Go ahead and turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 25, if you would, please. I titled this message, Delivered from Self. I guess we could title it, Lord, Don't Give Me My Way. I remember the first time, hadn't been here long, I can't remember who it was, maybe Brother Bruce, I really don't remember, but I do remember the prayer and it was just that. The man said, Lord, deliver me from myself, don't let me have my way.

All of us have had and will continue to have, and it's because of sin, moments when anger and pride and even hurt push us towards decisions that would be harmful to us, and it would also grieve the Lord. As we saw in our last study, David, a man after God's own heart, came dangerously close to doing just that, to such a moment, came dangerously close to such a moment. But God intervened. And God used a humble, wise, courageous woman named Abigail to do so.

All of us should be thankful that the Lord very often delivers us from ourselves. And what believer has not learned to pray sincerely? Deliver us from ourselves. Not my will, but thine be done. I pray that often, not my will. I don't know what's best for me. I think I do, but I don't, but the Lord does. A scriptural and successful prayer will always be the will of the Lord be done, Acts 21, 14.

And as I was thinking about this the last couple of days, I thought to myself, how many times has the Lord delivered me and you from ourself? Even times when we were unaware that he was doing so. David had been insulted by this man named Nabal. His name means fool. And he was a fool that returned evil for good. And David is on his way to kill him and all, every male in his household. But then God intervened by the intercession of an unlikely source. It wasn't thunder, it wasn't lightning from heaven. I don't know why people always think that that has to be the way God intervenes. Sometimes it's just a small, still voice. Sometimes it's just the Lord sending someone to say a word or directing providence in a direction where it's obvious, whatever. the source may be. It wasn't thunder though, it wasn't lightning or an angel from heaven, but it was just a wise, meek and courageous woman. And God providentially used Abigail to stop David in his tracks from great regret.

So let's pick up our story here in verse 32. 1 Samuel chapter 25, verse 32. And David said to Abigail, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me. Who sent Abigail to meet David? The Lord did. And again, we see the beauty of God's intervention. And we also see the beauty of God's divine restraint. It was the Lord who providentially sent Abigail and David's heart was turned here from vengeance to gratitude. Isn't it amazing how sometimes the Lord sends someone at just the right time or to keep us from doing something stupid? And notice David didn't praise himself here for listening. He blessed God for sending Abigail. Thank God for the Spirit's intervention in our lives.

Verse 33, he said, blessed be thy advice, David said, and blessed be thou, which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with mine own hand. God's grace intervened here before destruction. And God stops us oftentimes from destroying ourselves through sin. You know, sin, I can't stress how much an enemy that sin is. It's out to destroy us. And here we see also the blessing and godly counsel. Abigail represents the Spirit's voice of wisdom to us. And friends, Jesus Christ is our true restraint. Paul said, for the love of Christ constraineth us. The love of Christ becomes a governing force within a believer. We don't just say I must not, we say I cannot because he loves us and we love him. We love the Lord, we don't want to disappoint him. I've said this often. I didn't ever want to disappoint my earthly father. I loved him. I didn't want to disappoint him. How much more is that so with God, our heavenly father?

And it's a very hard lesson for us to learn, and it's by divine revelation to trust God to handle all injustice, whether it's against us or none. We just, by nature, wanna just take matters into our own hands. I'll take care of this, we think. I'll make this right. But God's word reminds us Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. Now that's much easier said than done. For it's written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Only God has the right to judge and repay evil. Judgment and retribution belongs to God alone. We're called to trust God's justice. Give place under wrath means to step aside, to trust God to deal with the wrong that's done against us. That's so difficult. Why? Because sin's what we are. Our Lord sees every injustice, and trust me, He'll deal with it. Whether in discipline, whether in redemption, or whether in judgment, but judgment is God's business, not ours.

So what are we to do? Well, Paul went on to tell us there in Romans 12, and it shocked many what he said. Paul went on to say, therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. I'm not, I don't want to feed him. I want to beat the tar out of him. By nature, that's just the truth of the matter. If he thirsts, give him drink. I don't want to do that, but that's what God tells us to do. For in doing so, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. That means conviction. You'll bring conviction upon him. And then he says this, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Lord, help us to do just that. It's not easy, because we're still dealing in these bodies of flesh. We're still dealing with that old nature, that old man within that we struggle. that we war against. And temptation to take vengeance is often strongest when we feel disrespected, when we feel wronged. And you know, when you evaluate that, it's nothing but pride. Our personal vengeance is always a result of the flesh. It can never be ascribed to faith.

And did you notice what David said when Abigail interceded? He said, bless me, the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to me. He didn't say, oh, bless you, dear sister. You're such a blessing. I don't know what I'd have done without you. He thanked the Lord for sending her. It was the Lord's intervention, not Abigail's. Yes, the Lord used Abigail. And David was thankful for her, but he blessed the Lord God of Israel. And by God's grace, and it'll take God's grace, but by God's grace, David realized, and so must we, that God had stepped in to restrain him from sin. Abigail was just a mediator that God used. And may God enable you and I to guard our hearts against bitterness through injustice that's done to us.

Now look at verse 34, for in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hast hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning like any that pisseth against the wall.

And as I told you last week, that just simply means men and all the men in general, but He also says, kept me from hurting thee. So I don't have any doubt that maybe he would have killed all of the household, especially Nabal's wife. But David doesn't take credit for any self-restraint here. He just says, the Lord kept me back.

And God used Abigail's words to awaken David's conscience before he shed innocent blood. It wasn't Abigail who sinned. God kept him back from hurting her, as we see in verse 34. It wasn't Nabal's men who had done this evil, but David intended on killing them all. And he admits it was the Lord who restrained him. And it'll be the Lord that restrains us. All blessings flow from him and him alone.

Abigail reminded David that that if he killed Nabal and his servants, he would bear that guilt for life. And you know he would. I'm sure David never got over his sin with Bathsheba and what he did to Bathsheba's husband when he put him on the front lines to be killed in battle so that he could have her for himself. I'm sure he never forgot that. I'm sure the Apostle Paul never forgot holding the coats for those that stoned Stephen. Don't you imagine? There's a lot of things I've done in my life that I'll never forget. Wished I hadn't done them. Regret that I didn't.

And here we see the mercy of God's restraint with David to keep him doing something that he should have not done and he didn't do because God overruled evil for good. And I know divine sovereignty works through human decisions. Isn't that a comforting thought that is the same in all things to preserve servants and accomplish his will. God can put it on somebody's heart or just give them a word to say that changes the whole outcome. God's divine sovereignty works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.

And I just can't fathom how much sin and folly God has mercifully restrained me from over the years. How many times God sent a word from what seemed to be out of nowhere and caused me to think about the error in which I was about to fall.

And look at verse 35. So David received of her hand that which she brought him. She brought him an offering. We read last week what it was, all the things she brought. And he said unto her, go up in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person.

And immediately I think about our offering to God. What do we offer God? There's only one thing we can offer God that he'll accept, and that's the perfect righteousness and work of the Lord Jesus. And when we offer up that which God accepts, that being Christ, he says, go up to your house in peace. I've hearkened to your voice. I've accepted your person. God accepts our person only in his beloved son.

What grace and peace that follows repentance and intercession and divine restraint. Abigail intervened, yes. And thank God the Lord Jesus Christ intervened in our room instead. Humble words, her humble words turned away wrath. And David accepted her plea and he received her offering. And that's what God does. when we offer Christ as our only hope of salvation.

And again, what a picture here we have of reconciliation through a mediator. We have one mediator between God and man. That's the man, Christ Jesus. He's our only hope. Our Lord Jesus stands between the sinner pictured by Nabal and divine judgment represented by David's anger and wrath. Her intercession brought peace and acceptance.

Just as David received Abigail's gift and granted peace to her house, God receives the intercession of the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice on our behalf. And He graciously, God graciously grants peace to all who come under the Lord's redeeming blood. God's wrath has turned away. God says he's angry with the wicked every day, but in Christ, he's no longer angry. And what, isn't that good news? God no longer angry with you who are in Christ. That's why we call it the gospel.

Verse 36, and Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. Wherefore she told him nothing less or more until the morning light.

But it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass about ten days after that the Lord smoked Nabal that he died.

Now that phrase there, his heart died within him and he became as a stone, points to Nabal's total loss of strength and responsiveness. suffered a sudden physical or emotional collapse. We're not told in detail what, maybe it was a stroke, I don't know. Maybe it was a heart attack. Maybe it was some kind of complete paralysis, but I know this much, it was the Lord behind it. And 10 days later, the Lord brought upon him fatal judgment.

It was God, not David, that repaid Nabal's evil. And what revelation we see here that vengeance is of the Lord. He's the one that repays evil. He's the one that causes men to reap what they sow. And when David's sword is sheathed and he no longer desires, because of Abigail's intercession, desires to kill Nabal, Nabal's feasting like a king, as though he'd done no wrong, I think about this world in which we live. The Scripture talks about us eating and drinking and being merry and giving in marriage and just living life like a king. That's what Nabal was doing, but he's a picture of us by nature. He was drunk, he was proud, he was totally blind to how close he came to judgment.

And there are many in this world today that are drunk, with sin, proud in self-righteousness, and totally blind to God's, their sin and God's mercy and grace. And I thought about this too. The Lord waited 10 days before he took Nabal's life. The Lord often delays his justice so that his people might learn that he's patient and long-suffering It says, when you and I hold our piece of injustice done against us, we see God take matters into his own hands. And we read here, and it came to pass about 10 days later, that the Lord smoked nail. You see that? That he died. David didn't have to lift a finger. God settled the matter himself. God vindicates his own in his own time, and David's hands are clean. God's justice is perfect. God is the righteous judge.

Oh, listen, friends, we don't, let's don't play games with God. That is a great fear of mine. Lord, don't let me play games. Let this be serious business. Nabal's death wasn't coincidence. There is no such thing as coincidence. That word means accident. There are no accidents. Nabal hardened his heart against David. David was God's anointed. Nabal mocked one through whom God worked. And Nabal brought a negative witness to God's chosen. And this pictures how sinners harden their hearts against Christ, the anointed one. Eventually judgment comes upon all who do. And I'm not talking about human vengeance. I'm talking about the vengeance of the Lord, that vengeance that comes by the hand of God. And it's no doubt from this chapter that Nabal already had a very hard heart. He was stubborn, he was arrogant, he was compassionless. And this is a heart hardened by pride and selfishness. There's no harder heart than one that's lifted up in pride and selfishness. But now it became as a stone, lifeless, hard, cold.

But I can assure you it was obvious to all who knew Nabal that the Lord had done this. David didn't afflict him, the Lord did. The Lord doesn't need human help to deal with the wicked.

So spiritually and practically, we see some things here. The terror of a guilty conscience suddenly awakened. We see the frailty of proud men and women when confronted with divine judgment. And we see God's vindication of his servant without human involvement.

Abigail, her humble faith brought salvation to her. She recognized the danger David's anger posed, but she didn't try to justify herself. She went to David asking for mercy. You know who gets mercy? Those that ask and beg for it. She took responsibility and appealed to God's justice rather than her own cleverness. And this is the kind of humility, God-given humility, that turns away wrath, and opens the way of reconciliation with God. The gospel declares that God resists the proud, and what does he do? He gives grace to the humble. Lord, make me humble.

Those who reject Christ perish in their hardness. Those who submit to Christ live, and they live more abundantly. Nabal's death under divine wrath is a vivid reminder of what all of us deserve. I hope we never forget that. I hope we never forget what it is that we deserve. That sure makes grace precious when you see that God doesn't give you what you deserve. We all deserve death, yet the gospel declares that Christ takes what we deserve. And he takes that wrath that God had for us upon himself for those who believe and trust in him. And Nabal died under God's judgment, but Christ died in the sinner's place so that we didn't, and didn't have to, The Lord turned judgment into mercy for his elect.

And God alone executes righteous judgment. Pride leads to death. Pride comes before a fall. Salvation comes through trusting in Christ. What must I do to be saved? Well, first and foremost, you can't do anything to be saved. Christ did it for you. So what do you do? You trust and believe in him. You come before God and you thank God that Christ did everything. He fulfilled the law completely. He satisfied God's justice wholly so that you and I stand perfect before his throne of grace. It's only in Christ.

Now this is just wonderful, verse 39. And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said,

Bless me the Lord that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil. For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. Nabal reaped what he sowed. He didn't ask for mercy. God didn't give it. But look at this last line. And David sent and communed with Abigail to take her to him, to wife.

What a story. Here David, he doesn't rejoice that God killed Nabal. He rejoices that God kept him from doing it. Kept him from the evil. David didn't have to defend his reputation. God did it for him. God'll do it for you too. You don't have to defend your reputation. God will. That's what Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished. God knows how to do that. He doesn't need our advice. Who being his counselors taught him. His ways are past finally now.

But the end of verse 39 here gives us a beautiful illustration. What is the unfolding of this gospel illustration? David took Abigail to be his wife. We see, again, David as a type of Christ. When David receives Abigail, it prefigures the Lord Jesus receiving his people into a covenant love as his bride. That's what this is picturing. It's what she's showing us.

Abigail stands as a picture of the believer, the church. She bowed before David, who pictures Christ, and took responsibility for sin that wasn't hers and sought peace. And in the gospel, believers come to Christ the same way, yet differently in knowing that we are guilty. We know that we did commit sin against God. We know that we deserve whatever God would see fit in the way of justice for us. The true believer leaves behind their old life of sin and folly, pictured here by the death of Nabal, to submit to the true King and become one flesh with their heavenly husband, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What a picture we have here of deliverance from a dead husband, that being the old nature. When Nabal died, Abigail was set free from the bond, the bondage, and she was united to David, the true king. Romans 7.4 uses that same figurative language. Paul wrote, you also have become dead to the law. That's another picture of this husband, the law. You've become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another. Even to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

And here, friends, Abigail's story becomes a living parable of salvation. Death to the old master, New life in union with the rightful king is what this pictures. And see, this is a covenant of grace. It's not married. David took Abigail, not because she earned it, not because she humbled herself and found, not because she earned it, but because she humbled herself and found favor in his eyes. And in the same way, Christ received sinners purely by grace, not by works. It's a love rooted in mercy and not merit.

Fear and shame are replaced by rest and honor. Could you imagine what it was like being married to this man, Abel? Can you imagine how that Fear and shame and bondage was taken away and replaced by rest and honor, being married to God's anointed. What a picture. Abigail went from living under a cruel, evil, and foolish man to being honored as the bride of a king. The gospel does the same for us. It brings the believing soul out of bondage of the sin nature, the old man. It frees us from the bondage of the law into an intimate fellowship and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And David taking Abigail as his wife is a gospel picture of Christ the King taking his redeemed bride, the church, to be his own. And those who leave behind this old life of sin and are no longer under the burden and bondage of the The law humbly bow to Christ, the Lord's anointed. And what do we find? We find grace. We find rest. We find peace. We find forgiveness. We find perfect righteousness. Everything that God requires of us, we find in Christ, our heavenly husband.

I don't think there's any doubt that her first marriage was an arranged marriage. Most in those olden days were. And this husband was a hard master. She no doubt longed to be married to another. Jesus Christ, friends, is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes, Romans 10.4. And this doesn't mean that the law is abolished or it's irrelevant. It simply means that Christ fulfills the purpose of the law for us. And we're free from that, that the do's and don'ts that we cannot fulfill. Through His perfect life, through His sacrificial death and His glorious resurrection, the law was satisfied. Christ became the source of righteousness for those who believe.

Now having died to the law, we belong to Christ, our new husband, who enables a new life of obedience, motivated by love, rather than fear. Abigail, upon the death of Nabal, was released from his condemnation and united to David. And what a picture of our marriage to the Lord Jesus. Our Lord satisfied the law's rightful demands by delivering himself up voluntarily to die. Dying in the room instead, of his elect and he fully satisfied God's law and justice in our place. We died with him and we died in him. And the law is satisfied in the elect. We're free to marry another and that other is Christ himself. Naples Dominion is removed by his death. And Abigail is freed of to Mary David. And this, dear friends, that's our story. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace.

Paul said in Galatians 2, for I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I live In the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

We've been released from the law's condemnation to be united to Christ. I wish I could preach that as it should be preached. By our union with Him, the Lord Jesus, There's therefore now no condemnation.

You think about what that means. All who are united with Christ in grace through faith are completely forgiven and accepted by God. That means no condemnation. I ought to be condemned. That's what I deserve. But there's no condemnation.

When Christ comes again, no, right now. Right now, there is therefore now, right now, no condemnation to those who are in Christ, those who are married to Christ. You know what that means? No punishment for your sin. You know why there's no punishment for your sin? Christ took them all, put them all away, and you don't have any.

The law, the guilt, the judgment that the saved sinner deserved because of their sin has been fully satisfied in Christ. We're no longer under the threat of condemnation because the Lord Jesus bore it all for us. All the condemnation, all the wrath, all the judgment was laid upon him. And God said. That's enough. I'm satisfied.

It's all been paid, every sin, every sin Lou and Perryman committed, every sin that Chris Coffman committed, every sin that every believer throughout all time committed, paid for. What grace. what freedom, what eternal acceptance we have. It's not based on our works, our righteousness, but entirely and completely upon the righteous work of Christ.

Don't you imagine that Abigail was now happily married? Every true child of God is.