Oh, let the Son of God enfold you
With His Spirit and His love Let Him
fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh,
let Him have the things that hold you
And His Spirit like a dove Will descend
upon your life and make you whole Welcome
to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible
teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Calvary Chapel, Costa
Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us
on a verse-by-verse venture through the
entire Bible And on today's edition of The
Word for Today We'll be continuing to follow
David's encounter with Goliath As we pick up
in 1 Samuel 17, verse 38 And now
with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith And
so Saul armed David with his armor He
put on a helmet of brass on his
head And he armed him with this coat
of mail And David put on the sword
upon his armor And he tried to go
out, but he had not proved it And
David said to Saul, I can't go with
these For I have not proved them And
David put them off And he took his
staff, just his shepherd's staff, stick In his
hand, and he chose five smooth stones out
of the brook And put them in the
little shepherd's bag which he had Which was
a little leather pouch Like you would carry
a script, sort of a purse And his
sling was in his hand And he drew
near to the Philistine Now, it's a little
leather pouch with two leather straps And David
probably used his sling to keep the sheep
in line And so, you know, all day
long he's winging around with that sling And
throwing at rocks and throwing at bushes And
throwing at the sheep And so David picked
these smooth stones out of the creek bed
Put them in his little bag And he
drew near to the Philistine And when the
Philistine came close to David The man who
was bearing his shield was in front of
him And when he looked about and saw
David He disdained him, for he was but
a youth And ruddy and of fair countenance
He was just a little red-headed kid
And the Philistine said unto David Am I
a dog that you would come after me
with a stick?
For David had his shepherd's stave in his
hand And the Philistine cursed David by his
gods And the Philistine said to David Come
on up here, son, I'll give your flesh
to the birds of the air And the
beasts of the field Figured that he would
scare the little kid off with the threats
I'll cut you up and feed you to
the birds And David said to the Philistine
You come to me with a sword And
with a spear and with a shield But
I come to you in the name of
the Lord of hosts The God of the
armies of Israel Who you have defied David
again, the right perspective You come with a
sword and a shield I come in the
name of the Lord of hosts The God
of the armies of Israel that you have
defied This day will the Lord deliver you
into my hand And I will smite you
And I'm going to take your head off
of you And I'm going to give the
carcasses of your whole army To the fowls
of the air And to the wild beasts
of the earth He didn't scare David Threatening
to cut him up and feed him to
the birds David said, I'm going to cut
up your whole army, man Feed the whole
army to the birds That all the world
or all the earth may know That there
is a God in Israel David saw that
God was on his side And as Paul
the Apostle tells us in Romans 8 If
God is for us, who can be against
us?
Paul asks a series of questions there in
Romans 8 And they're probably the most important
series of questions in the Bible And I'll
tell you, they set me free They changed
my life They changed my relationship with God
180 degrees As I began to study these
questions in Romans 8 If God be for
us, who can be against us?
And suddenly I realized that God was for
me He wasn't ready to bash me the
moment I did something wrong If I would
stumble or fall, He was ready to pick
me up And He was wanting to help
me When you're teaching your little child to
walk Holding it out and standing it on
its feet Then gradually pulling your hands away,
letting it get its balance And say, OK,
now come, come on, come on And they
take that step and you're so excited Oh,
good, good, good, and you hug them and
all Now, if they go to take a
step and they fall You don't pick it
up and wail it Say, I told you
to walk No, but if they stumble, you
grab it and you hug it And you
hold it close and you say, oh, that
was great, honey Now try it again, try
it again And God doesn't pick you up
and wail on you Every time you stumble
and fall or make a mistake He's not
there to bring fiery judgment He's there to
lift the fallen God is for you Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect?
Paul answers the question, it is God who
has justified In other words, God isn't charging
you As David said, oh, how blessed is
the man To whom God does not impute
iniquity God's not keeping a list God doesn't
impute iniquity against me He's not looking for
every little flaw Oh, did you see that?
No, he doesn't even keep a list against
me Oh, how happy, how blessed is the
man To whom God does not impute iniquity
Paul, of course, was quoting from Psalm 32
Who is he that condemneth?
Paul asked Again, Jesus isn't condemning me For
Paul said, it is Jesus who died Yea,
rather, is risen again And is even at
the right hand of the Father Making intercession
for me You see, God's not laying anything
to my charge Jesus is not condemning me,
he's interceding for me And so the final
question Who shall separate us from this love
of God?
Oh, David realized, hey, God's for me, I'm
not afraid Of the giant or anyone else
If God is for us, who can be
against us?
And seeing the battle in the right perspective
And it's important that as we look at
the problems of life And the battles that
we face It's important that we have that
awareness and consciousness That God is for us
And God has made available to us His
infinite resources And he is there to help,
he's there to strengthen He's there to lift,
and if we fall, he's there to pick
us up God is for you And all
the assembly, the earth will know that there's
a God in Israel And all the assembly
shall know that the Lord saves not with
sword and spear For the battle is the
Lord's and he will give you into our
hands The Lord doesn't use conventional means To
bring deliverance to his people He uses supernatural
means You see, so often when I'm faced
with a problem I'm looking at natural ways
or conventional ways To solve my problems, to
find the solution I'm looking at some conventional
way God doesn't use conventional ways He uses
unconventional ways many times God doesn't save with
sword or spear If I'm looking for conventional
ways Often times I get discouraged, I despair
Because I can't see any possible way out
I've tried to think of possible ways By
which this situation might be resolved And I
can't see it, and I worry because there's
no conventional way God doesn't save with sword
or spear It's his battle Now, Satan is
always trying to draw us into that arena
Where we are in the flesh, combating him
And if he can get you in the
flesh, he can really give you a battle
I mean, he can wipe you out The
moment he can draw you into the flesh
To battle against him with sword and spear
To battle against Satan in the flesh Is
just real folly Because he can just, you
know, make a pretzel out of you But,
as Paul said, the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal But they are mighty through
God To the pulling down of the strongholds
of the enemy And I mean, I can
go into my closet And I can make
a pretzel out of him As I begin
to use this weapon that God has given
to me The prayer and the spiritual battle
And I keep it in the spiritual realm
He doesn't have a chance The Lord doesn't
save with sword or spear The battle is
the Lord's And He will give us the
victory If we remain in the spiritual realm
And so it came to pass when the
Philistine arose And came and drew close to
David That David hastened I love it And
ran toward the army to meet the Philistine
I mean, David running at this giant And
he put his hand in his bag And
he took from there a stone And he
slang it It's an old English word, isn't
it?
And he smoked the Philistine In his forehead
That the stone sunk into his forehead And
he fell on his face to the earth
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a
sling And with a stone And he smoked
the Philistine and slew him But David didn't
have any sword in his hand And so
he ran And stood upon the Philistine and
took his sword And drew it out of
the sheath And he slew him and cut
off his head with it And when the
Philistine saw their champion was dead They fled
And the men of Israel and Judah arose
and shouted And they pursued the Philistines Until
you come to the valley and to the
gates of Ekron And the wounded of the
Philistines fell down by the way to Sharim
Even unto Gath and to Ekron And the
children of Israel returned from chasing after the
Philistines And they spoiled their tents The Philistines
of course had left their tents So they
went in and took all of the loot
that was there All of their armor and
everything And David took the head of the
Philistine And brought it to Jerusalem But he
put his armor in his tent So David
carried this head around for a few days
As my little granddaughter would say, gross And
when Saul saw David go forth against the
Philistine He said to Abner the captain of
his host Abner, whose son is this youth?
And Abner said, as my soul liveth, O
king, I can't tell you And so the
king said, inquire Find out whose son this
stripling is And as David returned from the
slaughter of the Philistines Abner took him and
brought him before Saul And he still had
the head of the Philistine in his hand
Probably, you know, holding by the hair I
would imagine And Saul said unto him, whose
son are you?
Young man And David answered, I'm the son
of your servant Jesse From Bethlehem Now David
had before, you remember, been called by Saul
To play the harp whenever Saul would have
one of his fits of anger To soothe
Saul And Saul knew who David was I
mean, he was this little kid that used
to come in there And play the soothing
harp when he would have his fits of
anger But he couldn't remember who his family
was And of course he had promised that
the family would be tax free And so
it wasn't that he didn't recognize or know
David It's just that, you know, who is
your family?
Who is your dad, you know?
And so David said, you know, Jesse, the
Bethlehemite And so it came to pass when
he had made an end of speaking to
Saul That is, David had finished That the
soul of Jonathan, the son of Saul Was
knit with the soul of David And Jonathan
loved him as his own soul And Saul
took him that day and would not let
him go to his home To his father's
house anymore Then Jonathan and David made a
covenant Because he loved him as his own
soul And so here the son of Saul,
Jonathan Who also in his own right was
a hero on the field of battle He
had been in charge of part of the
army of Saul Over a thousand men And
he had done tremendous exploits on the fields
of battle But now he sees this young
man David He saw him as he faced
Goliath He saw the faith, he saw the
courage He admired him, he loved him as
his own soul The love was so great
that they formed a love covenant They made
a covenant of love between them Now, any
suggestion That there was a homosexual relationship Between
David and Jonathan Is and borders on blasphemy
The Hebrew language does not support that concept
at all That is a concept that has
only lately been suggested By those from the
homosexual community Who are trying to somehow justify
from the scripture Their unscriptural deeds The Bible
says that David was a man after God's
own heart And if David were engaged in
activities For which God brought judgment upon Sodom
and Gomorrah And judgment upon the tribe of
Benjamin And God so clearly and distinctly forbids
In Romans chapter 1 Then if David had
been involved in such perverse activities Surely it
could never be said That he was a
man after God's own heart The scripture does
not even hint to that It is only
a suggestion of perverted minds There was a
bond of love, a camaraderie A close kinship
between these two fellows There was a mutual
admiration And thus they made the covenant of
love Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that
was upon him This was the princely robe
And he gave it to David along with
the meal In the Hebrew which is sort
of the garment That was worn under this
princely robe Leaving just his linen garment He
gave to David his sword And his bow
And his girdle Which is not what you
women think of when you think of girls
Just the sash that you tie around you
And David went out Wherever Saul would send
him And he behaved himself wisely And Saul
set him Over the men of war And
he was accepted in the sight of all
of the people And in the sight of
Saul's servant And so David was brought and
made A captain in Saul's army He behaved
himself very wisely Everybody began to admire David
It came to pass As they came When
David was returned from the slaughter of the
Philistines That the women came out of all
of the cities of Israel Singing and dancing
to meet King Saul With their tambourines With
joy And with instruments of music Or their
little triangles And the women would sing In
antiphonal type of singing Answering one another And
as they played And they said Saul has
slain his thousands Now this was something that
had become a practice Earlier you remember the
story When Jonathan smote the Philistines with a
great slaughter And Saul blew the trumpet in
Israel So the people heard that Saul had
smitten the Philistines I mean Jonathan was out
doing the work Wiping out the Philistines Saul
was going around taking the bows And it
became sort of a custom When Saul would
come with his armies to a city All
the ladies would come out with their tambourines
And their cymbals and so forth And they'd
get in their dances And they had this
one Israeli dance That was for the victorious
Saul Saul has killed his thousands And he
was sort of prideful over the thing Even
though it was Jonathan that was doing most
of the fighting He was taking the credit
and the glory And he liked that And
so as Saul came in And the gals
came out with their tambourines And all singing
Saul has killed his thousands But they added
a second verse David his tens of thousands
Bad news Saul So Saul was very angry
The saying displeased him And he said they've
ascribed to David ten thousands And to me
only thousands What can he have more but
the kingdom Now you remember it had been
years earlier That Samuel said to him Because
you have not allowed God to rule over
you God is taking the kingdom away from
you And he's going to give it to
another From that time Saul probably was looking
for someone You know who could it be
You know God's going to give it to
someone else And he was probably looking for
someone Who would be rising on the scene
And when he saw the response of the
people He saw how David was so brave
in the field of battle And he saw
how the people were beginning to turn towards
David I think that he got an inkling
at that point Hey this must be the
one That God's planning to give the kingdom
to And thus he by force from now
on Will do his best to destroy David
And to keep him from taking over the
kingdom So this begins Saul's attempts on David's
life We'll return with
more of our verse by verse study Of
1 Samuel in our next lesson As we
find Saul plotting to kill David And we
do hope you'll make plans to join us
But right now I'd like to remind you
That if you missed any part of today's
message Or perhaps you'd like to order a
copy For that special friend or loved one
You can do so by simply contacting One
of our customer service representatives And they'd be
more than happy to assist you With the
ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD
And phone orders can be taken Monday through
Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Pacific Time Once again our toll free number
is 1-800-272-9673 And for your
added convenience You can order online anytime When
you go to the wordfortoday.org And while
you're there Be sure to browse through the
additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs,
DVDs And so much more Once again that's
the word for today online At thewordfortoday.org
And for those of you who still prefer
to write You can use our mailing address
Which is the word for today P.O.
Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be
sure to include the call letters of this
station With your correspondence And now on behalf
of the word for today We'd like to
thank all of you Who share in supporting
this ministry With your prayers and financial support
And be sure to join us again next
time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse
by verse study Through the book of 1
Samuel That's right here On the next edition
of The word for today And
now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith With
today's closing prayer Father we thank you for
this opportunity Of studying the word That we
might learn and grow thereby And Lord we
so appreciate Your grace towards us We thank
you God that We can put our trust
and our confidence in you Though there are
frightening giants before us Lord we thank you
that You are on our side And if
God is for us Who can be against
us Thank you Father In Jesus name Amen
I am Goliath What's going on?
There's a big scary giant Don't be afraid
we have God on our side My name
is David and I know all about big
scary giants I've defeated lions and bears And
God will help me defeat Goliath too It's
true and Pastor Chuck wants to tell you
All about the story of David and Goliath
In his new book Just for Kids So
come along on a great adventure And discover
how God used David To defeat a big
scary giant And learn why David believed that
God Was big enough even to conquer Goliath
And as a gift each book contains An
audio CD of Pastor Chuck Actually reading the
story of David and Goliath So your kids
can read along To order your copy call
the Word for Today At 800-272-WORD
Or to see a sneak preview of the
story of David and Goliath Visit us online
at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored
by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa,
California