Clean Transcript

Principles of Deliverance - 8

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

• Judges chapter seven, and I'm going to read just a few verses and then I will give you the entire text that we'll be dealing with today. But this is Principles of Deliverance number eight. This is going to be the last message in this brief series. So our text is going to be from Judges 7:23 through chapter eight and verse 23. We're not necessarily going to read it all at one time.

  #1 | 0:01 to 0:29 | cleaned

• But I do want you to pay close attention, if you would. Judges chapter 7, beginning there, verse 23: "And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters of Bethbara and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbara and Jordan. And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan. And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest us not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites?

  #2 | 0:30 to 1:22 | cleaned

• And they did chide with him sharply." And he said unto them, "What have I now done in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. And what was I able to do in comparison of you?" Then their anger was abated toward him when he said that.

  #3 | 1:23 to 1:44 | cleaned

• Now we'll stop there just momentarily. We're going to be looking at all of this passage. Remember that we've looked and have seen the preparation that God made when He is going to deliver a people, how that He strips us of our pride, our arrogance and self-ability and self-confidence, and then how He proceeds in that He always sends a preacher, and the preacher always warns us of our sins and our rebellion, and also proclaims the goodness and the grace of God, demonstrating that it is God and God alone who can deliver us. Then we looked at the person that God used in deliverance, and when we looked at Gideon, we saw that here was a man who was prudent and practical. Here was a man who was perceptive and discerning. Here was a man who was called and sent. Here was a man who, of course, was humble and meek, and then of course he was a man who was believing and bold. And then of course we looked at the power and we saw that the power in deliverance of course was God alone.

  #4 | 1:44 to 2:45 | cleaned

• And I emphasize that we do not need a majority, we do not need a multitude, we only need the Lord. God used Gideon and his 300 to deliver Israel. And so we do not put confidence in men or in multitude or in magnitude, I might add. And God has consistently throughout the Bible used little things, as I pointed out last week. In fact, He said, "Fear not, little flock, it's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And our Lord took 12 men and turned the world upside down. Now, last week I showed you how God used psychological warfare. And this psychological warfare is evident throughout scripture, but especially in Judges chapter 7. Because there God used the trumpets, he used the clay pitchers, he used the firebrands, and of course later on he used the sword. And how God is the supreme warrior, and how God can instill fear in the minds of men, and terror in the minds of men and he could put thoughts in the minds of men and I showed you verse after verse where God just simply allowed his enemies to hear noise and they were

  #5 | 2:46 to 4:06 | cleaned

• terrified and ran and left and another time they heard another noise and thought that the Ethiopians were coming when the Ethiopians were not coming at all. So God is certainly supreme and sovereign, and since he controls the minds of men, and the emotions of men, and the actions of men, he is indeed the supreme psychological warrior. And what you have in Judges chapter 7 is divine psychological warfare.

  #6 | 4:06 to 4:36 | cleaned

• Now today what I want to do is try to tie together some of the pieces that we've been looking at throughout this series, and at the same time, give you a brief exposition of the remaining verses of chapter seven and then through chapter eight. Now, remember, if you would, I told you this in the beginning, I believe it was sermon number one. God's deliverance is always complete. He delivers us always from something and unto something. Remember I told you how he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt unto the promised land. And how scripture says that he brought them out that he might bring them in. He did not bring them out to drop them in the wilderness.

  #7 | 4:37 to 5:21 | cleaned

• The same truth is made in Colossians 1 in verse 12, but I'm going to remind you of this before I close. The Bible says that we're to give thanks unto the Father who has made us suitable to be partakers of the saints and the like, who have translated us out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. So you have a deliverance from, and you have a deliverance unto.

  #8 | 5:22 to 5:44 | cleaned

• So likewise, when God delivers a people from tyranny, from oppression, He always delivers them unto liberty and freedom. Let me say this another way. When God delivers us from tyranny, He delivers us from man's law unto God's law. You see, God's law is indeed the law of liberty. I don't know if you are aware of this verse or not, but there is so much liberty and freedom in the law of God that in the book of James chapter 1 in verse 25, the law of God is called the perfect law of liberty. By the way, let me just give you a definition of liberty and freedom. Think about this: liberty and or freedom. Liberty, we can say it like this, is the freedom to do what you are required to do and what you should do. Liberty does not mean necessarily that you can do whatever you please. That is licentiousness. You follow me? So liberty is actually deliverance from sin and oppression in order that we may fulfill our duties and our responsibilities freely and openly as unto God and for God's honor and God's glory.

  #9 | 5:45 to 7:19 | cleaned

• Now, let me just show you what I'm talking about. When I said that when God delivers us from man's law system unto His law system in delivering us from tyranny and oppression, let me ask you to think about this just for a moment. Let's suppose that today God destroyed America. Let's just suppose our infrastructure is totally, absolutely gone. Our economic system is gone. Our governmental system is gone. Our educational system is gone.

  #10 | 7:19 to 7:57 | cleaned

• Nothing remains except we, the people. And God allowed you to rebuild this country. God allowed you to rebuild society. Here's my question. Which law structure would you use? Whose law structure would you use? You see, you really only have a choice between two. You may either use God's law structure or you may use man's law structure, but that's it. Then you've got to remember it's man's law structure that has gotten us into the mess that we're in right now. So the only way that you could rebuild safely is that you rebuild upon God's law structure.

  #11 | 7:57 to 8:48 | cleaned

• Do you understand this has been the dilemma of every generation? How do I build my life? How do I build my home? How do I build my business? How do I build a kingdom, or a country, or a state, or a city, or a government? Do I build it upon the law of God, or do I build it upon the law of man? Do you understand this is the age-old battle between theonomy, God's law, and autonomy, man's law? So if you were to rebuild tomorrow, what law structure would you use? And by the way, you have to have a law structure. You cannot exist without law. So you may either use man's law or God's law. But you have to have a law structure.

  #12 | 8:49 to 9:42 | cleaned

• Now, what has happened is this. In Judges chapter 7, Gideon has used psychological warfare. And when he sounded the trumpets and those Midianites thought that there were 300 separate companies or 300 separate armies surrounding them, and they broke those clay pitchers, and then the firebrand came out, they just knew then that the clay pitchers being broken were swords being drawn. The firebrand now—here were men lighting the way to come down upon the camp.

  #13 | 9:42 to 10:18 | cleaned

• It's about two o'clock in the morning. They're waking out of a deep sleep. They can't see. They don't know who's there. And God sovereignly turns every sword against his brother. And so the Bible tells us there's about 120,000 of them killed, and some of them escape, and they start running. Well, of course, Gideon then begins to pursue. Now, what I want you to see is this. Four things today. First of all, God is going to finish delivering Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. And so there are four things that you must understand. First of all, there is the destruction of the civil rulers. Notice if you would please in verse 23, verse 25 it is: "And they took the two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan." Now let me just remind you that it was the rulers who were leading the people.

  #14 | 10:18 to 11:29 | cleaned

• They were leading their people against the Israelites. They were the ones who were responsible for the raids, for the pillaging, for the plunder, for the rape, and for the murder. One of the principles in warfare is simply this: you destroy the head. Do you not remember that this is the very first principle given to us in Genesis 3 and verse 15? Genesis 3 and verse 15 is the Protevangelium. It is the first promise of the Messiah in the Bible. And what does the Bible say concerning Christ and concerning the serpent? The Bible says that the serpent shall do what? He shall wound the heel of a woman's child, but the woman's child, Christ, shall bruise the head of the serpent. Do you realize that a head wound is, of course, a devastating wound?

  #15 | 11:31 to 12:31 | cleaned

• So what God is saying is this: if you're going to win a victory, if you're going to be delivered, then you must destroy the head. And by the way, let me tell you something. Please think about this. There are a multitude of enemies in our country today. If there was an insurrection tomorrow and the people rose up and slew all of our common enemies, and left the heads, guess what? You're going to have to do it again sooner or later because the heads are going to get another group and they're still going to continue to attack to destroy the country. So the principle is you destroy the head.

  #16 | 12:32 to 13:10 | cleaned

• Now, I don't know if any of you ever played with snakes when you were children or not, but I did. And you say, well, that's what's wrong with you. Well, that's OK, too. But I used to love snakes. And I used to catch rattlesnakes and moccasins. And I'd put them in Kroger sacks. And sometimes I'd have 20 or 30 in there. And I'd take them somewhere and let them go. But I used to just love to catch snakes. But when I was a boy, I used to play with what was called a joint snake. Has anyone ever heard of a joint snake? A joint snake, it's fascinating. You can take a hoe and chomp a joint snake in two. And guess what? He doesn't die.

  #17 | 13:10 to 13:58 | cleaned

• He'll crawl off and he will grow that last portion of his body from wherever you chomped him off. It'll always grow back. That's why it's called a joint snake. The only way that you can kill a joint snake is to cut off his head. Because if you don't cut off his head, the rest of his body is going to grow back again. Isn't that interesting? Well, this is exactly what God is saying in these civil rulers. God said that you must take care of the head. The only way to ensure then that the enemy is totally destroyed is to destroy its leaders.

  #18 | 14:00 to 14:36 | cleaned

• Now, what has happened is this. In the initial rout under Gideon, a number of people have been killed but then a number of enemies have fled, and they have fled various ways. So if you look in your Bibles, hold Judges 7, but look in your Bibles, in the book of Deuteronomy 28 and verse 7, you'll see that this is one of the promises in the Bible for obedience to the law of God. Notice Deuteronomy 28 and verse 7, God says, "The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face. They shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seven ways."

  #19 | 14:36 to 15:18 | cleaned

• So here they are scattering. Now remember, if you would please, that Gideon has sent home about 10,000 people, 9,700. Well, these men probably have not made it home. So he sends for them, now that the enemy is running. And he not only sends for them, look in verse 23: "And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all of Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbara and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbara and Jordan." The interesting thing is, when the men of Ephraim took Bethbara, the word Bethbara just simply means the house of the ford.

  #20 | 15:20 to 16:17 | cleaned

• In other words, it was a shallow, narrow place where you could easily cross the Jordan River. So they took that crossing, they beat the Midianites there, and evidently they slew a great number of the Midianites, and included were two princes, Oreb and Zeb. Now, there's a great deal of irony in scripture. You know, the scripture always tells us that God is not mocked. And here Oreb and Zeb, two princes of the Midianites, have been captured. The word Oreb means raven. The word Zeb means wolf.

  #21 | 16:18 to 17:06 | cleaned

• So their names then indicate their character. They were beastly, cunning, vile, and they were scavengers. I mean, that's why they were there to destroy the Israelites. They were scavenging. They weren't willing to work. They were willing to take from someone else. And look, if you would please, at verse 25: "And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb."

  #22 | 17:08 to 17:36 | cleaned

• Now, let's just stop there for a moment. They took Oreb and slew him upon the rock Oreb. Hmm. Wonder what that means. Well, you say, Brother Weaver, it means they killed him upon a rock. That's what it means. Yes. Why did they kill him upon a rock? Well, probably that's where they found him hiding. Do you remember when this story first started back in Judges chapter six and verse two? Who was it that was hiding among the rocks? The Israelites. Ah. They were hiding. Now the Midianites are hiding among the rocks.

  #23 | 17:37 to 18:25 | cleaned

• In other words, now you have a total reversal of roles. Isn't that amazing? You realize that those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake will ultimately be on top, and the enemy will be on bottom. In fact, the fault occurs, so look in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 6. Let me show you how thoroughly on top the righteous will be. Here you have in Revelation chapter 6 and verse 15 through 17, look at Revelation 6, beginning there on verse 15 through verse 17. Revelation 6, verse 15: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on

  #24 | 18:25 to 19:26 | cleaned

• us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" So what are they doing? They are pleading for the rocks to hide them. So here is Oreb who is captured and slain on the rock of Oreb. And just like he and his kind were hiding in the rock, so all those who persecute God's people and hate Jesus Christ will ultimately be in the rocks crying for the rocks to fall upon them and hide them. Secondly, if you'll notice in verse 25, Zeb then was captured and he was slain at the winepress of Zeb.

  #25 | 19:26 to 20:11 | cleaned

• Now, I told you there was a great deal of irony in scripture. When this story started in chapter 6, may I ask you who was hiding behind the winepress? Gideon. Now it's no longer Gideon hiding behind the winepress.

  #26 | 20:14 to 20:30 | cleaned

• Now it is a prince of Midian. The Midianites are now hiding. The winepress, of course, speaks of the judgment of God. Let me show you that. Look in your Bibles to Isaiah 63. Here's a wonderful passage. You talk about the judgment of God. That is the place for the enemies of God to hide because that's where he's going to be trampling out the vintage. Notice, if you would, Isaiah 63, and let's begin reading there with verse one. Here is a passage that refers to the judgment of Jesus Christ, Isaiah 63 and verse one: "Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah?

  #27 | 20:30 to 21:19 | cleaned

• This that is glorious in apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save," that's Jesus Christ. "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat?" Christ says, "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me, for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment, for the day of vengeance is in my

  #28 | 21:19 to 21:49 | cleaned

• heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." Isn't that amazing? He said, "And I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered, and there was none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me." And Christ says, "I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury. I will bring down their strength in the earth."

  #29 | 21:49 to 22:10 | cleaned

• Who is going to ultimately be destroyed? All of those that hate Christ and oppose His people. You know, that passage reminds me of another passage in Joshua chapter 10. You remember, in fact, look there. Just turn back. It's just one book back. The book of Joshua. Joshua, Judges, Joshua chapter 10. Joshua has captured these kings. And look what he tells them. Joshua chapter 10 and verse 24 and 25: "And it came to pass when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said unto the captains of the men of war, which went with him, now look what he says, 'Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings.' And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said unto them, 'Fear not, nor be dismayed.

  #30 | 22:10 to 23:13 | cleaned

• Be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight.'" Now why in the world did Joshua say, "Come here, and put your feet on the necks of these kings"? Because if you've got your foot on someone's neck, they're not only defeated, they're at your mercy. It is so simple and so easy to break someone's neck with your foot.

  #31 | 23:13 to 23:42 | cleaned

• Some of you old timers, old time country folks will remember how you used to kill possums. Anybody remember that? No old time country folks in here? A possum, you would catch him, hold him by the tail, put his head on the ground and put your foot on his neck and tug. You just break his neck. That's exactly the picture that is given right here. God says, put your feet on their necks, they're going to be destroyed. What happened to Oreb and Zeb?

  #32 | 23:44 to 24:23 | cleaned

• They got their heads cut off. Look back at it, Judges 7, verse 25: "And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeb, and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeb they slew at the winepress of Zeb and pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeb to Gideon, to the other side of Jordan." So they lost their heads. Let me tell you something, folks.

  #33 | 24:24 to 24:55 | cleaned

• If you can see the flow of truth in this passage, it should teach us that we should never, ever be discouraged. That we should always take heart. It doesn't matter the situation. It doesn't matter the circumstances. The truth is we are more than victors in Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible says it very plainly in Romans 8 and verse 37, after naming all of these things that man could possibly fear and could possibly ever dream or think of, the Apostle Paul said, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." If we are more than conquerors in all these things, why should we ever be discouraged? Why should we not always be full of heart and full of faith?

  #34 | 24:57 to 25:49 | cleaned

• We know how the end is going to happen. No one can thwart. No one can defeat. No one can overthrow, hinder, stop or conquer or overthrow the sovereign of the universe. He will prevail. He will conquer. You say, well, times look mighty bad. Don't look at the times. Look at the conqueror. Look at Christ. He has prevailed.

  #35 | 25:50 to 26:21 | cleaned

• Now, not only were the princes Oreb and Zeb taken, but the kings Zeba and Zalmunna were also captured. And what I'm going to do is skip a little bit, and we're going to come back into that which is between in just a moment, but I'm just showing you the destruction of the civil rulers right now. There is a great deal in between this, but I will come back to it.

  #36 | 26:22 to 26:46 | cleaned

• But look in chapter 8 and beginning there in verse 18. Here you have the destruction of Zeba and Zalmunna, the two kings. Judges 8 verse 18: "Then said he unto Zeba and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom you slew at Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they. Each one resembled the children of a king. And he said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother.

  #37 | 26:46 to 27:12 | cleaned

• As the Lord liveth, if you had saved them alive, I would not slay you. And he said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared, because he was yet a youth. Then Zeba and Zalmunna said, Rise thou, fall upon us. For as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and slew Zeba and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks."

  #38 | 27:12 to 27:35 | cleaned

• Now, in biblical warfare, the city or the army that would not make peace with God, or peace with the people of God, all the men were to be totally wiped out and destroyed. You will find that in Deuteronomy 20, verse 13. Here is what God says: "And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it," that is the city into thine hands, "thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword." Now, since this army had been delivered into Gideon's hands, he was supposed to smite the men with the edge of the sword and especially their rulers.

  #39 | 27:36 to 28:21 | cleaned

• So you've got to ask yourself this question. Why then did Gideon even bother to ask about his brethren in verse 19? And when he asked about them, he said, "They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother, as the Lord liveth. If you would save them alive, I would not slay you." Well, you remember Ahab got in trouble for sparing a heathen king, of course Ahab was a heathen himself, when God had appointed that king to destruction. So what in the world is Gideon doing here when he's asking Zeba and Zalmunna about his brethren? Well, let me just put what I'm going to call the biblical construction upon this. First, I believe that what Gideon was doing was trying to elicit from these kings a confession of their cold-blooded murder of his brethren. And, of course, he got it. Secondly, I believe that Gideon knew the answer to the question before he ever asked it. Sometimes we ask questions when we already know the answer. And he knew the answer.

  #40 | 28:22 to 29:42 | cleaned

• Now that the confession has been made, and he realizes these men did indeed murder his brethren, I want you to watch what happens, he now assumes the role of the anointed one or the role of the blood avenger. What does that mean? That means now it takes it out of the realm of personal vengeance and places it squarely in the realm of justice. Not only did Deuteronomy 20 and verse 13 demand the death of these individuals, but also now that they have said that they murdered his brethren, Gideon then as the next of kin, as the avenger of blood, had the absolute right to require their lives at his hand. And do you not remember even in Deuteronomy 19, when an individual who had murdered escaped to the city of refuge, they would hold a trial. And if the man was found guilty of premeditated murder, what did they do? They just turned him over to the blood avenger and said, go ahead and execute him. So Gideon now is executing these men justly, not necessarily out of personal vengeance.

  #41 | 29:44 to 31:08 | cleaned

• But out of divine justice. What the Midianites had done to Israel, are you listening? What the Midianites had done to Israel, they had done to God. What did God tell Israel in Zechariah 2 in verse 8? He said, "Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye." Do you realize our Lord said it very similarly in Matthew 25? He said, "Inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me." And so Gideon then was acting as God's divine avenger and thus we have a picture of divine retribution. Now what Gideon was going to do, listen carefully, initially he was going to let his son Jether slay these two men. He was going to give his firstborn son the honor of killing these two kings.

  #42 | 31:10 to 32:12 | cleaned

• Of course, that would also add to the humiliation of the kings to be slain by a mere lad, a mere youth. And of course, Jether refused to do it. I mean, he was scared. He had not necessarily killed anyone. And the Bible says that he pulled out his sword and he feared because he was but a youth. Let me ask you a question. Here's a picture of a father and a son. Here's a picture where the father was going to give his son an honor. But the son was too immature to accept the honor and accomplish the deed. Hold Judges 8.

  #43 | 32:14 to 33:13 | cleaned

• Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 5 and let me show you something. Look what our Lord complains about through the author of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 5 beginning there in verse 12: "For when for the time you ought to be teachers," now look at that. "For when for the time you ought to be teachers," that is, you should be teaching, "you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

  #44 | 33:14 to 34:04 | cleaned

• But strong meat belongs to them that are full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Now, what did God say? What is God complaining of? God says, here's a time that you ought to be teachers. And what happens? You revert back to immaturity to the point that you need someone teach you again the very first principles of the Word of God.

  #45 | 34:04 to 34:27 | cleaned

• And you act like a child. You need milk instead of meat. Let me tell you something, folks. I believe that there is indeed a great deal of immaturity in the people of God. So much so that our immaturity holds us back from accomplishing great things for God. Let me show you this. We are so immature the average Christian cannot distinguish between personal vengeance and justice. My wife can tell you, we have heard people whose child or husband or wife has been murdered by some murderer, and then they slovenly and sentimentally say, "But I don't want to put him to death, I forgive him." Whether you forgive him or not is immaterial. God says, "Whosoever shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." God said you are to take no amount of restitution for a murderer. He is to be put to death. And it's not personal vengeance when you want a murderer put to death. That's biblical justice.

  #46 | 34:27 to 36:03 | cleaned

• Look in your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 149. Let me show you this. Psalm 149. And let's begin reading there in verse 5. Here's what I mean when I say that we do not even understand the difference between vengeance and justice. Look what God promises. Psalm 149, verse 5: "Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds." Now, wait a minute. Let the saints, the saints, that is the believers, be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds.

  #47 | 36:04 to 36:38 | cleaned

• What are we to be singing? "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. Why? To execute vengeance," that is, God's vengeance, "upon the heathen and punishments upon the people. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute upon them the judgment written." Help me out now. "This honor have" how many? "All the saints. Praise ye the Lord." What are the saints to be doing? We're to be mature enough to know the difference between personal vengeance and justice. And when it comes to justice, we're to execute God's divine justice. We're not to hold back the sword in that instance. But anyhow, what happens is these two kings, when they see the lad, will not slay them.

  #48 | 36:39 to 37:37 | cleaned

• They look at Gideon and they make this statement. They say, "Arise thou and slay us. Fall upon us, for as a man is, so is his strength." Gideon, are you afraid to kill us too? Gideon said, "Not I." And he fell upon them and took care of them. Please understand, there is a vast difference between personal vengeance and biblical justice. When God delivers us from tyranny and oppression, he destroys the head. He destroys the civil rulers that are wicked and reprobate and ungodly and who lead the people in rebellion against him.

  #49 | 37:38 to 38:30 | cleaned

• And by the way, this is but the first step in restoration. If you merely got rid of wicked civil rulers and did nothing else, guess what? You're going to have a new crop of them in the morning. I never will forget what one of my preacher friends said, talking about the international bankers. He said, yeah, he said, God could kill every one of them tonight, and in the morning, there'd be so many Baptists fighting among themselves just to take their place.

  #50 | 38:30 to 39:13 | cleaned

• That's about the truth, because we're so ignorant of biblical law and biblical justice. But look, secondly, go back in your Bibles to Judges chapter 8 and verse 1. Here's secondly, the destruction of carnal reasoning. I want you to see this, the destruction of carnal reasoning. Not only the destruction of civil rulers, but when God delivers us, he delivers us and he destroys carnal reasoning. In verse one: "And the men of Ephraim said unto him," that is to Gideon, "Why hast thou served us thus? That thou callest us not when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites?

  #51 | 39:13 to 39:55 | cleaned

• And they did chide him sharply. And he said unto them, 'What have I now done in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God hath delivered unto your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeb. And what was I able to do in comparison of you?'" Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that. Now I want you to note that Ephraim attacked Gideon simply because Gideon did not call them at the beginning of the conflict.

  #52 | 39:56 to 40:26 | cleaned

• Now here's a tribe that is struggling for dominance and leadership. And they're so struggling for that dominance and leadership that they are now challenging Gideon. They're hurt because they believe they have been left out and they did not have an initial part in the original conflict and it has to be all Gideon's fault. Does that sound familiar? Do you realize there are some people who just cannot rejoice in the grace and in the glory that God gives to somebody else. Unless they are partakers of it, unless they can be in it or unless they can run it, they just don't want God to be merciful to anybody. They don't want God to bless anybody. And you see, when Ephraim came up to Gideon, it did not matter to them that it was God who ordered the battle. It did not matter to them it was God who chose the men. It did not matter to them that the other tribes were not included in the initial battle. Ephraim was left out. Their pride was hurt.

  #53 | 40:27 to 41:42 | cleaned

• Their feelings were hurt. They wanted to be the leader. They wanted to be the dominant one. They wanted to get the glory. And it's times like this that truth and the Word of God just simply do not matter. Isn't that the way most people look about it? Does it matter what God's word says? Does it matter what God's will is? Does it matter what God's way is? My feelings are hurt. I wasn't involved.

  #54 | 41:42 to 42:08 | cleaned

• Do you realize that man by nature wants to be first and foremost? He wants to be preeminent. May I tell you lovingly that position is already taken. Because Colossians 1 in verse 18 tells us that in all things he, Christ, must have the preeminence. So he is to be the preeminent one. But you know, folks, it never ceases to amaze me that man's nature has not changed in thousands of years.

  #55 | 42:09 to 42:46 | cleaned

• And there are multitudes of illustrations of that fact. You know, some people believe in evolution. I don't understand how, but if evolution was true, it seems as if we should be improving in some areas. But the fact is, evolution is not true. And we're just as depraved today as we were in Gideon's time. Ed, would you just check out that window and look outside, please? Can you imagine? I want you to just think about this just for a moment. Here Gideon is, and all the people have gathered together.

  #56 | 42:47 to 43:32 | cleaned

• They're chasing Zeba and Zalmunna, and they haven't been caught yet. Plenty of the enemies are on the run, and right smack dab in the middle of a fight, right smack dab in the middle of a life and death struggle, some people will stop and say, "Wait a minute. What's going on, you idiot? Why didn't you call us first? Why didn't we have a part in this?" I mean, come on.

  #57 | 43:33 to 44:07 | cleaned

• And this has got to be your fault. You've just slighted us. Let me tell you something, folks. I have always said that we Christians are the only ones who would rather fight among ourselves than to fight our enemies. We're the only ones who would rather turn on a wounded brother than fight the enemy. And if the enemy really, really knew us, all he'd have to do is leave us alone, we'd kill ourselves. Can you imagine that? I cannot, for the life of me, imagine these people coming to Gideon saying, "Gideon, why didn't you call us? This is your fault." You know what?

  #58 | 44:08 to 44:52 | cleaned

• And I told you this point is the destruction of carnal reasoning. I told you that. You know what my flesh would want to do if somebody came to me in the middle of a fight like that and asked why I didn't call them? You know what I'd like to do? I'd like to pick him up, hold him up against the wall and say, "What in the world is wrong with you, dummy? I didn't initiate this fight. God did. I didn't order the battle. God did." And you know, I'd give him a piece of my mind. I could give him a piece of my mind. I believe that's probably what Gideon's flesh wanted to do, but he didn't do it. I can say it like this. Gideon is far more sanctified than I am. It's just like I told one man one time.

  #59 | 44:53 to 45:47 | cleaned

• This guy had made a blazing, blatant statement about a brother's wife. I mean, and it was untrue. But he had made this statement about this brother's wife. And then he had the audacity to come to me and he said, "I don't even think this brother's a Christian." Well, I said, "I don't know whether he is or not, but I said, I just know he's a better Christian than I am." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Because if you had said about my wife what you said about his wife, I'd already beat you in the ground. I said the very fact that he can hold his temper and control his flesh, I said he's a better Christian than I am. I said, I'd have whipped you." But you know what Gideon understood? He understood Proverbs 15.

  #60 | 45:48 to 46:38 | cleaned

• "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stirreth up anger." You know what he understood? He understood this, that a man who hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. If you can't control your own spirit, here's what God says, anybody can get in and get what they want and get out. But let me read to you what the Bible says in Proverbs 16, verse 32. Just listen. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit better than he that taketh the city." You know what Gideon did? He looked at those men instead of saying, "But look, I didn't do this, God did this." He just looked at them and said, "Look, yes, it's true. The Abiezrites were there, but look what God has done for you. I mean, God has delivered into your hands Oreb and Zeb. You got the princes. Is not the gleaning of Ephraim better than the first harvests of the Abiezrites? Well, look what you could do.

  #61 | 46:40 to 47:48 | cleaned

• I couldn't do that. I didn't capture those princes. You did." And their pride was flattered, their feelings got un-hurt. They said, "Well, yeah, we did do that, didn't we?" And then everything's OK. Let me tell you something, folks. Do you realize if God never gave us a military victory, if God never gave us a military victory, if the only thing he did was deliver us from our pride and our feelings and our carnal reasoning, we would be the world better off. But God did deliver Gideon and he delivered them in that sense. He destroyed the carnal reasoning.

  #62 | 47:49 to 48:40 | cleaned

• You know what we have to learn as Christians? I'm going to tell you something and I'm not an ecumenist. You understand that I'm not for yoking up with anyone who hates Christ or disbelieves the Bible. But there are people who believe the Bible and trust in Jesus Christ who may believe just a little differently than we do in some areas. You cannot discount them as Christians. But let me tell you something, God does not give every man the same amount of light, nor does he give every man the same truth at the same time. But one thing we must learn, we must either work together and we must fight together or we'll hang separately.

  #63 | 48:41 to 49:19 | cleaned

• And that's what he taught these Ephraimites. You either got to work with me and fight with me, or we'll hang separately. The goal in our life is that every thought should be brought into captivity to Jesus Christ. Our carnal reasoning is to be destroyed.

  #64 | 49:24 to 49:50 | cleaned

• Thirdly, very quickly, there's the destruction of the criminal rebels. And you'll find this beginning in verse five: "And he said to the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me, for they be faint. I am pursuing after Zeba and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army? And Gideon said, Therefore, when the Lord hath delivered Zeba and Zalmunna into mine hand, then will I tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars.

  #65 | 49:50 to 50:24 | cleaned

• And he went up against Penuel and spake likewise unto them. And the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him. And he spake unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I'll break down this tower."

  #66 | 50:24 to 50:36 | cleaned

• Now, you know what happens. Of course, Gideon is chasing these people. And you've got to ask yourself this question. Why did the men of Succoth and why did the men of Penuel ask Gideon, "Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna now in thine hand?" Why did they do that? I'll tell you why. Because of fear. Fear of man. Fear of death. Fear of the Midianites. Don't you remember Zeba and Zalmunna had gone through there and there were 15,000 soldiers with Zeba and Zalmunna. How many were with Gideon? 300. He and his men were faint and yet pursuing.

  #67 | 50:36 to 51:29 | cleaned

• I want you to understand something. These men of Succoth and these men of Penuel had apostatized from the faith. It was not just fear of man, it was their unbelief. Thus they were traitors to God, traitors to Gideon, and traitors to Israel. Proverbs 10 in verse 24 says, "The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him." Let me tell you something. Those who think to run from the sword of the Lord will run into it. Those who try to escape the sword, evidently an arrow of steel shall be shot through them. You cannot escape the judgment of God. So in contempt of God, when Gideon has asked bread now for his men, in contempt of God, they refused to answer his just demands whom God had raised up to save them. Gideon was the deliverer. They refused to answer his just demands. They affronted him. They battered him.

  #68 | 51:29 to 52:43 | cleaned

• They despised the success that he had already been honored with. They despaired of the success of his present undertaking. They did what they could to discourage him in prosecuting the war. And they were willing to believe that the remaining forces of Gideon, which they had seen march through their country, would be more than able to destroy Gideon and his 300. What were they doing? Are you listening?

  #69 | 52:44 to 53:09 | cleaned

• They were living by sight and not by faith. Moreover, you could say it truthfully, the bowels of their compassion were shut up against their brethren, and they were destitute of love as much as they were of faith. They would not even give morsels of bread to those fainting soldiers. And these men were supposed to be princes. They were supposed to be elders. They were supposed to be Israelites. They were supposed to be men of faith. They were neither. They were cowards. They were traitors.

  #70 | 53:09 to 53:50 | cleaned

• Probably most of them worshipers of Baal, or at least were employed in the interests of Midian. Doesn't matter if you look at Succoth. Doesn't matter if you look at Penuel. It's the same thing. Well, Gideon made a statement and he said in verse 16, "And he took the elders of the city and thorns of the wilderness and briars, and with them he taught the men of Succoth."

  #71 | 53:52 to 54:16 | cleaned

• Now, he says, "When I come back in peace, I'm going to teach you something." So what did he do? Well, he took the men of Succoth, these elders, these princes, look at it in verse 14: "He called a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him, and he described unto him the princes of Succoth, and the elders thereof, even threescore and seventeen men, seventy-seven men. And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold, Zeba and Zalmunna, with whom you did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary? And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness, and briars, and with them he taught the men of Succoth." He said, "When I come back, I'm going to teach you a lesson."

  #72 | 54:16 to 55:03 | cleaned

• You've got to remember, those thorns in that land are not like these little thorns that grow in our little blackberry bushes over here. Some of these thorns were two and three inches long. Do you realize what Scripture says? Those who show no mercy shall receive judgment without mercy. Maybe these men were soft, delicate, maybe even effeminate men. I don't know. Maybe they despised the hardiness of Gideon's men. Maybe these men were the ruling elders and they were just not used to toughness and hardiness. And Gideon said, "Well, I'll show you what it's like." And so he took them and rolled them in the briars and thorns and ripped their flesh and tore their flesh. He instructed their minds because the Bible says in verse 16, with these he taught the men of Succoth. That is, he made them know their folly. He made them know their sin. He made them know their duty. He made them know that they had despised God and God's Deliverer. And he taught them with these briars and with these thorns.

  #73 | 55:03 to 56:24 | cleaned

• You know, that is a principle of Scripture. The Bible says in Micah 6 and verse 9, "Hear ye the rod, and Him who hath appointed it." Listen, folks, if you and I hear the Word of God, we will not receive His rod. It's only when we refuse to hear that we get the rod. These people refused to hear, and so God gave them the rod. Moreover, the men of Penuel came next, because in verse 17, He tore down their tower. Verse 17: "He beat down the tower of Penuel and slew all the men of the city."

  #74 | 56:26 to 57:05 | cleaned

• Now that tower was perhaps that which they trusted and that which they gloried in and probably thought that Gideon and his men could not defeat them. But they found out differently. Gideon tore down that tower. And probably it was the elders of the city like the ones in Succoth that he took and killed. Please listen to this. Those who are traitors to God, God's law and God's people, must always suffer. And they will always end up deserving death. And they will be given that death, not out of vengeance, not out of vindictiveness, but out of biblical justice.

  #75 | 57:05 to 58:04 | cleaned

• Now, let me tell you something and show you in one hand a failure, I suppose, of our forefathers to understand this principle. Do you remember during the American Revolution that there were plenty of people in the South as well as in the North who were Tories. You know what the Tories were? They were people who sympathized with the king. They allied themselves with King George III. They were for his strong, centralized bureaucracy, his tough, tyrannical, oppressive rule. They were for that. Do you know what happened to those people after the war was over? Boatload after boatload of Tories left from Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina on their way back to England. But some unhappily

  #76 | 58:06 to 59:13 | cleaned

• didn't go quite far enough. For they got settled in the northern colonies. They got out of the South. And I am afraid, and I've not done any research on this, but I'm afraid it was their descendants who wanted to push that same centralized bureaucracy upon us in 1861 to 1865. So what has God done? God, in his grace, will deliver us from those who are unsympathetic to His Word, His will, and His way.

  #77 | 59:14 to 1:00:01 | cleaned

• He will either change them, He will either convert them, or He will destroy them. Now watch this. You've seen the destruction of the civil rulers, the destruction of carnal reasoning, the destruction of the criminal rebels, and one last point very quickly. Look in verses 22 and 23. I want you to see deliverance unto the crowned ruler. After this great victory, "Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, the Lord shall rule over you." You remember when I started this, I told you that deliverance was a negative and a positive.

  #78 | 1:00:02 to 1:00:53 | cleaned

• It's from something unto something. And God has delivered us out of the kingdom of Satan, translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. But God delivers us from oppression and tyranny. The oppression and tyranny of man's law, he always delivers us into the freedom of his own law and to the freedom of his own rule. If I had time today, I would take you back to 1 Samuel chapter 8 and show you point after point where we had sinned against God and God said, "Here's your punishment for wanting a man to rule over you instead of me."

  #79 | 1:00:53 to 1:01:34 | cleaned

• When Gideon was offered this, and by the way, Gideon was not just offered the kingship of Israel. Are you listening? Gideon was offered a dynastic kingship. "You rule over us. And when you die, your son. And when he dies, your son's son. And when he dies," and so on down the line. Gideon said, "No, I'm not going to rule over you. Neither is my son going to rule over you. God is going to rule over you." Let me ask you, folks, would it not be wonderful if the rule of God was sought and found and manifest on a national scale in our land today? Would it not be wonderful if righteousness existed in our government? If righteousness existed in our schools and our homes and our businesses and in every area and every sphere of life. Would it not be absolutely wonderful if every man, woman, boy and girl bowed the knee to Jesus Christ? I've got news for you folks. One day they shall. Philippians 2 and verse 10 says that in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, of things in earth and things under the earth.

  #80 | 1:01:38 to 1:03:13 | cleaned

• And you know what's going to happen when everyone bows the knee to Jesus Christ and acknowledges and confesses that Jesus Christ is God, that He's Lord, that He's Savior? You know what's going to happen? Let me read it to you. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 24 and 25. Are you listening? "Then cometh the end, when He," Christ, "shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and all power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet." And when Christ is the complete and full and final conqueror, He'll say, "Here it is, Father, I give it back to you."

  #81 | 1:03:15 to 1:03:58 | cleaned

• And righteousness and peace and holiness will envelop the land. Let me make just a couple of applications. I think you see these. I think you know them. The first one is this: only God's deliverance is thorough and complete. He not only delivers us from our enemies, which is great and wonderful. He delivers us to himself, which is even more wonderful. And even greater. To be the children of God, to live and walk and act as children of God.

  #82 | 1:04:01 to 1:04:46 | cleaned

• The second application is this: to know that God is the conqueror, to know that Jesus Christ is the sovereign, that he is the victor, should be one of the greatest encouragements to every child of God so that we should know and realize that we are more than conquerors in Jesus Christ. What an incentive to persevere in the faith, to persevere in repentance, to persevere in study and holiness and righteousness, to know that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ.

  #83 | 1:04:47 to 1:05:33 | cleaned

• We will not give in. We will not give up. We will not give out, because our Lord really, truly has already won the war. And all we're waiting for is that day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Let's pray. We do ask you to help us, teach us, give us grace and give us faith and help us, Lord, to live for Thee.

  #84 | 1:05:34 to 1:06:13 | cleaned

• Make us holy and make us godly. And Father, we pray that you would help us to persevere in truth and in righteousness. In Christ's name we ask and pray, amen and amen.

  #85 | 1:06:14 to 1:06:28 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T02:32:41Z