And David numbered the people
that were with him and set captains of thousands and captains of
hundreds over them. Now you remember David's friend
Hushai. Remember he came out to David
when David left Jerusalem and he went back to Absalom's court
as a spy and he acted as an advisor to Absalom just like he was to
David. You remember he counseled Absalom
to gather a large army from every corner of Israel to go after
David. And his plan was to buy time for David so David could
kind of get himself to a place of safety and have time to mount
a defense. And his plan worked. Most people
heard about Absalom taking the throne and David going out into
the wilderness for the first time when somebody came to their
house recruiting an army for Absalom. And at least some of
the men took up arms and went to David instead of to Absalom. Remember we read in chapter 15
David went out with 600 men. Well, now he's sending captains
over hundreds and thousands. So a good bit of men came to
him, because while Absalom was trying to gather this large army
for himself, Josephus said David had at least 4,000 soldiers.
Some of the writers say he had more, but he had at least that
many. And this is God's will, working all... David could become
afraid, this large army gathering against him. But yet now all
these soldiers start coming to him and he's got a sizable army
at this time. In verse 2, David sent forth
a third part of the people under the hand of Joab, and a third
part under the hand of Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother,
and a third part under the hand of Attei, the Gittite. And the
king said unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself
also. Now David's using military tactics
that are still used today. He sent out a center force. with
two flanks, one on each side. And Joab is his general, his
main general. He probably had charge of that
center column. And on one of the flanks was
Abishai, Joab's brother. Now, these men had been with
David from the beginning. When he very first went out there
on the run from Saul, these two brothers, his nephews, were with
him. And on the other flank was this man, Atai. Now, if you look
back at chapter 15, I want you to remember this is where we
first meet this man, Attei. In verse 19, the king said unto
Attei the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return
to thy place, and abide with the king. For thou art a stranger,
and also an exile, whereas thou camest but yesterday. Shall this
day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go whither
I may? Return thou, and take back thy brethren. Mercy and
truth be with thee. And say, I answered the king,
and said, As the Lord liveth, as my lord the king liveth, surely
in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or
in life, even there also will thy servant be. And here now,
how much ever time has passed, he is still with the king, in
life or in death. And this man is putting his money
where his mouth is. He's going out to face a vastly
superior army for the cause of David. Whether in life or in
death, where you are, that's where I'm going to be. And so
he's going out, you know, with these two other generals and
captains. But now David intends to go to
the battle himself. He's got these three captains
over his army. But he intends to go to the battle. David, he's not afraid. He's
a warrior and he intends to go to war. But the main reason He's
wanting to go to battle. We'll see this here in a minute.
It's not to go slay the enemy leader. He wants to go to war
to spare the life of the enemy leader. The enemy leader is his
own son, Absalom, and David intends to go to battle to try to spare
the life of his son that he loves. So, verse 3, the people answered
and said, Thou shalt not go forth, for if we flee away, they'll
not care for us, neither if half of us die will they care for
us. But now thou art worth ten thousand of us, therefore now
it is better that thou succor us out of the city.' And the
king said unto them, What seemest you best, I will do. And the
king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by
hundreds and by thousands." Now the people told David, you can't
go with us to this battle. It's far too dangerous for you
to go and put yourself in harm's way. If they kill ten thousand
of us, They still won't have the victory if you're alive.
But if they only kill you and don't get any of us, they'll
have the victory. It's too dangerous for you to
be in harm's way. They knew they needed David's
leadership. They needed him to lead the people
and inspire the people. They needed him, so they wanted
to keep him safe. And Generals today do the same thing for the
same reason. They don't go into the heat of
battle so they can be at least somewhat safe to be able to lead
the troops and inspire the troops and so forth. And they told Davis,
you stay here and you sucker us out of the city. You support
us, you comfort us. He may have had some reserves
there that he could send as reinforcements or whatever, but you help us
out of the city. And Davis said, all right. David's
the leader, he's the king, but he could still take the wise
counsel of the people. And at this time is when David
wrote Psalm 20. Now if you look over there, very
likely these are the words that David used to encourage the people
as they left the city to go out to battle. This is at this time,
maybe the night before the battle is when David wrote this Psalm
20. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee
help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion.
Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Grant
thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel.
We will rejoice in thy salvation. In the name of our God will we
set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions.
Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him
from his holy heaven. with the saving strength of his
right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will
remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down
and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord,
let the King hear us when we call." That's good words of encouragement. I can just see David standing
at the gate encouraging the people with words like this from Psalm
20. In verse 5, back in our text,
here they are going out to battle, and the king commanded Joab and
Abishai and Atai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young
man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when
the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom. Now,
I'm sure there were other military instructions that they gave his
generals as they went out to battle, but the only instructions
recorded in scripture are these. Deal gently with Absalom for
my sake. Deal gently with him. Now this
is a father's love. It's not the king's love. This
is the father's love. The king would want that rebel
leader destroyed, wouldn't he? Would want the threat to his
throne put away. But the father's love said even
though he's a rebel, even though he deserves to die, deal gently
with him for my sake. Even though he deserves to die,
sparing if it's at all possible. That's the father's love. And
no one had more reason to be angry with Absalom than David.
David was the one who was driven from his throne. David was the
one whose own son was trying to kill him. It was David's wives
that Absalom raped in front of all Israel. It was David's firstborn
Absalom killed. Yet David the father Says, deal
kindly, deal gently with Absalom for my sake. Now that's the father's
love. And you know, Absalom, he's a
lot like the prodigal son, isn't he? The prodigal was a rebel
to his father, too. And he left, left his father.
And despite his son's sins and rebellion, his father was watching
for him to return every day. Standing there watching, waiting
for him to return home. And that hopeful watch was born
out of a father's love. Now Absalom and the prodigal
are probably the two worst sons recorded in scripture. Yet, you
know what they had in common? They were loved by their father.
Their father loved them. And each of us is worse than
Absalom or that prodigal. We're more than both of them. And here's the question. Is there
hope for us to be loved? Is there hope for someone like
me to be loved? And I want to give you six truths
on the Savior's love for His sons and for His daughters. And
the first one is this. What we are by nature. We are
worthless rebels by nature. Now, absolute sin against David
and against God is obvious and it's deplorable. But our sin
is far worse. Look back at Genesis chapter
6. Our sin is worse. And this applies to every one
of us. In Genesis 6 verse 5, And God saw that 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
our nature. Human nature has remained unchanged
to this day. Every imagination of the thoughts
of our hearts are only evil continually. And you notice the scripture
doesn't say God saw the wickedness of men was great. Meaning some
men or even most men. It said the wickedness of man
was great. Meaning the nature of man. Meaning
all men. The nature of man is wicked. Look over Romans chapter 3. I
told you the nature of man has remained unchanged. From Genesis,
now here to Romans, Paul says the exact same thing in Romans
3, verse 9. What then? Are we better than
they? No, and no wise. For we have before proved, both
Jew and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." Now, it doesn't take much of an education to
understand that means all mankind. It means all of us are under
sin. We're sinners by birth, by choice,
by practice. That's all we are is sin. Every
son of Adam is under sin. And Romans 6.23 tells us the
wages of that sin is death. What we all deserve, is to die
eternally. There's nothing good about us
at all. We're all under the wrath of
God for our sins, because all we do is sin. There's no redeeming
quality about us. There's nothing lovable about
us. There's nothing about us that God would say, well, there's
that one good thing, so I can overlook the rest. There's none
good. There's nothing in us that's
good. And we deserve to be like that baby in Ezekiel 16. Look
over there in Ezekiel chapter 16. This baby is us by nature. It's what we deserve by nature. Ezekiel 16 verse 3. And say, thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. You were born in trespasses dead
in trespasses and sins. Your father was an Amorite, and
your mother was a Hittite. As for thy nativity, and the
day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou
washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all,
nor swallowed at all. None eyed pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou wast cast
out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born." Now, that's us by nature. polluted
in our own blood, an unlovable baby, a baby even your mother
can't love. We're unlovable, sinful rebels
who deserve to die, deserve to be cast out into the open field
because our person is loathed. But there must be hope. That's
us by nature, but now there must be hope. Look at verse 8. Now
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, nobody else loved
you. But when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was a time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine." Well, there must be hope. We're unlovable. There's nothing
good about us, but there must be hope. And that brings me to
my second point. If there's hope for a sinner
like you and me to be loved, It must be undeserved love. Completely undeserved. You'll
notice David didn't ask for gentleness for Absalom because Absalom deserved
it. He said, deal gently for my sake. Not because he deserves it, for
my sake. That's undeserved love. Now remember,
our sin is much worse than the sin of Absalom. Absalom sought
David's life. He never could take it, but he
sought it. You and I killed God's beloved son. We tortured him
and killed him. Just like no one had more reason
to be angry with Absalom than David, because Absalom had rebelled
against David, no one has more reason to be angry with us than
God. Our sin and our rebellion is
against God. Our every action, our every thought,
our every movement is sin against God because that's what we are,
sin. And we can say with David, against thee and thee only have
I sinned. Our rebellion is against God.
And our sin is so great. Our sin is great in Adam. In Adam, we are guilty before
God. In Adam, we have a nature that
deserves hell. And our sin is great in our own
actions. Everything we do is sinful. Everything, without exception. Yet God's love for his people
has never wavered. God's love for his people is
perfect, strong. It's eternal love for the guilty. God's love is for the unlovable,
for the rebel. Look over Mark chapter 1. Here
is a good picture of the people that God loves. In Mark 1 verse 40. And there came a leper to him,
beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto
him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus moved
with compassion, moved with love, put forth his hand, and touched
him, and said unto him, I will, be thou clean. And as soon as
he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and
he was cleansed. Now how hard would it be? for
us to love this leper. He's filled with leprosy. I mean, the sight of him was
disgusting. The smell of him, that rotting,
diseased flesh was awful. Touching him, just being near
him could have given us a terminal disease for which there is no
cure. We wouldn't have just looked
away from this man. We wouldn't have just crossed
the street to avoid him. You and I would run from him.
And we're lepers too. We would have run from him. But
our Lord was moved with compassion. That's one of the most amazing
verses in the scripture to me. The God of glory was moved with
love for that wretched leper. And he said, I will. And reached
out and touched him. Oh, what a touch. He reached
out and touched him. It was a touch of love. Not because
he deserved it, but because this is a picture of the sinners that
God loves. This is the picture of how the
Lord loves the undeserving. How he loves the wretched. Look
over in Romans chapter 5. This is the undeserved love of
God for sinners. In Romans 5 verse 6, for when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for a bencher, for a good man, some would even
dare to die. But God committed His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is the people that He loves.
Look over in Ephesians chapter 2. It's an undeserved love. Ephesians 2, verse 2, wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God, whose rich in mercy For His great love, His unconditional
love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ." This great, unconditional love
is the love of God for sinners. It's undeserved love. God's love
for His people is eternal. It's unchanging. Our sin did
not make Him stop loving His people. in the circumstances
of this life won't make him stop loving his people either. Look
over Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 verse 35. Now who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us unconditionally,
undeserved love. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, from the undeserved love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. His love is an undeserved love. And that brings me to my third
point. If God has set His love upon you, you see Christ as more
valuable than all of this put together. You know, the people
told David, you're worth 10,000 of us. Christ is so precious. He's worth more than 10,000 of
us. He's worth more than all of this. put together. That's what makes
his blood able to cleanse us from all sin. He is the pearl
of great price. Now, I grieve you. All of us
were zero plus zero equals zero. Well, it's not hard to be more
valuable than all of us put together, is it? Just a bunch of zeros.
We're worthless. We're together become unprofitable.
That's what we just read. Get the value and the preciousness
of Christ is a glory to his people. Look in 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 18. Forasmuch as you know that you
are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And look over at
chapter 2, verse 7. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. Unto you which believe, he is
preciousness. If God set his love upon you,
he's precious. Christ is precious to you. So
we're worthless rebels by nature. If we're loved, It must be an
undeserved love. If God has set his love upon
you, Christ is precious to you. And fourth, our Savior, the one
who is so precious to us, went into battle himself. There were
no angels, no prophets, no apostles sent on this mission. Christ
himself, the captain of our salvation, went to battle to accomplish
the salvation of his people. because none but Christ could
save us from our sin. None but Christ could save us
from the wrath to come. David wanted to go to battle
so he could protect Absalom from death, but he stayed behind and
there was a lot of wisdom in that and that was God's purpose
that Absalom's life not be spared. But our Lord Jesus Christ did
come and he did go to battle to be sure that the people that
he loves would never die. Now when David tried to save
the life of Absalom, he acted in weakness. He acted in the
weakness of human emotion, and we can all understand that. Every
parent here understands David's motivation and his love for his
son. Despite everything his son did, we can all understand how
the father loves his son. But David still acted in weakness.
It's human weakness. And if David could have saved
Absalom's life, he never could have found a way to make it right.
He never could have found a way to make it right before the law.
Absalom had to die for his rebellion. But David still wanted to save
him. David acted in sentimental emotion. Don't confuse that with
God's love for his people. God never acts in sentimental
emotion. God is always holy and just. God is love, absolutely He is,
but His love will never override His holiness and His justice.
David's the one who acted in weakness. God acted in power. When He came to save His people
from their sins, He acted in power. And the elect will never
die eternally. But justice has still been satisfied
upon their sins. Their sins have still been punished,
even though they'll never die eternally. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ came as the sinner's substitute and he died, he suffered and
he died in the place of his people. Their sins were punished in him,
in his body on the tree. He suffered the full penalty
of the broken law that the sins of his people deserved and enabled
God to be just and justified. The sacrifice of Christ allowed
God to remain just. and still justify the ungodly.
The sacrifice of Christ allowed God to be just and still deal
gently with his people. David showed a lot of love and
no wisdom. God shows both love and wisdom
in redeeming his people from their sins. He shows both mercy
and truth. He shows both righteousness and
peace in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now David wanted
to go to battle to protect Absalom from his angry soldiers. Christ
came to protect his people from the holy wrath of God against
their sins, and that's exactly what he did. He shielded his
people from the wrath of God, and Christ extinguished God's
wrath by taking that wrath into himself and allowing that wrath
to exhaust itself on him as our sacrifice. Oh, I'm thankful. that Christ came to the battle
because none but God's own Son could have saved us from our
sins. And He went to battle Himself. And fifth, our Savior came and
He went to the cross because He loves His people. Now, how
do I know that Christ loves His people? It's not because God
loves everyone. It's not just, well, He loves
everyone, so He went to the cross. No, sir. Before He went to the
cross, He said, I pray not for the world. but for those that
you gave me. Look at Ephesians chapter 5.
How do I know that Christ loves his people? The scripture tells us. Ephesians
5 verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. How
do I know Christ loves the church? He gave himself for it. He gave himself to be a sacrifice
for her. Look over in 1 John chapter 3. Because He laid down His life
for us. Here's how we know God loves
His people. Because He laid down His life
for us. That's how we know. That's how we perceive His love.
Because He laid down His life. Look over in John chapter 3.
This must be the most misused verse in all of the Holy Writ. John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved, not man
out of the world, He so loved people from the whole world,
Jew and Gentile of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under
heaven. He so loved those people that He gave His only begotten
Son. That's how we know God loves
His people. Our Lord said he laid down his life for his friends,
for those that he loved. There is no greater love than
the love that propelled Christ to suffer and die for the sins
of his people. He gave himself for his people
because he loves them. And last, Christ intercedes for
those that he loves. David told his army, you deal
gently with Absalom for my sake. And that's the plea of our great
intercessor who's seated at the Father's right hand. Father,
if you love me, feel gently with my people. If you love me, feel
gently with those people for whom I died. Father, if you love
me, feel a mercy and grace with my people, the people that I
gave my life to redeem. Father, if you love me, in times
of chastisement, in times of trial, Deal gently with my people. Remember, you already punished
me for their sins. Remember their bedust. Remember
their frame. Don't give them more than they
can bear if you love me. For my sake, deal gently with
my people. And the Father hears the Son.
Gives the Son everything He asked for because the Father loves
the Son. You think David loved Absalom? How much does the Father love
the Son? If you look in Revelation 1,
we are going to spend eternity in this song, giving thanks for that undeserved,
sacrificial love of our Savior. In Revelation 1, verse 5, and
from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the first begotten
of the dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth. unto Him
that loved us. Doesn't end there. Unto Him that
loved us. How do we know He loved us? He
washed us from our sins in His own blood. He's made us kings
and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. All right. I hope the Lord
blessed that for you.