Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the nature of faith?

I’m not necessarily talking about saving faith, what you must receive by faith for salvation.

I’m talking about every day trusting God with every detail of your life.

Trust when things are going well.

Trust when things go poorly.

What is the nature of that faith?

What are the core components of faith?

I don’t know if you’ve ever read anything by Jerry Bridges, but he is one of my favorite authors on the Christian life.

His approach to Christian living is fueled by grace, informed by the Scriptures, and focused on Christlikeness.

In one of his books, he writes about the nature of faith.

Some have compared it to a three legged stool.

In order to stand by faith, we must accept that all three components are true.

If you remove one leg, it all falls apart.

What are the three legs?

God is perfect in his love: He wants what is best for you.

He loves you and desires good things for you.

This required faith because God’s definition of what is good may be different than ours, which is why we have to trust the second leg:

God is perfect in his knowledge: he knows what is best for you.

He not only wants what is best, but he knows it as well!

Even when things don’t feel like it, God always works for the good of His children.

God is infinite in power: He is able to bring it about.

He wants what is best, he knows what is best, and he can actually accomplish it!

If we struggle with any of those three legs, we will have a difficult time trusting our God.

For or faith to stand, it must rest upon all three legs.

God loves.

God knows.

God is able.

This is true not only when we encounter things in life that we wish were different, but it is also true when we consider the things that God has commanded us.

Do we trust him when he gives commands about how we ought to live life?

Do we trust that he knows what is best for our lives?

I’m not talking about the subjective will of God in that we are to be obedient to his leading when making life decisions.

I’m talking about the very clearly revealed commands of God that we find in the pages of Scripture.

When God speaks, do we believe?

Believe that he loves and commands this out of his care?

Believe that he knows, and commands this out of his knowledge?

Believe that he is able, and command these things out of his ability to work out His good purposes through our obedience?

Often we are tempted to doubt the Word of God, just as Gideon did in our text today.

If you aren’t already there, turn to Judges 6. Gideon was a man of little faith, and much fear.

God had revealed to Gideon that He intended to accomplish incredible things through Gideon.

But Gideon hasn’t exactly been a model figure of faith.

From the very beginning we see him as a man of little faith.

He doubts the word of God.

When he acts in obedience he does so in secret for fear of others.

Last week we got a small glimpse of the “mighty man of valor” as He summoned the troops to himself, but even then it was only because the Spirit of God came upon him.

The question of faith really comes down to this: Do you believe what God has said?

Or will you seek after signs?

Let’s look at our text for today where we are warned that

Sign-Seeking is evidence of Doubt

Sadly, before we begin working through what is happening here, we have to take a moment to discuss what is not happening.

Some people have taken this passage as a model for us to follow.

Are you not sur about the will of God in your life?

Are you uncertain if you should take path A or path B? Here’s what you should do: lay out your fleece!

What does this look like?

“I don’t know if God wants me to move to this other place or stay here.

I’ll just put my home on the market and if it sells quickly that will tell me it was God’s will to move”

Or we might take a page out of Abraham’s servant’s book: “Lord, i don’t know if I should marry this girl.

If she is wearing a green shirt today, I’ll ask her to marry me.”

Just lay out your fleece and God will tell you what to do through whatever means you’ve predetermined.

This is not not a healthy way to seek God’s will.

I believe that God calls us to pursue wisdom as we make decisions, and that we ought not look to our subjective experiences as the final arbitrator of what we think God wants.

He gives us His word, and we are to obey that.

He gives us freedom and wisdom to handle everything else.

That is also not what is happening in this text.

Gideon is not trying to figure out God’s will by laying out the fleece.

He already knows God’s will, because God clearly revealed it to him when he spoke directly with him.

So what was Gideon doing?

Gideon, in an act of fear and faithlessness, was seeking a way out of what God had commanded him to do.

God has spoken directly to Gideon and told him what he would do through him.

Gideon asked for a sign at that time, and God graciously gave it to him.

God told him to chop down the false idols, and he does so, but at night because he is afraid.

The Spirit clothes Gideon as he rallies the troops....and yet, here he is.

Asking for yet another sign, and then another sign on top of that!

Daniel Block writes concerning this:

“Despite being clear about the will of God, being empowered by the Spirit of God, and being confirmed as a divinely chosen leader by the overwhelming response of his countrymen to his own summons to battle, he uses every means available to try to get out of the mission to which he has been called”

Some people want to use Gideon laying out the fleece as an example of how to live by faith…but this story shows us the exact opposite.

The story ought to have progressed from the rallying of the troops to the battle itself.

But it doesn’t.

Gideon decides to test God, not once, but twice.

Gideon himself knows that he was treading on dangerous ground.

Not what he says in verse 39:

Don’t be angry!

Let me test you once more!

You get the sense that he was disappointed with the first result.

Have you ever done that?

If its heads we’ll eat at taco bell and if its tales we eat at mcdonalds.

It’s tails.....well.....let’s do two out of three.....

Seems like that’s happening here.

He was not acting in faith, but was being true to his nature and character as a man of fear and doubt.

If ever find ourselves tempted to test God in this way, we ought to consider the words Jesus in the NT when he says that a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.

There is a fundamental difference in heart posture between those who seek or demand a sign....and those who come to the Lord in humility crying out “I believe, Lord! Help my unbelief!

Gideon was a man of little faith.

He doubted the word of God.

He tried to get out of his task by asking for not one sign but two.

And yet....God, in his mercy and grace, chose not to incarcerate Gideon on the spot, but grant him the miraculous signs!

Why?

Because God had a plan for Gideon, and he was going to accomplish His purposes no matter what.

As we come into chapter seven, it almost seems as though God now has a test for Gideon.

It’s almost like God says “you tested me…now here’s a test for you”

The Testing of Faith Produces Steadfastness

Some people want to make a big deal out of the difference between who knelt down to drink and who lapped water out of their hand… What is special about the lappers?