 The title of our sermon tonight is the Midianite Menace. The Midianite Menace, Judges chapter six. And we're looking at this first section of Judges chapter six, beginning in verse one and running down through verse 10. So grateful to have this opportunity with you all on Sunday evenings in the book of Judges. It's been a joy to be able to study this book together. Pray it's been a blessing to you. This book is chock full of good instruction for us. And it's a blessing to have an evening service. So I'm grateful for our evening service together. Grateful you're here to hear the word of God. It's a blessing from the Lord to serve with the people who want to be here and who want to hear where God's word preached. And it's a great blessing to hear admonition and instruction from God's word. And that's exactly what Judges and frankly all of the Old Testament is. These things Paul says were written for our instruction, for our admonition. We have to ask ourselves, who's Paul talking about there? He's talking about us, you and I. Those upon whom the ends of the ages have come. In other words, all these things that happen in the Old Testament, these Old Testament accounts, what's going on here even in Judges chapter six with the nation of Israel. These things happened for us, for our instruction, for our example, for our admonition. And so we have much to learn from these texts, much to think about, much to apply. Some might say that the Old Testament isn't practical for the Christian today. That's a bunch of hogwash that is baloney. Not according to Paul, what Paul would say. The Old Testament certainly points us to Christ. But we're also to heed the example here of God's people. Sometimes we're to heed their negative example, their bad example and not walk as they walked. We're also to heed the testimony of God's faithfulness and God's goodness, God's covenant loving kindness toward his people so that we might trust him more. We have much, much to learn from these texts. Now in Judges chapter six, when we last left the historical account of the nation of Israel during this period of the judges, Israel had been delivered by the hand of God under Deborah, Barak and Jal. They were delivered from the oppressive tyranny of Jabin, Cicera and the Canaanites. And the account ended in chapter five, verse 31, with 40 years of rest, just shy of a generation, 40 years of peace for the people of God. Now, as we've come to expect already from our trek through the book of Judges, that peace is rather short-lived. And that short-lived nature of the peace is due to Israel's persistent sin and a repetitive pattern that we see Israel dominated by. That pattern introduced to us in chapter two. After a period of rest associated with God's deliverance, God's salvation, there is a relapse of the people of God into sin and into idolatry. God as a result of the nation relapsing, falling back into sin, back into judgment, into idolatry, God pours out his righteous retribution as a judgment upon their sin. The people then cry out to God in response to the Lord's retributive justice. The Lord hears their cry and rescues Israel out of their misery by raising up a judge. So rest, relapse, retribution, response, rescue, and then all over again, rest and relapse and retribution and so forth. In the account before us, the judge that we'll soon see raised up by God is Gideon. We see him introduced in verse 11. But before we're introduced to Gideon, we are told here in verses one through 10, we're told of the Midianite menace and the condition of the Israelites in their sin under the oppressive hands of the Midianites as judgment upon them from God. So Judges chapter 6 verse 1 then opens with an ominous refrain that continues the self-destructive pattern that we see Israel plagued by here. And that hard one piece at the end of chapter 5 lasts less than a generation before it relapsed into sin and idolatry. Look at verse 1. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. Punctuated, short to the point, here we go again, right? Here we go again. The children of Israel. You all almost want to add in that emphatic again into the sentence. The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. Now there is insight here as to what that evil entailed down in verse 25. Verse 25 gives us a bit of a snapshot of the evil again that they have fallen into. In verse 25, Gideon's father, we're talking about a Jewish man among the Jewish people. Gideon's father has built an altar to Baal in Ophra, the city, this village of Ophra. The altar of Baal has an Asherah pole beside it. Now, if you remember, Baal and Asherah, this represents the absolute depths of pagan idolatry. You could stand back and be aghast at the depths to which they have fallen into their idolatry. The lowest of the low here. Baal and Asherah represent the male and female parts in pagan fertility worship. If you remember, in worship of Baal, in worship of Asherah, in order to bring about fertility in their lands and their crops and in their people, they believed that they through temple prostitution, through ritual sex, so to speak, they could bring about the fertility of their people by instigating fertility among Baal and Asherah. In other words, Israel is here once again in the lowest of the low and the depths of their pagan idolatry, they are playing the harlot. They're playing the harlot. Israel is whoring after other gods here. This is the destitute spiritual condition of those who are in covenant with God. God's covenant people have sunk to this low, deplorable level. Now, Gideon, we know the story. Gideon's told to tear down the altar. He's told to go in and tear it down. You can't run off and deliver the people while your family is back home, worshiping Baal and Asherah. That would be inconsistent. Anybody would see that as hypocritical. Gideon, before anything takes place, Gideon is told to tear down the altar. So, Gideon tears it down, but tears it down for fear of the... These are Jewish people, right? For fear of the Jewish people, Gideon tears it down in the middle of the night. And the men of the city want him dead for it when they find out in verse 30. In other words, this Jewish city, populated by God's covenant people has been entirely canonized. From Gideon's father, Gideon's family, the men of the city are all worshiping Baal and Asherah. Absolutely irate that Gideon tears down their altar. This Jewish city has been clearly canonized. Gideon, his family, the nation of Israel are essentially Baal worshipers. Baal worshipers. It's amazing, isn't it? You consider all that God has done for them, all that God has done for them, the blessings that they've enjoyed, they're in the land that God promised to give them. And what are they doing there? They're worshiping the gods, the idols of the pagans who dwelt in that land before them. The Lord has said, you'll have no other gods. You shall have no other gods before me. Here they are worshiping Baal. It's amazing. Baal altars and Asherah poles look a little different today than they did back then. But do Baal altars and Asherah poles exist today? Yes, they just take a different form, folks, right? They just take a different form. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Baal altars and Asherah poles today. The question is, what form are they taking for you? What form tempts you to follow after them? Where is the tempting harlot? Where are your affections? Where are your interests? Where is your devotion? What is it that you keep going back to? In other words, what are you hurrying after in place of the one true and living God that we're to follow? It's a sobering question for many today. There are Baal altars and Asherah poles all over our culture today. All right, this is no different. If you're a Christian, if you're a Christian and you're in misery, where are you going to turn? Where are you going to turn? Are you going to turn to Baal? Are you going to turn to those things, the things of this world for comfort, or will you turn to the one true and living God? Can that idol actually save you? It's foolish to even have to ask. It certainly cannot. In judgment upon their sin in verse one, the Lord does exactly what the Lord promised that he would do and he delivers them into the hands of their enemies. Look at verse one. So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. Now notice, God hands them over. He gives them away, delivers them into the hands of their enemies. God now using wicked idolatrous people as instruments of his own righteous, retributive justice. Do you see? God's holy anger again being poured out on a faithful, faithless people who had broken his covenant. It's important to remember that God is faithful to his word to do this very thing. This is God's faithfulness to his promise, faithfulness to his word. He had promised them in the covenant that this would be the case. He warned them extensively in Leviticus 26 if you remember that chapter. God said that he would appoint terror over them but the hands of their enemies seven times for their sins. Seven times. God said, I will deliver you over for your sins, seven times for your sins. Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 25, the Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And here Israel delivered over Midian for seven years. The Lord is faithful to his word. This deliverance though into the hand of their enemies in Midian is a severe and harsh oppression as we'll see more severe, more harsh than they have suffered to this point. It is a severe oppression. Many, many comfort themselves with the notion that a loving God, a forgiving God would not punish them or punish anyone for that matter for their sin. Some people persist in their sin. They persist in unrepentant sin. They persist in patterns of sin thinking to themselves or comforting themselves with the notion that God will not punish me for my sin. That God is forgiving. If I simply ask him for forgiveness, God's not going to punish me for my sin. God's not going to allow me to face the consequences for my sin. That God, a good God, wouldn't send anyone to hell. And they forget that God is just. They forget that God is holy. They forget that God says in his word that he will by no means acquit the guilty and God is true to his word. Justice will be poured out. God has promised that it would be so. If you turn to Christ in faith for salvation, then the justice reserved for you was poured out on him at the cross. That's the only way that we can be forgiven. The only way that we can be saved. But if you do not turn to Christ in faith for salvation, then God's justice is rightly reserved for you. And even now hangs over your head. God's will will be done. God will be true to his word. If you think about it with me, this deliverance of Israel into the hand of the Midianites is merciful in and of itself. If you think about that for a moment, why? Because God hasn't consumed them in fire already. The fact that God hasn't destroyed them for their idolatry, destroyed them for their sin is the grace and mercy of God to them already. And what is the purpose for which God delivers them into the hand of Midian? It's so that they would see their sinfulness, come to understand the grip that sin has on their life and that they would repent and turn from that sin and trust in him and turn back to him that he would be gracious to them and merciful to them. He is abounding in mercy, rich in grace, and the Lord will forgive. Even this judgment is merciful in that sense that it points them back to God. Now, having informed us then of the nation's relapse into sin and God's retribution, his just and righteous retribution in verse 1, I want us to consider two points that provide the setting here for the Lord's call of Gideon. Two points that provide the setting. One, we want to consider the condition of the people of Israel. Consider their condition verses 2 through 6. And then we want to consider the cause of that condition, the cause of that in verses 7 through 10. So consider with me first their condition. Look at verse 2. Now concerning their condition, the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. Verse 2. And the hand of Midian prevailed, showed themselves strong. That's what it means. The hand of Midian prevailed. The Midianites showed themselves strong against Israel. Now that being said, we have to remember that Midian is just an instrument here. They are an agent, an emissary, you could say. Who is the one who is actually showing himself strong against the Israelites? It's God. God is sovereign over what's taking place here. The Lord is strong. And he is using Midian as an agent to demonstrate his strength, his power, his rule against Israel. He is using Midian as an instrument of his justice. Midian, you remember that name, was a son born to Abraham and Kutura after Sarah died. Abraham married again to Kutura. And Abraham and Kutura had a son named Midian. So you could say that they were distant cousins of the Israelites themselves. They were sons of Abraham, the Midianites. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a Midianite. So these are cousins of the Israelites. But after leaving Sinai, after wandering the wilderness, the Midianites would later become a problem. In the numbers 25, they harassed Israel with their schemes. They seduced Israel in a matter of Baal of Peor. The Midianites become a problem for Israel. And by numbers 31, the Israelites are at war with Midian. And in verse 3, the Midianite menace had help from the Amalekites who were descendants of Esau. And what is noted there in verse 3, the people of the east. The people of the east most often refer to Ishmaelites. You remember Ishmael. Ishmael was another son of Abraham, wasn't he, by Hagar, another son of Abraham. So you could say, right, mom, put the China away, the boys are back at it again. Got these three sons, you could say, of Abraham here at war. This is, they're giving Israel trouble in verse 2. Now, note the devastation, the devastation that the Israelites were suffering under beginning in verse 2. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains. They made for themselves dens, caves, and strongholds in the mountains. Now, why would they do that? Verse 3. So it was that whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up. Also, Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. They would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey. Do you see what's going on here? They would come up, verse 5, with their livestock and their tents coming in as numerous as locusts. Both they and their camels were without number and they would, excuse me, they would enter the land to destroy it. How long did Israel put up with this? Seven years. Delivered into the hand of Midian, seven years. These are dreadful circumstances. Dreadful circumstances. Every year, as soon as Israel had sown, as soon as they had planted their crops, these vultures would cross the Jordan from the east, swoop in, and destroy their crops. Notice the purpose at the end of verse 5. They would enter the land to destroy it. You see? They didn't fly through quickly, stealing away in the dead of night, Blitz Creek fashion going through the land fast. No. Here, they set up shop. They brought their tents, went as far as Gaza on the west, and they camped with all their horde, and they were innumerable like locusts. So this plague of locusts comes in from the east, goes all the way to the west side of the country, and across the whole country, they camped in tents, destroying Israel's crops, destroying the food. Like locusts, they would leave little in their wake, they would leave no food for Israel, destroying their sustenance. They would even steal their cattle, steal their livestock. And all Israel at this time had the strength to do in their sin under the judgment of God was to retreat. And they retreated to dens, caves, and the mountains to wait them out. While the Midianite menace essentially starved them out. What a horrible set of circumstances. You and I have never faced anything like that, ever. Notice with me also that their judgment at the hand of God is getting worse. Their oppression with each occurrence, you could say, of this repetitive pattern, the judgment that they come under is worse than it was before. In other words, there's a downward spiral. As they repeat the pattern, there is a downward spiral to their spiritual condition and a downward spiral involving their judgment. This is a more significant and severe oppression that they suffered at the hands of Jabin in Judges chapter four. And this is a downward spiral involved with the pattern. The downward spiraling physical condition of the people in their suffering is an outward display of their more concerning downward spiraling spiritual condition. In other words, what we see externally in their suffering is just a faint picture of the more serious issue of what's going on with them in their heart. Their spiritual condition. Look at verse six. In this then, so Israel was greatly impoverished. The word impoverished there means literally became small. They became small. You could take that literally and easily could see in that the fact that the Midianites were being successful in starving them out. People literally, the Israelites literally starving to death to the point that the Israelites become small. The nation becomes small. And because of the Midianites, the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. But once again, verse six, the Israelites cry out to God. And if you notice again in verse six, not a cry of repentance, we see no indication of repentance here. No indication of mourning over sin. Not a cry of shame or of guilt. But once again, merely a cry of pain and misery. It's also interesting, isn't it, that they don't cry out to Baal. That's what they're worshiping. They've got Baal altars set up, Asherah polls set up. Now they could have cried out to Baal before this, but here they are in verse six crying out to who? Crying out to God. The one who they knew could deliver them and would deliver them. They're crying out to God. It reminds me of that account in 1 Kings 18 with Elijah and the prophets of Baal. They're crying out to Baal. They're cutting themselves. And Baal's not listening. And Elijah mocks that wicked false prophet. He's either meditating or he's busy. Maybe he's gone on a trip. Maybe he's sleeping. He must be awakened. No, God is the one. God is the one who hears in mercy their cry. But notice with me that God doesn't send a deliverer this time. God doesn't send a deliverer. God doesn't send a savior or a warrior judge. God sends them what? Sends them a prophet. Sends them a prophet. Interesting, isn't it? Verse seven, it came to pass when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel. Now, this is important to note. It's an important development in the pattern here. Before the people would cry out to the Lord for deliverance, when they cried out to Him for deliverance, the Lord would raise up for them a judge. The Lord doesn't do that here. What does the Lord do? The Lord sends a prophet. Think about why the Lord would do that. Why would the Lord send a prophet? A prophet was a proclamer, a preacher of God's Word. Prophets were God's prosecuting attorneys against the nation. When God sent a prophet, He was sending His prosecuting attorney with a charge against the nation, calling them to repentance, calling them to return to Him. The prophets were God's prosecuting attorneys. And what was the prophet charged with? They were charged with proclaiming God's Word to the people. God is sending them now His Word. Why is that? Because the people here in Israel need a biblical perspective. They need an attitude adjustment. They need a biblical worldview. They need a change in heart and mind. Their frame of heart, their frame of mind isn't quite right. It needs to be adjusted and aligned with what God's Word says. And their unbiblical perspective here, this unbiblical worldview that they have, is evidenced by their lack of repentance. Evidence by their lack of repentance. What we see in the repeated pattern, what we see in Israel falling back into idolatry and sitting worse than they had before, is what Paul describes as the sorrow of the world that produces only death. This is the sorrow of the world that produces death. It isn't a God-word sorrow that produces repentance leading to salvation. This is a godless, worldly sorrow that produces only death. The people are aware of their pain, obviously. If you're in these circumstances, you're aware of your destitute condition. But there is a cause to their pain. And the children of Israel aren't connecting the dots. There's a purpose to their pain. And the children of Israel are not connecting the dots. The children of Israel are having difficulty putting two and two together here. And they need God's Word. God is far more interested in their understanding right now than he is in their deliverance. And he sends them a prophet. The response that we've seen from the Israelites to this point in their cries to God for deliverance really is far more about them. I think about with me about the difference between these two realities in the nation of Israel at this time. They cry out to God for deliverance, but their cry to God for deliverance is really far more about them than it is about God. What's the problem with that? Repentance is all about God. They're more concerned with their own pain, more concerned with their own circumstances, more concerned with how they feel they think what they want, what they don't want, than they are with what God has said and with what God has commanded, with what God wants. It's more about them than it is about God. This is not repentance. This may be regret, may be remorse. What we certainly know is that it is worldly sorrow producing only death. It's certainly not about the Lord. Repentance, repentance is about God. Repentance is about our relationship to God. It's not mere regret. It's not mere remorse. It's not mere worldly sorrow. And it can't be satisfied with works of pendants, right? Genuine repentance, the need for genuine repentance will never be satisfied with mere works of pendants. You can't just go through the motions. If you remember, when Israel failed to go into the promised land, they send the spies in the land. The spies come back, 10 of them with a terrible report. Israel fails to trust the Lord. They fail to go into the promised land and God tells them what their just desert is for failing to trust him. You're going to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. This generation is going to die. What do the Israelites do? They weep, cry out to God in agony over the justice that God is about to pour out on them. And then what do they do? They take matters into their own hands and they presume, the Bible says, to rush into battle without God. And God says, listen, don't go up. Don't go up because I'm not with you. The people of Israel, the children of Israel thought to themselves, well, now we'll obey. Now we'll do what he says. And if we do what he says, it'll make it all right. Right? God will take it back. It'll make it. No, works of penance is not repentance. Repentance is about the Lord. It's about brokenheartedness over sin. It's about offense against God and desiring from the heart to be pleasing to him, desiring from the heart to be forgiven. It's only healing repentance when there is a rending of the heart over our sin against him. Do you see? And that's the one thing the Israelites here haven't done. They've not done that. There's no rending of the heart over their sin. They're not brokenhearted over their sin against God. They're not looking to Christ for forgiveness. They're just crying out to God in their misery and pain, wanting deliverance from their temporal, temporary, physical circumstances. What does repentance look like? Paul, 2 Corinthians 7 verse 11. For observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly or a godward manner. What diligence it produced in you. What diligence. What clearing of yourselves. I want my name in no way associated anymore with this sin and idolatry against God. I don't want myself cleared of this matter. What indignation, what hatred, and anger and despising and contempt for that sin. What fear of God, what vehement desire, what zeal against it, what vindication. Paul says in all these things, you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter. What we're seeing from Israel, it's not repentance. Something else. Simply crying out in pain and misery over their condition and not the condition of their own heart, not the condition of their own soul. What does God do in that circumstance? God sends them a prophet. God sends them a prophet. God faithful, merciful, long suffering, right? He could have consumed them made of someone else a great nation, right? Like he did with Moses. He could have consumed it, but he didn't do that. The Lord time and time and time again showing covenant, long suffering, loving kindness toward his people. They've certainly come to grips with their desperate condition, but they've not yet considered the cause of that condition. They haven't connected the dots. So God doesn't send them a deliverer. He sends them his word. God intends in sending them the prophet. God intends to interpret their circumstances for them. He's gonna help them connect the dots. He's going to interpret their circumstances for them. God's word always gives us the perspective that we need. Doesn't it? Without it, we're blind. We're blind in our sin. We're like little children who don't know our right hand from our left hand. Apart from the word of God, we have no wisdom. And we're left ourselves puzzled trying to connect the dots in our own lives. Listen, we don't live. We don't sin. We don't worship and come to church. We don't do any of these things in a vacuum. We serve a living God who is sovereign over all things that we are and do. He's sovereign over our circumstances. We don't live in a vacuum. It's in him that we live and move and have our being. You should be daily. We should be daily, hour by hour, connecting our circumstances to the condition of our heart, to God's sovereignty and rule over our lives. Connecting the dots, we serve a living God who is sovereign over everything that happens to us. We should not have any trouble connecting the dots, but oftentimes we do, don't we? Oftentimes we do. We need God's word. We need God's wisdom. We need to continuously be applying what we know and understand of God's word to our lives, to our condition. Constantly seeking His word for the answers that we need. God's gonna help them with this. God's word is going to give them the perspective that they need and God's preaching is going to help them understand how things really are. That's what good preaching does, doesn't it? Good preaching teaches us how things really are. When we apply or think about God's word rightly, God's word tells us how things really are. God goes to His people who are in misery and He wants them to know why they're in misery. Before I deliver you, God says, I'm gonna show you why you are going through this. They want rescue, what is God after? God is after their repentance. They want rescue, God wants repentance. So verse seven, came to pass when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel who said to them, thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, brought you out of the house of bondage. I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land. So what is the prophet communicating here at the beginning of his discourse with the children of Israel? He's reminding them of the grace of God. This is the grace of God. God is the one who saved them. God is the one who delivered them out of Egypt. God is the one who entered into covenant with them as his people. He is the one who's delivered them. Who are they responsible to? They're responsible to God. He's reminding them of their covenant relationship with the one who has already delivered them before. God's saying, I brought you up. I delivered you. He reminds them of his command then. Look at verse 10, also I said to you, I am the Lord your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. In other words, what it means there to fear them is to worship them. Don't worship them. Don't bow down to them. Those gods are nothing. They are figments of man's imaginations. They are hacked pieces of wood that you can burn in the fire. Don't bow down to them. Don't worship them. This is almost verbatim of his warning to the children of Israel in Bokeem, the place of weeping in Judges chapter two. Look at the page back. Look back at Judges chapter two and look there beginning at verse one. This is what the Lord said to them. They'd come into the land under Joshua. This is just before Joshua dies and the Lord tells them what's going to happen to them in the land. He says this in verse one. Then the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bokeem, a place of weeping. And he said, I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers and I said, I will never break my covenant with you. It's a picture again, a reminder of God's covenant faithfulness. When God's people here are so faithless, so unbelieving, so undeserving, so ungrateful, God reminds them of his never failing covenant faithfulness. He said, I will never break my covenant with you and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall tear down their altars but you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out before you but they shall be thorns in your side. Their God shall be a snare to you. And so it was when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voices and wept. Back in Judges chapter six, the Lord is reminding them of this very interaction that he had with them in Bochim in Judges chapter two. Reminding them of his covenant faithfulness, reminding them of his promise of judgment. They fail to keep their end of the deal. Lord is reminding them what he said to them. Verse 10, back in Judges chapter six, I am the Lord your God. That's covenant language. I am the Lord your God. The word Lord there Yahweh is the Lord's covenant name with the people. It's the name by which the Lord is known having entered into covenant with them. Again, all of this is pointing to God's covenant faithfulness, their covenant responsibilities to him and their failure here. He said, I am the Lord your God. Because I am the Lord your God, don't fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. Don't worship them. In Judges two he said, make no covenant with them. You shall tear down their altars. I am the Lord your God. And then the Lord charges them with their sin. Verse 10, but you have not obeyed my voice. For all that Israel had suffered, a right and biblical understanding of their sin against God, a right and biblical understanding of his goodness and patience toward them would have led them to recite with the psalmist. He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities. You think about this severe oppression. Think about the judgment of God delivering the Israelites into the hand of the Midianites. Even all that they suffered under their hand is not in keeping with their sin against him. He's not dealt with us. They would have had to say he's not dealt with me according to my sins. He's not punished us according to our iniquities. They deserve worse, don't they? They deserve worse. God is immeasurably infinitely gracious and merciful, gracious and merciful. Anyone could stand in front of the mirror and with dead earnest honesty say that God has not dealt with me according to my sins. Why? Because you're breathing. You have air in your lungs. You have a roof over your head. You got clothes on your back. You got food on your table, and you're not in hell. God has not punished me according to my iniquity. Why? Because God is patient and long-suffering. He is kind and compassionate, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And God's goodness and His forbearance should lead you to genuine repentance. God is patient with the children of Israel here. Turning them over to horrendous, to a devastating oppression, but that is the patience and mercy and kindness of God. However bad that you may think you have it, we deserve far worse. However bad you think you have it, you deserve worse. And if you're in Christ, the punishment due your sin has fallen upon Him. There is deliverance in none other but Him. This pain and suffering they're enduring is mercy from God. It points them away from sin and back to Him. And this condition in which we find the children of Israel is a picture of the destitute and depraved and stubborn heart of the sinner today. It's a picture of our heart. Easy to stand back and say, yeah, I would have never been like, how ignorant, how stubborn, how stiff-necked do you have to be? You're living testimony. Your heart is a picture of that stubborn, stiff-neck rebellion. This is a picture of man's heart. And it's a heart that if we were honest with ourselves, we would confess before God, I have the capacity to be exactly this way. And there are many ways in my life in which I am just like this ignorant, stiff-neck, stubborn people steeped in idolatry. We simply don't connect the dots. We don't connect the dots. That's where God's word comes in. God's word helps us connect the dots. It helps us understand our condition. There's a picture of this, Revelation chapter 3. Listen to this from Revelation chapter 3, verse 15. The Lord says, the Lord says, I know your works. I know that you are neither cold nor hot. Lord says, I know this about you. He's the one who searches the heart. He's the one that knows you inside and out. Lord says, I know you. I know your works. I know that you're neither cold nor hot. I could wish that you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. But you said, wait a minute, wait a minute. That obviously doesn't apply to me. I'm a Christian. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that He died on the cross for me. This obviously doesn't apply to me. And the Lord says to you, He says to you, I know your works. I know your heart. I know that you're neither cold nor hot. I could wish that you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. He's preaching this to a church. Remember? Because you say, because you say, I am rich, become wealthy, have need of nothing. Professor Christian might today say, I'm God grace, grace, grace, God's grace. And you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You're not connecting the dots. You're not connecting the dots. I counsel you, the Lord says to buy from me gold, refined in the fire that you may be rich. White garments that you may be clothed that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. Anoint your eyes with ISAB that you may see because you are blind. You are blind. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Be not deceived, brother. Don't be deceived, sister. The Lord will not be mocked. Whatever you reap, you will also sow. He who practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever sins is of the devil. Don't be deceived, little children. Don't be deceived. The Lord sends His word to them, to help them connect the dots, to bring them to genuine repentance. He calls us to repent of our sin. We can't, and the Bible doesn't give us warrant, to sit back and rest in our sin, to rest in our disobedience, to rest in our lethargy, to rest in our apathy, to rest in our indifference. We have absolutely no warrant from God's word to do such a thing. Bible calls us to repentance, calls us to follow hard after Him, calls us to turn from our sin and trust the one who has delivered us out of bondage. He has been gracious to us and we have been bought at a price. It's interesting at the end of verse 10 that God doesn't promise to deliver them. Doesn't say anything about deliverance. Verse 10 ends with the statement of the prophet, God repeating His word, repeating His word, repeating His grace to them, repeating what He had done for them and then gives no promise of deliverance. It's in verse 11 that we see once again, once again, in the same way that we could in sort of almost disbelief or shock or astonishment add the word again to verse one and the children of Israel again, did evil in the sight of the Lord, we could with the same amazement, different amazement and wonder and awe and gratitude and love and adoration and devotion put an again in the work of God here in chapter six, verse 11, that God again, again in loving kindness raises up a deliverer for them. Verse 11, the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terribent tree, which was in Ephra, which belonged to Joash the Abesarii and while his son Gideon thrashed wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. The Lord would raise up again, would raise up again a deliverer to save his people. Amazing faithfulness, amazing grace, amazing mercy and the same God who is true and unchanging for all eternity, freely offers grace and mercy to us in the gospel. Whenever we will turn from our sin in genuine repentance and put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, he promises, he will in no wise cast us out. He is always stands ready to save, ready to deliver. He is gracious and merciful, amen. All praise, honor and glory to the one who works through his word to bring us to repentance. Let's put our faith and trust in him. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, we praise you and we thank you that you are saving, delivering, redeeming God. We praise you for your grace and mercy. We praise you or that you've made provision for our sin that you call us to repentance. We praise you or that your patience, your forbearance, your goodness should lead us to repentance. We praise you that your long suffering is salvation, those who will turn from their sin and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Lord, you have been so gracious to us and that you haven't dealt with us according to our sin that we haven't received what our iniquities deserve. That you have been patient and kind and compassionate and continue to hold out the free offer of the gospel to those that would turn from their sin and put their faith and trust in Christ and to us who are yours, Lord, by faith. We thank you, Lord, for the work that you've done in our hearts. Thank you for saving us from our sins and for giving us of our sins and clothing us in the righteousness of Christ. And we pray, Lord, that you would, in grace, by your spirit, preserve us, lead us to repentance. Call us, Lord, by your word, to repentance. Work in us, repentance by your spirit and help us, Lord, to follow you. We love you. We thank you for this time together. Thank you for these lessons and all things, Lord. We pray that you would be honored and magnified and glorified and worshiped and praised. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.