Judges chapter 6, it will be chapter 6 and 7, still on the faith of Gideon that the Apostle spoke of in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32. There are a few men mentioned in that verse, and Lord willing I want to deal with each of those men mentioned in that verse. And the title of this is The Faith of Gideon Part 2. It may be Part 3, Part 4, who knows? But it's Part 2 tonight. If you'll remember back in verses 1-10 how Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord. And God turned them over to Midian, to those Midianites, for seven years. And the Midianites and the Amalekites joined in to just rob them. They took everything they had. They had to hide. Like Gideon, he hid by the threshing floor. the wine press over there so just so they wouldn't take the food from me they just took everything they could take from them and I thought of when I was reading this today yesterday and today and when I've been reading it off and on I thought you know we looked at the Malachites Joshua Remember Joshua fought the Amalekites and Joshua discomfited he beat the Amalekites and the Amalekites were representation and example of the flesh. Amalek was the grandson of Esau and they represent the flesh. And I thought this is my thinking as I'm reading the scriptures and I thought those Midianites And the Malachites remind me of the sins of the flesh. That's why I got so much trouble. Why do you have so much trouble? It's just the sins of this flesh. Even though the Lord has put away our sins, He has put them away, we are not guilty. That is, we are not condemned. We can't be condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit. But the very thing that brought them into this situation was their sins. They did evil in the sight of the Lord. It doesn't say what that evil is but it's evident that it had to do with idolatry. They were worshiping Baal. Gideon's father had an altar erected to Baal, he built for that. You know, that became the family religion. Gideon was brought up in idolatry, then the Lord saved him. The Lord met him, revealed Himself to him, and then used him. He used him, and I'll show you, we'll see this as I go along. But in verse 6, look back in verse 6, let's not forget what we've already learned. Back in verse 6, AND ISRAEL WAS GREATLY IMPOVERISHED BECAUSE OF THE MIDIANITES AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CRIED UNTO THE LORD. And here's my thoughts. Our sins have greatly impoverished us, haven't they? What robs us of peace? What robs us of peace? What robs us of real joy? What robs us of real communion with the Lord Jesus Christ? It's our sins. Ask David. David asked God to restore unto him the joy. He said, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. How did you lose it, David? Sin. Sin of adultery, sin of murder. That's a pretty bad sin. That's how he lost it. Sin has impoverished us. It's made us spiritually poor. When we ought to be, you know, Paul told those Corinthians, you ought to be teachers, but instead you need to be taught. Babes, you should be teachers. But because of our sins, we are so slow, so slow to learn. It seems like spiritual growth is so slow, and it is. And then sometimes the church as a whole gets herself in a mess. You know, Israel is a type of the church. Israel of old is a type of the Lord's church. And if you want examples of that, go over in Revelation chapter two and three and read those letters written to the church. When you read Ephesus, the letter written to Ephesus, the church at Ephesus, man, it's glowing, isn't it? And then he said, but I have something against you. You left your first love. Your heart's not in it. Your heart's not, your body's here, but your heart's somewhere else. If you leave your first love, someone else has your heart, right? Someone else has your heart. And that's what God says to them. You left your first love. Now return or I'm going to remove the candlestick. What about Sardis? HE SAID YOU HAVE A NAME THAT YOU'RE ALIVE BUT YOU'RE DEAD. HE SAID THERE'S A FEW OF YOU THERE THAT ARE ALIVE. AND BECAUSE OF THAT HE DIDN'T REMOVE THE CANDLESTICK. HE WARNED THEM. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE OUTCOME OF ALL THAT WAS. WELL WE KNOW IT'S NOT OVER THERE NOW. BUT THE CHURCH ITSELF CAN GET IN A REAL MESS BECAUSE OF THE SIN. We have sins in us personally, and then as a church, we're not without our sins, we're not without them. Now the first thing God tells, or the Lord here tells Gideon to do, He reveals Himself to Gideon, Gideon makes an offering, and the fire comes out of the rock, consumes the offering, and it shows that the offering is accepted. and the Lord goes up out of his sight. But then the Lord speaks to him, the Lord speaks to him and the first thing he tells Gideon, tear down the altar of Baal that your father built. You tear it down, conflict with the family right off the bat. this is this now listen this had become the god of the family bail this was uh this they held him up as a real god and now gideon is going to go in he's going to tear that down he's going to tear his father's god down that's the first thing he has to do i'll never forget what i've heard the gospel i went back to the place where I had been attending I was excited and I told him the gospel I had heard I had learned the gospel I heard the gospel and I heard it in power and it just upset him and I was just taken back I was just 22-23 years old I thought they would be as excited as I was and they were angry I had to leave I had to leave there was so much anger I had to leave, but he tells Gideon, you know, there's, you can't have two gods. You can't have two gods. There's only one. There's only one. The Lord must tear down our idols first. This has to be dealt with first. All those idols got to go. It can't be, you can't be, have, have this one way and this another, it can't be. There's only one God, isn't there? There's only one God. And God said everything else has to go. Everything else has to go. The Lord has to tear down our idols first. Before the medianites are destroyed, judgment begins at the house of God. He starts with His house. Israel is His elect people. Judgment is going to start here, and He's going to start with this idolatry. You know, idolatry is anything you worship more than God, more than Christ. That's idolatry. So before the chastening hand of God is removed, the problem must be removed. And He's going to use Gideon to do it. Just like God the Father used His Son to come into this world and tear down our idols. THEN HE'S ENTHRONED IN OUR HEARTS IN HIS PLACE. HE'S ENTHRONED IN THE HEART. EVERYTHING ELSE MUST GO. WE CANNOT LOVE ANYONE MORE THAN CHRIST. THAT'S WHAT HE SAID. YOU CAN'T LOVE MOTHER, FATHER, SISTER, BROTHER MORE THAN ME. GIDEON'S PUT TO THE TEST. HE'S PUTTING GIDEON TO THE TEST. AND SO GIDEON, HE OBEYS. YOU KNOW, IF YOU HEAR THE GOSPEL IN POWER, YOU'LL OBEY. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. I'll show you something here about when the gospel comes in power. 1 Thessalonians, let me find it. Look in chapter 1. Paul says this, in verse 4, Knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. Boy, when you hear that, when you hear that, when God sends that to your heart in power, you love the doctrine of election because you love the God of election. You love that doctrine. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, BUT ALSO IN POWER, AND IN THE HOLY GHOST, AND IN MUCH ASSURANCE, AS YOU KNOW WHAT MANNER OF MEN WE WERE AMONG YOU FOR YOUR SAKES. Now look down to verse 9. 9 For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. 10 Every one of us whom God has saved has turned from our idols. We've all had them. In one way or another, we've had Him. And when He saved us, He turned us from those idols. You know, I used to think God was wanting to save me. If I'd let Him, that's what I'd heard. God wants to save you. And I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Come to find out that was nothing more than an idol. It wasn't the God of the Bible. It wasn't the Jesus Christ of this book. It was another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit. But we have many idols. But Gideon obeyed Him. He's an obedient servant. But he's still a man. But remember, he's a young convert. He's a young convert. Says he feared the people. He knew how attached they were to those idols. He knew they'd want to kill him. And they did. They said, bring him out. We're going to kill him. We're tearing down our idols. And so Gideon takes some men. He goes out there at nighttime and he tears down the idols. And the next morning in verse 28, the town's been angry. and they wanted to kill Him. God's servants, God's gospel, God's Christ will always be hated by idolatrous people, always. You know, everybody out there can get along, they can, they all can get along out there. But when you bring the gospel, it separates you. The gospel will separate the sheep from the goats every time, every time. It'll separate the sheep from the goats. The gospel is offensive to falsehood. But there's something interesting here that happened in verse 31. Gideon tore down his father's altar to Baal, Joash. Joash, Gideon's father, defended him. I just wonder what happened that we don't have written here. I just wonder what happened. You think maybe this happened. I heard Henry tell this story and I heard Paul tell this story in a message. And this might have happened when Gideon did this. It might have happened. I don't know. But here's a story. I think this story originated with Walter Gruber. He tells a story about a young Mexican boy who heard the gospel and believed the gospel. He went home and he took a hammer. He broke all his father's idols except one. Except one. He took the hammer and he laid it down beside that idol. His father came home and he was furious. Who broke my idols? Who did this? And that young Mexican boy said, that idol did. He took the hammer. And he said, silly boy, that idol can't do that. He said, that's what I'm telling you, Dad. That idol can't do that. That idol cannot take that hammer and break all those other idols. That idol is nothing but a piece of junk on the shelf made out of wood or porcelain. That's all it is. Remember the story of Elijah and those 400 prophets of Baal. He said this, he said to the prophets, you call on the name of your gods, many, little g, but many, plural. You call on the name of your gods, get them all together. How many you got, 100, 200? Get them all together, call upon them, and I'll call upon the name of the Lord, the only God there is, the self-existing one, Jehovah, I'll call upon Him, and the God that answers by fire. let him be God. How did God answer Gideon there when he offered that sacrifice? By fire, he consumed the sacrifice. And all the people answered and they said, and they said, it's well spoken, it's well spoken. And you know the story, you know how those prophets, they're just losing their mind. And then Gideon gives his one prayer and fire fell down out of heaven. Our God is a consuming fire, He still is. He still is. The way He's preached today, the fire has gone out. You don't have to be concerned about it, don't worry. Don't worry, it'll be alright. No, it won't be alright. If you're not in Christ, you're going to deal with a God who's a consuming fire. I say that to anyone, and that's not being said today. They're peddling God as though He's this soft person who wants to just love everybody and save everybody. I'm telling you, if you're not in Christ, you don't love Christ, you don't believe on Christ, you're going to perish under God's wrath. That's what's going to happen. And I tell you this, we don't need to defend God. We don't need to defend God. That's what Joash said. Look at verse 31. Let me get back here to verse 31. Let me find my place here. Joash defends him. You know, there must have been a conversation that went on there, but the Lord did something. The Lord did something. Joash stood up against all those people wanting to kill him. And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? WILL YOU SAVE HIM THAT HE WILL PLEAD FOR HIM? LET HIM BE PUT TO DEATH WHILST IT IS YET MORNING." If Baal is a God, now listen, something happened. His father, the Lord told him, TEAR DOWN YOUR FATHER'S ALTAR TO BAAL. And now He said, IF BAAL'S A GOD, LET HIM PLEAD FOR HIMSELF. Let him plead against Gideon. Let him kill Gideon. IF HE'S A GOD, IF HE'S A REAL GOD, LET HIM KILL MY SON. BECAUSE ONE HAS CAST HIS ALTAR DOWN. LET HIM DEFEND HIS SELF. WE DON'T NEED TO DEFEND GOD. I DON'T STAND IN THIS PULPIT DEFENDING GOD. I DON'T STAND IN THIS PULPIT DEFENDING THE DOCTRINES OF ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION. I DON'T DEFEND THEM, I DECLARE THEM. I'M NOT DEFENDING THEM, I JUST DECLARE THEM. IT'S THE TRUTH. It's the truth. And so Gideon got a nickname out of this one. They nicknamed him, that's Jerobel, meaning let Bel plead against him. If he's a god, let Bel plead against him. Well, Gideon's still a man. You know there's many ways that I can stand here and point out Gideon as a type of Christ in many ways but in Hebrews chapter 11 where this is this is given about Gideon the faith of Gideon is given to the Hebrews to encourage them to believe on Christ and to keep on walking in the faith and just shall live by faith and all these people he's not really giving them these examples as examples of Christ but examples of faith of brethren of like passion. You know And I gave it to you last week. I gave you some examples of Gideon being like Christ. I gave that to you. But let's not miss the fact that Gideon's a sinner saved by grace. He's a man of like passions like me and you. That's why the Apostle is giving this to the Hebrews to encourage them that here's a young man who stood up by faith, God-given faith, faced the gift of God and he stood against all of these and he whipped the Midianites. But you see, judgment had to start at the house of God. God saved Gideon. I believe he saved his father by reading this. And once he destroyed that altar and cut down the grove and then he offered the sacrifice, that second bullock, because that first bullock was offered to Baal always, so he took the second one just like Elijah did and offered it to God and it was accepted. It was accepted. And it was offered upon that same rock on which Gideon made the first offering to the angel of the Lord. But Gideon's a man. He's a man. He's a sinner saved by grace. A young sinner saved by grace. What we'd probably call a baby in Christ. Because he was saved and sent to do battle pretty quickly from reading this. He asked the Lord here in verse 33 Then all the Midianites and the Malachites and the children of the east were they were gathered together They were like grasshoppers that said in the script over in the early part of script. They were like grasshoppers There were so many of them their camels were without number I mean it would just just look out over over the the landscape and it would just it was full of the Midianites and the Malachites and Those who hate Israel It's like when I look at I look like how many sins all my sins out there But the Lord gonna put the Lord has put them away he's put them away But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon and he blew a trumpet and he buys her and they gathered after him and he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh and they all gathered to him and then Gideon said unto God if thou would save Israel by my hand as thou has said and i've already touched on this that's enough that's enough if God said it that's enough isn't it whether we believe it or not that's enough if God said it and then and he reminds him he said as you said As you said, but our God is merciful. There's two things here. Our God is merciful and our God answers prayer. He answers the prayer of his children. We see that here. And yet our God's merciful. He said, all right, Gideon. And he did it. He did what Gideon asked. And so Gideon, after that, Gideon, he was ready to fight. He was ready to fight. And God gives him over in chapter 7. This is the faith of Gideon. This is God-given faith right here. The just shall live by faith. Gideon believed God. And all these things that he accomplished, he accomplished by believing God. Doing what God said. Now we get to verse 7 or chapter 7 then Jerobel who's Gideon and all the people that were with him rose up early pitched beside the well of Herod so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley and the Lord said to Gideon What did Gideon have here 32,000? He had 32,000 men, but there were thousands and thousands more, probably over a hundred some thousand of the Midianites and Amalekites. And here Gideon is, he's going to battle. And God said, you got too many. Seriously? Yeah. You got too many. And you'll notice here that, and you'll notice as we go down or as we look down through here, THAT THE ONES WHOM THE LORD USED, HE CHOSE. I THOUGHT OF THAT SCRIPTURE, MANY ARE CALLED, FEW ARE CHOSEN. 32,000. AND GOD SAID, THAT'S TOO MANY. AND HERE'S WHY HE SAID IT'S TOO MANY. LEST ISRAEL SAY THAT MY HAND, THEIR HAND HAS GOTTEN THE VICTORY. And lest Israel say, here's a danger, here's a danger. Don't ever let you or myself say that we have any part of salvation. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. If the Lord is, if you have gained in business, if you have gained, you know, in your work, whatever you're doing, it's the Lord. You know, Satan said to God concerning Job and his riches, you know, he said, you have blessed the work of his hands. Job worked and God blessed. God gave the increase. If God does not give the increase, our labor is in vain. It's in vain. So he's got 32 men. I mean 32,000 men and God said that's just too many because whenever because God already said I'm gonna give them to your hand you're gonna win the battles over the battles over you're gonna win this is done God's gonna save them in a way where he gets the glory And it's going to be for their good, not the other way around. It's not going to be for God's good and their glory. It's for God's glory and our good. That's the way God saved us. And there's one thing you'll never notice in the Word of God. You'll never read this in the Word of God. God has never ever complained about having too few. He's never asked. HE'S NEVER COMPLAINED ABOUT HAVING TOO FEW TO WORK WITH. SAMSON. ONE MAN. ONE MAN. I THOUGHT OF THIS SCRIPTURE WHENEVER I THOUGHT OF SAMSON. HE FOUND A NEW JAWBONE OF AN ASS AND PUT FORTH HIS HAND AND TOOK IT AND SLEW A THOUSAND MEN WITH A JAWBONE OF AN ASS. HE BY HIMSELF Well, the Lord, you know, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, but he brought down the Philistines. He brought down the Philistines. And he's mentioned in that same verse that Gideon's mentioned, and we'll get to him later as a type of Christ. But I gave you some of the points last week of Gideon being a type of Christ. But God saves in such a way that we know, we know salvations of the Lord, don't we? Ain't a doubt about it. There's not a doubt about it. I told you this two or three times, and I'm just so impressed with this. More than I've ever been in my life. And when I die and stand in glory, I know I had nothing to do with it in any way, shape, or form. And that is so impressed upon me. It's like, John, you had nothing to do with it. You're here by my grace. You're here by my righteousness. YOU ARE HERE BY MY BLOOD, YOU ARE HERE BY MY ELECTION, YOU ARE HERE BY MY LOVE, YOU ARE HERE BY ME, AND NO OTHER REASON. NO OTHER REASON. PERIOD. And that astounds me. It truly astounds me now. I'll be there for no other reason than the grace of God To me, no other reason. Better men than me have gone to hell. He took David and slew Goliath. If you'll go through the scriptures, it's always one man, one man, one man. One man has saved the whole elect of God. One man. the Lord Jesus Christ. He has saved, you know, the multitude of sinners saved is without number. It's a number that no man can number. And every one of them are saved by the same man, by the same blood, by the same righteousness. They are saved. Wow! Salvation is of the Lord, isn't it? And if God is pleased to use us, we will know it's of the Lord. You know, God is, God has made my path. He's made my path in such a way that I know standing here preaching and your pastor, it's the Lord, it's the Lord. I know that, you don't know it like I know it. It's not possible, but boy I know it, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. And then listen in verse 3, Now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty-two thousand And there remained 10,000, but 22,000 people, fearful, trembling. And when he said, you can go back, you know, it was like, don't let the door hit you on the way out that was going so fast. They were ready to go. They were scared to death. They looked and they saw that crowd. It's like the men that came back from spying out the land of Canaan. They said, they're giants. We can't defeat them. And Joshua and Caleb, you know, like, no, oh, we can take him. Don't worry. We can take him. It doesn't matter if the land was full of Godzilla, we can take him. Don't you like that kind of attitude? Man, I like that kind of attitude. We can take him. But 22,000 fearful men were sent home. Here's one of the reasons why. Fear is contagious. There's nothing more contagious than fear. You let somebody, if we're going to do something, you let somebody that's very fearful, very afraid, we don't really have the money, you know, we're better, and it'll scare the rest of the congregation. Henry told me when, and I've told this to Jeremy in business, but Henry told me when I was become pastor of the Hurricane Road Grace Church, and we were looking at making a decision on buying a building, And I went over to talk to him. And that's when he gave me the advice that our path is never straight, it's never clear. When that one stone comes up, step on it. When the next stone comes up, step on it. He said, that's the way your life will be to the end. But he said this to me, when you make a decision, don't look back. Don't look back. When you make a decision, make the decision and you go with it. That's one of the things that I admired about him as my pastor was that he could make a decision and live with the responsibility of it. Whatever the fallout was, he could live with it. That's a leader. That's a leader. Fear is contagious and fear comes from unbelief. We can't whip them. They're mightier than us. LORD OPEN THAT YOUNG MAN'S EYES, AND LET HIM SEE THAT THERE IS MORE WITH US THAN WITH THEM. Remember that one Elijah said? FEAR WILL SHUT YOU DOWN. It'll shut you down. As the story I've told you, you may have forgotten it, but when I was a little boy, that's, remember these are the stories that we get, Judy, we get older. When I was a little boy, I was probably about 10 years, eight years, 10 years old. I'm gonna get it younger so I won't look so bad. I might say I was 20 when they did this, that would look bad. When I was about eight or 10, I was in the farmhouse, we lived in a farmhouse, two story, and I walked upstairs and I was in one of the bedrooms and a closet door popped open. I fell back on the bed frozen. I mean, it scared me that bad. I was frozen, I couldn't move, I couldn't holler, I couldn't say anything. Have you ever been scared that bad? I know what that feels like. He said, you that are fearful, y'all get out of here. I fell on that bed and I was stiff as a board. I couldn't even open my mouth. And then finally when nothing came out of it, I was able to get myself together and run as hard as I could down the steps and I got out of there. But I'll never forget that feeling. I'll never forget. And I know that fear could literally shut you down. You know, you hear of people that are not able to fight back. If you've ever experienced what real fear is, you'd know. Fear will shut you down. This battle is not for the faint of heart. It's not for the faint of heart. That's why our Lord said, Count the cost. Count the cost. The Lord said, Then he said to his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. You don't have many laborers, it's just too much. It's too much. And then God tested the rest. Well, I'm going too long, aren't I? God tested the rest of these that were left. How many were left? Let me see here, I had that written. 22,000 went back, and then there was still too many. There's still too many! Can you believe that? I'll tell you what, with God's ones too many, He doesn't need me and you. All He can do is Himself. He just lets us in on it. And God tested the rest how they drank water. It's not how they used a sword. It's not how good they could aim. It's how they drank water. And 300 of them, they lapped it up like a dog. They'd put it in their hand, they'd lap it like a dog. But they'd watch, they'd watch. And these were chosen of God, chosen to be warriors. THOSE WHO LAID DOWN AND DRANK TILL THEY WERE FULL WERE SENT HOME. THEY WERE TOO CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR OWN WELL-BEING. WELL THAT HITS HOME DOESN'T IT? TOO CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR OWN WELL-BEING. THOSE WHO LAPT WERE WATCHFUL. WHAT DO THOSE SCRIPTURES SAY? WATCH AND PRAY. WATCH AND PRAY. THESE WERE WATCHFUL. I'm going to stop here, I didn't get all the way through it, because now we've got the dream, that barley bread. You know what barley bread was basically used for? Dog food. Dog food. And yet that's going to be the very thing that the dream is about, and that barley bread rolls down the hill, and actually the meaning of it is that it kind of like flies, and it comes on that tent of the King of Midian, and it destroys it. Barley a barley bread It's you know, it's it's baked on a baked in a wherever they baked it and squash that kind of looks like a tortilla And that and that's that's what's going on That's what the That's what the gospel is like in to the world. It's little I'm going I'm going into it aren't done Well, maybe we'll pick up there. All I know to do is study and preach.