And it came to pass after this, that
Absalom, the son of David, had a fair sister, whose name was
Tamar. And Amnon, the son of David,
loved her. Now, Amnon is the oldest son, first in line to
the throne. And Amnon was so vexed that he
fell sick for his sister, for his sister Tamar, for she was
a virgin. And Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to
her, yet this time they kept secluded from men, even men of
their own family members. And that's why he thought it
was hard, you know, to get to her, to talk to her, do anything
to her. They did this to protect them. Now, verse 3, Ammon had
a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother.
And Jonadab was a very subtle man. He is a very crafty, cunning
man. He can manipulate people. You'll
see as we go through here, he can work both sides of the fence
at the same time. He is a true politician. In verse
4, and he said unto him, Why art thou, being the king's son,
lean from day to day? Wilt thou not tell me? And Amnon
said unto him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.
And Jonadab said unto him, lay thee down on thy bed, and make
thyself sick. And when my father cometh to
see thee, say unto him, I pray thee, let my sister Tamar come,
and give me meat, and dress the meat in my sight, that I may
see it, and eat it at her hand. So Amnon lay down, and made himself
sick. And when the king was come to
see him, Amnon said unto the king, I pray thee, let Tamar
my sister come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I
may eat it at her hand. And David sent home to Tamar,
saying, Go now to thy brother Amnon's house, and dress him
meat. So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was laid
down. And she took flour, and kneaded
it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes. And she
took a pan, and poured them out before him, but he refused to
eat. And Amnon said, Have out all men from me. And they went
out, every man from him. And Amnon said unto Tamar, Bring
the meat into the chamber. that I may eat of thine hand.
And Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them
into the chamber to Ammon her brother. And when she had brought
them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her,
Come, lie with me, my sister. And she answered him, Nay, my
brother, do not force me, for no such thing ought to be done
in Israel. Do not thou this folly. And I, whither shall I cause
my shame to go? And as for thee, thou shalt be
as one of the fools in Israel, Now therefore, I pray thee, speak
unto the king, for he will not withhold me from thee. Albeit
he would not hearken unto her voice, but being stronger than
she, forced her, and lay with her. And Amnon hated her exceedingly,
so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than
the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her,
Arise, be gone. And she said unto him, There
is no cause. This evil in sending me away
is greater than the other that thou didst unto me. But he would
not hearken unto her. Then he called his servant that
ministered unto him, and said, Put now this woman out from me,
and bolt the door after her." It wasn't good enough to just
put her out, bolt the door after her. He hated her because I'm
sure he had a guilty conscience. He's afraid of punishment. He's done with her. This is the
way a man operates. He hated her. Don't just put
her out. bolt the door behind her. Don't let her come back
in. In verse 18, she had a garment of diverse colors upon her, for
with such robes were the king's daughters that were virgins appareled.
Then his servant brought her out and bolted the door after
her. Tamar put ashes on her head and rent her garment of diverse
colors that was on her, and laid her hand on her head and went
on crying. Absalom, her brother, said unto
her, Have Amnon thy brother been with thee? You know, Amnon may
have a little bit of a reputation at doing this. As soon as he
saw her, maybe it struck him. This looks like Amnon's work.
And he says, but now hold thy peace, my sister. He is thy brother.
Regard not this thing, so Tamar remained desolate in her brother
Absalom's house. I'm sure part of what Absalom
is saying here is, now don't let this thing get out publicly
embarrassed the family. And I think also he's insinuating,
just hold your peace, I'll take care of this. I can see a big
brother saying that. I'll take care of this. So verse
21, but when King David heard of all these things, he was very
wrong. Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor
bad, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister
Tamar. And it came to pass after two full years that Absalom had
sheep shears and Baal Hazor, which is beside Ephraim. And
Absalom invited all the king's sons. And Absalom came to the
king and said, Behold now, thy servant hath sheep shears, let
the king I beseech thee and his servants go with thy servant.
And King David said to Absalom, Nay, my son, let us not all now
go, lest we be chargeable unto thee. And he pressed him, albeit
he would not go, but blessed him. You know, this is a true
father in that, you know, I don't want to be a burden to you. I
want you to spend a lot of money on me. You know, just save your
money. And Jim Meadows used to tell Janice, you want to cook
him dinner and things. So he said, now you can't write
me off on your taxes. You know, this is don't want
somebody to spend a lot of money. Just save your money. But verse
26, then said Absalom, if not, I pray thee, let my brother Amnon
go with us. And the king said unto him, why
should he go with thee? But Absalom pressed him that
he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him. I'm sure in
the back of David's mind he hoped if they went to this celebration
together at harvest time, sheep shearing, that there would be
some reconciliation here between his sons. Now Absalom had commanded
his servants, verse 28, saying, Mark ye now, and Amnon's heart
is merry with wine. And when I say unto you, smite
Amnon, then kill him. Fear not, had not I commanded
you. Be courageous and be valiant.
And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose,
and every man got him up on his mule and fled. And it came to
pass, while they were in the way, that Titus came to David,
saying, Absalom hath slain all the king's sons, and there is
not one of them left. Then the king arose and tore
his garments and lay on the earth, and all his servants stood by
with their clothes rent. And Jonadab the son of Shimea,
David's brother, answered and said, Let not my lord suppose
that they have slain all the young men, the king's sons, for
Amnon only is dead. For by the appointment of Absalom
hath this been determined from the day that he forced his sister
Tamar." Now how did Jonadab know that? Word hadn't come yet that
only Amnon was killed. I think Jonadab helped concoct
this plan, you know, what they're going to do and how they're going
to kill Amnon, and now he's selling Absalom out. David's the king,
so he's occurring in favor with the king, but he knows Absalom
may be the future king, so he's working in the background to
occur in favor with Absalom, too. He's a cunning man, crafty,
working both sides of the fence. Verse 33, he goes on and says,
Now therefore, let not my lord the king take the thing to his
heart, to think that all the king's sons are dead. For I am
not only as dead, but Absalom fled, and the young man that
kept the watch lifted up his eyes and looked. Behold, there
came much people by the way of the hillside behind him. And
Jonadab said unto the king, Behold, the king's sons come, as thy
servant hath said, so it is. And it came to pass, as soon
as he had made an end of speaking, said, Behold, the king's sons
came, and lifted up their voice, and wept. And the king also,
and all his servants, wept very sore. And Absalom fled, and went
to Talmai, the son of Amahud, king of Esher. And David mourned
for his son every day. Absalom fled to his maternal
grandparents, who, I'm quite confident, approved of what he
had done and were very willing to give him shelter. So Absalom
fled and went to Gesher and was there three years. And the soul
of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom, for he was comforted
concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead." Quite a story, isn't it? Now, all of this happened because
of David's sins. and David's bad leadership. You
remember, Nathan told David that the Lord would raise up evil
against David out of his own house because of the sin he had
committed with the adultery of Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah.
And the Lord said, I'm going to raise up evil out of your
own house. David was guilty of adultery and murder. His sin
is forgiven now. It's been put away, but the consequences
are still to be dealt with in the rest of David's life. And
now out of his own house, We have incest and rape and murder
occurring right out of David's own house, just like the Lord
promised. This is one of the punishments for David's sin.
But now David also brought this on himself by not fulfilling
his responsibilities as a father or as a king. David fell into
the same trap that Eli and Samuel had fallen into. He's God's prophet. He's God's king. He's a man after
God's own heart. But now David was not a very
good father. He loved his children so much,
he couldn't stand to see them displeased. We'll see this in
a minute. He couldn't stand to see them displeased. He couldn't
stand to see them cry if he disciplined them. He loved them in that way,
you know, let his love direct his judgment so that he would
not discipline them. Look over 1 Kings chapter 1.
I'm not just making this up now. In 1 Kings 1. And Adonijah, the son of Haggath,
exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And he prepared him
chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. Why did
he do that? Because his father had not displeased
him at any time, saying, Why hast thou done so? He never,
when he did wrong, as he was growing up, his father never
said, What are you doing? You can't do that. He never disciplined
him when he saw him do something wrong. He just didn't want to
displease him. And this is Absalom's brother. And he was a very goodly
man, a handsome man, just like Absalom was. And his mother buried
him after Absalom. David just couldn't stand to
displease him, to discipline him. You notice in our story
there in verse 21, when King David heard all these things,
he was very wrong. But he didn't do anything. He was angry at
the situation, but he never did anything. And David failed as
a father and as a king. The law required that Amnon,
at the very minimum, I guess depending on how you might interpret
what had gone on here, he was either to be cut off from Israel,
never to come back into Israel, or he was to be put to death,
one or the other. That's what the law required.
In verse 21, one of the old manuscripts, Matthew Henry said, at the end
of that verse in this old manuscript says, But he said not the spirit
of his son Amnon because he loved him because he's his firstborn.
He couldn't stand to discipline even after he raped his own sister. And at the end of the chapter
when it says David was comforted, it wasn't exactly comfort like
we use the word comfort. He felt sorry for Absalom. He
wanted Absalom to come back. He was resigned to the fact Amnon's
not coming back. Amnon's dead, but he wanted Absalom
to come back. even though Absalom was guilty
of murder. And he failed as a king. Now, if he doesn't execute justice
here with his own son, how's he going to execute justice on
somebody else's son? He failed as a king. Now, you
young parents, and you who someday will be young parents, let me
see if I can give you something here that might help you. One
of the writers said about this chapter, if you do not scourge
your children when they're little, when they're young, They'll be
a scourge to you when you're old. That's true. And let me give you a warning
here. The man used the word scourge.
Scripture uses that word. Discipline, you know, it talks
about beat your child. That means spank your child on
the behind. Never, ever, ever does that mean
to abuse a child. One of the worst things in this
world is a religious hypocrite who abuses his children behind
the name of religion. The scripture never means that.
You discipline your children in love, never in anger, because
you love them. You spank them, you discipline
them, and then you hug them up and you dry their tears and tell
them, you know, why you had to do that, but now you discipline
your children. And you'll probably do it right
if you remember this. Their behavior is a direct image
of your parenting. So you have to discipline children.
They need to be corrected. They're not to be embarrassed.
They're not to be abused. They need to be corrected, and
they need to be taught. And you use that discipline as
a way to teach your children the correct behavior. You cannot
let bad behavior go unpunished. You cannot do it. If you do,
it'll come back to bite you, just like it did David here.
Now, I'll get off my soapbox about that, but that's very important
to you. have little children, David contributed
to this problem by letting it go unchecked. Look over at Ecclesiastes
chapter 8. By letting this thing go unchecked
and not dealing with it immediately, David contributed to the problem. In Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse
11, because sentence against an evil
work is not executed Therefore, the heart of the sons of men
is fully set in them to do evil. Deal with these things speedily.
Don't let them go, and then they won't come back to bite you later.
Now, let me give you four things from this chapter. Four truths
about sin. That's the title of our lesson.
Four truths about sin that we see here in this chapter. The
first one is this. Sin is unclean. It's wicked,
it's vile, it's unclean. Matthew Henry said you can't
even speak of this story without blushing. And that's true. And I may blush a little bit,
but I'm going to speak about it nevertheless because there's
some things about this chapter that need to be said. Sin is
vile. It ought to make us blush. It
ought to embarrass us. We ought never get comfortable
with sin so that it doesn't make us blush. It's vile. And I think
probably everybody in this room can understand the violence of
what happened in this story. Now I have a wife that I love.
I have daughters that I love. I have a little sister that I
love. I have these sisters here that I love. Somebody did this
to one of my sisters, you can rest assured I'd want to kill
them. I mean, I would. Not quickly either. I'd want
to kill them in a slow, painful way. That doesn't make it alright. That's just my sin nature. I've
got the same sin nature. It's vile. It's wicked. And the only way that I will
ever get anything of any eternal value from this story is if I
see myself as vile and guilty as Amnon and Absalom. We have
rape. incest and murder going on in
this family. Can you get any lower than that?
I mean, can you get a more dysfunctional family? Am I really capable of
doing this? Are you really capable of doing
this? Yes, I am. And yes, you are too. We have the exact same sin nature. And here's the uncleanness of
sin. How unnatural, unclean is it to lust after your own sister? I mean, my goodness sakes. And
the fact that this is clearly forbidden in Scripture made him
want it even more. Isn't the same thing true if
somebody tells you you can't do something? That's all you
want to do just because they told you you can't. You know
what that is? Rebellion. Pure and simple. Rebellion of our sin nature,
rebellion against God's holy law is unclean. God never forbids you from doing
something holy. It's only the unclean. And rebellion
against His law is unclean. Isn't that what happened in this
story? And non-feign sickness. Probably
an easy part for the guy to play. He's sick. But he deceived his
father, he deceived his sister by appealing to his sister's
love for her brother. So he could write for him. Now
that's just so unclean. That's just, that is disgusting
to us, isn't it? We are just as unclean. As disgusting
as this is in our sight. Think what we must look like
in God's sight. In His holy sight. We're just
as unclean. And I'll tell you who's drawn
into this uncleanness. It's fools. Tamar told Amnon,
don't do this. If you do, you'll be as one of
the fools in history. Well, that's what sin is. Sin
is foolishness committed by fools. When we sin against God, we're
wronging our own soul. That's foolish. And our foolish
sin nature loves what's unclean and hates what's holy. That's
the sin nature that we have. Now, how did all this uncleanness
come to happen? How did this uncleanness come
to happen in David's household, in the household of a believer?
How did this happen? Well, we've seen that this is
the judgment of God on David for his sin, and we've seen David's
not the best father that ever lived. But I tell you the primary
reason this happened in a believer's home. Grace does not run through
human blood. Grace, God's saving grace, cannot
run from my blood into my children. Grace does not run in human blood.
Corruption does. Corruption does. It comes straight
from Adam, clear through to us. And that's the sin nature, the
unclean sin nature that's in us that we pass right on down
to our children that came from Adam. Sin is unclean. Second,
sin is deceitful. All through this chapter, there's
deceit going on in there. First Amnon, he deceived David
and Tamar so he could rape his sister. Then Absalom, he deceived
David and he deceived all of his brothers so he could kill
his brother. But you know what? Amnon was deceived by sin, too. He deceived others, but he was
deceived by sin because sin is so deceiving. Look over in Romans
chapter 7. Sin will deceive us. In Romans 7 verse 9. For I was alive without the law
once, I thought I was, but when the commandment came, sin revived
and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Sin deceives me into thinking,
well I can keep the law, I can keep the law good enough, Sin
deceives me into thinking, my good works are good enough. I
do more good works than other people. I do more things right
than wrong. Sin deceives us into thinking
right is wrong and wrong is right. Sin deceives us that way. Sin
deceives the sinner into thinking, well, what I'm doing is not so
bad. It deceives us into thinking, my sin is not unclean. good,
but sin deceives us into thinking, my sin's not unclean. It's not
that bad. When Amnon was describing his
sister to his cousin, Jonadab, you'll notice he didn't say,
I lust after my sister. After Absalom's sister. He said
it in a way that tried to make it sound like it wasn't quite
as bad as what it really was. That sin deceiving him. And Amnon
thought this sin would make him happy. And it did the exact opposite. And that's what sin does. Now,
here's another warning for our young people, for all of us,
but particularly for our young people. Let me warn you, sin
is deceiving. Sin is deceiving. The things
of this world are deceiving. And I understand, believe me,
I understand that the things of this world are sweet to you.
You're on to them. They look so good. Oh, they're
so sweet. And don't be fooled. Even to
the oldest believer in this room, there's still a draw to the things
of this world because we still have that nature that's drawn
to those things. But now these things of this
world, they're deceiving. They're so deceiving that you
think if you can just get them, they'll make you happy. And you
get them, and you find out, I'm not as satisfied with them as
I thought I would be. It's not satisfying, it's not
filling. So you have to look for something else, and you keep
chasing after something else. It's just like drinking salt
water. The more you drink it, the more thirsty you become.
It doesn't do you any good. You think, oh, if I could just
have riches. And you do everything you can to lay hold of them.
And one day they're gone. Psalmist's riches certainly make
themselves wings. and they fly away toward heaven
as the eagle. You just, they're gone. You can't
keep on. It's deceiving. Absalom, he thought
getting revenge would make him happy. And while he's seeking
revenge, he deceived others. But he himself was deceived too,
I think. Absalom, he didn't just murder
Amnon to get revenge for his sister. It's pretty clear there's
an ulterior motive at work in Absalom. If he could eliminate
Amnon, First in line to the throne, Absalom would be closer. Absalom
was the third son, so he eliminates Amnon. Now he's second in line
to the throne. There's just one God for him in the throne, you
know. Deceit. And the worst deceit of sin is
this. Sin deceives you to chasing after sin. Chasing after the
things of the world. Thinking, you know, it's not
going to hurt me. Sin deceives you into thinking that those
things are life. That those things are happiness.
and it makes you miss Christ, who is life. Look over Mark chapter
4, I'll show you that. Sin deceives you into thinking
that you have life, when in fact it gives you death. In Mark 4 verse 18, And these are they which are
sown among the thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares
of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. And that's not just,
you know, that's everything in this world. The deceitfulness
of riches and the lust of other things entering in choke the
word and it become unfruitful. Sin deceives you and it chokes
those things away and makes you miss Christ. Sin is deceitful. The third truth about sin, the
result of sin, is death always. Now first it brought mourning,
didn't it? Amnon's sin brought mourning to his sister. She tore
her clothes. She had lashes on her head. She's
got her hand on her head going away mourning, crying. David,
he ended up mourning the loss of his two sons. Sin always brings
forth mourning. When finished, it brings forth
death. Tamar, she tore her beautiful
garment of many colors. And she did it publicly. She
shamed publicly. David and all his servants, they
ended up tearing their garments and mourning on the ground. Everybody's
going around mourning. Everybody's going around with
their clothes torn and mourning. I know what that's a picture
of. We lost our robe of righteousness in Adam. When Adam fell, we didn't
just tear our garment now. We lost it. We're naked before
God. And as a result of having no
righteousness, we die eternally. That's what Scripture teaches.
Sin brought forth fear and shame. Tamar, she couldn't go out in
public. She stayed hidden in Absalom's house because she's
so ashamed. Absalom, when he, you know, did
what he thought would make him happy, now he's ashamed. He's
afraid to go back home. Sin brought fear and shame. That's
what Adam's sin brought on mankind. Adam was always naked from the
time God created him he was naked. He never cared about it. He was
never ashamed of it until he disobeyed God. Then he was ashamed. Then he feared God and was hiding
from God, trying to cover himself with an apron made of fig leaves.
Sin brings fear and shame. And the final result of sin is
not seen immediately. Not seen immediately. It took
900 years for Adam to die after he sinned. Two full years passed
after Amnon raped his sister. And nobody said anything to him.
David didn't say anything to him. Absalom didn't say anything
to him. Nobody said anything to him. And he probably thought
it was forgotten. Just swept under the rug, you
know. And then the death blow came. Unexpectedly. While everybody
was happy at a party, the death blow fell. The final result of
sin is always death. It doesn't happen immediately,
but it'll happen. Because that's the final result
of sin. God said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. And we die. Because we're sinners. Sin always brings forth death.
And the fourth truth of sin is this, there is one remedy for
sin and that remedy is the Lord Jesus Christ, God's son. Now
our text doesn't particularly speak of any remedy for this
situation, but the remedy for sin is pictured in this story.
God's son is pictured in David's two sons. One of them died. One of them was cut off from
Israel. The only remedy for sin is the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The law demands death for sin. So God sent His Son, made of
a woman. God Almighty became a human being,
clothed Himself in human flesh so that He could be the representative,
so He could be the substitute for sinful human beings. God
became a man so He could die. God can't die. God can't shed
blood, but a man can. So God became a man. So he could
die and shed his blood as payment for the sins of his people. And
the Lord Jesus, he died as a substitute for sinners. He didn't die trying
to accomplish something. He died as a substitute for a
specific people. And he accomplished their salvation. He died the death that his people
deserved. So his people live his life.
He became their substitute. And all of that corruption, all
that vileness of sin is washed white as snow in that precious
blood that he shed on Calvary's tree. Now there are many sins
listed in the law. You can go through and you read
many of them. Where the person who committed this sin is to
be cut off from the people of God. He's to be cut off from
God. He's to be cut off from Israel. He can't come back to
the people. He can't come back to the temple.
He's cut off. And that's the penalty Amnon
should have suffered. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
that punishment for his people. Isaiah 53. You probably don't
need to turn to it. You can quote it, but let's turn
to it. Let's read it. Let's burn this. Isaiah 53, verse 8, he was taken
from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. He was cut
off and he died. He was cut off out of the land
of the living. Why? For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. Absalom, he was cut off. Temporarily, he was cut off.
We'll look at this next week. He'll be restored after a while.
But not legally. He'll not be restored legally.
Our Savior, he was cut off. Temporarily, like Absalom, he
was cut off. But then he's restored. Legally. Because all that sin that was
charged to him is gone. It's been put away under his
precious blood. is the only remedy for sin. Then what's a sinner to do? Is
there a sinner here this morning? I'm telling you, Scripture teaches
it so plainly. There's one remedy for sin. Then
what's a sinner to do? Flee to Him. Look to Him. Fall at His feet, begging for
mercy. He's the one remedy for sin. Run to Him. Flee to Him. And
you'll find life. Alright. The Lord bless you.