We are all too kind. Sometimes the Lord lets us realize just
who we are. Nothing's and nobody's. And he's
everything. Sometimes as a preacher, you
would, when you're through, you would just like to go out the
back door. That's just being truthful, but
it's all in God's hands. He is the only one, the good
shepherd that can speak to a man's heart. The only one. And he is
able. I'm glad he is. He said, without
me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. But I pray this evening
that he might enable us to see him in the scriptures.
Sometimes, if you want to go ahead and be turning to 1 Samuel
25, I'm going to be looking at 42
verses. I know it seems like a whole
lot. But I didn't know exactly which way to go, so I thought
we would just begin at the beginning and see what God has recorded
here in His Word. So you'll understand, David is
running now from King Saul. The previous chapter was when
David was in the cave King Saul came in and David cut off his
skirt and David's heart smote him. And God was teaching David
to trust him and that one day God would take care of King Saul.
And eventually he did. But David's on the run. And I
want you to see here in the very first part of verse 1, in chapter
25 of 1 Samuel, it says, and Samuel died. Samuel, that great, great prophet
of God. Hannah, his mother, prayed for
a child and God gave her a child and named him Samuel, God, and
she gave him back to the Lord. And now it says when he dies,
just these few words, and Samuel died. This great man and Samuel died. And Samuel died. When did he
die? At God's appointed time. When he had finished the work
that God had called him to do, he died. And that's how it's
going to be for us. Not a day sooner, not a day later.
What's going to be said about us? Mark Walker died. Same thing
about you. We died. And Samuel died. And all the Israelites were gathered
together and lamented him. and buried him in the house of
Ramah. They wouldn't listen to Samuel while he was alive. You
remember how Samuel tried to discourage him from getting a
king? And he went and prayed to God, and God says, you just
go ahead and give them what they want. They wouldn't listen to
him while he was living. It's the same way today. You
know what they do? They worship dead preachers and hate living
preachers. They didn't like him when he
was living. They didn't like Spurgeon when he was living,
but they think a lot of him now. They didn't care for Martin,
Luther, and Calvin and all those men when they were living. They
worship them now, but they hated them then. It's always the same. They lamented Samuel after he's
dead. Oh, I wish they'd have listened
to him while he was living. And what's this? In David arose. and went down to the wilderness
of Paran. I can only imagine how this news
of Samuel's death came to David. Samuel, the one that anointed
David the king of Israel, the king in exile, but he's God's
king, God's king. And where is he at? He's in the
wilderness, in the wilderness, a barren place. Make you think
of where we're at today. We live in this world, we're
in a wilderness. And we worship and serve a king that by this
world standard, he's exiled. But he's on the throne. He's
on the throne. In verse 2, and there was a man, in man,
whose possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very great. And
he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing his
sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal,
and the name of his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding
and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was churlish and
evil in his doings. But what's that last statement?
This man Nabal, whose name means a fool, It said he was churlish,
that means that he was just a wicked, ungodly man. It was a name that
was given to somebody that was just worse than a dog. In the word of God says he was
of the house of Caleb. What I can understand from Gil,
he said this is from the same tribe that David was from. From
the same household of Caleb. Who was Caleb? That faithful
dog. The holy followed the Lord. Listen,
salvation don't run in bloodlines. Just because God's given you
faith and you believe and trust in Christ is no promise that
your children will. Samuel's two sons didn't. Go
back and read the scripture. This man was a son of Caleb.
That doesn't mean anything. What did the children of Israel
say when Christ come? Oh, we're the sons of Abraham.
This man could have said, I'm the son of Caleb. You know what
he was? His name means a fool. This is
what God said about him. This is what God said about him. He's a picture of fallen men.
He was stiff-necked, severe. He was greedy, grasping at everything
evil. But it says here that he was
very rich. And in the world's eyes, religion
is very rich. They remind me of what it says
in the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation. They
are increased with goods and they think they have need of
nothing. That's his man, Napal. He has a wife named Abigail. Her name means the father's joy.
And we're going to see her. She's going to be a picture here
in just a minute. But this woman that was married to this wicked
man, and have God show her mercy and grace. Now listen, verse
4. And David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal had sheared his sheep. And David sent out ten young
men, and David said unto the young men, get you up to Carmel
and go to Nabal and greet him in my name, in my authority.
And thus shall you say to him to enable that liveth in prosperity,
peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace
be unto all that thou hast. And now I have heard that thou
hast shearers. Now thy shepherds which were
with us, we hurt them not." Somewhere along the line, David must have
been associated with Nabal's shears. They were watching over
their sheep, and while they were in Carmel, David's men protected
Nabal, kept the Philistines from coming and robbing and taking
his sheep. David did, and this is what he's saying. Neither
was there anything missing unto them all the while that your
men were in Carmel. He says, ask thy young men. They'll
tell you. Wherefore, let the young men
find favor in thine eyes. For we come in a good day, a
day of, they said when they were shearing sheep, it was a day
of a celebration, a festival. He said, we come in a good day.
I pray thee, whatsoever cometh into thine hand and to thy servants,
I pray that whatsoever cometh into thy hand and to thy servants
and unto thy son David. And when David's young men came,
now watch this, they spake to Nabal according to all those
words in the name of David, and they ceased. What did they do? They just told what David told
them to say. Nothing more, nothing less. They were his servants. And David
sent them. God has preachers that he sends
into this world. And you know what they do? They
preach his message. And they leave it in God's hands.
And these servants of David come to this man called Nabal. And
they said, we've come. We're in need. We've taken care
of you. We've watched over your sheep.
Is there not anything that you can give unto us? And look what
Nabal said. in verse 10. How did David or
Nabal respond to David's messengers? And Nabal answered David's servants
and said, who is David? And who is this son of Jesse? Every time that Saul referred
to him in that term, the son of Jesse, was a rename of reproach. upon David. He says, who is this
son of David? Who is this son of Jesse? He
knew exactly who he was. It's kind of like Pharaoh said
when Moses came to Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, who is the Lord
that I should obey his voice? Who is this David? Who is this
king? Look what he said. Back to verse 10, and Abel answered
David, servant, and said, who is David and who is the son of
Jesse? There'll be many servants nowadays that just break away
from their masters. They're just a bunch of runaway
rebels. That's what he's saying. That's what David is and that's
what you are. Does that not sound familiar? Look what he said. Verse 11,
shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have
killed, and for my shares, and given unto men whom I know not
which they be. It's all mine." No, it wasn't. He only had anything because
God let him have it. He only had sheep because David's
men had protected his sheep and his sheepherders. That's the
only reason he had anything. What do men say today? Oh, we're
self-made men. No, they're not. They say, oh,
we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps. No, we've not.
You let things in economy or something else change and you
see what happens. They have what they have by the providence of
God. This man says it's mine. It's all mine. It sounds to me
like the man in the book of Luke chapter 12 when our Lord told
the parable, he said a man You know, he prospered, his crops
had done real well. He said, oh, what am I gonna
do? He says, my barns can't even contain it. He says, I know what
I'll do. I'll tear down my barns and I'll
build bigger barns. And then what I'll say to myself,
so take thine ease, just live in pleasure. And you know what
God said the next verse? But God said unto him, thou fool,
This night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall
those things be which thou hast provided? Does that not sound
like Nabal, thou fool? It's all mine. It's all mine. No, it's all his. It's all his. All his. But look at David's
response. How does David respond to this?
David's young men are listening. They're standing there before
this man, this wicked, vile man. Verse 12, so David's young men
turned their way and went again, never said a word, and came and
told him all those things. Told David exactly what this
man said. I want you to see what David
did. And David said unto his men,
gird you on every man his sword. And they girded on every man
his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And there went
up with David about four hundred men, and two hundred of them
stayed in the cave with the stuff. But four hundred of them went
with David. Have you ever read about David's
three mighty men? Just three of them. One beat
a whole bunch of Philistines at one time. These are David's
mighty men. David is going in wrath and in
judgment to take care of this wicked man named Nabal. God is
a holy, righteous, and just God. He is. You know what he says?
Vengeance is mine, I'll repay. This world, this world actually
thinks that they're getting by with everything. What does it
say? Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, men's hearts are set on doing
evil. That's what they think. I want you to look at verse 14.
Now we come to this woman named Napal. I mean a lady named Abigail. So you get the picture. David
is going, he's coming with his 400 men to take care of this
wicked man named Napal. Now watch this. This woman Abigail
is married to him. She's in a covenant relationship
with him. She's bound to him. And you know what we are? We're
bound to sin. Nabal's a picture of Adam. When
Adam sinned, wherefore is one man sin entered into the world
and death by sin? So death passed upon all men
for all men have sinned. And when he goes to take care
of Nabal's house, he's going to take care of Abigail and everybody
else in it. You say, well, she had no part
in it. Oh, yes, she did in her head.
That's right. People say, well, I was not there
when Abraham sinned. He said it talks about people
not after the similitude of Adam's transgression. Why do children
die? Why do babies die? Why do they
die? I'll tell you why. They're sinners.
If they weren't sinners, they wouldn't die. They never sin
like after Adam's transgression. They don't have much reasoning,
no understanding, but why do they die? They're sinners, that's
why. They're not innocent to some mystical age of accountability. They're sinners. That's what
the world hates and despises. It's because we fell in Adam.
And let me tell you this, if any child, any infant goes to
glory, they go because the Lord Jesus Christ paid their sin debt. That's exactly right. So you
get the picture? Here's what happens. But one
of the young men, one of Nabal's young men, told
Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers
out of the wilderness to salute our master. And the master 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 convenient, conversant with them. When we were in the
fields, you know, he's saying they took care of us. Why didn't
Nabal ask this man? He would have told him. But he's
telling her. Verse 16, they were a wall unto
us, both by night and day. And all the while we were with
them keeping the sheep. He said, they took care of us.
They provided for us. If it hadn't been for them, we'd
have probably been killed. That's what he's saying to this
woman. Why is he telling this to this
woman? Verse 17, now therefore know
and consider what thou will do. What in the world are we going
to do? David's coming. David's got his
sword strapped to his side. He's coming. And he says, what
are we going to do? Isn't that a good question to
ask? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? For evil, evil is determined
against our master and against all of his household. For he
is such a person of Belal that a man cannot speak to him. A
man can't reason with him. Nobody can speak to him. That's
why I'm talking to you, Abigail. And what's this? First part of verse 18. She hears
this news. She sees the dilemma that she's
in. Not only her, but her whole household. And Abigail made haste. It's not time to waste. It's
not time to put it off like Felix did to a more convenient season.
It's time to make haste. And she took, what, 200 gloves
and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed, and five
measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisin,
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 what she did." She didn't even tell him. He don't know
even what's going on, don't he? He's totally in the dark. Has
no idea what's going on. And so it was, as she rode on
the ass, that she came down by the culvert of the hill. And
behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met
them." Where's she going? To David? What do you think she's going
to ask for? She's probably going to beg for mercy. She had to know where he was
at to go find him. I think she probably had to look
for him. I'm just maybe reading between the lines. She had to
look for him to find him, and she found him. She found him. Now, David had said, surely in
vain have I kept all that these fellows hath in the wilderness.
And some believe that she overheard David saying this, so that nothing
was missed of all that pertaineth unto Nabal. And he hath inquired
me evil for good. So in verse 22, so and more also
do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertaineth
to him by the morning light, any that pisses against the wall,
there won't be any of them left. Before the day breaks, they'll
all be dead. And she hears this. She hears
it. What does she hear? She hears
judgment. Judgment. Verse 23, watch this. When Abigail
saw David, she hastened. Verse 18, it said she haste.
And here it said she hastened and lighted off the ass and fell
before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground. That's where sinners bow, is
at the feet of David. She saw him, and she fell before him. She
knew who she was, and she knew what she deserved. And she fell. Verse 24, "...and
fell at his feet, and said unto me, My Lord, unto me, Let this
iniquity be. She didn't say anything about
blaming Nabal. What does it sound like to me?
It sounds like the man in the public and in the temple. God
be merciful to me. This sinner, I'm the guilty one. And listen to me. It ain't just
what Adam did. It's what I've done. That's exactly
right. 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 this thine
handmaid. I'm your handmaid. Like our Lord
talking to the Canaanite woman. He says, it's not meek to take
the children's bread and cast it to dogs. She said, that's
right, Lord. But I'm your dog. She said, I'm
your handmaid, your inmate. Let not my Lord, verse 25, I
pray thee, regard this man to be liable, even Nabal. For as his name is folly and
fool, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly
is with him. But I, thy handmaid, saw not
the young men of my Lord when thou didst send them. Now therefore,
my Lord, as the Lord liveth, And as thy soul liveth, seeing
the Lord hath withholding thee from coming to shed blood and
from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies
and they that seek evil to my Lord be as able. And now this
blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my Lord, let
it even be given unto the young men of my Lord." She brought
it for David's men. Brought it for them. And she
said, I pray thee forgive the trespass of thine handmaid. For
the Lord will certainly make, now watch this, this woman knew
something. She knew something. For the Lord,
the Lord, Jehovah, 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. The only one you can say that
about is the Lord Jesus Christ. There hath not been evil found
in thee all the days of thy life. He's the only one. There's none other. Yet a man is risen to pursue
thee and to seek thy soul. But what's this? But the soul
of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord
thy God. It's bound up in him. And the
souls of thine enemies, they shall be, they shall, them shall
he sling out as out of the middle of a sling. He's going to just
cast them out. She said, that's what God's going
to do. Somebody's taught her something. I tell you who it
is, it's the Spirit of God. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to her. God did. That's why God, any sinner knows
this. God reveals it to him. Now watch
this, verse 30, and it shall come to pass. when the Lord shall
have done to my Lord according to all that He has spoken concerning
thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over all Israel."
One day you're gonna reign. She don't see a monarch now sitting
on a throne. She sees a king that's in exile. And she came to Him. And she
realizes that one day, She don't have to actually see Him sitting
on the throne to know that He does rule. It's going to be. Now, what's this? This bless my heart.
Verse 31. 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 will have dwelt well with my Lord, would you
do something? Then remember thine handmaid."
That sounds to me like the thief on the cross. As our Lord hung
in shame and agony, stripped naked, He saw beyond all that. He said,
Lord, would you remember me when you come into your kingdom? Would
you remember this handmaid? Would you? Would you? And look what David said to her.
And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which
sent thee this day to meet me. And blessed be thy vice, and
blessed be thou which thou hast 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 hastened and
come to meet me." There he says it again. What did she do? She
hastened. if you hadn't come. Now listen, I know God's sovereign,
God's elected a people before the world was ever made. But every one of them's coming.
They gonna come to him. And they, every one, gonna make
haste. Ain't that right? And if you don't, you'll perish.
You'll perish. Surely there had not been left
in the neighbor if you had to come by the morning light any
that pisses against the wall So David received of her hand
that which she had brought him and said unto her Go in peace Go in peace everything's alright
Everything's alright Go in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened
to thy voice and I have accepted thy person. How are we accepted in the beloved?
Accepted, forgiven. Now I want you to see this. She's got peace, forgiveness,
and she's going back home. She's going back home to this
wicked man, Nabal, this fool. And it says, and Abigail came
to Nabal. And behold, he held a feast in
his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was
merry within him, for he was very drunken. Wherefore, she
told him nothing, less or more, until Abigail didn't tell him anything. He was drunken. You know what
he was drunken with? He was drunken with the wine
of false religion. In Revelation, let me give you
two references. Revelation 17, 2. with whom the kings of the
earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Revelation
18.3, for all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her
fornication. Your families, this house of
Nabal from which we came, are drunken with the wine of false
religion. They are intoxicated and it don't
do any good to talk to them. Try it. Doesn't it seem like
they're drunk? I have family members, sisters
who don't know God. And she went back and here he
is. He's just, he's drunken. It says his heart is merry. He
thinks everything's fine. He has no idea what she just
spared him from. He's totally unaware. And the
world in this day are totally unaware of judgment that hangs
over their head. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. And he's drunk and she doesn't
say anything to him. She doesn't even try to wake
him up. Let him bother him. Leave him alone. They'd be blind
leaders of the blind They fall into the ditch, they'll all fall
in with them. I believe that broke her heart.
When we talk about false religion, let me tell you, I was once there,
intoxicated with free will, works religion. Trying to bring Mary
to my heart through this intoxication so I could forget everything
else. I didn't want to think about judgment. Didn't want to
think about it. But look. She told him nothing less than
a warning to the morning light. But it came to pass. In the morning. when the wine was gone out of
Naples. I've seen people that it seemed
like for a little while maybe God would just open up a door,
a little bit of light. You know, when you could talk
to Him just a little bit. Sometimes it seemed like you
can't say anything, just seemed like the door's shut. And it
seems like maybe His wine has wore off just for a little bit
and you can say something to Him. And watch, and His wife
had told Him these things. What's this? That his heart died
within him and he became as a stone. That sounds an awful lot like
Felix. When Felix trembled, his heart became as a stone. He's now sober. Listen to this. Abigail could never, by her reasonings,
bring Nabal to repentance. But now, by her fateful reproof,
she brings him to despair. Can you imagine when he hears
the news and she said, Nabal, while you slept, David was on
his way to kill you? You would have been just like
Belshazzar in Babylon, when all of a sudden there's a handwriting
on the wall. And it said, you've been weighed
into balance and you've been found wanting. And it said, his
knees begin to shake. And that night he died. I tell you, listen to me, listen
to me well. Your family and my family, if
they do not know God, they may be church members. It doesn't
matter. They are under the wrath of almighty
God. Isn't that right? That's serious. Serious. Her words at once dispels his
dreams. It shatters his peace and sank
his spirit. He didn't die right then. There
was a little space of time, but he was as good as dead. People
go on in religion. He never quit being religious.
He went on, but he was as good as being in hell. It's what the
Bible calls a reprobate. People don't like that term.
Reprobate silver. God give them over to what? A
reprobate mind. You know what that is? That's
a heart of stone. Their conscience are seared with
a hot iron. They have no feeling. They have
no natural affections. None. That's nabal. Where does
that come from? Adam. Let me tell you, if God
left you alone, that's what you'd be. You'd have no natural affections. wouldn't feel for a child or
anybody, never be moved. That's nabal. He seems to have
lain in a senseless stupor for 10 days, induced whether by the
effects of his intoxication or from the horror and anguish of
his mind. This was completed by the intermediate work and
stroke of the wrath of God. God, it said in 10 days, God
smote him and he died. Who killed him? God killed him. God killed him. Like I mentioned
this morning, what did God do to Herod in Acts chapter 12?
When he was arrayed like a God, everybody said, oh, it's the
voice of a God. God killed him. God kills and makes alive. God kills. You remember this, dearly beloved,
avenge not yourself, but give place unto wrath as it is written,
vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Now watch this,
it's not the end of the story. Verse 39, and 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. For the Lord hath returned the
wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and
communed with Abigail to take her to be his wife." You know
what that is? He's rewarding her double for
her sin. He forgave her. But He's going to make her rich.
Isn't that what He does? Here's what it says, listen. Romans 7 verse 1, No ye not brethren,
for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath
dominion over man as long as he liveth. For the woman which
hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband. She is bound
to him so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she
is loose from the law of that husband. So then if while her
husband liveth she be married to another man, she shall be
called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another. And here it is. Wherefore, my
brethren, you also are become dead to the law. by the body
of Christ, that you should be married to another. I'm married to another. Why would He want me? Why would He want you? He said,
I want you to be my wife. And what's this? And when the
servants of David were come to Abigail, Now don't that sound
like God sending his preachers to get his elect, his bride?
Come to Abigail, to Carmel, they spake unto her saying, David sent us unto thee to take
thee to him to wife. And what's this? You know what
she did? And she arose. And she arose. And she bowed
herself on her face to the earth, and she said, Behold, let thine
handmaid be a servant, to wash the feet of the servants of my
Lord. Why would He look on a dead dog
like somebody like me? I'll just be a servant, a servant. And here it is again, verse 42,
And Abigail hastened, and arose, and rode upon an ass with five
damsels of hers that went after her, and she went after the messengers
of David." Who did she go after? The messengers of David. And became his wife. I love reading in Revelation
19, the marriage of the Lamb. The bride had made herself ready.
She's a chaste virgin, robed in the white of His righteousness. What a picture. What a picture. May God, in His grace, gather
His Abigail's unto Him. If you're one of His, you know
what He'll do? he'll send his messengers to get you. Like David sent and fetched,
I like that fetching grace, fetched Mephibosheth. And you know what
they'll do? They'll bring you to him. May God add his blessings on
his word. Amen.