Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): With an important message for singles, here's Pastor Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: You singles that are here, when you look for who the Lord has for you, and you wait and you're waiting upon the Lord to bring you that mate, you need to wait on the Lord. Don't do it your way. Don't do it in the energy of the flesh and seek out that mate. No, you let the Lord bring him or her.

But when you look at them, you're going to see that they love the Lord and reverence the Lord as you do, if not more, because there is a team. There's what you look for, somebody that is so committed and so in love with Jesus like you are. There you got a blessing coming your way.

Guest (Male): Calvary Chapel Downey welcomes you to today's edition of Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. Today we continue our verse-by-verse series through 2 Samuel. We've reached a key point in King David's reign. He wants to make God the focal point of the nation, so he arranges for the Ark of the Covenant to be brought back to Israel. Pastor Jeff will have you consider a key question today. Is God the center of your life? Is Jesus the focus of the decisions you make every day? Let's join Pastor Jeff in 2 Samuel Chapter 6 for today's Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: Is it going to make me rich? No. He's going to give you wisdom what to do with the little that you have, and he's going to bless you financially. See, some of you are struggling in this area of the economy and everything. Listen, God wants you to give it to him. God wants you to seek him, and God will bless your life as you get into his presence.

You say, "But I don't have a job." It doesn't matter. "We don't have any money coming in." It doesn't matter. All that matters is you're blessed of the Lord. It's a whole attitude, isn't it? Right here in the mind is where it takes place, and God wants to be in the center of your life. And he will lead you to get all those other things.

Don't you remember the scripture, seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you, spiritually, physically, materially, in every area. So Obed-Edom's house was totally blessed. Look at verse 12. And it was told King David saying, "The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertains to him because of the Ark of God."

God's presence was right there in his house. So David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. And it was so that when they bore the Ark of the Lord and had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings. From here on out, we are going to see the satisfaction of God's servant doing it the right way.

You see, the hearing of God's blessing in Obed-Edom's house got David to really search his heart, got David to go back and to do Bible study. David was asking questions. "Where did I go wrong, Lord? What's wrong in what I'm doing?" Good questions. "Why are they so blessed and I'm so bummed?" Ever wonder about that?

I see Christians that seem to be so blessed, and even though they're going through trials, they seem to be blessed. "Am I doing something wrong? Maybe I should get back to the Bible and find out. Maybe I'm not doing something right." Well, David said, "I'm going to do that," and he got back into the Word. And I would encourage you, if you feel that you're going through some things, you need the Word of the Lord. You need God to speak to you, and he'll bless you.

So David did that. David discovered through the Word, as we all will, where he blew it and where he sinned. I'll tell you something about this book. This book will keep you from sin, but sin will keep you from this book. We need to deal with it. We need to get into the Word because when you get into the Word, it's the mirror of truth.

When you get into it, all of a sudden you start to see your face and the dirt smudges and where you're blowing it. And God begins to show you where you went off track. It's great. So David saw where he was blowing it. He found that he was doing what God wanted, but he was doing it in the wrong way.

You see, you can go to church and that's a right, good thing, right? But if you're here this morning to scheme on some girl or something, you're doing a right thing in the wrong way. If you're here this morning just to be seen of men, hey, you're doing a right thing in the wrong way. The same way with prayer. Prayer is a right thing, isn't it?

God wants us to pray. But if you pray to seek to consume it upon your own lusts and if you're just praying selfishly to get things for yourself, then you're doing a right thing in the wrong way. And if you're reading the Bible because you took a class and you need units and it's Bible as literature and you tell the people, "Well, I'm reading the Bible, I'm studying," yeah, you're doing it for the units. I mean, you're doing a right thing in the wrong way. And we can do that. We've got to be careful.

When God comes to us by his spirit, he comes to blast and to bless like he did with Obed-Edom. He comes to conquer and he also comes to comfort. He comes to destroy, but he also comes to deliver. Remember what Jesus said? I'm knocking on your heart's door. If you have ears to hear, if you hear my voice, open your heart's door and let me in because I want to come into you and I want to sup with you and me with you, and let's have fellowship together.

See, God brings us to this point. Why? Because he wants to comfort you, he wants to deliver you, he wants to bless you. But you've got to open the door of your heart. You've got to say, "I want to do it his way. I'm tired of doing it my way." David in 1 Chronicles Chapter 15, if you want to turn there with me, hold Samuel. 1 Chronicles 15, this is when he was doing Bible study after searching the scriptures for three months, after prayer and supplication, seeking the Lord.

Chapter 15 of 1 Chronicles, verse 2. Then David said, "None ought to carry the Ark of God but the Levites. For them hath God chosen to carry the Ark of God and to minister unto him forever." Going on in verse 12 of 1 Chronicles 15, and he said to them, "You are the chief of the fathers of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brethren, that you may bring up the Ark of the Lord our God into the place that I have prepared for it.

For because you did it not at first," David says, "the Lord our God made a breach upon us. We blew it, guys, for that we sought him not after the due order. We should have sought the Lord." So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the Ark of the Lord of God of Israel. And the children of the Levites bore the Ark of God upon their shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the Word of the Lord.

See, David's Bible study got the Word of the Lord. And David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers, instruments of music, psalteries, harps, cymbals sounding, by lifting up their voice with joy. This is God's way. You see, it is never too late, is it? It is never too late.

You're frustrated with the situation, with what you're going through. It's never too late to get back into the Word and say, "God, show me what you want me to do. I need your presence more than anything else what I'm going through. I need to know that you're with me." Get back into the Word.

David found out the right way. He learned the staves, the priests, the sacrifices, how God was to be worshiped. I don't think we should be surprised if God allows us to experience a bit of judgment first though. David was trying to do a right thing in the wrong way, and we end up doing that. Many times we step off and we're going wrong, then all of a sudden God brings judgment for the way we're going.

Well, don't be too shocked because you see, God's just trying to get your attention and to get you to go a different way because he loves you. And to those who he loves, he chastens us. He wants to get our attention and say, "Hey, wrong way. This way." And he gets our attention by weird things happening to us, not good things. Okay? He allows it because he loves us.

Note the way was in verse 12 of 1 Chronicles 15 was to sanctify yourselves. Dedicate yourselves to God. Separate yourselves unto the Lord. Give yourselves to the Lord. The second thing is get involved. Pick up the Ark. Do what needs to be done. Get into body ministry. Don't be on the sidelines anymore.

Just coming to church and coming here this morning and listening to the Word is not serving God. Did you know that? I hope you know that. Because if you're coming here and you say, "I'm a Christian" and you're at work and you go, "Yeah, I'm a Christian, I'm serving God because I go to church, because I read the Bible." No, there's more to serving God than going to church and reading the Bible. There's putting your hands to a ministry.

There's saying, "God, open the doors for me to get involved in something that I might serve you." There's where the living water starts happening. There's where you start really getting excited about the things of God and not until. And so number one, give yourselves to the Lord. Number two, get involved in the things of the Lord. And number three, begin to do the sacrifices.

And that's what he started to do. You see, Jesus says, "Blessed is the man that hears these sayings of mine and does them. I will liken unto him as a wise man that built his house upon the rock." Hear and does. The sacrifices are very important because we go back to 2 Samuel 6, we see that every six steps they made a sacrifice.

The blood was shed. Is his blood atonement for your life? If you walk in the light as he is in light and have fellowship one with the other, the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all your sins. And you'll become a living sacrifice. See, he's the once-and-for-all sacrifice that you need to receive. But then you become a living sacrifice in your energies, what you do for him, in your time, in your money.

It all is a sacrifice to the Lord. This is God's way. Once we go his way, notice in verse 16 when we were looking in 1 Chronicles 15, he says, "Get everybody together and let's sing. Let's worship. Let's praise the Lord because everything is lined up. It's time to worship the Lord with gladness."

And then let's look at verse 14 of 2 Samuel 6. And David was so caught up in this thing, he began to dance before the Lord with all of his might. And David was girded with a linen ephod. And David and all the house of Israel brought the Ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.

He was overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment. Everything was lining up now. There was great joy. David, it says, danced. He whirled. In the Hebrew, it means he whirled before the Lord. He just was turning spins and jumping up and down. But I want you to notice this, that he danced before the Lord. He didn't dance in the Lord or in the spirit.

You know how some people say, "Well, I was just caught up by the spirit and I just started to dance in the spirit." Well, dancing in the spirit is not even scriptural. You'll never find it once in the Bible. I remember when I was a young Christian, I wanted to introduce my wife to the things of the Lord and I wanted to witness to her.

So I brought her to this, I heard that they were having church in this tent in Bell Gardens, and I brought her. And I had no idea what was going to go on in the tent. I just, camp meeting, so I said, "All right." So I went in there and it was out of order, man. It was out of control. People would get up in the middle of that tent and just start going and they'd dance around.

And I saw this one person just hit a pole and just fall flat on his face, knocked himself out. And my wife's looking at these people going, "Oh yeah, this is what you want me to get into, huh? Oh, this is real great." And I'm going, "Oh man, I'm so embarrassed. I didn't know this was going to be happening in here." It was out of control.

Listen, I get excited at times and I'd like to dance before the Lord. I wouldn't dance in front of you. I'd dance before the Lord though. And that's what David was doing. He was dancing before the Lord with an ephod, which was a very simple garment, which speaks of simplicity and equality. He was right down with the people. And before God, let me say this, that all men are equal.

There's no respect of persons with God. We're all on the same plane. And when the people saw David get down there and get down with them, wearing this simple little garment, not the kingly stuff, he just got down with them and started rejoice with them, they were all getting excited. During this time, Psalms 105 and Psalms 96 David wrote. You can read these later on. Psalms 105 and Psalm 96.

They actually putting them together would be 1 Chronicles 16. That's where David recorded the two psalms. 1 Chronicles 16, beautiful psalm of praising God during this time. Two psalms that I think really relate to where we're at here is the one we read this morning, Psalm 24, where he says in verse 3 of Psalm 24, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?"

Who's going to come into the presence of God? "He that has clean hands, a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation." Who but Jesus Christ could give us clean hands and a pure heart? You need to come to the Lord.

The second psalm that I believe speaks to us at this time is Psalm 132, verse 3 through 5. Listen to this. "Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed," David says. "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, a habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. I am not going to rest until I find a place for the Lord to dwell in."

God, would it be with us that we would see that we will not rest until we give him our hearts, until we invite him to come in. Then we can rest. Come unto the Lord, you that are heavy laden down with burdens, and Jesus says, "I'll give you rest. I'll give you satisfaction for your soul, but you must come."

Look at verse 16 now. We'll finish up. Well, verse 16, as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. And notice she despised him in her heart. Uh oh, David, you got problems at home. Your wife's not a happy camper.

She doesn't reverence, neither does she love the Lord as you do, David. You know, that's a sad thing. You know, when you look for who the Lord has for you, you singles that are here, and you wait and you're waiting upon the Lord to bring you that mate, you need to wait on the Lord. Don't do it your way. Don't do it in the energy of the flesh and seek out that mate.

No, you let the Lord bring him or her. But when you look at them, you're going to see that they love the Lord and reverence the Lord as you do, if not more, because there is a team. There's what you look for, somebody that is so committed and so in love with Jesus like you are. There you got a blessing coming your way.

Look at verse 17 now. And they brought in the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle and David pitched that David pitched for it. David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And as soon as David had an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of Hosts.

And he dwelt among all the people. Notice, he was a people person. Even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well as the women as men, to everyone a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed, everyone to his own house. David knew how to throw a party, and he knew how to bless the people.

And everybody went away from there just out of it. They said they had everything they needed. He gave them provisions, he took care of their needs, and he sent them back to their own homes. Do you know how sometimes when you go to a conference that's just hypes you up and I mean you're just blessed, I mean you get so much feeding and you're just out.

You go to camp for a weekend or maybe for a week and you're just there all the time, worshiping the Lord, fellowshiping with other Christians, and you're so blessed. Maybe you go for a short-term mission trip for two weeks in another country and you come back all pumped up and you're all excited, vision for the world and God used you and you're excited.

You know, it's the old thing of once you've had a mountain-top experience, then you've got to come back down to the hill, don't you? And you've got to go home. And it's interesting, David now has to go home. And David goes home, something meets him there. Here he is on a spiritual high, right? Knock on the door, probably walked into his own house.

Look at verse 20. And David returned to bless his household. I mean, he was, oh man, I can't wait to just dump on everybody what God has done. Just to tell them. And then Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, "Well, how glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of the servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself."

"You disgraceful nerd." That's paraphrased. Well, this is all that David wanted, right? You know, after that mountain-top experience, remember when they came down the mountain? Guess what was waiting for them? A demon-possessed boy. Oh great. You know, reality smacks you right in the face.

You're back contending for the faith, man. You're back living for the Lord. Yeah, it's a little taste of heaven that you had in camp, but you've got to come back and deal with issues. And David had to deal with Michal, Saul's daughter, now his wife. I'm sure he was thinking, "Why did I ever want her back anyhow?"

Remember when he took her back from Palti? He should have just left her with him because she's really becoming to be a pain. Sarcasm and bitterness. Why? To discourage David, to steal away what God had done in his heart, to steal the moment. And you know what? That's just like the enemy, isn't it? To try to take away from us something that God has done.

Don't let him. Forewarned is forearmed. Know that it will come. And notice verse 21. And David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord which chose me before thy father, and before all of his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than this, and will be base in my own sight, and of the maid servants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor."

Therefore, Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of her death. And David says to Michal, "Hey listen, God chose me over your father. I want you to know that. He chose me to be king, not your dad." So all of a sudden, we see how cutting words somehow breed more cutting words. It's a shame. We get caught in the flesh, don't we?

I think David just got in the flesh a little bit, wanted to rub it in and nail her. And cutting words bring cutting words. Lord, help us to be different. When cutting words come to us, help us to respond as you did. When they threatened you and reviled you, help us to have the mind of Christ to respond with God's love and not in the flesh.

But the last thing here is that Michal paid the price for taunting David in what he did. She would be barren forever. You say, "Why is she barren forever?" Because she put down worship. She put it down. She taunted David. God help us as the bride of Christ that we don't become barren, that we don't put worship down, that we understand what worship is all about. That we understand God's ways and how he should be worshiped. That we respect them, that we don't make fun of them, but that we come humbly before our Lord.

Guest (Male): Humility is the key, isn't it? Pastor Jeff will be back in a moment with a closing thought here on Sound Doctrine. 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 oneplace.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 Chapter 7, where King David desired to build a temple for God out of a good motive, and yet the Lord declines the offer.

You'll see why on our next program. Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey. Now here's Pastor Jeff to wrap up our time together with a look at Psalm 51.

Jeff Johnson: Let me end with this scripture. Would you turn with me to Psalm 51, and we'll end with these three verses. Psalm 51, verse 7. David is crying out to God and asking God for help. Some of you this morning need help. Listen to what David says. See if you don't relate to this. See if this is not your prayer. And if it is, you take it as your prayer this morning and let the Lord hear your heart.

Psalm 51, verse 7. "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation."

If that's your prayer, then you give it to the Lord, and the Lord will hear your prayer and he'll answer you. Next time on Sound Doctrine, we'll turn to 2 Samuel Chapter 7.