Well, I invite you to turn this morning in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 17, and you will find that on page 305 in your Bibles in front of you. We'll pick up verse 40 and read to the end of the chapter. This is sermon three in a three-part here series through 1 Samuel 17. Actually, we're working through the whole book. Begin at verse 40. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. Then he, David, took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air, to the beasts of the field. Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds 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 that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into his hand, our hand. When the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron so that the wounded philistines fell on the way from shaaraim as far as gath and ekron and the people of israel came back from chasing the philistines and they plundered their camp and david took the head of the philistine and brought it to jerusalem but he put his armor in his tent as soon as saw saw david go out against the philistine he said to abner the commander of the army abner whose son is this youth. And Abner said, as your soul lives, O king, I do not know. And the king said, inquire whose son the boy is. And as soon as David returned from striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, whose son are you young man? And David answered, I am the son of your servant, Jesse, the Bethlehemite. And there is the reading of God's word. Well, today we conclude the story, the wonderful story of David and Goliath. And I have to admit, it has been a joy to preach, exciting to preach, but also somewhat frustrating to preach, mainly because we have to clear away all of the baggage of the way this passage has been interpreted and misunderstood throughout the past hundred years at least in the United States. David at the end of the battle today makes a statement that really should help us with how to interpret this passage and understand this passage, giving us great pause in how we read the Bible and how we read a text like this when he says something so plainly to us, the battle belongs to you. No, that's not what it says, does it? The battle belongs to the Lord. I want to make everyone almost say that right now. This is not your battle. This is the Lord's battle. The battle belongs to the Lord. This is what David said under the inspiration of the Spirit. And unless we want to fight with God, this is the truth of the passage, this is the Lord's fight for you. And I would really rather have it that way. I would really rather have it that way. As we look at this this morning, hermeneutics are important. How we interpret a text can be a dangerous thing. How we read the Bible is so important. And the Old Testament is often giving us stories that are meant to be huge sources of encouragement to us, comfort, and hope for us for the future. Hope in the way that the Lord has always rescued His people. Hope in the Lord in the way that He's always helped His people. The ark at the time of the flood, remember, was about God saving His people from the destruction that He purposed to bring on in judgment on the world. The deliverance from Exodus out of Egypt, the deliverance of Israel in the Exodus out of Egypt with all of the things that the Egyptians had done for them, Israel could not deliver themselves from that oppressive bondage, and the Lord showed himself strong to bring them out. When they got to the Red Sea, it was the same thing. There came the Philistines, and there was no swords in their hands, and they panicked, and Moses said, be still, Psalm 46. stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. There's all these big moments in the Old Testament that are meant to have that effect on us. And this is one of them. David and Goliath is one of them. It's meant to help us to understand the indescribable gift of his son, Jesus, to us. And this should make us overwhelmed with thankful tears for his steadfast love and always proving himself strong and always showing himself to be the deliverer of his people in whatever oppression, in whatever sin, and ultimately the greatest issue, your salvation, the Lord has accomplished and the Lord has done it and it is so. That's the message here. The Bible from beginning to end is concerned with God's glory in the salvation of his people. Jonah at the bottom of the fish had to learn this the bottom of the ocean in the fish salvation is of the lord he does it stand back from this then and say well that's great that's nice nice and all glad to hear that but you know isn't this about me going out and fighting goliath in my life is like saying to jesus you know thanks for the cross but now tell me how to go get the victory that's that's insulting to the lord it's insulting the way that the bible presents your salvation the way that it speaks of your salvation is this and you who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh god made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross so he forgave you he took away all the legal demands and he did it where at the cross he disarmed who rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them Here we go again. It's the same truth everywhere. We have to take that into our hearts. This is the great challenge today, I believe, is to simply not just say, oh, I know the gospel. Oh, I know the gospel. No, hear the gospel, listen to the gospel, and receive the gospel. It's the greatest victory ever announced. And it's the strength by which you go forward. And I plan to show you that this morning. We have before us this morning the heart of the entire message of the bible captured in this great story of david and goliath in every plan of god's deliverance uh for us it comes so that the glory of god would be given the glory of god would be shown and the honor of his name would be magnified in it that's it this is what it should have the effect of and that salvation we would marvel that any other earthly power or any other force or any other element of darkness would ever rise up against our god who defends his people and who loves his people this is a covenant book and a covenant document for a covenant god who made a covenant with his people and nobody better mess with them that's the message that's the message and then we're not cowering off in the corner afraid of this world and everything they're trying to do to us you see then we're not standing there afraid of telling people our views. You see, the Lord is your deliverer. God won, but He won in a way that we have to study. He won in a way that we would stand back and say, wow, that's not how I would ever think a victory should be won or the enemy should be fought. And He did it with sticks. this is the emphasis and that's what the text is showing us today everything is building to this today we have the issue of the entire narrative now set before us the fight that takes place really here and then the outcome which sends us into victory you see the the fight that takes place and then the outcome that sends us into victory in the last scene david has gone to the brook and grabbed five stones you'll notice and put them into his shepherd's pouch and we are left with his statement that his sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine. That's a powerful image, isn't it? A little sling he has, and a little pouch of stones, a shepherd's bag, and there, as all the armies are out on the side of the battle on the mountainside, there stands their giant in the middle, and here comes this little shepherd with a little pouch and a sling, and he starts slowly making his way out to the battlefield. You need to understand here, and you need to appreciate that when the terms that Goliath made were set, this was a representative function. In other words, Goliath said, give me a man to fight. And nobody would do it. But the terms were, if one man could beat Goliath, the Philistines would become their slaves forever. But if their representative could beat their man, Israel's man, then Israel would become their servants forever. This was a done deal. This was a big contract. This was the great moment for between Israel and the Philistines. This was a kind of covenant, wasn't it? Who's going to fight? Who's going to win? And that is the head of this. In other words, he is the federal representative of the entire nation and whatever he does has consequences that affects everyone very important sling in hand a few stones and you can imagine israel watching oh my how is how are we going to win this battle this is a nightmare why in the world would saul send this little ruddy youth out there a lowly shepherd walks out to meet a nine foot six monster in the valley of elah you could hear jesting from one side of the mountain what is this and you could hear silence on the other side a champion has gone forth unlike anything they had ever seen before unlike anything they'd ever wanted before a youth complete confidence in the lord that's what he had a youth with complete confidence in the lord that's where we enter the text today that's where we go you'll notice here that we have movement now the philistine sees this and he moves forward we read in verse 41 and came near to david with his shield bearer in front of him and when the philistine looked and saw david he disdained him for he was but a youth ruddy and handsome in appearance and the philistine said to david am i a dog that you come to me with sticks and he cursed david by his gods and the philistine said come to me and i will give you your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. So this monster begins to walk up. 130 pound armor, a spear as long as David himself with a iron thing on the end, 16 pound head with a powerful voice. He begins to intimidate David and he begins to mock David and he begins to laugh at David. He looks at his age, he looks at his size and he says, you're a pretty boy. boy I don't fight pretty boys you think you are coming to me what am I a dog you come to me with sticks this is the best you could give me Israel this little runt this is the moment in any competition where everything's been kind of light and laughing and everyone's kind of you know take having a joke and made a laugh of it the whole time and all of a sudden now the the opponent who's a real challenger gets ticked and he's mad and everyone stands back and says watch out i've seen a number of guys try to take on mike tyson in his day that ended with a lot of catastrophic beatings didn't it i wouldn't have gotten into the ring with Mike Tyson? Would you? It makes sense to write a book on how to beat the Mike Tysons in your life, does it? Boxing, kind of a vicious sport. This is what we have here. The marvel is David's response. What would you say? Well, he doesn't get all, as one pastor said, the juicy lines. David says, I'm getting mine now. And David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you tampered with. You defied. This day, here's what's going to happen, Goliath. You're getting your head cut off. The armies whom you defied, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. And guess what? Not just you, the entire army of the Philistines. That's a remarkable statement. That all the assembly may know, that all the earth may know that there's a God in Israel and that everyone may know, listen to this, that the Lord saves not with sword and spear for it's His battle. He doesn't fight the way we fight. He will give you into our hands and watch how he's going to do it. Study it, is what David's saying. Goliath threw a series of punches with words. David tried to intimidate and David threw it right back. The enemy taunted and he said, this is what God will do to you. Now I want you to consider with me just for a moment the issue here. I want you to think about the main issues that are being presented to you and the way that David is speaking. There are certain things that we should notice here. What is the issue? Well, I want you to think a little bit here how he says, I come in the name of the Lord of hosts whom you have defied. David is so driven by the honor of the name of the Lord. It's chilling the way that David speaks. It's really the most scary words in Scripture if you think about it. You defied the name of the Lord. And that is what is driving David. This fight, this issue, this passage is all about the glory of God and the honor of His name. And I say first off, this is what Christians need a lot more of today. We're so worried about this and worried about that and fear this and fear that. And does anyone have any sort of holy zeal for the Lord's name? When Jesus saw the temple being overrun with corrupt worship, test you a little bit. And he looked at people selling in the marketplace and nobody was being saved in any of these worship services at the temple. And Jesus, for the holy name of the Lord, zeal for the Lord's house had eaten him up and for the name of the Lord, went in and flipped tables and made whips. I guarantee you he would have been called in our day arrogant, unloving, all the things that we say. But it was that that drove him. When all the worship of the Lord had been compromised and everyone was afraid to say anything and nobody wanted to offend anyone, Jesus flipped tables because of this issue. This issue. How zealous are you for the name of the Lord? How willing are you to stand and maybe offend your son or your daughter or your wife or your husband because there's no reverence of His name? The Lord's reputation was at stake. The Lord's reputation. His name. Now that's the first thing I noticed. But the second thing is so important to understand how the Lord wins. You come to me with sword and spear and javelin. Strength you come to me with. You come to me with the epitome of human strength. You come to me with everything the world values in terms of warfare. These would have been the most high-tech, the best military innovations of the day. You came at me with all this. But I want you to know something. The Lord's going to beat you without one weapon like this. He's going to beat you with something you think is absolutely stupid and foolish. What that tells us is any battle that we're ever going to win is never going to be won the way we expect. Understand that. In other words, he is purposely here choosing to win the battle with what is clearly weapons of human weakness. As one pastor said, the focus of the text is really not David's courage. The focus of the text is Yahweh's adequacy in human weakness, using human weakness to win. The way he fights for us, the way he wins the battle is never how you would ever think he's going to win the battle. There's always this principle in scriptures, and it's the hardest thing for us to get. It's the hardest thing for us to accept. I struggle with it to this day, and I still don't get it, and I have to reteach myself this principle all the time. All the time I have to teach it. It is, when you're weak, then you're strong. And that is not how Americans think at all. God loves to showcase power in your weakness. In your frailty. In your sickness. In your thorn in the flesh. Loves it. He does it all the time. In persecutions. In trials. In distresses. Not when you're out of them. Remember Paul in 2 Corinthians 12. unless I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations. In other words, he was caught up to the third heaven. He saw things that were indescribable with words. He said, unless I should start thinking of myself more highly than I ought and being proud and boastful that I have all these great gifts and I was able to go up to the third heaven, God gave me something. God gave me a thorn in the flesh. A messenger of Satan to torment me, to buffet me. And you know what I did? I went to the Lord three times in prayer. take it away, please, oh Lord, take it away. Whatever this was, whatever affliction he was facing, we still don't know, we were never told. He was on his knees, pleading in tears to the Lord, I can't do this. And the Lord said, Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. Why? my strength my strength is made perfect in weakness you see we we look at those things in our lives and say well these are the goliaths we need to overcome even if we took that way of interpreting the passage you still got it wrong it's not that god gets us out of those things so that then we can be victorious it's that you're going to find strength and victory in those things his his it's that he showcases his strength in your weakness and gives the victory for his name right there in it in this life what we're always trying to do is achieve the resurrection life of the future right now. And we're trying to overcome and overcome and overcome and overcome so that we're always in the fight, we're always struggling, we're always depressed, and we're always discouraged, and we're missing the strength in the weakness. That's what he's aiming to do. Our view of the Christian life is that anything that gets, and think of our whole prosperity movement in America, and everything else that we've had under the sun, think of all those things. Anything that gets in the way of our happiness or anything that brings us down or anything that discourages us or any pain is all something we desperately need to overcome whatever that Goliath is but that's not what Paul learned Paul said I actually learned this I will most gladly boast in my affirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me right there. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. It's finding the Lord's strength in the depression. It's finding the Lord's help in the pain. It's receiving grace in the struggle. It's seeing the light in the darkness. It's not about finding a way out of it just to beat something to get to a place of self-reliance so that you can feel good again. That's not what this life is. I want to feel as good as the next guy. But it's not reality. It's Joni Eareckson Tada. In 67, you know, was paralyzed from the neck down and has suffered from repeated cancer and has learned and she'll tell you. It's not just getting out of the wheelchair. Look at her witness and strength. Where she is. In that weakness, God's strength is showcased. She experienced anger, depression, suicidal thoughts, doubts. And look at her today. And what this is saying to us is that God loves to work through the weakness to show His strength and His ability to beat the enemy in ways that are a marvel to us. So that we're not always standing back calculating how best we're going to get it figured out. The scene presented to you is captured in such a way that you should say, that all of us should say, David in his own strength has no ability to beat Goliath. See, all of us should be saying right now, David in his own strength has no ability to beat Goliath. He didn't have the ability to take down a lion. He didn't have the ability to kill a bear and grab the lion by the beard. That was not David's strength. We're too weak. And that's where God wins. So we should make sure that we don't bring that the same dishonor that Goliath showed to God by waving his own strength before Israel, the same dishonor that Goliath showed. We should make sure that we're not doing this to this text by making this fight about us. It's insulting to him. That's about us to achieve the victory and the success. He wins for you. Beautiful. It's beautiful. So here's D-Day. Here we go. It's really not much of a fight. That's the thing. It's really not much of a fight, is it? We read in verse 48, when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. So both begin to rush at each other. It says that David ran. Picture that. As he runs, he reaches into his bag and he pulls out a stone. Probably about a two to three inch stone. Puts it in his sling and he lets it fly. Now you could say, then this guy just had the best, sharpest accuracy ever. A stone like this in a slingshot, and the young people corrected me the other day the way I probably was doing this and they said, no, it's got to be like this, Pastor. You need to know what the slings are. I don't know what they are. I was doing what my kids did. 150 mile an hour stone. To give you some context, a bullet, average bullet is about 1,700. 150 miles an hour, that's enough to do some damage, isn't it? We read that he struck the Philistine on the head. There's some discussion about where exactly it hit. I don't think you should miss the design of what is now pictured for you here. we read that it struck him and sunk into his forehead. And there's a little phrase that should have come out to you in the book because we've seen it before. He fell on his face to the ground. Imagery? Goliath bowed the knee that day before Yahweh. Goliath got on his knee and his face went plummeted to the ground. probably a loud thud. His knee bowed. You know this already happened. The Philistine god, remember, Dagon? The ark of God was put in the temple right in front of Dagon. And in the morning, they all walked in and there was Dagon face to the ground and his head fell off. Oh, this is repeated. David goes up and chops off the head. This is why I preached it about idolatry. This was a preview in chapter 5 of coming attractions of the kingdom being established by the anointed one. By the anointed one. Jesus. Ten seconds into the first round and it was over. So David prevailed, verse 50, over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. This story was about Israel on the mountain watching the man of God's choosing beat that Goliath and win for them in a way that they would have never come up with or a way that they would have never imagined. And in that victory, Israel stepped in. Hear me. In that victory, they stepped in. The focal point is God's anointed. David takes Goliath's head and puts it where? In Jerusalem. That's not even a stronghold yet for Israel. It's not even theirs. He takes the head and he puts it in Jerusalem to say the kingdom is established and this is where my throne is going to be. That's the imagery, Psalm 2. Kiss the son lest you perish in the way. God told us all throughout the scriptures that he would win this fight for you through his greater son, the greater son of David. Where? Where was a skull crushed? Where was a head crushed? Golgotha, which means place of the skull. God himself in flesh. God incarnate. Stepped out on the battlefield to fight your sin. Stepped out in the midst of all your rebellion and your idolatry and all the things that you had done. And he stepped out into a powerful place. Rome had the sword. He went not with sword. but with a command to defeat the enemy. And guess what he did for you at the cross? He disarmed principalities and powers. And he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. The kingdom has been forever established by Jesus, David's greater son whom David looked to. a kingdom without end and a king whose throne can never be toppled. Now, I don't really have to tell you now how does this apply, does it? You know what it says Israel did when they saw the victory? You know what it says when they saw their champion? When the Philistines saw their hero was dead, they turned and ran. But the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Sha'abarim road to Gath and Ekron. When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered the camp. The imagery is they went forward and surged forward in that victory with no more fear. And that's how you apply it, if you want to. The victory's been won by your Savior. Now you can talk about putting on his armor. Surge forward with a shout. Your Savior won for you. He beat your sin. He's forgiven you. He's loved you. And now what does he say to you? He says, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you may take your stand against the devil's schemes. He's defeated. Jesus defeated him. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. After you've done everything to stand, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place. This is spiritual armor. And with your feet fitted with the readiness which comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. That's your stones. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. That one offensive weapon, that stone from the brook, is the Word of God. And go forward now in confidence is the message. Look to your Lord in faith is the message. He's won. And you are victors in Him. When sin assailed you, when you were discouraged, when you are struggling, look to the battlefield at A.D. 30. In about the sixth hour of the day, the month of Nisan, where words were spoken. It's finished. I've won. God, through His Son, Beat Goliath. And now is reconciling the world through faith in him. Go in his strength. That's the meaning of this text. Let's pray to the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you for your abounding grace in the gospel. And thank you for always teaching and showing us the way. What a marvel that the kingdom was established through the work of your dear son, May we not fight with You by trying to take Your honor and glory with sour attitudes making it about us. May we bow the knee this day and give praise to the God of Israel who saved us and loved us. How good You've been. And may we go forward with shouts of joy because of the work of Your beloved Son. Thank You that our sins are forgiven. that they've been overcome and that we've been reconciled to God. Bless us this day and give us great joy in our hearts for the victory that's been won in Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.