Good morning. Let's all stand together and sing hymn number 442.

442. Praise Him, praise Him,
Jesus our blessed Redeemer.
Sing, O earth, His wonderful love proclaim.

Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels in glory.
Strength and honor give to His holy name.

Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children.
In His arms, He carries them all day long.
Praise Him, praise Him.
Tell of His excellent greatness.
Praise Him, praise Him.
? Ever in joyful song ?
Praise Him, praise Him
? Jesus our blessed Redeemer ?
For our sins He suffered and bled and died
? He our rock, our hope of eternal salvation Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified.
Sound His praises, Jesus, who bore our sorrows.
Love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong.
Praise Him, praise Him.
tell of his excellent greatness.
Praise him, praise him,
ever in joyful song.
Praise him, praise him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer,
heavenly Jesus savior reigneth forever and ever.

Crown him, crown him, prophet and priest and king.
Christ is coming over the world victorious.

Be seated, we'll sing hymn number 258.

258.

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me.

He hideth my soul
in the cleft of the rock
Where rivers of pleasure I see
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock

that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
Behind it, my life, in the depths of his love,

And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
He taketh my burden away.
He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved.
He giveth me strength past my days.
He hideth my soul. in the cleft of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty lane.
He guided my life in the depths of his love,

and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his hand.

With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
And filled with His fullness divine.
I sing in my rapture, O glory to God,
for such a Redeemer as mine.
He hideth my soul, in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His hand.

When clothed in his brightness transported,
I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky.
His perfect salvation His wonderful love
I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows such dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of his love, and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his hand.

Y'all sound good this morning. Makes me joyful in my heart. When we'll shout with the millions on high, can you imagine what it'll be like? All of his saints praising him at one time.

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, if you would open with me, we'll read 1 Samuel 17, the first 27 verses. 1 Samuel 17. We'll read together the first 27 verses. First Samuel, chapter 17. Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together at Shoko, which belonged to Judah, and pitched between Shoko and Ezekiah and Ephesdamim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah. and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the other side, and Israel stood on a mountain the other side, and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. I don't know the technical details of that, but he was a very, very large man. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. And one bearing a shield went before him.

And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel and said unto them, why are you come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine and you servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall you be our servants and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.

When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they came, excuse me, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

Now David was the son. of Ephrathite, of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse. And he had eight sons. And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab, the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah. And David was the youngest. And the three elders followed Saul. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. 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 they And look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge. 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 left the sheep with the keeper, and took and went, 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, And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and came and saluted his brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines and spake according to the same words. And David heard them.

And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him and were sore afraid, And the men of Israel said, have you seen this man that has come up surely to defy Israel as 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. And David spake to the men that stood by him saying, what shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine and taketh away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine? that he should defy the armies of the living God. And the people answered him after this manner, saying, so shall it be done to the man that killeth him.

Lord God Almighty, our Heavenly Father, you have all power, all might, all righteousness, all wisdom. Father, these are just a few of your perfect attributes. We come to you through your blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you that we are able to come to you. You've given us this great privilege of prayer. We thank you that you have privileged us with hearing your gospel, hearing your word preached, time and time again. We thank you for the privilege of being able to gather when we want and where we want, for the ability to come together to worship you, Lord.

Lord, we thank you for your word as it has been preserved through time. We thank you for the men that you raise up to proclaim it. Lord, we thank you that you have a people, a number that no man can number, Lord, but you know each and every one.

Lord, I ask that you would send your spirit among us today. Allow us to enter into true worship. Lord, if you don't meet with us, we meet in vain. But as you have promised, where one or two are gathered in thy name, Lord, that you would meet with them. So we trust that you will meet with us again today.

Lord, I ask that you would give our dear brother, in his heart and in his mind, the ability to stand here and preach the gospel. I know it's not a light task. Lord, you have to enable the men who stand. I ask that you would bless him as he speaks and bless his word to us.

Lord, there are many who are weak and weary, frailties of this body, of this flesh, these weak minds. Lord, I ask that you would be with them continually be their comfort and their stay. Lord, and that goes for all of us. We need you every moment of every hour of every day. I ask that you leave us not to ourselves, leave us not to this world, but keep us clinging unto thee. Hold us in thy perfect hand.

Lord, I ask that you would cause your gospel to go forth, go across this nation, go across this world, Cause it to prick hearts of sinners. Cause them to bow down and look to you. Save your sheep wherever they may be, Lord, and be with your saints wherever they be gathered.

Lord, we ask that thy perfect and holy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name we ask these things, amen.

Let's all stand together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin.

Now in a song of grateful praise
To Christ my Lord my voice I'll raise
With all His saints I'll join to tell
Why Jesus has done all things well

All worlds His glorious power confess,
His wisdom all His works express.
But O His love, what tongue can tell?
My Jesus has done all things well

Thou Sovereign, wonderful and free
has been his love to sinful me.
He plucked me from the jaws of hell.
My Jesus has done all things well.

I spurned His grace, I broke His laws,
And yet He undertook my cause.
To save me, though I did rebel,
My Jesus has done all things well.

Though many a fiery flaming door
The tempter levels at my heart.
With this I all his rage repel.
My Jesus has done all things well.

And when to that bright world I rise,
And join the anthems in the skies,
Above the rest this note shall swell,
My Jesus has done all things well.

Be seated.

I can't speak for everyone here, but I'm personally glad to see you back so soon, but I think everybody is. We've got Luke Coffey with us this morning, coming to us from Kingsport, Tennessee. If you're not familiar with him, His father spake here many times in years past. We're glad to have you speaking for us. We thoroughly enjoyed you last time. You come up here and preach to us what the Lord's put on your heart.

Thank you, Houston. Good to be here with you guys. Good to see you all. If you would open your Bibles back to 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel chapter 17. The story of David and Goliath is one that everyone knows. You would not have to have had to gone to a single church service in your life to have heard the name David and Goliath. This story, just like all these Old Testament types, are pictures of Christ. And it's important in these that we know who is who. And something that we fail to do so often, or at least I fail to do, is in these stories, is to actually put myself in this scenario.

Last time I was here, I did this, and I want to do it again. This army of Israel in this story is a picture of us. And I want to take a couple minutes, and I want to see if we can immerse ourselves, if we can put ourselves in their shoes, so we can get a grasp of what actually happened here. This is a serious event. So for just a couple minutes, OK, I want us to truly imagine that we are the army of Israel. I know most of us are too old, a few too young. Too bad of backs, we can't see well, we're not strong enough, all those things, but for a few minutes this morning, let's imagine the strongest that we could possibly be. We don't have any fear. We're brave. We're fearless. Those years in our life, we feel like we could do anything and we're actually strong enough to do it. We've trained together. We fought hard. We've drilled. We've done all the things. And we stand here as an army together.

We have our helmet on our shiny helmet that's glistening in the sun. We've got our armor that's been passed down from generation to generation. We have a shield that protects us. It's done it before. It's going to do it again. We have a sword, a strong sword that's been made many years ago that our father or our mother used before us. It's been passed down. It's not the first battle that this sword has seen. And we're standing shoulder to shoulder. Our shoulders are high. Our chest is out. Our chin is up. We're proud to be the army of Israel. out of the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Israelites. We are the best. We have been chosen to protect our people. And in this moment, we're standing on a mountain, looking across a valley at the army of the Philistines. They hate us. They hate our God. For as long as we've known them, as long as we've been a people, their goal has been to kill us and to show that our God is nothing. We have no choice here. It's us or it's them. If we lose this, we will die. They will take everything we have.

And as we stand together in this moment, ready to fight, ready for the order to be given by our generals to tell us what to do. We look across at this Philistine army and there's a bit of a commotion in the middle. We can see it's far enough away that we can't make it out. But we see something happening in the middle of their lines. They start to move a little bit. And we've been trained right. We stand still. We don't move. We don't tilt our head. We don't break the line for any reason. But as this goes on, we see what is that thing? It's huge. What's happening over there? And as it moves forward through the lines, we start to hear a noise. We start to hear them all talking, saying something. And as it comes right in the last moment, as it breaks through the front line, We all start to start to move a little bit different and we start to notice and we're looking at each other thinking the same thing at the same time. Is that a man? Is that a soldier? It can't be that is huge. But as it comes through and it becomes the only thing we can see, we can see that it is a man, a soldier walking with a huge shield and staff, a spear that we can't imagine even lifting up. And we start to waver a touch. The lines start to break. Our shoulders aren't quite as propped as high. We all recognize what's happening. As some of us start to move back a little bit, our eyes start to waver some.

At the same time, we all realize the same thing. We can hear it. We can hear in their voices faintly at first. Goliath! Goliath! We can hear the army of the Philistines chanting out. And we all realize this thing. We've heard about it before. We've not experienced this before, but we all know it at the same time. The Philistines, they have a champion. He walks forward. We know what's about to happen. He stands up with his loud, deep voice. And he says, I'm a Philistine and you're Israelites. Does anyone dare to come down here before me? All these people don't have to die. Let one on one. Let's fight together. You send someone out here to fight me. If you win, we will be your slaves. If I win, you will be our slaves. It's simple enough. We've all heard this story before.

And then there's silence. The same moment, these thousands of soldiers, all of us stand just moments ago, so proud, so brave, so bold, so strong. No one says a word. We're all thinking the same thing. Is anyone going to step forward? Is anyone going to answer this challenge? Nothing happens. And after a moment. Goliath turns and walks back in the army and we all stand there together. Stand in our fear. Our embarrassment. Was it not just moments ago that we felt like we could take on the world? We were ready to defend our people, our families, our children. But no one made a sound.

We thought this moment was over. But you know what happened that evening? Goliath walked out again and said the same thing. This Philistine champion came through and just defied our army and our God. And no one did anything. That night we go to sleep. We wake up in the morning thinking, was that a nightmare? Only for the first thing to happen is this giant comes out again and stands before us and challenged us and said, is anyone in this whole army willing to come out here and fight me? Will anyone do it? That happens for 40 days, morning and evening, 80 times. We all have the chance and not one of us ever stands up and says a word. It describes us as we didn't want to make eye contact.

Everybody remembers being in school. And the teacher or someone says, I need someone to answer a question or I need someone to do something. And every person has been in the moment where your eyes straight went down. You thought if I make eye contact, I'm going to be chosen. That's what we all did. These brave soldiers standing there with our shields ready to fight. Goliath dares us and we're all scared to make eye contact. We not only won't go out there, We are scared to death we're going to be chosen or called upon to stand before this giant.

So we know who we are as this army, this giant, this champion of the Philistines, Goliath, he represents sin. It is a great thing to see your sin. Most of the people in this world, the Lord does not truly show them who they are and what they've done. But when God shows His people their sin, this is what we do. We freeze. We stand still. We have nothing to say. We are scared to death. all this fake bravado that we have, this attitude, this thing we put on and for everyone else, so that everyone thinks that we're doing well, everyone thinks that we're tough, everyone thinks that we don't mind the things that the people say, it all just falls off of us. And it's all we can think is what that army was thinking in that moment. I wish that we had a representative. I wish we had a champion. I wish we had someone who could stand up to my sin.

Then David comes along. David is obviously the Lord Jesus Christ in this story. Who sent David? His father sent him. Why did David come? Because his father wanted him to go check on his family. Check on his children. He said, David, go check on my boys. Go check on my family. See how they're doing. Go provide for them. Take this what I've sent them. And how long was it before David was sent? 40 days. 40 is represented throughout the scriptures as 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. this situation, we as the army was standing there for 40 days with nothing to do through this trial. And then God sent a representative, sent someone. And everybody knows how this story ends. David came to this to save his people. David didn't know why he was coming. David literally thought he was going to bring food to his brothers. But he was sent by his father to save his people.

In this story, David comes. And what happens when David gets there? He walks up. And the first thing that happens after he gives his food is Goliath walks out and says what he's been saying for 40 mornings and 40 nights. And when he says it, he says, I defy the God of Israel. I defy the army. David looks around. And everybody's been in this situation before. You're in a group of people and someone says something crazy. Something you can't imagine anybody would ever say. It can't be the truth. And the moment they say it, you look at everybody else and you realize no one else is surprised. And you know what you know? Everybody else has already heard it. David heard what Goliath said and his reaction was, did you just hear what he said? Did you hear him defy our God? Did you hear what he said? And his brothers and the other soldiers are all just standing there. They've heard it 80 times. And David can't believe this. And David's reaction is, what's going to be done to this guy? David thinks to himself, where's the line that's been drawn about all the people who are ready to go fight this guy? But everyone else is standing there.

What's his brother's reaction? His brothers, they look at him and they say, David, shut your mouth. You prideful little boy, be quiet. What's David done wrong? Now, maybe his brothers hate him, maybe they're jealous of him. There's a lot of things. But when I see this and I put myself in their situation, do you know what I think they're feeling? I think they're embarrassed. They know that David's reaction is what their reaction should be. They realized that they've stood there and let this man say what he said all these times, and they've never said a peep. Do we realize that David in this moment has already done more than every single person in that army has done in 80 different times? We read that, what did they all do? They all shut their mouths, looked away, and were scared to death. David said, this can't happen. In this story, did our Lord not endure this? When he became a man, he was hated of his own people. Disrespected, mocked by so many. David, he wanted to stand up to him and they all told him, be quiet, you're going to get us killed.

Look with me here and we'll pick up in verse 28. And Eliab, his oldest 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? He said, You're just a shepherd over a few sheep. I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart, for thou come down there that thou mightest see the battle.

And David said, What have I done? Is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? David says, do you guys not see what's going on here? Do you not see how how he is saying these words?

There are many applications in this. I'm embarrassed that I don't stand up to false false doctrine, false preachers, all these things. I'm embarrassed that I don't say things more often. And I don't have more faith and strength in this. I find myself just like these soldiers, just standing there. I'm going to be quiet. I'm scared.

Should our reaction not be as David's? I'm getting ahead of myself. But you know what David did in this moment? David did not care the size of the enemy. He didn't care what was going on, his surroundings, anything. All he responded to was, Someone just defied our God. Someone just spoke evil of the Lord Jesus Christ. That will not stand in my place. Boy, I pray that just once maybe the Lord would give me that strength.

David didn't care. And we'll see it in a second. David did not care the enemy. He didn't care the outcome. All he thought was this is not going to stand. If David has to be a martyr, that's who he is. If I've got to walk out there and that giant's just going to slay me right in that moment, so be it. But I'm not going to let him sit here and talk about my God in that way. Is there not a cause?

Verse 30. And he turned from him toward another and spake after the same manner. And the people answered him again after the former manner. David looked around. His brothers had said this. David looked at the other soldiers and says, Am I the only one? Does no one else have this same reaction?

Verse 31, And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent for him. David was so out of the norm. The moment he spoke up, it spread like wildfire through the army. They were all, Did you see that? He seems to want to do something about this. And it got to the king.

And Saul in verse 32, and David said to Saul, he went before the king, let no man's heart fail because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with the Philistine. David stood before the king, this little shepherd. David is 15, 16 years old at this time. And he stands before the king and says, don't worry, king, I'll go out there.

Verse 33, And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. Thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. For forty days this man has stood, and of all the people there, Saul's the king. He's the one who's been called out. He's the one who said, Goliath said, I defy the army of Saul. He says, I call your king out. There's not a single one in this whole army, this kingdom that's worthy to fight against me. And yet one person stands up and says, I'll go.

And what is Saul's response? You can't go out there. You're just a little boy. You can't do this.

Verse 34, And David 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."

There's a message in just these two verses in David the shepherd. He's got a flock of sheep. How many ever there are? Say there's 100. A lion comes and takes one. And what does he do? He leaves the 99, goes after and kills the lion to get his sheep back.

The Lord will protect his flock. I've said this so many times. As a kid, I remember just, why in the world would you leave 99 sheep alone to go get one? If you exclude the fact there's even a lion, if he just wandered off, wouldn't you think, if I go do him, won't the 99 all get hurt? Our God is in control of everything. The 99 are just as safe if he's standing beside them or if he leaves. No one can touch the sheep of our Lord, no matter where he is. He protects them.

But He gives these stories to Saul to convince him. You fool, I'm not going out here as a 15 or 16 year old little shepherd. I'm going out here because the Lord will deliver us.

Verse 35 or verse 36, Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. He says none of this matters what he's saying except the fact that he is defying our God. That's what he's doing.

Verse 37, David said, moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of the Philistine. Why does David have confidence? Is it his strength? Is it his size? Is it ability? It seems that David has never fought against another human being. Can you imagine sending someone out to represent you and your life on the line of someone who's never done it before? That's crazy. But David said to Saul, the Lord that delivered me from them will deliver me from this. And Saul replies, David, go and the Lord be with thee.

All of these things combined do one really important thing here. If David were tall, we'd give his height credit. If he were strong, we'd give his muscles credit. If he'd won a bunch of battles, we'd give his experience credit. All of this. The only reason David has a chance here is as Saul says, I can almost see him saying this, David, go. Well, the Lord better be with you. I can see him saying it like, I don't believe this, but I guess you can do this if you believe. If the Lord is with us, who can be against us? I love that scripture. That's the only hope I have.

Verse 38, And Saul armed David with his armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head, and he armed him with a coat of mail. And David girded his sword upon his armor, and he was saved 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.

So first thing Saul does at the beginning of this, I skipped over this, but Saul had said, anybody who can go out here and defeat this army, I'll give them money. I'll give them a title. I'll give them my daughter. I'll give them whatever they want. He's not the first and he's definitely not the last person who tries to buy their way out of their sin. I mean, he tries to bribe his way out. I mean, anything he can do. There are so many people today who think that if I give a certain amount of money or do this, this will somehow gain me favor with God. We value money so much, but it's the same thing as the rags we wear. It's worthless. It means nothing.

And what is Saul doing here? David has said, I will go. I have beaten the lion before. I've beaten the bear before. I've done this because the Lord did it for me. I'll go fight him. And Saul says, OK, go. But wait a second. Take my helmet to protect you. Take my armor so everybody will know who's you're representing. Take my shield to defend you. Take my sword so in the end of this battle, everybody will be like, Saul's sword is the one who killed Goliath. David said, I can't prove any of this stuff. I'm not taking it with me. If we try to bring anything to the Lord, if we try to provide anything in salvation, it will obviously not pass the test. It cannot be proved. Nothing we have will pass. It will all fail miserably. If David had gone out there, the helmet would have blocked his vision. The armor would have thrown off his weight. The sword would have meant he didn't have two hands for his sling and the rocks. He didn't need any of this stuff. We can't bribe our way, buy our way, or provide anything in salvation. Our representative, our Savior, is going to do it alone.

Verse 40, And David 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.

So let's go back to being in the army, standing on the mountain before the Philistines. We're standing shoulder to shoulder, and we've done this for 80 times. This Goliath has come out and said what he said. We're standing there. And in this moment, we're all... I can't imagine. I've known a lot of soldiers. They're strong, they're tough, they're brave. They have to be for what they do. And there's also sometimes a sense of An attitude that seems unrealistic, someone who's not a soldier. They've never been through that. They don't understand it. But this pride in who they are and who they represent, who they protect. And they've been they've just been embarrassed over and over again. I can't imagine the demeanor, how they all feel. The morale has to be at the lowest point you could imagine. And they're all standing there waiting for the same thing to happen for the 81st time. And as they're waiting for Goliath to turn and walk away, there's commotion in the ranks and something starts happening. And at the same time, we all start thinking to ourselves, what's going on? What's happening? Why is everybody murmuring right now? And we look back and we see something moving. We can't see who it is, but we see soldiers parting ways and something's walking through the lines. And we're all thinking to ourselves, do we have someone? Has someone finally stood up for this? And as we see them, we see, is that a boy? Is that a child? Where's his helmet? Where's his armor? What's he doing? Who picked this kid? What, he doesn't have a sword? I don't want him to go out there. If he loses, I'm going to die. I don't want him to be my representative. We start thinking things like, well, maybe I should be the one to go out there. Even if I had 80 chances and I've been scared the whole time, but I see this boy and I think, well, he can't win. And as he comes through the line, we see him. Is this not us? Do we not think to ourselves, one, we think so highly of ourselves that we think we are better, even though we never have any ability, we're scared to death of this giant, we won't do anything, but now all of a sudden we see someone who will take our place, who will fight for us, and we start to bicker about them. They're not who we thought they'd be. They're not doing it the way we thought they should. Wouldn't we have picked a giant that was one inch taller than Goliath and twice as big? That's what we would have done. We would not pick the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Savior. Meek and lowly. One who walks out there, and I promise there was not a single person in that army. His own brothers. You know they were standing in that army thinking to themselves, my brother is doing this to me. Not only are we going to lose here, not only is he going to die here, but my name will forever be mocked. It'll be the son of Jesse who went out here, got killed, and Israel lost. Only in this moment to not realize it was the exact opposite. Do we not know David as the son of Jesse because of what he succeeded in doing?

Let's keep going before I jump in front of myself.

Verse 41, 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."

The Philistine thought the same thing. You know when David broke the ranks that the entire Philistine army thought to themselves, this is great. They finally have fallen into our trap. We have sent out this giant, this undefeated champion who no one can beat. They knew who he was. They'd seen him in action. They thought if somehow we can convince Israel to send someone out here, none of us have to die. We'll win this in a landslide without even having to break a sweat. And of all things, they're going to send out a child? We've won the war. It's over. I can't wait to see how this happens.

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.

The Lord Jesus Christ willingly went to the cross at Calvary. And in this moment, the exact same thing was happening. His own people were thinking, His own disciples were saying to each other, what is happening? Why is He going to die? Why is He turning Himself in? Why is this happening like this? And the Pharisees were all standing there. You know, they were smug as ever. Just couldn't wait to watch this happen. We're going to kill this guy. He was doing all this stuff. He talked a big game, but we have won. Mocking Him, making fun of Him. Constantly doing this. Calling, am I a dog that thou wouldest come to me like this? The Philistine cursed David.

Verse 44. And the Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. The enjoyment of this.

But then David in verse 45. 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. He says, It doesn't matter that you have a sword and a shield and armor and are as big as you are and undefeated and all that kind of stuff. I have come here In the name of the Lord of hosts, I stand before you before the true and living God as my weapon, as my shield, as my sword. This is almost reminiscent of like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego standing there before the king, and he's given them as many chances as he can. Do you understand? I'm going to throw you in this furnace and you're going to die. And they look at him and they say, we're not scared to answer you. Our Lord is able to deliver us. And if He does, you'll see it. And if He doesn't, that's okay, too. But our God is able to deliver us.

David stands here. I come in the name of the Lord of hosts. Verse 46, This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine 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, and that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.

This whole event, these 40 days and even before that, this whole Philistine Israel, why the Philistines hated Israel and hated the Lord, All of it was all built up into one moment to where this boy without a weapon, without any armor, totally inexperienced, no one backing him, all on his own, would come out here and win this so that everyone had no result other than what David said here, everyone will know there is a God in Israel and that's the true and living God. There's no reason to think David can win this other than his God must be the victor in this. That's the only way he could win this battle.

In verse 47, And all the assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword and the spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. That's a lesson for everyone standing there in that battle. But it's a lesson for us. We don't fight with sword and spear. We don't fight with our fists. We don't fight. The Lord does it for us. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't ask us for our permission. He chose us, He became a man, lived perfectly doing what we couldn't do. This Goliath, this sin in front of us, that's all we are. We're just cowards who know that the moment we look up, death is right there before us. But He sacrificed Himself. He was our representative. He was our Savior. He is our champion. He is one who fights for us. And in a minute, once we see how this ends, we'll be like these soldiers. We'll be so happy. We have a champion. We have the champion. Other people think they have a champion until they see our champion. And they may challenge all they want, but the ending is always going to be the same. Our champion will win without even giving any effort. He will win.

Verse 48, how did it end? And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. Wait a minute. David's got a sling and stones. Why is he running at the Philistine? David is going to end this. His face is set like a flint. He has one thing in mind. From the moment he heard Goliath, I don't know if we understand this, but from the moment he heard Goliath, everything that happened until he was here to throw that slogan, is David trying to kill Goliath as fast as he can. The moment Goliath came out, what did he do? Who's going to go kill that guy? He cannot say that. Everyone said, you can't go. Who do I have to see? So he goes before the king and he says, I'll go. The king says, you can't go. He says, this is why I can go. And then the king says, well, you have to take this stuff to go. And he says, no, I don't. I will go. And then finally, when it's time, he runs out there and he runs towards Goliath. Only thing he stops for is to tell him, you have a sword and a spear. You're fighting on your own. The Lord Jesus Christ is who's fighting this. As long as everyone knows it's the God of Israel that's going to win this.

He runs at Goliath. Verse 49, And David put his hand in his bag and took thence out a stone and he slain it. and smote the Philistine in the forehead that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth.

These armies are standing on the sides of mountains. I don't know exactly how far apart they are, but there are decent ways apart, far enough away that you couldn't shoot an arrow or something and hit the others. And in this valley is where Goliath has walked and David has gone. And we're all standing there. And I don't know how many moments this took, if it was a few seconds, minutes, whatever it was from the moment David started walking out.

What were we all doing? Oh, no, this is the end of us, our people. You start thinking about your family, your children, your wife, your husband. You're just thinking to yourself, I'm going to miss him. This is the end. In a matter of moments, you're watching this champion of yours and the mighty Goliath falls face first onto the ground. From this far away, I'm not sure anyone could have even seen the stone. As all they saw was David running at Goliath, his arm in the air, and Goliath falls face first.

Can you imagine the feelings in this second or two that happened? We're all thinking to ourselves, did that just happen? The Philistine army thinking to themselves, did that just happen? And in this moment, confusion of what's happening, verse 50, so David prevailed over the Philistine. The battle's over. There's nobody in either army that really knows what's happened except for David. Well, Goliath knows too, doesn't he?

When the Lord died on the cross, there was a lot of people who had no idea standing around what had happened. But our sins were paid for. It was done. We had the victory. The sadness, the crying, all the weeping, it was for naught. The victory had been won.

But David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine and slew him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore David ran, 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.

" There's a scripture that says, before his enemies be made his footstool, David went and stood upon Goliath. The Lord, until his enemies be made his footstool, in that moment, him standing on their champion, they had to have realized, this is it. And he cuts his head off. And they know the battle's over.

Can you imagine the elation that we all felt watching that? In a matter of moments, we went from the most distraught we've ever been in our lives to in a second, we've won! We won! I'm using this word, we won! Did any of us do anything? None of us have still said a single word against Goliath. We didn't pull our sword out of the sheath. We didn't raise our shield. We've done nothing yet. We can all say we've won.

In the Lord Jesus Christ, his people can proudly say we won. In this moment, I feel confident that no one in the army is trying to take any of the glory for the victory. in the same way that anyone who knows our sin and what the Lord Jesus Christ did, anyone who truly knows the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made for His people can even ponder taking an ounce of the glory. But yet we still get to say, we won. That's the benefit of having a champion, someone who fights for you. When they win, you win. And it's a glorious thing.

So David prevailed over the Philistine, verse 52. And the men of Israel, the end of it, verse 51 first. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted.

So one last thing as we close this. Imagine ourselves again standing shoulder to shoulder For the first time in 40 days, no longer are we standing with our shoulders down, our chin down, trying not to make eye contact with this champion out there. Our shoulders are up. Our chest is out. We have a champion. We're the victors. And I imagine in this moment, we've completely turned the tables. David has the head of the Philistine in his hand. carrying it by the hair, walking back to the armies of Israel.

And I imagine that most of the people at this point in the army have figured out who this is. Because once he started walking, everyone, we're all saying to ourselves, who's that? Who is searching? Who's going out there to do this? And you know, the people in that little circle with David's brothers and those soldiers knew who it was. And his brothers may not have said a word, but those other soldiers said, that's alive younger brother David. And that word spread like wildfire.

And when he's coming back with Goliath's head in his hand, do you know what's happening now? David, David, they are chanting his name. They did not like him a few moments ago. They didn't know who he was. But once they're shown what he did on their behalf, boy, they love him. They love him. I mean it and not in the sense that we think of the word love. And I mean, even the sense to the people we love the most, our children, our spouse that we love and I love them. But there's a love that's different. There's a love. That the Lord Jesus Christ has for his sheep.

And and when you when you see that, when you understand it, it's just different. And that's only because it's from him. As sinners, we just we just don't have that. And boy, one day I don't want to I'm so hesitant to say things in a certain way. And so I'll paraphrase this in a way. One day in glory. We will be standing before our champion. And all we can think about is the Lord Jesus Christ saved us. He did it. And I don't know how we're going to say it. I don't know what words we're going to use. But they're going to be greater than anything we could even think about right now.

When the disciple comes back from heaven, he says, there's no words in the English language to express what that was like. We'll have a new vocabulary that is worthy of the champion. And I pray that the Lord would give us an understanding of this whole situation. He would show us our sin and who we are before it. We are helpless cowards that just we have no hope in front of our sin, this giant that's ever before us. But there is one who can who has Defeated the sins of his people. He took them on himself. He bore he died so that we didn't have to. If we had fought the battle, what was the outcome? Death, sure death, embarrassment in a tooth. It wasn't a close fight. If we went out there in front of Goliath, none of us would have been able to block a single blow. He would have raised the sword and I feel like I would have passed out in fear. He wouldn't even had to hit me. I mean, we think of ourselves as going out there and maybe, you know, blocking a couple shots. And I would have passed out walking that direction.

But we have a champion who stood in our place, bore our sin and is a victor, made our enemies into his footstool. I don't know how to end other than saying, I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ is the champion of every single one of us. And the only way He is our champion is because He chooses us. As in this story, no one would have chosen David. If they had cast lots in that army of, I don't know, 5,000 men, David would have been last. No one would have chosen him. We would have been better off standing there in this vicious cycle. We'd have been there for a hundred years of this Goliath walking out here taunting us, and we just would have stood there.

But the Lord sent a savior to save us. May the Lord bless his word. And we're so thankful that we have a champion in the Lord Jesus Christ.

All right. Let's have a word of prayer. Oh, Lord God Almighty, our Heavenly Father, once more we come to you through your precious Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you for this message that we've just heard. Thank you for the picture of Christ being our champion. to save more than just a nation, Lord, but to save a number that no man can number. Lord, we pray that you would keep this on our hearts. Lord, we ask that you would give us faith as you gave David to stand before Goliath. You gave him such great faith in you, Lord, I ask that you would increase our faith.

Lord, as we enter this new year here in just a few days, know that you are not bound by time, that we can't seem to escape it here. Lord, as we enter this new year, give us this faith to look to you in all things, to trust you. Cause us to live in faith continually, Lord, we pray for traveling mercies for those who will be traveling. Pray for our pastor and his wife as they are away and make their way home next week. Lord, we ask that you would keep us from this world, keep us from ourselves. Keep us looking to thee and thee alone. We pray that thy mercies be upon us. Be upon those who are weak and weary. Lord, we ask that will be done in all things for Christ's sake. Amen.

Let's sing Living by Faith, number 30 in our course book.

Number 30 in our course book, we'll stand together.

I care not today what tomorrow may bring
Is shadow or sunshine or rain
The Lord I know ruleth for everything
And all of my worry is vain

Living by faith in Jesus above,
trusting, confiding in his great love.
Safe from all harm in a sheltering arm,
I'm living by faith and feel no alarm.

Though tempests may blow and the storm clouds arise
Obscuring the brightness of life
I'm never alarmed at the overcast skies
The master looks on at the strife

Living by faith in Jesus above,
trusting, confiding in his great love.
Safe from all harm, in his sheltering arm,
I'm living by faith, and Bill no alone.

I know that he safely will carry me through,
no matter what evils be tied.
Why should I then care, though the tempest may blow?
If Jesus walks close to my side

Living by faith in Jesus above
Trusting, confiding in His great love
Safe from a farm in his sheltering arm
I'm living by faith and feel no alarm

Our Lord will return to this earth some sweet day,
Our troubles will then all be o'er.
The Master so gently will lead us away,
Beyond that blessed heavenly shore.

Living by faith in Jesus above.
Trusting, confiding in His great love.

As far as I know, Lord willing, our pastor will be back with us next Sunday, so there will be no evening Wednesday service again this week. We'll meet again next year. See you next Sunday, Lord willing. You're dismissed.