Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: Have you ever found yourself being called out as a Christian by someone who's not? Bill Luebkemann offers this example.

You're a Christian and you're in some place where you shouldn't be and someone in the world says, "What are you doing here?" Christian says, "I'm going to go to the bar. I'm not going to drink anything, I'm just going to go to witness to the other people at the bar."

Then you get seen there by somebody who knows you're a Christian and says, "What are you doing here?" And you're in the place where you shouldn't be. You've gone back to the world and now the world has to remind you. "Wait a minute, I thought you were Christian. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing this? Why are you here? Why are you acting that way? Why are you behaving that way? Why are you at the bar? Why are you at this particular movie, or this show, or event, or why are you reading that magazine or watching this on television?"

It's funny that as a Christian, if you go—I've heard numerous stories people go to the place where they shouldn't have been and get snagged right away because God sends somebody there.

Guest (Male): David certainly made some poor choices throughout his life, just as we will. At times, God has disciplined us out of His great love because of those decisions. The consequences can be huge and David is about to find that out as we return to our study of 1 Samuel.

Pastor Bill Luebkemann is at the tail end of this verse-by-verse study of 1 Samuel and today we'll explore chapters 28 and 29. Maybe like David you're backsliding and the Lord is wanting to get your attention. I think you'll find this study very helpful. Here's Pastor Bill to bring it to us.

Bill Luebkemann: So this woman, believing that she's conjured up Samuel and looking probably really at Samuel, realizes somehow that this is Saul. I'm not sure if Samuel said something to her or how, or she was given some supernatural form of knowledge here.

But the king said to her, "Don't be afraid. In other words, I'm not going to kill you. What do you see?" And the woman said, "I see a spirit." The word there is Elohim, the same word for God, the same word for the one true God, the plural word for God.

Does this mean she saw the Lord God coming out of the ground? No, I don't think so. I think it was just the word she chose to use because to her it looked like a god. "I see a spirit coming up out of the ground. What does he look like?"

"He's an old man wearing a robe." "That must be him." That describes Samuel to a tee. Weren't there any old other guys that wore robes? Somehow it says Saul knew it was Samuel. Now, some commentaries you read, they say that Saul could see Samuel here and other commentaries say clearly that Saul could not see Samuel here. Really, it's not clear.

So I don't know how you could say one or the other. It says Saul knew it was Samuel. So did he know it based on her description of an old guy wearing a robe? Maybe. Did he see something himself? Maybe. He bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

How did he know which way to face if he didn't see something himself? I'm inclined to believe he saw something, but I couldn't prove that either. And it doesn't really matter. But Samuel talked directly to Saul here. So if Saul couldn't see him, he definitely at least could hear him.

If he could hear him, I'm inclined to think he could see him as well. Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" God really brought him up, but the Lord, I think probably said to Samuel, "You got to do this little errand here."

And Samuel is not happy about it. When you get to be over there, you don't want to come back to here, as much as here looks nice and you don't want to leave here when you get to there, you realize how foolish you were probably for wanting to stay here so long.

It's kind of like the old couple that both died when they were in their 80s and Saint Peter brought them in the dining hall and said, "All this meal in front of them here, every kind of high fat, high cholesterol, high carbo—every kind of thing."

And Saint Peter said, "You can eat as much as you want just all day. Never get sick, you never get full, you're never hungry, but you never get full. You never get sick, you never have to worry about it, you never get fat, lose weight, always ideal weight. Just eat as much as you want."

And the guy started beating his wife and Saint Peter said, "What are you doing? Why you doing that?" And he said, "If it wasn't for her, we could have been here 10 years ago." So I don't think Samuel was—I think it's a drag to have to come back.

You come back for the people that are here. When Paul the apostle was stoned and left for dead—and some people believe he really died. He wrote later on in his life and said he knew a man that had died and that had seen things that were not lawful for a man to see.

The common understanding is he was speaking about himself in the third person. When he was stoned and left for dead that day, the other disciples were standing around him praying, "Lord, please please bring him back to us. Don't let him die."

It wasn't that Paul wanted to come back, it's like his job wasn't done here. I heard Greg Laurie years ago talk about that incident speculating that Paul had died and gone to heaven and said, "Oh Lord, I'm so happy to be here Lord. I just to see your face and to be in your presence. I can't believe it. I'm done finally with the earth, I never have to go back."

And the Lord says, "Paul, it's great to have you here and there's just one little problem. What's that? Well, right now over your body is a bunch of disciples praying that you'll be come back from the dead."

And Greg Laurie speculating that Paul would have said, "Ignore them heathen. Don't pay any attention to them. Ignore them." And he was speculating that way when Paul went back and God said, "Your time's not up yet. A few more years on earth."

When Paul woke back up again and saw them praying over him, Greg was speculating, "Wham!" He would want to give them a good swift left uppercut. "What'd you do that for? Bring me back here to this place." Well, you get the impression here Samuel was bothered by this.

"Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" God may have sent him, but of course he wouldn't have done it if Saul wasn't asking. We'll go back to 15 here. 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." Well, hello! What kind of news is that? We already knew that. "He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams, so I have called on you to tell me what to do."

So here's a guy that is greatly terrified, he's in distress, he's got the enemy fighting—he's reached the end of the line here. This is the end of the line that you get to when you ignore God for year after year, decade after decade, a generation or two, you're still ignoring God. Finally the Lord turned away.

And now the Philistines are amassing on the border there, God's turned away from him, He don't answer my prayers—well, why should God answer your prayers? You never did what He told you to do anyway. "So I have come to to ask you what to do."

He's thinking back to the good old days, the good old days when Samuel anointed me king, the good days when Saul was there hiding in the pile of the supplies, too modest to come out and be recognized as the king. He's thinking, "I gotta get my buddy Samuel. He'll help me out."

He doesn't realize that if he's God's enemy, he's also Samuel's enemy because Samuel's on the Lord's side. He doesn't realize that what he's doing, this position he's put himself in, is inconsistent. It doesn't make sense.

Verse 16: 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."

So Samuel says, "Why are you asking me? The Lord's already turned away from you and you're His enemy and He's your enemy, so what do you expect me to tell you?" In other words, "Hello, are you thinking? Was anybody home in there?"

"Look, the Lord has done just what He predicted through me." In other words, Samuel was the one years before who told Saul what was going to happen and Saul didn't repent back then. If he had, maybe things would have been different.

"The Lord's done it. He's taken it out of your hand. He's given it to David and it's all because you did not obey the Lord and you did not carry out His wrath against the Amalekites."

When God told Saul many years before, "Wipe them all out, every one of them. Don't leave anyone alive, not animals, not people, none of them," and he didn't follow the instructions. And it's because of that the Lord has done this.

And the Lord is going to hand Israel and you over to the Amalekites and also the whole entire army and tomorrow you and your sons are going to be with me. Does this mean in heaven? Well, they weren't in heaven in the Old Testament times.

The scripture says they were in Abraham's bosom. They were in a place of waiting. And in Jesus—in Luke talks about Abraham there talking to the rich guy who wouldn't help out the poor beggar Lazarus.

And now the rich guy is asking Abraham for a drop of water to quench his tongue. There was two places to go even back then and they were in a general sense I guess in the same area. Well they weren't here, so they were there.

One's there and one's there. We don't know the orientation, but I don't think that this necessarily means that Saul was going to go to heaven. I don't think it necessarily means not. Some people of course think not.

I'm inclined to be generous, but I don't know. But I think all this means is: tomorrow you're going to be dead, you're going to be on this side of the line. And whether you're over there or over here, I don't think is necessarily indicated here.

And so the whole army is going to get wiped out immediately. Now, at this point Saul repented, right? and said he put on the sackcloth and the ashes and tore his clothes and said, "No, I want to serve God, I want to do what the Lord want."

No, unfortunately Saul didn't do any of that. In verse 20: 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.

This guy's not too smart. He pulls this stunt of not eating and then he gets himself into the trouble, something that he's done before. But he's just simply gripped and overwhelmed and terrified with fear.

When you have something to be fearful for, you have to ask the Lord for strength. You have to run to the Lord, not away from Him. When there's a problem going on, it's God you need to be around. And you don't see any indication here that this guy sought the Lord at all.

When the woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly shaken, she said, "Look, your maidservant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. Now, please listen to your servant and let me give you some food so that you may eat and have the 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 butchered 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. So here we have two people who are on the opposite side of where the Lord is.

You have Saul who's not following God and you have this medium, spiritist, witch woman, necromancer person who is trying to communicate with the other world. And you kind of see them both here sympathizing maybe in a way with one another.

And his men, Saul's men, join her and encourage him to eat something. So they do eat and that gets back his strength and he goes off to get killed in battle the next day. You don't see in any way that he in any way is repentant, that he in any way changes his ways.

One last chance. It's almost like the Lord allowed Samuel to be conjured up here. The Lord sent Samuel on this mission. "Speak to Saul. You know Samuel, let's give him one more try. Let's give him one more chance. It didn't work while you were alive, maybe it'll work now that you're dead."

You kind of just see the graciousness of God in this. That over and over and over again the Lord giving chance after chance after chance. If you're still breathing, you still have a chance. And Saul still had a chance.

He could have made his peace with God. I'm not saying he would have changed the outcome of the battle the next day, but he could have put his faith in God and died in a righteous position instead of just accepting it and not doing anything about it.

And going off and fighting the battle and maybe in the back of his mind he's resigned to the fact that he's going to die, but maybe also in the back of his mind maybe he thinks maybe we can really win this battle, maybe God will change His mind. But he never gives the Lord any reason to change His mind. That's the problem.

So now the camera goes back to the Philistines here. The Philistines gathered all their forces at Aphek and Israel camped by the spring in Jezreel. So we're back now. We've seen this little vignette of Saul approaching the witch here.

And now we go back to the forces that are gathering for this impending battle. The Philistines gathering at this place called Aphek and Israel camping over by the spring in Jezreel.

As the Philistine rulers marched with their units of hundreds and thousands, David and his men were marching at their rear with Achish. The commanders of the Philistines asked, "What about these Hebrews?"

Now, what was going on here was they were gathering up all their armies and they were showing off to one another. This is kind of like all the generals are lined up there and the different parts of the army are marching by and blowing their trumpets.

Showing off and practicing and whatever and here comes the hundreds and here comes the thousands and here's the battalion or what have you. And so when Achish's turn comes to march out with his men, David's in the rear.

And the commanders of the Philistines see that and they say, "What about these Hebrews here? What are they doing here?" David should have been asking himself that question. But it's kind of like you're a Christian and you're in some place where you shouldn't be and someone in the world says, "What are you doing here?"

Christian says, "I'm going to go to the bar. I'm not going to drink anything, I'm just going to go to witness to the other people at the bar." And then you get seen there by somebody who knows you're a Christian and says, "What are you doing here?"

And it's kind of like that. You're in the place where you shouldn't be. You've gone back to the world and now the world has to remind you. "Wait a minute, I thought you were Christian. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing this? Why are you here? Why are you acting that way? Why are you behaving that way? Why are you at the bar? Why are you at this particular movie, or this show, or event, or why are you reading that magazine or watching this on television?"

It's funny that as a Christian, if you go—I've heard numerous stories people go to the place where they shouldn't have been and get snagged right away because God sends somebody there. And that's what's going on. The commanders of the Philistines saying, "What about these Hebrews? What are you crazy? These are Hebrews. What are you doing here? We're getting ready to fight them. What's the matter with you?"

Achish replied, "Is this not David, who was an officer of Saul, king of Israel? He's already been with me for over a year and from the day he left Saul until now I have found no fault in him." David was good at conning the man.

But the Philistine commanders were angry with him and said, "Send the man back that he may return to the place you assigned him. He must not go with us into battle or he will turn against us during the fighting. How better could he regain his master's favor than by taking the heads of our own men? Isn't this the David they sang about in their dances: Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands?"

Seems like the commanders of the other Philistine forces are the only reasonable guys there. Achish said, "Well, the guy's been with me for a year, I trust him completely." That's the way undercover operations work. They plant somebody in some kind of group to infiltrate other countries or in organized crime.

Infiltrate, you put somebody there, you leave them there long enough, they get accepted and whatever. For all Achish knows David's an undercover plant there. Now, again, mixed opinions here.

Some people say David was actually about to fight against his own people. He was actually going to march down, fight against the Hebrews, he actually would have done that. And other people say no, he would never have done that, he was obviously if he got into battle at the right exact moment he would turn and start killing the Philistines.

I don't know what he would have done. He would have had Saul in the battle trying to kill him too. So it would have been complicated at least complicated. And these Philistine commanders say, "No no no no no, that's too risky. This guy doesn't belong here. He's not one of us. You're crazy."

All he would have to do even if he's on our side now, if he changes his mind, he runs into Saul down on the battlefield, Saul says, "David, everything's forgotten, you help me fight these Philistines and everything's forgotten and you're second in charge."

They just don't know what's going to happen. Too risky. Can't allow that. "This is the David that killed Goliath that they sang about: Saul has slain thousands, but David has slain tens of thousands."

So Achish called David and said to him, "As surely as the Lord lives, you have been reliable and I would be pleased to have you serve with me in the army. From the day you came to me until now I have found no fault in you, but the rulers don't approve of you. Turn back and go in peace. Do nothing to displease the Philistine rulers."

"But what have I done?" asked David. "What have you found against your servant from the day I came to you until now? Why can't I go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?" Achish answered, "I know that you have been as pleasing in my eyes as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the Philistine commanders have said, 'He must not go up with us into battle.' Now, get up early, along with your master's servants who have come with you and leave in the morning as soon as it is light."

So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines and the Philistines went up to Jezreel. So Achish calls David in and says, "Look, you're a great guy, I like you, you're reliable, you're the greatest guy around. Here's my cell phone number, you can call me anytime. I'm your best friend, I love being around you. Ever since you've been with me, I've found no fault with you."

It would really make me nervous if you were a Christian who was hanging out with unsaved people who were sinning in a big way and they couldn't find any fault with you. That would not be the place that if they couldn't find any—I would hope Jesus said, "If they hate Me, they're going to hate you more."

I would hope if you're hanging out in the wrong place with the people of the world, I would hope they would find fault with you because Jesus said we can expect the unsaved world to find fault with us and if they're not finding fault with us, then we got to reconsider if we're really doing the right thing.

But this guy says to David, "I like you, you're my friend. Look, go in peace, don't displease the Philistine rulers." You wouldn't want to displease the rulers now, would you? This is the same David that killed Goliath.

Can you imagine if someone said to him then, "Now David, you don't want to displease the Philistines, do you?" He just killed Goliath. He would say, "I hope I displease them for the rest of my life. If I can do anything to displease them anymore, I would do so. I want to displease them as much as possible. Am I displeasing them enough? What can I do to annoy them more?"

But instead we see David saying, "What have you found against me? Why can't I go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?" What did he mean by that? Did he mean my enemies of my lord the king, was he referring to Achish as my lord the king, which is no doubt the way Achish would have received it?

Or was he referring to the enemies of Saul, his lord the king, because he called Saul his lord also? Or was he referring to God when he said this? Again, you find divided opinions on this. I tend to believe he was putting on an act for the guy and somehow would have found a way to not fight against his own people.

But I don't really know that and I'm not aware of any other scriptures that really shed any light on it. But I think what we can learn from this is: very dangerous to be off being a lone ranger, going on your own, off in the world. It's dangerous to say, "I'm going to go back to where I used to go. I'm going to go back to the bar where I hung out before I was saved and I'm going to hang out there, I'm not going to drink anything, but I'm just going to just water, Coke, Diet Coke. I can witness to the people there."

Not a good thing. When we were in Las Vegas a couple years ago—a place I do not recommend you go to—and we were talking to the pastor of the Calvary Chapel there. He talked about how they had ministries to hookers and prostitutes.

They would go down and share the gospel, but you have to really be wired for that and fortified for it. And he told us about somebody who got out of it and got saved and was back down there having a ministry to these people and then somehow got sucked back into it.

And I don't remember the whole story, but it didn't have a happy ending. And I think what we can learn from this is let's not put ourselves in compromising positions. Let's not be going off testing the limits of how far we can go.

It's kind of like, "I'm a Christian, I can drink. The Bible doesn't say not to drink, it says not to be drunk. And I'm only—it takes three drinks before I'm drunk, so I'm only going to have two so I won't be drunk."

If three drinks makes you drunk, what are you after two? Think about it. Do you want to test the limits? How far can we go? How far can we push this? What's the limit? That's what people do in the world.

There's lots of sports that are endurance sports testing the limit, like climbing mountains in the wintertime, bungee jumping. They do that, the whole point is to go as far down as you can without hitting the ground.

If you only go halfway down, you're not really bungee jumping. You want to go all the way down, just enough to clear the ground. You don't want to smack into it, but that's not the point of it. Some people do that.

There's some bridge somewhere where the government once a year lets people jump off this bridge. And I think it's bungee jumping and it's some real high bridge over a gorge and like once a year they have some day where it's permitted that they can set up bungee jumping and hundreds of people do it.

It was just a couple months ago somebody did it wrong and hit the water and that was the end of them. It was a few hundred feet down. There's a thrill with that. You want to get as far as you can as close as you can to death without crossing over to the other side. And you kind of see that a little bit here. We don't want to go there as Christians.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options.

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For more information go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon. Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you, share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series.

You can easily email us from our website ccmarlton.org or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of 1 Samuel and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.