1Samuel 28:1-6
When You Are in Sin
We have been studying the Life of David for sometime. For the last several
months, our attention has been focused upon David, as you might expect. However,
David’s early life intertwines with another Bible character, Saul. Interestingly,
as we closed last week, both of these men were involved in sin.
1. Saul
Saul was the king of Israel. He started off humbly, but soon turned to
arrogance, rebellion, and out-an-out sin. As a result, God removed the right
to rule from Saul and gave it to David, but God did not remove the throne.
Saul still has the throne and the authority that goes with it. Instead of
repenting of his actions, Saul sets out to kill David, whom he knows will be
the next king of Israel.
2. David
Last week, we also left David in a sinful place. He had compromised. For the
second time, David went to Achish, King of Gath, in an attempt to get away from
King Saul. The difference between this occasion and the first is that this time,
he stayed for 16 months.
During that time, David was given a city, Ziklag, and he pretended to be doing
the Philistines a favor. He attacked surrounding Gentile villages, killing
everyone, but told King Achish that he had attacked Israel. Doing this impressed
Achish so much that Achish was prepared to make him his second in command.
Both of these men are in sin and God is about to bring both of their sins to the
surface. God is going to put both men in a predicament in which they need their
God. The question is, "What do you do when you need God, but you are in sin?"
I. \\#1Sam 28:1-6\\ The Situation - The Philistines Attack Israel
A. \\#1Sam 28:5-6\\ Saul needed his God.
1. \\#5\\ Saul was scared.
a. It is my belief that there comes a point in every person’s life
when they need God.
b. Christian, atheist, believer, or doubter - everyone will need
God at some point.
c. In reality, the sooner you need him the better off you are.
d. Why? Because if you need Him badly enough, you will not quit
looking until you find Him.
2. \\#6\ The Bible says that Saul was scared so he turned to the
resources at his disposal.
a. Samuel, the prophet of God, had died so he could not turn to
him.
b. So Saul attempted to contact God by inducing dreams, by using
the Urim and Thummim (tools that the priests had to discern
the will of God), and by seeking other prophets.
3. Unfortunately for Saul, because of his sin and rebellion, God
would not answer him.
a. God will not jump just because you finally decide you want to
talk to Him.
(1) People are so arrogant.
(2) We think of God as a servant waiting to do our bidding.
(3) We are His servants and the only way to get His attention
is by repentance and complete surrender.
b. Great need causes people to search for God, but often for the
wrong reason.
(1) They come with a shallow faith and a selfish heart,
wanting God to fix their problems.
(2) They claim they want to be saved and live for God, but
they don’t. They just want God to bail them out again.
(3) God might bail you out, but it won’t help you in the
long run. You will still be lost.
(4) But even worse, now you will have another religious
experience to hang your false salvation upon and that
makes it even less likely that you will ever come to
accept Jesus as your Savior.
4. Saul was a man who needed God, but God was not answering him.
a. What will Saul do next?
b. Before we see that, let’s see how the same situation was
affecting David.
B. David had compromised and was living with the Philistines, convincing
King Achish that he served him.
1. David must have been miserable.
a. Like Lot, he was a righteous man living a lie.
b. We do not read of David calling for the ephod or enquiring of
the Lord during these days.
c. He had compromised his place with God and was relying on his
own cunning and ingenuity.
d. Of course, the problem with lying is that once you start
lying, the only way to get out of web you have wove is to
tell the truth.
e. That gets harder and harder the deeper you get into the lie
you go.
2. \\#1Sam 29:1-2\\ There is no way for David to get out without
leaving his family and the families of his men behind, so David
is lining up with the enemies of God against the people of God.
a. God bailed David out.
b. \\#1Sam 29:3-5\\ The other Philistine kings demanded that
David be sent away.
(1) \\#1Sam 29:6-7\\ So David is sent away.
(2) \\#1Sam 29:8-11\\ However, David is sticking to his lie
until the end.
3. It looks like David got away with it, doesn’t it?
a. God jumped in and bailed out David out!
(1) But did it help David? Did it bring him to repentance?
(2) No. It looks like David is out of that problem, but
that his sinful life will continue.
(3) God says, "No. It will not."
b. \\#1Sam 30:1-6\\ God brings a worse condition upon David.
(1) David’s Philistine city was attacked and destroyed
(probably by some of friends he had been attacking
of late!).
(2) His wives were taken.
(3) The families of his men were taken.
(4) And his men were thinking about stoning David!
c. David leaped out of the frying pan and into the fire.
(1) God had been bailing David out for sixteen months, and
now, the bailouts are over.
(2) Bailouts always run out when you don’t fix the problems
that cause their need.
C. We have two men in sin, both in calamities, and both needing God.
II. What do you do when you are in sin and need God? Notice there are only
three options.
A. Do nothing.
1. That is what David did when Achish wanted him to fight Israel.
a. There is no record of repentance.
b. There is no record of him seeking the Lord.
c. There isn’t even a record of him coming up with his own plan
to try to get himself out of his situation.
d. Of course, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t do these things,
but considering where he was and what he was being told to
do, it seems like the Bible would give us some indication of
his actions.
2. However, doing nothing when you are in sin doesn’t help.
a. It didn’t help David.
b. It just got him into worse trouble.
c. Then he was in a even worse situation, still in sin, and
still needing God.
3. Doing nothing never helps.
B. Go deeper into sin.
1. That is what Saul did.
2. \\#1Sam 28:7-25\\ Saul turned to witchcraft.
1Sam 28:7 Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a
familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said
to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.
8 And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two
men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee,
divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name
unto thee.
a. Saul found what we call a channeler or a medium, someone who
speaks to ghosts.
b. Of course this is sin.
Deut 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or
his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer
of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a
necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because
of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13 Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
c. It is not America’s command to put witches to death. It was
Israel’s.
(1) America is not and never was a theocracy.
(2) It has always been a republic.
(3) However, there was a time when the people outlawed such
behavior, which is the right of a republic.
(4) Unfortunately, the public have now legalized witchcraft
and given it "religious" status, which is also the
right of a republic form of government.
(5) Our founding fathers knew if we lost the Bible as our
moral compass we would also lose our republic.
(6) Today, the occult has every legal right to operate in
America, but it is still wrong and sinful.
(7) God’s people need to leave channelers, Ouija boards,
fortune tellers, horoscopes, and other occult practices
alone.
d. Are channelers real?
(1) Yes and no.
(2) Some of them can communicate with something, but not the
departed spirits of your loved ones.
(3) Jesus tells us that those who have departed can not in
any way come back.
Luke 16:26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed:
so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to
us, that would come from thence.
(4) Someone says, "I’ve seen it."
(a) You can rely on your experiences.
(b) I will rely on the Bible.
(5) What does happen?
(a) Demons can impersonate those who have died.
(b) They follow us. They watch us. They know us better
than we know ourselves.
e. Did this channeler bring up Samuel?
1Sam 28:11 Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said,
Bring me up Samuel.
12 And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman
spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.
13 And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the
woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
14 And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh
up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and
he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.
(1) No. If that was Samuel, God did it, not the woman.
(2) There is some question as to whether this was Samuel at
all.
(a) \\#14\\ Saul PERCEIVED that it was Samuel.
(b) From then on, the text says it was Samuel but that
is based on what Saul perceived.
(c) Saul’s perception had not been very good lately.
(d) The witch seemed more surprised by Samuel’s
appearance than anyone.
3. The point is that Saul choose to go deeper into sin when he needed
God.
a. Did it help him?
b. No. Instead, he got a sentence of death.
1Samuel 28:15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me
up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war
against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by
prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make
known unto me what I shall do.
16 Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD is
departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?
17 And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the LORD hath rent the
kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David:
18 Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his fierce
wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing unto thee this day.
19 Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the
Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also
shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against
the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for
asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it;
c. Going deeper into sin never helps!
(1) The reason why is because sin brings judgment.
(2) Life is not made up of random events.
(3) Life is made up of judgments and blessings.
(4) Bad things do happen to good people and good things do
happen to bad people, but the overall flow of your life
is either blessed or cursed based on your walk with
God.
C. Turn to God.
1. \\#1Sam 30:6-8\\ That is what David finally did!
a. \\#6\\ David encouraged himself in the Lord.
b. \\#7\\ David brought in the priest and ephod.
c. \\#8\\ David enquired of the Lord.
2. \\#1Sam 30:8\\ God tells David to go get his people back!
a. David took his 600 men and went after the invaders.
1Samuel 30:9 So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and
came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.
b. God gave complete victory to David.
1Samuel 30:16 And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad
upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great
spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the
land of Judah.
17 And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next
day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which
rode upon camels, and fled.
18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David
rescued his two wives.
19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons
nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David
recovered all.
20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those
other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.
c. Interestingly, David and his men actually PROFITED off this
event because they took the spoil these invaders had taken
from others.
III. What lessons can we learn from this account?
A. The only recourse you ever have is to turn to God.
1. There is no other choice for any person.
2. God is the Master who controls all the situations of life. You
can not escape His justice.
B. God is your Source of help.
1. I will not say that when you turn to God that He will eliminate
all your troubles.
2. I will promise you that He will help you.
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy
God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness.
Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not
fear what man shall do unto me.
C. The longer you wait to turn to God, the worse your situations are
going to get.
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