That was a good gospel message
that we just heard. Thank God. Joe's always and seems to be
an encouragement to me before I get up here. The book of God has 66 books in it. These books were written by different
men who proclaimed God's word. These men wrote as they were
inspired of God. Anyone who is preaching Christ
is preaching from the books that these different men wrote and
preached. I don't know the number of men
that wrote the books. There are 66 books, but I don't
know how many of them are. There are many men who get up
before you and preach from different books of this Bible. and referring
to the words written by these different men who wrote these
books. All who listen to men hear words
by many different men and hear words that were written by these
many different men. And all of us are by God's grace
enlightened by these words. There is not one man who is important
enough to esteem higher than another in written word or of
those who might be speaking the written word that they wrote,
but one. The one that they all wrote about
and the one that those who stand up to speak God's truth is the
only one that should be highly esteemed or above anyone else. Jesus Christ tells us in the
volume of the book, it is written of me. In Hebrews 10, seven,
he says, then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. If you preach or you hear,
and if the person you are proclaiming or hearing is not Jesus Christ
the Lord and him crucified, then you are preaching or hearing
an uncertain sound. But there is one sound that all
of God's men who wrote these books, there is one sound that
all those who have been sent by God to proclaim, there's one
sound that all who are God's people will hear, that is the
sound of Jesus Christ the Lord and Him crucified. It does not
matter if you hear me, It does not matter if you hear any other
man. If you are not hearing Jesus Christ the Lord and Him crucified,
then what you are hearing or what you are preaching, for that
matter, is not worth hearing or preaching. Men have different
presentations or personalities, you might say, with their words.
Different presentations of their message. But the ones you want
to hear are those who are clearly speaking of Jesus Christ the
Lord. no matter how they present it. God does send specific men
to specific individuals. I've heard of those who have
asked others, are you a part of the group? Or they might say
something like, well, no one in my church talks about him,
so he must not be a gospel preacher. There might be some that say
this because they have heard others say this. Some may say
it because they think those who they associate with are it. I
don't know, but if a man preaches Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
that is what matters, and you should hear them. I hope to preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified today, and if you would, turn
with me to Judges 7. Judges 7. And I want to read verses 16
through 22. of Judges 7. And he divided the 300 men into
three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand with empty
pictures, empty clay pots, and lamps within the pictures. 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. 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 unto 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 pictures that were
in their hands. And the three companies blew
the trumpets and break the pictures and held the lamps in their left
hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow with all. And they cried, the sword of
the Lord and of Gideon. And they stood every man in his
place round about the camp, and all the host ran and cried and
fled. And the 300 blew the trumpets,
and the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even
throughout all the host. And the host fled to Bethsheda
in Zareth, and to the border of Bellomelo and to Tabith. And excuse my reading of that. From this passage, I want to
look at three different aspects, if you will. Not three different
truths, but three different angles or aspects, if you will. This
was a real event, as Joe said, about the one he read. This is
a real event. This really did happen. There
are some things that God tells us from this passage about us
and about who God is. So as I go through this, I just
want to point out, and I'm not gonna do it point by point, but
I just wanna go through this and show how this relates to
men, Jesus Christ, and his gospel. We first read here where the
children in chapter six, we read that Israel disobeyed God, and
he, that is God, delivered them into the hands of Midian for
seven years. You can read that in chapter
six in verse one. We have rebelled against God
and God will put us in a place to where we will be famished
and left without nothing until the appointed time of God, who
will then begin to bring you out of that place. See that in
verses two through six of chapter six. He will have you in that
place until you finally cry out to God for help. Verses six. You will be so impoverished that
you will be weak I'm talking about spiritually, but it could
be physically as well, but we're talking about spiritually here.
Weak, feeble, low, and thin. You will be, as the saying goes,
you will feel like you're about to dry up and blow away. God
will hear you if you are one that God has been pleased to
bring to this place. He will then send you someone
who will let you know that God did everything in bringing you
out of bondage, but yet you still disobey God and are guilty before
him. He will basically tell you who
you are and who God is. You can see this in verses eight
through 10 of chapter six. He will then reveal a man, a
man of valor, one man. who he will send to conquer the
enemy for you. This man will tear down your
idols and then we put on display for you to see the offering that
is acceptable to God the Father. I'm talking about Jesus Christ
the Lord. He will send you someone who
will proclaim this one man who God has chosen. Chapter six,
verses 11 through verses 40. He will never allow you to be
great in any way. He knows, should He allow you
to come in great number or strength, that you will be filled with
pride, thinking you accomplished something. But rather, He makes
us weak to show He is strong. Chapter seven, verse two. God
will destroy all the idols which you have joined yourself to and
bring you into a battle which you in and of yourself cannot
win. But God will send you his gospel,
and he may use you to hold forth his gospel. We are nothing but
clay pots, Joe. But yet God uses us to proclaim
the God who is everything. 1 Corinthians 1, 26 through 28
reads this. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. 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. First let me say, it says, not
many wise men. It does not say any. It also
says many mighty or noble, it does not say any. God does this
on purpose. It says he has chosen to do it
this way. Using weak, pitiful things to
confound the things which are mighty. But listen, we can be
prideful in our poorness or in our weakness. So just because
you might be one of those, do not presume on God. He has no
obligation to you. or were me. Here we have a passage
where 300 men chosen by God went against a great number of the
enemy. This enemy, when they all were first gathered, was
a great number. It says that they couldn't be
numbered, and they're camels. They had so many camels, they
couldn't be numbered. Although these people would fight one
another at the drop of a hat, as they say, all of God's enemies
were joined together to come against God and His people. This was the Midianites, the
Amalekites, and the Children of the East, who all gathered
together to come up against God's people. They destroyed everything
in their path, leaving nothing, consuming it upon their own lust.
But God did this, this is where God put his people. God will
put you in a place where there is nowhere to go. There will
be only one place to look, and that is to God. If you never
come to this place, then God is not doing anything for you,
or he has not done anything for you yet. God's people, when you
look at them in number compared to the enemy, are very small
in number. It has always been this way.
God is pleased to have it this way even here in our passage
in chapter 6 in verse 15. Gideon says his family was poor
and he was the least of the family. I take this to mean that he was
the runt of the family. But this is who God said was
a mighty man of valor. But again in chapter 7 verses
1 and 2. They, the Israelites, had quite
a few people. Not as many as this number you
couldn't, these people that you couldn't number. I think it was
32,000 if I'm correct. I could be wrong about that.
But it was more than the 300 for sure. God told Gideon, there
are too many. Why? God said that they would
boast in themselves that they saved themselves if there were
that many. This is us by nature. God will
do it His way. And if He would do it another
way, we would think something of ourselves. We would think
that we had something to do with saving ourselves. We already
do this. Isn't that what we see around
us? Free will, make a decision for Jesus world. That's what
we're in. This is all of us by nature. Scripture says we are
all gone out of the way. Everyone has turned into their
own way. But God will bring us down to
where we are nothing so that we have nothing to boast in.
God says it is not of our might. He works out things to show us
that it is not of us. If we are one of his, he will
do this. So after God tells him this time
that there are too many, Gideon tells them, as God has told him,
anyone who is fearful, go back home. 22,000 of them went back. Chapter 7 and verse 3, you can
read that. God is not done yet. He tells Gideon there are still
too many people, verses 4 of chapter 7. So God now tries them
and picks the ones he wants. Those who lap the water like
a dog, who God made to lap the water like a dog, are the ones
he chose. It says God tried them. This
happened to be 300 men. Scripture says in Matthew 22,
14 that many are called, but few are chosen. We have this small number of
men who do not have any of the typical weapons that you might
see some have that go to war. These that go up against this
great number of enemy. First they had victuals, to start
with they had victuals in one hand. And I figure it was only
enough for that evening because later it says they were faint.
That is weary and thirsty. But they also had a trumpet.
and then pitchers or clay pots with lights in them. The enemy,
on the other hand, had great many things including swords,
tents, camels, and a great multitude of people. If we do this, we
will do this in his power and his might and not of ourselves. God sends us forth to where the
enemy is and gives us strength to accomplish what he has sent
us to do. We all surround the camp, some
here, some there. God has his people everywhere
in different places. What do we do? We mimic one another
in doing what the man who was chosen by God tells us to do. That is to do what he did, preach
the gospel to the poor. I'm talking about Christ. We
are to do what Christ did and how he did it. And we do this
to anyone that will hear us. So what do we do? What did they
do? We blow the trumpet. That trumpet
with a distinctive sound or a clear sound. a sound that would be
recognizable and understood by those who hear it. What is this
distinctive sound of the gospel? It is finished. That is the gospel of Christ
and Him crucified. And Him, that is Christ, having
blown the trumpet, reminding everyone That is him and that
is Christ having blown the trumpet, reminding everyone that God's
chosen man has already blown the trumpet of Jubilee, Walker.
Sounding it forth to all the enemy, to any that will hear.
Drawing attention to what they are about to do next. This trumpet,
as some have said, is the sound of done and not do. Here is why the trumpet is sounded.
Once the trumpet is blown, it brings attention to them. They
then break the clay pots to reveal what is contained in those clay
pots. These clay pots are easily broken
and signifies the earthy vessel that contains this light, and
showing that light that has been shined in these clay pots. 2
Corinthians 4 and 6 says, for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. That is to say that the preeminence
of the power or the ability of the power is of God and not us. The clay pots must be broken
We must declare who man is, showing the need for Christ to do what
He did on that tree, showing that the clay pots are nothing,
but they, by God's decree, contain the light of the world. Showing
it is of His power and not ours. Remember, we mimic one another
as Christ has told us to do. This is what is done by all those
who proclaim the gospel, is to tell what man is and to tell
who God is. The light signifying Jesus Christ,
that one who came into the world and was the light of the world,
but this world loved darkness rather than light. But for his
people, this light has been shined in our hearts by God. Then they
announce where the authority comes from for which they are
doing this. The Sword of the Lord and of
Gideon, chapter seven and verses 20. What are we to do? The main focus
of what we are to do as a local assembly as we go about or as
we go about our daily life is to set forth the gospel of Jesus
Christ and him crucified. He being the brightness and image
of God was sent to save his people from their sin. being made a
curse for us, suffering and ultimately dying, being forsaken of God
so that His people would not have to suffer this awful fate.
Christ having done this in love and kindness with His people
in mind, on His heart, you might say, it took the blood of the
Almighty God manifest in the flesh to save people for His
name. All to the praise, honor, and
glory of His name. Where should all the honor, praise,
and glory go to? Jesus Christ. Because it is all
because of Him. His work to purpose salvation,
the work to secure salvation, and He does the work to reveal
the salvation to dead alien sinners. who in and of themselves are
complainers against God, guilty before God, and in complete and
utter darkness before God, and because of this loving darkness
rather than light. He then sends them the gospel
and by his power giving them the light within to see Jesus
Christ, whom is the light and the glory of God personified. God knows who it is he has chosen,
who he has sent forth. This is not just the man up front
speaking, but the whole garrison, the whole assembly, you might
say, that he has sent forth to hold out the gospel of Jesus
Christ and him crucified. God places them surrounding the
enemy where he has been pleased to place them. You had three
different companies and they were all in different places. If they are echoing that same
distinctive sound, then I know what that sound is and I want
to hear that. And if God allows me then to
join them, I want to join them. I do not know who all God's people,
who God has out there. I know of some that believe that
I know Christ and are holding forth that gospel of his grace
in Christ. But I don't know all of them
out there. We and who we know are not the only ones out there.
There are others that God has chosen, even like those whom
God told Elias that he had reserved 7,000 men who had not bowed the
knee to the image of Baal. And he cried he was left alone.
No, he wasn't. We need to think that, we need
not think that we are it. I hope that if there are those
out there that think their group is that, is it, that God teach
them differently. I hope that if someone is out
there and someone has said this to you, that you might be encouraged
in knowing the Lord knoweth them that are his. If they have this
distinctive sound, then hear them. This distinctive sound
tells who man is, that being totally corrupt without God in
the world. and also who God is, and that
is a just God and a savior. If he is pleased, then those
whom he chooses, he will bring to them this gospel and convert
them to his darling son, Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians 10
and four says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
This is what the gospel does to the enemies of God. And my
old man is the enemy of God and will rear his ugly head anytime
he can. But what does the gospel of Jesus
Christ and him crucified do? Second Corinthians 10 and verse
five. casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. The gospel of God's
dear Son causes us to take sides with God against ourselves. He
makes it so that we have no other way but to believe Him. He makes it so that we love it
to be so. We do not declare ourselves being
a pitiful bunch, but we do declare a great God who is our God and
our God will do all of His good pleasure. Hebrews 11 verses 32 and 34 concerning our passage at least mentions
it here, says this. And what shall I more say? For
the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and
of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of
prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the
violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, Out of weakness,
we're made strong. Wax valiant in fight, turn to
the flight the armies of aliens. Believe Christ, preach God's
word, and by His faith, we will be victorious. Amen. Mac, will you lead us in
prayer, please? Father, we thank Thee for the
day that Thou has given us we can assemble ourselves together.
We realize and know that you placed us here, and we're so
thankful that you give us a place to worship, and a place where
we can hear the truth, and we realize and know the only truth
is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Heavenly Father, we ask Thee
to forgive us of our sins. We fail Thee daily, but through
our weaknesses, we realize and know that our strength lies in
Thee. These things we thank thee for,
in Jesus' name, amen.