<TITLE>03. Par 7-10</TITLE>L-7 Now, notice, many times in the Scriptures... We'll take the famous old scene of Israel when they were in trouble and there was a war broke out between Israel and the Philistines. And Israel had gathered themselves over on the side of a hill. And the battle was set in order, but no man was able to go to battle, because over on the other side of the hill the enemy had a great challenger. And as it was then, so is it now, that when God's people starts to go to do something the enemy always has a challenger, challenge you for it.
And this great, almost prehistoric giant stood there with fourteen inch fingers on him and a spear in his hand the size of a weavers needle. He challenged any man of Israel to come and fight with him. That's the way the enemy does when he thinks he has the upper hand. He will never do it when he sees conquering faith. But he will only do it when he knows he's got you cowed down. That's when the church can't move, is when he's got the weavers needle over you.

L-8 But while in the armies of the Israelites... Saul, the great warrior... If there was any man in the whole army that was more apt to be able to go and fight with this giant, was Saul. First, he was a well trained warrior. He knowed all the maneuvers, how to dodge the spears, and how to knock them off with his shield. And above that, he was head and shoulders above any man in his army. He was more physically for a match, and he was a trainer of men.
But as it was with Saul in those days, we find the same thing existing today among people who go to church. Some of them who are the best trained scholars has the least faith in God sometime, has the Ph.D.'s and D.D.'s and try to explain it, or try to get away from the very fact of faith in God's Word; they try to explain it away some other way. And it's true. All of our scholarship, all of our training, never puts us in position to meet the enemy. It takes faith in God to do that, and that alone.

L-9 But if we notice, while this giant was making his great boast, and this great theologian, as it would be, stand there, well trained to know how to fight, but he had never had any experience with God... And such a pity today to see men and women who've lived in church, been brought up in this cradle roll, and knows the Bible well, but yet has never witnessed an experience with God. What we need is to get back to the real heartfelt experience to know Who you've got faith in, not some writings, but the true and the living God Who lives now.

L-10 And there in the midst of that, way back over behind the fields, God had a little ruddy boy by the name of David. He tended his faller--father's sheep. And while he was tending his sheep he got some experience. And it was his father who sent him up to the armies to take his brothers some fig cakes, and raisin cakes. And while he was up there he saw this great giant come out and make this big wide boast.
Now, little David was no match at all. First, he was just a young fellow, and the next thing, he was a ruddy fellow, which means he was a little runt, as we would call it. And he was no match at all. He'd never had a sword in his hand, perhaps had never picked up a shield in his life. He knowed nothing about military training. But there's one thing he did know. He knowed his God. That's the main thing. He knew Who he had believed.


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