Remember Elisha at Moses? Elisha in his service? The service of the last master, what shall we do? Look at all the hills covered with the syrians. What are we going to do? Elisha said, Lord, open his eyes. The eyes of the young man were open and he saw God close. And above the mountain he saw God's mighty eyes ready, waiting for the syrians to move and draw with me. But here it should. Elisha on his service. Yes, he may. The broadened earth. is that these two were faithful, especially like that. God was on their side, and he wanted to fool them me for realizing what it means to have God with you and God for you. You don't have to worry about the crowd and about the mob and the great organization, the great association. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, says the Lord Jesus Christ, there am I in the midst of them. I think of Mr. Stevens, Dr. Charles Stevens, from Salem Baptist Church at Winston-Salem, Dean of the Sigmund Bible College. That's the Dean of Sigmund Bible College. He's had a nice time to fellowship with Brother Stevens. One time he said to me, Brother Wilson, I have fifteen hundred members. He said this one-third of them were Christians. That's all. And he said, if one-fifth of that one-third are living like Christians, that is a good percentage. So he boiled them all down to one-hundred Christians that we could depend upon with an membership of fifteen hundred. And maybe the Lord would have reduced that a little more. What did God do on this occasion? He certainly did some reducing. It was getting you got too many. Thirty-two thousand, too many, reduced them. Get rid of the faint-hearted. Twenty-two thousand that old. You didn't thought, well, I've got ten thousand. God says there's still got to be there. There's still too many. There are a lot among that ten thousand that are not courageous. They're not ready to fight. What does God want to do? Bring them down to the water. Bring them down to the water. You know that's a very significant thing. Bring them down to the water. You can stop a lot of Christians by showing them the baptism of hands. They say, the Christians. They say they love the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if they've been baptized, no, they didn't drop them in their Christ. The Lord is bringing them down to the water. Take a good step. Whether they're really saved or not, they really want to love the Lord and obey his word. Bring them down to the water. And what happened here, this is interesting. I like to read this story. It's very interesting. Notice in verse four, And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many. Bring them down unto the water, and I will cry then for thee there. And it shall be that of whom I say unto thee, this shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee. And of whomsoever I say unto thee, this shall not go with me. The same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water, and the Lord said unto Gideon, Everyone that laugheth of the water with his tongue as a dog laugheth, him shalt thou set by himself. Likewise every one that bowed down upon his knees to drink, let him bow his way. And the number of men that laughed, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto him, By the three hundred men that laughed, will I say to you, and delivered them every night to the right hand, and let all the other people go every man to his own place. Where do they go? Where do they go? Thirty-two thousand? Twenty-two thousand? Now down to ten, sir. Three hundred. Can you do? You get three hundred good names? That's all. You know, that's the way the Lord people get about our thumbs up. You read about five hundred letters following the Lord at one time. Then you read about a hundred and twenty. Then you read a seventy. Then you read a twelve. Then you read a three. Peter, James, and John. get down to Mary, you've got one. And she's engaged in devoted worship to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have lots of people who say, I'm following the Lord's five hundred. It is not imposing the obligations of a Christian, and their numbers start to reduce. And the number of true devotions of Jesus Christ, all in all for children, gets mighty small. And eventually it comes down to the death of Jesus. Just What did the Lord say to the disciple? In John six he put a test for them. Except you, for flesh and blood of the Son of God, there's no light in you unless, in other words, you receive me into your heart to the extent where it controls your feet, your walk, your hands, what you do in your thoughts. In other words, unless you're going to be my disciple, out and out, there's no light in you. And it says many went back and walked no more with him. Fail they plunk the pet. Christ turned to the view and said, Will you also go away? I liked Peter, although Peter denied the Lord. You haven't stand up yet. Jesus Lord, to whom can you go? Now hath the word for eternal life. Who have you got to go into? I'll go. Peter was going to stand, his fine stiffened at one time buckled when he hailed the Lord Christ before a little girl. that he denied the Lord, but Peter learned his bitter lesson. But I'll tell you now, he's strong. He's got a coward. He's courageous. He's won't want, but now he's faithful. He learned that he was nothing. Now he's learned that Christ is over. Down to three hundred. Why, that means a small group, he takes it. He's down he risks. To the three hundred, battle was the important thing. Now let's see this. It's brought to spring this crowd of ten thousand down to the water. Gideon, I'm looking on. Everyone that gets down on his knees and takes a good drink, put them by himself. The one that just shoots down and takes a handful of water and laps it like this, put him by himself. Three hundred. They're the ones. You know the other fellows. You can get to him. Boy, this has got to be heavy in my bag. Just take it off. He's taking off everything. He gets down his knees. Where is his face in the water? He gets a good job. God says no. I don't know what that's all about. But this man, he's ready for battle. He's got his eye on the enemy. He's not even going to get on his knees. He doesn't take any of it off in that way. He just grabs a handful of water and lapses. He's still watching the country. God says, no, no, no. He's more interested in the battle. He's more interested in the fight than he is a drink of water. He put me first in his flesh second. There are the three hundred men. Yes, that's it. What is our first concern in life? Pleasing, sir? Is it enjoying, sir? Or is it pleasing God? These are the ones God needs. You know, it's interesting to me. Things of it like are just matched up in passing to the real Christian. His main basis is serving the Lord. These ten, three hundred, they get wrapped up in water. That's secondary to what's our main business. We've got to keep our enemy on steady the fight at any second. And with these three hundred, why God was able to do something, to depend on every one of the three hundred, every one of us. We were all tolerant. We were all faithful. We were all faithful. We were beginning to depend on every one of them, to relax. I was wonderful when the group of Christians was in the tender of every one of them. They're all there. They're not faint-hearted. They're not half-hearted. No, they're three-hundreds, three-hundreds. You know, these people were being tested without knowledge. If they had been told beforehand what the task was, they likely all, although someone likely had done it against their will, they all would have done what the three-hundred did. But they didn't have any idea what kind of a test they were being submitted to. They didn't know what God had in his mind. A simple thing. But you know, God was watching. God was watching. You know, if we knew what kind of a test God was submitting us to and what he had in mind, he'd be on our best behavior. A great person is a great character. One time he was upstairs having a day God came to the door and made him up and said, Mr. Spurgeon, there's a man here who wants to have a talk with you. Mr. Spurgeon had heard about this man. He was a young man who wanted to go as a missionary. So when Mr. Spurgeon heard the young man arrive, he stayed upstairs. After he stayed, he went to his library and started studying. He stayed there one hour. He stayed there two hours. He stayed there two hours. So when he came down, the young man was furious. He was so mad, he hardly wanted to talk to Mr. Spurgeon. And he let Mr. Spurgeon know. Spurgeon said, you're the young man the one to go to the missionary. And you don't have enough patience to wait fifteen minutes. The young man said, go to the forum, please. He was being touched with me when he was there. A missionary has got to have patience. One of the first trains of an apostle, Paul says, Turn up the trains of an apostle right among you in all cases. And a paper or an apostle has got to be taken. It's only the first time. And that young man received what was right here, a Persian who didn't know it. I'm told to be similar to that of each Persian. I like the least Persian story. It's told to be similar. It hadn't changed in so many years. See, Spurgeon happened to be shaving this time. Of course, in those days they had one of those big old shaving mugs with a big, big old brush almost like a broom. And Spurgeon said, tell him to come in. And he walked in when Mr. Spurgeon was shaving and Spurgeon was lathering his face. And the man started talking and Spurgeon was lathering his face. And the man got mad and lost his temper. Spurgeon said, I thought you didn't have any skin. He got more. He would have sinned if he wouldn't have gotten it. So he failed under the test. God said, sometimes it's only the same. He's watching you, seeing what you're doing. Test you without our knowledge sometimes. A trifle may make our state apparent. Just a trifle. Well, that seemed a little significant thing. You're taking up a handful of water and lapping it, and the others getting on their knees and taking a good big drink. That seemed a trifle. It was just enough to indicate that shows you from the other fellows, or somebody says a man from the boys separates a man from a boy. Just a little insignificant thing. You know, God is watching, ladies, and I'm going to say something here for your benefit. A little thing sometimes can indicate a thing such as wearing a hat in a fifth circle and not wearing it. Just a little thing. I don't see anything wrong with that. The Bible says in first Corinthians eleven that the ladies ought to wear their hats as covering in the fifth. Not to be so is to disobey God's word. And that passage teaches a rebellion against God's word a failure to submit to God's authority in the fifth. Just a little thing like that with a little friend. Now some don't know this as far as In that case, they're innocent of it. It is. But those who knew it and had been taught and still rebelled against it, I question as God will ever use to any great extent. It indicates a trend. Just a little bit. That's all. Just a little. But they've taken a handful of water and laughed. Not the ladies haven't been shown that in the Bible. I hope they may now. Read the first chapter, the eleventh chapter of first season. So here we have the Lord. He's got his men now. A place with a faithful pay with three hundred was not obtained by money, by knowledge or influence. It cost theft. It cost theft. You couldn't buy a place among these three hundred? No, sir. They didn't want money. You didn't have to be an MA or BD to get a place among these three hundred. or some big prominent influential character in town? No, sir. You couldn't go into these three hundred that way. Is that any of those qualifications? He had to be out and out to the Lord. He had to meet the test. Such as he that is faithful in reason, is faithful in that which is must. I watch the little things. I watch the straws, and I see this way the current floor. That's a little simple thing. That's what God says. God is watching little things. God says, I'll commit something to the man who's faithful in the little things. I know he'll be faithful when he's in custody with money. David, you were faithful to ending a few weeks. You were really faithful. You were courageous. You weren't safe-hearted. You were a lion and a bear came after those weeks. You chased the lion. You chased the bear to defend the few enemies. That teacher said it. You'll do the same when you are the head of a flock of a human being. My teacher. My teacher. Moses, you too, said the flock. There's the back side of the desert. You were faithful. You're the man. I was watching you that day. You didn't know it. But I had my eye on you. I saw your faithful. You did believe my teacher. In the fifth genie's faith in him, he says, the cross will let you use him to be gracious. I'm sure you've got your faith under. The Lord will catch. Make no mistake about life like the man. He said, I will follow you, Lord, with us, wherever thou goeth. You will? All right. He says, take up your cross and follow me. Take up your cross and follow me. Oh, but Lord, I've got to go and bury my father. Oh, you can't. No, you can't follow me. You've got to put his hand to the crown and look at that. You're not fixing the kingdom of heaven. You're putting nature before me. I've seen Christ in the ear, doesn't it? The Lord did follow me. And that's why I've got to go and bury my father. Well, you, the cross, the Lord, would have been considered enough to let him do that. The Lord has put in the young man to protect. The young man had said, Lord, I'll follow you with him to another household. All right. Come, follow me. Right now. Then he thought of an excuse. Oh, I've got to go back and look up. Why? What that means is, is not that the father had just died. But there's a custom still in the east that a man stay home until his father dies with his father's an old man. That was the newest custom in the east. This young man immediately thought of the custom. Oh, but my father's old. I forgot about that. And our custom is if I'm to stay with him and say to him, Lord, go on back. Say to me, now I'm willing to say, hey to your father and your mother, you can't be my descendant. He says, he flunked the fall for you. Very good news. The Lord will tell you. He's going to say it for a little bit. You claim to be a Christian, born again Christian. You claim to love the Lord. The Lord is going to put you to the test. And I ask you tonight, are you a Christian? Are you a born-again Christian? Are you an out-and-out Christian? Are you a faint-hearted Christian, a half-hearted Christian, or a whole-hearted Christian? Christ is all and all to you. You know it's so easy these days to just drift along in the crowd and not take anything serious. Oh, if it's convenient, I'll go, because it is not convenient, I won't. And if you wait till everything's convenient, You won't be running for the Lord at all. We're told to do what? Witness in, season, and out of season. Not a case of waiting for time is convenient. If you're waiting for that, everything to be convenient, everything to fall in line before you're running for the Lord, you won't be running. Never are we finding everything convenient. Some people stay home sometimes when they've got a headache or they're sick. I never went to the preacher. Many a time I baked in this pulpit and I thought somebody was hitting me on the head with a sledgehammer and my head was something and something and something and it wasn't anything but pleasant. I was here in agony. No peace with the preacher. He can't stay home. He's got to go. Whether he's ready for it or not, whether he feels like it or not, whether he's fit for it or not, he's got to go. Why should they demand more of the preacher than they are not prepared to be in the day? God says, Gideon, I prove you, I want three hundred like you. Then I'll be there. Chapter six, Gideon is tested, and he has tried and proved. Chapter seven is followers are being tested. How many? How many? That's what you do after. That's what you do after. Now we've got to bring in consideration some things. I'm not telling you that if you're ready to drop dead with a heart attack, you've got to come to church. I've got more sense from this. That's what I do. But I'm talking about everything. That is. And a good catch to you is in church. Well, would this keep me away from work tomorrow morning? No, it wouldn't. I'd go to work. Well, then she won't keep me away from going to church. I'm going here. It is here. God is looking on, watching His little news. These little things indicate great, great things. Great characters are often discovered by the eye of God and by a little beast, little beast. That was chapter seven and verse nine. When it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him that is unto give him, arise, get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou seest to go down, go thou with Surah, thy servant, down to the host. And thou shalt hear what they say, and ask the words, shall thine hand be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went thee down with Surah, his servant, unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host, and the middle of the night and were Malachites, and all the children of the East lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for Maudity. And their camels were without number, as they stand by the seaside for Maudity. And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream, that a Midianite soldier told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream and lo, a cake of barley dead, tumbled into the host of Midians. and came unto a tent and spoke it, that it fell and overturned it. But the tent lay alone. The fellow answered himself. This is nothing else. They the sword of Gideon, the son of Joach, and man of Israel. Gideon his hand had God delivered Midian, and all the host. But it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof that he worshipped and returned to the host Gideon and said, Arise, For the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host's rebellion. And he divided the good three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty pitcher, and lamp within the pitcher. And he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then go through the compass also, on every side of all the camp, and so the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. The Gideon and the hundred men that were with him came on the right side of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch. They had but merely swept the watch, then they blew the compass and broke the pictures that were in their hands. And if these companies blew the compass and broke the pictures and held the lance in their left hands and the compass in their right hands, they blow it all, and they tried Sore to the Lord, and of Gideon. They stood every man in his place, round about the camp, and all the hosts ran and cried and fled. The three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man's sword against his pillow. Even throughout all the hosts, and the hosts fled to Beth-Gita, in Zerudah, and to the border of Abel-Nihola, and Gadah. And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, out of Asher and out of Manasseh, all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites. The Gidduans sent messengers throughout all Mount Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites and take before then the waters unto Beth Barra and Jordan. All the men at least seemed gathered themselves together and took the waters unto Beth Barra and Jordan. And they took two princes of the Midianites, Orib and Zim. And they threw Orib upon the rock to Orib. And he they flew at the wine festival. He went to see Gideon and brought the heads of ornamental to Gideon and the other side to Gideon. Last week we were speaking upon the three hundred faithful followers of Gideon. Now the Lord selected these three hundred from fifty-two thousand. Then he reduced the number to twenty thousand and out of twenty thousand he selected three hundred. It's very significant how in studying your Bible you run across something during the route that fits into the subject that you're taking up. This week I ran across this. I thought it was very excellent, especially seeing we're taking up Gideon's three hundred faithful soldiers and called a challenge, replying some time ago to the question, why are the socialists in Milwaukee so successful? The leader of the party in that city is reported to have replied, because we put nine-tenths of our campaign funds into literature. Remember what we were saying this morning about the value of literature. Nine-tenths of their money goes into literature for the Socialist Party in Milwaukee. But here's what I want you to notice. And because we have three hundred men, talking about billions, three hundred, three hundred, for the purpose of church and literature printed in various languages in the Sunday morning leaf churches found on the front floor of the church. They call it quite easy to get up when they're taking a thread at nine forty-five. They'll get up at five o'clock. It's scattered a little bit. Socialists are just as fond of speaking on Sunday morning as Christians are. Socialists often work as hard during the week as Christians do. shall we not exert ourselves at heartily for a loving failure, as they do for a mere principle? It would be considered worthwhile to leave messages, messages on socialism at the homes of greedy citizens. It is surely more, much more worthwhile to give their messages of eternal value. What is your answer, my brother, my sister, to this challenge? Lord, a challenge it truly is. We will give of your time to give service to the Lord so simple and yet fraught with such tremendous possibility. Or when you allow your message, you can continue and leave souls to perish without an opportunity of carrying the message you could so easily give them. Do you think enough of the gospel as you use? And do you sufficiently love your Lord? To be willing to deny yourself just a little comfort that souls around you will learn of God's great salvation. Or must it be admitted that you do not fear? What a Christian challenge that is. Gridion's three hundred, and it seems we have three hundred specialists in the Rockies, and they arise into the occasion. Relatively all of it. On our subject tonight, we have Gridion with his three hundred. God has tested. He's weeded out the ones he wants, and now the battle is to be joined. When it is where the enemy is gathered, they're gathered at King Red, and King Red means trembling. And here is this vast hope that it was a vast hope. You find in verse twelve it says, And the Midianites and Amalekites and all the children of the East lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for Molybden. And the Tamils are without number as they stand by the sea side for Molybden. And against this great horse of J. Parney, two hundred men. My haramish was fruitful, his brother will be. Is that true? For all his it was three hundred men. And they didn't leave a man. I was struck in studying with this afternoon before coming to the meeting. They didn't have one casual there. This day, lucid day, destroyed that great army because God was with the three hundred men. The enemy was friendly. That's the meaning of Ava friendly. You know God is a gracious God. How many shall we think of Gideon? Gideon had already had two remarkable signs that his God will for him to leave the three hundred and to fight against the Midianites. Remember we were speaking to you to go tonight on the fleece? And how did he ask God to search that we should do? And let the ground be dry and so it was. And Gideon says, Lord, let me speak again. Double this. Give me double evidence here with me. Now let the duty on the ground all around and let the fleece be dry. And God answered it. Well, I would have thought that's all the encouragement of all the evidence here that he did. God is very conciliate and he said. You know what God did? He took it upon himself. He didn't ask for this. He said, Gideon, I want you to take one of your men. And I want you to go down to the edge of the host of the Midianites. They're all enchanted in their sense. And I want you to take one of your men. If you don't want to go alone, take another man with you. And I want you to listen. And bring him to this good man with him, good of any end. And down they go for hope. And they listen. One of the Midianites told you, they said, He raised his colleagues and I just had a dream. He said, the Bali kids were entangling into the camp for Midian and he turned the camp over. That means another camp and another camp and another camp and another camp. And his colleagues told him that that's nothing else. The sword of Midian! And it struck me with simply army of the Midianites. The soldiers lost their morale. It's all how it encouraged Midian. Should Guru remove this encouragement? God said, I want it.