And it came to pass after this
that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run
before him. And Absalom rose up early and
stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man
that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, Then Absalom
called unto him and said, Of what city art thou? And he said,
Thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto
him, See, thy matters are good and right, and there's no man
deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said, moreover, oh, that
I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any
suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice.
Boy, that sounds like a politician, doesn't it? I mean, that's just
what we hear all the time. And it was so that when any man
came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took
him and kissed him. He pulled him up when he would
lower himself before him. He pulled him up and kissed him.
And on this manner did Absalom do all Israel that came to the
king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of
the men of Israel. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name. And Lord, how Thankful we are
for the complete, free, sufficient, God-glorifying salvation that's
in him. And we ask in his name that we
might be enabled to sit at his feet and hear his word. Oh Lord,
that you would speak. Give us hearing ears and receptive
hearts. And Lord, we confess our sins
that are ever before us. We pray for forgiveness. We pray
for cleansing from our sins. Lord, we long for that day when
we'll no longer sin. And Lord, how amazed we are that
in thy son there is no sin. And we give thanks. Lord, we
pray for our friends that aren't here, that you would Protect
them and preserve them and keep them by your grace. We pray for
all your people wherever they meet together. Lord we pray for
our nation that you would give our leaders wisdom and enable
us to be enabled to live a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness
and honesty. We pray that you would speak
in power and save sinners even this day according to your will.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now, turn back to 2 Samuel chapter
13. I remember when I was looking at this, I thought this was kind
of a strange response. In that chapter is where Absalom's sister, Tamar, was
raped by Amnon, and Amnon wants to kill him, or Absalom wants
to kill him. And I thought this is a strange
response. But look in verse 20 of 2 Samuel
chapter 13. And Absalom, her brother, saith
unto her, Hath Amnon thy brother been with thee? But now hold
thy peace, my sister, he's thy brother. Regard not this thing. Now why did he have that kind
of reaction to that horrible crime? Regard not this thing. Now I'm convinced now that all
this time Absalom planned on taking the throne of his father.
Amnon was the firstborn. He was in line for the throne.
And I believe Absalom saw this. I'll have an excuse to kill him
because of what he did to my sister. I'll be forgiven. People will Let me get by with
it." And even at this time, he thought, here is my chance to
kill Amnon. This is what I want to do, because
Amnon stood in front of him being the king. Amnon was the firstborn,
and he wanted to be the king, and he couldn't even wait till
David was dead. He ends up with this coup that we're reading
about, but he does so by ingratiating himself to the people. Now, Absalom
was an evil, wicked man. There's nothing good that can
be said about this man. And what comes to my mind is,
I don't see myself as any different. Do you? He was an evil and a
wicked man who had bad intentions. He wanted to usurp the throne
from David. And when I look at Absalom, and
the point is you have to have a holy nature. You have to be
born from above to see that you are totally depraved. If you
have a new nature, you see that you're no better than Absalom.
You see this in yourself. Now, that's where he was at.
He was, oh, what a wicked man he was. Now, what was taking
place in Absalom, trying to take over the kingdom, David was seeing
again the fulfillment of 2 Samuel 12. Turn back there to 2 Samuel
12, verse 11. This is because of his sin with
Bathsheba and Uriah. suffer consequences of that in
his life for the rest of his life. Look in verse 11. Thus
saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against thee out
of thine own house. And I will take thy wives before
thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor. And he shall lie
with thy wives in the sight of the sun. And Absalom did that.
If you go on reading his 10 concubines, David's 10 concubines, he went
into them. And God says all this is going to take place. And he
is experiencing this. Now, David, was also willfully
blind to Absalom's faults. It was his son. He loved him.
He was a big, good-looking guy, the best-looking guy in Israel,
stood head and shoulders above everyone. And David just wouldn't,
even after what he did to Tamar, David didn't do anything about
it. He just, he got mad, but he just let it go. He was willfully
blind to these things that Absalom was doing. And as a matter of
fact, several commentators have said that if you read the Psalms
that David wrote during this time of Absalom, he seemed to
be physically ill. He would talk about his physical
infirmities and his sicknesses and so on. And maybe he just
felt too bad to do anything. I don't know. But it was wrong
in the way he dealt with Absalom. And Absalom represents, Satanic
temptation. Absalom wanted to turn the hearts
of the people away from David to himself. And isn't that what
Satan does? He wants to turn our hearts from
Christ, looking to Christ only. That's what Absalom was doing,
and we're going to see how he ingratiated himself and his methodology
in doing this. And Absalom represents the flesh.
Look in chapter 14, verses 25 and 26. But in all Israel there was not
to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole
of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish
in him. And when he pulled his hair, head, for it was every
year's end that he pulled it. The hair was heavy upon him,
and therefore he pulled it. He weighed the hair of his head,
and at two hundred shekels after the king's weight." Now, this
was a man, from a fleshly standpoint, everyone was impressed with.
Everyone loved him because they were looking according to the
way things look according to the flesh. That's all he was,
somebody according to the flesh. But how men are impressed with
things of this nature. They were impressed with Absalom.
And Absalom represents the essence of sin. He wanted to take David's
place. It was rebellion. He was rebelling
against his father, David. Now, when Satan tempted Eve,
here was the deal breaker. You eat this fruit, and you will
be just like God. You'll no longer be under his
rule. You'll no longer be under his
authority. You'll be just like him. And
God's trying to keep this from you. It was rebellion against
David's authority. And all sin is rebellion against
God's authority. I mean, here's an example. Free
will. What is free will? Free will is rebellion against
God's sovereign will. That's all it is. Works religion
in any respect is rebellion against God's authority. And that's what's
going on in this passage of scripture. Hold your finger there and turn
with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse 3. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God,
or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple
of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that
when I was with you, I told you these things. Now this is the
essence of rebellion, trying to take the place of God. And that's what we see in Absalom.
He was trying to take the place of David, and he was rebelling
against the authority of David. Now, let's see how he operated.
This is a challenge with me using just my left hand. Verse 1, back
to our text. 2 Samuel 15. And it came to pass after this. After what? We'll look in verse
28 of chapter 14. So Absalom dwelt two full years
in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face. Therefore Absalom
sent for Joab to have sent him to the king, but he would not
come to him. And when he was sent again the second time, he
wouldn't come. Therefore he said unto his servants,
See, Joab's field is near me, and he hath barley there. Go
and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the
field on fire. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom
and his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have your servants
set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, Behold,
I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee
to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? It had
been good for me to have been there still. Now therefore let
me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me,
let him kill me. So Joab came to the king and
told him, and when he called for Absalom, he came to the king
and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king,
and the king kissed Absalom. Now he used force. He used whatever
it took to get back into the king's presence. He had Joab's
fields burned so Joab would come to the king, and he's gonna use
whatever means it takes to get himself into good graces with
the king and ingratiate it to the king. And that way he can
keep doing what he's doing. Now, and it came to pass after
this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men
to run before him. Now, this is impressive. The
king's sons all rode on mules. You can read about that in 2
Samuel 13. They all rode on mules. But he gets a horse and a chariot
and 50 men to run before him to show his power and his royalty.
He's trying to impress the flesh. Verse 2, and Absalom rose up
early and stood beside the way of the gate. Now, the gate is
where the politicians gathered and where the king gathered and
where people would come up and if they had a problem, they'd
go to the king at the gate and he would make decisions. It was
the place of justice. And so he went to the place where
the king should have been. And Absalom rose up early and
stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man
that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom
called unto him and said, of what city art thou? And he said,
thy servant is one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto
him, see, thy matters are good and right. You're right in what
you're doing in this controversy. You're the one that's right,
not your opponent. You are. He didn't even hear
what the controversy was. He just said, you're right. You're
good and you're right. He's playing up to their flesh,
isn't he? You know, I've got a problem.
You know, you do. That person's done you wrong.
You're right in your position. And yeah, yeah. And that's what
was going on at this time. He was ingratiating himself to
the people without any regard to justice. Whatever they said,
yeah, you're right. I agree with you. And in doing
this, his motive was to steal the hearts of the people. He
rose up early. And his purpose was, verse six,
and on this manner did Absalom to all Israel, but came to the
king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of
the men of Israel. And there ended up being a coup
and David had to leave, as we're gonna go on seeing in this chapter. He had to flee for his life because
Absalom was gonna kill him and kill everybody else and become
king. Now, he told the people what
they wanted to hear And it was not based upon justice and righteousness,
but just hearing, thy matters are good and right. Now, isn't
that a picture of human religion? You're good. You're right. Vindication
of what you're doing. This is good. And there's a subtle
stab at the king going on. Look in verse 3. Now, this was
a stab at the king. Now, no doubt the king should
have been there. He should have been there. I
don't know what was going on with David at this time. He should
have been there, because that's what the king does. And he wasn't.
And so Absalom used this against him. He was just taking his place,
and he was using this to exploit the king. And the thing is, if
anybody wants to find a matter to exploit about anybody else,
they've got plenty to work with. Isn't that true? If someone wants
to get you and criticize you or get me and criticize me and
fine thing, plenty of ammo. And he used this against David,
David should have been there, I don't know why he wasn't, but
he should have been there, and he said, oh, if I was here, if
I had this position of authority, I would give everybody justice,
but there's nobody here to hear you on these matters. This sounds
so much like a political campaign, doesn't it? I mean, about how
to get in power, you know, you see that. Verse 3, And Absalom
said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there
is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. And Absalom said,
Moreover, O that I were made judge in the land, that every
man which hath any suit or cause might come to me, and I would
do him justice. This is again a strike at David.
You're not getting this now. You're not getting justice now.
But if I was in charge, you'd be getting what's you're due.
You'd be getting what is right and what is just. Political promises. Verse 5. And it was so that when any man
came in to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand and took
him and kissed him. I mean, they would come down
and bow to him and he'd raise him up and say, you don't need
to do that. I'm for the people. I'm for the people. And he'd
kiss him. And so he was just ingratiating him with everybody.
And I think this is almost humorous. I mean, this seems so much like
a regular political It's what's done, you know, for the people,
for the people. Verse 6, And on this manner did
Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So
Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Now, what he did
worked. He stole the hearts of the men
of Israel. He turned them against David
toward himself. Now, there's two things that
strike me about this passage of scripture. Absalom's way of stealing the
hearts of the people. Number one, flattering the flesh. Flattering the flesh. Your matters
are good and right. You don't need to bow down. Get
up. Get up, don't do obeisance to me. Flattering of the flesh. Letting them think that they
were okay. And number two, there was absolutely no justice in
what he did. This wasn't based upon absolute
justice. He, before he even, your matters
are good and right before we even heard what they were. It
was pure flattery, it was pure fleshly appeal. And that's the
way he stole the hearts of the people. And that's exactly the
opposite of what the gospel does. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ never flatters the flesh. Doesn't happen. Doesn't happen. The gospel doesn't do that. The
gospel dresses us as we are completely and totally evil. God saw the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's the way the gospel
addresses me and you, as completely sinful, not flattering the flesh,
but it addresses us as we are. And secondly, while false religion
never has absolute justice behind it, the absolute justice of God. And here's an example. Say the teaching of universal
redemption. I'm going to say something about
that this morning in the morning service. But universal redemption,
where Christ dies for all men, and some of those men that he
died for wind up in hell anyway. Where's the justice of God there?
There is no justice there. If God could punish someone,
punish his son for my sins and then turn around and punish me
in hell for the same sins, there's no justice there. And in the
gospel, in the gospel of God's grace, it always stands for the
absolute justice of God. So Absalom pictures really human
religion, flattering the flesh, Your manners are good and right.
And oh, if you'd come to me, I'd do you justice before he
even hears what's going on. And he's going to end up almost winning. But this is a
glorious story. We're gonna be spending several
weeks in it. But this is where he begins with this flattery
of the flesh, and he steals the hearts of the people. And we'll
pick up in verse seven. But let's look at this, verse
seven. And it came to pass after 40 years, 40 years after David
was made king, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let
me go and pay my vow, which I vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. Notice,
he had no intention of going to Hebron to pay a vow. He puts all of his actions under
religious language. He hides it all. I'm going, I
vowed a vow to the Lord, and I'm going to go to Hebron and
pay it. And David said, go in peace. But he had no intention
of that, because look at verse 10. But Absalom sent spies throughout
all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound
of the trumpet, then shall you say, Absalom reigns in Hebron. He couched his wicked desire
under religious language. I'm going to go pay a vow without
ever having any intention to do it. So we see Absalom for
what he is. Okay.