Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 36 – June 1981

 

Conquering All Our Giants Through Christ Our King

 

Sermon by Rev. B. Gillard on 1Samuel 17

Scripture Reading: 1Samuel 17:1-54

Psalter Hymnal: 318:1,2; 303:1,2,6; 124:1 & 3; 439; 444

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters and young people,

When the giant Philistine Goliath came forward to challenge the armies of Israel on the field of battle, there were at least three other giants stalking their camp on that day. First of all there was the giant of fear; secondly, there was the giant of worldliness, and thirdly there was the giant of unbelief.

I would like to talk about these three giants this morning and how we also face them every day of our life and how we may also meet them on the field of battle and overcome them. And first of all we shall consider the giant of fear. In verse 11 of chapter 17 we read. “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.” The giant of fear had invaded their camp. This is a giant, beloved, that faces us every day, in many different forms.

We are afraid of what other people may think about us or say about us or do to us if we reveal our belief in God and faith in Jesus Christ to the world. What do you do when you go into a restaurant or a public place for a meal, and sitting opposite you and all around you are people of the world and you know their eye is upon you?

Do you pause and bow your head in a prayer of praise and thanksgiving? Or do you mutter quickly and make out as if you are really only rubbing your nose? The giant of fear comes forward to challenge us in many situations.

Perhaps you young people also face the giant of fear in the peer pressure group. There is a tremendous need for acceptance. To feel important, wanted. You want to be with the ‘in group’. You don’t want to be rejected and left out in the cold. So out of fear the pressure is put on you to go places and say things and do things that trouble and bother your conscience, because you are terrorised by the giant of fear. The fear is that you will be odd, the man out. The fear is that people will not have a high opinion of you or that you will not be liked.

Perhaps in our places of employment we are too quiet when it comes to standing up and being counted because we are afraid of what the world will think of us. The giant of fear comes forward to challenge us every day.

Secondly, there is the giant of worldliness. The giant of worldliness is always after us to take us captive and make us his servant. We may beat him in one battle, but he does not give up; he comes back again and again and again. In chapter 14 we read about a great defeat that the Israelites inflicted upon the Philistines, but they didn’t give up, they came back again. And in chapter 17 and verse 8 we hear the giant Goliath say, “Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants, but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”

The world is always after us. It wants to take us captive and make us its servant. One Sunday a preacher told how he was sitting one day in his garden, and he watched a caterpillar climb a painted stick that was for decoration. After reaching the top, the caterpillar reared itself, feeling this way and that for a juicy twig to feed on or some way to further progress. Finding nothing, it slowly turned around and returned to the ground, and crawled along until it reached another painted stick and did the same thing all over again. This happened several times. The preacher then said: “There are many painted sticks in the world; those of pleasure, wealth, power, fame. All these call to men and say, “Come climb me; find the desire of your heart; fulfill the purpose of your existence; taste the fruits of success, and find satisfaction.” But they are only painted sticks.” The giant of worldliness is always after us to take us captive to pleasure and joy and satisfaction in worldly things instead of in the living God.

When the body of the great missionary, David Livingstone was brought back to England, multitudes thronged the streets to pay tribute to the noble missionary to Africa. An elderly man among them was heard to sob very loudly and people wondered at his deep grief. Later it was revealed that he and Livingstone had been friends in their youth, and as an ambitious young man, he had scorned Livingstone’s choice to give his life for Christ in Africa. With ambitious, selfish interest, the man had put self and self-pleasing ahead of God and the call of a needy world. Now he saw with remorse and regret who had made the wiser choice, and he cried out in his grief, “I chose for the wrong world. I put the emphasis in the wrong place.”

The third giant that stalked the camp of Israel that day was the giant of unbelief. For forty days and nights the challenge of giant Goliath went unmet.

Not a single man from the king down to the common soldier believed that the battle could be won. And finally when one came forth to meet the challenger, he was met with a torrent of opposition and discouragement. First of all there was Eliab, David’s oldest brother, who turned upon him with a rush of anger to turn him back. Then there was the King himself, who said, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” Unbelief, and discouragement filled the camp of Israel that day.

This is the third giant that confronts us. This is the giant that stalks our land today. He walks across the earth throwing out his challenge to men. You see it every time a Christian witnesses to the saving grace of God in Christ. You see it every time sinners are urged to repent and flee to Christ to escape the judgement that is to come. Unbelief fills their hearts. They go the same old way, day in and day out living for themselves, living as before, living as if this world is the only reality, the giant of unbelief that bars their way to life and salvation and peace. They will not take the things of God in a really serious way. But alas sometimes the giant of unbelief also invades the camp of the people of God.

We do not believe that we can give more of our income to the Lord lest there be insufficient for ourselves. We do not believe that we are able to witness for Christ and tell others about him. We do not believe that God is able to set us free from our besetting sins.

We are doubtful that he can supply our daily needs so we worry and fret. We do not think that we will be able to cope with sickness and suffering and loss or persecution. The giant of unbelief and little faith comes forth to challenge and terrify us every day. These were the real giants that faced Israel in the valley of conflict on that day and they are the same giants that we meet in mortal combat every day of our life.

2. But now we had better move on to our second point and ask; ‘how we may overcome them and gain the victory’. And there is only one answer to that question. We also must have a champion to fight for us. For we are unable to win the battle ourselves. We can never overcome the giants of fear and worldliness. We are unable to resist the pressure of this world to squeeze us into its mould and make us conform to the acceptable opinions and beliefs of the day. If we are left to ourselves to face and fight these giants alone, we will never overcome. We too will run with the crowd and run with the world.

Left to ourselves we could never surmount the pinnacle of unbelief that keeps multitudes from the gates of heaven. By our very nature we are all unbelievers and refuse to take seriously the Bible when it tells us this world is going to end in judgement one day, and only those who have fled to Christ for refuge will be safe and enter into heaven.

Left to ourselves, we would be no different to the people in Noah’s day. We are too much a part of this world and have too much love for it to ever leave it. If we are to overcome them, we must have a champion to fight for us and gain the victory for us just as Israel had a champion in King David. And there is such a champion available for us. He is not King David; he is greater than King David. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

For David you see is only a type of the Lord Jesus; he is only a foreshadowing of the one who was to come. The Lord Jesus is the one who has come forth to fight our battle for us. He is our representative; He is our champion. He went forth on the field of battle against the devil and this world and sin. These three giants tried time and time again to make Him sin, but each time He successfully beat them back. He lived a perfect life as our representative, so that we might have a perfect righteousness to enter heaven.

He died on the cross in our place and was punished for all our sin. He has defeated all our foes completely and utterly, and now they can have no power over us whatsoever. Our champion has brought them to the ground and cut off their heads. They are as dead as dead could be. We have nothing to fear from sin or death or hell or the devil. Their power over us is broken, Christ our champion has delivered us.

We can have this victory not by overcoming all these giants ourselves, but simply by faith in the Lord Jesus and what he has done for us. And this you see is what David had; this is why he was able to overcome the giant Goliath. It was not David who did it, it was God. David only claimed by faith the victory that God had already won.

Wasn’t this the thing that David expressed his greatest confidence in? Wasn’t this the thing that he saw so clearly. The battle you see was already won. David mentions this several times. Remember what he said to Saul, when Saul said you can’t do it? He said, “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” You cannot defy the armies of the Living God, beloved, without defying God himself.

You cannot defy the living God and be on the winning side. If we defy the living God and reject the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are lost. God himself will defeat us. If we reject the only way of salvation provided for us in Christ, and love our sins and this world, there is no hope for us. David knew this. He knew where Goliath stood. He knew that his battle was really against God, and that was a battle he knew you cannot win.

But there was something else that David also knew. He knew that the battle was really the Lord’s, and he knew that the Lord would not abandon his own cause. Here is our comfort, beloved, and here is the grace of our God. The battle is the Lord’s. It is not our battle, it is His. He is the one who devised a plan to conquer the devil, to overcome sin, to reverse the fall, to redeem fallen man, and restore His creation. The battle is the Lord’s. The Lord was preparing a people; He was raising up a family; He was going to bring His Son into the world as our saviour. He intends to save His people so that they might be His for all eternity to worship, praise, serve him, and enjoy fellowship with him forever. Do you think he is going to let a puny little giant Philistine stand in the way of all that?

The battle is not ours; it is the Lord’s. He has fought it and won it already, and now he is applying the fruit of his victory to all who believe, and inviting all men everywhere, to come to Him and share in his victory over sin and death and hell.

You see this is what David knew, and this is how he was able to march down into that valley, and with a stone and a sling take the head from the giant Goliath and put the worldly forces of the Philistines to flight.

This is how we may also overcome all those giants that we have spoken about today; it is only through faith in Him. It is only as we realise that the battle is the Lord’s, and as we realize that He has won it for us already, that we also are able to rise up and put all our enemies to flight.

Let us meet our love of the world and the things that are passing away by a greater love. Our love for our gracious Lord who came into this world and gave his all for us.

Let us meet our unbelief with a greater trust in Him as we also realize with King David that the battle is indeed the Lord’s, and it is already won. We are on the winning side. Salvation and heaven are eternally secure for the true believer. If He has already given us so much, then how can we doubt that He will continue to supply us with all things needed, and that nothing is impossible with Him. May God grant it, and to Him be all the honour, the praise and the glory.

Amen.