Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): If you have a desire to be used by God, Pastor Jeff Johnson reminds you that Satan is not going to like it.

Jeff Johnson: When you seek to start to be used of God, I don't care what it is. Maybe it's just going to teach a Sunday school class, and you take that step and you say, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to share what I know. I'm going to give to those kids what God has blessed me in my life. I'm going to affect those little kids' hearts for Jesus." And you really care about them, and you really want to see them have victory in their lives, so you have a burden and you go ahead and do it. That's a step. I'll tell you something, when you start to take a step like that, you can count on your enemy to show up and try to hinder what you're doing for God.

Guest (Male): Have you ever heard the saying, "the end justifies the means?" But can it ever be right to use a bad means to achieve a good end? Today on Sound Doctrine, we find that David has officially become king of Israel, and he leads his fighting men into a bloody battle. There's an underlying lesson in this Old Testament story, which we'll discover in the minutes that lie ahead of us. Going into battle without God is a bad idea. So let's join Pastor Jeff Johnson now in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and see how to do the right thing the right way.

Jeff Johnson: Jerusalem is now in Israel's possession, called the City of David. David knows that the weak point is the northern section of Mount Scopus. He begins to strengthen that area. And David, it said, begins to prosper. Why did he prosper? It says very simply because the Lord of Hosts was with him. Is God with you? Or let me put it another way, are you with him? Have you given your heart to him? Is he king of your life? If the Lord of Hosts is with you, anything is possible, and he's going to bless your life. He's going to prosper you in every area of life.

In fact, there's a scripture in Luke 1:32, talking about Jesus: "He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." The importance of making Jesus Lord and king of your life. He'll take it over, and he'll have his way, and you will prosper. Remember this, he is either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. You've got to relinquish every part of your being—your job, your business, your money, everything. Just say, "Here I am, such as I am. I give you everything, Lord."

Look at verse 11: "And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, carpenters, masons, and they did build David a house. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake." This is interesting to me. From Lebanon is Tyre. This Gentile king called Hiram comes down to help David build Jerusalem. It's just like the Gentiles who were promised in the Old Testament would come into the lineage of God's blessing, who were once just for the Jew, would now be poured out on the Gentiles. The Gentiles would come in to help build the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven. So we come as Gentiles, seeking to be used of the Lord to help in the kingdom building.

Notice this also: along with David's weaknesses, he had his moments of wisdom. We see here that David perceived that God was doing all these things. Good perception, David. God was doing all those things. Why? Because he loved Israel. Because he loved Israel, he blessed Israel. To perceive that, to know that God loves you and he wants to bless you—to know that, to be in that place of just saying, "Lord, I don't want to get my hands caught in the cookie jar. Lord, I don't want to do it. I want you to do it because you love me, you want to bless me." Let me be in that place of being under the spout where the glory comes out. Just being where I need to be as a Christian so I can just be blessed in you, that I won't get off, that I'll keep you as king and Lord of my life.

Verse 13: "And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem after he was come from Hebron, and there were yet sons and daughters born to David." Going on in verse 15 and 16 are all the names of the wives that David is collecting. This is David's weak side. We've already talked about it. His blind side, where he was doing exactly what God said not to do. He was violating Deuteronomy chapter 17. When you put a king up as king over you, this king shall not collect wives. David was doing the opposite; he was collecting them. Whatever his excuse was—"Well, all the kings of the land do it. They all have harems, so why not? It's because we're trying to make peace with that other nation. I had to marry the daughter of the king so we could have peace." But wait a minute. The word says, the Bible says, God says: don't do it.

Because David is doing this, it's going to catch up with him. Be sure of this, your sin will find you out. You can't get away with anything. The Bible says you're not to fornicate, not to have sex outside of marriage. You think by having sex outside of marriage you're getting away with something? What goes around comes around. Whatever you sow, you're going to reap. If you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap corruption. I don't know what we think. God says don't do it. What does that mean? "Well, I want to see how far I can go. I want to see if I can do it, and I'm going to be different. It's not going to affect me because we really love each other." This doesn't have anything to do with it. You're just not to do it.

If you do do it, corruption follows. What's going to happen to David is this sin is going to go on to his son. You don't think your sin just affects you. It doesn't. It affects your family, it affects your sons and daughters. It affected Solomon, and Solomon collected wives. Because of that, he ended up with the kingdom splitting in half. Not only the kingdom splitting in half again, having civil war, but they ended up being brought into captivity by the Babylonians. That's what sin does; it brings us as captives. It ruins us. So God warns us. Forewarned is forearmed, isn't it? I warn you to let you know that you're not to do this. If you do it, you're going to pay for it.

David did it, and he paid for it. But David also had a heart of repentance, didn't he? David said, "God, I am really sorry for what I've done. I have done it, and I'm sorry." Guess what God did? He forgave David. He washed him of all his sin, and he blessed David as he will bless you as you repent of your sin. But we must come to him honestly as David. The first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel speak of David's victories. First with the Jebusites, which we've already seen, and now we're coming to the Philistines. How he's going to deal with them. Jerusalem is going to be not only the political capital of the nation, it is going to be the religious capital of the nation. Next week, hold on to that because we're going to be talking about how Jerusalem becomes the religious capital center of all of Jerusalem and why it happened.

Look at verse 17: "But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David." David heard of it and went down into the hole. And the Philistines also came and spread themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. The enemy hears of the anointing of David, that David is being used mightily of the Lord. I'll tell you something, when you seek to make a new commitment to God, when you seek to start to be used of God—I don't care what it is; maybe it's just going to teach a Sunday school class. One morning service, you're going to be teaching the kids, and the next one you're going to be in here. You take that step and you say, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to share what I know. I'm going to give to those kids what God has blessed me in my life. I'm going to affect those little kids' hearts for Jesus."

And you really care about them and you really want to see them have victory in their lives, so you have a burden and you go ahead and do it. That's a step. I'll tell you something, when you start to take a step like that, you can count on your enemy to show up and try to hinder what you're doing for God. That's exactly what's happened here. David is anointed king, and here's the enemy right around the corner coming at him, spreading themselves out against him. Warfare, counter-attacks. When you seek to get serious to deal with a certain area in your life, something you want to give to God to have a victory over, count on the enemy trying to do a counter-attack against that.

If you seek to let him be king of your life, there's going to be warfare. Why? Because you are a threat to the enemy now. Why are you a threat to the enemy? Because he's going to set you free. He's going to give you victory so you can share with somebody else and encourage them. The devil doesn't want that. Our enemy doesn't want us going around with victory. He wants you to live in defeat. He wants you to live in your sin and look at your sin and bring you under condemnation. But God's saying, "No, man, realize what he's going to try to do." Again, forewarned is forearmed. If you understand this, that when you begin to serve the Lord, when the enemy comes in like a flood, you'll laugh. You'll go, "Hahaha, I was told about you. Back off in the name of the Lord."

It makes sense, doesn't it? If he comes in, you're going to laugh. You're going to say, "Hey, man, this is exactly what happened to David. This is happening right in the Bible. Things start happening, and the enemy comes in, and I'm seeing it for what it is. You're not going to pull me down because I see what you're trying to do. My Lord's warned me of you and of your ways." Verse 19: "David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines, Lord? Wilt thou deliver them into my hand?" And the Lord said to David, "Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thy hand." One of David's keys here, his other keys of his victories, was definitely he learned the lesson that men ought always to pray and not faint.

David says the enemy's coming in; they're spreading themselves out against me. What's the first thing that I'm going to do? Panic? No. I'm going to seek the Lord. "Lord, behold what the enemy is doing. Shall I go up against them in the name of the Lord?" And the Lord says, "You do it, David. You got them. Go for it." So David, acknowledging the Lord, what did God do? He directed his path. The warfare is in the mind, isn't it? The warfare is in the mind, but prayer is our victory over the mind warfare. The enemy tries to be a snare to us and bring in fear so it will freeze us to just take a step. "Oh, I'm afraid something might—oh, I don't know. I'm not sure." As we pray, God encourages us. He says, "Do it. Do it."

As we step out in faith and in obedience, God begins to do the work and give the victory, and peace enters into our minds. To be led of the spirit, to have ears to hear, to obey what the spirit is saying—that's the thing. God speaks, or actually David inquired. Some of us, we love to pray. "Oh, God, I need this. I need this. I need this. I need this. I need this. Santa Claus, Santa Claus." He's not, right? And we can really pray. But what about listening? Oh, Lord, give us ears to hear. What would you have me to do now? I've prayed. Now, what direction do you want me to take? David heard the voice of the Lord saying, "You go. I will deliver them into your hands." Don't ever forget that. The battle is the Lord's. He will deliver the enemy. He will go before us. He will give us the victory.

Verse 20: "And David came to Baal Perazim, and David smote them there and said, The Lord has broken forth upon mine enemies before me as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim, which means the Lord of the breaking through." It's like a dam that burst. He's just saying, "I can't believe what God has done," as David acknowledges his stance. "I'm standing in the power of his might, and I'm watching the Lord work. To God be the glory." God's spirit is an all-consuming fire, and David watched the Lord snuff the Philistines out. He gave him all the praise and all the glory.

Verse 21: "And there they left their images." These guys got so freaked out by the battle going on, and David and his men burned them. These guys got so afraid they left all their little gods behind. It's a tragedy when you've got little gods that you have to leave behind, especially when your little gods can be burned. "They're burning my god!" What kind of god do you got, man? Well, they just gathered them all up, they burned them there. What is coming to us in these next few verses is even though you experience some victory over your enemy in some areas, it doesn't mean that you're protected down the road. The Bible says that we are to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. But first, we're to humble ourselves before our God, then resist the devil and he'll flee from us.

But he also will return. That's a precious promise. Hold that. "I don't want that promise." Well, stand on it. "Well, I don't know if I want to stand on that one. He will return." You know, "I've got victory." Well, is he going to return? You bet he's going to return. Round two, ding! And he comes back, doesn't he? Round three, ding! And it just goes on, doesn't it? It doesn't quit. He keeps coming back. Look at verse 22 now: "And the Philistines came up yet again." He already beats them bad, and they keep coming up in his face again. And they spread themselves in the Valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, "Thou shalt not go up."

David again prayed, and God said no. "But fetch a compass, go behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees." You see, yesterday's victory gives no strength for today. You might have fought a battle yesterday or the last year, or maybe it was 20 years ago, and you remember, "Oh, the glory of the Lord 20 years ago! Oh, I remember those days. Those were glory days. Those were days of victory." You hear some of these old Christians talk this way. "Oh, those were the days." Well, what about now? "Oh, these aren't the days." It's like God had tremendous victory back then, but what about today?

Why? Because then is not today. We need him every day. We need to seek the Lord. We need to pray that we wouldn't be caught up into temptation. Listen, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We need to pray daily. We need to intercede to the Lord. We need to inquire of the Lord about everything, all of the time. "Lord, what would you have me to do?" Just because you've had a victory doesn't mean that he's going to continue to give you the same victory. "Well, God established a pattern already. I mean, that's how he did it then. He's going to do it—" No, no, no. Patterns are ruts. Didn't you know that? God never gets in a rut.

We do. God always does things differently. What's amazing here is that God is giving David a different tactic, a different strategy. Do you remember when Joshua went and took Jericho? He didn't pray anymore. He just went straight on to Ai. Oh, if he would have only prayed. Yes, you take Jericho, but wait, we're going to take another city. "Well, maybe you should pray." And if Joshua would have just prayed, God would have said, "Joshua, don't go yet." He'd say, "Why?" "You got sin in the camp. You've got to get rid of the sin in the camp, then you can go." "Oh, thanks, Lord. What is that sin in the camp?" "It's Achan." "Oh, thanks, Lord. What do you want me to do with him?" "Get rid of him." "Oh, thanks, Lord." And then they can go on.

But no, they went on to Ai and got snuffed because they needed to deal with the sin in the camp, the disobedience that was there. So we need to pray, because there might be something in our own hearts that we need the Lord's trying to remind us of to get, you better watch it, you got this thing, deal with it, then you can go on. David inquires, and the Lord says to him, "Don't do it that way. Do it this way." Different answer this time. You see, you can't put God in a box, can you? He won't be put in a box. God does things differently. He won't be limited to a pattern. Remember Jesus when he dealt with blind people? One time he spit and got some mud and stuck it in the guy's eye and he was healed. The other time he touched the guy; he was healed. The other time he just spoke to the blind guy; he was healed.

God is that way. He does things differently, and we need to see that. But God loves to do it his way, in his time. He likes to blow minds. Did you know that? We have a God that has a sense of humor, and he loves to blow people's minds. That's why he raised up Calvary Chapels: to blow the quote-unquote denominational churches that were just sitting there going, "But God has always done it this way." All of a sudden, he's doing it a different way. "Well, we never done it that way!" Well, maybe you got to start doing something different. He raised up Calvary Chapel and said, "It's a sovereign work of God." God will not be put in a box. He wants to move. If he's not going to be able to get into the church, he's knocking on the heart's door. He's just going to start outside of the traditional church, and a movement will take place to wake up everybody else saying, "Oh, maybe we should inquire of the Lord." Yeah. Let's pray. Let's seek God. Let's do it his way instead of our way or the way he's always done it. He wants to do a new thing. New wine doesn't go in old wineskins. Our God is a diverse God.

Notice God says, "I don't want you to go." His ways are past finding out. "Well, what do you want me to do then, God?" God says, "I want you to do this. I want this new strategy." Verse 24: "Go around from the back of them, the mulberry trees." And then it says, verse 24: "Let it be when thou hearest the sound of the going in the tops of the mulberry trees, and then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines." The ancient rabbis used to say of this whole moving and blowing of the mulberry trees, it's the sound of angels' wings. It's a prayer force that's with you. When the mulberry trees start to blow, this is when I'll be going out before you, David. This is a whole different strategy that God is giving to David. So he is a diverse God. His ways are not our ways. They're past our finding out. David was seeing this. Different gifts, different administrations, different operations of the spirit of the Lord. God doesn't simply always work the same way in every church, in every city, in every one of our lives. He always works differently individually, doesn't he?

In a different way. You can't say the experience you have is for the next person, the next person, the next person because it could be a different experience. We're all different emotionally. So God deals with us differently, and we can't just put God in a thing that this is the way he always—no, he doesn't. He's showing us here we're just to flow with the blow of his spirit.

Guest (Male): Our almighty and powerful God, creator of the universe, treats each of us as an individual and loves us individually. How awesome is that? Pastor Jeff Johnson will be back in a moment. Don't go away; there's more to come here on Sound Doctrine. I'd like to remind you that you can hear it again on several different venues. First, you can go online to sounddoctrineradio.org where you can hear today's study, as well as make a donation to this radio outreach. That's at sounddoctrineradio.org. You can also listen at oneplace.com and through the Sound Doctrine Radio app. I should also mention Sound Doctrine can be heard wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Now, to bring today's message to a close, here's Pastor Jeff in 2 Samuel chapter 5, verse 25.

Jeff Johnson: Verse 25: "And David did so." He did exactly what God told him, "and as the Lord had commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gezer." David's obedience brought forth victory as he did it God's way. You see, God is sufficient to deal with our enemy. He will deal with that situation that you're up against. He will come against it, and he will give you victory. He will take the stronghold that's in your life. But you must make him king. You must crown him king of your life. You must allow him to come in, and he'll do the rest. I guarantee you.

Listen to the stirring of the mulberry bush. In John chapter 3, the gospel of John, Jesus talking to Nicodemus said this about the spirit: "Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the spirit." It just happens. It's just the blowing of God's spirit, of his breath. What does he do? He pulls on your heart. He says, "I want you. I'm calling you. I'm choosing you." What an awesome thing to be chosen by the creator of the universe of all things to be his. When you feel that drawing of his spirit, it's a wind. All he's saying is, "Will you be obedient? Will you make me king of your life? Will you come?" And as you come, he's going to do the rest.

Guest (Male): Have a great weekend, and we'll catch you back here next time when our study in 2 Samuel resumes on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. This program is listener-supported and brought to you by Calvary Chapel Downey.