Witch Way?

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Sermon by Bart Hodgson from 1 Samuel 28.

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Good morning, it's good to see everybody today. I am, just want to begin this morning by saying thank you for last week.
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I was really actually caught by surprise when Lanny came up here and said, hold on a second.
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And I was like, oh no, what is happening? And because of that, I really feel like I didn't adequately express while it was happening what great gratitude
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I had to you for that honor. And so I wanted to have you hear me say thank you.
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Thank you for that. I'm honored to be a pastor here at Covenant Baptist Church.
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And I'm honored to serve a congregation who blesses me with the fruit of the vine. Hallelujah. That was amazing.
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The title of the sermon this week, and I have a big red thing that says start your timer. Okay, there we go.
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I'm going to go long, but I just want to know that I've gone long. The title of the sermon is Which Way?
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Okay. And it's a question and it's posing a question to us today, the title is, and that question is what does a follower of Jesus do in days of darkness?
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The title also points to what Saul chooses to do in this situation. He sought out a witch to help him.
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And my hope today is that as we go through this passage of scripture, that it's going to begin to get us thinking and it's going to give us some practical answers to that question.
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Now, 1 Samuel 28 is a passage of scripture that's covered in darkness.
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That is the strong and particular theme of this passage.
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So as we begin and end this sermon, I want to acknowledge and celebrate the light, okay?
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And so I'm going to read from John 1, verse 1, because this story is a story that is tucked within a greater story.
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This story of darkness is tucked within a greater story of light and the gospel.
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So here we begin in John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the
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Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
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In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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He continues in 9 to say, the true light, which gives light to everyone, is coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know
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Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who do receive
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Him, or did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave them the right to become children of God, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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Now, again, this story of darkness that we're gonna look at today is tucked in this greater story of light, the light bringer,
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God, who brings His Son, who calls the Word here. His name is Jesus, and He is the only light, the only salvation to those who walk in darkness.
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He faced the darkness of the devil. He faced the darkness of the world for us, on our behalf, and then rising from the dead in triumph, darkness will never, ever overcome
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Him. So with that in mind, let's look at our passage today, and Josh has already read for us the introduction.
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What the introduction has for us today is a lot of background information before we get into the main story, and so I'm gonna just kind of run through the background information that that gives us.
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Verse one, the Philistines have gathered their forces for war, and they are a massive force.
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Two, Achish has a meeting with David and says, hey, you're coming with me into the battle.
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In fact, you're gonna be my bodyguard. Three, a repetition of information.
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We heard this in chapter 25, verse one. Samuel is dead, and he's buried in Ramah. Four, Saul has outlawed and banished all necromancers and sorcerers, and he's being obedient to Deuteronomy 18, 10, and 11, where it says, there shall not be found anyone among you who burns his son or daughter as an offering.
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Notice that that sin, the sin of sacrificing children, is connected with these sins, or someone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, or is a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead.
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I love how thorough this is, right? For whoever does these things is an abomination to the
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Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving the people who inhabit the land of Canaan, driving them out before you.
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He's telling his people, God is telling his people, don't do these things. He's telling them that these supernatural forces and magic are not some neutral force that is inherent in the world around us.
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They're not something that you can use, and if you have good intent, it becomes good.
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No, he says it's evil. It's all evil. It's an abomination to the Lord. Why? Why? Because there is spiritual power that is available to us, and it is through God, and it is through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. It is the power, it is God's power at work in us and on our behalf, okay?
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So that's the power that we have available to us. That is the power that was available to the Israelites. But magic, what magic does is it tries to do an end around on the curse of sin.
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When Adam was in the garden and he ate the fruit, he said, you shall surely die. You shall surely die.
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That was the consequence. But magic says, uses this deception, it says, you can defeat death.
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You can get around that. It is anti -Christ. It is against Christ.
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It provides an alternative to Christ, an alternative to the cross. Now, black magic is real.
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Demonic spirits are real, and they have real power that they can give to humans. The Scriptures only confirm this.
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Now, I'm referring to dark magic, to black magic. This is not like, hey, your wedding was magical, or hey, your hair looks magical today, okay?
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That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about what real magic is in the world, okay?
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And what it is, is it's not just tapping into or unlocking some supernatural power. It is a transactional relationship between humans and the demonic that promises life, but only produces death and judgment.
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The Bible says a lot about this. It's not just a passing suggestion in one isolated verse.
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Listen to Leviticus 19 .31, do not turn to mediums or necromancers.
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Do not seek them out. Or as Joe Biden says, just don't. Don't, right?
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Leviticus 20 .27, a man or a woman who is a medium or necromancer shall surely be put to death.
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They shall be stoned with stones, and their blood shall be upon them. God tells His people, this sin is like the sin of prostitution.
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You're being that unfaithful to me. Also in Isaiah 8 verse 19,
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Isaiah says, don't listen to the muttering and the chirping of necromancers. And he asked this question, why should a people seek the dead?
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Shouldn't they seek their God? The fifth thing, that was a long one.
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The fifth thing that this story is communicating to us in the intro there, is that this story is out of timeline.
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The author is purposefully bringing forward this narrative in the story of 1
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Samuel. And we know this because of the location of the armies. The Philistines have assembled, and they've encamped at Shunem.
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And Saul has gathered all of Israel and encamped at Gilboa. They're ready for war, okay?
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And yet this story gets brought forward. Why? Well, the author wants us to see that both
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David and Saul have a problem. For David, it seems like he's going to be forced to go out and fight the people that he's going to rule over later.
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That seems to be kind of a predicament. How will God deliver him? But first, before he answers that question, he brings this story, and he shows us
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Saul's problem. Saul has rejected God, and God has rejected him. And the impossibility of this problem is what we're going to look at today.
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Verse 5 in the text, I'll read that and we'll continue. When Saul saw the army of the
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Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, which was common for kings.
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Remember Solomon had dreams? Nebuchadnezzar even had dreams. But God isn't speaking to Saul through dreams.
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Or by the Urim, which is the lot that was put into the breastplate of the high priest, and they could ask
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God questions by this lot. They would cast it. But remember, oh, Saul has killed all the priests.
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And the one priest that's left is with David, and he seems to have the ephod. Maybe, maybe this is implying that Saul has created his own, but God's not answering him through that.
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Or by the prophets. Samuel is dead, we've been told that. The only other prophet that we know of is
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Gad, and oh, he's with David too. So what does Saul do? Saul said to his servant, seek for me a woman who is a medium.
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The King James Version said, a woman with a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her.
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Now Saul, I've just stated, he has outlawed necromancy, sorcery, and witchcraft. So he knows that this is wrong.
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He knows that this is wrong. The witch is later going to use his own words and say, you know what Saul said, which is you, this is wrong, but he has rules for thee and not for me.
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Remember that phrase? It's just a phrase that means he's being a hypocrite here.
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His servants say to him, behold, there is a medium at Endor. Now who is the witch of Endor?
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Because many of you have that title at the top of this section, she's the witch of Endor. And the guys of Haunted Cosmos, Brian and Ben, say that she is the queen of the
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Ewoks. I told Carmen that, and she was like, what does this have to do with Star Wars? I was like, nothing, nothing, nevermind.
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The scriptures call her a medium. And a medium is an individual that has the ability to channel or communicate between the earthly world and the world of the spirits.
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This is something that we are told not to do in scripture. And it says that she has a familiar spirit, a familiar spirit is the medium's counterpart in the spiritual world who goes out on her behalf into the spiritual world, communicates with those spirits, and then comes back to her with the information she seeks.
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They work together. This is probably why the witch is surprised when she doesn't see her demonic friend, but she sees someone else come up in the story.
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The Bible is clear that demons do exist. You need to hear that this morning.
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And I think most people in this room would be like, yeah, we get that.
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But just in case you're on the fence, you are still toying with the idea of this is actually real.
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I would point you towards Ephesians chapter six, where Paul talks about spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms that are at war against those who are the elect of God, those who are believers in Jesus Christ.
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I would also point you to the Gospels. Just read the Gospels and see how many times Jesus encounters demons and he casts them out.
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He doesn't hang out with them. Okay? He casts them out. Right? He's like literally setting captives free.
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The scriptures are clear that demons do exist, although they would tell you otherwise. The first amendment does not apply to demons.
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They need to be quiet. Okay. So we're all prone to deception and demons are very good at this, but there is a pattern in scripture where we see spiritual forces seeming to target and exploit women.
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And these women fall prey to their deception. Paul talks about this as he talks about the roles of men and women and not allowing women to teach or exercise authority over a man.
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This is found in 1 Timothy 2 .14 and he justifies this position by referring back to creation, back to where Eve was deceived.
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And it's curious because in this story, there are lots of echoes that point back to that creation story.
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We have the first king of Israel and in the creation story, we have the first king of the world, king of humanity.
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He's given dominion over all things. And they both do the work of evil.
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They both do the work of the devil, aided by women who are deceived.
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Now Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 11 that wives should have a symbol of authority, a symbol of covering and protection, that being her husband or a head covering.
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And Josh wants to preach on that, so I'm going to just leave that one there, but he gives a reason for that.
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He gives a reason. He says, why? Because of the angels. Right? And I believe he's pointing back to Genesis chapter six, where the sons of the fallen sons of God deceived and seduced the women on the planet and they bore their evil children into the world.
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My real question as I read the story is, where is this woman's husband?
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He seems to be absent. He's definitely not leading his wife into what
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God would have her do. She's doing the opposite of what God would have her do.
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She's channeling spirits. And let's see, where am
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I? Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. So, yeah. The woman...
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So, she has... The text calls her a woman with a familiar spirit, which in the
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Hebrew can literally be defined as a mistress of a ghost or a mistress of a spirit, someone who is married to the practice of necromancy.
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This is a woman, like many others, who has been deceived with a promise of power, dark power, to give her strength to be free from the need of a husband.
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Free and strong enough to fill the role of a man. And it sounds like modern -day feminism. And I'm not saying that all single women are witches.
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Not saying that at all. But I am saying that witchcraft can tempt women to opt out of God's honored role as a woman.
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It can tempt them to opt out of the creative order and the covenant of marriage.
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Enough of that. And some read this story and use this story to defend witchcraft, claiming that it can be used...
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Can be redeemed because God uses this medium to do His will. And I understand the whole conquer and redeem idea.
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We'll talk about that a little bit later. But I'm always wary of those who claim that everything can be reclaimed for Christ.
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Why? Because of stuff like this. So I read this article this week about a new phenomenon called
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Christian witchcraft, right? And in this article, it says that Christians can have a personal relationship with Jesus and practice witchcraft.
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It says that witches can pick up Bibles and tarot cards. They can pray and they can use spells.
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In fact, these Christian witches go as far as to say that Jesus actually casts spells and hexes in His miracles.
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Now, hear me very clearly. Christian witches are an impossibility.
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They're an oxymoron, like a wise fool. What is that? What's a wise fool? It's like a Christian witch.
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Or what is an unbiased opinion? I'm just gonna give you my unbiased opinion. It doesn't exist, right?
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Christian witches do not exist. Why? Because a witch derives its power from the enemy of God.
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And God clearly hates this. He says it's an abomination, don't do it. My point, witchcraft is still alive and well in our modern age, our modern world.
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And make no mistake, you cannot redeem what God has clearly forbidden.
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You can't redeem it. I would put the Enneagram into this same category. And if you have questions about that,
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I'd love to talk to you about that later, but we're moving on. Verse eight. So Saul disguised himself, put on other garments and he went.
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He and two men with him. Now notice Saul disguises himself. This is not a reason why we should disguise ourselves around Halloween.
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This actually never works for kings. And if we remember the story of Ahab, Ahab gets this prophecy that he's gonna die in battle so he goes,
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I'm gonna dress up like someone they won't recognize and that way they won't kill me, they won't go after me as king.
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Some yahoo shoots an arrow, he dies. Prophecy fulfilled. So it doesn't work, the whole disguising thing.
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And then it has this really important phrase, and they came to the woman by night.
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Okay, remember that. And he said, divine for me a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name for you.
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And the woman said to him, surely you know that Saul has said how he's cut off the mediums and the necromancers of the land.
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He said, this is wrong. Why are you trying to trap me? Where are the secret police?
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They're ready to jump out for my life. You're trying to trap my life to bring about my death.
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But Saul swore to her by the Lord, said as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.
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What? This really demonstrates the darkness that Saul is walking in.
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He swears to the witch in the name of Yahweh that if she breaks the law of Yahweh that no harm will come to her.
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Speaking on behalf of Yahweh, he says, your sin, it's okay. And no judgment will come your way.
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This is a lie. It's not true. Then the woman said, whom shall
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I bring up for you? And he said, bring up Samuel for me. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice.
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And the woman said to Saul, why have you deceived me? You are Saul. And the king said to her, don't be afraid. What do you see?
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And the woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. And he said to her, what is his appearance?
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And she said, because apparently he can't see what she's seeing right now. She said, an old man is coming up and he's wrapped in a robe.
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And Saul knew that it was Samuel and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage. He worshiped. And then
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Samuel said to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up? And Saul answered him, I'm in great distress for the
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Philistines are warring against me and God has turned from me. And he answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams.
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Therefore, I've summoned you to tell me what I should do. Saul's not seeking to repent over his rebellion, over his wickedness.
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No, he's just saying, God, I need you to bail me out. And Samuel said, why do you ask me since the
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Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me.
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I'm going to tell you exactly what I told you before, Saul. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand.
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He's given it to your neighbor, David. That's a new piece of information. He didn't say David before. Verse 18, because you did not obey the voice of the
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Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek. Therefore, the Lord has done this thing to you this day.
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Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow, you and your sons shall be with me and shield in the place of the dead.
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The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. This judgment that Saul receives is that he and his kingly line are all going to die at the hands of the
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Philistines. Tomorrow is your last day. The very enemy that Saul was anointed to destroy is going to destroy him.
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Yes, he kills himself. He takes his own life, but only to avoid being captured and killed by the
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Philistines. Saul being a king like all the nations, the king that Israel just had to have is a complete failure.
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So is it Samuel or is it a demon? That's the question everybody wants to know, okay?
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Now my view has changed on this. I used to think demon because you summon spirits, you get demon, right?
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And so before I tell you how my views changed, let's explore that option. It's a demon, okay?
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First, God uses a demon in 1 Samuel. It says that he caused an evil spirit sent by God to torment
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Saul. So it is plausible, it fits that a deceptive spirit could be sent by God and it could masquerade as Samuel to deliver
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God's message to Saul, okay? That's reason one, it could be a demon. Reason two,
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Saul knew that it was Samuel and he bowed with his face to the ground and he paid homage.
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He showed reverence, he worshiped. The spirit that he is bowing to receives that worship.
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It doesn't say, get up, don't bow before me, okay? Demon. John Gill, a trusted commentator, also believes this is a demon.
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He points to what Samuel says to Saul, why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?
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Why have you? Because he says only God has the power to bring Samuel up, not men, not devils.
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He says why have you disturbed me, implying that it was Saul who brought him up using demonic means and a witch and the help of the devil.
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He also says it's a demon because Saul couldn't get a prophet on earth to speak to him, so why does he expect to receive help from one in heaven?
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Did Samuel, while he was alive, ever comfort Saul in his rebellion? No. Has Saul finally decided to seek
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God with a heart of repentance, a heart that is filled with sorrow over his sin? No.
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Saul just wants God to bail him out. Saul wants to hear what he wants to hear. That's the darkness of where Saul is.
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Saul has denied the truth of God over and over, and God has given him over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
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He's calling on the devil to hear from God. He's looking for the devil's lie, that he can avoid the judgment of God.
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Option two. That was pretty convincing, right? Option two. This is actually Samuel, and here are the reasons that I believe that it's actually
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Samuel. Number one, the text says, then Samuel said to Saul. It does not say a demon posing as Samuel.
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It clearly indicates that this is Samuel. A pastor named Derek Thomas, preaching this similar sermon, said,
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God can do this, and if you have a problem with the real Samuel coming back from the dead, you're also going to have a problem when
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Moses and Elijah meet Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, because they are equally dead. I think a key to understanding this is something that the guys from Hanukkah said, and this caught my attention and made me go, ah.
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They said, this is not the normal thing that happens.
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This is a weird and special event. So much so that the woman who practiced the occult every day says, whoa, this is weird.
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This doesn't happen, okay? She is expecting her familiar spirit, her demon, to go into the spirit world, gather information, and instead she sees someone who she describes as being godlike, okay?
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Which leads me to the second reason. She is terrified. So everything that Saul said to comfort her is right out the window, right?
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Because when the demon doesn't show up, the one that she's expecting, and who does show up, someone who she's not expecting, who is the prophet of Yahweh, who can pronounce judgment upon her, she is like, no, no, this is, this is, this is,
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I'm afraid of this. Saul, why aren't you afraid of this? Well, he's going to get afraid later.
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And then the third reason, the message of judgment that this conjured spirit brings is more prophetic than demonic.
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It is not deceptive in any way. Notice Samuel uses the name of Yahweh seven times in his message to Saul, contrasted to Saul misusing the name of Yahweh once in this passage.
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He adds more information that the neighbor who's going to take his place is David. And in verse 19, what he says about his defeat, actually, that prophecy comes to pass.
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Deuteronomy 18, 22, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass, if it does not come true, that word, that is a word that is not a word that the
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Lord has spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
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But in this case, it does come true. So those are your two options. Both have great arguments from notable sources.
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We're not going to split the church over this, right? Those of you who believe in demons are not going to go with me to grace, okay?
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And the rest stay here. The point of the story, though, what is important is what we learn is that when you reject
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Yahweh, the only other option that you have is Satan. If you will scorn and refuse
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God's word, you've aligned yourself with the kingdom of darkness. So let's continue in the passage, verse 20.
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And Saul fell at once, full length on the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel. He's finally afraid because he heard the truth.
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And there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him,
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Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I've taken my life in my hand, and I've listened to what you have said to me.
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Now, therefore, you obey me. You obey your servant.
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Let me set a morsel of bread before you and eat, that you may have strength and go on your way. And he refused and said,
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I will not eat. But his servants together with the woman urged him, and he listened to their words. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed.
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Now the woman had a fattened calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread of it, and she put it before Saul and his servants, and they ate.
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Then they rose and went away that night. Now, Saul's actions in this story are bookended by the author telling us that it was night.
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Did you notice that? At the beginning of the story and at the very end, there are these signposts for us as the reader to understand what
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Saul is doing cannot be interpreted in any positive light. And I've yet to find a commentator who does interpret it that way.
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Saul is plunging into the depths of darkness. He's aligning himself with darkness.
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We see a similar signpost in the gospel, in the book of John, in chapter 13, verse 30.
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And it says, so after receiving the morsel of bread, he, speaking of Judas, immediately went out, and it was night.
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Both Judas and Saul are similar. They're both going to disobey
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God, and they're both going to take their own lives. They will lie down in sorrow.
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Notice that the darkness, though, is present before the author says it's night.
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In verse 6, it says, when Samuel inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either in dreams or by Urim or by the prophet.
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Saul is without the guidance of God. He's praying, and there's no answer.
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He doesn't trust in the Lord because he's filled with fear. And fear becomes this great motivator.
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It can motivate us to do good things, fear the Lord, or it can motivate us to do great evil, which is what
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Saul does. Now, I have this verse on my laptop, on the screen.
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It's there every time I open my laptop. Do you know this verse? It is Isaiah 50 .10.
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It's a great verse, and I just love that I get to bring it to you this morning because this is what the prophet
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Isaiah says to the exiles. He says, who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?
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He's speaking to faithful followers of God. He says, let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the
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Lord, in the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God. But then he gives a warning in 11.
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Behold, all who kindle a fire, who equip themselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled.
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This you shall have from my hand. This is what you can expect of me. This is what God says. You shall lie down in torment.
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You shall lie down in sorrow. When a believer walks in darkness, and believe me, there are days of darkness that we walk through.
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Remember Psalm 23, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.
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Isaiah is speaking to these exiles, these who have been ripped out of their homeland because of the sin of their nation.
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Judgment has come upon their nation, and because of that, they are suffering, even though they were faithful, they are suffering.
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He says to them, trust in the name of the Lord. Rely on Yahweh. The rebuke is for those in the darkness, who by their own strength will light a fire, probably so that they can continue to act in the dark.
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And he says, they will receive from the Lord the judgment of lying down in sorrow, lying down in torment, dying in sorrow, dying in torment.
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David says this in Psalm 16, verse 4, the sorrows of those who run after other gods shall multiply.
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He says a little bit more, and I'm going to hold off before I tell you the rest of what he says, but Saul here is not trusting in the name of the
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Lord. He's in fear because God has rejected him. Saul is seeking a medium then, and he's building a fire in the darkness to help him continue to operate in the darkness.
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Again, he's not turning to God. So what do we mean by darkness? Of course, we mean the forces or the presence of evil that inhabit the kingdom of darkness.
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That's what we mean. In Saul's case, and in Judas' case, the darkness is the context, and it's their motivation, but it's definitely their evil deeds.
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They are doing deeds of darkness. Second thing, as in the case of Isaiah, which
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I just explained to you who he was writing to, sometimes the darkness can be brought upon the righteous by the wicked.
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He's speaking to those who have been faithful, those who have been taken into exile because of God's judgment on the wicked in Israel.
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And perhaps they've even suffered or been persecuted at the hand of the wicked. So that could be a way that we find ourselves in darkness.
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And the third way, I think, is that darkness can refer to the absence of the presence of God, the silence that we receive when we cry out to God.
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And certainly Saul is experiencing this because of his own sin, because of his own rebellion. He has rejected
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God. So Saul had Samuel through his whole reign speaking to him the
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Word of God, and yet Saul didn't listen. He didn't value it. He neglected that Word.
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And if God feels distant to us, it could be that we have neglected His Word. We have it just like Saul has it, but often we're too busy to read it.
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We're too busy to consume it. We're too busy to put it into our hearts and minds. And then when we need it, God seems absent.
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Seems like that's our own fault. But it's not only sin and neglect that can bring this sense of darkness.
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God certainly can choose to be silent if He wants to. If we look at the book of Daniel, the message that He was waiting on, that the angel
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Gabriel was bringing to Him was delayed because of forces of darkness. So let's move into application.
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Hopefully no one in this room is summoning the dead with seances, okay? Hopefully no one in this room is casting spells with witches.
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Hopefully no one is seeking out ghosts, which are demons. And if you find yourself in an abandoned house, please don't say, if anybody's here,
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I want to speak to you, because that's just inviting bad things, okay? So don't do that.
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So hopefully nobody's channeling spirits, nobody's offering themselves as a host for a demonic possession. And if you are, stop.
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You're being deceived, right? You need to repent. You need to turn away from that.
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However, okay, if what Samuel tells Saul in 1 Samuel 15, 23 is true, that our rebellion and our willful disobedience is a participation with demons, he says that for rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption or stubbornness is as the iniquity of idolatry, teraphim.
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Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has rejected you from being king. If that's true, then talking about the darkness could apply to all of us.
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It can apply because of the darkness of our own sin, and surely because of the sin of others, and also because the demonic forces that are there and very real just love to seduce us, to deceive us, to get us to participate with their deeds of darkness without us even knowing about it.
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And if that's the case, my hope today is that as we think about this, that God would open our eyes, He would bring conviction,
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He would bring warning to our hearts, and lead us to that repentance, and that repentance of saying, I was going this way, but I'm not doing that anymore.
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I'm going to go this way, because this is the path that leads to life, this path leads to death.
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And He would bring sorrow upon our hearts, and we would turn away from it and turn to God. Notice at the very end of the story,
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Saul shares a meal with the witch. This is Saul's last supper. It is.
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He is exhausted, he's distraught, and he's compelled to have a meal with the witch.
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Remember, the witch said, hey, I've obeyed you, now you obey me, all right? Eat this meal.
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Well, that seems not to be a big deal. But Saul is sitting on her bed, which is a detail that points to intimacy.
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And Saul is in alliance with the darkness here. He's having fellowship with darkness.
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And he departs from this encounter in peace with this woman.
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She kills the fattened calf and bakes unleavened bread. Now, unleavened bread and an animal prepared for slaughter point to Christ's last meal with His disciples, a meal that we will celebrate even this morning.
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We celebrate it every week as we remember Christ's sacrifice for us. So even in this story of great darkness, there's a blazing light shining right here.
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David, I'll continue his thought from Psalm 16.
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He says, the sorrows of those who follow other gods shall multiply. And then he says, their drink offerings of blood
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I will not pour out, nor will I take their names on my lips. David is saying, I will not participate with these people who are running after other gods.
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I'm not going to participate in their dark practices. I don't even know what they're doing when they're dumping out the drink offerings of blood, but I'm not going to do that.
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Paul also calls this a table of demons, right? In 1 Corinthians 10 .20, he says, no,
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I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God. So idolatry and divination are really close together, right?
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Because both have to deal with demons. That's what Paul is saying. He's saying,
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I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the
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Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. And if rebellion and just constant, stubborn disobedience is participation with demons, it's a warning to us this morning when we take the cup.
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It's a warning for us to examine our hearts and to say,
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God, forgive me. I don't want to do this.
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I want to follow you, right? I want to have communion with you and not with these dark forces.
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Paul finishes that thought by saying, shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?
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So, Josh, last week, I love quoting Josh, love how we preach back and forth, it's like tag team.
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He said this, he says, when Jesus says they will hate you because they hated me first and we think, well, that's really nice,
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Jesus, but we've really figured out a way where we can serve you and not be hated, okay? This week, we're confronted with what
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Paul says to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
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For what participation has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has
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Christ with Belial, or a demon? What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
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What agreement has the temple of God, which that's what you are, and idols? For we are the temple of the living
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God, and God has said, I will make my dwelling among them, and I will walk with them. I will be their God. Do you see this, that God is saying,
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I'm identifying with you, I'm going to be right there with you, and you are to be my people, therefore, don't be a part of them.
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Be separate from them, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you.
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And we hear that, and we say, that's really nice, Paul, but we've figured out a way to live in Sodom, just like the
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Sodomites, and reach them with the gospel. That's what we think. And in reality, they are the ones who are reaching us, and the light of the gospel grows so dim that it's completely imperceptible.
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So I wonder if we're sharing covenant meals with the agents of darkness. And here's the place where we, as Reformed Baptists, can really go wrong, right?
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Because in our reaction to a lot of the traditionalism that we were raised in, we tend to see now everything as permissible, and we celebrate our freedom in Christ, especially in gray areas, right?
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But this puts a great responsibility on us, to be able to discern evil, to discern the lies of the darkness, and not cause our brothers to stumble, and to abide by our own conscience.
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Not going against what this Holy Spirit says for us is sin. So I'm speaking about gray areas this morning,
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I'm going to kind of move into that application, and I know that it's going to make us really uncomfortable. Here's what we all should agree, okay?
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Believers must avoid participation with demons, okay? If you don't believe that, then we need to talk.
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What accord has Christ with Belial? That's what Paul said. What fellowship has light with darkness? We cannot participate in the lies of demons, we can't participate in their activity or their mission.
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Like I said before, Jesus hung out with sinners, but He never hung out with devils or demons, He cast them out,
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He rebuked them. And these forces, these demons, they seek to deceive, they promise power, they promise us freedom, they promise and proclaim, hey, we're not that big of a deal, we're really kind of innocuous, we're not really that dark either, we're not that evil.
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Actually, we're kind of fun. That's what they tell us. But Paul says in Ephesians 5, 7, and this is what we read together,
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Therefore do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Do you realize what's happened to you?
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So walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the
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Lord. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. That is, you don't hear anything else this morning.
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When it comes to the darkness, we need to discern, we need to try really hard to discern what is pleasing to the
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Lord, because that's who we follow, that's who we serve. And he says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, instead expose them.
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Expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.
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Anything that becomes visible is light. The reality is that fellowship with God and fellowship with darkness, two things that are mutually exclusive.
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And here's where it becomes a matter of conscience, okay? So I'm going to bring up some things today for you to consider, because I think this sermon is weirdly timely.
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In fact, I love Xavier's coloring sheet that is provided for you kids this morning that has this wit.
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Just looking at his view of this passage right here, it goes really well with the season that we're in.
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We're one week away from Halloween, we're two weeks away from a major election. So we ask the question, how does a believer, how does a follower of Jesus operate in this world of darkness?
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How do we avoid getting entangled with it? So personally, and I hope to change your opinion if you think differently, but the more
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I study this passage and what God says about friendship with darkness, the more serious and the more real darkness has become for me, right?
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This last couple of weeks as I've been reading this over, reading this over and over and over again, and then
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I drive through town and I see these pop up spirit of Halloween stores, I just hate them.
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There's something within me that just loathes that. Or I really dislike when
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I walk into Lowe's and you have these 20 foot tall automated effigies of death, and then people buy them and they put them in their yards.
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I hate that when I, whatever streaming channel that you use, but as I open my
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Roku, that I have to shield Bo's eyes because there's an advertisement for another horror movie.
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This celebration of darkness and evil and magic, and it's literally everywhere.
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It's in movies, it's in games. I saw a Ram truck that was called a Warlock, and I was like, what?
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I couldn't drive that. God says no, don't, right? The work of the demonic is subtle, and it plants seeds of fear in our mind.
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It puts out this misinformation that death and darkness have more power than the king of light and life, and I'm not saying that we should avoid the world as they celebrate
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Halloween. I know that Halloween has Christian and pagan roots, and there was a time when
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Christendom sought to conquer and reclaim this dark celebration, and they used it to teach their children about the reality and the dangers of the darkness and the spiritual world.
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They dressed up as saints to disguise themselves from evil spirits.
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They were taught to pray as they walked through the forest at night out loud, they would pray.
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They would hold church services on Halloween, right? And they had festivities that followed in their homes.
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They had a practice called souling, where the poor in the community would actually go and bang on the doors of the rich, and they would receive alms, they would receive support.
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This is how they practiced that. But now in the modern America, we celebrate
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Halloween, and it has lost all semblance of this historic Christian practice.
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It is now flooded with darkness. It is teaching about darkness. So how can we do
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Halloween as Christians and not be just like the world as we're in the world?
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How can we not dabble in darkness? And you might be saying, whoa, whoa, Bart, don't mess with my
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Halloween, you know. My parents really love it when my kids dress up in those cute little outfits.
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I'm not saying that you shouldn't let your kids dress up and bang on other people's doors for candy. I haven't said that yet, but let me ask this question.
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Let me ask you this question. What are you doing during this season to protect your kids from exposure to the darkness?
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Because I believe that this is the strategy of darkness, right? And so just like C .S.
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Lewis in the Screwtape Letters, I hope to bring to light this strategy that they are seeking to employ. And what it's called is overexposure, right?
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Where we see something so much. We see evil and darkness so much that it just becomes common.
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It becomes normalized, right? It becomes so familiar that we expect to see it, then we become blind to it.
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It just floods at us, and pretty soon we just let go and go along with it.
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And it is effective. It is so effective. And because even if you say today, you say, okay,
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Bart, my family, no more Halloween. We're just going to go to the CBC Reformation Day party, and we're not going to do the whole
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Halloween thing. But even if you do that, your children are still going to have some exposure because it is everywhere.
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They will see scary monsters in people's yards. That exposure can be limited, but it is unavoidable.
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And I see the same conflict in the conversation between homeschool and public school, right?
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You can limit the exposure to cultural indoctrination that public school provides, but it's a flood in our culture.
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You still have to be diligent to protect your kids. So maybe this is a call back for us to go back to those historic roots, a call for us to teach our children about the darkness.
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Do your kids know how serious and dangerous the spiritual world is?
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Or are they just blissfully ignorant, thinking that this is about fun and candy? All the while, all the while, our culture is creating fear in their hearts without us even knowing it.
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Do you ask them about it? Do you talk to your children? How do we combat exposure to the darkness that our children are eventually going to encounter?
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How do we do that? We actively disciple them. Our children will be taught.
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The question is, are we the ones teaching them? Are we teaching them about the enemy?
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Are we teaching them about his lies? Are we teaching them how to resist him and to trust the God of light?
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Kids, okay, kids, listen to me. I'm speaking to you right now.
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Now, if you are afraid of the darkness, if you're afraid of scary things, tell your dad, tell your father, tell your mom.
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It's their job to protect you physically with their strength and spiritually with their faith.
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Don't feel bad about that. Go and talk to them. Do you hear me? Don't let the devil create fear in your heart.
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And fathers in this room, if you're a father here, you need to hear me. Your children, when they come to you in the night and they are scared, when they see something as you're driving down through town and they say they're scared, pray with them.
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Pray over them. Read for them. Read them from the scriptures because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're powerful for the tearing down of strongholds.
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And as fathers, we need to actively participate in protecting our families from the darkness. I have a whole section about our political climate, but I'm just going to move right past that.
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It is dark. It is dark. And there are lies that are out there. I was just at a faith leaders conference in Little Rock, and I heard someone from Alliance Defending Freedom talk about the
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Johnson Amendment, which says that pastors, you can't talk about politics in church, otherwise you're going to lose your tax -exempt status.
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And I believe that like 30 years of ministry, and this guy goes, they can't tell you what you can say and what you can't say.
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The only reason that that law is on the books, that it's still there, because it can totally be defeated in court.
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The only reason it's there is to intimidate you and scare you. And see, that's a tactic of the enemy, and it works.
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I can't tell you how many churches I pass by and I see something outside proclaiming their allegiance to the darkness, and how many pastors have been kicked out of their pulpits because they were courageous.
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Because they actually stood up and said, you know what? The Democratic Party is an agent of darkness.
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How can you be a Christian and vote for that? They said that out loud, just like I did.
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And their people said, no, you're out of here, because they believe that lie.
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Back to Isaiah 50. Let him who walks in darkness and has no light. Let him trust in Yahweh and rely on his
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God. Trust in the name of Yahweh. Stop trusting in ourselves. Stop building fires and trust in God.
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Psalm 130, verse 6 says, my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
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You know that verse? So good. The watchman is in the dark, he's waiting for the light of day.
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And then listen to this from Malachi 4 .2, such a great...these great verses this morning. Our God is the light bringer.
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He promises that we can trust that he will bring light. It says,
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Malachi 4 .2, but for you who fear the name of the Lord, the son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out leaping like calves from the stall.
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I read in the introduction that light has come, that his name is Jesus. I want us to be encouraged this morning with that, that we are not in the darkness.
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If we're children of the light, that we do need wisdom.
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We need to be alert so that we're not deceived, so that we don't get entangled and caught up in darkness.
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And the best defense is a good offense. We're to fight. We're to fight against the darkness.
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We're to expose the darkness. They're overexposing us. We need to expose that.
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We need to say what that is. The reason John Bunyan wrote his...one
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of the reasons John Bunyan wrote his book, Pilgrim's Progress, about a man named Christian who's on a journey to the celestial city is that he points out that the journey takes
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Christian through the valley of the shadow of death. And it is a dark and smoky valley filled with scary creatures and the screams of people who are chained and tortured, and it sounds exactly like hell.
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And in that place, Christian encounters a demon named Apollyon, and Christian fights this dragon using his spiritual armor, using the
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Word of God, using prayer, using faith. This is an allegory. It's a story to teach us an important lesson.
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And that lesson is that God is with us in the darkness. The enemy desires to lead us astray, to get us off track, and to cause us to go into the wrong direction.
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But let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. If you've never received salvation, my prayer today is that the
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Spirit of God will call you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Do not reject God's voice today.
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If you hear His voice, the Scriptures say, don't harden your heart to respond to Him. Cry out to the
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God of light. His name is Jesus. If you desire to follow Him, if you desire to experience His forgiveness and grace, man, come talk to me after this, and we'll talk about how you can become a follower of the light, how you can become a child of the light.