Well we're continuing in 1st
Samuel this morning we come to chapter 17 and chapter 17 it's
quite a long chapter 58 verses and it's the well-known account
of David and Goliath there can be very few people even in this
land in these days who don't know the story of David and Goliath. And people love the story of
David and Goliath. I'm going to assume that you
know it. When I'm preaching I'm not going to tell you the story
of David and Goliath. I'm going to assume that you
know it. Parents, teach it to your children. Fill their minds
with this in preference to today's fictional superheroes, who they
may get totally taken up with, but this is real, this is in
God's word, David and Goliath, the underdog defeating the giant. We love it, don't we? Do you
know, I I take less and less interest in Premier League football,
but do you know so many of us loved last season, sorry any
Americans listening, those of you who know a bit about English
soccer, football, will know what I mean by this, but Leicester
City won the Premier League. The underdog, oh the great big
teams with all their money, the giants, were defeated by little
lowly Leicester. And people love stories like
that, don't they? They always like it when the
underdog wins. When the underdog, we talk about
it in the FA Cup, you know, we've got a giant killing situation
where a little lowly team comes and knocks out of the competition
one of the main lead teams. But you know, this isn't recorded
in scripture to give us a kind of a spine-tingling buzz about
the underdog defeating the giant. No. Why is it in Scripture? Why are the Scriptures there?
What are they for? It's recorded in Scripture to speak of Christ
saving his elect people. That's what it's in the Scripture
for, because all the Scriptures speak of Christ saving his elect
people and taking them to eternal glory. This account of David
and Goliath pictures the war between God and Satan that we
saw in Revelation and we're going to be turning to it a lot turn
to Revelation chapter 12 Revelation chapter 12 and put a finger in
there because you're going to need to refer to it a lot later
on in this message Revelation chapter 12 Revelation chapter
12 and in verse 17 of Revelation 12 we read this the dragon was
wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ. The dragon is Satan, the woman
is the church, the people of the living God. Satan makes war
with the people of the living God, the remnant of her seed,
who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ. What does this account show us
about how God saves his elect people. The first thing I want
you to note is in verses 8 to 11 of 1 Samuel chapter 17 so
try not to lose your place in Revelation because we'll be coming
back there later but in Revelation in 1 Samuel 17 verse 8 Now, we know that this champion
of the camp of the Philistines, Goliath of Gath, was an enormous
man and he was incredibly well armed. And in verse eight, he
stood and cried unto the armies of Israel. He shouted to the
armies of Israel and said to them, why are ye come out to
set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye
servants of Saul? Choose you a man for you, and
let him come down to me. If he, your man, 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 shall ye be our
servants in service. And the Philistines said, I defy
the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man, one man, that
we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard
these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly
afraid. What's Goliath of Gath saying? He's saying, look, Rather than
the army of the Philistines fighting the army of Israel, let's settle
this with a representative man. This war is a representative
war, by which I mean it's settled by representatives of the people. One representative for each side. Goliath for the Philistines and
Israel, the man of your choice for you. and whichever man is
victorious, Goliath or your man, the entire people will have the
victory. That's what the word of God is
teaching here. It actually happened historically
to picture eternal truth. In paradise, in Eden, before
sin entered, Adam, Adam, the first man, was the representative
man of the human race he was the man and Satan was Goliath
Satan was the one who represented all rebellion against God now
I'm going to have you darting around the scriptures but never
mind it's good Romans chapter five if you can't keep up it
doesn't matter just listen Romans chapter five and verse twelve
listen to this wherefore 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. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure
of him that was to come. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift, for the judgment was by one to condemnation,
but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.
For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, that's Adam,
much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the
gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore As by the offence of
one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, by
the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. It's a representative war. David
and Goliath is a picture of the representative war between the
good of God, the righteousness of God, and the evil and rebellion
of Satan. And it's achieved by two representatives,
Satan on the one hand and the Lord Jesus Christ on the other.
Who's going to win the battle? When Adam was the representative
of the human race, all fell into sin and bondage, all of it, all
fell into that sin and that bondage. But with Christ as the representative
head of his people, what he did in that battle with Satan was
applied to every single one of them. Learn this, the battles
of eternity are settled by battles between federal heads. Adam,
for the whole human race, Christ for his elect people, and on
the other side, Satan for the forces of evil. That, my friends,
is God's Word. That is God's Word. That's the
way it is. You can kick and scream and say
that doesn't seem right to me. It is what God, the Holy Spirit,
has revealed to us in His Word from cover to cover. That's the
way it's settled by representative heads, federal heads, just as
in this account of David and Goliath. The second thing I want
you to see is what a seemingly uneven match it was. What a seemingly
uneven contest it was. The Philistines were arrayed
in battle against Israel. And what that pictures is the
kingdom of Satan, the Philistines, the world, its philosophy, its
aspiration. What's the aspiration of this
world, of the kingdom of Satan? I'll tell you. I've told you
many times before, but I don't apologize for repeating it. the
world and the kingdom of Satan has an aspiration to eternal
bliss without satisfaction of divine justice. That's it. They want, they all want, you
know, everybody wants to be together with all their relatives that
have died and passed on in eternal bliss without any satisfaction
of the justice of God. But in The regime of God, if
I can use that term, that cannot possibly be. God is holy. His justice is unchangeable.
His justice must be satisfied. So we've got the forces of the
Philistines representing the forces of the kingdom of Satan
on the one side with its philosophy against God, and it's a raid
against the kingdom of God. What's the kingdom of God? Justified
sinners. with the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords as their head. And where are they? Revelation
chapter 12. They're in wilderness separation
from the world of Satan. They're separate. We live in
the world. We move in the world. We go to the things that happen
in the world. Fine, but mentally, in our hearts,
in our souls, we're not of this world. Where's your treasure? Oh, it's in the bank. No, no,
no, no. That's wasting away. The day's coming when you're
going to return to dust, you're going to die and return to dust
and your money in the bank will do you absolutely no good at
all. Where's the treasure that will
survive that? In heaven. Lay up treasure in heaven, where
moth and rust does not corrupt. That's where your treasure is.
And where your heart is, your treasure is also, in heaven.
Set your mind on things above, where Christ is. Set it there,
that's it. It seems such an unevenly matched
battle between these two, doesn't it? You've got on the one side
the colossal forces of rebellion against God, and the widespread
unbelief. Look at this world in which we
live now. Not only is there the outright opposition to the kingdom
of God in Christ, but there's all the falsehood that masquerades
as being Christ's kingdom when it's nothing of the sort. It
uses the language of Christ's kingdom, but it knows nothing
of the Christ of God, and of the scriptures, and of the truth
of salvation by grace. Look at the forces of them, talk
about an uneven match, and look at the forces of the kingdom
of God. Oh, how small and how insignificant
they seem. Two or three gathered together
in his name. Two or three, that's all. great,
great tracts of the earth where there seems to be no witness
whatsoever to the truth. We look at Goliath with his huge
size, over nine feet tall, his fearsome weapons, you know, the
weapons that he used, the average man couldn't even pick them up,
never mind throw them or wield them. Fearsome weapons, impenetrable
armor, The average man fighting in the army of the Israelites
would go with his sword and his spear, and they'd just get bent
and buckled on the armor of Goliath, it was so big. He had a huge
sword that was bigger than anybody had ever seen. Satan, in the
days in which we live, throughout time, Satan has his beast from
the sea, and his beast from the earth. Do you remember Revelation
13? I stood on the seashore, I saw a beast from the sea. What
is it speaking of? I'll remind you, I won't explain
it in detail. but it's the antichrist of Satan
and the false prophet of Satan. What do I mean by that? This
unified world of political and economic powers with their philosophy
of godless evolution and deceiving signs, mesmerizing technology. It's a fearsome force. Look at
the unbelieving world around us. It's a Goliath. It's terrifying
if you just look at it as it is. How on earth Can we fight
against that? And here comes David against
Goliath. No armour, just his shepherd's
clothes. You know, just his shepherd's
clothes, just got his shepherd's bag. He goes down to the brook,
where the brook has polished the stones so that they're nice
and smooth. I don't know if any of you like
standing on the side of a lake or a river and throwing in stones,
and you know you pick your stone, don't you? There's some stones
that are hopeless. They're too light for how much
area they've got, and they won't go straight. And there's some
that are too heavy, but there are some that feel just right. When I was younger and I had
a good arm to throw with, I used to love standing on the bank
of the River Loon at Kirby Lonsdale. And the contest between us all
was to see who could make a stone go right across to the other
bank. And I could do it. I could get it across when many
others could not do it. Here's David. He's got his five
smooth stones and his shepherd's sling. What's his shepherd's
sling? Well, it's like a piece of, I guess it's a piece of leather
or animal skin, and he would hold one end of it tightly with
some fingers, and the other end he would hold probably between
finger and thumb, and he'd put the stone in it, and with practice,
the many, many hours that he spent with practice, he learned
to sling it so that it was like a catapult firing a bullet. And
he could make that goes that it would, you know, see that
fence down there, you know, he could make it go like it would
punch a hole clean through that fence because he could throw
it so hard. And he was so skillful with his sling. And here he is,
he's diminutive, he's small by comparison. It's just a small
lad by comparison to Goliath. And Goliath's going, look at
you. There's nothing of you. Look how small you are. You're
just a youth. Don't come at me like this. But
David is armed. What's he armed with? Faith. And experience of God's dealings. The Lion and the Bear. Did you
read that? Turn back to 1 Samuel 17. First Samuel 17 verse 34 David
said to 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 after the lion and the bear separately
of course and delivered the lamb out of his mouth and when he
arose against me I caught him by his beard and smote him and
slew him both the lion and the bear you see he's got experience
David went out conscious of his experience in defeating the lion
and the bear that would come against God's sheep but totally
resting on the unchangeable saving purposes of God because in Israel
he saw God's saving purposes. The seed of Abraham down, all
the way down, God saving his people and determined to save
his people. This is how children of faith
should tackle things. Spurgeon said this, and I liked
it so much I wrote it down because this is what I try to do. I prepare
a sermon as if all depended upon me. That's how I do my preparation. I prepared a sermon, I prepare
a sermon as if all depended on me. And then when I go to deliver
the sermon, I trust God as if I'd done no preparation at all,
for He's going to inspire me to preach it. But how must it
have looked? How must this battle between
Goliath and David, how must it have looked to those, you can
imagine the thousands, arrayed of Philistines, the Israelites,
our future's going to depend on the outcome of this. Is this
little stripling of a lad with his shepherd's clothes and his
sling and his stone, how's he going to do anything? It's going
to be no contest. Certainly the victory will be
for Goliath and with it for Philistia. And what for Israel? Defeat and
slavery. That was the deal, wasn't it?
If Goliath beats David, Israel, you're the slaves of the Philistines
forevermore. Other way round? So it would
be. So the Lord Jesus Christ, our
David. Look at him. The Lord Jesus Christ. How unlikely a victor over the
forces of Satan he must have seen. Though he is God from all
eternity, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
God and the Word was God. You know what Philippians, Paul
tells us in Philippians? Though he was from eternal glory,
he humbled himself. He humbled himself. He left that
glory. And how did he humble himself?
He became a man. He clothed himself. in the flesh
that you and I are clothed in. And he became obedient. He walked
in humility on this earth. How unlikely a challenger to
the kingdom of Satan. Just this man. No comeliness
that we should desire him. And he walks this humbly. There
was no violence with him. No violence at all. It says,
a bruised reed he would not break and a smoking flax he would not
quench. Gentle. Gentle, meek, and mild. No violence. He shunned the weapons
of Satan. For as 2 Corinthians 10 verse
4 tells us, the weapons of our warfare, the spiritual warfare,
are not carnal, they're not swords and spears and armor, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Why? Because
they're spiritual weapons. They're weapons in the mind,
in the spirit, of the truth of the word of God. Jesus said to
Pilate, when he was being examined, John 18, 36, my kingdom is not
of this world. Do you know, the world is terrified
about religious extremism. And do you know what the cause
of religious extremism is? Of all sorts, not just Islamic,
but the tribal feuding that there's been in Northern Ireland between
Catholics and Protestants for generations. Do you know what
the problem with it is? They think their kingdom is of
this world. And they try to equate the church
with a political authority. So in Northern Ireland, the Protestants
are trying and screaming and still struggling, despite everything
that's gone on, to have political power over everybody else and
vice versa the Catholics. It's tribalism. But Jesus said,
my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight? But they don't, because it isn't. The kingdom of God is a spiritual
kingdom. My kingdom, he says, is not from hence, from this
world. So the next point. A most unexpected victory. A most unexpected victory. David shunned Goliath's weapons
for a sling and a stone. How unexpected. A sling and a
stone against this mammoth guy, armed like he was. Christ defeated
Satan in the most unlikely way, in his death. How did David defeat
the giant Goliath? You know, he was armed all over,
well it seems that his armor, you've been to the Tower of London
or any of these museums where there's armor, and you can see,
you can see how the armor, you know, it tries to protect every
part of the body, but so they can move, there are bits that
have got little gaps in them. And his armour clearly had a
little gap in his forehead. There was a gap there. And David
Stone, and it's all of God's providence, but David Stone found
one chink of vulnerability in Goliath's armour. One chink of
vulnerability. That's all he needed. He was
hit with this stone like a bullet from David's sling, bang, right
in the bit that wasn't protected, right in the front of his head.
Knocked him clean out, sunk into his forehead, smashed his skull,
fractured his skull, sunk right into his forehead and he fell
down unconscious. And that wasn't the end of him
until David ran up and took Goliath's own sword and cut his head off.
So Christ's death. How was Christ's death? the means
by which christ defeated satan didn't satan engineer the death
of christ you read revelation twelve and yes as the woman is
waiting to give birth to a child which is clearly talking about
christ the dragon which is satan is there waiting to devour to
eat up that child as soon as it's born but he can't he's limited
he tries everything he can to destroy that child he uses herod
Do you remember the account? Read Luke. He uses Herod. He
uses the Pharisees throughout the ministry of Jesus. He uses
even one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, to betray him. He uses
the political power and might and justice system of Rome to
kill him. in a way that the Jews couldn't
kill him. The Jews would have stoned him if they could, but
they weren't allowed to, under the Roman rule. So the only way
he could die was the way that the scripture said he would die.
Hanging on a tree. For cursed is everyone that hangs
on a tree. And when he did that, when he
accomplished that, Satan was confident, was triumphant, that
he would achieve his final victory. But in actual fact, he mortally
wounded himself. Turn to Romans 8, and again you
don't have to because you know it so well, but Romans 8 verse
33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? It is Christ that died. yea rather
that he's risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us." The Lord Jesus Christ,
when he died, completely disarmed the accuser of the brethren.
Satan, in Revelation 12, is called the accuser of the brethren,
and he's cast down. He that accused the people of
God before God day and night and said, your justice demands
that they're mine and not yours. The justice of God, you who are
of pure eyes to behold Him, look at these sinners, they cannot
be yours, they must be mine, because your justice demands
it. And in the death of Christ, He completely, completely neutered
that argument. He made that argument utterly
impotent. Satan's weapons in the heavenly
war are rendered useless, and he has no more power. to claim
God's people for his own. And so we read in Romans 8, further
on in verse 37, Nay, in all these things, in the death of Christ,
in the thing that you would think was the defeat of Christ, in
the death of Christ, we are more than conquerors over Satan and
the kingdom of darkness through him that loved us. Oh, praise
his name. Oh, praise his name. Satan's
weapons rendered absolutely useless more than conquerors through
him that loved us in Revelation turn back there if you would
please revelation Revelation chapter 12 and verse 9 and the
great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil
and Satan which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into
the earth and his angels were cast out with him And I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and
they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, ye
heavens, and ye that dwell in them, Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea for the devil is come down unto you
having great wrath because because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time. Therefore rejoice because he's
defeated. David removed the head of the
Philistines Goliath and our David Great David's greater son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, has overpowered and bound Satan. He said to those
listening to him in Matthew 12 verse 29, How can one enter into
a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind
the strongman and then he will spoil his house. Christ has come
and in his death he has spoiled the strongman, Satan, and he
will spoil his goods. He's bound him because he's rendered
impotent those great weapons of accusation that he brings.
Was the destruction of Goliath the end of the conflict with
Philistia? No it wasn't. You read about
it in what remains of 1 Samuel, it goes on. And Satan's futile
war goes on today, again in Revelation 12, verse 12. Rejoice, woe, for
the devil is come down to you having great wrath, because he
knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw
that he was cast unto the earth, He persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man-child, and to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half
a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast
out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might
cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped
the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the
flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon
was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Christ." The war goes on. Christ is triumphant, but here
we are now. He has been triumphant, but the
war still goes on. Satan still attacks the people
of God. Why? He's trying to prevent more
children being born in the church. We saw this when we studied Revelation.
But God will not lose one of them. Final point. We're living
in perilous times. All these last days since Christ
returned to glory are perilous times. Paul writes to Timothy,
2 Timothy 3 verse 1, in the last days perilous times shall come. Surely those perilous times for
the church of God, for the children of God, those times have come.
We're living in those times. David's victory over Goliath
didn't stop Israel's ongoing conflict with Philistia. Christ
inflicted a mortal wound on Satan at Calvary. He rendered his accusations
impotent. He assured the salvation of all
God's elect. But, for the duration of this
world, it didn't stop Satan's wrath. It didn't stop his persecution
of the elect. It didn't stop his war against
them. It goes on. Let me remind you what we saw
in Revelation 12. The giant's head is cut off.
it is as David cut off Goliath said so Christ has rendered impotent
the power of Satan he cannot finally win but he's furiously
vindictive look at him verse 12 the devil is come down to
you having great wrath he's furious I use the analogy at the time
and I think it's a good one that when Hitler in the second world
war when Hitler knew that the Allies would surely win in the
end He continued to clutch at mad, lunatic notions of victory,
and continued to cause the death and suffering of countless thousands
of people. The devil focuses his attacks
on the woman. The dragon saw that he was cast
into the earth, and he persecuted the woman which brought forth
the man-child. And verse 17, the dragon was
wroth with the woman, angry, furious with the woman, and went
to make war with the remnant of her seed. The woman is the
church, the church. But, but, he can't get her as
long as she's in the wilderness. Look at verse 6 of chapter 12
of Revelation. The woman fled into the wilderness
where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed
her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And verse
14. And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times
and half a time, from the face of the serpent. It's in this
wilderness where the people of God live spiritually now, a wilderness
of separation from the world. It's where God has given her
wings to fly. What are these wings of an eagle?
That believer, if you're a believer, the Word of God says you've been
given the wings of an eagle to fly. Do you know what they are?
their faith, faith, the gift of faith, wings of faith to fly
to a God-given worldlessness. As I said, we live in the world.
We interact with the world. We do our business in the world.
We go to the events of the world. But mentally, spiritually, we're
not of the world. We're separate from the world.
We're in a wilderness separation from the world. And in Revelation
12, Satan sees that and doesn't like it. Verse 15, the serpent
cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that
he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. He sends a
flood. not to drown, but to wash her
from her wilderness of spiritual separation into union with the
world. What does the flood consist of?
Temptation to compromise the truth. Temptation to watered
down the truth, the exclusive truth of the gospel. Temptation
to conform to worldly ideals and methods. That's what he does
and in so doing he washes the true church out of its wilderness
separation from this world into the world where Satan can get
them, where Satan can inflict his wrath on them. But what does
the word of God assure us? What did Jesus say to his disciples? Fear not, little flock. Fear not, little flock, for it
is the Father's good pleasure to give you, little flock, the
kingdom. Don't fear Satan's schemes. Be
alert, yes, as we walk through this life. Peter tells us the
devil is prowling around like a lion, a roaring lion, seeking
whom he can devour. So be alert. Be alert. Don't be lulled into thinking
that you don't need to be alert. Be alert. Wear the armor that
God has given. You read about it in Ephesians
6, verses 10 to 20. You know, the helmet of salvation.
Put it on your head. The sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God. The shield of faith. The breastplate
of righteousness. The feet shod with the preaching
of the gospel of grace. And rest in the assurance that
Satan is defeated. His end is certain. Peter mentioned
it in his prayer. His end is certain. We've got
this glorious hope of eternal glory. Why? Because great David's
greatest son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has prevailed to save
his people from their sins and bring them to glory. Amen.