Turn with me to 1 Samuel 17. After David slew Goliath, we're
told in verse 52 and 53, that the men of Israel and of Judah
rose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines until thou come
to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of
the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaarim, even unto
Gath and unto Ekron. And the children of Israel returned
from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents. Now, these scriptures here remind
me just of how short, how brief our lives are. Our lives are
but a vapor. They're gone. Our days pass quickly. All of us here, us adults here,
can remember when we were your age. It comes and goes very,
very quickly. And Goliath and the Philistine
army, they were very boastful at first. They seemed very confident
in their strength. They were very confident in their
heroes and their mighty men. And they boasted themselves over
the army of God. They defied the armies of God. And that means to be very boastful,
very arrogant, very presumptive. what they thought they would
be able to do against God's people. But it was one very quick, very
short battle, and Goliath, their hero, their champion, was dead.
He was dead. It was over very quickly. God's
hand of providence guided the stone from David's sling, and
it found its mark in a very small opening, or perhaps he took off
his helmet or raised the visor or whatever it was, but it was
a very small spot. But the Lord's hand guided that
stone, and it struck his forehead and sunk into his forehead so
that he fell upon his face to the earth. And then David had
time to remove his sword and remove his head from him. And
Goliath was dead. He was dead. We see from this just how that
the Lord's word is true, right? That the wicked is taken in his
own, in the works of his own hand. He's taken in his own snare. He thought he would use that
sword against his enemies, but the sword of his own, his own
sword was used against him and it took his life. So what looked
like David's certain destruction, it resulted in Goliath's death. And we see there how that death
is swallowed up in victory. We see an example of how death
is swallowed up in victory. That should have been David according
to man's wisdom and man's strength and man's abilities. David should
have been the one who lay dead there in the valley, but it was
Goliath instead, the mighty warrior. And so we see that immediately
all the Philistines of the army, their soldiers saw this, with
great surprise I'm sure, and they realized, let's get out
of here, because our champion is gone. Let's turn and tuck
tail and run. It says in verse 54, and David
took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem.
But he put his armor in his tent. Now, this whole passage we've
seen is a picture of Christ's victory over our enemies, over
His enemy and our enemies, because we're one with Christ. We're
His people. So His enemies are our enemies, and our enemies
are His enemies, because we're one with Christ. We're the body
of Christ. And so this picture foreshadows
what our Lord did to our great foe, our enemy, the devil, when
he conquered him and spoiled his house. He spoiled his house. You know, Luke chapter 11 speaks
of this. In Luke chapter 11, In verses
21 and 22, our Lord speaking said, when a strong man armed
keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. And you can picture
Goliath there, all decked out in his armor, pacing around,
looking mighty and strong, boasting and terrifying the Israeli army,
the army of the Israelites. And they were afraid. They were
in terror. They were kept there, afraid
and in terror, and didn't move. But our Lord says, when a stronger
than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from
him all his armor. wherein he trusted, and divideth
his spoils." And we're told David put the armor of Goliath in his
tent. He took his armor and Israel
spoiled their tents. They spoiled the tents of their
enemies. Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ subdued our enemy. He bruised his head. He shall
shortly crush his head entirely once and for all. But in the
meantime, he bound him. He defeated him. He bound him,
went into his house, and plundered him. He pillaged him. He took
from him those precious spoils. He took from him his beloved
people, those that were given to him of the father before the
foundation of the world. Christ took out all his people
and delivered them from the hand of our enemy so that we are Christ's
inheritance and Christ is our inheritance. He's our life, our
light, our all. Now, in verse 55 and 56, when
Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto
Abner, that's his captain, the captain of the host, Abner, whose
son is this youth? And Abner said, as thy soul liveth,
O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, inquire thou
whose son the stripling is. Find out whose son he is. Now
this is a question which has perplexed a lot of commentators
that I read because they felt like, well, Saul should have
known who David was. After all, there was a time when
Saul was troubled, and he was still troubled, and they brought
David in because he was very good with the harp and played
beautiful music, godly music, and it comforted Saul. And so
he knew who David was. He sent to Jesse the Bethlehemite
to retrieve his son. But there's probably a lot of
reasons why Saul wasn't thinking of who this David was. I mean,
there's a lot of people in court. There's a lot of people that
come and go. I mean, there's many reasons and excuses, and
I'm not going to try and figure out what all those reasons are.
For me, what I want to know is how does this picture Christ? How does this speak of Christ?
How does this reveal Christ to us? Because we know it does. We know that Everything here
about David and what he's done is pointing us and revealing
to us the truth of God concerning his darling son Jesus Christ
whom he sent. That's what we want to know.
Now one of the great controversies of our Lord is who he was. Is this Jesus of Nazareth the
Christ or is he not? Is he the Christ or no? Is he
Joseph the carpenter's son or is he the son of God? Is he Joseph
the carpenter's son or is he the son of God? How are we to
know? We know that he spoke like the
Christ. We know that he did works that
only the Christ should have been able to do. because God had sent
him. But what is the testimony of
the Lord? What does his word say? Well, first let's consider
what happened when Nicodemus came to the Lord. Nicodemus was
a Pharisee, but the Lord was clearly doing a work on this
man. Nicodemus came to the Lord by
night, and he said unto him in John 3, verse 2, Rabbi, teacher,
master, We know that thou art a teacher come from God. For
no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be
with him. And I love our Lord's response
to him. He said, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus was seeing
the kingdom of God. Nicodemus still had a lot of
darkness, and he was ignorant about a great many things, but
he said, we know that God is with you, because no man can
do these things except God be with him. And our Lord pointed
out this fact. Well, let me just tell you right
now, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. And what you're saying is something that can only be said
by the grace and power of God, Nicodemus. Now he taught him. He taught him more. And he said
things very plainly that Nicodemus needed to hear. He told him,
ye must be born again, because he had to hear that. And we have
to hear that. But it's a mercy. Our Lord teaches
us what he is already revealing and teaching in his people. He
makes sure that we know and understand who the true and living God,
because it's not an intellectual understanding. Salvation is not
a thing of the intellect. It's not about how smart you
are, how intelligent you are, how well you reason and can understand
logic and things like that. Salvation is a spiritual work
of God done in His people. Thankfully, Fools and ignorance
and illogical people and emotional people can be saved because it's
God's power. Because that describes a lot
of us. Many of us are base and weak and poor and cast off, make
bad decisions, mess things up, make a mess of things, and yet
the Lord chooses his people and calls his people out from that
bunch. That weak bunch. There are some
that are very smart and some that are rich and some that are
influential, but most of us, that's not us. That's not me. That's not me. So thankfully,
the Lord is very kind and very gracious to those that are weak
and poor and base and not mighty and don't have a lot. The Lord
is very kind. Except a man be born again, he
cannot know who Christ is and believe him to the saving of
his soul. But when God gets involved, when
he does a work, oh, there's nothing that can prevent it, nothing
that can stop a child of God from hearing the voice of Christ,
hearing him and believing him and following him. And so you
think of what we learned from Isaac and Ishmael. They were
both sons of Abraham. Ishmael could never inherit the
promise of God given to Abraham. He could never inherit that promise. Why? Because he was born a bond
slave. But Isaac was free-born. And so what the Lord is teaching
us there is it's a matter of birth. It's a matter of birth
that made the whole difference between Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac was free born. Now by nature,
in Adam, we are all born into bondage. Every one of us. This old man does not inherit
the promise. But he that is born again is free born and does inherit
the promise of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why our
Lord says ye must be born again because it's a matter of birth
and that is a blessed, precious privilege, a blessing of the
Lord in the Lord Jesus Christ, given entirely in Him. And so Nicodemus didn't fully
understand what he was confessing when he said, no man can do these
miracles except God be with him. But Nicodemus, if you look, he
proved. that he was born again because
he persevered. He was preserved by God. And
God kept proving and showing that this is one of my children.
And he didn't leave him to fall away and to go into darkness.
Though he had, his confession at that time was but the size
of a little tiny mustard seed. a little tiny grain of a mustard
seed. It was puny. It was small, and
yet it was of the Lord. And God proved that it was of
the Lord. It increased, and it grew, and
that man continued to grow in the grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Eventually, we see him
trying to defend Christ to the other Philistines. What we saw,
he must be born again, is in John 3. But then in John 7, Verse
50 through 52, Nicodemus saith unto them, he that came to Jesus
by night, being one of them, one of the Pharisees, he came
under cover of darkness. He didn't want to be exposed
yet. He didn't want to be exposed, period. But now he's starting
to speak up. Doth our law judge any man before
it hear him and know what he doeth? They answered and said
unto him, art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet. And ultimately, what happened?
When our Lord was crucified, who was it that came and took
the body of Christ? It was Joseph of Arimathea. a
Pharisee, one of them, went to Pilate and begged the body of
Christ and were told that Nicodemus came and helped bury the body.
He brought the spices and helped preserve and bury the body of
Christ. He came out into the open and
more and more confessed Christ. We see the mercy and grace of
God to keep his people, though our confession may be small and
puny at first, Our Lord grows that which is His, and He keeps
His people. I say this about Nicodemus to
encourage him, because we are told of Christ, a bruised reed
shall he not break, and a smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. Our Lord will prove them that
are His. He's going to prove His people
and He's going to reveal and manifest those in whom His grace
is given in time, in His time, in His time. And that's why we're
to be patient and just keep declaring the truth in the face of difficult
and hard times because the Lord will manifest them that are His.
Right? Just as he does it with us. Because
every one of us, if we're honest, can look back and see times in
our lives and hang our heads in shame. How could I think that?
How could I do that? How could I say that? And yet
the Lord didn't smack us and turn us away. He kept us. He humbled us. He chastened us. He taught us. He drew us to Himself
with cords of love and mercy and grace. And He did not turn
us away. He didn't let us go away. He
kept us. That's mercy. That's the grace
of God, what He does for His people. He's very, very merciful. And you that are merciful shall
receive mercy. And it's because He who have
received mercy, because He's humbled every one of us and shown
us that truth. And so we pray and wait upon
the Lord and pray for our brethren and pray for our enemies because
we all were born enemies of the Lord until the Lord was merciful
and gracious to us and began to teach us and patiently continue
to preach the gospel to us to and blessed us to hear, to hear
Christ, to hear his word. I believe that's what Paul was
saying when he said, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. When did Paul say that? What
epistle was that written in? Philippians, Philippians chapter
two. It was in the context of confessing
Christ. It was in the context of confessing
Christ. He had said that every tongue,
there's a day, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in
my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your salvation with fear and trembling. Because, for it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do, of His good
pleasure. It's of the Lord. Just stay upon
Christ. Keep hearing His Word. Encourage
your brethren to hear His Word and stay upon Him because He's
growing us and keeping us and teaching us and revealing Himself
in His people to the glory and praise of His name and it's for
our blessing. It's for our good. And so he
says these words to you that are faint, like we saw, what
was that, Gideon's men, faint yet pursuing, faint yet pursuing. That describes the Lord's people,
the Lord's people. So Christ's people, they endure
to the end, and it's a walk by faith. We don't always see what
we think we should see, but it's a walk by faith, sometimes through
the valley of the shadow of death. sometimes through great difficulties
and hardships, sometimes through great opposition, sometimes with
the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raised it the dead. And so the Lord does that
to the glory and praise of His name. And so we continue in the
Lord by His grace and we see His hand working out our salvation
in us with fear and tremble, but it's all of the Lord, all
of his grace. Now, we do see that there were
many people who did struggle, right? When Christ was here in
the flesh, they struggled with who he was, with who he was,
and some of them perhaps never believed on Christ again. It
says in Matthew 13, verse 54 and following, it says, when
he was coming to his own country, This would be in Galilee near
Nazareth there. He taught them in their synagogue
insomuch that they were astonished and said, whence hath this man
this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's
son? Is not his mother called Mary
and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his
sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man
all these things? Did they believe on him? No.
They were offended in him, it says. They were offended in him. They found an acceptable excuse
for themselves, and that little brief taste, which they heard
for a brief time, and they were astonished by it, and yet they
found an excuse to reject him. They cast him off. They stumbled
over him. Another one is in John chapter 7 verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. But this spake he of the spirit
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Now this brings us back to what
we saw with Nicodemus. Our Lord is teaching us throughout
the scriptures, ye must be born again. You must be born again. That you must be regenerated
by the Spirit of God. That's what he's saying. We need
the Spirit of our God. to come to us and to teach us
Christ, to show us these things to us in our heart. And we're
born again by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We're given spiritual
life because we're born in bondage and spiritual death. But when
we're born again by the grace of God, we are free-born. with
the Spirit of God, to see Christ, to hear the voice of the Son
of God, and to believe Him, to follow Him out of that bondage
and darkness, and to go wherever He leads us. Many of the people,
therefore, this is John 7, verse 40. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying said of a truth, this is the prophet,
they thought that he was like John the Baptist. They must have
missed John the Baptist. They thought he was the prophet.
Others said, this is the Christ. We've already seen the prophet.
It was John Baptist. This is the Christ. But some
said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture
said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out of the
town of Bethlehem where David was? So there was a division
among the people because of him. And so the very fact that our
Lord was raised from a child about two years old, sometime in his early youth,
when his parents came up from Egypt and they went and settled
down in Galilee where Joseph was originally from, and he was
raised there in Galilee, well that proved, his whole life there
proved to be a parable to many. who heard him speak and saw his
miracles, but they kept saying, I don't get it. He's from Galilee.
There's no prophet that comes from Galilee. How can this be? And so they stumbled. It was
a stumbling stone for many because it was kept hidden from their
understanding. They didn't understand. They
didn't know. And the Lord suffers many temptations and hardships
for us that do cause us to question. We do question. Sometimes we
do wonder why certain things happen or why certain things
work a certain way and don't work The way that we think they
should and that causes many to stumble and fall but for the
Lord's people it it it gives us patience and experience and
and shows us the truth of God, because we see that the Lord
is in control, in perfect control of all things, and He keeps us,
and He gives us just what we need, but it's a blessed walk
of faith. It's a walk of faith. That's
why we don't always see things as we think we should in the
flesh, because the Lord is teaching us by faith that He is the true
and living God. And so that's why things work
the way they work. And that's why the Lord sometimes
doesn't answer us right away, because He's growing us in experience
and patience, and He's stretching us in His grace and confidence
in Him, and having no confidence in the flesh. But He does it.
So you that believe and who continue seeking Him, to know Him, He
says this, blessed are your eyes, Blessed are your ears for they
hear and your eyes for they see. Because that is a gift of God
by His Spirit giving you life, giving you eyes to see and ears
to hear what the natural man does not hear and see and does
not believe. That's a precious gift which
God has given to you. That's why you stay upon Him
and you follow Him and you trust Him and you believe Him and you
wait upon Him. Blessed are your eyes and blessed
are your ears for they see and they hear what the world does
not. The world doesn't. And so that's
of the Lord's doing, not of our doing, but of his grace. It's
of his grace. Matthew 16, verse 15 through
17, Christ said unto them, his disciples, but whom say ye that
I am? Simon Peter answered and said,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And our Lord
responded, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and
blood hath not revealed this to you, but my Father which is
in heaven. That's why you trust Christ,
you that believe Him. That's why you hope in Him, because
the Father has given you that. He's revealed it to you. He's
given you the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to give you life. and
to deliver you from the darkness and the death of this world,
the body of sin, the bondage in the house of the devil, kept
it shut up and locked up by him, and he's delivered you. He's
pillaged and spoiled his house and plundered him and took out
the precious things that the father had given him before the
foundation of the world, his people, his people. Now, you
know, as soon as Saul asked David whose son he was, David answered
him in 1 Samuel 1758. He said, I am the son of thy
servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. You know, we don't read of the
people ever inquiring, Lord, can you explain this? It says
that the Christ will be born in Bethlehem of the seed of David.
Why are you from Galilee? We don't ever read the people,
the general people. I'm sure that the disciples ask
it because they tell us. They explain it in the Gospels.
They actually reveal that mystery there to us so that we know,
oh, he is the son of David. He was, according to the flesh,
he is the son of David. He was born in Bethlehem. But the Pharisees and those that
were in charge, they didn't want to know. They didn't want this
truth to come to light. They were envious of him. They
were jealous of him. They didn't like the fact that
the people rejoiced in him and heard him gladly and didn't hear
them. And that their teachings were
nothing compared to Christ's teachings. And their works had
nothing on what Christ was able to do. And they were jealous
about that. Even Pilate knew that for envy
they had delivered him to Pilate to be crucified. He knew it. He saw right through them. And
this typifies what we see here with David and Saul. We're told
that Saul wasn't long before Saul became jealous of David. Because as they returned from
the battle with the Philistines, the women came out dancing and
singing, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his
ten thousands. And that angered Saul. He was
full of wrath for that. He was jealous of David, that
they ascribed all that to David. And David said, what more can
he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that
day forward." Now envying and hatred, that's a work of the
flesh. You use that hate? and envy and are jealous, that's
of the flesh, right? Despising others for what they
have, right? Coveting what they have. That's
a work of the flesh. That's not fruit of the spirit. Without the fruit of the Holy
Spirit born in us, we would have no love for the truth. Without
the fruit of the spirit, we would have no love for Christ and for
his people. We would have no love there.
We would have no hunger or thirst for righteousness. Turn over
with me to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. Picking up in verse 1, Peter says, wherefore? laying
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies,
and all evil speakings. Why? Well, those are works of
the flesh. We know those. They're in our
flesh. Lay those things aside, he says.
As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may
grow thereby, if so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious. to whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. And so where the Spirit of God
is sent by the Father and the Son, where the Spirit of God
is sent, there will be a turning in the Lord's people. There will
be a birth. There will be the fruits of His grace so that we
are turned from the love of this world, and turned from the works
of this flesh by His grace to desire and hunger to serve Him
according to the fruits of the Spirit. He works that in us.
He makes us to desire Him, to hunger and thirst for His righteousness,
to cry out to Him, Abba, Father, save me, Lord, help me. And as
we see this flesh, because this flesh, it doesn't change. This flesh doesn't get better
and better. But the new man is strengthened in us, and encouraged
in us, and taught by the grace of God, and fed and kept by the
grace of God, so that in the new man, more and more, we see
the folly of this flesh, the death of this world, and desire
more and more to know Christ, and to be with Him, and for Him
to be with us, and for us to know His presence. And for us
to walk by faith and to walk in love and to serve one another
in love, he gives that. But that's not something that
we can accomplish or do by discipline or under the law, but by his
grace and by his spirit so that we desire him and hunger him
and want to serve him in love and in truth. And so He does
that. And so our God does that work
in us, and we desire Him to, Lord, save me. Lord, cleanse
me of my sin. Lord, keep my heart. Lord, keep
my thoughts on pure things, on blessed things, on the things
of Your Word, and how to serve Your people in faithfulness and
in truth. 1 Peter 2, 7 and 8, Unto you,
therefore, which believe He is precious, but unto them which
be disobedient, meaning unto those who do not believe Christ. That's what disobedience is.
Obedience is faith in Christ, trusting that Christ is my salvation. He is my acceptance with the
Father. He is my righteousness. That's
obedience. And so disobedience is not believing
Christ is all, not believing that Christ is my acceptance
with the Father, looking to my hands and my works to do something
that, for some wicked reason, I don't believe Christ is able
to do it in me. He keeps us looking to Christ. The stone which the
builders disallowed, that is said, nope, we don't like that
one. We're not satisfied with that.
And they threw it aside. Well, the same is made the head
of the corner. He's God's choosing, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the capstone. He's the primary
stone, the one thing needful. Without him, the whole house
falls apart, falls apart. He's a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed, so that they
were right where that God had appointed them to be. That where
God had ordained them to be for their sin and their iniquity
in Adam. And it's that hatred that we were all born into in
Adam that the Lord graciously saved us out of and delivered
us from. Because we weren't ordained and
appointed to that. We were ordained and appointed
to the loving arms of Christ our Savior, of our husband, of
our friend, as his inheritance. That is the grace of God. Because
we see left to ourselves, that's me. That disobedience, that trusting
this flesh, that doing what I would do, that's the flesh. And that's what all men and women
are left to themselves. We're just Esau's, content with
what we got in the flesh. But by grace, we are made Jacob's,
so that he calls us and delivers us into the arms of Christ. And
Christ comes and saves us and delivers us into the presence
of our holy God, to know him, to be accepted of him, and to
be found faultless in the righteous robe of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're saved in him. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that
ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. And so by his grace we
show forth the praises of God, again confessing that Christ
is all, and seeing how He does this work in us, and how He saved
me here, and here, and again, and again, and again, He kept
me. And I'm sure there's many times
we miss it entirely, and yet He's very gracious, very patient
to keep us, and to turn our eyes to Christ, and to find that He
is all, our all in all, and we praise Him, Just like I'm doing
here before my brethren, the Lord's people, just giving glory
to God, giving glory to Christ, thanking Him for your salvation,
thanking Him for my salvation, because it's all of grace. It's
all of His grace. Which in time past were not a
people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Believe God, who has witnessed
to us, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. That is the testament. That's
who this son is. Whose son is he? He is the son
of the Father. And the Father sent him to take
upon him this flesh, and yet he is without sin. He came and
perfectly fulfilled the law and established our righteousness
and keeping the law. There's no fault found in him.
There's no guile found in his mouth. He is perfect, spotless,
holy, blameless, the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin
of his people scattered throughout the world, Jew and Gentile, by
sacrificing himself on the cross to the Father as the substitute
of his people to deliver us from the just hand of God, to deliver
us from that curse and set us free. Not free to do what this
flesh would do, but now given liberty as the sons and daughters
of God to hear His voice. to see Christ, to be led out
by Him, and to go with joy and rejoicing and gladness in what
Christ has done. It's a work of His grace. It's
His power. It's His glory. To the praise
and honor of His name, He has done it all, brethren. And so,
even though our faith was tiny to begin with, and He has kept
it and grown it patiently, carefully keeping us all along just as
Nicodemus was to the praise of his name he he preserves us and
keeps us and so I pray that that he comfort your hearts to know
that this is not the the son of of the carpenter joseph the
carpenter according to the flesh this is the very son of god sent
to save his people from their sins amen