Glory to God – Penuel Baptist Chapel, Roch

July 16th 2023: Paul Daniel

Published on July 17, 2023 by Penuel Baptist RochLeave a comment

Judges 7

Yesterday was the Wimbledon Ladies Final. The loser described this as the worst day ever, but the winner described it as the best day ever. Here we see an example of two extremes – from worst to best. You could tell it all over their faces. Here in the book of Judges, you have the best on show – God’s salvation is at work and on display. The worst is also on show, we see God’s people and how quickly they abandoned the Lord, and the consequences that came. The book of Judges follows Moses and Joshua. The people of Israel receive rest but they also turn and see other gods and start worshipping them. Then, God gave them over to oppressors. They cry out to God, who raises a judge. This cycle of rest, refusing God, oppression, a cry out and God who raises a judge, is a pattern that repeats itself over and over.

Who does God raise up? Gideon. Who is Gideon? “Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.” (Joshua 6:11). In one sense, Gideon is a nobody who God has made into a somebody. God uses people like Gideon to bring glory to himself. God uses people even like Gideon, who isn’t unsure of himself – he asks God for reassurance. God comes down to his level and goes gives him reassurance.

Verses 1 to 8. What is power?
Here, we have the very powerful presence of the Midianites. Numbers is power. Military is power. Others view power as how much money you have. The Israelites had been oppressed for seven years, weak and hiding in caves. They have lost a sense of God’s power. Power, we see is the Lord in control. Gideon has managed to amass a large, great army. Now God is going to show what real power is, “The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ ³Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.” (v.2).

God says Gideon has got too many men. Power is not needing a really big army. With the Lord it is different. 22,000 men was too many. Those who were afraid could go back, leaving 10,000 men. There were still too many men, And the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ shall not go.” (v.4). The numbers needed to go down even further. God told Gideon to take them down to the river and separate them even more. Eventually, 300 men were left, who God would use to save them from the Midianites.

The Lord is always in control. The Lord was the one who gave them over to their oppressors, and it is the Lord who will save them from the oppressors. The army is whittled down to 300. Gideon does not even know how many Midianites he is facing. It shows us that there is nothing too hard for our God. He knows everything. God is not someone who we can quantify. He is beyond all that. People want evidence – the evidence is in creation. We need faith.

Do you believe that God has a purpose and a plan for you? He calls you to come and serve Him, to follow Him. Don’t put God in a box. Scripture shows that God surpasses what the world expects. If we put God in a box, into some kind of framework, into a meeting that starts at a certain time and finishes at a certain time, is that who the Lord is? You can’t put God in a box.

Jesus Christ shows us who God is. Jesus is the unexpected. He did things that people had never seen and heard before. That’s power! That same power is available to you if you are a Christian. What is power? It is the way the Lord works.

Verses 9 to 14. What is endurance?
Is 300 enough? The Lord knows Gideon is weak, “But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. (v.10). Here are two resources that God gives Gideon. Firstly, he gives him Purah, a servant. Gideon was not alone. God gave him Purah to go with him. Secondly, God also gives Gideon His word in a dream. “When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” (vs 13-14). As Purah and Gideon overhear the conversation, Gideon learns he is going to overturn the Midianites.

What reassurances does God give His people today? Others, His church, and his Word. They go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. You can’t say you are a Christian and not need other Christians, you can’t say you are a Christian and not need God’s word.

Assurance goes further. Assurance causes Gideon to act and worship God. It builds more assurance, and he stops doubting. It helps him to move forward. We have His Holy Spirit living inside of us. In Gideon’s anxiety, he was asked not to look at himself, but to look at the Lord. Anxiety is huge, but there is a principle here. When we struggle, we are not to focus on ourselves because we are powerless. We are to look to the Lord. Our greatest anxiety is death, but Jesus defeated death. Faith – moving forward with the assurance that God gives. Turn more to God’s word. Talk more to God’s people. Use the resources God has given us.

Verses 15 onwards. What is confidence?
Here is the master plan of how to have confidence and defeat the enemy: trumpets, jars and torches! The Midianites were defeated with trumpets, jars and torches! It is the Lord’s plan. The Lord is the one who is doing it. It is incredible what each man held in his position around the camp. The weakest battle plan ever, yet it results in triumph.

The cross of Jesus looks like the weakest plan and yet it results in triumph. Jesus hanging on the cross, dying – yet three days later He was raised to life. Do you, as Christians, ever doubt you can know God and be forgiven? God uses nobody’s like a Gideon. God used Gideon to bring glory to himself.

This story is not about Gideon. Look what happens, “²²Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” ²³Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” ²⁴And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) ²⁵And they answered, “We will willingly give them.” And they spread a cloak, and every man threw in it the earrings of his spoil. ²⁶And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels^[b] of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars that were around the necks of their camels. ²⁷And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.” (Judges 8:22-27).

After all that happened, Gideon does not want to rule over the Israelites – God will. But then how he acts becomes a snare. The book of Judges shows us faith and works go hand in hand. Yes, we are God’s people, but look at what God’s people do – they look to other gods. Judges shows us God is patient with His people. He is gracious despite our lack of love for him. God deliverers his people when they do not deserve it.

Were it not for God’s patience and mercy, we would be somewhere else this morning and have a different eternity. God alone rescues people like you and me. We don’t bring anything to the table. He alone is worthy of our worship. We are not always who we say we are, but look to the Lord and His goodness.

The cross is not just about forgiveness. In the messiness of Christian life and when we turn to other things we know are not good for us, Romans are reminds us, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus.” Israel had no king. We live in a time when leaders make decisions, people talk of the right of ‘I’ and the right of ‘me.’ In all the messiness, God is still the same yesterday, today and forever. God is patient, wanting everyone to come to repentance. God still wants to save people like you and me.

December 19th 2021: Alan Davison

Published on January 25, 2022 by Penuel Baptist RochLeave a comment

To watch this service, please click on the link to our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/NGvW4gv4rcg

Luke 2:1-14

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”
Luke 2:14

Christmas in our culture has become quite controversial. Nativities sometimes change the words of Christmas carols so as not to offend people. Advertising in the media does not portray the Nativity of the Bible. How do you present the Christmas story to someone who doesn’t believe in it? Is a fresh approach needed? No, not really. We need to simply tell it as it is, in the way Scripture portrays it.

Luke sets the scene, in verses 1-7, telling us about the birth of Christ. Given that this was the birth of the long-awaited Messiah, we might expect, humanly speaking, that there would be a huge fanfare for this – royal announcements, town criers going out in every street. But God chooses to tell a bunch of shepherds first. Shepherds weren’t exactly respected in Israel at this time. Shepherding was something families would consider the younger sons to do after the older sons had respectable occupations. But God, I think, is making a very important point here – The Messiah is for everyone.

Jesus came for anyone who would accept Him as their Lord and Saviour. When Samuel arrives to anoint one of Jesse’s sons, God rejects the eldest sons. The youngest, keeping the sheep, was chosen. In human culture people become marginalised for different reasons. Shepherds were expected to protect the sheep, spending nights out in the open. Certainly, this group went from humdrum boredom to terror – the glory of the Lord shone around them. The brightness of the glory of God reveals sinfulness. This is why the angel says, “Do not be afraid.” The angel has good news, for all people. This Messiah, the Saviour of the world, can be found in an animals’ feeding trough. The angel was joined by more angels. “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”(Luke 2:13-14). The Scripture says they specifically said. The Greek word for this means ‘to lay forth, to relate in words.’ Having said that they simply spoke this declaration, I’m sure that so many angelic voices sounding forth the glory of God would have sounded melodic and lyrical to human ears.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).

I think this verse really splits in two, based upon two locations. First of all, the angels declare ‘Glory to God’ but they make the point that God is ‘in the highest.’ The initial focus is in heaven. Christmas is something that would not have happened without God. We need to remember that Christmas is a celebration of what God has done for us. For many people, Christmas is simply food. Perhaps to others it’s family or may be simply the capacity to have a party. But the Bible makes clear that we are celebrating a person – Jesus.

The angels are declaring glory to God for what has just been given. We read of the gift in verse 11, ^“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

There are three titles for Jesus in one verse: Saviour, Christ and Lord. Jesus’ name is the Greek version of Joshua. It means ‘Saviour.’ The Jews were very much a religious people and knew a Saviour was prophesied to them throughout all the scriptures that they had. But they were not so clear what they needed to be saved from. In this time, many thought they needed to be saved from the Romans because there was an occupation of their land. But they were simply the latest in the line of foreign occupiers. If Jesus had come to save the Jews from the current occupiers, the Romans, this would have been a temporary solution. Sooner or later, another oppressor would turn up and they would need another saviour.

But this gift of God was also Christ, another Greek word for a Hebrew term, in this case, ‘Messiah.’ This tells us that this saviour has come to do God’s will because He is the anointed One. He is the one set aside for the purpose of salvation. In Old Testament times those set aside for God’s work – kings, priests and prophets – would very often be anointed with oil to publicly demonstrate that they had been set aside to fulfil God’s will for the people.

There is also another term Jesus is referred to, as Lord, declaring His divinity. This Savour was also from God as much as He was God Himself. As human beings, we cannot save ourselves from our own sins, so God had to come to be the ultimate Saviour, to be the One who will save everyone from their sins. Not from the Romans, nor from any other invading empire. God was coming to deal with something much more dangerous. Interestingly, it is Joseph who is told, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21). God spells it out to Joseph.

Ever since Adam and Eve, sin has been Man’s greatest enemy. It broke our relationship with God and ultimately let death into creation. Very often, people blame God. But sin creates a debt which needs to be paid for by someone. Even in our culture, people can have their debts cleared, but someone, somewhere must bear the cost for that to happen.

In the case of sin, it is God who bears the cost of our sins. But don’t miss how this will happen, ‘For there is born to you.’ God will live a human life. He won’t just appear fully formed as Adam was. He will actually be born, staying for nine months in Mary’s womb. Jesus would experience every aspect of what it means to be a human being – fully man, yet fully God. Divinity veiled in flesh. Jesus would be the ultimate definition of meekness; strength under control. He was and is God but chose to accept the limitations of a human body. When He was hanging on the cross of Calvary He could have called on legions of angels to save Him, but He didn’t. He stayed on that cross until He died because that was how He was going to save His people from their sins. He was the only One who could save us.

Jesus is also important because He links the two location we are talking about. Jesus was born. He did not come into existence at the Incarnation. When Jesus talks about coming into the word, it is only once He refers to being born, “Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37). To have come into the world, Jesus must have been somewhere else beforehand. Jesus has always existed. He chose to be born so He could work out the salvation plan for man.

From a spiritual perspective, His birth and death were planned. Jesus acted because He chose to do so because He loved us.

The second location is on earth, “And on earth peace.” Israel, at this time when Jesus came, had a kind of peace. Nowadays, we refer to it as the ‘Pax Romana,’ which was imposed by the Roman legions. It was a peace in the sense of an absence of open conflict. But the fact is, strife remained. There were people who were rebelling against Rome. It continues today to be a land of conflict. The peace spoken of here is God’s peace, the promise of One who has been born, who will bring peace to the world from God. The angels are described as a multitude of the heavenly host. God sends His army to announce peace. This is not imposed upon humanity but a promise of what is to come. It fulfils Isaiah 9:6,

“For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Men, for the most part, will initially reject this peace. Even in Christ’s infancy, Satan would try to eradicate God’s peace, through his agent, Herod. God’s peace is different. Goodwill towards men! Note, not ‘amongst men.’ Goodwill should be a permanent state of our character, not just at Christmas.

“Goodwill towards men.” Goodwill to is have favour upon someone. It speaks of an on-going relationship, a truly warm feeling upon someone. This is goodwill from God towards men. Because the Saviour has come the relationship can be restored.

At Christmas time we are celebrating the fact that God looks upon us sinful people with favour because of what Jesus has done for us. This peace of God is directed to us who are believers, just like the shepherds, who came away glorify and praising God. Others heard them and thereby became aware of the news. The scriptures tell us the shepherds simply marvelled at what they heard. Later, in the gospels we hear of other people who marvelled at what Jesus said and did. In so doing, they were drawn to Him, they wanted more of what He offered. But many of these people didn’t act on what they heard. God was interested in the shepherds so much so, they become the first human heralds of the birth of the Messiah.

God remains interested today, kin those on whom His favour rests. This is something we should be celebrating. Christmas is a day for us to remember God became man, fully man, and lived a human life full of human experiences, good and bad. Jesus did all of this without sin so He could offer Himself as a sacrifice to pay the debt of our sins on that cross at Calvary.

Celebrate and remember what and whom you are celebrating. “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).