thought it would be him. He's
out there tending the sheep. It's David. And he said, well, you
go fetch him, bring him here. We're not going to sit down until
he gets here. And he gets there and Samuel says, this is him.
This is the anointed king. So David had already been anointed
king over all Israel. He just hadn't taken the throne
yet. Saul's still alive. And so he's not taking his throne,
but it's his throne. He's the anointed king. The song
that's being sung in Israel right now is Saul has killed his thousands,
but David has 10 thousands. Now, if you can imagine, if you're
a king who's about to be oust, that song would probably make
you pretty jealous, right? It's going to make you pretty
mad. So Saul's angry at David. He wants to kill David. And that's
where David's at. He's with 600 men in the wilderness
fleeing from Saul, and he needs provisions. He's going to ask
a man named Nabal for those provisions. We're going to see what happens
in the story. So pick up in verse one. And Samuel died. And all the
Israelites were gathered together and lamented him and buried him
in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down
to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Mahan
whose possessions were in Carmel. That man was very great. That
doesn't mean he was a good man. He was a wicked man. It just
means he was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats,
and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now, the name of that
man was Nabal. And to give you a little hint
here, his name means fool. That's literally what his name means.
I have no idea why his mother named him that, but his name means fool. It's terrible, isn't it? And
the name of his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman, listen to
this, of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance. But
the man was churlish and evil in his doings, and he was the
house of Caleb. Now here's my first question
when I started looking at this. How in the world did these two
end up together? Now, I'm serious, right? I know that most marriages
back then are arranged, you know, they're prearranged. But literally,
could you have picked two people who are any more opposite than
Nabal and Abigail? No, you probably couldn't have,
right? They're polar opposites. What's the type here? What are
we dealing with here? Right off the bat here, we have the two
natures that reside in every single blood-blood believer.
You have Nabal, and that's the old man. He's a fool, an absolute
fool. He's evil. That heart is evil.
The way we were born in this world is evil. That means everything
that stems from us is evil because that heart is evil. And he's
churlish. Now that is an old-timey word
that we don't use very often, but you know what it means? It
means obstinate. It means stiffed necked. Now,
this nature that we are born with, it cannot, right? It cannot
believe, it cannot repent, it cannot love God, but it's worse
than that. It's much worse than that. It's not just being lame.
It's not just being impotent. It's churlish. It's obstinate. It won't. It digs in its heels
and says, no, God, no, I won't be saved under those circumstances.
I don't like you. I don't want anything to do with
you. That's the old man. That's the way you and I were born in
this world. That nature is going to be with us to the day we die.
Then you have Abigail. Abigail's of good understanding.
That's the new man, the new man in Christ Jesus. What does it
understand? It understands this. This is
the only thing it understands. That Jesus Christ is everything
and it's salvation. Lock, stock and barrel, he is
our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption.
It understands that Jesus Christ is everything and it's salvation.
That's what it understands. And it's a beautiful nature.
It's a beautiful nature because it's without sin. It's holy and
it's righteous because it's the very nature of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. So when the father looks at him,
he says he's beautiful. He's looking at his son. A beautiful
nature. Now that's the first type here.
Here's the other type. These two people are in a union.
Right? They're married. The two become one flesh, Abigail
and Nabal. And these are types of the union
that exists between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people.
This eternal union that's never had a beginning and will never
have an end. And in a more detailed manner,
it tells us in this union what each party brings to the union.
Here's what Abigail, the Lord Jesus Christ, brings. He's of
good understanding. What does he know? What did the
Lord Jesus Christ know? He knew what it took to satisfy
his father. Now, I'm going to give you this
example. So Jamie's known me a long time, right? She knows
about how much I eat to satisfy me, right? She knows how much
I'm going to eat to be full. And so we could go sit down at a
meal, and you could watch me eat. And you could ask Jamie
and be like, OK, he's eaten about yea much. Is he satisfied now,
right? And she could give you kind of
an idea of whether I was or not, but she wouldn't know for sure.
There is only one person you could ask at that table and know
whether I am satisfied or not, and that's me. See, the Lord
Jesus Christ knew exactly what it took to satisfy his father
because him and his father are one. It was his own justice that
had to be satisfied, and he knew what the cost would be. It was
gonna be his own blood. It was gonna be his own death. He knew
what it took to satisfy his father, and he's beautiful. In every
respect, in every attribute, he is beautiful to his father.
That's what we're dealing with here, this union between Christ
and his church. Now, in the next verses, verses
four through nine, we're going to read it. What we actually
have here is, so David is going to send a servant, right? He's
going to give a servant a message, a very particular message to
deliver to Naples, right? And it's going to be this entreaty
for supplies. What we have in these verses is actually four
elements of gospel preaching. So I'm gonna read the next five
verses, see if you can pick them out. I'm gonna go back and talk
about them. So pick them in verse four. And David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal did shear his sheep. And David set 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 ye 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 comes to thine hand and unto thy servants,
to thy son David. And when David's young men came,
they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name
of David. And what did they do then? They
ceased. Now, like I said, there's four
elements of gospel preaching here. The first one is found
in verse five. David commands, greet him in my name. The gospel
is not a set of rules and regulations. It is not do's and don'ts. It
is not doctrine. It is not some confession that
a man wrote. The gospel is a man. A name and a man attached to
that name, and that name is Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'm not taking this too far to say this, Jesus Christ is
the gospel. This is the first element of
gospel preaching. Let me show you what I mean. Turn to Philippians 2. We're talking about a name, his
name, we preach his name. What does that mean? Let's read
about his name. Philippians 2 and pick up in
verse 5. 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. Why did he not think it
robbery to be equal with God? Because he is. Because Jesus
Christ is God. That's where we have to begin
preaching this man. He's God. Everything his father is, everything
God is, the sovereign, the one who controls and rules and reigns
over everyone, that's him. This holy one. This gracious
one. This just one. This is all him. But he's also this approachable
one. This one that sinners can come to and not feel threatened
around. Everything that his father is, everything that God is, Jesus
of Nazareth is. We start there. Keep on reading.
Verse 7. What'd he do? But made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of this cross." What did this man do? He became a
man. God became a man. He was patient
and was willing to dwell in a virgin's womb for nine months. And he
was patiently willing to grow up. First he was a toddler, and
then he was a small child. He was an adolescent, then he
was a teenager. He grew up until he came of a full age. And you
know what he did then? After he had satisfied his father's
law completely, working out a perfect righteousness, then he went to
a cross and he died. God died. That happened. He died
as the sinner's substitute. He died for everyone His Father
gave Him in divine election. He died for all His people, His
bride, those He shares His eternal union with. And when He did,
He said, It is finished. That statement cannot be taken
too far. That means everyone He died for, He accomplished
their salvation. That's exactly what this man
did. He's God, and He did exactly what He came here to do, to save
His people. Now what's going to happen? Look at verse 9. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted Him, and given him a name which
is above every name. That's what we're talking about,
right? This name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should
bow of the things in heaven, 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. What's going
to happen? It's very simple, folks. Every knee's going to
bow. This man is God, he is Lord, he has done what he said he's
going to do, and everybody's going to bow. And here's the
thing, you can bow in this life. You can bow, you can believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will have mercy. Or you can
dig your heels in. You can remain churlish, you
can remain obstinate, and one day he'll break the leg, and
he will bring you to your knees. It's very clear, everybody's
gonna bow. That's what's gonna happen. That's
the man we preach. That is the gospel right there.
Jesus Christ, we preach in name. Go back to your text. The second element we see here,
David speaks of peace. He says, peace be unto you. Colossians 1.20 says, and having
made peace through the blood of His cross. We preach a man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we preach the peace He has made
with His Father, forever member of the elect. I want you to understand
something right now. See if you can enter into this.
If right now, all your hope is in Jesus Christ alone. God is
not mad at you. That thing that separated you
from your God, that thing that created that enmity between you
and Him, your sin has been removed. It's been taken away. Peace has
been made. Isaiah 40 verse 1 says, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. This is not a harsh message.
It's not a fire and brimstone message. This message for Israel
For sinners, for God's people, it's a message of comfort. Your
warfare's been accomplished. He already did battle. He did
battle with sin. He did battle with the devil. He did battle
with death. And he arose victorious. We see that because he raised
himself from the dead. He finished dying. He was done. Did something
no man has ever done before. He finished dying. And when he
was done, he raised himself from the dead because of justification.
Your peace has been accomplished. We preach a man. We preach the
peace he's made. every member of the elect. Verse
nine, oh, one more thing. Here's what we don't do, what
we don't dare do. We do not speak peace where there
is no peace. Now, for everyone here who is
a sinner, who has no other hope but Jesus Christ alone. You have
no grounds to stand on your own before this just and holy God.
I tell you this, your peace has been made with God. It is a message
of comfort. Now, if you think there is some way that you can
earn favor with God based on what you do, I tell you there
is no peace. There is absolutely no peace
for you. If you want to be justified by the law, you are indebted
to do the whole law. That means every commandment, every time
from the day you were born to the day you die, both inwardly
and outwardly, and none of us have kept any one of them at
any time. If that's the way you want to come, if that's the way
you intend to come, then we have no peace for you. There is no
peace. If you come the way of Christ, there's peace. Now, in
verse eight, David says, let the young men find favor in thine
eyes. Now that word favor is a word
that is commonly translated grace. We preach a man, we preach the
peace that he made with his father, and we preach his grace. And
we emphatically proclaim that salvation is by grace, and it's
not at all by the works of the law. There's three things you
need to know about his grace. Number one, it is always saving.
That means if he intends, if he purposes to be gracious to
a man, to love a man, to save a man, you know what he does?
He saves him every single time. He doesn't leave anything up
to that man. He doesn't leave anything undone. If he purposes to be
gracious to a man, he saves that man. That's what it does. It's
always saving grace. Here's the next thing you need
to know about it. It's sovereign. I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and whom I will ahord. It's sovereign grace. Nobody deserves it, and he'll
give it to whom he will. But here's the third thing you
need to know about it. It's free. For any sinner who has no money
to buy with, nothing good about you, nothing to rest your head
on, it's free. It was purposed for you before
the foundations of the earth were ever built. And it is not
as if it is sitting on a table right there for you to accept
or reject, well, it's free, I guess I'll just take it. No, it's yours,
that means you're gonna take it. It was purposed for you,
it's always been there for you, it was accomplished for you,
therefore you will take it. Everybody he calls is gonna come.
Those are the three things you need to know about grace. It's
always saving, it's sovereign, but for anybody who needs it,
it's yours, it's always been yours. When those young men delivered
David's message, they delivered the message exactly the way David
sent it. And you know what they did after that? The last word
there in verse nine is, they ceased. They didn't add anything
to the message. They didn't take anything away
from it. They said exactly what David told them to say, and they
ceased, and that was it. In preaching the gospel, that's what we do.
We proclaim the man. We proclaim the peace he accomplished with
his father. We proclaim his grace. And you know what? We don't dare
add anything to that message. We don't dare take anything away
from it. We preach it, and we leave it alone. Let the Lord
do what He will with that. Now go on a reading. Let's look
at verse 10. Look at Nabal's response to this message. And
Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is David? And who
is the son of Jesse? There'll 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 whence they be? Nabal says, who is David? What
was the issue? Did you not know who David was?
Who's this guy? Back in Israel where they're
singing, Saul's killed his thousands, but David his ten thousands.
The same guy who killed Goliath. Was there anybody who didn't
know who David was? Was there anybody who didn't know that
David had been anointed king? No, everybody knew this. So what
does he mean? Who is David? What he's saying is, this is
not my king. I do not recognize this man.
I will not have this man to rule over me. Who is David? He is
not my king. Now what does that sound like?
This is the natural man's response to the gospel. What is it that
the natural man hates so much about Jesus Christ? About the
gospel in general, what is it? Many things, but what is the
sticking point? What is the thing that gets him so infuriating? It is the
sovereignty of God. If you had to pick one thing,
it's this, that he is in control, he rules and he reigns, and if
you will be saved, it's up to him and he can't be manipulated
by anything you do. That makes men mad, incredibly
mad. It offends their sense of control,
right? Here's what I find so interesting
about this. David is 600 men strong. David is a man who killed
a giant just some years back. David is this big, powerful guy,
right? And Nabal is a farmer. And Nabal is so easily willing
to rail against this one who can come down and wipe him out
anytime he feels like it. All Nabal had to do was bend
the knee and say, King, whatever you need, take it. It's all yours
anyway. But he wouldn't. He was so willing to rail against
this one. That's exactly what the natural
man does. This one, who clearly, by the light of creation alone,
we can see that God is, right? And he is more powerful than
we are. Can you create a tree? Can you create a sun? Clearly,
he is more powerful than we are. But yet, in our natural state,
we're so willing to rail against this one who can come down and
wipe us out anytime he feels like it. And here's the worst
of it. If the natural man would bow
the knee, if he would believe in Christ, he'd be saved. The
problem is he will not. He's churlish. He doesn't want
to. He digs in. He kicks against the pricks.
All right, look at verse 12. Let's see David's response. So
David's young men turned their way and went again and came and
told him all those sayings. 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
up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the stuff."
David's mad. David's real mad. David's coming
to kill everybody. There's a phrase that's going
to be used three times in this chapter. This is not being vulgar. This
is exactly what David says. He says, I'm coming, and I'm
going to kill everything that pisseth against the wall. That
means every male, he's going to die. David is the offended
king. Now, as a man, he's wrong. We're
going to talk about that here in a little while. But as his
type, he's absolutely right. He is a type of God the Father,
the offended king. Now, why is God the Father offended
at the natural man, at this generation? Why is he so offended? Somebody
says sin. Absolutely. Wouldn't take anything
away from it. Here's the terrible thing about our sin. It is against
God. It is not just the breaking of
some rules, it's not mischievous behavior, it is against God.
Because of the way we are, my every breath is sin, therefore
my every breath is me spitting in His face. So yes, He is the
offended King by our sin, absolutely. There's a greater issue, though.
It's a more detailed issue. Turn over here to Matthew 21. Matthew 1, look at verse 33,
let's hear a parable. The Lord 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 let it out to husbandmen,
and went 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. All he wants is what rightfully
belongs to him. That's all he wants. Verse 35, and the husbandman
took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned
another. Now that's me, right? I'm going
down with a sword immediately. All I asked for was what was
rightfully mine. They beat my servants, they come to collect
what's mine. I'm going after them, right? Look at the long
suffering of this husbandman. Verse 36, again he sent other
servants, more than the first. They did unto them likewise.
Okay, I've been long-suffering enough. I've sent some servants.
They got beat. They got stoned. I sent another group. I'm long-suffering,
but that's it. I'm coming with a sword, not
this husband of mine. Verse 37, but the last of all,
he sent unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son. But
when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this
is the heir. Come, let us kill him. Let us
seize on his inheritance. And they caught 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?
They said unto him, We will miserably destroy those wicked men, and
we'll let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall
render him the fruits in their due season. Now, every generation
has had a witness. There's never been a generation
that's never had not had a witness to the gospel. You can go through
all of them, I couldn't dare possibly, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you go
into Moses, Joshua, go through all the judges, go through Samuel,
go through Isaiah, Ezekiel, all the way through till you get
to John, and then all those guys, barely anybody paid any attention
to them, but the same message, Messiah's coming, believe on
him. Nobody paid any attention, nobody cared, and then he sent
his son, right? Finally, he sent his son. Long
suffering through every generation until he sent his son, and then
what? When we had him, what did we do with him? We murdered him. Now, that's why he's offended.
Yes, it's sin, absolutely, but this is the offense. This is
my offense and your offense to this holy and this sovereign
God. It is how we have treated his son. Right now, you've heard
this before, we're saying again, how the father thinks of you
right now can be seen of how you think of his son. Go back to your text. Look at
verse 14. Nabal's got one wise servant,
and he's gonna do a very wise thing. He's gonna bring this
up to Abigail. Verse 14, but 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 thou wilt do, for evil was determined against our
master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial
that a man cannot speak to him." What this servant is asking Abigail
to do is make intercession for Nabal and for his house. But
there's something that's locked in here. In verse 15, this is
an eyewitness account. This man was here with David
and with his men in the wilderness. And he said, as long as we were
conversant with them. That's an interesting word. I
looked it up. What it means is to walk next to someone. But
there's a stress on the word, which means you walk in the same
stride. So you've seen a group of soldiers
all drilling in formation, left, right, left. Everyone taking
the same step as the other. What this is talking about is
union with Christ. Through our union with Him, every step He
has taken, we've taken, too. When He lived on this world and
He established that perfect righteousness, we took those steps, too, in
Him. When He died, when He went to the cross, we took those steps,
too, in Him. Where He is right now with His
Father, we took those steps, too, in Him. And this servant
here gives three markers, three things that happened to them
when they were with David and his men. And these are three
things that we have in Christ. First, he says, we were not hurt.
As long as we were with David and with his men, when we were
conversant with them, we were not hurt. Here's a scripture,
Romans 8, 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. There's no hurt. Understand this.
If you're in Christ, you will never experience the penalty
for your sin. You want to know why? Because
that penalty has already been dealt out. It's already been dealt on you
because you were on that cross in him when that wrath was coming
down. But you'll never experience it. There is no hurt. Second
thing he said was, we didn't miss anything. As long as we
were conversant, as long as we were with David and his men,
we didn't miss anything. We had everything we need. Colossians
2.9, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and you are complete. in Him." Being in Christ, you
miss nothing, you lack nothing, you have everything you need.
Everything the Father requires of you, He looks to the Son for,
and the Son has provided everything. You miss nothing. The third thing
He said, He said, they were a wall unto us. Now, a wall does two
things, and does it very well. Number one, it keeps people in,
keeps people out. Here's a beautiful thought. If
you're in Christ, you have always been there, eternally united
to the Lord Jesus and you can't sin your way out of it. That
wall is too tall, that concrete is too thick, you can't get out.
If you're united to Christ, you must be saved, and you can't
do anything to get out. Now, the inverse of that is this. Walls keep people in, they keep
people out. You can't do anything to put
yourself in Christ. You have to have always been there, eternally
united to the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to have always been
within these walls. There is absolutely nothing you can do
to put yourself in Christ. He cannot be manipulated, he's
the sovereign. But what I can give you is this, I can tell
you whether you're there. Faith. If you're looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ alone, if he is your only hope of salvation,
him, lock, stock, and barrel, then you have always been within
those walls. Always been eternally united
to Him. You've walked every step along the way with Him, and you
always will walk every step along the way with Him. That wall keeps
you in, and you'll never get out. Now look down at verse 18. Verse 18 through 35, the types
switch some. There's a lot of back and forth,
so I'm gonna read them all, and then we're gonna go back and
touch on some things that are said. Pick them in 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. She told not her husband Nabal.
She's gonna go make intercession for Nabal, that's what she's
going to do. Verse 20, And it was so, as she rode on the Ass,
that she came down by the covert of the hill, and behold, David
and his men came down against her, and she met them. Now David
had said, surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath
in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained
unto him, and he hath requited 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." David's coming, he's the offended king, and he's coming
to wipe out everybody. Now, someone might say, that
doesn't seem right. Nabal offended David. Why doesn't
David just take it up with Nabal? Why doesn't he just hack his
head off and be done with it? Why does he have to go after everybody?
Here's what this sounds like to me. A long time ago, there
was a man in a garden with a piece of fruit and one rule. Don't
eat that fruit. And he ate that fruit. He disobeyed
God. And when he did, a whole race of people went down with
him as well. His name is Adam. And that race of people was us.
Everyone died in Adam. Now, before we are too hard on
Adam, understand we were in Adam. Just as much as we've always
been in Christ, we were in Adam, which means when he ate that
fruit, I did that. It was my disobedience, right? I earned
the state that I'm in this day. But yet, one man's disobedience,
many fell. But, if that's true, if a man
can fall on another man, that means I can be saved by the obedience
of another man. And that's good news. Look at
verse 23. And when Abigail saw David, she
hasted and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her
face and bowed herself to the ground and fell at his feet and
said, upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be. Let
thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in that 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 my 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 name. 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 my Lord, and evil hath not
been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pursue
thee. Seek thy soul. She's talking about 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. It's out of the middle of the sling. And it shall
come to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord according
to all the good he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have
appointed thee ruler over Israel. See, everybody knew David was
going to be king. Verse 31, that this shall be no grief unto thee,
nor offensive heart unto my Lord, either that thou has shed blood
causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself. But when the
Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine
handmaid. And David said to Abigail, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this 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 have kept me back from hurting thee,
except thou hast hasted and come to meet me, surely that had not
been left undenabled 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 that person. Now,
we're going to start with the lesser points and work to the
bigger one. Here's the first one. Aren't you thankful for
restraining grace? Now, what David wants to do here,
as a type of God the Father, he is absolutely right. As a
man, he's wrong. He wants to avenge himself. He
wants to get revenge for himself. But the Lord says, vengeance
is mine, saith the Lord. It is wrong for man to avenge
himself. Now, why? Man's done evil to you. You want
to requite him evil for you. Why is that wrong? Why should
we not do that? I think it has something to do
with this. So remember the Lord was talking about judging your
brother. He said, if you want to judge your brother, right,
if you want to get that mote, that speck out of his eye, what you
first need to do is get that beam, that huge splinter out
of your eye. Then you can judge him, right? For that thing that
you're judging him for, you did the exact same thing, if not
much worse. Same thing applies to vengeance.
That thing that you are so offended about, that thing that your brother's
done to you, that thing you're gonna get him, right? You've
done the exact same thing. If not outwardly, you've done
it in your heart. Vengeance of the Lord, he's the only one who
has the right to take vengeance. How thankful we are for restraining
grace. The Lord restrains us from doing what we would do,
apart from his controlling hand. Now, what I found interesting
here was this. This restraining grace was not always shown to
David. Remember, not too many years from now, he's gonna commit
his great sin with Bathsheba. He's gonna commit adultery with
her. He's gonna murder her husband, Uriah. And there'll be no restraining
grace at that point. We're gonna let David do what
he wants to do. And the sword never departs from
David's house because of that. Here's my point to all this.
Never mistake restraining grace for a personal righteousness
outside the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
have not done something that your brother has done outwardly,
it is simply because the Lord has restrained you from doing
it. I'm speaking to me as much as I am anybody else. And so
that makes me or you, if we have not done that same thing, the
greater debtor to grace. That's the lesser point. Here's
the greater point. Abigail is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the effective intercessor. Look back here at verse 24. Listen
to what Abigail says. and fell at his feet and said,
upon me, my Lord, upon me, let this iniquity be. These are the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ to his father. Upon me, everything
they've done, all their iniquity, all their sin, it comes to me.
I'm going to bear the burden. I'm going to bear the punishment.
I'm going to bear the blame. It all comes to me. You're going
to look to me. You're going to hold me all accountable
for it. Look at verse 25, there's an
issue. There's a problem here, right? Abigail didn't do anything
wrong. The servants didn't come to Abigail.
They didn't ask Abigail for a bunch of provisions and her say no.
Who is David? Had they come to Abigail, she would have been
like, sure, tell David to take whatever he wants. The barns
are open. Have at it. It's his stuff anyways. Here's the problem.
Abigail didn't do anything wrong. I'll tell you this, folks. The
Lord Jesus Christ never sinned. He never once committed a sin.
He never had a sinful thought. He never took a sinful action.
He was the spotless lamb. Well, look at this. Verse 28,
the type is realized. Abigail says, I pray thee, forgive
the trespass of thine handmaid. You see, there's a union that
exists between Nabal and Abigail, right? The two become one flesh.
And so she can say, if Nabal's done it, that means I've done
it. It's mine, right? And this is a great mystery. I don't know
what I'm talking about right now. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
made the sins of his people so much that he could say, they're
mine. Forgive my iniquity, they're
mine. Understand, on that cross, it was not an innocent man dying
for guilty men, it was a guilty man dying. That's terrifying
to say, but that's the truth. That's what happened. For he
hath made him sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. He made it so much that he could
say it's mine. But, just as much as that is
true, Every believer is the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, and as
real as that transference of sin was, as much as he became
our sin, we really are the righteousness of God in him. There's nothing
legal about this. There's nothing forensic about
this. This is real. This is a real thing. Now, look
at verse 35. The type is going to break down
here, but it's also going to shift. So David received of her
hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up
in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy
voice, and have accepted thy person. Now this is where the
fight breaks down, right? David could receive raisins,
and wine, and bread, and things like that, and he could look
at Abigail and say, that appeases me. I'm appeased with these gifts you
brought me. You can go in peace, right? It's not what the Father
said to the Lord Jesus Christ. Any amount of raisins or bread
or wine he could be appeased with. There's one thing he could
be appeased with, and that was death. The soul that sinneth must die. He
had to die, right? This is where the type breaks
down, and we identify when it breaks down. For the Father to
accept the Lord Jesus Christ, he had to kill him first. And
once he was done dying, then he raised him from the dead.
But he had to kill him first. Abigail gets to go free in this one,
not the Lord Jesus Christ. He had to die. But this is also
where the type shifts, and Abigail becomes a type of every believer.
And now, because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, when
he looks at every member of the elect, at every believer, he
says, go in peace. I've accepted your person. Because when he's looking at
every member of the elect, he's looking at his son. Now I'm going to
leave you with this thought. There's more to this chapter,
but we're not going to get into it. Abigail is the effective
intercessor. She goes, she makes intercession
for Nabal, and Nabal is spared. David doesn't kill Nabal. Now,
God kills Nabal not too long after this, but Nabal is spared
from David. And after he is spared, Abigail
goes to him and tells him everything that happened. She sits there
and tells him, Nabal had offended this great king. He didn't know
it. This great king was coming to kill Nabal and all his house.
He didn't know it. Abigail made intercession for Nabal, effective
intercession, and appeased David on his behalf so he wouldn't
kill him. Nabal didn't know it. He found out all these things
after they had already taken place. Now, this morning, if
you are a sinner who stands condemned before a holy and just God, and
you've got nothing to bring to the table, you've got no good
works, you've got no merits, you're in a helpless, hopeless
state, I'm condemned. I want you to understand this.
All these things have already been done for you. You may not
have known it, but you offended a great king. Maybe you're just
finding out this morning. That king was coming to kill
you. He was going to wet his sword. You may not have known
it till this morning, but the Lord Jesus Christ made effective
intercession for you. Through his death, he put away
your sins. You have his very righteousness. And now the father
says, go in peace. I don't want anything from you. I don't expect anything from
you. Go in peace. I've accepted your person. That's where I'm
going to leave you this morning.