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Collierville First Baptist Church
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tonight, you notice the title of our teaching tonight,
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"Restraining Grace."
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Now you say, "Pastor, how did you come up with that title?" Well, it's right out of this chapter.
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Right out of this chapter.
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And you know, when I saw it, I thought to myself, I've never really thought much about the restraining grace of God.
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We're getting into the sovereignty of God, the providence of God. And I asked myself, what's the difference between the sovereignty of God and the providence of God?
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And I jotted down the answer.
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Sovereignty is God's right and power to rule the universe.
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Providence is how he uses that power.
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One guy said, "Think of sovereignty like a king who owns a massive chessboard and makes all the rules."
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Providence is the king actually moving the pieces to win the game.
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That's Providence.
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So we're looking at the providence of God here in this chapter as we consider this idea of restraining grace. Now, before we jump into our text tonight, which is 1 Samuel 25, it would help us to go back a little bit and make sure we get the context right.
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Remember chapter 24 that we went over the last time we met. The narrative revolved around a scene that developed at a cave near Ngedi, which is close to the Dead Sea there in Israel. David and his 600-man army are hiding out from Saul. King Saul is trying to kill David. He's chasing him all over Israel trying to kill him.
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David and his men are in the back of this cave in Ngedi and Saul comes in to relieve himself. That's a gentlemanly way of saying he had to go to the bathroom.
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He didn't know that David and his men were in the back of the cave.
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So Saul came into the cave by himself.
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David's men saw this as an opportunity that God had dropped in the lap of David
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and they urged him while Saul was relieving himself to kill him,
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to end this thing once and for all, to kill him.
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But David only cut off a little portion of his robe. You remember what David said?
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"I will not put my hand on the Lord's anointed."
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And David's trusting God to take care of Saul, King Saul.
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And they come out and they have a conversation and Saul and his men go one way. Saul had 3,000 men with him, by the way. Huge army, crack army soldiers. And they went one way and David and his men went west of the Dead Sea
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to an area that's called the wilderness of Peran in chapter 25 verse 1.
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Now let's just look at verse 1.
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"Then Samuel died."
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The Bible says the wage of sin is death,
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but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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If you're here tonight and you've never repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus, I want you to know that Jesus had done everything necessary to save your soul and give you the gift of eternal life.
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He loved you.
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The Bible said, "But God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." He went to the cross and he died for our sins.
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And he was resurrected from the dead three days later. Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me."
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That's what Jesus did for every one of us.
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And the Bible says that Samuel died.
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Now this is a reminder of the brevity of life. The Bible says in James chapter 4 that our life is like a vapor.
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It's here one moment and it's gone the next.
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And we only have this life to make sure that we're saved, that our sins are forgiven, that we have the gift of eternal life. We can only do that in this life. Samuel was a great leader for the kingdom of God, had a huge influence on King David's life and King Saul's life.
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But he died.
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J.C. Ryle wrote this about when a spiritual leader steps out of the scene.
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He said, "Fear not, Church of Christ, when ministers die and saints are taken away.
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Christ can ever maintain his own cause. He will raise up better servants and brighter stars. The stars are all in his right hand. Leave off all anxious thought about the future. Cease to be cast down by the measures of statesmen or the plots of wolves in sheep's clothing. Christ will ever provide for his own church. Christ will take care that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. All is going well, though our eyes may not see it. The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ." Well, that's a great word. So David and his men moved west from the Dead Sea area across the rugged mountains into the desert of Paran.
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They settled near the home of a man named Nabal who lived in Mayon. So this is a basic introduction to the characters of the narrative that we're going to look at tonight.
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Now while they were in this area, David and his men, without Nabal hiring them or even asking them to do it, David and his men served as protection for Nabal's shepherds and those who were taking care of the flocks.
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At that time, there were a lot of predatory thugs who would come in unbeknown and they would steal goats and they would steal sheep and they would even harm shepherds. But David and his men protected them.
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Ray Prichard wrote the following comment about the cast of characters that is involved in this narrative. He said, "The story of Nabal and Abigail is riveting.
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It's got it all. There's intrigue, injustice, conflict, anger, revenge, attempted murder, impassioned plea, sudden death and unexpected romance."
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All in the same chapter. He said, "It's like an episode of Baywatch or All My Children."
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Except that this story is entirely true.
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Look at 1 Samuel 25 verses 1 to 8. This is the introduction.
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"Then Samuel died and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him and buried him at his house in Rehman.
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And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Peran." I guess my mind started working here and I asked myself this question.
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Did King Saul go to Samuel's funeral?
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Did David go to Samuel's funeral?
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I sort of doubt that David went.
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Because I'm sure that Saul was looking for an opportunity to take care of David once and for all.
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So the Bible goes on to say in verse 2, "Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel.
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And the man was very rich." Now you don't know how rich he was. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats.
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You say, "Well, that don't sound very rich." But I'm telling you, that day, that is very, very rich. Okay? "And it came about that while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel, now the man's name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. And the woman was intelligent." Now look at this description of Abigail.
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"She was intelligent and beautiful in appearance. But the man was harsh and evil in his dealing and he was a Calabite." Now remember, his name, Nabal, means fool. That's the meaning of it. And I asked myself this question. What parent would name their child Nabal? Fool. And I got to thinking, maybe they didn't name him Nabal. Maybe that's a nickname he picked up from his buddies. Right?
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You fool?
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I don't know.
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But his name was Nabal and it means fool.
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Now look, verse 4, "That David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep." Now that's a big deal. Sheep shearing time was a big deal. Okay?
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"So David sent 10 young men and David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, visit Nabal and greet him in my name.
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And thus you shall say, have a long life. Peace be to you. Peace be to your house. Peace be to all that you have." Peace, peace, peace.
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Verse 7, "Now I've heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything in all the days that we were in Carmel.
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Ask your young men and they will tell you.
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Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David."
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Now it was customary in this day, during sheep shearing time,
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that the owner of the sheep, the owner of the goats, would take some of the food, some of the sheep and the goats, and some of the bread and raisin cakes, and they would send them to the people who had served as sort of protection for the shepherds and the flocks.
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But I want you to notice,
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please give us some, Nabal, Abigail. Now I ask myself, "Abigail, why did you marry this guy?
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You're intelligent, you're beautiful, and you marry a fool."
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Now remember this, in this day and time, parents arranged marriages.
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I'm not sure that Abigail had much to do with this.
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Maybe her dad said, "Man, we're going to hook you up with this rich guy,
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and we'll get a piece of the action too." I don't know, I'm just guessing.
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But she married a guy and it was a total mismatch.
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This story is rifted against the backdrop of a festive sheep shearing occasion.
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It was a culmination of many hard months of work.
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And there was an unwritten law of hospitality where the owner would give gifts to those who helped protect the servants and the flocks.
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So here you got these 10 men from David,
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and they come to this festive occasion,
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and they talk to Nabal in the name of David,
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and ask him to give them some food.
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And I want you to notice secondly, not only the introduction, but the indiscretion.
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Here's the point of the story where Nabal acted like a fool.
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Pay close attention to the insult.
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He leveled at the man anointed by God to be the next king of Israel.
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You got to be careful who you insult, right?
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Well, notice what verses 9 to 11 says.
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When David's young men came, they came back from Nabal.
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They spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David's name. Then they waited. They waited.
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But Nabal answered David's servants and said, "Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse?"
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There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. "Shall I then take my..." I want you to count the number of "mies" in "y". Okay, notice what...coming out of the mouth of Nabal, who's a fool. Okay, notice what he said. "Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men whose origin I do not know?"
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Nabal made two huge mistakes.
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He refused to show kindness to David and his men.
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And second, he insulted David and his father Jesse.
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"Who do you think you are, David? I don't know you. I'm not giving you anything."
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In Proverbs chapter 20 verse 2,
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the Bible says the terror of a king is like the growling of a lion.
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He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
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You don't want to mess with a king, right?
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That brings us to what I like to call the indignation.
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To say that David got hot under the collar
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would not really do service to what really happened inside of David.
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I want you to let these words sink in. Now remember, this is David who, when he had a chance to kill King Saul, refused to take vengeance.
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But here he is messing around with a fool.
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And the Bible says, "So David's young men retraced their way and went back." Verse 12 to 17. "And they came and told him all these words." They told him exactly what Nabal said.
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"David said to his men,
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Each of you gird on your sword."
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Trouble's coming.
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So each man girded on his sword.
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You got David and 600 men.
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200 stayed with the baggage, with their stuff, and 400 went with David.
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Now remember, where are they going? They're going to Nabal, who's a fool,
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and he's got some shepherds. He doesn't have an army.
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It's like trying to kill a cockroach with a shotgun.
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Really.
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And so this is overkill here.
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So verse 14, "But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife,
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saying..."
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So one of the shepherds, Nabal's shepherds, speaking to Abigail, what had happened? "Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he scorned them.
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Yet the men were very good to us." Now this is a testimony of one of Nabal's shepherds
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speaking to Abigail.
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They were good to us. We were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them while we were in the fields.
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And they were a wall to us by night and by day. In other words, they protected us
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all the time that we were with them tending the sheep. Verse 17, "Now therefore know and consider what you should do."
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He talked to Abigail.
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"For evil is plotted against our master
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and against all his household. And he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him."
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Now this guy's a character, man.
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So David's fiery anger would have led to massive pools of blood and a dark stain on his life and his character.
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Not only was he intended to kill Nabal, but look down at verse 21 and 22.
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"Now David had said, "Surely in vain,
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I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him and he has returned to me evil for good." Hey, let me ask you, has anybody ever returned evil for the good that you gave to them? Did you get angry?
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I like the honesty of the house of God.
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Absolutely. Look at this. Verse 22, "May God do so to the enemies of David and much more also if by morning
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I leave as much as one male of any who belonged to him."
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Not only were David and his men going to kill Nabal,
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but they were going to kill every man associated with Nabal.
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Whoo, this is going to be a mess.
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Now, when you place this side by side with what happened
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with David and King Saul in the cave in Nengeti,
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it just seems so incongruent, doesn't it? Nabal was a foolish nobody in the grand scheme of things.
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King Saul was dead set on killing David.
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David trusted God to take vengeance in Saul's case, but in Nabal's case, David was willing to take matters in his own hands
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and exact his own vengeance and revenge.
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Now, I want you to look at Abigail's actions.
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She prepares a generous gift of food and rides out to meet David.
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She doesn't send a servant or send a message. She goes herself.
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Abigail's personal involvement in resolving the dispute shows us the importance of being a peacemaker.
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Now, look at this, verse 18, "Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread,
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two jugs of wine, five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and loathed them on donkeys."
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She said to her young men, "Go on before me." They go first with all the goodies.
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"Go on before me and I'll come after you." She did not tell her husband Nabal.
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It came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her
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and she met them.
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Now, David had said, "Surely in vain,
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guard it all that this man has in the wilderness so that nothing would miss all that belonged to him and he's returned evil for good. May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also if by morning I leave as much as one male of any who belonged to him."
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When Abigail saw David,
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she hurried and dismounted from her donkey.
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Can I tell you, this sister had some guts.
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I mean, she's coming up on 400 men and David, all with a sword on their side.
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And she gets off the donkey, dismounts. She fell on her face before David and she bowed herself to the ground.
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She fell at his feet and said,
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"On me alone, my Lord, be the blame and please let your maidservant speak to you and listen to the words of your maidservant."
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Now, Ray Pritchard said this, he said, "Knowing that David's men were hot, tired and hungry,
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she whips up a meal for 400 angry men.
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The feast includes bread, wine, lamb, grain, raisins, figs. It was an early version of Meals on Wheels," he said.
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She intends to intercept David's men, feed them and talk David out of killing her husband and those who belong to him.
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And as the narrative continues, we come to a critical juncture
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and I call it the intervention, the intervention.
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Now, I want you to notice
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that Abigail, her actions are so important in this narrative.
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She doesn't just act with uncommon, she doesn't just act with uncommon wisdom, but she also acts quickly.
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I mean, she didn't let any grass grow under her feet when she was cooking all this stuff and getting this meal together.
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She didn't let any grass grow under her feet when she sent her guys with all this good food in front of her
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and she made her way to meet David.
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This scene before us is a great case study in defusing a highly explosive conflict.
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Abigail's humility and bold face shine through like the noonday sun.
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You know what she said?
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Here's, notice verse 23 to 25.
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"When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey and fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground. She fell at its feet and said," notice what she says,
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"On me alone, my Lord, be the blame.
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I'm the cause of this," she said.
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Now, we know who the cause was, right?
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Nabal.
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Please let your maidservant speak to you and listen to the words of your maidservant.
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Look at verse 25. "Please do not let my Lord pay attention to this worthless man."
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Nabal is his name and so is he. The name is fool and he is a fool.
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Nabal is his name and folly is with him, but I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent." She was not there when they came.
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So she's taking blame.
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So she dips into her bucket of spiritual wisdom and pulls out three reasons why David should reconsider this plan to annihilate Nabal and every male associated with it.
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Number one, she said, "I need you to get me to restrain you from evil."
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Look at verses 26 to 28.
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"Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives," now notice, I need to make sure you see this. "Now therefore, my Lord," that's lower case, okay? That's lower case. And then the next one, "As the Lord lives," is all caps, right?
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So it's like when she says, "Now therefore, my Lord," it's like she's saying, "Sir."
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"Sir," okay?
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And then the capital, L-O-R-D, refers to the Lord God. "As the Lord lives and as your soul lives," since the Lord has, no, you ought to underline this, it's so important. "The Lord has restrained you from shedding blood." "And from avenging yourself by your own hand."
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"Now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against my Lord," "Sir David, be as Nabal." "Now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my Lord "be given to the young men who accompany my Lord."
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Verse 28, "Please forgive the transgression of your maid, sir." Boy, she's taking on the chance. She's saying, "It's me."
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You know, that's what Jesus did for you.
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When Jesus went to the cross, he went to the cross with your sin. He had no sin.
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It's like he's saying to the Father, "It's on me, Father."
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Can you imagine that moment when God the Father took all the vile sins of our lives
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and placed it upon His perfect Son, Jesus?
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And Jesus went to the cross, not with His sin, because He had none, but He went to the cross with your sin, my sin.
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That's how much He loves you. That's how much He cares about you.
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"Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant, "for the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house."
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She knew something about David.
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She knew that he was going to be the next king of Israel
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because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord because evil will not be found in you all your days.
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God sent me to restrain you from evil.
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I wonder, has God sent somebody across your path to restrain you from evil?
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Think back in your life.
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Could have been your mama.
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Could have been a good friend.
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Could have been a church member, a pastor.
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God sent somebody in your life to restrain you from evil.
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Can I tell you, that's what God did for Adam and Eve.
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You remember? God created a perfect world. We live in a broken world. Have you discovered that?
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We live in a broken, sinful world. It's a mess.
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That's not the way God created it.
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God created a perfect world where everything was supposed to work together in harmony.
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But Adam and Eve chose to sin against God.
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And when they sinned against God, they opened Pandora's box.
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And evil flooded the world, flooded the human race.
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And you know what? God restrained evil from Adam and Eve. You say, "How in the world did he do that?"
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Well, after they committed that sin,
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the tree of life was still there in the Garden of Eden. You know that, don't you? Okay. They'd already eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They'd already become sinners. And God did not want them to eat from the tree of life and live eternally as a sinner.
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So God sent an angel, drove them out of the Garden of Eden, sent an angel with a flaming sword, and did not let them back into the garden to even be tempted to eat from the tree of life.
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That's restraining evil. (Silence) And look, let me give you another one with David, okay?
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This is David a little bit further along in his life. In 2 Samuel, chapter 16, remember Absalom, Absalom, David's son rebelled against him. Absalom led a coup.
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He wanted to be king. He wanted to take his dad off the throne, and he wanted to be king of Israel.
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And the Bible says in verse 6 of chapter 16 of 2 Samuel
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that this guy by the name of Shema, so David and his men, are marching out of the city to get away from Absalom and the men who have congregated around him.
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And this guy named Shema, who was a relative of King Saul's, threw stones at David
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and at all the servants of King David, the mighty men who followed him, and all the people and all the mighty men were at his right hand and at his left. Verse 7, "Thus Shema said when he cursed, "Get out, get out, you men of bloodshed and worthless fellow." He called David a worthless fellow.
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"The Lord has returned upon you all the bloodshed in the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned.
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And the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom.
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And behold, you are taken in your own evil, for you are a man of bloodshed."
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"Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, King David,
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"Why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king? Let me go over and cut off his head."
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You know what David said?
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David said to Abishai and to all his servants,
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"Behold, my son who came out from me seeks my life. How much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone and let him the curse for the Lord has told him. Perhaps the Lord will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day."
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Isn't it interesting that a little further along,
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when David is insulted in an unbelievable way, even worse than what Nabal insulted him,
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that David is restrained from taking vengeance against Shammai.
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Interesting.
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So Abigail says to David, "God sent me to restrain you from evil." Number two, here's the second thing.
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God will take vengeance on the evil one.
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God will handle this. David, you don't have to take matters into your own hand. Can I tell you, when we take matters into our own hand, we mess up.
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First Samuel 25, verse 29, on page six, "Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your life?" This is Abigail talking to David.
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"Then the life of my Lord shall be bound up in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God." That's an interesting statement, isn't it?
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"But the lives of your enemies, he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling."
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Wow.
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Ray Pritchard's words, again, are worthy of our attention.
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Here's what Pritchard said.
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"God himself has protected you and will protect you." That's what Abigail is saying to David. "You can afford to show kindness to Nabal."
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When she mentions the pocket of a sling, there's a clear reference to the day David defeated Goliath with one stone from a sling.
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It's a subtle way. She was saying in a very subtle way, "If you rely on the Lord to fight your battles, you will win every time."
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Hey, that's only true for David.
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That's true for the men and women in this room.
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Number three, "God sent me to restrain you from evil." That's what Abigail says to him. Number two, "God will take vengeance on this evil one." Number three, "You won't regret this change of mind." You won't live to regret this.
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First Samuel 25, verse 30 and 31, "And when the Lord does for my Lord according to all the good that he's spoken concerning you and appoints you ruler over Israel." It's amazing in this chapter how many times... Now, remember, he's not king yet.
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King Saul is still king.
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But it's amazing how many times in this chapter, Abigail or somebody talks about David being the king of Israel.
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It's as good as done. It just hasn't happened yet.
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Verse 31, "This will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my Lord." In other words, when you become king,
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you won't look back on the fact that you didn't kill Nabal and all the males associated with him and regret it that you didn't do it.
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"This will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my Lord both by having shed blood without cause and by my Lord having avenged himself when the Lord deals well with my Lord, then remember your maidservant."
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You know, my mind works a funny way sometimes.
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Abigail said, "When you come into your kingdom,
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remember your maidservant."
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I thought of the cross where there were two thieves
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who were crucified on either side of Jesus.
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And one of them, before Jesus died,
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said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
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Man, it's amazing how many illusions there are in the Old Testament to the cross.
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So Abigail reminds David that one day he will see that Nabal's insult was a relatively small matter.
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Boy, it's amazing how we make mountains out of mole hills sometimes.
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It sure wasn't the strain, the stain that mass murder would leave on his heart and soul.
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Now here's a principle we've got to remember.
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Everybody knows what I'm talking about. You've got to remember this. Because it applies to you.
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Revenge might feel good now, but it'll feel bad later.
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You hear me?
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You can't win by trying to get even.
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You know why so many marriages implode?
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It's because a husband and wife keep score.
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They keep score.
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Well, you said this to me last time. Now I've got a right to say this to you this time.
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And they keep score. They've got a big scoreboard in their living room.
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I'm going to tell you, that is a recipe for disaster.
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Not just marriage relationships, but relationships with people at work.
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Relationships with people at church.
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Listen folks, you're not going to get anywhere in life
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by trying to get even with somebody
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who returns evil for good to you.
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You've got to leave it with the Lord. You can't take matters into your own hands.
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So let me ask you a question. Have you ever said or done something in anger that you wish you could take back?
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I think all of us, if we're honest, could admit, "Yes, I've said things and I've done things in anger I wish I could take back."
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You know what?
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Once it leaves this thing right here, it ain't coming back.
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Abigail nailed it. I mean, it was like she was a prophetess. How much time I got? Oh, I got a lot of time.
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So I want you to notice in verses 32 to 38.
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Now David has heard Abigail. He's heard her three reasons why he shouldn't kill Nabal and all the males associated with him.
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Then David said to Abigail, "Bless be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me
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and bless me your discernment and bless me you who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand."
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I'm telling you. I think when we get to heaven,
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we'll have some insights into stuff that happened down here.
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And I think we're going to see some times when God sent somebody across our path
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to restrain us from evil.
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You know, it would behoove each and every one of us.
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When God sent somebody across our path to restrain us from evil,
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listen to them.
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Don't blow them off. Listen to them.
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Verse 34, "Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harm." Wait a minute now.
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David just said that Abigail restrained him from evil.
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In the very next verse, he says, "The Lord restrained him from evil."
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Is that a contradiction? Do this.
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"God used Abigail to restrain him from evil, but ultimately the one who restrained David from evil was the Lord God." He just used Abigail as an instrument in his hand.
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"Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal until morning light as much as one male.
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So David received from her hand what she had brought and said to her, "Go up to your house of peace.
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See, I've listened to you. I've listened to you."
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Now here's a $64,000 question.
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Will you listen to the person
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that the Lord brings across your path to restrain you from evil? Will you?
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Verse 36, "Then Abigail came to Nabal
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and Behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king." So look, you got a fool acting like a king
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and you got a king that's about to act like a fool if somebody hadn't intervened in his life.
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So it's like the feast of a king. "And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk."
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He was drunk at Cooter Brown.
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So she did not tell him anything at all into morning light. (Congregation Applauding)
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But in the morning,
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when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things and his heart died within him so that he became a stone.
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About 10 days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
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Now, I don't know if it was a heart attack, a stroke. I don't know what it was.
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But for 10 days, he was like a stone.
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And then God took his life breath.
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Notice God
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meted out judgment to an evil man. David didn't have to do it.
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God did it.
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God says in the Bible, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."
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Don't take matters into your own hands.
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Now, in this narrative, we've seen the introduction, the instigation, the indignation, the intervention. Now, I want you to see finally the invitation.
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This story does have a good ending, by the way.
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A fairy tale ending, we might even say.
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Look at verse 39 to 44.
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"When David heard that Nabal was dead,
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he said, "Bless be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant from evil." In other words, he's saying right there again, "God restrained me from evil."
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I didn't have to take matters into my own hand because God took care of it. Can I tell you this? God will take care of your situations when somebody returns evil for good in your life.
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You've got to believe that. Now, you've got to believe it.
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"The Lord has also returned the evil doing of Nabal on his own head."
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Then David sent a proposal to Abigail to take her as his wife.
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He invited her to be his wife, the wife of the soon king of Israel.
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She arose, don't you?
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Hey, sometimes I just like to read between the lines.
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Don't you know that that funeral for Nabal was a celebration for Abigail?
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I mean, she's fixing to be the queen of Israel.
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So notice this, "When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, "David had sent us to you to take you as his wife."
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She arose, bowed with her face to the ground, and said, "Behold, your maidservant is a maid to wash the feet of my Lord's servants." She was so humble and godly and wise.
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Verse 42, "Then Abigail quickly arose
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and rode on the donkey with her five maidens who attended her, and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife."
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David had also taken a Hinnom of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.
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Now Saul had given Michael, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was from Galim.
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So God restrained evil in the heart of a man after God's own heart,
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a man who had become the greatest of Israel's kings.
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And he used a godly woman
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who convinced an angry man to wait for God to do his work.
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Now, some people say, "Well, look, how in the world did David have multiple wives?"
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Now, the kings of Israel, they had many wives. Solomon sort of set the Guinness Book of World Records for wives and concubines.
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But let me ask you a question.
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You named me one situation
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where having more than one wife turned out good.
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It did.
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I got one, and one's all I can handle, I'm telling you. Right, Darlene? Yeah.
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But that's--look, any time we take God's design, which is one man, one woman for life, any time we take God's design and we muck it up,
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it doesn't turn out good.
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Now, God will bless us sometimes, but I can tell you, having multiple wives is not God's will. It's not God's will.
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And David would have to bear some consequences for this,
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as did Solomon and the rest of them.
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So, I want to close with one verse. I want you to take your Bible, turn to 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2.
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Go to Hebrews, take a left.
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The Bible says that there's coming a day
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when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come again.
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I looked so forward to that day.
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But before He comes, there's going to be a falling away in the church.
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Many Christians are going to succumb to the ways of the world.
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I want you to notice verse 7.
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2 Thessalonians 2, 7.
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"For the mystery of lawlessness," hey, look at our world today. You know, one of the signs of Christ coming is lawlessness. I want you to look at the lawlessness in America and the world today.
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"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work." Wrote that 2,000 years ago, folks.
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"Only He who now restrains," there's that word, "He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way." So there is a restrainer who restrains from evil, a supernatural restrainer, and this lawlessness is going to be with us until Christ comes.
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You know, one of the greatest restrainers for evil in our lives is the Holy Spirit of God.
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And you begin to walk down a path that dishonors Christ. You begin to say things that dishonors Christ. And the Holy Spirit puts a check in your spirit.
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The Holy Spirit says, "Don't say that.
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Don't go there.
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Stay away from that person."
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That's the restrainer.
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It's the greatest restrainer of evil that we have going for us as the Holy Spirit of God.
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All right, let's close with prayer. Father, thank you for the men and women in this room. Thank you for the opportunity that we've had tonight to open our Bibles
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and to study about restraining us from evil.
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Lord, I pray you take every person in this room,
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and I pray that the Holy Spirit of God would restrain us from evil. I pray that you would bring people across our path that would have the guts to speak into our lives and tell us that we're headed down a wrong path, and that you would use them like you use Abigail to restrain us from evil.
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Well, we love you.
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We just want to finish well for your glory. Help us, Lord, in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you. God bless you.