Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Someone has said, be kind to people. Everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
How true that is. Life's race is not always smooth sailing. Conflicts arise that weigh down our journeys. Today, a story from the Bible that illustrates God's approach to winning the battles we confront.
From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. The battles Israel fought were largely military. Pastor, how do Old Testament stories help us face the battles we encounter, say, in our families, work relationships and politics? Dave, you've asked a very interesting question. And of course, when we get to the New Testament, we discover that there is the language of warfare, isn't there? The Apostle Paul says that we should put on the armor of God because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and so forth. So the imagery is there.
You're right. We're not fighting physical battles, at least most of us aren't. But nonetheless, the principles apply, dependence upon God, the willingness to get involved in a battle for the glory of God.
And at the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be giving you an example of that. But meanwhile, I want you to listen carefully because we must recognize that we also, yes, are in a warfare, and God expects us to win. All of us are involved in battles of some kind at some time. Maybe today you're in a very personal struggle. Maybe it's a struggle with others. Maybe it's a struggle with Satan. Maybe, I hope not, but maybe a struggle with God. The question is, how does God go about winning battles on our behalf?
That's the agenda that we're going to be looking at. We noticed that in the early centuries of the church, the first couple of centuries, the church was so small in number, and yet it took on the whole Roman Empire and eventually prevailed. Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire. Now, it was a form of Christianity that very quickly degenerated, but the point is that the Christians in the early church had an impact that was far beyond their numbers. We look around us today and we think of America with its great needs, and we notice that the evangelical community seems to be shrinking. But I want you to know today that the impact that we can have is far beyond our numbers if we understand how God wins battles.
As a matter of fact, I believe that the impact of the church in America is far beyond its numbers in ways that sometimes possibly we can't quite grasp. But how does God win battles, and where do we fit into that, and how are our lives to be transformed because we're going to be looking at a passage of scripture together? So stay with me as we see God's word unfold. What I'd like you to do is to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Judges, Judges chapter 7, and we're going to speak briefly, and I need to tell the story first before we summarize the lessons and before we nail it down for ourselves.
But we need to, first of all, look at the kind of people God uses. Now, Gideon, that's the name we know him by, but he also had the name Jerub Baal. This is chapter 7 verse 1 of Judges. And all of his men camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. And the Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.
Gideon noticed that 22,000 of the 32,000 that he had, left 10,000 remained. God says I need a troop reduction so that I get the credit. And what he asked is that all the fearful would go back.
It says in Deuteronomy chapter 20, the Lord says that when you go to battle, the priest should say to all of the people, those of you who are scared, turn around, go back home, don't come because your fear is contagious. The power of an example. You think of the power of a positive example. The apostle Paul was in prison and he said, I'm really glad that I am here because my courage in prison has given courage to the whole church, he said. He says, my bonds have become the basis. And when he used the word bonds, he was not thinking of the stock market.
You understand? But he said, my bonds become the basis, he says, where where the word of God is preached now without fear. I'll tell you that there is no limit to what God can do through a contagious man, courageous for God. But the power of a negative example, the power of fear. You've met negative people, haven't you?
I know one man who came into a meeting one time and said, I don't know what it is that you're voting on, but I do know this, I'm against it. Many years ago, I worked with a man who believed that nothing should ever be done for the first time. The kind of people.
Yeah, I know you worked with him, too, didn't you? The kind of people who are who are fearful, negative. They can't take any risks ever. Bad example. Then you find those who have a very, very negative example. I'm thinking of a man, a minister, actually, who left his wife to pick up with a homosexual relationship. He didn't say to himself, now, what I've decided to do is to defy God by breaking my sacred vows and doing my own thing and destroying my ministry and destroying my family so that I can have a little bit of happiness. It's not what he said. What he said was, I need to authenticate myself and make this courageous decision.
I mention that because his impact, especially in Europe, the man that I'm thinking about, is great and overwhelming. And it reminds me of the fact that, folks, we influence one another. And God said, Gideon, take those who are fearful and let them return because fear spreads.
But I remind you also that courage spreads too. What kind of person does God use? Well, first of all, the kind of person that God uses is one who is filled with faith and not fear. Well, there happened to be one hundred and thirty five thousand Midianites. So you can imagine Gideon could not believe it when he was down to ten thousand. But the Lord said to Gideon in verse four, there are still too many men.
Take them down to the water and I will sift them there for you. If I say this one shall go with you, he shall go. But if I say this one shall not go with you, he shall not go. Gideon could scarcely believe his ears.
The ratio now is ten thousand to one hundred and thirty five thousand. And God says you still have too many. So what he did is he took the men down to the water and there the Lord told him, separate those who would lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink. Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
What's going on here? This was a very interesting test because it was a secret test. The men did not know that they were being watched, just like you and I sometimes don't realize that we are being watched and being evaluated by God, too.
And he put situations into our lives that are a test to see whether or not he can use us. Here at the well of Herod and really the spring of Herod, and you can go there today because in 1968, I remember being there where this actually happened. The Midianites were not too far away and the possibility of an ambush existed. So Gideon said, I want you to drink. And without knowing that they were under observation, some men got down flat on their stomach and they lapped the water like a dog. They put down their sword and all that they did is they concentrated on drinking.
But there were three hundred, which is three percent, I believe of ten thousand. There were three hundred who kneeled, sword in one hand, scooped water up into their hands and lapped the water, making a cup with their hand, keeping their eye on the enemy, being very, very watchful as to what was happening around, not even wanting to simply get down and drink until they had made sure that the enemy was at a distance. So there were the kneelers and the lappers. God said, Gideon, you've got a lot of lappers. I'm going to use the kneelers.
Three hundred of them. By the way, I never thought of this before until right now standing here, but I always think that God likes kneelers. Don't you think? In fact, one of the things that God tries to do is to teach us the value of kneeling, the value of prayer, the value of committing ourselves to the Lord in intercession. So Gideon now is outnumbered four hundred and fifty to one. What kind of a person does God use? A person of faith, not fear, and a person of focus, not careless.
D.L. Moody once said, this one thing I do, not these forty things I dabble in. There are some people whose focus is constantly dissipated because of too many different things going on in their lives and they do not have that one goal in mind. You read a biography of Moody and you will see his tremendous zeal and passion to serve the Lord in evangelism. It was his breath. It was his life.
It was his breakfast, his lunch and his dinner. Wow. That's the kind of a person that God can use. Well, what kind of a strategy does God use? This is a strange story to us. God does something that is really contrary to all military strategy and wisdom.
This isn't something that's ever been duplicated. So it's not as if we can take this story and somehow apply it directly. But God says, I want you, Gideon, to win a battle that when it's over, the people will give me the credit. And so having brought the number down to three hundred, you have one hundred and thirty five thousand Midianites, all of them in tents.
And it is evening. And God says, Gideon, I want you to go down to their camp and just notice what you can see in here. So he goes down with a servant and they're right next to a tent.
And wouldn't you know it? Obviously, this was a God thing. There was a guy in the tent who just woke up from a dream. Now, it wasn't even that late in the evening, but he was he was asleep and he had this powerful dream and he's kind of rubbing his eyes and he's telling the other guy in the tent, he said, you know, he said, I had this dream. He said a barley cake came rolling along and it hit a tent and the tent collapsed. He says, this is a very strange dream. I was with someone last week who believed that he could interpret dreams. Oh, my goodness.
I have to say, I'm not going there. I hope nobody tries to interpret the dreams that I get. Let me ask you a question. This is just between us here. But how many of you dream in color?
Could I see your hands, please? Praise God. He told me that there was something wrong with me because I dreamed in color. I told him that people who dream in black and white, that those are demonic dreams. He didn't like that.
I don't care. My interpretation is just as good as his, frankly. So here in the Old Testament, though, God often gave dreams. It says that in the book of Hebrews, that at sundry times and in different ways, God communicated with his people. But in these last days, he has communicated through his son, the scripture says. And so we may have real problems with dreams today and their interpretation. But here's this guy who wakes up and he's telling this friend, he says, you know, I saw this barley cake hit the tent and the tent collapsed.
And the other guy says, wow. He says in verse 14 of chapter seven, this can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands. Barley representing the Israelites.
They didn't have enough. Most of the wheat was stolen by the Midianites. So all that the Israelites had was barley and the tent representing Midian because they had many different tents.
And this barley cake destroys the tent. Do you see here God's providence? I mean, here's a man having a dream at the very moment when Gideon needed to hear what was being said, because remember, Gideon was a man of doubt. We learned that last time, always doubting, never sure of himself, always needing confirmation for every step he took. And this was further confirmation that God had delivered the Midianites into Gideon's hand.
And so as a result of that, he gained much faith. And of course, the Midianites, we don't know how far this dream actually went, but God was beginning to demoralize them. He was working with the enemy. On the Israelite side, I'll simply tell you the story.
Most of you know it. God says, Gideon, I want you to take these 300 men and divide them into three different companies of 100 apiece. And therefore you will surround the camp of Midian.
Now remember, it is the dead of night. And I want each of them to have a pitcher that is a clay jar. And in that jar, there is a torch that is burning. It's just been lit.
Can't exist there too long, but for a little while. And on the other hand, you have a trumpet and Gideon says that when I give the signal, I want all of these jars to be smashed. I want the torches to be flaring. I want you to Blair on the trumpets. And after you Blair on the trumpet, say the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. What a strategy, but here's what happened.
Okay. Now we can't understand this unless we realize I need to emphasize again. It is the dead of night, pitch black. Suddenly you see all of these torches.
You say, well, it's only 300, but these people were sleeping. The Midianites, they were asleep and they begin to hear this tremendous banging as these jars are breaking. They hear the trumpets blaring. They wake up, they have their swords and anything that moved was thought to be the enemy. And in the confusion, they basically slaughtered one another.
And that was how the victory was won. Parenthesis. How does God judge evil people? What happens? We as a staff, and I'm sure that you in your own life at times have prayed that there are people who are evil and we say, God, bring them into judgment.
What does he do? Does he come out of heaven and a vaporize them? He could normally, however, what God does is as a person who is evil begins to gain more confidence in his ability to sin and get by.
He begins to overreach and pretty soon he gets caught in his own net. And he himself then discovers that he has overreached so far, but he's been caught by his own sin. That's what happened even during the time of Jesus, when Satan inspired people to put Jesus on the cross.
Why would he do that? It says in the book of Corinthians that even the rulers of this world, if they had known that they were crucifying the Lord of glory, they wouldn't have done so. Now they should have known and some did know. But the point is simply this, that Satan overreached when Jesus was dying there on the cross. He thought to himself, I have won a victory, but he did not know that in winning that victory in quotes was actually his defeat because Jesus died to redeem us. And as a result of that death that he died, Satan was defeated. We are going to be exalted above the angelic realm.
Our redemption was purchased. A group of humanity from every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation was bought for God. Even when Satan was doing his worst, God was doing his best.
You pray for that person, that person who is into evil and ask God to have mercy upon them, but also ask that they would overreach and ultimately be judged by their own sin. Well, these Midianites, they, they ended up killing one another. Now that wasn't the end of the battle exactly because pretty soon Gideon's getting criticism now from the other tribes.
For example, the tribe of Ephraim was upset and said, why didn't you call us to the battle? You know, especially because it was so successful. They wanted to have been a part of it. Success has many fathers.
Failure is an orphan. Now that the victory was won, they all thought, wouldn't it be nice if we were in the limelight and had participated. So Gideon finds out that, you know, it's one thing to fight the enemy without, but oftentimes what you have to do is to fight the enemy within and believers divide among themselves. And sometimes that takes more energy resolving than the fight against the world, the flesh and the devil.
It's always that way, isn't it? What I'd like to do is to give us some lessons because the topic of this message is how does God win battles? And we want to talk about our battles. We want to talk about our country.
We want to talk about where we live and apply God's word to our hearts. First of all, and this has been said a dozen times and you've heard it, but I need to say it again. You can't be too small for God to use, but you can be too big for him to use.
It can't be too small. You know, God, God delights to take that which is despised, that which is small, that which is unassuming and he loves to use it for his glory. And he, and he likes to make sure that as a result of that, it is not simply a matter of giftedness. It is not simply a matter of talent, though we thank God for that, but it is a matter of humility. It is a matter of recognizing that the battle is the Lord's and not ours, even if we are involved in the process. The scripture says that God is able to save by many or by few. I don't know what personal battle you may be fighting today, but as you look within, if you see nothing but weakness and nothing but a sense of inadequacy because of the challenge, if you find within a certain fear even that you're not up to what God has laid on your plate, that in itself is okay.
But don't stay there. You look at God. Our eyes are upon thee. And you know, this is Pastor Luther.
That's difficult to do, isn't it? Because we live in a world of distraction. You know, this morning after I got out of bed, I read the word of God, I prayed, but then I went to my cell phone.
Distractions are everywhere around us. To keep our eyes on God is the challenge. Now, at the beginning of this message, I mentioned that I was going to refer to people who are going through great challenges, great suffering. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens to us in West Africa. Why West Africa? Well, we rejoice in the fact that the ministry of running to win is in West Africa. Well, to summarize, this person says he is grateful for this ministry and the lessons regarding suffering for Christ. And then he talks about what that suffering involves, people even in other countries such as Iraq, Korea, China, etc. People are going through huge sufferings all over the world.
Maybe you are too. I want you to make sure that indeed all of us look to Christ. But very quickly, I want to remind you that we have the opportunity of investing in the ministry of running to win. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because we are looking for those whom the Lord is leading to become what we call endurance partners.
Here's where you go for some info. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. And when you're there, you click on the endurance partner button.
Or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly. Once again, go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button.
You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Pastor Erwin Lutzer with part one of How God Wins Battles. Another message on the topic we've been down this road before, taken from the book of Judges. Next time, more about a strange dream and a great battle. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
