1 Samuel 28, page 338 of your Pew Bibles. In this chapter we have Saul's black chain of reprobation completed, his seeking demonic counsel, his doom pronounced, and his consequent despair and forced feeding. Hear now the word of Almighty God, 1 Samuel 28. Verse one, and it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out 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 will I make thee keeper of mine head forever. 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. And the Philistines gathered themselves together and came and pitched in Shunem. 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. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit. that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servant said to him, behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. 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. And he said, I pray the 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 hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. Wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life to cause me to die. And Saul swear to her by the Lord saying, as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. And the woman spake to Saul saying, why hast thou deceived me? For thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, be not afraid, for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods 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 Saul perceived that it was Samuel. And he stooped with his face to the ground and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed, for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have 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 is departed from thee and has become thine enemy? And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me. For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David. And 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. Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me, The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straightway all along on 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 the day nor all the night. And the woman came unto Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words which thou spakest unto me. Now therefore I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before thee, and eat, that thou mayest have strength when thou goest on thy way. But he refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, compelled him. And he hearkened unto their voice. So he arose from the earth and sat upon the bed. And the woman had a fat calf in the house. And she hasted and killed it, and took flour and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof. And she brought it before Saul and before his servants, and they did eat. Then they rose up and went away that night. Thus far, the reading of God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible word from the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 28. May the Lord bless us in the reading and hearing of it. Verses 1 and 2 here, we have the Philistines prepare for war with Israel, and King Anchish making David his confidant and his bodyguard. Verse one, the Philistines gathered their armies together for war to fight with Israel. Now this is an unjust war, though in God's providence, he will use it to execute his wrath upon Saul and his house, and also to open the way for David himself. Akish, verse one tells us, said unto David, know thou assuredly, or knowing thou shalt know, this is a most assured fact, that thou shalt go out with me to battle thou and thy men. Now this is not actually true, but this was Akish's intent. He wanted him to go. Because David had lied to him, had flattered him, had deceived him, and used ambiguous phrases, Achish wholly relied upon David, and so says, assuredly, you will go with me to battle. Now think of this. Should David fight against the armies of the Lord? Should he fight against his kin, his brethren, his covenanted friend, Jonathan, his Lord and Master Saul, as he called him? Should he fight against them? No, he should not. Should he fight against Achish who has shown him kindness and blessed him and provided a place for him and has relied upon his words? Should he fight Achish? No, he should not. David has put himself by his sins in a lose-lose position and yet God in his providence will deliver him as we'll see in chapter 29. Because God is so kind to us when we are not kind even to ourselves. Now notice verse two, David continues his web of deceit. David said unto Achish, surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. Now this is an interesting turn of phrase. It's like a fortune cookie. You'll meet someone you've known for a long time and they will tell you special things. Okay, well what in the world does that mean? You will know what I can do. What does that mean? I'll fight for you or I'll fight against you. What does it mean? We don't know. Achish doesn't know. Does David even know what he's saying? Possibly not. It is an ambiguous form of phrase. It could affirm one thing in Achish's mind and one thing in David's mind just as easily. And David is forced to use these ambiguities because deceit creates a web of deceit. The Apostle Paul says that false teachers are deceiving and being deceived. They lie and they're lied to. They lie to themselves. They lie to others. David has caught himself in a web of lies. Let us learn to speak truth. to do our duty, to leave the consequences of doing our duty in God's hands. Providence, God will care for us. If we do our duty, we can leave it in his hands. If we don't, we have to be the masters of our own fate and web further and further out until we are trapped as David now is. Will you fight against your friend Achish or will you fight against the people of God? Which is it, David? Saul then has a civil righteousness but is actually rejected by God and despairing, verses three through six. Note here, Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. This is a pretense of zeal for God. In his time of testing, does he actually hate the sin of witchcraft? No, he goes to it, right? He officially rejects it and puts them to death. But when forced to it, he goes to them for help. He doesn't actually hate the sin. He rather hates being thought that he doesn't hate the sin. Let us learn to hate sin and to wage war against it. not merely a show of fighting against evil, but a genuine desire for God's glory. You know what witches and those that have familiar spirits do? They draw men away from God, and they say that power comes from below, not from above. This is very important in this passage. Where do the gods ascend from, as the woman identifies Samuel? They ascend from below. Power from beneath. Devilish and sensual powers, in other words. Not divine power. Where does divine power come from? From above, James says. The wisdom that is from above. Saul did not hate this sin. He merely wanted to seem like he did. This is part of his black chain of reprobation. The Philistines, verse four tells us, came and pitched in Shunem, famous for the Shunemite Abishag. This Shunem is on the borders of Issachar, about 18 miles southwest of the Sea of Galilee. If you can picture, you've got the Sea of Galilee and Jordan flowing southward, southeast of the Sea of Galilee is this town, Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel together and they pitched in Gilboa, about two miles southeast from Shunem, also about 18 to 20 miles from the Sea of Galilee southwest. Saul saw and was afraid. Saul's natural distrust of God and God's power come to the surface by this testing. God is proving him. When we have troubles, God is seeing where will we go with our troubles? Where will we go with our fears? Where will we go with our sins? So Saul has troubles, doesn't he? And he sees the host of the Philistines with his eyes. And he is a man ruled over by his fears. And so what does he do? His heart trembles, the Bible tells us. Now, is God omnipotent? Can God overthrow the Philistines with the word of his mouth? Could God help the armies of Israel to fight against them and win? Yes. Does Saul believe that? No, he doesn't. And be it done unto him according to his faith as we shall see. Verse six tells us that he inquired of the Lord and the Lord answered him not. All those ordinary means that Saul had used in time past when Samuel was alive, he had inquired of the Lord on occasion. Though perhaps we might say part of his apostasy is when he saw Jonathan winning the victory, he went to inquire of the Lord and what did he do? What did he tell the priest? Stop inquiring, I need to go fight. He was not a man who prioritized seeking God and so God did not prioritize listening to his prayers. We saw that in 1 Samuel 14 verse 19. Finally, we have the last link in the chain of Saul's black chain of reprobation, seeking satanic counsel, verses 7 through 14. Now note here, seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. Now this is the sort of woman he had supposedly put away. His political righteousness was incomplete and inconsistent because everybody knew, oh, there's a woman in Endor. Everybody knows this, all of his servants. They say so. She's right there. And Endor is very close to where the battle scene is happening. Saul disguises himself. He put on other raiment, verse eight tells us. This is hypocrisy. Why do you think he's disguising himself? Is he approving in his conscience of the deed he's about to do? No, he actually knows it's wrong. He knows God condemns it. He knows God punishes it with death by the hands of whom? The civil magistrate, who he is. And yet he has to disguise himself, sheepishly going to do his wickedness and his evil before God, his conscience condemning him. Let us walk in the light. Saul goes at night in disguise because his conscience says guilty and he wants to cover it. Let us learn to have a good conscience, to diligently seek for one by doing what is good in God's eyes and so far as lies with us before men. The woman asks Saul, Why are you trapping me to death? You know, Saul put away my sort of person. He caused them to die. You want me to die too? Now this is commendable on Saul's part, though hypocritically done, it was right to put away the sorcerers, it was good. Exodus 22 verse 18 commands civil magistrates to put wizards and witches and them that have familiar spirits to death. He never rescinded that law. It's still on the books, it's in the book of conscience. God makes it known to us that he hates witchcraft, that he puts it under the ban of death. And yet, here this woman is, openly practicing her arts, and yet afraid because of the disguise in the time of day or time of night. Notice the hypocrisy of Saul, fully completed. Verse 10, Saul swear to her, how? By the gods of the heathens, by Satan himself? No, he swears by the Lord. No punishment shall come unto thee. Now, What did the Lord say should happen to her? Punishment. By whose hands? His. You see. I swear to you by God that I'm going to sin against the Lord and I'm going to encourage you in your sin. That's what he's saying. Let's put it in plain English. Westminster annotations say this. in piously abusing God's holy name, in swearing that he would sin against God by transgressing his law, which commanded that witches and sorcerers should be put to death, and to this end that he might encourage her unto wickedness. Should we use God's name to swear for evil purposes? Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. We may not swear to lawlessness and wickedness, and yet here Saul the hypocrite does that very thing. Whom shall I bring up unto thee, she asks. And he said, bring me up Samuel. Now let me ask you a question. Does the devil have the power to raise the dead? Can he do it? Who has an arm so strong that those dead in the grave can be raised to newness of life? Who has the power to do that? Only God. God who raises the dead. That's his name in the New Testament. The one who raised up our Lord Jesus. That's the name of God the Father. He has power. His voice can raise the dead, not Satan's. Now let me ask you another question. Can Satan go up into heaven where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Samuel were and tear the saints out of Abraham's bosom and bring them down for a seance? Is that possible? It is not. The saints are made perfect. They are in bliss forevermore in the presence of God himself, not to be disturbed. So who is this Samuel, if not the blessed Saint Samuel in the bosom of Abraham? Who is this Samuel? Saul did not trust God's omnipotence against the Philistines, but he sure trusts the devil to raise the dead, doesn't he? Bring me up, Samuel, he says. Saul distrusts God's power, but he thinks that Satan is powerful, that he can raise the dead, that he can tell him the future. And the woman, verse 12, informs us, saw Samuel. Now, the Bible often speaks in this manner. It is called ad hominem. According to the opinion of men, according to the opinion of the person, when they looked upon that apparition, what did they see? Well, they thought they saw Samuel. He played the part. The demon played the part. Maybe Satan himself play acted as if he were Samuel. And so he is called as such. According to the opinions of men, according as the demon presented himself, this is Samuel. The Dutch annotations say that is an evil spirit in the form of Samuel, whom she had raised by his devilish art, or by her devilish art, Satan using her. I note then this doctrine that Satan's power lies in his craftiness to deceive. That's all he can do. He can pretend things. He can deceive and mislead people. He cannot create. He cannot raise the dead. All he can do is lie. That's his power. He can corrupt reality. He can corrupt the scriptures. He can corrupt the facts of nature, but he cannot undo them. Let us not be as Saul was. who following the devil was guided with this supposed wisdom to his own destruction. Now notice again Saul's wickedness. The king said unto her, be not afraid, stop being afraid. I who hold the sword of civil justice to terrorize the wicked, I tell you, don't be afraid for your wickedness. This is his final act of tyranny and reprobation. He is given over by God to a reprobate mind. Now notice what the woman says unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. Do you remember where the beast in Revelation came from? Out of the earth, didn't he? Came out of the sea. He came from below. Once a star in God's heaven fell down to the earth and became wormwood and sent forth corruption in the streams of God's truth. from beneath, wisdom from below, the notion that man and the creature can somehow save you. God's ascending out of the earth, fallen angels very likely, demons or malignant spirits brought about by devilish conjuring, carnal wisdom. And Saul perceives as he looks, what does he see? Oh, that's Samuel. The devil has brought me Samuel, he says. The form, the mantle, the devil contriving the voice, the manner and the words of Samuel himself. The Geneva Bible again comments when he says that Saul perceived that it was Samuel to his imagination, even though it was Satan who to blind his eyes took on him the form of Samuel as he can do of an angel of light. Verses 15 through 19, we have Saul's necromancy and dialogue with this apparition and his doom pronounced. Samuel said to Saul, why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? It is not in the devil's power, nor in that of the witch to raise up the true Samuel and to make him there appear. It was nothing but mere deceit of the devil, whom God sometimes permits to do some actions for the ruin and destruction of those who give credit thereto. Did Saul give credit to this witch? Yes. Did he give credit to the words of God and of Samuel the prophet? No. And so his doom. Let us not give credit to those powers from below that rise up against the living God. Do you know that Satan is a naturalist? That he studies the workings of man's conscience, the history of providence, what God has declared in His Word, and he comes to conclusions that men think, how could anyone know this? Well, he's studied. He's done the science. He's studied psychology. He teaches you to believe in yourself, to believe in wealth. Oh, no, not wealth. That's for the Republicans. Let's believe in equality. You see, he's got both sides working for him, right? Everybody's got to be equal. We need economic justice. We need racial justice. We need social justice. What is all this? Power from beneath. diabolical power, the science, liberty, equality, fraternity, he told the French as he led them to hell. Now notice Saul's attitude about his current diabolical practice The Philistines make war against me. You can hear him whining. And God has departed from me and answereth me no more. I have to do this. I forced myself. You remember he said that when Samuel came to him and he wasn't supposed to sacrifice, Samuel was supposed to, well, I had to. Philistines were making war. You weren't coming. I had to sacrifice. Oh, I had to go to this witch. I'm a victim. You see, poor me. I didn't want to, Samuel, but I had to. Therefore, I have called thee that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Did Saul ever listen to Samuel when he was alive? Did he? Why would he go to the devil to bring him up after he's dead? What's the point? We have Moses and the prophets and the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us hear them. They're God's secretaries. They speak his word. They wrote it down for us. What do we need? To go to the devil to have more knowledge? To go to the science? To believe in ourselves? To go to psychology? Is that what we need? Let us not seek to them that peep and that mutter. The voices of mere creatures, their incantations, their science books. The demon then pronounces Saul's doom in verses 16 through 19. Reiterating, notice, the words spoken before by the prophet Samuel, bringing accusations against Saul for his wickedness, speaking of what God had promised concerning David himself. Oh, the Bible is known by the devil. You better mark it down. He knows what God has said. Then, based off of all the facts and circumstances, Satan says, you're going to hell. But he actually makes him think you're going to heaven. The demon promises Saul and his sons, you will be with me. Now, is that true? Yes, it is. Is it false? Yes, it is. Because Saul thinks this is Samuel. Where is Samuel? In heaven. Who is it actually speaking to him? The devil himself. Where is Saul going? Hell. Where does he promise him he's going? Heaven. Because he thinks it's Samuel. He thinks it's a holy man. Of course, if I die, I'm going to be with Samuel. No, you're not. You're going to be with the devil. There's his fortune cookie, his ambiguity. Oh yeah, you'll come to be with me. Ha ha ha ha ha. Saul would descend to damnation after his battle. He would not ascend to the heavenly glory of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and even Samuel himself. Saul would go down to the devil. Satan in some cases and at some times can foretell things to come as being a great naturalist and is able to divide into the hidden causes and deep secrets of nature. And so accordingly to frame his predictions, which seem wonderful and supernatural to us. This is how Satan deceives people. He hears what God says. He sees how things go. He studies the course of nature and he knows you're going to ruin yourself, Saul. God's not listening to you. The prophet said you're doomed. David's rising the ascendancy. There's no hope for you. That's what he tells him. What would Samuel have done? Do you think Samuel would have called Saul to repent for his sins? What is it that made this breach between Saul and God, his sins? What did he need to do? Repent of his sins. Turn from his sins. What does the devil tell him? You're doomed. No hope. It's over for you. That's what Satan does. He wants people to despair. Remember when Satan entered Judas Iscariot, what did he do? He hanged himself. Why? No hope for you. No repentance for you. It's over. It's done. Was he right? Yeah, he was right. That's true in Judas Iscariot and in Saul's case. But the prophet would not encourage a man to go to his doom without warning him there is a way of escape. Let us not trust the science. Satan is the ultimate naturalist or scientist, as we would say. The wisdom that comes from below and makes audacious claims about those things above. There is no God, the fool has said in his heart. How? By his corruption, by his lawless and satanic wisdom from beneath. Saul then has a what we call psychosomatic despondency. He cannot eat. He has no hope. He's doomed. He has to be forced to eat by the witch and by his servants. And then he returns to his battle and then to his doom. And thus far the exposition of 1st Samuel chapter 28.