Gooding, David: Whose Son is He?

The first book of Samuel, chapter seventeen and verse fifty five. And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, as thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell. And the king said, inquire thou whose son the stripling is. And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite. Now, if you please, a passage in the gospel by Matthew in chapter twenty two. Matthew twenty two and verse forty one. Now, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What think you of the Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. He saith unto them, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand till I put thine enemies under thy feet. If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. And finally, Galatians chapter two. Galatians chapter two and verse nineteen: For I through the Lord died unto the Lord that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. It was surely a very tense moment when Saul, the son of Kish and reigning king of Israel, saw the stripling youth David go forth to meet the Philistine, taking with him such apparently absurdly weak weapons as a staff and a sling. For the very sight of it undermined the whole philosophy of Saul, his whole philosophy of kingship and undermined the very basis upon which he depended for his mastery over the people. You will, I'm sure, remember the sorry story of Saul's appointment to be king of Israel. God had decided long since that one day should, Israel should have a king, but certainly not on the terms upon which Israel eventually demanded a king. So that their demand for a king, when they made it, not only upset Samuel, but angered the Lord himself, who read it as a direct rejection of his own kingship. Samuel subsequently made it abundantly clear to the Israelites the high iniquity which their demand had represented. He said, Israel, you know, in olden days, when your enemies came against you, then you cried to the Lord, and consistently the Lord answered your cries and raised up for you a deliverer who saved you from your enemies and brought you peace. But when subsequently you saw the king of Ammon come against you, you said, this will not do. This cliff-hanging, nail-biting dependence upon God, when the enemy is already coming at you and you see his devices and you stand there shaking in your shoes, to have to wait on God and to depend on God is such a nerve-wracking experience, they said, that we've had enough of it. Samuel, they said, make us a king, make us a monarch like all the other nations have. So now, when the enemy comes against us, we shall have a monarchy installed, an institution permanently arranged that will be all ready to deliver us from our enemies. And they didn't dare say it, but what they were thinking was, so that then we shall no longer have to depend on this nerve-wracking exercise of waiting on God to raise us up a deliverer. Now, organization is good in its place, isn't it? But any organization or institution that relieves us of the necessity of waiting on God is a slippery slope to disaster. Of course, God is merciful to his people, and so he was then. And if he cannot teach us by kindly methods, then he has to teach us by letting us have our own way and proving its remarkable unwisdom. And so it was then, when the people asked for a king in independence of God, God himself chose out a king for them and presented them with Saul. Now, says the historian as he explains the situation, now Saul was a tremendous man. He stood head and shoulders above the people when God through Samuel, offered the people Saul as king and said, now, is this the kind of king you would like? They said, yes, Lord, now, now that's wonderful, Lord, now you've got the point. Marvelous, a big man who shall fight our battles for us. And so he did, for he was a big man, was Saul. And when the enemy came against them, the king of An- Ammon, a- a- and made a covenant with the people of Jabesh-Gilead that he would allow them to escape with their lives on the condition that the Jabesh-Gileadites allowed the king of Ammon to put out their right eyes so that they could no longer sight their weapons or draw their bows properly. And Saul heard of it. Then big man Saul showed his big manship. For he took a bullock and he cut it in pieces, and with the gore and the blood streaming out of the bits of beef, he sent the joints all around Israel to speak their silent message that anybody that didn't come after Saul, he might know what he could expect. He would be taken apart, like the book had been taken apart, and the fear of God, says the historian, came upon the, on the people. No wonder. That's big manship, isn't it? And big man methods to compel the loyalty of the people. But, uh, if your hope for salvation is in a big man, whatever do you do when your enemy confronts you with a bigger man? And all went well for Saul and the people until there came out of the camp of the Philistines a veritable nightmare of a man. He was a mountain. His helmet was like a wheelie bin and his spear like a telegraph post. A colossal man with a mighty head and vast muscles and an exceedingly tall stature. And now the big man Saul was to be found skulking in his tent in a yellow panic of fear. The big man Saul had found a bigger man. Now how should Saul command the love and obedience of his people anymore, when he lost so much face in not being prepared to go out to meet Goliath? And then came David, the mere stripling of a youth, brought by one of the officers into the tent and presented to his majesty, saying, this man has volunteered to go forth and meet Goliath. And Saul said to him, but my dear good boy, you can't go against Goliath. You are but a youth, and Goliath a man of war from his youth. How can you go against Goliath? David, in his charming simplicity and youthfulness, said, but oh, I can go against him. It doesn't worry me. You know, thy servant was keeping his father's sheep when there came a bear one day, and another day there came a lion, and I put my trust in the living God, and I went forth to meet the lion, and I went forth to meet the bear, and I ripped them in pieces. And the God who delivered me out of the hand of the lion and the bear will deliver me out of this mere pygmy of a giant. David had what Saul never did have, and that was personal experience of faith in God. That is why God had eventually rejected him, wasn't it? Because when he was asked to wait for God's prophet to come, he hadn't the nerve to trust God and wait. And trying to promote the battle before the battle was due, he nearly risked exterminating the whole armies of Israel. God had rejected him. A man without any faith in God. And so said he to David, well, if you will go then, well, take my armor. Well, that's all Saul knew about fighting the enemies of God, his big armor. And David, in his inexperience, went to put them on, but found them unwieldy and put them off again. How glad I am he did, aren't you? What an absurd suggestion it was to take Saul's armor to meet Goliath with. Why, if David had taken Saul's little pygmy sword and tried to approach Goliath to conquer him, Goliath would have stretched forth his spear and skewered David on the end of it long before David got within arm's reach of him. It was self-evident folly to take Saul's armor, wasn't it? So Saul had to stand there with his commander in chief Aha- Abner as David went forth to meet Goliath with the absurdly weak, so it appeared, the absurdly weak and foolish weapons of a mere stick and a sling. Whose son? Said Saul to Abner. Whose son is this youth? I must tell you what happened when Goliath caught sight of him. Because according to the custom of that kind of warfare in those far off days, the two single heroes would have emerged, each one from his own camp, and they would come towards each other like a Greek he- Greek heroes would, and then they would have stood still when they had reached shouting distance. And the one of them would have harangued the other, and when he had had his fill at it, the other would have harangued the first one, and they would have called each other every evil name they could possibly think about. And so it happened with David and Goliath, didn't they? They came out, each one from his camp, until they got within shouting distance, and then they stood, and first Goliath raised up his voice and called David every name he could think about. For when Goliath caught sight of David, he, his Philistine whiskers moved up and down, and his face flushed red, and he felt insulted to the very core of him. Here was a Philistine, the leading single combat hero in the whole Philistine army, armed like a veritable tank, and the Israelites are putting forth a mere youth in his tunic and armed with a little stick. Goliath felt it such a professional insult that he nearly refused to fight. It would be like putting me in the ring with Cassius Clay, wouldn't it? Cassius Clay wouldn't bother to punch me. Am I a dog, said Goliath, you will come to me with a little stick like a man would take to drive a dog out in his garden. He felt positively insulted. When the, the denunciation was over, David had his turn. And in true epic style, he commented upon his choice of weapons. But in this kind of fight, whether it among the Greeks or the Irish, or now amongst the Hebrews and the Philistines, the choice of weapons was crucial. And David explained it. I come to you with a mere staff because the issue at stake in this battle is not who is the bigger man. The issue at stake in this conflict is not who is the more skillful warrior. The issue at stake in this conflict is not who has the better weapons, the more powerful, or the more cunning. The issue in this conflict is that you, Goliath, have defied the living God. And I come to you with these apparently weak and foolish weapons so that all Israel may know that it is not my skill nor wisdom that will win the battle, but that Israel might know that there is a God in heaven. This God will destroy you, Goliath. We'll feed your flesh to the very birds. And so it happened. On that amazing day, the weapons that seemed weak and foolish proved to be the very power of God and the wisdom of God. Israel were once again renewed in their faith, not in the big man syndrome, but in God. Whose son is this? said Saul as he watched David go out to the battle? And now, with greater intensity and alarm in his voice, as he saw David return from the battle, return victoriously from the battle, he said to David, as David stood there with the grisly head of the giant in his hand, whose son are you, you stripling? And now it became urgent for Saul to know. Saul had promised that if anyone beat the giant, he would give him his daughter to wife. And now this mere youth with these strange weapons had overcome the giant. Saul was promised bound to give him his daughter to wife, and the man that had the king's daughter to wife had a claim upon the throne, of course. Saul began to see that his power was ebbing away from him. How would the people respect Saul anymore when he dared face the giant? And how would the people not love David for his wonderful victory. There, as Jonathan, as Saul stood with his crown prince Jonathan, dressed in his royal gear, and David stood with the head of the giant in his hand. That Jonathan's heart was knit with the heart of David, and he loved him. Crown prince though he was, he unbuckled his great baldric and gave it over to David and his bejeweled sword. Jonathan hitherto was the greatest warrior in Israel, but he had met the greater warrior whom he admired and loved with all his heart. And here was the beginning of the end of Saul's dynasty, as the crown prince fell in love with David and in symbol handed over to David. If that was were, if they were tense moments, they were even tenser moments, weren't they? So many centuries later, when our blessed Lord stood in the temple court. All week long he had been enduring the questions of Sadducees and Pharisees, as they had tried to trip him up in his speech, to catch him by their tricks and demonstrate that he was not the Messiah he claimed to be. And when, for the second time in his life and in his ministry, he had cleansed the temple, driving out the robbers from it, the Sadduceean high priests and temple chiefs were determined to kill him. And the curious thing was that when they decided to kill him, this Jesus told a parable that indicated that he was expecting to be killed. The parable of the vineyard, how the owner sent his son to collect the fruit, and the workman in the vineyard seized the owner's son and put him to death, that the vineyard might be theirs. And our Lord had told the parable which was telling the Pharisees and the people at large that he was expecting to be thrown out of Jerusalem and crucified and slain. And yet he had talked of himself as the stone, that if it should fall eventually on anyone, would crush them to powder. And how could it be? And what strange things were these? And they crowded round him with their questions. Came the Sadducees, and they said, now you, Jesus, you believe in a resurrection, don't you? Now what nonsense that is, they said, the very idea of a resurrection. And they said, take this instance, and they made up one, didn't they? A woman who had had seven husbands successively, and they all died, and then the woman died. And there they said, sensing that they had won their argument, in the resurrection, if there be such a thing as a resurrection, whose wife shall she be? And they thought they'd won. They thought they had proved the whole notion of a resurrection. Sad men, weren't they? Fancy thinking that you have proved there's no resurrection and that somehow that's a victory. Why, if there be no resurrection? We are of all men most miserable, aren't we? For if there be no resurrection, then death will make a final mockery of all human endeavor and reduce our intellects, our aesthetic judgment, our moral sense, and all our achievements to the meaningless dust of eternal oblivion. Fancy imagining they'd won a victory by proving there was no resurrection. And our Lord answered them and the Pharisees, when they had no more questions to ask, he said, now tell me the answer to my question. What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he? The words were dramatic, weren't they? He stood within inches of Calvary. He stood within hours of the greatest battle that was ever fought on our planet. With all his enemies pressing round him, a fear that they were going to lose their grip on the people, and that this Jesus of Nazareth would take the common people in their crowds to his obedience, and unseat the Pharisees, and unseat the very chief priest in the temple. With a great battle of the ages before him, he posed the question that Saul had long ages ago posed regarding David. What think you of the Messiah? Whose son is he? And we rightly ask the question still, don't we? They said he's David's son. How then does David, speaking by the Spirit, call him Lord? Said Jesus. Quoting Psalm one hundred and ten, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, that I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet. The Lord said to my Lord. Why, here is David talking about the Messiah. And he says, God, the Lord God says to the Messiah, who is my Lord. The Messiah is David's Lord. If David called the Messiah my Lord, how is he then his son? I don't know about you Australians, if it should be, gentlemen, that you are want your son to cut the lawn for you one Saturday, how do you address him? Do you say, please, my Lord, will you cut the lawn? No oriental would anyway. No oriental addressed his son as my Lord. Then David addressed the Messiah as my Lord. Whose son is he? With that challenge on his lips, our blessed Lord Jesus went to the battle. And oh, what a vindication there there took place. Look, you saints, the sight is glorious. See the Son of Man of sorrows now from the fight returned, victorious, the very giant's head in his hand. Every knee to him shall bow. And we ask it this morning, do we not, with awe in our hearts as we have celebrated his resurrection, returned from the battle, victorious? Whose son is he? Declared to be the son of God by the resurrection from the dead. The wonder of the success of his battle is this, that when the world by its wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of the message preached to save them that believe. For the Jews seek after signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Jesus Christ and him crucified, Jesus Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. By weakness like defeat, he won the Eden crown, trod all his foes beneath his feet. By being trodden down, the risen Lord returned victorious from the fight. Now we've got our question to ask for ourselves, haven't we? As we see the blessed Lord Jesus risen. Whose son is he? Paul answers the question. The Son of God, he said, who loved me and gave himself up for me. From now on, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. The life that I now live, I live by faith of the Son of God. They were tense moments when Paul spoke that word at the conference at Antioch, for he spoke them in the context of having publicly to rebuke Peter. For Peter at the conference had come perilously near to doing what Achan did at Jericho, you know. God cursed Jericho and all its works, did he not? And Achan, in a moment of folly, tried to salvage something out of the city that God had cursed. Peter, in a weak moment, had tried to do something very similar, for God had said that all they who take their stand on the law are under a curse. That the only way of justification is by faith in Christ. And Peter, in his heart of heart, believed it. But in a moment of weakness at that conference, Peter had withdrawn from the Gentile Christians and refused to eat with them, and thus had denied in behavior the very truth of the gospel. He was behaving now as if circumcision did count for something, as if the Gentile believers who weren't circumcised weren't truly believers and were not fit to have fellowship with. Peter, by thus behaving, was trying to salvage an old ritual and its significance that had come under God's curse, and he had to be rebuked. Listen, said Paul, if I build again the things that I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor, Peter. The only principle upon which we can live is this. I have been crucified with Christ. I at my best, I at my wisest, coming short of God's glory and deserving nothing but a cross. And I've accepted it, Peter, said Paul. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live. And yet it's not I who live, it's, it's Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. The logic is simple. My salvation depends upon the death of Christ. My life as a Christian depends upon the life of Christ, and I must hand over all to him, as Jonathan did when David returned victorious from the fight. Picture Jonathan then, will you? As he saw David coming from the fight victorious, and conscious of what he was doing with all the rights of the Crown Prince of Israel, he unbuckled his regal armor, and he handed it over to David. Shall we not do the same thing this morning? As we say in our hearts of him whom we are celebrating, we have s- we have seen him returning from the fight victorious, risen again, and we ask our question, whose son is he? Declared to be the son of God with power. Then is it true that it was the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me? Well, what shall I do? What can I do but strip everything I have and hand it over to him, that it may no longer be I that live, but Christ who lives in me. And may God bless his word for his name's sake. Amen.