We're going to be in the book
of Judges tonight, but before we go there, I'd like to stop
in the book of Hebrews and that book of Hebrews chapter 11. Book
of Hebrews chapter 11. Just a reminder, you know, the
book of Hebrews chapter 11 says, without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And that faith is a given faith.
It's a gift faith that God gives us. And here in the book of Hebrews
chapter 11 and verse 32, we read about the man that we're reading
about in the book of Judges. And by this we know that he had
faith. God had given him faith. He was
a believer in Christ Jesus, in the Messiah. And what he is doing
is at the command of God, at the obedience of God, and it
tells us here in this 32nd verse of the 11th chapter, what shall
I more say? for the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon." Now Gideon has more written about him in the
book of Judges than any of the other judges. Three or four chapters
have him in it. So he's a very important judge
and what he does and how God uses him is a very important
illustration to us. And then it goes on to say Barak.
We've looked at him already. And Samson, he's ahead of us.
And of Jephthah, ahead of us. And then it goes to David and
Samuel and of the prophets. So it's a good thing for us to
realize that the prophets, all the prophets, all the Old Testament
prophets, that particularly those that wrote the scriptures, but
others that God used were men of faith. God had given them
faith. And what they had to say was
a gift from the Holy Spirit. All right travel with me back
in time if you would to the book of Judges the book of Judges
chapter 7 Book of Judges chapter 7 tonight And we want to read a couple
of three verses here that share with us who or how many, maybe
I should put it that way, how many the enemy is that Gideon
is going to face and his army is going to face. All right,
so the book of Judges, chapter 7. And if you look with me, excuse
me, chapter 6, chapter 6 and verse 5 of the book of Judges,
we read this. This is a point for us to say,
you know, that's quite a few. It says here, for they came up
with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers
for multitude. So we have a host of people that
are coming from the Amalekites and the Midianites are coming
into Israel, and they're there to rape the land. They're there
to take what doesn't belong to them, but they have the power
to do it. And you know what? God has granted them that power.
They're there by his direction. And they're going to be there
by his direction at this time so that they can be eradicated.
God is going to take care of them. And it goes on to tell
us there in that verse 5, for both they and their camels were
without number, and they entered into the land to destroy it.
So this is what Gideon is going to be dealing with as he's going
into battle with them. And in that same book of Judges
chapter 8, Judges chapter 8, if you turn there with me, we
find in verse 10, Judges chapter 8 and verse 10, Now Ziba and Zalmuna were in
Karkor, and their host with them, about 15,000 men, all that were
left of all the host of the Children of the East, for there fell 120,000
men that drew the sword. So we have 15,000 left, and 120,000
have been killed. So we had 135,000 men. All right, let's go back to verse
1 of the 7th chapter and pick up our account of this great
gospel story, Judges chapter 7 and verse 1. We have 135,000
that were there at one time, and now here we have the account given to us about
Gideon has been called to gather an army. And it says in verse
1, then Jeroboam, who is Gideon, and all the people that were
with him rose up early and pitched beside the well of Herod so that
the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them by
the hill of Moriah in the valley. So we have them pitched on the
north side of the valley, and we're going to have Israel on
the south side of the valley. Now we have some comment by the
Lord. The Lord is going to share with
them Said unto Gideon the people that are with thee are too many
For me to give the Midianites into their hands the people you
have are too many For me to give the Midianites into your hands
and then he goes on and tells us exactly why He shares with
us he didn't have to. He wasn't required to. But as
so often, the Lord supplies the reason. And the reason that there
are too many is so that the whole, excuse me, lest Israel vaunt
themselves against me saying, mine own hand has saved me. Now, the Lord is so gracious
to us to demonstrate why this is too many people. Now, we're
going to find out that they are about a third of what the enemy
has. about a third. We have 22,000
that are going to quit right away. And then there's 10,000
left. And so the Lord, and we know
the story, there's too many as it goes on. So there are too
many. The Lord speaks, and the Lord
said, you have too many people. And the reason for it is, if
I let all of you do this, you're going to go home and say, look
what we did. Aren't we great? We're wonderful.
We took care of God's business. Well, we find out that lest Israel
vaunt themselves. And I have to say right here,
what a statement about God's salvation. God is sharing with
us in this verse, what he has shared with us many places throughout
the scriptures of why he does not have us involved in our salvation. If he did, we would boast in
it. And we find out that that's one
of the reasons that He does not allow us to participate in it.
Now, He does give us the recipient of it, but He doesn't allow us
to participate in it. And all the participation that
we may say we give, when we repent and believe, we find out those
two items were given to us by the Lord. or we would not have
repented and we would not have believed. So he is the one that
supplies all of those things. So before we go on any further
with regard to what's going to happen here in Israel, let's
look at a few verses of scripture that share with us God's intent
when it comes to salvation and not permitting anybody to participate
in it. There are three participants
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And they are all powerful, they're
all knowledgeable, and they do as they please, with whom they
please, how they please. And we're going to find out that's
how each one of us was saved, because God was involved in it. Someone asked, did God save you
on purpose or was it a mistake? Well, we're going to answer it
on purpose. He saves on purpose. So join me, if you would, over
into the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1. In 1 Corinthians
1, we have the Apostle Paul led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is giving him the words to write down. He's a secretary
and he is so thankful that he's been given this privilege to
preach the gospel and then to have these words. So here in
the book of 1 Corinthians 1, beginning with verse 26, For
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh not many mighty, not many noble are called. For 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 that are mighty, and the base things of the world,
and the things which are despised, yea, hath God chosen, yea, and
things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Why? Same reason he gave Gideon that
you have too many folks too many in your army. He says that no
flesh Should glory in his presence But of him are you in Christ
Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom? You know, why will
he not? allow us to participate in his
wisdom because we would boast in it and And why does he not,
it goes on to tell us his wisdom and righteousness. We find out
that we have a righteousness, but it says filthy rags, but
his righteousness is pure and holy. And he imputes that to
us. And we are the recipients of
it. And we cannot go away and say,
look what I did. We get to go away and say thank
God for what he did. Thank God for what he did and
then he goes on to say there Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption that according as it is written.
He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord That's what he's
training these folks and getting in particular to recognize now
we're going to find that God asks Gideon to cut down his army
and You're gonna stop, we're gonna have a breather here, and
you're gonna ask them a question. If you're afraid, go home. 22,000 men decide to go home
for good reason. You know, those are the guys
that don't believe that God can take care of this problem. All
right. Another verse I want to look
at, though, is found in Ephesians chapter 2. Verse 8, notice this
with me, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8. It tells us here about
the subject of how gracious God was to share with us salvation
in the person of Gideon and his army. He shares here in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 8, he said, for by grace are you saved through
faith. And then he adds these words,
and that not of yourselves, It is a gift of God. You have too
many. If we're coming with our righteousness,
you have too many. Coming with our repentance, you
have too many. Coming with our belief, you have too many. I'm
going to have to cut it down. And before you know it, if he's
going to save us, he's cut all of that out. And we're depending
wholly and believing in him wholly and trusting him wholly, not
of works, lest any man should boast. So there's not going to
be any room for boasting here. If you boast, you probably don't
have. You just, we're going to boast
in Christ. In the book of Jeremiah, join
me back in the book of Jeremiah if you would. Do you remember as you travel
over there to the book of Jeremiah, do you remember there in the
book of Luke chapter 18 and that Pharisee? God, I thank Thee that I am not
as. Well, the contrast there is the
other guy couldn't even raise, wouldn't raise his eyes to heaven
but swallowed his breath. He said, God be merciful to me,
the sinner. So there's the contrast. We have
one God's work to work a grace in, the other one I'm going to
go home and boast about it. And that's why God appeared that
day and said, Gideon, you have too many men. Here in the book
of Jeremiah 9, we read this. Jeremiah 9, verse 23. Jeremiah
9, verse 23. And verse 24, Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glorieth, glorieth in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth me. that I am the Lord which
exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. So the church
is going to glory in his lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness,
but we're not going to boast in our works, our doings, our
salvation. It's just, it's so contrary to
the word of God. Salvation is of the Lord without
our help. We get involved, we're gonna
mess it up. And that's what people do, they just mess it up. The
Lord said about himself, my power and my might of my hand, in the
book of Deuteronomy, it's my hand, it's my power, it's my
doing. And we're gonna find that throughout
the working through Joshua, throughout the book of Joshua, and here
in the book of Judges, we're gonna see that when people were
taken care of and overthrown, it is always by the Lord. Now,
he may choose a leader. He chose Gideon. He's going to
have an ambassador. He chose Gideon. But when it
comes to the deliverance, it is going to be the Lord. Nothing
else. If they go in their own power,
we have AI. To go in the power of the Lord,
we have Jericho. And we don't want AIs. Lost a man, got their tails between
their legs coming home. Terrible, terrible situation
there. So, it is the same thing with God to save by many or few,
but man being prone to attribute everything to natural causes
rather than to God. What a blessing from God to counteract
this evil heart of our nature, which robs God of His glory and
to cause us to consider His hand in all things. It is the hand
of the Lord that wins the victory. So, faith sends everything back
to the Lord Jesus. It's your battle. It's your sacrifice. It is your doing. All the success
of the believer is in Him. You know, over there in the book
of Revelation, it tells us that they overcame by the blood of
the Lamb. They didn't overcome in their
own power. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb. Revelation
chapter 12 and verse 11. They overcame by the blood of
the Lamb. So as we go back over here, we
find, going to the book of Joshua again, we find that the Lord
had already told Joshua The Lord told Joshua there in Joshua chapter
6. Join me in the book of Joshua
chapter 6 if you would. Not Judges, but Joshua for just
a moment. Joshua chapter 6 and verse 2. Joshua chapter 6 and verse 2.
Here the same kind of words, same principles are shared with
Joshua many years before Gideon. Some 300 years, 400 years before
Gideon. Maybe it's longer than that because
they were there a long time before the judges were required. So
the Lord said unto Joshua, Joshua 6, verse 2, the Lord said unto
Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king
thereof, and the mighty men of Valor, I have put them in your
hand. Now we notice that they walked
around the city, walked around the city. They were ambassadors
for the Lord. They demonstrated the power of
the Lord. And when that shout came, that wall fell into the
ground. And they went in and took that
city and spared Rahab and her family. That's it. All right. In the book of Judges again,
going back to the book of Judges. Judges 7. Judges 7. Judges 7, 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 and two thousand, and there remained ten thousand."
So 22,000 men said, I'm afraid to go into battle. You know, there's a couple of
verses that were brought to my attention as I was going over
this, and they're in the book of Matthew twice. It said, if
you love more than me, you're not worthy of me. And they are
certainly demonstrating that they are afraid of God. They're afraid that He can't
do it. They remind me of those 10 spies that came back with
an evil report. What are they going to tell their
families when they get home? What are they going to say in 50 years? I ran. And yet the Lord purposed
that this happen, because there are too many people. The army
is too big. There are 32,000 men. There's
135,000 that they're going up against. But the Lord said, if
I don't do something, they will boast that they did it themselves,
and they need to know I gave them the victory. In verse 4,
the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. Bring
them down into the water. And I will try them for thee
there. Now notice that I will try them
for thee there. That word try in that verse of
scripture means a melting of metals in a crucible to remove
the impurities. I will try them there. What he's
going to put them through, he's going to try them, he's going
to bring out those 300 that he has purposed to go into this
battle. He is going to bring out 300
that he purposes to go into this battle. So it goes on, this shall
ye go with thee, the same shall go with thee, and whomsoever
I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, and the same shall
not go. So he brought them down to the
people, brought down the people unto the water. And the Lord
said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his
tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself. Likewise,
every man that boweth down upon his knees to drink, So I remember
one time I was helping my mother and dad in a field and there
was a really nice stream of water going by there and it was time
to get a drink and I just got down on my hands and knees and
got my lips right on that water and started sucking it up and
my mother said, that's what happened in the book of Joshua, or Judges. They got down on their hands
and knees. What do they have to do with their sword? What did they have to do with
a spear? They became completely oblivious
to anything else in that circumstance. Now, I'm not saying that God's
going to use that, but it is really indicative that we go
the other way. We keep our eyes open and drink.
Because it says here, those who got down on the knee and drew
water up in their hands and lapped it out. They still can wear their
armor. They can still wear their sword.
They can still wear their spear. They can still see what's going
on. So I think that's very important. But beyond that, we find this
so prominent in the scriptures that anybody that the Lord puts
into a ministry, he has put them into a ministry. One of the verses
that I've just ran into, it's been such a blessing and I've
read it several times recently, is found over in the book of
Luke chapter 10. In the book of Luke chapter 10, this has
just been so clear and it really set some people I know aside
because I'm convinced the Lord never put them into the ministry. I'm just convinced of that. Because
it tells us here in the book of Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter
10 verse 2. It says, Therefore said He unto them,
The harvest truly is great. And you know we can say amen? It is huge. We can't see it all. We can't even see it in our own
community. We can't see it in our own block. It's huge to overcome
the things that block people from coming to Christ is overwhelming
because we realize we can't get there. He says here, the harvest
truly is great, but the labors are few. Pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest. Now he's not telling preachers
from the pulpit. Surely surely there's some young
men here that need to be in the ministry. He's not saying that
in the least. He is saying that the Lord of
the harvest that he would send forth labors into his harvest. And that's exactly what he's
doing here with 300 men. These guys are going home. These
guys are going home because I have 300 that are going to go into
this battle. This is a call of God. He's the
one that has set the standard. He has set the numbers. He has
demonstrated that he is in charge. He will run the show. And he
has Gideon. And I find no place in the scriptures
where Gideon says, oh, my. What are you talking about, Lord?
How can we win with this 300? The reason he knew that he could
win with 300 is his name's written down in the book of Hebrews chapter
11. He was given faith to believe God, to trust God. Now he may
have those moments of depredation and say, oh my, but he trusted
God with this whole thing. So look with me again in the
same vein. In the book of Acts chapter one,
we just were looking at this and it was such a valuable thing,
such a valuable passage of scripture, such a valuable incident that
we find here in the selection of someone to take Judas's place.
I like what the Bible has to say about this. They prayed,
Acts chapter 1 verse 24. They prayed. Now, they had reason
to pray, but they said this in that prayer. They prayed and
said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether
of these two thou hast chosen. Now they may have their favorites,
but they wanted God's choice in this. And we're going to see
that happening over here in the book of Judges. It's going to
be God's choice who goes into that battle. It's going to be
God's choice who's joining Gideon. 22,000 have already tucked tail
and ran home. They're not going to be involved.
And I don't find any record anywhere that they had black marks against
them. But what a conscience they had to live with. They left.
They left the army of God. But it was by divine appointment
that they did that. And then it says, which of the
two hast thou taken? in the book of Acts chapter 13. We find this again, similar to
this, as Barnabas and Saul were in a church, and I'm sure that
they were blessed ministers of the gospel in that church that
they were in. They were there ministering, sharing the grace
of God, preaching the gospel, taking the scriptures and pointing
out Christ to everybody. And here in the book of Acts
chapter 13 and verse 2, we have this written. And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy
Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work wherein
do I have called them. There are some of the 300. I have called them. And when
they had fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them
away. They sent them out of their group,
their congregation, their assembly, their church, and they were sent
out as missionaries. But And the church agreed with
this, but you know what? It was the Lord that chose them.
Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have
called it. And as we follow that through
in the book of Judges, we see God is directly involved with
picking out those who are going up against those 135,000 men.
300. But they are His choice. He has made this choice. Go with me to Luke 6. Luke 6. Verse 12. Luke 6, verse 12. And it came to pass in those
days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night
in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called
his disciples. Guess what? They came. My sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me. All right. But out of his
disciples, of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles. It was not their choice. It was
His choice. They were glad to be disciples. They were glad to be around the
Lord. And then He chose them to be
apostles. Here's the 300 Here's similar
to the 300 that we're reading about over in the book of Judges.
God called them out. Now, I'm sure all of them would
say, as Amos did, I was just a sheep herder and a gatherer
of sycamore fruit. And here I am, you want me to
do what? Well, God took care of the gifts.
In fact, Matthew chapter 10, just join me there, Matthew chapter
10. We get over there just a little bit and we find out they're supposed
to carry a trumpet in one hand and a jar with a torch in the
other hand. And I'm saying, how can you do
that and walk along? Well, same reason as we read
here in the book of Matthew 10, verse 1, and when he had called unto him, his 12 disciples, he
gave them power. It goes against unclean spirits
to cast out, to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease. Well, we don't have that gift today. That's not part
of the ministry. And thank you, Lord. But it is
still Him giving them power. And so He gave them power. He
gave them power to go into this battle. 301 against 135,000. He gave them
power. He gave them power to be able
to support that Zophar and one iron and a jar and a lot of discussion
about that jar and about that fire. But he gave them the ability
and the power to carry that into battle and at the right time
Remove both and use both of them. All right, so the lord gave them
power against Unclean spirits now on one side We have a group
that are facedown in the water and they drank and on the other
side we have cupped water and they drank and there were 10,000
when they started and God told Gideon, those who get
down there and suck water like a dog, you put them over there. And when we end up, we got 9,700
people in that group. And those who went down and did
this, 300 over here. He says, okay, we're ready for
battle. We're ready now. we're not going
to have them vaunt themselves and say, we did it. They're going
to say, he did the work. It is wonderful that we have
a remnant, you know, 32,000, and now we're down to 300, but
we do have a remnant. Just like we find in the scriptures,
we have a remnant according to the election of grace. We have
a remnant because God chose that remnant. If it hadn't been for
a very small remnant, we should have all been as Sodom and all
been as Gomorrah. So the Lord has chosen a remnant
here. This is Gideon's army. 300 men
is his army. He started out and probably,
I can just imagine what he thought when only 32,000 showed up. And he knew that they were like
grasshoppers out there, that what are we going to do? And
before you know it, we have God going through the ranks. 22,000
go home because they're afraid. 9,700 go home because he told
them to. and 300 are ready to go into
battle. Going back to the book of Judges
for just a moment. Judges chapter 7. We're going to start with verse
4 again, and just read down through here, kind of keeping in mind
some of the verses that we read about God choosing His people,
God chose the amount, God chose His disciples, God gave them
power, God sent Saul and Barnabas on the missionary journey that
they were... There wasn't a club, there wasn't
a group, there wasn't a board, there wasn't all the stuff that
had been created to do that. I am convinced that God does
exactly the same thing today without that stuff. He doesn't
have to have them certified if he called them and gave them
the grace to preach. I love brother Lance Heller for
that very reason. We're going to Papua New Guinea. I may not have enough support,
and that isn't the issue. God wants me down there. And
if he wants me down there, he'll take care of me. All right. I
think that's just the way it should be. Absolutely. All right. Verse four. And the Lord said
unto Gideon, the people are yet too many. bring them down unto
the water, and I will try them for thee there." Now, the Lord
says, I will try them for thee. I'm going to give you your army.
And it shall be that whom I say unto thee, this shall go with
thee, the same shall go with thee. They are going to understand
that when they're called into that group, they're going to
go with him. And the others, whosoever I say unto thee, this
shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. And it doesn't
matter how much they beg, they're not going. So he brought down
the people unto the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, every
one that lappeth of the water. Isn't it interesting how many
times we've had the Lord speak to Gideon? And he doesn't have
that book you have in front of you. Some way, God spoke face
to face with Gideon and instructed him on what to do. And Gideon
was pleased. Everyone that lappeth of the
water with his tongue as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by
himself. Likewise everyone that boweth
down upon his knee to drink. And the number of them that lapped,
putting their hand in their mouth, these three hundred men. But
all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink
water. And the Lord said unto Gideon,
By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you. and deliver
the Midianites into thy hand, and let all the other people
go every man unto his own, his place." There's no place for
them here. Their place is at home. So the
people took food in their hand and their trumpets And he set
all the rest of Israel, every man into his tent, and retained
those 300 men, and the host of Midian was beneath him in the
valley." And then we're going to find out, we'll stop right
here, but next week we'll find out the army is already defeated. The Midianites are already defeated.
They've defeated themselves because the Lord has already been there
visiting. So, we'll start with verse 9 next time and we'll pick
up this account of the book of Gideon. Book of Judges.