As I read and re-read this chapter
in preparation to preach, one question kept coming to my mind.
Where do I start? This is a wonderful chapter of
scripture. I hope in the next few weeks as we are going to
camp and pitch our tents here for a little bit that you will
read this chapter again and again and again. Because this chapter
is chock full of gospel truth. And I expect that we are going
to spend some time here. Now, after viewing this chapter,
I was like a kid in a candy store, and I finally decided to begin
where the chapter begins. That's probably the best thing
to do anyway, with the death of Samuel. This book and the
next book, 1 and 2 Samuel, are entitled about this man whom
the Lord chose before the foundation of the world, whom his mother
gave to the service of the Lord when he was born. But now we
find here in the 25th chapter of this book that he dies. Samuel's
life has come to an end. And also we just read that there's
another man who dies in this passage of Scripture. His name
is Nabal. And these two men whose lives
end here are what I want us to consider tonight. These two men
whose lives end here in this chapter of this book. Samuel's
epitaph is precise. It's not attended with great
words of praise. Though the people gathered and
lamented his passing for the customary 30 days, the account
of his death is in the simplest terms. It simply says, and Samuel
died. That's what it says. And Samuel
died. And this is how it should be.
This is how it should be when we pass off this earth. This
is all that really needs to be said about us. That Tim died. Or that Bill died. Or that Debbie
died. That's what needs to be said.
We don't need any accolades laid upon us. The glory of this man's
death, the glory of this man's life, belongs where all glory
belongs. And that's to God alone. And Samuel died. Samuel died. In the play Julius
Caesar, Shakespeare said, The evil that men do live after the
good is often turd with their bones. In the natural realms,
this is true. And in one sense, it is true
of Samuel. Though no evil is attributed
to him, the good that he did went to the grave with him. Went
to the grave with him. As with every saint that dies,
his works follow him. He does not carry them with him
to his grave, because in the most part, he is unaware of them
altogether. The reality of his works are
revealed at a later time, and revealed one way, that they were
wrought by God. Samuel died. That's his epithet. Samuel died. But we are privy to his life
and the good that he has done. We've been reading about it for
some 26 chapters. It's recorded in the Word of
God and concerning his death, some things are richly revealed
by this man's death. Samuel died. One thing we know
for sure, Samuel died on time. Samuel died at the appointed
time. You see, all our lives and all
our breaths are in the hands of Almighty God. We hear of people
cheating death. Nobody cheats death. Nobody draws one breath that
has not been ordained before the world began. Barney you say
I like the doctrine of first mention Job is the oldest book
of the Bible and in Job chapter 14 in verse 5 speaking of man's
days It says this Seeing his days are determined Are determined
the number of his months are with thee Thou has appointed
his bounds and he cannot pass It can't get much clearer than
that. I remember Henry Mahan telling the story of his son,
who was Robbie, who went to Vietnam. It was only there a matter of,
I think, around ten days when he was killed. And they sent
his body back, and it was a horrible thing for Henry to have to bury
his own beloved son. It's always possibly the most
difficult thing in the world for a parent to have a child
precede him in death. I can't imagine anything any
more horrible than that. But at the end of the service,
after Henry had preached his son's funeral, a lady came to
Henry and said, I'm sorry that your son was taken before his
time. And Henry says, Oh, no. My son
was given a certain amount of days, hours, and minutes upon
this earth, and he lived every one of them. And the devil, nor
the Vietnamese, nor anybody else took one of them from him. He
died on time. So we can be sure about that.
When it said Samuel died, we can be sure that he died on time. The simplicity of the words Samuel
died reminds us that this is not something Samuel did, but
that something was something that was done to Samuel. Death is something that's done
to you and I. It's something that's done to
us. We don't voluntarily take our own life. We may try to take
our life by suicide or by some other means, but all that will
prove is that was the means that God used to bring your life to
an end at the appointed time. Samuel died. None but Christ,
none but Christ died as an accomplishment. Did you know that? Only one man
who lived upon the face of the earth and all the billions who
have walked this planet, one man died of his own power. He who is life and was life died. That to me is one of the greatest
mysteries in all of scripture, but is the subject of all of
scripture. For when he was on the Mount
of Transfiguration, and the glory of God shone round about him,
and his robes were whiter than any fuller could make, and blistering
brighter than the noonday sun, two characters came back across
the time-space continuum and landed on that mountain. They
were Elijah and, who was it? Moses and Elijah, and they represent
what in scripture? The law and the prophets. And
what was their subject matter that night as they watched our
Lord bright and shining? Did they discuss the political
issues of Rome versus Judaism? Did they discuss abortion or
who's going to be the new king? What did they talk about? Did
they talk about the evils of alcohol? No, the subject of the
Law of the Prophets was the same subject they've had since Genesis
chapter 1. They speak of the deceased. which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem, Luke 9.30. They speak of the
deceased that he should accomplish at Jerusalem. His death was an
accomplishment. He accomplished death. That cannot
be said of any of us. I guarantee you nobody will stand
by my casket and say he finally did something right. Maybe they
will. I don't think they will. But
they won't say he did something right because I didn't do anything. All men die. Samuel died. And though like all men, Samuel,
who died, came into this world and went out this world naked,
Samuel did not die alone. Samuel did not die alone. Turn
over to Psalm 116. Psalm 116. Verse 15 says this, Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. This was precious to God that
Samuel died. It was a precious thing of honor
and of value to God that his saint died. Christ, our blessed
Redeemer, was Samuel's cup bearer. He was his cup bearer. When our
Lord said, or it was said of our Lord in Hebrews chapter 5,
or chapter 2 rather, in verse 9, that He tasted death for every
man, that word tasted comes from the principle of a cupbearer.
Now, a cupbearer was one who tasted what the king ate before
the king tasted it, just in case it was poison. And if he died,
then the king wouldn't eat it. If he didn't die, then the king
wouldn't eat it. Our Lord tasted death for every son. For everyone
whom he would bring to glory. He took upon himself to taste
what Samuel had tasted this day. Had tasted this day to make sure
that this was not harmful to Samuel. He tasted death for His
people. Christ tasted death for Samuel
and because He rose from the dead, He assured Samuel that
death would not harm him. I know we paint death as the
grim reaper. as this hooded figure with a
scythe in his hand coming to mow people down. But I'll tell
you, when you die, and when I die, if I am a believer, if you are
a believer, it will not be the grim reaper who shows up at the
foot of your bed. It will be the great Redeemer,
not the grim reaper. It will be Christ Himself who
ushers you into glory. ushers you into His arms. Christ
tasted death. Why don't I fear death? My cupbearer
has already tasted it. He said it will not harm me. Go ahead and taste it yourself.
Go ahead and taste it yourself. Samuel died. But he didn't die empty. He didn't
die empty. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11 look at verse
13 speaks of those saints of old saying this These all died
in faith These all died in faith not having received the promises
but having seen them afar and were persuaded of them and embraced
them and Confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims in
this world Look at verse 32 of the same chapter. And what then
I say more of the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and
Barak, and Samson, and of Jephthah, and David, and also Samuel, and
all the prophets. Samuel died in faith. He didn't die empty. He died
in faith. He died in faith, and that faith
always has the same object from beginning to end. He died looking
for the consolation of Israel, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who knew God kept on
doing that. We go on from Samuel all the
way through the Old Testament to the 400 years that God was
silent from Malachi to Matthew. And then we turn to the Gospel
of Luke and we find the same thing going on that Samuel's
faith caused him to do. In Luke chapter 2, verse 25, we find
a man named Simeon. And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the man was just and devout,
waiting, for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost
was upon him. Look at verse 29. Lord, this is what he said when
he saw the baby Jesus Christ. Lord, now let us thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word, for thine eyes have
seen thy salvation. That's the consolation of Israel.
Our salvation, God's salvation. And it's the message of everyone
who has seen the consolation of Israel. There was a prophetess
in this place, in this temple. Her name was Anna. She was really
old. She was an old woman, especially
that day. She was a widow from four score and four years. She
had been a widow for 84 years. I don't know how old she was
when she got married. But she would have been a widow for 84
years. It says in verse 7, Which departed not from the temple,
but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And she
coming in that instant, when Simeon said, Lord, let me now
depart in peace, for I have seen thy salvation. She coming in
that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him,
that is Jesus Christ, spake of him to all that looked for redemption
in Jerusalem. You looking for redemption? You
looking for the consolation? Here he is. He is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Samuel died not empty. He died full. He died looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel died and was ushered into
the arms of the blessed Savior. That's what's going to happen
to you too. If you're a child of God, that's what's going to
happen to you. Samuel in his life, in his sojourn here, was
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel was a prophet, a priest,
a ruler, a judge, and a deliverer of Israel. All those titles are
given to Samuel, and all those titles belong to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every one of them. He's a prophet. He's the prophet. He's the Great
High Priest. He is the Ruler of the Universe. He is the Judge of all. And He
alone is the Deliverer of true Israel, the Church of the Living
God. Samuel was born as a great desire of his mother. You remember the story of Hannah.
How her husband's other wife had ten kids and she didn't have
any. It was because God had shut up her womb. Scripture says that
in 1 Samuel chapter 1. And she prayed and wept and Eli
thought she was drunk and told her to go home and get out of
the temple. And she said, I ain't drunk, I'm just broken hearted.
I want a baby more than anything else in the world. I just want
a baby. But the Lord shut up my womb. And Eli said, so be
it with thee. And the Lord opened her womb
and she gave birth to a son and immediately she gave him to the
service of the Lord. She wanted a baby. She greatly
desired a child of Christ. It is said in Haggai chapter
2 and verse 7 that He is the desire of all nations. He is
the desire of all nations. Samuel was born by God's promise. This woman's womb was shut up
and it was God who opened it. Christ is called the seed of
promise, isn't He? He was Abraham's seed. And it
didn't say seeds, as it says in Galatians chapter 3, it didn't
say seeds, it says seed, even the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
you are Abraham's children, then you are seed, the seed of the
promise. Samuel was born in a time of
great idolatry. We studied in the first part
of this book how Phineas and Hopni robbed the people and stole
from them. They refused to burn the father
to the Lord which spoke of the satisfaction of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Left that off and stole what
wasn't his and set up prostitution at the gate of the temple and
all those things. That was going on in religious
worship. That wasn't in the bars and the
bordellas. That was in the tabernacle in the temple. That's where that
was going on. That's where that, a time of great idolatry. Samuel was born into that time
of great idolatry and spiritual poverty in Israel. When our Lord
came into this world, it was a time of great spiritual poverty. What did he call the Pharisees?
He said, this is an adulterous generation. You're a bunch of
vipers. You clean the outside of the
cup, but the inside is full. Your whited sepulchers are whited
tombs, but inside you're full of dead men bones. You kill the
prophets and lay flowers on their tombs. That's what he said of
that generation. That generation had been spoken
of and spoken to by our Lord 400 years prior to our Lord's
coming in the book of Malachi. If you want to know what the
situation of the religion of Judaism was, all you have to
do is read the book of Malachi to find out where these people
were when Christ entered into this world. Malachi is the last
word from God. Last word for 400 years. And then Christ comes on the
scene, the same stuff is going on. He had to plant a whip made
of cords and run the money changers and the thieves out of the temple.
He had to do that. Everywhere he went he had to
he had to rake religion over the coves and it wasn't just
any religion There wasn't no Baptist back then It was Judaism
was Judaism. And this is what our Lord says.
I want you to notice the attitude of people turn to Malachi Chapter
1 just for a moment. We look at a few verses in chapter
1 and a couple of verses in chapter 2 Here's what our Lord said In
verse 2, he said, I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet you
say, wherein is thou loved us? Wherein is thou loved us? Was
not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob? I loved you. And he's telling
here that his love is particular. Particular. But they say, where's
the proof of it? That's always what religion wants
in it. Some sign, some proof, something that God's on their
side. Verse 6 says this, And a son
honors his father, and a father his master. If I then be the
father, where is mine honor? If I be a master, where is my
fear, saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despise
my name? And you say, Wherein have we
despised thy name? God says, This is what you're
doing. They say, Where? What? Not us. Not us. They're denying the right face
to face. They're denying the Word of God.
He said, You have offered polluted bread on my altar. Bread with
leaven in it, the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of works
religion, you've offered polluted bread. And you say, where have
we polluted thee? In that you say the table of
the Lord is contemptible by offering these things upon it. If you
offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? If you offer
the lame and the sick, is it not evil? That all speaks of
Christ. Christ is the unleavened bread. And the Jesus that's being
preached today, he's lame and blind, isn't he? He can't do
nothing unless you let him. He's a cripple. He's poor and
helpless. He can't see what's going on.
Bless his poor little heart. He said, that's what you're offering
on my altar. A false Jesus and a false Christ. Look down at chapter 2 and verse
2. He says, And now, O ye priests,
this commandment is to you, if ye will not hear it, if ye will
not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name, saith the Lord,
I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings.
Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
Behold, I will corrupt your seed, I will spread dung, and he says
that's exactly what it means, upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn
feasts, and one shall take you away with it. Then he goes on
to say in verse 12, And the Lord will cut off the man that doeth
ith the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Japheth,
and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts. And this
ye have done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears,
and with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth
not the offering any more, and receiveth it with good will at
your hand. Emotionalism, weeping and crying
and carrying on and acting religious. God says, I can't even see the
sacrifice. Not even with regard to sacrifice.
All this is vain and empty. This is the religion that Christ
came into this world and faced. This is the same thing that was
going on. Samuel was given to the Lord's
service during this time. So is our Lord. Samuel was given to the Lord's
service from his birth. Mother didn't take him home.
After she had weaned him, she brought him right back to the
temple and gave him to Eli. Brought him right back. Our Lord
came into this world serving God before he was born. When
he was born into this world, he was born serving God. Let
me show you that. Look at Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Verse 7 says, excuse me, verse
10, I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from
my mother's belly. These are the words of Christ
on the cross. Most people think He said them all. Indeed, He
was offering eternal service to God before the world began,
because He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Samuel was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel died. Like
every man dies, Samuel died, but he died privileged to be
counted among those who pictured the coming Messiah. What a glorious
thing. But all it says in Scripture
is this. Samuel died. Samuel died. But in this passage,
there's another man who died. He did not die as a precious
thing to God. He died as a cursed thing to
God. And this is the other side of this coin. These are the one
of the two ways you and I and everybody upon this earth are
going to die. We're going to die as a precious thing to the
Lord, or we're going to die as a cursed thing to the Lord. And
there ain't no in between. And there ain't no limbo or purgatory
that we can get paid out of, but it's either this or that.
It's either this or that. The Word declares that the Lord
smote this man. The Lord killed this man over
in verse 38 of 1 Samuel chapter 25. It says, And it came to pass
about ten days after that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died. The Lord smote him. The man's
name is Nabal. The name means fool. That's what
it means. It means fool. And according
to his wife, He lived up to that name. Look at verse 25. Here
Abigail is speaking to David and she says, Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard
this man of Belial. He's a man of the devil. That's
what she calls him. She's talking about her husband.
Eva Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly
is with him. But I, thy handmaid, saw not
the young men of thy Lord, whom thou didst send," which we'll
look at later. She said he's a fool. He lived up to his name.
I thought of that lady I heard one time, this dear lady who
was talking about the doctrines of grace, and she said, I love
the doctrine of total depravity. One preacher says, how come you
like it so much? She says, that's all the one I can live up to. It's the only one I can live
up to. It's the only one he can live up to, too. Nabal was a
fool. He was a fool. That was his name.
And his character is described back in verse 3. It says this,
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 beautiful countenance.
But the man was churlish and evil in his doings. And then
it says, And he was in the house of Caleb. And all three of those
things are very important. All three of those things are
very important. First of all, he's described
as churlish. That's a good old word. Not many
people use that anymore. I've heard people using it a
long time ago. They say, that person's just
churlish, isn't he? What that means is stiff-necked. It means
cruel and severe and obstinate. That's what that means. That's
how this person, this man was churlish. And this is God describing
it. This is not Abigail's description. This is God's description of
it. That man was churlish, stiff-necked. Well, that says something about
this man. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter
10. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse
16 the commandment of the Lord to his people is circumcised
Therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked
So we know this to start with this man was churlish. He was
stiff-necked. He was uncircumcised in heart
Now being a son of Caleb I guarantee he was circumcised in the flesh
But he was uncircumcised in his heart, and he was indeed a rebellious
man. Look over at Ezekiel chapter
44. In Ezekiel chapter 44, in verse
9, our Lord says, Thus saith the Lord God, No stranger circumcised
in the heart nor uncircumcised, or uncircumcised in the heart
nor uncircumcised in the flesh shall enter into my sanctuary
of any stranger that is among the children of Israel." No stranger
who is uncircumcised in heart shall enter into my temple or
my sanctuary or my safe place, saith the Lord. Now what did,
look over at Acts chapter 7. In Acts chapter 7. Verse 51 of Acts chapter 7 says
this, You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always
resist the Holy Ghost, as your fathers did, so do you. That's Stephen preaching right
before they threw rocks and killed him. Uncircumcised in the heart,
stiff-necked people. This is how Nabal, the fool,
was described. It also says he was evil in all
his doings. And again, this is God's estimation
of this man, and God always says what's right. That means he was
a cheat and a fraud in business and lived only for his own gain.
He was an evil man. You wouldn't want to be around
him. He was churlish, obstinate, severe, the kind of people we
don't like. So try not to be that. If you can help yourself. And he was evil in all his doings.
Evil in all his doings. He was a cheat. But it also says
he was a son of Caleb. He was a son of Caleb. You know
who Caleb was. Caleb was one of the original
two that left Egypt under the age of 20 and entered the promised
land. Just two people did out of that
original group under the age of 20 when they left. Joshua
and Caleb. Joshua means Savior. Caleb means
faithful dog or faithful servant. This is a reminder to all of
us that God has no grandchildren. He doesn't. Just because you
were raised in a home where you heard of the Lord doesn't mean
you're going to know the Lord. Just because your children were
raised on the gospel doesn't mean they're going to know the
gospel either. It's our prayer that they do. And we ought to
continue praying until our last breath that they know Christ.
But it's no guarantee. No guarantee. He was a son of
Caleb, one of the two, blessed to enter the promised land out
of the original group. And many as received Christ gave
you the authority to become the sons of God. It says in 1 John
chapter 12 and in verse 13 it says, which were born not of
bloods, not of ancestry, not of the will of the flesh, not
of the will of man, but born of God. This man is said to have
a hard heart. He's hard hearted. When he found
out how close he came to death, The scripture says his heart
turned to stone. That's what this says in this
chapter. His heart turned to stone. We'll
look at that some later. But that means he had no repentance.
Now if you want to know what he did, I'll just quickly tell
you that David came to him for help and he refused David. Mocked him. And so David, the word got back
to David, and David said, I'm going to go kill that so and
so. Got him 400 men, it was the only way to do it. Well, Abigail
heard that David had come for help, and she went and begged
David not to do that, even though Nabal was a fool and lived up
to his name. Don't kill him. And he didn't.
She gave a party and Nabel got drunk, so she didn't tell him
what she'd done until he was sober the next morning, probably
had a little bit of a hangover. But anyway, she told him, she
says, you know, David was coming to kill you. And I begged for your life. And
I gave him a whole lot of, took him a whole lot of victuals for
his men. And it says he stiffened up and
his heart turned to stone. And he stayed that way for 10
days until God killed him. Stayed that way for 10 days.
His heart was hard. God had not taken away his heart
of stone and given him a heart of flesh as it speaks of those
whom he loves in Ezekiel chapter 36. And David even grouped him,
David grouped him, this Nabal, with things which he described
in what might be called colorful language. See if I can find where
that is. Verse 34 of chapter 25. For in very deed, as the Lord
God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee,
except thou had hasted, and come to meet me, Surely there had
not been left unenabled by the morning light any that pisseth
against the wall. Yeah, that's in the Bible. Any
that pisseth against the wall. I can't read that passage of
Scripture without thinking of a preacher I knew who was at
one of these meetings. I think it was a tri-state conference
or something and he was asked to get up and read scripture
and he just flipped over to this passage of scripture and he started
to read and he came to that line and he was a very modest man
and never used foul language just couldn't imagine himself
using foul language and he came and he said he that He that pisseth against the wall. What is that? It's
a colloquialism. It's a colloquialism. It's a
phrase of derision. It means something in particular. But David said Nabal was in with
that group. It's a colloquialism that denotes
a base or an uncouth person who is more like a dog than a man.
More like a dog than a man who takes no one but himself and
his own relief or pleasure in account of his actions. That's
all that means. You know, that's all that means.
In short, the activity described is most readily attributed to
a dog and not a man. So David, in a colloquial fashion,
was saying, he's a dog. And all the dogs with him was
about to be killed if Abigail hadn't come plenty to call. He's
just a dog. Now, you don't have to use that
phraseology, but you can if you want to. Next time you see a dog, you
can say, he that pisseth against the wall. It's all right. It's
all right. What David was doing was calling
him a common cur, a common cur, a filthy mongrel coward. And God smote him. First God
smote him with catatonia, then ten days later God killed him. And there you have it. Samuel
died. and was ushered into the presence
of God. Nabal died and went to hell. And that's how that works. That's how that works. The best
description of his character, however, is his name. His name means a fool. I didn't realize this until I
started looking up in my concordance how many times Especially in
the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the word fool is used. Also in
the Psalms, a number of times the word fool is used. I'll just,
we'll just look at a few because we ain't about to look at all
of them. We'd be here to December if we did. This term is used
in Scripture to denote those who don't know God and further
care not to know God. That's how they are described.
Look first at Psalm 14. This is again repeated in Psalm
58. Well, let's read Psalm 14. Verse 1 says, The fool hath said
in his heart, and that means in his heart, this is where he
lives, this controls his thinking, this moves him and motivates
him. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. If you'll notice, there is, is
in italics. Therefore, it can be removed
from the text without doing damage. The fool has said in his heart,
no God. And the original reads, no God
for me. That's what a fool said in his
heart, no God for me. I'm going to be my own God and
the captain of my own destiny. It goes on to describe them as
abominable and doing no good and stinking and filthy and such. Look over at Proverbs chapter
10. Proverbs chapter 10 verse 18. He that had a hatred
with lying lips and he that uttereth a slander is a fool. Same one saying no God for me? He's a fake. He's got a facade
up. He hates but it don't look like
hate. It looks like something else. Looks almost like love. That's what a fool is. Look at
chapter 12. Proverbs and verse 15 the way
of a fool is right in his own eyes But he that hearkeneth to
counsel is wise the fool won't hearken unto counsel He won't
hearken unto counsel look at chapter 18 Chapter 18 in verse 2 a fool
hath no delight in understanding that But that his heart may discover
itself. Now think about that. Where are
we at today in this world? Know yourself. Love yourself. Find out who you are. That's
what a fool wants. A fool has no delight in understanding
because if he had understanding he'd know that he's a fool. There
was no hope for him in this world and in himself. But he delights in that his heart may discover
itself. All inside, nothing outside. Everything's about him and nobody
else. Look at chapter 26 and verse 11. A dog returns to his vomit, so
a fool returns to his folly. That's quoted in 2 Peter. As
the Proverbs said, A dog returns to his own vomit and a pig returns
to his own waller. Who's that describing? Those
who have heard the truth and despised it. And despised it. Those who've heard someone tell
them the truth in the gospel and have turned their back on
it. That's a fool. That's a fool. Look at Luke chapter
12. Verse 16, And he spake a parable unto them,
saying, Ground of a certain man which brought forth plenty, And
he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have
no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will
bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. 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? So is he that layeth up treasure
for himself, and is not rich toward God. That's a fool. That's
a fool. It's all about you, not about
God at all. We see two men dead here. We see two men dead. We clearly see the end of the
fool. It's not a good end. It's a bad end. It's the end
of all wicked. God killed God operated on Samuel
in grace. God operated on Nabal in wrath. As I was finishing up, I just
thought of Luke chapter 16. Verse 19, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and
fine linen and fared sumptuously of a day. There was a beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores. Desiring
to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table,
moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass
that the beggar died. Samuel died. and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried. And in hell he lifted up his
eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus
in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am
tormented in this place. And Abraham said, Son, remember,
remember, that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things, and
likewise Lazarus received evil things, but now he is comforted,
and thou art tormented. Beside all this, between us there
is a great gulf fixed, that they which would pass from henceforth
to you cannot, neither can they pass to us which would come from
thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, For
I have five brethren, that he may testify to them, lest they
also come to this place of torment. And Abraham said to him, They
have Moses and the prophets. And what did they talk about?
They all gave witness of Christ. Let him hear them. And he said,
No, no, Father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead,
they will repent. And he said, if they hear not
Moses and the prophets, which declare him who was raised from
the dead, neither will they be persuaded, though one raised
from the dead. That's a pretty good picture of Samuel and Nabal. Samuel died. The Lord smote Nabal and he died. Let us pray. Father, bless us
to our understanding Let us with thankful hearts praise you for
your grace and mercy that you counted us among your elect. That you included us in the covenant
of grace. That you saved us. And we know
when we pass off of this world, it will be according to your
appointed time. And we'll leave this place, believe
me, We are privileged, Father. Thank
you for not letting us go our way, being foolish and desiring
only to see what's in our own hearts. Help us, Lord, to trust
Christ right now. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.
Good night. God bless you.