Good evening. Last time I was in Houston, old
Jack Shanks was pastor, where Joseph is now. Before I get started, I guess
congratulations, I don't know if that's the right word, but
thankful to the Lord. It's apparently 45 years ago
this month is when the Lord started it. And it's still going. And that's amazing. That's wonderful. It's truly wonderful. The folks
surprised my wife and I. Apparently, I've been pastoring
there 35 years. They didn't realize it was that
long. But stuff happens. Milton, thank you for that message. Make
it a little more difficult to follow that. That was wonderful,
absolutely wonderful. If you would, turn with me to
1 Samuel chapter 21. 1 Samuel chapter 21. Your pastor has meant more to
me the longer I get to know him. Just what a treasure. His wife,
Pat. They complement each other very
well. But I do appreciate your answering my calls, pick up and
help me out, and encourage me. Because I still feel like I'm
so undeserving, and I still feel like I'm a kid compared to the
message that's been preached here and the people that pastors
that I've come to know, less than the least. We're going to look at a situation
that happened to David. And it blessed me when I looked
at it, and so I hope that it does bless you. And if I spiritualize,
I've been accused of that. But if I spiritualize and I find
the gospel in a place that I'd never seen it before, then go
ahead, I'll take that accusation. Here in 1 Samuel chapter 21,
the history is, and we'll look at just a few verses before we
get to our text in the same chapter. In verse one, then came David
to Nob to Ahimelech the priest,
and he's the high priest. And Ahimelech was afraid at the
meeting of David and said unto him, why are you alone and no
man with you? Turn to verse 10. And David arose
and fled that day for fear of Saul and went to Achish the king
of Gath. That's the history. David is
fleeing for his life. Now, David was a member of the
king's court. So Ahimelech is kind of concerned,
where's all the men with you? You're someone of importance.
Where's everybody at? He's running from King Saul,
who he never did anything ill towards the king, promoted the
king. He was kind to the king, was
gracious to the king, but the king was jealous. King Saul was
jealous. So Saul, who he believes everyone,
even Jonathan, his son, is with Cahoots and Cahoots against him.
So David is tirelessly fleeing the king and his court and winds
up in this location, which is where
the tabernacle is. We've heard about that. So that's,
you'll get a picture of your mind, what's going on here. And he goes in to see the high
priest, verse six, and the priest gave David hallowed bread. For there was no bread there
but the show bread, which was taken from before the Lord to
put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. Verse eight,
and David said unto Ahimelech, Is there not under thine hand
spear or sword? For I have neither brought my
sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required
haste. The priest said, and this is
the text we're going to look at, verse nine, the priest said
unto David, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you slew
in the valley of Eloth, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth
behind the ephod. If thou will take it, take it.
For there is no other save that here. And David said, there is
none like that. Give it me. There's none like
that. I wanted that. So he goes to
see the high priest. He's provided some showbread
and a weapon, the sword of Goliath. That's what we're going to look
at. The sword was wrapped, it's what it says, it was wrapped
up in a cloth in the tabernacle behind the ephod of the high
priest. Now, Ecclesiastes says everything
under heaven, there's a purpose. There's a sovereign, deliberate
purpose. This sword was to be here. at NAB, it was to be here for
David's use. David used the sword, I'm sure
when he heard that, and some commentators said that he knew
it was there, but David used this sword to slay the giant. I'm sure when he heard that it
was there, it brought back sweet memories. Can you imagine? Well,
Ephesians chapter 6 tells us that we're to take the helmet
of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. So that's what we're looking
at. We're looking at the sword that's here as a type or picture
of the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, which the
Word of God, the written Word, speaks about the incarnate Word,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the gospel. So he comes to this place, this
tabernacle, which is at this location. He talks to the high
priest, and he's reminded it's a memorial. He's reminded, could
obviously show to David God's mercy towards him. He could remember
the mercy that was shown to him and the nation that day. So too, I say, the gospel, the
word of grace, is a blessed memorial to the glory of God in Christ
Jesus. Christ, so to speak, is God's
memorial. It's a constant reminder when
we gather together, when we gather together here, when we gather
in Jackson, in Ball, in Duquesne, when we gather in these places,
we open up The Bible. We don't have responsive readings.
When I grew up in a Methodist church, nobody brought their
Bible. That's all they had was responsive readings. The preacher
would say something, and then you'd say something back. No.
This, the unerrant Word of God, is what we open. It's the sword
of the Spirit. Sharper than any two-edged sword
dividing asunder. We simply That's what preaching
the gospel is. We simply tell back what's already
been written. We don't add anything. We don't
add anything. Christ is, as I said, God's memorial,
so to speak, a constant reminder of the cost of our salvation,
the price of the law broken, the value of sins forgiven. I
like what Milton was saying. You put your mind back in these
times, and I can imagine David running for his life, fleeing
for his life, coming in to this place, getting the showbread,
which is a type of Christ, to satisfy his needs, but he gets this sword. He hears that the sword is there. How encouraging he would have
been. How uplifted he would have been. And as we gather together
tonight, we memorialize Christ. We do this in remembrance of
him who suffered and bled and died for us. You talk about getting
your thoughts and your visions off of yourself. That's our biggest
problem is ourselves. We think too much of ourselves.
We think we've got something to offer God. In the gospel,
we open the book and we see it's not so. You talk about getting
your mind off of yourself. David, he's downcast, he's burdened,
he's worried, that's just, he's just like us. And he hears that
the sword is there. You come in, I tell the folks,
when you're in distress and trouble, whether it's physically, financially,
spiritually, the worst place, the worst thing to do is to not
attend to hear the gospel. with people of like mind. So David, he's by himself, he's
running, and he hears about that sword. He says, there's none like it.
There's none like it. There's none like it. Give it
me. Oh, lifted up to fight another
day. The second thing I see in this passage is that this sword
was used to bolster David's faith. He was discouraged. He heard
about the sword, the sword of the spirit, we'll say, the gospel,
which is a declaration of what Christ has done, not trying to
do, what he has successfully done. Obtained eternal redemption,
obtained, past tense, having obtained, past tense, what Milton
just said. for us, by the sacrifice of himself. So this sword, I'm sure it boosted
his encouragement, his faith, as it is with this word of God.
When we come and we hear the gospel, and it's revealed by
divine operation, by sovereign grace, and we believe the word,
and we trust the word, and we trust Christ, it boosters our
faith. And don't we say, like the apostles,
Lord, increase our faith? As we open the book and loose
the seals therein, to see and to behold and worship Christ
within his pages, to understand its precepts, its doctrine, its
central theme, which is Christ and Him crucified. I'm determined
not to know anything. And I know this man is the same.
He cares about you. in all manner of life, but he's
determined to know one thing, Christ and Him crucified. Because
financial advice is good today, it's not good tomorrow. Physical
advice is good today, we're dying tomorrow, we're dying daily.
But Christ, if you have Christ, if you trust Christ, if Christ
is everything to you, then that's all we need, that's all we need.
We understand, we view rightly the total and complete fall of
ourselves. We can't get in this book, Genesis,
the first couple pages and bam, we're falling. We can't do anything. We think we can. That's our problem
is ourselves. We see the total and complete
fall of ourselves in Adam. In Isaiah 1 verse 5, we know
in and of ourselves that we are polluted from the top of the
head to the bottom of our feet. We stare, we believe upon Christ
as the singular and sole substitute for crimes against the God-man.
We witness the pure, holy, and harmless Son of God raising up
on that third day, victorious over our transgressions, raising
for our justification. I tell our folks, I got it from Spurgeon, most
of the stuff we get from somebody else. He said, when you get up in the
morning, before you go to school, before you go to work, he says,
before we see the face of man, we ought to see the face of God. It's our bread. It's our water. It's our life. And we agree with what this book
says, this sword of the spirit, to shout, it is finished in total
concord with our lovely and adorable Redeemer. Law satisfied, sins
put away, sins put away. In Deuteronomy chapter eight,
it said we're not to live by bread alone, but by every word
of the mouth of God, every word. Do you believe this book is the
unerrant word of God? Scripture itself says every word
of God is pure. And I know the transliterations
and translations I told one man, he said, oh,
it's just written by men. It's a bunch of air. And I said,
well, how do you know the air is not about Calvary? What are you going
to do then? No. The world changes daily. This book does not. It does not. The sword, or as I'm saying,
about Christ, this gospel, this Word of the Spirit of God, may
we boldly and continually say as David, give it me. Give it me. Now, I know we're
concerned about our person sitting next to us, we're concerned about
the pastor, we're concerned about the church, but it's personal. Give it me. Give it me. I need it. I want it. I need him. I must have it. I must have him. As J.C. Ryle said, to be born again is
by the sword of the spirit, as it were, is to enter in upon
a new existence, to have a new mind, a new heart, new views,
new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings, new
dislikings. New fears, new joys, new sorrows,
new love to things once hated and new hatred to things once
loved. New thoughts of God and ourselves
and the world and life to come and salvation. There's none like that. There's
none like that. Well, Matthew chapter 13, he
talks about that pearl of great price. You remember the story.
He found it and sold everything he had, lock, stock and barrel. Or have we sold out to Christ?
Or is it God and man? You know, I need to do this and
I need to order my life. I need to order my job around
these things. Or do we order everything around
the word of God, Christ? You can never be a loser. I know
the world does not, you're not gonna be a lot of things that
the world highly esteems. But you ask David when he's running
and he's in trouble and he's at wit's end and he sees this
thing and he just stops and says, there's none like it, give it
me. Give it me, I must have. And this is the Greek from what
I, I'm not a scholar but I read people who say they are and I
have tools. That pearl of great price, the
Greek, is extremely valuable. Extremely valuable. And such
a high value we place upon this holy book, which contains the
holy seed, Christ, which tells us about the holy salvation through
substitute and blood-bought pardon for sinners. Right here. And it says they sold all. Well,
that means the whole. That means entire. Sold all. Why? Well, because Peter summed
it up, because he's precious. 1 Peter 2, verse 7, and Solomon
said it, he's altogether lovely. He's altogether lovely. Or as
it is said here, there's none like him. There's none like him, there's
none like this word, there's none like the gospel in its nourishing
content, in its saving power. in its God-honoring doctrine,
in its humbling capacity, in its raising up potential, in
its comforting solace, or in its glorifying sonnets. We sing
the song of grace because he has revealed himself to us. This
truth, this sword, this gospel message of a crucified kinsman
We know it is the only message that solely focuses on the full
and free works of Emmanuel, able to save to the uttermost. It's
not another gospel. There is not another gospel.
There is none like it that exalts God, that honors Christ and promotes
the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Matthew. I saw
this several years ago. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
11. I want to show this to you. Still can't get over it, it's
just amazing. The importance of preaching of
the gospel, the importance of Christ, the importance of this
word. Look with me at Matthew 11 and verse 5. Well, verse 4, Jesus answered
and said unto them, go and show John again those things which
you do hear and see. The blind receive their sight,
the lame walk, The lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Now, in verse five, he's talking about miracles. Everything he
said, these are miracles. But he's got the preaching and
the gospel right there with him. So, think about this. When you
come here, tomorrow, Lord, next Wednesday,
whenever, when you come here, you're gonna hear a miracle.
the greatest miracle there ever was, how God can be just and
justify ungodly wretches like us. Turn with me to Acts chapter
four. Sometimes I just have to laugh
within and smile because the wording of this book is so specific
I can't make it up, but look at the phraseology here in Acts
chapter 4 and verse 12. He's speaking about the stone,
which the builders said it not, has become the head of the corner. He's speaking of Christ. Look
at verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, in Christ,
for there is none other name. Stop. There's none other name
because there's none other like it. And it's a play on words,
but it's not. under heaven, given among men,
whereby we must be saved." There's only one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, and Ephesians 4 tells us that. This gospel is called
in Jeremiah 6, the old paths. It's called in Revelation, the
ancient gospel or the everlasting gospel. It's called in Matthew
7, the narrow way. And there's none like it. There
isn't. In closing, turn back to our
text. I want to draw your attention
to a few more things, and then I'll close it down. I ask you
from our text, where was David? Where was David at? Not the city. He was there at the tabernacle.
It moved around, but it's there now. He's there at the tabernacle,
and Milton took the words right out of my notes. He didn't see
my notes, but he took them right out. It's where God met with
men. Now, I'm not downgrading the
importance of private worship, but there's something special
about public worship, the saints gathering together. It's where
God met men. This is where David was, and
this is where we should be. This is where we want to be.
This is where we desire to be. We all have different personalities.
We have different likes, dislikes, different things, but we are
unified in the gospel of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. Second thing, how many swords
How many swords were in this place? Just one, just one. And so too, when we gather together
in this ordained place, we should only hear preached one gospel
about one Savior, not plural, not multiple. That's a false
gospel, that's works, that's religion without Christ. I don't
care how zealous you are, how zealous I am, if the gospel is
not being preached, we have no hope. Oh, I just see this little marquee,
it's got preach Christ, preach Christ. My good friend, pastor
friend, Tim James, going through some situations at church and
called him up and was talking to him and he said, just preach
Christ. Just preach Christ. Yep. Why? Because there's none like it.
There's none like it. Mr. John Trapp said there is
none like that. So we say of the sword of the
Spirit, the word of God, when preached especially. As milk
warmed is fitter for nourishment, and as the rain from heaven has
fatness with it, and in a special influence more than standing
waters, so there is not that life and operation and blessing
in the word read as when preached. That puts a lot of responsibility
on who's sufficient for these things. When Mr. Huntington said it this way,
the Bible, the sword of the spirit of the grace of God, which is
about Christ, Christ is the word, it's the first book. It's the
best book. It's the oldest book in all the
world. It contains the choicest matter. It gives the best instruction
and affords the greatest pleasure and satisfaction that ever was
revealed. It contains the best laws and
profoundest mysteries that ever were penned. It brings the best
of tidings and affords the best of comfort to the inquiring and
downcast. It exhibits life and immortality
from everlasting and shows Christ the way to eternal glory. It
is a brief recital of all that is past and a certain prediction
of all that is to come. It settles all matters in debate,
resolves all doubts, and eases the mind and conscience of all
their scruples. It reveals the only living and
true God and shows the way of Him. It sets aside all other
gods and describes the vanity of them and of all that trust
in them. In short, it is a book of law
to show right and wrong, a book of wisdom that condemns all folly
and makes the foolish wise, a book of truth that detects all lies
and confutes all errors, a book of life that gives life and reveals
Christ the way from everlasting death. It is the most concise
book in all the world. the most ancient, authentic,
and most entertaining history that ever was published. And lastly, may our response,
my response, may your response, through Holy Spirit conviction
be, give it me. I must have him or
I'll perish. Or as another man said, God be
merciful to me, the sinner.