Go ahead and turn with me to
1 Samuel chapter 14. 1 Samuel chapter 14. I remember years ago now, when
all my friends began to talk about how I had become religious. It surprised a lot of folks.
and rightfully so. But I remember even more the
bondage that being in religion brought me. I was always striving
to be what I could never be. I always fell short. Never able to attain the level
of goodness and morality that religion pressured me to be. Those of you that have been in
religion know what I'm talking about. And I'm grateful, I really
am, that the Lord delivered me from that. And I say that the way I say
it on purpose. It was the Lord that delivered
me. I didn't deliver myself. The preacher didn't deliver me.
He'd have kept me in it more if he could. But the Lord delivered
me. And now because of Christ and
His finished work. That's something you'll hear
me talk about a lot. Because that's our hope of salvation. That Christ finished for us what
we could not finish. Christ did for us what we could
not do. And I remind you of what that
is. It's to keep His law perfectly. My, we can't even keep one jot
or tittle, and He kept it all in our room instead. And because
of that, His justice is satisfied against me. I'm free from the bondage of
doing. Now, do I continue in sin? The
grace may abound, God forbid. Not a single child of God wants
to in any way bring reproach into the name of their Lord.
And that's what sin does. But we know we're going to sin.
We know we're going to fall. And we know that Christ has paid
for every sin, past, present, future. And that brings me such
rest and such comfort. It's not like we're getting something
over God or sneaking in the back way or something like that. No,
it's the way He ordained it. Knowing that we couldn't keep
the law, He came in the flesh and kept it for us. And that's
the gospel. That's good news. And I have by His grace begun
to rest. in His work for me. Oh, what
freedom there is in that. Aren't you experiencing that
freedom? What freedom it is. Well, I trust that the Lord may
be pleased again tonight to give us a glimpse of that glorious
finished work of the Lord Jesus. What freedom in knowing that
I'm not saved by what I do for God, but by what God in Christ
did for me. And that's our message. That's
what we endeavor to preach every time we stand to preach, every
time we sit to listen. Tell me again. Tell me the story
of Jesus. Write it on my heart, every word. It's a precious story. Tell me
that story, most precious. Well, it's the sweetest any sinner
ever, ever heard. 1 Samuel 14, verse 1. Let me read a few verses and
then we'll talk about what it's talking about. Now it came to
pass upon a day that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the
young man that bare his armor, Come and let us go over to the
Philistines garrison that is on the other side. But he told
not his father. And Saul tarried in the uttermost
part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in Migran, and
the people that were with him were about 600 men. And Ahiah,
the son of Aetub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son
of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod, and
the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. And between the passages
by which Jonathan sought to go over into the Philistines' garrison,
there was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on
the other side, and the name of the one was Bozez, and the
name of the other was Senna. And the forefront of the one
was situated northward over against Michmash, and the other southward
over against Gibeah. Now, in this chapter, we have
a miraculous story. When I began to read it a week
or so ago, and then began to study it closer this week, I
told Teresa, I said, if I knew this story, I had forgotten it.
It's a miraculous story of faith and courage found in Jonathan,
Saul's son. But much, much, much more than
that, we again have a story of the divine intervention of God
for His people. That's what this book is full
of. That's what it's about. God divinely intervening. God
divinely interrupting. God stepping in for His people
and saving them by His grace. No eternal harm can ever... I say this with confidence. No
eternal harm can ever come to a chosen child of God. Why? Because their Heavenly Father,
Sovereign, Omnipotent, Almighty, All-Powerful, won't permit it. So being impressed of the Lord,
Jonathan and the young man that bear his armor, courageously
take on the Philistine army by themselves. You remember Gideon
with 300 men? Well, here's two. What an amazing story. Now Saul
and 600 Israelites are sitting under a tree, not knowing what
to do. And the rest of Israel took off and ran, and they're
hiding in dens and caves. They're absolutely scared to
death. Because if you remember from last week, Saul had ordered
an attack, and Jonathan with his men had skillfully killed
a garrison, a post of Philistine soldiers. So in retaliation,
the Philistines Angry, angry Philistine. They're ticked off. They're upset. Along with 30,000
chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and as many people the scripture
describes as the sand of the seashore. That's a bunch. Come up near where Saul and Jonathan
were and pitch camp. And everybody just took off.
So we're in a heap of trouble. We're getting out of here. They're
hiding in bins and caves like a bunch of little girls. Remember, Israel didn't have
any weapons. Only sharpened plowed blades
and axes pitchforks, going out to fight a mighty army of this
number. And tonight we're going to see
that the Apostle Paul wasn't the only one who God had revealed
that if he be for us, none can be against us. Obviously, Jonathan
had that revealed to him. Him as a little young I don't
know. I'm sure this boy is probably
18 or older. He's big enough to carry his
armor. But he's a young man, the Scripture
calls him. They believed it. That if God's
for you, who can be against you? Do you believe that? You know,
I do. I do. I don't always act like
it. But I do believe it. What an encouragement Deuteronomy
chapter 7 should be to every believer. I won't turn you there.
But Moses wrote, oh, that they were wise, that they understood
this, that they would consider their letter in. How should one
chase a thousand? And two put ten thousand to flight? Except their rock, capital R,
R-O-C-K, told them, and the Lord had shut
them up. For their rock, little r, is
not our rock, capital R. There's a difference. There's
a difference between our rock and the world's rock. The world's
rock can be anything. Job security, finances, money,
retirement. But our rock. There you go. Believer, your rock is the rock. The capital R, rock. And if He's
for us, none can be against us. We could save ourselves a lot
of worry, a lot of fretting, a lot of anxious thought if we
could just ever trust the Lord and have faith enough to believe
that. So I ask the Lord tonight, Lord, please help us. Help us
to believe that. Help us to have that faith. Knowing
that with you in control, everything's going to be alright. That's what
Jonathan says in verse 6 here. And Jonathan said to the young
man that bared his armor, Come and let us go over into the garrison
of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will
work for us For there's no restraint to the Lord to save by many or
by few." God can do anything and everything. That's what He's
saying there. No restraint to the Lord. He
can save with two or with a multitude. And His armor-bearer said unto
Him, Do all that is in Thine heart. Turn Thee. Behold, I am with Thee according
to Thy heart. My, for men like that. Jonathan says, if the Lord be
with us, if the Lord will work for us, we shall always prevail. There's no restraint to the Lord.
There's no limitations. The Lord doesn't have any limitations.
That's why I get angry when men try to preach our Lord as having
limitations. When Teresa and I were back in
religion of this health and wealth gospel, you'd say something,
you know, I feel like I'm coming down with something. People say,
don't you say that. Don't you say that you're snared by the
words of your mouth. That'll happen to you if you
confess it. I'm like, my nose is dripping. Give me a break. No restraint to the Lord. No
limitations. Whether it be by many or by few,
we can defeat this whole army. That's what Jonathan says. And
that young man said, Amen. Amen. So here we have two men,
one not much more than a boy, willing with God on their side. Now that's an important statement. Willing with God on their side
to take on the whole Philistine army. I think most everyone, me included,
loves a good underdog story. I like the movie where the underdog
prevails. Probably because most of us see
ourselves as underdogs. That's why I always loved the
story of David and Goliath so much. An underdog is one who
has little or no possibility of winning or prevailing in a
fight with someone much stronger, bigger, experienced than they
are. But hear me on this. When one weaker is a believer
in God, in the Lord God Almighty, they are in no way an underdog. It's proven over and over and
over again in the Scripture. Take the nation of Israel and
their deliverance. Here they are. They've been in
bondage to the Egyptians for 400 years. They hadn't had an army in 400
years. They were slaves. They were brickmakers. Bricklayers. Respectable job, no doubt, but
they weren't experienced fighting men. And when the Lord powerfully
moved with the plagues and Pharaoh let Israel go, now they're in
front of the Red Sea. And when they heard that thunder
of horses and chariots of Pharaoh coming after them, they cried
unto the Lord. And I mean, they were crying as they were camped by the Red
Sea. They had nowhere to go with the Red Sea in front of them
and the Egyptian army behind them, pursuing them. They were
afraid, and they cried unto the Lord. And I'm going to tell you
something. They sure thought they were underdogs. So would
have you, and so would have I. As a matter of fact, they said
so. They said, if you brought us
out of Egypt and let us die here, were there not any grave plots
in Egypt where we could have been buried, you've got to bring
us out here? Well, we're nothing but underdogs. We're going to
be slaughtered. And Moses said unto the people,
Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which He will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you've
seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. Why, Moses? Listen. The Lord shall fight
for you. That's why. The Lord shall fight
for you. And you shall hold your peace.
And they did for a little while. Not long. Oh, what faith the
Lord gave Jonathan in this unnamed, I'll point that out, he's an
unnamed young armor-bearer. And I pray the Lord be pleased
by His grace to give me that kind of faith and you that kind
of faith. having our great God for us. We could always believe more
than we do. Jonathan at this point did not
know if the Lord would work for them or not, but maybe He would. That's what he said. Jonathan
said, it may be. I don't know for sure, but it
may be that the Lord will work for us. But we're going to find
out. We're going to find out. And
again, our lesson, this is one of our lessons, is to never do
anything without first seeking the Lord. I wish I could learn
that. I'm learning to learn. I'm learning
to lean. I'm learning to trust. Still
learning. Paul said, I hadn't arrived,
I hadn't attained, but I'm learning. And isn't that what salvation
is? I mean, really, when it gets right down to it, the Lord working
for us? Sure it is. In a world where
nothing is sure, Jesus Christ stands as a surety for us. He became flesh for us. He kept
the law perfectly for us. He satisfied justice for us. He put our sin away. He gave
us His perfect righteousness. I and you are saved because the
Lord worked for me. He did for me what I couldn't
do. He did for you what you couldn't
do. He worked, and not only that, but He finished that work. No
work to do anymore. It's finished. And everything
He did for me, God sees it as being done by me. It's the same for every believer.
You know, in religion, God does the saving and men and women
take the credit. And in Christ, God does the work
of salvation and we receive the benefits from it. And we're pointing
to Him. He did it. We didn't do it. He did it. Big difference. You know, one
single statement that I make in preaching more than any other. As a matter of fact, I save my
message and you can search. And I just typed in a search
message in my computer of salvations of the Lord. I can't tell you
how many sermons notes it came up in. A lot. Probably more than
any other. Salvation is of the Lord. You
know that. I know those of you that have
heard me for the last several years. But when we say that salvation
is of the Lord, we exclude salvation of being of any other. We're
saying salvation is of the Lord. We're not saying salvation is
of the Lord with a little help from me, or a little help from
someone else. No, we're saying salvation is
of the Lord, and you know I love to say this, period. End of discussion. That little dot means nothing
else to say. If salvation is of the Lord,
it's of the Lord completely. When salvation is of the Lord,
but it's not of man, it's not of woman, it's not by the preacher,
it's not by the pastor, and it's not by the pope. It's not of
the church, meaning religious organization. We call these buildings
on every corner with the steeple and the stained glass, we call
them churches. That's not what they are. They're
buildings. that house religious organizations,
but they're not the church. There's only one true church,
and it's the Lord's church. God's church is THE church. It's not one of many, but one
in particular. The Lord says, this is MY church. His church is not those who differ
in belief. I had a friend tell me, an acquaintance
tell me one time, well, now David, I know you believe different
than I do, and I believe different than you, but we are all spokes
in the same wheel, and we all connect to that centerpiece which
is Jesus. I said, no sir, we do not. Don't
you believe that? Don't you believe it? His church
don't differ in belief. They have the same Lord. They
have the same God. They have the same Gospel. They
have the same Savior. Christ's church is His elect
bride. It's called the church of God.
The one that God gave to Christ from the foundation of the world. Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. And God gave those sinners that
He chose to Christ then. And they were His elected bride,
His church. The church of God was purchased
with His blood. It's the church of His people.
Scripture says the church of the Laodiceans and the church
of the Thessalonians, they're the same church, located in two
different places. The church of the living God,
the church of the firstborn, same church. The church at Ephesus,
Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, all the same church. The two churches, the local churches
that we know, Lexington, Kentucky, Danville, Ashland, Pikeville,
Williamsburg, Ohio, Jackson, Missouri, Kingsport, Tennessee,
College Grove, Tennessee, Crossville, Tennessee, Farmington, West Virginia,
Dingus, West Virginia, Cottageville, West Virginia, Rocky Mountain,
Virginia, Spring Lake, North Carolina, Cherokee, North Carolina,
Lewisburg, Arkansas, I asked Arvin one time, I said,
anything good come out of Louisville? The gospel. That's good. Rescue, California. Ewing, New
Jersey. Newcastle, Indiana. Sellersburg,
Indiana. And little old Madisonville. It's the true church. In different
places. Many more I failed to mention.
It's the church of believers. Wherever they are, they all know
and believe that salvation is of the Lord, and it's of the
Lord alone. It's of the Lord singularly.
And there's only one way to be saved. Well, that's pretty narrow-minded. The Lord is narrow-minded. God says there's one body, one
Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God,
one Father, one Lawgiver. One mind, one mouth, one message,
one gospel, one holy one, one Lord Jesus Christ. That's pretty
narrow-minded. Not two, one. Malachi, the prophet, writes
to those who disagree, have we not all one Father? Hath not
one God created us? There's one God and there is
none other but He, Mark 12, 32. But to us, the believing church,
there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we
by Him. For there is one God and one
Mediator." How many? One. One God, one Christ, one
Mediator. Between God and man, and that's
the man Christ Jesus. And He worked for me. I did the sinning. He did the
saving. He died so that I might live. He put away all my sin
for me. All of it. He was raised for
me. He ascended for me. He intercedes
for me. He does it all. He's coming again
for me. Isn't that what salvation is?
What Christ does for me and for you? Christ works for His people. Isn't that what a servant does?
And yet He's not our servant. He's the servant of God doing
His bidding. And we're the recipients of His
mercy and His grace. And then I thought a lot today
about this armor barrier. His name's not given. That doesn't
surprise me. He told John, he said, whatever
you do, I'll go with you. Do whatever is in your heart
and I'll follow you. What? Isn't that the attitude
of every true believer? As we go through our lives bearing
the whole armor of God, the Christ that's provided for us, we know
as long as we follow Him, the Lord Jesus, everything's going
to be fine with us. Our loins are girded with His
truth. His breastplate of righteousness is ours. Our feet are shod with
the gospel of peace. His shield of faith protects
and quenches the fiery darts of Satan. The helmet of salvation
is salvation itself. He got His hand over me. You're
talking about a helmet. The sword of the Spirit being
the Word of God. I don't have to wield no big
sword. I've got this Word that I can quote and that I can read
and that I can find comfort in. It's the sword of the Spirit
being the Word of God. In Christ we bear all His armor. And Christ not only provided
us this armor, friends, Christ is every single piece of that
armor. And we're His armor-bearers,
and we follow Him wherever He goes. If you follow Christ, He
said, I'll make you fishers of men. If you follow Christ, you shall
be perfect, He said. If you follow Christ, you've
got treasure in Heaven. If you follow Christ, then you're
denying yourself. And the first will be last, and
the last will be first. If you follow Christ, you're
one of His sheep. If you follow Christ, He's your
shepherd. And this is a true sign of being the elect of God. Are you following Christ? Okay,
verse 8. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we'll
pass over unto these men, and we'll discover ourselves unto
them. Now, look at this. He says in verse nine, if they
say thus unto us, Terry, until we come to you, then we will
stand still in our place and we'll not go up unto them. But
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. In other words, this is Jonathan
looking for some indication on what to do. He's throwing out
his Gideon's fleece, so to speak. He says, if they see us, if they
tell us to stand where we are, we'll take it that the Lord would
not have us to fight. But if they say, come up to us,
we'll go knowing that the Lord has delivered them into our hands. You see, a sheep of God follows
their shepherd. He's their guide. He's their
protector. And yes, they're prone to wander.
That's nothing new to you. It's God's sheep. We're prone
to wander. We're prone to leave the God we love. But when we
do, and we get lost, we're never really lost because He knows
where we are. But when we do misplace ourselves,
Maybe that's the way to say it. He comes, He finds us, He puts
us on His shoulder, and He carries us all the way home. Prodigal
sheep, what we are. When He putteth forth His own
sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him, for
they know His voice. John 10 verse 4. Verse 11. And both of them, Jonathan
and his armor-bearer, discovered themselves unto the garrison
of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, Behold,
the Hebrews come forth out of the holes which they have hid
themselves. Now to get where these Philistines
were, this garrison, this fort or whatever, they were going
to have to climb a cliff. You know, they naturally took
a high lookout place so they could see. And they were going
to have to climb a cliff to get there. In order to reach our enemies,
we're going to have to climb, too. It's an uphill battle all
the way. You figured out yet, or I know
that's not a good way to say it, God showed you yet. We don't
figure nothing out, do we? That this life and this world,
it's an uphill battle. Never easy. And Jonathan chose the hard way.
The Lord chose it for him. It's always the more difficult
way. This is the sign that the Lord is in this. In verse 10
again, Jonathan said, If they say thus, come up unto us, then
we'll go up. For the Lord hath delivered them
into our hand. Now notice there what he said. Let's don't pass quickly over
these things. Such blessing. He didn't say
the Lord is going to deliver us. That's not what he said. He said,
we'll get up there, we're going to hack them up, and the Lord's
going to deliver us. This is proof they already had.
He's already delivered. Delivered. Past tense. No ifs,
ands, and buts. He already had. Friends, you
and I are fighting a battle that we've already won. How confident
we ought to be. Well, you know, I just don't
know. I wouldn't do this, I wouldn't do that if I was one of His.
He already paid for your sin. All of it. We've already won the war. Our
battlefields are the ones of our own making. Many still don't
know that the war has been won. The King of the ages, Jesus Christ,
has fought all my battles for me. Victory is ours for the claiming,
and now, praise His name, we are free, it is finished. I borrow those words from that
great hymn. There'll be no more war. It's
finished, the end of the conflict. It's finished, and Jesus is Lord. The Lord Jesus is sitting on
the throne of God because not only is His work finished, but
the Lord has accepted it and He's accepted us in Him. Listen, when I say it's finished,
I mean it's finished for us. Verse 12, And the men of the
garrison answered Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, Come
up to us and we'll show you a thing. That was the sign to Jonathan.
And Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, Come up after me. For the Lord
hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. I was thinking
today, I wonder if that little armor-bearer thought, Man, I
didn't know it was going to work out like this. He said, come
on after me. He said, you would. For the Lord
hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. The deliverance
is already accomplished. The battle is already over. The
conflict is finished. The Lord hath already delivered
them into the hand. And notice, it was into the hand
of Israel. yet raised a blade or a pitchfork. They hadn't done anything. Saul and his 600 men are sitting
underneath a pomegranate tree eating pomegranates. You and
I were delivered before we ever knew it. It's not until after we're saved,
friends, that we find out that we were elected. Well, you know,
I'd bow to Christ if I knew I was going to be elected. You've got
to bow backwards. Come to Christ. Bow to Him. You'll see that you were elected.
Because you wouldn't have come if you hadn't been. Verse 13, And Jonathan climbed
up on his hands and upon his feet, and his armor bearer after
him. fell before Jonathan and his armor-bearers slew after
him. I mean, no sooner than Jonathan and this young man get to the
top of that cliff, they begin fighting, and supernaturally
so. Verse 14, And that first slaughter
which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made was about twenty men, within,
as it were, a half acre of land which a yoke of oxen might plow."
Twenty men on a half acre of ground, and they wiped the ground
with them. And look what happens next. Verse
15, there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among
all the people. the garrison, and the spoilers. They also trembled. And the earthquake,
so it was a very great trembling. My margin says a trembling of
God. That's what it was. A trembling
of God. When God uses His power for His
children, He also uses His power against their enemies. You're dealing with God's power
here. I remember in our study of Judges,
there was another Bible story I always loved as a boy, and
that was Samson. But Samson wasn't any kind of
super athlete. It always said the Spirit of
the Lord came upon him. It was the Lord's power that
came upon Samson that made him so strong. and caused him to
be able to do such amazing feats. When the Israelites passed safely
through the Red Sea, you remember what happened next? The Lord
commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea so that
the waters would come back upon the Egyptians. their chariots,
their horsemen, and they would drown in the sea. That was the
Lord's doing. That's the Lord's power. In Exodus
23-27, the Lord promised the Israelites, He said, I'll send
my fear before you. None of these nations had any
reason to fear Israel in and of themselves. He sent His fear
before them. And He said in one of the translations,
I forget which one I read, It said, I will cause confusion
among the people to whom you come, and you will make all your
enemies turn their backs to you. And that's exactly what He did.
That's what He did this day. They were confused. Deuteronomy
7, 23, 24, Moses spoke about the victory that the Lord would
grant the Israelites over their enemies in the land of promise.
And this is the same promise given to you and me as believers. If we believe what God's Word
says, then we'll have victory every
time, because He fought for us. But the Lord your God will hand
them over to you. He'll throw them into complete
confusion until they're destroyed. He'll put their kings in your
power. He'll erase their names from the face of the earth. No
one will be able to stand against you, and you'll destroy them
all. And that's what happened. except for the ones that they
got like a days ago and just let them go. Their disobedience
to God. That phrase, complete confusion. The Lord promised to throw their
enemies into complete confusion until they were destroyed. And
this is what the Lord does for His people. It's the same thing
today that keeps so many out of God's kingdom. Complete confusion. have no idea who God is, what
they are, and who they need in order to be saved. Complete confusion. It's just the exact opposite
of divine revelation and understanding. You talk to people about your
God, and they'll look at you like a cow at a new gate, they
say. I don't know exactly what that
looks like, but they're completely confused, I guess. God will further confuse the
lost of this world, those who are called your enemies, and
reveal the things of Christ to you." Well, that don't sound fair.
God is sovereign. Just as Samuel in chapter 7 was
offering up that burnt offering, the Philistines grew near to
battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered and with a loud
thunder upon the Philistines that day, and they were so confused
that they were overcome before Israel and easily defeated. That's what the Lord does. Underdogs win again. God's underdogs always win. Every
time. Verse 16, And the watchmen of
Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted
away, and they went on beating down one another. The Lord turned
on the Philistines, and they began to fight one another. That's
happened several times in the Scripture. The Lord causes our
enemies today to battle and defeat themselves. 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. Jonathan had
slipped away incognito, as we say. To everyone but God. God knew
where he was. Steve God sent him there. God's people don't do anything
for fanfare. Jonathan didn't say, hey guys,
I'm going to go over here and I'm going to defeat the Philistines.
Y'all just sit back under this pomegranate tree and eat pomegranates. No. He slipped away and did God's
bidding. Look at verse 18 and try to imagine
this. Ahai, bring hither the ark of
God, for the ark of God was at that time with the children of
Israel. And it came to pass, while Saul talked unto the priest,
that the noise that was in the host of the Philistines went
on and increased." It just got louder and louder. The banging
of swords hitting shields and hitting armor and men falling
Just the noise of war. You know, when we record here,
it's amazing how much noise, and I mean that in the most respectful
way, that we make just talking among ourselves before this.
You'd think there's 200 people here. Can you imagine the noise
of this battle? It just kept getting louder. It went on and increased. And
Saul said unto the priests, Withdraw thine hand. And Saul and all
the people that were with him assembled themselves. And they
came to the battle. And behold, every man's sword
was against his fellow. And there was a great disconfiture,
a great slaughter, great confusion going on. The Philistines were
killing themselves. And the noise was great. I remember one time, I forget
which boxer it was, he said, he may have just been an amateur,
but he said that the guy he was fighting, you know, had his gloves
up and he hit himself in the head, and he said, I don't have
to fight you, you're going to beat yourself up. That's kind
of what they were doing in Philistine. Verse 21, moreover, the Hebrews
that were with the Philistines before that time, which went
up with them into the camp from the country round about. Here
we discover that some unfaithful Hebrews had joined up with the
Philistines. And let's don't act like we're
surprised. How many times have you and I
joined up with this world? No one better. More than I care
to think about. And that's what happened here.
These were a weak bunch of folks. Man, don't we know that from
our Old Testament study? So are we. So are we. Guilty. Read on. But even they also turned to
be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. You see,
when God gave them grace to see that God always gets the victory,
they joined up with Him. Like to be on a winning team,
don't we? And that's not all. Verse 22, "...Likewise, all the
men of Israel which had hid themselves in the caves and dens in Mount
Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they
also followed hard after them in the battle." And they were
the first ones saying, boy, didn't we give them pit. All of this was caused by the
action of two men. Two men who had faith in God. That's the distinguishing difference. Two men that believed His Word. What an encouragement that ought
to be to us. Never forget this. Never. Look
at verse 23. So the Lord saved Israel that day. Saul didn't save them. Jonathan
didn't save them. The armor-bearer didn't save
them. All those that joined the battle afterwards didn't save
them. The Lord saved them. And if we're going to be saved,
the Lord's going to save us. Salvation's in the Lord. The Lord will fight for us. If God be for us, we can be against
it.