There was a time when we prided
ourselves in thinking that we were the ones living up to Psalm
1, verses 1 and 2. And now we understand that this
passage describes the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly and those that
are found in Him. But it also describes what we
were just talking about, judging righteous judgments, not judging
according to appearances. Listen to these two verses. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight, his delight
is in the law of the Lord and in his law. Does he meditate
both day and night? He shall be like a tree, a tree
of righteousness, planted by a river of living water, producing
its fruit in its due season and its leaf not withering. Oh, that's
what I hope this morning. Let's stand together. Tom's going
to come and lead us in number 103 on the hardback teminal,
number 103. Ah! One day when heaven was filled
with His praises, one day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men, my
example is He. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. One day they led Him up Calvary's
mountain, One day they nailed Him to die on the tree. Suffering anguish, despised and
rejected, Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He. Living, He loved
me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. One day they left Him alone in
the garden. One day He rested from suffering
free. Angels came down o'er His tomb
to keep vigil. Hope of the hopeless, my Savior
is He. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sin far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the grave could conceal
him no longer. One day the stone rolled away
from the door. Then he arose over death he had
conquered. Now is ascended my Lord evermore. Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sin far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day He's coming, O glorious
day. One day the trumpet will sound
for His coming, One day the skies with His glory will shine, Wonderful
day His beloved one's bringing, Glory, a Savior, this Jesus is
mine! Living, he loved me. Dying, he saved me. Buried, he carried my sin far
away. Rising, he justified freely forever. One day he's coming, a glorious
day. Please be seated. Good morning. Scripture reading
this morning is going to be in Psalm 53. Psalm 53. The fool has said in his heart, no,
God. We know that that's what the
fool says. Everyone who hasn't been shown the gospel says no
to the God of the Bible. the God of the scriptures, the
God who is. Corrupt are they, this is God speaking about man,
corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity, have done
abominable iniquity. There is none that does good. So man does their iniquity, they
trust in their works, but they are abominable to God. He says there's none that does
good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there's any that did understand, that did seek God. So God looks
down on man. He looks to see if there's any
that does any good. He finds no one. He finds no
one that seeks God, not the God of Scripture. They seek the God
of their own imagination. Every one of them is gone back. They're all together filthy.
There's none that doeth good. No, not one. And only in Christ Are we able to see this? Only
in Christ are we able to. God opens our eyes and lets us
see that there's no good in us, that there's no righteousness
in us. Have the workers of iniquity
no knowledge? Again, these are workers of iniquity,
workers of works, that they trust in their works, in what man sees,
what man says is good. Those are what God calls iniquity. There's no knowledge. Who eat
up my people as bread, they have not called upon God. They haven't,
no one seeks God. They seek their own God of their
imagination. Because we see a lot of churches,
we see a lot of religion, religion is popular, but they're not seeking
God of scripture. They're seeking the God they
made for themselves. They are great in fear when all
fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him that encampeth
against thee. Thou have put them to shame because
God has despised them. Isn't this different from the
gospel we hear in the world, that God loves everyone? God
despises them. God despises everyone outside
of Christ. Everyone. And everyone that's
in Christ, He loves them in Christ. Not due to anything of themselves,
but it's all the righteousness of Christ. He loves them because
they are in Christ. Oh, that the salvation of Israel
will come out of Zion. When God brings back the captivity
of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad. We are called Jacob and Israel. God calls us Jacob in ourselves
and Israel in Christ. And we do rejoice. We are glad. Let's go to the Father. Father
God, we come before you in thanksgiving. We come before you in Christ,
in the name of Christ, and because of his righteousness and his
sacrificial death, we come before you giving you thanks for this
wonderful privilege, wonderful blessing of being here together
and enjoying the preaching of Christ and the fellowship of
other believers. Father, please, we require that
your Holy Spirit be with us both With the pastor as he brings
the message and us, the hearers, we need the Holy Spirit that
we may see more of Christ, that we may see more clearly the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please do this for us here, as
well as all the churches that preach your gospel, Father. In
Jesus' name, we pray this. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn on the back of your bulletins. You can find the bulletin. We'll sing the hymn on the back
of it. Oppressed with unbelief and sin,
Fightings without and fears within, While earth and hell with force
combine, Assault and terrify my mind. What strength have I against
such foes, Such host and legions to oppose? Alas, I tremble, faint and fall,
Lord, save me, for I give a call. O t'was a cheering word indeed,
exactly suited to my need. Sufficient for thee is my grace,
thy weakness my great power displace. Now despondent, more, no more,
I welcome all I feared before. Though weak, I'm strong, though
troubled, blessed, For Christ's own power shall on me rest. My grace would soon exhausted
be, but his is boundless as the sea. Then let me boast with holy
Paul that I am nothing, Christ is all. Please be seated. I'm so glad the Lord didn't say,
where sin abounds, the law does much more abound. What you and
I need for our sin problem is not more law. We need more grace. Might God be pleased to do that
for us again this morning. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17. And while you do that, I have
an announcement to make. We have set the dates for our
winter conference. I know it's early, but this way
you can make plans and invite folks. January 15th, 16th, and
17th. Now, we've had it in February
and March, most of the years of recent years, but this year
we're going to have it in January. And the reason for that is because
the 18th of January is a national holiday. And some folks said
we'd be able to come on that weekend. It's Martin Luther King
weekend, 15th, 16th, and 17th of January. So if you'll put
that on your calendar and be in prayer for that meeting. Right
now, Todd Nybert and Joe Terrell have agreed to come and preach
for us that weekend. So you have your Bibles open to
1 Samuel, chapter 17, I'm going to attempt to do something this
morning that we normally don't do. We're going to go through
a long passage of scripture, verse by verse, and hopefully
the Lord will be pleased to reveal to us the accomplished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ in saving His people. Now this event took
place 3,000 years ago. And I'm sure over the past 3,000
years, many, many underdogs have been inspired to take on their
giants in life. David defeating Goliath is a
story that seems like everybody knows, and it has inspired I
suppose sporting teams and business people and individuals in every
walk of life. That's not what this story is
about. It's not what this story is about. If you're encouraged
by it, fine. But those inspirations cannot
be compared to the inspiration of the soul, the inspiration
of your heart. the inspiration of your understanding
that will come if the Lord's pleased to show you that you're
not David, Christ is David. He is the sweet psalmist of Israel. He is the man after God's own
heart. He is the king of Israel. He's the sweet shepherd of his
people. David pictures for us. We just closed the last service
by saying that this book is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that's what it is from beginning to end. This is the gospel told
over and over and over again, some by way of narrative, some
by way of doctrine, some by way of Psalms and songs, but all
pointing to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. My
hope this morning is not for you to be encouraged to take
on your Goliaths. To the contrary, to the contrary,
victory is not won with God by fighting. Victory is won with
God by surrendering. Now I know there's not much virtue
in surrendering. You know, it's a shameful thing
to surrender, isn't it? It's a shameful thing to give
up. Why? Because the victor gets all the
glory. You remember the story where the four leprous men were
sitting at the gate of Jerusalem and the Assyrians had encamped
around the city and besieged the city and the people inside
the city were dying of starvation. And the four lepers talking to
themselves, they said, if we sit here, we're going to die.
If we go into the city, we're going to die. There is a chance
that if we go to the Assyrians and, and, and surrender to them,
that maybe they'll give us something to eat. And they got up and they
went into the camp of the Assyrians only to find out that just before
they got there, that God had routed the Assyrians without
the aid of an army. And they went in the tents and
they took over and they just ransacked the whole Assyrian
camp. Perhaps if the Lord would give
us grace to lay down our weapons, to have
our swords turned into plowshares and our spears into pruning forks. that we would lie down and trust
Christ. And he'd be pleased to show us
how David is our victor. He is our representative man. This is no story for the inspiration
of the flesh to make its resolve and pull itself up and be strong
and go against the Goliaths of life. This is a story, if you're
going to identify with anyone in this story, identify with
Saul and the rest of the army of Israel that were terrified
at the threat of Goliath. There's the one to identify with.
And see your savior in young David who trusted God and went
against the giant and got the victory for all Israel. That's
what this story's about. It's about Christ and his salvation
of sinners. You have your Bibles open? There are many military campaigns
and conflicts given to us in the scriptures, and they all
are clearly for the purpose of showing us the work of God in
salvation for Israel. And this one is no exception.
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle,
and were gathered together at Shoko, which belongeth to Judah,
and pitched between Shoko and Azekah in Ephestamin. 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 one side, and Israel stood on a mountain
on the other side, and there was a valley between them. Can you see the setting? There's
a stalemate. This has been going on now for
weeks, 40 days. The scripture says Goliath went
down into the valley and presented his challenge to the children
of Israel. But both armies knew that the
first one to move was going to lose the advantage of their high
ground. And so they both just stayed where they were. And there
was a great gulf fixed between them. Isn't that where we are? We're just at a stalemate. Unless
someone goes down into the valley, that valley will end up being
filled with dead men's bones. And we'll be able to say with
Ezekiel, can these bones live? Oh, Lord, thou knowest. If they're
going to live, Lord, you're going to have to do something. We can't
win this battle. We can't go down into the valley. There went out a champion out
of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose
height was six cubits and a span, nine feet, nine inches tall.
This was a giant. He had a helmet of brass upon
his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight
of his coat was 5,000 shekels of brass. As I understand, it's
about 150 pounds of armor just in his coat of mail. Now, he's
also going to have brass upon his breasts, his shoulders, and
his legs. And he had graves 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. The spearhead on this weaver's
beam weighed 18 pounds. Who was going to go against this
giant? And all of Israel is shaking
in their boots. Truth is that you and I have
an enemy that we cannot defeat. Satan is stronger than us. Sin is stronger than us. Our flesh is stronger than us. The Lord said, the spirit may
be willing, but the flesh is weak. The law is uncompromising. The law of God demands perfect
obedience. The law of God requires exaction
of its judgments against all those who deviate from its standards
one bit. We have an enemy like Goliath. we can't go up against. I'm in
no way standing before you this morning and encouraging you to
just go down into the valley and be strong. Be like David. God will give you the victory.
Oh no. No. This giant is truly a giant. And he is one you can't defeat. You can't defeat. And he stood and cried unto the
armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are you come out to
set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and you
servants of Saul? Choose you a man for you, and
let him come down to me. No, we can all save our lives
and save ourselves a lot of trouble. You just choose one representative
man and send him down here, and I'll fight against him. And whoever
wins, we'll consider that to be the victory for the entire
nation. And for 40 days, this threat
was made. And if you 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 Philistines 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 these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid. They were dismayed and greatly
afraid. Until we have our David go down
into the valley and defeat Goliath for us, until we have hope that
that's happened for us, there is reason to be terrified. there is reason to be greatly
afraid. Now David was the son of that
Etherethite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse. Jesse,
you remember, is the son of Boaz. and the offspring of Ruth, the
Moabitess. And at the end of this story,
Abner's gonna ask, David, Saul's gonna ask Abner, who is that
young man? And Abner's gonna say, I don't know, and go find
out. He's the son of Jesse. He's the
one who gets all the glory. And how When the Lord Jesus Christ
defeated our enemy, what did He do? He gave glory to the Father,
didn't He? He gave glory to His Father. And the three eldest sons of
Jesse went and followed Saul of the battle, and the names
of the three sons that went out to the battle were Eliab the
firstborn, and the next to him were Abinadab and the third,
Shammah. Now, Eliab's going to rebuke
David in a little bit by telling him, David, why are you down
here? You've got an evil heart. You just want to see blood and
guts. And David defends himself and says, what have I done to
you? Is there not a cause here? Is there not a cause? What is
the cause? The cause is the glory of God.
That's the cause. And David is defending himself
against his elder brother. How many times in the scriptures
do we have problems with the elder brother? Starts at the
very beginning, doesn't it? With Cain and Abel. Who was the
problem? It was the elder brother. We
see it with Jacob and Esau. Jacob I have loved and Esau I've
hated. Who's the problem? The problem's Esau. We see it with the prodigal son,
the self-righteous elder brother who couldn't understand why the
father would show grace and mercy towards the rebellious younger
son. You know, the only time that
order is reversed is when the Lord Jesus Christ
becomes our elder brother. And he fulfills what all those
other elder brothers were unable to do. Here's David's elder brothers. And David, verse 14, was the
youngest, and the three elders followed Saul. But David went
and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at the house
of bread. That's what Bethlehem means. And that's where you're sitting
right now. You and I are sitting in Bethlehem, the house of bread. And this is the place, this is
the place where the Lord Jesus Christ feeds His sheep. He said, they shall be all taught
of God. Father, I thank thee that thou
has hid these things from the wise and the prudent and given
them, revealed them unto babes. This is the green pasture. It's
not my feeding. It's not your feeding of yourself. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
has to speak effectually to our hearts and take the truth of
the gospel and give us faith to believe it. And when he does,
we feed on his body and on his blood. His body is our meat indeed. His righteousness is our hope
of salvation. And His blood is our drink indeed. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sins. The shedding of the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that precious blood that redeems sinners, we
drink of that blood. The Lord said, if you drink not
of my body, you have no part with me. No part with me. Oh, Lord, would
you feed me? Would you feed me with the gospel?
My starving soul needs to know that there's hope with God. I
need to know God. I need to have my sins put away.
I need to have a righteousness that's alien to me, one that
is outside of myself. I need to be redeemed. I need to have the law of God
satisfied. I need to have justice put away. I can't do it for myself. David went and returned from
Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. That's what the
Lord Jesus Christ is always engaged in doing. Feeding his father's
sheep in Bethlehem. And all of his sheep were given
to him by the Father. Clearly, the Lord makes that
clear in John chapter 17. Father, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou hast given them unto me. I pray that you
would keep them, not take them out of the world, but keep them
from the world. Lord, just, here's the Father's sheep given to the
Son by the Father. And the Philistine drew near
morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. And Jesse
said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren ephah of
his parched corn, and ten loaves, and run to the camp of thy brethren.
So Jesse's sending supplies by David back to the battle lines,
and carry these 10 cheeses for the captain of the thousand,
and look by brethren fair and take their pledge. Now Saul and
they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting
with the Philistines. Well, they weren't really fighting,
were they? They were in a stalemate. They were just pretending like
they were at war. The war hadn't broke out yet.
It's going to. And David rose up early in the
morning and left the sheep with the keeper and took and went
as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench as
the host was going forth to fight and shouted for the battle. Now
they were just going through the motions. They had their trenches.
They would set up. They were trying to intimidate
one another. No battle had ensued. 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. 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 so afraid. If you're going to identify with
someone in this story, identify with these men. Identify with
the ones who were able to see that I've got a giant that I
can't defeat. I cannot defeat him. And the
men of Israel said, have you seen this man that has come up,
surely to defy Israel? Is he come up? And it shall be
that the man who killed him, the king will enrich him with
great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's
house free in Israel. Can you see the gospel there?
Oh, Saul's already promised to give his daughter to whoever
can kill this giant. And he's going to make his household
tax-free forever. There'll no be taxes on this
household. What a glorious picture. When
the Lord Jesus Christ got the victory against sin, against
death, when he fulfilled the law, when he satisfied God's
divine justice, when he got the victory against Satan on Calvary's
cross. By the way, how did he get that
victory? All the way back in Genesis,
the Lord said the seed of the woman would do what? Crush the
head of the serpent. And what's David going to do
in this story? He's going to take the head of Goliath off,
isn't he? And that's what our Lord did. And as a reward, God
the Father gave him a bride. He gave him his church. And he
made him and his bride tax-free forever. Oh, stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to the law. Don't
go back to Egypt. Christ has made you free. Free. And David spake, to the men that
stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth
the Philistine? Now tell me this again. Are you sure? I'm not sure I heard it right. And take it away the reproach
of Israel. Now that was his, that was his
cause. To get for himself the king's
daughter. To be tax free. For who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? That was his cause. That was
David's cause. Everybody's taken up a cause,
isn't there? Aren't they? Everybody's got
a cause. I guess it gives men a sense
of purpose if they have a cause. I'm thankful that we have in
our congregation educators. And at some level, that has become
your cause in life. And that's a good thing. I'm
thankful for that. A society with educated populace,
I guess, is more peaceful and prosperous in general. But don't
let that be the end cause. Because in truth, an educated
center is no worse off than an uneducated center. May even be. may even be that he who thinketh
that he's something when he's nothing could receive greater
damnation. That's not our end cause, is
it? We have many in our country today that
consider homeland security to be the cause of the day. We've
got to secure our borders. and establish peace in our country.
That's our cause. What's David's cause in this
thing? Was it just to get rid of the enemy? No, it was to defend
the name of God and save Israel. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did when he made us his cause. Look what he goes on to say. Verse 27, 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 comest thou down hither? And
with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
Oh, doesn't that sound like the elder brother? There are people
in this town, there are people in this city, there are people
in this world that would look at a congregation like us and
say, oh, what's God say? Don't despise
the day of small things. Oh, those few sheep over there.
Look how God's blessing us. Look how big our congregation
is. Can't tell you how many times I had the first thing somebody
asked me when they find out I'm a pastor. Well, is your church
growing? How many people you got coming?
as if that in itself is a sign of God's blessing. That's the
elder brother's attitude here. Oh, go back and take care of
those few sheep. We're engaged in really important
business here. I know thy pride. David wasn't
the one with the pride problem. and the naughtiness of thine
heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle."
And David said, what have I done? Is there not a cause here? This Philistine is coming and
publicly blaspheming the God of Israel? The salvation of Israel
is at stake here. There's a cause that's a whole
lot bigger than you and me, David saying to his brother. What's your cause? What is your
cause? What's the Lord's cause and is
His cause your cause? People make protecting the environment
their cause. That's a big thing nowadays,
isn't it? Well, you ought to protect the environment. Don't
pollute. Recycle. Do all that good stuff. But in
the end, this whole world is going to be burned up, it's going
to be consumed with fire. What kind of cause is that? Most
folks make their own health, wealth, and prosperity their
cause. And that, my friend, is a black
hole that the gravitational pull is so strong on that it will
suck even light into it. Don't make yourself your cause. It's a dark, empty place. David
said, what have I done? Is there not a cause? What is
your cause? What was David's cause? Because
his cause is the only cause that's really worth casting your heart
and soul into. Every other cause is a temporary
cause. It's a fading, fleeting cause
that will disappear with you and with this world. This is
an eternal cause. It's a cause that will go on
for all eternity. The glory of God was at stake
here, and the gospel of God's free grace in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only answer to that cause. No
other message of salvation gives glory to God. Every other message
of salvation. Let men pretend all they want
to be worshiping God. If Christ doesn't get all the
glory for doing all the saving all by himself, men, in fact,
are worshipping in vain. They're worshipping themselves. You make free will the means
of salvation, and you've lost the cause. You've lost the cause. And God said, David said, verse
29, what have I done now? Is there not a cause? And he
turned from him towards another and spake after the same manner.
He's already had two people tell him, now he wants to hear it
a third time. I want to hear it one more time now. What's
the king promised to do? And has this Philistine really
been saying that every day for 40 days? And you guys are putting
up with it? And when the words were heard
which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent
for him. And David said to Saul, let no
man's heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight
with the Philistines. That's not you. This is Christ. This is the son of David. Don't
let your heart fail you. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God? Believe also in me, for in my
Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so,
I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also." That's exactly what David's
saying. Let no man's heart fail him. I'll take care of this.
I'll take care of this uncircumcised Philistine. I'll defeat him. God will give me the victory.
I'm confident of it. He's given me the victory for
every battle I've ever fought prior to now, and he'll give
me the victory then. That's what David's going to
go on to say. Look, verse 33, and Saul said to David, thou
art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him,
for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
and 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."
What David's going to say here is, I've never lost a lamb, not
one, and he's not going to lose one now. Not one of my sheep
will be lost. I'll leave the 99, I'll go after
the one. I'm gonna recover every single
one of them. The names of everyone that God
from eternity past wrote in the Lamb's Book of Life, the names
of everyone for whom the precious blood of the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world are going to be saved. Not one will
be lost, not a single one. That's what David's done here.
Look what he says, And I went out after him, and smote him,
and delivered him out of his mouth. And when he rose against
me, I caught him by the beard, and smote him, and slew him.
Thy servants slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing that he hath defiled
the armies of the living God. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
go to the cross with trepidation. He didn't go to the cross in
fear that maybe it's going to, he's going to fail. Maybe somebody
that he's dying for is not going to be saved. He went to the cross
knowing that everything that he had ever done for the salvation
of Israel was successful. And that too would be successful. And David answered, Moreover,
the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out
of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of
the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go,
and the Lord be with thee. Go, David. Now what's Saul going
to do? Saul's going to take his armor
and put it on David. Saul armed David with his armor,
and he put a helm and a brass upon his head, and he armed him
with a coat of mail. David girded his sword upon his armor, and
he is saved to go. He said, ''No, I can't do this,
for I have not proved it.'' What a picture of human religion here,
man-made religion. I was thinking about this. You
read the armor that Goliath had. This guy was nine feet, nine
inches tall. And every inch of his body is covered with brass,
and he's got a shield bearer out in front of him. Was he a
bully? I mean, why did he have to be so protected? Why couldn't
he just, you know? And here David's, Saul puts David's,
puts his own armor on David, and David says, I've not proved
this. This is not my protection. My protection is God. He's my protection. And He's
your protection. The battle's not yours. The battle
is not yours. It's the Lord's. It's His battle. You can't fight it. You can't
fight against sin. You can't fight against the law
of God. You can't fight against Satan. It's an enemy that you
need a Savior for. And He's not going to fight that
battle with the armor that you would use. Though we walk in
the flesh, We've war not after the flesh for the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds and bringing into captivity every
thought and every imagination against God to the obedience
of Jesus Christ. to the obedience of Jesus Christ. His obedience is our victory. It's not our determination. It's
not our efforts. It's not our work. I've not proved
this armor. It's the armor of human effort. It's the armor of man-made religion. It's the armor that man naturally
looks at. Why? Because he's judging things
by appearances. Judge not according to appearances,
but judge righteous judgments. And the righteous judgment is
that there's a young man now that's going to go out against
this giant with no armor whatsoever. He's got a sling and five smooth
stones in his pocket. There's been a lot of discussion
about what about those five stones. Just know this, that five is
the number for grace in the Bible. And we're not going to take the
time this morning to look at all the references to that. But five
is the number for grace. It is not by might nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord. If we're going to be saved, it's
going to be all of grace. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to get all the glory. And I love the way David goes
to battle here. Look what happens. Saul said,
go. He put his armor on him. David
said, I can't go with that. I have not proved them. And David
put them off of him. And he took his staff in his
hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook and put
them in a shepherd's bag, which he had. even in his script, and
his sling in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.
And the Philistine came and drew near unto David, and the man
that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine
looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but
a youth and ruddy and a fair countenance." You're not a man
of war. What are you coming against me?
Am I a dog? There's no beauty in him that
we should desire him. Men disdain the work of Christ. They disdain the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the gospel robs
the natural man of all his glory and salvation. 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 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 a sword, and
with a spear, and with a shield, and 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 my hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head
from thee. And read on. And I will give
the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day unto the
fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, and all
the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all the
assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and
with 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 nigh to meet David, that David hasted
and ran, The army ran towards the army to meet the Philistine.
Can you see the Philistine? David's running straight towards
him with a sling. Running at him in the valley
all by himself with this giant. The Lord Jesus Christ set his
face like a flint towards Jerusalem. He ran to the cross. No man took
his life from him. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He wasn't threatened. He wasn't
threatened by it. He lamented the separation that
he would experience with the Father in the garden, did he
not? He said, Father, if there be
any way this cup can pass from me, let it be. Nevertheless,
not my will but thine be done. But he drank of the bitter cup
of God's wrath to its dregs willingly. Willingly. And as a result, he
cut the head off the serpent. He beheaded the giant, the one
that you can't defeat, the one that I can't defeat. Victory
in the gospel requires surrender. This story is not given to us
to inspire us to be strong, to be like David. What did Paul say? We sang this
in one of our hymns a while ago. When I am weak, then I am strong,
for his strength is made perfect in my weakness. In my weakness. Are you weak enough to know that
you have a giant that you can't defeat. The grave is coming. You know, we talk about people
having one foot in a grave and one foot on a banana peel. That's
where you're at. That's where I'm at. We're closer
to it than we think. Sin, you know. You know how powerful
sin is in your life. You know how weak your flesh
is. You know how real the evil of Satan is in this world. You know it. And you've tried
again and again and again to don the armor of Saul and go
to battle against the enemy, haven't you? Haven't you? I know you have. This is the
voice of experience speaking. David ran into battle, killed the giant. David didn't
have a sword. David takes Goliath's sword and
cuts the head off of Goliath with his own sword. You know
what I see in that? The sword's a picture of your
words. The scripture says the Lord Jesus Christ is going to
come with a tongue as a flaming sword and his words are going
to accomplish the judgment of this world. And we speak words
with our tongues, don't we? By your words, you shall be justified. And by your words, you shall
be condemned. Goliath had his head cut off
by his own sword. And those who cannot give Christ
the glory and salvation, those who cannot speak the truth about
the Lord Jesus Christ, will be condemned by their own words. By their own words. What say ye about Christ? The
Lord asked that question. Whose son is he? And what'd the
Pharisee say? Oh, he's the son of David. And
the Lord said, if he be the son of David, then why did David
say, my Lord, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou here at my
right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. We are
by nature at enmity with God. We come into this world at enmity
with God. Has he made you to be his footstool? as He caused you to sit at His
feet, as He shut your mouth by His law, that's what He said
the law was gonna do, shut the mouth and make the whole world
guilty, and caused you to desire that one thing needful, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to defeat your enemy, be your representative
before God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your word, and we ask that you would cause us
to see Christ in this story, and to hear his voice, and to sit at his feet. For we
ask it in his name. Amen. Brother Tom, 127 in the
hardback temple. Let's stand together. Man of sorrows, what a name! For the Son of God who came,
ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Bearing shim and scoffing brood
in my place, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was He, Full atonement can it be, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! Lifted up was he to die, It is
finished was his cry, Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah,
what a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransom home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah, what a Savior! th th