Let me just read verse 17. When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel. I'll give you a little review, because it's been a little while since we've been here, but David has been put on the throne by God, and Israel and Judah had been divided, but now they've all come and submitted to David, and acknowledged him to be the true king. And the first thing David did was he went up and took Jerusalem. The Jebusites had it. And he went and took Jerusalem.

We saw that quite a few months back. And then we come now to where the Philistines hear that David is the king. And in the history of the church, in the history of individual believers in particular, anytime the Lord brings you to submit to Christ and acknowledge Him to be your true King and Savior, that's when opposition starts. And anytime the Lord does some work and He gives you fresh views of Him, that's generally when there's gonna come an attack. And that's what we have a picture of here. The moment David's anointed king and the people come and submit to him as the king, that's when the enemy hears about it and comes to challenge David and the people.

Whenever a man is divided, and he's not one with the Lord's people, he's not one submitted to Christ, the devil is fine, he leaves him alone. He operates the same way, or politics operates like the devil, divide and conquer. And as long as he has the people divided, he's ruling them. And that's what it was with the Philistines. As long as Israel and Judah was divided, they had the rule, and they were lording over them.

But it's significant here, in both these battles, they both take place in a valley. The valley of Rephidim, that's the valley of giants. We're in the valley. This whole world, all our life is the valley. We're in the valley. This is the valley of the shadow of death. This world of sin, it's a place of giants. It's a place of enemies against the Lord's people.

But in both these battles, we're gonna see two here. In both of these battles, the king won the victory. And the king is Christ. He's the true king. Our subject is two battles, one victor. Two battles, one victor. And here's what I wanna show you in these two battles.

Number one, the king is the Lord Jesus Christ. The king, David here, pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. And the two battles represent or illustrate our Savior's victory for his people. The one victory for us on the cross, and then he comes and he accomplishes the victory within his people. Both is the work of the Lord. The victory for his people and in his people.

And that's what we're gonna see. I'm trying to do for you what the Lord commands his preacher to do. Isaiah 40 in verse one, this is what we're commanded to do right here. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her. You know how Paul said, We commend ourselves to every man's conscience. We're crying to the heart, to the new man that the Lord's created in his people. Cry unto her, what's the message? That her warfare is accomplished. That her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sin. That's what we're gonna see tonight. Now first of all, let's look at the opposition, the enemy.

Verse 17. 2 Samuel 5 verse 17 says, but when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David. And David heard of it and went down to the hold. The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Repha. Now the enemy heard, the enemy heard that they had anointed David. And so here they come to attack now. When they heard David's the king, that's when they came to attack.

You know the devil was a created angel. And we know from Ephesians that the Lord blessed his people, but God the Father chose a people in Christ. He chose Christ to be the king, the Christ, the anointed of God. And he was gonna come and take flesh like his people, and accomplish the victory, and then ascend, and a man, the God man, would be reigning with all power over the angels, over men, over heaven, earth, and hell, over everything. And the devil, that's when the devil revolted. That's when he revolted. He could not stand the thought of a man reigning over him, an angel. This is what he said in Isaiah 14, 13.

God said to Lucifer, thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. That's, he's a wheel worshiper, isn't he? I will, I will, I will. That's where free will religion comes from, the devil. I will.

So just like the Philistines came to attack when they heard David was king, the devil heard that Christ, he will be the king from eternity. He heard that and he revolted and God cast him out. The Philistines had been lords over Israel. They had the rule of the land, just like the devil has the rule of men in this earth. keeps them in bondage. And so they did not want to see David reign as king. They didn't want to see that. They didn't want to see the kingdom united under David.

And that's man by nature. His nature's corrupt, and he's spiritually dead in his heart, and he will not have Christ reign over him. And he gets it from the devil. That was the devil's sin, pride. Will not have the devil reign over him. The Lord Jesus gave a parable to illustrate that. For time's sake, I won't have you to turn there, but he described himself as a nobleman that went into a far country, and he received for himself a kingdom. That's what Christ did. And he made full provision for his servants, and he said, I will return. That's what Christ has told his people.

And then the Lord said, he said, but when he told them this, his citizens hated him. and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man reign over us. That's the heart in every sinner by nature. That's the heart in every man as he comes into this world.

He will not have Christ be the king. Men wanna say, I made him Lord of my life. No, no, no sinner makes him Lord. He's been king since eternity, since God the Father anointed him king. He was born king of the Jews, scripture said. And he's ruled this world from the beginning and he rules it right now. He's the king.

And that's the issue. There can only be one sovereign. There can only be one savior. There can only be one king. And it can't be a man like you and me that has sinned. We need him to be the king. We need him to be our savior. We need everything done by him for us. But a fallen sinner thinks he's a king. Listen to, you know, you're familiar with this, but let's look at Psalm 2. Psalm 2. Now this is the heart in every sinner right here. The Lord gives them a new heart. Psalm 2 1, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. It's a vain thing to go against the king of kings and lord of lords.

That's what they tried to do. That's how he orchestrated everything to go to that cross, that's what they were doing, trying to defeat Christ the King. And now he's risen. And every sinner without faith, I'm speaking to every sinner without faith now, David heard of that enemy. And you know what he did? He went down to the hole. He went down to the hole. And he called on the Lord. He called on the Lord. See, pride is the worst sin. we have. Pride is the essence of sin. Thinking we're self-sufficient, thinking we can save ourselves and we will not bow to the Lord.

But when the Lord saves, the first thing he's going to do is he's going to bring his child down. Just like David went down to that hole, he's going to bring his child down. And he's going to bring us down to his feet. He's going to make us see our flesh is sin and everyone about us is sin. There's no help anywhere but Christ only. and he's gonna bring us down to his feet to cry to him for mercy. David went to that hole and he cried to the Lord for mercy.

That's what we're gonna be brought to do if we're his. And for every believer, for you and me, after the Lord has called us, that's what we do. We did it the first hour he called us and we never stop. We go down, we go down to Christ's feet and we call upon him to do the saving He's won the victory. And by His blood, He's made us kings unto God. He's anointed us with the Spirit.

But as soon as you submit to the Lord, you find out that's when our warfare begins, as far as this flesh is concerned, as far as the enemies of this world are concerned. And so we're constantly bowing down to Christ and calling on Him and asking Him to save.

When you, next time you're opposed by somebody that hates the gospel, or they oppose you because you come to services to hear the gospel preached, or they say something offhand about it, or whatever, just remember, that's a good token to you that the Lord's made you a king unto God, because the enemy's gonna attack when they hear that he's brought you to submit to the king of kings. That's when they submit. I mean, that's when they oppose. Now secondly, I want you to see how Christ won this victory for his people. How did he win this victory? We see it in how this first victory is won.

Verse 17 says, David heard and went down to the hole. The Philistines also came, spread themselves in the valley of Rephim, and David inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go up to the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto David, go up, for I will doubtless deliver the flesh things into thy hand. And get what David did. David went down to the hole, then he prayed unto the Lord in dependence upon the Lord, and at the Lord's word, then David went up. Now, do you see Christ right there? The Son of God came down. He came down and took flesh like unto his brethren. And his whole life, the whole time he lived, You see David praying and asking the Lord the whole day of his life, every day of his life on this earth.

Our Lord lived in perfect dependence upon the Father. He represented his people. He's the head of his people. And so he walked under the law as the perfect believer with a perfect holy heart set on God, the Father. and praying, we find him all the time in the scripture going off to somewhere alone where he wasn't seen by men, he wasn't putting on a show. He went off alone and he cast his care on the Father.

Even before he went to the cross, he prayed to the Father. And then he went up, he went up to the cross. David went down, he prayed to the Father, then he went up to the enemy. Christ came down, took flesh, and he lived his whole life in prayer, dependence upon the Father, with a perfectly holy heart, with perfect faith.

And he went to that cross, he went up, he said, I must be lifted up. And he went up to that cross at the appointed time of the Father, and he said, and if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. He said, it says in Ephesians 4, now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first, and to the lower parts of the earth. That one who came down, you have to come down first.

Then he went up. Went up to that cross, then he went up to the father. And look what it says here in 2 Samuel 5 in verse 20. And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there. and he said, the Lord hath broken forth, see that word, broken forth, the Lord hath broken forth upon my enemies before me as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place, Belperism. That's what it means, the breach.

Now, I read to you Micah 2.13, because the same word right here that says broken forth and breach, the same word is in Micah 2.13 and it declares what Christ has done for his people.

He said, the breaker is come up before them. Christ the breaker. He's the one that made the breach. He broke the bands that had us bound in captivity. The breaker has come up before them. That is, it's Christ with his people in him. And they have broken up and they have passed through the gate. The gates of hell can't prevail against him. He broke the gates and he's gone out by that gate, and he's brought his people out with him, and their king shall pass before them, that's Christ, and it says, and the Lord shall be on the head of them, leading them in their heart.

We were the sheep bound by the enemy. That's the picture in Micah, that's the picture in our text. We were the sheep, we were bound by the enemy. Before the law of God, we'd broken it, so we're guilty, and we're bound by the law. And the devil had one weapon, he had our sin, to constantly plague our conscience with it and make us fear death and fear, just fear, illegal fear. And so you're constantly trying to do something to do a good work, to be accepted of God, to make yourself acceptable. Or either then you're just sinning with reckless abandon, with no thought of God whatsoever. A constant, just a constant bondage And Christ came forth to break the gates of hell, to break the bands of the enemy, to break the curse that we had upon us. And our Lord Jesus went up on that cross and he was made sin for his people. And therefore, the Lord poured on him the curse that his people deserve.

And he satisfied justice. He fulfilled the law so that God is perfectly just. His law's been honored. By justifying his people, he saved us from our sins. He put our sins away. And because he took all the sin away from his people and justified us, made us the righteousness of God in him, the devil has no enemy, has no weapon now. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's leg? That was his method of operation, being the accuser of the brethren. He has nothing to accuse us with now.

Christ comes now and he makes you see, none of your idols can save you. Nothing you thought was, the imagination we had, that we thought how God was, was an idol. And we realize now, the works of our hands, whether it's a God we imagine or it's some works we did, can't save us. Those were idols. And look what happened to the idols there in verse 21.

And there they left their images and David and his men burned them up. Christ did this for his people on the cross by putting away our sin, by making all of his people perfectly righteous before the law. You know what that means? It means that when God looks to his son and sees the law perfectly honored every 600 plus commandments, Christ fulfilled them, all of them. and perfect righteousness with a perfectly holy heart, no sin whatsoever, perfection. And God sees all of his elect in him the same way, perfectly righteous, perfectly holy. That's what Christ accomplished. So cast all your care on Christ. Cast all your care on Christ. He is the righteousness of his people.

Psalm 103.12. Let's do this right here.

Psalm 103.12.

Psalm 103.12.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. You know why he says that? I've told you this. I know you've heard other preachers say it. If you start north, you're going to get to the North Pole and you're going to be going south. But if you go east and you go west, you're never going to go. When you just keep going east, you're just going to keep going east. Keep going west, you're just going to keep going west. And they never meet.

And so he's saying as far as you can imagine, That's how far he's removed our sins from us. They're gone. That's so of those he died for. Look at verse 13. And like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. That brings us to this third point. Go back with me now to our text. When we've come to the Lord Jesus, This is a necessity, number one.

Everybody here is a sinner. And the only way you're gonna be saved is to come and bow to Christ and trust Him to do all the saving. Trust Him to present you to the Father without fault, without blemish. Perfect in Him. That's the only way. And when you have come to the Savior, we never stop coming to Him. We need Him to get through this wilderness. The only way.

Now look what happened, verse 19. He inquired of the Lord. He inquired of the Lord. And he said, shall I go up to the Philistines, with thou deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thy hand. Again, we find it down in verse 23. David inquired of the Lord.

Now, before we look at David as a believer, let's look to the Lord Jesus. Because our Lord Jesus did this. We're coming upon some passages in Luke, where we're gonna find the Lord going apart by himself to pray. Constantly calling upon the Father. Because again, he was representing his people. And before he went to the cross, he went and prayed to the Father. And he's representing his people.

Go with me to Hebrews 5, 7. Now this is gonna apply to you and me, but I want you first to see what Christ did. Hebrews 5, as a man, representing his people, our Savior had a perfect reverence for God, perfect faith in God. And look what it says, Hebrews 5, 7. It says, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, he was heard because he feared.

He had a perfect reverence. He's the only man, and he's God, don't misunderstand me, but he's the only man, since the fall, he's the only man that was ever able to approach God without a mediator, because he's perfection. He's the perfect holy one, the perfect righteous one.

But he's representing his people here, and what was he doing? What was he doing? He was doing what he was doing for his people so that he would be the perfection of our faith, the perfection of our holiness, the perfection of our righteousness is Christ. He represented his people.

And he did this, look at verse eight. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Do you see him there now? He had to suffer, he had to go through the cross, he had to be tempted in all points, and he had to do this without sin, in perfect faith to the Father, in perfect righteousness before the law, and in perfect holiness of heart.

And he's the only righteousness and holiness we have. Just like he offered up these perfect this perfect prayer to God and was heard. Even our prayer has to come through him to the Father. He's the perfection of his people. But see, he suffered those things that he might experience what his people experience in suffering, one, so he's able to comfort us when we're suffering, but also to perfect his people. And he did that. He became the perfect captain of our salvation, the author And because he is God, it's eternal, the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him. What does that involve?

Let's go back now and look at David as a child of God. Here's somebody made holy in Christ right here. The same spirit of our Lord that was in our Lord was in David. And it's in us who believe. And this is what makes you keep calling on the Lord casting your care on him to get you through everything. Everything.

So David knew his strength wasn't in his sword, his strength was the Lord. And he knew it wasn't his power, his power was the Lord. And so before he went up to the blisting, he went to the Lord and bowed down. Christ is the salvation of those that come and bow to him and trust him to do the saving, just like Christ bowed to the Father and trusted the Father to keep him as he went through that cross.

That's where he's bringing his people. And we're sons by his grace, chosen in Christ, redeemed by Christ. His people are sons to him. But though we are sons, we're gonna suffer and the enemies in this world for a purpose. That purpose is to make us learn the only way of salvation for us, constantly, continually all the time. is Him when we keep going to Christ. Coming to Christ is not making a decision and being baptized and that's it. No, true salvation is coming to Christ every day, all day, all the time, because you see you need Him to save you through the next hour, just like you need Him to save you eternally with God. And so though we're sons, that's what we're learning.

Go with me to Hebrews 4. And I want you to look here now at verse 15. He accomplished making his people righteous. Now he says here in Hebrews 4, 15, he says now, seeing then that we have this great high priest, Hebrews 4, 15, he says, we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

That's our weakness, our total weakness. He was touched with it. He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We're gonna always need mercy. When we go to him, you're gonna hear me pray continually, Father, forgive us of our sins. We always need mercy.

Just before this, David is put on the throne by God, and just shortly after that, he takes more concubines and brings more illegitimate children into the world. You're gonna need mercy, because you're still in a body of death, and you're still gonna have sin to deal with. And you're gonna need, and we have it in him, because he put away our sin. But we still have a sin nature, and you're also gonna need grace. You're gonna need grace.

He gave Paul that thorn in the flesh for the same reason he put David in this situation. So that David would call on him. That's the same reason he puts you in any trial that you go through. So you'll call on him. And David thought his salvation, I mean Paul thought his salvation would be just take this thorn away from me. That's what we think, just take me out of the situation. Just remove the trial. No, that's not your salvation. Christ is your salvation. So he told David, I mean he told Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you.

And my strength is made perfect in weakness. See, you're not gonna know that your only strength is Christ unless he puts you in a situation to where you see you don't have any strength. I don't have any strength. David didn't have any strength right there, he knew it. He'd just come to the throne. He hadn't had time to organize a big army or anything like that. And you and me don't have any ability to fight. Christ is our strength.

And so Paul learned this. He said, most gladly, therefore, I will rather glory in my infirmities. I glory in the fact that I'm weak. Does that mean he'd like to suffer? No. What it means is just what I'm saying to you. He acknowledged and preached and told brethren, brethren, I'm totally weak, I don't have power to overcome a cold, much less the devil and all my sin. He said, I glory in the fact that I can't do anything, I confess it, this is all the light and glory I have, total weakness. And he said, but I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

He's my only power. Can you say that? We don't have power but him, brethren. He's the only power we have, and his grace is sufficient. David won this victory. Christ won the victory of Calvary for his people, put away our sin, justified us. And he's gonna make his people win the victory by coming and trusting him by his power and his grace to do all the saving beginning in, beginning in.

I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna stop right there. The flesh change come up again and we're gonna, I'll save that and we'll go look at it another time. And we'll just close right here. What I showed you tonight, let me just tell you what I showed you, is that Christ came down and took flesh like unto his, go with me to Romans eight. He came down, took flesh like His people.

And He's the perfect righteousness of the law. We're not worshiping a doctrine, a doctrine of justification, a doctrine of righteousness. The true teaching of righteousness is that Christ is that righteousness. He is the fulfillment of the law, the end of it for His people.

And so now, having revealed Himself to us, we come and bow to Him and trust Him to bring us to God. And so every day as we go through this world, he's teaching us every day through the ruling providence and putting you in a place where you can't get out of it. So that you go to him and call on him and say, Lord, I need you. And he keeps showing you, my grace and my power is what's saving you. So you don't ever forget, he's all my salvation. He's all my salvation.

We don't like these trials and these sicknesses and being opposed and we don't like these things, but they're absolutely necessary because it keeps you coming to Christ's feet, keeps you down instead of being lifted up in pride. Keeps us down at his feet, begging him to do the saving and reminding us, I'm your savior.

Here's why he did it, verse eight. Chapter 8 verse 1 there's therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh But after the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That's the new covenant of grace It's made me free from the law of sin and death the law given at Sinai For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh meaning I couldn't keep it God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin and condemn sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in our nature as a man, Christ the God-man, and so that now we're born of him and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. We're brought to cast our care on him, and he robes you in his righteousness. We're not doing the law. Even your best attempt at obeying the Ten Commandments is still full of sin. God won't receive it. Our perfect obedience to the Ten Commandments is Christ the Lord.

We come and bow and believe him and trust him. And he'll never lose what he died for because he put away the sin of his people. And he's gonna bring us all to glory. And we're gonna be in his righteousness before the Father and accepted in the beloved. Accepted in the beloved.

We'll pick up, we'll look at that second battle, Lord willing, next time. Let's close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you chose your son, sent him forth, Lord, and saved your people. Lord, what a blessing to know that we have a victorious Redeemer. We have a sure salvation in our great Captain, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don't let us look to lesser men down here in this earth that think they're kings and rulers and all that. Keep us looking to the king of kings. Keep us knowing that men trying to break his bands and they imagine a vain thing. Lord, you're ruling everything. Keep us looking above to him.

And Lord, thank you even for the trial. It hurts us and we murmur and complain, but Lord, we need it. We are dust and we need you to keep us continually resting in his power and his grace and not our own. Thank you, Lord, for free salvation that cost our Savior his precious blood, your dear son. Forgive us, Lord, our sins and our unbelief and keep us till we come again to hear your gospel. Lord, be with us now, we ask it. In Christ Jesus, our Lord, amen. All right, brethren, you're dismissed.