Our scripture reading is, our second scripture reading is from 1 Samuel 17. You can turn there with me, I'm going to read part of the chapter for us. We will start with verse 31. 1 Samuel 17, I'm sure this is a familiar scripture, but familiar scriptures speak to us also, amen? That's right. All right, I'll start here with verse 26 alone. This is David and Goliath. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, says David, that he should defy the armies of the living God? That's what David said. Verse 31 now. When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with his Philistine. Saul said to David, you're 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. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helm of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. And Saul said to David, I cannot go with these, I have not tested them. So David put them off and took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him. He mocked him. For he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And Philistine said to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. And David said to the Philistine, 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 down and cut off your head, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds 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 that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand. When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him with it, and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout, and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaarim as far as Gath and Ekron. And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent." There's one more paragraph. I'll summarize it for you. Saul didn't know who David was, and so he asked his commander, well, who's that? And the commander said, I don't know. So they told him to go find out, brought David to him, and found out that he was the son of Jesse. Let's pray that the Lord opens his word to us this morning. Lord, when we come to you, we come to you who you are and who we are. And therefore, it's right and important for us to say, oh Lord, help us. You're so vast and so big and so wise and so perfect. And we're so small and so imperfect and so sinful and so foolish and so stupid. We need you to help us to illuminate our hearts so we understand your word. We need you to open our minds We need you to quicken your word to us so that it burns in our hearts. We pray you would do that right here for us this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Now, I'm gonna ask you to turn to a text, not 1 Samuel 17. Turn to Luke 24. I want you to imagine that you're out walking I know it's summer in Georgia, and probably very few people go walking, but your imaginations are good, you can do it. So imagine that you're walking, and Jesus comes alongside and walks with you. Now, wouldn't that be something? This is what happened to these men in Luke 24. Jesus had just been killed, and they knew that, and he had just been raised from the dead, but they didn't know that. And while they're walking, Jesus comes alongside and walks with them. And then he asks them, well, what are you talking about? Two men. Oh, well, we're talking about this man, Jesus. And we're so disappointed because we thought that he was going to be the Savior, but he's dead. Can you imagine? Now look what Jesus says to them in verse 25. Jesus doesn't always start with an encouraging word. So that happens here too. He said to them, oh foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Wasn't it necessary that the Christ should suffer all these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now, a couple verses later, they're getting ready to eat together, and they suddenly recognize that it's Jesus. They didn't recognize him before. And they say to each other, listen, Didn't our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? Now, look again what he says, what they say. Jesus explained to them in verse 27, in all the scriptures, what does it say? The things concerning himself. And they said, later, he opened the scriptures. So how do the scriptures get opened? By the things concerning Jesus, right? We see this again, even clearer, a couple of verses later. The disciples are gathered together, we're still in Luke 24. They're discussing whether Jesus is really risen from the dead. The two guys who walked on the road come, and suddenly, Jesus is there, and he greets them, and he comforts them, and he encourages them, and he shows them his hands and feet, and he even eats a piece of fish. Verse 44, look at it. Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms i.e. the whole scripture, must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Did you catch it? How were their minds opened to understand the scriptures? They understood everything written about me. What's the key that opens everyone's mind, my mind, your mind, to understand the scriptures? It's what's written about Jesus. That's the big idea of this sermon. All of the Bible talks about Jesus. Now there's one more point from these passages in Luke. You notice the attitude people had when they understood the scriptures? They don't say, oh, I see, yeah, that makes sense. I understand better now. They are excited. Oh, didn't our hearts burn within us while he opened to us the scriptures? We would say, wow, I understand, aha. Do you think God can make your heart burn like that today? Here, while you're listening to this sermon at Redeemer Baptist Church? I believe that. God is still in the business of opening the scriptures and making our hearts burn. It's exciting. It wows us. We see how amazing his word is. So let's ask the Lord again to do that today. We need this. Amen? Amen. There's a lot of the Bible we don't yet understand. There's a lot I don't understand. God is speaking, but it's like a bad connection on your cell phone. So we want the Lord to open our hearts and light a fire in our hearts. Lord, we pray for that. Just as we come again to you, your word is so vast. Help us understand it. Open our minds to see in the scriptures the things concerning yourself. We come to you needy, trusting your grace. In your name, Lord Jesus, amen. So I'm going to look at a passage today And here is a little hint about what this passage is about. Does anybody know what that is? It's a rock, right? It's not complicated. Anybody know any Bible passages about a rock? How about if I put a couple more rocks out here? Three rocks? Ring any bells? How about if it went for five rocks? Where are we going today? We read it before. We're going to look at David and Goliath again. So, page back to 1 Samuel 17. That's where we're gonna be. And the question is, this is a familiar text, and so there's a bit of a danger here. Even people that never read the Bible have heard of David and Goliath. So, I wanna ask you guys not to say, oh, I know that one, and sort of inwardly shut down. Don't do that. There's more in this passage than any of us understands. So, let's look at what this passage means and how it might be taught. Now, in preparation for this sermon, I went online to find some good Sunday school lessons and tried to find what would Sunday school material encourage their teachers to do. And you guys have gotten a handout Right at the top of that handout is Sunday School Lesson 1, right? Now this is all quoted from that Sunday School Guide. I did not write this. The next lesson is about a young boy named David. Even though he was young, he knew what he could do with God's help. We're evaluating this, right? to think about and use our minds and wisdom to understand, is this good or bad or pretty good? Even though he was young, he knew what he could do with God's help. In fact, he knew better than King Saul. God chose David because he saw his heart. A great reminder to us all that it doesn't matter what's on the outside, how we look, how old we are, our disabilities, or even how others see us. It's more important what we are like on the inside. Our attitudes, our yearning to know God better, our hopes and dreams, and our relationship with God. Sunday school guide goes on. The message, it doesn't matter how old you are. God can still help you do important things. He doesn't look at your appearance or age. He looks at your heart. Reassure the children that God sees what we're like on the inside. and that age doesn't matter. He can help us do anything he wants us to do. God sees the heart. They might think they can, quote, get away with stuff because they're young. Remember that God sees what's on the inside, and no matter what age, God can use us. Repeat the message many times during the lesson. And the application you see there, bold underneath that, Our attitudes, our yearning to know God better, our relationship with God are what's important. God sees what's on the inside. If we love and obey him, no matter what age we are, God can use us. All right, that's a possible way to understand this passage. Just think about that. Go ahead and look at Sunday School Lesson 2. Here's another approach. This Sunday school guide suggested to the Sunday school teacher, show how different David and Goliath are and draw an application. So David versus Goliath, David is small, Goliath is large, huge, gigantic. David is clothed with a shepherd's cloak, Goliath is clothed with armor and helmet. David is fighting in the Lord's name, but all he's got is a staff and a sling. Goliath fights with sword, spear, and javelin. David's just got experience in fighting animals. Goliath is an experienced man of war. David's depending on the Lord, and Goliath mocks God and trusts his own strength. And the application under there, David was a small young man, but because he trusted God, he was able to slay Goliath. Now, let's think about this together. At first, that might not sound so bad. You've probably heard that many times. I have. You might have taught this. I probably have too. But something's missing, and I wanna give you a test question that'll help you figure out whether what you see in a Bible passage is really what's there, is the right thing. Remember we saw earlier, when our minds are open to understand the scriptures, we see what the Bible says about Jesus. So here's our test question. Could a rabbi have said that? Could a rabbi have said that, right? And I've even given this rabbi a name. I call him Rabbi Mohr. So that's a real Jewish name, Rabbi Mohr. So my first point in this sermon is, are we reading the Bible like Rabbi Mohr or Mohr? We want a more than Mohr. Rabbis can be very, very good interpreters of the scripture. They believe in God. They believe the scripture is God's inspired and infallible word. They believe it has practical relevance for everyday life. They see a whole lot of what's in the scripture. But one thing no rabbi sees, what is that? Jesus. There's no way a rabbi can see Jesus unless he becomes a Christian, right? And remember, Jesus is what you need to have your mind open to see. That's how you understand the scripture. A rabbi can be very, very good, but what does Jesus say in Luke 24? Slow of heart, foolish, not understanding, and believing all that the prophets have spoken. So rabbis are a real helpful test for us because we can be just as foolish and just as slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Look at what the Sunday school lessons got out of David and Goliath so far. Look at those bold points on your handout. Our attitudes, our yearning to know God better, our relationship with God is what's important. God sees what's on the inside. If we obey him, no matter what age we are, God can use us. Or the second one, David was a small young man, but because he trusted God, he was able to slay Goliath. Could Rabbi Moore have said that? Oh yeah, oh yeah, and he does too, right? In synagogues all up and down, all around the world, He would appeal to his hearers to be like David. He wouldn't have seen Jesus in this text. And I don't just mean the person of Jesus. I mean the work of Jesus. When I say Jesus, I mean the whole gospel. The rabbi didn't see the gospel. Of course he doesn't believe the gospel. That's why he's not a believer, right? He would see a story telling us how to be better people. And that is not what God is saying in 1 Samuel 17. That's exactly why Jesus had to open the hearts of his disciples and our hearts to understand the scripture, because Jesus is what the Bible is all about. The whole Bible, every part of the Bible, talks about him. If you don't see him, you don't understand. That's why Jesus said about the Pharisees that they were They're blind. That's why he said, you don't believe Moses. If you would have believed Moses, you would have believed me. How can that be true? Because the whole Bible talks about Jesus. You might think you see if you don't see Jesus, but you don't. So, they're blind. Paul says they have a veil over their faces. They can't see. They only see that the scripture is teaching us to do good things. And that's not what the Bible is about. And that's why this is so helpful to ask, well, is this just Rabbi Moore? Or is it Moore? Is this just about trying to be good? Or is this about Jesus saving me because I'm bad? So what does this mean for David and Goliath? Let's go through the text again, comparing now at the bottom of your handout. The way that the two Sunday school approaches took was to say, well, David stands for you. He represents you. He's a Christian. He was an obscure shepherd boy. He was normal, just like you. And what do we learn from David? Well, he trusted God. Now you trust God. David is a model for you. David was brave, you can be brave. Now David won his battle against Goliath, and you have your battle to win too. If you trust the Lord, you'll win. David wasn't dismayed, so if you believe, you'll win too. And if you want to summarize it all at the end, be like David. Now, let me ask you guys a tough question. I'm gonna test your Bible knowledge here. We read this out of 1 Samuel 17. So, what's in 1 Samuel 16? Anybody know? Is this the first time we meet David or did we meet him before? We met him before because in chapter 16 he was anointed king. So who's David in chapter 17? He's not a normal shepherd boy. He's the anointed king, right? So when you turn over the page to chapter 17 and start reading this, and it says, and David, then you have to know, oh, the anointed king, not somebody. So how does the Bible's author want us to see him? He's not a regular boy like David. Well, maybe I'm wrong. Anybody here ever been anointed king of something? Well, I haven't either. OK, David is not like us. So David is the anointed king. All the interpretations we saw in the Sunday school guides go wrong right from the beginning. Why? Because they don't see David is the anointed king. They see David is a normal guy. Well, sorry, he wasn't. And therefore, all your applications are going to be wrong. You don't understand who David is. He's not supposed to be a Christian like you. He's supposed to stand for the anointed king. What's the name of our anointed king? Jesus, right? And therefore all the elements in this story don't point to me or you, they point to Jesus. Now look at the right column here on our table there. David doesn't represent you, he represents Christ. He was the anointed king, head of God's people. Yes, he trusted the Lord, but his trust points to Christ's perfect trust. It's just a shadow. Yes, David was brave, but Jesus was perfectly brave. The old application said, well, David won his victory, now you have to win yours. No, no, no. What does the passage say? David fought in Israel's place. And so when he won, everybody won. Right? What happened when Goliath fell? The Philistines said, ah, you can't do that. And they all grabbed their swords. No. They said, oh, my goodness. He's dead. Let's get out of here. So they all take off. David fought in their place. Does that sound familiar? Somebody dying. fighting in our place? Yes, of course. Jesus won a victory for us. The old application was, well, if you trust the Lord, you can win the victory. How? Did Israel trust the Lord in 1 Samuel 17? No. Did they win? Yeah. Is that good news? That's great news. Anybody here ever doubt, struggle? Oh, man. Is it possible that I win when I doubt? Yeah, because somebody else believed for me, right? Oh, that's really good news. So this old message here, well, if you trust the Lord, you can win too. Hey, you know what? Here's a better message. Even if you doubt, you can win. In fact, you have won. Not David was dismayed, and if you believe, you can win. No, Jesus wasn't dismayed, so in spite of my fears, I'm victorious. What's the bottom line? Be like David? No. We have one like David. We have the true David. You can be one of his people and triumph in his victory. Now, what difference does it make to interpret the text this way? Is that really that different? It's night and day, guys, right? It's a huge difference. It's decisive. It's the difference between understanding the Bible and not understanding it. It's the difference between the gospel which is good news, and a legalistic message, which is bad news, of just be a better person. Look at the applications on the left again. What is again and again there? Oh, be like David. Be brave. Trust the Lord. David won his victory. You win yours. Be good. Fight. Work to be better. Do the right thing. When are you blessed on the left? When you trust. And what if you don't? You're not blessed. That's legalism. That's not good news for people who are struggling. In fact, it's not good news for people who aren't struggling, but they're just normal sinful people like you and me. We're all struggling. If someone comes up to me and says, hey, David trusted God and won. If you trust the Lord, you'll win too. That's not good news if I'm realistic about how often I don't trust the Lord, right? Now, maybe you want to disagree with me and say, yeah, I'm just like David. I'm a man after God's own heart. But if you want to raise your hand there, talk to John after the service. So we have a different message, right? And interestingly enough, what happens if you read David's whole story? Was he always like this? No, he didn't always trust God. He had some spectacular failures. where he didn't trust the Lord. What did he need then? He needed a savior. Just like you do, just like I do. What's significant about this story? David won, and when David won, everybody won. The battle was over. And that's the way it is with us too. The battle is over. What's left for us to do? Chase those guys who are running away, and when you come back, plunder their camp. That's what we need to do. Now, let me add one more point here. This is my third point now. First point was, what was the first point again? like Rabbi Mohr or Mohr, and then the applications of what it was like in the Sunday school. This is what is right interpretation. I'm going to give you three short points how to read the Bible rightly, and then I'll close with a couple examples. First of all, point number one, every story or piece of a story teaches a principle. The Bible isn't just a book of stories. It uses stories, and law, and poetry, and songs, and prophecy, and history, and everything else to teach truths. So they're truths that God teaches in every text, and I've called them principles. Like this principle we saw here. David won, and when David won, everyone won. Why? Because David represented everybody. Now that's a principle that we find in all the Bible, and it's taught in this text. So, there's principles in every piece of the text. Second point. God's standard is unattainable in this life. What God expects you to do, you can't do. Why? Because he doesn't just want you to do some thing, he wants your heart to be in the right place. Perfectly in conformity with his law. Not just close, not just sometimes, right all the time. Right in your heart, not just your actions. So if we read this story rightly, we say, well, we need to trust the Lord completely all the time. You can't do that. Amen? Are you with me? I can't do that. We should trust the Lord, but we don't. And we need forgiveness for that, because it's bad not to trust the Lord. We need change. We need to be born again. We need new lives. We need hearts that are different. We need to be different, not just act different. So, every story teaches a principle. God's standards are unattainable in this life. Third point, the teaching of the whole Bible is about the gospel. It's about salvation in Jesus. So if you see an enemy of God's people in a text, that's pointing to the real enemies of Jesus. If you see a rebellion or unbelief, you could preach 1 Samuel 17 and look at Saul. Well, he didn't trust the Lord. Well, what's that about? Well, it's our not trusting Christ in the gospel. Everything points to the gospel, every element. So, is it really that bad to teach and emphasize what we ought to do? And what's the biblical answer? It's not yes, it's yes. It's terrible. That's exactly what the main enemies of Jesus did, right? So all these enemies in the Old Testament, they are pointing to this big main enemy. Who was Jesus' big main enemy? The Pharisees. So the worst thing you can be is doing the right thing but your heart's not in it. Frighteningly familiar, right? It's not a minor problem to be like the Pharisees. They made the Lord angry. So I think we ought to start with humility here. Humility isn't anything else but just being realistic. I'm in danger of being legalistic, and so are you. Now, how can I tell if I'm being legalistic, if I'm being like Rabbi Moore? First question, what's important? What I do or what Jesus did? How do I read a passage? Do I read a passage and go, oh, I need to, oh man, I should do that, I should, man, I gotta. If that's the bottom line, then I'm emphasizing the wrong thing. Is what I get out of a text my action steps or something I gotta do? Or are my eyes on Jesus and what he's already done? I got a great quote here, listen to this. The utter uniqueness of the Christian message, the heart of the gospel, is found in the three words of Christ from the cross. It is finished. The message of every other religious system, without exception, is predicated on some variation of another three words, which stand starkly opposed to the gospel's three words. Religion's three words are get to work. This is the heart of the bad news behind every approach to spirituality, enlightenment, or salvation that is not Christian. It's from Jared Wilson. That's what we're talking about in the whole message. What are we getting out of a text like David and Goliath? Get to work or it is finished. Let's start with a practical problem. What might this passage be telling us about anger? Now, all of us here get angry. So everybody has a problem with anger. Get to work would say, I need to work harder on being patient with this person. If David can beat Goliath, I can beat my anger. I need to come against it in the name of the Lord. I need to see that the battle is God's. Let's get to work. It is finished. Jesus has already conquered my anger. He paid the penalty I deserve. He's given me a new heart that I need to be patient. I need to repent of my sin with this person and ask God and them for forgiveness. I believe that I can and will be different because Jesus has won the battle. How different are those two? Oh my goodness. It's night and day, right? So, what's important, what I do or what Jesus did? It is finished or get to work? Second question. Is this about doing the right thing or is it about being perfect? A rabbi can tell us lots of good things to do. They don't expect us to be perfect in our hearts, but the Lord does. Let me give you an example. Maybe I'm stepping on your toes here, but I'm gonna do it. The Lord is gonna do it. Read your Bible. Rabbis say that? Oh yeah. Well, if that's not the right thing to say, what is the right thing to say? Love your Bible. Is it possible to read the Bible and not love it? We all do that. Okay, five more minutes. Love your Bible, then you will read it, and listen to it, and think about it, and, right? Love it perfectly. I can't do that. No, you can't, that's why you need a savior, right? The Lord's talking about you, that's the message here. He's talking about me. We need a savior. We're not people who naturally trust the Lord. We're people who naturally mistrust him. This week, Simone and I decided to take a step of faith, so we put in a bid on a house on Monday. A lowball bid, the house had been on the market for 75 days, so we're like, okay, maybe the person will just accept our low bid. The next day, our realtor calls us and says, someone else just bid full price on the same day. After two and a half months, the same day. That sounds like God is doing something. So, where did my heart go? Thank you, Lord. That's so kind of you. I'm so glad you closed this door. You must have something else for us. No, sorry. discouraged, and, oh man, is the Lord going to even give us a place? And how come he's making this so hard? And why can't he just make it easier for us? And what's wrong? And, oh man, I've got to go do a lot of work. And we got this news on the day that my daughter's birthday was. So we were all together. Only dad was only half there, because he's headed somewhere else. And he keeps looking in his computer, trying to find something else. And then I stay up late trying to find something else. and distracted and combing the internet. You understand, right? It's not that I was doing something wrong. Is it good to be diligent and look around? Yes, of course. Is it good to trust my diligence? No, that's terrible. Right? Should I have searched diligence? Yeah, that's part of my responsibility to provide for my family. Trusting my diligence? That is stupid. It's sick. It's evil. It's futile. It's dishonoring my heavenly father. How many times has he proven over and over and over that he's trustworthy? And I need forgiveness when I treat him that way. Why am I not embarrassed to tell you how bad my heart is? because your heart's just as bad. So anybody who comes up to me and says, man, you're sick, I'll say, that's right, you are too. So what was our question here? Is this about doing the right thing or about being perfect? I could focus on all the right things we're doing. Man, we're leaving the mission field and we're trusting God and we're going into making and, you know, or I could be honest about, no, no, I need a savior and I need him bad. I'll give you another example. Go to church. Rabbis say that? Oh yeah. I got asked one time, only one time, when our kids were smaller, Dad, do we have to go to church? What would you answer? That's a good question, isn't it? Do we have to go to church? Thank the Lord, because of my good theological training, I was ready for that question. So I said, Jim, you don't just have to go to church. You have to want to go to church with all your heart every Sunday. Amen? What did my son say? I can't do that. What did dad say? You knucklehead, what's wrong with it? No. Dad said, you know what, I can't either. One Sunday, I pretty much want to go, and next Sunday, I'm kind of glad to be there. And the next Sunday, I think, oh, it's Sunday again. Or maybe I start one way, and then something happens, and I kind of go, oh. Or the sermon goes a little long. Excuse me. And you're saying, heart's in the right place? No. It's not about doing the right thing. It's about being perfect. No rabbi is going to say, love that with all your heart all the time or you need forgiveness. We need to have our guilt before God forgiven. We need to be changed. We need to have a new heart so we can really win the battle. We follow him who's already won the battle. That's the message we need. Guys, that's the message our kids need. That's the message our neighbors need. That's the good news that's going to save the world. And it's on every page of the Bible. And may God give us eyes to see it. Let's pray together. Lord, we sung, teach us full obedience, holy reverence, true humility, test our thoughts and attitudes. We want your spotlight to shine on our hearts and not on our behavior. We don't want to pat ourselves on the back when we quote, do good things. We want to see how much our hearts are maybe not where they should be or a hundred percent are not where they should be. That even when our hearts are loving you, they're not loving you perfectly. And every day we need you to save us. We pray you'd open our hearts to understand the scriptures, to see Jesus and the gospel on every page, and that our hearts would burn when we see it, because it's a beautiful sight. We thank you for this in Christ's name, amen.