Introduction:

• Faith in his Person
• Faith in his Sacrifice

Proposition: These were ordinary men, sinners saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of Christ, robed in his righteousness, born of his Spirit, just like us. – Saved sinners, but sinners still! – Ordinary men, just like us, who trusted an omnipotent God!

Each of the men mentioned in our text is lived in a day of great spiritual declension. The time in which they lived is described in detail in the book of Judges. Following the deaths of Moses and Joshua, Israel grievously departed from the Lord: cast off his law, worshipped the idols of the heathen, and "every man did that which was right in his own eyes"(Jud. 21:25).

Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Yet even in those days God did not leave himself without a witness. It is a particularly blessed thing to see grace shining in the midst darkness and faith in the midst of unbelief. The Lord Jesus Christ always keeps his own lamp burning

Hebrews 11 would have been incomplete as a description of the life of faith, had no notice been given to those times when Israel so grievously departed from God. It is in seasons of great spiritual darkness and gloom that faith shines brightest and performs her mightiest works.

You see, faith is not dependent on favorable outward conditions. Faith rises above circumstances. Faith is sustained and energized by One who is infinitely superior to all circumstances.

That which is before us in our text and the verses immediately following it, is written for our encouragement. We, too, live in a day spiritual darkness and declension. There is in our day, as in no other, an utter departure from the Word and worship of God by those who profess to serve him.

Yet, the arm of the Lord is not short, that he cannot save! Neither is his ear heavy, that he cannot hear! Let us, like Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, lean hard upon God’s omnipotent arm. As we do, we shall be delivered from all our enemies, and sustained and enabled to do his will in this age for the glory of his name. Yes, we can do all that he would have us do, by his all-sufficient grace in Christ.

(Philippians 4:12-13) "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

(Verse 32). "And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthath, of David also, and Samuel and of the prophets"

The apostle has already given abundant proof that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (verse 1). He has shown that "by it the elders obtained a good report" (verse 2). Yet he has by no means said all that could be said on the subject. Numerous and notable examples of the power and fruits of faith have been set before us. Many, many others might have been cited; but it was not needful for him to describe each example of God given faith in Old Testament history. Therefore, as he closes this great chapter, encouraging us to go on believing God, he simply names these six prominent believers (and all the prophets of God) who lived and died by faith in Christ, and gives us a brief, general description of their great acts of faith.

These men, like the apostles of Christ, Luther, Calvin, Gill, Toplady, Whitefield, Edwards, and Spurgeon, were ordinary men, raised up by God in times of extraordinary crisis, for the good of his church and kingdom and the preservation and furtherance of his gospel, for the glory of his own great name.

This needs to be carefully borne in mind. Their calling was extraordinary. Their deeds were extraordinary. But they were ordinary men, men with the same faith God has given us, specifically raised up by God for the day in which they lived, specifically raised up by God to do the work they did for his glory.

As Mordecai said to Esther (Est. 4:14), so I say to you, "Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Some time ago, a friend of mine who was a bit disheartened by the things that had transpired in his life, began to find some encouragement in God’s wise and good providence, and said to me, -- "Maybe the Lord has something for me to do." – As I read the stories of these men, my heart dances with this thought, -- "Maybe the Lord has something for me to do."

Gideon was raised up by God when Israel had been brought very low. Three judges preceded him (Othniel, Ehud, and Barak), who delivered them from the hand of their enemies. Yet, a fourth time they departed from their God and were made to groan under the yoke of an oppressor. Let’s begin in Judges 2.

Note: Though the oppressors did not know it, and Israel seemed to be ignorant of it, God used the oppressors (Ps. 76:10) to make his people cry out to him! – By the oppression of the wicked, the Lord God separated the precious from the vile and proved his people (Jud. 2:16-19). – In the darkest days of apostasy, Gideons shine bright.

• Persecution only strengthens faith. It never destroys it.
• Persecution only destroys that which is false. – Everything that can be shaken will be shaken.

A. The Midianites held Israel in bondage (Jud. 6).

So great was the number of those who had invaded their territory, that they "left no sustenance for Israel" and "Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites" (Jud. 6:4, 6). But that was by no means the worst of it.

Israel was so far and so completely turned away from God to the worship of Baal, that to oppose it was considered a criminal act, deserving of death (Jud. 6:28-30).

Nevertheless God had promised "the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone" (Deut. 32:36), and now, once again, he would to make good his word.

B. God found a man.

God found a man named Gideon, whom he had made to be a "mighty man of valor" (Jud. 6:12). God has no trouble finding the right man for the right job at the right time. He always has the right man ready, readied by his grace.

As a mighty man of valor, Gideon was clearly a picture of Christ, of whom it is written, "I have laid help upon One that is mighty. I have exalted One chosen out of the people."

C. Still, Gideon had to be prepared (Jud. 6:12-14).

"God must first do his work with Gideon, before Gideon could do his work for God. To accomplish this, God makes the wine-press of Joash to be to Gideon what He made the backside of the desert to be to Moses" (E.W. Bullinger).

No man will ever be fit to serve God until he finds all his strength in Christ. And no man will ever look to Christ for strength until he knows his utter weakness. Thus it was with Gideon; thus it is still. – Only a man purged of all self-sufficiency will look to Christ for all sufficiency. – Only a man purged of all strength is made strong in the Lord and "a vessel fit for the Master’s use."

(Judges 6:12-14) "And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour. 13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. 14 And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?"

"That word from God was designed to bring Gideon to the consciousness of his own utter inability to deliver Israel from the yoke of the Midianites" (A.W. Pink). -- "For when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

God never uses an unprepared instrument; and the first part of the preparation process is to empty the chosen instrument of all self-sufficiency that he may thoroughly trust Christ, looking to God alone for grace and strength.

Gideon’s "might" was to be his conscious weakness. As soon as that was realized he would be forced to believe the Lord’s declaration "Thou shalt save Israel."

Now, look at Judges 6:15. Gideon now asks, "Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house." Now the servant is ready! The Lord has only one response unto acknowledged helplessness: "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man" (verse 16).

How blessed! When faith truly realizes this, it exclaims, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13).

D. Then, Gideon asked for a sign (Jud. 6:17-23).

Having found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he asked for a sign, not because he doubted, but because he believed! -- Not to prove the truth of God’s word, but because he would prove the truth of his grace, in the acceptance of his offerings he would bring to God (vs. 17, 18). The proof of this is in the fact that God did what he asked, accepted the sacrifice he offered, and blessed him.

(Judges 6:17-23) "And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then show me a sign that thou talkest with me. 18 Depart not hence, I pray thee, until I come unto thee, and bring forth my present, and set it before thee. And he said, I will tarry until thou come again. 19 And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. 20 And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. 21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight. 22 And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face. 23 And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die."

E. Going forth, empowered by divine approval, commissioned by God’s own Word, Gideon tore down the altar of Baal his father had built (Jud. 6:25-26).

(Judges 6:25-26) "And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: 26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down."

Like his father Abraham, Gideon believed God and obeyed his command. At this distant date, his action may seem to us trivial, but the sequel shows that Gideon acted at the imminent peril of his life.

(Judges 6:30) "Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cut down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it."

(Judges 6:33) "Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel."

Enraged at the overthrow of the altar of Baal, the Midianites gathered their forces together and with their allies came up against Israel for battle. It is to be expected that Satan will wax furious when his territory is invaded and the Lord is magnified in the place where he has reigned supreme.

That is why it so often appears that when we have done what we must do for the cause of Christ we make bad matters worse, and only increase trouble. But we must not be discouraged in the path of obedience by trouble. Discouragements ought to always be encouragements.

Then, "the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon" (Jud. 6:34). That supplies the key to all that follows. safeguarding the glory of God (preventing us from ascribing the honor to Gideon), and furnishing the vital word of instruction for our own hearts. We cannot overcome Satan nor refuse his temptation in our own strength. We cannot increase faith, or even maintain it in exercise, by any resolution of mind or act of our own will. We cannot achieve victories to the praise of our God by our own faithfulness. It is only as we are strengthened with might by the Holy Spirit in the inner man, that we are furnished for the battle against the forces of evil; and that strength is to be definitely, diligently, and trustfully sought.

F. Gideon’s infirmity was that he imagined he must head a large army if the Midianites were to be vanquished (Jud. 6:36-40).

It was only little by little that his heart was instructed, and the lesson was learned that God is not dependent upon numbers. His repeated spreading of the fleece, seeking signs to confirm God’s Word (Jud. 6:36-40) shows us that we learn to walk by faith and not by sight only gradually, by degrees. Yet the Lord our God is patient and long-suffering toward his own. He bears with our infirmities and puts up with our weaknesses, ever remembering that we are dust.

(Psalms 103:8-14) "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. (9) He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. (10) He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (11) For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. (12) As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (13) Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. (14) For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust."

The Lord graciously granted Gideon the signs requested. He corrected his notion that a large army was needed. He took only a small fragment; and they were the ones who were sacred to death!—The Lord God declared, "by the three hundred men that lapped will I save you" (Jud. 7:7).

Then, when Gideon believed the Lord and obeyed his Word. God said, "Arise get thee down unto the host, for I have delivered it into thine hand" (Jud. 7:9). And he did! Thus did the Lord use and work mightily by one who was poor and little in his own eyes (Jud. 6:15) a man who "did as the Lord had said unto him" (Jud. 6:27).

Who knows, maybe he will do the same with you. Maybe he will do the same with me.

• May God be pleased to show us his will.
• Make us know our utter weakness and inability.
• And make us find our strength in his all-sufficient grace!

II. Barak (Jud. 4)

Barak was raised up by God after Jabin the king of Canaan had "mightily oppressed the children of Israel" (Jud. 4:1-3) for 20 years. Israel had fallen into such a low condition that God gave them a woman to rule over them. Deborah acted as judge in that day (Isa. 3:12).

(Isaiah 3:12) "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."

Deborah was not a "judge" in the strict sense of the word (Compare Judges 4:4 Judges 2:18). Deborah was a "prophetess" (a worshipper of God), one by whom God spoke his Word to his people, a mouthpiece of the Almighty.

It was through Deborah that God spoke to Barak, saying "Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Napthali and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand" (Jud. 4:6, 7).

That word from God was the ground of Barak’s faith, that was the sure promise of divine revelation that described the thing to be "hoped for."

• Barak’s infirmity is seen in Judges 4:8.

(Judges 4:8) "And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go: but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go."

• The obedience of his faith appears in Judges 4:10.

(Judges 4:10) "And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him."

In verse 14, God spoke again. "Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the Lord gone out before thee!" (Jud. 4:14). He "heard." He "believed." And he obeyed Thus, a great victory was secured. It was by faith in God’s promise that Barak went forth against the enormous army of Sisera and vanquished it.

III. Samson (Jud. 13)

Samson’s many mighty deeds are recorded by divine inspiration in the book of Judges. He was, in many ways, typical of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. His birth was foretold by the Angel of the Lord (Jud. 13:7).
2. Samson went down to Timnath and found a wife there among a cursed people, among the Philistines who were his most implacable enemies.
(Judges 14:1-4) "And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife. 3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well. 4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel."

1. His wife was taken from among those who most deserved his just wrath.
2. She was taken from Timnath, which means "portion – allotted, given, assigned portion."
3. This Philistine woman "pleased him well!"
4. She was taken to be his wife by the will of God, because he sought an occasion against the Philistines.



3. He rent a lion to pieces, as though it had been a kid (Jud. 14:5-6).—Christ conquered Satan.
4. One day he killed a thousand Philistines, single-handedly, with the jawbone of an ass.—Christ slew all our enemies, using the most despised of all instruments, the death of the cross (Gal. 3:13).
5. He carried of the gates of Gaza and their posts on his shoulders up a steep hill.—Christ carried the gates of death away, as he broke the iron bars and ascended up into heaven!
6. He tore asunder the strongest cords when bound by his enemies.—Christ foiled every temptation of the devil, conquered death in his death, and broke the cords of death in his resurrection.
7. Samson overturned the pillars on which stood the great temple of Dagon.—Our great Samson, the Lord Jesus Christ, has overturned the kingdom of darkness!
8. Samson was divinely anointed for his work. – Christ is the Anointed One.

God the Holy Spirit does not use men passively, like we use wood, rocks, steel, and mortar. God uses people by making them his willing servants, enlightening their minds, controlling their hearts, inclining their wills, and supplying grace and strength to do what he has for them to do.

"Faith cometh by hearing." -- In Samson’s case he heard through his parents the promise which God had made concerning him. -- "He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines" (Jud. 13:5).

We see something of his mother’s faith in Judges 13:23, where she quietened her husband’s fears, saying, -- "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would He have showed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these."

Samson was raised in a home where God was believed and honored. His parents taught him the Word and worship of God in an age when few knew him, believed him, and worshipped him. But their faith was not his faith.

Samson believed God himself. He believed the Word he "heard" from God through his mom and dad. Samson grew up in the confidence of that faith and conducted himself accordingly.

His last act was his greatest and best (Jud. 16:28-30).

• What an example of faith!
• What a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ!

IV. Jephthah (Jud. 11)

Gideon was a farmer. Barak was a soldier. Samson was a religious Nazarite. David was the youngest of Jesse and was despised by his brothers. Samuel was the first used by God while he was still a child. -- Our great God delights to use weak, insignificant, despised instruments to accomplish his greatest works in this world (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

This fact is never more demonstrably illustrated than in the case of Jephthah. Jephthah was born in shame, the bastard son of a harlot (Jud.. 11:1, 2).

• As such, he bore all his life the pain and shame of his mother’s base, bestial immorality. – Us Too! – "Without God!"
• He was, by law excluded from the congregation of the Israel (Deut. 23:2). – Us Too!
• But Jephthah was beloved of God, chosen in Christ, and ordained as an instrument by whose hand he would save his people. – Us Too!

The Lord God poured out his Spirit upon Jephthah and exalted him to the highest dignity and usefulness among his people. Jephthah was one of God’s. As such, he was prospered in all that he did. No outward condition, be it ever so base, can hinder God’s purpose, or thwart his grace.

1. Jephthah feared God (Jud. 11:9-10) and believed his Word (Jud. 11:14-27).
(Judges 11:9-10) "And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head? (10) And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words."
2. Jephthah’s faith was evident in ascribing Israel’s conquests to the Lord (verses 21, 23).
3. He called on the God of all truth to judge between Israel and Ammon (verse 27).
(Judges 11:14-27) "And Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon: (15) And said unto him, Thus saith Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon: (16) But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; (17) Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh. (18) Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab. (19) And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. (20) But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. (21) And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. (22) And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan. (23) So now the LORD God of Israel hath dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess it? (24) Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess. (25) And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them, (26) While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did ye not recover them within that time? (27) Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
4. The Lord God honored the faith that honored him by delivering the Ammonites into his hand.
5. Jephthah’s fidelity and perseverance in the faith is seen in the keeping of his vow by banning his daughter to continual virginity. – "I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back" (Jud. 11:35).

• Baptism (Rom. 6:4-6)
• Church Membership
• Marriage

V. David (1 Sam. 17)

It was not Paul’s purpose here to direct our attention to all the wonders of David’s remarkable life. David alone is that man who is described by the Lord God as a man after his own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22).

(1 Samuel 13:14) "But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee."

There is no need, here, for me to mention David’s great sin. That matter is recorded plainly in the Scriptures and is well known by almost all men the world over.

• Even the man after God’s own heart, while he lived in this world, was a sinner.
• He was, like all God’s elect, a man blessed of God, to whom the Lord would not impute sin, redeemed and forgiven by the blood of Christ (Rom. 4:8).
• Like you and me, David’s only righteousness was the righteousness of God imputed to him.
• As with us, the Lord God wisely and graciously overruled David’s sin for his good, the glory of his own great name, the accomplishment of his purpose, and the everlasting salvation of his elect.—Solomon, through whom Christ came into the world, was the son of David and Bathsheba!
• David’s experience of God’s grace in forgiving his sin made his sin bitter to him and made his Savior precious (Ps. 32 and 51).

But it seems most likely to me that the Holy Spirit has particular reference to David’s victory over Goliath (1 Sam. 17). When David was just a teenage boy, totally inexperienced combat of any kind, he engaged Goliath in the name of God. Armed with nothing but a sling and a few small rocks, David went to war with the mighty giant of the Philistines, and cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword!

How did David do this? How do we explain his courage, his boldness, and his victory?

1. David had the revelation of God’s own Word of promise (1 Sam. 17:46-47).

(1 Samuel 17:46-47) "This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (47) And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands."

2. David believed God’s Word, resting upon it with implicit confidence, and acted accordingly. By faith he ventured; by faith he overcame.
3. David was, in this, and in many other acts of his life, an eminent type of Christ.

• Two Men Representing Two People
• Goliath and the Philistines – Satan and Sin
• Goliath’s Sword – The Cross of Christ—"Give me it, there is none like it!" (1 Sam. 21:9-10)

VI. Samuel (1 Samuel 1:24-28)

I have been looking over Samuel’s life for the past two weeks, trying to discover what remarkable act of faith or event in his life the Holy Spirit alludes to in Hebrews 11:32. We have a brief summary of his life in 1 Samuel 1:24-28.

(1 Samuel 1:24-28) "And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. 25 And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. 27 For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28 Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there."

1. Samuel was typical of Christ in many ways.

• He grew in wisdom and stature, finding favor with God and with men.
• He was bold and courageous.
• He was a man of prayer, ever interceding for a rebellious, sinful people.
• He was a prophet.
• He was faithful all his life.

2. That last thing is, I am sure what the Holy spirit intends for us to grasp.

Samuel was faithful from his youth, faithful to God’s glory, faithful to his will, faithful to his Word, and faithful to his people. Samuel is one of very few men mentioned in the Scriptures against whom no evil, no weakness, no flaw of character is recorded. – That is the remarkable thing! God took an ordinary man, used him all his life, used him in the most ordinary way, and used him for the establishing of his kingdom! – O my God, make me such a man!

VII. The Prophets

Those men who were God’s prophets were ordinary men like us, men who were saved by the grace of God. They were men who believed God. And, believing God, they served him and his people well.