This is the third sermon in a four-part series examining the story of David and Goliath. If you have not heard the previous two sermons in this series yet, I would encourage you to go listen to them so that you can clearly hear and see the full context of what I have preached so far.

By way of summarizing what I have preached from the text up until this point, Goliath is a demonic bully and a wolf who is attempting to devour God’s sheep, Israel (1 Sam. 17:1 – 11). He has deployed various tactics to abuse God’s people with manipulation, intimidation, deception, and threats. Israel, who has rejected God in her demand for a king like the other nations had, has, along with her rejected king, become overwhelmed with fear and dismay. We all know what it is like to be full of fear and dismay when a bully is abusing us.

David entered the story last week as God’s unexpected answer to Israel’s demonic bully (1 Sam. 17:12 – 30).2 This little shepherd boy does not act like a coward by hiding in the baggage like King Saul or retreating in fear and dismay like Israel. He enters the front line of the battle, asks a sarcastic question about the demonic bully, asks another sarcastic question about the reward for whomever confronts the bully, endures the unrighteous interrogation and accusations of his own brother who had taken the side of the bully, and he continues uninhibited, asking his questions of all Israel’s army.

I absolutely love David! I love David, not just because he is such a remarkable representation of Godly courage and tenacity, but I also love him because he is the foreshadow of Christ who fought victoriously against our greatest bullies – Satan, Sin, and Death. I have made it abundantly clear that our greatest enemies are Satan, Sin, and Death, that oftentimes these mortal enemies manifest themselves in their human victims who become bullies in the culture, in the family, and in the church, and that there is redemption to be found for everyone – bully and victim alike – in the work of Jesus at the cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of eternity.

I have also lamented that all too often, we do not properly confront and deal with demonic bullies in the church, in the family, and in the culture at large because we, like Israel and her failed king, are too prone to being controlled by fear and dismay. This is why I made the comment last week that we need to have a “burn the ships” and a “give no quarter”mentality when dealing with our biggest bullies – Satan, Sin, and Death – when they manifest themselves in our church, in our families, and in the culture at large.

I believe that one of the reasons the church is so impotent or weak in the West today is because of her failure to take on a “burn the ships” or “give no quarter” mentality with the effects of Satan, Sin, and Death. A brief Google search for the meaning of those two terms – burn the ships and give no quarter – reveals that they are both wartime terms that are meant to help us show no mercy, take no prisoners, make no concessions, stay fully determined, and to remain completely committed to the goal of eradicating the effects (or the presence of) of Satan, Sin, and Death in our lives by giving no alternative for compromise or retreat.3

I am one hundred percent convinced that if believers in the church today would take a “burn the ships” and “no quarter given” approach to dealing with the presence of Satan, Sin, and Death, in our own lives and in the lives of other professing believers in Christ, that the church would be a force to be reckoned with at the gates of hell.

If you do not take this approach, if you do not burn the ships, if you give even an inch of a quarter to the enemy, in your own personal war against Satan, Sin, and Death, then how could you ever take that approach with a brother or sister who is caught up in the effects of those demonic bullies? Would not you always ignore and overlook the effects of Satan, Sin, and Death in the lives of other people if you are not courageous enough to make war against them in your own life? Is not this the reason that the church in the West fails in evangelism and discipleship?

This is why David and ultimately Jesus were and still are such powerful forces in the kingdom of Heaven. They both took a “burn the ships” and a “no quarter given” mentality with demonic bullies. You need to look no further than to Jesus at the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of Heaven to see God’s uncompromising stance and vicious war against those demonic bullies.

But why does the church not have this mentality today? Why do believers look for ways to retreat and compromise instead of steadily plowing ahead (Lk. 9:62)? Why do we often live in the past or live in the head space of human reasoning rather than being fully committed to being sanctified – or made holy – as we focus on becoming more like Jesus (Phil. 3:13 – 14)? 

Why does the church make friends with Satan, Sin, and Death rather than cutting off or gouging out their effects viciously (Matt. 5:29, 18:9)? What stops believers from becoming fully surrendered warriors who effectively fight and experience victory over Satan, Sin, and Death together as they carry their crosses and put the effects of those bullies to death on a daily basis (Matt. 16:24; Mk. 8:34)?

The answer, I think, is because we have bought into the lies and promises of those bullies. We believe Satan when he condemns us. We believe the promises of Sin when she tempts us. We run in fear when Death intimidates us. In short, we do not burn ships, and we continue to give quarter to Satan, Sin, and Death because we fail to believe and act upon the truth of the gospel; we believe and act upon a false gospel.4

Ultimately, we suffer life threatening spiritual heart attacks on a daily basis because we have not burned the ships, and because we have continued to give quarter to our greatest enemies. The evidence of this is all over the church today. Mercy and grace and love have been falsely reformed from their original biblical meanings into worldly, emotional responses to Satan, Sin, and Death’s rampage against God’s people.

We extend a worldly, emotional, and humanistic version of mercy, grace, and love which then enables Satan, Sin, and Death to continue their rape and pillage of God’s sheep… and we do this because we are prone to suffering spiritual heart attacks; our hearts have failed and our biggest bullies have been left unchecked just like in our story of David and Goliath. Look at the text with me…

31When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. 32And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” 33And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” 34But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, 35I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. 36Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!” 38Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, 39and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So, David put them off. 40Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.

#1: DO NOT LET YOUR HEART FAIL (VV. 31 – 32)

The center point of verses 31 – 32 is David, the little shepherd boy saying: “Do not let your heart fail!” One of the clearest fruits in someone’s life who is actively practicing a burn the ships or give no quarter mentality against Satan, Sin, and Death is that their hearts do not fail when faced with a demonic bully of Goliath’s magnitude.

David’s heart did not fail him when he heard and saw the nasty demonic bully in front of him. If David was not practicing a burn the ships and a give no quarter mentality, his heart would have failed and he would have compromised, given up, ran back home, or hid in the baggage. He did not do any of that. He did not retreat, compromise, nor hide.

Instead, when the rejected king, Saul, heard about what David had been saying to the armies of Israel, he sent for David and David immediately took charge of the conversation by saying in verse 32, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”

David is not backing down, he is not retreating, and he is not compromising because his heart has not failed him and therefore, he can come alongside a failed king and a fearful nation and challenge them to not let their hearts fail either. Israel and her rejected king had allowed this demonic bully to give them spiritual heart attacks. They were all lying on the floor of the emergency room in need of open-heart surgery by a physician who possesses a fully capable and functioning heart.

Israel and her rejected king had not burned the ships, and they had given more than a quarter to the enemy. They were defeated by this demonic bully, and they needed someone to fight for them so that they could begin to fight again. David – the shepherd-boy-king who was chosen by God’s own perfect heart – is God’s answer in this moment. Israel needed to be delivered from her greatest enemy and God had just the right person in mind to be that very deliverer.

#2: YOU NEED TO BE DELIVERED (VV. 33 – 37)

The reality is that all of us need to be delivered. You need someone to deliver you from Satan, Sin, and Death. If you and I do not fully surrender to Jesus as our one and only deliverer, we will always live with a back door open or a secret passageway to make friends with our greatest enemies. We look for deliverance from what we think are our greatest enemies and we often turn to the deceptive promises of Satan, Sin, and Death to give us the relief we long for. 

The problem for many professing believers today is that we keep going back to the places that we need to be delivered from while we feast on the vomit in the dark alleyways like rabid wolves (Prov. 26:11). A fully surrendered believer, a person who is fully surrendered to Jesus, someone who has been given a brand-new heart, is a major threat to the gates of hell.

Our boy, David, is a major threat to the kingdom of hell because he knows what it means to depend on his Deliverer even as he offers to be a deliverer for a totally weakened and impotent Israel along with her disqualified king. Speaking of the disqualified king, Saul is so shocked at David’s exhortation to not let his heart fail as well as his offer to fight the bully, that he reminds David in verse 33, that he is just a little boy and that this bully is a massive, well trained, and experienced warrior.

For people who do not burn ships and wind up giving quarter to the enemy, King Saul’s worldly vision would be enough to send them packing. If David had not already been living a life that was built around a burn the ships and give no quarter mentality, he would have ran back home to the comfort and safety of his father’s house. But David did not build his life with secret avenues of escape and private venues to entertain other alternatives to life.

His response to King Saul’s earthly assessment of the situation – you are just a boy, and this bully is a trained, experienced, warrior – reveals that David is the deliverer Israel needed because he trusted completely – not half-heartedly – in the One and Only deliverer!

In verses 34 – 37, David responds to Saul’s assessment by letting him know that God had already used him powerfully against other predators like lions and bears, that God had helped him to deliver his sheep from those predators, and that God had delivered him from those predators when they came after him by giving him the supernatural strength to grab their beards, to strike them on the jaw, and to kill them.

The essence here is that David is the deliverer that Israel needs because David trusts in the One and Only Deliverer, and this big, demonic, bully, will be no match for David because he has “defied the armies of the living God” (v. 36 – 37). This predatorial bully – who enjoys preying on, intimidating, deceiving, belittling, and devouring – God’s sheep is about to be defeated by the presence and the power of the Living God in and through a little shepherd boy who had burned the ships and was not about to give any quarter to the enemy.

David – knowing that all of us need to be delivered from our biggest bullies – was fully dependent on the One True Deliverer. Saul can see that there will be no detouring young David so he gives David his blessing to go and fight the bully, but he also tries one last time to insert some worldly wisdom into David’s plan of attack.

#3: PRACTICE GODLY WISDOM (VV. 38 – 40)

Every one of us will face and probably do face the decision on a daily basis of whether we will fight Satan, Sin, and Death with worldly wisdom or Godly wisdom, with the weapons of this world or with the weapon of the gospel (2 Cor. 10:4 – 5; Eph. 6). 

You can either put on Christ through prayer, Scripture study, and communion with the saints, or you can clothe yourself with the weapons of humanism, moralism, and pop psychology. One path burns ships and gives no quarter to Satan, Sin, and Death as we rely on Christ alone to be our One and Only Deliverer, while the other path uses human reasoning to excuse, enable, and allow our enemies to win.

Saul offers the pathway of earthly, worldly, human wisdom as he offers David his own armor to fight with (vv. 38 – 39). David simply rejects Saul’s worldly help along with his earthly weapons as he picks up the tried-and-true weapons of a shepherd – a shepherd’s staff, a sling, and five smooth stones – and begins to approach the bully with all the resolve of a Spirit-Filled believer (vv. 39 – 40).

This cliffhanger of a moment reminds me of the book of Proverbs as well as the book of James. Both books work together to teach us that earthly wisdom and all its strategies, while appearing good to the human eye, are merely demonic strategies for fools who claim to know God but deny his power with their very lives (2 Tim. 3:5). 

Many an outward religious person is totally defeated by Satan, Sin, and Death because they deny the power of the gospel as they run to their secret ships while giving more than a quarter to their enemies.

Friendship with the world – and all its devices of how to think, how to feel, and how to react – are absolutely evil under the surface and in the end, according to James, they make us enemies of God and partners with demonic forces (Js. 1:5-8, 3:13-18, 4:4-10). How could someone who has partnered with demonic forces in worldly wisdom ever find victory over Satan, Sin, and Death? Why would that person ever burn the ships and give no quarter to Satan, Sin, and Death?

If we are to live with a burn the ships and give no quarter mentality, as it pertains to Satan, Sin, and Death, we must employ godly, biblical wisdom which will often look foolish in the eyes of the world but will actually lead to true spiritual power as we face off with, fight against, and experience victory over our worst enemies (1 Cor. 1:27).

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, burn the ships and give no quarter my friends! I do not know what the effects of Satan, Sin, and Death have in your life or in your friends’ lives right now. I do not know what causes your heart to fail or where you need delivered from or where you need to lean into godly wisdom instead of worldly wisdom, but I do know that if you have truly trusted in Jesus and his work at the cross, the empty tomb, and his promise of heaven, then he will help you burn the ships and give no quarter in this war against Satan, Sin, and Death.

When your feet hit the floor every morning and when you lay down your head every night, you cannot compromise, you cannot retreat, you cannot hide, and you cannot give into the enemy. Satan’s condemnation, Sin’s temptation, and Death’s intimidation will keep you in their destructive clutches as long you do not burn those ships and as long as you keep giving quarter to them.

Once again, I come all the way back to the beginning of this message to tell you that your only hope is in Christ alone. He is the only one who ever burned the ships completely and never gave an inch of a quarter to the enemy. Christ was fully, one hundred percent committed and submitted to the Father’s plan of redemption and deliverance, and it included a horrific bloody cross that he did not deserve, an empty tomb three days later, and the promise of eternity for all who place their faith in him.

Those five stones in David’s little pouch looked about as foolish from an earthly perspective as two pieces of wood and three nails for Jesus. But this is how our redeemer works: he takes the foolish things of this world, the most unimpressive things of this world, and he uses them to overcome and defeat the enemy for good.

You need to understand that you and I are not David. David is Jesus. You and I are Israel or King Saul at best and Goliath at worst. We do not burn the ships, and we give quarter to our enemies because we are more like Israel and king Saul and Goliath. We are like them because we fail to understand and stand upon the truth of the gospel. We run and hide, we slither and sneak, we cop out, we twist and turn, we sin against God and our brothers and sisters because we give the enemy a foothold in our lives rather than burning the ships and giving no quarter to them.

We get discipled more by YouTube videos and Facebook reels and News broadcasts and self-help books than we do by the clear written Word of God. All those worldly avenues lead to one place – full separation from God for eternity. The good news of the gospel is that we have a deliverer who burned the ships and gave no quarter to Satan, Sin, and Death, and in Him – in Christ – we are given a new identity to not only sit in but to walk in and to fight in according to the book of Ephesians.

Satan, Sin, and Death have leveled their entire arsenal against your heart. Will you continue to lay on the floor of the emergency room in a constant state of spiritual heart attack while fighting against the very One who desires to deliver you? Or will you surrender fully to the One, True, Crucified, Risen, and Returning King?

Will you burn the ships and give no quarter to the enemy in your own life or in the lives of your brothers and sisters? Will you stand on the edge of that battlefield, fully armed with the gospel of Jesus Christ with no thought of retreat, or surrender? That cross was bloody, that tomb is empty, and eternity has been promised so that you can burn the ships and give no quarter! – Amen!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 313 – 323.

3 Google links for the meaning and origin of the phrases, “burn the ships” and “give no quarter” or “no quarter given”. Burn the ships: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEkfg4IvFGx/?igsh=MWpidDA1eG40dGh0dA==. Give no quarter or no quarter given: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/no%20quarter#:~:text=:%20no%20pity%20or%20mercy,no%20quarter%20to%20the%20enemy.

4 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 325 – 333.