Turn back with me to Judges chapter
seven, if you would. As God had purposed and promised,
Israel had defeated all the nations in the land of Canaan, every
one. And they took the Canaanites cities and villages to be their
own, but because of their sin, as we've seen so many times,
their idolatry, their disobedience, and now find themselves in hidden
caverns and caves as their cities and the villages that God had
given them lay empty and desolate. Why? Because the Midianites,
like locusts, that's what they're compared to in both chapter seven
and eight, came at harvest time and devoured everything that
Israel had grown. I don't know if you put out a
garden. I haven't, but those of you that
do know it's a lot of work. Can you imagine putting out a
garden and your neighbor or someone in the city comes and just takes
everything out of it, hauls it off? And especially if you're
depending on sustenance from that garden. God's chosen nation
is growing and tending gardens in the guise of night to have
just enough to eat and survive. It ought not be, but it's their
own fault. They have no one to blame but
themselves. So the Israelites, as their pattern is, they begin
to cry unto the Lord, and an angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus
himself, came to a man named Gideon, and he said that he would
smite this devouring enemy as one man. You know, I got to thinking
about that. What a picture that is of the
man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the sacrifice
of himself delivered all the chosen of God
from their sin by one man. Gideon shines among the heroes
of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. And to prove that Israel's salvation
and ours for that matter is of the Lord. God makes it so that
none can question the certainty of salvation being solely and
completely of the Lord Jesus Christ in, by, and through him.
God Almighty reduced, as we saw last study, Gideon's army from
32,000 down to 300. You know, that's a reduction
of 99.1%. Can you imagine your paycheck
or your retirement benefits or your social security being reduced
99%? That puts it into some perspective
here. But it's with these 300 men,
and that's what is so amazing about our God, is with 300 men
that God proves that five of His chosen can chase 100, and
100 of them can put 10,000 to flight, so that Israel's enemies
would fall before them by the sword, according to Leviticus
26a. And as we'll see tonight, it'll be by their own swords. And it'll be by their own swords
because of Gideon's sword, which is the sword of the Lord. Only
a nation with God doing their fighting can prevail against
such odds as this. And what we need to remember
is God is not bound by man's odds. God is merciful to his
people. The best of men are men at best,
and Gideon is insecure, and he's fearful with these odds. So would
you and I be. God had promised him and Israel
certain victory. Gideon didn't doubt God's ability. Gideon doubted his own ability.
And that's why we can never look to ourself. God was so merciful
and patient with Gideon, just as He is with us. Aren't you
glad the Lord is long-suffering and patient with you? God gives
Gideon a sign, this time, without Gideon even asking for it. Our
Lord's so gracious, He's so patient and merciful with us. Now, in
verse 10, God says, but if thou fear to go down, to go down and
fight this 125,000, I think last week I said 100,000, but it's
actually 125,000. He said, if thou fear to go down,
go thou with Phurah thy servant down to the host, down to the...
army of the Midian, sneak into their camp, and thou shalt hear
what they say. And afterwards shall thine hands
be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then when he, Gideon,
down with Fulleraw, his servant, unto the house of the armed men
that were in the host." Now the Lord tells Gideon here to sneak
into the camp of the enemy where he overhears a Midianite soldier
who had a dream. tell a fellow soldier about that
dream. Verse 12, and the Midianites
and the Malachites and all the children of the east lay along
the valley like grasshoppers, like locusts, for multitude,
and their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside
for multitude. And when Gideon was come, behold,
there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold,
I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into
the host of Midian, and came into a tent, and smote it, that
it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow The soldier answered
and said, this is nothing else, save the sword of Gideon, the
son of Joash, a man of Israel, for unto his hand hath God delivered
Midian and all the host. Now there's a spiritual picture
found in this dream that this Midianite had. Barley was a poor
man's food. Generally it was used to feed
dogs and cattle. But when it was eaten by men,
it was an indication of extreme poverty. And God's people are
poor sinners, aren't we? We're poor mercy bearers. Barley cakes were beaten into
fine meal and then pressed out very thin, kind of like a tortilla
or pizza crust. And it was done so that it could
be easily cooked on heated rocks. And these barley cakes, they
weren't puffy loaves of bread like I like. They were fat, flat,
excuse me, and thin. And what a picture they are of
sinners who have been made to see themselves. That's how we
see ourselves, isn't it? We're nothing, we have nothing,
we can do nothing. Just flat, thin, insignificant,
less than the least sinners that we are. Now in this man's dream,
where the barley cake landed is very significant. It landed
in the tent of the host, and that's referring to the general
of the army, and more than likely, it's speaking of the prince of
Midian, and it does so in destruction. And the dream was interpreted
to understand that these poor barley-eating Israelites, thin
and insignificant as they are, would be the Midianites' demise. And this barley bread, low and
insignificant, which also pictured Christ as a man, he humbled himself,
he became a servant. God did. He must in order to
save sin. It was believed by them to be
the sword of Gideon and it meant that Israel was going to win
this battle before it was ever fought. And what a picture this
is of the Word of God. You see, the Word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing of sunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. The gospel is a clear declaration
of the chosen sinner's victory. And any effort by the enemy of
God is absolutely futile. And it will be soon cut off.
God cannot be defeated. If God be for us, who can be
against us? It's God that fights our battles for us. We should
never worry what man can do to us with God as the captain of
our salvation. The sword of the Lord, the Word
of God, is all God's people need. I wish we could fully grasp that. Poor and weak as we are in our
weaknesses, we're made strong. It's the Lord that fights our
battles and wins our wars. Matter of fact, it's the Lord
who has, because it's a finished work. It's accomplished. And
all we have to do is rest. Verse 15, And it was so, when
Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation
thereof, that he worshipped. And he returned unto the host
of Israel, and said, Arise, for the Lord hath delivered into
your hand the host of Midian. You see, when Gideon heard these
things, he was ready to go to battle. He was encouraged to
believe what the Lord had promised. And that's what That's what the
preaching of the gospel does for enlightened sinners. It encourages
them to believe all that God has promised in this book. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We meet together,
you know, three times a week, if you count twice on Sunday,
and we do so to hear, again, what Christ has done for sinners.
And faith is in the heart from hearing these encouraging words
of what the Lord has done. Also in these things we see the
sovereign power and providence of God. I couldn't help but to
think about that again. I read those verses that we just
looked at. God controls all things. He controls
all men. He controls all events. He does
as He will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. You know what? That's everywhere. That covers
it all. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He. In heaven, earth, deep places,
hell. No place that God is not in control. Shouldn't that bring us great
comfort? God does as He wills. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did He. I love those three words. That
did He. Now I want you to think about
this. God gives a worshiper of Baal a dream. It came from God. And he awakens to tell another
soldier about this dream. And God does all this in absolute
perfect timing. The Lord always has perfect timing.
Never been late, never been early, always been right on time. At the exact time, Gideon sneaks
into an army of 120,000 men. And he hears this one man's dream
told. What are the chances of that?
Well, God doesn't do anything by chance. God does everything
in and on purpose. This was an unsolicited sign
from the Lord. You know, what did Gideon do?
Verse 15 tells us that he worshipped. He worshipped the Lord and then
returned. He didn't go back and then worship.
He worshipped the Lord right then and there. When God reveals
the Gospel to His people, we react the same way. We worship
Him right then and there. You see, there's nothing that
comes our way by accident. With our sovereign God, there's
no such thing as luck. Gideon did not say to the 300,
arise and let us see if we can do this. He said, arise for the Lord hath,
already has, delivered Midian and all the host. They hadn't
fought the battle yet. Doesn't matter, God's already
delivered them. If He promised He'd do it, He's gonna do it.
It's as good as done. It's as good as done. The work of our
Lord Jesus is finished. There's nothing for us to do
but rest. I love to think about that. I
love to rest. Now, in verse 16, we have Gideon's
plan of attack. Remember, 300 men against 120,
125,000. What brilliant strategy does
Gideon come up with? Well, trusting in God is the
only strategy that a child of God needs. Look at verse 16,
and he divided the three hundred men into three companies, that's
a hundred each, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty
pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And he said unto them,
Look on me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the
outside of the camp, it shall be that as I do, so shall ye
do. And when I blow with a trumpet,
I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also on
every side of all the camp, and say the sword of the Lord and
of Gideon. So Gideon and the hundred men
that were with him came into the outside of the camp in the
beginning of the middle watch, and they had but newly set the
watch, and they blew the trumpets and break the pitchers, that
were in their hands. Now here Gideon gives his soldiers
their marching orders, and remember, in the army of God, not many
wise men are chosen, not many mighty men are chosen, but God
had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And he'd chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty. The instruments and weapons of
war that God chose, well, they don't make any sense to us by
nature. A trumpet? A clay pot? And a lamp inside of it? It's going to go out with 300
and defeat 120 plus thousand? You know, in the victory of Jericho,
it was just marching and a blow of the trumpet and A shout that brought the mighty
walls of Jericho down. You remember in Judges chapter
3, it was an ox gold of Shamgar that slew 600 Philistines. It
was just a plow spade with a blade on the end of it. Here God has 300 soldiers to
put a trumpet in their right hand and a clay vessel in their
left hand with a lamp in it. And when Gideon gave the signal,
they were to blow the trumpets and break the clay pitchers and
expose the light within. That's the plan. That's the strategy. And again, what a picture. God,
through the blowing of the gospel trumpet, uses clay pots to expose
men's sin and God's judgment on them by the light of the gospel. And we'll talk more about that
in a moment. And you know, I was thinking
about it, you know there was just some young soldier there
in that 300 men and those 300 men that thought, you want us
to do what? How are we going to win this war
that way? We're outnumbered 333 to 1 already, and you want us
to blow a trumpet and smash clay pots and pitchers and shine a
lamp in the face of 125,000 fighting men? Well, may we always remember
that there's not anything too hard for the Lord. The Lord is
our sword. The Lord is our light. The Lord
is our strength and shield. The Lord is our rock and fortress.
The Lord is our shepherd. We shall not want. We shall not
lack. The Lord is our defense. The
Lord is our refuge. The Lord is our portion. The
Lord can do anything and everything. There's nothing too hard for
Him. Nothing. Nothing means nothing. Everything
means everything. Gideon divides these 300 men
into three groups. He puts a trumpet in each hand
with empty pitchers and lamps within the pitchers. And this
is the middle watch. This is taking place in the dead
of night. In the darkness of night. Look
at verse 20. And the three companies blow
the trumpets and break the pitchers and held the lamps in their left
hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow with them.
And they cried, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And they
stood up, every man in his place, round about the camp, and all
the host ran and cried and fled. And the three hundred blew the
trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow. even throughout all the host,
and the host fled to Beth Shittel and Zerarath and to the border
of Abel Meholah unto Tabith. The Midianites wake up to the
sound of these trumpets and the crashing of these pots. It sounded
like, pardon my French, all hell had broken loose. Being woken
out of sleep and in the dark, they're disoriented, and all
they can see is these lights surrounding them. And they're
afraid. Doesn't matter how many of them
there are. Each man individually is afraid.
So you got 125,000 men afraid. And when the Israelites cried
out, this is the sword of the Lord. This is the sword of Gideon.
Well, they were even more terrified. And I'm certain that that Midianite
soldier's dream and the interpretation had already traveled and spread
throughout the Midianites' camp. We're not told that, but I'm
sure the Lord saw all of that. So in their confusion and in
their fear, the Midianites begin to flee and run into each other
and not knowing who's friend or foe, in the dead of night,
they begin to hack each other up to pieces and slaughter themselves. Israel doesn't even have a sword.
They're killing themselves. It's then, in verse 24, that
Gideon sends messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, come
down against the Midianites and take before them the waters unto
Bethbara and Jordan. And then all the men of Ephraim
gathered themselves together and took the waters unto Bethbara
and Jordan. We've all heard that saying in
Western movies, head them off at the pass. Well, that's what
they're doing here. They're heading them off at the
pass. That's what Gideon is saying. He sends a message to the men
of Ephraim and saying, we flushed them your way. You take care
of them. And look what happened. I ask
you again, is anything too hard for our Lord? Verse 25, and they
took two princes of the Midianites, excuse me, Oreb and Zeb, and
they slew Oreb upon the rock, Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the
winepress of Zeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads
of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan. You see, friends, our deliverance
is not by our might, not by our power,
but by God's Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord promised
this victory, and He accomplished it by sending a dream to one
man in the tribe of Midian. The weapons God used was trumpets,
empty pitchers, lamps and torches, with one single phrase to be
shouted. And with 300 men, God calls them
to put tens of thousands to flight. You just read it. Again, we're
reminded that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and our
ways are not God's ways, are they? We've been promised the victory,
and the victory's ours. Isn't that good news? We don't
have to lift a sword. This victory is given by Christ,
the Captain of our salvation. He cannot fail. He cannot fail. He has the wisdom of God and
the power over all flesh has been given to Him. Gideon told
the 300 Israelites in verse 17, he said, look on me. Our Lord Jesus says the same.
Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. Gideon said, as I do, so shall
ye do. Our Lord never says, do as I
say and not what I do. That's what my mother used to
say to me a lot. Don't do as I do, you do as I
say. And I had better. Our Lord says,
do what I do. John 13, 15, for I've given you
an example that you should do as I have done to you. Speaking
of that good Samaritan, the Lord asked, which of the three thinkest
thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves? And he said,
he that showed mercy on him. And the Lord Jesus said unto
him, go and do thou likewise. Do as I do. He's our great example. Our Lord carried no weapon but
the sword of truth, the word of God, yet none could question
Him or stay His hand. With Him as our leader, the battle
is won and so is the victory. We don't come up with our own
inventions and then simply, we just simply follow the Lord Jesus
as He defeats our enemies for us. And he does so by his word,
the sword of the Spirit. That's how he defeated Satan,
when he was tempted of Satan. It is written, he said, it is
written, it's written. We blow the trumpet as he did
while he was on earth. The trumpet was used to call
to war, but the trumpet was used to come to the feast, and the
trumpet was used to announce the day of atonement. And the
trumpet was used at the start of the Jubilee. Our call is not
effectual, but His certainly is. And we, through the preaching
of the Gospel, the blowing of the Gospel trumpet, we call upon
men and women, sinners, to believe on Christ and repent of their
sin. He won the war. He made the atonement.
He is our Jubilee. Jesus Christ is the believer's
torch. He is a lamp unto our feet and
a light unto our path, Psalm 119, 105. That's what this picture
is. Gideon and the 300 men entered
that night in the darkness, but the light of Christ shined forth,
the light of life for his people. It was the enemy that was destroyed.
We're not told that any in Israel was lost. And none will be. None. Not one shall perish. Jesus
Christ is the light of the world. It's His light that God commands
to shine in the heart of men and women to reveal the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And Christ was and is the light,
and His light is what? It's the life of men and women. It's the life of sinners. We preach Christ the light so
that sinners through Him might be saved, John 1, 7. And this
is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and
men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hated the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, now
listen, he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may
be manifest, that they're wrought in God. You know what that means?
That means that the Lord did it. Salvation's of the Lord. That's good news. These torches,
lamps, lights are hidden in earthen vessels and clay pots. The clay
pots of Israel picture and typify the church of God. They're insignificant
pieces of clay formed as the sovereign potter is pleased to
form. While he's able to make one a vessel of honor and one
a vessel of dishonor. But it's by his hand Why, he
marred the clay that was in his hand and he made the other a
beautiful vessel unto honor. The vessel has no glory, they're
just vessels. Just earthen pots, base, weak,
empty. But some are full of light. Oh my, they're broken pots that
become the light of the world. Isn't that something? The city
set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick that it might
give light unto all that are in the house. Beloved, the word
of salvation that saves this, this is the sword of the Lord
of Gideon. This is Christ's title earned
by His death. Our gospel is not a belief of
the doctrines of theology. I was talking to Brother Paul
this week when I stopped by to visit for a while, and we were
talking about that. I said, there'll be a lot of
Calvinists in hell, Brother Paul. He said, I know it. I know it. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Salvation is all about a person,
not about the doctrine. And you can believe in election,
and you can believe in predestination, and you can wind up in hell.
But if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything's
going to be alright. Everything's going to be just
fine. He's the one thing needful. To the world is foolishness.
Religious world, it's a stumbling block. Well, there's got to be
more to it than that. How many times have you heard
that? It can't be that simple. Got to be more to it than that.
I've got to do something. What good thing must I do to
be saved? But to them that are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ
and Him crucified, it's the power and the wisdom of God Can you imagine years later when
these 300 men told their grandchildren about this? Grandpa, how did y'all defeat
those 120,000 plus men? Well, we had trumpets, and we
had clay pots with torches in them. And we went out and we
blew the trumpet, and we smashed the pots, and we shined the lights
in their faces. Got to be more to it than that.
No. No. It pleased God that these
broken dirt pots spill out light, which is the light of the Lord,
the light of the Gospel, the light of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And God is pleased by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's what preaching
is. Just one clay pot. shining out the light of Christ,
who's the light of men. Is that not right, dear brothers
and sisters? Aren't you glad the Lord revealed
that to you? Our enemies flee as the people
of God stand and rest in the perfect righteousness and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't have to raise a sword.
Don't have to raise a hand. The Lord's done it for us. The
sword of Gideon is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a good title for
this. I think that's what I'll title
it for whatever it's worth. The Sword of Gideon is of the
Lord Jesus Christ.