for good to view the Lord Jesus. And this morning, in the last session, we were looking at David in the life of David and his being anointed as king as a type of the Lord Jesus and his kingship that he's to be brought into. You know, it isn't too long after David has been anointed. that there are things that face him in real difficulties. And we read in First Samuel chapter, or First Samuel chapter seventeen. Now the Philistines were gathered together, their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Soco, which belongeth to Judah, an intent camp between Soco and Ezekiel, and Ephes Daman, And Saul said to the men of Israel, who were gathered together and camped by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistine. Now, normally, when a man becomes a ruler and a king, has to defend what he has. And young David hadn't gone too far. until he was taken to that. After that he was anointed, he goes to Saul's house. And because the spirit comes upon Saul, that's the evil spirit. Many people have a problem with this because they said, well, God gave him a new heart when he took Saul in the way. I don't believe that God gave him a new heart. It says he gave him a different heart. And that Saul, as he walked, walked as the man of flesh, and yet God had given to him the power of the Spirit. And as we saw that he didn't yield to that power of the Spirit. His flesh was the strong thing in his life, and he answered to it. I suppose Saul could in some ways be a type of the Antichrist who comes to reign first. before the true David sets up his own reign. But when we see the place that David's brought to, Saul needs somebody when this evil spirit comes on him to play the harp and so that he can have a sense of well-being. You and I both know that if you get a little depressed and things like that, you can seek some good music, it lifts your spirit. Perhaps that's what David's playing did to him. But at any rate, the evil spirit would leave him, perhaps because of the force of David's spirit in him. Because God did put the spirit, his spirit, on David. So David played for him for a while, and then evidently David went back to caring for the sheep. Perhaps Saul wasn't troubled anymore with it. So David went back caring for the sheep. And as he cares for the sheep one day, The Philistines again come to take battle against Saul and his armies. And maybe they wanted to settle the score of what Saul did to him in some earlier battles. But at any rate, they come. They came to a place that we read of here, the Valley of Elah, which means strength. And in that valley was a town, a place called Soko. It means tabernacle or rest. And then Azica means fence or security. But the place of Ephesdemon means the border of blood. You know whenever you have rest and security and you have what's represented as the house of God, There's always going to be an evil one to try to take that away from you. It's a force that exists. Satan never wanted the people of God to find a place of rest. Never wanted them to have the place of strength. Never wanted them to be found in a worship in the house of God. So as you look at this battle, it's about to take place in his valley. It gives us a good picture of what we face in our lifetime and of what the latter David was to face as he came. But here it's a real place and it's a place of death, the place of blood. But I couldn't help but think again being reminded of what we heard this morning and of Calvary and how Calvary secures for us our place in the house of God. How Calvary secures for us our eternal security, how Calvary secures for us a place of rest. But even though that's secure, Satan would like to give us those doubts. You know, he'd like us to take us over the style and go to the castle on belief and or the place of doubting and stay in that place that we might lose our joy. But I remember the shepherd king said this while he was here, and he walked. And he said it very sure. I remember that book of Ecclesiastes says, A fourfold cord is not easily broken. And when the shepherd king spoke to us, he said this, My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand, and no one shall pluck them out of my father's hand, for I and the father are one. Now, if you take one cord and pull it, you can break it pretty easy. You take two cords and bind them together and pull it, they don't break so easy. You take three cords, it's very difficult to break it. But a four-fold cord is not easily broken. Some people have said to me sometimes when it comes to this sense of losing your security, they say, well, you can slip through his fingers. And I have to say, that's not the kind of God that I have. He gives me a secure place, an impossibility for me to fail. I want you to see something. Maybe you haven't looked at too close. that in those two verses when it says, neither shall any man that's in italics. So it's neither shall any pluck them out of my hand or any pluck them out of my father's hand. You know what that means? It means the devil himself. It means all the angels and principalities are against God. And it means God himself will not take us out of his hand. He gives us a place of security. But even so, as we go through this life, there are so many things that will take you from it. If you leave this book, set aside. It isn't going to be long until the doubts will come into your mind. You will feel hindered in the way. You'll begin to wonder, as an old lady did, she taught me a lesson as a young man. As a young man one day, I asked the Lord to give me some direction. and to raise us up a shepherd, a pastor in the assembly. I suppose I did pray that in a prayer meeting. Must have shook it, shaken some of my older brethren. But I really had a heart to see that there was a need for a shepherd. And just as I spoke those words, it was just as though God had said to me, what's wrong with you knocking on a few doors? And you know, that was so loud. I looked behind me to see who was there to set it. And I went home that night and I said, Okay, Lord, where do I start? So he said, Well, pure religion, true and I'm defiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widow and their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So I said, Okay, God, I know some widows. And so I'll go to visit them. And then I knew an old man and went to visit him as well. But this dear widow taught me a lesson. She had been a lady in her younger years who was a socialite. She liked the things of society that they did round about her. And she was sort of on the fringe, as I remember right, as a boy of the assembly. And now she's an old lady. And as I go to visit her, she's very fearful. And I was able to encourage her with the word of God. as to where she stood with him. Some time went by, and I heard she was very low. So I went to visit her again. I had moved away by that time, and I went back to see her. I had to get down beside her bed. Her teeth were out, and it was kind of difficult to hear what she was saying. But I heard her say, Oh, Raymond, the Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forsaken me. And I said, No, Mrs. Jones, he couldn't do that. That's totally contrary to his word. That's an impossibility. He keeps his promise. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I had to say, Sister, whose voice are you listening to? Who are you hearing? Are you going to give your ear a tune to him? Well, you know, when it comes to these matters of doubt, they do come when you don't walk in the light of his word. You walk in that place where there are the shadows. I often have noticed the street sometimes walking down it, that sometimes the street light will be on one side of the street and the other side is in the shadows. If you walk on the side where the street light is, you've got lots of help. But if you go on the other side where the shadows are, then you're liable to stumble and fall. And so when we look at the light and walking in the light, in the light of His perfection and in the light of His word, we need to submit to His will for us. So in the valley of Elah, there's a place where loss can be had or power and victory is gained. It was a place of blood. And I thank God that the anti-type of this battle here was found in the Lord Jesus. and he takes us to a place of victory. In fact, I think I heard my brother quoted this morning when he said, Thanks be to God who giveth us a victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at the battle, the place of strength. First of all, we'd like to look at the enemy. You know, he's there, and David's day the enemy was Goliath. Goliath means exile. And when you look at this giant, I've heard all kinds of different measurements and everything, but I'll give you an idea. If you roughly grabbed a cubit as a foot and a half, and he was six cubits, that'd make him about eight and a half feet tall, wouldn't it? No, make him nine feet tall. Yeah. Then if you took a span of the hand, that's another nine inches, so it'd be about nine feet nine. Heard some that by their measurements would want him about eleven feet tall, but irregardless he was an enemy and he was a giant. And when you look at him, the way he was clothed, he was clothed with a raiment of nails, perhaps weighing well over a hundred pounds. Some have brought it as high as two hundred pounds. He was clothed with that. Now, if you can vision, I had big men. He's got that coat of nail on, and then I read that his shins were covered with nail as well. He was pretty well defended. And on top of that, he had a brass helmet on his head. He was well covered. That nail covered that giant pretty well. And then he had a spear. that should well have had a spearhead on it of twenty-five pounds or better. And then his spear itself was like a weaver's beam. It must have been a gigantic thing for this giant man. So when we go to the battle, we see one well-clothed. There's forty days have gone by. Israel's lined up on this side. The Philistines lined up on that side. And day after day, this giant comes out and he says, Send us a man. We want to do battle. Now our hearts say, Wow, how come Israel would sit there and an enemy for forty days and not come to battle? Well, it's an interesting thing that down the middle of this valley, there's a wadi or a riverbed, dry creek, I'll put it that way, that was cut down into the ground. And so it would have been very difficult for either army to come head on because they'd have to go down through that dry riverbed and then up on the other side. And when they're going down and up, well, they'd have been at mercy at the enemy. So they're at loggerheads. And because they're in that position now, Goliath comes out and says, send me a man. He's going to be a champion. And he says, if you beat me, well then we'll serve Israel. But if we beat you, then you'll serve the Philistines. And so he goes. But you know we need to enter God's man. He was the man after God's own heart that we learned this morning. Where is he when God calls him to do his work? He's taking care of the sheep again. I like David. Had a heart for the sheep, he never lost it. It's like my Savior had a heart for the sheep and he's never lost that. And you know David's caring for the sheep. But his father, for some reason or other, he had three boys already drafted or enlisted, whatever they did, and they were already in the army. But now he had four more boys. besides David. And it's surprising to me that he didn't send one of those boys, older boys, to the front, that he could give them the things, their pledge and food for them, support for them while they were there. But he took the younger son. And I wonder, in my own mind, if somehow Jesse didn't remember that anointing, and if Jesse didn't think in his own mind there's something that God has for him. And so he takes a younger man and he sends him off to the battle to see how his brothers are faring. And as David goes off to the battle, ah, when he gets there what happens? His brothers meet him and David leaves the stuff by the baggage. And we read in verse twenty-four, And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man fled from him, and were very much afraid. And then a man of Israel said, Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely to defy Israel, is he come up? And it shall be that the man that killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel. And David spoke to the men who stood by him. What shall be done for the man who killeth the Philistines and taketh away the reproach from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that they should defy the armies of the living God? And the people answered him after this manner, so shall it be done for the king who kills him. Now here's what his own family did to him, and so we see the Lord Jesus. In picture here, Eliabas' brother, eldest brother, heard when he spoke unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled against David. And he said, Why cameest thou down hither? And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and thy naughtiness of thy heart, for thou art come down, that thou mightest see the battle. And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause? And there's some reason why I shouldn't ask this question. Why rebuke me? Then he turned from his brother and he went to one after the other. You know, I can't help but thinking of the Lord Jesus as one who came down. He came down to do battle. We saw last night in God's plan, he came to restore that which he took not away. He came to overcome death and the one that had the power of death, even the devil. That's why he came. And he came down to do it. What did his own brethren think of him? And how the crowd was ready to mock him all the time. And yet the true David pushed on toward the battle. But even though he was scorned by his brothers, young David went forth and questioned time after time. The Lord Jesus could say of himself, he was one sent of the Father. We read, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And he could say, Lo, I'm come. In the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will, O God. He came with the purpose of fulfilling the will of God, even though it meant that he would enter into the battle. And so here, young David is finally taken before Saul. And when Saul, that man of flesh, sees him, you know, Saul is so much bigger than David. He read his heart and shoulders, head and shoulders above all. But in his gigantic stands he has, he's not still willing to go to battle against Goliath. Goliath and all his brothers weren't there to do it. Jonathan didn't do it. Abner didn't do it. There weren't any of them, all men and heroes. And yet none of them would go to battle. But David says, Who's this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the army of the living God? So when he goes before King Saul, the man of flesh, Saul says, You can't. You're a stripling. You ever heard when you take out to do something for God, you can't? And you have all these different reasons why you can't. And sometimes the reason is we tried it before and it didn't work. But here's you young man who says you can't. And he said, I can go and I'll go in the name of the living God. And so Saul says, well, all right, and the Lord bless you as you go. But we see Saul before he lets him go, even though he said, the Lord bless you. He said, you've got to try my armor on. He said, you don't have any. And so David tried his armor, the armor of the flesh. And that's what it is. Whenever we take up to do something like that, we're going to do it in the flesh. He tried armor that he had never tried before. Armor that wasn't proven. And he was going to know that it didn't fit, that it didn't work. And he said, No. He said, The Lord delivered me out of the lion and the paw of the bear, and he'll deliver me from this Philistine. You know, Saul must have got wind somehow of David's reputation because of David mentioning the lion and the bear. Well, David kept the sheep. He took on the lion and the bear, and he was victor over both of them. Now David had proved God. I want you to see something here. Here's a young man that in his lifetime is he kept the sheep. He was learning something about the God of creation and the God of all as he was there and the God that was his defender. And David in the power of the Lord was willing to care for one of those little sheep so much so that he had risked his life and take on the lion and the bear. And he did it. And he released the sheep. And he killed the lion. And later on a bear as well. And so now David knows something about the power of faith. And he decides to go in the power of that faith. And while he goes, he goes in the name of the Lord. Now, I don't know if you understand what the name of the Lord is. So many times people today think it's just the name Jesus. But the name of the Lord is given to us in the book of Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three and thirty-four. No, not Deuteronomy, Exodus, pardon me. Now God says in the book of Proverbs, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. the righteous run into it and are safe proverbs eighteen ten and so when we find what the name of the lord is as a strong tower the righteous will run into it now here's what he says concerning the name of the lord in chapter uh thirty three verse nineteen and he said i will make all my goodness pass before thee and i will proclaim the name of the lord before thee and will be gracious to whom i will be gracious and will show mercy unto whom I will show mercy. And then if you drop down to verse five in chapter thirty-four, and you read, And the Lord descended in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed. Now as we hear the proclamation then, it is the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children under the third and fourth generation. The proclamation was the attributes of God. The proclamation showing us what kind of a God he was. And that's the name of the Lord. So when we look at David going in the name of the Lord, he's going in all that the throne of the Lord represents. And all the attributes of God. David knew a strong tower. And David knew that he could run into it and be safe. And you know what? if we know anything about the Lord God at all. And we make a study of him. And we learn of the security the Lord Jesus has given to us in and through himself. We know that the righteous have a strong tower. And the righteous have a place to run into and be safe. Now, David took that place. And David took it in power. And David is going to use that power. It's not in the armor that Saul had for him. He couldn't use that. It was the armor of flesh. It was the armament that Saul had, but it wouldn't work. So here's a young lad going forth to battle. Now you remember a reading of him picking up the five stones, and you wonder, well, where did he get that? He got that from that creek bed. And he had gone that far. He already was in the path to do battles. Now, when I was a young man, an older brother taught me, Ray, the path of faith is one step at a time. And you take that step. And you know David did that. David was going in the name of the Lord. And just as Asa said later on, Lord, it's nothing for thee to help with many or with them that have no power. And it's in your name that we'll go against the multitude. And so David steps out in that path of faith. Now, he sees that giant with all his shining armor and all the rest. But David, the shepherd's stripling, he goes down, he had his staff in his hand. That was his authority as a shepherd. And then he goes to that creek bed. He picks up those five smooth stones. And then he goes to battle. against the giant. Goliath, the man who represents all those powers of evil, is going to meet with a simple lad, one who's been reproached of men, and then he adds his own reproach to it. He disdained him, he cursed him, and he mocked him. And when the Lord Jesus went to do battle for us, he had all those things. People belittled him. They cursed him. They said he's doing his work in the power of the Prince of Beelzebub. They challenged him. We be not born of fornication. Only a Nazarene can any good thing come out of Nazareth. All those things they had to say about him. And while he walked his pilgrim journey, he was just like David was. Well, David was out there caring for the sheep. I read the foxes had holes. You know, they've got those little places and caves and holes, a place where they could call home and they could rest. The birds of the air could come and with their little talons given to them weave their little nest together and they have a nest. But I read the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. Amazing, the creator of all. The one who could speak, and the worlds were framed by the Word of God, had nowhere to lay his head, but he had a heart for the sheep. Our brother said something this morning, and he stirred my mind. It's good for me to sit and listen to somebody else preach. You know, he was talking about our littleness. And being a pilot years ago, I used to fly quite a bit from, well, from Alaska all down the line to Cuba and all points in between. And I remember so many times being up high and looking down to see if I could find a man on the Earth. You know, from ten thousand feet even, it's pretty hard to find a man, to pick out his side. Just a speck. And then one day I read about a star called Antares. Ever hear of Antares? They say the diameter of that star is four hundred million miles. You know what that means? That means you could take the Earth in its orbit around the Sun and stick it inside of Antares and have a hundred million miles roughly on either side. We are but a speck of cosmic dust, and yet the eternal one was willing to leave the glories of heaven and come to fight that we might be set free. Israel, they had an enemy before him, And all they had was a lad, a ruddy lad, a lad with a staff in one hand and a sling in the other and five stones in his pouch. And he goes up, he's mocked by his brethren, he's cursed by the enemy, but he's going in the name of the Lord. And then he takes that stone and he puts it in that little sling. Now I came home from Israel with several of David's slings. They're selling them to you all over the place. But I thought they'd make a good souvenir. But I'm sure David had one that he made a little better than all those that I bought that I took home with me. They were all a little ragged. But he could use that so much so that he could put that stone right where he wanted it. But you know, I don't see this in David's ability. I want you to think. He said he was going in the name of the Lord. He didn't say he was going in the strength of David. He didn't go bragging about what he was going to do to that giant. I hear some radio preachers do that. Oh, if I had the devil here, this is what I'd do. That's nuts. We can't match the devil's power in any manner, shape, or form. He's a spirit being. But you know, David took that stone and he put it in its slings. Now, I don't know how many excuses you can make about Goliath having that helmet on and think, well, maybe it fell off when he bent over to look at David or something. Or some thought he had a visor here and he opened the visor and the stone got through because the visor was open. You know what I think? The power of the name of God was behind that stone and it put it right through that helmet. into that head. I don't have to make excuses. I don't have to feel that David had to be a mighty strong man that could take that stone and make it pierce that giant skull. I believe that that stone was touched with the power of God. And one day there was a son of man, Jesus Christ. And he came. He came in the power and the authority of his father. He said, I do those things I saw the father do. I speak the words that the father spoke. And now when he goes to face Calvary, ah, he has all the power of God, doesn't he? Do you have any less doubt? Are you have any doubt that because he was the son of man and the frame of a man, that he wasn't God or that he didn't have the attributes of God? And there are three basic attributes of God. Omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. I want you to think a little bit. John's Gospel, Chapter One. There was a man over there sitting under a fig tree. His name was Nathaniel. And then one day Nathaniel comes walking toward him, perhaps the same day. And the Lord looks and says, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathaniel said, Whence knewest thou me? He said, How do you know me? He said, I knew you when you were under the fig tree. He not was there under that fig tree when he was there in presence. Because he's omnipresent, he was there. And he knew Nathaniel. And because he's omniscient, he knew Nathaniel's heart. And you know I know that? Because what's the next thing he said to him? He said, you're going to see something greater, Nathaniel. And I believe Nathaniel had his Bible there, and he was reading that Old Testament. Jacob that night that he laid his head down, as he's heading towards his uncle Laban's, and it's his first night in the wilderness. And he's alone and tired. He got a stone for a pillow, and suddenly that stone becomes an altar. And he sees a ladder leading to heaven. And he sees the angel descending and ascending on the ladder. And the Lord Jesus said, Nathaniel, you're going to see something greater than that. You're going to see the angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. He spoke of himself in his glory. And Nathaniel would see that one day. Now we've got two things. He was omniscient. He was there with Nathaniel. He knew his mind and he knew his thoughts. And he knew Nathaniel. And then, you see, in chapter two, he knew what was in the heart of men, so he did not commit himself to them. He knew men then as well. But what about his power when the Lord Jesus walked here? I can see his power manifest so many times. Remember that night when they were in that boat crossing that sea? And the Lord Jesus, as a man, wearied, laid down, and he went to sleep, totally in peace. The storm didn't bother him. But the disciples are fearful, and so they wake him up. Master, care us now not that we perish in the Lord of creation. Says to the wind in the way, peace, be still. And suddenly it's quiet. He cast out demons in his power. In his creator power, he worked the first miracle, as we saw last night. My, how great was his power. And David now goes in that power. And he slings that sling. And that stone hits that giant. And he prevails. Wins the victory. You know the victory at Calvary was won not in pride, it was won in humility. I read that the Lord Jesus humbled himself, made himself of no reputation. He became a servant, took the form of a servant, the expression of a man, and the expression of a servant. But what did God say about his servant in Isaiah forty nine? He said, I'll make him as a polished shaft. A polished shaft is something that goes through. There's no rough edges and nothing to stop it. And his soldier's servant was faithful in his service. And the victory was won at Calvary. against all the principalities and powers of hell that were against it. And now we say, thanks be to God, who giveth us to victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. David prevailed, and the Lord Jesus prevailed. He said, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He took part of the saying that through death he might overcome him that had the power of death. You know, people of flesh and blood were in all of their lifetimes subject to bondage. But he who came in flesh was able to subdue the enemy and give us a victory. Then we'd have to say this morning or this afternoon, thanks be to God. who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, our Father, for this lovely picture of your Son given to us in a man, a man who could go in the name and in the power of the Lord and enter into the victory. My, our hearts thrilled to know that we have been crucified with Christ Nevertheless we live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Thank you, Father. We wait upon what you will say to us in the moments ahead. We bless you, a guide in our own minds. Help us to be fixed upon your word, we pray, in Jesus' name. Thank you, Ray. Take your hymnals if you would, once again. Turn to number one hundred and twenty-one. One twenty-one. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand. Number one hundred twenty-one. And would you stand, please, as we sing.