1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,000 Today, I invite you to turn with me to Judges Chapter 6. 2 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,400 It's an interesting world we're in. 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:24,040 I've always been, at one time I was a bit of a crusader and I've known other people. 4 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:30,320 The facts who like to think that they can straighten the whole world out. 5 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:32,400 Have you ever felt like that? 6 00:00:32,400 --> 00:00:38,520 Boy, if people just listen to me, we could straighten everything out and get it all going 7 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:43,160 right. 8 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:52,520 Interestingly if you go to Judges Chapter 6, we pick up on a situation that was going 9 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:59,000 on in Israel a long time ago. 10 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:04,000 The nation had slipped into apostasy is what had happened. 11 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:13,200 Things were not going well at all because apostasy carries with it its own natural results. 12 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:17,120 People want to say, what's it matter what I do? 13 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:18,120 It's my business. 14 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:23,120 That's the attitude many people take. 15 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:30,240 In fact, I remember one time we had a guy in the church who was not living according 16 00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:35,600 to God's written will and the church had to deal with it. 17 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,440 It was affecting the churches. 18 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:43,960 It was affecting their reputation throughout the whole area. 19 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:49,680 I remember talking to the man, he said, mind your own business. 20 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:57,960 Well, apostasy has a way of bringing about natural results. 21 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:03,760 Judges 6, then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. 22 00:02:03,760 --> 00:02:07,000 As we go on, we find that they were into Baal worship. 23 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:08,480 Anybody ever worship Baal? 24 00:02:08,480 --> 00:02:09,480 I hope not. 25 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:12,440 Don't raise your hand if you did. 26 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:20,920 Baal actually at different times and in different places, the word Baal means Lord. 27 00:02:20,920 --> 00:02:25,640 Baal was the storm god. 28 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:31,600 He's pictured on ancient Stella as having riding in a chariot with bolts of lightning 29 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:37,180 in one hand and a hammer in the other, thunder and lightning. 30 00:02:37,180 --> 00:02:39,920 He was the guy that brought the rain. 31 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:47,040 Also he was in some cases referred to as the sun god. 32 00:02:47,040 --> 00:02:53,920 Some of these gods had multiple hats, I guess. 33 00:02:53,920 --> 00:02:59,360 Anyway, the people of Israel sinned in the sight of the Lord. 34 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:06,840 The Lord delivered them into the hand of the Midianites for seven years. 35 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:10,840 This was tough because the Midianites were not kind masters. 36 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:18,320 It says the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel because of the Midianites, the children 37 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:24,800 of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, the strongholds which are in the mountains. 38 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:25,800 They were hiding. 39 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:27,240 They had to. 40 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,080 Midianites were really tough on them. 41 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:39,440 So it was, whenever the children of Israel had sown, Midianites would come up. 42 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:45,080 Also Amalekites and the people of the east would come up against them. 43 00:03:45,080 --> 00:03:50,120 Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza and 44 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:55,960 leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep nor ox nor donkey, for they would come up 45 00:03:55,960 --> 00:04:01,120 with their livestock and their tents coming in as numerous as locusts. 46 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:06,240 Both they and their camels were without number and they would enter the land to destroy it. 47 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:11,200 So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites and the children of Israel 48 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:12,440 cried out to the Lord. 49 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:18,080 Now this was a cycle of things that seemed to happen with Israel every so often. 50 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:21,080 They'd be worshipping God, everything would go great. 51 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:24,360 Then they would go into apostasy. 52 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:31,800 After all, there were things about Baal worship and the worship of Ashteroth that were very 53 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,640 enticing, shall we say. 54 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:43,400 These were ancient fertility cults and the worship involved all kinds of licentiousness 55 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:45,520 and immorality. 56 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:51,320 So people would be drawn to that, just like people today are drawn to that. 57 00:04:51,320 --> 00:05:00,920 They're well, it's well known that some of the magazines that promote sensuality and 58 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,640 licentiousness sell well. 59 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:05,880 That's why they're published. 60 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:06,960 People buy them. 61 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:11,440 You can make money at that kind of stuff. 62 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,400 The Israelites were getting into all this. 63 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:19,360 We don't want to spend a lot of time on the Baal worship, but it came to pass when the 64 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,440 children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites. 65 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:27,320 I said, the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel. 66 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:28,640 We don't know who the prophet was. 67 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:30,280 It doesn't give his name. 68 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:32,760 Never anywhere, it's not there. 69 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:37,720 But we have his message and it's kind of an interesting message. 70 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:45,580 The Lord told them, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of 71 00:05:45,580 --> 00:05:49,320 bondage and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all 72 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:54,120 who oppressed you and drove them out before you and gave you their land. 73 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:56,520 Also, I said to you, I'm the Lord your God. 74 00:05:56,520 --> 00:06:02,160 Do not fear the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my 75 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:03,160 voice. 76 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:04,600 End of message. 77 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,480 Is there any hope offered in this message? 78 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:10,900 No? 79 00:06:10,900 --> 00:06:13,960 God doesn't say, I will deliver you if you behave yourselves. 80 00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:15,800 He didn't say that. 81 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:20,240 He just said, you've done this and this and this and that's why you're in trouble. 82 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:22,680 That's the end of the message. 83 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,560 That's a little discouraging, isn't it? 84 00:06:26,560 --> 00:06:29,440 But God's not done. 85 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:35,000 God hears the cry of his children, but he wanted them to know they were suffering from 86 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:36,400 the Midianites. 87 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:42,620 They were suffering from a very terrible foreign occupation for a reason. 88 00:06:42,620 --> 00:06:44,720 They had forsaken God. 89 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:49,800 Now the next thing God does starts in verse 11. 90 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:56,240 The angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terebinth tree, which was in Oprah and belonged 91 00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:02,880 to Joash the Abbe-Ezerite while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to 92 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,080 hide it from the Midianites. 93 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:10,720 You see, who would think of going to the winepress to find wheat? 94 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:15,640 By the way, how does this sound to you? 95 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:21,480 Says he was hiding threshing wheat in the winepress. 96 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:25,080 Hmm, what kind of a guy is this? 97 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:27,120 Well, he's like everybody else. 98 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:28,720 He's hiding. 99 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:35,040 And Gideon said to him, oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, because the Lord appeared 100 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:42,200 to him and said, the Lord is with you mighty man of valor, does he sound like a man of 101 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:45,080 valor? 102 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:52,920 If you get nothing else out of what I have to say today, I want this to be very clear. 103 00:07:52,920 --> 00:08:06,720 Our God, our Savior Jesus, looks at every one of you, looks at me, not as what we are 104 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:13,840 or were, but as to what we can become by his grace. 105 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:17,400 Now that's pretty exciting stuff when you think about it. 106 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:20,880 We don't have to be what we've been. 107 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,460 We don't even have to be what we are. 108 00:08:23,460 --> 00:08:31,120 We have a God who can change us and he could take a man like Gideon who's hiding and afraid 109 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:34,480 and turn him into a mighty man of valor. 110 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:41,520 And that is, to me, really exciting stuff. 111 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:48,080 Gideon said to him, oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened 112 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:49,360 to us? 113 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:54,160 And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about saying, the day of miracles 114 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:55,160 is over. 115 00:08:55,160 --> 00:09:00,280 Have you heard that one? 116 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:05,760 Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered 117 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:10,680 us into the hands of the Midianites. 118 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:18,640 This man is about to see one of the most amazing deliverances that God has worked in history, 119 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:19,640 one of them. 120 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:25,320 God's done a lot of amazing deliverances, but this is one of them. 121 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:31,360 And he's about to be the instrument that God will use to bring this deliverance about. 122 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:34,080 And all he can think of is poor us. 123 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:36,280 We've had it so tough. 124 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:40,920 Hey, there's hope. 125 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:41,920 Listen to this. 126 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:49,240 The Lord turned to him and said, go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from 127 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,920 the hand of the Midianites. 128 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:56,720 Have not I sent you? 129 00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:59,880 What does God sending him have to do with it? 130 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:01,120 Well, let's look. 131 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:05,440 We won't waste a lot of time wondering about that. 132 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:09,000 He says again, oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? 133 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,800 Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house. 134 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:20,240 There's a whole raft of reasons why I can't do anything. 135 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:25,480 Have you heard that one before? 136 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:32,160 And the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you and you shall defeat the Midianites 137 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:34,320 as one man. 138 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:37,640 Now, this is important. 139 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:47,160 When God sends you to do something, if God calls you or me to do something, he's there 140 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:49,000 with you. 141 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:51,200 He's there helping you. 142 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:55,760 He tells Gideon, first he says, have not I sent you? 143 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:59,000 And then he says, I will be with you. 144 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:07,520 And if God is calling you or me or anyone else to do something, you'll be with him. 145 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:12,280 Let me ask you, is there anything that he cannot do? 146 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:16,520 Don't answer that because it's a short answer. 147 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:20,520 The answer is no, he can do anything. 148 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:25,800 And you might be surprised to see God working through you. 149 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:27,800 I've seen it. 150 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:29,200 I was surprised. 151 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:30,200 Me? 152 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:34,560 He says, this isn't about you, Joe, this is about me. 153 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:39,240 But he uses me and he's used you and he's willing to use you. 154 00:11:39,240 --> 00:11:42,840 Now, let's go on. 155 00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:54,120 So he says, well, Gideon brings him some food and he puts it in front of him and the angel 156 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:58,000 of the Lord put out the end of his staff that was in his hand, touched the meat and the 157 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:03,960 unleavened bread, fire rose out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. 158 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,040 Gideon was saying, I've seen God. 159 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:14,080 And there was this belief amongst the Hebrews that if you saw God, you would die. 160 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:19,440 God said, don't worry, you're peace, peace, you won't die. 161 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:26,440 So Gideon is ready to go to work for the Lord and the Lord says, there's got to be something 162 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:30,440 done before you go to work for me. 163 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:34,680 And you don't hear this part of it in the children's stories very much, but it's very 164 00:12:34,680 --> 00:12:36,120 interesting. 165 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:43,040 God says, take the young bull, the seven-year-old bull, and go tear down the altar of Baal that 166 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:55,660 your father built and use the bull as a sacrifice, build an altar to the Lord and sacrifice the 167 00:12:55,660 --> 00:12:57,400 bull on it. 168 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:58,400 And so he did. 169 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:03,800 He did it at night, remember this guy was real brave, but he was afraid of his father's 170 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:06,720 household and the men of the town. 171 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:11,920 So he did it at night and the next morning, all the men of the town come head out to the 172 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:20,400 fields to work and there, well they stopped for their morning worship at the shrine to 173 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:21,400 Baal. 174 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:30,680 The image has been torn down, the wood from the image is part of the fire for the burnt 175 00:13:30,680 --> 00:13:32,280 offering. 176 00:13:32,280 --> 00:13:42,560 The bull is, remains of the bull being burnt there and the men are saying, who did this? 177 00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:47,080 I don't know how many of you have lived in other countries, but I'll never forget living 178 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:53,680 in Pakistan, if you've lived in the East, all you really need to do to get a war going 179 00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:57,680 is attack someone's religion. 180 00:13:57,680 --> 00:13:59,600 Seriously. 181 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:03,000 And it can be pretty bad. 182 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:13,320 I was there in Pakistan back in the 70s when they had a problem with the Qadiani's, they 183 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:22,920 called them, also known as the Rabwais and they have a holy city called Rabwah. 184 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:30,920 The railroad goes, main railroad, north-south railroad goes right through there and there 185 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:40,440 are a bunch of medical students headed for the Himalayas on a holiday and they had a 186 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:42,040 stop in Rabwah. 187 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:49,320 It's outside the city walls, but all the people there are Qadianis. 188 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:54,640 Those who do not belong to that faith are not allowed in the town. 189 00:14:54,640 --> 00:15:03,240 So these medical students were sitting out there in the train, cat calling out the windows, 190 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:08,400 making fun of the mocking the Qadianis. 191 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:14,200 Well a few days later the train came back through there with these medical students 192 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:21,320 on it and the station master, a Qadiani, hit a switch and put the train on a siding and 193 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:27,080 a mob boarded the train and attacked these medical students. 194 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:33,040 They beat them with hoses and chains, cut off the ends of their tongues and the whole 195 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:38,040 country from that happening went into crisis. 196 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:42,280 There were mobs burning mosques, there were just all kinds of things. 197 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:46,120 It almost brought the government down. 198 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:52,400 And once before a similar issue had brought the government down. 199 00:15:52,400 --> 00:16:01,760 So these men saw this as an attack on Baal, on their religion and they were unhappy. 200 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:02,760 Who did it? 201 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:06,160 Well I don't care if you did it at night. 202 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:08,760 You had ten men with him. 203 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:18,800 I remember growing up hearing the old saying, you know, telephone, telegraph, tell a woman, 204 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:23,440 wait a minute, men are just as bad, right? 205 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:29,000 Try doing something with ten men and see how secret that remains. 206 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:38,560 So they all, the men of the town went to Gideon's father, to his house, bring out Gideon. 207 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:40,460 He has destroyed Baal. 208 00:16:40,460 --> 00:16:42,920 He has destroyed the altar. 209 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:52,400 And this man says, Gideon's father says, look, if Baal is a god, let him answer for himself. 210 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:56,480 Let him take care of himself. 211 00:16:56,480 --> 00:17:06,880 And Gideon got another name out of that because he became known as let Baal answer for himself. 212 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:09,040 That's a fun one. 213 00:17:09,040 --> 00:17:13,040 And remember, he had attacked Baal. 214 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:19,120 This affects, I mean, the news spread like everything and the next thing we find is all 215 00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:23,200 the Midianites, the Amalekites, the people of the east gathered together. 216 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:26,840 They crossed over and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. 217 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:32,760 But the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew the trumpet and the Abbezerites 218 00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:36,240 gathered behind him and he sent messages. 219 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:45,380 So the men of Abbezer were converted and they were the first ones to rally to him. 220 00:17:45,380 --> 00:17:49,180 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, also gathered behind him. 221 00:17:49,180 --> 00:17:55,520 He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, Naftali and they came up to meet them. 222 00:17:55,520 --> 00:18:03,240 Now this is fun because you got the army of the Midianites and we find out in chapter 223 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:10,720 eight verse 10 that they started out with an army of 135,000. 224 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:15,800 Now in those days, that was a huge army. 225 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:22,080 They had 32,000 men. 226 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:25,880 That is odds of a little over four to one. 227 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:31,880 How would you like to be facing an enemy with an army that much smaller? 228 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:34,520 Battles have been won against those odds. 229 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:40,960 So that's, you know, history tells us about small groups of men if they're properly situated, 230 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:44,920 motivated, use surprise, et cetera. 231 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:49,160 But small groups have won big battles. 232 00:18:49,160 --> 00:18:57,240 But God comes down to Gideon and says, Gideon, if you'll save Israel by my hand as you said, 233 00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:59,640 wait a minute, you said that. 234 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:00,640 That's all right. 235 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:02,080 Gideon was willing to go along. 236 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:08,960 Look, Gideon says, can I try something first? 237 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,120 And God says, yeah, you can try something. 238 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:18,800 And he said, OK, I'll put out a fleece tonight. 239 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:24,360 And if in the morning the fleece is wet and the ground is all dry, God said, OK, go for 240 00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:26,000 it. 241 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,280 And that's the way it turned out. 242 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,160 Gideon got to thinking about it, fleeces draw water. 243 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:34,080 God, can we try it the other way? 244 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:37,560 The fleece will be dry and the ground will be wet with dew. 245 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:39,100 That's what happened. 246 00:19:39,100 --> 00:19:44,200 So God had made it very clear. 247 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:51,900 And then God said something to Gideon that was very interesting. 248 00:19:51,900 --> 00:19:57,520 He said, the people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their 249 00:19:57,520 --> 00:19:58,720 hands. 250 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:02,680 Let Israel claim glory for itself against me. 251 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:08,160 Lest Israel claim glory for itself against me. 252 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:10,680 My own hand has saved me, they'll say. 253 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:17,280 Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people saying, whoever is fearful and afraid, 254 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:22,360 let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead. 255 00:20:22,360 --> 00:20:26,200 And I can just hear Gideon saying, what? 256 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:27,720 I need every man I've got. 257 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:31,920 And God said, make this announcement. 258 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:35,460 In fact, God was not being unreasonable. 259 00:20:35,460 --> 00:20:40,860 If you go to Deuteronomy chapter 20, the first eight verses, they were supposed to make, 260 00:20:40,860 --> 00:20:47,760 the people of Israel were supposed to make an announcement before any battle that if 261 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:52,560 you had married a wife, just gotten married, go home. 262 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:53,980 Spend a year with her. 263 00:20:53,980 --> 00:20:56,480 Then you can go to battle later on. 264 00:20:56,480 --> 00:21:04,920 If you bought a house, a vineyard, had anything important going on in your life, go home. 265 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:14,440 And if you were fearful and afraid, go home. 266 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:19,600 God knows that in a battle, the first people to turn tail and run are those who are fearful 267 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,320 and afraid. 268 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:25,140 He wanted just the brave ones to stick around. 269 00:21:25,140 --> 00:21:27,040 And so they did. 270 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:32,680 Twenty-two thousand of the thirty-two thousand went home. 271 00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:33,680 That was it. 272 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:35,720 Ten thousand men. 273 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:42,480 The odds are thirteen and a half to one. 274 00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:47,080 That's getting pretty heavy. 275 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:52,620 If you know anything about warfare, numbers, the more numbers you have to overwhelm whoever 276 00:21:52,620 --> 00:21:57,080 you're against, the better off you are. 277 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,880 And if you know how to use them. 278 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:04,560 And God says, okay Gideon, that's fine, but you still have too many men. 279 00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:05,560 Wait a minute. 280 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,840 I did what the law requires. 281 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:10,880 We lost twenty-two thousand men. 282 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:11,880 Are you sure? 283 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:12,880 And God says, yeah. 284 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:19,560 Now what we're going to do is run them down across the river or this creek and tell them 285 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:20,560 to get a drink. 286 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,360 This might be the last one they get for a while. 287 00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:26,520 And they did. 288 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,640 Now you know the story. 289 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,240 Many of you know this story. 290 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:35,880 Most of the men, did you ever drink out of a creek? 291 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,200 Yeah. 292 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:39,200 Some of us have. 293 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:41,780 It's not a good idea usually. 294 00:22:41,780 --> 00:22:45,680 But you get beaver fever and all kinds of things out of a creek. 295 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:51,440 But the men ran down as if they're going to battle. 296 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:58,840 And as they came to this creek, most of them got down on their knees and put their face 297 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:02,480 in the water and sucked it up. 298 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:04,440 That's how you get the most water. 299 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:09,840 Three hundred of them took their hands, kept their eye on the enemy, brought the water 300 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:12,720 up to their mouth. 301 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:18,560 And God said, those three hundred are what I'm going to use to deliver Israel. 302 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:21,120 And sure enough, they went into battle. 303 00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:23,840 I'm getting ahead of myself. 304 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:30,200 Gideon by this time is definitely worried about things. 305 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:35,240 And so God told him, you're still worried. 306 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:38,740 Arise, go down against the camp. 307 00:23:38,740 --> 00:23:45,400 But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Pura, your servant, and you 308 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:47,720 shall hear what they say. 309 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:52,120 And afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. 310 00:23:52,120 --> 00:23:58,920 So he went down with Pura, his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the 311 00:23:58,920 --> 00:23:59,920 camp. 312 00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:06,920 Now, the Midianites, the Amalekites, all the people of the East were lying in the valley 313 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,480 as numerous as locusts. 314 00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:14,040 And their camels were without number as the sand of the sea. 315 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:18,880 And as he approaches his tent, he's being very stealthy. 316 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:21,840 His servant is being very stealthy. 317 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,680 And they hear a man in the tent wake up with a cry. 318 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:26,680 He's had a nightmare. 319 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,520 You ever have a nightmare? 320 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:30,560 You know what that's like. 321 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,800 You usually wake up, right? 322 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,360 And he starts telling his dream to his companion. 323 00:24:37,360 --> 00:24:40,160 The man in the tent says, I've had a dream. 324 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:44,240 To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian. 325 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:49,040 It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned. 326 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:50,960 And the tent collapsed. 327 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:57,920 Then his companion answered and said, this is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, the 328 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,480 son of Joash, a man of Israel. 329 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:05,320 Into his hand, God has delivered Midian and the whole camp. 330 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:18,200 Apparently, the Midianites were not aware that 22,000 men, no, more than 22,000, 31,700 331 00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:24,120 men had gone home from the Israelite army. 332 00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:26,640 They were filled with fear. 333 00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:28,520 Who filled them with fear? 334 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,400 Well, God did, sure. 335 00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:34,440 And so Gideon, it's a fascinating story. 336 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:43,640 He takes his 300 men, gives each one of them a torch with some kind of a pitcher or cover 337 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:52,680 for it, gives each one of them a shofar or a trumpet, and he divides them into three 338 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:53,680 groups. 339 00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:58,000 And I used to look at the picture that they had in the children's storybook where you 340 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:02,640 have this little knot of men running into the Midianite camp, some of them with swords, 341 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:07,520 some of them with torches, and some of them blowing trumpets. 342 00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:11,160 No, it didn't happen that way. 343 00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,200 Why would you give them trumpets? 344 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,280 What do you do in a battle with trumpets? 345 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,960 You blow them, what do you blow? 346 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,000 Signals, right? 347 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:27,960 I'll never forget, Jimmy and I had just moved to Sitka, Alaska, and we were staying in an 348 00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:35,400 apartment up above the water, and across the water was Japanski Island and a Coast Guard 349 00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:36,400 base. 350 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:44,320 And every morning, was it at 6 o'clock, you could hear Reveille being blown at the Coast 351 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:45,320 Guard base. 352 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,640 And every night at 10 o'clock was taps. 353 00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:53,880 Those are signals telling the men it's time to go to bed, time to get up, that kind of 354 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:54,880 thing. 355 00:26:54,880 --> 00:27:02,920 They also blew the charge, the retreat, a trumpet. 356 00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:08,640 Not everybody in a battle would have a trumpet, just the leaders, the company commanders or 357 00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:13,320 especially the regimental commanders. 358 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:22,520 And so on three sides of this Midianite army, the Midianites and Malachites, Gideon had 359 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:29,120 a hundred men on each side, and I'm sure they were spread out, and on the signal, they got 360 00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:33,880 rid of the cover for their torches, shouted the sword of the Lorden of Gideon, and they 361 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:38,000 started sounding the charge. 362 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:44,640 And the Midianites came running out of their tents, and they looked, and over here, a hundred 363 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:50,460 torches, a hundred torches, a hundred torches. 364 00:27:50,460 --> 00:27:59,220 And in their minds, well, I'm sure they believed that for every torch there was a thousand 365 00:27:59,220 --> 00:28:00,920 Israelites. 366 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:05,240 Three hundred thousand Israelites surrounding them. 367 00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,400 They didn't know that there were just torches and trumpets, right? 368 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:14,760 Well, let me ask you, was it just torches and trumpets? 369 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:16,320 Uh-uh. 370 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:18,560 No. 371 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:23,480 For every torch, there was an army. 372 00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:27,600 I believe there was an army of angels. 373 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:34,520 You see, God can fight a lot better than any man ever thought of fighting. 374 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,560 And I don't care if you're dealing with Midianites. 375 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:44,560 I don't care if you're dealing with modern men and tanks and aircraft and everything 376 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:45,560 else. 377 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:52,040 There's not a weapon man has ever made that God can't handle. 378 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:59,040 And so, they're up there sounding the charge, three hundred trumpets and a thousand warriors 379 00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:04,800 of God's choosing for every trumpet, and they, the Midianites look around. 380 00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:10,640 Everywhere is the glint of armor, and they take their swords and start slashing. 381 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,920 Never mind that the armor they're looking at is their own. 382 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,480 Their own men. 383 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:24,680 And so, while Gideon's men are sounding the charge, holding their lamps aloft, by the 384 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:28,200 way, what would you hold a torch for in a battle? 385 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:30,680 Well, probably for several reasons. 386 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:35,140 Your men, your warriors will know where you're at, right? 387 00:29:35,140 --> 00:29:41,600 And they also will have some idea of the layout of the battlefield. 388 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:48,520 And there was enough light to glint off the armor, but not for people to notice whose 389 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:50,800 armor it was. 390 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:57,720 And that night, the Midianites and the Amalekites destroyed each other at a great amount. 391 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:05,960 Gideon sent fast runners to let the Ephraimites know to take the fords of the Jordan, and 392 00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,280 they killed a lot of Midianites. 393 00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:15,320 And by the time Gideon gets across the Jordan going after the Midianites, there's only 15,000 394 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:20,680 Midianites left, still outnumbering the 300, right? 395 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,800 But they were on the run, and they got to where they thought they were safe, and when 396 00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:31,280 Gideon showed up with his 300 men, this time they used their swords, and the Midianites 397 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:32,680 did not fare well. 398 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:40,300 Some of them escaped, but never again did Midian rebound to the point where they could 399 00:30:40,300 --> 00:30:42,920 cause trouble for Israel. 400 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:47,160 Now, who won that battle? 401 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:48,640 God. 402 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:54,000 Did it take bravery on the part of Gideon to do what he did? 403 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,600 Did he have to trust God to do it? 404 00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:58,340 Yes, he did. 405 00:30:58,340 --> 00:31:02,600 Did the men who were with him, the 300, did they have to trust God? 406 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,880 Were they all committed, no matter what? 407 00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:13,040 I would like to suggest, by the way, that God does not ask us to kill Midianites today, 408 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:15,760 for one thing, there aren't any. 409 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:17,360 Fair enough? 410 00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:21,160 What does God call us to do? 411 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,800 God has called his people. 412 00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:31,440 Revelation 14, I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven with having the everlasting 413 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,000 gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth. 414 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,920 You know that message, if you're a Seventh-day Adventist. 415 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:45,440 And you know that he wants us to spread it to the world, don't you? 416 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:54,000 If God has called us to do something, does he send us off by ourselves to do it? 417 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000 No, he goes with us. 418 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,760 And so we have the light of the gospel message. 419 00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:09,880 In fact, if you want to, by the way, you know John, the Apostle John tells us in the first 420 00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:16,120 chapter of John that Jesus is the light, that lighteth every man that comes into the world. 421 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:18,480 Did you know that? 422 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:26,020 Every single person who ever lived has received some light. 423 00:32:26,020 --> 00:32:35,320 And Jesus said, if I be lifted up, John 12, I will draw all men unto me. 424 00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,720 The battle plan is simple, hold Jesus high. 425 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:47,360 I remember being asked to be an interim pastor one time in a Congregationalist church. 426 00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:54,000 And I would preach the same thing there on Sunday morning that I preached in my church 427 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,240 on Sabbath morning. 428 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:57,240 That was kind of fun. 429 00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:58,760 They loved it. 430 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:02,000 These people said, man, we're learning so much about the Bible. 431 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000 Yes, they were. 432 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:05,000 And it was exciting. 433 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,960 They loved it. 434 00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:13,960 So if you are holding the light of Jesus high, and I made up my mind when I was preaching 435 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:20,680 in that Congregationalist church, I said, well, I don't think I'm going to make Adventists 436 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,680 out of them in the next couple of months. 437 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:29,420 And I'm not going to try, but I want them to know one thing, and that is that no one 438 00:33:29,420 --> 00:33:36,360 believes in Jesus more than Seventh-day Adventists. 439 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:41,240 And I want you to know that that's what it's all about is Jesus. 440 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:45,600 Now, does that mean we don't worry about things like the Sabbath? 441 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:47,680 Well, Jesus kept the Sabbath. 442 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,680 Why wouldn't I? 443 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:55,920 Does it mean we don't worry about things that the teachings in the Bible? 444 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,160 No, God gave us to them. 445 00:33:58,160 --> 00:33:59,360 Jesus gave them to us. 446 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:06,560 They're very important, but we hold Jesus high, as high as we can. 447 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:12,200 And then number two, they had trumpets, right? 448 00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:17,080 Paul says it's important that the trumpet give a certain sound. 449 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:23,160 Otherwise you don't know what it's all about, right? 450 00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:28,080 You don't know what tune it's trying to play. 451 00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:33,840 And I would like to suggest that God wants us to hold the trumpet and trumpet the gospel 452 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:42,040 message everywhere as much as we can by our lives, by our words. 453 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:46,180 People need to know that that light we hold up. 454 00:34:46,180 --> 00:34:51,160 We hold it not only by our deeds, but by our words. 455 00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:59,680 Now, as I said, we're not out to kill Midianites, but anytime you're out to save souls, you 456 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:01,640 will be in a battle. 457 00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,760 Did you know that? 458 00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:07,980 Because there is an enemy of souls, the enemy of humanity. 459 00:35:07,980 --> 00:35:11,120 There is a real devil and he has real angels. 460 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:16,960 He took one third of the angels in heaven with him, Revelation chapter 12. 461 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:20,600 He drew one third of the stars with his tail. 462 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:24,240 We know that. 463 00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:31,560 By the way, I've already mentioned that God can handle any weapon that man can make. 464 00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,640 How about handling demons? 465 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:36,200 Can God handle them too? 466 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:37,200 Yeah. 467 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:46,640 It's very important that if we are going to win souls for Jesus, that we expect and 468 00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:52,360 plan on God giving us the power from on high to do it. 469 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,160 We can't do it by ourselves. 470 00:35:55,160 --> 00:36:03,240 I couldn't win a soul to save me, let alone someone else, without God's Holy Spirit. 471 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:09,480 And God is telling us, every one of us, go with this thy might. 472 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,040 Have not I sent you? 473 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:14,640 Has he sent you? 474 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,480 If he has, he will go with you. 475 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,440 And yes, the charge is being sounded. 476 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:25,840 I love Revelation chapter 18. 477 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:35,280 Last week, EW mentioned it, and I appreciated hearing him mention it Sabbath afternoon, 478 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:45,040 where he says, where Jesus tells us, by the way, this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. 479 00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:47,320 That's how this book starts. 480 00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:52,960 After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, 481 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:57,720 and the earth was illuminated with his glory. 482 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:02,040 This is a fourth angel after the three angels. 483 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:07,200 I believe we are getting very close to the end of all things. 484 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,760 Do you? 485 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:17,000 It's time for the work of that fourth angel, and he wants to use you. 486 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:18,880 He wants to use me. 487 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:26,800 He wants to use everyone who will keep their eye on the goal, even when drinking water. 488 00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:35,160 He wants to use everyone who will keep their eye on him and hold him high, everyone who 489 00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:45,000 will move forward at the sound of the charge and who is willing to be part of signaling 490 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:46,560 the charge. 491 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,080 What about you? 492 00:37:50,080 --> 00:38:01,080 Jesus is coming, and I'm looking forward to the day when the battle is over. 493 00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:03,400 The older I get, the more I look back. 494 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:08,960 I grew up hearing my dad say, oh yeah, they've been talking about the coming of Jesus since 495 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,600 1844, and he hasn't come yet. 496 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:14,000 And that's true, he hasn't. 497 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:15,800 Dad's long gone. 498 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:23,000 Jesus still hasn't come, but I am convinced that his coming is near. 499 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,200 Are you going to be ready for it? 500 00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:35,200 He's looking for people who will be totally and completely willing to go forward in the 501 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:40,320 might of the Holy Spirit at the sound of the charge. 502 00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:44,880 Will you? 503 00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:50,360 Our loving Father in heaven, thank you so much for giving us your word. 504 00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,120 Thank you for calling us into your service. 505 00:38:54,120 --> 00:39:02,440 I thank you for having a plan for each of us, for using us to spread the message of 506 00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:04,920 our soon coming Savior. 507 00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:12,640 Father, we thank you for the power that you have promised and pray that this work might 508 00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:15,760 soon be finished. 509 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:22,360 And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before 510 00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:27,880 the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. 511 00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:35,200 To God our Savior who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and 512 00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:36,200 forever. 513 00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:37,200 Amen. 514 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:55,540 Amen.