David's victory over Goliath as a powerful illustration of how faith in God enables individuals to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. It details David's preparation, his reliance on God's name rather than conventional weaponry, and his ultimate triumph through a single stone. The message emphasizes that God's power is available to believers today, urging them to trust in Him for their own battles, just as David trusted God to deliver him from the lion and the bear in his private life before facing Goliath publicly. The sermon concludes by highlighting that Christ's victory over sin and death at the cross is the ultimate example of God's power, and believers can access this victory by faith.
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Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, is my God. The poor stands up, please.
There's a part in my story for you and for me, and the theme of our praises forever will be. Hallelujah. of the sun, I pray by the blood of the Lord to see my God. Hallelujah, I pray, Lord, my King of the Lord, I pray by the blood of the Lord. Very good. I see this that some of the folks have been singing that song with a different tune. And my voice is kind of weak this morning, and that's why I couldn't sing right out at first.
I'm sorry about that. We're going to have a course here that everybody has asked for this last night when the choir did it. They asked for to teach both of them to you. We can't quite do that, but we can do this one here. Your name is wonderful. Truly, if I can get those things fixed, it is. All right, all together, His name is wonderful. We've received it three times. Jesus, my Lord, His name is wonderful. And we'll go all the way through it, and I'm sure it'll be a blessing to your heart. It probably was last night, at least we hope it was. Somebody said to me that first song, they didn't know if everybody was coming in a different part, and I told them I wish they'd get their music ears right.
That's the way it was written. for everybody to come in different parts. So if it sounded strange to you, it wasn't that we had tons of fire. It was just that the music was written that way. And we hope that some of these new arrangements will be a blessing to you and not a curse. But you just pray with us and everybody will enjoy it, I'm sure. His name is wonderful. Let's sing it out. Thank you.
His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. She is my Lord. She is a mighty king. His name is wonderful, Jesus my Lord.
Jesus, my Lord, the Rock of the The ground before him, the land of the Lord is. He made it wonderful, she was my Lord. Very good. I want all the gentlemen to sing this. All the men, ready? His name is wonderful, his name is wonderful, his name is wonderful, Jesus our Lord, his name is mighty This day
is one to go, he comes by Lord. He loved me, my friend, the God who is. Oh, mighty God with me. have before him, from heaven for him. This place is wonderful. All the ladies singing for us now.
He is the mighty King, and just of everything, His name was the Lord, Jesus was the Very good,
all together now. His name is Wonderful. His name is Wonderful. His name is Wonderful. She loved my Lord. This is the strength of our glory Very good.
Shall we turn to your manna and sing this beautiful chorus that Bill has written for us? To the tune of showers of blessing. I hope we can sing it. Somebody said yesterday that we're a little slow singing the one that he had written yesterday morning. But I was always trying to put in the other words to the other song. I had to keep on knocking it out of my mind when I was trying to put his words in. And so you helped me to try not to be confused this morning. And if I'm too slow, let's just pick it up, all right? Maybe I can't read as fast as you can. Let's try to do it.
Lift up your way, Lord be gracious, be as if I am. Where you live, you have been. There are two things that are made of heaven.
Thank you And we shall have to live.
All our lives will be tested. And the great God we shall heal. Very good. Wonderful glory of Christ, all of the world must be.
Christ will abundantly pardon, as who is our right name. He will abundantly pardon. Wonderful friend is he. He will no urgently pardoned, he whacked him down the tree. Rivers of mercy are flowing, kind of flowering.
He will abandons with our God, for China returns me. He will ask him that completely, when he was crucified, We move our heels and our judgment, Nothing for satisfied.
He will abundantly harden, Wonderful friend is He will abundantly harden, He bribes him down the street Rivers of wetland flowing, flowing from Calvary He will abundance before For China departed you.
Why should you longer refuse him, Wander in darkness gray? Shaman, believe and receive him. You can be saved today. He will abundantly harden. Wonderful friend is thee. He will abundantly harden. He has been on the tree.
The rivers of westerly and flowing are flowing from Calvary. He will abundantly harden for time and eternity. Thank you, Quartet.
That's good music. Thank you very much. Continuing our studies in the life and experiences of David, we're turning to First Samuel Seventeen this morning. Jim, I think we can have that in your notes and don't mind if you have it. First Samuel chapter seventeen. The moment we're going to read, but first of all, let's pray. I think it would rest as if we stand.
Let's all stand as we ask our Father's blessing. Loving Father, before we turn to thy book this morning and seek to hear thy voice, we would call upon thee the living and the true God. We remember it is written that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And while many of us have been saved by thy grace from the eternal penalty of our sin, by our Redeemer's work on the cross, yet we need to be saved afresh, saved from the onslots of temptation and a wasted life.
We pray thee that thou will speak to us now through thy word. We're so grateful to thee for the confidence that thou has given us, that this is thy book. Again and again we've come to thee and we've come expectantly, and thou has not disappointed us. Thou has spoken to our hearts. May this be no exception. Bless us and glorify thy name. We pray thee in our study, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. The seventeenth chapter of First Samuel, and I suggest that we read from verse forty to verse fifty-four.
First Samuel seventeen, verse forty. Let me read it this morning, and he, that is David, took his staff in his hand and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, which he had even in a script. And his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine. Philistine came on and drew near unto David, and the man that feared the shield went before him. When the Philistin looked about and saw David, he disdained him. He was but a youth and ruddy and of a fair countenance. The Philistin said unto David, Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves?
And the Philistin cursed David by his gods. The Philistin said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the veils. Then said David, as a Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee. and I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowl of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
All this assembly shall know that the Lord saith not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. Came to patch when the Philistine arose, and came and drew near to meet David, that David hastened and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. David put his hand in his bag and took it into the stone and slung it and smote the Philistine in his forehead, but the stone sunk into his forehead, and it fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and smote the Philistine and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David.
Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheep thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted and pursued the Philistines. What a courageous crowd they were. Shouted and pursued the Philistines until thou come to the valley and to the gates of Echron, and the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way of Shereim, even unto Gath and under Echron.
The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they spoiled their tents. And David took the head of the Philistines and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor, that is Goliath's armor, in his tents. Now, in reading such a well-known and vivid story as this, story that comes down to us from our earliest Sunday school days, I think it's very necessary for us to seek the Holy Spirit's leading in bringing the lessons to bear upon our contemporary situation.
After all, it's very interesting, to put it mildly, to thumb back through these Old Testament stories. Our emotions are stirred and our admiration is captured. But after all, there is little profit of a practical nature unless the Spirit of God makes this very, very real in our own everyday experience. You know, there are many of us In fact, all of us who are Christians who believe in the God of history and we believe in the God of prophecy.
But there are very few of us, I suggest, who believe in and know the God of today. It's one thing to believe all the great historical records of the Bible concerning the marchings and the activities of the Almighty in days gone by. Every one of us salutes the God of Abraham, the God of Jacob, the God of David, the God of Isaiah, the God of Paul, the God of James, the God of Peter, the God of George Muir, the God of David Livingston, the God of Moody, the God of Wesley.
Then we look on to the future, and we all give ready a sense to the great prophetic happenings of tomorrow. We don't question these, but the God of history is the God of prophecy, and what he has done in the past is going to do in a greater and mightier way in coming days, and the consummation of prophecy. All that is to the good. And yet, unless we believe that that God still lives and still moves, and is still is still as trustworthy as he was in days gone by will be pretty nominal Christians at best.
Do you agree? I think so. And so one of the purposes of Bristol Bible Conference, if I have gazed the mind of the conveners, is that you and I might be brought into fresh and living touch with the God of heaven and with Christ his Son and with the Holy Spirit's activity in our daily life. And so, in turning to these stories of David, we're anxious that they will become very contemporary, current in our own life and experience.
Now, in considering the character of David. Sometimes the question is raised when we think of David as a type of Christ. The question is raised as to David's failures. People sometimes say, how can you contend that David is a type of Jesus Christ in the light of the sordid story of Second Samuel How do you account for the fact of David's backsliding and the stains that came upon his life?
Well, let no one imagine that David was a sinless carrier. He was not. I think the answer to that problem is this, that David may be viewed in two aspects, officially and personally, officially, he is an unquestioned picture of one whom we call Great David's greater son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll repeat that, officially, in his official character, he presents Christ in the varied aspects of his glory.
But you personally... He becomes a mirror in which I can see a reflection of my own heart. In other words, personally, he stands on the page of Scripture as one of like passions with ourselves. God never dresses up his characters. He never touches up his portraits. When he snaps a man's picture or a woman's picture and holds him up in this book and pins up that picture in this art gallery of inspiration, he presents him as he is with all the wrinkles and the crow's feet and the marks and the scars and says, there he is, not in order to discourage me, but in order to encourage me.
and show me how that I too may avoid his mistakes and recapture something of his victory. Now, the story of David and Goliath is very, very familiar, and I'm sure that many, if not all of us, have seen Christ in the story. You'll remember that The setting of the story concerns a military stalemate that had immobilized the armies of Israel.
At this particular time, the armies of Israel were gathered in battle array opposing the armies of the Philistines. There were two opposite mountains. There was a yawning valley in between, and Israel was on one side, and the Philistines on the other. The leader of Israel was Saul, and the leader of the Philistines, of course, was Goliath at this particular time. But I say a stalemate had immobilized all military activities. For the giant of death, the Philistine champion, had come out every day for over a month, and he had bellowed out his challenges not only to Israel, but to Israel's gods.
His challenge was very simple. He was not prepared to take on all the army of Israel, of course, but the terms of his challenge concerned a man. He said, Give me a man, produce any soldier from among your ranks, from your king down to your buck private. I care not who he is. Show me a man, give me a man that we may fight together. If he succeeds in overcoming me, then we Philistines will be subject to you Israelites. On the other hand, if I am successful and I overcome him, then you Israelites will be servants to us, Philistines.
And the terms were very simple. He got no takers. As a matter of fact, from Saul down to his meanest soldier, they were filled with dismay, and they ran to their tents like rabbits to their warrants. The one, the man, to accept the challenge, not one. The background, the spiritual background, I think, is rather obvious. For four thousand years from Adam to Christ, man was faced with a great, arrogant, boastful, subtle, determined challenger.
His name was Satan. He had succeeded in winning the Battle of Eden. he has succeeded in injecting his poison into the human race, and in some strange, mysterious way, he exercised the power of death and thus terrorized all the sons of Adam. And for four thousand years, that great challenger gave out his challenge. Give me a man that we may fight together, and there wasn't one that could enter the list and accept his challenge, not one.
He laid low every one of the human race, and he held all in the grip of the fear of death, according to Hebrews chapter two. There wasn't one. He was the dominating power. He represented everything that was evil, everything that was opposed to the will of God, and wielding the great sword of sin, he terrorized and held captive the whole human race. But the curtain goes down on that particular episode in the story, and when it rises again, we're back in Bethlehem in the quiet pastoral scene of a farm.
The farmer's name Jesse, we met him last evening. Three of his sons had answered the call to arms and had enlisted under Saul's banner. They were at the front. But the youngest, of course, was much too young to enter military service, and he was back in the quiet of minding his father's sheep, keeping his father's sheep. composing perhaps some of his psalms, thrumming out his songs of praise upon his heart with skilled hands. There he was. To remember the time came when the father, Jesse, curious to know how the battle was going and as for the welfare of his three boys, he dispatched David, and David came from the retirement of Bethlehem to the front lines.
There are four movements, I think, in the story. There's David's retirement, and there's David's refreshment, and David's reproach, and then David's reward. In the retirement and the quiet of Bethlehem, we see, of course, obviously a picture of the true David before the battle was joined at the cross. Where was he, Lamb of God? Thy father's bosom ever was thy dwelling place, one with him in him rejoicing, one with him in power and grace. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God the same, within the beginning with God.
Our Lord then did not begin at Bethlehem. He had no beginning of days, nor end of years. His was the eternal association with the Father in the glory. He preceded all creation. Don't let any Jehovah's Witness so-called tell you that Jesus Christ was the first production of God and that He was the first creation in all the program of God. For if you do that, my friends, you surrender our Lord's deity at once, and you make him, you reduce him to the role of a creature rather than a creator.
One verse, dynamites, the whole satanic theory, and that's the third verse of John chapter one. You know it as well as I. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And I say to the Jehovah's Witness or the Russellite, if Jesus Christ was a creature, then in the light of John one and chapter, John one and verse three, then he must have made himself. Because it distinctly says, without him was not anything made that was made. No, friends, he was not made.
He was the maker. He was in the retirement's of his father's home before the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. You know the story of his coming, his retirement, is followed by his refreshment. The father sent David loaded with goodies for the boys at the front lines. He said, carry these cheeses, these presents, and so on. Thus assure them of the love of our hearts. David went, freighted with all these tokens of his father's care for his brothers at the front.
That's how our Lord came into the world, didn't he? He came, friends, with his arms filled. He came, with his heart filled. He came with value, blessing for man. He came to do us good, and he healed us sick. And he cast out the demons. and he took care of the stormy winds and the elements and the diseases that ravaged the human frame. Our Savior came, friends, and he laid down evidence upon evidence that he and he alone was capable of meeting every adversary that afflicted the human race.
But David was rejected when David came to the front He awakened the envy and the contempt of his brothers. You remember they said, Eliab said, Where did you come from, son? With whom hath thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? Oh, the scorn, the curled lip involved in those few sheep in the wilderness. That's all you're fit to look after. With whom hath thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? out of the naughtiness of thine heart, hast thou come down to see the battle? Battle. I've written in the margin of my Bible what battle?
There was no battle until David came. None whatsoever. And I suspect, I suspect, that the reason why Eliab and the other brothers weren't at all ready to welcome David perhaps because they weren't at all anxious, but the news of their cowardice get back home. There wasn't one of them who dared to confront your life. And so David was scorned and belittled, despised and rejected of men when he came.
Need I make the application? I think not. All you need to do is refer to John one and verse ten. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And in spite of all the lavish goodness that Jesus Christ the Lord brought, he was still scorned and despised of men, and the very men whom he came to flesh, instead of giving him a coronation, that gave him a crucifixion. He was rejected. But it was while David was at the front that the daily challenger came down the slopes and arrogantly called for a man.
And David said, What's this? Who's this? What's he saying? And someone reported to David what he was saying and the situation. And furthermore, informed him that the conqueror of Goliath would be rewarded, and his reward would be a threefold one. Did you notice that reward in chapter seventeen and verse twenty-five? Glance at it, will you? Seventeen and twenty-five, and the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man that has come up? Surely to defy Israel as he come up, and it shall be that the man that killeth him, the king, will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel.
A handsome reward indeed attached to any conquest that issues in victory. Think of it. The king will give him great riches. He'll give him a bride. He'll make the man his own son-in-law, and he'll make his father's house free in Israel, relieving him of all the oppressive taxation for which Saul's administration was notorious. Sure. A reward was attached to the victory. Again, I recall a verse in Hebrews chapter twelve.
You know it as well as I. Looking on to Jesus. the author and finisher of faith, who, for what? For what? For what? Say it. Say it. The joy that was what? Set before him. He endured the cross, despising the shame that sat down at the right hand of God. For the joy that was set before him, there was an acquired glory. There were rewards that lay ahead. Our friends' great riches lay beyond the cross. a bride lay beyond the cross. Freedom for all the household of faith lay beyond the cross. And David said, I'll take him on.
I'll take him on. In the name of the Lord, I'll take him on. David's acceptance was conveyed to Saul. And so The stripling was brought in before this giant cave. You know the story. How Saul looked, I suppose, rather pityingly at that boy. Sides him up and said sort of patronizingly, you know, my boy. Are you serious about this? I don't want to discourage.
I admire your courage, but after all, You're only a shepherd, boy. You're only a stripling, a killbilly. This man has been schooled in military tactics from his youth. You wouldn't have a ghost of a chance of ever overcoming him. However, if you insist, here's some armor. And he sought to fit out David in his armor. Imagine how that boy would look in Saul's armor. Saul was head and shoulders above all the men of Israel. Had David arrayed himself in Saul's armor, friend. He tripped all over himself, going down into that valley. He never could have won that battle. He could have put two David's, I suppose, into that suit of mail.
And so David said, I'll have none of these. I haven't tried them. And he... put them to one side. Never try to fight the Lord's battle in Saul's armor, Christian. Never try to be someone else. Never try to imitate the power or the tactics or the mannerisms of someone else. Be what God has made you. And friends, if God hasn't given you a coat of armor, he'll give you a sling and a stone. and he'll make you more than conqueror for Christ's sake. David went down into the valley, not with Saul's armor, not with a ponderous sword, but he went down into that valley, my friends, with his sling and with his stones and his strip.
You know the story, friends, of his faith, as he ran toward the giant and said, Look, Goliath, You've taken issue not with Israel, but with Israel's God, and I come to you dispatched and empowered by the God of Israel, and you will know and all your army will know that there's a God in Israel who lives and moves and who answers prayer, and with that the stones ped with deadly accuracy through the air, and it struck the giant on that vulnerable spot in the forehead, and in the moment it He was on his face on the ground, and David had mounted him, and with his own sword, not David's, but with the Goliath sword, had decapitated him, and holding the head of the giant, that gory, bloody, dripping head of the giant, high in his hand.
He, my friends, brought a shout of victory to the lips. of the tens of thousands of Israel as they looked on that great accomplishment, accomplished by one man in the valley who routed the armies of the Asians. That's what took place, friends, in a very real face at the cross. Our Lord was the true David. Our Lord came down into the arena. There was a problem. And that was the problem of sin. And sin, friends, had simply immobilized man.
Sin had defeated man. Sin had made man a coward. Sin had reduced man from a king, which he was originally in Eden. And sin had made him a sur-violent and abject slave. a shuddering, shivering, slave to sin. Our Lord came down into this world, not as the mighty God, although He was God, but He came in the role of a shepherd. He came in weakness. He came in dependence.
He came in obedience. And He became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross, and at Calvary's cross, our Lord entered into death the very stronghold of the strong man. And the third day, by rising from the dead, he brought to naught. He nullified him who had the power of death. Let me quote it in Hebrews chapter two, then verses thirteen and fourteen. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, that through death, that through death, he might destroy, nullify, render null and void him who had the power of death.
and deliver them who through fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage. It wasn't the death only of Christ that conquered the fall. It was his rising again from the dead. He came back from death with the head of the giant in his hand as the great victorious conqueror. This morning I present to your heart a risen and glorified Christ. Never forget that Jesus Christ arose again after he died.
I see sometimes on the walls of gospel halls and gospel chapels the text, Christ died for our sins. Beautiful text, but I suggest that it's a It's a truncated text. It's not complete. I said to some friends, I said, It's too bad. He's dead. They said, What do you mean? I said, Well, he's dead. He said so. He died for our sins. Brethren, that's not the gospel. Why? That's only half the gospel. It's only half the gospel.
The complete gospel is that it arose again in the third day. according to the Scriptures. And we have a living, conquering, victorious Christ today. But after David had accomplished the battle all alone, what did Israel need to do to get in on it? All they had to do was to help themselves. That's all. All they had to do was to accept the conqueror. And in accepting the conqueror, they accepted the spoil. How much fighting did the people do?
None at all. All they did was to cash in on David's victory. And if you want blessing this morning, all you have to do is to cash in on the mighty work of our Lord on the cross. On that cross, he settled us in question to heaven's eternal satisfaction. He bear our sins in his own body on the tree. He put away sin for the sacrifice of himself. He arose again the third day, and he wants to share the spoils with you, but you won't get a spoonful of them unless you come and accept him, and in accepting him, you accept those spoils as well.
That's the gospel. There must be on your part and on my part an appropriation. by faith of that victory, that accomplishment, that our Lord won upon the cross. But there are personal lessons here, too. There are personal lessons here, too. I think of the battle. I think of the men that were there that was a Saul there. Now, Saul was not exactly a coward. The preceding chapters demonstrate that.
Saul had been a brilliant leader. When the Ammonites swooped down, Saul said, I'm your man. But I tell you, friends, something had happened to Saul. He wasn't the man today that he was yesterday. He had accomplished victories in the past. If you don't believe it, read the preceding chapters. But when Goliath came, Saul shivered and shuddered as much as any of his truth. What was the matter? Saul had lost touch with God, and he had lost touch with the current situation.
Now, I'm not here this morning to discuss the theological problem as to whether Saul was ever regenerated or not. Personally, I don't believe he was. If you want to discuss it, we'll chat after. But I do know this, that Saul knew a good deal about God. I know that Saul used a lot of religious language. I know that when David said, I'll go, Saul said, the Lord be with you. He knew the language. He knew the formulae. And may I suggest that it's possible for you and for me to be has-been spiritually, to have lost touch with heaven, it's possible to have been brought up in the bosom of Orthodoxy, to be reared in a scriptural assembly or a Bible church and an evangelical Sunday school, and to know the gospel so that we could sit down and show another person.
And yet, friends, we know nothing about the power and the grip of it in our own personal lives. The older I get, the more fearful I become, less I lose touch. I confess. There's one text in the Bible that scares the wits out of me, and that's in the last verse in our chapter today, Brother McNeil. I keep my body under and bring it in subjection lest after having preached to others I myself become a one. Don't draw the teeth of that word. I know it means disapproved.
I know it means set aside in the race, but it's a strong word nevertheless lest I become a castaway, a has-beer. One who used to be used of God I used to enjoy these meetings and give my testimony and speak to souls. But today I'm not the Christian I used to be. Something's happened in my life. I've grieved the Spirit of God. There's an emptiness there. There's a vacuum there. Are you here this morning, Saul?
Am I speaking to you, Saul? Is God speaking to you, Saul? The victories of yesterday. They're yesterday. Not today. What's happened? David moved into this situation in the power of the anointing Spirit of God which had come upon him. As of last evening, And David, when he presented himself to Saul, and Saul said to him, How do you expect, reasonably expect, to be successful, David?
David said, In effect, Sir, Sir, this isn't the first time that I had come up against a formidable enemy. This isn't the first time, sir, that I faced the foe. And then he opened his diary, as it were, and he read a page to Saul that he had never disclosed before, I suppose, and that no eye had ever witnessed, excepting the eye of God. He said, Sir, thy servant kept his father's sheep. Boy, I like that, thanks. I like those words.
Thy servant kept his father's sheep. He didn't say thy servant's sheep. tried to keep his father's sheep. Didn't make too good a job of it, but he said, thy servant kept his father's sheep. That David is Christ. He keeps his father's sheep. You don't believe it, you trust it. He'll keep you. And sir, one day there came a lion, and another day there came a bear, and they were making off with one of my lambs, and sir, I went after the lion, and I went after the bear and I slew the lion and I slew the bear.
And, sir, the God that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, he's going to deliver me out of the paw of this big lion that's coming down the hill over here. I've proven him in the past. I'm going to prove him again today. you and I will never bring down, successfully bring down the Goliaths that threaten our lives with pity unless we learn to slay our bears and our lions in private. There had been private dealings between that boy and his god before there was the great public victory in the valley.
May I learn the lesson? May I learn the lesson? Every one of us here this morning has his lions and has his bears. You know what the weakness is in your life? It might be a bad temperament. It might be a gossiping tongue. It might be a sharp, sharp critical tongue that cuts. It may be the knowing cancer of covetousness. It may be that desire in your life to make a fast buck, people say. It may be laziness. It may be love of ease and luxury.
It may be pride, that dirty, stinking thing, self-importance, conceit, It may be, my friends, that your religious profession is simply a facade for an empty and a barren life. Oh, those lions and those bears must be conquered in private in the power of the Spirit of God before we will ever win many victories and bring down many Goliaths in public. It was by the power of the Spirit of God that this young man conquered.
The Spirit of God indwells you, Christian, and indwells me to give us a fresh enjoyment of Christ today and to enter in a practical way into his victory and cause us to sing with the Apostle thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. May God search our hearts and sanctify our lives. Shall we pray? We would conclude, O God, this morning by praying with this dear man, David, and say, Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me. and lead me in the way everlasting. Write these lessons upon our hearts. Grant that we may be victorious Christians in the power of the indwelling Spirit. For our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. Service is over.