There's a lot that may be learned
thinking about an anchor. It's out of sight, isn't it?
You can't see the anchor when you have your anchor cast out
of the boat. It's out of sight. But how important
it is that the anchor casts or hook onto a rock or something
I'm sure most all of us, if you've been in a boat of any kind, you've
had your anchor out and the anchor is not latched on to anything
and the wind and the waves and the boat is still moving because
it's not connected on to anything solid. It's just dragging on
the bottom of the lake or whatever. Let's open our Bibles tonight
to 2 Samuel chapter 17. I'm not going to read the entire
chapter, but I want us to read probably about half of it, beginning
with verse one. 2 Samuel chapter 17. Moreover, Ahithophel said unto
Absalom, let me now choose out 12,000 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. so all the people shall be in
peace. And the saint pleased Absalom
well, and all the elders of Israel. Then said Absalom, call now Hushai
the archite also. Let us hear likewise what he
saith. And when Hushai was come to Absalom,
Absalom spoke unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after
this manner. Shall we do after his saying?
If not, speak thou. And Hushai said unto Absalom,
the counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. For, said Hushai, thou knowest
thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they
be chaffed in their minds as a bear robbed of her whelps in
the field. And thy father is a man of war,
and will not lodge with the people. Behold, he is hid 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 is a slaughter among the people that follow
Absalom. 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. Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered
unto thee. from Dan even to Beersheba, as
the sand that is by the sea from multitude, and that thou go to
battle in thine own person. So shall we come upon him in
some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon
him as the dew falleth on the ground. And of him and all the
men that are with him, there shall not be left so much as
one. Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel
bring ropes to that city and we will 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. For the Lord had
appointed to defeat the council of Ahithophel, to the intent
that the Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. And then look down,
if you will, to verse 23. And when Ahithophel saw that
his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass and arose
and get him home to his house, to his city, put his household
in order and hanged himself and died and was buried in the sepulchre
of his father. Tonight, I want to bring three
things out to us from this chapter. There are many other things that
we might see, but I have three things for us this evening. First,
God answers prayer. God answers prayer. That verse
14, which we read, and Absalom and all the men of Israel said,
the counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of
Ahithophel. Notice, for the Lord had appointed
to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent the
Lord might bring evil upon Absalom. We know that we saw this, if
you look back to chapter 15 and verse 31, Ahithophel, his counsel,
and we'll look at a verse in just a minute, but people thought
that when you asked Ahithophel and when he gave his counsel,
it was just like asking the word of God. I mean, they had that
much respect and esteem for him and his advice. And we see when
David, when he hears, this is a point I want to make, as soon
as David hears that Ahithophel has joined forces with Absalom,
notice what he does. Here in chapter 15 and verse
31. And one told David, saying, Ahithophel
is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord,
I pray thee. Turn the counsel of Ahithophel
into foolishness. David prayed, oh Lord. He prayed
in his extremity. In his extreme need, he prayed
and he asked God to turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And we see that that is exactly
what the Lord did. Again, if you look in chapter
16, verse 23, This is the text I mentioned. People had such
a high opinion of Ahithophel and his counsel. And the counsel
of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man
had inquired at the oracle of God. Now, David had tremendous
respect for this man also as far as his counsel. And soon
as he heard that Ahithophel was with Absalom, then immediately
he praised, O Lord, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And even here in our text, if
you look there again in chapter 17 and verse 14, We read, to defeat the good for
the Lord, this is about middle ways, for the Lord had appointed
to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel. Now, the good here
doesn't mean that it was moral or anything like that. It just
means that that was good counsel. If Absalom had followed Ahithophel's
advice and took off immediately to to find David and to destroy
David, he could very easily have defeated David, humanly speaking,
you know what I mean. But it was good counsel, but
God had determined to defeat Absalom. So the prayer, the point
I'm making is David's prayer was answered. And let me just
say a few words about prayer tonight. Prayer is one of the
greatest privileges that God gives to his children. Think
about it. One of the greatest privileges
that you and I have tonight. And we have a lot of privileges,
don't we? We have a lot of good things in our lives. We live
in a good country. We have good food to eat. We
have good clothes. We have good air conditioning
here, don't we? We have a lot of good things. Humanly speaking, for creature
comfort, we enjoy a lot of good things. But think about an audience
with God Almighty. Here I am, as weak and as useless
and as unprofitable a servant as I am, and you are the same
way. Don't think, boy, he's sure humble. No, I'm just telling us what
the Bible says about us, that we're all unprofitable servants
when we've done everything that we're commanded to do. But yet,
even so, We may speak with the God of the universe, the God
who rules and reigns over everything. What a privilege we have, prayer. And in the scriptures, let me
mention several things about prayer. First of all, we're commanded
to pray. We're commanded to pray. Our
Lord said, or the scripture says rather, and Luke, men ought always
to pray and not to faint. And when you think about that
saying, men ought always to pray and not to faint, by adding those
words, not to faint, doesn't that remind us, or at least mentioned
to us the liability or the likeliness, I should say, of fainting, of
growing weak. in prayer, going tired of prayer.
I just give it up on prayer, you know. Maybe you're here tonight,
and you've prayed, and you've prayed, and you've prayed, and
you've asked, and you've asked, and you've asked, and you're
just weary. Doesn't seem like God's heard
your prayer, answered your prayer. The heavens are brass. Maybe
when you cry, man ought always to pray. Our Lord, after that,
in that passage, remember our Lord gave that parable of that
widow who went to the unjust judge seeking help for her, her
sons. And the judge at first, he wouldn't
hear, he wouldn't hear, you know, but eventually he did hear her
and he did grant her request. It's so easy to get discouraged,
disappointed maybe, and to let off praying. And I'm preaching
to myself. And I remember this saying years
ago, when you point your finger out like that preacher, you've
got three of them looking back at you, pointing back at you.
And that's true, isn't it? I mean, nobody needs this any
more than I do. But we're commanded to pray,
first of all, And I've told you this before,
you know it's true, the more spiritual, the more spiritual
any exercise is that we do in serving the Lord, it is more
difficult. The more spiritual it is, it's
a lot easier to get dressed and come here on Wednesday evenings
or Sunday morning, Sunday night, than it is on Monday morning
to be on your knees before God, crying out for help and for mercy. The more spiritual any exercise
is, the more difficult it is. And the great example of that
in the Bible is when the Israelites came out of Egypt, the Amalekites,
they came to fight with them. And Moses told Joshua, choose
out some men and engage in the battle. Now we never read that
Joshua and the soldiers got weary, grew weary in fighting, but remember
Moses up on the mountain holding his hands up. As long as he held
his hands up, God gave Joshua and the Israelites the victory
over the Amalekites, but his hands grew weary. I can understand
that, can't you? You ever have to work above your
head Your arms, they get tired, don't they? They get weary. Well,
they had a remedy for that. They took Aaron and her, and
they put two stones next to Moses and held up his hands. But the
point is, the more spiritual any exercise is, the more difficult
it is. So first of all, we're commanded
to pray. Second, we are encouraged to
pray. We're encouraged to pray. Our Lord said, pray to thy father.
Pray to thy father which is in secret, and thy father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. So we're commanded
to pray, we're encouraged to pray, and we are given God the
Holy Spirit to help us to pray. And if there's any place we need
God's help, it's when we're praying. Look with me in Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8, the apostle
Paul tells us this. Verse 26, he says, likewise the
spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. And
he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. Now, when we read here that the
Holy Spirit is in us making intercession with groanings, he helps us to
know what to ask, to know how to pray. God the Holy Spirit
is given to us to help us to pray. And lastly, we have a wonderful
promise concerning prayer. In 1 John, this is the confidence
that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His
will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth
us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him. And I would say this also, we're
given a number of examples in the Bible of God answering prayer,
of men of like passions. That's what James tells us. Elijah
was a man of like passions. He was just like you and just
like me. He was not some superhero or
some super saint or anything like that. We know that's true
about Elijah, don't we? He was afraid of Jezebel. Remember
when he took off running? After he had faced down 600 and
something prophets on Mount Baal, and then he was afraid of that
one woman, Queen Jezebel, and ran for his life. He was a man
of like passions, but God heard him, didn't He? God answered
his prayer. When he prayed that it should
not rain, it didn't rain for three years, right? Three and
a half years. And then he prayed that it would rain, and God sent
the rain. I think of many, many. We have an example right here.
David prayed, Lord, defeat the council of Ahithophel. And God
heard, and God answered. And let me show you another example.
Look over here back in 2 Kings, just a minute. 2 Kings chapter 20. 2 Kings chapter 20. In those days
was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son
of Amoz, came to him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord,
set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.
Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed. prayed unto
the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have
walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have
done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass." Isn't this
something? How quickly the Lord answered
his prayer. Isaiah hadn't got out the door. God told him, turn around, go
back. Look at that. came to pass before Isaiah was
gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came
to him saying, turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of
my people, thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father,
I have heard thy prayer. I've heard thy prayer. I've seen thy tears. Behold,
I will heal thee on the third day thou shalt go up into the
house of the Lord. We've got so many different examples
in the Word of God. That's one reason it's so important
to read the Word of God. That encourages your faith. That
strengthens our faith, isn't it? As we see these examples,
read these examples, and you say, well, that was in the Old
Testament. God hasn't changed. God doesn't change. No, he's
the same today as he was yesterday and shall be forever. And He cares. He cares for His
people. He cares for His children. I
want you to look at another promise in the New Testament in Luke
chapter 11. So we've got the command for
us to pray, the encouragement for us to pray, God the Holy
Spirit to help us to pray, wonderful promises in the Word of God to
encourage us concerning prayer, But I want us to look here in
Luke chapter 11 at what our Lord said, beginning in verse 9. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. Now, when we ask, we always ask
according to his will, don't we? You know, some people, they
read, they take one verse, and they don't take the entirety
or the analogy of faith, and they come to a wrong understanding. They believe that anything that
they ask, no matter what it is, if they just ask in the name
of Jesus, it's going to be given unto them. That's not so. That's
not so, and the Lord never taught us that. When we pray, when we
ask, when we knock and we seek, it's always according to His
will. You see, one of the purposes
of prayer is worship, isn't it? It's worship. And how do we worship
but submit to the Lord, to His will? Just as our Lord Jesus,
we have His example of praying, Father, if it be possible. Nevertheless,
not as I will, but as Thou will. But let's read on here. If a
son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he
give him a stone? Now think about that. Most of
us here are parents, or a lot of us are at least. One of your
children came to you and asked for a piece of bread. Oh yeah,
there it is over there on the table. And have a big rock sitting
over there. That's not funny, is it? Child's
hungry, you wouldn't do that. You think your Heavenly Father
would do that? Do we? If you then being evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children, verse 13. Now notice this, how much more
shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask him? Do we ask for the Holy Spirit? Do we ask that God fill us with
the Holy Spirit? I'd say that's one of the most
requested petitions that go up into heaven, wouldn't you? That
God's children all over this world, every day, we're asking
and praying, Lord, fill me with thy spirit, that I might serve
thee, that I might honor thee, that I might live for your glory
and for your honor. I have no strength of my own.
Without thee I can do nothing. Lord, fill me. And we have this
wonderful promise. How much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit? And in the other gospel, the
parallel passage, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
good things to them that ask? And the good things are the things
that come by the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, the fruit of
the Spirit. Okay, let's go back to 2 Samuel.
So a lesson on prayer. God answers prayer. That's the
first thing. The second, a typical lesson. A typical lesson. If you've turned
back here now to 2 Samuel 17. We all tonight, we all here know
that David is typical. He served as a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then think about this, Ahithophel
may serve as a type of Judas Iscariot. That's what I want
us to see. David serving as a type of Christ,
then this man Ahithophel serves as a type of Judas Iscariot. And I will ask you to turn to
another place in John chapter two. or John chapter 13, rather,
verse two. Follow with me now. John chapter 13 and verse two. And supper being ended, the devil,
having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son
to betray him. And then look down in that same
chapter to verse 18, the Lord Jesus here speaking, I speak
not of you all, I know whom I have chosen. Now notice, but that
the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me
hath lifted up his heel against me. that the scripture might
be fulfilled. What scripture? What scripture
is our Lord saying that this work of Judas is fulfilling? Well, you've got to go to Psalm
41. Psalm 41 and verse 9, David by
the spirit of prophecy. Now he's telling something that
was true of him, but our Lord says that for Judas betraying
Christ fulfilled this scripture. Verse 9, yea, mine own familiar
friend. Who is that? That's Ahithophel. my own familiar friend in whom
I trusted. Now, he had been his counselor. Ahithophel had been David's counselor. Judas had walked with the Lord
Jesus Christ, what, for three years. Been privy, as we would
say, to everything the other disciples knew and heard and
saw. He was a trusted friend. And friend, remember when Judas
led those soldiers out there to arrest Christ that night?
How did the Lord address Judas? Friend. Friend. Yea, mine own familiar friend,
in whom I trusted, which did eat my bread, hath lifted up
his heel against me. Ahithophel is surely the person
that David spoke of in this psalm, his friend who had eaten bread
with him, but now he had lifted up his heel against him. And
that, from what I've read at least, that is a saying, it's
a metaphor taken from an unruly horse who throws Its rider lifted
up his heel against me, throws its rider and then tramples on
him. It shows the treachery, the treachery
of Ahithophel. He had been his friend, been
his counselor, and now he's turned against him. And Judas had walked
with the Lord and been one of the 12 disciples of the Lord. And he turned against him, turned
to be a traitor, a treacherous person. And I want you to look,
I hope you still have your Bible open to 2 Samuel 17. Now, that verse we read of John,
13, it said that the devil, having
put it into the heart of Judas. I'm going to read this first
few verses here, 2 Samuel 17. And you tell me who this sounds
like. Moreover, Ahithophel said unto Absalom, let me now choose
out 12,000 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." You get all those I wills? Four
of them. Who does that sound like? Let
me read you. You don't have to turn here,
but let me read you these verses. You're familiar with them, I'm
sure. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12. How art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou
hast said in thy heart, now listen, I, will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will set also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.
You see how, if this is Satan here, how he's speaking, I will,
I will, I will. And that's the same way Ahithophel
spoke. I will. I will. Ahithophel, his counsel to Absalom
sounds so much like Satan, sounds so much like the devil. No doubt
the devil had entered into his heart, just like he did Judas. Thank God we read in the last
book of the Bible there's a time coming and the devil that deceived
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the
beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and
night forever and ever. His end is marked, isn't it?
It's marked. One last thing. Hope I'm not
tiring you out too much here. A proverb here in 2 Samuel 17,
and I owe all of this to Matthew Henry, this last point. We have a proverb illustrated
here. The proverb is in Proverbs 16,
verse 18, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit
before a fall. Now Matthew Henry commented,
see, See how easy it is to betray a proud man by applauding them
and feeding their pride. And that's exactly what Hushai
did to Absalom. Let me point these three things
out. Notice his counsel, Hushai's counsel in verse 11. He tells
him, therefore, I counsel that all Israel, now think about that. Here's this man, he's a proud
man, and now this counselor tells him, we're going to assemble
all Israel, not just a few hundred people, but the thousands of
Israel, all the men in Israel that are 20 years of age and
old enough and young enough to go to war. Let me assemble them
all there." Don't you see how that appealed to Absalom's pride,
his ego? What made him think that all
Israel would come? Was he that deceived about himself? Well, most proud people are,
aren't they? Most people, and we're all proud
by nature, but some people seem to be More proud, don't they? Yeah, more proud. We'll gather
all of Israel. Be like the sand of the seashore,
Absalom. And you'll be able to stand at
the front of them and look, and as far as your eyes can see,
these men have all come to follow you. They've all come to follow
you. And then second, he told him,
thou go to battle in thine own person. Now Hithophel, remember,
his counsel was, I'll do it. I'll take some men and I'll go
out. But Hushai tells Absalom, you lead. Who's more fit to be
a commander than you, Absalom? And after all, if Hithophel,
if he won the battle, he'd get the praise. No, you go, Absalom. Nobody could be a better commander
than you. All of this we say is appealing
to this man's pride, his ego. He already believed this about
himself. Again, what Matthew Henry said
is so true. See how easy it is to betray
proud men by plotting them and feeding their pride. You know,
the scripture warns about flattery, doesn't it? That's a sin of flattering
a person, to deceive that person. And the third thing, Hushai told
him, you will destroy him and all the men with him, in verse
12. Now Ahithophel had told him,
we're just going to kill one man. We're just gonna kill David
and that's all it'll take. We'll take care of David and
it'll be like all of those who are with him will return to you.
But no, Hushai says, we'll kill all the men with him. And don't you know there were
some men around David that didn't care for Absalom? That knew what
kind of a person he really was. He might deceive his father.
David, he might deceive him. David would be prejudiced as
all parents are concerning their children, see no wrong. But there
was a man around David, you may be sure, they knew what kind
of a scoundrel Absalom was. And when Hushai says, now let's
kill all of them, not just David, that had to speak to him. I mean, that's just right up
my alley, getting rid of all those people that might follow
him. Pride goes before destruction. And we know, God willing, as
we continue, we're gonna see his destruction. Pride goeth
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. May the
Lord bless His word to you tonight and to me.