Well, thank you for being here this morning and the morning service. I hope you’ll come back tonight. Bloxton is going to be preaching tonight. So if we get through this this morning. And if you can endure this in between the two good services that we’ve had. I was thinking about Brother Mark teaching Sunday school. And I’m in a different church about every week. And I’ve been in churches all over the country and some out of country. Sometimes probably about maybe 50% of the time when I’m in a service. A church. I’ll teach Sunday school. But then the other half of the time. Someone else will teach where I’m at. And I was trying to think this morning of a Sunday school teacher. I enjoy hearing more than Brother Mark, and I couldn’t think of a one and blessed my heart. He always helps me in the Sunday school hour, and I appreciate that, and I appreciate his study and I appreciate his spirit. When he delivers the sermon, you can tell it’s on his heart and that he’s been spending time with it. And I’m having a lot of throat trouble. You can probably tell when I sing. Dr. A. T. Humphrey said to me one time when I was like this, he used to sing in schools all over the place. He said, Ronald McBride, let me let you in on a little secret. I said, what’s that? He said, if it hurts you to sing it, it hurts them to hear it. So hopefully it didn’t hurt it didn’t hurt you too bad this morning. But the ladies, if you listen to ladies but I’ve just had this trouble. I don’t know, it might get better, it might get worse. Usually it gets a little better when I preach, so hopefully it will. I want you to look with me in Judges chapter seven. Now. The last time we’ve looked at this passage here already before in Judges chapter seven. And talking about Gideon and about a man named Pura. And I preached it here I don’t know how long ago. On the company of Pura. But as I was reading through the scripture again and read over this. I got a little more light than I had the last time. And I want to preach on it again from a little bit different viewpoint. And I feel like it will help us. This morning in Judges chapter number seven. I think I mentioned this to you before. I was reading a book, a fellow called me, and he had a library given to him, about 8000 volumes, and he said, Rob McBride, I’ve had all these books given to me, and I don’t know what to do with them, and I wonder if you could help me with them. He wanted to set up a library for his Bible Institute students. I said, I’ll be glad to help you. So when I went there, one of the books I was looking through the books, and I’m still not finished with it, setting it up, but I found a little book, and in that book this man had been involved in the ministry of Charles Spurgeon, and he had a group of men that were layman. I’d never heard of them. They had a group of men that were laymen, and he called them the company of Pura. And they were men that were not preachers, but they helped the man of God. So if you remember, we looked at this text before and we thought about men being a help to the man of God. But I want to look at it a little bit differently this morning in Judges, chapter seven, we won’t read all of this passage, but look in verse number seven. In verse seven, the Bible said in the Lord said unto Gideon, by the 300 men that lacked will I save you and deliver the Medianites into thine hand. Let all the other people go, every man unto his place. So the people took victims in their hand and their trumpets, and he sent all the rest of Israel, every man into his tent and retained those 300 men. And the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley. And it came to pass the same night that the Lord said unto him, arise, get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand. But if thou fear to go down, go thou with pure thy servant down to the host, and thou shalt hear what they say. And afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then when he down with Pura, his servant onto the outside of the armed men that were in the host, and the meteorites and the Malachites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude and their camels were without number as the sand by the seaside for multitude. And when Gideon was coming, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow and said, behold, I dreamed a dream. And loa, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent and smote it, that it fell and overturned it, that the tent lay along. And his fellow answered, and saved this is nothing else saved the sword of Gideon, the son of Josh, a man of Israel. For into his hand hath God delivered Gideon and all the host. And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he worshiped, and returned to the host of Israel and said, arise, for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Median. I want to talk to you about this man Tura for a little while this morning and from a little different viewpoint than we did last time. We talked about him last time as a helper to the man of God, and again he is a helper. But I want to look at Fordh this morning as a reminder or an example of the Holy Spirit of God. Let’s pray a moment. We’ll ask the Lord to help his Father. We need you today. Help us to say the things you’d have us to say that would glorify you. And Lord, if you get glory, then your people will get help. Help us, I pray in Jesus name, amen. Now we know about Gideon. We read about him. My brother mentioned him just briefly in our Sunday school lesson. He’s mentioned, I think, 13 times in chapter number seven. He is the hero of the story. When we read about the defeat of the meteorites, we read about him over there in chapter number eleven of the Book of Hebrews. He’s in the hall of faith. But here is another man in the passage without whom the victory would never have been won. And his name is Pura and he’s only mentioned twice in our Bible and it’s right here in Judges chapter number seven. Now, I would say to you today that pure reminds me of the Holy Spirit of God. I won’t call him a type of the Holy Spirit, but he certainly reminds me of the Holy Spirit. You say, Preacher, how does he remind you of the Holy Spirit? Three things he reminds me of the Holy Spirit. First of all, because he is one sent alongside to help. Here is Gideon. He is afraid to go down to the edge of the host. He needs someone who will help him to go. And so God has someone to send alongside. And that’s what the Holy Ghost is. He’s one sent alongside to help. The Pere Leita we read about in the Greek language, and I’m not a big student of Greek, but I do know how to use a strong concordance and that pericletos. It means someone summoned or called to one side and called to one side to a so here is Gideon supposed to do the work of God, but he does not have the courage to do it. So God sends him someone to help him along. That’s what God has done for us. He sent us the Holy Spirit. He’s not just alongside of us, he’s in us. If we’re safe, we’re indwelt by the Spirit of God. And then not only is he one called alongside the health, he is silent in his work. He reminds me of the Holy Ghost because he does not draw any attention unto Himself. When the battle has been won, we don’t hear Purists saying, hey, look at me. I had a part of this. Don’t forget about me. And you know the Holy Ghost. He does not draw attention to Himself. He wants to draw attention to Christ. He wants to point you to the Lord Jesus. Jesus said of him, he said that when he has come, he shall testify of me in another place. He said, he shall bring to your remembrance all the words that I’ve spoken unto you are all things I’ve spoken unto you. So he is silent in his work. He sent alongside the help. And then he reminds me of the Holy Spirit. For this reason he is both sovereign and servant. Now, it interests me, the language here. Watch what it says in verse number ten. But if thou fear to go down, I’ll pay close attention these next few words go thou, go thou with Pura. Now, notice that it doesn’t say Take Pura with you. It says go with him. So I get the idea that Pura is in charge of this excursion. But then it says this go thou with pure thy servant. Does it strike you odd that the servant would be in charge? It will say the same thing in verse number eleven. It said Then went he down with Pura, his servant. So we have a servant who is in charge. Now, you think about the Holy Spirit. He has come alongside to help me and to serve me, to help me to do the work of God. And yet he is God. He is sovereign and servant at the same time. So pura reminds me of the Holy Spirit. Now, I want to talk to you about pure for a moment. There are two or three things I want you to notice in this passage. And I want us to get an idea about the work of the Spirit of God. The Bible tells us over in Ephesians, grieve not and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed under the day of redemption. Why is it we’re not to grieve him? Because we can’t win any battles and win any victories without his help. We must have the help of the Holy Spirit, and so we don’t want to grieve. And by the way, this is another message, and I won’t spend much time here, but I love that word grieved. I’m glad the Bible didn’t say, don’t irritate the Holy Ghost. Don’t anger the Holy Ghost. I can get irritated over people I don’t care nothing about. I can get angry over people I don’t care anything about. But it’s hard for me to get grieved over somebody unless I care for them. And I’m reminded when God said, don’t grieve him, I think he was just reminding us how much the Holy Ghost loves us, how much God cares for us. Let’s not break his heart with sin. Amen. So we want the Holy Spirit, we want him to help us. And the Holy Spirit is sent alongside to help Gideon with this battle. Now, there’s some more verses we probably should have read. I’ll make reference to him as we go along. But what is Thorough going to do? What will the Holy Spirit do? How will he help Gideon in the battle? Well, first of all, I think he wants to help him with his worry. He wants to help him with his worry. If you go back to chapter number six, when the Lord first speaks to Gideon, he finds him. The Bible says this gideon thrust wheat by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. So where do we find Gideon at the beginning of this story? We find him hunkered down and hiding. I would say to you that’s where most of the church is today, hunkered down and hiding, trying not to stir up the enemy, trying to stay out of the target of the enemy, trying to make sure that trying not to rock the boat, trying to get along. That’s where most of the church is today and where most Christians are. And that’s where Gideon, he’s hidden. And he’s hidden for some reasons. He is hidden because he is afraid of the multitude of the enemy. Now I’m thinking about this. What would Gideon be worried about? Well, if we would go back to chapter six, here’s what we’d find. I think perhaps he’s worried about his own ability, because the Bible says that when God speaks to him, he says, go in this thy might, and I’ll deliver. I’ve delivered meaning into your hand. And here’s what Gideon says back in chapter six. He said, oh, my Lord. Verse 15. Wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my Father’s house. He said, you picked the wrong man. Do you ever feel like you’re not up to what God has called you to do? You ever feel like you’re not up to what you’re supposed to do? I preach a lot of meetings where there are a lot of preachers camp meetings and Bible conferences. And I’ll get there, and when I get there, I’m excited about being at the service. I’m excited about being in the meeting. And the first fellow will get up and he’ll preach on soul winning, and he’ll tell how many souls he has won to the Lord over the past month or so. And when he gets done, I look at myself and I say, you are a lousy sole winner. I mean, you’re poor at it. And then the next fellow will get up and he’ll talk about giving, and he’ll talk about how much he supported missions and how much he supported the work of God. And I look at myself and say, you are a skin plant, you are stingy. You don’t ever give anything. And then the next thing I know, some fellow get up and he preached on prayer and tells how much time he’s spending prayer. And I think to myself, I need to learn how to pray. I don’t know how to pray. And the next fell get up and he’ll quote half the Bible while he’s preaching. And I think to myself, I don’t read my Bible like I should. And by the time I’m done, I’m so discouraged. I wished I hadn’t come. You ever feel that way? I feel like I don’t measure up. Feel like I don’t make the grade. Feel like I’m not what I’m supposed to be. And probably the truth is I’m not. But God is always what he’s supposed to be. So what you know what Poor is going to do though? Getting his fearful and afraid? Poor is going to help him do what he’s supposed to do. And when I’m feeling discouraged and I feel afraid and I feel overwhelmed and I feel like I don’t make the grade, that’s why God sent me the Holy Spirit of God. He’ll make up the difference in my life. So maybe it’s his own ability. Maybe he’s worried about the arrangements of the Lord. Now we didn’t read all of this text, but when God calls Gideon, he starts gathering his soldiers. He has 320 men. But the Bible said the Midianites are like grasshoppers in the valley. They have so many camels, the Bible said they cannot be numbered. They’re like the sand of the sea, the Bible said. And what he’s saying is if a man could go on the beach and count every grain of sand, then he’d be able to count how many camels Gideon has. That’s a lot of camels. And there must be a lot of fellas to ride those camels if they’re spread out like grasshoppers. So here’s Gideon, he’s got this multitude, this host against Him, and he has 320 men. You know what he needs to do? He needs more men. He needs more men. So the Lord says to him, tell everybody that’s afraid to go home and 220 go home. Now he’s got 100. And the Lord says to him, too many, take him down there to the water, let him drink. And he said, and the Bible said, some of them laughed with their hands. Some of them got down on their hands and knees and there were 300 that laughed with their hands. And God said, by the 300 men I’ll save you send the rest of them. Doesn’t it look to you like we’re going in the wrong direction? We don’t need less, we need more. We don’t need fewer soldiers. We need more soldiers. Do you ever going to help him with his worry about the arrangements of the Lord? He’s going to help him worry about the array of the enemy. There are so many of them. I’ve already talked about that. The Holy Spirit is going to help him with all of that. And the Holy Ghost wants to do that with you. And I, I worry over the things around us. The Holy Spirit is going to help him with his worry. And here’s the second thing the Holy Ghost is going to help him with. He’s going to help him with his worship. Here’s what he wants to do. Pura is going to help Gideon get from over here where all there is is worry to over here where all there is is worship. You know what the Holy Ghost wants us to do? Quit worrying and start worshiping. That’s what he wants. But how’s he going to do that? Well, when we first find Gideon, where is he? He’s hunkered down, hiding from the enemy, worried about everything, and it just gets worse. But we’re going to find him in a moment down here, looking at things from a different angle, a different viewpoint. He was by himself, hid over there by the pile of grain. Now, he is can I put it this way? He’s walking with Pura, and when he starts walking with pure, he’s going to get a different viewpoint of what’s going on. So God says to him, he said, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take, I want you to go with Pura and I want you to go down to the host. Now, the going down to the host is really there’s two going downs that we would think about. There’s going to be a going down when they attack the enemy and fight the enemy. But this going down is different. This going down is they’re going to sneak down to the edge of the enemy camp. And the reason they’re going down there is because God wants to get him to hear something he hasn’t heard. He wants him to see something he hasn’t seen. So he has to walk with Thora to get over there. And so when he starts walking with Thora, they go down to the edge of the camp. Now, Gideon said this to the Lord when the Lord spoke to him in chapter six. We didn’t read it, but you can read it later. Gideon said this, the Lord said, The Lord is with thee. And Gideon’s response was, if the Lord be with us, where be all the miracles that our fathers told us about? He said, the truth is the Lord hath abandoned us. That was Gideon’s viewpoint that would make anybody worried. But now he gets down here at the edge of the camp. And when they get down there, these are not two Israelites talking in the tent. These are two Medianites talking to one another. And when he gets down there, one of those Medianites has had a dream. Do you remember how many times in the Old Testament, god’s people had dreams? And even those that weren’t God’s people had dreams. Joseph, we heard about him this morning. Joseph interpreted dreams for the butler and the baker and for Pharaoh, and Joseph had dreams himself. Where did all those dreams come from? They came from God. So Gideon said, the Lord have abandoned us. He said, if the Lord be with us. But when he gets down to the camp, the edge of the camp, the Midianite has a dream, and he starts telling about that dream. And you know what Gideon finds out? He’s finding out God hadn’t left them. God was just out ahead of Him. He was doing things out ahead of Him. So he gets down there, and that meeting the night says the dream. He said, I had this dream. And he said, in my dream, this barley cake rolled down and leveled the tent. Do you remember when I preached on this last time? My sermon I’m working on? I don’t have a sermon. I got a good title. The Muffin. The Mangled. Midian. And so that Midianite, he said, I had this dream, and in this dream, the barley cake rolled down and it knocked down the tent. By the way, barley was the least of all of the crops of Israel. It was the poor man’s. So that ought to fit right in with Gideon because he feels like he’s the least of everybody. And so that barley comes down in the dream, and then this other fella is standing there. This other fella is not like Joseph. He’s not an Israelite who loves God and trusts God. He’s a medianite. But he said, I know what it means. This is not an ally talking. This is the enemy talking. He said, I’m going to tell you what it means. He said, this is nothing save the sword of Gideon, the son of Josh. And he said, this God has delivered the Midianites into his head. You know what? Here’s what Gideon said. If the Lord be with us, well, the Lord was with them. He said, Where be all the miracles? That sounds like a miracle to me that that midnight would have a dream and that other midnight would say, I know what the dream means. We’re going to get destroyed. Sounds to me like God is with them. You see, what happens now is the Holy Spirit. If Pura reminds us of the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit has done is he’s taken Gideon from hiding down here, afraid and worried, and he’s got him over here where everything looks different. You know what happens? Everything in your Christian life looks different. When you start walking in the Spirit, instead of walking after the flesh, everything looks different. And then here’s what happens in our text in chapter number seven and verse 15, look what the Bible said. And it was so when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof. Now watch this that he worshiped. You know what? This is the only time the word worship is found in the Book of Judges. It’s the only time. And when apparently, apparently, Gideon has not worshiped before this, but he’s worshipping now. Why is he worshiping? Because Flora’s got him down in a different condition and a different position, and he sees things differently than he did over there. And the result is worry has turned to worship. That’s what the Holy Ghost wants to do with us. He wants us to quit this hunker and down business, hiding behind us, trying not to make waves, trying not to rock the boat, trying not to become a target. He’s not interested in living like that. He wants us to live over here in worship. And I don’t know what kind of worship it was. I travel in the North, I travel in the south. I see different kinds of worship, loud worship, soft worship, weeping worship. I see all kinds of different worship. I don’t think this was probably loud worship because they’re too close to the enemy. I don’t think he’s jumping around and having a Holy Ghost fit like we say something. I don’t think that’s what’s going on. But I can see Him by his head and lift his hand and say, what a God? What a god? Lord, I’m sorry, I had it written down here. I don’t know that I can find it. Maybe I can, because it’s back here in the book of Hebrews. Yeah, had it written down in the margin of my Bible. Worship is a redeemed heart occupied with God. And that’s what’s going on here. He has occupied with God. A little while ago, he said, God’s not with us. Now he knows God is with them. And I don’t know what’s all involved in his worship, but I can see Him bow his head and say, lord, I’m sorry for what I was thinking about you. You’re in charge, you’ve gone out ahead of me. Lord, I’m going to trust you, instead of hunkering down beside in a hiding place. He’s worshiping. So the Holy Spirit forah has taken Him from worry to worship. But there’s one more thing he’s going to help him with. He’s going to help him with his worry, he’s going to help him with his worship, and he’s going to help Him with his warfare. Now, look at verse 15 again. And it was so in, Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he worshiped and watched this phrase and returned into the host of Israel. Now, what’s interesting about this is if I counted them upright, the Medianites have been called by God, a host twelve times in this story. What is a host? A host is an army ready to fight. They’re in a ray, they’re set up, and they’re ready to engage the enemy. They’re just waiting for the command to go. That’s what a host is. Well, the Bible says that after Gideon heard this dream and worshiped, it said he returned into the host of Israel. But this is the only time in this story that Israel, the first time anyway, that Israel has been called a host. We wouldn’t think of them as a host. We might have thought of them as a host when there’s 320 of them. We might have said, well, maybe they’re a host when there’s 100 left. But there’s only 300 left and they’re never called a host. And what that means is Israel hasn’t been ready to fight. They haven’t been ready. But now that Gideon has worshiped, now they’re ready to fight. You know what will help you get back in the battle? When you get to worship it. You know what worship does? It turns us into a host ready to fight the battle. We’re not ready. If we’re worried, we’re not ready for walking in fear, we’re not ready. If we’re over here hunkered down, we’re not ready. But Israel is now ready to fight the battle they’re called a host. They are ready to be set and ready. And you’re familiar with the story, what happens in the rest of the story. And by the way, Gideon must have learned his lesson because he takes the 300 and divides them up. He learned his lesson, he learned all he needed was God. And they went down there and they defeated the enemy. They won a great victory. How did it happen? It happened because Gideon walked with fua. He’s walking in the spirit. You say, Preacher, our church needs to be a host. It’s only one way it’s going to happen. We’ll walk in the spirit. If we’ll get up from our hiding place and go with Thora like God said, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. If we’ll walk in the Spirit, God will change our viewpoint of things and we’ll get to worship it. And once we get to worshiping, we’ll be ready to fight the enemy. We will be ready to win the battle. I tell you, the Lord’s coming. It’s not a time to hunker down, it’s a time to be busy. You remember what the Bible said there in Hebrews, chapter ten? It said not forsaking the some of yourselves together, but exhorting one another. And so much the more as you see the day approaching. I see the day approaching. Let’s walk in the spirit, let’s get to worshiping and let’s get busy in our warfare. You fearful this morning. If you’re fearful, if there’s no worship, then my question is, have you grieved the Holy Spirit? If you go back to Ephesians four, the Bible tells us about grieving the Holy Spirit. I think it starts out like this. It says in that particular section, it says, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So apparently anger held will grieve the Holy Spirit. Says, therefore putting away lying that every one of you speak truth to his neighbor. So apparently lying will grieve the Holy Spirit. I think it says, let him be stolen steel no more, but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he had to give to him that need it. So apparently stealing or being stingy grieves the Holy Spirit. And then he said, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that may minister grace unto the hearers. So apparently corrupt. Communication grieves the Holy Spirit. And then he said, and grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption. And then he says, on all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. So apparently those things grieve the Holy Spirit. And then he said, be a kind one to another, tender hearted forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, have forgiven you. So apparently kindness does not grieve the Holy Spirit, and forgiveness does not. So what am I saying? I’m saying let’s not grieve Him. Let’s walk with him. And if we’ll walk with Him, we’ll get our hearts right about things that he deals with us about. We don’t have to be perfect, but we have to be confessed up. The old timers. Put it this way, keeping short accounts with God, we don’t have to be perfect, but we have to make sure there’s nothing that’s unconfessed between us and Him, no sin that we’re practicing. Are you listening? We got to make sure we’re right with Him. And when we’re right with Him, let me say this to you, and I’ll be done. I think I’ll be done. What would have happened if God said to Gideon, go thou down with Thora? And so Gideon came over to Pure and said, god wants me to go down with you. He apparently wants me to hear something. And Fuha looked at Him and said, I don’t want to be seen with you. I know how you’ve been living, I’ve heard the way you’ve been talking, I’ve heard your gossip, I’ve heard your anger, I know you’re bitter, I’ve heard you lie. I don’t want to be seen with you. That’d be the end of the story. But apparently when Gideon went poor and said, I’ll take you down, I don’t want the Holy Spirit to say I can’t fellowship with you. I can’t walk with you. Too holy for that stuff. Let’s walk in the Holy Spirit, like get in, walk with forah. Let’s see things from a different angle. Let’s start worshiping and then let’s win some battles for God, for his glory. Let’s bow our heads a moment. Father, we love you because you first loved us. We’re thankful for Your grace and mercy, and we’re thankful today for the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Help us not to quench Him. Help us not to grieve Him. Help us Lord, to tell the truth. Even David, when he sinned those great sins, he said, thou desirous truth in the inward parts. Help us walk in the Spirit, not after the flesh. Help us win some. Help us, Lord, not to be looking for a place to hide, but help us be looking for an enemy to engage in a battle to win for the glory of God. Help us. I pray, Lord. Help us in Jesus name.