In this sermon, the speaker discusses a story from the Bible where 300 men came outside of the camp and blew trumpets. They broke pitchers in their hands and were ready for action. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being ready for God's action and not being passive. He encourages the audience to be like these men and be prepared to take action when God calls. The sermon also highlights the need for faith and trust in God's plan.

All this stuff here is almost as simple as you wouldn't think. It's a gift of God. Well, it's giving. It is the gift of giving. One man we know who sees that of himself and says, he's been lucky because my gift is giving. It gives me a chance in my life. There's the gift of managing. If you remove it, there'd be a division. So managing things, running a home, running a business, it's a gift of God. So the first great gift is ordinary life. The ordinary expression of our life. One is a generous giver. One is an executive or a manager. And then in the other list, in 1 Corinthians 4, he said, helps. One is a helper. What could I do without my two precious ones here, Crystal and Susie? It'd be the best. They're my helpers. They all fit together. Paul used to say, I go with you in spirit. So she's helping us. And so she's in spirit of faith with me, and I go here and there. Helps. And mercy shows mercy. Compassion. Diligence. Concern. Helping people in their spiritual needs, whether they be all in here. He that shows mercy, give it to him. He that shows diligence, give it to him. He that rules with diligence, he that gives, give it to him. There's a whole bunch of what we hardly call gifts, our God, coming through in gift form. So it's a very beautiful thing for us. In other words, relax and be yourself. That's you and God coming out in his form through each of us. And then he follows up with just a list of little touches on practical living. If you're a businessman, put your heart in it, he says. Do it well. Don't be stoked for the business. Be fervent in your spirit. If you're a homemaker, be hospitable. All of you have an attitude of acceptance to everybody. Don't have no class distinctions. He says, what a curious old-fashioned term. Quantitatively, we have no mistakes. We don't have no mistakes. We don't recognize no mistakes in Christ. We're all wonderful sons of God. So we're elbow-high. We're welcome. So we're hospitable. Our doors and hearts are open. We're honest. We do things where we do things so people can know we're honest, and we should provide the acknowledgements like all men. We're sympathetic either way, or empathetic, shall we say, so when people rejoice, we rejoice with them. When they weep, we can help them with their weeping. We can help them get out of their weepings. So we rejoice with those who do rejoice, weep with those who weep. And then one special thing he always puts in, he says, now, first you can live peacefully with everybody. As far as I've been, it's interesting. You realize that some people won't believe to me. So as far as I'm in, you can live peacefully. And then he adds, now he says, you do get enemies on the route, now's your chance. He says, part of the words which you express may be practical now, but that may be to our neighbors. Sometimes it can be very antagonistic. Show ways, he says here, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, drink. It's practical. It's a practical daily life. Find some way in which you can show some practical love to a person who revenges you. And maybe lets you know they revenge you. This then is what's called keeping close the fires. The fires, of course, of rightful discomfort. They realize what's wrong with you, they head towards you. And leave God to avenge. But of course, we are our vengeance. If we put it to God and give him a negative, he'll make a positive. Our vengeance is we hope that what happens then will turn out to lead to where it led us, to the true heavenly life which is Christ in us. And so he just says that. So he ends the whole sentence with that totally positive. Don't overcome evil, but overcome evil with good. Find out how you respond to evil with good believing, good actions. So your response to evil is not evil to evil, but good to evil. There's always some way in which God's goodness comes. There's a beautiful phrase at the end of that chapter. Don't overcome evil, but overcome evil with good. Then he moves over to our practical relationships, our official relationships as members of the nation. And he says that as members of a society. And that's where he says the area in which you show your appreciation and your obedience to the leader of your country, the Lord of the country. So he says, remember that's the point of God, that's the point of strong speaking. I mean, there's some men around here, Herod, who just killed James, Nero, and so on. It's the image of God. Respect the man God puts over you, and be able to fulfill the laws of your country, and be able to pay your taxes, he says, so that you're acting as a citizen in that relationship. And, indeed, in a country like ours, an appreciative relationship. It's enormous, enormously thankful for what we are in a country like this. So we have a sense of loyalty, or we may be, in one sense, critics, but beyond any criticism, we have a loyalty to our leaders, and fulfilling whatever laws there are there to make us work as a harmonious society. So he gives a whole lot on that there. And he also, then brings in the word neighbors. We've been talking more about brothers in the previous chapter, and the next one. And he says, neighbors, there's anybody next to you. He says, the way to handle a neighbor is always love. He says, because love does no harm to a neighbor. Love works no evil to a neighbor, says he in verse 10. So it means that if you fulfill the laws of love, you always do what you think will be best for your neighbor. That's the safe way in life. He says, you can fulfill the laws if you will. Of course, you don't steal, or kill, or commit adultery, or bear, or you will not say malicious things about them, bear false witness, or covet. You don't do those things. Because if you are paid by the law of love, you are for them, not for yourself. So that's simple, you see, that's simple. So the owner of my neighbors, he says, you've got to love them. You are a debt, we are marvelous debtors, this is a new attitude we have. We have a debt to pay, which is, we're here to help other people. So debt is always debt that's in need. And we pay our debt by all the forms of love that there are. And then he adds, he says, watch your social habits. He says, live as one who puts on the law of Jesus Christ. He says, don't put on your clothing. Not here, because you might think it's an inner person. He says, put you on the law of Jesus Christ and make no provision for satisfaction, satisfaction, lust. Really, our lives have a tone of why it is to be a Christ person. Probably, a certain human nature into which we feed the flesh. Maybe a certain social activity that we do in which we obviously feed the flesh. Don't do things which feed the flesh. That's why he says, don't live like a world out there where they talk about sex and drunkenness and hating. Don't live in that. So live a social life, join a social life. And yet that amount of, shall we say, restraint or such amount of way of living, you're seeing as a person of God, a person of Christ. And there are certain things that you don't enter into which would merely make provision for the flesh. So that's what he speaks about in all your national social relationships. Your government and your neighbours. And then 14, he comes back to brotherhood again, chapter 14. And he speaks of our social liberties, our freedom to be what we understand to be the right thing to be. And yet, what our relationship would be to have other Christians in so doing. So he says, when you are free, Paul in this chapter says, all things are pure. So he says, to me, all things are pure. He says, you decide what you should do and what you shouldn't do. You're free. And minding your freedom, you're giving freedom to another person. That's the important point. So he says, if you're free, let the brother be free too. And if one will eat this and the other won't eat it, the other will do this and the other won't do it, all right, don't judge him. You accept your freedom and you eat what you like or don't eat what you like or go where you like or don't go where you like, even so far as a very Sabbath day, which is what we're living on today. And so he says here, he says, one man regards the day, I must keep it there, I must go to church. He regards the Lord. Doesn't regard the day. He doesn't regard the day, but he's still doing unto the Lord. The point is, therefore, to count all Christ to each other, see Christ to each other, and therefore don't judge. Say, well, he's the Lord, the Lord needs a person to do something like that. Or not do something like that. That's what freedom is all about. When I free my neighbor, I free myself. When I bind my neighbor, I bind myself. If I judge my neighbor, I'm really judging myself. So, giving him freedom allows me to be free equally. So he says there is an essential freedom in our habits, actions, activities. And we will live our lives on whatever level of the outer activity we think all right, outer habit, that we think is what God must have for us. And, but he says there's one point, that is, what's to be said, don't practice things which you feel nurture for the Christian. You're offering other Christians, and you become mature. This is written for mature, of course. This is the end of another chapter. You're moving with someone who hasn't got that maturity yet. And you have to climb up too. And so you must consider that. And there may be some things you wouldn't do, not because there's wrong to do them, but because you feel that example may encourage those who are not strong and can do a thing or got it in freedom. And they may be bound by a thing. Or come under condemnation if they do it. Because you do it, they may do it, and they may think it's you. You're free, they're not free. So when I say there may be things you feel you shouldn't do, we each have our own way. When I started life as a young Christian, I went into World War I, and I only found Jesus, and did become a witness. But the older Christian said to me, make for the world all you can, and the weirder the better. So I took up drinking with him. I never had trouble with drinking. I drank, and I smoked, and I enjoyed smoking. I still would. I enjoyed pipe particularly. But I smoked and drank, and I was a witness. So I'd make an almost absurd combination. On a free afternoon with my men, I was a young officer among them, I'd take a package of cigarettes with me, hand cigarettes to them, and they'd go to the hospital. So I'd be like them, and they'd preach at the same time. And I had certain responses through those five years, but more and more I felt, I knew where I was. I lived through God. But it seemed as if many accepted and then didn't live it through. And it came to me in the end, I may be wrong, at least in my way of life, I've been a missionary, I've had to cut out those things where necessary. And on the very last day of the Armistice, in 1919, as it was then, I was throwing my tobacco pouch in a powdered field. Well, there wasn't no credit, I did it just because I kind of, with my type of life, I did it. That's okay, as others do. And we just do what we're free to do. Because as I said ten years ago, while there was very much one of us in Charlotte, she's really come to see that over some years, she's had her battles, she loves the Lord. But apparently she had a problem with smoking. And I was just staying with her in a group there. And she, I know her very well, she said to me, I'll tell you normally, she says, I do have a battle. She says, really, I like to smoke. And then I shouldn't, I shouldn't. So I don't smoke. Then I give in to smoke. Then I'm guilty. And I don't smoke. I go on and on. And as I, I said, oh, let's drop it. Get on smoking. Don't be guilty. Guilt's far worse than smoking. And go on smoking, and then say to God, God, if I really shouldn't, you've got your ways, you can't go on for me. You make me stop. So I said, oh, she said, that's fine. So she, with no part of a blundersore, I thought, get some food, come out with a pack of cigarettes. So I helped my friend become a smoker again. That's OK. We should not be in the guilt. Let God subjugate him to sin. So guilt's a far more bigger problem than smoking. So that doesn't matter. Don't judge each other. Let the Lord settle each other's own properties. For they've no longer settled by self-effort. But there may be a point where the mature person, I have a mission. I'm a missionary. There's a mission, but it didn't soothe a certain anxiety, which I might do if I was with you. I mean, personally, now, I haven't for a long time. I don't drink alcohol, but I do. There were two friends I'd go to and have a share, and I'd share with them, because I'm not against drinking, but normally speaking, it wouldn't be good to be running around with a mission and a whiskey bottle in my hand. That's all. That's all. So just for free, we don't judge each other, do we? That's the secret. At the same time, I do watch that I'm a person who has certain responsibilities to my brothers. My Christian brothers. There may be some things I'd feel a bit of without, for example, see. Because it says, what if there's not a faith is seen? If you're able to check, what if there's not a faith is seen in the 23rd verse? Now, faith means, you'll say, well, that's OK. Now, remember, faith swallows up doubt. All life is doubt. Doubt has a soul level. Oh, should I do this? Should I do that? Now, if you're mature, you say, oh, wait a minute. I'll do it until God shows me. I won't go by niggling doubts. I won't go because man said I shouldn't do it. All right. If I shouldn't do it, you tell me, God. Now, that's faith. You're set with your faith, you go on doing something maybe. You say, if I stop it, you tell me, God. Because when God tells you, you have a way of doing it, don't you? Which is an easy way. It isn't condemning and destructive. It's up to you. You tell me, oh, yeah, I shouldn't do that. It's easy not to do it. That's all right, then. But, you see, if you haven't got that faith, you may say you believe God, then you do something you think you shouldn't do, and you're really condemned. And you get hundreds of condemnations, but even so, you could say, oh, boss, it doesn't work. Because you haven't discerned with your soul and spirit, and so you're accepting doubts that you could say, I'm not taking them until God gives them. But you're glad about them, and then other people set examples to you, and so you strip away. And I wonder how many there are in churches who are disillusioned because they've fought and failed, and they haven't learned how to fight, and they haven't worked their way up. They could, because they haven't seen the first example, and then the teaching which could put them into this faithless, a faith which doesn't accept doubt. And if you accept doubt, which is not a faith, you're sinned. Then we're free of sin, and we don't accept doubt. We only accept conviction. Condemnation comes from faith, and that comes underneath. Conviction, we accept when the whole is split. Conviction, because I shouldn't do it. Conviction isn't a bad word. It's a good word. I see that. I mean, like I did that day. I see I shouldn't go on with it for my calling. Okay, that's quite easy for me. Any conviction, you will fit right in. So, faith can include conviction, but does not include condemnation. But when you're young, you may mix up faith and condemnation, and then you get all guilty, and your struggle will fail, and maybe you'll throw the business up. And we may. And so, Paul actually says here, he says, for meat, destroy not the works of God. We can destroy people, you see. So he says, let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, the things which make every power one another. For meat, destroy not the works of God. In other words, because you say, I would, in other words, if you had this problem of eating meat, you should be off to the Bible. That's a problem we don't have there, in the same sense. We have other problems. Don't stick to thinking, I'll do this thing, I'll destroy another. Destroy the stronger one. And so he says, he doesn't say to you, it's good now to eat flesh or drink wine. So he said to drinking this flesh, it's good, but don't do anything if it causes you about something. He said, to me, only the pure. He said, to me, to drink my wine, or eat this special kind of meat that's off to idols and so on, to follow me. God doesn't want to get close to me, because I have this faith. But don't do a thing if you destroy another. So it's a beautiful balance there, again. So you have terminal freedom, and being free, and taking no convictions into yourself, except what God gives you. And yet, maybe, they're not judging another. If he does a thing, and he's convinced, okay, bless him. There's a scripture given in this one, in 10 chapters, who, why does God judge thy brother? He says, who are now the judges of another man's servant? He says, oh, master, he said before, yeah, he shall behold him. That's a beautiful verse. He said, don't you judge your brother, he's not your, he's our servant. And God will deal with him. Who are you judging, your, another man's servant? To his master he is responsible, and then that little boy can't even be kept up. Yeah, he will behold him. God will uphold him. Because God is able to make him stand. So we can have faith for our brothers like that, and be free, and yet, at the same time, be sensitive, and not do things which we completely do, and yet, we feel on the whole, are not helpful in the fellowship to which we're linked. Then he moves into his final, well, final chapter, one. He has a little more there, where he says, he says, as a reminder, the first few verses, 15, really, beyond chapter 14, the first verses, one to seven, where he's saying, because you're strong, you should support the weak. And then he says, you see, because we need to please our neighbor, we don't need to please ourselves. Well now, don't take any bondage there, do that. He's saying here, we ought to bear the enclosures so we can not please ourselves. Even Christ pleased not himself, as it's written, approach his brothers, fall upon him. Now the danger when you read that, boy, I shouldn't please them, don't say that. I'm not pleasing myself. God's with me. I live like that. Well, now we've lost our point, haven't we? Well, as I say, is that self-pleasing business, he's putting it in focus. You do please yourself. You can't be so and not please yourself. Life, it's life, it's life, it's just to please yourself. Love must satisfy a sense of self. Love must have self-satisfaction This was the first point which challenged me as a young man. I was conscious, I had, the first touch, I got really repentance. There were local sins. The first touch I was, I was self-centered. I did football actions, I was in hospital, I was a young man, our English football, we called rugby, and head-actions, I had that surgery, and while I was there, suddenly it occurred to me, isn't the whole world selfish? Because I was selfish. Suddenly, something was wrong with me. My father was for me, and my mother was for me. Something was wrong with me. I'd been reading books, I'd been reading John Stuart Moseley's Theatarianism, which is all that's done for self-aim. And then it began to disturb me. Of course, I carried my school reading. And, that began to disturb me. I got out for the time being, saying, oh, wait a minute. My mother says, because I have pleasure, then create yourself. God pleases himself. Oh, I said, I'm on good life then. Why shouldn't I please myself? God pleases himself, for I have pleasure, we are where we are created. I got down to scripture, about Jesus. In Hebrews 3, it says, for the joy of self-performing God because of it. He doesn't call him Lord Joseph. So, I traced back that in God himself is self-pleasing. So, I thought, why shouldn't I be self-pleasing? Because I hadn't got the point. Our form of self-pleasing is to get just what we want for ourselves. Our redeeming self-pleasing is to get what other people need. And find our pleasure in other people's needs. So, we please ourselves by blessing others. Or, you please yourself by blessing yourself. That's the difference. But in the new life, we do remember there always is self-pleasing. So, I must enjoy myself. But in the new life, my self-enjoyment is secondary to my other loving. In my old life, my self-enjoyment is primary. It's for myself. That's the difference. My self-enjoyment is what we live for. For ourselves. In the new life, we still have self-enjoyment. Still enjoy this and so and so. as the undergrads generally try to debate what self-enjoyment really is. I may be me, for example, and I find there I find there I enjoy my self-enjoyment. That's the difference. So, only when you read that, we don't come to the conclusion that I shouldn't be self-pleasing. I'm not self-pleasing. It doesn't make it worth it for the scriptures. So, he just adds that word. And he adds one little word on scriptures which is good. It's the one place again in the whole letter where it says scriptures are available to you. Keep reading the scriptures. That's verse four. He says that we should he refers you to learning what what kind of person Jesus was to please himself. So, he's saying to patiently comfort the scriptures you might have hope. So, he's reminding Romans that they have a feeling on the scriptures to build them up in the faith of God. And then he's saying that I'll have this mutual fellowship with one mind and mouth glorified by God and receive each other so that you'll operate in the fellowship. That ends it. Then he turns back to one final great letter. He says I want to remind you that I've had a very great privilege. I've had the privilege of being a minister of Christ to the Gentiles. And he says this is forespoken in the Bible. And he suddenly turns away and says he says that Jesus Christ came he says to be a minister of the truth and the separation to affirm God's promises to Israel. But then he says the real reason was that through Israel the world might have the gospel. Israel rejected that so it had to come in a sense out quite Israel. But he originally said to Abraham Abraham you go through with me and I'll tell you I'll make you a blessing in you all families the earth to be blessed. So it's a universal blessing right in the very revelation first revelation which came to mankind and the purpose is God. It's a universal purpose all families the earth to be blessed. That's God. And this comes back here. So Jesus Christ did come the first to bring truth to his own people in fact they perhaps rejected except the special ones and then through those special ones truth went to Israel. Now he says I have had the privilege of being the mainline minister to the Gentiles. And he gives a whole script three quotations that always had been in God's purposes. Referring back to the scriptures the Jewish Gentiles were his people. Again it depends more on the Gentiles. And Isaiah said that's the root of Jesse and he showed the Gentiles trust. So he picked up this wonderful foreseeing praise which had come in the prophets that the gospel was for the whole world. And he exposed that the outside people are God and without hope the world outside is Israel. And then he says that's why I have a joy in you. He said actually you're not my harvest field. He speaks of his harvest field when he says you're not the Roman church wasn't his harvest field we don't know the size of the Roman church. The church in Rome. But he said this riddle where he says I have persuaded that both of you are full of goodness and knowledge and so on. I like that. He had the pastor that had you so was the church of Christ. He didn't pick up niggling little things. He said God filled you with joy and hope filled you with joy and peace I have persuaded you're full of goodness and with all knowledge able to abolish one another. So I confirmed you. Christ in you is your goodness we'd say. He always said that. You have the knowledge and you can build one another up. So he spoke positively to this church to me in writing whom he hadn't yet visited. And then he went on he said I have had this I write this to you because I said I have had this special special privilege that the grace that's given me of God I write boldly in verse 15-16 to you because the grace given to me of God has been minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles that the offering that the Gentiles are being accepted being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. And then he said you see my privilege always has been to go to people who have never heard. This is his last great word. He said I don't dare I don't speak about you as my harvest field. He said I won't speak of things which Christ has not brought by me. We have an individual ministry. This is the purpose of God. Each of us should be able to say this is my individual ministry. This has happened to me. There is a place where we can say that. And that's God's purpose all of us in a certain situation we are going to say yes things will be happening to me. So I'm not going to another man's foundation. Of course he said in a very special point that he was never heard of Christ at all. The Gentiles they said I won't dare to speak of the ministry others have brought by others. But he said he has to me. There he gives that wonderful phrase to mighty signs and wonders of the power and spirit of God. He says from Jerusalem round about to Jerusalem fully preach the gospel of Christ. I first threatened to preach the gospel not by Christ's name to build another foundation but beyond that. And then this precious man here towards the end of his life says now I do want to come to you over one purpose. It would be a joy to be with you. I can confirm you in the faith and you can bless me. He says I've been hindered because he had the Fulfillment Commission in Jerusalem. Again negative turned to positive. He said I've got to go to Jerusalem because I'm responsible to get this gift to the precious mother church. So I've been busy collecting gifts from the Corinthians, the Macedonians, the Philippians and so on which actually are bountiful gifts to the mother church. I've got to fulfill that. He says that's blocked by me. I'm so keen on coming to you. He didn't see himself there when it really turned out. He said he had to go but they told him stop leading prophets who shouldn't go. He said what mean me to break my heart and lay my life down by Jesus Christ. He said I've got to go. And that's where he did lay his life down in the sense that they turned on him and seized him and put him in the middle of prisons for Romans and they said where is Capernaum the God Garden? Practical where it is. he said I approve of Caesar. I'm a Roman. And they had this great respect for Romans. I'm a Roman. And they wouldn't touch him. Very well. You'll approve of Caesar. That took the Jews to Rome and took them to prison and to prison epistles. After that came these marvelous Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians from the prison epistles. And so it went to Rome that way. And came as we see this work of God and Caesar's household. Since Ephesians and Caesar's household. Right in the heart of it. And that, we say, fresh given, they're all fresh given people, Nero's household, Augustus, I think Augustus I can notice, the household. He boldly preached the gospel. Then came the harvest of the Praetorian guard and the household. But then he said this, he said, why I come to this marvelous, I've got to go to Spain. Well this man beaten about, shipwrecked three times, died today in the deep and frozen and starved and his body covered in scars, half a dozen beatings, imprisoned, stoned, every time there's a Jew, there's people doing it, wasn't a heathen, usually Jews play at the heathen and do it. He said, I'm a stone man. Hey, Spain doesn't have the gospel. Well, who knew? I don't know what he knew, but Spain knows this. And then he got them into it. This is where we missions get his abilities. He said, I want you to help me on that way. He says, um, uh, wherefore I take my journey to Spain, and when I come into the second side of Spain, verse 24, I trust you, I'll be brought on my way with or by you. You'll help me, maybe you'll give me a team to go with me. Join me in the team and go to Spain. So it's the last thing he had to say. I'll live for the people that haven't heard it. I'll live for the next place that haven't heard it. No matter how I'll live for people I'll live for the I'll live for the people haven't heard it. I'll live for the that haven't heard I'll people that haven't it. I'll live for the people that it. I'll live for the people that haven't heard it. I'll for the people that haven't heard it. I'll live for the haven't heard it. I'll for the that heard it. I'll live for the haven't it. I'll live for the people that haven't heard it. I'll live for the people that haven't it. I'll for the people that haven't heard I'll live for the people it. I'll live for the people people that haven't heard I'll live for the people that it. I'll live for the that haven't heard it. I'll for the haven't it. I'll live for the people that haven't heard it. I'll for the people that haven't heard it. I'll live for the people that haven't heard I'll live for the people that haven't live for the people that haven't I'll live for the people I'll live for the that haven't I'll for the haven't heard it. I'll live for the it. I'll for the And three years after I got the letter saying the Lord said to me despite fears and despite absurdities I'm to go alone in that land. And she went. And she founded the work of gospel. The gospel work in Portuguese. The baby got chased all over the place. And she remained there several years and had the first little baby. Then she came over and she married one of our missionaries and the two of them went back together there. So that's why we have a motto in our mission. The woman is the man that did it. So we give plenty of respect to women. And here he is here. And so he passed on the different words and several different ones. Things that are precious that we never heard of. Called Epinetus. The first fruit of Achaia, the Christ. The first convert in Greece. A name that we never heard of otherwise. He speaks of Priscilla and Priscilla Aquila. A man and a woman. A husband and wife. Who risked their lives for him. He said they laid down their life. For my sake they laid down their necks. Appreciative all the way through. Spoke of some kinsmen it seems to say. He had kinsmen who were fellow prisoners. Chief among the apostles. This person is a helper. This person is beloved in the Lord. Salute. Different salutes. Salute. Salute. Somebody put them all together. In verse 14. It was a job to read them. Salute. Asyncretus. Phlegon. Hermas. Patrabas. Hermes. And the Bedouins. Piles of names on. Salute. Philologus. Julia. Nilius. And his sister. And Olympus. Isn't that beautiful? Naming these precious people precious to him. Given their greetings. So he went down the list. And they warned him about the false people coming in last morning. The early church. People pretending to have the pursuit of heaven. And the incarnation of grace. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And he sent greetings from those who were with him. Timothy. And Tertius. And the chamber in the city. That's remarkable. So the chamber in the kind of man, I suppose, in the city of Rome. So the Holy Spirit was really working in Rome. Gaius, my host. Gaius was famous for hospitality. He mentioned the different people. So he says, there it is. He says, I commend you to the person who caused me to preach this gospel. Which has been a mystery hidden. Till Jesus Christ came and revelation of the mystery has been hidden. Now made manifest. Verse 23. By the scriptures and prophets. As a commandment of the everlasting God. Under obedience of faith. At the last word we speak. That isn't the beings of works. He didn't go and do this. He didn't go and believe this. Well, they don't believe. But even if it means my freedom. I attach myself. By what to me is real. I'll admit that it's not real. I attach myself to the word of God. I admit myself to it. I confirm it. And then faith being substance and confirmation comes back to you. So the last thing I call for is obedience of faith. Not obedience of works. To God. Only wise. Ignorance. With Jesus Christ forever. Amen. That's the truth of this wonderful masterpiece. Which is the masterpiece of the Englishman, I suppose. It's always been the foundation stone to the believing church. And being built up into what God really has given us. And revealed to us in Jesus Christ. So that's it. Well, we're looking at one of those dramatic instances. You can pick out the Old Testament. And whether we can get a great understanding of the ways by which God operates by a human. And a human is God in action. And as a human moves out, as God in action, these miraculous things happen. Which happen in their different forms. And this is a very dramatic and startling one. And it stands out by itself in just 20 chapters. That is the main instance of the life of Gideon. Who went on to be one of the judges of Israel for 40 years. In the days before they had kings. To be found in the 6th chapter of Judges onwards. The conditions in which this happens are the typical conditions that God always says, What you sow you reap. And like the way from Moses time onward he says to them, If you testify to me I'm a living God. That you have a faith in a living God. That I'm a God that does things that will work for you. That will put a quality in you that you know I do things that will work for you. Like Israel today. And that you put it through. But if you turn to me. You're really turning to your own self. Your false gods are really a kind of person you want to be. A fleshly, self-gratifying, self-seeking person. You make a God like that. But there's no conviction in that. It's just yourself. You know in your heart that there's no living God at all. So you've got no sense of your faith. Which gives you, puts muscles into your operations. That's how you sink under them. And when the people you oppose, you adopt that they are false gods. You've got no faith. They don't understand them. They're stronger than you. They reach up. Says I warn you. If you exchange me for one of these heathen gods. Now you go with them. They'll destroy you. And if you're good you'll be destroyed. That's how you learn. You've only got evil in a false way. There's always a history of Israel. Israel is a history of all self. Unredeemed self of course. There's different forms. But here it takes a natural form. In this case they'd slipped into Baal worship. Think of this. Baal was in Theobald and all the corruption and horrors that set around Baal. Jezebel was the prophetess of Baal. And as a consequence they'd lost their spiritual muscle. No faith to operate. And these surrounding religionites hit them up. They were very populous people. They said they were like grasshoppers of multitude. And they so oppressed Israel for seven years. That they went hidden in the caves. They ran out of their homes to hide. And then in order to make it worse, the religionites would come and harvest. Come and burn all their harvests. So they'd starve them. So they were terrified and hidden away. There wasn't a weapon among them. And they were in this condition. Now they did know God. These were not sinners of the Gentiles we say. They were God's people. So they knew how to cry to God. So we read after seven years they were crying to God. Well that's the first step. Further back, that was their adoption. They hadn't cleaned up yet. But mixed it all and said, God where are you? Help us somewhere. So that was the condition for God to begin to move in among them. Now there was one young man in whose heart obviously this was a real cry and a real argument. What's that? Therefore he had a basic faith. If God was the kind of God who took us out of Egypt, why isn't he well today? Is he dead? You know, you begin to criticize God and resent God and judge God. This was this man Gideon. This is the end of side one. Please stop your machine and proceed to side two. There had also been, during this time, I was reading that they had a father called Gideon, a prophet. Look at his name. He was a bold man. He was a great man. Of course, very often they were tortured and destroyed for doing so. They spoke the truth. And he came out and said, you've got what you want to do now. He spoke to Israel. They came out and lost laws to the prophet. He said, I told you. I got you out of Egypt, didn't I? I told you if you detach yourself from the living God and take on the false gods, which are all these millages in your way, get back on your own self-loving self, you'll collapse. They didn't give him a remedy. He said, you would not have made my voice. Otherwise he pinpointed the reason why they were in this appalling condition trampled under by these Midianites hosts. That must have hit a Gideon. And so as they came, God knows a conditioned heart. Any heart can be conditioned. And we are a radical way to condition hearts, when God begins to speak to us. And this came in the form of an angel, an angel appeared. Whether that was presumably probably a visionary one, we don't know, or whether he came in those days in actual physical form, it doesn't matter to us. And this man came, Gideon was in a part of a condition of terror. He intended to preserve a harvest, so he threshed his wheat in the winepress, hidden away in the winepress. He wasn't wheat at all. He was preserving daily bread, that means. He was hidden away in the winepress. And this angel of the Lord spoke to him, and said a startling word. Too much can take the moment. He just said to him, the Lord has written it down, mighty man of valor. That's what we are. But we haven't bought the purse. We recognise why we are mighty, and we are mighty. We are mighty. This is what we've got to relearn. This person found the secret of power, and said, I am mighty. I can do all things. This is a little too much to give him the moment, but it's startling. So anyway, the Lord is with thee, that's the reason why you're mighty. He's almighty, it's a consequence. Well, Gideon reacted, because he was an honest man, he couldn't say at the moment, he turned around. So he did show he was in a consequence, and he said, if that's so, why didn't you rescue us? He turned back on him. He said, if the Lord did all these miracles, where are the miracles today? He said, you say if the Lord is with us, he didn't say with me. He didn't get that far. He answered the angel, oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why is this to fall on us? Where are the miracles? So he said, the rightful consequence is with God. Because he didn't realise the consequence really was God with him. He turned around and ran around. But this guy is a conditioned person, alive. There's a battle among him, going on between himself, that's complicated with God. The angel, never deals with reason, he's the same. God doesn't deal with reason. He bypassed it. God didn't attempt on something. He turned right back, and said more this time. He said, go in this diamond, and I shall save Israel from the hands of a million knives. He said, the Lord is with you, you're a mighty man of valour. He bypassed that, and turned to us, and said, I can't take that on, why has the Lord left us? And the angel disregarded us, to come back to you. Because that's all we ever have in ourselves. God only offers you by you, me by me, maybe a bit cooperative. But we never get through this thing, except as we are the person by whom God uses, each of us are the we, the I, whom God uses. We've got to get back there, then it comes to us. It may cooperate with others, but that's the main point. I think that's where, that's where, that's where God comes in, effectively, through humans. He said, what about that? All this reasoning, and arguing, and said, this strong point, that in, it's very interesting, in saying that, it says this, the Lord looked upon him, verse 14, and said, go in this diamond, and thou shalt save Israel. He looked upon him, and he caught his eye. Now that meant, the Lord, this is the angel of the Lord, the signature of the Lord talked beside Gideon. But, I presume this still came through the angel, I suppose, I'm not sure. And, he caught an eye, I'm talking to you, and I'm saying to you, and I caught him. He was conditioned. He first tried to escape, well, he did do, but he didn't really escape, because he'd been arguing with God. He had, one man was, bothered about this. And so he was conditioned. God said, no, don't you, that's what comes next, don't you? I have said unto you. And, he said this to Gideon, and Gideon began to fake it. He said, I say to you, I look upon you, and I say to you, go in this, your knight, and you will save Israel. That's the Midianites. This one man hidden away in an iron purse. And the Midianites, a grasp of the multitude, arms over his head, have not I sent you? Now he gets a little further, a little further. And, Gideon did take it. But, then he began, how could it be? Just as early as Moses, when he turned up to Moses, early in Moses, he said, come now, I send you. Oh, Moses said, okay, but how can I do it? They won't listen to me, they've already rejected me once, and how can I prove that you spoke to me? I haven't got any voice, and I'm a poor speaker and stuff. All right, that's good. Yes, human argument is set. Negative, false, settles the positive. You have the negative out, and then settle in, and get replaced by the positive. So, Moses was like that. So, Gideon, says, wait a minute, he says, what are people? Just an insignificant family, monastic, what's wrong with a monastic? Oh, insignificant, I'm the least insignificant in my father's house, I'm the least of a father's house. Because I think, which had to be, because you look on me, I have my family on me, which means you can say, I can say, this is laughable, to the heads of the Midianites. Um, and, then, still he's stuck to the one man, you've got to get it. Therefore, Gideon, I'm not taking it like that. Again, no answer, on this family of being too poor, or being too insignificant. That he came to himself, to the beings of the faith, and said, surely, I will be with thee, and thou shalt strike me as one man, a last host, no, it's you and they, they're going to be one man, I'm going to do it by you, I don't know how you do it, I'm going to reduce that host to one man, as it were, and you're going to be the one who's got the whole host out in one block, one block, one blow, that's something. You're the man, it's going to happen by you, and something's going to happen by you, which, which will put the whole Midianite army out of action. That's something. He's catching more and more, and we have to do it. I'm the one, God said, it's got to come through me. I'm going to let the air out of him, that's from myself, each of us, and when we see it, and if I, you know, that's from me. And so he kept him nailing down, it's you, you give in, you're the man, because the Lord's with you, because the Lord says that you're the man. So he got him. He got him. And so now, Gideon turns around and says, well, I don't have a sigh on that, angel, Lord, I don't have a sigh, this is ridiculous. They begin to get it, there's something here, I have to be your man. Well, I can't unless you make me short of it. You better give me a sign. And so he made, because I have a sign, he said, look here, I don't know what he said to do with it. He said, I'm going to make a meal, a kind of sacrifice, I suppose. And he says, will you wait here? I'll go and bring forth my present, he calls it, my present. And he said, all right, I'll wait. And he went in, and he made it, of course, roasted a kid, and got some unleavened sugar, a little ham, I suppose, flesh, and so on, put it in the basket, put it under the oak, where the angel was there, and, oh, the angel said to him, take it down, put it on this rock, and pour out the broth, as a kind of sacrifice, I suppose. And then what happened, this was a miracle, because we told the thing, we said that a fire came out, burned it up. That's all right, I mean, God has no way of confirming to us, we just say that's the way it happened then, that we also can have confirmations. And then he disappeared. And that confirmed to Gideon, having God spoken to him. But now, Gideon had to play, move into a place of familiarity with God. See, all the flesh always says, God's awful, he's judgmental, he's rough, and dangerous, and I'm afraid of him, and if I meet him face to face, I'll die. All that sort of fresh idea of God that came through law without grace, there's no grace. You've got to pass the law to grace. And so, Gideon's rational, oh, he says, I shall die, I've seen God face to face. And this is the first time it says that God spoke to, not the angel of God now, he disappeared. This was the Lord in him. Now, it will begin the life, our life, where the Lord in Gideon said this to him. And it says, the Lord said to him, peace be unto thee, you'll not die. And this meant, to Gideon, he'd accepted because he didn't, but he used a new name, which is the Jews' name, Shalom. The same in here. And God gave him this and also, and he called it Jehovah Shalom, which is peace. It's the word, of course, we use today as the Jews peace. Peace, oh, it's OK. I didn't be afraid of God. God and I have a relationship. We're in, we're in with each other. We're in now. Yes, and what we call union in those terms, I think, would be in good terms with God. Now, I know this serious stuff and this stuff has gone, and what we call a union with God. Now, it also lacks life. He's got it now. Something's happened. What could happen? This fantastic situation, what could happen? Now, we don't push it. We don't push life, because, of course, it's God's, the pusher, within you. So, we don't know. We don't push it. We just find the next thing happens, and this next thing happens, but that same night, again, the Lord spoke to him and touched him on the spot. He said, look here, Gideon, you can't be my mighty man, and I don't think by you, why don't you idolater and your own township, the Abiezites, Abiza, the township, they have an isle and a bale. They have an isle, they've been on hills, and they have a temple and a bale, and they're very, they're supposed to be godly people. You can't let that stand. You ought to go, at night, you've got to go and destroy that thing. Now, you see, now, again, again, isn't it like there is a death? The death which you die, that's the other earth when you die in yourself, the Christian Bible and Christ, and also there's a ministry. Now, when you make it up, there is, you always find somewhere, there's somewhere, somewhere in my own life where you take a step which puts you out of step with maybe the word, even if you're not a Christian or something, but I do something which has a danger in it, a risk or something. And, you'll find they go all the way through the Bible, like Abraham had sacrificed Isaac and redeemed and delivered and had to cross away, all these things, there are risks in them, there is, so we don't make it up, but you'll find as we follow, there's something which, which puts you differently. There's something which makes you a peculiar person. And this, of course, risks his life. He knew it. And he used sense, you can use sense. He took ten men, so he had that money in certain, so it must be quite worth it ten servants. And these men either willingly or because they were supposed to give you something, went with him at night. And he said he, he, like all men had a fear. He was a man of fear because the faith comes out of fear. Faith doesn't conquer fear. Because fear is negative believing. Faith is positive believing. Fear always means I believe in evil things, I'm paralyzed with me. It's the same. Faith, fear is faith. It's really faith in reverse. So all men fear. Why do you believe negative? You fear. It turns out it turns into faith because now you're believing in God. So it's really reverse. Fear is just faith in reverse or faith in fear in reverse, whatever way you like it. And he feared. But he did sensibly. And because he knew he couldn't do it by daylight, he did it by night. And he said because he feared them, he said he took them and the Lord said didn't because he feared the household, he could not do it by day, he did it by night. It was a sensible caution. But he was fulfilling his commission. And he destroyed this thing and built it also to the Lord. Now, he has to get to the next stage and who could tell? You can't tell. If we follow the Lord, we can't tell in what way the deliverance will come. Because he did face the fact that they were sure to kill him the next day. If he destroyed their garden, it was a sensible diversion. And so when they found next door pray that their temple had been destroyed and the altar had been raised to God, these men they said who did this? And they found Egyptian, the son of Jurash, he did this. They said pick him up and we'll kill him. Bring out that son of Jurash so he may die. And they cast down the altar of Baal and cut down the groves by it. Now, this miracle happened. Of course, these men were the least men of God. Later on, the whole town turned on because the root was there. But it came out this time in this very bold statement, a very wonderful statement, who was the minister of Jurash. Maybe the church had a conviction that he allowed this abomination to take place and he saw his son, maybe he found a way to send things to him, I don't know. His son was being led by God and was speaking in the power of God and operating in the presence of God. He rose up and he said, OK, say the thing. He said, OK, he said, if my son has destroyed a temple of Baal and says the name of the Lord, if Baal is the real God, let him come back and say, let him take vengeance, let's take Baal as something to give him. Don't you do it. He listened to Baal very much the same as Elijah. Elijah said, if the prophet of Baal called on him, if he heard him, come and send fire. He also said, my dear. And that so shook and probably got the underneath conviction of the angry Israelites that they didn't touch neither Jewish nor Christianity. They did nothing. I think they began to know where to play. The effect of this was, you see, again, it got stuck in his mind. It's costly. You don't make it up. It's because God calls you to do it. You move into something, perhaps in another way they said, and the typical word that God gives up is union life. A little thing, something startling, which makes something come known. And this thing ran around. This city, this family city destroyed Baal, turned them out and put God back. It ran like lightning. It not only ran like lightning through Israel, or at least the northern part of Israel, it ran like lightning to the Midianites. And they heard, they shook them, that Israel was rising up and telling them to fire this Baal and slay the name of the Lord. So the next thing that happened was that they called on, they, they, they, whatever you do when you call an army together, I forget, they called the army together. And it says, all the 133, all the Malachites, the Midianites and the Malachites, they were the old enemies. And the children of the east, the whole lot were gathered together with over 135,000 of them. We'll get the number a little later on. And they were fixed in a certain valley for war. They were going to come back again and reaffirm their enslavement of Israel. And now you get this wonderful statement. It says, the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. And I said before, the exact translation is he clothed himself with Gideon. That's a beautiful expression because that's exactly what we are. The spirit of the Lord, he's clothed him and came Gideon. That's exactly what it is. We're the clothing of the spirit of the Lord. In a specific way, like, he clothed himself with Gideon. He was a spirit offering him a Gideon. There's no other place in the Bible where that phrase is used. In my translation it says, the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, but the margin is that he clothed himself with Gideon. And this now moved Gideon that he had to come into action and get forced. He's forced now. It had this word which he accepted that he was slightly, partly as one man. And he was the man who had the power to do it, so he had to get out with it now. So he gets the spirit of Gideon into action. First it was local action, cleaning Gideon up in their own situation. And we see here, as he called the people together, the whole, every every Israelite people came with him. So he won the whole town. And he blew a trumpet, which was the way he did things in those days. And it must have been some way which they conveyed, like Africa, the hollow drums, and the drums were called village. You'd pass the message by the drums. Here we see Gideon and Gideon Gideon and Gideon and Gideon and Gideon and Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon Gideon that what God did, God did not by the powers of man and also I suppose it works out that way that in a number like that you have catfathers who come along with you, haven't they got the same quality of faith as you, how could they have the same quality of faith as you? Some of them say they go with him but they have doubt that he is in existence, what on earth can we do when he is destroyed? So they follow and say to you, alright we follow, we are called, we follow but we can't say we are really in this thing, and maybe Gideon could discern that and maybe Gideon with God's word, Gideon, you must have people who are good in business because we can't have business, we have to be bold and risk their lives if they are risking their lives, we can't just hang us on and if they are hanging us on and something happens then they take all the credit and hang us on, we all did it, so this guidance came, they came to Gideon's common sense and my Lord said make a division and be quite free and say to people, now look here, this is a big thing and you join me, now you may not all quite see as I do that God is going to do this thing, I presume he said to himself somehow or other God is going to do it, but you can't see that and let him go home unless you really feel you can be so involved with this that you can take this risk of faith with us and somehow God will put us through, so if any of you are afraid, okay go home, and he said whosoever is fearful and afraid, chapter 7 verse 3, let him return and the father is among Gilead and he returned with twenty and two thousands and remained ten thousands, of course Gideon had it fixed now that somehow God is going to do it, Gideon was going to have a faith, the faith had to be confirmed in the Lord then, but basically he wasn't claiming to be some, he had no idea, he had no idea how it happened, like usually, almost like one of God's huge jokes, he couldn't see it, as it were he couldn't see it, so he only got step by step and he had the confidence something God was going to do this thing, so he had ten thousands, that's a considerable number, not much against 135,000, and again it came to him in this sense, I think again he could see it, he was going to be called to make a mission, go to action, and risk their lives, not just passively be in the field but be ready to jump into the action, be ready for action, something God was going to do by us in action, so it's called, God led him to a third step, third practical simple testing step, they were on the march apparently, they hadn't got there, apparently, or anyhow there wasn't water or something, they're thirsty, they came, this crowd of ten thousand came to some kind of scheme, and he said now I'm going to test them for you, he said you watch, he said those who are not all that set on getting the thing at any price, they're with you, they weren't particularly getting into it, they were thinking at the moment they're thirsty, so they get down, have a good old drink, they lie down, put their mouth in the stream and get a good old drink, so they're thinking more about their own sustenance than they are, I'm on the go to put this in for God, some among you are thinking about their sustenance and their thirst, they're thinking, what do they think, they're ready to go into this thing, they're going to jackdash in on it, and they won't lie down and drink, because they knew they might turn up for something, they'll just scoop up some water in their hands or something and take a drink and go on, those are your men, 300, let those go, and all of those who are a whole set on that business, they're with you, they're going to watch them, whatever God shows them to do, even if it would turn to be they want to die, because they won't die because they believe God, so they carry on, the next series in which they were brought down out of 300 men, who didn't mean business, they were ready for action, now once more, now they're gone, now they're back in the valley, over the hill, they're in serious hills, overlooking this vast mass spread out in this valley, with their camels and so on, that's pretty casual, they wouldn't do much to knock themselves out of the view, not quite so, you see the moment, perhaps the majority had that idea, now once again, you get this cautious man who has human fear, he doesn't know what to do, what should he do, what do you do with 300 other armed men, with 135,000 behind you, down there waiting to slay you, what do you do, and Lord has said now to Gideon, verse 7, by the 300 men that are left will I save you, and deliver, and maybe I can buy a hand, and all this goes, and so he says, now they took victuals in their hand, it turned out they had pitchers, whether because they put their food, like an African would, in a kind of pot, they carry it with them, or whether that means they had a pitcher of water as well as the food, and all they had, the subjects in one hand, and this food, presumably a pitcher with food in it, and now they had all they had, and they left all they had with them, and the rest went, and there he says, look there's a host of Indians down in the valley, and so quite naturally, what next, there's no telling you what, what next, and what can I do, and another guidance came, again, as it were to meet fear, it said, God said, here Gideon, go down at night, in the early part of the night, outside the host, listen to them, catch something they're saying, get on the edges of this great probably casual mass, chattering together in their tents, or in the form that they took in those days, go down and fear them, and so it said, he took his servant, Fiora, he went down the hill, and there he left some tents, some people, and there he heard a conversation, a remarkable conversation, near as you can get, like, like, like Rahab in Jericho, he says, one of these men, these Malachites, he and these men, they're like grasshoppers, it says, they lay along, it says, they lay along the valley, and they're sleeping, I think, casual sleeping, like grasshoppers of multitude, and their camels are numbered, as far as hand-by-hand see, it's five by hand-by-hand see, that's what they look like, to Gideon, to create clouds, sleeping, night come, come, and when he came down, he listened, he heard a man say, I just had a dream, a near-dream, a great big cake of barley bread, that means a great big thing, like, kind of like a big thing, like a big, you know, not a little cake as we call it, a big thing rolled down, he says, this great thing came rolling down on us, what he called tumbling, it tumbled, it wasn't, it didn't come down, it didn't come meaning to come down, it just rolled down, wasn't man's action, it just rolled down, that's the word, important word, I think, to Gideon, it kept rolling down, and tip from the tents, and the tent collapsed, excuse me, this is my dream, and this remarkable man, it shows that there are believers right among the heathen all the time, there are more in heaven than we know of, this man, this vision, I say, I'll tell you what that means, he knew of Gideon, he evidently heard the word of the Lord, he heard Gideon probably making host of the Lord, and they destroyed the temple of Baal, and this man, he instantly knew, this is the living God, he went back to Moses and saw in his mind, I don't know, and he said, there are people like this, the faith does do something, and this is a living faith, people in that living faith, and this man knew, he said, I'll tell you what that was, he said, at nothing less than the sword of Gideon, a man of Joash, a man of Israel, for in his hand God has delivered me tonight, and all the host, isn't that something, it's totally like Rahab in Jericho, he says, I know it's his God, I know it's God, and this man of God, it's his sword, and God delivered the vision out of his left hand, somehow he knew it, so whether Gideon had made that public belief, that God had smite the vision out by me, I don't know, how does it, and he came back from the house, oh, what Gideon did, he worshipped, he worshipped, oh, he says, this is God, so he forgot the host, he forgot what to do, he forgot, because he was a saint, he says, Gideon heard telling of the dream, and to this he worshipped, Joshua worshipped, when he'd been plotting around Jericho, what to do with an ancient man, and so the Lord, the captain of the Lord came and worshipped, and there, in that, there goes this thing, you're free now, you're not plotting, you're worshipping God really, and as you do that, something comes to you, he's God, and this is what came to him, and I think it's quite obvious at that time, I think he saw, at that moment, don't do what you have got, you've got a sword, don't dash it, you haven't got a sword to fight with, you haven't got trumpets, a trumpet can make a noise, and somewhere it occurred to him, let us say, so they had tortured to some kind of rhythm, or could make them, and you have got pictures, what we can do, we can shout the word, and he saw the trick, presumably he was worshipping, he saw the trick, this is it, it's night, and so the guard was changing, so there was a fresh nervous guard taking on, there was the captain, and they were changing guards, and the guard was going to do that, and he said, he got the people to go, they must have been pretty sharp that same night, because they must have got their torches ready, and he said, we're divided into three companies, you go on that hill there, I go here, and you go here, and you all have trumpets, in fact they all carried trumpets in those days, that's the one weapon they had, big trumpets, like going round Jericho, they blew trumpets, and you have your trumpet in one hand, and you have your picture, inside the picture, you put a lighted torch, now he says, we won't do a thing tumbling down, we won't do a thing, something will tumble down and shock them into flight, we won't do that, we'll stay where we are, but we'll stand here, when I give you the signal, when I blow my trumpet, you all make one great big blowing into the trumpet, 300 of you all around the same, and you show your light, they'll say they've got us this time, because they're terrified heathens, we are people like that, and that's all it is, that's all it is, and Gideon, 300 men, came out of the camp, in the middle of the watch, outside, and they nearly hit the watch, and they blew the trumpets, and they break the pictures that were in their hands, and the three companies blew the trumpets, and break the pictures, and held the lamps in their left hand, and trumpets in their right hand, they kind of thought, Dr. Thornton, Gideon, that man said, Thornton, Gideon, Thornton, Lord of Gideon, Gideon knew who he was, Thornton, they shouted, Thornton, Lord of Gideon, now it looks as if, that rumour had already gone out, because this man knew it, and it says, Rahab says, the people of Jericho are terrified, they know the Lord of Gideon, they're terrified, they aren't going to repent, they just want to get a way out, it looks as if they've got one among the millionaires, they've heard this rumour, this living God has done things with Moses, and all this kind of business, this man's going to move, is it moving now among us, looks like it, anyhow, when they heard that shout, they saw the Lord of Gideon, saw those lamps, they got terrified, they began to fight each other, and I think they, or just ran, and the Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat, when they sang in Jehoshaphat, they sang, they heard the song, they got fighting among each other, there were several different tribes fighting each other, it got mixed up, it may not have been so, it says, that as they did that, they stood there in line of station on the bus, all the hosts ran and cried and plead, so 300 did that, so this is what he caught, I think he caught them in a tumbling, he wasn't going down to say, just roll down, he just saw his own impact, roll down, I think that's what Gideon caught, don't go and do something you can't do, you haven't got swords, just act like, like this, like it would be like a great big local bill rolling on their tents, and they were terrified, and so it was a fantastic situation, they followed them up, and then it wasn't, they didn't know, they must have swords or something, they got fighting, they destroyed their leaders and so on, we didn't go into all that further detail here, but there wasn't one, isn't it, I suppose, not one in that involved, as one man, the whole tribe as one man, our tribe as one man, as one man, so it's a remarkable story, when you look at the inside of it, not story, history, of the processes of faith, which started in conditions in which God seemed out of sight, there's a wrong somewhere, and an individual with this concern, shouldn't be like this, God's person, why isn't God working, as we might say, I do it through you, because you've got the power, because as we'd say, I'm in you, I do it, I do it with a fight and argue and so on, and then bit by bit, somehow, God shows you how to operate, and it didn't move in one way, locally, and then something happens, it starts to startle, it becomes public knowledge, people go out, and other people catch on, or we say, we want something running away, they come into crisis of course, so it is a remarkable simple story, of, as he said again, we don't do a thing, God does it, all we do is muzzy little, muzzy little, walking on a jelly cup, blowing trumpets, shouting, the Lord has given you a sitting down kit with the walls, and standing here blowing trumpets, showing, silly, showing, playing records, playing kids, showing torches and so on, so I'm only saying, as we know, it's a very simple life, isn't it, if God does it, he does it for us, he does things, work, he does records, we know he does it for us, and then we walk this carefree way, he didn't, there's no sign that you didn't know what to do, he just did the next thing, next thing, next thing, and no indication, any idea, where did he get this idea of torches and so silly and trumpets, where did he get it from, he could have got trumpets from Jericho maybe, not torches, where did he get it from, I think when he, it suddenly occurred to him in his mind, he didn't try and do a thing, he didn't, oh let's go and fight them, he didn't, they've got swords, rods, we knew they had swords, they knew how they went, they're using them, and it's just, do the next thing, alright Jesus, how do you feed 5,000, do the next thing, use the five loads, alright, use the five loads, what have you got, alright, I'll expand the five loads to feed 5,000, alright, you've got no fish, you've got nets, use your nets, put your nets in, you get the fishes, so God, we're relaxed, we just do the next thing, what we've got, out of what we've got comes the harvest, so that's what occurred to him, well at least we can do that, at least we can, let's close this game, it's the Thor the Gideon and Lord Rivers, alright, I can say that, I can say the Thor and the Lord Gideon, we can make a shout, and we can throw trumpets, we can catch a trumpet at night when the people are nervous, a new God, anyhow there were a crowd of people relaxed and so sleepy, as you can see, they did it, an enormous risk, and out of the whole crowd slain their lives, then they pursued them and the other tribes came in and prisoners of sin, and they didn't have a say in it at all, so that's part of it.