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PAUL TRIPP MINISTRIES, INC. David and Goliath September 21, 2008 1 Samuel 17 Well, why all these stories in the Bible? Why all their gritty personal detail? Why take time to tell us that, when David got to the site, his older brother mistreated him? Why tell us that David was bringing bread and cheese? Why tell us how much the spear of this giant weighed? What is God trying to communicate to us with all of the detail, the rich, intimate, personal, gritty detail of a passage like this? You see, God wants us to know that His work, His plan, His covenant is real. It's for a real world, and you get real-world details. It's for real people. And if you course your way through this passage, these people should be familiar to us; they re like us. We know what family squabbles are like. We know what fear is like. We know what danger is like. We know how sometimes we wonder what our reward will be--all of these details are in this passage. God wants us to know that His truth and the hope of His truth are rooted in His activity. This is not just a God who speaks. This is a God who acts. And so, that detail is retained for us, rich as it is, so that we would understand. We trust a God who understands what we face and whose truth speaks into the harsh realities of life in a fallen world, whose love, whose grace, whose power, meets us right where we live every day. You know the story well. There couldn t be a more familiar story in all of Scripture. Israel is once again facing the Philistines. They were a marauding sort of pirate nation that lived on the East Coast of Palestine. And they are now gathered in the Valley of Elah for another one of those battles. It should be a simple thing for Israel. God said, I will deliver these nations into your hands. I am the Lord. But for forty days, Israel would assemble for battle, and each day, out would come this great warrior, Goliath, almost ten feet tall. And he would taunt the Israelites, and they would withdraw back into their tents and commiserate, What are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Perhaps this story would be better known, not just as David and Goliath, but David, and Saul, and Goliath because really, the drama of this story is the meeting of these two men at this point against this evil represented by Goliath. Two very different men, and in the meeting of these two men at this place in this valley, David and Saul, you really do get the power of the fact that you and I are always living out of some sense of identity. You re always approaching what you face every day, talking to yourself about who it is that you are, and you have two remarkably different identities here. You have Saul, the

rebellious King, who has now been forsaken by God. And as he stands in this valley, this man has nothing. See, without God, brothers and sisters, what is it that you have? As you assess your identity, as you measure your potential, what is it that you have? You have little more than to measure your track record and to look at the size of the problem. No wonder Saul was afraid--not much of a track record, and look at the size of the thing that he was facing. At that point, another man comes on the scene, and I'd like you to actually turn in your Bibles; there are verses we re going to look at that are not there in your Order of Worship. This is page 240 in your church Bibles. David has arrived on the scene. He's not there as a soldier; he's there as a son. His father, Jesse, had sent him to bring provisions to his brothers. Again, what a typical family scene, and you know for sure that this is a worried dad, and he was concerned about his sons, and he wants not only David to deliver a lunch, but David to bring back a report; how are his sons doing there on the battlefront? And let me pick up this passage with verse 24: All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. (The man Goliath) And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the King will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. And David said to the men who stood by him, What shall be done for this man who kills this Philistine and takes away the approach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him in the same way, So shall it be done to the man who kills him. (ESV) I want to just, this evening, give you the final chapter first. I want to give you the conclusion first. I'd like you to look with me at verse 37. And David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go, and the Lord be with you! David arrives at this scene, and he views this scene from the perspective of his identity as a child of God--his identity in the Lord. For David, this scene looks dramatically different than it does for Saul. Hear this, brothers and sisters; you never look at your world neutrally. You always look at your world from the perspective of some worldview, and this is worldview stuff here. This is living, active life, altering theology that we re watching operate. David understands. He is a child of the most high God. He understands this God keeps His covenant promises. He understands that the land that he stands in belongs to him because the Lord has claimed it for him. He understands that God has said, I will drive

these enemies out of your hands. David knows who he is as a child God. And so, everything David does is motivated, is shaped, is moved by that identity. Now, because of that, you'll see this first thing. David asked the right question. I don't know if I've ever said this here at Tenth, but I would propose to you that insightful people, wise people are not the people with the right answers. Wise people are the people with the right questions because you don't get to the right answers unless you ask the right questions. David asked the right question, notice his question, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? David gets what's going on. He doesn't ask Saul s question--what is Saul s question? Who are we that we could ever be able to fight this Philistine? Wrong question! That question will never lead you to a good answer. It s a bad question. David understands that this man, as large as he is, as powerful as he is, as skilled as he is, is not challenging Israelites--he's challenging the God of the Israelites. And brothers and sisters, when you're tempted by Satan, that challenge is not between you and Satan; that challenge is between Satan and your God. Now, who do you think is going to win? And David understands the issue and in a way that is so sweet, it's moving to me, this shepherd, this boy who is there to deliver a lunch, who earlier in the passage is made fun of by his older brother, is offended that God's name would be publicly defamed-it hurts him. And in the same way for you and me, brothers and sisters, it ought to hurt us wherever we see sin prosper. Whenever we see the name of God dishonored, it should hurt you because your identity, your meaning and purpose, your inner sense of well-being, everything your life is about is attached to this God who is being defamed. You ve got to love David. This young man can t keep his mouth shut, and he shouldn't. This is wrong. This should not have been going on for 40 days. Poor, defeated Saul, with an identity no larger than his own personhood, can't provide leadership for this army. And the army of Israel buys into the fear of this man. It's a sorry scene--it s sad. And David is moved--this is wrong--we should not be paralyzed. Brothers and sisters, the people of God should never be paralyzed in the face of evil. And you should feel it in this passage, you should feel the drama; you should be screaming as you read through I Samuel 17, Somebody get up and fight! Somebody fight! Because, if you have your identity right, if you understand who you are, you do not stand for 40 days and let this man defame the name of your God. Well, David doesn't just ask the right question; David makes the right choice. Verse 31: When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. Now, notice what Saul was doing there. Saul is not sending for David because Saul gets it and he s finally discovered his identity. No, Saul is desperate; he ll try anything. This is the first positive thing he's heard in forty days, so the man's probably quite excited. Verse 32, And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

If I hadn't read for you the conclusion already, you would think, Is this young man delusional? Is he arrogant? Does he have any idea at all what he's facing? Has he seen this warrior? Well, the proverb says, The wicked flee when no one pursues, I love this, but the righteous are as bold as lions. There's a lion that has shown up on the scene. And his name is David-he s in a line of another Lion, the Lion of Judah. Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him for you re but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth--interesting twist of words there. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father, and when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him, and struck him, and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them for he has defied the armies of the living God. And we read what comes next. You see, everybody, all of the Army in Israel, because they were identity amnesiac's, did poor moral math. The equation was not the little men of the army of Israel against this awesome giant. That is not the moral equation of this moment. The moral equation of this moment is this puny little warrior against Almighty God. Now, who would you suspect would be victorious? And David said, I've lived in the power of this God. I know what he's able to do. I will go because I embrace the power of my God! Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly more than you could ask or imagine according to his power, (Are you ready for this?) that is at work, (Where? Where?) within you. To Him be glory. That Almighty Power now resides inside of you if you are God's child by His Spirit. And when you assess life, when you assess difficulty, when you grapple with evil, what is the moral equation that forms your actions, and your responses, and your words? In those moments, do you preach to yourself the Gospel? Or do you give way to thinking that you're alone, without resources, without power, without the presence of God, without hope, weak, unable? David makes the right choice because he's aware of his identity. And then finally, David does the right thing, verse 38: Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. (Armor was quite individual; it would be made for your body size, and wearing Saul's armor just wouldn't work.) Then David said to Saul, I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them. So David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand 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. (ESV) What a dramatic scene wow! Can you see it in your mind s eye? Can you see this young man, as an act of the courage of faith, walking down, now, into that valley? At one point, he begins to run toward this warrior. He has nothing but a shepherd s sling and

five stones. You will notice verse 43; the Philistine does his thing again, Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. I told you this was a worldview passage. Here is this Philistine, looking at life from the vantage point of his worldview, and so he calls on the names of his false gods as David is walking toward him. And David is approaching this scene, not from the falsehood of that polytheism, but from the truth of his knowledge of one true God, Jehovah the Lord of hosts. And David says to this Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin. He s saying to the Philistine, That's all you have?! If you don t understand that--that's a put down of faith, that s what it is. Is this all you have? You re actually, giant, going to come to me with nothing more than a spear and a sword, are you kidding me?! I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (ESV) What a wonderful picture for us. David is unafraid; he knows his God; he knows His promises; he knows His power, and he knows this giant has nothing in comparison to the power of God. David says, This day the LORD (my God) will deliver you into my hand. (ESV) You know the rest of the story--one stone driven into the temple of that great warrior, and he crashes to the ground, and before he can move, David grabs his sword and finishes the kill, cuts off his head. There is a glorious Renaissance painting of this young man, holding by the hair, the huge head of this giant--glory of God! Now maybe you're thinking tonight, Paul, I get this, I have no problem with God's faithfulness to David, and Abraham, and Moses, and in this scene, I understand that this was a theocracy, and God had planned to give this nation to Israel, and He was going to deliver them into his hands, but what about me? How does all of this apply to me? Well, God has made those covenant promises to you as well. This covenant is your covenant. This covenant is fulfilled in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are one of God's children, you are the seed of Abraham, and you inherit the promises of this covenant. Turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles to II Peter, chapter 1. I want to read just one verse, it s verse 3: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. His divine power has granted us all things. If you re a grammarian in the room, you know the tense of the verb there, is a past perfect. It's an action in the past with continuing results into the future. Whatever Peter is talking about has already been done, has already been given. His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. I love the NIV translation of this passage: His divine power has given us everything we need. Now, how s that for provision? That's not a promise, that's not an I will --that's an is --it has already

happened; it's already yours! All things that are necessary, that are needful, now watch this, for life and godliness. Now why does he use two words? I think Peter uses two words because he knows his audience. If he said, he has given us everything we need for life, we would think that he meant eternal life, and we would say, Isn t that wonderful, we have everything we need for eternal life? That s true and that's glorious, that just doesn't happen to be what Peter is talking about. And so, Peter uses a second word, His divine power has given us everything we need for godliness. What is godliness? Godliness is a God-honoring life in the situations and relationships where I've been put between the time I come to Christ and the time I go home to be with Him. Now, I would ask you this evening, Like David, are you living out of your true identity as a child of God? Do you live with courage? Do you live with hope? Do you live with joy and enthusiasm? Do you live an outward life? Or is your life characterized by timidity, and fear, and worry, and discouragement, and depression? Could it be that you sit here this evening acknowledging your identity, but on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, you live as a bit of an identity amnesiac? Because, if you're living out of your true identity, you too will ask the right questions; you'll make the right choices; you'll do the right thing, not because you think you have power, but because you know that your God does. I wish I could say to you that in every way I live out of that identity, but I don't. There are moments where I forget who I am. There are moments when I forget who God is and what He's done for me. There are moments when I live weak, and timid, and overwhelmed, when actually I am a son of the Lord of hosts. May God help us to live as if we actually believe that we are the children of God. Oh, I can't resist saying that again. May God help us to live as if we actually believe that we are the children of God. Let s pray: Lord, thank you for the living narrative of Your power, and Your glory, and Your grace, and Your zeal to keep the promises of Your covenant that are unfolded in this passage. Thank you for the way this passage is a mirror into which we can look and see ourselves as we actually are. May we be people in every way, and in every situation, in every location, in every relationship, may we be people who live as if we actually do believe that we are the children of God. To Your honor and glory, we would pray this, Amen. 2008 Paul Tripp Ministries www.paultripp.com