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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the Bibleignmenistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

But, Lewity says in verse 17 of chapter 6, And he said unto him, if now I have found grace and thy sight, show me a sign that thou talketh with me. I want to sign. Prove it to me. So he says in verse 18, the part not hence I pray then, until I come unto thee and bring forth my present, said it before thee, and he says, I will carry until you’re coming in. So he went and got him some, you know, some meat and so forth like I did and made some and the angel of the Lord says, put it on that rock over there.

And the broth just kind of poured on. You mean, I went and made this broth and you want me to pour it on a rock. I got a choice piece of meat and you want me just to put it on that rock over there. And the angel of the Lord took his staff and with the point of it, he touched it. What happened? Fire. Fire came from the tip of the thing. He said, I want to see a sign.

Well, that’s pretty good. And it consumed it. And then he thought to himself, self, no normal man does this. And he relied, he must be an angel of the Lord. So he says here in verse 20, “‘And the angel of God said unto him, “‘Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes “‘and lay them upon this rock and pour out the broth.’ “‘And he did so. “‘Unleavened cakes because it didn’t take time “‘to put yeast in it so it would rise.

So it was on 11 and verse 21, then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and there arose a fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes, then the angel of the Lord vanished out of his sight. Well, how’s that? Pretty good first sign. I probably scared him half the death. So in verse 22, and when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon says, Oh my goodness, I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face.

Now he was satisfied, right? He was totally satisfied. He knew God had spoken. He didn’t need any more signs, right? No, he wasn’t done. God was now going to ask him to do something. Joe Ash’s father had kind of leaned toward the bell worship and he had some high grows and he had some altars and so forth to Beo. And the Lord told him, said, now here’s what I want you to do. I want you to get a young bullet and a one, seven years old.

And I want you to tear down their altars. And I want you to sacrifice. And Gideon says, you want me to what? He says, this is what I want you to do. Now Gideon was scared to death. He was scared of his daddy. He was scared of his dad’s servants and of the townspeople. So he didn’t want to do that in the daytime. He says, I’ll do it at night. So he got 10 of his men together and they went in there and they tore down what his dad had put up, tore those down and built an altar and sacrificed.

And God was pleased, but he had made a statement to him in verse 23. He says, peace be unto thee, fear not for thou shalt not die. And the first thing that they found out the next morning said, who did this? They said, Jo, as the son Gideon did that. We’re gonna kill him. But what did God already promise? Thou, shall, not, die. And so he went and did this by night in verse 27, the last part of verse 27.

But when the men of the city in verse 28 rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Bea was cast down, the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullet was offered upon the altar that was built. They said one to another, who did this? When they inquired and asked, they said, the son of Joash have done this thing. Then the men of the city said in the Joash, bring out thy son that he may die.

But God had already told him before this. So does God know the future? So God gave him assurance. You know, God has a way of doing that. If God is in it and God gives you a peace of mind, then you just trust the Lord. It doesn’t matter how many people are against something. It doesn’t matter what anybody else says. God already said, you will not die. If God says he won’t die, then guess what? He won’t die. So God protected him.

But they changed his name to Zorobo. And it says, because Beyola, he says, if you want him to die, why don’t you just let the God of Beyola, Beyola God, why don’t you let him kill him? Why should we have to do anything? He did that to Beyola. The Baal is man, let Baal kill him. So at least his daddy did speak up for his son, help him a little bit there. But now it says in verse 34, the spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.

God had a work for him to do. The Lord was gonna work on this man. And the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon these men to do a job and then would leave. And that’s why David would even pray, Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit will come and indwell us and never leave us. Totally different. So he says, in verse 36, and Gideon said unto God, if thy will save Israel by my hand, as thou have said, you know, you said so, you said you would.

But if you’re gonna do this, the whole I will put a fleece of wool in the floor. And if the do be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou will save Israel by my hand, as thou have said. All he wanted was a little proof.” Well I wonder what happened. Verse 38, and it was so, for he rose up early in the morning, thrust the fleece together and ring the dew out of the fleece a bowl full of water.

And Gideon said unto God, let not thine anger be hot against me.” In other words, I’m not trying to make you mad. I’m not making you mad, am I? I don’t want to make you mad. But he says, I will speak but this once. Let me prove I pray thee, but this once with the fleece, let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be due. And God did so that night, for it was dry upon the fleece only and there was due on all the ground.

Just like He wanted. Why do you think God did that for Him? God knows we need encouragement. God knows that we are filled with questions and doubts and fears, but you know this whole thing was initiated by God. God wanted to do something. The children of Israel were crying under God, so God moves. God does things. But God delights in doing little miracles. Things that you can’t figure out what you’re going to do. How are you going to do it?

If God did that then, is there a possibility God can do those things in our own lives? about it. God will let you get into a jam. But he knew about it ahead of time. You stop and think, whenever Moses went down into Egypt, did God already know all the times that Pharaoh would say no? Did you think God already knew that? And look how many times he had to perform these miracles and all these plagues and so on, God already knew that.

I think God gets a kick out of doing something that they don’t think he can do just to show them. And doing that, God has to make Moses look good. But in doing this, Moses made God look good. God is looking for a man that will make God look good. And so among the people of the world and where we live, God will allow things to happen to you because He wants you to demonstrate that you know Him and you love Him and you’ll walk with Him regardless and God wants to do things on your behalf because of your faith.

So God… It has little ways in which to work in our lives to teach us how to be obedient, how to trust him. You see, just like with parents, you have to learn how to trust. Learn how to trust them. And if they’re trustworthy, you trust them more. Have you ever seen teenagers want parents to trust them? And the parents is not on your life. Dad, give me the keys to the muzzarati. Yeah, yeah, you’re right, huh? But that I need a hundred dollars for gas tonight, you have to earn the right to be trusted.

But you have to have a little things that you let them do in order to prove whether they’re faithful or not. So little here, little there, little here, little there, and you grow. And God is able to use you in a great and mighty way. Now in chapter 7, the preparation for the battle, God already knew how many people there were. We’re talking about 135,000 maybe or more. That’s a lot of people. That’s not kind of all the animals that they had in the servants’ problems.

These are the ones that they could draw swords that could fight us a lot of people. So God got his people together and he told them, says, I want you to get some of these people together and let’s see what we got. So in verse one, it’s a rubble who is Gideon and all the people that were with him rose up early, pitched beside the well of Herod. so that the host of the meeting nights were on the north side of them by the hill of Morub in the valley.

And the Lord said in the Gideon, the people that are with thee are too many for me to give the meeting nights into their hand. It’s just too many of them. And Gideon says, what? You see, it didn’t matter how many they had. God says, it’s this way too many. See, you and the Lord is a majority. But look what he says. Let Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, my own hand have saved me. There’s times when God will do things in your life because He knows you can’t.

And He will get the credit for it. God wants praise. He wants you to honor Him. So, sometimes He allows you to have impossible situations where you can’t figure out what you’re going to do. Faith is born in despair when you come to the end of yourself and you don’t know what in the world you’re going to do. And so he says here in verse three, now therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gillian and their return of the people 20 and 2000.

22,000 people says, hey, I’m afraid. I’m scared. And as we say, if you’re a feared, say you’re a feared. They were a feared. So they went home. I’m taking my ball back and go home. 22,000 left. How do you think that may Gideon feel. And it wasn’t over. It says then, they returned of the people 20 and 2000 and they remained 10,000. There’s still 10,000 yet to go. Now, how many did they have? And we only had a total of 32,000.

22,000 went home that left it with 10,000 against 140,000 or so. Something don’t seem fair here, but he’d already told him, says, look, you’re going to win. You’re not going to die. I’m going to be with you. You’re going to fight and you’re going to beat the Midian knights as one man. You probably thought, yeah, by the time you get through, that’s all going to be left as one man. So he says in verse four, and the Lord said in the Gideon, the people are yet too many.

There’s too many left. What, there’s 10,000. They’re only outnumbered 15 to one, or 14 to one or something like that. And then he says, the people are yet too many. Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. And of whom so are I say unto thee, this shall not go with thee, the same shall not go with.

God says, take them out I enter to the river. Let them get them some water. But I want you to watch. Now some are going to get down and they’re going to get down to the water and they’re going to lap the water like a dog. And then there’s going to be some of them who’s going to bend down on the knee and they’re going to take and bring the water up to their mouth. Now there’s a difference because when you’re down like this, you’re not prepared.

You can’t watch. But the person to be on his knee and bring the water up to him, He is more alert and watching. And God says, this is the one that I want, the one that will bring the water all the way up to his mouth, not like the dog gets down here and laps the water. So how many is he going to have? He got 10,000 that’s going to get on and give him some water. So verse five, and he brought down the people under the water.

The Lord said in the Gideon, everyone that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shall thou set by himself. Likewise, every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lap put him their hand to their mouth were 300 men. But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink the water. So they went all the way down, and there was a division. 300 of them, looking verse seven.

And the Lord said in the Gideon, by the 300 men that lap while I save you, and deliver the Midenites into thy hand. And let all the people, other people go every man into his own place, send the rest of them on home. Now how you like those odds? Getting pretty good now, huh? It’s impossible. You know these stories in the Old Testament as I’ve lived my life, I’ve experienced some of these things. I think sometimes, Lord, it would be so easy if you would just give me a million dollars and then I know I’d have the money to pay everything in advance.

I’m going to be so much easier. Just give me a minute. I mean, how hard is it for the God to create the heaven of the earth? Why can’t He give me a little silver and gold? You know, He’s the owner of a thousand cattle on the thousand hill. Well, if He owns the cattle on the thousand hill, why can’t He sell some of them? Just give me all the money I need so I can do to work. I’m supposed to get done.

Why make me shredd all of this stuff all the time? I got to raise money for the ready-y-o. Raise money for Boston. Raise money for insurance. money every time you turn around you got to raise money for camp you got to raise raise raise raise all the time Lord this is your word why don’t you just dump it on it just dump I don’t mind and if you give me more than I can use don’t it sound good well they may sure be a lot easier but the Lord up there laughing he says trust me you’re right it just distrust you just just to step out there and trust you.

It gets a little scary sometimes, don’t it? When you just got to step out by faith and believing that this is what God wants and you know that there’s people who would love to see you fall flat on your face. Well, I knew that’s just the way he is. He just balled in a china shop and there’s no stopping him. I mean, I knew he was going to, I knew I knew I was going to happen to him and then they safely snug in their little bed and never get out and never do anything, nothing, never exciting.

And as always people, they wanna just cut and criticize and put down and all the rest of it. I thought, you know, like this guy came up behind his car and he just blown the horn, blown the horn, blown the horn, blown the horn, and then he won’t start. But he said, you’re blowing the horn, blown the horn. So the guy got out and walked back and told me, he said, look sir, if you go up there and try to start my car, I’ll sit back here and blow your horn.

Because it’s so easy to always say and do something, but get in the heat of the battle. Get knocked down, cut up, get beat up a little bit, get rocked up. And you’ll find out it’s not quite so easy. But he told him what he wanted to be, looking verse 10, but if thou fear to go down, go thou with for thy servant down to the host. He says, this is what I want you to do, but if you’re still scared, I want you to go down there and eavesdrop.

So they went down there and snuck in there, you know, and they overheard some of them talking and said, hey, I pictured this loaf of bread that came in and landed on the tent and destroyed it. He says, this is a sign that Gideon is going to beat the Midianites. And Gideon, there in the heart of the side of that. And that gave him encouragement. We can do this. So we go back and Gideon was all excited and he was ready to do the job.

Let me just tell you what he’s going to do so. As you read the rest of the story and detail on your own, how in the world is 300 people going to be all these people? No, there’s three different groups of these Midianites and Amorites and so on. all of these groups together. You’re talking about all of these in the plains of Jezrio there. And Israel’s got 300 men. So God told him and says, now what I want you to do is I want you to get a clay pot.

And in this clay pot I want you to put your torch in it so that they can’t, it doesn’t show any length. So you got this torch inside of a clay pot. And I want you to have a horn. And I want a hundred over there, a hundred here, and I want a hundred over there. And we’re going to surround them. They’re all sleeping, you know. So in the back of the third watch, we’re going to sneak up on them.

And see, in the middle of the night, everything’s dark. Nobody can see anything. So all of a sudden, when he gives the word a sword of the Lord, and a sword of the Lord, and a sword of the Lord. Gideon, they’re a bus to pot. The light shines, they blow in the horn, and the people get up in the middle of the night, scared half the death. They see all these lights around them, and they hear all this blaring of the horn, and they got up and they killed each other.

They killed each other. They didn’t have to work, they killed each other. Because they didn’t know who the enemy was, and they couldn’t see the light blinding them. So everybody’s fighting, and everybody’s killing each other. Isn’t that beautiful strategy? I wonder who thought of this. I wonder who designed this. The Lord knew how to take 300 people and take care of 120,000 of them. And then they went chasing after those that were left. And when he asked for some help because he says these people, they’re famished, and they said, remember, they’ve been famished themselves.

The food had been taken, but whatever they had, they could have given it to these 300 that formed an army to whoop the enemy. And as they went along these cities, they wouldn’t help them. And Gideon says, I’m coming back, and I’m going to see you. And he told us in two different cities, I’m coming back. And so he went on down and they conquered me, knowing 300 against 15,000, but they whooped him anyway. And he killed the two leaders of the Midian Knight military might and took them back, killed them, and a great victory.

But look very quickly, so did you see this, looking for 28, of chapter 8, and it says, thus was median subdued before the children of Israel so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness 40 years in the days of Gideon. For 40 years they had peace they had rest and in verse 32 Get in the son of Joach died in a good old age and a good old age But you know what?

When Gideon died there in verse 33 It came to pass as soon as you are on the line as soon as Gideon was dead That the children of Israel turned again and did it all over again You would think they’ve learned their lesson, but majority of people never learned their lesson. They got to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again. But you know when you go to the book of Hebrews in chapter 11, there’s Gideon, that great man of of an hour.

A man who didn’t look great in his own eyes, but God used him. He made a few bad mistakes along the way. After the victory, he made a couple mistakes. Do you realize that he had 70 kids? He had 70 kids. The Bible says he had a whole bunch of wives, a whole bunch of them, more than anybody needed, but he had 70 kids. So all these things that he had done wasn’t always the best, but God had to deal with him.

See there in verse 30 of chapter 8 Gideon had three score and ten sons of his body begun, for he had many wives, and there’s always a price to pay for he felling against God. He even took the earrings that he got from the Ishmael lights and he made any thought out of it and people begin to worship that instead of God. So not everything works out for the way you want it to. God is working with sinful people.

There are no perfect individuals. Sometimes you may be totally amazed at at some of the people God uses. Did you know that might be the best God has? Wouldn’t it be neat if all of us was just that shining light, that perfect little example in every area of our life, but where’s he gonna find them? Every person has faults, flaws. You stay around here long enough and you’ll find fault in every person in this room, every person in this church.

There’s something you’ll like about them and there’ll be something you don’t like about them. Every person in the whole church, If you stay around the long enough, there’ll be something you’ll like about them and there’s something you don’t like about them. It irritates you to no end. So how in the world can God ever use that person? That’s the most worldly, carnal-minded, and yet God uses them. And you just be thankful that God even uses you. Look up here.

This end represents you and me, the wallet represents sin. The Bible says that you and I have all sinned. We’ve all done things wrong. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Since we’ve all sinned, we’re all condemned. to a literal fire burning hell. But God wants us to go to heaven, and to go to heaven we have to be perfect as righteous as God. And none of us have heard it, none of us are righteous. We have all sinned and come short of God’s perfection.

So no man can save himself. That’s why we need a Savior. This hand represents Jesus Christ. He’s the Lord God in the flesh. Came into the world because He loves us. H.R. sin. He held our sin, separates us from the Lord. Jesus Christ took the sin, paid for them the cross, came back from the dead. And God said, if we would believe that what He did on that cross was to pay for our sins. And we believe that. That means He paid for mine.

Means I don’t have to pay for them. He paid for all of them. So I get to go to heaven on what Jesus Christ did. And He says, when you believe it, you can know that you have eternal life, know that you have eternal life, know that you’re going to heaven when you die. And that’s the best news in the world. And that’s why in spite of everything else, we keep trying to share the gospel. And if you’re watching by internet tonight, wherever you are, regardless of whatever you’ve done, the Lord says that He loves you.

He paid for your sins and all that you need to do to go to heaven. He’s the believer He did it for you. I pray that you will. Let’s pray, shall we? Every head bowed and every act closed and no one looking around. If you’re hearing the auditorium and if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, I urge you to do just that. Trust the Lord. And if you’re watching by internet, if you’ve never done it before, trust Christ is your Savior right there on the screen.

There’s a little button that says, yes, I will trust Christ as my Savior. I pray that you will. If you’ve never done it before, do it right now. It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make. And then understand this. God loves you and God can use you. God doesn’t have any perfect people. We’re all sinners. Just sinners say, by grace. And yes, even in our Christian life, we have a lot of questions and doubts. Sometimes we’re tempted to put out places and we often wonder, well, God, if you are real and if you, if I know and God knows, seek to trust His word.

We have His word written down. Learn what His promises are and believe them, claim them. Father, we thank you again for your blessings. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. We also thank you Lord for this ministry to college and the night school and all the various ministries we commit them to you. This is your work. We want your blessings. Use this for your honor and glory in Christ and we pray. You’ve been listening to another great message from Dr.

Arnold and we hope that Bibleline is a blessing to you. In appreciation for your support of this ministry we’d like to send to you a gift. During this month for a gift in any amount we’re going to send Dr. Arnold’s teaching on the subject of marriage. This nine-lesson CD series includes titles such as God’s View of Divorce, Eight Pressures ofvironising children, How to Love Your Wife, and the Humorous but Insightful Teaching, and then the War Begin. Whether you are married, single, or dating, you will certainly benefit from this teaching series on God’s Design for Marriage and Divorce.

And this CD series is yours for a donation in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen.

The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.