(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The title of my sermon tonight is The Sword of Jonathan, and I wanted to read this chapter because there's a lot of stuff taking place in this chapter, a lot of important pieces of Jonathan's life, of things that we see that Jonathan does, of understanding who Jonathan was as a character, what his personality was like. We learn a lot of things about Jonathan, but I think even to understand fully who Jonathan is, or what the sword of Jonathan is, we have to back up and go to 1 Samuel chapter 8. And I want to start with Saul, his father. So go to 1 Samuel chapter 8, if you would, look at verse 19, it says, Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we may also be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. So if you understand where we're at in the story of the Bible, the Bible makes it clear that the children of Israel, they came out of Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, then they finally were able to conquer and enter into the promised land with Joshua. And then they went through a period of hundreds of years with the judges, where they just had a certain man that would sometimes rise up and he would defeat their enemies, and it helped them take more of the land that they were supposed to conquer. Because when they entered into the promised land, they only took a portion of the land. They did not conquer all of the land in Joshua's lifetime. And it was that the tribes were supposed to continue to take the land that God had given them. He'd give them little by little as they would grow and multiply and be able to take that land over. But many times the children of Israel did evil on the side of the Lord, and their enemies took even backs on the land that they had originally conquered. They're constantly at war, they're constantly in fighting with the Canaanites, and with the Hivites, and all these different Jebesites, I mean all these different ites. I mean they got all these different people in the land they're constantly fighting with. And I guess they just get sick and tired of just having a judge, just having to have some man among them stand up and rise up amongst them and be a judge and follow the Lord and lead them in the battle. They say, we just want a dedicated king. We just want a dedicated guy, and what's his purpose? We saw right here that he may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles. They wanted this guy to just be their go-to guy, hey we got our king, he's gonna go out, he's gonna lead us in the battle, he's gonna be the one to triumph. They weren't just gonna rely on a judge to be raised up, they said we're gonna have a king, we're gonna be like all the other nations. So that was the purpose of why we get Saul. How we get Saul is the people wanted a king. They wanted this person against God's will. God did not will that they would have a king, but that he would be their king, he would be the one that delivered them. And we see that through the whole judges, we see that through Joshua, it wasn't man that was winning these battles, it was God that was winning the battles. We think of the great initial battle of Jericho, I mean man didn't do anything. He just walked around the city seven times and blew the trumpet and guess what, the walls fell down. The Lord is the one that's giving them victory, the Lord's the one that's giving them the battle, and we see it's not through man's strength. It's not through, you know, oh we have this great king, oh we have this great warrior. No the warriors are warriors of faith, and they did what God told them to do, and he's the one that wrought the victory, wrought the battle. One of the most famous ones is Gideon. He saves, you know, the whole host of Israel with 300 men. He's not doing it with the mind of a great army, with a great, you know, force of man. No he's doing it by God. God's the one that's giving them the victory. It's not through man. So this desire to have the king is not to be able to lean on God. Ultimately it's the fact that they don't have their trust in God that's going to be the one that's going to deliver them. They need some man to deliver them now. We need the government to deliver us. We need the president to deliver us. We need the governor to deliver us. We need some man to lead us. They can't just rely on God to be their ultimate, you know, protection and the one to win their battles for them. So then we go to first Samuel chapter nine. That's when we're introduced to Saul, who Saul is. He's a man born, the son of Kish. He's humble in his own sight. The Bible says he was little in his own sight is how he viewed himself. He was a very humble man. He was just, he was a lowly man. He said that he was of like the least of the tribe of Benjamin. He wasn't even of a great stature within the people. In the Bible, then we go into first Samuel chapter 10. Saul, he runs into Samuel and he becomes anointed. He then returns back home because he'd gone out to find some sheep. Isn't that interesting? The guy going out looking for the lost sheep. I mean, there's so many, you know, parallels with Saul's life, but the story is not about Saul. Then we look at first Samuel 11 and Saul's been anointed, okay, by Samuel, but he doesn't actually become king in this moment. He just returns home and then an enemy is raised up against the children of Israel. Nahash the Ammonite, they're in verse, look at first Samuel chapter 11, let's look at verse number five. We're going to see this, this enemy that's been stirred up and look at verse five. It says, and behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field and Saul said, what El the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh and the spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those things and his anger was kindled greatly and he took a yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces and sent them throughout all the coast of Israel by the hands of messengers saying whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel so shall be done in his oxen and the fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent. So this is the shining moment where Saul goes from just being the lowly man that's been anointed to becoming king. He has this enemy, Nahash, who comes into the men of Jabesh and he's out of conflict with them. They make a covenant with us and he's like, well, I'll make a covenant with you, you know, pluck out your eyes, you know, and they're like, okay, well, let's see if anybody will come to our aid. If not, we'll just be your servants, but they send unto Saul and Saul's greatly angry. He's like, we can't let anybody come and intimidate our tribes. We can't let anybody come and intimidate the children of Israel. Hey, we're going to, we're going to go out to battle and you know, if you don't come with me, your oxen are going to be ripped up like I just ripped up these little oxen. He rips up and does a sacrifice and he says, hey, if you don't come with me, we got to come with one consent and the fear of the Lord falls on the people and he raises them up. A great leader. And then he wins the great battle and he wins a battle over these people and then the people want to anoint him king. So in Samuel chapter 12, Saul finally becomes the king. Then we're introduced to 1 Samuel chapter 13 where we're first introduced to Jonathan. So what's happened? Basically, Saul has won one battle and then he becomes king in chapter 12, okay? And Samuel gives an admonition to the people saying, even though this was against God's will, even though I didn't want you to have a king, just serve the king with all your heart and follow my commandments and it'll be well with me. And then we fall right into 1 Samuel chapter 13. Look at verse one. Saul reigned one year. So he hasn't reigned very long, has he? And when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul had chosen 3,000 men of Israel. Where of 2,000 were with Saul and Michmash and the Mount Bethel and 1,000 were with Jonathan and Gibeah of Benjamin and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent. And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba and the Philistines heard of it and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land saying, let the Hebrews hear. So Saul has only been reigning for a year and now we're in the second reign and what happens? It's basically two troops. It's him with 1,000 and Jonathan with 2,000 and who does the Bible say won the victory? Who's the one that's going out and leading the battle? It's Jonathan. Now what was the purpose of having the king? What did the people want? They wanted the king to go out before the people, to win the battle, to be their leader, to be the one to guide them in the battle. We see Saul, even after one year, just one year, he's won his one battle, what's he doing? Now he's just sending his son out to the battle. Now he's kind of, he's sending back, oh, I'll send other people to go to the battle. He's already lazy after one year and Jonathan's the one going out to the battle. But what does Saul do? Does he say, well, let's lift up Jonathan and let's give Jonathan all the credit? Well, look at verse four, and all Israel heard say that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines and that Israel also had an abomination with the Philistines and the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal. Now oftentimes when the king, you know, wins a battle, maybe he didn't really do it, they'll still attribute it to him just because he's the leader. But I think in verse four it says this, and all Israel heard say. So they heard something, they, hey, Saul's the one going out to battle. But we know it wasn't him. It was Jonathan. And we can't always believe things that we just hear, hearsay, you say, where does hearsay come from? Well, it comes from the Bible. You see this phrase, heard say, a lot of times in the Bible. Hey, they just heard something. Hey, we heard Saul's going out and he's slaying all these people, he's winning all these battles. It really wasn't even him. It was Jonathan that was doing the hard work. It was Jonathan that was going out to battle. It was Jonathan that was winning these battles. So Saul initially went out and won the battle, right? He won against Nahash and the Ammonite. But then after a year, he's already kind of kicking back. He's already kind of, well, I'll give you the most of the troops and you go out and you smote the Philistines, but I'll make sure and blow the trumpet. I'll make sure and let people know that I'm the one going out to battle. Look at verse five now. It says, and the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel. Well, they've heard that someone's coming, you know, challenging them. So now they're rallying the troops. They're going to come fight this great Saul, this great man that's going out to get the battle. Because isn't that why he's blowing the trumpet? Hey, look, we're going to battle. We're winning. We're going to win the battle. We're winning all these fights. You better hearsay all the Hebrews. But what is Saul's attitude whenever the Philistines, you know, actually want to pick the fight? It's that guy that talks the talk, but as soon as the guy turns around and says, say what? He's like, oh, I didn't say anything. He's so nervous about it, right? Because look what it says here. It says, and the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and the people of the sand, which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and pitched a mickmash eastward from Beth-Haven, when the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, for the people were distressed. Then the people did hide themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits, and some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was Yed and Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. Look at that. They followed Saul trembling. Now were they going to the battle or were they going away from the battle? They're going away from the battle. They're following Saul trembling. Saul's like, hey, I'm blowing the trumpet. We're going to win the battle. And then there's this great battle coming. What does he do? He's afraid. All the people are getting afraid. They're trembling, aren't they? Look at verse 8, and he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed, but Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. So all the people, they're just terrified. Saul's not leading this great charge. Saul's not being this great leader. Why? Because he's already given up. He's letting Jonathan go out and get the battles. He's rusty. He's not going to trust in the Lord to win the battle storm anyways. Because if he's trusting in the Lord, why does he need other people to go fight his battles? He'll just trust in the Lord, and the Lord will deliver him. But we see he's already getting rusty. He doesn't want to do it. He's just all talk. And the Philistines are in mick-mash. The Bible says Saul's in Gibeah, and it says that Saul's army is dwindling from 3,000 to 600. So he's losing people. This isn't what you call a great leader. It's not a great leader when you have 3,000 troops and it dwindles down to 600. After you blew the trumpet, you said we won the battle, and now less people are coming. This guy's not rallying the troops. This guy's not the right leader. Look at verse 15. And Samuel rose and got him from Gilgalon to Gibeah, Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him about 600 men. So he was about 600 men. You know, it makes me think of Jesus in the New Testament. He had said in Matthew. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. So we see that Saul's what? Losing the sheep. He's losing the sheep of Israel. They're not gathering in the battle. And isn't it interesting, maybe it's just he had a bad character flaw. Because how are we introduced to Saul in the story? He's looking for the lost sheep. Why is he always losing sheep? Maybe he's not a very good shepherd. Maybe he's not, you know, tending to the flock the way he should. Maybe initially he kind of gets in there. But then he just has this lazy, poor character where he's constantly losing the sheep. He's constantly, you know, kicking back. He's constantly getting lazy. He's not tending to the flock. He's not doing what he's supposed to be doing. That's obviously speculation. But I mean, I think it kind of makes sense. I mean, he's losing the sheep. Then he's losing the sheep literally, you know, at the flock of Israel. I mean, we see when you don't have a great leader, the sheep are scattered. When you have a great leader, the sheep are brought together. That tells me Saul honestly wasn't a very good leader. Now, he had moments of being a good leader. He slew the oxen. He gathers all of Israel with one consent. They go out to the battle. But he's struggling to be a good leader here in this story. So let's look at verse 13. Let's see what happens. It says, And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee. For now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. And Samuel arose and got him up from Gilgal unto Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people that were present with him, about 600 men. And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines in Camp and Michmash. So a little bit in the story we had, Saul, I didn't read it for the sake of time, but Saul, he offers a sacrifice unto the Lord that he shouldn't. He should have waited for Samuel the prophet to come. We see he wasn't trusting in the Lord. He got nervous, Samuel was tearing, it had been like past seven days. Samuel's not coming, the people are leaving, he's getting real nervous. So he has to make some man-made effort to try and draw the people in. Isn't that what churches do today? They have the flocks leaving the church. They can't rise the people, so what do they do? They come up with some man-made way to bring the people in. They're not the Lord's way, not through the Bible, not through preaching, not through worshiping God with truth and in spirit, but they try to give the gimmicks. Hey, let's just, let's throw a movie for the service. I mean, I literally grew up in a church where during the summer, people would just leave by the droves. I mean, during the summer, nobody came to church. I mean, we're talking, I mean, I think the church had about 10,000 people in total, and they had about three services, or it would be about 3,000 people or so in each service. But in the summer, it'd be like 1,000. I mean, we're talking just like tons of people not being there. So like, we gotta come up with a way to get people in church. So they would literally show Hollywood movies for the church service. Like Iron Man, like Captain Billa, like Despicable Me. I mean, they brought in the popcorn, they brought in the billboards, like you have your face cut out and you're like a superhero or whatever, you can take pictures. I mean, it was like, what in the world? And I wasn't, you know, I didn't believe a lot of the things I did back then, but I even knew that was wicked. I was like, hey, if they want to do this on their own time, whatever. You know, okay, I'm not going to stand in judgment of that. But when you're placing church with a gimmick, when you're placing church with a movie, and the people, they didn't come in droves to the movies. They didn't really even bring any more people in. It was just fake. I mean, people, they want to go to the movies, they're going to go to the real thing. They're going to go see a real movie that they really want to see. They're not going to see these old movies that everybody's already seen. And they like chopped it up, and then they have like a little bit of commentary and try to make it difficult. I mean, it just ruined it for both of you. I mean, the guy that came that was like excited to watch the movie, he's like, oh, you ruined it with all this stupid commentary. And the person that actually believes the Bible, they're like, why are you watching this stupid, wicked movie with sodomites in the movie? The guy who was the main star was of Iron Man, Robert Downey, Jr. He's a sodomite. He's a faggot. And you're going to put him on this screen and say, hey, let's learn from God's, you know, word. They weren't learning Genesis 19. They weren't learning Judges 19. They weren't teaching in Romans 1. No, they're liking this guy under Christ. How wicked, how evil, the gimmick. We see Samuel gets really mad at Saul when he offers this wicked sacrifice. You got to do it God's way or otherwise you're not going to have to bless him. Otherwise, God's going to just take you away and say, hey, I'm going to give it to another man. Obviously, I don't even think this church had saved pastors or saved leaders. They were probably all false prophets. But there's even saved pastors today that they try to imitate the world. They try to imitate the heathen nations. They try to offer the sacrifices and abominations of the heathen. We see a lot of times in the Old Testament that the wicked kings, they were still offering sacrifices. They saw the altar. They're still putting an animal on it. What? They were doing it as a pattern of the heathen. They were still religious. They still had their services. They were still doing some type of worship, but it was wicked. It wasn't according to the Bible. We shouldn't just, well, this person looks religious. They must love God. They must love Jesus. No, it's what the book says. That's what you're supposed to do. Even Samuel admonishes Saul and he says it's better to obey than to sacrifice. Look, you'd rather follow God's commandments than make some great sacrifice. You know, I think it's really, you know, an epidemic in these major churches because these wicked people come into their church, fornicators and adulterers and all kinds of manners and drunks, and they don't ever preach against their sin. But you know what they tell them? Hey, I know you're struggling in your life. You're probably, you know, doing these things. They'll say, hey, you're probably sleeping outside of marriage or probably drunk. It's because you're not tithing. It's because you're not giving money to the Lord. And if you tithe, God will give you victory over that in your life. And so it's like, give this big sacrifice. Make this big, you know, monetary sacrifice to the Lord and he'll bless you and he'll help you with your struggling and your sin. That's like the exact opposite of what Samuel's telling to Saul. He's saying, look, God doesn't want your money. He wants you to just obey his commandments. He wants you to just follow his word. We see today, so many people, they're forsaking following God's commandments, but they'll come to church and try to make just this one big sacrifice to be, oh, maybe I'll make up for it. And God's like, this is gross. This is sick. No, just do what I said. Don't try to give me your money. Just follow my commandments. Now, of course, if you ever want to give a free will offering, that's biblical, according to the Bible, but God doesn't want to accept your offering when you're just spitting in his face and not following his commandments. Your offering, it's just an abomination in sight. He doesn't even like it. He doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Go to Ezekiel chapter 18, if you will. We see Jonathan was with Saul when this was told to him, when Samuel told Saul that he was going to lose the kingdom. So Jonathan sees the sins of his father. They're witnessed before him. He sees him offer the wrong sacrifice. He sees Samuel get mad at him. He sees Samuel say, hey, you're going to lose the kingdom. And you know who that hurt the most? Jonathan. Why? Because Saul was still king. Saul didn't like immediately lose the kingdom right then and there. Who lost it? Jonathan. Jonathan literally watches as his father just ruins the kingdom for him. And you know what? This can happen so many times in people's lives where a father can ruin something for his children. He can ruin some part of their inheritance. He can ruin their lives. I mean, the sins of the father can many times often affect the children. And it's very sad. It's very tragic. We see sometimes, what if a dad gets drunk and he drives his family across town and they all get in a wreck and die, just ruining his child's life. He's just throwing his kid's life away. We see so many parents will get drunk and they'll beat their kids. People will just commit adultery and they get divorced and their kids are just in this horrible situation. They don't know which parent to go with or where to go. And they're just ruining their children's lives over and over and over. And kids are constantly seeing today their parents fail and sin and do wicked. But it's that child that has the decision, hey, am I gonna follow in my parents' footsteps? Am I gonna let this get me down even though they may have caused me some great grief? I mean, think about it. You're in line to be the king and then it's taken away from you. That's gotta be tough. I think for most men, most people, they have that opportunity to just be ripped away from you for no fault of your own. It's gotta be tough. Probably a lot of anger towards your father. Look at Ezekiel 18, verse 10. Says, if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that doeth delight to any one of these things, and that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains and defiled his neighbor's wife, hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase, shall he then live? He shall not live. He hath done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him. The Bible makes it clear, when you don't follow God's word, when you live in sin, for the wages of sin is death. We're not talking about boobs of spanking. We're not talking about time out. We're talking about death today. When people go out and they get drunk and they smoke marijuana and they do all kinds of drugs and they live wicked lives, we're talking about death. It's not a thing to take lightly. It's a thing that people are ruining their lives, they're ruining their children's lives, they're ruining their family's lives. All kinds of people could tell you today, oh, I got a drunk uncle who got drunk and killed himself in a car accident. Oh, I have a family member who was killed by a drunk driver. It wasn't even their fault. We see people that, you know, their children grow up and go into wickedness, people committing adultery constantly, people committing suicide. This is real. And we see there's a consequence to sin. It's not this, oh, God's not mad at you. God's not gonna punish you. Nothing bad's ever gonna happen to you. No, if you live in wickedness, you will be punished. You will have consequences. And many times it's death. Many times it's irreparable damage, things that will destroy your life. Look at verse 14. Now lo, be beget a son, that seeth all his father's sins, which he hath done, and considerth, and doeth not such the life, that he hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither have lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's wife, neither have oppressed any, hath not withhold the pledge, neither spoiled by violence, but have given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment, that hath taken off his hand from the poor, and hath not received usury nor increase, hath executed my judgments, executed my judgments, hath walked in my statutes, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father. He shall surely live. The Bible makes it clear that, you know, children will sometimes suffer from their parents' consequences, okay? But God is not gonna just kill the child for the father's sins when he's trying to live right, when he's doing right. Now sometimes, you know, we see wicked men, you know, killing righteous people. We see righteous people dying a martyr's death. So obviously in some cases, people are gonna die even though they're innocent, okay? But the Bible's just saying, when you see your father's sins, when you see his wicked ways, and you decide to turn from those wicked ways, he's gonna have mercy on you. He's gonna have grace on you. You're not gonna have the same punishment that's doled out on the father, and when the God comes out and rains on the father, he's not gonna rain on the sons. We see even, there's some examples of this in the Bible, where Josiah, when he's putting people to death, he doesn't put the sons to death for the sins of the father. We see other righteous kings, when they're killing the prophets of Baal, they're not killing the sons. We see in the Bible that the children are not supposed to be put to death for the sins of the father. Now God can do whatever he wants. Sometimes we see that the sins of the father, they stretch down to the son in the sense of like Achan. I mean, Achan who took the cursed thing, him and his whole family had to stand in the middle of the camp and all the Israelites stoned him. But the Bible's making it clear that, hey, just because your father's a wicked sinner, just because he's committed great iniquity does not mean that you have to suffer from all that iniquity, all that sin. If you decide to live right, you can come out from that and you can live a righteous life. So we see what did Jonathan do? What was Jonathan's attitude when he saw Saul? When he saw Saul's wicked sins, he saw that he was lazy, he saw that he was not following God's commandments, he wasn't going to the battle by faith, what is Jonathan gonna do? Well, let's read a little bit more on this before we finish. Let's look at verse 18 in Ezekiel. It says, as for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, spoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity. Yet say ye, why? Does not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. The soul that sinned, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Now, the Bible says in the Old Testament that God would visit the sins and iniquities of the fathers into the third and fourth generation. So what I believe the Bible's kind of teaching here as a general principle is the fact that when your father's very wicked, when he hates the Lord, if you decide to follow in his ways, you're gonna get even more compounded judgment from the Lord. He's gonna remember the sins and iniquities of your father and bring them upon you as well as your sins. You're not only gonna pay for the wickedness in your life, it's just gonna keep rolling downhill and people are gonna wax worse and worse. But when he decides, hey, I don't wanna follow in my father's wicked ways, I don't wanna go in the same way, I wanna live in righteousness, God's gonna have mercy on that person. He's not gonna pour that extra wickedness onto this son. We see that he can come out from that generation of just wicked curse after curse after curse after curse. And we see today, isn't that the case? The nations that hate God. I mean, they're just getting more wicked and wicked. We look at Europe today, we see the countries that hate God, they're just turning away from God constantly. They're embracing sodomy and abortion and all kinds of manner of wickedness today. Why? Because they just hate God and just keep getting worse and worse and worse until a generation rises up and says, no, we're not gonna walk in the ways of our father, we're gonna serve the Lord. We're gonna follow his commandments. We're gonna follow his judgments. We're gonna follow the statutes. I think that was the attitude of Jonathan. Let's go all the way back to 1 Samuel 14. So why do we go through all that? Well, it was so that we could get a picture of how we're getting to Jonathan. We see some of the mindsets, we see some of the attitudes that are probably taking place. Because when you read through the Bible, it's usually going through courses of years and decades just like this. We don't know all the feelings and emotions. We gotta kinda slow down, use some other Bible to probably interpret how these emotions are. Look at, actually, let's look at 1 Samuel 13. Go back to verse 19 before we get there. It says, now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears. But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter and his axe and his matic. Yet they had a file for the matic and for the coulters and for the forks and for the axes and to sharpen the goats. So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan. But with Saul and with Jonathan, his son was there found. So it's really interesting in this story. The Bible says that the children of Israel, they didn't have any weapons. They just kinda had their farming and instruments, the tools that they would use to cultivate the land and to till the ground and to plant and do different things, or maybe to chop wood. These weren't primary weapons. The primary function of these tools was not as a weapon. It was just a tool, like a hammer or like an ax. I mean, things that we could relate to today. We don't always have a matic and all these types of things like that, but it wasn't a primary weapon. Primary weapons are what? Swords and the bow is typically in the Bible, or maybe a spear. We have the shield. These are the weapons of the Bible. And we see here, there was only two people in all of Israel that had the sword. What does that liken them to? Well, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter six that the sword is the word of God. The sword of the spirit is the word of God. It is the word of God. So you can liken here spiritually, there's only two people that have the word of God, that have the King James Bible, that have the perfect and inherent word. All the other people, they're suffering with the NIV and the ESD and the HIV. They don't know what they're doing. They're not ready to go to battle. Why? Because they don't have the sword. They're gonna get slain in the battle. They don't know how to use their tool. They have a bad tool. They can't even use it. They go out and they're just gonna farm the land. I mean, they can't go out to battle. They don't have the sword. They're not ready to go fight the Philistines. We see there's only two men. Now, that would make Jonathan and Saul very important. Why? Because they need to be the ones that are leading the battle. They're the ones with the weapon. They need to be the one leading the charge. So when Saul falls, when Saul's not leading, when Saul's not taking charge, what happens? Well, everybody's in trouble because there's no one to defend them. So Jonathan is left alone. He has a sword and he's by himself because Saul's not taking the battle. Saul's not going. There's no other man with a sword. He's left alone. There's one man with a sword. What is Jonathan gonna do? Is he gonna just fall in the sins of his father and the iniquities of his father? Or is he gonna use the sword? So you have First Samuel chapter 14, verse one. Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man that bears armor, come and let us go over to the Philistine's garrison that is on the other side. But he told not his father. Now that verse, you know, that little phrase there, but he told not his father, might've been like, what does it mean? But I think when we build up and we realize what's going on in the story, maybe it makes sense why he's not telling his father. He's like, he's gonna just slow me down. He's not wanting me to go out to the battle. So he just, he knows what the word of God is. He's got his sword. He's ready to go to battle. What does he say? He says, in solitary, the utmost part of Gibeah under a pomatrantry, which is in Migron, and the people that were with him were about 600 men. Look at verse four. And between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over into the Philistine's garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other side. And the name of the one was Bozaz and the name of the other, Sena. And the forefront of the one was Sittuit northward against Michmash and the other southward over against Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, come and let us go over under the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for there is no restraint to the Lord to say by many or by few. He said, hey, if it's just me and you, it's just one and two guys, but we got the sword, we got the word of God, God can win the battle. It's not about me. It's not about having the 600 losers back here that are hiding in the caves that are peeing on themselves, like Saul going in the cave peeing on his leg. No, Jonathan's gonna go to the battle with the sword of God. He's saying, hey, God may give us the battle, may give us the victory. Let's inquire with God first. Let's read the Bible. Let's see what he says. And what does God do? Well, look at verse 10. But if they say thus, come up unto us, then we will go up. For the Lord had delivered them into our hand, and this shall be a sign unto us. So he's not just going on a whim, okay? A lot of people today have blind faith. What's blind faith? It's when they just make up some scenario in their head and they're just trusting them. Well, I'm believing that God's gonna give me a $50,000 band. Why? I just know, I have a piece about it. I prayed about it, I think he's gonna deliver that in me. That's blind faith. That's not trusting in any of the promises of God. That's not trusting in anything that his word says. That's not something reliable. Now, of course, I do believe God will bless us. You know, if we seek first his righteousness, if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you. God's gonna make sure you get clothed and fed and he's gonna take care of you. But hey, he's not just promising these just random, you know, fantasies that you dream up in your mind. No, it's based on God's word. And we see with Jonathan here, he's not just making something up. It seems like it, maybe to the first time you read through, but no, he's inquiring at God. He's inquiring of the word of God. And look at verse 13. The Lord delivers them into him because they say exactly what he asked them. He bid them, come up unto us. And Jonathan glided up on his hands and upon his feet and his armabird after him. And they fell before Jonathan and his armabird slew after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armabird made was about 20 men. Within, as it were, a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. Now you might say, well, what's 20 men amongst millions? I mean, you know, Jonathan went, oh, he had a great ratio. I mean, him and his partner, they had 10 each basically, right? They get 20 men. He said, that's like nothing. I mean, the sea of millions, how are they gonna defeat this great battle? Well, a lot of people today might get discouraged to say, how can one guy going out soul winning just by himself? I mean, I only get a handful of people saying, how is that gonna change a nation? How is that gonna change, you know, this world? How is God gonna get the victory through just one man doing a small work? Well, look at verse 26. Let's see what happens in the story. Let's look at verse 21, I'm sorry, back up. Moreover, the Hebrews, that were the Philistines before that time, which went 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. 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. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed over unto Beth-Adon. So what happened? God used one man who had faith in the Lord, who had his sword, who went out, I'm gonna go to the battle, because guess what the Lord could save? The Lord might save. And guess what happens? Just because he puts those 20 men, you know, to the worst, he slays them, all the Philistines, they get nervous. There's a trembling. There's a shaking in the camp, and they all flee, and the Lord wins the battle. As they're fleeing, they're fighting amongst themselves. They're killing themselves, basically. And all the Israel's here. Hey, the Lord's gonna save us. Jonathan's going out to the battle. Let's follow after him. And they all go and follow after him. They slay the Philistines, and the Lord gets the great victory, the great battle. It wasn't just Jonathan knows he's doing it by God's word. He was a man that said, hey, I'm gonna just follow God's word and see what happens. And guess what? God's willing to win big victories, big battles. Can you imagine slaying millions, seeing millions being surrounding you? You're all by yourself, basically. You got one sword. Nobody else even has a sword. You gotta kill the first guy so your armor bearer has a sword. I mean, you know? But we see that when he has the faith in God, he has the faith in God's word. He can go out and slay and win the battle. Go to verse 26. And when the people were coming to 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 the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. Then answered one of the people and said, thy father straightly charged the people with an oath, saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, my father had 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 happily, the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies, which they found, for had there not been now a much great slaughter among the Philistines. And they smote the Philistines that day from Michmash to Azulon, and the people were very faint. And I really want to focus on this passage for a minute, because we see that Jonathan, he went out to win this great battle, okay? And then they went on to slay, and that's when they really won the battle. I mean, there's just the first battle where there's 20, but then we see the millions of the people, the multitude that's, you know, the sand of the seashores being slain. Well, we have this interesting thing where Jonathan, he hadn't heard the oath that Saul had made about eating this honey, right? But he eats a little bit of this honey, and what does the Bible say in verse 27? It says, and his eyes were enlightened. Now, the Bible makes it clear that, you know, eating honey, a lot of times, is likened unto eating God's word. It's putting the word of God in your mouth, and it's sweet. Sometimes it can be bitter when it's a judgment, or it's something, you know, evil that's gonna come upon people. People eat it, and it's kind of bitter, but it's sweet as a honeycomb, because God's word is pure. The words of the Lord are pure words. And the Bible makes it clear that when Jonathan eats it, his eyes are enlightened, and then he's able to go out and win the battle even more. He's saying, look, if everybody had been able to eat enough of the honey, how much more could they have fought the battle? How much stronger could they have been when they went to the battle? And you say, well, what's the significance of this story? Well, a lot of people would struggle with what we have to do in this situation. What do I do when my father, you know, doesn't really want to go to the battle? What do I do when there's some kind of area in my life where my father disagrees? Well, what did Jonathan rely on? He relied on the word of God. He relied on God's voice. How? He relied on it through the, you know, the Philistines, and they said, come up unto us, and then even more with the honey. With the honey, we see is a symbolism of the fact that Jonathan's relying on God's word, and God's word is strengthening him to go into the battle. How can you go into the battle? Through God's word. But we see Saul makes up some stupid commandment that the people can't eat the honey, so then they're not strong when they go to battle. And we see today, so many pastors, they're decreasing the Bible, they're decreasing the King James Bible, they're decreasing Bible reading and memorization, and the word of God, and the people are not going out strong. They're weak. They can't go out to the battle and win a great battle. They're faint. They need God's word. And we need men today to not make up some stupid rules, some stupid commandments of men that detract from God's word so they can go out and be strong, so they can win great battles. What could some of these distractions be? Oh, I don't know, maybe like choir practice. How is choir practice gonna help you go out and win the battle? Now, I'm not against singing. Obviously, the Bible, praise the Lord, is probably one of the most common commandments in the Bible. I'm not against choir, necessarily. I mean, the Bible has singers of men. I'm saying, why are we spending all this time perfecting our music ministry when we don't even have any soul winning in the church, when nobody's going out and getting anybody saved, when nobody's taking the honey and winning the battle that's right before us? Now, obviously, we should follow our parents' commandments. We should follow the commandments. This is a sin of ignorance, was it not? He's taking the word of God, and he's saying, hey, this is strengthening me. I'm gonna follow God's word. I'm gonna go out and win the battle. We see so many people today. They're being restricted. They're being pulled back by man's commandments, by man's word, by man's rules. Man's rule says, don't listen to Pastor Anderson online. Stay away from him. Don't even go anywhere near him. Don't listen to the hard Bible preaching. Listen to the soft preaching. Listen to the comfortable preaching, the stuff that draws you in. You know, we don't wanna be a hate preacher. We don't wanna preach any hate speech. God is love. God loves us. We should love him. Love your neighbor. You know, I mean, this is what's gonna really motivate the people and bring them in. No, we need the hard preaching to motivate us to go out and win the battle, to go out and win the victory. We shouldn't let man, you know, diminish any word of God, diminish the word. No, we should get every precept, every line, and when we're struggling, when we're faint, when we're trembling, what do we need to do? We need to get the honeycomb. They were faint. They were hiding. They were nervous. What do they need? They needed that honey. They needed that strength that comes in God's word alone. They needed to go out so they could win the battle, so they could win the victory. And we see so many times a day, people, these pastors, they're scattering the flock. And then not only that, they're making up stupid commandments, stupid rules, stupid programs that detract from God's word, from God's clear commandments. They're not letting the people eat the honey. So they're going out faint. They're not going out to win the battle. You know, I liken Saul. You know, I didn't grow up in the independent fundamental Baptist movement, okay? But I think from just, you know, I've been to an independent fundamental Baptist church for about a year before I even came to this one. I've been to this one. I've, you know, I've visited several churches. I've looked them up online. I've read a lot about them. So I think I can speak from an outsider's perspective to some of the liking, the comparisons of this. But I liken Saul unto the old IFB. You know, why? Well, because Saul did win battles, did he not? I mean, Saul won the battle. Saul was a great leader. Saul had faith in the Lord. He did good things, but what happened? He got lazy. He stopped going out to fight the battles. He stopped following God's commandments. He stopped going the way that the guy wanted for him to go. He was hot and cold when it came to the battles, wasn't it? Some battles he's hot for, the next battle he's cold. He's kind of this lukewarm guy. We see towards the end of his life, he's ice cold, isn't he? I mean, at the end of Saul's life, I mean, he's not doing anything for the Lord. I mean, he's just, he's holy falling, not following the Lord. He goes and inquires of a witch. He goes out to the battle and just loses the battle and kills himself. This guy is just like the old IFB, what? They were hot when they came out. They were hot when they were, you know, when they first started, when they started getting big, when they had to be a big movement. I believe there was a time, I'd have to research this again, but I think First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, which is an independent fundamental Baptist church, was the largest church in America at one time. I mean, that's hot. I mean, that's red hot. Can you imagine if a fake Lord Baptist Church was the largest church in America today? How much soul-winning we'd have? Can you imagine if we had 10,000 people in our church? The soul-winning army to go out? I mean, we're talking about a hot battle, aren't we? We're talking about people getting saved. I mean, you can't even count it. I mean, we're talking about some crazy numbers here. And I believe that could happen again. I'm not going to say that we could go bigger than that. Why would we be limited by that? What I'm saying is the old IFB had some hot moments, okay? But guess what? It's dwindling. It's been getting cold and ice cold. A lot of these churches, they're basically just being propped up by the baby boomer generation. Once the baby boomers go away, they're going away. I mean, they don't have anything left. We see Jonathan in my mind. It's kind of likened them to the new IFB movement, the new pastors, the guys that are wanting to come out from the old and be different. What does it mean to be in the new? They're not like these other guys. In some way, they're different. They're deciding, hey, I don't want to be like y'all. I don't want to walk in the sins of Saul, my father. I don't want to transgress God's commandments. I want to follow His commandments holy. I'm going to take the sword of the Lord. I'm going to go out the sword of Jonathan and I'm going to win the battle because I know what God's word says. And I know He can save with few. He doesn't need many. He doesn't need all these people. I can go out by myself and win the battle. And I can strengthen the people. Because when he went out and won the small battle, what happened? A lot of the people hiding, they came out and they started following Jonathan. They say, hey, the Lord's going to win the battle. Let's go. Let's follow this guy. Let's get on his team. We see that he wants to serve the Lord. You say, how is this, you know, liking with Saul and Jonathan? Well, we see that Jonathan doesn't like some of Dad's man-made commandments. Isn't that the truth? Isn't it the truth that a lot of people like Pastor Anderson and Roger Menes and pastors that we are friends with, they don't like all the man-made commandments that the old IFB has imposed on a lot of their congregation, a lot of their rules, a lot of their regulations, a lot of their false doctrine. So they're saying, hey, we're not going to do the same things that y'all did. We're just going to follow the Lord. Even if it doesn't make any sense to you guys, we're not going to limit the victory that can be won. We're not going to be limited. We're going to eat at the honey. I know that you said it in your little circle, but I didn't hear it. And guess what? I ate the honey and I went out and I was strong when I went to the battle. And you know what the people say? Jonathan, why? Because it was a stupid rule. It was a stupid man-made up rule. And eventually there's a sticking point between Jonathan and Saul, isn't there? It's David. It's David. Who would you liken David? Pastor Anderson. How many guys want to be in our movement, but if they do, there's a sticking point. Saul's going to throw the spear at him. Saul's going to say, you know, you're a son of a wicked woman. I mean, you perverse woman, right? He's going to rebuke him. And we see Jonathan has to make a choice. Am I just going to follow God's word? Am I just going to follow the commandments of God? Am I going to get on David's side or am I going to forsake? And you know, I think for Jonathan to be on David's side speaks a lot to his character because Jonathan's the one that lost the kingdom. Jonathan's the one that lost the inheritance and David's the one that's clearly going to get it. And he still wants to be his friend. He still wants to be his buddy. He says, hey, this guy's going to get the preeminence but I don't care because he's righteous and I love him. I mean, they have great love for one another. Go to Second Chronicles chapter 16, if you will. How do we apply this story to our lives though? I think it's, everybody in their life, your parents had sinned. The Bible says that, you know, all men are sinners. That all men have iniquity. Our parents all have made mistakes. All of our parents have made, you know, bad decisions that probably even affected us in some way. You know, maybe worse, some worse than others. And the decision is, are you going to come out from under your father's shadow? Are you going to come out from under your mother's shadow and decide, hey, I'm just going to follow God's word. Even if they don't really like it, even if it's kind of a sticking point, even if it's, you know, not popular, am I going to just continue in their way because it's comfortable, because it's easy, or am I going to go ahead and follow God's word? Look at Second Chronicles chapter 16, verse nine. But the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show themselves strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou has done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. God wants to show himself strong on the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. When someone takes the Bible and they know what God's word said, there's no doubt in their mind. And they say, hey, I'm going to do this. Even if it's against what my parents say, even if it's against, you know, what I was raised to do, even if it's not popular, even if I'm alone, I'm just going to take God's word. I'm going to have complete faith and say the Lord can save. Maybe the Lord can save and take the honey and eat it and get strengthened by God's word. What would be some ways like this? Well, people today, they have a hard time discarding their family's religion, don't they? I was raised Catholic, my mom's Catholic, dad's a Catholic. I'm good with my religion. They don't even want to hear the gospel. They're not even entertaining switching religions. I mean, they're just, no, I'm good. I just want to walk in my father's ways. I want to walk in my mother's ways. No, I will not hear you. I mean, this doesn't even have to be unsafe. It could even be safe. Hey, I grew up Southern Baptist and I've always been Southern Baptist. And even though they do a lot of things wrong, I'm just, that's what my dad is. That's what I'm going to be. I'm just going to walk in the ways of my dad. Even if you're in the pent up fundamental Baptist, but you got some areas that need to be cleaned up and you say, well, that's how my dad did it. That's how my grandfather did it. That's how his dad did it. I'm just going to do the same. Just going to keep walking in their ways. That's what the kings of Israel did. The kings of Israel, they just kept walking in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. It was just, hey, we just keep walking in the sins of our father. We just keep walking in the sins of our father. We just keep generation after generation after generation after generation. And you know what God said about them? He said he rejected them. Said, hey, I'm going to reject all you Israelites now. Why? Because they just wouldn't follow his ways. They wouldn't follow his judgments. They wouldn't follow his statutes. God will punish when you don't follow his word. And we see Jonathan was an important person in this story. Because if it wasn't for him, there was no salvation. There was nobody else. He's the only guy with a sword other than Saul. And Saul's already ruined it. Saul just got the news that he's going to lose the kingdom. Saul just lost Samuel and he's like weeping like a baby, peeing on his leg, hiding in the rocks. What is this guy going to do? No, Jonathan was very important. And you may be very important. Maybe to your family, maybe to your kids, maybe your brothers, maybe your sisters, maybe your wife. People that are looking up to you. And if you say, hey, I'm going to follow God's word. I'm going to stick to the Bible. Even though it might not seem great, it might not seem popular. They might come out from the rock later. They might see after you win a couple battles, once you win the war against 20 guys, they're like, hey, this guy might be doing the right thing. Maybe I'm going to come out and follow with him and follow the word of the Lord and eat the honey. It looked good. I wanted to eat it, but I was too afraid. This could be a lot of other ways. Maybe people don't like hard preaching. Maybe people don't like the soul winning. Maybe they don't like the King James Bible. Go if you went to, go to 1 Corinthians chapter seven. We'll finish in that verse. Maybe it's your family's business. Maybe your family's business isn't godly. The Bible says, for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. You know, sometimes I think we hear that verse and we just think of the ungodly and the unsaved and the worldly. It's saying, look, there's many that have erred from the faith. There's saved Christians that the love of money ruins the Christian life. Well, I know my dad's a banker and we charge usury and we do a lot of deceitful things, but it's the family business. What am I gonna do? Get out. Stop following Saul. He's already ruined the inheritance for you anyways. Just seek God. 1 Timothy chapter five, it says, I will therefore that the young women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak or approach from. You know, well, my mother went to work and her mother went to work and her mother went to work, but I'm gonna raise children at home because I love the Bible, because I love God's word, because I love my children. I'm not gonna walk in the sins of my parents. Yes, it's for women too. It's for everyone. Every child has to decide, am I gonna follow my parents' footsteps and wickedness against God's commandments, against his statutes, against his judgments, or am I gonna eat the honey? And am I gonna go out and take my sword and say, hey, the Lord's gonna bring deliverance. Following God's commandments. The Bible says, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. The Bible says, and like men are also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame, fasidness, and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. You know what? Dressing like a godly woman today is in the minority. You might be the only one with the sword, okay? Everybody else has got a matic and they've got, you know, their ax and they've got the coulter and they've got the share. Hey, I'm gonna wear a dress. I'm gonna dress like a lady. And you're just standing, you stand out. I don't even think that women that dress godly today stand out. I don't think it's that big a deal. But maybe it could be amongst your family. Maybe you go to a family function and it feels like you're standing out. It feels like, they're like, why are you doing? Why are you looking like this? Why don't you look like a whore in a harlot like us? Why aren't you, you know, showing all your skin and being scantily clad? I mean, you gotta be fashionable. But look what 1 Corinthians 7 says in verse 31. And they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away. Look, we're all gonna pass away. Everything's gonna pass away. Why not follow God's commandments? Because they're gonna endure forever. God's word, it's settled in heaven. It's gonna endure forever. And following God's word is never gonna be negative. It's never gonna be bad for you. When you're weak, when you're faint, when you're trembling, we need to get God's word and say, hey, I'm just gonna have faith in his word and I'm gonna go out to the battle and I'm gonna win because of God's word. I know that it's always gonna win the battle. It's always gonna be victorious. God's always willing to show himself strong in them that have their heart perfect toward him. God wants to show himself strong in every half. When you make wise decisions, when you make godly decisions, God wants to bless you. You can have confidence in the Lord. You can have trust in the Lord. Jonathan's like, let's go to the battle. Let's grab the sword. Let's go. And his armorer falls with him. And then he gets the rest of the people to follow with him. And then there's great victory. We see it's not just one person. It's like the reverse domino effect. We see people are coming with him. He's encouraging others. He's being a great leader. So what are you gonna do? You're gonna be like the kings of Israel and just continue to follow and your father sins and your mother sins? Or are you gonna be like Jonathan and forsake the sins of the father, take your sword and go out and fight? Let's close in prayer. Thank you father so much for your word. Thank you so much that you win the battle and the victory and that we can just have faith in you and that you'll be there to deliver us and to watch over us. I just pray that we'd all have confidence and be strengthened in your word and thank you so much for rising up great leaders today that we can follow after and we can be strengthened by that have been encouraged by your word. In Jesus name we pray, amen.