A Long Fall
Text 1 Sam. 28:15 God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore.
The Woman saw Samuel. God sent the Spirit of Samuel to appear to Saul. Nome the following facts
1. Spiritism is sternly condemned in Scripture. Mediums do not really contact the dead but usually communicate with familiar (demon) spirits. This story gives no justification for attempting to make contact with the dead.
2. The woman was amazed and terrified when Samuel actually appeared. This implies that she was expecting not Samuel but a demonic spirit. Clearly Samuel’s appearance was not the result of her witchcraft.
3. The appearance of the prophet was brought about by an extraordinary act act of God Himself in order to deliver God’s final message of judgment to the king.
Israel is not confronting a trying time. Samuel has died 2 years ago at age 98. Saul has reigned 40 years and is at least in his 60’s.
The first time I stepped to the rim of the Royal Gorge and looked down, and then down some more then further down, I felt like I was looking down into the Bottomless Pit. I thought, "One would never quit falling." The impact made me step back. A great chasm always has that effect upon me.
This text tells about a man who first committed spiritual suicide. It finally drove him to the pit.
Saul was a man who once had life, who once was yoked with God, who once was a branch of the True Vine. There came a moment when he severed himself from God, fell, and never
regained his footing;He told the preacher, "God is departed from me, and does not answer me anymore."
God has posted this case history in His Word for warning, just as the highway department places signs on the roads you travel for guidance. How you read them and observe them is your responsibility. The fact you ignore them or scorn them doesn't change the curve in the road, the steep grade, the dangerous corner, or the railroad crossing.
What is the warning that is posted?
1. This man once had spiritual life.
A. He knew God and God knew him.
1. He knew the truth. He walked in the truth .
2. He knew prophecy. He knew the anointing.
3. He knew what it was to be called and set apart.
4. He knew the power and victory of God.
God gave this Benjamite "another heart" as surely as He gave Saul of Tarsah, another Benjamite, centuries later, a new nature.
B. He was a new man brought into a new Company
'There went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched' (1 Samuel 10:26).
1.The Spirit of God came upon this soldier until he boiled over, and observers asked, Is Saul also among the prophets?" (1 Samuel 10: II).
2. Always remember this.
a. You can enjoy a charismatic experience. You could have talked with God And it can all be in the Past tense. 'God is departed from me, and answers me no more." There comes a time whenYou pass the point of no return.
2. Saul was as good a man as any culture has produced. He was humble
a. Saul hid himself. He did not seek exposure.
b. He did not run. for office. There was nothing cowardly. Samuel told the electorate.
see him whom the LORD has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” 1
Samuel 10:24
c. That is a rare recommendation. Jesus said: "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister' (Matt. 20:26) .
Saul had that quality. He was a gentleman. He was a gentleman. There was a nobility about him. The mark of heaven was upon him.
II. This man was magnanimous.
He was a big man morally as he was a giant physically.
A. When he was appointed king) there were some sons o belial who despised him and brought him no presents.
1. Then the day of battle arrived.
2. Saul was tested and approved. He behaved kingly.
3.. He proved himself in combat. And the public demanded:
'Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death. And Saul said, there shall not a man be put to death this day; for today the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel.
B. The Marks of sonship are all over this man
15But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matt 6:15
11“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake Matt 5:11
Saul fitted that category.
A.The record reads:
There they made sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. (I Samuel 11:15).
That sounds like a revival meeting.
1. This man knew God in a powerful experience.
2. Yet Face facts there is this anguish:
God hath departed from me and answers me no more. '
3. Let me ask you a simple question. How could he be conscious of loss if he had never known the presence of God?
a. How many never hear from God.
b. How many young people, from good homes, will stand and say, 'Brother De Loney, I have been in church since childhood, but I have been deceived, I have never known God. I am not SAVED."
4. Saul knew a living experience.
1. He knew he had lost something real. 'God is departed from me, and does not answer me more."
2. You sing in the choir and get your own echo.
4.You pray and there is no contact.
5. You read the Bible and no one speaks to you.
C. Why did God leave this man?
God never leaves until He has to leave
The Lord is not willing that any should perish…
1. First, there was repeated disobedience.
a. That will bring any of us to the point of parting company whether we:
1. attend school,
2. serve in the armed forces,
3. holding down a job, or enjoy salvation.
Saul would not learn that " Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 1 Sam 15:22
2. When God moved out, an evil spirit moved in
A. That is all Satan needs--vacuum.
Luke 11:24-36, “24“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. 26Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
b.Give the devil one inch, and Lucifer will take a mile.
c. For 23 years Saul stumbled in darkness.
d. Hell taunted and tormented him.
e. Sin broke him physically
f. Darkness filled his mind with rage.
g. For a strong man, reared on the farm, with the glow of health on his cheek, with a winning way, the light of life in his eye, good blood coursing through his veins.
h. For a national hero to be shattered and reduced to crawling, is a sight to make angels weep--but God would not hear him.
I. He was finished, he prayed--more than some of you have prayed this week.
C. For Saul there was no response. No one answered.
1. He placed a call, but God was always out.
2. He consulted the Urim and Thummim, the sacred stones of Israel, that could flash, in a miracle, of heaven's electronics, the message of God---- But there was no indication that God cared.,
3. All communication with heaven was cut off, No channel was left open
D. Abraham could wait on God until the fire moved between the divided sacrifice, and the answer came, but there was no answer tor this man.
E. Jacob could lie at the foot of the oak and in his vision see angels ascending and descending, and awakening he could say, "Surely the Lord is in this place" (Genesis, 28: 16), but there was no vision for this man.
F. Gideon could rut out his fleece as he prayeded, and again could test God in the audacity of faith; but no tests induced heaven to answer this man from whom God has departed.
1. That is the price of disobedience. You can insist on your own way once too often.
G. God gives every soul the power to choose.
1. The choice must be made here and now.
2. It cannot be made after death.
3. You may choose the will of God for your life and delight in or you may turn from God and do as you please.
4. This is the story at a man who made that turn) and later realize with a thud where that turn was leading him.
H. Paul Says To Every Person
To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are"
(Romans 6;16).
The Bible sets before you life and death, good and evil, and says "YOU CHOOSE."
1. God can't, and won't make that choice for you. "Choose ye! But He makes it easy. 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me" (John 7:37).
2. There is a point where the Spirit of God no longer "strives." (or deals with a person)
For 23 years Saul was doomed and damned.
3. Mister, the same God) who can say “Let him come is the same God, who can say “ 'Let him alone.1I
1He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. (Proberbs 29:1
4.When God departs, mister, man no longer has a Savior.
5. The Word can be preached.
6. Jesus died, rose, ascended, and is making intercession, but not for the man whom God has left.
7. The Son will not plead for the reject. He has rejected so often that there remains no more sacrifice for sin.
8. How many here today grieve the Spirit of God by replying, "At a more convenient season I will call for you; go thy way"?
9. It may not be convenient for you but it is for God. And you and I will be saved at His convenience-no mine. “8And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8).
What If the Holy Spirit never comes to you again?
Angels leave such a one and you become a spiritual derelict—YOU ARE AN ABANDONED SHIP!!!
It's your decision to make today.
Altar call
