Would you turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 18, beginning in verse 19. I'd like
to read from verse 19 down through the end of the chapter. Then said Hamias, the son of
Zadok, Let me now run and bear the king tidings, how that the
Lord hath avenged him of his enemies. Now he's volunteering
for the job. And Joab said unto him, thou
shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another
day, but this day thou shalt bear no tidings because the king's
son is dead. You can remember from last week
that Absalom had been killed. Then said Joab to Cushi, Go tell
the king what thou hast seen. Now, Joab initiated this, not
Cushi. Go tell the king what thou hast
seen. And isn't that what a witness
does? He tells what he has seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto
Joab and ran. Then said Ammiahaz, the son of
Zadok, yet again to Joab, but howsoever let me, I pray thee
also run after Cushi. And Joab said, wherefore wilt
thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings ready? But howsoever
said he, let me run. And he said unto him, run. Then Ammiahaz ran by the way
of the plain and overran Cushi. And David sat between the two
gates, and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate
into the wall and lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
a man running alone. And the watchman cried and told
the king, and the king said, if he be alone, there's tidings
in his mouth. And he came apace and drew near.
And the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman
called under the porter and said, behold, another man running alone.
And the king said, he also bringeth tidings. And the watchman said
to me, Think of the running of the foremost, the first is like
the running of a mias, the son of Zadok. And the king said,
He's a good man and come with good tidings. And the mias called
and said unto the king, All is well. And he fell down to the
earth upon his face before the king and said, Blessed be the
Lord thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their
hand against my lord the king. And the king said, Is the young
man Absalom Safe. Now that's interesting. He doesn't
ask about the men who were defeated. He doesn't ask about the 20,000
who were killed. He didn't ask about the men that
were defeated in the wood. He had one question. This is
all he cared about. Is the young man Absalom safe?
That's the only question he asks. All these people had risked their
lives for him. He doesn't ask about them. He
says, is the young man safe? And Nehemiah answered, when Joab
sent the king's servants, and me thy servant, I saw a great
tumult, but I knew not what it was. He couldn't answer that
question. He was not a witness to it. And
the king said unto him, turn aside and stand here. And he
turned aside and stood still. And behold, Cushi came. And Cushi
said, tidings, my lord the king, for the lord hath avenged thee
this day of all them that rose up against thee. And the king
said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushai
answered, the enemies of my Lord the king and all that rise against
thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. And the king was
much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. As he went thus, he said, oh,
my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, would to God I had died
for thee, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name, that name that's above every name. And we ask
in his name that you would be pleased to meet with us and to
speak in power to our hearts from your word. Oh Lord, reveal
thy blessed son to us. Grant us your spirit that we
might be enabled to worship him. Lord, we can't come into your
presence without some awareness of our sinfulness. And we pray
that you'd forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from our
sins. We pray that we might be found in Christ. We pray that
we might be given grace to love you more and to love one another
more and to seek to be servants one to another and to seek to
serve thee. Now, Lord, Be with us, be with our country at this
time. We pray that your will would be done. We pray that you
would give our leaders wisdom and that your will, we're so
glad that you're in control of everything. Lord, give us grace
to believe that and rest in that. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now look back at verse 21. Then said Joab to Cushi, go tell
the king what thou hast seen. Now I feel quite certain that
Cushi is the man mentioned in chapter 18 who told Joab about
Absalom hanging in a tree. He saw it. And he saw the death
of Absalom. He witnessed this. And that's
what Joab says, you go tell David, what you have seen. He was speaking as a witness. Now what's a witness? A witness
is someone who has seen something. He's seen something. That's all
a witness is. He's seen something. He says
to Cushi, you go tell David what you personally have seen. Now let's back back up to verse
18, or verse 19. Then said, Himiaz, the son of
Zadok, let me now run and bear the king tidings, how that the
Lord hath avenged him of his enemies. Now, he was volunteering
for this job, wasn't he? He wasn't sent. He was volunteering. He wanted to do this. He wanted
to bring these tidings. Verse 20, And Joab said unto
him, Thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear
tidings another day. But this day thou shalt bear
no tidings, because the king's son is dead. Now, I believe Joab was keeping
Amaiah has from running because he had some experience about
how David reacted when he got bad tidings. We read several
times where when someone brought him the news of something that
he didn't want to hear, he had him executed. And I believe that
Joab knew at this time David might hear this and be so upset
he would have the one who brought the tidings executed. So he keeps
him from doing this. But at any rate, he wasn't sent. He wasn't sent. What's the scripture
say? How should they preach except
they be sent? Now I want to hear somebody that's
sent, don't you? I'm not interested in hearing someone that's a volunteer
for the job. I want to hear someone who is
sent by God. it won't do me or you any good
at all to hear someone that's not sent by God. Let me show you this in the Scripture.
Turn real quick to Jeremiah chapter 23. Verse 32, Behold, I am against
them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord. and do tell them,
and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness.
Yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not
profit this people at all. Save the Lord. Now someone that's
not sent, God does not use them in any way. Now, Amihaz, he's
pushing himself. Let me go. No, he didn't have
the message. Verse 21, then said Joab to Cushi,
go and tell what thou hast seen. Bring that message. And Cushi
bowed himself unto Joab and ran. Then said Hamaiahaz, the son
of Zadok, yet again to Joab. But howsoever, let me, I pray
thee, also run after Cushiah. I still want to go. And Joab
said, wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings? You don't have a message to bring.
But howsoever, said he, let me run, let me go. And he said unto
him, run. Then Amihaz ran by the way of
the plain and overran Cushiah. He could run faster. Now remember
these are two messages, two messengers. One has the message, one doesn't. This is a picture of gospel preaching.
One has the message and one doesn't. I think this is very interesting.
The one who didn't have the message could run faster than the one
who did. What's your point? Generally
speaking, the man without the message is more gifted and faster
than the man with the message. And you know a man's natural
gifts generally go against him in this thing of the preaching
of the gospel if he starts trusting those natural gifts. I just think
this is interesting. The man without the message was
faster. If there's going to be a race,
he's going to win it than the man who has the message. Cushi
evidently wasn't all that fast, but he had the message. And that's
what we want, isn't it? We want the message of the Lord. Now let's go on reading, verse
24. And David sat between the two gates, and the watchman went
up to the roof over the gate and to the wall and lifted up
his eyes and looked, and behold, a man running alone. Now this
was Hamias, the man without the message. He gets there first.
And the watchman cried and told the king, And the king said,
if he be alone, there's tidings in his mouth. And he came apace
and drew near. He wanted to hear what was going
to be said. Both of these men come running. Verse 26, and the
watchman saw another man running. This is Cushi, the man with the
message. And the watchman called unto the porter and said, behold,
another man running alone. And the king saith, he also bringeth
tidings. And the watchman said, now you
remember, David did not go out to battle. We remember that from
last week. He stayed at the gate and waited
to hear the news of what took place. They said, we don't want
you to go out. You're worth 10,000 of us. We
want you to stay here and support us from the gate. So that's exactly
what's taking place. And the two men come, verse 27.
And the watchman saith me, thinks the running of the foremost is
like the running of Amiaz, the son of Zadok. He could recognize
who he was coming to the gate. And the king said, he's a good
man and cometh with good tidings. And Amiaz called and said unto
the king, all is well. And my marginal reading says,
peace, peace. All is well. You're all right. Everything's good. What is the
message of a false prophet? Peace, peace, when there is no
peace. That's the message he comes bringing.
All is well. You're in good shape. Everything
is great. All is well. That's the message of the false
prophet. And he fell down, verse 28, to
the earth upon his face before the king and said, blessed be
the Lord thy God, which has delivered up the men that lifted up their
hand against my Lord, the king. And the king said, is the young
man Absalom safe? That's all he was interested
in. He was interested in his son. He wasn't interested in
anything else. And this doesn't seem very commendable on his
part, does it? I mean, after all, these men
rest their necks to save David. They were fighting for David.
He doesn't ask about the men that were killed. He doesn't
ask about the men that were killed in the wood that we considered
a couple of weeks ago. There were more killed, devoured
by the woods and the forest than there were by the sword. He doesn't
ask any of these things regarding what took place. All he wanted
to know is about his son. Now, while I don't commend David
for his thoughtlessness toward everybody else, you can see the
picture, don't you? What is God concerned with? His
Son. Anything else? No. His Son. What about us? Well, you and I are going to
be used to glorify His Son in one way or the other. But God's
concern is the glory of His Son. And particularly the message
about His death. his death. Now look at Ahimez's
answer. And the king said, Is the young
man Absalom safe? And Amias answered, When Joab
sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great
tumult, but I knew not what it was. I don't understand anything
about his death. I didn't know what was going
on. Now I would say that that is pretty much the average preacher. I saw a tumult, But I can't give
any explanation about the death of the king's son. I don't understand
that. I can't give the reason behind
it. Verse 30, And the king said unto
him, Turn aside and stand here. And he turned aside and stood
still. And behold, Cushi came. And Cushi said, Tidings, my lord
the king, For the Lord hath avenged thee this day of all that rose
up against thee. And the king said unto Cushiah,
same question, all I want to know is about my son. What do
you have to say about my son? Is the young man Absalom safe?
And Cushai answered, the enemies of my Lord the king and all the
rise up against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. He lets him know. And he was
not a witness. He saw the death of Absalom. And he said, anybody that rises
up against the king, let him have the same end as that young
man. And the king was much moved. and went up to the chamber over
the gate and wept. And as he went, thus he said,
oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, would to God
I died for thee. Oh, Absalom, my son, my son."
And we're gonna consider this more next week, his reaction
and how Joab talked to him about it. But remember, Cushah came
with the one thing that David wanted to hear about, his son. Now that lets us know the difference
between somebody sent by God and somebody not sent by God. Somebody sent by God has the
message of the death of the king's son. That's his message. The man who's not sent by God
saw a tumult. He saw a lot of activity. He
could say this happened and that happened, but he can't tell the
truth concerning the death of the king's son. Now, Cushiah
was a witness. Now, religion confuses proselytizing
and witnessing. The proselyte is seeking to gain
converts. I'm seeking to win you over to
my point of view. I'm seeking to make you a part
of my religion or the way I believe or my church. We're seeking church
growth. We're seeking all these things
to take place that we can feel good about. God's blessing us.
Look what's happening. That's proselytizing. I'm going to go
out and I'm going to try to win you over to my point of view,
have you a part of my church so I can say, look what I've
done. Look how God's using me. He's using me to save these people
and to do this and all these different things that religious
people love to think God's using them to do. What's a witness
do? He simply tells what he's seen. That's it. You know, churches,
I shouldn't call them churches, religious organizations train
people to witness. You ever thought about how ridiculous
that is? That's corrupt on the very surface,
to train people to witness, to train people. You know, that's
dishonest. That's dishonest. You don't train
people to witness. You witness as to what you personally
have seen. That's what Kusha was doing.
He was bearing witness to what he personally had seen. Now what
have I seen? What can I bear witness to? And I think it's interesting
the word witness here is where we get the word martyr from.
What is a martyr? He's someone who dies for what
he's bearing witness to. What you bear witness to is something,
by the grace of God, it's so important to you, you're willing
to die for it. Now, if I see you walk into Kroger's,
any of the Kroger's in Lexington, and somebody says, if you testify
that they walked in Kroger's, you're gonna be put to death.
You know what I'm gonna say? It might've been somebody else.
I might've seen wrong. But if you tell me, You'll be
put to death if you deny, if you don't deny that salvation
is completely in Christ and has absolutely nothing to do with
works. His righteousness is, you better deny that his righteousness
is the only, by the grace of God and only by the grace of
God, I'll die for what I believe. And so will every other believer.
Not just me. You know it's only by grace you
do that. You know that. You know you'd
chicken out if it wasn't for grace. But by the grace of God, you'll
die for the gospel you believe. That's what a witness is. Now,
a witness is not giving second-hand information, is he? I'm not telling
you what I read in a book. I'm not telling you what somebody
else told me happened. If I'm bearing witness, I'm telling
you what I have seen. Now, a witness, and that's what
Cushaw was, gives a subjective presentation of the objective
truth. Now, what do those words mean?
What do I mean by that when I say a witness brings a subjective
presentation of the objective truth? Well, objective truth
is truth without reference to my experience. It's the truth
whether I believe it or not. It's the truth whether I hear
it or not. It's the truth whether I see it or not. Somebody says, I don't believe
in predestination. Does that make it so? It's true
whether you believe it or not. Somebody says, God said it, I
believe it, that settles it. Oh no. God said it and that settles
it whether you are I believe it or not. Forever, oh Lord,
thy word is settled in the heavens. Aren't you thankful for the objective
truth? Aren't you glad that you don't have to depend on me? to
tell you what the objective truth is. You can see if what I'm saying
is true according to this word. You've got this book that you're
to look at and see if I'm telling you the objective truth of the
word of God. It's not subject to my experience
or my thoughts or my feelings. No, it's the objective truth
of the scripture. Now, a witness is somebody who
brings the objective truth of the scripture from his own experience. What he's saying. what he's seen,
what he's witnessed, what he can bear witness to. Now, if
my subjective presentation of the truth, of the gospel, goes
against the scriptures, I'm a false witness. Now, when I'm preaching,
I'm giving you my experience of the gospel, what I've seen. You know, I've seen that Jesus Christ really is all
in salvation, that He's God. He's not like God. He is God. All that God is, is Christ. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. And I've seen that the only hope
I have of being saved is that Christ stood as my surety. and guaranteed my salvation before
I was ever born. And he kept the law for me, and
he died for me, and he was raised for me. And the only hope I have
is found in the gospel. I'm speaking what I've seen. I really believe that I'm a sinner,
and that the only hope I have is the freeness of God's grace.
I'm telling you what I've seen. But you've got to be able to
look at what I've seen and see if it's what the Scripture teaches. That's where you're going to
find out if I'm a real, really sent by God. If I'm sent by God,
my subjective message of the Scripture is going to be subject
to the Word of God. And if it's not subject to the
Word of God, it's not true. You see, our testimony has a
specific content, doesn't it? The gospel. Now, I got to admit
that I hate it when people want to give their personal testimonies.
It's always a testimony about how bad I was and how good I
am now. It's just an exercise in the
flesh. And I'm not interested in hearing
a personal testimony. But I am interested in hearing
a testimony that's subject to the Word of God, aren't you?
I want to hear that testimony. Now, if I'm a true witness of
God, I'll bring my subjective experience to the objective truth. Now, turn with me to Acts chapter
22. Paul is giving his experience
on the road to Damascus when the Lord blinded him, knocked
him off his horse. And then the Lord spoke to Ananias. I love the way the Lord speaks
to Ananias. You know, this is the only time we hear of Ananias. Never hear about him after this.
And I love this, if I was, If it would have been me making
the decision, I would have sent Peter, I would have sent John,
I would have sent one of the apostles. The Lord sends a nobody from
nowhere that you never hear of again. His name is Ananias. But this is an example of how
the Lord always sends somebody a preacher. He sent Paul a preacher. Now, he was gonna teach Paul
the gospel directly after this. He brought him into the third
heaven, you'll remember that. But right now, he sends him a
preacher. And I love the way Ananias, you
never hear about him before this or after this. But look at Ananias
coming to Paul, beginning in verse 12, and one Ananias, A devout man, according to the
law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,
came unto me, and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul." That's
the first time he'd ever talked to him, but God had already told
him, he's a chosen vessel to me. to bear my name among the
Gentiles. And Ananias said, you can read
about this in the ninth chapter when it actually happened. He
said, Lord, I've heard what evil this man does. He was scared
to go to him. He said, you go to him. You go
to him. And here he is coming to him.
Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour, I looked upon
him and he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee. Now evidently Ananias hadn't
been trained in witnessing because he should know you should never
deal with election right at the beginning. But that's what he says. The
God of our fathers hath chosen thee. For what? That thou shouldst
know his will and see that just one. and shouldst hear the voice
of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of
what you've seen and what you've heard. Brother Saul, the God of our
fathers hath chosen thee that you would see that just one. What a name of our Lord! Have
you seen Have you seen how God can be just and justify you,
as sinful as you are, through that just one? There's just one,
just one, the Lord Jesus Christ. That you might see that just
one, secondly, and that you might know His will. Now listen to
me. I know what God's will is. Are
you talking about you know what God's will for your life is?
What he would have you do this? No, I'm not talking about any
of that. I just take a day at a time and find out what it is
after it took place. That's the only way I ever know
what God's will is. But I know his will concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day, and this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
that seeth the Son and believeth on Him should have
everlasting life." Now, I know that's what God's will is. It's
God's will for all the elect to be saved by Christ. It's God's
will for everyone who looks to Christ only to be saved. And
next he says, to hear the voice of his mouth. Now I've never
heard him audibly. If I said I heard him audibly,
I'd be lying. I'd be lying. And anybody that
says the Lord said this to me or said that to me, write it
down. They're liars. They're liars. The Lord never spoke to
them. They're lying. But I've heard his voice more
powerfully than audibly. When I have heard the gospel
and known this is the gospel, I'm hearing not the opinion of
a man. I'm hearing the very Word of
God. Here's what it is to hear His voice. Turn to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. Verse 4. Knowing, brethren beloved,
your election of God. Now how did Paul know that? For
our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. You were assured
that this is the Word of God. This is God's truth. Look in
chapter 2, verse 13. For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of
God which you heard of us, you received it not as the Word of
men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. which effectually
worketh also in you that believe." Now, that's what it is to hear
his voice, to know that what you're hearing is not some man's
opinion. It's the gospel. It's the truth. It's the word of God. Now, this
is what the true witness bears witness to. If I'm a true witness,
I'm not so much gonna be telling you about my experience, You
know, anytime somebody talks about their experience, there's
always a one-upmanship. You know, I'm this way. That's not what the witness does.
The witness gives what he's seen of God's message. Am I as volunteered? He can run
fast, but he wasn't sent. Cushiah was sent of God, and
he bore witness to what he had seen, and it had something to
do with the death of the king's son. Well, the Old Testament's
amazing, isn't it? Okay, pick up next week. Thank you.