Sound Doctrine

Jeff Johnson: Morality is an important part of our walk with Christ, and it's one of Satan's favorite targets. He always uses this to get to you morally. He'll seek to get to you to corrupt you in your moral life, to get you to leave your God. So, David was very severe with the Moabites, and we need to be very severe with those things that would seek to corrupt us. We need to cut them out of our lives. We need to deal with them and not allow them to corrupt us to the place of immorality.

Guest (Male): We've all seen power and wealth used for evil and to hurt others, but today on Sound Doctrine, we'll see how David used his power and wealth to bless others. Pastor Jeff Johnson is taking us verse by verse through 2 Samuel at the present time. And if you'll recall, David has been on the receiving end of overwhelming kindness from his friend Jonathan, as well as from God.

David didn't forget this. And when he gained power and wealth, he sought to use it to bless and be kind to others. Let's join Pastor Jeff now in 2 Samuel chapter 8 on this edition of Sound Doctrine.

Jeff Johnson: I always like to give you a little review, so we're reminded of where we've come from, what's going on, and what we're about to jump into. Through David so far, we've learned how the man of God is to react when God says no. And that was a good lesson. David is maturing as a man of God and as the king of Israel, so we're watching him mature. We're learning from what he's learning, as he learns that without God, he can do nothing.

So, he desired for the Ark of God's presence to be in their midst, to be the center of their lives. And we also learned this: that you cannot serve God unless you know him, number one, and you cannot serve God unless you know his word. Bible study became a very important part of David's life. He realized that he missed the whole boat by not understanding the scriptures.

All of a sudden, he was reminded Bible study is important. From there on, I see that his life has been changed, but he dives into the word of God. He also learned how God opens and shuts doors, and that when God shuts a door, it's a blessing. It's answered prayer. Maybe you wanted it, but God shut the door, and God didn't want you to have it. Praise the Lord for shut doors. He learned that.

From here, David stands now in God's power and in his might as never before to go forth and to be more than a conqueror. So, with us, as we learn our lessons well, as we follow David, as we learn he needs to be the center of our lives, as we seek his kingdom first, as we get into Bible study—very important—you young men, you are strong because the word of God abides in you, and because of that, you have overcome the wicked one.

With an understanding that his ways are not our ways, when we learn these things, we also are going to go forth to be more than conquerors in our lives as we're going to see David do this morning. Chapter 8 of 2 Samuel. David wrote during this time. As we go through Samuel, at different times he wrote different psalms. In this portion of scripture, he wrote Psalm 2 and Psalm 60.

In Psalm 2, in verse 8, David writes, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." So, God's promise to give victory. Prophetically, it will be partially fulfilled in and through David, but the final fulfillment of this promise that God is going to give them the final possession of this earth is going to come with Jesus Christ.

In Revelations chapter 11, in verse 15, it says, "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.'" So, this is coming: final victory, overwhelming the enemy once and for all. If you'd like to read a little history and a little more concerning this chapter, later on, you can read in 1 Chronicles chapter 18. Chronicles kind of gives us a little bit more, and usually, we jump to it and pull out of it, but this morning we're just going to stay right here in chapter 8.

This personal application that we're going to be receiving this morning from chapter 8 speaks to us really of Romans chapter 6 and chapter 8, when Paul speaks of total victory and he gives instruction in righteousness. You see, the word of God, Paul told Timothy, is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, for reproof, that the man of God would be thoroughly furnished. He'd be perfect. He'd be mature, having the things of God, having everything that he needs through the word of God.

Instruction in righteousness: this is why we're following David's battles, why we're following his blessings and the victories of David, because we are seeking also to be instructed in righteousness. David was every bit of that. Verse 1 now of 2 Samuel chapter 8: "And after this it came to pass that David smote the Philistines, subdued them, and David took Metheg-Ammah out of the hand of the Philistines." Metheg-Ammah is another name for Gath, which was a very strong Philistine city.

Now, when it says that David smote and subdued them, we're going to see this all the way through this chapter—that David is really going for it. He's really beating the enemy back. After David receives God's promises, he goes forth with this confidence and this power to overwhelm his enemy here in chapter 8. The first city was Gath. It was a very strong walled city, but we see here that David's men were so strong and they moved so quickly that they took this giant walled city, this fortress of the Philistines. They just took it immediately.

As I was studying on this, I was reminded of 2 Corinthians, where Paul says in chapter 10, verse 4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

David, doing in the physical, overwhelming his enemies, God says, "I want to help you to also pull down strongholds in your life." As David pulls them down in a physical, he says, "I want to help you in the spiritual realm, in your own mind, in your own life. I want to be with you." Now, if you remember in 2 Samuel chapter 7, in verse 1, it says it came to pass when the king sat in his house that the Lord had given to David rest round about from all of his enemies.

David had rest. Jesus says, "If you will come to me, you that are heavy laden and down with burdens, I will give you rest." So, once you come to the Lord, he gives you an awesome rest and peace. You have peace with God and the peace of God begins to rule in your hearts and in your minds through Christ Jesus. It's an awesome experience. You need to do that this morning if you haven't. You need to receive Christ. You need rest for your soul.

So, David had rest from all of his enemies. But after God speaks to David about things to come—prophecy always is an exciting thing—as God speaks to us of what is coming down, what is going to happen, David somehow leaves that place of communion and that place of rest and that place of blessing. He says, "That's it. I'm going on the offensive. I'm not going to just sit here in Jerusalem and enjoy this peace and this rest for the rest of my life, just kick back. I'm going to go out and I'm going to kick some rear ends."

And that's exactly what he decided to do. Why? Because God has blessed him so much. He's not going to just hold off and stand off the enemy. He is going to now storm the gates of hell. David moves out on the offensive because it's time, because God's been good. We all come to this time. I think we just get to the point where we say, "I can't sit here anymore. I can't just maintain the situation that I'm in. I've got to move out for God."

This reminded me of a story about a guy named Larry Walters. It's a true story, and I just recently heard it. I'd never heard it before. Larry Walters was a factory worker in Los Angeles and he was just a regular guy working in a factory. He'd come home every night and he lived right there next to the airport. He had a little house there. Every house is set up there, and it's just a massive amount of homes, and they're pretty much all the same. They all have the chain link fences around them.

So, he'd go home to his regular old house and he'd do what everybody else does at the end of the day. He'd go out in his backyard, lay on the lawn chair, open a six-pack, and just kick back in the sun and the smog and just take it in. Every day everybody does the same thing, and that's what they would do. So, he's out there downing his Cokes or whatever he's drinking, and all of a sudden an idea came to him. He says, "I'm going to try this."

He thought of getting some balloons and putting them underneath his lawn chair. He wanted to kind of just do something different and hover above his neighbors and just kind of, about a thousand feet. What he did was he put these weather balloons underneath his lawn chair and he took a BB gun with him because he wanted to be able to float right down when he wanted to come down. He was going to start shooting these balloons.

Well, lo and behold, he got on his lawn chair with these weather balloons and he went up, but he went up so fast and so quick. He ended up, instead of a thousand feet, eleven thousand feet. The first one to see him was a DC-10 radioing it in. "We've got a man in a lawn chair eleven thousand feet in the air over the airport." They shut down the airport and they finally got him down. This is a true story.

Can you imagine? The interviewers came to him, and their first question was, "Larry, were you scared?" He said, "Yeah." They said, "Larry, are you going to do this again?" He said, "No." And then there's the greatest question: "Larry, why did you do this?" And he said this: "Well, I couldn't just sit there." And that was his answer. So, David moves out for God.

Verse 2: "And he smote Moab and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground. Even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David's servants and brought gifts." So, he took Moab also. Listen, two-thirds of the adults as he measured them with a line, he laid them down and he killed them. Two-thirds of the adults. One-third, who were the children, would become his slaves.

Now, some say the reason for David's cruelty to those in Moab was because the Moabites killed his parents. We can't prove that because it's not written down, but we know in 1 Samuel 22:4 and 5 it talks about that his parents were with the Moabites as he was in the wilderness, and some say it's because they killed his parents. The Moabites were also responsible for corrupting Israel many times. In fact, they were a very corrupt people.

I'll tell you something about the enemy: if he cannot get to you any way that he's trying to get to us all the ways, different ways, he always uses this to get to you morally. He'll seek to get to you to corrupt you in your moral life, to get you to leave your God. So, David was very severe with the Moabites, and we need to be very severe with those things that would seek to corrupt us. We need to cut them out of our lives. We need to deal with them and not allow them to corrupt us to the place of immorality.

Verse 3: "David smote also Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates." Now, David moves north. I want you to watch how he strategically does these moves. He moves north to Syria, but after going south to the Philistines, he also went east to the Moabites. He didn't have to go west because that's where the Mediterranean is, but I want you to see that strategically he's taking over the land. His empire is growing. His kingdom is growing strong, and he is getting complete victory throughout the land.

Now, this is actually the first, almost the last time, that God's people Israel possessed the whole Promised Land. This is it. You see, David wasn't content with the little that he had. So, David went forth and methodically he took possession of all that God had promised him. The reason I'm stressing that all is because he took from the seaport city of Aqaba all the way over to Egypt, which is a little dry wadi el-Arish, all the way up to the river Euphrates. He took over the whole land. This was, of course, promised to the children of Israel.

But they didn't possess it totally because the kings that were there were just subservient to David, so it wasn't totally in their hands. That is coming; that is a yet future prophecy that will be fulfilled. We know that Genesis 15:18 talks about God promising them the land and in Genesis 13:15 he says that you will get it for your possession. But here it wasn't totally their possession.

So, with content, David moved against the enemy. Remember that song we sing, that we're to hate all evil? And he was hating evil, dealing with evil. With the Philistines, he used Gath, which that name that I said, Metheg-Ammah, it means the bridle of Ammah. So, this was the main city of the Philistines, so he used Gath against themselves, and he set up fortresses there. Just like Christians, as we move into the world's music, we change it, and we make it for the glory of God.

We move into the sports area, and we use it as a witness for the Lord. We do this with schools, with education, and we do it to the glory of God. We're able to do that and that's what David was doing with his enemy. With Moab, he showed no mercy. They were corrupt, so he dealt with them. Notice verse 4 now: "And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, twenty thousand footmen. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for a hundred chariots."

So, he reserved some of them, but he killed most of them. The reason he did this, what he did was actually he'd cut the back legs of the sinew there, and it's called hamstringing a horse. What it would do was the horse could hardly walk, and it wasn't good for war anymore, but it would eventually just die of starvation. Kind of a cruel thing to do, but that's what he did with all his horses. You say, "Why did David do that with those horses? Wasn't a horse like a tank back then?" Yes, they were.

That's why God told the king that when you go into the land, in Deuteronomy 17, do not collect wives or horses, right? So, David is saying, "Okay, I won't collect horses." We laugh, but we're like David, aren't we? In certain things we do well, but others we don't do well. So obedient to God in some areas, but in other areas we're not quite so obedient. We blow it. Some of you, I know that maybe you're devoted to devotions and you love your devotions, but when it comes to giving your tithes, you bomb out and you go, "Well, oh gosh, man, I've got so many bills this month. Well, we just can't tithe, God." And yet you're so devoted to your devotions.

Some of you are so devoted to your tithing, but when it comes to Bible study and prayer, you blow it. You see, it's weird. We're like David. We pick and choose what we want to do. But what's scary about this: when David was picking and choosing, what he chooses not to do is going to catch up with him. We're going to see this. It's going to catch up with him and it's going to hurt him in his life. So, when we choose this and choose not to do this, that thing's going to catch up with you. What goes around comes around. We've got to be obedient to everything that God gives us, or we're going to be hurting in certain areas. We've got to see that. David's a good illustration of this.

God help us to be like David told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:17, that the man of God may be mature, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. God, help us to be mature men and women of God, not picking and choosing but just selling out and saying, "Lord, you are holy. You are the way. You are our all in all. We want to go your way a hundred percent. We're not going to play church and just do what we like to do. We want to do what you want us to do."

Verse 5: "And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men." So, even though the Syrians had reinforcement, David was too strong for them. And I love this: "Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. We are more than conquerors." Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought gifts. And the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went.

So, the Syrians also became his servants. Over in Psalm 60, which we read this morning, in verse 8 of Psalm 60, interesting verse, David says, "Moab is my washpot." In other words, Moab, I wash my feet in them, God was saying. Those who were so corrupt, who defiled so much, I'm going to use them to cleanse. I'm going to turn them around.

And then he goes on to say, "Over Edom will I cast out my shoe." That's usually when you took your shoe off and threw the dirt out at somebody; they were to be your slaves and that was a sign they were to be your slaves. That's what God's saying: Edomites will be my slaves. Now, if you know anything about the Edomites, they're descendants of Esau. In the Bible, Esau is always representative of the flesh. So, what is God saying? "I'll bring them under control."

People, listen: in Christ, our flesh, our bodies can be under subjection. Didn't Paul say that? "I bring my body under subjection, and I fear lest having preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I myself should be disqualified." So, I bring my body subservient to me, which is your enemy. So, God says, "I'm going to do this."

And then he goes on in the end of this verse—this is Psalm 60, verse 8: "Philistia, triumph thou because of me?" And actually what God is doing there is just using a little sarcasm. "You think you're triumphing because of me? No, no, I'm going to triumph over you." So, those in Philistia would become slaves to David also and serve him.

The last part of verse 6 there in 2 Samuel 8, it says that the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went. And this is really the key verse here, that it was the Lord that was doing the work for David. The Lord blessed David and caused him to have success. It wasn't David. The Lord preserved him. Now, David is growing in numbers, but more than just growing in numbers, what's really important is that David is growing in strength.

Look at verse 7: "And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. And from the cities of Hadadezer, David took exceeding much brass." Now, David begins to gather—and we talked about this a little bit last time we were together—all of the materials for the temple. Remember, David could not build the temple for God, and God told him that in 1 Chronicles 22:8: "David, you will not do it."

Guest (Male): It's our prayer that you've received some encouragement from Pastor Jeff Johnson's study in 2 Samuel chapter 8 here on Sound Doctrine. We'll continue this message 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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