Could You be Rejected to be a King in the Kingdom of God?

Christ, the Word of God, gave us some critical teachings from the time that he was living on earth and his ministry. And his basic teachings started with the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount.

And there in the Beatitudes it starts by, be poor in spirit, which basically means be humble, and then you will be in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God will be yours. And the Beatitudes then end up with one that says, as you practice these Beatitudes, you'll be persecuted for righteousness' sake, but theirs is the Kingdom of God. It's interesting that the first and the last points that we are going to inherit are going to be part of the Kingdom of God. And what is a Kingdom? Well, we all know, it's been said many times, a Kingdom is a ruling king, and there's laws, and there's territory, and there are people. But a Kingdom, per se, is not just a ruling king, but it's the ruling family. It's the ruling family. And you and I are to be children of God, sons of God, and we are to rule within. We read, for instance, in Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10, that it says, The 24 elders are giving God thanks that God has redeemed from the earth man to be ruling on earth as kings on earth. And indeed, we look at Scriptures like Romans 8, where it says, we are to be children of God. Turn with me to Romans 8, which is a very encouraging Scripture, in Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 16, starting in verse 16, and it says, The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. It was God's Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, in other words, the spirit of man in man, that we are the children of God. How? Because the Spirit has begotten us, and we are now begotten children of God. So that's what it is. That's how it bears witness. And if children, if we are children of God, then we are heirs of God. Isn't that so encouraging? That we are to be inheriting the glory and the kingdom that God is going to give us to be heirs of God, and joint heirs of Christ. If, obviously, we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified together. In other words, as they say, if no pain, no gain, you know. But it is. We gotta go through it. We gotta go through certain training. We gotta go through certain difficulties and challenges in the world.

And as we go through this, as we suffer with Him, we will then be rewarded by being in the kingdom with Him, with the glory of that kingdom being bestowed upon us.

However, I have a question that has crossed my mind that says, could you or could I be rejected to be a king in the kingdom of God? Could we be rejected to be a king in the kingdom of God? In fact, there's a scripture in Revelation 3, verse 11, if you turn to it with me, please, very briefly, because it says, Revelation 3, verse 11, and it says, because...

It says, Behold, I'm coming quickly. All fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. Now, Christ is coming quickly. You and I know time is short. Really time is short.

But we got to hold on. We really have to hold on. It's so easy to let go. Things are getting really tough. It's so easy to let go.

But, you know, if we let go, these problems will come back and haunt us again. So, you know, we know that. So, we can't let go.

We got to... In South Africa, there's a word called fastbite. You probably heard me say that before. Fastbite means fast means fast, hard.

And bite is bite. So, bite hard. Like a bulldog tenacity. Bite hard and don't let go.

That's what we got to have, brethren. We got to make sure we don't let go.

Now, the Bible has got many physical examples. And a lot of physical examples and stories in the Old Testament, we can look at those physical examples and take spiritual lessons from them.

And so today, brethren, I want to take lessons from a king of the Old Testament that he ended up being rejected and draw some lessons from that today.

So, let's turn when he was first selected. And that is in 1 Samuel chapter 9.

1 Samuel chapter 9. That's the story when this king was first selected to be a king.

We start in verse 16.

Tomorrow, about this time, I'll send you a man. So, this is God telling Samuel.

He says, at this time, I'll send you a man from the land of Benjamin.

And you will anoint. You shall anoint him commander over my people Israel. He was king over my people Israel.

That he may save my people from the hand of the Philistines.

For I've looked upon my people because their cry has come to me.

So when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, There is the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over my people. Yeah, we have a man that was selected by God to reign.

And we know a little bit further. For instance, in verse 21, you know the story.

So I'm just highlighting a few points just to bring it back to memory.

Saul answered in verse 21 and said, I'm not a Benjamite.

Am I not just a Benjamite of the smallest tribes of Israel?

And my family, the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?

And you speak like this to me, you know, I'm no one. I'm nobody.

Why are you telling me I'm going to be the king?

And look at verse 27.

And as they went, they were going down to the outskirts of the city.

Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.

And he went on, But you shall stand a while, that I may announce to you the word of God.

And then look at it in the next verse, chapter 10 verse 1.

Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him and said, Is it not?

Because the Lord has anointed you, commander, however, he is inerritous.

He was anointed by God. Okay, granted.

Was not God physically that did anointing, but was Samuel the third, as by delegated authority from God, to do it.

So he was anointed by God to be king.

So, you know we have a man that was anointed by God to be king.

Then, looking in verse 17 of the same chapter, chapter 10, verse 17, it says, Then Samuel called the people together to the Lord at Mispa, and said to the children of Israel, That says, The Lord God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you from the land of Egyptians, and from the hand of all kingdoms, and from those who oppressed you.

But you have today rejected your God, who himself saved you from all your adversities, and your tribulations. And you have said to him, No, set a king over us.

Now, therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.

So they were all to come together. And then Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. So there was like a lot taken, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.

And when he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was chosen, and Saul, the king of, the big part, Saul, the son of Kish, was chosen.

But when they sought him, he could not be found.

Therefore, they inquired of the Lord further. Has the man come yet?

And the Lord answered, There he is, hidden among the equipment. There is some way hiding in the back now amongst the warehouse, you know, some way out there.

So they ran and brought him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than all, than any of the people from his shoulders upwards.

I mean, he would have been a perfect basketball player, you know.

I mean, he was tall above everybody else over the shoulders. And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen?

That it is no one like him among all the people.

So all the people shouted and said, Long live the king.

So here we have, he was proclaimed king. He was anointed. He was proclaimed.

And then a little later, in chapter 12, verse 13, and it says, and we'll start reading in verse 12.

And when you saw that Nahash king of Ammonites came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us.

And when the Lord your God was your king.

Now therefore, Yah is the king whom you have chosen, and whom you have desired.

And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. In other words, he was coronated. So we have a king, yeah, three stages of being anointed, proclaimed and coronated the king.

And he was, from all you and I could see, or by reading those first sections, he was a very humble man. Or at least he appeared to be very humble man.

But you know, there is a thing about that you and I need to do.

And you and I have also, we are nobody. We've also been called to be kings.

Who am I? Who are you? Who are we? We're nobody.

But there is one thing that we need to remember, which is a very interesting instruction in Proverbs 16 verse 3.

So keep a marker there on Samuel because we're going to come back to it.

But look at Proverbs 16 verse 3.

Proverbs 16 verse 3.

Proverbs 16 verse 3.

It says, Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.

Commit.

Roll. The actual Hebrew word is galál, which means roll, commit.

Hand over to. Roll it to. Hand it over.

It's similar to a word like trust, in a sense.

In the Portuguese Bible, it actually says, Trust in the Lord.

That's how they've translated that.

And I looked at various versions in Portuguese, that's how they translate.

It's commit. Commit to the Lord.

In other words, put your roll, your trust onto God.

If you can see that, in fact, on the margin on your Bible, it may have a little marker in my Bible it has.

And it says literally roll. It was roll onto. Hand it over. Roll onto.

It was commit. Leave it on God's hands.

Commit your works to the Eternal.

Brethren, are we trusting our works in God?

Are we committing to God, to His trust?

Whatever we do. And your thoughts, what are your thoughts? What are my thoughts?

My thoughts, your thoughts, are usually what we plan, what we desire, what we want to achieve, what we want to go.

And our thoughts will be established.

So, as we hand over things to God, as we roll them to God, our plans will succeed because they're in God's hands.

And there is a similar word to this in Hebrew because it's a word called galal, but a similar word to it, or a derivative from it, is a word in Hebrew which is called gilgal.

Which, interesting enough, is when the Israelites crossed Jordan, where they first went to, to Gilgal.

Where they first had to put their trust in God. Now let's look at that in Joshua chapter 4.

Joshua chapter 4. In Joshua chapter 4, we'll start reading in verse 1.

And it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over to Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua saying, Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from every tribe. And you know the story, they went down to the river to pick up twelve stones. Look at in verse 4. Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had appointed from the children of Israel, one man from every tribe.

And Joshua said to them, cross over before the ark of the eternal, your God, into the midst of Jordan. And each one of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel. So they were to pick up the stone. And then they were to put the stone in Gilgal. Look at it in verse 19.

Verse 19, when the people came up from the Jordan, on the tenth day of the first month, they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. Now, a couple of interesting points. Obviously, those twelve stones were put into Gilgal, showing that they trusted in God, and trusting in God. Interesting that it actually was on the tenth day of the first month. Now, it is very interesting, because you look at... They were forty years in the wilderness. Now where do they have Bali, or green years of Bali, to know when the months were? And they had to intercolate every two to three years, they had to intercolate the next four months. So it just shows that God revealed to Moses how to do it. They weren't really looking at the green years of Bali. But here they are on the tenth day. God knew exactly when it was, the tenth day. What happened on the tenth day? Do you remember? Forty years before? Lamb was selected. Lamb was selected. Interesting, isn't it? Interesting, isn't it? It's an anniversary of the selection of the lamb, the Passover lamb, which represented Christ. Which basically was when Christ was hailed as king, as he walked into Jerusalem, also on the tenth day. So, yeah, we have symbolically a way that we have to commit and trust our works to God, and to God who is gonna make up for us the sacrifice for us to be in the kingdom. We've got to completely trust him. That's who we trust. That's who is gonna justify us, who is gonna help us through all the difficulties, all the difficulties. We have to trust in God. Now, do the Israelites trust in God? No, they didn't. They were a disaster. Nor did Saul. Nor did Saul. Because what happened? What happened? Look at 1 Samuel 13. 1 Samuel 13. In 1 Samuel 13, we have a situation starting in verse 5. Then the Philippines gathered together to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen. So, think about like 30,000 armored tanks. I mean, it wasn't armored tanks, but comparing to our modern type of thing, these were the best I-Tech stuff of the era. So, they had the best I-Tech fighting against this bunch of Israelites, which had nothing. They had to trust in God. So, and 6,000 horsemen and people as the sand, which is on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Big Mash to the east of Beth-Avon. Then the men of Israel saw that they were in danger. Brethren, you and I are in danger. Why? Because our adversary is Satan. We, without God, don't have a chance. You and I don't have a chance. We have to commit. We have to roll all our trust to God, and all our thoughts will be established. We have to absolutely trust God. That's our only hope. And so, there they are. And for the people who are distressed, then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in halls, and in butts.

And then we see YAH in verse 7, and some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Ged, where some of them crossed back and said, Cheers! I'm going back! And as for Saul, he was still in Gilgal. As for Saul, look at the meaning. He was still trusting God. Think about it, you know. And all the people followed him trembling. Then he waited seven days, according. So at this time he was trusting God. But then, he couldn't trust fully. You see, because Samuel told him, Trust God, and wait for me seven days. But you know, seven days, at seven o'clock in the morning of the seventh day, seven days have not finished yet. Or ten o'clock or twelve o'clock, it's not finished yet. Seven days means till the end of the day. And so the seventh day came there and he said, Well, Samuel hasn't come yet, so we've got to do something. So he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal. And the people were scattered from him. So their faith was kind of limited. It wasn't fully committed. And then we read in verse 9, and it says, So Saul said, Bring a burnt offering, and a peace offering, Zia, and he offered a burnt offering. Which clearly he was not allowed to do, because he was not a priest. He could not do that. And it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, Samuel came. He was still on the seventh day. But you see, God sometimes makes us wait to test our faith till the nth hour, to the nth degree. But you know, are we going to trust God? Because at the hour, at the right time, at the nick of time, He's there. But He takes faith to hold on till then. And that was the problem. They didn't. And so Samuel said in verse 11, What have you done? And Saul said, Well, when I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come with Thene that I was appointed, and the Philistines gathered together at McMash, then I said, The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made a supplication to the Lord. Therefore, I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. He did not fully obey. He feared. He felt compelled. He feared. He did not commit and trust till the end. And that is a lesson to all of us, brethren. That is a lesson to all of us. And look at verse 13. And then Samuel said to Saul, You've done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Eternal, your God, which He commanded you, for now the Eternal would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Eternal has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord, the Eternal, has commanded him to be a commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. You see, you made an excuse. Well, you know, I had to do it, but there's no excuses before God. There's no excuses. Now, the thing, what it says here is, the kingdom will be taken from your land. He was still kept as a king, but it says the kingdom will be taken from his land, from his children. But now we have another situation, and that's a situation with the Amalekites. Now, do you know who are the Amalekites? Well, let me remind you by looking at Exodus 17. Exodus 17.

Exodus 17. We have a situation here. As the Israelites are leaving Egypt, Exodus 17, verse 8-12. It says, Now Amalek came, that's the Amalekites came, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua, Choose some man and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I'll stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Er went up the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hand became heavy, became tired. You couldn't stand up. You try and keep your hands up like this for a long time. It gets heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him. So they sat him down, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Er then supported his hand. So one stood on one side, he had a stone on one side, and held his hands up. Because imagine, I mean, the blood was actually getting... I found that the circulation stops and gets heavy. But I can just imagine. And they supported his hands on one side and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And then the Lord said to Moses, write this for a memorial. Write this for a memorial. In the book, and recounted in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under Evan.

Wow! Why? Why? I mean, there were many people that would attack others. But Yahya's situation says, I will utterly blot out remembrance of Amalek from under Evan. Let's look at Deuteronomy 25, because we got the answer there. In Deuteronomy 25, starting in verse 17.

Deuteronomy 25 verse 17. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt. And then we just finished reading in Exodus 17. But in Exodus 17, does not say what they actually did. It just says they attacked them, but it doesn't say what they did. And look at verse 18. Now it explains what they actually did. How He met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks.

All the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary, and he did not fear God. So what he did, the soldiers and the fighting men and all that were up front. At the back with the stragglers and the old people and those maybe bearing children and breast feeding or whatever it was. They were all there and they attacked that weak spot. Therefore, verse 19, it shall be when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek under heaven.

But it doesn't end there. It's another little sentence. You shall not forget it. Don't forget it. Don't say, oh well, I'll be merciful. Because Yah is God says, shall no mercy. So what happened to Saul? The time came that God had given Amalek into Saul's hands to be destroyed. And look at 1 Samuel chapter 15. Now verse 3. 1 Samuel 15 verse 3. Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy them that they may have and do not spare them.

Do not spare them. Zap them completely gone. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Obviously to a society like ours it looks so cruel. I mean I just had that the other day somebody wrote to me on a website from Brazil saying, how can God even go and kill children and babies? Well, God has power over life and death. God can resurrect those people at a better time to bring them to repentance. But had those few children be there, and as we can see, they would propagate saying, well look at what happened to my parents.

And that spirit would be propagated as it has been. Because this spirit is the spirit of terrorism. That's really what it is. And the spirit is spreading and has spread throughout ages. And so that is the problem. So continue then in verse 7. And Saul attacked the Amalekites from Avila all the way to Shere, which is in the east of Egypt. And he also took Agar king of the Amalekites alive and not to destroy all the people who were at the edge of the sword.

So did he really utterly destroy all the people? It appears that maybe he utterly destroyed all the people that were there fighting in the camps. But he didn't wipe out every man, woman and child. He says, but Saul and the people spared Agag and the beasts of the sheep and oxen and the factories and the lambs and all that was good. And were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But every thing, the spies and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

So they set themselves up as deciding what was good and what was bad. And they decided to only destroy what appeared evil to them and decide not to destroy what appeared good. Now look at just a few chapters further. Just a few chapters, not very much longer. 1 Samuel chapter 30. 1 Samuel chapter 30. In verse 1, Now it happened when David and his men, so it's only a few years down the road when David and his men came to Ziklek on the third day that the Amalekites, so you see they had not been wiped out.

The Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklek and so attacked Ziklek and burned it with fire. So you can see the story of the Amalekites continue. God was not pleased with what Saul did because Saul had mentioned at the time of Moses, don't forget it. Now he had given on a platter the Amalekites to the Israelites to wipe them out. And they did not.

And that was Saul's sin. And look at 1 Samuel 15 verse 22. So when Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Because Saul said, well, we kept him so we can offer sacrifices to you. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fact of rams. For rebellion is the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the Lord your God, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. And he has a lesson. He was disobedient. In God's eyes, that disobedience was rebellion.

Simply rebellion, because you don't know by what God said. And that stuff nakedness, that stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry, because you put something else in front of God. That's what God looked at. Sacrifices are not the real issue. In fact, we sang early on today a song. You know, about that, out of Psalm 51. We sang that. It's not about all the things you and I do.

It's about my attitude. It's about my attitude behind those things. Because I may do some nice things. But what is the attitude? Am I doing nice things, so other people can just see and praise me? Or is my attitude one, I'm doing it, because I fear God, because I love God, and because I love His people. In other words, what is our motive? What is our motive? And so, we want to look at some lessons from this example. Very briefly, we're going to look at some lessons, which are spiritual lessons.

Because Saul was rejected as a king, as we can see from this situation. We're going to extract a few little lessons, which have a spiritual implication for us to learn. First point, we must not honor God the way that I feel like. It's not the way I think, it's not the way I think it's the best way. No, you cannot worship God in a way that He says, it's wrong. We got to worship God the way He tells us to worship Him.

How many times I've come across people, and says, well, but the way I see it, it's this way, and therefore, and God will understand it. How many times I've come across that? So, let's read here in 1 Samuel 15 verse 13. It says, then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, blessed are you of the Lord. So, the soul telling Samuel, I have performed the commandment of the eternal, of God.

I have done what God told me to do. Well, did he? Did he? But in his mind, it says, well, I've done it. I've done it my way, but I've done it. But Samuel said, what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and howling of the oxen which I hear? And then Saul said, well, they have brought them from the Malachites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God. The Lord your God, not the Lord my God, or the Lord our God.

No, the Lord your God. You know, it's Samuel's God, not mine. Well, and the rest, we've utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said, shut up. Well, he didn't say that. He said, be quiet, you know, just be quiet. That's enough. You know, I'll tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And Saul said, okay, alright, say. And then Samuel said, when you wear little in your eyes, you know, when you're hidden in the baggage and all that stuff, you know, and you know, when you're little in your eyes, and not the head, where you're not the head of the tribes of Israel, and did not the Lord anoint you, king of Israel.

But now, the Lord has sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, their malachats, and fight against them until they are gone, destroyed, consumed. Verse 19, then, why then did you not obey the voice of the Eternal? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of God?

And Saul said to Samuel, but I have obeyed the voice of God. Well, I mean, he just told him, you have not, he says, no, no, no, no, but I have obeyed the voice of God. And am gone on a mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back a king of Amalek. I have destroyed Amalekites. Well, you and I can see that because just a few years later they were fighting against David. So he's lying through his teeth, bluntly. You see, brethren, we can't do things on our terms.

We've got to do things in God's terms. It's like some people came to me and said, well, this was in Brazil in my latest trip, and some people said, well, do I need to be rebaptized? And I said, I can answer to you with a short answer, or I can answer you with a long answer. But I thought about it and I've decided to answer you with a long answer. And I said, have you recently bought something that you had to sign a contract for?

I knew they hadn't bought a car, otherwise I would have said, well, you bought a car, because they said, well, they had taken some other transport to get there, or whatever it was. So they said, well, they bought a motorbike. So I said, okay, fine. So you bought a motorbike. Did you have to sign a contract for that?

Yes. And what did the contract say? Say things like, you have to pay so much, and you've got to pay so much every month, and this and that. Yeah, it said you've got to pay. And so, are you paying that every month? I said, yeah, otherwise, it was a motorbike. Oh, why don't you just decide, I'll pay when I feel like it?

They said, no, can't do that. Why not? Isn't that what people say about keeping the Sabbath? I'll do it when I feel like it. I'll do it on the day that I feel like it. I can do it every day. No, I can't do that. You see, when you baptize, you sign a contract with God. And you can't set your own terms on that contract, because then God won't give you the promise. So, you ask me a question. I'll leave with you to answer it yourself. And we finish the counseling session. Three days later, they found me via WhatsApp, you know, contacting me and says, we want to be re-baptized. We've committed, and we want to keep the Sabbath.

And interesting enough, a couple of hours later, I got a note from somebody. Which I didn't realize was from the same city. And then afterwards I realized was their pastor, saying, we've got a situation here which is very complicated, because you, say me, I'm taking somebody from congregating in the church, obviously on Sunday, and I'm causing people not to follow Christ. So, I had to think about how to answer that one, which I did.

But I'll tell you that at another time. But anyway, getting back to the point, you cannot change God's terms and conditions. So, you cannot honor God the way you feel like it. Or I can't. Or we can't. We've got to do it the way God wants. And you see the problem is that... Look here in verse 24, before I say, I say this. In verse 24, Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Eternal, and your words, because I feared the people. There is an important point.

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Psalm 111 verse 10. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And look at Proverbs 29 verse 25. The fear of man... You see, Saul had a fear of the people. The fear of man brings a snare. But whoever trusts, whoever commits to God or in God, shall be safe. So there is a time, in the right way, to tell people the right thing.

Because the fear of man brings a snare. So, I'm looking at just a few examples from the story of Saul. One was, he did not honor God the way God wanted him to honor him. He did not fear God. And look at verse 25, verse 25 through 30. He says, Now therefore please pardon my son, and return to me, that I may worship the Lord. What does that appear? Obviously, repentance, right? Repentance. You know, forgive me. But Samuel said to Saul, I will not come with you, for you have rejected the word of the Eternal.

It was, I will not come with you, because you have not really repented. The Lord, therefore, has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of the robe and it tore. And so Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent, for he is not a man that issued relent.

In other words, God will not relent. Then he said, verse 30, I have sinned.

Then Saul said, I have sinned, yet honor me now. Well, that's an interesting way of repentance, isn't it? Well, I have sinned, but honor me. Please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me that I may worship the Lord with your God. Lord your God, by the way, not my God. But I have sinned, but honor me. In other words, he wanted glory for himself.

Brethren, we cannot feign a type of repentance with God.

Are we truly repentant?

And that's a whole different subject that I don't want to go into it. But if we, you and I, are not truly repentant, we cannot be in the kingdom of God.

And look at a little lighter, Yah, in verse 32. In verse 32. Because now Samuel brings Agag. And he says, then Samuel said, bring Agag, king of the Malacacia, to me. So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, probably thinking in other words, surely the burdens of death is past. So Samuel said, as your sword has made woman childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

He had a violent death.

Brethren, Agag Yah symbolized sin.

Amalek symbolized sin.

You and I cannot compromise with sin. We cannot but completely hack the old man.

The old man, our old man that we have to repent, we have to hack it. We have to completely go of it. We gotta repent completely. We must deal with sin mercilessly.

We cannot take things in our own hands.

We must be without mercy as far as it comes to sin.

Saul spared Agag.

In a spiritual analogy, do we have a tendency to spare sin?

Or are we examining ourselves and do not allow sin any space? Zap it!

So that is our fourth point that we have here. Now look at the foot.

The situation was in Samuel.

He said, well, it wasn't me, it was the people. It was the people. And so there were two things in here. One, the first one, he was covering up the sin. Really he was covering up the sin, saying it was the people.

You know the situation between Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament Church? That's in Acts 5, verses 1 through 5. You know, they sold a piece of land and they didn't have to sell it. Nobody told them to sell it. Or if they wanted to sell it, if they wanted to give a portion of it to the Church, fine. But they said, well, we sold it and we gave it all to the Church.

So they were covering up sin. And you and I cannot conceal sin.

So hiding their malachites and hiding a gag and hiding what we think it looks good, whatever it is, we cannot cover it up.

But the other lesson, which is the sixth one I have, is that we, you and I, we cannot justify ourselves. You see, this is what Saul did. Look at in verse 15. He said, Saul said, they have brought them from the malachites. For the people, they spare the best of the sheep to sacrifice. You see, it wasn't my fault. It was the people.

I mean, doesn't it remind you of Adam and Eve? And Eve said, it was my fault. It was the serpent's fault. And Adam said, it wasn't my fault. It was Eve's fault. Well, we all kind of blame each other, you know.

We cannot, we cannot blame other people.

1 Corinthians 6 Verse 8-10 No. You yourselves do wrong and cheat. And you do these things to your brethren. In other words, you are a hiding son and you are, you know, giving yourself excuses even to your brethren. Do not know that unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. We cannot deceive ourselves. We can't kid ourselves.

Because neither whoever does this or that or the other, the other, the other, will inherit the kingdom of God. And somewhere, some of you.

So we have to completely repent.

You see, it's easy for us to blame. Well, I was born this way. It was just the way I am.

Well, you made me do this.

For my circumstances, because I live in this country and the situation, my circumstances are therefore unjustified to do it.

You know, when we make excuses, we are turning our backs on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Because if we admit our own sins, then we have to go and ask Christ for forgiveness.

So we need Christ's forgiveness. But when we cite somebody else, then I'm okay. I don't need a sacrifice of Christ.

I'm walking away from it. Now, Saul could have really repented.

He could have really repented. I mean, look at the case of David.

David with Nathan and the sin of Bathsheba.

But that was a horrible sin, a horrible sin.

But he repented. He really repented.

So it's not that Saul's sin was bigger or greater, or it's not that our sin is smaller or greater. They're all bad in God's eyes.

But we need to repent. We need to repent.

If you and I don't rely on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, there's no justification for sin. I can't justify myself. You can't justify yourself. You can't blame somebody else. We have to admit, confess to God, and ask for the sacrifice of Christ. It's been given to you. It's a gift. It's a gift!

Grazie!

So, thank you, God, for your kindness, because I don't deserve it. But thank you, God. We don't deserve it.

Look at the pain that sin caused.

The pain... The Amalekites are still there. This spirit of terrorism is still there, thousands of years later.

But the pain is caused. Sin has caused the death of our Creator and the suffering. You and I need to eradicate sin of our lives.

We must not make any provision for the flesh, as we see in Romans 13. Romans 13, verse 14. Romans 13, verse 14 says, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was taken on His sacrifice, accepted, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Whatever it is, whatever it is, whatever is your issue, whatever is my issue, we need to make no provision for the flesh.

It takes us to the place, brethren, that if you and I do not acknowledge sin, you and I could be guilty of what? Of rebellion. In other words, you and I could be rejected as kings in the kingdom of God.

We have to commit, trust our works to God.

And look at Romans 12. See, we are in Romans, so we just got Romans 12, verse 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, for by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. In other words, that living sacrifice is to stop sinning. That is our living sacrifice, that we stop sinning, so that we become holy and acceptable to God, which is our not great servants, just our reasonable servants.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be changed, be transformed, be metamorphosed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect desired will of God.

So, brethren, we must not honor God the way we feel like.

We must remember that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. We must not feign a type of repentance. We must completely hack the whole man. We can't cover up sin. We can't justify ourselves. We can't justify sin. And look at the pain that we have caused because of sin.

Now look at 2 Samuel chapter 1. 2 Samuel chapter 1.

2 Samuel chapter 1.

Now it can pass after the death of Saul when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites.

And David had stayed two days in Ziklag. Brethren, the Amalekites are not done with.

They're still there.

Spiritually speaking, sin is not done with. It's still there. Our battle of sin is not over.

Until we are in our real promised land, which is the kingdom of God.

And then sin will be gone.

So let's be about, brethren, our Father's business.

Let's go on the offensive and do what is right.

Because you and I do not want to be rejected as kings to reign with Christ in the kingdom of God.