Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 37 in our hardbacked hymnal. Let's
all stand together. Number 37, How Great Thou Art. We'll sing just the first, the
third, and the fourth verse. Oh Lord my God when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works thy hands have made I see the
stars I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died, to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art Then sings my
soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Please be seated. Only then will we know how truly
great He is. What we see of Him now, oh, truly
we look through a glass darkly, don't we? But then, face to face. Let's open our Bibles together
to John 17. John 17, one of my favorite chapters
in all the Bible. Our Lord Jesus Christ, scripture
calls him our great and high priest. And the church has referred
to John 17 as the Lord's, as our, his priestly prayer, his
intercessory priestly prayer, as he goes before his father
and, and prays for his people. This happens just before he goes
to the cross. same night that they gathered
the disciples together for that last supper. He prays this prayer. You know, you and I pray, the
scripture says in James, we pray often amiss, that we might consume
it upon our own lusts. Sometimes our prayers are answered
with a no, because what we're asking for not right. It's not good for us. It's not
the best thing. The Lord Jesus Christ never got
a no for his prayers. He knew exactly what his Father's
will was, and every prayer he offered was answered in the affirmative. John 17 verse 1, these words
spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father,
the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. And this is life eternal. That they might know thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word."
So much gospel in these verses, isn't there? They belong to the
father because he chose them according to his own will and
purpose in the covenant of grace. He gave them to his son and his
son redeemed them. And now the Lord Jesus is praying
for, for them and them alone. Look at, look at verse seven.
And now they have known that all things whatsoever thou has
given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. For they
are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them." Well, that's so clear, isn't it? Our Lord
isn't wringing his hands in heaven, hoping that men will let him
have his way. He says right here, I'm not praying for the world.
I'm praying for those that you've given me out of the world. They
belong to you. You gave them to me. I have,
he goes on to say in this prayer, I've sanctified them and now
glorify, glorify me with the glory that I have with thee before
the world was. And uh, The Lord Jesus is seated at the
right hand of God right now, isn't he? Ever living, making
intercession for us. So when we pray, we say, in Christ's
name. In other words, we're saying,
Lord, this is the best feeble effort I can make to offer up
a prayer, but you make it acceptable to the Father. You offer it to
the Father in a way that's going to be pleasing and honoring to
him. Let's pray. Our glorious Heavenly Father,
what great comfort and hope we have in knowing that Thy dear
Son is seated at Thy right hand and that He does live and intercede
on our behalf. Lord, we don't know often how
to pray. But we know, Lord, that you have
it all purposed and worked out from
beginning to end. Lord, so we come into thy holy
presence and we ask, Lord, that you would comfort us with that
comfort that only you can give and only you do give to your
children. Lord, that we would find our
rest and our hope. Thank you for the accomplished
work of Christ. And we thank you for the hope
of salvation. And Lord, we do wanna know thee
and we pray that you would open our hearts and open your word
and open the windows of heaven and that you would reveal yourself
to us tonight. Lord, we pray for our governing
authorities and we ask Lord that you would give them the ability
to make decisions that would bring about peace in the world
Lord, we pray that you would restrain their evil, that we
might enjoy peace in this life. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Number 452, let's stand together
again, 452. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
contemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. for me it was in the garden he
prayed not my will but thine he had no tears for his own griefs
but sweat drops of blood for mine How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. In pity angels beheld him and
came from the world of light to comfort him in the sorrows
he bore for my soul that night. ? How marvelous, how wonderful
? And my song shall ever be ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? Is
my Savior's love for me He took my sins and my sorrows, he made
them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. How marvelous ? How wonderful
and my song shall ever be ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? Is
my Savior's love for me ? When with the ransomed in glory ?
His face I at last shall see will be my joy through the ages
to sing of his love for me how marvelous how wonderful and my
song shall How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. Let's open our Bibles together
to the first book of Samuel. First Samuel, chapter one. First
Samuel, chapter one. I've titled this message, The
Lord of Hosts. One of the names that our Lord
gives us of himself is Jehovah Saba, the Lord of Hosts. And
it's repeated over and over again in the scriptures. You know, we know someone by
their name, don't we? Names really don't mean much
to us. Most people don't even know what
their names mean, except that your name has attached to it,
your person, who you are. And people know us by our names. And Paul said in Philippians
chapter three, oh, that I might know him. the power of his resurrection,
the fellowship of his suffering. I've not yet apprehended that
which has apprehended me, but this one thing I do, this one
thing I do, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling. What is that prize? To know God. We just read in
John chapter 17, this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Now
we know God, don't you? If we're going to know Him, He's
going to have to reveal Himself to us. The knowledge of God comes
by divine revelation. The natural man doesn't have
the means to know God. God has to come down to where
we are and condescend and make himself known to us, open the
eyes of our understanding, as the scripture says, and give
faith to our hearts. The means by which he does that
is his word and the revelation that he's made of himself in
his word. And he's given us time and time
again a different angle, if you will, to who he is by a different
name. It's like we're looking at a
diamond and we just keep turning it and it's the same diamond,
but it's different every time we look from a different viewpoint. And so one of the names that
the Lord gives us is this Jehovah Saba, the Lord of Hosts. Now we're familiar with Jehovah
Sidkenu, we sing that hymn, the Lord our righteousness. We're
familiar with the with the name that the Lord has given us of
himself, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace, or Jehovah Nissi,
the Lord our banner. And there's several of those
in the scriptures. As a matter of fact, I've been thinking that
maybe on Wednesday nights, we'll do each one of those names for
the next couple of months, as there's about eight of them.
that the Lord gives us in his word, describing himself, revealing
himself. And when the spirit of God takes
the word of God and applies it to our hearts, then we see who
he is. We see who he is. Names are important
in the Bible. Not just God's name, but men's
names are important. We have the first man, Adam,
which translated means man. And Eve, which translated means
the mother of the living. And the Lord oftentimes changes
men's names, doesn't he? He changed Abram's name, the
exalted father, to Abraham, father of the multitude. And that name
was only fulfilled long after Abraham's death. He didn't have
a multitude of children, but now we see him as the father
of the faith. And so everyone who has faith
in Christ is a spiritual child of Abraham. I love when Ruth
came back from Moab and and uh and with Naomi and uh and came
back to Bethlehem and the people of Bethlehem saw Naomi and they
said could this be Naomi she left here so so vibrant and beautiful
and look at her now and Naomi said don't call me Naomi um call
me Mara for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me and so
names changed. Jacob's name was changed to Israel,
the supplanter to the prince. And Saul of Tarsus, Saul's name
means to be admired. And the Lord changed his name
to Paul, which means little. And sometimes men live up to
their names and sometimes they don't. And yet when the Lord gives us
his name, he lives up to it far beyond what we can even begin
to imagine or comprehend. And so these names, these names
that our Lord gives us are important if we're to know him. If we're
to know him, we've got to know what these names mean. Psalm 18, verse 10 says, the
name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it
and are saved. So how do we know him? We know him because he has revealed
himself to us by his word, by the different names that he's
taken to himself and revealed himself to us through, and the
righteous, those that have been made righteous in Christ. Paul
said also in Philippians chapter three, that verse we quoted a
moment ago about that I might know him. He said, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is through the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our righteousness. And so those who are righteous
in Christ flee to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as their
strong tower. And in his name, we find our
salvation. In 1 John 2, verse 12, John said,
I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven
for his name's sake. The names of God are so important
if we're to know him. Got to know what he's telling
us about himself through these names. And one of the names is
Jehovah Saba, the Lord of Hosts. I forgive any of your sins for
my namesake. It's my name that's on the line
here. It's the integrity and the glory
and the perfection of my name. What is his name? You shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
So for his namesake. He accomplished the putting away
of our sins. He didn't look at us and see
the sorrow and the repentance and the faith and the good works
and the decisions and all those sort of things that men think
move the heart of God to save them. He didn't look at those
things. He looked at his name. And he
said, I am obligated by the, by the glory and the perfection
and the integrity and the righteousness of my name. And I have saved
them for my namesake. He cannot deny himself. If we
deny him, he cannot deny himself. Uh, that's so important, isn't
it? That's so glorious. That we can't,
the Lord is going to be faithful to his name. And faith is believing
that. Faith is believing that he is
always faithful to his name. John chapter 17, we read this
a moment ago. I have manifest thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. I didn't just
teach them how to articulate your name or how to hear the
sound of your name. I have taught them what your
name means. You gave them to me and I manifested
to them. I revealed to them the nature
of God by revealing to them what your name means. Exodus chapter three, Moses is
on the backside of the desert, 40 years and tending sheep. And he sees out of the corner
of his eye a bush on fire, and yet it's not being consumed.
And here's the voice of God. He goes over to look at the bush
to see what it is. And what a picture. This bush
is a picture of Christ on Calvary's cross. The fire of God's wrath
falling from heaven in order to consume the sacrifice and
satisfy the justice of God. And yet the sacrifice is not
being consumed. The sacrifice is consuming the
fire. And then he hears the voice of
God. Moses, take off your shoes for the ground on which you stand
is holy ground. Now our feet, we have, what do
we say? We have feet of clay. Our feet
represent our creatureness. Our weakness is seen in our feet. And the Lord says to Moses, take
off your shoes. You're standing in the presence
of holiness and you need to, it's like we saw Sunday. The
Lord puts his finger right on the heart of the problem, doesn't
it? And you have to see yourself as a sinner. and as a man of
clay in order to stand in the presence of God. And not until
we see ourselves as a sinner that we need a savior. And so
Moses in that place hears the voice of God and God's telling
him to go back into Egypt. The Lord told him, I said, I've
heard the cry of my people and will send you back to bring them
out. And Moses is a type of Christ bringing the children of God
out of sin. And the Lord says to Moses said,
tell them the God of your fathers have sent you. And Moses said,
what if they ask me your name? What do I tell them? And the
Lord said, tell them I am that I am a something. Now that's
the name. First time God gave us his name
was in Exodus chapter three. And that's the name. that's translated
L-O-R-D in the scripture. It's in the Hebrew, it's Yahweh,
it's translated Jehovah, and we have it in our English Bibles
as Lord. Here's his name. I am that I
am. I am the self-existent one. I
am self-sufficient. I've never asked anyone for anything.
I've never been in need of anything. I'm not created. I am the creator
and sustainer of everything. I am. I have everything I need
within myself. Now, who else can say that about
themselves? I don't have a beginning. I don't
have an end. I am that I am. Uncreated, independent, self-sufficient,
source of all life, eternal, omnipotent. All of these things
are captured in the Lord's name, Jehovah. When he tells us who
he is, he's telling us, I'm not like you. I'm not created. I'm not dependent. I'm not derived
from anything like you are. I don't have to have breath like
you do. I'm God. I am that I am. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
reveals himself as the Son of God, what does he say? He said,
I am the gate into the sheepfold. I am the water of life. I am the resurrection in the
life. But Martha says that, Lord, we
know that when the resurrection takes place, our brother will
rise again. Martha, you don't know. I am the resurrection in
the life. Believest thou this? And then
when he said, before Abraham was, I am. Those Jews knew what our Lord
was doing. He was identifying himself and revealing himself
as God. He was taking the very name of
God that God gave to Moses all the way back there in Exodus
chapter three, and he's taking it to himself. And so they took
up stones to stone him. And they said, and the Lord said,
why do you stone me? For what good work do you stone
me? Not for the good works, but because you being a man make
yourself out to be God. He took the very name of God
because he is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
God-man. He's the Emmanuel. He's God with us. He's God manifested
in the flesh. And our Lord told the disciples,
if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, for I and the Father
are one. So here's our Lord making himself
known to his people by his name. You have your Bibles open to
1 Samuel 1. That, I hope, will serve as an
introduction to what we want to see here. in verse three,
and this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to
sacrifice unto Jehovah Saba, the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of
Hosts. It's the first time the Lord
gives us this name of himself. And it declares his absolute
sovereignty. This word host also means, it's
also translated war or army. And our Lord is saying, I am
Lord over the living and over the dead, over the armies of
heaven and over all the inhabitants of the earth. Nothing happens. We hear men today talk about
sovereign nations, don't we? And I understand what they mean
by that. It's a nation like our nation that's not subject to
or under the authority of another nation. We stand independent
in that sense, but we're not sovereign. Every king and every
nation and every army and every people and everything is under
the reign of our Lord of hosts. He's the only one that we can
call sovereign. You know the word sovereign is
not to be found in the Bible. But neither is the word trinity
or the word depravity, and yet those words summarize for us
sovereign. Sovereign. That word comes from
the conjunction of super reign. Super reign. He reigns sovereign
over everything. That's what Lord of Hosts means.
That's who our God is. So every missile that's shot
over in Ukraine and every bullet that flies and every person that
dies, our God is sovereign over that. Nothing happens apart from
his will and purpose. Everything that happens. The
nations, the scripture said, are dropping a bucket to him.
and everything that happens on the large world scale and everything
that happens in the minutia of your life and my life is under
the sovereign reign of our God. And here's the good news, brethren.
He's working all things together for good for them that love him.
Those are the called according to his purpose. That's our hope. That's our comfort. The Lord
of hosts. Jehovah, I am Saba, the Lord
of hosts. I reign sovereign over all things. Turn with me to Colossians chapter
one. Colossians chapter one. This is who our God is. He's not subject to anything
or anyone and everything is subject to him. And his people love that. You
know, men will raise their fists to heaven and they'll say, I'm
not going to have that man reign over me. Or the religious will
talk about making Jesus Lord of their life. No, he is Jehovah
Saba. He is the Lord of hosts. He, he is Lord of your life.
Rather you, whether you want him to be or not. And God's people
say, amen. But when I lose sight of him
as Lord, he still reigns as Lord over my life. And I need him
to reign as Lord over my life. And the unbeliever says, he's
not gonna be my Lord unless I allow him. How foolish is that? Well, that's a blind man that
thinks like that. It's a spiritually dead man that
thinks like that. It's a denial of the very nature
of our God, Jehovah Saba, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. And He reigns over all the armies
and over all the wars. That word host means army or
war or warfare. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
went to Calvary's cross and fought the battle for our souls and
defeated Satan and hell and the grave, He was Lord over that
warfare, wasn't He? He reigned sovereign over everything
that was happening at Calvary's cross. wasn't that it did. You know, I mentioned this some
time ago. I love thinking about how those
Roman soldiers must have been amazed because they never had
nailed anyone to a cross who willingly laid down his hand
and put it in place for them. Who willingly laid down his feet
and put them in place for them. I mean, can you imagine they
never experienced anything like that? always had to take two
men and hold him down and pull his arm away from his body and
stretch it out. And the victim would fight that
horrible. And our Lord just laid his life
down. Why? Because he sent his face like flint towards Jerusalem.
He came into this world for that moment, for that time, because
he was Lord of hosts. He was Lord over the warfare
that was taking place there on Calvary's cross. And that's why
Isaiah was able to say, tell them their warfare is accomplished.
Jehovah Saba, the Lord of hosts has, has fought that battle for
them. He has defeated Satan. He has
put away their sin and he's Lord over that. He's sovereign over
that. No man, no man took his life from him. He laid his life
down, not for everybody, for his sheep, for his sheep. He didn't bear all men's sins
in his body on Calvary's cross. We just saw that in John chapter
17. He bore the sins of his people. Father, I pray not for the world.
I pray for them that thou has given me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gave them unto me. And I manifested thy
name unto them. Oh, what a glorious savior. He's
the Lord of hosts, the Lord of wars, the Lord of battle, the
Lord of nations, the Lord of men. He's Lord over everything,
everything. Psalm 24 verse nine says, did
we read Colossians 1? No, Colossians 1 16, let's go
there. For by him, the Lord Jesus Christ,
were all things created that are in heaven and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. That's so glorious, isn't it?
That's so clear. That's who he is. He's the Lord
of hosts. Everything was made by him. Everything
was made for him. He's sovereign over all things. Samuel's mother and father went
yearly to worship and to sacrifice. unto the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. Psalm 24, verse 10 says, lift
up your heads, O ye gates. Now here's a prophecy of our
Lord ascending back into glory. After his death and resurrection,
and then the instructions he gave to the disciples, He ascended
from the Mount of Olives back into glory bodily. The disciples
stood there watching him ascend into the clouds. And the angels
came and said, men and brethren, why standing here gazing up into
heaven? This same Jesus whom you saw
caught up from you is going to come again in like manner. You
go back into Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Ghost and he's going
to come upon you and he's making my witnesses. Here's our Lord. ascending back into his rightful
place and taking his rightful seat in heaven. And David writes
in Psalm 24, lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up,
ye everlasting doors. The King of glory shall come
in. Who is this King of glory? He
asked. It is the Lord of hosts. It is the sovereign one. It is
the one who has been given preeminence. And those angels which had their
swords drawn and were ready to come and destroy the whole world
in order to deliver their Lord off of Calvary's cross, God restrained
them. And yet now the gates of heaven
have been slung open and the King of glory is coming in. And
they've asked, who is this King of glory? What's his name? The
Lord of hosts. The Lord of Hosts, He is the
King of Glory. And when our Lord ascended back
into glory, He did not return void, empty-handed. He took with Him the names of
those for whom He lived and died. And we're spoken of as being
in the heavenlies, in Christ right now, right now, God's people. Why? Because he's Lord of hosts.
He's not gonna lose one of his sheep. He's Lord. He is the glorious I Am Sabbah. The one over every spiritual
war, every physical war, everything, he reigns sovereign. In 1 Samuel chapter 17, verse
45, David is, remember David goes
to take supplies to his brothers while they're hiding out from
the Philistines and from Goliath in particular, who comes out
and challenges the children of Israel to battle. And David says,
who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Who is this that's cursing our
God? And, Everybody was afraid to
go out and face Goliath. And he finally tells Saul, I'm
gonna, I'll go against this uncircumcised Philistine. God will deliver
me. He delivered me from the lion
and from the bear and he'll deliver me from him too. David's a picture
of Christ. And so Saul says, okay, but you
gotta have some armor. And David puts on Saul's armor
and it's so heavy and cumbersome for him. And he said, no, I've
not tested this. What is that? That's the strength
of the flesh. That's what that armor represents.
And David said, no, I'm going to go in the grace of the Lord
of hosts. That's what he said. And he took
with him five stones. And the number five is the number
in the Bible for grace. He said, I'm going to defeat
this Philistine by God's grace, not by the strength of my flesh,
or by some armor that... And so he says in verse 45, you
come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, but
I come unto thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God
of the armies of Israel. That's who I'm coming to you
in, the name Jehovah Saba. the Lord of hosts, the sovereign,
omnipotent, reigning God, all powerful, all able God who cannot
fail. And he didn't fail. David ended up cutting Goliath's
head off with his own sword. And you know what the sword's
a picture of? The sword of the spirit is the word of God. And
the Lord Jesus Christ, when he's seen coming in the book of Revelation,
comes with a sword, a tongue like a sword that's on fire.
It's the words. And by your words, you should
be justified. And by your words, you should be condemned. And
the very words that Goliath was speaking were the words that
David used to cut off his head. And so it is. It's a picture
of the gospel. There's going to come a day when
The Lord's going to speak and he's going to take the very words
of men. And those who talk like I'm going to make Jesus Lord
of my life, I'm going to obligate him to save me by something that
I do or a decision that I make, their very words will condemn
them. And those who say, oh no, my
God is Jehovah Sabbah. My God is the Lord of hosts.
My God is absolutely sovereign over all things in providence,
over all things in creation, over all things in salvation.
Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of his power. And I want to show you another
verse here in 1 Samuel, if you go back with me to this text,
because the power of the Lord's name is not in the verbalization
of it or the proper pronunciation of it. You know, we don't just
say, well, we're going to just speak his name audibly and somehow
that's going to have some sort of supernatural power. No, it's
believing in the heart what his name means. It's believing that this name
is Him. This name is who He is. Let me
show you an example of that, because people go around today
and that's, you know, they think that if they just say the name
Jesus or if they just say the name Jehovah or if they just,
you know, they just, you know, put the right words together,
that somehow that's going to be a secret formula that's going
to save them. And we have a perfect example
of that right here in first Samuel chapter four. Look with me at
verse four, or verse three. And when the people were come
into the camp, the elders of Israel said, wherefore hath the
Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch
the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh. Let us, of Shiloh unto us, that when
it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of the enemies.
So they had just, the armies of Israel had just been defeated
by the Philistines. And they're back licking their
wounds and saying, why did the Lord allow us to be so defeated
today? Oh, we didn't send the Ark of
the Covenant. Let's go back to Shiloh. Now,
this is the same Shiloh that Samuel's parents went to in chapter
one and prayed to the Lord of hosts. And the Lord, you know,
answered that prayer and gave them Samuel. And, but now, The
armies are thinking, so look at verse four. So the people
sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of
the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwell between the cherubims
and the two sons of Eli and Hophni and Phinehas. The two sons of
Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant
of God. And when the ark of the covenant
of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great
shout so that the earth rang again. Oh, everybody was so excited. The ark is here. Now we're going
to be saved. The Lord of hosts, we've, we've
called on his name and we brought the image of his, of his person
into the camp. And the Philistines hear what's
going on in the camp. And when the Philistines, verse
six, heard the noise of the shout, they said, what meaneth the noise
of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood
that the ark of the Lord was coming to the camp, and the Philistines
were afraid, for they said, God is coming to the camp. And they
said, woe unto us, for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.
Woe unto us, who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty
gods? These are the gods that smote
the Egyptians. With all the plagues in the wilderness, be strong
and quit yourself like men, O ye Philistines, that you'd be not
servants to the Hebrews as they have been unto you. Quit yourself
like men and fight." So they were afraid of the God of the
Hebrews, but then they said, you know what? If we'll just,
we'll go in this thing brave and we'll be all right. And the
Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every
man into his tent. And there was a very great slaughter,
for there fell of Israel 30,000 footmen, and the ark of God was
taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were slain." They said all the right words.
They had the ark. But they didn't believe God.
How do we know that? Because Hophni and Phinehas are
mentioned twice. Hophni and Phinehas were abusing
the gospel and the sacrifices and there was sin in the camp. The scripture says, obedience
is better than sacrifice. And to hearken rather than the
fat of rams. And our Lord tells us in Matthew
chapter seven, that there will be those in the day of judgment
that will say, but Lord, we did many wonderful things in thy
name. We did many wonderful works in
thy name. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. You see, they
thought, well, if we'll just use the right spiritual formula,
and we'll say the right words, and we'll pray the right prayer,
and we'll go through the right ceremony, somehow that'll save
us, while they had no interest in the things of God in their
heart. What I'm saying is that the names
that God has given us of himself, this is a perfect example, isn't
it? That just pronouncing the words or saying the name, it's
not salvation. The name is pointing to the person. If I say in this room tonight,
Mark, we're all thinking about Mark over here. The name identifies
an individual. And so it is with the name. of
our God. It identifies who he is. You
see, if they really believe that he was the Lord of Hosts, they
would have done something about Hophni and Phileas before they
went back into battle. They would have done something
about that, that denial of the gospel that was in the camp before
they went up against their enemy. But they thought, well, we'll
just, we'll just take the ark and we'll just say Lord of Hosts
and all will be well. It's what men do today. I think,
well, we'll just, we'll just pray this prayer and we'll say
these things and we'll perform these ceremonies and traditions
and somehow it'll all work out for our salvation. Oh, this matter
of faith is a matter of the heart, isn't it? When Isaiah said in
Isaiah chapter six, woe is me for I am undone. I'm a man of
unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean
lips. My eyes have seen the Lord. And then he said, Isaiah chapter
six, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Saba, the sovereign God who sees
and does everything. I've seen him. If our God, is not Jehovah Sabbah. If he's not sovereign over everything
in creation, in providence and in salvation. Now, don't you
know that Jonah, you know, he's in the belly of the fish and
he's crying out to God and he's thinking everything's against
me. How's this gonna work out? He's thinking the same thing Jacob thought when the brothers
came back from Egypt and they said, you know, they want, he
wants Benjamin. Joseph is not, and Simeon is
not, and now you want to take Benjamin? All these things are
against me. The best 17 years of Jacob's
life were the last 17 years of his life. He lived in the lap
of luxury with his own son as the prime minister of the greatest
nation in all the world. But he thought everything was
against him. Jonah thought everything was against him. And yet, had
Jonah not ended up in the belly of the whale, we would not have
one of the simplest, purest declarations of Jehovah Saba in all the Bible. What did Jonah say? Salvation
is of the Lord. It's all of Him. He's sovereign
in salvation. If I'm going to be saved, He's
going to have to do it. He's sovereign in election. He's
sovereign in redemption. He's sovereign in regeneration.
He's Jehovah Saba. He doesn't set aside His sovereignty. He doesn't advocate His throne
for men to be able to put in their two cents worth. Salvation's
of the Lord. And here's our comfort, brethren.
As I've already said, he was Jehovah Saba on Calvary's cross. He is the Lord of that war. And
he got the victory. He secured, he got the salvation
of his people. Salvation is of the Lord. What is faith? It's not doing
like the children of Israel think we'll bring in the ark and let's
call on Jehovah Saba. Let's, let's, let's just declare.
No, they lost that battle. Faith is bowing before him, believing
who he has revealed himself to be. This is life eternal that they
might know they, how are we going to know him? He's revealed himself. A lot of things we don't know.
We don't know how the conflict in Europe and Russia, we don't
know. The secret things belong to the
Lord our God. There's so many things we don't
know. But those things that have been
revealed belong to us and to our children. And this the Lord
has revealed clearly. He is the Lord of hosts. Amen. Father, we pray that you would
forgive us of our unbelief and cause us, Lord, to bow to all
that you have said. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 42 in the Sproul Hymn.
Now let's stand together.