Let No One Take Your Crown

I thought the the sermonette was a wonderful introduction to what I wanted to talk about today, and I really appreciate the heartfelt story that Mr. Eisdorf shared there. Why don't we turn over to Revelation 3 verse 11. Revelation 3 verse 11, and if you're looking for a title, because a lot of times people, when they're taking notes, you know, you're writing, you know, you put the name down, okay, what is he going to talk about? The title of the sermon is, Let No One Take Your Crown, and it comes from Revelation 3 verse 11. Revelation 3 verse 11, speaking to the church in Philadelphia, John is inspired to write, Behold, I come quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. Let no one take your crown. If you look over at Revelation 2 verse 10, you'll see this is expanded upon briefly. That's just one page over, or if you're on a Kindle, it's easy enough to get over to Revelation 2 verse 10. It expands on that. It says, Do not fear any of those things which are about to suffer. You are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you have tribulation 10 days. But be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Crown of life. So this crown that's being discussed is really eternal life. And in fact, look over in James 1 verse 12, and you'll see that actually this crown of life comes from overcoming, as we can see there. It comes from a certain attitude of mine. James 1 verse 12 says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

So what does this mean when this message to this message to the Church of Philadelphia, Behold, let no man take your crown. How could somebody take away our crown of life, if we're working on that? How could that happen? How could someone actually come along and literally take away our eternal life? Why would this be said this way? You know, Matthew, we won't turn there, but Matthew 13 verse 46 talks about this pearl of great price. And we go out, and you know, it's the kingdom of God, and we go out, and we sell everything we have to buy this pearl, and we have it now, and we're just going to give it away. Or someone's going to take it from us, or we're going to allow somebody to take it from us. If we step back and consider this, again, this is an admonition, an instruction to the Church of Philadelphia. This is one of the churches here, and so this is speaking directly to the Church. Well, you know, I have seen, and perhaps you have seen, people who have been faithful to the truth. They have perhaps suffered persecution, perhaps gone through temptation, and yet at some point in their lives, they've stepped away, and maybe they've fallen away, and they have given up what we believe. How did that happen? What things transpired that allowed that to happen? How can this happen? How can we be on guard that no one would take our crown? Well, you know, what's interesting is sometimes the conduct of others can lead us to get discouraged or angry, even bitter. Sometimes people behaving badly, especially those who are close to us, that might be in the family, that might be in the church, can get us so upset that we might even decide that we don't want to be a part of this anymore.

And not only does that happen, it happens more regularly than we'd like to admit, and it's actually mentioned a fair bit in Scripture. Let's look over to Mark 9, and we'll look at an actual instruction from Christ in regard to this. We're going to go through a few examples just by way of introduction, and then we'll get into the main part of the message, which tells a familiar story of David and Bathsheba from a perspective that maybe we didn't look at before.

Let's look over at Mark 9 in verse 33. It says here, "...then he came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" Right, as if Christ didn't know, but he wanted to see what they said. "...but they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves, who would be the greatest?" What a common problem it seems. "...and he sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, if anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." And then here's a familiar passage which we've read before.

"...then he took a little child and set him in the midst of them, and when he had taken him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me." But you know what's interesting is there's a little sort of aside in verse 38 to 41, and a lot of times we kind of lose the train of thought because there's this conversation that goes on.

But if you go down to verse 42, it picks up from verse 37, because there's an and. You see? There's an and that follows. And, verse 42, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.

See, Christ recognized that we have the ability to basically put stumbling blocks in front of others. And he says, if anyone causes one of these little ones, and again, the context, he's got this, he's holding this child, right? Now, is he talking physically likely? But there's a larger metaphor here. There's a larger connection that he's trying to make of those who might be young in the faith. They might have certain issues as they're going through their faith. Anytime someone might cause somebody else to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.

Christ recognized that there is the possibility that we can stumble because of the conduct of others, that we can become discouraged. Now, let's just give a few examples here. Look over in Genesis 26. Genesis 26, and again, these are just sort of situations that I want to give you just to think about the context a little bit. Genesis 26 in verse 6 says, So Isaac dwelt in Garaar, and the men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, She is my sister. Okay, this is the patriarch Isaac lying. So we've got one of the Ten Commandments broken here. And he said, She is my sister, for he was afraid to say, She is my wife, because he thought, Lest the men of the place shall kill me for Rebecca, because she is beautiful to behold.

All right, so this was a lie perpetrated to protect himself. Now, of course, you know, what about his wife? Right? Did he consider his wife here? Did he consider the example he was giving to his household? And now it came to pass when he had been there a long time that a bimelik, king of the Philistines, looked through a window and saw, and there was Isaac showing endearment. That's a very prudish way of describing something that was going on. To Rebecca, his wife, and then a bimelik called Isaac and said, Quite obviously, she is your wife.

Could you say, so how could you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, because I said, Lest I die on her account. And the bimelik said, What is it that you have done to us? One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on all of us.

Isn't this interesting that a man of the world, not a chosen man in that way, a man who is likely going to be in the second resurrection, had more wisdom, had more integrity than a man of God, who had to call him out. He had to call him out in a lie that was just designed to protect him. He was willing to risk his wife's, you know, his wife could have been raped. Well, that's okay. I was protected. How do you think the people within Isaac's household would have felt about this, to see the head of the household behave so badly? How would you have felt if you had seen this going on within the household of Isaac? Would that have made you angry? What if you were the lady in waiting to Rebecca? What if you knew about this? Would that have made you angry and upset? How would you have acted if you had found out about this?

Look over in 1 Samuel 8.

1 Samuel 8. We'll see an example. I mean, Samuel was a man of God.

Samuel was, you know, there's so much described about the birth of Samuel and how he came to, you know, serve before the Lord. And in 1 Samuel 8 and verse 1, it said, Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. And they were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Rama. And he said to him, Look, you are old and your sons do not walk in their ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. You know, if you continue the story, we tend to focus on how Israel wanted a king. But we forget the fact that you had the heads, the people who were in charge, who were the sons of Samuel, they were taking bribes. They were perverting justice. They were corrupt. There was a corrupt administration. How would you have felt if you were at the nation of Israel at that time and you looked at the leadership and said, What is this that's going on? And if you read this story, there's nothing in here that says that Samuel said, You're right. I'm sorry. I'm going to remove my sons. There's nothing about that.

Now you can fast forward to the first century and imagine that your child or another family member was killed by a man named Saul. And now Saul is part of the church, and yet you've lost a family member at his hands. The point of these stories is to ask, Would you have remained close to God and in a good attitude, despite these men of God, behaving badly? Would you have let it affect your relationship with God in some way? And as I've asked myself this question, I've often wondered how I would have done. I don't know if I would have done as well. Proverbs 18 verse 19 says, A brother offended is harder to be one than a strong city. It can happen to us.

And today I want to explore a story from the life of David that illustrates an example of a man of God who allowed the example of someone else to take away his life, his physical life. It led to suicide, and we'll see whether it led to something even more serious in the next life. And as we go through this story, I'd like you to consider the warning that Christ gave to the church, the Church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3.11, that no one would take our crown.

Let's look over at 2 Samuel 11.

And let's pick up the story here. It's a very familiar story, but we're going to go through a little bit of the backstory that maybe some of you have heard about. Maybe some haven't. 2 Samuel 11.

Now, when it came to pass in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with them and all Israel, and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Raba. But David remained at Jerusalem. And then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And then David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house.

And the woman conceived, so she sent and told David, and said, I am with child.

So we have this familiar story. So now David has a problem. He has committed adultery, and he now needs to cover it up. So what is he going to do? Well, plan A, and we won't read other parts, we'll read other parts, but we won't continue here because I think many of us know the story. So plan A was to call Uriah back from the battlefield and tell him to take it easy and spend some time with his wife in verse 9. You can read that. When plan A didn't work, he had to go to plan B. He calls Uriah back to the palace. He gets him really drunk. Drunkenness is a sin, by the way. Drunkards will not be in the kingdom of God. We heard a little bit about that in the sermonette.

So he gets him drunk so that he'll go back and be with his wife. And you can read that in verse 13.

That doesn't work. So he goes to plan C. He's going to kill him. And every time I read about the story, I think about just the incredible premeditated evil. Okay, this is what we would call today murder in the first degree. Many states in this country would have the death penalty for murder in the first degree. Let's read this in verse 14. Then in the morning, it was so that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. So he had to conceive. David had to conceive of the plan. He had to write the instructions.

And he wrote it in the letter saying, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die. And so it happened while Joab besieged the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. And then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the people of the servants of David fell, and Uriah the Hittite died also. See, David just didn't kill Uriah. He killed his other men as well. The way this is written, it says, the sum of the people of the servants of David fell and Uriah also. Several people were killed, just so David could cover up his adulterous affair.

Now in reading this story, you get the impression that the only ones that knew about what happened were David, Joab, maybe a few others. But let's look in 2 Samuel 12 and verse 14. 2 Samuel 12 is when the prophet Nathan comes to confront David on this, and in verse 14, we read, However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die. The enemies of the Lord had occasion to blaspheme. That means that the enemies of the nation of Israel would have found out about this. And if the enemies of the Lord had occasion to blaspheme, what about the friends of the Lord? Would they have known too? Would this scandal have been so widespread and discussed that it rocked the very kingdom? Perhaps. We'll see. It certainly did affect others, as we'll read about in a little bit. Now, I won't take the time to go through the chronology here, and you can do some research, as maybe a little bit of homework you can do tonight or tomorrow, if you want to study about this. But a lot of scholars believe that David would have been about 49 years old at this time, and Bathsheba would have been about 21 years old. So we'll just put that in a little context, and I'll come back to those ages in a moment. So let's fast forward about 13 years to 2 Samuel 15. 2 Samuel 15. We're going to skip several very sad occurrences that occur within David's reign. David was about halfway through his reign when he committed this evil before God and before all of Israel. And about 13 years later, there comes a rebellion of Absalom in 2 Samuel 15, where Absalom figures out a way of taking the kingdom from his father.

And so we see this conspiracy that goes on in 2 Samuel 15. Let's just read verses 1 through 6 to get the context. After this had happened, Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way in the gate. So it was whenever anyone had a lawsuit, who had a lawsuit, came to the king for a decision that Absalom would call to him and say, What city are you from? And he would say, Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel. And then Absalom would say to him, Look, your case is good and right, but there is no deputy or the king of the king to hear you. Moreover, Absalom would say, Oh, that I were made judge in the land. And everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me, and then I would give him justice. And so it was whenever anyone came near to him to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. A good politician. He would kiss him. And in this manner, Absalom acted towards all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Now, do you think Absalom was a really smart individual?

Yeah, probably quite intelligent. But do you think he kind of did this on his own? Or do you think he had some advisors maybe that gave him some ideas about how he might do this? We're going to read about an advisor that he had, because Absalom came up with this plan where he was going to take away the kingdom. Now, let's continue reading in verse 11. And with Absalom went 200 men from Jerusalem who were invited, and they went along innocently and did not know anything. And then Absalom sent for Ahithophel. Now, that's a mouthful. I won't ask you to say that three times fast. That's not a common name. But Ahithophel is the person that we're going to focus on in the rest of the sermon, because Ahithophel, we'll find out, was a trusted advisor to David. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gileonite, David's counselor, from his city, namely from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy grew strong for the people with Absalom continually increased in number. You see, Ahithophel had changed allegiances. Ahithophel was now with Absalom, and indeed he may have even advised Absalom on some of these techniques to win over the people in the area. So we won't take the time to turn there, but you can look in 1 Chronicles 27, and you can see that Ahithophel was at the top of government with Joab. Ahithophel and Joab were David's chief advisors, one of the highest ranking officials. And so now Absalom has one of the highest ranking officials. Let's look over in 2 Samuel 16.23, and let's just read about Ahithophel for a moment in 2 Samuel 16.23. And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if one had inquired at the oracle of God. Wow! You see, you wanted someone like Ahithophel on your side because he was a very, very wise man. So wise it was this if you were going to talk to God himself. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. So just because he changed sides, it didn't diminish his wisdom in any way. Ahithophel was a very, very serious advisor to David, someone who David counted on. Look in 2 Samuel 15 in verse 31. Let's see David's reaction when David found out that Ahithophel had changed sides. 2 Samuel 15 verse 31. Then someone told David, saying Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. And there's an exclamation point. Turn it into foolishness! David knew he was in trouble because the loss of Ahithophel, first all, for him, and now going to the other side, meant that this conspiracy was a very, very serious thing. David would have certainly been quite worried about this.

So why did Ahithophel make this decision? What led Ahithophel to conspire against David to take the throne and give it to Absalom? Well, we weren't there, but we can speculate on a few motivations based on what the Scriptures say. And the Bible does indeed give us a few clues. Let's go back to 2 Samuel 11. 2 Samuel 11. We read this, but let's go back to verse 3. This is the first clue that we get. It says, David sent and inquired about the woman, and someone said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So that's the first clue that we get. So we have to look kind of closely at this. Who was Eliam here? So Eliam would have been Bathsheba's father-in-law. Excuse me, would have been Eliam's daughter. Let's see who Eliam was related to. Let's go over to 2 Samuel 23.

2 Samuel 23 lists the mighty men of God. If you go look in verse 39, the final of the mighty men of God was Uriah the Hittite. It was number 37. Verse 39 says, And Uriah the Hittite, 37 in all. So Uriah the Hittite was one of David's mighty men. Look up in verse 34. It says, Eliaphet, the son of Abishai, the son of Makatite, Eliam, the son of Ahithophel, the Gileonite. Isn't this interesting? So Bathsheba was Ahithophel's granddaughter.

Now how do you think Ahithophel would have felt about his granddaughter being seduced at 21 years old by the king of Israel at 49? Do you think Ahithophel would have known about this situation? Yeah, you better believe he would have known about this situation. So now we can begin to get a little bit of a picture of what might have been going on here.

So would Eliam have known Bathsheba? Certainly. His daughter, Ahithophel would have known Bathsheba. In fact, very likely, the fact that David would have been able to see Bathsheba from his rooftop, you see, in those days the king would have his mighty men around him. They were his personal guard. They were the mighty warriors. So he would have certainly known where Eliam lived. He would have known where Uriah lived. He would have known these things. And in fact, he probably saw her grow up. Could he have been at her wedding?

So Bathsheba was Ahithophel's granddaughter. The fact that David could see this woman from his window and he lived so close. Let's go back to 2 Samuel 11. Let's just pick this up. And now, I think we can begin to connect a few dots. In verse 3, so David sent and inquired about the woman and someone said, is this not Bathsheba? You see, the way it's written, it's like, you know who this is. Is this not Bathsheba? Of course you know who this is. This person has been living down the road from you for 20 years. You know who this is. And then in verse 1, where it talks about how all the kings went out to battle, but David remained a Jerusalem. Why did David remain a Jerusalem? Why would Eliam and Uriah and Joab and everybody be gone? Right? Because, of course, Bathsheba wasn't there with her husband. Did David conceive of the notion of sending Uriah out to battle so that Bathsheba would be by herself? We don't know, but it certainly is odd that he would have sent everybody away and that he would have decided in the middle of his reign to just not go out that time. Now, when this happened, Ahithophel would have been about 61 years old. David was about 49, Eliam was about 41, and Bathsheba about 21. Now, the other thing that you have to think about is Uriah was a Hittite. Now, Hittites were not Israelites. So Uriah would have been a convert. He would have been somebody who gave up his family, his way of life, and he would have converted to this way of life. Who would have influenced him? In fact, he would have had to so distinguish himself that not only did he become a mighty man of David, but he would have earned the right to receive Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, to wife because Eliam was also a mighty man of God. So this was not just any minor character. This was a young man of God, a 21-year-old, who had distinguished himself so greatly that he received the daughter of a mighty man of God and himself was named the mighty man of God. Ahithophel must have been very proud of Eliam, a mighty man of God. He must have been very proud of his grandson-in-law. He must have been very excited about their lives together. Bathsheba may have been younger. She might have even been a teenager, a 21-year-old, maybe an 18-year-old. He would have been very much looking forward to their lives together, just as he had been part of that wedding ceremony, most certainly as a grandfather.

And along comes David with a premeditated plan when everybody else was gone to Seduht Bathsheba. And not only that, that after that was done, then David covers up and kills his great-grandson.

And then, because of all this, that great-or that he kills his grandson, that great-grandchild that's born is going to die. How would you have felt as the grandfather if you had seen this happen? David, a man after God's own heart, premeditated murder, lying, cover-up, adultery? How would you have felt? What would you have done if you had been a Hitha-thel in this situation? Let's go to 2 Samuel 16.

See, a Hitha-thel had some time to think about this. Because David was not somebody that you could take down easily. He was supported, obviously. God supported him. But how could God support a man who had done this? How could God be with David? And then you see David's household fall apart. Clearly, God would want me to remove David from the throne after what he had done and put in a man more worthy to lead Israel. You could imagine the kind of thoughts that the Hitha-thel had going through his mind. Look at 2 Samuel 16, verse 21.

And a Hitha-thel said to Absalom, Go into your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong. And so they pitched a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. Yeah, a Hitha-thel shamed David. He shamed him in a way that Hitha-thel had been shamed, in a way that Eliam had been shamed, in a way that Uriah had been shamed. He shamed him 13 years later. That was a Hitha-thel's council.

Let's continue in chapter 17, verse 1. We already read in verse 23. Moreover, a Hitha-thel said to Absalom, Now let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. And 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 him. See, a Hitha-thel was going to exact his revenge personally. In fact, some translations translate verse 1 where it says, Now let me choose. They'll translate it, Please let me choose. Oh, please, this is my moment, Absalom. You know why I need to do this. A Hitha-thel was looking to kill David himself, and the saying, Please, Absalom, and all the elders of Israel, good plan, a Hitha-thel. Twelve thousand men, you go after David when he's weak and he's weary, and you strike him down. But no one else, you just strike him down. That was a Hitha-thel's plan. Again, what would you have done? All those years of bitterness. And yet, interestingly enough, in 2 Samuel 12 verse 13, let's just go back to make sure we read this. 2 Samuel 12 verse 13, After David was confronted with the sin, with this adulterous affair, with the murder, with this terrible sin that he had committed, David said to Nathan, I have sinned, and I have sinned.

Against the Lord. See, David hadn't sinned against Uriah. He hadn't sinned against the Hitha-thel. He hadn't sinned against Eliam. He had not sinned against Meshi. But he had sinned against God.

And he had brought shame on the whole household and on the whole nation. He had allowed the enemies of God to blaspheme. He had committed a great sin. In Psalm 51, we can read just the heartfelt shame that he felt having done this. Did a Hitha-thel know that? Did a Hitha-thel recognize the great pain and repentance that David went through? How struck to the core David was by the incredible sin. Look over in Psalm 51.

Where was a Hitha-thel when David wrote Psalm 51?

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your living kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil. This evil, now that we get a context of evil that he had done, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. See, this is what Mr. Reizdorf was talking about. David had committed a grievous evil, and he repented before God. But a Hitha-thel didn't know that. Or maybe he did, and he said, well that's fine, but I don't accept it. We don't know. We'll have to wait until the second resurrection to see what happens and how it turned out. But David repented. David repented of this great evil that he had done. But clearly, that was not good enough for a Hitha-thel. We know from Jeremiah 30 in verse 9 that David will be in the resurrection and will be in God's kingdom. We're told that specifically. We know that from Acts 13, 22, that David was a man after God's own heart. But what of a Hitha-thel? What happened to a Hitha-thel? Look over at 2 Samuel 17.

2 Samuel 17. He had given this advice. He had a plan. We read this in verse 4. All of Israel said, let's pursue the plan. And verse 5, 2 Samuel 17 verse 5, Then Absalom said, Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear what he says too. And again, if you go back to 1 Chronicles 27 that he described, you can see Hushai was also in there. He was a counselor to David. And Hushai said to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, A Hitha-thel has spoken in this manner. Shall we do as he says? If not, speak up.

So Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Hitha-thel has given is not good at this time.

So Hushai said, You know your father and his men. And he tells the story and he says, No, no, no. Don't listen to a Hitha-thel. Listen to me. Now, Hitha-thel's counsel was like talking to God. So why would Absalom listen to Hushai? But he did. He listened to Hushai in verse 11. Therefore, I counsel that all Israel be fully gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba, like the sand that is by the sea for multitude, and that you go to battle in person. So we will come upon him in some place where he may be found, and we shall fall on him as the dew falls on the ground. So he wanted to get all of the nation together, not 12,000 men. He wanted to take the entire nation and go after David.

Now, verse 13, Moreover, if he was withdrawn from the city, then all Israel shall bring ropes in that city, and he will pull them into the river. And he's got all these plans. He's all this very detailed. In verse 14, Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai, the archite, is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had purpose to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom. You see, the counsel of Ahithophel, that was the good counsel. That's what Absalom should have done if he wanted to be successful. But the Lord, he intervened, God intervened, and undermined the counsel of Ahithophel.

And then interestingly, in verse 15, then Hushai said to Zadok and Abathar the priest, Thus, and so Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel, and thus, and so I have counseled. Now therefore, send quickly and tell David, you see, Hushai actually was there to thwart these plans. Hushai actually warned David of this. And so the conspiracy unraveled. At that moment, the conspiracy unraveled. And Ahithophel knew that this was the end, that this conspiracy was now going to fail and that his counsel had been thwarted. And so now we go to verse 23. Now when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose and went home to his house, to his city. Then he put his household in order and hanged himself and died, and he was buried in his father's tomb. That was the end of Ahithophel. His counsel thwarted, he knew it was all over, and he went and hung himself. David will be in God's kingdom.

Ahithophel in the second resurrection will see. We don't know, but this doesn't look very good for Ahithophel. It doesn't look very good. How tragic if Ahithophel lost his chance because he allowed his anger, his bitterness towards David to consume him, to take away his crown, to take away his anger. Now, we should not condone sin, but we must focus here on our attitude, and not let the attitudes and behaviors of others weigh us down. If we had been the brother offended, we need to ask that God would take away our anger so we don't lose our crown. If we might be that person who was offended, or offended by someone else, are we going to allow bitterness to take a root in us? Or if we are the person that offended someone else, are we going to have a millstone hung around our neck and thrown into the sea unless we go and take action to repent and ask for forgiveness for what we had done? Let's turn over to Ephesians 6 and verse 12.

Ephesians 6 and verse 12. This is what we're up against. I was reminded of this before church as I was speaking to someone. Ephesians 6 and verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. And as someone who said to me right before church, Satan has done this a million times before. See, he knows how to get to us. He knows what's going to bother us. And if God allows, because God allows this, Satan is going to go after where we're weakest. That's why James says, temptation, overcome. That's why the church in Philadelphia is told to overcome. Let's look over in Romans 14 verse 4. Romans 14 verse 4.

While you're turning there, I'm reminded of something that my father told me.

Maybe not the same kind of good advice that you heard in the sermonette. My father was in the church for a number of years, and he left the church. And after he left the church, he told me as a young man, he said, all my heroes are gone.

You see, all his heroes in the church of God had left.

You know, we're only supposed to have one hero, and that's Jesus Christ.

Any other man we put in that position is just going to disappoint us. Romans 14 verse 14 says, I know, and am convinced by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. And verse 15, Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Something as simple as what you eat. If it's going to offend your brother, you put that away.

That's how basic it can be. I gave you this example of murder and adultery. This is a simple example of food. It goes the whole gamut.

Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.

That's what Jesus said. Even though you know, allow the simplest, the young to stumble, it's as if you would be thrown into the sea with a big stone around your neck. Look at Romans 5 verse 1. Here's interesting steps to consider. And as we read this, I want you to think about where you are, where I am in this process. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We've been justified, and now we have faith.

Therefore, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We stand in faith.

Let's continue to stand in faith. Verse 3. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations.

So we're supposed to glory in tribulations. And where will those tribulations come from time to time? They'll come from those who are closest to us. And we are to glory in them, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance.

And perseverance character. And character, hope.

Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We are to stand in faith. And when tribulation comes, and when temptation comes, and when trials come, and when anger comes, and when that temptation for bitterness comes, we are to reject it. We are to rejoice. We are to glory in tribulation. And from that, we will learn perseverance. And from perseverance, we will build character. How trite? How often have we heard that? But how true it is? We will build character. Holy, righteous character. And character will produce hope. And with hope, we will be in God's kingdom. Not the kind of hope that man has, but godly hope. A hope that does not disappoint. That kind of hope will not disappoint us. Do we condone sin? No, we do not. But sometimes we are not in a position to make some sort of difference in the other person's life. Hithafel certainly was not in a position. And it's interesting that God sent Nathan to see David, not Hithafel. He sent Nathan. It wasn't like David, you know, sort of the next morning came to his senses, right? And walked down the hall to Joab and Hithafel and said, I have done something really bad and and embrace yourself because something's coming. No, Nathan had to go to David. How many weeks, how many months did a Hithafel stew on this? How much time? See, sometimes we can't actually influence it. Sometimes that just goes on and on and on. And you think, how long, God, is this going to go on? So we don't condone sin, but we're not always in the position to influence it. We won't know until that time comes in the second resurrection where a Hithafel stands and what really happened 3,000 years ago. But I hope that this story has helped you understand a little bit more about the backstory of Bathsheba and David and these experiences and what it led in terms of one man, a Hithafel, a trusted advisor to David, who changed his allegiance and ultimately committed suicide. I hope it's a lesson that we can remember as we go through our lives. And even if we're dealing with something right now, God has a great plan in store for each one of us, and Satan knows what that plan is, and he would love to figure out some way of taking our crown. Let no one take our crown, brethren. Let no one. Don't put heroes ahead of Jesus Christ.