Turn with me this morning to
1 Samuel chapter 17. What we have in this chapter
may well be the first Bible story I ever heard. But you know, it's
never really a Bible story unless it is seen in the light of Christ. And I'm going to have to assume
this morning that you're familiar to some degree with the scene
here on these mountainsides. On the one side is Israel, the
army of Israel, with Saul as its king and leader. On the other
side, across a valley are the Philistines, the army of the
Philistines. And supposedly, the army of Israel
has set itself in a rave for battle against the Philistines. But if you were to look into
the faces of those soldiers, there is fear. There is terror. There is gloom. Because they
don't view what is about to happen as a sure victory, but an inevitable
defeat. Saul is cowered down in his tent. He's weak. He's afraid. And this has been going on for
about 40 days. It's almost been like, you know,
young boys, each one waiting for the other one to hit first. And for these 40 days, the champion
of the Philistines, that's what he's called in this text, a man
by the name of Goliath, who is a giant, he has for 40 days been
going out mocking Israel, challenging Israel, and prophesying their
sure doom, their sure defeat. What we have in Saul and Israel
is simply an illustration of Adam and his race. You see, not long before, God
sent a prophet to him. And that prophet was to tell
Saul that his place as ruler and king and favored of God was
about to end. And now here he is, by virtue
of his own foolish doing. And that's what the prophet was
to tell him. You've done foolishly. You've
not kept the Lord's commandments. You've brought dishonor to His
high and holy name. You've ruled unfaithfully over
His people. Now, all of you, are going to
have to face the consequences. And so, the disobedience of Saul
has put the whole army, and more than that, the whole nation in
jeopardy. And I wonder how many times that's
happened on this earth, where one president, one king, one
dictator, one ruler has put the whole nation in jeopardy. And what we read in our reading
there in Romans chapter 5, what we have in Romans 5 is actually
pictured here in this story, in this actual account here of
Israel and Goliath and a young man by the name of David. I said it had brought consequences
on Israel, this disobedience and wickedness of Saul, and that's
exactly what we're being told by the Apostle Paul there in
Romans 5 with regard to the consequences of Adam's sin in the garden to
all our race. He said, As by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned." Something he did brought consequences
to all Israel. Something Adam did brought consequences
right down to everyone born in our day. They have in the paper
every year the first baby that's born. Well, the first baby that
was born in this new year of 2013 will bear the consequences
of their great, great, great, great ancestor Adam when he sinned
against God in the garden. It says, through the offense
of one, many died. It says, the judgment was by
one to condemnation. It says, by one man's offense,
death reigned by one. By the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. And when Adam sinned, we sinned. And God viewed His whole race
as sinners. We all fell in Him. That's what it says, in Adam
all die. And here is Israel, a nation
represented by an army that is there because of the sin and
the rebellion against God of their king and head, this man
Saul. I'll tell you something that
will really help us find out about what we really are before
God. even outside of what we do, or
think, or feel, or fail to do. And that's where Paul says this,
he says to his people, but God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. I don't think there's anybody
in this congregation today that is over a hundred years old.
And we know that Jesus Christ died something over two thousand
years ago. And yet Paul says that when Christ
died on that cross, those he died for, they were at that time
sinners. How were they sinners before
they were born? How were they sinners when they
had not even breathed the breath? How were they sinners when, in
the language of our day, they hadn't even reached the age of
so-called accountability? Well, they had because they had
come under accountability in Adam. And here they are, here
are all those Israelites, they're looking around them and among
them, and they, by their natural eyes, they see no champion for
them. They don't have a Goliath. And
they themselves, they were no match for Goliath, and like us,
fear and sure condemnation and useless works filled their days. They sat there on the side of
that mountain. throngs of soldiers, sharpening
their weapons. I'm sure there was a lot of that
bravado that always surrounds fallen man in the face of death
and danger. And they didn't have a prayer
in themselves. You talk about a bunch of losers. As a matter of fact, Saul is
good as admits that. He says that not only Goliath,
but all these people, they're a warlike people. They've been
warriors since they were born. And they're like us. They're
like every son and daughter of Adam. They're just sitting there,
waiting to face death, waiting to face judgment, no hope, no
peace, clothed in a papier-mâché armor of self-righteousness,
waiting for the judgment of God to fall, leaning on the arm of
sinful flesh, lost, and not realizing it. unwilling
to face the fact. I can hear one soldier, he's
saying to the other, like men and women do, I believe that
we can beat them. No way. No way. Why? Because God's not going
to let you beat them. He has this impending battle
before you against an enemy. He'll make sure you can't win. And then out of the midst of
all that, for forty days, here's this obnoxious, gravelly, mean
voice that cries out. Here is this man Goliath, who
is not only a picture of Satan himself, but he's a picture of
sin and everything that is against the elect of God. He represents
every enemy of God's true Israel. He represents every power that
is against us. He represents that judgment that
is surely against us because of sin. And probably these Israelites
had never seen and were not aware in the slightest degree that
there was such a being living on the earth, even though that
the spies, when they spied out some of the lands, they brought
back the report. There are giants in those lands.
There are giants out there. And if you look here in verse
4, I believe it is, you get a description of their champion. Verse 4 says,
"...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."
He was probably something like almost 11 feet tall. He'd be
a first choice on the draft, I'm sure. Eleven feet tall. And he had a helmet of brass
upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail. That means
he wore a coat. a garment that was made up of
woven pieces of metal to protect him against any sword or spear
that might be thrust against him. That's the first body armor. And the weight of the coat was
5,000 shekels of brass. Why do you suppose that God goes
to the trouble of giving us such detail? It is, I believe, so
that we can know at least in a part, that which is against
us, the enemy of our souls. And he had greaves of brass upon
his legs. He had leggings that were made
of metal to protect him there, and a target of brass or a shield
of body armor between his shoulders, and the staff of his spear was
like a weaver's beam. And his spear's head weighed
six hundred shekels of iron, and one bearing a shield went
before him." That's him. And he stood and cried unto the
armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to
set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and you
servants of Saul?" I mean, there's a clear distinction here as to
who they are and who he is. But here he is. He's a picture
of death to them. He's sure death for them. And
He is such a mighty enemy that there is no way that the best
of their men, the hardiest, most seasoned soldier in all the ranks,
even stands a chance against Him." I hear people talking all
the time. When somebody dies, they say,
well, I know if that anybody made it into heaven, oh, so-and-so
did, or grandma so-and-so went there for sure. No, not your
best soldier can meet death. Not your best soldier can meet
judgment. You and I, on our best day, God
says, are altogether vanity. And one of the deceptions of
Satan is to take foolish army and foolish human strength and
foolish so-called human righteousness and in some way meet God in judgment. We don't have a chance. Here
is this destroyer of men's souls. Here is this Prince and Power
of the air. Here is this God of this world. And we are no match for His strength
or especially His subtlety. He's not just big. He's not just
strong. He's cunning. He's cunning. And here is also in him a picture
of God's judgment against us because of sin. You see, if we
only knew what is, who is against us, if we had any idea, we can
look at Israel, we can say, well, they're a bunch of cowards. Well,
if we could see what's against us as sinners, we'd be cowards
too. You remember what the angel said
concerning that dispute that was going on between the angel
and the devil over the body of Moses? That angel didn't rebuke
him. He said, the Lord rebuke you.
We're no match. That's Goliath. There he is. But as if almost foreign to this
scene, And to this story, up to this point, along comes a
man by the name of David. He's a young fellow. He's a man
of a fair countenance. He doesn't have a dark, hardy
complexion, hardened by battle and the elements and days marching
and stuff like that. He has a fair and a rough complexion. But he's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, One would
say of Him, and then our Lord would also repeat it, that the
Christ would be David's Son and David's Lord. You know how Christ
can be David's Son and David's Lord? He can only be David's
Son and David's Lord if He is the Man Christ Jesus. He is the
Man. People say to each other, you're
the Man. No, here He is right here. There is just one Mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. And at the fall of this man Saul,
God had already said, He had already determined who would
be the real king of Israel, who would be the real warrior, who
would be the real champion of His people. And he's the least
likely candidate, Richard. He's the least... I'll tell you
what, if you go and look for recruits, You do just like his
daddy and all the leaders in Israel did. They leave him behind,
tended to the sheep. As a matter of fact, when he
got to the battle, his brothers saw that he was there. He was
bringing food to them at the battle front. When he got there,
they looked at him and they said, what are you doing here, boy?
You're a naughty boy. You're just here sneaking around.
You're here to see the battle, aren't you? I've often thought,
if I'd been David, I'd have said, what battle? What battle? But the truth of the matter is,
here was this man, and he was sent by his Father. That's what
the Scripture says about the Lord Jesus Christ. It says, "...when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son." We didn't
send for Him. Our race is so blinded by sin,
we think we can get ourselves the victory. We think we can
win the battle. We think we can defeat the enemy. But like old David, the Father
sent Him. And He is the one who had been
chosen and anointed and prepared in all things, although he was
outwardly the least likely. When they started to mock him
about his inability to fight or to do, he said, wait a minute.
He said, I've been shepherd over the family sheep And once a bear
came out and grabbed one of the lambs, and I tore that lamb from
his mouth and saved him. The same thing happened another
time when I tore a lion apart and saved another of the Lord's
sheep." You see, that's why we could never, none of God's people
ever could fail, be finally lost, be torn by this enemy. Because
he'd already appointed our shepherds. He'd already appointed the shepherds.
And so he comes down here rejected and despised by his brothers
and mocked by about everybody else in the whole camp of Israel. And when you read these verses,
he has the only attitude in all the people that is proper toward
this Philistine. I can't hardly read it without
getting a chill. He says, Who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Who is he that he should defy
the armies of the living God? Those Philistines, and I'm sure
Goliath included, their god was Dagon, the form of a man and
a fish. And when they, at one point,
captured the Ark of the Covenant, they brought it into the temple
of Dagon, and when they got up the next morning, old Dagon had
fallen over and was broken. They tried to stand him up again.
Next morning they come in, he had fallen and broken even more.
That's what we're to do in the face of all these idols. We're
to set forth that ark, which is a picture of Christ, a picture
of His gospel, a picture of the way He saves sinners, a picture
of the way God gets glory and salvation. He said, who is this
uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of
the living God? And when Saul offered him all
the fleshly helps, he said, you take my armor, you take my sword,
and evidently whenever David put that armor on, it just didn't
fit. And not only that, he said, I
can't use this because I've never proved this. I've never tried
this and tested this. And it says here that he went
down. He left Saul's camp and tent and he went down by all
the soldiers. Can you just see this little
old ruddy guy walking down? the side of that mountain into
that valley which was the valley of death. He's left all this
armor behind and he stops by a brook and he picks up five
smooth stones, puts them in his little shepherd bag. He's got
his sling in his hand. And he went out to meet the enemy
of his people alone. That sounds like a verse of scripture.
concerning our Lord when it says that He by Himself purged our
sins. And so He comes down, He's sent
there by the Father, He's there, and He comes, it says, in the
name of the Lord. Oh, Goliath of Gath has him a
good belly laugh over this fellow. And he says, I'm coming in the
name of the Lord. that all the earth may know that
there is a God in Israel, a mighty God, a living God. And He comes down here on this
occasion, and He stands face to face with Goliath. There's one man on one side,
there's one man on the other side. Goliath had just told Israel
over this course of time, and they had rejected this principle
absolutely, totally, altogether. He said, if you'll send us down
a man, and I'll be the man for the Philistines, and if your
man beats me, we'll be your servants. You'll have everything. But if
I beat your man, you'll be our servants, and we'll have everything. And what that does is it gives
us a picture of salvation by representation. You see, that's
exactly what Paul is talking about in Romans 5. He is comparing and at the same
time contrasting two men, Adam and Christ. He is comparing and
contrasting the one who is called the first Adam and the one who
is called the last Adam. And what we find in this 17th
chapter is, if you look down in verse 47, David says, "...and
all this assembly shall know that the Lord saves not with
sword and spear." He doesn't use the works of man. He doesn't
use the products of man. He doesn't use the helps of man.
He does not save by sword and spear, but the battle is the
Lord's. Salvation is of the Lord. But
now listen to this, and He will give you, He is saying this to
this Philistine, and He will give you into our hands. The only problem is, the only
hands I see here are David's. The only hands going out to lift
up the battle or the fight against this Philistine, the only hands
that can be seen are David's hands. But in truth, since David
is a representative man, what he does affects all of Israel. If he loses here, they all lose. And that doesn't seem to be understood
in our day. If Christ, who is also, as Romans
5 tells us, if He is a representative, if He had lost in any way, all
He represented would be lost. Adam did lose, and all his race
were lost. If Christ, in any way, did not
accomplish a total and complete victory in salvation, then we
don't have a chance. You see, what David does will
have a great effect on all the men of Israel, just like what
Saul did. And Goliath's idea is like Satan's
in the garden, as he said, if I can get one man, if I can get
that man to fall, I've defeated the race. And so he now calls
for a man. He said, if he's able, if he's
able to beat me, and we'll be your servants. You know what
the fear of a natural heart is, don't you? I don't know if we
want to trust everything into the hand of one man or not. That's really a gamble, isn't
it? We're going to trust, they would say, their lives, their
possessions, slavery, they're going to put all that in the
hands of one man? That depends on the man. Because
the one David represents, he's the God-man. It says, he's able
to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. And Satan, back in that garden,
dealing with that first Adam, he thought he'd won when he deceived
our father Adam, who was that first representative man. But
he was only being used of God to establish the principle by
which God would and could and did justly save all His people. You see, if we can fall in Adam,
we can be raised in Christ. fell in sin in Adam on this principle
of a representative man, then we can be saved from our sin
by another representative man. And so Paul says, for as in Adam
all die. He didn't just say, for in Adam
all die. He said, for as in Adam all die. even so in Christ shall
all be made alive." He said, it is written, the first man,
Adam, was made a living soul, the last Adam was a quickening
spirit. Howbeit that was not first which
is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that
which is spiritual, the first man is of the earth earthy, the
second man is the Lord from heaven." You see, the champion of God's
church is the Lord from heaven. He's that One who's the Word,
who is God, And He is that One who at the same time was made
flesh and dwelt among us. He's our David. He's our Champion. And whatever Adam did, we did
in Him. And the consequence of what He
did are our consequences. But those who are in Christ,
all He represents, His victory is their victory. up in two thousand
years ago. This was God's purpose. This
is God's way of salvation. This is His way of delivering
His people. We have it in the picture. As
a matter of fact, when David went out there, and he stood
before Goliath, and Goliath mocked him that one last awful time,
he reached in his bag, he took one stone, put it in his sling,
and slung it, and it hit the old Goliath right in the forehead,
sunk deep in his forehead. I always think of it like this.
Not only is David a picture of Christ, That stones the picture
of Christ too. And that's why it says that Christ
by Himself, you might as well say, and with Himself, He defeated
the enemy of our souls. He wrought a complete salvation. He knocked him down and went
over, took Goliath's own sword, cut off his head, and that was
the end of him. And that's what Paul's talking
about, that our David did when he went to that cross. When he
died that death. And the picture of it, if you
look down here in verse 52 of 1 Samuel 17, it says, that after these Philistines
saw their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel
and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until
they come, until thou come to the valley and to the gates of
Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines
fell down by the way to Shearim, even unto Gath and unto Echron. And the children of the Lord
returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled
their tents. All they had to do was walk out. Walk out into those tents. where all the Philistines had
all their goods and all their food and all their stuff, and
take it. The Apostle says that through
Jesus Christ was given to the Lord's people the gift of righteousness. The gift of righteousness. That
which we are unable to accomplish or provide for ourselves, since
there are none righteous, no, not one." It says he gives it
to these people in one man. By one man's disobedience, the
many were made sinner. By one man's obedience, and that
obedience is his obedience unto death, the many were made righteous. In that one man Adam, they came
to condemnation. In this one man Christ, they
come to justification of life. Do you know what justification
unto life is? It means that God must justly
now, because of Christ's blood and death on that cross, He not
only must, but He justly can and surely should give us life. Goliath made the bargain. And based on that bargain, that
principle that was established that day, All of the Philistines,
everything they had, and a total victory, belonged to Israel because
of David. Christ said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. I give my life for the sheep. He purchased the church with
his own blood. Christ is the champion of the
church. We've got a champion. You say,
well, the difference is David lived and he slew Goliath with
a stone and Goliath died. Well, David could not be perfectly
a type of our Lord Jesus Christ And neither could anybody else.
That's why I say that stone hurled, thrown violently toward the giant
that slew Him. That's our Lord, who by His death
gives us life. Well, you say, Christ is the
champion of sinners over Satan. He's the champion of sinners
over sin and its consequences. And we have the victory by one
other than ourselves. By the One who went out and met
every opposition right down to God's justice against our sin,
and by His life and death. saved us." That's what Paul writes. He says, He hath saved us and
called us. I could just see those Israelites
sitting on the side of that mountain, some of them probably far away
or busy with other things that they were commanded to do, so
they couldn't even see actually what was taking place down that
valley. Didn't matter though, did it? Didn't matter if they
didn't see it. It didn't matter if they didn't
find out about it until later. Why? Because the victory didn't
depend on them seeing it or hearing it with their natural eye and
ear. It depended on whether or not David was successful. And he was. Paul continues, he
says, "'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy
victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, so that in Him,
in all things, we are more than conquerors, through Him that
loved us. Loved us and gave Himself for
us. I'm glad. I guess you could say
it like this. Goliath said, give me a man. And faith says, give me the man. The man Christ Jesus. Who like
David, is the David of his people. You know what happened to David?
He became king. He became king. And though even
Saul himself tried to destroy him, he couldn't. He couldn't. And
our Lord Jesus, by himself, accomplished our salvation, brought in everlasting
righteousness. by himself overcame the devil,
defeated him, by himself satisfied every claim against his people. What do you think those people
did then? They rallied around David. They
loved David. They remembered that victory,
and they knew that He had been their Savior, and they wanted
Him now to be their King. God had already anointed Him
as such, but now they wanted Him to be. their King. Christ
is the champion of the church. In our victory, our life, our
hope, our salvation, our righteousness, everything is in Him and accomplished
by Him. That's grace. That's representation. Father, this day we give You
thanks and we praise You and exalt the name of our Savior.
He is the Lord our righteousness. He is that last and final Adam. He is that one who stood as our
substitute, died as our surety, overcame all enemies of our soul
in His life and in His death. He is the champion of His people. Our praise is to Him. Our thanksgiving
is to Him. Help us and watch over us. Bless
us for Thine own glory's sake. For we pray in His name. Amen.