Judges chapter 7. I titled this message tonight, Victory in Christ. Victory in Christ. This is still from Hebrews 11.32 on Gideon. Lord willing I'm going to finish this one up tonight. And we see this in Judges 7, this victory that the Lord gave to Gideon. The Lord gave Him over the Midianites. The Lord gave Him the victory. Without the Lord, there is no victory at all. And this is representative of the victory that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual victory that we have in Him.

And one of the first things we see in this chapter, as Matthew read, that there was a great number with Gideon, not nearly as many as there were with the Midianites, Amalekites, and others who all gathered there as grasshoppers. They would just cover the land. I thought that looks like my sins, just like grasshoppers, or so many of them.

But one of the things that jumped out at me, and I mentioned this last week, and this trimming down of the numbers is that many are called, few are chosen. Our Lord said this, that's sobering to me. You know, every time the gospel goes out, many are called. You know, if this room was full of right now, if it was completely full and the gospel goes out, you know, God has commanded that every man believe, repent and believe the gospel. But there are some whom the Lord gives the ability and the life to believe. It's the gift of faith. He gives it to them. But that does not negate the responsibility to believe when the gospel is preached. When the gospel is preached, everybody ought to believe it. That's the truth. You ought to believe the truth when it's told. You ought to. Everybody ought to believe it. they're going to be responsible for what they heard.

But the Lord tells us many are called but few are chosen and throughout the scriptures we see that those who serve are chosen, they're chosen of God. Our Lord said this in John 15 16 to His disciples. Are you a disciple of Christ? This is to you also. You have not chosen me But I've chosen you, I've chosen and ordained you. Ordained you, ordained your work, ordained your position, everything about you, God's ordained it, everything. But I chose you. That's one of the first things we must get straight in salvation. The Lord chose me, He chose you. The choosings of God. John 13, 18. Remember when He washed their feet? He said, Now you're clean, but not all of you. He said, I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen. I know whom I've chosen.

2 Timothy 2, 4 No man that woreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. And everyone who believes the gospel is a soldier in the Lord?s Army. You?re a soldier.

Now in this we see victory belongs not to the strong, it does not belong to the many, but it does belong to the faithful few through whom God has chosen to display His glory. That?s who the victory belongs to.

ISAIAH 43 21 THIS PEOPLE HAVE I FORMED FOR MYSELF YOU WHO BELIEVE GOD FORMED YOU GOD CREATED YOU HE MADE YOU A BELIEVER GOD MADE YOU A BELIEVER I DIDN'T MAKE MYSELF ONE GOD DID THIS PEOPLE HAVE I FORMED FOR MYSELF THEY SHALL SHOW FORTH MY PRAISE

we just did it in a song we did it in the reading We did it in prayer. I'm doing it in preaching. They shall show forth my praise, my glory. We do it every week when we come together, don't we? And when God gives you the opportunity out there where you work or in the community, He gives you the opportunity to praise Him, to witness, speak of His glory. What an honor.

Isaiah 43, verse 1, But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, HE THAT FORMED THEE, O ISRAEL, FEAR NOT, FOR I HAVE REDEEMED THEE, I HAVE CALLED THEE BY THY NAME, THOU ART MINE, YOU'RE MINE. I MADE YOU, I CREATED YOU, SPIRITUALLY SPEAKING HERE, SPIRITUALLY GOD'S CREATED US IN CHRIST JESUS. HE'S CREATED US IN CHRIST JESUS.

NOW GOD'S POWER AND GLORY ARE SEEN IN OUR WEAKNESS. It is seen in our weakness. You see there in Judges 7, verses 1 and 2. Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 12, 10, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. We might need to read that a few times. I take pleasure in my infirmities instead of complaining. I TAKE PLEASURE IN MY INFIRMITIES, IN REPROACHES, I TAKE PLEASURE IN REPROACHES, IN NECESSITIES, BEING IN WANT. You know, Paul said he suffered the loss of all things for Christ's sake. I TAKE PLEASURE IN PERSECUTIONS, they stoned him, left him for dead one time. IN DISTRESSES, anybody hear distress? I take pleasure in distresses for Christ's sake. Lord, help us to honor you in our conduct when we go through trials. Help us to honor you in our conduct as we go through these difficult times. For when I am weak, THEN AM I STRONG. The Spirit of God rests upon us when we are weak, when we realize we cannot do anything. I think I do my best preaching, if I can say it this way, when I really have a strong, strong feeling that I can't do it. When I really feel that, when I really feel like, Lord, I can't do this. I can't get up there this evening. I just don't know what I'm going to say. Then I am strong. Then He enables me. And I realize it. I realize it. That's when I'm strong. When I'm weak in myself, then am I strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now when Gideon gathered his army, he had 32,000. 32,000 men. But God said, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands lest Israel vaunt or glory themselves against me. All sin is against God. When David, in Psalm 51, he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. But did he not sin against Uriah? Did he not sin against Bathsheba? Did he not sin against their family? He did them wrong. He did them wrong. But first and foremost, he sinned against God. My sins against God.

LEST ISRAEL GLORY THEMSELVES AGAINST ME." Pride is in all of us. You know, be careful here that we shoot them and we turn around and do the same thing. I think it was Barnes who said, Be careful we don't cuss out the Catholics and then turn around and do the same things. Pride is in all of us.

The Lord gave Paul a thorn in the flesh. Why? BECAUSE OF THE ABUNDANCE OF REVELATIONS THAT HE WAS GIVEN, HE'D BE LIFTED UP WITH PRIDE. AND SO GOD GAVE HIM A THORN IN THE FLESH, AND HE DID NOT REMOVE IT. PAUL SOUGHT THE LORD THREE TIMES TO REMOVE IT, AND HE SAID, MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU. BUT HE GAVE IT TO PAUL TO KEEP HIM DOWN. keep him down to keep that pride down because no doubt this was one of the probably one of the main problems that paul had as a pharisee i was what did he say in philippians 3 i was a pharisee of the pharisees i sat at the feet of gamellia anybody else do that no i did that man was lifted up with pride And that pride's still there.

You know, every sin I was born with, I still have. Every sinful thought, I still have sinful thoughts. I still have that same sinful nature I was born with. I struggle with it every day, every day. It's the Lord who helps, enables me and you to overcome that and not to be taken over by it.

So get in here and he has these 32,000 and God whittles them down, He whittles them down. You see, God saves for His glory and our good, not the other way around. It?s never the other way around. He does not need vast numbers to do remarkable things. In fact, He doesn?t need any number. There?s only one that?s needed, only one, and that?s Him. When He created the heavens and the earth, He did it. When He created the Garden of Eden and made it ready for Adam, He did it! It was not Him and Adam. He did it all, and this is the picture of salvation. He did it all, then created Adam and put him in it. Adam brought nothing to the Garden, but sin. That's what He ended up bringing to the Garden.

I can't even grasp that this Earth we live on, was perfect at one time. This earth was absolutely perfect at one time. But by one man's sin, by one man's disobedience, sin entered in and has messed up ever since. God delights in using the weak to confound the mighty. so that we might know that the power is of God and not of ourselves. Do you know that? Has God taught you that? Has He taught me that? That if I accomplish anything, you accomplish anything, the power is of God.

1 Corinthians 1, 26 and 29, 29 For you see your calling, brethren, HOW THAT NOT MANY WISE MEN AFTER THE FLESH, NOT MANY MIGHTY, NOT MANY NOBLE ARE CALLED, CALLED EFFECTIVELY, POWERFULLY CALLED. BUT GOD HATH CHOSEN THE FOOLISH THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE WISE, AND GOD HATH CHOSEN THE WEAK THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE THINGS WHICH ARE MIGHTY.

This doesn't offend me, I am a weak thing. I am a weak, there was a time in my life I thought I was strong. I did, I thought I was strong. If you think because you can lift a certain amount of weight that that makes you strong, you don't, no. That doesn't mean anything, that means nothing. Means nothing. and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence."

God chose me. When I was a teenager we'd always get together and play basketball. I was never the first one chosen. I was near the last one chosen. I was like, I was like, I had to be chosen to make up the team. You have to have five. But to think that God would choose me. He could pass me by. He could easily pass me by. Get in, you have too many. We only need one God.

NOW IF GOD CHOOSES TO USE US, WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS, IF HE CHOOSES TO USE US IN WHATEVER CAPACITY, ME STANDING HERE PREACHING AND PASTORING AND WHEREVER HE'S PUT YOU, THAT'S YOUR PLACE OF SERVICE. REMEMBER THIS, SALVATION IS OF THE LORD, IT'S OF HIM. YOUR SUCCESS, IT'S OF HIM. IT'S OF HIM.

Now the Lord in verses 3-7 He puts the army that He is going to use to the test. He told Gideon, the first thing He told Gideon, He said, SEND HOME ALL WHO ARE FEARFUL. So Gideon said to them, ALL OF YOU WHO ARE AFRAID, GO BACK HOME, TWO-THIRDS! Two-thirds of the army said, SEE YOU LATER! Two-thirds said, WE ARE GOING HOME. And they left. That's all he had to do. If you're afraid, go home. And they packed their bags and went home. 22,000 men went home. Think about Gideon. Do you think maybe that disheartened him? He's got 32,000 men. You got this army of grasshoppers out there. I mean, just like grasshoppers, camels innumerable. And all of a sudden, two thirds of your army walks away from you. And then God says, Gideon, you still got too many. You still have too many.

I just have to wonder what's going through Gideon's mind because he's a man just like me, you know, just like us. But he says to get rid of the fearful first. And I told you this last week because fear is contagious. It comes from unbelief and unbelief cripples the soul. How many times did the Lord say to His disciples, why are you so fearful? What's your problem? What's your problem? Here stands the God of creation, right there beside of Him. Now why are you so fearful? Oh, you have little faith. We have no reason to ever fear anything or anyone but God. And I know this, if we have a true, if we have a right fear of God, we won't fear anything else. Just that statement alone tells me how much unbelief is in me, because there's still too much fear in me. There's still too much fear. You're afraid of this, you're afraid of that. You lock your doors. You're afraid somebody's gonna break in. I mean, I lock my doors, but you still, you know, it crosses your mind, doesn't it?

22,000 go back because they are too afraid. Romans 8.31 WHAT SHALL WE THEN SAY TO THESE THINGS? IF GOD BE FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? WHO CAN BE AGAINST US? Then next, GOD TRIED THE REMAINING MEN BY HOW? All the ways of God are so mysterious and so ABOVE US. HE'S GONNA TRY THE REST OF THESE MEN, AND IT'S NOT GONNA BE A PHYSICAL TEST. THEY'RE NOT GONNA RUN THE GAUNTLET. THEY'RE NOT GONNA SEE HOW THEY USE THE SWORD. IT'S HOW THEY DRINK WATER. IT'S HOW THEY DRINK WATER. THAT'S SOMETHING. GOD TRIED THE REMAINING MEN BY HOW THEY DRANK WATER. ONLY 300 MEN Lapped water like dogs, alert, ready, watchful, that was their attitude. Those who knelt and drank leisurely were sent home, they were careless, they were concerned about themselves, their thirst, quenching their thirst. Boy, this jumped out at me, how little things reveal great faith. JUST A LITTLE EVERYDAY THING TO REVEAL FAITH! HOW YOU DRANK WATER! HOW YOU DRANK WATER! THAT REVEALED SUCH GREAT FAITH!

Luke 17, verse 6, And the LORD said, IF YOU HAD FAITH AS A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED, Or you'd say to this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it would obey you. He said if you had that kind of faith, and you really believed, it would happen. You believe that happened? He said it would. When I read that verse, I think, wow, I don't even have faith as a grain of mustard seed. I ought to have mustard seed faith.

God chose the 300. Gideon did not choose the 300. God did. God chose the 300 who were watchful and disciplined men who were ready for battle. You know, as the Scripture says, Those who WATCH and PRAY. These are the ones ready for battle. I thought this was interesting in Nehemiah 4.17. THEY WHICH BUILDED ON THE WALL, AND THEY THAT BEAR BURDENS WITH THOSE THAT LAID IT, EVERY ONE WITH ONE OF HIS HANDS WROUGHT INTO WORK, AND WITH THE OTHER HAND HE HELD A SWORD." With one hand he worked, and with the other hand he was ready to fight, ready to fight.

GIVES GIDEON THE ARMY THREE HUNDRED OUT OF THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND! Well, that's a low percentage, isn't it? THREE HUNDRED OUT OF THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND! NOW YOU'RE READY TO FIGHT!

And now the Lord's going to give Gideon CONFIDENCE! And He's going to give him confidence, and it's going to come from the STRANGEST PLACE! The enemy. Here's what's so beautiful about this, and I'll get into more of this picture of Christ, but here's how the Lord, and it's still going on today, He's manipulating everything. He's orchestrating absolutely everything. He's telling Gideon, this is exactly what's going to happen, this is how it's going to happen.

Has God changed? WE HAVE THESE TO LET US KNOW THAT GOD IS GOD, THAT HE HASN'T CHANGED, HE'S IMMUTABLE, HE CHANGES NOT. And so here we have the dream of a cake of barley bread. Oh, well, he's lapping water, he's drinking water. Now he's going to give a dream of a piece of barley bread. Oh, the providence of God!

Now, he tells Gideon, To go down there, and he said, now, and this is interesting. You know, when he met Gideon over in verse 12 of six, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with thee, the mighty man of valor. Mighty man of valor. And then verse 10, but if you're afraid to go down there, go with Pyrrha. He calls Him a mighty man of valor, and yet Gideon goes with his servant. He takes his servant with him because he's afraid. This is the mighty man of valor. This is how the Lord sees us in Him. This is how we are in Christ. We are weak in ourselves. We are weak in ourselves. God uses crackpots. But in Him, Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But outside of Christ, in myself, this is what I am, fearful, just fearful.

But he goes down to the camp of the enemy, he goes down there to the enemy's camp, and one soldier had a dream. He had a dream. A dream of barley bread. rolling into the camp of Midian and the Midianites and overturning a tent this is not just any tent this is the tent of the kings and it lays it low destroys it and it rolls into that tent you know God I'm giving you a lot of just thoughts as I studied here in the last few days God has full use of every mind right down to the dream, right down to the dream. God will use unbelievers to carry out His purpose. Remember the butler and the baker? They had a dream too, didn't they? Oh, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. God controls the mind. These dreams are revelations that He's giving. And it ENCOURAGED Gideon. He was ready to fight. After this dream, he heard the soldier tell the dream, and that other soldier, this is nothing but the sword of Gideon. He's going to come in and lay us low. He's going to destroy us.

But this barley bread, you know, it was the bread for the poor. From what I've gathered, it was basically dog food. Basically dog food or used for cattle one of the other cattle or dogs But if he was very poor you could eat barley bread when you had nothing else when you didn't have any wheat to make bread with It was a poor man's food yet in this simple image Lies a powerful powerful truth Most people read this book And they see that and they have no clue what that's talking about. No clue. That barley loaf represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Small in the world's eyes, the poor man's bread. He's the poor man's bread. He's my bread. He's your bread. He's your bread. But mighty in power, this barley loaf comes tumbling in town or tumbling into that camp and just destroyed the main tent. The world despised Christ yet through Him came salvation, through Him came the victory, through Him. And God was revealing to Gideon through this dream THAT THE VICTORY IS ALREADY IN HIS HAND! THE VICTORY IS ALREADY WON! YOU KNOW THE VICTORY IS OURS! I'M NOT GONNA LOSE! YOU'RE NOT GONNA LOSE! WE CAN'T LOSE! THE BATTLE WON! OUR LORD WON THE BATTLE! HE'S DESTROYED SATAN! HE DESTROYED HIM WHO HAD THE POWER OVER DEATH! GOD REVEALING TO GIDEON THE VICTORY IS ALREADY IN HIS HAND.

You know, in God's Word, we have the REVELATION OF OUR SALVATION IN CHRIST, as well as the DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD. Right here, in this book, we have the REVELATION OF OUR SALVATION and the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of this world. It's going to be totally destroyed. It's good too, it looks like it's doing a pretty good job of itself, but it's going to be totally destroyed and burn up. When our Lord, listen, when our Lord came into this world, He didn't come into this world to try and save sinners. He came to save and He is saving. When He saves the last one, this will be over with. this will be over with and let me point out here briefly the providence of God in all this I've already briefly mentioned that but the providence of God in the timing of the dream and the telling of the dream nothing happens by chance nothing nothing nothing happens by chance the timing is impeccable everything in my life and your life is impeccable the timing of it impeccable Spurgeon said this our allies are everywhere everything's working for our good even the ones even satan and sin and they don't even know it they don't don't even know it

And then the weapons of victory here, and I'll wind this down in Judges 16-20. Gideon's 300 men, they're going to go into battle. And here's what they're going to go into battle with. They're going to surround the army. Well, they can't surround that big army. They're going to split up in three groups of 100 is what they're going to do. They're going to split up. And here's going to be their weapons. Trumpets, torches, and pitchers.

We had water, we had a barley loaf, and now we've got trumpets, torches, and pitchers. No wonder the gospel is foolishness to men. When the world hears THE gospel, it's foolishness to them, especially the intellectual. When the intellectual hears it, it's really foolishness to them.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal weapons, they're not carnal, that's not what we use. Here's the weapon of our warfare, the Word of God, the Gospel, it's the Gospel, the Word of God.

What strange weapons, yet these symbolize the POWER of the Gospel, the TRUMPET When they marched around Jericho, what did they use? The trumpet, the trumpet. You see, the trumpet is the bold proclamation of the gospel, the good news. It's the proclamation of the gospel of God's glory. That's what the gospel is. God's chief glory is the gospel, which is Christ crucified.

REDEEMED BY CHRIST'S BLOOD, SAVED THROUGH HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Paul said this in Romans 1.16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. But it's the POWER OF GOD unto salvation. That's the trumpet.

You'll have these torches. You're going to be in these pitchers, these clay pots, clay pitchers. But the torch here is the light of Christ shining in darkness. He's the light. He said, I'm the light of the world. He's the light of the gospel. HE'S THE ONLY LIGHT THERE IS! THE LIGHT WE HAVE, HE'S GIVEN TO US! WE'RE CHILDREN OF LIGHT BECAUSE WE ARE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE FATHER OF LIGHT! And the FATHER WHO IS LIGHT.

And the broken picture. What beautiful pictures here! Not that picture, but you know what I'm saying. What beautiful types! THE BROKEN PICTURE, HE SAID I WANT YOU TO BLOW THE TRUMPET, GET THIS IN YOUR MIND, I WANT YOU TO BLOW THE TRUMPET, I WANT YOU TO BREAK THE PICTURES, those clay pots or whatever it's in, the clay pot, and I want you to hold those torches in your left hand, I think it was, but THE BROKEN PICTURE, OUR OWN WEAKNESS THROUGH WHICH THE LIGHT OF CHRIST SHINES FORTH, WE ARE THE BROKEN PICTURES.

Listen to Paul, 2 Corinthians 4, 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, clay pots. We are made from dust, aren't we? We are made from the dust of the earth. I had an allergy test taken once. The only thing I was allergic to was dust. I told him, I said, I am allergic to myself. I said, great day, no wonder I've got problems. I'm allergic to me. I'm made of dust. I'm a 200 pound dust bunny. That's what I am.

Anyway, where was I? Paul said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not of us. We know that. all that that that treasure oh that gospel treasure christ in you the hope of glory is in us it's in us and know what gideon said to them in verse 17 he said to 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 you do

It's written in Hebrews 12 too, looking unto Jesus. He said, look to me, Gideon said, look to me, look to me. And you do as I do. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. In Isaiah 45, 22, look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Look to me in this battle, what do we continually do? We continually look to Christ. We don't look back. at a time we looked to Christ. When Peter said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come out on the water. He said, Come. Peter actually started to walk on water. But you know what happened? He saw that the wind was boisterous. He took his eyes off Christ.

As long as we keep looking to the Lord from this pulpit and from the pews, we'll be all right. As long as we keep looking to Him. Gideon said, LOOK ON ME and you do what I do. As I do, so shall you do. We get our message, our direction, our counseling from the Lord. We don't have business meetings. We pray and call upon the Lord for whatever the situation may require or call for. We all go to the Lord for it. The Lord guides us and directs us. We follow Him.

And when I blow the trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of the camp, and say the sword of the Lord in Gideon. You see, the Lord must speak first. Gideon says, when I blow the trumpet, then you blow the trumpet. Now this especially applies to me. I have got to receive the message from the Lord to give to you. And then he says to the people, then you blow it. You tell it. This is not a private club. You tell it. Tell it to everyone whom the Lord opens the door for you to tell it to. Don't hold back. We get our message from the Lord.

And when here's what you say, he said, here's the message and say, the sword of the Lord and Gideon. When you blow the trumpet, you break the pitcher, and you hold the torch, and you say, THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON. The written word and the living word, they go forth at the same time. THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON. THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. They go together. Our greatest weapon is not human strength, It is the gospel of Christ crucified. He said, the Lord said to Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail against thee. The gates of hell won't keep you out is what he's saying. It's not strong enough. It's not strong enough.

Paul was writing to the church in Rome. That was a seed of Satan at that time. I mean, he's writing to the church in Rome. THERE WERE BELIEVERS IN NERO?S HOUSE! RIGHT THERE IN THE PALACE! THERE WERE BELIEVERS IN THE PALACE! That?s like Solomon said, it was a wonder to him, I?m just paraphrasing, that there was a spider in the palace. He saw a spider in this web in the palace. That?s like sinners in glory! Sinners like us in glory! Oh, the gospel, the gospel of Christ crucified is our strength and our weapon. It pierces the hardest heart and dispels the deepest darkness.

God still works through the weak things of this world to bring to naught the mighty. He still works through the preaching of the gospel and He always will. And He will use human vessels, cracked and imperfect, to carry the light of the gospel. I mean, I know this. I know this for a fact. The Lord said, you're the light of the world. That's not just me, that's you too. He said, let your light so shine that they may glorify your Father which is in heaven. They may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

In closing here, in By and through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have victory over Satan, sin, its curse, its power. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Curse of the law, death, we're all coming up to die, aren't we? We're coming up to die. But all that is, is a VEHICLE, a DOOR into the ETERNAL GLORY that God has prepared for us. TO GOD BE THE GLORY! GREAT THINGS HE HATH DONE!