1 Samuel 17, David kills that champion, kills
Goliath, slays Goliath, the giant. This is one of the best known
stories in all of God's Word. Who hasn't heard of David and
Goliath? Who hasn't heard of them? David
and Goliath. David was just a youth, just
a very young man. youth, you know, it's. And he just left his father's
sheep, left his father's sheep, tended his father's sheep, went
up to take his brother some food to hear from him so he could
take news back to his father, Jesse. And he did not have any
idea that this day was going to bring forth what it did. Ain't
that what the scripture says, you know not what a day may bring
forth. He went up there for one thing, and ended up doing something
else. He went up there for one purpose,
but God had another purpose. Here's David, this youth, and
here's this giant, right at ten foot tall, got a weaver's beam
for a spear, 21, 25 foot long. The head on it weighed 15 to
25 pounds. Standing out there, this great
big giant, and all this brass helmet on, and all this armor
on. Here's a boy, probably my size,
maybe a little smaller, I don't know. A shepherd boy, left the sheep. The youngest of eight, And this
day, this day would change his life forever. He didn't go there,
but just with one purpose, but God had another purpose. And
I know this, that God will. We don't know what a day will
bring forth. We don't know tomorrow what a day is going to bring
forth. We do not know that. But we do know this, that God
will bring his sovereign will and purpose to pass. We'll know
what was brought forth for tomorrow when we get to tomorrow night.
Ain't that right? But God will bring his sovereign
will to pass. And the question is, do we trust
him? When we get up each day, do we look to him for the day?
Do we seek him for the day? Lord, this is your day. You protect
and keep us today. seek his will, seek his wisdom,
seek his strength, knowing our inabilities, knowing our weaknesses,
knowing our frailties. And David here was a man after
God's own heart. God's own heart. And God had
prepared him for such a day. Such a day. And David David when
he approached Goliath, he approached him like nobody else. A soldier
would approach a man. He didn't do that. See, carnal
man, when David approached Goliath, how did he approach him? Now
he didn't use a sword. He didn't use a spear. He didn't use armor. He didn't have
a plan of attack. And carnal men, carnal men always
rely on carnal methods. Look here in verse 4, chapter
17. Look at, carnal men always rely
on carnal methods. You know the Philistines put
all their eggs in this giant's basket. They're champion, that's
what they call them, champion. And there went out a champion
out of the camp of the Philistines, named Gath, named Goliath of
Gath, whose height was six cubit and a span, told how all his
great armor was, and all the things that he had in his hand,
everything that he was, and made great detail of what he was like. And when they heard this, look
down here, in verse 11, then when Saul and all Israel heard
these words, Send somebody out here to fight me and you prevail
we'll be your servants if we prevail you're gonna be our servants
And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine
just one man the Philistine they were dismayed and greatly afraid
But now David wasn't that way David he said up here in verse
32 now, let's just go down through here just a little while and
David said to Saul Let no man's heart fail because of him. Don't let your heart fail because
of this giant. Don't let your heart fail because
of this man. Thy servant, thy servant, that's
what David said, I'm just a servant. I'm nobody. I'm just a shepherd. I've tended
the sheep, my father's sheep all my life. Thy servant will
go and fight with this Philistine. Saul said to David, you're not
able to do that. You're just a youth, just a boy. But he's a man of war from his
youth. And Saul's confidence wasn't
in David. He was way too young. But I'll
tell you what he had confidence in. He had confidence in his
armor. Now this is what I want you to
see as we go down through here. And in verse 38, they got down
there. And Saul armed David. He said,
you go on down there and fight him. And the Lord be with you.
And then Saul said, before you go out there, I'm going to arm
you. You've got to have some armor now. You got to have some
armor. Now you imagine this little man,
and this giant's got a sword, taller than probably David was.
And his spear, you know, his spear, if a man got within 21
foot of him, all that dude's gonna like that? Just getting
toward 21 foot of him. He swing that thing. David said, I'll go fight him.
Don't worry about that. And all, listen, and Saul armed
David with his armor. I tell you, I got the best armor. This is the king's armor. This
is the best armor you can get in all of Israel. And he put
on him a helmet of brass upon his head. And he put, armed him
with a coat of mail, put mail all around him. You know, as
chains and things all put together, they put around him. And David put his sword upon
his armor and he said, I don't know if I want to go like this
or not. For he had not proved it, he had not tried it, he had
not seen if he could use it. And David said unto Saul, now
listen to this, I can't go out there with these things. I can't
fight with these things. I've never fought with these
kind of weapons ever before. What anywhere do you think I'm
going to do? And he said, and listen to this, and David took
every one of them right back off. I don't care how good this
armor is, and I don't care whose it is, I can't use it. And we
can't use another man's weapon. And I'll tell you what, and do
you know how many times armies, that God's defeated armies without
using weapons? You know how the walls of Jericho
came coming down? God told him, walk around Jericho
seven times. Get up every day and go around
one time. Seventh day, go around seven times. And when you get
around the seven times, blow a trumpet and shout. And they
did that, and them walls just start coming down. Nobody fired
a shot. Nobody pulled a sword. Nobody
shot an arrow. Gideon had 30,000 men. He was going to go to war with
the Amalekites. Getting ready to go to war. Here's
the judge. God said, that's way too many. You don't need that
many men. And he cut it down and he cut
it down. There was Gideon and 300 men. And you know how he won that
war? He said, you all surround this little old camp, and they
had these little clay pots in their hands with lights in them.
He says, now what you do is you bust those lamps all at the same
time, and it'll scare them to death, and they'll run from it.
And they did, they all broke their clay pots, and that army
fled, and they never had to fire shot. And one time there's a great
famine in all of Israel. People were eating their children.
And Elisha told them this, Elisha said, listen, at this time tomorrow,
you're gonna have more food than you know what to eat with. There
was an army of 85,000 Syrians outside the camp. God sent an angel that night
and he scared them people to death. There was four lepers
sitting outside the gate. Now them four lepers said, well,
if we sit here, we're going to die. And so let's just go give
ourselves to the army, the Syrians. And if we're going to die, we'll
die there. And they went over there. And that wasn't a soul
nowhere. Tents as far as I could see. Food piled up. riches and clothes and everything,
they went back and told the king, they didn't have a bite to eat. And they said, look here, they
went up there and saw it. And God said, he directed that
thing all because he destroyed an army and they ran and don't
know why they're running. The wicked flee when no man pursues
them. So that's what happens here.
And let me show you something in Psalm 133. Look with me. Keep
this, Samuel 17. And look over here in Psalm 133. Look at this with me. You
know, God destroys men without So David is going to fight this
man using unorthodox weapons. I can't use a sword. I can't
use your armor. Look what he says here in verse
16. There is no king saved by the
multitude of a host. No. Have a great army, and that's
not going to save the king. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety. Get on that horse and get out
of here. Let's get away. Neither shall he deliver any
by his great strength. Here we go. Behold, the eye of
the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his
mercy. Hoping his mercy and David's
weapons David's weapons were so unorthodox Look down here in verse 40 Look
at verse 40 And he took his staff in his hand. He had a shepherd's
staff. He had a shepherd's staff That's not that's not the head
was just that one what he walked on and kept when he was out tending
sheep That was his staff as a shepherd's staff And our Lord talked about Him
having a staff. In Psalm 23, He said, Thy staff
shall comfort me. And His staff in His hand. He
chose Him five smooth stones. Went down to the creek, got Him
five smooth stones. Put them down. And then He had
His shepherds bagged. Even in a scrimp. And His sling
in His hand. Now what did He have? He had
five stones. He had a sling. And a sling,
it had a leather pouch on it. It had two long strings on it.
And I watched them on TV over there, when Israel and them,
they're having a big rigamarole over there with the people. And I've seen those kids over
there take them slings and do like that, shoot at them Israelis,
you know. And that made me think of David. So when David had that sling
and he, oh, five smooth stones, a staff, And he didn't go fight and face
a giant. I couldn't hit nothing with a
slingshot. And David's confidence, now listen
to me, his weapons weren't normal. That's why people don't, you
don't go fight a giant with a sling and a stone and a stick. but he did and David's confidence
wasn't in his sling or in the stones look what he says down
here in verse 47 and this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear for the battle
is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands it's not my
battle It's not my war. That's what David said. It's
not my battle. It's the Lord's battle. This belongs to God. How this comes out, this is the
Lord's battle. If God be for us, who in the
world could be against us? That's what David's saying here.
It wasn't in his sling. It wasn't in his stone. It was
in God. In the Lord God Himself. And
that's what we do. Every one of us as God's blessed
people. We trust in the unseen protection
of God Almighty. And I'll tell you something.
God's Kingdom is not dependent on man in any way, shape, form
or fashion. His kingdom was doing fine before
we got here. It was doing fine before David
got there. It was doing fine, beloved, when
Pilate was here. He was doing fine and he'll do
fine after we're gone. His kingdom will do just fine. And let me show you, look over
here in John's gospel, chapter 18 and verse 36. You know, God's
kingdom is not dependent on us. Now we're going to labor in His
church. We're going to labor for His
people. We're going to honor God. We're going to try our best
to worship the Lord and honor Him by what we say and what we
do. But his kingdom, taking care of this building and needing
us in the kingdom is two different things. And oh, listen to what he said
here. You know, look what our Lord said now. In verse 35, Pilate
answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me. What have you done? Jesus
answered, my kingdom is not of this world. Not of this world. And you know that's what he knew
when he says that. The kingdom that we're in, the kingdom of
Christ, is not of this world. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
a heavenly kingdom. And the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. And oh, he says, listen, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered
to the Jews, but now my kingdom's not from here. And that's what
we said, beloved, this kingdom of Christ, it's a spiritual kingdom,
the kingdom of God. Look, don't say here, yonder,
and all that. The kingdom of God's within you, our master
said. And that's why he said the weapons of our warfare, they're
not carnal. And that's what David's talking
about. Do you know our weapons? Saul put on a helmet on David. Do you know what kind of helmet
we wear? A helmet of salvation. Salvation covers us. Salvation covers our head. Salvation
protects our head. Who's going to hurt our head?
Christ is our head and Christ is going to protect us. Our helmet
is the helmet of salvation itself. And you know what sword we use? We yield a sword. I get it out
every time I get up here. I get out a sword. You know what
it is? The sword of spirit. That's the
word of God. Sometimes I get it in both hands,
you know the Lord bless you to get in both hands and sometimes
you feel like it's just a little bit But all my but here's the
thing our weapons are spiritual and I've told you this before
Christians who go to war now listen I mean, you know, it's
one thing to go and and enlist in the military and that and
serve your country that way But you go down through history you
search church history and the people who believe Christ and
was true believers they were martyred at the stake they were
put on the stake they were put on the wheel they they was mistreated
in every way you could imagine they was mistreated and our Lord
Jesus Christ never or none of his disciples or any of his people
before ever did anything but use his word When you talk, you
know people say, well Christians did this and Christians did that. Not believers did. Not people
converted by the grace of God don't. They don't do it. I'm telling you, when you go
back and you find out those crusades that wore the last 30 years,
those weren't Christians. Just because they put a cross
on their flags, that don't mean they was Christians. Somebody
said, we need to put up a Christian flag. And I said, I've never
seen a Christian flag. Have you ever seen a Christian
flag? And I told him, I explained it to
him. I said, well, what do you mean a Christian flag? He said,
well, it's got a cross on it. I said, who come up with that?
I said, the only flag that we'll ever fly in a church building
would be the flag of the United States of America. I've never
heard, I've heard of Christian people. I've heard a Christian truth, but I've never seen a Christian
flag. Because when you say something is Christian, that means something
that trusts Christ and Christ alone. And a flag can't trust
Christ. But what I'm saying is, is that
we do not use carnal weapons to fight with. We don't argue,
we don't fuss, we don't fight. We're not going to hurt anybody. And if God don't use his word,
then we just leave it alone. Is that not right? Is that not
right? So David used an unorthodox weapon. A sling, five stones, and a staff. Then look how David approached
this giant. See his unshakable assurance.
Look what he said here 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 you know where I'm coming
I'm coming to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts That's who
I'm coming to I'm coming in the name of the Lord of Hosts and
the one who's got his whole armies and the heavens is full of his
armies. He said, I'm coming in his name, the God of the armies
of Israel. You've defied him. And oh, listen
to what he said here, to what he told him. This day, this day
will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand. And I'll smite you. I'm going to smite you. And I'm
going to take your head. And I'm going to give your carcass
and the carcasses of the host of the Philistines are there
to the fowls when the birds are going to come down and pluck
your eyes out. The birds are going to come and eat you. That's
what he's talking about. And then the wild beasts, they'll
come. The coyotes will come. And the hyenas will come and
eat you at night. And you know why all this is
going to happen? that all the earth may know that there is
a God in Israel and all this assembly, everybody gathered
around here today will know that the Lord saves, saves not with
a sword and with a spear for the battle is the Lord's and
he'll give you into our hands. And you remember when David said,
with the Lord, you know when that bear got a lamb and the
lion got a lamb? And you go back up there and
you read it, and David said this, and the Lord delivered me out
of the hand of the bear. The Lord delivered me out of
the hand of that lion. And the Lord will deliver me
out of the hand of this uncircumcised Philistine. He trusted. He said,
the Lord did it. The Lord did it. The Lord did
it. The Lord did it. And what do we say? The Lord
did it. Salvation to the Lord. David didn't show any hesitation.
Look what it says there in verse 48. He didn't even hesitate.
He never saw, well, what have I gotten myself into now? I might
ought to reconsider this situation. Look what happened. And it came
to pass when that Philistine arose and came and drew nigh
to meet David. Listen to this. David hasted
and ran. And ran toward the army to meet
that Philistine. He didn't say, boy, wow, Bob,
I got it. No, he saw that big old giant coming. He just went
running. He said, boy, the bigger they are, the harder they fall,
the way he went. This is the true nature of faith.
This is the true nature of faith. You go and look at all the people
in Hebrews 11 about faith. This is the true nature of faith.
Faith wouldn't let him turn away. Faith wouldn't let him flee.
And faith will not let us turn away from our master. Faith will
not let us flee in the face of any enemy. And here's the thing,
David had zero encouragement from anybody. His brother was
angry at him. Said, who do you leave them few
sheep with down there? You arrogant little young boy
up here taking your son. Saul said he was too young. Goliath
mocked him and said, am I a dog that you come out here with a,
and you consider me just a dog that you gonna come out here
and beat me with a stick? Is that what you think? You ain't
even got a sword or nothing. You think I'm such a dog that
you can whip me as a dog? Just take a stick and beat me
to death with a stick? Is that what you think you can
do? And that's Philistine cursed David by his gods. And you know
how that's in small G's? It didn't have any encouragement
at all. And here's the thing about God's people, they walk
by faith, not by sight. And David was walking by faith,
he wasn't looking how big that giant was, he was looking how
big God was. That made the difference. You
know what? That giant's big, but my God's
bigger. You're not fighting me, you're
fighting God. You're not, you listen, David
never even considered the size of that giant. He considered
God, that God said, God's going to deliver you into my hand.
And I tell you, God's people walk by faith and God's people
experience faith. We've read in God's Word how
many times and seen how faithful He was and how He destroyed the
Lord's enemies. And He has saved us countless
times over our experience. How many times has He saved us? And you know He's going to save
us and keep saving us until one day we're clothed saved and we
walk into glory. And He's going to save us till
we get there. Well, if we face some Goliaths
every once in a while in our own life, we face some mountains. And Christ said, if you had faith
as a grain of mustard seed, that mountain would get out of your
way. Oh, listen. And we see that God is faithful.
Did He ever fail any of His people in His Word? Bless His name. He never has and He ain't going
to start with me and He ain't going to start with you. No,
he ain't. Oh, David, his assurance was
unshakable. He hastened and met that. He
run to fight. He faces that man. And so we
saw David's unorthodox weapons slinging a stone and a staff. His unshakable assurance, I'm
going to fight you because you're facing, the battle's the Lord's
and I know this. And now we see his undeniable
accomplishment. Watch what happens now. David
hastened, verse 48, and ran to meet that Philistine. And while
he was running, he rushed down in his shepherd's bag and took
out a stone. Just one. One stone. And oh, he rolled
that stone right up, you know. Let that thing fly. And I read
that those guys even with a good slinger could make that thing
go from 130 to 150 miles an hour. Make that stone go that thing.
David let that stone go. Bam. Hit him right there. And not only did he hit him,
but that stone went right into his head. That old, just see
him standin' there. That old big giant standin' there,
God gives you. Boom! Down he goes. And you know he
made a noise when he fell. He had all that armor on. And
that armor, you know, it just growled. It just made all kinds
of noise. And he fell flat on his face. Can you imagine all
them people standin' around watchin' this and their eyes this big? Oh, look what he said. And he fell upon his face to
the earth. He was like Dagon. When they
put Dagon with the Ark of the Covenant. Oh Dagon, one day they
went in there and he was flat on his face. Next day they set
him back up. They went in there and his arms
was gone. Set him back up, went in there
the next day and his feet was gone. And that's the way this
fellow was. they stand in the presence of
God and I'm telling you what and then I like to listen to
this now and David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling
and stone a sling and a stone and David
had no sword in his hand therefore David ran and you know I don't,
I don't know, you know, that's, that, he's just a giant now.
He might have been this high when he was laying on the ground.
David climbed up on him. Climbed up on him, stood up on
his back. Gretchen got his sword, got right
up over him, right up over him like this. Gretchen got him by
the hair of the head and held his head way up high. He said,
here's the champion. Here's what made all of you scared
to death. And oh my. And look what it says here. And when the Philistines saw
their champion was dead, do you know what they did? They run
for their lives. If a little, if a young man goes
out there and kills this Philistine, this giant with a sling and a
stone, imagine what's going to happen if the rest of them start
out after him. And oh my, and Israel went after
him. Now I can't help but wonder what
his older brothers thought of him now. I wonder what Eli thought
now. I wonder what the other brothers
thought now. I wonder what Saul thought now. Saul didn't even know who he
was. Look what it says down here in verse 55. And when Saul saw David go forth
against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the cabinet of his
host, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth,
O king, I cannot tell. And the geek said, Inquire whose
son the stripling is. Now that's what he called him,
the stripling. He just saw him defeat that giant, called him
a stripling. He's just a boy. And as David
returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him
and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in
his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son
art thou, young man? And David answered, I am the
son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. And I want to show
you what David's motive was. Here's David's motive for going
to battle with Goliath. Look down here in the last line
of verse 46. This is it. That all the earth
may know that there is a God. in Israel. I'm doing this everybody's
gonna know that there's a God. There's a God and God's the one
that caused this to happen. Not me, God did this. I want
all the earth in a day and this day changed David's life forever. God used it to prepare him for
the throne And it had a profound effect on Saul's son, Jonathan. Look what it said in verse 1
of chapter 18. And it came to pass, when he had made an end
of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with
the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. You
know, David and Jonathan, they had this in common. They both
had great courage. They both had great faith. And
they both worshipped God. they all they did that and that's
what brought them together and they believe God and Saul took
David look what he said in verse 2 and Saul took him that day
and would let him go no more home to his father's house and
most important of all about David is that he was foreshadowed I
told you last week about him being the shepherd, a type of
our Savior, our Great Shepherd. But most important of all, David
stands as a foreshadow of our Lord, our Lord, the King of Kings,
who came to this earth without a sword, with nothing but His
words, nothing but His words. nothing but his holy sinless
life defeated every single enemy that could hurt us and the greatest
one being the justice of God God's justice demand our death
Christ not our death sin was a great great enemy Christ put
it away death go come and get us not
anymore Christ went into the tomb, perfumed it, came back
out. I said, don't be afraid of that. I've done conquered it. And that
just place you have to go until I call you to come home. Let's sing number 36, Gary, for
closing hymn tonight. I want to sing this. A mighty
fortress is our God. Let's stand together. A mighty
fortress is our God. This is what we believe. Our God is a mighty fortress. Our helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing. and power are great and armed
with cruel hate on earth is not his ego did we in our own strength
confide our striving were not the right man on our
side the man of God's own choosing just as true that may be Christ
Jesus is his name from age to age the
same then he must win the battle and though this world with devils
filled should threaten to His truth to triumph through
us. The praise of darkness thrill,
we tremble not for Him. His rage will That Word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to Him abided. The Spirit and the gifts are
ours, Let good and kindred go This
mortal life of soul The body they may kill The truth abideth
still See you Sunday morning, God willing.
Thank you, Gary.