Willie Dickson
PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
1 Samuel 17: 23-25 (to "is he come up"), 37 (from "And Saul")-40, 48-51 (to "with it"), 54-58; 18: 1- 4
The germ of what I have to say was gleaned from the opening hymn this morning:
'Death had on Thee no claim,
Thou sinless One!
He who had death's dread power
Met Thee in that dark hour:
Vanquished by Thee his power,
By Thee alone' (No 152)
and so the subject for tonight, beloved hearers, is deliverance. Of course we cannot speak about deliverance and not speak about the Deliverer. The order would be the Deliverer first and then the deliverance. I feel I am following an excellent example because the Lord Jesus stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth and, as recorded in the fourth chapter of Luke, said, 'I have come to preach deliverance to the captives'. So the example is par excellence. What this poor world needs at all times, but particularly today, is deliverance, and it will never find it until He comes whose right it is. The scripture says, "The deliverer shall come out of Zion" (Rom 11: 26), and this poor scene in chains of darkness, death, and distance from God, will then know the power of the deliverance. He will come out from Zion. He comes out on the principle of sovereign mercy in that day. The whole earth will respond to the touch of peace that He will give to this scene. That is really the only solution to the world's problems. Men may have all sorts of plans, but the key to the situation lies in the Deliverer coming out of Zion. In Thessalonians it reads: "Jesus, our deliverer from the coming wrath", 1 Thess 1: 10. Beloved hearers it is comforting to know that, in the wrath that is going to come upon this poor world, those who know the Lord have a Deliverer from it. They will not endure the wrath that is coming upon this world.
So I thought of this passage, because David is a beautiful type of Christ as the Deliverer. We have the Deliverer and we have the deliverance, and in Jonathan we have a person who was delivered. So there is the Person and then the results of His work. The men of Israel, when - they saw Goliath, fled from him and were greatly afraid. Now, it is not the first time that the Philistines had been faced by the armies of Israel. It tells you previously in the book of Samuel that Jonathan and his armour-bearer went up and they had a great victory over the Philistines. That alludes directly to the Old Testament worthies who had to deal with the enemies in the land, but when this imposing figure comes on to view, there is only one Man able to meet it, only one. Do you know who he speaks of, beloved hearers? Jesus. "When they saw the man" (Goliath) they "fled from him and were greatly afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that comes up? " Have you seen him? Oh yes, we have seen him. You only need to look around on this poor scene to see what the man, the Philistine of Gath, represents, the man with the six fingers and the six toes and all the power to keep men in bondage. Have you seen him? He is around us, and on every hand is the power of that man. So they were afraid. Eliab said to David, his brother, Have you come out to see the battle? There was no battle. Man is in retreat today before the forces of evil. That is a fact. Men think they are going to overcome evil by government, by social reconstruction, by the general down-grading of things or upgrading, whatever way you see it, but man was in defeat until Jesus - typified here by David - came on the scene.
We read, "And Saul clothed David with his dress, and put a helmet of bronze upon his head, and clothed him with a corselet. And David girded his sword upon his dress, and endeavoured to go; for he had not yet tried it. And David said to Saul, I cannot go in these; for I have never tried them". Now, you can read a lot into that, but one thing stands out in the passage in type as clear as could be, that when the Lord Jesus undertook the great work of salvation He did it without help from man. He took the whole work upon Himself in its totality, and nothing in man's organisation was used. You will remember that in John 6 they wanted to make the Lord a king, and He went away into a desert place. That was like David saying, I am not going to wear Saul's armour. Jesus was the rightful King and they wanted to make Him a king, but, no, He refused, He went away into a desert place. Nothing of this world is going to add to the glory of God in delivering man from the thraldom under which he lies.
So David "took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag that he had, into the pocket; and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine". It was a lowly Jesus who came into this world. These five smooth stones remind us of that perfect, dependent Man - no conqueror, no pomp, no glory, nothing that man could invest Him with, just five smooth stones. He was a Man who spent His nights in prayer and supplication to God - complete, perfect dependence. What a contrast to the leaders of the present time who surround themselves with modern armaments, things that they feel they are not able to use on account of the awfulness of what will come to pass if they are released. Bu a lowly Saviour came here, born in a manger, son of a carpenter. He went to the lowest place in the land to live, down to Nazareth, and to Capernaum. That was Jesus! Beloved hearers, if He had come any other way, it would not have been God's way. God has one way, and Jesus took that way and He went down to Calvary in perfect dependence upon God. And so it says in verse 49, "And David put his hand into the bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it". I have often wondered at that. He did not put his hand into the bag and search round the bottom of the bag and see if he could get the biggest stone: no. He might have said, This is a formidable task that I have today, and perhaps I should get the biggest stone from my bag. He just put his hand in and took out a stone. Do you see the point, beloved hearers? It was the expression of complete dependence on God. The Lord Jesus made no choice of His own, every step He took was in perfect dependence on God. David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone, and he slang it right to the head of that Philistine, right in the exact spot.
Now, I want to make it clear that Goliath is not a type of the devil. That is a matter of teaching. I want the younger brethren to grasp that. Goliath is a type of the power of death as wielded by the devil, holding all men in bondage. Death is the devil's greatest weapon. The fear of death is what holds men in bondage. David with his stone and his sling found the vital spot in the power that held men in bondage. And what happened? When Jesus died He broke the power of death for ever. It says, "and the stone sank into his forehead; and he fell on his face to the earth. So David overcame the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and smote the Philistine and killed him". He took from death its sting away. Do you know that death has a sting? What is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever? When a believer dies he does not experience the sting of death. When an unbeliever dies, the sting of death is present. The sting of death has been taken out when the Lord Jesus went into death and broke its power. Wonderful triumph!
'Out of Thy death has sprung
A wondrous living throng'.
He has taken the sting of death away for the believer. And it says, "And there was no sword in the hand of David. And David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him completely". Dear hearers, get your eye fixed on that open tomb at the end of the gospels. After three days, what do you see? You see an empty tomb - he "killed him completely". It was manifest that Jesus had broken the power of death for ever. A glorious Saviour came out of that tomb. How great the victory! What a hope for man, desolate, fearing death, fearing judgment; not only Christ on the cross, blessed as that is, but an empty tomb - "killed him completely". We have little conception of the magnitude of what Jesus did when He broke the power of death for ever. The hold that Satan had over man is for ever broken. He is a risen Saviour. Oh, get that into your souls, get it into your heart.
Then it says, "And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent". Now out of the grave, up there - that is where He is, up there. He took the head up to Jerusalem. What is Jerusalem? "Jerusalem above", it says, "which is our mother" Gal 4: 26. Jesus is in that great centre of divine administration. And what is He administering? First of all He is administering the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jerusalem speaks of the great centre of divine administration consequent on the victory that Christ has accomplished. The forgiveness of sins, justification, eternal life, the gift of the Holy Spirit: these things come from the exalted Christ. Is that not wonderful? What a deliverance! The world cannot give a believer anything. It cannot give you anything if you are a believer. A believer gets everything from Christ, from that glorious Man up there. He looks up and sees Him there, victorious, triumphant, and comes into the gain of His administration. How feeble the administration of man is in the light of what Jesus is dispensing today in the gospel - wonderful blessing!
So Saul said to Abner, "Abner, whose son is this young man? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth O king, I cannot tell". What an abject admission! He had been in the army, he had seen that young man go forward with a sling and a stone, he saw that stone go with unerring accuracy into the temple of that giant, and he did not so much as turn to his neighbour and say, Who is that young man? That is he heart of man, the heart of man today, indifferent, could not care less. People will pass by the gospel preaching, will pass by the notice board, and lift their head in scorn - We do not know Him: that is Abner, and yet the greatest blessing that God has in His heart for man is in Jesus. Is there anybody here who would answer like Abner? Would anybody here say, I cannot tell? I trust not. The greatest joy to a believer is to tell His worth His glory, and His triumphs. Abner should have been the first to congratulate him but oh, jealousy, that is what it was. The root of the conflict in this world today, the hatred, if I speak dispensationally, against Israel, is jealousy. That is the root of the bitter enmity. Even though Israel had gone back to Palestine in unbelief, the enmity against them is the jealousy that they have the knowledge of Jehovah the true God. They rejected Jesus, rejected the Messiah, but they are still God's chosen people.
So Saul wanted David to adorn his system. Can I be topical? What is going on in the world at this time of the year is like Saul wanting to adorn his system with David. It puts a veneer on things. Saul thought how wonderful his kingdom would be if he had David there. He would be able to say, See this wonderful young man who adorns my system. That is what the world is. It is a mockery - I feel saying that. I passed through the city the other night with all the bright lights, and there was an illuminated cross amongst them. What a travesty of things, the cross upon which Jesus died, the cross upon which He shed His blood; men use it to adorn their festivities. The cross at Calvary was not illuminated; there was darkness (see Matt 27: 45) - 'The darkness sought His woes to hide' (Hymn 13).
But there is a fine young man here. "And it came to pass, when he had ended speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul". Is that your experience? Have you been so attracted, drawn and held by the love of Jesus, by His grace, that your soul is knit with Him? In other words, He is the dearest object of your heart. That was Jonathan. A sceptic may say, Well, you know what happened afterwards. Is any sceptic here prepared to point a finger as to what happened afterwards? I will tell you this, dear hearers, the day you shone for Christ, the day your soul was knit with the true David, that day is treasured in heaven and will never be forgotten. It was one of heaven's delights when these two, David and Jonathan, kissed each other, their souls knit. What an experience! Have you known it, the throb of affection for Christ commanding your whole being, eclipsing everything else? That was what marked this scene. And it says, "And Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his dress, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle". Again the sceptic says, What about his shoes? To me these are details. The heart of Christ delights when you divest yourself of all that adorns you humanly. Divest yourself gf it and use everything you have for the glorification of Jesus. Make a covenant with Him. You say, That refers to the breaking of bread. Probably, but let us be true to our vows, let us be true to what we said: I love the Lord Jesus, I love the Lord's people, I would like to be shining here for Christ. Remember your committals. May the covenant be as fresh in your heart tonight as it ever was. Stand fast for the true David till He comes again; the Deliverer will come out of Zion. No greater blessing can be known by persons in this world than these precious things that He administers from His place on high in the gospel. May it be so for all of us. For His Name's sake. Amen.
EDINBURGH
23 December 1990