Address—D. Andersen
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May return in our hymn books.
#241.
Savior through the desert, lead us.
Without thee, we cannot go.
Now from cruel change has freed us.
And has laid the tyrant low.
Let thy presence cheer us.
All our journey through we have enemies, and we need the Lord all the way through this desert. We can't do without him #241.
Savior through the desert.
Shine.
I thought to look at the account.
Of David and Goliath.
And I suppose everyone of you young people have read this account. Maybe you have read it several times. That's good. If you're well acquainted with it, we're more likely to get something out of it.
That is one thing about the word of God. We need to be better acquainted with it because.
The more acquainted we are with the word of God, the more we get out of it.
The more opportunity God has by His spirit to teach us, you know we have the best teacher.
The Holy Spirit. He's been sent into this world to teach us, to show us the things of Christ.
It's a wonderful thing that we have the Holy Spirit now. He was sent down into this world, and what characterizes this present period of time we're in is that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is here in this world, and everyone who is a believer has him in his heart.
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And He's in the church. He's present in the assembly to lead and direct. He helps individuals in preaching of the gospel, administering the Word. And so we're always looking to God and trust that we might be dependent upon Him to guide us by His Spirit.
First Samuel, chapter 17. I suppose most of you found it already.
Because you should know where this story is. And it's not just a story. This is not a fiction story. This is reality. And God has put this account in the Bible for our good and blessing. Whatever things were written before time were written for our learning. And so these things in the Old Testament were written. They were written for our learning.
God has erased all of this. This is his design. This is his purpose. How good to think that God has made every provision for us. And here we have this book full of good things, and every time you sit down to read it, it's a feast.
Here in First Samuel 17.
We read of the children of Israel at war with the Philistines.
Now the children of Israel were God's people and they had enemies.
You dear young people who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are the children of God, and you have enemies. We have enemies.
We're not to go through this world without being aware of this. Sometimes we're not aware that we have enemies, and then the enemy trips us up. We must be aware of it. And if we're aware that we have enemies, we can look to God to care for us and keep us.
Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shoka, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shoka and Esika in Ephes. Damon and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side, and there was a valley between them.
And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath of Gath, whose height was 6 cubits and a span nearly 10 feet tall. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, And he was armed with a coat of mail, And the weight of the coat was 5000 shekels of brass. And he agrees of brass upon his legs, And a target of brass between his shoulder and the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam, And his spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron.
And one bearing a shield went before him, and he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel.
And said unto them, Why are you come out? To set your battle in array? Am I not IA Philistine? And ye the servants of Tusaw, choose you 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. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.
When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now David was the son of that apartheid of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse, and he had eight sons. And the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle. And the names of his three sons that went to the battle were reliable first born, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shamma.
And David was the youngest. Now remember that David was the youngest and the three eldest followed Saul. That is followed in the army. They were in the army.
But David went and returned to Saul, to return from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself 40 days. And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren, and eve of this parched corn these 10 loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren, And carry these 10 Jesus unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge.
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Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines, And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to the battle, and shouted for the battle.
Now we won't read any further for the time being.
But here are the children of God and their enemies at war.
And we noticed that they, they fight in a valley that would remind us of this world in which we are we're down here in this world, and this is where the battle is taking place between God's people and the enemy.
Now we notice when Goliath presents himself the enemy of God's people, he was really the leader of them. He was the champion, that says.
And there is a champion today in this world. The devil.
Walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. There is an enemy about.
And he's down here too, and he's trying to do all the.
Ruin Bringing all the ruin that he can to destroy and distract and turn things upside down.
Remember how he came into the Garden of Eden and spoiled things there? What a solemn thing.
Well, actually the battle is between God and Satan.
And God has his people here, and he wants to use them for his glory. He wants them to be for his glory down here. And you, dear young people who belong to the Lord God, wants to use you to be a testimony for him here, to live for him here, to live. Christ here. But you can't do it by yourself, no more than these Israelites could fight the Philistines by themselves, Nor could they fight Goliath. Notice. They're afraid.
They're afraid of Goliath, it says in verse 11, when Saul and all Israel heard those words.
Of the Philistine they were dismayed and greatly afraid. There was that towering man.
Coming down into the valley, presenting himself for 40 days. What a trial it was for the children of Israel. And they couldn't find one man among them that dared go and fight with Goliath. There was Saul. He was a head taller than anyone else in Israel.
A stately mind. He didn't dare go fight with him. There was Jonathan, a real warrior. He didn't go there to go fight with him. And I'm sure they had many other good warriors in Israel, but they didn't dare go down and fight with Goliath. And so Goliath was having his way there for 40 days.
Are you afraid of the enemy?
Are you greatly dismayed? I'm sure you dear young people, you run into things, temptations and testings, where you're really afraid and you're dismayed and you don't know what to do. You say, well, these temptations are just too much for me. We were having yesterday about the lust of the flesh warring against the soul. And you say, well, these lusts of the flesh, they're just too much for me. I know. They're warning against my soul.
And I don't know what to do. You're afraid, you're dismayed, and you're at your wit's end.
Maybe you're feeling like the one writing in the 7th chapter of Rome, he says. When I would do good, then I find that there's evil with me. I want to do the good, but I don't do the good, I do the bad.
All wretched mind that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
Well, there's only one that can do that, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're introduced to David here, who is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. We get a wonderful picture here of the Lord Jesus Christ coming in to undertake for his people. It tells us about David that he'd gone back to his father's place and he was taking care of the sheep.
We find that David had a great love for his sheep.
He would risk his life for those sheep and if you go further down.
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We might read further down in the chapter now.
In verse 28.
One of his brothers says to him.
Why camest thou round? Hit her. What did you come for?
Or you just came to see the battle. You wanted to see the war.
But David says in verse 29. Is there not a cause? Is there not a reason why I came?
Well, of course there was. We read back here that his father had asked him to go. He commanded him to go, and he went.
One thing that characterized David was obedience. Obedience.
You know we can go a long way if we're obedient, obedient to our parents, obedient to the Lord, obedient to the word of God. And what an example of the Blessed Lord Himself was in that when the devil came to tempt him, he would not do one thing contrary to the word of God. And he quoted the word of God three times to Satan. And why did he quote it?
Was there something magic about the word of God that could overcome Satan? No, not especially, except that it was a word of God and it had power. But it showed the dependence of the blessed Lord Jesus, his obedience to God the Father and dependence upon him. And you, dear young people, if Satan comes to tempt you and try you if you're faced with the enemy, that is the time to be really dependent upon the law.
That is the time to know what the word of God is and be obedient to the word of God.
Act upon the word Be obedient if you're in the habit of being obedient to God.
When a time of temptation comes, what will happen? Will you just be cast upon the Lord? It depends to lean upon him.
And seek grace to be obedient.
You don't get this all of a sudden, you know, if you've not been in the habit of obeying the word of God and being obedient and dependent.
You don't get it. All of a sudden this has to be part of your life, and this is part of growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Well, David was obedient, and he says, isn't there, 'cause I came here because my father asked me to come. Well, why did the Lord Jesus come down into this world? We had that verse read this morning. He had gotten a commandment to lay down his life. He had a commandment to take it again. He had a commandment to come, he said. When he came into this world, I come to do thy will, Oh my God.
What a savior we have.
We can trust him, and he vanquished Satan there during that temptation in the wilderness.
And he conquered him again, time after time he has annulled.
The power of the Devil. He has taken his power away from him.
And when you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ leaning upon him, the devil can't have any power against you. No, he can't. He that's born of God.
Sin of not he keepeth himself, and that wicked one touches him not.
Why? What does it mean to be keeping oneself? Well, it's born of God. As a child of God, you have a life and a nature that's dependent upon God, and you keep yourself in that state of dependence upon God.
Well, that comes through exercises, so it doesn't come all of a sudden. It comes through exercise of soul. You feel well, here's here's something I'm facing. I don't know how to go through with it. I I don't know what to do. Well, just go to the Lord independence, lean upon him and he will help you through.
For without the Lord, we can do nothing. The Lord himself said that without me you can do nothing. And if you're really trusting the Lord, the devil can't touch you.
No, he can't.
Isn't that wonderful? To know that the Lord Jesus Christ has annulled the power of the devil and he can't have power against us? If we're trusting in him, we're trusting in the Lord Jesus.
Now notice what David says in verse 32, and David said to Saul what no man's heart failed because of him. Thy servant will go and fight with this philistine.
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Just think of it. What would make David say something like that? My what confidence he must have had in God, because it certainly wasn't confidence in himself that he had. And a lot of times, dear young people, we fail because we got too much confidence in ourselves. We're trusting in ourselves and we can't keep ourselves.
Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He is the one, He is the one that we should have confidence in, not in ourselves. And a lot of times there's a fall because we've been trusting in himself.
In ourselves. If we're trusting in ourselves, we're going to have a fall. Let him think of these standards. Take heed lest he fall.
We never should think that we can stand by ourselves. We can stand only as we're leaning upon the Lord.
The young man sitting beside me here before I stepped up to the rostrum.
He asked if I got nervous.
Well, I said. I get uneasy, but I said I have to lean on the Lord.
We can't stand up here.
And speak for the Lord without leaning on him.
And this is a lesson we need to learn, that we need to lean on the Lord. We just can't do anything without the Lord.
So dear young people, if you've been going on in self-confidence thinking you can meet this and that and the other thing in your life, you can't. Absolutely not. You must lean upon the Lord.
And David said, Let no man's heart fail, because of him thy servant will go and fight with this philistine.
And Saul said unto David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. Yes, all recognized that David was just a young fellow. I don't know how old he was. I don't suppose he was much beyond 17 or 18. Just a youth. You still rotting?
He knew nothing about war, but there was one thing he knew. He knew how to trust the Lord.
And your young people, and you may not know very much about the war between the enemies of God's people and God's people.
But.
You should be characterized by trusting the Lord.
And they would said unto Saul.
Thy servant kept his father's sheep and became a lion, and a bear 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 rose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
And that makes us realize what love he had for those sheep.
His heart was stirred when he saw that lion, that bear coming. Thinking about that lion or bear would take a lamb out of the flock and run off with it and devour it. He couldn't bear the thought of it. He just went, and he met that lion, and he met that bear.
Dispatched both of them.
Well, did he do it in his own strength? Of course not, in that he was trusting God.
For strength, for help.
Then it says, Thy servants slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them.
She he hath defied the armies of the living God.
The heart of David.
We're just welling up with concern and love for God's people.
David.
Was a real shepherd. He was a shepherd at heart. He loved those sheep and those lambs.
He loved God's people too. No wonder he was a man after God's own heart.
And no wonder God put him on the throne to shepherd his people, and he shepherded God's people for 40 years.
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Where did it begin?
Began back there as a boy shepherding his father's sheep.
He learned to love them. He learned to love God's people. You dear young people. This is the time to start loving the people of Gulf.
You perhaps have a tendency, some of you at least, to want to sort of go on independently by yourself. Perhaps you don't feel the need of your brethren.
You don't have a concern for your brother, You don't care for your brother, and you don't love them.
Ah, but God wants you to love your brother.
See, we've been exhorted to love one another.
By this shall all men know you're my disciples, if you have loved one for another.
This love David had for God's people.
It characterized him and it gave him character.
And we admire David.
Well, when we think of David, we think of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it and all the blessed Lord had such a concern for the Church that he would go to Calvary's cross and give himself there.
Just like David did when he went down into that valley to fight with Goliath.
Why David put his life in his hands? Jonathan recognized that as we read further on in this account, he was telling Saul about it, and Saul by this time didn't like David at the time this was said. And Jonathan says to Saul why David put his life in his hands.
He just gave himself. How can you hate him? How can you want to kill him?
Well, the blessed Lord loved the Church and gave himself for.
How could it be that there could be those that would hate the Lord Jesus?
And crucify him, put him on cross and destroy him. How could it be?
Oh, what a heart he had for the church.
And if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins are all forgiven, you have eternal life. You're part of the church. Because a real believer in the Lord Jesus Christ receives the Holy Spirit. And by the Holy Spirit, he's joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church in heaven, and joined every other member of the body of Christ.
Well, the Lord Jesus.
Loves the church. Do we love the church? Do we love one another?
This is very important from your youngest days, from the very time you've accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, to have that sense in your soul. Well, I'm part of the family of God and I'm a part of the of the body of Christ, and I'm joined to all of my brethren, all of you young people who know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You're all joined together.
As members of one body.
And joined with the older ones of us were all one body.
This is what we need to learn and have before us more that we're all members one of another.
Were joined together.
By an intimate relationship and joined by the Spirit of God to one another.
And so, dear young people, when you do something, it affects all the rest of the members of the body of Christ.
And if you're going on badly disobedient to the Lord.
And going on in with worldly, lush places of the world, going on in a way dishonouring to the Lord, it affects all the rest of us dear young people.
Sometimes it's stated that a chain is no stronger than the weakest link.
And dear young people and I speak to myself that when we get into a low state of soul, a poor state of soul, and we're not going on with the Lord, we're a weak part in the body of Christ.
And we're used by the enemy to drag down the spiritual tone of the assembly.
All this should exercise our hearts to go on with the Lord, to please him, to be what we ought to be, to honor and glorify God, that the spiritual tone of the assembly might be lifted up.
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And this, this applies to every one of us, not just the young people.
Tell us what he speaks, how he speaks of the children of Israel in the end of verse 36.
Speaking of Goliath, he has defied the armies of the living God.
All Goliath could see was that they were the armies of Israel, but David saw them as the armies of the living God.
That makes a lot of difference.
How do you see God's people?
People of the living God, not just a company of Christians, not just a group of Christians come together.
But with the people of the living God.
Now David had said that he would go.
And fight, he says.
The Lord will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine verse. 37 And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee. Well, Saul wanted to give him some armor to put on. Well, David tried on the armor.
But he says in verse 39, I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them, and David put them all well. That armor would speak of carnal means, whereby we might overcome the enemy. Are you trying in some carnal, fleshly way, in your own strength, to overcome the enemy?
Well, you know what happens. You get nowhere that way.
David hadn't proved that armor, but he had proved the Lord. The Lord helped him to slay the lion. The Lord delivered him out of the paw of the bear.
And he believed that the Lord could deliver him out of the hand of the Philistine. He had proved that. Have you proved that God can undertake for you, and help you, and keep you?
Now this is the thing to prove, but don't trust in carnal means.
No. If we're trusting in ourselves, we'll get nowhere. We can't keep ourselves any more than we can save ourselves. We must trust the Lord to save us. We must trust the Lord to keep us. You know that sheep that the shepherd went to find? He put it on his shoulders and carried it all the way home.
Oh, let's trust that one, the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep and carries the sheep all the way home.
Are you trusting him to help you?
Now, David.
Took his staff verse 40 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.
Five smooth stove.
I wonder why he took 5 stones.
Well, if you read the account carefully.
As you go through the Bible, you'll find that there were five giants.
Five of them.
They were finally all slain, but no doubt David knew.
That there were five giants and he was ready for everyone of them.
If he wasn't afraid of one giant, he wouldn't be afraid of five giants.
He knew the Lord would guide him and help him to sling those stones.
And he was number doubt one of those that could sling a stone at a hair's breadth, as we read about some that could of the Tribe of Benjamin.
And who gave him that gift and that ability to do that?
It was the Lord and who guided that stone that day. It was the Lord that guided the stone.
Five smooth stones.
I have written down here 5 things that might answer to the five stones.
God is.
God has.
God can.
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God will. God does.
God is.
You must believe that that God is there is a God.
God has. He has all that's necessary.
For us, God can. God can do anything.
God will, God will undertake for us.
God does. God does undertake and God does help us. God does carry us through. God does give us the victory thanks be to God which give us us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you longing for victory in your life you say? Yes, I'm longing for victory.
Thank God for the victory he gives through the Lord Jesus Christ. That scripture is found in in the 15th chapter, First Corinthians.
It's connected with the resurrection, resurrection power, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of Saints.
The mighty power of God was manifested in resurrection, and thanks be to God which giveth us the VV and resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And victory and resurrection is powerful and his power that we need. But where is it thanks me to God who gives it? You want victory? You'll have to go to Him about it and thank him for the victory he gives too.
Many a time I've gone back to that scripture.
Thanks Peter God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, we felt the need of power when we were in that Pagan tribe in Africa.
For 10 years.
We just felt we couldn't go one day, one step without the law.
Because we could feel that we were in the enemy's land, We could feel the demon spirits all around, because that's all they worship. They were worshipping the devil. They were worshipping demons.
Because Paul says they that worship sacrificed to idols, they sacrifice to demon.
The demon sits behind every idol.
And when they bow down to an idol, they're bound down to a demon.
And that's what we were in the midst of, and we felt we needed the power of God. Makes me think of one time I was in the village.
And there were two chiefs under chief sitting listening to the gospel.
And evidently these chiefs got under conviction.
And they wanted to accept Christ as Savior. They want to be saved.
And they had anklets on one leg. Each of them had an anklet.
And that was a sign of power They had gotten to be a chief, and it was power from the devil.
Because that anklet was made from the tendon, from the back of the leg of a human being that they had killed.
And if they did not have the grit to kill somebody?
To get that tendon to wear as an anklet around their ankle.
They couldn't be. They weren't fit to be achieved. It would show they didn't have power to be achieved.
But what kind of power was it?
Was a devil's power that anklet represented the power of the devil, that the devil had got those chiefs under his power.
So I when they expressed that that they wanted to be saved, they wanted to be Christians, I said, well, how about those anklets?
Because I knew what they represented.
The one chief got out his knife.
And he cut that anklet.
A daring thing for him to do.
But he was free. The other chief, he got his knife out.
And he tried to do the same. He fainted away. He wasn't real.
The first one was real. He really trusted Christ. But the other one was just following the the other chief. He wasn't real. He couldn't cut that ankle. He fainted dead away. He didn't die, but he fainted away.
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See the power of the devil. We've seen it in those heathen places and it's coming in here more and more dear young people.
And we need to be beyond our guard. All how. We need to be trusting the law, relying on the law.
Just like David was trusting God, he could overcome.
We can't overcome in any other way but by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to care for us and to keep us.
There's more and more witchcraft coming into this country, more and more sacrificing to to idols, to demons.
Oh, how sad it is to see that we.
That we used to be called a civilized line. We're going backward. We're sliding backward into paganism, into heathen gum.
May the Lord give us grace, dear young people, to trust the Lord that we might be kept because we can't keep ourselves in the midst of a perverse and wicked generation as we're living in now.
Now in verse 45.
David says to the Philistine, Thou cometh 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.
The Philistine at cursed David.
Cursed him by his gods.
But David says I come in the name of the Lord of Hosts.
I come in the name of God, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you've defied.
People that you have defined belong to God.
This is solemn faith, and David felt it in his soul.
Today 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 thee coxes of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. This is what David had in mind.
That the whole earth might know that there was a God in Israel.
He wasn't thinking about the importance of Israel, but he was thinking about the honor of God. Is that what you're thinking about in living your life down here?
We're nothing. But God is everything. We're nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ is everything.
His owners at stake if we're not going on pleasing to him.
Do we want to shame the law? Do we want to bring this honor upon the blessed law?
In verse 47, David says the battle is the Lord's, the battle is the Lord's. You're having a battle in your life, you dear young people.
Yes, you say. It's a real battle.
The flesh wars against the Spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary to 1 to the other.
Oh, you say. That's right, there's that fight.
For all, thank God that He's given us His Holy Spirit who is there because the rest of the verse says that you may not do the things that you would.
That you may not do the things that you would thank God he's put his Holy Spirit in our hearts.
And we don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit by disarming the law, but we want to honor the presence of that Holy Spirit in our hearts in this temple of clay. Because the Apostle Paul says ye are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and He's there.
To help us, to keep us.
That you may not do the things that you would.
Walk in the Spirit, he says, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. What is it to walk in the Spirit? To trust the Lord to be cast upon him, to be occupied with him, to be filled with Him? Read his Word. It's filled with the Word. It's filled with Christ. And if you get filled with these things, there won't be room for these other things. Our problem today is we lay ourselves open to all kinds of loss, the loss of the flesh.
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The lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Because our hearts are not filled with the good things, not filled with the Word, not filled with Christ. If our hearts are full of Christ and full of the Word, there's not room for these other things.
But these other things come and fill up our hearts because.
They're more or less empty.
There's room for these things.
Well, it tells us how David slew Goliath with that stone, and it says in verse 50 there was no sword in the hand of David. It wasn't with a sword that he killed Goliath. It was just in the simple way for the stone where we sing Faith is a very simple thing, but little understood.
May we learn more about faith trusting the law?
And then David takes Goliath own sword and cuts his head off. That is, he does a thorough job of destroying this enemy of God's people. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Through death we read of the Lord Jesus. Through death he destroyed him, or know the power of him that had the power of death.
That is the devil through death. The Lord Jesus did it.
Through death he destroyed the enemy. He took his power away from him. He took the low place.
And in going into death, he took the devil's power away from him.
That's why if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, the devil can't have any power against you.
Now they all want to hear from David something, a story and account.
And it says here in verse 55, when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host.
The captain of the army, Abner, whose son is this youth.
And Abner said, as I so liveth, O King, I cannot tell why David wasn't very well known at all, just like the Lord Jesus Christ. When he came into this world, he wasn't well known. They didn't want to know about him. They didn't even know where he was to be born.
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. Saul said unto him, Who son art thou?
Young man.
And David answered, I'm the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehem I. He didn't have any titles. No, he wasn't a king. He wasn't a Prince. He was just a lowly shepherd.
But there was somebody listening.
When David was talking to Saul.
It was Jonathan. You read about it down the next chapter, and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul with the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
Something happened to Jonathan. Something came over him. He was stern.
When you heard David speaking.
You've heard the Lord Jesus speaking. You've seen the work that he has done.
Has it stirred you? There was Jonathan looking as David went down to fight with Goliath.
I suppose, Jonathan said. Oh, I wish I had the courage to go down there.
And he couldn't help but admire David.
You've seen the Lord Jesus Christ go to Calvary.
Go there to deal with all of our enemies.
Satan, the flesh, the world, all of our enemies were dealt with in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've seen it, and you've heard him speak. He speaks in His word.
00:50:12
How about it? Are you like Jonathan?
Says Jonathan Was the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David. Jonathan loved him as his own soul. How about you? Do you love the Lord Jesus as your own soul?
If you do, you always put him first in everything.
But the sign that you don't love the Lord Jesus with your whole soul is that oftentimes you're putting yourself first. You're thinking of yourself. Isn't this a habit of ours? Isn't this a sad failure of ours? I'm including myself.
All that we might meditate more upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and what he has spoken. And our hearts will be won. That's what we need today, young people. We need hearts that are one one to Christ.
One to Christ.
You young men.
Who are married?
You won the affection.
Of your life partner.
Her heart was one.
Not a happy day, a happy day for you. And a happy day for her too.
All the day when our heart is 1 to the Lord Jesus Christ won over to him.
Our soul knit to his.
It's a happy day for us, and it's a happy day for the Lord Jesus too. Oh, what joy gives to the Lord Jesus Christ?
To find that our hearts are one, that He's won our hearts.
And he's put first in our lives.
Then it says, Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Well, Jonathan enjoyed enjoyed the presence of David.
But when the people began to sing in songs about Saul slaying his thousands and David his ten thousands, Saul didn't like that.
He became jealous and jealous. He ate his heart out. Well, that's the man of the flesh. That's what Saul represents. And Saul became an enemy of David.
So the day of his death was a solemn thing. And we must remember, dear young people, that we have something in us, the flesh that's still an enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that flesh, that fleshly nature of yours, will seek to lead you to do all kinds of things to dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ. That flesh is still an enemy of Christ.
Don't forget it.
That's why we read in Romans chapter 6. Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Christ died on Calvary's cross, everyone of us who have believed in Him have been identified with him in his death. And we've died to the world. We've died to the law. We've died to sell the old flesh.
Let us reckon it that way.
Let us leave it that way. Go on with the Lord.
With this in our hearts and minds.
But we notice what Jonathan did.
In verse 4, Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him.
And gave it to David. Well, why would he do that?
Well, later on, if you read further on, you'll find that Jonathan says to David, I know that you're going to be king someday, and I'm going to be next to you.
I don't suppose Jonathan really realized what he was saying there, or he would have acted differently.
But at least he was devoted to David. And there were certain things he did. He stripped himself.
Gave the robe that was upon him to David. Why did he give him his robe? I suppose it was the royal robe that he had as a Prince, as the son of a king.
And he said, David, here you take this role, you deserve it. I know I'm in line to be king, but here, David, I want you to be king. You take the robe and wear it.
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Have you given the robe to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Have you said to him, I want you to be my Lord, not just my savior? I want you to be my Lord too, the Lord of my life. Take the robe.
The kingly robe, the lordly robe, the royal robe. I recognize you as Lord of my life. Have you ever come to a point like that in your life, or trust that you might today?
Then it says it's garments. He gave his garments to David.
What are those they speak of? Righteousness. Self righteousness?
He says. I'm not going to trust in anything that I am in myself.
I'm trusting in you, David.
I'm trusting in you.
Are you trusting in your own garments, your garments of self righteousness?
Perhaps you have a legal spirit?
And you think that if you live up to a certain set of rules, you'll be accepted with the Lord and accepted with your brethren?
What we need?
To be occupied with Christ and walk in the Spirit, not to try to live up to a set of rules.
We're going to fall far short. Let's give up that legal spirit.
Trying to do things in the energy of the flesh, because the law was not given for a righteous man for but for the man in the flesh.
And then it says even to his sword and to his bow, Well, what did Jonathan use them for? For battle, for fighting, Jonathan says, here you take them.
David, you take them. I can see you can fight my battles for me. Have you said that to the Lord Jesus? Have you given up and given over to the Blessed Lord and acknowledge that he's the only one that can fight your battles, that can see you through?
All how we need to strip ourselves and make everything of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then even his girdle, that which he bound around his his waist to give him strength, well, it reminds us of the girdle of truth.
He gave it to David, he says. You're my strength.
You're my strength. I can do all things through Christ with strengthens me, the apostle Paul said. Don't forget that you can do all things through Christ which strengthens you. Lean upon him, trust him, give everything over to him.
But as has been mentioned before, there's something that's left out.
It doesn't say anything about his shoes.
And the pathway that Jonathan went after that shows why the shoes aren't mentioned. He didn't give them over because in one occasion it tells us he went back to his house. On another case, in occasion he went back to the city, even though he'd gone out to see David in his rejection. But he went back home. He went back to the city. He didn't follow David in his rejection. Are you following the Lord Jesus Christ in his rejection?
Or are you ashamed of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is rejected and despised today, here in this world?
I hope.
That as it were, you give everything to the Lord Jesus and say you direct my feet to.
You take care of my feet because I want to follow the Lord Jesus.
Now, the end of Jonathan aside, he had said something about being next to David in his reign.
But the next time the children of Israel had a war.
With the Philistines, David wasn't there and they lost.
Next time there's a fight in your life, a war in your life, if you're not in the presence of the Lord Jesus, if you forget the Lord Jesus, you lose.
You cannot go without the Lord Jesus any more than Israel could go without David.
01:00:04
What happened?
Was slain, His three sons were slain, and their bodies nailed to the wall of the heathen temple.
That the Philistines had what a terrible, dishonouring end for them. Jonathan didn't follow David in his rejection.
So he didn't reign with him. But the apostle Paul says if we suffer, we shall reign with him. Follow the Lord in his rejection. Don't be ashamed of the Lord, even though he's rejected and despised by this word.
Raining time is coming, and in the measure you have suffered for Christ's sake, and take a shame for his sake, and been identified with him in his rejection. In that measure you will enjoy the rain with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we suffer, we shall reign with Him. Well may the Lord help us to remember some of these things refined in His Word.