Today's message is called, The Valiant Men of Jabesh Gilead, the subtitle being, What Being a Good Soldier of Jesus Christ Looks Like. And we take our text from 1 Chronicles 10, verses 11 and 12, and in the English Standard Version, which is provided in your handout. Again it says, but when all Jabesh, Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, in verse 12, all the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. And they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days. Now, as we look at the book of Chronicles, just as a reminder, I made the reminder, I gave the reminder last week, but for those that haven't heard it, the Chronicles, which is provided in your handout, it's dovri hayyimim, which means the words of the days, which is appropriate, Chronicles in English is appropriate for that, because Chronicles, you know, it means a detailed narrative of historical facts or events. And we believe that Ezra, after the children of Israel had spent 70 years in Babylonian captivity and when they came back, Ezra being one of those, the priestly scribe, between 15 and 516 BC and 456 BC, approximately that timeframe, this may be when 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles was written. So it's looking from, as like Moses, he wrote the account from creation, but it was far many years after the creation when Moses wrote it. Likewise, Ezra, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is writing of events that were before his day, as he would be writing about Saul's death. The breakdown of the chapter, we see Saul's death in chapter 10 verses 1 through 7. Saul's final battle with the Philistines. He asks his armor-bearer to run him through. His armor-bearer refuses, so he falls upon his own sword. And we have the death of Saul and the death of Saul's sons as they as they battle and then we have the desecration of the of Saul's remains in verses 8 through 12 that the Philistines came by just as Saul knew that they would they were pretty brutal and so they cut off his head and placed his head and fastened it as it was that Brother Teagan read it in the New King James Version I believe it was wasn't it and the New King James Version his head was fastened in the house of Dagon while his body while the bodies were pinned to the wall outside of the Philistine city. But the men of Jabesh Gilead went in and took the bodies of Saul and his sons. Then we have Saul's dismal legacy that closes out the chapter, which will open up chapter 11 as we look at the life of David. in some points and parts there. Not every detail that is given in the end of 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel is applied in 1st Chronicles, but there are great lessons to be learned and gleaned from there. What we're looking at, though, is these valiant men of Jabesh Gilead, this blessed application from the text. Now consider this, that unsaved men and women and children may exhibit some of these traits, these character traits here. Saved souls may not always exhibit every one of these traits that I'll expound upon here, but this first trait is what marks the difference between those that are saved and those that are not, that they heard. They heard what was going on as far as they heard the news of what the Philistines had done to their king Saul. They heard, they heard the news. But before we look at what we must see here, God's word stirred them with love. See, as a newborn believer, going back some years, as a newborn believer, some 35, 36, let's see, the Lord saved me 37 years ago this coming May. But as a new believer, I would listen to a message and I would hear certain doctrinal truths, and they were good things, things about Jesus, things about salvation by grace through faith, and I would hear these things. But what I wanted to know most primarily is, now that I'm saved, now that God has saved me, what does it mean to be a man of God? What does it mean to be a Christian? And how do I do that? I want to know how to do it. Sometimes I was sitting in, you know, in the church that I was attending and I would hear a message. Sometimes it sounded mostly like legalism. Well, this is what the Word of God says and then therefore this is what I have to do. And so I muster up in my own strength how to try to be good, how to try to behave, how to try to be righteous. And it mostly seemed like, well, I was really justifying myself. If I'm a Christian, then I should do this. And I didn't really feel like I had the tools for this. And this is what this hearing is all about. The truth of first hearing God. We talked about this last week, this thing called legalism. Justifying yourself before God as if I did something and say, now God, you owe me. That's part of legalism. Or just trying to get away from the judgment we know is coming. So if I do this, God won't strike me down. The two arms of legalism. And then all those other things that come along with it because with every arm there's a hand with fingers attached. So there's all those things too. But what does it really mean to be a man of God? To be a woman of God? To be a child of God and walk appropriately? Well, hopefully this message will help you with that. And the first thing is, is that these men of Jabesh Gilead, as they heard the news, there was something else that was going on in their lives before that. They heard the word of God. They knew the word of God. The great commandment, as it were, these Manassehites, the men of Jabesh Gilead were from the tribe, the half-tribe of Manasseh, that was on the east side of the Jordan River. And these men knew the law of God because they heard the commandments of God. I mentioned this verse last week because if you're reading a Robert Murray McShane reading plan and reading the portions of scripture to be able to read through the Bible in a year, basically read through the Old Testament once in a year and the New Testament and the Psalms twice through And it's on the back of your handout, right up at the top, the portions that are four portions per day, each day, as we read it, 365 days in the year. And we're in the Gospel of Luke in that plan, in Luke 10, verse 27, where this scribe comes up to the Lord, wants to justify himself, and he says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says to him, What are the commandments? How do you read the scriptures? And he says to the Lord Jesus, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. So basically he quotes what would be in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy, what the Jews call the Shema, Shema Yisrael, Yehovah Eloheinu, Yehovah Echad. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your, it's the Hebrew word modeka, with all your veriness, with all your everything. And that would translate in Greek into mind and strength. And so he quotes that and then he quotes Leviticus 19 in verse 18. He says in Hebrew, I know it sounds like you're ordering a coffee at Starbucks, right? It says that you should love your neighbor as yourself. And he combines those two and says, this is how I read the law. And the Lord says, you're not far from the kingdom of heaven. because it requires the Lord Jesus Christ and his precious blood for the kingdom of heaven. But he at least recognized that, and what we recognize from that in hearing the word of God, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then to love your neighbor as yourself. If you're not loving your neighbor as yourself, you're obviously not loving the Lord, your God, because there will be a response to loving God, in loving God, that you will love others because Christ came to save wretches like you and me. It wouldn't be the gospel to say, I love God and hate my neighbor, because Jesus came to save his neighbors. And though we know that the corruption still remaining in our mortal flesh will keep us from truly loving God, the only person who ever kept those commandments perfectly is the Lord Jesus Christ. But that doesn't keep us from wanting to fulfill the commandments. That would be ridiculous. That if Jesus loved the Lord perfectly, but I can't, well, those commandments aren't for me. No, that's not how it works. That if Jesus came and fulfilled them, then I'll want to do them and do them the best as a sinner saved by grace is able to, by God's grace. It falls short and whatever is lacking in me is fulfilled in the perfect, performance, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ who kept it perfectly. Even though I can't keep it perfectly. And so we have this great commandment. They heard this in order to be able to act upon what they heard with Saul and his sons being put to death in battle. because there is great care in the truth of God's word that ministers unto us. What is this great care? That we have now a care within our hearts because we've been changed. We have a care for one another. And that care means a responsibility to one another. Proverbs chapter 27, verse 23 says this, know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds. Now, although that might sound a little Wait a minute, that seems a little bit off topic, brother. That as these herdsmen understand that in the world around them and in the responsibility they have, well, I got to eat and here's my flocks and herds, that they are aware of the condition of their flocks and herds and so that they can appropriately guide them and feed them, have them watered and so forth. But that simple duty extends onto a broader duty that that's our responsibility to one another. And so when I hear of things going on and I'm aware of things going on, because I hear the Word of God each day as I read the Scriptures, then when I hear of things going on like a war in Ukraine, well, now I can pray appropriately. When I hear of things going on, the death of, And I forgot to mention that in the announcements that Karen Greer, who just passed away on Sunday, who had been coming faithfully, that of the death of a member of the church, then I can minister unto those whom she knows that aren't attending church, I can minister to them appropriately. And that we have this responsibility of our being stewards of Israel's relationships. Certainly in the Old Testament, it was speaking of Israel that were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But when we see in Galatians 6 that it speaks of the Israel of God, that that only foreshadowed all those that would be in Christ from Adam until the Lord Jesus returns. And so we have a responsibility of one another. Jesus said it in this way, that by this all men will know that you are my disciples, in John 15, that you have loved one for another. And so there is that great care that once we heard the word of God and that we hear what's going on around us, then we can respond to those things in this way. They arose. We see that in the scripture in 1 Chronicles 10, that when they heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose. They arose, they got up, they were obedient. And watch this as far as for obedience, because see, when my flesh rises up in me, It wants to say, well, here's what the word of God says, and I wanna do it. Or the word of God says, don't do this, and I don't, and so I'm not gonna do that. But here's an aspect of the law that I want you to catch. When they arose to go do this, and the New Testament is very clear on this, this aspect of good works according to the law. James, the half-brother of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament, James chapter four, verse 17 says, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." See, there's not a specific commandment to say that, oh, the king of Israel has died, so you need to go and grab his body because somebody took his head off. Well, that's kind of specific, but it's not in there. Even if I generalize it, So a person died, I need to go grab their body. It doesn't really even say that in there. It says to mourn for those who are lost, and then that they are to be interred in a certain way, as far as in Leviticus, it does speak of certain things concerning death, but mostly they're cleanliness laws as opposed to that you should do this or this or that. So obedience takes on a greater connotation. It's not written in there, but it is the right thing to do. Here is the king of Israel. There is Jonathan, his son, whose heart was knit to David's as if they were one soul. They loved one another. And so no specific commandment is given, but they did it. How did they go about doing this? Well, in their faith, they were fearless. See, as it says that they arose and took away the body of Saul, where was the body of Saul? It was deep in the heart of Philistine territory. They were fearless. They went into enemy territory to go and get the body of Saul and his sons. Fearless. took the bodies from enemy territory. Psalm 34 and verse 4 tells us, I sought the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Men that hear the word of God and then hear their surroundings, when they arise to go and do what is right, they do so in fearlessness. Lord, I got to do this. And even if it means my death, then I'm going to do so. Because I will not fear what men will do to me. And we talked about godly fear and we will have more messages on godly fear because godly fear is a learned thing. As Psalm 37 tells us, come children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. That's the Lord Jesus teaches us the fear of the Lord. And sadly, there's much of that lacking in the church today in America. But they were not only fearless, but they were faithful because they brought the bodies home to Jabesh. They brought the bodies home to Jabesh. And in the New Testament, it says in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 26, if one member suffers, we all suffer together. If one member is honored, we all rejoice together. See these, as I mentioned, they were Manassites. They were from the half tribe of Manasseh. Those of you who are Bible students, you know that in 1 Samuel 11, when there was an Ammonite king, a tyrant named Nahash, which is interestingly the same name for the serpent in Genesis chapter three. This fellow named Nahash, he was tyrannical and he was putting the people of Manasseh under, the men of Jabesh, Gilead in particular, and Saul came to the rescue. And here they, go to bring that person who had brought rescue to them and bring his body, not home to the Benjamites, but home to their very own home. As Saul was faithful to them, they were faithful to Saul, which expresses their faith altogether. They saw Saul as one of their own. Somebody who was from a different tribe, though he was an Israelite, he was from a different tribe. And as he was king, and as he was a warrior king, he came to help us. And so in this time, even after his death, we're going to take him and not bring him home to the Benjamites. We're going to bring him to our home as if he is one of our own. It serves also as a blessed picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us, who died for you and who died for me. and that when He hung upon the cross, or in fact, before He hung upon the cross and He was being tried, and they brought all kinds of false witness and accusation against Him, He who is perfect, who walked a sinless life, it says in Isaiah 53 that He opened not His mouth. He'd never denied those sins of you and me by His silence. He took on our sins the sinless, righteous son of God. God, fully God and fully man, but as a man, he took our sins upon him as if they were his very own and came and died for us. Died for me, died for you. And so with this truth of the gospel, as he went to the tree and he hung upon that tree and God's wrath was poured out upon him, paying the penalty for the sins that you and I have committed. the infinite and eternal wrath of God, though it was three hours of darkness while He hung upon the tree, that the truth of the payment was infinite and it was eternal. So that took place spiritually, though in our time frame, in a matter of three hours, it was eternally poured out upon Him to the very dregs of Psalm 75 and verse eight says, to the very bottom of it. and that he died a death and his blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins. And God says that anyone who trusts in his death, his righteous life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven and the truth of his coming again, there is the blessed truth of the gospel. And therefore, because of what Christ has done, I will respond faithfully in obedience to him. take them into the home of my heart, as the men of Jabesh Gilead took the dead body, the headless dead body of Saul into their own homeland. And so we take Jesus into the home of our heart and abide with the truth of Christ and am crucified every day of my life. So there is a marker there in Jabesh Gilead as a reminder of Saul, who is king of Israel, who came to rescue them. And that's what we do each time we gather and encourage one another each week in the truth of Christ and Him crucified, so that day by day we are reminded that there was a Savior who rescued us from our sin and who died. And in rising from the dead, the truth of His resurrection is with us every single day. Jabesh Gilead. What a gospel! What a Savior! that He would put that in the Scriptures for us. Jebesh in Hebrew, it's Yevesh, means dry. And remember what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter 4, in verses 13 and 14, He says, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, will never be thirsty again. The water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Moses says, Lord, give me this water that I won't have to draw anymore. She didn't quite understand it. Jesus said the same thing again in John chapter 7. On Sunday nights, as we've been going through the Gospel of John, we looked at that, and Jesus said it again. In the Feast of Tabernacles, on that last great day when they pour water out for a full week, water out on the stone of the temple area, and then on the last day, they're able to drink, but Jesus stands up in the middle of the congregation and says, if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Jabesh reminds us that though they were dry, that when they did this act, it was a truth of the gospel that Jesus takes that dry place and makes it full of living water. They arose. Then they buried Saul and his sons. He took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh, and they buried their bones under the yoke in Jabesh." They buried. And so we can see three things there. The first thing is that it was honorable. They wanted to honor Saul. He was their rescuer. He was their rescuer who rescued them back in the days of 1 Samuel 11. And so when he dies, as it says in 1 Peter 2, verse seven, it says, in the old King James Version, it says, honor all. In the English Standard Version, it says, honor everyone. Love the brotherhood, fear God. honor the emperor, fear God. I like that it says that, godly fear. That's going to be something that will be underlying in our church for a while so that we could really learn what the fear of the Lord, you know, Proverbs 9 and verse 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And it's right in the middle of that. But each one of these things are happening. as they fulfill this that Peter writes in the New Testament. Each of these is a testimony of a true believer, this honor unto Saul. And we pay honor unto Christ, certainly. But in the historical aspect of it, how did they honor him? Well, first they honored, since they are to honor everyone, Saul was a man. And though he had made, as we see in verses 13 and 14, he was a sinful man, but he was a man nonetheless, and he was created in the image and after the likeness of Yehovah God. And so in honoring everyone because they are people, You know, this is where we've come to America today that we give more credence to our pets and to animals than we do unto people that were made in the image and after the likeness of God. It's strange, but they honored him because he was a man. And they did that which was honorable in order to bury him. Then he was an Israelite. that though they were from the half-tribe of Manasseh on the east side, though he was from the tribe of Benjamin, the least of all tribes, even from Saul's own words, as we saw two weeks ago, they loved the brotherhood. He was one of us. He was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, says the men of Jabesh-Gilead, and so they honored the fact that he was an Israelite as well. because of godly fear running through them, that they did not fear men, but they did fear God. And so not to do the right thing, not to hear God's word, and not to hear the news around their situation and circumstances, and then to not arise, and then to not bury would be to dishonor, would be to dishonor God. And so they feared God. with all that it pertains to. Godly fear, remember that as I mentioned last week, it contains love, love for God. It contains an awesome reverence for God. It contains obedience to God and so forth and so on. And I won't cover that because we looked at it last week. But as each of these things, and it goes right up to honor the emperor or honor the king, he was the king. And so therefore they fulfilled that one verse in 1 Peter 2 and verse 17 in this act. It gave him honor. But also there was a memorial there. It was memorable. And the reminder for them that God, through a man, through a sinner even, had saved the men of Jabesh from this wicked, tyrannical Nachash many years ago, that there was a memorial for him in his burial, that they would remember. And that also, even though it's not written there, and it may just be conjecture, but I think it's Old Testament looking forward to the new, that the Lord had promised, Yehovah had promised a Redeemer, the Messiah to come. And so there was a memorial there that there will be one day a Rescuer who is without sin who would come. And we know that that memory is even remembrances even from the cross as we see in Luke 23 and verses 42-43 as Jesus is hanging upon the cross and the thieves, one on either side, mocking Him and then as God's grace ministers unto the one thief. In Luke 23, he says to the Lord, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And in verse 43, Jesus says to him, truly I say to you, today you'll be with me in paradise. Every memorial is a reminder of Christ because it's every experience in the Christian life is a death, resurrection reality. Christ isn't dead and in the ground. We have death as a memorial and that even every death where we, Sister Karen, passing away, she was beaming right there, actually where Sister Erin is sitting right now. She was sitting there, and typically I don't connect with your eyes too much. I'm usually looking over the top of your head so I don't get nervous up here because I'm handling the Word of God and I don't want to get scared before you. But there she was, and I caught her glance about five times or so that Sunday. She was beaming, hearing the Word of God. But every death is a reminder that Christ died and that there's a resurrection to come. Paradise. You will be with me. And that's what heaven is. The resurrection to come is to be with the Lord Jesus. That's the reward. And it's merciful. Though we read, and I want to read it again so it's in the hearing of our ears, just the very ending of Saul's life at the end of this chapter. Verse 13, so Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance. In verse 14, he did not seek guidance from the Lord, therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. What sins have we committed? Whereas people may be merciful to us. And in fact, we have committed so many sins that before the Lord Jesus saved us, it says in Romans chapter five, between verses six and 10, these four things exist, existed in our lives. It says that we were weak, because we were without strength. We were weak, godless, we were ungodly. We were weak, godless sinners. who were enemies of God. Verse 10 says we were enemies of God and Christ died for us. We were those four things. And though Saul was unfaithful, God is merciful. And that the men of Jabesh-Gilead were saying, there but by God's grace go you and me. Ephesians chapter four and verse 32 says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. It didn't matter to them what Saul had done. They were guilty of the same things. You and I are guilty of the same things. How many times have we been faithless? How many times have we not called upon God when we should have? How many times have we entertained ourselves with the things of the world as opposed to surrendering to God and trembling before Him because He has saved our lives with the eternal treasure of heaven? Christ Jesus, God who became man. I have repented in tears often, even this week, preparing this message, thinking of how faithless I have been time and again. But God's grace abounded to me each time. We consider that Even though what Saul had done, it didn't matter to them how he had sinned or shamed himself, he sinned and shamed his royal position, and he sinned and shamed God's kingdom, they showed mercy as God through Saul had been merciful to them. Being like Christ because of what Christ would do, foreshadowing the truth of the gospel. And they considered forgiveness as an elementary part of this whole act in their burial. And Philippians chapter two, verse four says, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. You see, even if Saul were so decrepit, so deficient, and so dismissive of the commandments of God and his faithlessness, that didn't matter because the right thing to do was because he was an Israelite was to bury him because the interests of others rose up in their actions. What interests of others? They were Israelites. They were looking upon their deed. There was King David looking upon their deed. The David the King and the Lord's Beloved, the Lord's Anointed was looking upon it. Then there was the whole nation of Israel. And then there was an outside nation. The Philistines saw what they had done. To be a witness unto them. a blessed interest to all. And then finally, they fasted. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is the portion of 2 Timothy 2, verse 3. It says, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. The New King James Version says, you therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The Old King James Version says, suffer hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now by fasting, and I don't want to go into a whole lesson on fasting, it's like setting aside the things of the temporal in order to give the spiritual truth their way, in order to give God's will his way. That's basically it. You take away the, you set aside the temporary physical necessities of the world in order to give themselves to the more important spiritual truths. In other words, What they were doing was that they were preparing themselves for whatever they must do next in God's providential circumstances. And that's the key point that I want to make. When they went into fasting as they were doing this, certainly there was elements and aspects of mourning because the King of Israel had died. But the spiritual truth that it shows us as a lesson is that not only did they do this thing, but now having done this thing, they were prepared to do the next thing. Lord, what is it that you want me to do? Can I follow your will? Because it's not a burdensome thing, 1 John 5, verse three, the commandments of God are a blessed thing. The love of God is such through Jesus Christ that when he gives us those commandments or doesn't give us the commandments and we do what is the right thing to do, it's not grievous or a burden to us. And so we're ready for the very next thing. That's what it means to be a valiant man, woman, or child in the economy of God, in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a valiant, jabish, Gileadite. So are you prepared for what's next? Today is just the beginning of a series of many things. And so to do them in Christ is a great blessing. And it will provide a witness throughout that entire course of what it means to be a valiant warrior in the Lord's army. Are you even saved? Have you heard God's Word in Christ that you may serve Him with love because He has loved you enough that He had sent His one and only Son? to live the righteous life that you and I can't, to die a death, paying a debt He did not owe for a debt that we owe and could not possibly pay. The first thing means hearing God's word, hearing Him upon our hearts. And if we are saved, are you prepared? Have you gone through that? And in being prepared, the fasting allows us, you know, when they fasted, setting aside temporal things, and that's a terrible thing to go on fellowship Sunday. We're gonna be going over there to eat food, and I beg you to eat food because there's plenty of it there, and then fast afterwards. But when we set aside the food in order to fast, When we set aside the food in order to fast, what are we doing? We're placing the spiritual in a greater place of importance. What does it do? It brings us right back to the first thing again, hearing the word of God so that we can arise and do what we must do, bury the sins of the past, and to be prepared for the next thing. to honor those who've gone before, to honor our Lord Jesus, who is always and ever before us. Let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Lord, for the truth of 1 Chronicles. It is a much avoided book because of all those names and so forth, Lord. But as we read through them in your providence, it provides for us blessing upon blessing upon blessing because Christ is there. Your word is true. It is the authoritative, inspired, God-breathed Word that you have given unto us, that we may know you, that we may be redeemed by you, that we may love you and worship you, because you deserve and are worthy of all worship. In Jesus' name we thank you, Lord, for this time. Amen.