You would turn your Bibles back to 1 Samuel chapter 17. 1 Samuel 17. I'm sure that everyone here has heard the story of David and Goliath before. You don't have to have gone to a church service in your life to have heard of the story of David and Goliath.

This evening, I want to look at this story in a certain way. In doing so, I'm going to do something a little odd to begin. I'm going to ask that everybody use their imagination for a couple minutes. I want to act like all of us in this room are the army of Israel.

Now, I know that some of us are too old, some of us are too young, some of us are too feeble, too weak-minded, whatever it might be. But in this moment, for the next few minutes, I want us all to imagine ourselves as the strongest that we could possibly be. the bravest that we could be. Out of the tens and tens of thousands or the hundreds of thousands of people of our kind, we are the bravest. We have drilled, we have trained, we have prepared our lives for this moment.

As we stand on this mountain, we're wearing our silver helmet that has been shined recently and is glistening in the sun. We're wearing the armor that our family has passed down for generations. We have a shield in front of us that has protected us before and we're depending upon to help us in this battle. And we have a sword at our side. This sword has been passed down from generation to generation, and this is not the first battle that this sword has seen.

As we stand there before this battle begins, our shoulders are high. Our chin is lifted. We're ready to fight for our people. This enemy across the battlefield, there's a great valley and then on the mountain across are the Philistines. We have fought them for generations. They hate us and we hate them. They are pagans. They despise our God. And in this battle, we can never get along with these people and we have to fight. We have no choice. The loser of this battle will die.

And in this moment, as we stand shoulder to shoulder, ready for this war, we look across the field and we see this army standing before us. We're confident. We have to be. And in the midst of this moment, we see some commotion in the middle of their lines. We see a little movement. We're not sure what it is. We're waiting for our commander to give us the go ahead. Do we charge? What's the order?

And as this happens, we're looking and something is coming through the ranks of the Philistines. And as it slowly comes through, we're all looking. It's a distance away, but we can see some movement. We're leaning, kind of looking at our neighbors. Do you know what that is? What is that? And as it makes its way down through the enemy lines, we start to wonder, what is that thing? That's huge.

And as it finally comes through and breaks the front line, as the soldiers in the Philistine army are looking, we hear something. We can't make out what it is. We're murmuring ourselves, trying to figure what it is. And all of a sudden, in a moment, our entire army at the same time realizes, that's a man. He is huge. That's the biggest man I have ever seen. I didn't know someone could be that big. Look at him.

And in this moment, the entire army of Israel, all of us are dead silent. And as we do that, we start to hear the noises coming from that army and we start to be able to pick up what it is. It's faint at first, but we start to hear this Goliath, Goliath. And we start to hear this name that we don't know who it is, but it gets loud. As that name gets loud and we hear Goliath, whole army is chanting this. All of a sudden, our shoulders start to go down a little. Our eyes are not lifted up, but we start to look. The lines start to waver a bit as some people are starting to kind of step back. In that moment, we all realize the Philistines, they have a champion. What is a champion? A champion is one who fights on behalf of someone else. All of us in our silence think to each other, what are we going to do? Do we have a champion?

In what seems probably like an hour, the seconds barely move by. Everyone's scared to look around. Everyone's so fearful to make eye contact with Goliath, fearful that that noise you might make, someone might take it as you are willing to challenge him. You know what's coming. You've heard of this before. But he steps forward and he says, I'm a Philistine. You are the men of Israel. Who of your army will come out and fight me? We don't all need to die. If your man beats me, we will be your slaves. If I beat them, you will be our slaves. I defy the army of Saul right here and now.

In those seconds, we all have the same thought. Is anyone gonna stand up? Is anyone gonna speak? And however long it is, all of a sudden, Goliath stops, turns around, and walks back. All of us, just moments before feeling strong and brave, all the greatest men of Israel, no one stood forward. We had to watch ourselves be embarrassed, called out like that, and no one could make a peep. And he went away, and we thought to ourselves, well, I think we escaped that.

Well, the army's in array again, and guess what happens? That evening, Goliath walks forward again and says the same thing. I defy the armies of Saul, the God of Israel. Will no man come stand and fight? And no one does it. That night we go to bed, waking up in the morning a little more refreshed. The first thing we see is Goliath walking out on the battlefield. For 40 days he does this. Morning and evening and not one single time will a single person of Israel, from the lowest rank man to the highest Saul the king, no one is brave enough to fight against Goliath.

In the picture that we're looking at in this story, the first person I'm going to explain, Goliath here represents sin. It is a great thing to be faced with sin. The bravest, the strongest, the boldest, the biggest talkers, when we are faced with sin and we see what sin is, our sin, we cower in fear. We just do. There are many broad and bold claims that we make as foolish sinners, but when God shows us our sin, we are scared to death. We know that if we make a sound, we are gonna die in that moment because of our sin. We know it. We are so afraid.

The Philistines have a champion. We don't have anybody. What are we gonna do? We need someone to represent us. We need help. I can't imagine the thought of these men for 40 mornings and 40 nights thinking to themselves the whole time, I just want someone to stand up for me and fight this guy. There appears to be no way out of this battle. This is an endless cycle. After 40 days, wouldn't we all just be standing there, going through the motions, putting our armor in the morning, knowing we're going to walk out there to be embarrassed one more time?

Then David shows up. Who sent David? His father sent him. And what did his father send him to do? Go take care of his children. Go provide for his children. David in this story is the Lord Jesus Christ. David comes to this battle. As we all know it, there's no secrets. I don't have to say anything. We don't know what happens in the end. David comes to this battle to save his people. In this moment, David doesn't even know why he's sent there. But David goes and he's sent. He does this. And do you know when he is sent? After 40 days.

40 is used in the scriptures over and over again of the length of a trial. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. The Lord was tempted for 40 days. It's used over and over again. In an appointed time, the father sent the son to go provide and save his people.

When David shows up, he is greeted by the words of Goliath. David gets there, and David comes in, and he's bringing food to his brothers and the men, providing for them, and Goliath stepped forward and says the same thing again. In this moment, David hears it for the first time.

Now, think about this real quick. If you are in a group of five or six people, okay, and someone says something crazy, I mean, ludicrous, just something that you would, if you've, I mean, and they say it and you go, what? And you look around at the group and a couple of the people don't react. What do you know? That they already knew it, right?

David comes to this battle and Goliath says this. defies the God of Israel, defies the army. And David thinks to himself, what did he just say? And he's standing there with his brothers and the soldiers and none of them react. He can't believe it. He immediately says, what is going to happen to this man? What are we going to do to him? Who's going to go down there and fight this guy? And it says here at the end of verse 26, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?

So think about this. We have been standing for 40 mornings and 40 evenings with our armor on, our swords in our sheath, waiting for a battle, and we've not said anything for 80 times, 40 mornings and 40 nights. this young boy that is a teenager. He's young enough that he has seven older brothers. Only three are in the army. So his fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh brothers aren't even old enough to be in the army yet. They project he's somewhere 15, 16, 17. He walks out. Goliath says that. He immediately says, what is going to happen to this man who just said what he said? The first person to speak up and say a word.

And in doing so, Verse 28, let's read these verses. And Eliab, his eldest brother, heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou art come down, that thou mightest see the battle.

The only thing that David does is question who is going to handle this person who has defamed our God. Now, maybe his brother hates him. Maybe his brother is jealous. But when I see this and put myself in this, I think his brothers, along with these other troops, they're embarrassed and ashamed. David just did what they wouldn't do. They would not stand up against this man, this pagan, this heathen who has claimed and said he defies their God.

This is a picture of our Lord and how his family and everyone just despised and rejected him. There's no doubt in this story that David is in the right. David said, we can't let someone talk about our God like this. And instead of saying, you're right, they yell at him and mock him and make fun of him. I find the times in my life that I'm the meanest, the angriest, it's usually to the people I care the most about because they call me out on what I've done.

These brothers have been embarrassed and ashamed for what they've not done. And instead of doing what we should do, we should admit who we are. We should repent. We should beg forgiveness. We stand strong in our sin. That's what we do.

And David said to him in verse 29, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? He says, Is there not a reason to stand up to this? Do we not have a reason to fight? Verse 30 says, And David turned from him toward another. He turned from his brothers and spake after the same manner. And the people answered him again after the former manner.

David looked around after his brothers said what they did. David stood up and said, We have to do something about this. And everyone said, You be quiet. You shut up. And he looked at the other soldiers, is anyone not doing this? In these verses where they say these things about the man who stands up, the man who fights this battle will get all these riches, he'll get this nobility, he'll get the king's daughter, all these things.

How many people think that through bribery, through money, through all these different ways, they can somehow defeat their sin? Saul, the king the people chose, is not brave enough to fight himself. He doesn't have the faith to fight himself. He doesn't have the faith to defend his God. So he offers money to anyone who'll do it for him. Someone please do this. I'll give you my daughter. I'll give you anything you want. I'm not going to fight. Someone else needs to do it. All this.

No one will stand up. What David was saying was so out of the norm that immediately everybody started talking about it. Immediately everyone started being like, This guy seems to think that he can do something. Or he seems to think that we should do something.

In David's actions, when he says, who's going to do something, do you know the mindset he has in this? He thinks to himself, there has to be a line of people who can't wait to go fight this man. He thinks to himself, with the faith that he's been given, he thinks to himself, I can't be the only one. This is the reaction of a child of God. I will defend him. But apart from the faith that the Lord gives us, we will cower, we will kowtow, get out of there, anything we can do. I do not want to face my sin. I don't have faith.

So these words make their way to Saul and Saul sins for him. Okay, verse 32. It says, And David said to Saul, listen to these words, Let no man's heart fail because of Goliath. Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine." David did not go to Saul and say, if you let me, I'll go. If you choose me, I'll go. If you want me, I'll go. David went and said, don't, don't worry. I'll go fight him. He said, I'm going to go fight him.

What is natural man's reaction to this? And Saul said to David, thou are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. For 40 days, no one in his army has been willing to stand up to this man. Someone steps forward and the immediate reaction is, you can't do this.

The title of this message is, we have a champion. In this moment, David says, I will go fight him. When Saul tells him you're not able to go fight, it's because you're just a youth and he a man of war from his youth. Saul gives him reasons why he can't. David in verse 34 said unto Saul, 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 servants slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, saying, He hath defied the armies of the living God.

David said, Moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto him, David, go, and the Lord be with thee."

David's reason for going to fight this, and his confidence says, 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. The faith that he was given, he told this king, he told him, I will go fight. The confidence he has as a young boy, it seems he's never fought another man before. It's the biggest man he's ever seen. But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to him. This is in the same vein of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing before the king in the fiery furnace. He said, we don't think twice about answering you. Our God is able to deliver us. If he chooses not to do so, it's his will. But he can deliver us. He is able to do it.

Okay, verse 38. And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head. Also, he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he said to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them off.

David said, I'm going to go fight him. And Saul said, OK, go. But before you go, let me give you my helmet to protect you. Let me give you my shield for your defense. Let me give you my armor so that you might have a protection from me. Let me give you my sword so my sword will be the one that will slay Goliath. David said, I can't prove any of this. I'm not going to take any of this. Our Lord doesn't need anything from us. There is no part of us that can be proved in any way. Anything we do, our works, our self-righteousness, all of it, when put under the microscope, it will not be proved. It will falter. It will fail. David not only couldn't prove it, he didn't want it. He was not dependent on Saul, this king. He was not dependent on anything he had. He didn't need his weapon. He didn't need anything. He had what the Lord gave him. could not be proved, so he put them off. He would not go without them.

Verse 40, and he took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had, even in a script. And his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.

Let me take a moment here, and I want us to go back to our moment We're all imagining we're the army, okay? It's been 40 days. All this has happened, and we're still standing in our armor right there facing this enemy. The same thing's happening. Goliath is taunting us again.

And this happens, and the phrase there at the end of verse 40 says, And he drew near to the Philistine. So we have the exact opposite scenario that happened 40 days ago. Goliath is standing at the bottom of the hill in the valley. His army of the Philistines is on their mountain, and we are on ours. Shoulder to shoulder, standing there ready, and there's some commotion behind us. Something's happening. We don't know what it is. We're looking around. What's happening? And through the middle of our ranks, starts to wall. Someone threw them. We don't know what's going on. We can't see them. We're looking. We're trying to find them. We can't see them. Soldiers are moving, but we can't see anything.

As soon as it gets closer, you see, who is that? Is that a boy? What is he doing? He doesn't have a helmet on. He doesn't have any armor on. Where's his sword? What's he doing? And as he breaks the lines moving forward, the Philistines on the other side, you can start to hear them laugh, start to hear them mock. Is this really what they're sending to us? Is this the best they've got? I can't imagine they've ever been more confident. They didn't think Israel had a champion that could challenge Goliath. But they see this boy walk out, and they know they don't have a champion to defeat Goliath. They know they have no chance.

And what are we doing? What are we thinking as we see Goliath come out? Remember, our lives are on the line here. This boy's walking out here, and he's going to fight this giant. And if he loses, I'm a slave. These people are going to take everything I have. They might kill me. They'll take my family. All this is going to happen. We may not recover this. The rest of my life, I'll be a slave or be dead. I didn't choose this boy. I don't want this boy to go out here and represent me. I don't care that I've been quiet for 40 days and 40 nights. I don't care that I'm scared to stand up there. I don't care that I'm not able to do it. I don't want this boy to represent me. He can't win this fight. I don't have any faith in this boy. I don't even know his name. I don't know who he is. Where'd he come from? All of that.

Do you know what we didn't know? We don't know that this boy, he's the anointed king chosen by God. This is not some boy. This is the vessel of God. From time began, it was appointed that this boy would come to this field to slay this champion. To show all of these people, I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's okay, to show all of these people here that we have a champion. Israel has the champion. But as he walks out, that's not the way we feel. We're scared to death as he walks down this field.

And as this happens, in verse 41, it says, And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance. Goliath looked at David and thought, This is insult that you would send this boy out here to me. Verse 43, And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I'll give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield, 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 reaction of Goliath and our reaction to one of our own, this is how we act. I mean, how many people are there in this world who have no use for the Lord Jesus Christ. The only time they utter his name is in cursing. It's flipping. They don't care, they have no need, don't believe. And apart from the grace of God, wouldn't we all be that way? We're watching one of our own, the only one in our entire army who has the guts to fight, the guts to stand up, And we curse them and say, I don't want that guy to go fight for me. And then Goliath insults him, says these things.

Verse 46, David continues, this day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand. David says, I'm not, my size doesn't matter, my weapon doesn't matter, nothing matters. He said, the Lord is with me. He said, I shouldn't be here. A lion came and attacked me. But the Lord delivered him to me. A bear did. The Lord delivered me. And the Lord brought me here. And no one's going to defy my God. No one's going to say anything like that. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my 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. And all this assembly, everybody here, shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into his hands."

This whole story, this whole thing, David's age, his size, his weapons, his position, all of it, Goliath's size, his weapons, all of it, all put in place so that everyone can see this moment and think, The only possible way that David wins this is because his God won it. And when we know who we are, when the Lord shows us our sin, we're very aware the only hope we have of any victory is if the Lord Jesus Christ saves us. that in that day of judgment, we don't stand there with our own shield and our sword and our helmet on, thinking we've got to fight something. We just put all our faith in our champion, the one who does the fight for us, the one who would save us.

In verse 48, and it came to pass when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the enemy to meet the Philistine. Against this daunting enemy, David had a ranged weapon, a weapon that he had distance. So the further he was away, and he kept Goliath away, was the best chance for him to win. Goliath has a sword and a spear. The closer he gets, the more dangerous he is. So what does David do? He runs at him. There's no fear here.

David put his hand in his bag, in verse 49, and took thence a stone, and he slain it. and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face to the earth. Just moments ago, we were standing shoulder to shoulder on this mountain, knowing that we were getting ready to lose the battle. And our champion walked down there, and by some miracle, this giant fell. I imagine from the distance it was even hard to know what had happened. I don't know how far away they were, but it probably would have been really hard to see a small stone flung through the air. All they could see was Goliath fall to the ground.

Think about the other side. They were so excited this was going to be over. Their greatest victory was happening right before their eyes. And in a moment, their champion fell. when the Lord Jesus Christ came to the cross, bearing our sins, in a moment that even those who believed on Him didn't understand what was happening. Even though they'd been told, is He going to die? What is He doing? And the Pharisees at the same time and everyone against Him thought, we have won. And in that very moment, In just a moment, everything had been flipped upside down.

All of a sudden, the children of Israel were victorious. Their champion had won the day for them. In the same way, when the Lord died on the cross, He bore our sins and put them away. He conquered over our sin for them never to be heard from again. For us not to have to worry about them, He did all of that. He did it in a moment where we didn't choose Him. We didn't want Him. We didn't like Him. We had no belief whatsoever. But He did it anyway for His chosen people. He did all that.

Verse 50 says, So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smoked the Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled."

So we see that when that stone hit Goliath and he fell, there was a moment where no one knew what had happened. Goliath was dead. The battle was over. But David went up and cut off his head and everyone saw it. Everyone's eyes in that moment were open to see what had just happened. And it says the Philistines fled.

This story for generations has always been described as the greatest underdog story in history. Anytime it happens in sports or in life, somebody comes from nowhere and achieves something great. A team that had no chance of winning somehow won. David beat Goliath. This couldn't be further from the truth. David was anointed by God as the king. Before time began, he was anointed and appointed in this day to slay this enemy. Goliath had no chance.

In the same way that the child of God, in our eyes, do we have any idea? There's no way, there's no way that I could ever be saved. I got no hope, I've got nothing apart from someone fighting for me. I need a representative. I need a savior. I need a champion. I need the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who can do this.

Verse 52, to close this, it says, And the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted. It was just a few minutes ago. that we heard the same thing over and over again for 40 days, the people of the Philistines chanting the name of their champion. But once David had proven to be their champion, what did they do? The men of Israel shouted. I'm not sure how many of them knew David's name. I feel very confident that name was known pretty quick. I don't know if the whole group started doing it, but I feel very confident. David, David, they had a champion who won the battle.

And in that moment, there'll be a day where the children of Israel will all be before their champion. And in the scriptures it says that we can't even comprehend what it is like, what he looks like, his glory. The words can't be uttered. But I feel very confident, very much so, that we will be shouting the name of our champion over and over and over again. The Lord Jesus Christ saved us. To him be the glory. There's nothing else to yell. Nobody in the army of Israel could take any credit for anything.

We had 80 chances to stand up for ourselves, to stand up for our God that we say we believe. 80 chances and we never did it. But there is one who could and there is one who did. I pray that the Lord shows us our sin and shows us our inability to defeat it. And then shows us that there's a champion that the chosen people of God have a great champion. And what a glorious moment. Can you imagine the happiness, the celebration, the victory moment, the moment David went up and won that? It changed in that moment. I feel very confident. I've never had a moment in my life that was anything close to the celebration and the happiness that they felt.

Going from death to life in just a moment because of what someone else did. That's what the chosen people, that's what we have. May the Lord show us that. May he give us that happiness. Maybe give us a little bit in this life. We'll have it in the days to come. We'll have it for eternity, but maybe he gives us just a few moments to glory in. All right.