Well, today we're coming to a change in chapter 11 of Hebrews. where the author shifts from Naming and describing individuals and their faith to listing a group. of names from the Old Testament. Followed by a list of general accomplishments, some of which apply to this one and some of which. apply to another of those in the list.
And this shift, he tells us, is not because he has run out of. potential names. It's just the opposite. It's because there are so many that could be named and profitably so, that it would take too long to name them all, and so Having named enough of them to make the point that he wants to make about faith. and what it looks like and how it operates and the people who try it.
trust in God and exercise believing faith. He now needs to bring this discussion to some kind of conclusion, and yet he's not quite ready to just cut it off. He's going to taper it down. And so we're in that tapering section of this chapter This morning, as we move into verse 32 and following of chapter 11. And so actually, verse 32, which is the primary Part of our text from Hebrews today begins.
with the name of Gideon and a list of several others. Who should um Verse 32, what more shall I say? for time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets.
So we begin the list that he's given us in verse 32 with the name of Gideon. The fourth judge of Israel. There was a period between What should I call the large and significant leadership of Moses and Joshua? Transitioning into a rather long period of not quite so prominent leaders known as judges. in which there was a lot of deterioration in the nation of Israel.
And then eventually coming to the period of the kings. Starting with Saul and then David and so forth from there on out. Gideon is the fourth of the judges in that period between Judah. Joshua. and Saul the king.
Now, it brought me, therefore, to a decision as to what I was going to do in preaching through Hebrews 11 when I came to this section. And there are supposed two possibilities. One is for me to do what the author of Hebrews did, namely Just touch lightly. on a number of names. and to move quickly along.
verse by verse, or, on the other hand, to slow down and to dig in the Old Testament for details about these names that he gives us. of details that he does not give. but nevertheless are suggested to us by the naming of these details. And as I was weighing this decision, I decided I would go the second option. And there are a couple of reasons for that.
Number one is because I suspect that that's really what the author wanted us to do. He wants us to utilize the Old Testament scriptures. In other words, he says, here are the names. You can find out about them yourself if you'll go back to the Old Testament. And read about them and study their lives, and so I think that's what he's suggesting that we do, but regardless.
I think there's no question. That in our day, Christians. are less familiar with the Old Testament than with the New.
Some Christians are woefully ignorant of both Testaments, but if they know Anything at all about the Bible, it's usually from the New Testament with little. knowledge of the old and Therefore, I think I'm going to take this as an opportunity to keep delving a little bit more into the Old Testament. We need that. We need To review what's in the Old Testament. We need to understand what's there.
In the names that he's given us here.
Some of them are familiar and some not so much. Time would Fail me to tell of Gideon.
Well, almost all of us know something about Gideon, probably not a whole lot. I hope you'll know more when we're done this morning than you did when you came in today. But then he mentions Bayrach or Bayrak. What do you know about him? He moves on to Samson.
Most of us know something about him. And then he names Jephthah. If I Did something I won't do because I wouldn't embarrass you, but if I said, hmm. And pointed out one of you and said, Stand up right there and tell us about Jephthah. Yeah, could you do it?
And probably most of you couldn't.
So I think for that reason it'll be profitable for us To delve into the background of all of these names.
Now, some of them, there's so much material. I mean, when it comes to David. Do we do that in one sermon? or 10 sermons or 25 sermons. We'll probably do it in one, but there's an awful lot of material.
But it'll get us back into the Old Testament scriptures, and so I have chosen to take that route today. And so today we're taking up the faith of Gideon, and I'm going to follow. what by now is a familiar format. Number one, we'll take a look at the Old Testament narrative. Number two, we will take a look at the New Testament text.
that refers to him by name And number three, we will consider some points to ponder that we can draw from this, and I hope we can get all of this done. in the time that we normally allot for the morning, Sunday morning sermon. But if I miss the normal time schedule, you can charge it to the fault of whoever removed the clock and didn't put it back from the funeral. Because there's no clock there to tell me what time it is.
Somebody would say, well, you've got a calendar right behind you somewhere, don't you? I can see a few of you got that, but I do have a watch. Relax, okay? All right, Gideon. I'm going to have to Just Summarize What the Bible tells us about Gideon.
There are three chapters in the book of Judges that tell us about Gideon, his faith, his exploits. what he accomplished for God and for the nation of Israel, Judges chapter 6, 7, and 8, which is another reason why. I think God wants us to pay attention to the life of Gideon. If he gave us three chapters in the Bible to describe what took place, surely. He intends for us to give that some of our attention.
So let me see how well I can do in reviewing these three chapters, starting first of all. with what we are told in Judges chapter 6. It opens by describing for us Israel's sad condition. And this is a pattern throughout the time of the judges. Primarily recorded in the book that is called the book of Judges.
Namely, that Israel departed from the Lord, God's chastening hand came upon them in one way or another, usually by the oppression of one or more of the nations around them. After some length of suffering under this oppression, What is surprising is how long it took Israel before they finally cried out to the Lord and said, Please deliver us. And God graciously did, time after time after time after time. In the case of Gideon, we are told that Israel had been. oppressed by the Midianites for seven years.
Some of the oppressions were less than that. Most of them were more than that, as we read through the book of Judges. But seven years. They had been mightily oppressed by these people called the Midianites. A conglomeration of a number of tribes that came together, they're also coupled with the Amalekites.
Who were part of the oppression? It was the Midianites and the Amalekites who. came from the east, crossed the Jordan River, came into the land of Canaan. and came in such numbers that they basically consumed all of the crops, all of the good stuff, and just when they left, there was nothing left for the people of God. The crops that they had grown were consumed.
by the Midianites. And so The chapter opens in this sad condition. And we're told that this condition Came because of Israel's sin. We're told they departed from the Lord, and later in the chapter we find out what exactly that means. They had left.
the worship of God for the worship of Baal.
Something about Baal that seems to have been especially attractive to the people of God. They went back to Baal. Over and over again. And they're doing that during this very interval. And finally, after God's chastening hand was, I guess, serious enough that they decided.
that they could endure it no longer and they certainly couldn't do anything themselves to remove the oppression of this horde of people, the Midianites. They seemed to be so many when they came, it says they had so many camels they couldn't even be counted. When they talk about the victory that came later through Gideon, It talks about the slaughter of 120,000 soldiers. And it was an immense number of people that invaded the land. And finally, Israel cries out to God for deliverance.
And before God Begins to deliver, he sends them a prophet not named. in the scriptures True. Remind them. of what they had done that was wrong, that was so grievous to God, and why they were being oppressed that is chastened by God. The prophet rebukes them for their idolatry and calls them back.
to the worship of Yahweh, Israel's God, as their only Lord and God. And then, after that rebuke, God Anoints chooses and selects Gideon to be the judge who's going to deliver them from this Midianite Oppression. Gideon is reluctant. That's a common theme as well. How many times to the people that God called into leadership and to perform some great task of deliverance for his people.
We were unwilling at first to do that. Moses fits into that category, and so many others as well. And Gideon also did that. He was very reluctant. But God prevailed upon him.
He actually had an encounter with one that's called the angel of the Lord, and because of the way he responds to him later on in this encounter, it becomes pretty clear that this was a pre-incarnate time. of Christ coming to earth. We find several of those in the Old Testament. Yeah.
So he was actually because he talks about being face to face with God. when he realized who this was. And so, this messenger of God, who turns out to be the second person of the triune Godhead, comes to him. And tells him that God wants him to deliver Israel. And he says, I'm not.
capable, I'm not worthy, I'm the I'm the least of my father's household. Our father's household is the smallest in our tribe, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But the angel of the Lord performs a miracle in his midst. Gideon. Asks him to stay and he's going to fix a meal for him.
And he goes off to fix the meal. And when he brings back the food, He lays it on a rock in front of the angel. And the angel just simply reaches out his staff and touches the rock and the meal is entirely consumed in a flame. In other words, The angel turns that meal into a burnt offering. And Gideon realizes this is no ordinary Man, certainly, and really not even an ordinary angel.
He said, I've come face to face with God. I won't be able to live. But he did live. And he did, in the strength of that, accept his assignment. Hey, God now commands Gideon.
to destroy one of the altars of Baal, That happened to be on the property of his own father, perhaps erected by his own father. And God tells him to destroy it. Take one of his father's oxen and pull the. Altar down, destroy it. Take another one of his father's oxen and slaughter it, and burn it as a sacrifice to God in the spot where the altar of Baal was.
And Gideon accepts the assignment reluctantly, but he knows by now to obey the Lord. But he does it at night so he won't be seen.
So he gathers ten. Off his Household servants, and I'm thinking, wait a minute. You so insignificant, so poor, Your household is so small, and yet you've got at least Ten? Servants? How much How many of us could call ten of our servants to help us in a task?
You have to be of some prominence to be able to do that. And that's what he did. He called ten of his fathers. Servants, and at night they went and carried out the assignment, and they pulled down the altar of Baal. There appears to have been some wooden Statue, maybe an idol of Baal, maybe.
Um some other totem pole type thing of worship. And they they took the wood that they had taken, that they had pulled down, and chopped it up for the sacrifice. They used the the former wooden, whatever it was that was being worshipped, as the fuel for the for the sacrifice that they made to Jehovah God. Did it at night, hoping they wouldn't be detected, I suppose. But how can you do all that and nobody knows what's going on?
And sure enough, the next day, people objected, and they came to Gideon's father and to others and said, Gideon pulled down the altar of Baal. He must die. And that tells you how. strong the Worship of Baal had become already, these men and evidently the majority of people. agreed that Anyone who desecrated Baal should die, deserve to die.
They were given totally to idolatry, totally had become apostate. Flip things upside down. We're now calling for the death of somebody Who dishonored Baal when they should have been calling for the death of those who worshiped Baal? according to the law of God. But Gideon's own father comes to his defense.
And he's the best one to do it. Not necessarily because he's his father, but because The altar was on his property. The destruction of it cost him his bulls. And he comes to Gideon's defense, and what he says is. Let Baal contend for himself.
In other words, if Baal is a true God, then let him seek. Vengeance on the one who did this, similar to what Elijah did with the 400 prophets of Baal in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. If Baal's a real prophet, let him answer from the sky. Let him send fire from the sky. Let him demonstrate that he is a God, if he is indeed a God, which of course he's not.
And with that, the name of Gideon that spared his life because Baal didn't answer, Baal didn't do anything. But now they renamed Gideon Zarub Babel. Zerabael. And that means let Baal contend. And so from here on out, you'll find.
Sometimes Gideon referred to by his given name Gideon, and sometimes by his new name Zerubbael, the one who. Who overcame Baal and the challenge went forth? Let Baal contend for himself. Let Baal answer this. Insult, which of course he did not do.
And that started Gideon on the path to the deliverance of Israel. Gideon then enlists an army from the four most northern tribes of Israel. They're named In chapter 6, And he goes to fight the Midianites.
Now, he's got a pretty good-sized army, we read, 32,000 men. But what are they against so many? I mean, we know already that the Midianites numbered well over 100,000. But he's got 32,000, so he's outnumbered. by a by a large amount.
And then God says, now, before you've got too many soldiers, before you go forth to. Uh to battle Let's you make the proclamation: anybody who's afraid, anybody who'd rather not fight, anyone who would prefer to go home, just give them permission to go home. Let them leave. And The cloud of dust From departing soldiers must have been pretty substantial because when the dust cleared, They had 10,000 left. 22,000 went home.
Now get in saying, Wow. We were outnumbered about five or six to one before.
Now we're outnumbered. Twelve or more to one. Whew. But maybe God can do it, and then God says, You've still got too many soldiers. Take everybody down to the brook.
They're thirsty anyway. Take them down to the brook. And everybody who just gets on their face basically And Drops their head in the water and drinks water that way. You send them home. Only the ones So stay upright.
on bended knee, but with their head Looking around and get water out of the brook and lap it from their hands while they're remaining alert. To the possibility of enemies, you keep those. Those are men who know something, apparently, about how they need to. behaved themselves as soldiers. And so That directive goes out and when that's over Another 9,700 are sent home, and Gideon is left with 300 men.
Now, I can't even. Begin to give you the ratio here, but you talk about being outnumbered. He's really outnumbered now. And God says, Okay, that's about right.
Now I can.
Now I can come to your aid. you've got the right number of soldiers. By now, Gideon's Faith is getting a little bit strained, shall we say? He was willing to On the strength of what God did for him with the pulling down of the altar of Baal, he was willing to move forward, but now. To be called upon to face this vast army with 300 men, he's not quite so sure.
And so this comes to what most people know about Gideon. His fleece. Everybody, nearly everybody, knows about Gideon's fleece. You know that. And Gideon said, Lord, um I just got to be sure now that I'm understanding you correctly, that I hear you right.
that you want me with 300 men to go against the Midianites and You will deliver them. Into the Hands of Israel We will have victory with 300 men fighting against this vast horde. Am I sure that I got that right? There is a lot of room here for misunderstanding.
So, God, if you would be so kind. I'm going to put out a fleece tonight and Would you just cause this to happen so that tonight All of the dew Just is restricted to the fleece and it's dry all around.
So I'll realize that this is you speaking. This is rather unusual. And sure enough, the next morning he gets up and the Ground's all dry, but the fleece is sopping wet. He wrings out the fleece and gets several quarts of water. But Lord, I've got to be very, very, very, very sure.
So can we do it one more time tonight? Let's Do it again, but this time I've got to be sure that wasn't a coincidence.
So this time let the fleece be dry and the ground be wet. And sure enough, he wakes up the next morning and the free fleece is dry and the ground is wet. Gideon's fleece. In case I run out of time to say anything about it, Because I can see that time is going to be precious this morning. What we need to understand, a lot of people take this incident from Gideon's fleece and they try to employ that in various ways.
This is how I discern God's will. God, if you want me to do this, then let this unusual thing happen. God, if you want me to do this, let this unusual thing happen.
Well, please keep in mind that what this is an expression of is Gideon's lack of faith. Not his faith, you see? God had already spoken to him clearly. What is faith? Believing the revelation of God and acting accordingly.
God had spoken clearly. There was no ambiguity in what God had said.
So, Gideon's asking for additional confirmation is really. representing his His weakness of faith, not the strength of faith. God honored it. God is gracious. God propped up his weak faith.
But There's no indication that this is the way God wants us to figure out. What he wants us to do. Faith is believing the revelation of God. It's more like we've all heard this: if God said it, I believe it. That settles it.
That's what Gideon should have said. God said that he would. Conquer the Midianites with 300. God said it, I believe it. That settles it.
But he was. weak of faith, so he did the fleece. procedure. That's chapter 6. I've got to go quickly.
If I'm going to get chapter 7 and 8. Oh, I already got into chapter seven on the reduction of Gideon's army. The battle was enjoined. God gave him a battle strategy. It involved taking these 300 men.
Giving each of them Not a sword. Not a spear. Not a bow. A picture? A um Torch?
and a trumpet. And um God said, we're going to position these 300 men around the camp of Midian. And when I When you say shout, when you shout, they're going to break their pictures and their torches will suddenly light up the dark sky. And they will blow their trumpet, and they will all shout together the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. That's the strategy.
You say that doesn't sound like much of a battle plan.
Well Remember Jericho? marching around Jericho. Day after day after day didn't sound like much of a battle plan, but if God said it, God's going to honor that, God's going to do it, and God said it, and God did it. And on the seventh circuit, on the seventh day, the walls of Jericho fell down. And the whole point of that, as it is here, is when it's done this way, who gets the glory?
Not Israel for their mighty. Prowess, their mighty strength and battle strategy. Clearly it wasn't Israel and at Jericho. Clearly it's not going to be Israel with these 300 men against 100 and let's say 150,000 men. Clearly the glory has to go to God because there's no other explanation.
But even once again, Israel's getting still a little bit doubtful.
So God says, I'm going to prop up your faith one more time. You take your servant. Get down close to the camp of the Midianites and you're going to hear something that'll help you. And he goes down there and he hears one soldier overtelling another soldier about a dream he had. And the dream was that a a loaf of barley bread.
tumbled into the camp of Midian and struck a tent and it fell flat.
Okay, what does that mean? The other soldier said, This means that God is giving the victory to Gideon.
Now, somehow the Midianites Already had some Understanding that if the God of Israel came to their aid, they would. Prevail over Midian. They seemed to understand that. And he took this dream as an indication that the God of Israel, Yahweh, was going to give Israel the victory. And with that concept.
Confirmation and that encouragement, Gideon went back and he executed the plan and he arranged the men in three companies, three companies of 100 each, and they put put themselves in a ring around The army, and they did what they were told. And when they broke the pitchers, and the torches suddenly flamed out, and the trumpets were blown. The army of Midian just fell into complete confusion, and they thought, evidently, that this was not 300 men, but 300 armies, each torch representing a whole large company of men. Evidently, that's what they thought. And they thought, our gooses are cooked, if they use that idiom in that day.
And they started lashing out, and what they ended up doing was killing each other. No credit to Israel for that. And Gideon chases them. And It's really hard to get into everything. He added Ephraim to the battle at some point.
I won't get into that. Um He traced two of their kings, Zeb and Zalmuna The princes that Ephraim killed were Oreb and Zeb. And then he he c he chases Zaba, not Zeb, Zeba, and Zalmuna, there must be something about the Midianite language that liked that. Z sound, I suppose. I don't know.
But anyway. Gideon punishes too. cities that refused to help him when he appealed to them for food for his soldiers and so forth. And they denied his request, saying, B basically, you haven't won the battle yet, so we'll We're not going to help you. They're trying to...
What do you call it? They were trying to stack the deck in their favor. They weren't sure which way to go. Is Gideon going to win or the Midianites going to win? If we help Gideon and the Midianites end up being.
being victorious then they're gonna They're going to punish us for helping Gideon.
So they weren't willing to help Gideon. Gideon said, when I come back in victory. I am going to punish you, and he did. But we've got to bring this to a close. This long uh three-chapter account.
And I've already moved into chapter 8. When the victory was won, The Men of Israel said to Gideon, Become our king. Become our king. This was the period of the judges. Israel had no king.
Become our king. May your son be our king and your grandson be our king. They were suggesting to him a dynasty. pretty attractive to become the king of a dynasty that was recognized by the whole nation. In perpetuity from Father to son, to grandson, and so forth.
But Gideon. to his credit, said no. I will not become your king. But Throw the earrings that you got from these. Medianite What was the other Amalekites?
No, it wasn't the Amalekites. Yeah, it was, the Amalekites, and now they're called Ishmaelites. And all of these apparently are a conglomeration of tribes that had come from the east. And the Ishmaelites apparently wore earrings. And so having S slain a hundred and 20,000 of them.
I mean, they didn't do it, they slew each other, but there they are. dead corpses lying all over, strewn from mountain to coast. And all the People of Israel had to do was go and Pick up the goodies, take the jewelry, take whatever was of value off of these bodies. And so they had a lot of these earrings, and Gideon said, Just give me the earrings. That's all I want.
I won't become king. And they did. They gave him the earrings. And Gideon made, the Bible tells us. an ephod out of this abundance of gold, Now an ephod is what the high priest wore.
In the Under the law of Moses. And it appears to involve his robes, his vestment, which vestments which were richly. Richly uh Um I want to say ornated, but that's not really the right word. but had gold thread in them and so forth. very beautiful and and uh luxurious.
Plus, there appears to have been a golden breastplate that was part of this garb for the high priest. And there was something about This that was able, that God used to reveal his will. The high priest for direction from God and and with this particular Apparatus that God had designed for him, he was able to give them direction.
So Gideon makes something that apparently looked just like the one the high priest had. No, no. There was only supposed to be one of those. For the high priest. Gideon wasn't the high priest.
But apparently Gideon didn't wear it. He Put it up for display. And Lo and behold, The people of Israel Start worshiping it as if that's God.
So given are they to idolatry. They just can't seem to refrain from it. And so now they're worshiping this ephod that Gideon made, and he doesn't do anything about that. You'd think he'd take it down and say, no, no, no, worship the Lord God. He doesn't do that.
He lives out his life. Has a lot of sons. He had many wives, that's the problem. He had many wives, many sons. But he lives out his life during his lifetime.
The enemies of Israel stayed away. They were afraid of Gideon because they knew what he had done. And so for 40 years Israel has peace, but When Gideon died, Israel went right back to worshiping. Bale.
So they're going to have to be Rebuked again. And at some point delivered again. All right. That's the background.
Now, what can we draw out of the New Testament? This is going to have to be. Very streamlined.
Well, back to Hebrews chapter 11. I've already pointed out there is a list of additional. Heroes of faith. Four are from the period of the Judges, beginning with Gideon. Two are from the period of the kings, namely David and Samuel.
And one is a reference to prophets without a definite name. but to a category of men. And then following that, in verses 30. three and thirty-four and the first half of thirty-five There are a list of ten accomplishments of faith. These Named people in verse 32.
did one or more of the following. Subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again, verse 35a. And then in verse 35, in the middle, it changes.
All up until now, This describes victories by faith. And now, starting with the middle of verse 35, it describes. Sufferings By faith. In other words, now we're going to have a category of people who also exercised faith in God, as much faith as all of these others, but in their case, God gave them the faith to endure horrendous suffering and not Fail. to trust God.
The first category, Faith to believe God for victory over enemies, victory over sufferings. And the second category for faith to endure sufferings without. Victory without relief, but to remain true to God in the midst of that. You see, right there goes the health and wealth gospel out the window.
Sometimes faith in the purposes of God produces Great victories. of the type of subduing enemies and so forth.
Sometimes Faith in God produces the victory of being able to stay true to God even when the suffering doesn't stop. And both are just as honoring to God, one as the other. In the case of Gideon. Six of the ten would apply to him of the ten things that are listed. Gideon, by faith, subdued kingdoms.
Gideon, by faith, obtained promises. Gidding, by faith, escaped the edge of the sword. He could have been killed in battle. He wasn't. Gideon, out of weakness, was made strong.
He showed a lot of weakness, but God gave him strength to accomplish the impossible. Gideon became valiant in battle, didn't he? And Gideon turned the flight of the army turned to flight the armies of the aliens. the intruding armies. Which brings me now to consider some points to ponder.
And I begin with this one. Let's learn from this account. Where Credit. For success, successes in life should go. And we should understand that all things that we would consider success come from God.
and therefore the glory must be given to God.
Sometimes God arranges the circumstances to make that so obvious that it's pretty hard to deny. When he cuts Gideon's army down to 300, who could possibly get the glory but God? But sometimes he doesn't do that. He does, he brings. Success as we would view it.
Through the normal means And there is a tremendous temptation on the part of people, yes, even God's people, to say, Look what I did. No, no, no, no, no. All success comes. comes from God. The glory must always be given.
To God. God is able to deliver you, but if He does, make sure He gets the glory. Have you had Financial success? Give the glory to God. Do you have financial problems?
God is able to deliver you. He may. And if he does, Who are you going to give the glory to? Be sure you give it to God. and right on through.
Has God kept you from illness? Have you had an unusually healthy life? Give the glory to God. Has God cured you from illness. If he has.
The glory goes to him. You say, well, the doctor was really a smart doctor. Yeah, there are a lot of smart doctors, but not smart enough to catch everything. If the doctor seems to succeed, I can tell you where the success came from. The success came from God.
Give Him the glory. I could give some personal illustrations of that one, but I will not. And so forth. On it goes. The point is that all good things, the Bible tells us, every Good gift, every perfect gift comes from where?
Comes down from the Father above. Give him the glory. Don't be tempted to take the credit to yourself. I see another application here in the area of the value of weak faith. Gideon had Weak faith.
Hey. Tried to Evade the responsibility that God wanted to. God gave to him and God wouldn't let him do that. He Questioned. Whether God really had told him that he could conquer the Midianites, and he put out his fleece and.
God honored that. But Gideon's faith was weak, but here's the point. Even though in weakness he hesitated, God honored his desire to know for sure. The side. God graciously complied.
God wasn't required to do that. God could have said, I've told you what to do. That's all you're going to get. Believe what I said. But God said, Okay.
I'll honor your fleece request. Whoops, your faith is getting weak again.
Okay? I'll let you over here. this interpretation of the dream. These things to shore up your faith. And the point is this: God graciously responds to faith even when it's weak.
Remember the man in the Bible? Jesus said, If you believe you're Was it servant or son? Your child will be made well. And he said, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief.
He knew his faith was weak, it wasn't as strong as it ought to be. But it's obvious God honored weak faith. And that should be an encouragement. Because every one of us here at times know that our faith is weak, weaker than it should be. But if it is true faith in God, weak as it may be, God knows that, God will honor that, God will strengthen that.
Now If you pretend to have faith, but what you're really trying to do by asking for more. Guidance, more direction, more light, whatever, is really. an attempt to avoid or delay. What God has said, God's not going to honor that.
Well, how can you tell the difference between the honoring that God gives a weak faith and the refusal to honor what turns out to be hypocritical faith?
Well, hopefully, you'll know the difference. Other people who are watching this from the outside can't possibly know. But even if you're not sure, God always knows. That's the point. God knows our heart in and out.
He knows when we have. Faith, even if it's just like the grain of a mustard seed, it's kernel, it's small, a small kernel, it's weak. But he honours that. And he strengthens that. And he grows that.
Praise His name. What a gracious God he is. But hypocritical professions of faith are a different matter altogether, and God knows that too. And he will not. Honor those.
Well, what else? I will end with this one, the kindness of God. God is exceedingly merciful and long-suffering. Israel deserved no deliverance for their idolatry. They just deserved to be.
swallowed up in their oppression of by the Midianites. They certainly hadn't done anything to deserve God's mercy in this occasion. But God was kind to them anyway. as he is to us. Do any of us deserve God's mercy?
Sometimes I hear people say something like Well, I've got this in my life. I don't know what I did to deserve that. Friend, friend, friend, your whole life deserves that. The amazing thing is when God does the merciful and kind thing and rescues you, what did you do to deserve that? Nothing.
That's The grace of God, the kindness of God, the mercy of God, and that's the kind of God He is. Don't presume upon him. He is willing to give and forgive far more than we would expect. He he told the disciples that they said, should we forgive our enemy? Seven times.
The Jewish teaching was three times, so they thought they were going to really get. Get more spiritual about this.
Well, how about if we do it seven times, twice three plus one more? Jesus said, No, no, you haven't understood. Make it 70 times seven. Ooh. Um What's that?
Four hundred and ninety You'll probably You probably lose track before you count that accurately. And the point is not when you get to 490, on 491, you say, that's it. The point is, you should be. As long-suffering and merciful in kindness and your willingness to forgive others as God is toward you. And he has forgiven you more than 490 times, hasn't he?
Right. Right. His mercy is amazing. But don't presume, it will eventually come to an end, so don't presume upon it. But Christ has been given.
He is still saving sinners who repent and believe, no matter how many times you have refused. If you will repent and believe, if you've refused him a thousand times, but on the thousandth and oneth time that you are called upon to repent and believe, if you will, he'll save you. Because that's the kind of merciful God he is. But Don't presume. Because you may die before time.
1002. comes along you don't know. But take encouragement in his mercy. And the point is We serve a God. who deserves Honor.
Glory. and worship. Let's give it to him. Shall we pray? Father, help us to be Believing children, obedient children, and repenting children, for Lord, we fail, and we must repent and thank you, Father, for the promises of your forgiveness.
And Lord, give us faith. Faith to believe you. Faith to obey you, And when our faith is weak, O Lord, strengthen it, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.
