Good morning, everybody. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
17. 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17 is one of the
most familiar stories in all of the Bible. I remember back
in 1984, you guys gave me a going away party as I was about to
escort or go with Bill Clark to Africa. I won't tell you about
some of the gifts that I got, but they were supplies to take
with me. I'll just put it that way. As
I traveled with him to the Ivory Coast, This is the story of David
and Goliath. And I remember on that trip,
one of the religious missionaries that we encountered in our travels
over those 19 days in a truck, one of these missionaries showed
films when he would go to the various villages. And I remember
going in and all of these folks sitting with their legs crossed
in the dirt watching this film that he had brought in off a
projector that he had. And it was the story of David
slaying this giant. And the story of
him killing the bear in the line with his bare hands and all that
stuff. All I'm saying is everybody knows
this story. It's the story in this chapter
of Goliath, and it describes to us the contempt that was held
by these Philistines for Israel. They hated them. They warred
with them continually. And it's about the challenge
that Goliath made by daring any man to come out of Israel's army
to fight with him in single combat. If you won, you won the battle.
Whoever won, won the battle. And the mere appearance of this
giant Philistine turned Saul and his entire army into a trembling
mass of fear. Serious fear. Look at verse 24. Skip around a little bit, so
bear with me. It says there that all the men
of Israel, when they saw this man, fled from him and were sore
afraid. Why were they afraid? Because
this giant, was in every sense of the word, a freak of nature. If you read, well, look at verse
four. If you read the account and the
description of him, if you use our English measure in feet and
inches, this man was 11 and a half feet tall. Huge, huge. All of his armor is listed in
verses five and six. You can see that. And if you
add the weight of his armor all together, it weighed more than
350 pounds. And that doesn't include his
shin guards that were made of brass. and he had a throat covering,
which was not included in that weight. The spear that he carried,
it's conjectured, quite logically so, was about
26 feet long, a spear. And the head of the spear was
iron, and it projected to weigh over 18 pounds. The very sight of this creature
would cause any of us to have an anxiety attack, serious anxiety
attack. Verse 16, look at that. And this
Philistine, these two armies were apart from one another with
a valley in between them. And this Philistine, verse 16,
drew near morning and evening and presented himself. Get that now, presented. He was
a tough guy. He presented himself for battle,
challenging any man out of their country or army for 40 days in
a row, 40. He'd come out morning and evening
and challenge these folks. He was relentless. He was relentless. Now, David had been anointed
King of Israel unbeknownst. I mean, Saul didn't even realize
it at this point in time. But when he was anointed as King
of Israel, he turned from that anointing
and went back to the pastors where His sheep were grazing
and tended the sheep of his father. He returned and tended the sheep
of his father. Some of you will get the analysis
there. That's what Christ does. That's
what Christ did. As these challenges were being
mounted by Goliath twice a day, his father called him out of
the, sheep tending, shepherding that he was carrying out and
sent him to carry a message and provisions, food, into the camp
of Israel. And while about his father's
business, look at verse 17, he was running. There's only
one other place in the scriptures where I see an analysis of God
running to a sinner, running to the assistance of his elect.
And that's the story of the father running to meet his son, the
prodigal son over in the New Testament. He was about his business
and his business was to deliver food to this army. He delivered 10
ephahs of corn, 10 loaves of bread, 10 cheeses, and he hears
the challenge of Goliath as he is delivering these things. He
gets down out of his carriage, handing out this food, and this
giant of a man comes down in that valley, and he advances
into the valley in all of his armor. I find this ironic, and
a little man is carrying a big shield in front of him, in addition
to that 500 pounds of armor that he had on. Well, David hears the challenge
and he accepts it. David goes into battle without
any weapons, commonly used in war of that day, but he went
in the confidence of God. Saul, King Saul, gave him armor
to put on, gave him his own armor to put on, and David put it on,
but then he put it off. And he prevails over this giant
Philistine and he kills him. As a consequence, these Philistines
are defeated and Israel pursues them and just slaughters them. Now that's what's in this chapter.
a brief synopsis. I want you to look now at verse
28 and 29. Verse 28 begins, and Eliab, that's
David's eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men, and
Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and said, Why camest thou
down hither, and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in
the wilderness? I know your pride and the naughtiness
of your heart, for thou art come down that thou mightest see the
battle. He's speaking to his little brother,
and he's being pretty cocky. What are you doing here? Who'd
you leave the sheep with? Did you just come down here to
watch? Now David had told these other folks, who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Somebody
needs to take him out. That's basically what he said.
To paraphrase it, his brother jumped on him for being cocky. And David said, verse 29, what
have I done now? Is there not a cause? This is where I'd like to spend
some time. The words of David in verse 29 there are an answer
to a jealous accusation that his brother makes to him in verse
28. We've all seen that. And the
accusation that is pointed against David by his own brother was
due to David's response to the blasphemy being vented by this
giant Goliath against the God of Israel and his people. That's who were being threatened.
Verse 26, if you'll look, and David spake to the men that stood
by him. When he saw and heard this giant,
make this challenge and speak derogatory of God and his army,
he said, David spake to the men that stood by him and said, what
shall be done to the man that kills this Philistine? and taketh
away this reproach from Israel, for who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Now, Eliab was a coward along
with the rest of them. He was as scared as all the rest
of the army. They didn't want to fight. but they had received the king
that they desired and rejected the king that God had chosen
to put over them. They wanted their own king and
God gave it to them. And Eliab's cowardice because
of his unbelief was revealed by the words of David. Eliab
had not taken up the sword to defy this giant pagan, but
instead he set cowering with the rest of the mighty captains
of the Israeli army. The conscience of Eliab was stung
by these words of David. And his response was in the same
way that the conscience often reacts in believers and unbelievers
alike. I hope I can make this clear.
Conscience, the conscience of a man will either excuse or accuse
you. That's the only two things it'll
do. It always does that and it generally
does so by shifting the blame to somebody else, and that's
what Eliab was doing. That's what Eliab was doing. What David had said was just
merely stating the obvious, but since the conscience makes cowards
of us all, Eliab heard the words as an accusation against his
bravery. what David said. David had merely
naively spoken the truth. His interests were not pointed
toward Eliab or any individual in the army of Israel. He had
no self-serving agenda. His interests were rooted in
one grand truth. That is the heart and soul of
every believer. whoever lived in this world.
That issue is the glory of God. It's the glory of God in redemption,
in salvation. David wasn't speaking of God's
glory in creation or providence when he made that comment. He
wasn't just talking about the living God as the living God
of providence and creation. He was speaking of what all the
creation and providence serves. The only reason this earth exists
and the only reason for anything that God does is toward the saving
of his people. And he will get all the glory
in that redemption and in that salvation. It's about the salvation and
deliverance of God's people, and that's what David was all
about when he made those comments. He wasn't boasting, he wasn't
bragging, he wasn't berating anybody or anyone. He was defending. No, he was giving God all the
glory. Now this glory is especially
seen in the bruising of Satan's head. by the king, prophet, and
priest that the Lord sent to save his people, that being David,
and David being a type of Christ. Israel is scared on this occasion
because they have rejected God in the choice of their king.
They chose Saul and rejected David. rejected the Lord's choice. They didn't know that it would
have been David at that time. But the Lord had rejected their
king because he has openly disobeyed God, Saul. But despite their
unbelief, God's gonna save people. God's gonna save a people. And
that's pictured in this chapter. And he'll do it by his anointed
king. One man, he by himself, void
of worldly armor, a lowly shepherd, will bruise the enemy's head. He put a rock through his helmet
right there. And he was dead. And then he
cut his head off and carried it by the hair of the head to
the King Saul. A single hero is going to win
this day, but first he comes to his own, his brother. He came to his own and his own
received him not. They of his own house will turn
against him and accuse him of all manner of evil. Now this
was a great victory. And it's the most familiar aspect
of the messages that you've probably heard on this text. But I want to do something not
a little different. I want to go from a different
direction in considering David today. I want to consider him as a believer
and hopefully I can express or articulate,
if you will, what I'm trying to say. I want to consider David as a believer. Let's just state it that way.
Or even a preacher who simply tells the truth. and what you
as a believer or anyone as a pastor or preacher or evangelist or
whatever, what you can expect from those who are closest to
you. If you're a believer, if God
has given you faith to believe the gospel, you have a single
message and that message is our cause. Remember that word? Is there not a cause? That was
David's response. As a believer, your knowledge
and your understanding of God and the method of his grace exceeds
anything that anyone could ever learn out of a book in a school
room. It just don't come that way.
It just doesn't come that way. You've got a single and a plain
message, and that single and plain message is a cause. It's a cause. And that message
is the cause, and the cause is the glory of God. No matter the question, that might ever come up related
to your redemption, your salvation, and your being chosen of God,
no matter what the question is, wherever it comes up, the answer
is going to be Christ and Him crucified. And every debate ends
right there, right there. To be so bold, like David, as
to say that Christ is all of salvation, from beginning to
end, from election to glorification to justification, is to remove
yourself from the equation and give God all the glory. Does that make sense? You're
not gonna have it any other way if you're a believer in Christ. The work is done. God did it
all. And that's the end of the story.
You ain't going to brag about nothing that you've done that
will justify you or defend you except being in Christ and giving
God all the glory for that being done. It's to declare that you had
nothing to do with your salvation. no planning in it, you had nothing
to do with the execution of it, the accomplishment of it, or
its consummation to come. And that, for a fact, you didn't
even know that you were saved, past tense, until God sent a
preacher, now listen to me, to you and revealed to you what
Christ had already done and already accomplished for you. That's
what Ephesians says, in whom you believe after that you heard
of your salvation. Have you heard of yours? Believe
it. This is a sense of what David
is asking in verse 29. Is there not a cause? God deserves
and he will receive all the glory for salvation and this is the
cause of every believer. David's brother, just as with
David's brother, such a motive won't sit well with those who
believe that salvation's up to them. or at least it's a mutual effort
between them and God, the true believer is unflinching. He's
going to justify God by giving him all the glory. The true believer is unflinching,
and it's especially true when you stand alone between the religious
pagan and those who profess to know God, but they refuse to
give Him all the glory. And David was right dead between
them. That's where Christ was. And
ironically, the attack that will follow won't be against the truth. When I came to realize that,
I thought, that's not gonna make sense if I tell them that. But
it's true. The attack that follows your
cause, the expression, you expressing the cause of the glory of God, doesn't really attack the truth. Because if they do attack the
truth, They risk revealing their own profession to be illegitimate. It's kind of like they, you know,
they kill the messenger. They jump on the messenger like
a lab attacked David. What are you doing down here?
What's the answer to that? I'll get a little more into it in
a minute. David, having been attacked by a libe, a libe showed
that he had the same weapons designed to make the believer
question himself as to motive. Hopefully I can illustrate it.
False religion. Accusations and arrows are shot
and they go to the heart of what every believer knows is his own
estate. Satan attacked Eve 6,000 years ago. And he said, has God really said
that? Has God really said that? And
that's the angle from which David's brother is coming now. He didn't, he didn't attack David's
person. He attacked David's motive. And David's answer was, is there
not a cause? That's why I said what I said.
I'm not sure a lot of even understood it, but David did. These attacks that we come under
never come as accusations of illicit behavior or forbidden
behavior like worshiping idols or anything you want to come
up with. Think of the worst. Most believers
are not guilty of such overt behaviors anyway. But the darts
are pointed at a sure target, and I think I can show you. They're
aimed at facts that are of our very being, okay? They're accusations
that sting us because we know that these things are within
us and the source of continual struggles in our own minds. And
if one were to accuse me of pride, all I can say is guilty. Does that make sense? If you take what David said,
it sounds like boasting. True enough. If one were to ask you, maybe you've had it happen. If
someone walked up to you on the street, I went to church Sunday,
yeah, I sold out, where'd you go? I go to Bible Baptist. Yeah, I've heard about y'all.
I've heard about y'all. What makes your little group
so special? Well, let me tell you something.
It is special. But it's not gonna make you feel
any better because they ask you that question and you've got
to answer it. The only answer that can be given
Isn't there a cause? Is there not a cause? It's their
subtle way of accusing us of pride. And that's what David's
brother was accusing him of, pride. And it always has a stinging
effect because actually they appear reasonable in asking that
question. There's no answer that'll satisfy. Excuse me. There's no action,
answer that'll satisfy because they're not really questions.
They're accusations that tortures every believer. It's our pride. Tell somebody that you're chosen
of God. Try that out. Try that out. That'll get you
some questions and accusations. You think you're special. No,
that's not what we're saying. We're chosen of God. Chosen of
God. And we're thankful for it. And
we're humbled by it. But you say that, and somebody's
gonna jump your rump. The next time you're made to
experience something like that, here's your answer. Isn't there
a cause? It's the glory of God. The glory of God's at stake. Eliab was just making an accusation
against his big brother, little brother, I don't know. Notice
verse 28. Eliab accuses David of showing
up where he's not wanted. He said, why came you down here?
David's very present was a reminder to Eliab that he was a coward. and he'd forgotten the glory
of God. Elab could not attack David's words, but he could attack
David, and that's what he did right there. What he was really
saying is, we don't want to be reminded of our impotence. Why
don't you just go away? Same thing. Same thing. Notice
again in verse 28, Elab accused David of irresponsibility. He
said, why'd you come down here? See it? And with whom have you
left those few sheep in the wilderness? David, it's not your place to
confront us with our unbelief if you just were where you ought
to be. Declaring the truth puts things
in their proper place. And when David said, who's this
pagan that he should blaspheme God, Eliab heard this. He said, why are you sitting
on your butt doing nothing? That's what he heard David say. Believers don't give or withhold
assurance, but the message that they preach is so absolute that
it immediately convinces the hearer as to where he stands
in relationship to that truth, and it's a scary thing to realize
that when you tell someone the truth, it immediately discovers
and reveals where the hearer is. He's either in or out. I don't have vocabulary to put
it any other way. In discussing sickness, let me
ask you this, and providence and the sovereignty of God, one
time I had a relative who said to me, I don't want to give too
many details here, but the response to sickness in the world, the
providence of God in that sickness, and the sovereignty of God in
all operations of this whole world, After a good deal of discussion
and at the end of it, the response was, if that is the God you worship,
I hate him. I hate him. And David declared that God must
be glorified. But Eliab was immediately discovered
to have no interest in glorifying God. The believer naively tells
the truth because it is the truth, because there is a cause, and
doing so often brings out the worst in the enemy, those who
oppose our gospel and our Redeemer. Look at verse 28 again. Eli brings
out the big gun. He accuses David of pride, verse
28. I know your pride. As I've said,
this always hits home. This always hits home. It stings
us. It's the monster that resides
in all of our bosoms. There's no real answer to this
accusation because there is always an element of the truth to it.
You just got to admit it. David had not acted in pride
when he stood for God's glory. But the generic truth is that
David was a human being, and therefore pride was always with
him, just like it is with us. Though David was not guilty of
pride, in what he said, he said to some degree, immediately,
he did to some degree, immediately defend himself. He said, what
have I done? Maybe I misspoke. Maybe I didn't
say what I meant to say. Maybe I didn't express it properly.
David had done nothing to miss, but the word now in that verse,
the word now suggests that this was not the first time that he'd
been accused of that. You see that? or that if he had
not spoken in pride at this time, he perhaps detected it in his
own heart prior to live ever saying it. The only workable
response in this second phrase, is the second phrase there, is
there not a cause? Or it could be, this ain't about
me, it's about the glory of God. Look again at verse 28. Eliab accused David of an evil
motive by speaking of the naughtiness. That naughtiness there is evil.
It's not the naughtiness that you get out of a little two-year-old
misbehaving. That's evil. David was sent with
groceries to feed his children, brethren. He spoke of God's glory
and alive told David that his heart was evil. And those who
know the truth and gladly give God all the glory will sometimes
in their lives be accused of evil motives. The subtle accusations
that we've already addressed suggest that we have an evil
motive in our separation to the gospel. And if we refuse to join
with the multitude who deny and defy God, deny God all the glory, then expect to be labeled evil,
sectarian, occult. And finally, in verse 28, again,
he accuses David of not being interested in God's glory, but
that what David said was for his own glory. Those words, you
came out to see the battle, you came out to see the battle, can
suggest a couple of things. It could mean that David was
just a spectator. He didn't mean what he had said,
that he had said, but said it to raise the ire of Israel. It's
kind of like a coach on the sideline, go get them. And he was as scared
as the rest of them, but that wasn't true. David said, is there not a cause?
Secondly, David knew that David was a fierce, Eliab knew that
David was a fierce warrior. He knew David had killed a bear
and a lion with his bare hands. And Eliab is accusing David of
seeking to extend his own fame and win the hearts of the people
by his bravado. That was not David's motive.
He had simply declared the truth. God was glorified as he must
be. And so he declared, is there
not a cause? We live among the religious and
we with the truth assault this giant. We're doing nothing more
than bringing food to the brethren and seeking to say that God is
to be glorified in all of it. When those of our own household
accuses of all manner of pride and evil, naughtiness, We shouldn't defend ourselves even though we've done no wrong. Our answer is simple and plain. Is there not a cause? The glory
of God's at stake. Thank you.