talked about that before. The angel of the Lord appears to him in person. The angel of the Lord, probably the Lord Jesus, well, is the Christ, the second person of the Trinity, appeared to him in person. that would think that would get his attention, appears to him and gives him that charge. You are to rescue your people from the Midianite plague. And after a time of the Lord dealing with Gideon, with his fears, finally Gideon and 300 men, right? He was a pretty popular guy because he starts out with a fairly large army, but the Lord says, nah, you're just going to think of yourself as being the big leader. Let's go down to 300 men. have this battle with the Midianites. Two kings and two generals and two kings. 135,000 men. 300 against 135,000 men army. And surprisingly, we're not surprised because we've heard it so many times, it's like, whatever. But to the original reader, it was like, wow. They were defeated. And they were running. The Midianites were running from them. Literally running. Okay, so now we're gonna get back to what actually says here in the scripture, and the way it's a historical book, and so it'd be hard just to read through the whole passage. It's a long passage. Gideon and Samson are the two longest chapters, really. So I'm gonna read a section, then comment and come up with an application to it. So we'll start with verse four. As we join Gideon and his 300 men, after this main battle, now they're just chasing them. Then Gideon and the 300 men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over weary. They're chasing the enemy. They just finished slaughtering many, many people. So they crossed the river. And he says to the, runs into this town, he says to the men of Succoth, please give us loaves of bread to the people who are following me for they are weary and I'm pursuing Ziba and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. And the leaders of Succoth said, are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your army? So Gideon said, all right then, when the Lord has given Ziba and Zalmunna into my hands, then I will thrash your bodies with thorns of the wilderness and with briars. Then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke similarly to them. And the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Sukkoth had answered. So he spoke to them. So he also spoke to the men of Penuel saying, when I return safely I will tear down this tower. So by the way, the men of Sukkoth and the men of Penuel are of the tribe of Gad. one of the 12 members of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, so Gideon being of a tribe, they're his brothers, really, I mean, right? It's important to remember. Understandingly, they're skeptical, because they've just seen all of this remaining army just, well, first off, the army, the full army went through their property to go get, have the battle, and then they were defeated. Now they're, the ones remaining are running through their property, They're going, that's a lot of people. You're with your 300 men are chasing them. They might not have known how many there were, but they knew for sure this was a major battle that just happened. Maybe we'll just be neutral until we understand what actually is going to happen. So they don't have a whole lot of faith, granted. It's always possible that an army can, as they're retreating, find a really good spot. to defend a ridge line or something like that. And they might decide, we can stop this retreat, recoup ourselves, and present a good defense in this spot. So there is some doubt whether or not Gideon might win this next battle. But not only is these brother Israelites deficient in their faith, but they were sort of miserly in their assistance to this Redeemer judge. Gideon, right? Because Gideon and his men have done something for them as well. If you drive the Midianites out of that area, They must have suffered as well. The Minionites came through their property and probably stole their bread, wheat, animals, whatnot. So they were beneficiaries of that victory, and they were relieved from the suffering, but they seemed very unwilling to help. And Gideon wasn't asking, okay, men, everybody under 24 years old, grab your hoes and your spears and your rakes and come with us and go fight. He wasn't asking that. He was just saying, hey, just give us a little bread. We're hungry. So they were very miserly in that sense. They were not willing to share. They wanted to keep their stuff for themselves. So I think there's an application there for us as well. We really should be ashamed of ourselves when we're miserly in our giving. And we're demonstrating our unwillingness to support. We're sometimes unwilling to support the preaching and teaching of the bread of life. I mean, you're aware that when you put your money into the offering plate or the box or whatever, it's not just a physical thing for the air conditioning. Air conditioning's nice, but many places in the world don't have air conditioning. It's more than that, the money that we give to the church is supporting the work of teaching and preaching the word. And the preaching of the word, in all humility, honestly, it's the words of Christ, isn't it? Puritan Joseph Hall said this, which is probably the most succinctly way, that those that fight for our souls against spiritual powers may ask bread from us, and it would be shameless unthankfulness for us to deny it. Again, those that fight for our souls against spiritual powers may ask bread from us, and it is shameless unthankfulness for us to deny it. So I'm just saying, we need to avoid those sins, the sins of Sukkoth and Penuel, and consider how we might support those who watch over our souls, those who feed us the word. Not only that, but church planters, missionaries, and all the other works that are going on in the world. So that's certainly not a criticism of this church. But it's a lesson we can learn from this, I think. So Gideon's threats against Succoth and Penuel might have seemed excused by the fact that, man, they're all worked up, right? They're all fired up. They're chasing the enemy. They've just defeated this huge army. They're running after him. They're hungry. So you can sort of think, OK, maybe Gideon's just blowing off a bunch of steam by making all these accusations and these threats. They're pretty serious threats. One would hope that he'd reconsider that after he defeats the Midianites. Verse 10. Now Ziba and Zelmona were in Karktor and their armies with them about 15,000 men. All who were left of the entire army of the sons of the east for the fallen were 120,000 swordsmen. Gedin went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Noba and Jokoba and attacked the camp and the camp was unsuspecting. When Ziba and Zelmona fled, he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zelmona, and routed the whole army. of God's providential, again, God's providence allowed this small number of men to defeat this large number of enemy soldiers and to capture the king. So let's just jump to 13, keep going here. Then Gideon, the son of Joash, returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres, and he captured a youth from Succoth and questioned him. Then the youth wrote down for him the princes of Succoth and their elders, 77 men. Then he came to the men of Sukkoth and said, Behold, Ziba and Zelmona concerning whom you taunted me saying, Are the hands of Ziba and Zelmona already in your hand that we should give bread to you men who are weary? He took the elders of that city and thorns of the wilderness and briars and he disciplined the men of Sukkoth with them. So he did put a whippin' on these guys, I mean, with thorns. And I was after I've already, anyway, one of my pastor friends suggests that the use of thorns here, using that actual word, or using that as symbolic, is a real thing that happened, but it was symbolic of what the Lord did to Adam when he excluded them from the garden, right? He's had to suffer with thorns and all of the things, so this is a major curse to them, indefinitely. And then verse 17, though, it says, and he tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city. What in the world? That seems like a little bit of an overreaction, right? I mean, it seems like a little bit of a discipline that far exceeds the actual offense. It doesn't seem like a very godly or thoughtful leader, judge, right? I mean, he was supposed to rescue the people of Israel, not whoop them and kill them. That didn't seem quite right. I think that's symptomatic of our sinful hearts as well. The Lord was very, very patient with Gideon. Let's just remind ourselves again. Here he wasn't very patient with his Israelite brothers, but don't you think he should have been a little more patient with his lack of faith considering his previous extended periods of doubting the Lord's calling for him to become the judge. Remember back in chapter 6, the angel of the Lord appears to him and talks to him in person? A powerful witness, yet Gideon's not satisfied with that. He sets up a small altar and puts an animal on it, a slaughtered animal on it, and then asks the angel of the Lord to bring fire down from heaven. Fire comes from heaven and consumes the offering. That's not enough for Gideon. He needs some more. He puts the fleece out and the ground is... I've forgotten now which one comes first, but either the ground was dry and the fleece was wet, and then that's not enough, so next time, okay, make the ground wet and the fleece dry, so there's two examples of, again, being reminded or ensured that God is actually with him. This is a man of very little faith. And then, after the 300 men have gathered, getting requires even more encouragement in the form of a word from that dreaming enemy soldier. The Lord says, take you and your servant down there and sneak up to the edge of the camp and listen in to the soldiers that are in their tents. And the soldier says, yeah, I dreamed that we're basically going to get defeated. We're going to get a whooping. So Gideon goes, okay, I guess that's enough, maybe. So here's Gideon that has been a beneficiary of all these blessings of encouragement and condescension for his lack of faith. He turns to these guys and has no patience at all. He's gonna kill them. And I wonder sometimes, when I read this and thought about it some, I wondered if Jesus was thinking of this episode in Gideon's life when he told the Pharisees not to judge. Remember that episode where they're questioning him and he says, judge not lest you be judged in Matthew 7. And we know the Pharisees were big on judgment, right? That was a big time thing for them. They had no patience at all with anybody. They couldn't keep their 600 and I think it's 613 rules, something like that in their Torah. They had no patience at all. So perhaps Jesus was referring, was thinking about that at least. By the way, remember Jesus read this when he was a child. In his humanity, he was reading through this passage. Sort of interesting thought. He's thinking about it as a man, as he's growing up. In his divinity, of course, he was there, but I mean, in his humanity, he would have had to learn this. And so, too, I think Jesus' parable of the two debtors was again, at least in some way, referenced to this. Remind them again that the ones who are forgiven much ought to be willing to forgive much, and the one who is forgiven little loves little. I don't think Gideon really comprehended how outrageous his requests were, perhaps. Certainly, now, we're talking about judgment. I've got to put this caveat in there. Of course, the church is supposed to judge sin, right? That's one of the things that the Lord has commanded the church to do. We are to judge sin. So we can't use that phrase, judge not, as a way to relieve the church of their responsibility to judge sin. I'm not allowed to judge sin. That's my problem. I mean, the church has to, as a corporate assembly, judge sin. And it's true, of course, the church has no role in the governmental process of judging wrongdoers. Our limitation is that we exclude them from church membership. We're just declaring that they're not believers if they're consistent in their unbelief. And I think this is where we're so often like Gideon. We are quick to criticize. and even condemn our family members, for one thing, for perceived offenses, and of course that happens in a church as well, right? It's a bizarre thing to think how critical we can be of the ones so very, very close to us, our own wives and husbands, our own spouses, we can be very critical of. And sometimes those things, often they're very petty things. Sometimes they may be more concerning issues. But all of these things within a church, within a family, they tend to cloud our relationships. If we leave these things alone, those kind of hurts or offenses may create bitterness and even a critical spirit within a church or within a family. So we need to learn how to overlook many of these kinds of frictions. I mean, Gideon at this point could have gone I understand. They just didn't realize what was going on. The angel of the Lord didn't visit them and tell them that this was going to happen. So I give a little grace here. Gideon didn't do that. There was no grace in his life for that situation. You know, there's certain things that happen in a family or in a church. There's natural frictions that happen when folks are living and working together. You know, the reality of our fellowship here almost guarantees some disagreements. I mean, political views, educational choices, even different ways that we raise our children. I was raised in, I was like the youngest of five, so by the time my parents got to me, it was like, yeah, whatever. You know, I'd go off in the morning and not come back in the evening as long as I got back. It was fine. But I had a cousin that was totally opposite. It was, of course, my father's sister. And they were very strict disciplinarians. So anyway, I guess, I don't know why, but my dad just thought I needed a friend. So he was about my age. He'd go on summer vacation with us up to a little cabin up in That doesn't matter. But he was strange because he was used to everything being controlled in his life. And so in the morning we'd take off with him and the two of us would have fun going back together. So those were two extremes of child rearing. But there was no friction between us. I mean, and there was certainly none between our parents. What's the point of that? I don't know. The point is that there's many different choices in child rearing. We need to be careful not to be critical of one another. There are certain things in the Bible that are specific, no doubt. But those kind of freedoms that we have as believers, when the Bible is silent about something, about differences, we as believers, we do have a lot of freedom. But this kind of freedom also presents opportunities for conflict. And note that this church also is resolved from beginning to avoid becoming an issue-based church. We're not a Republican Party church. We're not a homeschooling only church. Why aren't you taking stands on these moral issues of the day? Well, because there's a lot of freedom for one, and because we're called to worship, right? We're supposed to worship the Lord Almighty only. We're not supposed to, you know... We're supposed to do that. We're supposed to teach all that Christ commanded. We're supposed to evangelize and baptize believers, but it's not necessary to end up on some kind of hobby horse where we're constantly preaching against something. Now, and again, but again, when the scripture addresses an issue, we'll speak clearly on them. I mean, you understand how we, when it comes to abortion, that's something that's very clear in the scripture. We're willing to talk about that. how the government runs, not so much. Now, we'd expect individual church members probably ought to be active in supporting and advocating whatever they believe in within Christian freedom. But as a church, we've determined to do those things that the Bible specifically tells us to do as a church. So within all this, we just want to remember that we need to be willing to overlook disagreements like that, or even insults or unintentional hurts. We need to, of course, go to the one. If we can't get over it, we need to go to the one who's hurt us and work that out. And sometimes we know that sometimes even well-meaning advice or admonition to a brother and sister in Christ, it could be taken in the wrong way. It may be taken as an insult rather than what we might have intended it to be. We need to be careful how we speak. I have a real struggle with that because I'm from the north and maybe I speak more directly than others. That doesn't mean you southerners are in error or anything like that. I just love the way that you're so very nice and sweet Bless your heart. And now I know what that means. Now I know what that means. So I can be a little bit of a, anyway, you all know me. So you understand my problems. But I appreciate you being condescending to me in the sense that you're willing to forgive some of the rudeness and total obnoxiousness that I may have. Let's turn to, keep your finger in judges, and turn to Galatians 6. these kinds of unresolved struggles within the church are bound to occur because we're all struggling with this remaining sin and we should be sympathetic like Gideon should have been he says I'm struggling with trusting the Lord let me be understanding to these poor people of Penuel and not kill them alright so we have those struggles as well because we're sinners and we are called to bear with one another in love Galatians When I say six, the first 10 verses, Paul's trying to make my point. Maybe I should have just read this from the beginning. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work And then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load. The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap." And then Gideon ended up reaping some of what he did. As well, verse 8, for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, and the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Ephesians 4, let's flip a couple pages. The first seven verses. Therefore, I, a prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling in which you have been called, with all humility, gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another, and love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. He's talking about the church, but it also applies to families as well. I mean, how many times do you get frustrated as children with your parents or parents with their children? Verse four, there's one body, one spirit. It just says, also you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of us all who is yet, who is over all and through all and all. But to each of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So the question now for us to consider is, when we are quick to condemn those, have we forgotten the debt that we have been forgiven? A debt that is vastly bigger than simply being insulted or ignored. And we certainly don't want to do that to one another. But the perception that we've been insulted or ignored, those are all very small things considering what we've been forgiven. Our real problem isn't those things. Our real problem is the curse that condemns us before a holy judge. He's the one who said in Exodus, he said, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. We were guilty. Romans 6 says the wages of sin is death. And my point again this morning is we should be patient with our brothers and sisters, whether they're in our family or whether it's in our church. We should be willing to pray and to help, but very reluctant to condemn. In this way, we imitate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who was, the ultimate friend of sinners. Christ loved us when we were unlovely and made us, we were his enemies, right? We were shaking our fist at him. We wanted to be in charge of our lives. He made us as, who were his enemies, he made us not only just as friends, but he made us as, as Brendan's preaching about adoption, he made us as brothers and sisters. That's amazing. Yeah. I'm going to skip lunch. Maybe next August I'll finish it. There is a little section here I do want to talk about the contrast between our Redeemer, Judge Jesus Christ, and us. Christ, Gideon started well, sort of. He started well, but as we get further into it, it just seems to fall apart. But Jesus started well and he ended well. Christ judges those with little faith with compassion and comfort. We had very little faith. We had no faith. He gave us the faith and he judges us with compassion. Even in our sin, we're still Christians and we're believers. We profess Christ and yet we do things that we know are sin. Gideon was the recipient of that kind of condescension. And yet, he was so much like us, and we're so much like him, as we're often very unforgiving. Gideon was quick to pronounce judgment. Christ showed compassion on those who offended him. After all, because of our sin, we have individually taken part in Christ's crucifixion. Is that not a really big offense that he's forgiven us for? Jesus also had compassion on you and me who had previously hated him in our hearts. And considering the overall picture of Gideon's life, no doubt he was a brave man, but with little faith. He called him Gideon. He redeemed him and saved him, not by these great works of Gideon, by many means, or by his great faith, but only because of God's, because of his grace, God's grace. Just like us, just like us, he was granted that new heart. He repented and believed upon Christ. He imperfectly, as we do, he imperfectly trusted in the future Christ and by grace alone was delivered up into God's kingdom. So the call for this morning as believers is to forsake this trusting in ourselves and we should turn away from our self-will, our desire to do our thing, from those struggles to satisfy our own ego. Gideon was certainly doing that. All of our dissatisfaction in life as believers, all of our worries, all of our discontentment come from looking to ourselves for joy. You look to Christ, who perfectly obeyed the Father, and we know that when we start working under our own understanding, we fail. I take this myself, obviously. I'm not the perfect man by any means. I mean, that's my struggle as well. You know, and the Bible study this morning was really interesting because one of the points you were making was that we pray according to God's character and what He possesses. So that's how we pray according to his will, right? The Bible says, pray according to your will, it will be granted to us. Well, often we pray according to our will. Well, he doesn't make any promises about that. So what is the thing that I lack? I lack faith. I lack the trust to walk by faith and not by sight. So if we pray for that, would we not be expected that that would be something that the Lord would grant to us? So that should be encouraging to us. If he's that generous, that condescending to believers, that he's willing to give us those things we ask according to his will, then we should be encouraged this morning. Now, there are certainly, in a group this size, there's bound to be some that who have yet to believe and trust upon Christ. Well, just a reminder that the darkness and the suffering and the death you see all around you, even though they're covered up by an entertainment industry and all of those things that block our sight and help us not to see all these things going around us, you know deep down in your heart, you know that there is death and darkness. These are simply warning signs that there is coming a time when you too will face the judgment seat of this perfect and holy judge. A judge who has all knowledge. A judge who is, who again, he said, it is said that he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. If you're trusting in your own goodness, it is inadequate. So the call is this morning to trust now in the perfection and righteousness of Christ alone. Let's pray. Father, we humbly submit to your will, ask that you would help us to submit to your will. Father, help us to look to your glory and the interest of your people. our brothers and sisters, help us to look to others rather than to our own interests, help us to be merciful to one another, and help us to build one another up in Christ. Give us unity as a church and as individual families. Make us like Christ. We thank you now. In Christ's name we do pray. Amen.