Would you turn to 1 Samuel chapter
17? This will be the ninth and the
last lesson out of David and Goliath. I've enjoyed this so
much and we'll get into 18 next week on the relationship with
Jonathan and David, but let's begin reading In verse 45, I'm
going to read down to the end of the
chapter. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword
and with a spear and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou has defied this day. Will the Lord deliver thee into
my hand? And I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee,
and I'll give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this
day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the
earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle
is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. And it came
to pass when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet
David, that David hasted and ran toward the army to meet the
Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took thence
a stone and sling it and smote the Philistine in his forehead,
that the stone sunk into his forehead and he fell upon his
face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine
with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and
slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore
David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword,
and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut
off his head therewith. And when the Philistine saw their
champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and of
Judah rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines until thou came
to the valley into the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of
the Philistines fell down by the way to Sherem, even unto
Gath, even unto Ekron. And the children of Israel returned
from chasing after the Philistines and they spoiled their tents.
And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to
Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. And when Saul saw
David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain
of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said,
As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, Inquire
thou whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from
the slaughter of the Philistines, Abner took him and brought him
before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And
Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David
answered, I'm the son of thy servant, Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. Lord, how we thank you for his
name. How we thank you that you say
for his namesake, that you have to find no reason in us but that
all you do, you do for the glory of his name, and we give thanks.
Lord, we confess our sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing.
Lord, our sin is ever before us. We pray that we might be
cleansed and washed anew. Lord, we pray that your gospel
would be preached in the power of your spirit and that you'd
give us hearing ears for the Lord's sake. Lord, be with all
your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's blessed
name, we pray. Amen. In verse 45, David said to the
giant, thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and
with a shield. And you can imagine how formidable
this man was. I would have been afraid of him
too, but he said, I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. the God of the armies of Israel
whom thou hast defied. Now the name of the Lord is who
he is. The name of the Lord is all of
his excellent attributes. That's what the name of the Lord
signifies. It's who he is. Jehovah is his name. He's Jehovah
our righteousness, Jehovah our banner, I am Jehovah that healeth
thee, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord that provides all these names
of the Lord, he says, I'm coming in the name of the Lord. I'm
not coming in my own name. I'm not coming in my own righteousness.
I'm coming in the name of the Lord. You know, that's the way
we come, isn't it? We don't dare come any other
way. I don't come in my own name. When I come into his presence,
I come pleading the name of Christ. Hear me for Christ's sake. I
come in his name. and only in His name. And you
know, the Lord saves for His namesake. Turn with me for a
moment to Ezekiel chapter 36, and I find this so comforting.
You know, when David was coming at that giant, he wasn't afraid,
because he was coming in the name of the Lord. That's all
that was needed. Ezekiel 36, verse 21. This is God speaking,
and He says, But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house
of Israel had profaned among the heathen where they went.
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord
God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine
holy namesake." That's why he saves, for his holy namesake. Turn to Psalm 106. Now you can
see where David's courage comes from. Psalm 106. Verse six, we have sinned with
our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We
have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red
Sea. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his name's sake. that he might make his mighty
power to be known. Now, this is the name that we
call upon. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. He saved them for his name's
sake. And that's the way David approaches
the giant. That's the way me and you better
be coming into God's presence. only in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not in my own name, not in my
own works, not in anything about me, but in his name. That's how
he came. Now let's go and read it. Verse
46, David says, this day will the Lord deliver thee into my
hand. You know, the Philistine talked about all the things.
He said, I'll do this and I'll do that. David didn't talk about
the things he would do. He talked about the things the
Lord would do. This day will the Lord deliver thee into my
hand and I'll smite thee and take thy head from thee and I'll
give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day into
the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. And
here's why I'm doing this. That all the earth may know that
there is a God in Israel. That's my motive. That's my reason
for doing what I want to do. I want everybody to know that
God is God. God of Israel, the God of the
Bible is God. And don't you feel the same?
Don't you want everybody to know that God is God, the God of the
Bible, the God of sovereign election, the God of successful redemption,
the God of invincible saving grace, the God who saves by his
name. We want everybody to know that
he is God. You know how we prove that? By
preaching His gospel. By not being ashamed of His gospel.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation. I want to be identified with
the gospel, don't you? And that's how we demonstrate
that we want all the earth to know that God is God. The God of the Bible is the only
God. And we have, like David, that
desire. Every believer does. We want
everybody to know that God is God. Don't you want to see people
bow the knee to Christ? and find in him there all in
all. We desire that. We greatly desire that, just
like David did. He said, I'm doing this so that
all the earth may know that God is in Israel, the living God. He says in verse 47, and all
this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword
nor spear, For the battle is the Lord's, and he'll give you
into our hands. He doesn't use human weapons.
Don't you love the way David refused human weapons? Oh, he
didn't need them. He came with that rock, the rock
of God, the stone of God, the gospel. That's all he used. He
didn't need human weapons. Now turn with me for a moment
to 2 Corinthians 10. The Lord doesn't need our sword and our
shield and our spear. Second Corinthians chapter 10. Beginning in verse three. For though we walk in the flesh
and we're painfully aware of that, aren't we? We walk in the
flesh. We don't war after the flesh.
We don't use fleshly weapons in our warfare, for the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down
Imaginations. My marginal readings is reasonings.
The way we naturally think. And every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. Every thought is to
be brought into captivity to this. The obedience of Christ
is my only righteousness before God. Not just we're going to
completely obey Christ, although that's what we want to do. I
don't want to sin anymore, but that's not what he's saying. He's not
saying every thought is brought into captivity to, well, we're
obedient to everything, although in Christ we are, but every thought
is brought into captivity to this. The obedience of Jesus
Christ is my obedience before God. Don't you love your thoughts
being brought into captivity to that? To where you're forced,
you're trapped by that. And you like being trapped by
that. You can't look anywhere else but the obedience of Christ. Anybody who ever looks to the
obedience of Christ as their obedience before God, that person
is saving faith. That's what that is. And what
a, that's so contrary to the flesh. It's just contrary to
anything we naturally think. But that's the weapons of our
warfare. bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ. I love to think of David picking
up those five stones. And we talked about that a couple
of weeks ago. The five stones, five is the number of grace.
That's what five represents. And I think of the five points
of grace in Romans chapter eight, for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, whom he predestinated, whom he also called,
whom he called, whom he also justified, whom he justified,
whom he also glorified. Five, that's the great chain
of salvation. David picked up those stones
and he came running at that giant. He wasn't scared a bit. He knew
it was the power of God behind everything he did. And he slung
that stone, it smashed through the giant's head, crushed the
brass helmet into his brain, and he fell down dead. You see, the Lord saves. Verse
47, all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth. That's
what we believe, isn't it? The Lord saves. Salvation's of
the Lord. He does it all. That's everything
we believe. Salvation is of the Lord. If
you're saved, don't you know the reason you're saved is God
saved you? He did it all. And we know he
saveth not with sword nor spear, for the battle is the Lord's.
I love remembering this. The battle, it's not my battle.
If it's my battle, I'll lose. But the battle is the Lord's. He will give you every aspect
of salvation is what he gives. He will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass, verse 48, when the Philistine arose and
came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted. I can't imagine this courage
that he demonstrates. He was in a hurry to get at him.
He didn't wait, he didn't procrastinate. He went right at him, swinging
this sling with this stone. David hasted and ran toward the
army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his
bag and took thence a stone and sling it and smote the Philistine
in his forehead. That the stone sunk into his
forehead and he fell upon his face to the earth. Verse 50. So David prevailed over the Philistine
with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine and
slew him, but there was no sword in David's hand." I love to picture
that scenario in my mind, him coming at the giant like that
with that sling and stone. I wonder how fast that thing
went. I mean, there was divine energy
behind that stone. It crashed all the way through
his helmet, broke through his skull into his brain, and he
falls down dead. And David did this without any human weapons as far as no
sword in the hand of David, verse 50. And what I thought of when
I thought of that verse of Scripture is he by himself purged our sins. He, by him, no help from you,
no human instrumentality, fallen human. No, he did it by himself. Verse 51, therefore, David ran. and stood upon the Philistine,
and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof,
and slew him, and cut off his head therewith. And when the
Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled." Now, here's
something else I love to think about. This Philistine's sword,
he thought, this is how I'm going to defeat David. He trusted that
sword. David ended up taking the sword.
This is going to have a future on down the line in this book. That sword that the Philistine
thought would defeat David is what was used to cut his head
off. And I love to think about this. You know, when Satan saw
the Lord nailed to a cross, he thought he's defeated. And he didn't know that the Lord
was using that to cut his own head off and utterly destroy
and defeat him. And that's what took place on
Calvary's tree. He was utterly and completely
defeated. Verse 52, now, the Philistines
saw their champion was dead. And I want you to know, every
believer, your enemy is dead. What can a dead man do to you
as far as harm you? He can't do anything. He's dead.
Well, my enemy is first of all, the law of God. I'm dead to the
law. It's all answered. I love God's
law. I'm not saying it's my enemy
in the sense of any disrespect for it or dislike of it. I love
God's holy law. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, but it's my enemy because it condemns me. But you
know what? I'm dead to the law. The law has nothing to say to
me. All of its demands have been answered. My enemy is myself. He died on the cross. He's dead. He can't hurt me. My enemy is
my sin. He's dead. My enemy is dead. So now I love the way the Israelites,
after they see that their enemy is dead, you know what they did?
They go chasing the Philistines. After they've already got the
victory, they go and collect the spoils. Now, would to God
that you and I may do just what they did because our enemy is
dead. Not he should be, he is dead. You believe that? He's
dead. You take the spoils of victory,
the forgiveness of sins, acceptance in the beloved knowing God accepts
me for Christ's sake. He loves me for Christ's sake.
I'm an adopted child. I'm a child of God. I'm justified. I have no guilt. before God. I'm without sin before God. I'm sanctified. I'm holy. It's hard to say that. David
said it. I'm holy. But every believer can say that.
I'm holy. I have a holy nature. Take the spoils of victory that
He achieved for you. And that's exactly what they
did. They went out after the Philistines after their champion
was dead. They went out after and they
spoiled their tents and they got everything they wanted. Our enemy is dead and therefore
we are to take the spoils of victory. Now let's go on reading
in our text. The men of Israel shouted. Judah rose and shouted
and pursued the Philistines until they came to the valley and to
the gates of Ekron. And they wounded the Philistines And the
wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Sherem, and
to Gath, and to Ekron. And the children of Israel returned
from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents.
And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to
Jerusalem, and put it in his armor in his tent." Now, this
is a very unusual passage of scripture we're going to consider
now. Now, first, before we read verse 55 through 58, turn back
to 1 Samuel chapter 16. Verse 14, But the Spirit of the
Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. And Saul's servant said unto
him, Behold, now an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let
our Lord now command thy servants which are before thee to seek
out a man who is a cunning player on a harp. And it shall come
to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he
shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul
said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well,
and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants,
and said, Behold, I've seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that's
cunning and playing, and a mighty, valiant man, a man of war, and
prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord is with
him. This is David, this is a description of David's Lord, isn't it? Oh,
what a beautiful description. Now let's go on reading. Wherefore
Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, send me David thy son,
which is with the sheep. Now he knew who David was, he
knew who Jesse was. And Jesse took an ass laden with
bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David
his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood
before him, and he loved him greatly. Saul loved David greatly. He knew who he was. He knew who
his father was, didn't he? And he became his armor-bearer.
And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand
before me, for he hath found favor in my sight. And it came
to pass, when the evil spirit came from God, was upon Saul,
that David took and harped, and played with his hand. So Saul
was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed
from him. Is there any doubt that Saul
knew who David was and who David's father was? No doubt, is there? Now, back to 1 Samuel 17, verse
55. And when Saul saw David go forth
against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the
host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, as thy
soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, inquire
thou whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from
the slaughter of the Philistines, Abner took him and brought him
before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And
Saul said to him, whose son art thou, young man? What's going
on there? Acts like he doesn't even know
him. And we know that he loved him and that the Lord had used
him to soothe his, when the evil spirit came upon him and so on.
And yet now he doesn't know him. He doesn't know who his daddy
is. What is this all about? And I think it's very interesting
that people have used this to prove that there's discrepancies
in the scripture. Well, here, he doesn't know him. And yet,
in 1 Samuel 16, he's introduced to him. And as far as that goes,
David talked to Saul before the battle, before he went. And Saul tried to give him his
armor and send him in. So what is this thing of Saul
not recognizing David? Saul didn't forget about all
that stuff that happened just a few weeks ago. It wasn't like
he forgot that David played the harp and so on. He knew all that. But Saul was an unbeliever. No
question about that. Saul was an unbeliever. Saul
knew David after the flesh. But Saul had no understanding
of David the champion the one who defeated the Philistine.
He couldn't understand him in that light because the gospel,
the simple gospel is this. If Christ wins, I win. If Christ loses, I lose. The whole gospel is found in
this glorious story of David slaying the giant. If Christ
wins, All for whom He died win. All are victorious. All are saved, totally outside
of anything they did, wholly what He did. Now, Saul could
understand Him as a cunning heart player. He could understand Him
in a fleshly way. But he could not see Christ as
Christ. He couldn't see David as the
son of David. the picture of the gospel. And so a spiritual view of Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, is not simply seeing him after the flesh,
but it's seeing him as the mighty, victorious, reigning king who
actually accomplished salvation. That's the way you see Christ. If you're a believer, you see
him. You've never seen him physically, but you see him spiritually.
You have a view of him, now how do you see him? Every believer,
without exception, sees him as their only victory. That's how
you see him. You see, all your salvation,
all your acceptance, all of your hope is found in him only. You see him. Now Saul couldn't
see that. You know, an unbeliever can't
see that. There's things they can see, but they know nothing
of resting in the victory somebody won for them that they had absolutely
nothing to do with. If you see that, blessed are
your eyes. God has revealed something to
you. He's revealed the gospel. Now Saul couldn't see that, could
he? Who is this fella? Well, he knew who he was, but
it's almost like, what happened? All of a sudden, he's blind.
An unbeliever, as intelligent as they may be, as mighty as
they may be, can never understand the gospel. You've got to be
given eyes to see and ears to hear. May God give us this for
Christ's sake. Now, next week, let me give you
a precursor Verse 1 of chapter 18, I think this is one of the
most beautiful passages. And it came to pass, when he'd
made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan
was knit with the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his
own soul. And Saul took him that day and
would not let him go no more home to his father's house. Then
Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own
soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him
and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and
to his bow and to his girdle." Now we're going to look at what
all that means, Lord willing, next week.