All right, let's turn back to
the book of 1 Samuel. We'll be looking at chapter 17. We'll begin looking at chapter
17 tonight. There's 50 some verses, I think
58 verses altogether in this chapter, so I'm certainly not
going to try to cover them all in one message, but we can cover
quite a few because this is a lot of history, but I've entitled
this message tonight, The shepherd in the cause of Christ. The shepherd
in the cause of Christ. Now, you know, David is the shepherd.
As he is a shepherd, he is a type of our Lord, the Great Shepherd,
the Good Shepherd. And so we're going to be talking
about David, the shepherd, who stands against the enemies of
Israel in the cause of God's glory, in the cause of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, as we look at chapter 17,
perhaps, you know, there's no Old Testament story that's generated
more interest in people than the story of David and Goliath.
Most of you are very familiar with it, probably taught it from
your youth up, read the story. It ranks up there with Noah and
the Ark, Jonah and the Whale, David and Goliath. We go right
on and we've read it. We're familiar with some of it,
maybe not all of it. And children particularly have
been drawn to this story because the hero here is a young man
named David, although he's probably older than what most people think.
He's about 20 years old when this comes along. So he's not
a teenager or he's not a boy. He's a 20-year-old man. But he
is young. And he's younger than his older
brothers, we'll see. And he's the youngest of eight
brothers. this the storyline of david and goliath is classic
and people love this kind of story because here you have a
uh... ill-equipped uh... underdog uh... and and uh... he wins a great
victory over a bigger much more superior more powerful evil bully
and people love that kind of story don't you know i mean i
love to watch a lot of times i like to watch these sports
movies where you have some little fella, you know, nobody thinks
he can do anything and he comes up and he's the hero of the game
and we all just get emotional over things like that. We like
that kind of a story. The underdog. And we a lot of
times, if it's not our team, we root for the underdog. So
that has a draw to it there. It has a moral. There's a moral
to the story. Most people, most view this story
as merely a moral story. And it does have a moral. It
has to do with courage, standing firm in courage. Many people
will use the term slaying our giants when they come to this
story. Facing, there's a popular book
and a movie out called Facing Your Giants. You've got to face
the giants of your life. And they take that from the story
of David and Goliath. And this, so it has a moral.
There are moral lessons here for the people of God. And I'm
not against those moral lessons. We're going to talk about them.
But that's not the main lesson of the story of David and Goliath. The main lesson of the story
of David and Goliath is as it illustrates in pictures, our
great shepherd standing against the giant of sin and Satan in
the world and delivering his people by redemption through
his blood. That's what this picture And
that's why I called it the shepherd in the cause of Christ. But the
moral of the story is still there. It shows us that God most certainly
empowers and uses mightily anyone who submits themselves completely
to the Lord and places their complete trust in Him. We're
to trust in the Lord at all times, in all situations, whether we're
facing a giant or whatever situation it is. How many times we read
in the Bible Scriptures like this one in Proverbs chapter
3 and verse 5 where it says, trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Well, that's
a lesson for us. But this mainly, this is a story
of redemption. It's a story of salvation. It's
a picture that finds its fulfillment in the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. And we can, as we can and should,
learn things of morality, but the main lesson here, let's keep
in mind, is Christ, the greater son of David, slain the giant
of sin and the curse of the law against us on the cross of Calvary.
And we once again see how David is a type of Christ here officially,
officially, as he is the king of Israel. He's the anointed
king. He's not yet taken his place as king. He doesn't do
that until later on. But he has been anointed king.
Saul has been rejected. David has been anointed. And
David is a type of Christ in that official capacity as the
king of Israel. And he pictures and typifies
our Savior who is the king of kings and the Lord of lords,
the king of spiritual Israel. But now, David in his personal
life, we can learn many things that we should do as believers.
We're going to see later on as we go through the life of David
that there's things we need to avoid, not to be followed in
some things. But those stories are there.
But let's just start with verse 1 of chapter 17. Let's go through
it. I want to give you several things.
I'm going to read through these scriptures and then we'll stop
and make a comment where we need to. But here, the first thing
The first thing that is just brought out is simply the place
of battle here. Look at it, verse 1 of chapter
17. Now, the Philistines gathered
together their armies to battle and were gathered together at
Shoko, which belonged to Judah. This is a land that belongs to
the tribe of Judah, specifically. And they pitched, that is, their
tents, their camp, between Shoko and Azekah. Ephesdamim. And it says, And Saul and the
men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of
Elah. And they set the battle in array
against the Philistines." The picture here is two armies on
two hills, opposite hills, with a great gulf in between. It says,
verse 3, And the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side,
and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and there
was a valley between them. And there going back and forth
at each other, hollering at each other. That's the array. The
Philistines were always warring against Israel. They were a thorn
in Israel's side for years. And here they are about 17 miles
southwest of Jerusalem, the capital city where the king lived. Now
you know the Philistines, you've seen You've seen them before
in the book of Judges, how Samson defeated the Philistines. But
they were constantly plaguing Israel. Sometimes I look at the
Philistines in the Bible and I see them almost like a type
of the remaining ever-present sin that we have to deal with
day by day. It's almost like you could say
like this, Egypt was a type of the bondage of sin from which
we were delivered by the blood of Christ through the Red Sea
of His blood. Well, the Philistines may be
a type of the ever-present sin that always plagues us throughout
our lives until we die and go to be with the Lord. That's a
condition that will never rise above in this life. But as we
come to this particular story, David, who is going to stand
against this Philistine giant named Goliath, it's a picture
of the cross, I believe, a picture of the battle that is fought
by our Savior at the cross. Look at verse 4. Now, here's
the next thing that comes along. The challenge of pride and unbelief. And I want you to see here that
any time a sinner does not believe and respect and regard and worship
the living God in His way, the way of God now, God's way, that
sinner is expressing pride, self-righteousness, and certainly unbelief. Look
at verse 4, it says, And there went out a champion out of the
camp of the Philistines, named Goliath. Now that word champion
there literally means the man between the two. The man between
the two. So he's like a mediator. In other
words, he's the one who's going to stand for them. His name was
Goliath of Gath, one of the major cities of the areas where the
Philistines lived. His height was about six cubits
and a span, about nine feet nine, most scholars say. So he's a
pretty big guy. And so in verse five, it says,
and he had a helmet of brass to describe his armor. He's a
very formidable opponent. Somebody that when you look at
him, you say, there's no way I can defeat that fellow. He's
got a helmet of brass upon his head. You know, brass is a picture
of God's judgment. That's what he's about to receive.
You see this in the mystery here. And it says, and he was armed
with a coat of mail. The weight of the coat was 5,000
shekels of brass, about 125 pounds. He had greaves of brass upon
his legs, like shin guards. A target of brass between his
shoulders, like a chest piece and a back piece. And the staff
of his spear was like a weaver's beam. That's how big it was.
And his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron,
and one bearing a shield went before him." This fellow is something
to see here. See, and it says, look at verse
8. Now here's what I want you to see. It says, "...and he stood,
and he cried unto the armies of Israel, and he said unto them,
Why are you come out to set your battle in a rage? Am not I a Philistine, and you
servants of Saul?" Choose you a man for you, let him come down
to me." Now, notice how Goliath addressed him. He didn't say,
you servants of God. He didn't say, you servants of
the true and living God. He said, you servants of Saul. That's that there's a difference.
And I believe that's indicative of the degeneration of Israel
under Saul. They have lost their identity
and their distinction of being the people of the living God. And it was because of their disobedience.
It was because of the unbelief and the disobedience of the king
and the people. And here's how they stand. They
stand there as servants to a man in a man's army. And I'm going
to tell you something. There's no way. There's no way
that the servants of a man in a man's army can defeat Goliath
in the Philistine army. And just like there's no way
that the servant of a man, a servant of the flesh, in a man's army,
in a fleshly army, can defeat sin or Satan. For by deeds of law, I don't
care how big the army is, I don't care how great the man is, no
flesh shall be justified in God's sight. Doesn't matter who you
are. And there's the picture, right
here. And it says here in verse 9, it says, in verse 8, he said,
choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. Choose
you a mediator. Here's the champion, the man
between the two, the mediator, standing as representative of
the army of sin, the army of the Philistines. And he says,
you choose somebody to represent you, And look at verse 9, it
says, "...if he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then
will we be your servants." Very simple. But if I prevail against
him and kill him, then shall you be our servants and serve
us. Now there's the terms. Whoever
wins is going to be served by the losers. Look at verse 10,
though. Now this is a sad commentary
on Saul. and the army of Israel, he says,
and the Philistines said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight
together. Now what we have here is a couple
of things. Number one, we have an illustration of the great
truth of representation that holds up in the Bible all the
way through from Genesis to Revelation and forever and ever. The first
representative was who? the representative of the whole
human race. He fell, we fell, for by one
man sin entered into the world. Our fallen Adam, our ruination
in Adam. This man Goliath and the Philistine
army standing here against King Saul and the Israeli army at
this time, all it is is just a picture of man in a fallen,
desperate, hopeless state. Because really, Really, in that
case, it doesn't matter who wins. Because man fighting man, man
dealing with man's problem, he has no way. But Goliath states
the truth of representation. I'm standing here, and I represent
the army of the Philistines. Now, you choose a man. Now let
me tell you something, that way of representation, that way of
a mediator, that way of one for the many is the only, that's
the way we fail and it's the only way that we'll ever be saved.
It's the only way. It's an illustration of something
that man by nature or by his own wisdom could have never come
up with. And that's why, you know, even Okaiapus, you know
when the Lord was on this earth and the Pharisees and the chief
priests were trying to trap him, trying to arrest him, trying
to get him gone. Even Okaithos, that wicked high
priest, do you remember what he said in John 11 and verse
50? He said, it's expedient that one man die for the people. He
was speaking the truth and he didn't even know how far that
reached. You see, by one man, sin entered the world. Well,
by one By one comes justification in life through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the one Savior. He is the
one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now,
there's going to be a Mediator who will stand for Israel. He's
coming. His name is David. But, my friend, that's not the
kind of Mediator we need to stand against all that stands against
us, sin and Satan. We need Christ. We need the God-man
to stand for us. And his one offering for the
people was enough to sanctify us and cleanse us from all sin.
That's the truth. Now, Goliath thinks he's defying
the armies of Israel here. You notice that in verse 10?
He says, I defy the armies of Israel. The problem is, is there
something he doesn't know? And that's this, that he's really,
in reality, defying the living God. And that's his problem. But now there's a greater problem.
Look at verse 11. And here's the third thing. Look
at the fear of Saul and Israel. It says, When Saul and all Israel
heard these words of the Philistines, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid. Remember what I said, Goliath
was ignorant of one great point. He wasn't defying the armies
of Israel. He was defying the God of Israel. You can't separate God from his
people. Just like you can't separate Christ from his church. You defy
the Church of Christ. You're defying Christ Himself.
The Scripture says that. That's why God hates those who
are dividers of brethren. Those who attack brethren. Those
who attack the Church. And that's what delights them.
But what's sad about this is that Saul and the people of Israel,
they too were ignorant of it. They didn't know it either. Here's
where we see one of the many failures of King Saul. You know,
as king of Israel, one of his main duties, in fact, I would
probably say it's his main duty as king of Israel, was to be
a representative of the living God to the people and always
lead the people, be in the forefront, leading the people to trust and
serve and follow God. But he and all the people, they
were dismayed. That means they were confused.
and they were greatly afraid. They had no more knowledge that
Goliath was defying not just them but the living God than
Goliath had. And you see how sad that is.
They were walking by sight, not by faith, not by the Word of
God who made covenant with Israel. They were walking after the flesh
and not after the Spirit. That's what that is. Listen to
the words of King David in the Psalms as he expresses another
idea, another truth, a greater way of looking at things. He
said in Psalm 27 1, we read it, the Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? If the Lord is my light and my
salvation, I don't have to fear men. He says, the Lord is the
strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? He said in
Psalm 56 and verse 4, he wrote this, in God I will praise his
word, in God I have put my trust, I will not fear what flesh can
do unto me. In the book of Hebrews chapter
13 and verse 6, the Apostle Paul records these words, the Lord
is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto me. And of course, we could always
go back to the 23rd Psalm. Verse 4, Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. You know, when he says, yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, our physical
death is included there. And we normally read this at
funerals, but really, That's not where it's really focused.
The shadow of death is what he's speaking of. You walk through
the valley of the shadow of death every day. I do too. We go through
the trials and the darknesses of this life and our own selves,
the things we have to face. These are just shadows of death. Soon, many of us will come to
face actual physical death, and when we walk through that valley.
But either way, whether we're going to live 70 more years or
one more day, when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. God's
with me. Christ is with his people. He'll
never leave us. And his rod and his staff, his
guidance, even his punishment, his chastisement, they comfort
us. His words. So trust not in ourselves,
nor the arm of the flesh." And what's the answer? Keep your
eyes and your mind and your heart focused intently on Christ and
Him crucified. No matter what. No matter what. You say, so-and-so hurt me, or
so-and-so. Keep your eyes focused on Christ. He'll never hurt you. You know
that? He'll never hurt you. Well, look
at the fourth thing here. Look down at verse 12 now. Here's
David, he comes to the camp of Israel. It says here in verse
12, now David was the son of that Ephrathite, that's Bethlehem,
Ephrathah. Some say that Ephrathah was the
county, Bethlehem was the city. I don't think that's true. I
think it was just another name for Bethlehem, but it doesn't
matter. Ephrathite, that's referring to the city of David, his birth,
It's referring to the city of our Lord where he was born. That's
how it all fulfills out. The epithet of Bethlehem, Judah,
the tribe of Judah. You see, everything is fitting
here for the king of Israel, for the true king as ordained
by God and appointed by God. It says he's the son of the man
whose name was Jesse. Remember the root of Jesse, the
branch of Jesse, the grandson of Ruth and Boaz, all of it coming
right down through the line. And he had eight sons, Jesse
had. And the man went among men for an old man in the days of
Saul. What that's simply saying is Jesse was a real old man in
these days, at this time. So immediately after exposing
the fear and unbelief of the king and of the people, we see
God's solution for the whole problem. His shepherd. His shepherd, who he sends down
in the cause of his glory. the shepherd in the cause of
Christ, a picture of Christ. We can quake in fear, we can
see ourselves as defeated, but the only solution to our problem
is what? David's greater son. And he is
the solution to our problem. It's either he himself or his
word. But when he died on that cross,
he solved all of our problems with sin, with Satan, and with
the world as far as condemnation is concerned. And so here we
see David. David is introduced here into
the battle. Verse 13, it says, And the three
eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle.
These were the older children, the older sons. They were warriors. The names of his three sons that
went to the battle were Eliab. You remember him. He was the
first one presented to Samuel. Samuel thought this fellow was
going to be the king, the anointed. And he was the firstborn. Next
to him was Abinadab, and the third was Shammah. You see there
his sons, and it says, and David was the youngest, and the three
eldest followed Saul. David was the youngest. The point
that I believe is being made here is this. In the eyes of
men, David was the least qualified to be a warrior. The three sons,
the three oldest sons. Here's David, 20 years old now.
But the three oldest sons, they followed Saul, they were the
warriors. But David was the youngest, and he's the least qualified."
And I thought about that. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 53.
You know, when the Lord came into this world, He was not accepted
by His brethren. We'll see that in just a moment
again. But as far as His appearance goes, He seemed to be the least
qualified person to the Jews to be the Messiah. And look at
how Isaiah describes him in verse 2 of Isaiah 53. For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant. Now, that doesn't sound like
a great warrior wielding a sword, riding a white horse into the
clouds. See, that's what the Jews expected.
That's what many people today expect as far as a messiah. And he will come in glory and
honor and power the second time to judge his people or to judge
his enemies and to gather his people. But they weren't looking
for a messiah to grow up as a tender plant and as a root out of the
dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire
Him." He's the least qualified, you see. He's despised and rejected
of men. In fact, not only is He least
qualified, He's less than qualified. He's despised and rejected of
men. That's how we, by nature, see
Jesus of Nazareth, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And
we hid our faces from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not. Just like David the shepherd
coming out, his three brothers going before him. There's the
warriors. There's the guys we want to fight for us. Not that
little stripling, not that little youth. He's been out there in
the sheepfold. He's not qualified. Well, he's
the most qualified. And you know what qualified him?
It wasn't his good looks. It wasn't his ruddy complexion. It wasn't his way with words.
It wasn't his skill on the harp. It was, the Lord is with him.
That was his falsification. The Lord is with him. And here's
our Savior coming out of Bethlehem, born in a stable, in a manger. King's trying to kill him. Think about it. Went to Nazareth,
and you know nothing good can come out of Nazareth, and that's
what they said. Nothing good can come out of
that place. least qualified and yet he is the only one who is
qualified for not only is the Lord with him he is the Lord
he's the God man he's God with us he's Emmanuel so you see how
it is everything just taught you it makes you understand and
appreciate when uh when the uh the court of the Jews, the Sadducees,
or the Sanhedrin is what I was trying to think of, when they
said that the disciples had turned the world upside down. And that's
what that means. The one we think is the most
qualified is the least qualified, and the one we think is the least
qualified is the only one who is qualified. And here's the
sentence. Come in the cause of Christ.
David, the youngest of eight sons, but God calls him in Psalm
89, seven. Yeah, I won't turn there and
read it, but you mark that down. You know, in Psalm 89, seven,
God calls David the firstborn. He wasn't the firstborn and far
as far as the birth order. But he's a picture of Christ.
And, you know, Christ is called the firstborn. If creation in
Colossians chapter one, the firstborn among many, He wasn't the very
first one born. He was way down the line, wasn't
he? Cain was the firstborn of all
creation as far as that's concerned. But what does he mean there?
He's not getting things out of order. It's not that the Lord
can't count. He can count. It's the preeminence. It's the
office of the firstborn. It's the place, the spiritual
head. And he calls David that in Psalm 89, 7, and there David's
a type of Christ. Well, our Lord is the firstborn
among many brethren. He has the preeminence in all
things. And so back here in verse 14,
David was the youngest, but I'm going to tell you something.
We're going to see he has the preeminence in this thing. And
why does he have it? Because he's a type of Christ.
He's God's anointed. The Lord is with him. You see
it? Look on, he says in verse 15
there, 1 Samuel 17, he says, but David went and returned from
Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. So apparently David,
when he became a courtier to Saul, he went back and forth,
went to his father's sheep and then he came to Saul when he
was needed. But now here's the fifth thing now, now listen to
this, verse 16, here's the proud unbeliever persecuting God's
people. It says, "...and the Philistine
drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days."
This Goliath, he stood morning and evening for forty days, and
he would talk, you know, he would goad the armies of Israel. Now, you know, forty days is
significant in the Scripture. Forty is symbolic of the number
of trials, or the number of days of the trials that we have here
on earth. We know it rained on the earth
40 days and 40 nights when God brought judgment against the
world. We know Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness at number
40. That's a picture of our walk
on this earth, you see, until the Lord takes us home. We know
the Lord was tempted by the devil on the Mount of Temptation for
40 days and 40 nights. It's a time of trial. It's a
time of proving. And that's what Goliath is doing
here. He's being used of God to try and prove the army of
Israel, King Saul. And you know what it proves?
Let me tell you what the 40 days and nights of the 40 years proves.
Here's what it proves. It proves that we're unworthy,
we're sinful, we're impotent and powerless, and God is everything. Christ is all. And that's what
that 40 40 signifies that 40 days and nights, 40 years of
trial, it proves our faith. Do we trust Christ? That's what
it's about. It's not about how well you go
through it. It's not about how good you are when you come out
of it. It doesn't make you any holier. It doesn't sanctify you. It simply does this. When you
come out of that trial by the grace and mercy of God, are you
clinging to Christ even more? That's what it means about growing
faith, testing faith, proving faith. Because I've told you
all many times that anytime I go through a trial, I'm being honest
with you. I'm not just up here trying to
be a hanged dog preacher or something. I mean, I mean this. I never
feel good about myself going through a trial. Even if I look
good to others, I know my thoughts. I know my doubts. I know my railings
and my murmurings. I know all that stuff. But I
know this, I know this, when I come out of that trial, I know
once more, even fresher, and it's more alive to me, that my
only hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's the issue of these
trials. Now, sometimes these trials expose
false faith. And I believe that's what it's
doing here with King Saul. and much of the army of Israel.
Here is this giant out here. But now look at the sixth thing.
Look at verse 17. Here is David sent with gifts.
Now this is a beautiful picture here. Look here, verse 17. He
says, And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren
an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves and run
to the camp to thy brethren, and carry these ten cheeses unto
the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare,"
find out how they're doing, and take their pledge, what they're
intended to do. So Jesse sends David to the camp
with gifts. Boy, I tell you, that's what
we needed. There's a picture of Christ. God the Father sent
His Son into the world, but He sent Him with gifts. That's right,
I think about our Lord standing there speaking at the adulterous
woman at the well and you remember he said if thou knewest the gift
of God. Do you know the gift of God?
Romans 515 and verse 17 speaks of the free gift and the gift
of righteousness. That's what we have the gift
of God and then Romans 832 speaks of Christ himself. As a gift
from God, he that spared not his own son. But but send him
into the world. How shall he not with him freely
give us all things? He is our gift and with him we
have all gifts. The gifts of salvation, the gift
of life, the gift of righteousness, the gift of forgiveness. It's
all a gift. And we're not worthy. And we
don't deserve it. And we didn't earn it. David
come in with gifts, our Savior, his gift to us, all of salvation,
blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Look at verse
19. He says, he says, Now Saul and
they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah fighting
with the Philistines. And David rose up early in the
morning and he left the sheep with a keeper and took and went
and as Jesse had commanded him and he came to the trench as
the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines
had put the battle in array, army against army." Now mainly
what's going on is they're just jawing back and forth at each
other. They're not actually fighting, but they're preparing for battle.
But look at the seventh thing here in verse 22. Here's what
happens. David comes in with his gifts,
and he goes down there, and he identifies and sides with his
people. Look at verse 22, he says, He
says, And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of
the carriage, that is, what he was carrying to them. And he
ran into the army, and he came and saluted his brethren. You
see that? And as he talked with them, behold,
there came up the champion, the man in the middle, that's Goliath,
the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of
the Philistines. And he spoke according to the
same words, and David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when
they saw the man, they fled from him and were sore afraid." So
notice first here that those who were prepared for battle,
they now ran in fear from Goliath. Someone, I think one commentator
said, they were looking and they said, well, he's too big. He's
too big. We can't defeat him. And David was looking at him
and said, well, he's so big I can't miss him. Kind of like that deal. But David identified with his
people. You see, he took sides with his
people against God. And our Lord identifies with
His people. And aren't you glad? In fact,
He calls them His brethren. And what's amazing, what's amazing
about that is Hebrews chapter 2 says He's not ashamed to call
His brethren. Now that's amazing. Because we've
got a lot to make him ashamed. We've done a lot to make him
ashamed. You know, there are things we do that we're not even
ashamed of. That we should be. That's right. But he's not ashamed to call
us brethren. He identifies with his people.
He identified with us in our name. He's very man of very man without
sin. and in our nature he took upon
himself a human body and soul into union with his divine nature
and he walked this earth and he sat down and he ate and convorted
and discussed and with sinners he identified with us he stood
with us he didn't go to the religious population and identify with
them he didn't he didn't say you fellas are right these old
these old sinners out here we need to just clean it all up
you know start a moral majority He didn't do that. He sat down
and ate with him and got criticized for it. He preached the gospel
of salvation, of God's grace and mercy, which is the only
thing we need. That's our greatest need. Forgiveness
of sins by his blood. Justification before God by his
righteousness. That's what he preached. He said,
I didn't come to call the whole, the righteous. He said, they
don't need a physician. He said, I come to call sinners
to repentance. And He identified with us on
the cross when our sins were laid on His charge, imputed to
Him. He identified with us in full
when He was made sin, Christ who knew no sin. And He identified
with us when He gave us His righteousness to stand before God. He identified
with us. He stood for us as our one mediator,
as our champion, as our charity, as our substitute, as our representative. And He defeated sin by the shedding
of His blood. He defeated Satan by His death. He defeated the curse of the
law by being made a curse for us. He carried our guilt all
the way to the grave. And He arose again the third
day. For our justification, He identified with us. And He sends
His Spirit into our lives to give us life in the new birth.
You know why? So that we'll identify with Him.
And we do. By faith and repentance and love
to Him and to one another. His people. It's what David was
doing here. And here's the men of Israel.
They all fled. They were so afraid, it says.
That's not just a little afraid. That means a lot afraid. They
turn tail and run. Now, you know why? Because they
had their minds on Goliath. They were thinking of Goliath,
not God. They were considering their own
abilities, not God. They were considering their own
determination, not God's promises. What does the Bible tell us?
What does the gospel teach us? Have no confidence in the flesh.
My friend, it's the same in salvation. We rejoice in Christ. God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I have no confidence in the flesh. Look at the eighth thing here.
Now, look at verse 25. David speaks of God's honor.
Isn't this good? How this all works out here,
I mean, how it all just falls in place to the glory of God.
He says in verse 25, and the men of Israel said, have you
seen this man? Now, here's what they're saying. Have you seen
this guy that's come up? Surely to defy Israel has he
come up, and it shall be that the man who killeth him, the
king will enrich him with great riches and will give him his
daughter and make his father's house free in Israel." Now that's
something that Saul must have already said. He said, I'll give
you riches, I'll give you my daughter to marry, and we'll
find out later that's not such a good gift. And then he said,
he said, well it wasn't. And he said, he said, he said,
I'll make you tax free. Could you imagine being tax free?
That's what that means, make you free in the house, your house
free in Israel. You won't have to pay taxes.
So whoever kills this guy. And verse 26, and David spoke
to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done to
the man that killeth this Philistine and who taketh away the reproach
from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that
he should defy the armies of the living God?" Listen to that. Man, I'll tell you, this fellow,
the Lord's with him. Huh? Listen to that. Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine? That's what he said. You see,
the men of Israel, they see it one way. A mighty giant to defy
Israel. But David sees it another way.
You see? He sees it two things here. He
says, this fella is... What does he mean, an uncircumcised
Philistine? Well, you know the covenant of
circumcision that was given to Abraham. Every male in Israel
was to be circumcised on the eighth day. And that was a physical
sign of their identification and part in the covenant. Well,
here's an uncircumcised Philistine. What that means is he has no
part in the covenant. He has no part in the promise,
you see. He's not one of God's covenant
people. He's outside the covenant that
God made with Abraham and the promised blessings of God. Why
should you fear him? He's not even in the covenant.
That's what he's saying. He's a stranger from the promise.
And then, secondly, notice how David puts the matters in their
proper perspective. He's defined the armies of the
living God. That's what he's doing now. He's
not just standing up and bragging. You see, Goliath challenged God,
not men. And David saw it. My friend, what a picture of
our Savior. He came to save his covenant people. You know that? And they're circumcised, not
physically, but in heart and in ears. And that identifies
them with the promises of the blessings of the everlasting
covenant of grace, which terms are preached out in the gospel.
Salvation by free and sovereign grace based on the person and
work of Christ. Totally. And here's this uncircumcised,
don't fear him. You're a child of God. That's
what he's saying. You're in the covenant. Now that
covenant to Israel was a national covenant, had temporal blessings.
And it did work, God promised, and He was for them. But we're
part of an eternal covenant, an everlasting covenant that
was made before the foundation of the world between the Father
and the Son and the Spirit. How do you know you're part of
that covenant? How do you know you're a covenant child of God?
When you believe the gospel. When you come like the public
and say, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's a covenant
child of God, right there. Fall at the feet of Christ and
beg for mercy. And I know you'll get it. Because
he said, Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened unto you. God's mercies, the
covenant mercies of God. Look at the ninth thing here.
Now, David defends the cause of God's glory. Look at verse
28 here. Verse 27, he says, And the people answered him after
this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth
him. Well, look at verse 28. And Eliab, his eldest brother,
heard when he spoke 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,
that's wickedness, of thine heart. For thou art come down, that
thou mightest see the battle." You just come here because you're
curious. That's what Eliab, his oldest brother, say. You see,
David's elder brother rejects him. Well, didn't our Savior's
elder brothers reject him? He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. John 1, 11. But look at David's
reply, verse 29. And David said, what have I now
done? And listen to this. Is there not a cause? Oh, there is a cause. The shepherd
in the cause of Christ. Yes, there's a cause. What is
that cause? I'll tell you exactly. It's the
glory of God Himself. Every attribute engaged in fulfilling
His promise to show His power and His goodness. It's the righteousness,
the justice of God against sin, which the Philistines represent,
and the wages of sin is death. They will get what they deserve,
what they've earned, because they rejected the living God.
And then thirdly, it's the righteousness and justice of God in the salvation
and deliverance of His people, not only in the present Israelites
in that land, but the salvation of His spiritual people through
Christ. God meant to keep that nation together in that land
until the time of Reformation, until the Messiah come and work
out righteousness for His people to enable God to glorify Himself
in the highest, as He said, His Shekinah glory. There is a call. And so David comes before Saul,
look at verse 30, he turned from him toward another and spoke
after the same manner, and the people answered him again after
the former manner. And when the words were heard
which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent
for him. David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because
of him, that is that Philistine, thy servant will go and fight
with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, thou
art not able to go against the Philistine to fight with him,
for thou art but a youth, and he's a man of war from his youth.
You're not able, David. And so, David, let me conclude
with this.