A Remnant True to God — Zac Poonen

Why Another Church? Divisions and God's Approved Remnant

I want to take a study this Sunday and next Sunday on the subject of why another church? You know, that's one of the questions that so many people, Christians and non-Christians ask. There are already so many thousands of different groups and different denominations.

Why in the world do you start another church? And you know that we've been in the ministry of planting new churches, not always in places where there is no church. I mean, we have two churches in villages where there was no church for 2 ,000 years.

That's great. But most of our churches are in places where there are other so-called churches. And we don't compare ourselves with anybody. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 12, that those who compare themselves with others are foolish.

So we don't do that. We are not here to compete with anyone. No comparison, no competition. But we need to know why God has allowed that. Is it in the will of God or is it just some man's idea? So first of all, I want to begin with 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and verse 18 and 19.

Paul is writing to the church in Corinth. And even though there was only one church in Corinth at that time, there were the seeds of other churches going to come out of that church already. And that was through the little divisions there, not divisions because of personality clashes.

Unfortunately, those type of divisions are also there in many churches where people want to have some people going after them. But here, it was not due to that. He says in verse 18, When you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.

And in part, I believe it. And then it says there have to be these divisions or factions or groups among you. Now remember, this is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit saying there have to be such factions in a church.

Have you ever read that verse? Have you ever tried to understand it? These are the verses that strike us if we read the Bible slowly instead of rushing through it. There must be factions among you so that those who are approved may become evident.

See, not everybody who sits in a church is approved by God. They may all be coming to sing the songs and hear the message, but to be approved by God is a totally different thing. I would say that most Christians come to churches around the world to be blessed by God.

That's also good. I want to be blessed by God. That's important. We all want to be blessed by God. And there are many promises in God's Word where God says, I will bless you. But we want something more.

We want to be approved by God. The baptism of Jesus, the voice from heaven did not say, this is my son whom I have blessed. Of course he was blessed. But this is my son in whom I am well pleased, whom I approve of.

And there's a world of difference between God saying about you or me, this is my son or my daughter whom I have blessed, and God saying, this is my son or daughter whom I am pleased with and I approve of.

It's something like our own children. We provide for all of our children, but we may not be happy with the way some of our children are going. So there are those we bless everyone, but then we approve of some, we are pleased with some.

So that's the reason why God allows divisions, because that's the only way those who are approved can become manifest or evident. You see, when a church sinks into darkness, which started out as light, then God has a remnant that tries to keep that light burning.

And that is the mark of God's approval. So wherever a church sinks into darkness, we got to think of that warning God gave and Jesus gave in Luke chapter 11. In Luke's gospel chapter 11, he says about a lamp in verse 33 onwards, which is the church, you know, in Revelation 1, the lamp stands are a picture of the church.

That's not explained here. It's explained in Revelation 1, the last verse. And here in verse 33, he says, when you light a lamp, you don't put it under a basket. A church is not supposed to be sort of without a witness, hidden somewhere, afraid.

No, you put it on a lamp stand. The light must shine on the lamp stand so that everybody can see the light. And the eye is the lamp of your body, and that refers to our conscience. And where people in the church walk with a clear conscience, keeping their conscience clear, confessing their sins immediately as soon as they've fallen, etc., being cleansed in the blood of Christ, then your eye is clear, vision is clear.

And the whole body is full of light. But where people are not sensitive to keep their conscience clear, then the body becomes full of darkness. And then he says, watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

Watch out, see the warning, that you have a light now in your church. Make sure it doesn't become darkness. The light upon the lamp stand, it was a warning. And if your whole body is full of light with no dark part in it, then imagine having a church like that, where there's not a single brother or sister who is part of that church who's got a bad conscience.

That's the type of church we want to be. You know what it means to have a good conscience? That means as soon as you sin or you fall, you're aware of failure, you immediately set it right with God and man.

The light burns. If you delay in setting it right, then the light becomes darkness. It's like if a speck of dust goes into your eye. You know how we all feel. We feel, hey, I want to get rid of it immediately.

I mean, if you're doing some very important work, you'd stop that, and wash out your eye. Because if you keep on accumulating dust like that in your eye, you'll become blind. And that's why God has made the eyelids such they blink so many times a day, thousands of times, so that the eye is washed all the time.

It's a picture of how our conscience should be, what the eye is to your body. The cleanest part of your body is your eye. It's being washed hundreds of times a day. The conscience must be like that. And that's what he says.

That's the way a light burns. But what happens in a church where gradually even the leaders don't keep a good conscience? The leaders are not serious about sin? Gradually that light was once there becomes darkness.

God's Witness in Job and the Necessity of Spiritual Warfare

And then what does God want? God has always wanted a witness for him on the earth. It doesn't matter if it's big. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't matter if it's small, I mean. But there must be a witness.

And if you look through the Bible, you'll find that God is always looking for that. The first book written in the Bible is the book of Job. And that's written before Genesis because Job lived before Moses, who wrote Genesis.

So what do we read in the book of Job? The primary, the first book that God wrote for man, he spoke about a witness he had on earth. It was not a large number of people. In fact, some of the preachers who came to preach to Job didn't even know God.

They were the equivalent of the Pharisees. So you see, right from the very first book of the Bible, you see these two streams. One is this godly man who's got a godly home, bringing up his children in a godly way, and probably goes through a lot of suffering and misunderstanding, being attacked by Satan.

It's all a picture of the type of person who's standing up for God even today. They raise godly families. They are misunderstood. Preachers criticize them. It's all in the book of Job. And Satan attacks them because Satan's against that strong, powerful testimony for God, whether it's an individual or a family or a church.

So if you find that yourself being attacked by Satan left, right, and center, oh, that's a compliment. You should praise the Lord. And if you find Satan leaving you alone, brother, you better go and check out your life.

If you find a church that Satan says, ah, leave that alone, they're not going to accomplish anything for God, he'd leave that alone. I don't want to be part of a church that Satan leaves alone. I want to be a part of a church that Satan attacks day and night, but that overcomes Satan day and night with the Word of God.

Jesus overcame with God's Word. The way Satan seeks to silence a witness for Christ, let me tell you, is by silencing the proclamation of the whole counsel of God in that church. He dilutes it, dilutes it, dilutes it.

You know, like a lot of milkmen in our country who sell milk, which is so diluted, diluted, diluted. Finally, it's a little bit of milk added to water. And that's the condition of many churches. The dilution has become so much that there's very little of God's Word now.

It's psychology and music and entertainment and teaching people how to make money and business principles and all that type of stuff. And, you know, seeking to be acceptable to the community. I couldn't care less whether the community accepts me or not.

I want to make sure God accepts me. That is true Christianity. And when the focus shifts from God to how I can be blessed or how I can welcome people who are not serious about God but who want entertainment, gradually the church loses its witness.

Cain and Abel: Two Streams of Worship

And we see that also in the very first two children born to Adam, that is Cain and Abel, that we read of in Genesis 4, the very first story outside the Garden of Eden. You see there the beginning of two streams in humanity that finally ends in the Book of Revelation as Babylon and Jerusalem.

The origin of Babylon and Jerusalem is way back there in Cain and Abel. I'm sure when Cain was a little baby, he would have been just like Jesus said about little children. The closest to heaven on earth is a little baby.

Cain was like that. He wasn't born a wicked criminal. No babies are born wicked. We're all born little babies, the closest thing to heaven on earth. But then we develop in different ways. Cain and Abel were born in the same home.

They listened to the same truth about God, whatever Adam and Eve told them. But yet they went in two different ways. And we see that. People hold the same Bible today and they go two different ways. People sit in the same church and they go in two different ways.

That is their choice. God doesn't force Abel to go this way or force Cain to go the other way. It's their choice. But their choices determine their eternal future. And not only their eternal future, even a lot of their life on earth.

So we see these two streams and that applies to us today. And then you'll know why another church. See, the main difference between Cain and Abel, which I want you to notice, unlike what most evangelical Christians have taught, most evangelical Christians taught that Abel brought blood, a lamb.

And Cain brought grain. And you have to bring blood when you come before God. Now that is if you bring a sin offering in the Old Testament, you have to bring blood. But in the book of Leviticus, you read about thank offerings where they could bring grain.

This was not a sin offering. This was a thank offering like, you know, when people brought their tithes in the Old Testament. Do you know that the tithe was not money? They were not working in offices and factories.

We've sort of got wrong concepts today that pastors have taught people tithe is money. It's not. They were farmers or people who looked after cattle and sheep. So that tithe was in terms of whatever was 10 of what they were blessed with.

If it was grain, they brought grain. If it was fruit, it was fruit. And if it was cattle, it was cattle. It depends on what your profession was. Your tithe was in terms of what God had blessed you with.

And therefore, Cain, it says here, Abel was a keeper of the flocks, verse 2, and Cain was a tiller of the ground. So naturally, when they brought an offering to God, they brought something from their own profession.

That was perfectly right, and God had no complaint about that. And that's why, you know, this wrong teaching that you find in Christendom, like many other wrong teachings, that God accepted Abel's offering, and therefore he accepted Abel.

It's almost as though the way Abel lived didn't matter. His offering was important. Now with that type of teaching, what has happened today in Christendom, you see the result of false teaching or false interpretation, is that so long as you bring the blood of Christ, it doesn't matter how you live.

And that's why you have multitudes of Christians today who say they are born again, cleansed by the blood of Christ, and live worse than all unbelievers. They divorce their wives, divorce their husbands, and think God has accepted them.

They've got to be off their heads. They've got to be crazy to think that you just bring the blood of Jesus and you're okay. And that's come out of this type of teaching. It's false teaching. And that's because you don't read the word of God properly.

Hebrews 11 says, it was faith in his heart that made Abel accepted. And faith means the total leaning of the human personality upon God in confidence in his wisdom and power and love. Total leaning. Not sort of just giving God a little bit.

And you see that, you see the result of that type of faith, which is mentioned by faith, Abel brought a better offering. How is it better? See here in Genesis 4. And if you read it carefully, you see that.

Verse 3, Cain brought an offering. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock. These are two types of believers. Some who bring something to God. And others who bring the best of their life to God. Some people who give a little bit of their time to God.

Others who give the best of their time to God. Some people who give a little bit of their life to God. Others who give the best of their life. Now, this is the difference. It makes a tremendous difference.

And therefore it says, it's very clear. The Lord, the last part of verse 4, first accepted Abel and then his offering. Which is the exact opposite of what many evangelical Christians teach. It's not because of his offering he was accepted.

His offering was accepted because he was accepted. Just like Jesus said, you know, when you bring your offering to God and you know you hurt somebody, don't waste your time giving that offering. Matthew 5, verse 23, leave your offering there.

God won't accept you. Go and settle matters with that person. You become right, then your offering will be accepted. So, don't think that I can bring an offering to God and please him. Don't think God will be pleased with money that you put in the offering box.

It's what you bring in. And it says for Cain, verse 5, and his offering, God had no regard. It's Cain that God didn't accept. Therefore, he didn't accept his offering. Whatever you bring to God, God will accept or reject depending on what you are, what your heart is.

If you treat God as worthy only of the dregs of your life, well, don't be surprised if God doesn't accept you. You know, if you had the governor of your state coming to your house for a cup of tea and you have only one cup of tea there, and you drink most of it, and then you give the dregs to your governor, would anybody do that?

You wouldn't even do that to a beggar. Do you know the number of so-called Christians who do that to God? They use the best for themselves, the dregs for God, whether it's time, money. Look at the number of people who spend more hours watching television than reading the Bible.

It's my entertainment and my comfort and my interests that are first. The cup of tea is almost fully drunk. God, here's a little bit for you. You know what God says? Try and do that to your governor and see if he'll accept it.

Malachi and the Call to Offer God Our Best

That's in Malachi. Now, we went from the first book of the Old Testament to the last book of the Old Testament. You see, the condition is the same among God's people. You see, Malachi, the Lord says, let me read here from the Message Bible.

In verse 6, 7, 8, he says, You priests despise me. You say, not so. How do we despise you? By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship. What do you mean, you say, defiling? What's defiling about it? Well, the altar of God is not important anymore.

Worship of God is no longer a priority. That's defiling. And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you're trying to get rid of, blind, sick, crippled animals, isn't that defiling?

Try doing that to your governor or some senior official. How far do you think you'll get? He says, try and offer that to your governor. That means, you know, they knew that they had to offer sacrifices.

And the fellow would go to his flock and say, Oh, boy, that sick sheep is going to die any moment. Before he dies, let me offer his sacrifice. Or that bullock that's blind and lame, it's a bit of a nuisance to me in any case, let me offer his sacrifice.

That's what I mean by giving the dregs to God. You know, we can train the best of our children to be great in the world and to make money and not train them to live for God. And if you glory in the fact that your children have got good jobs, make a lot of money, more than that they are living wholeheartedly for God, I mean, you've got the same spirit.

You think something in the world is what's important. God may bless them in that way, but that's not the important thing. Are they living wholly for God? That's the point. What they earn, whether it's much or little, is secondary.

Are they living for God in our life, in our time, in our money, in everything? If God sees that you come like Abel, bringing the very best of your time, your family, your energy, your life and everything, always God is first.

Like the Bible says, in the beginning, God. And it's like that in your life. In the beginning, God. Then that will be the person in the church God accepts. So what happens when a church declines from that?

The Widow's Offering and the Difference Between How Much and How

That's the thing. There's always these two streams. There's a little group that comes out of this declining church that becomes the true church of God. You see, for example, just look at this matter of offering alone, first of all.

This is a stream. If you watch it, if you read through the Bible, you'll see it going right through. Let me show you another example. Mark 12. Now, you see, it's very similar. What you read here in Mark 12, 42 to 44, it's like Cain and Abel's story all over again in the New Testament.

This was now at the offering box in the temple. And notice it says in verse 41, Jesus sat down opposite the offering box. Do you know that Jesus sits down opposite the offering box? But the thing is, he's not like many pastors who are seeing how much people are putting in.

He's not interested in that. That's the difference. He says he's seeing how people are putting in. There's a lot of difference between how much and how. It's a difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant, the law was how much. You've got to be 10%. And if you include all the offerings, it was nearly 20%. But in the New Covenant, it's not percentage. That's God's looking at. God loves a cheerful giver.

Are you giving secretly? Are you giving cheerfully? Are you giving sacrificially? No percentage. So it's not how much, but how. And here it says that. Jesus was observing how people gave. God, in Genesis 4, was observing how Cain offered.

Not how much, but how. How did Abel offer? Same thing here. And it says a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins. How much was that? Almost nothing. Then he called his disciples. He said, I want to show you something.

He says, you count all the money in this offering box. In God's eyes, these two cents, this widow put, is more than all that money in the offering box put by rich people. Who counts like that? God does.

It's not a question of how much. It's a question of how. It's a question of the widow gave God her best. The Pharisees, it's like a millionaire who puts a thousand rupees, a thousand rupees in the offering box, a lot of money.

But what's it for a millionaire? A drop in the bucket. But a human, a person who doesn't view as God views, and there are very few Christian leaders who know how to view as God views, they will say, oh, a thousand rupees.

Ah, this poor widow, just two cents. See, God's view of what we give is totally different. I mean, quantity-wise, Cain may have brought a huge pile of grain, and Abel may have brought something, quantity-wise, very small.

But it was the very best. Dear brother, sister, it's not a question of how much you give. It's a question of how. That's the difference between Cain and Abel. And you see that right through Scripture, where these two streams come, and then you'll understand why there needs to be another church frequently.

Saul's Anointing and the Danger of Cleverness

These streams come throughout Scripture. There are many places. Let me just show you one of them. The first king God anointed in Israel was Saul. I want you to see something about his anointing. He was really anointed.

You read in 1 Samuel, in chapter 9, you read about the choice of Saul. God sent Samuel to meet him. And you read about his selection in verse 19 onwards. And he tells him, you know, it's for you that the whole household of Israel is waiting.

And then he told him in chapter 10 that, you know, you're going to be filled with the Spirit. And when you're filled with the Spirit, you'll be changed into another man. Then we read at the end of chapter 10, you read the prophecy in verse 6.

It's a beautiful verse. The Samuel telling Saul, The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightily because you're the chosen man of God, the first king of Israel, and you will be changed into another man.

This happens even today. The Spirit of God fills a person. He's changed into another person. Even his temperament begins to gradually change to become more Christ-like. His shyness disappears. His laziness disappears.

His slipshod way of doing things disappears. It may be part of his temperament before he was converted. But when he's filled with the Spirit, he's changed into another man. That quick tongue which hurts people slows down.

You change into another man. You can't do it. It's not self-improvement. The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and change you into another man. And that's the folly of Christians who try to change themselves without seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And it's the folly of Christians who think the main purpose of the Holy Spirit's coming is to help them to speak in tongues. Or give them some gift of the Holy Spirit. It's to change you into another man, another woman totally.

He may give many gifts, prophecy, tongues, anything. But the main thing is to change you into another man. And it happened. The Spirit of God came upon Saul and changed him into another man. And it says in verse 9,.

And it happened when he turned his back to Lisemel. God changed his heart. Boy, what a word. What a man. God changed his heart. And then they decided to make him king. And verse 20, Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel.

And he selected the tribe of Benjamin. And they selected Saul. But when they looked around for him, verse 21, he could not be found. I mean Samuel had told Saul, Hey listen, you're selected. You're anointed.

You're going to be changed to another man. We're going to gather together there to select you as king. Please come. And the guy is not to be found. Where did he disappear? You think somebody kidnapped him?

No. He himself went and hid himself. No, no, no. I don't want to be king. And it says, The Lord said in verse 22,. Behold, he's hiding himself behind the baggage. He went and hid behind some suitcases and all.

So nobody would see him. He didn't want to be king. He not only was changed to another man, he was a humble man when he started. But he didn't end like that. A picture of the way many Christians start, many churches start, with great humility, with anointing, power.

But it doesn't end like that. It's another story by the time it ends. And then God has to start another church. God has to select another man. So we see here, then finally they got him from there. And notice one thing about him, which is the thing I want you to notice, verse 23, When he came and stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulder upwards.

You know, if he stood in a crowd of a thousand people, you see one head sticking out. He was about nine inches taller than everybody else. Maybe he was seven foot. And all the others were below six. And there you look at this huge crowd, and you see one head standing out.

That's all. And I want you to notice this. He was distinguished by his head. It's the type of person in Christianity that backslides pretty soon. In chapter 13, this clever Saul, distinguished by his brain, which stood out above everybody else's brain.

It says here that he told, Saul said in verse 1 Samuel 13 and verse 9, Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offering. And he offered the burnt offering. Now that may look like a small thing to you.

But it was a principle in the Old Testament that if you're a king, stick to being a king. Don't try to be a priest. No king was allowed to be a priest. No priest was allowed to be a king. That's why nobody from the tribe of Levi ever could become a king in Israel.

It was just a law. It's just like the boundaries we have, you know. All of us are given different ministries, and you've got to stick to your ministry. But the problem is that when God blesses a man tremendously in his own ministry, he gradually begins to get puffed up.

Haven't you had that experience? That he begins to feel, Yeah, now I can tread into other ministries. Oh brother, be careful. That's exactly what Saul did. And they begin to judge other ministries God has not even called them to.

They begin to move into things God's never called them to. They begin to expand into areas God never told them to go to. And then what happens? They lose the anointing. It says here, As soon as he finished the offering, there was a reason why the priest, king was not allowed to be a priest, because God wanted the first king priest to be Jesus Christ.

There was a foreshadowing of that in Melchizedek way back in the Old Testament. There was a king and a priest, but that was before the nation of Israel started and the law was given. And that's why Jesus Christ is called a priest after the order of Melchizedek, not after the order of Levi, because Levi could never be a king.

Now little things like this. Saul was a king. He had no business to be a priest. And he decided, Hey, I'm God's blessing here, I'm a king. And as a king, the Philistines are being defeated. So I suppose I can move into the ministry of priest as well.

God will make an exception. He doesn't. And as soon as he's finished the offering, Samuel came. And Saul went out to greet him and Samuel said, What have you done? What a stupid thing you did. Oh, and Saul began to make excuses.

All the people were scattering from me and you hadn't come in the appointed days. And so I said, Now the Philistines will come down and I have not. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. What all excuses, just like Adam making excuses for eating the fruit in the tree.

You see, all the race of Adam is very clever at making excuses. And you and I know how easy it is to make excuses for our sin, to blame somebody else and to blame the people, etc, etc. And Samuel said to Saul, You have acted foolishly.

Verse 13, 1 Samuel 13, 13. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord, which he commanded you. And now listen, Saul. God would have established your kingdom forever. But he's not going to do it. Your brain got the better of you.

You thought you were a clever man. You could do this. You could do that. You could criticize this person, you know Christians today who criticize things which are outside their boundary. I mean, think of a bachelor criticizing the way a married couple have brought up their children.

That's an example. To the height of stupidity. You can't criticize in an area where you haven't entered. I'll tell you, we've worked in this church for more than 34 years now. And like every church, we have critics.

But let me tell you something. The people who have criticized me the most through the years are the people who have never planted one church themselves. It's like a bachelor who's never had one child.

He criticizes this family, that family. That's not the way to bring up your children. That's not the way to bring up your children. Brother, why don't you get married and bring up children and show people how to bring up children?

Why don't you plant a church and show people how a good church should be instead of being the great maharaja, the king sitting on a throne and criticizing this, that, and the other? It's very dangerous.

Your kingdom would have been established forever, but your clever brain got in the way. See, it's people with clever brain who can analyze and criticize bachelors. Why that person's children are not brought up properly and that person's not brought up his children properly.

People with clever brains can criticize this church, that church, this church. That's why we've often said it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. There may be darkness, but brother, instead of cursing it, sister, light a candle.

Build a better family than that fellow's and say this is the way it should be done. Build a better church than that one that brother has done and say this is the way it should be done, not the way. That's what the Lord told me because I was foolish in my younger days and I would criticize this is not right and that's not right and the Lord said, hey, why don't you do it the right way and show people the way it should be done.

You say, they're not speaking in tongues in the proper way in that church. Great. You have a church where people speak in tongues properly according to scripture. That's not the right type of healing ministry.

Okay, you pray for the sick and do it the right way. I tell you, our mouth will be shut pretty quickly. I remember one brother once came and said, brother, we need to have more healing in the church. I said, go right ahead.

I'm not going to stop you from healing anyone. Then what do you say to that? Since the day of Adam, he had this tendency to find fault. My wife. God, you gave me this wife. It's clever people and so he says to him, now God is going to take away the kingdom from you and verse 14 of 1 Samuel 13, he's going to give it to somebody who is a man not after his own head but after his own heart.

That was the difference between Saul and David. Saul was a man of the head. David is a man whose heart was right. You can build a church with a clever head. God won't accept it. But if you're a man or a woman after God's own heart, it's your heart that you're concerned about.

If your heart should be in tune with God's heart, then God can do a work through you. So only a clever head. There's nothing wrong in having a clever head. I think Paul had one of the cleverest brains in his time.

I think he would have been a success as a businessman, as a software engineer, or any field Paul went into, he'd have been better than all of us. But he decided to devote all of his brain to the kingdom of God.

There are very few people like that in history who had clever brains and decided to devote all of it to God's kingdom. Praise God for such people who say, I don't want to use my brain to make money in the world.

I want to use my brain to build a church in God and lead people closer to Christ. God uses those who are not very clever too, like Peter. There's no distinction between God, but it's a wonder Peter gave all that he had and Paul gave all that he had.

But it's a wonderful thing. You see, Peter couldn't have made a lot of money in the world. Paul could have. But it's a wonderful thing when a man can make a tremendous amount of money in the world and he advanced tremendously in the world in his profession and decides to give it all to God.

There's a testimony there. I'm not saying you've got to leave your jobs. Paul continued to earn his living even after that. He didn't want to be a burden to anybody financially. So continue in your job, but be devoted to the things of God.

Saul and David, Babylon and Jerusalem

Now, that is... You see the string? Cain and Abel and Saul and David and always the earthly comes first and the spiritual comes afterwards. It's always like that. Like it says in 1 Corinthians 15, first the earthly, then the spiritual.

And you see also another thing that Cain is always jealous of Abel and Saul is jealous of David. Babylon is always jealous of Jerusalem. They tried to tear Jerusalem to pieces. Cain killed Abel and Saul tried his best to kill David.

And the corrupt Babylonian church is always critical of the little Jerusalem church and would try to crush it and kill it. It's a stream that goes through, right through scripture. Why another king when Saul is there?