I'd like to talk to you this morning about the subject of courage. In 1955 John Kennedy published a Pulitzer Prize winning book named Profiles in Courage. John was a senator from Massachusetts at the time and he later became our 35th president in 1960. His book, Profiles in Courage, describes the lives of eight United States Senators from times past who took courageous stands against issues that would have harmed our country. These Senators include John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster from Massachusetts, Thomas Hart Benton from Missouri, Sam Houston from Texas, I don't want to take anything away from the courageous accomplishments of these Senators, but truly the Bible records even greater accomplishments by its many heroes. The Bible is really the book of profiles and courage. When we think of men who fought armies in times past, greatly outnumbered, great odds against them. Think of Abraham pursuing the five kings of Canaan and their armies to rescue Lot, and all he had was his own servants. We see Moses making demands on the powerful Pharaoh, king of Egypt. We see Joshua leading the tribes of Israel into Canaan, one nation against many others. We see Samson, a one-man army for his nation. We see Gideon doing great exploits against the oppressors of his nation and his soldiers, his small crew of only 300 soldiers were outnumbered almost 100 of one. And then we think of feats of strength and skill and endurance and I would like to single out Noah for that. Noah built the largest ship the world has ever known up until the year 1856. And of course, beyond these heats of strength, skill, bravery and valor, there was real moral courage displayed by many of the characters in the Bible. We think of Joseph, unwilling to abandon his dreams, refusing to compromise his personal integrity and his faith in God. How about the young Moses? who grew up in Pharaoh's household and was educated as a prince of Egypt. He turned away a prosperous future ahead of him. Instead he chose to identify with the humble people of his birth origin, the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. We could single out Abigail the Carmelitess who intercepted David on his mission of destruction against her husband and his servants. She risked her own husband's wrath, that is, Nabal, but even more so, she prevented David from a rash act of vengeance and violence that could have tarnished his kingship later on. How about Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, who risked her life to hide spies from Joshua's army? And there was a woman that the book of Kings only calls a wench. and she hid spies in a well to aid the cause of King David during Absalom's rebellion. We could speak of Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego who refused to bow down to the idol that the king of Babylon had made for himself and thrown into the fiery furnace. How about Joseph, the man engaged to Mary? who continued with their wedding plans even after she had told him she was already pregnant with Jesus. And how about Mary herself, the handmaiden of the Lord, who willingly and joyfully bore the shame and the whispering of neighbors for the next nine months of her life, and likely many years afterward, and all this for the sake of our Lord's incarnation. But today I want to speak of an unlikely character as a profile in courage. There is little said about this man in God's word and perhaps you may have never thought of him as a courageous man. He was in fact an idolater or at least he had tolerated idolatry on his own property many many years until the time came when he had to take a stand for righteousness. His story is found in Judges chapter 6 and if you want to turn there This is chapter 6 and we'll take up reading at verse 11. This is a time when the Midianites were oppressing Israel. In this scene Gideon is threshing his wheat in a hidden place to hide it from the Midianites. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the perebinth tree, which is in Afra, which belonged to Joash the Bezerite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. And Gideon said to him, O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this might of yours, you, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? And so he said to him, O my Lord, How can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man. Then he said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. Do not depart from here. I will pray until I pray until I come to you and bring an offering and set it before you." And he said, I will wait until you come back. And then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah, a flower. The meat he put in a basket and he put the broth in a pot and he brought them out to him, that is the angel, under the turban of the tree and presented them. And the angel of the Lord said to him, take the meat and the unleavened bread and laid him on this rock and poured out the broth and he did so. And the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread and fire rose up out of the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. And the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight. Now Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God, for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. And then the Lord said to him, Peace, be with you, do not fear, you shall not die. And so Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it the Lord Shalom. And to this day it is still an opera of the Beesrites. Gideon had been given a command from the Lord to lead Israel in battle against the Midianites. The Lord then showed him the miraculous sign that the command was true and it was from God. Gideon was frightened by the appearance of the Lord's angel and he fears he is going to die. The Lord assures Gideon that he will not die. Gideon builds an honor then, the honor of the Lord as a monument to this dramatic meeting with God. May I say that most people in the Bible, when encountering the presence of God, either show a great fear, or they fall on their faces before God in awe of His holy presence. And when people, or preachers, or so-called prophets of today, talk about their encounters with God, I'm wondering, where is the fear? Where is the falling on their face? Where is the altar built in honor of the occasion? How is it that these modern prophets can speak of God telling them something as if it were from a casual cell phone call? I saw the Lord last week in a vision and this is what he told me. Oh yeah, is that so? And when did you get off of your feet? When did you get off of your face and back on your feet? But I want to talk about the rest of our story. Gideon had built an altar to God and it may have been the only altar in his neighborhood. And that same night, as we read later on in the text, the Lord told Gideon to build him another altar, and this altar was to replace an altar of Baal. Gideon was to tear down Baal's altar and build an altar to the Lord and offer one of his father's young bulls as a sacrifice to God. The fire for that sacrifice would be kindled from the wood from the torn down image of Baal. Could there be a more graphic picture of Jehovah as Lord and not Baal? The fragments of Baal's altar are scattered all around and there on a rock is a bull offered to the God of Israel and he is cooking by the fire kindled from the wood from the torn down image of Baal. This site would be glorious to any true believer but it was not glorious to the men of Gideon City. They were enraged at this atrocity that had been done, and they found out that Gideon, the son of Joash, had done it. They wanted Gideon's life. And here's where my profile in Courage stands up. It's Gideon's father, Joash. Joash says in verse 31, Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? You want to put somebody to death? Let the one who pleads for Baal be put to death by mourning. What a courageous statement to a lynch mob. Idolaters, according to the law of Moses and Deuteronomy, were to be put to death. And then Joash says, I think one of the wisest sayings in all scripture, in my opinion. He says, if Baal is God, he should be saving you and not the other way around. Has Baal been offended by this act? Is he a God? Let Baal do something about it. If Baal is God, let him punish Gideon. Joash put the faith of the men of the city to test. If they believed that Baal was God, then they would trust that Baal would punish Gideon. But if they tried to punish Gideon themselves, then they would be showing lack of faith that Baal would punish Gideon. They were denying that Bale could do something. Then Joe Esch gave Gideon the nickname Jarrah Bale. Let Bale plead for himself. And so he saved the life of his son. And of course the Midianites got a chance to see how great their Bale was. What he could do to punish Gideon as a dead lifeless idol. He could do nothing and that's what he did. But wait a minute, you say, you're making here of a man who has an altar to Baal on his property. How in the world did that happen? And it's an interesting question, and I'd like to suggest a couple of possibilities. The first is that Joash himself had worshipped Baal at one time, but very shortly before he came to his senses, and was truly converted to faith in God, and so defended him, his son. John Gill holds his view, and he said that this very incident had opened his eyes to the foolishness of Baal. And if this is the case, then even as a new convert, Joash is to be commended for his courage because he stood up for his faith of defending his son. There is a second possibility that came to my mind, at least in my opinion, and that is that Joash never wanted the altar in his yard. He had to tolerate, to keep peace with the folks in his town, perhaps even his own servants. But he may have detested it. And I say this for two reasons. The first is his godly son. Gideon was a godly man, and where did he get his fate? He had to have grown up in a godly home. The second reason is that Joyce's statement, verse 31, he said, let the one who pleads for bail be put to death. Joash knew enough about the law of God to know that idolaters were to be executed. Is this a statement of newfound faith, or has this been Joash's true colors all along? Has he held up his pent-up frustration with Baal, the altar of Baal, until this moment? And then there's another reason I think Joash might have been a true believer all along. It's in verse 27. It says that Gideon tore down the altar that night because he feared his father's servants and the men of the city. That is, his father's household being his father's servants. His father is not mentioned. The servants were idolaters, but not necessarily Joash. Either way you want to look at it, if Joash is a new believer or a compromising believer, Joash showed true courage at this time. And you say, well, wouldn't any man stand up for his son if his son was threatened with death? And not necessarily so. Had Jehosh been a worshipper of Baal, he would have been willing to sacrifice his son to Baal. And that was being done in this time of the judges, a time when every man did what was right in his own eyes. Psalm 106, verse 37 laments the fact that Israel sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons and shed innocent blood. they sacrificed their sons and daughters to the idols of Canaan. Jeremiah 7.31 says that Israel burned their sons and daughters in the valley of the son of Hinnom at the high places of Topheth. It is entirely possible that a father would sacrifice his son in honor of an idol in those times. If Joash had any belief in Baal, he might have surrendered Gideon to the mob. King Saul was ready to sacrifice to kill his own son Jonathan over a matter of disobedience to one of Saul's orders. When a lynch mob is standing at your door and you protect your son at the risk of both your life and your son's, it takes real courage. And Joash showed it at this time. If Joash had been a compromising believer all his life, when a true test of faith came, he stood firm. He showed great courage under fire. However, it took this serious event for him to show his true colors. Psychologists tell us there is a personality type called flight or fight. These folks are non-confrontational. I'm one of these very folks myself. They don't like to fight. They avoid confrontation at almost every instant. They will not fight until you back them in a corner, but then look out. Joash may have been one of those personalities. He didn't stand up to the worshippers of Baal until the crucial situation confronted him. Praise God that he stood strong when he had to. Are we like Joash? Following peace with all men as much as possible as silent Christians, only to show our true colors when the honor of Christ is at stake? If Joash had been more proactive in his faith, he would never have allowed the altar of Baal to be built in his own yard. The whole incident of tearing down the altar would have never happened. There is a possibility, however, that Joash had no choice in this matter. The Midianites, who had dominated Israel at that time, may have demanded it. But how is it with us? Are we silent believers? We don't want to offend anybody? Don't want to confront anybody? Do we have to be backed into a corner to show our true colors? Do we have to be put in a position where if we do not claim Christ as our Lord, we would have to deny Him? One thing we can say for certain about Joash, when the time of his testing of his faith came, he stood strong. His courage not only saved his son Gideon from a mob of idolaters, but I think he was personally satisfying to Joash as well. He had done what was right, his conscience was clear, and he had no regrets. The scripture has a lot to say about courage, and some of the passages have to do with courage have to do with battle situations where great bravery in time of war is called for. It says in 2 Samuel chapter 10 verse 12 that Israel's army was trapped at one time. The Syrians were behind them and the Ammonites were in front of them and General Joab sends one division against the Syrians and another against the Ammonites, and then he tells his warriors, he says, Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. There's another passage in Joshua chapter 1, where the Lord encourages Joshua before invading the land, to be strong and of good courage, verse 6. However, in the same passage, chapter 1, the Lord admonishes Joshua to be strong and very courageous to observe to do all in the law that Moses had commanded. It would take great courage to enforce the law. And here are some other passages where courage is exhorted in moral matters. Joshua chapter 23. Joshua is talking to Israel near the end of his life where he says to be strong and courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the law of Moses. He takes courage to obey God's law and to enforce it as a leader, as a king. In 1 Chronicles chapter 22 and verse 13, David near the end of his life is encouraging his young son Solomon how it is to be king and to rule. And he says to Solomon, you will prosper if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments which the Lord charged Moses. Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear nor be dismayed. And then King David also admonishing his son concerning the building of the temple, says in a later chapter, verse 28 of 1 Chronicles, says to be strong and of good courage. Do not fear or be dismayed before this great task of building the temple. When King Asa, in times before that, had heard the words of the prophet Oded He took courage and removed all the abominable idols from the land. 2 Chronicles 19 verse 11 Jehoshaphat is commissioning the priests and the Levites to act as judges for Israel to behave courageously and the Lord will be with them for the good. And this meant not favoring the wealthy and influential persons, not taking bribes. But it would take, as judges, great courage to do that. In Ezra chapter 10 and verse 4, it says the leaders of Israel were promising to put away the pagan wives that they had married. They had promised to put them away by force. And Ezra said, Be of good courage and do it. Psalm 27 verse 14 says, It takes courage to wait on the Lord who will strengthen our heart. Psalm 31 verse 23 says, Love the Lord. He loves the saints and preserves the faithful. Be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart. Joseph of Arimathea took great courage, says in the Gospel of Matthew, to go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus. Peter in Acts took great courage and told the leaders of Israel who were trying to silence him, we ought to obey God and not man. These passages demand moral courage, courage to do the right thing. And the rewards for taking courage to do the right thing are great. A clear conscience and satisfaction that you know you did what you did was right. Conversely, the regrets and the guilt for not doing the right thing may last for a long time. Have you ever been silent when you should have spoken? And I'm not talking just about witnessing for Christ when a door was opened and you didn't walk through it. I'm talking about standing up for justice for the defenseless, and for just flat-out doing what's right. I want to tell you about a time when I was silent, when I should have spoken. And I've lived with a regret for this incident most of my life. Now, it hasn't caused me depression to the point where, as Dr. Martin Louis Jones would say, I had these vain regrets. But I could, I would say, that whenever I think of this incident, it does cause me some grief. something that happened that I will never forget. I was 24 years old and getting ready to graduate from the Air Force Officer Training School in San Antonio, Texas. My fellow cadets and I were a week away from graduation. At that time we would receive our commissions as second lieutenants in the Air Force. We had been in school for 11 weeks at this point in time and all the cadets were assured of graduation. The training during that last week was much more relaxed. And during that last week, we had all agreed we were going to wear these goofy name tags. Normally we had a name tag pinned to our shirt, engraved with our name on it. But we were going to make up these goofy name tags for the last week of training. Instead of your own last name, the name tag on your shirt, the goofy name tag, would be selected not by you, but by your fellow cadets in your flight. Our flight had about 25 men. So when it came time for the assembly for the selection of names, we did it during the afternoon mail call when every cadet was sure to come. And it was always kind of that time of day when a letdown time. And so the group came up with goofy name tags for their fellow cadets like Skipper, El Capitan, Honcho, Pound Dog, and such and such name. Each cadet heard the group's suggestion and usually laughed when the group chose for him. We had one cadet in our flight. He's kind of a quiet skinny kid from California. He was kind of a lover. We didn't hear much from Ken, as he often kept to himself. He wasn't one of the guys, so to speak. To make matters worse, Ken struggled with the program physically. He always came in last on the mile run, and if he did make it in eight minutes, the guy with the stopwatch might have been being generous. Whether it's the competitive games, the mile run, or the obstacle course, Ken lacked the natural strength and stamina to keep up with most of our group. Now in the classroom, where we spent most of our day, he did fine. But he was so quiet that few knew of his good test scores. When Ken's name came up that day, when we were assigning those name tags, a lot of the group was stumped. What can we say about Ken? And one guy piped up and said, rather lightheartedly, he says, well, we can't think of anything. It says nothing. We'll just name him nothing. So they just decided to pin that name tag on him. Nothing. I sat in stunned silence. My first thought was, how cruel. And then I thought, how untrue. You see, Ken had been my roommate for the first six weeks of the program. And I'm sure his second roommate was as stunned as I was as both of us sat in bewildered silence at this cruel suggestion. Before either one of us had a chance to speak for Ken, the group leader had moved on to naming the next cadet. Ken was a brilliant electronics engineer. It didn't mean much to the training program at that time, but it would mean a lot to the Air Force. He was not only a good student, but he tried with all his might to get through the physical part of the program. I ran with him sometimes in the evening to help him train for the mile run. He wasn't just sitting back and saying, He really tried to get in shape. Now in this program we had a feature whereby a guy could, what we call SIE, self-initiated elimination. He could drop out of the program and still be in the Air Force and still have an honorable discharge, but he didn't do it. He was that close to SIE many times, but he never did it. And I want to tell you that I've rehearsed the speech many times in my mind that I should have given on Ken's behalf. But I was so stunned by the group's suggestion that day that I couldn't come up with a good alternate name. I just don't think that fast on my feet. Yet I could have at least stood up and said, hey guys, we have to do better than this. I could have promoted Ken's virtues, which hardly any of the group knew, but I knew. And thinking back on it all, I would have named Ken Courage, or even Guts. But I didn't say anything, and I forever lost the chance to save a friend from humiliation. Ken only had to wear that goofy name tag for one week. I'm sure he's worn it in his mind for the rest of his life. I've worn it in my mind for that period of time. Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me. Don't believe it. Name's Her. Now, fortunately, the consequences of my silence didn't damage a career. The contents of this goofy name tag were never recorded. It would never show up in any Air Force record. And in a few days, that name tag would be destroyed and never mentioned again. But you don't forget things like that. They linger in your mind for a lifetime. The group slapped Ken in the face that day, and my silence was one of the hands that slapped him. I lacked courage that day, and I've regretted it ever since. Had I spoken in his defense, and the group still went ahead with that name tag, I would have at least had the satisfaction that I had tried to do something, and Ken would have at least known that he had a friend. But I sat tongue-tied to my shame. When we show courage we have no regrets. We may even have a sense of victory or at least having fulfilled a sense of duty as an ambassador to Christ. R.C. Sproul tells of an incident in his college days which I think showed great courage. R.C. is one of the great reformed apologists for our times. I'm sure many of you are familiar with him. He was a freshman in college English class, and the lady professor was openly hostile to Christianity. She was always taking shots at the truth. It was well known on campus that R.C. was a Christian, because he was a new and very zealous Christian, speaking to people about Christ almost any opportunity when the word got around that R.C. was a Christian. And so he's in class one day, And she took one of her shots at Christianity. Mr. Sproles, she asked, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God? Do you believe this? Well, he knew if he answered yes, he would unleash her fury and her wrath and one of her tirades would go off. But if he said no, he would deny his Lord and his faith. And so he looked at her and quietly said, yes. And she says, I can't hear you. Say it louder. Please repeat." And so he said louder, yes ma'am. And indeed, the fury that he had anticipated followed as she raged that Christianity was so arrogant, so bigoted, so narrow-minded. R.C. slumped down in his chair, red-faced, but he had showed great courage, even though it cost him great humiliation. But I want to tell you, he showed even greater courage, in my opinion, at the end of the When to his surprise, the professor met him at the door as he was leaving the classroom. And to his shock, she apologized to him for embarrassing him. Now he just could have accepted her apology and walked out of the room, but instead at this time, he took the courage to apologize for his faith. She had opened the door for him when she said, I don't see how anyone can be so narrow minded. And he answered her that the exclusivity of Christianity was not his idea, but Christ's. He said, if I believed that Christ was the only way, because that's my opinion, it would be arrogant and it would be bigoted and narrow-minded. But he said to her, it wasn't me who said it. He said it was Jesus who said it. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father except by me. And then he's pointed to another New Testament passage that says, that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. And then he asked her, he said, if Christ said he was a way to salvation, would you accept that? And she said, oh yes, many intelligent people hold that view. But I don't understand how you believe that he is the only way. Nor is the answer that God is holy. He will not share his glory with another. He will not tolerate idolatry. He said, I know that intolerance is un-American. And so we hold that all religions in this country are tolerated. But it does not mean that all religions are equally true. He says, they can't be. Because some religions are hostile to Jesus. And God will not accept that. He has declared Jesus to be his only son. The professor said that, I can see that if Jesus said he is the only way, that you would believe in that. But then the professor asked, how can you believe in such a narrow-minded God? And R.C. responded, perhaps God could have offered other ways to salvation. But he says, because he is so holy and we are not, it's a wonder that he offered any way to salvation. And then he asked her to consider a hypothetical situation. He posed the truth of God as a hypothesis because he knew she didn't believe the Bible. So he said, suppose there was a God and he created the world and all the creatures and finally man. The man he created in his own image and breathed into him the breath of life. Man was his crowning achievement and God gave him everything. dominion over all of his preachers, and he placed him in a beautiful garden, and man had just one restriction, don't eat of the fruit of a certain tree. Well, the man did eat of that fruit, and he grasped for equality with his creator. God could have wiped out the whole human race at this time, but instead he forgave the ungrateful sinner and covered his sin. And from that man a nation descended, and they wound up as slaves in Egypt. And God said he would deliver them from their slavery and make them his own nation. And he brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness. Now God is holy. He will not tolerate the worship of any other God except himself. No other will receive the Lord's glory. And yet, scarcely had the nation been delivered from slavery And they are all dancing around a golden calf and worshipping Baal, another god. And so God provided a system of atonement for their sins. And he sent prophets to keep them on the right path. And they killed the prophets. And so finally he says, I will send my own son, my only son, and I will transfer the penalty of their sins on him to provide atonement. But they killed his son. And yet God, still in mercy, said, I will forgive this act if you will repent of this act and put your faith in my son to receive the forgiveness of all your sins. I'm going to put all of your sins on him, the innocent one, and that will satisfy my justice. And then R.C.S.' 's teacher said, could you stand before God at the judgment and say, God, you haven't done enough. You haven't provided enough ways to salvation. God's way provided required that an innocent one die for the sins of his people. Jesus, his own precious son, has died for sinners. Buddha didn't die for your sins. Mohammed didn't die for your sins. Can you imagine how offensive it would be to God who had given up his own beloved son for someone to suggest that Buddha could save you from your sins? Or Mohammed could save you? Buddha couldn't save himself. Mohammed couldn't save himself. The sacrifice for sin had to be perfect. Buddha wasn't sinless. Mohammed wasn't sinless. Jesus was. And R.C. concluded this lengthy discussion with his professor with a great promise that every believer in Christ has, eternal life, a future life without suffering, pain, a life of eternal bliss. And then he cited a warning given in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 3, how then shall we escape the wrath of God if we neglect so great a salvation? Those who don't believe in God's only way will perish. If God's way isn't good enough for you, then you'll just have to go your own way." Now he didn't reveal how his professor responded to this discussion, but I think one thing is certain. She now knew why Christians claim Christ as the only way to God, and she knows that those who believe such do have a brain. R.C. took great courage to give a defense for his faith. He turned a deeply embarrassing and humiliating incident to victory, and he was able to glorify God by his testimony. Let's look at some other men who showed some great moral courage in the scriptures. Nicodemus. We first read of him in John chapter 3, where the seeds of his faith are first sown. John 3 only records the discussion. which he had about a believer's salvation when Jesus was talking to him that night. Nicodemus went home that night chewing in his mind all the things that Jesus had said. He likely meditated on them a long time before the light of God had lifted the veil that had darkened his understanding. But by chapter 7 in John's Gospel, we see Nicodemus rising to Jesus' defense, appealing to true Jewish justice, when he asked the chief priest and the Pharisees who tried to arrest Jesus. He says, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? This question so shocked his fellow Jews that they rebuked Nicodemus and they told him to go search the scriptures. No prophet ever came out of Galilee where Jesus grew up. Well, Nicodemus did search the scriptures and he came to Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 1 where it says, A people lightly esteemed by God, in Galilee of the Gentiles, a people who have walked in darkness, have seen a great light, and Nicodemus saw that same great light. And we read at the end of John's Gospel, where Nicodemus was at the grave of Jesus, offering a hundred pounds of spices for his body. This was a very dangerous thing to do, at a time when even to talk openly about Jesus was dangerous. according to John chapter 7 verse 13, which says if anyone confessed Jesus, he would be put out of the synagogue. It says that in John 9 verse 22. There was a time when even after Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples were hiding from the Jews and meeting in secret places. Nicodemus had no regrets. Whatever loss of position or status he may have later suffered for his courageous act was worth it. he had found the pearl of great price. Another Jew, a secret disciple of Jesus, who had showed great courage at the end, was Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph was a prominent member of the Jewish council, the same council that had condemned Jesus to death. Luke tells us that Joseph did not consent to their decision, but most importantly, Joseph boldly asked Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, for the body of Jesus after Jesus had been crucified. The Jews cared nothing for his body after they had demanded his crucifixion. The Romans had crucified him, let the Romans bury him. But Joseph was a wealthy man who himself waited for the kingdom of God and he exposed his great faith and he asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and he gave Jesus' body a decent and honorable grave. Neither he nor Nicodemus had any idea that Jesus would rise from the dead. They were paying their last respects to the man they had grown to believe in. Jesus would have risen from any place on the earth where he had been buried, but Joseph's tomb was special. It was in a cave that had to be securely sealed by a stone, and such a grave would give all the more proof that a miracle had been done when Jesus did rise from the dead. Moreover, Joseph took some of the same risks of excommunication and rejection by his countrymen that Nicodemus took. But Joseph even risked the possible punishment by Rome. He was violating their standard procedure for burial and asking for the body of Christ. I'm sure that on resurrection morning, Joseph knew that he had done the right thing. Yet of all these men, Joash, the father of Gideon, and the converted Jews, Nicodemus and Joseph, however weak their faith, however many times they were silent when they should have In the end, when their lives and their careers were on the line, they made the bold testament that they were believers in the truth and only God. Most of us have never faced the life-threatening or career-threatening trials that these men have faced. For most of us, the greatest test had been that we were silent when a door was opened to witness for Christ or to identify with His people. We may have even been silent like I had. when we should have spoken for the justice and defended the little guy. Or we may have failed to do the right thing when a situation called for it. The right thing might be a simple thing as greeting a visitor in church. The right thing may have been admonishing a brother or a relative of a bad course they are taking and thus preventing a much more disastrous slide down the slippery slope at a later time. The right thing may be as simple as moving a loose grocery cart in the store parking lot and putting it in the proper parking space. There are few regrets for doing the right thing, even if it costs us something. Most of us doing the right thing might cost us at the most embarrassment or shame. Failure to do the right thing could cost a lot more. had been killed by the angry mob of Baal worshippers because of the incident in Joash's altar. Joash would have been miserable for the rest of his life. Instead he spoke for his son. And in the end the mob that wanted to kill Gideon ended up being delivered by Gideon. from the oppressive Nidianites. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were likely stripped of their honorable positions for which they had done the right thing. They honored the man who would be their savior. They could sleep at night. The loss of position and likely their jobs was a small price to pay for what they had gained in Christ. Very few people, when they have stood for righteousness, justice, or truth, have ever lived a regret. The price for taking a stand may be high at the time. It may have been embarrassing. It may have cost more than shame. But I can tell you that your mind will replay over and over again the incident that you know you should have done something and you didn't. And I'm not just talking about a witness for Christ. I'm talking about being good ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. When you do the right thing, it may draw a question that people will ask you for the hope that is in you. So how do we build courage? How do we do the right thing? I think courage is built up by three important elements. The first is we have to know what's right. Joash, Gideon's father, knew that Jehovah alone is God. These things his mother taught him, things he learned in Sabbath school, suddenly surfaced in his mind. He knew that his son's life was not worth an honor to a worthless wooden idol. He took courage to rebuke his neighbors for their idolatry and he wisely chose to let the idol demonstrate how useless it is. Let Baal plead for Baal. And what did Baal do? He did what only Baal can do. Absolutely nothing. And second, you not only have to know what's right, you have to believe what's right. If you know something is right, you own it. And it's a part of you. You're not going to let wrong take its place. A pagan professor tried to ridicule the faith that Christ was ridiculed the truth that Christ is the only way to salvation, and R.C. Sproul knew that she was wrong. He had a strong conviction about his truth, and he took courage to give her a defense for his belief. He did so politely, diplomatically, and even eloquently. He was a true ambassador, pleading as much for her own soul as for his own position. He had stood up in class and just hollered, He would have truly validated her claim that Christians are ignorant, narrow-minded, and bigoted. Conviction builds on knowledge. The more you know, the stronger your belief is that it is true. And thirdly, you not only have to know what's right and be convicted about what's right, but you have to do what's right. Knowing what's right and strong conviction alone will not accomplish anything. You have to put them to work. If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Courage is strengthened by knowledge and strong conviction and it enables us to do something. Sometimes doing is only a small step. Success in a small step builds courage for the next bigger step and the next bigger step after that. Dave Ramsey talks about baby steps. getting to getting out of debt. The same principle applies to any hard task. Take the first step. Consider now how these elements worked for Gideon, the son of Joash. God had called him to be a commander of the army of Israel. He had confirmed his call by a miraculous sign. He consumed Gideon's offer by fire. Gideon had received this sign. And now it was time for him to do something. Step one. Tear down the altar of Baal in your father's yard. The great general Joshua had invaded Canaan and broken down all the altars to other gods. Gideon, you just have to tear down one. And it's not even on somebody else's property. It's in your own father's yard. Your dad owns it. God had given courage the sign, now it was time for Gideon to show some faith, some real courage. And he took the first step. And without any miracle, he succeeded. It gave him courage. Next thing we read about in the book of Judges is that Gideon is blowing a trumpet, calling the army of Israel to assemble. He's going to take on the Midianites. He's been encouraged. Think of how these elements work for Moses. Moses knew he was a Hebrew and he knew his God. He had a great desire to see the Hebrews succeed. He had strong convictions about his national identity. And when the Lord told him to go back to Egypt to free his people from slavery, Moses deeply wanted to help his countrymen. But he also thought he lacked speaking skills for the task. But he took courage and he did speak. And his first audience was not the hardened and wicked Pharaoh, but his own countrymen That was his first step. And then he went to Pharaoh. And if you consider the encounters that Moses had with Pharaoh, the first encounter was, Mr. Pharaoh, would you like to take a short little picnic in the wilderness? We just want to worship our God. Would you please let us go? By the time nine plagues had ravaged the nation of Israel, Moses said something like, Buddy, we're going with our wives, our flocks, our livestock, all of our possessions, and don't you try to stop us. That's my personal paraphrase. Now how is Moses so bold? He got bolder each step of the way. He had learned he was dealing with an unreasonable liar and one who could only be persuaded by force. And Moses learned that his God would provide all the force that he needed. What hinders our courage? We may know what is right and even have convictions about it, but why don't we do what's right? Well, it might be a matter of pride. Doing the right thing might be embarrassing. I suggest that sometimes it's just a matter of pure laziness. We have a desire to stay in our nice, cozy comfort zone. Take the case of the visitor at our church, standing all alone, while dozens around him are chatting among themselves, ignoring the lonely visitor. You know what you should do. Go and greet him or her. Yeah, but I'm having a comfortable conversation with Joe, and I don't want to leave his good company. Yeah, but nobody... But I'm a nobody, and this man looks kind of important. Maybe well above my social class. Yeah, but I'm shy around strangers. Yeah, but he's wearing a baseball cap of the team I despise. Well, be honest with yourself. You know what you should be doing, and you're just too lazy to make the effort to do it. So what hinders our witness? It may just be a plain lack of a plan when a good situation comes up. Quite honestly, one question that I've always dreaded was, where do you go to church? And I said, I go to the Reformed Baptist Church of Louisville. Next question, what's a Reformed Baptist? Everybody seems to know what a Baptist is. The question always comes up, what does it mean to be Reformed? And I ponder for a while, thinking, well, the baptisms are great, so how am I going to put this together? And then I think, well, if I tell them the doctrines are great, I'm just telling them what a Calvinistic baptism is. I haven't told them what a Reformed baptism is. And finally, I just say, well, it's kind of complicated. And then at that time, I wish I had a copy of Pastor Jim's most excellent tract, What is a Reformed Baptism? Here, read this. But having been stumped so many times with this question, I've now prepared to give an answer. A Reformed Baptist believes in the five solas, the five only's of the Reformation period of Church history. Then recite to them what the five solas are. Sola Christis, Sola Scriptura, Sola Christis, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Sola Deo Gloria. Now be sure to interpret these Latin terms. If you do it right, you might be able to say that the Bible is the only way of salvation, and then you can tell them something about what the Bible says about man's need, about man's sin, and his need for salvation, and his need for a Savior, and then talk about Christ as the only way to meet that need. And that is salvation achieved by faith in Him and Him alone, in His work. And if you get that far in the conversation without raising questions or starting an argument, You can talk about God as the only reason that the grace of God is the only reason that any are saved. And that this whole plan of salvation is designed for God's glory alone. Now my previous failure to answer this question, what is a Reformed Baptist, happened because I didn't know how to present what I truly believed. But now I think I'm prepared. I want us to consider the great rewards of courageous living. There are no vain regrets. There are only victories and satisfaction. Ask Peter, ask Paul, ask Joshua, ask Abigail, ask Joash if they have any regrets for what they did. It was Peter who had been beaten for his testimony at the temple in Acts chapter 5, who afterwards rejoiced when he had been counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's name. Paul could write to Timothy in his second letter, chapter 4, near the very end of his life, where he says, the time of my departure, that is his death, is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." The Apostle Paul died a satisfied man. He had a sense of mission accomplished. Abigail had saved her husband Nabal and the family servants from destruction by meeting David on his way to destroy Nabal. She met him with gifts of food and an apology for her foolish husband's rude rejection of David's men. Her courageous act not only saved lives, but spared David the shameful consequences he might later face in the public eye for wiping out a private citizen. Imagine her grief if David had carried out his vengeance on her household, but instead she took courage to face an angry David, and she won his heart, and later she won a good husband. Joshua, we read in the last chapter of this book, could look back at the victories God had given him, and Israel under his leadership. Joshua gives all the credit to God, but none of these victories would have happened if Joshua had not taken courage to lead the charge. Joash, Gideon's father, could rejoice that the foul pagan altar in his yard was now an altar to Jehovah. His rejoicing would be multiplied when Gideon would later drive out the oppressive Midianites from the land and deliver them all from their oppressors. Brethren, take courage to do what is right. Know what is right. Own what is right. Do what is right. We are ambassadors for the kingdom of Christ. Let us always bring honor to our God and our King by what we say and do. May the Lord be our strength. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and for your truth. Thank you for your great salvation, Lord. Help us, we pray, to rightly represent you before our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, all around us. We want your light to shine, Lord, in this world through our deeds and our actions and our testimony. And we ask for your help, your great enablement, that you receive all the glory. In your son Jesus' name, Amen.