Christian development to become. More skilled, more proficient in the faith, and meeting the demands that are placed upon us as believers. And there are demands placed upon us as believers. Religion is not something you just go to. Enjoy for a few hours on a Sunday, and that's that.
If that is your religion, then I would question it. But increased spiritual sensitivity to our surroundings is part of our responsibility to be sensitive to what's going on spiritually. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through a topical series.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick as he begins his message, Courage and Caliber. If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Judges, please. CHAPTER seven Courage and Caliber is the title of this morning's message. The text.
It's Judges chapter 7. Verse 5. We'll take verses 5 through 7 to give it some context. If you have your Bibles and you're ready or not. Judges chapter 7.
Beginning at verse 5.
So he brought the people down to the water, and the LORD said to Gideon, Every one who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, You shall set apart by himself. likewise every one who gets down on his knees to drink. and the number of those who lapped putting their hand to their mouth was three hundred men. But all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water. Then the LORD said to Gideon, By the three hundred men.
Who laughed, I will save you. and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, every man, to his own place. Gideon gets a bad rap by a lot of pastors, I think, some calling him a coward and things like that. He certainly was not to me.
As a matter of fact, More space is devoted to Gideon in the book of Judges than any of the other judges.
Now, for those of you Let me back up a little bit. If you're not familiar with how we do ministry here, of course, we take time to build up the believers. And leave the built-up believers to try to reach those who or not. Believers. We believe in strengthening the saved and reaching the lost.
And to do this, it takes work. I don't know of anything in life that comes without hard work that's really worth holding on to. There may be a few exceptions. But back to what's going on here, there's about a hundred verses and judges devoted to him, Called the book of Judges because they were the rulers at the time before Israel. got kings, they had these Judges.
Some of them were tribal, and some of them were. over the entire People of Israel. Samson gets 96 verses, just to give you an idea of the emphasis placed on the life of this man, Gideon. The text is verse 5, though, and that's the part we want to zero in on.
So he brought the people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue as a dog laps, you shall set apart by yourself likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.
So God is going to make a distinction here. In Hebrews chapter 11, the writer there talking about the heroes of the faith, he says, And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon. I think we can learn a lot from this man. And what I want to address this morning is Christian development to become.
More skilled, more proficient in the faith. And meeting the demands that are placed upon us as believers, and there are demands placed upon us as believers. Religion is not something you just go to enjoy for a few hours on a Sunday, and that's that. If that is your religion, then I would question it. But increased spiritual sensitivity to our surroundings is part of our responsibility to be sensitive to what's going on spiritually.
Knowing that life routinely takes from us things that we desire. Things that we need. Things that we find useful life can strip these things from us. God's word is full of anecdotes. Illustrations, poems, songs.
Direct statements. that are built to build us up. To have a response to the losses that we incur in life so that we can make gains for the kingdom. Because for the Christian, it's all about glorifying God. and it is a joy to do so once you know him.
And when you love someone, They become the object of what you want to. Make them better off if you can. Go on a larger scale. That's the Christian towards God. How to respond, how to prepare.
How to Retain Honor in Christ. I think many times we Christians fail here. When we are in trouble, or when we are troubled By God's methods. in our own lives and lives of others. Or if we're troubled.
My world events. What's the response going to be as a believer? And are we going to maintain our path of duty? Duty is critical for a Christian. I think a lot of us miss that also.
When we meet Gideon, he's doing his duty. He's not happy about it. His faith is twisted up. He's got some issues and understandably so. And he writes about them.
He tells us about what he was going through, what he was struggling as a believer. Part of our duty is to face All facts. With the greatest fact, of Christ, very personal to us. You, the believer, know him as Lord? But the world Largely Mock his lordship.
Psalmist, that ninety first psalm, You know, he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And I will say of my God, He just pours it on. And he says in Psalm 91, 2, I will say of Yahweh, my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I will trust.
Well, there's determination there. Going to have to live it out as Christian, well, his faith. Christian victory is Sounds good. not only in making converts. not only in Growing in the faith, but finishing strong This is what Paul was talking about.
When God was warning Paul and saying, you know, Paul, you're going to Jerusalem and you're going to be persecuted. The choice, the call is yours. I'm, of course, summarizing the whole thing. God was essentially saying, I need you to go to Jerusalem, but you don't have to go. And if you do go.
You're going to get some beatings. And God was telling Paul this through other servants. Paul's response was, None of these things move me. nor do I count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy. And the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
So he wanted to finish strong. He wanted to finish with joy. You know, you may start out your Christian life, you're very happy about a lot of things. I'm saved, I know Jesus. You see everything differently.
And then you find out that your Bible's not bulletproof, it's hell proof. But it won't stop a lot of things in this world. You still We'll feel the pains of a cursed world and the world is under the curse of sin. For this man Gideon When we first meet him, As I mentioned, he's doing his duty. He's trying to survive.
He's been handed a bad situation. For the last seven years, things have been really bad for the Jewish people. If you have your Bible still open, Judges 6, verse 11. There at the bottom of that verse, or you can just listen to me read it. Gideon threshed wheat in the wine press in order to hide it from the Midianites.
Well, ideally you want to be up on an elevation where the wind is blowing, so when you toss the wheat up, the wind blows the chaff away and the grain falls to the ground.
Well, he's hiding in a wine press doing it. It's going to double his work at least. The Midianites aren't there yet. They're on their way. And they're coming in force.
Their troop number is said to have been 135,000. We'll get to some of the verses to back that up. He's not serving God at this time. He's hiding from invaders. He's faced with troubles.
that are too large for him. Serious problems. He stole his honor. He's hiding. No man wants to hide from an opponent He's threatened his life was threatened.
His faith. is assaulted. It's all twisted up. They came to steal the harvest. The Jewish life was made extremely miserable.
His own, his homeland. being invaded, and there's nothing he could do about it. There was no army to join. We'll find out he starts the army. Gideon's story is a story of God wanting to restore his people when they cried out to him.
They were suffering seven years of judgment for being disobedient. Judges 6 verse 3 So it was, whenever Israel had sown, Midianites would come up Also Amalekites, Incidentally, a pause there. Both of these people were descendants, these peoples were descendants of Abraham. All of them, the Jews, the Midianites, the Malekites. And yet, There's a lot of hatred between the two.
Sin has made fools of us all. Amalekites, they came, the people of the East. would come up against them. Then they would encamp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza. and leave no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox nor donkey.
So, what was happening here? They'd stripped the land so bare, the Jews, their own livestock, had nothing to eat themselves. Never mind the people. It was pretty messed up. Again, it's like interstate trucking shut down.
The supply chain was done. How do you survive? It eke out of existence. It continues, for they would come up with their livestock and their tents coming. in as numerous as locusts Both they and their camels were without number.
and they would enter the land to destroy it So Israel was greatly impoverished. because of the Midianites and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. It tells us again in chapter seven and verse twelve. that their camels were without number, As the sand by the seashore.
So the land was just blanketed with these people. And Gideon He's going to be visited by what we know as a Christophany. an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament long before the virgin birth. And he shows up in the Old Testament as the angel of the Lord. And that phrase is a dominant phrase in this book of Judges.
And when he shows up, he's referred to as a man of valor. He's hiding. He's in shame. He's got some serious theological questions. And he's being called a man of valor.
And he doesn't know who it is who's talking to him just yet, as the story is told to us. He'll figure it out. What? The Lord saw what was in him, saw beyond his present situation. The Lord saw what God could do with this man if this man would submit to him.
Gideon said to him, O my Lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about? Did not the LORD bring us up from the land of Egypt, but now God has forsaken us and delivered us into the hand of the Midianites. He's saying, well, where's all the Bible promises? I've been believing and serving God.
Look at me. And you want to come here and say, Oh, man of valor of the Lord? Not maybe saying it in that tone. But that's what he was saying. If he was going to serve God, if he was going to be used by God, he had a lot to learn.
And that is true of every single one of us. But we don't think that, many of us, when we come to Christ, we think that we are actually bringing something useful with us. And God is saying, I just stripped that out of you. And he tries to do it in a delicate way, I think, most of the time. But either way, you know, as John the Baptist said of Jesus Christ, he must increase, I must decrease, I must get smaller, he gets bigger because he's worthy.
Because he is God. If he was just a man, I wouldn't say that about him. And so we have to learn. These things about our faith, and sometimes it's very difficult. But we should prevail.
The angel does not debate the matter. With Gideon's question, you know, where's God? Where's the Bible study? Where's all the problems? You didn't debate it.
Instead, he calls him to serve. puts him to work, I'll come back to that question, though, because we too want to hear the answer. The first thing he was called to do was to address the idolatry in his own home, in his father's home. His dad had a giant monument up, a wooden monument up to these fake gods. The dad was a Jew.
He was called to worship. Jehovah or Yahweh. But instead he has this His own ideas about God, which is an abomination to the Lord. God hates it when people make up things about him. And why is that difficult for any of us to understand?
Do you like it when people make up things about you, true or false? But whether it's flattering or not, I still don't want people Telling things saying things about me that aren't true.
Well, people do it to God all the time. The second thing he was told to do After addressing this idol to tear it down. Was to make a public declaration of his faith. He was to use his father's prized bull, to pull down this monument, which means it was pretty big. And then he was to kill the bull.
Use the wood of the monument for fire, and offer that bull on an altar. He was wise enough. To say, okay, but I'm gonna do this at night.
So he goes on his night mission with some helpers. And he does just what the Lord says, he complies. and then they find out about it in the morning.
Well, his dad comes to his rescue 'cause they're gonna kill him for Shaming their God. And his dad, who worshiped that God, a typical dad jumping. Going to help his boy out? He says, What? Can't our God defend Himself?
Can't your God defend Himself? And that Calmed them down and said, Well, you got a good point. We're not going to kill Gideon for this crime because if our God is God, He'll kill Gideon for the crime.
Well The people call to serve God. These Jewish people They chose life without him. And that's where these seven years of persecution from the Midianites and others came. The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD.
So the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years. Judges 6, verse 1, then verse 10. Also, I said to you, I am. Yahweh, your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites.
In whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. God took it personal. They stopped following him.
So he withdrew his blessings. And that's where we are. God called Gideon while he was evading detection. From the enemy. I don't ever want to be in that spot.
That's some setting up an ambush. Then I'll hide. All right, that's a flash, but That's still the way I think. Moses, he was called when a fugitive from Egypt. There in the desert of What is Saudi Arabia now or Jordan actually right there by it?
hiding or getting on with his life as a shepherd. Samuel was a child in the temple at Shiloh when God called him. David was an errand boy to the battlefield when God called him. Peter was A fisherman? At the seashore of Galilee, a professional fisherman, and the Lord called him there.
Paul was a fanatic. Prosecutor. Indicting Christians. arresting them when God called him. And here Gideon, a defeated farmer, All of this ends up Questioning the methods of God.
Which is fair. It's okay to question What God is doing, just not in a defiant way, with reverence, Lord, I don't understand this. Can you help me out here? But you put enough pressure on us, and what do we say? God, why are you doing this?
Why are you allowing it? I have found that He usually doesn't answer. He keeps moving forward. You move with him or you don't. It's very beneficial to move with 'em.
By this time, Gideon had confirmed with God. We're going to fast forward up a little bit. That God wanted him To deliver the people, going to use him to lead the people. Against the Midianites. And he wanted to be sure.
Then Gideon called the troops. And the people came. And we read about that in chapter 6 and verse 34. But there were too many of them for God. God wanted less.
So again, 135,000 Midianites, and here we have 32,000. Jews that assemble for war, and God says to Gideon. You have too many men. I'd be scratching my head. I said, Lord, I think you have a math issue.
Because they've got 135,000, I have 32,000.
Well God says Go tell the troops that want to go, they can go. We pick that up in verse 3 of chapter 7.
Now, therefore. God-giving Gideon instructions. consistent with the law in Deuteronomy.
Now therefore proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead. And twenty two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained. Heh. Of the thirty two thousand 22,000 Avail themselves of this opportunity to not fight. for their freedom.
Just like that, they're gone.
Well, the law, again, Moses told the people: look, when you go to war, You offer the troops an out because we do not want people turning coward on the battlefield. That'd be worse. We'd rather double the enemy than have these guys on our side.
Now, later, all these troops are going to come back, but this is a critical mission to get this thing going. God is thinning out the army. By their departure, Did they publicly Proclaim themselves as cowards. It's just a question. I mean, what would you have been thinking if you were part of the 10,000 that stayed and you saw 32 depart?
What would be the conversation in the camp? Did they see them as cowards?
Well, we're not told, but we can just ponder the thought. And I think there's some insight or there's benefit in pondering such questions, even if we can't come to a conclusion. They showed up. And that's all they did. They showed up as soldiers.
But they did not behave as soldiers. But as I mentioned in chapter 7 and verse 24, they come back. If All these types were cut out of the church. And I don't mean the local church of Christianity. If the pastors stood up and said, all of those who refuse to commit, to what has to be done.
Various things. All of those who fear sharing their faith because they're going to be mocked or persecuted. In this country we're talking about. that I'm talking about. All who fear the powers of darkness, that they are stronger than the powers of God.
All of these groups, if you want and just leave the church and it would continue, the fainth-hearted, the indifferent. All who do not honor God with their earnings. All who seldom pray or read their Bible, All who want to sing and do nothing else. All who worship only when in the mood. All who claim Christ but do not believe the Bible is the Word of God, And all who put their church in last place instead of first place.
So, if pastors around the country stood up and said that to congregations and they're guilty, they said, well, that's me. What would we be left with? What would the church look like? I don't say these things to Make anyone feel bad, but again, the scripture tells us to examine ourselves. We can't do it all, but we can do something.
Everybody is got something they can contribute to Christ. Gideon was then directed to march with the remaining 10,000 men of his army to the water. We picked that up in verse 5.
So he brought. The people down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water. with his tongue as a dog laps, You shall set apart by himself likewise every one who gets down on his knees to drink. And so you have two types here. They're on Mount Gilead.
They're going to make that trip down to the water. They're going to be very thirsty by the time they get there. There's going to be one group who gets on their knees and drinks the water. It's going to be another group that stays standing and scoops the water up. Perhaps you're wading out into the water.
And I mean, the whole thought of drinking river water that people are standing in is repulsive to me, but evidently it wasn't too bad for them. And so, by the time they get there, again, there are those who wasted no time. At the fort, got on their knees and drank their fill. But the minority March straight through. Stayed upright.
And they had to have come by ranks. There's ten thousand of them. You couldn't just all come down at the same time. That would stretch out the army a couple of miles.
So they come down in ranks. And it comes down to How you drink shows how you think in this situation. This method of sifting the army was unassuming. Who knew what was going on? The men are being who they are.
They don't know this test is taking place. Whether they're failing or passing. None of the soldiers knew they were being tested. The 10,000, of that 10,000, this took a long time. This was a process, hours.
Do you get it? Completed. And God told Gideon to send home those who got on their knees to drink the water.
Now this is an important part of what I'm trying to say.
Soldiers who showed carelessness in proximity of the enemy. had to be released. Thanks for tuning in today to Cross-Reference Radio, where Pastor Rick has some answers for various questions that have been asked. We can't fully express how grateful we are that you've been with us today. But if you're ever looking for more teaching and content from us, you're welcome to subscribe to our podcast.
Just go to your favorite podcast app and look for Cross Reference Radio. For any other information about this ministry, go to crossreference radio.com. You'll also be able to find out details about our service times and location. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on CCM. Once again, head over to CrossreferenceRadio.com.
Thanks for listening today and come back again for the next edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
