(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now, we start out with chapter 25, the death of Samuel. It says in verse 1, And Samuel died, and all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Mahon, whose possessions were in Carmel, and 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 churlish and evil in his doings, and he was at the house of Caleb. So, David is still on the run. It sounds as if he went to Samuel's funeral. That's not really explicitly stated, but it's implied, when it says all Israel came when Samuel died, and paid their respects to that great man of God. And then David is still on the run. So, David heads down into Paran, and he comes across this man named Nabal. And the Bible says that he was churlish, which means foolish, and it says that he was evil in his doings. So, this guy is a bad guy. But his wife, the Bible says, was very beautiful, and she was of good understanding. So, we see he comes to this man, and this man has all kinds of wealth. He has lots of cattle, not quite as many as Joe had. I was comparing the stats a little bit, you know, because this is how they measured wealth in those days. They had possessions. They had land, or animals, or coins, or whatever they had. And in this case, Job hasn't beaten us. Job had 7,000 sheep, he has 3,000. But he's still a very, very wealthy man, because remember, Joe was the wealthiest man of all the men in the East. This guy's got half what he had, practically, when it comes to sheep. And so, he's got a lot of wealth. And so, he's shearing the sheep, and it says in verse 4, And 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. And thus shall you 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. So, you see, David is approaching Nabal with a very peaceful attitude. I mean, he basically hits him with peace three times in a row. Now, it turns out, and I'm not going to read through the whole chapter, just because we just read the whole chapter together as a church, but he's been taking care of this guy's property a little bit, because the sheep are out to pasture, and they're out grazing, and they have to be moved around to different grazing grounds. And while this is going on, David and his 600 troops are in the vicinity, and they're basically guarding this man's property, taking care of it, helping these people out, and usually they suffered a little bit of loss, or a little bit of shrinkage, when it came to the flock. Just as department stores, they account on, hey, a little bit's going to get stolen. Some stuff's going to walk out the front door. Well, while David and his men were around this guy's property, he didn't lose anything, because David and his troops were guarding it, and helping them out. So, David figures, well, I've been helping this guy out, I've been nice to his workers here, and I've been helping him make a better profit. So, therefore, if I ask him for a favor, he's going to do me a favor. So, he sends these messengers onto Nepal, and he tells them, you know, we've come to the area, we've been helping you out, we've been taking care of your stuff. Can you just give us something to eat, a little bit of a food present? Just whatever is in your hand, just whatever you want. He's not making any kind of a big demand or anything. He's just saying, you know, hey, whatever you can spare, just give it to us. That'd be great. And he's giving him a lot of compliments and so forth. Well, of course, Nabal answered in verse 10, and Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There'd 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 shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? So, David's young men turned their way and went again, and came and told him all those things. So, Nabal answers them roughly. He begins to just insult David and rail on him. Is that really true that David had broke away from his master, that he was this rebellious servant? No. David was doing everything he was told to do. Saul decided that he's going to kill him, and so he's just fleeing from being killed. And, of course, that wasn't true, but this guy just... If you study the whole chapter and a few verses down, we're going to see some other things about him. This guy's just greedy, is what it comes down to. That's the bottom line. It's not that he just didn't want to give it to David in particular. He's just the kind of guy that just wants to get as much as he can for himself, because the Bible already told us a few verses earlier, this guy's evil in his doing, he's churlish, and he's just... he's a very greedy person. Now, notice later on in the chapter... I'm going to jump around a little bit just to stay on topic here, but if you go forward, it says in verse 36, 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 night. Now, flip over to Luke chapter 12. Go to Luke chapter 12, and you can see a guy who's kind of like Nabal is in a lot of ways. Now, of course, the Bible tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil. So, this man, according to the Bible, the Bible puts a label on him of being an evil man, evil in his doings, and it's no surprise that he loves money, that he's greedy, and that he's not willing to just give a small present unto somebody who's been helping him out and be generous with someone who's been generous with him. Look at this parable that Jesus tells in Luke 12, 16, and he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentically, and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. I will hold down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods, and I will send to my soul, soul, thou as much goods laid up for many years, take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? And look at verse 21, So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. So God expects us, if we have wealth, if we have possessions, if we have a lot, to share the wealth or be generous. Now, you say, Wait a minute, that sounds liberal. Well, what's liberal, first of all, what's funny is that the word liberal, that's what it means. The word liberal means you're generous, you're giving stuff away, that's the thing. Before it's been hijacked by communists and socialists, the word liberal just means you're generous. You give freely unto people. The Bible wants us to be liberal. The Bible says the liberal soul shall be made fat, because if you're generous with others, God will be generous unto you. That's why the Bible says, Therefore all things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. And so God demands of those who have wealth and those who have money to be generous. The Bible says, Charge, which is a commandment, Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not hide-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, and listen to this, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. And the word communicate has to do with giving as well. Just like Paul said in Philippians 4, No church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only, for even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. So God is commanding those who are rich, those who have money, to be generous, to give out that money to people who need it, and also to be rich toward God, not to be just greedy and hoarding of all the money. Jesus told many very rich people that they just sell what they have and give it to the poor. I mean, that's what he said. Now, the difference between this and the so-called liberals of today is that they don't want to give away their money, they want to give away other people's money. Bunch of lying devils is what they are. Like, for example, let me tell you about these lying devils that I heard about on the news. I was listening to the radio on a long drive today, and I heard about this group of millionaires who went to the Capitol today in Washington, D.C., and they said, would you please raise our taxes? Would you raise our taxes? And this is what this Warren buffet or whatever his stupid name is, you know? He said, Obama, I want you to raise my taxes. Can I pay more? Now, he's a liar. They don't want him to raise their taxes because any time they want to, they can send a check to the government. Nobody's stopping them from giving extra. Do you think that the IRS is going to say, hey, no, just keep it? Why don't they just write a check to the U.S. Treasury and just put in a little memo, just put, you know, this is for debt retirement. You know, this is toward the debt. This is an extra contribution I want to make. Or they could fill out their tax form different and not take all the write-offs that they take and not take all the exemptions. They're liars. When they say, this is what they really want, raise that guy's, raise their taxes. They don't want to say, raise my taxes because they can give extra whenever they want. They're saying raise everyone's taxes, make everyone pay more because they make so much money on dishonest gain. Money means nothing to them anymore. Money to them, I mean, they can just give more money whenever they want because they don't go work for it. They steal it. They move numbers around on a piece of paper. You know, all these phony members of Congress that are so liberal, okay, they're not giving away their money. They're flying around in jets because they do insider trading every day, which is illegal if I did it or if Martha Stewart does it. You know, she's going to prison. They do insider trading every day because they know the future because they know what the laws are going to be tomorrow and the next day. And they trade accordingly. They make millions of dollars that they steal from other people in the rigged markets. And so they don't want to give out their own stuff. They want to give out other people's stuff. But we don't want to react to that. A lot of people's reaction is to go too far in the other direction, you know. We see this so-called false liberality, which is really wanting to take from someone else and give it away, not give their own money away because anybody can give away their own money whenever they want without the government's help. They can give it to the poor. They can, you know, send it to the troops or send it wherever they want. No, it's about stealing money from people who don't want to give to those causes, okay. And there's nothing liberal about that. But we don't want to react to that by just saying, well, you know, rich people just need to keep all their money. Well, here's the thing. There shouldn't be a law confiscating rich people's money. But if they were godly, they would be generous. If they were godly, they would help out the poor. And the Bible says that whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother hath me, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. We should be generous. We should distribute. We should share what we have. If we have two coats, let's impart one unto the guy who has none. That's what John the Baptist preached in Luke chapter 3. But it doesn't mean that we steal from someone else. It doesn't mean we steal from Nabal and give it out to everybody else. Now, here's the thing. Nabal was a lot like this guy in Luke 12. Because he was hoarding a lot of goods for himself. And he's eating and drinking and being married. Remember how Nabal was getting drunk and eating a feast like a king? Well, that's pretty much what this guy in Luke 12's doing. And God tells him he's a fool. Because he said, look, you've worked your whole life to get all this stuff. And he says, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. And you can't take it with you, buddy. That's the same thing that happens to Nabal. We read the chapter. He's going to fall over dead in 10 days. He could have given out a little bit of his stuff because he's not going to be enjoying any of it in 10 days when he's dead. And so I don't think I'm preaching to a bunch of wealthy people tonight. But if you do have money, if you do have wealth, don't be a tightwad. Be generous. Be liberal. Yes, you heard me. Be liberal. And that's not to go up and demand people to give you. No, it shouldn't be that way. It should be a voluntary thing where the person who is rich sees the need and helps out and so forth. But it's totally voluntary. It's not a coercive thing. Because that takes the joy out of it. If you're forced to help people out, then you don't want to help. The joy is when you willfully give, not by constraint or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Well, this guy Nabal, back to the chapter in 1 Samuel 25, he's not a cheerful giver. He's a greedy man. The Bible calls him evil. And a lot of people keep calling him a son of Belial. Now, was he really a son of Belial? I don't know. The Bible uses that term to refer to a son of the devil. And it basically uses that about people that are reprobating, people that their heart has been hardened. And my interpretation of the chapter, it seems like he gets to that point later in the chapter when the Bible says that his heart becomes like a stone. They did before that. There was still hope for the guy. But people are calling him that. Whether he was one or not, that's what his servants are calling him. And that's what even his wife is calling him. Now, when your wife's calling you a son of Belial, that's not good. That's not very respectful. So you've got some serious problems with your wife when she's calling you that. And we see that he answers him roughly. The young man, they go back in verse 12, and they tell David. Well, here's David's reaction. David's expecting them to come back with some kind of a food package. And this is David's reaction. David said unto his men, Gergeion, every man is sore. Now, is this the right reaction? Absolutely not. No. Now, should Nabal, and this is just what we were talking about. Should Nabal have been generous with him since David had been good to him, since David's a godly, righteous man? Everybody in the kingdom knows he slew Goliath. Everybody in the kingdom knows he's got the Holy Spirit of God resting around him. Nabal's wife knew that. But he did wrong. But it doesn't matter. David is totally overreacting. Now, first of all, David did not really have a contract with this guy where the guy owed him money. He did something for him, expecting something in return. But that doesn't mean that Nabal just has to pay. But let's say, even if he did, even if this guy Nabal stole from him, is the penalty for stealing just to kill you and your whole household? No. Because thieves are not to be put to death, according to the Bible. Now, throughout history, many thieves have been put, even in the United States, they would put thieves to death, and many times. They would, you know, cattle thieves or cattle rustling was a punishment by Haney. Or in Europe, same thing. But that's not biblical. The biblical punishment for stealing is to pay back fourfold or fivefold, depending upon what is stolen. And if you are stealing at night, then you might be killed. And no blood be shed for you. Because at night, when you're stealing stuff at night, that could be a dangerous situation for the people that you're stealing from. And so this is totally the wrong reaction, where David just, we're going to go get this guy. We're going to show him and take vengeance on him. Let's all get our swords and go down there and we'll take it by force. Not right, what David's planning on doing here at all. It says, David said that there's men girded on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on his sword. And there went up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the step. But one of the young men told Abigail Nabal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master. And he railed on them that the men were very good unto us. We were not hurt. Neither missed we anything, as long as we were conversant with them when we were in the fields. They were a wall unto us, both by night and day. All the while we were with them, keeping the sheep. Now, therefore, know and consider what thou wilt do. For evil is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him. So the servants are appealing unto Abigail, saying, look, we would be talking to Nabal, but he's such a son of Belial, there's not even any point in talking to him. These troops are on their way to come kill us all. There's 400 troops coming with David. Evil is determined against us. These guys were nothing but nice to us. Now they're all coming to kill us. You need to do something here. And they're basically trying to get her to step in. They're pleading with her to do something about it. So basically what she does is she gets together a whole bunch of food and a whole bunch of a gift without telling Nabal. And she takes it out to give it unto David. And she meets him and begins to plead with him. And remember, he's already got the sword girded on his thigh. His men already have the swords. They've already left 200 behind. He's coming with 400 troops. So when she meets him, she's meeting an army of 400 troops. That's who she comes into contact with. And she meets them part way. And it says in verse number, let's jump down to verse 24. And fell on his feet and said upon me, my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be. And let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience and hear the words of thy handmaid. Let not, my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and Fali is with him. So obviously the word Nabal must mean folly in that language or fool. So Nabal is his name and Fali is with him. But I, thy handmaid, saw not the young men of my Lord whom thou didst sin. Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord, watch this, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies and they that seek evil to my Lord be as Nabal. And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my Lord, let it be given unto the young men that follow my Lord. That's all the food that she packed up and that she brought that we read about. 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, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man has risen to pursue thee. Who's that? Saul. And to seek thy soul. But the soul of my Lord shall be found in the bundle of light with the Lord thy God and the souls of thine enemies. Then shall he sling out as out of the middle of a sling. 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, this shall be no refund to thee, nor offensive harden to my Lord, either that thou has shed blood causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself. So she's saying, look, either way you look at it, whether you feel that you're avenging yourself, or whether you're just causelessly shedding blood here, whether what you're doing is right or wrong, she's saying, it's not going to matter to you someday. And this is one thing I want to point out. Sometimes we can get really worked up about things at the time, and she's saying, look, eventually you're going to be king of Israel. You're not going to care about this. You're going to look back, and it's not going to matter to you that this guy burned you and ripped you off as you see it, or whether he did or not. It's not going to matter to you. Don't be so worked up about it. Just let it go. And this is a good lesson for us, that sometimes, and look, I get angry from time to time. I'm sure you get angry, things get you mad. But you know, sometimes I'll just be in a rage about something, you know, a couple hours later or the next day, you don't care about it. You're laughing about it. You don't even care. It's just, oh yeah, wasn't that crazy? Isn't that ridiculous? But at the time, it's like, rrrrr. So we have to be careful when we get angry. And that's why the Bible says, be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So sometimes anger can cause us to sin. Sometimes if we're really angry, we'll do something bad. And then later, once we're cooled down, we'll look back and say, oh man, why did I do that? Because I'm sure David were calmly thinking about this. He'd think, wait a minute, I don't need to slaughter all these people, just because of what they did. But in the moment, he's just, rah! And so you need to be careful when you get angry that you don't just react and sleep on things. The Bible says, let not the sun go down on your wrath. So push that reset button at night. Go to sleep. Wake up the next morning. If you still want to kill those people, no, I'm just kidding. Anyway, it's good to sleep on things, and not just be in a rage. Because a lot of things that you were mad about five years ago, you don't even remember that. Or if somebody brought it up to you, man, you remember how that guy cut you off in traffic back in 2004? And you're like, I don't even remember that. Because it doesn't matter. Oh, man, the guy who cut you off in traffic today, you're mad. Now, don't have road rage and just follow the guy. And so David here could have committed a big sin by killing these people. It wouldn't have been right. Same thing, you may not kill somebody, but maybe you'll sock somebody in the face or something. And then later, you think about it, and it wasn't that big of a deal. Just let it go. And so you need to be able to let things go and calm down. And thankfully, this woman was there to talk some sense into David and explain this to him. And the Bible says, blessed are the peacemakers. And so she was able to diffuse the situation here and stop this bloodshed from taking place. And then she says in verse 31, that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense apart 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 thy handmaking. And David said to Abigail, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which 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 my own hand. Now, this chapter, there's a lot of different things going on in this chapter. And this is one of those chapters where God doesn't really always give his opinion about everything that's happening in this chapter. God just pretty much tells us the story in the chapter. So how do we know who's right, who's wrong, what's right, what's wrong? We have to use the rest of the Bible. And that's how it is with a lot of the stories in the Bible. You use the rest of the Bible to interpret the Bible. How do we know that David was wrong? Because the Bible tells us not to avenge ourselves. How do we know David was wrong? Because the Bible tells us that someone who steals should not be killed, but that they should just have to pay more. And this guy wasn't even really stealing. He was not being generous. But that's something that God needs to take care of. We are not the generosity police. And no one should be the generosity, you're not being generous enough. You're not giving enough. You know, you have too much. Yes, those who have a lot should distribute and be generous. But it's not our job to force them to, hey, if you do something nice for somebody, and then you need something nice in return, they should do that for you. But they may or may not. And you can't really force them to do it. So we use the rest of the principles of the Bible to help us interpret this chapter. So David, he thanks God for her and her advice. And her advice was the right advice. Why? Because her advice jives with the rest of the Bible. That's how we know that what she's telling was true and right. And also because a little bit later in the story, God is going to avenge David for him and kill Nabal. But let's see here, verse number 34. For in varied deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hast aced and come to meet me, surely there had not been left of Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall. Now, that statement, pisseth against the wall, he used it twice in this chapter. Now, a lot of people will try to say this, well, you know, David said that, but you shouldn't talk that way. Well, the problem is that God said that in other chapters. This is a place where David's using that term, but God used that in a couple other places in the Bible. It's actually used in the Bible six times. And so this is not the only place that has that statement. Now, I had a friend that was in church, and his pastor was reading, and they were going through the book of 1 Samuel. And they got to this exact chapter, and as the pastor was reading this chapter, he literally did not read that part. I mean, he's preaching through the book of 1 Samuel. He's preaching through the whole Bible. And he gets to that part and he says, oh, you can read that part yourself, and skips on to the next verse. Now, wait a minute, hold it down. If you're too strict for the Bible, you're too strict. I mean, the Bible's got plenty of rules, and God's pretty strict, but don't be making up rules that make God a sinner, or that make God, or you say, well, God's inappropriate. Well, here's the problem with that. In the front of this, and I know that God didn't write this part of it, but on the front of this King James Version, it says, appointed to be read in churches. Now, I know God didn't say that, but God said in other places, preach the word. The whole counsel of God. Every word of God is pure. He's a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Now, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental. God didn't just, oh, whoops, I got a little carried away on that show. Everybody that pisses against the wall. And here's what people will say. Oh, you need to shelter that from children. No, you know what you need to shelter your children from? Hollywood. Madison Avenue. All the magazines, and all the billboards, and all the garbage that's out there promoting filth, and Hollywood in the world. And it's funny how those same people, who are the ones who are indulging in Hollywood, indulging in the rock and roll music, indulging in hip hop, indulging in smut, will then point a finger at the Bible and say, that is not clean. That is a bad word. That is inappropriate. And why would you even refer to that? I mean, why would you even mention it? Well, how dare you stand in judgment of God? Amen. God is so much more pure, and so much more righteous, and so much more holy than any of us. And like I said, David is not the only one who used this term. God spoke about it in other places. God himself said that he would destroy a Jeroboam, in the fist against the wall. Now, why did God use that language? Why did he say that? He could have just said, I will destroy all men. I will destroy all males. Because that's what he meant, when he says, in the fist against the wall. Basically, David's not gonna go in and destroy every human. He's not gonna destroy the females. He's not gonna destroy the women. He's only gonna destroy the men. And that's what he's saying. Because that's the difference between men and women, is that men fist against the wall, women don't. There's a difference in anatomy there. He said, why would you bring that up? I'm not the one that brought it up. Welcome to church. This is the Holy Bible, okay? And so, this is something that we should look at, and internalize it, and digest it, and embrace it, and say, hey, this is God's word. God's saying it that way for a reason. Now, what exactly is the reason why he said it that way? There could be several reasons. But one reason is, because maybe he's just trying to show another distinction between male and female. In our gender-pending society that we live in, that wants to dress men and women the same, wants them to act the same, talk the same, look the same, wear the same clothes, have the same haircut, that's not biblical. God has always put a great distinction and a great difference between men and women. And one of those differences is in how they use the restroom. Now, I'm not gonna go into graphic detail, of course. The Bible is not going into graphic detail here, and nor will I. But I will say this. There's a woman out there that tells men to sit down to use the bathroom every time they go to the bathroom. Now, here's the problem that I have with that. Why is a woman telling me I just used the bathroom? Now, first of all, I don't want my wife giving me commands in the first place. I don't need her issuing orders to me. Because I'm the king of my castle and my house. And you can call that male chauvinist or whatever you want. I don't care what you say. The Bible says that I am the head of the house. Just like Christ is the head of the church, I'm the head of my wife. And so my wife is not gonna give me commandments to live by. And especially not, thou shalt not piss against the wall. Because the bottom line is that when a woman is telling men how to use the bathroom, she's probably some kind of a short-haired little feminazi that would even go there. And people say, oh, Pastor Anderson, why would you go there? Well, why do women go there? Because I'll be honest with you. I spent three months living in Germany, and I've been to Germany on other trips. There's a sign everywhere. It was in my mother-in-law's house. I went into my mother-in-law's bathroom, and above the toilet, there's a sign that says, you know, prohibited to urinate standing up, okay? And that was a translation into English. But it was up on there. I saw it in public restrooms in a few places. And I saw it in several Christian families' homes of missionaries that I stayed with when I was there the first time for three months. And Christian families had this sign up. And you know, I didn't abide by that sign. I'm not gonna let some short-haired feminist woman who doesn't know her place tell me how to use the bathroom as a man. You know, that's part of being a man, folks. And you know what? God must approve of it, because he's bringing it up, and I'm bringing it up, okay? And so we need to be careful, as a man, in 2011, that we don't become totally feminized. Yeah. Because there is an agenda out there trying to feminize men, it's out there. And you know, maybe that trend hasn't come here yet. Brother Jordan sent me a news article in my email that showed that it's in Canada now. There's a movement of those signs being put up in Canada. And it was in the news in Canada. So I'm not the only one bringing this up, you know? So it was in the news in Canada. And he said, it's getting closer. It's in the Western Hemisphere, you know, it's creepy. Canada, Brazil, pre-patrol. That's where we need the Border Patrol to keep that kind of garbage from coming out of the border. But you know, if you don't think that there's an agenda to feminize men in this country, boy, you need to open your eyes. There's an agenda to blur the lines and to make men as women. And the Bible teaches in Jeremiah 51, or Jeremiah 50 and 51, which could very easily be a prophecy of the United States of America. And if it's not directly talking about the United States of America, which I believe that it very well could be in Jeremiah 50 and 51, it could easily be applied to the United States of America. And he talks about how thy men have become as women. And that's what's going on in our country today. Feminizing of men, and this is just one more brick in the wall of feminizing men. Go to the bathroom like a woman. And then when it comes to the women, they're going to put on pants and have short hair and go to work, and we're going to have co-equal authority in the home and women preachers and women soldiers, and we've got women doing every possible job, and we've got men that have been feminized. I will stand, no pun intended, I will stand against it. I will stand up for this doctrine. And so the Bible teaches all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. And anyone who chooses to criticize my preaching of this passage, go right ahead, but be careful not to be blasphemous while you're doing it. And when you're saying that something in the Bible is a bad word or crude or inappropriate, then that's blasphemous, because you're being critical of God. Because I didn't write this. I'm just saying what the Bible says. And by the way, every modern Bible, if you really just hate this part, you can get any modern version. You can get the New King James, the NIV, the New American Standard. They will all change this to males. And then they put a little note that, if you go down to the bottom of the page, it says, oh, in the Hebrew, it's him that urinates against the wall, or whatever sanitary word they use to describe it. But anyway, let me finish up here with the passage. So David tells her, he comes flat out and tells her, hey, this is what I said I was going to do. You know, I was going to destroy all the men. And he explained them the way that we said. So it says in verse 35, So David received up her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person. And Abigail came to Nabal, and, behold, he held a feast in his house like the feast of the king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. So everybody, if you want to be happy, you want to be merry, go out and get drunken. No, because the Bible says that Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. You see, being drunken or other sinful activities does have pleasure for a season. If drinking weren't fun, no one would be doing it. If partying weren't fun, all that stuff. But it brings pain and sorrow in the long run. It brings horrible, horrible results and horrible things in your life. See, that's no big deal. Every drunk, every derelict who is drunken and totally an alcoholic started out just with a social drinker, just drinking with a buddy, just one beer. That's where it starts. And addiction to alcohol is very common in this country. And not only that, but people who drink, the Bible says, their eyes behold strange women, their mouth utters perverse things. I've known people who committed adultery simply because they were under the influence of alcohol. They didn't even hardly know what was going on. Destroyed their whole life, destroyed other people's lives. Oh, it's fun. We're going to have fun. But is it worth the consequences of pleasure for a moment, an opinion for a lifetime? Listen to me. It's not cool or fun or pleasurable in the long run to drink or to get drunk. And the Hollywood ads will make it look glorious, but there's nothing glorious about drinking or being drunk. There's nothing good that comes of it. Oh, yeah, I'll make you merry there for a little bit. And then the next morning, you're bowing down and worshipping at the porcelain altar in the morning. Throwing up, as the Bible said over and over. And I preached that sermon, and several people said to me, I had no idea the Bible talked so much about people throwing up after they drink. But there are so many scriptures that I went to in that sermon. I mean, I went to verse after verse. It's a common theme that God has in dealing with alcohol. You need to stop and think about the consequences of what you do. And you say, oh, see, drinking makes you merry. What could be wrong with that? Well, there's a lot wrong with it. That's a whole other sermon. There's plenty of scripture that tells you what's wrong with it. But she doesn't want to talk to him while he's drunk. So she told him nothing less or more until the morning light. He came to pass in the morning when the wine was gone out of Nabal. It probably came up the other way. And his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. So that's probably where it was just too late for him, how he reacted to that, and God just said, that's it, I'm sick of this guy, and just hardened his heart. And 10 days later, he's dead. It says it came to pass about 10 days after that the Lord smote Nabal that he died. And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, oh, that's too bad, he said, blessed be the Lord, that it pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and have kept his servant from evil. Do you see that? It would have been evil if David would have killed Nabal. It would have been evil. And he said, thank you, God, for keeping me from evil. You took care of the problem without me ever. This is what we need to learn from this. If we have somebody who's a wicked, evil person, and you look at it and you think, oh, they're getting away with it. Nobody ever gets away with anything. And maybe it'll be today, maybe it'll be about 10 days from now, or maybe it'll be 10 years from now, or 100 years from now. Everybody will get what's coming for them. It's not our job to do the evil. I've known of people that were child molesters, that had molested people that I knew, and you want to just go out and just kill these people. You want to just gird the sword on your thigh and just kill these evil child molesters and perverts. But you know what? That's not what God wants us to do. He wants us to just leave it with him and realize that God is going to torment that person in hell for all eternity way more than anything we could do, and all we're going to do... Now, look, does the child molester deserve to be killed? Yes. Does Nabal? No. He didn't really deserve to be put to death by man's judgment, that is. God can kill whoever he wants, because he kills and he makes alive. He determines the lifespan of every person on this planet. But even though child molesters and sodomites and murderers and these wicked people, they do deserve to be put to death, according to the Bible. It's not our place to do it. We can't just go out and do it. We have to live under the system that we're under. There's supposedly a revenge or somewhere that's going to take care of it, I guess, maybe, sort of. But it's not our job to do it. Just let God handle it. And the same thing when people burn you and do you wrong. Maybe you're doing business and people don't pay you, and that happens. That makes you angry, but you know what? You've got to know that if somebody doesn't pay you, God's going to curse them for not paying you, for not paying their bill, because they're doing wrong, and that's not going to bring the blessing of God on them. So David's glad that he didn't do it, that he didn't have to be the one to kill Nabal, and that God did it and took care of it. And the Bible says in the latter part of verse 39, For the Lord had returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and commuted with Abigail to take her to him to wipe. And when the servants of David would come to Abigail the Carmel, they spake unto her, say, David sent us unto thee to take thee to him to wipe. And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be his servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Now, isn't this a touching love story? But here's the problem. David's already married. Now this would be a very touching, wonderful love story, except for the fact that David's already married. Now here's the thing. She's available now, because the Bible teaches that when a woman's husband dies, that she is at liberty to marry whosoever she will, only in the Lord. So when a woman's husband dies, she's available to be remarried. But David is not available. David married Michal, Saul's daughter. And now he's taking on a second wife. That has never been right. That's always been a sin. That is not of God. And so he marries his second wife. But here's what I want to point out to you. There's a great lesson here that we can learn about how sin is. It says in verse 42, And Abigail hastened and arose and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of birds that went after her. And she went out to the messengers of David and became his wife. Look at verse 43. David also took a funeral of Jezreel. And they were also both of them as wives. So notice, for all this time David just has one wife. Right? Well then as soon as he marries his second wife, the third one is the next verse. And here's a really important lesson you can learn. Once you cross the line of doing what God told you to do, you're going to just keep sliding down that slippery slope. Because God isn't really that big on three wives versus two wives. He said, no, it's one. That's the only number that God approves of for you to have in your marriage. One wife. One. So once David broke that commandment by marrying his second wife, do you notice how in the next breath he's marrying a third wife? Because once you've got two, you might as well have three. Because you're in violation. And I'm not saying he was right for doing that. I'm saying that's what people do when they start getting into sin. That's their mentality. Once you go off that cliff, it's just, ah! And you know what? David's going to get more wives as he goes. And then you know what David's teaching his son, Solomon, that's going to destroy a whole nation? 700 wives. And 300 concubines. So if you can have two, if you can have three, how about a thousand, King Solomon? And so we've got to be careful that we draw the line where God draws the line. I used the illustration about clothing. Because I went to a school, a Christian school, and they said that the girls had to wear knee-length skirts. Hey, great rule. Straight out of the Bible. You know, you've got to cover up the thighs and the loins. And they would actually have the girls kneel on the ground, you know, if their skirt looked a little bit short and had to touch the floor, you know, to show that it was that long or what have you. Well, this same hypocritical school would then turn around and on any field trip or campout, it just had to be shorts that were fingertip length. Now, there's a big difference between fingertip length. Unless you're an orangutan, okay? Now, if you're an orangutan, then fingertip length is fine, because that's down to your ankles, okay? Did I tell you what I wanted to do when I was looking at these orangutans? But anyway, you know, if you're built like an orangutan, then fingertip length is fine. But an average human, average homo sapien, no, I'm just kidding. But anyway, average person, their fingertips are far above. I mean, look at me. Here, let me take this coat off here. Look at my fingertips, okay? This is my fingertip, you know, sanitize it straight. You know, and the girls would be like, you know, or they'd go like this, right, yeah. Short, you know, see, fingertip length. But anyway, like this is my knee down here, okay? And my fingertip is like here. So that's like a foot above. So I mean, these girls were wearing shorts that were, well, hence the name shorts, but I mean, you know, they were pretty short, fingertip length. Now, here's what I never understood. Well, if it's right on the field trip and it's right on camp, why is it not right on the field trip? Because at school they're putting on a show. For all the parents, all the pastors, all the people, oh, look how modest they are and look how, we're in conformity with God's word. But then on the field trip, pants are fine, shorts are fine. But they said, wait a minute, fingertip length. Others have had the standard of, well, you know, no more than four inches above the knee. Well, here's the thing. Once you go four inches above the knee, you're not on God's program anymore. Why not five? How about six? And can you really stand up with authority and a dad and scream at your teenage daughter and say, what are you doing? I said four inches above the knee. That's five. Because that's just an arbitrary rule that you made up. That's something you made up, four inches above the knee. No, either go by God's standard or else you're kind of just in this freestyle territory. Now, if a dad got up and said that, obviously the parents should obey their dad anyway. But here's what's going to happen. Because obviously children are supposed to obey their parents. If dad says, where are the ankles? Where are the ankles? I mean, that's dad. But here's what those children will do. They'll obey it while they're at home, but then as soon as they get out of that house, they're going to do what they want to do. That's why virtually every girl, I mean, not every girl, but probably 90% of the girls that went to that school, they wear pants and shorts and everything. Because the rule never made any sense to them. Why we can wear it here, but we can't wear it there. Oh yeah, and then for swimming, it became a modest one-piece swimsuit. So now fingertip goes out the window and we're all the way up to the loins. So do you see what I'm saying here? That you've got to draw the line somewhere and if you don't draw it where God drew it, it's going to keep changing. It'll go from fingertip length to a bathing suit, which, I mean, doesn't cover your thighs at all. I mean, it covers very little. And so you've got to be careful not to go on that slippery slope of compromise. Draw that line in the sand, one wife, okay? Skirt down to the knee because as soon as you start hiking that skirt up, it's going to get shorter. And then, you know, mom will wear it shorter and then the daughter will go even shorter. And then her daughter will take it even shorter than that because there's no standard. God is the rock that never changes, but man's standards change all the time. And so we need to get on God's program in every area and not begin to drift. It's kind of like this. Once you go from the King James to the new King James, you know, well, how are you really going to stand against the new American standard at that point? You know, well, these three Bibles and nothing else, one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy Ghost, I guess. I literally called an independent fundamental Baptist church and they said, well, we only allow these three Bibles. Well, why not four? Why not five? You know, once you got the second wife of the new King James, why not add the Hanoan international version? Hanoan of Jezreel. And they were also both of them as wives, it says in verse 43. Now verse 44 says this. It says, but Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Faltai the son of Laish, which was of Galilee. Now, when did that take place? We don't know. The Bible's not clear because it says had given, which is past tense. But we see that first David married Abigail. I don't think he married a Hanoan the next day. Now, that's the way it appears in our Bible, because God's trying to make a point. You add one, you add the other. And I do believe it was a short time, of course, which is the whole point that I'm making. And for it to fall chronologically like that in that passage, it was a short time. Maybe it was a year later, maybe it was six months later, you know, whenever the honeymoon was over, you know, get the next one. And you know, oh, but you don't understand, this woman Abigail was so beautiful, because the Bible even makes a point to tell you how beautiful she was. She was just so beautiful, you just couldn't resist. Okay, well then why is he getting a new wife right after that? Six months later or a year later or whatever. You see, gratifying your flesh, you're never going to be satisfied. You know, you go into sin and say, oh, I'm going to sin and take on the second wife, because she's so beautiful, and I'm coveting her with my eyes. Well, pretty soon you're going to covet somebody else. So you've got to just stick with what God has said here. You can't just satisfy the flesh. And you see, perhaps, we don't know. Let's stop and analyze this, and this is my last point tonight. I want to just really stop and analyze this. Let's just talk about Mykal for a minute, okay? She's the one that was Saul's daughter. Remember at first he was supposed to marry Merab, the older daughter? Saul jerked him around and basically gave Merab to another man. It was told unto Saul that Mykal loved David. So she was actually in love with David. She wanted to marry him. And when Saul heard that, he said, okay, great. But Saul had a little bit of a bad motive, because Saul wanted David to die. So he basically decides, well, I'll give him the daughter to wife. Because remember, he promised to give the daughter before he was mad at David. So now that he's mad, he kind of has to make good on it. So he's going to give Mykal to be David's daughter, but he tells David, well, you have to go out and bring me 100 foreskins of the Philistines, which was a really weird request that I preached about at the time. And he brings back 200. Hey, if any compel you to go a mile, go with him 20. And so he comes back with 200 foreskins and pays the dowry. And he receives his wife. Now, she was in love with him, was she not? Yeah. He marries her, and it's clear that there together a bunch of time goes by. And if you remember when David is on the run, they're in the same bedroom. I mean, they're living together. They've been together married for however long. And remember, she puts the image in the bed and says, oh, he's sick in bed and all this. So I mean, they're definitely married. It wasn't just that they were betrothed or engaged. No, they've already consummated. They're living together. I mean, they're husband and wife. Well, David goes on the run. She's left behind. So they've been separated now for a long space of time, have they not? So this probably made it a little bit easier for David to take on the second wife because he's been separated from his own wife for a long time. Now, here's part of the moral of the story. Don't be separated from your wife for a long time because being separated from your wife is not healthy. The Bible says it's not good for the man to be alone. And when you're separated from your wife, you're more likely to, as the Bible shows here, the Bible isn't calling this adultery, but in a way that's what it is because he's taking on a second wife, which is not of God. But would he have done this if he was with his first wife all along and she was there with him? I don't know. I'm just asking that question because the Bible does tell us, go to 1 Corinthians 7 quickly. I'm not just pulling this stuff out of my hat here. This is a biblical concept that I'm describing right now about why we should not be separated from our wife or husband for a very long time because it says in verse number, let's see here, verse number 1 says, Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. So does having a wife help you to avoid fornication, according to the Bible? Absolutely. Now people will get mad at you for pointing that out, but that is what the Bible says. And part of the reason why we have so much fornicating today is because marriage is under attack. And it's funny because people will get married as a young person and people will get angry at them for getting married too young, but people sleep around all the time and that's just considered by our society to be normal. Well, sleeping around is wicked as hell. It's fornication. It's ungodly. God is not pleased at all. And so it's much better to get married than to be a fornicator. And that's why the Bible says to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife. Now are there benefits to being single? Sure. There are benefits to being single. You can really focus on the things of God as it talks about later in the chapter. You can make your own rules and do everything yourself without having to please your wife and worry about her needs. But listen to me now. The Bible makes it clear that is not for everybody. That's only for certain people that can handle that lifestyle. Now there are some people out there that can handle being single. Okay? And they can do more for God than, hey, that's fine. But that is not what God has prescribed for most people. And he said the bishop must be the husband of one wife. You know, a pastor must be married. Now, is it wrong to be single? No. And Paul was single and he said, hey, I like being single. There's benefits to me being single. You know, I'm okay being single. But he says, but not everyone has that gift. So your average Joe, your average guy should get married to avoid temptation of fornication. Okay? So it says to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband and also the husband hath not power of his own body but the wife. Defrog ye not one the other, except it be with consent, that means both parties consent to that, for a time that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again and watch this last phrase, that Satan tempt you not for your inconstancy. So what the Bible's teaching us is that if we are estranged from or separated from our wife for an extended period of time, the devil can use that to tempt us to commit sin. If we are not with our wife, God can use that to tempt us. Or if a wife is not with her husband, or Satan, I'm sorry, God does not tempt us with evil. He is not tempted neither tempteth ye any man. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away with his own lusts and tights. But Satan is the one who will tempt us for our incontinence. That's what the Bible says. And so therefore long periods of abstinence are not of God, biblically. Now he says that the purpose to abstain would be during prayer and fasting. Now fasting is when you abstain from food, and God is saying here when you abstain from food, you know, you abstain from that as well. That's part of the fast. That's what God's explaining. So you can just focus on prayer and fasting. But look, how long do you fast for? Are you Gandhi? You know, I mean, how long do you fast for? And so therefore you shouldn't have these big long periods of not being with your spouse. Now, I've seen a lot of people, their marriage ended in divorce and adultery, and part of it has been because they were geographically separated. And that's why people that are in the military, they struggle with this, you know. And obviously it's no excuse, obviously, but, you know, when people go in the military and they're separated from each other, you know, that's hard on people's marriage. That's hard on them. In the Bible, there were times when, of course, people would go out to war and they'd be gone for three months, and they would be separated from their wife. Things like that happen, but it's not preferable because of this type of thing. David had been separated from his wife for a really long time, and then that probably led to him giving in to temptation when he was faced with Abigail. Now, he didn't fornicate with her. He married her. He didn't commit adultery with her per se, but he did at least marry her, which is funny because people today, they condone fornication, but they condemn polygamy, you know, having two wives. Now, I condemn both, of course, but I'll say this. Adultery is worse than polygamy in the Bible because adultery has a death penalty on it. Polygamy is definitely a sin, definitely wicked in the eyes of God, but other things that people do are even worse, but they're just accepted by society, you know, so they're okay in people's minds. But we see here that David was tempted because of the separation between him and Michael, and I've seen pastors tell husbands and wives to get separated. Don't get a divorce. Just get separated, you know, because he's smoking pot or whatever or he threw a raw hot dog at you or he, you know, he slapped you or whatever or because she's, you know, doing this or doing that and she's committing sin. Look, separation is not going to help a marriage. Never let not the wife depart from her husband. That's what the Bible says, and I will never tell people to separate from their spouse if they don't want to be separate because being physically separated, and people say, oh, I just need my space right now or she just needs her space. Have you ever heard that before? He needs space. No, because you know what's going to happen with that space? You're just going to get used to not being around that person. You're going to get used to being on your own away from that person, and you're going to grow even further apart. You need to spend time with your wife, spend time with your husband, and be close with them, and don't just be your own person doing your own thing and I'm doing my own thing and my wife's doing her own thing and every once in a while we get together and talk. No, we need to live joint lives together, not be separated geographically for really long periods or even emotionally or spiritually. That's what we see here. So David's separated from his wife. When was his wife given away to this other man? Saul actually takes David's wife and marries her to another man and she's going to have kids with him. Now that was very wicked of Saul to do, but hold on a second. It's possible that he did that after David took on a second wife of Abigail. It's possible. Because the Bible doesn't mention it until two wives later when he's buried at Hinnom, and it says, had given, which is past tense, but that could have been between Abigail and Hinnom. Maybe Saul. And maybe this is even why David lost his wife because he committed this sin of taking on a second wife. But you say, okay, Pastor Anderson, you're making stuff up. Well, it's possible, number one. But let's say that's not what happened. Let's say that Saul did this before David took on a second wife. Well, David is eventually going to get his wife back in the book of 2 Samuel. Eventually he gets his wife back. So it's not like he would have just been single for the rest of his life. He could have just waited until he got his wife back in 2 Samuel. Now, not preferable, but maybe he could have took her with him in the first place. Or maybe at some point in the last few years he could have hooked up with her. I mean, it's funny how Jonathan's hooking up with him. Jonathan keeps coming out and seeing him and finding him. I mean, he could have put forth an effort here. We don't know the whole story. But he could have put forth an effort to be with his wife. Instead, he just says, oh, forget it. This girl looks good. Time to move on. And you know what? God doesn't bless this. Because his wives end up causing him problems later on. And his relationship with his first wife is completely destroyed. Because later on, they don't get along at all and they end up just completely being estranged from one another. You know, you start going down the wrong road and that's what happens. And so I'll close the sermon with that. But that was a really wicked thing that Saul did in verse 44. Taking somebody's wife and giving her to somebody else. I mean, that was wicked. That's one of Saul's big time sins right there. And let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, dear God. Help us to learn the lesson tonight, not to avenge ourselves, not to take vengeance. Because you've said vengeance belongeth unto me, faith of the Lord, I will repay. Help us to have the faith to believe that you will correct things that are out of balance when it comes to justice. And help us not to take things into our own hands. And Father, help us to be content with such things as we have, not to covet other things and be greedy, like Nabal was a greedy man who loved money. Help us to stick with one wife and not have our eyes wandering upon other ladies. Dear God, help us to be happy and joyful with the wife of our youth, as the Bible says. And help us not to let other standards of conduct slip. In Jesus' name we pray.