Thank you, Joy. Good evening.
It's good to be here. Let's open up our blue hymnals
to number 212. Number 212, Nothing But The Blood.
If you could please stand, number 212. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh, precious is the flow That
makes me white as snow No other fount I know Nothing but the
blood of Jesus Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is the flow
? ? That makes me white as snow ? ? No other fount I know ? ?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You may be seated. We're going
to sing one more hymn. Remain seated and then Adam will
come and bring what the Lord has put on your heart. We're
going to turn to page number 185. Same book, number 185. Glorious things of thee are spoken. ? Glorious things of thee are spoken
? Zion, city of our God ? He whose word cannot be broken form
thee for his own abode on the rock of Ages founded, what can
shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded,
thou mayest smile at all thy foes. See the streams of living
waters, stringing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and
daughters, and all fear of want remove. Who can faint while such
a river Ever flows their thirst to sway? Grace which, like the
Lord the Giver, Never fails from age to age. ? Round each habitation hovering
? See the cloud and fire appear ? For a glory and a covering
? Showing that the Lord is near ? Glorious things of Thee are
spoken ? Zion, city of our God ? ? He whose word cannot be broken
? ? Form thee for his own abode ? Good evening. The Lord's put a message on my
heart where we're going to be reading from three different
Bible stories. And what you all need to do is
make your way to each of these three stories. We're going to
go through all of them and put a marker, if you can, on each
one, because we're going to be reading a lot of scripture. And
let's go ahead and get on right into it. The first part, first
Bible story we're going to read is in 1 Samuel chapter 17. So
make your way there. After that, we'll go to Genesis
chapter 6. And then thirdly, we will be
going to Luke chapter 4. So keep those areas in mind and
we'll be making our way there throughout the course of the
evening. Before we start, I wanted to
read from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1. Which states, to everything
there is a season. and a time to every purpose under
the heaven. With each of these three Bible
stories we're gonna read this evening, the Lord has provided
a particular time span, 40 days. The first story we're gonna be
reading about is the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was
out presenting himself and tempting and defying the God of Israel
for 40 days before David got to him. The second story we're
gonna read about is in Genesis when Noah is instructed by God,
build the ark, and because there's an impending flood coming. And
for 40 days and 40 nights, the wrath of God is gonna pour on
the earth in the form of a storm, a deluge. And the third story
we're gonna read about is in Luke chapter four. And that's
when the Lord Jesus Christ is tempted in the wilderness for
40 days. I think the Lord gives us that particular time span
as a token in a sense, to show us three parallel stories all
referring to the same salvation, the same truth of the gospel,
all leading to Christ. And I pray that the Lord would
be pleased to reveal himself through these stories to us this
evening. All right. So first Samuel chapter
17, we're going to start by reading the first 16 verses and we have
a lot of scripture to get through. So bear with me. Now the Philistines gathered
together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at
Shoko, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shoko and
Azekah, and Ephesdamim. And Saul and the men of Israel
were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set
the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines
stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain
on the other side. And there was a valley between
them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines
named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
And he had a helmet of brass upon his head. And he was armed
with a coat of mail. And the weight of the coat was
5,000 shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon
his legs and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the
staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighed
600 shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went before
him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said
unto them, why are ye come out to set your battle in a ray?
Am I not a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? Choose you
a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to
fight with me and to kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him
and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us. And
the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day.
Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel
heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid. Now David was the son of that Ephrathide of Bethlehem
Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons, and the
man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And
the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the
battle. And the names of his three sons that went to the battle
were Eliab, the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the
third Shammah. And David was the youngest, and
the three eldest followed Saul. But when David went and returned
from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem, and the Philistine
drew near every morning and presented himself 40 days. So here's a
form of introduction. Goliath is symbolic. He's a picture of the Antichrist. He's a picture of self-righteousness,
as we'll see in this story, what he says to the God of Israel. He's a picture of man's idea
of what power is, and power being able to influence other people.
He is a picture of works. He's a facade. He's a picture
of something in the eyes of men that looks appealing. And 40
days, Goliath presented himself and tempting Israel. And on that
very note, leading up to this point in time, the Israelites
and Philistines are frequently recognized to always be in conflict
with each other. And shortly before this eruption
of this battle, That's when Saul tried to present his own sacrifice
before the Lord. He didn't wait on his priest,
Samuel, but instead he presented his own sacrifice. And what did
the Lord do? He departed from him. The Lord
departed from Saul because Saul tried to stand on his own before
God with his own sacrifice, with his own hands. Unacceptable. And yes, we can point to Saul,
but I also want us to look right to ourselves in our own sinful
nature and our own hearts right now. Because when the Lord departs
from you or I, that peace is removed and it happens. When
the Lord removes his hand from us and his presence from us,
the feeling of peace is not there anymore. And what happens is
we do have our own Goliath erupt, presenting himself, defying the
word of God in our own hearts. So we have that own Goliath that
is warring against our new man, Israel. So this is a picture
of the old man and the new as well. So yes, it's a historical
event, but what we should take from this message is the symbolism
of Goliath being a picture of us, warring with our new man
Israel, and we'll soon get to the point where Christ is the
victor in this battle, and the battle is of the Lord. So let's
go ahead and go to Genesis, chapter six. and start in verse five. We're gonna read verses five
through seven. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it
grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for
it repenteth me that I have made them. Go down to verse 11. The
earth was also corrupt before God, and the earth was filled
with violence. And God looked upon the earth,
and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end
of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth. God hates sin. God hates ungodliness. Romans chapter one, verse 18
reads, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. Move to Genesis chapter seven,
verse four. For yet seven days, and I will
cause it to rain upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and every
living substance that I have made will I destroy from off
the face of the earth. So we have the 40 days of Goliath,
we have 40 days of the pending storm. Let's go to Luke now,
chapter four. And you'll see very quickly why
it's important we keep our places back there, because we're gonna
be going back to the Old Testament. We'll read verses one through
two. And Jesus, being full of the
Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil. And in
those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended, he
afterward hungered." All right. That's the introductory
backdrop that we have for those three stories, okay? So let's
get into the meat. All right, and we're gonna be
going back to 1 Samuel, and then we'll be going to Genesis and
back to Luke, and that's kinda how we're gonna sequence things
this evening. All right, so in this second part, when we're
getting to the meat of this message, I want you all to think on what
God's design is. He's considered the great mathematician.
We'll see in, how he instructs the very specific details of
how the ark must be instructed. He designed and purposed salvation
through his own son, Jesus Christ, which is himself. He is God. He did so to make a way of salvation
for sinners, not a way that is open-ended and we follow it,
but his design is clear, and when God wills something to be
done, it's done. And I'm gonna read Isaiah 14,
verses 24 through 27. "'The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, "'Surely, as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, "'and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand, "'that I will break
the Assyrian in my land, "'and upon my mountains tread him underfoot.
"'Then shall his yoke depart off them, "'and his burden depart
from off their shoulders. "'This is the purpose that is
purposed upon the whole earth, "'and this is the hand that is
stretched out "'upon all the nations. "'For the Lord of hosts
hath purposed, "'and who shall disannul it? And his hand is
stretched out and who shall turn it back? When the Lord, all the
Lord has to do is have a thought and it's done. He thought it.
He thought all of this into existence. We're living in his thoughts
and his will, his providence. In Acts chapter 13, verse 22,
the Lord states, and when he had removed him, now we're transitioning
back into the first story. David and Goliath, when he had
removed Saul, when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David
to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I
have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which
shall fulfill all my will. Right there, shall fulfill all
my will. David here is obviously a picture,
he's a type of Christ, he's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
story of David and Goliath. And David was anointed by Samuel
in 1 Samuel chapter 16 to be the savior, to be the king, to
replace Saul. He was anointed. And so if we
go back to our story in 1 Samuel 17, verses 20 through 37, We continue on. And David rose
up early in the morning and left the sheep with the keeper and
took and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench
as the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the
battle. For Israel and the Philistines
had put the battle in array, army against army. And David
left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage
and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren. And
as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the
Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the
Philistines, and spake according to the same words. And David
heard them. And all the men of Israel, when
they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. And the
men of Israel said, have you seen this man that has come up?
Surely to defy Israel is he come up. And it shall be that the
man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches
and will give him his daughter. and make his father's house free
in Israel. And David spake to the men that
stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth
this Philistine and take away the reproach from Israel? For
he is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies
of the living God. And the people answered him after this manner
saying, so shall it be done to the man that killeth him. And Eliab, his eldest brother,
heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled
against David. And he said, why camest thou
down hither? And with whom hast thou left
a few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness
of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest
see the battle. And David said, what have I done
now? Is there not a cause? And he turned from him toward
another, and spake after the same manner. And the people answered
him again after the former manner. And when the words were heard
which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent
for him. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because
of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And
Saul said to David, thou art not able to go against this Philistine
to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of
war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, thy
servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him and
smote him and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose
against me, I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew
him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the
armies of the living God. David said, Moreover, the Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the
paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. Looking back at verse 26, I love
the bounty, the bounty of the Lord. and killing this Philistine,
the self-righteousness, the one who thinks by his appearance,
by his works, he's gonna be saved. Jesus Christ had a bounty, and
this is what it was in verse 25. The king will enrich him
with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his
father's house free in Israel. The king's daughter being the
bride of Christ, the church. And this is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And making his
father's house free in Israel, meaning liberty equals freedom. That's freedom from the law,
freedom from works, from the worldly way, from the power as
perceived by man, from our own sin. Freedom from that. So in
that sense, let's go to Galatians chapter five. We'll talk about liberty right
here. Liberty found in Jesus Christ. Galatians 5. Verses 1 through 6. Stand fast,
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised that
he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ has become of no
effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. So we have liberty because Jesus
Christ has won this battle. He sets us free from our sins. And I love in verse 29 where
he says, is there not a cause? Is there not a cause for him
to be here? Yes, there's a cause. The Lord
causes everything. He, by all things, all things
consist in him, right? He's not only the first cause
of everything, but he controls absolutely everything in his
goodwill and providence. Right here and now, he controls
everything. He controls every electrical impulse going through
your heart right now, every molecule in the air, every thought, every
imagination. He knows us through and through.
He knows us better than we know ourselves. Is there not a cause? Yes, there's a cause, because
he predestinated and foreordained the people to be safe. That's
what the cause is. I love how he said in verse 32, let no man's
heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight this
Philistine. All right, let's go to Genesis. Let's go back
to the flood. We'll start chapter six, verse.
13 now, excuse me verse 8. Let's
start in verse 8 and then we'll bounce to 13 But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord Verse 13 and God said unto Noah The
end of all flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with
violence through them and behold I will destroy them with the
earth make thee an ark of gopher wood rooms shalt thou make in
the ark and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch and And
this is the fashion which thou shalt make of it. The length
of the ark shall be 300 cubits, and the breadth of it 50 cubits,
and the height of it 30 cubits. A window shalt thou make to the
ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above, and the door
of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof, with lower,
second, and third story shalt thou make it. And behold, I,
even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all
flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and everything
that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish
my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou and thy sons
and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living
thing, and of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring
into the ark, to keep them alive with thee. They shall be male
and female, of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their
kind, of every creeping thing of the earth. After this kind,
two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
and take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou
shalt gather it to thee, and it shall be for food for thee
and for them. Thus did Noah, according to all
God commanded, so did he. Now, Noah did not design this
ark. God did. Noah didn't design a
plan of being delivered from this impending doom. God delivered
it for him. God created the plan for him,
delivered it. And I love how God uses the term
pitch in verse 14 there of chapter six. Pitch is derived from the
Hebrew word kafar, which means to cover, to atone, to purge. So the ark was kafard, entirely,
within and without, so that God's wrath against sin, God's wrath
couldn't harm those inside of the ark. In verse 18, but with
thee will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the
ark. The word shall, shalt, that means
it's going to happen no matter what. Shalt. When the Lord says
shalt, it's not may. They didn't use the word may,
which is discretionary. The word may is, it gives you
the option. He's shalt. Thou shalt come into
the ark. And I love that he makes that
call irresistible. It's an irresistible call. Just
like he said, Zacchaeus, make haste, Luke 19. I love how the
Lord is walking right outside of Jericho, I believe. He says,
Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for today. I must abide
at thy house. And guess what? Zacchaeus, he
made haste and came down and received him joyfully. And when
they saw it, they all murmured saying that he was going to be
a guest with a man that is a sinner. Aren't you glad that the Lord
makes himself a guest of sinners? I want to identify myself with
Zacchaeus' other world. Zacchaeus was a publican. And
we know the story about the Pharisee and the publican, the Pharisee
looking down on the publican, but the publican's beating on
his chest saying, Lord, I'm a sinner, save me. The Lord saves sinners. Luke 18, 10, 14, that's a story
of the Pharisees and the publicans. And I'm gonna identify myself
as a publican. I pray you do the same. First
Timothy 1 through Chapter 115. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief and I know today I'm preaching
to a bunch of chief centers. I'm a chief center. All you are
chief centers too. And centers I love how we a true
center confessing your sin. What does that mean? What does
it mean to confess your sin? It means to agree with God's assessment
of who we are. And so I love how 1 John chapter
1 verses 8 through 9 says this right here, quote, if we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sinners
shall come into the ark. They're not trying to survive
God's wrath by their own abilities. They're not trying to build their
own whatever. They're not trying to see how
long they can hold their breath. That wouldn't work out too well
for them. And the Lord's tempest. So it's a tempestuous storm.
We're going to get in the references of the Bible. The Bible references
this type of storm that led up to the flood. It's called a tempest.
The Bible references it in 22 different times. And we're going
to look into a couple of them here in a second. I love there in first john chapter
one verse eight and nine where it does say right there in verse
nine if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and
so if we say lord i'm confessing my sins before you i don't know
half of them i'm unworthy i'm not presenting anything before
me before before your throne in terms of anything that I've
done in my life. And instead of looking solely to Christ entirely
for my life, death and only hope of salvation being in what he
accomplished. If that's our confession, then
it says he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse, which
means we're justified and to be justified means you haven't
ever sent. Doesn't mean it doesn't mean
as if you haven't ever sinned. Being justified doesn't mean,
well, you sinned, but in the Lord's eyes, I know you sinned,
but I'm still gonna impute Christ's blood on you. Christ's blood's
so powerful, as a token of our salvation, Christ's blood is
so powerful that to be justified in him means you never sinned. What a mystery, what a mystery.
Do I understand that? No, because I'm a sinner. All
I see before me is my sin. Look in the mirror and you look
long enough and you're gonna see through and through the depths
of your sin. And pray the Lord reveal that
to you if you haven't already. But the Lord, but isn't that
amazing? Isn't that such a, just amazing grace, right? That's
amazing grace that the Lord would design his salvation in the way
he did. And why? Because he gets all
the glory. I'm thankful for that. All right, Genesis 7, go to Genesis
chapter 7, verse, let's jump to verse 18. And the waters prevailed and
were increased greatly upon the earth and the ark went upon the
face of the waters. Earlier I mentioned the word
tempest. Again, it's referenced in the Bible 22 different times,
and it's all the tempestuous storm, the flood, is all a picture
of God's wrath against sin. In Isaiah 28, verse 2, the Lord
states, Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which
as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters
overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. Now,
Christ faced the tempest of the Bible. He faced the flood, he
faced the storm. Isaiah chapter 32 verses 1 through
2 read, Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes
shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding
place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. And we look to the sign of Jonah.
We can look to the sign of Jonah as well. Verse four, but the
Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty
tempest in the sea so that the ship was like to be broken. Verse
12, and he said unto them, take me up and cast me forth into
the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto
you. For I know that for my sake,
this great tempest is upon you. And lastly, Matthew 20, chapter
eight, verse 24. And behold, there arose a great
tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but he, Jesus Christ, was asleep. Verse 26, And he
saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm. And the ark went upon the face
of the waters, the face of God's wrath. Luke chapter four again, please. Verses two through 12. As Goliath is taunting, as God's
all-consuming wrath against sin, is coming. Verse two, being 40
days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat
nothing. And when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the
devil said unto him, if thou be the son of God, command the
stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him saying,
it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. And the devil taking him up into
an high mountain showed unto him all the kingdom of the world
in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him,
all this power will I give thee. and the glory of them, for that
is delivered unto me, and whomsoever I will, I give it." Which, just
to stop there very briefly, I just find that so ironic that the
devil would ask God, or would say to God, I can give you power. That just shows how strong that
delusion is. I mean, you wanna talk about power, again, Goliath
being a picture of power. He's taunting them, and I'm not
sure if Satan intended to taunt Jesus Christ in the same way
as Goliath did, David. But what I do know is his, I
mean, God the Father, Satan's powerless. He's powerless before
God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written that thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Now, you can go to the garden,
look at Satan's subtlety in Genesis chapter 3, if you wish. You'll
see that subtlety. In the same way that Jesus Christ
was tempted in the wilderness, it's very formulaic. It's very
formulaic. Satan does the same thing to
all of us. And it's subtle. It's very, very
subtle. And it's very easy for us to
see the difference in religion versus under a gospel church. It's very easy for us to see
that. But yeah, it's a very subtle, same exact message that you hear
elsewhere. Outside of the gospel church,
you hear the same thing over and over and over again. It's the
same thing, eat the apple. You'll have free will. You'll
have free will. Take of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. The Lord didn't say you couldn't eat from that one. A
lie, it's based on a lie. And the notion that you have
free will to choose your salvation. And Jesus Christ was tempted
with the same thing, interestingly. And Jesus answered in verse eight
again and said unto him, get thee behind me, Satan, for it
is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only
shalt thou serve. Now, in all three of these stories,
there's going to be a great victory in each one of them. And we're
going to read about it right now. First Samuel chapter 17,
again, victory and salvation. What Christ did in defeating
Goliath. Our war where we don't have to
war anymore. We're going to read about that.
We're going to read in the flood. He protected his people from
God's wrath. He protected it with the pitch,
the atoning pitch. He purged us of our sins with
this and and God can't with how big that ark was. From the outside,
you can't see what's inside of it. All you do is you see Christ.
And that's what I want to be identified with. I want to be
identified with Christ. When the Lord, in his all-consuming wrath against
sin, the floods of sin, I want him to look at the ark. I want
him to look at Christ, and I want to be in that ark. And then lastly,
in the wilderness, we'll shortly see that Satan departed from
him and he went on, spirit renewed, and he went on and preached the
first message after the wilderness, reading from Isaiah. All right. First Samuel chapter 17, verse
40. This is David and he took his
staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the
brook and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a script. And his sling was in his hand,
and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and
drew near unto David. And the man that bared the shield
went before him. And when the Philistine looked
about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and
ruddy and of a fair countenance. And the Philistine said unto
David, Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine
cursed David by his guts. And the Philistine said to David,
come to me and I will give thy flesh into the fowls of the air
and the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine,
thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield.
But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God
of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defied. The word disdain in verse 42. The Philistine looked about and
saw David. He disdained him. The word disdained means the
feeling that someone or something is unworthy to be respected. You're unworthy. The religion
of this world and our old man thinks the same thing. Our old
man, we have a tendency, because our old man and our Israel, we
are constantly warring with our old man. Until that day, when
our flesh is no more and we're in glory, we won't ever have
to worry about that again. But while we're here, in time,
there's that war. There's that same war. And that
disdain is in us as well. Lord, save us from that. I think
that's our response. That's the response of believers
is, Lord, save us from ourselves. Save us. Lord, have David come
into my heart and slay my Goliath. Because it's uh... my goliath is again the
chief of sinners i'm the chief of sinners first forty three
and again this is the this really shows self-righteousness at its
best in goliath first forty three am i a dog yes am i a dog now
quite the opposite that's quite the opposite statement of of
the woman of canaan who after the lord told her directly it
is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs she
said truth lord Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall
from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto
her, O woman, great is thy faith. You hear how Goliath says, am
I a dog? How self-righteous is that, right? He's a competitor. He's competing against other
people. And we do the same thing, unfortunately. I do. I'm the
first one to admit it. I do. and the Lord saves sinners. He
saves the dead dogs like the woman of Canaan. Luke 15 verse
seven, the Lord states, I say unto you that likewise joy shall
be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over
90 and nine just persons which need no repentance. And I love
how Jesus Christ is, sometimes he speaks sarcastically. In that
sense, he's speaking sarcastically. I mean, first off, The 99 just
persons, just persons, I mean, no one's just other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's making a point here
to say, and I love how he says, likewise, joy shall be in heaven.
Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repented. I'm a dog,
I'm a dog, I'm unable. Lord, would you give me the crumbs
from your table? Verse 45. but I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. In verse
46, back to our text. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee, and take thine head
from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the
Philistines this day under the fowls of the air, and to the
wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there
is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle
is the Lord's. That's a point. I was trying
to make earlier about this is the Lord's battle With our sin
with our self-righteousness. Don't try to conquer it on your
own though. It's the Lord's battle and He will give you into our
hands in verse 48 and it came to pass when the Philistine arose
and came and drew nigh to meet David and that David hasted and
ran toward the end of the army to meet the Philistines David
went, our David, God's man, God's man, went straight to the cross,
didn't he? He went straight to the cross.
He went straight to conquer all of our sin, all of our self-righteousness. It went on him on the cross. He was imputed our sin on the
cross. And he didn't hesitate, he purposefully
went there. And I love in John chapter 18
verses 6 through 9 states, as soon then as he, this is in Gethsemane,
this is in Gethsemane's garden. Jesus Christ says, as soon then
as he had said unto them, I am he. As soon as he said, I am
he, they went backward and fell to the ground. Then asked he
them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you
that I am he. Therefore ye seek me, let these
go their way, that the saying might be fulfilled, which he
spake, of them which thou gavest me have I lost none. Jesus Christ
purposefully went to the cross. There was no No one took him
against his will. None of that. He directly went,
I mean, he went with that sling straight at Goliath. He went
to the cross. That ark was perfect, right?
That ark was perfect, perfectly built. And he went straight into
God's wrath. And you know what? That ark found land eventually,
didn't it? And Jesus Christ in the wilderness here in a moment,
we'll see. Satan himself had nothing on the Lord. He couldn't
win in any way, shape, or form. The battle is the Lord's. 1st
Samuel chapter 17 again verse 49 continuing, and David put
his hand in his bag and took thence a stone and slang it and
smote the Philistine in his forehead that the stone sunk into his
forehead and he fell upon his face of the earth. So David prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the
Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the
hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood upon the Philistine
and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and
slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines
saw their champion was dead, they fled. Let's go back to the
flood. Genesis. We're going to go to
chapter seven, verse 23. And every living substance was
destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven. And
they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only remained
alive. And they that were with him in the ark. Go to chapter
eight, verse one. And God remembered Noah and every
living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark.
And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged.
Verse 11. And the dove came into him in
the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off,
so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
Verse 15 through 21. And God spake unto Noah, saying,
Go forth of the ark, thou and thy wife and thy sons and thy
sons' wives with thee. bring forth with thee every living
thing that is with thee of all flesh both the fowl and of the
cattle and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth that they may breed abundantly in the earth and be fruitful
and multiply upon the earth and noah went forth in his sons and
his wife and his sons wives with him every beast every creeping
thing and every fowl and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth after
their kinds went forth out of the yard and noah built an altar
unto the lord and took of every clean beast, and of every clean
fowl, and burnt offerings unto the altar. And the Lord smelled
a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither
will I again smite any more everything living as I have done. Thanks to Christ's atonement,
the kaffir, In and out of the ark, thanks to Christ's atonement,
God is satisfied. God is satisfied with Christ,
his perfect life, perfectly obedient to God's holy law. He lifted
up, he glorified his father in every thought and every action
he ever had. Even in the most difficult times
on the cross, he atoned for his people and he was successful.
And that's where I want to be found in Christ, in Christ's
ark. to cover me with himself that
I may be found in him with my sin atoned. Ephesians chapter
1 verses 3 through 7. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. Quite the opposite
of our Goliath. We must have a new man. We must
be, the Lord must rename us Israel. We must be made anew. And we're only made anew through
Jesus Christ. And lastly, in Luke chapter four, verses 13 through 19. And when
the devil had ended all the temptation, he had departed from him for
a season. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out fame of him through
all the region round about, and he taught in their synagogues,
being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth, where
he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord. We are accepted in the beloved,
in Jesus Christ. And these three stories, shown
as parallels, showing Jesus Christ saved by design, by purpose.
He won the battle. We no longer have to fight. Stop
pumping your arms, trying to swim in God's flood. Thou shalt
enter into the ark. And lastly, the Lord conquered
Satan. He conquered Satan in the wilderness
itself, and he came out and he went straight to the word and
fame came out from him. I pray that we would worship
the Lord and live in his providence, as John Chapman recently preached,
living in his providence. Every day in the Lord's province,
every moment that we would not look too far ahead, but just
enjoy the moment that we have here with the Lord Jesus Christ
and hearing about his gospel. I pray that Greg would have safe
traveling mercies back. We're very thankful for our pastor
here. prayerful for the two men bringing the messages, Robert
and Caleb, this Sunday. Pray to the Lord to bring messages
on their hearts and pray that the Lord would be pleased to
just raise himself up through his word to save sinners. Let's
go ahead and pray. God Almighty, Lord, I'm insufficient. My words are insufficient to
Raise you up in your glorious truth. Pray, Lord, that you'd
be pleased to call your people to command us, Lord, to come
down from our trees, to come into your ark, Lord. To know
that the battle is yours, that you've won. Please remove our
Goliath, Lord. Please cause us to rest in everything
that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished, that being his perfect life,
his death on the cross, and his resurrection, which is pleasing
to you, Lord. You'd be pleased to resurrect him. Please find
us in him. Please find us in him in his
death and in his resurrection. that we may be sons and daughters
and heirs with him, Lord, if you're pleased. Pray, and we
know that, Lord, we are sinners, chief of sinners, and we ask
for your grace continuously, Lord, that you'd always find
us. And Lord, when we do backslide, Lord, that you'd be pleased to
bring us back to you at all times and in the end, Lord, when it
matters most. Thankful for your word. Thankful
for your scripture. Thankful for your people. In
your name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing number 40, The
Soft Back, if you all could please stand. Number 40. He is Lord, He is Lord. He has risen from the dead and
He is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue
confess That Jesus Christ is Lord He is Lord, He is Lord He
is all my righteousness and He is Lord ? Every knee shall bow
? Every tongue confess ? That Jesus Christ is Lord ? He is
Lord ? He is Lord ? He has satisfied the law and he is Lord ? Every
knee shall bow ? Every tongue confess ? That Jesus Christ is
Lord ? He is Lord ? He is Lord ? He has redeemed all his elect
and he is Lord Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. Yeah.