Good morning. Would you turn with me to 1 Samuel
chapter 28? Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into your presence in the name of thy son. And Lord,
we ask that we might be enabled by your grace to hear from you,
that you'd speak to us from your word and reveal your blessed
son to us. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray for your spirit. that
you'd give us grace to love you, trust you, love one another,
and be servants one to another. Our Lord bless us for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen. Now this is the final act of
Saul before his death, and it's when he goes to the witch, and
it's a very unusual passage of scripture. And what I see once
again in this passage of scripture is the insincerity of Saul. That's the one word that you
would use to describe him more than any other word, insincere. Now let's begin reading in verse
three of 1 Samuel chapter 28. Now Samuel was dead and all Israel
had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city.
And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and the
wizards out of the land. Now he's talking about witches,
people who were involved in the occult and so on. Both Leviticus
and Deuteronomy commanded that if someone was a witch, they
were to be put to death. And so Saul, when it was convenient
to him, obeyed God. That's interesting. Now, you
remember the Amalekites, he didn't put them out because it would
have cost him something, but when it didn't cost him anything,
he would obey God. So he had put out all of the
wizards and the witches out of the land, the worshipers of Satan
and people of the occult. Verse four, and the Philistines
gathered themselves together and came and pitched in Sheum
and Saul gathered all Israel together and they pitched in
Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was
afraid and his heart greatly trembled. Now, he looked at this
wartime, this army coming against him, and he was scared to death.
He thought we can't defeat him. Now, how many times have we read
where the Lord fought Jerusalem, where he supernaturally intervened
to destroy their enemies? Now, he was hoping maybe something
like this would happen again. Verse six, and when Saul inquired
of the Lord, The Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor
by Urim, nor by prophets. He got no word from God as to
what to do. He was left to himself and he
was scared to death. Now, what did he do? And let
me say this, I have no doubt that if Saul, by the grace of
God, would have humbled himself and asked for mercy, he would
have had it. Now, always remember that. If he would have asked
the Lord for mercy, he didn't at this time, but if he would
have asked for the Lord for mercy, he would have had it. But look
what took place. Verse seven, then said Saul unto
his servants, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit,
a witch. Now he was forbidden in the scripture
to do this. He was forbidden, but he was
a pragmatist. Prayer isn't working. Asking
God isn't working. Let me go somewhere else. So
he goes to a witch, that I might go to her and inquire of her.
And his servant said to him, behold, there's a woman that
hath a familiar spirit, that's a witch, at Endor. And so he
decided in disobedience to God's word to go to this witch. Now,
he knew it was wrong. He put all the witches to death.
But now, when he wants to find out some kind of answer as to
what he can do, and it's not working with God, he goes to
this witch to see what he can find. Now, this was evil on his
part. It was an act of disobedience.
And this shows how insincere Saul was. He was willing to go
to an enemy of the Lord, someone who hated God, a witch, to try
to find out something. And this just totally manifests
his character. Now verse 8, he comes to this
witch in verse 8. And Saul disguised himself and
put on other raiment and he went and two men with him and they
came to the woman by night. You know this would be by night,
wouldn't you? And he said, I pray thee divine unto me by the familiar
spirit and bring him up whom I shall name unto thee. He wanted
her to raise somebody from the dead. And as a matter of fact,
as we go on reading, we're going to find out where Samuel was
raised from the dead. Now, I think it's very interesting. When I
was reading the different commentaries on this, every one of them said
that this wasn't really Samuel raised from the dead. This was
some kind of demon that looked like Samuel because no witch
could raise somebody from the dead. Well, I agree with that.
No witch could raise somebody from the dead, but God can. You
know what? And does. And he's raised people
from the dead. What about when the Lord died
and many graves were opened and people were walking around Jerusalem? You know, what that represents
is that the death of Christ opened up the grave. That's what it
represents, but still that happened. And so, yes, the Lord God can
cause somebody to be raised from the dead and he could use that
witch to do it. So he comes and says, you know, I want you to
bring somebody up from the dead for me. Verse nine. And the woman
said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done. Remember,
he was disguised. She didn't know it was Saul.
Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off
those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land.
Wherefore then liest thou snare for my life to cause me to die?
You're putting me in a very vulnerable position. I might get killed
for doing this. Why are you doing this? Now, look what Saul did. Verse 10. And Saul swore to her
by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment
happen to thee for this thing. Now, what a wicked thing for
him to do. God had commanded in his word that all wizards
were to be put to death, all witches were to be put to death.
And he invokes the Lord's name in this. He says in the Lord's
name, we're going to make sure this happens and you're going
to be protected. He had no right to do anything like this, but
that's precisely what he did. Now, verse 11, then said the
woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, bring
me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel,
Samuel was risen from the dead in some kind of spirit. And I
guess it's kind of like Moses and Elijah talking to the Lord
on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was raised up. We have many
instances of that. And when the woman saw Samuel,
she cried with a loud voice. And the woman spake to Saul,
saying, why hast thou deceived me, your Saul? And the king said
unto her, be not afraid. For what sawest thou? And the
woman said unto Saul, I saw God's 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's covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived
that it was Samuel. And he stooped with his face
to the ground and he bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, why
hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I'm
sore distressed for the Philistines make war against me, and God
has departed from me and answers me no more, neither by prophets
nor by dreams. Therefore, I've called thee that
thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel,
wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord has departed
from thee and has become thine enemy? Well, what a thing to
have the Lord as your enemy. He said, the Lord's your enemy.
He's not gonna help you. The Lord's your enemy at this
time. Now, verse 17, and the Lord hath done to him as he spake
by me, for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thy hand and
given it to thy neighbor, even David. Because, now here's why
he did this. Now we read of a lot of bad things
Saul did, but here's the one thing he mentions in verse 18. Here's why the Lord's not speaking
to you, because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord, nor
executest his fierce wrath upon Amalek. Therefore hath the Lord
done this thing unto thee this day." Now you'll remember back
in 1 Samuel chapter 15 where he did not do what the Lord told
him to do with regard to the Amalekites. Now turn with me
to Well, let me say some things about the Amalekites. The Amalekites
were the descendants of Esau. Turn to Genesis chapter 25. What
about this man Esau? There's so much typical significance
in this. This is when Jacob and Esau were
in the womb of their mother, Rebecca, and we read in verse
22 of Genesis chapter 25, and the children struggled together
within her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? Why is this great battle going
on within me? Now this was because life was
in her, typically life was in her, and now she has a battle. And she went to inquire of the
Lord, and the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb,
and two manner of people should be separated from thy bowels.
And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the
elder shall serve the younger." Now, we know that's talking about
Jacob and Esau, and God's choice of Jacob and his rejection of
Esau. But just as much as anything else, this represents what goes
on inside of a believer, a Jacob and an Esau, a battle going on. And one is stronger than the
other. And the one will serve the other. And I love thinking
about this. You know, the new nature is stronger than the old nature.
And the old nature actually serves the new nature. When the old
nature sins, oh, what a horrible thing it is. But what does it
do? It drives us to Christ. And everything that happens ends
up being for our good. Isn't that glorious? That's how
glorious the Lord is. Amalek was a descendant of Esau. Now, turn with me to Exodus chapter
17. I want us to keep the typology
up. Now, when Israel is delivered
from Egypt, who is the first person to attack them? Amalek. Look in verse, Verse eight of Exodus chapter
17. This is the first time they were
attacked after they were delivered. Then came Amalek and fought with
Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose
out men and go and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand
on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua
did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses
as Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill and it came to
pass when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when
he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. Don't you love the
beauty of this picture? You look to Christ, you prevail. Moses' hands in the air, Israel
prevailed. Your hands go down, you quit looking to Christ, what
happens? You lose. You find that in your own experience,
don't you? So we see how that is, but look down in verse 14. of the same chapter. And the
Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and
rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar,
and called the name of it Jehovanese. For he said, Because the Lord
has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation
to generation. This war is going to keep going
on forever. Now, let me show you something
that I think is really neat. We're going to look at this a
little bit next week, but turn to 1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. Now this is when 400 men defeated the Amalekites when
they had raided Ziklag and took everything from David and took
their wives and livestock and everything. David went back to
kill them. And look at verse 17 in 1 Samuel
30. I remember there were 400 Israelites who came after them.
And David smote them from the twilight even into the evening
of the next day, talking about the Amalekites. And there escaped
not a man of them, say 400 young men which rode upon camels. Isn't
that interesting? I mean, even 400 men came in.
These 400 escaped. As long as you're in this flesh,
as long as I'm in this flesh, we're going to be dealing with
the Amalekites. We're going to be dealing with
Amalek. He represents the old man. Now, remember, Samuel said
the reason God's wrath is upon you, the reason he's departed
from you, is because you spared Amalek. Now turn to 1 Samuel
chapter 15. Verse 1, Samuel also said unto
Saul, this happened years before the story we're reading now when
he went to the witch. This is early in Samuel's reign
as king. Samuel also said unto Saul, the
Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over
Israel. Now, therefore, hearken thou
unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord
of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel. And he's
talking about what we just read about in Exodus chapter 17. You
know, God never forgets. He said, I remember that which
Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way
when he was come up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and
utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but
slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel
and ass." Now that's, there's not many different ways to look
at that, is there? He said kill everybody. Kill all the livestock,
kill the men, the women, and the children. Now somebody says,
that seems so harsh. Well, for one thing, they deserve God's
judgment. This was a wicked bunch of people,
every one of them. They deserve God's judgment.
And it's part of the typology here, so it's very important.
He says, you kill everybody there. Kill them all. Don't spare anybody.
Now, is the commandment plain? They're in any way of mistaking
what's being said here. Now, let's go on reading. And
Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Tilaim,
200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. That's a big army.
And Saul came to the city of Amalek and laid weight in the
valley. And Saul said unto the Kenites, go depart and get you
down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.
For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they
came out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from
among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites,
like God told him to, from Havilah to until thou camest to Shur,
that's over against the Egypt, and he took Agag, the king of
the Malachites, alive. Disobedience. He left the top dog. He left the decision maker. He
left the one whose will had to be done. That's who he left. He left the one who really was
the most powerful and the top dog, the one who made the decisions.
He took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly
destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. He killed
everybody but Agag. But Saul and the people spared
Agag and the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fatlings
and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy
them, but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed
utterly. He left Agag, and he left all
the good sheep to enrich himself. He refused to obey God in that
area. Now, verse 10. Then came the word of the Lord
unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I set up Saul to be king,
for he has turned back from following me, and hath not performed my
commandments. And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the
Lord all night. Samuel loved Saul. And he was asking the Lord,
don't do this to him. Don't, don't depart from him.
But that was not the Lord's will. Verse 12. And when Samuel rose
early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel saying, Saul
comes to Carmel and behold, he set him up a place and has gone
about and passed on and gone out to Gilgal. And Samuel came
to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. He did partially. He may have even done 75%, 80%.
But what is partial obedience? There's only one thing to call
it, disobedience. That's it. Then Samuel, I like
his reply. And Samuel said, what meaneth
the bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the
oxen which I hear? And Saul said, they have brought
them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of
the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God,
and the rest we've utterly destroyed. Now, for one thing, that's a
lie. You know that. He was trying to make his case
look better. We did this to sacrifice. That
was a lie. He did this to have money in
his own pocket. And they did the same. But at
any rate, he tried to put a religious spin on it and so on. God says this is why you were
rejected, for sparing the Amalekites. Now, I want to say a few things
about that. The Amalekites clearly in the
scripture represent the flesh. It's human nature, fallen human
nature, sinful man. They clearly represent the flesh.
Now, in religion, With regard to man, what is the one thing
religion spares? Agag is the decision maker. He's the will. His will. The king is the one whose will
is done. Religion spares the will. Yes, man is sinful. Yes, man
is needy. But the one thing they spare
is the decision maker. the will, King Agag. He is spared. Now, interestingly, if you go
on reading about the death of Saul, we'll get to this in 2
Samuel chapter 1, you know who Saul was killed by? Can anybody
guess? An Amalekite. It was an Amalekite
who killed him. He spared the Amalekites and
it was an Amalekite who ended up killing him. Now God rejected
Saul because he disobeyed his voice and spared the flesh, the
will, the Amalekite. Now I want to look at this from
a couple of different ways. Number one, me and you've got
something called the flesh. Sinful, evil, wicked. Am I describing it accurately?
My flesh, my sinful, the old man, that which I was born with. I still have it. I've been born
again. I've been given a new nature. I've been given a holy
nature. I've got a nature that loves God and that loves holiness,
but I've still got something called the flesh. What am I supposed
to do? Put it to death. Stab it. Crucify it. Slay it. And this is a battle that will
not be over until I'm dead. Because every time I stab it,
it'll come right back to life. And it is with us until the day
we die. The flesh, and you know, the
scripture tells us, mortify the flesh. Crucify the flesh with
the affections and lust. You have this sinful, well, Galatians
517, the flesh lusts against the spirit. The spirit lusts
against the flesh. And these two are contrary one
to the other, so that you can't do the things that you would.
You would be holy, but you can't because of the flesh. You would
be a monster, but you can't because of the spirit. There's that battle
going on. And I'm never to just say, well,
I'm flesh, I can't help it, and give in to sin because I'm flesh.
No, I am to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts.
That's what the scripture says. I can't have some kind of attitude,
well, I've got sinful flesh, I'm not going to worry about
it. No, I'm called upon to crucify the flesh, to mortify your members
which are upon the earth. That's what the scripture says.
Your flesh, and if I spare it, If I have some kind of attitude,
well, I can't help it. If I spare it, what do I prove
by that? I prove that I don't have the spirit. Because if you
have the spirit, you are in a lifelong battle with this thing called
the flesh. Put it down. Crucify it. Kill it. And you
know by your own experience that as soon as you make a stab, it
wakes back up and comes at you again. And it's a continual battle
that every believer is called upon to battle. Didn't the Lord
say this battle is going to last from generation to generation?
All my life long, I'm like Rebecca with two manner of men in me,
battling me. And she felt that battle and
she said, why am I thus? And then it was explained to
her. So with regard to the Amalekites, don't spare them. Don't spare
them. Don't use grace as a justification. Well, you know, I'm saved by
grace. Therefore, I don't need to worry
about my sin. I'm just, antinomianism, whatever you want to call it,
that has no place with a believer. The Amalekites are to be put
to death. Now, we see that. We see that. But I really, while that's true,
I don't think that's the primary meaning of the typology here.
why Samuel or Saul was so guilty. He did what religion does. He spared Agag. He spared the
decision-maker. He spared the will. Now, what am I talking about? I would say 100% of false religion, even in reform
religion, gives the will some place in salvation. Free will, God loves you, Christ
died for you, wants to save you, but it's up to your will as to
whether or not you're saved. In reform religion, you're putting
down your will being used to make yourself more holy. I'm
choosing to be a better person and to start reading the Bible
more and praying more. And I'm making myself better
through the things I do. It's the sparing of the will.
Now Philippians chapter three, verse
three says, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. Don't you know the only way you
can worship God is by the Holy Spirit? You can't worship him
without the Holy Spirit. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. We, the word is actually, we
glory in Christ Jesus. Here's our one confidence. Oh,
I wish I could say this the way it ought to be said. The only hope I have that God
accepts me and loves me is that he looks to Christ for everything
he requires of me. Everything. I'm looking to Christ
only. He shed blood as my only sin
payment. His righteousness as my only
righteousness. I glory only in Christ. I don't
glory in me being a preacher or me reading the Bible or me
being used of God in any of that. I don't glory in any of that
because I know if Any of that stuff's in spite of me. It's
not because of me. I know that. I know that as sure as I'm a
foot and a half high. By the grace of God, I don't
glory in myself. I glory in Christ. He is my salvation. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We're happy in Christ. Doesn't
that make you glad that Christ is your salvation? There's joy
in that. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. And what's the third thing he
said in Philippians 3? We have no confidence. in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in my ability,
in my will, in my decisions. Now this issue of free will,
I remember there's a book Martin Luther wrote entitled The Bondage
of the Will. It was back with the Protestant
Reformation and he was having a debate with Erasmus and he
said the issue is and always has been the will. The will. And that is the issue. Now, according
to the Bible, men do not have a free will. Now, men do what
they want to do. I realize that. But the very idea of free will
is a philosophical absurdity. There's no such thing as free
will because your will is controlled by your nature. You don't just
up and decide to do things. God doesn't have a free will.
His will is controlled by his holy nature. He can't sin. He
can't lie. He can't of his own free will
decide to just start all of a sudden being sinful, can he? Because
he's holy. He's holy. I have a sinful nature. I'm born into this world with
a sinful nature. My nature controls my will. Now, I do what I want
to do. When I sin, it's because I want to. That's what my nature
dictated for me to do. That's what I want to do. It
comes natural to me. It's just like, you know, your kids. Do
you have to teach your kids to be selfish? Does it have to be
taught that? Do you have to teach your kids
to lie? Let me teach you how to lie.
This will get you out of trouble. No. It's as natural as breathing,
isn't it? We're born with sinful natures
and the will is controlled by the nature. Now, to say I have
a free will is to say my will trumps God's will. It's to say
my will is sovereign over God's will. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. God's
will is always done. God is sovereign over the free
actions of men. I wish I could explain that, but
I can't. I just believe it. You do what you want to do, but
God controls everything you do. He even controls the thoughts
going through your mind. He's in control. The Bible says,
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. That's what the Bible says. To
as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the
sons of God, even to them which believe on his name, which were
born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, but of God. I mean, there's so much scripture
about this, and yet religion wants to spare Agag. It'll kill everything else. Yeah,
man's sinful, but they want to spare the will. God has declared
war against that. Now I don't want to do what Saul
did. And all I know to say is somebody
that gives the will, any of the credit in salvation in any aspect
does not preach the gospel. Now you can just write that down. And may this be the very heart
cry of our hearts, take my will and make it thine. It shall be
no longer mine. Take my heart. It is thy own.
It shall be thy royal throne. Not my will, Lord, this is my
prayer, not my will, but thine be done. When we're taught to
pray the simplest prayer, our father who art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name, thy kingdom come, what? Thy will be done. Now, why was Saul rejected? Because he partially obeyed God. and preserved Agag, the one whose
will was done, the decision maker. May the Lord deliver us from
that for Christ's sake. Okay.