First Corinthians 14. I got a subject here bigger than I am. Always do. I really need God to help me on this, because I got too much information. I got to cut a bunch of it out. I got to know what to cut out. Lord, help me do it. Help me do it right. I want to represent him right. I want to talk to you about the messenger of the revolution. A midnight ride of Paul Revere. Boy, you talk about a story now. I guarantee you most of it you never heard. but it is some story. What I went behind that, it's got a direct correlation to a man preaching the gospel and giving out the message of truth. The lives of people were dependent on Paul Revere getting the message out that night. He was aided by a lot of people. If you read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem written in 1861, it gave national prominence to Revere like he'd never had before. Come now children and you shall hear the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Some of that's not right, most of it is. Number one, he didn't ride a steed, he was on a mare. You know what the horse's name was, Paul Revere rode? One of the greatest horses in the 13 colonies called the Brown Beauty. That's what he's riding, Brown Beauty. Amen. And that night, he didn't go by him. He wasn't going out there by himself. He had a lot of help. William Dowell's is there. And, you know, it could easily said that he could have got the recognition. Of course, Revere deserved what he got. You know, listen now, children, and I will pause as you hear the midnight ride of William Dawes. It could have been that, but it's Paul Revere. Paul Revere's a great man. If I had time, I'd talk about his childhood. If I had time, I'd talk about his daddy. His daddy come to America, a religious immigrant from persecution. That's why his daddy come to America. French Huguenot, his daddy's family. His real name's not Revere. It was changed to that so people could pronounce it. But anyhow, he come to America. when he was 12 years old on a ship by himself. His daddy did. and come to this land and was taken into the apprenticeship of another man. He learned the silversmith's trade. His daddy was a very, very gifted artisan. And that's what Paul Revere would become. And then his daddy married into a very influential family. So he was part French and part English. I don't have time to get into that. I need to get off of it right now before I go down that road, because I don't have time to get into that. But Paul Revere, has a strong background of God. I don't know if he's a saved man. I pray he was. I don't know if he was. But before his daddy would be forced to convert to Catholicism or be killed, he come to America, religious liberty. So we thank God for that. First Corinthians 14 and Look down here at verse number eight, I believe it is, if I can find my place here. Let's see. Well, it'd help me to get in the right chapter, wouldn't it? Did y'all ever get absent-minded like that? Verse number eight, first Corinthians 14, if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle? That was what was going on that night was Paul Revere trying to prepare people for the Red Coast, the British that were coming. So brother Josh Burks, pray for us one more time, will you? God, we love you, we need you, Father. God, drive back the enemy. God, if we ever need you, we need you in this hour. God, we need your touch, your unction, your power. God, your liberty. God, you know I confess my need, my total dependence on thee. Oh, Lord, Jesus' name. Plead thy blood, Father, you'd move. God, your will be done. Yes, Father. Help us, God, to honor you and magnify you. Yes, Father. Yes, Father. Yes, Father. Amen, so I'm talking to you tonight on the messenger of the revolution, or the midnight ride of Paul Revere. That would have happened August the 18th and the 19th, 1775. It started at 10 o'clock p.m. on August the 18th. Paul Revere did not, out of some whim, just take a trip to Lexington and then on to Concord. He was commissioned by Dr. Joseph Warren, who was the acting head of the Providence, provincial Congress. He was commissioned to go that night and sent by authority. And when you're talking about preaching, how can they preach except they be sent? Man's gotta be sent, and he's gotta be sent by authority. Paul Revere that night was commissioned to go by authority. He was to ride to Lexington, Massachusetts and warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that the Redcoats were coming to arrest them. God, I need your help. The British troops were coming to disarm the Patriots at Concord, and the storage of gunpowder they had, and their shot, their ammunition, and their cannons, and were to take them to keep them from being able to defend themselves. Paul Revere, William Dowse, are called in for Warren and sent that night. They're sent two different ways. There's two ways to go to Lexington. One's across the Charles River, and when you get to Charlestown, you would take a left and go west to Lexington. The other was across Boston Neck, that little piece of land that when it wasn't high tide, connected Boston to the mainland. That's the way William Dowles went. Now, those men went that night. Lexington is about six miles from Concord. Concord is about 20 miles from the Boston waterfront. So you can get in your mind, they're going west and they're going on horseback that night to warn of what's taking place. What's happened at Boston? Well, the British are occupying Boston. Almost all of your leaders are out of town for fear of arrest. This man, Joseph Warren and Revere are staying in town at great threat of being arrested. I can't believe that Revere got out of that town that night. They knew what he was. He has spoiled their plans on many occasions. He would find out because the colonialist had a secret spy right among Gage's private people. They'd find out where the raid was gonna be on the gunpowder. It's called a powder alarm. And many occasions, Paul Revere had rode and warned people that the regulars were coming to disarm them. Why he was never arrested, why they wasn't watching him that night. If there's any man gonna get the word out, it was gonna be him, but for some reason, he got out of town. And that's a miracle. Old General Thomas Gage is the Royal Governor of Boston and the Commander-in-Chief of all the British forces in America. Holt Gage had closed the port of Boston after the Tea Party. He had abridged the charter of Boston and, or Massachusetts rather. He had curtailed town meetings. He created a new system of courts. He had given the officials authority to send men to Britain to be tried in a court system. He had instituted martial law. All of these are called the coercive acts, what the colonists call them, the intolerable acts, and they were intolerable to them. He's already confiscated the gunpowder in Boston, already attempted to disarm them. But Revere had been planning for almost two years for this night. This wasn't something that just come up on the spur of the moment. You hear in the gospel today, did not happen on the spur of the moment. God's been planning this thing for thousands of years. that the message might go out. But that night, a network of about 60 people got the word out in New Hampshire, the colonies for 20 miles around Boston and Concord. And so the word got out that the British are on the move. There's a lot of things happened that night by which we see the providence of God. What did Paul Revere do? Now don't miss this. He was faithful to the call. He was faithful to the commission. He did what he was told to do. And he trusted God to open the door. That's what he did. He trusted God to do what he could not do. Revere did his responsibility, but there's always things in our path that we can't climb over, we can't move, and that God's gotta do it, and thank God when God shows up and does it. Paul Revere had rode to Philadelphia and New York at least five times. What happened was his silversmith business suffered greatly at the blockade of the port of Boston. And he went into the messenger business. So he had done a lot of this. He's not a newcomer at this. I mean, he is an experienced man in what he's doing that night. Well, they got word. that the British are on the move. Well, it's such a tight-lipped thing. It's an amazing thing. Thomas Gage told one man, Lord Percy was the only man besides his wife that knew that the Redcoats were moving that night on Lexington and Concord. His officers didn't know it. Halfway through the night, they still did not know the purpose of their expedition. So Gage was doing everything in his power to keep it secret when the whole countryside knew what was going on. It meant God, how God does things. You may not see God in these things, boy I do. So it's April the 18th, suspicion is in the air. Several officers have been down to the livery stable, taking care of their riding tack. At sundown, they notice the British Navy has brought a lot of long boats up to the shore. People know that something is going on. How many of them just don't know what it is? But Joseph Warren had somebody in high places. He went to his grave, never identified who it was, but he had somebody that would let him in on the information. We know who it is by the circumstances that happened. right after that great defeat at Concord by the British. Oh, General Gage sent his wife on the Charming Nancy to England. She was an American. She was true to her people like Esther. She defended her people. She told Joseph Warren that night every detail of what they were gonna do, and it cost her her marriage. She was estranged from her husband in England, away from her family the rest of her life. Boy, God knows how to put people in key places. Her name was Margaret Kimball Gage, and to me, she's a great patron. Well, the British, old Paul Revere, he not only had this elaborate system set up of communicating to the countryside when the British were on the move. He also had men that patrolled Boston. At least two men a night would stealthily patrol the streets of Boston looking for a British movement. I mean, these men were serious about this thing. But all that happened that night is no small thing of how all this come to pass. Every traveler was questioned. Again, it amazes me how in the world that Dawes and Revere got out of Boston. It's nothing less than God just about making them invisible. William Dawes is going down to Boston Neck. It comes down to a little narrow gate. It's the only way to get out of town. He's on a slow horse, got his saddlebags, he's got an old hat, that makes him look like a countryman that's on a journey. Somehow Dawes talked his way through that checkpoint. And as soon as he got through, they shut down that gate for the rest of the night. Is that not amazing? Oh, Paul Revere, he is gonna have to go across the Charles River. But he's got a way, he does not know he can make it. He does not know William Dowles can make it. So he's got plan B. What's plan B? It's the latterns in the top of the church. That's a miracle in itself. Did you know that that church was shut down? Christ Church, the old north church on the north end of town. It was the tallest building in all of Boston. The pastor there was a lawless and the people so hated him for supporting England, they wouldn't go to church and they wouldn't pay his salary and the church was shut down. But Paul Revere knew the vestrymen and he knew the sexton. They were friends of his. Anticipating all of that, Paul Revere has already made plans about what to do. Well, one of the sexton's name was Robert Newman. The vesterman's name was Captain John Pulling. They had another man named Bernard that helped them that night. Well, to make things even more complicated, Robert Newman's daddy died when he was a boy. Robert Newman's mother has lost her fortune. She's having to rent out her home as a boarding house to British officers. Robert Newman's in that house. Somehow he's got to get out the door. He tells how the soldiers, he's going to bed early. He lifts the window from his upstairs bedroom, slides out on the roof down in the garden where these other two men meet him and they wait on Paul Revere. Well, Newman's got the key to the church. He goes to open up that church and Bernard stands on the outside as pulling and as Newman go inside that building. Well, that day, Paul Revere has hid the lanterns in a closet. He's prepared for it. Now, it wasn't an oil lantern. It was really a big globe that held candles. These men, those lanterns had to have two of them. If the British are coming by the water, it's two lanterns. If they're coming by Boston Neck or the land, one lantern. These men went inside, they hung the lanterns around their neck with leather tongs. They climbed up 154 steps. That's a long way. 154 steps to the top of that church tower. They stopped and lit those candles in those globes. Then they went to a narrow ladder above the stairs, climbed higher, rung after rung, till they got to the great bells. Then they went past that and got to the uppermost window of the steeple, and there they stood in a northwest direction as they held those lanterns up and let Charlestown know that the British are coming by water and let them prepare for Revere to come and they got the message out to Cambridge. Isn't that amazing? Then these men go back down 154 steps, they get to the door, and the British are patrolling right in front of him. They go through the church, climb out a back window, and they escape. I'm talking about all these things have to happen simultaneously, and nobody get caught for all this to be pulled off. Paul Revere has his boat hid. He goes where his boat's hid. He's got two countrymen or a boatman that are gonna help him make it across the Charles River. Man, I wish I could find these men's name and give them a little bit of credit. I might in a little bit. But these men, one of them is Joshua Bentley. He's a boat builder. The other one is Thomas Richardson. Now listen to this. These men are pros. at rowing a boat. But the problem is the Charles River shut down at nine o'clock and it's 1030. Nobody can get across that water. And to their great horror, right when they start, they see the HMS Somerset, one of the biggest warships of the British Empire that had 64 guns right in front of them. How are they gonna get around that ship? Well, they wrapped rags around their oars to muffle the sound. But when they get up to where that ship was, the moon was coming up behind them, right behind Boston. And they said, we're caught now for sure. Because that moon's gonna hit that water. When they get by that ship, it's over, they're gonna be seen. Now you got to understand, Gage has sent out the word. Nobody across the river, nobody on the road. Anybody traveling on the road is to be stopped and interrogated. And most of them were arrested that night. So Paul Revere's boat, The moon has come up and he said there was a strange thing happen that night to the moon. This is Paul Revere writing. He said it rose farther to the east than it normally does. and it had a southern declination. He said it was a lunar anomaly that caused it to remain to the south on the evening of April the 18th, 1775, and hang low on the horizon, hidden by the buildings of Boston. The sky was so bright that if the moon had not come up exactly like it had, it would have lit up that water and they'd have been caught, but God, I believe God intervened and they got across the other side, went right by that warship and were never seen. When they get to the other side, a man by the name of Richard Devins was there to meet them. waiting on them. We've seen the lanterns. We've seen the light. It was just a flickering light. It wasn't very bright. It's a quarter of a mile from the old north church to the Charlestown shore. a quarter of a mile. It wasn't very bright, but it was bright enough. Hey man, they got the message. Sometimes my dear people, the gospel goes out in great power and sometimes it's just a flicker, but thank God it goes out to the lost and done world. So Revere has got to have a horse. There happens to be a man there. Boy, all these church people, Deacon John Larkin of the Congregational Church had the best horse in the colony. It was strong, it was fast, and it was big. Oh, brown beauty. Hall Revere mounted and rode off about 11 o'clock. Now remember this, he's crossing the water at 10.30. The Charles River was shut down at nine o'clock. He miraculously gets by. He gets to Charlestown at 11 o'clock. Boy, he's gonna have to have the fastest horse there is. That run all these British that are gonna come after him. Isn't it amazing how God prepares things? That horse could get in that third stage. I don't know much about riding a horse. I know when they're trotting, when they're galloping, they can be rough. But that horse could get in that third stage by the name of canter. That means it would surge forward and turn into an easy rolling rhythm. Ol' Revere could outrun about anybody that would come after him on the back of his horse. Boy, Ol' Revere said as he went up the road, he felt such peace and calm in his heart. Well, he's heading on the main road. The British are patrolling everything. Gage, they don't know why they're going to Lexington Concord, the British. Gage does. He's got patrols on every road in a lot of different places. That's gonna make this thing bigger than ever. And the main man they're looking for is Paul Revere. Paul Revere's on the road to Lexington. Ahead of him, he sees two horsemen behind a tree. The moon, it casts their shadow. He sees the military cockades on their hat. He sees the bulge of the holsters on their hips. and knows it's British regulars. He pulls old Brown Beauty around, takes off as fast as he can and the officers come after him. One of them tries to cut him off by riding cross country and gallops into a clay pit. The other one couldn't handle the speed of that horse and Revere got away. on that splendid mare, not a steed. But when he did, he had to take a northern course. That would have put him miles to the north out of the way. He's on Mystic Road. He goes through a small village north of Charlestown, and then he makes a detour, goes on his westward journey. What Paul Revere did not know, if he had not went that northern route, There was so many, but a British patrolman right down below where those other two men were, he'd have never got through. He was able to get to Lexington because God, I believe, detoured him the northern route. Well, from there he rode and got back on the great road to Lexington. And soon he arrived at Lexington and saw the Buckman Tavern. Well, he saw the four candles. You know, back then they didn't have vacancy and no vacancy. What their services were, what they could do for you was advertised by the number of candles they had. Instead of a four-star motel, it's a four-candle motel. And the four candles, man, there's the availability of food, of drink, of lodging, and of livery, or of stables. I thought I'd just throw that in there. So when he got to Buckman's Tavern, he takes a right, goes up Bedford Road, about 200 yards to the house of Jonas Clark, the pastor of the church down on the Lexington Green. He walks in, gets up there, there's a sergeant guarding the house, and the old Sergeant William Monroe stops him. About 12 other militia are guarding that house. You know why? Because Samuel Adams and John Hancock are on the inside. Finally, they wake everybody up. Eight of the 12 children of Jonas Clark are in the house. John Hancock has had to take his aunt to safety and his fiance, lest they be arrested. Samuel Adams is in that house. He walks in, he delivers a message just as faithful as a man ought to deliver. What they do with it is up to them, but he's delivered the message at the risk of his own life. He sits and talks to them. William Dow shows up in about 30 minutes. They both let their horses get rested for a little bit and take off again at one o'clock in the morning. Now this is where God's providence works on the behalf of his people. When you've done all you can do, when you've been faithful and done what God said, he's got to move providentially to bring things to pass. At the other side of Boston, Well, the British Navy had put out 20 long boats, about half as many as the British needed to put 900 soldiers on to go across the Charles River. That means instead of one trip, they got to take two. That's gonna slow them down. That's gonna give Paul Revere time to being detoured to get to Lexington and to warn them. Not only that, to keep from being detected. Gage is obsessed with not being detected and he was the whole time and didn't even know it. So he sends his men across the Charles River to the Back Bay, a lonely beach on Letchmere Point in Cambridge. They let those men off on the beach. Well, before they let them off, those boats grounded. So those old boys gotta get out and walk with water up to the top of their thigh onto the beach. They go back to the other side, get that other group of men. Once they all get to the beach, they all gotta line up in their proper column. You know how proud them British are. Everybody's gotta be in their right place. So that took a while, it's already midnight. So they start to march and find out they're in a swamp. They're in the middle of a swamp. They can't walk alongside of the river because of those pebbles as hard on their feet. Back then they didn't have a left shoe and a right shoe. They had an interchangeable shoe and it was leather and it just laced up. So here's these men in all that mud and all that swamp land. And they're walking in all of that mess up to almost their waist. And they finally get to the road. When they get to the road, they're sopping wet. Now they gotta wait for the provisions from the Navy to get to them. Two days provision, that's slowing them up. They wait for an hour on the provisions before they can get started again. Well, when they get started again, the only way to get where they wanna go is to go through a river. They slide down an old muddy embankment into a river of melting snow. And the men come out on the other side, froze, numb, hungry, thirsty, and don't even know what they're doing. You know what God's doing? He's delaying them. Amen. You get God working for you. and things pick up. Church, be faithful in what God's called you to do. Haven't you done all you can do? That's when he'll move on your behalf. As they headed west toward Concord, they're overtaken on the road. I'm talking now about, oh, Revere and Dawes. They're headed to Concord. They've got to go tell them that the British are coming to take their gunpowder and their munitions. Here's another act of providence. It's one o'clock in the morning. What's the chance you're gonna meet some friendly person on that road that can be a great help to you? They met a stranger and that stranger's name was Samuel, Dr. Samuel Prescott, had the fastest horse in Concord. Are y'all getting this? When you obey God, carry the message. When you do all you can do, God will come through for you. I got talking to Samuel Prescott. What's he doing out that time of the morning? He's been to Lexington. to date the prettiest girl in town. And he's gonna marry her. And he just happened to be on the road at exactly the right time to meet Revere and Dallas. And by the way, Prescott is the only one of the three that's gonna get to Concord. If they had not met this doctor, the message wouldn't have got there. Maybe not in time. Are y'all getting this? Man, this stuff excites my soul. They're riding down the road on their horses. Old Prescott knows everybody. I said this before, but the doctors always had the best horses because they rode so much. Everybody knew the doctor. Old Dr. Samuel Prescott, he was still in his upper 20s and everybody knows him. And they start stopping at every house and taking turns. Paul Revere's out front. As they get back on the road and Revere's out front, he spots two horsemen lurking behind a tree. Same thing that happened back up the road. He tells these men, I believe if we just run hard through them, we can get by them. What Revere didn't know, that right there where those men were, was a little narrow place in the road. And they got ambushed by about 10 British officers. They led these men by pistol point to a pastor. They told both of them, if any of you attempt to run, we'll blow your brains out. As they were riding about to go into that pasture, Prescott whispered to Revere, put on. What does put on mean? That means ram your spurs as hard as you can in the side of your horse. And they did. When they did, Revere went one way, Dows went one way, Prescott went the other way. Guess who knows the territory like the back of his hand? That doctor does. He jumps a stone wall and goes through the woods and the swamps on a narrow path and they can't find him. Revere looks straight ahead to the wood line. He goes to the tree line. When he gets there, he's about to jump that horse and run through the woods and hide. When he does, there are six British officers waiting on him up there and they arrest him. Well, they've got him now. And they take, oh, and by the way, old Dows, he runs the other direction. He shouts at the troops to distract them. While they're distracted, he runs off down the woods. His horse gets spooked. When he gets to a farmhouse, it abruptly stops. He's thrown off the horse. The horse runs in the woods and he has to limp back to Lexington. But there they've got the man that they're looking for, Paul Revere. They've got him arrested. They began to insult him. But the leader of the men came up and spoke like a gentleman to him and said, sir, I wanna ask you your name. That's when he told them. Six pistols are now pointed at his head. Paul Revere in Define said, gentlemen, you have missed your aim. They said, what is our aim? They tried to tell him. He said, we're just out looking for deserters. Paul Revere, Define said, I know what you're doing. I know what you're up to. He said, I've done alarmed all of the country. They all know you're coming. He proceeded to tell his captors about the mission they were on. He told them about the landing of the British troops in the marshland. He told them the details of what the British troops had done that night. He said, by now, I got about 500 waiting on you Lexington militiamen. Of course, he ain't telling them the truth. Of course, he don't know, though, that there's not 500 there. But what he's doing, he's delivered the message. His responsibility was to save the life of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. He's doing everything in his power to get them away from the target, from Lexington. A faithful messenger carries out his orders. The officers got enraged and agitated at what he was saying. Major Mitchell walked up, pointed a gun at his head. Said, I'm gonna ask you some questions, and if you don't tell me the truth, I'm gonna blow your brains out. Oh, Revere barked back, I don't need a threat to speak the truth. He said, I am a man of truth, I'll tell you the truth, and I want you to know I am not afraid. So Revere is still trying to save the men in Lexington. He believed that these men, of course, were headed to arrest these sons of liberty. And his mission was to warn them and to save their lives. At this time, someone asked the officer the time. It is 2.15 a.m. About a half a mile from the Lexington Green. Now watch this. You talk about a stroke of providence. Right when they got Revere, When he's telling them, they don't believe a word of it, that the militia are at Lakeson, about that, as soon as he said the words, there's a gunshot. Man, when they heard that gunshot, then there was a bunch of gunshots went off. You know what those gunshots were? Those men going in that tavern and unloading their weapons, those militia men. And it just happened to shoot the guns at the right time, at the right place. When these men heard that, then they heard the church bells ringing. They said, maybe what this guy's telling us is right. They take Revere, they put him, they already stopped other travelers they held as prisoners. They put them all in the middle. They took the reins of Revere's horse, And they're leading him in the middle. These men start hearing church bells keep ringing, and they get horrified at what's happening. They take Revere, take all the prisoners, put them out in the middle of the road, confiscate the horses, and they ride off. to go warn the British soldiers coming down the road past Lexington that the militia is out and everybody knows it. Well, that gives Paul Revere time to get back to Lexington. He's on a dead run. A faithful messenger carries out his orders. He's moving as fast as he can. He comes up to the graveyard there at Lexington Green, walks 200 more yards to the parsonage, the house of Jonas Clark, and to his horror, John Hancock and Samuel Adams are still debating about what to do. John Lowell is the clerk of Hancock. Paul Revere, John Lowell take Hancock and Adams and they ride with them about two miles toward Woburn to stay at another preacher's home to get them to safety. Then Paul Revere and John Lowell do something else real important. They flee back to Lexington. When they get there, John Hancock has a trunk about four feet long, about two feet wide, and about two and a half feet high. And it is full of the papers of the revolution. Everybody that somebody in the revolutionary movement name is in that trunk. There's all those important papers that would literally reveal the details of their plans and everybody involved. And old Revere got loyal. They went up to the top of Buckman's Tavern, where old John Hancock had a head. They got to lugging, as Paul Revere is looking through the window, it's about daybreak, he sees way off in the distance, the British getting closer. They may have handled that heavy. I mean, you can imagine how heavy that trunk must have been full of papers. You know how heavy papers are. And they struggle that old trunk down the steps of that tavern. They get down to the bottom of the tavern, go through the door. The British are already walking up and they're getting in position. Paul Revere and John Loyal take that trunk through the militia ranks and they're headed toward the woods to see, to hide that trunk in the woods. The British are standing there watching them. Paul Revere gets to the other side of the green, and here's the first shot of the revolution. And him and John Loyal are able to get all the way to the tree line and hide that trunk somewhere in the woods. Now you tell me, God had to make those men invisible. Why didn't the British go after them and find out what was in that trunk? I'm telling you, when you're faithful, you've done what God said, you've done all you can do. You can trust God. to come through with a miracle. Amen. That's what keeps me going. I'm depending on a miracle and you are too. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle? There's a succession of notes that's got to be played for men to muster That means to line up, for men to be called to arms, for men to march out. There's all different drum beats and trumpet sounds that do that. And if it's not the distinct sound that's a call to arms, nobody will know how to prepare themselves for the battle. Now, you know as well as I do, you know this story. I've preached enough on this. Paul Revere gets there at midnight. The shots go out. The drums are beaten. Called arms. The men come to Lexington Green. They wait around about an hour and 15 minutes, and then they're dispersed. There's about 140 men there on the Lexington Green, the militia. They're told to disperse, but stay by and listen for the call. You know, if the British do come, because they're delayed evidently. Two Lexington scouts, two scouts are sent out that night to search for the British. Listen to this. One returns at about four o'clock in the morning. He reports Revere's message was mistaken. He was wrong. He announced there is no appearance of the troops on the road for Cambridge or Charlestown. And the movements were an effort just to scare the people. On the strength of that report, Captain Parker had dismissed his men. Now, some of them were nearby. Some of them could hear the drum beat. In about an hour, the other scout shows up and said, it's just like Revere said. It's just like the old man of God said. He was right. Danger's coming. Judgment's coming. War's coming. The wranglers are coming. This time old John Parker had the latter stages of tuberculosis, he could hardly even speak. He told the drummer, caught arms. And that drummer, that 19 year old boy started beating that drum. This time there's not 140 men, there's only 77 show up on the Lexington Green because of a false report. The message has got to be commissioned, but it's got to be right. And that one scout had went up the wrong road, that the British were not coming on the road he went up, and he concluded, they're not coming at all. I wanna tell you something, judgment's coming. The message is, the Lord's coming. Death is coming. Hell's coming. And we better prepare for it, and we better prepare well. You say, well, preacher, it looks like the church is about out of business. I've not done anything to perfection, but I've give this thing a real shot. A real shot. I've tried to preach this Bible faithful and I've tried to pray and live right and be an example. I've done all I know to do. I'm waiting on God to do what I can't do. I'm looking for the miracle. I'm looking for God to intervene. I'm looking for providence. I'm looking for the supernatural and child of God. If you've done what God said, you can expect the miracle to come. You think Paul Revere, Brother Lee put his life on the line for something he didn't believe in? He is willing to die to get the message to Hancock and Adams. He knew what it would mean if these men were arrested. He knew what it would mean if the British disarmed the citizens. He knew what it would mean. Hey, these men like Patrick Henry give me liberty or give me death. They'd rather die than live under the occupation of a foreign power. And the only way for these people to be prepared is somebody has got to get the Word to them. You say, preacher, what if nobody will listen? Somebody will. Somebody will. And even if they don't, that doesn't discount the importance of carrying the message that God sent. And this church is trying to carry it. We try to support missionaries, get the gospel out. You know why? We're looking for somebody that'll listen, somebody that'll hear, somebody that'll believe, somebody that'll stay faithful. I'll tell you what, the devil has got a million things to sidetrack you, distract you, get you out of church, get you out of God's will. You ever start that laying out of church, it won't be long, you'll be gone. The least you and I can do is be faithful. What did God put you in these shirts for? First time it gets hard to run? Is that all the character you got? First time it gets difficult to run? God sent you here to do something. You say, well, I've done all I can do. Then expect the miracle. Expect God to intervene. Y'all with me? Amen. I'll tell you one thing, it's only hope we got. Hey, it ain't even up for discussion. I don't wanna live in slavery. I don't wanna live under the domination of another. I want liberty. God give us liberty or God give us death. Amen. Be faithful. Carry the Word. Do what God wants you to do. He'll honor you for it and expect the miracle. You can say, preacher, I've done all I can to get my young unsaved. Then you're in the right spot for God to do something. If God does it, he's got to do it anyhow. Amen. Just offer up your service to God as a sweet smell and savor and say, now, Lord, anything else you need me to do, I'll do it. But I don't know what else to do. And I'm expecting you to come through in this hour. Let's bow our heads tonight. Chancellor, you come. Appreciate y'all listening. I hope this is a help to you.