Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): We represent Christ. Wow, that’s a pretty big responsibility. And God takes it seriously. Here’s Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: We’re His representatives. We’re the ones that are to be doing right. We’re the ones that are His witnesses, His ambassadors. And so He’s going to require more from us. Others can get away with stuff. We can’t. Have you tried to get away with some stuff? He doesn’t leave you alone. As soon as we blow it, it’s revealed. The Holy Spirit begins to convict us, and we can’t get by with anything. He won’t let us.

Guest (Male): Most would agree that the United States has the finest and strongest military in the world. But it would be foolish of us to think that our strength is based on how good and smart we are. Today on Sound Doctrine, we find King David basically falling into that trap. David saw the greatness of the nation of Israel and its military, but he failed to realize the source of that strength was God. That’s a mistake we can easily fall into as well. So, let’s see the true source of our strength and security as we join Pastor Jeff Johnson for a study in 2 Samuel 24.

Jeff Johnson: 2 Samuel chapter 24. We’re going to be talking about the results of sin, but also we’re going to be looking at it as far as how God brings restoration. So, not only the results of sin but the results of God’s love and forgiveness in our lives. It’s so evident here. As we get into 2 Samuel chapter 24, let me remind you that these last four chapters are not in chronological order. Some believe that this last chapter is connected with chapter 21 because remember there was a famine, and then they believe that this pestilence here comes right after the famine.

This whole event is repeated again in 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Remember in 1 Chronicles, there’s a lot of repeating of what we’ve already gone through with 1 and 2 Samuel. It goes over the story. There are a few differences, and we’ll be discussing those as we move along this morning. This is an experience that I believe we all need in our lives—what David experiences here. We all need to taste and see. We all need to experience this as never before.

Verse 1, chapter 24: “And again it says the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” After the famine, God, it says, was again—see, the famine brought God’s anger upon them, and He was revealing His anger against them. But after that, it says, and again He was angry with Israel. Thank God that God’s anger is not as man’s anger. It is a divine anger. It’s a righteous anger. It’s a holy anger that is under control, thank the Lord.

It’s not an emotional outburst of destruction like man’s. When man gets mad sometimes, you’ve got to duck. Look out, he’s going to throw something. He’s angry, and he’s in the flesh. Thank God He doesn’t get that way. He is long-suffering. He is patient. He’s just under control. And all of His anger is always towards restoration. It’s always concerned with good as the result. Plus, He always lets us know when He is displeased, and I thank the Lord for that.

In chapter 16, remember when Shimei was cursing David? David told everyone, “Don’t touch the guy, because the Lord has anointed him and brought him to bring forth this message. He is the one that is being used of God to curse me because God’s trying to get my attention. He’s trying to tell me He’s mad at me.” David realized that. And then remember over in chapter 21 when God sent the famine and let Israel know that He wasn’t pleased with them through a famine.

Again today, He still uses natural events to let us know that He’s not pleased with us. But also, not only natural events that take place, He uses what is called the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You see, the Spirit of the Lord has been sent to the world to convict the world of sin, judgment, and righteousness. So God’s Spirit came to this world to convict all of the world of sin. And then His Spirit comes within His children, and you really get it then as far as conviction.

He lets you know when we have grieved Him, when we have quenched the Spirit, and when we have angered Him. So again, God was angry with His people, and rightly so because when you look at this, He requires more from His children than anybody else. That makes sense, doesn't it? We’re His representatives. We’re the ones that are to be doing right. We’re the ones that are His witnesses, His ambassadors.

And so He’s going to require more from us. Others can get away with stuff. We can’t. Have you tried to get away with some stuff? He doesn’t leave you alone. As soon as we blow it, it’s revealed. The Holy Spirit begins to convict us, and we can’t get by with anything. He won’t let us. Israel had blown their witness, failing to be the example to other nations of who and what God was like. And here God is kind of building a case against them.

Notice in verse 1 there He says, “and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” Now, it’s a shame that a lot of the translations have a large "H-E" for "he." That’s a shame. That’s a wrong translation that is not really speaking about God, even though God is in the midst of this thing. It’s a small "h" with a little "e," and that’s in the authorized King James Version. It’s there. And that means that when you go to 1 Chronicles chapter 21, you really get the fullness of this "he," because it simply says that Satan tempted David.

So Satan is involved here, the enemy who encourages and deceives David to make this mistake or to do this sin. Notice that leadership is the focus of the enemy’s attack. To get to the rest of the people, he gets into the leadership. But the Scripture says we’re not ignorant of his devices. And so we have leadership gatherings. We’re having one in January. We’re having all the leadership, and those of you that want to be a part of the leadership, you’re going to be invited to a two-day seminar on just being not ignorant of his devices and understanding that if you’re going to be a leader, if you’re going to lead others in the ways of the Lord, that you need to know certain things because you will become more of a target for the enemy than ever before.

So we’re not ignorant of what he’s going to try to do. David numbered the people. He fell into the trap of the enemy and he sinned against God. Now, James says it this way in James chapter 1 and verse 13: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” So we look at David and David is blowing it here.

David is yielding to this temptation, this lust that he has for power. And he begins to number the children of Israel. You see, God wanted David to trust Him and Him alone. God wanted David to have faith in God, period. To not get their eyes on their strength or their numbers, because that’s a pride thing. If you begin to look at your strength, if you begin to look at how many are behind you. Remember in the Old Testament they talked about when you’re a king in the land, don’t you ever gather to yourselves horses.

And you say, "Well, what’s the big deal? You’d want to have some horses for your army." Why would God tell them not to gather to themselves horses? Horses were in those days like tanks today. So you don’t gather horses to yourself and say, “I’ve got 900 horses.” It’s like saying, “I’ve got 900 tanks and I’m bad, and look what’s behind me.” So that’s why He told them not to gather the horses. That temptation is the same here with numbering the people—to trust in their strength, to base their security on their military strength, on their own resources. This is false security, for it’s not in the numbers, it’s in the Lord.

It’s too bad our nation isn’t learning this lesson. Sin is a reproach to any people. Righteousness, what does Proverbs say? Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. And people of this nation, we’re in for a rude awakening. For we think by our mass, by our army, by what we are, that we’re going to control this world, that we’re going to slap the hands of those that are doing evil, and we’re going to be the policemen of this planet. And we’re going to bring in a great moral rule over the earth. Boy, do we have a rude awakening.

We trust in that national pride, don’t we? That’s a sin against God. This nation is backslidden. This nation does not have its eyes on God; it has its eyes on its strength. We are the superpower, and we are in for a great fall. For pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. This nation is in trouble. Israel here is in trouble. Our strength is in our devotion to our God. May God help each of us to see that.

Much of the church today is getting trapped in this thing of statistics—numbers, always wanting to know how many were in church today. A lot of them have their thing on the how many in our number, how many were baptized. That’s very important. How much money did we get in? Always looking to numbers. I thank God that I’ve got a board and a group of men surrounding me that are men of faith and not of figures. At times we’ll look at the figures, and yes, you go by the figures somewhat, but where’s the step of faith if you don’t take a step?

If yes, it says it and we could, but it’s going to be a step. Well, I’ve got a bunch of guys around me that say, “Let’s do it. Let’s venture. Let’s take the venture. Let’s see what God will do.” It doesn’t really match up totally. It’s not like we have these great funds that we can take this step, but let’s see what God will do. And I appreciate that, and I thank God for those steps of faith and those men of God of faith that we have here.

God owns all the silver and all the gold. So God allows David to number all of Israel. He allows it to take place. Remember, Satan’s on a chain. He’s always been on a chain. Job makes it very clear that he has to get permission from God to do anything, to touch any one of us. It’s got to go through the throne first, then it comes to us. We’ve got to understand that. That God’s involved, He’s in control. It’s not like He’s just sitting back going, “I can’t believe what the enemy’s doing to my creation. Like, oh, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

What kind of a God is that? Our God has got everything under control, even Satan himself. God knew it would be for good eventually, and that they would grow from these experiences that they were to have. In fact, I love that scripture over in Genesis 50 verse 20: “But as for you,” Joseph said, “you thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” I love it. You know, they thought throwing Joseph in prison was going to just wipe him out and just wipe out those Jews. But no, God had a plan, didn’t He? And He turns it around and He uses it for His glory, so Joseph could be second in command to feed the whole world.

God’s plan is awesome. Verse 2: “For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, ‘Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.’” So from the north, Dan, to the south, Beersheba, to one end from the other, I want to know how many we have.

Verse 3: “And Joab said unto the king, ‘Now the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?’” Here is Joab, second in command, now questioning the command, questioning what David is doing. He rebukes David. And I believe that God always seeks to warn us when we’re about ready to make a big mistake. And He always has, either by His Spirit or somebody coming to us, “What are you doing? I don’t think you should do this.”

And Joab’s coming to David saying, “What in the world are you doing, David?” Getting him to question what he’s doing, to hold it, stop, think about what you’re about to do. But despite the warning, David falls into the trap of statistics. "I want to know the number. I want to know how many we got." And he’s got this wrong motivation for wanting to know this number.

Look at verse 4: “Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host.” Even some of the captains of the host were questioning David. When you’ve got turmoil in your ranks—I have a board and it’s beautiful. We don’t do something if someone disagrees. You know what I mean? We wait on it. And through the years, we have very seldom had somebody just say, “Wait a minute, I don’t think we should do this.” It’s all been unanimous. And if somebody was to have a check in their spirit about it, we back off and we say, “Well, let’s just wait, let’s just pray about it some more.” We wait a month or two and then bring it back up again. It’s healthy—accountability.

But David didn’t listen. Notice, and Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. They passed over Jordan; they probably started around the area of Dan in the north and they worked their way down to Gad, and then verse 6 to Gilead, and then into Sidon. And then verse 7, Tyre, and south to Judah all the way to Beersheba. They went down to the furthermost part of the nation.

So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

This was going to be no easy task or operation. When Joab took off on this thing, he said to his wife, “See you in a few months.” More than a few months—it took nine months and twenty days to count all of the people. They came up with a number for Israel: 800,000 men. Judah: 500,000. Now, here’s where you have a discrepancy. In 1 Chronicles chapter 21, it says there that Israel had 1,100,000 total. You say, "Well, wait a minute, I thought the Bible’s not supposed to contradict itself. What’s going on here?" Well, it’s simply this: that here it talks about those that could handle the sword, fighting men. There, it was counting all of the men. So the older ones also, and everyone was included.

Here, it specifies who were counted. So even right there, it gives us the inclination that it’s a military strategy that David’s trying to come to. He’s trying to find those that hold the sword. You see that? He’s looking like he’s a little eager for battle here, isn’t he? As he says, “I want to know how many men can wield a sword that are valiant men. I want to know my real fighters.” Now, going on in 1 Chronicles 21, it says that there are 470,000 with Judah, but here it says 500,000. Now, some have said, well, they left off two tribes because two of them weren’t counted. And also you can look at it that they just rounded it off here, and they just rounded the number off here, didn’t round it off over there. There’s always a reason for the different numbers. Don’t let it freak you out like, “I found a mistake in the Bible.” No, there are no mistakes in God’s word. You can best believe it. He’s perfect; He doesn’t make mistakes.

Look at verse 10: “And it says that David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.’” David knew that he had 1.3 million men, fighting men. That you’d think would have been so exciting as David had got the final number in. “Wow, what an army. Yeah. You mean I got 1.3 million fighters?” You’d think he’d be overjoyed. But he’s not, is he? It says no, David was immediately convicted of his sin against God.

What happened in that nine months and twenty days? I don’t know, but I think David was just rationalizing what he was doing. He just kept saying, “I can’t wait to see the number,” and all along, nothing was really happening in his heart. But right at the last minute when he got the number, he just had a terrible feeling come upon him. He was convicted in his heart against what he had done.

You know, for those of you—and I’ve had people come up to me and say, “Jeff, the Lord’s taken His Spirit from me. I’ve committed the unpardonable sin,” and they’re crying and they’re in panic. They think that they have been forsaken because of what they have done. And I have to encourage them because I have to just tell them, “Hey, listen, you’re here, right? Yeah. Look what you’re telling me, that you have sinned against the Lord, right? Yeah. Well, how can you tell me that unless the Holy Spirit’s in you convicting you of your sin? Oh, yeah. Well, then I guess I still have the Spirit. Yeah. You’re still under conviction. Yeah. Well, God hasn’t left you. He’s nailing you. And He loves you. And He’s seeking to get you back into fellowship.”

Isn’t this the way it is, though, and the way it goes many times? That which David thought—the lies of the enemy—would bring satisfaction to him. That which he thought would really benefit him brought depression in his life and anguish, and he felt empty. He didn’t feel like, "Wow, oh." He felt miserable. He felt, “This is wrong. I have blown it.” You see, those things that we’re tempted to do that look good, those things that seem to be an answer that are lies from the enemy that we’ll go after sometimes are traps that are set by the enemy. That we would get caught up in the world, that we would be caught up in our flesh, and that we would trip and fall. These things will not fulfill; they will not bring satisfaction.

The other day I was hitting the radio and a song came on by the Stones: “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” And I listened to it. That’s an old song; that’s where I grew up. That’s the song I was raised on. I thought, “What a neat song. That’s true. There’s nothing out there that will give you any satisfaction.” Mick Jagger ought to know that. Guy’s been whining and crying all through his life, and he hasn’t got anywhere. He’s still unsatisfied. He’s trapped. It’s a terrible place to be. These things bring misery. They bring conviction. David learned there is only one way out. And remember, we read it this morning in the Psalm, in Psalm 32 and verse 5, David finally said, “I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord;” and then he says, “and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” David knew there’s only one way out of this. I’ve got to confess it. I’ve got to repent of it. I’ve got to turn from what I’ve been doing.

Guest (Male): We house all of our 2 Samuel studies at sounddoctrineradio.org. This comes in handy should you miss a study or two on the radio, or just want to hear something again or even share it with someone you know. This study and more are available now at sounddoctrineradio.org under messages. You can also listen at lightsource.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio podcast app. And of course, speaking of podcasts, Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, and that includes Spotify and Apple Podcasts. This program is made possible through the support of our listeners. To make a contribution to the ministry, just visit sounddoctrineradio.org and click on giving. Be sure to join us next time when Pastor Jeff will return to 2 Samuel here on Sound Doctrine, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Downey.