Tools of victory Judges 7:16-21

Music Music Music Music is We have been working

through the story of Gideon, and we'll get there

in a minute. So you know that Gideon was called

to fight really what was one of the greatest

battles of Israel of all time. He was called

to fight a huge, massive army. Does anybody remember

how many warriors, the Bible says, were in the

Gideonite army with the Gideonites and all the

Sotheby's? Yes, to reach the horizon. It doesn't

give a number, right? Camels and camel riders

and warriors to reach the horizon. As far as

the eye could see. And Gideon was called to fight

them and first called up men. There was 22 ,000

men. That sounds like a lot of men, but it was

probably nothing compared to enough to reach

the horizon. In fact, we know they can't side

of the valley, and so they did pretty good. And

then... got rid of his army down to just 300

to fight the most massive battle that Israel

had ever placed. When I was about 20 or so, I

went to the University of Toledo, and there I

saw some guys doing foam weapon fighting. There's

a group called the SCA, and I can't remember

what their acronym stands for, but it's a reenactment

society, and they reenact medieval battles. And

I saw there a guy using what's considered to

be a broadsword. It's like a hand and a half

sword. You can kind of put your hand on here,

but it doesn't feel real comfortable to put both

of them on. It's not really a two -handed sword.

And it was the first time I had ever seen anybody

fighting with a weapon like that. And the broadsword

technique, when you're on the advance, is you

strike to the right. And then if the other person

has a shield or a parry, right, then you straight

back to the left. So you're advancing forward,

left, right, left, right, and you keep going.

Now, because the middle of the sword state is

in front of you, you've kind of got a parry going

on at the same time, blocking this middle area.

But it's right, left, right, until their defense

fails, until they no longer have a shield or

whatever. But there is a parry as well. So to

parry with a big weapon like this, you don't

try to do this. Right? Because once you get it

down, you're going to get it back up. You're

pulling with your tricep and your back of your

forearm. And you're going to try to pull this

big heavy sword, which normally would be made

of steel and weigh over 20 pounds. Pull this

big heavy sword back up into place. You don't

really do that. So to parry with a weapon like

this, you go down with the palm. You go down

like that. You've got to cross guard, protect

your hand. Once it gets low enough, unless they're

literally swinging at your shoes, right? Then

once it gets low enough, your hand is protected

and the blade protects you. And if you come up,

then you can lift their blade up and strike.

That's called a repose, where you block and parry,

where you block, push their sword away, and then

strike. So parry and strike. There we go. The

repose is when you strike at one area, and then

you don't strike hard, but they parry that area,

and then you rapidly come around and strike on

the other side. So there are a lot of tactics

that one can use with a sword. So if I were Gideon

and... his 300 men, I'd be thinking about how

can I best use my sword? And I think we probably

widowed the army down to a pretty good small

number. They weren't being widowed down based

on their skill or what maneuvers they knew or

anything like that. They were widowed down based

on how they drank from the water. That's a little

weird. That doesn't necessarily mean that some

of them probably never fought before, right?

Maybe some of them didn't even own swords and

they got swords when somebody was leaving or

they didn't have a sword to go into battle with

at the time. That's probably kind of very scary.

The bottom line is you'd hope that those 300

men would be pretty ready to do a lot of different

things. Their sword, right? To face an army that

reaches to the horizon. So they go into battle

and Gideon equips them. And when he equips them,

he equips them with not just one tool, but three.

Three tools. The first was the ceramic pitcher.

Now this one's pretty small. We don't actually

know what size those were, but we know they probably

weren't huge because this is a mobile force,

right? So you go out to join the army, you don't

take your big old Kool -Aid pitcher, right? So

it's some kind of pitcher bigger than a flagon,

probably, because it was a flagon. It might have

been called something like that. And so they

gave them a pitcher. Now I don't see this for,

you know, I don't know what this is going to

do against somebody with a weapon, a shield.

Whenever you hit their shield, it's going to

break. It was made of the same kind of material

as this. So it's pretty fragile. It's going to

break pretty easily. So I'm not sure. I mean,

you could throw it at somebody. If I threw it

at Dennis, he'd probably freak out right now

before he did it or try to block it, period.

Or maybe just hit the face like this. Like, why

did he do that? Whatever. So I really just don't

see it much for parrying strike, riposte, that

back and forth smash thing, low parries. It's

not going to work. Not a very useful tool for

that. And then the second tool that he gave them

was a torch. This is a toy torch, as you can

see here. You push it and you can see how it

lights up and makes cool cricket sounds, right?

And then when they go to take it, as we read

about it in a moment, and they go to take the

bat, they put the torch in the pitcher, like

that. So they can hold it all three items in

one hand, or in hand at the same time. So they've

got the pitcher, and it might have been like

this probably, right? Because they're thinking,

that pitcher, it's not going to be really useful

for combat. So we're going to put the torch in

there, like that. And then we're going to put

our most important tool in the other hand. Right?

Nope, now we're not going to do one of those.

We're going to do this. Okay? So now this is

our battle formation. 300 men with torches and

pitchers and trumpets. Now this is a pretty fancy

trumpet, but even this fairly fancy trumpet,

which is probably more strong, right, than like

a troubadour's trumpet, which is like a long

straight tube with a bell on the end and a mouthpiece

that's very similar to this one. And so as they

get spread throughout, we'll see in the story,

as they get spread all throughout this massive

army that goes as far as, so some of these guys

are probably a quarter mile, maybe as much as

a mile. from each other. So this is like, this

is not if somebody walked in this room and there's

one person here and one over there, right in

the corner, prepared to make noise or do whatever

they're supposed to do, right? But rather, it'd

be like if one person's standing here in this

room, and then somebody's standing down on the

corner of Sheldon, and then the next person's

standing down on the corner of Starr and Sheldon,

right? That's what it's like. 300 guys spread

all throughout, and you could see each other

sort of. With the torches in the dark dark camps

pretty dark and burn torches when they were sleeping

very much, right? And so you can kind of see

each other but like If these guys come there's

500 guys around you with nobody to fight alongside.

No back -to -back No, nothing right and you have

what a picture a torch and a truck and then the

moment in time comes and Okay? And the trumpet

sounds and the battle essentially begins. Grab

your Bibles if you would. And go with me to Judges

Judges 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7. Thank you for those of you who are

participating with me. If you missed the opportunity,

let's do it now. Judges chapter 7. All right,

Judges 7 · chapter mention

very good. This is God's Word. It's not a very

long text, and truthfully, it's not a very long

sermon. I know people like not very long sermons,

but it has some of the most powerful points for

how to live as a Christian in a present age full

of the mess that we see all around us in it.

So I think it will be useful to us as a tool

going forward. So Judges 7, beginning in verse

16. Now, 15 we read last week, and it says, Then

it came about when Gideon heard the account of

the dream and its interpretation, that he bowed

in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel

and said, Arise, for the Lord has given the camp

of Midian into your hands. And now we begin in

16. And he divided the 300 men into three companies,

and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the

hands of all of them, with torches inside the

pitchers. There they are. Their hands are full.

It doesn't say anything about swords. Some of

them probably didn't even have swords. By the

way, does anybody know, if you've not read ahead

in the story, or even if you have, if you've

read this story before, can someone tell me how

many men these 300 men are about to kill? Without

reading. Don't read it right now if you don't

know. If you know, tell me. Anybody know? Want

to take a stab at it? Okay, somebody said 3 ,000.

Is that low or high, you think? Anybody else?

Come on, Bible scholars, what? Okay, so that's

our guess, tens of thousands. So the army stretches

as far as the horizon. We know they're not going

to wipe them out because you just can't get to

them already. They're going to run away, and

then they scare that, right? Thank you very much,

Arden. Okay, so the answer will surprise you.

Here we go. He divided the 300 men into three

companies. And he put trumpets and empty pitchers

into the hands of all of them with torches inside

the pitchers. And he said to them, look at me

and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the

outskirts of the camp, do as I do. When I and

all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you

also blow the trumpets all around the camp and

say, for the Lord and for Gideon, which is a

great battle cry. 19, so Gideon. And the hundred

men who were with him came to the outskirts of

the camp at the beginning of the middle watch.

And when they had just posted the watch and they

blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that

were in their hands. When the three companies

blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they

held the torches in their left hands and the

trumpets in their right hands for blowing and

cried, a sword for the Lord and for Gideon. And

each stood in his place around the camp and all

the army ran crying out as they fled. And when

they blew 300 trumpets, the Lord set the sword

of one against another, even throughout the whole

army. And the army fled as far as Beth Shittah

toward Zerah, as far as the edge of Abel Meholah

by Tabath. And then the men of Israel were summoned

from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and

they pursued Midian. So I ask you now, how many

men did those 300 men of Gideon kill to win this

battle? None. Zero. Not 3 ,000, not tens of thousands.

How many men does it take to make the enemy make

a morale check? How many men does it take to

make the enemy run away when the enemy already

knows that his defeat is imminent? None. It takes

none. Those two places named at the end there,

Beth Shittah, the house of Acacia, and Ebel,

Meholah, the house of the dance, are just not

even famous places, but they began to run and

scatter. And it was by about that time that the

other Israelites who had been cast off from the

army or had gone home and thought, well, I really

wanted to be a part of that great victory or

whatever they thought, I don't know, started

to come out and they will systematically destroy

the army of the Midianites. And of course, Gideon

and his men will surely join in at that time.

So the first thing I wanted you to see in the

text today was the thing that caught me, frankly,

a little bit by surprise, even though I've read

this story I don't know how many times. And it

is that they killed none. Zero. They killed none

because the truth is their best effort was insufficient.

If they had killed one each, that's 300 men,

300 men died in their sleep or as they began

to wake up and were scared, caught off guard

when they killed 300 men, that's nothing. That

army is so huge, reaches as far as the right,

there's no way they're going to run under a loss

of 300 men. If they each killed 10, which would

take a couple minutes, at least a few, you've

got to catch them off guard, hack them up a little

bit, you know, kill guys who are running away,

that kind of thing. After 10 minutes, if they

had each killed 10, that'd be 3 ,000, and that's

nothing. And if they had hacked somehow, I can't

imagine how this would be. It would take like

a blind army. We see that elsewhere in Scripture.

But they have to be blind and surprised at the

same time. And they had each hacked a hundred

before any kind of a defense was mounted. That

would be 30 ,000. That would be 30 ,000 men that

they had killed. And that would not be enough

to rout the enemy. See, the fact is they killed

none not because they could kill none or not

because they should kill none. but because their

best effort was going to be insufficient. In

the 1960s, the Congress of the United States

of America posted on the wall in the Senate the

words, in God we trust. They did that because

that was a... strict alternative. It's true in

the United States of America. It is a country

founded on Christian values, even though as a

democracy it might be a little bit broken at

the moment because a lot of people are not coming

to it with Christian values. But the bottom line

is it was founded on Christian values. It is

a democracy founded on Christian values. Democracy

is not a Christian thing specifically, but it

is a way to recognize that people have inalienable

rights. People have rights as a human being.

People have the ability to do things, and they

have the ability to make up their mind, and they

should have a voice. In the 1960s, we were faced

with socialism in one corner and communism in

another, and the truth is our nation was at risk.

Not that we're not at risk today or haven't been

at risk at other times, but the Senate decided

that it was the proper thing to do at that time

to post on the wall a reminder of whom we have

placed our trust in. Who is it? And it is God.

And the truth is it is a statement that the Senate

cannot make laws to create justice or righteousness.

The government cannot give you your rights or

take your rights away. The rights are inalienable

to humans. Among that first, of course, is the

right to choose to follow God or not follow God.

And by the way, that is a right given to you

at creation by, guess who? God. God is the one

who gives you the right to follow him or not.

Now that's what's ironic about those who don't

believe in God. They choose not to believe in

God. They choose to be, for example, an atheist

and to despise God and usually with very limited

understanding of who God is, think that God cannot

possibly exist and they'll even go around hatefully

behaving toward those who do believe in God.

But the fact is their freedom to not believe

in God is a gift to them from God. Now what's

even sadder than that is that while they are

exercising that free gift that they have been

given to hate Christians, to despise God and

have nothing to do with God, that free gift that

they were given at their creation by God, while

they are exercising that free gift, many people

who claim to be Christians are failing to exercise

the free gift that God has given them. Who's

got it right? The atheist who doesn't believe

in God and hates God and hates Christians because

Christians are clearly brainwashed or ridiculous

in their logic? And he's exercising his free

right given to him by God to not choose God?

Or the supposed Christian who says, I believe

in the Lord, I follow the Lord, but then gets

out of bed every morning and forgets to read

his Bible, forgets to pray, forgets to enact

any spiritual discipline, doesn't serve, give,

or otherwise walk with Jesus. Who's got it right?

I submit to you, the son that says, I will not

serve and later serves is still a better son

than the son that says, I will serve and then

does not. There have been many atheists over

the years who have later given their life to

the Lord. Many people who think they had it all

figured out, all lodged out, and then encountered

God and actually came to a moment in time and

went, wow, I had this all wrong. God is real.

Creation is a must. It has to be that way. Nothing

was ever created from nothing unless something

did it. And something more powerful than anything

we've ever seen, it's got to be God. And they

conclude over time that man's best effort, there's

an old kind of joke that I learned when I was

a young preacher about men advanced so far, cloning

life and doing stuff with DNA and everything

that they think that they have truly reached

the pinnacle. And the man says to God, we've

finally reached the place where we do not need

you. We can do everything that you do. And God

says, well, propose a contest. And the man says,

fine, whatever you can do, we can do. It's no

problem. We'll get together, get our heads together.

We'll get it solved. And God says, so the conscience,

I say, we create a man, create men. And he's

like, that's no problem. We've been doing that

for decades. We can do that. No problem. And

God says, ah, but we'll create a man the way

I created a man. And the scientist thinking,

what does he mean by that? Exactly. He's not

read his Bible very well. And God says, we'll

create a man out of dust. And the scientist says,

it could be a challenge. Don't know what's in

dust that's of any real value, but I think we

can do it. And he reaches over to pick up some

dust off the ground, and God says, get your own

dust. God created everything. God is the one

who reigns in your life. I understand you want

to think that your best choice is whatever, and

the reality is that you can control the outcome

if you're super cautious, worried. all upset

about the way things are going to go, that it'll

go better for you. But that's just actually not

true. It's going to go how it's going to go.

You can put your effort in and you should, and

you should follow God faithfully. In fact, it's

the word in the Bible often uses diligently.

That means hard work toward a purpose. And you

should do that. But you should do it because

you love God, not because you're going to get

good things, right? You should do it because

you've realized that God is real and that he

is the one. Gideon doesn't go into battle with

a sword and hope that God will make him the destroyer

of 20 ,000 men. You know how long it would take

to kill 20 ,000 men with a sword? Holy cow! They'd

start that night, right after they walked up

to the edge of the camp, and they'd still be

hacking. Their muscles would break down. Their

joints would give out. Their swords would break.

They'd have to use other people's swords. all

the food, nutrition, and water in their bodies

would be consumed and used up, and they'd still

be hacking, trying to get enough guys down to

potentially have an impact on an army that size.

And that's if God made them completely impenetrable

in the time, and that is not how God wanted to

do it. Rather, he wanted to do it through this

simple statement, in God we trust. Marxism and

socialism and government systems like that begin

with the understanding that there is no God.

They have to. Because they then take away the

inalienable rights of human beings and say that

people don't have inherent rights. But that's

not true. They do. Beginning with the right to

follow God and have a relationship with God through

Jesus Christ, his son. Now, some think you can

do it another way. But there isn't another way

because God, the son, was also God. And so if

you choose to try to get to God by some other

means, the tenfold laws, restrictions, rules,

something like that, you'll be doing nothing

but saying, I don't want the one I actually want.

I want the thing I want, and I want the thing

I want to lead me to the one I want, but a certain

version of the one I want that is not at all

the person I actually want. It doesn't make any

sense. Will you get out of bed in the morning

and say, in God I trust? If you will, then you

will realize that it's not your place to kill

any. It's not your place to do the things that

God is doing. It is your place to join in doing

the things that God is doing, and to do them

the way he has showed us we must do them. Congress

was saying, no, we as a nation and a body of

lawmakers know better that God is real, that

man has inalienable rights, and we will recognize

that. They have said for all time, I'm not sure

that all the laws that they have made necessarily

say that, but that's what they said when they

put it on the wall. They killed none. They killed

none because their best effort would be insufficient

and God's effort will always be sufficient. The

second thing to see in here is the battle plan.

This one and one more and a conclusion. The battle

plan was surprise and disunity. Not good tactics

or training or anything like that, right? People

say, well, it was a great tactic to divide his

army into three. See the size of that army? See

the size of his army? It doesn't matter. You

divide your army into 300 parts of, if everyone

was a tank, it probably wouldn't be enough, right?

And so the bottom line is the tactic was surprise

and disunity. When the trumpet call comes, it

comes unexpectedly. It comes from a direction

at a time when they're not thinking it's going

to come, as happened here in this room. And it

was a little bit of a surprise, was it not, that

the trumpet came not from the bell of the trumpet

that I appeared to be about to blow, but from

somewhere behind you? Now, you're not in any

danger. There was no danger to that, but it was

nonetheless a little bit of a surprise. If you

amplify that about a thousand times, and then

the volume by 300 times, that's a little something

like what happened that night in the dark. While

they were laying in their tents in their underwear

next to their swords. And they jumped up and

they ran out of their tents. Most of them in

their underwear. And there came a guy charging

at them with a sword. And he was hacking out

of his way. Anybody that got in his way. And

so they stepped in and got in his way. And they

killed him. And then they went to hacking anybody

that got in their way. There was disunity amongst

them. They weren't brothers. They weren't family

members. They weren't godly. They weren't good.

They weren't kind. Right? The tactic was surprise

and disunity. It was capitalizing on the imminent

defeat. You remember that he went down, saw the

dream, the bread rolled, the tent fell, and they

were told that the upheaval of the Midian army

was already in process, that God and Gideon was

going to destroy. They already knew it. The ripples

were flowing throughout the camp, that their

imminent defeat was, well, imminent. Also, it

was about a survival of the fittest or a dog

-eat -dog instinct. Whoever the best swordsman,

whoever the strongest guy is, that's the guy

who would win in battle, and it's also the guy

who's going to make it out of camp right now

in the middle of this turmoil, right? I'm going

to, I don't know if anybody else is going to

get out of here, but I'm going to survive. I'm

going to get out of here. Hack, hack, hack, hack.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp. Pounding guys' faces

into the dirt. I'm going to be okay. Survival

of the fittest. Dog eat dog instinct. Notice

also it was about the courage of an enemy for

Gideon and his men to rise up and let them know

of their imminent defeat, show them their surprise

and disunity, show them their survival of the

fittest and their dog -eat -dog instinct. If

Gideon had not gone, if the trumpets were not

blown, if the torches were not lit, then it wouldn't

have happened. That's true. And that was an act

of faith responding to the God of heaven. Notice

that there was light in darkness. Had there ever

been two more? exactly opposite contrasting things

than light and darkness. I mean, hot and cold

are opposite, but how cold? How hot? Right? So

the temperature of space, we think, it's really

cold, right? And the sun is really hot. Those

are pretty much the extremes, but you and I have

never experienced those things. So when the furnace

is set at 52, we're like, oh, it's cold in here.

But is it cold? I mean, it won't freeze ice.

The bread won't stay good that much longer, right?

It's not like it's really cold. It's not like

it's in your fridge. Your eggs would go bad.

Is it really cold? 52 degrees, get a blanket,

get a jacket. Is it really cold? What's cold?

What's hot? But light and darkness, where there

is light, there is no darkness. Where there is

darkness, there is no light, right? Now there's

dim, where there's some light and some darkness.

But you would say, in truth, there is neither

light nor darkness there. Right? But if you bring

light to the dim, the dim goes away. So whatever

darkness was there surely is not there anymore.

Has there ever been two more exact opposites

than light and darkness? Maybe. Hate and love.

But hard to quantify. Hard to hold in your hand.

They had a torch in the dark while men in their

underwear lie next to their swords thinking,

I'm going to have a great victory tomorrow or

at least going to survive this. And then light

came up. Light came to the darkness. Well, that's

a little bit like what Jesus did, isn't it? It's

a little bit like what we're supposed to do.

Notice that there was noise in the silence. Oh

boy, silence is easy to come by. We do that ourselves

all the time. We're supposed to speak up. We're

supposed to say something. We say nothing because

we're afraid what someone will think or what

will happen. We make ourselves silent. Listen,

the last thing you were ever supposed to be was

silent. Yes, I understand you have two ears and

one mouth. Somebody else is speaking. Listen

twice as much as you speak. I get that. That's

so that you can be impacted and care and have

courtesy for the other person, that kind of thing.

But the bottom line is, you got a mouth so you

can speak things into existence and when necessary,

speak them out of existence. God spoke creation.

Even though his mouth is not like our mouth,

he's spirit, right? Jesus' mouth is very much

like our mouth, but God the Father's mouth is

not. He's spirit. And so even though his mouth

is not like our mouth, he spoke into existence

all creation. We're supposed to speak things.

And if you're shutting up on an active basis,

you're in disobedience to God. If you're holding

your tongue at times you're supposed to speak,

you're in some of the worst disobedience to God.

Because what was the very first thing that God

ever did, before ever he talked to Adam, before

ever he brought the dust together, before ever

he set the boundaries of the seas or made the

stars, was the very first thing that God did.

When he hovered above the deep, he had a thought,

a desire to make something greater than himself

in the long run, which would be himself in community

with... Living beings. And he spoke. The very

first thing we see God doing is he spoke. Now

he spoke things into existence and ultimately

he made us the crowning achievement of creation

that we too would be in his model. And I think

that means we should speak. But there was noise

in the silence while they were in their underwear

and their tents next to their swords. And they

thought, oh no, a noise. I wonder, is it like

this in the world today? Is there light in the

darkness? Is there a noise in the silence? Is

there courage in the face of an enemy? Well,

if there's going to be light in the darkness,

noise in the silence, and courage in the face

of an enemy, it's going to come from the church.

The church is going to represent Jesus Christ,

be the body of Christ, and we're going to take

the word of God to wherever it needs to go. We're

going to tell people what we have seen and heard.

We're going to bring light in the darkness. We're

going to courageously stand up against the enemy.

We're going to bring noise in the silence, but

not a worthless noise as some may think it, but

a noise that presents salvation. Is it the same

in the world today? The world is attacking anyone

that doesn't seem to be for them individually.

It doesn't matter whether you're a Christian

or not. By the way, when you get attacked for

being a Christian, you won't be the only person

who ever got attacked for believing something.

All over the world, there have been persecutions

against other faiths. It's not just Christianity.

Now, of course, Christianity has gotten the worst

of it, and Christianity is a bit exclusive in

that we know that we are the only way to get

to heaven through Jesus Christ, who is Lord and

Savior. It's the only way to get there. So it's

a little bit exclusive. Jesus himself said, I

believe it wholeheartedly that he is the way,

the truth, and life. No man cometh unto the Father

but by him. There's no other way. The funny thing

is, a lot of other faiths actually recognize

that. In the Quran, it says, if you want to know

how to have a relationship with God, talk to

the Christians. This is the reality. The world

is attacking anyone that doesn't seem to be for

them or agree with their mentality or their ideology

or whatever. And Christians will get the worst

of it if we are that courageous, standing up

against the enemy, light in the darkness, noise

in the silence, as we are supposed to be. Is

there an imminent defeat in the world today?

That's the question. There are a lot of people

who are not Christians who think that Christians

got it wrong, so they don't think that Christianity

is going to win in the end. But they are wrong.

But I wonder, Is it as many people as we actually

think it is that think that Christianity is wrong?

Or are there actually more people that think,

I just don't really want to do that. I don't

want to be holy or right. I don't want to give

up lying to people. I don't want to get up sleeping

around. I don't want to give up my parties, my

drugs, my alcohol, my rock and roll, staying

out late, spending my money on just whatever

I want. Running up my credit cards or whatever

it is that they're doing that they think that

maybe they shouldn't be doing. Whatever has offended

their conscience. Is it that they think that

if they become a Christian, they would have to

give up that thing? Some of the greatest scholars

that existed that oftentimes caused great damage

to mankind by talking against Christianity have

later, listen to me, C .S. Lewis was a devout

atheist. He believed it with absolute certainty

that there was no God. And he taught students

year after year after year that truth. He taught

friends and family members and anyone who would

listen that you were a fool for believing God.

That absolutely you would be wasting your time

and there is no purpose to be part of the church,

to believe in the Bible or anything, or even

that Jesus was anything. I don't know that he

said Jesus never existed, but I know that he

said Jesus never mattered. And then, And then

he encountered God. Now, do you think C .S. Lewis

went back and talked to every person he ever

talked to? Now, he made a pretty good effort.

He was on the radio during World War II talking

about Christian things. He put out a number of

very popular books still around now, including

a children's series that presented the kind of

doctrine in an artful way. He presented mere

Christianity, which explains the basic teachings

of Christianity, the screw tape letters. The

Great Divorce. These are books that sold tons

and tons and tons of copies. And so it's possible

that his former students, oh, I'm going to read

a book by C .S. Lewis. And they realize, oh,

you know, he taught me there is no God. But here

he is clearly explaining to me how there is a

God. And they may have wound up getting saved.

It's possible. But the fact is that C .S. Lewis

and others like him, so many, in fact, that there

are too many to name, Jode, Strobel, and the

list goes on. People that have finally taken

a look at Christianity, finally taken a look

at what God alleges to be true, and they have

retreated. They have given up their position

of atheism or agnosticism or false religion and

turned their lives over to the Lord. And so if

that is happening, great scholars all over the

world, one after another at different times,

are turning their lives over. Then anybody that

they influence that sees them realizes that defeat

is imminent. Eventually, atheism will go away.

You know that there will come a time where absolutely

no one, absolutely no one can cling to the false

hope that there is no God. No one. Because it

says every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

So there will be people who bow and say, oh,

thank God there is a God. I am so grateful. I

accept Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. I'm going

to heaven. I'm so glad I did that. And there

will be people that bow going, oh. God is real.

I can't believe it. I lived my whole life teaching

the opposite. I stood against everything that

I am being forced to do right now. And they're

going to go away gritting and grinding their

teeth and hating every minute of it, but they're

going to bow before God and recognize that he

is real, that he exists. There will come a moment

in time where nobody can deny it. I submit to

you that maybe based on that truth alone, defeat

is imminent. But also we see ordinary men. are

recognizable as having been with Jesus. We won't

go there and read it, but there's a story in

Acts 4, Peter and John. It's kind of part of

that where they heal the man at the beautiful

gate, and then they get arrested, they get beaten

for talking about Jesus, and they praise God

that they were allowed to get beaten for talking

about Jesus, which all of which is kind of foreign

to us, right? It's hard for us to think we'd

be praising God for being beaten. That's kind

of foreign, but it is kind of understandable

at the same time, according to the word. And

they looked at them and they thought, These are

ordinary men. They're untrained. They didn't

go to Bible college. They haven't been to seminary.

They're not students of Gamaliel. But wow! They

believe what they believe, and they can teach

it. They can tell us what the truth is. They

can talk about Jesus. They can talk about the

truth of God. Clearly, they have been students

of Jesus Christ. And I submit to you, that's

everywhere. Standing before you today is one.

I am one. Now, eventually, I did go to school.

I went to Bible college and seminary. But most

of those of us who've gone to Bible college and

seminary would say that God equipped us to do

what it was that God called us to do long before

we ever did that. I used to have a pastor friend

of mine who used to say, well, you've got to

go to Bible college if you're going to be a pastor.

I don't agree with that at all. That's not scriptural.

But at the same time, I just think it's valuable.

It's useful. And I was a pastor while I was in

Bible college, sort of. I was a youth pastor.

And then I was a pastor while I was in seminary.

So it's not like I quit doing the thing I was

called to. I maybe just kind of had my attention

divided as I was being filled up and growing

and still doing the things that God called me

to do. The bottom line is, number one, great

scholars once resisted, have accepted the truth,

and then ordinary men are recognizable as having

been with Jesus. It happens all the time. So

many ordinary men have gone before, then become

recognizable as being with Jesus, then died an

incredible death. Like, wow, how did they have

the presence of mind to be, while they were being

burnt at the stake, to pray for those who were

burning them alive, like Jesus did? Or stoned,

while they were being stoned, and their last

breaths were, Lord, forgive them, for they know

not what they do, like Stephen did. How? And

it's been like that for 2 ,000 years. And that's

a testimony that there is an imminent defeat

forthcoming. And then there have been those who

did not believe they were atheists, and they

die, and you see their quotes and statements

on their deathbed. Like they're like, oh no,

I was wrong. Oh, I now have to face God. Oh,

the eternity. Oh, I shall be away from God for

eternity. And statements like that. Intelligent,

powerful, influential men in their lifetime going

to die, and as they go to die, crying out things

like, oh no, I'm in trouble. Right? The defeat

is imminent. And then, for all are trying to

ignore it, There's no making that into nothingness.

All the people who have said, and I was 25 years

this, thinking, well, I don't really have to

do anything about God. I don't really have to

come to him, that kind of thing. But in order

for this to really play out, the same thing that

happened with Gideon to really play out, there

would also have to be a variety of these other

things. So number one, surprise and disunity.

When the world sees somebody do something for

God, are they surprised? Well, yes. They go,

wow, that's weird. That's something that I wouldn't

expect. Are they in disunity? Well, you see that,

right? They're attacking each other all the time,

us and each other, right? Imminent defeat. And

then the question is, is there survival of the

fittest or dog -eat -dog? Is there anybody in

the room that thinks that the world does not

have a survival of the fittest mentality? Do

we need to talk about that or do we just understand

that out there the richest man gets what he wants,

the strongest man? the best talker, the most

physical, the guy with the golden belt in the

MMA, those guys get what they want. So we understand

that the world has a survival of the fittest,

dog -eat -dog instinct. And sometimes it looks

like a rely on yourself, stand up for yourself,

do what makes you happy, beware watching powerful,

ready, strength as a deterrent, even with much

power comes much responsibility. That's a Marvel

line, by the way, for Spider -Man. Anyway, Marvel

reference. Incessant. Opinion is one of the surest

testimonies of imminent defeat. They are sure

that they will not be defeated while at the same

time knowing the whole while it's coming. And

we are sure that we will be victorious. And so

as long as we do not walk away from Christ, as

long as the church follows Christ, that is a

sign to them that they will face imminent defeat.

The fact is that this very same thing that was

happening in Gideon's battle is taking place

in the world today. And I submit to you that

God has the same battle plan. Our part then is

to trigger the surprise and disunity, to capitalize

on the imminent defeat, to recognize that that

survival of the fittest, that's not us, to show

courage in the face of the enemy, to be a light

in the darkness and a noise in the silence. It's

in the world today. Our task is the same. That

brings us to the third. Could we fall similarly?

Not like Gideon. But instead of being like Gideon,

and that's, I think, in this story who we should

emulate, we should be like Gideon and his men,

but could we be like the Midianites and the sons

of the east? Could we be surprised and in disunity?

RJ mentioned last week that there have been churches

who divided over the color of the carpet, and

that's a fact. Never hear, but that's a fact.

There have been churches who have divided over

all kinds of things. And once upon a time, there

was an organization called the Church of Christ,

and they believed largely the same things that

we believe today. They have basically Baptist

doctrine or pretty close to it. But they said,

we'll never divide over anything that is not

crucial to the gospel. Now, if you drive by a

Church of Christ, you'll see a little cup on

the sign. That means they drink one cup communion

because they divide it. Some of them said, we

all drink from the same cup. Some of them said,

we get these little plastic cups like we do,

right? And then they'll have another symbol there

that represents they use an organ in worship

because some people say the organ is of the devil

and the church is divided and they couldn't affiliate

with each other anymore because some people say

you can have an organ and other people say you

can't have an organ. So church is divided and

church is divided from each other. Would it be

possible for God's church to be scattered, surprised,

and disunified? Well, The command of Christ,

of course, is that we love one another, that

we first and foremost love one another. That

is the first thing we're supposed to do. And

if that's happening, then we shouldn't be able

to be caught off guard by any hardship that should

come along, surprised and disunified. The strength

of the enemy should be nothing to us because

we know that he who is in us is greater than

he that is in the world. But do we love one another?

The word says that we should be of one mind in

multiple places. In specific, we should be of

a mind like Jesus had, willing even to go unto

death, even death on a cross. We should be of

one mind. If we are all of a mind like Jesus,

then we will naturally be of one mind. But the

question is, are we of one mind? Or are we a

little bit addicted to our rebellion? Do we think

that our family at home in our house knows the

best way? Is your last name synonymous with...

Certain practices that you know are not practiced

elsewhere, and they're not specifically sin,

but you would readily say our practices are better

than somebody else's. It's very dangerous. We

are to be of one mind. Has the church come out

of the darkness and walked in the light? Where

light is no surprise and darkness cannot thrive?

Or does the church come together Sunday by Sunday,

Tuesday by Tuesday, Wednesday by Wednesday, sometimes

it's Friday, sometimes it's Monday. We come together,

and while we are together, we shine a little

light in each other's lives, and then we go back

out there in our houses, in our homes, in our

jobs, in our schools, and we walk in the darkness.

And then when light comes, it's a surprise. Sherry

and I were talking about this just yesterday.

We were kind of hashing what happened. She was

out of town for almost three days, and she went

to a conference in... during that time and really

get poured into and it was really good. It was

a God thing. God really did a cool thing. And

she says, a lot of people in the room were openly

admitting that they were Christian. Charlie,

is that your experience at BG? Are there a lot

of people in the room openly admitting that they're

Christian? Not much. Okay. So I ask you, so if

you were in a room with 10 other people and you're

in an environment where it's kind of taboo to

talk about Jesus, school, work, right? And you

don't say anything about Jesus. How do you know

how many of the nine other people are Christians?

What if nine of them are? What if nine of the

nine people in the room, and you're all doing

the same thing? You're all taboo, not talking

about Jesus, not bringing it up, because you

know it's offensive to some, because some people

really get upset about it, because you don't

want to cause a rift and stop the education,

whatever. Or what if it's five? What if five

out of nine people in the room are Christians?

Right? And four aren't. And what if the four

that aren't are atheists and they hate Christians

or they're some other kind of Christian hater,

right? Whatever that might look like. But five

people are sitting there in silence saying, oh,

wait a minute, let's go back to the beginning,

shall we? In God we trust. What was the first

act of God as he floated above the waters of

the nothingness and there was nothing was the

first act of God was the very first thing he

did that was discernible? that a human might

potentially have participated in, it was he spoke.

So all you have to do is become silent, and you

bring no noise. And if you bring no noise into

the darkness, and ideally you would bring a noise

that makes some sense. Don't just moan or belch

loudly or something, but say something that's

godly, right? If you bring that noise into the

silence, then you activate the possibility of

surprise and disunity. You capitalize on the

imminent defeat. You recognize that there is

a survival of the fittest in the world, and I'm

not going to play part in that game. You bring

light to the darkness and show courage in the

face of the enemy. Speak up. And when you speak

up, and this is happening, by the way, did you

know that you can go on Facebook right now and

you can see, I think it's upwards of dozens now,

of college football teams where three quarters

or sometimes the whole college football team,

without coach led, nobody sponsored, nobody's

telling them what to do, kneels on the field

to pray. Sometimes both teams kneel on the field

to pray together, to pray to God before the game

starts. And it was a player or a group of players

who started it off. They said, you know what?

I do believe in Jesus. I do believe in the Lord.

I'm tired of being silent. You better get tired

of being silent because you're not really following

God until you stop being silent. You can't be

silent about the things that must be said. That's

why in that same passage of Scripture in Acts

4, a little later, they said in verse 12, Will

you tell us, is it better to listen to you, as

you're telling us not to talk about Jesus anymore?

Is it better to listen to you? Or should we listen

to God? For we cannot but speak about the things

that we have seen and heard. You see? Could we

fall similarly? Well, yeah, the fact is we could.

Because I debate whether or not the church at

large, the church in the world, these... 2 ,000,

5 ,000 man churches that supposedly follow Jesus,

but it's really a giant theater building where

nobody knows anybody? Do they love one another?

Do we love one another? Well, we darn well had

better. Now, I may be a little partial, but I

think we do a pretty good job there. But could

we do better? Yes. The first command after loving

God with all your heart, mind, and soul is to

love one another. Should we be of one mind? We

should. We should agree. Somebody says, well,

I don't agree, but I'm not going to say anything

because I don't want to cause any trouble. It's

just not good enough. Be of one mind. Let us

be of one mind with Christ. If we're disagreeing

over something and that thing agrees one way

with Jesus and doesn't agree the other way with

Jesus, agrees with the mindset of Jesus one way

and doesn't the other, then the person who's

disagreeing is a sinner, very possibly bound

for hell. Because 1 Corinthians 2 says we have

the mind of Christ. You don't get to divide over

the things that the Bible says are factual. But

let's say it's not that, and it's the color of

the carpet. Then we shouldn't come in the room

and go, I want blue carpet, I want green carpet,

and we start to debate and argue. I don't think

it would be better. I have a friend of mine on

Facebook. His church in 1999 built a gymnasium.

It was a carpeted gymnasium, but it was a gymnasium.

They called it their Christian Sports and Education

Building. And they were going to invite kids

from the neighborhood, high school teams, whatever

to come and practice in their gymnasium. And

they went, they got it totally done. All they

had left to do was put up the basketball hoops.

They had them, purchased them, ready to put them

up. And somebody in a membership business meeting,

whatever they call it there, said, you know,

we don't think we should put them up. The balls

will scuff up the walls. The carpet will wear

out too fast. Plus, we put them up there. People

will always be using it, and we won't be able

to put up tables and have fellowship in there

and whatever. And they decided not to use the

gymnasium as a gymnasium, but to use it as a

cafeteria, a place for meetings, a place for

tables and meals, which isn't a bad thing per

se. But when they didn't put up the basketball

hoops, it started a downward slide. And I submit

to you, it was really in the heart because they

didn't love one another because they weren't

of one mind. And families with kids who looked

and said, well, we can't play in there. We're

not allowed to play in the gym. And teenagers

who wanted to make shots could not. And the sports

ministry went away. And now in 2025, they've

got about a dozen people coming. And the day

before yesterday, my friend hung up the basketball

hoops. 26 years later. Could we? Do we love one

another? Are we of one mind? Can we come out

of the darkness and walk in the light all day

long, every day, on your job, at your school,

in your home, on your social media, wherever

you are, during playing games, during playing

sports, everywhere you are, will you walk in

the light where light is no surprise and darkness

cannot thrive? I submit to you, if we will not,

we could fall similarly. And what would that

look like? We'll begin to attack one another.

We'll begin to badmouth one another. We'll begin

to disagree in disgruntled nature. And it'll

be the survival of the fittest who talks the

loudest, talks the best, brings the most money.

We'll get to decide in the next membership meeting

what happens with whatever. But if we don't do

that, I'm going to withdraw my tie. You say,

well, you would never do that. And I would never

do that. But you better believe it's been done

tens of thousands of times all over the country,

all over the world. Could we fall just as similar

as the Midian army and the soldiers from the

east? We could. If we do not love one another,

if we are not of one mind, if we do not come

out of the darkness and walk in the light, we

bring us to our conclusion. For those we come

upon in this life, I said in this story, ours

to emulate is Gideon. We meet and greet. There

is exactly no time left. This is the problem.

We are acting light because Jesus has not come

yet. that he's not going to come for a while,

you realize that it is possible, however likely

or unlikely that's in the Lord's hands, that

he could come before I finish this paragraph.

And if you're sitting here in these chairs right

now, you have exactly no time left. The truth

is, no one has any time at all. You ever said

that? I don't have any time to do that. I don't

have enough time to do that. You don't have any

time at all. You literally only have the second

that you are currently in, the breathing that

you're doing right now, the choice you're making

right now to be here, to listen, to study the

word, to go through this story. That's all you

have. You don't have later. You don't have lunch.

You don't have bedtime. You don't have bedtime

stories. You don't have tomorrow getting up.

You don't have the rooster crowing or the clock

going off. You don't have that. You will never

have that. You cannot have that. Who has that?

God has that. And in God we trust. And so everyone

that we run into is in the place where they have

exactly no time left. We had exactly no time

left. We have exactly no time left. And they

have exactly no time left. They ought to repent.

And we ought to hope that they should because

they were already defeated. Listen to the tense

of the verbs. They were already defeated. We've

been talking about an imminent defeat, but the

reality was that Gideons were already... Gideon's

men were already defeating the Midianites before

they ever entered the camp. Gideon was afraid.

God said, if you're afraid, take your servant,

go down, let's see what they say. God has sent

them a dream. The imminent defeat was already

in place. So much so was the defeat, so secure,

so definite was the defeat, that the weapons

that they took were a pitcher, a torch, and a

trumpet. It was already done. They ought to repent.

We ought to hope that they should repent for

they were already defeated. The Bible says it

is not sin now that sends a man to hell. I understand

the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Death

is internal separation from God. And if you don't

receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus

Christ, you're eternally separated from God and

you will go to hell. I understand that. But it

is not then that you sinned that sends you to

hell. People say that like, well, it was just

the smallest lie and I still go to hell. No,

it's not that. It is because they refused the

Son of God. Pardon me. It says, Jesus did not

come to condemn the world, but they are condemned

already by what they have done with the Son of

God. Not because they lied or stole or any of

that, but because they refused Jesus. They are

just as dead standing there in front of you as

they ever will be for an eternity. Your heart

beating, air in your lungs, your brain waves

do not make you alive. No more than a good running

car makes you alive. Or an airplane. In the hangar.

Fueled and ready to go. Pre -checks done. Doesn't

make you alive. Not even if you get in the plane.

It doesn't make you alive. You get in the car

and go. It doesn't make you alive. And your body

is like that. Your heart beating, your brain

waving does not make you alive. We were dead

in our trespasses and sins. Alive is fellowship

with Christ. Those who do not know God are dead

already. They have exactly no time. There is

an imminent defeat upon them. And so certain

is it that it is as if they have already been

defeated. We are not the workers of that defeat.

The closest we ever get to that is when Malachi

says that we will rush into the kingdom of God,

into heaven for eternity, and we'll go over the

dust that is the enemies of God and our enemies.

You'll trample them under feet on the way in.

That's the closest you ever get to that, but

you're not their enemy. For any man or woman

who refuses God's offer of salvation or who readily

warps that offer to be a thing that authorizes

their bad behavior, we ought to be cordial to

pity them. Pity them, for they're on the way

to hell. They are bound in chains, lost in darkness.

Pity is the proper emotion. It's what the world

would demand of us. But we offer something, have

something so much more. We offer an opportunity

to repent and a salvation already dearly purchased.

A forgiveness found in no other religion or relationship

and a new life born again out of the world into

a kingdom that will last for eternity to be called

a child of God. But don't kid yourself if you

don't participate, if you don't go and tell them,

if you don't go and entreat them, if you don't

go and share the gospel, their defeat is still

imminent. And perhaps so is yours. For how will

you feel when you arrive before the Lord and

answer for all the opportunities you had to deliver

the light into the darkness, to become the noise

and the silence, to stand courageously against

the enemy, to love one another, to be of one

mind? And God says, why did you not? And what

will you say? All the excuses we make now for

not doing the things that we're supposed to do

aren't going to hold up. Because he's God. And

he's going to say, but the instant, the moment

that you decided to do what I told you to do,

I had it all under control. The only thing stopping

you from seeing the blessings that I was sending

you was your unwillingness to receive them. In

Mark 11, 24, it says this. It says, therefore,

I say to you, all things for which you pray and

ask, listen to this very closely. Listen to the

tense of the verbs. that you have received them,

not that you will receive them, believe that

you have received them and they will be granted

to you. And in Matthew 16, 18, where he hands

the keys of the kingdoms, metaphorically speaking

to Peter, he says, and all things that you shall

loose on the earth will have what? Already been

loosed in heaven. And all things you shall bind

in the earth will have already been bound in

heaven. At best. We are conduits. We trust in

the Lord, and when we step out with the tools

that God has given us, it may look at me like,

well, I could never wield a sword, and you're

asking me to go somewhere dangerous. I don't

have a firearm or any martial arts skills whatsoever,

and you're asking me to go somewhere dangerous.

God is asking you to take the gospel and your

spiritual gifts and your love in your heart and

the word that can save souls and to go. And you

go. We will kill none. The truth is, when it

comes to saving people, we will win none. You

don't save souls. You're just here as an agent

of God to speak, pronounce the truth, ask for

a decision, and declare forgiveness. And for

those who will not accept it, they will not have

it, and their defeat is imminent. Oh, won't they

be surprised when the trump sounds and Jesus

shows up again. In disunity, they will claw,

struggle. And try to be set free and say, but

my sister, my brother, my uncle, he abused me.

He did this. He lied to me. She stole from me.

They betrayed me. That pastor didn't say. That

pastor did say. That church didn't do. That church

did do. I never had enough money. I never had

enough time. I've been sick. I've been hurting.

My body this. My body that. Malnutrition. And

on and on and on it goes. And God will say simply

this. The victory. The victory was always in

your hands. And for however long you had opportunity,

day in and day out, you refused it. And if we

continue to do so, we will fall similarly to

the army of the Midianites. And those who will

fall like that, fall into disunity, attacking

one another, and ultimately land in complete

defeat and annihilation, those like that, Well,

now they're enough that they would cover the

whole earth. But there are still amongst us some

who would emulate Gideon. And I pray that our

church will be that. And that we will take that

noise into the silence. We will take that light

into the darkness. That we will stand with that

courage against the enemy. That we will love

one another, be of one mind, and never fall into

disunity. And surprise. It starts with you saying,

Jesus Christ, be my Lord. That means you tell

me what to do and I'll do it. And my Savior,

that means I recognize that he died on the cross

for my sins and rose again on the third day.

And I can be saved. Sometimes I feel dumb. I

can be saved. Sometimes I feel too smart to buy

into something of faith. I have my reasons. You

can be saved. I put it off forever. You can be

saved. I have refused to let people know that

I'm really not saved because they started thinking

I was. I had a woman tell me once, everybody

just assumed I was saved and so I just went with

it. She told me that the day she was getting

saved. There is no time. Not there is no time

like the present. There just is no other time

than the present. You accept Jesus Christ as

your Lord and Savior in earnest and to begin

to live for him today. later, not very long at

all, we're going to see some baptisms and people

who are living testimony. They're saying, whatever

may come, whoever God is making me to be, I am

living for Jesus Christ now. And that can be

you. And then people say, we band together as

a church and love one another and become of one

mind and serve. We ache when we ache and we rejoice

when we rejoice because that's what God made

us. That's a little bit like Gideon. And a lot

not like the Midianites. Let me say this last

line, and some of you will recognize it. It's

from Star Trek. Resistance is futile. I ask the

praise team to come forward then and lead us

in a closing hymn. But if you're here today and

you're accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and

Savior, then you respond. You come to me and

say, this is me. I am accepting Jesus. I am becoming

a Christian today. I will follow him to the best

of my ability from now on. And you can come up

here and say that. Or if you're making some other

kind of decision. Whatever it might be. I know

I have to do this ministry. Or I know I need

to join this church. Or I know I need to be baptized.

Or I know I need to tell my friend about Jesus.

I know I need to stop being silent. Not to be

rude, but to be a noise in the silence with the

right information. You can walk in a room with

plenty of people, you don't know if anybody's

saying, like, is anybody here not pushing it?

Is anybody here that wants to talk about Jesus?

I'm willing. I'm not saying you have to, I'm

not pushing it on you, but if you want to, I'm

willing. That would be a starting spot, wouldn't

it? What are you afraid of? You're in the darkness

and you're afraid. You're more like a Midianite

or a Sodomite than you are a Christian. Turn

your life over to the Lord and stand for Him.

We'll sing this song together, but if you're

responding in some way, you come forward. Everybody

stand up. Break out your voices, but if you're

a responder coming forward, then you don't need

to sing. You can just come right now and tell

me what's on your heart today. Just as I am without

one thing, look at the blood pushing for me.

Okay.