Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Christians need fellowship. It's vitally important. Being together, fellowshipping with one another, is fearing the Lord, and that's why we've come together, because we reverence God. We know we need fellowship, so we come together in a church or in a building somewhere, and we get together and we talk about the things of God. And this is how you become a mighty man of God, by hanging around with other mighty men of God and women of God, by just being together as Christians, so necessary.

Guest (Male): Calvary Chapel Downey welcomes you now to Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson. We're going to be in 2 Samuel chapter 23 today, as we look at the last words of King David. As he nears the end of his life, this great man leaves his people with some wonderful words of challenge.

Of course, these words also have some great lessons for us as well. We see another example here of King David's faith and love for God, even in tough times. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 23 as we join Pastor Jeff for today's edition of Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: 2 Samuel chapter 23, and we're going to talk about being a mighty man of God. And when I say man, women, I'm including you. Mighty man, woman, so if I get rolling here and I go, "mighty man of God," don't leave yourself out. I'm including you.

Remember how last time we were together, we talked about that verse and I mentioned 2 Samuel 22, where it says in verse 30, "For by thee have I run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped over a wall." As I was sharing that, I thought, "Oh, to be a mighty man of God." Well, this morning, the Lord's going to include us and allow us to come into what he wants us to be, and that is part of David's mighty men and women of God. He's going to show us how to be a mighty man of God.

We are actually coming into David's last words. Peter and Paul, plus even Jesus, gave their last important words right before they died, that last cherished testament. If you were to find a letter by your mother or your father and you were to open it, after they had already gone home to be with the Lord, it would be very special, cherished words because these were that last testament, that last good news they're sharing with you.

As I thought about it, going over these things, usually they're about eternal things. Peter shared about the abundant life in the knowledge of God, not only in this life, but in the next to come. Paul talked about how we're to flee this lust of the flesh and fight the good fight while we're here, and that we're to follow after the things of God. Those are the last things Paul wrote down.

Then of course, Jesus shared, "And behold, I send you a promise of my Father upon you, but you wait in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high." His last words were just wait in Jerusalem, get my power, and then go for it. These are important words that are left with us.

David is now revealing how to be a mighty man or woman of God, and I'd like to just read to you out of Ephesians 6:13, "Therefore, put on the complete armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground in the evil day and having fought to the end to remain victor in the field." Now, I know it doesn't go according to the King James. This is Weymouth's translation. I just like that last part of remaining till the end so you might remain standing as the victor in the end.

We get a picture of this soldier putting on this complete armor of God. Who is this mighty man or woman of God? A lot of people would suggest that maybe it's those that go out in the fields, they go out into the mission field. They are the ones that are the mighty men of God, those who are out there struggling and always needing more support, hurting for laborers, those that are out there needing supplies.

Others would say, "No, no, they're not the mighty men and women of God. It's those that are behind supporting them, those brothers and sisters that are digging in and seeking to meet those needs of those that are out there in the mission field." I have to say, I think it's both. Not only those on the mission field on the front lines, but those behind the lines.

Jesus said the world is the field. We are all in the mission field, whether you're at home or you're abroad or wherever, you're a part of reaching out. There's a deeper need that we have than just supplies and support, which I want to get into this morning. To those who have chosen sides, and those of you that in this warfare we're in have finally made a decision for Christ, I want you to know you've chosen a side. You were at one time at enmity with God, at war with God, but then you received Christ and you have just chosen sides.

Paul calls us soldiers. For each of us, we are a fort of resistance in the name of heaven against the forces of evil. In fact, over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, it says one of these days this force of resistance will be taken up. He that now letteth will be taken, and that's talking about the church. The church is going to be taken, then the wicked one will be revealed and all hell is going to break loose on planet Earth.

Until then, though, we're to fight the good fight, Paul says. We're to stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord. And we're not alone in this. I know sometimes you feel alone. Elijah came crying to God. He was kind of pouting and he was sad. He said, "I alone, Lord, serve you and have not bowed my knee to anyone else." And the Lord said, "Elijah, I got news for you. There's 7,000 more just like you," trying to let him know he wasn't alone.

There are a lot that aren't bowing their knee to this god of this society. There are a lot who are serving the Lord today. There are a lot who are seeking God, even this morning as we meet here. All over the world, there are mighty men and women of God gathering together. Now, in the military, your squad is only as strong as your weakest link. Everyone knows that.

What do they seek to do? They seek to build up that weakest link. It's the same way with the church. We are the body of Christ. When one suffers, we all suffer. So we rally together to strengthen one another. To each one of our lives, our testimony, our outreach, the work that God is doing in us, our personal victories, each one of those things are very important as we are lights in this dark place.

Every single one of you this morning is very important in the battle that is raging. Every one of your testimonies, your personal lives, your personal victories are very important. Whether you're at home or in a foreign land, the key to being victorious and being the one left standing is here taught to us through David's mighty men.

How can I, in this society, in this ungodly world, in this non-Christian atmosphere, remain standing, valiant in the fight? We need to look at David's mighty men because here we get a clue how we can steady on. Look at verse 1 as we start out in 2 Samuel chapter 23. "Now these be the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse." I think it was thrown in there just to show that David's just a regular guy, born of a regular dad, his name was Jesse. Jesse was just a simple farmer.

"And the man who was raised up on high and anointed." That's what God has done with all of us. He has called us out of the world and he anoints us, he enables us, to do what he asks us to do, just like with David. "Of the God of Jacob," he was anointed of the God of Jacob, "and the sweet psalmist of Israel." I like that, the sweet psalmist.

He had over 73 hits. That's how many of the 150 Psalms that he wrote. Over 73 of them were written by him. So it's a legacy left to the child of God. We have got the Psalms with us by this incredible warrior, this incredible king, who was valiant, who was a musician, a worship leader, a writer.

He has brought more comfort, hope, strength, and encouragement through the Psalms, and especially in the songs even like we sung this morning, Psalm 91. What a beautiful psalm put to music that we could worship the Lord with the Psalms. You know how meaningful they are as we do that together and how they strengthen us to get our eyes upon the Lord.

If you need a quick fix, an uplift, or if you just need some feeding quickly, you just jump into the Psalms. You open the Psalms and all of a sudden they're there to help us to get our eyes fixed upon the Lord. David is so good at getting us right looking to whom we need to be looking to, to get the right perspective to trust and to rest in our God because we panic sometimes.

Verse 2, "The Spirit of the Lord," he said, "spoke by me, and his word was in my tongue." David wrote as a prophet. He was spoken to by God and he was moved on by the Holy Spirit. In fact, Peter and Jesus both say that David spoke by the Holy Spirit. There's another beautiful scripture in 2 Peter where it says, "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation. For prophecy came not in the old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

David was moved on by God to write these things down. No wonder they're such an encouragement and such an awesome uplift and strengthening to us, because God wrote them to speak to us through his love letter, to minister to us through his servant David.

Verse 3, "And the God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me. He that ruleth over man must be just, ruling in the fear of God." David says that God spoke to me. He is the Rock. In the Old Testament talking about Christ being that Rock, going on into the New Testament, we see in 1 Corinthians 10:4, he says Jesus is that Rock. The Rock of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ. David is saying the Lord ministered to me.

According to Daniel chapter 2, it talks about that Rock which is hewed out of that mountain is going to come and is going to rule and reign over all the earth, over all the nations in the fear of God. Now, this is definitely not a picture of our government today because our government today makes decisions in the fear of voters. It has nothing to do with God. Our government today is not seeking to please God.

We are no longer a Christian nation. You might say, "Yes, we are," but if you start looking at all that is going on and what is happening today, you're going to bow your head in shame because of the way that we're going. In fact, missionaries are coming to the United States of America to preach the gospel. Is that something or what?

Here, one nation under God is no longer one nation under God. Now people are coming overseas to preach the gospel to this nation as so many are hurting and needing the good news of Jesus Christ. And it's not getting out real quick like we think. You go around and ask the people at your work what they believe in. You find out where their hearts are at and where their minds are at, and you will be shocked how far man has gotten away from his God. This nation has backslidden. It's scary, but there's hope.

Verse 4 says, "And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after the rain." You've heard of trickle-down economics, right? Well, this is talking about the same for morals and for righteousness. It's trickle-down morality. Well, in our nation's case and with our government's case, it's trickle-down immorality.

How those leaders in Washington D.C. are, who everyone's supposed to look to for an example and for leading, so is the nation. If you want to find out why our nation's in such a world of hurt, look to the capital, look to the leaders of this nation and where their heads and their lives are at, and then you'll finally start to understand trickle-down immorality. It's just trickled down through the leaders into the nation.

Christ is going to come, he's going to rule. And then it's going to be trickle-down morality. It's going to be trickle-down beauty, freshness. It's going to be like the rain after it falls in a morning when the sun's coming up and you can just see the clearing and the freshness. That's trickle-down blessing and the Lord brings it upon his people.

Verse 5, "Although my house be not so with God," David said, "yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he maketh it not to grow." David acknowledges here his sin and it wasn't pretty. He's saying my kingdom is not this way, my life is not this way. David knew that he did not deserve mercy. David was in the flesh a lot of the time. He was struggling and he was blowing it. He didn't have the fear of God a lot of the time as he was doing his crazy ventures.

Even though David failed, it says that God's everlasting covenant was there. That covenant is mentioned in 2 Samuel chapter 7. It simply says this in verse 12, "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee," God's promise to David, "which shall proceed out of thy bowels, out of thy body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men, but my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house, David, and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever."

God's telling David that he has made an everlasting covenant and that David is a part of it. David wanted to build God a house. God said, "Forget it. I'm going to build you a house." David is going, "Me, after all I've done?" Yeah, I'm going to bless you and through you is going to come the seed of the Messiah. It's my promise. When I promise something, I'm going to fulfill it.

So God so loved this world that he gave his son, that if you would believe in him, you should not perish but have everlasting life. That's God's covenant to you. That's God's covenant for us. His amazing grace. You don't deserve it, but he says, "I've made the covenant, and if you will come into the covenant, you're going to be blessed. You are going to be receiving God's mercy and his grace for your life."

Now, in contrast to what God has done, notice what David says in verse 6, "But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands. But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place." Those evil and worthless fellows, the sons of Belial, are going to be dealt with as thorns and utterly burned up with fire.

We look at David's mighty men from here on out. These are a group of warriors who were his personal bodyguards, who identified with David at any cost. They wanted to be identified with him. They wanted to be one of his mighty warriors. They ran to David to be that. Now we get the key to becoming a man or woman of God, how to be victorious until Jesus comes.

The first one, of course, is in verse 8, these names of the mighty men whom David had. The key to being one of David's mighty men is just to come to the Lord. Once you come to the Lord, you begin to have fellowship with your brothers and sisters. You become a part of a family. David had a family. He had a close-knit family. He had a lot of warriors that loved him and that he loved, that they hung around a lot together.

The first step of being a mighty man of God is in Malachi 3:16. Here is the definition of fellowship, "Then they that feared the Lord," very important, they reverence God because of that, "they spoke often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for all of them that feared the Lord, that reverenced the Lord, and that thought upon his name."

So fellowship is being together, fellowshipping with one another. Fearing the Lord is why we've come together, because we reverence God. We know we need fellowship, so we come together in a church or in a building somewhere and we get together and we talk about the things of God. This is how you become a mighty man of God, by hanging around with other mighty men and women of God, by just being together as Christians, so necessary.

Now it goes on there in chapter 23, verse 8, "These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: the Tachmonite that sat in the seat, chief among the captains, whose name was Adino." Adino was the first mighty man. Notice what he did. "He lifted up his spear against 800 whom he slew at one time." He lifted up his hand against 800 men.

Each one of these guys won victories and if you look at all of them together, they all had one common factor. They were overwhelmed by a great amount of enemies. When the enemy came in front of them, they were always outnumbered. It was a time where everyone was exhausted after battle after battle, and there were very few of them left to fight. There was a lot of exhaustion and confusion in the ranks. There were people running and retreating.

These all won through the power of the Lord. Look at verse 10, it says, "And the Lord wrought a great victory that day." Then over in verse 12, "And the Lord wrought a great victory." That's what they had in common. God was fighting their fight for them. God through them did a mighty victory.

Guest (Male): And that mighty victory is available to anyone today as well. This is Sound Doctrine and today Pastor Jeff Johnson shared the first half of his study in 2 Samuel chapter 23. We'll continue it next time. 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.

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Jeff Johnson: So Father, won't you speak to me?