All right, now let's go back
here in 1 Samuel 17. This is a familiar passage of David and Goliath. It's used
often for folks who are speaking about an underdog taking on a
major opponent, you know, and used in various ways. But this
really happened. This really took place. And I
don't want to just preach about the story of David and Goliath,
I want to preach the gospel of David and Goliath. This scene
we have before us there, Israel, led by Saul, is on one mountain,
and the Philistines, who are being led by Goliath, are on
the other mountain. And in the middle is this valley. Now this giant, Goliath, it says
there in verse 4, he went out a champion out of the camp of
the Philistines. His height was six cubits and
a span. They say that's eight and a half
to nine and a half feet tall. There have been, in modern history,
there have been men that tall. And this was a real man. He was
8 1/2 to 9 1/2 feet tall. He had all this armor and this
brass headpiece and this coat of mail and some say it was a
couple of hundred pounds. And the spear's head that he
had here was around 20 pounds. He was a giant man. Had all this
armor on him. And he stood there and he cried
to the armies of Israel in verse 8. He was very boastful and very
And he said, why are you come out to set your battle in a ray?
Am not I a Philistine and ye servants to Saul? That's important. You're servants to Saul, he said.
Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he'll
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 those words of the Philistines, Saul now, who's the king, when
he heard those words and all Israel heard those words, they
were dismayed and greatly afraid. And that was the purpose of Goliath. With all this boast and all this
intimidation and all his height and his stature and his armor,
His purpose was to try to demoralize them and bring them down in fear
so that they were just paralyzed in fear and could do nothing.
And they were, there was nobody to go out and fight for them
against this giant. Verse 12 says, now David was
the son of the Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name
was Jesse. Soon as we see this giant, we're
introduced again to David. Here you have some people compare
because of Goliath being a champion, which means a man who went out
to fight for or to represent. And that's what David would be
here. Some people compare Goliath and David with Adam and Christ. But it seems to me that Saul
is a better picture of Adam because before this, Saul, who was the
head of Israel, bypassed the high priest and tried to approach
God on his own, and when he did, God rejected him. That's like
trying to come to God without Christ. And so he has no courage
now. He has no ability to lead the
people into the battle against Goliath. That's a picture of
Adam. When he sinned, we sinned, became
servants to sin, just like they were servants to Saul, we became
servants to sin. But also before this battle,
God had already anointed David king. He'd already sent Samuel
down to Jesse's house, and remember how he went through all the,
Jesse had all those sons that were outwardly more attractive
and looked like mighty warriors, and they got down to, and he
said, don't you have another one? He said, I do. Surely you don't want him to
be the king. He's young and he's of a fair complexion and he's
ruddy. He don't even look like he would
be a warrior. He's out tending the sheep. And
that was the one. The Lord said, don't look on
the outward appearance. The Lord see us not as man sees.
He looks on the heart. David was the one. So he was
anointed and he's the king. And you know what David did after
he was anointed king? You think he went to the palace?
You think he went there and started learning from all the statesmen
in the palace and learning policy and how to be a good king and
all of that? No. You know where he went when he
was anointed king? He went right back out to the field to shepherd
his father's sheep. That's a beautiful picture of
Christ. So here you have, on these two mountains, you've got
Goliath and the Philistines. Who does Goliath picture? He
typifies the devil and his seed. The devil and reprobate men,
the devil and his seed are on this one mountain. Goliath's
over all of them. He's representing all of them.
And then on this other mountain you have David, typical of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The seed of woman. And here's
David representing Israel. That's a picture of Christ representing
all God's elect, his true Israel. Genesis 3.15, remember he said,
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, speaking to the
devil. I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy
seed, the devil has a seed, the devil has his children. I'll put enmity between thy seed
and her seed. And Christ is that seed. That's
what we have pictured here on these two mountains. God's elect
and the devil and his seed. And Christ representing God's
elect. Now let's see David as a type of Christ. Now David,
it says here, was the son of Jesse. And according to the flesh,
Christ is the son of David. He's the son of Jesse. Born in
Bethlehem, he's the son of Jesse, according to the flesh. And David
was a keeper of his father's sheep. And just like he didn't
go to the palace after he was anointed, he went back to tend
his father's sheep. Our Lord Jesus Christ, anointed
by God before the foundation of the world. And yet he, as
the king, came down, humbled himself, came to this pasture,
as it were, and said, I'm the good shepherd. I give my life
for the sheep. I came to shepherd my sheep.
That's who he is. Now David's father sent him to
his brethren. He sent him to them, just like
the father sent Christ to us. Verse 17, it says, and Jesse
said to David his son, take now for thy brethren an ephah of
the parched corn. Take now for thy brethren. He's
calling him to go to the brethren. Take these 10 loaves and run
to the camp to thy brethren and carry these 10 cheeses unto the
captain of their thousand and look how thy brethren fare and
take their pledge. They would cut off a lock of
hair or something like that. They would send it back to show
that they were alive. That's what he means by take
their pledge. But you see, he sent David to the forefront of
this battle. God the Father sent the Lord
Jesus at the time appointed. He's the shepherd, he's the king,
and God the Father sent him to his brethren at the time appointed.
We read in Hebrews 2.14, you got Goliath pictured here, picture
of the devil raging against God's people and had us terrified and
had us accusing us of sin and had us fearful of death and bondage,
living in bondage. He's the accuser of the brethren,
that's who he is. And the scripture says, Hebrews
2.14, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also him likewise himself took part of the same.
The Lord Jesus came down and took flesh that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil. and deliver them, his children,
his people, who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. So Christ is pictured here going
forth for his brethren just like David went forth for his brethren.
And we see why Christ came and laid down his life. We see here
in verse 25. It says here, the men of Israel
said, Have you seen this man that's come up? David comes down
there and he's right there at the front of the battle. And
here comes Goliath and he's boasting again. And here's what the men
said. The men of Israel said, Have
you seen this man that's come up? Have you seen this man? Surely to defy Israel is he come
up. And it shall be that the man
who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches. and will give him his daughter
and make his father's house free in Israel. That means they'd
be exempt from taxes. The law required a tax. They'd
be exempt from paying that. that old house would, whoever
killed this man. And David spake to the men that
stood by him, saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth
this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? He
didn't hear the men talking about this, so David said, what's going
to be done to the man that kills him? And so they, for who is
this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies
of the living God? And the people answered him after
this manner. They told him everything we just
read there, and they said, so shall it be done to the man that
kills this giant. Christ was rich, but he became
poor. He came down to where his people
are, and through his death, shedding his blood, he made us rich. And
by what he accomplished, he's the one that was made rich, and
he shares the spoils of his victory with us. The Father, He had all
things before as God, but the Father now has raised Him as
the glorified God-man and given everything into Christ's hand.
And everything is His. And He gives those spoils with
His people, to His people. Christ laid down His life for
the King's daughter. He came to lay down His life
for His elect, His bride, and He redeemed her from all iniquity. That's why He came. And he accomplished
it. Christ laid down his life to
make all his father's house free. Whoever does this will be exempt.
They won't have to pay the tax the law demands. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, because he laid down his life and gave the law
everything it demands, the law says of all his people, paid
in full, the whole house is free. Free from the law. And so by
making us the righteousness of God in Him, Christ took away
the reproach from off His people forever. That's what He said.
Who's going to kill this man to take the reproach off Israel?
This man is defying the living God. And when Christ laid down
His life, before God, when He said it's
finished, before God, Christ made an end of sins for everybody
for whom He died. I mean made an end up. God said,
I've blotted them out with His blood. They're gone. Scripture
says, He appeared to take away sin and in Him is no sin. God the Father looks at His people
in Christ and we have no sin because Christ put it away. forever,
never to be brought up again. It'll never condemn his people,
ever, because Christ put it away. And above all else, the reason
Christ did all this, because as he said there, this one is
defying the armies of the living God. He's bringing reproach on
the living God. And Christ, above all else, came
to do what he did to glorify God. And that's what he did. By laying down His life, by being
God in human flesh, Christ shows us, brethren, He shows us by
His death on that cross that salvation is of the Lord. A to Z, He gets all the glory. Every bit of it. It's all of
Him. Now, we see why Christ has to
save His people by looking at the reaction of these men and
of David's brethren. Look here, Goliath came again
and he's boasting and all of that and then back up there in
verse 24. It says, And all the men of Israel,
when they saw the man, they saw Goliath, they fled from him,
and they were sore afraid. And then we read in verse 28,
Eliab is the eldest brother. He's David's oldest brother. And when he He heard, when he's
speaking to the men, he heard David asking about this giant
and what's going to be given to the man that kills him. And
when Eliab heard this, Eliab's anger was kindled against David.
And he said, why camest thou down hither? What are you doing
down here? You got to understand, David
is a young man. I mean, he's like a young, he's
a boy. Saul calls him a stripling. I
mean, he's just a shepherd boy. And Eliab's a big soldier. And he's like, what are you doing
here? What did you come here for? And with whom has thou left
those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride. I know the
naughtiness of your heart. You're come down that you might
see the battle. The sinful nature we have that's
in every one of us, and it's all a natural man has, but it's
in every believer too. It only produces unbelief and
fear of everything but Christ, of everything but God. And unbelief
and fear, when there's unbelief toward God and there's a fear
of man, a fear of circumstances, and a fear of God's providence,
and all these different things, it causes evil surmisings. That's what the scripture calls
it. Judges of evil thoughts. And Eliab imputed evil motives
to David. He imputed evil motives to him.
He accused him of leaving their father's sheep, those few sheep. He disdained him. Those few little
sheep, that's all. You're given just a little responsibility
and you can't even do that, is what he said. And he accused
David of coming to watch the battle, just to see his brethren
be slain in the battle. Do you remember when Moses was
sent by God and he goes to Egypt and as he's declaring the word
Pharaoh, Another picture of the devil made the bondage worse
on the people. And you know what their reaction
was? Moses, leave us alone. Just get away from us. You're
making everything worse for us. Well, what's all that picture?
Christ came unto his own and his own received him not. Christ came down here to dwell
among us. And things got real heated when
he came, because the devil began, when he entered his ministry,
just like this Goliath marched back and forth in this valley
40 days doing this. Our Lord, as soon as he entered
his public ministry, he went into the wilderness and was tempted
of the devil 40 days. And from then on, the battle
was raging. And things got really hard, really
hard, culminating with him being crucified on a cross. The sin nature in a belief that
causes us, brethren, if everything is good, we're good. But when things go wrong, we
start fearing men. We start fearing God's providential
giants that he puts in our way. We start surmising evil. We start
being able to think we can detect the hearts in people, and we
can't. We always judge wrong. We always
get it wrong. But Christ saves us by giving
us a new heart. And once He's given us a new
heart, He keeps renewing that heart. And He does it as He comes
to us and He asks us a question. Just like David did here. Let's
know what David did. Verse 29. Now you picture David
in this position. He's nobody. He doesn't look
like anybody that could fight this giant. His brethren are
rejecting him. And all these great soldiers,
these mighty men who are wise and skilled and they know better.
And here's a nobody who's nothing. God's gonna show us, isn't he,
over and over, he doesn't save through power and might, he saves
through weakness. Weakness. No form and no comeliness
that would make us desire him. God's not gonna let us be saved
by something we think looks good. That's pride. He's going to bring
that down and make us humble ourselves and do it how he's
going to do it. But look at David's question,
verse 29. David said, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? And verse
30 says, and he turned from him toward another and spake after
the same manner. He told this to his brother and
then he went from man to man in this camp telling them. What
have I done? Why have I come down here? Is
there not a cause? Is there not a cause for me being
here? That's what he's saying to them.
When we face giants and we begin to fear, Christ speaks in our
heart. And he says to us, what have I done? Why have I come down? Is there
not a cause? Was there not a cause? Was there
not a cause why God ordained for all hell to be unleashed
on Christ and on His people and on His church to just splinter
them into the world? Was there not a cause? Why was
Christ ordained to suffer what He suffered on the cross? Was
there not a cause? There was a cause, wasn't it? Was it not to bring glory to
His name? Was it not to redeem His people?
Did He accomplish that? When it looked the worst thing
that ever happened in the history of the world to the carnal eye. Was there not a cause? Did He
accomplish His will? Did He redeem us by that? Read past the first two chapters
of Hosea. Find out why God did what He
did. There was a cause. There was a cause. So Christ
speaks to us and He says, is there not the same cause in my
providence for you? Christ comes to you when you're
facing Goliath and you're facing the giants and the providence
is just caving in on you and He comes to you and He speaks
into your heart and He says to you personally, is there not
a cause for this? Is it not to defeat our enemies
in our flesh and all around us and to grow us in a fear of God
and to grow us in faith in our Redeemer? Is it not to remind
us once again of the great salvation Christ has accomplished for us?
Is there not a cause? He does nothing without a cause.
It's to humble us. It's to show us our sin. It's
to correct us. It's to chasten His child and
at the same time to grow His child in fear and faith and knowledge
and grace of Him. So from the beginning to the
end, Christ teaches us that the victories won through faith in
Him Using the one means God has ordained. The victory is won. It's won from beginning to end. By Christ. By Christ. And we have that victory through
simply believing Him. And there's one means he's going
to use to grow us in this, and it's the gospel of what he's
done. This is the means. The only means. Let me show you this. Verse 32,
David said to Saul, They come to Saul and they said,
don't worry, we got a man. He's going to fight him. And
I can just picture Saul. Saul's thinking, oh, bring this
mighty soldier in here and let me see what he looks like. And
here comes this little shepherd boy in there. And David, verse
32, David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of this
giant, thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Think that impressed Saul? When Christ faced the devil and
every enemy of God and every enemy of his people, that's what
God's righteous servant said. He came forth despised and rejected
of men, nothing like what men thought he was going to look
like. Not a mighty warrior on a mighty stallion. He came forth
a lowly shepherd. And he said, this is for my father's
glory. Don't faint. Don't be troubled.
You see this battle, you see this battle raging, he's going
to the cross and he tells his disciples, don't worry, don't
faint, don't be troubled. The cup that my father's given
me, shall I not drink it? Christ said it's God's glory,
not a cause to believe my father. Don't faint, you picture David,
now he's telling Saul, I'm gonna go out and fight this giant.
I'm fixing to go into the battle. And Christ is facing the cross
and He is saying, Is not my faithful Father in His glory worth believing
Him? So much that I set my face like
a flint and even when the battle is raging, I walk right into
the teeth of Goliath and go to that cross and lay down my life
for my people. Is His glory and His honor and
His faithfulness Is it not enough? Don't faint. I'll fight, Christ
said. But no man's heart fell because
of the devil and because of sin and because of death. Christ
says, I'm my father's righteous servant. I'll go and conquer
the enemy for my people. And so when Christ brings giants
before us, believer, is it not this gospel? that comforts you? Is it not this gospel that causes
that old Saul in us full of unbelief and fear? Does it not subdue
him and renew you inwardly to know Christ is fighting this
battle? He's already won the victory.
Christ said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. He's saying to us, I've conquered
the great enemy for you. The enemy's conquered. I will
overcome everything else for you. But how does unbelief answer? Look at verse 33. And this is
the Saul in us right here. This is how we usually answer.
Saul said to David, you're not able to go against this Philistine
to fight with him. You're but a youth. He's a man
of war from his youth. That's me. I'm ashamed of my
unbelief. And those moments, those sweet
moments when the Spirit of God is making me walk by faith and
look to Him, nothing is troubling. I know Christ is conquering.
But how often I'm in this unbelief of my flesh, and whatever I see
before me, I'm thinking, Christ is not able. Oh, we wouldn't
say that. But our dejection, our long faces,
our being cast down, our looking at God's providence and murmuring
about it, we're saying Christ is not able. Is he? Is he? He's able. He's able. No one is too weak
if Christ is their power. but most are too strong to trust
him alone. But you let only one of Christ's
lambs be in danger. You let one of his lambs be in
danger. And the shepherd comes and he
continually reminds us he's able. Look at verse 34. David said
to Saul, This is what we need Christ to speak to the Saul that's
in our flesh right here. To remind us he's able. David,
he's given his qualification, why he knows he can go defeat
this Goliath. He said, thy servant kept his
father's sheep. And there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock. Just one little lamb. David's
out there keeping the flock. And a lion and a bear came and
took one lamb out of that flock. And I went out after him, David
said, and I smote him and I delivered it out of his mouth. And when
he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and I smote
him and I slew him. And thy servant slew both the
lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine
shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the
living God. And David said, 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
this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and
the Lord be with you. One of his father's lambs. for
one of his father's lambs. David took on a lion and a bear. That's believing God. That's
believing God. And he delivered that lamb out
of that bear. That really happened. How did he do that? David said,
the Lord delivered me. And he said, and he'll deliver
me out of the hand of this giant too. Brethren, think on this. If Christ only had one elect
lamb, if he just had one little lamb, he would have come and
laid down his life and shed his blood to glorify God in saving
that one lamb the same as he did for a multitude of his elect.
Because it would have taken the same blood to save one as it
did to save the multitude. And he shepherds his sheep and
has concern for his sheep, every single one of you, the same way
as if you're the only lamb he's got. And he said in his parable, if
I have one sheep that strayed from the fold, I'll go find him
and I'll deliver him and I'll bring him home on my shoulder.
So David believed God and he knew the Lord that delivered
me, he will deliver me. Christ said, I've set my face
like a flint. He's near that justifies me.
Who's going to contend with me? The Lord will raise me up. That
was the perfect faith by which Christ justified us and saved
us. That's what we see pictured in David. And the faith that
Christ, He's the author and finisher of our faith. We're saved by
His faith, by what He did. So He's going to keep that faith
in His child. Not perfect like His, but He's
going to keep you with faith in Him and keep you looking to
Him. And knowing this, that the Lord that has already delivered
me, He shall deliver me. Do you believe that? The Lord
that delivered me shall deliver me. But Saul tried to help David.
Here we go again. Here we are again. Saul's going
to help him. He's going to give him armor
and a helmet and a coat of mail so he can go out there. In verse
39, at the end, David said to Saul, I can't go with these.
I can't go with these things. I've not proved them. And David
put them off of him. Brethren, listen to this. Christ
accomplished redeeming us by Himself. all by himself. We weren't around. We hadn't
anything to do with it. And those that were his elect,
that were around, tried to stop him. And it says he by himself purged
our sin. It says, he said, I've glorified
thee on the earth. I have, he said to the father.
I have finished the work thou gavest to me, me to do. Christ
didn't need our assistance. He didn't ask for our assistance.
David didn't need any human inventions or any human protections or anything
that Saul had to give him. He said, I'm not using those.
They would have taken Christ and made Him a king. They would
have followed Him if He had done that. All these different things,
men said, let's use these means. I get these things in the mail
all the time about churches. I got one the other day that
talked about how So many kids are leaving the church. So we
got to adjust our ministry and adjust our doctrine to keep these
kids in the church. What you gonna have when you
get through with that? Human means, human methods, everything
but Christ himself. He uses one means. He called
us by His gospel and He's going to keep us trusting Him through
His gospel. He's going to keep His gospel
going forth. And He's going to keep saving His people through
His gospel. And He don't need any other means.
Christ is the Savior. And so the message is all about
Him. But Christ delivered us and He
continues delivering us by this means. Look at verse 40. He took
His staff in His hand. What did David write? Thy staff
comforts me. You're my shepherd, Lord, and
your staff comforts me. That's his shepherd's quote.
And he chose five smooth stones, and he put them in his shepherd's
bag, and he put a sling in his hand, and he went out to this
Philistine. Now, some people take these five stones, and they
talk about the gospel. And this is our entire salvation,
if you think about it. Think about these five stones.
Number one, whom he did foreknow. Number two, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of Christ that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Number three, whom he predestinated,
he called. Number four, whom he called,
he also justified. And number five, whom he justified,
he also glorified. That's beginning to end, and
we don't have anything to do with it. It's all he did it,
he did it, he did it. Verse 45, David said to the Philistine,
you come to me with a sword and a spear and a shield, I'm come
to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies
of Israel whom thou has defied. Christ was David's sword, his
spear, his shield. And he said, this day will the
Lord deliver thee into my hand. Goliath said, I will do this
to you. David said, this day the Lord
will do this. He will deliver you into my hand.
And I'll smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I'll
give the carcasses of the host of the blistings this day to
the fowls of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, and
all the earth may know there's a God in Israel. That's how you
can have some assurance. God's gonna make everybody know.
He's the God in His Israel. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle
is the Lord's. And He will give it, He will
give you into our hands. Verse 49, And David put his hand
in his bag, and he took this a stone, and he sling it. And
he smoked that philistine in his forehead and it was sunk
into his forehead and he fell face first to the earth. And
so David prevailed over the philistine with a sling and with a stone
and he smoked the philistine and he slew him but there was
no sword in the hand of David. And so David ran and he stood
on the philistine, he put his foot on his neck and he took
his sword and he drew it out of the sheath and he slew him
and cut his head off with it. David had five stones in his
bag. We preach those five words right there are all our salvation
beginning and end. Whom he did foreknow, elected,
chose, loved before the foundation of the world, ends up with him
glorifying him and he did everything in between. But I'll tell you
what, it's all in this one stone. The stone that the builders refused,
that one stone's who killed our enemy, who defeated the devil,
Christ himself. He's the one stone. He's the
one stone. And we know, brethren, all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose. But the things he's talking about
are those five things that he already worked together and accomplished.
That's what he's talking about. It's not just so we can have
a happy life as we walk through this earth. He might give you
an awful life as you walk through this earth. That's okay. Because
what He's working together to show you is, I already worked
these five things together. Your salvation is accomplished.
It's done. And if you got that, you got
everything. We say Christ is all. Is He? God's going to prove us on that. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him give us freely these five things, these five stones? He gonna give them all to us.
They're done. In the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, they're
done. He called you because they're
done. He made you know you're justified
because it's done. You're already glorified with
Him in heaven. All He's got to do now is come
and bring you there. It's done. Why does He bring
Goliath against us? Why does He bring a giant against
us? Why does He let you just have no way of delivering yourself? Why? to humble you down to know you
don't have any way of delivering yourself. You ever been in that
place where you can't deliver yourself? That's where we got to be broad,
because we can't deliver ourselves. And if his providence turns us
sideways and twisted, what are we going to do when it comes
to that day when we got to stand before him? We
can't save ourselves. He's the only one that can save
His people. And all these lesser things are
to teach us, He did it. It's done. Everything else He's
working is to show you. These five things are accomplished.
He's defeated Goliath. And He's going to give us that
faith and He's going to sustain it to teach us that. And look
at this now. So this is the message, you're
gonna knit the heart of his child with Christ. Gonna knit our heart
with Christ so that you can't be separated from him. You can't. No matter who your enemies become,
you're gonna stand with Christ. Watch this, verse 56, Saul said,
inquire thou whose son this stripling is. Who's this little sapling,
this little strapling, this little fella? Verse 58, second part,
David answered, I'm the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
And look at the next verse. And it came to pass, when he
made an end of speaking unto Saul, the soul of Jonathan was
knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his
own soul. What happened? He came there
with the evidence showing him that he defeated the giant. He
had his head in his hands. And he showed him that one sword. Why did he pull that sword and
chop his head off with that sword? Why did he kill the giant with
his own sword? The devil thought the cross was his weapon that
he was going to be able to destroy Christ with. And Christ took
his own weapon and cut his head off with it. Is that not right?
The devil said, I'm going to accuse you of sin. I'm putting
you on the cross. I'm going to slay you. And when
I've slain you, I'm going to be justified and the kingdom
is going to be mine. And all the while, the Lord was
taking the devil's own sword and cutting his head off with
it. He's going to win. The Lord's going to win. He already
has. And he's teaching us. He's teaching,
these things I've spoken unto you, that in me you might have
peace. In this world, you shall, God
promise you, you shall have tribulation. In your flesh, in your life,
in your job, when you get just to your golden years that everybody's
looking for, you that got parents that are older, you know what
those golden years are like. Just a shipwrecked body, broke
down and hurting all the time. It's just one trial after another. Trouble, trouble, trouble, till
you put it off. But he said, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. We are more than conquerors to
him that loves. Not gonna be, we are. That's
the message, amen. Father, thank you for your word.
We pray that you would Show us in all Your providence that You've worked our complete
salvation. Remind us and renew us and keep
us abhorring our flesh and our unbelief and our sin and our
doubting and our just a foul wretch that we are in ourselves.
And keep us, Lord, looking to You and trusting You It's the only way we'll wait and trust you and know,
Lord, that whatever you bring to pass, when the Goliath's in
the valley, he's already defeated. Help us know that. Help us to
remember we're not wrestling against our brethren. We're not
wrestling against flesh and blood. Lord, the devil, by your permission,
tries to tear us from you. And you were permitted, for the
same reason you permitted him to go put you on the cross, to
show us you already cut his head off. Lord, keep us remembering
that. Keep us loving each other. Keep us trying to do whatever
we can to gender peace and to be peacemakers. Help us forget, help us forgive,
help us to press toward the mark, and help each other press toward
the mark. And only way we'll do it, Lord, is you keep reminding
us you have conquered, and we're more than conquerors to you.
Forgive us, Lord, for our doubt, and forgive us for our unbelief.
We thank you for your mercy and grace. In Christ's name, amen.