All right, the title of our lesson
this morning is The Life and Times of a Believer. The Life
and Times of a Believer. And what I want us to see is
how the Lord leads his people through this life, through many
various trials and situations that we go through, all the way
to glory. That's what I want us to see
in these verses. In 2 Samuel 16, we begin in verse
15, And Absalom and all the people The men of Israel came to Jerusalem,
and Hithophel with them." Now, we're told in Scripture, don't
be surprised when fiery trials come upon you. The Lord sends
these things to try our faith and to strengthen our faith.
And God will allow the wicked to prosper, and He'll allow His
people to suffer for a time, for a time, in order to accomplish
His eternal purpose. Now, this is a trial for David.
This is such a low point for him. At this point, he had to
lose hope of ever coming back to Jerusalem again. He had to
lose hope of ever coming and seeing the Ark of the Covenant
again. And before it gets better, it's going to get worse. And
that's the way it is with many trials that we face. Before it
gets better, it will get worse. And that certainly is the way
the Lord does things spiritually. He will bring every one of his
people to the lowest possible point before he reveals himself
in mercy and grace to us. He does it that way. He does
things that way to reveal to us our helplessness and his glory. And that's what he's doing in
this trial with David. Now, verse 16, it came to pass,
when Hushai the Archite, David's friend, was come unto Absalom,
the Hushai said unto Absalom, God save the king, God save the
king. And Absalom said to Hushai, is
this thy kindness to thy friend? Why wentest thou not with thy
friend? And Hushai said unto Absalom, Nay, but whom the Lord,
and his people, and all the men of Israel choose, his will I
be, and with him will I abide. And again, whom should I serve?
Should I not serve in the presence of his Son? As I have served
in thy Father's presence, so will I be in thy presence." Now,
you remember from our last lesson, this man Hushai is David's friend. He came out to David in the wilderness
And David sent him back. He said, you go, you be in the
court of Absalom and you can help defeat the council of Hithophel
for me. So he's there kind of as David's
spy. And this is the first thing I
want us to learn about times of trial. God directs all the
events of this trial. He directs the events to bring
us to the trial. And in the midst of the time
of trial, things happen that we may not even notice or things
that seem insignificant to us. But when we're at our lowest
point, or even here as David is, before he gets to his lowest
point, the Lord's already started to motion the events that he's
going to use to deliver David from the trial. And the same
thing he does, he works in the same manner with us. Before we
even get to our lowest point, he begins to set in motion the
events that will deliver us from the trial. That's what's happening
here. Now verse 20, then said Absalom to Hithophel, give counsel
among you what we shall do. And Hippophel said unto Absalom,
Go in unto thy father's concubines, which he hath left to keep the
house, and all Israel shall hear that thou art a hoard of thy
father. Then shall the hands of all that
are with thee be strong. So they spread Absalom a tent
upon the top of the house, and Absalom went in unto his father's
concubines in the sight of all Israel. And the counsel of Hippophel,
which he counseled in those days, was if a man had inquired at
the oracle of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel,
both with David and with Absalom. Now here, Absalom received this
counsel of Ahithophel. What brought that to this man's
mind, to counsel this? Well, this was his counsel, but
his counsel was to fulfill the promise of the Lord to David.
If you'll look back in chapter 12, this counsel was to fulfill
the promise of the Lord to concerning what he would do regarding this
matter of Bathsheba and Uriah. Chapter 12, 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, and that's what a concubine
was. She was like a secondary wife, but she was his wife. 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 this
son, for thou didst it in secret. But I will do this thing before
Israel and before the Son. And that is exactly what happened
over here in our text. Exactly what happened. Fulfilling
the promise of the Lord to David concerning this matter of Bathsheba
and Uriah. But what a horrible, just unspeakable
horror for these women. They were raped on the top of
the king's house in front of everyone. I mean, how horrible,
what heartless, evil counsel. And how heartless and evil was
it? Nobody said, wait a minute, we can't do this. This is evil.
Nobody said that. That's just the wicked heart
of men. But in doing that, Absalom showed everyone he's the master
of everything David owns, including his wives. He's a master of it
all. And after this, Absalom's done a lot of bad things leading
up to now. Rebellion against his father.
But after this, reconciliation between David and Absalom is
impossible. Cannot happen. And everyone now
must choose a side. The line in the sand has been
drawn. Which side are you going to be on? Most people chose Absalom. Because it looks like Absalom's
got the stronger hand. And they went with Absalom. And
Absalom has a Hippophil. Now this man was respected. People thought when he gave counsel
it was the oracle of God. It came straight from the mouth
of God. That's how wise a counsel this
man normally gives. But here he did not give the
counsel of God, did he? This is the counsel of Satan.
This is wicked, evil counsel. Yet the Lord allowed it to happen,
to accomplish his purpose. Now, chapter 17, moreover, Ahithophel
said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men,
and I will arise and pursue after David this night. And I will
come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make
him afraid. And all the people that are with
him shall flee, and I will smite the king only. And I will bring
back all the people unto thee. The man whom thou seekest is
as if all returned." You know, what he's saying is if David's
dead, they'll all return. So, all the people shall be in
peace. And the saying pleased Absalom
well, and all the elders of Israel. Now, I think I've told you this
before, Ahithophel is Bathsheba's grandfather. That's who he is
and he hates David for what David did to his family. Nothing would
make him happier than to go kill David personally. That's what
he wants to do. And his plan is to take this smaller band
of like special ops, you know, kind of soldiers and go kill
David. He'll get on him this night while he's weak and he
hasn't had time to prepare anything, you know. He tells Absalom, it'll
all be over if David's dead. All these people, they'll return
to their lives and they'll live in subjection to you. And militarily,
this is a good plan. He's giving wise counsel. And
everyone's pleased with this plan. It'll work. This is the
second thing I want us to learn about these times of trial. The
Lord sends trials into the life of every believer. And those
trials will go exactly as far as God, the master refiner, will
allow them to go. And no further. No further. I was watching a show on these gold miners. They're
still up there in the Yukon, you know, paying them for gold.
And this fellow paying for gold for six months or something,
he had this big pile of gold and they showed the fellow refining
it and how he heats it up and that. All that junk just rises
to the top and scrapes it off, you know. God, the master refiner,
will allow these trials to go exactly as far as he wills them
to go, and no further. Satan and the world would destroy
you if they could, but they can't. And it's not because they don't
have the power to. They have the power to destroy
you. It's not that they don't have the desire to destroy you.
They have the desire. But they can't do it because
God will not allow it. He won't allow it to happen.
And that's what's going to happen here in this case. Look at verse
5. Now they've got this good plan. But then said Absalom,
call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what
he said. And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake
unto him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken after this man. Shall
we do after his saying? If not, speak thou. Hushai said
unto Absalom, The counsel that Hithophel given is not good at
this time. Now you see his wisdom. He didn't
jump up and say, This is a bad plan, this is foolish. It's just
not good at this time. For, said Hushai, thou knowest
thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they
be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in
the field. And thy father is a man of war. He'll not lodge
with the people. Behold, he is hidden now in some
pit, or in some other place. And it will come to pass when
some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth
it will say, there's a slaughter among the people that follow
Absalom." Now, you know, the first fact is that if all Israel
would go out against David, what does that say about all of Israel?
That they're rebelling against King David? It isn't that a picture
of the way man has rebelled against the kingship of God? He's being
kind and benevolent to this world, providing for it and sustaining
it, and men rebel against him every day. All of mankind does.
And all Israel would go seek David's life after he's been
a kind, benevolent king to them. Oftentimes, this is the life
in times of a believer. And what Hushai tells Absalom,
David knows places to hide. He's been out there before. That's
where he hid from Saul all those years. And he's not hiding in
some pit in fear. He's laying there waiting to
ambush you. He's got a hiding place and he'll jump out and
ambush your troops if they come out after him. And if he does
that, verse 10, this is what will happen. And he also that
is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly
melt. For all Israel knoweth that thy
father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant
men. You know, after David jumps out and ambushes your men, kills
that first group, you know, comes out after him, even the most
brave men will be full of fear, because they know David. They
know his reputation, and they're going to say, yep, this is the
way he's always been. We can't defeat him. In verse
11, Hushai says, Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally
gathered unto thee from Dan, even to Beersheba, as the sand
that is by the sea for multitude, and that thou go to battle, and
thine own See, what he's doing is he's buying David time. It's
going to take time to gather this huge army from all the reaches
of Israel. He's buying David time to be
able to, you know, get himself ready. So shall we come upon
him in some place where he should be found. And we will light upon
him as the dew fall upon the ground. And of him and of all
the men that are with him, there shall not be left so much as
one. We'll just fall upon him in superior numbers and kill
them all. And every one that's loyal to David will be killed.
your throne will be more secure. So verse 13, moreover, if he
be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that
city, and we'll draw it into the river, until there be not
one small stone found there. And Absalom and all the men of
Israel said, the council of Hushai the Archite is better than the
council of Ahithophel. Now why do you reckon Absalom
changed his mind? Ahithophel had a better plan.
His whole war council agreed, this is a good plan. Then why
did they change their mind? God changed their mind to accomplish
his eternal purpose. He changed his mind, as in verse
14, for the Lord had appointed to defeat the good council of
Hithophel. Hithophel had a good plan, but
the Lord appointed to defeat the good council of Hithophel
to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. The Lord is going to accomplish
His purpose in this. And this is the third point I
want us to learn about trials. These trials are always sent
to accomplish the purpose of God. This is not going on to
accomplish the purpose of Absalom or the purpose of Ahithophel.
The Lord is going to accomplish His will in this matter. And
the same is true of every situation that we face, every one of them.
Like I said, Satan and the world, they would destroy you. That
would be their desire. But look over in Proverbs 21.
This is a verse we quote often. Let's just read it. Why don't they destroy you? Because
Proverbs 21, verse 1. Because the king's heart is in
the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it. Whithersoever he will. God created
the world. He turned that the rivers don't
go straight. They go this way and they go
that way. The Lord turned him whithersoever he will. He does
the same thing with the heart of a man. Turns it whithersoever
he will. Puts in his mind to do what he
will to accomplish God's purpose. Last week, I was watching Pearl
Harbor Day. And I was watching the History
Channel about the Battle of Midway. I thought of this very verse
here. The United States had cracked
the Japanese code. They knew the exact moment that
the Japanese fleet was coming to attack Midway. The U.S. fleet lay about 120 miles off
the shore of Midway. They were going to let Japan
begin the attack and then they were going to come in and attack
that Japanese fleet. Well, the attack began and the
U.S. fleet was spotted earlier than
they wanted to be detected. So they sent that first wave
of planes out. They shot down every single one
of those planes. There may have been a few, but
almost all of them were shot down. And that Japanese Admiral's
got a decision to make. Does he bring his planes back
and rearm? He didn't let anybody take off
because he's got to make a decision. Do I rearm the planes to go attack
the American fleet, or do I leave them armed with the bombs to
attack Midway? And he could not make a decision.
And in that moment of indecision, a second wave of American planes
came, sank every single one of those Japanese boats. Every aircraft carrier they had
was at the bottom of the ocean. Those planes he left sitting
on the top of those carriers were all armed, and those bombs
were used to sink those ships. And that moment, the war, as
far as Japan was concerned, was over. Their ability, they could
drive the war out, but their ability to win the war was over
because of that man's moment of indecision. Who put that in
his head? God did to accomplish his eternal
purpose. And he does the same thing every
day. This is the way that he leads his people into and out
of trials. They're sent to accomplish his
purpose. Now look at verse 15. Then said
Hushai unto Zadok and Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did
Ahithophel counsel Absalom unto the elders of Israel, and thus
and thus have I counseled. Now therefore sing quickly, and
tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the
wilderness, but speedily pass over, lest the king be swallowed
up, and all the people that are with him. Now Jonathan and Ahimaz
stayed by Enrogel, for they could not be seen to come into the
city, and a wench went and told them, and they went and told
King David. Nevertheless, the lad saw them, and told Absalom. But they went both of them away
quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahirim, which had a
well in his court. Wither they went down. And the
woman, the woman of the house, she took a spread, and spread
a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon,
and the thing was not known." Now here is this chain of spies
going out to tell David the plans. He knows what his enemy is planning.
And that's a picture of the omnipresence and the omniscience of our God.
He doesn't need anyone to tell him what's going on. He knows
what's going on. He knows he's everywhere. He
knows what's going on. He's the one that's putting it
in the hearts of those men to do what they're doing. He knows.
And that's such a comfort to God's children when we're the
ones hiding at the bottom of the well. The Lord knows. He
knows what's going on. And this well, the opening of
it was flat to the ground. It didn't have those stone sides,
you know, like what we envision when someone talks about a well.
It was flat to the ground. And that's why this woman could
cover this and put the corn on it. Nobody knew that hole was
there. Now, there's David's friends at the bottom of a well. Where's
David's enemies? Sitting on his throne, wearing
his crown. What on earth? is everything's
upside down. Oftentimes, this is the life
and times of a believer while we're here on earth. So, verse
20, when Absalom's servants came to the woman, to the house, they
said, Where is Ahimaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them,
They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought
and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. Now, this
woman reminds me of Rahab. Does she remind you of Rahab?
You know, those spies came to Jericho and she hit them. And
the authorities came looking for the spies and they were hit
on her rooftop under those stalks of flax. And the Red Hats said,
well, they came here. I didn't know where they were.
And they left. I don't know where they went. That's just what this
woman says. And then later on, when things
calmed down, she helped them escape to accomplish the eternal
purpose of God. Not just in destroying Jericho,
but giving us a picture of redemption. The same thing happened here.
These spies are going to escape out of this well, and I'll show
you this in a minute. They're going to give us a picture of
redemption. Verse 21, It came to pass, after they were departed,
that they were come up out of the well, and went and told King
David. And said unto David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water,
for thus hath Ahithophel counseled against you. Then David arose,
and all the people that were with him, and they passed over
Jordan. By the morning light there lacked not one of them.
that was not gone over Jordan. Now everyone who left Jerusalem
with David crossed Jordan safely. Every one of them. They crossed
Jordan in the darkness of night. Not one was lost, Roy. Not one. Scripture says there lacked not
one of them. No one deserted David. Even though David was in a time
of great distress, nobody deserted him. They all crossed safely. No one stayed behind. No one
got to the edge of the river and they said, I'm too sick,
I'm too weak, I'm too tired to go on. They all crossed over
safely. No one was lost. They're crossing
that river. No one was swept away by the
river. They all crossed Jordan safely. And David didn't cast
any away. They're of no use to me. They
can't help me. They're just a burden to me.
I'm going to have to feed them and clothe them and watch out for them,
carry them over the river. He didn't cast any away. They
all passed over. Not one was lacking. Not one. Now, that's what happened to
David's friends. What happened to David's enemies? Well, the
first one meets his end in verse 23. And when he hit the fell,
saw his counsel was not followed, He saddled his ass in a rose
and got him home to his house, to his city, and he put his household
in order and hanged himself and died and was buried in the sepulchre
of his father." Now, I think probably everybody in this room
immediately thought of Judas when you read that, how he went
and hanged himself. His counsel was defeated, the purpose of
God was accomplished, and he went and hung himself. That's
what happened. Now, all this has given to us
is a picture of salvation. And this is my fourth point about
these times of trials. Even though the life and times
of a believer will go through many difficult trials, every
last one of them will cross the River Jordan safely. All of them
will. Now, the River Jordan is frequently
given to us in scripture as a picture of death, that the believer must
cross to enter into the promised land, to enter into glory, to
enter into that place that the Lord went to prepare a place
for us. This afternoon you can read in Joshua chapter 3, how
Joshua led the children of Israel to the brink of the Promised
Land to get there they had to cross Jordan. And those high
priests, very dark, put their foot, just dipped their toe in
the river Jordan and stood up in a heap. The river was flooded
at that time, the time of the harvest it was flooding and stood
up in a heap. Israel left Egypt through the Red Sea on dry ground
and they entered into the Promised Land through the river Jordan
on dry ground. And in that account, you'll read,
all Israel passed over. Not one of them was lacking.
They didn't miss any. Well, then how can we be so sure all spiritual
Israel will cross the river of death safely into glory? Because
they're blood-bought. They've been bought by the blood
of the Lamb. Now, our lesson began with Ahithophel,
advising Absalom to do something so heinous that it's impossible
for reconciliation to happen between David and Absalom. And
that's a picture of what happened at Calvary. 4,000 years man had been in rebellion
against God. From the time Adam fell to the
time of the cross was about 4,000 years. And for 4,000 years men
were in rebellion against God. And they got their hands on God's
Son and did something so heinous that you'd think reconciliation
between God and man is now impossible. If someone did that to one of
my daughters, reconciliation is impossible. Utterly impossible. And if you look over in John
chapter 11, Caiaphas gives the exact same counsel to the elders
of Israel that Ahithophel did years prior. In John 11 verse 47. Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? For this
man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take
away both our place and our nation. And one of them named Caiaphas,
being the high priest that same year, said unto them, You know
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that
one man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish
not. Now this he spake not of himself, But being the high priest
that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation,
and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather
together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
And from that day forth they took counsel together to put
him to death. Caiaphas's counsel was the exact
same advice Ahithophel gave, smite the shepherd and the sheep
will be scattered. You kill the shepherd and his
movement will end. These people have no one left
to follow and they'll start following you again. They'll all fall into
line and live in subjection to you. And they took the Lord of
glory and crucified him. And you'd think reconciliation
is now impossible, wouldn't you? Yet their counsel was defeated.
And God used their actions to accomplish the salvation of his
people. God's will was accomplished.
God's purpose was accomplished. And even before our Lord went
to the cross, he knew he'd be victorious. He knew he would
go put away the sin of his people and that he would lose none.
Look over a few pages of John 17. Verse 11. And now I'm no more
in the world, but these are in the world and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition
that the scripture might be fulfilled." None of them was lost. David
lost none save the son of perdition, Ahithophel. None of them was
lost. And our Lord is exactly right.
He lost none that the Father gave him to redeem. Now, they'll
go through many difficult trials. They're still in the world. That's
what our Lord says. They're still in the world. And they're going
to be outcast from society. People are going to seek their
lives. They're going to be hiding in dens and caves. They're going
to find themselves hiding at the bottom of a cold, dark, damp
well. And they're going to suffer loss.
They're going to suffer humiliation. The purpose of God shall stand. They're going to be hiding in
rocks and dens and caves, but none of them will be lost. In the end, you'll find they're
like none of them. None of them was lacking. Not
one child of God will ever be a deserter and leave the Lord.
Never. He won't allow it. They're all
going to cross safely. No child of God will stay behind
and say, I can't go on, I'm too tired, I'm too weak, I cannot
do this anymore. The Lord will carry them in his
arms and they will cross the river Jordan safely. Our Savior
will never cast away any because he sees they're of no use to
me. He'll bring them all safely into
glory. Not one child of God will ever
be lost. They won't step into the swift
power of the river and be swept away and be lost. They will cross
to safety and eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ. They'll
all pass safely because they are blood bought. Our Lord has
bought them with his precious blood. He'll see to it none of
them are lost. He'll lose none. Now look over
at Hebrews chapter 11. I won't quit. These are the life
and times of a believer. Hebrews 11, beginning in verse
32. And what shall I more say? For
the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, of Samson,
of Jephthah, of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets,
who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, They stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies
of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised
to life again. It's not that they didn't lose
any, they received and raised to life again. Others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea moreover
of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, they
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They
wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the
earth. These are the lives and times of a believer. And these
all, having attained a good report through faith, received not the
promise." They didn't receive it in this life. God having provided
some better thing for us. that they without us should not
be made perfect. Wherefore, seeing we also are
compassed to battle, so great a cloud of witnesses, we are
going to go through the same path they went through. Let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which hath so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
How are you going to run with patience being stoned, being
sawed in half, being imprisoned and wandering about in sheepskins
and goatskins and hiding caves and dens? How are you going to
run that with patience? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. And every child of God,
one day, will join him there. I want to read you two verses
from Habakkuk. If you have the authorized version,
it's page 1163. Otherwise, you probably won't find it quickly
enough, so let me read this to you. Although there are many
dark times in the life and times of a believer, this is going
to be our song. Verse 17. Although the fig tree
shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor
of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat.
The flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be
no herd in the stalls. dark times, bad times. Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Because He brings these times.
He's going to work the events to bring us out of them. He's
going to accomplish His purpose in these times of trial. And
when it's all over, every one of His people will cross safely
and be around His throne singing the eternal song of the redeemed. I can't wait. Can't wait. Alright,
the Lord bless you.