For the call to worship, we'll
be reading from Psalm 63. Psalm 63. A Psalm of David when he was
in the wilderness of Judah. Oh God, oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul
thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in
a dry and thirsty land where no water is. To see thy power
and thy glory, so I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because
thy lovingkindness, that is Christ Jesus in his mercy and grace
toward me, the sinner, is better than life, better than life itself.
My lips shall praise thee. Thus I will bless thee while
I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. My soul shall be satisfied as
with morrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips. Let's pray. Oh God, our Father in heaven,
how we Bless you in the sanctuary for your darling son, your only
begotten son, for making him your loving kindness toward us
who are being saved by his blood. Now we pray that we might see
something of his power and his glory in delivering us from all
our enemies. Now we pray for your Holy Spirit
to do what we cannot here and in every place where your gospel
is preached. We pray in Christ's name and
for his sake, amen. Number 296 from your hardbacked
hymnal, 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, here my faith For I know what e'er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well. ? All the way my Savior leads
me ? ? Tears each winding path I tread ? ? Gives me grace for
every trial ? ? Feeds me with a living bread ? ? Though my
weary steps may falter ? ? And my soul a thirst may be ? Gushing
from the rock before me, lo, a spring of joy I see. Gushing from the rock before
me, lo, a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day This my song through endless
ages Jesus led me all the way This my song through endless
ages Jesus led me all the way Please be seated. Adam's going
to bring special music. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature Long the distance that he fell Far removed from hope
and heaven Into deep despair and hell But there was a fountain
open And the blood of God's own Son Purifies the soul and reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know the blood still reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Conscious of the deep pollution,
sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear to face the light. This the blessed consolation
that can melt the heart of stone. That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone All unworthy we who've wandered
And our eyes are wet with tears As we think of love that sought
us Through the weary, wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway
Walking by God's grace alone Knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone When with holy choirs we're standing
In the presence of the King And our souls are lost in wonder
While the white-robed choirs sing Then we'll praise the name
of Jesus With the millions round the throne Praise him for the
power that reaches Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Thank you, Adam. I'm so thankful
for that. Where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Samuel
chapter 17. 1 Samuel 17. There are so many glorious truths
to this story that we find in our Bibles of David and Goliath,
truths that directly speak to my heart and I hope they will
to you. Truths that apply to where I
live. This story is not an allegory,
it's not a parable. It's an actual historical event
where David, representing all of Israel, goes up against the
giant of the Philistines and slays him. And yet if we fail
to see the spiritual meaning of it for our lives then it will
be nothing to us than an Old Testament story. Robert and I
were talking about this recently and he said that he was reading
a Puritan who wrote a book on this story. And he spent pages
in his book talking about the details of the helmet that Goliath
wore and how that stone would have gotten to his head through
that helmet. I thought, well, that sounds
like a Puritan. You know, just wasting your time trying to trying
to look at details that have no meaning to them, they have
no significance. I want us to look at this story
for the spiritual importance that it is for you and for me. I've titled this message, What
Have You Proved What have you proved? And before we introduce
that, let's read the text. We'll begin in 1 Samuel chapter 17 and begin reading in verse 38. And Saul armed David with his
armor. You know, Saul was the king. And for 40 days, we know at least,
the Israelites were hunkered down behind the rocks, fearful
of the Philistine. What do you suppose Saul's servants
were doing? Polishing his armor? Sharpening
his sword? Was there any more glorious armor
than Saul would have had? Any sharper sword than what Saul
would have owned? And Saul hears David say, is
there not a cause? And he wants to go up against
this giant. And so Saul says, well, I'm going
to give him the best. And so he puts on Saul's armor. Saul put his armor on him. And it was a helmet of brass
upon his head and he armed him with a coat of mail. Now the
importance of that is that when the Lord describes the armor
of Goliath, he tells us that Goliath had a helmet of brass
and a armor of mail. And so what's happening here
is that Saul, a picture of the arm of flesh, thinks that we're
gonna fight fire with fire. We're gonna defeat this enemy
with the same armor that he's coming against us with. Now, oftentimes you and I have
done that, try to defeat spiritual enemies with the arm of flesh. 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. And he took his staff in his
hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. The
servants of Saul didn't make these stones smooth. These stones
have been smoothed by none other than God himself as they rolled
around in the brook. These were God's weapons. And he put them in his shepherd's
bag, which he had had, even in a script. And his sling was in
his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.
And the Philistine came and drew near unto David. And the man
that bared the shield went before him." Goliath didn't carry his
own shield. I mentioned this a couple of
Sundays ago. The shield is representative
of faith, the shield of faith. Perhaps if Goliath had had his
own shield, maybe he could have raised it in time to deflect
the stone that was coming. But he had an armor bearing carrying
his own shield. And here's the application of
that. You can't trust someone else to have faith for you. You've got to have faith yourself. And when the Philistine looked
about and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth and
ruddy and a fear of countenance. And the Philistine said unto
David, am I a dog? Now contrast that to what that
Syrophoenician woman said when the Lord told her that it wasn't
right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. He
called that woman, that Gentile woman, a dog, which is what the
Jews would have referred all Gentiles as dogs. And what did
the Syrophoenician woman say when the Lord said that about
her? Truth, Lord. Truth, Lord, I'm a dog. But the dogs, eat the crumbs
that fall from the master's table. Now this Philistine is offended
that anyone would suggest that he was a dog. What a glorious truth. When the
Lord Jesus himself calls us a dog, we respond with truth, Lord.
Truth, that's all I am. Oh, would you just, would you
just slide a few crumbs off your table for me? That's all I need.
You know, the truth is that one crumb from God is better than
all the fare that this world has to offer. One crumb will
feed your soul. And the Philistine said, verse
43, unto David, am I a dog that you come against me with staves?
And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine
said unto David, come to me and I will 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 sword and with spear
and with a shield. Saul wanted me to come against
you with a sword and with a shield and with a spear, but I had not
proved those things and I had to take them off. Now I have
nothing but a sling and five smooth stones given to me by
God. And you come against me with
the arm of flesh, I come against you. in the name of the Lord
of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled. This is my cause. My cause is
the glory of God. And this day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand and I will smite thee and take thy head
from thee and I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines
this day unto 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. Goliath didn't have a chance.
The Lord was on David's side and the enemies of God never
have a chance against God. Nothing's changed. Same thing's
true. Depends on what weapons we go
against that enemy with. And that's why I asked the question,
what have you proved? David said, I haven't proved
these things. They don't work for me. I've
got to go in what I know is true, what I know I have experienced
by proving that the Lord God of Israel will deliver me. That he knew. Verse 47, and all the assembly
shall know, all the 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, drew nigh to meet David, that David
hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. So here's this Philistine standing
in all of his grandeur and all of his power and young David
runs toward him. And David put his hand into his
bag and he took thence a stone and slang it and smote the Philistine
in his forehead that the stone sunk into the forehead and he
fell upon the face of the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine
with a sling and a stone and smote the Philistine and slew
him. But there was no sword in David's
hand." You and I have some spiritual
enemies that we have to battle every day. Sin, Satan, flesh, the world, the certainty of death, the grave,
the judgment of God. And here we have a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ as our representative defeating the
enemy of God at Calvary's cross as he ran toward Jerusalem. He set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem. And what a glorious picture of
victory this is, that every child of God is able to rest in the
hope of knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ himself got the
victory by himself and we rest all the hope of our salvation
in him. And he did not do it in the arm
of flesh, he did it in the power of God. The Lord tells us in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after
the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but they are mighty through God, the pulling
down of strongholds. So here we are, here we are engaged
in this spiritual battle, the one that has already been won
by Christ. And the Lord tells us that he
has given to us weapons. He gave to David those five smooth
stones and that all of the polished and sharpened weapons of the
flesh are not sufficient. Ephesians chapter 6 says, for
we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We wrestle not against
flesh and blood. Our enemies aren't men. They're not governments. The Lord said we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against
powers and against rulers of darkness and against spiritual
wickedness in high places. And then he says, therefore,
put on the armor of God. You will put off what you have
not proved and put on what you have proved. David said to Saul,
these things don't work for me. I have found the power of God
to be the only power that enables me to engage in this spiritual
battle. and the polished and sharpened
armor of the king are not sufficient for me to fight this battle. What have you proved? I know you're engaged in a warfare.
I know you're in a battle. What have you proved? The Lord tells us in Colossians
chapter three, put off the old man and put on the new man. You see, we put on that armor
which we have proved, and we take off that which we have not
proved. In Zechariah chapter 3, the Lord
said to the prophet, I will clothe thee with a change of garment. The garments that you have by
nature are not sufficient for this battle. I will give to you
spiritual weapons to fight in this spiritual battle. You will put on what you've proved
and take off that which you've not proved. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter six. Ephesians chapter six. You see, the truth is that every
time we find ourselves confronted with these giants, like David, our first reaction
might be to put on the king's armor. And then when we get them on
and we realize we can't function with this, We assay them, as
the scripture says of David. We say no to them. No, we can't
do that. I've got to have a different
weapon to fight this battle. I can't fight it in the arm of
flesh. I've tried that. It doesn't work for me. I must
put that off and I must put on that which God has proven. To prove something is to establish
the truth of it. To prove something is to show
the genuineness of it. To subject something to a test
and to prove it as reliable. To confirm or validate the claims
and the reliability of something. That is what it means to prove
something. What have you proven? What have you proven? You have your Bibles open to
Ephesians 6. I quoted part of this a moment
ago. Look at verse 11. Put on, put on the whole armor
of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities." That word principalities is the
word first cause. They say the first cause of sin
was Satan himself, he's the one being referred to as the principality. and against powers and against
the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day and having done all to stand." What have you proven to be a
safe and sure place to stand? Are the king's armor sufficient
for you? Or has the glitter of those things
tarnished in your eyes and the Lord has shown you there's only
one place to stand. There's only one rock that's
safe. Everything else is shifting sand. Everything else is unreliable
and unstable. I've not proved the, I have proved
those things, but I proved them to be unreliable. David said, I must go with that
which I have proven, proven to be successful. And it's the armor
of God. There are six of them here mentioned.
Let's take them quickly one at a time. Verse 14, stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with the truth. Now what is the opposite of the
truth? The lie. The lie is the opposite
of the truth. What is the lie? The lie is free
will. God, 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 says that God has sent them because they have no love for
the truth, they have no love for Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself is the truth, and because they, you see this is the armor
that we must put on. But what do we do? We try to
fight our battles in the strength of our will. and where the Lord
brings you, when he brings you to where young David was, and
you are able to say, I haven't proven these things, you come
to that place where you say, oh Lord, I tried that armor,
not my will. Lord, every time I exercise my
will against these spiritual wickedness and enemies of sin
and Satan, I find myself flat on my face. I've not proven them. This I have proved. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the truth. The law came by Moses, was given by Moses, but grace
and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. When the Lord is pleased by his
grace to prove himself faithful, we come to that place where,
Lord, the law can't help me and my will can't help me. Because
they had no love for the truth, therefore he sent them a strong
delusion that they should believe the lie. You see, that's what
the world believes the lie. What is the lie? The lie is man's
will. The lie is that I can do this. I can conquer this. I can fix
this. I can solve this problem. And
men put on the polished armor of their own will and they sharpen
the sword of their own will and they go against the enemy only
to be defeated. And the Lord tells us here, the
first instrument of warfare is to gird your loins about with
truth. 1 Peter 1, verse 13, Peter puts
it this way, he says, gird up the loins of your mind. Now,
it, In order, the picture here is
that men would have wore something of a flowing garment, a robe,
and to gird up. When Peter was in prison in Acts
chapter 13, the angel came to him and said, gird up your loins
and follow me. In other words, Peter would have
been sitting there in his robe and the Lord said to him, gird
up your loins. In other words, take that robe
and fold it up between your legs and tuck it into your belt because
we're going to a battle here. You see, you can't work in a
robe. You have to make pants out of them and that's
exactly what the girdie, that's the picture here, the soldier
in order to go to battle can't fight in a robe, he has to gird
up that robe and tuck it into the belt of truth. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is seen in Revelation chapter 1 verse 13 as having a golden
girdle gird about his paps, a golden girdle. Gold in the Bible represents
perfection. What our Lord's saying is, don't
try to fight this battle with the king's armor. as impressive
as that armor might be and as convinced as everybody else is
that it's going to be sufficient? Have you proved your will to
be insufficient in this battle? Have you taken off the old man
and put on the new man? That's what David did. David
said, I've got to take these things off. They're not working
for me. I haven't proved them. But one
thing I have proved is that the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient. He is sufficient. His grace is
sufficient. You see, if you haven't proved
His grace to be sufficient, then you're still trying to work things,
aren't you? What have you proved? What have you proved? Most men are still fighting this
war in the king's armor. The Lord Jesus Christ says of
himself in John chapter 1, the word was made flesh and he dwelt
among us. and we beheld his glory as the
glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
of truth." Truth. See, the whole world has bought
the lie. The whole world is singing lies,
lies, tell me sweet little lies. That's all I want to hear, I
want to hear lies. God causes you to put off that because it's not proven
to be sufficient for you. You just want to know the truth.
You just want to know Christ. And all that is in Him, all that
He is and all that He has done, all of His grace and all of His
glory, He Himself is the truth. So, gird up the loins with the
belt of truth. Go back with me to verse 14. Having on the breastplate of
righteousness, now breastplate's protecting the heart. If the
belt is designed to hold up the loins of truth, the breastplate
is designed to protect the vital organs. Most men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness which is of the law. They go about trying to present
to God some work that will obligate God to save them. They present their will to God
or they present their works to God. And we know that being ignorant
of God's righteousness because God's righteousness is all in
Christ. The end of the law is righteousness. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. So having the breastplate, you
see here again, all these things are gonna take us back to the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth and he
is our righteousness. And all our righteousness are
as filthy rags. We read it this morning in the
men's study before we came out that man at his very best state
is altogether vanity. Altogether vanity. He's altogether
empty. We have no righteousness before
God. We try to present to God something
that we've done in order to earn our favor with him. The Lord tells us in John chapter
12 to judge righteous judgments. David made some judgments. Saul put this armor on him. He's
feeling the weight of it. He's trying to move about in
it and he takes it off. He says, I haven't proved it.
I need that which I've proven. The Lord tells us in John chapter
12, judge righteous judgments. In other words, make some judgments
like David did about what righteousness is. Where does your righteousness
lie? What hope do you have that you
would have acceptance before God? What reason do you have
to come into his holy presence? Is it based on Something you've
done or some prayer that you prayed or some faith that you've
exercised or some will that you've performed or some... Or is it all bound up in the
glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ as all of your righteousness
before God? What have you proven? We're tempted, as I said before,
In each one of these, we're tempted to do what David did and put
on the king's armor. But as soon as we put it on,
we find it to be insufficient. We find ourselves, by God's grace,
taking off the old man and putting on the new. Listen to what the
scripture tells us in Acts chapter 17, verse 31. God, he hath appointed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
standard of righteousness which God accepts. This is my beloved son. In him
I'm well pleased. I'm not pleased in anything you've
done. I'm pleased in him. How are we going to come into
the presence of God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ? And yet
what joy and what hope and what comfort. In the slaying of the
lion, Satan himself, and the slaying of the bear, the rigors
of the law, and the judgment of God, there is, when God gives
us five smooth stones. By the way, the number five in
the Bible, and we're not going to spend the time to look at
all the references, but the number five is a number for grace in
the Bible. Each number has a significant
meaning. And so David picking up five
stones, you know, I've heard people say, well, you know, he
was, he was afraid in case he missed or he's afraid, you know,
maybe Goliath would happen. No, the deal was one, David knew
that he, that Goliath was going to fall. The number five there
is given to us in order to say that the truth of God in Christ
and the righteousness of God in Christ is all of grace. It's all of grace. We can't merit it, we can't earn
it, we can't deserve it, we don't deserve it. God must give it
freely by his grace. Men will wear the filthy rags
of their own righteousness and think that they're that they're
wearing the dazzling armor of the king. You remember the story
of the king who put on a wedding feast for his son? And there
was a servant at the door giving a robe, a wedding robe to everyone,
all the guests that came in, they had to wear this robe over
their clothes. And the door was finally shut,
and the king's walking around greeting his guest, and he sees
a man in the place there that didn't have a robe on. And I can just imagine, this
man said to the servant at the door, why would I cover up these
beautiful garments that I have with a plain white robe? I look
great. And he would have, the king called
the servant and said, take him, throwing him out into utter darkness
where there's weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth. You
see what the picture of that is? The only ones allowed into
the king's presence are the ones who are going to have the robe
of righteousness. And that robe can't be rent. You remember when
our Lord was crucified and they took his robe? and they were
going to tear it and give it to the soldiers. And one of the
soldiers says, this robe is seamless. Let us not rent it, but let us
cast lots for it. What a glorious picture of salvation. The casting of the lot into the
lap is of the Lord. In other words, God was going
to determine who got that robe and who didn't get it. And the
soldiers could not tear it. What do men want to do? They
want to rend the righteousness of Christ and sew in to his righteousness
some of their own garment. Oh, something they've done, a
prayer they've prayed, some work they've performed. They're so
proud of what they've done. The Lord said, don't rend the garment. Cast lots for it. And the answer
of the lot in the lap is of the Lord. The Lord's gonna give that
robe. Now, don't you love the story
of blind Bartimaeus? Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy upon me. Bartimaeus was a blind beggar.
We've seen beggars. Can't imagine what they would
have looked like on the street of Jericho 2,000 years ago. The
holy, filthy outer garment that Bartimaeus would have been wearing.
He kept crying, have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me. And it's
not of anything insignificant that the scriptures record that
when they said to Bartimaeus, Bartimaeus, be of good cheer,
the master calleth thee, that he took that robe off and dropped
it right there in the gutter and went to Christ without his
dirty, holy robe of righteousness. Bartimaeus, what would you have
me to do for you? Oh Lord, that I might see, that
I might see. Here's the armor. We're not going
to fight against these spiritual battles with the arm of flesh. We're not going to defeat the
enemy in our good works or our free will. We must have the Lord
Jesus Christ as all of our truth and all of our righteousness. Saul of Tarsus tried to fight
the battle with those things, didn't he? And then when the
Lord revealed himself to Saul, he said, oh, those things that
I thought were gain to me, I now see were the very things keeping
me from Christ. You see, here's the bottom line
truth about righteousness. It's not sin that keeps men from
Christ. It really isn't. It's righteousness. That's what will keep you from
Christ. Your self-righteousness. You say, well, doesn't, you know,
people are engaged in sin that they, you know, that they don't
want to give up. Yeah. But it's their righteousness
that has convinced them that one day, one day before they
go to hell, before they die, they will give it up. That's
their righteousness. You see, it's not the sin that
they're unwilling to let go of that's keeping them from Christ.
It's their righteousness because if they ever came to the conclusion
that they have no power to put away that sin, and that only
in Christ can they have a righteousness that's pleasing to God, then
they'll come. It's not men's sin that keeps
them from Christ. It's their righteousness. What have you proved? What have
you proved? The arm of flesh, the king's
armor, the sharpened sword of, well, let's look, look at the
fourth one, the third one, verse 15. And your feet shod with a
preparation of the gospel of peace. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you what most
folks want. Most folks want the peace of God. But you can't have the peace
of God until you have peace with God. They come together. They come together, but you can't
have one without the other. And the only way to have peace
with God is to have the Lord Jesus Christ offer himself As
your ransom and your righteousness and your justification before
God, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And only
then does the peace of God that passeth understanding keep our
hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Our feet must be shod with the
preparation of the gospel. I can see Paul in his Roman jail
writing these, thinking about, he's not right when he's seeing
a Roman soldier. He's saying, well, what that
Roman soldier is wearing is a, they're spiritual truths to each
one of those things. And he sees that Roman soldier
with these shoes on. He said, oh, we ought to have
our, if we're going to walk in a way that's going to be pleasing
with God, our feet must be shot with the preparation of the gospel.
You can't have the gospel without Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself is the gospel. He's the good news. He's the truth of God. He's our
righteousness. Our feet are feet of clay. Even though Seraphim in Isaiah
chapter six, where we see the Seraphim hovering over the throne
of God and crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
Even they had to take two of their six wings and cover their
feet. Why? Because our feet represent
our worldliness. It's our connection to this earth,
isn't it? It's our worldliness. When we
come in, the Lord Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. And
Peter said, wash me all over. The Lord said, no, you're already
clean all over. You need your feet washed. Your feet are dirty. Why? Because you've been walking
out there in the world. And when we see the Lord Jesus
Christ revealed in the book of Revelation, we see that he had
feet brazen as brass. No feet of clay there. His feet
are glorious. Oh, we must have our feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel. We can't walk outside of Christ. We can't walk in this world.
We've got to have our feet covered. The preparation of the gospel
of peace, of peace. Fourthly, verse 16, above all, above all, it's the most important, take
the shield of faith. Now faith is not our contribution
to salvation. To make faith a decision or a
choice is to deny the very meaning of faith. Faith is what happens when you've
got no place else to go. Faith is what happens when God
strips you of all of your choices and all of your decisions. You've
tried the king's armor. The Lord has shown you that they
can't be proved. You've got to have the five smooth
stones of grace in order to defeat that enemy. You've got to have
that which God has proved. Now, faith is what happens. when you've got no place else
to go. Lord, to whom shall we go? You
alone have the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You have shut
us up to yourself. If you're not given a choice
on something, you can't, if there's only one option, you can't say,
well, I chose that. The very idea of choice means
that you've got two or more options. And if you chose Christ because
you had something else to choose from, you didn't choose Christ. You've got a figment of your
imagination, a false Christ, isn't it? Turn me, Lord, and I'll be turned.
Cause me to come unto thee. Cause Thy face to shine upon
me, and I will be saved. Lord, don't lead me to myself.
Don't give me any choices. Don't give me any options. Shut
me up to Christ. I've tried the King's armor,
it doesn't work. I've got to have that which is
proved. I've got to have the truth. I've
got to have the breastplate of righteousness. I've got to have
my feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I've
got to have peace with God. I've got to have this shield
of faith. You see, faith is what happens when you are brought
by God's grace to see that you have no ability to do anything
to save yourself. I love it when that leper came
to the Lord and he said, Lord, thou can if thou will. Now the false gospel says this.
God's willing to save you. He wants to save everybody. Christ
died for everybody, but His hands are tied. He can't do it unless
you make a decision, unless you allow Him, unless you do something. And they make it work out of
faith. Faith is their contribution.
Faith is what moves the hand of God to save them. The most important thing is the
shield of faith. There's no coming to Christ without
faith. And faith is the gift of God.
It's the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that faith is not of yourself. It's a gift of God. And the sinner cries like Bartimaeus,
drops his robe of self-righteousness comes to the Lord Jesus. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. You made me to believe. Verse 17, number five, and take
the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation. What
does the helmet do? Protects your head, doesn't it? Oh, our minds are... Remember when Nahum and the Syrian who was
afflicted with leprosy, came down to Elisha. And Elisha sent
his servant out, told Naaman to go wash in the river, Jordan. And Naaman, the scripture says,
was rough. He was angry. And what did he
say? He said, I thought the man would
come out to me. Well, there's your problem, Naaman.
You thought. And that's your problem and my
problem, isn't it? You see, God says, my thoughts
are not your thoughts. He says, the heavens are high
above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts. But we rely
upon our thoughts, don't we? Well, this seems prudent. This
seems reasonable. This seems right. It seems like
I ought to be able to defeat this with this thought and with
this idea. And I thought, Lord, let my thoughts
be your thoughts. Lord, every time I try to do
something in the power of my own will, every time I try to
wear the king's armor, it just weighs me down and I haven't
proved it to work. It's not proved. Matter of fact,
I've proved it to be inadequate. Lord, let my thoughts be your
thoughts. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are good and
holy and pure and lovely and righteous. Think on these things. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. That's the only. All these things
point back to Christ, don't they? All these things strip us of
the things that the world is trying to prove that we've proven
don't work. Lord, my head is unprotected.
My thoughts are so wild and so wandering and so wrong. Lord, enable me. Enable me to think on these things, enable
me to look in faith to Christ and to believe. You see, we looked
at this recently in the book of Hebrews, it speaks of the
mind and the heart. Yes, the mind is the intellect
and the heart is the affections, but they're not separated. what you are affectionate toward
in your heart, you think in your mind. And so here's the thing,
we have to have our thoughts right about who God is, about
who we are, that God is sovereign, that He's holy, that He's just, We, that we're sinners and that
we have to have right thoughts about how it is that God's pleased
to save sinners through the sacrifice of his son. The helmet of salvation and the
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Oh. So many opinions out there, isn't
there? So many words, so much advice. Worldly advice might
be sufficient for worldly things. If you have a financial need,
I advise you to get some advice from somebody who knows about
those sort of things. If you have a medical need, I advise
you to go to someone who can help you in that area. Worldly
advice is good for worldly things, but we're not talking about worldly
things here. We're talking about a giant that the world is trying
to defeat in the king's armor. And the question is, what have you proved? What have
you proved in defeating this enemy? Oh, I pray and hope that
the Lord will enable us to prove that Christ is everything in
salvation. The only time I have peace is
when God enables me to look to Christ, that I've proved God
to be faithful, I've proved him to be full of mercy. When I've
cried out to him, he's answered me. He's met my needs. I've proved his grace to be sufficient
in salvation. I proved his word to be effectual
and living and powerful and true. Yes, David against Goliath stands
as a representative pointing us to the Lord Jesus who got
the victory for all of Israel. But David also is a picture of
you and me with this question, what have we proved? Our Heavenly Father, how often we are drawn to the
King's armor. Give us the grace to take off
the old man and to put on the new man. For we know that he
alone has been proved. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 268. 268? 268. 268, let's stand
together.