HEROES OF THE FAITH
GIDEON
DR. JIM DIXON
JANUARY 22, 1984
JUDGES 6:11-24
1,100 years before Christ, the children of Israel were living in the Promised Land, but things did not seem very promising. The days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were gone. The fathers had left this Earth and gone to Heaven to a better life, and there were no patriarchs to lead them now. The period of the kingdom had not yet come. David and Solomon were more than a hundred years in the future, and in the present the children of Israel were in bondage. They were a conquered people. They were hiding in dens and caves of the earth. The Midianites and the Amalekites—the children of the East, desert tribe people—had swept into the Promised Land like hordes of locust. Their numbers exceeded the sands of the sea, and Israel was conquered and scattered. Living in 12 tribes with local tribal leaders, they desperately needed some person anointed by God who could bind them together as a nation, that they might stand against their enemies.
There was one such person, and his name was Gideon of the clan of the Abiezrites of the tribe of Manasseh. Gideon was a hero of the faith. This morning I would like to speak to you from the life of Gideon on the subject of faith, and I have two teachings.
The first teaching is this: faith trusts in God’s presence. In the midst of every circumstance of life, faith believes that God is with us. 3,100 years ago, the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and he said, “I am with you.” At first, Gideon did not believe that, and Gideon responded by saying, “Pray, sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all of this befallen us?” Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever said, “If the Lord is with me, why has all of this befallen me?”
Three weeks ago, we began to pray as a church for Marty Grass. Marty has a brain tumor. In fact, she has two brain tumors. I first met Marty and her husband Roger 11 years ago when they were working with the youth group at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. They had an anointed ministry. More than 150 high school kids came to their group. Many of those kids came to love Jesus Christ, to accept Jesus Christ, through Roger and Marty’s ministry, and they grew in their knowledge of the Word. Roger and Marty started Christian camps and conferences in the mountains and they had high school camps at Silver Cliff, the Young Life camp outside of Buena Vista. Hundreds of high school kids would come to their camps and there they would have a great time in the mountains, but they would hear the Word of God proclaimed. Many of those kids accepted Christ and gave their lives to the service of His kingdom. They learned how to love and they learned to grow in the knowledge of the Word, and it was primarily through Roger and Marty.
A few years back, Roger and Marty started a college ministry called The Barn, which met at Glacier’s Barn in Cherry Creek. 300 college kids would come out to every meeting at the barn and hear Roger preach and Marty was there and she just loved those kids. Again, it was anointed by God and kids came to know and love Jesus Christ. Roger and Marty both worked, but they always found time for the service of Jesus Christ and for the service of His kingdom. They always found time for kids. And yet, one year ago, Marty had a grand mal seizure and the doctors discovered a tumor in her brain. It was the size of a baseball. It was inoperable and malignant.
At first, I’m sure, Roger and Marty thought, “If the Lord is with us, why has this befallen us?” But they have come to trust in God’s presence and they know beyond a shadow of doubt that God is with them. Marty received radiation treatment and the growth of the tumor has been arrested. Marty has the fullness of her faculties. I met with Roger a few weeks ago and Roger told me that this past year has been the best year of their life, the best year of their marriage. They’ve been closer together. Their love has been stronger than ever before, and they’ve had a joy in their life that is supernatural and could only have come from the presence of God.
In these past couple of weeks, they’ve found a new tumor in Marty and it too is inoperable. But Roger and Marty do not cease to believe and trust that God is with them. They trust His presence and their lives are relinquished into His hands. They say with Paul, “What can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord? Can persecution, tribulation, peril, famine, nakedness, or sword? No. In all of these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. I believe that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything else in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” That is faith.
Faith is trusting that, come what may, whatever we experience in life, God is indeed with us. Gideon wanted a sign that God was with him, some supernatural manifestation that would prove that God was with them as they dwelt in dens and caves of the earth, a conquered people. And so the angel of the Lord came to Gideon and fire arose supernaturally from the rock and consumed the offering of Gideon, the meat and the unleavened cakes. Suddenly, Gideon realized that indeed God was with him and Gideon said, “Alas, my Lord God. For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face-to-face.”
Have you ever wanted some sign that God was with you? Maybe you’re going through a really tough time in your life. You question God’s presence. You’d like a sign. Maybe you’d like Jesus Christ to just kind of appear in your living room bodily. You’d like an angelic visitation, maybe a prophetic utterance spoken to you or through you, or maybe a visionary dream. We live in a world where many Christians want a sign that God is with them. And yet, the Bible assures us that God is with us. If you are born anew through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of life, God promises that He sent His very Spirit within you and He will never fail you and He will never forsake you. He is with you now and He’ll be with you always.
That’s not enough for some Christians. They want more than the presence of God. There are 2,500 saints in the Catholic Church. Many of those saints are venerated by Protestants and Catholics. Many of those saints are prayed to as if they were present with us. I don’t want to belittle in any way the Catholic Church. I know that there are many, many Christians in the Catholic Church who love Jesus Christ and are our brothers and sisters. In 1968, the Catholic Church issued a decree that many of these 2,500 saints would have their feast days, their holy days, either removed or made optional. But many Catholics continue to pray to them, to trust in them, and to believe in their presence. And there’s a saint for almost every need in life.
There is Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers. And if you’re about to take a journey, that would be the saint that you would consult if you believed in his presence. There is Saint Valentine, the patrons saint of sweethearts; Saint Vitus, the patrons saint of epileptics; Saint Nicholas, the prototype of Santa Claus, but the patron saint of bartenders and brewers; Saint Matthew, the patron saint of tax collectors; Saint Simeon, the patron saint of pillar sitters (it seems that, many centuries ago, Simeon sat on a 60-foot pillar for 36 years and prayed for and preached to unbelievers down below). Do you ever find yourself on a flagpole or on a pillar? He would be the saint that you would consult if you believed in his presence. There is Saint Martha, the patron saint of homemakers; Saint Apollonia, the patron saint of toothaches; and there’s Saint Druon, the patron saint of hernias and ruptures.
There are many, many other saints. Tragically, thousands and millions of Christians around this world pray to those saints as though they were present, but they are not. They have left this Earth and they’ve gone to Heaven. One day, we who believe will leave this Earth and we will go to Heaven and then we will be with them. But in this life, it is enough to know that God is present with us. God is with us—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible says, “Whither shall I go from His Spirit? Whither shall I flee from His presence? If I ascend to the highest Heaven, He is there. If I make my bed in the depths of Sheol, He is there. If I take the wings of the morning and I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there He is with me and in His hand He holds me.”
Trust, faith, is believing in His presence. I know that most of you have heard of David Livingstone, an African explorer, missionary, and medical doctor. In 1856, Livingstone was speaking to the graduating class at Glasgow University in Scotland. Livingstone had received his doctorate of medicine from that university. Livingstone had just returned from 16 years in Africa where he had experienced 27 different episodes of malaria fever. His right arm was paralyzed from a lion’s attack. He was frail and weak, but he stood in front of that student body and proclaimed Jesus Christ. A student asked him, “How do you find the strength to continue to minister in Africa, to fight the slave trade, to journey over the dark continent, and to proclaim Jesus Christ to unbelievers? Where do you get your strength? What keeps you going?” Livingstone said, “It is one thing. What keeps me going are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ before He left this Earth when He said, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’”
Every Christian, every great believer in Christ through the centuries, has been motivated and sustained by that one truth. He is with us always. David Livingstone returned in 1858 to Africa. He remained there for 15 more years. He died there in 1873. His body is buried in Westminster Abbey. But you see, his soul and spirit continue to be in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” Gideon came to believe that, to trust that. And God wants us to trust it too. God says, “Fear not, I am with you. Be not dismayed. I am your God. I will uphold you and I will strengthen you with My victorious right hand.” You might feel like you’re in a jungle right now. You might feel like you’re receiving lions’ attacks, but God wants you to believe that He is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.
Secondly and finally, from the life of Gideon we see this quality of faith: faith trusts in God’s power. Faith not only believes in God’s presence, but faith believes in God’s power. The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “Go forth in this might of yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian.” Gideon said, “Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? For behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family.” And the Lord said, “I will be with you and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.” You see, God wants us to know that not only is His presence with us, but His power is available to us.
At first, Gideon did not believe in that power. And again, he wanted to test whether or not God’s power was with him. He wanted a sign. So before he went into battle with the Midianites he said, “Lord, if indeed You are with me and if Your power will prevail and give me victory, show me a sign. I will put a fleece outside my house. When I wake in the morning, let the fleece be wet with dew while all the ground around it is dry.” Gideon woke in the morning and the fleece was wet with dew and all the ground around it was supernaturally dry.
That was not enough. Gideon said, “Lord, one more time. Tonight let me go to sleep and I’ll put the fleece out. And when I wake in the morning, let the fleece be dry and let the ground around it be wet with dew.” He woke in the morning and saw it was done. God had performed a miracle again, and Gideon came to believe in God’s power. So he took his armies to war against the conquering Midianites.
But God wanted the Israelites to know that victory over the Midianites would come only by His power. And so when Gideon accumulated 32,000 men, God came to Gideon and God said, “Gideon, you have too many men.” Now, I’m sure that was a surprise to Gideon because there were more than 120,000 Midianites and he had only 32,000 men. He was outnumbered four to one. Yet God said, “Gideon, you have too many men. Even with 32,000 men, if you win this battle those men will say they won it by their own power, that they won it by their own hand. Here’s what I want you to do, Gideon. I want you to go to your army of 32,000 and I want you to say, ‘If anyone’s afraid, you can go.’”
So Gideon went before his 32,000 and said, “The Lord says, ‘If any of you are afraid or have any fear, you can leave.’” 22,000 men picked up their bags and left and Gideon was left with 10,000 men. Now he was outnumbered 12 to one. God came to him and said, “Gideon, you have too many men. Even with 10,000 men, if you win this battle they will say they won by their own power. They will say they won by their own hand. Here’s what I want you to do. Take your 10,000 down to the water to drink. Those who fall to their knees and drink directly from the water will be removed from your army. Only those who lap the water up with their hand will remain your soldiers.”
9,700 men drank in the wrong way. Only 300 men drank in the prescribed manner. So, Gideon was left with an army of 300 men. They were outnumbered 400 to one. And God came to him and said, “Now you are ready. Now, when you win this victory, they will know that they have won by My power and by My power alone.” And so it was that Gideon with 300 men defeated an army of more than 120,000 by the hand of God. God so confused the Midianites that they began to fight against each other and to kill each other, and those that remained scattered out the valley.
Sometimes God wants to bring us to a point in our life where we’ve come to the end of our rope and where we see that by our power we’re just not going to make it—where the odds are overwhelming—and only by His power can any victory be won. Sometimes He wants to bring us to that point in our life because His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
When I was growing up, I was the youngest of three brothers (in fact, I’m still the youngest of three brothers). My brothers used to say to me, “Jim, you’ll never get married.” I suppose a lot of older brothers kind of kid their younger brother like that, but I believed them. I believed that they were right and I would never get married, and I didn’t have much confidence when I began to date. When I got into college, I decided I wanted to get married (some of my friends were married). I decided I wanted a girl who was beautiful. I wanted a girl who was intelligent. I wanted a girl who was witty. I wanted a girl with a strong commitment to Jesus Christ. Beyond that, I didn’t want much.
So, I met a girl whose name was Kathy and I thought that she was all of these things. I was very nervous, but I asked her out. It was kind of a big date, so I decided to take her to a really great restaurant on the end of the pier in Santa Barbara, California. The evening seemed to be going pretty well. We had hors d’oeuvres, a great meal, and dessert. There was only one problem. I forgot to bring any money. And when the waiter came to the table, it was a very awkward, embarrassing moment when he gave me the bill and he asked for the money and I told him I didn’t have any and I knew I couldn’t wash dishes. It was very awkward when Kathy suddenly reached into her purse and said, “Well, I guess I’ll have to pay for it.” And so she did.
When we got out to the car and the car attendant drove the car up Kathy walked around to the other side and tipped the car attendant. Kathy wasn’t real impressed with me and Kathy married a friend of mine whose name is Lee. They live today up in Fort Collins and Lee is a professor at the university there. We can kind of joke about it now, but it didn’t seem very funny back then. And I said, “Lord, help me.”
Well, then I met a girl named Gloria and I thought she was beautiful. She was intelligent, she was witty, and she was a committed Christian. She was also very rich. There was only one problem. Gloria was engaged to another guy. His name was Ron and he went to another college, but my friends and I decided that Gloria was just right for me. They were in some of Gloria’s classes and so they began to tell Gloria a lot of good things about me and somehow Gloria believed that and I finally got her to go on a date with me. Through the weeks and months we became very close friends and Gloria broke off her engagement with Ron. But then we had a track meet with Ron’s college and Ron was on his college track team and I was on our track team and I met Ron for the first time and we had a discussion. It wound up being an argument. I hit Ron in the face and knocked him down. Gloria didn’t think that was very mature of me. And somehow all this compassion began to well up in Gloria for Ron and Gloria married Ron. Today they live in San Marino. And I said, “Lord, help me.”
So then I met this girl named Chris, and I thought Chris was everything I ever wanted. I came back to the dorm at night and told my roommate, a guy named Dennis, how great Chris was. I’d say, “Wow, Dennis. She’s just so super.” And it didn’t seem like Dennis was even listening, but I later found out he was, and he was very impressed. He began to take out Chris. Dennis had a Porsche, a 356 C Roadster, and Chris seemed to like that and they began to date regularly. But then another friend of mine named Bill who had a nicer Porsche—he had a 911 S—began to date Chris. And one day Bill and Chris were driving down the mountains behind Santa Barbara and Bill was kind of showing off and he took one corner too fast and that Porsche rolled. On the third roll, the door of the car just sprung open. Chris flew right out over his arms as Bill was holding onto the steering wheel and the car continued to roll and came to a stop right on the edge of a cliff. Bill was surprised to be in one piece. He crawled out of the car and he said, “My God, I’ve killed her.” He looked back and he saw Chris running towards him and she didn’t have a scratch on her and they considered that a miracle, as I’m sure it was. And they’re married today. Bill is a Presbyterian minister in Monterey, California. That story seems beautiful now, but it didn’t seem so beautiful back then. I said, “Lord, why can’t I ever win? Can’t You help me?”
Well, finally there was a girl named Pep, and I liked Pep for six years. Finally, in my fifth year of school when I was attending graduate school, working on a doctorate in psychology, Pep called me up and she said, “Jim, I’m going to go to Mount Hermon Christian conference grounds this summer and I’m going to be on the staff there.” She told me all about it. And I said that was great. And then I had a friend whose name was Brad and he also was going to Mount Hermon that summer. So I said, “Brad, when you get to Mount Hermon, put a good word in for me with Pep.”
And Brad said, “Sure, Jim, I’ll do that.” Well, Brad and I both lived at the Hilly House, which belonged to Lyle Hillegas, who was dean of the college. I went down to LA for two weeks and when I came back to the Hilly House it was nighttime and the doors were shut and I had forgotten my keys. So I went around to the back of the house and I went in the door—kind of stumbled through the dark—and I came to the kitchen where I always go first. I turned on the light and there were Brad and Pep, making out on the floor of the kitchen. I can see that you’re just as stunned as I was. It was a very awkward, delicate moment. I might say that Brad and Pep are now married and they are missionaries in Africa and it’s a good thing they like the floor, because they don’t have much furniture over there.
But that was a turning point in my life. I wound up going down to the beach in Santa Barbara and I just gave up. And as I walked along the beach, I said, “Lord, I give up.” I said, “Lord, I can live without a girl, but I can’t live without You.” I told God that I was willing to be single the rest of my life and I meant it. I said, “Lord, I’ll go where You want me to go and I’ll do what You want me to do.”
Well, it was right after that that the Lord led me to seminary. Three years later was when I met Barbara. But you see, when I met Barbara it wasn’t something I was trying to accomplish in my own power. I believe that it was by God’s power that Barbara and I were brought together. And I believe that God gave me to her and God gave her to me. The love that Barb and I have for each other is supernatural, and it has been these 12 years. Our marriage is a testimony to the power of God. And I only share this because I think it’s important to realize that sometimes God wants us to come to the end of our rope before He releases His power, so that we will say and we will know that only He could have done it. He did it by His power.
I know that sometimes God wants us to come to the point of relinquishment. He wants us to come to such a point of relinquishment that we just entrust ourselves to His sovereignty and we say, “God, use Your power however You want.” That’s the point Gideon came to. When Gideon defeated the Midianites, the children of Israel wanted to make Gideon king. But Gideon said, “I will not be your king, neither will my son nor my son’s son. For there is one King, one Lord, one Sovereign.” He had entrusted his life totally into the hands of the King.
I do not know if God will heal Marty Grass in this lifetime, but I do know that God has the power. And I know that Roger and Marty are relinquished. They trust His presence and they trust His power. God has power to heal cancer. Four years ago, Malcolm Smith, the famous Bible teacher, was preaching over at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. I had breakfast with him one morning with some other guys. And Malcolm told us how 11 years before he had been diagnosed as having cancer of the lymphatic system. They took out some lymph nodes, but then they found that cancer had literally riddled his body and was all through his internal organs. They pronounced him terminal.
They told him that he had three months to live. He said a very strange thing happened. In his hospital room, suddenly he was overwhelmed with a sense to the presence of God. It wasn’t that God was saying, “You’re healed.” That didn’t even matter anymore. He was so overwhelmed with the presence of God. And there was a moment of total relinquishment. And Malcolm said that in his heart his feelings were that if there was more time in the flesh that simply meant more fruitful labor for the Lord. But to depart and be with the Lord was even better. “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” That became his attitude. And there was such joy in that relinquishment that he was in the hands of God for the purposes of God, and he had a joy and a happiness that was greater than he had ever had in his life. He said the nurses in the hospital thought he was crazy. He was so happy. Well, they let him go out of the hospital and he didn’t know whether he was healed or not, but he just trusted God’s power.
The days and the weeks passed. As he began to go back to the hospital, they began to find that the cancer was subsiding from his body. He had had terminal cancer; he had been riddled with cancer. After five years, they found not one shred of cancer in his body. Malcolm Smith still lives today, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. He came to a point where he was at the end of his rope. It led to a moment of relinquishment. Out of that relinquishment, the power of God was released.
You know, we understand so little concerning the power of God. I see the power of God in the universe (with this we’ll close). You know, we think of our Earth as a great, great planet. It’s 8,000 miles in diameter and 25,000 miles around. And yet, this Earth is just a dot in God’s cosmos, which He created.
If our sun was hollow, 1 million Earths would fit inside. We think of our sun as great, giving heat and light and energy to our solar system. But even our sun is nothing in God’s cosmos, because (scientists tell us) in this galaxy there are 250 billion suns and our sun is not even a large sun. There’s another sun in our galaxy called Antares. That sun is 60,000 times as big as our sun. Our sun and all the space extending to the orbit of Mars would fit inside that one star called Antares, and even that star is only one of 250 billion stars in our galaxy.
We think of this galaxy as incomprehensible. The Milky Way is 100,000 light years across. And yet, this galaxy is nothing, just a speck, compared to the totality of God’s creation. Scientists now tell us that there is a minimum of 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and many of those galaxies are infinitely bigger than our galaxy.
Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across. But in 1980, scientists discovered another galaxy called 3C 345, and that galaxy is 87 million light years across. If you could move at the speed of light (186,000 miles a second) it would still take you 87 million years just to span that one galaxy. It is only one of 100 billion galaxies created by God. God made billions of galaxies, each galaxy having billions of stars, with vast amounts of space in between. The Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God,” and I think the most incredible statement in the whole of the scriptures is this: that “Jesus Christ didst found the Earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of His hands. All things were made by Him and for Him and through Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made.” And the Bible says that even now He sustains the universe by His Word of power.
He has all power in the heavens and on Earth, and He has power to perform and accomplish every single need in your life and in mine. The power of Jesus Christ is the very hope of the Christian. Paul says, “Our commonwealth is in Heaven. From it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subject all things unto Himself.” Jesus Christ and His power is our hope in this life. As Peter says, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”
From the life of Gideon, we see that faith trusts in God’s presence and faith trusts in God’s power. Faith trusts God’s presence. In spite of our circumstances of life, He is with us. Faith trusts God’s power as manifested in accordance with His sovereignty and in His perfect will. Shall we look to the Lord with a word of prayer?
Father God, we thank You that You are indeed present with us. We thank You that when we receive Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, into our hearts, You really come into us by Your Spirit. You live with us and we cry, “Abba, Father,” as Your Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed children of God. Lord, help us in every circumstance of life to trust Your presence, to know that You are with us, that You will not fail us, and that You will not forsake us. Lord, we acknowledge that You have all power in the heavens and on Earth. You had power to give 300 men victory over 120,000. You had power to create the universe. You have power to take care of us. Lord, sometimes we’re at the end of our rope. We don’t know where to turn. Help us to turn to You, to trust Your presence and Your power. Lord, be with us as we go from this place. We pray this Lord Jesus, in Your great name. Amen.