1 Samuel 17 It's a little warm in here. It'll take
a little longer to catch up. I think today it's so hot so
Hopefully it'll be catching up I'm glad brother Jimmy prayed
that the Lord would be with us as we're so busy.
And we are. I think about that a lot, how
busy everybody is these days. All of us are. It's nothing to
be ashamed of. It's just the way it is now.
But it's easy to be too busy, isn't it? We've got so much going
on up here now. And when we have distractions
like that, it can be a distraction in a lot of different ways. You
know, I'm grateful that we're able
to work together and do things together and accomplish some
things with relative peace. But there's always personalities
and things like that whenever there's a project with a lot
of people involved. And I just pray that the Lord
will continue to enable us to think on things above. Think
on what matters, that we're brothers and sisters in Christ. not let anything distract from
the fellowship we have in him and how precious it is to have
this church here to worship him together. Don't forget that we're
family, that we do love each other, even if we kill one another
before it's over with. We'll be loving each other while
we're doing it. But I think you know what I'm trying to say.
Mind is not real sharp tonight, which is not a surprise to y'all.
It's even less so than that than usual The first samuel chapter
17. Let's begin in verse 45 Backing up just a little bit
to get the the last run at this chapter, we've spent several
I don't know six or seven weeks in this one chapter. What a what
a beautiful gospel lesson this is verse 45 then said David to
the Philistine thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear
and with a shield but I come to thee in the name of the Lord
of hosts the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied
this day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand and I will
smite thee and take thine head from thee And I will give the
carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the
fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all
the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." Now this is a picture, this whole
chapter as we know this story of David and Goliath is a picture
of God saving his people by the Lord Jesus Christ, a champion
is singled out The whole issue of salvation is a one-on-one
thing, isn't it? It's between us and Christ. It's
my will or his will. My way, his way. The flesh or
the spirit. Grace or works. You can call
it whatever you want to. It's one-on-one. There's only
going to be one God. And so that's what we have here.
And in this passage that we just read, we have the reason that
God saves sinners. We see a picture of him saving
sinners in all of this. Here's why. Of course it's for
their benefit. He saves us from our sins because
he loves us and he wants us to be blessed and happy and with
him forever. But he does so primarily and
preeminently for his name's sake. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
the name of his Father. and for the glory of his father,
and he does this for his glory, that everybody will know who
God is. Knowing it in your head ain't
gonna save you, but you're gonna know it. You're gonna know it. And that's why he does it. So
everybody in heaven, earth, and hell will know that there, not
that there is a God, he's not saying just that there is, they
knew that Israel worshiped a God. They knew that. What he's saying
here is that they may know who he is, that there's a God. You
say, well, I know God. Wait a minute. You call him God,
but do you even know what that word means? There's a God in
Israel. There's somebody who does as
he pleases, when he pleases, with whom he pleases. And none can stay his hand. That's
what it means to be God, and that's the one thing that's impugned
by this world's religion, is his ability to do it as he pleases.
He can bless us, he can work with us, he can provide for us,
he will not reign over us. But of course he will, he does,
and he always shall. And everybody's going to admit
it one day. And so we see that here, he does it for his glory.
Everybody's going to know who he is. How he operates. They're going to see his glory.
They're going to see his power. They're going to see that he
does what he wants to do. They're going to see that there's not
an epic struggle between good and evil. There's just God working
out salvation for his people just as easily as I can, way
easier than I can do anything. It wasn't hard. David took off
and slung a rock. It was over. Done. Nothing's too hard for God. Listen to this, Psalm 106, 7.
Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him, provoked the Lord at the
sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them. Isn't that your testimony? I
didn't understand. I didn't know anything. I wasn't
looking for God. I wasn't honoring him. I wasn't
seeking him. Nevertheless, he saved me. I
didn't glorify him as God. I didn't give him the honor due
unto his name. I didn't make any decisions that were worth
making. Nevertheless, he saved me. Here's why I read this verse. For his namesake. That's what
David said. I come to you in the name His
name is going to be exalted. Him and all of his glorious character
and attributes, who he is, the Lord, our righteousness, the
Lord who provides, the Lord Jehovah, the Lord, our banner, the Lord,
everything, all in it all. And I want everybody to know
that I can have any say to it all in this life. that there
is a God amongst us. Don't you want people that you
know and love to know that? There's a God among us. There's
not one in religion. There's just not. There's not
a God in this world's religion. But there's one in Israel. There's
one in His church. There's one here. There's a God
here. He doesn't wait on sinners. Sinners
wait on Him. He saves them when He's pleased
to do so. And he passes them by when he's
pleased. He doesn't wait on sinners. I want everybody to know there's
a God that you can't say about him he's done all he can do and
now left anything up to us. He never has done all he can
do. He can save everybody in this building tonight if he wants
to. He can do that tonight. There's a God who never fails.
There's a God who cannot fail. There's a God who has won the
victory for his people. There's a Redeemer that has redeemed.
He came to accomplish redemption for his people, and he accomplished
redemption for his people. That sounds real simple, but
that's something that very, very, very, very few people know. And
they only know it because, nevertheless, he saved them. There's a God who is worthy of
the name God. You see, when David says, I want
everybody to know there's a God in Israel, he's not saying that
there's another God in Israel like the God. He's saying there's
a God. There's not a God anywhere else,
but there's one in Israel. He's not worshipped anywhere
else. He's not exalted anywhere else. He hasn't revealed himself
anywhere else. But in his church, he has. Verse
47 in our text, and all this assembly shall know that I want you to read it this
way. You see verse 47 there? Read
it this way. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth. Put a period there for a second.
Because that's worth stopping right there. The Lord saveth.
He don't try to save. He don't make salvation available.
You won't see that anywhere in this book. And you won't hear
it anywhere in his church from one of his preachers. The Lord
saveth. And now we can go, not with sword
and spear, not with help, not with the ingenuity. Now, you
know what the sword and spear represents. And think about this
now, God uses sword and spear for a lot of things. He uses
means, the sword and spear, they signify secondary causes, means
that God often does use to accomplish many things in Providence. But
when he saved us, It was all Him, only Him, and nobody but
Him. Nothing but Christ. When He saved
us, God did business with God on Calvary. He did business with
God. And it was for us, but we had
nothing to do with that. Nothing. The sword and the spear,
as we've seen already, they also signify the effort and the ingenuity
The wisdom and the ability of man. Think about it now. Though all of it, even making
of weapons, is by the wisdom and ability given by God. We
can't do anything without God. And yet, man conceived with that
ability that God gives, man conceived and designed those weapons through
some ingenuity. He realized, hey, I've got to
fight these people. We're fighting battles. We could
do a lot more damage if we had a weapon of some kind. And they
made the weapons. You know, the Lord gave them
that wisdom. But you could say man devised that. Man forged
those weapons. Those men purchased those weapons
with money that they had earned. They're not free. With their
own work, they earned them. And so you see what that signifies
also. And this cannot be carried into the battle for our souls. They're worthless in this battle.
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, were saved by the rock flung
by David. As we've seen and will see for
some months to come, David is Christ. In so many ways, we can't
even think of all of them. We can never even process them
all or speak on them all. In the time of a lot of us. And
that rock was Christ. We saw that. How many times?
You remember how we looked in the scripture? How many times
the Son of God is referred to as the rock? The rock smitten
in the wilderness, the rock of ages. the cleft of the rock that
Moses was hidden in by the hand of God. No man-made armor, no
man-made weapons, no man-made schemes, strategies, or plans.
We are saved by the Son of God who ran to save us and destroyed
our enemy easily, completely, and forever. And that's so clearly
emphasized here. No sword, No spear, no armor. It's going to be repeated a couple
of times in this text. And notice the next phrase in
our verse now. For the battle is the Lord's. The battle is
the Lord's. We have no part in salvation.
Religion likes to say God's done his part. Now it's time to do
your part. We have no part in salvation. We just need it. We
just need salvation. Our part in salvation is that
we are sinners that need saving. If you want to call that apart.
Jonah said the same thing that our text says only in a little
different wording. Salvation is of the Lord. The
battle is the Lord's. He saves. He saves who he wants
to save. He said I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. Moses at the Red Sea said it
the same way didn't he? He said stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. Just stand there and watch God
save you. That's what we do every time
we come together. We're just going to stand here tonight and
watch God and see again how he saved us, how he is saving us,
and how he shall forever save us. Listen to what Paul said
in Hebrews 1.3, who being the brightness of God's glory, the
Lord Jesus is the very brightness of the glory of God and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, here's the part that applies to our text, well all of it does,
but most obviously, when he had by himself purged our sins. The battle is the Lord's. You
can't contribute to that. Your good works He had to purge
those too. They didn't help. All of our
best works are sins. They fall short of the glory
of God. That's just more purging he had
to do. We do not cooperate. He by himself purged our sins
with his precious blood and sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high. Now think carefully with me for
just a second, if I can even think that as myself. When it says he by himself purged
our sins, there are two meanings to that. And both are all through
the word of God, clearly revealed in scripture. First of all, he
did it alone. Christ alone. without any help
without any cooperation without any support from us or any sinner
or anybody but also when it says he by himself purged our sins
that tells us the way he purged our sins by himself by the sacrifice
of himself the thing that he used to purge us with was himself
he alone by himself purged our sins by himself. David and the stone remember
we just talked about remember all the scripture that we read
again now that David is the stone the stone that the builders rejected
the rock that was in the wilderness that from which flowed forth
life water for all the nation of his people The rock of offense,
the stumbling stone that has been made the head of the corner,
the stone that was rejected of this world and all of religion,
but has made the head of the corner. He is the stone, but David slung
the stone. So think about this. It was Christ,
David, that was our champion. And what did David, what did
Christ use to champion us? Christ, the stone. So it was
Christ, it was David and the stone, they're both Christ. He
alone, he by himself and he by himself. Now look at the next
phrase. He will give you, give you into
our hands. This battle, the outcome of which
decides who's gonna serve who forever. Isn't that what salvation
is about now? In the garden, what was it? You
shall be as gods. You don't need to just do everything
God says and obey Him and just serve Him. You can be gods yourself. Well, we're going to find out
who's going to serve who, aren't we, sooner or later. It's going
to be us serving God one way or the other. And those who are
lost forever in hell are going to serve to glorify his justice
unwillingly and yet nonetheless they're going to serve to glorify
his justice and judgment and wrath and holiness throughout
endless ages. And we read in Revelation that
his servants shall serve him in glory. We're going to serve
him. We're going to do that forever. That's what glory is. So salvation, he will give you
into our hands. Salvation is wrought for us by
Christ and given to us. That's all through the scripture.
Thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. The victory was handed to everybody
in Israel by David. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift He's going to give it to us.
Or you're not going to get it. You're not going to earn it.
You're not going to merit it. You're not going to deserve it.
You're not going to choose it even until he first gives it. And then you're going to be real
glad he did. Verse 48. And it came to pass
when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David. that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the
Philistine. I can't tell you, there's no
way I can preach this. You're just gonna, the Lord is
gonna have to come to each one of our hearts and cause us to
see how delightful this is. Our Savior ran to save us. You remember the story of the
prodigal when the father runs to meet the prodigal son. Our
Lord Jesus Christ did not enter into this reluctantly. I'm not
sure of all of the meaning that we're to take from his words
in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. I believe he was showing us that
this is the only way. Teaching us again, as he did
all through everything he said, really. In that that there is
no other way if there was another way that the son could have saved
us Then the father would have done it another way And the son
would have done it another way But I know this if you take his
words in the garden to mean that he was hesitating or having second
thoughts You've misinterpreted it He ran he ran to save us And
as I said, I can't express that I know Here's who we look to. We look to Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame. That means he counted
the shame a small thing. Doesn't mean it was a small thing.
It means he counted it as nothing, the shame and the disgrace of
bearing sin, the holy spotless lamb bearing sin before his father
and being forsaken by his own father. He counted that a small
thing for the joy of redeeming our souls on Calvary. How am
I going to preach that? David ran. When everybody else
was cowering and hiding behind a rock, David ran to meet that
felicity. May the Lord impress that upon
our souls tonight before we leave here. He endured the cross for
the joy that was set before him, despised the shame countered
to the small thing, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. But courage, we don't know what
courage is, do we? We don't know what it is, the
willpower. We talk about having willpower.
If we can, you know, we'll quit eating sugar for about a month
and then when we get ready to commit suicide, we'll start eating
it again for a little while and then we'll stop for a little
while. Oh, I've got some willpower. No, no we don't. The power of
his will, think about that. He set his face like a flint
to do the impossible. To accomplish the impossible.
For us the heart Of our Savior the determination
that he would rejoice to do that the power Of his precious blood. He's all mighty to save I Give up I can't preach it.
I can't preach that Verse 49 And David put his hand in his
bag and took thence a stone and sling it, and smote the Philistine
in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead, and he
fell upon his face to the earth." See the picture here in your
mind. This giant who came out boasting for days, for days he
was taunting them. You bunch of cowards. Come on
out, send out a champion. Let's settle this right here.
He was taunting them and ridiculing them and despising the God that
they claimed to serve. And that's what David took issue
with. He said, you're defying the God of this army, not just
us, but our God. And he did that day after day
after day. Within, how long do you think it took David to run
to where he was and sling a stone? Shall we hazard a guess? 30 seconds? Do you think it was longer than
that? They couldn't have been that
far apart. Maybe a minute. A minute's a long time if you
sit there and count it off. And I don't think it took him
a minute to run to meet the Philistine, do you? I don't think it took
a full minute. And now he's face down in the
dirt before this scrawny young man that everybody made fun of.
face down in the dirt. And I'm pretty sure he's not
dead yet. He's groveling in the dirt trying to breathe on his
face before this one who represents the Son of God. What a picture. Pretty sure he's not dead yet.
Let's talk about that a little bit. But listen to this now.
He took thence a stone. I want to talk about that a little
bit more. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. The stone
which the builders rejected. Saul said here take this armor,
take this sword, take my helmet, take all of this. If David would
have said no, I'm going to kill him with that rock over there.
You know what David said? Are you kidding me? What are
you talking about? The stone that was rejected of
everybody else has become the headstone of the
corner. The chief cornerstone. All glory is due unto him, and
everybody's gonna wind up where Goliath was this day, on their
face, in the dust, at his feet. That's where we're gonna be.
Some of us are just gonna like it more than others. And the Philistine was smitten
in the forehead, in his forehead. You think there's any coincidence?
To what our Lord said in Genesis 3.14, the Lord God said unto
the serpent, unto Satan, because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days
of thy life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. We know
the woman sees Christ. And it shall bruise your head. You know what that word bruise
means? Crush. Look it up. Number one meaning
of it. Crush. He's going to crush your
head, Satan. That's the picture we have in
our text. Crushed his head. A stone crushed his head. The
anointed of God, God's anointed king crushed his head. And thou shalt bruise his heel.
That's what happened to Calvary. Satan's head was crushed. The humanity of our Lord was
slain for a little while. But Satan's head was crushed.
I wonder if he knows it yet. You think he's too proud to admit
it even now? Sure he knows the Bible better
than we do. But he's proud, isn't he? I doubt if he's acknowledged
it yet. Doesn't matter, does it? Doesn't
make any difference whether he has or not. His head's crushed. And you know what he's doing?
He's in the dust before the Son of God. He's doing whatever Christ
wants him to do. That's what he's doing. He's
a servant of God's King. Unwilling and vicious and despising every minute of it.
But nevertheless, He fell upon his face to the earth. Every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So David, verse 50, prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smoked the
Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword. in the
hand of David. Here's another reminder, no sword. And remember now, this is a rich
picture. Whose sword was offered to David?
If he'd had a sword in this battle, whose would it have been? Saul's.
What does Saul represent? Saul and the armor that was offered
him, it would have been Saul's, wouldn't it? Saul represents
the will of the people in rejecting God as their king. In other words,
he's our flesh just like Goliath is. He wasn't any help that day. He was a hindrance. He is the
willful rejection of God as king. That which is trusted in by Saul
and by us, by nature, our will, our way, our flesh, our what
we trust in. David has no use for it. No use
for it. And now this seems, now you think
with me, you may agree with me, you may not about this. It doesn't
say yet that Goliath is dead. It says here that David prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smoked the
Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the
hand of David. So it's like it's explaining,
wait a minute, he smote him and slew him, but not with a sword
that was in his hand. Next verse, not yet, but hold
on, think about this. It seems to be an explanation
of how David smote and killed Goliath, even though there was
no sword already in his hand. The stone doesn't seem to have
killed him. It doesn't look like that to
me. Though this is not a vital point. But I believe it represents
how that Satan is not dead now, though the death blow has been
dealt to him. He's finished. He's done. He's
faced down in the dust. He's defeated. He's got no power
over the people of God. Never did. But now it's brought
to pass. The death blow has been dealt.
But where is Satan now? He's on his face. He's defeated. His head is crushed. He serves
Christ whether he knows it or not and ultimately his head is
going to be cut off. He'll be done away with finally and permanently
soon. But look at verse 51. Therefore
David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword
and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him. See that? I think in verse 50 it's saying
that he smote him and slew him with a sword but not one that
he had. And now it's explaining that. I think that's right. And
cut off his head. Says he slew him. You can't slay
somebody that's dead. And cut off his head therewith.
And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they
fled. Now I've said, and here's why, I've given you one reason
already. Here's another one why I think
it's that way. That he was incapacitated. The fight's over when the stone
is slung. in the fights over now, though
Satan still walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,
but he has no power over God's people. None whatsoever. So,
does Goliath represent our flesh or Satan? Of course both, because
think about it, what difference is there? You think there's any difference
between who you are by nature and Satan? Self-willed, self-righteous,
proud, haughty, Christless, anti-Christ, godless, depraved, no good thing
dwells in us. Think about this, I want to remind
you of something. You don't need to turn there,
but Matthew 16, 23 says this, remember when the Lord Jesus
said to Simon Peter, when he said, you're not going to the
cross, you're not going to die, that can't happen, we're not
going to let that happen. He said, get thee behind me, Satan,
talking to Simon Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art
an offense unto me. And here's why. You savor not
the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Not the devil. He's not calling
him Satan because he savors the things of the devil. He's calling
him Satan because he savors the things of men. You get the connection? There ain't no difference. The
things of men are satanic. We're a bunch of walking devils.
It says of Judas that the Lord Jesus knew he was a devil from
the beginning. We just don't have the power
that Satan does. That's the only difference really. Now there was no sword in the
hand of David so how did he smite and kill Goliath? Obvious, with
his own sword. What does that tell us? This
is why I think this is important too. There's no question now that the Lord Jesus Christ, he said in Revelation also, I
have the keys of hell and of death. That's pretty clear teaching.
Nobody gets in or out of hell or death, the grave, without
him. He puts people in the grave and
he takes people out of the grave. He puts people in hell and you're
not coming back out of there once that's the final death.
That's the last death. But he has the keys. That's pretty
clear. Nobody gets in or out otherwise.
He controls that. But in the case of the lost sinner
now, think about this, who rejects the Savior and is lost forever,
the instrument of death is the very thing that he trusted
in. What was Goliath going to win
with? He was going to slay David with that sword. He boasted about
it. He said, I'm going to cut your head off. I'm going to feed
your carcass to the fowls of the air. Didn't happen that way. The very instrument of his own
demise was the very thing that he trusted in. His own sword,
his own will in the spiritual sense, his own works, his own
weapon that he thought would save him. Man thinks that his
own works and will and way will save him. And that's the very
instrument of your eternal destruction. Your will is not the solution.
Your will is the problem. If you're going to name your
church Free Will Baptist, you might as well name it Sin Baptist. Just change the name. Just name
it Evil Baptist Church. Because that's what our will
is. It's absolute evil. Salvation is bowing to His will. Put them off from you. Put off
your own will. Put off your own way. Put off
your own works from off of you. And trust in the Lord alone.
That's the word of the gospel. In the case of the
believer, our flesh dies too. Our flesh is dealt a death blow.
And this is the death of the old man. But whereas in the unbeliever,
they are only flesh. Yet believers are born of the
spirit. We're a new creation in Christ Jesus. We want our
flesh to die. I can't ever really live until
my flesh dies. And so that's fine. Not always
pleasant. But we wouldn't have that any
other way. Our flesh has got to go. Also, think of it this
way. If we think of Goliath as Satan,
Satan conspired and he was behind the crucifixion of our Lord. We're given some insight into
that when it says that Satan entered into Judas Iscariot.
When the sock was handed to him by the Lord, it says Satan entered
into him and he walked out and it was night and he went and
betrayed the Son of God for 40 pieces of silver. Everybody that
had a hand in the crucifixion of our Lord, you think Satan
just entered into one or two of them? Satan was behind that whole thing,
just like he was in the garden in the beginning. But the very
cross that Satan thought was the defeat of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the very instrument of victory over Satan. It is
by his cross that he has saved us. It is by the death of his
cross and the precious blood that was shed there. So Christ
has won the victory. He's won it completely. He's
won it fully. He's won it forever. But notice
this, and we'll be through here soon, but There's still some
fighting to do. Oh wait, Chris, does that mean
the battle's not over? No, it's over. It's over. But look at this, the Philistines
fled and there's a pursuit that takes place. There's still a
little work to do. We got some work to do. Is that alright with
you? Verse 52, and the men of Israel
and Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until
they'll come to the valley, to the gates of Ekron, and the wounded
of the Philistines fell down by the way to Sherem, even unto
Gath and unto Ekron. Doesn't sound like much of a
battle, does it? You know why? Because the victory's already
been won. You see the picture here? I mean,
we've still got some fighting to do. Our life as believers
is described as a warfare. We have a sword, don't we? We
have armor. But it puts you on the whole
armor of God, Paul said, the breastplate of righteous, the
helmet of salvation. Your feet are shot with the preparation
of the gospel. And so we fight. But you know
what? It's already won. That's a good
way to fight it. That's the way I want to fight.
I want to fight a battle that's already won for me. The battle's
the Lord's. That hasn't changed. He just
lets us in on it for his glory and for our good. I'm gonna say
this. I hope I say this the last time
you ever hear me speak I hope you hear me say it tonight, and
I hope you hear me say it a whole lot in between Whenever we do
fight whenever we do work whenever we do anything. That's not us
doing something for God That's him doing something for us He
just let us in on it to bless us to grace us with his favor
to glorify himself in that and And to increase our faith, He
exercises our faith. He causes us to live His gospel
because that glorifies Him and it blesses us at every step.
It's Him doing something for us. We can't brag about us doing
anything for the Lord. Are you kidding me? The battle
was the Lord's when we first found out about the battle. The
battle is the Lord's today. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Does that make you want to quit? No, that makes me want to fight.
Doesn't it, you? Let's fight. Let's act like we're winning,
you know, because we are winning. We're just not doing it ourselves.
We're involved in it, and bless God, we are. But boy, we're not
contributing to our salvation. And look, there's truth in the
text now that proves this. The work that was left to do
didn't contribute in the victory. And what do you mean, Chris,
that the Philistines had to still be killed? You know, they didn't
contribute much, but maybe a little bit. No. Remember that the official
agreement was that whoever's champion won, that was victory
for everybody in that nation. Period. That's victory. So it is with Christ. He won
the victory for all of us. Victory was accomplished by him
for us at Calvary. Do we get to fight at all then? I mean, we just sit back and,
no, we fight a little bit. We get to fight a little bit.
I'm glad. He lets us in on it. As I said, our life as believers
is described as a warfare. No man that woreth entangleth
himself in the affairs of this life. Why? So that he might go
to heaven when he dies? No. That he might please him
who has chosen him to be a soldier. That's why you're going to go
to heaven if you go because he chose you. You're not going to fight
to get to heaven. You're going to fight because
you love him that chose you. Isn't that beautiful? That's for 2 Timothy 2.4 if you
want to look at that later. That's beautiful. Beautiful. We fight because he chose us. and saved us and redeemed us.
Won the victory for us and now we fight just because we love
him. Victory is accomplished. So it's described as a warfare
but under the terms clearly established before this started the outcome
of the matter was determined by David already. Who serves who was already decided. Our champion won. Their champion
lost. And although we fight now, the
victory has been won and given to us by Christ. And though in
spiritual terms, in this life now, the flesh still lusts against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And we're going to
fight that for a little while, but we're fighting a battle that's
already been won. Does that encourage you a little
bit? And we reap the spoils. Verse
53, look at it. And the children of Israel returned
from chasing after the Philistines and they spoiled their tents. Can you imagine what was in those
tents? That'd be kind of... Sometimes I think I was born
in the wrong generation. It would have been something,
wouldn't it? To strap on a sword and do something like that. Can
you imagine the spoils go to the victor? And David won the
victory. The Philistines are running.
They're not fighting over that. It belongs to us. And they just
picked it up. Clothing, no doubt. That looks
like it'd fit me. I like those boots. I'll take
those home with me. Thank you very much. Pleasure
doing business with you. I like that sword. There's some
food. Boy, that looks good. I don't
think I've ever had any of that before. That looks pretty good. Food, clothing, gold, silver.
weapons, armor, and all of those things have a spiritual equivalent,
don't they? Christ has won for us, and the
spoils are ours, the spoils of salvation, of the work accomplished
by our champion. Help yourself to a little forgiveness
of sin, why don't you? How about a little righteousness,
will that fit you? How about the spotless robe of
his righteousness? Could you put that on and wear
it for the rest of your life? Thank you very much. Believe
I will. How about you? I think I'll have
me some of that. Paul said, I'll have some of
that. I don't want my righteousness. He said, I want his. I'm going
to take mine off and put that one on. We are rich with the riches of
his grace and favor. One for us, he gave gifts unto
men. Bless God, I'm one of them by his grace. And notice it was
after they returned from chasing the Philistines that they spoiled. And so this kind of makes me
think about, though we enjoy the spoils of his victory now,
when the battle is plumb over and we're coming back home, We're
sure enough going to enjoy the spoils then, aren't we? We're
going to experience holiness, righteousness, perfection. We're
going to be able to see him as he is because we'll be like him,
man. You're not going to see him as he is until you're just
like him. I'm looking forward to that. Oh, I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. And David took the head
of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his
armor in his tent. Why in the world would you do
that? What use did David have for armor, the armor of Goliath,
when he clearly couldn't wear it? If Saul's armor was too big
for him, Goliath's was way too big for him, and he just got
through proving he don't need armor, so you know that ain't
why he saved it. You know why he saved it? It was a memento.
Same reason you would have. You'd have put it in your tent
too, wouldn't you? To remember that day from then on. And you
know what we do? You know what we're doing tonight?
It's a memento. Our Lord said, remember. Remember
what happened. Show forth my death. Show forth
my victory until I come. We remember. It's the spiritual
equivalent of the fact that Christ won the victory for us. And we need constant reminders
of that. When David saw that armor and that sword of Goliath,
which will come up later in the scripture, he remembered that
day. He remembered having the victory.
Sure enough, the Lord handed it to him. Just like David said he would. We need constant reminders, don't
we? Wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. For if you do these things, you
shall never fall. For so an entrant shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. The victory is won, isn't it?
And what are we doing tonight? Wherefore I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things. You're going
to waltz into the kingdom of God because he won that for you. I'm going to remind you of it.
Though you know them, you hadn't forgotten, have you? But maybe
you forgot just a little bit since Sunday. Can't let that
happen. Let's remember again. Let's keep
it fresh. May God keep it fresh upon our
hearts. How he plumb saved us. How he
ran to save us. Verses 55 through 58, just so
that we finish this out. I've got two minutes left. I
want to show you what happened here, because it's interesting. Look at verse 55. When Saul saw
David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain
of the host, Abner, whose son is this you? And Abner said,
As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. The king said, Inquire
thou. Find out who he is. And then David returned from
the slaughter of the Philistine. Abner took him and brought him
before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. Can
you picture that? Here comes the champion. And Saul said to
him, whose son are you, you young man? And David answered, I'm
the son of thy servant, Jesse the Bethlehemite. Now there's
a lot of speculation about why Saul didn't know who David was,
because if you remember, not long before this in our study,
we saw how that Saul called for David when the evil spirit from
the Lord troubled Saul and David came and played his harp and
he became somewhat of a servant for Saul. And it says that Saul
loved him. And so why does it appear that
he doesn't know him here? Well, he's asking about his father
is what he's asking about. And just because he just calls
him a young man and not by his name doesn't mean that he doesn't
know who he's talking to. He's saying, who are you? He's
seen him in a whole new light now, you see. He's not just a
harp player anymore. He's not just a servant anymore.
There's something about this young man. And he's saying, who
in the world are you? That doesn't surprise me. There's
a lot of possible fleshly, you know, earthly explanations for
why Saul spoke the way that he did that day, but the spiritual
lesson is what's important. Before, when David played the
harp and helped Saul with his troubled spirit, it says that
Saul loved David in that character. And this world knows the Lord
Jesus Christ as someone who is a help to them, someone who makes
them feel good, even though they don't know him in reality. They
know some Jesus that makes them feel good. They have some concept
of who he is, though it's not really him. Just like Saul, he
didn't know who David was. If all he knew was he's a harp
player and a shepherd boy, he didn't know much, did he? And
so this world, they know the Lord Jesus Christ as someone
that helps them when they need it, you know, make them feel
a little better about themselves. But as the victorious champion
of sinners, who wins the victory for his people, who accomplished
the salvation of all of his people, that Christ is a stranger to
them. They know the little shepherd
boy, don't they? They know the carpenter's son. They know the
baby in the manger. They don't know the son of God
who's victorious and mighty and the champion of his people. They
have no idea who he is. Whose son are you? He's God's
son, that's who. And bless God, it's hard for
us to think of him any other way. I'm thankful for the little
things that he does for me every day. He comforts me. An hour
ago, I didn't think I could get up out of the chair. I'm not
feeling real good tonight, but I feel much better right now. I'm thankful for that. But you
know, we just take that kind of thing for granted. And when
I think of him, I don't think of just a helping hand, or I
can't think of him that way. You know who he is? I can't even say it right. But
he is the one that saved me in every way that a man can be saved. At infinite cost. And though I am a wretch and
I fail him every minute, he never throws it in my face. He doesn't hold me accountable
for it. He upbraideth not. And he said, if you need anything,
Chris, ask me. Ask me, just ask me. He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Paul said, Christ is all and
in all, and I guess that comes about as close as anything. that
the English language can express. He's all. He's our all. Let's
pray.