I please God to bless us together
this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the first
book of Samuel chapter 17 and we'll read verse 47. The first
book of Samuel chapter 17 and reading verse 47. 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 you into our
hands." There is one thing very clear
in the life of David and that was that he desires to give the
honour and glory to his God. In the account we read how good
it is to observe that in this testimony, when he came before
Saul and described what he'd been able to do, he nevertheless
did not claim any skills of his own, any great ability that he
had in himself. He came and he gave the honour
and glory to his God. We need to realise that this
is so relevant to our position today, because it's very easy
to look at ourselves and to think what we've done and how good
we were, but the truth is we're only able to do these things
as the Lord God gives us the ability and the skill, whether
that be in a physical way or in a mental way, whether with
words We still need the power of the Spirit of God to be with
us, and we still need to come and to acknowledge very clearly
that it is God. The tendency is, and it's a sad
position, we might pray to God to help us in certain things,
and when we've accomplished those things and we recognise that
we have received help to do them, Do we then immediately come and
thank God for the help that he's given to us? And may we also perhaps have
the faith that David had, because David was blessed here with wonderful
faith as he came before King Saul and also when he came before
this great giant Goliath. Well, just looking at what David
was able to say when he came before the king and he spoke
like this and 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 and I
went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his
mouth and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard
and smote him and slew him thy servant slew both the lion and
the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of
them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God." And
David said moreover, and this is the important part, 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. Very clear it was that he gave
God the honour and glory for that deliverance that he had
from the lion and the bear and the confidence that he now had
in his God. Then we see that Saul endeavoured
to arm him with a suit of armour and he found he hadn't actually
used it before and he wasn't used to it and therefore he put
it off and he took in his hand the things that he was used to
and that was a sling and just some stones from the brook, smooth
stones, and his staff. He went with those simple implements,
but it wasn't just those simple implements, because he went in
the strength of the Lord God. Now that's the relevant point
for us today, to realise that as David went in the strength
of the Lord God, we today also need to go in the strength of
the Lord God. This occasion was an occasion
when Israel was surrounded with the Philistines. It was a great
army. And to all intents and purposes, it looked as though
the battle was going to go against them. But we see, notwithstanding
that situation, David had his confidence in the Lord God. And I suppose today, if we look
around our situation, in our country, the world situation,
well if we're honest, we see enemies all around, don't we?
And we see the great enemy Islam, in so many countries, making
inroads here and making inroads there. In places perhaps where
we wouldn't perhaps have realised. I read the other day that even
in Holland, a place which was blessed with Christian people
for many years, all those children under 14 years of age, the majority
of them are Islam. That's quite surprising, isn't
it, to think in a country like that, And we see that the younger
generation have grown up really, and many are following this Islamic
faith. And it's something that should
be a concern to us, but may we be able to look above ourselves
to realise that the Lord God rules and reigns. And therefore
He is able to do great things and bring about great victories.
and where there was no real need to perhaps fight a battle. You
will remember that James last Sunday evening spoke about the
days of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah was faced with the
enemy, the Assyrians, all around Jerusalem at that time. And he
prayed to God, a very simple prayer, beginning with giving
God the honour and glory, and then seeking that God would be
with and help them, and there was a wonderful deliverance.
And God slew, on that occasion, 180,000 people that all became
dead, all became corpses. We see then how God is able to
do great things. And we need to recognise that
today, that God is still able to do great things for us in
the day and age in which we live. As we look around, we see religion
in our country, very low really. In many parts of the world, really
very low. And true religion is fast ebbing away. And we need
therefore the power of God to come and to once again fight
our battles. And that's really why we have
such a word here this morning. For the battle is the Lord's. And if the Lord is not on our
side, we will not destroy the enemy. We will not win the battle,
but if God is on our side and it's God's purpose to gain a
victory, then there will be the victory and it will be a great
victory and the victory will be for God's honour and for his
glory. So we need to remember today
that we still have and we still worship this same great almighty
God. We must not forget the truth
of that. There are various occasions in
the history of the world where the Lord wonderfully appeared
and the Lord encourages people to press on. In the days of Joshua,
there was a great battle to be fought when they were to go and
conquer the land of Canaan. And that was a big thing to consider
as to whether that would come to pass. And Joshua, encourage
the people. David, you see here, encouraged
himself and encouraged the assembly that he was with. And Joshua,
in his day when the Israelites had passed over Jordan, you may
remember they had to take those 12 stones and place them so that
there would be a remembrance of what God had done for them.
And he spake to the children of Israel, saying, When your
children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What
mean these stones? Then ye shall let your children
know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For
the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before
you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the
Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone
over, and all the people of the earth might know the hand of
the Lord, that it is mighty, that ye might fear the Lord your
God for ever." Well, Joshua laid it on the line, didn't he, so
that the people would realise it was the Lord God that had
delivered them. And I suppose in our country
today we have so much evidence, historically, of God's wonderful
appearing to deliver our nation. So clear we can go back, can't
we? Go back perhaps to the days of the Spanish Armada and remember
on that occasion how the Lord used the weather to destroy that
great Armada. And although the Navy of course
did fight, it was really the Lord that produced the change
in that weather to destroy that great, proud fleet of Spain. And then we've had a number of
wars, have we not? And we've seen how the Lord graciously
appeared, the Lord graciously heard prayer in the First World
War, in the Second World War, wonderful deliverances, and the
Lord caused the enemy to make significant errors of judgement
in the things that they did. And we see how the Lord appeared
for us on those occasions. And we need to realise still
today that we come before the same God, who we do need to appear
for us as a nation, in a spiritual way, who will once again come
and return and grant there may be an outpouring of the Holy
Spirit of God. Now, David on this occasion,
as he was standing there before this giant Goliath, and all Israel
of course at that time, their eyes were upon him, because their
future depended upon what David was able to achieve. And therefore
David had a very large audience as he addressed Goliath. And
he spoke so clearly, and he said, Thou comest to me with a sword
and with a spear and with a shear, 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 mine 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." This was his great aim, so that they might
know there was a God in Israel. and therefore the God in Israel
would be honoured and glorified. He would receive the thanks for
the deliverance, for the wonderful way that David was able to defeat
Goliath. And of course at this time they
weren't aware how that was to be achieved. And he goes on to
say, and all this assembly, all the vast concourse of people
there, Israel and the Philistines, shall know that the Lord saveth
not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and
he will give you into our hands well it's good to read such an
account because we see there the faith of David God had given
him faith and that faith was centered in his God that God
would help him that God would deliver him that God would grant
him the victory and that in that time the name of his God would
be honoured and glorified. And so therefore he very clearly
says, for the battle is the Lord's. He desired no credence for himself,
no benefit to himself. He desired that God would have
the glory. He clearly says for the battle
is the Lord's. and he will give you into our
hands. And as we move on, we see that
then David, he didn't mention his shout, he didn't say, well
now, I'm not sure about this, I think I better just perhaps
retrace my steps. No, he ran towards Goliath. He had a wonderful confidence,
a wonderful confidence in his God. And my friends, it's good
today if you and I are blessed with a confidence in our God,
because God is able. We must never forget that. We
have a God that is the same today. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. It is a very true
truth. We ought to recognise and remember
such a fact as that, so that God's name is indeed honoured
and glorified. You see, the Lord it is, holds
his people up. He strengthens them. And you
know when David wrote the 37th Psalm? It's a well-known psalm
and we have an insight into David's heart and he says, Trust in the
Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily
thou shalt be fed. He goes on to say, Commit thy
way unto the Lord. Trust also in him. and he shall
bring it to pass." And when David wrote the 37th Psalm, he was
an old man. He tells us, I had been young
and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. And it's good to recognise that
we have a statement like that, so David's able then to write
with authority an account that he does in this 37th Psalm to
encourage us And he comes and tells us today, commit thy way
unto the Lord, whatever that might be, in your life and my
life. And it may seem perhaps that
we have an enemy surrounding us, like the Philistines were,
like the Assyrians were in Hezekiah's day. But nonetheless, to be able
to come and to hear a word of encouragement like this, commit
thy way unto the Lord, Why is that necessary? Why is that a
good thing to do? Because the battle is the Lord's. And it is the same today in our
little life as it was in the time when David fought Goliath. On that great occasion, you see,
the Lord looks upon us individually. The Lord appears for us individually. And we need to realise, therefore,
although there may be hosts of enemies around us, in one way
or another, to know that the Lord is with us and enabled in
this way. Blessed for living faith to come
and to commit our way. We might think, well, it's only
a very trivial situation, only a very small way. I'm not quite
sure. Well, we are encouraged to commit
our way unto the Lord. To trust also in Him. Trust in
Him. and he shall bring it to pass.
In other words, we're told trust in the Lord at all times. Whatever
the situation, we're to trust in this great almighty God. We
have so many evidences, don't we, of the greatness of this
God and we should never forget it. And there was that wonderful
occasion in the life of the children of Israel when they completed
the building of the temple. That was a great occasion. And
Solomon, of course, was the one the Lord ordained should be raised
up to actually build it. And he built the temple. And when it was finished, there
was the dedication of the temple when Solomon prayed. And Solomon
offered offerings to God on that occasion. It was the most wonderful
occasion. And Solomon's prayer is a wonderful prayer, and you
can read it in the first book of Kings, in the eighth chapter.
And as he comes towards the end of that prayer, he says this,
he says, And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication
before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night,
that he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of
his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require,
that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God,
and that there is none else." What a great desire that was,
what a great prayer that was, and how important it is for us
today to observe such statements as this and to recognise the
importance of them, so that the people might know that there
is a great God, that the Lord is God, and that there is none
else. And as we walk on the earth at
this time, we have a responsibility to set forth, as it were, the
position of our God and how great He is. And we should never be
ashamed of our trust that it is in the Lord God. We should
never be ashamed to speak forth about the wonder and the wonderful
blessings and the wonderful deliverances that our God has brought to pass. You know, sometimes it would
seem that we worship a little God. We worship a God who is
not very important. And we worship a God that we
are almost ashamed of. Well, we have a great God. And
a great God in whom we trust. And I hope this morning All of
us come to that situation when we do trust in this same great
almighty God and know that he is the Lord. Because as David
wonderfully tells us here, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust
also in him and he shall bring it to pass. Now we have to recognise
that God brings to pass those things which will bring honour
and glory to his great and holy name. And if you and I expect
God, to bring things to pass, just to please ourselves, and
just to bring honour and glory to ourselves, be assured, you
and I will be disappointed. But if our real heartfelt desire,
our real innermost motives, are for the honour and glory of God,
and we have a single eye to His honour and glory, I believe we
can come in this way believing, as David was able to say, yes,
and he shall bring it to pass. because in David's case it was
indeed for the honour and glory of his God. And so he had many
occasions in his life to be able to look back upon, and that's
why he was able to write such positive statements as that.
And it would be good for us today to remember that we come today,
all those years after, and we still have the same God, we still
have the same almighty God who rules and reigns today who is
in charge. Nothing occurs in this world
without the permission of Almighty God. So may we be confident in
that today. Remember these words, for the
battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. Well, the battle is the Lord's
and we may be concerned In our own little lives, we may be concerned
about the life of our nation, we may be concerned about the
world scene, but it's good to know that the Lord God omnipotent
reigns. That God still does reign, and
nothing takes God by surprise. We may be surprised in our lives,
we may be surprised at the events which occur in the world, but
God is never surprised. God knows the end from the beginning
and God has ordained that his name will be honoured and his
name will be glorified. And so today may we go forward
believing in this same almighty God and trusting him, trusting
him. You see, David says here, All
the people shall know the Lord's Saviour is not with sword and
spear. The Lord can of course use people
with swords and spears to actually, or not today in current warfare,
but he can use men and he can use instruments to achieve that. But Davy wanted to just specify
very clearly that the Lord is not dependent upon such things. The Lord only has to speak, the
Lord only has to act and the deed is done. and victory is
secure. And so how important it is for
us to realise, yes, we have a great God. We have an almighty God. A God who rules and reigns over
everything. And so may we be encouraged today,
as we see the account of David in this battle with Goliath.
We shouldn't underestimate the challenge there was. And yet
David went. How did he go? Well, he went
in the same way And the Apostle Paul went in his life, he went
in the strength of the Lord God. And that's the only way of any
success, any real true success, is to go in the strength of the
Lord God. Now David wasn't any particularly
great man himself, he was a noble man, he was a strong man. But
he was depending here upon the strength of his God. And he was
dependent upon the Lord aiming that stone to actually use a
sling and to sling a stone a good distance to actually go and penetrate
into the forehead of Goliath. Well, no doubt David had skill,
but no doubt the Lord directed that stone. You see, just one
stone, Goliath fell down. Goliath was defeated. Yes, all his proud words came
to nothing. And men today say proud words. They may say proud words against
us individually. They may say proud words nationally.
They may say proud words as a world scene, as a world view, but my
friends, they're all under the condition that God is in control. And men may make very foolish
statements. They may think they're being
very big. They may think they're saying things to prove how wonderful
they are. But you know, we read this sometime
in the Word of God, the Lord shall laugh at them, because
he seeth their time is coming. Poor puny man, puts himself up
as some great person, and yet really he's just a little individual
person. I remember reading an account
years ago now by an eminent journalist and there was somebody who was
being very proud and everything else and he just took us on in
life to the time when this person was dead and there he was in
his coffin and the picture was that God came and lifted the
lid and said, and who are you? Just somebody totally insignificant. Man thinks he's important. And
who are you? Just someone of no importance
really at all in the sight of Almighty God. And so we're thankful
today to know that we have a great God. And all this assembly shall
know, the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, For the battle
is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." Now, I want
to just move on to the spiritual side of these things. Because
again, we have enemies, and the devil is a great enemy. He's an enemy to all the people
of God. He always has been. He was a
great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on the earth,
and I'm sure you will remember. in the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The devil did all that he could to destroy the Lord
Jesus Christ. He tempted him on so many occasions. And we know that after he was
baptised, when he went into the wilderness and the devil tempted
him those three times, the Lord answered him from the Word of
God. And we should not forget that
today. that our strength is in the Word of God. And we may face
temptations, we may face oppositions, the devil may try and turn us
away from the truth of God, and we will need to be able to come
to the Word of God, and to be able to point the devil to the
truth of the Scriptures, and be able to tell him, God hath
said, The Lord hath said. This is the word of the Lord. And this is where my confidence
is, in what God has said, is that the devil will not be able
to stand against the word of God. If you and I try to attack
him or to justify our position with our own logic, you will
find that that is faulty. If you and I rely upon the truth
of God's word, We will not fail, because thy word is truth, as
the Lord Jesus Christ said himself when he prayed to his father
in that 17th of John. Thy word is truth, and so it
is. And we can rely upon the word
of God. We can't rely on much these days,
but you can rely upon the word of God. And it's good if you
and I are sufficiently familiar with the word of God that when
we are tempted, we are able to revert to the Word of God and
to quote the Word of God. Sometimes we fail because we
don't have enough knowledge of the Word of God. Well, if you
are in that situation, and you may be, and we all may be, we
need then to pray to God that he would direct us to the right
word, that we may be able to answer the devil, all those agents
the devil uses to try and destroy our faith To try and turn us
away from the things of God, the devil is always on the lookout
to try and destroy your faith and my faith. You see, on this
occasion, this physical occasion, the devil had raised up this
great giant Goliath. He no doubt thought, well, now
I've got a great man here. This person will destroy Israel
and therefore destroy the armies of the living God and therefore
destroy their faith in God. But you see, he wasn't able to.
Because God raised up David. My friend, God to this day still
raises up people. Perhaps people who are inconspicuous. God raises up to do a great work. And He usually raises up those
who will not be able to be proud in their own situation. Well,
we look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, and how
wonderful it was He was born in that human state in that manger
in Bethlehem, and he lived that perfect life, and what he faced
and what he endured, well we don't really, we aren't able
really to comprehend, we don't really understand fully what
the Lord Jesus Christ had to face. But you know, we do get
some little view as to the effect of what the Lord faced, in this
world, in the book of Isaiah, the prophecy of Isaiah, towards
the end of chapter 52, but we read this, Behold my servant
shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled and very
high, as many as were astonished at thee. His visage was so mild,
more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Now that's the prophetic statement
with regards to the Lord Jesus Christ and you may remember there
was that statement made to the Lord Jesus Christ that he wasn't
yet 50 years old. Well it may have appeared therefore
that he was nearly 50 years old. The Lord Jesus Christ's visage
was more mild than any man and he endured such great opposition
from the devil right down of course as we know to the end
of his life. Now, if you look at the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, was there a great army that he called
upon to destroy the works of the devil? He tells us he could
have called, he could have prayed to his father, and his father
would have sent him legions of angels But no, he just submitted
his life to the will of his father. There was no great demonstration
of physical opposition to what the devil was doing. But my friends,
there was a great and a glorious victory obtained by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And how true it was, how this
work was fulfilled in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
all this assembly shall know the Lord saitheth not with sword
and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into
our hands." The Lord Jesus Christ. On that day at Calvary there
was a great and a glorious victory and yet it appeared at that time
the devil had gained the victory. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
died upon that cross at Calvary. And at that time, on that cross,
remember he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Yes, he had to fight that battle. Yes, the battle is the Lord's.
He fought the battle. What a glorious battle it was.
And we might say, it appeared that he lost the battle. In actual
fact, he won the battle. Those great words that he uttered,
it is finished. He completed the work that his
father gave him to do. The battle is the Lord's. And so that great work was complete,
completed on Calvary all those years ago. The work was finished
and we know the result. And the evidence, the wonderful
evidence of that veil at the temple rent entwined from the
top to the bottom. No need anymore for that veil
because access to the Holy Father was through the shed blood of
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the victory. And of course
that was fulfilled then when we see on that third day the
Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead. rising from the dead. Death could not hold him. No,
it could not. Christ rose again. He rose again. And there are beautiful words.
A conqueror over sin, death, hell and the grave. The battle
is the Lord's. And you see, the Lord has fought
that battle. He's conquered. And therefore
today, we should recognise the wonder of it. And as the Apostle
Paul wrote to the Hebrews, having given that long list of examples
of faith to all those people, he then comes and tells us, Wherefore,
seeing we also are compassed throughout with so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the great victor,
the author and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that
was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, and he
says, for consider him and endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. And
so, as we carry on in our lives today, with opposition, as it
were battles to fight, to always come to this position, looking
to Jesus, considering Him, remembering what He's done, His great victory,
and therefore be not wearied and faint in your minds. We may
be tempted sometimes to give up, to faint in our minds, but
no, we have a great and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is now ascending up on high, having led captivity captive,
and received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
indeed risen from the dead, and we should be so thankful to that
today, to know that he is a risen saviour. There is an interesting statement
in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah is one of the minor
prophets, one of the last to have risen, and yet we can read
in the fourth chapter, an angel talking with him. So I answered
and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, what are these,
my lord? And the angel that talked with
me answered and said unto me, knowest thou not what these be?
And I said, no, my lord. And it's always good to be honest
in our answers to our God and to people. And here was an honest
statement. Then he answered and spake unto
me saying, this is the word of the lord unto Zerubbabel saying
not by might nor by power but by my spirit saith the lord of
hosts who art thou oh great mountain before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plane and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with
shouting crying, grace, grace unto it. In this day of David,
there was a great mountain. Goliath was that mountain. But
who art thou, O great mountain? There have been mountains through
the history of the world which have been destroyed. My friends,
you and I may have mountains in our lives today. We may have
mountains of temptation perhaps. The devil was very on the prowl
to try and destroy us and to tempt us to give up. He may point
to us and say, well, the evidence to what you believe is very flimsy. In fact, there's no point in
believing in the God that you believe in. That was just the
same, wasn't it, in Hezekiah's day. They came and said, don't
you rely on Hezekiah's God, he's no God at all really. And there
is that temptation of the day, people will say, well, where
is the God that you believe in? What's he doing? Temptations
are strong. Sometimes we may fear, perhaps,
to give up. Well, remember such words as
this, Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, before the
Lord, before the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt become a plain. The
Lord God makes The crooked things straight, and the rough places
plain. They flow down before Almighty
God. And this great Goliath, who was
representing these Philistines, how quickly there was the victory
given. And they all fled, didn't they?
The Philistines fled. Goliath was slain. A wonderful victory was achieved. And the Lord God was honoured
and glorified. Even the victory, the Lord had
blessed his people, the Lord had honoured the faith of David. David had gone in that strength
of the Lord God and he was confident, he will deliver me. Now may you and I be blessed
today with living faith to believe that whatever situation we may
be facing, I don't know what you're facing, but there may
be great temptation, remember, what David was able to say from
what he proved. He proved God's faithfulness
and he was therefore able to say, he will deliver me. And how true that is. The Lord
will deliver us. The Lord Jesus Christ has gained
the victory. And my friends, our hope today,
our hope it is, it's built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. That was where David's hope was.
That's where the people of God's hope has been. May your hope
and my hope be in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done today,
our confidence be in Him, that one who says, I am the same yesterday
and today and forever, that our faith may rest in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we may always remember
that the battle is the Lord's. And as we realise that, we're
not depending upon ourselves, we're looking at what God has
done, and what God will do, and our confidence will be in Him.
And as our confidence may be in Him, seeking His honour and
His glory, it will be wonderful then to behold the outworking
of that. And all this assembly shall know,
the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is
the Lord's, and He will give you into our hands. Amen.