First Samuel 17. I want to talk tonight about our spiritual
warfare. Our spiritual warfare. There's
some great lessons for us to learn here. The Philistines were
sworn enemies of the Lord of Israel, the Lord's people. We've
seen them before. In Samuel 15, they was David
I mean Jonathan defeated a garrison and then they took the Ark of
the Covenant remember and set it in their Temple of Dagon and
Dagon lost his hand lost his hands lost everything he had
Couldn't stand in the presence of God and during David's reign
He continually had to war with the Philistines And here are
these two armies Mountain over here mountain over here And they
got a great big army over here and a great big army over here.
Right down in the valley, there's a big valley between them. And the Philistines, they just,
they were relentless. They just kept on coming. They
just, they were very arrogant, very full of themselves. Didn't
think they could ever really lose. And then when they would
lose, they'd just keep coming back. And this is the way our
spiritual warfare is. And our warfare in this life
is relentless. It just keeps on coming. Just
keeps on coming. We're always waging a war. And
there's no discharge in this war. I know I joined the Marine
Corps in August of 1967. Got out September of 1969 with
a discharge. Ain't gonna get no discharge
out of this war. Just go, you die on the battlefield and you
go be a Christ. But as they were facing each
other, they sent out this giant. This giant. And he's described
in great, great detail. I mean, oh how he's described.
Goliath. And what they'd do, they'd choose
their best warrior and he'd go out and they'd go out and they'd
fight one another. That's why it says, choose you out a man
to come down here and fight me. If he kills me, we'll be your
servants. If I kill him, you're going to
be our servants. And that's what they did. And
that's what he did. They sent this great giant out.
And the first time we see giants mentioned is in Numbers. I want
you to see this in Numbers 13. this is why this is why Israel
ended up staying so long so long in the wilderness because they
refused to go take over the take the land that God sent them to
take through unbelief the Giants are first mentioned
here in Numbers 13 27 you know they sent the 12 spies out to
go spy out the land And they boy brought back clusters of
grapes, you know, took two poles to hang along. And they returned
from searching out the land after 40 days and they went, excuse
me, and they told him and said, we came under the land where
thou sent us and surely it floweth with milk and honey. And this
is the fruit of it, all the things that they brought back. Nevertheless,
the people be strong that dwell in the land, and in the cities
are walled, and very great. Moreover, we saw the children
of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land
of the south, the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites
dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and
by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people
before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it.
For we were well able to overcome it. But the men that went up
with him said, We be not able to go up against the people,
for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report
of the land, which they had searched unto the children of Israel,
saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is
a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that
we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the
giants, the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight
as grasshoppers. So were we in their sight. One
said, let's go, we can do this. God's for us, if God be for us,
who can be against us? These other fellas said, no,
ain't no way. These fellas are so big, and they're giants, and
we're like grasshoppers beside them. Grasshoppers, but that
so here's this giant first time we heard him mention. He's a
son of an act. He's Goliath of Gath and look here in verse Verse
four with me look how they describe him in great detail And I went
out a champion notice how they called him a champion Out of
the camp of the Philistines who evidently it won a lot of a lot
of battles won a lot of wars and Now the Philistines named
Goliath of Gath whose height was six cubits and a span. You
know what that is? That's almost ten feet tall. A span is nine inches, a cubit
is eighteen inches. So you got a fella here that's
running at ten foot tall. And then look what it says here.
I mean, you know, we see a basketball player that's seven foot. And
I'm telling you seven foot. I mean, you know, he's, he's
just one. This is eight foot ceilings. He's seven foot tall.
He just, he could just he got a duck to go through some doors.
But here's this man. He's nine foot. He couldn't stand
up in this building. That's how big he was. And he had a helmet of brass.
And he was armed with a coat of mail. And the weight of the
coat was 5,000 shekels of silver. What he wore on his body weighed
125 pounds. Do you know how strong a man
he had to be to pack around 125 pounds of armor on his body? And then look what else it says. And the staff of his spear was
like a weaver's bane. That's 21 feet long. His spear
was 21 foot long. And he had, look what it says.
And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron and one bearing
a shield went before him. That iron head that he had on
that spear weighed 15 pounds. So here's a 10 foot man, carrying
125 pounds of weight on him, maybe 130, I don't know, it's
according to how you weigh it. And his spear was 21 feet long
and had a 15 pound spearhead on it. And imagine how strong this man
was, and how big he was, if you go out and look at this man.
And every morning, every morning, look down here in verse 16, 1st
Samuel 17 every morning look what he'd do he'd go out and
taunt Israel and the Philistine drew near morning and evening
and presented himself 40 days every morning he'd go out there
and say send somebody out here I'm going to fire the armies
of Israel now they've been kept out there for 40 days they're
ready to go to war But here comes this great big giant out there
and oh, listen, ain't nobody can go out there and face him.
And he tossed them 40 days and 40 nights, every morning and
every night. And he said here in verse 8, and he stood and
cried unto the armies of Israel, said unto them, why are you come
out to set your battle in the way? Am not I a Philistine? And you servants to Saul, choose
you out a man for you and let him come down to me. And down
in verse 10, he said the same thing. And the Philistines said,
I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may
fight together. Now look what happened when these
men, you know, everybody listens to this great old big man. I
mean, he got a booming voice and they all hear it. And when
Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistines, one
man, They were dismayed. Oh my, what are we going to do?
Dismayed. Didn't know how to deal with
it. And were greatly afraid. Not just afraid, greatly afraid.
And let me tell you this. Let me see if I can transition
here a little. We may never face a giant in
our day. We may never even see a giant
in our lifetime. But we do fight an endless warfare. We do. In fact, we face greater
enemies than Goliath ever thought he could be. We face much greater
enemies and in a much greater warfare. This warfare between
Israel and Goliath and Israel and the Philistines is nothing
compared to the warfare that we have to fight. Oh, we have
a greater enemies and a greater warfare. That's why in Ephesians
6.12, he said, we war not against flesh and blood but against spiritual
wickedness in high places so therefore put on the armor of
God and as we see the battle between David and Goliath which
we'll deal with next week and as believers they just had this
one enemy to face this one man but as believers as Christians
we have three enemies that continually continually are after us and
threaten us we have the flesh the flesh we have the world and
we have satan and these enemies they are relentless they will
never stop they will never ever stop and let me tell you about
the flesh let's deal with the flesh first Peter said this he
said 1st Peter 2.11 Beloved I beseech you Strangers and pilgrims have
stained from fleshly lust which war against the soul Now I want
us to look here in Romans chapter 7. Let's look together in Romans
chapter 7 See what I'm talking, you know,
I don't know about your flesh but mine gives me some problems
I The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh and they're contrary one to another. They're against
one another. The flesh lusts against the Spirit
of God and the Spirit of God lusts and they war against one
another. And it's a constant war that's
going on. And that's why we got to abstain. Those things that
we know that's going to stir us up. Things that we know that's
going to tempt us. Things that we know will make
us do things that we ought not do. And that's why it says, abstain
from these fleshly lusts which war against your soul. And look
what Romans 7 here says. I'm in Matthew 15. Let me get
over here. Romans 7. Look what it says here
down here in verse 14. Now we know Paul was said, you
know, I was alive without the law once. I was alive. I mean, I just looked at the
law and I was alive. But then the commandment came.
God sent a commandment finally to me. And when that commandment
came, sin, I never know what sin was, but sin revived in me. Sin came alive in me. And that's
what the law does, is to make us know our sin, to reveal our
sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. And so sin deceived him. And oh my, and then he goes on
down here to say in verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual. It's spiritual. You know the
law. The law deals with our thoughts, and our intents, and our actions,
and our motives. That's why it's called spiritual.
That's why the Lord says so many times, you have heard it said
that you shall not, but I say unto you and I say unto you,
and, but I am carnal. I'm a carnal man. I'm a fleshly
man and I'm sold under sin and I cannot, cannot stop. Is there anybody here that feels
like they can stop from sinning? Can you stop from sinning? Stop
just for a second. You can't do it. Well how do
you know you're a sinner? Because the law came. And it's
spiritual. And it came to you and made you
understand that in that law there was no hope for you because it's
spiritual but you couldn't keep it because you're fleshly. You're
carnal. Now look what the apostle said
here now. Oh listen, we're in a war with this old flesh. For
that which I do, I allow not. What I do, I don't allow it.
I say no, I ain't gonna do that. For what I would, I don't, that
I don't do. But what I hate, that I do. Now boy, does that sound familiar
to you? If then I do that, which I would
not do, I have to consent and admit that
the law is good. Now then it's no more I that
do it, but what's this now? Sin that dwelleth in me. For
I know that is in me, in my flesh. And this flesh stands for our
fallen nature, stands for our sin nature, stands for our old
corrupt nature that we still have. For I know that in me,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. He didn't say there's
probably some little bit of something in there. I hope there's something
good there. I'd like to find something good
there, but he said there's no good thing there. And now listen
to this. To will is present with me. Oh,
to will. I've got the will to love. I've
got the will to obey. I've got the will to perfectly
obey. I got the will that says, God,
please, please save me from this. And I got the will to live a
holy, a just, a complete, a perfect life in this. I got it in. That's
the will with me. To never have an evil thought.
To never have a harsh word. To never be unkind. To never
be ill. To never be hateful. I got that
will. To be loving and generous and
kind. I got that will. But look what he says. But how
to perform that which is good. Good. How to perform that which
is good. I find not. Now listen to this,
for the good that I would, I don't do. But the evil which I would not,
that's exactly what I do. Now, if I do that that I would,
it's no more either do it, but what is it then? It's sin that
dwells in me. It's all corrupt, fallen nature.
Now listen to this. I find then a law, a principle
that I would do good. Evil is right there with me.
Oh my. And we spend our lives as believers
battling this flesh. We battle our attitudes. We battle
our nature. We battle our actions. We battle
humility. Humility. God said be clothed
with humility. But if I have an ounce of humility,
I don't know that I've ever manifested it. I'm being honest with you. And oh, we battle our flesh over
love. Battle our flesh over love. To
love To love our brothers and sisters as we love ourselves. To love the Lord Jesus Christ.
To love our enemies and to pray for them. And oh, we battle with
this flesh over forgiveness. Someone can cross our path and
cross our nature and cross our attitude sometimes and we say,
oh boy, you know what? Forgiveness, oh to forgive. And
we battle this old fallen nature, this flesh with pride. Do you
battle pride? And self-righteousness, we battle
self-righteousness. we battle meekness? we battle our words? we battle
our thoughts? but bless God this battle with
this flesh one day will come to an end just like David slew
Goliath one of these days his flesh will be slain once forever
And then not only the flesh. Oh my. And that flesh, we're
just talking about indwelling sin. Sin that's there. And you
know, and you know as well as I do, when God saved us, When
God saved us, we was, you know, the first month or something
like that, maybe first couple of months, we were just, oh my
goodness. Oh, we just, you know, our head
was in the clouds and we was walking on air. And then, beloved,
when our feet hit the ground, we come to find out that God
didn't save our old nature. He never saved my old nature.
The nature I was born with, I still got it. He gave me a new nature. He gave me a holy nature, protector
of the divine nature. He put Christ in me, the hope
of glory. And it's because Christ in me,
the hope of glory, what's caused me to have so much trouble with
this flesh. Because Christ in me wants to
be perfect and is perfect as far as Christ is concerned. But
this old fallen nature of mine is against this over here. But I thank God, thank God that
we will be done with this one of these days. Be done with it
one of these days. Now let's look at the world.
First of all, we have the flesh, then the world. Paul said to
the Romans, he says this, he said, I beseech you, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice holy H-O-L-L-Y acceptable unto God and be not conformed
to this world now I'm going to speak for myself here now I'm
not going to say anybody else I'm going to speak for myself
I would not accuse you of none of this at all but the world's
ideas and the world's ways shape my mind I mean, boy, you watch, look
at all the advertisement that we're bombarded with. How a man
thinks affects what he does. The advertisement, all the advertisement
you see is telling us three or four things. It tells us that
if you're old, you need Medicare and a supplement to go with it.
And then you need a financial advisor because you got so much
money you got to have somebody to help you advise you how to
deal with your money. And then they tell you what kind
of car you ought to drive so you'll feel like a big shot.
And then they tell you as a woman how slim you have to be and the
clothes you have to wear to look good. And then, you know, and
then the men, they tell you what you got to do in order to succeed.
And you know that stuff affects our way of thinking? It really
does. And you watch the economic news,
you watch the social news, and then on Facebook, and I ain't
been on Facebook in years, but I knew though this, that people
get on Facebook and they say some of the most outrageous stuff
and bring up some of the most ridiculous stuff that you ever
heard of. and that kind of stuff, that's
why we sure got off of it. It just affects your mind. I can't deal with that no more. Oh my! How to be succeed, how
to be popular, how to dress. But the world's ideas. Has lots of ideas. Got political ideas. These things shape our minds
and affect our minds and how a man thinks affects what he
does. I read old Scott said one time, it's hard to tell the difference
between the world and the church. The church is so worldly and
the world is so churchy, it's hard to tell the difference.
And sure enough, it is. It really is. Solomon said, there's a way which
seemeth right unto man. I mean, it seems right. It seems
right that we ought to follow this way. It seems right that
we ought to take the world's ideas. It seems right that the
world's got some good things. It seems right that it ought
to tell us how to do everything. It seems right that if we don't
take what the world says to us, that we must be fools. There is a way that seems right
unto a man. But you know how it ends up?
In death. In death. And I tell you, beloved,
the world wants us to think that is as the right way. As the right
way. Oh, the way we do things is right. The way we think is right. The
way we feel is right. The way we want you to be is
right. And it's telling us, always telling
us how to prepare to live in this world and live a long time
after this, you know, and live a long time after you retire
and have plenty of things to make it in this world, tell you
how to live in this world. But they never ever say anything
about the next. And there's another world past
this. And I, you know, It's a sad, sad, sad, you know,
the natural man. All he can think about is what
he eats, what he wears, what he drinks, and where he lives. And you know, most of us, most
of us was raised in a very small house. Very, very small house. And mothers and daddies and grandmas
and grandpas raised people in four and five room houses with
one bathroom. And sometimes they did some years
getting that bathroom put in the house. And now, and they
had a house full of youngins and raised them. And now they
build great big huge houses and have one child in four bathrooms
and five bedrooms. And they say this is my success. I'll tell you what success is. As
far as I'm concerned. For a man in this world is to
know Christ. and seek Christ and make Christ. I mean to see that the Lord Jesus
Christ is everything. This world and everything about
it is temporary. It's frail. How many cars have you owned
in your lifetime? Do you know why you have to keep
buying cars? Because they wear out. That's just the way the world
wants us to think. But oh my, well, I want to live
in the next world. I don't want this world to map
out my life for me. And then here's the third thing,
first enemy, third enemy that we have. It's Satan. He sends
lies and discouragements and temptations. you know 1st Peter
5a says this that your adversary your enemy goes about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour and you know that's what happened
with Job for you know first place you find Satan that's in the
Garden of Eden then you find him in Job And God said, Satan, where are
you going? He said, I'm going to and fro on the face of the
earth, seeking, seeking whom I may devour, devour, not just
hurt, devour. And God said, have you considered
my servant, Joe, a perfect and an upright man? And I tell you
what, he said, you take that hedge down. And here's, I said
all that to say this. that Satan can only go as far
as God lets him. But he said also put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles,
wiles of the devil. Paul said we're not ignorant
of his devices and he is wily. He's had thousands of years of
experience And if He overthrew our first two parents when they
were in the Garden of Eden in Paradise, He would have no problem
dealing with you and me. And here's what He loves to do.
He would love to destroy a believer. He would really, really love
to destroy a believer. Destroy the Kingdom of God. But
He can't. But He can't. He can't do it. But I tell you some things He
does do. He sows seeds of division. using lies and deceit. He'll
come and sow a little seed here and yonder and say, you know,
well, that fellow, you know, he shouldn't have done this,
he shouldn't have done that, he shouldn't have said this,
he shouldn't have said that. And he sows that little seed of division
in your mind and next thing you know, you're this way and that
way and another way. And he sows seeds of doubt and
discouragement. And sometimes, sometimes, and
I know I've been guilty of this, sometimes I know by what I've
said to people without thinking that I've discouraged them. And
I wouldn't do it, I don't mean to do it, but I know that I have.
And sometimes we get discouraged just from sometimes from some
people that we love by something that they say. And John Calvin
said this, truth Satan assails with lies. Light he obscures
with darkness. The minds of men he involves
with error. He stirs up hatred, inflames
strife and war and delights in it. Delights in it. And he comes along and whispers
in our ears and he'll tell us this, You know what it'd take
for you to be happy? You know what it'd take for you
to be happy? If you could just get that new thing over there.
If you could just get that good over there. If you could just
come up with this one thing here, that would really make you happy. This is what it'd take. Boy,
I tell you, if I could get that, I believe I'd be satisfied. I
believe I'd be comfortable. I believe I'd be content. I believe
I'd be at peace. And he whispers, you know, that,
well, boy, you need to be recognized. People just not recognizing you
enough. Not recognizing you enough. He comes along, whispers in your
ear. Oh, I was offended. Oh, I was
so offended by that. Then he comes along and says,
you need to resent that. You need to harbor that resentment
because you were so offended. People hold on to resentment
on and on and on and on and on It comes along he causes jealousy
because envy But the Apostle said this finally
brethren be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might
Now let me tell you this not one not one of these enemies
can destroy us not one of them The flesh can't, the world can't,
and Satan can't. Not one of them. They can hurt
our peace. They make us feel uncomfortable.
They can make us discouraged. They can come and make us feel
very bad, feel very low. But I tell you, we've got a captain,
a great captain, the captain of our salvation. And you know
when the captain is the one that's done, he goes in front of the
whole army, he goes in front and fights all the battles. And
I'll tell you something, our Lord Jesus Christ, He has done,
defeated everything that was against us, including our flesh.
And that's why He says, we're no longer in the flesh, but in
the Spirit, and so be the Spirit of Christ dwell in you. And He
also told us this, He said, nothing Nothing. Not Satan, not the world,
not our flesh, not a church, not a preacher, not a priest,
not a rabbi. Not a sin. He said nothing would
be able to pluck us out of his hand. Huh? Nothing. Nothing he said nothing or nobody
it will able be able to pluck you out of my hand and Beloved
I tell you what is that we reckon he yeah, I believe that don't
you? I get discouraged and I know you do too, but he's nothing
My hands closed and it's closed on you. We'll say Lord Jesus. Let me hold your hand Would you
oh my he's not holding our hands. He's got us in his hand And then he also told us this,
there's nothing, nothing, no nothing that you could ever do
that would cause me to cast you away. You say preacher you don't
know what I did last week. You don't know what I did Saturday.
You don't know what I did last week. You don't know what I did
last year. You don't know what I did, what I thought, what I
said. No, God don't, but God does. And He said there's nothing
that will cause me to cast you out. Nothing. Well you fell. Well, and I will
again. But He won't cast me out. You said an ugly word. Yep. But
He won't cast you out. You did an ugly thing. Yes, but
He won't cast you out. That's why Paul said it like
this. Set your affection on things
above, where Christ, where Christ setteth on the right hand of
God. On the right hand of God. And
beloved, and that's why, this is why, and I'll say this, that's
why we must continually, constantly and continually come to hear
the word of God, come to hear the gospel, come to hear what
God did, what Christ did, what he accomplished. We got enemies
and we're going to have a warfare until we draw our last breath
or else we get so far gone that we don't know who we are. Have
a stroke or something or get old and get dementia or Alzheimer's
or something and we won't know nothing. But I do know this,
that as long as we're in this body We're going to have a warfare. As long as we're in this world,
it's going to be trying its best to make us conform to it. And
as long as Satan exists, he's going to be trying his best to
destroy our peace and whisper in our ears and discourage us
and cause us to keep our eyes off Christ. But I do know this,
that our Lord Jesus Christ said, Without me, without me, you can
do nothing. But he also said, I can do all
things through Christ which strengthens me. Now, am I going to be defeated?
No. Am I going to have a warfare? Yes. But am I going to lose? No. I'm not going to lose. In fact, Walter Gruber was here
one time, years ago, and he was having a real problem down in
Mexico. A bunch of men come down there
and tried to draw away a bunch of churches that he had helped
establish and preachers that he had helped establish, tried
to draw them away after a denomination. Oh, it was awful. He was going
through it. He'd come up here one Wednesday night or Sunday
night or something, and I preached on, the battle's not yours, but
the Lord's. The battle's the Lord's. And
that's what David said. He said, the battle is not mine,
it's the Lord's. And he said, you just don't know
how much I needed that. I said, I've been in this battle
and now boy, I've come to find out it's the Lord's battle. It's
not ours. And listen, I'm telling you,
I know, you know, you heard me say all those things, but this
flesh is not going to defeat us. It ain't going to do it.
Christ ain't going to let it. But he left it in us to make
us need him and call on him. This world is not going to get
us. It's not going to get us. We
only go into it to get what's necessary out of it. That's all.
We just go into it. You fellas go into it and work
just to get a payday. It's Satan. God's got him on a chain. Our Father, O our Father, in
the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for
your great and abundant mercy given us in Christ. Thank you
for the hope that we have in Him. Though we're in a warfare,
we know it'll be constant and continue until we leave this
world. We know where our victory is. We know we're the conqueror. We know who already conquered.
the captain of our salvation, the one to whom did all for us. And Lord, we look to you, trust
you, believe you, and forgive us. Oh, God, forgive us of everything
that's unlike you. Every thought, every word, every
emotion, every motive, every ill will and ill feeling. God,
forgive us for Christ's sake. Amen. There is a name I love to hear