Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): A lot of Christians are walking around with their faith set in neutral. Here's Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: When you're away from the Lord, you don't know what to do when the enemy's coming in. You don't know how to react or how to act, and so you are inactive. And that's a sad thing about Christians that are inactive. They're not doing anything. They're just sitting there.

Nothing's getting done for the Kingdom. They're in like a shelved box area where the devil loves to shelf us as Christians and say, "You've sinned, so you need to sit here and look at your sin for a while." And somehow we buy into it, and then we become inactive and nothing gets done.

Guest (Male): A.W. Tozer once said Christians and especially active ones should take time out frequently to search their souls to be sure of their motives. Self-examination is so critically important in our pursuit of God and His righteousness. Pastor Jeff Johnson will talk about the perils of self-centeredness and disobedience today and the benefits of self-examination.

This is Sound Doctrine. We're back in 1 Samuel today and we'll be in chapter 14. Pastor Jeff joins us now to have us search our own hearts and then truly seek the Lord.

Jeff Johnson: 1 Samuel chapter 14. As we left off right in the middle of the chapter, the last time we were together, 1 Samuel chapter 14, and we've been looking at Saul's life. And again, we're going to be looking at his life because we can learn a lot from this man. This morning we're going to be looking at Saul: a runaway train. 1 Samuel chapter 14, verse 24 is where we left off.

A train on the track is a very powerful and very good tool. Straight is the way and narrow is the gate that leads into righteousness and everlasting life. It's straight, it's narrow, right on track. You've got to be on track. But when you get off track, and here is the sad thing, a runaway train off track is very disastrous because it doesn't stop its momentum. It continues on off the track with its tremendous force and it pulls every car, all the baggage, and all the people and everything over the edge.

And it wreaks havoc with everything. I don't know if you've ever seen some of the aftermath of train accidents and what happens when they get off track. Those huge cars just twisted and turned like toothpicks. Just the force and everything in them is just destroyed. It's a disastrous thing, a train off the track. Well, King Saul is a runaway train, and we're going to see the devastation that happens in his life, but not only in his life.

Because you've got to understand that no man is an island. There's not one of us here that is an island unto ourselves, that we don't touch somebody, that we don't touch a family, touch others around us. What we do affects them. And so we'll see how Saul's life affects so many. His heart and his character are being revealed through these chapters, yet it's nothing compared to what is to come in the next few chapters that we're going to be looking at.

We last saw Saul, a very inactive king, kicking back under a pomegranate tree as the enemy was closing in. He didn't know what to do. The reason he didn't know what to do is because his heart was away from the Lord. When you're away from the Lord, you don't know what to do when the enemy's coming in. You don't know how to react or how to act, and so you are inactive.

And that's a sad thing about Christians that are inactive. They're not doing anything. They're just sitting there. Nothing's getting done for the Kingdom. They're in like a shelved box area where the devil loves to shelf us as Christians and say, "You've sinned, so you need to sit here and look at your sin for a while." And somehow we buy into it, and then we become inactive and nothing gets done. And so we last left him as the enemy was closing in.

But his son Jonathan took up the torch, didn't he? And there he stepped out in a venture of faith, and that's what we talked about last time we were together, the venture of faith of Jonathan. God honored his step of faith and their enemy was thrown into confusion. They began to fight amongst themselves and Saul, hearing about this victory, was encouraged to go and see what was going on.

And Israel was then saved, it says, that day from their enemy. Why? Because Jonathan, who loved his God, took a step of faith and said, "Let's see what our God can do with this situation. We're in a bad situation. Let's just see what He wants to do." Oh, what a step to allow God to come into your circumstance, your situation, and to say, "Well, let's trust Him. Let's see what He can do."

He can do great things if you just let Him. And so I love this step of faith of Jonathan as God blesses that step. And you know what it's been said, that it is yet to be seen what God can do with one man who is totally yielded to Him. Totally yielded. It's yet to be seen what God can do through that yielded vessel.

Now, in verse 24, notice it says, "And the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had adjured the people, saying, 'Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I,' he says, 'may be avenged on my enemies.'" So none of the people tasted any food. Saul's pride is being revealed here, and he says, "Until I be avenged." I mean, where did it come that you needed to be avenged, Saul?

See, right now you can see that his eyes are not on the Lord. He says, "Until my enemies get wiped out." Well, wait a minute, what about God? Aren't these His enemies, too? Well, no, he's taking it on as a personal affront now: "I, my enemies." But they were God's enemies, too. Why did Saul make this ridiculous vow? And I think maybe it could be because he's trying to reinstate his authority.

Remember in chapter 13, Samuel really rebukes Saul in front of all the people, really gave it to him. And it was like he was losing his authority. He was trying to be the king when he really wasn't. In fact, God says, "Your kingdom's going to be taken from you, Saul." And so he's trying to reinstate his authority, saying, "Listen, I'm making a vow. Until my enemies are avenged, nobody's going to eat anything. We're just going to go for it. We're going to run after them."

Now, it could be also that Saul was trying to trap his son, knowing that his son now has become a military hero to the people because he's had two major victories now that God has done. It wasn't Jonathan's victory, it was God intervening. And so we see jealousy within Saul. The enemy is on the run and this vow, when you look at it, is very stupid. He says, "You have no time to eat because I want you to go and attack your enemy and wipe them out for me."

It was a very rash decision, a decision that had great zeal with the lack of knowledge, though. He didn't understand what this vow would mean. It would cost him not only his army to turn against him, not only would it cost him his son, but it would also put another nail in his own coffin because he's in the flesh. He's making rash decisions and he's taking a dive. It's sad the way Saul goes out. Saul's simply not in touch.

He's oblivious on what's really going on. You can sense it, you can see it. This train is starting to detract. He knows that Jonathan has scored again and so now his jealousy comes out, and it seems that he wants the victory as before. Remember, he's the one that blew the horn saying, "I got the victory, not my son." Again, we see this situation.

Verse 25, "And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground. And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped; but no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath: wherefore he put forth the end of his rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth;" and notice, "his eyes were enlightened."

No one would eat, but Jonathan didn't hear about this weird vow. So he comes along, he sees some honey, he says, "Hey, honey. Boy, this would be great energy for me." So he dipped his rod in the honey and he started to, as he was continuing to run, he started to lick the honey. And notice it says because his blood sugar, I mean, we're talking about chasing an enemy for 20 miles on foot. His blood sugar was low. A bit of honey just kind of gets you going again. It gives you that energy kick.

I remember when I was in sports in high school, that that's one thing we always had was a jar of honey, or one of those plastic jugs where you could just drip it out. And right before you're ready to go to a meet or run, I was a pole vaulter, right before I was ready to do it, I'd just start digging all this honey in thinking that I'm going to really get an edge on these guys. And so we'd take this honey and just down it. The coach gets going, "Go for it, man. Go for it."

Now, the psalm we read this morning, I said we were going to look back at it, but in Psalm 19, notice in verse 10 there, the Psalmist David writing down says this, "More to be desired are they than gold," talking about the word of God, "yea, than much fine gold." And then he says, "sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." And it says that Jonathan's eyes, as he ate the honey, his eyes were enlightened. He was enlightened.

What happened? Well, in chapter 19, verse 8, it says, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." You see, what I see here is that he was revived, he was refreshed in the physical. So will we in the spiritual if we taste and see that the Lord is good. His word is good. His word is honey to us. It will enlighten our eyes.

But Saul's decision caused weakness to come into the people, and they would be unable to capitalize on Jonathan's victory. You see, Jonathan really had the enemy running, but the people were lagging behind. They were faint. They couldn't keep up with it. They couldn't capitalize and destroy the enemy. Why? Because Saul made a ridiculous vow: "Don't anybody eat until they're dead." They couldn't go any further.

Verse 28, "Then answered one of the people, and said, 'Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food this day.' And the people," notice, "were faint. Then said Jonathan, 'My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey. How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?'"

You see, Jonathan was saying, "Listen, I didn't even hear the vow and anyhow my father is wrong. It's going to affect the whole land, the decision that he has made. We had them in our clutches, and he makes this stupid vow, and we couldn't even keep up with them. The enemy just took off." So just as we need physical food, what I see here is you need physical food to do battle. Hey, what is the old saying? An army travels on its what? Stomach.

You've got to feed the guys, man. If you want them to fight, you've got to feed them. The better you feed them, the better they're going to fight. The same in the spiritual realm. We need, if we're going to do spiritual warfare, we need spiritual food. We need to feed upon the word of God if we're going to do war in the spirit. And that's what God is calling us to, as His army, to war in the spirit. So we need the word of God.

It is a sad thing today as we're looking at our land, as we see a famine is throughout this land. And the famine is not of bread or drink, it's of the word of God. People aren't listening to God. They're not getting His wisdom and His knowledge, and so we're going down the fool's trail. It's a runaway train and our nation is really paying for it and continues to pay for it as I speak. People are too busy, too busy to seek God, too busy to read His word.

The people we see every day when we go to school or where we work at, they're fainting. They're tired. They're losing it. Their lives are being destroyed all around us. Why? Because they can't seek the Lord. They can't afford, some of them say, to give to God. You can't afford not to give to God. After all that He's done for us, for us to give unto the Lord of our substance or whatever, our lives, our time, and yet there's people always saying, "Hey, you know, I just can't afford to."

Have we been so deluded? Have we been so simulated back into the world as Christians that we're believing this lie, this false economy that this world is living on and our United States, that we would not give unto the Lord, that we would not get into God's economy? Come on, don't buy into it. You're getting ripped off. You're going to be faint wrestling with this economy. If you get into God's economy, you will not be faint.

You will be strong in the things of the Lord, and who cares about the things of this world? It's going to burn anyhow. We need to keep our eyes where they need to be in the spiritual realm so we can continue to do war and be courageous in the Lord. I love this scripture in Isaiah chapter 55, where Isaiah the prophet says, "Ho, listen, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

Then he asks the question, "Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." There's the counsel of the Lord to all of us this morning. We need to steady on and be as newborn babes, doing what? Desiring the sincere milk of the word. Why? So we would grow thereby.

We need to grow strong in the things of God, not in the things of this world. Get knowledgeable about the things of God, not about the world. "Come out from amongst them and be ye separate," says the Lord, "and touch not the unclean thing." And so the Lord is calling us to feed upon His word. To not feast on the Lord is to be lean and weary in your battling. So Saul says, "Don't stop and eat."

It was the stupidest, it was a foolish request. We've got to take time to take in the strength and the wisdom that we need, to be energized in the spirit, and to have our eyes, what? Enlightened. Remember the two guys that were walking the road to Emmaus with Jesus in Luke chapter 24? And do you remember they brought this strange person that they were talking to home with them?

And it's not until Jesus started to break bread with them and eat with them, that they started to partake with Him and as they did, as they communed with the Lord, all of a sudden their eyes were opened, and it says that we knew Him. You know, come on, let's have our eyes enlightened. Let's be enlightened with the word of God. It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path.

Let's understand the things of God, what's coming in the future. Let's don't look at the bleak newspaper and listen to the news and get all down and bogged down in the whole thing. Let's look to God. Let's be encouraged. Your eyes will be enlightened and you will know your Lord. And isn't that what it's all about? You and Jesus tight? Walking close, hand in hand. He speaks to me, walks with me, He talks with me, He ministers to me.

He is my Lord and my Savior. He's all that I need and so I seek Him with my whole heart and I am nourished from Him and my eyes are opened. Look at verse 31. "And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon," or whatever, "and the people were very faint." Notice a second time, "the people were faint." It was a 20-mile warfare going on here.

"And the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and slew them on the ground: and the people did eat them with the blood." Twice it talks about how the people were very faint. Jesus said, "Listen, men ought always to," what? "Pray and not faint." If we would be in the word more and praying more, we wouldn't be so fainting and heartless and so discouraged. You faint because you're not praying, you're not communicating with headquarters, you're not listening to the Lord and hearing what He's saying.

You're being deceived, you're being ripped off, you're being frustrated and confused. Why? Because we need to seek the Lord. And so the people were faint. Seven days, it's an old saying, without God's word makes one week, w-e-e-k. That's true. They were so famished that they went for the beef, man. They went all the way. They didn't even ceremonially bleed the animals. They just ripped into them and started eating it.

I mean in Leviticus, I think it's 17, it talks about there's a certain way to ceremonially clean meat. When you get the kosher brand, the kosher dogs are the best, I got to admit. They're responsible to a higher power, right? They are better. Believe me. They've been bled right, they're good stuff. I like Hebrew National. That's a little plug. But it's kosher why? Because it's been bled, because it's been properly treated like Leviticus 17 says.

But they didn't even do that. They went right for it. You see, you don't get the word, if you don't get the word, we tend to get into the flesh every single time. We seek those things that satisfy not. We gorge ourselves in the physical food of this world. We say to ourselves, "Well, I deserve a night off, and so I'm going to go home and just get into cooking, man. I'm going to get into this meal and we're going to sit down in front of the TV and we're going to see a movie and we're just going to eat, eat, eat and watch, watch, watch."

And then all of a sudden, you know, you're getting kind of bored with that and you say, "Well, let's go to a movie tonight. Let's go see the latest movie," and what do you do? You go to the movies and what do you buy? Popcorn and all the other goodies, right? So you're sitting there watching the movie. And then you get out of there and you go home and you go, "I don't feel too good." I mean, I thought all these things were going to satisfy me and really meet my needs, but I'm sick.

See, we gorge ourselves with the things of this world without realizing what we really need are the things of God. Those things that satisfy not. We spend our money on that which satisfies not, instead of really getting in and really feeding on the word of the Lord. God's word is soul food, and I love that part where it says in Isaiah, "indulge yourself in fatness, man." Girls, there is no calories with the word of God. So you can eat all you want and you can just dwell in fatness. Get fat with the things of God, man. Go for it. It's okay. It's soul food, remember.

Verse 33, "Then they told Saul, saying, 'Behold, the people sin against the Lord, in that they eat with the blood.' And he said, 'Ye have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day.'" In other words, get me out a sacrificing stone. "And Saul said, 'Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat; and sin not against the Lord in eating with the blood.'

And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and slew them there. And Saul built an altar unto the Lord: the same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord." Saul now is punishing them for disobeying God's law. And you know, we're so quick to judge. We're so harsh upon those who we see are doing sins that we do. Usually it's the sin that we're the weakest in that we see in others so quickly.

We say, "Look at that guy. Look what he's doing. Oh, God's going to get him." And you've got one going out, but you've got three coming back. "Let me help you remove the sliver out of your eye," you've got this log that's just knocking everything down. And that's how we are, though. We see it so quickly and so easily. Saul's the same way. "I don't have any sin. The people, you lousy people, you're sinning. Okay, you're going to have payment now. Everybody bring an ox, and we're going to have this giant barbecue."

And they did. They slaughtered all of these animals. The altar that Saul built was an outward show of godliness, but I'll tell you something, it was denying the power thereof. Because Saul really denied the reality of a relationship with God. All the way through you'll see this in Saul's life. He talked the talk, but he didn't walk the walk. And he'd constantly do these little trying to do a right thing in the wrong way. His heart wasn't right, and he was blowing it. He was a runaway train.

Guest (Male): Saul was on a runaway train to be sure. You're listening to Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson and his study in 1 Samuel 14. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today. 1 Samuel is filled with practical insights for Christian living. And if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app.

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And thank you very much for your support. It's greatly appreciated and will be put to good use helping others build their lives on the sound doctrine found in God's word. We hope you'll join us for our next study in 1 Samuel. It's going to be a good one. That's right here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey. Have a blessed day in the Lord.