I thought tonight we'd think
through the issue that we've been trying as we go through
this part of 1 Samuel to just look at this section of scripture
from the perspective of the various characters in it. We have looked
at Abigail as a picture of the church, married to a fool and
yet by the hand of God, not only saving David from sinning, by
the hand of God, being saved from Nabal and then being married
to David, and we've seen her rescued from the Amalekites after
she'd been married to David, and we've seen pictures, and
last week we saw pictures of David, David as a child of God
and yet a sinner. And we looked at the wickedness
and the tragedy of unbelief. And tonight, if you turn with
me to 1 Samuel 28, we're just going to look briefly, Lord willing,
and with hopefully some clarity from the Lord about the sad,
sad demise of Saul. Lessons from the tragedy of Saul. Saul is pictured before us as
someone who had received extraordinary blessings from God. Part of that nation brought out
of Egypt, part of that nation who had the very oracles of God,
part of that nation who had that remarkable history of God's saving
operations in all of their lives. is presented before us and especially
in chapter 28 and then further in chapter 30 where we finally
find him defeated in battle, his sons dead around him and
we see Saul committing suicide. A very tragic end. David was
a man who's pictured before us in many ways as a man after God's
own heart, but also as a man after our own heart. And we see
David's unbelief, but we see God's hand of sovereign grace
rescuing David again and again and again, rescuing him from
himself and from his sin. But in the case of Saul, we just
have a tragedy. that sadly gets worse and worse
and worse. And these pictures are before
us, all of these pictures, these biographical sketches are before
us, of course that we might We might be turned to look to the
Lord in gratitude and we might be turned to see what happens
in the lives of people around us. Souls are all around us. If we just see this as a historic
lesson from 3000 years ago, we miss the point. And if we fail
to see the Gospel in the scriptures, we miss the point altogether.
Saul ultimately is a man who has an evil heart of unbelief
and he's given over. The worst thing that can happen
to people is that they can be given over to their own devices. But Israel, in this part of Samuel,
is a nation that has rejected God as their king. In 1 Samuel
8, 7, the Lord said to Samuel, listen to the voice of this people. They sought a king, they sought
a king because they saw what the nations around them had,
the evil nations around them had. They wanted to be like the nations
around them, it says in verse 20. They might be like the nations. But in verse 7, the Lord said
unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that
they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they
have rejected me, that I should reign over them. You see, they rejected God. There is just one mediator between
man and God, the man Christ Jesus. God speaks to man by His Word,
His Word made flesh, and God only speaks to man through His
mediator. You see, they rejected Christ
Jesus. That's what they did as a nation. And Saul, this tragic picture
we have in 1st Samuel 28, Saul is a picture of the Gospel of
Christ rejected, as they saw before him as Judas after him. And those in Hebrews 6 and 10
is a sobering reminder that it is possible to sin away any hope
of redemption. I'm not saying that we can see
men's hearts. I don't claim that, nor do I want you to exercise
yourself in such pursuits. But that's what the scriptures
say. It is God's to judge. You see,
faith is a gift of God. And as we saw with David, who's
a man after God's own heart, because it was God's gift, and
God's gifts can never be taken away from his people, they might
be chastened like David was chastened, but the gift of God's grace in
his life can never be taken away from him. His unbelief was wicked,
as we saw last week. Unbelief, wherever it comes from,
it brings God into the court of man's wisdom to be judged
and found wanting. Unbelief never has any evidence. Unbelief is always against all
the evidence that is provided. It's always against the promises
of God. And as we saw last week, it makes
man into hypocrites. It makes men into fools to themselves. It makes men to befriend the
enemies of their souls. It makes them to enter into compromising
situations with God's enemy. And it brings pain and distress.
It's never alone. Unbelief always comes with its
friends, its wicked friends. And because belief is reasonable
and rational and right, given the evidence of creation, the
evidence of our conscience, are without excuse. They have no
excuse now, they will never have any excuse at the Day of Judgement,
they'll never have a single word of excuse forever. These first verses here bring
us to this point again regarding David's life. And it came to
pass in those days, chapter 28, verse 1, that the Fiddlestines
gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel.
And Achish said unto David, Know thou assurably that you shall
go up with me to battle thou and thy men. And David said to
Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And
Achish said to David, Therefore I will make you the keeper of
mine head for ever." David found himself in that situation where
he was there compromised and compromising. compromised with
the enemies of God's people. But David, as we saw, was a child
of God, a man after God's own heart. He acted in unbelief,
but God set a limit. As 1 Samuel 12.22 says, the Lord
will not forsake His people for His great name's sake, because
it is pleased the Lord to make you His people. Amongst this
wicked generation, amongst this generation that had rejected
the Lord Jesus, rejected Him ruling over them, God had a people
and God had a purpose and God heard him when he sought him
and God spoke to him. So here we have these two men
contrasted, both in a sense acting in unbelief, but God coming in
mercy and grace to rescue David and God in perfect sovereign
judgement. Righteous judgment, allowing
Saul to go his own way. David delivered from the hand
of the Lord, delivered from the kingdom of darkness, and Saul
goes from darkness to darkness according to the promises of
God. Saul is set before us. as someone
who is so like so many we know of, so many around us. He is a portrait of religious
but lost. You see, listen to some of his
attributes. He was taller than all of the
people and he was esteemed in the eyes of the people and he
was selected from among the people and he was separated from among
the people. And he had great and remarkable
religious experiences. In chapter 10, verse 10, we find
Saul prophesying. We had him in the company of
the Lord's prophet, hearing from God through God's spokesman Samuel. We see him as esteemed among
the people. We see him having great victories,
triumphant victories, victories over the Philistines, victories
over the enemies of God. These are religious things, let's
look at them from spiritual perspective. But he was also a man, as we
read in 8 verse 7, he was a man who had reason to be humble in
his position. They've chosen him as king. but they've rejected God at the
same time. He's a man who had every reason
to operate with humility, but he remained a proud man, and
he had been warned and warned. God had chosen him but he had rejected God and he
had acted with wicked unbelief. He had, instead of waiting for
Samuel, he had offered a sacrifice, a sacrifice to God when he was
in fear of men. So often we read in Saul's situation,
it's a fear of men rather than a fear of God. In chapter 13
we find him being rebuked. He says, Samuel says to Saul,
you have done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment
of the Lord thy God which he commanded you. For now would
the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever,
but now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought
a man after his own heart. And the Lord has commanded him,
David, to be captain over his people, because thou hast not
kept that which the Lord commanded you." With all of the reasons
to be humbled, Saul now had an opportunity, didn't he, to submit
to the Lord and to submit to the Lord's anointed captain. He is a man in chapter 14 who
made stupid vows about slaying the one who eats that day and
he finds out it was Jonathan and the people come to him and
they win him over and we compare it to Jephthah not so previously
back in Israel's history we find Jephthah kept his vow. And in chapter 16 we find Him
falling in that awful way as He came back from that exercise
where God had given Him instructions to go and deal with the Amalekites,
to defeat the Amalekites, to bring nothing home, and He brought
it back. He brought all these goods back
for Himself. And Samuel challenges him again. And Samuel said, Has the Lord
as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying
the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. And this is
how God describes rebellion. extraordinary words. Verse 23
of Chapter 15. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the
word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. Samuel had all of these great
religious experiences and continually he fell into sin. And the sin
continues as you read through chapters 16, 17, 18. You'll see that David is raised
up as another king in chapter 16 and David slays Goliath and
the Philistines are defeated yet again. But for Saul this
is a cause of jealousy, and then it's a cause of jealousy turning
to murder. When God gives people over, it
goes from bad to worse to worse. And Saul not only has plans to
kill David, but he actually conspires with the others around him to
kill David. And then he has in the midst
of this, he's not just one-dimensional, he has in the midst of it moments
of reality. In chapter 18, 28 and 29, and Saul saw and knew
that the Lord was with David, that Michael, Saul's daughter,
loved him. And Saul was yet more afraid
of David, and Saul became David's enemy continually. He has moments of reality and
moments of hatred. Verse 19, chapter 1, And Saul
spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they
should kill David. And in the midst of this there
are moments of reality and there are moments of heightened spiritual
experiences. He actually goes to Rama. And
the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. Chapter 19 verse 23. And he went on and prophesied
and he came to Naoth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes
also and prophesied before Samuel in a like manner and lay down
naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say is
Saul also among the prophets. He has moments of reality and
rationality, he has moments of repentance, he has then extraordinary
moments of terrible wickedness, even to the extent in chapter
20 verse 23 he actually sought to kill his faithful son Jonathan.
In chapter 22 we see him in anger at the priests helping David as he sought. He
not only goes to the town of Nob where the priests are and
he kills 85 of the Lord's priests and their women and children
and sucklings and oxes and asses and sheep with the edge of a
sword. And in the midst of this, as
it goes on, we see David exercising, as we saw in these last few weeks,
extraordinary places where he shows amazing grace. He shows respect to the Lord's
anointing of Saul, and he gives Saul again the opportunity to
repent, and we find Saul Repenting, it seems. Acknowledging that
David is the rightful king. Acknowledging that David is more
righteous than he is. Again and again he's had his
frailty exposed and David's faithfulness to him seen. And he repents for a moment and
then descends into wickedness. extraordinary wickedness. And
the wickedness is attributed in so many places, in seven places in this book,
his wickedness is attributed to an evil spirit from the Lord. The spirit of the Lord left him
and an evil spirit from the Lord came to him. That's something
of the background of this situation. Samuel is dead, verse 28, verse
3. And all Israel lamented him and
buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put
away one of his axe, in line with God's commandments and put
away all those that had familiar spirits. It means those that
had these pits for divination, for those who dealt with the
dead, those who could talk to the dead, as it were, and all
the wizards out of the land. And the Philistines gathered
themselves together and came and pitched in Shuman. And Saul
gathered all Israel together and they pitched in Gilboa. And
when Saul saw the hosts of the Philistines, he was afraid and
his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the
Lord, he still being religious, just superficially. And the Lord
answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by the
prophets." See, where had the priests gone? He'd killed them
all. Just one escaped. There was just
one left, and he was with David. And Samuel was dead. There were
no prophets. God was not speaking. to Saul,
and he wouldn't have him speak to him. Then Saul said unto his
servants, Seek me a woman that has a familiar spirit, that I
may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to
him, Behold, there is a woman that has a familiar spirit at
Endor. And Saul disguised himself and
put on another raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and
they came to the woman by night. And he said, I pray thee, divine
unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall
name unto thee. And the woman said unto him,
Behold, thou knowest what Saul has done, how he has cut off
all those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of
the land. Therefore then layest thou a
snare for my life and cause me to die. And Saul swore to her
by the Lord." You see, this is still a religious activity from
his perspective. It's extraordinary, isn't it,
how far people will go, how far unbelief will allow people to
descend. As the Lord liveth, there shall
no punishment happen to thee for this thing." You see Saul
cannot think about the things of this world. He has no concern
about her soul nor any fear for his own. There shall no punishment
happen to thee for this thing. Why had they been put out of
the land? Because God punished them. Then said the woman, Whom shall
I bring up under thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel,
she cried with a loud voice, and the woman spoke to Saul,
saying, Why hast thou deceived me? For thou art Saul. Here we have this extraordinary
conference now. Soul in the hands. of someone
who was Satan's servant. And we have this conference,
don't we, between Saul and Satan. He came at night, verse 8. He came in the darkness. In verse 25, he went away at
night. He came in the darkness He lived
in the darkness, he dwelt in the darkness, he did his work
in the darkness and when he left it was still dark. You see Saul
came in disguise to deal with Satan. God had rejected him and
he turns to Satan for advice and for counsel. And Saul came
in disguise, but Satan discovered him very quickly indeed. Satan
comes in disguise as Samuel and Saul cannot discover who it is. When the woman saw Samuel, she
cried out in a loud voice, You have deceived me, she says of
Saul. And the king said to her, Do not be afraid, for what sawest
thou? And the woman said unto Saul,
I saw gods, I saw spirits ascending, ascending out of the earth. And
he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man
cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. And it was Saul
who perceived that it was Samuel. And he stooped with his face
to the ground and he embowed himself. And then we
have this conversation. But as I said, Saul comes in
disguise and is discovered immediately. Satan comes in disguise, I believe,
as Samuel. And Saul cannot discern whether
it's Satan or Samuel speaking to him. Such is man's situation. in the hands of the prince of
this air without the grace and protecting hand of God." You
see, Satan knows man better than man does himself. But man is
ignorant. Satan has blinded the minds of
unbelievers. You see, man is ignorant of Satan's
deceitful vices and snares. The simple and most significant
lesson for all of us in this is that therefore we are to have
absolutely nothing to do with darkness in any form. The reality
is we do not know what we are dealing with. We are in this
world where there are strange and supernatural things that
happen. The fundamental lesson for God's
children is to stay as far away as possible from them, whether
they be tarot cards or all the other nonsense that floods this
world these days. We are to seek no guidance from
them, We are not in any way, if the Lord would give us grace,
to have anything to do with them. Don't read horoscopes, we don't
need to touch them, we don't need to play with any of that
stuff. We look to God in faith and we look to His Word as all
of our guidance in all of our life. And we use the circumstances,
the strange circumstances that might come upon us, we use them
as opportunities for the Gospel, opportunities to declare the
lordship, the kingship of our great God and His sovereign rule
over these things. You see, all the evil spirits
that came upon Saul, they came from the Lord, they came from
the Lord, they came from the Lord. The Lord is Lord over those
things. We're not to have anything to
do with them. We don't have enough knowledge, we don't have any
power and we're so liable to being deceived that we stay away. And Satan is at his worst when
he is a deceiver who pretends to be like someone who gives
wise and good and true counsel. See, Saul in verse 15 makes his
complaint. And Samuel said to Saul, Why
hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?" And Saul answered, he
says, I'm sore distressed for the Philistines made war against
me. How many times has the Philistines
been at war with the people of Israel and God has beaten them
again and again and again. God has fought them. At times
they don't have to lift a finger. The Philistines make war against
me, and God is departed from me and answers me no more, neither
by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called you that
you may make known unto me what I should do." Here's Saul making
his complaint, laying out his case. not a single word, not
a single word of confession, not a single word of his sin,
not a single word of God's promises and God's righteousness and God's
justice. I believe that this is Satan
disguising himself as Samuel. I have several reasons But because
we know from the scriptures in chapter 15 verse 35, Samuel said
that he never would speak to Saul again. Samuel went to Ramah
and Saul went up to his house and Samuel came no more to see
Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned
for Saul and the Lord repented that he'd made him king. He would never speak to him when
he's alive. Why would he speak to him now?
Why would Samuel, a servant of God, help one that God has rejected? Why would Samuel in heaven be
said to come up from the earth at the command of a witch? Why would one of God's servants
be at the behest of Satan and Satan's minions to do as they
bid. This woman and this spirit picture
false teachers for us in so many remarkable ways. All that this
apparition says is true. But all that comes from it for
Saul is despair and self-murder. Satan is a tempter. He tempts people and then he
turns to be a tormentor. Judas sold the Lord Jesus for
a handful of coins and then under that terrible torment he commits
suicide. And here, this apparition, this
satanic activity, he torments all with God's judgments of him.
He says, the Lord has departed from you, verse 16. The Lord has departed from you
and he's become your enemy. He speaks the truth, doesn't
he? The Lord has taken away the kingdom
from him. And he's given it to David, verse
17. And he gives him the reason why.
He reminds him, as the accuser always does, he reminds him of
his rebellion. because you obeyed not the voice
of the Lord, nor executed His fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore the Lord has done this
thing unto you this day." Satan has no problem speaking as if
he is one of the Lord's spokesmen. See what he says in verse 17,
the Lord has spoken by me. Here is this being claiming to
speak from God, brought up by a witch, claiming to speak on
God's behalf. In verse 19, he was a prophet
in a sense and he was a successful prophet. He actually says what's
going to happen. Moreover, the Lord will also
deliver Israel unto thee into the hand of the Philistines,
and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. The Lord shall
also deliver the host of Israel into the hands of the Philistines."
See, false teachers and false prophets speak words that can
come true. Chapter 13 of Deuteronomy, I'll
just read these first verses to you. If there arise among
you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, then give us thee a sign
or a wonder, and the sign or wonder comes to pass whereof
he spoke unto you. So he promises that something
is going to happen and it does come to happen. And then he says,
Let us go after other gods which thou hast not known, and let
us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the
words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord
your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk
after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments
and obey His voice and you will serve Him and cling to Him."
These false prophets speak words that are true and even judgments
that are seemingly right. Saul came asking, 15. Make known unto me what I shall
do. And Saul goes away, having been
told what would be done to him, and why it would be done to him. 19. The LORD will deliver Israel
with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow shall
you and your sons be with me, the Lord shall deliver the host
of Israel into the hands of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway
all along the earth and was sore afraid because of the words of
Samuel. And there was no strength in
him, for he had eaten no bread all that day or the night. And
then the woman feeds him, So there he is having a meal with
her and he sends her away. See Saul came in darkness and
he left in darkness. Flesh gives birth to flesh. He
left no better off than when he arrived. So it is with everyone
who hears a false teacher and a false gospel. clothed with
many true statements. They come in the flesh, they
hear from the flesh, and they live in the flesh. What a difference,
what an extraordinary difference we see in the end of these two
men. You can read it in chapter 31
of Samuel's sad, sad demise. He falls on his sword. He's more fearful at the end
of his life of his reputation amongst men than he is of his
soul. And there we have David. David,
who acted in unbelief as well. What's the difference? Who makes
you to differ? Amazing sovereign grace. Just some listens before I close. It's a sad, sad story, isn't
it? The story of Saul's life. A story
of a man in a sense with many privileges and yet rejected by
God. We are a people who have borne
witness to God's amazing saving grace and mercy. May God cause
us to walk true and faithful to His Word and be mindful of
what He says, is to test the spirits. Believe not every spirit
because many false prophets have gone out into the world. The
men are either speaking to you, you are either being led by Satan's
servants or the Lord's servants. There are all the people of this
world on a way, aren't they? There is a way that they're going. They're under someone's guidance
and they're going to that someone's final destination to join with
them as it were. And I think one of the lessons
for us isn't it in this, is that people who have rejected the
Lord, and rejected his Gospel. They do not stay in a state of
suspended animation. The yeast is growing all the
time. There is no place of neutrality. People are going somewhere. Saul
is a great picture of someone who has rejected the Gospel,
rejected the Lord Jesus, sought his own way. Ultimately what
is exposed by the trials of Saul's life is where Saul's heart really
was. tragic place it is for him to
end up in the hands of a witch and in the hands of Satan. To
reject God, to not hear from God, is to be in the hands of
Satan. False prophets, of course, don't
wear a badge to proclaim who they are. As the Lord Jesus promised,
there'll be false Jesuses come, and they will, if possible, thank
God it is not possible, they will, if possible, lead astray
even the very elect. I pray that the Lord would cause
us to see how serious all this is. For false prophets shall
rise, a promise to God, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce,
if it were possible, the very elect. They'll have their dreams
and they'll have their visions. As Jeremiah says, the prophet
that has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that has my word,
let him speak my word faithfully. And then he compares dreams and
visions and experiences. He says, what is the chaff to
the wheat? That's all it is, isn't it? Just chaff. to the wheat, that
which is alive, that which is nourishing, that which grows,
that which grows more of its own. What is the chaff to the
wheat, says the Lord. See false prophets are pawns
in the hands of Lucifer and we must look beyond the ones that
paint pentagrams and the ones that go off into the forests
and sacrifice animals and the ones that are into horoscopes
and Torah cards and witchcraft. I love what Tim James says about
them. He says, they are Satan's failures. His best, most successful fiends
are those that speak much that is true, almost all that is true. This evil spirit spoke the truth
to Saul, spoke the truth about what would happen to him, spoke
the truth about why it would happen to him. Nevertheless it
was still a satanic activity and God handing him over. Satan's
most faithful and most used servants in this world. They
stand by pulpits and they speak much about God and talk much
about the Lord Jesus. Then they tell men how to be
holy and they offer invitations to sinners to come and be saved. They compromise again and again They talk so much and so well
of the Lord Jesus. And they teach men to be separate
from sinners and they teach men how to live good and holy lives. And they cause people to believe
that because of something that they have done, some decision
they have made, some activity they are doing now, they teach
people to speak peace, peace to themselves. And they make
them believe. that hell will not touch them,
that they are as good as if they're right in heaven right now. They tell people of all the good
things they can do to commend themselves to God. Do this and live. They continually get people to
swap outward sins of open immorality for those hidden sins of self-righteousness
which are far, far more wicked. It all suits the schemes of natural
man's religion. has so captivated Saul that he
just acts as a man driven by animal spirits again and again. False spirits can look like Samuel,
speak truth. and act in such a way that men
will perceive them to be like Samuel. aware by the grace of God guiding
him what was happening because he'd seen it and witnessed it
over and over again. He'd seen the souls come into
the churches and cause problem in the churches. He'd seen them
go where they go. He says, but I fear, verse 3
of 2 Corinthians 11, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent
beguile thee through his subtleties, so your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ, the singularity that
is in Christ. The Gospel is singular and the
Gospel is simple. It's all about what God has done. It's all about a perfect and
completed work of the Lord Jesus. These people come and they preach
another Jesus which we have not preached. They have moved from
the apostolic gospel and you receive another spirit which
we have not received or another gospel which you have not accepted
that you might well bear with Him. They are so subtle that
these people trained and pastored by the likes of Saul can come
into those churches and look as if they are the real Saul,
like the real Samuel we've just seen in this picture before us. People of God, are in a privileged
position. People of God need to be protected
by the grace of God. We need to be reminded again
and again that we are not to be captivated by these things.
As Colossians says, let no man beguile you of your reward in
voluntary humility the worshipping of angels, intruding into those
things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind, and not holding on to the head, from which all the body
by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together,
gather increases with an increase of God. Therefore if you be dead
to Christ from the rudiments of the world, from the law, Why,
as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which perish with using
after the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have
a show of wisdom in willed worship and humility and neglecting of
the body and not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. They do nothing. The Gospel is
simple, isn't it? The fullness of God dwells in
him. Verse 10 of chapter 2, you are
complete in him. You are complete. If you have
the Lord Jesus, you are perfectly complete and you cannot add to
perfection. You can rejoice in it, but you
can't add to it. And we cannot do anything with
this flesh to put God under any obligation. He's perfectly satisfied
with the finished work of His Son. May God make us perfectly
satisfied with the finished work of His Son. May He cause us by
looking looking intently and continually at the Lord Jesus,
may He cause us to see the force by our delight in He who is the
truth itself. You are complete in Him. Let's pray.