Good morning. Let's take our
Songs of Grace hymn books for our call to worship today, and
let's turn to hymn number 48. Hymn number 48 and our Songs of Grace
hymn books, and we'll sing, Grant to me, O gracious Lord. We'll sing it to Rock of Ages. Hymn number 48, Grant to Me,
O Gracious Lord. Grant to me, O gracious Lord,
true submission to your word, as your servant stands to preach. Give him words my heart to reach
as he unfolds the blessed book. Give me faith on Christ to look,
looking on your blessed son. Cause my heart or sin to mourn,
Looking still on Christ the Lamb, stir my soul to praise His name. By Your grace, through Jesus'
blood, I'm redeemed and heir of God. Grant that others here
may see Christ expiring on the tree, risen and exalted high,
so that we might never die. Send your spirit now in power
and awake the dead this hour. When the message is declared
and within your worship shared, let us from this house depart
Joyful and refreshed in heart, let us daily seek your face,
daily live upon your grace. For a scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to 1 Samuel. This is the story of David and
Goliath. David had been sent by Jesse,
his father, he was there tending sheep, left his sheep with the
keeper of sheep, and went out to the battle bearing gifts.
Gifts for his brother, gifts for captains of thousands, gifts. And David was listening to what
these men were saying, looking at this big giant Goliath down
in the valley, and asking some questions about him. And I guess
his questions seemed absurd and seemed to be a proud young man
who wasn't even there doing battle, but had just come out on the
front. And so David's brother said something
to him, and he turned from his brother. Verse 30. He turned from him toward another
and spake after the same manner, and the people answered him again
after the former manner. And when the words were heard
which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul, and he sent
for him, the king. And David said to Saul, Let no
man's heart fail because of him, thy servant will go and fight
with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, thou
art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him,
for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, thy
servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear,
and took a lamb out of the flock. And I went out after him, and
smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And when he arose
against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew
him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the
armies of the living God. David said, moreover, the Lord
that delivered me out of the pawl of the lion and the pawl
of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go,
and the Lord be with thee. And Saul armed David with his
armor, and he put a helmet of brass upon his head, and also
he armed him with a coat of mail. girded his sword upon his armor,
and he assayed to go, tried to go, for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot
go with these, for I have not proved them. And David put them
off. They were too big, too heavy,
too burdensome. And he took his staff in his
hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook. and
put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had, even in a script. And his sling was in his hand,
and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came and drew
near unto David, and the man that bared the shield went before
him." That is Goliath's shield bearer. And when the Philistine
looked about and saw David, he disdained him. For he was but
a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance. He was a sissy looking
boy. And the Philistine said unto
David, Am I a dog? Is that what your king thinks?
Am I a dog? That thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David
by his gods. And the Philistine said to David,
Come to me. I'll give thy flesh unto the
fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.' Then said David
to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with
a spear, and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hands. and I'll smite thee, and take
thine head from thee, and I'll give thy carcass to the host of the Philistines
this day under the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the
earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, For the battle
is the Lord's, and he'll give you into our hands. And it came
to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew near
to meet David, that David hastened, and he ran toward the army to
meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his
bag, and he took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine
in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead, and he
fell on his face. to the earth. So David prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the
Philistine, and slew him. But there was no sword in the
hand of David. Therefore David ran and stood
upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of
the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw
their champion dead, lying on the ground face down to the earth. And the men of Israel, they fled. The Philistines took off running.
And the men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued
the Philistines until they came unto the valley to the gates
of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines
fell by the way, even to Ekron. all along the
way that was slaying these Philistines. And the children of Israel returned
from their chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled
their tents. And David took the head of the
Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem and put his armor in
his tent. And when Saul saw David go forth
against the Philistines, he said unto Abner the captain of the
host, Abner, whose son is he? If you will, come back with me
to 1 Samuel 17. There are 58 verses in this chapter
and I hope you'll read them all when you get home this afternoon. 1 Samuel 17 is God's account of
a battle fought by two men. There were armies there. There
were armies set in array, one on the hill on one side and one
on the hill on the other. But the battle was fought down
in the valley. And down in the valley, there
was a giant of a man. Nine, over nine foot, if you
use conservative estimates. Over 11 foot, if you use the
maximum. But he had to be a big man because
his spear weighed 39 pounds. A 20-pound bag of potatoes is
hefty to lift up, but a 40-pound spear the size of a weaver's
bank to be able to throw it, it takes a big man to do that. These two men were mediators
of a sort. concerning two groups of people
who were at odds with one another. The Philistines were gathered
together at Shoko that belonged to Judah. They were on Judah's
territory. Judah owned this mountain and
these men were intruders. And Judah was the foremost tribe
of Israel and the tribe from which the promised Messiah was
to come. And Saul, the king of Israel,
and his armies were gathered on a hill facing the Philistines, and it says, by the valley of
Elah, or the valley of the oak. And these two armies were set
in array, that is, in battle formation. They were ready to
lock horns at any minute. And you remember, this is a day
they didn't have army tanks and helicopters and all that. These
were swords and spears. And here's an army and they're
all in array up on this mountain, clanging their spears or whatever
they were doing, their swords, shields. And here's an army on
this side. They were set in array in battle
formation, ready to confront one another. And then something
unexpected happened. this huge man appeared. He come walking down the hill
into the valley. There's these two armies now
and out of this one army comes this monster of a man. He had a shield bearer that walked
before him and he walked down in this valley and oh what a
man he appeared to be. Six cubits and a span. A span is a half a cubit. A cubit's
18 inches, so you can add it up for yourself. So he stood some nine and a half
feet tall. He couldn't walk in my house
at Taylor. He'd have to bend down to walk in my house. I'd
get on a step ladder to change the light bulb over there. His
armor, according to what I weighed, weighed 272 pounds. His spear, around 39 pounds,
and was as large as a weaver's beam and some 26 feet long. And he stood there alone in the
valley, challenging Israel to send down a man to do battle
with him for the right to reign over all. Winner take all. Here I am. Pick you out a champion
and send him down. Verses 8 and 9 of our text says,
choose you out a man and let him come down to me. Verse 9,
and if he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will
we be your servants. But if I prevail against him
and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. It was for the right to rule,
the right to reign. And this giant of a man cried
out to the people of God, saying, I defy the armies of Israel this
day. Give me a man that we might fight
together. Send him down. And here's the picture the Holy
Ghost paints for us in the words of his prophet, a people at odds
with the elect of God. The Philistines always, you remember
this no matter where you're reading about them in the Old Testament,
the Philistines are a picture of false religion. False religion. They had their gods. You remember
what I read to you a while ago? Goliath cursed David with the
names of his God. They were a people at odds with
the elect of God, sending out a hostile giant to challenge
the right of Israel to have what was given to them of God. It
never did belong to them. It belonged to Israel. God gave
it to them. God gave it to them. The way they operate is intimidation. Intimidation. You remember that. They always try to intimidate. And what a scene this must have
been. But though these things, to understand these things truly,
they're a picture. a picture, a type of something
much more jaw-dropping than what I've just told you. This is a
picture of Satan being the champion of fallen men and false religion
and especially such men duped into false religion who view
God's elect as a cult, as imposters and enemies of God. It doesn't
matter what they say. It doesn't matter what they read. They look at them as a cult.
It's been said to our members on more than one occasion, y'all
go over there where that cult meets. But these are pictures of things
that men don't see. Called in the scriptures, that
man of sin, that son of perdition, Antichrist, who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that's called God or that is worshipped.
So that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself
that he is God. And this Paul rightly calls the
mystery of iniquity and it already worked in his day. And David
is a type of Christ who alone in the body of a man must do
battle with his enemy of God. What's he battling for? The right
to rule. Right to rule. There are more things to see
in this than time will allow, but I want to give you as many
as I can. As many things as I see in here, and there's so many
things. First of all, before any of these
things took place, David was anointed of God to be king. Is that not true of Christ? Yet have I set my king on my
holy hill in Zion. That's what God said. He said
it a long time before he actually ascended to the throne. And he said, why are men upset? They don't like his son. They
don't like that king. They don't want his rule. And he said, God will last. Gotta
laugh. I see David anointed of God to
be king. You know, if you look at David
and Saul, both of them being types, but if you look at Saul,
who was the king at that time, he was the people's king. This
is the kind of king they wanted. They wanted a big man. They wanted
a powerful man. A man with a big, deep voice. A man who could intimidate. That's
what they wanted. But God was their king all along.
So they wanted a king, God was going to give them one. So what's
he do? He goes down here and anoints
David, who wasn't even in the running. When Samuel went to
Jesse's house, all of his sons came, but they didn't invite
David. He was still out there keeping
sheep. Little sissy looking boy. In their mind, this ain't going
to be the king. This just ain't going to be.
When we see him, there's no beauty in him. Isn't that what Isaiah
said? There's no beauty in him that
we should desire him. Nobody thought anything about
it. And all of these sons of Jesse come marching by, and Samuel
said, it's none of these. He said, is this all your kids?
No, he said, there's one left. I'll go get him. He said, here's the man. Oh,
when they anointed Saul, they took a vial. That word means
vial. It's a little glass. They used
it later on in church when they'd anoint the sick. They'd have
this little vial and they'd pour and anoint them with the oil.
And when they anointed Saul King, they took this vial and they
poured a little oil on him. When God anointed David, it said
he took a full horn of oil and poured it on him. A horn, pretty
good size. He poured it on him, it run down
his beard and run off. When Christ was anointed, it
said the Spirit, when He arose from His baptism, God anointed
Him, and the Spirit descended in the bodily form of a dove
and landed on Him, and He said He received the Spirit, now listen,
without measure. There was no comparison with
the anointing of David and the anointing of Saul. Just as there
would be no comparison between the kingdom under Saul and the
kingdom under David. He anointed David and he was
anointed who was already engaged in keeping
his father's sheep. Wasn't he? He was already out
there tending the sheep. The sheep was given to him. He's
the shepherd. When did he become the shepherd?
Before the foundation of the world. Before his public anointing,
before his debut, so to speak, before he was to appear as the
anointed king, he already had the sheep. And he was keeping
the sheep. And what a picture of our Redeemer
who was given a people to shepherd before the foundation of the
world, but in time he was anointed of God. And Saul being anointed
was anointed with this little tiny bit of oil, and David with
a full home, and Christ with unlimited anointing of the Spirit
of God. David was sent of God after his
anointing to slay the Philistine giants. He was anointed and appointed
to be king over Israel, and this battle was the beginning of this
appointment. Secondly, David went down to
face Goliath as a representative man. One more thing on that first
point. When David went down to battle,
he left his sheep with the keeper. Who's that? Who's that? And he tells you who it is over
in the Book of John. If you read it, John chapter
10, he said, the porter has the sheep. I left him with the porter.
That's the keeper. Our God is the keeper of the
sheep. And David said, you watch over
my sheep. I'm going down here. I'm going
down here. Why'd he go down there? The father
sent him. What's he doing on the battlefront?
His father sent him. Isn't that what our Lord said
a hundred times? He was sent of God after his
anointing to slay this Philistine giant. And he was anointed and
appointed to be king. And he went down to face Goliath.
And when he went down, he went down as a representative man.
Isn't that what the old giant cried out? We'll settle it. The two of us are going to settle
this whole thing. The losers of the battle would
be the servants of the winners. And when David won the victory,
Israel won the victory. When the Philistines lost the
battle, the Philistines become servants to Israel and they took
off running. Why did they run? Because they
recognized the hand of God. This little ruddy boy went down
there with a sling and dropped that nine-foot giant on his face. And as soon as they seen him,
You know what they cried, this is the hand of God and they took
off running. Paul writes this concerning the
church and concerning Christ and he says, but thanks be unto
God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our mediator, one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The whole thing is going to be
settled in Him. And then thirdly, when David
appeared on the scene, the battle was already in array. I'd like
for you to turn with me to John chapter 3. I want to show you
something here. When David appeared on the scene,
sides were already chosen. The conflict was already active. The army was already set in array. They were ready to go to battle. Now watch this over here in John
3 verse 17. God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. He came into this world as a
Savior. He didn't have to come here to
condemn. The world was condemned already.
The world was condemned back in Adam, when Adam fell. And he said, God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved, and he that believeth on Him is not
condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. He's already condemned. He was
condemned before he got there. because he had not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God. He didn't have to
come into this world to condemn it, but he had to come into this
world as a Savior. And David's presence didn't start
this conflict. It was already active. His coming
was to finish it and to settle it forever. And then, fourthly,
when David defeated the giant, he cut off his head. He cut off his head. The significance
of this is the removal of Adam as our head. Huh? Oh, I tell you, this victory,
when Christ descended into glory, that's our head. And now we said,
I'm the head of the body, the church. He cut off this giant's
head. He ain't the head. Religion's
not the head. Adam's not the head. Satan's
not the head. Christ is. The consequence of
Adam's headship was removed by God's anointed king. It says,
by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men. Well, what does it mean
to be dead in sin? It means we walk according to
the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of
the air. What was the hope of the Feliz team? That champion
down in the valley. All their hope was on him. Big, intimidating, warrior from
his youth. Something to look at, something
to see. We walk according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. And sin and Satan and those in
whom they reign appear as undefeatable giants. What are you going to
do with religion? It's on every corner, Brian. You don't have to go more than
half a mile and here's a church. Go on down another half a mile,
here's another church. Get into town, they're right
beside each other, three or four or five in a row, in little towns. Big cities, oh, there's no end
to them. No end to them. They appear as undefeatable
giants. And here's what our Lord said.
He said, can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin or a leopard
his spots? Can you that are accustomed to
do evil do good? No, sir. Not until the head of
your enemies Be cut off. Gotta be cut off. And when David
came up the hill holding the head of the giant, Israel shouted
and pursued the Philistine back to where they come from. Took
off running. And then fifthly, David's victory
brought glory to God. He brought down the giant with
a pebble. Think about this. Here comes
this little shepherd boy. I picture him with some kind
of a robe on, a wool robe or something on, and he had a staff
in his hand, and that's all the giant could see. Now, if I'm
right, in my study about armor, they had visors that covered
their face, and they'd look through these tiny holes in that visor
and they'd look out at their enemy so the enemy can't hit
them with a sword in the face. But he so, he so irritated that
giant when this little boy come down with a, carried nothing
but a stave, a staff in his hand. That's all he could see. He didn't
even see the slant. But he threw that visor up, just
threw it up, and he come running at him. He said, man, I'm gonna
feed you to them. And all he did was open up, and
the Lord took that pebble, sunk it into his forehead, and down
he went. Here stood an army, armed with
swords and spears and who knows what. But they stood defeated
by what seemed impossible to take down. But God had chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, hadn't
he? He could have sent our Lord into this world as a giant. He'd
still been a man. But then God wouldn't have got
the glory. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which are mighty, and here's
why He did it, that no flesh should glory in His sight. No
wise man would have chosen a sling to kill a giant warrior armed. Not one. Not one. But God did. No wise man would have sent a
shepherd to do battle with a warrior. No wise man would have sent a
young man so fair in his countenance to do battle with a hardened
warrior. And the sling and the stone are
pictures of God's ordained means of taking down the strong man,
the preaching of the gospel. Somebody said the five stones
was the five points of Calvinism. I don't see that being so, but
I'm going to tell you this. He had everything that represented
the gospel was in that bag, and he didn't have to look to see
which rock he chose. It wouldn't have mattered. It
wouldn't have mattered because Christ is the message of the
gospel. Christ was in every stone. He
was running, he was looking at that giant, and said he reached
into the bag, the script, and pulled out a stone and swung
it. Wouldn't have mattered what stone
it is, it didn't. Oh, I wrestle sometimes how I wrestle, and
other preachers do. It don't matter. It don't matter. It's God's message. And you'll
preach His message. You'll preach it. But it don't
matter which one you throw. If God's in it, it'll bring down
the giant. He'll fall. He'll fall. When the gospel hits its mark,
they fall on their face to the earth. Don't they? Sin revived,
Paul said. Giants are slain not seeking
to die, but preparing to do battle. Giants are not brought to their
end in humility, but in their pride and arrogance. This man
was, he was going to smash this boy into a million pieces. No
enemy of God is afraid of a shepherd and his slain, but their boldness
will not prevent the victory. That's right. People bow up. I'm not going to do that. It's
not going to prevent the victory. If you're God, that gospel is
going to take you down. Our Lord spoiled principalities
and powers, he said, and made an open show out of them. It
says that David selected five smooth stones from the brook.
Another guy said the reason he did that is because Goliath had
four kids. You go to 2 Samuel 21 and read
about it, they killed every one of them. They killed every one
of them. There's five of them. The giant and all his sons must
die. It seems an impossibility to
save sinners by the preaching of the gospel. But with God,
Luke said, the things which are impossible with men are possible
with God. Sixty. David's victory over Goliath
won him the love of the people. When does a congregation fall
in love with their pastor? When they hear of the victory
of Christ. When he preaches the victory
of Christ. And that victory's pressed home to their heart.
They love him. They love him. And he loves them. He won the love of the people,
and even so the love of God displayed in our Lord's victory over sin,
his death, burial, and resurrection, wins the love of all those for
whom he died. David loved Israel, and he's
willing to die for them. Here in his love, John wrote,
Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sin. And then lastly, and this
is something I've never seen and never heard. The reward of David's victory
was offered before he ever went to battle. You know what it was?
The bride of the king. The daughter of the king was
going to be his bride. He was promised a bride before
he went to bed. You kill that giant, Saul said,
and I'll give you my daughter. Now there's the shepherd boy.
He's nothing. He's nothing. But now he's going
to be son-in-law to the king. 1 Samuel 17, 25. The man who killeth
this giant, the king will enrich him with great riches. Our Lord
having ascended into glory and us with Him, it says, when the fullness of time
has come, when the time has come, that He's gonna, what's He gonna
do? He's gonna show us the riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. He has untold riches, all the
riches of wisdom and honor, glory. And he said, he that killeth
the giant, I will enrich him with great riches. I'll give
him my daughter. I'll give him the bride. You
ain't getting a bride unless the giant slain. He had to slay
the giant to receive his bride. I'm going to give him my daughter,
and I'm going to make his father's house free in Israel. I'm going
to redeem whatever debt he has is going to be paid for. And our Lord and Savior was promised
a bride. He says this, he said, Husbands,
love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
her. That's what David did, and he gave himself. He gave himself. And that's what love is. The
giving of oneself willingly, completely, to death do us part
is how the ceremony is written. And John wrote, We have known
and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and
he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. That's
the footing upon which David went when he went out before
that giant. He wasn't afraid of that giant.
He knew he wasn't going to do battle with him, God was, and
that's what he told to John. And no fear in love, he said,
John says, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. And you cannot find this perfect
love in ourselves, but we see it in our Savior and in our Father
that sent him. And what calms us in every circumstance
is the knowledge of His love for us, because as He is, so
are we in this world. Our Lord prayed, I in them, all
mine. Think about it. I in them. Thou in me, that they may be
made perfect in one. and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
That's hard to wrap yourself around there. Christ loved you
as much as God loved him. Huh? Oh, my soul. David was exalted in his name
renowned because of what he did, and whose name he did it in.
And when Saul the king, saw David go forth against Goliath, he
said, whose son is this? Who is this? And this is always
the question that must be asked when we see the Lord delivering
his beloved Israel. Whose son is this? Whom do men
say that I am? Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? What do these people say it out
here? Peter said, they're saying, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. He said, blazing blood didn't
reveal that to you, Peter. But my Father, which is in heaven,
how did He do it? Through His Son. I pray that the Lord will give
us some understanding of this and so many other things. I was
reading, right after this, I was reading the story of Solomon.
over the Book of Judges, at the end of the Book of Judges. And
oh, what a picture. What a picture he is. May the
Lord bless the reading of this one.