Good morning again, everybody.
Turn to your scripture. It's going to be first Samuel
25. First Samuel 25. I expressed in the Sunday school,
but if you weren't here, it's great to be with you again. I
think it's been two years since I've got to hang out with y'all. We
love you dearly. Jamie couldn't come on this trip
and I was talking to her last night and she just expressed how much
she enjoyed being around you and how much she missed not being
able to be here. So y'all are blessing to us and always in
our thoughts and prayers in our hearts. This morning, what we're
going to do is going to be more of a Bible study than anything
else. I'll let you know up front that I have no purpose or point
or agenda to this message other than to walk through this story
and pull out what gospel truth I can see and relay it to you.
That's going to be the whole point of this morning. I'm going
to give you the backstory here. The story picks up with David
and 600 of his men and they're in the wilderness and they're
fleeing from Saul. If you remember, up to this point, David had been
anointed king over all Israel by God, through Samuel. And Samuel
told Jesse, he said, get your boys, bring them down here, have
them pass before me. And all Jesse's boys passed before
Samuel, and he says, it ain't none of them. You got another
boy. And he says, I got another one,
he's out tending the sheep. He says, you go get him. We're
not gonna sit down until he comes in. And David comes in, and Samuel
says, that's him right there. That's God's anointed, that's
God's king. David was anointed king, but he hadn't yet ascended
to the throne yet. Saul's still alive. Saul's still
on the throne. And the song that's being sung
in Israel up to this point is, Saul was killed as thousands,
but David is 10,000. Now, if you're the king and someone
is exalting someone else more than you, it's gonna make you
mad, right? It's gonna make you jealous. And that's how Saul
feels towards David. He treated him like a son at
one point. David was like a son to Saul, but now he wants to
kill him. And so David is with 600 of his trusted men, they're
out in the wilderness, and they need provisions. Like any military
unit, they gotta have supplies, they gotta have food, stuff like
that. And David had been kind to a man by the name of Nabal.
And so he's gonna entreat Nabal, he's gonna go to Nabal, and he's
gonna ask him for some things, and we're gonna see how that
pans out. Pick up in verse one. First Samuel 25, it says, and
Samuel died. 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 Mahan whose possessions were in Carmel, and
the man was very great." Now that doesn't mean he was a good
man. This is a wicked, terrible man, but he was rich. That's
what it means. 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. I'm going to give you a little
hint right off the bat, spoiler. His name means fool. That's what
his name means. It means fool. Now I have no
idea why his mom named him that. It seems like it'd be a strange
thing to name your child, but his name means fool. And the
name of his wife was Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding
and of a beautiful countenance. But the man was churlish and
evil in his doings, and he was of the house of Caleb. Now, when
I was reading through this, the first question I came to was,
how in the world did these two end up together? Now, I know
marriages are arranged up to this point and things like that,
but really, how did these two end up together? Between Abigail
and Abel, could you have picked two people who are more opposite? No, you couldn't have. That should
give us pause because that's there to teach us something.
There's a type here that we need to recognize. What is it? Two,
right? Complete opposites. Number one,
these are the two natures. The two natures that exist in
every single believer. When the Lord gives a man life,
he gives him a new man, a new nature, and he has those two
natures. The first one, the dead nature that he is born with.
The second one, the very spirit of God dwelling in that man.
And these are typified between Nabal, And Abigail, the old nature,
the first nature, is nabal. It's a foolish nature. It's a
foolish nature because it wars against its creator. It's a fool.
He was evil. That's what it does. That's what
this nature is. Think of it this way. The heart, the fountain,
is evil. Therefore, all the waters that
flow from the fountain are evil. Everything I do, everything you
do, is tainted with sin. Even when we would do good, the
goodest thing we would do, it is tainted with, look how this
is going to make me look. Look at the glory I get for myself
with this. It's an evil, wicked nature. It's the only thing that
contributes. And it's churlish. Churlish, that's an old-timey
word, and what it means is obstinate and stiff-necked. Now, this old
nature, this fool, this nabal, he can't perform the actions
of spiritual life. He can't believe, right? He can't
repent. He can't produce love for the
Lord Jesus Christ. He can't do any of these things. But it's
worse than that. You could almost pity a lame man, right? You'll
pity a man who can't walk, right? But are you going to pity a man
who can't walk, doesn't want to walk, and refuses to walk?
That's this nature. It will not. It is churlish,
it's stiff-necked, it's obstinate. It won't be saved by Christ.
It won't be saved on his terms. He won't be saved by grace. He
won't be saved to the glory of God. He will not. There's no
pity for that man. He's evil, he's obstinate, and
he's a fool. That's the way you and I are
born in this world. Right there. The new man is Abigail. Abigail. Abigail was of good understanding. Well, what does that new nature
understand? What does it know? It knows simply this. If you
want to wrap it up in a nutshell, it knows that the Lord Jesus
Christ, lock, stock, and barrel, is everything in its salvation.
From the election, the choosing, from the atonement of sins, to
the sanctification, to the preservation, every part of it, it is the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It knows that. It knows something
else, too. It knows its own sinfulness. Now this is the new nature, this
is the sinless nature, the holy nature, but yet it owns the sin
of Nabal. Nabal doesn't know he's evil,
Nabal doesn't know he's churlish, but this new nature, this Abigail,
it owns the sin of the old nature, and we're gonna see this later
on in this story. Abigail's gonna go to David, and she's gonna
say, these iniquities are mine, they're mine, she's gonna own
the sin of her husband. Well, that's what the new nature does,
it owns the sin of the old man. And Abigail was of a beautiful
countenance. The new nature is beautiful. It's a holy nature.
It's a sinless nature. It's a righteous nature because
it is the very spirit of God dwelling in a man. And when the
father looks at that new man, that new creation, this is not
the old man reworked or fixed up. This is a new creation. He
says he's beautiful. It's the very spirit of God dwelling
in a man. That's the first type here. The second type here is
the eternal union that is shared between the Lord Jesus Christ
and his people. Now, Abigail and Nabal share a union, right?
When you are married, you share a union where everything is both.
So the husband, everything that is the husband's, it becomes
the wife's. Everything that is the wife's becomes the husband's. Right? So in this relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, they are in an eternal
union. We've always been in this eternal union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in this, we see what those two parties contribute
to this union. Guess what? We're unable, we're foolish,
we're evil, and we're obstinate. And that's why it takes a sovereign
savior to save us, because that will has to be broken, a new
man has to be given, and life has to be born in him. And only
a sovereign can do that. Right? That's us, we're Nabal
and he's Abigail. He contributes all that which
is good. He's of good understanding. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
know? What did he understand? Many things, everything, but
this, he knew exactly what it would take to satisfy his father. Now, I'll give you an example
here. So, my wife knows me decently well. We've been together a long
time. She pretty much knows how much I eat, right? If I'm going
to sit down to a meal, she's got a good gauge of how much
it's going to take to satisfy me, right? I'll be full, right? So, we could sit down at a meal,
and you could watch me eat, and you could turn to Jamie and say,
hey, is he now satisfied? And she could give you a gauge,
right? She could say, yeah, he probably is, maybe not, but what
if I've had a snack? Or what if I missed a meal? She
doesn't know about it. She wouldn't really know whether I was satisfied
or not. There's only one person sitting
at that table you could ask and know whether I'm satisfied or
not, and that is me. The Lord Jesus Christ knew exactly
what it took to satisfy His Father because Him and His Father are
one. Jesus Christ is God. And when he went to the cross
to satisfy his father, he was satisfying himself. He makes
the rules, and he honored his own perfect sense of justice.
That's what he does. And he's beautiful. He's beautiful, his
father, in every way, shape, and form, in his faithfulness,
in his obedience. In every way, shape, and form,
he says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Folks, that's exactly what this
story is about. This is about the eternal union that exists
between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. But there's much
more to it, right? In the next verses, when we look
through verses four and nine, through nine, David is going
to go to 10 of his servants and he's going to say, all right,
I'm giving you a message for Nabal. All right. I want you
to give this message. I'm going to give it to you.
I want you to relay it to another person. Now, what does that sound
like to you? That's preaching. The Lord gives a man a message.
He says, go deliver this message that I've given you, right? In
this, there are four elements of gospel preaching, and we're
gonna read through them, see if you can pick them out, and I'm gonna
go over them with you. Look at verse four. 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. And thus shall you say
to him that liveth in prosperity, peace be both to thee, and peace
be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. And
now I have heard that thou hast shears, now thy shepherds, which
were with us, we heard them not, neither was there aught missing
unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. 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 thine hand unto thy servants
and to thy son David. And when David's young men came,
they spake the name according to all those words in the name
of David and ceased. Now, like I said before, there
are four elements here of true gospel preaching. And here's
the first one. The first one is seen in verse five. David
says, greet them in my name." Now, folks, I want you to understand
something, all right? I want to be emphatic about this. The gospel is not
a set of rules and regulations. It is not the law. It is not
dos and don'ts. It is not a set of doctrines. The gospel is a
name, more importantly, a man and attributes behind that name,
and that name is the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not taking this too
far to say this, the Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel. He is our message. That's it.
Let me show you what I mean. Turn over to Philippians 2. We preach in name, so let's read
about that name. Philippians 2 and look at verse
5. Paul says, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now let
me ask a question. Why did he not think it robbery
to be equal with God? Because he is God. Folks, we gotta nail
that down. This is the first thing. This is the man we preach.
Lord Jesus Christ is God. Every attribute there is of God,
from the sovereignty, the holiness, the perfect sense of justice,
the graciousness, the mercy, Every attribute of God, His omnipotence,
His immutability, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God because He is God. Him and
His Father are one. You talk about the Father, you're
talking about Jesus Christ. You talk about Jesus Christ, you're talking
about the Father. He's God. That's where you begin. What
did this man do? Look at verse 7. but made himself
of no reputation, and it took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in the
fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross." What did this God-man
do? He was patient, and he was born. God took on human flesh. He waited
in a woman's womb for nine months, and just patiently waited there.
And then he was born, he grew up. He was a toddler and he was
an adolescent, he was a teenager. All the while, keeping God's
holy law, every jot and every tittle, every single time, honoring
his father in all things, being beautiful to his father in all
things, he lived. And then you know what he did?
He died. He died as the sinner's substitute. He died in the place
of all those the father gave him, all his elect. And when
he died, he said, it is finished. And when he said that, it was
done. There was nothing left to do. Everyone he died for, when he
said, it is finished, it's over with. He accomplished their salvation. Who's this man? He's God. What
did he do? He did exactly what he said he
would do. He saved his people. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And that's exactly
what he did. What's gonna happen? Look at verse nine. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him. given Him a name, which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of the things in heaven, and the things in earth,
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Who is this man? He's God. What did He do? He
did exactly what He said He was going to do. He saved His people
from their sins. And what's going to happen? Every knee is going
to bow. Every knee. You can bow in this life. You
can seek mercy. You can seek grace. You can submit
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he'll have mercy. He promises
he will. Or you can be churlish. You can be obstinate. You can
dig in your heels. You can say, I will not have this man drool
over me. And you know what he'll do? He'll break the knee. He
will break the knee. He will make you bow, but everybody's
going to bow one way or the other. Who is he? He's God. What did
he do? He did exactly what he said he was going to do. He saved
his people. And what's going to happen? Every knee is going
to bow to King Jesus. That's the man we preach, folks.
That's the gospel right there. Back in your text in verse six, David speaks of peace. He says,
peace be unto you. We preach a man, preach a name,
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the gospel. We preach the
peace he made with his father. Isaiah 40, verse one, my favorite
scripture. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. You see, he
already fought the battle. He went to war with death, he
went to war with the devil, he went to war with sin, and he
rose victorious. He won through dying. That's
the only man who's ever done that. He won through dying, but
that's exactly what he did. And when he was done dying, he
raised himself from the dead. But he made peace with his father
for everyone he died for. He says, comfort ye, comfort
ye. The gospel is not a message of wrath and condemnation. The
gospel is a message of comfort. Your peace has been made with
God. But he says to my people, who
are those people? They're sinners. sinners and all their hope is
in Christ. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Your warfare has been accomplished." And I tell you this right now,
folks, if you were looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, if He
is your only hope of salvation, God is not mad at you. There
is nothing that He is angry at you for because your peace has
been made with God. It was made when the Lord Jesus
Christ hung His head and said, it is finished. Peace has been
made. We preach a man, we preach the
peace that He made with His Father. Here's what we don't do. We We
don't speak peace where there is no peace. Now, what do I mean
by that? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
sayeth your God. Who are those people? They're
sinners, and Christ is all their hope. I say this, if there's
any man here right now who has any hope in himself, if you are
leaning on something you have done, some merit in you, something
in you to seek favor with God, I tell you there's no peace for
you. If you seek to be justified by the law, then you are indebted
to the whole law, that means every law, every time, from the
time you were born to the time you die, outwardly and inwardly,
at all times. And folks, we've never kept one
of them. Never once. So if you seek to be justified
by yourself, if you think there's something you can do to earn
the favor of God, to merit the favor of God, I speak no peace
to you today. There's no peace. Only violence. But if all your
hope's in Christ, if you're a sinner and your hope's in Christ, your
peace has already been made. We preach a man, preach the peace
he made with his father. Now, look down at verse eight. It's in the middle of verse,
David says, let the young men find favor in that eyes. That word favor is another word
that means grace, grace. We preach a man. The Lord Jesus
Christ, we preach the peace he made with his father, and we
preach his grace. And we emphatically proclaim
that salvation is by grace. It is not by the works of the
law. It is by the grace of God. And there's three things you
need to know about his grace. Number one, it is always saving. This
is what he does. If the Lord purposes to be gracious
to a man, to give that man what he does not deserve, what he
has demerited by nature, if he purposes to be gracious to that
man, you know what he does? He is gracious to that man and he
saves that man. Nothing is left undone, nothing
is left for that man to do. Well, I'm gonna do 90% of it,
but he's got 10%. No, he 100% saves that man. Grace is always saving. If the
Lord's gonna be gracious to a man, he saves that man. Number two,
it's sovereign grace. I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious and whom I will harden. It's sovereign grace. It is for God's chosen people.
It's for the elect. That's who it's for. I'll tell
you this though too, it's free grace. It is absolutely free
for everybody who needs it. Everyone who doesn't have any
merit before God. who is a sinner who stand down
in the depths, like we saw in Sunday school, down in the depths
crying on the Lord. I'm a sinful man in the hands
of a holy and a sovereign God who demands perfect justice,
and I'm condemned. For everybody like that, it's yours. It's free. It costs you absolutely nothing. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Buy it. Come get it. It's yours.
And here's the thing. It's not sitting on a table for
you to accept or reject. Well, it's free. You come get
it if you want. No, no, no, no. It's there. And if it's for you, that
means it's always been for you. It was purpose for you before
the foundation of the world, wherever. And that means you're going to
take it. Salvation is irresistible and invincible. And if this grace
is for you, it's always been for you and you're going to take
it. Now, we preach a man. We preach
the peace He made with His Father. We preach His grace. And here's
where we end it. Look at verse 9. What's the last
word in verse 9? Ceased. His young men went. David gave them a message. They
went to Nabal. They recited that message exactly. They didn't
add anything to David's message. They didn't take anything away
from David's message. They said, this is David's message, and
they left Nabal along with it. for it to do what it will, and
that's preaching the gospel right there. We don't add anything
to the message. We don't take anything away from it. We simply
leave it alone, preach the unadulterated, naked word of God, and the Lord
will do what He will with that for His own glory, and you just
cease. That's it. That's preaching the gospel right
there. Now, verses 10 and 11, let's look at Nabal's response
to David. This is very interesting. Verse
10. And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David?
And who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays
that break away every man from his master. 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 once they be?
Nabal the fool, right here is a type of the natural man. Here's
his question. Who is David? Did he not know who David was?
Is he saying, well, I don't know this David. Who do you speak
of? Everybody knew who David was. The song is, soul is killed
as thousands, but David is 10,000. Everybody knew David was God's
anointed king. Everybody knew who David was.
And what does he mean? What does David mean when he says, who
is David? Here's what he means is, this man is not my king.
I will not have this man to rule over me. I don't know this man.
He's not my king. Now I ask you, What is it that
the natural man wars against most with the Lord's character?
What is the single attribute that causes the more dismay that
makes him madder than anything else? It's his kingship. It's his sovereignty. It is the
fact that he is in sovereign control of everyone and everything
at all times. If you were I to be saved, it's
up to him. Without manipulation, he will do exactly what he has
always purposed to do and what he wills and no one's going to
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? I tell you what,
that offends men's sense of control and gets them all riled up and
they say, I will not have this man to rule over me. What I felt
was so interesting about this. So here you have David, right?
David, this is the David who slew Goliath, right? This is
the mighty warrior who has 600 men at his disposal. And then
you have Nabal, who, as far as I can tell, is a farmer. Never
fought a battle in his life, maybe has a handful of servants,
probably doesn't even own a sword, right? And he is willing to sit
there and rail against his king, this one who can come and cut
him down anytime he feels like it, but he feels so comfortable
in doing this because he's a fool. And this is the natural man.
This one, folks, you look around at this creation, right? Look
at the sun in the sky and tell me there's not a God. Tell me
that the trees out there and look at everything that is ever
built around, you look at this creation, tell me there is not a God who
rules over this universe. Can you build a son? No. We know he exists. Every man
knows, the light of creation alone tells us he exists, but
yet men will war against him. They do not seek his person and
when they find out who his person is, they war against him and
they rail against him. This one who can come and cut
them down anytime he feels like it. If a man would bow the knee
to Christ and believe on him, he would be saved. The problem
is he won't. Who is David? I don't recognize
this man. Once again, I said earlier, this
is why I have to have a sovereign savior, because that's me and
that's you. Men want a war against the sovereignty
of God? It holds off men who wish to be saved. Not true. It
saves men who would otherwise run away, who will shake their
fist and say, I will not have this man. Yeah, you will. Come
here. That's the sovereignty of God.
Now, look at verse 12. Let's look
at David's response to this. So David's young men turned their
way and went again and came and told him all those things. And
David said unto his men, gird ye on every man his sword. And
they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded
on his sword. And there went after David about
four hundred men, and two hundred above by the stuff." Now there's
a phrase David is going to use three times in this chapter.
He says, I'm coming, and I'm going to hack down, I'm killing
everybody that pisseth against the wall. That's not me being
vulgar. That is David's words. I'm coming, I'm offended, and
now I'm coming to kill everybody. Now, as a man, David is wrong.
David is offended as a man, and he's seeking his own revenge.
That's wrong. But as his type, he's absolutely right. His type
is God the Father, the offended king. Now, why is he so offended? Why is he so angry with a natural
man? Where does this offense come from? Somebody says sin.
Absolutely. Wouldn't disagree with you, absolutely.
My sin, your sin, we need to recognize this is against God.
It's not just being mischievous, it's not breaking the rules.
The very breath that comes out of our nostrils because of this
old man is so offensive, it is like spitting in the Lord's face.
Yes, there's an offense there. There's something greater here
though, more detail. Turn over here, turn to Matthew 21. Let's
hear a parable. Look at verse 33 of Matthew 21.
Lord Jesus Christ is gonna teach through a parable. Verse 33,
he says, hear another parable. There was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged
a winepress in it, and built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen,
and went out into a far country. And when the time of the fruit
drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they
might receive the fruits of it. And we'll stop there for a second.
He simply wants what's his. It's his wine press. It's his
ground. He hired these men to work it. He simply wants the
first. He simply wants what's right. Look at verse 35. And
the husband took his servants and beat one and killed another
and stoned another. Now that was me. And all I was
asking for was what was right. And I sent my servants down there
and he killed one. So that's it, I'm gonna wet my sword. We're
going down there where I'm gonna get mine, right? Look at the
long suffering of this husband. Verse 36, and again, He sent
other servants, more than the first, and they did unto them
likewise. He is so long-suffering, they
beat one of his servants, they kill another, he just sends more
servants. Let's give it another try. Let's go at him again. Give
him the opportunity, right? They do the exact same thing.
If it's me, I'm going after him, right? This long-suffering king
here. Look here in verse 37. But last
of all, he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence
my son. But when the husband saw the
son, they said among themselves, this is the heir, come let us
kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. And they called
him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord therefore
of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
I say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men and
will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall
render him the fruits in their due seasons. Let me show you
how I'm looking at this right here. Every generation has had
a witness. There has never been a generation
that has not had a gospel witness. You can go through all of them.
I couldn't possibly. You had Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You had Moses
and Joshua. You had all the judges. You had
Samuel. You had Isaiah, Ezekiel, all the way up to John, right?
Lord sent a man for every generation to prophesy the same message.
Messiah is coming. Believe on him. He's going to
save his people, right? He's going to save Israel. Believe
on Messiah. He's coming, right? Everybody's got the same message.
Nobody paid any attention to those guys. Nobody paid any attention
whatsoever, just a voice. No one paid any attention to
it. Finally, he sent his son, right? Finally, Messiah came,
this one that was prophesied. And you know what we did? Here's
what me and you did. Human nature is always the same.
We took him and we slew him. Why is he the offended king?
Why is he so mad? It's how we have treated his
son. Now take it down to a very basic
human element. If that is your child, and you sent your child
out there to make peace, and they took him and they slew your
child, would you have an ounce of mercy left for any of them? I wouldn't have a drop. This
is the long-suffering of this king. He sent him to die for
the same people who would kill him. That's why he's so offended.
It's the way we've treated his son. Now, look at verse 14. There's an eyewitness here, one
of Nabal's men who spent time with David and his men in the
wilderness, and he's gonna give an eyewitness account of what
it was like to be with David. 1 Samuel 25, verse 14. Well, 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 fields.
They were a wall unto us, both by night and day, all the while
we were with them keeping the sheep. Now, therefore, no one
consider what that will do, for evil is determined against our
master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial
that a man cannot speak to him. This eyewitness, this servant,
he says, as long as we were conversant with David and his men, good
things happened. Now that word conversant is interesting,
I looked it up. You know what it means? It means to walk with
somebody. But there's a stress on the word, which means every
step they take, you take as well. You ever see soldiers drilling
in formation? Left, right, left, everybody takes the same step.
What is this but union with the Lord Jesus Christ? Every step
he's taken, we've taken right along with him, in him. When
he walked in this world and he kept the law perfectly, we kept
it too. That righteousness really is
ours because we were in him. When he died, when he went to
the cross bearing our sins, we did too. We died in him. When
he raised himself from the dead, we were raised with him, in him. That's what this means. This
servant records three things, three things that happened when
he was conversant with David. Number one, he says, we were
not hurt. I'll give you a scripture. Romans 8, one says, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Those who
are in Christ, there is no hurt because the hurt, the punishment
has already been dealt out. Folks, you've already been punished.
You were punished some 2,000 years ago in the person of your
Redeemer. You were in Him. You walked the
paths of righteousness in Him. You died in Him. We were not
hurt, and you will never know that penalty and the feeling
of it because you've already been punished in Him. There's
no hurt. He says we didn't miss anything. As long as we were
conversant with David, we didn't miss anything. We had everything
we need. If you're in Christ, that means you lack absolutely
nothing. What is it? Colossians 2.9. For in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in Him, in Christ. You lack absolutely nothing.
He is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.
He's everything. Folks, He's our faith. But as
far as I can get with faith is, I believe, help thou my unbelief.
But he believed God perfectly. He honored God perfectly. He's
everything in salvation. We didn't miss anything. That's
what he said. We had everything we needed. And the third thing
he said was this, he was a wall onto us. Now walls do two things. They keep people in, they keep
people out. Now, if you are in Christ, if
you are conversant with him, you've always been there. Been
in an eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the
beautiful part. You can't send your way out. You can't do anything
to get out. That wall is too high. That concrete
is too thick. If you were in Christ, you've
always been there and you always will be because you're standing
there is not based on what you do. It's based on what he did.
It keeps you in. Second thing is it keeps people
out. There is nothing you can do to get in Christ. He cannot
be manipulated. To be in Christ means you have
always been in him. You've always been in eternal
union with him. You just have to be that way, right? All I
can do is tell you, give you a marker, whether you're there
or not. It's simply this. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are within those walls. You have always been within
that wall. You've always been in Christ. You were elected in him. This
is the way election work, folks. It wasn't an arbitrary choice
of people where the father just said him and him and him. No,
he says, I choose him, Christ, his son. He goes, I want him.
That's the one I want. Christ said, if you want me,
you got to take all them too. Cause we're in a union. He says, I'll
take them all, but you got to die for them. I'll do it. Come
on. That's how election work. I want him. Christ is my first
elect. And he got all of us with him. You've always been in him. If
you believe on him, I want you to understand that you've always
been there. That's the marker. All right. Now we're going to look at verses
18 through 35. We're going to fly through these
because the types change a lot. And we'll go back and talk about
a few things. Verse 18, Then Abigail made haste, and took
two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready
dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters
of raisins, and two hundred 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 ash, that she came
down by the covert of the hill. And behold, David and his men
came down against her, and she met them. So what's her plan
here? What's she going to do? Everything that David asked for,
he asked Nabal for, he's going to bring to David. She's going
to make intercession on behalf of her husband. Her husband,
this fool, her husband, this one she shares this union with,
she's going to go make intercession on behalf of her husband with
David. Who is Abigail here? This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
married to a fool, gonna go make intercession with his father.
Now look here, verse 21. Now David said, surely in vain
have I kept all this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing
was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he hath required
me evil for good. So and more also do God unto
the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by
the morning light, any that pisseth against the wall. And when Abigail
saw David, she hastened and lighted off the ass and fell before David
on her face and bowed herself to the ground, and fell to his
feet and said, upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be.
And let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience
and hear the words of thine handmaid. 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 didst send.
Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord liveth and as the soul liveth,
seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood
and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine
enemies, they that seek evil to my Lord, be his navel. And
now this blessing, which thine handmaid hath brought unto my
Lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my
Lord. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid. 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. Yet a man is risen up to pursue
thee, she's speaking of soul, and to seek thy soul. But the
soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the
Lord thy God, and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he
sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. And it shall come
to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to
all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have
appointed thee ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto
thee, nor offense of heart unto my Lord, either that thou hast
shed blood causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself.
But when the Lord shall have dwelt well with my Lord, then
remember thine handmaid. And David said to Abigail, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me,
and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which has kept
me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself
with mine own hand. 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 undeniable by the morning light any that pisseth
against the wall. 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 thy voice, and have accepted
thy person. I want to start with the lesser
point and work to the greater. Here's the first thing I thought of.
Folks, aren't you thankful for restraining grace? David was
going to do great evil here. He was going to go avenge himself,
and the Lord stopped him. Why is it wrong for a man to
get revenge for himself? The Lord says, vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord. You can't avenge yourself. Vengeance is mine.
Why is it wrong for a man to seek revenge for himself? You've
been done wrong. You're going to requite evil with evil, right?
Why is that wrong? Here's what I thought of. Remember
the Lord was talking about judging your brother. He said, okay,
he goes, you want to get that mote, that speck out of your
brother's eye, right? You want to get it out of there.
Why don't you think about getting the beam out of your eye first?
You want to call your brother on that thing he's done, go ahead
and get all the sin out of your life first before you talk to
your brother about it, right? It's the same thing with this
thing of vengeance. You want to get revenge for yourself because
you've been done wrong, right? You've had evil done to you.
You want to revenge that person. That thing that's been done to you,
you've done to somebody else. Maybe not outwardly, but in your heart
you've wished on somebody else. That thing you're going to get
vengeance for, you've done it to somebody else. That's why it's wrong.
Vengeance is the Lord's because he's the just one. Lord restrains
David here. And I am so thankful for restraining
grace. And what was scary when looking at this is that restraining
grace was not always there. In just a few years, David is
going to commit a great sin with a woman named Bathsheba, commit
adultery with her. He's going to murder her husband
to cover his tracks. And there was no restraining
grace there. The Lord just said, I'm gonna let you do exactly what you want
to do. And the sword never deported from David's house from that
day forward because of that. Here's my point. If I look at
my brother and I look down on him and say, well, look what
he's done, right? I have not recognized the restraining
grace that I have been shown that I have not outwardly done
the exact same thing. We should never mistake restraining
grace for a personal righteousness outside the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. If you see your brother fall and he has done
something and you haven't outwardly done that same thing, you're
the greater debtor to grace because you were restrained when he wasn't.
Now, that's a lesser point. Here's the greater point. Let's
talk about Abigail for a second. She is the effective intercessor.
She is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. She's got a foolish spouse,
the foolish navel, and she's gonna go make intercession with
the offended king on his behalf. Look back here at verse 24, listen
to what she says. And fell at his feet and said,
upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be. Now this is
how the Lord Jesus Christ approached his father. He said, these that
you've given me, those that are eternally united to me, their
iniquity, their sin, it's on me. It's on me. You hold me accountable
for it. You blame me. You let the penalty
fall to me. It's on me. But there's an issue. Look at verse 25. 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 Philae
is with him. But I, thy handmaid, saw not the young men of my Lord,
whom thou didst send." There's a problem here, folks. Abigail
didn't do nothing wrong. She said, listen, those servants
didn't come to me. If they would've come to me, I would've went ahead
and just gave them everything I wanted. Hey, the king needs
supplies. There's the barn, have at it, right? There's a problem
here. She says, let this iniquity be
on me, but she didn't do nothing wrong. Folks, the Lord Jesus
Christ never sinned. He was the spotless lamb. He
never committed a sin. He never had a sinful thought.
He never had a sinful action. He lived a perfect and holy life.
He was made the sins of his people. Now, let's see the type fully
realized. Look in verse 28. Abigail says, I pray thee, forgive
the trespass of my husband. I read that right? Let's try
it again. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of someone else. I pray thee, forgive the trespass
of thine handmaid. Now folks, this is how a sinner
is justified before God, right here. This really happened. The Lord Jesus Christ really
was made the sins of all as he left. He's the spotless lamb,
he never sinned. Had never sinful thought, never had a sinful action.
Yet he was made our sin for he, that's the father, hath made
him, Christ, sin for us, that's the elect, who knew no sin. That
we might be made the very righteousness of God in him." This is real. Abigail and Nabal share this
union, where the two become one flesh. Everything that is the
husband is the wives. Everything that is the wives is the husbands.
And we came into a union, and with that union, he became all
our filth, all our sin, all our vileness. That's what we transferred
to him. He became so much so that the Father is just. He will
never punish an innocent man, and he will never let a guilty
man go free. He punished him. Was this just? Was the punishment just? Did
God do it? Because if He did, it's just. That's how real this
transfer is. He became our sin and He was
punished for it. But just as real, just as real
as He could say, it's my sin, it's my iniquity, it's our righteousness. It's not forensic and it's not
legal. It's not a piece of paper that I hold and I give to the
Father and say, this says I'm righteous. No, it's when He looks
at it, He says, you're righteous. I'm the one, I'm the standard,
I know righteousness when I see it, you're righteous, and it's with
the very righteousness of Jesus Christ, and it really is ours. Verse 28, this is where the type
breaks down, or I'm sorry, verse 35, this is where the type breaks
down and it transitions. So David received of her hand
that which she brought him, and said unto her, go up in peace
to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted
thy person. This is where the type breaks
down. David could be appeased with some raisins and some wine
and some sheep and things like that. And he could look at Abigail
and be, because you brought me these things, I can let you go
in peace. The father could never do that, he's just. He could
never look at Christ alive with sin on him and say, just go in
peace, you're fine. No, he had to kill him. Before
he could say, I accept your person, he had to kill him first. Atonement
had to be made for sin. Somebody had to die. The soul
that sinneth must die. Somebody had to die. He killed
him first. And then when he raised him from the dead, because of
justification, he said, I accept your person and everybody in
you. This is where the type breaks down, but this is where it transitions.
Abigail is a type of the believer. And he says to everyone who is
in Christ, go up in peace. I have accepted that person because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, because he was made
our sin, because we were made the righteousness of God in him.
He says, peace. I ain't mad at you. There's nothing
to be mad at you for. That thing that separated me
from you, it's gone. My son paid for it. You go up
in peace. I've accepted you. The same way I accepted my son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, I accept you. You're one in him. Come
on in. Come on in. The door is wide open. Boldly
now, approach the throne of grace. The door is wide open to you. Now, here's my point in all this.
Whole point of this message. Might be a navel here right now,
right? I'll start by saying this. This
story goes on for quite some time. Abigail is an effective
intercessor. She goes and she makes intercession
with David and David doesn't kill Nabal, right? Now the Lord
kills him shortly after this, but David doesn't kill Nabal.
She is the effective intercessor. And after Abigail gets done making
this effective intercession, she goes to Nabal and she tells
him all these things that have already been done. He gets drunk
after he's spared. He doesn't know he's been spared.
And then he wakes up sober the next morning. She says, hey,
by the way, you offended a great king. Oh, and by the way, he
was coming to kill you and everybody else with you. Oh, and by the
way, I made effective intercession for you, and he's not mad, and
now you're gonna live. Now, this is the way we receive
the gospel. Here's how we experience it.
We didn't know we had offended a great king. Find out later. We didn't know that he was coming
to wipe us all out. Didn't know anything about the
justice of God. Didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ made intercession
for us. You find that all out after it's already been done.
So if we have a navel here this morning, a man who's got nothing
good about him, he's churlish, he's evil, he's a fool, he's
got no merit before God, he's got nothing to offer, absolutely
nothing. I tell you, all this has been done for you. Already
done. You offended the great king,
might not have known it. He was coming to kill you, might not
have known it. But the Lord Jesus Christ made your peace with God. Now believe on him. Rest in them. That's all there is left to do.
It's been a great blessing for me to be here with you today.