Turn with me to 1 Samuel, chapter
21. My text is verse 9. Let me just catch us up here.
has fled from Saul because of Jonathan's report confirming,
yes, David, you're right. My father indeed is definitely
trying to kill thee. He wants to kill thee. And so
David was out in the field when he heard this, and he knows his
life's in danger. He has no time to go back to
his house and to gather some provisions for the wilderness. If he goes there, he might be
arrested and taken before Saul. So he leaves immediately having
no provisions. Now, when we're looking at this
passage and we're seeing David here, we know that David is a
wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a wonderful type
of Christ. But I want you, brethren, to
see yourselves as believers. I want you to see yourselves
and David here as sinners. We don't have a righteousness
for ourselves. Our works are no good to bring
us through this wilderness to stand before the true and living
God and be accepted of him. But once the grace of God awakens
us and the condemnation and God's wrath is revealed in our hearts
against us and our works, well, we see that we have no provision
for ourselves. We're made to know that we don't
have what it takes to stand before God. We're not righteous in and
of ourselves. And the purpose of God is to
drive us to Christ. The purpose of this is to drive
us to Christ. You think of Isaiah. In Isaiah
chapter 6, his ministry had already begun as a prophet. And he's out there telling the
people what they need to be doing and stop doing. He's very forceful
in that. And then in chapter 6, it says
when his cousin Uzziah the king died in that same year. He loved
his cousin. He practically worshipped his
cousin. Uzziah. And when he died, he saw the
Lord. He says, I saw the Lord seated
upon his throne, and his train filled the whole room. There's no room for our boasting
and our glory, because his glory filled the room, and he's seated
on the throne. There's seraphim flying with
three wings each, or three sets of wings each, covering their
eyes, two covering their eyes. their feet, and to they flew,
declaring, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And what
did Isaiah say? He said, I'm undone. I'm undone. What am I going to do? I'm a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of an unclean people. I'm surrounded by sin, within
and without. Just like Job, who said, I've
heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes
seeth thee, and I abhor myself. I hate myself and repent in dust
and ashes. And so this site of our need
is to drive us to Christ. And didn't the angel in Isaiah
6 take the coal off the fire? And with that coal from off the
altar of Christ's righteousness, he touched the lips of that boy. He touched him. He touched him. Therefore, in that light, we
see ourselves in David as he's fleeing now to Nob, to Ahimelech,
the priest in the wilderness. He's fleeing to him to seek provisions. I don't have anything. I need
something, Ahimelech. And so he first comes begging
bread because he's hungry. He's hungering and thirsting
now for righteousness, a picture of our hungering and thirsting.
And he asks for a weapon, saying, I don't have anything to defend
myself, and the enemy is fast behind me. The enemy is pursuing
me to strike me down, to take my life. I have no weapon for
my defense. And so continue, brethren, to
see yourselves here in David, for whom the Father has made
full provision for you in the wilderness. In the hands of our
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's made full provision for
your safety and for your provision, just as Ahimelech gave provision
to David in the wilderness, as he was setting out in his wilderness
journey. And because it's a picture of
us fleeing to Christ, our refuge, our high priest to whom we seek
refuge. So first, David, I said, obtains
bread from this priest, which is a picture of Christ, the bread
of heaven come down from heaven. for us to eat, for us to feed
upon, for us to live by Him. Just as bread is the staff of
life for us and our bodies, Christ is the bread of heaven, the staff
of life for our spiritual lives. He's all that we need. Christ
said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any
man eat this bread, he shall live. And the bread which I give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. In other words, he's the bread
which sinners feed upon for life. Now I want us to focus here on
verse 9, but let's pick up in verse 8 and read the text. David
said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear
or sword? For I have neither brought my
sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required
haste. And the priest said, the sword
of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of
Elah, behold, it is here, wrapped in a cloth, behind the e-foot. If thou will take that, take
it. Take it, for there is no other
save that here. And David said, there is none
like that. Give it me. There is none like
that. Give it me. Now this sword of
Goliath, think of what this sword of Goliath represents here. It
pictures the salvation of God's people. It is the triumph of
our king, of our glorious king. It's his triumph over the enemies
of God's people. And we see it in the hand, being
wielded in the hand of our spiritual David. triumphing over our enemies. This sword of Goliath in the
hands of Christ is the triumph that he accomplished over the
devil when he crushed the head of the serpent, the headship
of the serpent, the rule of the serpent that was over us because
we all fell in sin in Adam. And he crushed that head. He
crushed the headship, the dominion of the devil over his people. And it harkens back to the promise
of God, who said in the garden, it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Meaning the promise, see, that
Christ, pre-incarnate, declared, spoken to the serpent in the
hearing of Adam and Eve, just like you hear the gospel. This
promise was declared, saying, It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise thy heel. Meaning, He's coming to crush
your head. You shall expect that He shall
crush your head. That's what that bruising word
means, to crush. And he's coming to crush your head, and you shall
wait expectantly for that heel to come crushing down upon you.
And you'll strike his heel, but he'll destroy you. He's going
to destroy you and deliver his people. That work which you did
is going to be ended over the rule of his people, and they're
going to be brought under his rule and his power and his authority.
He's going to deliver them. And this is pictured here when
David slew Goliath. Because that's what our Lord
does. He reminds us over and over again through the scriptures,
showing us these pictures of the promised one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when David slew Goliath,
it was a picture, a reminder of him that would come and crush
the head of the serpent. And so just as David, he prevailed
over the Philistine. First, he took that sling, and
that stone in the sling, and he launched it. And that stone,
which is a picture of Christ, hit his forehead and sunk into
his forehead, stunning him. And he, boom, dropped down on
his face. And David had no sword. himself
and so he stood over the Philistine and drew his sword out from his
sheath and he plunged it into Goliath the enemy and took off
his head. That very sword that Goliath
thought that he would destroy David with was the very sword
that took his life, that took, that removed his head. Is that not a picture of what
Christ has accomplished for us? He came into the world. And with
himself as a stone, he came and destroyed. He brought light to
the world when he came. But the battle wasn't done yet. And with that cruel instrument
of death, the cross, our enemy thought, we've got him. We've
got the heir. We're going to defeat him. We're
going to put him to death and take the inheritance for ourselves.
But on that same cruel instrument of death, Christ triumphed over
the devil. He crushed the head of the devil,
just like David taking the sword. He crushed the head of him that
had dominion over us. And John speaks of this, 1 John
3, 8, he that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil
sinneth from the beginning, right there in the garden. And we come
forth sinners, speaking lies ever since. For this purpose,
he says, the Son of God was manifest in the flesh that he might destroy
the works of the devil. So you see that, the crushing
of the head, the deliverance of his people, the triumph over
our enemies. And so this sword of Goliath
represents that very salvation of Jesus Christ for His people. And this is what we are to view
in David seeing that sword and saying, there's none like that
salvation, give it me. Oh, let me have that for my defense. Let me have that triumph, that
glorious salvation, give it me. Give it me. And that's what every
child of God is brought to say. Oh, there's no Savior like that
Savior. There's no salvation like that
salvation. There's no love like His love.
There's give it me. Give it me. Let me have that,
Lord. Let me have that salvation. And so that's what we cry for
the free gospel of God's sovereign grace. Lord, there's none like
that. Give it me. So what I want to
do now with the remainder of our time... There's many things
that we could see in this, but I want to declare just some of
the beauties of this salvation, the adornings of His grace, which
make up our beautiful wedding gown that the church wears. It's
His grace that adorns us. It's His jewels. It's His beauty
that adorns this gown, this bright white gown that we come before
our Lord in, in Him. And so I want to speak of these
glorious attributes that we may see, indeed, there is none like
that salvation. There's no Savior like that Savior. Give it me. So first, notice
that there's none salvation like our Lord's salvation. And the
truth is here that our Lord is showing us that there is but
one salvation. There is but one salvation of
God for his people. There's not many ways unto God. There is one way. There is none
like that salvation, give it me. That's what he's showing
us, there's none like that. Now I quoted earlier that verse,
the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. He's not saying I'm laying down
my life for every individual and therefore failing. He's saying
I'm giving my life for all my people scattered throughout the
world, Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter whether you
came up under this religion or that religion. It's all lies. Wherever you were born, it's
all lies. The only Savior, the only salvation
of God is Jesus Christ. There is one Savior who gave
his life for all his people scattered throughout the world. And Acts
4, verse 11 and 12, Peter is speaking to the Pharisees. And
he said, this is the stone which you builders have rejected. This is the stone which you set
at nought, which was set at nought of you builders, which has become
the head of the corner. They took him and set him aside. And God said, nope. He is the
foundation upon which I build my house. You're not putting
him aside. This is how the house is built,
on him, by him. He's the son over the house.
He's the one that builds the house of God. Neither is there
salvation in any other, for there is none other name given among
men under heaven where there's none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. If you are to be saved,
God is going to save you by his son Jesus Christ because there's
none other salvation. There's none like that. Give
it me. This is the salvation that we
need, brethren. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy
2, verses 5 and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time. Who's the all? They'll be testified
in due time. He's going to reveal who the
all is for whom Christ gave his life. That last phrase there,
to be testified in due time, God's going to reveal. all for
whom Christ died. He's going to make known His
salvation, His grace, His power, His glory, His effectual salvation
in the hearts of His people. He shall not fail. He cannot
fail. He is the mighty Savior, Almighty
God, who does not fail. He accomplishes His will and
purpose that He came to do. This is the Savior we need. Is
He not the Savior you need, one who doesn't fail, one who doesn't
come up short like you and I do, one who triumphs gloriously over
all His foes? We need that Savior. We need
that Savior, brethren, one who obtained our eternal redemption
by his own blood, where we see even in his weakness, he's mightier
than the strength of man. He overcomes. He overcomes for
the salvation of his people. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 9 and 10,
Paul said, who had saved us and called us within holy calling. In other words, this salvation
occurred on the cross. It's already done. This is past
tense. He has saved us. It's not waffling
and waiting on what you do and God up there hoping, oh, I hope
they just accept it. No, he's not waiting on you or
me, thankfully. He's triumphing over our hearts
in the way that he triumphed over all his enemies. He conquers
our hearts in love for good, for our good, for our salvation. He's not waiting on us. He's
done it in Christ. And having done it, Christ is
called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And
then in time, he came, accomplished it on the cross. And then in
time, as you and me are born and come into the world, he makes
it known unto us in due time, in due time, as it pleases him,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. It's already given. It's already
given in Christ. He's done it. Before we did good
or bad, before we even fell in Adam, it was already done, already
purposed in the mind of God. We're just seeing it get worked
out in time. And Paul went on, but is now
made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death, he's crushed the head of the serpent, and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. through the declaration of what
he's done. He's now making it known to you in your heart what
he's accomplished for his people. He reveals it in you. Our Savior
has a specific people in view for whom he came and died. He
speaks of them in his high priestly prayer. Listen to this. It's
accomplished. John 17, 2 and 3, as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Whoever God the Father gave to
Christ, he came and died for them. He came for a people whom
the Father gave him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent." And so this is the will of the Father and
the Son, which we see being brought out here in the preaching of
the gospel, made known. unto you what he's done, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians 1, 4. So left to ourselves,
we would be just like those Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees, and the
rulers of the people that took the stone of Christ and set it
at naught. Say, no, thanks, that's not for
me. And we'd go on in our darkness and in our folly and thank the
Lord that he said, this is the stone. And he's made him effectual
in your heart. He's saved you. He obtained life
and gives it. He gives that life to whom he
wills, effectually. And you and I, thankfully, cannot
refuse it. His grace triumphs over us, though
time and time again, we try to refuse. We try to set it at naught. If we could, we would work ourselves
right on out of salvation, if we could. But by His grace, nothing
can pluck us out of His hand, not even us. Not even us. He
keeps us by His grace. And the angel said to Joseph,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. He's not a failure. He did not
fail. He accomplished salvation. He
shall, and he did. Praise God. Praise God. So when our Lord, he hung on
the cross for all his people, he cried, It's finished. It's finished. Everything that
needed to be done is done in him. It's accomplished, the whole
work. And so he comes forth saying,
ye must be born again. Who do you think is going to
give you a new birth? Did you get yourselves saved the first
time? Not at all. Well, so it is in the second
birth. It's not by what you and I do. It's by what he did. It's
according to his will, purpose, and grace. And brethren. There's
no salvation like that salvation. And don't you cry, give it me.
Lord, let me come under thy blood. Let me come under that salvation.
Establish me in that covenant of grace, because I can't do
it, but you can. And you did it. You accomplished
it. Lord, there's nothing like that. Give it me. And that's
what desperate sinners do. They flee to Christ. They fly
to Christ. They say, I'm undone. I can't
do it. Lord, save me. Save me. Receive
me. To make this salvation known
to those for whom Christ died, our Lord sends his word of salvation. He sends his word of salvation
to his people. And it's this gospel whereby
he shines the light. And he makes known and reveals
what Christ has done. This is how you know that salvation
is done. This is how you know what's been
accomplished by Christ through the preaching of the gospel. And so we're talking here about
this Word. He's given you this Word. And
this Bible here, these are the Holy Scriptures which speaks
of Christ, the Word of God, who came and obtained our eternal
redemption. We're told in Hebrews 4.12, the
Word of God is quick, and powerful. Quick meaning it's living. Living
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Doesn't the Lord know our armor? Doesn't he just take
a sword and just take off the connecting pieces and just strips
us down and makes us to see, yeah, I can't fool you, Lord. I got nothing over on you. The Lord is able to expose us
and bring us to see our need of Him. James says, of his own
will begat he us. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. And so this gospel is declaring
unto you what Jesus Christ has accomplished, what he's already
accomplished by sacrificing himself on the tree, bearing the sins
of his people to put them away forever and to obtain your forgiveness,
to obtain your life, to obtain all blessings of his redemption
and gives them to you freely in Christ, freely in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he sends his Holy Spirit
and his gospel word to make that word effectual. The Holy Spirit
comes and seeks out the lost sheep, not the lost goats, but
the lost sheep. And he separates us unto this
word. Here's what Peter said. Peter
said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth. away but the word of the Lord
endures forever and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. He blows upon this flesh, the
spirit blows upon our flesh with the preaching of the word And
like that cool, dry wind that comes in September and October
and dries out the fields and dries out our gardens and the
landscape, it withers, it dies. The flowers that were so beautiful
fall away and die. That's what he does to our flesh.
to bring us to nothing in ourselves, to see that Christ is all, to
find Him, to look for Him. His word gives us no quarter,
meaning no safety. He doesn't put us up. He destroys
this flesh for our good. for our good, so that we see
the fountain, we hear the fountain, that the fountain is open for
sinners. Come to the fountain, come to
the blood, be plunged under the blood for your salvation, for
your forgiveness, be plunged in it. The spirit and the bride
say, come, come. And those for whom the Lord is
merciful and gracious, they hear that word and they fly to the
fountain, which is Christ. And say, there's none like that.
Give it me. Give it me. Give it me. Let me quote for
you 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13
and 14. Paul says, we're bound to give
thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord. How do you know I'm beloved of
the Lord? How do I know that you are beloved
of the Lord? He says, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. How do you know? Through sanctification
of the Spirit. The Spirit comes and separated
you apart from this world. And he says, in belief of the
truth, the Spirit separated you from this world onto this gospel,
to hear this word. Not because you deserve it. None
of us deserve it. But in spite of ourselves, he
separates you onto this word, to hear this word. Whereunto
he called you by our gospel, because there's many that hear
it, and yet they just take that stone and set it aside. But not
you, he's called you to hear that word by his gospel to come. Like Ahimelech said, if thou
will take it, take it. Come, take it. If you need this
salvation, come and take it. And he says, to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes it effectual
unto your heart. And if he's made it effectual
so that you will come and take it, if that's your desire, if
you need the salvation of Christ, come and take it. If you take
it, it's because God has effectually worked that in your heart. He's
given that to you. He separated you unto this gospel,
made you to hear it, and made you to obtain that which he's
given you to seek, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, not
for our works, not because of our will, but because of him.
Like he says in John chapter 1, that it's It's not of blood,
it's not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God that showeth mercy. And what he's saying there, that
if anyone does receive, if anyone is born again, it's because God
gave them power to become the sons of God. He gave them power. He separated them and brought
them under the gospel and made it effectual to their hearts
to the obtaining of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's none like
that word. Paul said to Timothy, preach
the word. I charge you, Timothy, preach the word. Why? Because
we know God is going to take that word and make it effectual
to the hearts of his people. He's going to seek them out.
Many are going to hear, but he'll make it effectual to whom he
will. Preach the word, because there's none like that word.
Give it me. That's what you want to hear.
Give me that word that declares a salvation, not of what I need
to do. I've been whipped, beaten, put down, destroyed, and in my
own works telling me I've not done it. I've not done enough.
You're right. You haven't. And I haven't either. But Christ
has. Christ has done it all. Come
to him. Flee to him. Fly to him, there's
none like that Savior, give it me. And what those men on the
road to Emmaus, what did they say after Christ when he broke
bread unto them? And they didn't recognize him
until he broke bread and gave it to them. And then their eyes
were open, and they recognized him, and then he disappeared
out of their sight. What did they say? They said
in Luke 24, 32, they said one to another, did not our hearts
burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while
he opened unto us the scriptures? Doesn't he make it precious to
you, child of God, that his word is a burning, a warmth in your
heart? Lord, that's the salvation I
need. Lord, give me this word. Lord,
feed me. Lord, plunge me under the blood
of Christ. Establish me in that covenant.
Your heart is warmed by his grace, warmed by him. And what did they
hear from Christ? What did Christ preach to them?
Christ preached Christ. It says, and beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he preached unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. That's what we want to hear.
You that are children of God, you want to hear Christ. You
need Christ. You need his salvation. There's
none like that. Give it me. Give it me, Lord. Bring me under the blood of Christ. That's why Christ said to the
Jews before his death, that was after his death, but before it,
he said in John 5, 39, search the scriptures. For in them ye
think ye have eternal life. Isn't that what we do? What we
did when we sought the Lord by nature in the flesh? This is
my how-to manual. This is how I get myself saved.
I read this and I do what it says. But thankfully, the Lord
gave us no satisfaction in that. And we kept looking, and kept
searching, and kept seeking by His grace. And he said, you search
him thinking you have eternal life in these, but these are
they which testify of me. They're speaking of me. And he
brings his child to see it's Christ. Christ has accomplished
it. Christ has done all the work.
There's no savior like that savior. There's no word like that word.
There's no salvation like that salvation. Give it me. give it
me. That's what I want. And so this
is what the children of God must hear, what we want to hear, what
we desire to hear. We've heard all the others before
and it did nothing for us but put us under a pile of rocks.
and weigh us down with a burden that we could not bear until
the Lord lifted up the head and caused us to see Christ, what
He accomplished, seated on the throne, risen from the dead now,
having accomplished our salvation, and the burden of sin rolls off,
rolls off by the grace and power of God, taken by Him. And so,
brethren, all the fruits of this salvation He bears in us, right? Someone might say, well, what
about faith? Don't I have to have faith in Christ? Don't I
have to hope in Christ? Don't I have to love Christ?
Those are all fruits which he bears in you. That's the adorning
of his grace. He gives faith to his child. He gives hope to his child. He
gives life to you because Christ first loved you. And he bears
these fruits in you. We don't bring these things forth.
We don't have the power or the ability to bring these things
forth. He does. He works it in you,
brethren. And so we need that life. Of
which he spoke, he said, If any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And these are all the fruits
of the new man of the spirit, strengthening the new man, adorning
us in the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, I
am come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. There is none like that life.
Give it me, Lord. I don't have life in what I've
done. Give me your life. That's the life we need. And
then he's the one that gives us faith, that true saving faith
that's not of this flesh. This flesh has no saving faith. This flesh has no spiritual life. We don't know how to worship
God in spirit and in truth. in this flesh. We have no idea.
We don't bring that forth. He brings forth that faith. There's none like that faith.
Give it me. Give me that faith which you
give by your grace. Give me that faith, Lord, that
I may lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to 2 Peter
1. 2 Peter 1. Verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained. They didn't
bring it forth. They've obtained like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. This is not the product of the
flesh. It's obtained. It's given to us. Verse two and
three, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge
of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Does faith pertain unto life
and godliness? You bet it does, it sure does.
He's given it to you, because He's the one who gives all things
that pertain unto life and godliness. Our faith, our hope, our life,
our love, our joy, our rejoicing, our obedience, our walk, everything
that we do is given to us by Him, in Him, unto the praise
and glory of His name, and that hope He's given us that hope,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. As an anchor of the
soul, anchored into him who's gone before us into the veil,
and we trust that he's bringing us right through it too. He's
keeping us. We shall be with him forever.
There's no hope. There's nothing like that hope.
Lord, give it me. Give it me. And so brethren,
everything you need. Rejoice in the Lord. I pray he
warms your heart, blesses your heart, rejoices your heart to
see in that sword, as David saw, there's none like that. give it me and it delights the
father to give you the kingdom to give you all that christ has
obtained for us it delights him because it glorifies the son
and he glorifies the son and in our hearts brethren i pray
he we continue to bless that word to your hearts and rejoice
you in christ amen