But that's not actually the reason I picked that song this evening. It has more to do with our passage tonight. We are going to be talking about real large giants this evening and we're going to be talking about spiritual giants that we face as well. And the victory that David and others had over the giants of men, the same power that gave them victory is the same power that can give us victory over different kinds of giants that we may face in our lives today, particularly of the spiritual sort. Greater is he that's in us than what?

Than he that's in the world. And the he that's within us is the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord. He that is in the world is Satan and his minions. And sometimes temptation and sin may seem like a formidable foe.

Sometimes the effects of sin that we see in our society and all around us in the world today seem like an in invulnerable foe, but greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world. You are on the winning side, and the giants will fall before before the Lord. And though we're gonna be talking about some men in this passage, the battle really belongs to who? The battle belongs to the Lord. And as David said, he will give you into our hands, and indeed, God did and is doing so today.

Second Samuel 21, beginning in verse 15, moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel and David went down and his servants with him and fought against the Philistines, and David waxed faint. And ish I'm I'm not very good with these long Hebrew names, so Ishbe Benab, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed 300 shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. In other words, he thought he had him. He was going to kill the king. He was gonna kill the giant slayer.

But verse 17, Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, secured him or brought him aid, brought David aid, came to David's aid, and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the man of David swear unto him saying, thou shalt go no more with us to battle that thou quench not the light of Israel. It came to pass after this that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gab, and Sibbechai, the Hushathite, slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines where El Hanan Hanan El Hanan, the son of J. R.

Oregim, the Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath, the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number. He also was born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, the brother of David, slew him. These four were born to the giant in Gath and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

So just a short passage there about four other giants that were slain by David's associates. But I think there's a couple things we can learn from this passage this morning. Who were these men? Well, these men were four children of the Rapha of Rapha, now or also referred to the giant of Gath or the Rephaim, or here in King James, it's translated the word is just simply translated giant, four sons of the giant. It's not the most common word for giant.

The most common word in the Old Testament in Hebrew for giant is the word Nephilim. As in Genesis chapter six talks about the Nephilim. But Rapha is used here in several passages referred to the Anakim and other giants of Canaan indicating they had a common progenitor. These these men that were exceptionally large and powerful, all descended from a common ancestry. They were all Canaanites in their heritage, though at the time, they were living with the Philistines who were not Canaanites.

It appears that these men were all related and were of and were of unusually large and powerful stature like Goliath. In Genesis chapter 15, I'll read for you there. It says this beginning in verse 18. In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates. Now that's the geographical dimensions of Israel that God promised to Abraham.

And then he goes on to describe the people groups that presently owned, that lived in that land, that claimed it, who the Israelites later took the land from. We commonly call these people Canaanites. And it lists them here, the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. What I want to focus on in the end of verse 20 is the Rephaim, r e p h a I m s. That is the same word in Hebrew that is used of these giants that are called giants in second Samuel 21.

They were of Canaanite descent, not of Philistine descent who were not, again, Canaanites. They are mentioned in Numbers thirteen thirty three. There it says, and there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants and were in our own and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. These were the 10 spies that went in, sent in by Moses when the congregation of Israel decided not to go in the first time and wandered in the wilderness for forty years. And why?

Because, well, these these spies came back out and said, well, these there's these giants land. Boy, they're all over the place. And boy, they are so big and we're just like these little pipsqueaks, and we have no chance to beat these guys. And so they stirred the people up against Moses and they didn't go in. But it appears that this is the same group, the sons of Anak, from which Goliath eventually came and these other giants that are mentioned in second Samuel 21.

In Joshua 11, it speaks of their defeat. They here, it is Joshua who is credited with their defeat, but we also know from Joshua 15 that there was another man who had a large part in their defeat as well, and that would be who? And that would be Caleb. Caleb was given the area that he went in to spy out back in Numbers chapter 12, and he ran the remaining sons of Anak, the Anakim, out of the city of Hebron in when he went to claim his land. But here, it tells us, and at that time came Joshua and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel.

Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel. Now that's in the land belonging to the Canaanites of which these men were. Only in Gaza, in Gath, in Ashdod there remained. In other words, some of them fled from the land of the Canaanites and fled out to the coast to the little sliver of land out there today that we call the Gaza Strip that was then, not now, but then inhabited by a group called the Philistines.

And these men became kind of mercenaries of a sort in the army of the Philistines, and they survived. Some of them survived there in in the land of Philistia. And then in second in first Samuel 17, we meet one of them. By name who? Goliath.

By name, Goliath. But he was not the only one. Apparently, he had four brothers whether these were brothers as in they all shared the same immediate father, whether they were cousins or second cousins or something, they were all descendants of of the same line. So when we when we become part of God's family through the blood of Christ, we join indeed the winning side and and fight a defeated foe. Giants of a different sort.

Joshua's army, the Israelites, were fighting these. Later on, David's army was still fighting these. Saul's army was still fighting some of these these men. They were not easily defeated. However, they were on the wrong side.

They were on the wrong side. And praise the Lord, we are on the right side. We have an enemy who is on the wrong side. We commonly call him Satan or the devil. Here he is called the accuser.

In Revelation chapter 12 verses ten and eleven, it says this, and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. There are giants in this world, physical giants, spiritual enemies, but greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. And we're on the winning side. Yet our foe will not easily yield the territory of this world.

Satan has claimed it for his own. He is not quick to yield it as these men were not quick to yield as well. They're not quick to yield the territory of this world, the lives and affections and addictions that it has claimed. And like strongholds, they will not easily be eradicated. But we must continue to fight, both spiritually with the sword of the spirit and in times such as these physically, as in the days of Joshua and the days of David.

But victory is ours in Christ. One day Christ will return. And when Christ returns, he will vanquish the enemy. He will cast their leader into the what? The bottomless pit where he will remain for a thousand years when he is released and then cast into the lake of fire.

During the tribulation described in Revelation, the minions of Satan will fight in a last gasp effort to conquer the world for their Lord, their Lord, not our Lord, their Lord. How will they be defeated? They will be defeated by the strong will of man and the great technology that we possess and the vast amount of money that we own. It's nice to have some of those things, but they will not win the battle against Satan, nor will they win the battle in your life and mine over the giants that plague us and sometimes aren't easily eradicated. No.

They're defeated by the power of God, demonstrated in the unwavering faith of the redeemed of that day as we conquer also in Christ by the unwavering faith of the saints today. Faith, there's a song in our hymn book that goes, faith is the victory we know that overcomes the world. Not faith for faith's sake, but faith in the one who has the power and who has given us the victory, Jesus Christ our Lord. The giants of this world will fall. The principalities and powers in Ephesians six will fall before the Lord, and it will yield to an eternity of bliss in the presence of God, the new Jerusalem.

We read about in Revelation twenty and twenty two twenty one and twenty two. But back to David for a moment. And so David and his men, one by one, defeated these formidable foes, these giants of their day. So just to list here, the first is Ash Ash Ashbaba Ashbaba he was slain by Abishai. He was slain by Abishai who is David's what?

Nephew. Okay? Abishai is the brother of a military commander we know well and don't have the highest respect for, a guy by the name of Joab. Joab, Abishai, and Asahel were three brothers who served in David's army, and they were all his nephews. When David's back was against the wall, Abishai showed up and he took care of this giant and he was no more.

The second was a giant named Saph. He was slain by Sibbechai, the Hushathite. Hushathite means a son of Cusha. So we don't know much about them, others it's mentioned a few times in lists, the Hushathites. They were Israelites that descended from this particular man.

Must have been well known in their day, this man dispatched with Saph. And then Lahmi. That doesn't sound like like a very good name for a giant, you know, Lahmi. But we're told here that he was the brother of Goliath, and he was slain by Elhanan, the son of a name I really cannot pronounce, but God knows, a Bethlehemite. Okay?

And so the third giant of this group goes down. And then the six fingered man. Yes. There is a six fingered man in the Bible. This and the parallel passage in first Chronicles 20 do not name the six fingered man, six fingered man, just that he is an oddity and that he had six fingers and six toes on each hand and foot.

But they didn't serve him all that well because he went down before one of David's other nephews, Jonathan, the son the son of Shimei, or he's also called Shammah in first Samuel chapter 16. And so these four giants all related to Goliath, all related to the Anakim, all related to this Rapha in the land of Canaan who had come to reside in Philistia, all four plus Goliath making five fell to David and his associates. They were all larger, more stronger, formidable foes, But as David pointed out back in first Samuel 17, that this assembly may know that there is a god in Israel, they were defeated because God was on David's side. Now he didn't always use David. Sometimes he used he used others.

It wasn't all up to David to fight these giants to win these battles. No. David had an army and David had friends, and David had help. Note that David picked up if you go back to first Samuel 17, we we won't go back there, but if you did, you would see that David picked up five smooth stones out of the creek bed when he went to face Goliath. I don't know if David knew that Goliath had four other brothers and that's why he picked up five stones.

The Bible doesn't tell us that. But even if David didn't know that, there was somebody who did know that. That. God knew that. And God chose to include that little detail that David picked up five stones.

And then this little detail that there were four other brothers of Goliath that all fell at the hand of David and his associates. But note this, the battle was not over when Goliath went down. You know, we cheer when something great we cheer when we see the Lord do a mighty work. We we cheer when our our forces win. We cheer when we see the Lord win.

We cheer when we get victory over something. When we see answers to prayer, we cheer and we should cheer. And we actually should cheer more than we often do, especially when we see souls that are lost in sin come to the savior Jesus Christ. The Bible says there is rejoicing in heaven over one soul that comes to savior. And I I I think we're a bit callous sometimes over that, and I I hate to say that I think maybe that shows a little bit that our our heart is not on the things of heaven to the degree that it certainly ought to be.

Else, we would cheer as well. But when Goliath went down, the battle wasn't over. When Israel had a great defeat of Philistia that day, the battle wasn't over. Matter of fact, in later battle, Saul and three of his sons were later killed before the Philistines. We must not get complacent in our battle today, and I'm not talking the battle with Iran.

I'm talking about the battle with Satan and the battle against principalities and powers in high places. We must not be complacent because the battle is not over until it's over and we stand before Christ. Until then, we have a job to do. We are soldiers in in his army. The foe that we face, the spiritual foe, is just as real as the physical foe.

That's not to say that the military and physical foes aren't there or not important, but as citizens of heaven, there is another set of foes that all of us are fighting or should be as soldiers in the army of the king of kings. When David went before Goliath, yes, he was facing a physical foe who was nearly a nine feet tall. But he didn't see him just as a physical foe. He saw him as a what? A spiritual foe who was blaspheming the name of the God of Israel.

And he went in there with confidence because God was on his side, and he is on our side too. David Satan just wants us to think that we're defeated. Satan wants to think wants to think that we can't that we can't rise up out of this quandary, this quagmire that we find ourselves in. But greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world. Don't listen to Satan.

He will boast and he will brag and he will tell you that you are no match, that he'll get you back, that he is a defeated foe, and he knows it. I think he knows it. He's not gonna go down without a fight, though. There are foes of the heart, strongholds, which need to be eradicated in our lives as the sons of Anak from the land of Canaan and Philistia. First Corinthians ten three through five tell us this, for we walk in the flesh, but we do not war after the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through gods, the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that has exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Is that possible for us to bring our thoughts into obedience to Christ and not have them pulled this way and that way and and twisted and it is possible for greater is he that's in us than he that's, what, in the world. And God, the weapons of our warfare, the Holy Spirit, the word of God that he has given to us, the these are mighty weapons that Satan cannot measure up to. And God will help us. God will change us.

God will give us the we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. These are foes of the heart, giants that many of us face, but they are no match for the Lord who lives inside of your heart. There are foes of humanity, principalities, and powers, mightier than flesh and blood, and more difficult defeat. But once again, the Bible tells us that God has supplied us with armor capable of defending not only defending us ourselves against the enemy, but actually defeating the enemy. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. What does that imply? It implies you can stand, that you don't have to be defeated. No. Matter of fact, as Christians, we have the what?

We have the victory in Jesus Christ. We are able to stand against the wildest devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand. There is a foe of humanity. Foe wants to keep people from salvation and the Lord in heaven.

He wants to keep God's children distracted, defeated. He wants to rob us of our joy. He wants to destroy your testimony. But greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world. And those giants are no match for our God which is in heaven.

If we'll arm ourselves not just with physical weapons, not just with strength in a physical way, but spiritual strength through the word of God that we meditate upon day and night. Spiritual strength that we find through spending time in prayer with our God daily. Spiritual strength that we find by living according to the principles of God's word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. As we learn to trust in him and put our faith in him, the giants, one by one, will what? They will fall.

They will fall. They are no match for the Lord. When we yield ourselves and trust in him, they will fall. They might not all fall at once. And like Goliath, when one falls, that's a time to rejoice, but it's also a time to remember there are other giants in the land still yet to be defeated.

But I want to close with this this evening. When we begin reading in first Samuel chapter 21, we read about the first giant that was defeated and the circumstances around his defeat. Actually, we might call this the second giant if Goliath was indeed the first, but we come to verse 15 again, moreover the Philistines had yet war with Israel. David went down and his servants with him and fought against the Philistines and David waxed faint. David got tired.

Guess what? David was human, and he got tired in battle, and he got weak. And the enemy saw it, and they thought, this is our chance. If we kill the king, then we will scatter the enemy and defeat them. And Ishbe Banab, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed 300 shekels of brass in weight.

In other words, more than I could pick up, and this guy was throwing it. Okay? He being girded with a new sword thought to have slain David. He saw his opportunity, but but what? But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and smote the Philistine and killed him.

Due to the seriousness of David's weakness before the foe, his men charged him in the next verse, in at the conclusion of verse 17, not to go to war again. The man of David swearing to him saying, thou shalt go no more out with us to battle that thou quench not the light of Israel. What's who's the light of Israel? Well, they're they're referring to David. He was their he was their their hope.

He wasn't really their hope. Their hope was really in who? Their hope was in God, but he was he was the man that they they looked to to lead them in the way of God. They looked to him, because God had used him again and again and again to lead Israel out of the darkness, into the light, into prosperity, into victory over his enemies. So that's why they referred to him, as such.

But David's weakness was such that his men said, we do not want you to ever be in the heat of battle again. He at this point in time, we're getting near the end of second Samuel. What does that mean? That means we're getting near the end of David's life. So he wasn't a young man anymore.

He was an older man, an older gentleman, and was not as physically strong and able to fight as he had once been. So his men said, let us fight, you stay home. You do not have to go to every battle. You do not have to fight every foe. You're not in this alone.

Let us let us aid you. Let us help you. Sometimes we need that too, whether we just need somebody to climb the ladder to fix the light in the ceiling or whether we need somebody to come beside us and encourage us and lift us up in prayer when we are spiritually weak. Galatians six one and two. Say, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

We can't do this. We're not meant to do this all alone. Yes. David had great victories. Even on the day that David defeated Goliath, he didn't defeat the Philistine army.

No. He just took out the the guy at the front, and then the soldiers came in behind him that day. Such is the case with all of us. Sometimes, when we are weak like David, we need help to defeat these giants in our lives. When David was young and strong in his faith and and in stature, he stood with God for Israel and faced down the giant.

Now, it was David that needed help and someone else has turned to face down the giant for him. Sometimes in life, we need help conquering strongholds in our lives. Don't be afraid to ask for help. One of the things that plagues Christians most is something called pride that keeps us from asking for help, for being willing to admit there are chinks in our armor, and we need help, prayers, accountability, encouragement. We need help in conquering strongholds in our lives, seeking the assistance of believers for spiritual or even physical is okay.

It's okay to let others help in the fight. You do not have to do it all yourself. It's okay to admit where you're weak. It's okay to not only go to the Lord, but also to go to others. James five sixteen, it says this, confess your faults one to another.

Why should I do that? Do you need to confess your faults for forgiveness to others? No. We confess our faults to the Lord for forgiveness. You don't have to go to a priest to get forgiveness.

There's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So if you don't have to go to other men for the forgiveness of your sins, then why should we confess our faults one to another? Well, it goes on in the verse. Confess your faults one to another and do what? Pray for one another.

Pray for one another. Why confess your faults to someone else? Why admit your failures? Why admit your struggles? Why admit your weakness?

And it it may be physical weakness as well as spiritual weakness. So that others might what? So those might pray for you. There is power in prayer. Where two or three together together in God's name, he's in the midst and he will hear and answer their prayers.

Confess your faults one one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So often, we're not willing to admit even to those closest to us that we're weak and we need help. Sometimes we, who are brothers and sisters in Christ, are so caught up in our own lives that we don't notice others around us that are faint and need help.

And we should. Because it's not just all about who. It's not just all about me. We're in this together. We're a team.

When one is weak, the others come to their aid. They fill in the gap. That's what we should be doing for others as Abishai and these other men did for David and the giants still fell. Sometimes others need assistance, and we need to be there to give them a loving and helping hand to win. That's why Paul said this in Hebrews ten twenty four and twenty five.

And let us consider one another. What does that mean? That means would you open your eyes and consider what's going on in the lives of somebody besides who? Besides yourself. Why do we get so depressed and frustrated in life?

Well, because so often we're just all consumed with who? With us. What's going on in my life? We wouldn't be so depressed and frustrated if we'd open our eyes to the world around us, to others around us that need help and focus on them and not so much on our struggles. Let us consider one another provoked unto love and to good works.

To provoke and to love and to good works. That means to encourage others in the battle, in the battle against temptation, in the battle against depression, in the battle against our our sinful foes, our our spiritual foes, to provoke them unto love and to good works, to get in the battle, to get serving the Lord, to get their eyes off of themselves. Let's consider one another to provoke into love into good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. What's going on in The Middle East, in some form or fashion, is leading up to the day that is approaching. And, yes, Christ Jesus is coming back to take us to the place he has prepared for the for us, and we can be comforted by those words.

But the Bible doesn't tell us it's not gonna get bad before that happens. And we are going to need one another. There was a church on the news today. I don't know if you knows noticed it. A church in Michigan.

Somebody showed up outside the church with a gun and started trying to shoot people. Praise the Lord, nobody was killed. But it's probably not going to get a lot better. But we are on the winning side. Greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world.

The enemy probably isn't coming to the gun door with a gun. He sneaks in the back door with a whisper. Be on guard, but know that you're not alone. The Lord is with you. Your family, your church family is with you.

And if we will let others help, we will see one by one the giants will fall. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for this day that you've given to us to worship you, to praise your name, to be encouraged by the giants that fell before David and his friends. The giants that are in our lives may not be of flesh and blood. They might be battles that we've been fighting in our own hearts for a while.

They may be physical weakness and struggles that we have to deal with that are are not easy. But, Lord, we don't have to face this all alone. You are with us. We have others with us, and we can have victory and peace and joy in Jesus Christ our savior. Satan cannot cannot take those things from us as long as we have our eyes fixed upon Jesus our savior.

Thank you for all that you have done for us and the opportunity that you have given us to serve you in this place. Give us the victory, we pray. Help keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, and give us victory, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.