All right, now 1 Samuel, chapter
17. We're going to be looking at
much of this chapter this morning, so you may want to mark it. We'll
come back to it a number of times. We'll begin our service reading
the first 11 verses of 1 Samuel, chapter 17. Now the Philistines
gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered
together at Shokoth, which belonged to Judah, and pitched between
Shokoth and Ezekiel in Ephes Daman. 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 do you come out to set your battle in
arrest? Am not I a Philistine, and you 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 will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him
and kill him, then shall you be our servants and serve us.
And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day.
Give me a man that we may fight together. And Saul and all Israel
heard those words of the Philistine. They were dismayed. and greatly
afraid. Let's stand together as Mike
leads us in singing our call to worship. Lamb of God, still keep me here
to thy wounded side. Tis only there in safety and
peace I can abide. What foes and snares surround
me, what loss and fears within, The grace that sought and found
me alone can keep me clean. Tis only in thee, hiding, I know
my life secure. abiding, I steadfast shall endure. Thine arm the victory gaineth,
O'er every hurtful foe, Thy love my heart sustaineth, In all its
care and woe. Soon shall my eyes behold thee
with rapture face to face. Thou hath not been told me of
all thy power and might. Grace, thy beauty, Lord, and
glory, the wonders of thy love, shall be the endless glory of
all thy saints above. Turn now the page. 34, number
34. Immortal, invisible, God only
wise, Enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes, Most blessed,
most glorious, Ancient of days, Almighty, victorious, Thy great
name we praise. Unresting, unhastening, and silent
as light, Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might. Thy justice like mountains I
soaring above, Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and
love. To all life Thou givest, to both
great and small, In all life Thou livest, dear true life of
all. Blossom and flourish as leaves
on the tree, And wither and perish but not change. Great Father of glory, dear Father
of light, Thine angels adore Thee, all bailing their sight. All praise we would render, O
help us to see, Tis only the splendor of life kindeth thee. Let's turn over one page. 36, page 36. Very old hymn. Whoever knew this message. A mighty fortress is our God. A mighty fortress is our God,
Of the work never failing. Our helper He amid the flood,
Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth
seek to work us woe His craft and power are great And armed
with cruel hate On earth is not his equal Our own strength confined, Our
striving would be losing. Were not the right men on our
side, The man of God's own choosing, Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord,
the Sabbath ought to be. From age to age the same, And
he must win the battle. And though this world with devils
filled Should threaten to undo us We will not fear, for God
hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The Prince of darkness, thrilled,
We tremble not for Him. His angst we can endure, For,
lo, His doom is sure. one little word shall fail him. That world, above all earthly
powers, no thanks to them abided. The Spirit and the gifts are
ours, Who him who with us sided. Black boots and kindred go, This
mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's
truth the vine of steel. His kingdom is forever. Alright, let's turn back in our
Bibles now to 1 Samuel chapter 17 again. The champion of Philistines wanted
a champion of Israel to come meet him, and we'll pick up our
reading in verse 40 and see these two champions meet. Verse 40,
1 Samuel chapter 17. And he, this is David, after
he took off Saul's armor, 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.
And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David and the
man that bear the shield went before him. And when the Philistine
looked about and saw David, he sustained 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 gods. And the Philistine
said to David, come to me and I'll give thy flesh under the
fowls of the air and to the beast 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'm come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou has defied this day where the Lord delivered thee into
mine hand and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee
and I will give the carcass of the host. I will give the carcass
of the host of the Philistines this day under the fowls of the
air and to the wild beast 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 and he will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and
drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the
army. to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag
and took thence a stone and slain 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 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 slewing, and cut
off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw
that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel
and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines,
until they had come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And
the wound of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shearim,
even unto Gath and unto Ekron. And the children of Israel returned
from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.
took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem,
but he put his armor in his tent. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Lord, enable us today to honor
your name, the name which is above every name. the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our only weapon, our
only hope. The only hope we have of being
delivered from the power of darkness is that name which is above every
name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, let his name
be exalted and extolled in everything that we do and say here this
morning. And Father, I pray you'd bless
your word as it's preached. Bless it powerfully to the hearts
of your people that we would leave here this morning with
the great name of Christ our Savior in our hearts and upon
our lips. Father, bless us as we attempt
to worship. We've gathered here together
this morning to worship you. Father, we pray that you'd give
us a true worship service, that you'd enable us to forget about
all the cares and the responsibilities, both good and bad that's going
on in this world, in our lives. Let's set those things aside.
And in this hour, Father, let us set our affection on things
above. Let us worship the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and in
truth. Bless your word as it's preached. Get glory to your name. Father,
now and in this service in the days and weeks and months and
years ahead, get glory to your name. Enable this place to stand
by your power as a lighthouse of the gospel, where poor sinners
can come and hear of the Savior, where your sheep, who are weak
and weary, can come and be refreshed, hearing one more time of Christ
our Savior. Deliver us from having any agenda
other than the furtherance of Christ our Savior. Make us faithful
to preach His gospel, your gospel, to our generation. And what we
pray for ourselves, we pray for your people who are meeting together
today all around this world. Father, bless for your great
namesake. And we dare not forget to to thank you for all the blessings
that you've given to us. You blessed us, you blessed your
people with everything that you require. Everything you require
of us is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. You've been so merciful
and so gracious to this congregation over the years. Father, we beg
that you, at this point, you not leave us alone, but keep
blessing us. As we thank you, Father, we continue
to look to thee to provide everything that we need, spiritually and
physically both. Father, for those that you brought
in the time of great trouble, we pray for them. There's so
many, so many that are sick of body and mind and in great straits
that we don't know which way to turn, and darkness and trouble. Father, we don't know what your
purpose is in these things. But we know that you've sent
them. We know that you're directing them. Father, we pray for the
grace to submit to your will. We pray for the grace to not
bring shame upon the name of our Savior in these difficult
times. But Father, uphold with your
spirit. Give a special portion of your
grace and presence to comfort the hearts of your people. Heal
and lead and guide and direct as you see fit. and give us the
grace and the wisdom to wait on thee. All these things we
ask and give thanks, that name which is above every name, the
name of Christ our Savior. Amen. On that line stands an old rugged
rock On that cross the battle is raging As the Savior He hung on the
cross. On one side marched the forces
of evil, all the demons and the devils
of hell. On the other, the angels of glory,
and they meet on Golgotha's hill. The earth shakes with the force
of the conflict And the sun refuses to shine For there hangs God's
Son in the darkness And then through the darkness
he cries, It is finished, the battle is won. There'll be no more war It is
finished The end of the conflict It is finished And Jesus is Lord
Yet in my heart The battle was raging Not all prisoners of war
had come home They were battlefields of my own making I didn't know Then I heard that the king of
all ages had fought all my battles for me. And that victory was mine for
the claiming. And now, oh praise His name,
I am free! It is finished, there'll be no
more war. It is finished, the end of all
conflict. It is finished, and Jesus is
Lord. There's another song that never
gets old. There's a prisoner of war here this morning. I want
to tell you, come home. Come home. The battle's over. It's won. It's all over but the
shouting. Come to Christ. And I hope to show you how the
battle's over and who won it, who finished it. Now hold your,
if you've got 1 Samuel. Mark there. Hold your place there.
Turn first with me to Romans chapter 5. While I read to you
our text from Hebrews chapter 11. It's been our text for a
number of weeks and it's hard telling how much longer this
will be our text. Hebrews 11 verse 32 says, And
what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets. who through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions. Now there are many stories of
the life of David that I could have chosen to illustrate the
faith of David. We've come now to David. We've looked at all these other
names and come now to David. Many stories about David I could
have chosen, but I chose the story of David and Goliath. Because
this is how David subdued a kingdom. Now the story of David and Goliath
is not a child's story that we tell to encourage our children
now. You stand up against all the
difficulties you have in your life. You stand up against bullies.
You stand up against drugs. You stand up against all this
peer pressure. Because you just keep standing up against those
things and even though your enemies mightier than you, you can defeat
them if you just stand up to them, you know. You'll win like
David did eventually. That's not what the story is
about. This story is the gospel. It is the gospel. It's the gospel
of representation. The hero of this story is not
David at all. This story is about the Lord
Jesus Christ, our champion, who saved his people from their sin.
Now, the gospel sets forth This is a fundamental truth of the
gospel. Representation. You can't understand the gospel
without understanding this matter of representation. God sees all
men in one of two representatives. He sees us either in Adam, the
first man, or he sees us in the Lord Jesus Christ, the second
Adam, one of those two. And what all that means is this,
that you are what your representative is. You have done what your representative
has done. We come into this world guilty. We come into the world guilty.
Not because of what we've done. We became guilty because of what
Adam, our representative, did. When Adam sinned in the garden,
so did you, so did I. That's what representation means.
In Romans 5, verse 12, the apostle tells us this. Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin So death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned, all sinned in
Adam. That's how we became guilty.
So we didn't become sinners by what we've done, by an act of
our sin. We became guilty in Adam, our representative. Well,
then we can't be made righteous by something we do either. The
only way we can be made righteous is through the Lord Jesus Christ,
by what he does as the representative of his people. In Romans 5, verse
18, Paul tells us this. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so,
in the same way, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. So this is what this truth of
representation is taught all throughout scripture is teaching
us. You and I are either guilty and unrighteous in Adam or we're
righteous in Christ. And one of those two representatives.
And if you look back at first Samuel chapter 17, this is the
picture given to us in the story of David and Goliath. Goliath
had no idea this is what he was saying, but he set forth this
truth, this gospel truth of salvation through representation. 1 Samuel
chapter 17 verse 8. And he stood and cried unto the
armies of Israel and said unto them, why are you come out to
set your battle in a ray? Am not I a Philistine and you
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 will we be your servants. But if I prevail
against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and
serve us. So this is Goliath's challenge
to Israel. You pick a champion and let him
come out to me. And the country who will be the
ruler over the other country will be the one whose champion
wins, whose representative wins this personal battle. It's a
personal battle. This is not going to be a battle
won by these two large armies facing off against each other.
The whole war is going to be won by two men, two representative
men fighting as the representative of their people. And what I hope
to see this evening is these two champions, what they represent,
and to see the gospel of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
first, there's Goliath. Goliath represents Adam, the
first Adam. He represents the flesh. The
word felicity actually comes from the root word that means
self. He represents the flesh. And the name Goliath, I mean,
you wonder why do people give children names like this? It
means exile. Somebody named their children.
You're an exile. But that's a picture of us, isn't it? We were exiled
from God in Adam because of what Adam, our representative did
when Adam was flushed out of the garden. So were we. And if
we're represented by the flesh, then we're servants to the flesh.
We can only do what the flesh can do is we're servants to the
law. We're under the law. We're servants to sin. And if
you don't think that you're a servant to sin, this is my challenge
to you for two seconds. Try not to see it. You can't
stop. You know why you can't stop?
Because we're serpents of deceit. We're under the dominion of Satan. That's who Goliath represents.
And I'm telling you, this man is one tough opponent. Just like our flesh. One tough
opponent. We can't defeat it. We cannot
defeat it. Goliath stood about 11 feet tall,
11 feet tall. His armor weighed almost 200
pounds. I mean, you'd think the strength it took just to carry
his armor, 200 pounds of armor. His spear was 26 feet long and
just the head of that spear weighed 15 to 20 pounds. And this guy
could throw that spear. I mean, he's a mighty man, isn't
he? And if Goliath was your enemy, You'd be scared out of your wits. The men of Israel were too. Look
at verse 10. And the Philistine said, I defy
the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight
together. And when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the
Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Well, no
wonder they're afraid. They knew they couldn't defeat
this guy. Goliath was a monster covered in metal. I mean, he's
a killing machine. And that's what this flesh is.
This flesh is a killing machine. Try to think of one thing this
flesh hasn't killed. This flesh is a killing machine.
Well, here's another way Goliath is a picture of the flesh. He
is very self-confident. I mean, he is so confident. For
40 days, he kept defying Israel. Send me a man. Send me a man.
And that's this flesh, isn't it? This flesh never stops sinning. This constantly defies God. And
when Goliath defied Israel, I'll tell you what he was doing. He
was defying the God of Israel. That's what David told him. You
defied the God of Israel. He's going to name me, take off
your head. But that's what this flesh does, it defies God, it
defies it. This flesh has a carnal mind,
a fleshly mind that is enmity against God. It's not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, it can't be. It's
just put a reproach upon us, just like Goliath put a reproach
on Israel, just like Adam put a reproach on the entire human
race. And when David, the champion of Israel, Finally, after 40
days, they've got this champion. He finally comes out to meet
Goliath. And look at verse 42, Goliath
disdained him. When the Philistine looked about
and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy
and of a fair countenance. He's saying, Goliath's saying,
you insult me by sending this pipsqueak out here to me. You
insult me. This is no challenge at all.
I'm just going to wipe him out. But that's his flesh. This flesh
is so confident. Oh, my goodness. We think we
can do it ourselves. We do. We think we can do it
ourselves. And that's what self-righteousness
is. It's thinking I can do it myself. I can do good enough. to satisfy God's holy demand.
Well, that's Goliath. He represents the flesh. And
to us, the flesh is an enemy. It's impossible for us to defeat. And can you imagine Israel here? I mean, Israel's watching this
thing, too. They send this boy to meet this giant killing machine.
And can you imagine the misery that they're going to have to
live in if Goliath wins this battle? I mean, the misery. Oh, but you know, that's nothing
compared to the misery our father Adams put us in. Oh, the misery
he's put us in, the misery we live in because of our sin. I mean, we ruin everything because
of our sin. Sin just ruins everything. What
a misery to have to live under the condemnation of the law. What a misery to live under death,
under the controlling power of sin is what a miserable existence. Well, is there any champion who
can deliver us from this flash? Is there any champion? Well,
don't look to the flash to do it. Saul couldn't do it, could
he? Remember when Israel said, give us a king and they told
Samuel, we got the guy. This is the guy we want, Saul.
He stands head and shoulders above everybody. He's the biggest
and best we got. This is who we want to be our
king. Saul acted like a bully, didn't
he? Until a bigger bully came along.
And then suddenly Saul saw, I can't deliver Israel. Saul is a picture
of us. The best man has to offer. The very best man has to offer. Cannot make us righteous. The
very best we can do. Can't set us free from the power
of sin. You know what Scripture calls the very best we can do?
The things that we do, we think, oh, God's going to be pleased
with this. You know what God calls it? Filthy
rags. Rags defiled with our sin. There's no hope in us. But is
there any hope anywhere? I mean, is there a champion anywhere
who can deliver us from the power, the dominion of sin? Well, a
songwriter says there's one. There's one. Only one. The precious, precious Jesus. There's one. And that's who David
represents. And I want to give you seven
ways David is a picture of Christ our Savior. And I'll be brief. First is this. David is a type
of Christ because he was ruddy, had a fair countenance, a handsome
young man. David had a reddish complexion,
which made him a type of Christ. You don't turn. Let me turn here
quickly. This is a type of Christ. How
the Lord Jesus is described in the song of Solomon chapter five,
verse nine, the daughters of Jerusalem asked this beloved.
She's this, this woman who's sick of love and looking for
her beloved. And they said, what is thy beloved
more than another beloved? Oh, thou fairest among women.
Where is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou didst
so charge us? Why is it so important you find him?" And she said,
Oh, let me tell you about him. And here's how she started. My
beloved is white and ruddy. He's the chiefest among 10,000.
My beloved is the Lord Jesus Christ and he's white. He's perfectly
holy. The only holy man to ever live
and yet get a hold of this, he's ruddy. He's a real man. Adam was made from the red dust
of the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, became a real man. A real man. He's red. He's a
real man. But he's white. He's holy. This holy man is altogether
lovely. He's the chiefest. You won't
find anyone as beautiful as him. This is pretty obvious. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to be the representative of sinful men and women, he's
going to have to become a real man. I mean, God can't be our
representative. He doesn't have the same nature
as we do. We've got to have someone in our flesh, someone in our
nature to be our representative. And the miracle of God's love
is that the son of God would agree to humiliate himself, to
appear in the likeness of our flesh. And you know why he did
it? because he loves his father.
He loves his people. And he's going to come where
she's at. He's going to become what she
is so he can redeem her from her sin. All right, here's the
second way David was a type of Christ. David was a shepherd. Now, in all these first 40 days
where Goliath is defying Israel, where's David been this whole
time? Well, he's been keeping his father sheep. His brothers
went off to fight, but not David. Look here at verse 14. 1 Samuel
chapter 17. And David was the youngest, and
the three eldest followed Saul. But David, he went and returned
from Saul to feed his father's sheep in Bethlehem. There's David
in Bethlehem. Of all cities, right? Bethlehem,
the type of Christ. Coming from Bethlehem to save
his people from their sin. David was in Bethlehem keeping
his father's sheep. And I want to tell you, he is
doing a mighty fine job of it. A mighty fine job. He's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the great shepherd of the sheep.
Christ has a flock of sheep. He has sheep that belong to him.
You know how they became his? The Father chose them. He chose
them out of the lump of Adam's fallen humanity. He chose some
sheep out of there, and he gave those sheep to his son, the great
shepherd of the sheep. The Father chose those sheep,
made them his, and he gave them to Christ to keep. And the Lord
Jesus Christ knows those sheep. He loves those sheep. He knows
them. He calls them by name and he's
going to keep every last one of them. Not one of them is going
to be lost. Not one. David is a picture of
that. David was keeping Jesse's sheep
and he protected them from predators, just fearlessly attacked them.
Look at verse 34. 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 David didn't think, well,
you know, we got a lot of sheep. We just lost them. That's a cost
of business, you know, just losing one. David, David said, I went
after him and I smote him. And I delivered it out of his
mouth. And when he rose against me, I caught him by his beard
and smote him and slew him. David went after a lion with
his bare hands, killed him. Went after his bear with his
bare hands, nothing but his rod, just smacked him upside the head
and then grabbed ahold of his beard and killed him. This kid
did that with his bare hands. That's a picture of Christ. How
did the Lord Jesus Christ protect his sheep? How did he save his
sheep from the lion? By doing something far greater
than what David did. Christ gave his life to save
his people out of the mouth of the lion. He's the great shepherd
of the sheep. Those sheep he suffered and died
for. Those sheep that the father gave
to him, He's going to have them. He's not going to suffer and
die and lose one of them, not one. He's going to gather them
all together. There will be one fold and one
shepherd because he's the great shepherd of the sheep. By third,
David is a type of Christ when he was sent by his father to
the battle. Verse 17, Jesse said unto David his son, take now
for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn and these 10
loaves and run to the camp to thy brethren. and carry these
ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how
thy brethren fare, and take their pledge." Now, David's father
sent him to bring provisions to his brethren down there at
the battle, and he sent a present with David for their commander.
And that's what everybody did this time. The army didn't provide
for the soldiers. Their families had to do it.
So David was coming, bringing provision to his brothers. You
see how he's the type of Christ? Here we are in this world. Oh, we're in a battle, aren't
we? We're in a battle. And it really don't look too
good. The outcome of this battle don't look too good, does it?
We're scared out of our wits. Do you spend half your time scared
out of your wits? We don't have any supplies. Spiritually, do
we? We've got no supplies. See what
the Father did? He sent His Son to provide for
His people. He came to provide for his people
everything that they need. This is very important. Jesse
told David in verse 18, you take their pledge. That's very important.
You take their pledge. This is what Jesse's telling
David. You take this what I'm giving you and you go down there
and redeem your brethren. That's what the word pledge means.
If they've run out of supplies before you get there. Maybe they
had to pawn something, you know, to get enough to eat. Or maybe
they signed an IOU so that, you know, they could have enough
supplies. Well, if they've done that, David, you take this money
and you pay their debt. You redeem them so that they're
free from all debt. And this is what we need. We
need our champion to come and take our pledge. Redeem us. Because
we're born with a price on our head. The law demands our debt. We're born. Adam did that to
us. With his sin he put us under
the law. He put us under sin. And we owe
a debt to the law we cannot pay. We can't be obedient to it. Even
though that's what's required. We owe a debt to God's justice
we can't pay. We owe a debt to the law. Obedience
we can't pay. We owe a debt to God's justice
and we can't pay it. That's why we have to die. We
have to die because of our sin. But our death It's not going
to do anything to satisfy God's justice. And you know why our
death won't do anything to satisfy God's justice? Because our life
is useless. It's utterly useless. It's a
void of anything good. Our life, all it is, is sin and
depravity. So the father sent his son into
this world to redeem his people from their sin. They're under
the law. They're in bondage to sin. And
Christ, our Redeemer, came and he paid the price in full for
his people. So they're free. He paid the
price to God's law by obeying the law for his people. He paid
the full price to God's justice. He died to satisfy God's justice. There must be death for sin.
Christ paid that debt for his people. So his people are free. They're free from it. The father
sent the son, just like Jesse sent David, and David was an
obedient son. Jesse sent him on this mission
and David got started at first light. Verse 20, David rose up
early in the morning and left his sheep with a keeper and took
and went as Jesse had commanded him and came to the trench as
the host was going forth to the fight and shouted for the battle. David went at first light being
obedient to his father. And this is how the Lord Jesus
Christ paid the debt that His elect owed to God's law. It's
by His personal obedience to the law. The Lord Jesus obeyed
the Father perfectly. Did everything the Father sent
Him to do. He obeyed the Father's law perfectly. And then, when
His hour finally came... How many times did He say, My
hour's not yet come? My hour's not yet come. And when
His hour was come, Nobody could stop him from going to the cross,
could they? No. He became obedient unto death. Even the death, the cursed death
of the cross. Remember, here's the point of
all this. Christ is the representative of his people. We did what he
did. His people did what he did. My personal righteousness before
the Father is the obedience of Christ. He obeyed, I did too. Just as surely as I disobeyed
when Adam disobeyed, I obeyed when Christ obeyed. That righteousness
is mine because my representative gave it to me. And when he died
to the law, I did too. I died anyway. So the law has
no more claim on me. You either, if you're in Christ.
You're free, free from death. You don't have to worry about
it. Your body's still going to die, but you don't have to worry
about it. All that'll be is graduation day. You don't have to worry
about it. you're free from the sting of death. Because Christ
died for you. He's your representative. All
right, here's the fourth way David was a type of Christ. David
knew there's a cause. There's a reason for him to be
here. Look at verse 29. David said, What have I now done? You know,
his brothers were accusing him of just coming down there wanting
to see the battle. They said, it's for naughtiness that you've
come down here. You're just out of curiosity. You're just this
useless kid. You've come down here to see
the battle. And David said, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? David knew there's a job to be
done. Somebody's going to kill this fella. Somebody's got to
go deal with this Goliath. And David said, buddy, I'm just
the man for the job. There's a cause. Our Lord Jesus
Christ knew there's a cause. There's a cause. There's a cause
for His people. He knew there's a job to be done.
Even that 12-year-old boy asked his parents, wish ye not, I must
be about my father's business. There's a cause. There's a reason
for me to be here. There's a battle to be won. There's
righteousness to be established. There's redemption to be purchased.
Oh, there's a cause. And he's telling his parents,
I'm just the man for the job. I'm just the man for the job.
And he proved it to me. He did it perfectly. Oh, he saved
his people from their sin and made them righteous in him because
that was his cause. Right, here's the fifth way David
is a type of Christ. Saul tried to give David his
armor and David stripped it off of him, wouldn't accept it. Verse
38, and Saul armed David with his armor. and put a helmet of
brass upon his head. Also, he armed him with a coat
of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he
is saved to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto
Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And
David put them off him." Now, Saul, I mean, you can just, I
mean, naturally he would assume David's going to need some armor
if he's going to go fight this killing machine out there, you
know? I mean, he's got to at least have some protection, right? Saul gave David the best armor
Israel had. It was his own personal armor.
But David took it off. He said, I've not proved this.
They won't do for this battle. I'm sure, Saul, I'm sure you're
right. This is good, good armor. But
it won't do for this battle. No. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. His armor is his deity. God can't be hurt by anything
because he's God. So God's son took off his glory
as the son of God and he became a man. And he did it so he could
be hurt. He did it so he could suffer
for the sins of his people. God can't die, but a man can.
So God's son became a man so he could suffer and die the death
that his people deserve. And David didn't take any of
Saul's weapons with him either. All he took were five stones. Verse 40, he took a staff in
his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. He put
them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a script. And
the sling was in his hand and he drew near to the flisting. Now a lot has been made about
how many stones David took. And I would warn you as you study
scripture, don't think that you're ever going to understand every
little thing in scripture. what it all means. I promise
you, it means something. David took five stones. I just
don't know what it means. I don't know. I don't know what
the significance is. You know, in scripture, the number
five is the number of grace. Maybe it means that. I don't
have any idea. But you know what? It really
doesn't matter, does it? It doesn't matter if David took
five stones or seven stones. It doesn't matter. He just needed
one. I know what that one stone represents, don't you? That one
stone represents the Lord Jesus Christ, that stone, all chosen
of God and precious, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God and precious and far more important than the number of
stones. Here's what's important about
these stones. These stones were not manmade. A man's hand didn't
touch these stones to make them into some sort of a weapon David
could use. He didn't take those stones and
sharpen them, you know, like into an arrowhead or something.
No, those stones were made smooth because they're laying in a brook
and God sent water to roll across it to smooth out those stones. God made these stones. And here's
the picture. This is what is important about
these stones. They're not man-made. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
use one thing that was man-made. in order to redeem his people
from their sin. You know, his brethren, remember
they told him, now here's how we would do this. If we were you,
I'd go up to the feast and I'd show yourself, do some of these
miracles, you know, let a lot of people see you and then you're
going to get a big following and that's how you can take over
this kingdom. You know, that's how men would do it. The Lord
said, no, you go on up. I'm not going to do it. He didn't
use anything that was manmade because salvation is all of God. It's all of God's purpose. It's
all of God's direction. It's all of God's doing. It's
all of God's grace. It's all of God's calling. It's
all of God's application. Salvation is of the Lord. And man's got nothing to do with
the payment for sin. The only thing you and I had
to do in this matter of redemption, paying that sin debt, is we provided
the sin that's got to be paid. That's it. Atonement is the work
of Christ alone. when he had by himself purged
our sins. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty. And he sat down because the work's
done, he did it by himself. And I alluded to this a minute
ago, here's a way David's not a type of Christ. David's gonna
win the battle by living. Christ won the battle by dying. As a substitute for his people,
as a representative of his people, by one offering, one death, he
hath perfected forever. them that are sanctified." All
right, here's the sixth way David is a type of Christ. He defeated
every enemy. Now, we read earlier how David
killed that lion and that bear with bare hands. David defeated
Goliath the exact same way. Verse 44, and the Philistine
said to David, come to me and I'll give thy flesh unto the
fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. Then said David
to the Philistine, thou comest to me with a sword. and 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 hast defied. 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 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's
the Lord's, and He'll give you into our hands. And it came to
pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet
David, that David hasted and ran toward the enemy to meet
the Philistine." Now, can't you just see how David just, oh,
he's just, oh, he's riled Goliath up. He rose up in anger. He's
coming after David. And all of us would have run
the other way. David ran toward him. See the picture of Christ
there? Our Lord Jesus ran. He set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem. He ran to meet the enemy. When
that mob came to take him in the garden, what did he do? He
ran to meet them. He didn't surround himself behind
Peter and Peter's sword, did he? No, he stepped down. Who
do you seek? I am. He didn't hide. No, he
ran to meet the enemy. He went to meet them and he showed
them. When he said, I am, They all fell down flat on their backs.
And they got up and he told them again, I am, just to be sure
they knew, I'm going willingly. You're not taking me against
my will. You're not taking my life. No man can take my life
from me. I lay it down willingly as a sacrifice for my people. I'm going to this battle to finish
it once and for all. And when he shouted, it's finished. It was finished, wasn't it? It
was finished. Well, verse 49, David put his hand into 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 to 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. Now somehow,
somehow that stone went past all that armor and stuck smack
in Goliath's forehead, sunk all the way in there and killed him.
One little stone, directed by God, killed that mighty giant.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the stone chosen of God, the
cornerstone, putting away all the sin of his people by himself. And David didn't bring a sword
to this fight, did he? You know, have you ever heard
the saying, don't bring a knife to a gunfight? David, don't bring
a sword to this battle. When you've got the stone. When
you've got the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to remember that.
David, so I'm coming to you in the name of God. We need to remember
that. We don't need anything other
than the name of Christ. We don't need anything other
than Christ. There are a lot of things I think
I need. But you know what? Truth be told,
I can do without him. I can't do without Christ. He's
the one I must have. Oh, I must have him. In verse
51, therefore, David ran and stood upon the Philistine and
took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew
him, cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistine saw their
champion was dead, they fled. You know Goliath, he stood up,
he's got that fella carrying that shield in front of him,
all his armor and all his training, he's got that sword. You know,
and Dave is running towards him. You know Goliath just thought,
I'm just going to take this thing, I'm just going to run right at
him and he'll cut his head off. I mean, Goliath couldn't believe
it. He thought, I've never had an easier battle than this. I
mean, this guy is just putting himself right where I want him. Goliath ended up dead with his
head cut off. I'm sure at Calvary, Satan could
not believe it. He thought, I finally got God
right where I wanted. Oh, Satan had worked and worked
and worked at maneuvering this. He worked in the hearts and the
minds of the Pharisees. He worked in Judas' heart. He
worked in the heart of Pilate. He had God's son right where
he wanted him. I mean, can you imagine the glee? And that very instrument, Christ
cut his head off. We were way back there in the
garden when our first representative, Adam, when he was thrust out
of the garden, what did God promise? The seed of woman's going to
come. They're going to crush the serpent's head, going to
cut his head off. That's what David did to Goliath. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to the enemies of his people.
He took away the reproach from his people by suffering and dying
in their place. And then here's the last thing.
David is a type of Christ. Because in this great victory,
David got all the spoils. Now look back at verse 25. We
didn't read this earlier, but David here has come to the camp
and seeing all this going on with this Goliath of Gath, this
huge killing machine. And he's asking, what is going
on with this, you know? And the men of Israel said, have
you seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel has
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. His father's house can live tax
free the rest of their time. And he had the king's daughter.
Now I know you see the picture here. David went out and killed
that giant and David was made rich. He was made famous in Israel
and he got a bride out of the deal too. Saul's daughter. He
became the king's son-in-law. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
won this great victory over every spiritual enemy, he got all the
spoils. Christ won the battle. He made
a show of defeating his enemies openly. David did too. Look here
at verse 54. After David cut off the head
of Goliath, he took the head of Philistine and he brought
it to Jerusalem. He come to Jerusalem carrying
that And he put his armor in his tent, but he took that head
of Goliath to Jerusalem, making a show of this triumph open. That is what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done. He's making a show, openly, of
defeating his enemies. This is what we preach in the
Gospel. Brethren, the battle's over! It's over. Come to Christ,
our great Champion. Because of His victory, the Father
has Highly exalted, giving him a name which is above every name.
And that great transaction at Calvary, you know, Christ our
champion did. He purchased his bride. Oh, he's
going to have her. Oh, that's the whole reason he
came in the first place. He's going to have her. In closing,
I want to show you one more thing. I want to show you how much we
need We need God to save us. We need God to redeem us, don't
we? We need God to do a work for us. We need God to do a work
in us. Look here at verse 52. When at
the end of verse 51 says, when the Philistines saw their champion
was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and of
Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines and they'll come
until they'll come to the valley and to the gates of Ekron. And
the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shearim,
even unto Gath and unto Ekron." Now, you remember how the story
started? Goliath comes out and he challenges
Israel. He said, you send me a champion
and this war is going to be won, fought, won and fought by two
representative men. Whichever champion loses, that
country will be the servants of the other. Well, David killed
Goliath. Why didn't the Philistines stay
and serve Israel? Why did they run? Israel chased
them and killed a bunch of them. Why didn't they stay and serve
Israel? Remember who the Philistines represent? They represent flesh,
don't they? Self. The flesh cannot serve
God. Cannot. God is not served with
our flesh, with our hands. The flesh cannot please God.
The flesh has got to die. Self has got to die. The flesh
has got to be put to death. If we would be redeemed, we must
be born again. If we would serve God, we must
be born again. Because the only way we can please
God, the only way we can serve God, is in Christ, by being born
again. See, salvation, it has to be
in Christ our representative. And all has to be in Him. All
has to be in Him. Righteousness is not in our obedience. It's in Christ our representative.
It's Christ's righteousness, not ours. Sin can't be paid for
by our sacrifice. It's Christ's sacrifice, not
ours. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, our great champion. And if I could tell you one more
time, and pray that God would make it real to your heart, come
to Him. Come to Him right now, right
now where you sit. You come to Christ, believing
Him, trusting that that Champion is all you need. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this glorious gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer, our Champion, our Lord, our Master. Father, how we thank
you. How we thank you for giving us
this gospel. To preach it, to believe it. And Father, I pray
you'd bless your word as it's been preached this morning. Bless
it to your glory. Bless it to the hearts of your
people, to every heart here this morning. Father, we beg of thee
that you give us faith to believe and to rest in our Lord Jesus
Christ. We beg of thee that you give us spiritual eyes to see
you, to look and to live. to come to Him, to come to Christ,
our great champion, and find in Him everything we need and
everything you require. Father, how we thank you for
Him. And it's in His great name that we ask that you bless this
message and that you hear us and accept us, hear our pleas
for His sake, for the glory of His precious name. We pray and
give thanks. We'll stand and sing number 20. Number 20. We've got two little changes I want
to make on the second verse. The last line then. With, I'm
going to say by. Thy help, O Lord, our battles
to win. We don't win anything but what
Christ wins. Do that correction. We praise the old God, our Redeemer,
Creator. In grateful devotion our tribute
we bring. We kneel and adore thee. We bless Thy holy name, glad
praise as we sing. We worship Thee, God of our fathers,
we bless Thee. Through life's storm and tempest,
our guide hast Thou been. When perils o'ertake us, escape
Thou wilt make us, And by Thy help, O Lord, our battles to
win. With voices united, our praises
we offer Great Joe, the glad anthems we
raise. Thy strong arm will guide us. Our God is beside us. To thee, our great Redeemer,
forever be praise. you
About Frank Tate
Frank grew up under the ministry of Henry Mahan in Ashland, Kentucky where he later served as an elder. Frank is now the pastor of Hurricane Road Grace Church in Cattletsburg / Ashland, Kentucky.
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