The Lion and the Bear–Trophies Hung Up

The Lion and the Bear–Trophies Hung Up

(No. 1810)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 25, 1884,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Your servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised
Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of
the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of
the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me
out of the hand of this Philistine." 1 Samuel 17:36,37.

DAVID had lived with God. Throughout many a solitary day he had kept
his father's flock among the lone hills of Judah and had worshipped the
Unseen but Ever-Present Lord. He had grown into an adoring familiarity
with the Most High so that, to him, the name of the one and only living
and true God was a deep and solemn joy. As you may have spied far up
among the ramparts of the mountains a solitary lake, whose one office
it is to mirror the face of Heaven, so had David's hallowed life become
the reflection of the Light and Glory of the Lord of Hosts. It had not
occurred to him, in his meditations, that base men would dare to
challenge the infinite majesty of God, or that proud adversaries would
come forward and defy the chosen people of the Most High–but now that
he hears the defiance and beholds the challenge, all his blood is up.
He is amazed! A holy rage is upon him! Yes, it is true–he hears
Jehovah blasphemed! How can it be? The youth's holy soul is undergoing
a new experience. He is bringing his whole life to bear upon it. He
reaches the conclusion that as bears and lions die when they meddle
with sheep, so must Goliath fall, now that he dares to attack the Lord
and His people.

When David finds himself in the camp and when he hears Goliath of Gath
pouring forth his blasphemies against Jehovah and defying Jehovah's
people, David has no thought of having been mistaken in his former
lofty adoration. He entertains no notion of adopting a lower style, but
he inwardly burns with indignation against the infamous reviler. An
insult against God cannot be allowed! This abominable blasphemer must
be silenced. Somebody must put him down and so dispose of him that none
shall ever dare, again, to do the same. David enquires whether somebody
or other is not going to batter the bronze champion. If any man in the
camp will meet this huge man-mountain, David will not stand in his
way–he is not so covetous of glory as to deprive a more deserving
person of these huge materials for renown. But it is imperative that
some hand should silence that hillock of proud flesh! It is driven in
upon David's devout heart that this blasphemous mouth must be shut and
God's name and God's people must be clear of such a brutal enemy.

About the stilling of this enemy and avenger David has no enquiry to
make. It is going to be done, done soon, and done without any
particular display. When he kept his sheep and the lion came, David did
not raise the question whether he could kill the lion–he killed
him–and the question was settled. When the bear came and was about to
rob him of one of his lambs, he did not say to himself, "Have I a call
to kill that bear?" Not he–he killed him–and then he knew he was
called to do it! He feels within himself at this moment, "If nobody
else will deal with this Philistine difficulty, I must do so, for I
cannot live and see God opposed. Jehovah is All in All and beside Him
there is none else–He can put an end to an opponent with a word–it
must not be that He shall be insulted continually after this fashion. I
feel an impulse upon me. This Philistine has defied the armies of the
living God and down he shall come."

And so, yielding to the Divine impulses by which the truly great are
led, David puts himself forward to stand in single combat with an
enormous giant. Observe a stripling set over against a son of Anak–but
when you have made the observation, be sure to note that the stripling,
by no means, seeks your sympathy, or appeals to your pity. It sometimes
happens that a tremor will come over a man when he feels that he has
stepped out of the ranks and come forward without any call from his
fellow men–when he feels that he has taken up Jehovah's quarrel and
constituted himself the champion of the Most High. If he is not quite
sure about his commission and if he is not quite sure that God is with
him, he will soon repent his own temerity and make an ignominious
retreat.

In David's case there is no flush of excitement, no fierce light of
eyes lit up with a semi-madness. Evidently he is quite at home and has
the entire business well in hand. He tells us why he is so bravely
venturesome. It is well worth our while to see what made David so
strong and confident, for if it has never occurred to us, up to now, it
may yet occur that we shall be called out to do some deed of daring for
the Lord. Come, let us learn how to be Davids, should a voice call us
from among the sheepfolds! I wish that young men here would aspire to
brave lives for the God of Israel. I would that for the Truth of God,
goodness and the eternal Glory, they would be ready to rise to the
measure of their destined hour. Why should we all be mean men? Is there
not room for a few downright devoted beings who will lift their hands
unto the Lord and never go back? If self-sacrifice is needed, let us
make it. If someone is needed for a heathen land, or to bear testimony
for the Truth of God in this almost apostate nation, let us cry, "Here
am I! Send me!"

God's David will not hang back through cowardly fear or dread of
consequences, but will take up his place, as God shall help him, and
say, like Martin Luther, "I can do no other: so help me, O my God." We
shall see what made David so calm and self-possessed as to venture
where nobody else would venture and take up the gauntlet and dare to be
the champion of the living God. Oh, souls that dwell apart, and wear,
each one, a lone star upon his brow, here are kindred flames for you!
The first head will be, the confidence of David. And when I have spoken
upon that, as God shall help me, we will then consider, for a little
time, David as the type of the great Son of David, and think about that
confidence which we ought to repose in Him.

First, THE CONFIDENCE OF DAVID. He does not go to this battle with any
kind of hesitation, calculation, or question of fear, but he is quite
sure of the result and proceeds about it with a quiet reserve of force.
One would have thought that he, himself, was a colossal presence and
that the person to be assailed was some pigmy, for he talks with such
calm assurance–"Let no man's heart fail him. Your servant will fight
with this uncircumcised Philistine." It would have been fearful brag if
it had not been simple matter of fact.

I. The confidence of David, in the first place, was grounded upon his
own personal experience. Beloved, if you would display strong
confidence in God–firm, calm, steady–you must look, in a large
measure, to the experience you have had of the goodness and
faithfulness of God. The Lord, in mercy, often keeps young beginners
from those severe and heavy trials which befall the more advanced
because, to them, this fountain of strength, namely, a profound
personal experience, is not yet accessible except in rare instances.
The young have not as yet obtained much experience of the things of
God. But those who have been led a certain distance onward in the
Divine life have tried and proved the promises– and the
promise-keeping power and faithfulness of God–and they can draw from
this well with the highest results.

But, Beloved, I would have you remember that experience does not come
to people if they sit still. When David was young in years, he was old
in experience because he had watched the hand of the Lord in its
dealings with him. He had not been an idler among the hills, but a
worshipper, a worker, a student, a practical, living man of God. You
must go and meet an experience if that experience is to bring you
riches in both its hands. I mean that David's experience was that God
delivered him out of the jaw of the lion–but he, first, went and
fought that lion by his own dauntless valor! He took the lamb out of
his mouth and he laid hold upon his jaws and tore him in pieces. David
went forth to meet that experience. And the bear that came to
David–David did not sit still and watch the bear, let it come and
roar, take its prey and then retreat as it liked–he struggled with
that bear and he slew him! And thus he gained his experience by the
active discharge of his duties as a shepherd. He did what he was called
upon to do with holy daring and, in so doing, he learned the
faithfulness of God. Many men have lions and bears, but no experience.
Be alive and get something out of all that happens around you!

You younger Christian men and women, I do pray you be faithful to your
God and put your trust in Him. Try to do, in your earliest days, brave
things, because in this manner you will be gaining and storing up an
experience which will make you strong, in later days, to attempt yet
more for God! I long to see a better race than the present and how
shall that be prepared but among the brave and loyal-hearted youth of
today? Do you not know the way in which God rewards His faithful
servants here on earth? He does it, usually, by enabling them to do, in
the future, something more than they have done before! You have fought
in that battle. Take this as your reward–you shall fight again
tomorrow! You have achieved a second victory? Take this as your
bonus–you shall be led to a still sterner fight! Oh, you who have

frowned down the face of death and have bearded destruction in its own
den, you shall lead a second forlorn hope and pluck victory from the
bloody brows of battle! You shall be among the choice warriors of the
King, first in every fray!

Some, perhaps, may think this a small reward, but this shows that their
hearts are not yet raised into the lordlier chivalry, nor sworn into
the innermost love of the great King. When the heart is wholly given up
to Christ, our one desire is that we may glorify Him! Therefore, I
would have you take care and kill your lions and kill your bears, that
you may store up your experiences and be able to kill your Philistines!
If David had not killed the first lion and bear, he would not have been
able to meet any other ferocious creatures. There is any quantity of
them about, but no one but brave David had specially cultivated their
acquaintance. I say there is plenty of the raw material of experience
about, only people do not go in for it. These evil creatures are up and
down, all over the place–lions of one kind and bears of another,
tearing or roaring, howling or hugging, drawing down or tossing up–in
every way trying to destroy us! And if you are a born hunter, you shall
have ages of experience within the next 12 months! Take care that you
do it. Do not become constant idlers and then talk about Christian
experience.

Oh for true, deep, rich experience! Some of you need it badly enough.
What kind of experience will some professors have when they come to be
60 or 70 years of age? They never labored in the Sunday school to teach
a child, never stood up to preach Christ, never penetrated a lodging
house, nor entered a midnight meeting to try and uncover a wanderer for
Jesus. These have no experience–they are hollow as drums! They have
done nothing! Their spiritual life has been a blank. If a sharp trial
should come to them, upon what experience could they fall back? They
are soldiers who have never smelt powder! Warriors who faint at the
sight of blood! How shall they win eternal victory who, till this hour,
have taken their ease and declined the labor and the danger of the war?
I charge you, therefore, my beloved Brothers and Sisters who know the
Lord, be up and in earnest to slay your lions and your bears, that you
may learn how to kill your Philistines! That is to say–serve God with
all your heart and patiently bear your cross for His name's sake, so
that when the time shall come for you to stand as a lone man for
Christ, you may do it gloriously and may bring honor to your Divine
Leader. As stands a rock in mid-ocean, bearing the full fury of the
storm, so may we, in strength derived from a long, happy, useful
experience in the past, be steadfast and unmovable for the Truth of God
and for the Cross.

That is our first note about David's confidence–it comes from
experience–and ours must do the same.

II. You will notice, secondly, that in David's confidence there is a
blending of the human with the Divine. Observe– "Your servant slew
both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be
as one of them." That is the human. "David said, moreover, The Lord
that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the
bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." That is
the Divine side of it. In God's Word, the car of Truth runs on two
rails of parallel statement. A great many people want to pull up one of
the rails. They will not accept two sets of truth. "Predestination and
free agency do not agree," so the modern Solomon's assert! Who said,
"they do not agree"? They do agree as fully as two rails on the tram
line–but some narrow spirits must set aside either the one or the
other– they cannot accept both.

This has long been a puzzle on paper, but in practice it is ease,
itself! So here the practical action of the Believer, throwing his
whole might into his Master's service, perfectly agrees with his
falling back upon the working of God and knowing that it is God that
works all things for him! David's slaying of the lion and the bear and
the Philistine is clear– but God's delivering him out of the jaw of
the lion, the paw of the bear and the hand of the Philistine is equally
clear! Make it plain to yourself! I believe that when I preach, I ought
to prepare and study my sermon as if its success altogether depended
upon me, but that, when I am thus thoroughly furnished, I am to trust
in God as much as if I had done nothing at all. The same view should be
taken of your life and of your service for God. Work as if you were to
be saved by your works–and then trust Christ, only–since it is only
by faith in Him that you are capable of a single good work! Work for
God with all your might, as if you did it all, but then, always
remember that "it is God which works in you both to will and to do of
His good pleasure."

How is that Philistine to be killed? "By God," says one. True. But not
without David. "By David," says another. Yes, but not without God! Put
the Lord on the march with David and you put the Philistines into
untimely graves! When David moves to the fight, God being with him, off
comes Goliath's head! Neither champions' heads, nor demons' helmets can
stand against the man of God! "The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of
Jacob is our refuge."

"Oh, but," they say, "Paul may plant and Apollos may water," and yet
nothing may come of it, for only God can give the increase. Where is
that in the Bible? It is not there at all! The pure word is set to
another key. According to the Scriptures the text runs, "I have
planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." When believing
people work and follow up the work of the one, with the service of the
other–working together in sacred unity–then God gives the increase.
It is not, "Paul may plant and Apollos may water," and they may do this
in confidence in God, yet they may be disappointed. Not at all! It is
not the Lord that is ever in question–we are the questionable! God is
never late, though we often are. Do not say, "David may go with his
sling and David may go with his stone." No, but if David goes with his
sling and stone, in the name of the Lord of Hosts, nothing can defend
Goliath's forehead! He is bound to fall on his face to the earth. If
you and I will go in the name of the Lord God of Hosts to do what He
calls us to do, our work shall be done.

We shall not invoke that sacred name in vain, nor shall we be guarded
and belted about with the Divine Omnipotence and, after all, make a
failure of life. That is a happy confidence in God which clearly sees
the blending of the human with the Divine–the human nothing as to
self-confidence, the Divine everything as to the glory–yet the Divine
the more Divine, because it condescendingly stoops to use the human!

III. Thirdly, I want you to notice that in David's confidence, he had
so practically observed the service of the human side that he speaks of
it, first. Concerning his experience, David says, first, "Your servant
slew both the lion and the bear." In fact, he begins not with what God
did, but with what he, himself, did. Hear him–"Your servant kept his
father's sheep and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out
of the flock: and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it
out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his
beard, and smote him, and slew him." David does not conceal the fact
that he had given both lion and bear their due. There is neither
modesty, humility, nor truthfulness in giving the lie to the Grace of
God within you. A holy act should not be repudiated by its author any
more than a brave boy should be disowned by his father.

If you worked valiantly by the help of the Spirit of God, you did it,
and should not refuse to say so. How are you to glorify God by denying
the fruit of His Spirit? It is the Glory of God that He led you to holy
labor and helped you in it. And though you would not speak to your own
honor, yet the Lord must be praised–praised out of the weakness and
unworthiness of our human nature. David speaks of the human side,
first, because Saul had said to him, "You are not able to go against
this Philistine." In effect, David replied, "Hear what I did, and see
whether I am not able to meet the case." Sometimes when the question is
asked, "Is this possible?" let the Lord's anointed one say, "Yes, for I
have done it myself." In a slothful Church, a Church that has no faith
in God–and there are many such–the question is asked, "Can this be
done–done by such poor creatures as we are?" It is not an ill thing if
one who has had experience of the Lord's power bears a bold testimony
and says, "This can be done, for in days gone by I did the same." What
is needed is to give facts and dates and get into the region of
reality!

David put the human into the very forefront. I wish you would remember
this when you hear the idle night-birds hooting at our working for the
Lord. The lazy-bones of our orthodox churches cry, "God will do His own
work"–and then they look for the softest pillow they can find and put
it under their heads and say, "The eternal purposes will be carried
out–God will be glorified." That is all very fine talk, but it can be
used with the most mischievous design. You can make opium out of it
which will lull you into a deep and dreadful slumber–and prevent your
being of any kind of use at all. God delivers David and Israel, and
slays Goliath–but David is also there in full force–and nothing is
done without his sling and stone. David does not hesitate to state it
and the Holy Spirit does not hesitate to record it–why should it be
otherwise? Personal action–keep that always before your reverent eyes.
Every man has his own place to fill. Fill yours. There is something for
you to do. By God's Grace, do it!

IV. But now again, although David thus speaks of the human, first, yet
he speaks of the Divine most. "No, you say– he does not speak of the
Divine the most–there are several verses about the human and we have
only one upon the Divine." Listen! All the points which David makes
concerning the human are about the Divine, too, for when a man who has
faith in God speaks, if he says, "I did this, I did that"–it is but
another and, sometimes, a braver way of saying that God did it! Of
course, we all believe in miracles and that God can do anything and
everything. But listen–we do not believe in God using such poor
creatures as we are, though that would be the greatest miracle–and the
most astonishing

marvel! It would be a marvelous thing, indeed, if at any time one of us
would cry, "I did it! I did it! The Lord has worked through such a
creature as I am." It is a solemn pleasure to feel that the
ever-blessed Lord has used you for His praise.

I have felt it to be a joy too great for words and I have bowed my head
to worship under a sense of so high an honor. Be not slow to see the
hand of the Lord working with you and by you. It may sometimes be more
practically useful to Believers to hear of what God did by you than to
hear abstractly of what God has done by His own bare arm. It redounds
more to God's Glory that He has worked acts of Grace by such poor
creatures as we are than if He had worked them by seraphim and
cherubim. Not without men does God aim at His highest Glory, or else
they would not have been created. But in men and by men will the Lord
be great to the ends of the earth.

V. Now I want to go a little farther and show that David's confidence
rested mainly in the Immutability of God, the Divine Worker. He says,
"The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the
paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine." In the Divine Character there are usual features and
ordinary lines of action. God has "ways." He does not behave in one
manner, today, and in another tomorrow, but His tones and methods are
fixed. Our God is not capricious–we know what to expect from Him, for
He has revealed to us "the way of the Lord." All through the Bible you
read of God's way. Therefore, when certain events happen, we know where
they will end. From experience of the past, we gather prophecies of the
future and we foretell things to come.

Let me show you a few objects in conjunction–and let us take
observations. Look! Before my mind's eye there pass a lion and a
believing man–God gives that believing man victory over the lion.
Study the second picture–A bear and a believing man. God helps that
believing man to get the victory over the bear. God, who is the same
today, as yesterday, will be the same tomorrow. A third picture is
before me–a huge giant and the same believing man–well, God will give
him victory over the Philistine. I am sure of it. It is His way! I want
you, my dear Brother, to feel that if God has blessed you in the past,
He will bless you still! You were helped–you can never forget it–you
were helped right through. It was a severe crisis in your life and you
were wonderfully carried over it. Does not this fact fill you with
hope?

There came another somewhat different trial, as different from the
former trouble as a bear may be from a lion, but you were again
helped–very remarkably helped. You have not forgotten it–you cannot
forget it though your hair is gray. Are not such encouragements very
many and very sweet? Why, I can furnish my whole house with the bears'
skins and lions' skins! Are we going to be discouraged, now? Here is
another crisis and there is another difficulty–are you dismayed? The
way of God–have you not learned it, yet? Do you not know God's habits
by now? If He helped you, then, and then, and then, and then–He will
surely help you now! Why, you must feel, I should think, like Drake,
when he had been round the world and yet was nearly wrecked at the
harbor's mouth! He was coming up the Thames when a fierce storm broke
over him and his ship was well-near driven on shore!

He cried to his sailors, "No, no, this won't do! We have been safely
round the world and we are not going to be drowned in a ditch like
this! We shall get safe up to London." Your present affliction is a
mere ditch of a trouble compared with what you endured years ago! You
who have breasted Atlantic billows–are you doomed to drown under the
languid ripples of an everyday life? Let it not be so! "Your servant
slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircum-cised Philistine
shall be as one of them. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of
the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the
hand of this Philistine."

We serve an immutable God! We change a thousand times a day, but He
never changes! Our pilgrimage leads us along a good old way! Our chart
and our compass are the same as those of our youth–and the Divine
consolation, upon which alone we rely is, in every respect, unaltered
and unalterable! Hear Jehovah speak–"I am the Lord, I change not;
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed."

VI. This leads me to close by observing that David's confidence also
proceeded upon his firm conviction that, the Immutable God being with
him, he, himself, would be sufficient for the present emergency. Now,
you see, I bring the man in again, but it is that you may think of God
all the more! We want immutability applied to ourselves, or we are not
comforted. It is a very easy thing to say, "Yes, God is unchangeable,"
and then we turn round and say–"God is glorious, but I am such a poor
creature." Yes, and you were such a poor creature when you slew the
lion–and just such a poor creature when you slew the bear! If you are
still such a poor creature, it is probable that by such a poor creature
God is going to get to Himself one more victory to the Glory of His
great Grace!

Does it ever come over you, who are getting into years, to tremble at
times? To tremble involuntarily, with a sore sense of utter
nothingness? Your trembling is partly physical weakness and partly
mental weariness. You say, "For what God has helped me to do, to His
name be praise!" But you go on to enquire, "Can I continue under so
great a pressure? Shall I do this present deed and bear this present
burden which my Lord has laid upon me?" Why, dear Friend, of course you
will! What you have done before, you will do again–and greater things
than these will you do! I want you to unite with David in a sense of
personal capacity for all the outlying future. Not only say, "The Lord
who delivered me will deliver me," but say, also, "Your servant slew
both the lion and the bear and your servant can slay this Philistine,
too. Yes, I killed the beasts and, in God's name, I will kill the
champion."

Old battles lend us new weapons. Yesterday's griefs are the mothers of
today's joys. An old affliction may prove to be the best cure for new
distress. Poor, poor Mary! She weeps for Lazarus, but Jesus will
comfort her concerning her brother. Are not His former mercies laid up
in store in her soul? Her heart had known secret passages of gracious
experience which prepared her to see her brother rise again. And you,
poor Thomas, beginning to doubt–why, Thomas, you are the very man who
lost estate and health–and yet glorified God! Oh, Brother Thomas, we
shall not believe your hard speeches against yourself! You are the man
who bore the brunt of poverty, slander, persecution, bereavement and
sick-ness–and you triumphed in them all!

You sometimes tell other people how wonderfully, when you were in the
fire, Another walked with you amid the glowing coals. And have you not,
sometimes, said that your afflictions are among your most precious
possessions? Well, and God will bless you still! It shall not only be
the same God, but it shall be the same Mary and the same Thomas still
working as God would have them work–and bearing up under trials–and
proving themselves to be more than conquerors through Him that loved
them.

"Ah, you do not know my trouble, dear Sir!" No, my dear Friend, and you
do not know mine–and I am not going to tell you. It would not comfort
you if I told you my distresses and it certainly would not comfort me
if you told me all your airing, moaning and sighing! I expect that we
have each to suffer the best trouble that could have been appointed us.
If you had my cross, it would be an unsuitable burden for you. And if I
had yours, it would be a grievous load for me. Never let us dream of
changing, nor even of comparing our different lots–the settlements of
Providence are wiser than our fancies! The will of the Lord is better
than the wit of man! Let each man choose the cross which God has chosen
for him. He knew our weight and how to adapt our burden to our
strength. If any good is to come of the rod, it will be a rod that is
handled by the Lord in His own way–not under the direction of our
daily folly–but under the guidance of His infinite wisdom and
prudence.

He knows where each one of us requires to come under discipline. He
knows the specific nature of each Believer, even as a careful
vinedresser understands the peculiarity of each of his vines. In the
season of pruning, the Great Husbandman knows which branch needs
cutting off. You cry, "Not so, Lord. Here is a branch lower down! If I
must be pruned, cut that off." The Lord is going to spare that shoot,
for it is a fruit-bearing one. But the other which you like so much
would only run to wood and so He is going to cut it away. Afflictions
sent us according to our own desires would not be afflictions, but
amusements! The rod applied by the culprit, himself, would not amount
to much. I do not know that we would be able to make a wise selection
of afflictions even if we had the choice of them. I am afraid that we
would be like the soldier who was never pleased by the drummer. When he
cried, "Do not hit me so high," the drummer tried him lower down. But
he did not like that any better, for he cried, "Higher! Higher! Don't
cut me in pieces!"

Now, in very truth, our afflictions anywhere, or anyway, are grievous.
We would rather escape them altogether and, therefore, it is not left
to our choice. But the infinite wisdom of God appoints the affliction
and appoints it suitably to the man. I fall back on that fact. David is
confident that God is with him. He is confident, also, that he is with
God. He is confident that God has helped him–confident that he was
enabled to do valiantly, in years gone by, by Divine help, and that he
will do so again. And so he comes forward to meet the present
emergency. I do not know for whom my message at this hour may be
especially meant. It comes to me ruggedly, but with a good deal of
impressiveness. I have an inward conviction that there are some here to
whom it is sent–children of God who are placed in positions where it
is incumbent upon them to stand out and bear open witness for the Truth
of God.

There is little doing for the Master–everybody is cowardly and
backward. Awake, you brave! Speak out, speak out, and silence the foe!
Like packs of hounds, the proud "thinkers" mouth it against the Lord,
but a single fearless voice will

quiet the whole kennel of them! Come to the front of the fight, you
that are truly men, and the Lord will be with you! Remember how He has
helped you in times past and let the God of your salvation be your God
forever and ever. Now, I am going to close with a few remarks upon the
second head.

DAVID IS A VERY FIT AND WONDERFUL TYPE OF THE GREAT SON OF DAVID, THE
LORD JESUS

CHRIST. If Saul had really believed David–which I am afraid he did
not–the story that David told him would have encouraged him to have
placed much confidence in the young hero. Any believing man in the camp
who really trusted Jehovah, as David did, would have said, "I see in
you, young man, one whom God has smiled upon. He has enabled you to
slay both a lion and a bear and, therefore, I am assured that you will
give a good account of this uncircumcised Philistine before long."
Transfer all this from David to David's Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it comes to this–what He has already done should convince us to
believe in Him.

I speak both to saints and sinners for a moment tonight. If you have
any doubt about whether Jesus Christ is able and willing to help you in
your present trouble–and to deliver you from your present doubt,
despondency and despair– remember what He has already done! He has
left the thrones and royalties of Heaven to be born into this world as
a Babe and to hang upon a woman's breast. It is a marvel! We speak of
it as though we understood it, but we do not. The Incarnation is a
miracle among miracles and rises like an Alp above all other mountains
of mystery! It is a wondrous thing that the One Almighty God should
veil Himself in a human form, but Christ has done so. "The Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only-begotten of the Father, full of Grace and truth." Being
found in fashion as a man, our Lord bowed Himself to learn obedience by
the things which He suffered. He lived a life of sorrow, temptation,
slander and reproach, that He might finish the work entrusted to Him.

In nothing, failing, He fulfilled the obedient life and prepared for
the atoning death. The time came for Him to encounter greater foes than
He had met before, but this did not disturb Him. Calmly He met all
things as they were appointed Him. He came, at last, to His Cross, and
there the stupendous load of human guilt was laid upon His shoulders
and He bore it all! As in righteousness He was strong to labor, so in
atonement He was strong to suffer. It needed Deity to bear the weight
of human guilt, but He did bear it and He so bore it that He finished
transgression and made an end of sins–and made reconciliation for
iniquity–and brought in everlasting righteousness for His people. You
see, He slew each lion and bear as it came, and in nothing was He
dismayed. Then He went down into the grave, met with death and grappled
with it. Death, by dying, He destroyed. He rifled the sepulcher and
brought resurrection to light for all His people!

Wondrous was that battle of Christ with the lion of the Pit for our
sakes! He kept His flocks by night and by day, never failing to protect
His own. The lion prowled around and sought to enter the sheepfold, but
the Shepherd's watchfulness was always there to keep him off. At last,
with a tremendous roar, the monster leaped into the sheepfold. He had
hoped that all were slumbering, but Divine love never sleeps. The
Shepherd received him on His breast and held him aloft till He had
strangled him. As Samson tore the lion of old, so did our Good Shepherd
destroy the destroyer when He laid down His life for the sheep.

All this is done and finished–and you may trust our Divine Immanuel to
do all that remains. Nothing remains to be done for a sinner that is at
all comparable to the far greater things which have been already done.
Infinitely more has been worked for and in a child of God than he will
ever need between now and Heaven. He may trust Jesus for that little
remainder, if any remainder there is, since so much has been already
achieved. As I see our great David going forward, now, to meet any lion
that lurks in the way against His people, or any Goliath that stalks
abroad and defies the host of God, I feel perfect confidence that He
who slew the lion and the bear will make sure work of all that is yet
to arise!

Dear Friends, at the present time we may be comforted, whatever our
adversary may be, by the full conviction that there is as much
necessity for Christ to meet our present adversary as for Him to meet
the former ones. David slew the lion and the bear–it was necessary
that they should be slain. When the time came, it was equally necessary
that Goliath of Gath should be slain. And so, today, if your sin has
been removed by Christ, one great necessity has been supplied. If you
have now been brought to a dead halt, another necessity has arisen–and
another supply will be forthcoming! Our Lord never fails to do
everything that is necessary for His people! He never has bungled
anything, yet, and He never will. He will not fail nor be discouraged
till the Eternal purpose is fulfilled and the blood-bought ones are
safe at the right hand of God, even the Father. Comfort yourself with
that full conviction.

I believe, also, that an imperious necessity to work rests upon the
heart of Christ, now, even as it did before. Our ever sympathetic, ever
immutable Lord, has the same power at this moment with which to meet
the renewed necessities of His Beloved. Power? He has infinite power!
If when He were here in weakness, He destroyed sin and death and Hell,
what will He not do, now that all power is given unto Him in Heaven and
in earth? Oh, my Soul, how delightful it is to plunge into a bath of
faith and rest in Jesus! Not trust Christ? Not trust Christ, Sinner,
now that He is at the right hand of God? Why, His children of old
trusted Him when He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief! Not
trust Him at whose belt swing the keys of Heaven and death and Hell?
Not trust Him whose very wish is Law throughout all worlds that God has
made? Be gone, O base suggestion! Oh, come and trust Him, whatever the
difficulty! Trust Him over the head of Goliath, for He has already
slain both the lion and the bear!

It comes to this, that we must go forward against everything that
stalks before us in opposition, for there can be no reason why Christ
should not overcome it, since He has overcome all that has gone before.
I know that we are always apt to think that our present trial is
peculiar and surprising–but there are no surprises with Jesus. He
foreknew all that would happen to His people before He undertook to
save them. He shed not His blood in the dark–He knew what they would
be. If they wander and fall into sin, He foreknew it all–and all
hardness of heart and everything else that we lament and deplore. Jesus
saw it all and made provision to save us "notwithstanding all." All
that can interpose between us and Heaven, Jesus can drive away, even as
the shadows flit before the sunlight. All has been foreseen and
steadfast love is resolved to see the business through.

Our great redeeming Substitute did not pledge His name as our Surety
without counting the cost. Nor did He enter upon Covenant engagements
blindly, as silly men too often do. He knew that it would cost Him His
own heart's blood, but He drew not back! He knew what power would be
requisite for the achievement of His purpose and He was not daunted. He
has undertaken and He will go through with it! As the Lord lives,
Christ will suffer no defeat. You have not to do, today, with a puny
mortal man that can be put aside and huffed–and made to fear and turn
His back! You have to do with a greater than David–and if David
resolutely ran to meet his foe and paused not till he came back with
his gory head, a grizzly trophy of his courage–you need not be afraid
that Christ will return defeated! He has taken up this glove and He
will fight this battle through.

He will have the victory all along the line and when the last great
"Hallelujah" goes up to Heaven, there will be no laments to mingle with
it! Neither will Christ have to put away His escutcheon with a sinister
bar upon it because He was in part defeated. Never! "The Lord reigns!"
The Breaker has gone up before us and the King at the head of us. We
shall march through, even to the dividing of the spoil! He has led
captivity captive and we shall triumph through His name if we are
resting in Him. Oh, that you would trust Him–you that do not as yet
rely upon Him! May His great Spirit bring you to believe in Him, for
His name's sake. Amen.