We're live on Facebook now. We're still in 2 Samuel chapter
18, the last part of it. beginning at verse 19, but let's
seek the Lord's blessing. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity again to meet in
your name and we pray that the things that we learn tonight
will be an honor to you and they will be good for us. Save us from simply learning
facts. May we learn something of Christ
and his gospel this evening. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Now let's begin. We'll just read
this portion of the story. It says, beginning in verse 19
of 2 Samuel. Now Ahimaaz Son of Zadok said,
let me run and take the news to the king that the Lord has
delivered him from the hand of his enemies. You are not the
one to take the news today, Joab told him. You may take the news
another time, but you must not do so today because the king's
son is dead. Then Joab said to Cushite, go
tell the king what you have seen. The Cushite bowed down before
Joab and ran off. Ahimeaz, son of Zadok, again
said to Joab, come what may, please let me run behind the
Cushite. But Joab replied, my son, why
do you want to go? You don't have any news that
will bring you a reward. He said, come what may, I want
to run. So Joab said, run. Then Ahimeaz
ran by the way of the plain and outran the Cushite. While David
was sitting between the inner and outer gates, the watchman
went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked out,
he saw a man running alone. The watchman called out to the
king and reported it. The king said, if he is alone,
he must have good news. The man came closer and closer.
Then the watchman saw another man running, and he called down
to the gatekeeper. Look, another man running alone. The king said, he must be bringing
good news too. The watchman said, it seems to
me that the first one runs like Ahimaaz, son of Zadok. He's a good man, the king said.
He comes with good news. When Ahimaaz He bowed down before the king
with his face to the ground and said, Praise be to the Lord your
God. He has delivered up the men who
lifted their hands against my Lord, the king. The king asked,
Is the young man Absalom safe? Ahimeaz answered, I saw great
confusion just as Joab was about to send the king's servant and
me, your servant, but I don't know what it was. The king said,
stand aside and wait here. So he, that is Ahimeas, stepped
aside and stood there. Then the Cushite arrived and
said, my lord, the king, hear the good news. The Lord has delivered
you today from all who rose up against you. The king asked the
Cushite, is the young man Absalom safe? The Cushite replied, May
the enemies of my Lord the King and all who rise up to harm you
be like that young man. The king was shaken. He went
up to the room over the gateway and wept. And as he went, he
said, Oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom. If only I had died instead of
you, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. Now, at the end of our last
lesson, David's son and enemy, Absalom. Now that's an unusual
combination. Son and enemy. Our children may
bring us grief, but rarely do they become our enemies. But
Absalom had made himself an enemy of David. But he had been defeated and
killed. This was against David's wishes.
Remember, David wanted him defeated but spared. See, that's the thing. You can't do that. You know,
when the Lord God works with us, you might say, well, we are
defeated by the Lord, but we are spared. Actually not. He
defeats us and makes us into a new person. He kills the old
and replaces the new. That's why he says, I kill and
I make alive. Now, It's true that when God
does a work of grace in someone's heart, that doesn't mean their
body dies instantly or anything. What we're talking about is God
will kill a man as to his own view of his own righteousness.
He will cause a man to realize he's dead and trespasses and
sins. But there's only one way to defeat an enemy. Death must happen. Of course,
the death that reconciled us to God was not ours. It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you can see, death was required for God to triumph over His enemies. But Absalom was defeated and
dead, so now news must be sent to David informing him of his
army's victory. two separate men took the news
to David. And we can learn a lot about
gospel preaching. I've entitled this lesson, Bringing
Good News. See how many times the phrase
good news was mentioned? You know, oh, one man, he's by
himself, he must bring good news. Another man by himself, he must
bring good news. Oh, it's Ahimaaz, he's a good
man, he must be bringing good news. Well, who is qualified
to bring good news? And, of course, we realize the
word gospel actually came from God's spell. God, in the old way, they said
good. In fact, actually, it was spelled G-O-D. It was still pronounced
good. And then spell story. or concoction
or whatever. And so that's how the word gospel
came to us. And it means essentially good
news, but the Greek word literally means good message. So who is qualified and who is
sent to bring good news? Ahimehaz, in verse 19, asked
to be the one sent. He said, let me run and take
the news to the king. Now, we don't have to assign
any evil intent or motive to Ahimehaz, not necessarily even
a selfish one. His request likely arose from
sincere love for David and the joy he felt over the defeat of
David's enemies. And he wanted to be the one to
go tell David. And there was nothing wrong with Ahimeoz wanting
to do it. But then Joab says, you are not
the one to take the news today. The news needed to be delivered. And it was good of Ahimeoz that
he wanted to be the one to deliver it. But neither of those facts
made him the right man to carry the news. Now, I remember in
my youth, they were always trying to talk us in to being in some
kind of ministry. They always referred to it as
full-time ministry. You know, and we as a teenager,
you know, how many times during the so-called what I call the
invitation at the end of the service, of course, they first
invite open people would make a profession of faith. But then
it always seemed somehow they get on. Well, who would who will
dedicate themselves to full time service? And the unfortunate
thing is it gave quite an opportunity for pride. because anybody that
would do that, of course, was looked up to. Well, folks, we
don't send people out as preachers just because they want to. There's
nothing wrong with them wanting to, but that doesn't mean that
God sent them. He said to Ahimeas, Joab said
to Ahimeas, not today, Another time will be a good time, but
not today. And the reason was, is the king's
son is dead. Now, I don't know exactly why that
made a difference. I mean, there's a few things
that could come to mind. First of all, it could be the
joy of saying, yes, it's good news, but the king's not going
to take it that way. and you don't want to be the
one to tell the king that his son is dead. Because Ahimaaz
is the son of a priest and likely will be a priest himself someday
and therefore serve in the court. Wouldn't it be a good idea for
him to be the one that the king was upset with because from the
King's point of view, he was bringing bad news, not good news.
Now, we notice through all of this story, Joab's the one that's
exercising wisdom. You know, he's the one that knew
that no matter what David wanted, Absalom needed to kill him. And
it didn't matter what David told him, he was going to do what
needed to be done. And here he's showing wisdom. This isn't your day. It's not
your time. So then Joab said to Cushite,
go tell the king what you have seen. The Cushite bowed down
before Joab and ran off. Now, there are several things
we can learn about one who's qualified to uh preach the gospel
and maybe the word qualified is not the right thing way we
can detect someone who's been sent to god to preach the gospel
first of all they're often nameless joab said to a kushite and um i don't know where kush
is i'm not even sure it's in israel of course you know they're
uh Yeah, it is. There's cities, there are city
names. It might be a lot of different
nations. So who knows what Cushy came from? But that's all we
know about him. He's a Cushite. It also might
have nothing to do with where he's from, because there was
a person named Cush. And it might merely mean he's
a descendant of this person named Cush. But here's the thing is
we don't know who he is. He had not advanced to some honorable
place. He was, for all intents and purposes,
a nobody. And we could not go to Israel
and discover his grave. There's no monument to this man
like Absalom had raised up for himself. Even if you did find
his grave, and he found his bones, you wouldn't know they were his,
because you don't even know who he is. He's just some cushite. And here's the second thing.
He went because he was sent. In Isaiah chapter six, which
I believe is a great illustration of how God calls men whom he
is going to send. to preach. That's the chapter
that begins with, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord high and lifted up. And the experience of being called
by God and sent to preach was horrifying. It wasn't some gentle tug. It wasn't a suggestion on the
part of God. God made himself known to Isaiah,
and yet put Isaiah in the dust. Isaiah became a nobody. You could
have said, well, he was just some Israelite then. His name
meant nothing. And he said, woe is me, for I'm
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among the people of unclean lips.
Now, he had been preaching for a while. And we're not going
to say God hadn't sent him, but his message surely changed. after
this experience. And he, Isaiah, thought he was
going to die. But then the Lord, or angel,
took some coal off of the altar and touched his lips. And he
says, your lips have been purified. In other words, yes, you are
a man of unclean lips, but God makes the unclean clean and uses
it. And then a voice was heard. Who
shall I sin and who will go for us now? It's important to note the order. Whom shall I send, says God,
then who will go?" Being willing to go is not necessarily an indication
that you've been sent. And I like the way Isaiah answered. He didn't say, I'll go. Now that's, I remember those
invitations, that's the way they would put it. You know, God needs
laborers in his field. Will you go? And Isaiah did not
say, I'll go. He said, here am I, send me. He wasn't going to go unless
he was sent. And so here we have this Kushite, this unknown fellow,
and he went and he went for only one reason. He was sent. He was sent because he had seen
something. Ahimeas had not seen anything.
Do you hear what Joab told him? He said, when Joab sent him,
he said, go tell the king what you have seen. Now we'll learn
here in a few minutes, Ahimeas hadn't seen anything. He had
a report, but it's not anything he had seen. So Ahimaaz was an
eyewitness of the news that he was going to deliver. And then
fourthly, he was submissive and obedient. And I put those, both
those words, submissive and obedient, because it describes what the
fellow did in two different words. It says first, what did he do?
He bowed down before Joab. That's submission. He had not asked to go. He didn't
take it on himself to go. But when Joab said go, he bowed. This man did whatever Joab said
to do. And then, unlike so many religious
people who make a public display of their love and affection and
submission to Christ, did what Joab said. The Lord says, how come you say,
call me Lord, and do not do what I say? When this man bowed to
Joab, he was essentially saying, Lord. But he didn't just say,
Lord, Lord. It says, and then he took off. He showed respect to the one
that said it, And then he obeyed and went. And that's the character
of one who's been called to preach. Now in verse 22, Ahimaaz, son
of Uzziah, again said to Joab, come what may, please let me
run behind the Cushite. He just seemed determined to
go. I recall people like this in
my college days, people that were in Bible school, and they
were determined they were going to be in the ministry somehow.
And I remember, Bonnie, I don't know if you remember this story
from Lindblad, but there was a friend of his that was going
to come to the church, and he was a missionary, and he was
on what they call in those circles, they call it deputation. And
what it is, the missionaries go from church to church trying
to drum up support so they can go on the mission field. This
man had been on deputation for five years, and in five years,
he'd not been able to convince enough churches to support his
work so that he could go. Now, that should be a sign to
this fellow that God hadn't sent him. Henry used to say this about
preachers. He said, if God is going to send
a man, he's going to teach him the truth. He will have experienced
it for himself. He said he will provide the way. He said, and somebody's going
to believe him. Somebody. Might not be a lot,
but somebody's going to believe him. Well, this that missionary,
there wasn't any significant amount of people going to chip
in. The Lord wasn't providing the
way. It was time for him to say, well, I guess what I thought
was my calling isn't. But at him odds, he wouldn't
give up. Come what may, it doesn't matter to me. Even if my delivery
of the news obsessed the king, I'm ready. Now this sounds like
a very zealous and committed man. And you know, Our church was trying to convince
kids who were not interested at all to get enough interested
that they'll make this commitment to full-time service. And here
is a man full of zeal and energy and determination, and he's being
turned down. You see, our will is not the
issue here. I remember hearing Cecil Roach.
He was an elder at 13th Street Baptist Church. And this was
back in 98. And I was, I had gone to my parents' house
for a couple of weeks, and it was while I was there. And Henry
must have been out of town or something. So Cecil was filling
in, and he preached on the story of Jonah. And Cecil was very
good at handling Old Testament stories. But he talked about
Jonah, who did not want to go. And the Lord arranged for him to
go. He did not want the people to
believe, but they did. And after they did, he was still
upset. And at the end, Cecil wrote, she said, God is sovereign. And he will give his word to
his people, whether or not the prophet is willing to go. And so, like I said, we may respect
him as because of his healingness, but that did not qualify him
to be the one. Joab replied to him, my son,
why do you want to go? You don't have any news that
will bring you a reward. Now, I would assume that when people brought good news to a
king, there was usually a reward given to them. We saw sometimes
when they brought bad news that they were treated as though they
were the ones who created the bad news. And I suppose it went
the other way as well. I don't know that that Emma Oz was interested in
the reward, but we do have this from Joab. You don't have anything
worth telling the king. Whether or not you're in this
for the reward, you don't have anything to say that's worth
listening to. Now, that's kind of tough. Now,
every believer has something worth listening to, but that
does not mean he has the ability to say it in such a way that
the Lord would send him out as a preacher, a pastor, evangelist,
missionary, whatever. Because they're just simply not
trained enough in the Word, or God didn't give them that gift
to do it. Now, I believe all God's people are qualified to
tell their neighbors, and they should. I don't mean go knock
their door down and pester them with it, but when an opportunity
arises and the Lord puts something in your mouth, well, spit it
out. Say it. But we're talking about
men that God sends out as gospel preachers. But Joab is telling
the young man that he's got nothing worthwhile to tell the king.
Joab knew what the king wanted to hear, what that is, what he
wanted to hear about, and what sort of testimony he wanted.
He wanted eyewitness testimony. but Ahimaaz was not an eyewitness
of anything. In Luke chapter 1, verses 1 and
2, we read this, many have undertaken to draw up an account of the
things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed
down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and
servants of the Word. All of the apostles of the Lord
Jesus Christ were eyewitnesses to the things that they spoke
about. In particular, they were eyewitnesses of the risen Lord. They had seen him. Now, it says in courts, you know,
these days that testimony in court, some of the worst testimony
is eyewitness testimony. But that's because, generally
speaking, an eyewitness of a crime is just catching flashes, moments,
you know. And when we can't see the whole
thing, our mind fills in the gaps. Well, the apostles were
not eyewitnesses for a moment. Eleven of them had spent three,
three and a half years with him. And then they spent 40 days with
him. They were eyewitnesses with plenty
of time to examine. the testimony and the proof of
the testimony they were going to carry. And then the Lord Jesus,
excuse me, the Apostle Peter said, for we did not follow cleverly
devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Now what's Peter talking about
there? He saw the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. He
saw the Lord in His glory. Therefore, when he speaks about
the glory of the coming of the Lord Jesus, he's speaking as
an eyewitness of that glory. Well, Ahimehaz will not be deterred. He says, Come what may, I want
to run. So Joab said, Run. Then Ahimehaz ran by way of the
plain and outran the Kushite. Now, Joab was a wise man, but
he's a man. I imagine he just got frustrated
listening to him. And he probably thought, the
Kushite's got enough of a head start, so let him go. It won't
hurt anything now. He's got nothing to add, but
he's got nothing to take away either. So if he wants to waste
his energy running, let him go. And it says here that he ran
by way of the plain and outran the Cushite. Now, seeing that
it says Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, then we must assume
that the Cushite took a mountain path. And as I read that, all
I could think of was the words from Isaiah, which Paul quotes,
how beautiful upon the mountains. are the feet of him that brings
good news. Good news comes from the mountain,
not from the plain. The good news was performed on
Mount Calvary. And it was on Mount Zion that
the Spirit of God descended. And upon those apostles gathered
there at the temple, and put the good news in them, and from
there, sent them out. Now, we know that there's nothing
literal to be taken as we apply this to gospel preachers. Of
course, I come from the mountains. But the point is, I just thought
that was interesting to note. It says that Ahimaaz went by
the plain And so we assume the Cushite went the mountain path.
And the scriptures say, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of him that brings good news. Now, Hamas's energy and zeal
and easier path got him there first. And while David was sitting there
between the inner and outer gates, The city either had two complete
walls, or simply the gate to the city was like, and I think
from the description, this is what it sounded like. You can
imagine a ring around the city, and then the gate was like the foundation of a house, but
really it was as tall as the walls. And therefore, if anybody
wanted to get in the city, they had to break through two gates
to get through there, because it speaks of him going to the
room above that area between the gates. So we assume he's
kind of like in a walled in, a stone walled area between the
two gates of the city. And this would allow him to be
outside the gate, the one gate, maybe he could see out or whatever,
but the city was still protected because they could close that
one gate behind him. But for whatever reason, he was
sitting between those two gates. And the watchman went up on the
roof of the of the gateway by the wall. As he looked out, he
saw a man running alone. And so he told the king about
it, the king said, well, if he's running alone, it must be good
news. And the man came closer and closer.
Of course, in the watchman and one, of course, we realize the
one he sees first is a Himalayas. He came by the plane. He got
there first. But he's not there yet. And he
doesn't get there before the watchman sees another man coming.
And so David's even more excited. Look, there's another man. That
must be good news. A man running along. I don't know why that
would make a difference. Maybe if it was bad news, like
the battle was lost, they would be sending the entire contingent
to whisk the king away somewhere for his safety. But if they just
send one guy with news, it's got to be good news. And well, the first one gets
close enough. And the watchman said, it seems
to me that the first one runs like Ahimeos, son of Zadok. So evidently, Ahimeos was commonly
a messenger. They recognized the way he ran.
I mean, what other reason would they have for knowing how a person
runs? They'd seen him run before. And
so, once again, the king says, he's a good man. He comes with
good news. Now, you'll notice in all this,
I have not assigned any evil motives or intention to him. I don't think there were any. He was sincere in what he was
doing. He was a good man, as men go. That didn't make him the man
to send. It didn't mean that he was the
right one to carry this news. Then Ahimeaz called out to the
king, all is well. Now, from Ahimeaz's point of
view, all was well. But remember, he's carrying news,
not to himself. but to someone else. And it was
not all well to that person. He bowed down before the king with
his face to the ground and said, praise be to the Lord your God.
He has delivered up the men who lifted their hand against the
Lord or against my Lord, the king. Now, I think here is an
example of what many people who get excited about preaching the
gospel, what they do, and it excited them because they think,
I've got good news. And they do have good news. But
the good news that a gospel preacher has is built upon bad news. Because it's only because of
the bad news that the good news is the good news. And what did
Hemingway and I start with saying? all is well. That's not how you
start preaching. That's not how the church or
any God sent preacher is to speak to the world. Because all isn't
well. There's a real serious problem. You are dead in trespasses and
sins. And if you remain that way, the
God of the universe is going forever. Gospel preaching does not start
with, all is well. And David is going to have to
take the bad news first. And he's going to have to, as
we'll learn, he's going to have to come to terms with the bad news before
the message can become the good news. Well, What Ahimaaz says sounds
like good news. The battle has been won. The
king asked, is the young man Absalom safe? Notice the answer
of Ahimaaz. I saw great confusion just as
Joab was about to send the king's servant and me, your servant.
But I don't know what it was. Now, I'm looking at this, and remember we read that Joab thrust
three spears through Absalom, and then his ten men fell upon
him. It must have hacked him to pieces.
But, you know, it was not, there was a whole lot going on. And
Ahilioth didn't see what was happening, but he had the idea,
quite possibly, even as those 10 men were finishing him off,
Joab is ready to send somebody out because he says, just as
Joab was about to send the king's servant and me, your servant.
Here's the thing. You'll notice he said, Joab sent
me. Joab didn't send him. Joab said,
OK. Joab sent one man. One man. And the proof is this. Only one
man had any news to tell. He says, I don't know what it
was. The king said, stand aside and wait here. So he stepped
aside and stood there. Then the Kushite arrived. Still,
nobody gives us his name. He's just the Kushite. and he
said, my lord the king hear the good news the lord has delivered
you today from all who rose up against you. The king asked the
Cushite, is the young man Absalom safe? Now the Cushite began with
news very similar to what Himmels did. just the general victory
of David's armies over his enemies. And you can understand why he
wanted to do that. But still, that was not what the king needed
to hear or what his heart was told. And the Cushite replied,
and he replied correctly, and probably replied in a way that
David needed to hear it. He didn't just say, yes, Absalom's
dead. He said, may the enemies of my
Lord the King and all who rise up to harm you be like that young
man. He wouldn't even name Absalom.
He had absolutely no tenderness of heart toward Absalom. Remember, David's attitude here
was divided. And as I was thinking on this
whole matter, I thought, you know, we cannot be divided in
this matter of the gospel. The Lord said, because of him
and his gospel, that we would be hated and a person's enemies
would be the people of his own household. He said, I did not
come to bring peace on the earth. I have come to set father against
son, son against father, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law. These
were considered close and important relationships. And yet the gospel
would divide. Now, that doesn't mean that we
are to be official or reject our heavenly. The point is, We
do not accept false doctrine, a false gospel, just because
it's someone we love that's delivering it. You know, I can understand why
believing parents would be excited if one of their children says,
I'm going to be a preacher. And that's fine. if they're preaching the right
thing. But you couldn't even support
your own son if he's preaching a false gospel. You couldn't
be a participant in that, nor could you worship. You know,
say somebody's son starts a church, but they're preaching a false
gospel. You can't. You just got to say, well, I can't go there.
You know, this is a difference on which I cannot. Compromise. The truth first. People afterwards, and that's
not putting people in second place, or that is that's not
acting as though you don't care. The reason that you've got to
say the truth first, people next is you're not doing people any
good if you don't have the truth. So the truth has to be established.
That just has to be the way it is. And David was trying to play
both sides, but not this Cushite. He said, may every enemy of the
king be like him. He saw what happened to Absalom.
He didn't describe it in detail, probably a wise thing not to.
But he told David that Absalom was dead. And everyone who acts
like Absalom should be dead too. The king was shaken. And you can understand that. There's nothing wrong with David
being upset. That's his son, no matter what.
And he went up to the room over the gateway and he wept. And as he went, he said, Oh,
my son, Absalom. My son, my son, Absalom, if only I had died instead
of you, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. Now we'll look at more
about David's conduct. But there was nothing wrong that
David was shaken. This was his son and his son
was dead. And he loved his son despite
the fact his son was a scoundrel. And you know, I cannot imagine
how difficult it would be to bury a child whom you were convinced
died with no faith or false faith. But you can't make exceptions
just because they're close to you. Truth is truth. Now, nothing wrong with King
being shaken. but he shouldn't have made this big public display.
Because in so doing, he was acting as though he had more concern
for his son Absalom than he did for the men who had saved his
life from Absalom. And more concern for Absalom
than for the honor of the Lord who anointed David and not Absalom. While we grieve, Nothing wrong with grieving,
but when gospel issues are at stake, when truth is at stake,
it's important how we conduct ourselves in public. All right,
we'll stop right there.