We're reading 2 Samuel 15 verses 1 through 12. Again, this is God's holy word. Take heed how you hear it. After this it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, what city are you from? He would say, your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel. Then Absalom would say to him, look, your case is good and right, there is no deputy of the king to hear you. Moreover, Absalom would say, O that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me, that I would give him justice. So it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel, who came to the king for judgment, So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Now it came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said to the king, please let me go to Hebron, pay the vow which I made to the Lord, for your servant took a vow while I dwelt at Gesher in Syria, saying, if the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said to him, go in peace, So he arose and went to Hebron. Then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom reigns in Hebron. And with Absalom went 200 men invited from Jerusalem, and they went along innocently and did not know anything. Then Absalom sent for Ahithophel to go a night, David's counselor from his city from Gilo, where he offered sacrifices and the conspiracy grew strong, but the people with Absalom continually increased in number. That's part of God's word. Victor Lustig, probably a name you're not familiar with. But in certain circles he's well known. He's well known as one of the world's greatest con artists. He's infamously known as the man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice. Not just once, but twice. the tower in Paris. It's kind of a French icon. And the first time he sold this was in 1925. The people in Paris were upset about the Eiffel Tower. It was costing a lot of money, a lot of tax money to keep up with it. And there was a lot of discussion in the newspapers about let's sell this and let's scrap it and let's move on. And Victor came up with his first con. forged some documents. He presented himself at this very important meeting that he called as one of the deputy directors of something in the French government. He gathered some metal scrap dealers in the city, went to this nice, very expensive hotel, held this meeting. And he basically said, listen, this isn't public yet. We want to try to get all the details settled as far as the French government goes. But we're going to sell this tower and we're going to scrap it. We want to talk to you men and get your bids. What Victor did is he took one of the men that was there and he privately had another meeting with this man who seemed the most gullible. And he said, listen, I'm actually a crook. I'm a member of the government, but I want to make a bribe to you. I'll sell it to you. I'll work with you. You give me some money, and you give me a down payment, and we'll make this work. And that's what happened. And so Victor, as soon as he had a large, large sum of money from this man whose name was Andre, he went to Austria. And that was it. This man did not appear to be who he said he was. Or he appeared to be something else than what he really was. What we have in this passage of scripture is an imposter. And we experience this in different ways as well in our day. There are plenty of people, whether they be behind a pulpit, or whether they just be friends at school, they deceive us. They lead us astray. They're not really who they seem to be. There's a lesson here for God's people, just in these first few verses, because Absalom is leading them astray, leading them away from Christ. I want you to see this and learn some lessons from it. You recall that David has just publicly reconciled with Absalom without any repentance. Absalom is not showing himself to be full of grace. He's very much rebellious. But David brings him into his court and here in this chapter we start to really see the prophecy of chapter 12 come to fruition. Verse 11, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Gordon Keddy writes about this chapter regarding the Absalom effect, regarding the idea of impostors. He says, This is a perennial challenge to the spiritual discernment of the Lord's people and a cause for being earnestly prayerful for the welfare of the church. I recall the passage we read this evening from Matthew 7. Christ said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. What I want you to see tonight is that the types of people, the type of people, who lead Christians astray are not inwardly. They're not inwardly what they appear to be outwardly. The type of people that lead Christians astray are not inwardly what they appear to be outwardly. I want to bring this lesson to you under three headings. Verse 1 is our first point here. Outwardly impressive, but inwardly graceless. Absalom is outwardly impressive, but he is inwardly graceless. Verse 1, After this happened, that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. Imagine that you are an Israelite. You are a commoner in Jerusalem. You would find Absalom to be very impressive. It was actually unbiblical for him to be doing what he did, to have chariots. Kings and crown princes were not supposed to do that. But not everyone knew the law very well then, did they? And it was very popular at that time in the surrounding nations for kings and crown princes to do this. It's very impressive. It's a show of power. Here's this man. Oh, and by the way, he has some very pretty hair. that we can't forget about. We talked about that briefly in chapter 14. Verse 25, Now in all Israel there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks. Outwardly impressive. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. Here's this man, here's this crown prince. Very impressive. Gifted. I mean he apparently had his own business. We learned that from the previous chapter before he went off to Gesher. We can see in these next verses, even though I'm going to mention verses 2 through 4 to you in a different way. He has this magnetism, this ability to talk to people and influence them. He's charming, perhaps you could say, or just attractive. He's confident. What city are you from? Oh, if I was king, this is what would happen. Very confident. And he's, if you were an Israelite in that day, you would see him to be gifted, attractive, outwardly impressive. But he's graceless. He's graceless. Keep in mind who this man is. He shows in this portion no desire to honor his father, who is the lawful king. He has no concern for the law of God. He's the man who murdered Amnon, his brother. He manipulated Joab and David in the previous context. He has unbridled ambition, unprincipled, perhaps is a better way of putting it, unprincipled ambition. There's no reason for us to believe that Absalom knew the Lord. In fact, it's very clear that he didn't. He was without grace. And it's a temptation for God's people to be attracted to these types of folks, whether they be friends, or whether they be, maybe to not a severe degree, but whether they be potential candidates for office. lawyers, doctors, it doesn't really matter if they're shepherds. We're gonna make them our elders. They're outwardly impressive. That's the kind of idea. I find it interesting. In 1 Timothy 3, you find the qualifications for an elder there. Of course, this text does not only apply to elders. There's many people who can lead you astray, not just pastors and elders and such. In 1 Timothy 3, verses 1-7, you have several things about an elder. Blameless, husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given a whine, self-control, not violent, not greedy for money, gentle, not quarrelsome, covetousness. I could keep going here. Where does it say anything about his education? or his good looks, or his giftedness. Now there's a little bit of giftedness there with able to teach and things like that, but there is a lot of priority and focus on grace. Whether someone be outwardly impressive or not, Christ, God, values things differently and we should I see it that way as well. Psalm 147 verses 10 through 11. He does not delight in the strength of the horse, takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in His mercy. God's people are about to make the same mistake that they made with Saul. Think about Saul. Just a few chapters before this chapter, in 1 Samuel 16, maybe a couple more than a few, but you get the point. 1 Samuel 16, seven, is another example where even Samuel falls in this trap. He sees one of Jesse's sons who's outwardly impressive. And the Lord says to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. There is a man that I know that I will not mention by name. All this is public information, but he was an ordained minister in the PCA, somewhat of a celebrity pastor, wrote books, very gifted, related to some important Christian family in our country. Very gifted, charming. He had some things about his theology that were Debatable for sure, he was kind of a controversial figure. It turns out that he was having an affair. Not just one affair that ended up having him deposed from the ministry, but a second affair. Very gifted, very attractive, very impressive. But he had a problem with grace. He had a problem with selfish ambition, it seems to be the case. And this is a threat. Whether it be for a congregation looking at church officers or elders. Whether it be your friends that you are attracted to. You want to be attracted to people who know the Lord Jesus. They're full of grace. They're not going to lead you astray. They may be outwardly oppressive. That's of course not necessarily sinful or wrong. David was said to be a handsome man. But you want people who are full of grace. Now secondly, Notice another lesson. Again, I want you to think about the fact that in this passage of Scripture, for reasons that do not seem very apparent to me at least, God's people are just in the main. They go after, they go astray. They depart from their anointed King. They depart from Christ. They go after following another man. What can we learn from this? Look at verses 2 through 4. Verses 2-4, Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was, whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, 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. Then Absalom would say to him, Look, your case is good and right. There is no deputy of the king to hear you. Moreover, Absalom would say, O that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me, then I would give him justice." Now here we have a case where Absalom is outwardly helpful and outwardly humble, but inwardly he's selfish. Outwardly helpful and humble, but inwardly selfish. This is verses 2 through 6. Outwardly helpful. Now he's basically saying that David's administration, the ability to carry out this role as kind of like a Supreme Court idea, he was the highest judge in the land. He's basically saying that David's not doing his job. And I believe this to be an overreaction. Absalom's exaggerating. It's a political maneuver. We know from the example with the woman at Tekoa that he did hear cases. And he's just appearing to be helpful. He says, you know, if I was judge, if I was the king, then you would have a right hearing. That's a classic political maneuver, a bad one to make promises that you're not keeping. I want you to think about it from the perspective of appearing to be helpful. There are many people in our day who appear to be helpful, but for different reasons are really not. I think of the liberal church, whether they be pastors in the liberal church, or whether they just be members of that congregation. I'm using the word liberal, not in any kind of political sense. I'm talking about theology. They deny the infallibility of scripture, salvation through Christ alone. What liberals like to do is they like to address the physical aspects of life, your body, and they neglect the soul. And it has the appearance of being very helpful. We ought to. The Reformed Church ought to reach out to people and help them physically. But the intent is to get to their soul, get to the gospel. And they neglect to do that. Again, imposters. Keep in mind these things. Absalom is outwardly helpful. He's outwardly humble. Verse 5, and so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. Now he's being outwardly humble. What's going on here is, as the crown prince, it appears from just this narrative and not just this portion, but it appears that everyone knows that Absalom's the heir to the throne. Caleb is somehow out of the picture. Solomon's not here. People are paying him homage as the crown prince, and he's saying, listen, I'm one of you. I know what it's like to be one of the boys, one of the commoners. Don't bow down to me. He takes out his hand, he lifts them up, and he kisses them. Don't bow down to me. It's kind of like the politician who's got a suit on and who's high class and well educated and all that, goes out with the farmers, puts on boots and takes off the tie and takes a picture by the fence. I'm one of you, I know what it's like to be Middle class. It's an appearance of humility. But he's not really being humble. He's being very selfish. Verse 6, what's going on? What's Absalom doing? He's just trying to spring a trap. He wants the throne, unlawfully. In this manner, Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. One of the graces that Absalom does not have is a motive that seeks the glory of Christ and the glory of God. He's about himself. It's about himself. Motive is very important. Paul talks about, in Philippians, pastors who preach Christ with selfish ambition. Their hearts are not quite right. Something to consider. Think of Simon the sorcerer in Acts chapter 9, Acts chapter 8. The text says that he believed, but his heart was not right. He really just wanted the power. He didn't really want Christ. And this is something that we need to be aware of. What is someone's motive? Is this person really going to seek my well-being in the Lord, whether it be an elder, whether it be a pastor, whether it be a potential officer, whether it be a friend? Are they gonna look out for me? I find it very helpful to note that in vowel seven of an elder vowel, It's all the church officers. Listen to this, this is in our church constitution. So far as you can know in your own heart, it is the call of Christ, is it the call of Christ, the glory of God and the welfare of the church, not any selfish object that moves you to undertake the sacred office. Very important for us to consider this. I want to spend a little bit more time on verses 7 through 12 and make a third and final point. I believe this text is important for us to think about in the sense of Christian imposters. Again, it's strange. God's people just are going after this imposter, this false king. I want us to pick up on some lessons here. What else do we see? Verse 7. 12. Outwardly pious and orthodox, but inwardly rebellious. Outwardly pious and orthodox, but inwardly rebellious. Verse 7-9. Outwardly pious. Now it came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said to the king, please let me go to Hebron. Now what he's doing here, he's being very pious. He's going to fulfill the vow. Now before I get into that a little bit, notice, you might notice in verse 7 it talks about 40 years have passed. How do we understand that? Some English versions amend the text to say 4 years. I believe that 40 is the proper understanding. It's very well attested in Hebrew and even in the manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint. The reason why I point this out is that one of the things we must do as we go through the Bible, we must keep in mind how the biblical authors wrote their verses. How they wrote. And it was common then for them to keep track of time by when the monarchy began. It seems very likely that this is a reference to when Saul became king. So it's been 40 years since Saul became king, and now we have another Saul on our hands. This is the opinion of many commentators. And so this would make it the 30 years into David's reign. He reigned for 40 years. We don't know how long Absalom has been back from Gesher. The time has passed, and Absalom's ready to start this revolt. and he's acting very pious. Now for him to really truly be pious, if he did make a vow, which we shouldn't realize this is true, this is a fake vow, he's lying. The Old Testament law, Deuteronomy 23, 21, says that be quick to fulfill your vows, don't wait. When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it. For the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it will be sin to you. Here is Absalom. The idea is he is going to go to Hebron. There was a high place in Hebron. It was common to make sacrifices to the Lord. The temple had not been built yet. This was a common practice. He is being pious. It is very strange that the king's last words to him were, Go in peace. Absalom is being pious, but he's not really inwardly pious. He's orthodox. I want you to think about this. Verses 10 through 12. Imagine that you're an Israelite in Jerusalem, or thereabout. There's a lot about this coup that appears orthodox. Think about it. Absalom is the son of David. Who is supposed to be the next king? The son of David. Keep in mind Solomon was anointed king before David died. It is not necessarily wrong for Absalom to become king before David dies. David was anointed as king by all of Israel in Hebron. So Absalom is going to go there. Absalom has the support of notable people. Verse 11, with Absalom went 200 men invited from Jerusalem. These would have been important people. So there's important folks with Absalom in Hebron. He's got Ahithophel. Ahithophel, we learned as we scour 2 Samuel. He was one of David's mighty men. He was a warrior. His advice was considered gold, as it were. 2 Samuel 16, 23 reads, now the advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was if one had inquired at the oracle of God, So was all the advice of Hithophel, both with David and with Absalom. So you're an Israelite in Jerusalem, and you're thinking, well this doesn't look all that bad. I mean, after all, this is across the land. A majority of the people are like, yeah, this is good. Let's make Absalom king. He has sent spies out saying, listen, you hear the trumpets. Come to Hebron. He appears to be orthodox, but he's really rebellious. the end of verse 12, and the conspiracy grew strong, for the people with Absalom continually increased in number. Absalom is, without any lawful reason, he's going after his own father. He's taking the throne unlawfully, he's being rebellious. Outwardly pious, outwardly orthodox. This is everywhere, everywhere around us. I am going to encourage you, I hope I'm going to encourage you by the end of this sermon, but I want you to identify with the threat here. 2 Timothy 3.13 But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. I can't think of a Christian imposter, okay, heretic or just false teacher or really, really bad teacher, who is not clothed in some measure of orthodoxy and piety. Liberals, we're surrounded by liberals, okay? We know people who go to liberal churches. There's things about them that are very orthodox. How do you make of this quote? This is from a liberal church website. We accept the canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life. Sounds orthodox, doesn't it? It's lacking some key words. It's not the infallible, inerrant Word of God. It's not the only source of faith and practice. Orthodox, but not quite right. Rebelling. against the teaching of scripture. I think about Roman Catholics. They will tell you that you are justified by faith. They just won't tell you that you're justified by faith alone. I know a man in seminary who was involved in a Christian, a Roman Catholic school. He went to a PCA church. He did this for many years. He came under the influence of the principal there, who was an outwardly pious man, Roman Catholic man. And he, this teacher, this assistant who went to Presbyterian Church, was convinced that the Reformation was a big mistake. We really are united with our Roman Catholic brothers. I was like, brother, you're the one that's deceived. You're the one that's deceived. People die over this kind of stuff. What were those who were in his circles doing? They were trying to woo him. There was a measure of orthodoxy. We are justified by faith, faith alone. This is all around us. Listen, Mormons, they will say that Jesus is the son of God, but not God the son. And it goes on and on. I want you to think about, also from the perspective of pious people. I mean, I've met very outwardly pious Mormons, Roman Catholics. But is that all that we need? I mean, again, this is what's going on here. If you were an Israelite, this is what's going on. The lesson tonight is that the type of people that lead Christians astray are not inwardly what they appear to be outwardly. 1 John 2, 18 through 20 is comforting passages of scripture. Because if you're thinking to yourself, you may be thinking to yourself, well, how do I know I'm not deceived? Am I going to be deceived like God's people were? Again, I don't fully understand why God's people were so gullible, why they had such stealable hearts. Perhaps you're thinking to yourself, do I have a stealable heart? Am I going to be deceived? How do I know I'm following Christ? How do I know I'm following the truth? 1 John 2.18-20 talks about this phenomena And then it says in verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. One of the things that you have, that God's people did not have at this time in history, is the inward work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I've been very encouraged my own life in observing other Christians growing up and just being in many congregations, you'll know. You'll know an imposter if you're paying attention, because you have the Holy Spirit in you, and you know His Word. You'll know. You may not be able to explain to a Roman Catholic attorney in all the details, but you can hear it. You know something's wrong, and it's the Holy Spirit in you. It's the Word of Christ in you, keeping you. from being led astray. I want you to be aware of these things. You have need to be warned. You have need to be on the alert. But do not fret. Listen to the word of Christ which is made clear to you by the Holy Spirit and you will not be deceived. Christ will preserve you and guide you and enable you to detect false shepherds. He will give you wisdom in choosing church elders, church officers, in choosing friends, and in following the right influences in your life. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight with grateful hearts that Your son, the Lord Jesus, is a faithful shepherd who guides us in the right path. We're thankful that you have given us his Holy Spirit to detect, to enable us to detect the true teaching of the word, to guide our hearts, that our hearts would not be stealable, to strengthen our hearts. Father, we ask that you would guide us in the right path, that our friends that we have, that we choose from the community, from school would be good influences that we would desire to be around those who would properly influence us. Father we ask that you would enable us to choose the church officers that you would have us to choose to lead us. Father, we come to you grateful, despite this great mistake of your people in the Old Covenant, that you will not abandon your people, you will not allow them to go astray in this degree because of the work of the Spirit in us. We give you thanks for that. We pray this in Jesus's name, amen.