Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): There are a lot of people who know a lot about God and His Word but have never met God personally. Here's Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: Listen, there is nothing more disastrous than someone to study faith or to analyze faith, to talk about faith, but never actually take that leap of faith. Never actually get out and go over a cross. There's a lot of people talking about it. There's a lot of people looking into it. There's a lot of people thinking about it, but how many are taking that step?

Guest (Male): Winston Churchill once said, "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire last for a thousand years, men will still say this was their finest hour."

As we look at the life of Jonathan today on Sound Doctrine, one could easily come to the conclusion that this is his finest hour by God's grace. Jonathan was a man who was not intimidated by the Philistine armies and believed that God could use him in a great way. Here's our teacher, Pastor Jeff Johnson, in 1 Samuel 14.

Jeff Johnson: This morning, we're going to look at a venture in faith that I think is just an awesome story that is going to hopefully encourage you to serve the Lord more so than ever before. Let me give you a little update where we've come from so you can see right where we're at. Because the children of Israel now have rejected God as being their king, and they have chosen a man to rule over them, and because this man, whose name is Saul, disobeyed God's law, Saul is now rejected by God as being their king.

Now we see God's people who are being chastened by their own enemy. God uses different ways to chasten us. When we really get away from Him, we are His children, He's our Father. Who knows what He'll use to chasten you when you get away? He might use your boss. He might use a lot of different things. He might use your wife, your husband, your children. He might use your enemy. In this situation, He's using their enemy to go after them, to break them, to get them to their knees.

They find themselves surrounded. Saul has only got 600 men now, and it's kind of a tattered, ill-equipped army. In fact, there's only two swords amongst them, and Saul's got one and Jonathan's got one. They're outnumbered, they're surrounded, and it seems like a hopeless situation as they look out to the masses that are surrounding them. Saul had broken under God's test. God tested Saul and Saul broke under that test. He sinned against God. Now Saul and his true character is coming out.

We're going to see his true heart. We've been talking about Saul, this man who is very foolish, and we've been seeing a little bit of it, but now it's truly going to come out. When you see his character, you're going to see that this man was all along just a religious man and he had no relationship with God. As we move along here, we see the children of Israel now surrounded. We see Saul's kingdom dissolving.

We see that God's raised up another man, and we talked about him last week. His name, of course, is David. We'll see more about him later on. But they're totally surrounded now. It looks like the end, and then comes in one of those "buts." Most "buts" are bad. What I mean by that is that always when somebody's sharing with us, "This is the way that the Lord wants you to go," then we always say, "But what about this? But what about that?" Usually they're just excuses.

But this is a good "but." This is "but God" intervenes. God is going to do a tremendous work here. Look at 1 Samuel 14:1. "Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bore his armor, 'Come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on the other side,' but notice he told not his father." And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree. It looks like he's just kicking back there, doing nothing, which is in Migron. And the people that were with him were about 600 men.

And Ahijah, which is the high priest, the Lord's priest in Shiloh, he was wearing an ephod, and the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. Evidently the high priest being there was evidence that they were trying to seek the Lord because the ephod was the front breastplate that the priest would wear. Behind that breastplate was a little bag with two stones in it called the Urim and Thummim. These were ways that the children of Israel would throw them like dice and see what God's will was for them and which way to go.

They were trying to seek the Lord because the priest was there with his ephod on. And yet we see also that Saul is just kicking back. But notice Jonathan here comes out and really begins to catch our attention. Jonathan means "gift of God." Definitely Jonathan in Saul's life was a blessing. This little boy that grew up to be a man of God was nothing but an inspiration if his dad would just catch the vision. But he had a hard time.

This boy was growing up and he just all of a sudden says to his armor bearer, "Well, let's slip out of camp and see what God will do here." So they snuck out in the middle of the night so nobody knew that they were gone. In the meantime, we see Saul kicking back under the pomegranate tree, doing nothing as the armies of the Philistines are surrounding them and moving in. This guy, it's almost like a stone over a tomb. He was kind of shut up in his own despair, in his own defeat, and he was in depression.

He totally had isolated himself and he was not moving at all. Inactivity, doing nothing to the enemy. Saul's only way out was like David, which we read in Psalm 32. After David sinned, he wrestled with the sin all night long until he said, "I finally confessed my sin, and then God was there to forgive me." That's Saul's only way out. He needs to repent of his sin of going against God, but he won't do it. He's even got a priest there to help him. To confess his sins and just have somebody there praying with him, but he won't take advantage of it.

God's way of deliverance is that we would confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us and to wash us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's our only way out. It's always been our only way out: to repent and get right with God, and then God will begin to bless and we'll have victories. But Saul, no, he doesn't want to go that way. He's stubborn. He's like Psalm 32, the mule. "No, I like my sin. I like my life." Come on, you don't really. You're all tied inside. You're unsure of what's going on. The Lord just wants to bring joy and peace to your life, but you've got to let go.

You've got to say, "I'm sorry for my sin and for living my life my way instead of going His way." Notice verse four. It says, "And between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over unto 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 Bozez, and the name of the other was Seneh." Now these two rocks, they had pet rocks back then. They named them. No, these were actually two huge rocks that would go up there in that area that there was a giant pass in between them.

Of course, those who had the high ground, those that were in the rocks always controlled the pass. So as Jonathan and his armor bearer would go through this pass, they knew the Philistines were watching them because they had guarded the pass and they had control of the pass. Now this pass is still there today. You can walk through it over there by Michmash, and it stands there as evidence that the Word of God is the Word of God. This was a literal pass that they walked through to let the enemy know that they were there.

The first thing that we see here with Jonathan's venture with his armor bearer is that if you're going to take a step of faith, it can be a lonely step of faith. You might be the only one taking it. As Jonathan received of the Lord, then he stepped out. He didn't even tell his dad. He knew his dad wouldn't understand. He knew his dad would think, "Son, you're out of your mind." His dad was a religious man, but he wasn't a true man of God as far as having a relationship with God.

He did not understand God. And yet Jonathan has this incredible vision of what God can do, an inspiration, and he takes off and he's alone in it. So many times as we take a step of faith, you will be alone. You can't even share it maybe with your husband or wife. You just have to take the step of faith and trust God. They'll be screaming at you going, "You're out of your mind!" And you go, "But I really feel this is what God has." So Jonathan and his armor bearer alone down that lonely pass.

In verse six, notice what Jonathan says. Jonathan says to the young man, the armor bearer, "Come, let us go over to 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." This venture, this step of faith comes all at once in a moment. One morning, Jonathan gets up, he looks around him, he sees the enemy surrounding them. He says, "This is ridiculous. Look at the mess we're in."

"Hey, wait a minute! We're the children of God. Our God is big. What is going on here? You know what? I've got an idea." The Lord just put this in his mind. "I think we... hey, what do you think?" He gets his armor bearer and starts to share with him. "How about if we just go see what God can do here? Why don't we see what maybe the Lord can do for us? He's a big God. Let's take this venture of faith and see if God wants to wipe out these uncircumcised Philistines that are against God's children."

So he takes this step of faith. The Philistines that are in our lives today, think about it. What are your Philistines? Aren't they the world, the flesh, and the devil? Those three that are our enemies as Christians that we come up against. The flesh with its addictions and its lusts. How we need the battle our Philistines. How we need to take steps of faith. The Bible says this: but one man died for all on a cross to deliver and to destroy the works of the devil. So the preaching of the cross to them that receive it, it's the power of God unto salvation. To those that perish, it's foolishness.

And yet the victory is in that one man that died for the sins of the whole world, Jesus Christ. Happy are those that take this venture of faith, that take a step of faith and say, "I don't know what you're talking about, Jeff, but I've tried to do my own thing in my own life. And what you're talking about is getting my ear, it's getting my heart. This step of faith, receiving Christ, I don't know what it all is about, but I'm willing to take it." Once you take that step, you enter into a whole another realm.

Your eyes are opened, your ears are opened to the Spirit of the Lord. You begin to get into God's Word and see that there's a whole another realm out here that's a spiritual realm and you begin to enter into it. Your family begins to enter into it and it's awesome as the Lord pours out His Spirit upon you. Now look at Jonathan's logic here as he kind of bounces it off his armor bearer. I think it's right on. He says, "Let's see if God will do this for us. For it's nothing for God to deliver by many or by few."

What was he thinking about? I think he was probably thinking about Gideon. Do you remember Gideon in Judges chapter 7? Gideon went up against 32,000 of their enemy. God says, "Your ranks are too many." He says, "You've got too many men, Gideon. I'm going to reduce your ranks down." And Gideon says, "Oh, yeah, God? I mean, I could use a few more." He says, "No, you can't. In fact, I'm going to reduce your ranks down to 300."

Remember when God dealt with Gideon and the ranks went all the way down to 300? What was God trying to do? That God was going to give them the victory and that they couldn't brag about what they had done. They knew it was the Lord. That it was the Lord that gave them the victory by few against many thousands. God does it over and over again. In fact, over in Deuteronomy 32:30, "one will chase a thousand, two will put ten thousand to flight."

What God can do with one individual or two or three are gathered in My name. He says, "I am there in the midst of them." Here, I think Jonathan is understanding the greatness of God. He's got a concept that is awesome. Remember in Acts chapter 4, remember when the disciples were threatened with their lives if they preached in Jesus' name anymore? Remember how they got out of jail and they ran right to the brethren and had fellowship? And then they said, "Let's pray together."

They gathered together to pray and here's how they prayed. They said, "God, You are the creator of the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all that dwells therein. And now, Lord, we bring our little puny prayer request. Can You handle it?" They knew after they prayed that prayer, "God, You're a big God. You're the creator. You're able." So now, Lord, hear our prayer. And they knew that God was going to answer their prayer because He is a big God and He is able.

What is your concept of God? Is it a six-foot Jew? Is that how big your God is? Or is your God Creator of all things? When you go to Him with your prayer request, do you go with this concept that You're a big God and You hear my prayers and You're going forth to answer them? So Jonathan realized that. "You can take care of with just a few, that's all You need, Lord." He doesn't need man and his mass army to win. Just one individual who is surrendered and yielded to Him, who is open to be used. God can use in a tremendous way.

Look at Luther. Look at Wesley. In fact, look at Billy Graham today. One man who just said, "Lord, use me," as he went to Russia, had the greatest assembly of people that he's ever had in his ministry, and the people that had come forward to receive Christ, just an awesome onslaught because of one man wanting to be used of God. Billy Graham is no different than any of us here. He was one man who was yielded, and look what God can do.

Jonathan is that man. It says in the scriptures in Revelation 3:8 that God has given us an open door, but we are of little strength. It doesn't matter because we are strong when He is with us. Little strength doesn't matter, He can do a great work. Who is going to venture through the open door? Jonathan said, "Me! I'm willing to go. I'll be God's vehicle if He wants me to, to bring deliverance and grace to the children of Israel. In fact, if you ask me, it's no problem with God to do whatever He wants to do." And that's Jonathan's vision.

With Jonathan or with us today, the bottom line is that we need God to work, don't we? We need God to do an awesome work in our midst. The question is how are we going to find out if God wants to work? The answer, of course, is we have to take a step of faith. Jonathan is taking a step of faith, he's venturing off here. What a leap. I remember I grew up in the Santa Ana Canyon for a number of years in my junior high years.

We used to have a game that we would play and we used to get in this huge gully and it was called gully jumping. We used to run at one side and jump to the other and see who could make it. Those that didn't get wiped out in the ravine. The idea was to run and get across with one huge leap and not miss. Because if you missed, you'd go right down into the ravine and there were stickers and everything down there. You'd get all messed up. So we would always dare one another to go.

The secret of getting across, of course, was that you needed to take one big run at this gully. When you get to the right to the brink of it, you just keep going. You don't stop. The secret is to just take that leap and go for it. If you did stop and say, "Well, wait a minute, I'm going to look down there one more time. Okay, I'm sizing it up," you lost courage. You blew it. You should have taken that leap and you didn't. So you go back to take it again, and every single time, those that lost courage the first time would wipe out every single time.

I think this gully jumping reveals an important part of our walk in faith as Christians. Listen, there is nothing more disastrous than someone to study faith or to analyze faith, to talk about faith, but never actually take that leap of faith. Never actually get out and go over a cross. There's a lot of people talking about it. There's a lot of people looking into it. There's a lot of people thinking about it. But how many are taking that step?

So Jonathan's taking that first venture of faith. He's taking that step. Actually, I call it an adventure in faith because when you step out to be used of the Lord or you step out to do something for God, it is always an adventure. Believe me. Isaiah said, "Lord, here I am, send me. Lord, I am available. Whatever, Lord, You want to do, let's go for it, I'm ready." So Jonathan steps out hoping, wanting to see if God would do a work. And he wasn't presumptuous, was he? He wasn't presuming that God was going to. He wasn't really demanding.

He was just saying, "Let's see. Let's give God an opportunity here. Everybody's hiding and everybody's sitting back and watching the enemy grow and they're threatening and, oh my gosh! Hey, wait a minute! Let's include God in this thing. Let's see what God will do. He can wipe them out by few or by many." Jonathan realized that God was an awesome God. So He can take care of these Philistines. So come on, armor bearer, let's go on and take on this multitude, for our God is able.

Remember what Paul said: "If God be for you, who can be against you?" And that's what they did as they walked through that pass. That's what they were experiencing as David went up against the giant of Goliath. That's what David experienced: no fear. No fear whatsoever. I don't care how big the guy is. I don't care how many of them there is. My God's for me, who can be against me? And they step out. Jonathan's secret of victory was that he simply believed, "By My Spirit, says the Lord." There was his secret. He went for it and he leaned to the Lord for that spiritual side, which we all need for our homes and for our marriages today. Listen, a family that prays together stays together.

We need to tap into our spiritual source, which is our God. As we do that, God's going to show us great things. Not only in our own homes, but in the families around us, in our jobs, continuing on. God wants to do more than you'd ever think through our lives. He's just looking for somebody who's available, who will yield, who will submit, who will take the step. With God, the scripture says, nothing is impossible. So let's see what God will do.

Verse seven. His armor bearer said unto him, after hearing his statement, "Do all that is in your heart, Jonathan. Turn thee, behold, I am with thee according to thy heart." I want you to notice this, that God can use... I don't care if you're a high-born or a low-born. Jonathan is the son of a king, right? And you say, "Well, he's blessed in many ways, so no wonder God is using Jonathan." But wait a minute, God's using this armor bearer too, and he's the low-born. God uses whoever is available, whoever's taking the step and wants to take the step.

So He uses both of these individuals here. Notice that this type of faith is a catchy type of faith. The armor bearer was immediately caught up with Jonathan, and their hearts were with in one accord, and they were going to go forth and see great things done. This faith is always catchy. As Jonathan's faith wrapped up the armor bearer and he says, "Let's go! Let's do it!" We've just recently saw how God works in this way at the Harvest Crusade. Over 350 churches bound together with one common vision, and that is to see souls saved. Walls torn down, let the walls fall down. Everybody prayed about it, everybody gathered together and brought the unsaved. And we saw over 13,000 souls in three days come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and their lives are changed.

Guest (Male): Amazing. What a wonderful work of our wonderful God. This is Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. Today we continued our series in 1 Samuel with our first look at chapter 14. If you enjoyed today's message from Pastor Jeff Johnson from the book of 1 Samuel, I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you can hear today's study as well as make a donation to this radio outreach.

That's at sounddoctrineradio.org. You can also listen at oneplace.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio app. I should also mention Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Be sure to join us again next time we meet for another encouraging and challenging study with Pastor Jeff in the book of 1 Samuel. That's here on Sound Doctrine, presented by Calvary Chapel Downey.