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[0:00] Would you turn this morning in the Word of God to 1st Samuel chapter 17, part of which we have already read.

[0:14] And here is one of the most familiar stories in Scripture, the story of David and Goliath. Israel is opposed by the Philistines.

[0:29] Philistines were infeturate opponents of Israel. They were the greatest adversary that Israel faced after the entrance into Canaan.

[0:43] Not until the coming of the superpowers, so to call them, of Assyria and Babylon did Israel have greater foes to contend with.

[0:57] Up to that period of time, the Philistines constituted their greatest threat. They were the people of the coastal strip of Palestine.

[1:08] They were the inhabitants, those that lived around the five cities of the Philistines. Gaza, Gath, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Ikram, which were independent city-states, but they were confederated together, and especially they were confederated together against Israel.

[1:32] They never sought to overcome Israel. Not that they could have achieved this, but they were anti-Israel, just as so many of the Arab nations still are anti-Israel.

[1:47] It was ever the case with the Philistines, but they sought to keep Israel down at every turn. And they had been very successful in this until the time of Saul.

[2:01] Israel, and in the days of Saul, and through the signal bravery of Jonathan, his son, Israel had broken out from under the yoke of the Philistines, and had won a handsome victory.

[2:18] And when we come to 1 Samuel 17, it is the record of the Philistines' reprisals now against Israel. Israel, and there is a great host of the Philistines drawn up, and there is an army of Israel, and the two are ranged on opposite sides of a valley, a valley between these great armies facing each other.

[2:43] But the Philistines have one in their midst, the very presence of whom, the very sight of whom causes the Israelites to tremble.

[2:54] This is this giant of a man named Goliath. And the shortest estimate of the height of that man would be in the region of nine foot, and he may well have been more in the region of ten and a half feet in height.

[3:12] Well armed, a man of war from his youth, with a helmet, with a cord of mail, with a spear, like a weaver's beam. From the very sight of him, struck fear into the Israelites.

[3:25] And to hear his booming voice taunting them to send out a champion to fight against him, brought them into despondency of heart and almost paralysis.

[3:38] Now David, as we've seen, was anointed by Samuel in order that he should succeed in due time. Saul.

[3:51] Sometimes he was at the court, for he had been taken into the court as one skill to play upon a heart to soothe Saul when dark and evil moods came upon him.

[4:05] But now since the armies are drawn up and Saul is in the battlefield, the opportunity had come for David to return back to Bethlehem, back to Jesse, and to his home.

[4:17] And we find that he is again occupied with the sheep. He had been the shepherd from which task he had been taken, brought into the court.

[4:29] But he is back looking after the sheep. And then his father has a mission for him. He would send him up to the camp of the Israelites to inquire after his brethren.

[4:42] Three of the sons of Jesse are fighting in the army of Israel. And young David, David the youngest son, is sent with various provisions for them and words of greeting from his father.

[5:00] And he goes up. And now for the first time he sees the situation. Demoralized soldiers. Not only does he see their condition, but he observes the champion Goliath come forth.

[5:13] He hears his taunting words as he defies the army of Israel. He hears, moreover, that Saul will give very choice rewards to anyone that will overcome and prevail over this Philistine Goliath of Gath.

[5:39] And he feels the dishonor that is being done in these things against the name of God. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? He says that he should defy the armies of the living God.

[5:54] And speaking like this arouses the anger of his eldest brother Eliab. And Eliab rebukes him and says, Why camest thou down hither?

[6:07] With whom hast thou left thy few sheep in the wilderness? All you look after is a few sheep. And yet you are so calling out for something to be done against Goliath. What do you know of warfare?

[6:18] What do you know of the situation we're in here facing such a man as this? And he expresses his contempt for David and speaks these reproachful words.

[6:34] And then we came to the record before us this morning. He persists as David. He speaks against the giant.

[6:48] And he says that he will go against him. And he's brought to Saul. And Saul will dissuade him. And says to him, How can he hope to do anything? He's not a man of war. Whereas the champion of the Philistines is from his very youth.

[7:02] Been brought up as a military person. And coupled with the advantage of his great stature. He is a man skilled in the arts of war.

[7:13] He is bound to prevail against a mere stripling. David says that he is not coming in some rashness of youth. He's not with the temerity of those that are inexperienced that he comes.

[7:27] He comes in the confidence that God will give the victory. That God is with him. He has that sense that God is with him. The spirit of the Lord is upon him.

[7:38] And he knows it. And it's in the strength of the Lord that he will go out and fight against this Philistine. And he narrates to them how when he was a shepherd, there came a lion and a bear against the flock.

[7:53] And to deliver the flock he fought against the lion and the bear and prevailed over them. He is not without that knowledge of the power of God. God was with him then.

[8:05] The God that delivered him then out of the paw of the lion and the bear. God will deliver him out of the hand of this Philistine. And so Saul says that he can go and would arm him and put upon him his own armor.

[8:22] And you can imagine how David feels the strangeness of these accoutrements. He won't go in the armor. He hasn't experienced of them. He isn't familiar with them. He hasn't proved these things.

[8:34] He puts them all off again. And he takes simply his staff in his hand and chooses five smooth stones out of the brook and puts them in shepherd's bag or scrip.

[8:48] And then he takes his sling in his hand and he approaches the Philistine. And the Philistine mocks him. Am I a dog that thou comest out against me with staves, with me?

[9:02] He has sticks and stones. And then he says that he will take David and he will utterly prevail over him.

[9:13] I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. But David says, I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

[9:26] This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand. And he sling the stone, we're told. And it hit the Philistine in the center of the forehead and it killed him.

[9:39] He fell dead to the ground. And David, with the Philistine's own sword cut off his head, and there was such a discomfiture of the Philistines.

[9:51] They were utterly dismayed at what they thought could never come about. And in the way and manner that it had transpired, they were brought to panic.

[10:03] And there was a great victory won over the Philistines by Israel. Now there is the story. What a story it is. What a gripping record it is of an actual event in human history.

[10:19] And I want this morning to spend some time considering from this chapter, David as a type of Christ. David as a type of Christ.

[10:30] He is also an example to the Christian. But I don't think we'll have time to say very much on that. We confine our attention to David as a type of Christ.

[10:40] Now what do we mean by a type of Christ? We mean by a type of Christ, an Old Testament figure that sets forth some aspect or other of the character and the conduct of God's dear Son, our Savior and our Redeemer.

[11:00] That's what we mean by a type. Now some of the early fathers of the church in their writings, they went to extremes. They found so-called types of Christ in the most obscure places of the Old Testament.

[11:16] There's not hardly a verse in the Bible, but what they find some typical significance, which we cannot see with the best will in the world because it's never there in the first place.

[11:29] They went to excess. Many preachers have done the same. There are preachers today that specialize on typological preaching, as they call it.

[11:40] And they bring out these obscurities. And they claim to see Christ in all manner of verses and deal in mystical things.

[11:52] Now I think that a great disservice has been done to the Lord's people by a surfeit of this sort of spiritualizing. I remember being told that among some of our churches in the north of England, they largely had received this sort of preaching through their lifetime.

[12:13] Certain told me that in their experience over the years, it was largely typical preaching that the ministers, as they went about week after week from chapel to chapel, took with them into the pulpit.

[12:28] It was all this sort of thing, spiritualizing, mystical applications of the Old Testament and setting forth of Christ in obscure and hidden fashions.

[12:39] And it doesn't build up the Lord's people. It may cause some to be amazed that he could bring that out of a verse. I've heard that said. Amazing what he's brought out of that verse.

[12:51] But then I don't think that sometimes what's been brought out of the verse was ever there in the first place. And it was ever God's intention that it should be found there. But although there is such a thing as excessive spiritualizing, an excessive typology that can be unprofitable, we are not to throw out all typology.

[13:12] God intends us to see the types of Christ in the Old Testament. They're there. And that's important. The abuse of a thing does not mean that there is not a proper use to be made of a thing.

[13:25] We would avoid the abuse, but we are to be those that seek to see the usefulness of a proper understanding of the Old Testament times.

[13:37] Now the great verse that shows us that this is in God's mind and intention is 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11, where in the context you will see typology being worked out Christ as the rock, the rock that followed Israel in the wilderness.

[13:59] But that's another area of the Old Testament and typology from another place. But the principle is there in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 11.

[14:11] Paul writes, now all these things happened unto them for in samples and the margin gives as types. Now all these things happened unto them as types.

[14:25] And they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. We who are in that day of the gospel, we who are in that day of Christ, we have the substance that which in the Old Testament they look forward to now is come and is a reality to us.

[14:43] These things were written aforetime as examples or types to us for our instruction, for our admonition that we might learn through them.

[14:55] Now what that means is this, and this is the important thing. It is not just that we find in the Old Testament stories that there are certain things that are suggestive of various aspects of the ministry of Christ or certain facets of the character of Christ.

[15:12] But these things that were written aforetime as types, God intended them. God worked them into the redemptive history. God gave these characteristics to men such as Moses and David in order that there might be seen through them.

[15:30] God in his sovereign providence disposing the events and the characters in such a fashion that there are those disclosures of Christ.

[15:48] Now that is the real type. The real type is that in the Old Testament which is a true setting forth of some aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ in his person and his work by divine intention.

[16:03] And I take it as my working rule in the understanding of a type. And it's a good working rule that we should only take a type and be prepared to say that that is typical where the New Testament gives us warrant to do so.

[16:19] Where the New Testament employs an Old Testament figure typically in order to set forth Christ. That is the legitimate type. The others, I would simply say, are suggestive to us of this or that.

[16:35] We've seen many suggestions in the Old Testament places that we've looked at. We've seen suggestions in the life of Elijah and Elisha. And in Ruth and Boaz.

[16:48] And Boaz is, of course, a type of Christ. But there are many other aspects which would not be typical, and yet they are suggestive of various gospel aspects.

[17:00] But the types of Christ are those parts which are opened up and which are set before us in the New Testament.

[17:11] The New Testament giving the warrant for the interpretation of the Old Testament. Now I say this because it's important you see what a type is. A type is God's intended setting forth of Christ so that the person does this or becomes that or reproduces something that speaks of Christ.

[17:35] That is God's intention. These things were written for examples, for types to us of Christ, for our admonition. Whereas the other things that we see that may have some correspondence to the gospel or something suggestive, these are no more than that.

[17:53] They are not types. Now Christ is typified in David. And David in many respects, but in this chapter, is a type of Christ.

[18:04] And I want to show you some of the main types that we see in this chapter. David is a type of Christ. The first is that he was anointed before he went to fight Goliath and won that great victory.

[18:19] He was anointed. He was anointed, if you remember in the 16th chapter, we're told of it. Kings were anointed. There was oil poured upon the head of a king.

[18:32] 1 Samuel 10, 1 tells us how Saul, the first king, was anointed. Samuel took a vial of oil. That would not be a very large quantity, a small bottle of oil.

[18:47] Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him. And says, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? But in the case of David, 1 Samuel 16, 13, Samuel took a horn of oil, which would be a hollowed-out ram's horn with a stopper at one end containing a great deal more than a vial of oil.

[19:14] Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. And in the difference of the quantity used in the anointing of Saul and David, it's clearly indicative of the significance of these men.

[19:32] Saul was nothing in comparison to David. Saul was nothing of the king that David became. Saul's reign is brief and it's fairly insignificant in comparison to the king that followed him, King David, the great king of Israel.

[19:54] But then when you think of Christ, Christ is anointed. Christ, our great king, Christ, our great champion, is anointed. He is anointed.

[20:06] With that which anointing points, the anointing with oil is a signification of the Spirit of God given for wisdom and for power. The kings might rule in wisdom and that they might be as defenders of the people.

[20:21] David is anointed. David is anointed with oil and the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. That which was symbolized in the oil of the anointing was effectuated in the way the Spirit of God came upon him.

[20:36] That's why he has the peculiar confidence and strength to do the things which he is called upon to do and which he will do in this very chapter in combat against Goliath.

[20:47] But Christ, you see, is not anointed with oil but he is anointed with the Spirit beyond measure. It's not a vial of oil. It's not a horn of oil. John the Baptist says, John 3, 34, For the Spirit was not given to him by measure.

[21:05] There is that measureless bestowal of the Spirit upon Christ. He is justified in the Spirit. He is essentially possessed of the Spirit in the mystery of the Trinity.

[21:17] Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the full deity possessed. But in terms of his office, in that which he has come to do, standing as our representative, as King in Zion, he is anointed beyond measure.

[21:33] There is no limitation to the pouring forth of the Spirit upon him. The Spirit is upon him beyond measure. The Spirit not given by measure unto him.

[21:45] And in the anointing that he received, David is able to do the things which he did. And Christ, as our anointed King, is that one that went to the great fight and endured contradiction of sinners against himself and made atonement for us at Golgotha.

[22:08] Then notice that David was sent. David was sent by his father to his brethren. In the 17th verse of this chapter, he was sent by his father to his brethren.

[22:22] Jesse said, Take now for thy brethren a nephah of this parched corn and these ten loaves. Run to the camp of thy brethren. So Christ is sent by the Father.

[22:33] He took upon him not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abram, that he might in all things be made like unto his brethren.

[22:45] He is sent to his brethren. And Christ is that sent one of the Father. In the fullness of the times, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.

[22:59] And as David carried these gifts and words of greeting from Jesse to his brethren, so God sent one, our great Messiah, God's anointed one, his dear Son, who was made of a woman.

[23:15] He bears gifts, all the gifts that Christ brings, and the gifts that Christ bestows upon his people. And he brings that word, that word of the Father.

[23:28] He brings that word, the words that I speak. I speak not of myself, but as the Father hath given me, so I speak. He received that word, and he gives that word, and he is the word.

[23:42] And there is one of the titles, his office titles. He is that word of God incarnate. He is the incarnate word. And yet, you see him coming, sent from the Father, bearing gifts.

[23:58] You see him coming with these words of Jesse. And David is contemptuously treated. It would seem by all, but certainly by Eliab.

[24:12] And we think of the Savior coming, sent from the Father. And with such gifts to bestow beyond our reckoning, and with such word of authority, no man ever spake as this man with the word of the everlasting gospel.

[24:26] And he came unto his own, and his own received him not. And there was that reproach, and that contempt. And Eliab is so contemptuous. Why camest thou down hither?

[24:38] With whom hast thou left thy few sheep in the wilderness? And they spoke so contemptuously of Christ, this blasphemer, this winebibber, this gluttonous man.

[24:50] They called him all of these things. And yet he never reproached them. David, you see, is a type of Christ in this, that David simply says to his brother, what would we have said if an older brother had spoken thus to us?

[25:05] We would probably have spoken some very stout words against him, lost our temple with him. But David, a soft answer, turneth the way off.

[25:17] And all he says, what have I now done? Is there not a cause? Is there not a reason for me to be here? Is there not a reason for me to think like this, to feel the shame of Israel that this Goliath defies the armies of the living God?

[25:31] Is there not a cause? And our dear Saviour, when all manner of things were spoken against him, being reviled, he reviled not again. He did not come and take up words and seek to justify himself.

[25:46] That is the great characteristic, as we've seen in his sufferings and his appearance before these so-called courts of men. He does not justify himself. He scarcely speaks at all.

[25:58] He scarcely will utter any word. He's not come in order to make a defense of himself. He's come in order to save his people. When reviled, he reviled not again.

[26:11] When he suffered, he threatened not. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. So you see, David was anointed before he wrought this great victory for Israel.

[26:25] So Christ is the anointed one of the Father and our Redeemer, who to the fight and to the rescue came. David was sent by the Father to his brethren bearing gifts and words of comfort.

[26:37] And Christ is sent from the Father and he has those gifts of eternal life and he has that word of the everlasting gospel. And then David is moved by intense love to the people in his utterance.

[26:52] There in the 26th verse, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God. He is moved by intense love to the people to be indignant at the circumstances that they are in, the state that they are brought into, even by the sight and sounds of this Goliath of Gath.

[27:16] They are crushed in spirit before him. He is affected by this. He feels for them. They are the armies of the living God. And he is moved by love to the name of his God also.

[27:30] He is motivated in this. It stirs him that God's name should be held in such disrespect that they are cowed before Goliath. And he is also, as a young man, clearly moved by the things that Saul promises to that man that will kill Goliath.

[27:51] The king will enrich him with great riches, will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. And he's a type of Christ in these respects. How is he a type of Christ in these respects?

[28:04] Oh, the love that Christ had for his people. His brethren to whom he came. Those with whom he identified of the election of grace. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.

[28:17] Saul lost and ruined by the fall. Saul brought into that condition of utter helplessness. Incapable of raising herself. Incapable of coming to God.

[28:28] How guilty helpless nature lies, says Watson in the hymn. Unconscious of our love that soul unblessed can never rise to happiness and God.

[28:41] And he saw his people. Christ loved his people. Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end. And he was moved also by jealousy for the honor of his father's name.

[28:56] Father had sent him. Wished ye not he could say at twelve years of age that I must be about my father's business. He was constrained in all that he did that he might be pleasing to the father.

[29:10] As the father has wailed it. As the father is pleased in Gethsemane. Not my will but thine be done. And it is said of him in the words of the prophet the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up.

[29:25] He is that perfect zeal and jealousy for the name of God. That's why he will take no shortcuts. That's why he will in no wise seek to save apart from the way appointed.

[29:38] Because only thus will God be just and the justifier of the ungodly. He is then moved with a love to those for whom he stands.

[29:48] He is moved with a jealousy and a desire for the honour of God and the fulfilment of divine purposes. He is also one that knows the great reward that is set before him for he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.

[30:06] Isaiah 53, 12 There is that which is promised. There is that which is future. There is that great success promised to him after he is humble for a season.

[30:17] brought a little lower than the angels to the sufferings of death. He is crowned with glory and honour. And as David then is moved by love to the people and moved with jealousy for the Lord's great name and thinks of the promised rewards that Saul has indicated will be the portion of any that slays the champion of God.

[30:45] So he is a type of Christ not that he was moved by mere material considerations but for the joy that was set before him because of that great multitude that no man should number that he would secure and bring to glory.

[31:01] He is moved by these concerns. He accepts all the stipulations and the requirements of the covenant of grace because of the promises that are made over to him.

[31:12] And so he goes forward. So he goes into the valley. David, see, is a representative of Israel.

[31:27] He is the champion of Israel. Goliath is the champion of the Philistines. The word Goliath in the Hebrew has that word goel which is the word for a mediator, a go-between, a kinsman redeemer, the goer.

[31:44] We've seen it in the studies in Ruth. And in the word Goliath there is that word which means the mediator. He is the one that represents.

[31:57] He is the representative of the Philistines. He is there in order that the army might be spared in engagement. He is there. He will take on in single combat where they will represent Israel and they will fight and if he prevails then it will be as the defeat of all Israel.

[32:19] Whereas if he is defeated it will be the defeat of all the Philistines. And if Goliath is the representative of the Philistines, David is the representative and goes forth in the name of Israel.

[32:33] He goes forth in the name of the Lord but he is the choice of his people. He goes forth, Saul says go and the Lord be with thee. And he is the representative, he is the mediator.

[32:49] And he is a type of Christ in this. Christ our great mediator. That one mediator between God and men, the man Christ, Jesus, he is our mediator. God deals with men on a representative basis.

[33:02] He dealt with the race of men in Adam. Adam was our representative then. He was our mediator then for the race unborn that should come from his loins. And our first representative, our first mediator miserably fell.

[33:18] He sinned himself. He brought sin and reproach upon his whole race. But the second Adam, the son of God, the one whom God did same, did love to us and out of a desire for our salvation and to secure our salvation.

[33:38] God sent his son to represent us as our representative and he has stood for us. He is that one mediator who has fulfilled all righteousness, who brings us unto God.

[33:50] Israel collectively could not prevail, could not begin. We through sin are without strength. We have no strength. But there is one that is given strength and one stands for Israel.

[34:05] David stands for Israel. Great David's greater son stands for the Israel of God than the Israel, the new Israel. And he is their representative and he is their champion.

[34:20] And he achieves singly what they could never have achieved collectively. And because of what he does individually and singly he brings a multitude to glory. And then David, see in the rejecting of the weapons that were unproved, see that which speaks to us of Christ.

[34:42] He will not take the armor of Saul, he is unfamiliar with it, it would just be quite useless. He could not even make progress with such accoutrements which he had not got used to.

[34:56] You didn't put armor on and immediately you could fight with it, you had to get used to it, you had to become skilled in going to war, bearing such armor.

[35:10] And he could not in a few moments of time familiarize himself with the heavy armor of king Saul. Christ rejected all human weaponry when Peter took out his sword in order to resist the arrest of Christ.

[35:35] Remember the words put up thy sword, they that live by the sword shall perish by the sword. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, but my kingdom is not of this world in the great fight to secure our salvation, to deliver us from the enemy.

[35:56] Christ would not use the weapons of carnal warfare. His trust was in God's will and God's word. He used against the devil time and time again the spiritual weapon of the word.

[36:11] It is written, God has said it, God has willed it, God has purposed it, and that must stand. And he went into the great combat in Gethsemane and then to Gabbatha and then to Golgotha, resting upon the word, not my word but thine, not my will but thine be done.

[36:36] And this is typified in David's refusing of the weapons of Saul. and the churches are to learn from this. We are not to take up the weapons that men say we are to take up.

[36:51] Certainly not carnal weapons. And if there is even in extreme fanatical Protestantism that willingness to take up weapons in order to maintain the position that is foreign to the gospel.

[37:06] It's not the message of Christ. it's not by the weapons of this world that God's truth is maintained and God's truth is advanced.

[37:18] When Islam began in the days after Muhammad the prophet it was by the sword and the picture of the beginnings of Muhammadanism as a missionary religion, his Omar, his servant standing with drawn scimitar over the body of Muhammad the prophet and saying that this message will be spread and it will be believed by the power of the sword and it's still the same I believe you see it in the world today that Islam is a militant religion.

[37:51] Jihad, holy warfare by the weapons of carnal warfare. And that is not the way for the church. We will not be advanced by the power of the military.

[38:04] We are not to trust in state power. What is it property to a country such as Sweden with its Lutheranism which is a state religion 98% Lutheran and yet hardly any converted persons in the whole of that country.

[38:21] It's not by the state. We don't want the wage bills paid of the pastors by the state. We don't want that. That is foreign to the New Testament.

[38:31] We don't want to trust in governmental authority to implement our gospel work.

[38:44] I don't look to these things. I believe that we are to make legitimate use of all that is legal. As citizens we have certain rights but we are not to look to these things.

[38:58] They didn't have the support in the days of Nero. And yet they were not abashed and they were those that were prepared to go even to the lions of Nero because they would not bow and give to Caesar that which belongs solely to God.

[39:15] We are to trust not in the sword and in the carnal weapons. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of the citadels of sin.

[39:29] It's not the world's methods and organization neither that the church is to look to. You get that all the while. It's in all the magazines. It's in all the books, the contemporary literature.

[39:42] If you do this, if you get into that, if you employ videos and movies and all of this thing, you will have the world at the feet of Christ. Nonsense. It's not God's way.

[39:53] It's not by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. Not by might nor by power. as of man, but by my spirit. That's how God's work is done.

[40:04] His kingdom is not of this world. We see that from David refusing to take the unproven armor of Saul, and we see Christ that would not go, relying on power and on political message, and seeking to establish a dynasty.

[40:24] when they would make him a king, he would not permit it. He absented himself from them and went into some remote place. Christ went like David in the name of the Lord of hosts to the great work of the cross, and there he prevailed.

[40:43] David went against Goliath. I come not to you, he said, with sword or with spear, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied this day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand.

[41:04] What are the five stones in this chapter? What are the five stones? Now the five stones I believe are not typical. If anyone would challenge that then I would be interested to hear how you establish that the stones are typical.

[41:20] They are often brought as typical, but of what are they typical? Well some say they stand for great truth such as God and man and sin and Christ and accountability.

[41:33] That's the five stones. And of course there have been many and many that have said that they stand for the great five points of Calvinism. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.

[41:51] David went with the five smooth stones, but then he only used one. So which one did he use and which is the one that is useful and the others are not required?

[42:02] Why did he take five? And people say, well he took five because Goliath had brothers and they may have come forth or he might have missed with the first. These are matters of entire speculation.

[42:14] This may be suggestive. I think it might be a very suggestive way to bring in the five points to speak of the smooth stones that were picked from the brook.

[42:24] You need good theology in your bag if you're going to fight a giant. There's no question of that. You need it all. You need all the counsel of God. But I don't see that these things are typical.

[42:34] The five stones are not typical. They're suggestive to us. They're not typical. More important is this that David went forth in the name of the Lord God. His trust was in the things which were to his hand.

[42:49] He was used to this sort of combat. He was used to sling and shot. And don't think of that as some toy weapon.

[43:00] The slingers of these days were deadly in the use of the catapult. And in the fighting off of wild animals the shepherd became an addict at the use of the slingshot.

[43:13] When he cast that shot, sling that shot that hit Goliath in the forehead, it was prevailing. He killed the giant with colossal force.

[43:24] That pebble would shatter into the skull of the giant. Brought death to him. And those that were in that day skilled in the use of the sling, they were those that would not miss.

[43:37] They could sling and they were deadly accurate. So David is going out with what he is familiar with. He's taking that which he is skilled to use.

[43:50] He's taking that which he knows and he is employing this but it's in the strength of God. He goes forth trusting that God will enable him to use the means with which he is familiar.

[44:03] And he uses that which is to hand and he wins the work. Now Christ in the work that he was sent to do. He goes forth and as we've seen he eschewed all political power and authority.

[44:16] He goes in the strength of the spirit and he goes in the name of the father in order to work that work of the establishment of our righteousness. And he goes with that which was to him.

[44:31] With that which was his equipment. With that which was God's provision for him. the body that had been prepared for him. That body of his humiliation but that body that though tempted in all points as we are in it he was without sin.

[44:46] In that sinless body he went to the cross and he could not be prevailed over upon the cross although he suffered for us. Although he knew that agony and these wounds in his hands and in his feet and in his side it was in that body prepared for him.

[45:08] There was no supernatural provision at the last minute. There were not these twelve legions of angels to establish his kingdom and to raise him up and to cause men to follow after him.

[45:21] He did according as he had been sent and he went forth in the name of his God and he went to the work that was committed to his charge fulfilling all the stipulations of the covenant of grace.

[45:36] And he rested his work in the power of God and in the sovereignty of God's will who would do all that he had promised.

[45:47] He used the means provided and he got the victory. And in his dying he slew death. And you see him cutting off Goliath's head with his own sword and Augustine in comment on this says that this is Hebrews 2.14 Christ through death destroying him that had the power of death that is the devil.

[46:12] And in the death of deaths there is the death of deaths in the death of Christ that is Owen's great title on his defense of particular redemption.

[46:25] The death of deaths in the death of Christ. By the death of Christ death there is the destruction of death itself. Death comes through sin. These are the ways in which the devil has had his will and his way over men.

[46:42] But in the death of Christ the devil's intention was to bring him to death. The devil sought to bring him to the cross and yet it is in the very cross that the devil gets his defeat.

[46:55] And in the way that David cuts off the giant's head with his own sword there is and I believe it's there that there is Christ through death destroying him that had the power of death.

[47:09] That is the devil. He death by dying slew as Augustine puts it. The cross was the death of sin that dealt the devil that blow.

[47:22] He shall bruise thy heel but thou shalt bruise his head and the devil got his death blow his mortal wound at the cross and in that which seemed to be all in the devil's favour when it seemed that he had won the day and he had got men to do their worst and take him by wicked hands and crucify him and slay him their death got its death blow and our salvation was obtained and life and immortality brought to light for those of the people of God.

[47:58] Well there are no doubt more types these are some and I must finish there. David is an example to Christians of course. The time is really gone.

[48:09] I just mentioned what heads I would develop on this. We need that anointing, we need that spiritual power, that ministration of the spirit to be strengthened with all might by the spirit in the inner man.

[48:20] How can we do the least little work that a Lord go into the valley and fight the many giants that are before us in our own strength. We need that anointing of God.

[48:31] We need that faithfulness in every duty. It was very noticeable was it not that when he went back to Jesse from the court he went back to the shepherd's task.

[48:42] He had been anointed to be the future king in the place of Saul and he had been introduced to court life but when he goes back he's not too high and mighty to go and shepherd the sheep again.

[48:57] It is the test of those that are godly men and women that whatever it is that their hand finds to do they do it with all their might. They do it as unto their God.

[49:08] And in the watching over the sheep it was there that God dealt with him. It was there that he got his quietness and confidence in the strength of God. God who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from this Philistine.

[49:25] And then also it shows that we need not be put off by the contempt of others. We'll get all sorts of contempt. We get contempt as a church because they say we're small why aren't we bigger why aren't we doing all the things others are doing.

[49:41] Why should we be like this? Well he got his contempt the Lord got contempt. There were those that must have been contemptuous of the very way he went about that work to which God the Father had sent him.

[49:56] Why didn't he do it another way? Why didn't he employ means? Why didn't he make the palace his friend? Why didn't he enlist Caiaphas as a supporter?

[50:06] And it could have been done by artifice and guile. He could have achieved so much. It's not God's way. God's way is to be done as he has willed.

[50:16] And it's not by the force and power of man. It's not by ingenuity and by manipulation. It's by the power of the gospel. It's the power of the word that's the thing.

[50:29] We've been seeing that have we not Thursday evenings in 1 Thessalonians. Paul says that his ministry is in the power of God. It's a powerful ministry because it will not seek to be deflected from the content of the message or to rely upon the manipulation of the minds of the hearers by any technique.

[50:51] We need that. We need utter trust in the weapons of our warfare. We need to know that what we have, what God has given us, our lives to be lived, that we might shine forth as lights before men, the holding forth of the word of truth.

[51:09] That's all we need to make the impression upon the world that God calls us to make. The hardest thing of all is letting our light shine before men and that holding forth of the word.

[51:23] There is an example to us in David. God grant that we know him in this respect of which he is a type of Christ, the mediator, the champion, and that we are brought to see ourselves this day as represented by Christ.

[51:43] Are you represented by Christ? Is your righteousness a righteousness which he has obtained for you? You are not thinking to make your approach to God on the basis of your righteousness, your works, your churchmanship, your religion.

[52:01] It must be his work for you, his righteousness, the Savior's obedience, and his blood shed for you. whatever you may do in righteousness, what about the blood shedding?

[52:13] Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. There can be no remission of your sin unless there be a blood shedding and you're unable to make it for yourself and you cannot make atonement and there is no means of propitiating the wrath of God for the sins you've committed save as one representing you has done it for you.

[52:37] He died in the sinner's place. He died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. In my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood.

[52:48] Hallelujah. What a Savior. You rest in his obedience to precept and to penalty. Do you rest on the Savior's obedience and blood to hide all your transgressions from view?

[53:04] Are you in Christ? Are you part of the new Israel? Because Christ has brought you nigh by his righteousness, by his precious blood, by all that blots out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you.

[53:19] Are you in Christ this day? And if the Lord spares us to the evening service I will try to bring a little before you what it is to have Christ in us as the hope of glory.

[53:33] God bless us. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. May our trust be as surely as David's was in his day in the God of his salvation, the true and the living God.

[53:50]  For his name is said. Amen.