Judges chapter 6, and we might choose our text, because that's what we'll focus on in verse 8, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, and so on in verse 8, that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel. which said unto them." We have been going through the book of Judges, and we have embarked upon this process believing that the book of Judges has something to teach us. It has something to say to the church of the 21st century. And we do acknowledge that the things that we find in the book of Judges are uncomfortable for us, because they outline the sins and the apostasies of God's people. The people who are highlighted and featured in the book of Judges were God's covenant people. and some of the things that are recorded in the book of Judges are far from pleasant. And we could easily attribute them to the heathen, but we must realize that they were things that were performed by God's covenant community. And we do believe that it has a lesson for us In some respects, it does mirror the church of today, because as we look at the wide-professing Christian church, it is far from ideal. It's far from what it should be. And therefore, we do believe that this book speaks to our own generation. We have come to chapter 6. We have come to a major part in The book of Judges deals with a major judge, Gideon, and we are simply going to look at the first section of this chapter tonight. Three times in over two and a half centuries, Israel had fallen into deep apostasy and idolatry. Three times in 250 years, they had been delivered over to their enemies. and their enemies had treated them dismally, and they were being, in some sense, chastised by the Lord because of their apostasy and because of their idolatry. The Lord had been so good to them, bringing them out of Egypt and putting up with their murmurings for 40 years, a generation in the wilderness, and then by the hand of Joshua, his servant, ultimately bringing them into the promised land. And in doing so, the Lord, working through Joshua, expelled seven nations out of that land, and the people of God were able to settle in the promised land. And there was not much for them to do after that, other than subdue the remnant of their enemies that were left, But as we know from the book of Judges, they failed to do that. And as a result, they fell into idolatry. And because, and this is a wonderful comfort to us, because the love of God towards his people is hot, it is passionate, he loves his people with an everlasting love. And when his people sin, and when they forsake the living God, and when they embrace false gods and false religions, God is not apathetic. He is not indifferent. Because that love is so hot and potent, he must do something about it. And of course, what he does is he raises up an enemy, And this enemy will chastise the people, and the people will become uncomfortable in their sinful situation. They will become uncomfortable under this foreign ruler and power to such an extent that they will cry out to the Lord. and the Lord will raise up a deliverer. So if you like, there's a two-fold prong attack by the Lord to deal with the situation. He delivers his people into bondage, but he also raises up a deliverer who will then oppress the oppressor and bring the people out of bondage. And that happened three times. in the two and a half centuries that we've looked at throughout the book of Judges. And after these times of apostasy, God sent them three judges, Othniel and Ehud, and the last one we looked at was Deborah. And following Deborah's judgeship, the land had 40 years of rest and peace and tranquility. But we begin by looking at chapter 6, and the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And here we find the cycle being repeated. And it's amazing to us. We look at this and we scratch our heads and we say, how can this possibly be? They never seem to learn from their mistakes. They never seem to learn from God's dealings with them. They never seem to sit down and look at the providence of God and to see the way he works. And the lessons never seem to be learned. It only seems to go skin deep. It does not in any sense change their behavior for any period of time. It's only for as long as the judge lives, the judge who had delivered them. that they seem to remain in a right relationship with God. But when the judge dies, any influence the judge had upon the people quickly evaporates, and they go back into their old pattern of sinful living, and they do not seem to learn from the providence of God one bit. I think a secular writer said something like this, we learn from history that we do not learn from history. And how true it is. It's easy for us to look at it when we see it written down before us. And we're amazed, but we must put ourselves into their situation. Is it not true, friends? On many occasions, we have been delivered from a sin, and after a period of time, we go back into committing that sin? That's exactly what they did here. And if we're honest, if we're open, if we look at our lives, if we examine them, is it not true? Is this not being your experience, Christian? You have committed a sin. Something's troubling you. Something's bothering you. You have fallen into a sin, a sin that so easily besets you. You've fallen into it. You, in some sense, have been chastised for it. You have repented. You have been delivered. You've enjoyed the Lord's blessing as such. You know that the thing has been forgiven. The relationship has been restored. But what do we find? After some period of time, that old sin resurfaces itself, and we plunge back into it, and we have to seek the Lord again to be delivered from it. Here we see it in a national scale, but if we're honest, if we're open, if we're frank with ourselves, if we're prepared to look into our hearts and to truly examine ourselves in the light of God's word, we will find And this is our own pattern. On many occasions, we fail to learn. We fail to heed God's dealings with us and to take His warnings and His punishments and His chastisements to our heart. Well, the people again were brought low, and we do want to look at the first sort of ten verses of this chapter here, where we have Israel's cry for help and God's initial response to that cry. The chapter itself could easily be divided into four complete and different sections. We have the first section, as I mentioned, Israel's cry and God's response to that. But then we have the angel of the Lord appearing to Gideon. That's a major part of this chapter. And then we have Gideon, who was tested by the Lord. We find that from verses 33 to 44. 25 to 32, and in the last section, 33 to 40, we have Gideon here as a leader, gathering an army about to fight the Midianites. But we want to look tonight at the first section, in the first 10 verses, where we have Israel's cry for help and God's initial response to that cry." Well, under this heading, we want to notice, first of all, Israel's predicament. Israel's predicament. And we can sum it up, really, in two words. They were brought low. Brought low. We are told the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years, And during that time, the Israelites would sow, sow their crops, and at the time of the harvest, the Midianites and the Amalekites and other children of the east would come. And when the harvest was ready, they would come and they would reap all the harvest. They would bring their camels and their cattle and everything they had, and they would pillage all that belonged unto the Israelites. And the Israelites were so scared, they had to run to the mountains and to the caves in order that they might hide themselves there and take whatever produce they had and hide it away from this invading horde of people. And if you can imagine, this was going on for year after year after year, seven long years. This was going on, and each time Israel was brought lower and lower and lower as their provisions were being systematically taken by the invaders. And of course, all this brought them extremely low, nearly broke them, and all because they had forsaken the Lord their God." There is a text in Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 60 at verse 12. This text ultimately refers to the church. It ultimately refers to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it refers to the success that the church shall have. And it refers to the opposition that any who oppose the church, ultimately what will happen to them? This is what this text is talking about. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish. Yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. Now, of course, friends, when we say that applies to the church, those who oppose the church, ultimately, the head of the church is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. So, ultimately, it refers to Him. And this is telling us quite clearly and plainly that if we will not serve the Lord Jesus Christ, if we will not acknowledge Him, then we can expect to be brought low. And, of course, this is what happened to Israel time and time again. They were delivered, but they went back into their old ways. And because they had forsaken the fount of living water, because they had forsaken the true God of Israel and followed other gods, they were brought low. And this would remind every single one of us, without exception, that if we will dabble in sin, if we will turn our backs upon the living God, if we will embrace sin and follow it, This will bring us low. There are inevitable consequences of sinning, especially for the people of God. Why do I say especially for the people of God? Because God loves His people, and He has their highest interest at heart. And His ultimate plan and purpose is to bring them to glory and to sanctify them and to make them holy and to make them fit and ready for heaven itself. And therefore, if the people of God indulge in sin, God, because He's God, because He loves His people, He must indeed act and chastise them. He will not leave them to continue in sin. He will bring them low. He will deal with them. He will take them to task. The same might not be said for the children of the world. Oh, we know that all sin shall be dealt with. God is God, and God cannot wink at sin, and God cannot, in any sense, sweep sin under the carpet. But it is true that the worldly and the unbelieving and those who are not in any sense in covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, when they commit sin, God in some sense will maybe overlook it for a time, for a season. They may go on in their sins for long enough. In fact, they may head into eternity and they may never be taken to task because of their sins. But of course, we know that God will deal with them in eternity. God is God. Sin is sin. Sin is offensive unto Him, and He will deal with it. With the believer, He will deal with it in time. And with the unbeliever, according to his own will, he may leave it. and deal with it in eternity. But the point we need to be clear about, friends, is sin will always bring us low. And this is what happened to God's chosen people, His covenant people. They were brought exceedingly low. We find here that there was Midian and the Amalekites and the children of the east. We notice here that there does not seem to be one leader. Instead, there seems to be just a throng and a mass of people. There's not one particular leader mentioned, as it was in other occasions. It just seems to be the people themselves uniting. The Midianites and the Amalekites and other children of the East, they come along and they do whatever they did around harvest time and took all the food for themselves and for their animals. But no one seemed to be actually leading them. I don't know if this has anything to bear or if it's anything for us to think about, but what is happening in Europe today? Do we not have throngs of people thrusting themselves upon the European nations? Do we not have refugees or migrants or whatever you want to call them, people coming from foreign lands in their hordes? There's not one particular leader. They're coming from different countries. They're coming and they want to settle in Europe. They are whatever we might call them, maybe economic migrants, such as what was here, people who were coming only at harvest time, only for the good life, only to have the food of the Israelites, only to have the good things of the land. We know the issue of migrants is a complex issue. And maybe there is no parallels between what we have here, but maybe there is. Europe has indeed turned its back upon the living God. Europe has been blessed. Did we not have the Reformation? Did we not have the wonderful, glorious preaching of the gospel? And was not Europe delivered from the darkness of Romanism years and years ago? And has not Europe benefited from an open Bible and the preaching of God's Word? Yet, friends, we are turning our backs upon these wonderful and hard-fought and one-spiritual blessings, and now we find There are hordes coming, economic migrants, looking for the good life, wanting to share in the life that Christianity, yes, we will say it, which Christianity has brought to Europe. And now Europe is turning its back on Christianity. Are there lessons? Again, it's a difficult issue. We cannot be dogmatic. But this we can be dogmatic about. Whatever is happening, the hand of God is in it. Whatever is happening has in some sense been decreed by God. And whatever is happening, although we might not be able to see it, whatever is happening, it will ultimately be for the advancement of Christ's cause and Christ's kingdom. It may well be that the church in Europe might begin to waken up and see in these migrants who are coming a wonderful opportunity to preach the gospel to them. Because no doubt many of them are bringing a foreign religion with them, and they don't know anything about real, authentic Christianity. Possibly, friends, it's an evangelistic field that has been opened up for the church. That may be a possibility we cannot say. But we are confident that all these people coming, there must be a plan, there must be a purpose, there must be a goal. And we do believe that God is working His plans and His purposes out, even although we may well be ignorant of them. So Israel was brought low, and Israel cried out. And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, verse 6, towards the end, And again, verse 7 says much the same thing, when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites. But we want to notice, secondly, after Israel's cry, we want to notice God's response. God's response. And this is where we find our text in verse 8. that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel. In previous occasions, when the Israelites had cried out to the Lord, God had immediately intervened, and he sent forth a judge, a deliverer. But in this occasion, before he goes to seek to deliver his people, He sends them a preacher. Totally unexpected. And we can be sure by the people of Israel, not wanted. They didn't want to hear. The preacher begins by preaching, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up out of Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of bondage And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and draved them out from before you, and gave you their land. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice. We might briefly say there that the prophet, whoever he was, the preacher, we do not know, he briefly rehearsed the history of Israel and God's dealings and how God dealt with Israel, bringing them out of Egypt, bringing them into the Promised Land, providing for them, delivering them on other occasions, but they had not learned the lesson. But ye have not obeyed my voice. Is there any significance in the fact that God, in this occasion, sent a preacher to his people before he delivered them? Well, we do. There are always reasons. And the reason God sent a preacher to the people was that they might repent. You know, it's one thing to cry out to the Lord. It's one thing to be under bondage. It's one thing to recognize the fruit of their sin. The fruit of their sin was they were in bondage, but the prophet was sent that they might recognize the root of their sin, that they might see that the reason they were in bondage was because they had forsaken the living God. They were only looking at consequences. They did not go back to the root. And this is what the prophet was sent to do, that they might be awakened, that they might repent, not just cry out to the Lord. The hand of God was heavy upon them because of their idolatry, but they didn't seem to grasp it was their sin that brought about The bondage they were under. And this is typical, friends. The people of God did not want to get to the root of the problem, or as we might say, the heart of the matter. They were simply looking at the fruit and not looking at the root. So what does this teach us when God sent a preacher first, or a prophet, before he would send deliverance? Well, this would teach us, friends, that if we are to look for the Lord to move and to work in our day, we must recognize that we need preachers. This is what we need. This is what the church needs. This is what the nation needs. We need preachers sent by the living God, filled with the Spirit of God, full of love towards the Lord Jesus Christ. full of the fear of God to declare God's message to the church and to the nation. And God ordinarily will do nothing. You will not see any change in society. You will not see any change in the church until preaching is restored to the place that God has given to it in the church. You know, churches may do this, and they may do that. They may have music nights. They may have concerts. They may have soup kitchens. They may have all kinds of things. And some of these things are better than others, friends. But you must realize that until God sends preachers, there'll be no Reformation. There will be no revival. There will be no quickening in congregations. You will not see society changed or communities changed until you hear preaching. And if churches forsake preaching, they cannot expect God's blessing. Faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. That's the way it is. That's the way God has ordained. Look, friends, at church history. Look at biblical history. Look when God has sent blessing. It's always come by the preaching of God's Word. And when He has sent forth preachers who are filled with His Word and Spirit, then the preaching is blessed. And then there is transformation. And that's why, friends, as a church and as a congregation, this should be uppermost in our minds, that God might bless the preaching of His Word, that God would send more preachers into the harvest field. You know the well-known words that Jesus said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. This is the great need of our hour, that indeed God would visit us. and give us preachers, and give to the preachers He already has His Spirit, that oh, when His Word is proclaimed, it might be with power, it might be with authority, and that it would be accompanied by the Holy Spirit, that He would drive that Word deep down into people's hearts. The preacher was sent to awaken the people. They had cried out to the Lord, but they simply wanted to be delivered from the ill effects of their sin. But there was no repentance, no willingness to forsake their sins. And friends, is this not the way it is in the church today? We're talking about the church in a broad sense. Where is the talk of sin? Where is the preaching of sin? Where is the need of repentance? Did not John the Baptist, did he not begin his ministry, repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand? Did not the Lord Jesus take upon himself much the same words, repent? Who will ever embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel unless they know they need a Savior? Who knows they need a Savior but a sinner? How can they know they're sinners unless they're confronted with their sin? This is what the prophet was seeking to do here, to open up their understanding that they might see the error of their ways. Where do we stand today? Ourselves. Every single one of you want to avoid hell. Not one of you want to spend eternity in hell. You want to be delivered from the consequences of your sins. That is true. But do you want to be delivered from your sins? This is something different. Do you see how terrible it is to sin before the living God? Do you not see how He looks upon it, that sin is an offense unto Him? We all hate the effect of sin, and the ultimate effect of sin is a lost eternity. We all hate that. But by nature, friends, we love our sins, and that's what we must be delivered from. And this is the great task of the preacher under the Holy Spirit, that he must bring these things to your attention. And this is what we find here. He was seeking, obviously, under the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, to awaken repentance in them, that they would forsake their sins. Well, you might think this is somewhat hard, but friends, even the preacher here and the message that he brought is full of grace and mercy. Because as he outlined, their sin. And as he outlined what they had committed against the Lord and the way they had treated the Lord, as he had done that, you might well have expected him to say, as a result of this, the following judgment's going to fall upon you. But we're told here that the sermon finishes quite abruptly. At the end of verse 10, for instance, but ye have not obeyed my voice. And would we not ordinarily expect then the prophet to go on to say, because you have not heard my voice, because you have not obeyed my voice, therefore this is going to happen to you? We don't find that. We don't find it. And immediately in verse 11, we're told, there came an angel of the Lord. When we would ordinarily expect more judgment to fall upon them because of their disobedience, what do we find? An angel of the Lord appears, and the Lord is about to bring about deliverance. Now that angel of the Lord, friends, and we'll look at this later on, that angel of the Lord is none other than the Son of God. It's none other than the second person in the blessed Trinity, appearing in the form of an angel. It is the pre-incarnate Christ that's appearing here. And he's about to bring about deliverance. And this does again remind us that all the time throughout the book of Judges, God is acting in a merciful and a gracious manner, well beyond what they could possibly expect, given the way that they had treated the Lord. Does this not indeed fit our situation? Does this not indeed fit today's situation? Who would ever believe that the Son of God would come, that He would so condescend and humble Himself take upon himself our nature, become like us. Why did he become like us? He became like us in order that he might suffer, in order that he might die, in order that he might redeem us, in order that he would pay the price that God demanded because God's law was broken. And the Son of God had to become a man in order that He might take up this broken law and pay the penalty of it and fulfill all its just demands. And that's what happened. Is it not absolutely amazing that the Son of God should have done this? That He should be our ultimate deliverer when we should rightly expect condemnation and wrath and judgment? Yet the Lord deals with us in mercy, compassion, love, and grace. Friends, this is the theme that runs through this book. And if you miss this theme, you miss what the book is all about. And we might say this theme runs throughout the whole of redemption. God never really treats us the way that we deserve. Until, until the lost will go to eternity. Then they will. But today is the day of grace. Today is the day when Jesus says, come unto me. Today is the day when He says in His Word, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's why we're not consumed, because God is a covenant-keeping God. Does He not say, look unto me? Be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. When we deserve to be cut off, he says, look unto me. Are you looking unto him tonight? Are you calling upon him tonight? Friends, this is the day of grace. Do not harden your hearts, the Bible says. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. We don't have any other days. We must deal with Him now. Come, therefore, and embrace Him, for He has sent the ultimate Deliverer, even Christ the Lord, to be our propitiation To bear the wrath of God and to cover our sins for all eternity. The Lord sent a prophet. Amen. May God bless His word to us. Let us pray together.