Giving oneself to the Lord is the most intelligent and profitable investment one can make, yielding eternal dividends. It highlights Mary's anointing of Jesus as an act of worship that, though deemed wasteful by some, was deeply appreciated by Christ, illustrating that true worship is valuable beyond monetary worth. Similarly, Gideon's offering, which resulted in fire from the rock, symbolizes the acceptance of sacrifices and the divine acceptance of Jesus Christ's sacrifice, as the rock represents Christ from whom flow living water (the Word), oil (the Spirit), honey (salvation), and fire (judgment). Ultimately, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, as described in Romans 12:1, leads to peace, assurance, and eternal life, as exemplified by Gideon's humble worship and the promise of "Jehovah Shalom."
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Waste of time. Is that so? Let me tell you, friend, it pays its dividends. Nothing you give to the Lord is weak. You take out heaven's stock. There are no cracks on this market. None whatever. The interest rises. Compound interest. Interest for eternity. For glorious dividends in eternity for those who invest in time. But I'm not talking just about money. I'm talking about yourself. Giving yourself over to the Lord. That is the point. He comes first. And so here is Mary.
And it said what she was doing and what she was giving to the Lord was just so much waste. But the Lord reduced him. The good the one who said that. He appreciated that. Oh, how he appreciated that argument. Mary poured upon his kids. Indeed, it was great. It was worth more than money could buy or pay for. So here is Gideon. He's got a kid ready for the Lord in the cage, and he puts it upon this rock. You'll notice what happens. You'll find in verse twenty. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cage, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth.
And he did so. Then the angel the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened case, and there rose up fire out of the rock. Notice that. Fire out of the rock. Here he has put all upon the altar. It's what you have in Romans twelve, one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living sacrifice. Put them on the altar, your life, or your life. as an individual. Singra. Present your body. It's in the plural there because he's speaking to a whole church.
Present your body for living sacrifice. Put it on the altar, wholly unacceptable unto God, which is your reasonable, your intelligent service. The most intelligent thing to do today is to give God what you've got. If you spend it on your steps, you lift the regret. And so it pays, doesn't it, to let the Lord have what you've got. You'll be happy in this life, and you'll be so happy in the next life. If you invest all you have right here, then when you die, when the Lord comes, the whole thing's gone. But if you invest what you've got and what you are for the Lord, and the spiritual things eternal, then you'll have your reaping in eternity.
That's when it really pays off. It pays off to be a Christian when you're healthy. You'll begin to really reap the dividends when you're sick and facing death. Oh, how wonderful it is to be a Christian man with a rich dividend presenting your body. Now you have fire out of the rock. You know in your Bible, and the Bible is a wonderful book, you have water out of the rock. You remember that in the Seventh-Eath of Numbers, water out of the rock. And we read in First Corinthians chapter ten, verse four, that rock was Christ. Here is water out of the rock. There you have oil out of the rock. Oil out of the flippy rock over in Deuteronomy, I think it's chapter thirty-three.
And honey out of the rock too. And here is fire out of the rock. Now if a rock's crank, these things are very significant. Water speaks of the word. That he might sanctify and cleanse the church by the washing of water from the word. By the word. There is water out of the rock. The word of Christ, the word of God. The Lord Jesus says, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are light. The water out of the rock, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you have the oil out of the rock and the oil is figurative of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit down on the day of Pentecost.
There you have the oil out of the rock. Then you also have honey out of the rock. Now honey is a piece of salvation. Honey is a sweet, whole taste in the seed. But the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusted in him. Man has nothing to do with honey. But honey, please make that. Our honey is the most easily digested thing in the world. The bees have already digested it for us. Honey, just like God's salvation, Man has nothing to do with that. Christ finished the work upon the cross. Salvation is the work of God. Salvation is of the Lord. You can't achieve salvation or obtain it by your good life and your good work.
You can't do that. Salvation is in Christ. Honey out of the rock. Oh, taste and taste of the Lord is good. Blessed is a man that trusts within him. Here is honey out of the rock. Salvation. So you have, first of all, the word out of the rock. Then the spirit out of the rock. The water and the oil, now the honey, that salvation. If you have fire out of the rock here, that's judgment. Fire out of the rock. Judgment? Yes. The Father has submitted all judgment unto the Son. The day is going to come when the Lord Jesus will exercise his prerogative.
As the executor of God's judgment, For God has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, that even Jesus, who may hath raised from the dead, through Christ Jesus, God's going to judge this world, fire out of the rock. What a day that will be when poor sinners have to face the judgment of God. That very one that gave in this precious word water out of the rock. That same blessed one that would give his Holy Spirit to those who would accept him as Satan, Lord. That same one who would give them the honey, the sweetness of sins forgiven. And peace with God is the one who in that day will administer that judgment of God.
Then he will baptize sinners with iron. And that same expression is used, paralleling baptism by water, baptism by fire. That means if a sinner is immersed in water with the Bible teachers, and that's why we've got a baptismal pool back here, if this baptism means to emerge. It comes from the big word, that's that title or the root word, that's so. It means to death or to die a garment. It means to wander. That word applies to the immersion in baptism of the same truth, applied for the same language as these, the connection of baptism of fire at major going down under.
The judgment of God, fearful God, the immersion in God's judgment, fire out of the rock. The liberty angel identified himself with this offering. The end of that verse twenty-one. Fire out of the rock and consume the flesh from the unleavened cake, then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Hallelujah. He was up in the flames. He was up in the smoke. He ascended it up to heaven. There's the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After he on the cross absorbed the judgment of God for our sins, Jesus Christ was buried, but he rose again and ascended up to heaven.
Now, if you want a parallel to this, it's in chapter thirteen and twenty. You remember the parents of Sampson, Alcana and his wife. Now, the angel of the Lord had appeared unto Alcana's wife and told her they were going to have an unusual son, Sampson that is made. And El Canaan, he said to the angel of the Lord, If you're the one that appeared unto my wife and gave her the news, I'll make the sacrifice for you. And he did the same thing that Gideon did. And while the flames and the smoke ascended the angel ascended with it, simply meaning that that sacrifice is accepted, that was the one way God had in the Old Testament of indicating that the offering was accepted, the angel of the Lord send again.
God accepted the work of Christ at Calvary because he raised his thumbs in the bell. Everyone who accept Jesus Christ and Savior and Lord, as Savior and as Lord, should believe that he's accepted in Christ. God has accepted him in his offering and he has saved and saved forever, saved as long as his offering is accepted. How long has God accepted Jesus Christ? God raised him from the dead. God seated him in his own right hand. And how long will Jesus Christ live? You ask me how long I'm going to be saved? I'll be saved just as long as my Savior lives.
And he said himself, he'll never die. God would no more expel one who has trusted Jesus Christ and who has been really born again. God would no more expel such an one from his presence than he would expel his only beloved son. For it says, Jesus, that sanctifyeth who is Christ, and those who are sanctified are all of them. For this cause is not ashamed of all, brethren. How wonderful that is. And the angel was up in the smoke that ascended. Meaningless that God had accepted this sacrifice, this wonderful offering.
It's the resurrection of Jesus Christ that's in mind here. You know, Gideon, after witnessing this, received his own nothingness. Notice verse twenty-three. And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, it dawned upon him. Why is it God speaking to him? When he perceived that, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, is because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. It's just a humble face. It's humbling. He wasn't proud. He didn't withdraw himself. I know he saw his own nothing. He said, alas, alas, in me, a poor sinner. I have heard the voice of God, and I've seen the face of God.
You know, that's the attitude, the frame of mind of everyone. He has brought into the presence of God, and the only one who can accept the blessings of God. God will impart his blessings with the one who humbly can serve before the Lord. God was fiercely proud of our office. The Lord was always ready to meet the need of the humble. You remember Job? Job says, behold, I am vile. I will hold my hand upon my mouth. I will see no more. He was in arguing with his friends with some sturdy captives, very brought into the presence of God. God unveiled this greatness.
And gold was brought into God's presence. God became greater and greater as God unveiled himself. And through his gold he shrank and he shrank and he shrank and he triveled up. He began seeing how little he was. And like John the Baptist when he said, He must increase, I must decrease. And when sinners are brought into the presence of God, I'll tell you they begin to trivel up to their proper size. I remember after I was saved up in Canada, I went to the Big Me Trotto conference in Matthew Hall where three thousand people used to meet for four days at each time for a wonderful conference. I had just gotten a shave in the brother of the name of Eunice June.
He's in heaven now, a wonderful preacher. Eunice June got up that afternoon and he ministered on that book. If I want be not, thou hast no part of me. In other words, Peter, you're my child. You belong to me. But Peter, you need your feet washed. Because Peter was questioning that. He said to the Lord, I don't have not washed my feet. I say that I washed it off. If I don't change your walk, you can have no part. Listen, if he didn't say you have no part in me, See within Christ that you can't have part with me in the work I'm doing on earth unless your walk is cleansed by my word in day to day.
And as you look to and spoke on that text, that I shall have no part with me in service unless daily your walk is subject to my precious word and under the cleansing influence of my word, you can't serve me in that way. For the longer he matured and spoke, the smaller I began getting. And I'm going to tell you, I believe, as there had been a one-year toll under that street, I had a tree to it. I got out of sight. Every word he said, he's coming right to me, and yet there were three thousand people there. A lot of people have said that I could straight out of you.
Some of them have said, he told you about me. No one told me a thing about you. The Lord knows everything. Not necessarily anybody telling me. The Lord knows it all. And if he wants me to sing a new verse, that's all he does. It communicates that to you. And he can do it. And if the Lord's speaking to you, If you feel singled out and you feel you're being belittled, then you take it from the Lord, not from any man. That's the Lord's dream. And it's marvelous in our eyes how God can singled out a man. How he can single out a woman. And how he can give a man a message that just takes their courses.
That's it. The Lord does that. May I tell you, build strength to realize the graciousness of God. He had to do this. What about Isaiah? Isaiah is that way of me and a man of unclean lips and a man of unclean lips and a man of unclean lips. From an eye has seen the cleaning of the Lord a face. He too was humbled as he saw the Lord. He gave the face of others in your Bible as Daniel. Daniel, he seemed five times on his face before the Lord. The Lord passed him each time. He's on his feet.
Take up Peter. Peter says, Depart from me, but I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Of course, that's the last thing Peter wanted the Lord to do. Depart from him. That would mean hell. For the Lord to depart from him. Peter didn't really mean, Lord. I don't want any of the devil in me. Get out of me. No, Peter says, Lord, I'm sure there will be. I just feel myself stuck with him, stuck with him, stuck with failure. I just don't deserve good company. I'm just a sinful man, O Lord. I don't belong in this study. That is it. There is no braggadocia about Peter. Peter was humble.
These are the people who get blessed. They're people who go around with their noses in the air, feeling them floods and torches. They're their blessings at any time. You might go on because of John in the Revelation. Where do you find John? He's on his face. In the Lord Antoine himself in chapter one of the Revelation, John fell on his face. That's where he belonged. On the ground. That's where we all belong. The Apostle Paul says, I'm the least of all things. And here's Gideon. Praise him. And the Lord revealed himself to Gideon. Gideon. Humbly sacrifice earlier.
If you want to be blessed, if you're not a Christian, it ain't for you to be as humble yourself as the Lord is saving. But if we are a Christian, a born-again Christian, and you want the Lord to use us, thank you, yourself. If you can't pour anything in a full vessel, the vessel can't you even pour plenty in. All the need for us to be intensely, directly. Don't be distressed or filled with sin. You'll notice the comfort in verse twenty-three after Gideon humbled himself in verse twenty-two. What did the Lord say? Am I pleased the Lord? And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee. In that night there is peace. Any children, hear not, any promise that I shall not die.
Three things in that one day. Peace, assurance, and promise. It's a wonderful day. It's a priceless commodity. Get it the scarce one of these days. All the people today who are seeking peace, they're seeking security. They want it, they long for it, they yearn for it, but where are they going to get it? Whatever you do, don't look to your government to bring about peace. Or any man in this world, nor any church. Only Jesus Christ can give you what you want. The absolute mockery for me to tell anyone who wants peace to go and join a church, or to go and get baptized, no friend, if you want peace, you'll find it only in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's a sense of peace. He came into this world to procure peace, and he alone can give you peace. being justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's willing to say to you tonight, give your humble and empty peace be unto you. That's what it said here, the connection of Gideon. Peace and fear not. Isn't that lovely? That's the issue. There's nothing to fear about fear. Fear not. There's nothing to be afraid of. Fear not. Then he says, Thou shalt not die, not a wonderful promise. Remember what the Lord said in John chapter eleven?
In verse twenty-five he said to Mary, Martha, I am the resurrection of life. Be the believer in me, shall never die. Never die! It says right here, thou shalt not die. Now that means to us. Our bodies will die, but we're saved will be christened on the resurrection morning. Thou shalt not die, but I give unto my feet eternal life-day shall never perish. You're not one with us. You will live forever spiritually with Jesus Christ, having a body like unto his own glorious body in that coming happy day. John five twenty-four, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that set me hath everlasting life.
There it is. Thou shalt not die. He passed from death unto life. First John five, thirteen, these things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. There it is. There is thou shalt not thou. How did all this end? Verse twenty-four. Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord. He built another one. He had the rock for an altar a little further up. But now after all this, then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it... Jehovah Shalom, meaning it is, and Lord, your friend, peace.
You have worship, wherever you have the altar, you have worship. Gideon worships the wonder it is. Let me say this, friend, that the Lord saves your precious soul. You know what it is that has peace, true, real, solid peace. Not anything superfluous, but the solid thing, the real thing. Some people get some kind of a satisfaction when they go and join the church, but then they don't know their sins forgiven. You've got to have a living contact with Jesus Christ. Taking the features Paul won't take you to heaven. You've got to be born again. You've got to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. There's got to be a definite experience.
There must be a new birth. When you have that new birth, then you have peace. The assurance you'll never die. isn't that enough to make any man or woman bow in his presence in worship? God Gideon did. In other words, that altar of Gideon built was simply this. Thank you, Lord, for shaving my face. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and so true. It is a threat to the great evolution of the world. It's yours if you want it. Thus, do you believe it? Do you do it now?
Do you do it now? That's it. Our Heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you think of our presence, we ask thy blessing, O my word, that something might be the look upon it and honor it We thank you for everyone who has shaved and reached them. May they, indeed, be light to value. That is, that light lives in the qualities of our God. Spending their time and their talents is out of giving stress to our glory.
Losing their light here, their chance only to gain it there. We pray for those who are not Christians who have never really passed from death unto life. do not know what the new birth is, may it be that tonight they will experience what? By opening their hearts to their saviour, admitting our Lord Jesus Christ into their very souls, God has fed us all back. As we say, be the humble of incense shall be exalted, for as if some may humble themselves right now, and have the exalted of that glorious position of the children of God.
We ask for giving thanks in our Savior's name. Amen. Let us sing the hymn number two hundred and thirty-nine. Not a very familiar one. Yes, the tune is known, I think, the most, but it's a lovely hymn. I used to sing this little hymn in the little church. I used to sing the way up in Canada. I never forgot it. Even just a boy. one of my favorite things. Have you any room for Jesus? He will bore your loaded sin. As he knocks and asks of mission, sinner, will you let him in? That's quite a question, isn't it?
It's a straightforward question. It's a question that you must answer either by opening your heart's door and letting him in or shut the door or keep it shut. Sinner, will you let him in? Room for Jesus, king of glory. Hasen now, his word obey. Swing the heart's door, widely open, bit of enter, while you may. We're going to stand if you found Christ and you haven't been touching yet for us. Will you do it? Or if you'd like to be saved, Father, make your desires known. Verse six and twenty-five. And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young Philip, even the second Philip of seven years old, and fold down the altar of Baal, that thy father hath cut down the grove that is by it.
And David also... ...with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had said unto him, And so it was, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the drove was cut down that was fire, and the second bullet was offered upon the altar that was built. And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing?
When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon, the son of Joach, had done this thing. Then the men of the city said unto Joach, Bring out thy son that he may die, because he has cast down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the grove that was by it. Joach said unto all that stood against him, Will he plead for Baal? Will he save him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death while he's yet mourning. Every day God let him free for himself, because one has cast down his altar. Therefore on that day he called him Gerobolo, or Gerobbeo, saying, Let Baal flee against him because he has thrown down his altar.
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East were gathered together and went over and pitched in the valley of Jerusalem. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abba Ezer was gathered after him. He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who also was gathered after him. And he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali, and they came up to meet him. Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, behold, I will put a feast of wool in the floor.
And if the dew beyond the fleece only and it be dry upon all the earth that died, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, but thou hast dead. And it was so, for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together and wring the dew out of the fleece a bowl full of water. Gideon said unto God, Slep not thy anger, he haught against me, I will flee but just once. Let me groove, I say thee, but just once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. God did so that night, but it was dry upon the fleece only.
There was dew on all the ground. You will not likely get into that very interesting incident of the dew until next Sunday night, God willing, to and to flee. Now in this chapter six of Judges, I think this is our fifth message on this chapter, verses one to six you have depression. The children of Israel are depressed. They're under the rule now of the Midianites. At the end of that verse six, Israel cried unto the Lord. Seven times Israel cried unto the Lord, and seven times God answered.
It goes to show that whatever man feels his need and cries out unto God, God will respond. God will react rapidly. He will react immediately. I did it on these old cases. Then in verses seven to ten you have the rebuking prophet who was very firm and very stern in his rebuking of his will, reminding them of all God's goodness and kindness and mercy toward them, and their stubborn redanniness was pumped, and you have the rebuked from the prophet. Then in verses eleven to twenty-four you have Gideon chosen. God is always looking for a man. When his people are in need, when there is something to be done, God is always on the lookout for the right instrument, the right channel that he may lay his hand upon, and are news at that time for his glory and for the benefit of his people.
We pointed out why God selected Gideon. Gideon was a laborer, while the rest of the nation was more or less in hiding, hiding in the dens of the rocks. They were punching and complaining and murmuring about God and about what God had permitted. But not so, Gideon. Gideon was down in that old abandoned wine press, and he was keeping out the little bit of wheat. He had something for himself, and later on he had something for God when he offered out of the guilt upon a rock. He was a laborer. He wasn't lazy, and that's why God selected Gideon. Not only was he a laborer, but he loved God's people.
He couldn't understand why God's people were passing through such times of trial and testing. And yet he knew they deserved it. He knew they had merited it. He knew they had wandered and prayed and this obeyed God. Yet he couldn't understand why God had permitted them to pass through such a time of trial and testing at the hands of their enemies. The manifestive love for God's people in pleading for them. Then the third thing we noticed about Gideon, he was lowly. Because I'm not fit. I'm not the one for you to use. Why get someone else? I came of a poor family, of a poor tribe, the tribe of Manasseh.
And so you have these three significant points. He was a laborer. He loved God's people and he was lowless. Then we notice how he communed with God. That lovely time of communion. When he offered that goat upon the rock and how he there had fellowship and communion with God. He was commissioned. God's permission. God says, now I want you to go. Go in this thy might. Gideon might have said, Me go, in my might. I know. I'll give you the strength to go. Gideon would have made the biggest mistake of his life had he gone in his own might, in his own strength.
Go in this thy might. It was God who gave him the strength to grow. God gave him the wisdom. For without him we can do nothing. And Gideon is permission to grow. Now we come to his courage. I think he went up to that point last Sunday night or two weeks ago tonight. Now we have Gideon's courage. And it's very remarkable to notice, even reading from verses twenty-five on, the courage of this young man. He begins at home. God says, the first thing Gideon and I want you to do is to go home and break down your father's idol. Your father is an idol of him.
He has came from the God of Israel, and he's an idol worshiper. He has turned the day, and he has his idol arrested in a lovely grove of trees. Now Gideon, before you can deliver my people, you start right at home. and knock down and destroy your father's idol and cut down the growth. That was quite a test, wasn't it? Begin at home, Gideon. You know, that's where God wants all of us to begin, right at home. Give up the idea of going as a missionary to some foreign country unless you've got a good testimony under your own roof and in your own family.
The Lord Jesus said to the man, the demoniac, Go home to thy sins and tell them how great things the Lord have done for thee. For the Lord had cast out the demons out of this demoniac, and he wanted to follow the Lord. That's very understandable. He was just delivered. He was happy. Christ had delivered him, and it's quite understandable he wanted the company of the Christ. But the Lord said, No. Don't get into the boat. We're leaving these shores. You go home to your friends and you tell them what great things the Lord have done to you. He had to go home. Why is it so hard for us to witness to the ones we know the most about?
Just because they know the most about us. And they're the hardest ones for us to witness to. But you know what it says in the Acts? When the disciples are commissioned, they're told to begin at Jerusalem. Then to the earth, then to the merrier, then the other most parts of the earth. What about it, Christian? Are you a good testimony at home?