God Saves Us, From Beginning to End

I'm gonna get us to turn to Judges chapter seven this week. We've been working through the book of Judges. I hope you've noticed over the past few weeks, and I hope that it's been enjoyable, that it's made sense. It's been a fascinating look at a very dark time in Israel's history, God's people, and it's sort of situated just between their exodus, their leaving of Egypt, and before they establish a king, before they officially become a kingdom.

They are ruled in their twelve tribes by these rulers that are called judges. But it's a dark time in Israel's history because we see again and again the command that God gave them in the wilderness under Moses for them to worship God as their God, for God to be their God and for them to be His people. They wrestle with that. They really struggle to maintain that level of faith and obedience to God, and there's a lot of trials and tribulations. And we're gonna read of one of those moments of trials and tribulations from Judges seven, where a new judge has been, well, is really stepping up to the plate. His name is Gideon.

He is stepping up to this plate very reluctantly, and chapter seven is about a great victory that he wins completely by the grace of God. Judges chapter seven, verse one. Then Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, Gideon's other name, and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. 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.

Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people saying, whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry from Mount Gilead. Then twenty-two thousand of the people returned and ten thousand remained. 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. So he brought the people down to the water. And the Lord said to Gideon, everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall sit by himself. Likewise, everyone who kneels down to drink. And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was three hundred men.

But all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. And the Lord said to Gideon, with the three hundred who lapped, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hand. And let all the others go, every man to his home. So the people took provisions in their hands and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

That same night, the Lord said to Gideon, arise, go down against the camp for I have given it into your hand. But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant, and you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hand shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. And the Midianites and Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance. And their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance.

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. As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped.

And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand. And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and put trumpets into the hands of all of them, and empty jars with torches inside the jars. And he said to them, look at me and do likewise. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, for the Lord and for Gideon.

So Gideon and the one hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hand the torches and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon.

Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the three hundred trumpets, the Lord set every man's sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled as far as Beth Shittah towards Zerarah. And the men of Israel were called out from Naphtali and from Asher and from all Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.

So far, our reading. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before You in humility as we open Your word, as we hear it read. And now, Lord, as we will hear it proclaimed, we ask, Holy Spirit, that You will speak, that our hearts may be attuned to hear Your voice, that our consciences will be moved, Lord, to change our wills, our behaviours, and the deep, deep passions and desires of our hearts. May they become desires after You.

Lord, we pray for our church, we pray for everyone that is here, and we pray for everyone that is not. Asking, Lord, that You'll protect us and bless us today and in this week, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you've been following along, you will be getting used to this pattern that we are seeing in the nation of Israel.

Last week, we saw the judge Deborah, and the week before the judge Ehud. And every time God raised these judges, the story begins with the phrase, and Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. You won't be very surprised to hear that this is exactly how the story of Gideon starts in chapter six, which we didn't read. Chapter six, verse one, the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years.

A new generation after Deborah, and a new level of backsliding and apostasy. The Midianites are now the enemy oppressing Israel. It was a different group the other times. Now Midian has come to power. And the Midianites are ruthless.

We get an indication of that in chapter six, that they are an oppressive enemy to Israel. It says that the Israelites had to take to living in caves and mountains to avoid the raids, the pillaging, the raping of these Midianites. They had to leave their cities, their villages to hide. Every time the Bible says a crop was planted, every time a crop was ready to be reaped, the Midianites came, raided their farmlands. Every time a goat or a sheep had a calf, the Midianites came, took those sheep, took those goats, and ate them.

Wherever they went, the Midianites were. Hunger and starvation became a regular problem, therefore, for the Israelites. But it just keeps getting worse for these people of God. We see this pattern that every second generation turns away from God, and we might be forgiven for thinking it's sort of this up and down cycle, but really, as we work through the book of Judges, it is actually a downward spiral. It's a cycle, definitely, but it's getting worse and worse.

The enemies are getting more oppressive. The fall from God's worship and His adoration is more severe. The judges themselves become less and less impressive and worthy. It is a downward cycle even as they are repeating their history. The Israelites have returned back to their idols.

And even after the victories of Ehud and Deborah, they still refused to believe that God is enough for Israel. It's in this context, in chapter six, that we are introduced to the next man to be judge, a man called Gideon. In chapter six, verse twelve, we see that an angel of the Lord meets and greets Gideon. This is what the angel says, the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of valour. Now, if you don't know Gideon, you would assume that this is a very fitting title for the next judge.

But as you read the story of Gideon, you know that this is not true. It may be true eventually. Gideon may one day become a mighty man, but at this moment, the first impression of Gideon is the very opposite. This is where we find Gideon. In this opening scene, Gideon is found threshing wheat in a winepress.

Now, an Israelite reading this would be asking, why is someone threshing wheat inside a winepress? When you threshed wheat in the ancient world, you threshed it on the threshing floor, an open space where the wind could blow away all the chaff. He's inside when he's meant to be outside. And the Bible says he is in the winepress because of fear of the Midianites. So much for a mighty man of valour.

But not only is Gideon not very brave, he's not very spiritual either. God addresses him through this angel. And Gideon's first response in verse thirteen to this greeting is, please my lord, if the Lord Yahweh is with us, why then all this that has happened to us? Now think again, over the past hundred years of Israel's history, think again of the victory that God has won, think again of the cycle of Israel. Israel has been plagued by these enemies and each time God tells Israel, it's because you have turned to the idols of Canaan and have forsaken me.

And Gideon says, why are we suffering, Lord? You just feel like saying, are you kidding me? Gideon, are you out of your mind? There is literally, we will see soon, a giant altar to Baal in his own village. And he says, why are we suffering, Lord?

If You are for us, why is this happening? This is the first impression we get of Gideon. For all intents and purposes, this is who Gideon is. He is a Baal-worshiping pagan, who has such a profound lack of allegiance to God that he dares ask God to His face, why, where are You in our plight against our enemies? The enemies that You warned that You would hand us over to if we betrayed You.

It's like a husband saying, where are You, God, when I cheated and caused the break-up of my family? A young lady saying, where are You, God, when I got pregnant with a guy that I knew was not worthy of marriage? Gideon's question is that crazy, that crazy sort of question that people dare to ask, where are You, God, when in my sin, I reap all the painful consequences of my wilful disobedience? God tells Gideon, however, that He is going to be used by God to save Israel. Again, our brave Gideon replies in verse fifteen, please Lord, how can I save Israel when my clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh?

And I am the least in my father's household. The so-called mighty man of valour says, there's no way I can do this. I am too weak. And what Gideon is doing here is, in essence, summing up the problem of Israel's faith. They don't trust God.

They look at what everyone around them is banking on. The Canaanites, the Midianites, all the other neighbours that they have, they look at the Baals that these peoples worship and they bank on Baal. They look at their neighbours who are strong warriors, who oppress Israel, and Israel believes that they need to be the same type of people. Gideon is a representative of Israel. Somehow, God convinces Gideon that He has been chosen.

That His first duty now is to go and tear down that filthy altar in the middle of his village. This mighty man of valour, as brave as He is, goes and does it. And because He is so very brave, He does it in the middle of the night, secretly, so that no one will see. Listen to the response of the people the next day. Verse twenty-eight.

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 that Gideon had offered 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.

This is how far Israel has fallen. You only kill for the thing that you love. So in love are the Israelites for the gods of Baal and Asherah, so in love are these villages that they are ready to tear Gideon apart. You can now start understanding how ignorant this question is from Gideon. If You are with us, why are we suffering?

But this is the heart of idolatry. This is the human heart. This is the love of the things that takes centre stage in our hearts and lives when we place those things in the place of where God should be.

And we know the theology behind idolatry. It can be absolutely anything in life, but somehow, it can be anything, but it's always about ourselves. The Baals, the Asherah gods, they're fertility gods. They are prosperity gods.

Why do they love these gods? Because Israel wants to be rich. Israel wants to be prosperous. Israel wants to be healthy. And this is why we love our idols so much.

From this sad incident, we learn that Israel's love for Baal isn't simply skin deep. They're not just keeping up the appearances with the rest of the Canaanites and the Midianites. They love Baal. They had so given up on God that they will kill for Baal. You cut down Baal, we'll cut you down.

Bring out Gideon, they say, that he may die today. Thankfully, our brave Gideon has a dad who comes to his defence. It's not a very good testament of Gideon's faithfulness so far, is it? Gideon doesn't defend himself and say, you backsliding Israelites, there is only one God in Israel and that is Yahweh. He hides behind his dad.

And his dad has this sort of weak reasoning. If Baal is real, he'll defend himself. Again, not, there is only one living God. And so they think, okay, well, that's good enough reason. I guess we'll spare Gideon.

Verse thirty-four then says, Gideon musters a large group of men together. Verse thirty-four, the spirit of the Lord clothes Gideon. He's supernaturally enabled to draw these people to himself. He's given the charisma, he's given the people skills to draw thirty-two thousand men to his side.

And so you think now, well, being clothed with the spirit of God, he must be now this mighty man of valour. Nope. Not even now. Gideon needs to put out a fleece. He prays to God for a sign.

And we know the story, don't we, of Gideon and his fleece? Gideon puts a sheepskin outside, prays that God will make only the fleece wet with dew and everything around it dry. God does. Amazingly, in His grace, God does. And the question is, God, if You really want me to do this, You will do this for me.

He tests God with a miracle. But not only is that enough, the next night he says, okay, reverse this, God. If this really is from You, and if You really want me to go and take on the Midianites, then You will make everything around the fleece wet with dew, and the fleece will be dry. God in His grace does. One of the most clichéd terms in the Christian dictionary is, I'll put out a fleece.

Maybe there's some immigrants here that have put out a fleece in coming to Australia. Put out a fleece to find and take that job. Put out a fleece on who to marry or what career to take. It's a noble way of saying, I want to test God. We do this in all sorts of ways.

But don't ever think that Gideon is the example that you should use of a faithful person trying to ascertain God's will. Gideon is not the faithful man testing God with the right reasons. If you understand the story of Gideon, you understand he is not the one that you would want to follow. Why? Gideon puts out a fleece, not to figure out God's will.

He already knows God's will. He will take Israel and strike down Midian. An angel of the Lord came to him. What more does he need? Within thirty seconds of his meeting with the angel of God, he knows what God wants him to do.

Gideon puts out a fleece knowing exactly what he needs to do. The second thing, Gideon puts out this fleece not because he's spiritual, but because he's faithless, because he's unbelieving. Gideon has just survived the destruction of Baal's sacred altar in this pagan Israelite village. He has just been visited by an angel of the Lord. Why does he need another sign of this fleece?

Twice. It's the same problem. He does not believe God. He doesn't trust in God. God's word is not enough.

He asked for a straight-up miracle. That's what he's asking for, a sign. And we know the hard-heartedness of people that ask for signs. Jesus in His parable of Lazarus, the poor man who dies, and the rich man on the other side in hell saying, God, just please send someone down to my brothers and my sisters, my father's house to tell them about the reality. God says to him, I could send someone from the dead.

I could raise someone to life and they will not believe. They have the prophets. They have My word. Gideon is not a hero to follow. He is not a spiritual giant.

After the miracle of the fleece, Gideon is willing to go. Finally. Finally, he's willing to go. He has his thirty-two thousand men, but even now, he's not entirely sure. He has his army, but God comes to Gideon in the passage we read in chapter seven in verse two and says to Gideon, you have too many men.

You have too many men. Get rid of them. Why? God says, lest Israel boast saying, my own hand has saved me. It's another indication of just how hard Israel's heart is.

They would look at a battle with thirty-two thousand Israelites against an army of a hundred and twenty thousand. That's a ratio of four to one, if my maths is correct. Four Midianites against one Israelite. And if Israel miraculously won, with those odds, they would say, I did this. God tells Gideon, get rid of these guys.

There's too many. So Gideon tells the men, if there is anyone fearful and trembling today, you can go home. And guess what? Twenty-two thousand go home. Two-thirds of the army leave.

Again, it's an indication, this is Gideon, the one who is God's man. Do we believe God will work in Gideon? I don't think so. I have the option. I'll go home.

God says in verse four, however, there's still too many. Ten thousand are left. Ten thousand are left, God says, too many. When you go down to the water to get some more drink, whoever you find cupping their hands and lapping up the water, they can stay? The ones who kneel down and drink the water from the source, they must go.

There's nothing spiritual about this. There's no, you know, golden way to drink water that's being instituted here or anything like this. This is just an arbitrary separation of people from people. The majority are the ones who lean on the ground with their knees and drink from the pool or the river or whatever. Three hundred is what cups the water and drinks it up.

Laps it up, it says, like dogs. I don't know how that works, but that's how they did it. Three hundred is left and God says, that's enough. Think of the ratio now. A hundred and twenty thousand Midianites, three hundred.

That is four hundred to one. Four hundred to one. No one goes to war with those odds. And God tells Gideon, sneak into the camp. And you think, okay, I mean, come on.

God is now really getting, you know, getting going with this. Gideon must surely know God's on His side. And God gives him another out and says, even now, if you are fearful, take your servant with you. And what does Gideon do? He takes his servant with him.

Just that final little bit of trust. Gideon goes in, sneaks in in the middle of the night, and he overhears a soldier saying to another soldier, I have this dream of this bread loaf that crushes the tent of our army. And the one interprets it and says, this is surely Gideon of Israel. He has been given, we have been given into his hand by God. Notice, however, at this point, verse fifteen, what Gideon's response is.

As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream, it says, and its interpretation, he worshipped. Now again, that is really interesting. In behind enemy lines, in the camp of the army, Gideon worships. You could again, you could rationalise the response being, Gideon is amazed. Gideon is surprised.

Gideon is impressed. Gideon knows what this means. God is about to save His people. What is the response? He worships God.

Now, for the first time, Gideon is putting his trust in God. He rounds up. He goes back. He rounds up three hundred men, and in faith, gives each of them a trumpet, a torch, and a jar. There's no swords, there's no spears, trumpets, candles, and pots.

Three hundred against a hundred and twenty thousand. In the middle of the night, these three hundred men go and they surround the camp. They light their torches, they smash their pots, and they blow their trumpets. Can you just imagine the scene? I said this a few weeks ago, it's like storming the beaches of Normandy, storming the beaches of Gallipoli with a tambourine and a pot or a pan.

It's not a strategy for battle success, it is a recipe for disaster. But Gideon is now so sure that the victory belongs to God, that it is God that will fight, not the Israelites, that even the most absurd strategy is going to work. Now, scholars speculate that it's the trumpet sound, it's the three hundred torches surrounding them in the middle of the night that confuses the army so much that they think they're already being invaded, and it says that they attack one another. So they're thinking, well, this guy looks, you know, he can't really see what's going on so I'll just stab here and there. The Bible says, it's God who turns them on each other.

That is a supernatural work of God. They attack each other and as a result, the army flees. They just start running. The rest of the story finishes with Gideon hot on their heels, chopping them down as he's going through the countryside, and he obliterates this army. The story ends with Gideon being made the judge of Israel, and it says there's another forty years of peace.

Guess what happens next week? Now, what do we learn from this? Salvation belongs to the Lord. Who is it that saves Israel? Is it Gideon, the mighty man of valour?

Is it Israel's incredible tactics in battle? From beginning to end, God saves His people. From beginning to end. Friends, in our thinking, in the reflection of our life, we have to be so careful about how we think about our salvation. From beginning to absolute end, it is God's victory, not ours.

Every bit of sin that exists in the Christian's life, I guarantee you, is a moment of disbelieving this truth. God has saved you Himself out of pure grace. You have not contributed one finger in that salvation. Salvation belongs to the Lord. In our pride, when we have fights with one another in a church, when we have fights with people outside of us, we think we deserve, we think we have earned, we think we're somehow better.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Mike Rader is the former principal of BCV, Bible College of Victoria, started a sermon on the story of Gideon in Judges seven with this story about how Aussie barbecues are made. I don't think this is his story, I think he's read it somewhere else. But he says, it's a step-by-step instruction on how Aussie blokes cook award-winning barbies. First step, for Aussie blokes cooking good barbies, the woman buys the food.

Step two, the woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, makes the dessert. Step three, the woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray with the necessary utensils and the sauces, takes it to the man lounging beside the barbie, beer in hand. Step four, the important point, man places meat on barbecue. Step five, woman goes back into the kitchen to organise plates and cutlery. Step six, woman comes out to tell man the meat is burning.

He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation. Step seven, man takes meat off grill and hands it to woman. Step eight, the woman prepares the plates, the salad, the bread, the utensils, the napkins, the sauces, and brings it to the table. Step nine.

After eating, the woman clears the table, does the dishes. Step ten, the most important, everyone praises the man and thanks him for his cooking efforts. And finally, step eleven, the man asks the woman how she enjoyed her night off. And upon seeing her annoyed reaction concludes, women are mysterious creatures. The thinking that will send men, women, and children to hell is the thing, thinking that we have somehow contributed.

The thing that sends us to experience the full righteous wrath of God is thinking that we can save ourselves. The evidence of this is seen all throughout the story of Gideon, Judges six and seven. Israel loved their idols. They were so lost. They loved Baal.

And now we think that is so far from us. I mean, who has an altar in their village square now? Who has an Asherah pole in their backyard? But we are the same people. We love our idols because what these idols do for us, they contribute to our good lives.

They somehow save us. The Baals produce prosperity. And friends, don't ever ever believe that this is not true for Christians. Don't ever believe that we are immune to it. I was watching with a family last night on Netflix.

It is worth a watch. The American Gospel, it's called. If you have Netflix, watch it. The American Gospel. It is the story of the prosperity gospel that has started about a hundred years ago in America, that has now infiltrated the western church in such a way, and the essence of that gospel message is, you can use God to get what you want.

And it is so close to sounding like the truth. You are dealing with God, You are dealing with Jesus, but ultimately, You have made them this sort of idol in order to benefit yourself. The salvation that you get through you rubbing the genie in just the right way is prosperity. Health, wealth, your happiness, your satisfaction, the desires of your heart. Israel loved their idols.

Israel loves their idols because they love their sin. And their sin is the same as any of us before we have come to Christ. We love ourselves and we hate God. Romans one puts it in those stark terms. We hate God.

We love ourselves. And that is why the human heart is always set on trying to save itself. Because when we can save ourselves, we can set the agenda. Gideon has the goal to say to God, why are we suffering? He says this practically standing in the shade of a giant statue to Baal.

What Gideon is asking for is salvation on his terms. That's what he wants. God, You give us salvation, we'll continue worshiping Baal. Thank you very much. Gideon's attitude is Israel's attitude.

That is the point of this story. Gideon's faithlessness is Israel's faithlessness. But don't ever think that the situation is any different to our own. Apart from God's intervention, our hearts are captured in the same way of thinking. And it happens even in our churches.

This morning, we need to hear God say to the church, You have too many men. You have placed your trust in too many things and you have boasted in those things to save you. May God strip the church of the slick preachers with their bleached teeth that tell us we save ourselves. Pray that we may remove every self-idolising crutch in our lives that tempts us to think that somehow we deserve to be His people. We don't.

At no point is Gideon worthy of God's forgiveness. There's nothing in Gideon that makes God come to him above other people. At no point is Israel faithful in any point of way that God should show compassion to them, but God's word is clear. God's purpose is clear. He wants to save.

He will save. God sends an angel to Gideon. He makes a promise of salvation to this man. He protects Gideon against his own people that wants to kill him for taking away their idol. God sends Gideon the miracle of a fleece twice.

He sends a dream to a Midianite soldier as a sign to Gideon again, that he really, really wants to save Israel, that he really will save Israel. And only then does Gideon believe. God does this. And yet He knows and says to Gideon, probably with a heavy heart, God says to Gideon, You and Israel will boast and say, my own hand has saved me. I will need to show you that I am God.

You have too many men, Gideon. Get rid of them. Three hundred. How similar is this warning to the one we find in Ephesians two from Paul? Ephesians two, verse eight to nine.

It is by grace You have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is a gift from God so that no one may boast. So that no one may boast. This is why the salvation offered to us in Jesus can only ever be received by faith.

It can be nothing else but the humble holding out of our hands receiving it as true. Jonathan Edwards famously said that the only thing we have ever contributed to Jesus' salvation of us, the only thing we contribute to the work of the cross is the sin that made it necessary to take place. So for a non-Christian, anyone listening here this morning, put your trust in Jesus Christ. Believe that He is able to save. Put your trust and faith in Him who has saved us from eternal justice for the sin that we have done because we so loved ourselves, even as the Father so loved the world.

And then Christians, remember that at the heart of your life is a great salvation. That is the engine for which we do everything, by which we do everything. A salvation that you have never contributed to. From beginning to end, it had to be God. He had to take a faithless, unbelieving wretch, turn them into a believer.

Regenerate a dead heart so that you may simply reach out. This great salvation is enough. It is more than enough. What did Gideon do when he realised that the victory had been won? That the victory was his?

What did he do in the camp? He worshipped. That is perhaps the first and the only good thing that Gideon does. After all of this, all that he can do is say, thank you, Lord. You deserve the glory.

You deserve the honour. You deserve my life, my praise, my all. Friends, that is what we give back to God. That is the only thing we can. Thank you, Lord.

Let's pray. Now, God, this morning we give You the praise and the honour and the thanks that You deserve. We thank You, oh Lord, that You have saved us with such a mighty salvation and that this salvation belongs to the Lord. This great sacrifice demands my life, my all. Father, forgive us that in our pride, we fall into those patterns of thinking that somehow we have scrubbed up okay.

That somehow, those who are doing it so much worse than us, those who have made so many mistakes, oh God, that in some way we are better. God, crush our egos. Help us, Lord, to return to this great salvation and protect this truth in our hearts. From beginning to end, oh God, You have saved us. And then for those who are listening, Lord, and know that they are far from You, know that they have been running from You, that they have justified all sorts of things that they have done in wilful disobedience to You.

God, will You convict them and will You give them the opportunity this day, this moment to turn to You, Lord Jesus, and to receive the work of You, of Your work on the cross. We ask, Lord, that You will bring that assurance into their hearts, that they are forgiven, sanctified, washed, cleansed of their sin, that as You look at them now, You see them as spotless, blameless, white as snow. Guard Your church, Lord Jesus, against those who will teach us anything other than this important truth, this critical truth. And then, Father, pour out Your praises from our mouths that we may worship You as Gideon did. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.