The high cost of sin's consequences is illustrated through the story of David and his trusted counselor Ahithophel. David's sin with Bathsheba and Uriah led to divine judgment, resulting in the death of his children and the betrayal of his closest friend. Ahithophel, deeply wronged by David's actions, turned his counsel to Absalom's rebellion, ultimately leading to his own despair and suicide. The sermon contrasts David's repentance and forgiveness with Ahithophel's bitterness and lack of grace, highlighting that while God forgives sin, its consequences can be devastating and long-lasting. The core lesson is that a crisis reveals the heart, and true righteousness comes from a heart renewed by God's grace, leading to reliance on Him rather than personal vengeance.
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I invite you to turn with me this morning to Second Samuel chapter twelve. Second Samuel chapter twelve and we want to read a portion here and a portion in chapter sixteen and then a portion from Psalm fifty five. Second Samuel chapter twelve and we begin our reading at verse one. In the past few Lord's days we dealt with a high cost of sin, the high cost of repentance. And this morning I want to deal with the high cost of sin's consequences.
That which follows sin is high cost. The most precious thing in all the world is your soul. What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world? and lose his own soul. We can see the preciousness of a person's soul by what it costs God to redeem it. It took the best that heaven had. And therefore we see what is the most expensive thing for it is that which spoils the soul even sin. There's a high cost to sin. There's a high cost to repentance and we need to beware of cheap repentance at all the high cost of the consequences of sin.
So we begin our reading at verse one of second Samuel twelve and the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came unto him and he said unto him there were two men in one city the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, say one little yew lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him. And with his children it did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared the take of his own flock.
and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him. But he took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said that Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah, And if that had been too little, I would, moreover, have given unto thee such and such things.
Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with a sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house. Because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up against thee out of thine own house. And I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor.
And he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son. For thou didst it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. Chapter sixteen, please, verse twenty-three. And the counsel of Ahithafel, which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God.
So was all the counsel of Ahithafel, both with David and with Absalom. Now Psalm fifty-five. Psalm fifty-five verse twelve. For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that hated me, that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together and walked unto the house of God in company.
Verse twenty. He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him. He hath broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war is in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn sores. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee, he who shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. Now let us pray together. Our Father, having read this lengthy portion from thy word, we ask you now to open our hearts and give us something from thyself.
For Jesus' sake, Amen. We must remember when we read of David's sin in the word of God that God forgave David. But the consequences that the sin produced followed David to his grave. Sin, friends, is exceedingly expensive. Remember that David pronounced his own sentence. The man that has done this thing shall surely die. He shall restore fourfold. Now I'm convinced from this passage, as well as from the teaching of our Lord in the temple in Matthew chapter twenty one, that when men stand before God in judgment, their own lips will judge themselves and they will proclaim their own punishment.
David did. He condemned himself. He proclaimed his own punishment. Remember, David said, the man shall restore fourfold. David had to attend the funeral of at least three of his sons. And the fourth son, Avonijah, died about the same time that David did. Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter eight and verse ten, these words, and I call it the saddest verse in the Bible. And so I saw the wicked berries who had come and gone from the place of the holy.
In other words, Solomon is writing about his brothers. David had evil sons. The consequences of David's sin followed him. And Solomon had to say, I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone. He saw the rebel buried. Absalom. He saw Ammon buried. He saw I denied you buried. I saw the wicked buried. They had come and gone from the place of the holy. They heard the hymns. They heard the songs sung.
by the Levites. They have come and they are gone. But David had a trusted friend. His name was Ahithafel. And I want to talk to you about Ahithafel and the high cost of sin's consequences. David's trusted friend Ahithafel is the one that David is writing about in Psalm fifty five. It is the one that David writes about in Psalm forty one. And in these Psalms we're given an insight into this man Ahithafel and into the man that he is a type of Ahithafel in Psalm forty one.
And in Psalm fifty five becomes a type of Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed our blessed Lord. Ahithophel was far and away the ablest and most famous politician of his day. There was no one fit to handle Ahithophel that day. Unless it could have been Hushii, the archite, another of David's counselors. The scripture says in the passage we read in Second Samuel sixteen that the counsel of Ahithophel which he counseled in those days was if it were one asked at the oracle of God.
And the oracle of God speaks as a mouthpiece of God, the revelation of God through the Urim and the Thummim, which was worn by the man who wore the Ephod in Israel. Psalm fifty-five tells us how close David and Ahephael were. When you look at the words that he uses in verses thirteen and fourteen, he speaks of him as a man. He says, My equal, my God. my acquaintance. Then he says, we took sweet counsel together. We walked into the house of God in company. Friends, David never made a law. He never gave a judgment.
He never proclaimed a war or negotiated a truth or signed a peace unless he heard from Ahifafel. All that Ahifel was to David in the council chamber. His only son Eliam was in the army. For he was one of David's commanders. And the son was as devoted to David in the field as the father was to David in the council chamber. And Eliam had a beautiful daughter. Her name was Bathsheba.
And of course Eliam had a trusted officer among his mighty men. His name was Uriah. You see, Uriah was not an Israelite. Uriah was a Hittite. But he was brave and he was loyal to David. And his very services carried him to the very top of David's six hundred mighty men. And so you read in second Samuel chapter twenty three, Uriah must have been the happiest man in Jerusalem. He had Bathsheba for his wife.
He had Eliam for his father-in-law. And he had Ahippafel for his wife's grandfather. Now Ahippafel was a man who had a great knowledge of David. Now lightning doesn't need to strike us to inform us how Ahippafel took the news of what David had done with Bathsheba and with Uriah. In all probability Ahippafel knew the prophecy that was brought to David by Nathan the prophet when Nathan told him the story.
of the rich man and the poor man, and what God furthermore said to David by the words of Nathan." Ahippafel knew all that. And when Absalom, the son of David, rebelled and usurped the kingdom of his father, Ahippafel forgot the words of Scripture. or else he never knew them. For God says, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Hithapel decided, and you can catch it very definitely if you take time to read the counsel that he gave to Absalom. He gave two definite counsels to Absalom. I'm not going to read them. And that for a reason. I'll permit you to read them at home. But he gave two consuls to Absalom. And in the one consul that he gave to Absalom. He was trying his best to see that God's word is fulfilled on David. So you understand now the meaning of what David says when he writes.
Solm. You see, Ahimphel decided to take vengeance. One thing he didn't take into account was God had made a covenant with David. And beloved you and I, who are saved by the grace of God, are gods by divine covenant. We have entered into relationship with Christ through the blood of of the everlasting covenant. And the everlasting covenant is sure and solid in all things, for it was cut by the very blood of Jesus Christ himself.
Now while Ahippafel gave Absalom counsel, that was very good. And had that counsel been followed by Absalom, David would have fallen. However, Hushii, the archite, gave counsel also. And Absalom followed the counsel of Hushii, who was sent in as a spy to counteract the counsel of Ahithophel. Now, that leads me to the character of this man, Ahithophel. Remember the high cost of sin's consequences.
We all know that it costs David dearly for what he did. But David was the Lord. It cost Ahitha fell far more. He was not the Lord. I want you to think this through with me and examine your own heart in the presence of God. For there are a lot of times that we as God's children have things done to us. And our first reaction is, I'm going to get even. And that reaction is wrong.
We don't need to take action. God says, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. And I want you to examine a hippopotamus. If any man you would say had a right to take action, it would have been he. He did. But I want you to notice what the scripture says about a Hippophile. Friends, sin has its bitter consequences. God will deal with these servants, David. No Christian sin and gets away with it. Not a lot.
David didn't. What David did, what God said would come to pass, came to pass before the very Son, just as we read in Second Samuel chapter twelve. But the most bitter consequence of David's sin was he's dealing with a Hithafel. Bitter. Now what do we say? We know the character of David. But what about the character of a Hithafel? A crisis, friends, doesn't make a person. It reveals what's on the inside. And when we come to a crisis period, this is where we show what we really are on the inside.
The crisis period arrived. Absalom rebelled against his father and was going to overthrow the kingdom of David. and take charge. And in the fifty-fifth Psalm in verses twelve through fourteen, David gives us an insight into what took place when he fled Jerusalem and he had to flee all the way to Mahanaim. That's how far he had to flee across Jordan to Mahanaim. And David says in these words, it was not an enemy. I could have stood The arrows of an enemy.
It was you. It was my most familiar and trusted friend. David said, I could have taken an enemy better than you. And then he speaks of him. He says, we took sweet counsel together. In other words, the traitor had been lovingly and trusted much. The secrets between David and Ahithafel were of no common kind. He said, we walked together unto the house of God in company. In other words, they enjoyed a religious bond between them.
This was not a common bond. It was a deep bond. But in verses twenty and twenty-one, we learned something. And I want you to notice the first thing in verse twenty... A Hippophile was a person who broke covenant. A covenant is something that God tells us we don't break. God expects us to keep covenant, but not a Hippophile. A Hippophile broke covenant. For verse twenty says, He hath put forth His hands against such as be at peace with Him, and hath broken His covenant.
And you can see the importance of a covenant when you examine the life of David in his relationship with Jonathan. He never broke the covenant that he had made with Jonathan. And long after Jonathan died, David said, Is there yet any of the house of Saul to whom I can show the kindness of God because of Jonathan his son? And he showed the kindness of God. to Mephibosheth as we read in Second Samuel chapter nine. So the first thing that we noticed, he broke covenant. But in verse twenty one, I want you to notice something that is so important.
The difference between his mouth and his heart. He says in verse twenty one, the words of his mouth were smoother than butter. But war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. In other words, Spurgeon put it like this. He buttered David with flattery, and he battered him with malice. What a way to put it. What an expression. He buttered him with flattery, and he battered him with malice. You see, the lips are one thing.
You see, we can sing from the lips, Lord Jesus, I love you, and our heart be as cold as ice towards the God who is our Savior. It's not what comes out the lips. It is what is in the heart. And a hippophile is going to pay some awful consequences. What's the heart? See, God looks on the heart. You see, in the midst of this, there's a promise to the child of God.
David was the Lord, and David knew what forgiveness was. But a Hippophile was a man who said, I can never forgive. I was a Hippophile. I can't forgive. And he was sure to see that his spirit was carried out. But the next verse says, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. I can have a forgiving spirit. Why?
By casting it on the Lord. I'm not going to be moved. I'm righteous. And while David suffered for his sin, the consequences followed. Never forget that. But he was the Lord. And God forgave him. God put away his sin. But now we want to follow through with Ahithafel. You see, Ahithafel, on the other hand, he missed it all. For his lips were with David, but not his heart.
He missed it all. First, Absalom didn't follow his good counsel. He only followed his bad counsel. Second, he lost his granddaughter, Ahithophel, did, to David. More than that. He lost Uriah in the war. And because his counsel wasn't followed, he went home to Garlo, put his papers in order, and he hanged himself. Among scholars, Ahippafel is a Judas Iscariot of the Old Testament.
But now, I want to tell you, he missed the best. Ahippafel missed the best. Well, you see, his great-grandson became the king, and he wasn't there to see it. Talk about the high cost of sins, then. Ahithophel's grandson became the king, and he missed it. More than that, he missed his great-grandson building the temple. More than that, his great-grandson became the wisest man of all time.
He missed that too. Well, you see, Solomon was the son of David from Bathsheba. You see, the sin of a Hippothel caused him. And there's a high cost to sin. There is a high cost to the consequences of sin. Well, that leads me to a quick application. How's your heart?
Hithafel could have all the applause. Why would you ask him a question? It's like... Getting counsel at the mouth of God himself. That's what the oracle of God means. But listen. How does it fit your heart? It's not what comes out of the list. But what do you like on the inside? The words of a hippophile were smoother than butter. But war is in his heart. A crisis does it make us.
A crisis reveals us. David had a crisis, and it revealed what he was. He cried out, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Pull out my transgression. That was David. For David had a right heart. On the other hand, Ahithafel had the right words every time, but his heart had never been renewed by divine grace.
My friend, how is it with your heart? How is it? The words of our mouth can be as smooth as butter. But our heart can be like war. Crisis is going to reveal what we are. Oh, that God would take this portion of his word and enable us to say with David, cast thy burden upon the Lord, for he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved.
David went through the crisis, friends, and he came out the winner. Why? He walked with God. The Bible tells us that David turned neither to the right hand or to the left, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. He made one mistake. Philip made multitude. But I have the same God who will have mercy upon me when I confess my sin. Let's do business with God from the heart, friends.
Ah, Hithafel missed it all. Let's not for his namesake. We want to sing one stanza of a hymn this morning. three hundred ninety three the third stanza my sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more praise the Lord praise the Lord oh my soul so Nathan said to David the Lord has put away your sin and oh my friend if you're here this morning and your heart isn't right you come to Christ Not the preacher, but the Christ.
And he'll put away your sin too. He's the only one who can. So let's stand and sing.