Not every issue. should become a cause. But what David is saying to his brothers on this occasion is: hey. This is not one of those petty problems. one of those small stirrings of disagreement.
Yeah. The honor of God is at stake here. Is this not a cause? These days we don't have to look very far to discover religious, political, or cultural causes that are vying for our attention. And while there is a place for lawful civil action, David's example teaches us that the honor of God's name should be our primary concern.
Hello and welcome to Renewing Your Mind on this Thursday. We're studying the fourth lesson in a 15-part series on the life of David. Tomorrow will be our last day in this series, which also means that you'll only have two days before this offer ends on Friday to get your Renewing Your Mind journal. You'll also get lifetime downloadable access to all 15 messages from this series in the Ligonair app. Just go to renewingyourmind.org to donate to this program and we'll send you both of these resources.
Let's turn our attention now to the battle between David and Goliath. Here's Dr. R. C. Sproll.
As we continue now with our study of the life of David the Great. We come now. to the battle scene. To the arena. of David's greatest moment in military conflict, the contest between David and Goliath.
We looked in our last session at the eighty times that Goliath came and taunted the soldiers of the army of Israel, challenging them to send a champion out to fight against him. And we recall that David, still a young boy, is sent by his father Jesse to the front lines to find out how his brothers are doing and to deliver them their lunch. And when he talks to his brothers, suddenly Goliath appeared and makes his defiant challenge afresh. And when David hears this, He's astonished, he's outraged, he's confused, he's disillusioned, he can't understand why his brothers and the soldiers of Israel are allowing this. to take place.
And when he asks the question, his older brothers don't want to listen to this kind of criticism from this little squirt. And so they become furious with him and they say to him, Why did you come down here? Why have you left the sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart. for you've just come down to see the battle.
And David said. What have I done now? Yeah. Yeah. How many times have you said that?
When somebody gets mad at you and said, now what did I do? What have I done now? It's obvious that they've had these kinds of confrontations earlier in the history of their relationship. What have I done now? Is there not a cause?
Is there not a cause? Sometimes. There are real causes.
Sometimes we manufacture causes.
Sometimes we dream up causes that are not the cause of God. I remember Luther's struggle at the Diet of Orms when he poured his soul out in prayer the night before that final tribunal. And With his face on the floor, Luther cried out these words: Oh God. The cause is thine. And I am thine.
And the next day, the Reformation. began. For Luther, it was a magnificent obsession. It was a cause. for which he could not retreat or back down.
Not every issue. should become a cause. But what David is saying to his brothers on this occasion is: hey. This is not one of those petty problems. One of those small stirrings of disagreement.
The honour of God is at stake here. Is this not a cause? What a challenge! To his brothers Then he turned from him toward another and said the same thing. And these people answered him.
just as the first ones did. Nobody. wanted to get involved in this cause. For all intents and purposes, to every one of those soldiers in the camp of Israel, this was a no win situation. And who wants to go on a fool's errand, who wants to get involved in a cause you can't possibly win?
That day in Israel, as far as I can read in the text, there was only one person. Who was willing to do it? And the stand in the gap. for the cause of God. And when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul.
He sent for him. And David said to Saul about Goliath, Let no man's heart fail because of him. To hear what this young man is saying, he's saying, Oh, king. The hearts of your troops have melted. Because of this felicitating champion.
King Dung. Don't let this happen. Don't let the hearts of your men fail. Because of him. Your servant will go.
and fight with this Philistine. You have to wonder what's going on in Saul's mind when he hears this young man say. I'll go Saul's thinking. Poor misguided Young man Full Of visions of grandeur. Filled with idealism.
I can remember when I was a new Christian and I was still a young man, and I would get into discussions with older people, and they would say to me, Well, you're just too young. You don't understand these things. After you get older, you'll find out. And I I just was so frustrated by that. And one time I said to one of these men, I said, I am young, but I'm not stupid.
Don't make me wait 30 years to find out why I should be thinking differently. Tell me now. Share your wisdom with me. I promise I can understand it if you'll give me a cogent argument. Oh, no, you just have to wait.
This kind of knowledge only comes from experience. And I did not understand that. No, I do. When I was twenty one years old I had nothing to lose. I didn't have a job.
I didn't have a family to support. I don't have any money. I didn't care about rocking the boat. It seems like our courage. diminishes proportionately to our assets.
At the moment. whatever we regard those assets to be. And I I said when I was twenty one years old, I will never be like that. When I'm fifty. And I can remember talking to my own son.
Just wait till you get to be my age. And then I'll catch myself and I say, Whoa, I heard that story before. I used to be on the other end of it. But that's the way we tend to be. Yeah.
And Saul said to David, And you know this is really to Saul's credit. Saul could have made mincemeat out of David and said, Okay, at least we'll have some honor. We'll send somebody out there to fight. I'll send this kid to be eaten alive by Goliath. At least they can't go back to the Philistines and say We wouldn't fight.
But Saul said to David, You're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him. For you are a youth. And he is a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servants used to keep his father's sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth. And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it.
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Again, Saul has to be amused. David's trying to salt, you should hear. I can do it. I can remember a time that my sheep were attacked by a bear and a lion, and I went out and I killed the bear and I killed the lion.
Saul's thinking, Yeah, sure you did. You maybe screamed and they ran and now this story has grown in epic proportions. In the return, you don't think that Saul believed that. But David is so enthusiastic, you know, and maybe Saul did believe it and say, wait a minute, David. It's one thing to kill a bear.
It's another thing to kill a lion. But we're not talking about bears and lions. We're talking about accomplished. Military. Gladiator Who was a giant?
Whose spear is bigger than you are? You have two chances, Slim. A nun. You can't do it. Moreover, David said, The Lord Who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear?
He will deliver me. from the hand of this Philistine. Do you hear David's argument? First he argues from his own track record, of his own accomplishments, of his own achievements, of his own strength, from his own qualifications, and Saul says no. You can't do it.
Now do you see how the argument shifts? Where David says, Saul, okay. Maybe I can't. But what about God? Can the Lord take care of Goliath?
I don't want to go fight Goliath in my own strength. I want to go and fight him. In the strengths of the Lord, because Saul, I believe that God can and will. Destroy this enemy.
Now what does Saul say?
Now what is his response? I think it's significant how Saul's response suddenly changes. Saul said to David, This is verse thirty-seven of chapter. seventeen of First Samuel. Saul said to David, Go.
And the Lord Be with you. Saul said, All right, David. If you want to try it, try it. It's the supreme test of my faith. But if you really mean this, if you're really serious about it.
I'll let you go. And may God go with you. And by the way, before you go, let me take care that you're properly armed and protected. And so Saul clothed David with his armor, and put a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him with a coat of mail.
David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them. And so David took them off. Have you ever seen a little girl in the house? Yeah.
In mama's gown and mama's high-heel shoes, or you see the little boy, my grandson, he'll try to walk around in my shoes and he'll try to put on my pants or my coat. And it's one of the cutest but funniest sights that you can ever imagine. And that's how I envisioned David on this occasion. There's this young David, and Saul's six foot six, and Saul is looking to protect David.
So he says, Come here, I'll put my armor on you. I like you all. And the chest plate goes all the way down to his ankles. I mean, there's no way to wait. If he puts all this armor on David, David can't even move.
He's stumbling around, he's made completely immobile. buy all of this armor.
So I was just trying to protect him. But he's made David a sitting duck. And so David. Takes off. This armour.
And verse 40 says, He took his staff in his hand. And he chose for himself. five smooth stones from the brook. These are not little tiny pebbles. These are polished, solid stones.
I don't know, granite or what they are. But if you've seen them, they still can be found in the wadis of Israel. They're almost the size of a baseball. Smooth And round. Unbelievable projectiles when placed in a leather sling that is slung around and by rotational force.
And when it's released, that stone will fly out of the sling at an incredible speed, like a huge pumpkin ball shot out of the bore of a rifle. And so David goes. For his own ammunition, for his own weapon, he goes to the brook and chooses for himself five smooth stones, and puts them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, And his sling Yeah. His hand. I love that sentence.
His sling was in his hand. He was ready. And he drew near to the Philistine. And so the Philistine came and began drawing near to David. And the man who bore the shield went before him.
Do you see the picture? Across this valley comes Goliath. With his weapons held high and his shield bearer marching before him with his huge shield. To protect. Goliath.
from the champion that Israel is sending forth. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David. He disdained him, for he was only a youth, ruddy and good looking. And so the Philistines said to David, Am I a dog that you would come after me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the year and the beasts of the field. Today, in professional sports, we see athletes engaged in an activity they never would have seen 20 years ago in the sports field. It's called talking trash. Taunting each other, insulting each other, tormenting each other. And this is what's going on now in this Titanic struggle.
Goliath comes out, marches into the arena. He has his shield bearer before him, and he looks up and here's this kid coming without any armor, without a bow, without a spear, without a sword. And Goliath is incensed by this. This is absolutely insulting to him. What are you doing?
You're coming after me with a stick? This is a dog you've sent. And he starts to curse David and the Jewish people. By the Philistine Gods. He says, You come on.
and I'm going to give your flesh to the birds. And then David said to Goliath, You come to me with a sword. and with a spear and with a javelin, But I come to you. In the name of the Lord of hosts. The God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied, this day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.
And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And then all of this assembly will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. Every night before he led his troops into battle, Stonewall Jackson used to lead his men in prayer. They had prepared for the battle, they had set their strategies, they had trained, they had been conditioned, they had gone through their drills and all the rest. But in the final moments, when the final moment came, Jackson said to his men, The battle is ours.
But the outcome is God. And David comes out here and he listens to these insults from Goliath and he said, Hey, Go ahead with your spear and your sword and your javelin. I don't have any of those things. All I have is God. And you tell me you're going to feed my flesh to the birds and to the animals of the field?
No, Goliath. This day you die. I am going to have your head. And I'm going to do this. in the name of the Lord God of Israel.
So let's stop talking. and get down to it. And so it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. I love it. He wasn't backing up tentative.
Frightened, cowering at the presence of the giants, he runs into the battle. He can't wait to get into the battle, to meet Goliath face to face. And David put his hand in his bag, and took out a stone, and he slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. And so David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. And struck the Philistine and killed him, but there was no sword in the hand of David.
Therefore he ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword. and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. I wonder if David could barely lift a sword. But he takes Goliath's sword and cuts Goliath's head from Goliath's body. In front of everybody.
And when the Philistines saw That their champion was dead. They fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley into the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell along the road, even as far as Gath, and so on. Then the children of Israel returned from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.
But David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem. And he put his armour. In his tent. The Lord God Fought. For Israel On that day You come with a spear.
I come In the name of the of the Lord. This isn't a legend. This isn't a fairy tale. This is sober. History.
Of perhaps the most valiant man. in all of the Old Testament. Who alone had not just courage, But face To go up against unbelievable odds. For the sake of the sound of the soul. Yeah.
and glory. God. Let me ask you. About the causes. with which you are involved.
and to which you are committed. It's a very dangerous thing. to be involved in a cause.
Okay. And the danger is not just with what might happen to us. By being involved in the cause in terms of defeat or shame or embarrassment or whatever. It's also very dangerous if we are involved in the wrong cause. That's why David shows remarkable and uncanny wisdom when he speaks to his brother and he distinguishes between lesser causes and greater causes.
We're not to be given to megalomania. Where we have such huge egos that we feel that everything that we stand for or believe in is an occasion for a death struggle. It takes wisdom to discern between. A problem that requires forbearance and a problem that requires a stand. But there wasn't any doubt about this one.
And so David says, when it is clear. that there is a cause at stake. Then there is no option available to the Christian. You must enlist in the cause. You can do no other.
If you will be faithful. to the living God. Scripture makes it clear. the Christian must be willing to contend for the faith. but we're never to confuse an appetite for conflict with obedience to God.
Scripture commands us to contend for the truth of the Gospel and the honor of Christ's name. And in today's lesson we saw David's confident faith in the promise of God to handle the outcome of his battle. Our takeaway? David's complete trust in the Lord, rather than his own strength or power. You've been listening to Renewing Your Mind.
Today's message was from R. C. Sproll's series, The Life of David. If you'd like to continue your study, you can download this entire series in the Ligoner app when you donate to day. and we'll also send you a Renewing Your Mind journal for your notes.
Just go to Renewing Your Mind dot org to donate to day, or you can call us at eight hundred four three five forty three forty three to make your request, and thank you for your generosity. Tomorrow is our final day in this fifteen part series exploring the life of David. We'll be looking at the joy and celebration at David's defeat of Goliath, and Saul's unfortunate response. Here's a preview. Saul stood forward and took David by the hand.
and stood at the front of the multitude and said, Hail David. our mighty conqueror. Take a bow, David. Aren't we all proud of this young No, that's not what he did. What was his reaction to this public celebration?
Verse 6 says this. Then Saul was very angry. And the saying displeased him. And he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. As if that were nothing.
Now what more can he have? But the kingdom Join us Friday here on Renewing Your Mind.
