Acquaintance with God – Results in …

How sweet and amiable does acquaintance with God make a man! How ready to heal divisions! How full of goodness and charity! How ready to do good unto all, but especially to those that be of the household of faith! How compassionate and tender-hearted! How ready to provoke others to love and good works: so that the whole parish lives the quieter… This is the man who adorns the gospel. This is the Christian who makes credible his profession. This is what it means to be intimately acquainted with God.
~ James Janeway - “Heaven upon Earth.”

Ministers Must Not Let Sin Live in the Church – Saul listening to the People Instead of Leading

1 Sam 11:6 Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul
1 Sam 11:15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD NKJV

What horrible words, that the Spirit of God only came upon Saul but did not fill him. Even though God used Him in great ways, let us learn not to rest in this for our comfort. Do not be satisfied that the Spirit may come upon you and use you as He did Saul or the prophet’s donkey. This is the beginning of Ichabod, learn it well and watch for it and avoid it. For it creeps upon us bit by bit. Eat and drink Christ, be continually being filled with the Spirit and walking in Him all day by intent.

1 Sam 15:11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him,”Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.”
14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
And he said to him, “Speak on.”
17 So Samuel said,”When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel? 18 Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel,”But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”
22 So Samuel said:
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”

1. It is important for us, being by nature little Saulites, to recognize that we should not think we can do our own thing, close as it is to the will and word of God, and then God will just accept it since He knows we are imperfect. Be most careful of the little things, the little deviances. For Satan can have you by little sins as well as large. And if he cannot get you to sin large then he will get you to keep your little sins.
2. See how seriously Saul has convinced himself that he did obey God. Does he really think he has, or does he think it was close enough to be acceptable? He offers evidence of his near perfect obedience as proof he obeyed. This is like making a sacrifice offering with a sheep that only has a few minor blemishes and expecting that Gd should just accept this as well as a perfect unblemished sheep.
3. Then he blames the very people he was sent to lead.
4. The next lesson will be that the rulers in the church are not to listen to the whining complaining voices of the people when they oppose the word of God. Speak pleasant things to us and not of our sin and hell. Plug your ears and do not listen to them.
5. And consider that Neither will our sacrifice and sorrow be adequate to be accepted when we have not obeyed God’s word. We must obey. 100% absolute, no matter what. You who hold high to the forgiveness of God read on with an open heart and beg the Spirit to teach and warn you now what the Spirit filled life is.

24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD.”
26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27 And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 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. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”
30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD.

But did he really? Was his worship accepted by God even though Samuel went back with him after his pathetic plea? He surely has confessed his sin but this repentance is not accepted by God. Do not let the serpent comfort you as you hang around the tree enjoying your sins and partial obedience with the thought that you can repent later and all will be well. This is a lie of the devil. Read on and be warned.
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him cautiously.
And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
33 But Samuel said,”As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

1. So the holy man must do the dirty work and immediately put to death the sin, because the warrior did not do it. This is a condemnation on Saul that Samuel must kill this king. God has taken back his Kingship from Saul in this judgment act.
2. Would not one stab of the sword have killed this king? Samuel here manifests the holiness of God as judge who will harshly punish the evil doers.

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

16:1 Now the LORD said to Samuel,”How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?  16:15 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him. NKJV

Samuel as a type of the Spirit of God or God’s presence never goes to Saul again. The saddest words. Then Samuel is even told to not give another thought to Saul or intercede for him, similarly we are told in 1Jn that there is a sin to death and we are not to pray for those who have committed it, God is done with Saul.

Hard thoughts to think on as we contemplate our own imperfection to obey the commands and maintain the regulative principle of worship, as we listen to our flock cry and beg for what we know is not good for them. Yet we must make our minds as flint and not allow them to be wooed by the cries of those we are to protect. Consider how many of those who complain of the harshness in the scriptures may not even be converted and will you listen to them and accommodate them rather than give the strong words of protection needed by the true saints as a means of perseverance?

Woe to the shepherds to listen to the sheep and not the Lord.

Let us all repent and turn to the Lord with mournful hearts and pray all night if we must until we are so filled with the Spirit that we will not deviate from the pure worship of God and practice of obedience in iota!  For if not on jot or tittle will pass from the law do you think god will easily wink at that jot you willfully rebel against obeying?

Flee to Christ flee in fear of Samuel’s judgment on you and beg the Spirit as David did not to leave you or even take His joy away for a moment. Let us be so consistently filled with the Oil that it is overflowing on others all about us everyday.

Let our only rebuke from others be that we spill oil on them wherever we go, in every task we are so salty they see Christ, regardless how they treat us.

Shepherds Stop your ears to the people, for God will not stop His ears to the bleating of those sheep of our sins we have knowingly kept and should have killed.

1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
NKJV

Rom 6:1-Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? NKJV

Rom 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? NKJV

Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. NKJV

2 Tim 4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.  NKJV

When the ministers do not put death all of the sins of the people in the church and they tolerate some sins, this is the Ichabod of them and the church. The sheep flee, the church is ravaged and overtaken with evil and false men take their place. They make a shame of our God instead of magnifying His glory

1 Sam 31:4 Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it. 5 And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. 6 So Saul, his three sons, his armorbearer, and all his men died together that same day.

7 And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were on the other side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them. 8 So it happened the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9 And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines, to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. NKJV

This was from my meditation this morning. This meditation was a great reminder to me too, not to be a Saul. Not to look at all the Philistines I have killed and all the sheep I killed and ignore the ones I kept alive or the King (cherished one). Not to obey partially in the things I want but all of the word. Not to give the blemished or left over things to God, but my best, first fruits.
And that sacrifices and offerings do not buy Him off so I can disobey somewhere else. Ooooohh. No sin allowed, no sin tolerated; cut it to pieces now and do not wait, make sure there is no possibility of making a treaty with any sin. As Agag says only a few hours later, death is certainly off the table now right???  Not with Samuel. Not with God. Death to all sin.