I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 16, and we'll begin reading with verse 20 on through chapter 17, verse 23. 2 Samuel chapter 16, that should be pretty easy for you to find here, given the fact I believe Reverend Gordon is preaching through 1 Samuel. Let's turn a few more pages. 2 Samuel chapter 16, please keep your attention to the reading of God's Word as we begin with verse 20. Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, give advice as to what we should do. And Ahithophel said to Absalom, go into your father's concubines whom he has left to keep the house. And all Israel will hear that you have abhorred, that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong. So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went to his father's concubines in the sight of all israel now the advice of ahithophel which he gave in those days was if one had inquired at the oracle of god so all the advice of ahithophel both with david and with absalom moreover ahithophel said to absalom now let me choose 12 000 men and i will arise and pursue david tonight i will come upon him and while he was weary and weak and make him afraid and all the people who are with him will flee and i will strike only the king then i will bring back all the people to you when all return except the man whom you seek all the people will be at peace the saying pleased absalom and all the elders of israel then absalom said how now call hushai the archite also and let us hear what he says too and when hushai came to absalom Absalom spoke to him saying Ahithophel has spoken in this manner shall we do as he says if not speak up so Hushai said to Absalom the advice that Ahithophel has given is not good for this at this for said Hushai you know your father and his men they are mighty men and they are enraged in their minds like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field and your father is a man of war and will not camp with the people surely by now he is hidden in some pit or in some other place and will be when some of them are overthrown at the first that whoever hears of it will say there's a slaughter among the people who follow absalom and even he who is valiant whose heart is like the heart of a lion will melt completely. For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man and those who are with him are valiant men. Therefore, I advise that all Israel be gathered together from Dan to Beersheba like the sand that is by the sea for multitude that you may go to battle in person. So we will come upon him in some place where he may be found and we will fall on him as the dew falls on the ground and of him and all the people who are with him there shall not be left there shall not be left no such one as one moreover if he who has withdrawn into the city then all israel shall bring ropes to that city and we will pull it into the river until there is not one small stone found there so absalom and all the men of israel said the advice of hushai the archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel for the Lord had purposed to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster unto Absalom. Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abathar the priest thus and so Abathar advised Absalom and all the elders of Israel and thus and so I have quick I have advised now therefore send quickly and tell David saying do not spend this night in the plains of the wilderness but speedily cross over lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up now jonathan and hadhamaz stayed at en rogel and they dared not be seen coming into the city so a female servant would come and tell them and they would go and tell king david nevertheless the lad saw them and told absalom but both of them went away quickly And when they came to a man's house in Barim, who had in his well, a well in his court, and they went down into it, then the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and spread ground grain on it, and the thing was not known. And when Absalom's servant came to the woman at the house, they said, where are Ahimez and Jonathan? So the woman said to them, they are gone over the water brook. And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. Now it came to pass, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well and went and told King David and said to David, Arise and cross over the water quickly. For thus Ahithophel advised against you. So David and all the people who were with him arose and crossed over the Jordan. By morning light, not one of them was left who had not gone over the Jordan. Now when Ahithophel saw that his advice was not followed, he saddled the donkey and arose and went home to his house to his city. Then he put his house in order and hanged himself and died, and he was buried in his father's tomb. And thus concludes the reading of God's word. I'm reminded this evening that more than one person, two or more people can have the same experience. And they can view the same information, and yet they can walk away with very different conclusions. Why is that? How is it that two people can have the same experience, share the same experience, they can access the same information, and yet draw completely different conclusions? Well, it's because none of us come to our experiences as neutral. All of us come with presuppositions and ideology. There's things we believe, and therefore we approach our experience through the lens of an ideology and a belief system. This is true of everyone. And we see that there is a significant belief system then between those who start from the presupposition of faith versus those who start from the presupposition of unbelief. And we see that in our text this evening. And I will probably comment upon that later. But I begin, I have to have a starting point. I'm hoping that most of you, if not all of you, are very familiar with the story of Absalom, David's really good-looking son. It's interesting that Absalom gets more attention, more ink in 2 Samuel than what is dedicated to the birth of Jesus Christ. Think about that for a moment. How many verses in Matthew's Gospel are dedicated to the birth of Christ? I believe it's 31. I think there's eight in chapter one and then the rest in chapter two. And then the next Gospel, Luke, that has the largest pericope dealing with the birth narrative. And there's nothing about the birth narrative in Mark's Gospel. There's nothing about the birth narrative in John's Gospel. And therefore, if we look at just sheer number of verses, Absalom is pretty significant in terms of an Old Testament narrative. He takes up a large section here in the book of 2 Samuel, and therefore our attention is drawn to this. And usually Hebrew writing is as such where as the narrative slows down, you get more information, you get more detail. It's an indicator this is a good time to stop and reflect upon this narrative, and that's what we're doing this evening. And I start with this. What is so special about David? It always comes back to David here. Was David cut from a better piece of cloth than, say, Saul or Absalom or any other man? Absolutely not. In fact, as you study this, as your minister takes you through this in this study, you'll probably discover that David is not necessarily more virtuous than Saul. He's not necessarily more virtuous than Absalom. What sets David apart is his relationship with the Lord, but he's also set apart from the sense that he's not just another guy because he is God's anointed. He is God's chosen servant. And God has made a covenant with him, the Davidic covenant, we find in 2 Samuel 7, where David had in his heart this desire to build the Lord a house, and he shares this with Nathan the prophet, and Nathan the prophet assures him, now that's a good idea, the Lord will bless us, David. He typically leads you, and he's with you, and he blesses you. And then Nathan the prophet goes home, and the Lord appears to him and speaks to him and says, no, no, no, no. David's not going to build my house. I'm going to build David's house. And Nathan the prophet returns to David and assures David that the Lord is going to build his house. He's going to establish his throne for eternity, and that this house is identified with the kingdom of God and therefore as we read and we study these narratives we need to do so through that particular ideology that theology needs to inform our understanding of this text and what is taking place and that's what we'll seek to do this evening as we consider this passage now as Absalom has rebelled against his father and he's leading a coup he's seeking his father his father's throne his desire is to take over his father's kingdom now that david learns that what his son is up to because his son had approached him and said dad i want to go to hebron i made this vow as an exile it appears that father and son had been brought back together and father's like you want to go to hebron and worship well god bless you go in peace and absalom goes and the trumpets are sounded the sacrifices are offered and he declares himself declared as king and that's what leads up to this the context is important in chapters 15 and 16 david has six encounters with either an individual or peoples a group of individuals and these encounters there's three of them in chapter 15 and there's three of them in chapter 16. The first three are men who are given over to David's service. They are men who are willing to risk their lives in service to David. It's quite impressive. This is going to preach very well. Reverend Gordon, you're going to love this, preaching this. Itai is absolutely awesome. He's this Philistine prince, and I can't get distracted here. He's got 600 men, mighty men who are with him, they arrive in Jerusalem. The day before, David leaves Jerusalem with his head covered, he's barefoot, and he leaves in shame, and he tells him, you can stay here. It says, I've come here to worship your God and to serve you, and I will be with you in life and death. And David ends up making him a general in the battle against Absalom, equal to Joab, the Philistine prince. The left position of power, authority, and we never hear about him again after that, presuming that he probably died in battle. Very, very fascinating, as all these men, these people are defined by their relationship with David, which gives us this beautiful image that every man woman and child ultimately is defined in an ultimate sense by the relationship with God's anointed Jesus Christ God's chosen servant well the very last of these characters Ahithophel you know about Ahithophel he's the very last one and he defects from David and he joins the conspirators with absalom and when david learned of this he was profoundly impacted he was on the mount of olives as he was leaving and he immediately begins to pray and he prays that god would confound and defeat the advice of ahithophel this evening we're going to consider the man ahithophel we're going to consider his good counsel and we're going to consider how Ahithophel's good counsel was defeated by the Lord. Ahithophel, the man, I'm trying to think of someone I could compare him to. I'll do my best here. If you follow college football at all, you've probably heard of the coach of Alabama, Nick Saban. He's created a dynasty, and typically it's not a good idea to bet against Nick Saban, even if you don't like the Alabama football team. Although in this last national championship, he came up on the short end. Dabo was, Dabo prevailed. Well, Ahithophel is this, if he was a coach, he's the kind of coach that always knows what his opponent is up to, and therefore he knows what defense to be in. He knows what he should be doing offensively to exploit the weakness of his opponent's defense. If he's a general he's the general that he understands military strategy and psychology he understands strategically what he needs to do on the battlefield to outmaneuver and to defeat his enemies but he also knows how to beat them psychologically which is significant his advice is bulletproof just follow his advice and you'll prevail you can see why david was so concerned he was david's chief advisor in fact i'm of the belief that in psalm 41 when david talks about being betrayed by his friend he's referred with he's referring to a hippophile i might comment on that later jesus christ quotes psalm 41 verse 9 when he identifies Judas in John's Gospel, chapter 13. And therefore, the background, the Judas of the Old Testament, is Ahithophel. Listen to what we read about him and his advice in 2 Samuel, chapter 16, verse 23. We read this earlier. Now, the advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was if one had inquired at the oracle of God, So was all the advice of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. So the inspired word of God is saying the advice that Ahithophel gave also to Absalom was good advice, as if one had inquired of an oracle of God. Now please understand that the biblical narrator is not saying that Ahithophel's advice was necessarily honorable, righteous, morally upright, or ethical. What he's saying is that his advice worked. He knew how to win. Ahithophel understands that in the present context, he has to do something to strengthen the morale of those who are following Absalom and to also solidify the divide between David and his son Absalom. You're familiar with the story of Cortez and how after he landed on the shores of the New World, He instructed his soldiers to burn the ships. They watched the ships burn, knowing that they were all in. There was no way home. If the mission failed, they die. And therefore, they were committed to the mission and the temptation to return when things were difficult, when it looked like the mission might not fail, when it might fail, that that temptation was removed. And that's what Ahithophel is doing here. He is advising Absalom to set up, he's advising him. David, when he left, he left ten concubines to take care of the palace. And Ahithophel has advised that Absalom, in a very public format, would go in and have conjugal relations with David's concubines. Why is that so important? What was the effect of that? Well, there was a certain idea that the king had dominion, and part of this dominion included this dominion over his harem and these concubines, and therefore, for his son to go in and have conjugal rights, he was claiming the right of the throne. And it was such an offense, there was no turning back. There could be no reconciliation after this. No retreat. They were all in. And the Bible says the effect was that it strengthened the hearts of those who followed Absalom because they realized this was the real deal. This was going to happen. This was not a pretend coup. It was not a negotiating technique. But this was the real deal here. Now, I could just continue to go on, but I need to make reference to something here that's relevant to this. Do you remember after David sinned with Bathsheba, and he not only committed adultery with her, but he murdered her husband, Uriah, and how Nathan the prophet came to him and confronted him? Well, one of the things that Nathan said to the prophet, this is what he said to David. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of his son. For you did it in secret, but I will do this thing before all Israel. Therefore, a tent was set up on a prominent high place, a palace ground. And the concubines were prated in one by one for all Israel to observe. And immediately after this is when we read about Ahithophel's advice being the kind of advice you'd receive from an oracle from God who is in fulfillment of this prophecy. And therefore, it's important that we view this through the lens of Scripture. And then Ahithophel goes on and he advises Absalom on how to defeat his father in the battlefield. And the advice is very important because he recognizes there's an opportunity here, but this opportunity, this window is going to close, and therefore we have to act quickly. And Ahithophel, I'm going to break this down to six parts as I move through this quickly, this advice. Ahithophel himself said, let us gather 12,000 troops. And notice, if you have your Bibles open, notice the emphasis upon I in this advice. It starts off now, let me choose 12,000 men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and weak and make him afraid, and all the people who are with him will flee, and I will strike only the king. Then I will bring back all the people to you. When all return except the man whom you seek, all the people will be at peace. and the same pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel. So there's this emphasis upon Ahithophel doing this, and it makes you wonder, does Ahithophel not trust Absalom in a military context to have the ability to lead an engagement, a major military engagement? It's very possible, because Absalom doesn't appear to have much of a military background. He looks good. He grows great hair. He knows how to ride in a chariot and have 50 men run in front of him. He knows how to do the theatrics. He knows how to steal the hearts of the men of Israel. He knows how to make them promises that if you come here, oh, yes, my father's not hearing you. If I was the king, if only I was the king, I would give you justice. Of course, everybody he's promised, they're going to get what they want. So he's a great politician. He doesn't speak the truth. That's who he is. But those kinds of guys are not necessarily great generals in the battlefield. A lot of promise, but not much deliverance. And I suspect that Ahithophel understands that. he would just as soon keep this guy out of the battlefield, and I'll take care of this for you. Why 12,000 men? A thousand men for each tribe. It represents the 12 tribes of Israel. That's significant. That's a part of this equation. This man thinks of everything, all the nuances. It was important to move against David as soon as possible. This was strategic because Ahithophel wanted David to die in the dark, in obscurity, and he also knew that David was weak at this point in time. David had left Jerusalem just a few hours later, possibly. He left with his head covered. He was weeping. He was barefoot. He's really not in a presence of mind to engage in a military conflict. He's as vulnerable as he's ever going to be right now. And Ahithophel knows that if David has time with the assistance of Joab and his mighty men, they can organize, and they're certainly going to outmaneuver, most likely, even a military with greater numbers. And Ahithophel's aware of all this. The purpose of the sudden strike, then, is to throw David and those who are with him into a panic. which would not be difficult because they're weary and discouraged. Another part of this is that Ahithophel would give Ahithophel the opportunity to kill David without further collateral damage. He would minimize the collateral damage. And then this last part here, he believes that if he executes this plan, is allowed to execute this plan, he will be able to put David to death and bring David's supporters back and those who supported David could be convinced to support his son. Now, given what the Bible says about Ahithophel, we have no reason to believe that this plan wouldn't work apart from God's decree. Minor problem. Major problem. But it's a good plan. It's a sound plan. And Absalom and those elders who are part of his cabinet who consult with him, they all agree it's a good plan. And because of that, I'm a little puzzled why he asked Hushai, the archite, what do you think? Because Hushai wasn't even a part of the discussion. And here you see God's providential guidance so overtly at hand. Why would you not go with Ahithophel's advice? Well, David, if you're not familiar with the text, when he offers this prayer after he hears about Ahithophel being adjoining the conspirators and defecting to Absalom he offers this prayer and immediately after he prays who shows up who's shy he's closed torn he's he's mourning and David's like oh I got a job for you you're going to go to Jerusalem you're going to offer your services to Absalom you're going to spy on what goes on and you are going to defeat the council of Ahithophel and Absalom makes the mistake of telling who's shy what Ahithophel's council Absalom tells Hushai, these names are so easy, the council of Ahithophel. How come we don't name our kids after this? Hushai, it's a great name. I say that when we're no longer having children, you know. I can't get sidetracked, but I said that one time, and a few months later, somebody in church named their child one of the names I could suggest. You have to be very careful what you suggest as a pastor, I've discovered. And don't ask me whose name it is. So Hushai offers, he makes it clear that Ahithophel's advice is no good. And he appeals to Absalom's fear emphasizing how David is a valiant, mighty warrior and the mighty men among him are mighty warriors and they're like a bear with their cubs ripped away from her. And they're angry and furious and there's no way you're going to outsmart him. He's going to be hiding in some cave someplace. But then he really appeals to Absalom's pride. Wouldn't it be so much better? Think about this. We will gather an army like the sand of the sea from Dan to Beersheba, and you will be at the head. And we will find them, and it will be like the dew falling upon the ground. We will fall upon them, and we will exterminate them. And if they are walled up in a city, so be it. We'll grab ropes, and we'll pull them into the river, and we'll lay siege to the city, and we'll destroy it. You know what he does? He frames this in an event where it's going to be like a major redemptive historical event, like the flood or the accident or some great thing. And you're going to be at the helm, Absalom. And he's like, oh, you're going to write books about me. They'll have lectures about me someday. and he's just like, oh, I like this. Well, Hushai is playing to his fear and his arrogance, his foolishness, his immaturity, and he takes and bites the bull. Now, Hushai doesn't know whose plan Absalom is going to go with, and that's why there's this whole thing about, he goes, he speaks to the priest, and there's this underground, getting the message back to David, David, go across the Jordan, don't spend the night in the wilderness until you've crossed the Jordan. Cover our bases here in case I haven't sold Absalom on this plan, this ridiculous plan. But lo and behold, Absalom took the bait. He's such a humble man. I'll read from verse 14. So Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel. For the Lord had purposed to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom. I want to take a moment here and consider the statement theologically in Absalom. Can we say that Absalom had a free will? He had a free will, but it's in bondage to his nature, and he's dead in sin. And Hushai knew that. And therefore, he has a perfectly free will, but it's in bondage to this arrogant, wicked nature. and that's why he's so attracted to Hushai's plan and therefore the Lord is not forcing him to do something against his will he's delighted he's of the seed of the serpent think of the two seed principle when you read these narratives you got David the seed of the woman you got a man here his son is flesh and blood but he's of the seed of the serpent and he's given all of his ambition to killing his father destroying God's anointed, and he's anxious to do it, and he'd like to do it on a public stage and not in private, and one of the things that's attractive, I suspect, about Hushai's plan is that all of a sudden the supporters of David also get eliminated, so they don't have to worry about them, and that's often the way tyrants work, isn't it? Those who ask difficult questions and challenge them. We'll just do away with them. Therefore, it appeals to them. And yet the entire narrative is being driven by God's secret decree, a decree we can't see, but we have a hint here because earlier Nathan the prophet said, hey, by the way, David, but Nathan the prophet also said to David, God has taken your sin and put it away. He's put your sin somewhere else. He put your sin upon Jesus Christ. It was legally imputed to Jesus Christ, and Christ's righteousness is imputed to David. And that's what makes the difference. And therefore, we see that as a loving father, the Lord disciplines David, but he only disciplines those whom he actually loves, his children. And in the midst of being disciplined, it raises this question, how do you view the discipline of David? How do you view David's troubles? Do you view them through the scripture? Do you view them through 2 Samuel chapter 7, the Davidic covenant, the promise of the gospel? I will establish your throne for eternity. Your kingdom will never cease. In fact, your house is identified with the kingdom of God. Is God's discipline of David somehow going to prevent God from fulfilling what he's promised to do through David? Absolutely not. Oh, this is so relevant to us. It's so relevant to us when you go through troubled times when you go through hardship when you've lost a loved one how do you view your troubles and how do you view the troubles of the church the struggles of the church the difficulties of the church in this life i want us to think about this comment here that the biblical narrator said as we read about ahithophel and his advice and the biblical narrator says the good advice of Ahithophel. Ahithophel's advice is bulletproof. You know who Ahithophel is? He's either the father or the grandfather of Bathsheba. He's David's, prior to this, most trusted advisor. This is the guy in the consistory room, you're having a discussion, and all of a sudden Ahithophel speaks, and it's time to vote, there's no more discussion. Because you've heard the good advice of a hippophile. We're not talking about a Philistine here. We're talking about a man that was in the inner circle. He was on the session. He was in David's cabinet. And the whole tension, the narrative here is, how is the good advice? How is the pragmatic wisdom, how is the foolproof advice, the bulletproof advice of this man is going to be defeated. This man's advice lives on in the life of the church. The good counsel of Ahithophel had to be defeated because the good counsel of Ahithophel will always stumble over the foolishness of Jesus Christ crucified, and the ordinary means of grace. When David appeared to be weak and vulnerable, and it looked like there was an opportunity to overcome and destroy him and bring his kingdom and his throne to an end, all of a sudden the practical wisdom it's time to cut our losses here been vested enough in David he's over 60 he's getting to be old he's making bad decisions he's created a lot of problems he's got serious problems in his family time to go with the good-looking young guy his son who has the ability his charisma has the ability to sway the people he stole in the hearts of the men of Israel. And therefore, Ahithophel defected in opposition to God's anointed. And he joined with the Antichrist. And he offered his services to Absalom, an enemy of God's anointed. Instead of viewing the situation through the lens of the Davidic covenant, the word of God, if you want to see into the future, if you want to know what's going to happen, if you want direction, Look to the word of God, and specifically the promise of the gospel. See, Ahithophel didn't really believe. He had no confidence in God's ability to bring about what he had promised. Instead of believing that the Lord was faithful, that he would do what he had promised to do, he viewed David's suffering, his humiliation, through the pragmatic wisdom of the good counsel of those who reject the idea that God's kingdom is established through the voluntary death of a king who offered willingly to go to Jerusalem, to suffer, to be rejected by the scribes, the chief priests, the rulers, who on earth as a king would establish their kingdom by voluntarily dying rather than raising the sword. Practical wisdom will always stumble over that. I want you, Reverend Gordon asked you to do something this morning that I thought was quite helpful. He asked you to pretend that you were in church and you had been there for several hours. That'd be hard for you to pretend because I'm sure you've never heard a sermon that went for several hours. Young man falls out of the window. How would you respond to that? There'd be anger towards the preacher. I can confirm there'd be anger because I did a wedding one time and one of the groomsmen fell out. A few minutes later, a second one fell out. And everybody was mad at me at the end of that funeral. A funeral, a wedding. It felt like a funeral. One guy fell out and hit his head on an oak pew. You could hear it thunder through the whole auditorium. You know what? There were some tight Dutchmen that decided after that it was time to get air conditioning. It was 90-some degrees, and you lock your knees in a wedding. It's pretty hard not to fall out. If you lived in the days of Jesus' earthly life, think with me for a moment. The plans of those who determined to destroy him and his cause would have seemed to be very impressive, wouldn't have they? If you viewed the life of Jesus through the wisdom of Ahithophel, the good counsel of Ahithophel, those in the religious establishment were united, all the great learning of the scribes, think about that, The chief priests united. The Pharisees united. The elders, the religious establishment, the academy, all the way through, united, united against this rabbi, this renegade rabbi. They viewed him as a threat. And then, to make matters worse, they managed to enlist the power of the Roman government. They were determined to kill him and to bring an end to his teaching and his kingdom. If you had been there and you had the opportunity to place your bat to choose, it would have seemed like the wise choice to choose in favor of the academy, the scribes, the chief priests, and yet those who stood against Jesus Christ were fools, and they were destroyed. And that's the story of Ahithophel. When Ahithophel sees that his vice has been rejected, I wrestled with this for a long time, he leaves his position, he makes the trip home, the bible says he put his house in order and then he hung himself initially i thought he hung himself because this man was not used to having his advice rejected and his identity and his pride was very wrapped up in this he didn't know how to deal with the rejection psychologically and there's probably some truth to that i believe that ahithophel given what the bible says about him understood that that opportunity to snuff out David was gone. As smart as he was, he knew that David, in time, would organize with Job and his mighty men, and now that he had the Philistine prince and the 600 mighty men with him, and they have a history, that Absalom, given his military inexperience, didn't matter how many soldiers he had he would never prevail against me and therefore he had to choose between a private execution versus a public condemnation and being executed because he knew david was coming back and therefore he knew david would be back in jerusalem and yet did he repent did he come to his senses and say i've been a fool he died an enemy of jesus christ Knowing full well that David returned to be victorious. And therefore you see the strength. You see the disposition of an ideology rooted either in faith or in unbelief. Faith or unbelief. And my premise this evening is that the wisdom of Ahithophel has to continue to be defeated in the consistory room, in the life of the church, in the academy, and in your own heart. In terms of our flesh, we're all hardwired. Earthly wisdom. We love it. We love power, don't we? Maybe today it's all messed up because there's this toxic masculinity thing. I'm trying to figure this out. At some point, John Wayne became a bad guy. I'm still trying to figure out. Scott Clark's got to explain this to me. we're attracted to power we're attracted to worldly wisdom and yet the kingdom of god is built upon the foolishness of a king who voluntarily gave his life and died that you might live that you might live what does the advice and the wisdom of a hithophel look like in the life of the church i'm not going to spend a lot of time on this i could The wisdom of Ahithophel is always going to question the authority, the sufficiency of the Word of God. It's always going to question the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, and Christ crucified, and the gospel preaching, and the means of grace, word and sacrament ministry. There's a lot of wisdom of Ahithophel today in contemporary homiletic books. i can't read modern day contemporary they drive me crazy because they give you all this psychological and all this scientific stuff explaining why somebody can't listen to a sermon that's longer than 15 or 25 minutes you know it's fascinating to me because you know i don't consider myself to be overly intelligent um you know i'm the son of a logger and i grew up in kind of a rough world and uh and yet when i was a college student and i was 18 years old and i went to college everybody expected me to sit in class for 50 minutes and to listen to a lecture and college professors by and large are not very entertaining to listen to most of them are not very good teachers to be quite honest with you they're they like their material but they could really use some help often with teaching there's the exception thank goodness and you would go and you would hear one lecture for 50 minutes and then after that you would go and you'd hear another lecture for 50 minutes and the course of an average day you could hear three or four lectures So I'm fascinated by the idea that somehow an 18-year-old can go to college and listen to a lecture for 50 minutes, and several of them are in the course of the day, and then they get a test called midterms, and to the end they get a test, finals, and they're expected to know what was in the lectures, plus all the assigned readings, and to demonstrate a certain working knowledge of this material. And yet, for some reason today, people can't listen to a 50-minute lecture in a church situation there is an undermine of a confidence and an understanding of the need for the ministry of the word your greatest need in your life is to hear the word of god and to understand it and to be enriched by it to be nourished by it to hunger and long and thirst to hear the ministry of the word and to have your faith strengthened and to be reorientated in terms of your third thinking Because when you look and you evaluate your own experiences in this life, you need the Word of God. You need an ideology where you could look at this and say, oh, thank the Lord. Yes, he assures us that he disciplines his children. I'm not cursed. He hasn't forgotten about me. He's not going to destroy me. And when you look at the life of David, when you look at the nation of Israel, There's many times where the kingdom of God looks as if the world is going to overcome God's kingdom. The kingdom of God looks weak. It's marginalized by this world. It lacks the images, the symbols of earthly power and glory and prestige. And often when we gain those things, it's to our demise. Often we're strongest when we're weak and we depend upon the Lord and his strength. and therefore there's great need there's a crisis in the life of the church in the west in america crisis of faith because there's a lack of confidence in the word of god because the thinking of ahithophel is much too prevalent in our churches and our own hearts and our families and therefore fathers when you go home and mothers when you go home and you leave this place of worship and you comment about the pulpit ministry you can say whatever you want about my personality or my lack of hair or whatever those things might be but when you speak of the pulpit ministry you need to think of yourself and think of your comments from this perspective are you creating by your words and what you say to your children an appreciation for the ordained gospel ministry the means of grace are you undermining the means that God has ordained in the lives of your children through your critique and your comments about the pulpit ministry in your church. Because you can actually build a road for your children that you build for them to leave the church. And so often when parents do that, years later they get mad and they're angry and they blame the preacher. When often they've themselves participated in the building by giving their children a steady diet of the good counsel of Ahithophel. Therefore, the challenge this evening, may you have confidence in God's word. May you have confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of Christ crucified. May you find comfort in that message. And when your conscience accuses you, when you struggle, may you be comforted knowing that even in this life, yes, Christ is doing something in you, but it's imperfect. And ultimately, your comfort comes from what he's done for you. And you always go back to resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And you model that and you speak of that in your homes, your children. And therefore, God works through means. As the Lord worked through Hushai, to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel. May the Lord work through you to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel in your home, in your marriage, in this church, in the consistory room, in the seminary. Let us pray. Father in heaven, as we come before you on this Lord's Day evening, we are deeply impressed with the fact that the Bible itself describes the wisdom and the counsel of Ahithophel as good counsel, and David himself was deeply disturbed when he learned that this man had defected to his enemy, to the conspirators, which include his son. Lord, help us. As we look at the biblical text, we see that ultimately the Lord is the one who defeated the council of Ahithophel and he preserved David because ultimately the Lord is the one who's faithful. And the Lord is faithful to bring about what he's promised as he is bringing about a kingdom built upon the mediation of Jesus Christ. And all that he accomplished through his 30 years of perfect obedience to God's law, through his sacrificial death and his glorious resurrection ascension, Lord, create within us an appetite, a desire long where we long to hear this gospel message, this good news. And Lord, may you create within us absolute confidence in your word. And Lord, may we understand that the wisdom of God, that the fear of God precedes true knowledge, true wisdom. It doesn't begin with the kind of wisdom that we read about related to in Ahithophel, but rather it comes from humility and a reverence and a sincere conviction about the God of the Bible, the creator of heaven and earth. Hallowed be thy name, may you create that within us, Lord. the fear of God, the wisdom unto salvation. Defeat those voices that compete with your voice and our hearts and minds in the life of this church, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.