FBCWest 732 | The Lord Saves Not Numbers
Recorded On: 10/04/2026
Bulletin
Hymn # 156 “Jesus Paid It All”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalms 108:1 - 6
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Praise You Anywhere”
“Endless Light”
“God So Loved”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“The Lord Saves Not Numbers”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“The Battle Belongs”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
1 Samuel 14:1 – 3 Saul’s son crosses into the Philistine lines, but no on knew it
1 Samuel 14:4 & 5 How Jonathan crosses the enemies line
1 Samuel 14:6 Jonathan says the Lord can save by many or few
1 Samuel 14:7 – 10 Jonathan reveals his plan to his armor bearer
1 Samuel 14:11 & 12 The Philistine’s answer reveals the Lord will give victory
1 Samuel 14:13 – 15 They defeated the Philistines the Lord caused an earthquake
1 Samuel 14:16 & 17 Jonathan discovered missing
1 Samuel 14:18 – 23 The Philistines were routed and the Lord delivered Israel
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Last time we saw the enemy assemble a massive army. As a result the people of God panicked and the following the word of God decided to take matters in his own hands and as a result he was going to lose his kingship. Today we're going to take a look at a man and his assistant who is going to enter the enemy lines and see if God would deliver him in faith. He does so and as a result we can see not what the man of faith did but what God can do when a man has faith. If everyone around you is panicking and your own family instead of hating God's word takes it upon themselves to do things what would you do. Today we're going to take a look at a man named Jonathan who I think deserves more credit than he deserves than he gets because he seems to be a warrior, a man of faith and even loyal to those who are his friends, all excellent qualities that are sadly lacking today. So we're going to take a look at his reactions to this mighty enemy that is set to invade and the people and his dad has acted the way they have.
So if you have your Bibles then you turn should turn to 1 Samuel chapter 14. Now the day came that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who was carrying his armor common led us cross over to the Philistines, garrison that is on the other side but did not tell his father and I suspected did not tell his father because as we often say it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission and he probably figured his father would say no but he wanted to get in on the action because he detested the enemy of gods and the enemy of gods people and so he wasn't content of fleeing from the enemy or hiding he wanted to confront them and so that's what he and I'm impressed with his armor bearer is assistant because he goes this is probably a suicide mission but if you want to go I'll go with you and Saul was staying in the outskirts of Givia under the Pomegranatory which is in migrant and the people who were with him were about 600 men now recall Saul had specifically 2000 men plus Jonathan's 1000 men army and he called for people but they all panicked and left and so his army went from thousands to 600 which again was twice as many as Gideon had
So he was waiting there but his son said I want to see what I can do and Abba John, Ekivah's brother and Phineas the son of Eli the priest of the Lord at Shiloh was wearing an hip-hop and the people did not know that Jonathan had gone so Jonathan didn't make it well known that he was leaving he went and did what he thought was the right thing to do but it was a secret to everyone even the religious and between the passes by which Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines garrison there was a sharp crag on the one side and a sharp crag on the other side and the names of the one was both the Zis and the other name was that of Sine. So he secretly goes through this ravine if you will secreting himself on across the enemy lines close to the Philistine garrison and the one crag rose on the north opposite of Mishmash and the other on the south opposite of Gibbia. Then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor come and let us see let us cross over to the garrison of these uncircumcised perhaps the Lord will work for us for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.
So Jonathan tells his armor bearer this is what we're going to do we're going to cross over to the enemy lines and we're going to see and notice he says cross over to these uncircumcised he holds them in contempt not because of who they are but because they are the enemies of God they worship other gods bail and others dag on and on top of that they're the enemies of the people of God and they've come to invade and he is not content all too often we say well that's the circumstance Jonathan says no I'm a warrior I've got to do something about this so he not only waits for the enemy to come to him he goes to the enemy and he understands exactly who God is he says perhaps the Sunday guarantee perhaps the Lord will work for us for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few he acknowledges that is God who fights the battle and that God can use many or he can fuse few but he's not requisite to do that and I want to recall a couple of people in the past Moses went to Midian and hung out there for 40 years and God called him to go to Egypt and when God called him to go to Egypt he didn't call him to raise an army of Midianites he sent Moses one Moses complained that he didn't speak well on whatever guys okay I'll give you a mouthpiece and if you read Exodus you'll notice
Aaron rarely ever gets a chance to talk because Moses does but he didn't send an army to free his people he sent one a few thousand years later God decided to send another who will free his people from bondage his name was Jesus Yahshua Emmanuel God with us I had a pastor friend who had a plaque who said for God to love the world he did not send a committee it seems that when God has some really important battles to fight he sends one why does he send one so that God and God only gets the glory and not only in this case of Jesus God sent himself to fight the battle and so Jonathan understanding who God is says God doesn't need a big army God can save and he can choose many or he can choose a few but God is the one who will fight and so he goes God's not he's not constrained and so many times we think God is constrained by what we do or what we think or if the majority rules and Jonathan understands the power of God otherwise he would be really foolish to cross over into the enemy lines by himself because we've been told of the thousands upon thousands of soldiers that have been amassed to invade Israel and as armor bear said to him do all that is in your heart turn yourself and here I will and with you according to your desire again here is a loyal servant and armor bear in kind of mentally England he would be like a squire he's the one who says I'm willing to go with you if if what you have on your heart is to fight the Philistines I'm there with you again loyalty because you I would rather die fighting with you than live and let the Philistines rule then Johnson said behold we will cross over to the men and reveal ourselves to him so he's going we're here's the plan we're gonna pop up and let him know where we are we're not gonna fight in hiding we're gonna fight out in the open not necessarily a great plan when you're thinking about but he's not trusting his power
He's trusting God to save and if they say to us wait until we come to you then we will stand in our place and not go up to them but if they say come up to us then we will go up for the Lord has given them into our hands and this shall be the sign to us so God had in previously told Jonathan to do this John should just thought I have contempt for the enemies I can't sit here and do nothing I'm going to fight them and I'm going to see if the Lord will deliver them so he gives up almost like a a Gideon fleece of will know if God has answered our prayer if they say this and if he's not going to help us they'll say that so he it's a kind of a statement of faith it's kind of a prayer request God had God didn't tell Jonathan go fight them Jonathan took it on his own but he also understood that he would not be victorious without the hand of God so he goes I'll know this by what they say and it's common if when a bride was taught for Isaac the servant said well if if they say this then I'll know that and if they don't say this then I'll know that this is was common Israel to determine what the will of God was so he makes this statement and when both of them are revealed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines the Philistines said behold Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves so they're thinking there's a bunch of Hebrews and that they're instead of hiding because they're panic they're hiding to deceive them and they're going to spring upon them so they have the mistaken view of what's happening so the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor bearer and said come up to us and we will tell you something oh you can tell me from there this if if I can tell what you said by come up to us then you can tell me what it is you have to say but this is God's telling Jonathan I'm going to give them into your hands that the Lord will save by few and Jonathan said to his armor bearer come up after me for the Lord has given them into our into the hands of Israel now notice he didn't say to give it into my hands he goes God is going to win this battle these thousands upon thousands of soldiers and chariots and archers and all these people God is going to deliver not just you and me armor bearer but God is going to deliver our nation so let's go the Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet with his armor bearer behind him and they fell before Jonathan and his armor bear put some to death after him so Jonathan is fighting and the ones he's simply wounds the armor bear makes finishes them off the first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bearer made was about 20 men was in about a half a floral in an acre of land so in this short period of land Jonathan and his armor bear kill 20 now notice the the victory is not 20 to one it's 20 to zero
Jonathan and his armor bear survived the battle but 20 soldiers now Caesar was proclaimed as a great general when he would be outnumbered just in this Jonathan with his armor bear and God defeats 20 in a short space and there was a trembling in the camp in the field and among all the peoples even the garrison and the raiders trembled and the earthquake so that it became a great trembling so two things happened this 90 army this impressive army the army that caused the Hebrews to panic they started panicking they started trembling in fear and then God caused the earth to tremble and quake the power of God demonstrated not only in the army but in the land God is God of nations and the earth and so God shows his power not only by what he inflicts upon the enemy but what he does to the earth now saw us watchmen and give you a Benjamin look and behold the multitude melted away and there and they went here and there so the observation is all of a sudden these thousands of enemy soldiers instead of invading or wondering around going back and forth not knowing what's going on they're in confusion not because solved anything not because his 600 did anything but because God did what God did because Jonathan decided that he was not going to be content was watching God's people be humiliated so they melted away and they were scrambling back and forth instead of God's people panicking God caused the enemy to panic and so I said to the people who were with him number now and see who has gone from us and when they had numbered behold Jonathan and his armor bear were not there now first off I don't get solved it was seem to me now I'm not I've never been in the military don't claim to be an expert in military affairs and whatever it would just seem to me as jolly civilian that if your enemy is confused and melting away and panic now's the time to strike it said what does he do well who's missing figure that out afterwards there's time but again saw let's sacrifice because Samuel the insurgent was but then the enemy who's come instead of listening to them let's count what who's missing and he discovers it's his son and his armor bear again because I said I am impressed with Jonathan as I said Jonathan Jonathan is a warrior brave a man who trusts God to deliver a man who is a loyal to people and even loyal to David who will replace his father unfortunately for Jonathan Jonathan is all son and Jonathan's ending will be not because Jonathan wasn't a man that we should respect and look up to but because of the sin of his father that's why I'm really grateful that my children had their mother so that they have the benefit of their mother rather than me and so whatever qualities they have you could think their mother then saw him said the hey John bring the ark of the God here for the ark of God was at the time with the sons of Israel again why are you waiting they did this before and they lost the ark the ark was a symbol of the presence of God the confusion of the enemy and the earthquakes is an obvious symbol and sign that the Lord is present why are you bringing something that technically you could lose because you did it before take the fight to the enemy but all too often what is we want to we want to look holy we want to look special instead we allow the enemy to do what the enemy does instead of taking the fight to the enemy so again solves allowing more time to pass rather than as the expression is strike while the iron is hot now I want you to remember while all this is happening where is his son and now he knows where his son is behind enemy lines I would think as a loving father
I want to make sure that my son got help I would send the army or at least to maybe feel somebody to get them out or to fight with them but he keeps waiting how many people this send the ark rather than doing what is obvious that ought to be done and while Saul talked to the priest the commotion and the camp of the philistates continued and increased so Saul said to the priest which are all your hand and Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and came to the battle well it's about time last message we saw that Saul couldn't wait for things to happen so he does what God told him not to do that Samuel would do because he was impatient and now it seems that Saul has all the patience of Joe and he already figures out that not only it's getting worse on the other side maybe now we ought to fight them so it's all and all the people who were with him rallied and came to the battle and behold every man sword was against his fellow and there was very great commotion basically whether saying is the 600 soldiers didn't have to do much because the philistates were killing themselves there was such commotion and confusion and panic it was now they didn't have rifles but it was friendly fire they were killing themselves now the Hebrews who were with the philistines previously who went up with them all around in the camp even they also turned to be with the Israelites were with Saul and Jonathan basically those who might have been prisoners of war or those who just were traders and defected all of a sudden they go you know what the philistines are losing we like to be with the winner so we're going to go back to our people so whether they were prisoners of war or whether they were traders they decided they're going to join the other side as well and they fight in the battle also when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the philistines had fled even they also pursued them closely in the battle oh now they're now they're brave before they were so afraid and panic they hid themselves so they couldn't be found but now we're going to say the victories are because God had already defeated them all their job is to mop them up so we've got prisoners and traders joining in and we got those who were so afraid that they didn't now they're we're winning okay I'll join how many people do you know are always on the winning side notice they take action I want you to see something here in just a moment so the Lord delivered Israel that day and the battle spread beyond Beth Aben it was the Lord who delivered that day and the Lord could have delivered that day without Jonathan
But the question I kind of asked myself is would the Lord have delivered that day if Jonathan had in face the enemy as he did Israel was content to hiding and being afraid and leaving Israel and some maybe even joining the enemy would God have been content to let Israel continue to be in that sense or did God honor the faith that God placed in Jonathan did Jonathan believe God could do for God could do maybe just maybe the reason sometimes that we don't see God acting because we don't find a position for God to act there's a hymn just about trusting in obeying and it says those who trust him holy find him holy true when you trust God completely then God is completely trustworthy but when you think well when it looks like we're winning I'll be on his side and when we're looks like we're losing I'll be on the other side you'll never seem holy true because you never see him holy doing what God holy does so my call my call to action if you will is that you trust God to do what circumstances say he can't to you trust God and the first and best way to trust him is in committing your life to Jesus because as Jonathan understood God can save by many or he can save by fused and the greatest problem difficulty circumstances that we have is that we are sinners and God has delivered that victory through Jesus the one and we need to trust him and if we can trust him on our salvation then we should trust him the next hour and the hour after that we can trust him for our eternity which is a lot longer than the next hour maybe we can trust him for the next hour and maybe if we trust him in the next hour the next hour will be fantastic and maybe if we don't trust him in the next half hour it'll be what it'll be I would rather trust him and see what he's going to do now I admit I'm a man of fear of play because that's why I look upon with honor a man like Jonathan who will go to the enemy not knowing what will be the end but he does know who holds the power to determine the end because the battle belongs to our God you