SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: This morning it's my privilege to lead us in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we get to glimpse together a heart after God's own heart on the eve of great things.
SPEAKER_00: Visionary leaders, bold adventurers are often depicted with this quiet coldness or stillness, even on the eve of battle, or at the outset of some great endeavor.
SPEAKER_00: Like the wind changes before a big storm rolls in, there's this stillness and the anticipation of great things.
SPEAKER_00: A boy named David was plucked from his father's sheepfolds one day when a traveling preacher named Samuel came to town.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel was on a covert assignment from God, but David's father, Jesse, nor any of David's brothers knew why Samuel had called for a feast in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: And Sam made them all wait until David was brought in from the fields.
SPEAKER_00: And then when David walks in, the prophet grabs the horn of oil and anointed the boy right there on the spot in the midst of his brothers, though he was the least of them, and bam! David, of all people, was one of the Lord's anointed ones.
SPEAKER_00: Just like that.
SPEAKER_00: That anointing was setting David apart, marking him as holy for some task, some great endeavor, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David for some mission of the Lord's work and the Lord's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Because David would be king in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It was in this knowledge of his calling that David moved to Saul's court as a musician.
SPEAKER_00: It was in this knowledge of his calling that David burned with rage against Goliath, saying, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the armies of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: It was in this knowledge of his anointing for God's glory that David went out with Saul's armies and struck down Philistines by the tens of thousands.
SPEAKER_00: Or so the songs went.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing he was called of God, David nonetheless knit his soul to Saul's son Jonathan, married Saul's daughter Michael, and served David, served Saul faithfully, successfully, energetically.
SPEAKER_00: It was in this knowledge of his calling that David fled to Samuel after Saul tried to pin him to the wall with a spear.
SPEAKER_00: David ran to Samuel as if to seek counsel, affirmation of his anointing.
SPEAKER_00: Am I crazy?
SPEAKER_00: It was in confidence of God's call that strengthened David's resolve when he said to Jonathan, Saul's son, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
SPEAKER_00: What manner of courage in the Lord's purposes could stare death itself in the face and come before a homicidal king's heir?
SPEAKER_00: But that's what David did.
SPEAKER_00: It was commitment to God's purpose that made David weep bitterly to see Jonathan admit that things with Saul were really beyond repair.
SPEAKER_00: And it was trust in the God of Israel that drew David back from the Philistine cities to a cave on the border of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And in the watches of the night, in the mouth of that cave, David sits practically alone, his future as a simple shepherd boy, swept up by God's plan, his closest friendship shattered by violent men on the run, with nowhere to lay his head but a cave in the countryside, as a ragtag band of 400 misfits come to hide out in the cave of the rejected warrior.
SPEAKER_00: Even David's whole family had to flee for their lives as well.
SPEAKER_00: His calling, his anointing, had sent his whole life spinning.
SPEAKER_00: And David looks out from that cave with Goliath's sword on his hip, and he sees a totally different rise to the throne of Israel than the one he expected, contemplating his next move and the providence of God.
SPEAKER_00: Can you feel the stillness on the eve of such great things?
SPEAKER_00: This bold adventurer, this mighty warrior, this ruddy and handsome man after God's own heart stands on the brink of greatness, with but a step between him and death for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already, take your Bibles with me and turn to Psalm 57, where we see David when he fled from Saul in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it for us.
SPEAKER_00: Be merciful to me, oh God.
SPEAKER_00: Be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge.
SPEAKER_00: In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge to the storms of destruction pass by.
SPEAKER_00: I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
SPEAKER_00: He will send from heaven and save me.
SPEAKER_00: He will put to shame him who tramples on me.
SPEAKER_00: God will send out his steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: My soul is in the midst of lions.
SPEAKER_00: I lie down amid fiery beasts, the children of man whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
SPEAKER_00: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They set a net for my steps, and my soul was bowed down.
SPEAKER_00: They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing and make melody.
SPEAKER_00: Awake, my glory, awake, O harp and lyre.
SPEAKER_00: I will awake the dawn.
SPEAKER_00: I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples.
SPEAKER_00: I will sing praises to you among the nations, for your steadfast love is great to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I think we see David lead us in three things as he's on the brink of greatness, the depths of sorrow and persecution, and the fullness of faith in God.
SPEAKER_00: David remembers.
SPEAKER_00: David trusts.
SPEAKER_00: And David glorifies his God, his refuge.
SPEAKER_00: But first, he remembers.
SPEAKER_00: The book of the Psalms are beautifully introduced by the first Psalm, by Psalm 1.
SPEAKER_00: The way of blessing, and that Psalm is set against the way of cursing, wisdom against folly, righteousness against wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: And it ends with this confident assertion: therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
SPEAKER_00: From the end of the first Psalm all the way out, all the psalms will unpack this way of wickedness, this way of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And like a skilled builder turns a blueprint into a cathedral, the psalmist will add beauty and depth and glory to those eternal truths.
SPEAKER_00: And David in our psalm this morning, Psalm 57, exemplifies the way of the righteous in many ways.
SPEAKER_00: But in one way in particular, he remembers his God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what drew me to this Psalm in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 1 says, But the righteous, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_00: My first point, remembering God our refuge.
SPEAKER_00: It's just that.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how David in a cave looks around and he sees God.
SPEAKER_00: He's taken refuge in this hole in a rock.
SPEAKER_00: He's found shelter from the rain, sanctuary from the storms of destruction.
SPEAKER_00: But David sees right on through to glory.
SPEAKER_00: For God, God is the real refuge.
SPEAKER_00: So, Christians, if you want to live a rich and full life after God's own heart, like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit when your master comes, then make it a habit.
SPEAKER_00: Make it a practice of thinking about God more often.
SPEAKER_00: Gregory Nasialandus was one of the church fathers.
SPEAKER_00: Church history, as we know it, would look very different if the Lord hadn't used Gregory to establish the doctrine of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: He fought to make it crystal clear that the Holy Spirit was God of equal authority and essence with the Son and the Father at the Council of Constantinople.
SPEAKER_00: They just called him the theologian.
SPEAKER_00: The theologian.
SPEAKER_00: A rich and full, blessed life after God's own heart, can look around, looking around on a summer day, and it can sing, This is my father's world.
SPEAKER_00: He shines on all that's fair in the rustling grass.
SPEAKER_00: I hear him pass.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks to me everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: David.
SPEAKER_00: David has found a refuge in a cave from the elements, a place to hole up in the rain.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4 in our Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: He's even remembering his days as the shepherd boy, as lions prowl about in the night.
SPEAKER_00: But he looks out from the cave of his refuge, his stronghold, his rock of safekeeping, on the brink of greatness, but a step from death.
SPEAKER_00: And David says, No, no, no, this rock is not my refuge.
SPEAKER_00: God, God, you are my refuge.
SPEAKER_00: He remembers his God.
SPEAKER_00: Consider the birds of the air, says Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the birds.
SPEAKER_00: Remember your God.
SPEAKER_00: In the final days before his crucifixion, Jesus, but a step from death and on the brink of greatness, said, From the fig tree, learn its lesson.
SPEAKER_00: You see all these great stones, not one of them will be left but thrown down.
SPEAKER_00: He led his disciples in a meal and he said, Drink this cup and remember my blood.
SPEAKER_00: Fill your world, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere you look with reminders of God, do it on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Hang things in your home, write them on your walls, carry them in your pockets, set them on your lock screens.
SPEAKER_00: And then take them to heart.
SPEAKER_00: Take them to heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's far too easy to forget God, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens every time you sin.
SPEAKER_00: For you and I live and breathe, really, just a step from death.
SPEAKER_00: And if we can remember God, who knows what what he might do through the simplest and smallest acts of faith on the eve of great things.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the next point.
SPEAKER_00: Remembering God his refuge led David to trust in God, his refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Genuine saving faith, a real saving faith, a faith that saves is a biblical concept.
SPEAKER_00: Has three parts knowledge, agreement, or assent, you may have heard, and trust.
SPEAKER_00: You can remember it this way.
SPEAKER_00: It's my best illustration ever.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is a cat.
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was gonna get more laughs than that.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! But saving faith requires knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: True biblical faith is not blind.
SPEAKER_00: Faith isn't that thing that fills in the gaps when reason fails.
SPEAKER_00: People say that a lot, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Science can't prove X or Y or Z.
SPEAKER_00: But that's where faith comes in, we say.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not biblical faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the faith of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: No, the Bible is a faith based on knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, if we've died with Christ, we believe, faith, we believe that we also will live with him.
SPEAKER_00: We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.
SPEAKER_00: You see?
SPEAKER_00: Saving faith is built on knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: It even begins with knowledge, not in spite of it.
SPEAKER_00: The second element of saving faith is agreement or assent.
SPEAKER_00: It's that thing in our hearts that not only says the things of God are true, doesn't just say it, but it really believes it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the stuff of deep conviction.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just know that it's true, we agree with it, we love it, we're convinced of it deep in our bones.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just know that Jesus died for sins, but we know it to be a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And we love it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us to consider Abraham, who no unbelief, faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: What a text.
SPEAKER_00: Fully convinced.
SPEAKER_00: There it is, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
SPEAKER_00: That's why his faith was counted to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And the third element of saving faith is trust.
SPEAKER_00: It's trust.
SPEAKER_00: In John Murray's famous text, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, he writes this faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is knowledge passing into conviction or agreement for our system.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is knowledge passing into conviction, and it is conviction passing into confidence or trust.
SPEAKER_00: Faith cannot stop short of self-commitment to Christ, a transference of reliance upon ourselves and all human resources to reliance upon Christ alone for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We have to have all three.
SPEAKER_00: True, genuine, saving faith, the faith that the Holy Spirit gives has all three.
SPEAKER_00: And all three of them grow as we do.
SPEAKER_00: You may not have all knowledge when you first believe, but you have some.
SPEAKER_00: And you grow.
SPEAKER_00: You may not have full conviction when you first believe, but you have some, and you will grow.
SPEAKER_00: So look with me again at verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: David sings, Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge.
SPEAKER_00: My soul takes refuge.
SPEAKER_00: In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by.
SPEAKER_00: David places his very soul in God's safekeeping, who David really is on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to ask, friends, have we really given all of who we really are inside to the Lord for safekeeping?
SPEAKER_00: Does he hold your secret thoughts or not?
SPEAKER_00: David lodges there.
SPEAKER_00: He takes refuge in the Lord until destruction passes by.
SPEAKER_00: The ESV adds this idea of storms of, but the Hebrew text just says destruction.
SPEAKER_00: I think the translators don't want you to confuse this destruction with the do not destroy in the superscription at the top.
SPEAKER_00: But the CSB says danger.
SPEAKER_00: The New American just says destruction.
SPEAKER_00: But personally, I like just devastation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a dramatic word.
SPEAKER_00: I like dramatic words.
SPEAKER_00: Devastation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word for something that causes ruin.
SPEAKER_00: Something that causes ruin.
SPEAKER_00: But this devastation moves along.
SPEAKER_00: It passes through.
SPEAKER_00: It goes by along its way.
SPEAKER_00: And like a homesteader in a root cellar waiting out a devastating thunderstorm that rolls across the prairie, David hides himself from devastation under the protective wings of God.
SPEAKER_00: Like baby chicks under a mother hen.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe like a believing Israelite under the wings on the mercy seat where sacrifices were made.
SPEAKER_00: He hides himself under the wings of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's such a picture of saving faith, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: It's such a picture of saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: David flees to God like he fled to that cave, crying out for sanctuary for his very soul, and this is what we all must do.
SPEAKER_00: We all must do this.
SPEAKER_00: This is what a faith that knows and is convinced that salvation can be found in no one else but Jesus Christ does.
SPEAKER_00: A faith that trusts flies.
SPEAKER_00: Faith that trusts runs to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Foul eye to the fountain fly.
SPEAKER_00: Pope what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: Wash me, Savior, else I die.
SPEAKER_00: So take up your soul and your arms and run to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Cry out to God Most High, sing, rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee like David has.
SPEAKER_00: Found in him.
SPEAKER_00: Hiding in him.
SPEAKER_00: Found in him.
SPEAKER_00: Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but the law can't save, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The righteousness from God that depends on faith.
SPEAKER_00: God has provided a way of escape from the wrath to come on sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to seek him while he may be found.
SPEAKER_00: You may know it for a certain fact that the God who struck down Pharaoh will strike down Saul, just like David did.
SPEAKER_00: Because the God who heard Israel's cries in Egypt hears David's cries in the cave, and all who fly to Jesus for refuge, like David, will be vindicated.
SPEAKER_00: Your enemies trampled underfoot.
SPEAKER_00: But all who remain outside will be vindicated against.
SPEAKER_00: God will fulfill his purposes for David.
SPEAKER_00: That's verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: But David here remembers the word of God that came by the prophet Samuel when he was anointed, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like Abraham tying Isaac to the stone, muttering promises to himself that it was Isaac who would receive the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
SPEAKER_00: Like Abraham clinging to the promises, David looks out over the hills he used to raise sheep on.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, God will keep his word.
SPEAKER_00: God will keep his word.
SPEAKER_00: David says, I don't see how, I don't know how, I can't comprehend the wisdom that drove me to this cave of all caves, but God can.
SPEAKER_00: And God does, and God will send from heaven and save me.
SPEAKER_00: God will put Saul to shame for trampling on me.
SPEAKER_00: Selah, deep breath.
SPEAKER_00: God will send out his steadfast love, his covenant-keeping faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: That is truth.
SPEAKER_00: So confident is David in God's wisdom and in God's power.
SPEAKER_00: That like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego facing an enraged king before an enraged furnace, saying, Do what you will.
SPEAKER_00: David can lie down.
SPEAKER_00: He can lie down and sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Not just among lions, but among fiery beasts, the children of man.
SPEAKER_00: Is meant to show a consuming effect.
SPEAKER_00: They eat people up.
SPEAKER_00: Fiery beasts, the children of men with teeth of cold iron and tongues that cut people to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there are plenty of people in our world.
SPEAKER_00: Plenty of people in our world with the power and the authority to kill countless innocents with just a word.
SPEAKER_00: Generals, commanders, presidents, prime ministers, they give the order and men die.
SPEAKER_00: And not long after David leaves this cave, Saul gives the order to kill 85 priests of the Lord because they helped David.
SPEAKER_00: Just for helping David.
SPEAKER_00: And when David hears of it, he says, I knew on that day when Golad the Edomites was there and saw me that he would surely tell Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He tells one survivor, I have occasioned the death of all those people.
SPEAKER_00: Lions kill with their teeth.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are no different.
SPEAKER_00: We kill with our teeth.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul killed with his words.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody you meet kills that way, and yet you and I somehow are called to serve those fiery beasts.
SPEAKER_00: Those children of man with swords for tongues.
SPEAKER_00: We're commanded to love them.
SPEAKER_00: You and I remain on this earth to warn them.
SPEAKER_00: That surely is one of our great tasks, our great endeavors.
SPEAKER_00: But a step from death, right?
SPEAKER_00: David, on the eve of greatness, a step away from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: He trusts his God.
SPEAKER_00: He takes refuge under his wings, he cries out for mercy and vindication.
SPEAKER_00: And he lies down to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: He lies down to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And didn't Jesus do the same?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Upon the cross he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, taking refuge in the God of his salvation, crying out in his distress to the God who fulfills his purposes for him.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave up his spirit to lie down, not a step away from death, but in the grave itself.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews is a beautiful book.
SPEAKER_00: In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, like David, with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.
SPEAKER_00: And he was heard because of his reverence.
SPEAKER_00: The God who fulfills his purposes for David fulfilled his purposes for Jesus and in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And in Christ, not in you, in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you hide yourself in him, in Christ, he will fulfill his purposes for you.
SPEAKER_00: All of them.
SPEAKER_00: He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So trust your God, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Flee to Him for refuge, through obedience, cry out to Him for mercy through prayer and rest.
SPEAKER_00: God will ascend from heaven and save you.
SPEAKER_00: So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time to descend from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Not to deal with sin.
SPEAKER_00: What to say?
SPEAKER_00: Those who are eagerly waiting for him.
SPEAKER_00: His life falling apart, his family and his very family in danger.
SPEAKER_00: The family business thrown into chaos, his future seemingly in ashes around him, and he trusts God.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what all the faithful do when they flee to Jesus for refuge.
SPEAKER_00: But what does he ask God to do?
SPEAKER_00: What does he ask God to do?
SPEAKER_00: He asks God to be merciful or to be gracious to him.
SPEAKER_00: Your Bibles are probably split 50-50 here, both between merciful and gracious.
SPEAKER_00: Be merciful to me or be gracious to me.
SPEAKER_00: But I think both translations really do work.
SPEAKER_00: God's mercy is a gift of his grace, and God's grace could not come to you apart from his mercy upon you.
SPEAKER_00: And this Hebrew word especially seems to get at both ideas.
SPEAKER_00: But there really is only one request beyond that plea for gracious mercy.
SPEAKER_00: That was our first point, trust.
SPEAKER_00: The second plea, the second prayer, the second request is that God would be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: He asks that God would be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: And just, by the way, most of the prayers, not all, but most of the prayers you'll find in the scriptures include a request of some kind.
SPEAKER_00: Or they're even framed around that request.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, Let your petitions be known.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, God wants you to ask.
SPEAKER_00: He calls you to tell him what's on your heart.
SPEAKER_00: So when you pray, don't just rattle down a list of thank you first.
SPEAKER_00: Turn and ask for things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not presumptuous to ask your dad to take care of you.
SPEAKER_00: He's your dad, right?
SPEAKER_00: Let your request be made known to God.
SPEAKER_00: But David here, of all things, David here, a step from death, asks for mercy and full confidence, and then he asks that God would be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a bit of an odd turn, I think, in the Psalm, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: David sounds like Jeremiah lamenting over Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: My soul is in the midst of lions.
SPEAKER_00: I lie down amid fiery beasts, David writes.
SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah says, He's a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding.
SPEAKER_00: He turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: I've become the laughing stock of all peoples, the object of their taunts.
SPEAKER_00: God has filled me with bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: A strong lament from David's pen.
SPEAKER_00: He's cut to pieces by the threats, the lies, the accusations of his enemies, for the tongue surely is a restless evil.
SPEAKER_00: And then seemingly out of nowhere, David bursts out in songs.
SPEAKER_00: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The musician and me can hear two musical moments.
SPEAKER_00: You'll notice that David repeats verse 5 again at the end of the Psalm, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I have reason to think that he placed verse 5 in the center of this psalm for a poetic purpose.
SPEAKER_00: To make it the heart, the emphasis of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: So then, with this as the as the heart and the point, do you think he whispers verse 5?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think he whispers verse 5 and then stirs himself to shout by verse 11?
SPEAKER_00: That could be.
SPEAKER_00: That's one option.
SPEAKER_00: David in the pit of his sorrow whispers these praises and then awakes his glory to proclaim them.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, maybe, just maybe, the same young man who charged Goliath, ran at the giant.
SPEAKER_00: The same young man who charged Goliath laughs in the face of his enemies and he shouts both times God, be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They tear me to pieces, but be exalted.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that moment, right, with David and Goliath in Samuel 17.
SPEAKER_00: This youth stood before an absolute bear of a man, a giant beyond normal proportions.
SPEAKER_00: And Goliath cursed God and cursed David.
SPEAKER_00: And then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like this text.
SPEAKER_00: But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
SPEAKER_00: This day the Lord will deliver, will save, will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.
SPEAKER_00: And then David ran straight at him.
SPEAKER_00: No, friends, I don't think this poet king whispers anything when he speaks the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so here in our psalm is David.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, like with Goliath, but one wrong step from death.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if he tripped.
SPEAKER_00: But one wrong step between himself and death, his enemies at him with spears and arrows, tongues like sharp swords, and he shouts, he shouts for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing that David understands, and that we have to understand.
SPEAKER_00: David knows, David agrees, and David trusts that the glory of God, the glory of God is salvation for those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see it?
SPEAKER_00: That's how the whole thing fits together.
SPEAKER_00: He hopes for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God is salvation for those who trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how it works?
SPEAKER_00: It works according to the promises, along the conduit of a saving faith that bets it all on God's word.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't rush Goliath because he was a headstrong youth.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't run at the giant because he was foolish.
SPEAKER_00: He had received the anointing of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit had rushed upon him a chapter earlier.
SPEAKER_00: David rushed Goliath in the name of the God who fulfills his purposes for David.
SPEAKER_00: David looks out from the cave and he expects God to do the same thing again.
SPEAKER_00: And he sings as loud as he shouts: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you this morning are but a step from death yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Disease threatens.
SPEAKER_00: So look at your medications every morning, stare down the IV bags and sing, Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: And know in your heart that there will be a day of such glory as you rise to meet the Lord and the disease that kills you stays in the grave.
SPEAKER_00: Long for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you this morning are but a step from death as sin has wrapped itself about your ankles.
SPEAKER_00: It threatens to undo you and drag you into the pit.
SPEAKER_00: Stare down your temptations.
SPEAKER_00: Laugh.
SPEAKER_00: Laugh in the face of your flesh's evil desires.
SPEAKER_00: Make your heart steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: Awake your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Awake your whole being and sing.
SPEAKER_00: If you can play guitar, go for it.
SPEAKER_00: Sing like Micah did.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice not over me, O my enemy.
SPEAKER_00: When I fall, I shall rise.
SPEAKER_00: When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
SPEAKER_00: Skipping to the end, he will bring me out to the light, and I shall look upon his vindications.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you this morning are but a step from death because you've never trusted in the God who saves.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard the good news, you've come to worship services, you've prayed a few prayers, but you haven't ever bet your whole life on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't ever cast yourself upon the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't taken up your soul and run to Christ with all you have, and your heart stirs now.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it would take.
SPEAKER_00: You hide some sin.
SPEAKER_00: God to an obedience you fear.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you may need to ask yourselves why you haven't been baptized yet.
SPEAKER_00: Fly to God through obedience.
SPEAKER_00: However, that looks, your conscience will lead you if you've been born again.
SPEAKER_00: Because my friends, death is every man's great and last enemy.
SPEAKER_00: You dare not face this enemy apart from the glory of God and the refuge of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So cast off your sin, confess it to the Lord in prayer or to someone here.
SPEAKER_00: Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, but God's truth abideth still, and his kingdom, not yours, is forever.
SPEAKER_00: For did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.
SPEAKER_00: You ask who that may be.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus, it is he, the Lord of hosts, is his name.
SPEAKER_00: From age to age, the same.
SPEAKER_00: And he, like David, must win the battle.
SPEAKER_00: For he is the Lord's anointed.
SPEAKER_00: Hide yourself in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For you and I face an enemy we cannot hope to defeat apart from the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus, your king.
SPEAKER_00: The true and better David didn't escape death with just a step to spare.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: David rushed Goliath and stood over him, but Jesus of Nazareth, David's son, God's son, charged to the battle line.
SPEAKER_00: His face set like flint, and as he marched into Jerusalem, he said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, but now is my soul troubled, like David's in the cave.
SPEAKER_00: And what shall I say?
SPEAKER_00: Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour, and that period should be a colon.
SPEAKER_00: Father, glorify your name.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know what happened next in John chapter 12?
SPEAKER_00: A voice thundered from heaven, from the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: God sent from heaven his very words.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
SPEAKER_00: The crowds thought it was a storm, but it was the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This same Jesus, silent and steadfast, stared down his accusers as they tried to convict him for blasphemy, asking him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, I am.
SPEAKER_00: They hung him on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: He cried out to God most high, like David, in the words of David and said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me as darkness overshadowed the land, and the wrath of God of sinners was poured out upon Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the God who puts to shame those who trample on David put himself to shame to save them from death.
SPEAKER_00: And then, glory be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died with a roar of battle.
SPEAKER_00: And with a shout, a loud shout of victory.
SPEAKER_00: It is finished.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't whisper it.
SPEAKER_00: It is finished.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And even though it was finished, he wasn't done.
SPEAKER_00: David lied down amid deadly foes, but they laid Jesus in a tomb with death itself, and Jesus conquered the grave for you.
SPEAKER_00: Put yourself for just a moment in the sandals of the Jews in the temple who heard this psalm sung, or they were singing it themselves.
SPEAKER_00: David was their king, David was the protector and lord.
SPEAKER_00: David was the one who brought to Israel such peace and such prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: David was their representative before God, and so for them, this psalm that we think of as a psalm of lament was a psalm of victory.
SPEAKER_00: From a dire moment in their own histories.
SPEAKER_00: Israel wouldn't be the Israel they all knew if David had died in that cave.
SPEAKER_00: More yet, the Israel they knew and loved under David's reign are longed for again in the days after he died.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, imagine singing this psalm in Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how they longed for David's Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But David's Israel was fashioned in the miraculous intervention of God, who raised up David against all the odds.
SPEAKER_00: If it weren't for David, Goliath would have won.
SPEAKER_00: If it weren't for the glory of God, all would have been lost.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews singing this song, that's what they thought of.
SPEAKER_00: And that's your story too, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: For your citizenship is not in the kingdom of David, but in the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Christ, the true and better David, lowly shepherd, mighty king, he the champion in the battle.
SPEAKER_00: Where, O death, is now thy sting.
SPEAKER_00: In our place he bled and conquered, so crown him, glorify him, crown him Lord of majesty.
SPEAKER_00: His shall be the throne forever.
SPEAKER_00: And we we shall ere his people be.
SPEAKER_00: That's the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus goes, you go.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me to the book of Romans and chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: What shall we say to all these great things?
SPEAKER_00: Romans and chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, because of justification through faith alone, as Jesus Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith that knows, agrees, and trusts, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Through him, just like the Jews were through David, through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
SPEAKER_00: And like David, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, in our caves, right?
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
SPEAKER_00: David had some oil stuck in his hair to know that he was the Lord's anointed.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Spirit of God dwelling within you, telling you you're his.
SPEAKER_00: You will not be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: So hope and the glory of God stand firm under trial.
SPEAKER_00: Cling to righteousness when sorrow presses in, when revile blessed.
SPEAKER_00: When you're anxious, don't indulge in distraction, but instead believe.
SPEAKER_00: When you're sad, look to Jesus and have hope for a day when tears will be wiped away.
SPEAKER_00: When you're angry, don't sin.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive as God in Christ has forgiven you, and even when you're but a step from death, your body failing, your mind reeling, your limbs and your heart weak.
SPEAKER_00: But a step from death.
SPEAKER_00: Just pray.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And hope in the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in your sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's your great endeavor, friends.
SPEAKER_00: That's your great accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: Your great journey, your great adventure is to hope in the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: For you and I live and breathe but a step from death, which is but a moment from glory.
SPEAKER_00: And we live our whole lives on the brink of greatness.
SPEAKER_00: Because God loves you and Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: I'm still in Romans 5.
SPEAKER_00: For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
SPEAKER_00: For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that.
SPEAKER_00: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's where the hope comes from.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the faith is placed in.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the cross and the love of God displayed there.
SPEAKER_00: And since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved.
SPEAKER_00: God will send from heaven and save you from the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.
SPEAKER_00: Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
SPEAKER_00: And more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice in your sufferings and rejoice in God.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read chapter 6 too, but I won't.
SPEAKER_00: All these things just keep coming together as you go through Romans from here on out.
SPEAKER_00: That's your homework.
SPEAKER_00: David's people were his people by birth and nationality.
SPEAKER_00: As went David, so went Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But in David saying God's praises among the nations.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus gathered them in.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, you are Christ's people by faith.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 6, where Jesus goes, you go.
SPEAKER_00: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
SPEAKER_00: The glory of God is above the heavens and over all of the earth, because his steadfast love is great to the heavens and his faithfulness to the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: So sing.
SPEAKER_00: Sing of him, give him thanks, glorify his name among the people for all that he's done.
SPEAKER_00: David doesn't say, I'll glorify your name among the people, so they'll know how great I am.
SPEAKER_00: David says, For your steadfast love is great to the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I'm inclined to think that's the only way to be a church that shares the good news.
SPEAKER_00: We can try and practice the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We can try and poke each other and prod each other, and we should do those things.
SPEAKER_00: We should.
SPEAKER_00: But the only way to be a church that shares the good news is to be a church that loves the God who saves so much, loves his steadfast love so much.
SPEAKER_00: That his praises and his glories just roll off our tongues.
SPEAKER_00: If evangelism's hard, sing better hymns.
SPEAKER_00: At least that's what I think.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, we live our whole lives in the caves of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Sojourners and exiles awaiting the dawn of a new kingdom, just like David did, just like David and just like Jesus, with his eyes firmly fixed on the joy set before him.
SPEAKER_00: And so while you wait, as you wait, remember your God, trust your God, and sing ever louder, ever louder.
SPEAKER_00: Shout it of the glory of his salvation among all the peoples, among all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: For his steadfast love is great to the heavens, and his faithfulness to the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, be merciful to us, O God, be merciful to us.
SPEAKER_00: For in you our souls take refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Father, in the shadow of your wings, we will take refuge until devastation passes by.
SPEAKER_00: We cry out to you, O God.
SPEAKER_00: To you who fulfills your purposes for us.
SPEAKER_00: You will send from heaven and save us.
SPEAKER_00: We know it.
SPEAKER_00: You will put to shame those who trample on us.
SPEAKER_00: You have already sent out your steadfast love and faithfulness, and you will do so again.
SPEAKER_00: Our souls, O Lord, are in the midst of lions.
SPEAKER_00: We lie down amid fiery beasts, the children of man whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
SPEAKER_00: So be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they set nets for our steps, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Our souls are bowed down over it.
SPEAKER_00: They dig pits in our ways, but they fall into the pit themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so our hearts are steadfast, O God.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts are steadfast.
SPEAKER_00: We will sing and we will make melody.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Rouse your glories.
SPEAKER_00: Wake up, piano and bass, for we will wake the dawn.
SPEAKER_00: We will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples we meet this week.
SPEAKER_00: We will sing your praises among all the nations, because your steadfast love is great to the heavens and your faithfulness to the clouds.
SPEAKER_00: So be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all of the earth.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.