Thank God, this Lord, hear my
feeble cry. Because I certainly don't feel
very humble. You don't hear my humble cry.
Most of my cries are very feeble. Very feeble. I don't know if I have an ounce
of humility in me. If I don't, I ask God to give
it to me. Alright. I'm going to title my message
this evening is the dead seeking the dead. The dead seeking the
dead. Here's Saul, king of Israel. And his life has been one life
of rebellion and disobedience against God from the time he
started as a king. Sin is a soul-destroying thing. Life-destroying thing. And Saul
here, king of Israel, here's the fruit of his life. He's abandoned
by God. And he starts out way up here. And
he goes lower, and lower, and lower, and now he's at his lowest
place. He's going to go to a witch.
God wouldn't answer him so I'll go to a witch. That's what she
is, a witch. People that has a familiar spirit.
He's going to the wicked to hear from God. To hear what to do. And God says these are an abomination. You can look it up in Deuteronomy
and Leviticus. Anybody has a wizard or a familiar
spirit or Necromancy calling up the dead God says in abomination, it's
absolute abomination Now look what he says here in verse 3
he says now Samuel was dead and Remember, I brought a message
on Samuel died. Now Samuel was dead and all Israel
had lamented him, wept over him. They buried him in his hometown.
And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits in the wizards
out of the land. He said, oh, wait, they gotta
go. They gotta go. And the Philistines gathered
themselves together. Saul, they pitched in one place,
an army here, an army there. Saul went out and he saw this
great, great host. of the Philistines and look what
it says he was afraid and his heart heart greatly trembled
his heart why did his heart greatly tremble because he had been forsaken
of God he'd been abandoned by God Samuel couldn't help him
God wouldn't help him look what it said in verse 6 and when Saul
inquired of the Lord He inquired of the Lord. But listen to what
it says. The Lord answered him not. God
hadn't spoken to Saul in years. And the Lord answered him not.
He didn't give him a dream. He never used what they call
Urim with the lights. Or he never spoke to him by a
prophet. By a prophet. And so Saul couldn't
help him. Samuel couldn't help him. The
prophets couldn't help him. God refused to help him. And
David was still a fugitive. And now Saul, who once had a
very, very confident, self-confident heart once, especially when he
was chasing David, is giving way. His self-confidence is giving
way. His heart's poor. His heart's
desolate. His soul is desolate. His prayers
are desolate. His everything about him is desolate. Desolate. And what is there apart
from the grace of God to sustain us in the dark, dark storm clouds
that come over us? Accept the grace of God because
we know that in this flesh dwelleth no good thing If grace don't
sustain us, we won't be the same and I do notice this too Like
Saul went struck trusted his own wisdom and strength Our own
wisdom and strength can't save us As Saul thought he was wise
and once thought he was strong Remember our Lord Jesus Christ
said without me Without me, you cannot do nothing. Now, what
do you reckon he meant when he said that? I believe he said, we can do
nothing. Well, we can, no, we can't do
nothing. We can't pray. We can't see God. We can't worship God. We can't
read a Bible. We can't do anything without
Christ. Anything spiritual without Christ. But here he is forsaken by God,
but he becomes more defiant. Look what he says here in verse
7. He becomes more defiant. He says, God won't speak to me. The prophets won't speak to me.
Then says Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman. Oh my! Seek me a woman. You know what
God said? He said, woman's the weaker vessel. He said, she's supposed to be
a helpmate. But He said, seek me a woman.
And not only just seek me any woman, but seek me a woman that
has a familiar spirit. A familiar spirit is a spirit
that's familiar with things supposed to be outside the realm of nature. A spirit that's familiar with
demons and darkness and devils and those kind of things. Not
familiar with God. Not familiar with the Word of
God. But familiar with darkness, death, destruction, desolation. And they said, well there's a
woman in Endor. Woman in Endor, she has a familiar
spirit. Well, what did Saul do? Well,
he disguised himself, laid aside his robes, kingly robes, changed
his clothes, changed his looks, disguised himself, and away he
went. And two men went with him. They
came to the woman by night. I tell you what, he's like everybody
else that's going to do wicked things. They do them by the darkness.
Go by darkness. We're not children of darkness.
We're children of light. He come in the nighttime. He
come in the darkness. And he says to the woman now,
I pray thee, or I'm asking you, divine unto me. You find out
for me. You go and do something spiritually
for me by the familiar spirit. And bring me Yim-Hap, who I shall
name unto thee. Oh my! And this woman said, you
know what Saul's done? You remember Saul said there,
Saul put away those that had familiar wizards out of the land.
And here he is over here, after he had put them out, he goes
seeking one that was left in the land. And oh my, and she
said, Saul cut off those that have familiar spirit and the
wizards out of the land. Are you laying a snare for me?
Are you laying a snare for me that I'll end up dying over what
I'm fixing to do? Oh my. Now look what Saul does. You
talk about wicked. Wicked, wicked, wicked, wicked.
Oh my, look what he said. And Saul swear to her, he gets
religious. He uses religious jargon. Uses
religious jargon. He said, swear to her by the
Lord. I'm gonna tell you something.
And then as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen
to thee for this thing. He used the Lord's name. He uses
the Lord, swore by the Lord, and I tell you what he's doing
here, this is what you call using the Lord's name in vain. He had
done an inquiry to the Lord, and God said, I ain't going to
listen, but he uses the Lord's name. That's like people saying,
well, I'll swear on a stack of Bibles. If you got to swear on
a stack of Bibles, you ought to just keep your word to yourself.
You don't have to say, our Lord said don't swear by heaven, that's
the earth's heaven, that's God's throne. Don't swear by the earth,
that's his footstool. Let your yea be yea and your
nay be nay. When people, when you just do
that, you don't have to swear about anything. Ain't that right? If you're an honest man and tell
the truth all the time and be honest enough, people will take
it's your word. And that's what he said, he swore
by the Lord. He got real religious. When he
needed it. When it's convenient for him. Oh my. She said, hey, ain't gonna
bring no punishment for you. And watch what this woman says
now. Well then, who you want me to bring up for you? And he
said, bring me up Saul. I mean, excuse me, Samuel. Bring
me up Samuel. Oh my. And the king said unto her, and
when the woman saw Samuel, listen to what happens now. And when the woman saw Samuel,
she cried with a loud voice, scared her. She didn't think
this was going to happen. She wasn't expecting this. She
wasn't expecting this. She really wasn't. That's, you know, when you're
going to get somebody to read your palm, what are they going
to say about it? You got a palm? Five fingers
on your hand? I'll tell you what, he comes
up and it scares this woman to death. She was not expecting
this. She really wasn't. And look what
happens. And the woman spake to Saul,
why hast thou deceived me? For thou saw There's Saul. And the king said unto her, don't
be afraid. You see, her fear, let me tell
you something, her fear was not in offending God. Her fear was
not in breaking God's law. She was not afraid of God, but
she was afraid of Saul. And I tell you, the scripture
says, when they knew God, They glorified him not as God. Neither were they thankful, but
they became vain in their imaginations and changed the incorruptible
God made like to corruptible man and four-footed beast and
creeping things. Here's two women, a man and a
woman that God himself has reprobated. And I tell you what, there's
two kind of people in this world, two classes of people. And you
listen to what I'm telling you now. I ain't afraid to say this.
There's God's elect and the rest are reprobate. God chooses His
people and He leaves the rest to themselves. And man may say, well, I can
make the choice. You'll not make the choice till
God makes the choice. You'll not have a hair on your
head that you can count that God ain't already counted. And
I tell you what, when I tell you when people think they, you
know, talk about God and they change His glory, change His
glory, change His power, change His majesty, change His sovereignty
to accomplish what they want to do and do what they want to
do. And sin took Him from His royal robes to disguising Himself. and to inquire at a witch. And I tell you, sin, sin destroys
reputations, sin breaks devastations upon families, and it leaves
misery in its wake wherever it goes. Now look what happens here
now, verse 12 through 14. And the woman saw Samuel, It
surprised her, terrified her. She now knows it's Saul. And
she said, why did you deceive me? Saul didn't deceive her.
She's already deceived and Saul was already deceived. They both
were deceived. They already been deceived. They
both were deceived. We didn't deceive her. She's
already deceived and he was too. And the first thing that the
king says to her, what did you see? What did you see? And the woman said, I saw gods. I saw gods. Ascending up out
of the earth. I saw some kind of a god coming
up. Gods coming up out of the earth. And oh my. And he said unto her,
what form is he of? If it's a god, does he have a
form? What is it? And she said, he's
an old man. And he's covered with a mantle.
He's got a robe on him. Got a robe wrapped around him.
Saul perceived this Samuel stooped with his face to the ground.
Now let me tell you something. I know you all already know this.
There's a world of evil. There's a world of evil out here.
A world of darkness. Paul said that you know there's
spiritual wickedness in high places. Spiritual wickedness
in high places. There's a world of evil out here
that you and I can't see. You know, there's Satanism, devil
worship, palm reading, fortune telling, astrology, voodoo, Ouija
boards. And I tell you what, I wonder
how many people profess Christianity and say they know the Lord and
pick up their papers every day to read their astrology. See
what the day is going to be for them. going to be a good day
or a bad day. Well, I'm an Aquarius, so let
me see what's going to happen to the
Aquarians today. Ah, boy. But the woman saw Samuel. I was up in Philadelphia one
time. We was walking down the street
and going to this park and we went by a spiritualist room. She had two or three couches
in there and a bunch of chairs and she had those couches full,
a couple of couches full of people waiting on her. to go in there
and read their fortunes and read their palms and other things
like that. But I tell you exactly what my
fortune is. I know what my fortune is. I
know what's going to happen to me tomorrow. I know what's going
to happen to me on my final day. I know exactly where I'm going
and I know exactly what's going to happen to me. I know my future. And it looks wonderful. And I know my past. They don't
have to say, well, you know, you've done this back in your
past. I know my past and I know your past. You don't have to
tell me a word about it. I know where you come from. I
know who did something for you and I know who's gonna, I know
your future. Everybody that trusts Christ,
I know your future. Ain't that right? We read the
back of the book. Oh my. And I tell you what, you
know what Samuel did? Samuel had two things to say
to Saul. He said, Saul, why have you bothered
me? Why in the world have you bothered
me? But let me ask you a question.
Did this witch have power to raise Samuel up? To bring him from wherever he
was. If he's in the presence of the Lord, he's in paradise,
Could it be absent from the bodies to be present? Did this witch
have the power to bring him up? Well, you know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration, there was
Moses and there was Elijah with the Lord Jesus Christ to talk
about what his death would accomplish at Jerusalem. And when our Lord
Jesus Christ, when he cried out on the cross, and that night,
spirits of the saints got out of their graves, the spirits
did, and well, I don't know if they got out of their graves,
but their spirits went on to the city of Jerusalem, and many
people saw. So I'm telling you that this
witch, Norsal, had the power to do this, to raise up Samuel.
The first time we see Satan in the scriptures. What he's doing,
he's lying on God. Changing God's Word. Lying to
Adam and Eve. Talking about God loves you and
you're not going to die. God's not just. He ain't going
to kill you. And you know you can't take him at his Word. He
said, you know, he said, hath he not said? Did he not say? So he'd done three things against
God right then and there. And that's why we're in the mess
we're in because they believe Satan's a liar. Our Lord said,
you of your father the devil, he's a liar from the beginning. He's never told the truth and
he never will tell the truth. And you know, our Lord, you know,
And the devil, any place you find Satan, he cannot do anything
until God gives him permission. First, the next place you find
him, Job. God said, well, I'll let you
do this. I'll let you do that. And the devil only has power
that God gives him. And I tell you what, he said,
you know, our Lord told Simon, Simon, Satan has decided to sift
you as wheat. But I pray for you. He ain't
going to get you. Satan ain't going to get any
one of God's children. Christ whipped him. Christ defeated
him. Christ put him under his feet.
And our Lord Jesus got him on the straight. You know, when
the devils would speak in the Gospels, And they knew that it
was Christ. They said, Thou art the Holy
One, the Christ of God. You know what he would say? Shut
up! Shut up! Just like that. He would tell the devil, I want
you to go over yonder. The devil went yonder. He told
a bunch of devils one time, I want you to go in that bunch of hogs. And you know what happened? The
hogs went down into that water because they couldn't even stand
the demon. The only people that can live with demons in them
is people. Hogs and animals can't live with demons in them. And
they run down into that water and they come back out on the
other side preaching water baptism for salvation. And I'm going to tell you something,
beloved. The devil, God's the only one. God let Samuel come up, and God
does lots of things, like this, to send men a strong delusion
that they should believe a lie and be damned. And that's what
happens. How many times has God sent someone
a strong delusion? Oh, I believe in speaking in
tongues, strong delusion. I believe in women preachers.
Strong delusion. I believe man can decide his
own fate. Delusion. I believe a man can
accept or reject God. Delusion. I believe all the Bible but the
first 11 chapters. A delusion. I don't believe that there is
nothing supernatural in this world. A delusion. But oh, let me close with this
thought. Bless our Lord's name. God's
people. God's people. Now Satan said,
you know, he said, these are false apostles, deceitful workers.
And it's no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an
angel of light. And I tell you, God's people
look to Christ and Christ alone. Look to God and God alone. witchcraft,
the occult, Ouija boards, astrologies, all these things attack God's
sovereignty. Anything that you put into place
for information to batch your future, what's going to happen
in your life in any particular day, And you go to that and it
attacks God's sovereignty. You say, well God ain't got the,
he don't have the power to decide and make a decision for me today.
So I'm going to go, I'm going to get me a Ouija board. I'm
going to go see a fortune teller. God's Word is against all forms
that's against Him. I want you to look with me in
Galatians chapter 5. I want you to see this with me.
Galatians chapter 5. You know, Saul is completely
given up by God. Given up by God. I met an old man years ago. He was walking the streets in
Dayton, Ohio. When he was walking, he'd look
up and talk. Every once in a while, he'd cuss
God, and then the next thing you know, he'd say, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry. Walk along talking to people. And I got around him, and some
way or another, he discerned that I was a Christian, and it
shook him up. And he'd come to his right mind
for a little bit, and he says, you know, he said, I turned on
God, and I walked away from God, and look where I'm at now. He
was walking around. Listen, one thing you don't,
and you find people, you'll find preachers and stuff that they'll
get into demonology to teach those people about demons and
all that. Listen, I know all about the
devil I want to know. What God says about him, it's
enough for me. You play with fire, you'll get
burned. And I'm not going to get burned. But I'm telling you,
look what God said here in verse 19 of Galatians chapter 5. Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, invents, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like of which I have told you before. As I've
also told you in time past that they which do such things shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. And witchcraft's one of them.
Witchcraft's one of them. And I tell you what, Saul is
completely given up by God. His word meant nothing to Saul.
Now Saul's word means nothing to Saul. And the Lord may seem,
to me and you, to be at a great distance sometimes. But be still. Just be still. And know that I am God. Amen. Oh my soul, why art thou disquietest
in me? David said. And the next word
out of his mouth was, Hope thou in God. Oh my, that's the dead sinner
seeking a dead man. And God sent him a strong delusion.
And how many people in this world right now have a strong, strong
delusion? Our Father, oh blessed Savior,
For Christ's sake, thank you for allowing us to be here tonight.
Thank you for your word. God bless it to our heart, bless
it to our understanding. And Lord, keep us. Oh, keep us. Keep us looking to thee. Keep
us trusting in you. Keep us loving you. Keep us seeking
you. Keep us in your word. Keep us loving one another. Keep
us honoring you with our thoughts, with our words, with our hearts. And we ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy salvation so rich and free.