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Speaking With the Dead, No. 2
BD23-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1971)
We continue with the second phase of
speaking with the dead. Someone gave me a card which is an
advertisement of a medium here in Dallas. I think you understand now that in a séance,
a medium actually deals with a demonic spirit. From the vast
information, knowledge, insight, and understanding that exist in the
demonic world, the demon is given information which is passed on to the
individual. This card is entitled, “Madam Gray. She will warn you
gravely, suggest wisely, and explain fully. Satisfaction guaranteed. Readings
daily and Sunday from 9 AM to 10 PM. $2 with this coupon.”
Now please don’t rush up here trying to get this, because I want to keep this coupon here. She is
not advertising something that she can’t produce when you come in
there with your $2 and the coupon. Because there is
information in the demonic world that she has access to, and that is
passed on to you. While it may be accurate
information, it will also cause you intense emotional, psychological,
and physical problems. There is the law of compensation.
The demonic world is a world which we
can contact. When people do speak from the
dead, it is a demon who is imitating the voice of the one who is dead. There are demons who have that ventriloquist
gift, and they can imitate the voice so it sounds just exactly like the
person you once knew. So, the demons are
actually behind all of the contacts with the dead.
We have told you that it is very
dangerous to decide a thing
on the basis of experience. We have been
speaking about the practice of necromancy. The word “necromancy” means talking to
the dead. Divination is what necromancy is
seeking to produce, and “divination” means predicting the future by
various means. Negative volition to divine
viewpoint in the soul is what leads to the condition of being willing to consult a
medium. The bible forbids all efforts to
communicate with the dead.
We have been looking at King Saul who had come to the point where
God had separated himself entirely from this king. He was faced with the Philistine enemy. In his desperation, now that Samuel the
prophet was dead, there was nobody that he could turn to. So, he went to a medium at Endor in disguise,
and asked that Samuel be contacted. This story in the Bible is the classic authentic expose’ of the
fraudulent Madam Grays and all the séances that you might be tempted to attend.
Please turn to 1 Samuel chapter 28 and let’s pick up the
story once more. Saul is out of temporal fellowship. He is in fear, facing the
Philistines consequently. But God is silent to his appeals for guidance. No
information, no contact with God whatsoever. So, in disguise, he consults the medium of Endor to
try to contact dead Samuel. However, as the séance moved
into its high point, something went haywire. To the horror of the medium, Samuel actually arose
from the dead and came back and stood before her. She
described him to Saul, and Saul realized that it was indeed Samuel, and
so he bowed himself respectfully to the ground.
We pick it up at verse 15. “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why hast thou
disquieted me to bring me up?’ And Saul answered, ‘I am
very much distressed, for the Philistines make war against me, and God has
departed from me and answereth me no more, neither by prophet nor by dreams. Therefore, I have called thee that thou mayest
make known unto me what I shall do.’”
Samuel asks Saul, “Why have you disturbed me from the peace
that I now enjoy?” Where was Samuel? Samuel was in a place called
“Hades.” That’s the Greek word. The Old Testament word is
“Sheol.” It was the place of the departed dead. It had two compartments. One compartment for the believers was called
“Paradise.” That’s where the thief on
the cross went to be with the Lord upon the day of crucifixion. The other place was called
“Torments,” the place of the unbelievers. There was a
third compartment called “Tartarus,” in which the angels
who had cohabited with human women before the flood (the record of which we have in Genesis 6,
and had produced the hybrid race of giants which were wiped out in the flood),
these angelic beings who had crossed over and had cohabited with a different
kind of being than their own, which is strictly forbidden in the word of God. These angels were in that special captivity.
Here’s where Samuel was, and under God’s direction, Samuel
is called out of Paradise to go back to the earth to speak with Saul. This portion of Hades has, upon the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, has been removed and now is in Heaven. Now only the unbeliever goes to Hades. We call it hell, but the word for
“hell” is really what the bible calls “the lake of fire.”
So, only unbelievers now go to Hades. Believers go to heaven, and nobody is in hell at
this moment. That is a place that has been prepared for
Satan and his angels, and into which a certain number of unbelieving
human beings will also eventually be put. That’s why the Bible says that Hades is going
to be cast into the lake of fire.
The first thing Samuel says is, “Why are you disturbing me
from the peace that I now enjoy in Sheol?” Saul tells of his threat from the Philistine army,
and his inability to find guidance from God. All three media
of guidance from God are silent to him. This is a terrible blow to a believer to realize
that God has departed from him as far as guidance is concerned. It begins with negative volition.
So, Saul says, “I have called thee.” This remark indicates that he
still thinks that the medium brought Samuel to earth. He still hasn’t grasped the fact that the
medium had nothing to do with this at all. He thinks that the medium
screamed and was in a panic because she discovered that her customer
was King Saul, and so she feared for her life. Her fear was, first of all, because she realized
that something had gone wrong and that an actual person from the dead had arisen.
Saul explains what he wants Samuel to do—to tell him what to
do about the Philistines. Notice the contradiction
and the inanity of Saul’s thinking, which is characteristic (you
will discover) about negative volition people. God has
slammed the door on Saul as far as guidance is concerned. The irrationality of the negative volition
believer is this. When God slams the door, you would think that’s it, and that he would understand
that “I had better change. I had better get right
with God and change my position and my attitude so that once more I
have the blessing, the satisfaction, the peace, and the guidance of God upon
me.” But negative volition people often do not do
this. Instead, they shift the scene. They go looking someplace
else. That’s what Saul did.
Here he is asking Samuel, who could tell him nothing except
as God told Samuel. How on earth was
Samuel going to tell him what to do about the Philistines? If God had refused to speak directly to Saul,
he wasn’t going to give it to him through Samuel. In verse 16, Samuel points this contradiction
out to Saul, “Why then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord has
departed from thee and has become thy enemy?” “God
has become thy enemy. And the Lord hath done
to thee as he spoke by me, for the Lord hath torn the kingdom out of
thine hand and given it to thy neighbor, even to David.
If God won’t advise carnal Saul, how can Samuel (who must
get his information from God if it’s to be true) advise the king? Notice the relationship now to this negative
believer, Saul. And remember that he is
a believer. God is now his enemy. This is the relationship that a carnal
Christian puts himself in relative to God. God becomes his enemy. This
is an example of the frightful consequences of negative volition.
Woe to the Christian who is negative to a divinely approved
teaching. You better believe it. When you are negative to a doctrinal truth
that God says is right, you’re in trouble. When you are negative to a teacher who is in touch
with the mind of God and who is delivering that mind, and you are resistant to that teacher,
you’re in trouble. And when you buck a local
church technique or operation that God says, “This I
approve,” you’re in trouble.
This does not mean that you will stop being religiously
active. This does not mean that you will stop going to church. It does not mean
that you will stop having relationships among believers and being
active in one way or another in the Lord’s work. As
you will see, we are dealing with Saul (a believer) who was very active
in religious activity. We’re going to
see why he is in this difficulty in just a moment. We’re going to discover the reason God says,
“I’m through with you,” is because Saul was serving the Lord. Now
that’s a bombshell.
God says, “I’m through with you, Saul.” In the midst of
Saul’s great activity in serving the Lord. Because it was in the
process of serving the Lord his way, by his thinking, by his opinions,
by how he felt about it, that he expressed the ultimate in negative volition,
and God tore the kingdom not only from Saul but from his family. Jonathan, his son, who was next in line for
the king, was a beautiful person. He was a tremendous, godly, spiritually-oriented, mature believer.
Jonathan is going to go down in death because of his father’s negative volition, in spite of what Jonathan himself was.
I hope this morning that before we are through that you will
be appalled and downright revolted by any implication of negative
volition in yourself or in any of your fellow believers or in any of your friends. And that you will not have a spirit of
comradery and sympathy and toleration for it. Let that be the background of your thinking as we go
through this passage. God is now his enemy.
Herein lies the great danger of leaving one place of
ministry for another. Your own negative
volition for the truth may be what’s motivating the change, and
then you wipe out, and what you become is religious, as Saul became, and you’re
producing human good. Saul started down this road
when he left doctrine, when he got sincere, feeling that what he was
doing was so right, and then he came to the point of no return. He just felt that this was the right thing to
do. “I just feel that this is what we should do.”
So, verse 17 declares the divine judgment upon Saul. Samuel reminds Saul
again what he had told him in life. Way back in 1 Samuel 15:28,
Samuel told Saul what was going to happen to him. “Samuel
said unto him, ‘The Lord hath torn the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hast given it to a
neighbor of thine who is better than thou.’” And
in 1 Samuel 28 he identifies that neighbor as being David. God was exercising discipline upon Saul for
his negative volition by taking the kingdom from him, from his sons,
from his line, and giving it to David and to his family line. The Hebrew here uses the perfect tense which
means that it is a settled and an executed decision. It’s a reality. It
is the point of no return.
Now, what was the reason for this fantastic discipline upon
King Saul? 1 Samuel 28:18 says, “Because
thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord nor executeth his fierce wrath
upon the Amalekites therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day. Now turn to 1 Samuel 15 and let’s take a
look at the record of this historical event. The Lord’s instruction concerning what Saul
was to do with a certain people called the Amalekites, with their king, with their property,
which was the occasion upon which Saul passed the point of no return in negative
volition, and cost him and his family line the kingdom.
1 Samuel 15:1-35
In 1 Samuel 15, we’ll begin reading at verse 1. “Samuel also
said unto Saul, ‘The Lord sent me to anoint thee as King over his people (over Israel). Now therefore harken thou to the voice of the
words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, ‘I remember that which Amalek did to Israel; how he
laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.’’”
The Jews were leaving Egypt. They were slaves. They were not a
military force. Amalek came down and attacked them. That’s the incident
where Moses went up and held his hands up; and when he held his hands up,
Joshua and the Jewish troops, such as they had, prevailed; and, when his hands got
tired and dropped, the Amalekites began to prevail. So, Aaron and Hur stood all day holding up
Moses’s hands until the Amalekites were defeated and sent into flight.
Now God says, “I’m going to judge that people.” If you read
the story in Exodus, God says, “I will be opposed to Amalek from generation to generation. I will be at war with Amalek from generation
to generation.” Now the sin of the Amalekites has been permitted to run its course. They
have become a totally degenerated people, of the nature that we have been looking at, of these who are
idol worshippers, and now God is ready to bring judgment upon them. It says, “Saul,
you’re my king. You’re the head of the Jewish theocracy. I am now going through you and through my
people. Execute judgment upon the Amalekites. Here’s what I want you to
do.” He told Samuel, and Samuel told Saul. That’s the background.
Verse 3 says, “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy
all that they have, and spare them not.” Then he spells it out. “But
slay both man and woman; infant and suckling; oxen and sheep; camel and ass. And Saul gathered the people together, and
numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand
men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek
and laid wait in the valley (set up an ambush), and Saul said unto the
Kenites, ‘Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites lest I
destroy you with them, for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they
came up out of Egypt.’ So, the Kenites departed
from among the Amalekites.”
He warned a sympathetic group to get out. He cautioned them as to what they
were going to do in the attack upon the Amalekites. Thus far, well and good. Saul
is preparing to do exactly what God has told him to do. When Samuel instructed him, he has accepted
the direction from the Lord. He is positive toward doctrine at this point.
Verse 7 says, “And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah
until thou comes to Shur that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites
alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the
best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and
all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that
was vile and refuse (that is worthless), that they utterly destroyed. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel
saying, ‘It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king for
he has turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments (negative
volition to the word of God). And it grieved Samuel and he cried unto the Lord all night.”
Now here’s a legitimate reason for shedding some tears. If you are a
sensitive Christian, anytime you see a believer who goes negative toward divinely oriented teaching,
teacher, or technique, it’s a time for getting your eyes a little moist
perhaps, and a lump in your throat as Samuel did. Samuel
shook his head and he wept all night when God said, “I’m
through with Saul for his negative volition.” Samuel was
not disagreeing with God. He was not berating God. Samuel understood that God
was absolutely right. Saul had, by this act, gone beyond the point where he was a responsible, reliable, godly
leader of this nation. What had happened?
Well, Saul had listened to his advisers and to his
friends. They had gone into the battle. It had gone well. His friends had argued effectively their
human viewpoint from Satan, and the human viewpoint was to stop the
killing. God says the way you handle the old sin nature and the influences of that, when that sin nature seeks
to destroy human freedom, is that you stop it with warfare and with
military power to an external enemy, and you stop it by capital punishment to an
internal enemy. This is divine viewpoint.
But you notice that they were quite willing to kill the men,
the women, the children, and the infants of the Amalekites. They saved the king, and I wonder if Saul
perhaps wondered to himself, “I hate to go around getting this
business started of killing kings of your enemies. I
think we ought to get the custom going to knock off the people but save
the kings.” Maybe that was in his mind. Whatever it was, there was some reason that
he said, “We’ll save Agag the king.” But
this crowd who wanted to stop the killing didn’t want to stop the
killing of the people. They wanted to stop the
killing of the material benefits—the spoils of war, and
that’s what they saved. The worthless animals they killed,
and the best they saved.
So, they took King Agag alive. They saved the choicest animals. And the fierce wrath of God, which was on the
Amalekites because of their demon involvement, and thus the worst kind
of morally contaminating influence, was preserved from the execution of
total destruction which God had ordained—not only the people, but
everything that they had ever touched. Remember that
we’ve already learned that animals that come in touch with
demonically oriented influenced groups, the animals are condemned and they are destroyed too.
The divine discipline upon the Amalekites was for the time
in Exodus 17:8 – 16 that they attacked helpless Israelites as
they were leaving Egypt. Saul was given this understanding
by Samuel. He knew the mind of God. He went negative toward his teacher. You will notice that he went negative toward
his teacher in the form of what the teacher told him. He really wasn’t opposed to Samuel. He was opposed to what Samuel was teaching
him. He was opposed to what Samuel told him. The technique was total
annihilation—people and possessions.
Saul says, “I don’t think that’s the way to do it. We’ll
save the possessions.” He was negative toward the technique. He was
negative toward the teaching. Samuel had told him God said, “These people
are under my judgment and under my discipline for having attacked my
people out of Egypt. Saul says, “Well, I don’t
think that God should be that harsh with that people.” And he rejected teaching. That’s why he was opposed to Samuel.
So, Samuel sets the record straight. Saul tried to dignify his rejection of the
prophet’s guidance under the guise of serving the Lord. Notice verse 12, “Then Samuel rose early
to meet Saul in the morning. It was told
Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a
place, and is gone about, and passed on, and god down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul: and
Saul said unto him, ‘Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the
commandment of the LORD.’”
The first thing Saul says is, “Samuel, it’s so nice to see
you. I’ve just gotten through doing everything you told me to do.” Samuel
says, “Is that right, Saul?” Verse 14
says, “And Samuel said, ‘What meaneth then this bleating of
the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?’” He says, “What are all of those animals
I hear out there, Saul? Have you done
everything that God told you to do, that I gave you instructions? How come I hear all these animals making
these sounds here around the camp?”
Verse 15 says, “And Saul said, ‘They have brought them from
the Amalekites.’” Notice: “they,” meaning the congregation,
the people. “They have brought them from the
Amalekites: for the people spared the
best of the sheep and of the oxen…” Why? “…to
sacrifice unto the LORD
thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” And you notice that he says, “…for your
God, Samuel. We’re doing this for your
God, Samuel. We saved all the best animals,
but not for ourselves. We’re going
to sacrifice them.”
Do you see what I mean when I say that Saul was a man active
in God’s service? This fellow was hot on
religious service, on religious activity. He was going to have a magnificent offering of all
these beautiful perfect animals as sacrifices to the living God. And
he set to justify what he was doing on that basis. And you notice that he
blamed the people for his departure from teaching, teacher, and
technique. He said, “The people wanted to do it.” When he should
have been leader enough to say, “Just a minute, people. You may
want to do wrong, but I’m going to tell you what God says is
right. Then you may do wrong, but you will do it on
the basis of having been warned and told what God expects of you.”
So, verse 16 says, “Then Samuel
said unto Saul, ‘Stay…” That
means knock it off. “…and I
will tell thee what the LORD had said
to me this night.’ And he said unto
him, ‘Say on.” That is, “Tell
me, Samuel.” It always sounds like the
guy with the negative volition is very open to truth. He
always wants to hear the Word.
Verse 17 says, “And Samuel said, ‘When thou wast little in
thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel,
and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel? And
the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the
Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Why then didst thou not obey the voice of the
LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the
LORD?” What Samuel is doing is putting
Saul downwind of himself so he can smell himself the way he really is
spiritually.
Samuel says, “Let me tell you, Saul. There was a time when you were
spiritually nothing. You were roaming around out
there in religion. You were roaming out
there in religious activity. And along
came God through some man (in this case it was Samuel), and he brought
you to the light. You were a spiritual
do-do. God says, ‘I’m going to
bring you into something better than what you’re roaming around there out
there in that religious desert that you were born in.’ You were nothing. And
when you were nothing, you were a humble, receptive, positive man. Now that you’re king and you have power and
you have authority, you have become a great source of conclusions and
information. You have become a great spiritual authority. And you now have a
position of telling your teacher, ‘You’re wrong.’ Of telling the techniques that God is
directing, ‘Those aren’t very good.’ And
you have consulted with your friends and your advisers, all of whom are
also nice active religious people. And they
have encouraged you in your resistance to what has been your original
source of blessing when you were a spiritual nobody.”
And Samuel reminds Saul that it was when Samuel came and
anointed Saul that it was the hands of Samuel through God that opened
up spiritual of service. Spiritual
opportunities of service that Saul was now going negative toward. How many Christians have gone negative toward
opportunities of service opened by someone, and then they go negative
toward that source? This is horrendous. This is loathsome. This
is about as cheap and low as you can get. God says to Saul, “You have so
revolted me. I am cutting you off and there is no return. You are
through—out of my plan, and there will be no restoration for you. You may confess.” Discipline
will become blessing, as it did to Jonathan. Jonathan said to David,
“My father is through. Our line is through. When you become king, David, I
will be your right-hand man.” Jonathan was a tremendous guy, but not Saul. This was a blow.
So, what does Saul say in this moment? Verse 20 says, “And Saul said unto
Samuel, ‘Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD…”Can you believe that? This
fellow is still arguing how the teacher is wrong. “What are you talking about, Samuel? I did what the LORD said.” Have
you ever heard any Christian who was drifting off into a negative
volition situation saying, “Well, yeah, I’m doing what the Lord
wants me to do. Yeah, I feel this is right. I did what the Lord asked me to do.”
“…Saul said unto Samuel, ‘Yeah, I have obeyed the voice of
the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have
brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and
oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed,
to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.” Again he says, “Well the people were at fault
in taking these animals—not me.” One word from
the king and that would have been the end of it, and there wouldn’t have
been any animals left alive. This is a cop-out. But again he says, “You
know we’re going to sacrifice these to the Lord. We’re doing this as servants of the Lord. We’re religiously active.”
It’s fantastic. This man is under demonic influence. Here’s
something that you will discover about negative volition people. When we get into tongues, this becomes even
more pointed. I’ve heard people say,
“I’ve got relatives who never went to church, never read
the Bible, and never did anything active in the Lord’s work. Then they got into the Pentecostal crowd. The got into the tongues and healing
movement. Now they’re in church all the time. They’re reading the Bible at
home. They’re serving in the church. They’re giving their
money.”
And these people are a little confused because they equate
those things with positive volition. They equate those things with doing what God is
blessing. They equate those things as being inspired by
God. Please don’t play that foolish role. When you see somebody who has
departed from positive volition teaching, teacher, and technique, and
now he starts reading the Bible, going to church, giving his money, and
getting active. Don’t you ever, for one
moment, make the mistake of thinking that now this person has come where he is
responsive to God. If he was not responsive to God where he came from, where God’s approval
rested, he is not responsible out there. He is religious. He is cranking out human
good, and he is destroying his own future.
And it influences everybody around you. This is what is so bad about demonism. This is why God says it is to be
destroyed. Anybody who is demon-influenced in the Old Testament, such as the Medium of Endor, is
to be destroyed, because negative volition has a destructive effect, and if
you hang around people who are negative, you will be destroyed. You will be destroyed spiritually. I can just tell you that—that this is a fact
of spiritual life. Sooner or later, you’ll go down the drain. If you
don’t get out of association with people like that, who are dignifying their
own their own self (often) materialistic interests in way of life—if
you don’t get away from them, you will pay in the loss of reward. That’s what Saul did.
So, here he says, “The people still do it.” Now he who has become
the spiritual authority is ready to say it is alright for the people to do it. Verse 22
says, “And Samuel said…” And here’s that great verse in the Bible
that most of you are so acquainted with. “And
Samuel said, ‘Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice (positive
volition), and to hearken than the fat of rams.’”
Now here are some interesting Hebrew words. “To obey” is the Hebrew
word “shamach.” This means “to listen,” and to learn. It
means to listen so that you are learning something. The word “to hearken” is the Hebrew word
“kashad,” and it means “to attend” or “to
pay attention.” That means to do what you have learned. “Shamach”
is learning doctrine, and “kashad”
is positive response to what you have learned. These are very illustrative and very informative
words that God the Holy Spirit used here.
He says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” There is nothing wrong
with worshipping God through sacrifice, with all that the sacrifice meant in the person and
work of Christ. “And to listen (to obey)
than the fat of rams of that sacrifice.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but first God
does not want your religious activity.
Here’s this guy reading his Bible now, going to church,
giving his money, and getting in the work. Is he something? Don’t
kid yourself. God says, “I don’t
want your service. I don’t want your money. I don’t want your Bible reading.
And I don’t want your church attendance. If you have not first ‘shamach’
me, and you have learned doctrine. Then you have
‘kashad’ me, and you have obeyed and done what I have said. That’s what
I want.” And that’s what he wants of you and me.
This word “kashad” is interesting. It is used in describing what
a dog does when he pricks up his ears. He hears
something that startles him and he pays attention. This is the Hebrew word that describes a dog
pricking up his hears, and he pays attention, ready to obey. This is what we call in the Hebrew the
“hiphil” stem. This is the active causative stem. That means that the person himself
is responsible for pricking up his ears and doing this. He decides to get with it.
Saul is directed by his emotions—not by doctrine, not by the
voice of the Lord. Not by doctrine in his mind. He “feels” this is
right to do. Now, if this is not bad enough, in
comes verse 23 which is the bombshell of all. “For rebellion is as of the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because though
hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from
being king.”
Rebellion is equated to witchcraft… Stubbornness is equated
to idolatry. This Hebrew word for stubbornness is
“haphesar.” It is from the Hebrew word
“paser” which means “to beat.” And it’s
in a stem in the Hebrew which means to beat on the mind. It is the volition creating a mental attitude
which is negative to the word. This word
“stubbornness” means to be beating on your mind so that you
resist the Word of god—an attitude of stubbornness toward the Word.
And he says, “Your rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft.” Witchcraft deserved capital
punishment. God says that’s the same
as practicing necromancy—the same as practicing speaking to the dead. When you say, “No” to God, which
is what your rebellion is doing, that’s just the same as if you were looking
to the demonic world for guidance. And then “your
stubbornness is as iniquity.” The Hebrew
word for “iniquity” is “awen.” Sin is
nothingness, and idolatry is “teraphim.” This is the … consultation of idols, like the
Oracle of Delphi, where the image was consulted in the ancient world, and gave guidance through
the demon who spoke through the Oracle of Delphi. The “teraphim” were little images that
they carried in which they consulted for information. It’s
idolatry. It’s worshipping and getting
information from demons.
Now God says your negative volition, dear friend, is as if
you were practicing witchcraft and contact with the demon world. Your stubbornness, your negative volition, is
as if you were worshipping demons. Now I don’t know how the almighty God could have put this any stronger
to this king, to impress him with the horrendous quality of what he had
done—what a terrible thing he had done. Here’s the
seriousness of negative volition from a divine viewpoint, indicating
that it is equated with the practices upon which God has placed the death penalty.
So, today you and I run into believers who are negative. We have a problem. They are negative either to teaching, to
teacher, or to technique. Sometimes people leave one fellowship for another. My experience has been that when they leave on the
ground of fellowship, because God says, “I want you to now server here,”
I’ve had people come and say, “We’re going to work out in the mission area now. We have been prepared in the Berean
ministry. We’re ready to move out and make an investment.” They go out
under blessing, they ask for our prayers, and they are remembered.
I had one young man say to me, “I move in a certain realm
now. I’m going to move into a work where I think these people are. I think I can
be an influence there and bring to bear my rich background from the
Berean ministry.” And he goes out with blessing and
periodically he comes and reports how things are going.
However, I’ve also learned that people who move under
negative volition (you see now, by Saul’s experience) are people
who do not move out on the ground of fellowship. They just sort of evaporate. All
of a sudden they just disappear. One of the sure signs that you have a demonically influenced negative volition
Christian is that he just disappears. I don’t care how you want to dignify it or how they want to dignify
it, you are kidding yourselves if you think there is not negative reaction toward
teaching, teacher, and technique—not really toward teacher, but it’s
toward teaching or technique. That’s what has brought
the irritant into their lives and that’s what they’re bucking
and that’s what they’re resisting.
Now once they move out under that influence, they go
religious, and they go human good, and they get very active, almost
inevitably, because they certainly have something to prove. They are diluted as Saul was. “I’m serving God. I’m
doing this for the Lord. I’m going to take
these animals. I don’t care what you say,
Samuel. I don’t care what direction
you give. I’m going to sacrifice these
to the Lord.” We’re not dealing
with some bum on Deep Elum Street, friends. We’re
dealing with a believer who is religiously active and hot in the work
of the Lord. The negative rejectors have a
church ministry which is in God’s plan are a very strange crew.
Now the problem arises, as for Samuel, what’s your future
dealing, what’s your future contacts with negative volition
people? This is a very real problem for believers. The usual technique for a
negative volition person is this: He will say, “I object to the speaker, the teacher, but I love the
people.” This is something like the communists who
say, “We hate the imperialistic United States government, but we
love the American people.” When somebody says
that to me, I look them in the eye and say, “Listen, Mr., I am
the government. When you strike at the
government of the United States, you are striking at we the people.
We are one in the same.” And when you strike at a local church, they
are the government. It is the local assembly who is the ministry. When you
say, “I don’t like the ministry,” you are saying you
don’t like me. And when you strike
at teacher, teaching, and technique, you are striking at me, the congregation.
So, it is very interesting to watch
these people sometimes in public. You may go ahead and smile at
(some of) your friends, but you had better read Matthew 12:30, 1 John
2:19, and Romans 8:31 that we won’t have time to look into this morning. But there is a certain disloyalty when you
ignore the fact of being rejectors toward the position of your church
which is destructive to your personal Christian manhood and your personal
Christian womanhood and your personal honor.
The consequences of Saul’s negative volition in verse 23 was
that Saul was rejected from being king. Now notice what Saul does. In
verse 24, “And Saul said unto Samuel, ‘I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of
the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn
again with me, that I may worship the LORD.’”
Saul confesses that what he did was wrong. He is now in fellowship relative to
this sin, though he probably had mental sins toward David that he was not in
fellowship with. He says, “Samuel, I want you
to worship with me.” Notice what Samuel
does. Saul says, “Samuel, we’re still spiritual
comrades even though I’m negative toward what you say and toward
what God has said to you. Now let’s worship
together.”
Verse 26, “And Samuel said unto Saul, ‘I will not return
with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over
Israel.’ And as Samuel turned about to
go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hat rent
the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given to a neighbor
of thine, that is better than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should
repent. Then he said, I have sinned…” Again Saul confessed
and said that he had sinned. “… yet honour me now,
I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again
with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God. So, Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul
worshipped the LORD.”
Samuel finally said, “Alright. For the sake of the people and for the sake
that you are still king until David takes over, I will worship with
you.” Then Samuel tells him to bring Agag. Samuel takes out the sword, and Agag
thinks that he’s going to be surviving here. Verse
32 says, “And Agag came unto him cheerfully. And Agag said, ‘Surely the bitterness of death
has passed.’” This heathen says, “Oh well, OK, God said to
kill me but, you know, I mean after all we’re friends. Let’s forget it. OK,
fellows? We’re going to be comrades again.”“… And Samuel said, ‘As thy sword
has made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And
Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.’”
“Hewed Agag in pieces.” How’s that for a man of God. Taking
his sword and chopping this heathen in pieces. How’s that for Bible doctrine? Some of you don’t like to hear that, but
that’s God’s judgment upon those who are negative to his will. Verse
34, “Then Samuel went to Ramah. Saul went to his house, to Gibeah of Saul and Samuel came no more to see
Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD repented that He had made Saul
king over Israel.”
Isn’t it interesting? “Samuel, worship with me.” “No,
Saul, we don’t have a ground of spiritual comradery. You have gone negative to what is the mind of
God, in a ministry of God, and we are through spiritually. And let’s not pretend that there is
something.”
Now, let’s summarize. What was the result of all this? 1 Samuel 28:19, Samuel (still at the séance)
says to Saul, “Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel unto the hand of the Philistine, and
tomorrow shall thou and thy sons be with me.” Samuel says, “Saul, you’re going to die
in battle and your sons are going to die with you, including that splendid Jonathan, and you will
be with me here in Paradise, because they’re believers.” The Lord also shall deliver the host of
Israel unto the hand of the Philistine (Israel will be defeated.” Verse 20, “Then Saul fell immediately
full-length on the earth and was very much afraid because of the words
of Samuel, and there was no strength in him for he had eaten no bread all
the day and all the night.”
It was a terrifying blow to Saul to receive this final
confirmation of the doom that faced Saul and his sons the next day. In 1 Chronicles chapter 10, you have the
summary of why God dealt in this was with this man. 1 Chronicles 10, beginning at verse 13, “So
Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the
LORD.” Notice two things, dear friends. Why did this man have this kind
of climactic discipline brought against him and his sons?
1) “His sin was even against the word of the LORD which he
kept not.” Number one was negative volition to Bible doctrine. Negative
volition to teaching, to teacher, and to technique. That’s the first reason that this horrendous
experience of discipline came upon Saul.
2) Also for asking counsel of a medium to inquire of her. Because he practiced necromancy,
and that was a capital offense in Israel. He sought advice from demons through a medium even
though God had cut him off because he had short-circuited his own system of information
from God through his negative volition. Verse 14 says, “… and inquired not of the LORD, therefore he slew
him and turned the kingdom unto David, the son of Jesse.
So, if you decide to go negative to teaching, teacher, and
technique, just make sure you have the mind of God based on the word. Make sure you’re not acting under demon
influence of your negative volition friends. Because negative volition likes company, and Satan
will give you plenty of people who feel the way you do about it. But it may cost you a discipline that is greater
than you are ready to pay and to experience.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1971
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