Let's read together from the
Holy Word of God. Again, if you have the hymn sheets,
the reading is on the second page. The account we have this
morning is the account of David and Goliath. It's a very long
account, so we cannot read it all, but it gives you something
later in the day to, at your leisure, read the whole portion. 1 Samuel chapter 17. What we'll
read this morning is just from when David is sent by his father
into the camp to see how his brethren are doing, and when
his older brother then is angry with him and asks why he's come
down to the battle, and David answers him, is there not a cause? So reading from verse 20 on our
hymn sheets, And David rose up early in the morning, and left
the sheep with a keeper, and took and went as Jesse had commanded
him, and he came to the trench as the host was going forth to
the fight, and shouted for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines
had put the battle in array, army against army. And David
left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage,
and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren. And
as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the
Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the
Philistines, and spake according to the same words, and David
heard them. And all the men of Israel, when
they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. And the
men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that is come up
Surely to defy Israel is he come up. And it shall be that the
man that killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches,
and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free
in Israel. And David spake to the men that
stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth
this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For
who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies
of the living God? And the people answered him after
this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth
him. And Eliab his eldest brother
heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled
against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left
those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness
of thine heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest
see the battle." And David said, What have I now done, is there
not? a cause and it is this last verse
that i want to with the lord's help speak to you on the response
of david is there not a cause a very important time in israel
the lord gave a wonderful deliverance at this time. I want to just
confine our thoughts to three thoughts and we'll introduce
them as we go. Firstly, mistakes as to a cause. We do know that all things that
happen, that there is a cause, there is a purpose, sometimes
a hidden purpose of God, and we often see just the cause that
is presented to us and don't see the purpose that God is actually
doing and bringing about. And sometimes we can stumble
at those second causes. But we do know that God is in
control, that there is a reason for everything, and God is bringing
about his perfect plan. There is a cause. But like Eliab, we can, when
things come into our lives, when we have troubles or adversaries,
or as in this case, David was obviously an embarrassment to
his older brother, and we can surmise a cause, a reason, and
we can be very mistaken. Now here, Eliab was mistaken. He thought David was just coming
down just to see the battle, and that was the only reason
why he was coming. We know from the account that
that is not true. Not true even up to the point
where our reading leaves off, and not true when we see the
outcome and what God wrought through David that day. But we
also think of the cases like Job's friends. God is very clear
saying to Satan that thou movest me against Job without a cause. There was no cause, there was
no sin, there was nothing that Job had done that he should have
had all those terrible things happen in his life. There was
a cause, because we are told that Satan had charged Job and
said that the reason why he served him was that God had hedged him
about and protected him, and if God touched anything that
he had, then he would curse him to his face. So God was proving
Satan to be a liar. The grace that was given to Job
was true grace, and it sustained him through all of that triumph. Yes, he had many humbling things
to learn himself in it, but there was no cause. And yet Job's friends,
though they sympathized with him first, they seemed to say,
well, because this is going on and on and on, you must have
done something wrong. It can't be in your life without
there being something that the Lord is angry with you, and why
He's dealing with you like that. And we can easily make that mistake. Job had the trial that was on
him, even to his health, but added to that, he had his own
friends, and he said to them, miserable, comforters are ye
all. May we be very, very careful
when we see a brother, a sister, One of the other residents in
the home, things happen to them, trials happen to them, don't
add to their burdens. By you being the judge and saying,
we know what is the cause, this is why it has come. Think of
Job, think of his friends, be very careful. Same with Eliam,
be very careful, he misjudged David. And so we can look at
things, and especially things of others, and think that we
know what God is doing and why it has come. So that is the first
thing, when things come in others' lives, things come in our lives
too, be very careful that we do misjudge it as to what is
the real cause. But secondly, I bring before
you that it is a time of self-examination. The case when the children of
Israel came back from Babylonian captivity and they started to
build the temple, then they were discouraged, they stopped building
it, but they built their own houses. So God touched all of
their crops, their crops didn't bring forth the fruitfulness
that they expected, their money bags had holes in them, and then
God sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to tell the reason
why these things are happening to you is because you have left
the Lord's house and not supporting that. You're using your money,
your goods and everything for your own things, but you're not
looking after the Lord's house, you're not building it. And this
is the cause. So it is a time of self-examination. Is there a reason Solomon had
3 adversaries that were specifically brought up against him, and naturally
speaking, you would not link them to things that Solomon had
done, but Solomon had the Lord appear to him twice, And the
Lord charged him not to go after the idols of the other nations,
but he did. He married their wives, many
wives, went after their gods, and the Lord raised up these
adversaries. Now very often, if there is a
cause, if it is chastening, and the Lord chastens his people,
When things happen in our lives, our conscience will bear witness.
It will say, I have been warned about this already. The Lord
has already spoken to me in my word. My conscience is saying,
you should not be doing this. And so it is a time when things
come of self-examination. We have here 40 days that Goliath
was coming and going and no man was able to rise up and to fight
with him. And 40 days is a time of testing. It was here. Was there a man? Could there be found a man? No,
it was very, very clear. There was no one in Israel until
David came that could fight against the Philistine. We have 40 days
that the rain fell at the days of Noah. We have 40 years for
the children of Israel in the wilderness journey. We have 40
days that our Lord was tempted of the devil in the wilderness.
We have 40 days from when our Lord rose from the dead to when
He ascended up into heaven, proving During that time, he appeared
to many witnesses that he truly was risen from the dead. So, it is a time, it's a time
of testing, of proving, and it was here. And when things come
in our lives, then we should examine ourselves We should lay
it before the Lord, we should know that there is a cause, and
we should ask ourselves or tell ourselves, remind ourselves this
word, is there not a cause? And so the Lord does bring about
His purposes and bring those things to pass that He has determined. Well, what was the purpose of
God that was being brought about here? Why was it that for 40
days there wasn't any deliverer? Why was it that David didn't
come or God didn't send him on the very first day? If that had
been the case, there could have been many in Israel that rise
up, and Abner, and Saul, and said, well, if only we had the
chance, we would have done it, and we would have been able to
do it. But all of that time that no help was found was very important,
and for you and I, in our lives as well. The Lord will make sure
if he is going to be King, if he is to be glorified, if answers
to prayer are really going to be viewed as answers to prayer,
first it is proved that there is no help in self, and we haven't
got any other way that we can say, well, that really was the
help that we had. So, David coming. How did David come? Why did David
come? You know, we are told David did
it by obedience. He was obeying his father. And
it was the same as with Joseph as well. Joseph obeyed his father,
and that was the start of him being brought down into Egypt.
May we never despise the very smallest things of obedience,
when we think of David, when we think of Joseph, and we think
of many that have begun their days sweeping a floor, or menial
tasks, or just obedient to a parent, And they've ended up in positions
like David. David was the king. Joseph was
next unto Pharaoh. And it began with obedience.
David is a beautiful time of our Lord Jesus Christ in this
account. Our Lord was obedient unto his
Father, even obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God hath highly exalted him. Also David is a type of
our Lord because the very situation here, it mirrors what the Lord
accomplished at Calvary. If we substituted the assemblies
that are here, we have Israel, we have God's people looking
on, we have the Philistines, the enemies of God's people,
they are also looking on. And central, we have in this
account, David and Goliath. Central in the Gospel is the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There, the seed of the woman
should bruise the serpent's head, and he should bruise his heel. And so we have the arrangement,
and Goliath had said, who doesn't need all of the armies to fight,
we shall be the representative, whosoever shall win this day
shall win on behalf of their people. And what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done at Calvary is on behalf of His people. He conquered
though He fell, He conquered Satan. He bruised his head. He paid the debt for his people's
sin. He put away their sin. He endured
the wrath of God in their place. He bore their sins in His own
body on the tree. It is what Christ has done, and
this is what is set before us. All Israel would have seen David
go forth. They would have seen what he
did. And in the Gospels, and in the preaching, and in the
lifting up of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see what Christ has
done. And the benefit, the blessing
is ours. Our captain, he stood the fiery
test, and we shall stand through him, but we shall know that the
conquest was our Lord's and not ours. And so this is a beautiful
account. May we be able to look past it,
and to our Lord we would remember how important David is in the
lineage to our Lord. A thousand years before our Lord
came, it is David's two sons, Solomon that we trace the line
right through to Joseph and Nathan, his son Nathan, trace it right
through to Mary. And so truly our Lord is the
Son of David. So when we have these things
now happen in our lives, may we ask and may it be an answer,
a gracious answer really to David to his brother, angry as he was,
is there not a cause? And the very fact of realizing
that the Lord has a cause, a purpose, a reason, may be a help for us
to be able to bear it, And when it leads us to this account and
leads us to Christ, then may we view what He has borne. What was the cause of Christ's
sufferings? All you say is just wicked hands
crucified and slew Him. Was that really the cause? Or
was it your sin and my sin? Or was it the determinate counsel
and full knowledge of God that Christ should suffer in our place? You see where we trace the cause. The cause may be put to many
things, but may we view that it is our sins that Christ suffered
for and the reason that he would put them away and have us to
be with him in heaven.