Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): The amazing grace of God. That's today on Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: God did devise a plan, and isn't it an incredible amazing plan? Amazing grace, that while I was yet a sinner cursing God, doing my own thing, living my own way, God sent his son to die for my sins, to take my place on that cross, dying for me.

No one can think of a plan like this but God. He's the one that put the gospel together. This is good news.

Guest (Male): What a blessing it is to have one who is loyal when others abandon you. The encouragement it brings is profound and sustaining. We'll hear about that rare gift of loyalty today on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson from Calvary Chapel Downey.

To have loyalty means that there are quite possibly those who are betraying you. King David faces this from his very own son, Absalom. It's a sad story, but not without hope, and an important lesson to be learned. So what do you say we get started? From 2 Samuel Chapter 14, here's Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: 2 Samuel Chapter 14, as we continue in this incredible book. 2 Samuel in the Old Testament, Chapter 14. This morning we're talking about the prodigal returning.

For those of you that say, "Well, what is the prodigal?" Well, remember the story of the prodigal son was the son that took all of his inheritance from his father, went out and spent it all, went astray, blew it completely, disobeyed everything that he was raised in and everything that he was taught. He just flipped out, but then he came home. He came home to his father. Remember, he was a son and he came home to his father.

It's true that David has had some great triumphs in his life. We look back at his early days and he wiped out a bear and a lion, and then he faced off with that giant of Goliath. From there, he went on to conquer the whole promised land, and God gave him great victories and he had great triumphs. But now we are in the midst of David's troubles, and he had great troubles.

All because of number one, he compromised his faith, and number two, he collected women for his harem. In doing that, he ends up committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband. Now we've been reading the last couple of weeks on how he is reaping now what he has sown. His daughter has been raped by his son. His other son kills his brother and then flees. Afterward, David mourns for his murdered son.

After a time of mourning, he then begins to look and longs for his only living son. He wanted to see that restoration take place, but pride kept David from resolving their conflict. He wanted to do it, but he didn't do it, and he held on to his pride. It says that David's soul was vexed. He was heartbroken as he saw now, just as God said, he was reaping a whirlwind in his own home. There's nothing worse than having it hit home, and yet that's what God said would happen.

When are we going to learn to see that when God says it, he means it? It does happen exactly like he says it. When are we going to see that this is his word to us? He warns us before so we don't have to get involved in that, so we don't have to take that heartache upon ourselves. And yet, many times we just go on thinking, "Well, no, that won't happen to me." But it's still God's word, it's still right on.

Well, in Chapter 14, we have come now in 2 Samuel. It says that Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. You see, Joab was David's right-hand general, taking care of the troops and a lot of the administrative things throughout the country. Joab knew David. He knew that he was really going through it. He knew he was longing for his son, Absalom.

He'd like to find a way to restore his son, and Absalom also was the next to take the throne. In the kingdom itself, there was friction between the father and the son and this is not good for the nation. It's not good for the military. I mean, there was low morale during this time. There was a kind of "What's happening to our kingdom?" Everybody would be better off if this root of bitterness could be resolved between the two.

So Joab thought, "Maybe I can help." Verse 2: "And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, 'I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner. Fake this thing out that you're a real mourning, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil so you smell, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead.' Just stink a little bit, that you've never taken a shower and you really put this thing on. 'And come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him.'" So Joab put the words in her mouth.

Now Tekoa is about five miles south from Bethlehem. It is the place where Amos was born. In fact, those of you that went to Israel with us, you know that once in a while, we'll take our trek up to this weird-looking mound out in the Judean wilderness. You can see it from the Mount of Olives. From Jerusalem, you look out south and it's just wilderness. There's this weird-looking mound, looks like a volcano, flat-topped, and that's the Herodian.

That was Herod's summer palace where he would reside in the summer, and it overlooked Bethlehem. That's where he gave the decree to kill all of the young children two years and younger. We would go up there and we would see and look over, and as you look over in the Herodian, you can look off a distance southeast of Jerusalem and there you could see this place called Tekoa. It's actually just a tell today. It's just a mound of earth where they dig around there.

Evidently, Joab, who was born and raised in Bethlehem, knew about the situation and the area. You always do when you're born and raised in a certain area. He knew about this wise woman, or let's call her a hypocrite. Hypocrite, remember in the Greek, is one that is an actor. We get our word from it, but who would be in the theater and would always take a little mask and they'd have it on a stick and they'd stick it in front of themselves to try to be somebody who they weren't. That was a hypocrite.

So he knew of this famous lady who really could dazzle people and was a great actress, and he hired her to go and do this work in the king's heart. He thought, "This will definitely help David's situation if I can now get this woman to go and deceive the king and get him into this little trap." Verse 4: "And when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground." I mean, she's really doing it up.

"And did obeisance, and said, 'Help, O king.' And the king said to her, 'Well, what's ailing you?' And she answered, 'I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is dead. And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him. And behold, the whole family is risen against thy handmaid, and they said, "Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew. And we will destroy the heir also."' So she'll quench my coal which is left and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the earth."

David saw it, remember in the beginning, he started this whole thing of deception. David was a deceiver himself. He sought to deceive everybody with his little love affair with Bathsheba. Because of that, what goes around comes around. He sought to deceive, so he's going to be deceived. You can't get away from it. If you are wheeling and dealing, then you're going to be wheeled and dealed against.

If you're ripping people off, then you're going to get ripped off. If you're lying and deceiving, you're going to be lied to and deceived. It just happens that way. So now David is going to be caught again. Remember the first time when he was caught with a little tale and he was trapped in that tale? It was with Nathan. Remember Nathan came with this really neat little tale about a guy that had a little goat and just trapped David?

Well, now they've got another little tale to trap David. Joab had her share this sad story with David, and he thought it would help David's situation. So he hired her, she went, and she said, "Listen, my husband has died. I had two sons. They were in the field, they were fighting. Kids are, they get in a skirmish, and now one of my sons killed the other son. Now my whole family's against that son and they want to kill him now."

"But David, I've got a problem. He's the last of the heir. I mean, if he dies, I lose everything. I lose my inheritance, the family name, the lineage, everything is lost." So David, and she's coming to David, "What do I do? David, tell me what to do in this situation." Verse 8: "The king said unto the woman, 'Go to thine house, and I will give you charge concerning thee.'" In other words, "That's quite a story. Okay, you go home, let me think about it, and I'll get back to you."

But she didn't want that. She didn't take that for an answer. And the woman of Tekoa said unto the king, "My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father's house, and the king and his throne be guiltless." And the king said, "Well, whosoever saith ought unto thee, bring him to me and he shall not touch thee anymore." Then she said, "I pray thee, let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy anymore, lest they destroy my son." And he said, "As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth."

David wanted time to make his decision, which is wise, but she pressed him. She's one of those type of women that you've got to get an answer right now. She's going to say whatever needs to be said to get that answer, and she pressed him to making the decision now. She said, "I'll take the responsibility. It'll be upon me, not upon you. Whatever decision you make, it's upon me. Just let my son live."

Then David stepped out, being pressed. He said, "Okay, listen, let anybody know and I swear by the Lord that if anybody touches your son they've had it." And she went, "Yes!" He said it! See, that's what she went for, to get him to say it, to swear by God that he would protect her son. That's what it was all about. Verse 12: "Then the woman said, 'Let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king.'" Now, I don't know if you can ever get one word out of a woman, but she wanted just one more word.

You'll see in a minute that this is her one word. David said, "Go ahead. What? You have something else to say? Go ahead." And the woman said, "Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished." David, she said. Okay, there's your one word.

"What do you speak against yourself?" In paraphrase, she said, "You should practice what you preach, David. Here you have showed mercy and grace and protection for my son, but you can't forgive your own son who has been banished." Now, it's for sure that her story is not like Absalom's story. I mean, her story was about two sons that got in a fight, and through anger and one grabbing something and killing the other, it just happened in the fight.

It was different than with Absalom, and Absalom was premeditated murder. It was a lot worse in that case. Two years he waited to do the dirty deed that he did. In this situation, it wasn't planning and plotting, so it was a different story. But still, we see that David is caught here in this trap, in this tale. The reason is because he gave his own advice instead of giving God's word out. He got pressured into giving his own advice, which will always get us in trouble.

Reasoning will always mess things up because God's given us his truth. If you start to give your philosophy, your reasoning to people's situation, you're messing things up and you're going to blow it for yourself. Because what goes around, again, comes around. If you say it for them, what about for you? That's where David got caught. David should have just given her the word of God and said, "Well, now I know that the Bible talks about cities of refuge."

"I know that your family's out to murder your last kin and the last of the name. He could run to one of the cities of refuge and then have the court hear the case and work it all out so he wouldn't have to die. You can do your case and they could share the whole thing." There was ways to work it out. David could have given the word, but he didn't. He gave his own advice.

The word is always safe. So she says, "David, you're a hypocrite. You say that my son is safe now, but what about your son? Why don't you bring your son home?" Verse 14: "For we must needs die," she says. "One of these days we're going to die, as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Neither doth God respect any person, yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him."

So her counsel is, "David, death ends our opportunities to give out mercy, to give out love. Don't allow these trials that have come into your life in your home and to cause your family to be so split up and scattered, and anger to run and rule in your home. Hey, listen, life's too short. We need to ask for forgiveness, to seek to get things right, or one day death will come and it'll be too late."

David thought about doing it, remember? We read about how he wanted to do it. He wanted his son to come back, but he didn't do it. Now she's saying, "Don't just think about it, really do it. It's important you just do it. Don't just have good intentions. Good intentions are great, aren't they? But usually they're just saved for the person that has the good intentions."

It's like a husband that goes to work and after work he says, as he's driving home, "Boy, my wife is so fortunate. She has such a hardworking man. Oh, she is so blessed. I go to work every day and here I come, I'm coming home with the bacon." You're driving home and you're saying, "Man, I'm a good guy. She ought to know. I love her. She is so fortunate. She's got a husband that really loves her."

"In fact, I'm going to get some flowers." You see the flower stand, you try to get over, you put the blinker on, and all of a sudden, the guy won't let you. "Okay, let me... oh, well." I was going to get her flowers. I'm a good guy. She doesn't know. I was going to get her flowers. Good intentions, right? But when you walk through the door, it's a whole different story. You don't share about those experiences, just go, "Hi, hon." No flowers, not even anything about it.

But you had those great intentions. Never got to her. Good intentions don't get us anywhere. David had a good intention. "Oh, I want my son to come back to me and I want to see this resolved." He never did it. Now she's saying, "Do it. It's time to get it resolved. Go say you're sorry, David, while you're alive. Seek peace with all men. Once you're dead, look at Amnon. He's dead. He can't do anything. It's too late for him."

"And God is no respecter of person," she says. Neither David should you be. You've forgiven my son, now go forgive your son. David, why don't you be like God who has made a way? David, God has devised a way. Look at scripture, it is the gospel in a nutshell in one verse in the Old Testament: "For God has devised a way."

See, sin has banished man from the presence of God. In the very beginning, we saw that Adam disobeyed God and because of that, he was banished out of the Garden of Eden, away from God. But God in the very beginning also made a way for man to come close to God. God didn't want that separation to last. So he killed animals and put skins on them, speaking about how once and for all a blood sacrifice would come way down the road that would once and for all restore man back to God.

That was, of course, Jesus Christ. God did devise a plan, and isn't it an incredible amazing plan? Amazing grace, that while I was yet a sinner cursing God, doing my own thing, living my own way, God sent his son to die for my sins, to take my place on that cross, dying for me. No one can think of a plan like this but God. He's the one that put the gospel together. This is good news.

You've sinned, you go, "Yeah." Now it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you've done. You can now come. God has devised a way. Jesus said, "I am the only way, the only truth, the only life. There is no other way to get to God but through me. There is no way to get to heaven but through me." That is the way that God has devised for those prodigal sons that have gone off. God's provided a way to come home.

Your father is waiting, he's watching for you. He wants you to come back into fellowship with him. You go to church, you've had your little thing, but yet you're at church one way, one type of person, and out there you're a total different and that's a total different world. They're not meshed together anymore. They used to be, but you've gotten away. You've become religious, and religion will never satisfy you. What's going on between you and the Lord, you're not being satisfied.

Lord says, "I've devised a way for you to come back. In fact, I'm looking for you to come home. And when you come home, you won't believe the blessing you'll receive." As David longed to be with his son, so God longs to be with us, and he devised a way. So she said, "Do what God has done." I don't know if she realized what she was saying, that God really was going to devise a way for the banished to come home.

Because, man, were we banished or what? We were hopeless, sinful creatures, just down in the dregs of society. God looked down in that darkness and he reached down to us and pulled us out and put us on a solid rock and put a new song in our hearts and praise on our lips. He changed our lives and we did nothing. Amazing grace.

What a way. Look at verse 15. "Now therefore," she says. She continues to talk. This is one word, it's just one big word. "Now therefore, David, that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king. It is because the people have made me afraid. And thy handmaid said, 'I will now speak unto the king, and it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.'"

"King, I want you to know that all the people want to see you and your son restored, and that's why I've come," she said. Now, she didn't talk about the ringleader, Joab. She didn't include him here, probably didn't want to get him in trouble, so she just said, "That's why I'm here, just so you'll just see the need for you to get this together."

Verse 16: "And the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then thine handmaid said, 'The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable or give rest, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern both good and bad. Therefore the Lord thy God be with thee.'"

David, you're a good man. I know you're going to make the right decision. You're going to do the right thing. She's kind of pumping him up here now. "David, you've already made the right decision with me and my son," kind of going back to that story that she was telling him. "And that's the right decision, and I know you're going to make a right decision when it comes to you and your son, because you're a good man, you're a messenger of God. God wants you to be his channel to your son."

Then she says finally, "And the Lord thy God be with you in your decision." What an awesome thing to tell someone. May God be with you with his presence. May he be with you as you make this decision. May you realize that God is waiting for you to make the right choice. He's watching over you, he is going to be instrumental in causing you to make the right choice. May God be with you and bless you in this decision.

Guest (Male): It’s a choice we all have to make. Have you made the right choice for your life? This is Sound Doctrine, and today Pastor Jeff Johnson brought us a study from 2 Samuel Chapter 14. Hopefully as you listen to these messages in 2 Samuel, you’ll have ears to hear what the spirit is saying in these critical times.

God’s word is so practical, giving us direction, instruction, and wisdom to our lives. To hear this message again, simply go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com and wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We would very much appreciate your support. It helps us deliver Sound Doctrine on stations like this one all across the nation. You can donate to this radio outreach at sounddoctrineradio.org. We hope you’ll join us for our next study in 2 Samuel. It’s going to be a good one. That’s right here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey.