1 Samuel 28:15

We have before us here a picture of a God-deserted man; one who has in former times had plenteous advantage and revelation, but who has forsaken God until God has forsaken him in turn, and who is now joined to his idols, seared against the penitent desire; one who presents that most appalling of all wrecks of ruin—a human soul consciously severed from the sympathy, and bereft of the favour, of the Divine.

I. There is illustrated here the accelerating progress of evil. From the monarch on the eve of the battle of Jabesh-Gilead, to the monarch on the eve of the battle of Gilboa, what a fearful fall! Saul had suffered, because Saul had sinned. In his elevation he had forgotten God. Pride had stolen away his heart; he had been guilty of repeated and flagrant disobedience, and it is an easy descent to perdition when the bias of the nature is seconded by the strenuous endeavours of the will.

II. To every sinner there will come his moment of need. The worldling may prolong his revelry and accumulate his gain, but the hour will come when he will discover that the world is a cheat and that riches cannot always profit. Your hour of need may be nearer than you think. God's mercy may still delay it, but it will come—the hour of trial, when sorrow breaks upon sorrow, like billows upon a desolate strand. Flee to the ever-willing Saviour now and you shall have no need to work some foul enchantment in order to wring direction from the sheeted dead.

III. This subject illustrates the terrible power of conscience. Saul's greatest enemy was within—the wounded spirit, a more dreaded foe than all the Philistine armies; the dogs of remorse more furious than the dogs of war. And so it always is with the sinner. Christ alone can still the tempest with a word, whether it rage upon a Lake of Galilee or surge and swell on a poor sinner's soul.

W. MORLEY Punshon, Sermons, p. 35.

I. We, in this world, are in a state of probation. (1) We are placed amongst a multitude of outward things which perpetually force us to choose whether we will act in this way or in that; and every one of these choices must agree with the holy and perfect will of God, or else be opposed to it. (2) The especial trial of us Christians consists in our being placed amongst these temptations under the personal influence of God the Holy Ghost, so that in every such distinct act of choice there is either a direct yielding, or a direct opposition to His secret suggestions.

II. The necessary consequences of every act of resistance to the Holy Spirit must, by a twofold process, carry us on towards final impenitence. For (1) by our moral constitution, the breaking through any restraint from evil, or the resisting any suggestion of good, carries us by an inevitable reaction somewhat farther than we were before in the opposite direction. (2) By resisting the Holy Spirit we cause Him to withdraw from us those influences for good in which is alone for us the spring and possibility of amendment. As a necessary consequence of such a withdrawal the progress of the forsaken soul towards final hardness is inevitable.

III. These, then, are the lessons from this fearful subject. (1) That we strive diligently to maintain such a temper of watchful observance for the motions of the Blessed Spirit as that we may never unawares resist or neglect any of His lightest intimations. (2) Let us learn not to trifle with any sin. (3) If through our exceeding feebleness we have fallen, let us learn to look straight to the cross of Christ and strive diligently in His strength to arise again.

S. Wilberforce, University Sermons, p. 222.

References: 1 Samuel 28:15.—M. Nicholson, Communion with Heaven, p. 206; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 1. 1 Samuel 29:6. with 1 Samuel 30:1, 1 Samuel 30:2.—F. W. Krummacher, David the King of Israel, p. 199; Parker, vol. vii., p. 52. 1 Samuel 29:8.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii., p. 256. 1 Samuel 30:6.—J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 448; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. ii., p. 195. 1 Samuel 30:6-8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1606. 1 Samuel 30:13. —Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 72. 1 Samuel 30:20.—Ibid., My Sermon Notes, Genesis to Proverbs, p. 64. 1 Samuel 30:24.—Outline Sermons for Children, p. 43. 1 Samuel 31:4.—R. C. Trench, Sermons Preached in Ireland, p. 321.