But you turn back in your Bibles
to 1 Samuel chapter 17, and you can also follow me in your pastor's
commentary, 1 Samuel 17. And we believe that old things
represent new things. Then we know that those men,
upon the swift undoing of their adversary Goliath, ran down that
hill saying, O victory in Jesus. my Savior forever. Yes, they did because they understood
this was about the redemptive work of God in Christ that redeemed
their souls. They were not saved because of
any good in themselves, only because of the glory of God. The hymn writer put it like this.
Some will hate you and some will love you, Some will flatter and
some will slight. Cease from man and look above
thee, trust in God and do what's right. These were the words I'm
sure that dominated the thinking of David as we have looked at
David being moved into a position where whether you know it or
not, he has come to his hour. This is David's hour right now.
And Providence has moved him in such a systematic but sovereign
way that we have learned some things about how God ordains
a man, calls a man, anoints a man, and then sends a man, have we
not? And every step of the way, David had to learn something
about his God, who had chosen David purely on the basis of
his own inscrutable choice and brought David to this hour that
you and I get to now meditate upon and think through in the
larger redemptive paradigm because this really, truly is all about
Christ. But there are things to learn
in the narrative because the narrative takes us on a journey,
an excursion that if you and I are careful and sensitive,
we learn a lot of little nuances. Now over the next several weeks,
we're gonna see these larger, what we call macro narratives. The principles that are laid
out in the larger narrative we will capture but I want you to
be careful to look for these little Minor narratives inside
the larger narratives because the author is speaking about
many things all at once now if you love stories and God's people
ought to love stories you'll look for these details and These
details will help you understand how God is thinking multiple
thoughts at once and is willing to let us in on those multiple
narratives operating simultaneously if we can juxtapose two things
at once. And then we can begin to see
even more acutely how God so meticulously works all things
after the counsel of his own will, brings to pass specifically
and purposely the salvation of his people. Certainly, David
has come to his hour. He has come to his point of calling
and purpose. Remember, he was sent by his
father on a commission to see about the welfare of his brothers.
And being sent by his father on a commission to see about
the welfare of his brothers, he met up with a lot of conflict
from his brothers, did he not? We worked this through quite
a bit last week, and Scott, turn that down a bit, too much echo.
We worked this through quite a bit last week with the objective
of understanding the parallels between David's brethren, Their
misunderstanding of who David was and our Lord Jesus Christ
and his own brethren Misunderstanding him did we not and I do want
you to understand something key to ministry and something key
to the will of God when God is using a person a People and individual
whoever it may be if you are not sensitive to the ways of
God and work of God you will miss God and being stuck on that
person. If God is using an individual,
a people, a person, it doesn't matter who that may be. And if
you don't have a sensitivity to the working of the Spirit
of God, because the narrative is teaching us how the Spirit
of God has replaced unqualified men with qualified men. The book
of the kings is about God's progressive unfolding revelation and purpose
of bringing to pass what he had promised Abraham that out of
you Abraham would come kings and nations. And yet within the
progression of history, God has chosen to allow conflict and
adversaries and opposition to play a part of the narrative.
So all along biblical history, wherever God is working, guess
who else is also working? The enemy. Now that's part of
God's narrative plan. The devil is God's creature.
as well as all of the angels who have fallen and taken sides
on the rank of the devil to oppose God. God allows this to get himself
glory. He is a man of war. I've told
you this before, we are all slaves. It depends on whose team you
are on. We are either slaves of Satan
or we are slaves of God. There's no two ways about it,
no middle ground, no vacuum, one or two sides. And what we
see in the narrative here in our context is that God is about
to establish the monarchy, isn't he? He never viewed King Saul
as his king. The monarchy from God's standpoint
would never occur outside of the tribe of Judah. Judah is
the tribe from whom all the kings would proceed, as it were, successively
to the King of kings and Lord of lords. His name is what? Jesus. So when you and I observe David
finally taking the throne, this will take about five weeks, David
finally taking the throne, you and I will then know what has
come to pass is that God in his sovereign power has defeated
all his foes and set his own king on his holy hill of Zion. In the midst of the narrative,
however, you and I want to learn how God fights our battles for
us delivers us from our transgressions and our sins through these shadows
and types that are pictured in the narrative. I'm looking forward
to it as well. David has just been delivered
from the plight of his older brother, as you recall, his older
brother casting aspersions upon David and suggesting that David
is there out of pride and that David is there because David
is nosy and that David is there because David is a mischievous
young man. And the way we closed it out
was that David raised the question, what have I done? Verse 29 of
chapter 17. What have I done? Is there not
a cause here? In other words, David is arguing
for his integrity, even though all his brothers misunderstand
him. And again, I want you to get this. Sometimes when God
has an assignment for you, His assignment is going to be first
and foremost uncomfortable for you, and then He's going to demand
that you tolerate people not understanding you. That's the
nature of divine assignments. Because a lot of people with
whom we have to do will be people who really are not committed
to the glory of God. And they will misinterpret your
motive and misinterpret your purpose and misinterpret your
assignment. And in doing so, they are misinterpreting
God. As David has come to his hour,
our master came to his, did he not? And did not our master say
the same thing that David is saying? Is there not a cause?
Did not our master come into the world because there was a
cause? Did he not assume a human nature because there was a cause?
Did he not make his way through ministry and finally come to
that point where he stuck his hands out and allowed the ungodly
and the wicked, the rulers of Israel, to take him because there
was a cause? And did he not plainly and eloquently
say, for this cause have I come to my hour? And see, we are then
looking at this larger son of David model or motif with David
here in this context where he has been delivered from his brothers.
Hallelujah. Delivered from his brothers and
yet delivered into the presence of King Saul. And there's a little
play here that I would want you to understand that took place
to bring that about and that Fundamentally is this there was
some voices going on and that is the children of Israel had
heard They had heard the voice of the Philistine when they heard
the voice of the Philistine They were afraid verse 11 chapter
17 when Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistines
They were dismayed and greatly afraid remember we talked About
how initially what the Philistine had done was established what
we call psychological warfare He came out stood in the presence
and started taunting Israel and because Israel Was not walking
with the true and the Living God and because Israel did not
see Jehovah the invisible God in their presence All they saw
was a massive giant speaking horrible things and disdainful
things and blasphemous things and they were afraid and psychological
warfare based upon what they heard but there's another statement
that the writer is also letting us know and that is when David
comes along as David is talking to his brethren over in verse
22 David is talking he left his carriage and he began to salute
his brother and as he talked in verse 23 there came the champion
the Philistine Goliath by name out of the armies of the Philistines.
And he spake according to the same words that he had spoke
to Saul. And watch this, and David what? Heard. And that was
the shift in trajectory for David. So the Spirit of God is now,
as it were, conflating two opposing entities at one spot. The enemy,
who has successfully put fear and threat in the hearts of the
children of Israel. now repeating the same fear and
threat only problem is now God has his champion on the scene
I want you to get this down and while his champion is actually
fulfilling his father's will and taking care of his brethren
asking him how are they doing is everything all right let me
know what's going on I'm here because of dad and while he is
exercising his mission of obedience to his father his ears perk up
and And said, no, who is this dude? Now, the author wants you
to get something now. He wants you to get how if you
don't have ears of faith, the only thing you can do with taunts
and ragings of the enemy is shrink back in fear. I submit to you
that David heard something radically different than the children of
Israel. When David's ears perked up,
far from shrinking back and being afraid, David was provoked. He was moved. He said, who is
this person defying the armies of the living God? And what this
speaks to is how God prepares the heart of his people who walk
by faith and can see the glory of God to understand when the
enemy has crossed the boundaries into blasphemy. And it's time
to now stand up for the glory of God. Stand up, stand up for
Jesus, you soldiers of the cross. See, David was operating on a
whole different principle than even his brethren. And so David
heard, I like this, so David heard what he heard, the children
of Israel heard what they heard, and when David heard what he
heard, he began to investigate and ask everybody in the camp,
now what's going, How am I going to get paid if I take care of
this dude? That's what he started saying. This is remarkable. In
and of itself is just phenomenal when you think through the implications
of how the Spirit works in strengthening a man to forego any concern about
his own welfare when the most important thing for that man
is the glory of God. When faith is working by love,
You don't have any fear of consequences in your own life, so long as
what you are doing brings honor and glory to God. And I talked
to you about this last week. You're not going to understand
the will of God if the highest point and purpose for which you
exist is God's glory. See, for David, he knew what
was at stake was the glory of God. Can I tell you why? Because
every one of the guys he was talking to were fearful and dreading
and dismayed, and they had an evil report. And yet the Spirit
of God is working in David mightily to drive David to start asking
around the camp. You know what David is doing?
David's talking. Like the Philistine is talking, David's talking.
The Philistine is talking and it's producing fear. It's the
consequence of his own folly. This Philistine will soon find
out that he is a man of folly. The children of Israel are shrinking
back in fear and they are talking from a place of fear. He's a
giant. No one can beat him. What can
we do? And then they're looking upon
David when David says, let me go. You can't go. You're a little
ruddy. Who are you? Do you think you
can stop this giant? It's amazing what happens when
you and I are operating out of carnal principles. We don't have
the spirit of faith to show us that God can take a little and
do a lot. God can take a nothing and confound
the greatest powers in the world. And so what David is doing is
now he's letting everyone know that he's not afraid. And the
words of David now are echoing through the camp. And guess what
now? King Saul hears. The children of Israel hear the
folly of the giant. David hears the fear of the people. King Saul hears the faith of
David and says, bring him here. bring him here. This is where
we are in our text because King Saul knows he's up a tree and
for many reasons as we shall see. And so when David says,
what is their cause? He began to turn and talk to
the men. And ultimately the words were
brought to King Saul in verse 31. And when the words were heard,
which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul and he set for
him ground zero. And verses 32 through 37, as
we saw last week, was where David now has to yield forth his resume.
David has to now justify why he is standing in front of the
king. Now, mind you now, just in case you don't know, David
is not a military man. I told you he's a blues player,
jazz player, maybe a little R&B worship leader, and a little
shepherd boy. But he is standing in front of
the king because he feels as if he might have something to
do with stopping this predicament That's in their way. Now when
you're desperate you will listen to anyone David might be 18 He might be
20 But he's no more than that because he's going to have to
endure 20 years Of the hostility of this king of whom i'm going
to unmask for you in part Today David is standing in front of
the king. Now. The king is looking at him and the king knows there's
something unusual about this man He can't quite put his finger
on and that's how it is when you're carnal and Natural and
earthly they can't quite figure you out Why do you have a different
disposition? Why is there a sense of confidence
in you that I can't detect I Because you see, David is not paralyzed. David is not phobic driven. David is not, as it were, fearful. He's not overcome with paralysis. He's talking very calmly, very
eloquently in the presence of the king. And here's what we
are told in verses 32 and following to deal with our first point.
And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him.
Ladies and gentlemen, I love the story. I love the story. Get everything you can out of
the scriptures when you read them. This is magnificent. It's not David just infused with
grace and faith to be talking to the king like this. Here's
what he tells the king. Tell every man in this army to
settle down. Now, how do you get the right
to say that when you don't know nothing about whooping nobody? The spirit of God has not only
moved David into this position in a very messianic way through
the trials and the oppositions that David had to face. I am
sure that right now, David knows why he is here. I want to help
you understand that as we work through David's narrative. I
am sure that God has revealed to David why he is here. Will you listen to what I call
the certainty of the counsel of God that will now come out
of David's mouth. This will not be David. This
will be God talking. And if you think it's David,
you have failed to move with the spirit of God. Listen to
what the spirit of God is saying. let no man's heart fail him,
your servant will go and fight with the Philistine. Saul said
to David, you're not able to go against this Philistine to
fight with him for you are but a youth and he's a man of war
from his youth. Here he go, King Saul, speaking
from fear, rooted in unbelief because of a lack of love for
the true and the living God. King Saul is failing to see that
temporarily God is rescuing him from failure. King Saul is sounding
just like his own servants. And in a minute, you're going
to see that they are all sounding just like the giant concerning
David. No one trusts that David can
do the job, not even the king. Talking about rejected by his
own, having come to them and they receive him not, He was
in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew
him not. Here we have the greater David
being opposed by everyone in Israel, but the sovereign God
who called him, anointed him and sent him. And thus he is
at this hour. Watch this now, all by himself. See, that's the nature of the
work. The work of Christ was that he had to do it alone. of
the people there was none with him God had to raise up his own
holy righteous arm and clad himself with zeal because everyone else
had fled in their souls Christ typified by David is all by himself
is he not now listen to the language David now gives what we call
in our first point the resume I went out, here's what he says
in verse 34. And David said unto Saul, your servant kept his father's
sheep. A message in itself, is it not?
And if I was with David at that time, I'd be ribbing David in
the side and say, yeah, you know, this ought to tick Saul off because
he got called when he lost his daddy's asses, never found him
again, hint, hint. And there came a lion and a bear
and took a lamb out of the flock. And will you notice what it says?
And I went out after him. I smote him, and I delivered
that lamb out of his mouth. And when he rose against me,
I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him. Your
servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised
Philistine," you know David always uses this adjective concerning
this dude, "...shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied
the armies of the living God." Ladies and gentlemen, this is
the Spirit of God speaking through David prophetically. And every
word that David is saying and will say is going to be precisely
the way God has purposed it to be. In other words, David is
not some ruddy young man that's driven by testosterone, boasting
about things he doesn't know, only hopes to be. This is not
empty rhetoric. This is a man led by the Spirit
of God. Are you hearing me? David is
prophesying. And what he's prophesying is
going to come to pass just like he said it. I love what David
is doing here. What he's doing is he's making
a comparison between this Philistine, this massive giant, almost 10
feet tall, we talked about him, and the lion and the bear that
David took care of by the grace of God in the past. You see what
David is doing? David is depending upon his past
experience with the sovereign God to deliver him when God had
called him to protect his sheep to work presently, watch this
now, to deliver the same sheep out of the mouth of the lion
and the bear in the person of this Philistine. David says,
I don't even see him like you guys see him. I see this dude
just as dead as the bear and the lion. And see, that's the
way faith works. That's the way faith works. I'm
telling you, David sees things that Saul does not see, that
the children of Israel does not see. And I want you to comprehend,
therefore, with me my first point, the shepherd warrior's resume.
And I only want to touch on a few things. The danger of a faithful
what? The danger of a faithful shepherd.
Now, just in case you are stuck in myth mode or mythology mode
or movie mode, when David says that he went out after a lion
and a bear that sought to take one of his father's sheep. You
better know that that was a serious mission. I'm going to share one
verse with you around this. This is Amos chapter 3 verse
12. If you will, look it up. Amos chapter 3 verse 12. And
here in this context, Amos is using the analogy or metaphor
or example of the hazards and dangers of a fateful shepherd. Amos chapter 3 verse 12. Now watch the language here.
Notice what it says. Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd
Take it out of the mouth of the what? Two legs. Or a piece of an ear. So shall
the children of Israel be taken that dwell in Samaria, in the
corners of a bed, in Damascus, in the couch. Whoa! What are
we talking about? In our context here, the normal
outcome of a bear and a lion taking a sheep is that sheep
is destroyed. That at best, all the shepherd
recovers is a leg here, an ear here, or a piece of the body. This is what David is talking
about he's coming up against. So I just want you to know that
when David compares Goliath to a lion or a bear, it is no small
task, is it? Point number B, he says, I went
out after him, and I put it this way. I went after him out of
what? Love and what? That's the gospel
of John chapter 10, verse 25. I just want to remind you of
what Jesus says. I lay down my life for the sheep. A faithful shepherd lays down
his life for the sheep. Now see, think about that, ladies
and gentlemen. Think about the motive, the love, the connection,
the relationship between a shepherd and a sheep. When a sheep strays
away, or when a sheep is taken, what is going to be the motive
that drives a shepherd to go after that sheep? But love. What
is going to be the motive that drives a shepherd to exercise
and execute techniques and methods by which that sheep is delivered?
But faith. Faith is going to have to operate
by love in order to deliver the sheep out of the clutches of
death. And greater love hath no man than this, than that he
what? Lay down his life. I am submitting to you that what
David is doing is giving a resume to the king that is really rooted
in the secret of what God stated when God says, I have found a
man after my own heart. See, what David is doing is disclosing
the heart of God for his elect by demonstrating how God has
placed in him a heart for the sheep. And now that David is
comparing Israel's plight with sheep, He once again is exposing
the nature of his heart, being in alignment with the heart of
God. Is not God altogether in this account? Is not Israel in
a mess? Did we not hear the giant say,
the champion say, if we win, all of you will be our servants?
Is this not a predicament? Does not David's word, is there
not a cause then, ring very serious in this context? This is what
David is teaching. Then finally, the last couple
of points under the shepherd warrior's resume. He went out
after him out of love and faith. And it says, I killed the bear
and the lion, and I will kill this uncircumcised Philistine.
I love it. Without hesitation, David says,
the same fate that the bear and the lion met, this Philistine
will meet. With great confidence, no qualifiers, no modification,
the lion and the bear and the Philistine are all alike to David. Man, that's good! David is speaking
powerfully under the effusion of the Spirit of God. He's operating
out of a principle of faith, but it's not a faith that is
a leaf in the dark. It's a faith based upon the past faithfulness
of his God. in a context in which David was
demonstrating being a faithful shepherd. And finally under this
first Shepherds Warriors resume is our last point. The Lord did
it then and he will do it now. Do you believe that? And so we
say according to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, without faith it
is impossible to please God for he that comes unto God must believe
that he is and is a rewarder of them that what? Now I'm going
to show you here how David is going to diligently seek God
in the destruction of his folk. I want you to see how illustrative
and how clear the narrative is. I want you to see how when God
gives you eyes of faith, you don't have to labor to see how
grace is working in the Old Testament. And when the Bible says, Lo,
I come, and the volume of the book is written to me to do thy
will, O God, it's clear to those who have understanding. Point
number two, let's work it through. The human armor rejected. Oh,
I love this. Here we go. So when Saul gets
David's resume, Saul says in his own heart, I don't know if
this is true. This is my conjecture. Hey, what do I have to lose?
Let's just throw this dude under the bus. Ain't nobody else in
the camp wanting to go. We do have a problem here. Go
ahead on young man, do your thing. I'm betting against him. That's
what Saul has said. I'm betting against him. But then Saul does
something that's quite interesting, redemptive in nature. I'm going
to show you another truth here. Watch what it says. And when
Saul acquiesces to David's resume, it says over in verse 37, David
said, moreover, the Lord had delivered me out of the hand
of the paw of the lion, the paw of the bear. He will also deliver
me out of the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said unto David, go
and the Lord be with you. This is a good day for King Saul
to be religious. My third point then, or rather
my second point is the human armor what? The human armor rejected. And the narrator wants you to
get this too. And I'm going to show you a number
of important theological truths relevant to why David rejects
the armor. The text tells us in verse 38,
and Saul armed David with his what? and Saul armed David with
his armor. Now watch this, and I want you
to see how the narrator is specific because I love narrative theology. He repeats things, he emphasizes
things, he doubles them up so that people who love to read
God's Word can see the truth inherent in it. He put on a helmet
of brass upon his head. He also armed him with a coat
of mail. And David girded his sword upon
his armor and he is saved to go. Now this wasn't David's sword,
this was Goliath's sword. For he had not proved it, he
tried to walk with it, tried to work with it. And David said
to Saul, no, King, this just won't work. I haven't actually
used this in battle. Of course, David, because you'd
never have been in battle. So David is reasoning through
the incongruency, watch this now, the incongruency of his
experience now, the clumsiness of wearing another man's armor
about to fight a battle that he has never engaged in, though
he is utterly confident that he will win this battle. Truth
now, here's the truth, here we go. When God is calling you to
an assignment that he has guaranteed that he's going to give you the
victory, Your job is to make sure you do it God's way and
not allow somebody else to give you little bits and pieces of
the project so that you find yourself compromising the methodology
that God has always used to get you through. There's a reason
for this. There's a reason for this. And
David had to learn this right here. He had to learn you can't
win a battle with another man's armor. You can't win a battle
with another man's experience. You cannot win a battle with
another man's confidence. And that's all the significance
of the armor. Watch it now. Watch it now. So
work through our points. This is very clear. Point number
two, the human armor rejected. Why? The armor of the flesh is
always human wisdom. The armor of the flesh is always
human wisdom. You guys got that? David knew
that the battle that he was waging was spiritual. It was not carnal. That in order for him to succeed,
he would have to stay on point with his God. You can't mix carnal
things with spiritual things and get a spiritual outcome.
This is why Jesus said in John's gospel chapter 3 that which is
of the flesh is the flesh and that which is of the spirit is
the spirit and you can't conflate the two flesh and blood can never
enter into the dimension of the kingdom of God David knew by
putting on the armor that he was compromising a principle
and protocol That he had with his God That would have set David
up for a fall and I'm going to share that with you in a moment
But under point number one, Psalm 33, verse 10, 16, and 17 is going
to underscore our first proposition. The armor of the flesh is human
wisdom. And God never accomplishes redemptive purposes through human
wisdom. Ladies and gentlemen, do you
hear that? Now I could take my time and talk about how that
applies in the 21st century in our churches today. I'm not going
to do that. But our churches are filled with a lot of human
wisdom and the consequence of human wisdom is a denial of the
glory of God and eradication of the gospel and the absence
of the presence of Christ in the ministry. So our churches
are filled with people and programs and activities, but Christ is
not exalted. Christ is not glorified. And
the diet upon which people feed in the church is moralism and
ethics and practical methods by which they achieve goals in
this world to the loss of the glory of God in Christ. You can sit in church where programs
are up the yin yang. And you will discover in 10 years
that you have not become the better in your knowledge of Christ. You are just as ignorant today
as you were 10 years ago about the mysteries of the gospel and
the intricacies of the glory of God in Christ, because you've
wasted your time using human armor to try to achieve spiritual
goals. Am I making some sense? This
is very important now. Here's what God says. The Lord
brings the counsel of the heathen to what? He makes the devices
of the people of what? Now David wrote that song. You
know what that means? David better take his own advice.
David, you better not walk in the council of the ungodly. Saul
is ungodly. Look at verse 16. Verse 16 says,
there's no king saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty
man is not delivered by much what? If that's true, David,
hurry up and drop that armor that you've got on because that's
Saul's strength. That's not your strength. Are
you hearing what I'm saying? And then verse 17, a horse is
a vain thing for what? Neither shall he be delivered
by his great strength. I like the way that Hannah said
it in 1 Samuel 2, 9, the Lord takes no pleasure in the legs
of a man. I want to press home now one
more thing around, two more things around the armor, the armor.
In the Bible, the armor is described as that wherein an individual
ultimately puts his trust. And so here's what we're saying
in point B of our second point. And when a thing is unadorned
by the Spirit of God, unadorned by the Spirit, when the Spirit
of God is not in it, it's never going to work out. You guys got
that? I'm quoting Zechariah 4, 6, not Hosea 4, 6. Zechariah
4, 6 says, it's not by power nor by might, but by my what? Thirdly, the weapons of our warfare
are not what? They are mighty through whom?
Good. So Saul would have... There are two principles here.
The reason why David has to reject Saul's armor are two principles. One is, if David won this battle,
having worn Saul's armor, what do you think Saul would have
done? Stolen the glory. Saul would have told everybody
in Israel, now see, the only reason that little ruddy boy
won that battle is because of the armor I put on him. See,
again, this here is what we call a man-centered theology paradigm,
a man-centered gospel motif. You and I cannot operate out
of man-centered theology to do the will of God. So David had
to reject Saul's armor. Here's the other thing that you
want to get out of this as a point of application. The weapons of
our warfare are not carnal. Saul would have stolen David's
or God's glory. But thirdly, now this is going
to launch you into The further historical narrative for all
intents and purposes ladies and gentlemen, Saul and Goliath are
one and the same. For all intents and purposes,
let me show you this. All Goliath is, is Saul on steroids. That's all. That's all. Goliath is Saul on steroids because
they're both operating out of the flesh. Isn't it interesting
when David destroys Goliath, his next battle for the next
20 years will be King Saul. And the reason he is, is because
King Saul bears the same spirit as Goliath. And let me show you
an insight before we move to our next point. Are you ready?
If you'll notice that the gear that King Saul put on David was
precisely the same gear that the Goliath giant wore. This
is a subtle narrative insight into the betrayers of the kingdom
of God. Are you guys hearing me? Yes,
let's move on to our next point then. Point number three, it's
really important for us to get there. The gospel armor preferred. Now, if David rejects Saul's
armor, let's look at the armor that David prefers. I love this.
Look at what David says, he says, Saul, I can't work with this
brother, gotta let it go, gotta let it go. And so he takes off his
armor and we move over into verse 40 and watch this narrative,
this is so powerful. He took his own staff in hand
and he chose him five smooth stones out of the brook and he
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 the Philistine
Hallelujah. Can I share with you gospel truth?
Faith without works is what? That's a gospel truth. Faith
without works is dead. A lot of people love talking
about I have faith. But what David did was demonstrate
his faith. He rejected the human wisdom. He retained and preferred the
wisdom of God. And ladies and gentlemen, he
walked in it. I want you to see how the narrative
shows us that David is headed toward the giant, not as a warrior,
but as a shepherd. I love it! As a shepherd, he
doesn't have anything on that says, I'm ready to meet you on
your own grounds, in your own way, in the battle that you're
fighting. This is psychological warfare par excellence. Thank you, Lord. Some of y'all
get that. So see, see, because the giant has already come out
for 40 days, stood, and let everyone see, he bad. No one from the camp of Israel
has even dared to come out. They all shrunk back, except
for one ruddy young man. The word ruddy, just in case
you want to know what that is, the word means red. So I'm sure
they called David red. Because that's what we do with
our red brothers. We call them red. Hey, red, come on, roll
with me. Am I telling the truth? You call them red. I mean, that's
what we do in the hood. Very economical. Poor folks are very
economical. Just call him red, because that's
what the word means. Ruddy means red. That when he
came out, he was red. And you know how God gives us
that anomaly in all ethnic groups? We got red ones, don't we? That's
all that means. Which means that David was unique
from all the rest of his brethren. And God's hand was on him. He
was ruddy. He was red. And if I were to
deal with that in a larger theological sense, we're talking about him
being a type of the last Adam being connected to the first
Adam because he came out of the earth. See, now the earth before
it got contaminated by all of these things that we put in the
air was red soil. I want you to get that now. Are
y'all with me? It was red soil. And so God made man out of the
dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living soul. Prior to his sin, man was
red. He wasn't right, white. And he
wasn't black. Hallelujah. He was red. We just have to knock down all
of these little idols that we lift up, you know. Because our
black church has got a black Jesus. Our white church has got
a white Jesus. Our Latino church has got, I
don't know what they got. I know that the Bible teaches
me that there's one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus. And he's the man that represents
every ethnic group on planet Earth. Am I making some sense?
We need to know him after the flesh, nor any man after the
flesh. He is the God man, Jesus Christ. He's the savior of all mankind. So then David is preferring his
own armor and David now is openly and explicitly demonstrating
it. Why? Point number one, sub point
number one. Because the armor that David
has on is a tried armor. God has delivered David with
his slingshot and with the stones and with the shepherd's bag over
and over again. And when we use the terminology, a tried armor
of God, because it's God himself, children of God, remember, God
is your armor. You have to know this. This is
very important. He told Abraham, Abraham, I am your shield. That's
armor. And you're exceeding great reward.
Now, when God calls you, calls himself your shield, that means
he's protecting you all around. All armor is, is a shield for
the specific parts of your body that are in danger of infliction
from war. As God was Abraham's shield,
he's also Abraham's son's shield, and that is David, and he is
also Christ's shield as well. David is able to wear his shepherd's
gear because God has protected him over and over and over again.
2 Corinthians 6, verse 7, Romans 13, 12, Ephesians 6, 11, all
describe the armor of God, the armor of light, the armor of
righteousness. Put on the whole armor of God
that you might stand against the wiles of the devil. And I
have taught you more than once that the armor of God are the
promises of God that every believer takes up and trust God with. The armor of God are the promises
of God. The armor of God are the promises
of God. God promises with the helmet
of salvation to keep your mind and your heart in Christ Jesus. With the breastplate of righteousness
with our feet shot, with the preparation of the gospel, with
the shield of faith, with the sword of the Spirit. All of these
represent specific promises of God to protect His people in
the midst of battle. Put on the armor of God, you
are putting on the promises of God. Take off the promises of
God, you are taking off the armor of God. Without the promises
of God, we have no protection. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is what David has come to understand. Stand. Lo,
I am with you always to the end of the world. David, I'll fight
your battles for you. Secondly, the faithful armor
is the armor wherein having been tried over and over and over
again. You can do what with that armor?
You can trust it. Can you trust it? Luke chapter 11 verse 22.
Here's a narrative where Christ is speaking again parabolically
about how a strong man's house is plundered By someone stronger
than him and when he plunders that house, he takes everything
in the house Watch this now even the armor. We're in that strong
man trusted Do you see the text? Is it up there? It's up there
now. They're doing good up there, aren't they? Now watch this now
But when a stronger has come upon him and overcomes him, he
takes from him his what? Where in he what? The armor is
what you trust in. Do you trust in God? Are you
trusting in Christ? Do you trust that the Word of
God will never fail? Are you trusting in the merits
of Christ's righteousness, His atonement, His redemption, His
mediatorial work as your substitute and charity and Savior? Inasmuch
as you are trusting Christ, you have the armor of God on. The
day that you are not relying upon the totality of the person
and work of God in Christ, you have no armor against the battle.
Are you with me? I love this. Now watch this.
Not only does he have a tried and faithful armor, what we have
described by the narrative is what I call the foolish things
of God represented by the sling and the stone. This is again,
this is oxymoronic. What's he going to do with a
sling? And what's he gonna do with some stones? Unless you
know that there's a God behind the sling and a God behind the
stones. Are you guys with me? But let
me just take this a little bit deeper and anchor in your thought
what I have said to you earlier about David being a man fully
endowed with the Spirit of God and understanding what he's doing.
Ladies and gentlemen, David had no doubt that he would destroy
the giant. Because David was not trusting
in himself. He was trusting in the revelation
that God had given him about who this giant was, what he represented,
and how that God would destroy this giant through David in order
to teach us the promises of God that God would give to David
concerning Jesus. David goes and get five smooth
stones out of the brook. I'm going to talk about five
right now and lots of people have a lot to talk about But
why does he pull out these stones and why does he pull them out
of the brook? Why couldn't he get have gotten them from the
mountainside? Was there a need for david to make sure that these
stones were? aerodynamically sufficient So that they wouldn't
turn and fly Well, maybe but you better be careful about that
Because we are dealing with spiritual things Let me show you a truth
in stones in the Old Testament were always symbolic of God's
promise to his people Stones in the scriptures are always
symbolic of God's promise to his people whenever God said
set up a stone That stone was always a marker of God's promise
either of his past faithfulness to his people Protologically
or his future faithfulness to his people eschatologically.
Are you hearing me? The stone always points to whom
personally? Jesus Christ. Is he not the stone
of stumbling? The stone of righteousness? The
cornerstone of the kingdom of God? Why then is David reaching
down into the brook? Because the water motif always
teaches us that the stones pointing to Jesus Christ are pointing
to his crucifixion, his death on Calvary, the fact that our
victory must be the consequence of the atoning work of Jesus.
Every time Israel is transitioned from a plight they go through
water Israel came out of Egypt through the Red Sea Israel entered
into the promised land through Jordan John the Baptist is bringing
repentance at Jordan Jesus is baptized at Jordan and the cross
always signifies the death of Jordan Why is David going into
the brook because in the brook is the crucified Christ? And
in the brook are all of God's elect who are in the crucified
Christ. Stay with me now. This is good.
This is good. So see, if you and I were about
eight years ago, you'd have heard me preaching on the significance
of Christ going over the Jordan before the children of Israel
did when God told Joshua to take the children of Israel across.
Do you remember the miracle that took place where the waters abated
all the way up to the city of Adam? dried up, and Israel was
to stay back several thousand cubits. And what was to go across
the water first? The priests and the Ark of the
Covenant. And so as the Ark of the Covenant went through Jordan,
the waters receded because the waters had recognized that their
sovereign Lord was in the midst of the Jordan. In the Ark of
the Covenant, which is the proprietary work of Christ as a sin-bearer
of his people, upheld by the priests, who are representatives
of gospel preachers, preaching Christ and him crucified, that
God's elect might cross over from the wilderness into the
promises of God. The ark stood in the middle of
Jordan, and all the people passed by. And as they passed by, they
set their eyes on the ark and realized that the only way they
got from the wilderness to the promised land is because of Him
who stayed in the water. Are you guys hearing me? Because
of Him who stayed in the water. The only reason I passed from
death to life is because of the crucified Christ. What is David
doing? David is teaching us that he's
going to win this battle through redemption, not by the might
of his hands, but by the prophetic word of God that it revealed
to him that his greater son David would accomplish a greater battle
against a greater Goliath by his death on the cross. Are you
guys hearing me? Let me share with you another
beautiful truth here then. Isn't it beautiful? So Big D,
Big D, we're going to call him Big D. He's probably about my
size. We're going to call him Big D. Big D gets his five stones,
and he puts his gear on, and he heads towards the giant. See,
you can talk, but until your talk turns into walk. As the
Bible says, every man will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful
man who can find. And I'm telling you, David is
being moved by the Spirit of God right now. Because no one
is separating themselves from the camp and moving towards the
giant, but the little ruddy brother who works in the shepherd's field.
Do you see it? Watch it, saints. Here it is.
It says, and after he took the stones, he went out and drew
near to the Philistine. Do you see it? My last point
then under that is the fight of faith visibly demonstrated
by David. Is that your point? The fight
of faith visibly demonstrated by David. I love it because David
had already told Saul, David had already told the children
of Israel that God can win our battles for us. He's getting
ready to tell the giant nothing more than he told the children
of Israel. But he's got to now extend himself, separate himself
and become the man of the hour for which he was called. I'm
going to teach you another truth now, then, going back to our
point, our narrative. When we think about Goliath,
when we think about this champion, very bad translation. The term champion here is not
a literal translation or a transliteration. It really is a very, very flawed
term. It's a connotation, not a denotation.
It should have been translated the man in the middle, the man
in the middle. Literally in the Hebrew the word
champion here is literally the man in the middle. What do you
mean? The man that's in the middle
between the success and the victory and the promises of God for his
people and their own destruction. It's the man that's standing
in the middle ready to take on the largest challenge there is
to be had. between God's elect and the enemy. The man in the middle is the
obstacle of God's people achieving their ultimate goal of being
kings and priests with God. The man in the middle is the
man that wants to now take over the whole kingdom. If he can
win this battle, he gets it all. Goliath no doubt then is a representative
of Satan, but Satan is working through the flesh And he's working
through all those means by which he constantly seeks to knock
God's people down. Ladies and gentlemen, we did
have a man in the middle between us and glory who wanted to stop
us from getting the glory. And that man can be called Goliath.
But will you think about the goodness of God right now? See,
this man in the middle wasn't sent by God. But the one that
God is sending now, his name is David. This is God's mediator. This is God's man in the middle. So you've got two men in the
middle, between Israel and the Philistines. Who do you think
is the true man in the middle? His name is David. And he points
to our mediator, Jesus Christ. I love the narrative. Because
you know what God did? God made sure that King Saul
was not the man in the middle. Remember the proposition, the
rules of engagement? You send out a man, we'll send
out a man. If he beats us, you can have
us. If we beat him, we'll have all you guys. This is the battle
of redemption that Christ had to undergo to redeem us from
all iniquity. This is the boldness of our Savior
to stand out over against all hell that was ready to swallow
you and me up. Are you guys hearing me? This
battle puts everyone on the sideline but Jesus and our enemy. Now
you and I get to see the gospel exclusively. Remember what I
taught you the gospel was? The gospel is the person and
work of Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with you.
You and I are sitting on the sideline trying to figure out
what God is up to while our eternal welfare is in jeopardy. If God
doesn't find a way to deliver us, to hell we go. And this is
what the gospel is all about, how that by one man, By one man
did God find a way to justify us from the curse and damnation
of the law and to bring us into eternal blessing. Are you guys
seeing the, you see the consequences here? You see the implications
here? Let's work this through then, because I'm almost done.
I've got to wrap this up. So we see under our third point,
the gospel armor preferred, the trite armor of God, the faithful
armor of God, the sling and the stone representing the foolishness
of the preaching of the gospel. The foolishness of the preaching
of the gospel is not the gospel, the power of God and the salvation.
Is that what God uses to save sinners? Is David about to preach
the gospel to this giant? Is he about to preach the gospel
to the Israelites? Is he about to preach the gospel
to the Philistines? David says, get your popcorn,
get your coke, I'm about to preach the gospel. I want you to see
how a man endued by the Spirit of God can work by the Spirit
of God to destroy your foes with one act, at one time, in one
place. with one effort. Are you hearing
me? One act in one place at one time
by one effort. And David, David did not even
remotely think he was going to lose. He didn't have five stones
just in case. Oh, he could have chose one. But as we get down the line,
there are four other brothers he got to kill. It's called a larger macro-narrative.
Okay? So what does David do? I want
you to read it with me. Watch this now. This is crazy. And when the Philistine looked
about, verse 42, and saw David, he disdained him, for he was
but a youth ruddy and fair of conscience. Again, the narrative
is letting us know the portfolio of David. David is incongruent. David is out of pocket. David doesn't fit the narrative.
But neither did Jesus. And neither does the gospel.
And in the same way that David's brothers disdained him, the same
way this giant is disdaining him now. It's the same way we
disdained him. When we looked upon him and we
saw no beauty in him that we should desire him. The Hebrew
word here is despised. And he was despised and rejected
of men. And all the nations abhorred
him. Do you see the gospel? This visible demonstration of
faith is standing there as a foolish thing to everyone. And the giant
is affirming the carnal minds of the children of Israel because
none of them see the glory of God in Christ. None see Jesus
and David. None. David is all by himself.
And the man tries to use psychological warfare to them. Who do you think
I am? Am I a dog? This dude comes out
to me with staves and the Philistine did what? Cursed him. Cursed
him. Cursed him. And the Philistine
said, David, said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh
to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field. I love the
way my elder read that. Holy Ghost came up on him. Then said
David to the Philistines, you, now I want you to hear what's
about to take place. I'm going to run through this. When David
said to the Philistine, you are coming to me. I want you to mark
this now. You are coming to me with a sword.
and with a spear and with a shield. That's how you are coming. You
are coming to me in the power of the flesh, in the works of
the flesh. I want all Israel to know. I
want all Israel to know that this is the only way your enemy
can come after you is with the sword and with the spear and
with the works of the flesh. All Israel, I want you to know
that the enemy has no power over you but that which is carnal.
All the devil can do is kill the flesh. He can't touch the
soul. I want all Israel to know that.
You are coming after me with your spear and your sword and
your shield. Israel, watch this now. Here
it is. But I'm coming to you in the
name of Jehovah, the Lord of Sabbath, the God of the armies
of Israel, whom you have defied. Now watch the prophecy. This
day will the Lord deliver you into my hand. I will smite you. I'm going to take your head from
you. I'm going to give you a carcass to the host of the Philistines
this day unto the fowls of the air and the wild beast of the
earth that all the earth may know that there's a God in Israel. I'm doing this for God's glory.
so that the whole world may know that God resides in Israel with
his elect who trust God, the Israel of God, those who trust
God. The world's gonna know that God
is their shield, God is their buckler, God is their strong
tower, that God is their battle axe. The world's gonna know how
God's people walk by faith, live by faith, die in faith, trust
in Christ, and win all their battles by relying upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. The world's getting ready to
know this right now. I love it. David had not even the slightest doubt. Do you see it? I'm gonna show
you another wonderful truth right here. This is amazing. Are you
ready? This is just amazing. Verse 46, verse 47. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord, will you hear me? Does not save with sword
and spear. He does not work through the
arm of the flesh. Please get this. God only saves
men and women through the gospel, through the preaching of the
person and work of Christ, not human wisdom, not the eloquence
of men, not the popularity of preachers, not methodologies,
not techniques, not trends, not Madison Avenue techniques. He only saves sinners through
the preaching of the gospel of the glory of God in the person
of Christ. Will you hear me? It's through
preaching that we will be saved. And it will be through the preaching
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you guys hear what
I'm saying? It will never be any other way. The works of the
flesh will never ever accomplish the redemptive purposes of God.
David's letting us know. And he will give you into our
hands. Prophecy declared. Prophecy declared. Let's go to work. Verse 48. And it came to pass when the
Philistine arose. Here it is. And drew nigh to
meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet
the Philistine. Hallelujah. He couldn't wait. Let me go, God. Let me go. Let
me go. Let me go. He got at it. Did
he get at it? Did he get at it? Did he get
at it? Now, let me show you something. This is crazy because you and
I are thinking in terms of human things. And I'm thinking about
how the spirit of God has soul. David is himself a stone stretched
back in the sling of the spirit of God that God is hurling towards
his enemy. David is being hurled towards
the enemy, running towards the enemy, ready to strike the enemy
just where he saw God. had pictured the strike. He knew
that the stone that he had put in this sling was determined,
preordained, elected, chosen of God before the foundation
of the world to hit its target right in the middle of the forehead
of that big old head called the giant. He knew this. Let me go ahead on back to the
narrative. Here it is. Here it is. And as David ran
towards him, he put his hand in the bag simultaneously. See, brothers can do two things
at once. We can run and stick our hand
in the bag at the same time while we're running. Getting his hand
in the bag at the same time while he's running, putting that sling.
Do you know you gotta have a lot of poise to do that? You know
that, right? You gotta have a lot of poise to do that. You know
that brother, that brother was, was he getting at it? Was he
getting at it? Was he getting at it? Was he getting at it?
Was he getting at it? Was he getting at it? Was he
getting at it? Yes! He was getting at it, and
I want you to see it. David put his hand in the bag,
took the stone and slung it. Now here's what me and a few
of you know. just doing a little grammatical
work around the culture of Israel. And they still do it today. I
don't know why, but they do. We got some nice weapons. I'd
rather have, you know, an AK-47. But that's cool. But a sling
and a stone, properly prepared, can be hurled at 150 miles an
hour. And it can kill a giant when
it's hurled just right. Will you hear me? And plus, as
the giant is coming towards him and he's running towards the
giant, the momentum increases and advances the velocity of
the stone. And that stone smite the giant
in his forehead and drops him right there on the ground to
the earth. Do you see the spirit of God?
Verse 50. I want you to see this verse 50. My time is up. Here
it is. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and
a stone. There it is. This is what the
narrator wants you to know. It's the power of the gospel.
that destroys our foe proclaiming Christ crucified as the grounds
of our acceptance before God. Do you guys see that? He destroyed
him with a sling and a stone and smote the Philistine and
then he slew him but there was no sword in David's hand. Hallelujah!
Why? Because the prophecy was plain
that God would destroy him not with sword or bow or spear but
by the decree of God. by the foolishness of preaching.
That, listen to, were you ready? I thought about this. This giant
was dead before he hit the ground. Now, we often call this a fight,
but I would beg to differ with you. There was no fight here.
If you paid your money to see this fight, get your money back,
because there was no fight here. There wasn't no round one, no
round two. When you read the text carefully, Goliath doesn't
even pull his sword out of his sheep. Goliath didn't know what
hit him. This was over with so quick.
This was not a fight. There was no battle here. There
are no foes in the universe that can stand up to our sovereign
God. Our God can defeat all his foes
whenever he wants to. Anytime he wants to, as we heard
it this morning, he laid down his life. No one took it from
him. No one forced Christ. He's an
omnipotent being, an omnipotent God. And what he did, he did
voluntarily. And in the slaying of this giant,
listen, this giant didn't know what hit him. It was over with
before it started. And the reason why God did it
so quick was to help Israel understand The folly of believing that anything
could defy the true and the living God and win. The masterful success
of Christ in his death at Calvary was such that it causes all of
hell to shake and tremble at the notion that it could even
begin to raise its hand against omnipotence. was no fight here. There was just a brother exercising,
getting his little run on for God. That's all David was doing,
getting his run on and fulfilling prophecy when he did it. The reason we worship God is
because of what Christ has done for us. Is that true? The reason
we bow before Him and call Him Lord is because of what He accomplished
for us at Calvary. Is that true? The reason we love
Him is because He first loved us. Is that true? We love Him
with a love that He has poured into our hearts because of the
love of God that He has shared abroad because of the work of
Christ. And we will talk about Him all the days of our life.
Now let me close by saying something that's absolutely necessary as
we move the narrative along. What David did here is what we
call a type-anti-type paradigm. David was truly delivered from
the Goliath was he not he was delivered from the Goliath like
he was delivered from the bear like he was delivered from the
lion and The reason why David was delivered is because David
was not the Christ Just like when Isaac was put on the altar
by his daddy on Mount Moriah and God delivered Isaac he delivered
Isaac because Isaac was not the Christ just like Jacob was thrown
in the pit sold in the prison and And God delivered Joseph. He was delivered because he was
not the Christ. Just like brother Daniel was
thrown into the lion's den. And God shut the mouth of the
lions and delivered Daniel. He delivered Daniel because Daniel
was not the Christ. But our Lord Jesus Christ was
not delivered. Our Lord Jesus Christ had to
endure the wrath of God. He had the bearer under the judgment.
The mouth of the lion got him. The paws of the bearer got him.
The wrath of God was poured upon him. Christ bore our sins on
the cross. He endured the wrath of God on
the cross. He bore that judgment in himself. Are you ready? That you might
escape. That I might escape. that we
might escape. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.