I've entitled this message, The
Lord Saves by a Few. And we read in 1 Samuel chapter
14 verses one through six. It says, now it happened one
day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who
bore his armor, come let us go over to the Philistines garrison
that is on the other side. but he did not tell his father.
And Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate
tree, which is in Migron, and the people who were with him
were about 600 men. Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's
brother, sorry, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priests
in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod, but the people did not know that
Jonathan had gone. And between the passes by which
Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines garrison, there
was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other
side. And the name of one was Bozes
and the name of the other was Sene. But the front of one faced
northward opposite of Micmash and the other southward opposite
Gibeah. Then Jonathan said to the young
man who bore his armor, Come, let us go over to the garrison
of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will
work for us, for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many
or by few. Now the Lord, or the Old Testament,
if you read it front to back, it's just brimming with war. And many Israelite men and women
They died by the sword and the arrow and the spear as God led
them to the promised land and then even more defending the
promised land from its neighbors and war wasn't always easy for
them. I thought about it, just think
of it as one of those opposing generals might think of it. Somebody
in a neighboring country and they look at this little Israel.
Israel wasn't great. It didn't have very many people. It was few
in number. And at the time of this writing
in 1st Samuel 14, Israel also had a pretty big handicap. When
they needed to sharpen their plows, their axes, their swords,
anything metal that needed sharpening, they had to go over to the Philistines.
There was no It says here in Samuel, just back one chapter,
that Israel had no blacksmiths in all the land. So they had
to go to their neighbors. Only two people in the army in
this story that we're seeing right now, only two people in
all the army had a sword or a spear. And the names of those two were
Saul and Jonathan. I mean, you could say that the
rocks in verses four and five were probably sharper than the
weapons that Israel had. But Israel had one thing that
no other nation had. Moses said in Deuteronomy 7,
the Lord did not set his love on you, speaking to the Israelites,
nor choose you because you were more in number. than any other
people, for you were the least of all peoples. But because the
Lord loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he
swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty
hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." Israel had the favor of almighty God. Those other nations did not.
And when you have the favor of the Almighty God, that guarantees
a victory, no matter who Israel's fighting. Now, make no mistake
about God's favor, or in other words, make no mistake about
how Israel may have acquired it. Because you don't want to
think Israel earned it. God had already called Israel
the least of all peoples, and God cannot lie. So it must have been true. Whatever
God says, that's reality. They are the least of all peoples. But even though it means they're
the least of all peoples, it also means that the other words
in the proclamation Moses made also true. which were that God
has set his love on Israel. The target of his love and favor
was this small nation. And perhaps God, you know, people
looking on the outside, perhaps God wanted to support the underdog,
right? The little guy. And surely Israel
being so few as opposed to their neighbors, had made them cling
to God and follow his commandments. And of course then it would be
natural for God to choose such a people, humble, contrite, always
followed his commandments. That ain't so either. Samuel
admonished the Israelites just a couple of chapters back in
this book for their backsliding and for
worshiping the Baals and the Ashtoreths after God had led
them out of Egypt all by himself. And when they found themselves
on the bad side of a neighboring nation, they would cry out to God. He
would rescue them because he is faithful. And then they would
have peace followed by more of their backsliding and more of
their idol worship. But another true thing about
God, is that he's very patient. He did not destroy Israel the
first time they rebelled against him. And he didn't destroy it
the second time that they rebelled against him, or the third time. And nor any time up to the day
that we're looking at in 1 Samuel 14. God was still their true
king. even though they had sought out
Saul, they had sought out a man. He was still their Lord, he was
still their ruler, but even after all the good that the Lord had
done and all the love and kindness he had showed to them, they responded
with impudence and they asked for a king to rule over them
instead of God, a king they could approach as any other man. That's what they wanted. If I were in God's place, I would
be looking for another people that had a bit more fidelity
and a bit more respect. But Samuel, when this happened,
when they chose a king, Samuel went up in front of Saul,
in front of all of Israel, all the tribes, all the representatives,
and admonished them And he prayed to God to send
rain and thunder as a sign against them that very hour. And when
the rain and thunder did come, they immediately confessed that
they had sinned against God. They were scared to death. They
begged Samuel to pray for them so that they would not die. Just
goes to show it doesn't take very much to scare us. Yet Samuel,
when they did this, had only good news. Speaking words to
soothe them, he said, the Lord will not forsake his people.
Why? For his great name's sake. Now their God, our God, made
a promise, and this God keeps promises. Likewise, if Israel
is a picture of his elect church, who is, and should be, meek and
lowly, then it shares in the same blessings as warring Israel
in these verses. We have the favor of almighty
God. But it's not to spill blood,
it's not to take back the holy land, it's to preach, to preach. Even though we're few. Now let us consider what God
has done with just a few. When Jesus sought out apostles,
how many did he take? Only 12 men were selected for
that group. Just three of those 12 wrote
an account of Jesus that we call the Gospels. That was Matthew, Mark, and John.
And there are 27 books in the New Testament. And half of it
was written by one man, Paul. By these few men, a message was
sent not to just Israel, but to all over the world. From those who were so few came
the answer to the question, who or what is God's salvation? What is the gospel? Now God doesn't
need a deep bench to win the game. Or in other words, he has no
need of the strong or the swift or the many. It's not how he
operates. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27,
it says, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
put to shame the wise. We think many is better. And God has chosen the weak things
of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.
You're not very strong when there's only one, two, three, four, five
of you. And the base things of the world
and the things which are despised, God has chosen. and the things which are not
to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. Now in 1 Samuel 12, just a few
chapters back, Samuel says to all Israel, moreover, as for
me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing
to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way.
Now teaching the good in the right way is preaching the gospel.
That's all it's ever been. It's the same thing one man does
every time we meet in Christ's name. The gospel is preached
one man at a time. Now there's many other examples
of God using, but a few, but a few to carry out his determination or to overcome
the great and the powerful. But I want to show how God brought
a message by just one man and how God saved by just another
man. Though these two were thousands of years apart, turn to the book
of Hebrews, chapter 11, Hebrews 11 in verse 7. It says, by faith, Noah, being
divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear,
prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he
condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which
is according to faith. Now Noah was just one man, but
God preached through just Noah to the whole world. And Noah didn't even need to
say a word. All he had to do was build a
big boat and get inside it. And then God sent a great flood.
He made it rain for almost six weeks. It took another 47 weeks
before Noah's feet touched dirt again. And what did God say? through this one man. He preached
to that generation and to all the generations that followed
him. And God's message through Noah
was, destruction is coming because of your sin. And you better find something
that can weather the approaching storm. Find a hiding place. Now what hiding place is sufficient
for that? Spurgeon once preached almost 120 years ago on the flood
and how it pictured man's attempt to evade judgment. I thought
it was very, very helpful. It was a blessing. In vain you
climb the lofty top of Sinai. 15 cubits upwards shall the waters
prevail. The waters went above. In vain you climb to the highest
pinnacles of your self-conceit and your worldly merit. Ye shall
be drowned. Drowned beyond the hope of salvation.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. The noblest animals endowed with
the finest instincts were all drowned despite their powers
of swimming, if they were not fish, save those only who were
sheltered in the ark. The strongest winged fowls that
ever cut the air were all wearied in their flight and fell into
the water. Save those only that were housed in the ark. the proudest tenants of the forest,
those that ranged fearlessly in the broad light of day or
those that prowled stealthily under the cover of night, the
strongest, the mightiest, all were swallowed up in the vast
abyss, save those only that were commanded of God to hide themselves
within the shelter of the ark. There was but one hiding place
during the flood. just as there is but one hiding
place from God's wrath to come. That one sufficient hiding place
is Christ Jesus, the one and only vessel that can withstand
the righteous wrath of Almighty God. Noah was used to bring the
message, and Jesus performed it. He used one man to preach and
another man, God in human flesh, to save. For nothing restrains the Lord
from saving by many or by few. Look at the sovereignty in those
words. To save all his elect, his beloved,
and the ones that he calls by name, God does not require many
Christs. Nothing restrains him. He only
requires the righteousness of one Christ. Do you believe that your sins
could fill an entire valley? Don't worry, I have good news
for you. The one Jesus Christ is sufficient for you. Do you
believe that you must add something to the work that Christ has done,
some merit that improves upon the righteous life of the Son
of God? Is that what you have? Well, let it go for just one
Jesus is enough. And it's all that God requires.
Do you fear that God the judge has not been completely and totally
satisfied by the work of the plan of salvation that he put
in place. Well, put that thought out of
your mind, for he, it says he, God, shall see the labor or the
travail of his soul, not their souls,
Not the soul of the nation of Israel, not every person's soul,
his soul. Of his son's soul, as he hung dying on the cross,
the just for the unjust. And then he would be what? And
be satisfied. satisfied. Do you want to be with God? All you need to do is believe
that the one and only Christ died to take away your sins.
And I'll close with this. This is from one of the verses
of a song by Augustus Toplady. It says, if Christ my discharge
has procured, and freely in my place endured the whole of wrath
divine. If that is true, God will not payment twice demand. First, at my dying Savior's hand,
and then again at mine. It only takes one. The one. The one. May the Lord bless his
message. Bruce, will you close this please?