Now open your Bibles with me
to 2 Samuel 18. The title of tonight's message
is The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth. The Whole Truth
and Nothing but the Truth. Now if you followed along in
your Bibles and in the messages on this series on the life of
David, you know that at this point in time David has been
run out of Jerusalem, run off of his throne, and he's in a
time of sorrow, but he's in also preparation for battle. And the
sad thing is, it's a battle against his own son, Absalom, who has
drawn the people of Israel to himself under the deceptions
of righteous appearance, under the deception of self-exaltation
and unbelief. And so Absalom has raised a great
army. But David is preparing to go
to battle with him. And so we're going to see here
that God's appointed king, David, God's chosen king, is the one
who's going to win this battle. And of course, that's by the
power of God, and we'll see that too. So the first thing this
chapter opens with is David's victory over Absalom. And verse
1 says, David numbered the people that were with him. and sent
captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. Now, the
first thing you notice is that David numbered the people. And
most of the time when we think of David numbering the people,
we think of a sin, because later on it says David numbered Israel,
and then one of the Chronicles says that Satan moved David to
number Israel. But this is not the same thing
here. In fact, this word numbered here is a different word in the
original language. It would be better translated
that David organized the people, or mustered the people. He arranged
the people, his mighty men. And it says in verse 2, and David
sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of Joab.
Joab was commander of a third part. And a third part under
the hand of Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, and Joab's brother. And a third part under the hand
of Ittai, the Gittite. He led the Gentile faction of
David's mighty men. So when David numbers Israel
here, it's not the kind of numbering that he does later. He numbered
Israel later because of unbelief. He began to think that his strength
was not in God alone, trusting God, but that in numbers, in
men. But here he's simply preparing
for battle. And that's what a good general, a good king, would do.
Now, David says he's going to go out with the people. He's
going to lead the people. That's another thing a good king
does. He leads his people into battle.
But that doesn't happen. Here, look at verse 3. Well,
he says in verse 2, after he organized, he said at the end
of that verse, I will surely go forth with you myself also. But the people answered, thou
shalt not go forth, for if we flee away. Now, you know, the
odds were against them as far as man can see, because Absalom
had a great army. He says, if we flee away, they
will not care for us. In other words, they won't go
after us. Neither will not, neither, if half of us die, will they
care for us. But he said, they'll go after
you. And this is how they put it here. He says, but now thou
art worthy or worth 10,000 of us. David, you're worth 10,000
of us. Therefore, now it's better that
thou succor or comfort us or support us out of the city. You
stay here. Now, the scripture here makes
no comment on that. David agrees to do that in his
wisdom here. We know that the king is supposed
to lead the people, but he doesn't do it here. But the people's
attitude towards the king is right. They say you're worth
10,000 of us because David's the anointed of God. It's through
David. It's through David that the Messiah
was to come. And I think about God's people,
his children, our attitude toward our King, Christ, worthy of the
Lamb. He's worth tens of tens and ten
thousands of us, isn't he? Because he's our Savior, he's
our Redeemer. And so David stayed in Mount
Moriah here, or the Mount, and he was going to, if they would
win, he would go into the city and he would support them out
of the city. To make a long story short in this, verses 6-8 shows
us that David won the battle. They went out and won the battle.
And I want you to notice something here. David made this statement
to them. Look at verse 5. It says, The
king commanded Joab and Abishai and Etei saying, Deal gently
for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. Deal gently
with him. And all the people heard when
the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom. Now,
you know, it may seem right for a father to show compassion even
to a rebellious son. And we may say we would certainly
do the same thing if it were our son. But the problem with
this is this. David, as king, had a responsibility
to God and a responsibility to the people to deal justly according
to the law that says the soul that sinneth must surely die.
And Absalom was a rebellious son. Now, what does the law say
about a rebellious son? Let me show you. I'll read this
to you in Deuteronomy 21. Here's what the law of God given
by Moses to the children of Israel. I want you to notice a couple
of things here in Deuteronomy 21, verse 18. How to deal with a rebellious
son. Now, let me say this. This is
not just talking about children's disobedience. children were to
be chastised, they were to be brought up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord. But this is talking about a son
like Absalom, who sought his father's death, who sought his
father's throne. That's what this is talking about.
And it says in verse 18 of Deuteronomy 21, If a man have a stubborn
and rebellious son which will not obey the voice of his father,
or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened
him, when they have tried to correct him out of love, will
not hearken unto them. Then shall his father and his
mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his
city, and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto
the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious,
he will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard,
whatever problem he has. And all the men of his city shall
stone him with stones, that he die. So shalt thou put evil away
from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear." Now, that's
what the law of Moses says. That's what David was responsible
to do. You say, well, how in the world
could a man do that against his son? Well, that's the law of
God. Justice, justice must be done. And what David's doing when he
tells them to be gentle with Aslan. He's being a respecter
of persons. We read about that this morning.
Have not the love of God. Hold not the faith with respect
to persons. You see, the law of God is no
respecter of persons. Again, the soul that sinneth
must surely die. It's interesting here in Deuteronomy
21. If you look at verse 22 there, listen to this. It says, And
if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, which this rebellious
son would be such as one who did that. It says, he and he
be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree. And it says, his
body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt
in any wise bury him that day, for he that is hanged is accursed
of God. Now you know in Galatians chapter
3 how this is quoted concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And he says in verse 23 here,
that thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth
thee for an inheritance. Isn't it interesting that we're
going to see in 2 Samuel 18 is that the very, very end of Absalom,
he was hung from a tree. He was cursed. Now he was hung
from the tree, cursed, caught up in his own sin, his own self-righteousness,
his own rebellion. Not so with our Lord. He was
hanged on a tree, the cross. not for his own rebelliousness,
not for his own sin, not for his own self-righteousness, but
for ours. He was cursed for our sins. Absalom was cursed for his own
sins. And that shows us that the only
hope that any of us have to be out from under the curse of the
law, as these who are hanged on a tree according to the law
of Moses, To be out from under that curse is that Christ be
our substitute and our Redeemer and our Lord, that he be hanged
on the tree for us. We'll look back at 2 Samuel 18.
So here, David is showing respect to persons. He's not acting justly
as the king. Absalom, in rebelling against
David, was rebelling against God himself. He was rejecting
God's covenant. He was rejecting God's king.
And ultimately he was rejecting the Messiah who was promised,
the Messiah to come. But as I said here now, David's
armies, the armies of the king, win the battle. Look at verse
8. I want to show you something
here. Now David was outnumbered. His troops fought strategically.
He divided them in thirds. But it says in verse 8 that for
the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country
and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. Apparently this battle was fought
in an area where there was some thick woods, thick brush. Some say briars, some say all
kinds of limbs, low-hanging limbs, and it was fought in such a place
strategically that when they charged or when they went at
each other, even the woods ended up devouring more of the enemy
soldiers, Absalom's people, than the sword of the Army of David,
and what a great testimony to the providence and the power
of God. You see, the battle was won, but not by the power of
men. It was won by the power of God,
because God defeats all of his enemies. Well, in the following
verses we have the death of Absalom. You've all read about the death
of Absalom. Verse 9 says, Absalom met the servants of David, and
Absalom rode upon a mule. Now, why was the king riding
on a mule? We don't know. But I thought
about this. You know Absalom, especially
Absalom, because he was lifted up with pride, the king would
pick the best and the most beautiful steed in the whole corral. It wouldn't be found upon a mule,
so I suspect Absalom is running in fear here, and he picked the
first thing to come along, and it was a mule. So Absalom, being
the ass that he was, ended up riding on an ass. That's what
this is about. Riding on a mule. Here's the
man who strove to be king by his own choosing and his own
power. And he's riding on a mule and it says, The mule went under
the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the
oak. And he was taken up between the
heaven and the earth, and the mule that was under him went
away. So he was hanged in the tree.
You know, Absalom here is caught up in his own pride, in his own
self-righteousness. There's a sad story about Absalom.
He was such a gifted man, but he didn't use his gifts to the
glory of God and the good of the people. He used them to exalt
himself, not to serve God, but to serve himself. And here he
is hanging by the head from a tree. Somebody said, well, Absalom
deserved to die. Yes, he did, and so do we. And
our only reason that we don't deserve it is Christ and the
grace of God. But by the grace of God, but
for the grace of God, there go we. Christ deserved to die, not
for his own sin, but for ours. That's why he was hanged on a
tree. But here's the sad story of this
man. Now, most people think that Absalom, his hair got caught
in that tree. It doesn't say that. It says
his head, but it may have been his hair. And that's just a symbol
of his own pride. You remember how Absalom let
his hair grow all year, and then he would have it cut off in a
public display each year, and everybody would come and see
the event, you know, Absalom getting a haircut. Now you wouldn't
think people would be drawn to that sort of thing, but they
were. And so it was such a matter of pride for him, and so what's
his teaching? Man is trapped in his own self-righteousness
and his own pride. And there he is. Verse 10 says,
A certain man saw it, and Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom
hanged in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that
told him, And behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite
him there to the ground?" Why didn't you kill him? And I would
have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle. That is
a battle belt, what he would give him. And it says, And the
man said unto Joab, verse 12, Though I should receive a thousand
shekels of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put forth mine
hand against the king's son. For in our hearing, the king
charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none
touch the young man Absalom. And we don't know. You know,
Joab was a ruthless man. He was loyal to David. We know
that. But he was a very ruthless man. He wasn't going to obey
the king. Later on, what we see happening here is that Joab,
And ten other men come up and they thrust Absalom through with
a spear. They kill him. And when Absalom
died, look over at verse 16, it says, And Joab blew the trumpet,
and the people returned from pursuing after Israel, for Joab
held back the people. In other words, here's Absalom's
boasting brought to shame. And when Absalom died, he blew
that trumpet, he held back the people. Why? Because the battle's
over. No one else need die. Absalom is dead. There's the
end of all sin. There's the end of all rebellion.
The soul that sinned must surely die. Look at verse 18. It says,
Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself
a pillar, a monument, which is in the king's dale, king's field. For he said, I have no son to
keep my name in remembrance." Now, we know that Absalom did
have children, but apparently by this time they had died. We
don't know how or why. But he said, I have no son to
keep my name in remembrance. Now, what's Absalom's concern
here? It's not the name of the Lord. It's not the name of, where's
my name going to be? Who's going to remember me? Remember
my name? You see, that's pride. That's
self-righteous. That's why we say, we're not here. We don't
gather together in our own name. to make a name for ourselves,
to lift up ourselves, so that you'll remember me, but that
you'll remember the Lord. The name of Christ is to be exalted
above all names. But Absalom said, I have no son
to keep my name in remembrance. And he called the pillar after
his own name. Absalom named his own monument.
And it's called unto this day Absalom's Place. But when you
think of Absalom, what do you think of? You think of boasting,
you think of rebellion, you think of pride, you think of self-righteousness. Absalom striving for glory for
himself, and it all became a monument to his shame. No different than
the Tower of Babel. When they erected that tower,
trying to make a name for themselves, and God brought them down. How
many times does the Lord say, He that exalteth himself shall
be brought low? There it is. That's why when
God saves us, he has to bring us down, down into the dust.
Brother Scott Richardson used to say, make your headquarters
in the dust. And that's where God brings,
lifts his people up by his grace and mercy in Christ. Now, the
last part of this chapter talks about telling the story. Telling
the story, bringing the news, and it starts out It says, with
a man named Ahimaaz, look at verse 19, then said Ahimaaz,
the son of Zadok. Now he was a prominent son of
the priest, Zadok. And he's talking to Joab here,
and he says, let me now run and bear the king tithes, how that
the Lord hath avenged him of his enemies. Now 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." I don't want you
to go back and tell. What he's saying is, I don't
want you to go back and tell David that his son is dead. We
don't really know why Joab didn't want this man particularly to
tell that story, to tell that message. It may have been because
he was a prominent man. And many times when somebody
bore bad tidings to the king in those days, they met a pretty
bad fate. They were killed. Don't ever
have anything in the Bible that tells us David ever did that
to a messenger. You know, that's where we get
the saying, don't kill the messenger, just because the message is something
you don't want to hear. But that may have been in Joab's
mind. We don't know. But here's the point. A high
mass, did not have the commission from the captain to go tell the
message, and he didn't have the whole message. Well, Joab, verse
21, said to a man named Cushi. Now, Cushi was not a prominent
man. He's probably a Gentile. And he told Cushi, he said, in
verse 21, Go tell the king what thou hast seen. And Cushi bowed
himself unto Joab, and he ran. And remember, Ahimeth said, Let
me run and bear these tidings. Joab said, No. And then Joab
took Cushiah under his wing, and he said, You run. Well, look
at verse 22, Then said Ahimez the son of Zadok yet again to
Joab, But howsoever let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushiah.
Let me run after him. And Joab said, Wherefore wilt
thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready? You have no message ready, no
tidings to bring, because I told you don't go tell him this this
message about his son. What a great illustration of
so many preachers today who are so willing and ready to run in
religion, to run to preach, to preach to thousands, but they
have no message. They have no commission from
the captain. They have no gifts. They have
a story to tell, but it's not the truth. Not the whole truth,
and we'll see that. Well, what happens here, Ahimaz
takes off after Cushiah, and he's a faster runner, and he
runs faster, and he runs better than Cushiah. And he finally
gets to David. Look over at verse 28. David
saw him coming, a man running by himself, and David said, if
he's running by himself, that means that there's good tidings.
Because David, what he was thinking, he said, if he saw a lot of people
running, scattered around, that means that they've been defeated.
But just one guy running, he said, that means there's going
to be good tidings. And it says, look here, verse
28, it says, in the Hiamas, he called and he said unto the king,
all is well. Now, if you've got a concordance
there, look and see what it says. It says, peace be to thee. Peace,
peace. All right. And he said, 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,
now here's what David was concerned with now, he wanted to hear one
thing, is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaz, he answered,
and he said, when Joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant,
I saw a great tumult, I saw a lot of trouble, a lot of turmoil,
but I know not what it was. So Ahimaz, he didn't tell the
whole truth. He held back the truth. And he
actually lied. Because he knew Absalom was dead. But he said,
I don't really know. So verse 30, the king said unto
him, turn aside and stand over here. Just get out of my way.
And he turned aside and stood still. And then look here. Now
behold, Cushi came. And Cushi said, tidings, my lord
the king. Tidings is brought. I have tidings.
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 Cushi answered, The enemies
of the Lord my king, and all that rise against thee to do
thee hurt, be as that young man is." That means dead. He's dead. Verse 33, And the
king was much moved. Sorrow. He went up to the chamber
over the gate and wept. And as he went, thus he said,
O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had
died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son." You can just imagine
how that just thrust through the heart of this father, hearing
that his rebellious son was to die. Now what's the point of
this? The only right news that we as
preachers of the gospel, ministers of God, can do, can deliver,
is the whole truth, not just half of it. You see, people may
be willing to run, but if you don't tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, what good will all your running
do? And there's a lot of runners out there, and they have a lot
of people follow. I've met many people in the ministry
that want the popularity of standing before the people week after
week. They want to bring the good news so that people will
be happy and refreshed. But that's only half the message.
You see, if you want to bring the good news of salvation, the
good news of the Savior, you have to be willing to bring the
bad news of sin and what it deserves, the judgment of God against sin.
If you want to preach the good news of heaven, you have to be
willing to preach the bad news of hell. If you want to talk
about how God saves sinners, you have to bring forth the reality
of what sinners are going to face without that salvation by
grace. And this message has to be preached
forth. Here you have two runners here. One is called by the captain. Joab picked out Cushi. He has
clear orders. He says, you run and you tell
David the true message. He has a clear message that Absalom
is dead. We've won the battle, but Absalom
is dead. Now the other, he goes on his
own. He's not commissioned and commanded by the cat. He goes
on his own. He calls himself and he wants to run and he's
a good runner and he looks good. He's impressive, but he has no
message, no message of truth. You see, before we run, we have
to have THE message. THE message. We have to be called
of God. We have to be commissioned of
God. We have to be gifted of God. And we have to be sent with
God. And we run, but we run with the
Gospel message. There is good news. And we have
to be given that message of and from God. A preacher once told
me, He said, I want my ministry to be positive. He said, I want
to preach a positive message. I don't want to preach anything
negative. Well, my friend, you don't have that choice. The preachers
of the gospel commission called and put into the ministry by
God do not have that choice. What I tell you from this pulpit
is not my choice. This is the word of God. And
I'm to preach the whole counsel of God to you. I'm not to hold
back. People today, I've heard preachers say, well, I believe
what you're preaching. And you know, most of you in
here tonight know what I'm talking about. They'll say, I believe
what you're preaching. But if I preach that to my congregation,
they'd all leave or they'd fire me. That's the kind of preacher
that a High Mass was. Didn't have the message. If the
Bible teaches that God chose a people before the foundation
of the world and gave them to Christ, what am I to do? I'm
to preach that. Why? Because that glorifies God,
and that is a message that should inspire every sinner who hears
it to run to Christ. If the Bible teaches that man
is totally depraved, without hope, without power, without
desire, and without will to come to God in Christ, that he's spiritually
dead and trespasses in sin and has no righteousness of his own,
and doesn't want it God's way, then I'm the preacher. If the
Bible teaches that all of our hopes and our dreams and our
assurances that we have of salvation apart from Christ and Him crucified,
even though it's offensive to the natural man who in his pride
is seeking to establish a righteousness of his own, what am I to do?
I'm to preach it. It's the light that men by nature
hate. If the Bible calls on sinners
to repent of their dead works and their idolatry, even the
best works, as you read in Psalm 39, man at his best, it's altogether
vanity that I'm preaching. If the Bible says that there's
no hope for any sinner, no matter who they are, what they've done,
where they come from, what their pedigree is, or what they've
experienced, apart from the sovereign grace of God, who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will, who says whom he will,
when he will, how he will, that I'm to preach it, no matter who
it offends. I'm not to preach it so as to
offend. I don't want to offend anybody.
I'm not here to try to run anybody off. I'm not here to try to make
anybody cry with bad news. But my friend, there is bad news
for sinners who will not flee to Christ. And there's nothing
but bad news for you who will not flee to Christ. And that's
why we have this message. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
2 with me. This message is a clear and simple
message. You notice it didn't take Cushat
very long to deliver the message to David. He just simply said,
we won and Absalom's dead. Look at 1 Corinthians 2. And
verse 1, it's a clear and simple message. Paul writes here in
I, Brethren, verse 1, When I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, that is, with the flowery words of
men, or in the wisdom of men, declaring unto you the testimony
of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Christ, the glorious person of
Christ, who He is. Listen to me. Who he is, is not
simple. He's God and man in one person.
You figure that one out. That's not simple. But the declaration
of it is simple. He is God-man. He's God in human
flesh. That's who he is. You go through
his life and you read all that and what he did and how he thought.
One place he talks about, he knew the hearts of men. You know,
that's the only God can do that. I once had a fellow told me,
He said he didn't believe I preached from my heart, and I wondered,
how in the world can you know my heart? Only God can know my
heart. That's God, you see. And yet,
in another place it says he grew in wisdom and stature. That's
speaking of his humanity. Now you figure that one out.
You can't do it, and I can't either. But it's a simple message.
He did both. He knew all things. And yet he
grew in wisdom and stature. He's God in human flesh. Simple
message. His finished work on the cross,
that's what Paul's talking about, Christ crucified. What he accomplished
at Calvary was the salvation of his people, the redemption
of his people. He made an end of sin, finished
the transgression, brought in everlasting righteousness. He
went to the cross for sins that were his own by imputation only,
charged his account, and he finished it. He made an end of it. He
drank damnation dry. He paid the debt in full. He
brought forth righteousness by which God could be just and justify
the ungodly. He didn't try to save anybody
from their sins. He saved his people from their
sins. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's simple. And him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast down. He said, and I if I be
lifted up will draw all unto me, all his people, all his sheep.
He laid down his life for the sheep. Simple message. It's a
message of grace. You must be born again, the scripture
says. You're not going to believe the
gospel until you're born again. That's what the scripture says.
We're begotten again by the word of truth. We have no power or
desire to believe God. Faith is the gift of God. Repentance
is the gift of God. Must we believe? Yes. Must we
repent? Yes. That's what the scripture
says. Turn to 1 Corinthians 14. And I'll tell you what. If God doesn't keep us, And if
he doesn't, check. Keep preachers in check. And
you know, I feel sorry for y'all sometimes because you have to
listen to us. I'm serious. Preachers. And I'm not talking
about our message now. That's great and glorious. I
don't feel sorry for anybody that has to listen. That's great.
But I'm talking about how you have to put up with us. I'm serious. These weak clay pots and you
watch us and we have our little Little ins and outs and our ups
and downs and all of that. And it's tough sometimes. I mean,
I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to get anybody to feel sorry
for me. Don't get me wrong. But you have to look past the
man now. Now you do. And you have to look
to the message of Christ. You see, your hope can't be in
me and how I say it. I just simply, you know, somebody
asked me one time, what advice would I give to a young preacher?
I'd say, get to Christ as fast as you can. Stay with him as
long as you can, and close with him, give him glory. And that's
it. Look here at 1 Corinthians 14,
look at verse 6. He says, Now brethren, if I come
unto you speaking with tongues, that's talking about languages,
what shall I prophet except I shall speak to you either by revelation,
that is, has to be revealed from God, or by knowledge, what God
has taught me, or by prophesying, preaching, or by doctrine, teaching?
And even things without life-giving sound, whether pipe or harp,
except they give a distinction in the sounds, the tunes, how
shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet
give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the
battle? So likewise ye, except you utter by the tongue words
easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For
you shall speak into the air." You see, it has to be a simple,
clear message. I'm afraid that so many today
have gotten away, their minds have been corrupted, their message
has been corrupted from what Paul called the simplicity that's
in Christ in 2 Corinthians 11. And not only is it a simple and
clear message, it's an eternal message. It never changes. It's
an old message. Paul said, listen, now we learn
and we grow in grace and knowledge, but our gospel never changes.
Our gospel never changes. Paul said it was the gospel of
God, God's eternal. It's called the everlasting gospel.
It's the preaching of the terms of an everlasting covenant of
grace. It has its foundation in eternity past. He said it's
the same message that the prophets of old spoke. Christ said Moses
wrote of me. Christ said Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He foreshadowed it in bringing
forth his offering, and it was first preached on earth in Genesis
3.15 in the promise of the seed of woman. This is no new message.
We may change, but the gospel will never change. Let me tell
you something, and I'm saying this from my very heart. If we're
in fellowship today on the gospel, the true gospel now, Christ to
him crucified, buried, and risen again. If we are in fellowship
right now on the gospel, the true gospel, whatever I may learn
in greater knowledge from this scripture, whatever you may learn
in greater knowledge from this scripture, will never change
that gospel. And it will never break us apart.
So when you see men withdrawing fellowship from you and acting
like me and you don't exist, which is a very prevalent problem
in our day, if it's over something that they haven't preached simply
and clearly for all the years, what's happened? What's happened? I'll tell you what's happened.
Pride and self-righteousness have got in the way because the
gospel never changes. It never will. It's an eternal
message. It's a life-giving message in
the hands of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. Christ said his
words were life and spirit. And it's a whole message. It's
not just a part message. It's not a half-truth. It's good
news and it's bad news. As I said, some say, I just want
to preach a positive message. They asked a fellow who pastors
a group out in Texas. They meet in an old basketball
arena. That's how big they are. And
they asked him one time, they said, how come you never preach
concerning sin? And he said this, he said, why
would I want to preach a message so negative? Well, it's a whole
message. It does preach the love of God.
but not without the justice of God. It does preach the mercy
of God in Christ, but not without justice and righteousness and
holiness. You see, it's more than what
this man, Ahimaaz, said. All is well, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. He lied to his master. He lied
to his king. Jeremiah twice, in Jeremiah chapter
6 and Jeremiah chapter 8, spoke of false prophets and the mainstay
of their message was peace, peace, when there is no peace. You know
without Christ there's no peace, for he's the Prince of Peace.
And it's a message of peace, but it's also a message of judgment.
Hebrews chapter 11 said that Noah preached the gospel, he
preached Christ. And by his message, he condemned
the world. You ever read that? Hebrews 11,
verse 7. Read it sometimes. It says, by his message, he condemned
the world. Well, what do you suppose he
was saying? You think he got up before a group like this and
he said, now you're condemned, and you're condemned, and you're
condemned, and you're condemned? No. You suppose he just got up
and preached what they used to call back in the 50s, hellfire
and brimstone? No. See what he preached? He
preached Christ. And he preached, get on the ark,
and that ark is Christ. And he said, now, there's only
safety in the ark. There's only safety in Christ. Outside the ark, there's the
wrath of God. Anybody who doesn't get on the
ark is going to drown under that wrath. But you see, the message
is where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Through
Christ. In Absalom's defeat and death,
we see the final end of all rebellion. All sin and all unbelief. That's
death. And we see this, that all who
stand against the king, even the king's son here, Absalom,
shall be damned. Christ said, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. And here's what
he said. Here's the whole message. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Believe the gospel. Confess as a believer is baptized,
but he that believeth not shall be damned. You see, this is the
whole truth and nothing but the truth. All right, let's sing
the closing hymn, hymn number 388.