Sermon Tone Analysis
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Desperate times call for desperate measures.
It’s something you’ve heard often, something maybe you’ve said yourself.
I wonder if you’ve ever been as desperate as Saul was here in [[1 Samuel 28|Bible: 1 Sam 28]]?
Tonight’s message is going to be perhaps the most simple of the six that I preach to you.
I’m going to give you a brief introduction, and then I’ll lead you to a deserted king, a distant God, a desperate decision, a dead prophet and a dark night.
It’s perhaps not a surprise that I’ve called this sermon ‘D-Day’.
But we must start with a brief introduction.
You’ll remember that Saul, the King of Israel started off so promisingly in [[chapter 11|Bible: 1 Sam 11]].
He seemed such a man of God.
The Bible tells us that the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and with God’s help, he achieved an amazing victory of the enemies of the Lord.
In those days he was supported by Samuel, the last of the judges, and a godly man.
But things very quickly started to go down hill for Saul.
Despite the wonderful start, Saul never seems to live up to his billing as the man God had chosen to be king of his people.
He never again seemed to be touched by God in the way he had been in [[chapter 11|Bible: 1 Sam 11]].
He never again seemed to burn with passion for God’s people.
He was destined to be overtaken, to be replaced by another man of God’s choosing, by David.
Here in [[chapter 28|Bible: 1 Sam 28]], we’re nearing the end of Saul’s short life.
It’s time we looked at him a little closer, and that means our introduction was as brief as I promised you, and it’s time to look at
!
A deserted King
And maybe there are people here who feel a lot like Saul.
Maybe there have been times in your life when it seemed as though the Spirit of God came upon you in power.
Maybe you can look back to a time in church, or on camp, or in your own home when God seemed so close, and so real.
But now, things are so very different.
You realise, just like Saul, you’ve been on the slippery slope for some time, maybe for many years.
You know too, that just like Saul, there have been opportunities to repent, to put things right with God, but so far you’ve passed up every opportunity.
You sense, just like it seems Saul did here, that there aren’t going to be many more opportunities to put things right.
Perhaps, sometimes, you even start to get a little desperate.
But I’m jumping ahead of myself.
Desperation is our second point, and not our first.
We’re supposed to be looking at a deserted king.
Can you see from the text why I call Saul a deserted king?
It really is very clear.
Firstly, look at the first verse we read together, verse three.
There we see that Saul’s guide, Samuel, is dead.
He’s actually been dead for sometime, he died back in [[chapter 25|Bible: 1 Sam 25]], but it’s obviously an important part of this story that we remember that he is dead.
Frankly, I’m not sure how much that mattered to Saul in [[verse 3|Bible: 1 Sam 28:3]].
Do you remember from this morning that after Saul had rebelled against God’s work in [[chapter 15|Bible: 1 Sam 15]], Samuel saw him no more.
It’s almost as if Samuel knew that Saul would not respond, so God’s prophet had been taken away from this deserted king.
The message is drummed in even more fiercely in the next few verses.
The Philistines are once more on the offensive, as they have been so often in the story of Saul.
There has been little rest for this warrior king.
Always it seems that oppressive forces are ranged against him.
And, once more, Saul is terrified of them.
He’s been afraid before, of course.
Back in [[chapter 15|Bible: 1 Sam 15]], he was afraid of his own people.
In [[chapter 18|Bible: 1 Sam 18]] he was afraid of David.
The man who feels alone, the man who feels deserted is often a man who is afraid.
But unlike earlier chapters, there is no Samuel, not even any corrupt priests that can help him.
He has merely a few attendants.
But most worryingly of all for Saul, is that it appears that God has left him.
He tries every trick in the book, but look at [[verse 6|Bible: 1 Sam 28:6]], the Lord did not answer him by prophets, by dreams, or by Urim.
Again, I wonder if you have ever been in that position?
Deserted by everyone, deserted even by God.
Now Saul can hear the shouts and taunts of the Philistine army, but he cannot hear the voice of the Lord.
But doesn’t God promise to answer the prayers of his people.
Well yes, he does.
But notice that Saul may not even pray to God here.
Yes, he wants God to answer, but he seems to want supernatural direction, rather than a close relationship with God.
And just as importantly, was Saul one of God’s people at all.
God does promise to answer the prayers of his people, but he does not promise to answer the prayers of His enemies - with one vital exception.
You know, if you are not a child of God, there is only one prayer that the Lord has promised to answer.
And we’ll come on to that later.
Suffice it to say, that it wasn’t the prayer that Saul prayed here.
Because Saul’s prayer - if it was a prayer - like so many prayers of other desperate men, is a prayer for himself.
God, do this for me.
God, heal my wife from cancer.
God, don’t let my boss make me redundant.
God, help my child recover from that road accident.
God, show me what to do in this situation.
God, though, is silent.
And that brings us onto our second point, because although we have seen a desperate king, secondly, we also see
!
A distant God
If we fast-forward to [[verse 17|Bible: 1 Sam 17]], we’ll find out why.
Samuel says to Saul,
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 neighbours - 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.
Do you remember the story from this morning.
Samuel’s answer is as startling as it is clear.
The Lord is saying, “Because you rejected me, Saul, I rejected you.”
Because you despise my word, I withdraw my word from you.
Because you did not want to know me, I will become the God who is distant.
Too often I see situations when people have despised God’s word, and then he has taken it from them.
People who have persistently refused to listen to God’s speech, and now have to endure God’s silence.
Earlier in this series I read to you the comments of Dale Ralph Davis, but they’re worth repeating here.
{{{"
How crucial then are one’s first responses to the gospel, the initial call to enter the kingdom of God.
Spurgeon tells of a man on his deathbed who sent for him.
In his lifetime the man had jeered at Spurgeon, had often denounced him as a hypocrite.
Now is desperation and in death he called for him.
This is was Spurgeon wrote about him:
{{{"
He had, when in health, wickedly refused Christ, yet in his death-agony, he had superstitiously sent for me.
Too late, he sighed for the ministry of reconciliation, and sought to enter in at the closed door, but he was not able.
There was no space left him then for repentance, for he had wasted the opportunities which God had long granted to him.
}}}
What could be worse?
To know you need to repent — and can’t.
It is horridly solemn.
The most hopeless misery in all of life is to be abandoned by God.
}}}
But that’s exactly how Saul felt, and maybe that’s just how you feel tonight, too.
Hopelessly miserable, terribly alone, abandoned by God.
Did you know there are two types of people who feel abandoned by God?
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