The contrast between the spirit of the world, the spirit of man, and the Spirit of God, using the biblical figures of Nabal, David, and Abigail from 1 Samuel 25. Nabal exemplifies the self-centered, unthankful spirit of the world, refusing to acknowledge David's kindness and claims. David, though a man after God's own heart, demonstrates the spirit of man when his pride is wounded, leading him to seek vengeance. Abigail, however, embodies the Spirit of God through her wisdom, humility, and intervention, persuading David to trust God's timing and justice. The message concludes by urging listeners to allow the Spirit of God to control their lives, leading to gentleness and Christ-like character, rather than succumbing to the world's or their own fallen nature.
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I'm going to ask you this evening to turn to First Corinthians, pardon me, Chapter Two. First Corinthians, Chapter Two. I'm going to read a little bit here and then we're going to go back to First Samuel, Chapter Twenty-five. And I can guarantee you that you're going to see difficulty in trying to connect up the two passages, but I hope that the difficulty will dissolve as we go on through the message. And if that difficulty still remains after the message has been given, then I have failed in my delivery tonight, I'm sure. But as you look at these verses in First Corinthians chapter two, we'd like to have you watch for the three spirits that are mentioned in the passage and they're not difficult to find.
I think perhaps for sake of time we'll just begin reading at verse seven. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For, what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That is, the things of God are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, for who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.
Now I'm sure you've already seen the three spirits in this passage, and I won't ask you for your contribution, but here they are. We have, first of all, the spirit of the world, and then we have the spirit of man, and then we have the spirit of God. Now I want with this much before us to go back to First Daniel chapter twenty-five. First Samuel chapter twenty-five. We have a continued story right on through the entirety of this chapter and it's a long chapter and I don't know which part to read and which part to leave out, but we're going to have to leave out part of it for the sake of time.
But we start with verse two anyway. There was a man in Mayan whose possessions were in Carmel. The man was very great and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand 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 curlish and evil in his doings and he was of the house of Caleb. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear 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. 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.
Now I have heard that thou hast shears. Now thy shepherds which were with us, we heard them not. Neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young man, and they will show thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes, For when we come in a good day, give, I pray thee whatsoever, cometh to thine hands unto thy servants and to thy son David. When David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David and C. Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There 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?
So David joined me and turned their way and went again and came and told all these things. And David said unto his men, Gurdjie on every man his sword. And they girded on every man their sword. And David also girded on his sword. And there went up after David about four hundred men and two hundred abode by this stuff. 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. And then they told her the story of how David's servants were treated by Nabal. They said in verse seventeen, the last part of that verse, For he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak unto him.
That's Nabal. Then we drop down for sake of time to verse twenty-one. Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all of his fellow-hats in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing of all that pertaineth unto him. And he hath requitted me evil for good. And then verse twenty-three, 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 unto 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 thine handmaid. Verse twenty-eight, I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house, because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord.
Get that. My Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all these days. Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul. that 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, as out of the middle of the sling. And it came to pass, when the Lord shall have done, and it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my Lord, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel, 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 shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine handmaid. David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which has sent thee this day 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 hands. Now verse thirty-five, and David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go in peace to thine house. See, I have heard him through thy voice, and I have accepted thy person. 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 the morning light. And it came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Mabel that his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became a stone. And it came to pass after about ten days that the Lord had smoked Mabel that he died. All right, that's quite a bit of reading. I hope we didn't weary us with a reading, but I felt like since first Samuel chapter twenty-five really is one of the more familiar passages to most of us. Maybe it would be well to read and connect up the story here so that we can appreciate what we have to say from this a little bit more.
Now if you're wondering why I've read this lengthy portion from first Daniel chapter twenty-five, it's because you will remember and notice that we have three people who take the stage here in the twenty-fifth of this chapter. And these three people are Nabal and David. and Abigail. Now I'd like to use these three people as representative people tonight because I want to link these three people and what they said and did with those three spirits that we have in the book of Corinthians. I'd like to think first of all as Nabal being the man who represents the spirit of this world.
I would like to use David as the man who represents the Spirit of Man. And then I would like to use Dear Abigail as the one who represents the Spirit of God. And I hope that you will appreciate that as we go on through because I think you will be able to see that there are some comparisons here. So let us handle them in that order. Now first of all, we have Mabel and I say that he is quite a representative man for he certainly would seem in many ways to be typical of the worldling around us. And after all, what is it that characterized the worldling around us, but the spirit of this world?
Now you know in the Bible there's a number of different spirits that we read about. We read about an evil spirit. We read about a dumb spirit. And then of course we do read about the Holy Spirit. Now what kind of a man does an evil spirit make? Well an evil spirit makes an evil man. What kind of a spirit does a dumb spirit make? Well, a dumb spirit makes a dumb man. So if an evil spirit makes an evil man and a dumb spirit makes a dumb man, what kind of a man would you suppose a Holy Spirit would make? You've got the answer, don't you? Of course the Holy Spirit wants to make a holy man. And this is exactly what we ought to be as we go through our pilgrimage here in this world, because the Scripture calls us unto a light of holiness.
But now the spirit of this world is that which characterizes the age in which we live. And it's that which characterizes the worldlings who are all around us, the spirit of this world. And so, tremendously typified by Nabal and his attitudes and some of the things that he said. First of all, what do we read about Nabal? Well, there's a number of things that we could say about Nabal, but I'm going to try and simmer them down to at least just a few points. so as to not spend too much time on him. But you will notice in verse ten what Nabal said. David has sent his servants to Nabal. Now if you remember from the context of our reading that there was a time in Nabal's experience when David showed Nabal a great deal of kindness.
Nabal had his sheep over here in Carmel and during the time that Nabal and his shears and his shepherds were over here at Carmel, David's servants had showed much kindness to them. They had protected them and treated them with real kindness. But now David hears that Nabal is shearing his sheep, and David has acclaim upon Nabal. David at this point does beautifully represent our Lord Jesus Christ. For our Lord Jesus Christ has acclaim upon people today. He even has acclaim upon the people of this world. though they won't acknowledge that claim. And why don't they acknowledge that claim? For the same reason that Nabal didn't acknowledge David's claims.
Nabal forgot David's kindness. Nabal didn't take into consideration the things that David had done for him. He's an unthankful type of a person. What is the thing that characterizes the world around us today and the worldlings with whom we associate? Unthankfulness. the world so little realizes what they draw from God day by day. And as we so often say, even down to the very air that they breathe, the world owes their existence. They owe everything that they have to God. And let me tell you, if God is the one who created us, and if God is the one who sustains us, and if it's out of God's hand that we are fed in this world down here, don't you think that God has the right to to expect something in return.
But what does he get in return from the world being? Nothing. Nothing. Let me say it again. Nothing. Whatever God gets out of this world, beloved, underscore this, whatever God gets out of this world he gets from his people who are in this world. But he gets nothing from the world. This means that you and I who are Christians down here are the ones who are going to have to provide some satisfaction for the heart of God from a world like this. I believe that's why the Lord has left us here. You know, if the Lord took all of us who are saved out of this world, wouldn't this world be a dismal place, even for God himself?
Where would God get his praise? And where would God get those who would proclaim his truth? Thank God He has passed by the angels as far as His messengers of proclaiming the truth of salvation is concerned, and He has invested His work with poor, failing, stumbling creatures such as you and I. But, you know, the Bible says, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. It's you and I who are redeemed with His precious blood, who can sing forth the praises of Jehovah. And it's you and I who know the truth of God that can share it with others. And so, we believe Therefore we speak. Every Christian ought to be a witness of these things.
Every Christian ought to be a gospel witness. Every Christian ought to be a witness of the truth. And every one of us as Christians who have come into the glorious liberty of the truth concerning the New Testament church, we ought to be sharers of that truth with others. Let us not keep the peace to ourselves. But what did Nabal say when the fervence of David came to him? He said something that really characterizes the world today, if only they would confess it and many of them do. I know not David. That's what he said. I don't know David. Remember Pharaoh said something like that way back in the days of Moses? When Moses came to Pharaoh and he said, The Lord has appeared to me and he has said, Let my people go.
Pharaoh said, And who is the Lord? And he said that in a most defiant tone. And this is exactly the language of Nabal. When David comes to make his claims upon him at the time of the shearing of his sheep, Nabal says, And who is David? Ah, don't tell me he didn't know who David was. He knew who David was. Why did he say it then? Because he didn't want to give David any rightful acknowledgments. He didn't want to let David have any claim upon him. And why didn't he want to have, let David have any claim upon him? Why didn't he want to make any returns for the kindness that David had showed to him?
And it all sums up in verse eleven. Nabal says in verse ten, Who is David? I don't know him. Who is this son of Jesse you're talking about? He says he may, as far as I'm concerned, just be another servant who's broken away from his master. But why did he say that? What's the underlying reason for Nabal saying that in verse ten? Verse eleven. Shall I, and now look for that personal pronoun again. This afternoon, ladies, we looked for personal pronouns and we found they were quite enlightening. Sometimes, you know, those little words can really give us the key to a passage. Now you look for the personal pronoun again. Shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my Shepon here?
You know what this man has got? He's got one of these terribly serious diseases. called big ISIS. Did you ever hear this? Did you ever have it? I have a little trouble with this disease myself. But this man has got a very, very serious case of big ISIS capital I. I take my bread, my water, my flesh that I have killed for my shears and give it unto men whom I don't even know. I didn't sound good to David or to Mabel. Didn't sound good to Mabel at all. Why? Because he felt like all of those things which he had were his own.
And isn't that the spirit of this world? The spirit of this world seems to be that what they have is their own and nobody else is going to have any rightful claim to it whatsoever. And one of the reasons why the world doesn't want to acknowledge God One of the reasons I say why the world today is running away from God is because they know that if they have a meeting with God, that he's going to get involved into their personal life. And they don't want God to interfere with their business. They don't want God to interfere with their program. They don't want God to get his hand into their pocket.
And they want God to stay out of their whole program. And they're running away from God just as fast as they can. Now I'm here to tell you that when a person gets into a meeting with God and when a person gets to know God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, don't mistake me. God's going to get involved in your life. God's going to get involved in your personal life. God's going to get involved in every detail of your life. You know why? Because He's interested to that extent. The Lord is interested in every little detail of your life. He's interested in the kind of clothes you wear. He's interested in the kind of a car you drive.
He's interested in kind of the home you live in. He is interested in all of your problems. He's interested in your physical welfare. He's interested in the things that go through your mind. He's interested in your psychological being. He is vitally, of course, interested in your spiritual life. And there isn't any department of your life that you can shut God out of because He's going to get involved. And this is the reason that some unsaved people are running away from God because they don't want to be interfered with. They want to have their bread, their water, their flesh. They want to keep it all to themselves and they don't want God to get into too closely. So think of men. A little bit of this spirit once in a while characterizes us as Christians too, doesn't it?
How much do I want God to get involved into my life? Isn't it true that sometimes as Christians there are certain areas of our life where we say now, it's all right, Lord, for you to have a little place here. I've got a room over here for you now. When it comes to me going to meeting on Sunday morning, now, Lord, I'll take you into consideration on that. But now, when it comes to what I want to do on Sunday afternoon, I'd kind of like to have you back off, Lord, and you just kind of get out of that. Because if I want to go hunting deer, if I want to shoot fox, or if I want to go roller skating, or if I want to, well, you just name it. If I want to do it, Lord, I don't want you to stand in my way. I want to do it. And so we kind of let the Lord have a little something to say in those areas so long as they don't interfere with our own personal wishes.
So when it gets too close to home and the Lord began to take a claim on some areas of my life where I feel like it's sort of hindering me in the things that I want to do, then I'd kind of like the Lord to have a back seat. I'd kind of like to have you stay up. That's exactly the spirit of this world. And I say the spirit of the world is that which can characterize even to some extent we who are Christians. Okay, that's the secret to Nabal. What else do I learn about Nabal? Nabal was a very great man with his possessions because that's what he set his heart on. Whatever you set your heart on, that's what's going to be uppermost in your mind. Nabal was very great, we read.
Nabal says, I don't know David, just like the worldling who doesn't know Christ. Nabel was self-centered. He was a selfish man. He wanted to keep everything he had for himself and not let David have any part, just like the world being today. And then we find in verse six that Nabal lived in utmost prosperity. Verse six it said, And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity. Let me just say this in passing. Prosperity is a curse of America. I really believe. It's a curse of our country today. And there probably isn't anything that has done more to hinder even we who are Christians in this business of getting on for God as a prosperity that we're enjoying.
And I'm not so sure it's going to last. I don't know. I don't know what the Lord's going to do. But I will say this. That I believe that the Lord knocked our prosperity off from under us. pulled us out of our little comfy nest, I believe it would make better Christians out of us. I know my own heart. I know how easy it is and how commodious it is and how desirable to the flesh it is to get seated comfortably and sort of pull yourself in, maybe pull your little family in around you and just sort of take it easy. and just sort of ignore the responsibility.
And oh, I do believe that prosperity today has been the ruination of many a Christian. I don't believe that Christians need to be afraid of prosperity if they're willing to use their prosperity for the Lord. But oh, there seems to be a certain danger of wealth. This is exactly what Paul warned Timothy and told Timothy to warn his audience about. He says, warn them that are rich, that they trust not in their uncertain riches and that they don't be high-minded. I know that there are some people who are rich and they're using their riches for God. But all, on the other hand, I have seen more people who have gone down the drain because of their riches than I have seen people who were ready to use their riches for God.
And I know of some who, though they have their wealth, They use a little bit of it for an excuse just to kind of pad themselves with their conscience. I think of a certain friend. Mine is a very wealthy man, not much older than I am. And he's extremely wealthy. I mean, it just doesn't mean anything for him to hand out a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars. I can remember the time when I got a check from this man. I think it was a personal check. I believe it was for two hundred dollars. And you just don't get too many personal checks for that amount of money.
You just don't get too many checks for that amount of money, period. So it was quite a noticeable thing. Well, and I didn't mean that to sound like maybe we thought it sounded normal. Not making any complaints. The Lord takes care of us and for us. But whether you get one thousand dollar check or ten, one hundred dollar checks up all the time, you see that. Okay. Forget it. Go on. This fellow would send me once in a while a pretty nice little fat check and, you know, he had so much left that his little two hundred dollars out of that big balance of his really wasn't too much. I'll tell you the contrary to that. I was up in Kansas one time and a fellow took me to the top of a bleak old hill in the Flint Hills of Kansas, up a winding path that was all washed out by the rains.
And I thought, where's this man taking me for anyway? And when we got way to the top of this old hill, there was a little hollowed out place in the trees, and there was an old farmstead, a barn and a few sheds around, and an old house, it's not ready to fall down. And we went in and visited an old couple. And this old couple had had several children in their family, and a good many of those kids had at one time or other visited the state institution for the mental health. you talk about poverty and you talk about trouble and in the poverty of that living room we sat and visited this old couple and opened up the scriptures to them prayed with them before we left and when it was time to go the old man got up out of the chair and he put something into my hand and I said no please don't what I was saying to myself is my love you got so much more than this man has got.
You can't take any cash from him. You can't. I said, no, brother. Please, though. I didn't want to insult him. I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Please, though. He says, no, brother. He said, this is the Lord's money. And he says, I want to give it to the Lord's servant. I want to invest it for the Lord. He says, you must take it. What could I do? I couldn't refuse. He wants to give it to the Lord. He couldn't send it to us by airmail to heaven, so he had to invest it some way. So I said, okay, I'll take it. When I got out, I did something that I never do otherwise. In the very presence of the brother who had taken me to see this old couple and this family living up there, I looked to see how much it was.
Usually, you know, I stuff it in my pocket. Wait till I get home before I take an account. But on this occasion, I opened it up, unfolded the bills, and how many dollars do you think I had? I'd like to ask you how many dollars you thought I had, but I won't tell you my embarrassment. Three. Three dollars, you know, in these days, isn't an awfully lot. But that was the biggest three dollars I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen three dollars that were bigger than those. Why? Judging from what they had left. is the way I judged it. That was what I call sacrifice. That was three dollars coming from a source of poverty.
My friend of whom I spoke, two hundred dollars didn't seem to make a dent with him. For he had big cars, more than one. The biggest and the finest speedboats that could be bought. And he had snowmobiles, and he had a beautiful home, And you name it. And he had it. Now, don't get me wrong. I appreciated his two hundred dollar gift. He didn't have to give it to me. He could have squandered it and done something else. He didn't have to give it to me. I appreciate it. But I'm only trying to point out that it isn't always how much that is given.
But it's the spirit behind the giving. And sometimes you sort of look to see what's left after the giving. You know. This kind of a natural thing which a person really shouldn't do, maybe. But this fellow has all of his things that could be had. And sure, he uses his boat, he uses his home, he uses his car for God. But oh, in all of his prosperity, I want to tell you something. This man went on for years for God in his prosperity. Now, I hate to describe his spiritual condition tonight. I hate to describe it.
I went to visit his widow. He's away from the Lord. And it would take me a long time. It would be wasted moments probably to tell you what kind of a life this man is living today. You know, I said to his wife that my wife and I visited with his wife and talked about his precarious situation. And she said to us that day, just after New Year of this year, She said, my husband knows that he is lining himself up for the discipline of God in his life. She says he knows he is. The things that he is doing, the way he is operating now. She says he knows that God is going to judge him. She knows that, but he's not able to control himself.
I said, I'm an anger by name. I said, if you were to do it all over again, I said, let me ask you something. Don't you think maybe he would like to have done without a few of the nice things that you have had in life and live a little more simple life and not be quite so involved in business and prosperity? And she says, you can say that again. She really didn't make her too happy. She didn't prosper. Oh, I've got to get on my message. That wasn't my message for tonight. I'm way off key here. But here he is living in prosperity. Prosperity, the wealth of the world. And then what else do we find about him? He's Kurdish and evil in his doings.
And then the last thing we learn about Mabel was that he was intoxicated in verse thirty-six. And that's just descriptive of the world today. The world around us is intoxicated. I don't mean they're all drunk. It means they're intoxicated with their pleasures. Anything that controls a man, you know, is similar to intoxication. What happens when a man gets intoxicated? Well, he's no longer able to act for himself. He's controlled by something that's bubbling up on the inside. And he's no longer control of the situation. And the world today is intoxicated by their pleasures. And they are not in control with their pleasures. They're in slavery to their pleasures.
Well, that's Navel. Well, let's leave Navel. We've got to talk about the other ones for a little while. That's the spirit of this world. He refuses David's claims. He's selfish and self-centered. He knows not David needs intoxicated. Let's talk a little bit about David. What do you learn about David from this passage? Now don't forget that there are times when David is a beautiful type of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I love to preach on the life of David. I took up the series in one of our whole assemblies on the life of David and I really enjoyed my own study. He told I was going to say preaching, didn't he? I really enjoyed the study that I had in the life of David and as I study this good man, My estimation and my esteem for him just grows, you know.
One of the things I kind of like to do is to try to project myself into the personality of these people. I don't want to see these people just as ancient historians. I want to see David as a man who is mine equal. I want to kind of project myself into David's experiences. I want to think of David as a man not living that many years ago. I want to think of David as kind of living in And so as I project myself into David and his experiences and his feelings, I feel like I'm a real close friend of David. When I get to heaven, if there is such a thing as this again, that as I have said before, David and I are going to have some good conversations if we have time to talk about things like this.
I don't know who will. I think we're going to be so busy talking about the Lord. that we won't have time to talk about David's experiences, much less mine. Well, anyway, David's my friend. I like David. I just feel close to David. But you know, there are times when David let me down. You know why? Because he was a human being. That's why. There are times when David is just beautifully a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. But David wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ. There are times when David leaves me terribly disappointed and downcast. And I can learn the lessons from the life of David.
And here is one time when I see David. You know how I see David in this chapter? He's acting in the energy of the flesh and according to the spirit of man. Not the spirit of the world necessarily. The spirit of man, which is the natural man. or the carnal nature or man in the flesh. You see, if you agree with me now, follow me. Are you getting sleepy? Hot in here. Wake up. Follow me. See if this is true. What did David say when his servants came back and told him what Nabal said to his servants?
What did he say? Let's see what he said. Verse thirteen. And David said, Gurdjie on every man his sword. And the rest of this, if I may paraphrase it, he says, We're going after him with vengeance, folks. Just let me get my hands on him. I'll tear him apart. This navel isn't going to treat my servants like that. Nobody's going to insult me like that. Just let me get my hands on him. What does that sound like? Does that sound like Christ? Or does that sound like David? Does that sound like the Spirit of the Lord?
Or does that sound like the Spirit of David? Do you know who it sounds like? My little Andy Cross. That's who it sounds like. Because what David is doing here is so... such an illustration of the way Manga Vandegraud would calmly act on a repentant purpose in this. What's wrong? What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong. David's pride has been hurt. That's what's wrong. Say, is there anything that gets us more upset? Is there anything that will kindle the fires of temper within us?
Is there anything that disturbs us more than when somebody hurts my pride? Nothing. He's hurt me. He has hurt my pride. And God has been trying to teach me of the last month something about the ugliness of my home. You want me to tell you something? Your pride isn't a bit nicer than mine. Not a bit. Pride is one of the products of the nature of a person and it's in us and if we are hurt, it's usually because our pride is hurt.
And God sometimes has to allow our pride to be wounded and he has to allow us to go through certain throws and circumstances in order to show us what we are in ourselves. God wants me to know what I'm like on the inside and tell you it doesn't make me comfortable. This is exactly what's wrong with David. His pride has been hurt. And David says we're going to go out with our swords, folks, and we're going to get that last one. Do you know what was wrong with it? David was the man who was supposed to be fighting the battle for the Lord. Whose battle will he fight now? Is he fighting the Lord's battle? You can be sure he's not.
He's fighting David's battle. And when a man goes out with a sword on his side, and it's the right sword, and he's going into the right battle, let him go. If he's got the sword of the Spirit, and he's going into the Lord's battle, don't hinder him. Get behind him and tell him to go. But when he is out for vengeance, and when he has got the sword by his side to slay his fellow men, and when it's to defend his own position, and when it's because his pride has been hurt, he's not going for the Lord. He's going to defend himself. And this is David all over again. And what is it?
It's the Spirit of Man that we read about in First Corinthians chapter two. spirit of man. Do you know what? The spirit of man is in all of us, yes. You may be a Christian. Probably most of you are, but you've still got the spirit of man in you. And there isn't anything I can say about it that's too good. Because the spirit of man is just the carnal man, the old nature that's in us, and it's incurably bad. And there's no way you can reform it. There's no way you can polish it. There's nothing you can do with it. And the Bible teaches us that it has to be condemned, and it has to be counted dead, and it needs to be crucified.
The old man has to be put off. Well, here's David. Now, one more thing about David before we leave him. Verse twenty-one. And David said, Surely in vain I have kept all that this fellow has. Now what's David saying? David is looking at this situation all wrong, and David says, Hmm, I guess everything I have done in kindness for Nabal... I guess it's all in vain. Could it be? Could it be that the kindness that David has shown to Nabal in the past for which he is getting unkindness in return was it in vain? Oh, let's ask it this way.
Have you ever shown kindness and patience and love to anybody that you felt after it was all done, that it was in vain. You answer the question. Have you? Say, there's been many a time when I have shown impatience. There's been many a time when I have said things in disgust. There's been many a time when I have analyzed my own hasty hurt feelings and the things that I said to retaliate. And then I said, oh, Milo, why didn't you do that? Why didn't you keep your mouth shut? Why didn't you exercise patience? Why didn't you be quiet?
I've been sorry many a times for my lack of patience. I've been sorry many a times for my hot words, my uncontrolled temper. Oh, I've been so sorry. But I can't remember a time in my life when I ever showed kindness or love or patience to one single individual that I ever said, Oh, my Lord, why did you do it? I do. I never have. I never have. You know what I'm trying to say? Well, you know what I'm trying to say. I don't need to tell you. It pays. And it is not in vain. David says it was vain. I wish I could tell David tonight that it wasn't in vain, but he probably knows it by now. It was not in vain, David.
You don't do these things in vain. These things were good. The kindness that you showed to Nabal is good, and you'll never be sorry about it. Well, what happens next in this little episode is that Abigail comes to the knowledge of all this. The servants of Nabal have come to Abigail and she, and they have told her the whole detail of the story. They have said how the Nabal treated David's servants thus and so. And then they said, and you know why Abigail? David has got his sword on his side. He's got his servants ready to go and he's ready to go after him with vengeance and he's going to kill Nabal.
on the first cycle. And Abigail immediately went into action. And you know what Abigail does? She says, quickly get me a few little things together that will appease this man. See that I can get into the pathway which he is going and quickly she crosses David's pathway. Before he gets to Navel she intercepts his pathway. And you know what Abigail does? David is coming down the pathway with vengeance on his face. His eyes are flaming and he's ready to take vengeance for sure. I think I could just about see Abigail.
God bless this woman. In her own unique way. Don't forget what it says about Abigail. Because you have to get this in order to appreciate Abigail for all of these words. Look what it says in verse three about Abigail. She was a woman of good understanding. I'd like to take my hat off tonight to all the women, dear sisters, of good understanding. Because there's a lot of Abigail's around. Thank God for the Abigail's. Sometimes it's the Abigail's that keeps the David's from doing crazy things. I've got an Abigail at home. Did you know my wife's name is Abigail?
Her name isn't Abigail, but she's been in Abigail's name because there have been times when I was ready to go with vengeance that Abigail has accepted my path. She says, hold it. Better think it over. And that's exactly what Abigail does with David. She says, David, wait a minute. Let's don't go into this in a hurry. Let's sit down and talk this thing over. Let's give it a second thought first. David's just cool off a bit. Let's just Let's just analyze this thing a little bit. And what was Abigail's reasoning with David? How did she reason David out of his fury?
How did she do it? Notice what she said. In verse twenty-eight. She says, the Lord, the middle of the verse, the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house. because my Lord fights at the battles of the Lord. She is saying to him, David, the Lord has promised to make you a sure house. You don't have to go out and defend your own cause. Your business is to fight the Lord's battles. I wasn't intending to say this. I never thought about saying it until right now, but I'm going to say it. If the Lord's people down through the last fifty years had spent as much energy and time and effort in fighting the Lord's battles as they have in fighting their own battles between themselves.
The assemblies of God's people would be better off today. Might be a little hard to take. There it is. We have spent more energy in fighting our own battles between ourselves than we have fighting the Lord's battles. This is sometimes why the Lord's word suffers. All right, well, go on. She says to David, you're to fight the Lord's battles. Now notice verse twenty-nine. She says, the Lord is going to bundle you up in a bundle of life, and she says, he's going to cast your enemies out. They're going to be cast out by the flame. David, you know what she's really saying?
I like to sum up what she's saying. What she is really saying, she says, David, Hold everything. Let God take control of this situation and you back off. Don't run ahead of the Lord. Don't take things into your own hands. Why? Because she says a little bit later on in verse thirty, It shall come to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel, David. God is going to make you a sure house. God's going to make you the ruler over Israel. Now, David, in view of that, don't do anything hasty. Don't do anything you'll be sorry of.
David, you going out to slay this man in your own vengeance is not in keeping with your dignity. It's not in keeping with... your exalted provision. God has exalted you to be the ruler over Israel and the day is going to come when you're going to be sitting on the throne and he says we don't want to do anything that's going to be grievous or offensive to the heart of my Lord and you don't need to cause blood to flow causeless. Don't do it David. You know what the result of all this was? The result of all of this was that David climbed down off of his high horse and he If I can use the language, he got right down at the feet of this woman and probably, practically, kissed her feet and said, Abigail, God bless you.
I'm so thankful you came into my life. I'm so thankful that you have intercepted my path and stopped me on my crazy career. I'm so thankful that you've cooled me down. I'm going to think about this and I know what you've said is right. I can't afford you acting hate. What does Abigail represent? Well, I'll tell you, if Mabel represents the spirit of the world, and if David represents the spirit of man, acting in the energy of the flesh, dear Abigail, represents the spirit of God. And what kind of a spirit does the spirit of God make a man?
If an evil spirit makes an evil man, and a dumb spirit makes a dumb man, the Holy Spirit makes a holy man. And what kind of a spirit is the Holy Spirit? Oh, there's a lot of things that we could say here. But one of the kinds of spirits, an adjective that would describe the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit is gentle. And the gentle spirit makes a gentle man. Hey, gentlemen. You want to be a gentleman? Then be a gentle man. And if you want to really be a gentle man, if you let the Spirit of God take control of your life, then you'll be that gentle man. And that little play on words really isn't as far out as it may sound when you analyze it.
Do you think of a man who acts in the energy of the flesh and gets flushed in his face the first time and you can't reason with him? Do you think of him as being a gentleman? No. Who do you think of as a gentleman? The man who can be entreated. The man who can be reasoned with. The man who can listen to the other person's story. The man who is exemplifying that sweet, reasonable. that the scripture tells you. And our kids at home sometimes sing a little song. I don't know all the words to it or whether they're really very important or not, but I know the first two lines of it. This is what our young people sing. There is a sweet, sweet spirit in this place.
In the second line, I know that it's the spirit of the Lord. Oh, I trust that each one of us tonight will just do this. just determine that the spirit of the world is not going to characterize us. We can't afford to act in the spirit of the world. And then just be sure that the spirit of man doesn't possess us. Keep that old spirit down. Crucify that old man. Get him out of the way as much as possible. He'll still be there even after he's tried. But we've got to constantly reckon ourselves to be dead. And then the more that we get the old person out of the way, The more the Spirit of God can come in and take control.
And if the Spirit of God takes control, the more that he possesses me and the more he controls me, the more Abigail-like I'm going to be. And I believe that God can use the law of the Bible. May the Lord help us then to be the Abigail's in this world. Easy and creative and real. Gentleman and gentle lady for Christ. Shall we pray? Father, we give thee thanks now for the word of God and we pray that thou would help us to really lay hold upon some of the truths of thy word and then to manifest them and portray them in our lives.
God bless now as we separate, bless every place where thy word has been preached. Bless our dear brother Don and all those who labor at Enneville tonight. Just pray for many precious souls. Bless the meeting of the ladies here this afternoon and the word that was given. And our Father, remember, Lauren, as he lays are sick and injured in the hospital. Oh, God, we ask thee for all of these. In Jesus' name.