Judges chapter two, verse 11 through 19, then we turn over to the whole of chapter six. This is the word of the Lord. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals, or the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in terrible distress. Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies. All the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. Now, Judges chapter six. The people of God did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel. And because of Midian, the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east would come against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land as far as Gaza and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. They would come up with their livestock and their tents. They would come up like locusts in number. Both they and their camels could not be counted so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord on account of the Midianites. The Lord sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land. And I said to you, I am the Lord your God, and you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Orphra, which belonged to Joash, the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord, parenthetically, this is Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord in the pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. Verse 12, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor. Gideon said to him, please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian. And the Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Do not I send you? And he said to him, Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. And he said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speaks with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you. And he said, I will stay till you return. So Gideon went into his house and prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour, the meat he put in a basket and the broth he put in a pot and brought them to him under the tarimith and presented them. And the angel of God said to him, take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them on this rock and pour the broth over them. And he did so. Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, alas, O Lord God, for now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said to him, peace be to you. Do not fear, you shall not die. Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it stands at Orphra, which belongs to the Abizrites. That night the Lord said to him, take your father's bull and the second bull seven years old and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here with stones laid in due order. then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down. So Gideon took 10 men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night. When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down. And the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after they had searched and inquired, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing. Then the men of the town said to Joash, bring out your son that he may die for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it. But Joash said to all who stood against him, will you contend for Baal or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a God, let him contend for himself because his altar has been broken down. Therefore, on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, let Baal contend against him because he broke down his altar. Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon and he sounded the trumpets and the Abizrites were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they too were called out to follow him. And he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them. Then Gideon said to God, if you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand. Just as you have said. And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung out enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, let not your anger burn against me. Let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only. And on all the ground, let there be dew. And God did so that night, and it was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew. Amen, thus far the reading of God's word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer in this time. Gracious God and Father, oh, would you help us to understand your word? There is so much here, Lord. that, Lord, we can take away as instruction for our lives. Father, help us to give due weight to that which is most prominent and instructive to us. Father, would you be with us? Would you help us and grant us open ears and open hearts to receive your word? And grant me, Father, your anointing spirit to proclaim clearly, to communicate coherently, your will for our lives. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. The question before us, beloved, is simple, and it's this. What happens to a people that turns its back on God? What happens to a society that, having received God's favour, having been showered by God's blessing, abundantly rejects God and despises God? That question is answered repeatedly in the book of Judges. What comes about when a people, when this people, when God's people, Israel, disobey God is simple. It's judgment. God brings about financial, societal, political, economic, social consequences to Israel because of their spiritual disobedience, because of their rejection to God. There can be nothing good that comes about for a society that turns away from God. And I want you to see that takeaway, that application for us here today in this society that we live in. Of course, we have to understand that America is not Israel. America is not like the Old Testament theocracy. And yet, nevertheless, the principle applies. Depart from God's law. Depart from God. God will bring about judgments. but I want you to see not only the consequences for a society that turns its back on God, but two other points. I want you to see, secondly, that God has mercy upon his people. God shows forth his love for his people, even in their weak faith. God showing his love for Gideon here, representing us, the church, But then thirdly, not only the consequences for a society that abandons God, not only God's mercy for His people, but now God's call to His people, to faithfulness, to serve Him, to trust Him, to obey Him. Even if we are a remnant, even with weak faith, we are called by God to do what is right before His sight. So three points, first of all then, Judgment amidst apostasy. Here we're told that there is a cycle in chapter two of the book of Judges. There is a cycle that occurs. And it has four, sometimes five different aspects, depending on how you want to number them. But first of all, we see that God's people disobey God and go whoring after the false gods of the Canaanites, after the Baals and the Asherah. We'll talk more about what that involves later on. Secondly, God, in their disobedience, hands over this Israelite people to the nations that surrounded Israel, that Israel refused to conquer. And then third, what happens as they are oppressed? Midian oppresses Israel for seven years, and other nations oppress Israel for longer periods of time. The people are oppressed, and they groan, and they cry out to God for deliverance, for mercy. And then fourthly, what does God do? He hears his people and he sends to them military leaders called judges. Judges in the book of Judges are not like our judges, judicial appointees that rule on law and interpret the constitution, right? That's not what a judge in the Bible is. The judge here is a military leader that leads God's people into salvation from their enemies and rescues them. And then fifthly, what happens in verse 19 of chapter 2, that during the lifetime of the judge, the peace of the land is reestablished. The people enjoy a kind of prosperity, a kind of peace, a kind of security, socioeconomically, politically, right? No invasions occur. There's a kind of religiosity here. during the lifetime of the judge. But when the judge dies, what happens? The cycle begins anew. And again, and the people become even more corrupt as they depart from God once more. And this is a cycle that begins right after Joshua dies. And it continues all the way throughout the book of Judges, into the book of Ruth, into the book of Samuel, 1 Samuel. It's not just a cycle, but it's a spiral. As the cycle continues, the people become more and more darkened in their sin. Leaving God. Rejecting God. Rejecting God's favor. How many times can the people do this? Before being cast out by God. It's in that spiraling, it's in that cycle, as it were, that Gideon's story is given to us. We pick up in verse 1 of chapter 6 that Israel has disobeyed God and God has given them to Midian for seven years. Israel, as a result of their spiritual disobedience, suffers financial, economic, social, political oppression. So much so that Israel has to stash away their crops and their harvest. Because Midian comes in as locusts, a reminder of God's plagues upon Egypt. Instead of Egypt now, we have Israel being plagued in judgment by God. Midian comes in as a raiding party and it picks Israel clean. They pick out Israel's crops and livestock. And they pillage Israel time and again. And what's interesting here with the Midianites is not that they want to kill or destroy Israel. They don't. They want to keep Israel on life support. They want to keep Israel alive so that they can continue to exploit Israel, continue to invade Israel. Keep working. Keep slaving for us. Keep growing agriculture that we can then steal. And amidst this oppression for seven years, Israel, we're told in chapter 6, verse 6 and 7, Israel was brought very low and the people of Israel cried out for help to the Lord. Help us God! Help us! And as a result, God sends them a prophet in verse 8 to declare to them, God's goodness. God has been good to you. God has been abundantly merciful to you. God brought you out of Egypt from the house of slavery. God brought you into this promised land full of milk and honey. Let's not get the plot line mistaken or wrong. God is good. But why has this come about? The very end of chapter six, verse 10. but you have not obeyed my voice. You suffer all of these judgments, all of this temporal material, earthly political oppression. Why? Because you have not obeyed my voice. You've forsaken God. And so what did you think was going to happen? Israel, what did you expect when you disobey God? And as a result, what happens? The lens of Scripture focuses in and narrows in and zooms in away from the broad society of Israel, now to a man of Manasseh and Israelite named Gideon. And Gideon now, we're told, is hiding, fearful, stashing away wheat, threshing it on the wine press in his hometown. And the angel of the Lord appears, right? Jesus Christ, in his pre-incarnate appearance here, appears and manifests himself to Gideon. And it's kind of, you know, tongue-in-cheek, O mighty man of valor, the angel calls out to Gideon, O mighty man of valor, fearfully stashing away the wheat. And Gideon says, why has this come about? The Lord is with me, the Lord is with us. What are you talking about? Why has this happened? The Lord is not with us. Where's the God of our fathers? Where's the God who has provided for us? The God whose wondrous works we've heard about, but we haven't seen. So Gideon doesn't understand the very basic nature of how this works. He's complaining to Jesus because of the socio-economic political hardships he and all of Israel are suffering. And he doesn't see that the peace and prosperity that Israel had previously enjoyed were the fruit of the Christian faith that had long been passed with the passing of Joshua. That Christian faith has long been non-existent. And as a result, because the root of the Christian faith has been taken away, the fruits of the Christian faith are also being taken away in judgment. People of God, you cannot have, you cannot enjoy, a nation, a society cannot enjoy the fruit of Christianity for long without the root of the Christian faith. Without a heartfelt commitment, love, and worship of the Lord as God alone, we cannot have economic, social, peace, prosperity, freedom, liberty, law, order, respect, neighborliness. In our day, consider what is happening. Consider our own condition. Our societal, financial, political collapse, and it's not like a one-time thing, it's just like cascading on itself, is indicative of our continuous spiritual ruin. Think about our society. We are a debtor nation. We don't own anything. We owe everything. We are overrun by disorder, by lawlessness, not only in the streets, in urban areas, but in the halls of power. We refuse to police our own border. We're enslaved by our luxury, our decadence, our abundance. There is no moral courage in this land to do what is right before God's sight. We are given the leaders we deserve. Our society is literally collapsing. Infrastructure literally collapsing. The things we've built in the past, we cannot maintain. Bridges, aircraft, clean water. The things we've produced are so often used to oppress people here in this country and abroad. Think of social media apps. We despise our bodies. And so we're discontented with God, we slice them up. We despise children because they remind us of our obligation to God. So we murder them and we slice their bodies up. We despise true honor and moral responsibilities and our duty before God. We reject the way God has created the world. We hate ourselves. We're embarrassed and we're ashamed of the Christian faith. We are open to believing every lie and we are suffering great societal ruin at every level. So let's connect the dots, beloved. Why is this happening? Why is this happening? Ask yourself the question. Why is this happening? The answer must be given from God's word that this is happening because we have left God. We have despised God. We have turned our backs to God. Jeremiah 2.13, this people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. And one of the great problems in our day is not just our moral evil before God, but it's that we have, having tasted the fruits and the consequences of the Christian faith, we want those things again without God. We want the goodies without God. We want the gifts without the giver. We don't realize that the only reason, the only reason our society has been blessed, this country has been blessed, so blessed is because not only in the past, but in the present, God has been gracious to us. God has been gracious to us. God blesses a people who serve him and do what he commands. And we've been living off of that inheritance. We've been spending down our inheritance that has been given to us by our forebears. Our great problem is not so much the loss of societal blessings. That is a problem. That's a huge problem. All the devastation we're seeing in our society, our big problem, beloved, is that we reject God. We have cast Christ out, out of our nation, out of sight. Get out, get back in the closet, God. and everything that's in the closet, come out! We have worshiped, we have pursued Satan, we have done evil in God's sight, we have despised God's law, and we have despised his good ways. We would rather believe the lies of hell than the life-giving truth of God. As a society, what did Israel say? We will not have God rule over us. Not Yahweh, not God. And so God sends them other nations to rule over them. That's the same thing that's happening today, beloved. We as a society have said, we will not have God rule over us. What do you think is going to happen? Beloved, this is a principle from scripture that you must understand applies at every single level. Not just person, when a person turns from God, what can they expect? Blessing? Goodness? Their cup to overflow? When a family turns away from God, when a neighborhood turns away from God, when a church turns away from God, how about a society and a culture and a nation? Nothing good happens when we turn our backs to God, but we have only misery and judgment from on high. But you need to see even here in this first point, the word of the gospel, the word of mercy, the word of salvation. If this is where we are, what's the way back home? We were just talking about this the other day at men's meeting, how simple it is to turn back to God and it's found in verse 10. What got you here is that you have not obeyed my voice. So what's the way out of this misery? It's so easy and yet it has been left untried, but it's always been their presence right in front of us. The way back is the way back to God. His hand is never too short to save. God says repeatedly in Isaiah 55. And so what does repentance look like? Repentance means you turn from sin and you return to God. You turn, you're going one way in sin and in lies and in your own misery and in the death that you so desire. But you realize by the power of the spirit of God that that is death, that is destruction. And so you must turn from that. And now you must return to God. You must do a 180 degree in your life, in our society, in our nation, in our culture. Put off evil, put off idolatry. Don't double down in your sin. Don't worship everything in creation, but delight once more in obeying God, his law. And God will have compassion on us. God will have compassion on us. Isaiah 55 verse 6 and 7, God says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. So you see how it works? Repentance isn't just, you know, skin deep from the outside out. No, his thoughts, his innermost being, his heart must be turned to God and let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 1 verse 18 and following, come now, God says, come, come, let us reason together. He tells Israel who are sick from head to toe, full of the cancer of sin. And God says to our nation as well, to our society as well, come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be taken by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Beloved, this is the call of God, not only to us as persons, as individuals, to us as a church, but to us as a nation. to us as a nation. We must turn to God, not in the first instance to receive once more those material blessings we have lost. No, we must turn to God in the first instance, not to have our own agenda filled. We turn to God because God alone is worthy of our worship, worthy of our lives, worthy of our love, because Jesus Christ is better than life. Beloved, we want as Christians, both the root of the Christian faith and the fruit of the Christian faith. We want to see both and beloved, let us never pit one against the other. But a true reformation cannot be simply a matter of only public policy and laws. A true and lasting reformation must begin in the heart of man. a true turning to God who will have mercy on sinners who cry out to him. So firstly, what are the consequences of turning away from God? We see them here in Judges. We see them here in the life of Gideon and in Israel, oppressed by the Midianites. But secondly, we see not only judgment, we see God's mercy upon Gideon. I love reading the book of Judges, what a comfort it is. Because Gideon is like us in so many ways, right? And yet God uses the unlikely, the flawed, the unexpected for his purposes. Look at Gideon here. He is a fearful man, even though in chapter six, verse 12, he's called a mighty man of valor. He's fearfully hiding away wheat from Midian. In verse 15, He is fearful. He says, Lord, how can I save Israel? Who am I? He's fearful to lead Israel. And then in verse 27, we're told that God tells him to destroy the altars of Baal and Asherah, the statuette, and he is fearful to go by day. Not only is he a fearful man, he also doesn't understand what's led to Israel's ruin, right? He says, if the Lord is with us, Where's the God of our fathers? No, God is with you. God has not moved. God is in the same place he's always been. God hasn't forsaken his people. His people have forsaken him. The cause of Israel's misery does not lie with God, but with us and our sins. And then thirdly, Gideon misunderstands the qualifications for leadership. He says in verse 15, I'm the least in Israel, right? He says, My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house. I can't be used of God. Who am I that I should go? If only I was more prominent, if only I was more eloquent, if only I had more respect and greater statue in Israel, God then could really use me. The assumption that Gideon makes here is that God relies on human strength, that God relies on human power, that God needs numbers to do his will. Does God need numbers to do his will? No. God needs himself to do all of his holy will. And so God tells him in verse 15, do not I send you? And then again in verse 16, but I will be with you. Don't you know who is with you? Gideon, Jesus is with you. In this world, you will have tribulation, you will have affliction, but be of good cheer for Jesus has conquered the world. And here's what's so remarkable about Gideon, is that he has faith in God. It's weak, it's like tenuous. We would never say, oh, this is a model of faith, even though Hebrews 11 says it is. It's slightly pitiful and downright pathetic, and yet he believes God's promise. And more than this, God is not angry with Gideon. God is not angry. God is not impatient. God is not weary with Gideon. In fact, God is so merciful that he invites, he invites his servant to come and ask of him signs, tokens of his goodness. That's what Gideon does in verse 17. He says, if now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speaks with me. And he comes and prepares a loaf Bread and meat. And the angel of the Lord is given a meal. As it were, Gideon shares a meal with Jesus and Jesus consumes it. Literally, he touches with the tip of his staff the meal and it's burnt. And Jesus at that point disappears and Gideon realizes that this was God himself. And then at the end of the chapter, Gideon remarks, he asks for another sign. Okay, Lord, if you are with me, if you are with me, I'm gonna take this fleece, this little cloth of wool, I'm gonna put it in this field, and I want the fleece to be wet and the ground to be dry. And it happens the next morning that it is so. And then Gideon asks again, now make the fleece remain dry, but the ground wet with dew. Right? And you wonder, how much more do you need Gideon? Right? You're wearying God. You're exasperating God. Except that God is not exasperated. God is not wearied by Gideon's faith, weak as it is. Gideon, as it were, says, I believe you. but help my unbelief. And isn't that what we say, beloved, as Christians? Lord, we believe in you, but help thou my unbelief. And what does God do? He meets us in our condition. He meets us in our weak faith, and he signs and he seals his love for us to strengthen our faith, to establish our feet upon Christ, to stabilize our lives in him. God does not consume you. God does not say, well, get away, I've given you enough already. Every day we're told God's mercies are new every morning, which is to say that every new morning is a sign and seal, is a token of God's goodness and love. We're given the tokens of God's goodness in so many ways in how we live in our children, in our friendships, our relationships. Eating food is a token of God's goodness. Time after time, God says, I love you. I love you. I am with you. I strengthen you to serve me, to obey my word. And of course, in the signs and seals of the covenant. in holy baptism and in the Lord's Supper. These are not bare signs. These are not empty rituals, right? We just celebrate the Lord's supper every month, the bread and the wine, the bread and the wine. No, you need to see Jesus here at the table. And he says, come and eat with me. Why? Because now as I did with Gideon, I am at peace with you and I strengthen you. I have given you myself, my very body and blood. And now we are sharing a meal of fellowship. to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The signs and seals of the covenant, holy baptism, and the Lord's supper are the very love, peace, and grace of Jesus Christ made tangibly manifest. And not only does God point us to the work of Christ on the cross, but he nourishes us. That's part of the Lord's supper that we can oftentimes overlook. That now being strengthened with the very presence and power of Christ, we are now to go forth and serve the Lord. What happened to Gideon, right? When that meal that he prepared was consumed by the angel of the Lord, now God says, because you know you are at peace with me and I will not consume you, do not be afraid, go and destroy the altar of Baal. Go serve God by putting off the idols that are in your house. After the sign and seal of God's covenant love with the fleece and the grounds, what does Gideon do in Judges 7, the next chapter? He gathers all the armies of Israel. And now he can start that battle, that warfare against Midian that God has called him to. In the confidence that God is his God, that God loves him, Gideon goes forth and serves the Lord. And beloved, can I tell you something? Your faith will be weak as long as you doubt God's love, as long as you waver, as long as you are not assured. your faith will remain weak and weakened. Does God love me? Are my sins forgiven? Does he love me? Does he love me not, right? Like the high schooler does, you know, picking the petals from the daisy. He loves me, he loves me not. That's not our God. Our God says, I love you. And how do you know that I love you? I've given you my very son. Oh, but beloved, how converse is the truth that we will be bold for Christ when seeing the signs and seals of his love for us. We are assured of his promise and power and we go forth and we serve Christ. God loves me. My sins are forgiven. I am counted righteous in Jesus Christ. And I go forth in the assurance of his presence and of his power and of his covenant promise. And I go serve the Lord. And I don't spend billions of my life, years of my life that I don't have wondering, you know, am I loved, am I forgiven? You are in Jesus Christ and we say amen and amen to it. We declare what God has declared, that in Christ we are washed, we are transformed, we are strengthened now to go forth and serve him. We see God's mercy, we see God's love. But now thirdly, God calls us to be faithful to him. And for Gideon, what does that mean? Verses 25 through 32. Our faithfulness to God means we must destroy the altars of Baal and Asherah in order to reestablish the true worship of God. This altar, to Baal and Asherah is everything in Israel that brings forth God's judgment. And where is it found? Where is it found? It's not out there. It's in Gideon's own household. It's in Joash, his father's household. And we oftentimes talk about Baal. There's a lot there that we can't say here, but let me say it in a very PG-13 sort of way. Baal was a Canaanite deity. He was a god, all right? He was a male god of lightning and rain. And Asherah was his female companion, a female goddess of earth and fertility. And the Canaanites believed that in order to have agricultural life on earth, right, they needed to mate. They needed to have sexual intercourse. These gods, Baal and Asherah, And in order to help them, the cult of Baal, the religion of the Canaanites said that people had to imitate the gods so that what happened on earth was supposedly what occurred in heaven. And by committing, by engaging in Baal worship, by having this altar and this statuette here, Israel was committing spiritual adultery, whoring after Baal by literally committing actual adultery and fornication with the priests and priestesses of Baal and Asherah who were basically prostitutes. And this is in Gideon's house. This is in Joash's house. You see the old altar to sin had to be destroyed and in its place, a new altar has to be built, an altar to the one true living God. Beloved, what's the lesson for us? The lesson for us is what salvation can we expect? What can, what salvation of God can we enjoy if Baal's altar and Asherah's statue remain standing in our hearts and in our homes? No, beloved, we must get rid, we must get rid of our bails in our Asherahs, in our lives, in our hearts, in our households. If we want God to work in and through us, God says judgment begins in the household of God. Before spiritual battle with the enemy out there, what have you done to war with the spiritual enemy within? What witness? What witness? Can Gideon have, right, repentance, belief, faith in God, faithfulness, and yet in his household, there's an altar to Baal. Beloved, what witness can we have as a church, can we have in our walks with the Lord, if in our households, if in our lives, we live no different than Baal worshipers, if what we believe about the purpose and joy of life is precisely what they believe. Come and join the church. Come and turn to Christ so that Christ can make no difference in your life. Really? Is that the gospel we share? Christ saves us to now let us loose. To return to Baal? No, it can be very easy, beloved, to focus on Midian. But don't lose sight, not only of Midian, but don't lose sight of Baal. You must destroy the altars of Baal in your home, in your heart. You must put away those things that are inconsistent in your life. We must put away that which brings about God's displeasure and judgment. You must put away sins in your life, in your family, and daily return to God. This is what happens. This is what Gideon understands, that man cannot serve two masters. It's either gonna be Yahweh or Baal. It can't be Yahweh and Baal. And so much so that in verse 28 of chapter six, the men of the town, the Israelites, they realize what's happened to their precious idol, Baal and Asherah, and they come storming to do a forensic inquiry. Who's done this? Gideon has done this. Gideon must die. Joash, bring out your son. He must be put to death. This is the irrationality of sin that Israel has internalized the idolatry of Canaan. According to God's law, the idolater should have been put to death, not Gideon. Instead here is a man who wants to honor God and do what's right. He's going to be put to death and yet Beloved, you must stand, you must stand fast in the midst of this great apostasy, where so many things are collapsing into spiritual ruin. You must stand for God, even if you don't win a popularity contest at home, even if you don't win a popularity contest at work or in your neighborhood, because you must stand for God, because God is so often pleased to use your courage and your stance and your valor for His truth to win unbelievers to himself. This is what we see in the text. Joash was the idolatry. This was Joash's Baal in Asherah. And yet, what does Joash say? What have I done? How powerless is my God? How impotent is Baal? How false has been my life and my religion? I've been living a lie. I don't even have courage to stand up for Baal. Baal can't even stand up for himself, but my son, my son is different. My son has a supernatural courage of fearlessness because the God he serves is real. And so I must go to Yahweh because Yahweh alone is alive. People of God, God calls us to be faithful to him. God calls us to be faithful to him, no matter what may happen. Don't depart from God's law. You know God's word, it's in your mouth to do. It's not in heaven above, it's not in the earth below, it's near you. Deuteronomy says, Romans 10 says, we see, beloved, the consequences for a society that has turned its back on God. We see God's mercy for his remnant people as weak and pathetic as their faith may be. And we see that God calls us to be faithful to him. But then we see one more thing as we conclude. Gideon, but especially Judges, teaches us this very lesson. And it's a lesson that can oftentimes leave us with a lump in our throats. The clock can't be turned back. The clock can be turned back. The time for full conquest was way back when Joshua was alive. We can't go back to some golden age in the past God doesn't turn, when you come to God, God doesn't turn back the clock of all the years you've wasted. This is a lesson you figure out very quickly. God doesn't immediately zap all the regrets you have that you've accumulated because of your sin. God doesn't always heal the body that's been given over to past sins and decadence. God doesn't return to you the relationships you've destroyed in the past, not always. If you have those material blessings again, then praise the Lord for them. Praise God. But you know what God gives each and every one of us? He gives us himself. He gives us his son, Jesus Christ. He gives us forgiveness of sins and peace in our conscience. You know what else God gives you? He gives you today. Today. Whatever was past is past. But what are you going to do today? Will you serve God today? Or will you continue your way today? Will you love the Lord with the life He has given you today? to walk in the way of his commandments and to know the blessing that obedience alone brings. Amen, let us pray. Our Father and our God, could you help us and give us the wisdom that we so desperately need? And Father, not just wisdom, but the strength to do what's right, to do what's clear, Father, there is much gray in this life. There are many things that are complex and complicated, but Father, the most important things are easy and straightforward. Father, let us not find an enigma or a mystery or a puzzle where you have clearly revealed your will. Help us, Lord, to follow and to run in the way of your commandments, to delight in obeying you and to do what is right. And Father, for each and every one of us, Father, myself included, to put off those inconsistent ways of living and relating to you and to others. Father, would you help us? We are weak, strengthen us. Prone to wander, Lord, we feel it, prone to leave the God we love, so take our hearts, oh God, and seal them, and seal them with thy love and with thy courts from above. And Father, in the place of disobedience, grant obedience. In the place of faithlessness, grant great courage and belief and trust in You. And Father, revive us time and again, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.