Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 199. 199. Sinners Jesus will receive, Sound
this word of grace to all, Who the heavenly pathway leave, All
who linger, all who fall, or again. Christ, receive us
sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ, receive us sinful men. Come, and He will give you rest. Trust Him, for His word is plain. He will take the sinful list. Christ received the sinful men. Sing it o'er and o'er again,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. Now my heart condemns me not
Here before the law I stand He who cleansed me from all spark
Satisfied its last demand Sing it o'er Make the message clear
and plain. Christ receiveth sinful men. Christ receiveth simple men,
even me with all my sin. Purged from every spot and stain,
and within I enter in, singing it over. Be seated we'll sing hymn number
235 Bless me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble prayer. While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by. Savior, Hear my humble cry While on others
Thou art calling Do not pass me by. Let me at a thorn of mercy Find a sweet relief. Healing there in deep contrition. Help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. Do not pass, leave us. Trusting only in thy merit Would
I seek I face. Heal my wounded, broken
spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Save you. Save you. ? Hear my humble cry ? ? While
on others Thou art calling ? ? Cannot best be found ? Thou the
spring of all my comfort ? More than life Amen. Whom have I honored beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by. Good evening. If you would, open
your Bibles to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. I'm going to
read the first 34 verses. John chapter 1. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him
might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
him not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. And this is why they received
him, who were born not of the blood, not of blood, not of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And
the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. John bore witness of him and
cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God
at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And this
is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites
from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and
denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked
him, What then, art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou
that prophet? And he answered, no. Then said
they unto him, who art thou, that we may give an answer to
them that sin us? What sayest thou of thyself?
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make
straight the way of the Lord. And said the prophet Isaiah. And they which were sent were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said
unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not Christ,
not that Christ, or Elijah, neither that prophet? John answered them,
saying, I baptize with water, that there standeth one among
you whom ye know not. He it is who cometh after me
is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Beth
Avaria, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next
day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he
of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before
me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John by record saying, I
saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same saith unto me, upon
whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him,
the same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw,
and by record, that this is the Son of God." Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, We come
to you this evening in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, our Redeemer. Lord, we pray for the Holy Spirit's
presence tonight. Lord, cause us to see Christ,
cause us to be drawn closer to him. We pray for Brother Greenleaf. Lord, you cause him to tell us
about Christ, open our hearts to him. Forgive us of everything
that's unlike him, dear Lord. We pray, Lord, again for the
sick. Pray for Barb and Albert, Lord. We pray that you give them
mercy and grace. Cause them to be at peace and
at rest, trusting in you. Pray for Fran and Bill, Lord,
the same. We pray for Rick and Helen, Lord,
and others among us that are sick. Pray again, Lord, for my
family, for my wife, my children, my grandchildren. In Christ's
name I pray, amen. Hymn number 361. 361. Sweet hour
of prayer Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of
care and bends me at my father's throat. Wants and wishes known In seasons
of distress and grief My soul has often found relief, and oft
is famed. I return, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, Sweet hour
of prayer, Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him whose truth
and faith Engage the laden soul to bliss,
And since He bids me seek His face, Believe His word, and trust
His grace. I'll cast on Him I'd every care And wait for Thee
Sweet hour of prayer Sweet hour of prayer Sweet air
of prayer May I thy consolation share, Till from Mount Pisgah's
lofty high, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop
and rise To cease the everlasting cries And shout while passing
through We have Brother Aaron Greenleaf
with us once again this evening. You come on and bring us the
word. Evening, everybody. It's good
to see you again. If you'd like to turn to 1 Samuel
chapter 14. 1 Samuel chapter 14. Look at the first 23 verses of
this tonight. It's a very interesting story.
But before we get into it, To give you the back story, you
know where we're picking up. Saul had been in power. He was the
king over Israel for about a year. Saul's son, Jonathan, he was
in a garrison. He had about 1,000 men with him.
And they went out and they attacked the Philistines' garrison. They
lived in a manner that you and I wouldn't understand. We have
friendlies to our north and our south. We have oceans on both
sides of us. But they had their enemies surrounding
them. Philistines had garrisons, outposts out there. Jonathan
took a thousand men and attacked one, and they won. Great victory. They blew a trumpet, told everybody
about it, and everybody rejoiced in Israel for this great victory,
but the victory was short-lived because it awakened the Philistine
sleeping giant, no pun intended. The Philistine army came up,
and this is the size of the army they brought against the Israelites.
Look at verse five of chapter 13. And the Philistines gathered
themselves together to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots
and 6,000 horsemen and people, foot soldiers, as the sand which
is on the seashore in multitude. This great army marches against
Israel. And the children of Israel react
in different ways. Some desert. They leave the land,
say, no reason to stay here. And some hide. They find false
refuges. They go to thickets. They go
to caves. They go to Mount Ephraim. Anywhere they can go, they feel
safe, but not safe in any of those places. And the worst of
the worst is some actually turncoat. They defect, and they go to the
other side, and they say, it's safer just to align ourselves with
the Philistines against our own people. Everybody is terrified.
Everybody is dismayed. Everybody's wore out from these
Philistines, doesn't know what to do. And so they invade. They sweep through with the spoilers.
Three companies of them, they spoil the land and they occupy
the land. So now the children of Israel
are under the dominion of the Philistines and the Philistines
disarm them. They take all their weapons.
They say, the only people who can have a sword or spear is Jonathan and Saul,
that's it. And as far as your pitchforks
go, and your mattocks, and your axe, and everything else you
use for agriculture, if you wanna sharpen them, you gotta come
to us and do it. You can't even have a sharpening stone down
there, that's how bad it was. So here the children of Israel
are, they are occupied, they are terrified, they are unarmed,
and they are outnumbered. This is a terrible place for
them to be. But somebody decides they're
gonna do something about it. It's Jonathan, Saul's son. Now
look at verse one. of chapter 14. 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. Jonathan goes to the man who
carried his armor, this armor bearer. His job was to carry
the supplies for Jonathan, just one man. He goes to this man,
he says, we're gonna go over against the Philistine garrison,
just me and you. 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, foot soldiers, as many
as the sand of the sea. Jonathan says, just me and you,
we're going over there and we're gonna wage battle on behalf of
all Israel. Would you go with him? Notice
something he's not doing here. He's not telling Saul a thing
about it. In fact, you're going to find out here in a couple
of verses, he's not going to tell anybody about it. He is
going alone, just him and his armor bearer, to be the champion
of Israel, and none of them know anything about it. Now look at
verse two. And Saul tarried in the uttermost
port of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is a migrant. And
the people that were with him were about 600 men. And Ahiah,
the son of Eotub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phineas, the son of
Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people
knew not that Jonathan was gone. Now, look at Saul here. Saul
is plagued with indecision. He's sitting under a pomegranate
tree. He's got about 600 men compared to this vast Philistine
army. And I think it's interesting,
he's not seeking the Lord's face. He's not begging for a spirit
of leadership. Lord, give him some wisdom. Fight his battle
for him. Absolutely nothing. He just seems to be waiting for
his own demise. And he represents all of Israel
at this point. This is what everybody is doing.
They're just waiting to be wiped out. Resign to the fate they
see. They're going to come down, and they're just all going to
wipe us out. Not seeking the Lord in any way, shape, or form.
But like I said, the people don't know Jonathan's gone. Saul doesn't
know Jonathan's gone. These people are completely and
utterly dismayed, not even looking for a champion. And yet the champion
has already gone out before them, and they don't know anything
about it. Look at verse four. And between
the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over under 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 Sina. The forefront of the one was
Situate northward over against Micmash and the other southward
over against Gibeon. Now the Philistines had built
their garrison on a plateau. Everybody knows what that is.
It's a piece of land that comes up. It's got cliffs all the way
around it. And so they have a strategic advantage. They can see off in
the distance. So if the Children of Israel
attack, they see them coming a mile away. There's probably
a passageway that leads up there, but it's narrow. And so at your
front flank, they can only arm themselves with whatever that
passageway allows. They might have a million men,
but if it only allows 50 abreast, they're fighting with 50 guys
at a time. Then you have these cliffs. These cliffs would have
been known as humanly insurmountable. It would be the last place they
would expect an attack from the enemy. No one is going to be
able to climb up these sheer cliffs. And no one is silly enough
or stupid enough to mount a full assault by climbing their army
up these cliffs. They just push them down, back
down the mountain. These two cliffs, Bozes and Sina, the last
way they ever thought they'd get attacked. Humanly insurmountable
cliffs. And yet, that is exactly the
way that Jonathan has purposed to attack. Look at verse six. And Jonathan said to the young
man that bear his armor, come and let us go over under 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. Look at Jonathan's confidence
in the Lord. He says, there is no restraint
to the Lord. He says, the means don't matter.
Our God, he's a God who creates means. He can get an army of
angels, conjure a million angels, send up there, defeat the Philistines.
He can use me and you. He can send a grasshopper up
there. It does not matter. The means don't matter because
the means are backed by the power of God. He is the one who creates
the means. There is no restraint. There
is no end. Sealing to his power and notice
he's not presumptuous in any way it may be It may be we're
dealing with a sovereign here, and he's gonna have his will
it may be that the Lord will work for us But if he does if
he fights this battle for us, we will have that victory guaranteed
Now look at this armor-bearer verse 7 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. Think for a second what
this man is being commanded to do. Jonathan's saying, we're
gonna go 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, footmen as far as the
sand is on the sea. That's the size of armory me
and you are gonna take on. That man didn't bat an eye. Didn't
ask one question. All he said was, whatever your
will is, Jonathan, I will follow you wherever you go. Look at
how much confidence the armor bearer had in Jonathan. Now look
at this, verse eight. Then said Jonathan, behold, we
will pass over unto these men and we will discover ourselves
unto them. If they say thus unto this, Terry, until we come to
you, then we will stand still in our place and 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. Now he told
them before, it may be. It may be that the Lord will
work for us, but here's how we'll know. We're gonna go and we're
gonna reveal ourselves to these Philistines. We're gonna walk
right up to them. No tricks. We're gonna walk right up and
reveal ourselves. And we're gonna listen for some key words. If
we walk up and we hear Terry, Stop, wait, we know the Lord's
not in. He hasn't granted the victory
today. We're gonna stand still and hold
our peace. But if we hear these words, come. Come up to us. If we hear those words, armor-bearer,
we know the Lord's in it. He's already given us the victory,
the battle's already won. No doubt about it, this is our
sign. If we hear the key words, come up, we know that we have
the victory. The Lord's granted it. Now, verse
11. So they go and both of them discovered
themselves under 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. What they mean is come up here
and we'll teach you a lesson. But those were the words. Those
are the words Jonathan was waiting to hear. Come up to us. What
does that mean? Jonathan knows. And Jonathan
said unto his armor bearer, come up after me, for the Lord has
delivered them into the hand of Israel. Now think about what's
going to happen. Jonathan is going to scale these
insurmountable cliffs, humanly insurmountable. He's going to
go up. He's going to put his hand on handholds. He's going
to put his foot on footholds. And he tells that armor bearer,
I'm going to go first. I'm going to go before you. And
then you're going to come up the exact same way I went up.
Everywhere I put my hand, that's where you're going to put your
hand. And everywhere I put my foot, that's where you put your
foot. I'm going to go up before you, and you're going to come
up right after me the exact same way I came up. And they do. Look at verse 13. 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. And that first slaughter
with Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about 20 men within,
as it were, a half an acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might
plow. Jonathan gets to the top, the
armor bearer right behind him, and it says all 20 of them fell
before who? Fell before Jonathan. If they
all fell before Jonathan, what is the armor bearer doing when
they're on top of that hill? He's hiding behind Jonathan.
All 20 of them fall before Jonathan. And it says, the armor bearers
slew behind him. That means Jonathan was hacking
these boys down with a sword, left and right. One would fall,
defeated to the ground, the armor bearer sneak up behind, stick
him while he was down. The armor bearer hid behind Jonathan
the entire time as Jonathan took off this massive army. But here's
what you need to recognize about this armor bearer. Everything
Jonathan did, the armor bearer did. But Jonathan was the doer
of all of it. Now, verse 15, 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. And the watchmen of
Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude melted
away. And they went on beating down one another." There's a
great earthquake. And where Saul is positioned,
he has his sentinels out there looking over at the Philistine
camp. And what they see is this. All the Philistines have turned
on one another, and they're all beating each other down right
now. They look out and the Philistines have all turned on one another.
The Lord had sent a spirit of derision to them, a spirit of
chaos. They didn't know what they were doing. They'd all turned
on one another. And they go and get Saul, look
at verse 17. 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. The Sentinels go and they get
Saul. I said, Saul, look at this. Look out at the Philistine garrison
right now. And Saul looks, and the Philistines are hacking each
other to bits. The battle's over. The war's won. The Lord has granted
them the victory. Philistines are hacking each
other to bits. And Saul says, is anybody from our camp involved
in this? And they do a census. They take a number. And they
find out that Jonathan and his armor bearer were the ones that
were gone. They find out that Jonathan was their champion,
but they didn't find out until the battle was already won. Now,
look at verse 18. 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, 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. And Saul said unto the priest,
Withdraw thine hand. Now what's going on here? Have
you ever seen something incredibly exciting and you felt the immediate
need to do something? Let's say if you ever had a wife
that was pregnant and her water breaks, you're gonna take her
to the hospital, feel that need to do something, I'm gonna boil
water, get a sleeping bag, start a fire, whatever it may be, you
feel that overwhelming need to be involved, to do something,
to help. That's what happened to Saul here. Saul sees this
great victory that the Lord is accomplishing off on this hill.
He turned the Philistines to where they're beating each other
down, left and right, and he got excited and he said, we got
to do something. Let's see if we can help out and see if we can manipulate
the situation, see if we can help the Lord out. Get the priest,
get the ark, get all these things. And the Lord sends him a spirit
of wisdom. And he says, well, hold on, hold on. We're going
to withdraw our hand. We're going to stop. This is
the Lord's battle. This is the Lord's victory. He
is doing this thing for us. We're not getting involved. We're
not putting our hand to this in any way. All we're going to
do is march down there and watch as the Lord defeats all our enemies
for us. That's exactly what they did.
Look at verse 20. And so 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. They just stand there watching
as the Lord accomplishes this great thing before them. 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 Jonathan. Likewise, all the men of Israel,
which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they had heard
that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after
them in the battle. Everybody who left. When this
great victory took place, this victory that the Lord accomplished,
everybody who left, who deserted, and turned turncoat, and defected,
and everybody who was hiding in those false refuges, you know
what they did? They all came back. The whole country, the
whole, all of Israel was reunited after this great battle. And
this is the conclusion of the matter, verse 23. So the Lord
saved Israel that day. And the battle passed over unto
Bethhaven. Now, where's the gospel in all
this? It's glaring here. This is a
glorious illustration first of Christ in his church. You have
Jonathan. Who was Jonathan in this story?
Jonathan was the champion. Everything that is done in this
story, Jonathan was the doer of it. The story begins with
Jonathan. The story ends with Jonathan. All of this is about
Jonathan and about Jonathan's accomplishments. And then you
have the church, the elect of God. That's in all of Israel
here. Every member of Israel, these
people who are dismayed, these people who are terrified, these people
who are hiding in false refuges, that's the elect of God. You
got Saul, he doesn't know what to do. Just resigned, I guess
I'm just gonna die. And then you have this armor
bearer. They're all beautiful and wonderful types of the Lord's
elect. You have Christ and his church. And this whole thing,
I think, is summed up best in Romans chapter 11. I want you
to turn over there. If you had to pick one portion
of scripture that describes what the story is teaching, it's right
here. Romans 11, look at verse 33. Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out, because his
ways are not our ways. It's past our understanding,
past our finding out what he's talking about here. Paul, he's
talking about the greatness of God. Keep on reading verse 34.
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his
counselor? He's saying who has ever given
advice to God? When has he ever needed a counselor? Has anybody
ever told him anything or informed him of anything? No, because
he knows all things. Verse 35, or who hath first given
to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again. Anybody ever
loaned anything to the Lord? Anybody ever given anything to
him? No, because he's the storehouse of all things. All things are
by him and for him and to him and through him. Now, here's
the verse that sums up this story completely. Verse 36, every time
you see the word him here, insert the word Christ. For of him,
Christ, and through him, Christ, and
to him, Christ, are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Now, all things, can we take that
too far? All things are of Him, through
Him, and to Him. No, we can't take those words
too far. All things are, but this is particularly speaking
of all things in salvation. All things are of Christ. They
are through Christ, and they are to Christ. Now first, of. That word of, you know what that
speaks of? It means origin. It's where something begins.
Salvation begins with Jesus Christ. Say, what do you mean by that?
What do you mean by that? Salvation begins with the father
electing Christ. Christ was his first elect. It
began with the father loving his son, that son that he had
always loved. He loved Christ. He chose Christ. That was his first elect. Therefore,
when he loved Christ and he chose Christ, he got all the members
of the elect, everyone who shared the eternal union with Christ,
right along with him. It all began with him, with Christ. It began with Christ's love for
his people. That love that drove him to be the surety for his
people. His father said, you're going to live for these people.
You're going to die for these people. You will be the surety. You will
bear all the responsibility of everything I demand of them.
And out of love for them, Christ said, I will. I will be that
surety. And it began with him being the
eternal redemption for his people. Now, this is a name that our
Lord has. It's recorded in Revelation 13,
8. He's recorded as the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. That means he is the eternally
slain lamb. How could you possibly, how could
we possibly wrap our minds around the concept of eternity? I can't. But eternity, he is the eternally
slain lamb. In the mind of God, according
to the purpose of God, Jesus Christ has always been the acceptable
sacrifice for his elect. You know what that means? That
means the elect have always been eternally secure in Christ. There's
never been a time they haven't been, because he is the eternally
slain lamb. It all began with Christ. And we have a beautiful illustration
of that in our story. In our story, let me ask this
question. Does the story begin with the children of Israel going
to Jonathan and saying, be our champion? Go out there, fight
these Philistines for us, take them on, we can't defend ourselves.
Jonathan, you go fight for us. Does it begin with that? Does
it begin with Saul going to Jonathan saying, go be the champion, go
take these Philistines on? He was sitting under a pomegranate
tree. No, where does the story begin? It begins with Jonathan
and it begins with Jonathan's purpose. Jonathan loved his countrymen. Jonathan loved his people. He
saw that they were outnumbered, and they were scared, and they
were beat down, and they were disarmed. And he looked around
and said, I will not have my people to live like this. And
he became their champion, and he did it before they ever knew
that he was their champion. I think that is the most beautiful
part of this story. Jonathan left out and said, I'm
going to redeem these people, these people I love. And nobody
found anything out about it until he had already won the battle. When the Lord saves a man in
his experience, it is the exact same way. When the Lord saves
you, what you find out is you have been saved. This entire
time I've had the love of God upon me. This entire time, he
has been the eternally slain lamb for me. All this time, he's
watching out for me. All these time, all things have
been working together for my good. All this time, he has been
for me. All that time I spent hating
him. All that time I spent warring against him, blaspheming his
name, he was still my savior. The entire time he has been for
me, and I have always been eternally secure in him, when the Lord
saves you, you just happen to be the last one to find out about
it. Just the way Saul and the rest of the camp of Israel, they
didn't find out that Jonathan was their champion until he had
already won the battle. Isn't that beautiful? Salvation is of Christ and his
origin. And salvation is through Christ. That word through, you know what
it speaks of? It speaks of means. Christ is the means of salvation
for his people. Once again, glorious illustration
in our text. For Jonathan to get up to the
top of that mountain and fight those garrison, what did he have
to do? He had to scale two insurmountable mountains, two cliffs. They're
named Bozes and Sina. You know what Bozes means? It
means glistering, pure white. This is the first obstacle to
salvation. It is the demand of God. What
does God demand? He demands absolute, pure righteousness
and perfection. Nothing else will do. He's a
God of perfect justice. If sin is found on a man, he
must punish that man. There is no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. He is a God of perfect justice,
and his demand is perfect, unwavering righteousness. You must stand
the test of the law. He's never done anything wrong,
and he has always done that which is right. This is the first insurmountable,
humanly insurmountable cliff to salvation, the very righteousness
of God. And then you have Sina. You know
what Sina means? Thorny. First time it's used
in the scriptures, Genesis 3, Adam sinned against God. He fell. He took on a wicked, sinful,
spiritually dead nature. He was cursed and the ground
was cursed right along with him. That's how bad his disobedience
was. Here's the first obstacle, salvation,
the demand of God, the very righteousness of God. Here's the second obstacle,
the utter sinfulness and depravity of man. These are two insurmountable
cliffs, humanly speaking. Man cannot justify himself before
God who demands absolute perfect righteousness. But Jonathan found
a way, just as Christ found a way. What was the way that Christ
found? What was the way he found to where he could justify his
people and his father could remain true to his character and be
just? What was the way? The way was
the cross. The cross was the only way that
those obstacles could be overcome, that his father could remain
just and he could be the justifier of his people. Second Corinthians
521 tells the story. For he hath made him sin for
us that knew no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness
of God in him. That is justification. That is
the hope of every believer. My sin was taken out of me. It
was put in Christ. It was punished in Christ. He
put it away, and I have the very righteousness of God in Jesus
Christ. It really is mine. And this is
real. Justification is real. This is
not a forensic term. This is not resources being moved
around on a spreadsheet. This is real, and we have that
in our text. The illustration is in our text.
It's in that armor bearer. Jonathan said, I'm going up these
mountains, these humanly insurmountable mountains. I found a way to get
to the top and slay all the enemies. I'm going up first, I'm going
up before you, and you're gonna go up the exact same way I go
up. Everywhere Jonathan put his hand, the armor bearer put his
hand. Everywhere Jonathan put his foot, the armor bearer put
his foot, and they went up together, and they slew the enemy together.
Everything that Jonathan did, the armor bearer did, that's
union with Christ. Everything Jonathan did, the
armor bearer did, that union that exists between Christ and
his church is so real and so true when he walked the paths
of righteousness. Every member of his elect walked
those paths as well. Everywhere he put his foot is
where you have put your foot. Everything he has done, you have
done. Your sins were punished at that
cross. You went there. That's where you were punished.
That's where you died, on that cross. That righteousness that
is Christ, it is yours. This is real. Salvation is real,
and it's a just salvation, because every member of the elect is
just in Christ, perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, lacking
absolutely nothing. That is the beauty and the wonder
of union with Christ. And finally, this. Salvation is of Christ in the
origin. Salvation is through Christ in the means. And salvation
is to Christ. He is the end state. He is the
ending of all this. Let me ask you this question.
The armor bearer in this story, what's his name? He's unnamed. You want to know
why? Because his name isn't important.
At the end of this story, whose name is being chanted? And whose
name is being honored? And who has everybody looked
to said, that is our champion. This is the one who's delivered
us from all our enemies. Is anybody chanting armor bearer, armor
bearer? No. The name they're chanting
is Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan is our champion. This is all to Christ. The purpose
of God is the glorification of Christ through the salvation
of a people all by Christ. This is all to him. It's all
for his glory. But this armor bearer, this armor
bearer doesn't get any glory in any of this, but he reaps
every one of the benefits. Everything Jonathan did, he did.
He's safe. All his enemies have been destroyed.
Everything's great. He couldn't be better. Jonathan
gets all the credit. The armor bearer gets all, everything
that Jonathan accomplished. Same for us. All of this is to
Christ. This is all for the glory of
Christ. But we reap all the benefits of everything he did. We are
joint inheritors of everything God has to give his son because
of that union we have with Christ, because of what he did. It can't
possibly get any better than that. Now that's half the story. A picture of Christ and his church.
We can also learn some things about faith here. We talked a
lot about this morning, so I'll breeze through this, but go back
to verse six of your text. Look what Jonathan says. And Jonathan said to the young
man that bare his armor, Come and let us go over under 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. That's the first thing you see
about true saving faith here. Number one, it's not presumptuous
in any way. What Jonathan said here was it
may be, it's up to him. We're in the hands of a sovereign
armor-bearer. If he wants to give us the win in this battle,
he can. It won't even be hard for us, but it's completely and
utterly up to him. Faith isn't presumptuous in any
way. Now, what do I mean by that? Does that mean I could come to
Christ and I could beg for mercy and not receive it? I don't know. You can come to Christ and believe
on him and still end up in hell anyways? Absolutely not. That's
not what I'm talking about in any way. You write this down.
If you come to Christ begging mercy, you will have it. If you
come to Christ and you believe on him and you trust him, you
will not perish. That's written down. That's not
presumption. That is believing what God said in his word. Come
unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. That's a promise. There's nothing
presumptuous about believing what God has said in his word.
That's not presumption. What am I talking about then? What'd
that leper say? In Matthew 8-2, the leper said,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. He knew who he
was dealing with. He was dealing with Solomon.
Lord, you're the one who makes the decision on this. You're
going to be the one either going to decide to cleanse me or not.
The decision is up to you. If you will, I know this, you
can make me clean. You have the ability. You're
the Lord. You can do anything you want. but you don't owe me anything. This is an attitude of approach.
He doesn't owe me a thing. I sinned away all my rights long
ago. My sin is against God. It's not presumptuous in any
way. He doesn't owe me anything. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Not presumptuous. Here's another
thing I noticed. True saving faith rests only
in what Christ has done. He says, it may be that the Lord
will work for us. Now that's faith, trusting what
Christ has done. My hope is what he's done for
me, that he went to the cross for me. Trusting his righteousness,
trusting his blood, trusting his intercession before the Father
right now. My hope of salvation is what he does for me. Salvation
doesn't have anything to do with what I do for God. Salvation
is trusting what he's done for me. It may be that he will work
for us. His salvation is Christ working
for a man and doing everything in that man's salvation. I'll
give you another one here. True saving faith has confidence
in Christ's ability. Jonathan said, for there is no
restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. I was thinking about this when
the Lord promised Abraham and Sarah a child. Sarah's going
through menopause. Abraham is an old man. And Sarah
laughed. And the Lord looked at Abraham
and he said, why'd Sarah laugh? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Nothing. This is our God. This is his
greatness. There is absolutely nothing too hard for the Lord.
But also in this respect, there is not a sinner too bad. There
is not a sin too great that he cannot put away if he's pleased
to. There's not a man warned that
if he chooses to save that man, that he cannot not save because
he is able. This is what Isaiah 42, 4 says. He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. He's incapable of it. He shall
not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth
and his aisles shall wait for his law. He can't fail. Nothing's
too hard for him. And it's impossible for him to
fail in any of his purposes. They must all come about. And this is what Paul said. I
quoted you this morning, but I'll say it again. 2 Timothy
1.12. He said, I know whom I have believed. and am persuaded of
what? That he is able. Able to do what? To keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. We suspect
Paul had committed to him. I know, he committed to him what
every believer commits to Christ, the entirety of his salvation.
In every aspect, in every need, in every way, he committed it
all to Christ. He said, he's all I've got. This
is all I have before the Father. I've got Jesus Christ and him
crucified, and I've got no safety nets, and I don't have any plan
Bs. This is it. Sink or swim, win or lose, this
is all I have is Jesus Christ and him crucified. And this is
what Paul said, he's able. He sure is able, and he's never
turned away one sinner that's come to him. Another thing about
faith, look at verse seven. And his honor bearer said unto
him, do all that is in thine heart, Turn thee, behold, I am
with thee, according to thy heart. I love this armor-bearer, this
immediate obedience. Jonathan said, we're gonna go
take on 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, foot soldiers as far
as the eye can see. And the armor-bearer said, you
do all that's in your heart, your will be done in all things,
and I will follow you anywhere you tell me to go. If you want
to go take on an army of one million, I'll be right there
next to you. All you have to do is say the word, Jonathan.
I will follow you anywhere you tell me to go because you can't
lose. I want the faith of this armor
bearer, don't you? But this is what faith does, this true God-given
faith. It obeys the command. What is
the command? Very simply this. Isaiah 55,
1. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. This is the command of the gospel,
that you come to Christ. When Jonathan was talking to
the armor bearer, he said, we're gonna go up the hill, we're gonna
reveal ourselves, and we're gonna listen to some key words. And
if we hear these words, come up, We'll know the Lord's in
it, and he's granted the victory. The message of the gospel is
come to Christ. Come right now, don't wait. He
said if we hear those words, Terry, stop, wait, the Lord's
not in it. That's a false gospel right there.
Anybody tells you to wait, wait till you get better, wait till
you know more, wait till you have a feeling or a sensation
or you read a book, don't wait. Time is of the essence, don't
wait, make haste. You come to Christ right now
in all your sin and you will be received. You will have the
very mercy of God in Jesus Christ. That is the call and this is
the resume of the one to whom is commanded right now to come.
And what he says here in Isaiah 55 one is this, there are two
things you must have or you must lack. These are your qualifications. These are your resumes as one
who can come. You gotta be broke and you gotta
be thirsty. Now, what is thirst? Thirst is
a need. You need something that you can't
come up with on your own. This is what it says here in
Matthew 5, 6, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled. Let me ask you that,
is that what you need? Do you need to be made righteous
to where you can actually stand the test of God and stand before
him and him look you over and say, he's righteous, he's pure,
he is acceptable unto me. Do you need to be made that?
Because I can't come up with that. I can't take the first
step toward that. I need to be made righteous.
I need somebody to do something for me that I am made to be what
I must be for God to accept me. Yes, I have a need to be made
righteous. And the only other thing is this,
you gotta be broke. Him that hath no money, no money,
see it's free. You gotta have no good works,
no good thoughts, no good motivations, just a sinner in need of mercy. And if that is your resume, this
is for you. Christ Jesus died for you. You
are complete in him. You are the one. You are commanded
right now to trust him and his work for you. It's personal. Knowing this, there is no restraint
to him. There's nothing too hard for
him. Don't worry about that at all. He is for you. This is your
command right now. You come to the Lord Jesus Christ
and believe on Him. It has been a pleasure being
with you all day. I hope the Lord blessed his work. Our most high and heavenly precious
Father, Lord God Almighty, we come to you once more with our
heads and our hearts bowed to you. Praise and honor and glory be
to thy name. We thank you for your precious son, forgiving
him for a multitude of sinful men. causing us to be found in him, our great champion. Lord, we
thank you for the messages we've heard here today. I ask that you would ingrain them
in our hearts and our minds, that we would consider them and
think on the things that we've heard here. Let us not forget
it as we go on our way. We ask for travel and mercy,
Lord, for my brother and his family as they travel back and
other saints who will be traveling. We ask that you'd be with all
of us, keep us where we won't be kept. Lord, most of all, we
ask and pray that thy will be done. For Christ's sake, amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation, so rich and free. Thank you, brother. It's been a blessing to have
you again. You're all dismissed. There's no Wednesday service
again this week. We'll meet again next Sunday
at 10. God be with them.