Our text will be found in the chapter that we read earlier. We shall turn to Judges chapter 6 and our text will be found there in verse 12. Judges chapter 6 verse 12 for our text. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. the words of the angel of the Lord, and we're inclined to believe here that the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate Son of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, that is Gideon, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And the title for the meditation this morning, our time is going on, but the title is The Calling of Gideon. The Calling of Gideon. Israel had sinned. And as a result, we are told in the opening verses that The Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian. Seven years. That's what God does with his people. That's how God treated his people in times past. They had been taken out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, out of slavery. They had been ultimately brought into the promised land. A land flowing with milk and honey, a land that did not belong to them, but a land that the Lord gave to them in order that they might occupy it and prosper. And God was faithful to his word. He brought them out, and they were established. And in the book of Joshua, we find that they went in, they captured the land, and they settled in it. After Joshua and the elders had gone the way of all the earth, Israel sinned. They started to commit idolatry. They followed the gods of the nations that they had opposed and destroyed. And because of their idolatry, The Lord would visit them. He would chastise them. Too many people think that the Lord is some kind of sugar daddy who can do nothing that will upset people. That's not the God of the Bible. That's not the Christian God. And the Christian God who loves his people, when he sees them erring, he will intervene. He will do something. First of all, what does he do? He raises up preachers, and they go forth, and they tell people to repent and to believe the gospel and to turn from their sins. And if they will not listen to the preachers, then God will intervene. This is the God of the Bible. He will move and he will uproot people. He will do terrible things in order to chastise his people that they would come to a realization of their sin and that they might forsake their sin and be restored. And this is what happened here. What a terrible predicament Ezra was found in. For seven years, we are told, Midian came. Imagine how it would be, friends, if you were a farmer and you went through all the work that was necessary. You prepared your fields, you ploughed, you sowed, you watered, you fertilized, you did everything. And you were looking forward to that harvest when you would be able to feed your own family and you would be able to sell the crop to make money and to live. And as the harvest time came, foreigners would come in. with a load of others. We are told here that Midianites, verse 3, came up, and the Amalekites and the children of the east, they would come up year by year, and they would ransack the harvest, and they would send their animals in to eat everything. Terrible devastation was brought upon them year after year after year, and the people were impoverished. And this is the situation that we find there. And we find at the end of verse 6, and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord. Well, that's what happens. And that is what is designed to happen, that the people would be brought low in order that they might then call upon the Lord. Now we are not going to say for one moment that Britain is parallel with the Old Testament church. We're not going to say that. Britain is not the equivalent of the Old Testament church. But the church of the Lord Jesus Christ today is parallel. with the Old Testament church. And therefore, when we look at the Old Testament church and how God dealt with it, we can see that God would deal exactly the same with the New Testament church. And this is not going to be a sermon about Britain's problems, friends. No, we're not going to get involved in that, but nevertheless, The problems that Britain and the Western world are facing today is a problem because the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not what it should be. That's the reality. And if you look at the wide professing Christian church, all its various denominations or whatever, you will see that outwardly it is in a pathetic, poor state. Why? Because it's failing to preach the gospel, and it's failing to live the life that accompanies the gospel. And if there's any blame to be attributed to ourselves, then we must take it, and we must examine ourselves as individuals. Are we lively Christians? Would people know that we are Christians? Is there anything different in us, in our behavior and what we get up to? Or have we been just like Israel of old? Are we serving idols? Or we might not have groves outside our doors, we might not have images in our house, but we can have our idols. and the biggest idol that we will have is ourselves. But we want to look here, friends, at what God did when they cried out. What did he do? He sent a preacher. Verse 7, and it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet unto them. That's not what they wanted. They wanted deliverance. They were in a dire situation. They were hungry. They were poor. They were being ransacked by their neighbors. They wanted relief. But God, first of all, gave them a lesson in order that they might know Why they're in that condition? And this is something that must happen to us, to Britain. We must be made aware of why we are in the position that we are in. If you want to live a life without God, And that's what we get from the highest to the lowest in society today. We will not have this man to reign over us. Well, if you will not have Jesus Christ to reign over us, who will you have to reign over us? It will be the devil himself. And that's what's happening. We're seeing devilish things happening. Why? Because we have abandoned God. And God will have us know this. Before there will be any deliverance, this message will have to go forth. And however unpleasant it might be, people must be made aware of it. Here's the cause. Before there's going to be any relief, here's the cause. You must recognize your sin. You must recognize your part in the problem. Because there will be no relief until this message is brought forth. But then, after the prophet had spoken, you would think, well, there was going to be more judgment. But that was not the case. Instead, the angel of the Lord appeared and appeared to Gideon. And this is what we want to focus upon this morning. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Friends, we love Gideon. Gideon is one of the heroes of faith. He's in that great chapter, Hebrews chapter 11. And what we find here, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. Let's understand, let's get right back to basics. At this particular point in time, Gideon was far from being a man of valor. There was nothing really commendable in him at all. nothing whatsoever. It was by the grace of God that he was going to become a mighty man of valor. What can we say about him? He was one who hid from the enemies. His father was a Baal worshipper. He had an image in a grove. There's no indication that Gideon himself was one who worshipped Baal, but his father was and his household was. And what do we find here in verse 11? His son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. That was the only thing of valor that he had done up until this point. He was hiding from the Midianites. He was doing what he could in order that he might provide, but he was far from a man of valor. But here, the Lord was going to take him, and he was going to make him a man of valor, and truly he was. That's what happened. We know, as we've gone through this book before, some years before, that Gideon can be looked at in three ways. He was here somewhat a coward, but he became a conqueror. And then he became a compromiser. And more space is devoted to Gideon in the book of Judges than to any other judge. And what's so notable about Gideon is that Gideon is the only judge whose personal struggles with this faith are recorded. And they are recorded here for our encouragement today. And I'm particularly thinking maybe about those who have yet to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. And they're saying to themselves, and quite rightly so, they're saying to themselves, I cannot embrace Christ. I haven't got the strength. I could never stand up in this world and confess Him. Who am I to confess the Lord Jesus Christ? Could I withhold the world? Can I withstand the world? I haven't got the power." You're right. You haven't got the power, as Gideon hadn't got the power. He wasn't a man of valor at this time, but by the grace of God, he would be a man of valor. And this is what it is, friends. In the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are urged, every one of you, younger or older, man or woman, boy and girl, the gospel call goes out to you today. You are to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, you will have difficulties, you will have trials, you will have problems, but you will have the Lord. What does he say here? The Lord is with thee. Oh, friends, if the Lord is with you, what does it matter if the world is against you? If the Lord is with you, trials, tribulations, afflictions, disappointments will come your way, but if the Lord is with you, you can overcome all. Not in your own strength, but in the strength of the Lord. And why are you sitting on the fence? Why is it you know what is right? You know that you should embrace the Lord Jesus. You know that you should take up the cross and follow Him. You know it. It's been pressed upon you by myself and by many others. And indeed, your own conscience is condemning you. But why will you not embrace Him? When the promise is as it was for Gideon here, the Lord is with thee. Could any Christian live a Christian life today if it was not for the fact that the Lord is with us? Friends, when we embrace Christ, what happens? We have the whole of the world against us. You'll find your friends will disappear. You'll find your family will somewhat be estranged from you. You'll find all kinds of difficulties. Who could put up with that? Who could indeed? But if the Lord is with you, You'll find work colleagues will shun you, but the Lord is with you. And when you embrace Christ, what happens? What happens? Not only is the world against you, but The devil is against you. Oh, I hear some people laughing, the devil. Who's the devil? Is there a devil? Oh, there's a devil. You can be sure of it. The Bible does not make sense. If we dispense with the devil, he's real. And there's one thing he hates is Christians and the people of God and people seeking to live for the Lord Jesus in this crooked and corrupt generation that we find ourselves in. And the moment you side with Christ, you will know something of that evil one. He will attack you. He will be in a place like this, and he will seek to take that Word of God, that seed of the Word of God, out of your heart. The devil will say to you, that preacher there, you know he's a wee bit excited. He gets a wee bit emotional. You can't listen to him. What's the devil doing? He's taking the Word out of your heart. He doesn't want you to fight a good fight. He does not want you to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this is the kind of struggles that Gideon had here. And here he was, the Lord is with thee, the almighty man of valor. And he was going to be the one who would ultimately deliver Israel for a period. He was going to gather a great army, but the army would be whittled down because God did not want Gideon and his army to have the glory. And you know the story. From a vast army down to 300 men, they overcame the Midianites. Well, following this encounter and Gideon's commission and his task that was assigned to him, he had some questions and doubts. And we find them in the chapter that's before us that we read. And I want to highlight just one or two very briefly of these questions that Gideon posed. He recognized his weakness. Now that's positive. That's positive. That reminds us of Moses. Moses was called to go and bring the people out. I can't do it. I can't speak. I'm not sufficient for this. Get someone else. He resisted it. But he was called of the Lord his God. And anyone who is called by the Lord his God cannot resist a call. But if that person does recognize their weakness and how they are incapable in of themselves to undertake that task, that, friends, is a positive sign. And someone who rushes in and says, I'm called of God, and off they go, and they seek to fulfill that calling, there's something far wrong. Because anyone, anyone who's called to any kind of work that the Lord will give them, they will recognize that they're not fit, they cannot do it. But God can, and God was going to work through him. Well, I want to pose one or two questions that Gideon may well have asked, and that he does articulate in these verses that follow. First question maybe is, does God really care about us? We draw that really from the first 13 verses. Does God really care about us? Look what's happening to Israel. Look at this great people of God. Look at what God had done in times past, but here we are. We're impoverished. We're under the thralldom of our enemies. Can it truly be said that God cares for us? Well, we've answered that really in our introduction. He was chastising them. He had to rebuke them and to cause them to see the state that they're in and why they're in the state that they're in. But now he has come down to help them. And God does care. God cares for all his people. God cares for his cause. God cares for the Christian cause. Let us never doubt that for one moment. We may be going through difficult times in the Christian church, and that times and the difficulties are reflected in society. These things have happened before. They're nothing new in many senses. But we must never ever doubt that God cares. We're not going to say for one moment that God is worried or concerned because that would not be accurate. The God of heaven is one who is eternally blessed, but he does care for his cause. He does care for his church, and I put it to you before we press on. That God has shown the great love that he has for mankind and for the Christian church. Why? The Lord Jesus Christ has suffered and died for the church. Does God really care about us? Yes, he does. And he cares that much that he's prepared to act. That's what Gideon found out. The second question maybe is, does God know what he's doing? And maybe, if you want to reread this later on, that would sum up what we find in verses 14 to 24. Does God really know what he's doing? Why me? Gideon says, why me? Who is my family? We're small, we're weak. What can we do? Now that's positive indeed. Too many people think they can do everything. But Gideon recognizes the task before him was enormous. There was a great enemy and they had been visiting the country for seven years and ravaged it so that there was poverty stricken. This was a great undertaking that was required. Why me? Does God really know what he's doing? And then, of course, what happens? We have the encounter with the angel of the Lord. And as we said, we believe the angel of the Lord here was a pre-incarnate son of God. And he came down, and Gideon entertained him. And Gideon went on then and provided something for him. And the food was offered up as a sacrifice. And by this time, Gideon recognized that something wonderful was happening before him. He was looking for assurance of what happens. He's full of fear. Why? Because he has seen the image of the Lord and he lived. The Jews believed that if they saw God, they would die. But here was Gideon who had entertained the image of the Lord, yet he lived. And God did know what he was doing. And he gave him this encounter in order that he might be encouraged to undertake that great task that the Lord had called him unto. The third question might be found, again, you should read these verses later on, but from verse 25 to verse 32, will God take care of me? If I undertake this, will God take care of me? Well, Gideon was appointed a test. What was that test, you may say? Well, verse 25, take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it. What happened here? Well, Gideon had been commissioned to be the one of man of valor who was going to destroy the Midianites. But before that, here was a test in order that Gideon might truly know and understand and believe that God was with him. Here was this test. Go to your home. Go to your father's house. You see that religious nonsense he's got there? Destroy it. And he did. We are told here that he could not do it by day, but he did it by night. Again, we have here Gideon revealing he is somewhat timid. Now, we're not going to criticize him here because the Lord did not tell him to do it during the day. The Lord told him to do it. And although he was somewhat fearful of doing it during the day, he did it at night. So what's the lesson we're to derive from it? The lesson is quite clear. He was obedient. He did what the Lord had asked him to do. The Lord did not specify that he had to do it during the day. And here we have the weakness of the individual. And this may encourage us. It may encourage you. No one is saying it's going to be easy to be a Christian. No one is saying that. If you hear anyone saying that to you, friends, you need to watch out because they're not telling you the truth as it is in Jesus. It's not easy, but it is doable. And here he was given a test. And he passed the test with flying colors. And we're inclined to believe, friends, that his behavior inspired his father, because his father, who had been a worshiper of Baal, his father stood up and defended him. Verse 31, for instance, will you plead for Baal? These people wanted Gideon to be put to death. His father defended him. Will you plead for Baal? Will ye save him? He that will plead for him, let him be put to death while it is yet morning. If he be a God, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar. Does this not remind you of what the great prophet Elijah said to the people? If he's a God, let us see him working. So it is here. If he's a God, let him defend himself and stand up for himself. What is the lesson then? What is the lesson here? Well, Gideon was given a simple test. He went to his own home, his own family, and he stood up for the Lord there, which can be sometimes, friends, the hardest place to have a Christian witness and testimony in your home. And as he fulfilled that task, the Lord was with him. Surely then that would encourage him when he would go on to do greater things, that the same Lord would be with him. And therefore, when we take up the cross and we don't know what lies ahead of us, we don't know, but we do know that the Lord will be with his people. He will watch over his people. He will take care of them for their good. God is a covenant-keeping God. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And lo, I am with you until the end of the world." That's what he said to his disciples when he commissioned them. And that was not confined to the apostles and to the early church disciples. That's a promise that is valid today as it was then and will be until the end of time. God will watch over his people. Well, finally, friends, the fourth question that may well be asked here is, does God keep his promise? Does God keep his promise? We live in a day when promises are easy made. Politicians make promises, and sadly, The likelihood is they never intended to keep them. They break them so easily. But God is not a man that he can lie. And his promises are sure, and you can rest upon them. Not one word of the Lord shall fall to the ground. The battle was about to begin, verses 33 to 40. The enemy had been assembled. The Spirit of the Lord, verse 34, came upon Gideon. He began to blow a trumpet and gathered others, others who would come with him. And what does he find? Abieza was gathered unto him. And messengers throughout all Manasseh, they were gathered. Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, the other tribes, they all gathered together. God was fulfilling his promise. He was keeping his word. And God will always keep his word. But even here, even when we see this happening, what does Gideon ask? He wants to put out a fleece. Put a fleece of wool on the floor. If the dew be on the fleece only, and if the ground be dry, then I'll know. And that's what happened. But that was not enough itself. He wanted another one, a much more difficult thing. The ground of the threshing floor is ordinarily very hard, and normally would not be greatly affected by the dew. What does Gideon ask for? But this once with the fleece, let it now be dry upon the fleece, and upon all the ground there be dew." And that's exactly what happened. The ground was dry. The ground was wet, I should say. The ground was full of dew and the fleece was dry. Much more difficult than the other way around. And God again here was strengthening and encouraging the faith of Gideon that he might undertake the great task that was laid before him to go and fight Israel's enemies and the Lord's enemies. And friends, it's exactly the same for the Christian. We are to go out and fight, not physically of course, no one's talking about physical fighting, but we have enemies. We have our own heart, which is an enemy that we'll have until the day when we're sanctified, holy. And we have the world that's against us, and we'll have that evil one, and we must fight. And we cannot fight upon our own strength. No, we fight because God is with us and God will keep his promises. What were the questions then maybe that Gideon brought before the Lord? Does God really care about us? Look at our situation. Can it be said that God cares about us? Yes. God saw us lost and perishing without hope in this world, in sin, living in sin, happy in sin, dying in sin. What does He do? He sends forth His Son. Does He care about us? Oh, He cares. He has shown how much He cares. Does He know what He's doing? Yes, He knows what He's doing. He sent forth his Son, and believing upon him, we have the gift of eternal life. Our sins are forgiven, and we are reconciled to God through him. Will God take care of me? Will God take care of the Christian? Yes. Will he have an easy life? There's no guarantee, but he will take care. Does God keep his promise? God always keeps his promise. What's the promise? The promise is, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be with me also. That's the promise. We have the calling of Gideon. We have the gospel call today. Only God can make that call effectual, but you are to know that you are called in the gospel to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.