The King Who Cried for a Substitute

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0:00Well, as you heard, my name is Demetrius, and it is a pleasure and an honor to be with you today. I bring you greetings from Churchill Presbyterian. I love preaching the Word, and I hope that the Spirit of God blesses you and meets you. And if you don't get anything out of this message, this is what I tell people when I preach at Churchill Presbyterian. If you don't get anything out of this message today, the one thing I want you to get is this, that Jesus is great.

0:28Okay, so that's what you're going to hear today from me. You're going to hear an exalting word about Jesus Christ. And without further ado, if you'd be so kind, turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 18. You know, I almost forgot that I was in a Presbyterian church. I saw people raising their hands, singing. Man, this is wonderful. I love it. Keep it up. I love it. You know, because in a Reformed tradition, sometimes we can be the frozen chosen, you know.

0:59But, you know, the Lord is good, and it's okay to praise Him. Okay? All right, so let's get to it. I'm in 2 Samuel chapter 18. Are you guys there? All right, I'll start reading. What we'll do is we'll read the first 18 verses, and then we'll skip to verse 28, and then we'll read the entirety of the chapter down through verse 33. Okay, we'll read here. And then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds.

1:33And David sent out the army, one-third under the command of Joab, one-third under the command of Abishai, the son of Zuriah, Joab's brother, and one-third under the command of Ittai, the Gittite. And the king said to the men, I myself will also go out with you. But the men said, you shall not go out, for if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth 10,000 of us. Therefore, it is better that you send us help from the city.

2:06The king said to them, whatever seems best to you, I will do. So the king stood at the side of the gate while all the army marched out by the hundreds and by thousands. And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom. So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the force of Ephraim.

2:42And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David. And the loss there was great on that day. 20,000 men. The battle spread over the face of all the country. And the force devoured more people that day than the sword.

3:01And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. And Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. And his head caught fast in the oak. And he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it and told Joab, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree. And Joab said to the man who told him, What? You saw him? Why then did you not strike him to the ground?

3:37I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt. But the man said to Joab, Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king's son, smart man. For in our hearing, the king commanded you, And Abishai and Ittai, For my sake, Protect the young man Absalom. On the other hand, If I had dealt treacherously against his life, There is nothing hidden from the king. Then you yourself would have stood aloof.

4:15Joab said, I will not waste time like this with you. And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom, While he was still alive in the oak. And ten young men, Job's armor bearers, Surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him. And Joab blew the trumpet, And the troops came back from pursuing Israel, For Joab restrained them. And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest, And raised over him a great heap of stones.

4:46And all Israel fled, Everyone to his own house. Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself the pillar that is in the king's valley, For he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name. It is called Absalom's monument to this day. Let's skip down to verse 28. And then Ahimez cried out to the king, All is well. And he bowed before the king with his face to the ground and said, Blessed be the God, Be the Lord your God, Who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.

5:27And the king said, Is it well with the young man, Absalom? And Ahimez answered, When Job sent the king's servant, Your servant, I saw a great commotion, But I did not know what it was. And the king said, Turn aside and stand here. So he turned aside and stood still. And behold, the Cushite came. And the Cushite said, Good news for my lord, the king. For the lord has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you. And the king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man, Absalom?

6:12And the Cushite answered, May the enemies of my lord, the king, And all who raise up against you for evil be like that young man, Absalom. And the king was deeply moved. And he went up to his chamber over the gate and wept. And as he wept, he said, Oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, Would I had died instead of you? Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. The word of the Lord.

6:58Let us pray. Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ. We come in his righteousness and merits because we have none of our own. So we look to him, Lord, for blessing. We ask you by the power of your spirit that you would open up our eyes to see Jesus. Open our ears to hear Jesus. Let us bind our wills that we would obey Jesus. Illuminate us this morning, Lord. In the name of Jesus, we pray.

7:32Charles Dickens famously opened a tale of two cities with one of the most famous paradoxes in literature. He said this, It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. That tension perfectly captures the reality facing us in 2 Samuel chapter 18. For the nation of Israel was the best of times. The rebellion was crushed and the true king was saved, vindicated and restored. Yet for David, it was the worst of times. You see, the son that he loved lay dead and cut down at his feet without redemption or restoration.

8:11Why did this tragedy unfold? Well, some of it had to do with David, of course. David's sin. But considering Absalom, he believed he was the master of his own fate. That he was worthy of kingship. But what Absalom didn't realize is that his authority and his kingly rule was an illusion. The foundation beneath him was thoroughly rotten and tragically he fell right through it into divine judgment.

8:43This isn't merely ancient history. It is a mirror held up against the human heart, beloved. Humanity is driven by a restless desire for its own rule, its own autonomy. It desires to usurp the authority of God and his word in its life. This passage confronts us this morning. It confronts us with a hard truth that our modern world ignores. That whether it's today or tomorrow, that God will not tolerate and he will eradicate every vestige of rebellion in his created order.

9:28Habakkuk 1.13 says that God is a pure eyes that he cannot approve or look upon evil. God's perfect justice cannot and will not leave rebellion unaddressed by reason of his holiness. We see this play out vividly in this chapter. God's perfect justice is seen here. The chapter opens with a military showdown between the forces of David and the forces of Absalom. We see here in verses 1 through 5, where here we see the preparation for battle. David's three generals assemble the troops like a faithful shepherd king.

10:01David searches or he desires to march out with them. But his men forbid him. They say in verse 3, you are worth 10,000 of us. In a sense, what they are saying is, David, you are worthy. You are too valuable. David, we cannot lose you. If we lose you, we lose the entire kingdom. David agrees. But before the army marches out, he issues this tender, heartfelt plea that we see in verse 5. Deal gently for my sake with the young man, Absalom. By this time, things had gone awry.

10:40David's relationship with Absalom was deeply strained. Absalom had killed his brother Ammon, David's eldest son, and heir to the throne. Absalom had stolen the hearts of the people by taking David's place and rendering justice. And though Absalom had returned to David from exile, he was still forbidden from entering the king's presence. But now the situation had escalated. It had gotten worse. It seemed like David wanted reconciliation. But the tide had turned.

11:09David knew most assuredly that his son was staring in the eye of the king of terror, death itself. I want you to consider David's love and mercy for Absalom. Even in the midst of his rebellion, listen to what David says. David, this man is a monster. Absalom defiles his father's house. He was trying to kill his own father. And yet, David says, deal gently with Absalom. However, the progression towards Absalom's judgment continues to move closer and closer.

11:47In verses 6 through 8, they tell us, verses 6 through 8 tell us something both extraordinary and terrifying. That regardless of the mercy David wished to extend, divine justice had to be served. There is a profound theological tension here, beloved, that we see. David desperately desired mercy for his son. But his human plea ran directly against the sovereign decree of the Almighty God. Back in 2 Samuel 17, verse 14, the text explicitly reveals that the Lord had ordained the defeat of the council of Ahithophel.

12:23So that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. David said, deal gently. But God had already declared, judgment is coming. We see this divine verdict continue its progression in verse 8. It says that the battle spread over the face of all the country. And the force devoured more people that day than the sword. This was not simply a military defeat. It was a supernatural intervention. Creation itself was enlisted as a holy agent of God's justice and judgment against the rebel prince.

12:59This is not merely a military defeat. It is divine intervention. The thick force acted as God's holy agent of justice. It says that it ate or it devoured more people that day than the sword. There was something behind the trees. There was something around the trees working to bring about justice. Job tells us something about this in Job 38, 22 through 23. It says that God uses the snow and the hail. He reserves them for the time of trouble, for the day of battle.

13:35God deploys his creation to execute his judgments. Absalom thought he was merely fighting his father's mortal army. But he was actually fighting the creator of the universe.

13:52This is the nature of rebellion. This is the nature of our sin. Every time we sin, we say to God that we will not have you as our king. We will not have this man to reign over us. Ralph Innings says this about sin. He says, Sin keeps garrisons and strongholds against God. It strives and fights with God. And if its power were as great as its will is wicked, it would not suffer God to be. We live, dearly beloved, in a moral universe. And we cannot live in sin.

14:31We cannot live in opposition to the divine order of God. If we do, we place ourselves in divine danger. This tragedy reminds us that sin is treason. It reminds us, as R.C. Sproul once said, that sin is cosmic treason against God. Notice in verses 9 through 18, Absalom loses everything.

14:59Absalom loses his military muscle. He loses his paper-thin kingdom. And ultimately, he loses himself. His rebellion is so flagrant in verse 18 that he builds a monument to himself. You see, Absalom isn't content to be the royal son. He demands to be sovereign. Absalom wants David's throne, and he will march through blood to obtain it.

15:23I want you to notice in the text that Absalom wasn't the only one fueled by rebellion. There is another person in this text. Joab. Here's the thing about Joab. Joab doesn't look like a rebel, does he? Joab looks like you and me.

15:47He stays in David's camp. He wears the royal uniform. Joab is on the team. He leads the king's army into battle. Yet when King David issues a clear, unambiguous command of grace, deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom, Joab flatly rejects it. Joab, by his actions, says to David, I could care less about who you are, what you have done, your position. I will take matters into my own hands.

16:19Joab finds Absalom hanging in a tree in verse 14. And he doesn't see a subject to be spared by royal decree. He sees a political problem to be solved by his own hand.

16:33Absalom rebels through open usurpation. Joab rebels through subtle pragmatism, operating on a lie that if it works and gets results, it's right. Absalom says, I will take the king's place. Joab says, I will obey the king only when it makes sense to me. And I will execute my own justice when the king's grace feels too risky for me.

16:56This was a tragedy for ancient Israel. It was a tragedy for them. But it is a temptation for us. You see, Absalom and Joab, they weren't strangers to the covenant community. They weren't ignorant of good theology. You see, sometimes in our reformed tradition, we're great with theology, we're great with education. But we aren't great by allowing the spirit to change our hearts by it.

17:31They weren't ignorant of God. And yet they lived under delusion that their own wisdom exceeded the king's authority. They rejected the king because they believed they could manage the kingdom better than he could. In our lives, we stage similar coups. We wage our own little wars against the cosmic king of the universe, usually pulling away from him, rejecting the grace that he has come to offer us in his word and in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

18:02How do we end up like this? How do we see the sin of Absalom and Joab in our own lives? We see it in our desire to be sovereign. And it often shows up in our anxiety. Anxiety attempts to cut God out of the picture, refashion the Almighty into a small, impotent deity. This is precisely what Absalom did to David. He reduced a loving father, a sovereign king, into a distant bystander and an enemy. In a sense, this is what anxiety does to us. It attempts us to violate the second commandment of God by making God into something he is not.

18:48Anxiety paints God as aloof, uncaring, unwise regarding our circumstances. And it frequently erupts in our complaining. Anxiety whispers to us that God is not a good God. He is not a trustworthy king, driving us into despair, leaving us to navigate our lives as if we're people that have no covenant with God.

19:14Anxiety says, God, you don't know what you're doing. I will take the reins. And just like Absalom, we make a complete mess of our lives. Here's the second thing. We reject the authority of God, the grace of God, by rejecting his good word to us. His grace through his word. David cries out. Listen, David says, what does he say? Be merciful. Deal gently with the young man, Absalom. He gives Job his desire, his word. But Job says, no, I will not hear it.

19:54Like Job, we too can find ourselves rejecting the king's word of grace. When grace doesn't make sense, we reject it. We see this oftentimes in our own efforts to self-atone. When you sin, do you feel like you've fallen to the bottom of God's well? Do you feel like you have to make things back up with God? Earn his trust back? That is your heart trying to push you towards self-atonement. It is during this time of struggle that we are drawn to reject the king's word of grace, that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, and that he accepts you in Christ.

20:45And by the power of his spirit, he will change you and conform you to Christ. Like Job, we often pick and choose the truths we believe to suit our own moral sensibilities, quietly setting aside the radical call to trust the king's wisdom regarding grace and the forgiveness of sin. But when we run from the king, we discover that there is no grace outside of him. What is the root of all of this? What is the root of Absalom's ambition and Job's violence?

21:27There are the same toxic idols of pride and unbelief. The mother and father of rebellion. It is ignorance that refuses unearned grace. It is madness that demands it to be its own king. And when we live like spiritual insiders with rebellious hearts, the consequences are devastating. Absalom ended up entangled in the branches of an oak tree. Job didn't end up well himself. If you continue to read in 2 Samuel and you go through chronicles, he didn't end up well.

22:06In this narrative, he seems okay, but he ended up spiritually hardened, a murderous man trapped by his own cold calculations, eventually executed in his old age, proving the truth of Numbers 32, 23, that your sin will surely find you out. When we build our own monuments and attempt to rule and reject the king's grace, we are entangled in the branches of our own maid or own self-maids ruined. What is the outcome of all of this?

22:45This is a mess. You have a king, his son, his relatives, Abishai and Joab. I mean, the whole family is just really a mess if you want to be honest with you. I mean, if I were God, I don't think I would have chosen any of these people. That's why I'm not God. They're a mess.

23:16What's the outcome? We see a just God who executes holy judgment against rebellion. We see a devastated father who cannot halt the hand of divine justice. We see an earthly king whose tears fall for a rubble, but whose marriage, status and position as king could never save his son nor anyone else.

23:39Man, Absalom is left hanging in a tree, suspended between heaven and earth, the text tells us. The text paints a stark picture. Heaven won't have him and the earth rejects him. He has nowhere to go.

23:57The man is a wretch. He's lost his army, devoured by the force. Some abandon him, go back home. He himself is abandoned and forsaken. He dies alone. Absalom lost his lineage, having no sons left to carry on his name. He lost his good judgment, his good sense. Now, let me ask you this. I'm going to tell you. What good king goes into a furious battle riding on a mule?

24:28That's like me taking my little terrier into a battle, into a gunfight and expecting him to do something. Absalom lost his good sense, man. A king normally goes in on a war horse. This guy is so full of pride that he rides into a battle on a mule.

24:53Then what happens to the mule? He loses the mule, the traditional mount of a peaceful king. And as the mule walks away, the narrator subtly reveals that Absalom has no peace, no kingdom, no kingly status. In the end, he's even denied a proper burial, stripped of all dignity.

25:13Here's the cry of the ages for Absalom. It is this. Come. See a prince in his last great living moment stuck between heaven and earth. Look at him. The glorious Absalom. The great king. Look at him in infamy stuck between heaven and earth.

25:49You know the narrator is doing something intentional here, don't you? If you are a Bible student, the bell should be going off in your head. He's doing something and he's being intentional. The Holy Spirit is being intentional.

26:09He's trying to point you back to Deuteronomy 21, 22 through 23, where it says that anyone who is dying or hanging upon the tree is cursed of God. Absalom's greatest loss was not his army. His children or his counterfeit kingdom. It was a loss of God himself. By leaving Absalom hanging on a tree, the narrator reveals that he was abandoned and cursed by God. He was despicable to God.

26:42You know, the other day, my wife, I was trying to really get a hold on this word curse. What is this word curse? What is it trying to convey? My wife, she was outside. I was at work sitting in my office and my wife calls and sometimes when I see that name come across the phone, I'm like, uh-oh, what did I do wrong or what's going on? Right? You men know, look at my man back there laughing. You know what I'm talking about. But she's just going off and I'm like, Stephanie, please just get it out because my wife never tells you until a long while or a long time has passed what she's really struggling with.

27:21There is a snake in the garden. She is so overwhelmed by this snake. It is putrid. It is wretched. It is despicable to her. She will not go back to the garden. Matter of fact, now I have to escort her most of the time to the garden.

27:47That gives us a sense of what it means to be cursed but have nothing to do with Absalom. He violated his word. He rebelled against his anointed king that he had chosen. And verses 19 through 33 capture the tragic news and raw emotion surrounding the rebel king's death. When David receives the news, he cries out but he cries out for something specific. He doesn't cry out for anything but this one thing. Substitution.

28:38Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son, O Absalom, or I wish I could have taken your place. But David is powerless. His son is dead and buried. David's men rightly affirm his value. You know in verse 3, you know what they say about David? They know he's the king. David's the man. He's the main man. He's a man after God's own heart. They say, man, you're worth more than us. You're worth 10,000 of us, man. Stay right here. We can't lose you.

29:26David knows his worth. When he knows that Absalom is about to die, he knows his worth. He knows he's the king. He knows that he's the man. And he says, listen, I want you to do something for me, boys. I want you to save Absalom for my sake. That's just like a great king if he came to you and he said, hey, listen, I want you to do this for my sake. Something legal, of course. I hope you would not do anything illegal. But something legal. You would go to the greatest lengths to do it because that is the king.

30:07That's what David is saying. I'm worth something. My men believe that I'm worth something. But David is not infinitely worthy to pay the infinite debt of the sin of a rebel like Absalom.

30:29David himself was riddled by sin. In fact, his own sin sowed the seeds for this very tragedy. This narrative stands as a sober warning to all. This is what happens to rebels.

30:46So David's cry is for substitution. His hopeless cry echoes through the centuries. It roars across generations. Who can take the place of rebels? Who can take the place of self-willed human beings who sin against God like Absalom? Who can take their place? His cry of substitution goes and reigns through the ages without an answer until one day God answered David's plea for substitution.

31:39See, we like David, we can't pay for our rebellion. We may be worth something to our families. We may be worth something to our jobs. We may be even worth something to this nation. But we're not worth enough to pay or atone for our own sin. We deserve to be suspended, cursed between heaven and earth. God answered his cry by providing another son. A son who would be a substitute. A true heir of David's throne. Not a rebellious son but a righteous son who stood in the place of rebels as their substitute.

32:26He hung upon the tree cursed of God, smicken, stricken, afflicted of God, crushed by God. On the cross Jesus hung, suspended between heaven and earth. The heavens above him were as black as sackcloth. If you go back to Psalm 18 it's a picture of God's judgment.

32:53The earth rumbled and said to Christ do not set your foot upon me. You are cursed. He hung suspended between heaven and earth under the curse of God in the white hot wrath of God with your sins my sins upon him. But unlike Absalom he did not stay in his grave. He did not stay suspended between heaven and earth. He got up and he ushered to you a blessing. And now you are not just received by heaven and earth you will inherit the heavens and the earth because of the work of Jesus Christ.

33:48I'm almost done trust me. How should this reality rewire our hearts? You know when you see that the true king loved you like this you should freely give yourself to him. We no longer have to carry the exhausting weight of being king. Let me ask you this question in closing. Let me ask you some questions. I want to look at the white of your eyes and I want to ask you some questions.

34:26What crown are you trying to wear this morning? Huh? How are you trying to rule your own life? I'm speaking to myself this morning. When I was studying for this I couldn't say amen. All I could say was oh me oh my. Right? What crown are you trying to wear the crown of self atonement? You have a king for that.

34:56It says in Ephesians 5 too he loved you and gave himself up for you as an offering to God. Is it the crown of anxiety? You want to control your circumstances? You worry about your what you will become what college you will go to what job you will have how are you going to make it out of this circumstance? You have a king for that too. Cast all of your cares upon him for he cares for you.

35:32Is it the crown of doubt unbelief or guilt regarding your soul? You have a king for that. He has taken your condemnation so that you can hear his word of grace that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Lay down your crowns this morning.

35:59Listen, he's big enough to be your king. He is. You can trust him. In the beginning of our message we saw or we heard Charles Dickens say it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the worst of times for David. He lost his son. It was the best of times for Israel. Their king was saved. At the cross, it was the best of times and the worst of times. God's son died to show us the heinousness of our sin. But it was the best of times because God's son destroyed every vestige of sin, every condemning voice against you.

36:48So it is the best of times. If you don't know Christ this morning, I want to invite you to come to him and rest in him. He bid you to come freely. I'm sure Pastor Joel's not going to have you come here and do an altar call and bow and get on like when I was a little child to have people sit on a mourner's bench hollering and screaming. No. Come and receive Christ. And if you already know Christ, rest in him. Trust in him. He's a worthy king. He's a good king.

37:35And he will in no way turn away from you or not take care of you.