Grace will stand on your promises, and by faith we'll walk as you walk with us. Speak, O Lord, till your church is built, and the earth is filled with your glory. Amen, let us turn to the Holy Word of God, 1 Samuel chapter 14. As you're turning there, I'll briefly recap verses 20 to 23. We're gonna begin our reading at verse 24 and in verse 20. Saul, seeing the Philistines in panic, finally takes up the 600 with him to join in the attack. Then the Hebrews, who had been traitors, also join in the attack, the Hebrews who had been hiding. And then the victory is won. The Philistines are fleeing, they're being preserved. Then verse 23, so the Lord saved Israel that day. And the battle passed beyond Beth Avon. Well now in verse 24 we zoom in, we might say, back on verse 20 and following and we get the more detailed account. We get the more detailed account. This is something that Old Testament narrative does quite often, especially we see it in the first chapters of Genesis. And so we just had the 20 to 23 overview, and now beginning in 24, we get the detailed account. 1 Samuel 14, beginning at verse 24, let us hear the word of God, reading to verse 46. And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day. So Saul had laid an oath on the people saying, cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening, and I am avenged on my enemies. So none of the people had tasted food. Now, when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground. And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping, but no one put his hand to his mouth for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes became bright. One of the people said, your father strictly charged the people with an oath saying, cursed be the man who eats food this day. And the people were faint. And Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found. For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great. They struck down the Philistines that day from Mekmash to Ahijalon. And the people were very faint. The people pounced on the spoil and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on the ground. And the people ate them with the blood. Then they told Saul, behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood. And he said, you have dealt treacherously. Roll a great stone to me here. And Saul said, disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, let every man bring his ox and sheep and slaughter them here and eat and do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood. So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and they slaughtered them there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord. It was the first altar that he built to the Lord. Then Saul said, let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light. Let us not leave a man of them. And they said, do whatever seems good to you. But the priest said, let us draw near to God here. And Saul inquired of God, shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer him that day. And Saul said, come here, all you leaders of the people, and know and see how this sin has arisen today. For the Lord lives who saves Israel. Though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there is not a man among all the people who answered him. Then he said to all Israel, you shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan, my son, will be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, do what seems good to you. Therefore Saul said, O Lord God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan, my son, O Lord God of Israel, give Urim. But if the guilt is on your people, Israel, give Thummim. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. Then Saul said, cast the lot between me and my son, Jonathan. And Jonathan was taken. Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you have done. And Jonathan told him, I taste a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am. I will die. And Saul said, God do to me and more also. You shall surely die, Jonathan. Then the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it! As the Lord lives, there shall not be one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day. So the people ransomed Jonathan, so that he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place. So far the reed in the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures. forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, self-centered worship is finally only a worship of self. As far as the rituals, the patterns, the practices of religion go, a self-centered worshiper may get some of the forms down, may do some things outwardly right, For the Old Testament people, that would mean correctly remembering some of the ceremonial laws, giving sacrifices at some appropriate times and things like this. For the New Testament believer, this would include being committed to a local body of believers, attending to the means of grace, including participation in the sacraments. But in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, it is possible to just go through the motions and along the way, to never really be worshiping. For if the forms of religion are done with self-centered motivation, there is no real worship of God at all. In cases of self-centered, self-motivated worship, any worship of God is the mask of hypocrisy. prideful worship of self is what is really going on and here in 1st Samuel chapter 14 we have an example of prideful religion. The prideful religion of Saul which continues to expose itself Saul has already been rebuked by Samuel. He will be rebuked again by Samuel in chapter 15. Here he is rebuked by the voice of the indignant soldiers who will speak as the voice of many now to save one. And through this chapter we see the pitfalls of pride in this day of not so sweeping victory for the army of Israel and our theme working through this will be this, to beware the dangers of prideful religiosity, prideful religious practice. So first we'll look at a vow of pride. Now we have before us in verse 24 a prideful self-centered vow. Now perhaps you've heard the phrase, me, myself, and I. Me, myself, and I. Well, here in verse 24b, we have a, I, myself and my vow. Look at the language at the end of verse 24. There's a curse upon anyone who will eat food. And it is until, here's the words of Saul, until I am avenged on my enemies. Now what is the avenging for? The avenging is for Saul himself. And so the NIV translates it this way. Before I myself am avenged on my enemies. It is the I myself and my vow. Now Saul is most likely seeing this as a way to be visibly pious. For what is it to not eat? Well, that's a fast. That's a religious practice. It was a religious practice which was at various times encouraged in the Old Testament and is even encouraged and seen in the New Testament at times as well. A fast can be an appropriate practice of worship. But the motivation of Saul is a self-glorifying one. And so doing, he forgets that a fast can be a good thing to do for God on a day of contemplation, but a fast is not a good thing for a day of action. In seeking to show his piety because he doesn't really have a heart that wants to worship God, he will do so foolishly. This is often what the heart of a proud worshiper will do. It will want to worship to look good, but it will fail to worship well and wisely and rightly. Let us just look forward and backward a little bit to see the overall picture of Saul in his worship. If you turn forward to chapter 15, verses 22 to 24, and we're gonna look really at one phrase in verse 24, Lord willing, we'll look at this over the next couple weeks. But here's a key word of confession, admission of his real motivations. Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Or we get another glimpse at the heart of Saul turning forward in chapter 18, verses seven and eight. And for those familiar with 1 Samuel 17, you may remember this is after the great victory of David. And so the women are in the streets and they're saying, Saul has struck down his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. And what is the reaction of Saul? What is his heart reaction to something such as this? Well, he is very angry and displeased for Samuel 18 verse eight. That is the heart of a man who worships out of a motivation of trying to look visibly pious, to look good out of fear for the people, and wants himself to always be at the center. That's the kind of jealous heart which makes an I myself and my vow. And if we look backwards, we can go all the way back to chapter nine, and we're not gonna read any of the verses there, but you remember that when they're out and they're looking for the lost donkeys, the servant of Saul, knew that they would be able to find a man of God where they were. Saul had no idea. It's one of the first warning signs that when we're dealing with Saul, we're dealing with someone who, until he's elevated to a prominent place in Israel, doesn't care about religious things. He doesn't know who the prophet of the Lord is, though 1 Samuel 3 told us that from Dan to Beersheba, Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. Saul lived nearby, but had no idea. His servant knew, his uncle knew, but Saul didn't know. But now that he's been elevated, now that he's been given a prominent place in the nation of Israel, he fears the people, and so he's going to be visibly pious. He's going to put on a religious front, even as he's going to practice his religion proudly. This is the portrait we have of Saul. And so, for example, within our own chapter, it is noted that when Saul builds an altar here, it was the first altar, verse 35, that he built to the Lord. This is someone who did not practice religion until he was thrown into a place where it was important to do so. And so he's now going to worship out of fear for the people, out of trying to make himself look good. He's gonna worship with a prideful heart. This broader picture, this is important because when we're dealing with Saul's attempts at worship here, we are not dealing with someone who's attempting to be sincere in worship to God and failing to do so because of poor judgment. We're dealing with someone who has a heart that is self-centered in his worship. And so it's not going to be true worship at all. People of God, Religious practice just for the sake of doing something religious with any self-glorifying or self-centered motivation is no real worship at all. We may never ask ourselves, what is my religion, my church, my devotions, my prayers doing for me? We must instead always be thinking in these terms. How am I called to serve God today? How am I called to glorify God today? Now that will include religious forms. God calls us to do religious things, but they must be done. They must be done with a true heart of worship. Otherwise it is no worship at all. May God save us from the hypocrisy of self-centered religiosity and truly bring us to the cross of Jesus Christ. We come here this morning as sinners. We come here not boasting in the fact that we made it to church on time. We come here boasting in the cross of Jesus Christ alone. Galatians chapter six, the apostle says, far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Going to church, praying, reading the Bible, perhaps all the way through in a year in order to make ourselves look good. This would just be prideful religiosity. These are all good things. Some of these are even explicitly commanded things, but they must come out of a true and humble desire to serve God. So we've seen this proud vow, this proud attempt at a religious fast. Well, what does pride cause in religion or anywhere else? Well, it causes all kinds of pain and traps. That takes us to our second point, the traps of pride. Traps cause pain. What do you think of when you think of a trap? Perhaps it's one of those traps maybe seen in like a movie where a person trips over the rope, they get scooped up in the net. Maybe it's a pit covered over and you step into it and you're trapped. You fall into the trap or maybe it's some kind of animal or bug trap that you're familiar with through personal experience. Well, what's common in traps? They snare you. They drag you in unaware and they usually cause pain in one way or another. Now, pride causes pain. There are all kinds of traps that come along with pride. Let's consider some of the traps that spring here from the proud vow of Saul. The first is the trap on the soldiers. Notice in verse 26, Because, even though, yeah, he's probably trying to be visibly pious, look how great we're gonna fast to God today. Because it comes in a foolish and self-centered way, in verse 26, the soldiers are not thinking about God when they think about their attack that they're making. What are they afraid of? They're afraid of the vow itself. They're afraid of the vow itself and for this reason they're not eating. In other words, Saul has not led them to be thinking upon God and praising God. Saul, because he's focused on self in his religion, has brought the soldiers to be afraid of him and his vow. They're not thinking about God, they're thinking about this crazy vow. And it also has been a direct physical impact on the soldiers. It's not only what they're thinking about, but it's the fact that they're not eating. And so in verse 28, they are faint. And as the day drags on in verse 31, as they continue to travel, pursuing the enemy, grueling work to pursue the enemy from one town to another, chasing after them, trying to get the full benefits of the victory that God has given them by throwing the Philistines into a panic. Well, by verse 31, they are very faint. And so they just lose more and more strength as the day goes on. The soldiers are trapped. Now, they're also trapped at the end of the day. Remember for the Jew the day ends at sunset the evening begins a new day and so the new day begins the bow is done and in verse thirty-two. They are at this point so hungry so exhausted chasing after the Philistines over miles of rough terrain that they're they're too exhausted to wait to fully cook the meat and drain the blood before they eat it. They eat with blood still in the meat. Now this is a serious This is a serious thing. If you eat the blood of the animal, there's even death sentences for this within the ceremonial law. And Saul jumps on this. He says, well, let's not sin against the Lord in this way. And we're gonna build an altar and we're gonna make sure we drain the blood. Now, people of God, The ceremonial laws are extremely important, but the ceremonial laws were not set in place to cause anyone physical harm. And so even here, we can consider David as the anti-example of Saul, who cares not just about the religious ceremony, but knows on occasion We must make sure that we're well fed. What is David gonna do? Perhaps you remember the account of the showbread. Now that's a serious ceremonial sin. You're gonna eat the showbread that's in the tabernacle? But later, because he was hungry and his men were hungry, David, one of the few times in his life, David, who took the ceremonies of the law very seriously, at that moment is going to eat the showbread with his hungry soldiers. Jesus, in Mark chapter two, will use David as an example for how we must heal those who are sick. In Mark chapter two, when the Pharisees are rebuking Jesus for allowing his disciples to pluck grain. Jesus doesn't say, you know, you're right. The ceremonies of the law trump everything. I should have been like Saul and stopped the drain in the blood and just stopped everything. No. Jesus points the Pharisees back to David and says in Mark chapter 2 verses 25 and 26, have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered in the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful, ceremonial, for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him." We can pluck grain on the Sabbath. We can eat. If there was any time that they could have eaten. before fully preparing the meal. It's these exhausted soldiers chasing after the Philistines. You see, because his heart is not right, even when he's doing the ceremonies of the law, he is doing it all visibly, but he's not considering love your neighbor as yourself. He's not considering all of what God calls us to do, as David later will, as Jesus will point to David. Pride impacts religion in every way. It will tear us down. If in our pride we think that we can subtract from the law of God, It will tear us down if in our pride we think that we can add to it and do everything in exactly my way without considering all of what God calls us to. Saul is causing all kinds of traps and snares and dangers because he has fallen into a sin and he's failing to admit that it's his pride that is at the issue. It's his pride which is causing this exhaustion. It's his foolish vow which is going to trap Jonathan as well. And that takes us into our third point. We consider the trap of Jonathan and how this is going to expose the pride of Saul. Jonathan is trapped because before he knew of the vow of his father, he ate some of the honey. Jonathan was on the other side of the ravine. Saul probably gave his vow, his order, before they left on attack, perhaps in verse 20. Again, this is the zoomed in account. So whatever it is, Jonathan didn't know it. Jonathan eats, and now Saul is asking God if they should continue. God does not answer him in verse 37, which should have been a hint Saul is the one who is at fault, but Saul's gonna press into this. He's gonna try to figure out what's going on. And so they use the umam and the thumam and then the casting of lots and narrowing it down to Saul and Jonathan, and then with the lots to Jonathan. And so Saul finds out now who broke his vow. It's Jonathan who tasted a little honey with the tip of his staff. That takes us to verse 44. One preacher rightly called verse 44 a chilling verse. People of God pride hates to admit that it's ever wrong. There was in the law of God, a sacrifice for foolish vows. Now a vow is a serious thing. But there was a sacrifice for foolish vows. In other words, as serious as vows are, vows are not to be something that you carry out no matter what. So Leviticus chapter five, you can go and you can read it this afternoon. There's Levitical prescription for a sacrifice for foolish vows. Once again, David stands out as the anti-Saul. There is gonna be a time in the life of David when he makes a vow and he does not carry it through because he realizes it is foolish. That is in 1 Samuel 25 verse 22. Saul makes a vow he's going to kill Nabal and all his house. Abigail comes, pleads with him, says, no, do not do this. And he says, thank you to Abigail for exposing his wrong attitudes. And he stops. He does not carry out his foolish vow. It doesn't say this, but perhaps David went and followed the Levitical prescription for a sacrifice for a foolish vow in Leviticus 5. All of this coming into verse 44, the point is Saul does not have to carry out his foolish vow. But what does pride do? What does pride do? Does pride like to admit that it's wrong, ever? Pride doesn't like to admit that it's wrong. Pride doesn't care what gets trampled along the way. Verse 44 is chilling. I will kill my own son before I will admit that I am wrong. I must be great. Everyone must acknowledge that my great vow allowed us to fast before God wonderfully as we had this victory. And it's all Jonathan's fault. My pride is not what is in the way. My son must die to show how great I am. People of God, do you see the destruction of pride? Pride can never truly worship God. and pride will trample those who are closest to you and all those around you. God, however, is going to use this day to show his saving purposes in every way. Hear the voice of the people is the voice of God. As the Lord lives, verse 45, there shall not be one hair of his head fall to the ground for he has worked with God this day. And so Saul, who so fears the people that he must show how great he is when he's confronted by the people, because he fears the people, will step down. His pride has been exposed. Pride comes before the fall. And God uses now the many to save the few in this case one Jonathan do you see now the scope of of this narrative for those who were with us last week God can use you Jonathan in his armor bearer to save the many and it is the Lord who worked salvation on this day in verse twenty three but the Lord is not done working salvation God is also going to use the many, the voiceless soldiers, to save the few, now the one, Jonathan. This is actually the more usual way that God works salvation. God can use a few mighty missionaries and evangelists to bring many to him, and God does do that, but more often God uses the many. God uses the community of faith, which is no longer the army of Israel and the nation of Israel, but is now what? His people, his body, which is his church. God usually uses many to bring in a few. God usually uses the community of faith to bring in those who are called and ordained to be his people. This is the more usual way that God works. And on this day, God wonderfully works salvation, both using the few to save the many and using the many to save the few. Pride is a dangerous thing and we must watch out for it in our own hearts. If we do not, then whatever we do, we are not really worshiping God at all. Pride is a dangerous thing. It can cause pain for all those who are surrounded by it, but God can work salvation. God is more powerful than the destructive pride of man. Now, brothers and sisters, As we come to our conclusion, let's make sure we don't just leave this as an out there chapter because it so shows us dangers of prideful religion. Let us consider this. Revelation 22 is so plain that we must neither add nor subtract. Now is it possible that being surrounded by a nation, by a state, by a city, which is becoming less and less religious. Religious practice is dying away. How many older members here have seen the drastic change in this city of the practice of coming to God at the beginning and the end of his day? That is just one example. Now, Is it possible, when we are surrounded by less and less religious exercise, that doing religious activity can become an act of pride? People of God, this is certainly possible. This is certainly possible. Look at me, myself, and no one else going to church not once but twice, doing all the religious practices, People of God, we must beware of this. The answer is not to put away religious practice. David, despite his own sins, is so much the anti-Saul. He's certainly concerned about worshiping God. But pride can be destructive in any direction. The pride of doing as little as possible and the pride of doing as much as possible to make self look good are equally dangerous and destructive. Let us never go through the motions of religion without a real heart change. Let us never come before God to glorify self, but only ever to glorify God. Let us repent of pride in all its forms and be wary of its many destructive traps. Instead of hiding in a cave when the enemy is pressing against us, and instead of pointing to ourselves when the enemy is routing, let us always hide in the cave of Jesus Christ alone. And when we are routing the enemy, always point to the glory of Jesus Christ alone. He is our only rock in the good times and in the bad. God who can deliver by many or by few, but always the salvation belongs to him. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God almighty.