1 Samuel 17 | Grace through Faith

If you’ve spent any amount of time with us here at Crossroads, hopefully you have come to understand the truth of Ephesians 2:8–9 which states that “8...it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”

You and I are saved by grace through faith. This is the essence of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And hopefully you hear some aspect of this truth every Sunday when we gather. For some of you, you understand the depths of this truth and for others of you, this may sound like Christianese. You’ve heard the words but if you’re honest, you’re not entirely sure what they mean or why anyone would consider them to be good news!

If that’s you, I hope to change that by the end of today's sermon.

To do that, we need to start by defining 2 key words in Ephesians 2:8. Paul writes that you are saved by grace. Now that’s a popular word in our English language. It’s even been adopted as a name, but what exactly is grace?

It’s got several definitions. A popular one is undeserved favor, which is helpful but only so much so. Personally, I’ve come to really appreciate understanding grace as God’s promise to always be glad to see us. God’s grace is his promise to turn his face of favor towards us, to make us very important people to Him in His family! God’s grace says, that no matter what you’ve done or been up to, not matter how far off track you’ve gotten, if and when you turn back to Him, by faith in Jesus, He promises that His eyes will sparkle with delight and He will always be glad to see us! His favor will never leave us! He will always be glad to see us and guide us long this journey of life up and into eternal victory!

It’s quite a promise! And how is this promise made true in our lives? Well Ephesians tells us, it’s by faith.

Faith is another one of those words that we hear but struggle to really apprehend and understand isn’t it? What is faith exactly? What does it look like?

We use words like belief and trust to help us approximate it’s meaning. Loyalty and allegiance are other words that help us get at it’s meaning and we could talk more about words and do a grammar lesson to try and better understand what faith is but I thought it might be more helpful to look at a lived example of faith this morning to better grasp what it is and what it looks like.

At it’s simplest, I think faith looks like following God’s lead. He graciously promises to lead us and fight our battles to bring for us true and eternal victory in this life and the next, but the grace and favor, will only be experienced in full if we follow His lead, or if we choose to live in light of His promise with the perspective of faith!

And this is the big idea for today's sermon: Faith looks like following God’s gracious lead, which brings true and eternal victory.

And we’re going to see what exactly this looks like through the life of David as God leads him to kill that infamous giant from Gath named Goliath.

If you have your Bibles with you, I’ll invite you to turn with me to 1 Samuel 17 and we’ll read it in full then take a look through the actions of David at how God works out His grace and favor in our lives as we walk by faith, following His gracious lead.

1 Samuel 17 (NIV)

1 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them. 4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. 12 Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and in Saul’s time he was very old. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war: The firstborn was Eliab; the second, Abinadab; and the third, Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul, 15 but David went back and forth from Saul to tend his father’s sheep at Bethlehem. 16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand. 17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.” 20 Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. 21 Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. 22 David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear. 25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.” 26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.” 28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.” 29 “Now what have I done?” said David. “Can’t I even speak?” 30 He then turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter, and the men answered him as before. 31 What David said was overheard and reported to Saul, and Saul sent for him. 32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” 34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” 38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. 41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!” 45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” 48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. 50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. 51 David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. 52 Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron. 53 When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp. 54 David took the Philistine’s head and brought it to Jerusalem; he put the Philistine’s weapons in his own tent. 55 As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is that young man?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, Your Majesty, I don’t know.” 56 The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is.” 57 As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine’s head. 58 “Whose son are you, young man?” Saul asked him. David said, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

Alright to start things out here, I want you to notice who the main character of 1 Samuel 17 is. It’s not who you might think at first. Right you might think that the main character is David and if you think that, I understand why, but you would be wrong. The main Character of 1 Samuel 17 is God! David understands this while pretty much everyone else in the story does not and it’s what makes David shine so brightly throughout this story!

David has faith in God and because of that faith, God works some serious grace through His life! And if you’ll notice, David is very conscience of this reality throughout the entire story. As he speaks of winning battles, David never takes credit but always pushing the credit back to the Lord.

That’s the first thing we need to know about faith. Faith focuses on God!

This is where the Bible helpfully cuts against the pseudo-gospel of our world. The world isn’t against faith necessarily… but it is against faith in God. Right, we are told lots of places that we’ve got to have faith, but faith in what? Faith in ourselves? Faith in the economy? Faith in government or education? Faith in faith?

All of these are empty, here we see the only faith that saves, is faith in the God of the Bible!

David gets this! The others in this story do not.

In vv. 1-11, we see what the world sees and it’s all fear! The Israelites and their new King, who was supposed to deliver the people from all their enemies, including the Philistines (1 Sam. 9:16), all they can see is fear. We’re told that the Philistines are coming against them and their mighty warrior has issued them a challenge. And honestly from a worldly standpoint things are quite bleak for Israel.

The Philistines were a more technologically advanced culture, they actually forbid Israel from having their own blacksmiths and therefore prevented Israel from making weapons which we’re told in 1 Samuel 13:19 which says “19 There were no blacksmiths in the land of Israel in those days. The Philistines wouldn’t allow them for fear they would make swords and spears for the Hebrews.”

Imagine going to battle with pitch folks and sickles while your enemy had chariots, shields, spears and swords! It’s not a good situation. The Philistines had superior technology and they had superior numbers. They also had hardened warriors, which Goliath is the leader of. He’s the biggest meanest dude int he whole army!

And the author of 1 Samuel wants us to know this. He huge, between 7 and 9’ tall! His armor weighs 125 lbs. His spear tip, 15 lbs. The dude is an ogre of a man! And he wants to boil this battle down to single combat. Winner take all!

And based on this presenting evidence Saul and the entire army of Israel are living by fear rather than faith!

Just recently in our Hearing God class, Steve who taught the class, gave us a great little acronym for fear. Do you know what fear is Church:

F.alse

E.vidence

A.ppearing

R.eal!

And here’s what you need to know. God’s word had promised Israel deliverance from their enemies if they followed His lead! Back in the book of Joshua, God told these people to take the land that He had given it to them. They were to drive the people from it! God gave it to them they simply needed to take it! God’s tactics may not always look like the worlds, remember they were supposed to be a holy and distinct people but God would deliver them! More recently, God raised up and anointed King Saul specifically to deliver Israel from their enemies. Look at 1 Samuel 9:16

1 Samuel 9:16 (NIV)

16 “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over my people Israel; he will deliver them from the hand of the Philistines. I have looked on my people, for their cry has reached me.”

And yet, rather than live in light of God’s promises — that’s faith — they chose to operate based on what they could see; fear, false, evidence appearing real, and they cowered in in activity! 1 Samuel 17:24

1 Samuel 17:24 (NIV)

24 Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear.

Until David shows up. David shows up and he doesn’t let fear get the best of Him. He knows who His God is and what He’s called His people to be! He says I don’t care how big this Goliath this or how much technology they have, I have God. David fixes His eyes on the Lord and His promises and because of that, his heart burns with anger when Goliath speaks slanderous words against God and His people!

This is what faith looks like Church, it focuses on God and His promises over fear, false evidence appearing real!

In vv. 25-27, we see David fix his eyes on God and he is incensed that Israel would let this fellow Goliath continue to speak such garbage against their God. So, inquires, “what’s King Saul going to do about this!” I’m sure David knew the word spoken over Saul by Samuel that we just read. Saul was to deliver Israel from the Philistines, this was the promise of God, so it’s only natural to David, who lives by faith in light of God’s promises to ask, well what’s God’s chosen delivering King gonna do about this?

The men tell Him, the King has offered a reward, wealth, a wife, and a tax free existence for the whole clan of whoever kills Goliath!

And David’s older brother over hears David’s question. Remember Eliab? This is Jesse’s firstborn. David’s oldest brother. The one who looked like a King, but whom God said, nope I’ve rejected Him because God looks at the heart more than the hype of the world!

Here we get a glimpse as to why God rejected Eliab. He’s just a fearful as every other man in Israel and he’s not a great judge of character either. Eliab accuses David of neglecting his responsibilities in the family, which we were told in v. 20 that David did not do. He didn’t just leave the flock, he entrusted them into the care of another before he left. Nevertheless, Eliab accuses David of shirking his responsibilities and of being conceited and wicked in his heart!

Church I want you to see this, when you choose to trust God, to live in light of His promises and by faith follow His lead, fear is not only thing you’ll need to learn to combat! Here is another fellow family member, driven by fear and perhaps some conviction when faced with David’s courage, Eliab lashes out with unfounded accusations attacking David’s character!

And I want you to see what faith looks like in the midst of these unfounded accusations! David continues to focus on God and follow God’s leading!

V. 30 tells us David turned away to someone else and brought up the same matter concerning Goliath!

There is such a thing as accountability in the family of faith and we are called to hold each other accountable. So while I want to caution us from being too dismissive of words of accountability, I also want to encourage you that if God has made a promise and you’re following His lead by faith, don’t let unfounded accusations slow you down! David didn’t!

His faith focused His eyes on God over any unfounded accusations that came His way!

Eventually David’s faith in God gets noticed by the King! David goes before the King Saul and says he’s willing to take on Goliath!

Saul then counters with reason and logic. David, you’re too young and inexperienced! Goliath is a huge, battle hardened warrior. This fight is significantly unfair!

And honestly, these arguments make sense.

Folks do you know that sometimes when God leads, His ways don’t make a lic of sense to our minds our to the ways of the world?

Now this is where we can get into dangerous waters when we speak about faith. If we’re not careful we can chalk up unwise and bad decisions to God’s leading and us having faith!

And I want you to see that David doesn’t just tell Saul, well God told me to, so get out of here with your reason and logic!

God does call us to have faith and yes that faith does sometimes fly in the face of reason and logic, but it’s not thoughtless!

Look at David’s response: He calls on his past experiences with God. He recounts 2 occasions where God delivered him from a lion and a bear! He’s been in fights that seemed unmatched before but the Lord protected him and delivered him.

So David informs his faith from past experiences with the Lord.

He also let’s peace reign in his heart. This one is a bit of a stretch, but I think we can see it here in the text. The whole business about David choosing to not suit up in the King’s armor is all about comfort and peace. From a metaphorical standpoint, Saul is essentially saying well if you insist in fighting this battle well then you better go in equipped with all the tools of human convention, but those things make David super uncomfortable so he rejects them.

David doesn’t have peace about it, he’s not comfortable with it so and He sheds the armor. And why does he do this? Because his faith recognizes that if this battle is going to be won, it’s going to be the Lord’s doing, not human might or weapons, but by the Lord’s hand!

So David moves forward in faith over what seems reasonable because he’s informed by his pasts experiences with the Lord, peace is guiding his heart and most importantly, he’s following God’s word!

God has promised to deliver Israel from their enemies and more specifically Goliath had blasphemed God, which according to Leviticus is punishable by stoning.

Blasphemy is not a word we use a whole lot, but essentially it means speaking very disrespectful or mean and nasty things about God and the things or people that are important to Him.

And Leviticus 24:15-16 says that “15...‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.”

And here’s what I want you to see, David’s faith in following God is not blind. He continually focuses on God and His promises, but all along the way he is informed by his past experiences, by inner peace and by God’s word! You can’t just say, well God told me to and then operate counter to reason, logic, and or God’s word and expect for things to go well for you! Faith is following God’s lead, which means you need to be informed by past experiences with God, inner peace and most importantly God’s Word! God will never support you to do something counter to His word, so don’t expect to have victory if you operate in ways that are counter to what He’s already said!

But back to David, Having God’s word as His guide, David’s faith compels him to follow God into battle. He’s not dismayed by fear or unfounded accusations, not even reason or logic will talk him out of following his God. No He is a man who lives by faith, he follows His God’s lead and God’s grace goes before him and with him, giving Him victory over Goliath.

It’s honestly a little anticlimactic. He slings one stone, hits his mark and the giant falls. Then in epict fashion, he lops of Goliath’s head and Israel now inspired by David’s faith, remember they are people who want to live more by sight more than by faith, they see God show up through this unlikely hero and what they see inspires them to live in light of God’s promises. They take the fight to the Philistines and are victorious.

And there’s one more thing I want you to see about David’s faith before we wrap things up. We’re told David takes Goliath’s head to Jerusalem. Upon first reading, I didn’t notice this. We’ve all heard a lot about Jerusalem right. It’s the capitol of the Israelite people, expect it isn’t yet at this point in their history. Actually at this point in time, Jersualem is still held by the Jebusites which are more enemies of Israel!

So what’s going on here?

Well, I think we see David’s faith in action yet again. He’s not content with one victory over the Philistines! David, immediately after defeating Goliath and the Philistines, His eyes of faith press on in perseverance to see God’s word fulfilled in full! I believe David takes Goliath’s head, who we’ve already established is sort of a warrior hero in this region, I believe he takes the head of this known and feared warrior and puts it on a pike outside of one of the most strategic cities that is occupied by Israels enemies! David’s eyes of faith keep him focused on the promises of God! Sure God may have provided victory over the Philistines, but there’s still more work to be done and in a prophetic fashion, David mounts Goliath’s head on a pike outside Jebus, putting Israel’s enemies on notice. Jerusalem will belong to God and His people. David’s faith let’s Israel’s enemies living in Jerusalem know, they are next!

Here’s the last thing I want you to know about faith, faith in God never stops pressing on in perseverance to see the word of God fulfilled!

David shows us that he is not like Saul or Eliab, but rather He is a person of faith! He follows God’s gracious lead and because of that God does immeasurably more through David than anyone could have dreamed to ask or imagine!

And this Church is what He will do through your life, if you to learn to live by faith in God like David!

In many ways David and his defeat over Goliath show us the picture of Christ, an unlikely, poor carpenter who lived by faith as God’s son, who took the fight to Satan, sin and death, and against all odds defeated them by God’s power of resurrection! And now anyone who puts their faith in Christ will be saved.

In the life of David we see faith fleshed out. He experiences God’s grace because he lives out what the author of Hebrews commands us all to embrace if we too would be counted in the hall of faith as recounted in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12:2-3 states:

Hebrews 12:1–3 (NIV)

In this fight for faith, you may experience fear, your may experience unfounded accusations, you may even come up against some sound arguments by way of reason and logic, but don’t follow any of it The long and short of it is this: faith fixes it’s eyes upon the Lord and if you and I would do that, God will work graciously through our lives to lead us and fight our battles bringing true and eternal victory through Christ! He won’t work by human power or might, but by His Spirit, those of us in Jesus will all know victory in the end!

In this fight for faith, you may experience fear, your may experience unfounded accusations, you may even come up against some sound arguments by way of reason and logic, but don’t follow any of it if God is leading you otherwise. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and if we do, God will work graciously through our lives to lead us and fight our battles bringing true and eternal victory through Christ!

Pray