Okay, turn with me to 1 Samuel
chapter 14, please. Continuing in our study here
in 1 Samuel chapter 14. I was thinking today as I was
reading these verses again, we ask this question often, we know
the answer to it, but who did Christ die for? Did He die for
the whole world? Well, no, we know that He didn't
die for the whole world. If He died for the whole world,
there would be no need of a place called Hell. None would be there. Because none for whom Christ
died can perish. Did He die for good people? Well,
there are no good people. We're told in Mark 2, verse 16,
that when the scribes and the Pharisees saw the Lord Jesus
eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto the disciples,
how is it that He, your Lord, this man called Jesus, eats and
drinks with publicans and sinners? That's who He came to save. That's
why He ate with them. If He, a man of God, as a man
of God, should be over here visiting with us good folks, us publicans
and sinners, us scribes and pharisees, not tax collecting publicans
and rotten, no good sinners. But that's who He came to save.
And when the Lord heard what they said, He said unto them,
they that are well, whole, need not a physician, have no need
of THE physician. But they that are sick, that's
who needs a doctor in the worst way, one that's sick. And not just any doctor. They
need THE doctor. They need THE great physician. And the Lord of Jesus, the great
physician, said, I came not to call the righteous, those self-professing
good folks, to repentance, but sinners, the worst of the worst,
to repentance. Those who are sick have a desperate
need, and those who Christ came to call to save have that need. I'm so thankful the Lord showed
me my need, aren't you? Not the righteous. Not those
who think themselves to be well, but sinners. Sick. Afflicted. Diseased. In sin. Anyone who believes themselves
to be well will never repent. I can assure you of that. They
have no need to repent. So who did Christ die for? Good
people? He died for the ungodly. Now, there'd have been a time
when if you'd called me ungodly, you may have had a fight on your
hands. But now I know that's exactly what I am apart from
God's saving grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm an ungodly
person. All of us are by nature. He died for those who were without
strength. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? The ungodly. Those without strength. Sinners. Of whom I am chief. And every one of us would agree
that's what we are, the chief of sinners. And this is the sum
and the substance of the Gospel. Who died? Christ, the well-beloved
Son of God. Only He could pay our sin debt.
How and why did He die? He died a death of shame. A death
under the wrath and judgment of God. For us. That's what we deserve. Who did
Christ die for? For the ungodly. Not righteous
men and women. Not for deserving men and women. For the undeserving. When did He die for us? When
we were without strength to obey Him. When we were without strength
to keep His law before the foundation of the world. When we were unable
to change our condition ourselves. And 1 Samuel chapter 14 confirms
these things. Jonathan had asked the Lord for
a sign. You remember last study. He and
his armor-bearer kind of slipped away from his father and 600
men. Everyone else in Israel had fled.
They saw the Philistine army with all their chariots and all
their men, all their weapons, and they took off, hid in caves. All that's left is 600 plus men,
and Jonathan and his armor-bearer, a young lad no doubt, had slipped
off. And in verse 9, Jonkin said to
his armor-bearer, he said, now if they say to us, we're going
to go up to this garrison of Philistines and we're going to
confront them, and if they say, thus come up unto us, then we'll
go up, for the Lord hath delivered them into our hand, and this
shall be a sign unto us." This is a fleece, like Gideon's fleece
that we're throwing out. And then in verse 10 he said,
but if they say thus come up unto us, then we will go up. In verse 9 he said, if they tell
us to tarry until we come to you, then we'll stay where we
are and we'll go up. Verse 10, I'm sorry, but if they
say thus, come up unto us, then we'll go up, for the Lord hath
delivered them into our hand. And what did the Philistines
say? They said, come up unto us. And that was a sign from
the Lord that they were to take on this garrison of men. Now
look at verse 13. Samuel 14. 1 Samuel 14. And Jonathan climbed up upon
his hands and upon his feet and his armor-bearer after him. And
they fell before Jonathan and his armor-bearer slew after them. And that first slaughter which
Jonathan and his armor-bearer made was about 20 men within,
as it were, a half an acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might
plow. But there was trembling in the
host. I don't know if the word traveled
that fast, other Philistines saw them or whatever, but they'd
had experience with Israel's God before. And they were trembling
in the host, in the field, and among all the people, the garrison
and the spores, they also trembled. And the earthquake, God confirmed
His presence with Jonathan and the armor-bearer by a great trembling,
an earthquake. And the watchman of Saul in Gibeah,
verse 16, and of Benjamin, look and behold, the multitude melted
away. They could see them from afar
off. And pretty soon, it just seems to be fewer and fewer of
them. And they went on beating down
one another. Jonathan in these verses very
strongly shows us by his example, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great
Deliverer. That's what I want you to see
tonight. And Christ by Himself, the Scripture says, purged our
sins. With no help from you and me.
Contrary to what religion would tell you today. provided by Himself for His Father
the perfect righteousness that every believer needs to be reconciled
to God. Now listen, we can't just walk
into the throne of grace in and of ourselves. It's not by righteousness
that we've done. We have none. You know what our
righteousness is. It's filthy rags. It's not worthy
to be submitted as a sacrifice unto God. And Jonathan with a
young man, his armor-bearer, took on this garrison of Philistine. And they very well provide for
us how Christ saved us by fighting for us. I still think often about
what Moses said to the children of Israel as they faced the Red
Sea and Pharaoh's army pursued them. He said, stand still. See the salvation of the Lord.
Don't move a muscle. You don't have to do anything.
And then he said, the Lord will fight for us. Next time you have
trouble coming, you remember, the Lord will fight for you.
And that's a guaranteed victory. Every single time. When it comes to salvation, the
Lord Jesus Christ did it all. And it's the most unlikely of
folks that share in the spoils, the bounty of His victory. It's
of the same kind that's shared in Jonathan's. And in this, Jonathan
is a picture of Christ. Now as we saw last study, those
whom Jonathan provided the victory for were those who had no weapons,
no defense. Look back in Samuel 13 verse
19. It says, Now there was no blacksmith
found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines
said, We can't let them take up this trade. The Hebrews will
make swords and spears and fight against us. When Israel was before
bound in Philistine slavery, the Philistines didn't allow
them to practice the trade of blacksmith, didn't allow them
the means or ability to make weapons to fight with. That was
a very smart thing to do from a strategic war point of view. And because of that, they didn't
have any ability to fight with weapons that they didn't have.
Somebody handed him a sword, they'd say, what's this? A spear? A shield? What's this used for? They didn't know. So we see that
those who shared in Jonathan's victory were those who had no
weapons, no defense, nor were humanly capable of standing before
this Philistine army in and of themselves. Does that sound like
somebody you know? This represents The doctrine
that we call total depravity. No ability, no means, no aptitude
of defense. Ignorant, weak, incapable. What a good definition that is
for total depravity. Weak, incapable, ignorant. So many things. Now, total depravity
doesn't mean that everyone is out violently murdering and disgustingly
fornicating or stealing or pillaging or robbing banks, though there
are some that do so. Total depravity means simply that all of us would,
if not for the restraining grace of God holding us back. There's
not anything that we're not capable of doing. And a child of God,
that's been revealed to a child of God. We know. We know that
we're capable of doing it. Total depravity means there's
no sin that any of us are not capable of committing if God
left us to ourselves. And that's why we pray, Lord,
don't leave us to ourselves. We know what we're able and capable
of doing. Total depravity means that every
and all of our faculties are dominated by sin, both mentally
and physically. There's no sin that we wouldn't
commit if turned loose to do our own will and pleasure. That's
why we pray, Lord, don't let me have my way. Don't let me
do my pleasure. I know what I'm capable of doing.
And you know, I know folks that say that they believe in total
depravity, but they, on the other hand, also claim that they have
a free will. Listen, it's impossible to be
a totally dead and depraved man or woman to do good or exercise
your will because you're dead. That's what makes you depraved. You're dead. You're dead to all
the goodness of God unless God give you life. To be totally
depraved means that you have no free will because your will
is in bondage to your depravity, to your nature, your nature and
your sin. Now our nature would not allow
us to make a right decision or exercise a will of our own if
our life totally depended on it. And it does. Why? Because we're incapable
of exercising such a will. A dead man or woman has no will,
has no ability. No man, spiritually dead man,
spiritually dead woman, can come to Christ. Now it doesn't say
there in John that no man may come to Christ. It says no man
can. If I had a will to come, I certainly
may. But the problem is, I don't have
the will, I don't have the ability to come. We can't come because we don't
have the spiritual ability to come. No man, dead in sin, will
come to Christ to be saved. You could write it down. In our dead state, no man is
willing. And only when a sinner is convinced
of their own inability, will they cry for mercy. I never cried
for mercy when I thought I had the ability to save myself. You
know, the preacher would often tell me that I needed to come,
and I'm like, you know, I'm doing alright. I'm doing okay. Then God showed me I wasn't. We're totally helpless. Totally
dependent on God in Christ to save us from our sin. You know
what the Lord Jesus meant when He said, without Me, you can
do nothing? Well, He meant that without Him, you can do nothing. Pretty point blank. He meant
that we have no ability. We're totally depraved. Nothing
meant nothing then, and nothing means nothing today. Not a little
something, but nothing. The English definition for nothing
is not anything, not a single thing. It's like even those who
wrote the dictionary understand something about this. We can
do nothing if that means nothing, not a single thing. I once had
a teacher that wouldn't believe it at nothing. She said, zip,
zilch, nada, not, goose egg, bupkis. That means nothing. And God always says what He means.
And He always means what He says. God cannot lie. He would cease
to be God if He did. He's not a man that He should
lie. He's not the son of man that He should change His mind.
Nothing means nothing and all means all. It's one thing to believe in
the teaching of total depravity. Now listen, it's one thing to
believe that. Oh, I believe the doctrines of
grace. I believe in total depravity. But it's a whole other thing
to believe that you yourself are totally depraved. And that
takes a revelation from God. Only God can show you that. Just
the same as with God's sovereignty and supremacy. I know a lot of
people say, oh, I believe God's sovereign. I believe God's almighty.
I believe God's in control of everything. But, but, that's
when we're headed for trouble. But He needs a sinner to let
Him save them. How can that be? We are nothing. We have nothing. We can do nothing.
So how can we help God to save us or lend Him a hand in anything? What a contradictory statement.
God needs no help. And it's a good thing, because
we can do nothing to help ourselves, much less help God. And God makes
that very clear. He says, if I needed anything,
I wouldn't ask you. If I was hungry, I wouldn't ask
you. You can't help me. And we can't. We're dead, dead,
dead. Unless and until God gives us
life. That's what it means to be born
again. I heard that term. You need to be born again. I
was like Nicodemus. How can I enter into my mother's
womb a second time? How can I be born again? Well,
you've got to be because you're dead in trespasses and sin. And in order to be reconciled
to God, you've got to be alive. You've got to bow to Christ. And a man will never see their
need of life until God first gives them life to see that they
never had it. It's kind of ironic in a way.
I've got to be given life before I ever see that I need life.
I've got to be given life before I'll ever come because a dead
man can't come. So there's no arguing about The
fact that salvation is of the Lord, because He's got to first
give us life before we even know we need it, and can bow to Him
to come. And when He does, that's when
they'll cry for life. After God shows them the need. He makes us willing when? In the day of His power. Thank
God. And He's already given us life
when He does. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, dead, still dead, Christ
died for us. Romans 5a. While we were yet
dead sinners, Christ died for us and gave us life. So friends,
if you don't have any weapons, no physical or spiritual strength
to use them if you did, then Christ, your Jonathan, must work
on your behalf to save you from your enemies. God doesn't help
those who help themselves. God helps those who can't help
themselves. As we saw last time, King Saul
and 600 of his men are under a pomegranate tree without weapons. I know that Saul had them. The
king, I'm sure they were able to preserve or come up with some
for the king and possibly the prince, Jonathan. But for the
most part, they don't have weapons, just farm tools. They've sharpened
up plow blades and pitchforks and axes, as we know. Without weapons, no ability to
help Jonathan. That's a picture of you and me.
Look at verse 17. Then said Saul unto the people
that were with him, Number now and see who's gone from us. And
when they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor-bearer
were not there. And Saul said, Bring hither the ark of God,
for the ark of the Lord was with him at that time with the children
of Israel. And it came to pass while Saul
talked unto the priests that the noise The noise that was
in the host of the Philistines went on and increased. It got
louder. And Saul said unto the priest,
Withdraw thy hand. So the second thing I want you
to notice here is that Israel heard something. They heard a
noise. Have you heard the noise? Have
you heard the noise of the battle? There's a war going on. With
us, it's going on within. Paul wrote in Romans chapter
7 verse 23, "...but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Do you hear it?
Have you already heard it? How does one hear? Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You come by hearing
this by listening to what we're doing tonight, preaching. By
opening the Scriptures, and like those noble Bereans, studying
it yourself to see if the things that I tell you and other preachers
tell you is so. You know, that's what caused
Teresa and I to, the Lord did, obviously, but through the means
of reading the Word of God, and seeing that the things that we
were told weren't so. And it calls us to search for
the things that were so. Do you hear? Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Christ said, The hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. That's my story. That's your
story, all you who believe. What did Israel, the nation of
God, hear? They heard the battle. They heard
a loud noise. A loud noise of the battle. There
was a commotion. That's what the word means. Noise. Commotion. An uproar. A noise that could be heard.
Do you hear it? It's going on within you. You
are yet without Christ. They heard an outward noise.
The believer hears an inward noise. Israel heard the enemy
destroying themselves. We hear the same thing. What Israel heard was God causing
the enemy to destroy themselves. Two men started this thing. God took it over. And they began
to kill themselves. That's the same thing we're hearing.
Salvations of the Lord. How am I going to take on Satan?
How am I going to take on demons? How am I going to take on sin?
The Lord took it on for me. And I hear them destroying themselves. First Israel didn't know what
it was. About 600 men of Israel had fled, except for 600 men
plus had fled and hid in caves. Saul and his men are eating pomegranates. That's what we do. We sit around
and eat pomegranates. Most people in this world don't
have any idea what's going on in spiritual warfare. There were two men unaccounted
for, Jonathan and his armor bearer. But there's only one fighting
for us. Along with God who bore and provided his armor. What
a pitcher Jonathan is. I'm telling you he is in this
chapter. Look at verse 20. And Saul and all the people that
were with him assembled themselves. Now I got to thinking about that
word assembled. And I looked the word up. Naturally, we think it means,
you know, came together, gathered together. But in verse 20, the
original Hebrew language defines it much more than just gathering
together. It means crying out together. This was much, much more than
a religious service where they assembled together and held hands
and prayed. This was a crying out. A crying
out together. If you have a marginal Bible,
that's what mine says. That's what we do when we meet
to worship, friends. We collectively, as believers,
cry out to the Lord together. What do we cry? Lord, help us. Lord, save us. Lord, have mercy
on us. It's a crying. Four times in
Psalm 107, which we studied not long ago, said, Israel got in
trouble, then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble. Four
different times. And He delivered them out of
their distresses. Then they got in trouble again.
Then they cried unto the Lord. Not until. They cried to the
Lord in their trouble. Who cried? The ones in trouble.
Who delivered them? He, the Lord. He delivered them. So we see here quite vividly
who heard and was delivered. Who are they? They are those
that have nothing to fight with. They are those that don't have
any weapons. They don't have any ability.
They're those that have no will to fight. Those who run for cover
and hide. That's it. Who then can be saved? Those that hear the noise. The
gospel. Those that cry out after they
hear it for help and salvation. Those who hear a great defeat
taking place. And again, verse 20, and Saul
and all the people that were with him assembled themselves,
cried out together. And they came to the battle,
and behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there
was a very great discomfiture. Who's saved? Again, those who
see some things. They saw this. They heard it, then they saw
it. They cried, they saw it. Heard it, cried, and saw it.
Isn't that how the Lord saves? Who shared in this victory? Who
shared in the spoils? You know, it was common practice
that when two enemies fought one another and one defeated
the other, they took all their stuff. called the spoils. Who shared in this victory? Those that didn't fight. Those
who fled. Saul and his men. But that's
not all. Look at verse 21. Moreover, the Hebrews that were
with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them,
that being the Philistines, into the camp from the country round
about. At some point in time, many of
the Hebrews, the nation of Israel, had deserted Israel and joined
forces with the Philistines. Talking about traitors. I'm sure
that it was out of fear that they deserted their fellow citizens. Nevertheless, they were traitors
and they were deserters. Who's that a picture of? When
they saw the Philistines destroying themselves, or the Lord destroying
them, because that's what was going on, they rejoined with Israel. And
that's not all. Verse 22 says, So did all that
had fled and hid in the caves. Friends, by nature, we're all
traitors and deserters. And that's what we are every
time we sin against God. Yet the Lord in His mercy still
receives us. Isn't that something? Isn't that
good news? And He gives us everything that
God requires of us. All at the hand of Christ's victory. Letting us to enjoy the spoils
of Christ's battle. All those who joined the fight,
when they knew that Jonathan's victory was sure, they shared
in the spoils. Spoils are the goods that men
gain by the taking of a victorious party. The items that were seized
in victory. And what a picture that is of
the gospel. Traitors, cowards, and deserters. Those who did
not earn, those who did not merit, those who did not deserve the
mercy and grace of God, get it anyway. That's who the Lord saves. Who
are they? Those without strength. Those
who are ungodly. That's who gets it. And again,
verse 22, Likewise all the men of Israel which had hid themselves
in Mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, Even
they also followed hard after them in the battle. Look at verse
23. So the Lord saved Israel that
day. Who did? The Lord did. Who did the Lord save? His people. He didn't save every nation around
them. He saved Israel, His chosen nation. The Lord did. And as we'll see
in the remainder of this chapter, Saul, because of a stipulation
that he made, he made that none should eat, after they didn't
do anything, and we'll deal with that later, found out that Jonathan had eaten
from a honeycomb. And he was going to kill him.
He was going to kill his own son. because of a stipulation
that he hadn't even heard about. Look down at verse 45. And the
people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die? Shall the one die
who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid, as the
Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to
the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people
rescued Jonathan that he died not. And how ironic that it was
the people, those of his own nation, that called for the death
of Christ, who died for them. My, my. And here we see Jonathan
again as a picture and type of the Lord Jesus. Jonathan wrought,
that word means worked, this great salvation in Israel. The
word rot means created and accomplished. That's what Christ did when He
was raised from the dead. God accepted His work. God accepted
His people in Him. Not by what we did, but by what
Christ wrought and did. Again, we had no weapons to fight
with. We had no ability to fight. We simply, by God's grace, heard. We simply, by God's grace, cried
out. We simply, by God's grace, saw. And God saved us. The traitors,
the deserters, and the cowards that we were. This, beloved,
is what Christ did for us, spiritual Israel. And may we never take
it for granted. It's here that we see that free
grace opens the door for anyone. The Lord said, whosoever will.
That's anyone. Anyone that desires to be saved
can be saved. God will give them life. He knows our hearts. He knows
if it's genuine or not. Lord, save me. He knows if that's
genuine. Lord, help me. He knows. He knows. No such thing as earned grace. No such thing. There's only one
kind of grace. Free grace. Aren't you glad? And one more time, who's grace
for? The ungodly. Those who are without
strength. Those who don't have anything
to work with. David goes into the camp of Israel. Philistines are across the valley,
and they've got a giant named Goliath. And he comes out every
day challenging Israel. And says, we don't have to fight. I'll fight your best warrior,
and whoever wins, the other one submits too. And David went into
the camp to deliver food and supplies to his brothers. And
David heard this. You remember what he said? Who
is this uncircumcised Philistine that defies the living God? And you seen him? He's about
nine foot tall. He's an uncircumcised Philistine. And Saul said, here, you take
my armor and put it on. You take my sword. And David
tried him on and, well, he couldn't even walk. He said, I don't need
these weapons. I've got a weapon of my own.
Slingshot and five smooth stones. And he defeated the Philistine
giant and cut his head off. That's what Christ did for us.
That's what Christ did for us. Free grace. Those who have nothing
to work with, no weapons, no ability, no strength, no will,
no nothing, when we were without strength in due time. The time
of love. The appointed time of God. Christ
died for the ungodly. And all we have that we can call
our own is sin. That's not anything to brag about.
I don't know why folks... Secondly, salvation is for those
that hear. They hear what they are. They
hear who God is. They hear the message of grace.
They hear the message of Christ. They hear the message of substitution. And they love it. They don't
want to hear anything else. And they believe and they know
it's true. They don't understand this good news, but they believe
it with all their hearts. Thirdly, free graces for those
that cry out. Preacher, I don't know how to
pray. Well, it's easy to cry out. It's easy to pray. Cry,
Lord, help me. Cry, Lord, save me. And fourthly,
free graces for the worst of the worst. The chief of sinners,
the ungodly, that's who it's for. That's who Christ came to
save. We who are without anything and
everything. What we need, only Christ can
give. He's the one thing needful. God
provides, supplies all our need, singular. He provides Christ. And this day, He provided Jonathan,
who is a picture of Christ. Need is singular in Christ. Saves
alone. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
good news. That's the gospel. Christ came
into the world to save who? Sinners! Sinners. Are you a sinner?