Let's be turning to 1 Samuel
chapter 17. We're coming now to the part of the
chapter where David prepares to fight Goliath, and then we
see the resulting victory of David over Goliath, our enemy. Now without a doubt, David is
a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we see him using weak things,
and despised things, and base things to defeat his enemy, to
defeat all our foes. The foolishness of God is wiser
than men. The weakness of God is stronger
than men, and we see that here, pictured here in David's defeat
of Goliath. So David had expressed his willingness
and desire to defeat the Philistine, and this was told to Saul, and
so Saul sends for David, and he speaks to him, and it says
in verse 32, David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because
of him, that is, Goliath. Thy servant will go and fight
with this Philistine. Now this gives us a view of Christ,
our Savior, as the servant of God. When Christ came, he came
not to do his own works, not to speak his own words, but he
came as the servant of God. And that's spoken of here. That's
pictured here in what David says to Saul. Our deliverance from
the bondage that we were in by the devil who deceived Eve in
the garden And Adam sinned and rebelled against God, thus yielding
his dominion to the evil one, the devil. And so when Christ
came, he came to deliver us from that bondage of our subjugation
to the evil one. And so when we fell in Adam,
we were going the course of the world. We were under the prince
of the power of the air. even as the other children of
disobedience. We were under that darkness. We were dead spiritually. And because Christ is the servant
of God, or because Christ agreed in the covenant of grace to come
as the servant of God, he came and laid down his life. as the
sacrifice of his people, dying a substitutionary death for us,
to deliver us out of the hand of God's justice and wrath, which
was justly against us because of our sin and rebellion, but
he delivered us. He set us free. He brought us
out of that house of bondage that we were in. The Lord tells
us, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom
my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring judgment to the
Gentiles. And Christ has done that. He
has done that marvelously, wondrously, in grace and in power, triumphing
over all our enemies. The servant of God is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we're told in 1 John 3, 8,
for this purpose, because we are sinners, he that committeth
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
We see that all the way back to the beginning in the garden.
And for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he
might destroy the works of the devil. Just broke them, destroyed
them. That effect, that power that
we were bound under is destroyed. What he designed, his evil schemes
he designed, Christ destroyed it, wrecked it, ruined it for
him. but brought great salvation for
us who are sinners and could not free ourselves. Jesus Christ
is the Savior whom the Father has sent to save his people from
your sins. He said, ye believe in God, believe
also in me. you that trust Christ and believe
Him that He is your Savior, the Savior you need, you shall not
be ashamed. Christ has triumphed gloriously
over all our foes. And so just as David said to
Saul, so our Lord says to us, let no man's heart fail because
of our great adversary. The servant of God has gone before
us and fought with this Philistine and he's defeated him. He's defeated
the devil. He's destroyed his works. He
has delivered his people and brought us into great salvation
by his blood. We are free and alive in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now Saul naturally questioned
David's ability to defeat this military foe, this mighty enemy
of the people of God. Why? Because David was but a
youth. He was just a small man. He probably was about five feet
tall, five feet something, you know, which would have been half
of the size of Goliath at over 11 feet tall. And so, according
to man's wisdom and man's discernment, looking at him, he would have
assumed there's no way this kid is going to go out there and
beat this warrior who's been fighting from his youth. It's
impossible. It's impossible for him to beat
this man. But David spoke of his service
as a shepherd, in which he delivered the lambs of his father's flock
out of the mouths of beasts. out of the mouths of those that
took those lambs and would rend them to shreds and destroy them,
David, as a type of Christ, went and delivered those lambs of
his father's flock out of their mouths. A picture of our salvation
and what Christ has done in delivering us out of the mouth of the devil,
that lion that goeth about seeking, that roars and goeth about seeking
whom he may devour. And so he says in verse 36, 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. And so the picture here of young
David going out to fight this mighty foe is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ who came in humility. when he laid aside
his glory, and he took upon him this flesh, the weakness of this
flesh, and was formed in the womb of a virgin, and born of
a virgin, being by the Holy Spirit, overshadowing her, and he was
weak in the estimation of mighty men. He was weak in the estimation
of kings, and governors, and high priests, and scribes, and
people that were mighty in this world. He was weak, nothing much
to worry about or to contend with. And so they took him when
they could. They seized him, so they thought,
and nailed him to a tree. And when he was put on that tree,
they mocked him. They mocked him, saying, he saved
others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ, the King of Israel,
descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe Him, they
said. And so the point is that our
Lord's very purpose in coming here was to die. as the sacrifice
of His people, as the saving sacrifice of His people, so that
by His substitutionary death, He delivered us from the jaws
of death. He delivered us from the jaws
of ruin and condemnation and damnation. He delivered us from
that and gave us life in Himself. And so in doing that, that shame
of the cross, He despised it. He didn't let it stop Him. He
didn't let it turn Him around. Those accusations that they mocked
Him with, it didn't have any effect on Him because He loved
His people unto the end. He endured the shame of the cross
in order to accomplish our redemption and deliver us from that house
of bondage that we were bound in and ruined under. He did that
for his people. He's the good shepherd of his
sheep, and so he did it. He went forth to face the enemy. He went forth and defeated the
enemy. that came against us. He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And so there was no way that
Christ was turning back. There was no way he was going
to come down off that cross to prove to them then and there
that he was the Christ, because then he wouldn't have been the
Christ. And we would have been left in
our sins. We would have been left in that
thorny way. We would have been left in under the curse, bound
in sin and ruin. And so Christ faithfully honored
the Father, glorified the Father, in doing the will of the Father
unto the end, loving his people, remaining on that cross, dying
under the wrath of God for his people to deliver us. So this
brings us now to the arming of David for this battle. First,
we're told that Saul clothed David with his armor. 1 Samuel
17, verse 38. And Saul armed David with his
armor, and he put in helmet of brass upon his head. Also he
armed him with a coat of mail, and it was plate mail. It was
solid in that sense. And David girded his sword upon
his armor, and he assayed to go, meaning that he willingly
began to go. In good effort, he began to go
in this armor. But he couldn't, for he had not
proved it. It improved the armor. That is,
he didn't know that he was not going to prevail in this armor
because he couldn't move. He couldn't work it. He wasn't
familiar with it. It wasn't what he needed to defeat
the enemy. And so David said unto Saul,
I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them, and David put
them off. Now this is important because
it reveals an understanding that the Lord gives to His people
about our salvation, about our deliverance, that the salvation,
the work is the Lord's and it's not by the strength of this flesh.
It's not by our wisdom. It's not by our ways and our
works and our deeds and our words. It's by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a spiritual warfare. It's
not an earthly, carnal, fleshly warfare that we use our works
of the flesh, and our arguments, and our anger, and our strength,
and our ability to push down and back down the enemy. That's
not how this enemy is defeated. He's defeated by the Lord Jesus
Christ spiritually, who conquered him, who defeated him mightily,
wondrously, triumphantly in what he did on the cross. And so this
is showing us that it's not carnal weapons that are going to save
us. We may say to go in the might and strength of the flesh. We
may begin to do that and think this is the way. But if we're
the Lord's, he's going to teach us that it's not by might, it's
not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. And
we're going to learn that. And we often learn that a lot
of times, that the battle is the Lord's. It's not to the swift
and to the mighty, it's to our God. It's not by our might, it's
not by our power, it's not by our sword, it's not by our words,
it's by the work of the Lord to do it. It's by His grace and
His power. Though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh, Paul said. Paul learned that. Paul was taught that. That this
is of the Lord. I mean when he came to the Corinthians
he even noted how weak he was and how weak his words were and
how off his game he was when he got there and started telling
them the gospel. Not sure what was going to happen
but in demonstration of God's power they heard and they believed
the words which were spoken, unto the glory, praise, and honor
of God. And Paul had nothing to boast
in, just as we have nothing to boast in concerning our salvation. Work is the Lord's, and we depend
upon Him. That's why we pray and seek Him
and ask Him for His grace and His spirit, because we need His
grace and spirit. Otherwise, we're lost, and otherwise,
we remain in darkness. We need His grace. And so we
seek Him and we pray for His presence. We pray for one another
that the Lord would bless His word to our hearts and make it
effectual in us to hear, to receive Christ and to believe Him unto
the saving of our souls. And this He does, this He does
graciously, graciously. Our Lord is pleased to use means
to the glory and praise of His name, but He uses weak and base
means. He uses weak and base things
in order to shame the things that are mighty, and to show
them, no, you can't work your will. God's working His will. His purpose is being done. And
He shuts the mouths of sinners, and He shuts the mouths of the
foe, and He brings forth praise from babes and sucklings, who
glory in their God, and praise Him for what He's done for them.
And it's all according to His grace. It's all to show us it's
of grace. It's all to bring us to see that
Christ is precious. So that we don't reject Him and
put Him aside as the great ones in religion did when they cast
aside the cornerstone, the chief stone. Instead we see that's
the one that we need. He's the one thing needful, is
Christ. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds."
Not carnal. It's just this gospel, this hope
that he's given us in Christ, which effectually tears down
and brings down dead things and every vain thought that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God and of Christ. And it
brings it into captivity to him. And we bow before him. And that's
what he's doing, that's what he's showing us. And he repeats
it, because it's needful for us to hear it again and again
and to be reminded again and again. And that's of his grace.
So our armor is the armor of God, which is assembled and fitted
for us through all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
6. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 6, and we're going to pick up
in verse 10. Paul writes, Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The devil is defeated, but he's
going to keep on attacking. He's going to keep on trying
to shipwreck that faith, that hope that we have in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He'll fail by the grace of God.
He fails. He cannot do it. He cannot take
us. He cannot pluck us from the hand
of our God. But he's got many tricks, many
subversive, deceitful, evil, dark ways. Our strength is truly
in the Lord. Only he is able to defeat the
works of the devil. We're not going to do it. We're
not going to do it by our ways and our means. Our abilities
and our insight and our experience, it is no match for the devil.
But he's no match for the Lord. That's why we lean upon him and
look to him. Because though we would easily
be defeated by him, he is easily defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ.
He prevails over him. We cry out to Christ. We don't
rebuke him. We pray, the Lord rebuke thee. The Lord deal with thee. Jesus,
Lord, save me. Have mercy on me. That's what
we're looking to. We're praying to him to save
us. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. And we see that every
once in a while, we see the evil in dark places that appears to
our eyes and it's overwhelming to us. That's not how we're going
to defeat it. With sword and with our might,
turn to the Lord. Cry out to the Lord. Pray to
Him. Beg Him for mercy and grace to deliver us in our time of
need. Turn to Him. Christ is all our
defense. He's the rock upon whom we stand.
He's the high tower to whom we've run to for refuge. By His grace
and power, that's how we overcome. That's how we triumph over our
enemies. Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth me. turn to Christ. That's why he
gives us this gospel, to keep turning our eyes from self and
getting riled up in the flesh and turning to fleshly works
and keeps putting our eyes upon Christ, the one thing needful,
the one who is able to save us to the uttermost. Look to him,
believe him. Now, Paul lists the pieces of
armor which are all gifts of Christ's redemption. These pieces
of armor that we'll just look at quickly, they're all gifts
given to us. They're all obtained for us by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Our loins gird about with truth
in verse 14 there. Well, the picture is that our
loins are where and how we bear fruit. That's where fruit comes from.
And what it's saying there is that we're not going to bear
any fruit unto God except according to the truth as it's revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we bear fruit unto
God is by our husband the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're girt
about, our loins are girt about with truth. That's how we bear
fruit unto God in spirit and in truth. Next he says, having
on the breastplate of righteousness, again which is according to truth.
This is not a self-righteousness. This is not a man-made righteousness.
This is a righteousness wrought for us, clothed upon us by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness. He satisfied
the law and the hand of God's justice and delivered us in perfect
just righteousness. Perfectly he did that. Nothing
can prevail against Christ's righteousness. If it's my righteousness,
if it's your righteousness, we will be prevailed upon. We shall
be defeated. But if it's Christ's righteousness,
nothing can penetrate that. Nothing can take it apart from
us. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The gospel of Christ is our banner. That's the banner under which
we march. Under Christ. He's all. He's exalted before
our eyes, He's lifted up, and we go forth under Him, knowing
that God conquers the hearts of sinners, just like us, through
that very gospel, under that very banner. He's the ensign,
the flag, the one that we run to, that we come to, is Christ. And He defeats the enemy. He
overcomes the enemy. And He conquers our hearts and
brings us into the family of God. willingly. The shield of faith that bears
the attacks of the enemy, bears up under the attacks of the enemy,
which come against the truth of God as it's revealed in the
face of Jesus Christ. And it's so that that poison
of the enemy's attack does not kill us. It does not destroy
us. We bear up under it. Take the helmet of salvation.
Now this speaks to our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, which
has salvation for its object. Paul, when he was writing to
the Thessalonians, he said very similarly, he said, but let us,
who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of
faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. So we
hope, we have a good hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and we
wear that helmet of salvation that Christ, He is given to us
of the Father for our salvation and our hope is fixed in Him.
If he fails, we're done for. But he has not failed. He is
the successful Savior who has triumphed gloriously and that's
our hope. That as he is received of the
Father and raised up, so we are received in him and raised up
together with him to forever be with the Lord. And so he's
our hope. And the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God, strikes down everything that exalts itself
against the knowledge of Christ and what he's accomplished. And
so while man doesn't see it as physical pieces of armor, we
don't see it, but they're put upon us by grace and the power
of God through Christ. He puts these things on us, and
He keeps us and gives us these things, though we don't see them
or fully understand, yet we know that Christ is all, and He's
done this for us. He's secured us in righteousness. He bears fruit in us. We're under
His banner of love. We go under, by His command and
authority, preaching and declaring this very gospel to the saving
of the souls of His people. who seeks them out and delivers
them from darkness by his grace and spirit and power. And so
we're made by Christ to stand against the wiles of the devil
in the gospel, in the gospel. Now, having put off Saul's armor,
David, as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, uses the tools
of a shepherd to defeat his enemy. So I'm just going to kind of
bring us through and then we're going to come back up here towards
the end. Verse 40 says, 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."
So the work of our Savior was to defeat our enemies, all our
enemies, including the great foe, the devil. That's what Christ
came to do. For this purpose, the Son of
God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil,
and that's exactly what he accomplished when he went to the cross and
sacrificed himself and so delivered his people from the wrath of
God and the destruction that we were under. He delivered us
faithfully. And there he crushed the head
of the serpent and ended his power over us. He delivered us
out of the body of sin which we were in, under the authority
of the devil, going the course of the world. He took us out
of that body, putting it to death, and us to death in it, and it
to death in us, so it has no more power or authority over
us. and places us in His body as
members of the body of Christ. So we stand now in Christ. What's His inheritance is our
inheritance. Our God looks at us in Christ, not in Adam the
first, but in Adam the last, the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand
in Him. And so, verse 46, I just want
to kind of go through this and then we'll come back up there.
This day, David said, 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 hosts of the Philistines this day unto 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. He will give you into our hands
right that carcass of Adam when he sinned and rebelled against
God that has no more power over us Christ has defeated it Our
Lord did exactly what He said He would do. Verse 48 And it
came to pass when the Philistines arose and came and drew nigh
to meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet
the Philistine. That's what Christ did. When
our Lord had Broke, when he ate that supper for the last time
with his disciples there before the cross, and then he goes to
the Garden of Gethsemane, and he crossed over that brook Kidron,
that black, filthy brook Kidron. And he crossed over that. Judas
knew that Christ would be there because he often went there,
and so he takes a band of men and soldiers to go and arrest
Christ. But what do we find Christ doing?
He didn't hide. He didn't shrink back. It says
that Christ went forth. Christ went forth and he met
them. And he said, whom seek ye? He faced the enemy. He ran just
like David toward the Philistine. So our Lord hastened and went
forth to meet the enemy to overcome our enemies for our salvation
and deliverance. That's our Savior, our champion. our mighty God, our Savior. He's accomplished. He did the
work as a servant of God for his beloved people. Verse 49,
and David put his hand in his bag and took thence, or from
there, a stone and slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead.
That the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his
face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistines
with a sling and a stone. and smote the Philistine and
slew him. And then he went and took Goliath's
sword and he plunged it in the air and just cut off his neck
and removed his head from him. So crushing the head of the serpent. That's what our Savior did. He
destroyed the enemy. Defeated him. Wiped him out.
Just put it away and so delivered his people. from the Philistines,
from that body of sin, from that sin, obtaining forgiveness for
us with God, obtaining life and salvation and light from our
God, revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, given in Christ. He is
our very salvation. He is our Savior. He is our all
to stand before holy God, accepted of Him, because the enemy is
defeated. The devil's defeated, sin is
defeated, death is defeated, the grave cannot hold us, we
shall be raised again even as we are raised now in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's all, he's done it brethren,
he's accomplished our victory upon the cross, even in his greatest,
when he was weakest according to man, he's there on the cross,
seemingly helpless, in flesh, about to give up the ghost there,
that's where he accomplished our greatest victory. He gave
up the ghost and trusted all to the Father, and the Father
blessed his work and justified the work of Christ in that by
his death he delivered us from that body of death and gave us
life. In his life we are buried with
him and by his life we are raised again to newness of life. He's
accomplished that which we could not do. He went into the devil's
house there, so to speak, bound him up, shut him up, defeated
him, crushed his head, removed his head, destroying his power
and authority, and so took out from his house those precious
things that were in bondage. His people, his people, led us
out in victory. leads us unto the Father in truth
and by His Spirit and His power and His grace. We're not in bondage
to these enemies anymore. In Christ we are free, brethren. Free. Free. And you being dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened,
made alive, together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, that showed us our sin. and kept us toiling and laboring
in fear and doubts and worries under the hand of the enemy there,
he delivered us from that. It was contrary to us. And he
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly. In
other words, he made a public spectacle of the enemies. There
on that cross, he shamed them publicly, shamed them, triumphing
over them in it. Amen. Amen. Now, I want to return
briefly to verse 40 and just see this. These tools of the
shepherd. It says that David 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.
I want to show you how these shepherd's tools are effectual
in his hand unto the saving of your soul. unto the saving of
your soul whom he gave his life for. So having won the victory,
our Lord delivers each one of his chosen children out of the
bondage of the enemy using these tools that are described here.
Five tools are listed. He has his staff, five smooth
stones, put into a shepherd's bag, which is further described
as a script, and his sling. So let's look at these five tools
here. First, he took his staff in his hand. Now the staff is
used by a shepherd. It's to guide and direct his
animals. With a staff, a rod, that staff
there. You can guide or move your animals
along. You can hold them back. And even
if they're doing something they shouldn't be doing, you can hit
them with that stick. I use it on my cat all the time.
She's young. She's playful. She reaches, you
know, gets my leg at times and my calf, which is bare, you know,
because I'm wearing shorts. And so I just touch her with
the stick. I don't have to beat her or anything. I just touch
her with the stick and say, stop that. Don't do that. And she
gets it. She knows I'm not playing around,
that she better stop. And so that's how a staff is
used by the shepherd. He uses it on his animals to
direct them, to teach them, and to guide them. Just like that.
And so this is why when the Philistines saw it, it says in verse 43,
the Philistines said unto David, am I a dog? that thou comest
against me, or that thou comest to me with staves? That's the
same word. With a staff? With a rod? A stave? Am I a dog that you're gonna
teach me and direct me in that way? Well, you know what? David
never used the staff against Goliath, did he? We're never
told in that passage that he ever used the staff on Goliath. Why? Because the staff is for
his sheep. It's for his sheep. He had the
staff, but it's not for Goliath. It's not for the enemy. It's
for his sheep. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It's for the sheep. It's for the good of his people
to teach us. The Lord didn't chasten the devil.
The Lord destroyed the devil. He put him to death. He destroyed
his works. That's what he did. Second, David
chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. Now, this word
for stones, it's used on any kind of stone. Big stones, little
stones, rough stones, smooth stones. It's always just used
to describe a stone of some sort. But we're told that he chose
five smooth stones. Now, smooth stones give us a
sense of plainness. Think of a smooth stone that
you've looked at. It's pretty simple. It's fairly
plain. It's easy to be handled and touched. You're not going to hurt yourself
touching that. And I've also found, for me,
smooth stones are attractive. When I see a smooth stone, I'm
drawn to it. I want to pick it up. I want
to touch it. I like how it feels. I want to
handle it. I like smooth stones. There's
something appealing and very attractive about them. And these smooth stones, they
received their shape from the brook that they were in. That's
where David retrieved them, from a brook. That's where they were
lying. Well, a brook, it was laying
in the valley, in a low place in the valley, between the two
camps of Israel and the Philistines that were on either side of the
mountains. And there's David with the Philistine
in that battlefield there, and there's a brook that's running
to it. And remember, that's a picture
there of what we saw Jonathan do when Jonathan delivered us
from the enemy there. He went to the other side there,
that sharp rock on the other side, and delivered us from the
sharp rock the thorny way, and defeated us through a perfect
righteousness on the cross. But these stones, they describe
the excellency of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These smooth
stones were made smooth by the washing of that water of that
river, washing over them. It just made them smooth in that
washing over. And so these describe the excellencies
of Christ our Savior, obtained from the deep, eternal wisdom
of our God, sanctified unto us by the washing of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. These five smooth stones describe
the precious gospel truths which are revealed unto us concerning
Christ, the good news of what He has done for us in delivering
us from our enemies. When the Gospels declared, these
stones hit their mark with great accuracy, made effectual to the
taking down of the fortifications of the enemy, of those high things
that exalt themselves against the knowledge of Christ and of
our God. They take them down. They destroy
them. Our Lord sends his gospel word that goes forth conquering
the hearts of his people, destroying that work of the devil which
keeps us bound. Because Christ has obtained the
victory, that bondage shall be broken. That prison gate shall
be opened up in the day of his grace for us. and he shall shine
forth his light and call to us, prisoner, show yourselves. Come forth. Come out of that
dungeon. Come out of that darkness. Come
stand in the light and show yourself. I've redeemed you. I've delivered
you. I've saved you out of that. Come forth and live. That's what
Christ does for his people. And so he sends forth that gospel
word. And the porter, which is the
Holy Ghost, opens the door unto the Savior. of the heart of his
sheep, that we hear the voice of the Son of God, we hear him
call our name, and we are led out by him, led out of bondage,
led out of that corruption and misery. The sheep hear his voice,
he calls his own sheep by name and leadeth them out, out of
that bondage into the liberty of the sons of God. were delivered,
delivered by him. Third, our Lord put these stones
in a shepherd's bag. Now this bag is described as
a vessel, a vessel, just a shepherd's bag, a plain shepherd's bag or
a vessel, which was prepared for this very purpose of holding
things. He puts things in, and he takes
things out, and he puts them in. It's just a bag. It's just
a vessel used for this very purpose. Well, this bag is a metaphor
for the preachers of the gospel. this simple, plain, beat-up,
old, dirty shepherd's bag. But it's used to put these things
in. There's nothing special about
us. It's just meant to hold these precious gospel truths, out of
which the master's hand reaches in, takes out the stones of his
choosing, and he casts them by the sling, and he hits his mark,
thus saving and delivering his people from their bondage, the
bondage of the enemy there. forth, this bag or vessel is
further described as being a script, a script. And that is a traveling
bag that was carried by the shepherd. And as he went forth, he would
just glean things, just pick things up, just gleaning these
little things as he went along. These are blessed things, missed
and left behind by others. but are precious things concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, precious unto needy sinners." Alright,
just like we read in Ruth, how she went into that field and
they left little bits of hay or barley or whatever it was
they were harvesting there, they'd leave it behind, didn't bother
picking it up, But to Ruth, who was hungry and poor and needy,
it was precious. Precious. And that's what the
gospel is to needy sinners. Passed by by many, but it's made
precious unto needy sinners, like us. And so that's a bag
to take up the gleanings, which are the excellencies of Christ,
the treasures of Christ, and they're for you, his people.
And fifth, these stones are cast with a sling, which is a description
of the Holy Ghost. He takes the things of Christ.
We preach the Gospel, the Lord, the Master putting His hand into
the bag, and He takes out the stone, and we preach the Gospel,
and it is slung by the Holy Spirit and made effectual. Because the
Holy Spirit is the one who takes the things of Christ and shows
them unto you. He's the porter that opens the
door, the heart of the door, turning it to the Lord to hear
the things of Christ, to receive the things of Christ, to believe
the things of Christ, to rejoice in the things of Christ. You
hear them, and they're precious to you. And so these are the
tools of the shepherd. Now let me just close with one
example from the scripture. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4,
and it highlights these things here. 2nd Corinthians 4, and we'll
pick up in verse 5, is our closing passage here.
Paul says, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. for God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness." Now there's the first stone,
right? That light is the light of God,
which is Christ, and that light, just like it did in Genesis there,
Genesis 1-3, God said, let there be light, and there was light.
That light declares the purpose of God, that He has a people
to whom He will be gracious to on this dark, formless planet. This planet there, he had a people. He had a purpose to save a people,
and Christ is the light of God. That's one of the stones. We
know who the Father is by looking to Christ. That's how we know
who the Father is, because Christ is the one who reveals the Father
unto us. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. There's the shepherd's bag, even
a script. We have it in earthen vessels.
Weak, foolish, silly things. Nothing special about us. that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. He puts in as it pleases him,
and he takes out as it pleases him. We are troubled, verse 8,
on every side. We're distressed, but not distressed.
We're perplexed. We're persecuted. We're cast
down. It's all according to the Lord's purpose and what he will
do. Always bearing about in the body, verse 10, the dying of
the Lord Jesus. That speaks to our message, concerns
the death of Christ, why the Son of God took upon flesh and
came to this earth. Because we're sinners. And so
he died in the place of his people. He bore our punishment in order
to set us free. We declare and preach what Christ
has done. It also speaks to what he does
in saving us and delivering us from death. Out of that body
of death, what he's accomplished and what he does accomplish in
us through his blessed word. manifest in our body, that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. That's
number three. He died to deliver us and to
give us life in Himself. We died with Him and we are given
life in Him, by Him. For we, verse 11, which live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. You see,
we bear our cross daily, the Lord teaching us, separating
us from the love of this world, the lust of the eyes, the lust
of the flesh, the pride of life, to behold, to love God our Savior,
to follow Him, to walk in Him, crying, Abba Father, Lord, save
me, keep me, don't let my heart go after these wicked lusts,
but save me for Yourself, Lord. Reveal yourself in me more and
more. So then, verse 12, death worketh
in us, but life in you. How? Through the preaching of
the gospel made effectual in your hearts by the giving of
the Holy Spirit. We having the same spirit of
faith, there's the fourth thing, he gives us his Holy Spirit manifesting
his fruits of faith in us. According as it's written, I
believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore
speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall
raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Fifth,
our God raised Christ from the dead. And even as He is raised
from the dead, so we believe, that's our hope, our sure, good
and perfect hope that we too in Him shall be raised from the
dead even as we've also received the down payment of our inheritance,
the giving of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us and gives
us life, raising us from spiritual death right now. So that we know
we shall be raised from the grave in that day when Christ returns
again. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many,
redound to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not.
But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. So that's just a picture there. When David defeated Goliath. It's a picture of Christ defeating
our enemy. And the tools the shepherd uses
are those things which are made precious to us, that deliver
us from that bondage in time when he brings the gospel to
us. because it pleases Him to deliver us out of darkness. Christ
saved us. We were saved by Christ. But
He brings us out of darkness into the light as it pleases
Him because it rejoices Him to glorify His Son in our hearts. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts, brethren. Amen.