Amen. Let us turn in 1st Samuel, page 319, in most of the Bibles under the seats. 1st Samuel 28, verses 3 to 25. So we took the narrative of David, which sandwiched either side of this text last week. Now we look at Saul. And then Lord willing, we'll be back to David's narrative continued in chapter 30 next week. But now we're in chapter 28. Saul and the medium of Endor will begin our reading at verse three. Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land. The Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel and they encamped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, seek out for me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, behold, there is a medium at Endor. So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. And he said, Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you. And the woman said to him, Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death? But Saul swore to her by the Lord, as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Then the woman said, whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, bring up Samuel for me. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman said to Saul, why have you deceived me? You are Saul. And the king said to her, do not be afraid. What do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. He said to her, what is his appearance? And she said, an old man is coming up and he is wrapped in a robe. And Saul knew that it was Samuel. And he bowed with his face to the ground and he paid homage. Then Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Saul answered. I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams. Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do.' And Samuel said, Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. And the Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. And Saul fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me. Now, therefore, you also obey your servant. Let me set a morsel of bread before you, and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way." He refused and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. Now the woman had a fattened cap in the house, and she quickly killed it. And she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it. And she put it before Saul and his servants and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation, of Jesus Christ. There is great agreement and symmetry from the Old Testament to the New. All of scripture has one principal author, the Holy Spirit. And there is a scriptural saying found in the New Testament when Jesus spoke strongly against the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 15. The disciples had come to Jesus after some of his teachings and they said to him, Do you not know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? And the answer of Jesus ended with these words, They are blind guides, and if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. So the New Testament is where we find this picture of futility where the blind would lead the blind. Here, in our Old Testament text this morning, we have another picture of futility. We have a king seeking the kingdom of darkness in the darkness of the night. So instead of the blind leading the blind, here we have a king looking for darkness in darkness. This is the account of when Saul went seeking darkness in the dark of night. And so our theme as we consider this narrative this morning is this, that dark and evil practices should remain condemned. Of course, that assumes that they were condemned in the first place, which in this case they were. Saul had put the mediums and the necromancers out of the land, as we see at the end of verse 3. We'll have four points. Our points are not going to be, they're not all going to be of equal length this morning, but our four points help us to anchor where we are in the narrative. And so we're going to look at how the king seeks the medium, and then that the medium is terrified, and then that the king is terrified, and then that the medium feeds the king. Scripture sometimes speaks to us about how certain acts stand out as being particularly evil. I would like you to turn to First Chronicles chapter 10, a parallel passage. As you're turning there I'm also going to read one verse from Deuteronomy chapter 12. In Deuteronomy chapter 12 Verse 31, we hear this, you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way for every abominable, abominable thing that the Lord hates, they, this is speaking about the nations that they have come in and wiped out. This is the sermon of Moses after the, as they're entering into the promised land. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abominable thing that the Lord hates, they have done for their gods. For they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. In other words, they do all kinds of evil things. They even do this particularly evil thing. And there's something like that in a account of what Saul falls into in the parallel passage of Saul's life at this point in First Chronicles 10, 13 and 14. First Chronicles chapter 10, verses 13 and 14. So this is the parallel narrative. And we read this, so Saul, died for his breach of faith he broke faith with the Lord and that he did not keep the commandment of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance or the NIV puts it there and even consulted a medium for guidance in other words Saul is falling into all kinds of evil things he's even not not seeking the Lord but instead going after the kingdom of darkness going to the medium. Sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy these are related and evil practices. They are condemned clearly in the Levitical law. Saul himself was once willing to condemn them as it says in verse three. He was willing to follow God's word and to exercise his proper duty as King although even there when it says in 28 verse 3 that he put them out of the land even there he's he's not exercising the full weight of the of the Levitical law Leviticus chapter 20 verse 27 says A man or woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. So even when Saul was willing to condemn this evil, he did not bring the full weight of the Levitical law upon it. He expelled them instead of executing them. God is not to be sought in this way. It is to dabble with the devil. It's to go after the kingdom of darkness. It is an evil practice. It is a practice that should be condemned. that in Old Testament law, the Old Testament kings were called to execute the death penalty for. It is a serious matter. That is, of course, the penalty for being a medium. It was not the death penalty which was called for going to a medium, but that too was also condemned as being sinful. in Leviticus 19 verse 31. This is where Saul is going. He's going to the kingdom of darkness. And is he inquiring of the Lord? Is he really inquiring of the Lord? Well, there's an answer to that. There's two answers to that, yes and no. 1 Samuel 28 speaks about how he's trembling greatly in verse six. He did inquire of the Lord, or it is actually a little bit weaker verb in the Hebrew. It could be translated, he asked, he asked of the Lord. It's not the same as the verb in verse 7 when he inquired of the medium. But he asked of the Lord, and the Lord did not answer. He tried dreams. He tried the Urim, which was his right as the king. If he had gone in faith, he could have been answered by the Urim and the Thummim. He went by prophets. But what's the key? Why is he not answered? Why is he not really coming before the Lord God? Well, the key to that is from the verse that we read in 1 Chronicles 10. Saul died for his breach of faith. And actually in the next verse, in 1 Chronicles 10 verse 14, it says he did not seek guidance from the Lord. So which is it? Did he seek or did he not seek? The answer is that he did not really seek because he never came in faith. He never came in repentance. There was no sincere seeking of the Lord. Saul was looking for a magician. He wanted God to be that magician. He wanted to come before God without faith, without repentance, and he just wanted to get a different answer from what the Lord God had already revealed to him. There's no sincerity there. There's no true humility before God. And when God, as Saul approached him as a medium, did not answer, when God, when, let's say, magician, when Saul approached God, hoping that God would be some kind of magician who would just give him the answer that he wanted if he asked long enough, and God didn't answer, well, then what did Saul do? Well, then Saul went to someone who did self-declare themself to be a magician. You see, In our sin, we are very determined to hear what we want to hear. In our sin, we are determined to, maybe that it will pretend to still worship God, come before God, but if we have no faith, if we have no repentance, what the motions of faith can become is just a determination to hear what one wants to hear. Sadly, today, you don't have to go to a medium. Sadly, today in our nation, there are all kinds of churches which say nothing about the justice of God, nothing about sin. And so you could still go through the motions of faith by just seeking out a place like that. But this is not really seeking after the Lord. This is not coming in humble repentance and faith before God and saying, God, what do you say to me? No, this is seeking the Lord like Saul sought the Lord, saying, I don't like what you told me back in chapter 15 and in other times in my life, so I'm just going to keep working until I hear something different that I want to hear. Well, God did not answer so. He said, I'm going to go to the medium. Maybe there I'll find something I want to hear. Now, at this point, We're gonna think a little bit about the context of the battle. The Philistines, it says in verse four, are encamped at Shunem. The mountains of Gilboa is where the army of Israel is. Sometimes it's called the mountains of Gilboa, sometimes it's called Mount Gilboa, sometimes it's just called Gilboa. It's a little range of mountains. Sometimes the Bible speaks in the singular, sometimes in the plural. And they're not the tallest in elevation, about 2,000 feet, a little bit higher than the highest point in the state of Wisconsin. But they have what's called a high prominence. They are like mountains in that they really stand out. The land around Mount Gilboa is very flat and low. In fact, I saw this week that it's popular to go paragliding from Mount Gilboa today. because everything is just so flat and low around it. So it's not that high, but everything around it's so low you can take off and you can go. This is where the Philistine army has chosen to come to. At Shunem, it's nine miles of flat valley. They have all the space they need for their huge army, for their war chariots, and there they are at Shunem. Nine miles away. The curvature of the earth, you can't even see them if you're at the bottom of the hill, but you just go a little ways up Mount Gilboa and you can see this massive army in the distance. That's the context for Saul's terror. That's the context for his looking out in fright. Now, where is Endor? Endor's in that big valley. Endor's in the direction of the enemy camp. It's only about four miles from where the Philistines are camped. In other words, Saul has to walk about an hour and a half walk towards the direction of the enemy to find his medium. One might think that when he learns that, he might say, I don't want to walk in the direction of the Philistine camp to get to my witch. Please find me somebody in the other direction. But he is determined. He wants to hear something different. So he takes two men with him. And he goes under the cover of darkness even dangerously close to the enemy camp, and they go to the woman by night, and he asks her to bring up a spirit for him. Well, now that we've had the first point and the context, now we can get into point two, that the medium is terrified. Now as we come to this point, let's note something. The text gives us basically no details about what the medium actually does. This is intentional. Something should not be detailed. It's better to not even know the specifics of how a medium might work. What we are told is unique and bizarre. Samuel appears. What exactly does this mean? Is this really Samuel? If so, in what way has Samuel appeared? There are many opinions on this. As the saying goes, much ink has been spilled over this handful of verses. But I will say the large majority of Reformed commentators from the last 200 to 300 years, in some disagreement from what we know of the view of the early church, But more recently, almost all reformed commentators say this really was Samuel. Now, in what way is it Samuel? That's an important question. And the first thing to note is that it is not the medium who has brought up the clothed spirit of Samuel. It is not the medium. And we see that in the text. If she normally experiments directly with demons, she knows this is something different. If she normally works mostly through tricks, she knows this is something different. This is a supernatural miracle of God. And it leaves her absolutely shocked and terrified and crying out. in verse 12. As one commentator noted, the medium is not in control of what is going on here. This is nothing she has ever seen before, this is nothing she will ever see again, and she is absolutely terrified. And this also explains her question to Saul, knowing, even as a medium who experiments with the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Satan, that the King of Israel is the Lord's anointed, the medium quickly concludes that there's something far beyond her, a work of the one true God going on. Therefore, this must be the Lord's anointed who is in my presence. And she may have suspected this already because of his great height and his two guards. And so she asked in verse 12, why have you deceived me? You are Saul. And indeed, it is Saul. And Saul also is about to be terrified. For what does the spirit of Samuel, clothed in his old appearance by God, say? Well, Matthew Henry once summarized it this way, quote, God permitted on this one occasion the soul of a departed prophet to come as a witness from heaven, thus sending him to confirm the word he had spoken on earth. End of quote. Samuel's not saying anything new here. And this for me personally is why I agree with the majority of recent commentators that this really was Samuel because this is the word of the Lord. This is a divine prophecy of what will happen in specifics the next day. It is in some ways nothing new. It is First Samuel 15, the last time that Saul and Samuel spoke face to face, it is the prophecy of the kingdom being torn away from Saul. And the only thing new is, is details are more specific. So in first Samuel 15, Samuel said, the kingdom will be torn away from you and it will be given to a neighbor who is better than you. Well, now the neighbor is named and Samuel specifies that it's David. It was said that your sons would not rule after you. Well, now this becomes more specific. Your sons who are on the battlefield with you will die tomorrow. It is the same word. God's judgment upon Saul will not change. The only thing that could have ever changed, it would have been repentance and faith. Even then, he still would have had the kingdom taken away. It's the same word that comes only with more detail. Saul, the word of the Lord has already been spoken to you. I'm just going to give it to you in more detail. You know, if someone would run from God and hope for a different word, so that they would no longer be condemned. It's never going to work. God's word does not change. The only way to have peace is repentance and faith. To truly seek the Lord. To seek the Lord in humility. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 7 quotes from the Old Testament. It reminds us of the call to repentance, which is true in the Old and New Testaments. Again, he appoints a certain day and today saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted. In other words, author of Hebrews telling us called repentance is the same in the Old and New Testament. And here's the word quoted in Hebrews 4 verse 7. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. And what about terrible judgment if there's no repentance, if there's no faith? Remember, Saul is judged for his breach of faith. There was no sincere faith-based seeking of the Lord. Well, we might know Hebrews 11 as the chapter of faith. What's the words that come just before Hebrews 11 in Hebrews 10? In Hebrews 10, there's words about those who have no faith. And we read this in Hebrews 10, verse 26 and 27. For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. And verse 31 says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You know, the account of Saul going to the medium of Endor, it is unique, it is bizarre, but the application is straightforward and universal. Repent and believe and heed the word of the Lord which does not change. If you go seeking something different, you won't find it. The only way to peace is repentance and faith. And it is a fearful thing to be without repentance, even though we would never expect this unique and bizarre word of judgment to come in such a way ever again. The truth of verse 20, that there was no strength in Saul, that's true for anyone who would face up to the reality of God's judgment. It is only through Jesus Christ that there can be freedom from terror. It's only through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, that there can be peace. Now, let's come to our Fourth point, that the medium feeds the king. Because Saul, he's sitting close to the enemy. He's terrified, he's weak. Verse 25 might imply that they get away just in time. They went away that night. It's not going to be good if you don't get away until daylight. You're not even very far away from the enemy camp. He is sitting there. He is distraught. He hasn't eaten all day either. And then the text gives us what might be a surprise. You know, even in the darkest places, one can still find image bearers of God who show certain and sometimes even generous forms of kindness. This woman practices evil things, and she does so in the land of Israel. The holy law of Moses tells us that she should be put to death. But this sad rebel who experiments with the kingdom of Satan is still an image bearer of God, and she has not totally forgotten what kindness is. She sees Saul in his weakness. She urges him to eat. She quickly prepares a feast of meat, which would be, that's unusual at that time. That's where you get the saying, you kill the fatted calf. That's not what you normally eat. That's a feast. She quickly makes unleavened bread, because that's the only thing she has time to make for Saul to be able to get out the door with his two guards before daylight. She performs an act of kindness. Scottish Presbyterian William Blakey said it this way, quote, we might have thought that such a calling as that followed by the witch of Endor would have destroyed all the humanities in her nature. But she shows much of the woman left in her after all." End of quote. Now, scripture does not often speak about the possible kindness of unbelievers, but it does on occasion. There's a New Testament parallel to this, and it comes from one of the most famous parables of Jesus. What is the parable of the good Samaritan? Who were the Samaritans? They were an early heretical sect, which broke off from the Jews, which worshipped on another mountain, which gave sacrifices according to their own version of the Pentateuch, which they edited to fit their heresies, and they threw out the rest of the Old Testament completely. By using the Samaritan as an example of a merciful person, Jesus reminded everyone that even unbelievers are sometimes Though there's a lot more going on in Luke chapter 10, but that's part of what's going on. Please turn with me to First Timothy chapter five. Another place which speaks about this kind of thing with an important warning attached to it. First Timothy chapter five, verse eight. First Timothy chapter five, verse eight. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. In other words, when we talk about the fact that unbelievers might be nice people, the application is not You know, it doesn't really matter if you're nice or not. No, no. Paul says we're called to be loving. We're called to be caring. You better at least be carried for members of your household. If you don't do that, you are denying the faith and you're worse than unbelievers who will often at least do that, who will often at least be that kind. You know, sometimes arguments in favor of something like homosexuality go something like this. In fact, after I wrote this, I'm pretty sure I just saw another person I know basically make this argument yesterday. The argument goes something like this. I know so and so, he is a homosexual, but he's one of the nicest persons I know. Therefore, how could we say that what he does is wrong? People of God, this is unbiblical thinking. It is a blind emotional appeal. The medium of Endor was kind of a nice person. But that does not mean that witchcraft is not evil. Now we should add this clarifying point as well. There are many ways in which the medium has not been kind or loving at all. For it's never loving to include others in sinful practices. Every time the medium engages in her dark arts, she is hating God. Every time she involves anyone else in that work, she's hating both God and her neighbor at the same time. And even her act of kindness at the end of chapter 28, it's not done for God's glory. It's you pat my back, I'll pat your back theology. You obeyed me for this, or I obeyed you for this, now you obey me for eating, verses 21 and 22. So it's not a true act of love. But it is a generally kind thing to do. She seems to have some kind of genuine care that Saul would have a meal in his belly before he fights the Philistine army that's almost on her doorstep. With this important clarification being made, people of God, we need to understand this. It is God, not a nice person who defines morality. It is God and not some act of kindness which defines what is right and what is wrong. Evil practices should remain condemned even if someone we know who practices those evil things is otherwise a kind of nice person. We need to get those emotional appeals into their right place and understand how unbiblical they are. The meat from the medium is not going to save Saul. It's just a temporary act of kindness, which gives him temporary strength. He's not ready for death because he's not ready to repent and believe. If someone we know we think is kind to us, but they're not pointing us to God and the bread of life, any meat we get from them can only sustain us for physically the next few hours. What do we need? We need the bread of life. We need the one who's truly loving in every sense of the word. We need Jesus Christ. It is the grace of God which saves us. Meat from the medium is only going to bring some temporary relief. It is not going to save Saul on the morrow. Or, as we would judge days changing at midnight, we would think of it as being the same day. Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us use God's Word. to determine what is right and what is wrong. Let us look for salvation from Him, which is not just going to be some meat which helps us to make the long walk back to our task for the next day. But no, no, no. Let's look for Him. Let's look for the bread of life which can sustain us in our soul and sustain us to even face the last enemy, which is death. Amen. Let us pray.