SPEAKER_00: As we study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a paper copy, just lift up your hand and someone will bring one around to you.
SPEAKER_00: Love singing those old songs.
SPEAKER_00: My grandpa was a steel guitar player, so I think he'd really appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00: A particular way they did it this morning.
SPEAKER_00: When I was 16 years old, I'd had my driver's license for two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Just two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: It was the dead of winter.
SPEAKER_00: And I had this little mini pickup truck that my dad had bought me, and I was rushing out the door getting ready to go to school.
SPEAKER_00: I had my license for two weeks, remember?
SPEAKER_00: Just two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I was rushing, rushing, rushing.
SPEAKER_00: I get out and I see the windshield and the driver and passenger side windows are all caked in ice.
SPEAKER_00: The snow had turned to ice.
SPEAKER_00: And so I opened up the door and I look around and I didn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I'd I've only been out this for a little bit, and I saw this little cassette tape, little tiny cassette tape.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody remember what those look like?
SPEAKER_00: That was my ice scraper.
SPEAKER_00: So I went out to the windshield and I scratched a little hole about this big so I could see out the windshield.
SPEAKER_00: And I pulled out the driveway and uh got into the road, and it was we were pretty close to the school, and we get to this uh intersection, stop sign intersection, where we my family always turn to get to the school.
SPEAKER_00: And then I realized I didn't scratch out a hole on the driver's side window or the passenger side window, just a little hole in the windshield.
SPEAKER_00: And so I go ahead and turn, and bam, a car hits me uh as we're going, and nobody was hurt.
SPEAKER_00: It was all pretty slow.
SPEAKER_00: Um it was actually my school counselor who hit me, that's uh made it really worse.
SPEAKER_00: But I'd only had it for two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: My parents obviously were not thrilled uh with my foolish choice of a cassette tape ice scraper, and I'll never do that again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember the exact consequence, but I can feel it in my gut to this day.
SPEAKER_00: And I I think it was two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure, it might have been a little bit longer, but it's two weeks with no driving.
SPEAKER_00: When you're 16 years old, that's a pretty big deal.
SPEAKER_00: This is obviously a silly account of a foolish high school boy myself making a foolish choice and having these consequences.
SPEAKER_00: And many of us here obviously can relate to uh making dumb choices like that and seeing those consequences bear out.
SPEAKER_00: And some consequences obviously are much more severe than two weeks with no driving.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, though, we are continuing our study of 2 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: And if you'll remember, for the past several weeks we've seen the declension of King David and his kingdom, his rule.
SPEAKER_00: We've been witness through the pages of Scripture to some of the lowest points in his life.
SPEAKER_00: Sins of lust, of adultery, of murder have cut against the grain and left a mark on him, left a mark on his family, and a mark on his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is honest and it's forthright about the wickedness and foolishness that hides in the human heart, and it can manifest itself in these terrible choices, evil behavior, and ruptured relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of how we can trust it.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of how I trust it.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's not intent on whitewashing the principal characters of the story, making them out to be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: The blemishes are there for all of us to see, as we've seen, for the last several weeks, especially.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the pages of Scripture, the accounts that we read, are a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: They show us our own need for redemption.
SPEAKER_00: They show us, we sang it earlier, that we're prone to wander.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
SPEAKER_00: But it's important also to remember as we read stories like this that the story of the Bible, the grand narrative, is not primarily a story of sinful people of broken shalom, it's the story of God and his initiative and his grace and work in history to restore and redeem that broken shalom, that sin inside of us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a wonder and it's a mystery, and this morning we give thanks, we've already sung it, that he chooses to do this redemptive work in and through rebels like David and his son Absalom, which we're gonna read today, and in and through us, me and you.
SPEAKER_00: So I invite you to turn to 2 Samuel chapter 15 in your Bible if you have one.
SPEAKER_00: And uh before we move on, I'm gonna pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray, living God, help us to so hear your holy word that we may truly understand.
SPEAKER_00: And that understanding we may believe and believing, we may follow in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking your honor and glory in all that we do.
SPEAKER_00: Through Christ our Lord, we all said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so I'm gonna read verse one and then I'm gonna stop for a second, and then we'll continue on.
SPEAKER_00: So, verse one of chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: After this, Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom got himself a chariot and horses.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the author here, because it says after this, what are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: The author here is giving us a hinge point in the story.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember last week, Absalom was invited back to Jerusalem by his father David after being in exile, after murdering his brother.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom murdered his brother, he was in exile in Gesher, and David has now brought him back.
SPEAKER_00: But after returning to Jerusalem, David did not speak to him, if you remember last week, for two years.
SPEAKER_00: And in a petty way, but effective, kind of like a toddler, Absalom gets David's attention by lighting a field on fire.
SPEAKER_00: Joab, his mighty military commander.
SPEAKER_00: He lights that field on fire, and David finally invites Absalom into his throne room and he welcomes him back.
SPEAKER_00: And so now Absalom senses that he is once again a part of the royal family.
SPEAKER_00: He begins to create an image for himself of I'm a great prince, I'm a great leader.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, last week we read that he was the most handsome man from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet.
SPEAKER_00: And he's building on that notoriety, and he's showing his skills as a politician and as a clever manipulator of the people.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where we are in the story, in this hinge.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go to verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate.
SPEAKER_00: And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, From what city are you?
SPEAKER_00: And when he said, Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel, Absalom would say to him, See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.
SPEAKER_00: Then Absalom would say, Oh, that I were judge in the land.
SPEAKER_00: Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him.
SPEAKER_00: Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom is a clever and devious prince.
SPEAKER_00: He starts out his marketing plan, his celebrity image makeover, if you will, by riding around in a fancy chariot with horses, and he employed fifty men to run before him, and he made himself an entourage, a posse.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a richness to what's likely being implied here.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of Israel, if you remember, was to be set apart, different from other nations.
SPEAKER_00: Some may trust in horses, some in chariots, but we will trust in the name of our God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the psalmist King David who wrote those words.
SPEAKER_00: But this ambitious, enterprising, yet foolish Absalom seems to want for Israel something other than dependence on God.
SPEAKER_00: Really, what he wants, Absalom is trying to woo Israel into a dependence on Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom's interested in Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: This also could be viewed as an innocuous and naive way for a prince to establish himself.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's been gone, to establish himself as a true royal, to garner trust with the people, but there's obviously much more going on here in this story.
SPEAKER_00: The last sentence we read in that text, so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us something important.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom is a thief.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no other word that really gets at it than that.
SPEAKER_00: He's a loyalty thief, as Paul Tripp would say.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew word that we translate as stole, ganav, is bundled with meaning.
SPEAKER_00: It indicates deception, it indicates stealth and a secret of theft.
SPEAKER_00: He's stealing the hearts of the men of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: This betrayal, if you remember, was prophesied by Nathan, David's friend, the prophet, as one of the consequences of David's own sin.
SPEAKER_00: In 1211, in 2 Samuel 12.11, Nathan said this to David Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house.
SPEAKER_00: And here we're seeing that fruit bear in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom is laying the groundwork for a coup.
SPEAKER_00: He's aiming for the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And what at the same time he's putting on the drama of prestige and grandeur, but the text also says he wanted to be seen as a man of the people.
SPEAKER_00: Politicians shaking hands and kissing babies is nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually right here in the text.
SPEAKER_00: The writer is showing us a glimpse of his subtle subversion.
SPEAKER_00: He throws shade at his father's administration, undermining confidence in King David, God's anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom stands at the gate in the early morning, it says, which is where a king or a judge would stand.
SPEAKER_00: And so Absalom is already thinking of himself as a king.
SPEAKER_00: Why is there no one to give you justice?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I have an idea.
SPEAKER_00: I will give you justice.
SPEAKER_00: And we know the kind of justice that Absalom is capable of in the murder of his own brother.
SPEAKER_00: So here is a man who has a lot of skill in identifying vulnerabilities to exploit.
SPEAKER_00: He has charisma.
SPEAKER_00: He likely has diligent work ethic.
SPEAKER_00: He has good looks and charm in all the makings of a potential leader, perhaps even a king.
SPEAKER_00: But we see the wealth of potential here, but a poverty of character.
SPEAKER_00: We see a heart turned in on itself, as we often say around here.
SPEAKER_00: It's at this point, though, when I read this text, when we read it together, that we be careful not to look down our noses at this man.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest, if I'm honest, but for the grace of God alone, my own heart, given similar circumstances, similar privileges, could lead me to the same lust for power, same deception and manipulation, same thirst for more.
SPEAKER_00: Deception, manipulation, lust for power, it disintegrates integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the scriptures are often a mirror, reminding us all that we have fallen short of the glory of God, and it's only by grace and the work of the Spirit that a heart can be ignited.
SPEAKER_00: And that He can shape and form us, what Paul would say, conforming us to the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: John Piper says this about stories like this.
SPEAKER_00: So God gives us pictures of ourselves in stories like this.
SPEAKER_00: He allows his people to drift into these kinds of ungrateful and idolatrous seasons so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable before God.
SPEAKER_00: These kinds of stories should drive us to our knees in gratitude for his grace in our own lives and humility.
SPEAKER_00: And we can pray like David did in Psalm 51 create in me a clean heart.
SPEAKER_00: Renew a right spirit in me, restore unto me the joy of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: These kinds of stories should drive us to our knees and to those kinds of prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Let's continue reading it, verse 7, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron.
SPEAKER_00: For your servant vowed a vow while I lived in Gesher and Aram.
SPEAKER_00: Gesher is where he was in exile after he murdered his brother, saying, If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The king said to him, Go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: So he arose and went to Hebron.
SPEAKER_00: But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, Absalom is king at Hebron.
SPEAKER_00: Hebron here is mentioned several times.
SPEAKER_00: It's an important city.
SPEAKER_00: This is, if you remember, the city where David was anointed king.
SPEAKER_00: This is the city where Absalom himself was born, likely where he grew up.
SPEAKER_00: In doing this treacherous thing, Absalom is striking at the heart of David, both as a son, but also as king.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 with Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem, who were invited guests, and they went in their innocence and knew nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilanite, David's counselor, from his city Gilo.
SPEAKER_00: And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing.
SPEAKER_00: Now Ahithophel here is a really important character.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of David's closest advisors.
SPEAKER_00: We'll learn a little bit more about him later.
SPEAKER_00: He's likely the grandfather of Bathsheba, so we can even see a family dynamic at play.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom is striking at the heart of David and his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And we shouldn't lose the weight, the gravity of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: The rise of a new king would require the death of the current king.
SPEAKER_00: So in doing all this, Absalom has such arrogant pride, such a lust for power, he's willing to see his own father put to death.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: That's the weight of this.
SPEAKER_00: I love what Russell Moore says here.
SPEAKER_00: He gets at it so well.
SPEAKER_00: Pride is, by definition, idolatrous and insurrectionist because it is rooted in ingratitude.
SPEAKER_00: It glorifies the creature over against the creator and claims the inheritance rights of image-bearers without acknowledging that we have these things because we reflect an image, not because we are ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: It is the primal sin because no other sin is possible without believing that some good gift of God is mine and mine alone to use for my purposes, for my own kingdom and glory.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom here is also using religion.
SPEAKER_00: He even uses the personal name of God Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: When he comes to David and he says, You know, I just remembered four years ago I made this vow.
SPEAKER_00: He just remembered.
SPEAKER_00: He's using religion.
SPEAKER_00: He's attempting to use God, Yahweh, as a means to get what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: And caught in the middle are these 200 men who were invited guests.
SPEAKER_00: They were invited to go up and worship while Absalom was secretly mocking God.
SPEAKER_00: There are likely in some in this room who have had the experience of following a leader who seemed to have a wealth of skill and talent, worship the Lord, perhaps even sincere motives, but it was later revealed to be impoverished in some part of his or her character.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's some in the room that have been there.
SPEAKER_00: We can name that for what it is, and we should.
SPEAKER_00: It's a betrayal of trust, it's sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the way that it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: But we should also, all of us, work towards this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow the root of bitterness to callous your heart.
SPEAKER_00: If there's one thing that this text should do, it should soften all of our hearts and remind us to pray for one another and to pray for our leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for us who serve on staff at your church, the leadership here, and pray for all those that the Lord has placed in leadership in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us in this room, leaders included, require the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In our own hearts and minds, Jesus said, Abide in me and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: The branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: So we should pray towards that end.
SPEAKER_00: For your church leaders, that we'd always stay close to the vine, close to the word, near the cross as we sing.
SPEAKER_00: That we would have godly and wise counsel and systems and processes in place that promote wisdom and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Let's continue at verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: So now the focus here is going to shift from Absalom to David and his response to Absalom's treachery.
SPEAKER_00: 13.
SPEAKER_00: And a messenger came to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Arise and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.
SPEAKER_00: Here we're starting to see David, who has seemed for the last several chapters at least to be somewhat asleep at the wheel.
SPEAKER_00: We're starting to see his heart awakened.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly awakened to the fact that his city is about to be under siege.
SPEAKER_00: And this heart of a leader here, a servant leader, realizes that if he doesn't get his people out of the city, there's going to be innocent people who die.
SPEAKER_00: And so he shrewdly says, Okay, we're going to go.
SPEAKER_00: We'll continue.
SPEAKER_00: And the king's servants said to the king, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever the Lord the King decides.
SPEAKER_00: So the king went out, and all his household after him, and the king left ten concubines to keep the house.
SPEAKER_00: And the king went out and all the people after him, and they halted at the last house.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can see this picture of David standing at the last house, watching his servants, watching the folks who were faithful to him pass by.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, and all his servants passed by him, and all the Cherithites, and all the Pelothites, and all the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath.
SPEAKER_00: Gath is where Goliath was from, the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: They passed before the king.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king said to Itai the Gittite.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a name we should all remember.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we will.
SPEAKER_00: Ittai the Gittite.
SPEAKER_00: He's the commander, he's the leader of these 600 Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: Philistines who were now loyal to David.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I read the story of Ittai, it's really, this is the only time he's mentioned in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to see here what one pastor said, an island of faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: See, faithfulness here, what's really interesting, it's faithfulness coming from a Philistine, from a foreigner.
SPEAKER_00: The king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why do you also go with us?
SPEAKER_00: Go back and stay with the king.
SPEAKER_00: For you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home.
SPEAKER_00: You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go, I know not where?
SPEAKER_00: Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're starting to see the heart of David renewed.
SPEAKER_00: There's a renewal going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Ittai the Gittite obviously sees something of the Lord in David.
SPEAKER_00: He sees his hand on him.
SPEAKER_00: There's this faithfulness here that is just so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: But Itai answered the king, As the Lord lives, and as my Lord the King lives, wherever my Lord the King shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of response that is required of all of us when we come and encounter the Lord's anointed one.
SPEAKER_00: This side of the cross, we know that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's a similar story in the Gospel of John, where many of the disciples of Jesus are fleeing from him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus turns to Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Peter, are you going to go with them as well?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter says, To who else would we go?
SPEAKER_00: Only your words have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of response here that is required of us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of response here that we're seeing from Ittai, this foreigner, this Philistine, contrasted with the treachery of Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, and David said to Ittai, Go then, pass on.
SPEAKER_00: So Itai the Gittite passed on with all his men and all the little ones, so there's families here, who were with him.
SPEAKER_00: And all the land wept aloud as all the people passed by.
SPEAKER_00: And the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on towards the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: Also in the Gospel of John, the Gospel writer certainly had this particular story in mind.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus and his disciples met in the upper room after that, they walked, and the scripture says, John says, they passed the Brook Kidron.
SPEAKER_00: In the same kind of context of betrayal with Judas in Jesus' case and betrayal of Ahithophel and Absalom and David's case, they crossed the Brook Kidron and walked up the Mount of Olives.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel writer certainly had this in mind as he's thinking about these two stories in the parallel of these two kings.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came also with all the Levites, these are the priests, bearing the ark of the covenant of God.
SPEAKER_00: And they set down the ark of God.
SPEAKER_00: Until the people had all passed out of the city.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king said to Zadok, Carry the ark of God back into the city.
SPEAKER_00: If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back, and let me see both it and its dwelling place.
SPEAKER_00: But if he says, I have no pleasure in you, behold, here I am.
SPEAKER_00: Let him do to me what seems good to him.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're seeing the heart of David renovated, heart awakened.
SPEAKER_00: There's a deep trust here.
SPEAKER_00: His life is threatened.
SPEAKER_00: He's in exile.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he says, Take the ark back.
SPEAKER_00: My times are in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: That's actually from Psalm 31, something King David himself wrote.
SPEAKER_00: We're starting to see that play out here, this heart of a king who's turning.
SPEAKER_00: 27.
SPEAKER_00: The king also said to Zadok the priest, Are you not also a seer?
SPEAKER_00: Go back to the city in peace with your two sons, Ahamaz, your son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar.
SPEAKER_00: See, I will wait at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.
SPEAKER_00: So Zadok and Abiathar carried the Ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they remained there.
SPEAKER_00: So part of the reason David is having them go back is he's quite literally creating an intelligence network.
SPEAKER_00: He's sending spies so that when he so that he can retake the city later on.
SPEAKER_00: He's created the DIA, the Davidic Intelligence Agency.
SPEAKER_00: That was the only joke I could come up with.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Jim.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not finished with seminary yet, so I haven't gotten little jokes.
SPEAKER_00: But seriously, he he is quite literally, and he's gonna do a little bit more of this later.
SPEAKER_00: He's uh shrewdly, he's being he's a strong leader, he's a wise leader, and he's sending these folks to understand what's going on in the city so that he can retake it later.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 30 But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered.
SPEAKER_00: And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went.
SPEAKER_00: So in that weeping, we can certainly, we know that he's certainly weeping because his son is betraying him.
SPEAKER_00: But again, remember his friend Nathan had prophesied.
SPEAKER_00: The sword will never leave your leave your house because of your own sin.
SPEAKER_00: And at the top of the Mount of Olives, to this day, you can see this beautiful view of the city.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to imagine, speculating here, but I have to imagine he's going up here, he's looking out across the city, and he's remembering that.
SPEAKER_00: He's seeing the consequences of sin, he's seeing betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: There's a mourning going on here with him and with the people.
SPEAKER_00: 31, and it was told to David, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.
SPEAKER_00: And David said, O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: And he'll answer that prayer later on in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: While David was coming up or coming to the summit where God was worshipped, behold, Hushai the Architect came to meet him, with his coat torn and dirt on his head.
SPEAKER_00: David said to him, If you go on with me, you'll be a burden to me.
SPEAKER_00: But if you return to the city and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I have been your father's servant in times past, so now I will be your servant, then you will defeat for me the council of Ahithophel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he prayed for.
SPEAKER_00: 35.
SPEAKER_00: Are not Zadok and Abiathar the priests with you there?
SPEAKER_00: So whatever your heart, or whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, their two sons are with them there, Ahamas and Zadok's son Jonathan, Abiathar's son, and by them you shall send to me everything you hear.
SPEAKER_00: So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city just as Absalom was entering Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So here in the story we have Hushai, David's friend and confidant, also being employed into this intelligence agency, this spy network, to understand what's going on in the city.
SPEAKER_00: This account shows us the tragic fruit of sin, but it also reveals to us the mysterious, marvelous grace of God and the Spirit's work of renewal in David's heart.
SPEAKER_00: Rebecca Konandike DeYoung says it this way it's a sad and dark truth about us that the tree of vices, rooted in pride, continues to live and grow and thrive in human nature in all of its malignant forms, and we can see that on display here in this text.
SPEAKER_00: The more we understand the dynamics of sin and the deep network of its combined forces in us, however, the more amazing we will find the grace and power promised to us to help us change.
SPEAKER_00: I would amend that slightly more than to help us change, to actually accomplish that work, the promise of conforming us to his image.
SPEAKER_00: And this is only by grace.
SPEAKER_00: And although the fruit of his sin is revealing itself in the disarray all around him, betrayal, the root of his trust in Yahweh is growing deeper and deeper and deeper still.
SPEAKER_00: Here are a few things I think we can learn from the text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the consequences of sin often reach farther than we can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: The justice, grace, and mercy of God reaches farther still.
SPEAKER_00: David's sin led to adultery, which led to murder, which led to heinous dysfunction with rape in his family, which led to a son who murdered another son, which led to that same son conspiring against David, intent on killing him, on taking his throne, which would have touched every single person in the kingdom of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There's an old quote, many of you will know sin will take you farther than you want to go, sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, and it'll cost you more than you want to pay.
SPEAKER_00: We may taste the earthly consequences of our sin, but this is the good news this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There should be no doubt that God is eager to forgive and to restore our relationship to Him.
SPEAKER_00: The call of the gospel is to repent and follow Jesus, the true King, to turn.
SPEAKER_00: Repentance means to turn from where we are going and to go towards the King, towards the cross of Jesus, where justice and mercy both meet.
SPEAKER_00: The good news we proclaim this morning is a person, Jesus Christ, who satisfied the justice of God by dying in my place for my own treachery and yours as well.
SPEAKER_00: And now he freely offers us the grace to follow him, this resurrected king, united with him, walking in newness of life.
SPEAKER_00: And, and this is important to hear for some of us, I think, we we do have hope and assurance from a text like this that he can take those earthly consequences and bend them to his own purposes, to mold and shape us the Spirit's work of holiness, what we call sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: He can do that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where life is, that's where true joy resides.
SPEAKER_00: We're called to stay close to the vine, close to the word, close to God in prayer, close to other brothers and sisters who are also on the pilgrim journey, who can see our blind spots and our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: And we follow him like Ittai in this story and like Peter in the Gospel of John, and we say, Lord, to who else could we go?
SPEAKER_00: Only your words have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is all for his glory and for our good.
SPEAKER_00: A heart turned from stone to flesh is a work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's his initiative.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the consequences of foolishness, of rebellion, of sin can reach much farther than we can imagine, but the grace of God can and does reach much further still.
SPEAKER_00: I love what R.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul says.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel takes guilt seriously because it takes man seriously.
SPEAKER_00: And it provides a Savior who gives us a new humanity and begins to clear away the fog on the image that we bear, cleaning it up, erasing the defects, reshaping it to bring us into conformity to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that in looking at us, people can begin to see a likeness of the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: In his mercy, God has made a way to be reconciled to him and to have the obscured image of God restored in those who trust Christ alone for his salvation, so that we may bring him glory and show forth his holiness to creation once more.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing we can learn this morning the presence of God is promised to us, even in a valley of our own construction.
SPEAKER_00: Turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles to Psalm chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And the superscription on this Psalm tells us this is written by David in the middle of this particular trial, and like my wife told me this morning, this is like reading somebody's journal in the middle of whatever they're going through.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to read a few verses of this.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, how many are my foes?
SPEAKER_00: Many are rising against me, many are saying of my soul, There is no salvation for him and God.
SPEAKER_00: But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
SPEAKER_00: I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill.
SPEAKER_00: I lay down and slept.
SPEAKER_00: I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
SPEAKER_00: I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
SPEAKER_00: What a gift it is to have this psalm preserved for us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Treachery is surrounding David, surrounding his city.
SPEAKER_00: His very life is being threatened.
SPEAKER_00: Much of this disarray a consequence of his own failing.
SPEAKER_00: Yet David can sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And another song David wrote, Psalm 23, that many of us know, and we don't know exactly when it was written, but he says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes we stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the last bit that makes the whole thing make sense.
SPEAKER_00: I will fear no evil because you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: His promise is presence is promised to us.
SPEAKER_00: I imagine there's some in this room today who are, some who are walking in a valley season.
SPEAKER_00: Some because of our own foolish choices, some because of the foolish choices of others, some we can't explain.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord does not abandon his people.
SPEAKER_00: That's a promise we can hold on to.
SPEAKER_00: It's a promise that we've seen proven in God's work of redemption from the garden to David in this story, to Jesus, to when he comes to set things right.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be in his presence forever.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name, Emmanuel, means God with us.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of his presence is a promise we can hold to wherever we find ourselves today.
SPEAKER_00: We often sing here at TVC this great hymn, How Firm a Foundation.
SPEAKER_00: The hymn writer John Ripon pinned these words.
SPEAKER_00: It's the last stanza of the hymn that beautifully get at this surety of God's promised presence.
SPEAKER_00: I love the repetitive nature of it.
SPEAKER_00: The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to its foes.
SPEAKER_00: The soul that all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where you are today.
SPEAKER_00: I hope there's a promise there you can cling to.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we come to you this morning grateful that you are King.
SPEAKER_00: Presently reigning right now.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, do a work in our hearts, draw us to you, restore us the joy of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Keep us from foolishness and work into our hearts a sustained trust in your promise.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Lord, for your sovereignty, your sustaining hand.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for that kind of sleep that David had.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we all said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.