I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17. You can follow me in your outline
as well. 1 Samuel 17. Son of David. Son of David. Son of David. Son of David, have mercy on me. We are dealing with the life
of David, and we are intentionally looking for those redemptive
factors that point to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom
we have been persuaded is the ultimate subject of all scripture.
And we have learned at least in part that David serves as
a great, great example of the Lord Jesus Christ comprehensively
and extensively in a number of ways of which we will begin to
learn today. Last week we enjoyed discovering
the call of David to the monarchial throne being anointed by Samuel. but not yet being appointed.
We saw how God worked in calling out David from the sheepfold,
we'll touch on that a bit more today, and begin to prepare David
for what would be ultimately his destiny towards the throne
of Israel. Today we are going to deal with
what the author in our text wants us to understand is that part
of David's pre-qualification for sitting on the throne is
him actually achieving the goal or rather passing the test of
dealing with conflicts and battles that amount to the warfare that
God has not failed to warn every one of us that we are engaged
in. David, because he was ordained
by God to be The monarch on the throne is going to serve for
us as a model of what Christ went through in order to take
his place at the right hand of God, the father. Now, there are
many things that we want to ascertain from our lesson today. And I
think I have provided for you all four or five points for us
to touch on with regards to the life of David. The title of our
message today is sent by the father. So I want you to retain
in your mind that basic theme, sent by the father. And that term is to be comprehended
in light of the condition and circumstance that Israel is in
at that time, and that is a major conflict has occurred between
them and their most formidable foe, the Philistines, or the
Philistine, if you will. And it's in the context of a
struggle, a warfare, a battle that will, if on the part of
their enemies, win, all of Israel will be taken into captivity.
It's in this context that David now is going to emerge a more
imminent type of our Lord Jesus Christ in the context of war
as a king, as a monarch, who devastates and destroys the foals
of the people of God. What I want you to meditate on
for today is the fact that it was the gracious, loving disposition
of the Father to send the Son to solve a problem that we could
never solve for ourselves. See, we believe that the Bible
teaches us that from Genesis to Revelation, there is a redemption
story that points to Jesus Christ the solution to all our problems.
Do we believe that? But never fail to forget that
Jesus had a father and it was really in the bosom of the father
the whole plan of redemption emerges, manifests itself, comes
to fruition. It is therefore incumbent upon
every believer not only to laud and adore and magnify and wonder
stupendously upon the person and work of Christ, but thank
our heavenly father for having loved us so much that he sent
his only darling son to solve our eternal doom and damnation. This is where we are going to
extract from chapter 17 a number of relevant points around the
mercy of God in sending his son into the world. Now let me establish
a context for you so that you guys can continue to grow in
your sensitivity and understanding of the nature of scripture, particularly
Old Testament scripture, which is designed to point to New Testament
realities. You must understand that. You
must never abandon that fundamental premise as to why God gave us
two covenants, the Old Covenant and the New. The Old Covenant
becomes a major foundation and a structured system by which
we comprehend more fully what God has done for us in Jesus
as we learned it in Sunday school. You will nowhere near about learn
anything about Jesus if you don't go back to the Old Testament.
The Old Testament then becomes the training ground, the pedagogue. It becomes the framework by which
you and I are catechized and taught how intricate God's salvation
for his people is and how God has been imminently involved
in the salvation of our souls from before you and I even had
a beginning. This is the love of God manifested
in the historical narrative. We call it the sovereignty of
God in salvation. I want to set the context for
you so that you can understand what's taking place. In verse
1, it says, Now the Philistines had gathered together their armies
to battle. I want you to understand then,
contextually, that the enemies of God have intentionally set
themselves in array against God. The enemies of God have set themselves
in array against God. Now, because you and I are the
people of God, if in fact we are, we have some realizations
to come into. That when you join God's team,
God's enemies become your enemies. Whether you like it or not, whether
you care for it or not, the reality is all those who hate God, hate
those who love God. And this therefore becomes an
opportunity for us to manifest whether or not we are on the
Lord's side or not. And we are going to learn some
very ominous and some very challenging things today as to the idea of
what it means to have a mere profession of faith versus really
truly loving and knowing the Lord. We'll get to do this from
the comfort zone of objectivity because we'll get to look into
the narrative and enjoy how the narrative unfolds this so it's
not directly coming to us. But for those of us who know
that all scripture is given for us, for doctrine, teaching, reproof,
correction, and that the things that were written before time
were written for our learning, and that the things that were
written in old times were examples to us that we should not lust
after evil things. This word is for us, even if
it's not immediately or directly to us. So pay attention to the
lesson because you're in this text somewhere. What's going on in the context
is that we are in a stage of history called the monarchical
kingdom. And this monarchical kingdom, ladies and gentlemen,
was an act of extreme rebellion on the part of Israel. Have I
not taught you that? God had already anticipated in
Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 14 that Israel would desire and
want a king. Listen to the way the language
unfolds in Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 14. This is what God
knew would occur on the part of Israel because of a waning
and lacking faith that would emerge. He says in verse 14 now
when you are come into the land which the Lord your God gives
you and shall possess it and shall dwell therein and you begin
to say I Will set a king over me like as all the nations that
are round about me see God sees the turning of our hearts way
before we do and And one of the reasons why you want to receive
the admonitions of scripture is because while today you may
not have a mind to walk in rebellion against God, tomorrow you will.
And you need to be warned beforehand before you start down that course.
Now in the Deuteronomy account, which was written during the
time of Moses, about 1400 BC, Israel would have never thought
in their wildest dream that they would have collectively as a
nation wanted to kick God out and set a man up on the throne.
But the Bible tells us that God knows the heart. Hell and destruction
are before the Lord, how much more so the hearts of the sons
of men. And what God is warning Israel about here is that you
are going to reject Me. This is exactly what Samuel had
to struggle with in 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 7 when God had
to come to Samuel and tell Samuel, Samuel, hold on. Don't you get
upset because this is not about you, brother. This is about Me. My own people are rejecting me
as a king. So you settle down because I
saw this coming hundreds of years ago Yay before the world began
and I always have watched this now not a reaction But a response
to every sinful thing my people do Didn't you guys learn that
in theology class when we dealt with biblical theology did not
teach you God never reacts You're not like you and I God never
reacts. He always what? Responds. He
always has a checkmate to every one of our advances, does he
not? And so he moves sovereignly in the life of his people to
demonstrate that man might devise things in his heart, but God's
going to direct his steps. That there is no counsel, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom against the Lord. That everything we
do is going to ultimately advance God's will. And this is what
we're going to see in our text as well. Israel is in a real
strange predicament. And it falls out like this, just
so that you can understand it. When God established humanity,
he gave his first typical son rule over everything. You guys
remember that? Who was his first typical son?
Adam. And he told Adam to exercise
absolute dominion. Did Adam ruin his chance? Yes, he did. And did God react
or did God respond? Did God destroy him or did God
save him? And as God saved him, he had
to save that knucklehead over and over and over again. The period in which I'm speaking
is from the creation of the world all the way up to the time of
Moses. That period is what we call the patristic period. The
period of the what? Fathers. Don't ever forget it. God is a patriarchal God. He established the rule of the
fathers. From Adam all the way to Moses,
we have the period of the fathers. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are
called what? The fathers. And during that
history, you guys know, the people of God get in trouble all the
time. God has to come and deliver them all the time. And on occasion,
he lets many of them perish because they're not truly his. We move
from the patristic period to the period of what we call the
theocratic government or the days of the judges. This is the
days of Moses all the way up to the day of David. The period
of Moses to David is what we call the days of the judges.
It's when God had established his judiciary by giving the legislative
commandment or constitution to Moses and then told Moses to
pick out godly men, men that fear God, men that hate covetousness,
men that love the truth and let them be judges in Israel. Is
that right? And those judges served as mediators for God who
was the presence of Israel as their king and the Shekinah glory
on the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle. And when the
people needed to have a direct word from God, Moses would go
to God, or Aaron would go to God, and God the King would tell
them how they were to conduct themselves. The knucklehead people
that Israel was, they got tired of a king they couldn't see.
And so they cried out in the days of Samuel, give us a king
like all the other nations of the world. So we moved from a
patriarchal system to a theocratic system to now what? A monarchical
system. And this monarchy will go from
David to who? Jesus. And it will finalize itself. in the rule of Jesus Christ,
of whom the apostles said in the book of Acts, God had made
him both Lord and Christ. He is the sovereign ruler of
the whole universe. Everyone is under the rule of
David's son, Jesus Christ, upon whose shoulders is the whole
government. That's a synopsis of the transition
of the kingdom from one stage to the next. Are you guys with
me? Guess what? You are under a monarchy right
now. It is a theomonarchy. It is a
patrotheomonarchy. You are under the rule of God
the Father and God the Son as they rule over all things for
the good of God's people in this world. They are king, are they
not? King of kings and Lord of lords.
And in our context now, you and I are brought to the reality
that just because you may be part of the kingdom or call yourself
the covenant people of God, or may very well be children of
God, doesn't mean you live in this world without conflict.
You've got enemies. You've got battles to fight.
Multiple battles on multiple fronts in many ways that we are
fighting every day And what God is about to teach you and me
is this there are certain battles that you and I will never win
in his mercy He's gonna have to send somebody else to deliver
your wretched soul. Are you guys following me? Point
number one, therefore, in our outline so that we can make our
way through this, I'm laying a foundation because there's
so much to be comprehended in the subtlety of the text of your
Bible with regards to how the narrator wants us to understand
God's movements in preparing his people for their deliverer,
i.e. David pointing to Jesus. Point
number one, war is the price we pay for what? Departing from
God. Y'all believe that? War is the
price we pay for departing from God That's right. And ever since
the fall of man, we've been in a mess haven't we? ever since
the fall of men this world's been falling apart and the pruning
hooks and the plow shares that God had given us to till and
keep the garden and Enjoy the plenty of his bounty which he
had bestowed and granted upon his sons now become spears Spears
and swords by which we kill one another And the very tools that
God gives us by which we are to enjoy his blessings are the
tools we turn against God. That's the context before us.
And I want to affirm three things under this first point. War is
the price we pay for departing from God. There are three things
you need to know. There is a cosmic rebellion,
is there not? There is a cosmic rebellion that
we must affirm. For those of you who went to
government school, cosmic means spiritual. means heavenly. There's
a heavenly rebellion that took place at the beginning of time
where Satan departed from God, rebelled against God, and took
with him a massive host of angels who became devils and they began
to wage war against God. There is a cosmic rebellion. the Bible is clear about this
Revelation chapter 12 verse 7 as well says to us and there was
war in heaven and There was war in heaven Michael and his angels
fought against the devil and his angels that Moniker or that
placard right there teaches us that in the spiritual dimension
where you and I are There's a constant struggle going on. Is that true?
I The angels of God at war with the devils of Satan. The angels
of God are at war with those who would oppose God's kingdom
and seek every opportunity to, as it were, overthrow God's kingdom. The devil himself, Satan, that
old serpent, the dragon, as Revelation 12 calls him, is the very one
that is heading up every act of rebellion against God. You
need to know this. At the head of every act of rebellion
against God is the devil. He's the great adversary. He's
the great accuser. He's the great opposer of God. And he is seeking to sweep into
his company everyone that's willing to defect against God. Pull up
Revelation 12 7, please. I want you to see this imagery
because it carries a dual significance I want you to get it because
I'm not sure y'all went to y'all Bibles, you know, we're in the
21st century We don't read our Bibles anymore Revelation 12
7 and there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels verse 8
and Prevailed not who did not prevail the devil. I So what
the book of Revelation does, it gives us this cosmic drama
to help us understand that there is a real battle, but the confidence
that the believer acquires from the book of Revelation is that
God wins. And because we're gods, we win.
But between the battle that's taking place now and our final
destiny with God, who will always triumph, your job and mine is
to make our calling and election sure. Because I want you to understand
the devil has used his tail to swoop into his camp a third of
the angels. Look, I think it's verse 9. Let's
see what it says in verse 9 if that's not the case. And the
dragon, no, no, no, don't do that. Go back to verse 4. Revelation
chapter 12 verse 4. Notice the language in verse
4. And his tail drew the third part of the what? Want you to
get this now, this is a double Lesson here a double message
here. It is speaking certainly Symbolically of that angelic
host called the angels because we're dealing with heavenly places
And so the symbolism of the moon and the stars in the Sun deals
with the constellations, right? So angels are as it were celestial
beings are they not the tail signifies Satan's strategy to
as it were take into captivity and have dominion over one-third
of God's angels now the tale in the scriptures points to The
lies that Satan tells to deceive men Have you guys learned that
over the years? How many guys remember that?
Very few of you got it is Isaiah chapter 9 verse 15. Just listen
to the text The ancient and the honorable is the head The prophet
that teaches lies is the tail. The imagery of the tail then
is that backside of the serpent while his face looks at you smiling,
he's seeking to knock you off his feet with his tail. And he
knocks you off your feet and causes you to fall because you
don't see him for who he really is. And this is how he apostatizes
the church and sweeps masses of people into his kingdom and
into his company. You and I are amazed, are we
not, how that a man can actually meet God in the person of Christ,
do ministry with him for three years, and then in the last six
months of his ministry, turn on Jesus. How can that occur
unless there's a celestial or cosmic warfare going on? And
the devil is working massively to change the minds of those
who have heard the gospel so as to swoop them into his army
and his kingdom. Is that true? This is the ominous
nature of defection from Christ of which the Bible warns everywhere.
Does it not? Make your calling an election. Sure, so there's a cosmic rebellion
that we must not deny. I'll seek to build that up more
in point number two. There's an earthly rebellion
that followed. That's Genesis 3 verses 1 through
7. You don't have to go there. Didn't
the devil come to God's pinnacle of creation and tempt them so
that they fail and ended up being on the devil's team? Didn't the
devil attack God's son through God's son's wife? and break them
down and so take the kingdom, if you will. Did he not do that?
And that paradigm runs all the way through the scriptures. The
fall of humanity occurred because Adam and Eve failed to obey God. The fall of humanity occurred
because Adam and Eve failed to obey God. Follow this. You and
I are in the mess that we're in because of the fall. The warfare
that we're engaged in, the battle, the extreme battle that you and
I are engaged in now is because of the fall. You and I are on
one or the other side. We are on the side of God or
on the side of the devil. And so we are in a warfare and
we have to reckon with that. And souls are dying every day,
are they not? Souls are dying every day. People
are perishing every day. And people are being blinded
and deceived massively every day. They're being led further
and further away from the truth every day. And they're also being
strengthened as adversaries of the devil against God every day.
You are taking up instruments of warfare either for God or
against God every day. How you think, how you act will
determine whether you are in the devil's camp or in God's
camp. That's the battle that's going
on. The devil is a no-holds-bar enemy. He wants it all. And this
is the fierceness of the context in which we are now working in
1 Samuel chapter 17. I want you to get the context
because many of you have heard preaching and teaching around
David and Goliath that amounts nothing to nothing but a fable,
an Aesop's fable, a story tale that had no real poignant redemptive
realities to it. But over the next two weeks,
you're going to learn something very important about this battle. This is the battle. that you
lose everything or you gain everything. This is the battle. This is a
battle where God is going to show up masterfully, masterfully
in his wisdom to deliver his people who could never deliver
themselves. Point number three, Israel is
God's what? That's right. Israel is God's army. God knew
exactly where Israel would be 700 years 500 years after he called them out
of Egypt. He knew it. It was 1500 BC that God called
Israel out of Egypt under Moses. 1487, technical terminology,
1500 years. It would be 500 years of God
working with his nation, having brought them into the land of
Palestine 40 years after the wilderness. For the next 400
years, Israel is struggling with how to walk with his God in the
land of promise. Get this. You are out of Egypt. You done made it through the
wilderness. You in the promised land. Your God runs the show
and you still not satisfied. Sounds like somebody you know? This is the desperate nature
of our sinfulness. This is the desperate nature
of your sinfulness. God can lay out before you manifold
blessings. and tell you how much he loves
you and what he promises to do with you and for you and through
you, and you still find a reason to complain against God. And
be careful because complaints, as we learned last night, will
send serpents to bite your tail. That's a metaphor of the devil
coming in through the complaints of the people when they were
in the wilderness in the book of Numbers and he sent serpents
to bite them. Since God wasn't enough, he said,
let the devil have his way. And that will always be the case.
Where you and I are not satisfied with the grace of God, the gospel
of God, the glory of God, the truth of Christ, the fullness
of the manna that comes down from heaven to take care of your
soul as you make your journey through this world. That vacuum,
when you go to complaining about God, that vacuum will be filled
up with the devil and his poison. It was for this reason, as John's
gospel puts it, if the Son of Man is lifted up as the serpent
was lifted up in the wilderness, men and women can then and only
then be saved. That was a horrible predicament
for Israel too, was it not? And it came upon them because
of their rebellion and disobedience. But was not God merciful to lift
up a serpent? And this is what God does over
and over and over again, not for you to be presumptuous, but
for you to walk humbly before the Lord your God. Now, when
I say Israel is God's army, God had told Pharaoh, let my people
go, let my army go so that they might come worship me. And what
that means for you and me by way of application. And this
is the way we will be working our series. I will deal with
the historical account. I will make the spiritual tie
in. Then I will make an application
to you and me. And ultimately we will see Jesus.
Application, when God saves you, he calls you into his army. Application,
when God saves you, he calls you into his army. Soldier up,
armor up, put your gear on, quit whining and crying, and stand
in the gospel. Soldier up, put your gear on,
quit all that whining and crying and fussing, and stand in the
gospel. Soldier up, put your gear on,
quit all that whining and crying and stand in the gospel and watch
God come through every time to make sure his promises come to
pass. Point number two, then, as we continue to work through
our outline, having already underscored that war is the price we pay
for walking away from God, on a temporal level, it happens
to you and me. Isn't that right? Every time we mess up, every
time we mess up, we find ourselves in trouble for long periods of
time because God's not going to bring you out Until he changes
your heart, you started the problem you're in. Point number two,
and this is going to move us now into the heart of and the
matrix of the conflict for the children of Israel, which is
going to be a major, major paradigm for us. The power of the flesh
is too great for the people of God alone. The power of the flesh
is too great for the people of God alone. For those of you who
have studied with me for years, you understand that I'm making
the tie-in of the nature of the flesh, the fallen nature with
Goliath and with the Philistines, right? You guys know that, that
there is a connection from the Old Testament Philistine armies
against Israel, living in Israel with Israel, of which they had
to fight all their days. And what the Bible teaches concerning
the works of the flesh are the carnal nature. That enmity of
our fallen nature, which is always hostile to God, which means this
your enemies at all times are closer than you want them to
be. This is what this means. Your
enemies are too close for comfort for you to be presuming upon
God. Are you guys hearing me? I'm going to develop this. The
power of the flesh is too great for the people of God alone.
Look at verse 11 of chapter 17. Now watch this, watch this now.
According, yeah, chapter 17, going back to 1 Samuel chapter
17. Listen to how Samuel puts this
in verse 11. Now when Saul and all Israel
heard those words of the what? They were what? And what? I want
you to get that now. This is an amazing statement
by the author. This is an amazing statement
by the author. When they heard the words of
the Philistine, and we're going to talk about here in a moment
concerning his strategies. When they heard the words of
the Philistine, they were dismayed. What dismayed them? His words. Why were they discombobulated,
dismayed, starting to disintegrate internally and outwardly? Because
he had made them afraid. I want you to mark what it says.
When Saul, do you see that? And all Israel. I want you to understand the
penetrating and pervasive effect of the Philistine upon the whole
of Israel represented in the rule of Saul. Because what God
is doing is helping us understand this transition from Saul to
David. and the danger of having a leader
who does not know God ruling over you. The utter danger of
being under a ministry where the leadership does not know
God, where the Spirit of God is not present, where the Spirit
of God is not ruling, the whole of the congregation is then,
as it were, apprehended and paralyzed. The nation is paralyzed by the
dread and fear of this giant called Goliath. Do you see the
picture? This is exactly what the narrator
wants you to get. He wants you to get that the
impact of this Philistine, and this is not the first time that
Saul has met the Philistines. Saul has had to fight the Philistines
ever since God raised him up. He's had to fight him and he
has never ever completely routed them. Chapter 14 verse 52, I
want you to see this, we'll come back. In chapter 14 verse 52,
here's the narrative around that idea so that you might know that
the scriptures are laying out a clear composite of the nature
of Saul's rule and the perpetual, perpetual antagonism and conflict
that he dealt with with regards to the Philistines. Here it is
in verse 52, are you there? And there was sore war against
the Philistines all the days of what? And when Saul saw any
strong men or any valued men, he took him unto him. Do you
guys see that? Now, how come did he do that? How come he did
that? Because he needed to accrue to himself military men to fight
this battle. Problem. Problem. Saul himself is a disqualified
leader. because of his rebellion and
disobedience against God. He is fighting a battle he cannot
win because of his rebellion against God. And he may accrue
to himself all of the strong men he possibly can. He took
David, didn't he? As we're going to learn again
next week. But it's going to be to no avail, because as the
king, so are the people. Are you guys hearing me? As the
king, so are the people. And what this note states is
that all the days of Saul, Saul battled with the Philistines. And you guys know the end of
Saul, don't you? What was the end of Saul? He was destroyed
by the Philistines. So what the narrator is doing
is helping you understand the distinction between Saul and
David, the failures of Saul and the victories of David, so that
we might understand that the counsel of the Lord, that shall
stand. David, Saul then is here represented
both in chapter 14 and 17 as in a major struggle with the
Philistines. Going back to chapter 17. And
I would ask the question as you guys are following, what's going
on in our narrative? that the narrative is leading
us to this major battle with the Philistines. What's going
on in the narrator's mind? What's going on in God's mind
that you and I are now brought to this theater, this theater
of conflict that has such an enormous cost in front of it? What's going on? God is helping
you and me know that the enemy would take everything if he could. And for the enemy, he knows that
right now the kingdom is most vulnerable. He knows that right
now the kingdom is more vulnerable than it will ever be. Mark my
words, ladies and gentlemen, the devil is not stupid. Now, he knows how to wait for
when God's people are at their lowest air, in their weakest
point, and then to attack. Are you guys hearing me? At this
point what the author wants us to understand is because God
has left Saul Because God has left Saul. Will you hear me?
Saul has no armor on This is crazy, you know these crazy churches
I didn't mean to say this but I'm gonna say it anyway, you
know these crazy churches that have these Saul like pastors
And these Saul-like pastors then accrued to themselves armor-bearers.
Hey, y'all heard that crazy stuff? Armor-bearers. So I'm gonna just
make this application to you so that you won't be so dumb
and buy into these paradigms that have no basis in gospel
truth. You don't need an armor-bearer when you wear the armor of God. Please hear what I'm getting
ready to say. Saul perceived a loss of the favor of God the
day he tried to get Samuel to stay with him when he offered
sacrifices the wrong way. Samuel went one way, Saul went
another way, and Saul ripped Samuel's garment. And Samuel
turned around and said, so shall the kingdom be taken from you
and given to a man better than you. From that day forward, Saul
perceived the favor of God as being lost in his life. Are you
guys hearing me? This is why he goes through these
conniptions and these fits and these emotional ups and downs
and the depression and the psychosis that he's going through. You
and I would too if we knew something of the sensible presence of God
and blessing and then felt him depart from us to leave us naked
and alone and vulnerable. We'd lose our minds too, would
we not? But I digress because this is
to be dealt with next week. What's in front of us is a battle
to which God is calling us to understand in our context. The
power of the flesh is too great for the people of God alone.
When we use this term, the flesh, the term Philistine is always
associated with the uncircumcised. The man that's going to coin
that phrase will be Brother David. He will show up next week, not
this week, but next week. And he's going to say, now, who
is this uncircumcised Philistine trying to defy the armies of
God? Now, if you remember, the Spirit
of God came upon David mightily with a great effusion the same
day that the Spirit of God left Saul. David is as bold as a lion. and Saul and all Israel are cowering
from their enemies. And the enemy really thinks that
at this moment, he will be able to take Israel. He actually strategically
sets up this winner-take-all battle in the field of Saqqa,
in the Valley of Elah, Ephesdamim, chapter 17, verse one. I want
you to see the picture here. I want you to see the image.
The picture is that of the valley that has mountains on either
side. Now the Philistines gathered
together their armies to battle and were gathered together at
Shaka. They were gathered together at
Shaka, which belongs to who? And pits between Shaka and Azaka
and Ephesus-Damin. Now I'll talk about those terms
next week. But I want you to understand
how wise and subtle the enemy is. He's setting his battle up
in the valley that's right over against Judah because the enemy
knows that Judah is the capital that must be taken. Do you see
the image up there? Saul's camp is on the side of
this hill that's to the far left. Do you see that? Northwest, do
you see it? That's Saul's camp. On the far east, you see the
Philistine camp, right? Ephesus Damin, right? And you
see that creek line in the middle? That creek line in the middle
is where they will meet in battle. That's where they will meet in
battle. Do you see the word soccer way back there? And under it
is the term what? Judah is the strategic place
that the enemy wants. because while Saul doesn't know
it and the people don't know it because they don't read their
Bibles and they don't understand that the lion of the tribe of
Judah must reign on the throne. The enemy knows it. The enemy
knows it. He wants to set this battle in
array right up against Judah to take Judah. Whoever gets Judah
gets the throne. Are you guys hearing me? Because
Judah According to the strategic plan of God as the general of
his army the Lord is a man of what war? He set Israel up in
four troops With the tabernacle in the middle you guys remember
that Four troops and the leading troop is whom the tribe of Judah
the tribe of Judah This is what the battle was being waged on
And the names are significant. We'll deal with it next time.
But you need to understand that when you read your Bible, the
lessons are spiritual. These are not Aesop's fables.
These are not story tales to pass over. These are redemptive
realities to get. They must be gotten. The power
of the flesh is too great for the people of God. Going back
to our point so I can work my way through and get to our next
point. The uncircumcised life is a life that is godless, it's
fierce, and it's what? Boastful. The uncircumcised life
is a life that's godless. The Philistines didn't believe
in God, did they? It's fierce. They were always fighting. And
it's what? Boastful. Now, the Apostle Paul
uses this language in Philippians chapter 3 verses 1 through 3
when he talks to the church at Philippi about beware of the
circumcision. Beware of the concision. And
here's the derogatory language that he uses in Philippians chapter
1. I want you to go there for a moment. Verse 1. Finally, my
brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you.
To me, indeed, it's not grievous, but for you it's what? You know
what that means? Because we're so slow, God has
to say it to us over and over and over and over again. in order
for us to get it. Our salvation, our salvation
is based upon God saying the same thing over and over and
over again. Because even when we get it the
first time, because we got holes in our brain, it leaks out. Am I telling the truth? And God
has to come in and patch up those holes and then pour in the truth
again in order for it to retain in order for it to change our
lives. And then one day we wake up and say, you know what? I
got it. But you better finish that sentence because that's
not really a whole sentence by the grace of God. That's how
it works. It takes time to get it. And
when you do get it, you only got it because God gave it to
you and God retained it in your life. That's Psalm 119. That's
Psalm 119. And take the word of truth not
utterly out of my mouth, so shall I have wherewith to speak to
him that reproaches me because I trust in your word. But if
you take your word away from me, I have no defense. And you
and I know When we start practicing carnal behavior and silly distractions
of obedience from God, what you used to know is taken away from
you. You wake up one day and don't even remember Jesus' name.
That's how bad it can get because you've been distracted. And you
can be sure in those days where you're barely able to remember
Bible verses that are critical to your salvation, you and I
don't have our armor on. Because to have the armor of
God on is to have the promises of God ready at hand. That's the armor of God. Lord,
I'm with you always to the end of the world. I will fight your
battles for you, the Lord says. You will always triumph through
me because I will work through you in order to triumph through
you. I am Jehovah. That's my name and I will not
give my glory to another. I can't lie, change or fail.
Those who trust in me will never be put to shame. I'm putting
my armor on right now. Are you hearing me? I'm putting my armor
on right now. Y'all missed that. Finally, my brother rejoicing
the Lord to write to you the same things to me indeed is not
grievous But for you, it's your salvation verse 2 verse 2 watch
this now beware of what? See now that's a euphemism we
use in the hood and it goes both ways Some dogs are good. Some dogs are bad. That's my
dog man. I'd have negro. He's a dog And y'all sit in y'all ethnic
groups to Y'all understand what I'm getting at the good dogs
and bad dogs. Is that true? There's some dogs
that you got to cross the street on, other dogs you can pet. A
dog can be a man's best friend. Is that right? The term dog in
the New Testament has a very positive connotation when it
comes to Lazarus who was filled with sores and the dogs came
and licked his wounds. And those dogs represent believers
who bring the soothing ointment of the gospel to those who are
aching and pained and need relief. I don't mind being God's dog,
do you? And in fact, in the Greek, the
Greek word for worship means to prostrate like a dog. I want
to be God's dog. But their dogs should beware
of, and they're called evil workers, and they're called the concision.
That's a contracted term for the circumcision. Do you guys
see that? That's a contracted term for
the circumcision. It's amazing. What Paul is doing is now establishing
sort of a reverse ironic sort of pejorative against his own
people because the Jews would call those who are non-Jews dogs. Here he is calling them who are
Jews dogs. The Jews would call Gentiles
evil workers. Here Paul is calling them evil
workers. The Jews would call people who
are not circumcised, uncircumcised, evil, set apart from God. Here
Paul is calling them the concision because he understands what they
represent. The flesh and legal garb demanding people to work
for their salvation. Are you guys hearing me? Let
me go on. Let's go back to our point. I want to develop some
more of our particular portfolio and resume of the power of the
flesh represented in the Philistine. Secondly, the fleshly mind wars
directly against whom? The fleshly mind wars directly
against God. And therefore, I want you to see this Philistine who
is standing between his own army and the armies of God and shouting
out all of these expletives He's really fighting against God. You guys understand that? This
is a major drama of how the world hates God. The flesh hates God. Those who are not under the authority
of God really do hate God. And the Philistine here, this
giant here, which we'll talk about in a moment, is really
representative of the whole world. He's also representative of the
religious world. He's religious too. You're going
to see that here in a moment when I make the tie-in between
the Goliath and King Saul. They're really one and the same.
I'm going to show you that. The uncircumcised life is a godless
life, a fierce life, a boastful life. It loves boasting. This
is what our text says in 2 Samuel 17 verse 26. Listen to what it
says here in verse 26. Now this is David responding,
but here's what David says. And David spake to the men that
stood by, saying, What shall be done to the men that killeth
this Philistine? Can't wait till I get there.
Can't wait till I get there. Watch this. And taketh away the
reproach of Israel. Do you see that second clause?
That's an idiom. that David is using to typify
circumcision. See, our sin nature is a reproach
to God. And God has to cut it off like
he cuts off the foreskin of the flesh. That reproach needs to
be removed. And what David is saying is this
Philistine is like the excess skin of the reproductive organ
that needs to be cut off. Because something that's excess
that doesn't have any purpose don't need to be there. He's
using the derogatory term to say we're going to circumcise
this uncircumcised Philistine who's running off at the mouth
against God. Remember, just in case you're
lost, circumcision simply means to cut away. And Jesus was cut
off from the land of living, of the living. And he was made
to be circumcised for us, Colossians 2. We were circumcised with the
circumcision of Christ, were we not? When he was cut off,
were we not cut off? And the reason we were cut off
is so that our Adamic nature would not have dominion over
us. God had to cut off our Adamic nature in Christ so that we could
be new creatures in Christ. That's called regeneration. That's
the work of the Holy Ghost, where the incorruptible seed coming
through the male sperm then enters into the life and produces the
new man, which is Jesus Christ. If any man be in Christ Jesus,
he's a what? All right, you're learning something.
It's very important to get this. And David spake to the men that
were standing by, what shall be done to the man that kills
the Philistine and takes away the reproach of Israel? For who
is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies
of the living God? Do you hear the spirit of God
is wild. The spirit of God is glorious
in his trajectory to resolve a problem that was too big for
Saul and all Israel. Saul and all Israel ran and hid
while David is trying to figure out which way to take this dude
out. Point number two finally says,
Goliath represents the flesh in full force against the people
of God. I want you to see the picture here now. I want you
to see the picture. I need you to see this. The author wants
you to grasp Strategy of the enemy we've already saw that
the strategy of the enemy is to take the position strategically
of the land that is between Israel and Judah so that if they win
that battle in the valley they get Judah. Is that true? That's
strategic. I want you to see something else
now in verse 4 Chapter 17 verse 4 and there went out a champion
out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath whose height
was six cubits in a span In the English, it would render he was
about 9 1/2 to 10 feet tall. 9 1/2 to 10 feet tall, depending
on how you define a span. I won't go into the grammar.
I'll simply let you know he was a tall brother. However, He was
not these fictitious images that you find on the internet trying
to give you a picture of a hybrid anarchy, some giant consequent
and composite of demons and humans that make you think that they
were 20 feet tall with heads big as my pulpit. You saw those
pictures, right? All phony. Will you hear me? Get your feet back on the ground,
child of God. All phony. Let every seed bearing
herb bring forth fruit of its own kind. You're not going to
have angels and men together. That's Roman and Greek mythology.
Bible based Christians know either you are human or you are angel
and angels don't reproduce and they don't have skeletal frames.
You're looking at photoshopping that's designed to deceive masses
because they don't read their Bibles carefully. Now, Goliath
was big, but he wasn't some massive giant that really couldn't be
dealt with, but he was a big brother. The gear that he wore,
of which our next verse then describes, the gear that he wore,
verse five says, and he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he
was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was
5,000 shekels of brass. Don't get flustered by the 5,000
shekels. Fundamentally, His whole armor
weighed over 125 pounds. Now that's significant for someone
who wants to wage battle with one other man. But it's not so
massive as if you and I are dealing with the Transformers or some
of these sci-fi movies. Calm down. Are you hearing me? Calm down. Because the lessons
that are to be captured here are spiritual in nature. And
the historical narrative is not dealing in fudging or hedging
or extrapolations so as to undermine the authenticity of scripture.
The historical narrative can be affirmed. We have Philistines. We have the archaeological records.
They were there. They were large men. But this
was true in many cultures. We still have people today eight
feet tall, eight and a half feet tall, nine feet tall. Are you
hearing me? It's an anomaly, but it can occur. So this is
a big brother, but now what I want you to do is understand the strategy
that he puts before Israel. I'm sorry, verse six. And he
had greaves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass between
his shoulders. That means he was well covered
in metal, brass, as it were, to protect him from any harm.
And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. His spearhead
weighed 600 shekels of iron and one bearing a shield went before
him. Now his spear weighed over 20
pounds. Again, that's a significant weight
for thrusting through a mere man. But it's not so massive
as to think that it was 500 pounds. We're dealing with very proportionate
numbers here. Are you guys hearing me? The
scale is very logical and very normal. He's a big dude. He's
a bad dude. In fact, he's bad enough in his
own right and in his own mind to deal with any one of the Israelites. Are you guys hearing me? Now
watch this. Verse 8. And he stood and cried
until the armies of Israel and said unto them, why are you come
out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine? And you
servants of Saul, choose you a man for you and let him come
down to me. If he be able to fight with me
and 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. See verse eight and nine. Here
what we have in verse 8 and 9 is a rhetoric of haughtiness, a
kind of rhetoric that is propositional in nature, suggesting to Israel
that if you can actually beat this man, then you guys get to
go free. It's a rhetoric that he's setting
forth. It's part of what we call in warfare strategy, psychological
warfare. I want to show you three aspects
of this psychological warfare that's going on. First, this
is a lure in. It's actually appealing to your
pride. I'm just one man. You bring out
yours. If your man wins, we'll all serve
you. If our man wins, you all serve us. It seems fairly simple
and straightforward. It's actually alluring because
who would want their hundreds of thousands of baby boys to
be killed in a war when we could solve the war with two fellas?
Come to think of it, I kind of like that. I would love for our
leaders to take up this proposition, let Obama have a fight with whoever,
and if Obama wins it, or whoever else. Come to think about it, Obama
don't look like he can fight too well, so let's pull him back. Let's get a brother in there
that can fight. But at least we know that if he loses, none
of our people will have died in vain. That's the lure here. It's psychological. It's psychological. It's designed to get into their
head. The first thing that he used
as a psychological ploy was the fierceness of his presence. Do
you know that the author was careful to give us all the details
of this man's height, size, weight, and his armor? We just looked
at that. And then the next thing we hear is the insight into his
proposition against the nation of Israel, the armies of Israel.
Send out one man. Y'all can sit up there and eat
your sandwiches, drink your soda, and just watch this thing. Now
here's one more step. This is called the strategy of
repetition. It goes on in war as well. It
goes on in war as well. The enemy would say over in verse
20 these words. Listen to it. In chapter 17 verse
20. And David rose up. No, I don't
want to use verse 20. Verse... Yes, here it is. And the Philistine
drew near morning and evening and presented himself 40 days. Do you see that? This happened
day in and day out for 40 days. Day in and day out for 40 days. Same proposition, same man, same
gear. What's happening to Israel? They
are being made to be afraid, fearful. shrinking back, drawing
back. They have no solution. The man's
proposition is entering into their mind. Ladies and gentlemen,
this is how the devil works. He gets you when you are vulnerable
and he continues to now magnify himself in your mind so that
he becomes so large that all of the promises of God begin
to shrink in your life. In fact, in many cases, you can't
even remember what God said because you are so overwhelmed by the
presence of the enemy. And then he does it day in and
day out and day in and day out. And the next thing you know,
you are walking in a state of unbelief and fear and dread. And you have forgotten your own
identity. And the last thing you want to do is fight the good
fight of faith. This is called psychological
warfare. This is where people stop going to church. This is
where people stop reading their Bibles. This is where people
stop listening to the gospel. This is where people start becoming
suspicious, where they start looking narrowly upon believers.
This is where the unbelief now starts to settle in. And actually,
you don't know it, but you're turning into an enemy of God.
Are you hearing me? You're turning into an enemy.
Watch this. I hear this frequently from Christians, and this bothers
me. When Christians start finding everything wrong with the church,
the enemy has gotten into your head. Do you hear me? What I'm saying
right now is very pastoral, but it's going to come home so clear
next week. When God raises up this little shepherd boy and
shows that this one little shepherd boy has more trust in God like
a little child than the whole of Israel. How is this little
shepherd boy who knows nothing about real war able to stand
against this giant faith in Christ? Are you hearing me? And all the
church is finding carnal ways and excuses not to do the will
of God. Let me show you the strategic
method that this enemy used. to get into the head of Israel
and steal their identity. Because that's the problem. And
that's what's going on in our generation. Our generation is
that people don't know the gospel and they don't know Christ. And
therefore, they don't know themselves. Am I making some sense? See,
if you lose your identity, you have no armor. You have no hope. As soon as the enemy can get
you to thinking that you're something that you're not, if he can get
you to fail to realize who you are in Christ, he got you. He's
got you. Here it is. Watch what he says.
Here's what the Philistines said back over in verse nine. No, verse eight, here it is.
And he stood, that is the Philistine, and he cried unto the armies
of Israel and said unto them, why are you come out to set your
battle in a rape? First false statement. He's making it their fault that
they're engaging in a battle. like Israel would have just provoked
a war with the Philistines, not having any reason for it. The
fact of the matter is Saul knew that the Philistines were already
marching towards the valley of Elah. And that's the only reason
you set your battle in array. Do you hear me? We talk about
just wars in our country because we used to be a moral country.
And we would talk about why there are legitimate reasons for which
we go to war and fight and protect our children and our women. It's
called a just war theory. But God never calls you and me
to go to war for gain or for profit or for the advancement
of our ideology or our worldviews, for world dominion. He never
tells us to do that. It's always just wars. The only
kind of war that you and I can support is a just war theory. Are you guys hearing me? And
it was just for Israel to strategically position themselves against the
Philistines. We know it's just because God
is moving one man in his trajectory towards the middle of this battle.
And he's going to show up next Sunday. God is in all this. You hear me? God is in all this. But I want you to hear what the
enemy says before we go to our final points. Here's what he
says in verse 8. Are you ready? Why are you come
out to set your battle in a race? Am I not a philistine? I love
the way david said who is this dude? Ha see the philistine assumed
that everybody knew who he was David says I don't know this
dude Sometimes it's good not to know your enemy as much as
they want you to know him And the Bible plainly tells us that
we are to make no mention of false gods. And so this is a
powerful ploy on David's part, talking to his own brothers who
are weak in the faith. Who is this dude? And they go
on and say, don't you know him? No, because I didn't let this
dude get into my head. I had on the helmet of salvation.
All I was hearing was the voice of Jehovah. The God of Israel
was talking to me. In fact, he had me on the back
side keeping sheep. So I'm kind of dumb and ignorant
about this dude. But as I look at him, I think
I can take him. Let me have... Now see, what
we're talking about is faith in God at the level of a child. because David knew what the Lord
had done for him over and over and over and over again. And
what David said was, if he can do it for me here, he can do
it for me here. And especially because I don't like this dude
because he's defying God's army. Who do you think you are? But
again, I digress. What our text teaches us is that
the enemy strategically denies the true identity of Israel by
saying in verse 8, part C, Part B, am I not a Philistine? And you are what? The servants
of Saul. Stop right there. Do you see
it? Do you see it? So now, if you and I are merely
the servants of men, you cannot win this battle of the flesh.
If you are simply a servant of man, you cannot win this battle
of the flesh. If you are a servant of Adam
one, you cannot win. If you are a servant of man,
you cannot win. If you are a servant of carnal
ideas, worldly ideas, secularism. If you're a servant of this world
system, you cannot win the flesh. The flesh is too great for you.
Watch this now. Watch this now. In every discipline
in our world, every science, every discipline, every institution
of our world, all of it, from the highest regions of technology
down to the basic structures of life in our educational system,
and everywhere in between, technology and all of that, where we laud
these people for being great men. Are you hearing me? Watch
this now. The flesh still rules. The Philistine still rules. The
Philistine rules in business. It rules in entertainment. It
rules in education. It rules in politics. Goliath
still rules, does he not? He still rules. He still rules. And the whole system, according
to the eschatological paradigm, is designed to be a beast that
opposes God's people. This is the psychological warfare
that goes on. And you and I have to ask the
question when we leave. How much of the enemy gets into
my head and tells me that I am a servant of man? and not a servant
of God. How much of the propaganda, and
as I taught you guys a couple of weeks on Friday, the contamination,
the dust particles of rhetoric flying everywhere, how much of
it gets into our ears and claws up our ears and destroys our
cognitive reasoning skills? fails to and causes us to fail
to realize who we are in Christ so that actually we are walking
in carnal principles and walking in fear and walking in deception
and walking in failure and walking in unbelief and we're actually
saying things that the world says Contrary to the Word of
God Are you guys hearing it? Sometimes we're talking just
like the world We don't talk like God What's happening? Faith is being diminished because
faith comes by hearing and hearing by what? And where you and I
are not drinking in deeply the word of God, constantly flushing
out our system of all of the dust particles of false doctrine
and bad ideology and the world's trends and agendas. You and I
are buying into those notions and we start talking like it.
Hence the warfare in our homes. Am I telling the truth? You got
one believer in the home. He's trying to set down biblical
principles. His wife talking crazy. Vice versa. The wife is trying to walk in
biblical principles and say, let's trust God, the Bible says.
And the husband says, yeah, well, you know what? But I heard this
in this article. And now the war is on because
how can two walk together except they be agreed? And so what you
got going on is the enemy, the enemy has psychologically won
the war of the mind through the hearing because you have allowed
yourself to be immersed with the ungodly counsel of the world. You heard it before. Psalm 1,
verse 1. Right? They know what it says. They probably don't, but I'm
just saying. You cannot do the will of God
unless you know the word of God and unless the power of God is
taking that word and transforming your mind. You cannot walk in
the confidence of your sonship where you are not clear on what
the scripture says, who we are in Christ. You cannot experience
the power of grace through faith where we have abandoned the gospel
and its promises in our life. Paul said, God has not given
us the spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound
mind. Now if he has, then either we
have it or we don't. And I'm going to show you next
week that David had plenty of it. Did he? He had plenty of
it. He had plenty of it. Let's go
back to our text. Give me a few more minutes of
your time. I wanted to grasp the composite of the enemy because
of his strategy, his visible presence, his haughty rhetoric,
his repetitive strategy of coming up against the people of God
over and over and over again to produce the very effect that
he did, the fear, which is a result of unbelief, which is the consequence
of not having a diet of the Word of God in your life. All of these
people are running from Saul. except for David. This is the
interesting thing about the narrative, and I want you to get this now.
Point number three. In a situation like this, where the people of
God are on the brink of losing everything, even under a situation
where it only requires one man, and yet the problem is we don't
find one man on Israel's side right now who is willing to stand
up to the battle. It almost means that if we don't find a man,
we lose it all. Is that the gospel? If we don't
find a man, we lose it all. Aren't you thankful that God
had already had a ram in the thicket? He already had a ram
in the bush. And this is thematic, too. I'm
almost done. This is thematic, too. Before
the trouble comes, God always has a deliverer. Before the fall
comes, God always have a redeemer. Before we get in trouble, God
always have a triumph ready to deliver us out of our trouble.
Because God never reacts. He always responds. Oh, David
is kept in the back. God had his eyes on him all along.
He knew that Saul was going to defect so bad that he would lose
the whole kingdom. And what does he do? He raises
up his servant simultaneously with letting his other faulty
servant down. And he's now moving David into
the camp. Can you see why I've titled the
message the way that I did? Sent by the Father. Let me just
show you a truth here and close it out. God must send someone
to help us. Is that a valid truth? Verse
12 through 17. Verse 12 and 17 rather. Now David
was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name
was Jesse, and he had eight sons. And the man went among the men
for an old man in the days of Saul. Look at verse 17 now. And
in verse 17 it says, And Jesse said unto David his son, Take
now for your brethren an ephah of this parched corn and these
ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brethren. Do you see
that? and carry these ten cheeses unto the camp of their thousands
and look and see how your brethren are faring and take their pledge. Do you see that? And take their
pledge. Now let me develop two or three
points here and I'm going to close. And it's under this rubric
as we pull back up our point. God must send somebody to deal
with this situation. Because God is not going to be
a failure. Israel is going to make it. to
the days in which Messiah comes. Even if God has to turn over
bad kings and put in good kings, which is certainly what he's
doing here, right? Now notice how God does it. And this is
a redemptive truth. God always works through what
I taught you was the redemptive excursion of Jesus. He comes
from eternity into time in a state of humility. And in that state
of humility, he operates as a servant. And as a servant, he is opposed
by everyone that's jealous of him. And in that opposition,
then he suffers. But he comes out of that suffering
to be exalted and then to reign on his throne. You guys got those
five points? Y'all got those five points?
That's what's getting ready to happen to David. Remember, David
is already in a servant's position, is he not? Isn't he the musician
to kind of soothe Saul's headaches? And we'll get back to that next
week. Saul sent him back to his daddy's house Because Saul saw
nothing in David that was even worthy of having him on the battlefield.
But that's the nature of the gospel. What God sees is not
what men see. Saul sends him back and then
Saul goes out to battle. And according to our text, the
three oldest sons of Jesse is on the battlefield. Jesse sends
his three sons on the battlefield and those three sons are with
Saul. Jesse doesn't even really want to send David. But as the
battle now heats up, Jesse says, I've got to find out what my
sons are doing. So he sends David to find out what he's doing.
Now, notice what he does. He sends David with what we call
a care package. So I'm going to run these points
through and I'm going to shut it down. First of all, David is sent from
the sheepfold and the author wants you to get that in verse
15. But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's
sheep at what? Now I'll make this more plain
next week because there's some signals that the author is putting
out there to help you understand who David is, what his primary
job was, and where he was from. This is all about the child in
Bethlehem. Okay? Going back to our PowerPoint. Now watch this now. I want you
to get this. Here's what it says in our point, and I want you
to just grasp these points. I'll just read it here. He's
sent from the sheepfold, and that sheepfold is a paradigm,
it's a motif. Abel was a keeper of sheep. Jacob
was a keeper of sheep. The family of Abraham were a
keeper of cattle. The whole of Israel and Egypt,
they kept sheep. Did they not? Were they not shepherds?
The shepherd pattern is here. And why is God using the shepherd
motif? Because the king that must deliver
us is also our shepherd. Now I've told you last week about
Saul. He couldn't even keep his daddy's
asses, right? Y'all got that, right? See, so
God is maintaining the paradigm to help you understand that this
book is about who? Jesus Christ. The Shepherd of
God, who is also the King of Israel, who is also a Bethlehemite,
who's also of Judah. He is the seed of David. That's
why I opened my message. Son of David. Son of David. Son of David. Son of David. Have mercy on me. The blind man knew more theology
than most of us. All of Israel is blind, but God
is sending his son into the midst of it. And what is he doing?
He's bringing a care package. He's bringing a care package
before he handles the task. This is how good God is to you
and me. Even in the midst of our troubles, in the midst of
our difficulties, He gives us grace packages, care packages,
to let you know He cares, that He is there, and that He's gonna
solve this problem. If you will but hold on, you'll
get through this. Now God will quickly tell you,
you got in trouble, but I'm gonna get you out. I'm going to get
you to a point where you cry out to me. Call upon me in the
day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will
glorify me. That's what's going on here now.
And he sends David into the midst of them. Point number B, sent
by the father to his what? That's right. Our elder said
it this morning. Not everyone is going to be saved. Jesse is
not concerned with the whole. He's only concerned with the
brethren. This motif must narrow down to help us understand that
the gospel of the grace of God and the person of Christ is designated
towards his elect. This is amazing. Point number
C. He sent them with tokens of what? As he did. Now I want you
to just touch on that for a moment. I'll come back. I'm way overdue.
I know y'all getting ready to turn into pumpkins. But just look,
look at this. Now look at this. Watch this.
This is, this is beautiful. He said in verse 17, now take
with you to your brethren and eat for a parched corn. Now,
if you don't get that, let me see if I can make this more contemporary
since I like food. This is like, um, corn meal that
our Latino brothers make. With olive oil in it and it's
got honey in it got a little nutmeg in it got some cinnamon
in it Oh, man, it's good. You can you can put little chips
of meat in it Y'all sister know what I'm talking about corn milk.
Just not fat fat juicy salacious cornmeal Ready to eat almost
like a dessert, but it's high in Carbohydrates and energy so
that you can fight the battle he's given enough for just ten
men and But there are only three sons that he's going to deal
with. So if those three sons represent you and me, it means
he's given more than abundance for each of us to be able to
fight this battle. And these are tokens of God's
grace that sustain us in the midst of a battle that you and
I are fighting. Now we're not fighting right now a literal
battle, but we are fighting a psychological battle. And this psychological
battle now is being intervened by God's grace coming to his
sons and saying, I've been watching this all along. I know your head
is jacked up, but have a meal right now on me. And this ephah
of corn represents Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life. So
you and I have to feed on him in the midst. You got to be counterintuitive
when you're in the midst of trouble. You got to be counterintuitive.
When you are in trouble, The one thing you generally want
to do is not study. When your soul is jacked up,
you don't want to hear from God. When you're going through trials,
you just kind of want to go somewhere and lick your wounds. Can I get
a witness? See, some of y'all act like y'all
don't do it, but you do. You start fasting on God. When you
are in trouble, that's when you should be immersing yourself
in God. God will send to you through the Scriptures, by the
Spirit, corn sandwiches, corn meal with honey and nutmeg and
raisins to give you strength. He will say things to you in
the Word of God in the midst of your trouble that you will
know this is from God. The Holy Ghost did that. He will
raise up texts of Scripture that will speak specifically to your
issue at the right time. That's how God shows up. But
he will never do it if you will never do it when you are in trouble.
You will not hear from God if you don't open that book, pop
in that CD, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and let God
speak to you through the teaching of the word. Am I making sense?
And he will do it every time. Won't he do it? Won't he do it?
He'll do it every time, won't he? And you will know God's speaking
to me. He nurtured my soul, gave me
a little strength. Now I can take a bath. Now I
can straighten out my hair. You know how you don't wanna
do nothing to your hair? Now I can do something to my hair.
Now I can take a walk. You know the Lord's gonna get
me through this anyway. Now you're starting to talk like
God again. That's what's going on with the boys. That's what's
going on with the boys. But what's going on with God
is the elders are getting ready to serve the younger. That's the theme running through
scripture. That's why we preach from Genesis to Revelation, the
gospel. Genesis 25, three, you don't have to pull it up. Those
two boys in your room, two nations, right? Esau and Jacob. Esau technically
was older than Jacob. He came out first. David is told
by our author over and over and over again, he is the youngest.
Isn't that what it says? And our author tells us over
and over again that the boys that are with Saul are the oldest. What these three boys are about
to do next week and trying to beat down little brother. They're
going to find themselves standing back serving little brother because
little brother can handle his business. Little brother can
handle his business because that's the way God works. Aren't you
so glad that God sends whenever we are in trouble sent by the
father. Blessings sent by God. These
are all tokens of his grace that he sends for us just in the nick
of time Amen