NO RESTRAINT TO THE LORD TO SAVE BY MANY OR BY FEW
1 Sam. 14:6
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: FUNNY CHURCH-BULLETIN MISTAKES
1. “Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa will be speaking tonight at First Church in Racine. Come tonight and hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.”
2. "Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don’t forget to bring your husbands."
3. “The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.”
4. “At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.”
B. TEXT
And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, “Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few” 1 Sam. 14:6
C. THESIS
1. The situation was desperate. The Philistines had invaded Israel. They came with 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and foot soldiers "as the sands on the seashore" (1 Sam. 13:5).
2. Saul was at Migron (which means "fear"). He wouldn't obey God, so his courage left him. His 3,000 soldiers became 600. His warriors turned into worriers. Discouragement is the biggest battle against the people of God.
3. But Saul had a son named Jonathan who was a man of faith. Jonathan was willing -- with only one servant and one sword -- to fight the entire well-armed Philistine army! He’s the epitome of the concept of dreams. He comes on the stage in epic fashion, as God's hero and larger-than-life! Jonathan decides it’s not time to SIT back, but time to TAKE back.
4. The title of this message is “No Restraint to the Lord to Save by Many or by Few.” He said 3 things:
I. LOOKING AT JONATHAN’S STATEMENT
A. THERE IS NO “RESTRAINT” ON GOD
1. Everyone has limitations. The greatest nations are limited in what they can do. Even the billionaires have limitations. Elon Musk made apparently Antisemitic remarks and had to make a trip to Israel to show he wasn’t. The owners of Facebook & Google are under fire for limiting the free speech of conservatives.
2. The word “restrain” (like Jonathan used) is a reference to regulating someone; it means to keep someone from exceeding your desired limits. It’s the imposing of controls. It’s like saying you can “tame” God, that you can place rules on Him. There’s NO WAY!
3. No one can control God, constrain Him, contain Him, or confine Him. No one’s going to detain Him, deter Him, delay Him, or derail Him. No one’s going to bar Him, bridle Him, baffle Him, or blockade Him. He won’t be stumped, stopped, stymied, suppressed, or stifled. He won’t be hindered, haltered, hampered, or held back. You can’t obstruct Him, impede Him, interfere with Him, encumber, frustrate, muzzle Him, limit Him, restrict, repress, or reduce His power! HE IS ALMIGHTY! He’s out of our league!
4. Secondly, Jonathan said God can SAVE!
B. NO RESTRAINT OF THE LORD “TO SAVE”
1. GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN OUR SAVIOR, from ancient times. Ps. 106:21, “They forgot God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt...” God says there’s NO OTHER SAVIOR BUT HE; “I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Savior” Isa. 43:11; 49:26; 60:16; Hos. 13:4.
2. WHAT WILL GOD SAVE YOU FROM? (Ps. 91)
* “Snare of the Fowler,” vs. 3
* “Deadly Pestilence,” vs. 3
*“the Terror by night,” vs. 5
* “Arrow that flies by day,” vs. 5
* “Pestilence that stalks in the darkness,” vs.6
* “The plague that destroys at midday,” vs. 6
3. GOD IS "MIGHTY TO SAVE!" Isa. 63:1. WHY IS JESUS "MIGHTY TO SAVE?” BECAUSE OF...
a. THE EFFICACY OF HIS BLOOD. 1 Pet. 1:18, “Forasmuch as you know that you were NOT REDEEMED with corruptible things, as silver and gold... 19 BUT WITH the precious BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
b. THE POWER OF HIS SPIRIT. “The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” Rom. 8:2. “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Gal. 4:6. God will “quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you” Rom. 8:11. So not only does God’s Spirit free you from sin, make you a Child of God, but He also will raise your body from the dead!
c. THE ETERNALITY OF HIS PRIESTHOOD. Heb 7:25, “Wherefore He is able also to SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST that come unto God by him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” He’s constantly interceding for us; that’s why we can’t fail!
4. ILLUS. There was a city that had a well in one of its parks. Someone asked, “Does that well never run dry?” A man drinking from it stopped, smacked his lips, and said: “They’ve never been able to pump it dry yet. They tried it a few years ago. They put the fire-engines to work, and tried to pump the well dry; but they found there was a river flowing right under the city.” Can you say, “Thank God, the well of God’s salvation can never run dry!” [Ministry127.com]
C. 3RDLY, “BY MANY OR BY FEW”
1. It doesn’t matter if we’re OUTNUMBERED. One man and God is a majority! “One shall put a 1,000 to flight, and 2 put 10,000 to flight!” “They will come at you one way but will flee seven ways!”
2. It doesn’t matter if we have FEW RESOURCES. God fed 2-3 million Israelites in a bone-dry desert each day for 40 YEARS – with 1,500 tons of food, 4,000 tons of wood, and 11 million gallons of water – requiring 3 freight trains a mile long, and the water, a train 1,800 miles long -- DAILY! Nobody but God can do that!
3. It doesn’t matter how IMPOSSIBLE THE CIRCUMSTANCES. “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,...nor yet riches...to men of skill” (Eccles. 9:11), BUT PROMOTION COMES FROM THE LORD! Ps. 75:6-7. “[God] holds victory in store for the upright” Prov. 2:7, NIV1984.
4. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come near thee” Ps. 91:7. “No weapon formed against you shall prosper!” “ There’s no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few” (14:6). Can you say, Praise the Lord?
II. THE EXAMPLE OF JONATHAN
A. HIS FAITH
1. Jonathan had to move from the disastrous to the miraculous. Jonathan had to climb through an exposed Valley and up a near-vertical cliff. On top of the cliff was the enemy stronghold/ outpost.
2. In warfare, the people on the higher position have the advantage. Jonathan said, "If they tell us to come up to them, we’ll know that God is calling us to fight them." Of course they'd say that; they’d want to keep the higher ground.
3. It's like saying, "If I drop this book – and it falls (gravity) – this means God’s calling us to fight." Of course it’s going to fall! But that’s the substance of faith, stepping out in the miraculous with God.
4. As Jonathan and his servant attacked and defeated the outpost, an earthquake began and God sent the Philistines into a panic. King Saul observed the whole Army of the Philistines beginning to run and chasing them were two wild-eyed guys yelling, "Come back here! We’ve got some more for you!"
5. Then even the backsliders and those who’d hid in fear began to rise up and join the move of God.
B. THE CHAIN REACTION OF FAITH
1. In Chase the Lion, Mark Batterson writes that in 1983, Lorne Whitehead published an article about the domino chain reaction. You can picture it in your mind, can't you? You knock over a domino, and it sets off a chain reaction that can knock down hundreds of dominoes in a matter of seconds.
2. But unique to Whitehead's research was discovering that a domino is capable of knocking over a domino that is one-and-a-half times its size. So a two-inch domino can topple a three-inch domino. A three-inch domino can topple a four-and-a-half-inch domino. And a four-and-a-half-inch domino can topple a … well, you get the point.
3. By the time you get to 18th domino, you could knock over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. By the 23rd domino could knock over the Eiffel Tower. And by the time you get to the 29th domino, you could take down the Empire State Building.
4. Faith, like dominoes, isn't linear, it’s geometric. Every decision we make, every step of faith we take, has a chain reaction. And those chain reactions set off a thousand chain reactions we aren't even aware of. They won't be revealed until we reach the other side of the space-time continuum.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: GEORGE MUELLER & THE FOG
1. The captain of a trans-Atlantic steamer was startled by someone tapping him on the shoulder. It was George Mueller. “Captain,” he said, “I’ve come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon.” This was Wednesday.
2. “It’s impossible,” he said. “I would willingly help you, but how can I? I’m helpless. Mr. Mueller, do you know how dense this fog is?”
3. “No,” he replied, “my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.” Mueller went down on his knees with the Captain, and prayed a prayer something like this: “O Lord, if it’s consistent with Your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement You made for me in Quebec for Saturday. I believe it’s Your will.”
4. When he had finished, the Captain was going to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder and told him not to pray. “First,” he said, “you don’t believe God will do it; and, second, I believe He HAS done it, so there’s no need whatever for you to pray about it.”
5. Mueller said, “Get up, Captain and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.” “I got up, and the fog was gone. On Saturday afternoon George Mueller was in Quebec.”
B. THE CALL
1. I don’t know what kind of difficulties you’re facing, but I know a God who’s big enough to overcome them all!
2. How many of you have something you need God to help you with? Slip up your hands. The 1st miracle we all need is forgiveness; have you been forgiven from your sins? PRAYER
3. If you need a miracle in your life, please stand. PRAYER for miracles and divine aid.
