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Justification
Part 3- 1 Sam 17 Our Need of a Champion1
If you died and went to heaven and stood before God, and God asked you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say? “Because of Jesus. You must let me in because of Jesus and his life and death for me, not because of anything Iʼve done.ˮ
This fall we’re talking about this thing, JUSTIFICATION = how you, a sinner, can stand before God and God say to you, “You are righteous. You are perfect. And you deserve to live forever in heaven with me.ˮ
Letʼs read the story of David in 1 Samuel 17.
Israel and the Philistines are at war. And the Philistines say to Israel, “Let’s have a one on one fight between our best warrior and your best warrior and whoever wins that fight = that side wins the war. And if we win then you have to be our slaves and if you win then we will be your slaves. Our champion is Goliath, pick yours, and let’s go.ˮ
Why doesn’t anyone want to fight Goliath? Goliath is the champion of the Philistines, their greatest warrior. He was a giant like 7ft, maybe 8ft, maybe 9ft, maybe 10ft tall. And he had the best armor and weapons.
Not even King Saul of Israel was willing to fight Goliath and Saul was supposed to be the champion of Israel. But heʼs not acting like Israel’s champion.
So Saul promises tons of riches to anyone who will fight Goliath but still no Israelite wants to fight Goliath.
No one until David shows up and he says he’ll fight and beat Goliath.
1 Marty Machowski, The Gospel Story Bible, Story 57, David & Goliath, 114.