Samuel No.22 Spiritism - An Invalid Option

Our reading this morning comes from the first book of Samuel, verse 28. In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, you must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army.

David said, then you will see for yourself what your servant can do. Achish replied, very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Now Saul was dead and all Israel mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah.

Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land. The Philistines assembled and came and set up camp at Shunem, while Saul gathered all the Israelites and set up camp at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid.

Terror filled his heart. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or in all prophets. Saul then said to his attendants, find me a woman who is a medium so that I may go and inquire of her.

There is one in Endor, they said. Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. Consult a spirit for me, he said, and bring up for me the one I name.

But the woman said to him, surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death? Saul swore to her by the Lord, as surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.

Then the woman asked, whom shall I bring up for you? Bring up Samuel, he said. When the woman saw Samuel, he cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, why have you deceived me? You are Saul. The king said to her, don't be afraid.

What do you see? The woman said, I see a spirit coming up out of the ground. What does he look like, he asked. An old man wearing a robe is coming up, she said.

Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? I am in great distress, Saul said. The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has turned away from me.

He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do. Samuel said, why do you consult me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done what he predicted through me.

The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors, to David, because you did not obey the Lord or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites. The Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will hand over both Israel and you to the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me.

The Lord will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines. Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel's words. His strength was gone, for he had eaten nothing all that day and night.

When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, look, your maid servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to. Now please listen to your servant and let me give you some food, so that you may eat and have strength to go on your way.

He refused and said, I will not eat. But his men joined the woman in urging him, and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch.

The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she slaughtered at once. She took some flour, kneaded it, and baked bread without yeast. Then she set it before Saul and his men, and they ate.

That same night, they got up and left. May the Lord bless his reading to each one of our hearts. Let's think of this in terms of our reading and the revival of spiritism in our land and in Europe in general.

Let's pray against that, and ask that God will just move upon our minds and our hearts today and fill them with a sense of his peace and his love. Stand and sing. Softly.

Now let's have our Bibles open at that tremendous chapter which was read to us. And let me bring to your attention again what is said of Saul. The seven, Saul then said to his attendants, 1 Samuel 28, Saul then said to his attendants, find me a woman who is a medium so that I may go and inquire of her.

Do you know the expression, jumping from the frying pan into the fire? It's a modern colloquial form of language but it has within it I think a comment that is valid upon this particular incident that grips us right now. When opportunities are thrown to the wind, when the light and fresh air of the mountaintop are exchanged for the damp and sour air of the dungeon, when what could have been never is, then you have pathos indeed. And it seems to me that what confronts us this morning is perhaps the character of the most pathetic man in the whole of the Old Testament.

I refer to Saul, Saul who we find in the company of some muttering old woman, Saul king of Israel who slumped so low. We're going to be looking at spiritism, an invalid option, and I'm bound to bring this address to you because it follows these systematic expositions from the book of Samuel and I would not be dealing fair with the book if I vaulted over this difficult 28th chapter. I think that had Saul's namesake in the New Testament been able to bridge the centuries, to cry out a comment towards this king, the apostle Paul might have said of Saul, you started well, what hindered you? And indeed Saul did run well to start with, when first his character comes across the page of scripture, in this book you see him consulting the mouthpiece of God, Samuel himself, for Saul the son of Kish had lost some donkeys.

And now towards the end of his life when there are only a few more grains in the glass to flow through, you find that selfsame son of Kish consulting a spokesman of the devil. You did run well, you started off so brightly Saul, what hindered you? We're looking as I say at spiritism, and we're following a king as he makes company with the witch of Endor. And alas, it strikes me that there are many Sauls, and many witches, and many Endors.

For if you do not know of the revival of spiritism, particularly since 1970, then I wonder where you have been in your observations around the United Kingdom or in your reading of what is often expressed in the popular media, let alone put across on television. Spiritism is an invalid option. It is prohibited for the children of God.

The Bible makes it very clear. As the Israelites were returning to the promised land, certain instructions were given them. Certain prohibitions were made, and in the 19th chapter of Leviticus and the 31st verse, you read these words, do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them.

I am the Lord your God. And when you move on to the book of Deuteronomy, you find a similar disclosure of the warnings of the Lord. The 18th chapter and the 10th verse, let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist, or who consults the dead.

Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. Spiritism is part of the devil's lie. It comes from the bowels of hell.

Ultimately, it will return there, though alas, in the company of many thousands of men and women who it has deceived. By spiritism, I am referring to the occult, to astrology, to necromancy, the bringing back of the dead, the magical arts, the whole world of tarot cards, lucky signs, the zodiac, the use of psychedelic colors for the gain of spiritistic experience, the whole artifice of the magicians, sorcerers, witches, mediums. You don't have to go very far in W.H. Smith's to come across encyclopedias full of information about this stuff.

You don't need to go very far along the magazine rack to discover magazines that are given over to it. We may live in the latter part of the 20th century, and it may be said by some people that this in Europe is an age of atheism, but it is not. Secularism does not breed atheism.

Secularism always breeds superstition. There are more astronomers, there are more astrologers in the city of Paris this day than there are Roman Catholic priests, witches, covens, the whole business of spiritism in its less sophisticated and in its more sophisticated manner greets us at every end and turn. But I want to bring you back to Saul, this pathetic character who we find in this 28th chapter.

He's going to seek out the help of a medium, and what I'm having to say this morning is so relevant to Worthing because there are many mediums here, and sometimes our public halls are given over to mediums to come along to demonstrate their black art. He goes to a medium, and the reason why he goes, well, because he's such a dispirited man. In other words, he's such a depressed man.

The Holy Spirit has left him, and an evil spirit has taken up residence within him, and that spirit has bred depression almost at an absolute level within Saul. You see, the man can't cope with life. He has all these problems of being a king and not able to repulse the Syrians, the Philistines who are increasingly invading the land.

Verse four will set you into the historical picture. And then above and beyond that, there's his problem, the problem that he's had with David for a long time, David who he's so jealous of, David who has dealt so nobly with him when twice he has spared the king's life. Here is this man with a tortured mind, and on top of all his problems, we are given the intelligence in the third verse, now Samuel was dead, and all Israel mourned for him.

Bereavement is the most fertile soil that the spiritists know for producing converts. The loving wife has lost her husband, and their cattles from the spiritist camp, the enticing idea. You come to us, we will be able to bridge the divide between death and life, and we will be able to contact the one who has gone beyond whom you love.

And thousands of widows have gone for that particular bait, dangled in front of them. Here is Saul, who rarely if ever consulted with Samuel during the latter part of Samuel's life, indeed the scripture expressly says that he had nothing to do with Samuel at all, but now Samuel is gone, and the problems of Saul, they are compounded, and he who had never consulted Samuel for many a long year, now seeks somehow to get in contact with a man who had previously been his counselor. You recall that when Samuel went into retirement, his final promise to the Israelites and to Saul in particular was this, God forbid that I should sin in refusing or ceasing to pray for you.

And now the one who prays has gone, and the problems have got worse and worse. And here is Saul, as one old preacher says, with enough trouble to kill ten men beside himself, not knowing what to do, gaining no comfort from prayer. He determines to knock at the gates of hell and ask if anyone there might care to befriend him and to give him advice.

And so the comment, or rather the request is made to his friends, find me a woman, verse 7, find me a woman who is a medium, so that I may go and inquire of her. And as he moves towards Endor, risking his life in so doing, for this territory is now policed by the Philistines, as he goes there in disguise, the woman who he has to consult is a little afraid, afraid that this might be a trap, because Saul the king, and she doesn't know the identity of the one who makes a request on her, has abolished, has banished mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you come to set a trap for my life, to bring about my death? And Saul promises her that he won't betray her, and then he promises more than he can really fulfill, for he says, as surely as the Lord lives, you will not be punished for this.

No man can say that, for spiritism in all its permutations is expressly prohibited by the Lord, and those who dabble in these arts will one day be brought to book. Saul cannot fulfill his promise to this woman, however, the one who is going to help him, he now consults, and in this dark cave, they engage in what purports to be a seance. Let's just stop for a moment, shall we? What's the real problem that confronts Saul? Well, it strikes me it's the problem that consults a lot of people.

He's in a state of acute depression for reasons that I have just brought to your attention, and he has bypassed the very means whereby the problems that confront him can be resolved. You see, as you make your way through this world, God does not leave you without a guide. His guide is not a spirit guide in terms of a medium, or someone who engages in the black arts.

The guide which God gives to us is the revelation of his mind which is inscripturated in this book that we call the Bible, and in Saul's time there were the prophets, there were the beginnings of the Old Testament volumes put one over against another, to the law and to the testimony. This was time and time again the clarion call of the preachers in those days, ignore the revelation and you're on your own. Accept what God says and you'll have a guide in your life.

You see, my dear friend, whether it's man in the 7th century or man in the 20th century A.D., he cannot cope on his own. He needs a guide. He needs something to direct him in his life.

And Saul is in trouble because the very means for doing that he has totally, he has utterly ignored. It was as a result of Saul's murderous intentions that the high priest had been slain and many of the priests of God. Is there any wonder then that when Saul prays to the God of heaven there is no response at all? He inquired of the Lord, verse 6, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.

It's a terrible thing when God is silent and my heart aches for any who might be in this position. It's Martin Luther who said on one occasion, oh my God, punish me with pestilences, with all the terrible sicknesses of the earth, with war, with anything, rather than thou be silent to me. But there is a possibility, my friend, that God could be silent when the means of his grace which he has proffered you on many an occasion have been bypassed.

You see, there are those who've got this clumsy conclusion that it doesn't really matter how you live your life because at least on your deathbed you can make your peace with God. As though the days of grace, the days when God offers his salvation to you, are coextensive with the whole of your life. That is wrong.

There are moments of opportunity that God gives you, but the possibility is that God could withdraw himself from you. He did from Pharaoh, he did from Saul, he did from Herod. When Jesus stood before Herod he had not one thing to say to Herod, why not? Because Herod had time and time again done what Saul, son of Kish, did in the Old Testament.

Herod confronted with the ministry of the Baptist. He hardens his heart and the day comes when God withdraws himself from Herod, as God withdraws himself from Saul. And what you find here in the Old Testament, in this chapter, is one of the saddest accounts that Holy Scriptures describe of the experience of a man who turns to spiritists when the heavens no longer respond to the prayers that he offers.

Moreover, will you note this? The time of day when Saul makes his way towards Endor, verse 8, so Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two women, two men, went to the woman to consult a spirit for me. It's night. It's always night when the mediums are at work.

Gloom is necessary for the doom of their trade. You see, the whole world of the occult is under the sway of what the Bible refers to as the prince of darkness. Darkness is the territory in which Satan holds sway.

Dark are the words, are the works of people who dabble in this sort of art. The agents of the prince of darkness, they need the shadows. And Jesus makes this comment that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

It's in the dark, with only the flickering light of a fire, that the seance commences. As it was then, so it is now. The whole of the gospel is illustrated in the one word light.

The whole of the occult is described in the one word darkness. Jesus, on one occasion, predicts of Satan, your hour has now come. And John, with unusual spirituality, as he records the events following the exit of our Lord from the room where the last supper has been held, says it was night.

And he's not just describing the actual physical night, the actual physical evening. He is thinking in terms of all that is to ensue during the hours that are to follow, the darkness that engulfs the world as our Lord Jesus goes through Gethsemane and ultimately is arrested and then is taken outside the city. And the greed of the darkness of the night is such that it devours more of the hours of what should have been daylight.

And from the sixth to the ninth hour of the following day, when Jesus hangs upon the cross, the power of darkness falls. Why? Because Satan and the powers of evil are nakedly at work in our world. And their hostility is directed towards the one who is the prince of light, who is the son of God.

And men prefer darkness, says Jesus, at the natural level because their deeds are evil. But when Jesus comes into the life, the darkness disappears, son of my soul. You remember that hymn that speaks of the way? That when the Savior dear is dear, it is not night if thou be here.

So in the darkness, Saul takes counsel with this medium, with this woman. And he requests from her that she brings up to him a certain person. As surely as the Lord lives, you'll not be punished if you do this, says Saul in verse 10.

Whom shall I bring up for you? Verse 11. Bring up Samuel, he said. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, why have you deceived me? You are Saul.

And what follows is the description of the appearance of Samuel before Saul. Samuel speaks to Saul of what Saul has done. Saul is asking counsel as to what he is going to do.

But Samuel will give him no information, no advice in this area. He just reminds him of what he has done and the advice that he has spurned in days gone by. And ultimately Samuel predicts that as far as Saul is concerned, the moment is not far hence when he, Saul, and his sons will be with Samuel.

And as a result of this disclosure, Saul, verse 20, again falls full length on the ground, filled with fear because of Samuel's words. His strength is gone. Well, my friends, what do you make of it? What do you make of this unique passage of Scripture? There's nothing like it elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Here is a woman, a medium, and at the request of a confused king, she brings up someone who was a servant of God, who died just a few days before. What do you make of it? Well, there are three ways in which Bible commentators handle it. One suggests that the woman was a bit of a ventriloquist, because the Hebrew word for medium is the word ob, and it could be translated ventriloquist, but it seems to me that that idea can be tossed on one side.

There is nothing that is purely imitation here. It's not pure mimicry. And then there are those who feel that what really happens is that this woman, this medium, is employed by the devil, and she brings up an evil spirit who masquerades as Samuel.

And then there are those who believe that this is a real appearance of the Samuel who was dead as a result of the sovereign initiative of God. Well, there's a lot to be said for the second thing. Dismiss the ventriloquist business, but there's a lot to be said for the second, isn't there? I mean, the whole idea of the medium bringing back Samuel, it seems to stick in the throat when you bear in mind those prohibitions that I brought to you from scripture earlier that God does not allow, does not permit mediums in his holy land.

And then the idea of Samuel coming out of the ground, that doesn't seem to be right. It speaks more of spiritism or so it's thought than what it speaks of the work of God, the spirit coming from the bowels of the earth. And then there's the thought of Samuel confessing that he's disquieted.

That's the authorized version. He's not at peace as he arrives on the scene. And we know that those who die in the Lord are blessed.

They are at peace. Well, notwithstanding all this, I argue that the natural reading of the text indicates that this was literally Samuel who was brought back from the grave. I argue it for several reasons.

The first is this. It's natural to the text. There is nothing in the text at all that indicates that this was some manifestation on the part of the devil.

If you're going to make that conclusion, you have to read it into the text. You don't read it out of the text because it's not actually put there. And the second reason why I suggest to you that it is Samuel himself who is seen is the accuracy with which he summarizes Saul's terrible life, his disappointing life up to this point.

And the number of occasions when Samuel uses the word of the Lord. The Lord has said this. The Lord has said the other.

The Lord has said so and so. This isn't the language of a demon. And then there is the uncanny accuracy as to what is about to happen just round the corner in terms of Saul's death and the death of his sons.

It seems to me that when you put all these things together, it's not so easy to dismiss this event as being a mere demonic imitation of Samuel. But then someone will object. Taking it as literally as you do, doesn't it seem to indicate that the woman has a power of control over Samuel and yet she is an evil woman? She is a medium.

I argue that the reverse actually is the case. Far from this woman having control over the events, she is overwhelmed and terrified by what does happen. Verse 12, when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, what have you deceived me? Why have you deceived me? You are Saul.

As a result of Samuel, an unexpected, real appearance of Samuel coming from all her mutterings and all her dabblings, she is utterly terrified. And at the point of the recognition of Samuel, she also appreciates who Saul is and what this is all about. But my final and I think most convincing proof, that my argument that this is a real appearance of Samuel, I rest on a verse I discovered in Ezekiel in chapter 14, where once again there is advice given against consulting with those who practice the black arts in any fashion, as alas was the habit of Israel during the time of the prophecy of Ezekiel.

And this is what we find halfway through the fourth verse of Ezekiel 14, when any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face and then goes to a prophet, I, the Lord, will answer him myself in keeping with his great idolatry. I will answer the Lord myself in keeping with his great idolatry. I will do this to recapture the hearts of the people of Israel who have all deserted me for their idols.

In other words, here is Saul who has chosen to consult a medium to get him out of the mess. He is into the lair of Satan himself. Now think this through very carefully, my friend.

Who controls ultimately the underworld? Who has the final authority over Satan, the demons, and all spiritism in its many, many manifestations? And the answer is this, the great high God. And he can step within his will, within his sovereignty. He can step into the lair of a spiritist who once conjured up some imitation of Samuel.

And he can bring the real Samuel back to life if he so desires as he brings back to life Moses and Elijah as they speak before the Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And this woman is utterly appalled at what has happened. The whole thing is out of her control.

This Samuel, there is something different about him than any other apparition that she has ever been engaged in conjuring up from the underworld. And Samuel, through to the whole of his ministry, reminds Saul of what he has done and can give him no further advice as to his way out in the future. Because Samuel, Saul, you remember in my opening observations, he represents the most pathetic, the most sorrowful condition of mankind in the whole of the Bible.

He is without hope and he is without God in the world. And that's why I say that this passage is so terrible, so utterly terrible. But it serves as a reminder of this, that behind and underneath and some way in front of this whole spiritist business, there is the power of God.

He has not abdicated his authority. If I were to make my bell in Hades, says the psalmist, thou art there. Saul has been troubled with an evil spirit from the Lord.

You remember that word? When the spirit of God leaves him. I do not claim to understand all these things. But this I could never allow in my understanding of the Bible, that God's sovereignty is reduced to the effect that Satan has declared, you, thee, I, and he does not bow to the power of the living God.

And when Samuel comes forward, he comes forward as an Old Testament illustration of what our Lord Jesus shall show in great authority and power and beyond any dispute, that God can break the forces of hell and of darkness. And indeed on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, as a result of the death of our Savior, exactly that was done. Verse 13 of Colossians 1, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul prostrates, Saul prostrates himself afresh before Samuel. Verse 20, he's without hope, he's without God. He becomes an illustration of that verse that many of you have looked at as we've gone through the prophecy of Jonah in these pastoral sessions on alternate Wednesday night.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. And so we leave Saul in a hopeless condition to the further attention of this woman who can never really help him. And as we do so, we make some observations, we make some lessons for ourselves which are so important for us to grasp and to apply.

And one of them I repeat, the days of grace are not co-extensive with your life. You dabble with the occult, you dabble with unbelief, and as a result you gamble your spiritual well-being. The possibility could be that like Saul, you reach the point when heaven no longer responds to your prayers.

It's a terrible thing to have to say from the pulpit, but even Samuel could not help Saul on this occasion. Those who sponge on grace are the biggest fools in our world. Now listen to the Apostle Paul, if that teaching was too strong for you, and tell me how you react to this, unless you follow it through in the way that I've tried to explain it.

Here is Paul in Romans chapter 2, and he is speaking of those who constantly resist the grace of God. He's speaking of his own nation. Romans chapter 2 and verse 4. Do you show contempt for the riches of God's kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance, but because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

Now you see, many people in churches won't accept that. The whole idea of the righteous judgment of God is unpalatable in the 20th century, but here is Paul speaking of those who are storing up the wrath of God against that day, having resisted out of their stubbornness the many indications of God's grace and kindness towards them. Such a man is Saul.

You see, God is not playing with words, my dear brothers and sisters. When he gives us this teaching in the New Testament, Saul told us, I am in great distress. And in response, an old Puritan preacher says, here there is no mingling of mercy with judgment, no call to repentance, no sweet, sweet whisper of pardon.

Let's go back, as I conclude. To Isaiah in chapter 8, here is an Old Testament prophet summoning up all the problems that Saul was confronting and the many sins that he had committed. And here is the advice that the Hebrew prophet speaks out into future centuries and to the 20th, the 19th verse of Isaiah 8, when men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living, to the law and to the testimony? In other words, your final court of appeal in all the problems that you have in life is to the Bible, God's disclosure of his truth, not to the medium, not to the astrologer, not to anyone who practices these dark arts, however simplistic it may seem, however innocent it may seem, never, never, never, says Isaiah, never consult such people, never burn your hands on their fires, because that's what Saul did.

And he got himself into a state, when if I have interpreted scripture rightly and I think that logic is on my side, even Samuel, allowed by Almighty God to come back from the grave to prove that God is sovereign even over a spiritist's seance. Even Saul, even Samuel, cannot help Saul. Spiritism, it's an invalid option.

I can give you no hope for Saul or anyone else who plays with spiritism all their life, but this I can do, is to point any one of you who's troubled at this very moment in these areas, I can point you to the cross of Christ and I can tell you again in the words of Colossians that I directed your attention to, that when Jesus died on the cross and the power of darkness fell upon him, though it was only the afternoon, he fought Lucifer himself. All the demons of hell had belched out from that place and they turned their attention on Jesus. He fought them.

He disarmed them. And on the third day, he came back from the dead, a greater than Samuel, to declare the fixed purpose of Almighty God, that God's law and God's revelation and God's salvation are the only means whereby you and I are to live our lives successfully and peacefully on this earth. Let us stand.

I want us to say the Lord's Prayer and particularly to emphasize in our thinking at any rate as we're saying it, that we might be delivered from evil. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever.

Amen.