Alright, look here back with
me at 1 Samuel 25. I've titled my message this evening,
A Fool and His Wise Wife. And the story before us is this.
There's three persons involved, David, Nabal, and Abigail. And what happens is that David
sends to Nabal for some food to help out because he protected
his men, protected his sheep, kept them so many things that
could have happened to them. And they were greatly protected
by him. Well, Nabal said, well, who in
the world is David? And then here comes Abigail.
David's going to go down and kill Nabal. He said, you know,
if he's going to be that way, I'll go down and I'll get justice. And Abigail, she intercedes. She comes and humbles herself
before David. Now in this story, David's a
type of Christ in his claims upon men. He has claims upon
men. just claims upon men. Nabal in
his pride and foolishness he's a Christ rejecter someone who
doesn't believe and would never believe and was just in love
with himself and his wealth and then Abigail is a beautiful picture
of those who believe and so let's go through this if we can the
first thing I want you to look at is I told you about how Abigail
was beautiful and what his name was. But look at the request
of David. David sent a request. And in
verse 8. Verse 8. Here we go. Ask thy young men, and they will
show thee. Wherefore let the young men find
favor in our eyes for we come in a good day now, this is his
request Give I pray thee whatsoever cometh to thine hand We're not
making any demands just whatever comes into your hands unto thy
servants and to thy son David I'll put myself in your hands
and the reason that he made this request because David and his
men protected these people Look down here in verse 14 You know, David made this request
and one of the young men came and told Abigail, Nabal's wife,
saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute
our master. And he railed on them, flew up on them angry.
But the men were very good unto us and were not hurt. We were
not hurt, neither missed with anything. As long as we were
conversing with them in the field and when we were in the field,
they were a wall under us day and night while we were there
with them keeping the sheep. So that's what the man said.
That's what the young man said when told Abigail. And David
and his men protected them so they figured that they ought
to be fed. That's all he asked for was food.
Food for himself, food for his men. And he saved them from thieves,
from robbers, from animals that would come and kill them. Remember
when David saved his sheep by killing a bear and another one
by killing a lion? And he saved these people. And
surely He has a claim on Nabal for us. He protected Nabal's
people, Nabal's sheep, Nabal's shepherds, Nabal's shearers.
Everything He did, He did that's something that belonged to Nabal.
So He had a right claim upon Nabal. And that's the way it
is with us. I mean, beloved, everything we
have, He's got a claim on it for us. He can claim anything
we've got anytime He wants to take it. Ain't that right? And
then the manner of it, you know. He sent a request. Look back
over here at verse 5. This is such a blessing here.
David is the type of Christ. In verse 5. And David sent out
ten young men. He was expecting to take a lot
of stuff back. Sent out ten young men and said
unto the young men, get you up to Carmel and go to Nabal and
listen to this, and greet them in my name. You tell them David sent you.
You know, it's like our Lord Jesus says, if somebody gets
that, who sent me? Christ sent me. You got a message? Yes. And all these ten young
men will sit out in the name of their master, in the name
of their ruler, in the name of the one who protected them, the
one that they were gladly followed, joyfully followed, and done David's
bidding. And so to despise these men,
these ten young men, was to despise David. And to mistreat these
ten young men is to mistreat David. Our master said that.
He said, he that despises you, me you he said he despises me
he that rejects you rejects me that's what he said in Luke 10
16 and here's the message that they came with David gave him
a message look what the message was down here in verse 6 and David even told him what
to say that's that's another blessed thing these fellas wasn't
left just go down there and be beggars Oh, please give us some
deed. Please do something for us. David
gave them a specific message with words in their mouth. And
look what this is the words that he gave them. And they came with
a message of peace. And thus shall she say to him
that liveth in prosperity. He's living high on the hog,
as we say around here. Peace be both to thee, peace
be to thine house, and peace unto all that you've got. He
came with a message of peace. And ain't that what we do? There's peace made. Who made
it? The Lord Jesus Christ did. How
did he do it? By the blood of his cross. And
this is a three-fold peace that these fellows talked about. And
we do the same thing when we preach. Peace be to thee. Peace be with God. That's what
he said. Peace with God. Peace be to thee. God's peace be within you. Paul,
how many times did he say when he opened up one of his letters,
peace and grace be unto you. And then not only peace with
God, peace be to that house. Peace be in your heart, peace
be in your house, in your family, in your home. And then that third
peace you know, is that peace, peace be to all you have. A peace
that passes all understanding. Dealing with all we are and all
we have, that's what God's peace does for us. And that's what
they said. Three times they said, peace
be to you, be to your house, and everything that you belong
to. Don't let it cause you any trouble. Let it be peace to you.
And this message is what God sent to us. And this is the message
we take to men and women. In fact, Ephesians 2.13 says,
Christ is our peace. Yeah. And then it was to Nabal,
And do you know who would come by? The servants of God's anointed. The servants of God anointed.
Well look what it said about Nabal back up there in verse
2. Now we're going to talk about Nabal the fool. David made a
request. And now the name of the man was
Nabal in the name of his wife Abigail. Verse 2, there was a
man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel and the man was
very great. That means he was very, very
prosperous. And he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000
goats and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Very great man. Very great man. Wealthy man.
Powerful man. But great men aren't always wise. We were talking this morning
Talking about somebody who is very, very successful. And the
more successful somebody is in this world, the more arrogant
they are, the more prideful they are. I've seen that myself. I've seen that out of a lot of
men. Seen it out of women. They get successful and then
they're above and beyond everybody else. Nobody can tell them anything.
And when they go in somewhere to do business, if they don't
get waited on real quick, they get upset and walk out. Don't
you know what I can do and I can do this and do that and all this
other stuff? Well, that's the way Naval was. He was so wealthy,
he just thought, boy, I'm going to catch me out. And I tell you
what, he's a fool and it'll become apparent when he comes face to
face with the claims of David and men prove that they're fools
and apparent that they're fools when they come face to face with
the claims of Christ and his gospel and they say, I don't
want it. I don't want it. And I know you've
got people in your family that way. They've come face to face
with the claims of Christ. And they just absolutely are
unmoved by it, untouched by it, don't care anything about it. My own father told me, and I
had a brother tell me that. I've had different ones tell
me, said, listen, I don't want to hear nothing else you got
to say about the subject. And I know that you've got family
members that that's the way they are. I've heard all I want to
hear about what you believe. I got mine, you keep yours to
yourself, I'll keep mine to myself. Now that's the way Nabal was.
And that's why the scripture says the natural man. The natural
man, a man born without God, born naturally, born without
God, born in a depraved nature, born in sin and shaping in iniquity. He cannot receive the things
of the Spirit of God. And he can't know. And that's
the way he was. And look what he did. Look what
he did down here in verse 9. He rejected the claims of David.
Look what he said here in verse 9. Excuse me verse 10 and 11 and
they will answer Dave's service And said who is David? Who is David and who is the son
of Jesse? You know and when David young
men came they spake to naval all according to the words in
the name of David and they ceased They didn't say no more what
David told him to say. I And nowadays there's many servants
that broke away every man from his master. Shall I then take,
listen to this, shall I then take my bread, my water, my flesh
that I have killed for my shears and give it unto men whom I know
not? Everything was mine. You know,
he loved mine. He loved himself. Mine, mine,
mine, mine, mine. That's what he said. Who is David?
Now I'll tell you something. You notice what he said? David,
the son of Jesse. He pleaded ignorance. He was
so proud and so arrogant and so full of himself and his possessions. He knew who David was. He knew
David was the son of Jesse. He knew everything there was
to know. But what he was saying was, I don't care. I'm not giving
him anything I've got. There are a lot of people who
count what they give to Christ as lost. They count it as waste.
And I tell you what, he made a boast of his ignorance. Who
is David? Who is he? Who is this man? And
it's like Pharaoh when Moses went to tell Pharaoh, who sent
you down here? The great I am, I did. And he
come and he talked to him. And you know what the first thing
out of Pharaoh's mouth was when Moses got through speaking? Who
is the Lord that I should obey him? I tell you one thing, Pharaoh
knows who he is now. Pharaoh knows who he is now,
don't he, James? He knows who he is. And I tell you what, if
a man refuses the message, I don't care who he is. Kin to me, kin
to you, don't make no difference to me. If a man refuses to believe
the message and wants to perish, that's up to him. And I know
this, that once you hear the gospel and people don't want
to hear it anymore, don't cast your pearls before a swine. Don't
do it. Don't do it. We've got this precious
message. And don't take the things of
Christ and just keep throwing them down for people to trample
on. Because that's what they do with it. And there was no
reason for these men to argue with Him. Look what happened
there in verse 12. They didn't turn and argue with
him. They didn't say, well, we did this and we did that. They
went down there and told what David said, and when they got
through saying just exactly what David said, they stopped talking. And that's the way we are. God
gives us a message. When we get our message done,
we stop talking. How many times does God say,
well, I'm done. I'm done. Now I'll tell you what,
that's what's going to happen. God's going to be done with a
bunch of people one of these days. But there was no reason
to argue with this man. You know what they did? Look
what they said in verse 12. So David's young men turned their
way and went again and told David all those sayings. You know what? And that's all they did. They
went back. They said, this is what the man said. This is what
the man said. And oh my, let me show you something
else about him, down here in verse 36. Down here in verse 36, he is
a fool. His name means fool. He rejected David. He rejected
the claims of David, after David protected everything he had.
And he was a fool in living for his self and for self-gratification
and living for his flesh. And look in verse 36. And Abigail
came to Nabal. This is after some conversations
with David. And Abigail came to Nabal, and
behold, he held a feast in his house. Oh, here's a man, he's
holding a feast. He couldn't give anything to
men that protected him. But he's holding, and listen,
it's like the feast of a king. But I ain't going to give my
bread, I ain't going to give my meat, I ain't going to give
my water. But here he is having a feast, a feast like a king. And Nabal's heart was married
within him for he was very drunken. Wherefore she didn't tell him
anything that happened, told him nothing less or more till
in the morning. Now here's what he's doing, he's
making a God out of his belly. He's gluttonous, didn't want
nothing to do with David, didn't want him to give him anything.
And he had plenty to spend on a great big huge feast and party
out of the pride of his own heart. And I tell you, Nabal was a fool.
He's like that rich fool that our Lord talked about in Luke
12. He says, this man, he said, I've got so, you've got many
goods laid up for years and years and years. Take thine ease, eat. Be merry! And just like Nabal,
God said, you fool, I'm coming after your soul tonight. And I tell you what, I know we
as believers, and I know you agree with me, we'd rather have
the riches of Christ, the riches of His grace, and the riches
of His glory, than all the wealth in this world. I'm the richest
man in this world. People talk about their wealth.
I wonder how wealthy the Lord Jesus Christ is. I wonder how
wealthy God is. How much richest does He have? You know everybody out there
goes after gold. He's just going to let us walk on it. It's going
to be streets to walk on. Oh, the riches! Our Lord Jesus
is the heir of everything! And He's going to make a new
heaven and a new earth, and we're going to live on Him with Him
forever! And oh my, this world and everything in it is going
to pass away. Going to pass away. And I tell you what, an old navel,
I tell you, but look at the wisdom of Abigail. Look at the wisdom
of Abigail. Now look what it says about her
over here in verse 3. Look how the scriptures describe
her. Now the name of the man was Nabal
and the name of his wife was Abigail. In the name of his wife
Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding. Good understanding. God blessed
her. She was a beautiful countess.
But the man was churlish and evil in his doing was in the
house of Caleb. Or was of the house of Caleb.
You're talking about he's a fool and she's a wise. He's a self-gratifying
man. She has good understanding. and
in beautiful. And her wisdom, you talk about
a case of being un-oakly, yoked together. This ought to tell
believers. This ought to tell believers. And if your children,
if they're believers, tell them do not un-eakly be yoked together
with an unbeliever. Don't do that. Don't do that. Please don't do that. And her
wisdom, the wisdom of Abigail, her wisdom is seen in her attitude
toward David. Now look what it says over here
in verse 18. You know, and then that young man told him, said,
boy, he's, he's railed against those young men when they came.
He just mistreated them awful bad. And David, you know, he's
determined evil on him. He's going to come down here
and he's going to, he's going to, and then the one man said
he can't, man can't even speak to him. He's such a devilish
man. Look what happens now. Look at
the wisdom. Then Abigail made haste. She
didn't know what happened till this young man come and told
her. and took two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, five sheep
bread and dress, five measures of parched corn, and a hundred
clusters of raisins, two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them
on Ashes. She made haste. You know why she made haste?
David was on his way down there with his sword dirtied on, and
I'm fixing to clean house. And one of these days God's going
to clean house. And God and Abigail and her wisdom,
but I tell you what, she made haste to meet all the demands
David made through his servants. They asked for something, she
gave all, she just went over and above and gave so much more.
Got all this stuff together and sent them after him. And you're
talking about a work of faith and a labor of love. She believed
David, she believed in David. She believed he was the Lord's
anointed and was going to establish his cause forever. Look what
she told him in verse 28. Look what she told David here
in verse 28. She said, 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. Now ain't that our master? The
Lord gonna make you a sure house. And I ain't done no evil found
in you in all these days. See, she knew. She believed David. She believed in David. And she
knew that this God-appointed king wasn't to be trifled with. So she made haste. She made haste. And then look what she did down
in verse 23. David's on his way down there
said I'm gonna I'm gonna kill this man and everybody in his
family Every all of his young man everybody in verse 23 and
when Abigail saw David notice that she saw him She saw David
and again she hasted Got off her ass come off that camel come
off that donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed herself
to the ground and That's what she did. She just, she said,
there's David. She got off, she fell down before
him, bowed herself before him, fell on her face before him,
and bowed herself to the ground. How many people did that in the
scriptures? You know, she just, she got off that donkey and she
came, and oh my, look what she says now. Verse 23. And she bowed herself to the
ground. And oh my, that's where people
need to be. On their face before Christ. And she fell at His feet. Do you notice that? Fell at His
feet. How many people. They brought
people to the Lord Jesus Christ and laid them at His feet. That's
the place to be. Right at His feet. Mary was at
His feet. At His feet. And look what she
said, upon my Lord, upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity
be on me. Or the iniquity of my husband,
the sin of my husband, the sin of this man who mistreated your
people, disregarded you, act like you're nobody, let his sin
be on me. Let his sin be on me. And then
look what she said, and listen to this, I love this. And let
thine hand make, I pray thee, speak in thine audience. She
first asked, can I speak? Will you let me, do you mind
if I speak? Do you mind if I speak to you? That's what she said.
Do you mind if I talk to you? Can I open my mouth before you?
Can I speak to you? Oh, Job put his hand on his mouth. Oh my. Let me speak. Didn't think he ought to let
her. And she certainly didn't make any demands. She said, would
you let me speak? Would you let me speak to you?
And would you hear the words of your servant, your handmaid? And she prayed for herself. Look
how she prayed for herself in verse 28. She prayed for her
husband, let his sin be on me. Don't kill him. Don't do that.
And I pray, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid. Forgive me. Forgive me that I've come here
and come in your presence. See, she knew that David had
the power of life and death in his hands. He could kill or he
could make a lie. He could kill her and kill everyone,
kill Nabal and all of them. He could kill them. He had the
power, the life of death in his hand. And so the first thing
she said, would you forgive me? Forgive my trespass. Forgive
my trespass. Forgive me. And what she did
was that she said, oh, don't go down here and shame yourself
and bring reproach on yourself as the man that you are, this
wonderful man that you are. Don't go down there and do that
to this man. His heart's not, he's not worth it. Look what
she said about him in 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, thine handmaid, saw not
the young men of my Lord, whom thou didst sense. So don't go
stand there shedding, don't shed blood. And look what she did
now over here in verse 37. And she testified courageously,
you know, she left David. And they had this long conversation,
you read it when you get home and see what all took place. But David, you know, he had this
big drunken party, big drunken feast. And so she went to tell
him what had happened, and what David intended to do, and how
she had mistreated David, and how she had mistreated his men.
And all those young men told her about him and about David. But it came to pass in the morning
when the wine was going out of the navel, and his wife had told
him these things. You know, David had his sword
owners coming down here to kill you. Because the way you treated those
young men, the way you mistreated, didn't regard his message, didn't
receive him as the person he is, as the king annoyed. And
she told him everything about what David had, how she went
and interceded for him. And then look what happens then.
He told him his thanks and his heart died within him. And he
became as a stone. He lost all will right then and
there. He said, what have I done? What
have I done? Judgment's on me. If I had had
a wife, she would have killed me. I'd have been dead. Now look
at the results that followed after she told him this. Verse
38. And it came to pass about ten
days after that, listen to this, that the Lord, smoke and able,
that he died. God killed him. God killed him. And that is what
God is going to do and I know it and you know it. That is what
God is going to do with men who reject Christ. Who won't have
Christ. That is what He is going to do
to them. That is what He is going to do. There is no giving around
it. The Lord smoked nabal, and like that rich fool, he says,
Thou fool this night, thy soul be required of thee. The last
good night he had was a drunken party. And he just turned to
stone inside. Lost all will. All that he had
didn't amount to anything anymore. Man's plans and man's purposes
to live without Christ are weapons God uses to destroy him. It's
like Simon the sorcerer. He thought, well, I seen these
fellas laying hands on people and receiving the Holy Ghost
and doing miracles. He said, reached in his pocket
and said, how much would it take for me to have that gift? Peter says, your money perish
with you. Your money perish. You thought
that things of God could be bought. Sapphire and Ananias and Sapphira. They seen everybody selling everything
they had and giving it to the apostles to distribute to the
poor people out in the communities out in Jerusalem and out over
the countryside. And that's what they gave it
so they could give it out and spend it and use it to feed poor
people and help other people that was being thrown out of
their homes because they were Christians, they were believers.
And boy one day said, well man these Boy, these folks are getting
a lot of recognition. I said, I'll tell you what we'll
do. We'll sell this property. And we're going to get $5,000
out of it. I'll tell you what we'll do.
We'll give $3,000 and act like we gave them all the money off
that property. We'll keep $2,000 for sale. Well,
they got up there. Simon Peter said, did you sell
your property for such and such a price? Oh. playing the hypocrite. They wanted
recognition for giving everything that they had, but they didn't. They held back for themselves.
Simon Peter looked at him and said, did you sell your money
for such a thing? God killed him on the spot. His
wife come in, he said, They just drug your husband out of you
and they're going to drug you out next. You don't lie to God, you
don't lie to the Holy Ghost, you don't reject Christ. And
I'm telling you what, God uses the weapons that men make against
Him, against them. It's like the Jews, they said,
His blood be on us and on our children. Well, it has been. Has been. Now let me give you
this real quick. Stop. Look at Abigail, the believer. She is a believer. She came to
David. She bowed to David. She said that's to be able to
speak and ask for forgiveness. And look what it says here in
verse 40. And when the servants of David
were come to Abigail, to Carmel, they spake unto her. He said
his servants to give It's like our Lord sitting after
His bride. And they spake unto her, saying,
David sent us unto thee to take thee him to wife. It's like our Lord Jesus Christ.
He said, that's going to be my bride. Go get her. Go get her. That's what we're doing. We're
in service, going out and getting the bride of Christ. And she
arose. Look what happens. And bowed
herself on her face to the earth. You talk about humility and grace. Behold, let thine handmaid be
a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Let
me wash not only his feet, but your feet. And Abigail hasted
and arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels of hers and
went after her. And she went after the messages
of David and became his wife. Now she's one with him, recognized
to be one with him. So that's the long and short
of it. David, Mabel, Abigail. Our Father, in the precious name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for
your great mercy. We're with you, blessed us and
met our needs. Lord, don't let us be enabled
in any way. Don't let us be selfish. Don't
let us be prideful. Don't let us gratify our flesh. And never let us ever, ever mistreat
the Lord's people. When our Lord Jesus sends a servant,
when He sends someone, He has His people in this world. Let
us also receive them as His people, as those who belong to Him. Let
us all receive their word as it comes from Him. We bless you
and praise you in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, good night and God bless
you and I'll see you Sunday, Lord. Saturday, I'll see you
Saturday.