Now we all know something of
this story and the amazing confidence and victory that David had in
the face of this mighty enemy. This evening I mainly want to
concentrate on verses 45 to 47 because they reflect the confidence
and the victory that the Lord's people had, especially in the
face of overwhelming enemies. Saul was a man chosen to be king
of Israel based on his physical attributes and he stands as an
example, an example to us of the confidence that men place
in the flesh. In spite of a very serious warning
from the Lord, in 1 Samuel 8 the people rejected God and they
said, no, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be
like all the nations and that our king may judge us and go
out before us and fight our battles. If you look back in verse 11,
Saul was just as afraid and dismayed as all of Israel. So much for
their king. 1 Samuel 9 tells us that Saul
was a choice young man and a goodly, and there was not among the children
of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders and upward
he was higher than any of the people." Saul was a perfect candidate
for a king, but only in man's eyes. In 1 Samuel 16, when God
chose David over Saul, he said to Samuel, "'Look not on his
countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I have
refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth, For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looketh on the heart." And it's so true of our nature, isn't
it? We can't help assessing things based on our carnal wisdom. So the people did put their confidence
in Saul. But here in 1 Samuel 17 we see
that there are always greater enemies facing the Lord's people. Goliath was a mighty warrior.
He stood six cubits in a span. That's probably close to three
metres in height. And he wasn't just your usual
string bean sort of tall guy. He was a trained soldier. He
was trained from his youth. His suit of mail was 5,000 shekels
of brass. That's probably 55 kilos in weight.
Now imagine the strength needed to fight wearing that, not to
mention all the other armour. His spearhead was 600 shekels
of iron, that's probably six and a half, a bit over six and
a half kilos. And then there's the weight of
the shaft. Now imagine the strength needed to throw a spear accurately
in battle. Goliath serves us well as a great
illustration of the enemies of God's saints, even of those unclean
spirits we looked at last week. He presents before us today as
a good example of the strong man the Lord spoke of in Matthew
12. Because if you look back in verse
9, all the hope of Israel's victory lies in the defeat of this one
impossible foe. Like the strong man that holds
the Lord's people's captive, Goliath stands defying the armies
of the living God and keeping the Lord's people dismayed and
greatly afraid. It's also interesting that in
the face of this great enemy of the Lord and his people that
Saul would encourage David to put on the armour of men. How
often The seemingly passionate, religious, morally upright leaders
encourage us to turn away from the free and finished grace of
God, to take on strategies, to look back at the law, and to
rely again on our own ability to prevail with God. And that's
why it's such a great picture in verse 39 of our passage. when
David puts off the armour of man before he goes out to meet
Goliath. And he takes with him the simple
weapons which God had provided him in his everyday life. And it's a wonderful picture
we have of the Gospel in this sling and smooth stone. Our Lord Jesus is that smooth
stone. He's perfect. There are no blemishes
in Him and no sharp edges that would ever harm God's people.
And yet to our enemies Christ is described in Isaiah 8 as a
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. In Psalm 31 He is
described as a strong rock for a house of defence. Our Lord
is the Gospel and as we declare the Gospel we actually sling
this smooth stone at our enemies, trusting in our God and His unfailing
Word to be our great defender. I've chosen verses 45-47 tonight
because they relay to us the attitude that all the saints
of God can have before the impossible things of this world. However
vulnerable they appear in men's eyes, Goliath, in verse 44, standing
as a representative of all our enemies, of Satan, the world
and our own flesh, reveals his proud, earthy confidence in his
own abilities. And then David answers him with
this beautiful declaration of both his faith and his confidence
in his God. So I just want to look a little
at how this declaration of the Gospel reveals the same confidence
that all the Lord's people can have today. So verse 45 begins
with, Then said David to the Philistines, Thou comest to me
with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield. These are
the fleshly weapons of men, fashioned by men, sharpened by men, the
strength and security of men. These days in the name of religion,
men fashion their own weapons from the morality of the law. They sharpen these weapons with
their religious zeal and they expect to find great security
in them both before men and before God. And it is so often the case
these days. They come with the sword of their
own understanding of the Scriptures, a sword by which they cut down
many of God's bruised rogues. They come with a spear of their
outward morality as if to stop all question of their own righteousness
and their own religious position at a distance. They come with
a shield of their own righteousness which they trust will protect
them even before the holy justice of God. It's different though with people
who have truly met God and been humbled by His mercy and grace.
Look what David says next. But I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom
thou hast to follow." Our strength is in another, because
when the Lord comes to His people, convincing them of sin, of righteousness
and judgement, He causes us to feel the weight of His holy justice. He causes us to feel our absolute
inability to stand in His presence by our own strength. Even though Satan accuses us, he reveals the miracle of our
salvation in our strong tower, the Lord Jesus Christ. All those
who set themselves against the Lord's people, they are actually
setting themselves against God Himself. They defy Him as Goliath
did here and yet Who are they really before the Sovereign God
of all creation? They are as all created beings,
clay in the potter's hands, earthen vessels used of God however He
sovereignly intends, completely subject to His will every single
moment of their existence. So knowing the sovereignty of
our God, When these enemies approach and disdain us as Goliath did
hear to David, may our God give us the grace to be as confident
in him as was David. Look how verse 46 starts. This
day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand. David approaches
his formidable opponent with the confidence that all the saints
of God can have. And it's not a blind confidence.
It's a confidence based on previous experiences of the Lord's deliverance. Look at what he says there in
verse 37 when he first puts up his hand to fight with Goliath.
He says, 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. Brothers and sisters, Look back
on the circumstances of your lives since you met the Lord,
and if your life is anything like mine, it seems like we go
from one impossible situation to another. And yet by God's
grace, here we are, still standing. And it's because our God is always
faithful to His people. David's confidence is not just
based on experience though. The saints rest in a God who
cannot lie. They intimately know their Saviour
in whom are all the promises of God, yes and amen. And I mean promises like in John
10 when he says of his sheep, I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish. neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." Or in Isaiah 43 when he says, Fear not, for
I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou
art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. for I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." See, we have a sure word from
our God, and no matter what besets us, the Lord will never ever
lose any of his precious sheep. This was the Apostle Paul's attitude.
When he says of God in 2 Corinthians 1, he delivered us from so great
a death and doth deliver. And then Paul says, in whom we
trust he will yet deliver us. Our God has promised to be our
help and our shield. He promised to go before us and
he's promised to be our rear guard. And so for all the saints
of God, because we know our God is faithful, by faith we can
say with David, and I will smite thee and take thine head from
thee. We know from the promise of God
and from our own experience that the Gospel is an effective weapon
against everyone who sets themselves against the Lord and his people.
The Gospel is the Word of God. Ephesians 6 tells us that that
Word is the sword of the Spirit, and Hebrews 4 tells us that this
sword is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and
of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and
the intents of the heart." While the Gospel is the power of salvation
to those who believe, it is also the only weapon we need to defend
ourselves from the enemies of our souls. I also found it interesting that
David expects a head wound. In the eyes of our enemies, The
saints of God are foolish, weak, base, despised and insignificant. And isn't that Goliath's attitude
towards David when he disdains him in verse 42? What does the
Holy Spirit say of God's purpose in equipping His people with
the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 1? God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
And the base things of the world and the things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought
the things that are. And God's purpose? That no flesh
shall glory in His presence. And so by faith David goes on. And I will give the carcasses
of the hosts of the Philistines this day under the fowls of the
air, and to the wild beasts of the earth." Because we know the faithfulness
of our God and the power of His Word to achieve His purposes
in this world, the saints just declare the smooth stone of the
Gospel, which is, to those who are perishing, the Saviour of
death unto death. And then what do we do? We just wait on God, don't we?
We leave these rebels to the sovereign God of this earth.
We leave them to the consequences of trusting in the armour of
the flesh. We leave them to be consumed in all their sins. And
as we see here in our text, we leave them that they may be a
witness to all the world that the Lord fights for his people.
See what he says there at the end of verse 46, that all the
earth may know that there is a God in Israel. God will be
seen to care for his people even by the pagan world. Just listen
to the statement that Rahab makes when the spies come to Ranjoshua
too. She says to them, I know that the Lord hath given you
the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all
the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard
how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you
came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the
Amorites that were on the other side of the Jordan, Shion and
Og, whom you utterly destroyed, And as soon as we heard these
things our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage
in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, He is
God in heaven above and in earth beneath." You know, it's not really any
different these days. I've got a friend and he's very,
very worldly. I've witnessed to him a number
of times and he just doesn't believe. He hasn't got the grace
to believe. But you know, he's seen some
of the trials of my life. And he's even seen and acknowledged
God's care of us throughout those trials. This guy's actually asked
us to pray for him when his business was failing. And we did pray
for him. And I didn't know anything about
it, but a few weeks later he asked us to stop praying because
he had too much business. Now that's true. I don't know
how the Lord does it. I don't know how, but he does
make the world know of his faithfulness in the life of his people. But do you know what's most amazing
about these victories of the Lord on behalf of his people?
It's a further witness, a further encouragement to all of the saints. It's a necessary part of their
Christian life. Look at 47. And all this assembly
shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for
the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." We need to first remember that
this is actually David witnessing in the face of his enemy. Like
David in the face of even the greatest enemies, before we turn
to the weapons of the flesh, We need to remind ourselves that
our strength is of the Lord. This reminder is our own personal
encouragement before our enemies. But more than that, it's also
an encouragement to all the saints. Not only is David confident that
the Lord will prevail, not only does he trust that the world
will witness of God's care for him, He's also convinced that
this victory will further strengthen the faith of the assembly. Now we've all had similar victories
in our lives. Victories over impossible situations. Victories in which the Lord has
revealed himself and his care for his people. These victories,
no matter how insignificant they seem in the world's eyes, they
are a necessary witness and encouragement to all of the saints of God.
And this is one very, very important reason for church. It's because this is where the
Lord gathers His people together. This is where they come and they
share their experiences of His grace in their lives. And in
doing so, this is where they remind each other that the battle
is the Lord's. The saints of God are promised
persecution for the Gospel sake in this world. Every one of us
has our lions and our bears and even our Goliaths. We all have
no strength in ourselves to face such impossible foes. And yet
in the Lord Jesus we have that smooth stone of the Gospel, Christ
and Him crucified. It was at the cross, says the
Holy Spirit in Colossians 2, that the Lord spoiled principalities
and powers. He made a show of them openly.
He triumphed over them in it. Our greatest enemy by far is
Satan, that great Goliath to our souls. And yet he too is
a defeated foe through him who strengthens us. In Romans 8 Paul summarises the
enemies and the circumstances that set themselves against us
and he reminds us that we are victorious in the Gospel. He
says in Romans 8, 35-7, Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or slaughter. As it is written, for thy sake
are we killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors. And how? Through him that loved
us." When our God begins a good work in someone, He will complete
it until the day of Christ, and that's a promise. As John tells
us in 1 John 5, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. Now that's the world and all
its enemies and all its trials and all its tribulations and
all the circumstances of our lives. That which is born of
God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, says John, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son
of God. And what he means there is those
that believe and trust in the Lord as a substitute and a Saviour,
and their great defender. We see, brothers and sisters,
the victory is already won. All our foes, every single one
of them, have been defeated at the cross. And every moment of
our lives, every single moment, it is the Lord Jesus Christ that
sustains us. May our God give us the grace
to be always mindful of this precious precious reality.