Our Bible reading this morning is taken from
the book of Judges, chapter 6.
The book of Judges, chapter 6.
We're going to commence to read at verse
7.
Judges, chapter 6, verse 7.
And it came to pass when the children
of Israel cried unto the LORD because of
the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet
unto the children of Israel, which said unto
them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
I brought you up from Egypt, and brought
you forth out of the house of bondage.
And I delivered you out of the hand
of the Egyptians, and out of the hand
of all that oppressed you, and draved them
out from before you, and gave you their
land.
And I said unto you, I am the
LORD your God.
Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in
whose land ye dwell, but ye have not
obeyed my voice.
And there came an angel of the LORD,
and sat under an oak, which was in
Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Ebe Ezraite,
and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the
winepress to hide it from the Midianites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto
him, and said unto him, The LORD is
with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
And Gideon said unto him, O my LORD,
if the LORD be with us, why then
is all this befallen us?
And where be all his miracles, which our
fathers told us of, saying, Did not the
LORD bring us up from Egypt?
But now the LORD hath forsaken us, and
delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
And the LORD looked upon him, and said,
Go in this thy might, and thou shalt
save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.
Have not I sent thee?
And he said unto him, O my LORD,
wherewith shall I save Israel?
Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and
I am the least in my father's house.
And the LORD said unto him, Surely I
will be with thee, and thou shalt smite
the Midianites as one man.
And he said unto him, If now I
have found grace in thy sight, then show
me a sign that thou talkest with me.
Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I
come unto thee, and bring forth my present,
and set it before thee.
And he said, I will tarry until thou
come again.
And Gideon went in, and made ready a
kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of
flour, the flesh he put in a basket,
and he put the broth in a pot,
and brought it out unto him under the
oak, and presented it.
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.
Then the angel of the LORD put forth
the end of the staff that was in
his hand, and touched the flesh and the
unleavened cakes.
And there rose up fire out of the
rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened
cakes.
Then the angel of the LORD departed out
of his sight.
And when Gideon perceived that he was an
angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O
LORD God, for because I have seen an
angel of the LORD face to face.
And the LORD said unto him, Peace be
unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die.
Then Gideon built an altar there unto the
LORD, and called it Jehovah Shalom.
Unto this day it is yet an offering
of the Abiezrites.
And it came to pass the same night,
that the LORD said unto him, Take thy
father's young bullock, even the second bullock of
seven years old, and throw down the altar
of Baal that thy father hath, and cut
down the grove that is by it.
And build an altar unto the LORD thy
God upon the top of this rock in
the ordered place, and take the second bullock,
and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood
of the grove which thou shalt cut down.
Then Gideon took ten men of his servants,
and did as the LORD had said unto
him.
And so it was, because he feared his
father's household and the men of the city,
that he could not do it by day,
that he did it by night.
And when the men of the city arose
early in the morning, and, behold, the altar
of Baal was cast down, and the grove
was cut down that was by it, and
the second bullock was offered upon the altar
that was built, they said one to another,
Who hath done this thing?
When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon
the son of Joash hath done this thing.
Then the men of the city said unto
Joash, Bring out thy son that he may
die, because he hath cast down the altar
of Baal, and because he hath cut down
the grove that was by it.
And Joash said unto all that stood against
him, Will ye plead for Baal?
Will ye see of him?
He that will plead for him, let him
be put to death while it is yet
morning.
If he be a god, let him plead
for himself, because one hath cast down his
altar.
Therefore on that day he called him Jerubeel,
saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he
hath thrown down his altar.
Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and
the children of the east were gathered together,
and went over and pitched in the valley
of Jezreel.
But the Spirit of the Lord came upon
Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abiezer
was gathered after him.
And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, who
also was gathered after him.
And he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto
Zebulun, and unto Naphtali.
And they came to meet them.
And the Lord will add his own blessing
to this fairly lengthy portion from his own
precious word for his name's sake.
We turn to this passage of Scripture this
morning, because it not only contains an interesting
history, it also lays before us a very
clear and graphic Bible study in the subject
of scriptural and spiritual revival.
I thought that this would be a very
good passage to turn to for our last
Sabbath day with you here, because as we
have met for prayer week by week in
this church, and as I have been around
many of the homes and talking to many
of the people here, I find that there
is an interest in this subject of revival.
We have seen something of God's blessing, and
for that we praise Him.
But we do not fool ourselves.
We have not yet seen revival.
Yes, we have been taken a little further
along the pathway of blessing.
But we are not in revival.
One of the most foolish things a person
or a church can do is to kid
themselves that they are actually on a higher
plane spiritually than they really are.
In that way, they become self-satisfied and
they miss the very things which the Lord
has for them.
Now, as we turn to this passage, there
will be, and I had better give you
this at the beginning in case, as very
often happens, I will not get anywhere near
through the message.
We have before us a simple outline that
starts right at the beginning.
Now, you say, that is a trite thing
to say, where else would it start?
Well, so many preachers, when they get to
talking about revival, they do not start at
the beginning.
They start anywhere else but at the beginning.
But this passage starts right at the beginning.
It takes you through the history of a
people who are far away from revival, brings
you step by step through their experience until
they are actually in the experience of God's
revival blessing.
As I say, I will give you the
outline so that you can study it through
at your leisure after I have gone on
to other pastors.
We started at verse 7 of chapter 6.
And from verse 7 through to verse 11,
you will find the indications of revival.
The indications of revival dealing with God's ordained
signs.
And then from verse 11 right through, you
will find the instrument in revival.
And there the subject is God's ordained servant.
You have a character study in the character
of this man, Gideon.
And then finally, right at the end of
our Bible reading, from verse 25 through to
the end of our reading, and indeed had
we time right through the following chapters, you
have God's ordained start, the institution of revival,
how God actually set it in motion.
So we have the indications of revival, God's
ordained signs of revival.
We have the instrument in revival, God's ordained
servant in the revival.
And finally, the institution of revival, God's ordained
start of revival.
Now we are going to look at those
things as the Lord enables us.
First of all, the indications, the signs which
the Lord gave.
You will notice verse 7.
It came to pass when the children of
Israel cried unto the Lord because of the
Midianites.
The first sign that revival was on the
way was given when yet the oppression of
the enemy was very strong, when the powers
of darkness were ranging throughout the land, when
the work of God was at an all
-time low.
And then there came the first indication of
revival.
What was it?
It was simply among the people of God
a feeling of their need and a getting
down to earnest prayer.
They were not now merely interested in going
through the forms.
They were not now merely interested in saying
the right words in prayer.
But they were a people prostrated before God
with broken hearts and yearning spirits.
And they are crying, Lord, we have lost
the power and the blessing of God.
And we have come unto the dominion and
the oppression of the enemy.
And while the work of God languishes, the
cause of Satan flourishes in the land.
And they began to cry and to plead
for an intervention of God.
That was the very first indication of a
stirring of the Lord in the midst.
And let me say this to you, that
that is always the first indication of revival.
And any process of church building or blessing,
in quotes, is unscriptural unless it starts there.
My friend, unless we see our need, unless
we see the awful spiritual declension and apostasy
of the day in which we are living,
unless we feel, as so many Christians do,
unless we feel deliberately to come to terms
and to get used to the awful spiritual
apathy and coldness of the day, and unless
then we get down to business with God,
there will never be a stirring of God
in the midst.
It starts with a people on their faces
before God.
That is where it commences.
My friend, as I leave this congregation, I
can give you no better advice and I
can leave with you no stronger plea than
that you be a people of prayer.
A people who will, as did the early
apostles, Renax chapter 6, give themselves to prayer
and to the Word of God.
And as you go to prayer, crying out
to God, you are dealing with a God
who answers prayer.
That is the very first indication of a
stirring of revival.
But you will notice how God answered the
prayer.
The second indication of revival, verse 7 through
to verse 10, was faithful preaching.
Now, I want you to watch this carefully.
Verse 7, It came to pass when the
children of Israel cried unto the Lord because
of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a
prophet.
That is how God answered prayer.
The people were asking that God would send
a military commander.
Now, he had to come and he was
coming later.
The people were asking that God break the
heavens and come down with miraculous power that
would consume the enemy.
Now, God was going to do that.
That would come later.
But one thing they were not expecting was
the very thing which the Lord gave them.
They prayed, Lord, deliver us from the Midianites.
And God immediately sent a preacher.
And again, let me emphasize it.
That is how God works.
And that is how God indicates that revival
is on the way.
For revival is indicated not merely by faithful
praying and earnest, strong crying, but by faithful
preaching.
And any church building program that is not
built solidly upon the exposition of the Word
of God, preaching that deals with sin, preaching
that calls for repentance of sin, preaching which
humbles the hearts of proud men, and preaching
which brings people to repentance, that movement is
not of God.
Because when God answers a prayer for revival,
He sends a preacher.
And what's more, I think this prophet was
a free Presbyterian.
For he certainly talked like one anyway.
An uncompromising preacher.
He didn't come to beat about the bush.
He didn't come to tickle the ears of
the hearers that God gave him.
He didn't come on a quest for popularity.
He didn't come to build up his own
personality and his own reputation among the people.
He came to deliver his soul of a
message, whether they would hear or whether they
would forbear.
My friend, when Greenville gets preaching in the
power of the Holy Ghost and with the
anointing of God's blessing, preaching that is straight
up and down the line, preaching that sticks
to the book, whoever likes it or whoever
doesn't like it, then you have an indication
that though the world may hit you and
scorn you and the church establishment may turn
their back upon you, yet God is for
you because this is an indication of revival.
Then you will see the third thing.
Following the preaching, verse 11, is the heavens
opened.
Now that is a tremendous verse.
There came an angel of the Lord.
I don't want to get off the track,
but if you read the passage carefully, you
will see that the angel of the Lord
in this passage, as He is in so
many passages, is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ.
This is what is called in theology a
theophany.
An appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ prior
to His actual incarnation.
You will see that verse 14, it's still
speaking of the angel.
It says, "...the Lord looked on him and
said..." Jehovah looked on him and said.
So, the angel was none other than the
Lord Jesus Himself.
The heavens were opened and the Lord came
down.
I want to tell you, that is revival.
That is revival.
Isaiah in chapter 64 was praying.
It's a wonderful prayer.
I often pray it.
I would command it to you.
Not merely as a matter of words, but
to get down with this book open before
you and pour out your soul and make
every word of those opening verses of Isaiah
64 the petition of your heart.
Oh, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens!
That Thou wouldst come down!
That the mountains might flow down at Thy
presence!
We have mountains of opposition about us today.
We have mountains of worldly power.
We have mountains of apostasy.
We have mountains of immorality.
We have mountains of every kind of social
evil and iniquity that it is possible to
imagine.
We would need to cry, Oh, that Thou
wouldst rend the heavens!
The heavens which have become like brass.
Heavens which are shut against us.
People pray and they get no answers.
Churches have prayer meetings and they get no
response.
The heavens are like brass.
There is no shower of blessing from glory.
Oh, we would need to pray that Thou
wouldst rend the heavens and come down.
That the mountains might flow down at Thy
presence as when the melting fire burneth.
Oh, the Lord can come with force, with
fury, with power just as He needs to
come.
And He will come in answer to prayer
and following the faithful preaching of the Word
of God.
Those are the indications of revival.
I think that we can take encouragement then
in the church.
The Lord has been in our midst.
We have had times of prayer when souls
have been led to pour out their very
deepest desires to the Lord.
When hearts have been broken, we have a
preaching which the Lord has come and blessed.
We have seen the Lord's presence in a
marked manner in the midst.
So there are indications, there are ordained signs
of the movings of God in the midst.
Now we move on to the instrument in
revival, God's ordained servant.
I want you to look at the person
involved here.
His name is Gideon.
Now, Gideon you will see from verse 11
and verse 12 was both a worker and
a warrior.
You'll see that in verse 11.
He threshed wheat by the winepress to hide
it from the Midianites.
He was a worker.
Verse 12, The Lord is with thee, thou
mighty man of valor.
He was a warrior.
And those two things go together.
And the Lord had a man who was
a worker and a warrior because in revival
you need to be both.
There is a place for working and a
place for warring.
So many people, and they are happy with
the work, but they don't want the warfare.
There are other people, must have a wee
bit of the Irish in them, and they
are happy to have the warfare, but they
don't want the work.
The two things go together and you can't
possibly be in revival having one without the
other.
Now, the word Gideon means a feller.
One who fells or hews down.
And it was an apt name for the
man that God was calling to the work
and warfare of the cause of Jehovah in
Israel at that time.
He was called, and you'll see the Lord
put him to this very quickly, to hew
down the altar of Beal.
To hew down the grove where the idol
worship of Beal was carried on.
And then he was called to build up
the altar of the Lord.
You see, that's the way that God presents
this work of revival.
Jeremiah was sent to pull down and to
destroy and then to build.
Gideon was sent out as one who would
hew down and then build up.
This is what the Lord sends His people
out to do.
A preacher who is not against anything.
A preacher who does not have what the
New Evangelicals mockingly describe as a negative ministry.
Has no ministry at all.
If I am not against anything, I cannot
be for anything.
If I am for Christ, I am against
Antichrist.
If I am for the Bible, I am
against the liberals.
And I am against the modernists.
And I am against every pervader of the
Word of God's truth.
There is no way a man can be
faithful to God without having a double side
to his ministry.
A pulling down and a building up.
And that is exactly what Gideon was called
to do.
Now you will notice the preparation of this
man, Gideon.
His call is given to us in some
detail.
You will notice first the place of his
call.
I haven't time to follow this through in
any great detail, but it did interest me
to notice that it was in Ophrah under
an oak.
Now, there are many laws of Bible interpretation.
Many things which help you to understand the
Bible as you are studying.
I am not going to try to go
into them this morning, but there is one
which Dr. Peasley is very, very fond of.
And for a while, he was really making
sure that everybody who went to his church
got this and learned it and put it
into practice.
And it is the law of what one
writer calls the first mention.
You go back to the first time a
word or a phrase occurs in Scripture and
see its significance there.
And normally, that sets the tone right throughout
the Bible.
It is a wonderful thing to realize because
it lets you know that the Lord has
planned this Bible.
And He has planned it right down to
the use of the words and where they
first occur and how they first occur.
Now, in Genesis 35, you've got the first
occurrence of the word oak.
Now, watch it very carefully.
Genesis 35.
Let's just quickly start at verse 1.
God said unto Jacob, Arise and go up
to Bethel, and dwell there.
Make there an altar unto God that appeared
unto thee when thou fleddest from the face
of Esau thy brother.
Then Jacob said unto his household and to
all that were with him, Put away the
strange gods that are among you.
Be clean and change your garments.
And let us arise and go up to
Bethel.
And I will make there an altar unto
God who answered me in the day of
my distress and was with me in the
way which I went.
And they gave unto Jacob all the strange
gods that were in their hand and all
their earrings which were in their ears.
And Jacob hid them under the oak which
was by Shechem.
That's the very first mention of the word
in the Old Testament Scriptures.
And isn't it interesting that under the oak
is the place of cleansing.
It's the place of consecration.
It's the place where they give up everything
to the Lord.
And that is the significance of the oak.
Indeed, if you read on, I haven't time
to follow it through, as I said, you
will find that under the oak also was
the place where Jacob's old nurse died and
she was buried.
In other words, all that nourished the old
flesh was put to death and buried under
the oak.
And that's all there in the significance of
the Word and the phrase.
Now we come to Judges 6.
Where was Gideon?
He was under the oak.
He was in the place of total consecration.
He was in the place where all that
nourished the old carnal man was put to
death and was buried.
And he had given up all he had
and all he was to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And it's significant that when Gideon got under
the oak, there the Lord came to him.
And there the Lord called him into full
time service and into a work that was
to bring revival to His people.
I want to tell you this morning that
that's the kind of man and woman the
Lord is looking for in this church.
Looking for people who are not playing with
the idols of this world.
People who are saying, the dearest idol I
have known, whate'er that idol be, help
me to tear it from thy throne and
worship only thee.
My friends, you may be saved this morning,
but I want to tell you, unless the
Lord has your whole heart and your whole
being and everything you are and own, then
you are never going to be of any
use to the Lord.
The Lord does not take a genius.
The Lord does not take a millionaire.
The Lord does not take a person of
great talents and use one-tenth of those
abilities and say, now, I'm going to make
great inroads into the kingdom of Satan and
I'm going to overthrow the devil through the
use of one-tenth of this great man's
talents, time, money, or whatever it is.
God doesn't do that.
But the Lord will take the person, whether
he's rich or poor, great or small, talented
or untalented.
He'll take the person who gives everything.
It may be just like the poor widow
coming with her two knights.
Your life might be just like two knights.
You may have no great education.
You may have no great abilities in the
eyes of the world.
You may not have much money to give
to the Lord.
But my friend, whatever you are and have,
you bring it.
And you say, Lord, take everything.
I'm not giving you part of my heart.
I'm giving you all of my heart.
I'm not giving you part of my home.
I'm giving you all of my home.
I want to tell you when you give
the Lord all you are and have, the
Lord will take all you are and have.
And He will use it.
That's what He did with Gideon.
You will notice the grace of this man's
call.
He was the fifth judge.
There is a significance to Scripture numbers.
And five in Scripture is usually connected with
the thought of grace.
It was grace that made Gideon all he
was.
You will notice what God said to him
in verse 12, The Lord is with thee,
thou mighty man of valor.
Just think of that.
The most courageous thing that Gideon had ever
done was to thresh wheat.
He had never had a sword in his
hand.
He had never been to battle.
He had never drawn a drop of blood.
He had never even blown in the face
of the enemy.
He had only threshed wheat.
And yet the Lord comes and says, You
are a mighty man of valor.
Because you see, when the Lord saves a
man and calls a man to serve Him,
the Lord doesn't look at that man as
the world looks at him.
The Lord looks at him as grace can
make him.
The Lord looks at you this morning.
Thank God He doesn't look at you as
the world looks.
The world looks at you and says, Oh,
there's a bigot.
There's an old-fashioned Bible-thumping half-wit.
Well, let the world say what they want
to say.
My friend, the Lord looks at you today
and He's saying, Just give Me that leg.
Just give it to Me.
Just lay all you are and all you
have in the palm of God's hand and
say, Lord, I'm here to serve you with
all My being.
And the Lord says, I'll make you something
that the world has never dreamed of.
I can use you.
A young person this morning, the Lord can
take you and use you.
He's looking for young men and young women.
I find it a tragedy that so many
young Christians are drifting through life without the
slightest bit of purpose.
They don't know what they're doing with their
lives.
They're planning this and changing it and planning
the other thing and changing it.
They're just being knocked from pillar to post.
They have no idea as to what's happening
in their lives.
The best thing you can do as a
young Christian this morning is to get right
down before the Lord and say, Lord, here's
my life.
There it is.
I want to tell you, be careful when
you do that.
Just be very careful when you do that
because the Lord will take you at your
word.
I remember when I did that.
I said, Lord, here I am.
I'm willing to sell out to God.
In two years, the Lord had me in
studying for the ministry.
And I told you before, I never had
any great desire to be a preacher.
I never thought I could be a preacher.
I certainly wanted to serve the Lord, but
I never saw myself as a minister.
But the Lord put His hand and said,
Out you go.
I have known people that said, Lord, here's
my life.
And the Lord has just taken them.
And He's made them mighty in the work
of God.
Dr. Paisley was only a young man in
his teens.
His father was a great preacher.
His mother also was a tremendous soul winner.
But he had always wanted to be a
farmer.
In those days, they followed the plow.
They didn't sit in a tractor with a
plow following them.
They followed the plow.
There he was.
And he was...
I forget whether he was plowing or harrowing.
I think it was harrowing, actually.
And the Lord dealt with him.
Just a teenager.
A big country boy from a town in
Balamina, the heart of Northampton.
And the Lord put His hand on him
and called him to preach.
You'll not believe this, but when he preached
his first sermon, one Baptist pastor who was
in the meeting said to old J.
Kyle Paisley, he said, Brunner Paisley, you'll never
make a preacher out of that fellow.
You'll never make a preacher out of him.
First sermon, I think, lasted about 10 minutes
and nearly killed him.
Now, it nearly kills him to stay under
an hour and 10 minutes.
But the thing is this.
The Lord had put His hand in that
young life and the Lord had said, I
want you.
The Lord took him and fashioned him until
there's not a man in the whole of
Europe today.
And I say that very carefully.
There's not a man in the whole of
Europe that has seen done for God what
that man has seen.
Not that the man is anything, but that
God takes a Gideon and by grace fills
him with the Holy Spirit and really uses
him.
And notice Gideon's concern when he was called.
Look at verse 13.
Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with
us, why then is all this befallen us
and where be all His miracles which our
fathers told us of?
That reminds me of the 44th Psalm.
And it's a good prayer for the people
of God to pray.
Psalm 44, we have heard with our ears,
O God, our fathers have told us what
work Thou didst in their days.
In the times of old.
This to me is a tragedy as it
was to Gideon as it was to the
psalmist.
You just stop and think of it.
All the blessing, all the revival that this
country has ever seen, it's in the past.
The only thing you know about revival is
what you read about it.
What somebody else tells you about it.
All I know about revival is what my
father told me he saw and he heard
in the days of W.P. Nicholson preaching
in Belfast, when riots were turned into revival,
when thousands of shipyard workers bent on a
campaign of destruction, turned like a tidal wheel
and went to hear the preaching of the
Gospel and were saved in countless thousands.
But I have never seen that.
Oh, we have seen blessing.
We have seen people saved.
We have seen churches built.
We have seen apostasy stem to a degree.
We have seen some blessing.
But we have never seen that kind of
revival.
We have heard with our ears.
And surely it ought to concern us.
Let me say this to you.
My friend, don't let us ever settle for
less than God's best.
And as a church, let us not measure
ourselves by ourselves.
Let me explain that.
Let's not say, well, now we never saw
anybody saved.
Now we are seeing one or two saved.
Boys, we are in revival.
Let's not say we used to have 100
people coming.
Now we have 150 people coming.
Man, we are in revival.
Let's not even measure ourselves by other churches
and say, well, now they have reached this
level.
Oh, aren't we so good?
We are one step above them.
That's not the way you go about it.
My friend, measure yourself by the Word of
God and you will find that in this
nation, and this is a vast nation with
big churches, with very successful preachers, but still
I am going to launch out and say
it anyway.
In this nation, there is not a spot
where there is revival.
There is not a square inch of America
today.
Not a square inch of Britain where there
is old time Pentecostal revival.
Oh, you've got many a counterfeit.
But there is not the fullness of power.
Oh yes, we do thank God for the
blessings.
I thank God for the churches in this
vast country that are winning souls and building
up Christians and standing against apostasy.
I am not knocking them.
I thank God for them.
But nonetheless, let's measure our experience by the
Word of God.
And we have got to say with Gideon,
Lord, where are all the miracles?
Where are the demonstrations of power?
Where are the old time blessings where men
and women, just hearing a word of Gospel,
were smitten with such conviction that they were
trembling lest they would drop into hell?
Where is that kind of power?
We've got to cry to the Lord for
that, my friend.
Let's not settle for anything short of it.
That's our concern.
And when you get concerned, you'll get a
commission.
Verse 14, Go.
I've only time just to say what the
Lord said to him.
Go.
That's his activity.
You'll never get revival sitting back theorizing.
There are so many people and they say,
no, we need revival.
What will we do?
We'll call a committee.
And we'll get a committee together.
And we'll all sit down and we'll talk.
My friend, it's the greatest lot of rubbish
that the devil ever foisted on the church
of Christ.
Revival doesn't come through committee meetings.
Revival doesn't come through rubbing our chins together
and saying we're going to have all sorts
of wise schemes.
Revival isn't worked up from the flesh like
that.
No, my friend, you get a commission.
Go.
There's a spiritual activity involved.
And then there is the ability in this
thy might.
Oh, how do we get revival?
My friend, it's like the new birth.
It's a miracle.
It's the miracle of the Spirit's power.
We need the infilling of the Spirit of
God.
And we need God's people therefore day and
daily.
Commence each day with the prayer, Lord, fill
me with Thy Spirit.
That's what we need.
Now nothing short of that is going to
do.
You can't buy revival.
You can't organize revival.
No way you can get it unless the
Lord breaks the heavens and comes down and
fills us with His Spirit.
There's going to be no revival.
In this thy might is the ability.
Then once you get full of the Holy
Ghost, you have the assurance, thou shalt see
of Israel.
Why wouldn't that be a tremendous word for
this church?
You shall see of Greenville.
You shall see of South Carolina.
You shall see of the United States.
The Lord can do that, you know.
Thou shalt.
And then the authority.
Have not I sent thee?
Now that's the sweetest thing of all.
Gideon could face the devil and all the
hordes of hell and say the Lord has
sent me.
Then the Lord gave him this great confirmation.
Verse 15-24.
Verse 15.
Gideon's poverty is confirmed.
Verse 16.
God's promise was confirmed.
Verse 17-24.
God's power was confirmed to Gideon.
The token of God's power was fire.
It always is.
Elijah was the prophet of fire.
On the day of Pentecost, the Lord sent
tongues of living fire.
John the Baptist promised that the Lord Jesus
Christ would baptize with fire and with the
Holy Ghost.
The hymn writer said it's fire we need.
For fire we plead.
Lord, send the fire.
My, let's make it our petition today.
The token of God's power is fire.
The time that this token was given is
interesting.
You'll find verse 21.
Then.
When?
Well, when Gideon had offered up the sacrifice.
You see, the power of the Holy Ghost
is given us on the ground of the
blood of Christ, on the ground of Calvary.
But then again, the power of the fire
was given.
The time of the token was when Gideon
continued to wait before the Lord.
And then again, when Gideon fully obeyed the
Lord.
Now, these all have New Testament counterparts.
When is the Holy Ghost given in fullness?
When God's people wait before Him.
And when God's people earnestly yield up all
they are in obedience to the Savior.
The teaching of that emblem of fire that
we read of was very significant.
It taught Gideon that God could take the
most unlikely and the most useless things and
use them.
He brought fire out of a rock.
Now, you don't normally get fire out of
a rock.
In fact, if you wanted fire, that would
be the last place you'd go for it.
Just as if you'd wanted a great leader
for Israel, humanly speaking, Gideon would have been
the last one you'd have gone to.
A farm boy is hardly good material as
a politician or a military leader.
But God takes fire out of a rock.
And He can take a farm boy and
make him into a mighty man of God.
He takes the most useless.
That's what Gideon was taught.
And he was taught something else.
That the result of this demonstration of God's
power was the exaltation of the altar and
the offering of the Lord.
Because on that rock, there was built God's
altar.
We've got to learn this.
So many people want the fullness and the
fire of the Holy Ghost as an experience.
There are thousands, millions across the world that
have gone mad after the charismatic delusion.
They want experience.
That's why people get into all sorts of
things.
This experience and the other experience.
My friends, let me tell you, when God
sends the power of Pentecost, the result is
to exalt the cross, to exalt the blood,
and to bring people to the Savior.
So that's the man that God used.
Oh, may the Lord take us and make
us like Gideon.
I have only time just to mention the
ordained start, the institution of revival.
It's interesting, verse 25, that it started with
a battle.
Sometimes we get the notion that revival never
has a battle.
But it starts with a battle.
And you'll notice where the battle was.
It was against the foe on the inside.
That's where it started.
And if there's going to be revival in
Greenville, I want to tell you, you're going
to have to fight the foe on the
inside.
But then again, you'll find that it continued
with a battle, verse 33.
This time against the foe on the outside.
Then it climaxed, verse 34, with the outpouring
in all his foes of the Spirit of
God.
That's how revival starts.
Battling, continuing to battle, but with the blessing
of God.
Oh, that the Lord would ram the heavens
today.
Oh, that the Lord would come down.
And I would trust and pray that in
the days to come, the Lord will answer
the prayers of this people.
That He'll send them a prophet.
That He'll send them a Gideon.
And that you, like Abiezer and Manasseh, will
up, leave all behind you, and follow the
man of God through into the fullness of
blessing to know revival and all the dynamic
proportions of Pentecostal fullness.