Let's be turning to 1 Samuel
chapter 14. 1 Samuel 14. We begin here in verse 1. It
says, 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."
Now, this chapter begins a deeper introduction to Jonathan. And
Jonathan is certainly made in the image of his dad, according
to the flesh. But we see that he's entirely
a different man. He's not the same as his father. His father is a man who operates
very comfortably and very often in the flesh. And we'll see here
that Jonathan is a man of faith who leans heavily upon the Lord
and trusts the Lord. He believes the word of the Lord
and so he's ready to go over to the Philistines and he's going
to do that and he doesn't tell his father. His father likely
would have said absolutely not. And Saul, verse 2, tarried in
the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree and
which is in Migrin, and the people that were with him were about
600 men. And so here you see Johnathans
ready to go to war, to battle the Philistines. And Saul is
tarrying. He's hanging back. He's started
this thing. He's kicked it off. But now he
doesn't know what to do. And he's hesitating. And he's
hiding. And he's back there. And the 600, of course, is a
picture. It's the number of man. Six being
the number of man. He's in the flesh. And he's surrounded
by flesh. And Ahiah, the son of Ahithob,
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. Now, what's setting up here is
a beautiful picture of the Gospel. of the victory obtained for us
by the Lord Jesus Christ and the first half of this chapter
we see Jonathan as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ who is
the Savior of his people and in the latter half we see Jonathan
as a type of us who believe you that believe the Lord Jesus Christ
you that have been saved and purchased by the blood of Christ
We're believers and we're like Jonathan here and we're delivered
by our Savior. And so this is shaping up here. Now, what I mean here from what
we've just seen is the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.
When Christ came, we all were in darkness. The people of God
were unknowing. It was a mystery of God not yet
revealed to us. It was in types and shadows and
pictures here, as we'll see from this chapter, as we've seen from
all these Old Testament chapters. These are pictures of Christ,
and it will be made known, it will become more clear, but as
of now, it's a mystery. It's not well understood, except
by very few people. And so, it's a mystery to these
people when Jonathan was gone. Verse 4, and between the passages
by which Jonathan sought to go over unto 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 Bozes,
and the name of the other Senei. The forefront of the one was
Situate northward over against Micmash, and the other southward
over against Gibeah. If the order of these stones
is following the order of the north and the south, well then
the one at the south in Gibeah where the people of God were,
it's called Seneb, and that means thorny, and it's a sharp rock. So that if Jonathan goes out
there and he decides, I don't think this was such a good idea,
and he decides to go back, well, he's got a sharp way to go. It's a thorny way. And it would
mean that the people of God would not be delivered. There would
be no salvation for them. But if he goes forward, what's
ahead? It's another sharp rock called
Bozes. And that word means shining.
as in glistening white and it's like a beacon calling Jonathan,
he's being led by the Lord to go to where the Philistines are
that he might secure and obtain a great victory for the people
of God and it's a picture of what our Savior did. If he didn't
go forward, if that cup of wrath was taken from him, put from
him Well then there would be no salvation for us. There would
be no deliverance from our sins. We would be responsible to pay
for our sins. But Christ didn't go back and
instead he went toward the cross. He went to the cross according
to the will of God because he loves his people and to save
his people. And Jonathan said to the young
man that bare his armor, come and let us go over unto the garrison
of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will
work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to save
by many or by few. These are not words we would
hear from Saul. Saul doesn't speak like this.
This is spoken by Jonathan, a man of faith. He's a man of God,
and he trusts the Lord. And that's true. The Lord is
sovereign. He's able to do whatsoever he
pleases. He's able to do all things, whether
he uses many or few. And we know this because we see
it in Christ who obtained our salvation. By one man, even Christ,
we are delivered from death. We are given the victory over
our enemies. Verse seven, his armor bearer said unto him, do
all that is in thine heart. And that shows us, that's a truth
of the gospel being revealed to us here that men, all of us,
men and women are going to do what's in our heart. We're going
to do what's in our heart to do. That's why we need a new
heart. That's why we need a new spirit. We must be made new creatures.
This is why Christ said, ye must be born again. Because if all
we have is our old natural heart, what we do is what we want to
do according to the flesh. And so we must be given a new
heart. A new heart, and the armor bearer
says, turn thee, behold, I am with thee, according to thine
heart. A new heart follows Christ. We go where he goes, we're led
of the Spirit. And Paul even wrote of this in
2 Corinthians 3, 16, when he said, speaking of the heart,
he said, nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord. Well,
how does it turn to the Lord? Well, it's when the Lord gives
you a new heart, makes you a new creature in Christ, that's when
the heart is turned. And he says, nevertheless, when
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be lifted. When the Lord gives us a new
birth, makes us new creatures in Christ, gives us a spirit,
and the spirit bears and manifests the fruits of righteousness,
bears and manifests faith in us, we turn to the Lord, believe
him, and he removes that veil so that we understand, we receive
the words of our Savior, we see him and behold him and come to
Christ, believing him, even unto the salvation of our souls, being
wrought in our hearts. It's all the work and the power
of our God. Then Jonathan said, verse eight,
behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover
ourselves unto them. And that's what our Lord did.
When He came in the flesh, He discovered Himself. He made Himself
known to His enemies. How? By His word. By His word. He came and He spoke the truth.
He came and spoke the words of the Father and made Himself known
to all the people. both to his disciples and those
that he came to save, and to the Pharisees, and the Sadducees,
and the scribes, the doctors, the lawyers, those who labored
according to the flesh, he made himself known even to his enemies
by his word. If they say thus unto us, tarry
until we come to you, then we will stand still in our place,
and we will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, Come up
unto us, then we will go up, for the Lord hath delivered them
into our hand. And this shall be a sign unto
us. And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison
of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, behold,
the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid
themselves. And the men of the garrison answered
Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, come up to us, and
we will show you a thing. You see, this is again a picture
of Christ who was lifted up. He allowed himself to be taken
and led away to that cross to be crucified by his enemies. And they thought, here he is
in weakness. Just like these Philistines thought,
here's a couple of Hebrews, they've climbed up out of the holes as
we saw in the last chapter where everyone was scattered and they
were afraid and they ran and hid themselves in the rocks and
ran over to Ephraim and over the river and everywhere. They
were scattered and everything. they think we're going to destroy
these ones. Just like the enemies of our
Savior, the enemies of our soul, thought that they had seized
the heir, that they would put him to death and take the inheritance
for themselves, that the strong man of the house would keep the
precious things of God. And yet, Christ there, in that
weakness, defeated them. He defeated all his enemies just
like our brother preached this last Sunday where Christ on the
cross he appeared like he was defeated and yet there in his
weakness he triumphed gloriously over his enemies and ours. He accomplished the work. And
Jonathan said unto his armor-bearer, in the middle of verse 12, come
up after me, for the Lord hath delivered them into the hand
of Israel. He knew there. He heard what he needed to hear,
just as our Savior knew when his time was come to go up to
Jerusalem, there to be crucified. 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
him, so that The picture there is just that Jonathan is going
through and wounding them sufficiently, mortally wounding them, putting
them down, and then the armor bearer could just come and just
finish it off. He could just end it for their lives right
there after him. And that first slaughter, which
Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about 20 men within,
as it were, in half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow.
And there was trembling in the host, in the field, and among
all the people, the garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled. And the earth quaked, so it was
a very great trembling. Here we're given that picture
of Christ on the cross who accomplished our redemption when he died as
the substitute of his people, putting away our sins, delivering
us out of that body of sin and death which we could not deliver
ourselves from. Christ came and was crucified,
the Lamb of God shedding his blood to atone for the sins of
his people, to cover our sins, to put them away forever and
to obtain our redemption, to obtain our forgiveness, to obtain
and give us life and fellowship with the true and living God
in Himself. He accomplished this. Verse 16,
And the watchmen of Saul and Gibi of Benjamin looked, and
behold, the multitude melted away. And they went on beating
down one another. So there's a picture of what
the Lord does. He raises up watchmen, sets them
on the hill, on the wall, and they look. And what do we see?
Christ's victory. We see what Christ accomplished.
This is the unfolding of the battle. And we see it. The watchmen
see it. And we declare, this is what
Christ has done. This is what he's accomplished
for his people. That's all we do. That's all
we do is declare what Christ has done, what he's done for
his people. Then said Saul unto the people that were with him,
number now and see who has gone from us. And when they had numbered,
behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. And Saul
said unto Ahiah, bring hither the ark of God. For the ark of
God was at that time with the children of Israel. So here we
begin to see more of the the carnal nature of Saul. He was
very content with the outward form of religion. He practiced
the form of religion outwardly. This was his religion that he
practiced here. Verse 19 And it came to pass,
while Saul talked unto the priest, that the noise the tumult of
the noise that the battle that was in the host of the Philistines
went on and increased and Saul said unto the priest withdraw
thine hand in other words stop stop what you're doing hold up
this thing's taken off And so here he was ready to seek the
Lord, to know what he should do. But he's heard all he needs
to hear. It's growing louder. There's
a tumult going. Let's get the boys ready and roll out. We're
going to go stomp these guys. We're going to go take these
guys out now. And so you're seeing here that
Saul had many faults. And honestly, when I was looking
at this and thinking about that, It's sad to say, but I see many
of Saul's awful qualities in myself, and we see it in our
own flesh. We endeavor to do a good thing,
we know we should pray and seek the Lord about a thing, and before
you know it, time slips away, and the heat of the thing, decisions
have to be made, and you just gotta get to it, and you go off
and you start doing it, and you never really did seek the Lord
much, did you? And we see it, we see our own weakness in this
flesh. This is why we need a Savior.
Because we cannot save ourselves. We can't keep the law. We can't
do what we need to do to deliver ourselves. Saul needed a Savior. Saul needed Jonathan. And Jonathan
is a picture of Christ. And we see our need of Christ
and the sufficiency of Christ and how glorious He is to accomplish
all our redemption and all our salvation. and to deliver us
unto the Father. Behold I and the children which
thou hast given me. Christ has accomplished our redemption. 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 very great discomfiture.
Moreover, the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that
time, which went up with them into the camp from the country
round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that
were with Saul." And so we see here, like that, the same way
that Christ brought in a great harvest by his death, except
the seed fall to the ground and die. It cannot bear fruit. But Christ went to the cross,
laid down his life, defeated our enemies, he died, was buried,
and rose again, and he's still bearing fruit unto this day. He's still bringing in the harvest. He still has his people that
he's calling in and converting and bringing in. He's conquering
their hearts too. Likewise, verse 22, all the men
of Israel which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard,
when they heard what Christ accomplished, They heard what Jonathan was
doing, we hear what Christ. When others hear what Christ
has accomplished by the watchman declaring the gospel, declaring
our Savior and what he's done, that the Philistines fled, even
they also followed hard after them in the battle. And that's
what our Lord did. These were people that were afraid. These were people that were scattered.
These were people that ran and hid and thought there's no way.
There's no way that we can be delivered. There's no salvation
for us. Well, that's what Christ did
for us, right? In Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 15
says, for as much them as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. He manipulated and worked and
had influence and sway and power over the body of sin, of which
we all were partakers in Adam. And then it says, verse 15, and
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. We labored in religion, in dead
letter religion, afraid and worried. and doubting and fearful and
afraid to die, always thinking, have I done enough? Am I going
to get that good feeling before I die? Am I going to get that
sense that God loves me and that I'm one of his children? Or am
I going to die in my sins and die in my doubts and die afraid? Well, Christ, hearing of Christ
and what he's done, he delivers us and assures us, I've done
it all for you. Trust me, believe the word of
God unto you which declares Christ. That's what he does. He delivers
us from it so that we stop looking to what we're doing or not doing
in the body of sin because we are taken from that body and
we are made members of the body of Christ. We're in His body. We're not in that inheritance.
We're in the inheritance of Christ. We're in the body of Christ.
You that believe Him and trust Him. That's the gift of faith.
That's the gift of His Spirit that gives you that faith and
that hope. And it's a walk of faith. That's why you're never
going to see what you think you should see. You're going to see
your need of Christ. And you're going to cry out to
Him, Lord, save me. Lord, help me. Lord, heal me.
Lord, forgive me. That's going to be your prayer,
the breath of the Spirit in you, always crying out, always looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him and believing Him. That's
what He gives you, because it's a walk of faith. The justified
shall live by his faith, or the just shall. And so verse 23,
so the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over
unto Beth-Avon. Beth-Avon means house of vanity. You see, the Lord accomplished
the work. It's done. Salvation is wrought. And so
the devil and this world and sin is just fighting a vain battle
because it's already accomplished. It's done. What Jonathan did
there, wrought salvation for Israel, and now it was just a
matter of little skirmishes and battles going on, just like Christ
has saved us. And we see the warring in our
members, but the battle's done. It's finished. The works are
finished from before the foundation of the world in Christ, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. What we see here in the next
few verses is the folly of man who, seeing and hearing the victory
that Christ wrought, yet turns to the law and to the flesh and
does carnal things which cannot save. So that brings us to the
passage of verses 24 through 30, and we see here the difference
between law and grace. If we turn to the law, we're
going to be troubled by the law. But if we are turned to grace,
then we're going to be helped and comforted by the grace of
God given to us freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look
at verse 24 through 30. First, let's read that. And the
men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had adjured
the people. He bound the people with a curse,
saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening.
that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people
tasted any food. Saul put them under a curse.
He put them under a law, saying, don't eat, don't stop. I want
all my enemies defeated. And remember, Philistines, in
the scriptures, when you read them, a very helpful thing to
do is see, this is my sin, in my flesh, in this land here that
it's being spoken of. And Saul was like, all right,
there's a victory here. Now I'm going to put you under
the law to get the most out of this victory. That's what he's
doing there. He's turning to the flesh. And
all day of the land came to a wood and there was honey upon the
ground. And the people were come into
the wood, and behold, the honey dropped. But no man put his hand
to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. That place was
so abundant with this honey, dripping, just falling to the
ground. It was an abundant supply, and
yet no one would take any of it. But Jonathan heard not when
his father charged the people with the oath. Wherefore he put
forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it
in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were
enlightened. Now brethren, this is where Jonathan
pictures believers, you that believe Christ, you that hear
of this great victory of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross
who obtained eternal redemption for his people by the death of
himself and by his burial and by his resurrection when God
raised him from the dead, we have salvation and you've heard
that. And Jonathan here is a picture
of the believer. Then answered one of the people
and said, thy father straightly charged the people with an oath,
saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And
the people were famed. Then said Jonathan, my father
hath troubled the land. See, I pray you, how mine eyes
have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.
How much more if happily the people had eaten freely today
of the spoil of their enemies, which they had found. For had
there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines, So let me show you five gospel
truths that are here declared in this passage and the rest
of the chapter. Five gospel truths that the Lord teaches us, that
he gives us to understand of what Christ has accomplished
and what not to do. Don't turn to the flesh. Don't
turn to the law to defeat the Philistines. Trust Christ. He started it. He'll finish the
whole thing. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the captain of your salvation, the beginning and the end. He's
all. He's all. He is our salvation. So Saul had adjoined the people,
saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening. And Jonathan noted in verse 29,
my father's troubled the people. By that law, he's troubled the
people. And what happened? Well, according
to our father in Adam, according to the flesh, he troubled us.
He couldn't even keep the one law, and he brought a curse upon
all his posterity. All of us were in him. When he
sinned, we all sinned, because he was corrupted and defiled
by sin, and we were in him. So that we were corrupted and
defiled by sin, and we come forth spiritually dead. Just as he
died then, we died in him. And we come forth spiritually
dead and unable to save ourselves. And Paul tells us in the gospel,
the gospel reveals to us, don't turn to the law. The law wasn't
given for that purpose to make you righteous and holy. The law
doesn't make anyone righteous or holy. It declares whether
you are righteous or holy. And so trying to come to God
by the law brings you under the curse of the law. Paul said it
this way in Galatians 3.10, for as many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. So our God, he knows our
sins. They're sins that we don't even
know about. we're not going to perfect ourselves by the law.
Again, the law shows, it reveals that we are sinners. And so Jonathan didn't even know
that his father had bound the people with this oath. So he
didn't know anything about it. And yet he broke his father's
law and came under the curse of that law. He was guilty of
breaking the king's law. And so he had to die. He had
to die. Now the second thing that the
gospel teaches us is that no man is going to put away a sin. He's not going to save himself
by these works. These people were under the law
that Saul had pronounced against them. And what do we find in
verse 28? We're told that the people were
faint. Saul gave this long curse because
he thought it would help defeat the Philistines but it wore the
people out and they weren't able to defeat any more of the Philistines.
If anything, fewer Philistines were put to death. It actually
troubled the people greatly. The Gospel declares and exalts
Jesus Christ and what He's done for His people and how that the
Father saves His people through His Son. Christ defeats our enemies. He has defeated them and He defeats
our enemies. He suffers us and brings us into
various trials and tribulations and afflictions and it's all
under His grace because He's teaching us He's showing us Christ. He's manifesting His salvation
to us and what He does for us through grace. That we might
minister that same grace to others according as we receive that
grace and mercy of God. That we might learn how to love
one another and be patient with one another and be kind toward
one another. in the same way that God is patient
and tender and kind toward us. So we learn through that grace
ministered to us in God's patience and long-suffering and kindness
to us through Christ because Christ has obtained that forgiveness. Like the Lord said to Paul when
he prayed to be delivered of some infirmity he had and the
Lord said, my grace is sufficient for thee. and the Lord's grace
is sufficient for you. And so he's teaching you and
he's instructing you. He's giving you his spirit and
he's bringing you by grace to himself and revealing himself
more and more. And verse 29, then said, Jonathan,
my father hath troubled the land. And this happened after he tasted
the sweetness of the honey. And what is the sweetness of
the honey? It's the grace of God. That honey, that sweet honey
is the gospel. It's the grace of God. And once
you've tasted it, and tasted what the Lord has done, it is
sweet unto the soul. and you're strengthened, and
the Philistines fall before you by the grace of God, by the power
of God, by the power of his word, by the power and giving of his
spirit, he enlightens your eyes, strengthening us in the new man,
being led of the spirit, walking by faith, trusting Christ. That's how the enemies are defeated.
The law, you get yourself tangled in all kinds of things. And you
think that you've defeated your enemies and you start beating
up on your brethren and hurting them and turning against them
the way the Philistines were turned against one another. We
don't want to do that. And God hasn't given us to do
that, to bite and devour one another. He gives us grace in
Christ Jesus by His Spirit. And so through Christ, we learn
that Adam's fall can no longer trouble us. The laws, condemnation,
and wrath cannot touch us in Christ. We are delivered from
that body of sin. We are members of the body of
Christ. We are in the family of God,
in the city of God, that heavenly Jerusalem where salvation has
become our walls. We can be scattered throughout
the land, throughout the world. And yet, all believers are in
that one Heavenly Jerusalem behind the walls of salvation. Walls
and bulwarks. That salvation is what keeps
us in that same city. And as he says in verse 30, how
much more if happily the people had eaten freely today of the
spoil of their enemies which they had found. For had there
not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines. That's
the peace and the comfort that believers are given in Christ
through this sweet gospel honey. And we are told to feed upon
it, rejoice in what Christ has done in defeating your enemies.
The enemy's put away. It's not for you to defeat them.
Christ has defeated them and he defeats them in you. That's
why in Romans 8, it speaks of that groaning that all of creation
is under. While we wait for the redemption
of this body, it's purchased, he's just coming back to pick
it up. Have you ladies ever purchased something on like a layaway or
whatever? You purchased it, now you just gotta go and pick it
up. Well, Christ is doing that very thing. He's coming again.
He's gonna pick up that which He's purchased and He'll transform
these weak, fleshly, diseased bodies. and will be transformed
for we shall see him as he is. Feed upon that, feed upon Christ
that he has accomplished that salvation. Feed upon the destruction
of your enemies, that second death, the devil, hell, That
grave has no more power over you. It's broken. You are delivered
from that condemnation and from that fear and terror. It's accomplished
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the eating freely and
what Christ has done. That's the rejoicing and knowing
that your enemies are destroyed and they just fall before you.
When you're looking to Christ, trusting Him, you rejoice in
that. And so we freely have the bread
of heaven unto satisfaction and fullness and joy. In Christ we
are made more than conquerors through him that loved us. 3.
We see Saul's long curse led to greater sin among the people.
It didn't defeat more Philistines. It actually brought more sin
in the people. Look at verse 32 and 33. This
is where evening came, the curse was lifted, and the men, they
hadn't snacked on anything all day. They were famished. They
were starving. And the people flew upon the
spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slew them on the
ground. And the people did eat them with the blood. Then they
told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the Lord,
and that they eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed. That's rich. He's the one who
bound them with the law. And now he's telling them, and
you've broken it now. Look what you guys are doing.
You're sinning. roll a great stone unto me this
day." So men, they turn to the law for righteousness. Why? Because
they think they're going to defeat more Philistines, more sins in
their flesh. They think, I'm going to really
bring home the battle for the Lord. I'm going to do this thing.
And so they use that strictness of the law, believing it's going
to quell the rebellion in their flesh and quiet the lusts of
their flesh. But that doesn't do it. The law
leaves us feeling faint. If we're new men, if we're believers
in Christ, the law weakens us. The law takes our eyes off Christ
and we become faint in our walk because it doesn't give you any
ability to beat up or kill any more Philistines. It just doesn't
do it. You're going to be working more sin under the law. Paul said it this way, for sin
taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. So like Saul said, we've transgressed. We're sinners under the law,
so don't look to the law. Look to Christ. Fourth, the law
requires death. He said, roll me a great stone. Bring me a great stone here so
that whatever animal the men brought, it was slain and it
was dealt with properly. That's what the law was there
to do, to give us a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, to show
us our need of him and what he accomplished by his death. And so there had to be a shedding
of blood. And that was teaching the people,
you need Christ. We need Christ. We need the Lamb
of God. That's why the Father sent him. And so that's why Christ
came. Paul wrote in Colossians 2, 13
through 15, and you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision
of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. And so because of Christ, you
and I, who have no righteousness of our own, who look to Christ
and believe the Word of God, that He is our righteousness,
you're dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. We live by Christ in God. We're His purchased possession. We're not under the bondage of
the law. Not under that bondage. Continuing in Colossians 2, 16
and 17, Paul said, let no man therefore judge you in meat or
in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon,
or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come.
But there it is, the body is of Christ. That's the body we're
in. The law is not for a righteous
man, Paul told Timothy. It's for those in the body of
sin. That's what the law is for. It's
to show them their sin. You in Christ. You live by Christ. The gospel of Christ is our rule
of life. We look to Him. We trust Him.
We walk by faith in Him. then fifth and finally were delivered
by grace so that Saul's curse required the death of Jonathan
it required that he be put to death Jonathan knew it Saul knew
it and he was about to do it verse 44 and 45 and Saul answered
God do so and more also for thou shalt surely die Jonathan right
because they found out that Jonathan had eaten that's that's where
how we got here so he found out that Jonathan had eaten so he
was going to die And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan
die? he 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 so here in these last verses that we're
looking at here we see how Jonathan is both the Savior who wrought
the salvation of his people and he's the people who were saved
by the Savior because of that great victory wrought by Jonathan
that day the people delivered him he was delivered by grace
by grace and through the Lord Jesus Christ and so We, brethren,
are delivered from the wrath of God because of the great victory
of the Lord Jesus Christ who obtained our redemption by the
death of himself. He accomplished everything the
Father sent him to do, everything necessary. Our Lord Jesus Christ
did that. It's just a beautiful picture
of the gospel here in chapter 14. And I pray the Lord bless
that word and rejoice your heart and keep you from turning to
the law. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. He's your Savior.
He does it all. Amen, brethren.