YP Sing Address—P. House
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And well, I want to read a couple of stories in the Word of God.
That many of us have heard from when we were little children.
And I want to focus on just a couple of points in those stories that.
We can maybe spend a moment with tonight First Samuel 17.
We all hope all of us know this story.
And we've all heard the story, I guess when we were little children from our parents, most of us who are believers and were raised in Christian homes, we've heard the story of how David killed Goliath.
First Samuel chapter 17 and we'll start reading from.
Verse 40.
This is David and David. Or he 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.
And the Philistine came on and drew near on to David, and the man that bare the shield went before him.
And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth.
And ready, and of a fair countenance. And the Philistines said unto David, Am IA dog.
That thou comest to me was staves, and the gods, and the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistines sent to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air.
And to the beasts of the field. And said David, to the 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 my hand, and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day.
On to 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, and all this assembly shall know.
That the Lord save us not with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's.
And he will give you into our hands.
And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted.
And ran toward the army to meet the Philistine and David put his hand in his bag.
And took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the philistine in his forehead.
That the stone sunk into his forehead, and he fell upon his face.
To the earth. So David prevailed.
I don't know how many times I've told this story to my kids.
I used to love when my dad and mom would tell me this story. I tried to picture it in my mind many times.
I don't know what the picture is in your mind, but this is one of the most fascinating stories in the Bible to me.
I don't know how many times I told the story and how many times I read it, but you know, there's something about this story.
That is very important if.
If we go back to.
Verse 41.
It says the Philistine came on and drew near on to David. Now notice this next part. And the man that bare the shield went before him.
Now I've thought about this, you know, it was really two against one, wasn't it?
You know, it wasn't David against Goliath, it was David.
Against Goliath and another man.
And what was the other man doing?
The other man was carrying the shield for Goliath.
Now what did David have for ammo? He had stones.
Now let's picture this for a minute. Here we have the Philistine. He says hey, this guy is easy, find him, go kill him. So he takes a run at David. But you know what? He wasn't carrying his own shield.
And so David takes the stone. God directed it.
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It got him.
But what's the lesson?
And that's what we're going to talk about tonight.
The lesson is the shield of face.
We have to carry it ourselves. It wasn't good enough that this other man was carrying the shield for Goliath.
It cost him his life.
'Cause he wasn't prepared.
For that stone.
Now let's turn back a couple of chapters to the 11Th chapter I think it is.
First Samuel 11.
My wife and I were reading this the other night together in our reading.
I have often puzzled over this account.
But a brother gave me a thought and I'm going to share it with you tonight, the 11Th chapter of First Samuel.
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabash Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. And they hatch. The Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I might thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel. And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days respite, that we may send messengers on to all the coasts.
Of Israel, And then if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee.
So this was the time that.
King Saul was coming to the forefront.
And Saul went on to deliver these men.
But let's think about what this man was asking these men of Jbash skilled he had to do.
He was asking them to, basically.
Be defenseless in battle.
And this other man told me that.
Most people.
Are right-handed.
So if they were gonna lose their right eye.
Then they were going to have to hold their shield to protect themselves in battle in such a way that they wouldn't be able to fight very well.
Now think about somebody taking out your right eye.
I wouldn't be pretty.
Would also limit your ability to judge distance.
And so it would be hard not only to fight, but to work.
Would weaken you, wouldn't it?
Again, another use of the shield.
And, you know, these stories in the Old Testament, we think, well, you know, they're just stories. Yeah. But there's a lot in them. And I'm sure there's things in these stories that I read tonight that people could share with me that I've never thought about before.
But I want to turn to a couple of verses in the New Testament.
And let's turn to.
The book of Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 6.
And verse 11.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.
Against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand, stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth.
And having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation.
Of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith.
Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts.
Of the wicked.
Now we'll think for a minute. Back to that story of Goliath. Goliath was not carrying his own shield.
And so he was vulnerable to that stone.
He had no protection.
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A shield of faith. It's something that as believers, it says.
Above all, taking the shield of faith.
We need to carry it ourselves.
And it says.
Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And before that we read about that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.
In the 13th verse.
Has there ever been a day in this world worse than today for evil? Don't think so. This world is ripe.
And the judgment of God is going to come any moment.
It's a marvel to me that we're still here.
The shield of faith.
You know, I want to make sure that each one of us understands that we need to have our own seal to faith.
We need to have our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We need Him as our Savior. We need to have faith in Him.
But you know.
This is the point of my talk tonight.
I want to speak to each one of our hearts about faith and where it comes from. And let's turn to the book of Romans.
Somebody's gonna have to help me. I just got a new Bible. I know where it is in my old Bible on the page.
Says so. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
10/17 thank you. 10 and 17. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing.
By the word of God.
Though our little talk tonight.
I want to encourage each one of us to read our Bibles.
To read our Bibles, you say? Well, what do you mean read my Bible? That's what I mean. I want you to read your Bible and I need to read mine.
You know, it's very easy to get your mouse and give it a bump and hit the little round thing that takes you to the Internet.
That's easy, and it's hard not to do it.
You know, we need food, we need nourishment, and we need faith. And where does it come from? It comes from reading the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You say, well, this is such a simple thing that you're telling me. Yeah, but you know what? I bet a lot of us aren't reading as much as we should.
And I think if we're honest with ourselves, before God.
Each one of us would say yeah.
I do spend a lot of time on the Internet and yeah, I do need to read more.
You know, we want to be happy we had that today. Let's turn to Deuteronomy, where Jim started you this afternoon, Deuteronomy 33.
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Verse 29.
Happy art thou, O Israel.
Who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help?
And who is the sword of thy Excellency? So we read about the shield.
In Ephesians and we read about the sword.
I want to end by talking a little bit about the sword, but before we do, let's make sure that we realize that our relationship with our God and the faith that He gives us is from reading His Word.
We need to do it, we need to have an exercise to do it, and it needs to be regular.
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You know, we don't have just one meal every Monday and Thursday and maybe a little bit on Sunday, no.
We three at least meals a day. The boys, young men that live in my house, eat more than that. Even my daughter eats more than three meals a day because she needs to. She's growing, right? Well, how do we grow? We read the word of God.
Now we talked a little bit about the shield of faith.
What about the Sword of the Spirit?
Which is the word of God.
You know, you young people have tremendous opportunity.
You say, well, what do you mean? Well, you do. You have health and strength.
You don't have the same afflictions that older people have.
But you also have a lot of contacts.
Friends, people that you know, acquaintances at school, teachers that you may have.
Family.
Perhaps people that you work with?
You know if we read the word of God and our faith is strong.
Then God can use us to go on the offensive.
You see, the shield is for defense.
It's what you hide behind, that you poke your eye around when you're in battle. And if you don't have your right eye, it makes it tough, right? We saw that.
But now we're gonna talk about offense.
Offense is telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ and being a witness.
For the Lord Jesus here in this world, you know, we don't have much time. The Lord is going to come.
And we're gonna get to go to heaven. You know, I look forward to going to heaven.
I wanna go now.
But you know how many people that I bumped shoulders with that don't know how to get there?
You know, there's people that are very well educated in this world that haven't got a clue how to get to heaven.
There's customers that I've spoken to that don't have a clue how to get saved and they've lived in North America their whole life.
And you know, some of your friends at school, university, people you work with, they don't have a clue either.
Let's go to.
Our swords.
With God's help and humility and thankfulness for what we have.
And tell others about the Lord Jesus. But you know what? It starts by us reading the word of God and praying and having faith.
And a good conscience before the Lord Jesus, so that we'll have the courage, with his help, to tell others.
So just these few words, I hope you've enjoyed it like I have. Let's pray and thank the Lord for the food.