David and Goliath

In any way. We're ready to go now.

Title of today's sermon is David and Goliath.

David and Goliath sounds like a youth class, doesn't it?

Before I start the body of the sermon today, I want to talk to you about a definition that will come into play, hopefully. The word that I want to define for you today is humanism. Humanism. Okay? Humanism. I have three definitions for humanism.

One says it is an outlook or thought attaching prime importance to humans rather than the divine.

Another definition, humanism, that all problems can be solved using reason instead of religion.

And the third from Cambridge English Dictionary says that humanism is a belief system based on the principle that people's spiritual and emotional needs can be satisfied without a God or a religion. Humanism. Hope you'll remember that. And I'd like you to turn with me to our first scripture in the Bible today. Turn with me to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2.

2 Timothy 2 and verse 15. This verse in the New King James talks about a worker of God rightly dividing the word.

Many of you have New King James. 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15.

A worker of God rightly dividing the word. Everybody there? Good. Read that short verse there. I would like to read now to you from the New Living Translation. It says, Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive His approval, which we would all like to do.

It said, Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed, and then, and who correctly explains the word of truth. Correctly explains the word of truth. Or, as you knew King James says, rightly dividing the word. Now, can you do that? Are we equipped to rightly divide the word, to explain the word of truth when we read it or when we hear it? I think it's important. One of the things that I've stressed since I've been here is, get into the Word. Read your Bibles.

Don't rely on a man or a religion, but rely on the Word of God.

Rely on God's truth. Rely on the Holy Spirit to help teach you.

It is very important that we are a Bible-based church, that that's where we get it. And that we can not only read the Word of God for correction, as Timothy says, Paul writes to Timothy, but that we can find error where there is error. Divide the truth from the false.

Read something and know when it doesn't sound quite right. That requires Bible study.

It requires us not just reading one day a week the Word of God. It requires us to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And we live and we read.

So can we do we? Rightly divide the Word. We are called and told that we are to be able to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. But we also should be able to look at various scriptures and be able to define them correctly.

One of the best known stories in the Bible in the entire world that people know is the story of David and Goliath. We heard it when we were a child. Maybe we even had our parents give it to us, read it to us. There were movies made of it. TV shows have been made of it.

And the story is something that we all should know, right? I mean, I feel like I know the story of David and Goliath. Is there anybody out there that feels like they don't? No? Everybody raise their hand. You understand the story? You got it? You can rightly divide it no matter what someone says. You'll know it, right? Good. That is the reason for the message today. How long since we read it? How long has it been since you read the story of David and Goliath? It takes place in 1 Samuel 17, if you will all turn there. If you have your Bibles, please. 1 Samuel 17. It all takes place in 1 chapter in 58 verses. The whole story. And it actually takes, depends on your reading speed, 5 to 7 minutes to read these 58 verses. Okay? Just so I do not catch anyone unaware, or that maybe it's been a while since you've read this story, I'm going to ask you now, in the next 5 to 7 minutes, to silently sit at your chair and read the story.

And if you will start, I will time it, and then in 7 minutes we will start back with the message. So everybody should be on the same page. Everybody should be up to speed. Alrighty? Right? Ready? Start.

Your 7 minutes are up. Hopefully most of you are through. If not, you can finish reading while I am talking a little bit more here.

I wanted to do the sermon because I think it's very important that we all realize what we are being not only taught but trained for today. It is for the coming Kingdom of God where it says we will be a royal priesthood, a chosen generation, teachers.

And this is one of the things that we must be able to do, is know when we hear something, does it match up with what the Word of God says? Or does it not? Most of us are here because we have done that in the past where we've attended other churches or other bishops and it didn't line up.

So it's one of the reasons we are here.

But I would like to next try to get the video going, but it didn't work today.

So we're going to hear the audio because I want to present to you today, for the next 15 minutes, you will listen to an individual who is a supposed expert in his field. He is a so-called expert in psychology, sociology. His name is Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell. He presents this on TED Talks. So it is almost exactly 15 minutes long.

Mr. Gladwell is the writer of five New York Times bestseller books. The book that he is reading from or that he will talk about today was his book he wrote in 2013. The title of that book is David and Goliath, Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. He will explain, as he says, the story of David Goliath as you have never heard it before. A lot of research went into his presentation he will be making, and as I say, it's only 15 minutes long. We will actually play the audio. Yeah, you will pause that when I get to that time. And that way, anyone listening to this on scene on video or on the audio, if they do a church, I'm going to ask you to go to TED Talks on YouTube. Type in TED Talks and type in the name Malcolm, M-A-L-C-O-L-M, Gladwell, G-L-A-D-W-E-L-L, and it will pop up as he will be telling the story of David and Goliath. So you can then join us because this video will turn off as we will listen to that. And after, while he is making this presentation, I ask if you have a piece of paper or a pencil that you will actually take notes of things that you might question. Because after his presentation, we will then come back and we will have a mic and take it out into the church.

And we will talk about what we just heard. And you will hopefully be able to rightly divide the Word of God. And we will discuss this in the time that we have left. Okay, so now we will listen to Malcolm Gladwell. Hopefully you will take notes. Fifteen minutes.

Okay, you will find during the middle of his presentation and at the end all those in the audience were spellbound.

Like, new truth or perhaps a story they have never heard before.

I would like to go into, with the time we have left here, some discrepancies from what the actual Word of God says. Do we have a mic? Can this mic be used out there? Okay. Jeff, do you mind handling this? And like to get, if you use the, also the, if you don't mind being on video, the sermon is going out. So if you didn't comb your hair or dress up today, well, too bad. So I would like, because I found a few discrepancies there, I would like for you to also bring up something and be able to rightly divide the Word of something that perhaps didn't match up with the true Scriptures. Anybody care to start out with? William? Well, he made a comment about Goliath being led by a youth or somebody into the valley. I didn't see that anywhere in what I read. I didn't see where he was led by someone down into the valley. And why was he, why did he say he needed to be led? Because he had trouble seeing, he couldn't find his way down to the valley floor. Yes. Okay. That is not in the Scripture, is it? Merlin in the back, Merlin in the very back. Okay. So that's one point for sure, that it's not in the Scripture, right? Thank you. A bit of discrepancy that I found his, where he will see that he did not see the boy.

Of course, he said that you come to me with stick and stone. He saw him. Okay. So the vision problem didn't really, there's Dwight here on the left. There's a vision problem he said he had, and that's not really in Scripture. Yes, yes, sir. He also mentioned, and I think he took verse 37 out of context where it says, he mentioned several times, David came to him.

David had said he had killed lions and wolves. Now, verse 37 says, David had mentioned that the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Uh-huh. So there was no wolves.

There wasn't a wolf. It was actually a bear. You remember how he said he killed the bear?

Did he do it with a sling? How did he kill it?

He reached an instruct.

Right? Anything else?

Anybody else? Oh, here's Annie. Annie?

I would like to know if he was infantry and used to hand-to-hand combat, how he would fight David at all, being as you have to see to maneuver around the battlefield. Very good point. Yes, if he was this great warrior, and he's their best, but he can't see, why would you send somebody out who could not see or had problems and had to be let out? It doesn't make sense, does it? Olivia, you have something? Jeff will work his way back to you.

I also think he made the battle extremely too physical. There was no mention of God or the help that David received from God or anything like that. It was all technicalities and so forth, which was extremely incorrect. Yes, not one time, just like 37. He said, the Lord will deliver me. The Lord, this, Lord, this, where this story from Mr. Gladwell, God's not even in the picture, is he? Right, I never mentioned it. No. Which is what? We're going back to humanism, right? Right. Is there really a God? Do we really need a God? David, you were going to bring something up? Well, not so much directly spoken, but my biggest concern and what I got the most out of that is the victimization of Goliath. And that's very disconcerting because, you know, we deal a lot with that in society, even today, where everyone's a victim. And he basically made a victim out of Goliath by saying he couldn't do this and do that when, instead of God being glorified, you know, the attention is diverted to Goliath instead of God, as Olivia mentioned. Yes, as David brought out, it's kind of like you... who was the bully? It sounded like David was the bully. And this poor old giant was just trying to get by, and this young kid comes around and picks on him and kills him, right? Which is kind of amazing. David, you have something in the back, I think. Yes, sir. There are plenty of points here to bring out, and I appreciate you being able to rightly divide the word. So he said that, basically, he made it look like the Philistine, Goliath, was a sit-and-duck, couldn't move. But in verse 48, it says that the Philistine came towards David, June 9th, David, in verse 48. Right, he didn't have any trouble. He wasn't sitting there. He knew what he was doing because he was what? He was their best lawyer. And what even King Saul had said earlier to David, well, what are you doing here? You're a youth, and he's been a warrior since his youth, which means he had gone to battle many times and doesn't seem to be the poor old pitiful giant. Anybody else? Yeah, he tried to make David seem bigger and stronger, and you know, by saying that the weapon that David had was some special rock, you know, and how it was a ballistic missile and similar, you know what I mean? Right. So, you know, and then how the slingshot was wrapped around the thing, so many blah blah blah blah. Yeah, it was just like a poor old galette didn't stand a chance because of this stone, right? He said these stones were five times heavier than the regular stone. Okay?

Yes, yes, you won't have to cut his head off. It'll be done, right?

Right, but it made it sound like these stones. Well, here's my question.

Okay.

I kind of, when someone says these things, I kind of like to see, okay, where's kind of the proof?

Like the stone is that heavy? Wait a minute. You're talking, as he brought up in the very first, 3,000 years ago. So you can tell me that the stones that are there now, in case he went to Jerusalem and looked, are the same stones that were there 3,000 years ago? And be able to measure that? You have something else, Neil? He also was saying that the stone hit Goliath between the eyes. Yes. And from my reading, it sounded like the scripture was saying it hit him between the yeah, right up there. Yes, yes. I mean, all these things are just, you know, when you, when you read the word, that's why you get to hear, wait a minute, does that line up? Dwight, you have more. Okay, plenty more. All right. So one of the other things he mentioned that he said Goliath was six feet, nine inches tall. Yes. Now, verse five said, I think it was verse five, verse four, said that his height was six cubits and a span. What's a cubit? One and a half feet.

That's a biblical cubit. Right. So it would be just a little over nine feet if you go by the biblical measurement. Yes. His height. Yeah, because a cubit was how they measured from finger to elbow. And that's typically as 18 inches. And then a span is from here to here. Okay. So you had the scripture, the Masoretic text that is actually referenced here where this came from, said it was six cubits and a span. Okay. That's nine foot, seven inches. Now, what he is quoting, I went back and looked, where would you get six foot nine? Well, he got it from the Septuagint.

That is actually a translation of the Old Testament into the Greek before the Christ came. Now, what's interesting here is the typical average man at that time, which you can readily check that's available, was five two to five four. So we have grown quite a bit. Okay. The average person. But at that time it was five two to five four. It was believed that Christ was somewhere in the five two to five four range when he walked the earth. But here, this was a thousand years before Christ. But what's interesting is that in 1 Samuel, I think it's nine, it actually says that Saul, you remember Saul, who was king, he was head and shoulders above everyone else. Remember that scripture? If you don't, you can find it in there. Okay. So he was a head taller than anyone else, which would have made him what? Six foot six, six seven. He was head and shoulders eight to ten in, maybe even a foot taller. He would have been six foot six five. Okay. He wasn't referenced as a giant, was he? But when you take this down to, instead of looking at the majority of the text, of the old translations and taking the six cubits and a span, which runs anywhere between nine foot three and nine foot six, that made a giant. The researcher went back and found the smallest measurement he could find. And why did he do that? It takes the miracle out of the, it takes a supernatural or divine influence out of the story, doesn't it? Because all of a sudden, you come up here to nine foot, you know, if you see Shaq, he's seven foot tall. Shaquille O'Neal. Imagine two foot taller than him. You would consider that a giant. Yes, sir?

Yes. That's why, you know, that's the reason why, you know, he's tall. And of course, you even see certain countries in Africa, Hamah, Hutsus and Tutsis, I mean, they're all over six foot something tall. And then the other group is all under five foot something tall, you know, and it's just a small portion of people who have that disease that he's talking about. But how would he know that that man had a disease anyhow? He's studying 3,000 year old dental charts and medical charts.

Dwight, you have something else? And then Steve? That's up.

Because research based off, you know, some condition that some people that are tall have today. And it's like a different problem.

Okay, so he can't use a research that's, you know, you can research and see that there's some people tall today that have that problem. But they're also, how would you explain the children of Anak? Would he go back and say, well, they also had this problem and all the the mighty warriors that were there in the Bible that were also tall? You know, so he couldn't explain that as well. No. So, that's one of the other things. It's very interesting. He said he had this giantism and our nurses here can, you know, attest to that there is something from the Pateratary Glen. Tracy, I saw you shake your head because you knew it. What is interesting is that there are cases of people that have that now here that we've been able to study for the last 50 years. You know what's amazing about that fact? Is that that is something strange that a lot of times it's what? Like a tumor or something on the Pateratary Glen and it causes them to grow. But what's amazing is you never have brothers or sisters that have the same thing because it's like a disease, right? Something happens. Here, study the scriptures and you find that Goliath had what?

Four giant brothers. Four brothers who are also giants. So to try to put a medical thing on it is to what? Cut him down to size so he's just a freak and that he wasn't really this giant that you would have to be scared of. Anybody else? Bruce? Grace? Yes. Yes, and he failed to mention verse 45 to 47 how David told him how God is the one who is going to deliver him. Yes. He failed to mention that instead he placed more emphasis on Goliath like he was the wimp. Yes, yes. Like it was a poor fragile old warrior that just couldn't do anything, right? And that's not. You know, it's interesting they brought out the sling that one of you brought out. I went and researched that on my own because I was like because he said the speed of a fast baseball pitcher.

Yes, and a good fastball pitcher even in the minor leagues can throw 90 to even close to 100 miles an hour. I found all the research that I did and I did quite a bit of these people who demonstrate. You can even find people who do that now who have these slings of my right. I was going to buy one and bring it here just to show what it was like. But when they had experts doing it, the stone was released and hit the maximum of 70 miles per hour. But most of the time it was around 60 miles an hour. Okay? So that's a far cry from the 100 miles an hour that he was saying, or that the gun that it was like a 45, he said millimeter, but caliber, gun. Yes.

Yes, well, yes, and he did kill. So he took didn't he take one of the other swords to cut his? Yeah, he took he took his actual that actual sword out from there.

He took the right. And it actually brought another point was that that he said, well, wait a minute, he was infantry. I think Stephen's got another point there. Stephen Baker.

Not just a different point, but you see what this gentleman failed to bring across here is that this land belonged to Israel. Am I correct or incorrect? You are correct. Okay. And in verse 41, you see that it says that the Philistine came and he cursed David by his gods.

So the Philistine is cursing the God or David and his God. Okay, the God that they serve and he cursed him for that. He was cursing him by his God. So this gentleman in this never even brought this up that this land belonged to Israel. And this Philistine had come to fight to take away that land. Not only that, but he's saying that this person that led him down in verse 45, it says that it was his armor bearer.

Okay. Now let's, we have to understand back in them days, it was customary that every valiant soldier or even the king and David wound up becoming the armor bearer for whom? Saul. Later on. So this was not somebody who was leading him by the hand. This was his armor bearer. He carried his armors to battle. So he was not as he made him feel that way. Like a little child has to lead you because you're so blind, you're so decrepit that you can't even.

And as a last comment, you know, David felt very comfortable with the sling. And I don't know if anybody's ever hunted with a sling, but it is a very horrible weapon. It will, it works. I know that is a fact. Let me ask you, do I, you have one more comment? I was just going to make a comment in regards to what he also mentioned in terms of how the battles were fought that you would send out a valiant soldier and everything.

And the scriptures talk about there, there are two mountains, the mountain east side, there's a valley, and they have to go down to the valley. But he didn't mention the fact also, which is a good parallel for the Bible, is that they were there 40 days and 40 nights.

Goliath was going after, you know, he was taunting the army of Israel for 40 days and 40 nights, which is kind of like when, I guess, when some people look at it, the theologian look at it, they're like looking at it and say, well, Christ was there in the wilderness, I mean in the desert 40 days and 40 nights being tempted. And then he overcame. And so there was a good parallel with that, that David overcame after those 40 days and 40 nights. Yeah, very good. Yes, and the one thing he, the other thing he brought up is, I'll wrap this up so we have plenty of time here today, was he brought up about, and he read it from the scriptures, that Goliath had a spear that the head of it weighed 15 pounds, which would take a frail giant a lot to carry that, but he also said a javelin, but he brought in the fact that he was thinking he was going to fight hand to hand.

Well, you don't fight hand to hand with a javelin, do you? Or a spear on these things. So, well, okay, thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it. We'll wrap this up, because I think it is important to remember verse 37. It said, the Lord delivered me, and the medical condition that he was talking about just was the issue and not spiritual intervention, where God actually intervened in this act, and it missed the point that it is God who prevails, and that's who we need to turn to.

But it is interesting when you see this, reading some of the context, that this man said he was a Christian, and he's also this teacher, and so forth like this. So, it is interesting. So, with that, I'd like to turn to one last scripture as we close today. I'd like you to turn to 2 Timothy, where we were earlier, 2 Timothy 4 and verse 3. I will read from the new living translation, since it puts it well. You can read whatever translation you have there.

And it says in 2 Timothy 4, verse 3 through 4, For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teachings.

They will follow their own desires, and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

I bring that out because you can actually take what he said. You could say, this happened, I read the Bible, and leave God completely out of it. So what are we talking about? It's that as this man pointed out and showed us today, hopefully you rightly divided the words. You could separate truth. Humanism is alive and well today, brethren. And it is part of our job to make sure, and even this week, to make sure that we rightly divide God's Word.