Verse 25, 2 Samuel 15, 25. Now this is a little bit of a
complex passage of scripture, but I want us to see three things in this passage. The title of
the message tonight is Prayer, Providence, and Practicality.
We'll see those three things and how they work together, how
God works them together in this story. Look at verse 25, 2 Samuel
15, 25. And the king said unto Zadok,
carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor
in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both
it and his habitation. But if he thus say, I have no
delight in thee, behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seemeth
good unto him. The king said also unto Zadok
the priest, Art not thou a seer? Return into the city in peace,
and your two sons with you, Amaz thy son, and Jonathan the son
of Abiathar. See, I will tarry in the plain
of the wilderness until there come word from you to certify
me. Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the Ark of God again
to Jerusalem, and they tarried there. And David went up by ascent
of Mount Olivet, by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as
he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot.
And all the people that was with him covered every man his head,
and they went up weeping as they went up. And one told David,
saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And
David said, O Lord, I pray thee, turn the council of Ahithophel
into foolishness. And it came to pass that when
David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped
God, behold, Hushai the archite came to meet him with his coat
rent and earth upon his head. Unto whom David said, if thou
passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me. But
if thou return to the city, And saying to Absalom, I will be
thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant hitherto. So will I now also be thy servant.
Then mayest thou for me defeat the council of Ahithophel. And
hast thou not there with thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests?
Therefore it shall be that what thing soever thou shalt hear
out of the king's house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar
the priests. Behold, they have there with
them their two sons, Ahimaaz and Zadok's son, and Jonathan,
Abiathar's son. And by them you shall send unto
me everything that you can hear. So Hushah, David's friend, came
into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem. Let's pray and
ask the Lord to meet with us and teach us tonight. Gracious
Father, we do utterly depend upon you, Lord, Understanding
you must by your grace open our understanding That we might understand
the scriptures or we will not And I know lord if you do open
our understanding we'll see christ high and lifted up As we always
do in every word Of your book may we see him tonight
And take refuge again afresh in the Savior of sinners, the
Lord Jesus, in His precious name. Amen. Now, verses 25 and 26 remind
us where we sort of are in this story. It's been a few weeks
since we looked at this, but you'll remember Absalom, David's
son, has stolen the hearts of the people of Israel. David is
rightful king, God's chosen king, God's anointed king. But Absalom,
his son, has usurped the throne of David He stole the hearts
of the people with treachery, with threats and bribes. And
David is being exiled. He's abdicated his throne and
is leaving Jerusalem. And he's leaving in shame and
in sorrow, knowing that his own sin has brought all of this upon
him. When he sinned with Bathsheba and against Uriah the Hittite,
against God, in that situation, The Lord told him that all this
would take place. So knowing that his own sin has
brought it all upon him, and this is a picture of us in our
fallen state. We, because of our own sin, lost
our position as king of God's creation. Adam was king, he was
the sovereign of God's creation. God set him up, gave him dominion
over everything. And, of course, by his own sin
and fall, In our fall, in our father Adam,
we were banished from the garden. We had to leave, just like David
here. Banished from the favor and presence
of God in shame and disgrace. And of course, David also pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ really in all of his life because God's
anointed king, but yet humbled, rejected. Humiliated because
he took our place But just as David God said your thrones forever. He said that to David and so
he's a picture of Christ in that too whatever men do or say or
Whatever opposition they raise however much noise they make
Christ is God's King and he's on the throne But look at what
David did now He's leaving As he's leaving in shame and
disgrace, here's some good advice for us when we come before God,
recognizing our shame and our sin. The king said unto Zadok,
carry verse 25 again and we'll read. Let's see, we read 25 and 26,
look at verse Third, look at verse, let's read
verse... This, as I said, is kind of a
complex story and I want to get this right. So look at... Let's just read from verse 25
and we'll read up to the part that I'm wanting to, the point
I'm wanting to make right now. Look what David did as he's leaving.
He said to Zadok, carry back the ark of God into the city.
You remember why he did that. Saul, the former king, the king
by man's will, picturing man's will and man's way and man's
works, used the Ark of God as sort of a political tool, like
a good luck charm. But David said, look, the Ark
belongs in Jerusalem. If I find favor with God, he'll
bring me back, and I'll see the Ark again, and I'll worship him
again. So he told them to take it back.
And he said, if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he'll
bring me back. He'll have to do it. That's the only way you're
going to get to God. That's the only way you're going
to find favor with God is if he brings you. Verse 26, but
if he does say I have no delight in thee, behold, here am I. Let
him do to me as seemeth good unto him. The king also said
unto Zadok the priest, art not thou a seer? And that word can
have bad connotations, but it really just means somebody that's
observant and perceives things and understands things. And so
I believe that's the way it's used here. He said, return into
the city in peace and your two sons with you, Ahimeaz, thy son,
and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, see I will tarry in the plain
of the wilderness until there come word from you to certify
me. That word certify means to inform or to report. You'll wait
for word from them so he'll know what's going on. Zadok therefore
and Abiathar carried the Ark of God again to Jerusalem and
they tarried there. And David went up by the ascent
of Mount Olivet and wept as he went up. This is, David, throughout
his whole life, he goes through a lot. You remember Ziklag, when
they'd lost everything, all their women and children were taken
and everything they owned was taken. And David was at rock
bottom. His own men were talking about
stoning him because they knew it was his fault. Again, it was
his fault. But it says, David encouraged himself in the Lord.
That as our Lord, and as he pictures our Lord, he was a man of sorrow.
He went through much, much sorrow because of his sin, as our Lord
was a man of sorrows because of our sin. And he had his head
covered. He went barefoot. And all the
people that were with him, they sympathized with him. And they
went up weeping. And one told David, saying Ahithophel is among
the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, oh Lord, I pray
thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And notice
now again in verse 25, where all of this kind of begins, as
David said, if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, then all
of this goes away and everything is going to go back to the way
it's supposed to be and all will be well if I find favor. And that word in verse 25 there,
favor, is grace. Just as Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord when he and all of his generation was nothing
but evil continually, David said, maybe I'll find grace there too. Maybe there's grace. for me in
the eyes of the Lord. I'll tell you this, we won't
find it by looking to ourselves. We're not going to find grace
by looking at our own works. We won't find it by trying to
make up for our sin. That's what most people are going
through this world trying to do. Trying to do enough good
to outweigh their bad. We don't have any good. Our righteousness
is for God or his filthy rags. You won't find it in a decision,
a deed, or a dead sinner. You're not going to find grace.
Grace is found in one place only, the eyes of the Lord. What's
in the Lord's eyes is in the Lord's heart. And that's where
grace is. Does God have eyes? I thought
God is spirit, Chris. Does he even have eyes? In the
person of his son, he does. The Lord Jesus Christ has eyes. And that's where grace is. Look and live. See the glory
of God in the face of his son and plead for mercy on the basis
of Christ's righteousness. Christ shed blood alone. Paul said, I don't want my works,
I want his. Religion says that salvation
is up to you. David said it's up to God. What
do you say? David said, if God will just
have grace on me. Everything will be fine. If He's pleased to save me, I'll
be saved. Here's what I will do by His
grace. I'll find out if God's going
to have mercy on me or not. I'll do everything that I know
to do, everything He teaches me to do, and I'll wait on His
mercy. I'll wait at His feet. If you're going to find mercy,
that's where you'll find it. And I can't even do that. I can't
even wait on Him. I can't even look to Him. I can't
even trust Him. I can't do anything without His
grace. But by His grace, I'd like to
know whether there's mercy and grace in His eyes for me. Lord,
if You will, You can make me clean. We always remember that
old leper in Matthew 5. If you will, Lord, you can make
me clean. Will you? He came to find out,
didn't he? That's what I want to do. Is
there mercy for the chief of sinners? Look at verse 27 in
our text. I know we read this a couple
of times, but this is so There's a lot going on in these verses.
The king said also unto Zadok the priest, art not thou a seer?
And that, as I said, it means someone with great perception
and discernment. That's what he's saying. He's
acknowledging that he's a sharp man that perceives things. He said, you return to the city
and your two sons and I'll tarry in the plain of the wilderness
until there come word from you to certify me or to report, to
make known the situation there. So David is basically using Zadok
the priest as a spy. You go and find out what's going
on and send word so I'll know what's going on. Now, also look,
skip down to verse 32. And we'll see a sort of a continuation
of that, verse 32. And it came to pass that when
David was come to the top of the mount where he worshiped
God, behold, Hushai, the archite came to meet. him with his coat
rent and earth upon his head, unto whom David said, If thou
passest on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me. But
if thou return to the city and say unto Absalom, I will be thy
servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant hitherto,
so will I now also be thy servant. Then mayst thou for me defeat
the council of Ahitaphel. And hast thou not there with
thee Zadok and Abiathar the priests? That's who we just saw him send
back to Jerusalem to spy for him. He said, therefore it shall
be that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king's
house thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold,
they have with them their two sons. And so he's telling them,
Tell the same tell them and they'll they'll send word to me and think
for a second how all of this is being staged by God Remember
the title is prayer providence and practicality The providence
of God in this who shy is moved from all of it where he where
David made him back to Jerusalem and then David is moved from
Jerusalem to Olivet, from his throne to Olivet now, and then
to who knows where after that. He's gonna wait in the wilderness
there, as he said. Zadok the priest and his two
sons are moved from following David back to Jerusalem. David
tries to move Ittai. Remember in verse 19, look at
verse 19. Then said the king to Ittai the
Gittai, wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place
and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and also
an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this
day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go whither
I may, return thou and take back thy brethren. Mercy and truth
be with thee. And Ittai answered the king and said, as the Lord
liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place
my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life? Even there
also will thy servant be." And David said to Edtia, okay, go
ahead and pass over them. He's saying, you were exiled
from your country and now you live here and you're being exiled
again. Go home. Take your family home. Protect
them. Go where it's safe. And then we'll meet again. And
Edtia said, nope, I'm going with you. So David tried. David's
not the one moving the pieces on the board. You see, he had
an influence in some cases. He sent Zadok back and Zadok
went. He tried to move Ittai back to, but God said no. David's
not the one moving the pieces. God is. He's just using David
in some cases. In this case, he used Ittai and
his loyalty to David and to God because he knows that David's
God's anointed. So, It's God moving all the pieces
on the board and God uses David's instinct and will in some cases
to move some and he overturns it as in the case of Ittai. So God is moving them all over
the place here. Everybody exactly where he wants
them. God is staging a reverse coup. That's exactly what he's doing.
As bad as it looks to David now, God is already setting the stage
for David's good and for God's glory. He's moving everybody
where He wants them to be and causing them to do and say everything
He wants them to do and say. And He's gonna bring this thing
to a desired end. And that's how I can sleep at
night because my Savior is on the throne. David does make some plays here.
There is practicality in the title too, isn't there? Practicality. He sends Zadok back so that he
will be informed about what's going on so he can react to the
news that he receives as he receives it. That's just practical. He's
not going to know where to go, what to do, unless he gets some
information. So he sets everything up to where
he's going to get that information. How are you going to know what
to do? Otherwise, that's practicality, isn't it? The Lord's given us
good sense, too, hasn't he? He's in control of it all. You
can't roll a pair of dice, but he doesn't decide what comes
up. He decides it every time. But we're gonna roll them, if
that's what he tells us to do, right? We're not just gonna say,
well, God's already determined it, I'm not gonna. No, he says
roll them, you roll them. And then you see what he brings. And that's what David's doing
here. We don't submit to God's will by always doing nothing.
Sometimes, nothing is exactly what needs to happen. Sometimes,
though, it's not. And we need to understand that.
Other times, God gives us the good sense by knowing Him and
His Word. He teaches us. He instructs us.
He exhorts us. He encourages us. He commands
us. to do what is honoring unto Him
and then watch Him work it all out. He uses means. He uses men's will. He turns
the heart of the King in His hand. Withersoever He will, just
like He does the rivers of water. That's what the scripture says.
God's providence is what we rely upon. We're just waiting to see
what God's going to do. It's been determined from before
the foundation of the world. And we don't honor God in his
sovereign will and authority by not acting upon what he teaches. We are to act upon what he teaches. And here's how we honor God's
sovereign will. Listen to this. I'm going to
have you turn to some scripture, but listen to this one. This
is the way you honor God's sovereign will and his providence and his
purposes as they're played out. I'm okay with God running it,
aren't you? He's gonna do exactly what He wants to do. He does
everything right. He knows everything I don't.
He's good, I'm not. You're not, we're not. Thank
God He's on the throne. But listen, here's how we honor
that. 2 Corinthians 5.14, for the love of Christ constraineth
us. His love for us and our love
for Him, which is a result of His love for us. His love causes
our love. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us. We love Him because He first
loved us. And that love, mutual love, constrains
us. And here's how it does it. Because
we thus judge. It changes our thinking. It changes
the way we reckon things. The fact that we love Him affects
everything we think. It affects our attitude. It affects
our decisions. It affects our actions. In this
practicality of just doing what we know to do by God's grace,
just doing what we feel honors Him, what He has taught us honors
Him. Listen. The love of Christ constrains
us in this because we thus judge. If one died for all, then all
were dead. He died for us because we were
dead. He died that we might live. He entered into death and was
victorious over death that we might be. He came down here where
we are in this body of this death and he took us out with him.
We live in Christ and that's, why we think the way we do and
judge the way we do, discern the way we do. That he died,
that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them. And Rose
again, what do you live for? If it's not Christ crucified,
you're dead. You just think you're not. You
think you're alive, but you're not. What does this have to do with
David sending spies back to Jerusalem? Well, David's prayer and desire
is to come back to Jerusalem and be king again. That's what
he said there in verse 25. What's your perfect world scenario,
David? Well, if I find grace in the eyes of God, I'll come
back to Jerusalem and be king again and worship at his mercy
seat. We just sang about the mercy
seat. That's Christ. God said, I'll meet with you
at the mercy seat and commune with you. Christ is the only
place where God can meet a sinner in anything but wrath and condemnation.
He's our mercy seat. He's where we come and where
the blood was sacrificed, offered for our souls. And we worship
God in Christ, through Christ, and we're accepted by God through
Christ alone. And so, and David said, this
seems to be what would glorify God is for his king to be on
the throne. So that's what he prayed for,
right? He prayed that the council of
Ahitophel would be defeated, why? So that Absalom would lose
and David would win and David ends up back on the throne. Why? Because in David's judgment and
reckoning, God's king ought to be on the throne. You see how,
what affected David's thinking and his motivation and everything
was the glory of God. I'm telling you now, where did
Hushai find him? Where did he find Hushai? They went there to worship God
and they ran into one another. You and I did that tonight. Here
we are. So that being what he thought
would glorify God and was the right thing, that's what he prayed
for and that's what he said, if God has grace upon me, that's
what will happen. I'm waiting on Him. He can bring
me back. And just like what we think will
glorify God here, what is it that we think will glorify God
here in our lives? Well, for his gospel to go forth
from here. That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing
here. And so we do a lot of things in order to see that that thing
happens, right? A lot. Blood, sweat, and tears
in order to see to it. That's what motivates us. And
if not, then we're dead. You see, if you live unto yourself,
you're dead while you live. He that findeth his life shall
lose it, but he that loseth his life for Christ's sake will find
life. God usually uses means in the
accomplishment of his purpose. Now, he didn't use any means
when he created the universe. He said to Job, where were you
when I created all this? He wasn't around. He didn't need
him. Doesn't need us when he does
use us. He just does it anyway. He does it for his glory. He
chooses the weak and the foolish and the despised and the things
that are not so that no flesh should glory in his presence. So he uses human instruments. He turns the hearts of kings.
He uses the weather. He called the ravenous bird from
the east one time to feed his prophet. He uses everybody and
everything to accomplish his purposes as we see him moving
all the pieces around on this chessboard here in David's life. And ultimately, we know he uses
Hushai the Archa to defeat the council of Ahitophel. He grants
David's prayer. So David simply understands that
if he's gonna do what he should, when he should, he needs to know
what's going on. And so he does what he has to
do to make sure he knows what's going on. I completely understand,
by God's grace, that God's sovereign purpose will be done in my life. I have no doubt about that at
all. Just as surely, if you ask me who created this universe,
You know what I would say. Well, ask me who runs it, and
I'll tell you the same thing. Just as surely as he made it,
he's running it. And that's you, me, everybody,
and everything in it. I understand that. I also want
to know all that God will show me. David said, I want to be in God's house. And I want to inquire in His
temple. I want to behold His beauty. I want to hear. I want
to know about it. Don't you? I know God's going
to do it all. He's going to accomplish everything.
I want to know about it. I want to know everything He'll
tell me. And that He'll show me. Why?
So I can do what I need to do. Right? I want to do what I need
to do. What I should do. To honor Him. I want to honor Him. I want to
obey Him. I want to serve Him. If you love Him, you do too.
And if you love Him, it's because He loved you. So you see how
all the prayer, we haven't gotten to the prayer part yet. We're
going to see that in a minute. But the providence of God, He
moves everything. He sustains everything. He orchestrates
this whole thing. And practicality. David just
wants to know, and so he does what he gotta do to find out
what he needs to do in the future. And listen, he wanted to be informed. Informed, in the spiritual sense,
is to know God's word. In the spiritual truth that this
pictures, To know what you need to know to do what you need,
you need to know what God said. And that's all you need to know.
Now you can hear from mama, you can hear from grandma, you can
hear from whoever, and that's good and well as long as they
tell you what God said. If not, you need to quit listening
to them. Find somebody you can. And hear what God said. We've
got to know, isn't it amazing and tragic that people need God
so bad, they need Him every moment of every hour of every day, and
yet they don't give a hoot what He said. Isn't that tragic? You need to know, you can't take
a step without Him. It might be a good idea to find
out what He said. People, you know, people in religion, I just
want to do the will of God. Do you have any idea what God's
doing? Doesn't sound like they do. Based on what they preach. God's in the business of glorifying
His Son. And the way He does that is by
publishing the glories of His Son in the preaching of the Gospel.
He feeds His sheep, He saves sinners. Everything He accomplishes
in this world He does it by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he's done doing what
his gospel is in this world to do, this world's over. That's how important the gospel
is. That's why, again, my advice to everybody, all the time, in
every situation, in everything, you need to hear from God. And
I'm going to keep saying it. You've got to hear from God. That's what you need. And me
too. But how tragic that is. You need
His blessing in your heart. You need it in your life. You
need it every moment. He meets with His people where
His gospel is preached. Now look at verses 30 and 31.
There's so much to see in this. I don't know if we can get everything.
This week I think maybe we can and move on to chapter 16, but
let's look at verse 30 and David went up by the ascent Of mount
olivet and wept as he went up, you know boy It seemed like a
good time to weep doesn't it he's weeping over his sin. Don't
you reckon? He knows that this is this is
tough on everybody that's with him as well as himself and he
knows why God is doing this because god told him why That's how you
know anything, because God tells you. And had his head covered
and he went barefoot and all the people that was with him
covered every man his head and they went up weeping as they
went up. And one told David, saying, Ahead
of Phal is among the conspirators with Absalom. And this is heartache
upon heartache. You remember with the Psalms
that we read a few weeks ago? looked at this, we kind of started
on this part of the story. David wrote psalms saying, Oh,
if it would have been an enemy that betrayed me, I could have
stood that. It was my own familiar friend.
We took sweet counsel together. We walked to the house of God
together. And he stabbed me in the back. And so that broke his
heart. He's talking about Ahithophel
there. And so it broke his heart to find that out. We've seen
God's providence in arranging all of this. We've seen the practicality
of just doing what we know to do. God uses means, as I've said
almost always, to carry out his purposes of grace toward his
people. And let me read one more, Pat.
Turn with me to Romans 10, 13 before we move on from that part. God uses means. There's a practicality
to this. There's an everyday motivation. that's involved in the sovereign
will and providence of God that's used in accomplishing his purpose. Romans 10, 13. Look at this now. We already talked about what
God, what's God doing? He's saving his people. That's
what he's doing. He's exalting his son in the salvation of his
elect. And look at Romans 10, 13. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You see
that word saved there? God is going to save some people.
That's the end result. That's the goal. That's why we
preach. Because that's how God saves
his people. Somebody's going to be saved. He's picked them
out in love from eternity. He's predestinated them by his
grace to be conformed to the image of his son. Listen to what
Paul said to the church in Thessalonica. Second Thessalonians 2.13. We're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and through belief
of the truth. How's God? God's gonna save somebody,
isn't he? Purposed it. And what he purposes
is done. It's just a matter of time. But
how's he gonna save them? Well, look at the rest of it.
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He's
gonna bring you to his feet and cause you to ask. Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. What shall I do to be saved?
What must I do to be saved? Whoever calls upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? We read there in 2 Thessalonians
there. He saves who he purposed to save
from the foundation of the world through belief of the truth.
You're not going to be saved unless you believe the truth.
Some people say, well, if God elected you and predestinated
you, you're going to be saved no matter what happens. No, you're
going to be saved by faith. You're not gonna be saved no
matter what happens. You're gonna be saved that way. That's gonna
happen. You're gonna believe on Christ.
You're gonna call on him. But how shall they believe in
him, verse 14, of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent. Notice it doesn't say how should
they preach unless they just feel like they ought to preach. No. God's got to send them. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. So God's got to call. He's got
to send. A man's got to preach. You're
going to have to hear it. You're going to have to believe.
And you're going to have to call on him. That's how you're going
to be saved. You're going to be saved if you're
here. And that's how it's going to happen through all the means
that God has ordained. Mama praying for you might have
something to do with it too. Although it doesn't mention it
there. Somebody that loves you falling on their face before
God and saying, God have mercy on my son. God saves sinners by grace through
faith. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And that
faith is not of yourself. That's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. And in order for sinners to have
faith and believe on Christ, a lot of other things have to
happen. You think about it. It just says, unless, except
they be sent. That's easy to say, isn't it?
God's going to send a preacher. But you know what has to happen?
Somebody's got to vacuum the carpet. It's got to happen, doesn't it?
Somebody's got to clean the toilets. Somebody's got to give some money.
Somebody's got to show up. You see, a lot of things have
to happen. And they will happen. Because
God has ordained it. And He uses means to accomplish
the purposes that He ordains. Now think of the picture in our
text in 2 Samuel. God is going to restore us. He's
going to make us kings and priests unto our God. David's going to be restored
to the throne, and we're going to be restored. God makes us
kings and priests unto our God when He saves us by Christ. David
will reign again. And 2 Timothy 2.12 says if we
suffer with Christ, we'll reign with Him. There's a spiritual
reign as well. And how does it happen? The same
way God causes it and uses means to bring it to pass as he does
in our story. What's the means he uses spiritually
to bring us to that place? The preaching of the gospel.
So what are we going to do then? We're going to preach the gospel.
That's what we're going to do by God's grace. Right? That's
what we're going to do. That's what we're going to do
here. Pretty clear. Pretty clear, isn't it, what's
necessary, what's honoring to God and what service to God is.
And I tell you what else we're going to do. Here's that third
P in the title. And David went up by the ascent.
He wept. We read that partly, verse 31.
And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with
Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray thee. Now, he's already
said, I'm completely at the mercy of God. If God has grace upon
me, then I'll be back. If not, let him do what seemeth
him good. He's cast himself upon the mercy
of God. But also, what does he do? It's
not that he's indifferent. He's not just going to say, well,
God's going to do what he's going to do. What will be, will be. No,
he's going to fall on his face before God and say, God, Have
mercy on me. We believe that salvation is
by grace, but I'll tell you what else we do. We cry out for grace. We believe that salvation is
up to God. He decides who's saved and who's
not. You know what else we do? We say, God save me. Save my
children. Save those that I love. And our
Lord said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, a
man who's born again, who's righteous in Christ, availeth much. I pray thee, turn the counsel
of Ahitaphel into foolishness. Think about this for a minute
now. David's getting what he deserves and there's nothing
he can do about it. Nothing. God's gonna do whatever seemeth
God good. I'm in his hands. He has no power
anymore. He has no influence. He has no
resources. He cries out to God and he does
what he knows to do. knowing that none of it means
anything unless God is willing, unless God is pleased. And think
about what David is asking God to do. Listen to 2 Samuel 16,
23. This is just a verse I'm kind
of cherry picking from the next chapter, but listen to it. The
counsel of Ahitaphel, which he counseled in those days, was
as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God. So was all the
counsel of Ahitaphel, both with David and with Absalom. And so that's what David's asking
God to turn the counsel of a man who people listen to as though
he were God. Turn it into foolishness. Here's
the simple lesson from that. I need God to do for me what
cannot be done any other way. God's going to have to do it.
Now what David does is meaningless unless God blesses it. He relies
utterly upon the grace and providence of God. But he also does what
he knows to do. If God's going to defeat the
council of Ahithophel, he may just use Hushai to do it. And
so he sends Hushai back and says, you get in good with Absalom. And let's see if you can defeat
the counsel of Ahithophel. He just cried out to God to do
that, but he knows that God uses means. He may use hushah, he
may not. He may not do it at all. But we do what we know to do,
what God has taught us, and we rely upon Him. Consider this. I don't know if God will save
your loved ones or not. I don't know, I can't promise
you that. We rely upon, we cast ourselves fully upon the grace
and power of God to save them. You and I together, we do that. But you know what, we know this. We know how God saves sinners,
don't we? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. If God's gonna save them, I know
how he'll do it. You see how David's reasoning
here and what he did, the practicality of what he did, you see, there's
a spiritual lesson here. I know how God saves sinners.
And notice that in our text, David was saved by the counsel
of Ahithophel being turned into foolishness. And listen to 1 Corinthians 1.20. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I deliberately didn't
read both of those together the first time. But before it says
it pleased God by the foolishness, how did he do that? Well, he
defeats the wisdom of this world like he defeated the council
of Ahitophel. His people are going to have
to hear the gospel and the foolishness that seems wise unto them now.
Their carnal thoughts, their natural thoughts of God and themselves
and how God saves sinners, that seems like wisdom to them now,
it must be turned into foolishness. That seems like the oracles of
God to them. Well, if I know my Bible. You
don't know your Bible if you don't know God. God has to reveal
it to you. Man's natural religion is anti-Christ. God, in his wisdom, must turn
the counsel of Ahithophel, or what people think is the wisdom
of God, into foolishness. That's what he does. And he'll
show you how foolish it is. And then, by the preaching of
his word, he'll save you. God, in his wisdom, must make
it happen. Listen to this in 2 Samuel 17
14 again I'm going to skip ahead a little bit but listen Absalom
and all the men of Israel said the council of Hushai the archite
is better than the council of Ahithophel Ahithophel betrayed
David and is now Absalom's counselor. David sends Hushai back and says,
you tell Absalom you're going to serve him and he'll ask you
for advice and maybe by this means God will defeat the counsel
of Ahithophel. And sure enough, that's exactly
what happened. Absalom and all the men of Israel said, Hushai
has better advice than Ahithophel does. Why did that happen that
way? For the Lord had appointed to
defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom. Why is the Lord going to bring
evil on Absalom? So that he might put David back on the throne. God brought evil upon Ahithophel
in order to show grace and favor to David. If God, if I find grace
in the eyes of the Lord, there it is, David, right there. The
one thing you prayed for, God said yes. He put it in your heart
to ask for it, and he gave it to you, and now it's gonna work
out. It's gonna work out. Likewise God defeats the wisdom
of this world Make will make it foolishness unto you in order
to have mercy on your soul And the way that he has mercy on
your soul is pictured in our story too. You'll see the king
on the throne You'll see Christ exalted the very righteousness
of God in which we might stand before God righteous in Christ
alone. The only sin offering, the Lamb.
Who's sitting on the throne? John said the Lamb is on the
throne. What's the significance of that? By the precious blood
of God's only Lamb we're washed from our sins in the sight of
God and stand perfect in his sight. We're going to be saved. There's
going to be a lot of means God's going to employ. A lot of things
are going to happen in order for that to take place. But that's
the ultimate result of it right there. It's not grace plus man's
cooperation. It's all grace. Powerful, sovereign,
inevitable, free, almighty grace. And God's grace and love are
in Christ. Just as all God-given faith is
in Christ alone. You'll have to believe on Christ
to be saved, though, because God does use means. Christ, who
himself is the sinner's righteousness. Your righteousness is never gonna
be like Christ's. It's either going to be Christ's
or you're not going to have any. If Christ himself is not your
righteousness, you're not going to have any righteousness before
God. That's how utterly worthless everything you do and say and
think is. Christ must be your righteousness
before God or you don't have any. And he must be your sin
offering. There's only one that God will
accept. You must trust him alone and cast your soul upon him.
So what are we going to do? Knowing that that's the case,
David, knowing what he did and what he, God showed him, gave
him the desire of his heart was that God's king be restored and
he just happened to be that king. And so he prayed to that end
and he did what he knew to do to that end. So what are we gonna
do? Knowing that God's gonna save whom he will and knowing
how he does it. I tell you what, I think we ought
to do this. Listen to what Paul said to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 2. He said, The servant of the Lord
must not strive. There's no arguing, there's no
debating, there's no discussion, but be gentle unto all, apt to
teach, patient. In meekness, instructing those. Preaching is teaching. You know
what the word doctrine means? It means teaching. Instructing
those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure, will give
them repentance. Why do we do what we do? Why
do we teach? Why do we preach? Why do we proclaim
the gospel of Christ? Because God just might have mercy
on somebody. And if he does, this is how he's
going to do it. You see how that story of David
pictures that? He acted upon what he knew and
he trusted God to do what was right. How does a sinner receive mercy
from God? God teaches us that it's not
up to us, it's up to Him. He establishes that He is God
and we're not. He puts us hanging upon the mercy
of His Son. He puts us in the dust. No man
can even come to me except my Father draw you. He'll put you
in the dust now. You're going to hang on His mercy.
How does a sinner receive mercy from God? There's another answer
to that question. He asks for it. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Like that old leper let's read
that let me read that to you in Matthew 8 1 and I'll close
we're out of time But listen when that when the Lord Jesus
Christ was come down from a mountain where he had been teaching Great
multitudes followed him and behold there came a leper and worshipped
him and This is how sinners receive mercy from the Lord. The Lord
brings you to the feet of his son. This leper met him coming
down from the mountain and worshiped him. That word worship, the picture
that's used to define that word worship is a dog licking its
master's hand. That's where God will bring you
if he's going to save you. You're going to come to Christ
empty In order to be filled you're gonna come to him helpless In
order to be saved And he said Lord if you will Religion talking
about man's free will oh My friends Salvations by God's will not
yours if you will You can make me clean. That's faith. You can. I don't know whether
he will or not, but I know he can. I know he can. Let's find
out if he will. Let's find out together. You
can make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand
and did what nobody else would ever do or even should. He touched
a leper. I don't want you touching me
tonight because I'm sick and there's a good chance that you
might get sick too if you touch me. The Lord Jesus Christ touched
this leper in order to take his sickness. That's what he did
it for. He wasn't afraid to take it.
He took it willingly. He said, I will. I will. I will be thou clean." And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. That's how sinners receive mercy
from the Lord. I know that he can, and I sure
would like to find out whether he will or not. Lord, have mercy
on us. Let's seek his face together. for ourselves and for our loved
ones. Let's pray. Father, thank you for