In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse study of the Bible, focusing on 1 Samuel chapter 25. The sermon centers around Abigail's advice to David, who is being pursued by someone seeking to kill him. Abigail reminds David that his soul is bound in the bundle of life unto the Lord, meaning that God is protecting him and his enemies will be defeated. She urges David not to avenge himself, but to trust in God's plan for him to become the ruler of Israel. The sermon concludes with the news that Nabal, Abigail's husband, dies after being enraged by what she had done.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that mold you And His Spirit, like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Abigail's advice to David As we pick up in 1 Samuel, chapter 25, verse 28 And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck Smith So I pray thee, forgive the trespass of your handmaid In other words, she's again taking the blame I just didn't see them, I didn't know they came For the Lord will certainly make my Lord That is David, a sure house He's going to put you on the throne Because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord Now, you fight the battles of the Lord But don't fight the battles of David You see, that's a big difference Out to defend the Lord is one thing But out to defend yourself is another Better to let the Lord be your defense And she speaks of Saul, she says Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek your soul But the soul of my Lord shall be bound In the bundle of life for the Lord thy God Beautiful, beautiful phrase Your soul will be bound in the bundle of life He's not going to get you There's a guy out pursuing you, trying to kill you But your soul is bound in the bundle of life Unto the Lord This bundle of life is an interesting phrase And it is used of the bundle of love, the bundle of joy And it just talks about just a bag full of life Or a bag full of joy or a bag full of love Beautiful, picturesque speech And so, here your life, God has you You know, in a knapsack, a bundle of life Close to Him Near Him in the bundle of life Though someone is seeking your death And the souls of your enemies Them shall He sling out As out of the middle of a sling And it shall come to pass When the Lord shall have done this to my Lord According to all of the good that He has spoken concerning you And He will have appointed you the ruler over Israel When you come to this position of sitting on the throne That this shall not be a grief to you That you'll not have a bad conscience over this Nor an offense of heart unto my Lord Either that thou hast shed blood causeless Or that my Lord has avenged Himself And that's the whole thing David was on a mission to avenge himself He's spoken against me, you know I'm gonna teach him a lesson And no, David, don't avenge yourself Don't let that be on your conscience That you went out and destroyed this guy Just because, you know, he said nasty things about you But when the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord Then remember your handmaid You think, oh, you know, I didn't do it Just remember me, and, you know And David said to Abigail Blessed be the Lord God of Israel Which sent you to meet me Blessed is the advice And blessed are you Which kept me this day from coming to shed blood And avenging myself with my own hand David saw, hey, I just about blew it I really was on the verge of making a tragic mistake And he thanked her for coming out and stopping him For in very deed, for, you know It's for sure, as the Lord lives Which has kept me back from hurting you Except you had hurried and come to meet me Surely there would have been no one left in your household So David received of her hand That which she had brought him And he said to her, go in peace to your house See, I have hearkened to your voice I've accepted you And Abigail came to Nabal And behold, he had held a feast in his house Like the feast of a king And Nabal's heart was merry within him For he was very drunk Wherefore she didn't tell him anything Less or more until the morning light I mean, she got home and he had been partying with his friends And he was, you know, just out of it He was soused So she let him sleep it off Didn't bother to tell him what she had done Until morning But then it came to pass in the morning When the wine was gone Out of Nabal Sobered up His wife had told him these things When she said, I went down to David and took these things So angry was he At what she had done Just so enraged that his heart couldn't handle it His heart snapped Just had a heart attack And just was in a comatose state for ten days and died And so when David heard that Nabal was dead He said, Blessed be the Lord Who has pleaded The cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal And kept me from doing evil The Lord took care of it Blessed be the Lord. He took care of it He defended me And he kept me From avenging Myself For he has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head And David sent And communed with Abigail Invited her to come and be his wife And when the servants of David were come to Abigail, to Carmel They spoke unto her, saying, David sent us to you To invite you to come and be his wife And she arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth And said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet Of the servants of my Lord So again, such a gracious woman Here are David's servants, so let me wash your feet You're the servants of my Lord And Abigail hurried and arose and rode on the donkey With five damsels that were her maidens And she went after the messengers of David And she became David's wife David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel And they were also both of them his wives For Saul had given Michal, his daughter, David's wife To Phalte, the son of Laish, which was of Galim And so Saul, when David was on the lamb Took David's wife, Michal, and let her marry another guy So David probably heard what Saul had done And so he took both Abigail and Ahinoam as his wives Now the Ziphites, these guys that were always thinking on David Came to Saul in Gibeah and they said David is hiding himself in the hill of Hekelah Which is before Jezreel Then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph Having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him To seek David in the wilderness of Ziph And Saul pitched in the hill of Hekelah Which is before Jezreel, by the way But David stayed in the wilderness And he saw that Saul had come after him into the wilderness Now before David fled, but this time David is staying there in the wilderness And David sent out spies And he understood that Saul was indeed come He had heard rumors, Saul is coming So he sent out his fellows to spy And they came back and they said, yep, Saul is on his way So David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched his camp And David beheld the place where Saul was lying down And Abner the son of Ner, the captain of Saul's host And Saul were laying in the trench And the people were pitched all around them Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite And to Abishai the son of Zerui And he said, who will go down with me to Saul To see Saul in his camp Now David is a very daring character Here is Saul down there surrounded by three thousand men And David sees him set up his sleeping bag, roll it out And saw him lying in the trench And so he says, hey, who wants to go down there with me? Abishai said, I'll go with you, man So David and Abishai came to the people by night And behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench And his spear was stuck in the ground At his bolster, actually right next to his head in the Hebrew But Abner and the people were lying all around him Then Abishai said to David God has delivered your enemy into your hand today Let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear Even to the earth at once And I will not have to hit him the second time Man, let me do it, David, I'll take his spear And I'll just, you know, right through One shot, man, is all I need And David said to Abishai Do not destroy him For who can stretch forth his hand Against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless I mean, you can't do that, man This guy has been anointed by God David furthermore said, as the Lord lives The Lord will smite him One of two ways, his day shall come to die He'll die of old age or He will descend into a battle and perish I mean, God will take care of him I'm not going to lay my hand Now, that's always wise Commit your ways unto the Lord And He shall bring it to pass And so, it's a real turnaround for David from the previous chapter So the Lord forbid, David said That I should stretch forth my hand Against the Lord's anointed But I pray thee, rip off his spear That is there by his head And the crews of water And let's get out of here So David took the spear and the crews of water From Saul's bolster And they got away And no man saw it or knew it Neither did they wake up For they were all asleep Because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them Now, David went over to the other side And he stood on the top of the hill afar off A great space being between them It was probably still dark And David started crying out loud He started yelling, you know Cried to the people and to Abner Saying, don't you answer me, Abner Abner answered and said Who are you, the Christ of the King? David said to Abner Are you not a valiant man? Who is like to you in Israel? Why then have you not kept the Lord the King? For there came one of the people in to destroy the King, my Lord And this thing is not good that you have done As the Lord liveth, you ought to be put to death Because you have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed Abner, you're supposed to be his bodyguard You ought to be put to death, Abner Because look for the King's spear, where is it? Where is his cruise of water? And sure enough, the sword was gone And the cruise of water was gone Saul knew David's voice And he said, is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, it is my voice, my Lord, O King Why does my Lord pursue after his servant? What have I done? What evil is in my hand? Now therefore I pray thee Let my Lord the King hear the words of his servant If the Lord has stirred you up against me Let him accept an offering But if they be the children of men Then cursed be they before the Lord For they have driven me out this day from abiding In the inheritance of the Lord Saying, get out of the land, you know, go into the land of other gods Who is it that stirred you up against me? If the Lord did, then let me Offer a sacrifice to the Lord Let me get right with the Lord If it's men that are stirring you up Then let them be cursed Because they've caught me and forced me to have to flee I can't live in my own country, you know They're forcing me to be driven out Into other lands Now therefore Don't let my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord For the King of Israel has come out to seek a flee As when one does hunt a partridge in the mountains Then said Saul I have sinned Return, my son David For I will no more do thee harm Because my soul was precious in your eyes this day Behold, I have played the fool And erred exceedingly Saul was caught by surprise He was awakened out of a sound sleep, a deep sleep The scripture says from the law Awakened in hearing the voice of David And being awakened out of a sound sleep His mouth started moving before his brain was in gear In other words, he was not guarding now himself And in an unguarded moment He spoke what he knew to be the truth about himself Looking back over his life He had to confess, I've been a fool I have erred exceedingly Every man knows the truth about himself Though it may be buried deep down inside We know the folly of our past We know that we have done foolish things We try to hide it We try to appear to others like we're cool We always make the right decisions That we're real sharp We try to put off this air of confidence and coolness But deep inside we know the truth That we've made a lot of mistakes And Saul, caught by surprise Confessed the truth, I've played the fool And as you look back at his life That is surely accurate autobiography Here was a man who had every opportunity in the world Of being a great man He was big, he was good looking He came from a good home, he was humble God called him to be a king God anointed him and filled him with his spirit And God surrounded him with godly men Every opportunity to go down in history As one of the great men of Israel But he played the fool Because he tried to hide from the call of God Because he entered into the area of the priesthood Where he had no right being offering the sacrifice Because his heart became lifted up with pride Because he failed to submit his life totally to God And he rebelled against the order of God And when caught by the prophet Sought to excuse himself saying I brought the sheep and the oxen back to sacrifice them to God Because they were so good I've played the fool David answered and said, behold the king's spear Send one of your young men over here To get it, to fetch it So one of the young men of Saul Had to run over to the other side of the mountain To get Saul's spear And he said, the Lord render to every man His righteousness and his faithfulness For the Lord delivered you into my hand today But I would not stretch forth my hand Against the Lord's anointed And behold, as your life was much set by this day in my eyes So let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord Even as I've shown mercy to you, may God show mercy to me And let him deliver me out of all tribulation So again David is saying, let the Lord be my defense Let the Lord deliver me Even as I have been gracious to you, let God be gracious to me Then Saul said to David Blessed be thou my son David Thou shalt both do great things And also you will prevail So David went on his way And Saul returned to his place Saul went back to Gibeah But David In a lapse of faith Went to Gath And in the next chapter we find again the tragic Failure of the king Again a lapse of faith Again not trusting in God To fulfill his promise and his word To put him on the throne David again takes things in his own hand And he feels his only place of refuge and safety Is just to get out of the country To go to the land of the Philistines Surely Saul will not pursue me Into the land of the Philistines And David's flight to Gath Is a backward flight as far as his Spiritual life is concerned It's a period of backsliding for David And it led to other failures One step back often leads to other failures Going into the camp of the enemy Often brings us Into other great failures And so David's mistake of seeking refuge In the camp of the enemy And we find David sinning And committing some pretty bad things As we move into the next chapter Deceit and lies and so forth Because it follows his going into the enemy camp You know there are places where you as a child of God Have no business going And if you do go into these places Then you are just really exposing yourself To further denials of the Lord David's lapse of faith And his fleeing to the land of the Philistines We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study Of 1 Samuel in our next lesson As we discover the tragic failure of David And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you That if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy For that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting One of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you With the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll-free number Is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience You can order online Anytime when you go to TheWordForToday.org And while you're there Be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies Commentaries CDs DVDs And so much more Once again that's The Word for Today Online At TheWordForToday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write You can use our mailing address Which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station With your correspondence And now on behalf of The Word for Today We'd like to thank all of you Who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith Continues his verse-by-verse study Through the book of 1 Samuel That's right here On the next edition of The Word for Today And now once again Here's Pastor Chuck Smith May God plant His Word deep in our hearts To learn these important lessons Of commitment Of all of our ways unto Him Thus may God be with you today And this week As you walk with Him May you experience The anointing of His Spirit upon your life May you be filled with the Spirit And may you see the hand of God Working in and around your life In a special way May you be blessed of the Lord As you trust in Him And walk in faith In Jesus' name We'd like to make available to each of you A very special resource Which addresses the daily problems That we as men face in our Christian walk Hosted by Pastor Chuck Smith This series includes additional guest speakers Such as John Corson, Mike McIntosh, Don McClure, and Damian Kyle All share the fact that God understands our problems And has provided the answers for us in His Word Some of the topics included are How to love Christ openly How to prevent the quenching of the Holy Spirit And how the Lord gives victory Over the lusts of the flesh So if you'd like to enhance your Christian walk And personal devotional life Then I would suggest ordering this extraordinary series Entitled For Men Only It can make a difference not only in your life But in the lives of those that you affect on a daily basis Once again you'll be asking for For Men Only For those of you wishing to call Our toll free number is 1-800-272-9673 Once again that's 1-800-272-WORD This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California