Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Pastor Ed Taylor suggests adding this to your prayer time.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Two things we want to pray about in our lives. We want emotional stability, and we want our thinking to be inspired by the Lord. Not to lean on our own understanding, acknowledge Him in all our ways, and what? He'll direct our paths. God will direct our paths. He'll make our minds clear. We won't be having these contradictory back-and-forth, up-and-down. God wants to lead us.

Guest (Male): It is time again for Abounding Grace. Great to have you on board. Pastor Ed Taylor is teaching from the book of 1 Samuel right now. Find your place in chapter 14. Lately, we've been observing the life of Saul, and it's not a pretty picture. Things go from bad to worse as we look at this chapter of his life. We could summarize it by describing him as a fleshly, carnal man. Not something you want to be known for. So let's turn things over to Pastor Ed and see what we can learn from it.

Pastor Ed Taylor: If you have your Bibles, we'll pick up where we left off last time. We're studying through 1 Samuel verse by verse, really trying to take it a chapter at a time, and have been pretty successful at that. 1 Samuel chapter 14.

It's always an unfortunate thing, isn't it, to see a man or a woman fall into sin? Especially a prominent man or a prominent woman where they fall hard in their lives away from God. We might call it a sexual sin, we may call it backsliding. The more prominent the person, the more difficult it is. Today we see pastors and leaders that God has used so greatly in our lives fall to some of the most radical, crazy, disqualifying sin that you can think of, and it's just sad.

Often it leaves long-term painful effects to the lives that surround them. And yet, as we see the fall, we don't always, and very rarely do we see the progression that led to the fall. I think that's a good thing. I don't know that I would want to know all of the intricacies of sin or all the intricacies of what it looks like for someone that was used so greatly of the Lord to end up in such a disqualifying mess.

I'm reminded of Romans chapter 16, where the Bible tells us that we're to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil. So it's not something I think we really need to study. It's not something we really need to do a dissertation on. We just need to recognize that anyone at any time, given the right circumstances and the right temptation, can fall into horrendous sin and horrifically disqualify themselves from ministry and from many other things.

It is good that we don't see the inside. On occasion, I think in the Bible we do get deeper insights, and of course, the closer you are to a person, it seems the more that you might see. We will see like in the Bible the pathway of what really was the downfall of Moses not entering into the Promised Land. We see a pattern in his life of anger, a progressive pattern. Or we see what happens in a real quick snapshot with the pride of what happened in Samson's life, or Ananias and Sapphira, their selfishness and hypocrisy and deceit is on display.

For the most part, we see the fall and the consequences. We do know this, that what we see in the Bible we're to learn from. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11, it says, "Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."

In our study through 1 Samuel, we are seeing the firsthand pathway of downfall in this man by the name of Saul. We're getting deeper insights into this first king. He starts with such great potential, as we've seen in previous studies, but within just two years of his reign, he is rejected by God and would soon lose the kingdom.

If you want to go back to chapter 13, you'll remember this one verse that so powerfully jumped off the page. In verse 13 of chapter 13, Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for now the Lord would have—the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man." Those are not words I want to hear.

Saul, you have blown it so bad that the Lord would have established your kingdom, but now it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. God has sought Himself a man after His own heart, and we know that man to be David as we'll learn in future studies.

Already we've seen his unbelief, his impatience, his deceitfulness, and now we'll begin to see his disobedience and his dishonesty grow. For those that have read ahead, you know the path leads Saul, the king of God's people, all the way down to a witch looking for counsel. That's how far he falls from the things of God, that he's going to seek out a witch in order to gain help to lead the people.

With that in mind, for the sake of a short review in the section that we studied recently, verse 1: "Now it happened one day"—and by the way, isn't that how everything happens? One day. You just don't know what God's going to do if He lets you and allows you to open your eyes in the morning and give you a new day. "It happened one day." Those are words of faith, of hope, of opportunity. And it happened on this day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who bore his armor, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison that is on the other side," but he did not tell his father.

Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree, which is in Migron. The people who were with him were about 600 men. Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, was wearing an ephod, but the people did not know that Jonathan had gone. Now 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. The name of one was Bozez, the name of the other was Seneh. And the front of one faced northward opposite Michmash, and the other southward opposite Gibeah.

Not just the story of victory, but a story of faith. Jonathan doesn't involve his dad because already I'm sure he's seen that his dad is untrustworthy. His dad would have easily thrown a wet blanket over this step of faith. His dad by this time is trusting in man and not in God. It was wise for him not to tell his father. It was wise for him to keep this right between him and the man that was closest to him.

In verse 6, he says 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." They're about ready to take a glorious, magnificent step of faith. They're severely outnumbered. Jonathan isn't going to take on the thousands of chariots and the thousands of horsemen, but he's willing to take on whoever he needs to take on in order to make this step of faith with his armorbearer.

He has a great concept of God. He recognizes that God doesn't need us. He doesn't need man. He doesn't need one person. He doesn't need a thousand people. He doesn't need 10,000 people. It's no problem for God to work with many or with few. That's true for Jonathan in his day and it's true for you and me. What are you facing exactly? What great step of faith has God laid before you? In what place are you ready to take a step, but you know you're going to have to completely, wholeheartedly trust in the Lord despite what people's opinions might be, despite what people might say, despite what there might even be people that come alongside to try to talk you out of it?

It's no problem for God to work with many or with few. All we need is for God to work. That's all we need for us to be used in His kingdom is for God to work. And it may be, notice in verse 6, that the Lord will work for us. And I would extend that to you: it may be that the Lord wants to work in your life right now.

How will you find out but by venturing out in faith? Asking the question, "What does God want to do?" and then following through with finding out. It is an exciting thing to see what the Lord might do. The key is always to be available. To be open and ready to be used. To be available, but also to be obedient. To put action to your words.

Talk is cheap. And many times in the Christian circles, talk is cheap. Anybody can fake Christian talk. Anybody can talk the talk. Anybody can pick up a Bible, hang around with Christians for a couple of weeks and get all the lingo and look like a believer and sound like a believer. But what will really be the proof in the pudding but rather the works that come from your life? What are your words leading you toward? Are they leading you toward steps of faith, toward encouragement, toward the things of the Spirit, or are they simply words covering up your fleshly carnality?

With Saul, you go, "Wait a minute, Ed, how could you say such a thing? What do you mean, my words covering up my fleshly carnality?" Oh yeah, that's what Saul's going to teach us. Unfortunately, there are people that have all the right words, but their life is so far from the things of God. One of the ways you'll be able to find that is by their actions. You'll just wait and give it some time. Actions will come straight from the heart, even as our words do. Available and obedient.

Verse 7: "So his armorbearer said to him, 'Do all that is in your heart. Go then, here I am with you according to your heart.'" Great words of encouragement. We looked at these pieces together where, what is it to step out in faith but to make a decision to believe, and then between making a decision and stepping out in faith, someone to either yourself encouraging yourself in the Lord or God sending someone in your life to be an encouragement. That encouragement is something that just really pushes people over the edge in taking a step of faith.

Just a healthy dose of encouragement. "I was reading the scriptures and the Lord gave me this verse," and you share a verse. Or, "I've been praying for you. I've been praying for you, and now that you've shared this with me, that's exactly what I've been praying." Just a healthy dose of encouragement. The armorbearer doesn't know what's going to happen. He doesn't know what all is in Jonathan's heart. Imagine such a phrase: "Do all that's in your heart." He doesn't know all that's in his heart. There could be some crazy things in Jonathan's heart.

He could be more than just going out and fighting a battle. In Jonathan's heart, he could be having a feeling of taunting them, messing around with them. He could have had all kinds of weird, crazy thoughts. So how is it possible that this armorbearer can so quickly respond with not only encouragement, but the kind of encouragement that will really help you step up? "I'm with you, man." How could he say such a thing?

While he didn't know everything, neither do I. You don't know everything in my heart. I don't know everything in your heart. Do we all agree? Is that true? You just don't know everything in everyone's heart. You probably don't know hardly anything in anybody's heart, let alone everything. So I don't know your heart, you don't know my heart. So how can we make a commitment like that?

I believe the commitment was made because, although the armorbearer didn't know his heart—he knew Jonathan. This was a statement of relationship. This verse here, verse 7, is one of the most beautiful, powerful pictures in the Bible of the type of relationship that we would refer to as two people being likeminded. Or literally in the Greek in the New Testament when the phrase likeminded is used, it literally means to be one-souled.

It's the kind of relationship you want in marriage. It's the kind of relationship you want in ministry. It's the kind of relationship that you want in friendship. You want to be likeminded. You want to see things the same way. You want to be on the same team, so that when one of you speaks up and goes, "I think really I just think this is from the Lord," where the response would be, "Well, let's do it. Let's do it, let's see if the Lord's in it. I mean, that sounds like something from the Lord. I mean, it's way out there, but let's do it and see," instead of, "Well, I don't know, and there's a great television show on right now. I don't want to miss my show," or, "Let's just go get some ice cream."

No, let's go share the gospel. How about that? "Well, is there going to be ice cream there? All right, I'll get you ice cream and we'll share the gospel together." But you want to be in that place. The only way you're going to get there, you and I, the only way we're going to be growing in likemindedness in our relationship is through time and testing. Time and testing. It's how every relationship grows. It takes time and we go through a few tests together.

Because you know what testing does, right? Testing is the revealer of the hearts and the minds of people. A lot of times we think the trial made me do it. The trial didn't make you do anything. The trial just revealed what was already inside of you. It revealed what is going to—you might be on your way to work and you're in a carpool and you've got a little mug there, and you know what's in it, but everyone else doesn't know what's in it until you hit a bump.

And when you hit a bump, everything in the cup goes on the guy right next to you. And like, "Oh, I thought that was coffee. It's hot tea." Now you find out what's in the cup. How? By going through a few bumps. Shake up the cup a little bit. It's often been said that you never really find out what's in the tea bag until you pour the hot water on it. And then you know what kind of tea bag it is. Then you know what flavor it is. And I find the same to be true with believers, have you not? That you really find out what kind of flavor you are when the hot water is turned on and the response to the trial and the testing. That's how relationships grow over time and getting through a few testings.

Sometimes, unfortunately, relationships don't last the test. The test reveals something and you're like, "Man, I don't think we can go on. I don't think we're likeminded. I don't think this is going to be resolved. I just don't, unless there's a major change, I don't just don't see it. I don't know, maybe the Lord's going to do something great and I have high hopes, but it's hard for me to tell you to do all that's in your heart when I just don't have the same heart as you. I just don't think it's from the Lord." But that's not this relationship. It's a relationship of likemindedness.

Verse 8: "Then Jonathan said, 'Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them. And if they say thus to us, "Wait until we come to you," then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them. But if they say thus, "Come up to us," then we will go up, and the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign.'" So they set it up so that they're not presumptuous.

Verse 11: "So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, 'Look, the Hebrews are coming out of their holes where they have hidden.'" Remember they were hidden in the caves back in chapter 13 and in the thickets. This was a very trembling time for the children of Israel. It required a man of faith. Then the men of the garrison, verse 12, called to Jonathan and said, "Come up to us, and we will show you something." So Jonathan said to his armorbearer, "Come up after me; the Lord has delivered them into the hand of Israel."

Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armorbearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan, and as he came after him, his armorbearer killed them. And the first slaughter which Jonathan and his armorbearer made was about 20 men within about a half acre of land. God turns the tide with just one man, really just two men. He turns the tide of an outnumbered, outmanned battle.

You look at this situation with the thousands of Philistines and just the poorly armed few thousand, just a few hundred really, Israelites or just two, and we look at it from the human perspective. It'd be very easy to conclude, "Oh, poor Jonathan, poor armorbearer. Great steps of faith, oh so encouraging, but you guys don't even know what you're getting into." But that's with the eyes of man.

It is very much a similar perspective if we were to be on the scene with little David and Goliath. Wouldn't we just sit there going, "Oh, poor Goliath, look what this kid's gotten himself into. He's toast, it's over"? But not with the eyes of God. With the eyes of God, it's very much to say with great authority: not poor David, not poor ruddy little kid, but poor Goliath. He doesn't know what he got himself into. That with David and God on his side, it's only a matter of time before that giant's going to fall.

Same with this step of faith with Jonathan. Oh, poor Jonathan? No, not poor Jonathan. Poor Philistines. With the eyes of God, it's like you cannot stand against the counsel of God. God will prevail.

Verse 15: "And there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The garrison, the raiders also trembled, and the earth quaked, so that it was a very great trembling." Now just cross-reference this back to chapter 13, verses 5 and 6. They went from the men of Israel all afraid and scared to now with this one victory, there's trembling and there's fear. And God sends an earthquake, verse 15, a supernatural, miraculous earthquake at just the right place and just the right time to cause a very great trembling.

The watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and there was the multitude melting away, and they went here and there. Saul said to the people who were with him, "Now call the roll and see who has gone from us." And when they called the roll, surprisingly Jonathan and his armorbearer were not there. And Saul said to Ahijah, "Bring the ark of God here," for at that time the ark of God was with the children of Israel.

Now it happened while Saul talked to the priest that the noise which was in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase, so Saul said to the priest, "Withdraw your hand." And Saul and all the people who were with him assembled, and they went to the battle. And indeed every man's sword was against his neighbor, and there was a very great confusion. The Philistines turned on one another.

This seems like at first glance that King Saul's being a very spiritual man, but he's just being superstitious. He's about to make the same mistake that was made earlier of taking the ark of the covenant into the midst of the battle and having it ripped off and taken away as we saw with Eli. He's about ready to make the same mistake. And even in the midst of this spiritual convocation that he called, he interrupts it.

He interrupts it for the sake of going to battle. As the noise increases, Saul interrupts the divine meeting here and made his own decision to go to battle. He didn't seek the Lord. He didn't ask God for wisdom. He made his own decision. Another weakness in Saul's displayed through his impatience and somehow his need to prove himself to the nation. Somehow wanting to show that while Jonathan led in victory, Saul continues to want to take credit for it.

One commentator put it this way: Saul's emotional instability and contradictory thinking will show up again and again, doing great damage to the kingdom. Think about that. Two things we want to pray about in our lives: we want emotional stability and we want our thinking to be inspired by the Lord. Not to lean on our own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all our ways and He'll direct our paths. God will direct our paths. He'll make our minds clear. We won't be having these contradictory back-and-forth, up-and-down. God wants to lead us.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. When you and I do that, many people are hurt as a result. And by the time we get to verse 22, we see the Lord encouraging and uplifting the troops on His behalf. It says in verse 21, "Moreover, the Hebrews who were with the Philistines before that time, who went up with them into the camp to the surrounding country, they also joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, they also followed hard after them in battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle shifted to Beth Aven."

The Bible could not be clearer. It doesn't say Jonathan saved them. It doesn't say the armorbearer saved them. It doesn't say King Saul or the battle. It says the Lord saved Israel that day. Do you see that? Do you guys see that in your Bibles? The Lord saved Israel.

Verse 24 now: "The men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had placed the people under an oath, saying, 'Cursed is the man who eats any food until evening, before I have taken vengeance on my enemies.' So none of the people tasted food." That's interesting. What did verse 23 say? "The Lord saved Israel that day." Now you jump over to verse 24, what does Saul say? "Before I have taken vengeance on my enemies." There is a disconnect with Saul. You have to look for it, but it's pretty much in every decision that he makes.

He is truly disconnected. You look at it from the outside and go, "Oh, look what a spiritual man, bringing the ark of the covenant. Oh, look how he's bringing the priest. Oh, look how he's ready to take vengeance." No, victory among the troops stirs up in Saul a foolish vow. As he sees the battle going in Israel's favor, he announces a curse born in pride. Notice carefully in verse 24 again: "I have taken vengeance" instead of the Lord has defeated the enemy. The spiritual condition of our lives is not only revealed by the fruit of our actions, but more so by the fruit of our mouths.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Abounding Grace and part of Pastor Ed Taylor's study in 1 Samuel. You can hear it again at aboundinggraceradio.com, 1place.com, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here in the month of September, we have picked out an excellent book from our friend in the ministry, Ron Rhodes. It's *The End Times in Chronological Order*.

You'll learn when the important end times events will happen in relation to each other, who the major players in the end times will be, and how to interpret the signs of the times. We'll send it to you when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more today. Reach us toll-free at 877-30-GRACE or go online to calvaryco.store.

Thank you for your generous support. It helps us get the word out on stations like this all across the nation. Large or small, God is using your gifts in great ways. I wish I could share all the emails and phone calls that come in as evidence of that. To make a donation, just visit aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Aboundinggraceradio.com, 877-30-GRACE.

Our time together sure goes by quickly, but we're already looking forward to our next study in 1 Samuel right here on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed. God bless. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.