Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
25. 1 Samuel 25. We were here during the midweek
service, but there's a gospel picture here that we didn't get
into when we were here last time that is beautiful, it's sweet,
and it declares what our Lord does for his people. We see this in three main characters
that the Lord uses in this chapter with Nabal, Abigail, and David. Now, Nabal is a type of the old
man of flesh. David is a type of this flesh
that we are born with by nature. And Abigail, you'll see, is a
type of the new man, that by whom we believe Christ, the one
by whom we believe Christ. And David is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we have Nabal, Abigail, and
David. Now, we're told of Nabal beginning
in verses 2 and 3. Let's read these. And there was
a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel. It's interesting
that the word Maon means habitation, and the word Carmel means a fertile
land, a fertile garden land. And you'll see that this man,
Nabal, pictures what Adam became when he fell in trespasses and
sins, and it's a picture of us. Now the man, we're told, was
very great. 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 of a beautiful countenance. But
the man was churlish, difficult to work with, unreasonable. You
couldn't talk to this man. And evil in his doings. And he
was of the house of Caleb. And then we are given another
description in verse 17, which was from Nabal's servants, saying,
he's such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him. Now
in the New Testament, that term, son of Belial, means he's a son
of the devil. He's a son of the wicked one.
But at this time, when it's first being used, it's describing someone
like that, but someone who is wicked, unprofitable, bears no
fruit. He doesn't bear any fruit. He's
an unprofitable man. And this is not a description
that any of us would want to hear of ourselves in the scripture. And yet, this is speaking of
our very nature. It's speaking of what we are.
born in this flesh without the grace of God. This is what we
are being born of Adam. Galatians 3.22 tells us that
the scripture hath concluded all under sin. We're all hard hearted, stiff
necked, unable to hear the word of God, unable to see the son
of God, to see his kingdom. Except you're born again, you
cannot see the kingdom of God. And so this describes our old
man of flesh, born of Adam's seed, apart from God's grace. Now, I want to go through these
descriptions to begin here about Nabal and make sure that we understand
them according to the scriptures. Again, because this man, Nabal,
is what I am by nature. I need to hear this. I need to
know what I am by nature. That I might hear the word of
God. That I might know why he sent
the son of God. And why Christ laid down his
life for sinners like me. I need to know this. So first,
this man's name is Nabal. And his name means fool. Nabil
means fool. And David, a picture of Christ,
and by the spirit of Christ, wrote the Psalms. And in the
Psalms, specifically 14, verse 1, David tells us, the fool hath
said in his heart. That's the same word, Nabil and
fool. The fool hath said in his heart,
there is no God. Now those words, there is, were
added by the translators. So that it really says, the fool
hath said in his heart, no, God. No, God. I won't hear you. I won't listen to what you're
saying. No, God. And he refuses God. He will not hear him. They are
corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. And so Nabal is the fool who
refuses God, who will not hear God. Stephen, when speaking to
the Jews, he said to them, he said, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost. That's the fool. That's what
we are by nature. We always refuse the Holy Ghost. We always refuse his word. No,
God. No, I won't hear that. No, I
won't give you that. No, stop right there. No, God,
that's what the fool says. And Paul records the following
descriptions of us in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8,
over the verses of 5, 6, 7, and 8, he says these things about
this flesh. This is what he says about this
flesh. He says, they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh. Am I looking to the flesh? Well,
what is your mind set on? And that's just not the things
that all men call sin. That's even the things that we
do in the flesh, thinking that these things are our righteousness. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. That's my righteousness. That's
how God will accept me. Those are fleshly, carnal things. You're trusting in the works
of the flesh. And so it covers all of us. every
one of us. And to be carnally minded, we're
told, is death. Contrary to what we think of
doing our good works and what we think God wants us to do,
that's death. It's not life, it's death. Because
the carnal mind, that which is produced of this flesh, the carnal
mind is enmity against God. God, we see God as our very enemy. And just like Adam, who ran from
the voice of God, ran from the word of God, as he walked in
the cool of the garden and hid himself among the trees, that's
what we do. We see God as an enemy and we
run from Him. We don't want to be in His presence
by nature. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. The Lord tells us in Proverbs
21 verse 4, the plowing of the wicked is sin. That good work
of working your field to produce a crop to provide for your family's
needs and do for them and clothe them and put food on their table.
Yep, that work, even the plowing of the wicked is sin. Everything
we do in this flesh according to the flesh for our own glory
is sin. Without the Spirit of God, we
can't even see the kingdom. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So, this is what we are by nature. Now, we may not agree with that
in the flesh, we may not like that description of ourselves,
we might fight against it and squirm against it and not want
to hear it, but that is the description that scripture gives of us. And Paul tells Timothy that all
the Word of God is given by inspiration of God, that it's profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness. The Lord is teaching us true
righteousness is not wrought by our hand. True righteousness
is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's what He does for sinners. That's our righteousness that
the man of God may be perfect. thoroughly furnished unto all
good works by His Spirit, by His leading, by His teaching.
That's where the good works come from. They're His workmanship,
from His Spirit. Second, what made this man so
very great? Well, he's described as having
great earthly possessions. His greatness was in the things
of the earth, carnal things. It wasn't because his trust and
confidence was in God. It's based on what he had possessions
of and how great he was in the eyes of his peers. And so it
had nothing to do with eternal things. It wasn't wrought of
the spirit, It was just fleshly, earthly possessions. And none
of our possessions go with us when we die. We could be a pharaoh
in this life and be buried with all kinds of treasure and servants
and tools and whatnot, but it doesn't go with us into the next
life. We leave these things behind,
and so whatever the measure of our greatness is here in this
life, it does not speak for us in that which is to come. Our
Lord said, what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? I remember speaking to a man
many decades ago, and he was so confident that he would be
able to talk to God and negotiate with Him, because he reasoned
that God was just like you and me, a man that can be reasoned
with, and that's a fool, and that's what we'd all say and
think, except God be gracious to us and turn us from that foolish
thought, and thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to
think. Our Lord says, whoever shall lose his life for my sake
in the Gospels, that one, the same shall find him. We'll find
our life in Christ, by Christ, all in Christ. That's our life. And third, this man, we're told,
came from a good family stock. He was of the house of Caleb. Caleb was one of two men that
came out of Egypt, in the captivity in Egypt, one of two men that
was over the age of 20 that believed God and gave a good report to
the people to encourage their hand that what God had promised
He would give them. It was just Caleb and Joshua. They were the only two that believed
God. And everyone else 20 years old
and above that was in Israel, they all died in the way. They all perished not inheriting
the kingdom of God, the inheritance that God had promised His people. And what this tells us is that
we might come from a family of believers. Our mom, our dad might
be a believer, but that does not mean that we are a believer. Someone we are related to may
have many spiritual gifts, be a true blessed creature of God,
a new creature of God, and be full of the Spirit and tell us
wonderful things of the truth of God. But except we be born
again, we cannot hear those things and receive those things in spirit
and in truth. And so this man Nabal, though
he came from Caleb's blood, He was a deaf man, unable to hear
the words spoken to him. He could not see the salvation
of God, which was before him. So that when David's men, the
picture is David sent men ahead of him to speak to him and say,
we're looking for fruit here. We're looking for fruit here.
Has the Spirit been here and worked any fruit among you? And
we're just parsing through, looking for fruit. And he refused them
and told them to get out. I don't know who you are. I don't
care for your word. I don't care who you come in
the name of. Get out. I'm giving you nothing, nothing. And that's a picture. When the
Spirit comes to this old man of flesh, he can look, but there's
no fruit. There's nothing to give to God.
There's nothing whereby we profit God by. in this flesh. And that's the picture there
with Nabal. And Christ, we're told, came
unto his own. He came unto the Jews. He came
to those who should have known. He came to those who had the
oracles of God, who had the law of God, who saw these things
in pictures and types and shadows and the practices, and they did
not receive Him. They didn't recognize Him. They
didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They refused Him and rejected
Him. But as many as received Him,
that is, as many as believe on Him, To them gave he power to
become the sons of God. Speaking of, he adopted us in
Christ, into the very family of God. We are received of him,
which were born not of blood, not because your mommy and daddy
are believers. We were not born of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Ye must be born again. We are old dead creatures, an
old man of flesh that has nothing profitable to give to God, brings
forth no fruit. and except ye be born again,
ye cannot see the kingdom of God. And so the true and living
God, by grace, gives his spirit, seeking the lost sheep of God,
and he finds them, and he gives light and life and salvation,
making us new creatures whereby we hear the word of God and believe
him, and are his workmanship, and by his grace and power bring
forth fruit. We bring forth fruit which the
Lord receives and does for us and in us. And so we may squirm
and object to this, we may not like it, but this is what the
Lord tells us we are by nature. One more passage, go to Ephesians
chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. Because
this will bring us into looking at Abigail there. Ephesians two. And here's a description of us,
beginning in verse one. And you hath he quickened, made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And you can think of
a cadaver, and a cadaver is a dead body. It has no soul, no life
in it, and a cadaver cannot get up and do the things that a living
creature can do in the flesh. And in that same picture, We
are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and cannot rise up and
do the things that spiritually alive creatures can do. We're
dead, that's what we are by nature. And this is what we did in our
death, when left to ourselves. Verse two, wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air. That's another name for the devil.
And that's how we walked, according to the course of this world.
and according to its works, according to its idolatry and religion,
according to what it says is good and necessary. And this
is the spirit, the Prince of the Power of the Heirs, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past. This is the Apostle
Paul, who was a Pharisee, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, born into the
tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day. This was a
man who had a lot of religion behind him And he said, I was
dead in trespasses and sins. I went the course of this world.
I was under the power of the prince of the power of the air.
I followed that way. fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others." My conversation in times past was just the lust
of this flesh, is what he's saying there. And this all describes
Nabal, the fool, whose destruction was at hand. Because when he
refused David, David was coming to destroy him and his household. And so he refused to hear, he
had nothing to give, and he was going to be destroyed. And this
brings us to Abigail. Just keep your hand there on
Ephesians 2. Don't lose Ephesians 2. But this brings us to Abigail,
and she's a picture of the new creature. She's a picture of
that which our God gives life to. Well, he gives that life. He puts that life, his seed,
in us. He gives us his spirit who takes
the things of Christ and shows them unto you effectually with
power and grace so that we are alive, new creatures, born of
His grace. And it's all the work of the
Godhead, Christ coming and laying down His life, doing for us what
we could not do for ourselves, according to the will and purpose
of God the Father. And the Holy Spirit comes and
takes those things and makes them effectual in our hearts. He blesses us in Christ, giving
us that life and salvation. And we see this beginning in
verse 4, Ephesians 2 verse 4. But God, we were going the course
of wickedness, we were going the course of the wicked and
the way of this world, but God stopped us. We were saying, no
God, and God said, no to us. You'll go no further. But God,
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, made
us alive together with Christ. By grace, ye are saved, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. Here we are 2,000 years later
and he's still blessing us with the gospel, with the gospel. He's still sending it forth in
these ages showing us that this is how he saves his people graciously. through the preaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ, making his word effectual in your heart,
so that you now, by his grace, bear fruits of righteousness
in him. Faith, love, hope, joy, kindness,
gentleness, peace, patience, long-suffering, He bears these
gracious fruits in us that hope and rejoice in Him. Rejoicing in Him, for by grace
are ye saved through faith. And that, that faith, that fruit
of faith is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. We see that all our salvation
is of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verses 9 and 10. Not
of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship. We're his workmanship. He's the
one building the house. He's the one giving us gifts. He's the one assembling us together. He's the one directing our paths. He's the one opening our ear. He's the one who gives a new
heart. We are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. God isn't waiting for us to half
assemble ourselves and put ourselves kind of together and then come
to him with the best that we've done and then he'll do something.
What's that saying? God helps those who help themselves.
Lies. That's a lie. We can't help ourselves
at all. We need the grace of God in all
its fullness, all its beauty, all of Christ, because apart
from Him, we're navel. No God. No God. I refuse to hear it. That's how
we are by nature. And so what do we see here? I
want to show you the fruit that the Lord worked in Abigail here. First we see that she heard the
word and was stirred. She heard the word and was stirred
by what she heard. And so What we see here is that
a servant came to Abigail. A servant, just like the Lord
has servants that come and minister this word to his people. A servant
came and told Abigail what had happened. And she heard how,
when she heard that word, she knew David's gonna destroy Nabal,
the fool, and his household. And she was stirred up. So that
we read in verse 18. Then Abigail made haste and took
200 loaves and two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed,
and five measures of parched corn, and 100 clusters of raisins,
and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on the asses." And so that's
what our Lord does. He sends a servant to preach
the word, to tell us what's coming. to tell us that for our foolishness,
for our works, for our sins, we could not, there's destruction
coming, there's destruction coming. And so the next thing we see,
if you drop down to verse 23, And when Abigail saw David, she
hasted and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her
face and bowed herself to the ground and fell at his feet. She humbled herself. The Lord
does that for his people. He humbles us. He brings us low
in our pride and arrogancy and thinking that we're something
when we're actually nothing. And then she confesses her sin. Look at verse 25. let not my
lord i pray thee regard this man of belial now understand
what i'm saying here is that we are by nature this old man
of flesh but when the lord stirs us up and makes us to hear it's
because he's put a new creature in us like abigail he's put He's
put that living creature in us. And this is now that living creature
confessing our sin in this old flesh. This is our confession
by his grace and power. Regard not this man of Belial,
even Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name,
and folly is with him. Now listen to this. But I, thine
handmaid, saw not the young men of my Lord whom thou didst send."
She's saying, do not destroy this household. Don't destroy this creature,
Lord. I was a fool. I was blind. But now I see. I didn't see it. I was blind, but now I see. I
didn't hear those words. I disregarded them, as Nabal
the Fool. I was a fool. I saw your young
men, and I heard it. I saw it in the flesh, and I
put it aside." And she's saying, I didn't see it. I didn't see
what you were saying. For years, people spend their
whole lifetime in religion, and they don't hear. They don't see
the true and living God. They disregard those things. And I saw them only in Nabal. Only as a fool I saw your word. I saw and heard your word. And
I disregarded the chief cornerstone. I took that capstone. and stumbled
over it and I threw it aside and I would not hear and I was
set up for certain destruction, certain destruction coming upon
the wicked. So here she is now as a newborn
creature hearing this word and believing and confessing her
sin to the Lord and now she seeks forgiveness. Verse 28, I pray
thee forgive the trespass of thine handmaid. Forgive the trespass. This is the confession of the
new man. Forgive me, Lord, I've sinned.
I've been a fool. I didn't hear. I refuse. I said, no, God, no, God, no,
God. I refuse to hear. And so she
then confesses that he is Lord. just as we confess that our Savior
is Lord and Christ, adding, for the Lord will certainly make
my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fighteth the battles
of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Christ is the faithful servant
whom we are made to confess, brought to see that He is salvation. He's my salvation. Lord, have
mercy upon me as you have mercy and build your house, as you
do for your people. And then we see in verse 35 his
workmanship and he receives that which he has made. He receives
his people. So David received of her hand
that which she had brought him and said unto her, Go up in peace
to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy
voice and have accepted thy thy person." And that's how we're
accepted and received of the Lord. We come in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We come as new creatures, born
again of His grace and power, of His Spirit. That's how we
are received on the ground, on the person, on the work, on the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now one final picture shows us
what Christ completes in us according to His Gospel Word. Look at verse
37. At the end there we are told
that when Nabal heard the word of Abigail that he became as
a stone and it came to pass about ten days after that the Lord
smote Nabal that he died. Drop down to verse 40. And when
the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake
unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee to take thee to
him to wife. And she became David's wife. And that's a beautiful picture
of what our Lord does for us. We were crucified with Christ. Our old man is dead with Christ,
laid in the grave. And that which is risen from
the dead with him is his new creature, married to Christ. And I'll show you this. Look
at Romans 6. Romans 6, verse 6. Romans 6 6 knowing this that
our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might
be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin so like
Abel died this old man is put to death for he that is dead
is freed from sin just as Abigail was set free from that nasty
man that that wicked vile, wretched creature who ruled over her,
she set free from him. Now if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. And we do, because
he takes us to himself as his bride. Turn the page to Romans
7. Romans 7, verse 4. Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. that ye should be married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. Brethren, we were as Nabal the
fool, having no prophet, able to bring forth no fruit. We could
do nothing for ourselves, but we have been put to death with
Christ, and now we bring forth fruit, being married unto Jesus
Christ. our husband, our savior, our
Christ, our Lord, our all. And so brethren, that's the sweet
gospel picture there in that word, which I pray the Lord calls
us to meditate on and rejoice in him and what he's done for
us, amen.