Now, if you would return to 1
Samuel 25 with me. I hope as we study through and
preach through these Old Testament passages that we see the glory of the truths of
Christ as he's typified, and the truth of the gospel is illustrated
in all these things. And as you go through these histories,
you might notice that biblical history is a little different
from man-made histories, man-written histories, because there may
be, as you look through these things, you may come out and
you may have a lot of questions that aren't answered in Scripture,
because God just doesn't give us every detail of every event,
every act. Sometimes you'll see verses thrown
in there and you wonder, well, why is that in there? But it
all fits. The main issue is that we see
the glory of Christ. That's what he told the Pharisees
and the scribes who spent their time searching the scripture.
He says, you do search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. And then he said, for there they
which testify of me. So we have a precedent set there
that any time we look into the Old or the New Testament, we
search for Christ. We search for the glory of his
person and the glory of his finished work. And we certainly see that
illustrated here in 1 Samuel 25, the three main characters.
You have David. who in himself personally is
a sinner saved by grace with all the weaknesses and the problems
and the ups and downs that you and I experience in our daily
lives. One day we're on the mountaintop,
one day we're in the valley, one day we seem to act with wisdom,
and when we do, we know it's not really us who's doing it,
it's Christ working in us by His Spirit and by His Word so
that we cannot ever take credit for any right decision that we
make, or any good thing that we do, because there's no goodness
in us, it's all Him. That's what Paul meant when he
said, the life that I now live, I live by the faith of Christ. It's not me, but it's Christ
living in me. And then David, as he goes through
this little episode, he's ready to take personal vengeance upon
this fool named Nabal who discounted David, disrespected him, in essence,
disrespected and discounted God's Word and the one whom David typified,
because it was through David, the house of Judah, that the
Messiah was to come. Somebody asked me, he said, well,
you think Nabal knew that? Probably not. But I'll tell you
what, Nabal didn't care either. And that's the problem. You know,
the problem with men is that we're by nature ignorant, but
worse than that, we don't care. We just don't care about the
things of the Lord. I often say this about people searching
in religion, they get satisfied too early. They settle in and
they want some preacher to stand up there doing their thinking
for them, and that's not what I want you to do. I don't want
you to check your brain at the door and let me do your thinking
for you. I know there's some preachers, I know some preachers
who like that, but I don't want to do that. Because you see,
I'm not responsible except to preach to you the truth. You're
responsible how you hear it. And that's the way we need to
see it. But you see, this whole issue that, as we look into the
Word of God, you see a man like Nabal, you know that the only
difference between me, and you say it of yourself, and a man
like Nabal, a fool, without understanding, without without any sense of
true godliness and what it is to be saved by the grace of God.
The only difference between me and him is God's mercy and grace. And that's an amazing thing.
And yet Nabal went his merry way in his foolishness. Nabal
being the picture of the natural man who receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. And then you see this beautiful,
wonderful picture of Abigail. Her name, remember, means the
father's joy. And we see her as a sinner coming
to Christ. That's the illustration, her
coming to David, David as her surety. You remember, her whole
assurance of salvation was wrapped up in King David. That is, temporally
speaking. But that's a great illustration
and picture of how any sinner's eternal assurance and salvation
and glory is wrapped up totally in the person and finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, that's the
only way. He's the only way that any of us are going to make it
to heaven. He's it. And so what I want you
to see tonight as we close out this chapter is how Nabal illustrates
the fact that the wages of sin is death. Nabal got what he wanted,
and he got what he earned. But then Abigail, she's an illustration
of the gift of life. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that's what's illustrated
here. Now, as I said, Abigail's assurance, her whole well-being
on this earth in her earthly family was wrapped up in David.
And that's what she prayed here. She says in verse 28, look back
here in 1 Samuel 25, she says, I pray thee, forgive the trespass
of thine handmaid. For the Lord will certainly make
my Lord a sure house. The surety, here is David. And our surety is Christ. He
was set up to be our surety. before the foundation of the
world. Christ our surety. What does
that mean? It means simply this. Our salvation
is sure in Him. And being our surety means He
became responsible for our sin death. That's why the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I was walking
out in the community last week, and I come by a religious sign.
And the sign said this. It said, Jesus paid for a debt
he did not owe. Now listen to what it said. Here's what the sign said out
in the street in front of a church building. It said, Jesus paid
for a debt he did not owe. Now if that's true, then he's
not our surety. He did not pay for a debt he
did not owe. He owed the debt. He owed a debt
that He paid as our surety, and when He became our surety, He
took our debt. It became His debt by imputation. It was accounted to Him. That's
why in the Old Testament we see those passages where we apply
to Christ because the Holy Spirit does that. They are His sins.
They are His debts. His trespasses. Now, He didn't
incur the debt. He didn't run up the debt. He's
perfectly sinless in himself, but he took the debt as our surety,
and that's what Abigail's expressing in here. The Lord will certainly
make my Lord a sure house. I am safe and secure in David. That's what Abigail's saying.
And the illustration there is how we're safe and secure in
Christ. Look over at Isaiah chapter 28.
And there's so many passages of Scripture that we could go
to here for this point. But look at verse 16. This is
talking about Christ, our surety. In verse 16 of Isaiah 28, this
prophecy. When the prophet Isaiah is speaking
for God, he says, Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I
lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried or tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. That's what he's
talking about. A sure house. And he that believeth shall not
make haste." Because of his surety. That's what David expressed over
in 2 Samuel on his deathbed in chapter 24 when he was lamenting
the fact that his own house rejected God. 2 Samuel 23, verse 5. And
he said, although my house be not so with God, yet he hath
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. For this is all my salvation."
You see, if all my salvation is in Christ, it's sure because
he's the surety. That's what Abigail is expressing.
And that's what David himself is expressing here. And he said,
this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make
it not to grow. So we see her assurance was in
David. Abigail knew that David was God's anointed. That's why
she said up here in verse 31, she said, remember thine handmaid. David, remember thine handmaid,
your servant. Lord, remember me. Jane sang
it last week. The thief on the cross was on
that cross, and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into
your king. Just remember me. All it takes is a thought from
God to make me secure in His grace. And Abigail came seeking
forgiveness for her sins. And you know there's no forgiveness
except in Christ by His blood. That's how the sure house is
founded, upon the ground of His finished work. A tested stone. You see, that sure foundation
had to be laid upon a tested stone. Well, how was He tested?
In His very life. His obedience unto death. He
was tested in His ministry. He was tested throughout His
life. And the ultimate test came. in the garden of Gethsemane and
ultimately upon the cross when he was made sin. And he cried,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But he passed the
test. How do you know? Well, he died,
he was buried, and he rose again the third day for our justification. And this Christ is our surety.
He fought our battles on the cross. And we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Paul wrote in the book
of Ephesians. And so all Abigail's pleas are
based on these things. When she came to David, who David
was, God's anointed, God's anointed king, the Savior of Israel. What
David would do, he would come into his kingdom and sit upon
the throne. And then David's willingness
to save her. And that's the way we come to
Christ. We come to Him in the power of the Holy Spirit, based
upon who He is. He's God and man in one person. He's the Lord of glory. He's
the great I Am. He's the Lamb of God, slain from
the foundation of the world. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, and we could go all the way down through every book of
the Bible. and see so many great descriptions and identifications
and aspects of our Savior, which tells us what? That He's able
to save us. He's able to save us. And then
what He would do, as the Old Testament saints looked forward
to it in prophecy and promise and type and picture, that He
would come and die on that cross and put away our sins as our
surety. He would pay a debt. A debt we
incurred, but a debt that he took, so he did owe the debt.
And then his willingness to save us, and we're going to see that
later on here in his marriage to Abigail. Not only is he able
to save, but he's willing because he loves his own. He loves his
own people. And Abigail came worshiping and
praising him in the office of king as we come worshiping and
praising Christ. He remembered her. Look at verse
32. David said to Abigail, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. That's
the covenant God of all grace. That's the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. That's the God who justifies
the ungodly based solely upon the finished work of Christ.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He's to be set apart. He's to
be honored and worshiped. And he says, God sent thee this
day to meet me. It wasn't by chance. It wasn't
just happenstance. It wasn't coincidence. It wasn't
a twist of fate. It wasn't luck. It was the sovereign
working providence of God who works all things after the counsel
of his own will. And what he's speaking of here
is not only her coming to him, for her safety, but to keep him
from exacting personal vengeance upon Nabal and his men. He says
it here in verse 33. Look at it. He says, and blessed
be thy advice, and blessed be thou which hast kept me this
day from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with
mine own hand. And I thought about this. I think
about Christ on that cross. You know, there's a song that
says he could have called 10,000 angels. And I like that song,
but you know, in reality, he couldn't really have called 10,000
angels. He had the power to do so. We
could say it that way. He had the ability to call 10,000
angels. I mean, he made that statement.
He said, no man taketh my life from me. I give it up willingly.
It was not by force. And I think about when they came
to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he asked them,
he said, whom do you seek? And they said, we seek Jesus
of Nazareth. And all he said was, I am. And you remember what
happened? They fell backward. And remember what he said that
day? He said, take me and leave these alone. Now that's substitution
right there. So he had that power. But if
he was going to accomplish the redemption of his people, If
He was going to, as Daniel 9.24 says, finish the transgression,
make an end of sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness
in order that God could be just and justify, He had to go to
the cross and die. He said, I must. He said, I must
do this. For this purpose came I into
the world. And if anybody ever tells you that God didn't have
to send His Son to die for our sins, or that God could have
done it any other way, You look upon them like you would look
at a nabal, a fool. Because they don't understand
what they're saying. They have no understanding. They're not like Abigail, good
understanding. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. And then look at verse 33. Bless me thy advice and bless
me which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood and
from avenging myself with mine own hand. He says, For in very
deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back
from hurting thee." You see, if he had done it his way, Abigail
too would have been hurt. He said, Except thou hast hasted
and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal
by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. Those
dogs that he was going to kill, those unregenerate dogs. So verse 35, so David, now listen
to this, David received of her hand that which she had brought
him and said unto her, go in peace to thine house. See, I
have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person. I love
that because that is a great, great illustration of how God
receives a sinner. He accepts our person. And how
does he accept us? How in the world could a holy
and righteous God accept a sinner like me? Well, the book of Ephesians
tells us, in verse 6 of chapter 1, it says, we are accepted in
the Beloved. We're accepted in Christ. That's the only way we can be
accepted before God. The Bible speaks of Abel. That
both Abel's person, And Abel's works were accepted before God,
how? By the blood of the Lamb. No
other way. You say, but I've tried hard,
I've worked hard, I've done my best. You cannot expect God to
accept you or your works on that basis. Because the best you can
be and the best you can do is not good enough to make you righteous
and holy before God. The best you are, the best you
can be, or the best you can do cannot wash away your sins. The
best you can be and the best you can do cannot, cannot bring
life from the dead. It takes a sovereign work of
God the Son to do that. Now, beginning here in verse
36, we see what happened to Nabal. Listen to it. Abigail came to
Nabal. Behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast
of a king." What a picture of the world there. Going about,
eat, drink, be merry. We're okay. We're fine. Even
though we've cast shame and reproach upon God's anointed. Even though,
without even knowing, Nabal didn't really know what he had just
missed by the hand of God. He missed getting slaughtered
by King David. And that's the way sinners are
who don't know Christ. You see, I think about David
when he said, there's but a step between me and death. Listen,
if you walk out of here tonight or walk anywhere without knowing
and trusting and resting in Christ, you don't realize how close you
are to eternal damnation. Isn't that right? You say, well,
I'm okay. Not without Christ. And here's
Nabal, he's having the feast of a king, and look at verse
36, Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. That's a picture of false religion.
People making merry drunk on false doctrine, false religion. Works religion, thinking they're
okay, thinking they're sure for heaven as if they were already
there, but they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't
know the glory of his person, the glory of the cross, the glory
of his blood and righteousness. Drunk. You know, a lot of times
the scriptures will represent in symbolism the drunkenness
of the nation Israel. And I'm sure they had alcoholism
back then just like we have it today. But that's not what it's
talking about. The whole nation wasn't just
having a wild party, getting drunk on alcohol. What he's talking
about is the drunkenness of the perversion of false religion. And it takes an act of God the
Holy Spirit to bring us to a good understanding like he did Abigail
so that we can be sober-minded. And what does that mean? That
means to be clear of thinking. That means to reason as God reasons. Come let us reason together.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow.
Though they be red like crimson, they'll be as wool. Reasoning
based upon God's truth. and not upon our drunkenness. And that's a good picture right
here of Nabal. The world in its false religion. The world in its materialism.
The world in its agnosticism. Whatever. But it says, wherefore
she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
Why not? He wouldn't hear it. He was drunk.
He couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear it. It's like
having spiritual deafness, dead in trespasses and sin. Verse
37, But it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone
out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his
heart died within him. Now I suppose that's a heart
attack. Could have been. And he became as a stone. Some
say it might have been a stroke. Might have been both. I don't
know, but here's the point. Verse 38, And it came to pass
about ten days after that the Lord smote Nabal that he died. Now, what did Nabal get? He got
the wages of sin. He got what he wanted. He got
what he earned. And as I said, when you come
to understand the reality of the gift of God being life, an
unearned, undeserved gift, We don't have anything to brag about
or boast about over Nabal in ourselves. There was a time I
was drunken on my false religion and my false ways and false ideas,
dead in trespasses and sin, earning for myself eternal damnation
and didn't care, didn't care to seek the Lord, became comfortable
in my false ways and in my self-righteousness, and it's only by the grace of
God that I didn't fall down and my heart die within me and become
as a stone like Nabal in an eternal way. Well, look at verse 39. Now it says here, When David
heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord that
hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal,
and hath kept his servant from evil. David's thanking God here
that Nabal was taken. He didn't take vengeance upon
Nabal, but God did. And God's vengeance is justice,
and we have to thank God for His justice. We have to thank
God for His wrath against sin. Now, we do. Because God's holy,
and He must punish sin. It's not a personal animosity
or hatred of any one individual, because again, we know that by
the grace of God, there go we. But God must punish sin. And
if you don't believe that, then don't talk about Christ on the
cross. That's where God punished all the sins of all his people
when they were made to meet on Christ. If you think God will
save anyone or show mercy and grace and love and compassion
without justice, you don't know the God of the Bible. And that's
what's being pictured here. God must punish sin. And David
himself made this statement. He said, Blessed is the man whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. David knew that he himself deserved
the same thing that Nabal got based upon his works and his
own self-worth. He said, O Lord, if thou, Lord,
shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? None of us, not
me. Not me. But also he thanks God here for
keeping him. from going through this act of
personal vengeance. The Lord pleaded my cause, of
my reproach from the hands of Nabal, and kept his servant from
evil. Do you know what? Listen to me.
If any of us restrain from evil, it's the Lord who keeps us. Did
you know that? Don't ever think that because
you don't do something somebody else does that's evil, that you're
better than them. Don't ever think, like, that's
pharisaism. Well, I would never do that.
You ever said that? Let me tell you something. If
it weren't for the Lord keeping me from evil, I'd do it all.
And more. We could write the book on sin
and evil. Each one of us, in our minds and in our hearts.
And that's what men and women today don't want to hear. That's
what they don't want to accept. You see, that's negativism. That's
kind of like the negative side of the psychology that will not
make you feel good about yourself as you leave tonight. But what
I'm telling you and what this book preaches is that this whole
thing of salvation and God's grace is not about us walking
out of here feeling good about ourselves. It's about walking
out of here feeling good about Christ, our surety. Isn't that
what it's about? So he kept his servant from evil.
That's what David's saying. He kept me from it. Think about
that. If the Lord just removes his
hand of restraint and lets us go the way we want to go, but
he keeps us from evil. He says, for the Lord, look here,
for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his
own head, and David sent and communed with Abigail to take
her to him to wife. I'm not going to get into tonight
the issues of polygamy and all that. Some preachers say, God,
that polygamy was okay in the Old Testament. I don't really
see that. Some say, well, David, this was a personal thing that
God just put up with. I don't know. I really don't
know. And you search it out. I guarantee
you there's volumes written on it. You'll find them if you want
to look at it, look it up on the internet. But it doesn't
say anything about it here, all it simply says, now we do know,
look at verse 44, it says, but Saul had given Michael, that's
David's wife, his first wife, his daughter, David's wife, to
Phaltai, the son of Laish, which was of Galen. And I don't know
what took place there, I don't know how that happened, whether
there was a writ of divorce and all that, we don't know. We know
also, in verse 43, that David not only took Abigail, but he
took also Ahinoam of Jezreel. And they were also both of them
his wives. And there's nothing mentioned
about her anywhere else, you know, that I can see. But the
thing about it is, here's what's being pictured. Here's the truth
we want to get out of this. Now, let's get to the meat of
the matter. You know, Brother Mahan, you used to talk about
majoring on the minors and minoring on the majors. Let's not major
on the minors and minor on the majors tonight. Let's get to
the whole issue here. You see, Christ, in the forgiveness
of his people, in the salvation of his people, there is a marriage
union that is beautiful and eternal and spiritual. He marries his
church. We were betrothed to him in the
everlasting covenant of grace, given to him on the cross, and
married to him when the Holy Spirit brings us to a saving
knowledge of Christ who is our husband. And that's what's being
pictured here. Look at it, verse 40. When the
servants of David were come to Abigail of Carmel, they spake
unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee to take thee to
him to wife. That's like gospel preachers
going out, preaching the gospel of the good news of the marriage.
We talk about the marriage supper of the Lamb, that final day when
all of it will come to consummation. And the Lamb's bride clothed
in white linen, which is the righteous robe of her husband,
the righteousness of Christ. And it will all be consummated.
That consummation has already begun in our new birth, I believe. And I know theologically some
people may disagree with me on the timing and all, but that's
not the issue. The issue here is that Christ marries his bride,
just like David married Abigail, just like David married this
woman named Ahinoam. And he says here, it says, verse
41, she arose. and bowed herself on her face
to the earth and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant
to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Let me just be a
servant in the house of the Lord." Our Lord taught that lesson to
the disciples in John 13 when he stooped down to wash their
feet, showing that he came to serve. His service was our salvation. But as a result of what he did
in serving us in our salvation, we ought to serve one another.
even to the point of washing each other's feet. He wasn't
issuing an ordinance there for us to do here tonight. He was
simply saying that we're to be humble and serve one another.
That's what he was teaching. In verse 42, Abigail hastened.
That was quickly. And rose and rode upon an ass,
and five damsels of hers that went after her, and she went
after the messengers of David, and became his wife. Now if you
would, let's turn to Romans chapter 6. Let me show you several scriptures
here. David took her for his wife.
How? He sent his messengers to her
and said, David, we take you to be his wife. Christ takes his bride, his people,
his church to be his wife. How? He sends out his messengers
in the preaching of the gospel and says, sinner, come to Christ.
He would have you as his wife, as his bride. Look at Romans
6 and verse 17. Paul writes here, he says, but
God be thanked that you were the servants, the slaves of sin. That's an unregenerate person.
That's what he's describing there. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. That's a regenerate
person. That's one who's been chosen
by God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and regenerated by
the Holy Spirit. You wouldn't have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine, that truth of God's grace, the
gospel of God's grace in Christ, apart from the Holy Spirit giving
you life. And when he says you've obeyed
from the heart, that's heart, faith, the mind, the affections,
the will, the inner man, the inner being. It's not just an
outward profession. You say this is not just a marriage
of convenience. In other words, it's not a marriage
for show. It's not a marriage of possession.
It's a marriage of the heart knit together in godly love. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation,
the sin-bearing sacrifice and made satisfaction for our sins. And so it's from the heart and
that form of doctrine. You see here, doctrine is not
a bad thing. Doctrine is a good thing. This
is the doctrine that in the book of Deuteronomy it says it drops
down like rain on a dry ground. This is the word of life. These
are the glorious truths of our Savior, who He is and what He
did and why He did it and where He is now, that identify Him
to us and distinguish Him as the one and only way unto God. And he says, which was delivered
to you. You might look in your concordance
on that phrase, because I believe there's a closer translation
there to the original. And it says, where to you were
delivered. Now, it's true the Word is delivered
to us in the preaching of the Gospel. But you know when salvation,
you know when the new birth comes? When we're delivered to it by
God. And that's what the Holy Spirit
does. He delivers us to the Word. He brings us under the preaching
of it, and He brings us to it in heart. And look at verse 18.
He says, "...being then made free from sin, you became the
servants of righteousness." What is a servant of righteousness?
He's a servant of Christ. Just like Abigail said, I'll
wash the feet of thy servants. I'm a servant in the house of
God. I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God. You see,
that's what he's saying. A servant in the, a willing,
loving, bond-slave of Christ. Serving him out of love. David realized that he loved
Abigail, and Abigail realized she loved David. And he says
in verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the
infirmity of your flesh, for as you have yielded your members,
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity and iniquity, that's
what you were, even so now yield your members, everything that
you are, servants to righteousness, to Christ and to holiness. And
then he says, for when you were the servants of sin, you were
free from righteousness. When you were unregenerate in
your mind, you had no righteousness. You thought you did. You thought
you were okay, but you didn't. And he says, what fruit had you
then in those things whereof you are now ashamed? Notice the
word now there. You see, when you were like Nabal,
when I was like Nabal in false religion making Mary, we weren't
ashamed of that at all. When I was in false works religion,
I wasn't ashamed of that. I went around preaching it, went
around to different places trying to promote it. I wasn't ashamed
of it at all. But when I saw the glory of Christ on the cross,
And saw myself as I really am in the sight of God. Then I became
ashamed of it. He says, for the end of those
things is death. But now being made free, verse
22, from sin, you became servants to God and you have your fruit
unto holiness in the end everlasting life. So how did it all come
about now? How was it all worked out? Well,
here it is. Well, it wasn't by your works. Because the wages
of sin is death. But it was a gift from God. The
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, he
uses the law of marriage under the Old Covenant to illustrate
it in chapter 7. Look at verse 1. He says, No
you not brethren, for I speak to them that know the law. Here's
what the law says, for how that the law hath dominion over a
man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she's loose from the law of her husband.
She's no longer married to him. So then, if while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.
And that's what it is. And we're all spiritual adulterers,
but if her husband be dead, she's free from that law, so that she's
no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Now,
here's the reason he put that in there. He says in verse 4,
Wherefore, for this reason, my brethren, you also are become
dead to the law. Now that means this, that means
you have no obligation to the law. No obligation to the law. No debt to the law. Now how did
I get that way? In other words, the law is fulfilled
in my case. I'm dead to the law. You see, the law pronounces death
where there's sin. But the law cannot pronounce
death on me anymore. Because in the eyes of the law,
I have no sin. And the law cannot demand obedience
from me in order to attain or maintain salvation. Why? Because
I already have righteousness. Now, how did I get it? Look at
it. By the body of Christ. That's how. By his obedience
unto death. And what was the result? What
was the effect? What's the fruit of that? That
you should be married, just like Abigail and David, married to
another, even to him who is raised from the dead. that we should
bring forth fruit unto God, the fruit of the marriage. You see
that? Married to Christ. And then one
more. Look at 2 Corinthians 11, and
I'll close. Paul recognizes that marriage
union, that betrothal, we might say, here in 2 Corinthians 11. When false preachers had crept
in trying to draw believers professing believers away from their focus
and their love and their dedication and their loyalty and their purity
towards Christ. It would be just like a married
couple now when somebody steps in and tries to draw the husband
away or draw the wife away. And then there becomes adultery
and every evil thing. Well, Paul used that as an illustration
of this, he says in verse 1 of 2 Corinthians 11. Would to God,
you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with
me for I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. You know, whenever
a husband and wife have that kind of a problem, it's only
right. For the husband or the wife to be jealous, it's only
right, not not in an unreasonable way, but I'm talking about when
somebody threatens to break that marriage up. And that's what
Paul's saying. It's a godly jealousy. In other
words, this is not just selfishness and pride and envy stepping on
my toes. This is godly jealousy. And he
says, For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present
you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But he says, But I fear less
by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. Now, think about that in terms
of David and Abigail. You think Abigail, after she
was married to David, you think she went looking for another
husband, another king, another charity? No. It's all wrapped
up in David. Her whole well-being wrapped
up in David. Well, my friend, that's the way
it is with us in Christ. We don't need to look for another
Savior, another husband, another surety, another righteousness.
It's all wrapped up in Christ. That's the simplicity of it.
Somebody says, well, that's too simple. It is for most people.
See, that's what man's religion is. It's a complication. God
says it's by grace. Man says, grace, but! Let's complicate
it up. Grace along with baptism. Grace
along with tithing. Grace along with this or that
or the other. Complicate it up. No, it's simple. It's single. It's all in Christ. Just like Abigail. It's all in
David. For us, it's all in Christ. And that was her attitude. And
that's why she said, I'll be a foot washer. I'll wash the
feet of your servants. And he said, I'm going to take
you to my wife. And there she is, the Father's
joy, the Bride of Christ. Christ is the Father's joy and
His bride is the Father's joy. Brought to the Lord, brought
to faith, and brought to repentance.