1 Samuel 21, our lesson begins
in verse 15. Moreover, the Philistines had
war yet again with Israel. And David went down, and his
servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And
David waxed faint, and Ish-baibinah, which was of the sons of the
giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels
of brass in weight, he being girded with the new sword, thought
to have slain David, and Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, and smote
the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore unto
him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that
thou quench not the light of Israel. And it came to pass after
this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob,
and Sabachath, the Hushaphite, slew Saph, which was of the sons
of the giant. And there was again a battle
in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of J.R. A Bethlehemite slew the brother
of Goliath, the Gittite, the staff whose spear was like a
weaver's beam. And there was yet a battle in
Gath, where was a man of great stature, and had on every hand
six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in
number. And he also was born to the giant.
And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, the brother
of David, slew him. These four were born to the giant
in Gath. fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his
servants." Now you notice as we read here, there's just one
battle after another, after another, after another. One giant's killed
and there's again a battle of the Philistines. And that giant
was filled, there's again a battle of the Philistines. And that's
a picture of the believer's life in this world. Every believer
is going to have warfare, constant warfare with sin as long as we're
in this world. And there's no coming off the
front lines to get some rest. Just because you've got battle
fatigue doesn't mean you can come off the front lines. Because
you can't get away from the front lines because the enemy's in
you. The enemy, our enemy, is that
old man. And he goes everywhere you go.
Everywhere you go, you take him with you. So you can't get off
the front lines. Everywhere you go, that flesh
is with you. And the flesh will always lust
against These are contrary to one to the other so that you
cannot do the things that you would. You can't find any rest
because there's this constant warfare going on inside a believer.
We're constantly fighting the temptation not to pray. We're always fighting the temptation
not to worship. We're always fighting the temptation
not to read God's Word. It never ends. David's getting
up in years. He's still going to war just
like he did when he was a young man. And these battles will be
difficult battles. These battles are battles against
giants. Our sin is a giant that will
ultimately kill this body. Nothing we can do to stop our
sin. The law is a giant who always stands opposed to us in this
flesh. God's wrath against sin is a giant that we cannot defeat. These giants are well-owned. Besides just being bigger than
us, they're well-armed. They carry spears the size of
a weaver's beam. They weigh 150 pounds and they
can sling those things just like we do a little one, you know.
And they're freaks of nature. They're giants with 24 fingers
and toes. I mean, the sight of that guy
would scare me to death. I'd die before he hit me. I'd be scared to death of the
sight of him. And left to ourselves, these giants would all crush
us. And we need Christ, our mighty David, to come fight these battles
for us and to give us strength for the battle. And these difficult
battles are going to get more difficult. The longer we live,
the more difficult the battles become. They don't get easier.
The life of a believer never gets easier. The road just gets
harder and harder. Cesar Rose told me that one time,
just slayed me. I thought, surely. It would become
easier to pray the older I get. He said, no, it gets harder.
The battle gets more difficult. As we become more mature believers,
the trial of our faith becomes more severe because it takes
a harder trial to try, test that more mature faith. And the old
man, he never gets weaker. That sin nature that we have
in us will be unchanged and he'll always be fighting against us.
When David was a young man, he fought a giant. When David was
an old man, he fought four giants. The battle gets harder. Now these
giants were all either the sons or the brothers of Goliath. One
of them was the brother, we think the others were sons of Goliath.
Now you remember when David fought Goliath, and we looked at that
story as a picture of two representative men. The whole army would not
fight, just these two soldiers would fight. Each one representing
that one side. And the individual that won the
battle, his nation, his side, his army would win. Everyone
he represented would be victorious. And the one who was defeated,
his side would become servants to the other. And David killed
Goliath. And that's a picture of Christ
our Savior defeating all of our enemies at Calvary. Christ is
the mighty conqueror. And we're more than conquerors
in Him. Goliath is defeated, his head's cut off. He's got
lots of sons, doesn't he? He's got lots of relatives. The
sin debt of every believer is paid in full by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But now that sin's got lots of
sons. There are a lot of them. They're giants, they're well-armed,
and they're subtle. Sin is always finding new ways
to bring us back into captivity to the law. This first giant
that David met had a new sword. Sin's always trying to find a
new way to bring us back into captivity to the law. Wednesday
night, the men were in the study, and we were talking, and one
of the men said, you know, it's a shame. You hear a great message,
and you go out, and you think, I can't be saved. And every man
in the room nodding their heads, every believer knows that feeling. You know why? It's the sin that's
in us. Constantly trying to bring us
back into captivity to the law. The sin that's in us is always
trying to condemn us. And it's easy to do because of
course we're no good. Of course we're not good enough.
That's not the point. The issue is Christ is our righteousness. But as long as sin gets us looking
at ourselves, it will condemn us. We can only be knocked again
when we look to Christ, who is our righteousness. And we're
going to go, every believer is going to constantly be fighting
these battles. And we can help one another in
these battles. David here is an old man who
went out to battle. Josephus says that David and
his army had the Philistines on the run. And they're all chasing
after the Philistines. David's with them, he's chasing
after them. But David got tired. He got weak from all this running,
and he must have stopped the rest. And this giant Ishbibinob
realized it. He realized David's tired. He
turned back on David. He thought he had David right
where he wanted him. Thought David sure is dead. But
Abishai came along. He helped David. He did something,
must have, to strengthen David. Because David's the one who killed
this first giant. In verse 22, it says, These four
were born to the giant Gath, And they fell by the hand of
David and by the hand of his servants. Well, we know the other
three fell by the hand of David's servants because he didn't go
out to the battle with them anymore. All the writers say David is
the one who killed this first giant. And the point of all that
is this. We need each other. That giant
would have killed David if Abishai hadn't come along and helped
him, helped strengthen him. No one can fight the battles
of this life alone. We need each other. And we should
remember how we need each other. We should look for ways to help
one another. Look for a way to be an encouragement
to your brothers and sisters who are just going through the
battle. Maybe they're faint like David was. Just give them an
encouraging word. Send them a card. Buy them a
cup of coffee. Just sit and talk with them.
Give them some encouragement. We need each other. Don't wait
to be asked. We don't read here where Abishai
was asked to come help. He just saw David in need and
he came running with help. And let us know when something's
going on, you know, so we can pray for you. We can do what
we can to help you. David needed his brethren and
David's brethren needed him. They said, David, don't you go
out to battle with us anymore, risking life and limb. We need
you to stick around for a while. And what I'd like to do with
the rest of my time this morning is dwell on this one statement.
And look at the picture of Christ in these verses in light of this
statement that David's men made at the end of verse 17. Then
the men of David swear to him, saying, Thou shalt go no more
out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel,
that thou quench not the light of Israel. Now, they had a lot
of earthly wisdom in this advice to David. That's exactly what
they should have done. David's too old. He shouldn't
be going out to the battle anymore. Just like our president doesn't
lead the troops out into battle. It's too dangerous. It'd be too
devastating if he was killed or captured. Generals do the
same thing. They're not right on those front
lines in the heat of battle. They stay at a safer distance
because their leadership and their planning of the battle
and direction and so forth is too valuable to be risked if
he's right there in the heat of battle. Look over Matthew
16. In an earthly sense, this was
good advice, good wisdom. but not in a spiritual sense.
This is the very thing that Peter was worried about. When our Lord
told him he's going to go to the cross, he's going to suffer
and die, Peter was worried that the light of Israel would be
quenched. Look at Matthew 16, verse 21. From that time forth
began Jesus to show his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed. and be raised again the third
day. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke the Lord, saying,
Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he
turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art
an offense unto me, for thou savest not the things that be
of God, but those that be of men. Peter did not want to see
his master die. He was afraid this would quench
the light of Israel. But our Lord said, that's of
Satan. That thought is of Satan. Christ
must suffer and die. The light of Israel will only
shine if our Lord goes and suffers and dies on the cross. The only
way any of us can be given any light is if Christ dies in our
place as our substitute. Christ must go to the battle
and he must die there in that battle Or we'll never have the
light of salvation. There'll be no victory over sin
if Christ does not go to the battle and die. Now the victory
over sin, and this is why Peter said this because he doesn't
understand this yet. The victory over sin is upside down. It's backwards to any other victory
that we normally think of. Normally the one who dies is
the one who's defeated. But Christ is just the opposite.
He must die in order to have the victory. If Christ does not
die, God's elect suffer total loss and total defeat. I mentioned
earlier that these giants, all the battles we have in this life,
we're battling against giants who are against us. Christ our
Savior has defeated every giant. The giant of sin. The giant of
sin will cause God's elect to go to eternal separation from
God, unless Christ is made guilty of the sin of His people. When
the Father made the Son to be guilty of the sin of His people,
the Son took that sin, He took that guilt, and He bore it away. He took that sin in His own body
on the tree, and He cleansed His people from sin once and
for all through the blood of His sacrifice. The giant of sin
has been defeated. How about the giant of the law?
Well, if Christ goes to the battle and he dies there, the giant
of the law, which is against us, is going to be satisfied
and will no longer have any claim on us. The only way the giant
of the law will not kill you and me is if the law is satisfied
by the death of Christ our substitute. Christ took the giant curse of
the law and he took it away by being made a curse for The giant
of the law has been defeated. How about the giant of the wrath
of God? The wrath of God against our sin will slay us with eternal
damnation unless Christ takes all His Father's wrath against
the sin of His elect and He hangs there on the cross in darkness,
suffering until that wrath has extinguished itself upon our
Savior, upon our sacrifice. Christ killed God's wrath against
sin by allowing that wrath to kill him and exhaust itself on
him so that wrath will never go looking for God's people.
Because God's wrath against our sin, against the sin that was
laid on our Savior, is satisfied. It's extinguished itself on our
Savior. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is the giant
of death. Every son of Adam has that giant
of death always hanging over us. There's no reason to fear
that giant. The giant of death will cause
us to die eternally unless Christ took the sting of death away
by dying in our place. The giant of death has been put
to death. The death of death was accomplished
in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he must die. And in his death, he's defeated
every giant. Now, we have a wonderful Savior. I mean, isn't that good news
to see how he's put away all these giants? They're all dead.
They're all gone. We have the victory over all these giants
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't that thrill your soul?
I mean, that's such a such a comfort, such a thrill. We still get weak and tired,
though, don't we? Tomorrow, some of you are going to go, oh my
goodness, just weak and tired, faint from being out in the world.
You think these giants are surely going to kill me. Well, look
over in Hebrews chapter 4. The Savior understands. The Savior understands and He'll
send help because He understands. Hebrews 4, verse 15. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted as like as we are, yet without sin. Look
at chapter 5 verse 2, this high priest who can have compassion
on the ignorant. He can have compassion on them
that are gone out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed
with infirmity. We grow faint, the Lord understands. He understands when we grow faint.
Did he himself grow faint? Did he get tired? Did he get
thirsty? Did he get hungry? Did he understand
when we get tired? One time he was so tired he was
laying at the bottom of the boat in a bad storm. I mean that boat
was being thrown every which way. Didn't wake him up. There he lay asleep. Those experienced
sailors thought this boat surely going to the bottom. There our
Lord lay asleep. Now, I know he was sound asleep
because he's calm, he's God, he's not worried about this.
But also as a man, he was exhausted. Well, he understands when we
get tired and faint. Look over at Luke chapter 22.
Here's another time our Lord grew faint. And he needed help,
he needed somebody to come help him and he understands when we're
in the same situation and we need help, he'll send it. You
can rest assured of it in Luke 22, verse 39. And he came out and went, as
he was wont, to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also
followed him. But when he was at the place,
he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled
down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this
cup from me. Nevertheless not my will, but
thine be done. And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him, just like Abishai did to
David, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground. And then he rose up from prayer,
and when it was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow.
And he said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. And while he yet spake, Behold
a multitude. Behold that multitude. You know
the rest of the story. They came and took him. He went to the
cross. He went there in strength because
that angel came, helped him, gave him strength to go accomplish
the work of our salvation. Our Savior was strengthened.
Well, he understands when we grow faint and we need to be
strengthened. He comes and strengthens us himself. And you know, we can be just
like Abishai was. We can help our brethren. And
I tell you how we help them. By pointing them to Christ the
light. That's how. By making the light of Christ
as clear to them as possible. That's how we help our faint
brethren. If you really want to help a brother or sister who's
faint, talk to them about the Lord. And, you know, one thing
we say is somebody's in trouble. We say, well, the Lord's able
and he is the Lord's able. And we say, well, now the Lord
can deliver us, if he will, and that's true now. But, you know,
we can do better than that. Sometimes say, well, you know,
now the Lord's able and just walk away and forget about it.
Don't do that. We can do better than that. Let's talk to each
other about everything the Lord already has done for us in Christ. Let's talk about those things.
Let's talk to each other about the love of God in Christ. How
wonderful is it that God loves me? He loves his children. He'll
send help. He loves his people. That's wonderful. Let's talk about how God's already
given us everything that pertains to life and godliness. He's already
given us. You're not going to lose your
life. He's already given us everything that pertains to life and godliness.
Let's talk about how God has given us an inheritance with
the saints in life. Let's talk about how thankful
we are. The Lord has given us a place
that we can come worship. A place like this is not in every
city, but the Lord has given it to us. Let's talk about it
and be thankful. We've got a place. We can come
hear the gospel of God's dear son. Let's just be thankful.
That encourages us. Let's talk about how thankful
we are to have brothers and sisters to worship with, to go through
this wall. We're not alone. We can go together through this
wall. Let's talk about how this is
not our final home. The situation here is discouraging. It's ugly. Don't get too discouraged. We've stayed in hotel rooms.
The paint on the wall is ugly. I mean, you know, the furniture
is ugly, the bedspread is ugly, the drapes are like, you know,
gosh, they were ugly in 1960. I mean, I don't get all bent
out of shape about that. I'm not staying there. Tomorrow
I'm leaving. Don't get too discouraged about this place. This is not
home. We're going home, and it's not
like this there. This is not home. Don't get too
discouraged. Let's talk about these things,
trust me, and it'll help those that are faint. And whatever
you do, never try to comfort someone by covering up the truth. Now a lie is never going to help
anybody. That would quench the light of
the gospel. Look over Matthew chapter 5.
Don't cry peace, peace when there is no peace. That's not going
to help anybody. Let the light of the gospel shine. That's what's going to help somebody.
Matthew 5 verse 13. Ye are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out,
and to be trodden under the foot of men. Ye are the light of the
world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle,
and put it under a bushel, but they put it on a candlestick,
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Don't
try to cover up the light. That's not going to help anybody.
And I'll tell you a few ways how we quench the light of the
gospel. We do it by taking the edge off the gospel. When we
paint man as less than totally depraved, we quench the light
of the gospel. If we paint man as anything less
than completely helpless and completely dependent upon God
for all of our salvation, we quench the light of the gospel.
And if we do that consistently, God's going to take the candlestick
out. He will. We quench the light of the gospel
when we paint God as anything less than completely sovereign
in salvation. If we leave man with the impression
somehow it's still up to you to do something to have this
salvation, then we quench the light of the gospel. We quench
the light of the gospel if we paint Christ as less than a completely
successful Savior. The truth of the scripture is
Christ died for his people. Now proclaim that. That's the
light of the gospel. Those people are eternally saved. That's the light of the gospel.
No one, but if we make statements like this, now you'll be lost
unless you accept Jesus as your personal savior. And it's just
going to make poor little Jesus so sad if you sit there and refuse
to accept him. There's no light in that statement.
That statement is utter darkness. And if we leave men with even
the slightest impression that something like that's true, we've
quenched the light of the gospel. We quench the light of the gospel
if we try to include some works in there. Now, you know, you
don't have to keep the law, you know, to be saved. But, you know,
there's some new things that somebody's got to do, you know,
in order to keep their salvation. And you know a big thing is the
Christian Sabbath. Oh boy. Christian Sabbath. Scott Richardson,
I remember being a boy. Now I like to play basketball.
Every Sunday I went down to the pool with my buddy in the summertime.
I played basketball. So I'd run home, take a shower,
go back to the server and say, now I played basketball on Sunday.
Scott Richardson said one time, he said, don't tell me my boys
can't play basketball on Sunday. I'll make them play basketball
on Sunday. Scott's eating my buddy. I like
that. But that's true. You got to say, well, you don't
cut your grass on Sunday or you'll die. Well, I'm going to go cut
my grass. It's not what I have to worry about the rest of the
summer. You have to wear your hair a certain length. You can't
drink alcohol in it. You know, now listen, it's a
good idea if you can rest on Sunday. If you have that opportunity,
rest. People don't get enough rest
today, but it's good. Get a little bit of rest. It's
a good idea to be careful. about how much alcohol you drink.
You know, a little bit's fine. Too much is devastating. If you
want to stay away from it to avoid that devastation, stay
away from it. That's a good idea. These giants,
not only are they giants, not only are they well-armed, they're
subtle. They take a good idea and turn
it into bondage. They take a good idea and turn
it into debt. because they attach it to salvation.
If you have Christ plus anything, if you have Christ plus a good
idea, you know what you have? Death. And that's how this thing
is so subtle. If you want to rest up on Sundays,
you can rest up for the week. That's a good idea. But if you're
doing it for salvation, what you have is eternal death. And
I know that sounds dogmatic, but David grew faint. Never retreated. David acted in a little bit of
wisdom so as not to quench the light of Israel. Let's follow
David's example. We'll never, ever retreat. Never. We'll never allow these
good ideas to be mixed with Christ for salvation. Never retreat. And if God would give us the
grace, give us a little spiritual wisdom, let's act in it. So as
from this place, I can't control everywhere. We got some influence
over this place. Let's act in a little bit of
spiritual wisdom. Let's pray that God will strengthen
us and help us to never retreat so that the light of Christ is
never quenched from this place. All right. The Lord bless you.