I want to speak this evening upon the subject, an expensive sepulcher exchanged for a pauper's grave. Or a sepulcher fit for a king, but a grave fitted only for a dog. Turn with me to 2 Samuel, this heart-stirring chapter. I don't know any other chapter in the story of David's life that stirs my soul so much as this 18th chapter of 2 Samuel. And you will know this verses 17 and 18, standing out in great contrast. In verse 17, they took Absalom and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him. And all Israel led every man to his death. Then in verse 18, Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's deal. 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. In one of the battlefields of the American Revolutionary War, Saratoga, there is a great monument to the victory that was accomplished by the American Army of Independence there. And in that great monument, there are four And in each of these niches, there is a life-size figure of one of the great American revolutionaries who battled for the independence of the American colony. You'll find the figure of Gates in one of them, the figure of Scalia in another of them, and the figure of Morgan in another of them. But there is one niche, and only on that niche is the name, but the figure is missing. That was the niche that was made for Benedict Arnold, who was a brilliant and courageous colonel in the American army, in Washington's army. He was fought over by British agents, and he became a colleague of the British and an enemy to the American colonies. And he died years afterwards, godless, homeless, and friendless in a black attic in a little slum in London. The name is there. But the figure is not there. I think that that represents dramatically these scriptures that I want to deal with tonight. I want to show you this young man, Absalom. He was the third son of David the king. He was born when David was in Hebron. before he came to rule in the city of Jerusalem. He was the most handsome of David's sons, and the glory of his countenance was his beautiful hair. And we read in the Scripture every year He had it specially pulled and much of it removed, and so precious and beautiful was his hair that they weighed it. He was a young man of good appearance, a young man who exercised all the prerogatives of a king's son. One day he was passing through the king's deal. And he came upon a spot there, a place of majestic beauty, a place that overlooked the whole valley, a place that was ideal for vision and for view. And he said, I'll build my sepulcher here. I'll put up a beautiful monument to myself here. So he called the designers of the cave. the builders of the king's palace, and they drew out wonderful plans for the construction of a great sepulcher and pillar and tomb to his memory. For he said, I have no sons, but I will be remembered for myself and for myself alone. And every day as that tomb was being erected, Absalom no doubt visited the scene. Best of the king's workmen were there. The best of the king's masons were there. The best of the king's joiners were there. And soon Absalom's place, as it was called, was the wonder of the whole country. It was a sepulcher fitted for a king. never lay in that sepulcher. It's an untenanted grave. It's a sepulcher without a corpse or a body to this day. But come with me into the wood of Ephraim. Come with me to a dark, filthy pit in the midst of the quagmire of Atwood. There you will see a deep pit filled up with large stones. There lies the body and the bones of Absalom. He planned for himself a sepulcher of splendor. He finished in a grave fitted only for a dog. between the building of the expensive sepulcher and the laying of His body in that pit in the forest of Ephraim. There is a story, and I want to tell that story tonight. I want to take the name of Absalom in the form of an acrostic, and I want to ask the question, What happened to Absalom? What were the things that undermined his character, destroyed his prospects? He had one who was to be buried and honored as the son of David. To be buried in dishonor as a rebel against his own father's throne. Let's take the letter A, the initial letter of his name. It stands for aimlessness. Absalom was a princely drifter. The whole story of his life in the book of Samuel speaks of a man who is just drifting along as the tides and the currents roll. And when one force pressurized him, he went this way, but another force Pressurized him, he went the other way. When the wind blew one way, he went that way. When the wind blew another way, he went that way. He was a princely drifter. There's men and women in our church tonight. I'll tell you what's going to destroy their soul. I'll tell you tonight what's going to damn them in hell. Aimlessness. They're just drifting. And when one wind of pleasure blows, they trim their seals and catch that popular breath of wind. When another pressure comes, they trim their seals again, and they go with the current. And they're drifting on, but they're drifting towards a lost eternity. the darkness of a traceless dream, the drifting towards the blackness of darkness of a lost sinner's hell. Oh, tonight that you might stop your drifting, friend. Stop the aimlessness of life and find true purpose in living at the Old Cross of Calvary. Secondly, there was something else that undermined his character. I'll tell you what it was. It was his birth. If you look at 2 Samuel 3, you'll find he was the result of a mixed marriage. The David married not one of the women of Israel, but he went to the king of Gershom, and he took the daughter of a heathen king to wife. And the result of the unholy relationship between God's man, David, and the daughter of the king of Gershom was the prince Absalom, the result of a mixed marriage. His birth was against him. And could I inform you tonight that every one of us in this church has a birth that is against us. When we were born, we were born out of tune with God. When we were born, we were born out of touch with heaven. So often we hear people take up their children and say about their children, so innocent, so pure, so lovely, and so good. But they're hardly out of nappies until you know they're neither innocent, nor are they pure, nor are they good. You never need to teach a child to tell lies. It will tell lies of its own accord. You never need to teach a child to disobey. It will disobey of its own accord. I remember Mr. Nicholson telling a story once. He said that he had come in from meetings, and he was very tired, and his wife was baking. And she was baking some wonderful cookies. And they smelled good, and they were good. And he said, I knew they were good. And I was sitting by the fire, and he said, my young boy Willie, my only son, he was just a wee lad of three. And she said, now I'm going out, dear, and look after Willie, and don't let him eat the cookies. So he said, Willie, you're not to eat the cookies. And Willie said, yes, daddy, I'm not eat the cookies. And he said, I went over to sleep. And I slept, he said, and my wife came in, and she literally wiggled me, and she said, what have you done? He says, I've done nothing, I've been sleeping. Where are the cookies? And he said, where are they? She says, they're all gone. So I called wee Willie. I said, Willie, come here. And he said, he came up to me, the picture of innocence. And I said, Willie, did you eat the cookies? And he said, there he was with his wee belly swollen out with them. And he said, no daddy, I never ever cook it. You never need to teach a child to tell lies. No sir, you never need to teach a man to go to hell. He'll go to hell on his own. Our birth is against us. And this modernistic people, that men are born with a part of God in their soul and a divine part in their spirit, is both contrary to God's Word and contrary to what we know and practice. Men are born in sin and shapen in iniquity. There's no good in any of us but wounds and roses and putrefying souls. And like Absalom, there's people here tonight, and their birth is against them. What does S stand for? S stands for selfishness. I tell you, when you look at this man, Absalom and Gover, the story of his life, how selfish he was. The only person that mattered to Absalom was himself. No one else mattered. He didn't care about the life of his oldest brother, Ammon. He did him to death, and Ammon wallowed in his blood at the Feast of Merriment and Wine, which Absalom had called. He didn't care about the harvest of his friend Job. He sent his servants out to burn down the fields of Job. He didn't care about his father. He was gracious and loving and kind to him. He didn't care about the God of heaven and the truth of that God. He was filled with selfish irreverence. He actually told his father he had become a Christian, and he made that a whitewash cover for the rebellion that he was about to instigate. There is no story that exposes the hypocrisy of the human heart like this history of Absalom, the son of David the king. Selfishness. And alas, today there are men and women in our meeting, and selfishness is taking them to hell. And because of selfishness and personal aggrandizement and love of the world, and love of pleasure, and love of money, and love of the things of the world, and the companionship of the world, they will love Jesus Christ. Just as much as aimlessness destroyed Absalom, and his birth made a contribution to his destruction, so his selfishness mere a contribution to his destruction? Is it destroying you tonight? Is it because of self that you will not come to Jesus Christ? Is that why you won't become a Christian? You want the pleasure, the company of the world, the tinsel of the world, the unsatisfying lusts of the world? And because of self and self-interest, you won't have Jesus. Let me tell you, selfishness will destroy and damn your soul. And then A, what does that stand for? That stands for artfulness. He was very artful in how he arranged this rebellion. Look at 2 Samuel 15, and we see there how he stole away the hearts of the people. He stood at the king's deal. He said, I am the king's son. And when the people came for judgment, he put out his hand. And when they were going to kiss his hand, he drew them to his bosom and he kissed them. And he presented himself in an artful manner as a man who loved the people of God and the Israel of God. But he didn't love any of them. He loved only himself. Let me tell you, comingness, artfulness will not pay. At the end of the day, God will discover to the whole world your hypocrisy and all the planning and all the scheming and all the artfulness that you indulge in. I tell you, God will expose it for what it is. When he was going away to start his rebellion, He told his father that he had made a solemn vow unto God, that if God brought him back from exile, he would worship the Lord and always follow the Lord. But he didn't mean any such thing. He actually used that, a cover of religion, in order to make way for the murder of his own eldest brother. You see the artfulness of the man. Oh, the devil will make you come in. The devil will make you dishonest. The devil will make you take the shortest cut he can. And you'll think at the end of the day, wasn't I very clever? Didn't I do a very successful and clever trick? But my friend, on the dark day of judgment, when he was hanging by his hair in the tree, I wonder what thoughts passed through his mind then. All his artfulness couldn't expedite himself from the hanging upon the tree. And all your cleverness, sir, will not open the gates of hell, or put out one fire that shall burn and torment and scorch and bite your soul in the torments of the damned. Hell, what does that stand for? That stands for licentiousness. Turn over to chapter 16, and in chapter 16 you will find that Absalom, in verse 21, sunk to the very depths of dark licentiousness. He went in to the wives of his own father and opened up a relationship with them in the light of the whole of Israel. He publicly committed the worst sin that any man could commit in the law of God. So debased was his character, so lustful was his soul, so dark and hideous were his thoughts, that before the whole nation he was prepared to violate the law of God. That's the curse of the age. That's the sort of day in which we live. Less morals. A day when purity is discredited. And if ever there was a day when there was an attack on morals and purity and standards, it's today! The whole media is aimed at the undermining of Christian standards and Christian purity. That's the aim of the day. Young person, lust and licentiousness will destroy your soul and damn you in the lowest hell. Beware! Be youthful as says the book and follow after righteousness and holiness, for without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Is there some secret scarlet sinner tucked away in some pew in this house tonight, passing through the doors of the house? No one knows your secret sin, but God knows it. Is there some young person here tied with a chain that is unbreakable and with cords that are galling? And you know, tonight as I preach, you're saying, preacher, I know there's a chain around my soul. I know I'm in prison and cannot break away. Let me tell you, go on in that life and it will bring you doom and time and damnation and eternity. I'm glad Jesus can break every chain. I'm glad He can set every man and woman free. And then the O, what does it stand for? It stands for that thing called opportunity. His opportunities, instead of being used to his safety, were used to his sins. God's given you an opportunity tonight in this solemn gospel service. I'm glad you can start for heaven. I'm glad tonight you can leave the old path and walk the new path. I'm glad tonight you can leave the old life and start a new life. I'm glad I can tell you no matter what your past is, it can be blotted completely and totally out by the blood of the Lamb. I'm not talking about a clean sheet. Praise God, I'm talking about a clean life. Any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. But instead of seizing the opportunity to come to God and get right with His Father, Absalom seized the opportunity to go further down to hell. And then the M, what does it stand for? It stands for madness. And every man and woman in this meeting that goes out of this meeting rejecting Christ has upon his heart the madness of sin, the madness of hell, and the madness of the devil. I often ask myself in this pulpit, why do men and women go away from Jesus Christ? And the only answer I can give, because they're mad, deceived by the devil, caught up in the net of folly, hearts blinded, minds deceived, souls encrusted with hardness, and they go away from God and Christ and truth. So we stand at a grave tonight, and it's a grave of a son of David, and it's without a tenant. But I don't want you to stand at that grave. I want to take you to another grave tonight, the grave of another son of David. the Son of the Out, the Lord Jesus Christ. It also is an expensive tomb. It's the only rich thing that Jesus had in his death, and the only rich thing he had at his birth. You know, his life is spanned by two riches. They brought him gold and frankincense and myrrh after he was born. And they brought him to a rich man's tomb after he died. The first thing after he was born, there was riches. The first thing after his death, there were riches. But the rich man's tomb is empty, not because the body of Jesus lies in some other grave, but because this son of David has triumphed over our sin, over our death, and over our hells. And he has come out of the tomb tonight, and he says, I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Thank God tonight the risen Christ circumcised you. It may be these things, The corruption of your birth, selfishness, artfulness, licentiousness, opportunity's gone wrong, and the madness of the devil has led you almost to hell. Even on the verge of the pit of hell, Jesus conceived. And praise God, he conceived you now. Don't stand at the tomb of Absalom, a son of David. Come to me. to the tomb of the Savior, thee son of David, and there you will find life everlasting. Please God, you'll come tonight in Jesus' name.