Well, tonight I invite you to turn with me once again to the book of Judges as we complete our consideration of that mini-series on Gideon. Judges chapter 8, considering verses 18 through 32. 18 through 32. The army of Midian had been subdued completely. And Gideon and his band had just captured the two kings of Midian, Ziba and Zalmunna. We begin at verse 18. Hear now the word of God. Then he, that is Gideon, asked Ziba and Zalmunna, What kind of men did you kill at Tabor? Men like you, they answered. Each one with the bearing of a prince. Gideon replied, those were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the Lord lives, if you had spared their lives, I would not kill you. Turning to Jether, his oldest son, he said, kill them. But Jether did not draw his sword because he was only a boy and was afraid. Ziba and Zalmunna said, come, do it yourself. As is the man, so is his strength. So Gideon stepped forward and killed them and took the ornaments off their camel's necks. The Israelites said to Gideon, Rule over us, you, your son, and your grandson, because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian. But Gideon told them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. And he said, I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder. It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings. They answered, We'll be glad to give them. So they spread out a garment, and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it. The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to 1,700 shekels, not counting the ornaments, the pendants, and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camel's necks. Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshipping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family. Thus Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. During Gideon's lifetime, the land enjoyed peace forty years. Jerob of Baal, son of Joash, went back home to live. He had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives. His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech. Gideon, son of Joash, died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash and Ophrah of the Abias' rites. No sooner had Gideon died than the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals. They set up Baal-bereth as their god and did not remember the Lord their God who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies on every side. They also failed to show kindness to the family of Jerob-baal, that is Gideon, for all the good things he had done for them. Well, dear people of God, we all like happy endings, don't we? There are many children's books that end with the words, and they live happily ever after. But in real life, of course, we know that that's not always the case. We know that with Israel, during the period of the judges, often we read the land had rest for a period of time, But it could never be said that Israel lived happily ever after. In fact, in today's story, that cycle we have talked about, that cycle of God's people rebelling against Him, God punishing them by some sort of oppression, and then they cry out for deliverance, and the Lord sends a deliverer, and then the land has rest for a period of time. That cycle, in a sense, will be broken after this. Because when we read in verse 28, The land enjoyed peace 40 years. That's the last time we read of rest in the book of Judges. The adventures of Gideon have been amazing and wonderful to behold as God's strength and as His grace have been clearly demonstrated. The enemy has been completely destroyed more so than under the judges before Gideon and more so than under the judges who will follow him. And therefore, of all places, we would expect to read more than just the land enjoyed peace 40 years. What's wrong with that? Well, 40 years is a finite period of time, isn't it? 40 years comes to an end. But we would expect something here a little more than just the land had rest for 40 years. We would expect something more in the order of happily ever after. Yet even with the hero Gideon, beloved, we are faced with a disappointing conclusion, whether we want to believe it or not. It's there. Gideon, remember, was chosen and called by God. He was equipped by God and victorious by God, all by grace through the operation of the Holy Spirit. Gideon, we know, was a type of Christ. He was a temporary Savior who was a forerunner of the eternal Messiah, Jesus Christ. The light of the coming Messiah and His eternal reformation, was seen in Gideon's office and in the Lord's deliverance. However, the story progresses. Not in the sense of showing us how Gideon celebrated the Lord's deliverance, but to show us how that light was darkened or dimmed by Gideon's attitude. The light of Messianic Reformation is darkened by Gideon's attitude against the people of God, against the kingship of God, and against the Word of God. Now, the Midianites were utterly destroyed. That is, all except for the two kings, Ziba and Zalmunna. Now, most likely, Gideon took them back to his hometown of Ophir because of the fact that his son Jether is present and also because he makes the treatment of these kings against his family the main issue. He is setting Ziba and Zalmunna up for a war crime trial, which in and of itself was not a problem. The problem was that Gideon had a personal score he wanted to settle. The Midianites had ravaged the land and the Israelites for seven years and it also touched Gideon's family more than with just the loss of crops and animals and supplies, but also with the loss of human life. Gideon's brothers had been killed. Now it's basically agreed by the commentators that most likely they were not killed in fair, active combat, that, but that they were mercilessly killed in some way by these two kings, possibly at some point during that seven years of oppression. But anyway, Gideon had family honor on his mind. He wants to avenge for the blood of his brothers. And from the text, it appears that even with their necks on the line, these kings bravely take credit for their actions. In a sense, we can hear them justify their actions. Well, these men were like sons of a king. They were like princes. They were leaders. But you know, Gideon, war is war. And well, that's just too bad. That's just the way it is. But they were my brothers, says Gideon. And of course, we can sympathize with Gideon and we can somewhat understand his feelings because family blood ties are very, very strong. We know that. We can appreciate that. But the question we need to ask is, why did the Lord call Gideon? Did he call Gideon and equip Gideon with his Holy Spirit to avenge his family and their honor or to deliver the oppressed people of Israel? Gideon was the Lord's instrument to deliver the people from the hands of the Midianites and to restore covenant fellowship with God. But here Gideon is using his office which had been given to him for the sake of the church and using it as a means to avenge family honor. Israel's wars you see were to be holy wars for God's honor against God's enemies and indeed according to the Lord's command in Deuteronomy 20 verse 13 all the men of the enemy were to be killed but Gideon here makes their deaths contingent upon the fact that they killed his brothers if you had not done that I would let you live but you see these kings deserved to die for the sake of all of the Israelites who had been oppressed and for the sake of God's honor. And Gideon was to act as God's instrument to that end. But Gideon's attitude changed against the people, making the church secondary and making his family priority. He makes it clear that in his mind, these two kings must die because of what they did to his brothers. No longer were his motives spiritual, but fleshly and really godless. No longer were Ziba and Zalmunna seen as the enemies of the Lord and enemies of his people, but they were seen as personal enemies of Gideon's family. Well, Gideon, we know, commissions his oldest son to kill the kings, which was also a customary act in order to prepare the next leader for leadership, giving him the opportunity to prove himself. But here I think there's a little more to it. This was also a way to taunt these prisoners as if Gideon was saying to them, you're not worth my energy. You don't deserve the honor or respect of kings. Therefore, I'm going to have a child kill you. Which indeed would be humiliating for these kings. But Gideon's son Jethro, of course, was too afraid to carry out this bloody deed. And then Ziba and Zalmunna, as we know, taunt Gideon in verse 21. Come, do it yourself. As is the man, so is his strength. Do the job yourself if you're up to it. If you think you're strong enough and man enough, let the acting king kill his opposing kings. And to save his reputation, you see, Gideon has no choice but to kill them himself and therefore in the end giving them a sort of honor as kings in their deaths as these leaders were killed by none lower than the leader himself. Beloved, here was God's chosen deliverer who was called to execute the wrath of God against the church's enemies. and who was to reveal the supreme righteousness of the coming Christ. And what did he do? He reduces the whole business to a matter of personal family honor when it came to the top two men of what was once 135,000. Gideon's attitude changed from God's glory and the deliverance of his church toward his own family. He covered the majesty and the glory of God's righteousness and God's work accomplished so far. He darkened the light of the coming Messiah's work of reformation, of eternal reformation, none of which is selfish, you see, but selfless. And instead, Gideon made it into something selfish. Yet praise God that Gideon could not, his attitude could not completely shut off the light of the coming Messiah. Jesus Christ has come. He has accomplished His work of eternal reformation on the cross. And therefore, what comfort does this give to Christ's church today? Our comfort is that the church is not, from an earthly perspective, a family-run operation. Like a family business where one gets certain privileges just because they carry this or that family name. You see, in Christ's church there is no one, there's no believer, no matter how small, no matter how quiet, no matter how lonesome, to whom Christ does not say, you are my brother. You are my sister. I died for you. Beloved, even if you don't happen to have earthly family in this congregation, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a part of a family, the most wondrous and glorious family, the family of God. You see, in Jesus' eyes, faith is to be above family. I think that's hard, isn't it? It's even hard for us at times. Faith is to be above family. He said, whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. And he said, whoever loves father or mother, brother or sister more than me is not worthy of me. Yet there is a danger for the church today. The greatest obstruction in the path of the communion of saints and on the road of the effective witness of the church is when the visible church is made out to be a family matter. It can become a curse when family relationships determine obedience or lack of obedience to God. Remember earlier when Gideon was afraid to carry out the Lord's orders in the daytime because of his family and his friends. You see, when family blood is thicker than the water of baptism and thicker than the body and blood of Christ, then the church becomes perverted. Our obedience to God and our participation in the life of His church is not to be conditioned by or conditional on earthly family, but on what our Heavenly Father says and on the work of our elder brother, Jesus Christ. The Christian family, you see, is the church in miniature form. And our families make up and promote, Not interfere with and stand in the way with participation in the life of Christ's church. Family exists for the sake of Christ's church. In the second place, this light was darkened also by Gideon's attitude against the kingship of God. Verse 22 says, The Israelites said to Gideon, Rule over us, you, your son, and your grandson, because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian. Now this attitude really should be no surprise. After all, God's people would now enjoy freedom, wouldn't they? They had the hope of living off the land once again and enjoying the fruits of their own labors instead of having their crops stolen year after year after year. Most likely when it says, the Israelites said to Gideon, that is not referring to all of Israel, but to those tribes which had been the most oppressed by the Midianites. It's apparent by now that they had joyfully received Gideon as their leader and where there's one leader in the family, there's a good possibility there will be others to follow because we all know that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Rule over us, Gideon. You and your son after you. And then another day, someday your grandson. After all, you are the one who saved us. Their sinful attitude over and against the Lord is clear. They were still blinded. They didn't recognize that Gideon was just an instrument in the hand of God and that all that had taken place was the work and only the work of Jehovah. They had forgotten the sword was for the Lord, first of all, and not for Gideon. Beloved, how many groups, how many splinter groups throughout history haven't fallen away from the truth because they gave power to one individual and that one greedily took that power and therefore ended up changing the truth of God in order to keep that power or maybe never knew the truth of God. Think of David Koresh about 10 years ago in Texas or Jim Jones 20 or 25 years ago, whenever that was. And I think we have to sadly admit even someone like Harold Camping. We think of all those who have left the church in the last year or two because he said the church age is dead. how many haven't fallen away because of power given to an individual? One man. You see, as we read this, this is hard for us to imagine because it's clear to us, I trust, that all of this so far has been reformation. God's way. The Lord raised up the weakest man in his family, which was the smallest family in the smallest tribe. Gideon was a nobody. The Lord led an army of 300 against 135,000 and gave victory to the Israelites. By the grace of God, Midian was totally destroyed. And the Israelites should have declared a general day of thanksgiving to God, but instead they chose the visible over the invisible. They put their faith, their trust in Gideon and not in God. And by doing this, they rejected their rightful king as the Lord said to Samuel later on. Before he anointed King Saul, they have not rejected you, but me. And of course, we applaud Gideon because he said the right thing in verse 23. But Gideon told him, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. We wish Gideon's story ended there. That's such a bright spot, but it doesn't end there. Gideon's attitude toward the kingship of the Lord is proper according to his words, but we need to examine his deeds. I believe so often we take Gideon's wonderful confession with his mouth and we divorce that from his lifestyle that we read about in verses 29-32. Many wives, 70 sons. You see, Gideon rejected the title of king. He paid homage to God's command with his lips. But in reality, in the privacy of his own home, if there is privacy with many wives, of course, but in the privacy of his own home, he established himself and he lived as a king. He had already seen to it that the royal family was avenged for the murder of his brothers. He had 70 sons and many wives, which was characteristic of a prince in those days. Having a harem was the style of a king back then. Of course, that was the style where? In the heathen nations. But many wives was disobedience. Moses had foretold that they would want a king, but he says in Deuteronomy 17, neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. And the text also tells us that Gideon had a concubine from Shechem. In other words, she was a Canaanite. And therefore his relationship with her was also forbidden. Beloved, Gideon could sound as orthodox and pious as ever, saying, the Lord will rule over us. He is our king. But when his concubine gave birth to a son, What name did Gideon give to him? Abimelech. Abimelech. Which means, my father is king. King. See, it's possible that Gideon was 100% sincere when he confessed, the Lord is your deliverer. The Lord will rule over you. He is your king. But his confession lost its power because of his lifestyle. You see, the Christian lifestyle is to be a lifestyle of word and deed. As James says, faith without works is dead. Gideon's attitude against the kingship of God demonstrated that he too desired to share in the privileges of a king. He desired a little credit after all for his part. Again, darkening the light of Christ's work. But are we exempt from this kind of behavior? Are we totally innocent here as well? Isn't it true that often in some little way we like to be noticed for our work that we do in Christ's church? We like to have a little pat on the back. It's always nice to be appreciated, you see. We need to remember that we are only tools in the hand of God. As well in 1 John 2, we read in verses 15-17, Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, I'm sure if we think long and hard about this, each one of us could come up with a little list of things of the world that we desire and maybe even indulge in once in a while. Sometimes in public, sometimes in private. Things that are contrary to the Word of God and our confession. Things that show that we like to participate in some of what this world has to offer. I'm sure the examples could be endless. Parents, consider this. So often, our children watch us as we sit in church. And we sing, or pray, or listen, give of our gifts, Professor Faith, or in my case, in Pastor Donovan's case, our children see us stand up here to preach the Word of God, but then in the privacy of our own homes, unfortunately, they often see a much different side of us. How confusing that must be for them. And you know what? In their eyes, the light of Christ's work is darkened by you and me as parents. And how scary that must be for us. How often don't we lose our testimony to our pagan neighbors because of our actions in some way which they see? It's wrong as well in the fellowship of the church to say, well, I love you and the Lord, but then to turn around and covet and envy or to slander against them. Or to profess your love for Christ's body, but then not accept chastisement and correction from them for your sin. Gideon's confession with his mouth was that the Lord saves, Therefore, the Lord is King, but you cannot separate Christ as Savior from Christ as Lord of your life, as ruler of your life. God calls for word and deed obedience. We are called to live our testimony. And God gives great joy in consistent Christian living for Him as we consider this morning. And each one of us is called to carefully and prayerfully consider our attitude and our actions. Do they fit with what God commands and expects of us? See, we are not to compartmentalize our lives. This part is Christian. This part is not. This part is spiritual. This part is not. Not at all. Our Christianity is the umbrella over the entirety of our life, under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Finally then, the light of messianic reformation is darkened by Gideon's attitude against the Word of God. Gideon refuses their offer to rule over them, but notice in the very next breath he asks for some of the plunder, some of the goods that have been taken from the Midianites. And it's estimated that the weight of the gold that he had received was anywhere from 60 to 70 pounds. And he uses a portion of that to make an ephod. Now an ephod was a beautiful vest type of garment that was a very noticeable part of the priestly clothing. It had an important function in that it contained the urim and thummim through which God would make known His will to His people in those days. It was an instrument that was used in desperate situations to find out the Word of God. For example, the people of God would use it in Scripture, we read, to seek God's will in going to war. Should we go to war? Should we not? Also used to find out, will we have success in war or will we not? David used it to seek God's direction as he tried to keep out of King Saul's reach and to simply slip through his fingertips. God had established the Levites as the priests for His people and He had established a place of worship in Shiloh and He had given the ephod to the priests alone. But Gideon, without a command of God, committed an offense against Jehovah's kingship by making an unauthorized change in Israel's prescribed religious ritual. Now again, his intention may not have been wrong. They had been oppressed for seven years. The people said, our problem is we don't have a king. Gideon said, we have a king, the Lord. But by making an ephod, he was in essence saying the problem is, the problem is we don't know our king's plans. We don't know what kind of circumstances he will place before us. And what measures we must take to protect ourselves. We need to be able to get this information when we need it. We need an ephod. This proved unfortunate, of course, for Gideon and his people. Again, David used the ephod with the urim and the thummim. He used it properly and sparingly. But the Israelites' problem was that they multiplied the use of the ephod. It became an everyday instrument like a crystal ball. Like the horoscope in the newspaper that is forbidden. Why? Because then we think we don't need God. We think we don't need faith in His promises. We don't need to trust in God's providential care. We don't need God's Word, His law. With the ephod, you see, the future is guaranteed. It's not a problem. Verse 27 says they prostituted themselves with the ephod. And then later on, as we read, they prostituted themselves after Gideon's death with Baal. May it never be said of us, beloved, that we were religious or spiritual prostitutes. The ephod at Ophir came to be seen as a magical answer box. The people had forgotten that used properly it too was an instrument in the hand of God, but they divorced it and themselves from true worship and worshiped God other than He had commanded in His Word. And that again is spiritual idolatry and adultery. Beloved, an ephod kills faith and it muffles the Word of God. An ephod, in a sense, becomes extra-biblical information that some feel is needed, in essence, I guess, because for them God's Word isn't enough. But you say there are no ephods today. Well, the cults and the sects and the heretical movements all have ephods in the sense that other teachers and teachers in addition to or opposed to Scripture are followed. As well, many well-meaning, professing Christians have a thirst for more than what God has already given for their sustenance, nurture, and direction in the faith in His Word as they look for other means to bring them closer to God. Even other means of worship other than God has commanded in His Word to get the spiritual juices flowing. To spark that worship and that feeling of worship. The emotions. But by wanting more, don't we really then suggest that God has inadequately furnished us? That He somehow is insufficient? Don't we then question the truth of Psalm 23, verse 1, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. So many today as well make the Holy Spirit a kind of ephod by saying, The Holy Spirit spoke to me, telling me that. I read a story of a zealous man who wanted to speak to another man in the congregation about the other man's spiritual state. And the first man came to the other man's farm and he asked the wife if the husband was home. And no, he had gone off somewhere. Well, he proceeded to tell her that the Holy Spirit had told him that he should come over and talk to her husband. And the farmer's wife responded, if the Holy Spirit told you to come talk to my husband, the Holy Spirit would have made sure my husband was home. And indeed, beloved, we laugh a little bit. But the truth is, the Holy Spirit works today to be sure, but not apart from the Word of God. So many try to separate the two today. The Word of God applied by the Holy Spirit is all we need for faith and practice. The Word of God applied by the Holy Spirit is all we need for life, our standard for life. See, we don't do and we don't live because of how we were raised necessarily. Necessarily. What I mean is that is not to be our standard. We must always test our practice, beloved, over against the Word of God. And sometimes God challenges our lives and our beliefs and our comfortableness through the preacher, or through teachers, or through friends. And when that happens, beloved, we must humbly submit to the Word of God. That too is a part of sanctification. A real hot button for us over the last couple of weeks, of course, is the movie. I haven't said a whole lot about it, but I think I need to. The movie. When I sat in the barber chair a couple of weeks ago with a man who I don't believe has any sort of religious affiliation, the first thing he asked me was, are you going to see the movie? We ended up having a wonderful discussion about it. It was a great opportunity to witness which is the proper way to use it. But you see, should we or should we not see it? That's the question that we all wrestle with. And a couple of weeks ago, we heard a wonderful biblical sermon on images of Christ and why we should not have images of Christ. But we're torn. Even in this congregation, we are divided. We're not together. You see, beloved, whatever side you might fall on, you are obligated to go to the Word of God. To simply say, well, I don't think or I think. or that's the way I was raised, is not good enough. It's not enough. It doesn't matter what we think. It doesn't matter how we were raised. What matters is the Word of God. And each one of us must go to the Word of God to support whatever side we fall on. And if you cannot support it, then you must humbly submit to the Word of God and change what you think. and change how you were raised. Beloved, Gideon died at a ripe old age. He was still blessed by God's grace in spite of his sinfulness. But he was not blessed because he was a perfect man or because he was a sufficient Savior. He was blessed because Jesus Christ is the perfect man and He is the perfect, all-sufficient Savior in Gideon's place. Gideon's attitudes against the people of God and the kingship of God and the Word of God indeed cast a dark shadow over the light of the Messiah, but nothing that he could do could burn out that light. Those who confess Jesus as Savior live and act or should live and act under the Lordship of Christ. All that we do is to be under the Lordship of Christ's rule, following His Word, what He has said. As parents, we are under Christ. As husbands and wives, we are under Christ. As single people, we are under Christ. As children, we are under Christ. As employers and employees, we are under Christ. As elders, deacons, ministers, and worshipers, believers, we are under Christ in all things. And even as we deal with the world, beloved, Don't forget, we are under Christ. And when we act in a way that is contrary to God's Word and our confession, we revolt against Christ's kingship, we dim His light, and we lead others away from Him instead of toward Him. The truth is, as God's servants, we often fall short and fail as our walk often contradicts our talk. We disappoint each other. But God, in His grace, lifts our gaze to the leader of God's elect, whom Peter says does not disappoint. And John says, in whom is no sin and against whom no charges could be brought. If your attitude against God's people and kingship and word is trying to darken the light of Christ and His reformation, you are working in vain. Because number one, the light of Christ will never die out. It will only shine brighter. But number two, you will answer for that one day. you will be snuffed out one day unless you turn to the light of life in repentance and faith. What was our Lord's command? Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. And what? Glorify who? Your Father who is in heaven. You see, beloved Reformation, it is not about my personal purpose, but it's about God's eternal purpose. It's not about my status or my popularity, but it's about God's glory. It's not about my Word and what I think, but it's about the truth of God's Word. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by true faith, in spite of your light and my light, which is so often hid under a basket in spite of that, the light and the glory of Christ will shine bright for eternity. And for those who belong to Him, He will see to it that they live happily ever after. For the glory of God, amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, we are so grateful that Your work does not depend on us, but that You are the one who accomplishes Your work of reformation from beginning to end by Your power, by Your strength. Indeed, you use means. You use tools, even us, weak vessels. And we praise you that where we mess things up, you are the one who cleans up our mess. You are the one who makes straight that which we have made crooked. You are the one who makes true that which we have tried to make false. You are the one who accomplishes your will perfectly. And you have shown that already in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Indeed, Father, we pray that you will continue to work in our hearts and our lives. May that be our humble desire that we never walk alone, but that we only walk in the power and by the direction of your Holy Spirit. In your name alone we pray, we praise you forever and ever. Amen.