We'd like to turn to 1 Samuel chapter
14. 1 Samuel 14. We're going to look at the first 20
some odd verses of this chapter. Before we get into it I want
to give you a back story so you kind of know where we're picking
up. Saul in this is king at this time. He's king over all Israel.
And Jonathan his son is like his lead general, things like
that. Israelites go through a battle in chapter 13. They fight the
Philistines. So, it's a great battle. They
win. They blow a trumpet. Everybody on the land finds out
about it and there is a great victory. They are very excited about this.
But the victory is short lived. It only lasts a little while
because what they do is they awaken, for lack of a better
term, no pun intended, the Philistine sleeping giant. This great army
comes out against Israel. And you can read about it in
chapter 13. Flip over to chapter 13 real
quick and look at verse 5. This is the size of this Philistine
army that comes out. It says, 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 is a great army that comes
out against them and camps against them. And so this is a reaction
of the children of Israel. They have a small army. They
say, we can't win. And so you have some who go and they hide.
They find false refuges. They go to caves. They go to
pits. They go to thickets. They hide. And then you have
some that just leave the land altogether. Say, we can't win.
We're just going to leave. We'll go to another land. We'll
seek refuge there. And the worst of them were this.
You had defectors. people who would go and they
said, we can't win so we're going to align ourselves with the Philistines.
We'll align with them to save our own skin. And so the Philistines
send the spoilers through. They come through, they take
everything in the land, they occupy the land. All of Israel
is occupied right now. They even tell them this, you
can't have any weapons. The only people on the land that can have
a sword or a spear is Jonathan and Saul. That's it. No one else
can have a weapon. And it's so stringent that if
you want to sharpen your axe, your mattocks, your agriculture
tools, you actually have to go to the Philistines to do that.
These people are terrified. They are unarmed. They are occupied. Everything is looking down. They're
hopeless. They're helpless. But a hero
steps up. decides he is going to do something
about this, and it's Jonathan. Now before we get into chapter
14 let's have a word of prayer. Lord we come to You this morning
in Christ's name and we beg Lord that You would open Your Word
to us. Lord meet with us and Lord reveal Christ to us in Your
Word. Lord cause us to look to Him that we might see Him as
our conquering Savior. Lord that we would see the world
work is all done. Lord it is finished. We beg for
your presence and your blessing. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. So, if you pick up in verse 1
of chapter 14 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. His
armor bearer would have been the one who carried the weapons,
the supplies for the warrior. And Jonathan goes to his armor
bearer, and he says, me and you, we're going over to the garrison.
We read about it. 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen,
foot soldiers, as many as the sand of the sea. Just me and
you, armor bearer. We're going to go over there,
and we're going to take on that entire army. And here's the interesting
thing. He's not going to tell Saul. Saul would try to stop
him. He's not going to tell Saul,
but we'll read here in a moment, he's not going to tell anybody.
Jonathan is going out to be the champion of all Israel to fight
this battle for them and no one is going to know about it until
the battle has already been won. Look down at verse 2, And Saul
tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate
tree, which is in Migron. And the people that were with
him were about 600 men and Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, 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 look at Saul's disposition here. Saul
is sitting under a pomegranate tree. He's got this great army
encamped against him. He can only muster about 600
men. He is not seeking the Lord's face. He's not seeking deliverance.
He's not even seeking a spirit of leadership. All he's doing
is sitting there, seemingly resigned to what he believes to be his
fate. They're going to come. They're going to wipe us all
out. Why even try? even try to do anything about
it? Why even try to seek the Lord's face? And what he is doing
right here is what everybody in Israel is doing, just waiting.
We are hopeless. We are helpless. We are without
a Savior. There is nothing that can be done. We'll just wait
here until they come and wipe us all out. Now, look over verse
4, And between the passages by which
Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistine garrison, there
was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other
side, and 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 Michmash, and the other southward,
over against Gibeah. Now, the Philistines had positioned
their garrison on a plateau. I think everybody knows what
that is, a rise in the earth, cliffs surrounding it, flat top. And
militarily, tactically, this makes sense. They sit up top
there. They can see in every direction. So if the Israelites
try to attack, they see them coming. There seems to be a passageway
that leads up there, but it would narrow the attack. They wouldn't
have much success going up that way. And then you have these
cliffs, two of which are named, Bozes and Sina. And this is the
last place that they would expect an attack from. So this is humanly
insurmountable. Nobody can get up these cliffs.
It is impossible for a man to get himself up here and attack
us. And that makes sense. You try to climb your army up
a cliff, be exhausted by the time they get up there and the
enemy would just drop stuff on them along the way. They said if there
is one way they are definitely not going to get up. It is this
humanly insurmountable way up these steep cliffs. And that
is exactly the way that Jonathan purposes to attack. Look at verse
6, And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, Come,
and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised. And listen
to this statement here, 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 how much confidence
Jonathan has in the Lord, and he's not presumptuous at all.
He says, it may be. Armor-bearer, we are in the hands
of a sovereign God. If one thing I know about my
God is this, He's in control, and His will is always going
to be done. But it may be, if He wills, that
He will work for us. He will fight this battle for
us. And know this, armor bearer,
there is no restraint to the Lord. Nothing is too hard for
the Lord. The means don't matter. He's
in control of the means. This is the one who creates means.
He can take an army of angels, a million of them, conjure them
and send them up there and win the battle. He can empower me
and you. We'll go up there and fight the
battle. If we have the strength of the Lord, we'll win. can send a cricket
up there. It doesn't matter this is one
who creates means there is no restraint to the Lord to win
this battle. We have a sovereign, omnipotent
God, armor bearer. Now you look at the confidence
that Jonathan has in the Lord. Look at the confidence this armor
bearer has in Jonathan. Look down here in verse 6, I'm
sorry verse 7, and his armor bearer said unto
him, all that is in thine heart. Turn thee, behold, I am with
thee according to thy heart." Now I want you to consider this
for a minute. Consider what this man is being asked to do. Armor
Bearer, me and you, the two of us, we're going up against 30,000
chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and foot soldiers, as many as the
sand of the sea. This man didn't ask any questions.
He didn't blink an eye. He said, Jonathan, your will
be done, and I'm going to follow you wherever you go. You say
we're going to go fight them? I'm going. You want to lead me
up there? Live or die, sink or swim, I'm following you wherever
you go. Whatever your will is, Jonathan, you do what's in your
heart. How much confidence does this armor bearer have in Jonathan?
Full confidence. I will follow you wherever you
go. Look at verse 8, Then said Jonathan, Behold, we
will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves
unto them. If they say thus unto us, tarry until we come to you,
tarry. Then we will stand still in our
place, and we will not go up to 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 the sign unto us. Now
he said before, armor bearer, it may be that the Lord will
work for us. It may be, but here's the sign,
armor bearer. Here's how we'll know. We're
gonna go up to this garrison and we're gonna reveal ourselves.
No trickery here. We're gonna reveal ourselves
to this garrison and we're gonna listen for two key words. If
we hear this, Terry, stop, wait, don't come. We'll know this,
the Lord's not in. He has not granted the victory.
If you hear Terry, wait, the Lord's not in it. But if we hear
these words, Omer Behr, come, come up. We will know for sure
that the Lord has granted us the victory. Now look here, look
at verse 11. And both of them discovered themselves
under the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, behold,
the Hebrews came forth out of the holes where they had hid
themselves. And the men of the garrison answered
Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, look at these words,
come up to us and we will show you a thing. And what they're
saying is, you come up here and fight us and we'll teach you
a lesson. Teach you a lesson about coming up here like this.
But what are the words that Jonathan is waiting to hear? Come up.
Come, not Terry, come up. These are the words. Look what
he does. said unto his armor-bearer, Come up after me, for the Lord
hath delivered them into the hand of Israel." Now think about
what's happening here. Jonathan says, armor-bearer you
come up after me. There's a pathway. These humanly
insurmountable cliffs I've found a pathway. I'm going to climb
up these cliffs. I'm going to go first and you're
going to come up after me. Everywhere I put my hand I'm
going to that's where you put your hand. Everywhere I put my
foot, armor bearer, that's where you put your foot. I'm going
to go up first, and you're going to come up right after me, and
you're going to come the exact same way I came up." Now, 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 And that first slaughter,
which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about 20 men,
within, as it were, a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen
might plow." Now, they get to the top. Jonathan's leading the
charge. He sees the first 20 men, and
he starts slaying. And he says, these men, they
all fell before Jonathan. Jonathan would go up, he'd strike
down the first one. He'd see the next one, he'd strike
him down. And what does it say about the armor bearer? It says,
the armor bearer slew after him. You know what that means? What
was the armor bearer doing? He was hiding behind Jonathan
the entire time. Jonathan would come up, and he would drop one
of those guys down. He'd be down on the ground, and the armor
bearer would slew after him. He'd stick him on the ground afterwards.
Jonathan would strike another one. He'd fall down to the ground.
The armor bearer would stick him on the ground. But this is
the point. This is the point of the armor bearer. Everything
Jonathan did, the armor bearer did. And Jonathan was the doer
of all of it. 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.'" Now Saul has watchmen,
can see the Philistine garrison. And they look out, there is a
great earthquake, what's going on? And they look at this garrison,
here's what they see, the entire Philistine army had turned on
one another. The Lord sent some spirit of confusion and chaos.
They had all turned on one another. And now they were beating down
one another. They were killing each other. And they were melting
away like snow in droves. Men just hacking each other to
pieces. They are going to tell Saul about this. This is interesting.
Verse 17, Then said Saul unto the people that were with him,
number now and see who is gone from us. And when they had numbered,
behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. The watchman say, Saul, look
at this, look at this. And he comes up and he looks
and the Lord is accomplishing this great victory. All his enemies
are fighting one another and they're melting away like snow.
They are assured the victory at this point. And Saul gets
this idea. He says, I think somebody from
my camp is involved here. Number the people. Find out who's
missing from us. And the census takers come back
and they say, there's only two missing, Jonathan and the armor
bearer. And everybody knew at that point.
Saul knew. The people of Israel knew. We
have this victory because Jonathan became our champion. But they
did not know that until the battle was already won. 18, "'And Saul said unto Hiah, 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.'" What happened here? Here's what I think is
going on here. Saul looks out and he sees this
great victory that the Lord is accomplishing for them. And he
gets excited. And he feels an overwhelming
urge. You know what that urge is? To
help. To do something. were helpless. They were hopeless. They see
the Lord accomplishing this great victory for them. And He says,
Ahai, get the orc. Form the troops. Let's do something
here. Let's see if we can help the Lord out. Let's see if we
can do something. And then the Lord sends a spirit of wisdom
to Saul. And He says, Well, hold on. Hold
on. Ahai, withdraw thine hand. is the Lord's battle. This is
the Lord's victory. We're not going to put our hand
to this at all. This is His doing. All we're
going to do is sit back and watch as the Lord defeats our enemies
for us. Verse 20, 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. They all march up there and they
just watch. They don't get involved in the battle, they just watch
as these men destroy each other, the Lord having accomplished
this victory for 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.
Everybody who defected and aligned themselves with the Philistines.
You know what happened after this great victory? They all
came back. They were all reconciled back
to the kingdom. likewise all the men of Israel
which had hid themselves in Mount Ephraim, when they heard that
the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them
in the battle." Everybody who had left, everybody who was hiding
in all those false refuges, what happened? They were reconciled
too. After this great victory was won the whole kingdom was
reconciled together. And verse 23 is the conclusion
of the matter. So, the Lord saved Israel that
day and the battle passed over unto Bethlehem. there is a lot
that we can learn from those verses. But I want to pick out
just a few things today to talk about. If I had to pick one verse
of Scripture that sums up this story completely, as best as
you possibly can, it would be one thing that Paul said, and
this is the verse, I'll give it to you. Romans 11 verse 36,
"'For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things to
whom be glory forever. Amen. For of Him, of who? Of Christ. Through Him, Christ. And to Him, Christ, are all things. And you can't take that all things
too far. All things are of Him and through
Him and to Him. But what Paul is specifically
talking about there is all things in salvation. All things in salvation
are, number one, of Christ. Of speaks of origin. They begin
with Him. They are through Christ. Through speaks of means. He is
the means of salvation. And they are to Christ. It all
ends with Christ. It all comes back to Him. It
all returns unto Him. And that is the main teaching
of this story right here. Now, number one, all things are
of Christ in salvation. Where does salvation begin? begins
with a God-man named Jesus Christ. The Father loved a man. He chose
a man. One. One. A God-man, His Son,
the second member of the Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ. All His
love was found in that man. And He elected that man. He chose
that man. And when He did that, you know
who else He got to? He got every member of the elect. We have always had that eternal
union with the Lord Jesus Christ, because we are in Him and we
always have been. We're talking about eternal things
here. How could we wrap our minds around this? We don't have to.
It just is. We accept it. We have always
been with Him. Therefore, when the Father loved
Him and the Father chose Him, we were loved. We were chosen
in Him as well. That's where salvation begins.
It begins in Christ. That's why the elect were chosen.
That's why they were loved. begins with Christ in this respect.
He is who? He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Now, we're going to get more
into that in the main message this morning, but this is where
salvation begins. Salvation begins with a slain
Lamb, with a successful Savior, One who has always been the Atonement
for His people. That's why the Father could love
us. That's why the Father could choose us. It all begins, all
of salvation flows from this slain lamb from the foundation
of the world for a particular people. And we have that illustrated
in our story here. Where does the story begin? Does
the story begin with the people going to Jonathan saying, we're
helpless, we're hopeless, go be our champion, go fight this
battle for us? Not one person approached Jonathan. Does it
begin with Saul saying, go, be the champion for the people?
Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree without a clue what to do.
Where does the story begin? The story begins with Jonathan
and Jonathan's purpose. He sees his people outnumbered,
distressed, unarmed, can't win the battle, can't fight for themselves.
And Jonathan purposes to be the champion of his people, defeat
all their enemies for them, and reconcile the whole kingdom back
together. This is all according to Jonathan's
purpose. Why? Because he loved the people
of his kingdom. And this is the purpose of Christ.
come and to save His people single-handedly through His death to defeat all
their enemies. Why? Because He loved them from
the foundation of the world. And I find this very interesting.
I think this is a beautiful thought. When Jonathan did this he purposed
and he did, he executed. Who did he tell about it? Not
one soul. Jonathan purposed this, he went
out, he defeated the armies, and not one of the people who
were rescued through Jonathan's actions knew about it until the
battle was already won. I think this is wonderful, but
when the Lord saves a man in His experience, what does He
find out? He finds out that he has been saved. It's not that
I believe and therefore now I am saved. What you find out when
the Lord reveals Christ to you, He has always been my surety.
He has been my lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
I've always had His love. Before I ever knew Him, He knew
me. Before I ever loved Him, He loved
me. Before I wanted anything to do
with Him, something to do with me, always watching over me,
ordering my steps every single day. This was planned out through
the eternities that I would come back to Him through His work.
That's a beautiful thought, isn't it? Salvation is of Christ in
its origin. Salvation is through Christ and
that speaks of the means. He is the means of salvation.
That is illustrated in our text as well. Now, Jonathan, what
way did he purpose to go up to the Philistine army? the humanly
insurmountable cliffs. Two of them were named, Bozes
and Sina. Bozes, you know what that means?
It means glistering white. Now when you think of that, this
glistering, this shining, pure white, what does that speak of?
It speaks of the very righteousness of God. Bozes and Sina, you know
what Sina means? It means thorny. Where do we
first read about thorns? Genesis, Adam falls. He disobeys
God. He takes on a sinful, wicked,
evil nature that can do no good. He is cursed, but it wasn't just
Adam that was cursed. The Lord cursed the ground for
Adam's sake. Thorns rose up. the curse, Bozes,
the righteousness of God, Sina, the curse of man. These are the
two humanly insurmountable obstacles to salvation. What is God's demand? Perfect, glistering, white righteousness. only thing He will demand is
absolute perfection, holiness. Without spot the law must look
me over and say, you have never done anything wrong, and you
have always done that which is right. This is the first obstacle
to salvation, the righteousness of God, the righteous demand
of God that a man be perfect to be accepted. And here's the
other obstacle, Sina, the curse, man's inability to rise to that
level. dead in trespasses and sins.
He can't meet that bar. He can't even take a step toward
it. These are humanly insurmountable obstacles. Boses and Sina. But
who found a way? Jonathan found a way. He said,
I know a way, arm bearer. I know a way to get up there.
Christ found a way. He found a way for His Father
to remain what? Just. to honor His just character,
to accept nothing but blistering white, perfect righteousness,
and still do what? Justify the ungodly, those cursed
by the law, both those cursed by Adam's foe. He says, I know
a way, I know a way to get up there, there's a pathway. What
was the pathway that Christ could honor His Father's justice and
still justify His people? It's His cross. went to the cross
the sins of God's people became His. He died under the wrath
of God for those sins and through that absolutely and utterly putting
them away forever and the very righteousness of Christ becomes
His people. That we actually have it. That
it really is ours. That we are in the eyes of God
glistering white. meet the demand. We pass over
the bar. We are what He demands us to
be because of the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. Jonathan went
up there and slew all the enemies on top of that hill just as Christ
at the cross put away all the sins of everybody He died for. And now we meet the demand. What I want you to recognize
is this, and it is illustrated in the text. This is not forensic. This is not an accounting matter.
not a spreadsheet where I used to be sinful but we're going
to move this factor over here, and the righteousness of Christ
is going to be added to me, but nothing actually changes. No,
this is real. Right now if you're a believer,
if your hope is in no one but Jesus Christ and Him crucified,
understand this, you are the very righteousness of God in
Christ. How could that be? It's illustrated
in our text, right here. Jonathan comes up, says, armor-bearer,
I'm going up the cliffs. I'm going up first. And you know
what you're going to do? You're going to come up right
after me. And armor-bearer, everywhere I put my hand, that's where you
put your hand. And everywhere I put my foot,
that's where you're going to put your foot. We get to the
top. I'm going to slay the enemies. And armor-bearer, you're going
to slay right behind me. As I put them down, you're going
to stick them while they're down on the ground. What did we say
about the armor-bearer? Everything Jonathan did, the armor bearer
did, this is union with Christ. That union is so real that when
he walked the paths of righteousness, that he actually kept God's holy
law. You did. You did. You did it in Him. That means
it really is yours. You have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. There is no separation between
the two of you. You actually have it. When He went to the
cross and bore the wrath of God for your sins that's where you
died. You've already been punished under the Law. God is just. He
will not punish sin twice. You've already been punished
in Him. And now we meet the demand. We truly do meet the demand in
Jesus Christ. This is real. Nothing fake about
this, nothing forensic about this. This is real for every
believer. All things are of Christ. All things are through Christ. And finally this, all things
are to Christ. All of it comes back to him.
Now, answer this question. What is the armor bearer's name
in this story? We don't get it, do we? Why not? Because it's not important. There's
one name that is going to be sung when this battle is all
over. one man who is going to be praised, and honored, and
carried on the shoulders of the people when this is all over. Just one man, because just one
man was the doer of all of it, and that was Jonathan. Jonathan
is going to get all the glory. All things come back to Christ.
They all end with Him. They end in this, God's eternal
purpose being accomplished, the full salvation of His people,
complete in Christ to where we owe nothing, nothing to bring
to the table, nothing to do, complete in Christ so that His
Son will get all the honor and all the glory. How important
is it if you are a member of the elect that you personally
be saved? The very glory of Jesus Christ
hinges on it. this is the eternal purpose of
God to glorify this man, Jesus Christ. That means if Christ
died for you, you must be saved. The justice of God demands it.
The purpose of God demands it. You must be saved. Who are these people? Those who
look to Christ alone. It's just that simple. And here's
where I want to leave you with this. What's the message of the
Gospel? Jonathan said, Omer Bear, here's
how we'll know. We're going to walk up to the garrison, we're
going to reveal ourselves, and we're going to listen to some
key words. And if we hear Terry, stop, wait, the Lord's not in
it. The Gospel is not wait. And the
gospel is not Terry. Don't wait for anything. Don't
wait to get better. Don't wait for an experience.
Don't wait for a feeling. Don't you, Terry, one minute. This
is the message of the gospel. Honor bearer, if we hear these
words, we know we have the victory. Well, these are the words of
the gospel. Come. Come. Come to Christ. You come right now. You come
as a sinner and you come just as you are and you will be received. You trust him just the way that
armor-bearer trusted Jonathan. I will follow you wherever you
go. Your will be done just like that. That's where I'm going
to leave you.