Our text tonight is found again
in Judges chapter eight. Judges chapter eight. God had
cut Israel's army from 32,000 to 300. You know, we must be small to see
God as big. And we must be weak to see God
as strong. And speaking of the judges, the
writer of Hebrews says, for the time would fail me to tell of
Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and in Jethal of David and also
in Samuel and of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained the promises, stopped the mouths
of lions. quenched the balance of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong,
waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Hebrews 11, 32, 34. That's exactly
what Gideon and these 300 men did to the Midianites. Now in the days of Gideon, as
you know from our previous studies, God sent a dream to one man in
the camp of the Midianites, and it spread through the camp like
a wildfire. And the words, the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon was used to strike terror in the Midianites'
hearts. 301 men. Watch God just discombobulate. 135,000 men as they killed each other
with their own swords and 15,000 of them running for their lives.
And God used only trumpets, clay pots, clay pitchers, and torches
to do so. What a miracle of grace. And
what a picture of the gospel. We blow the one note of the gospel
trumpet. We preach and testify of Christ.
He is the light within us, the clay vessels that we are. And
this is how we're delivered from our enemies, the enemy of sin. And you may say, well, you know,
Brother David, I've never experienced the miracle of God. Well, are
you redeemed? Because that's the greatest miracle
of all. There's no greater miracle than
that. God giving life to a dead sinner. Israel's victory didn't
come about because they were smart or because they were skilled
or because they were strong. It came about because they were
submitted to the will of God. They had to be to go out and
fight 135,000 men with 300. And they had to be submitted to the will and
purpose of God. So on the heels of this great
miracle, here in Judges 8, verse 4, we're told, and Gideon came
to Jordan and passed over, he and the 300 men that were with
him. And again, we make note that
all 300 are with Gideon, not one's been lost. I love to think
about that. go out against 135,000, 15,000
take off running, and not one of the army of Gideon is lost. I'm reminded of our Lord who
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. All of them. Every single one. And Him that
cometh to me, I'll in no wise cast out. You know what that
means? They'll all be saved. Every single one. Our Lord continued,
and He said, For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing. Not a one. Again, verse four,
and Gideon came to Jordan and passed over he and the 300 men
that were with him. Now look at these words, these
last three words of the verse. Faint, yet pursuing. That's my message tonight. Faint,
yet pursuing. Gideon and the 300 had not lost,
but they'd been in a battle and they were certainly faint. They
had not been defeated, but they had certainly been drained, yet
they're still pursuing the enemy. And they were not losers, but
they considered not themselves to be winners, not yet. They
were faint, yet pursuing. They were still on the trail
of these 15,000 Midianite soldiers who had escaped. They were tired,
but the job wasn't done. They were hungry, but the work
wasn't finished. They were weary, but they were
pressing on. They were faint, yet pursuing. Now, there's nothing wrong with
being faint, but we can't stop pursuing. Some have, and some
do, but not the chosen of God, no. Why do we continue pursuing? Well, there's really only one
reason. We are chosen and called of God. Gideon's men were, they
were called of God. They were called of God for a
specific purpose. Were they working out their own
salvation? Well, in one sense, we all do. But it's God which
worketh in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Some
believers get to the point that they're so faint that they say,
I can't do it anymore. I just can't do it anymore. You
never were doing it. It's God which works in you.
It's God which works in you. Israel was pursuing two Midianite
kings, Zeba and Zalmunna. And these 300 men had fought
hard and they had fought long. They'd fought all night. They
attacked them at night. They'd fought all night. They'd
been pursuing them all day. And they're faint and they're
weak and they're tired. but they were still pursuing.
That's what Paul meant when he wrote, and let us not be weary
in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. You see, there's a condition
there. We reap if we faint not, if we continue to pursue. Sometimes
I get tired. I don't get tired of the work
that God has given me, but I certainly get tired in the work. There's
a big difference. Spurgeon once said that if we
do not get tired in the work of God, then we've never really
done a work that's worth doing. And like our Lord, we must, we
must be about our Father's business. Do we pray only when we feel
like it? Do we study the Scriptures the
same way? If men were only to preach when
they felt like it, I sometimes wonder if men would preach often
at all. But it doesn't have anything
to do with feelings. It really doesn't. I remember
Brother Walter Groover. Someone asked him one time if
he was happy as a missionary in Mexico, and Brother Walter,
without Without missing a step, he said, it doesn't have anything
to do with happiness. And it doesn't. It has to do
with the glory of God. It has to do with the preaching
of the gospel to the lost. It has to do with many things,
but not happiness. And it doesn't have anything
to do with feelings. It has to do with submission
to God's calling. God said the victory was theirs. They were faint, yet pursuing. In 1 Samuel chapter 30, you probably
remember the story, the Amalekites had invaded Israel and they had
taken some of the women and their children captive. Two wives of
David were taken. The scriptures say that David
and those with him lifted up their voices and wept until they
had no more power to weep. They fainted, they were faint,
but they pursued. David was distressed. We're told
that he encouraged himself in the Lord. He was distressed.
You know that some of his men spoke of stoning him because
of this? And he was distressed, but he
encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. That's how we continue
to pursue. We encourage ourselves in the
Lord, our God. And David inquired of the Lord,
and David asked the Lord, he said, shall I pursue? And David
asked, shall I overtake them? And the Lord answered with one
word, pursue, pursue. Oh, we're faint, but we're yet
pursuing. As David and his men began to
pursue the enemy, two of David's 600 men became so fatigued that
they couldn't go any further. They couldn't continue in the
battle, so they stayed at the Brook Besor, while David and
the 400 remaining troops went after the Amalekites. And the
Bible tells us that David and his 400 men were victorious in
overcoming these enemies. And they recovered all, everything
that had been taken from them, and for that matter, everything
else that the Amalekites possessed as well. It's called the spoils. And they traveled back to meet
the 200 men who were so weak that they had to remain behind.
And some of the evil men with David, probably the same ones
that wanted to stomp him, they said, well, they should just
take their wives and children and go on their way. And David
understood that those who had remained behind still had a part
in this victory. even though they were not part
of the fighting. He said, but as his part is that
goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth
by the stuff. They shall part alike. These 200 men didn't quit. No, they didn't give it up. They
went as far as they could go. They couldn't go any further.
They stayed by the stuff. And in doing so, they made the
work of the 400 easier by watching their things. Sometimes in the
battles of life, friends, we're tempted to quit and throw in
the towel. But we can't. We've got to at
least stay by the stuff. And the truth of the matter is
we all get weak sometimes. We all get weary at times. There are times when we're tempted
to quit. But stay by the stuff. Be faithful
to the Lord. Be faithful to His Word. Don't
give up or give in and you'll see the victory. The Lord's promised
that you will. Well, we already know how the
thing comes out, don't we? Christ, by His substitutionary
work, restored all that Adam lost. We lost it all in Adam. Adam lost life. Christ recovered
it. Adam lost fellowship with God.
Christ recovered it. Adam lost the way, the truth,
and the life. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
We're too weak to pursue and overtake our enemy of sin. Thank
God Christ did it for us. That day David is said to have
made a statute, an ordinance for Israel. And he shared the
spoils with the whole nation. And all God's people are going
to share in the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. David said,
Behold a present, a blessing for you of the spoil of the enemies
of the Lord. And he split it all with all
Israel. You know, when our Lord ascended
up on high, He led captivity captive, and He gave gifts unto
men. And the scriptures say in Ephesians 4, and He gave some
apostles and some prophets, excuse me, and some evangelists and
some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God and to a perfect man and to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You know,
all God's servants are going to share in the fullness of Christ. And the amazing thing concerning
Christ's fullness is that everyone gets it all. No matter how you divide it up,
they get it all. It can't be divided. The fullness
of Christ. What an amazing thing. And none
of us have already attained. None of us are already perfect.
The word means complete. But we follow after. Paul said
we press on. We pursue. So that we may apprehend
and lay hold. Lay hold of what? The eternal
salvation of Jesus Christ. The prize is yet before us. Constant
effort is still required. In awe you may be faint, yet
you continue to pursue, you continue to follow after. This one thing
we do, we forget those things which are behind and we pursue
the mark of the prize. Though we're faint, though we're
weary, we press on toward the mark, that high calling of God
in Jesus Christ. And we may be faint and we may
be weary and we may be hungry. We may be troubled on every side,
but we're not distressed. We may be hard pressed, but we're
not crushed. We may be perplexed, but we're
not in despair. We may be persecuted, but we're
not forsaken. We may be struck down, but we're
not destroyed. We bear about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Christ might
be made manifest in our body. And this is what keeps us pursuing,
is it not? We're not forsaken by God no
matter what comes our way. This is what keeps us going forward. None of us will be finished until
the Lord is finished with us. Now there are basically two things
to consider from this phrase, faint yet pursuing. First, the
weakness of the flesh. Faint. Faint. Secondly, the strength of God's
grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet pursuing. What is man at his best? Well,
the best of men are men at best, aren't they? Scripture says we're
all together vanity. Human nature is a sinful thing. Why were these brave men of Gideon
faint? Well, they had had no rest. That's one of the reasons we're
so faint. There had been no time for them to rest. They'd fought
all night. They had pursued all day. We'll
never work like Christ until we rest like Christ. The Lord
Jesus was often found resting. Our Lord had a great capacity
for working, but he also had a great capacity for resting.
When he was on that ship and when that ship was tossed with
the tempest, our Lord was asleep in the hindered part of the ship,
in the back part of the ship. And this was when the storm was
at its very height. So much so that these experienced
fishermen, mariners, were scared to death. This was a major storm,
I can assure you of that, for Peter and these other fishermen
to be as concerned for their life as they were. But to sleep was the best thing
that our Lord could do. He nor His disciples had any
reason to fret, because He's the Lord of the wind and of the
storm. He sent the storm. And when we
don't see the clear way of the Lord, the best thing we can do,
friends, is to rest in Him. If we neglect to rest in Christ,
we become faint. Gideon and his men had put in
a hard day's work. Gideon and his men had pursued
their enemy through hill and valley, mountain and the plain. They'd crossed the Jordan. They'd
traveled here to Succoth. They were faint, but still pursuing. What a lesson for us. These brave
men had endured a long march. They had fought the battle, as
I said, all night. They pursued the enemy all day.
These men had taken no refreshment. They'd put out so much and had
taken in so little. Have you grown faint? Rest in Jesus Christ. Have you
fought all night? Have you pursued all day? Have
you taken any refreshment for yourself? God has provided for
you the manna from heaven. God has provided for you a rock
from which flows rivers of living water. Take and eat. Take and eat. Take of the water of life freely.
Many of these 300 men had been deserted by their friends, while
22,000 of them who were afraid had already went home. And then
97 more, 100 of them, had been sent home. Their souls were ready
to faint due to the slackness of others. It was just them,
300 against so many? And that brings us to the second
consideration, the strength of divine grace. These 300 were
feigning yet pursuing. Isn't that amazing? And can you imagine a bystander
seeing 15,000 Midianites running for their lives and this little
band of 300 men chasing them? That's the way God does things.
You see, it was God that was chasing them. That's what had
the Midianites fleeing. They marched slowly, but they
marched forward. They could only strike feebly,
friends, but they did strike. They were faint in strength,
but they weren't faint in heart. They had wavered in their strength,
but they had not wavered in their heart. They hadn't wavered in
their resolution. None of them said, well, we've
done our part. Let someone else finish what
we started. That's the way of the world anymore, isn't it?
Well, we've done our part. None of them said that. No, they
were still pursuing. They must see the victory through
to the bitter end. These men were driven forth by
hope. Their hope was in another. God
had brought them this far and God would bring them to the end.
Did you hear me? That's talking to you. Do the great mysteries of scripture
stagger you? Well, they do me. Are you faint
in your pursuit of divine truth? I often am. Yet we continue to
pursue, don't we? Perhaps you're struggling with
some particular sin. You've fainted, and you've tripped,
and you've fallen time after time, and Satan tempts and says,
well, you might as well give up. You're not doing any good. You're just spinning your wheels.
You're not making any difference. And just when you feel faint,
you continue to pursue, and the Lord saves the sinner. And you're
reminded that you don't just plant and water, but it's God
that gives the increase. Is your conflict concerning prayer?
Are you pleading for a soul, a husband, a wife, a child? Have
you become weary in doing so? You must not faint. Continue
to pursue. I know that there's a mother
out there. I know that there's a father praying for a child. They're not interested. I don't
want to hear that stuff, they say. Don't preach that to me. I don't want to hear it. And
you become faint. And you become discouraged. But
you've got to keep pursuing. You have to. What can we learn from Gideon's
strong men? Let's keep on serving the Lord.
We rejoice in the finished work whereby we're saved. The Lord
is not rightly served if it's not with all our strength. Let
us serve the Lord when every move is painful. Have you ever
worked physically and the next day you can hardly walk? You
know, you get out of bed, you're hurting all over, but you got
to push through because you've got things to do. We continue
to pursue. Instead of your legs carrying
you, you gotta drag your legs around with you. Yet you're pursuing. And friends, it's the supernatural
favor of God that keeps us going. Fair-weathered friends would
stop us in our tracks, but they cannot because we continue to
pursue. Ephraim took issue with Gideon
as we saw last week. And he was unsatisfied that he
wasn't able to do more than he did. And Gideon took the time
to praise him and assure him that he had done much more than
he himself had. And you know that caused Gideon
to be faint, but he continued to pursue. And now he comes to
Succoth famished and hungry along with his men. And look at verse
five. And he, Gideon said unto the
men of Succoth, give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto the
people that follow me, for they be faint. And I am pursuing after
Ziba and Zalmunna, kings of Midian. And the princes of Succoth said,
are the hands of Ziba and Zalmunna now in mine hand? That we should
give bread unto thine army? We sure could use some bread,
Gideon said. We sure could use some nourishment.
We're faint, yet we're still pursuing. And what did these
fair weather friends say? Well, you just need to keep right
on pursuing. These were soldiers called and chosen and faithful
men whom God had greatly honored, to whom Israel was highly obligated
to. They deserved the best provisions
that this city of Succoth offered. But the princes of Succoth neither
feared God nor regarded man. They were in contempt of God.
The bowels of their compassion were shut up. They were destitute
of love just as they were faith. And look down at verse eight,
and he went up, Gideon went up thence to Penuel, and spake unto
them likewise, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men
of Succoth had answered him. Listen, be prepared to pursue
without earthly help. We'll see what happened to the
men of Succoth and Penuel later. I think of that passage in Proverbs
18, 24, a man that had friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend that's
sticking closer than a brother. Now in order to pursue while
faint, you have to have some sustained focus. I'm encouraging
you tonight. Stay focused. Stay focused on
God's word. Stay focused on God's son. Stay
focused on the salvation that God has provided for sinners.
That's how you continue to pursue. I remember one time my daughter
Leah was a little girl and she told Teresa one time she's a
little aggravated and she said, mommy, you're stepping on my
nerves. Well, the men at Succoth were stepping on Gideon's nerves. But listen, they weren't his
enemy. Gideon's focus was sustained on his true enemy. He would deal
with his fair-weathered friends later, and we're going to see
that he most certainly did. He couldn't afford to stop and
fight with them. Why are we fighting with one
another? You know, I hear so much There's so much going on
today and it's just all personal stuff that don't amount to anything.
We need to stay focused on who our enemy is. We need to continue
to pursue after the true enemy. You couldn't afford to stop and
fight within and neither can we. We've got to stay focused
on our enemy. We've got to endure to the end.
That's what our Lord said. He that endureth to the end shall
be safe. Well, how do we endure to the
end? Well, the scripture's very clear. Having loved his own which
were in the world, he loved them unto the end. It's the strength
of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we endure
to the end. It's not anything we do. It's
what he does for us. Having loved us. He keeps us
until the end. We're kept by the power of God. Aren't you thankful for that?
We can't keep ourselves. Wouldn't last a second. Kept
by the power of God. Oh, we're stimulated by past
successes. The Midianites, they're on the
run. The heads of Oreb and Zeb are in their possession. They've
seen the Lord work on their behalf. And so have we, time and time
again. Yet we're faint, but we have every reason to pursue. We can do all things through
Christ which strengthen us. How many things? All things.
We are more than conquerors through Him, through the Lord Jesus Christ
that loved us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. These are the words
of the Lord to his people. Be ye strong, therefore, and
let not your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded,
2 Chronicles 15 said. Jeremiah 29 11, for I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. What's my
expected end? To be conformed to Christ. To
be just like Him. Without sin. Perfectly holy and
righteous. That's my expected end. Joshua
1.9, Have I not commanded thee, Be strong and of good courage,
Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God
is with thee, Whithersoever thou goest. Wherever we go, He's with
us. What do we have to fear? Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall
fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. That's
right. Thou art with me. Hebrews 12,
1-3, 1-3, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, Gideon being one of them, Let
us lay aside every weight in the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. And you know why he's set down,
don't you? Because his work's finished.
and ours is too in Him. For consider Him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be
wearied in fate in your minds. And beloved, hear me on this. Oh, I'm preaching to me tonight
too. When you fall, when you fail,
don't stop. Don't stop. The Lord says, though
he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth
him with His hand. The Lord has us in His hand,
and no man can pluck us from His hand. And He upholds us,
and He gives us the strength to carry on. May we always remember
that whatever we do, we do it for the glory of the Lord. And
His glory is seen greatly when we're faint, yet pursuing by
the strength of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians
9, 7, who goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges,
who planteth a vineyard and eateth not the fruit thereof, or who
feedeth a flock and eateth not the milk of the flock. We're
flesh and we faint, but by God's grace, we continue to pursue. We keep on keeping on. We just
keep on keeping on. God enable us to continue to
pursue Christ, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His holiness,
His justice, His mercy, His grace, His wisdom, His salvation, His
riches and glory. May God be pleased to make it
so for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake. yet pursuing. Every child of God faint yet
pursuing. Okay.