Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity? Jehovah God, the great I Am,
forgives our sins through Christ the Lamb. Who is a God like unto
Thee? that pardoneth iniquity. His anger he retains no more. His grace and mercy he shall
endure. The God of truth must punish
sin, but in His love He sent a man. To satisfy the law's demands
For sinners numerous as the sands Who is a god like unto thee That
pardoneth iniquity His anger He retains no more, His grace
and mercy He shall endure. Behold His love and compassion
In the death of Christ His Son The precious sin atoning blood
Reveals the love and truth of God Who is a god like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity? His anger he retains no more,
his grace and mercy shall endure. He passes by the transgressions
of all His loved and chosen ones. In mercy God delights we see. He casts our sins into the sea. Is a god like unto thee, That
pardoneth iniquity. His anger he retains no more,
His grace and mercy shall endure. None can with our great God compare. He gives His Son sinners to spare. His anger He retains no more. Christ died and God requires
no more. Who is a god like unto you? Be seated, please. where God's called to worship,
will you please turn with me in John chapter 17? John chapter
17. I hope and pray that we, God
enables us to see how precious our time together is. I know I don't, I don't see it
as I should, One day it will pass. They come. This is a prayer by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as I was reading this, I
thought, has there ever been any time where Christ has prayed
that God has not given him everything he asked for? And the answer
is no. So what we see in here is going to come to pass. We
know that. Because his prayers are not like
ours. They're holy and omniscient and omnipotent. and we rejoice
in them. We'll start at verse eight. And Christ is saying, for I have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me. Oh, the next verse,
the religious folks hate this verse. I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I am
not praying for all mankind, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost. Oh, that's a comfort to this
sinner. But the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world,
that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them
thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they're not
of the world, but even as I am not of the world. I pray, this is the verse that
God has caused me to repent about. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. The world is truth. And thou
hast sent me into the world, even so I have also sent them
into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Verse 20. Neither I pray for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. It is the desire of every believer
to be with Christ. I say that. We understand when
it says, to live is Christ, to die is gain. We look forward
to that day of death when this flesh dies and we sin no more.
But we also know that I will die in God's time, not in mine. And I will die at his appointed
hour. And he has left us here that other sheep, lost sheep,
should come through the word we tell them. And that word is
Christ. That word is Christ. I always
appreciate it. Brother Henry would say, every
believer knows how to witness to people. He said, all you do
is you tell them what Christ has done for you. And we do that. Hope we can do that. Let us go
to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we're so thankful for your
grace and mercy to undeserving sinners as us. We pray, Lord,
that you would meet with us this morning, that you would open
our hearts and give us ears to hear what you have put in the
heart of your servant, Brother Greg, and your other churches,
your gospel preachers. And Lord, that you would send
your spirit to us and not only give us the ability to hear it,
but the faith to believe it. and the spirit not only to hear
it, but to love it, and a willingness, Lord, to defend it when lies
are told about it. We pray that you get all the
glory, Lord. We especially pray this morning
for those who sit under the preaching of your word and remain in unbelief,
that this might be the day, Lord, that you would meet with them,
that you would come to them and make them willing Give them the
faith to believe and rest and believe on and in you and look
to Christ. We pray that for our lost loved
ones. We ask, Lord, that you would
comfort our souls this day and cause us to rest and believe
on you, amen. We'll stand again and sing from
the back of the bulletin. The rock that stands forever
is Christ my righteousness. In Him I stand, unfearing, in
everlasting Christ is my boast and glory, all wrath for me is
o'er. The judgment of the sinner, it
frightens me no more. There is no condemnation, there
is no hell for me. The torment and the fire My eyes
shall never see For me there is no sentence For me there is
no sting For Christ my Lord who saved me Will shield me with
His wing No angel nor a devil, no danger, fear, nor fight. No foe, no tribulation, no throne,
nor power, nor might. No height, no depth, no creature
that has been or can be can pluck me from thy bosom, can sever
me from thee. My heart leaps up with gladness,
grief cannot linger there. Her voice sings high in glory,
bathed in the sunshine fair. The fountain of my singing is
Jesus there above. The sun that shines upon me is
Jesus and His love. Be seated, please. Let's open
our Bibles together to 1 Samuel. Chapter 25, 1 Samuel 25. We have a beautiful story here
of the Lord Jesus Christ sending a message of salvation to a man
and a woman. And The man doesn't believe it
and his wife does. And it's always the case, isn't
it? Whenever the gospel is preached, you either believe it or you
don't believe it. It provides no opportunity for middle ground. I hope that the Lord will cause
us this morning to be like the wife, Abigail. Yes, this is the story of Nabal. And if you look up the word fool
in the Hebrew lexicon, the word is Nabal. That is the Hebrew
word for fool. And Abigail, I love the sound
of that name. Abba translated father in Gael,
the Hebrew word for joy, and Abigail's name meaning the joy
of my father. What a contrast between the two.
One's a fool, the other is the joy of the heavenly father. David has already been anointed
by Samuel. You remember Samuel went to Saul's
house and the Lord identified David, the youngest of the boys,
to succeed Saul as king. And Samuel anointed him. And
David has been part of Saul's very family. Saul took David
in David has already slew Goliath and he has engaged in many conflicts
with the enemies of Israel. And now David has increased in
popularity above Saul. And the people are singing, Saul
has killed his thousands but David his tens of thousands.
And Saul is now jealous and fearful that Saul knew that God had appointed
David and anointed him to be his successor. But Saul, in fear
of losing his power, has now turned on David and David is
hiding out with his 600 men. It is a picture
of our Lord who has been anointed as king
of Israel. And right now he is in the heavens
and he is seated at the right hand of God. But the full coronation
of his glory has not yet happened. We find that where is the Lord
Jesus now? Well, not only is he in heaven,
but he's also among his people and the Lord tells us where they
are. Where are they? They're scattered
among the nations. They've been cast into the wilderness,
according to the book of Revelation, into a place where God has prepared
for them. where they are being fed by a
great eagle with two wings. The Spirit of God and the Word
of God is sustaining the life of God's people while they live
in this wilderness. That's where David is. The Lord
Jesus Christ has always been God. He's always been God's anointed. He's always been the Messiah.
He accomplished the work. of the Messiah when he bowed
his head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished. And he came into this world anointed
with the oil of gladness above his fellows. He ascended back
into glory. But now we see him typified by
David sending his young men with a message of salvation and Some
believed and some believed not. Nabal, as I've already said,
name translated means fool. The scripture says the fool has
said in his heart and in the verse that I'm about to quote,
the words there is, is in italics and so they don't really belong
in the text. The fool has said in his heart,
no God, no God. That's the definition of a fool
in the scriptures. Know anybody like that? You ever found a spirit of Nabal
in your heart saying, No, by choosing the things that are
opposed to the things of God. Is there not a spirit of foolishness
in each of us? Opposed to the wisdom of God
without understanding, without discernment. And the Bible tells us that Nabal
was a churlish man. unwilling to listen, unwilling
to learn, unteachable, incapable of being corrected, hard, harsh,
stiff-necked. You see, the Lord has given us
Nabal in his Word as a picture of the old man, the natural man,
the man that was born in the likeness of his father Adam,
spiritually dead, and that enmity with God, it's how we come into
this world and it's how all men come into this world. It is God's description of our
fallen nature. You say, well I know people that
are humble and teachable but they're not believers. Tell them
the gospel and you'll see how churlish they are. Tell them
the gospel and you'll see how humble they are. and how resistant they are to
the things of God. And so it is with our old man.
He's never bowed. He's never believed. The Lord
had to give us a new nature. He had to give us an inner man,
the scripture calls him. He had to give us his spirit
and birth us into his kingdom. He had to make us. like Abigail, a woman of good understanding,
the scripture says, and of beautiful countenance. The Lord Jesus calls
his church comely, beautiful because of his comeliness. He
puts his righteousness on his people and he makes them beautiful
in his sight. In contrast to her husband, She
is obviously an object of God's saving grace. They both hear
the same message, but their response could not be more different. Let's read these verses together.
And Samuel died, verse one, and all the Israelites were gathered
together and lamented him and buried him in the house of Ramah. And David arose and went down
to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Mahon
whose possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very great."
Just means that he was wealthy, powerful. And he had 3,000 sheep
and 1,000 goats. And he was shearing his sheep
in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal and the name of
his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding
and a beautiful countenance. But the man was churlish and
evil in his doings. And he was of the house of Caleb. And David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal did shear his sheep. And David sent out 10 young men. And David said unto the young
men, get you up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in
my name." The number 10 is mentioned in this chapter twice. We're
gonna see at the end of this chapter that Nabal suffers a
stroke and he languishes for 10 days before he finally dies. And I've titled this message,
The Fool Must Die. The Fool Must Die. And even in
Nabal's death, we see a picture of what God has done in saving
us. We'll get to that in a moment,
but I wanna bring this number 10 to some understanding because
the first thing we think of when we think of 10 is the 10 commandments. And so the number 10 is the number
of God's perfect righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that ever was faithful to keep God's law. And so when
David sends out these 10 young men to greet Nabal in his name,
it is picturing for us what God has done when he sends his preachers
out to declare the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find also the number 10 in
the 10 plagues that God afflicted the Egyptians with,
concluding with the death angel and the placing of the blood
on the doors of the homes of the Israelites. And the conclusion
of that whole thing being when God said, I see the blood, I'll
pass by you. And so we not only see the 10
representing the perfect righteousness of God, but also his perfect
justice, his perfect judgment. the ten plagues concluding with
that killing of the Passover lamb and the shedding of his
blood which satisfies the justice of God. So these ten men, ten
of them, are declaring to Nabal in the name of David and David's
name translated means beloved And we see the Lord Jesus Christ
as the beloved of his father. This is my beloved son. In him I am well pleased. Hear ye him. Ephesians chapter
one says that we are accepted before God in the beloved and
only in the beloved. So David is Christ now. During this period of time between
his anointing by God and his full coronation, which will happen
at his second coming. He is in the wilderness with
his 600 men, his church, and he is declaring the gospel to
a fool, a man by the name of Nabal, and to his wife, Abigail. This is exactly what's happening
right now. This is exactly where you and
I live. The Lord's Preachers and his
church as a whole declare his perfect righteousness in that
the Lord Jesus kept the law of God. They declare his perfect
justice and judgment and that he's satisfied only by the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for the covering of the sins
of his people. We see the number 10 in the tithe
that God gave to Israel in the Old Testament. A 10th part was
to belong to the Lord. And what was the purpose of the
tithe? It was an expression of faith, an expression of faith. They were to give to the Lord
the first 10th of all that they had to say, we are trusting God
to provide everything that we need. That was the whole purpose
of the tithe. I say the whole purpose, the
real purpose of the tithe was to demonstrate the perfect faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the one who believed God
perfectly and it is his faith and his faithfulness that saves
us. So these 10 men now are going
to declare this message in the name of David. How oftentimes we've heard a
new parent say in response to their child, he has 10 fingers
and 10 toes. God has given us an example even
in our physical bodies of the wholeness. That's what the nerd
10 is, it's wholeness, it's perfection. And so we see here in this gospel
type where David sends these ten young men out. We are declaring God's perfect
salvation. We are declaring that God will
not lose one of his sheep. That all for whom he called,
the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed. All that he chose, the Lord Jesus
Christ redeemed and all that he redeemed he calls and all
that he calls he sanctifies and all that he sanctifies he's glorified. So we see the perfect salvation
of the Lord Jesus. A couple of Sundays
ago, we looked at that story in Acts chapter 27, where Paul
was on a boat with 276 souls, the scripture says, and the boat
was sinking. It was caught in a storm. And
what did Paul say to the captain of the ship? When some of the
sailors wanted to depart the ship, he said, if these men leave,
you won't be saved. He didn't say if these men leave,
they'll be lost. He didn't say if any man departs
this ship, the ones who depart the ship will be lost. He said
if these men leave, if there's only two or three of them, then
no one will be saved. What is the Lord telling us in
that story? If anyone for whom Christ died is able to be lost,
then there's no hope for anybody to be saved. If he loses one
of his sheep, you see it's all 276 souls or it's none. That's the success of the Lord
Jesus. That's what he accomplished.
And that's what these 10 men represent. Perfect righteousness,
perfect justice, perfect wholeness, the perfect gospel accomplished
by the perfect God. who will not lose a single one
of his sheep." David said, you go tell him that. Now, this is
important to understand the message because it gives us some understanding
as to why Nabal responds the way he does. Look at verse six. And thus you
shall say to him that liveth in prosperity, peace, peace be
unto you. So he's declaring this gospel
in the name of David. When we preach the gospel, we're
preaching it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus. for he shall save his people
from their sins. He's not gonna make a stab at
it. He's not gonna try to save them. He's not gonna do his part
so they can do their part. He shall save his people from
their sins. The Christ, the anointed one,
the one sent of his father in the full power of the Holy Spirit
so that in him, Romans chapter 11, all Israel shall be saved.
He's the Christ, there's no way he can fail. And he's Lord. We don't make him Lord, he is
Lord. He reigns sovereign over the
living and the dead. No man can stay his hand and
no man can say unto him, what doest thou? It's his sovereign
work of grace. We go in the name of David. And what do we declare? Peace.
Look what? Look what David's young men said.
Peace be both to thee and peace be to thine house and peace be
unto all that thou hast. Now the false prophets declare
peace, peace, when there is no peace. They are declaring a message
of salvation that accomplishes peace with God based on something
that man does. or a decision that man makes. That's a peace, peace when there
is no peace. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace. He's
the only one that can make peace with God for us. You hear men
say, well, have you made your peace with God? What are you
going to do to make peace with God? What are you going to offer
God? We've offended him with our sin.
What do we have to offer? What can we do to reconcile ourselves
to God? To atone for our own sins? Nothing. Nothing. David's declaring his
peace and the Lord Jesus said, My peace I give unto thee. Not
as the world. The world gives a peace that's
superficial and it's not true. A peace that comforts men's hearts,
but doesn't save their souls. The only peace that's saving
peace is found in the glorious person and finished work of Christ. David said, you go, you 10 men,
you go. And you declare this message
to Nabal and you bring it to him in my name. They went as
the ambassadors of David. Verse seven, and now I have heard
that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds, which were
with us, we shut them not. We hurt them not, I'm sorry.
Neither was there aught missing of them all the while they were
in Carmel. What is David saying to Nabal? Nabal, all the possessions that
you have, the sheep that your shearers are shearing, and all
the wealth that you possess, I was the one that provided that
for you. Your men were out in the wilderness. Notice with me,
notice with me when Nabal's servants, Abigail's not with Nabal, when
The message comes from David. And Abigail gets the message
secondhand from one of the men that was there. After Nabal responded
the way he did, one of his men ran to Abigail and said, David's
coming. He's gonna slay us all. You need
to go intercede for us. And notice what, in verse 14,
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying,
behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute
our master and he railed on them. But the men were very good unto
us and we were not hurt. Neither missed we anything as
long as we were conversant with them when we were in the field."
Now that word conversant means walked with them. And it doesn't
just mean they walked with him, it means they walked in the same
footsteps with them. The picture of a child walking
after its father, making those long strides to make sure that
his foot goes in the same footstep that the father went in. What
a glorious picture. These men were saying, we walked
in the footsteps of David's men. And they protected us. Look at
verse 16. They were a wall unto us, both
by night and day, and all the while we kept them while we were
keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider
what thou will do, for evil is determined against our master
and against all the household. For he is such a son of Belial
that a man cannot speak to him. They were a wall unto us. Now
that's what David's saying to Nabal. Nabal, I'm bringing you
this message in my name. And you need to recognize that
what you're doing right now, I provided that for you. I was
a wall unto your men. For surely they would have been
raided and destroyed in the wilderness had I not protected them. When
the Lord brings the gospel to us, what does he say to us? I'm
the one that kept you. I'm the one who did everything
in your life and brought you to this place where you're able
to hear the gospel. I'm the one that's provided everything
for you. This is a message of hope. It's a message of salvation.
And when we hear the gospel of His perfect salvation, and we
know that it's the Lord that brought us to that place. It's
the Lord that made us to differ. He could have left us to ourselves. He could have not put a wall
around us. He could have not protected us.
And we'd have been caught up in the lie And we'd have been
carried off into utter destruction had the Lord not provided and
protected us. Look at verse eight. Ask thy
young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore, let the young
men find favor in thine eyes. For we come in a good day. Give,
I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thy hand, unto thy servant
David, and to thy servants, and to thy servant David." The Lord said, they heard me,
they'll hear you. The message that the messengers
bring is inseparably linked to Christ. And when David's young men came,
they spake to Nabal according to all the words in the name
of David and they ceased." They didn't add anything to David's
message. We don't add anything to the
message of the gospel, do we? If any man add anything to these
words, the curses of this book will be added unto him. We dare,
we fear. adding anything, we are ambassadors
for Christ. An ambassador must declare exactly
what the king said to declare, nothing more. Nothing more. And Nabal, here's the answer
of the natural man. Here's the answer of not only the reprobate, those
who will not hear the gospel and will die in their sins and
in unbelief, but this is also the spirit of our old man, our
flesh. We wouldn't hear the gospel. The gospel doesn't improve our
old man. It doesn't make him partly righteous,
it doesn't give him some... The believer sees his old man
for what he always has been, a fool. A fool. A churlish man, an unteachable
man, a hard man. Nabal answered David's servants
and said, who is David? Who is David? He knew who David was. Everybody
in Israel knew who David was. David had led many successful
campaigns by now. And everyone knew that David
was on the run from Saul. And they were singing David's
praises. Nabal knew who David was, but
Nabal thought that He hasn't ascended to his throne yet. He
hasn't taken control of Israel. I have nothing to fear. Is this
not the spirit of unbelief that men have toward Christ now? I
promise you they will not have that attitude when the Lord Jesus
is coronated, when he is ultimately glorified In all of His splendor,
every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. It might be the rod of
God's wrath on the back of their knee that causes them to bow
but every knee will bow. But now, they don't see Him on
His throne. They see Him like we are, hiding
out in the wilderness. being a group of insignificant,
unthreatening people who don't cause them any fear or respect. Who is David? When he comes with his mighty
angels, Well, the Lord said of those
Pharisees and the priests that cried crucify him, he said they
would not have done that had they known that he was the Lord
of glory. They didn't see him. If he had unveiled his glory
to them like he did to Peter, James, and John on the Mount
of Transfiguration, they never would have crucified him. They
would have bowed to him. They would have been afraid of him. See, the only hope that we have
of seeing him now for who he is is by God's grace giving us
faith, the eyes of faith to see him. The natural man won't bow
to him. His eyes are holding, he can't
see Christ for who he is. Who is David that I should be
afraid of him? He's got a little band of men out
there in the wilderness somewhere. Well, he may have had a band
of men but he had 600 armed men and Nabal was but a farmer and
a shepherd and all David had to do was show up with his weapons
and he could have destroyed the house of Nabal. What am I saying? Nabal had reason
to fear David but he didn't. Why? Because he was a fool. Fools
have no fear of God. There's no fear of God in their
heart. They can't see Him. They're not threatened by Him.
They say, we will not have this man reign over us. They interpret His humble posture
as meek and lowly as He is and they in their pride have no fear. They refuse to bow and in doing so they only aggravate
his wrath toward their own judgment. All his goodness and all of his
long-suffering toward them in this world will only add to the
guilt of their punishment in the day of judgment. And who is the son of Jesse?
That's what Nabal says. Look at the rest of Nabal's word. Who is David and who is the son
of Jesse? You see, Nabal knew exactly who
David was. Jesse was the child of Obed who
was the child of Boaz and Ruth. Jesse was the grandson of Boaz. Who's Boaz? The Kingsman Redeemer.
Who's Ruth? The Moabitess that was brought
into the very lineage. You see, it was the promise of
God to bring the Messiah through the lineage of Boaz and Ruth. And now we see
that coming to fulfillment. And the anointing that the Lord
gave to David was the confirmation of that promise that your seed,
through your seed, the Messiah will come. So what is Nabal saying? We don't have any concern for
a Messiah. We'll save ourselves. Thank you
very much. And that's the unbeliever's attitude
toward the gospel. We don't need a Savior. We've done what needs to be done
in order to save ourselves. Who is the son of Jesse? Jesse's
name, by translation, means I possess. I possess. Who did Jesse possess? He possessed his son, David.
And when Nabal's saying who is Jesse, who is the son of Jesse,
he's saying he has no fear of Jesse's father, of David's father. He has no fear of God. And he's
the one that You remember the parable that the Lord gave of
the man who owned a vineyard and he was a long way away from
the vineyard and he sent servants to receive from the vine dressers,
those who were tending his vineyard, he sent servants to bring back
to him the profits of the harvest. And when the servants came, they
beat the servants. And the servants went back and
told the master, the owner of the vineyard, and the master
said, well, I'll send another servant. He sent another one,
another one, another one. They kept beating him. And so
the master of the vineyard said, I'll send my son. Surely they
will honor him. and he sent his son. And the
men that were tending the vineyard, they said, this is the heir. Let us kill him that we might
receive the vineyard to ourselves. We'll take possession of this
vineyard ourselves by killing the son of the man who owns it. And then the Lord said to those
Pharisees that he told the parable to, he said, what would the owner
of that vineyard do? And the Pharisees pronounced
their own judgment when they said, he will destroy those men. He will destroy those men. You
see, when Nabal was saying, who is the son of Jesse? He was pointing
as unbelief as his finger toward God. The wrath of God, yes, is
coming on man because of their sin, but their sin that God is
punishing, is not honoring his son, not honoring his son. They robbed from Christ his glory
thinking that they're going to take the vineyard to themselves
and they're going to reap the harvest and produce the benefits
of their own salvation and so they kill the son. And that's what brings about
the wrath of God. All of those prophets that God
sent, pictured by the servants that the owner of the vineyard
sent, throughout the Old Testament, God forgo, God longsuffering,
God sent another prophet, sent another prophet. Now I send my
son. And 40 years after the Lord Jesus
bowed his head on Calvary's cross, The fulfillment of God's judgment
against national Israel came in its full fury and he destroyed
that city so that not one stone was left standing upon another.
You see, the wrath of Jesse is because they didn't honor David.
The wrath of God the Father, yes, is because of man's disobedience
and man's unbelief, but it's because they did not honor Christ.
They would not honor him. And that's ultimately what God's
full fury and full wrath will come against this world for. He that honoreth not the son,
the Lord Jesus said in John chapter five, honoreth not the father
that sent him. Many servants nowadays break
away from their master is the next thing that Nabal said. He
thought that he could discount David as nothing more than a
runaway servant. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world and declared himself to be the son of God, what did
they say? He has a devil. He has a devil. He's just, he's run away from
God. He's not representing God. When
we declare the Lord Jesus Christ as the only sovereign, the only
successful savior of sinners, the one who gets all the glory
and strips man naked of any of any participation in his salvation,
what do they say? What do they say? My God's not
like that. What are they declaring? They're saying that our God's
not true God. He's a runaway servant. He's
a runaway slave. He's not one to be reckoned with.
He's not one to be thought of. or feared. You see, this story just goes
on and on declaring exactly what's happening today. He broke away
from his master. Oh no, he hasn't. No, he's one with
his father. I and the father are one. If you've seen me, you've seen
the father. To honor Christ is to honor God. Men hear the gospel and they
say exactly what this fool said. They respond to the message exactly
like Nabal did. Look at verse 11. Shall I then take my bread and
my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shears and give
it unto men whom I know not whence they be? Shall I take all that
I have worked for and all that I have effort, all that I've
done, and give it to them? No, I'm not going to do it. I'm
going to hold on to my part. I know not where they're from.
Well, they told them. These 10 young men told Nabal
clearly where they were from. We're from David. David sent
us. And we declare men clearly. This is God's message. This is
God's gospel. Salvation is of the Lord. And
what do they say? Well, we don't know. We don't
know anything about you. We don't know where you're from. They said the same thing about
the Lord Jesus when he said, I'm from my father. And they
took up stones to stone him. Why? What good deeds do you stone
me for? Not because of your good deeds,
but because you being a man, make yourself out to be God.
That was there. You see, nothing's changed. When
we preach the gospel, we are preaching Jesus Christ as God. the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we are saying that you are
complete in Him. No salvation anywhere else. And
men won't have it. They will respond just like Nabal
did. And you and I, if we were left
to only have our Nabal nature, If all we had was the foolish
nature of our flesh, if God didn't send us, well, look at verse
32 in this chapter, we're skipping over a lot of verses, I would
encourage you to go back and read the whole chapter, you'll
see a glorious picture of the gospel. But look what David says,
after Abigail comes, and intercedes for Nabal and pleads with David. And David said to Abigail in
verse 32, blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee
this day to meet me. David said, it was only by God's
grace that you believed what my young men said. It was God
that gave you ears to hear. It was God that gave you a heart
to believe. Shall I take all that I've earned
and all that I've worked for? Are you saying, preacher, that
all my good works are of no value when it comes to my acceptance
before God? Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what we're saying.
I'll not have that man reign over me. I'm not going to give
up my possessions. Who is David? Who's the son of
Jesse? Now look with me at verse 17.
Verse 18. Then Abigail made haste. and took 200 loaves, and two
bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures
of parched corn, and 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of
figs, and laid them on asses. And she said unto her servants,
go on before me. Behold, I come after you. But
she told not her husband Nabal. And it was so, as she rode on
the ass, that she came down by the culvert of the hill. And
behold, David and his men came down against her. And she met
them. Now David had said, Surely in
vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness,
so that nothing was missed of all that pertaineth unto him.
And he hath requited me evil for good. So and more also do
God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertaineth
to him by the morning light, any that pisseth against the
wall. David was determined to wipe them all out. And when Abigail
saw David, she hastened. Oh, this message of salvation,
this message that David declared to David's men, they declared
the message and they ceased. They rested, they didn't say
another word. It requires urgency, doesn't
it? It's not a message to be, there's
judgment coming. It's not a message to be thought
about or to be considered for a later time. Abigail hastened. She knew from the report that
had come that David was coming with his men and all were gonna
die. And so she goes. And when Abigail saw David in
verse 23, she hastened and lied it off the ass and fell before
David on her face and bowed herself to the ground and fell at his
feet and said, upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be
and let that handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience
and hear the words of thine handmaid. She took a posture of worship
and she pleaded for his mercy. and an opportunity to speak.
That's how we come before God, don't we? We come before the
Lord, oh Lord, hear my prayer. Lord, I have nothing that would
obligate you to be merciful toward me. I'm completely dependent
upon your mercy and your grace. verse 25 and let not my lord
i pray thee regard this man of belial even nabal for as his
name is so is he nabal is his name and folly is with him but
i thine handmaid saw not the young men of my Lord whom thou
did send. Now, therefore, my Lord, as the
Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholding
thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with
thine own hand, now let thine enemies and they that seek evil
to my Lord be as nabal. And now this blessing which thine
handmaid hath brought unto my servant, let it even be given
unto the young men that follow my Lord. I pray thee, forgive
the trespass of thine handmaid. She's taking responsibility for
Nabal's sin. I see two things in this. We come
before God. The Lord gives us a spirit of
Abigail. He enables us to bow before Christ
and to believe the message that he has preached by his ten young
men. We own the responsibility of
our own sin. We We can't accuse or blame or excuse
our sin on anything or anyone else. Lord, just as Nabal was united
in marriage to Abigail, so our old man is part of us and we
come before God and we confess. Lord, this is... This is my foolish,
churlish nature that has responded as it did. Lord have mercy. I also see in this a picture
of the Lord Jesus interceding on our behalf. Turn with me to
Psalm 40 quickly, Psalm 40. Verse 10, I have not hid thy
righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold
not thou tender mercies unto me, O Lord, and let not thy loving
kindness and thy truth continually preserve me, for innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Now clearly, this is David speaking
prophetically of Christ. But now I want you to notice
the next phrase. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. When the Lord Jesus
bore the sins of his people on Calvary's cross, he could not
look up. He bowed his head, he cried,
my God, my, he didn't shake his fist toward heaven, he didn't
look up toward heaven and say this is, he owned the sins of
his people as his own. He bore all the shame and all
the guilt and all the penalty of all of God's people's sins
and innumerable evils have come past me about. My sin has come
unto me. That's what That's what Abigail
is saying now. The joy of the father is none
other than the Lord Jesus. And here we have a picture of
him interceding for us. And David hears her intercession
and he withholds his wrath and his judgment. I want to conclude
with this one point. I mentioned this at the beginning.
Turn with me at the end of the chapter. Abigail goes back and tells Nabal
what happened. And Nabal has a feast that night
and gets very drunk. wakes up the next morning and
Abigail goes to him and tells him everything that had transpired
between her and David. And look what happens. Verse 37, and 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. Verse 38, And it came to pass
about 10 days after that the Lord smote Nabal and he died. When God enables us to hear the
message of the gospel, that heart of stone, that old
man is exposed for what he is. Our hearts are turned to stone
the day that we hear the message of salvation and believe it. And we are living right now in
those 10 days of perfection. The perfect purpose of God will
be accomplished in the lives of his people between the day
of their regeneration and the day of their glorification. Those
are the ten days in which we live. And I see in Nabal's experience,
our heart died with him. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. You see, though we carry
this old man with us, that old man's dead. He's dead. Paul said, I was crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, it's Christ that lives in me. The life that I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. So here we are, we're in Ebal,
aren't we? We're in those 10 days and it
is appointed unto man once to die. The Lord hasn't, as you
said, Michael, in the opening of this service, that the Lord
has an appointed hour and he does for each one of us. And
then and only then will we shed. Nabal obviously had a stroke
and he laid there on his bed for 10 days until he finally
died. But we had a stroke, didn't we? The day that the gospel came
in power and in truth to our hearts, that old man died. And we're carrying around a corpse
now. That's what Paul was talking about in Romans chapter seven.
This old man, I'm carrying him around, navel strapped to my
back. One day, he's had a stroke. One day, he's gonna be made new. and the corruptible is gonna
be made incorruptible, and the mortal is gonna be made immortal.
Oh, what a day that'll be. The fool must die. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Lord, we pray that your Holy
Spirit would cause us to meditate, on these things and give us grace,
Lord, to believe on Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. 62, 62, let's stand together.