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also for eternal life, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. This morning I'm preaching the final sermon on Absalom. Last Sunday morning we talked about how he started out as being a pretty good guy, pretty decent guy, but because of bitterness and just not letting things go and just wanting to take revenge himself, he ends up just becoming a very horrible person. That's what we're going to see this morning, just how bad he got. And then last Sunday night we talked about his conniving and his flattery and some of the methods that he used to take power. So this morning I'm specifically preaching about just the absolute wickedness of Absalom, just how bad he got, how evil he became, and I'm going to show you all of his wicked sins this morning that he commits as he is to take revenge against his own father who is really not even the right person to direct his anger at. But the first thing, obviously, is his flattery and his conniving, and that's what we already talked about last Sunday night. But he's rebelling against his own father, and not only that, he's rebelling against the Lord's anointed ruler of the nation of Israel. And the Bible tells us in 1 Samuel, you don't have to turn there, but it says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. So rebellion, the Bible says, is the sin of witchcraft, this rebellious attitude that says, you know, nobody's going to tell me what to do, or I don't have to listen to my parents, I don't have to listen to mom and dad, who cares what the pastor says, who cares what the boss at work says. That rebellious attitude is a wicked sinful attitude according to the Bible. There's nothing cool about it, there's nothing manly about, you know, being rebellious and not being led. You know, godly men are great followers as well as great leaders. And in order to be a great leader, you must start out being a great follower. And so Absalom is the quintessential rebel in the Bible, and so he does all the flattering and conniving that we've already discussed. The second thing about the wickedness of Absalom, if you would, look at verse 7 of 2 Samuel chapter 15, is that he uses a spiritual pretense for his wickedness. Look at verse 7. It came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. The vice-servant vowed a vow while I abode at Gishur in Syria, saying, if the Lord shall bring me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said unto him, go in peace till he arose and went to Hebron. What a godly, nice young man. He's made this vow to the Lord. He's promised to serve the Lord. He came forward in the service and dedicated his life to the Lord. Folks, when you are going to go out and sin and do something wicked, that's one thing. But when you do it in the name of God, when you try to bring in a spiritual cloak for your maliciousness, that makes it so much worse in the eyes of God. For example, in Matthew 23, 14, Jesus said, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses. Now that's bad enough, isn't it? And for a pretense make long prayer, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Why are they receiving the greater damnation? Well there's already condemnation for the sin of devouring widows' houses, but the fact that they then make some long prayer about it to try to cloak it in spiritual terms makes them receive the greater damnation. The Bible says in Mark 1240, which devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers, these shall receive greater damnation. What does the word pretense mean? Well, think about another closely related word, pretend, pretense, pretend, okay? They're pretending to be spiritual. They're pretending that they care about the things of God. But here's the thing, if you actually love the Lord and care about the things of God, you're gonna care about things like honor thy father and mother, okay? You're gonna think about things like thou shalt not steal, thou shalt do no murder. These are the type of things that are gonna be on your mind if you actually love the Lord. But there are people out there who are wicked people and then they cover their sins in spiritual terms. Even backslidden Christians can sometimes do this like an Absalom, okay? For example, sometimes people just get backslidden and they just get sick of coming to church. They just get bored of coming to church or maybe they just get tired of spending money putting gas in the tank or whatever carnal reason they have for not going to church. But isn't it interesting how this is never the reason they give for why they're leaving the church. They never say like, hey, you know, I'm just getting kind of lazy. I'm just a little backslidden. I'm just kind of drifting from the Lord. My walk with God isn't very good right now. Now every once in a while someone will give you that answer. But you know what typically it is, they find some way to be more spiritual and have the spiritual high road even as they do wrong. Oh, well, you know, Pastor Anderson said this that offended me or this other person in the church, this other man or this other woman in the church, you know, they did me wrong. You know, I just don't agree with, with what Pastor so and so preach. And you know what's so funny is that you'll preach the same thing for decades and then all of a sudden people get offended by it when it's convenient for them, even though never bothered them before they were never offended by it before. You know, it's so easy for people when they don't want to take the associated persecution of, you know, standing up against the sodomites of this world, then all of a sudden when the pastor preaches a hard sermon against the sodomites and the persecution comes down, all of a sudden they're like, oh, well, you know, I'm just more loving to the sodomites of this world. And they take this kind of spiritual high road even as they are cowards, even as they back down from what the Word of God actually teaches. Okay, look, we need to make sure that we don't try to cloak our own sin or maliciousness or backslidden condition in spiritual terms because that's just doubling the sin. That's just making it so much worse, okay? If you're going to sin, then sin and don't lie about it and say that you're doing right, okay? People do all kinds of sins that they try to justify in the name of God, but that doesn't make it right. So he's using a spiritual pretense for his wickedness. You know, lying to your parents is always a sin, right? And lying and saying, oh, I'm going here, and then you actually go somewhere else, that's wicked, right? But wouldn't it be even more wicked if you lied and told your parents, oh, I'm going to church right now, and then you went out to party somewhere else? Or if you lied and said, oh, I'm going soul winning right now, and then you went out and committed some other sin. Don't you think that that would be worse than just lying in general? Because when you bring God into it, when you bring church into it, that's making it even worse to use the things of God as a cloak for your own maliciousness. And that's what Absalom is doing. So we can just see how low he's willing to go. And not only that, look at the way he even flatters his own father by calling himself thy servant. I'm your servant, dad, even though he's just about to rebel against him, try to overthrow him and literally try to kill him, okay? So number one, the flattery and conniving. Number two, using a spiritual pretense for his wickedness. Number three, he's willing to take advantage of people's ignorance. Go if you would to chapter 15 verse 10 in 2 Samuel. It says, but Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel saying, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went 200 men out of Jerusalem that were called, so he invites and specifically hand picks 200 men to go with him, and they went in their simplicity and they knew not anything. So he's putting these 200 guys in a really weird position, isn't he? Because he invites them and says, hey guys, we're going on a secret mission, not going to tell you what it is. They go in their simplicity, they don't know anything, they're ignorant, and he brings them and then all of a sudden they're thrown into this situation where they're overthrowing the government and overthrowing King David, and so he's taking advantage of people's ignorance. You know, we should always be honest with people about what our intentions are, what our goals are, and it isn't right to abuse people's ignorance or keep them in the dark. You know, as a pastor of the church, I strive to teach the whole counsel of God, to teach all the Bible. I don't want anyone coming to this church or following what we teach out of ignorance, wanting them to do it out of knowledge, right? I want you to know the Bible and to know why we believe the things that we believe, not just kind of like, hey, just shut up and believe it because I said so, just come with me, I'll explain it later, or something like that. You know, it doesn't really work. You know, we need to not manipulate people, but we need to be open and honest about who we are, what we believe, where we're going, and if we're going to bring somebody in on a project or something, we should make it clear what that project actually is and not prey on people's ignorance or take advantage of their ignorance. And you know, I think a great example of a religious institution that takes advantage of people's ignorance is the Roman Catholic Church, okay? Because here's the thing about the Roman Catholic Church, if you study their history, there were long periods in their history where they literally made it illegal for people to read the Bible in their own language. So they have the Bible in Latin, people don't speak Latin, they can't understand it, they go to church, the church service is in Latin, but they just use fear and intimidation to keep them following those superstitions. And then when people tried to mass produce the Bible or make copies of the Bible in the native languages, then those people are burned at the stake. You know, the first man to translate the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into modern English was William Tyndale, and he was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for translating the Word of God into English, okay? That's an institution that is trying to prey upon people's ignorance, take advantage of ignorant people, keep the people dumb so that they won't realize the junk that they're being taught. You see, when people actually start reading the Bible, and when the Bible started coming off printing presses in Europe in the 1500s in people's actual language in English and French and German and Spanish, when that started happening, you know what started happening? A lot of people started leaving the Roman Catholic Church, and that's when the Roman Catholic Church started to lose a lot of power during the Protestant Reformation because it just became so obvious once people could see the Bible that what the Roman Catholic Church is teaching is a bunch of lies. You know, it's amazing to me that people are still Catholic, though, because they just don't care. You know, it's like, hello, it's been 500 years since we were able to look at the Bible for ourselves. You think in the last 500 years people would look at the Bible and see where the Bible says that salvation is by faith, it's not by works. See where the Bible says, call no man your father upon earth, for one is your father which is in heaven, but yet they call the priest father. Even the word pope means father, and they give him that blasphemous title. We ought to be thinking about God the father. We ought to be thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ as the one mediator between God and men. I mean, that's what the Bible says. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, but they have the mediatrix, which is Mary, and Mary's a mediator, and the priest is a mediator, and the pope is a mediator. One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so you think that with the Bible being out there, and now you can buy it at the Dollar Tree for crying out loud, that people would be able to see what a bunch of junk the Roman Catholic Church has been teaching, but you know what, I guess for some people ignorance is bliss, and some people are just spiritually blinded, but that is an institution that has historically taken advantage of people's ignorance. And when they were in their heyday, when they had the most power was when people couldn't read and write. And when people started being able to read and write, and when the printing press started printing out Bibles in their language, all of a sudden they lose power. Why? Because they preyed on people's ignorance. You know, we should always want to educate and give knowledge to as many people as we possibly can. I'm not trying to keep anyone in this world in the dark. I want everyone to learn as much as they can, and I'm not trying to take advantage of people's ignorance. You know, when it comes to my children, I want to raise my children to be as smart as they can possibly be. I don't want to raise a bunch of dummies, and so I want them to learn English and math and science and history and all of it, in addition to of course the most important subject, the Bible. But I want them to learn those things. Now here's the thing, it would be a lot easier to control my children if I just kept them dumb. If I kept them ignorant and dumb and just totally reliant on me. But that wouldn't be the right thing to do, would it? If I want my children to be smarter, maybe that makes them harder to manage when they get older, but you know what, so be it. Because you know what, I want them to do what's right out of knowledge, not out of ignorance. And the truth fears no investigation. You know, I want my children to grow up knowledgeable and to know why they should follow the Lord, to know why they should follow Christ, to know why the things that we're teaching them are correct. Not just keep them in darkness and ignorance to blindly follow what they're being told. And so Absalom was one who took advantage of people's ignorance. What was the other wickedness of Absalom? So I just, you know, I told you last Sunday morning how he became just this horrible person. So this morning I'm explaining to you why he was such a horrible person so that you don't have to just take my word for it from last week. He's a flatterer, he's a conniving rebel. He's somebody who uses a spiritual pretense for his wickedness. When he lies to his dad and rebels against authority, he uses church as an excuse for doing that. He takes advantage of other people's ignorance, but now we see this perverted action that he performs in chapter 16 verse 20, if you flip the page, is that he actually sleeps with his father's concubines. Now obviously it isn't right for King David to practice polygamy, but that's what he did. Obviously that's never been God's will. At the beginning God created them male and female and he said that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife singular and they too shall be one flesh. But yet throughout history, of course, people have committed this sin of practicing polygamy, having multiple wives, and especially throughout history and in the Bible, you'll have kings practicing polygamy simply because they can. They have so much power and so much money that it's pretty easy for them to just support ten wives, fifteen wives, whatever, and human nature is such that that's what most kings throughout history have practiced and so King David, although he was a godly man, this was a mistake that he made. This was a sin that he committed in his life and it's something that's never been right, but it's something that God would sometimes basically just kind of look the other way and you know God looks the other way at a lot of things that we do in our lives because he knows that we're sinners, he knows that we're not perfect, and so thank God that he is gracious and merciful and there are certain things that he punishes more harshly than others. So a lot of the kings in the Old Testament, I don't want to say they got away with this because obviously God didn't bless this and obviously bad consequences came of it, but it's something that people did. It's just the reality of the Bible. The Bible is filled with stories about real human beings and they're not necessarily perfect, but what you have to understand is that although polygamy was never God's will, it was never right, it was never allowed, it is not nearly as bad as say fornication or adultery because at least they are exclusive with that third wife or whatever versus adultery is taking another man's wife. That's a major sin. You know when David committed polygamy that was wrong, but when he committed adultery that's when he got seriously punished. It was a big difference between those two things, not even in the same ballpark of magnitude of how bad they are. But what Absalom does is in the column of super wicked and very against the word of God which is to commit adultery, but not only to commit adultery because adultery is a major sin. In fact, God punished adultery with the death penalty in the Bible. The Bible said in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10 that if a man lies with his neighbor's wife that he would be put to death and she would be put to death, they'll both be put to death. Leviticus 20 verse 10, this is a very serious sin, but then he commits on top of that the sin of basically being with the same woman that his dad had been with which is super perverted and weird. Look what the Bible says in 2 Samuel chapter 16 verse 20, then said Absalom to Ahithophel, give counsel among you what we shall do. And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, go in unto thy father's concubines. Now in case you don't know the word concubine, a concubine is basically one that you sleep with but you're not married unto them or they're basically just a live-in as it were. But these are his father's quasi-wives as it were, but they're his women, they only belong to him, which he hath left to keep the house and all Israel shall hear that thou art a horde of thy father, then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong. So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house and Absalom went in unto his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. Now this is wrong on so many levels. Where do I begin here? First of all, number one is that he's committing adultery, number one, because these women are his father's women. Again obviously he's only supposed to have one but he doesn't, he has more. But he goes in, that's adultery, number one. But number two, it's the perversion of it being in the family of basically these are his, this is who his dad has been with and now he's going to be with them. That's number two. Number three, it's this doing it in front of all Israel. Now obviously there's a tent, the Israelites are not seeing anything, but just openly displaying this brazen act of wickedness and rebellion, this is very extremely sinful and perverse what he does. Now I just want to briefly explain verse 23 so that no one's confused by it because the Bible says in verse 23, the council of Ahithophel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracles of God, so was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. Obviously that's not saying that this is right, this is super wrong. What it's saying is that if you ask this guy, Ahithophel, for advice, this guy is going to give you the correct advice in the sense of not that it's going to be righteous or godly, but rather he's going to give you the advice that's going to cause you to win. This guy knows how to win, this guy knows how to get things done, and if you ask this guy advice, basically the advice that he's giving you, basically it's like asking God for advice because this guy ends up always being right. So the comparison is that God is always right and this guy is always right in the sense of the advice he gives is going to work. It's going to work, not that it's righteous or godly because he's giving him very sinful advice. That should be obvious to anyone. It's very sinful advice, but it's going to work because what did Ahithophel tell him? Back up a couple verses, Ahithophel tells him that if you go in under your father's concubines, then all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father. Abhorred means hated. He's saying if you do this, if you actually sleep with your father's ten concubines, basically this is going to be such an act of rebellion and defiance that is so extreme that people will realize that there is no way that you will ever be able to patch things up with your dad after doing this. You're never going to be able to fix this. And look at the last words of the verse there, then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong. So what he's saying is people who helped you rebel, when they see what you do with your father's concubines, they're going to realize we cannot go back. There can be no compromise. There can be no negotiating with King David like, oh stink, we are in deep now. So Ahithophel's idea is we need to make sure that everybody who is on Absalom's side stays on Absalom's side. And so what we have to do is get them involved in this worse sin so that they realize we can never go back because we were party to this, because we were accessories to this, and so we better make sure Absalom wins or else we're probably all going to die or receive some severe punishment. So I hope everybody understands that. But the bottom line is that Absalom committed this horrific sin of adultery and the perversion because of the fact that they had been his father's women. Now stop and think about the irony of this, okay? Remember last Sunday morning we talked about how Absalom was so bitter about what happened to his sister Tamar and he saw himself as this victim and then even after he kills Amnon, the guy who was actually guilty of the crime, he's still just so bitter and vengeful and vindictive that now he wants to take things out on his own dad just because his dad didn't punish Amnon. Now he's going to just go after his dad. But stop and think about this. Where did this all start? This all started because of what Amnon did to Tamar. But now after years and years of Absalom having a bad attitude, being bitter and vindictive and hateful in his heart and just carrying this anger with him day to day, he actually becomes as bad as Amnon or maybe even worse than Amnon. Think about the irony here that he's supposedly this righteous avenger because of what Amnon did, but now do you see how what he's doing is actually as bad as what Amnon did. Let me explain to you what I mean by that. Part of the reason why Absalom was so horrified by what Amnon did was first of all it was a perverted act and that he's forcing the woman to do something that she didn't want to do. I mean what do we see here? Do you think that these women are just like, oh Absalom, no. They're being forced to do this. So he's actually doing 10 times over what Amnon did. Second of all, you could say there's a perversion factor in what Amnon did because it was his half-sister. Here we have a perversion factor as well because these are his father's concubines. And then number three, the thing that horrified Absalom so much was the fact that Tamar's life was kind of ruined because she had her virginity taken from her and she tore up her virgin garment and she's upset and she ends up just having to live at her brother's house and desolation and so forth. So he messed up Tamar's life. That's what made Amnon such a horrible person. Okay, what did Absalom just do? Absalom, in a sense, messed up these 10 women's lives because if we keep reading the story, what the Bible eventually tells us is that these 10 women, David's not going to touch them with a 10-foot pole ever again because now they've been with his son and he's not gross like that. He's not weird like that and so David's done with them and so they end up just being just kind of just discarded in a sense. You know, he still takes care of them and feeds them and keeps them up and maintains them, but they end up just kind of being in this position of shame for the rest of their lives, these 10 women. And so can you see how ironic it is that Absalom is in a sense doing something similar to what Amnon had done? And even if you say, well, he didn't necessarily force them or whatever, you have to see the irony here and the similarity of what Absalom is doing. And so it goes to show you that you may see yourself as so righteous and justified to do X, Y, and Z, but you know, when you start getting bitter and vindictive and you're so righteous and you're more righteous than your parents and you're more righteous than the pastor, you're more righteous than the boss, you know, whatever, you end up going down a dark path and eventually you get to a place where it's like you forgot why you're even on that path and all that remains is just the hate and the bitterness and the evil. And so that's where Absalom ends up at the end of this road here. And so as I said last Sunday morning, he became super wicked in the process of this. Okay, what else did he do? So we've said four things, you know, the flattering, the conniving, the rebellion. Number two, using a spiritual pretense for his wickedness. Number three, he took advantage of people's ignorance. Number four, he lay with his father's concubines. But number five, he plotted to murder his own father, okay? And this is obviously horrific. Look at 2 Samuel 17, verse number one, 2 Samuel 17, 1, Moreover, I hit the fell seven to Absalom. Let me now choose out 12,000 men and I will arise and pursue after David this night. I will come upon him while he's weary and weak handed and will make him afraid and 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. Watch verse four, and the saying pleased Absalom well and all the elders of Israel. Look what he said at the end of verse two, I will smite the king only. He's saying I will kill the king. I'm going to take 12,000 men and I'm going to go murder your dad. I'm going to go murder King David and Absalom's like great, sounds great. What a wonderful plan. Now this is incredibly evil to kill one's own father. In fact, if you go back to the law of God, if you would go back to Exodus chapter 21. So Exodus chapter 20 is the 10 commandments and then in Exodus 21, God elaborates on more commandments. So this is very early in the book of the law here, right? He starts out with 10 commandments, gives a few basic things and then boom, we're already onto this. Look at Exodus chapter 21 verse 15. The Bible reads and he that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. So assaulting, hitting, smiting your parents, the Bible says is a crime punishable by death. The next verse says he that stealeth a man and selleth him or if he be found in his hand, he shall be put to death. That's talking about kidnapping, human trafficking that carries the death penalty, but then look at the next verse and he that cursed his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. So even just cursing your parents, hitting your parents, you know, this is a horrible crime according to the word of God, punishable by death. Jesus reiterated this in the New Testament. In Matthew chapter 15 verse 3, Jesus said, why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother. That's Exodus chapter 20. And he that cursed his father or mother, let him die the death. That's Exodus 21 17. Jesus quoted this, reiterated this, and criticized the Pharisees for not believing this or following this. So this shows you how serious this thing of attacking your parents, cursing your parents, and what does curse your parents mean? It's not saying to use a four letter word in their presence. That's not what it means to curse your parents. What cursing means in the Bible is, it's not cussing, quote unquote. What cursing means in the Bible is to basically wish evil upon someone. It's like when someone says, go to hell. That's cursing them, right? Because they're telling them to go to the worst place imaginable, right? If somebody says to you, you know, hey, you know, I hope that blah, blah, blah happens to you. Some bad thing. You know, I hope you slip on a banana peel and break your neck. That is a curse, right? I hope you get in a car accident and die. That'd be cursing someone, right? Anytime you say, I wish this evil upon you, I hope that this bad thing happens to you. I want this evil thing to happen to you. That's cursing someone. That's what this means. How much more of a sin is it when Absalom not only is cursing his father, wishing death upon his father, but he's literally got a guy saying, okay, I'm going to take 12,000 guys. We're going to go find your father and we're going to go murder him. He's like, great. That's even beyond smiting or cursing his father. Okay. He's not actually suborning, man, you know, he's actually like hiring the hit man as it were to murder his own father in that sense. And so this is incredibly wicked. This is incredibly sinful. Now those are the five points that I wanted to emphasize about how bad Absalom became. And I hope you're convinced that his total and utter wickedness, cause remember he started out as a nice guy, started out as a good guy. But he let bitterness take hold and he went down this horrible dark path where he's committed perversion, adultery, murder of his own dad is what he's trying to do. You know, he's, he's pretending to be all spiritual. He's a flatterer. He manipulates the people around him. He's just a very toxic individual. Is he not? So let's see how Absalom ends up. Go if you would to second Samuel chapter 18. So let's see. We saw how wicked he became. Now let's see how this guy ends up who does all these horrible things because God's not just going to sit back and let someone get away with this, especially if they're saved. He's not going to let them get away with this. It says in second Samuel chapter 18 verse nine and Absalom met the servants of David and Absalom wrote upon a mule and the mule went under the thick bows of a great oak and his head caught hold of the oak and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth and the mule that was under him went away. Now let me explain the story a little bit. They're in a battle and the battle ends up going into like a thickly wooded area and the Bible talks about a lot of people actually dying not because they got killed by the sword but because they just got devoured by the wilderness, meaning that basically they just got stuck out in the middle of nowhere in this rough terrain. They couldn't get out. Maybe they ran out of water or they got eaten by a wild beast or whatever, but you know, just being out in the forest, if it's a dense, thick forest can be treacherous, right? You know, we're used to going hiking in the woods. We got a little path and there's a park ranger and there's signs telling us and everything. When you're just out in an actual forested wilderness area, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. There are a lot of hazards, okay? Well Absalom is riding upon this mule and we're told earlier in the story that he had very long hair, so he's a very long haired man and so he's riding through the woods and you know, he's ducking branches and everything like that and eventually his hair gets caught in the branches and basically the mule keeps on going and he's basically ripped off his mule by his hair. So he's got all this long hair and you know, long hair can get pretty tangled. Those of you who've had daughters with long hair and something gets stuck in their hair and you're trying to untangle it and you know, I can remember times when there was just like a comb stuck in one of my daughter's hair and we're just spending hours trying to untangle it and it's like impossible. You're sitting there trying to, you know, eventually sometimes you just end up giving them a haircut, you know, and you try to avoid it but who's ever had to deal with something like that? You know, yeah, it's a thing, okay? I've never had to deal with it personally but I've dealt with it on my daughters. Nothing can get stuck. I will never end up like Absalom this way. But Absalom, he's riding through the woods and you know, he's busting through the trees and he just gets his hair tangled in the trees and it rips him off the mule and he's hanging by his hair. You know, that's got to hurt, right, but you can see how this could happen and especially because people with long hair, here's the thing about people with really long hair because the Bible is talking about his hair grew really fast and it was really thick and heavy and so forth is that, you know, people who can grow their hair really long, it's because their hair is pretty thick because people with really thin hair, they can't really grow it that long. Thick hair and long hair kind of go hand in hand or I should say this, thick hair and the ability to grow your hair very long go hand in hand, grow hand in hand. So basically, you know, he's hanging from his hair and he's just stuck and he's just dangling there. Well, he's in the presence of the enemy so he's just a sitting duck now, okay? And a certain man saw it and told Joab, Joab is the commander of the Israelite forces and so he told Joab and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. And Joab said unto the man that told him, And behold, I sawest him, why didst thou not smite him there? Why didn't you just kill him? I would have given thee ten shekels of silver and a girdle. And the guy tells Joab, he's like, Do you think I'm stupid? Because before the battle started, David still has some sympathy for Absalom and still loves Absalom and still wants to make things right with Absalom. Maybe he doesn't know about the whole concubine thing yet but either way, you know, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't but he, you know, he wants to fix things or at least he doesn't want to see Absalom get killed. So he actually tells all the commanders, including Joab, he says, you know, Deal gently with Absalom the young man for my sake. You know, let's try to take him prisoner. Don't just murder him. Don't slaughter. You know, so David's saying, If possible, let's preserve Absalom's life. So Absalom wants to murder David but David's like, Hey, you know, I'd rather see Absalom survive. And so this guy says to Joab, You were there. I was there. David said to deal gently with him. If I would have killed him, you wouldn't give me ten shekels of silver. You would have thrown me under the bus and be like, Oh, sorry, you know, I can't control this what this guy did. And then he's like, I would have gotten punished for murdering Absalom because, you know, he's hanging in the tree. He's totally defenseless. He's totally harmless. I'm not just going to walk up and just execute him when the king said not to. So you know, I'm not going to sit there and do that so that you can turn around and accuse me and blame me. And Joab is just like, Well, we're wasting time with this conversation because Joab basically knows that he's right. He says in verse 14, then said, Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. That means like, I can't hang out here and talk to you about this right now. You know, let's let's argue this point later. So Joab took three darts in his hand, it says in verse 14, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom. So Joab is using him as a human dartboard. Joab shows up and just goes, and just three bullseyes in this guy's heart. And so he's just hanging there, for sure going to die now because he has, you know, if you have three darts in your heart, you're not going to survive. Okay, so once Joab hurls three darts into the heart of Absalom, then the, you know, verse 15, ten young men that bear Joab's armor, compass about and smote Absalom. So they basically finish him off and kill him after Joab has dealt the initial fatal blows so that they know, okay, we're not going to get in trouble because Joab started it, you know, so yeah, we'll just put this guy out of his misery. And so they all jump on him and kill him. But this is not how any of us want to end up in life. You know, he's hanging there by his hair, darts are being thrown at him, and then ten guys all attack him. That way, and the emphasis on the ten guys is that, you know, this way no person can be held responsible. They all kind of participated, it wasn't really any one person. And if it was a one person, it was Joab, and so, you know, he has to answer for it or whatever. But not only that, look what the Bible says in verse 18, just a couple of verses down, it says, Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar which is in the Kingsdale, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance, and he called the pillar after his own name, and it is called unto this day Absalom's place. Now here's the thing, earlier we heard about Absalom having some children. They're clearly dead at this point. His children obviously did not survive because Absalom is saying, I have no son. So for some, for whatever reason, for whatever explanation, he doesn't have a son to carry on his name either because his sons are dead, or maybe they just have just ruined their lives or they went somewhere else or something, I don't know, I would assume that they're probably dead. Either way, he doesn't seem very happy with the way his family turned out, that he has to make himself some weird monument because his children aren't going to carry on his name, so he makes himself this monument instead, oh, it's called unto this day Absalom's place. Well that's cool. Not really because nobody thinks of Absalom as being a good guy. They think of him as being the quintessential rebellious punk. And by the way, isn't it interesting that in the 1960s, having long hair is a symbol of rebellion among young men, right? Young men in the 1960s, not really the 60s, mainly the 70s, really grew their hair long in the 1970s as a sign of rebellion because that's what it is. It's rebellion against God because God says that it's a shame for a man to have long hair and that a woman's hair is a glory unto her, and the Bible teaches that and it's rebellion against nature because the Bible says even nature itself teaches you that it's a shame for a man to have long hair and that a woman's hair is a glory unto her. And so this rebellious attitude is often exemplified by dudes growing their hair long. And isn't it interesting that that is what ends up being his demise? His rebellion is what ends up destroying him because it's his long hair that gets him stuck in the tree and hands him over to the enemy and causes him to be destroyed. And so nobody wants to end up like Absalom. You don't want to end up with your family destroyed and being killed as a young person and going down in history as being this horrific person who did this stuff with the concubines and tried to murder David and had this failed rebellion and just what a loser in the end. Even though he started out righteous. And so the moral of the story is do not become a bitter, rebellious person. And again this is kind of a reprise of what I preached last Sunday morning when I said that look, you know, people are going to do you wrong. Your parents are going to make mistakes. Pastor Anderson is going to make mistakes. The boss at work is going to make a mistake. But you need to be a forgiving person. You need to drop it. You need to let it go. Don't let bitterness consume you. Because bitterness is going to consume you more than anyone else. Oh, I'm going to teach these people a lesson. I'm going to show them. No, you're going to end up destroying yourself more than anyone else. Let it go. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. God will repay. Let God bring vengeance on the evil doers of this world. It's not our place. And I've seen so many people get bitter and ruin their lives. It's not even funny how many people I've seen that happen to. And you know just as pastor over the years, it's funny to see people who end up going out and doing horrible things or going off into damnable heresy or just trying to split the church or lead a rebellion in the church or just try to destroy our church or other churches, other good Baptist churches that they try to destroy and things like that. You know what's always funny about these people is that they always are in the process of rebelling and doing all these things. They're always bringing up these grievances from like years ago. How offended they were years ago. And you know that goes to show you why they are rebellious, why they are melting down and burning down their lives and trying to burn down the church and everything like that. The reason, I'm not saying literally now. No one's ever tried to burn down our church. But the point is these people always have some grievance from a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago that they're pulling out. Why? Because they've been carrying that around with them and that has been festering and they just are vindictive about that thing that happened back whenever. Here's the thing about that. You've got to let things go. And you say, well, but that was bad though. Here's the thing. If somebody really did something that bad to you, or let's say the church did something that was that bad, then why do you go here? It doesn't make any sense to keep going to the church if you think that the church is so rotten and so evil. And you say, well, the church isn't rotten or the church is a good church, but it's just that one thing. Then let it go then. If the church is a good church, if Pastor Anders is a good pastor, but there's just that one thing, then you need to let that go. And if you think you're going to destroy me, you're wrong. You're going to destroy yourself because guess who ends up surviving at the end of this story? King David ends up surviving. You end up destroying yourself. And you know who else got destroyed? A lot of Absalom's buddies, a lot of people around Absalom, a lot of those ignorant, simple people that followed Absalom. They get destroyed. But you know who doesn't get destroyed? David doesn't get destroyed. So the point is that if you really, if you're, let's say your parents are just these horrible nightmare reprobates, which I don't believe that applies to anyone in this room, but let's say your parents are just these horrible nightmare reprobates, then you know what? Then just get away from them as soon as you can. You know what I mean? Then when you grow up, just leave and go somewhere else and get away from them and go live a happy life. Don't spend the rest of your life brooding and bitter and, but again, that would be only in the most extreme cases of actual horrific reprobate parents. If that were my situation, I would just get away from them. But I wouldn't sit around letting bitterness and hatred and anger consume me. I would just go live my happy life, nuts to them. You know what I mean? If a church burned me, I'd say nuts to that church and I'd move on and I'd go somewhere else and I'd serve the Lord and I'd be happy. But you see these people that just can't let it go about their parents. They can't let it go about the church. They can't let it go about that job that they had where things went sideways at their job. Let things go. And there's two ways to let things go, my friend. The best way to let things go is to forgive people. That's the ideal scenario. Now in many cases, the Bible requires us to forgive. That's the ideal scenario. But number two, let's say something truly is unforgivable, which is a rare circumstance. But let's say something truly is unforgivable, then here's the other way to let it go. Just quit thinking about it. Just get it out of your mind. Just forget about it. Just move on. Go somewhere else. You know, if, if there were someone that had done some horrible thing to me or someone that I loved, you know what I would not do? I would not just spend the next five years just being, getting close to that person so that I could bring revenge to them. Like I'm the Count of Monte Cristo or something. And you know what? Oh, by the way, spoiler alert, at the end of the book, he lets it go. You know what I mean? Because he realizes that killing people and torturing people isn't bringing him any satisfaction. Who's read the book? All right. Watching a movie about it doesn't count, talking about the actual book. The point is that, you know, let it go one way or the other. Either forgive, which is 99% of the time the right way to let it go, or number two, quit talking about it. Quit thinking about it and just, just take yourself out of that situation. You know, if the church is bad, go to another church. If the job is so toxic, oh this job is so toxic, then get a different job. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Just move on. Just go somewhere else. But whatever you do, do not become a person who is characterized and defined by just their bitterness and their bad attitude. And let me just say something specifically about our church. As a pastor of the church, I don't want people to come here who have a bad attitude toward our church. And if people hate me and they come here, you know, there's something wrong with those people. Because why would you go to a church where you hate the pastor? Like, like if, if I hated a pastor, I would never want to set foot in his church. I wouldn't want to listen to his preaching. I wouldn't want to be around him. I'd be like, get me away from this guy. I hate this guy. Get me away from this guy. I wouldn't be like, and just coming week after week after month after month after year after year being all bitter and whatever. You're an idiot. You're going to destroy yourself. And you know what? People have been doing this for years and years and years in churches all over America and all over the world. There's no new thing under the sun and it's always the same story and it plays out over and over and over again. You know, don't be that guy. Because I don't think Absalom, when he first went down this road, saw himself as doing all these horrible, perverted and murderous deeds. But that's where he ended up. And so you need to let it go. Okay. That's the best advice I could give you to not become like an Absalom. And also you need to have respect for God's institutions and especially the institution of your parents. You need to have respect for, you know, honor thy father and mother is one of the most important commandments in the Bible. It's the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth. Was it well with Absalom? No. Did he live long on the earth? No. Why? Because he didn't honor his father and mother. And that is one of the most important commandments that you can obey in the Bible is to honor your father and your mother. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this story, Lord, that could warn us and be a cautionary tale about how even good people, if they let bitterness consume them, can become horrible, disgusting evil people like Absalom, Lord. Help no one to go down that road, Lord, if there's someone here that's bitter toward their parents or bitter toward someone else in their life that has either done them wrong or they think has done them wrong, Lord, please help every single person in here to learn the important skill of just moving on and letting things go. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.