Again with verse 23 if you'll
remember Last week we ended with verse
23 So let's start with 23 tonight
so the Lord saved Israel that day and the battle passed over
unto Bethaven and And the men of Israel were distressed that
day, for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the
man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged
on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted
any food. And all they of the land came
to a wood, and there was honey upon the ground. And when the
people were coming to the wood, behold, the honey dropped. But
no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.
But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with
the oath. Wherefore, he put forth the end
of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honeycomb,
and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. Then answered one of the people
and said, Thy father straightly charged the people with an oath,
saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And
the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, My father
hath troubled the land. See, I pray you, how mine eyes
have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.
How much more, if happily the people had eaten freely today,
of the spoil of their enemies which they found. For had there
not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines. That's as far as we'll get tonight.
Let's stop there and ask the Lord to meet with us. Our gracious
Father in God, thank you, Lord, for another day, another hour to come together
in your name. How honored and Delighted we
should be at this wonderful privilege to gather as your people or when
this world despises your truth and shows utter disdain for your
honor. What a great privilege it is
to come and praise your name before your throne. and know that we do so only because
of your free grace in Christ. May we do so tonight when this
whole world is blaspheming you. May we praise
and honor you. May the truth go forth from here
like a light shining in darkness. May your people rejoice in you
alone and praise you in our hearts. for your power and your grace
and your love for such as we. Bless us as we look into your
word. In the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, we
pray. Amen. You remember the first 23 verses
of this, how that Saul had gotten the people into a terrible situation. The Philistines were angry and
in great number were they surrounding the People of Israel and much
of the Israeli army had defected, were hiding, fleeing. They were
in a big, a big quandary here. And then Jonathan
just up and said to his armor bearer, let's go to the Philistines
and see if God will work for us. Let's just trust him. and see if the Lord will get
us out of this mess. And then we have this passage
tonight. Once the victory is won, Jonathan and his armor bearer
went up and killed 20 men, which, as we said to them, that's a
big deal. And to us, this is a big deal. But 20 men, when they had hundreds
of thousands of strong of an army, it was God that saved them. God shook the earth. and caused
the numbers of the army of the Philistines to melt away. And
then now here, we have this simple and clear lesson. Even though God had wrought a
great salvation in the land, the people were distressed, it
says. They were distressed. Why would you be distressed when
God just saved you? What could mess up such a wonderful
victory wrought by the Lord over their enemies? Just given to
them. Victory was just given to them
on a silver platter and yet it says they were distressed. What
was it that distressed them? A rule imposed upon them by a
foolish man. What a picture of God's church. This is God's free saving grace. God saves. just because he wants
to, because he loved, he chose his people and he loved them
and he saved them this day. And then on the other hand, you've
got man-imposed bondage, legalistic religion pictured in this. Saul,
what business did Saul have making a rule and saying this is how
we're going to win? The way you won was God did something.
The word distressed in the text means to be oppressed and in
its noun form it means taskmaster. What a picture of the law imposed
upon them by an idiot that was absentee when the battle was
going on. When God was saving them he was
sitting under sycamore tree and now he's going to impose this
oppression upon them as the word means. and be a taskmaster to
them. This is the idea that Paul is
teaching in Galatians 5.1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. They had no reason to be distressed.
If Saul would have just stayed out of it and let, and I hate
to say let, God, you don't have to let God do anything, but if
he would have just stayed out of it and watched God, that's
probably a better way to say it, watched God save him, then
everybody would have been happy. God had freely given them victory,
but they were troubled because Saul imposed this ridiculous
rule on them. And again, what in the world
business did he have doing that? He had nothing to do with the
victory that was just won. What good was going to come out
of the people not eating? What advantage can that possibly
bring about? That's about the same answer,
if you answered that question, that rhetorical question, it'd
be about the same answer as if you asked, what can man do to
add something to God's salvation? Just rejoice in it. And hush,
Christ won the victory for his people. And then religion wants
to impose rules that are impossible to keep anyway. Nobody can keep
them. Listen to what the Apostle Peter
said in Acts 15 10. Now wherefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke
upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor
we were able to bear? We can't measure up to God's
law anyway. So why does religion impose the law all the time?
We're free from the law. Oh, happy condition. Jesus hath
bled and there's remission. But listen to what he said after
that. Why put a yoke, why would you put a yoke on us and them
that nobody ever has been able to bear? If we're going to be
saved, God's going to have to save us without the law. Righteousness
without the law is revealed in Christ crucified. That's our
hope. And then he said this, but we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they. Don't put a yoke on them. Don't
put a yoke on us. Let's just rejoice in the free
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see that picture in our
text tonight? You've got God just saving, and then you've
got Saul imposing a law that distressed the people in the
very face of victory. God just saved them, and all
they had to do was enjoy the spoils. That's what Jonathan
said. If we had just enjoyed the spoils,
we'd be a whole lot better off. They couldn't do that because
of Saul's stupid rule of law. And when it comes to salvation
from sin, man's religion is doing exactly the same thing. Christ
alone wins the victory for his people by his perfect holy life
as their representative, and by his sin-atoning effectual
gets-the-job-done sacrifice on Calvary. There's nothing for
us to do. That's why we're free from the
law because to be anything else leaves us hopeless. We have to
be free from the law because we're not going to measure up
to the law. But religion loves to impose
law. Oh yes, salvation is by grace,
but you have to receive it. You have to make a decision.
You have to exercise your free will. You have to come down the
aisle. You have to live the Christian life. Sounds like you've got
to do everything. When in reality, we can do nothing.
Christ did it all. When man imposes law with the
presumption that victory, at least in part, is attributable
to obedience to that law, And that's exactly what Saul is saying
here. Look at verse 24 again. Look
at the language of it again. The men of Israel were distressed
that day, for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be
the man that eateth any food until evening. Listen to the
rest of it. That I may be avenged on mine enemies. Somehow he got
it into his demented brain, which all of us have by nature. That's
what we are by nature. Now this is how foolish we all
are. But he got it into his head that he's going to be avenged
on his enemies by nobody eating. Where in the world did that come
from? It came from man's foolish, wicked, evil imagination, just
like every other man-imposed law in man-centered free will
religion today. That I may be avenged. Don't
eat anything so I may be avenged. The way you're going to be avenged
is if God's going to do something. That's what Jonathan said. Maybe
God will do something for us. That's how you're going to be
avenged on your enemies. Or you're not going to be. So you see the absolute insanity
of this. Don't eat so that we may win
the victory and be saved from our enemies. That's just like
religion saying don't you quit doing that and do this and don't
do that so that you might be saved. It's just as stupid as
this is. It's exactly the same thing.
It's exactly the same thing. It's just it makes exactly the
same amount of sense as if I say if I read my Bible and go to
church and you know say my prayers and tithe and then I'll go to
heaven when I die. No, you'll go to heaven when
you die if God writes your name in his book and makes an everlasting covenant
with his son to redeem your evil wretched soul, hell deserving
soul. Sends his son down here to live
and die for you Sends his Holy Spirit to give you life and faith
in Christ. Then you're gonna go to heaven
when you die That's how that's gonna happen Just like in our
text if God does something for us. We're saved If we start The
best thing Saul could come that was his battle plan. Let's just
quit eating until I doubt if he included himself in that you
reckon He said you quit eating and that's just like preachers
today, isn't it? Paul called him on it, I believe,
in Romans chapter 3. He said, you impose law and you're
not keeping the law. Maybe Romans chapter 2. And when this happens, when religion
does this, when man tries to have a hand in the victory, and
does so by way of foolishly imposed laws upon men that they can't
keep, it's not only worthless, It's not just worthless. It's
an absolute hindrance. It's a disaster is what it is.
Look at what Jonathan said in verse 30. How much more if happily
the people had eaten freely today, if it hadn't been for this foolish
curse that Saul put you under of the spoils of their enemies,
which they had found, had there not been now a much greater slaughter
among the Philistines? It wasn't just idiocy, it was
detrimental. That's what Paul said about himself.
I wasn't just worthless, I was injurious. I was what Christ said I am when
he said, not only do you not want to come into Christ, but
you keep other people from coming. If you just enjoy the spoils
of what Christ freely gave you, then you'd be strong. You'd be
ready. You'd be encouraged. By the way, I missed this last
week. It was like God just said, here,
you drop this and just showed it to me this time. But what
a clear, God shaking the earth in this
when he saved him he shook the earth and that ought to have
immediately taken my mind to Matthew 27 50 in verses 15 and
16 in our text in 1st Samuel 14 is where that is he shook
the earth and the the philistines just begin to melt but that reminds
us of Matthew 27 50 Jesus when he had cried again with a loud
voice yielded up the ghost And behold the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did
quake And the rocks rent When God saved our souls he shook
the earth too When his son Laid down his life made his very soul
an offering for our sin that day God shook the earth and all
of my enemies melted away Oh, I'm glad God didn't let me
miss that. But if they had just enjoyed. Just rejoice in the victory won
by Christ and eat, eat what he gave. Then they'd have been ready
to fight. They'd have been strengthened.
Let's read now the rest of that passage in Galatians 5. I want
to have you turn over there with me if you would, please. Because
I want us to see something now. This is not just worthless. We're
still, I'm still talking about that. This is a serious problem. When
you can't just rejoice in a finished salvation, You got trouble. You got big trouble with God. Galatians 5, 1. Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. That's what we read a while ago,
but now look beyond that. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you
that if you be circumcised, if you do anything in order to add
to what Christ did, the liberty. We're free, we're saved freely
by Him. If we add anything to that, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, and this is not just a matter of
being or not being, this is a matter of, listen to the rest of it,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law, Christ has become
of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. That's what he's saying. If you're
doing something, if you're keeping the law in order to be justified
that way, by your keeping of the law, you're fallen from grace. fallen
from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. You not keeping the law for justification
That's not going to save you. Or are you keeping the law for
justification? That's not going to save you either. Nothing you
do or don't do is going to save you. Or add or contribute to
your salvation. But faith which worketh by love. You did run well. Who did hinder
you that you should not obey the truth? You see Saul was just
hindering them by telling them not to eat. How are they going
to fight? They haven't eaten anything. It says they were faint. And there's still a battle to
fight, even though Christ has won. We're in the battle, aren't
we? He's still winning for us. But
he gives us the grace to fight. This persuasion cometh not of
him that calleth you. God didn't say anything about
not eating, did he? A little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump. Listen to that. I want to get to a certain part.
I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none
otherwise minded But he that troubleth you shall bear his
judgment whosoever he be He that troubleth you He that oppresseth
you he who is a taskmaster he who entangles you in the yoke
of the bondage of the law To be judged for it And I, brethren,
if I yet preach the law, preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased. That's what's offensive about
the cross, the gospel of Christ and his cross, is that you're
out of it. You're not getting any glory.
He saved you. Saul can't be jumping in there
and saying, now let's do this so that we might win. No, let's
just stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I would
that they were even cut off which trouble you. God didn't say don't eat. Saul
said don't eat. And Jonathan said, that's just
trouble. That's just trouble is all that
is. In fact, God not only didn't prohibit them from eating, But
he, when they destroyed the enemy, there were just spoils of war
laying. I mean, they had rations, they had everything, weapons
and everything that they could have just picked up and used.
That's what Jonathan said. But also notice in the text,
God, they're just walking along and God provided them some sweet
honey. It's almost like Saul and God
are at complete odds with one another. Saul is saying, don't
eat. And God's saying, looky here. Isn't that one? Isn't that wonderful? Lookie
here, I've got something for you. And honey is just dropping
out of the trees. They're just walking along their
way. Is that your testimony tonight? They didn't even have to work
at all to receive it. It just dropped down for them.
Isn't that the way the Lord blesses us? All through my life, as I
walk, honey is just dropping down. And this doesn't promote laziness
in the ministry. It's just an accurate description
of how freely God gives us all things in Christ. He did spare not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Before I even knew who he was,
he was dropping honey down on my head. Oh, and he still is. And how
sweet. It just gets sweeter, doesn't
it? But how often we're entangled with the yoke of bondage and
we're unable to enjoy the free grace of God. They didn't want
to eat the honey because they were afraid of the law, you know.
Afraid of the curse. Christ was made a curse for us. We're not under the curse. Because of that curse that Saul
imposed, they couldn't enjoy that honey. And often we in the
flesh, we can be entangled too in that yoke. We're afraid if
we don't do our part, you know. We don't have a part. Then we're
going to be punished, you know, if we don't Our part, what would have their
part been in this? Just hold your hand up and receive
the honey. Jonathan just put that rod up
in the whatever it was, a rock or a tree, and received the honey
from the Lord. And there was great benefit.
He wasn't just fed. We'll talk about that. But faith
is the hand And we can't even hold up our
hand without His grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. Here's faith. And that's not in yourselves.
You can't even receive it without Him. But faith is the hand that
freely receives all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. When we receive Him, we receive
every good thing that God has to give. And we see evidence
of that all through our lives. He that has spared not his own
son for me, he just keeps pouring out blessings on me. This past
weekend, blessed. Today, blessed. Tonight, blessed. Honey, don't even have to do
anything. We just by his grace through
faith receive. I don't want to miss a drop of
it, do you? These folks missed out on it. because of their fear
of the law. Their fear, you know, that if
they didn't do, if they didn't obey, they weren't going to benefit. Oh, my friends in Christ, we
utterly benefit without any obedience on our part. We ain't yet hit
a good lick in our lives, and he still saves us. He saves us
for Christ's sake, not ours. I don't want to miss a drop of
that. God's sheep, now don't get me wrong, God's sheep cannot
forfeit his grace by being stupid. Aren't you glad of that? We can't
forfeit his grace. But we can sure miss a lot of
joy, can't we? I heard somebody illustrate this,
describing God's providence and grace as a ship that's carrying
all of his sheep, his people, to glory. And some on that ship
are celebrating praising his name and rejoicing along the
way and others are scaredly looking for icebergs and watching the
sky for storms and worrying that something bad's going to happen
to them on the way. They're all going to get there.
Some of them are sure going to enjoy it a lot more. I want to
be those ones, don't you? All of us celebrate his, he's
given us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Can we
rejoice in that? Are we going to be worried about
doing something? Oh, you don't know anything about
love unless you know sovereign love. Free love. You don't know
what grace is. You can put it on your church
side all you want to. You don't know what grace is
until you know what free, unconditional, sovereign, distinguishing grace
is. Let's just rejoice. that salvation's
of the Lord. Fallen from grace there in that
Galatians 5 where we read, it doesn't mean that God saved you
and you messed it up. It simply means you've trusted
yourself and not Christ. You forfeited the grace of God.
And there's danger now here as we read beyond just missing the
joy, as we read there in Galatians 5. As believers now, we can't
forfeit His grace. And there's danger beyond just
missing out on enjoying the victory. There's warning in scripture.
In that scripture we read that to trust self, to be entangled
by man-made religious bondage, may just be a sign of an absence
of grace altogether. We're to be warned about that.
Paul had some confidence. He said in verse 10 there, Galatians
5 he said I have confidence in you that you will be none. Otherwise
minded in other words You'll trust and rest in Christ. You'll
be you'll enjoy the freedom the liberty that we have in Christ
Jesus I've got confidence in you that you won't but that didn't
stop him from warning them Very sincerely Warning them Fallen from grace And I notice in the text that
Jonathan, let's look back in 1st Samuel. Notice that when Jonathan here,
he had not even heard the proclamation that Saul had made. They told
him, I believe in verse 29. And let's see. No, in verse 28. It says, then
answered one of the people and said, thy father straightly charged
the people with an oath, saying, cursed be the man that eateth
any food. Jonathan's already eaten the honey and his eyes
are open. He's rejoicing in what God has shown him and provided
for him. And he don't even know about
the proclamation that Saul had made. You know what he was doing
when Saul made that stupid proclamation? Humanly speaking, he was saving
their bacon. He was busy trusting the Lord
and killing enemies when Saul did this. Now, of course, we
know that God says plainly, God saved them. But when Paul says
in one of his letters, I forget exactly where this is, but you'll
remember it when I say it, he said, others save with fear as
if you're pulling them out of the fire. He don't think for
a second that we're able to save anybody. But you see what he's
saying there. Do you love them? Then grab hold
of them. Not physically, but spiritually.
Be sure that they hear of Christ. If you have anything to say about
it. Like all through the scripture. Come and see. Come and look.
We found him. Save them with fear. And that's,
humanly speaking, what Jonathan was doing when Saul was making
this foolish proclamation. He was busy being used of the
Lord to fight and defeat the enemies of Christ. This is the
believer that's trusting Christ and doing what God gives him
to do. He doesn't have any ear for man's rules. I don't know
nothing about that. I mean, I know just because here
and there you hear it, don't you? I got no ear for that. I'm not listening to that. I've
got no use for it, for the religious proclamations of the enemies
of God. Especially the idiots that call
themselves the people of God who were entangled in that yoke. That yoke that makes it so that
Christ shall profit you nothing. I got no ear for that. Johnathan
didn't even know about it. Didn't care. When he did know
about it, he said that's stupid. Isn't that pretty much what he
said? All Saul did was mess you up. And what's the result of Jonathan
being ignorant of that foolishness? He tasted the honey. He enjoyed
it without restraint. He's not oppressed because he
got no ear for that nonsense anymore. We used to, didn't we?
Not anymore. He's not conflicted. He's not
frustrated. He's not faint. He's enjoying
what God freely gives him. And this is blessed ignorance.
Blessed ignorance, when you can enjoy the liberty where with
Christ has made you free without the confusion of man's reasonings
clouding the clear gospel of God's grace. That's wonderful,
beautiful ignorance. I don't want to know. Don't even
talk to me about that. God has saved me and provided
everything I need for me. So what is the honey? What does
the honey represent? Listen to this language now. Jonathan just freely without
any, without any inhibition whatsoever, without any confusion, just look
what God gave us today. I think I'll have some of that.
Don't mind if I do. What is that he's receiving from
the Lord? Listen to this. The law of the
Lord is perfect. Converting the soul. The testimony
of the Lord. And these are all words for his
gospel. The law is not the Ten Commandments.
The law is what God said. Everything he said. The testimony
of the Lord is sure. Making wise the simple. The statutes
of the Lord are right. Rejoicing the heart. The commandment
of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. Both are mentioned in our text.
It mentions the honeycomb too, doesn't it? He stuck that, he
got that honey right out of the honeycomb. Sweet and fresh and
pure. That's the gospel. The gospel
which is Christ crucified. The gospel is just Christ spoken. Christ spoken in power. Christ
revealed to the heart of his people. Psalm 119, 103, how sweet
are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. God describes his promised land
as a land flowing with milk and honey. Milk is also used to describe
the word of God, the sincere milk of the word and the honey
of his statutes in the testimony of Christ. His judgments, what
are the judgments of God on this world? If you wanna know what
the judgments of God are, look to Calvary. There's where the
books are settled. That's where every debt is paid
and settled. It's gonna be by Him. And justice is done there because
that same cross Is the utter defeat of all of
his enemies and they'll be punished forever because they can never
They can never measure up. They can never pay it completely
But that cross is the destruction of them too. They just some of
them ain't experiencing it yet. Some of them are Some of them
are already in hell, but they're in hell because of that cross
Because christ he bought the right to put them in hell didn't
he it says in the scripture And he also bought our souls with
that precious blood Calvary, that's it, Christ crucified. Sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. The manna, what was the manna? Christ said, I'm that bread that
came down from heaven. How was it described? The flavor
of it was like wafers made with honey. Exodus 16, 31. Christ, his finished, accomplished,
and you see how important that honey is here because it is the
flying in the face. Him eating that honey is his complete rejection, though he
didn't even know about it. But Jonathan is... Christ won
the victory for him, gave him salvation, and gave him honey
to eat. And Saul said, oh no, don't eat that. We can't win
unless we have a part in this. And Jonathan said, I'm going
to eat some honey. You see the significance of receiving Christ
to the utter rejection of the notion. that of anything other
than salvation wrought, accomplished, finished. God saved us today. And look here, he gave us some
honey. He's allowing us to enjoy the victory. He gave us the spoils
of his victory to enjoy. Let's enjoy them. Sweet to the taste of a sinner
who can't do anything for himself. The finished salvation of God
him doing it for them. Jonathan said maybe he'll do
it for us and he did That's sweet to a sinner who can't do anything
for himself How in the world of the Israel that's gonna win
they're not unless God does something for them sweet as honey To a
sinner who needs plumb saved There's nothing sweeter than
the Savior who plumb saves I And there Jonathan is oblivious
at the time to the foolishness of Saul enjoying freely what
God provided. And it was enlightening. It enlightened
his eyes. You see that there in verse 27,
when you taste, oh, when you taste that the Lord is gracious,
when God opened your eyes and shows you, you keeping the law,
you being circumcised the eighth day and all that, Paul said,
that's dumb. God opens your eyes and you taste
that the Lord is gracious. You're enlightened Regarding
what what was Jonathan able to see? What was his eyes open to? Well, we don't know all of what
that means, but let's look at some Some real important ones
tonight in verse 28 look at verse 28 again Then answered one of
the people and said thy father straightly charged the people
with an oath and Saying curse would be the man
that eateth any food this day and the people were faint Notice
that his eyes were enlightened in the verse before that that's
the first thing. I want us to notice You doing
or not doing anything Is not going to contribute to your knowledge
of God to your understanding of the gospel He was enlightened before he
even had any idea what Saul had said. Being enlightened by God
does not come by knowing error. If he had known and known it
was error. Some people are in the pursuit of finding out every
error that exists so they can refute it. He didn't even know
the error and God had opened his eyes. God enlightening you
does not come by knowing error. It comes by partaking of Christ. and seeing the truth. When you
see him and know him and your eyes are open to him, then you'll
know everything false. You'll know a hireling when you
hear him. Are you looking for hirelings?
Are you looking for blasphemers and heretics? Why? What in the world for? Let's
just enjoy him. I'd rather be oblivious to him
like Jonathan was and just enjoy in the honey. That our savior
is to our souls And then this look at verse 29 Then said jonathan my father
hath troubled the land See I pray you how my eyes have been enlightened
because I tasted a little of this honey When jonathan's eyes
were opened by partaking of christ and enjoying him to the And I
don't know how to even say this right. I want to say it again
though and emphasize it. That the tasting of that honey
flew in the face of what Saul was proposing. And the gospel
of God's free grace whereby we freely partake of God's blessings
in Christ flies in the face of legalistic man-made religion.
And when that's by God's grace you're able to do that. He realized
that what Saul had done was nothing but trouble. He recognized the
error for what it was, didn't he, when he saw it, when he knew
about it. He said, that's error. That's just foolish. How is that
going to further the cause? It didn't contribute to their
salvation. Saul said, don't eat so we can win. God already won
for us. He just let us in on it now. And only only by eating All what
Saul did was kept him from enjoying what God had provided for them
And only by eating that meat indeed and that drink indeed
the Lord Jesus Christ. Can we see things the way they
actually are? Everybody else was like Oh Saul
said this we better we better do it. He's the king and all
this all Jonathan said that's nonsense When you taste that
Christ is gracious, by the grace of God, he enables us to see
things from God's perspective and not our sinful perspective. We have the mind of Christ, Paul
said. That's what he was saying. By his grace, we're able to see
things as they are, as God sees them. And then next, when Jonathan
could see, Oh, he wanted them to see too, didn't he? He said,
look, look, my eyes are opened. Why wouldn't you eat? Verses
29 and 30. My father has troubled the land,
I pray you. See, I pray you, how my eyes have been enlightened
because I tasted a little of this honey. Reckon God will open
your eyes too? Reckon the eyes of our children
and grandchildren and our loved ones and those that we care about
in this world might be open to If they're enabled by his grace
to just taste of him To reject their own works in the keeping
of the law and just freely partake of Christ and what he accomplished
on Calvary Might God open their eyes to well, we sure would love
that one He said look here What Saul did is nonsense and how
much more if happily the people had eaten if you'd eaten the
spoil of our enemies which you found Wouldn't we be able to
fight even better? He wanted them to see The woman
at the well she said I'll come see a man Who told me all things
ever I did is not this the Christ you need to come you need to
see him John 4 29 In John 1.46 Nathanael said to
Philip, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And you
remember what he said to him? Come and see. Oh, come and see. Paul said in Acts 26.27, King
Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? Do you believe what God said?
I know that you believe. That's so heart-wrenching, isn't
it? Because you know there are those that we love that they
know it in their heads, don't they? They know it in their heads. They know what I'm saying is
right. I believe that's what Paul is saying here. He's not
saying, I know you have faith in Christ. But he's saying, I
know you believe. You know what I'm saying is the
truth. You've witnessed God's power.
And you know that this is right. And then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said,
I would to God. That not only thou, but also
all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such
as I am, except these bonds. That's my prayer every time I
step up here. And if it's not, then God don't let me come up.
I would to God that everybody that hears me, that God would
open their eyes as he's opened mine. And I'm not talking about,
you know, I can see more than you and, you know, let me enlighten
you. I want God to enlighten you. He's been gracious to give
us some light, hasn't he? Don't you want those you love
to be able to see? Every time God opens some eyes,
that's part of it, isn't it? Oh, if you could just see. Come
and see. And also, look at verse 30 again. Oh, there's so much here. How
much more if happily the people had eaten freely. When Jonathan, when his eyes
were opened, he saw that what God gives, he gives it freely. Freely. You didn't have nothing
to do with it. You didn't earn it. You didn't
deserve it. You didn't even want it. You
were hiding in the hills when he gave it to you But there it is Free accomplished
salvation in Christ Jesus Freely, but now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets This is why his testimonies are sweeter than
honey, because this is what they testify of. The law and the prophets
witnessed this. Paul said, even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe. That's why they're sweeter than
honey, because they tell of him. And how a sinner can be righteous
without keeping the law of God. For there's no difference. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. There's the honey right there.
There's the honey. Now notice finally, that much
more would have been accomplished if they had enjoyed the spoils
of Christ's victory freely. He said, how? You could have
fought better. You'd have been stronger. You'd
have been, you could have, you know, your minds would be working.
If Saul hadn't imposed this nonsense, if you'd have just partaken freely
of the spoils of war, isn't that what he said? How much more of
a victory? Now we can't add anything to
the victory that Christ has won, but think about it this way.
This is the teaching here. Religion says that if you don't
put rules on people, nothing's going to get done in the ministry.
Nobody's ever going to do anything unless you bribe them or threaten
them or shame them. Oh, on the contrary. God's work
don't get done like that. No, our motivation and our strength
as believers is not the law, not the rules of religion, not
the restraints and bondage of man's false gospel. Our motivation
is Christ. Paul said if you had just enjoyed
the salvation of God, and the benefits that He won for us,
you'd be strong enough to fight. You'd be strong, you'd be zealous,
and you'd be able to think better and see better and fight better. Isn't that beautiful? Christ
is all. He's our strength to fight. Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. That's what Jonathan's teaching
there. Religion may threaten and bribe and shame people to
motivate them to give, and they may build a lot of buildings
that way. They may reach a lot of people with their Christless
message that way. And the Lord Jesus said, when
they've done it, they've made them twofold more the child of
hell than they were before they found them. But bless God, it's
not so with his sheep, with his church. He loved his church and
gave himself for it. And by his grace, the love of
Christ constraineth us, because we must judge. We've
tasted that Christ is sweet, and we were enlightened. And
we don't see things the way we used to. Here's how we see things
now. If he died for all, then all were dead. That's why he
had to die for us because we were dead. He had to take our
place. He had to die under the wrath
of God for our sin that we might live and that he died for all
that they which do live should not henceforth live unto themselves. May God write this on my heart,
but unto him which died for unto him which died for them
and rose again. Thank God for the sweet savor
of Christ in our hearts and lives. He's dropping honey on my head
this very night. And may we take of him freely
and rejoice in free salvation by his power and by his precious
blood. Let's pray.