Good evening. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Those of you who are with us live and those of you online, Facebook, whichever source you use there, we want to welcome you tonight. Would you stand with us or stand with me? Let's all stand together. Join me in prayer, would you? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come and worship in song and study your word.

We thank you for your loving grace, your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord. And your loving kindness be glorified tonight, Lord. We come just as we are to sing as unto you, Lord.

But then sit down, please. Sit down so you don't fall down. No, just kidding.

That you would give us the ears to hear what you'd have us. Open heart to receive that which you want to love us, Lord. You have set us aside unto you, Lord, and you're doing a work in each of our hearts. Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 27. 1 Samuel, chapter 27. One of the greatest ways that we can know the Bible is accurate

is that it tells the truth about its heroes. It gives us the good things and the victorious things that the heroes of the Bible do, but it also is completely transparent about the failures of the heroes within its pages. And this is one of those times where we see some of the failures of one of the greatest heroes of Scripture, David. When he said, And last we left David, again, he's been on the run from Saul.

And probably for maybe around eight and a half years, at least, he's been on the run from Saul. That's a long time. I don't think we always think about just how long of a time David really has been fleeing for his life. And there's been some really bad things that have taken place, kind of like when he lied about being on the run, when he came across the high priest, when he went and acted like a fool, like a madman.

So that he wouldn't be taken captive by the Philistines. You know, we've seen some bad things that David's done. But we've seen some really great things, some really great areas where he has learned to trust the Lord and rest in the Lord. And that God is ultimately the one that's going to put him in authority when God sees fit for him to be put into authority.

But tonight is one of those moments of backsliding for David. And that's exactly what I've entitled the message for chapters 27 and 28 is backsliding. When last we left David, he was walking by faith. And he was walking truly trusting the Lord. Saul had found himself once again pursuing David and had come right upon the edge of where David was. And in the middle of the night, David and one of his most trusted soldiers snuck down into Saul's camp.

And they took Saul's water jug and they took his spear. And the soldier that was with David said, hey, listen, I could pin Saul to the ground right now. I wouldn't even have to strike twice. And we could just be done with this. And David said, no, that's the Lord's anointed. I'm going to trust God and not take matters into my own hands. A real act of faith and a real act of obedience on the part of David.

And it just seems like, man, David's churning on all eight cylinders right now. Everything's going great. He's trusting the Lord. Yeah, there's some difficult things going on in his life. But he's really learned to trust the Lord. Until we come to chapter 27. Chapter 27 starts off like this. Then David said to himself, now I will perish. One day by the hand of Saul.

There's nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines. Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel. And I will escape from his hand. So David arose and crossed over. He and the 600 men who were with him to Achish, the son of Maok, king of Gath. David lived with Achish at Gath. He and his men, each with his household.

Even David with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelites. And Abigail, the Carmelites, Nabal's widow. And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath. So he no longer searched for him. Now this is a really interesting statement for David to make. Because how many times have we seen God deliver David? Well, twice we have seen that David could have killed Saul at any point in time he wanted to.

Should he have made that decision? Once, Saul was right at the edge of being able to capture David. And he was able to do that. And he was able to do that. And he was able to do that. And he was able to do that. And he was able to do that. It just so happened that the Philistine army was attacking in another part of Israel. And so Saul had to leave. And so over and over and over again, David has seen God deliver him.

And you would think if anybody truly was resting in the Lord right now, it was David. And yet the very first line is it says, David said to himself, surely one day Saul will kill me. And one of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 23. And there's a line in Psalm 23 that I've always heard. I've always found to be kind of interesting. A little bit hard to really grasp.

And the Psalmist David, and I think he wrote this when he was a very old man. I think it's one of the later Psalms that he wrote, if not one of the last Psalms that he wrote. As an old sheep says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And I remember this is one of the very first sermons I ever gave in my life was over the 23rd Psalm.

And I was going through some difficult times in my life. And I remember coming across. That particular verse and thinking, I don't know if I can really teach on that verse because I'm pretty scared right now. I'm actually finding myself in a very fearful place in my life. I don't know if I can, with all good authority, teach on a statement in Scripture that says,

even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. I'm pretty afraid. And God said, so is David. And I got to thinking about this particular passage of Scripture. But you see, David learned. To say, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Not because he never went through the valley of the shadow of death, but because he went through it and he saw God deliver him.

It was only in times when he could truly be honest about his fear, when he could truly be honest about what was going on, when he could truly give to the Lord all of the mistakes that he made that he could begin to, at the end of his life, say, no matter what comes my way, I don't have to fear any evil because I know that God is with me. Because this is going to be one of those moments where we see that God's going to be with him, even though he makes a really bad decision. And so David starts to talk to himself. And as he's talking to himself, he is mulling over and over again in his brain what's going on.

He's mulling over and over again in his brain how many times Saul has come close to killing him and that Saul is not going to give up. And David finds himself forgetting all about the past victories. David finds himself forgetting all about the past faithfulness. David finds himself forgetting all about the past faithfulness of God and finds himself where his eyes are focused on one thing and one thing only, and that's the problem in front of him.

Have you ever found yourself in that place? Have you ever found yourself in the place where no matter how much God has done for you in the past, no matter what his word says, no matter how confident you are in who God is, you still find yourself only focused on the problem. And because you're only focused on the problem, you, kind of like David, say, there's no way out. I'm never going to be able to overcome this.

I'm never going to be able to get past this. The best thing that I can do is just give up. Have you ever found yourself in that position? Because that's where David finds himself right now. And before we get too hard on David about forgetting all of God's promises and all of God's past victories, we need to think about how often that can be us and how often we forget that God has always been faithful and he's probably not going to stop with you.

And David says, The best thing that I can do is I can flee to the Philistines. I can go to the works of the flesh. I can go to God's enemies because when I'm there, Saul will leave me alone. Now, I want you to think about something. Saul could not drive David out of the nation of Israel. No matter how great the enemy was, that could not drive him out of the nation of Israel.

What is the one thing that could push David? David could not drive David out of the nation of Israel. David, outside of God's will, discouragement and despair. Discouragement is an incredibly powerful weapon in our lives. And we find ourselves in that place where we can get so discouraged. Feel like you just can't seem to make any headway. Feel like everything just keeps going wrong.

And when that begins to take over, it's one of the greatest weapons that the enemy uses in our lives. You see, what Satan can't do, by his attacks, he does through discouragement. And that's what he does here with David. And so David gets focused on the problem, and David flees to the Philistines. And I want you to notice who he takes with him. First of all, he takes all of his soldiers with him.

He takes his 600 men with him. Meaning that when David gets discouraged, it's not just him that's affected. He takes all of his men with him, all of his fighting men. But it's not even just his soldiers that he takes with him. Who else does he take with him? He takes his family, and all of his soldiers' families. Because that's what discouragement does in our lives.

When we allow ourselves to get focused on the problem and not the promise, when we allow ourselves to be focused on the problem and not the faithfulness of God, it tends to bring down all of the people around us. And that's what happens with David, is he finds himself fleeing. And interestingly enough, he goes down to Gath to a guy by the name of Achish. Now, interestingly enough, he's been down for a long time.

He's been down for a long time. He's been down for a long time. He's been down this road before. Do you remember when he went down this road before? The very first time he fled from Saul. The first thing he did was he ran to the priest, and he got the showbread and Goliath's sword. And then he went down to Gath. And it was there that they said, wait a second, isn't this the David that they said,

Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Remember who the ten thousands were? Those were Philistines. And so David starts to act like a crazy man, so that he would not have to deal with the Philistines. He finds himself going down the exact same road he's been down before. Have you ever found yourself in that position? Have you ever found yourself in the place of going down the exact same road you've been down before?

I'm here to tell you right now, I've done this. And you know what I find at the end of the exact same road I've been down before? The exact same results that I found before. Here's the thing about familiar roads. They yield familiar results. And that's what we're going to see eventually with David. But in the tempest, I want you to notice what happens. It worked temporarily.

Notice what it says in verse 4. Now it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he no longer searched for him. You know what? Sometimes the most dangerous thing that can happen for us is when our plan works. And we kind of go, hey, it must have been God because it worked. And then we can justify it. We can justify what we've done in our flesh, because it kind of seemed like it worked.

Because if you're not a threat to the enemy, then the enemy tends to leave you alone. That's why when you start to walk in the flesh, you'll find that the spiritual attack is much less. When you walk in the flesh, all of a sudden the enemy kind of leaves you alone. And there's way less spiritual attack than there used to be, because you're no longer a threat to him.

So Saul kind of leaves David alone. But I want to point something out to you. We're going to find out here. In just a moment, and maybe it says this. Let's just keep reading for a second. In verse 5 it says, Then David said to Achish, If now I have found favor in your sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities of the country that I may live there.

For why should your servant live in the royal city with you? So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore Ziklag belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. In the number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines, was a year and four months. Now I want you to look at this in two different ways. First of all, David is going to live in rebellion against God.

And even if it's only slight rebellion, a little bit of rebellion is still 100% rebellion, right? He's going to live in rebellion against God for a year and four months before God really gets a hold of him. One year and four months of not truly being in the place where he's supposed to be. One year and four months of him being completely separated from God in a lot of ways.

Because you know what? That does not take place in this one year and four months. There is not one single psalm that's written. We don't find any psalms that were written during this time. You know why? Because David was not walking in communion and fellowship with God. Now the beautiful thing is, is that God was not done with David yet. Because while it was a year and four months that he was living in this place of rebellion,

I want you to think about something. He'd been on the run for eight and a half years at this point in time, and he is one year and four months old. He's one year and four months away from becoming king of Israel. He's one year and four months away from Saul being taken out for good, and him never having to deal with him again. He was that close. Can you imagine making it that long?

And you give up. You make it that long and you go, I just don't think I can do this anymore. Brothers and sisters, you do not ever know how close you are to a breakthrough. And I think that that's an important point to be made. Is that sometimes you really point out, you pour out your heart to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I want to see you move. I want to see you act.

I want to see you do this thing. And you pray and you pray and you pray and you go, but you haven't moved yet. I'm just going to give up. And what you don't know is, you're that close. You're that close. Let me give you a little illustration. A few years ago, I think I've shared this illustration before. A few years ago, Brent, the guy that takes care of the bugs for us,

was here treating for bugs. And as he was here treating for bugs, he goes, I have a problem here. I think we might need to check you guys for termites. And I said, okay, check us for termites. He goes, okay, I've got to go get a hammer drill. And I've got to drill, got to bore a hole down through the concrete floor so that I can see what's underneath so that I can kind of know what's going on.

So he goes and gets this great big hilty drill and he's drilling away. And the floors are pretty thick, we found out, as he was drilling through there. And he drills and drills. I mean, he drilled forever. And I'm going, wow, that's some serious drilling. And if I'd have been a really good friend, I would have said, would you like me to take over for a minute? But I didn't. I was just like,

whoo, hang in there, buddy. That's a lot of drilling, right? And so he gets almost down all the way through, only he doesn't know it. And he stops and he goes, wow, maybe this, maybe it's not hollow underneath of this floor. I don't know how long this is going to take. And he puts it down there again and he bears down. And as soon as he started the drill up, boom, it shot through.

Why? Because he was all the way to the end, but he didn't know it. Can you imagine what would have happened if at that point in time he would have gone, well, there must not be anything hollow underneath of this. I'll just give up, even though he's that close to a breakthrough. David was that close to a breakthrough and he gave up. Listen, when you find yourself ready to give up, don't.

Because you do not know how close you are to a breakthrough. David finds himself going, I think I'm just going to give up. And he was one year away from everything that he had been promised. By God. And so, David finds himself in this place of really being in rebellion against the Lord. I want you to notice what happens in verse 8. It says,

He took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish. And Achish said, Where have you made a raid today? And David said, Against the Negev of Judah, and against the Negev of the Jeremelites, and against the Negev of the Kenites. And David did not leave anyone alive to bring to Gath, saying, Otherwise they will tell about us.

Saying, So has David done, and so has his practice been. All this time that he has lived in the country of the Philistines. So Achish believed David, saying, He has made himself odious among his people Israel. Therefore he will become my servant. Did you notice what David has become? He's essentially become a raider at this point in time, right? They're not even the Oakland Raiders anymore.

Who are they? The L.A. Raiders. The Las Vegas Raiders. Even worse, right? Like, he's just this guy that goes and robs people and absolutely wipes out villages. And he does it, and listen, I want you to think about something. He justified this. Could you see how he could justify it? He justified it because these were the enemies of Israel from old. The people that they were supposed to drive out of the land,

and he's living in the Philistines, a place he should never have been, raiding villages that he never should have raided, all because he got himself out of the will of God, all because the problem became too big, and he stopped right before the breakthrough. And what he's doing is he's going to these villages, wiping them out, coming back, and when they say, so where'd you go today? And he would lie about where he had been that day. But you know what he probably did the whole time?

The whole time he justified it and said, but I'm taking out God's enemies. I'm not going about it the right way. I'm not doing it the way that probably God would want me to. But at the end of the day, isn't the important thing that I'm taking out God's enemies? Have you ever found yourself in a place of disobedience where you justify it by saying, but you know, at the end of the day,

it's really not that big of a deal. Maybe I'm actually doing what God wants me to do, because our flesh can justify anything. And it's amazing how deceptive our flesh is. And listen, when we lie to ourselves, we can't help but lie to the people around us. And that's what David does. He starts lying to this Philistine king. He starts lying to this Philistine,

this man who he should be presenting the truth of God to. Instead he's lying to him. And the whole time this Philistine king is going, man, his people must really hate him, because he's doing nothing but raiding all of these people. And you find yourself going, David, what are you doing? You're supposed to be a man after God's own heart. You're supposed to be the man that God has chosen.

You're supposed to be the man that God has chosen to be the king. You're the one who's the worship leader of Israel. You're the one who is the shepherd of God's people. And yet you have found yourself backslidden. I'm here to tell you right now, this is not the end of David's story. It's the end of what we'll cover tonight with David's story, because next we deal with Saul,

and Saul's continued backsliding. But this is not the end of David's story. And listen, if you're here tonight and you've backslidden, that's not the end of your story either. Maybe you're here tonight, and you have found yourself in a place where you know the truth, where you know what God wants you to do, where you know what it means to walk with God, and yet, because things got harder, because there were difficult things you were going to have to do, or because you didn't see the breakthrough yet, or you named the reason, or you just want to do what your flesh wants, you found yourself backslidden.

And now you're not only lying to yourself, but you're lying to the people all around you, saying, yeah, but it's not that big of a deal. It's not the end of your story. Because you are, even though backslidden, one step back from where God wants you to be. Because all you have to do is turn around and take that one step back to Him. Take that one step back to following Jesus once again.

Because backslidden does not have to be the end of your story. And so, we come now to chapter 28, and now we deal with Saul. Saul and the medium. Now, when I grew up hearing this story, we always referred to it as Saul and the witch at Endor. But they now identify it mildly different, Saul and the medium at Endor. So, we pick up in chapter 28, verse 1. Actually, the first couple of verses have to do

with the last part of chapter 27. It says,

And Achish said to David, Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the camp, you and your men. And David said, Very well, you shall know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Then in verse 3 it says, Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented for him, and buried him in Ramah his own city.

And Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritists. So the Philistines gathered together, and they came and camped in Shunem. And Saul gathered all Israel together and camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the camp 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 the Urim, or by prophets. So, the scene is kind of set for us about the place that Saul finds himself at this point in time. It's kind of like, Meanwhile, back in Israel, uh, the Philistines have gathered themselves for war. They're kind of thinking, Hey, Israel's greatest general is on our side now. So, I think this feels like a really good time

for us to attack the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel is weak because they have weak leadership. Therefore, let's attack them. It's not a political statement at all, but anyway, think about that. Um, and so that's what they do. They come against them. And as they're camped against them, we're told a little bit of the spiritual situation in Israel, and the spiritual situation with Saul.

First of all, we're told Samuel is dead. Why is that important to us? Well, it's important to us because who had been the spiritual leader of Israel up to this point in time? It had been Samuel. Samuel had anointed Saul king. Samuel had anointed David as king. And while Saul was anointed as king, Samuel was still the spiritual driving force in Israel. But now Samuel is dead.

Therefore, there's no word coming from the Lord. Not only is there no word coming from the Lord, but there's nothing spiritual going on at all, even in an evil sort of way, because Saul had cast out all of the spiritists and mediums, which is good, because that's what Deuteronomy said that should happen, but it's the place that Saul finds himself. And so Saul looks out, and he sees all of the enemy, and he starts shaking in his armor, because he's absolutely terrified, because he knows he has to face the Philistine armies without the power of God, because he has not heard from God, and God won't answer him. Now, you should ask yourself a question right now.

Why would God not answer Saul? It's an interesting one to think about, isn't it? Because isn't God the God who answers prayers? Isn't God the God who speaks to us when we seek him? He absolutely is. But do you know what we're told in Scripture? God's arm is not short that he cannot save, but your sins have separated you from God. Why did Saul not hear from the Lord?

Because his sin had separated him from God. You see, Saul had feigned some repentance a couple of times, both times when David approached him, and once when David had cut off a corner of his robe, and the other time when David had taken his spear and his jug, and he said, Oh, David, you're right. I'm messing up by seeking you. I'm messing up by trying to kill you.

And even though he felt bad about what he had done, he never repented for what he had done. Therefore, God would not answer him, because sin separates us from God. And so Saul's prayers aren't being answered, and he doesn't know what to do now. He's lost the one guy that seems to be the one that always has a spiritual answer for him, and now he has no walk with God for himself so that he can receive any answers from the Lord.

What's he going to do? Well, he chooses the wrong path. At this point in time, you're going, Man, if you just repent, if you just give all that sin, to the Lord, and start doing what God wants you to do, God will probably answer you. But he's not into that sort of thing. He wants to hold on to his sin and still have what he wants from God. So notice what it says in verse 7.

Then Saul said to his servants, Seek 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 woman who is a medium at Endor. Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, Conjure up for me, please,

and bring up for me whom I shall name to you. But the woman said to him, Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death? And Saul vowed to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.

And she said, Whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, Bring up Samuel. Now before we go any further, let's just remind ourselves a little bit of what's going on here. Saul has found himself perhaps at the lowest of lows that he could possibly be. He can't hear from God for himself. So in order to find some kind of answer for the fear that he has, he literally turns to the dark side.

And he seeks out a medium, one who could hopefully communicate with the dead. Because his only thought is the one person that I know can really speak to God for me is Samuel. But he's dead if I can just bring him up from the dead. And so he finds someone who's referred to as a medium. Perhaps some of your translations may say a necromancer, someone who deals in familiar spirits

or brings up the dead. And basically what he wants for this woman to do is to perform a seance for him to try to bring Samuel back so that he could somehow communicate with Saul about what's going on because he wants to know, Am I going to survive this attack? What a horrific place Saul finds himself in. And so he goes to this woman, disguises himself, because he knows if he goes to Saul, she's going to be like, I've never heard of this medium thing.

What are you talking about? So he disguises himself and she's like, Well, you know, Saul has kicked all of us out. You're going to get me in trouble. I don't know how y'all picture this in my mind, but I absolutely picture Saul taking a robe and going, It'll be fine. That's how I picture this in my mind with him, like sort of holding the robe over his face this entire time,

kind of like that scene from Shrek when he goes to see Shrek. You know, he's what I'm talking about. And so he's disguising himself and she says, Who do you want me to bring up for you? And he says, Samuel. And she's like, Samuel. Notice what happens in verse 12. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul saying,

Why have you deceived me? You are Saul. And King Saul said to her, Don't be afraid. What do you see? The woman said, I see a divine being coming up out of the earth. And he said to her, What is his form? And she said, The old man is coming up and he is wrapped with a robe. And Saul knew that it was Samuel. And he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage.

Now, the first thing that happens when she conjures this up, and I don't know what this scene would have been like. I don't know how she conjured it up, nor do I fully understand why God allowed it, although I do think I have a little bit of understanding of why God allowed it. But she all of a sudden begins to see Samuel. Now, some of the commentators that I listened to and even read on this said that the reason why she screamed is because, she was a fake and she didn't fully expect this to happen.

And I got to say, as much as I respect those Bible teachers that said that, I disagree with them. I think she was freaked out because a holy man of God was revealed. And I think the power of the Holy Spirit that was upon Samuel caused her to freak out because she realized what she was dealing with at this point in time. Now, before we go any further, I do want to point something out to you.

The idea of being a medium, being able to speak to the dead, speak to the dead, and even those that try to tell the future or at least tell the past, whether they be palm readers, things like that, we need to understand something. When it comes to the spiritual world, we need to understand that sometimes it's fake. Right? I mean, some people are just really good charlatans.

They can fake it until they make it because there's a certain amount of things that if you came to me and I said, I see that you had some trauma in your past or something like that, you would be like, yes, that's absolutely true. You know why? Because we all have trauma in our past. Right? Like there's some things that are just going to be natural to know. But we do need to know something about the spiritual world

when it comes to this sort of thing. Number one, this really can't happen. In dealing with the spiritual world, there is an aspect of reality that's true. I actually listened to a guy teach one time and he spoke at a conference because before he was saved, he was a medium himself. He had certain spiritual sensitivities where he had spirit guides. Only what he realized when he started getting closer

to Jesus is that as he got closer to Jesus, those spirit guides started getting very angry with him. But in his mind, it was real and it seemed good. It must have been from God. But what he found was that the closer he got to God, it didn't stop being real, but it did stop being good. Therefore, perhaps it wasn't from God. And if it wasn't from God, then who was it from?

Well, it was demonic in nature. So there's three things we have to understand about the spirit world when it comes to things like mediums, Ouija boards, having your fortune read, things along those lines. Number one, sometimes it is very real. But number two, if it's real, it is very demonic. It's very demonic in nature and we need to understand that. And it's really important that we don't mess around

with that sort of thing. I'll never forget when I was in high school and not walking with Jesus and at one of those parties I was really not supposed to be at, they brought out a Ouija board. I'm like, look, I'm a little screwed up right now, but that's something I don't mess with. Right? Like I just know that that's real stuff and I'm not doing any of that

because I know that there's a reality to some of these kinds of things. And in the world that we live in today, one of the greatest tools that the enemy uses is that it's not that big of a deal. That the spirit world, don't pay too close of attention to it. No, there's a real spiritual battle that's taking place out there. And that spirit world is real, but it is demonic.

But the third thing that we have to know about it is that it's dangerous. We don't wanna mess around with it. And so if there's any of that sort of thing going on, you gotta get that kind of thing out. Don't deal with it anymore. Don't play around with it when it comes to occultic sort of things. And so she calls up Samuel and the Lord allows Samuel to come forth.

And as he allows Samuel to come forth, it's to deliver that final message to Saul. Because this message that he's gonna deliver doesn't do anything to bring any comfort to Saul. It's only gonna bring about a great deal of pain and fear for Saul. And so it says, verse 15, Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Saul answered, I am greatly distressed

for the Philistines wage war against me. And God has departed from me and no longer answers me through the prophets or by dreams. Therefore, I have called you that you may make known to me what I should do. Now again, I wanna point something out to us. Samuel says, why would you bring me up? Now, prior to Jesus coming, prior to his death and resurrection, when saints of old died,

they went to a place known as Abraham's bosom or paradise. They could not go directly into the presence of God yet. They had to go to this place of paradise because until Jesus came and died for us and shed his blood for us, they had died in faith, but they could not go directly into the presence of God. That's why Samuel words it the way that he does there.

Another one of the places that we see this is in the book of Matthew, where a similar sort of thing, where Jesus tells about a parable of Lazarus and the rich man. And so Samuel says, why did you bring me up? Why have you disturbed me? And Saul's going, cause I'm freaked out. I don't know what's gonna take place. And then notice what it says in verse 16. And Samuel said to them,

why then do you ask me since the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary? The Lord has done accordingly as he has spoken through me. For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and he has given it to your neighbor, to David. And as you did not obey the Lord and did not execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you.

This day, moreover, the Lord also will give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines. Therefore, tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed, the Lord will go give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines. It was not at all what Saul was looking for. Saul found himself in a place where he was scared. And because he was scared

and God wouldn't speak to him, he tried to find any way he could to find some sort of a message from the Lord. But what you find is if you're not hearing from the Lord, you might not want to hear the message because that's what Saul found. So he brings Samuel up and Samuel says, what are we doing here? Saul says, well, I'm terrified because the Philistines are going to attack.

I don't know how it's going to end. And he said, you have to understand a couple of things. Number one, you have turned against the Lord. Therefore, the Lord has turned against you. And he says what I think is one of the scariest statements in all of the book of 1 Samuel. He says, the Lord has become your adversary. The Lord has become your enemy. We have to know something.

You're either on the Lord's side or you're against the Lord. There is no happy middle ground. And Saul has found himself being the enemy of the Lord. The Lord has departed from you. You've become his adversary. The Lord's about to do exactly what I spoke to you. He's going to tear the kingdom from your hand. Now, can you imagine Saul taking in this message?

Can you imagine him taking this in? And I don't know. Maybe God was giving him one more chance to repent. Maybe he was giving him one more chance, but he didn't take it. He says, as a matter of fact, tomorrow you are going to be with me. And I don't think he means in the place of paradise. I think he means in the place of the dead. You're going to find yourself dead tomorrow,

you and your sons. And then, notice what happens. It says, then Saul, verse 20, immediately fell full length upon the ground and was very afraid because of the words of Samuel. Also there was no strength in him, for he had eaten no food all day and all night. And so the message, it wasn't what he was looking for, but it was still the truth that was given and then it says, the woman came to Saul

and saw that he was terrified and said to him, behold, your maid servant has obeyed you and I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to your words which you spoke to me. So now please listen to the voice of your maid servant and let me set a piece of bread before you that you may eat and have strength when you go on your way. But he refused and said, I will not eat. However, his servants together with the woman urged him, and listened to them.

So he arose from the ground and sat on the bed and the woman had a fattened calf in the house and she quickly slaughtered it. She took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread and she brought it before Saul and his servants and they ate. And then they arose and went away that night. And that's the last time that Saul's gonna hear any kind of message about what's coming and now all he can do is sit and anticipate the judgment that is to come.

And so we see a couple of backsliders. We see David who has found himself failing to really trust the Lord and is sliding back into his own fleshly ways but God is not done with him because his heart will still be tender towards the things of God. But then we see Saul backsliding so far away from the Lord that he can't hear anything because his heart won't be tender to any kind of message no matter where it comes from. And then we see David.

He can't hear anything because his heart won't be tender to any kind of message no matter where it comes from. And so brothers and sisters, if there's a word here for us it's let your heart be tender to what God wants to do so that you don't find yourself hardened against the things of the Lord, amen? And so next week we'll find out the end of the story of Saul and see the transition to David. Father we come to you and thank you that you have blessed us with your word and Lord I thank you that you even tell us the bad things.

You give us the transparency and honesty to see all of the things that take place in your word so that we can know that these are true words and so that we can take heed to the things that we need to take heed to. And so Father if there's anyone in here this evening or anyone that's watching online that has found themselves in a place of backsliding where they're turned towards the things of the flesh or turned away from the things of you Lord may tonight be the night that they say I want to come back home. I want to come back to Jesus because I don't want to continue down this path any longer. So Lord do your work in our hearts and in our lives and we just thank you for who you are.

In Jesus name, amen. Be blessed.