The book of Ruth again. The book
of Ruth chapter 2. I've titled this message, God's Dogs.
God's Dogs. We know the account of Ruth already
up to this point as we have heard the first hour, how her hat was
to fall upon the field of Boaz. Chapter two, in verse eight,
Boaz is having a conversation with her and he says, then said
Boaz unto Ruth, here is thou not my daughter, go not to glean
in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast
by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field
that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged
the young men that they should not touch thee? When thou art
a thirst, go to the vessels and drink, of that which the young
men have drawn. Then she fell on her face and
bowed herself to the ground and said unto him, why have I found
grace in thine eyes that thou shouldest take knowledge of me,
seeing I am a stranger? Boaz answered and said unto her,
it hath fully been showed me all that thou hast done unto
thy mother-in-law since the death of thy husband and how thou hast
left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy nativity
and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.
The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee
of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to
trust. Then she said, let me find favor
in thy sight, my Lord, for that thou hast comforted me, and for
that thou hast spoken friendly unto me, thine handmaid. Though
I be not like unto one of thy handmaids, Boaz says unto her,
at mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip
thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers,
and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed
and left. She asked him a question, and
it's the same question that all believers ask when they see the
mercy and the grace of the Lord. Why have I found grace in thine
eyes? that thou shouldest take knowledge
of me, seeing I am a stranger. We already talked the first hour
of her being a Moabite and what that meant and how that she was
an outcast of Israel. She wasn't part of the promise
of Israel. She wasn't a child of the promise of Abraham. She
was of Lot, which would have been Abraham's nephew, but we
see that she had no hope of the promise. She had no hope in,
she didn't even know that she was gonna be redeemed at this
point, actually. had hope in probably being redeemed, but
it certainly hadn't been revealed at this time that Boaz was the
kinsman redeemer until shortly thereafter. But she was a stranger. She was a foreigner. She was
not a child of promise. She was a Gentile. Now, understand
that the wording here is the exact same word for dog. She's
literally saying I'm a stranger, or the translation actually says
prostitute is what it says. And that's the exact same translation
as the word dog. So we see that her confession
is the same as the confession of Mephibosheth, which we're
gonna look at in a minute. What is thy servant that thou shouldest
look upon such a dead dog as I am? That's what she's saying
unto Boaz. Why have I found grace in thy
sight? Why? Because of his goodness
and because of his mercy. It had nothing to do The Lord's
mercy and grace has nothing to do with what we have done. It
has everything to do with what Christ has done. The gift of
salvation, the eternal life that the Lord gives his people, is
completely based upon the merits of Christ. Now, I've titled this
message, and I've said to you before, God's Dogs. And I want
us to understand that there's a difference whenever someone
said of being a dog or being likened unto the dog, Maybe in
this day and time, that might not be such a bad thing, but
in Bible times, a dog was a outcast. They didn't have dogs that were
living in the house and eating from their table like we do today.
They didn't have sweaters knit for their dogs like we have.
I have several dogs, so I know all about this, speaking from
experience. They didn't have these things. A dog was a mongrel,
it was an outcast. The only good thing that we read
about in the scripture of a dog is whenever they helped tend
to the sheep, they helped guard, because they could bark, they
could alert, but that was it. These these dogs were not something
that was being called a dog was not like, oh, thank you. You're
saying that I'm cute or oh, thank you for. It was an insult of
the highest degree because of the way dogs were viewed in society
at this time. It was considered unclean in
Leviticus chapter 11 verse 27. Dogs were unclean animals. He tells us in Deuteronomy 2318,
thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore or the price of a
dog. That's in the same sentence,
a whore and a dog. Think about that. The Lord's very serious
about how derogatory a dog would have been. And yet we see when
the Lord saves a man or a woman, that's what they cry out. Lord,
why has thou shown grace to such a dead dog as I am? And that was her confession unto
him, wasn't it? He says the price of a dog is
an abomination unto the Lord in Deuteronomy 23. One of the things the scripture
talks about with a dog is pertaining to its vomit. In Proverbs 26,
verse 11, a dog returneth to its vomit and a fool returneth
to his folly. So what's the contrast here?
Ruth confessing, I'm a stranger, I'm a dog, I'm a Moabitess, why
have I found grace in thine eyes? You ever find yourself asking
the Lord that question when he's showing you the goodness of the
gospel? Why, Lord, would you? have mercy upon me, the dead
dog that I am. Well, that's the qualification
brethren is to be a dog. The Lord only saves dogs and
he turns them into sheep instantly. That's exactly how it works.
You see yourself as a dog, he sees you as perfectly righteous.
You see yourself as a mongrel, you see that all that we can
produce is the vomit and then we go right back to it every
day of our lives. And yet the Lord doesn't see
it that way. He sees his people in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So why would, You have mercy upon me, the sinner, Lord,
because of Christ, because of what he done. Why have I found
favor in thy sight? Why have I found grace in thy
sight? Because of Jesus Christ and his finished work. That's
our hope. That's our hope this morning. Now this hour, I want
to look at a couple places that dogs are mentioned in the scripture.
And I trust that the Lord will bring back to my memory the things
which he showed me in study. The first place I want us to
turn to is 2 Samuel 9, as I've already mentioned Mephibosheth. It's a clear gospel message in
2 Samuel 9. 2 Samuel 9 verse 1 says, and David
said, is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that
I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house
of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, art thou Ziba? And
he said, thy servant is he. And the king said, is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king,
Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the
king said, where is he? And Ziba said unto the king,
behold, he is the house of Micah, the son of Amiel in Lodabar.
And the king sent and fetched him out of the house of Micah,
the son of Amiel in Lodabar. And the first thing I want to
mention to us here this morning is that this covenant The whole
reason David is seeking to show kindness and David is seeking
to show mercy unto the house of Jonathan is because of the
covenant between Jonathan and David. It had nothing to do with
Mephibosheth. This covenant, they didn't make
a covenant between Mephibosheth, Jonathan, and David. It was a
covenant between Jonathan and David. It was a blood covenant
that if anything was to happen to one or the other, they would
look after their family in their stead. And that is exactly what
the Lord did for his people. He looked after us, bringing
us back to the father, redeeming us by his blood. He did it in
a covenant, not of works, but of grace, a covenant between
him and his father alone for his people to redeem his people.
And just as Mephibosheth is in my car, Ammiel and Lodabar, and
by the way, my car means sold. He sold completely just as we
were sold in sin. In Ammiel, my kinsman is God. We have a kinsman, a near kinsman
redeemer, but we have to be made to have a need to be redeemed,
don't we? See, Mephibosheth didn't have
a need to get to the king's palace because being in the position
of bloodline of Jonathan means he was bloodline of Saul. He
was enmity against the king. The king had the right to kill
him because technically Mephibosheth had a claim on the the throne,
do we see that? So here he is down in my car,
in Amiel, in Lodabar, which means not a pasture, or a place of
no bread, that's exactly us, sold into sin, we have a kinsman
redeemer, but we can't approach until the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
all the requirements of God's law. That's the story of Ruth,
isn't it? It's exactly what the Lord did,
whenever he approached to redeem, he didn't just redeem the field,
but he redeemed her as well, and that's where we see the Lord
Jesus Christ and his mercy. We see that the place wherein
he is is the exact same place that we are, born in sin, shaping
into iniquity. We're just a bunch of dogs, aren't
we? We have no hope of becoming a sheep on our own. Can the Ethiopian
change the color of his skin or the leopard his spots? Certainly
not. Only the Lord can do that. The
Lord, in his time, in his time, David said, go fetch him. Go bring him unto me. Now you
can see these chariots. This would not have been a very
simple occasion for one man to go down there and get him. I
would imagine it would have been a momentous occasion to bring this man back
to the palace, whether it be chariots or whatever it may be.
And I could be mistaken in that. The scripture is not very clear,
but this is the King's servant going to get Jonathan's son.
So I would imagine it was a big deal. Can you imagine Mephibosheth
being lame on his feet? no doubt scared to death when
the chariots come thinking, I'm gonna die. The King's found me,
he's gonna put me to death. But that is not what our Lord
does, is it? That's not what our David does. When the Lord
approaches us by his Holy Spirit, when he says, go fetch him, when
the Holy Spirit of God comes down and brings us into him,
we see the exact same thing happens to us that happened to Mephibosheth
in verse six. Now, when Mephibosheth, the son
of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come to David, he fell on
his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth?
And he said, he answered, behold, thy servant. And this is what
the Lord says unto you and I that are in Christ. And David said
unto him, fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for
Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land
of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And here's our confession right
here, isn't it, brethren? Verse eight, and he bowed himself and
said, What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such
a dead dog as I am? Now understand that the very
next verse, David didn't respond to Mephibosheth's question. David
didn't say, well, it's because you've done this and because
you've done that and you're a pretty good guy and this and nothing
of the sort. David doesn't respond to Mephibosheth
at all. He says, then the king called
Ziba. So he immediately, As soon as
the conversation was over, as soon as he said, this is what
I'm going to do, Mephibosheth's confession was, what is thy servant
that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? He doesn't
even respond to him. He just tells Ziba to take care
of everything that he just said. He gave him all of his servants,
all of Saul's servants. They tilled the ground for him.
Understand, brethren, that Mephibosheth can't walk. He's lame on both
of his feet. So they had to till the ground for him. They had
to bring the bread in for him. He didn't have any hope of doing
anything for himself. He was scared of dying because
of his own birth, his bloodline. He was scared of approaching
the king and certainly would not have done it on his own.
And yet Christ in his mercy through David goes and rescues him down
in Lodabar, down in the house of, from Lodabar, from Amiel, from
Micah. That's what the Lord does for his people. Even though we're
sold under sin, he comes to where we are and brings us unto the
king and the king shows us mercy. That's what he did for his people.
Now notice verse 13. Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem,
for he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame
on both of his feet. The response that you and I have
towards the Lord when we see grace, it is not a boasting response,
is it? It's not a heady or a high minded
response unto what the Lord's done. It is the same response
that we see right here. It's the same response that we
see in the Book of Ruth and all throughout Scripture. When the
Lord calls, when the Lord calls, we fall flat on our face, figuratively
speaking in reverence and say, Lord, what is thy servant that
thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? What is the
merits that I have done to acquire this? And the answer is it is
finished. It is finished. It's not by works
of righteousness which you have done, but according to his mercy
hath he saved us. It's not based upon your standard
of living and it's not based upon your bloodline. It's not
based upon anything that you've done. But when I see you, I see
the blood and therefore you're perfectly righteous. When David
saw Mephibosheth, you know he had to see Jonathan. I've mentioned
that to us before. It's a glorious picture of substitution.
My children reflect me. Hopefully they'll grow out of
it, but they hopefully look like their mother. But the point I'm
making is that our children reflect us, don't they? Well, he had
to be in the likeness of Jonathan. When he saw him, he says, there's
Jonathan. Imagine the love that David felt. Jonathan and David's
hearts were knit together as brothers. Imagine the love that
he felt and the delight that he had in showing mercy. Is that
not what our high priest does for us? Is that not what our
God does for us as he sees his son and delights in showing mercy
on behalf of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Men try to do this confession
falsely in religion, don't they? They say, well, I was looking
at something the other day, and it literally reminded me of being
in religion. I was flipping through the channels,
and the man on the podium was being very boisterous and haughty,
and I don't even know how to describe how he was. We don't
preach condescending. We preach Christ. We preach humbly. I'm a dead man. I'm a dying man
preaching to dying men and women. That's just the truth of it.
We're not trying to puff it up. We're just trying to preach Christ
and pray the Lord will keep us, save us. This man was preaching
in a certain way of fear as a fear tactic is what it was. And he
said, I want everybody to bow your head and close your eyes.
You ever been in a religious ceremony like that before? And
he said, would you just slip your hand up if you don't know
that you're saved? And of course he got responses from people.
He said, I see you back there, sir. I see you, ma'am. And then
after that, he said, OK, now, if you've raised your hand, all
you have to do is come down here. All you have to do is pray this
prayer and the Lord will save you. Now, I want us to understand
the reason that I'm telling us about this is because that's
not what Mephibosheth did. It was nothing, nothing that
Mephibosheth did. David did the getting. David
did the bringing. David showed mercy, according
to Jonathan. And that's what he does for his
people. God gets us. He saves us. He calls us all
because of Jesus Christ. It's not what I have done. It's
not what I have prayed. It's not that I have walked an
aisle. It's not that I've signed my name to a church directory.
It's that Christ Jesus saved me from my sins. He did all the
work. That's my hope is that he would get me, that he would
keep me, that he would call me, that he saved me. That's my hope.
That's your hope this morning on the behalf and the merits
of Jonathan alone. That's it, Jesus Christ, that's
all. You know the truth of a believer's
heart is that we worship, we confess, we bow because we see
him as God, we repent, and we confess that Christ is all. That's
repentance towards God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mephibosheth immediately bowed and he immediately confessed
to the glory of David or the glory of God in our circumstance
or our situation. Last thing I want us to notice
about Mephibosheth is that he did eat at the king's table continually.
And we understand that that table is a glorious picture of the
finished work of Christ. It's a glorious picture of the
covering of the Lord Jesus Christ. You think about whenever Boaz
told Ruth, under the wings, God, under his wings, of whom you've
come to trust. I just read that to us a little
bit ago. When Mephibosheth would come in, I don't know if he could
get there on his own or not, Certainly, I wouldn't think so.
I don't know about wheelchairs back then, and it's not really relevant,
but the point is, there's no doubt in my mind that they pulled
him up to the table first before anybody else came in, and he
had a covering, didn't he? And his lameness was covered
by that cloth, by that table, by the finished work of Christ.
Your lameness in trying to approach God has been covered, and you
eat bread at the king's table continually. That's the good
news of the gospel. We have a covering, a place to
hide, Under the Lord's table, under His, the shadow of His
wing, under His finished work, our lameness has been put away.
That way, when everybody else comes in, they don't know that
Mephibosheth's lame, and if they do, they certainly can't see
it, can they? That covering, when the Lord looks at us, He
sees the blood. He sees the blood, and He sees our Jonathan, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and He is satisfied with Christ. He ate continually at the king's
table, which is what we're trying to do this morning, is eat from
the Lord's table. Now, the good news of the gospel
is the Lord does all the saving. You and I see ourselves as a
dog, sure, in our flesh we do, but we know, we've been made
to know that we're his sheep. So he takes his dogs and he makes
them sheep and he puts them under his covering at his table to
feed continually. I don't know if any of you have
dogs, but I wanted to tell you a little bit about my dog that
I have. He's a scrappy dog. He's always at my feet when there's
food. It doesn't matter what I'm eating. As soon as I open up a chip bag
or as soon as I open up the refrigerator door, that dog is right there.
I don't know where he comes from. Half the time, he's just there
automatically. What if you I know we have to liken this unto coming
into the Lord's house, knowing that this is where he's gonna
meet with us. And we're just hoping that he would drop a crumb
from off of his table and give us just a bite, just a taste
of the bread of life. But brethren, the good news is,
is we have the fullness of the bread of Christ. We have his
entire body given for us. We don't just get crumbs and
nuggets. He's given us all of it, the
full canon of his gospel in his scripture. He's given us all
of it. And now what is there to do but just feast upon the
lamb in his finished work, eat continually at his table. The
Lord delights in showing mercy. He delights in showing mercy. I don't delight in feeding that
little dog from my food off my plate. But our Lord does. He feeds his people. He delights
in showing mercy and feeding his people Christ. Isn't that
glorious? That little dog gets on my nerves
sometimes because I'm walking, I'm trying not to trip over it,
whatever else. And this may sound silly, but it's the truth. But
our Lord don't get tired of us like I do that dog. Think about
how glorious that is. He loves us with an everlasting
love. My love towards that little dog
is conditional based upon his performance. It is. Sure, I love
the little guy, but understand, I would get frustrated and even
kick him if I'm left to myself, I'm sure. But the Lord's never
going to get tired of you that are in Christ. He's never going
to get frustrated with you. He's never going to get annoyed
at you. He's going to continually not just give you the crumbs
off of the table. He's put you at the table to
eat of the King's food, to eat of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
manna that came down from heaven. He's given you the fullness of
Christ. Those who are in Christ, He's given us His fullness, and
we feast upon Him, don't we? The Lord only saves dogs. He makes them dogs. He makes
them sheep the moment He makes them a dog. He gives them repentance
to know what they are, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to see
that they're in Christ as a sheep of the Lord. Second Corinthians
5.17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. God's dogs are not dogs at all.
They're sheep. They're sheep because they've been made to
be so. They've been made to be so. Now understand, in the Scripture,
it tells us about a Sarafinian woman that approached the Lord,
and the Lord called her a dog, and she said truth. Turn with
me to Matthew 15. We'll look at that together. You can imagine the insult as
I preface this message by telling us about how that dogs would
have been viewed as a derogatory animal and certainly an abomination
to the children of Israel. But here's what the Lord says
in Matthew chapter 15. In verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him saying, Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil.' But he said, but he answered her not a word. And his disciples came up and
sought him saying, send her away for she crieth after us. But
he answered and said, I am not sent but into the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him
saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it
is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. Now listen to her confession.
She said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. This woman had a need. Her daughter
was sick with an infirmity. The Lord doesn't tell us what
it is exactly, She's grievously vexed with the devil, the scripture
says. And the need of this woman was that I need you to heal my
daughter. And certainly having children
of my own, that is my need, that the Lord would have mercy upon
my children. The Lord would save my children. This is also a need
of personal salvation. I need the Lord to save me as
well. The woman knew that the only place that she could get
her needs met was at the feet of Christ, to come to Him. And
she does so. She does the exact same thing
that Ruth did and the exact same thing that Mephibosheth did.
She fell down and worshiped and confessed Christ is all. That's what he puts in the heart
of his people. She had to come to Christ. She had to get to
Christ. If you're His, He's given you
a need to come to Him. He will meet all the need that
you have. Same as blind Bartimaeus crying
out unto the Lord. As the Lord was passing by, he
said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they said,
be quiet. Don't bother the master. He don't
have time for you. Well, that didn't hinder him
in the least bit, did it? It made him cry louder. Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy upon me. You've been given a
need. When you see that you've been
given a need, you're going to cry out, Lord, have mercy upon
me, the sinner. Lord, save me. Lord, I can't
see, I'm blind. Lord, I'm lame, I can't walk.
I can't come to you, I can't approach to you. Lord, put me
at your table. Have mercy upon me, have grace
upon me. And the Lord does that for his
people, doesn't he? This woman, the Lord says, it's not meat
to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she
said, truth, Lord. Now, I want us to understand
something, that if somebody was to call you a dog, or a derogatory
name, the worst name that you could possibly think of. I don't
think that you would look at them the same as I would look
at them and say truth. You're absolutely right. Now, maybe
I would. I hope the Lord would give me the grace to do that.
But more than likely, I would become frustrated inside or justify
myself saying, well, I'm not that bad. That's what our flesh
naturally does, isn't it? That's not what the Lord's people
do. As soon as the Lord says you're a dog, we say truth, Lord.
But a dog desires the crumb from the master's table. Lord, I just
want a crumb. I want just a piece, just a morsel
of you, just a morsel of your goodness and your mercy, just
a taste. That's why David said, oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. I want that which is sweeter than honey. I want Jesus
Christ. Give me Christ lest I die. That's our confession, isn't
it? She said truth, Lord. Just as we say truth, Lord. Men
pretend to do this by crying out for mercy. They pretend like
they're doing something, but Mark chapter seven, verse six
says, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines, the commandments of men, for laying aside the
commandments of God, you take hold the tradition of men. Men
believe that they can do something. that they can do something in
order to attain eternal life. Whether it's praying, whether
it's fasting, whether it's giving, whether whatever it may be, but
the truth is brethren, it's finished already. There's nothing for
us to do. Rest, sit at his table, feast upon the lamb of God, eat
of his body and drink of his blood. His body is meat indeed,
his blood is drink indeed. The scripture says that's where
we find our rest. That's where we find our hope
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't do it, Pretend,
do we? We don't act like we're not a
dog. We know we're a dog. We just rejoice that the Lord's
made it. Hope that he made us a sheep. That's what we hope. Turn with me, if you will, back
to 1 Samuel Chapter 17. If you are going to approach
God for salvation, If you are going to approach God for salvation,
you must come as a mangy, grimy, greasy, flea-infested, stinky
dog. And He will have mercy upon you.
That's the only way He'll receive you. You must confess what you
are unto Him. And the only way you can confess
that is if He's made you to be thus. You tell many people this
and they'll be insulted, just as Goliath was insulted here
in 1 Samuel 17. Let's look at verse 4. There
went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named
Goliath of Gath, whose height was 6 cubits in a span. Now. 6 cubits in a span means this
man is 9 foot tall, 9 inches, 9 foot, 9 inches tall. That's a big man. That is a very
big man. There came the champion. He was
their champion. And he had a helmet. Verse 5
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. He had
greaves of brass upon his legs and a target of brass between
his shoulders, and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's
beam, and his spearhead weighed 600 shekels of iron, and one
bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried to
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 ye
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 to kill me, then will we be your servants. But if I prevail
against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and
serve us. And the Philistines said, I defy
the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight
together. I want you to examine this man
for a minute in your heart about his stature and about all that
he was robed in, all of his glory. This would be the man. I mean,
if you could think of it this way, the champion of the Philistines,
the biggest man in their army, by all accounts and man standards,
this guy was incredible to look at, no doubt. And this is so
our flesh elevated in pride, elevated in self-righteousness
according to nature, This is us, this is our flesh that we
cannot conquer. We cannot beat this flesh. There's
no way. Christ had to become a man and
put away our sin in his own body. His attitude towards God is our
attitude by nature towards God. He defied the God of Israel. He hated Israel. He hated them
as his enemy. He didn't want anything to do
to them but destroy them utterly. And he says, send a man that
he may fight. The nation of Israel was scared to death. Nobody was
willing to go out and fight. Nobody could have beat him unless
God was on his side. And every one of them were scared.
They were scared to death of this giant. Now look at verse
41. We know in the passing of time,
David comes to his brothers and then gets called into Saul's,
the throne room of Saul. And he says, I'll go fight the
giant. And he, cause he says, the Lord will deliver him into
my hand. He delivered a bear and he delivered a lion into
my hand. He'll deliver this uncircumcised Philistine into my hand. He was
confident in the Lord. He was confident in the Lord. Now verse 41 says, and the Philistine
came on and drew near unto David, and the man that bared the shield
went before him. When the Philistine looked about and saw David, he
disdained him, for he was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair
countenance. And the Philistine said this
unto David, am I a dog? Am I a dog that you come before
me with staffs? Am I a dog? Now that's the question,
isn't it? Am I a dog? See, that was an
insult to him for David to be standing in front of him. It
was an insult that they would dare send a lad. And the scripture
calls him a lad, which means he was around 14 to 16 years
old. He was a kid by all standards and accounts. We're talking about
a mountain of a man against a boy. And he says, am I a dog that
you come before me with spears or you come before me with staves?
What is he saying? Back then they would take staves
and they would, If the animal misbehaved, they would hit the
animal. That's what he's implying here. You're gonna beat me? Am
I a dog? Understand the difference, brethren, in what the Lord's
given us, knowing that we are dogs. We don't come before the
Lord with that attitude of, am I a dog? We come before the Lord
and say, truth, Lord, I am a dog. Truth, Lord, have mercy upon
me. Look to the one who took my punishment. Look to the one
who took my sin. Look to the one who satisfied
all your demands. I'm a dog, Lord, make me your
sheep. Lord, call me by name. We don't have this attitude that
Goliath did towards David, do we? We don't say, am I a dog?
We don't become insulted when the Lord says you're the chief
of sinners. We say truth, Lord, truth. We know in verse 51, he
tells us, then David ran and stood upon the Philistine after
he had thrown the stone and hit the Philistine in the head, 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. The Lord got the victory for
his people. The Lord conquered the lion,
which is Satan, the bear, which is the law, and the giant, which
is our flesh, brethren. Our flesh has nothing to say,
may certainly try, but it's been finished. All of the sin, there
is not one speck of sin that we have that Christ Jesus did
not suffer for. He took all of the sin of His
people into Himself. He became the unclean thing so
that you and I could be made clean. He became sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He had to become
a dog to save the sheep. That's what He did for His people.
He had to become us before the Father so that you and I could
become Him before the Father. That's what He did. That's why
whenever he says you're a dog, we say truth, Lord, because we've
been made to know that he is all in salvation. Ruth said,
why have I found grace in that eyes? I'm a stranger. I'm a dog. I'm an outcast. I'm a nothing.
I'm a nobody. Well, I'm glad that the Lord
saves zeros, ain't you? He puts a one in front of them
and he makes them something. I'm so thankful that he takes
his dogs and make some sheep, and he's done it before the foundation
of the world. He did it according to the good pleasure of his own
will. He did it by grace. By grace, you're saved through
faith. He did it and gets all the glory in it. All the glory.
He allows us to sit at his table eating of his food. We're just
a bunch of dogs begging for crumbs, aren't we? And he fills us. He
fills us. He feeds us. He satisfies us. That's why he said in Isaiah
chapter 55, why do you spend money on that which is not meat?
Come to Christ. Come in by without money you
without. It's already been paid for. It's
already been paid for the blood of Christ paid for everything
for the children of God. Everything that we need. In salvation,
Christ supplied. You come into the Lord as a mercy
and grace begging dog. He will not cast you out. Because
if you do, you've been made God's dog. Father, thank You for having
mercy upon dogs and saving us and making us a new creature
in You. Making us Your sheep. Calling us and getting all the
glory and salvation. Keep us, we pray in Christ's
name, Amen.