Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: The Lord has made a commitment to us. He said, "One of these days I'm coming back for you. I want you to be with Me so where I am, you might be also." I'm coming again. That's His commitment to us. Not only did He commit to save us from this world, but to save us forever to be with Him.

Guest (Male): Surrender in our secular society is looked upon as a weakness, but God reveals it to be the beginning of great strength. There's peace that follows surrender to God, as we'll see today on Sound Doctrine. David is at an extremely low point of his life. During this time, a virtual nobody begins cursing him and throwing stones in his direction for no good reason. But David handles the false accusations and ill-treatment in a godly way as we're about to see. Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson with more from 2 Samuel chapter 15.

Jeff Johnson: Verse 21: "And Ittai the Gittite answered the king and said, 'As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be.'" This is quite a guy, isn't he?

I'm going all the way with you, David. I might have just joined you yesterday, but I'm going all the way because I know that you're the man to lead us. I know, and I'm going to follow you from this time on. I pledge my life. It's almost like that with Ruth and Naomi. Remember that pledge that Ruth made? "Your people shall be my people, my God, your God. Where you go, I shall go. Where you lodge, I shall go. I'm going to stay with you through thick or thin, and I'll die with you. I'm going to stick with you."

So, this tremendous commitment. The Lord has made a commitment to us. He said, "One of these days, I'm coming back for you. I want you to be with Me so where I am, you might be also. I'm coming again." That's His commitment to us. Not only did He commit to save us from this world, but to save us forever to be with Him.

Are you Ittai the Gittite? I think it's a good question. Are you an individual that says, "Lord, Your will be done. I don't care what happens in my life. I'm going to follow You from this moment on. I'm going to give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but I'm going to give to the Lord what's the Lord's. I'm going to go through thick or thin." Listen, I am not a fair-weather Christian. When times get tough, I'm not going to back off. I'm here for the long haul. Are you here for the long haul? Are you here to go all the way with the Lord? Are you an Ittai the Gittite?

Look at Psalm 62. David's crying out. He says in verse 7, "In God is my salvation, my glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times." Blue skies, gray skies, He's mine. Good times, bad times, all times. Are you going to trust in Him? "You people, pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us." Let's hide in Him at all times. Let's run to Him for all things. Let's trust the Lord.

Going back to 2 Samuel 15 and verse 22 now. "And David said to Ittai, 'Go and pass over.' And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all of his men, and all the little ones that were with him. And all the country wept with a loud voice. All the people passed over, and the king also himself passed over the Brook of Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness." So, all of these defectors now are leaving Jerusalem.

I love it because here's a bunch of people that were joining David. David's only got a small group of people leaving Jerusalem. They chose to go with the few instead of with the crowd. The crowd was going with Absalom. Who are you going to go with? Are you going to go with the few? Are you going to go against the flow? The flow is to go according to this world, to be conformed into it.

The Lord is saying, "I want you to be transformed." There are few that will go and allow the Lord to transform them in their minds through the Word of God. It's a decision. Are you going to be with the many or with the few? Then all of these began to weep as they left Jerusalem. They left the East Gate, down the Kidron Valley, where once there was a very dark and polluted stream that flowed from the temple. Actually, at some days, there'd be 100,000 lambs slaughtered in one day. This stream would turn bright red as it flowed down the Kidron Valley.

There is a scripture in John 18 verse 1 that talks about Jesus. Jesus and David are so much alike. They did things so much alike. In fact, as David was leaving Jerusalem, Jesus would one day leave Jerusalem in the same way. He was betrayed. The masses would turn away from Him. The masses were now turning away from David. Jesus would go out the East Gate, down the Kidron Valley, and it's interesting that during the time that Jesus left Jerusalem, as he was crossing the little stream there, the Kidron, it was flowing bright red because it was Passover time. Here is the Lamb of God passing over this red river flowing down the Kidron Valley. Incredible timing. That's God.

Verse 24: "And lo, Zadok also and all the Levites were with him, bearing the Ark of the Covenant of God. And they sat down the Ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished passing out of the city. And the king said to Zadok, 'Carry back the Ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again and show me both it and His habitation. But if He thus says, "I have no delight in you," behold, here am I. Let Him do to me as seems good to Him.'"

David said a remarkable thing as they were bringing the Ark to go with them as they were leaving the city. David turns around and says, "Take the Ark back. We're not taking the Ark out." The Ark was a symbol of power and protection for the people because this is where God's presence was. David's saying, "Take the box back. Leave it there."

It was a religious artifact. That box had no power in and of itself. The power was always the Lord. What David was saying was, "The Lord's with me no matter what. We don't need the Ark. Put the Ark back. Leave it there. God knows where we're going. God knows what we're going through. We don't need a shrine to go before us. We need a relationship." Religion will never fulfill your life. I don't care how hard you try. I don't care what you look to in this world. Only a relationship through Jesus Christ with God the Father will be fulfilling. There's only one way.

Now, do you remember in the wilderness where God spoke to Moses and said, "Listen, the people are going to be bitten by these snakes because of their disobedience to Me. But Moses, here's a way to get them to live because these are vipers, very poisonous. Take a pole, put a brazen serpent around it, and that will be a sign of judgment." Brass is always a metal of judgment. The serpent, the serpent will be judged.

He pulled it up on a pole. He did, and the people looked and they were healed, weren't they? Later on, it's interesting through the Old Testament that under King Hezekiah, the people began to look at this pole and this brazen serpent as something to be worshiped. They began to look at it and began actually to bow down and worship this thing. Finally, Hezekiah says, "What are you guys doing? This is just a pole. It's a brazen. It's Nehushtan," he cried out. That means it's just a thing of brass. He took it and he broke it into a million pieces before the people. They went, "What? You just broke our god. Sacrilege." He was trying to show them to get their eyes on the Lord. Get them off of this shrine you've made this thing.

Remember later on, Jesus Himself would say of this whole situation that Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness was a symbol of judgment, of sacrifice, as the Son of Man will be lifted up on a cross to draw all men unto Himself. So, it was looking towards Christ who would become the judgment for our sins on that cross and He would die for us there.

David sought to trust God during this time. "If it's God's will," he said, "I'll be back. If not, I am His, and I just want His will done in my life. I'm going to let go and I'm going to let God have this situation." I know we need this heart today. David said, "My kingship, my life, my son, the city of Jerusalem, I give it to You, Lord. You take care of it. After all, You are Creator."

Think of that. Sometimes we don't know if we can trust the Lord with something. Think about what He did. He did create everything. With His hands, He threw out the heavens and breathed. Here we are going, "Can I trust You with this, God? Are You able?" What do you mean, "Is He able?" He's God. Oh, yeah. Here. God help us to trust Him with these things that come up in our lives as David is now entrusting the Lord, saying, "God, I want Your perfect will. I'm not going to tell You what to do. I'm not going to try to make my will Your will by saying 'name it and claim it.'"

"In the name of Jesus, all right, I got it." It doesn't work that way. It's His will be done, not ours. We should want that and desire that and submit to that. I know it's tough. We've got to let go. As we let go, we're going to find that peace will rule in our hearts and in our minds through Christ as we cast our cares upon Him. That's what David's doing here.

Verse 27: "The king said also to Zadok the priest, 'Are you not a seer?'" He was a man of God, a prophet. That's what they called the prophets, seers. "Return to the city in peace, and your two sons with you. Take them with you, and I will stay in the wilderness. There I want you to come and let me know what's going on. Come with word from you to certify me." In other words, he's saying, "You guys just go in there and I'll dub you spies. You go in there, spy it out, and when you hear something, come and let me know what's going on."

As I was thinking about this, I thought of a group of people that were just being discontent about some things that were going on here and there. They weren't talking to the right people and they started to get up a little petition. They were having a little study at their home and they were getting very angry. This individual came to me just telling me, "There's this whole group and they're really angry and they're really upset and they're getting a petition together." My heart went out to them and I just said to the guy, both him and his wife, "I want to dub you peacemakers."

Here he is dubbing spies. I'm just saying, I'm going to make you peacemakers. In the name of the Lord, be a peacemaker. Go back to that group and just make the peace. Just tell them this is not the right way to go about it. Let's have prayer with this thing. Let's seek the Lord and talk to the right people. Don't get all shook up. Don't get all carried away in this thing because that's how people do. They feed each other and they get all upset.

So, I dub you all peacemakers. Go out, make peace with people. When they start talking, say, "Don't say that. Let's just pray about it. Give it to the Lord and you ought to talk to such and such." Send them to the right people to get it ironed out instead of going around saying, "Wow, Mary, do you want to hear what Bill just said? Come here."

By the time it gets around, you know how it is. You hear about somebody's sick and then it gets around to you and they're dead. "Boy, I heard you died." "I didn't die." That's what gossip is like. It's bent. It's distorted. It's terrible. We need to stop it because it causes that seed of discontent and rebellion within the body. We should all be peacemakers and seek to douse these things because these are spots in our love feast and they can be removed. If it gets really carried away, then God removes them. But we can all help it.

Look at verse 30. Then in verse 29 he says, "Zadok therefore and all of them went to Jerusalem and they waited there. And David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives and wept as they went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot. And all the people that were with him covered their heads and they went up weeping as they went up." Here is David on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem, leaving it, weeping. Who else did that? Jesus did the very same thing. Here are two rejected kings on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem, weeping because of the rejection. That's God's heart, folks. He weeps for us. He cries for you. He loves us.

Verse 31: "And one told David saying, 'Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.'" These guys always bring this great news. "Hey, guess who else is against you?" I'll never forget, I had a group of people that I had no idea were leaving that were going to start another fellowship and that was never brought to me. It was some of the leadership and I went to one brother and he told me. I said, "Really? You're leaving?" "Yeah, we're leaving. That's it. We're gone. We're out of here." I said, "Oh, okay."

I needed somebody to do the announcements, so I went to this other brother. I said, "Some of these guys are leaving and can you do the announcements?" He said, "I'm leaving too." Who else is leaving? Are they all going to depart? It was just a shock. I can understand how David felt. One of his real friends, supposedly, is now on Absalom's side and the guy tells him about it.

David said, "O Lord, I pray Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness." So he gets the news of this whole thing and he prays, "Lord, deal with him." Remember, Ahithophel was just angry because of David's harming his granddaughter and killing her husband. He figured it was a time to get back at him. You see the root of bitterness, what it will do? "It's now my time to get back at you." Then you kind of rub it in. But vengeance is not sweet. You go away with what? You're just all hurt and you're alone now and you're away from the whole thing. What good is that?

Many of the Psalms were written during this time David was going through this. Psalm 41 verse 9 is very interesting as he actually names—he doesn't name him by name, but you know who he's talking about here. This is Psalm 41 verse 9. He says, "Yes, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me." He's talking about Ahithophel. My guy I poured my heart out to, my friend, has turned against me. Anybody had that happen? There's a number of us. We know what that's like. It hurts. But you've got to go on. You've got to keep your account short with God and just give it to the Lord and not hold anything and just keep it clean. Let them go and pray for them. Seek to get reconciled, but if they don't want to, just pray. God will bring it all around.

We read already Psalm 55. That was written during this time. Incredible Psalm dealing with the situation. Look at Psalm 3 now because many believe that Psalm 3 and Psalm 4 were also written during this time of David's wrenching, everybody turning against him. Look at Psalm 3 verse 3: "But Thou, O Lord, are a shield for me. You're my glory, the lifter of my head. I cried unto the Lord with my voice and He heard me out of His holy hill." David, at a time of desperation where his heart could have become very angry and bitter against those that were turning against him, where did he go? He went to God. Where do we need to go? We need to go to the Lord.

I don't care if it's a daughter or a son that's turning against you or whatever, we need to take it before our God because God will give us how we're to react and act in the situation. We're to be godly and we're not to lash out and have vengeance. But going to the Lord, it delivers you. Look at Psalm 4 verse 7. He says, "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety." He went to the Lord. I don't know what everybody else was doing as far as Ahithophel and Absalom, but I know David was doing some heavy sleeping. He'd lay his head down and just go. It is so sweet.

Instead of staying up at night going, "They're turning against me. I'm going to get back. I don't know how. One of these days I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to get them. I don't know what's happening." You sit there and you're awake all night long. You give it to the Lord, you're going to lay your head out on a pillow and you're out. There is nothing like the peace of God. There's nothing like sleep in the Lord. There's nothing like casting your cares upon God. Then with praise and thanksgiving, knowing that His peace will rule in your hearts and in your minds through Christ Jesus.

Verse 32, and we'll finish the chapter. "And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God..." Here he was crying and weeping. He was being torn because a son was turning against him, a best friend was turning against him, and he could have had a giant pity party right here. But he didn't allow his tragedy and his trial to take him away from worshipping his God.

You can sit at home and you can say, "I'm not going to church. I'm upset." Well, that's when you need to be here. The next time you say, "I'm not going," I hope the Holy Spirit busts you. He'll say, "You better get over there because this is where you need to be." See what the enemy's trying to do is use this thing that's come against you or whatever has happened, whoever has hurt you, to keep you away from your God and in worshipping your God because I'll tell you something about worship. Worship is powerful.

There is a scripture that says He will give us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He will lift us out of our trial and tribulation. With Paul and Silas bleeding in prison, they sat there and they said, "Let's sing a song," and they began to praise the Lord. As they praised the Lord, deliverance came. As we worship God, there's something powerful about our coming together and worshipping the Lord, hearing His Word. It delivers us from all the junk and the muck and the mire that we can get into in this world. Even our own flesh can get us into it. It'll protect us from ourselves. God will deliver us as we worship Him.

Continuing on, he says, "Behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent, earth upon his head, unto whom David said when he looked at him, 'If you pass on with me, then you shall be a burden unto me,'" because evidently the guy was old and he didn't want him to go with David. David says, "If you will return to the city, say to Absalom that 'I will be your servant, O King, as I have been my father's servant hitherto, so I will now also be your servant.' Then may you for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel. And have you not there with you Zadok and Abiathar, which is the priests there? Therefore it shall be that whatsoever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priest." Because they would go tell David. "Behold, they have there with them two sons, and by them you shall send unto me everything that you can hear." And Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, and Absalom came also into the city of Jerusalem. David set up his CIA, double agents. He had them there. They were double agents to let him know everything that was going on.

Guest (Male): Sound Doctrine will continue in a few moments when we rejoin Pastor Jeff Johnson with a glance back to 1 Samuel chapter 15. 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. Now to wrap up today's study, here once again is Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: I want to end with this scripture, 1 Samuel chapter 15. 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 23. This is when Saul was being very rebellious and Samuel was talking to him, talking about this whole thing of rebellion. Look at this. In 1 Samuel 15 verse 22 he talks in the end of the verse there, "To obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams." He says then, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king."

May God help us to see that rebellion in what God says here is worse than witchcraft. Think about that. What the enemy is trying to do—witchcraft is usually seeking to deceive, to cause a sense of being snowed by the enemy. You're blinded towards the truth and you start to do your little rebellious thing. It's worse than witchcraft. God help us to surrender to Him: our anger, our bitterness, pride, sin, that we would just say, "Lord, here's my life. I don't want to be caught up in any of this stuff. I don't want to be rebellious. I just want to just love You and surrender my life to You and have fellowship with You that I might be a blessing to those around me, that You might use me as a vessel of grace and of Your love to those who I come in contact with." Get ahold of my heart, Lord, because whatsoever is in a man's heart comes out of his mouth. Lord, apprehend me so I can bless You.

Guest (Male): Next time on Sound Doctrine, we'll begin a study of 2 Samuel chapter 16, and King David is going to have a bad day, to put it mildly. Not only is his very own son seeking to get rid of him, he's being pelted with rocks by a bunch of other guys as he flees for safety. We'll tell you all about it next time on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey.