Good morning. I do not know if I have ever said, “Good morning.” I am here.
I would like to read a little bit. I have one note, which is just the verses to read, because there are so many today that we are going to look at. Let us start in 1 Samuel 17.
Before we read that, how many have read the story of David and Goliath in the last three months? Raise your hand. Oh, cool. Okay.
This is 1 Samuel 17:45. I am just going to read a couple of verses.
And David said to the Philistine,
Thou comest to me with sword, and with spear, and with javelin;
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 up into my hand;
and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee;
and I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines this day
to the fowls of the heavens, and to the wild beasts of the earth;
and all the earth shall know that Israel hath a God.And all this congregation shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear;
for the battle is the Lord’s,
and He will give you into our hands.
This is David’s victory declaration right before he fights Goliath.
Another verse is Romans 6:6. How many have Romans 6:6 memorized? Raise your hand. I highly recommend this one.
Knowing this, that our old man hath been crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be annulled, or put out of work,
that we should no longer serve sin.
Him is Christ.
The last verse is Galatians 2:20.
We just did a weekend with the youth at Camp Willow Run and mainly used this verse.
I am crucified with Christ;
and no longer live I, but Christ liveth in me;
but in that I now live in flesh—that is, the body—
I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God,
Who hath loved me and given Himself for me.
Notice that first part especially: “I am crucified with Christ.”
Lord, we are so appreciative of Your goodness to us this morning. We are thankful, with our hearts overflowing, to be able to fellowship with You, remember You, and partake of the bread and the cup.
We thank You for being here this morning and for having Your Word in front of us. Lord, we thank You for Your glorious good news. We love to proclaim it, share it, and encourage each other with it.
We commit this time to You. We confess Jesus as our Lord. We stand with David’s declaration before Goliath, confessing that You have the victory. Lord, we bow our hearts before You, lift our eyes to You, and worship You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Some weeks ago, we started to talk about mighty men in the Bible. A number here were not there, and some who were there are not here today. That is what happens when we are sharing different weeks.
I do not want to give a boring overview where people fall asleep, but I do want to remind us of a couple things. One thing we discovered is that Christ Himself is the ultimate fighter, the ultimate mighty man. Christ is the mighty man.
The practice of all supernatural mighty men—the mighty men of God—is that the Lord Jesus is their mighty man. The Lord is the mighty man; He is the warrior.
We are using the term mighty man, though we could say warrior. In the Old Testament, the word is gibbor, or gibborim: mighty man or mighty men.
The main thing we tried to catch last time was that the victory is the Lord’s. He is the warrior. He not only has won battles and wins fights with His own mighty men, but, looking into the future, the final fights of all fights are won by Him.
All weapons are destroyed by Him. All fighting stops after He does the final fight. His final fight proves that there is no match anywhere near His fighting ability. Everything humanity can muster in the future will gather together to fight against Him, and all He does is speak a word, and they are slain. Satan and his armies are defeated.
In a way, the battles may let you down at the very end. We might like a match-for-match battle. I do not like to see a fight where one person goes out and knocks the other out after five seconds. You like to see two people who are equal.
When I used to wrestle, I had a match in my hometown, at my high school. I was so excited. I was team captain, a senior, and nearly the whole school showed up. The school newspaper said, “Jeff Pittman, mighty wrestler.”
We came to this battle—my team against another very good team—and I was in the 135-pound weight class. I naturally weighed 155 at that time. I am not going to tell you what I naturally weigh now. Every week, by the time I fought, I got my weight down to 135. It was terrible; do not do that.
I was ready to fight. We had new uniforms. Wrestlers wear tights, but ours were manly tights—they went down past the knee. When I first started, they were shorter and embarrassing.
We warmed up in front of the crowd. We exercised in our tights, got a little sweaty so that we glistened, and did our impressive moves. I did my throwing moves and show-off moves. It was almost like a show, though it was just warming up.
Then fight after fight, our team did pretty well. It came to my fight, there were some cheers, and I walked out. No one showed up.
The referee raised my hand, and I won. Everyone, including me, was sad. It was a letdown. I did not get to fight anybody.
Instead, we took someone from the JV team and put him out there so I could do something. He had a big bunch of curly hair, and he was trying his hardest because he did not want to be embarrassed. I was saying, “Dude, just let me do some cool moves.” We fought, I ended up winning, but it was still a letdown because there was nobody to fight.
With the Lord as the mighty man, in a real way, He stands up at the battle and there is nobody to fight Him. He speaks, and it is victory. It is over.
He has armies that could match against the other army—humans, angels, and overcomers from all the ages. Yet the Lord Himself simply fights the battle. The way of overcomers is that they have Him as their mighty man, and He turns them into His mighty men. Every battle they fight, they win supernaturally because they let the Lord fight. They cooperate with Him, but they let the Lord fight.
In the Old Testament, we see physical fights. In the New Testament, some things are physical, but many things are seen more clearly in the spiritual realm. Still, do not make it too clear-cut: spiritual in the New Testament and physical in the Old Testament. Both are happening in both places.
The demon-possessed man in the New Testament was beating up people. The seven sons of Sceva were beaten by a demon-possessed man because they tried to cast out demons as Paul did, but the demons knew Paul. If Paul had walked up, it would not even have been a physical fight. The spiritual overcomes the physical realm.
There are different types of mighty men: evil and good, supernatural and natural. There are supernatural mighty men, evil and good, and natural mighty men, evil and good. We may have some in this room who are naturally mighty men. But God’s will is for all of us to be supernatural mighty men, even if there is no hope for us of being naturally mighty.
This time, we want to look at David—not his whole story, and not mainly David as a man. Recently, Brother Kenney preached on David as a man after God’s own heart. This time, we are narrowing down to one foundational battle: David versus Goliath.
We know the general story from Sunday school and children’s books, but sometimes the stories leave out parts. I have had to pencil in pages in Gabriel’s little books because they are missing some things. I remember telling boys a bedtime story about David and Goliath, including David cutting off Goliath’s head, and they said, “That is not in the Bible.” But it is.
For little children, we may not always tell every detail. But for us to look at this story spiritually, some of the details are helpful.
We have two things to do today. First, we will look at David as a human being: a mighty man fighting a supernatural evil mighty man, Goliath. We will refresh ourselves with the story and learn some lessons for mighty men.
Second, and more importantly, based on the true story of David, Goliath, the Israelites, and the Philistines, we want to look at it as a spiritual picture. As 1 Corinthians 10:6 teaches, these things happened as types or pictures for us.
Let us turn to 1 Samuel 16:6-7.
And it came to pass, when they were come,
that he looked on Eliab, and said,
Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.But the Lord said unto Samuel,
Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature;
because I have rejected him:
for it is not as man seeth;
for man looketh on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart.
Samuel was about to anoint David. Saul, the king, had been anointed before this. He was very tall, a head above everyone else, manly, good-looking, and naturally a mighty man. He looked like a leader.
But Saul lost his kingship anointing when he rejected the Lord as King. He was supposed to be a king under the King of kings, but instead he made himself king. He lost the anointing.
The Lord told Samuel, “Do not be depressed about Saul. Rise up. I have chosen a son of Jesse to be My anointed king.” Samuel went to Jesse’s household, and Jesse brought seven of his sons. Yet he left David, the youngest, with the sheep.
When Samuel saw Eliab, Jesse’s firstborn, tall and good-looking, he thought, “This must be the new king.” But the Lord told him that He was looking at the heart, not the outward appearance.
This is what the Lord looks at even with mighty men. It takes the heart of David—a man after God’s own heart—to go the way of the supernatural mighty man. It means you are completely leaning on the Lord, knowing the Lord, walking with the Lord, and letting Him overcome through you.
David was left behind, apparently despised by his brothers and perhaps even looked down upon by his father. Yet Samuel asked Jesse, “Are these all your sons?” Jesse finally admitted, “There is one more.” Samuel said, “We will not sit down until he comes.”
David was brought in.
Now he was ruddy, and withal of a lovely countenance, and goodly to look upon.
And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he.
“Ruddy” means red. It is a compliment. Perhaps David had a reddish complexion or red hair; we do not know exactly. But the point is that he stood out.
He had a lovely countenance—literally, beautiful eyes—and a handsome appearance. Here was a handsome young man, but he was not chosen merely because of his appearance. The Lord said, “Arise, anoint him: for this is he.”
Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. The seven older brothers watched as the youngest, the one left with the sheep, was anointed king.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.
This is very important. At this anointing, David received supernatural might. In the book of Judges, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon someone, he would do something mighty. Samson experienced this. David was anointed to be king, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.
Saul had lost the Lord’s anointing and was troubled by an evil spirit. His servants suggested finding someone who could play music and bring peace.
Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite,
who is skilful in playing,
and a valiant man, and a man of war,
and skilful in speech, and a comely person,
and the Lord is with him.
The most important part of David’s description is this: “The Lord is with him.”
David came and played the harp for Saul. Whenever the evil spirit troubled Saul, David played, and peace came. The wicked spirit would leave.
Saul had gathered natural mighty men from all Israel, yet none of them could deal with this supernatural trouble. But David, the young shepherd boy anointed by the Lord, played the harp, and the evil spirit left. That is supernatural power.
In 1 Samuel 17, the Philistines gathered at the battleground. There were hills on each side and a valley in between. An army could stand on either hill, and the armies could meet in the valley.
The Philistines had oppressed Israel for many years. At one time, Israel could not even make weapons. They had to take their farming tools to the Philistines to have them sharpened.
Then a champion came out from the camp of the Philistines.
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines,
named Goliath, of Gath,
whose height was six cubits and a span.
Goliath was nearly ten feet tall. Saul was tall, but Goliath was on a completely different scale.
Goliath had a helmet of bronze, a coat of mail weighing around 120 or 130 pounds, bronze armor on his legs, and a great spear. The head of his spear weighed about fifteen pounds. He was huge, strong, experienced, and a man of war from his youth.
His shield-bearer went before him. This was not merely a big man; this was a trained champion.
Goliath stood and cried to Israel:
Why are ye come out to set your battle in array?
Am not I the Philistine, and ye servants of Saul?
Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me,
then will we be your servants:
but if I prevail against him, and kill him,
then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
Goliath defied the ranks of Israel and said, “Give me a man, that we may fight together.” Saul was Israel’s outward champion, and Goliath was especially calling Saul out.
And Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine,
and they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
For forty days, Goliath came out and taunted them. Every day, Israel came dressed for battle, but nobody fought. Saul did not take the challenge.
Jesse sent David to take bread and cheese to his three oldest brothers and to bring back news from the battle.
And David rose up early in the morning,
and left the sheep with a keeper,
and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him.
This shows that there were keepers for the sheep. David did not have to be left with them all the time.
David came to the camp as Israel and the Philistines were putting the battle in array, rank against rank. David left his provisions with the keeper of the baggage and ran to the ranks.
There is something about David’s earnestness. He rose early, came quickly, dropped off the supplies, and ran toward the battle. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him.
David heard Goliath’s challenge. He heard that Saul would reward the man who defeated Goliath with wealth, freedom for his father’s house, and one of the king’s daughters. But David’s deepest concern was not the reward.
He said:
Who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should defy the armies of the living God?
The Israelites had forgotten that they were the army of the living God. They were looking at themselves, with Saul as their greatest man, and they knew they could not match Goliath. But David saw that the Lord was the warrior.
Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard David speaking and became angry.
Why camest thou down hither?
And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart;
for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
Eliab despised David as merely a shepherd boy. But David answered:
What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
There was a cause laid upon David. He had been anointed king. In God’s sight, he was already the true champion of Israel. The necessity was upon him. This battle belonged to him.
Saul heard David’s words and sent for him. David said:
Let no man’s heart fail because of him;
thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
Saul told David that he could not fight Goliath because David was only a youth, while Goliath had been a man of war from his youth.
David gave his credentials:
Thy servant kept his father’s sheep,
and there came a lion, and a bear,
and took a lamb out of the flock.And I went out after him, and smote him,
and delivered it out of his mouth:
and when he arose against me,
I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear:
and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them,
seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
David was a shepherd. The Lord was his Shepherd, and David was a shepherd of actual sheep. He had learned that the Lord fights first, and then he could fight for the Lord.
A hireling might let a lion take a lamb. But David went after the lion. He rescued the sheep, grabbed the lion, and killed it. He did the same with the bear.
How could a young shepherd do that? The Spirit of the Lord was upon him. This is the boldness of the Holy Spirit. When the Lord anoints someone for a task, there can be a boldness that rushes toward the danger, forgetting self.
David concluded:
The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion,
and out of the paw of the bear,
He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with thee.”
Saul clothed David with his own armor: a helmet of bronze, a coat of mail, and a sword. David tried to go but said:
I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them.
So David put them off.
The warrior of the Lord has weapons that he has tested and tried. It is in the downtime that you learn how to fight.
David had spent much time with the Lord as his Shepherd. In that time, he learned to use his staff and his sling. If he went out in another man’s armor, trying to fight as Saul fought, he would lose. David had learned to fight as a shepherd-warrior.
David took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the brook, put them in his shepherd’s bag, and drew near to the Philistine.
The stones were smooth and suitable for throwing. Why five stones? Perhaps David was prepared in case he needed more than one. He was not overconfident in himself; he was confident in the Lord.
Goliath approached David with his shield-bearer before him. When he saw David, he despised him because he was young, ruddy, and handsome.
Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?
Goliath cursed David by his gods and said:
Come to me, and I will give thy flesh
unto the fowls of the heavens,
and to the beasts of the field.
David answered:
Thou comest to me with sword, and with spear, and with javelin;
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 up into my hand;
and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee;
and I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines this day
unto the fowls of the heavens, and to the wild beasts of the earth;
that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.And all this assembly shall know
that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear:
for the battle is the Lord’s,
and He will give you into our hands.
David declared victory before the battle began. He knew in his heart what the Lord was going to do.
When Goliath advanced, David hurried and ran toward the battle to meet him. David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone, slung it, and struck Goliath in the forehead. The stone sank into Goliath’s forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.
This was supernatural. Goliath had a helmet, a massive skull, and enormous strength. Yet the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell forward.
The Philistines knew the story of Dagon. When the ark of God had been placed in the temple of Dagon, their god fell face down before the ark. Now their champion, their giant, fell face down before the God of Israel.
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.
Then David ran, stood upon Goliath, drew Goliath’s own sword from its sheath, killed him completely, and cut off his head.
When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
David stood over Goliath, holding up the giant’s head. Israel saw who the real king was. They saw who their champion was. Then Israel pursued the Philistines with a shout of victory.
Later, the women sang:
Saul hath slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.
Saul became jealous because he knew that David was the one whom the Lord had chosen. Those who later followed David became his mighty men.
Who are we in this battle spiritually? Are you David? Are you Saul? Are you one of the Israelites, afraid of Goliath and failing day after day?
The answer is this: we are Goliath.
Goliath is supernaturally gigantic and evil, and every one of us has Goliath inside. Every one of us is also the Philistines. Every one of us has a Saul inside. Every one of us has an Israelite inside. And those of us who are born again have David inside.
This is a picture of what is going on within us.
The Bible uses the term the old man. It refers to Adam, but not merely Adam as one individual. It refers to the whole fallen Adamic race.
Goliath was not natural. He was a giant, a mixture, one of the Nephilim. In this picture, Goliath represents the old man: human nature supernaturally corrupted by sin, turned into something that Saul and the Israelites can never defeat.
Romans 6:6 says:
Knowing this, that our old man hath been crucified with Him.
Who crucified him? Christ crucified him with Himself on the cross. Christ took the corrupt Adamic race—this unnatural mixture of sin and humanity—to the cross.
As 1 Corinthians 15 teaches, Christ is the last Adam. He crucified the old man.
When David stood on top of Goliath and beheaded him, it pictures Christ’s victory. The old man, represented by Goliath, has been crucified.
The Philistines represent the flesh. Goliath is the champion of the Philistines.
The old man includes the whole fallen nature of all humanity. But the flesh is the specific expression of that corrupt nature in each of us. Your flesh may be bent toward vanity; another person’s toward anger; another’s toward lying. The corruptions may look different, but the champion is Goliath.
The battle against the flesh is won when Goliath is beheaded. Once their champion was dead, the Philistine army fled. In the same way, Christians overcome the flesh through the realization that the old man has been crucified.
Sin no longer has the right to rule over us.
Saul represents what we call the soul-life or self-life. Saul was naturally good in some ways, but he made himself king.
When Adam took from the wrong tree, he chose to live by his own strength. Saul represents our attempt to live by our own strength and fight our own battles. This is not talking about you as an individual; it is talking about the source of your life.
The Israelites represent us as individuals. We are not necessarily David in this picture. David represents Christ in us.
Christ has already defeated Goliath. The battle was won when Christ crucified the old man on the cross. He not only died for our sins; He took the old man and crucified him there.
What is the job of the Israelites after Goliath has been slain? They realize that self-life should not reign over them. Christ should be their source of life. Christ is my life.
They also realize that the battle is won. They shout the shout of victory and chase after the fleeing Philistines.
Every time you deal with your flesh, it must be based on this declaration:
My old man is crucified.
And as Galatians 2:20 says:
I am crucified with Christ.
When the flesh rises up and tries to confront you rank against rank, you can stand and say, “Goliath has been slain.”
What I have been trying to experience daily is to live on the other side of the battle. Daily, be like the Israelites declaring the victory of the battle. Realize that Goliath is slain.
Sometimes I come out of prayer and tell Catherine, “Goliath is dead.” She may wonder whether I am okay, but I mean that the Lord has refreshed me: the battle is won, and the old man has been crucified.
Then I begin to praise Him. The Israelites began to shout the shout of victory.
Every day counts. If we are going to be overcomers and mighty men, there are many things to learn about battles and fighting. But the foundation of it all is David versus Goliath.
The foundation is this: we are not prisoners of the Philistines. Goliath did not win. David won the battle.
All of us are no longer prisoners of the flesh. We are no longer bound to do what we do not want to do and not do what we want to do. We can stand in the revelation of the Lord and say:
I am crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live;
it is Christ who lives in me.
David has won the battle. David is holding the head of Goliath up. The victory is won. It is already over. The battle belongs to the Lord.
Do not start your day naturally, saying, “I am going to take on this day. I am going to do good things and not do what I did yesterday.” Do not be Saul in the morning.
Lay down your Saul kingship. Look away to the Lord. Realize that David slew Goliath. Christ has crucified that old sinful nature inside of us.
Declare and worship Him:
I am crucified with Christ.
Jesus is my Lord.
He is my King.
I am one of the Israelites who will follow Him, even into suffering. I want to be one of His mighty men.
Do not wake up depressed, thinking about the day before, with Goliath cursing you inwardly and the flesh standing against you. You are looking at the wrong time period of the battle.
Our place in the story is after the battle. The Philistines have fled. Goliath’s body lies on the ground, his head is cut off, and David is holding it up in the air.
That is our shout of victory.
The foundation of all our overcoming is realizing that Goliath is slain. The old man has been crucified. We are no longer slaves of sin. The victory is the Lord’s, and He has won it.
Lord, we stand as Your people, the people of the living God, confessing that the victory is won in Christ and that our old man has been crucified.
Lord, we tremble before You at the thought of going our own way, and we cast ourselves upon You. We thank You for such a salvation.
We worship You and commit ourselves to You, Lord. With all our dealings, struggles, forty days of tempting and trying, failing and realizing that we cannot match up, we lay it all down.
We pray that daily we would come and rest in the Lord, rest in Your great salvation, and confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord.
Lord, we confess You as our King. We give ourselves to go Your direction. In Jesus’ name, amen.