Temptation and the Church

There are two ways by which man can be 'justified,' or made right with God, whether supposedly or truly. One is his own way, which produces only his own fruit in his life; and the other is God's way, which produces God's fruit in one's life. There are many ways by which religious man attempts to justify himself, but they all add up to only one way really, because it is still of man. Many establish their own supposed right standing with God by "going to church" several times a week. Others are more definitive in their self righteousness, like trusting in being water baptized, or by "keeping the sabbath," or by "taking communion," or keeping dress and hair standards, and adding more and more "church service" and the like to their lives. With many people it is their identification with the particular 'Christian' affiliation that they are in, believing that their 'church' is the true way of Christ. For that matter a lot of folks feel that they are acceptable with God by NOT doing a lot of the things that many stark sinners practice. And it's certain that everyone who professes to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ THINKS they are right with God because they 'believe on Jesus' according to their own defining of what believing on Jesus means. The problem with all of the above, as well as with many other like things; is that none of these methodologies of being justified with God can do one single thing to make the heart and soul pleasing and acceptable to God. All of these kinds of things can be done by man himself, including thinking that you believe sufficiently on Jesus. The only true way to be right with God is to really believe on Jesus unto repentance from sin and yielding one's heart to him until he literally transforms and renews the heart and spirit by the power of his holy Spirit (Tit. 3:5; Acts 1:8). Jesus specifically defined initially believing on him as follows: " He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) [Jn. 7:38,39] The baptism of the Spirit of God for honest, repentant, believing souls, IS that "river of living water" that Jesus spoke of; and it is that baptism that Jesus himself administers that literally cleanses the heart of man from sin and thereby justifies him, which is to say that it puts one in right standing with God by truly taking away his sins through his faith in Jesus which produces the experience (I Cor. 6:11; Gal. 3:14). That is the only way that anyone can and must be made a partaker of the true righteousness which is of God. That is also the only way that anyone can be born into the kingdom of God and become a member of the one body of Christ (Jn. 3:5; I Cor. 12:13). These scriptural truths are confirmed by the apostle Paul as follows: "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but RIGHTEOUSNESS, and peace, and joy IN THE HOLY GHOST" (Rom. 14:17).

The baptism of the holy Ghost with the accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues is something that JESUS HAS TO DO, and he does it when anyone truly submits themselves to him by true faith and repentance. Peter told exactly how people were justified by faith in Jesus by the washing away of their sins, when he described what took place with the first Gentile believers when he preached the word of the Gospel to them: "Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH" (Acts 15:7-9). And to be more pointed of what he was telling about, we also have the actual account of this event as well: "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God" (Acts 10:44-46). So according to the apostle Peter it was the baptism of the holy Ghost with the evident sign of speaking with other tongues that purified the hearts of these Gentiles from their sins by means of their sincere and earnest faith in Jesus. And as the account states, it was God, who as Peter said, "knoweth the hearts;" who "bare them witness" of their justification, by means of his chosen sign of speaking in other tongues. That is how Peter and those who had come with him to the house of Cornelius the Centurion KNEW that these Gentiles had received God's Spirit. And that was the same holy Spirit that washes the heart and soul, thereby renewing and regenerating the inner man of those whose faith is sure (Tit. 3:5). This is how souls were justified BY GOD in the beginning of this Gospel, and it is certain that nothing has been changed, at least not by God. And this is why the apostle Paul made the following evident statement of truth: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8:9).

Religious man has tried to change this glorious Gospel of liberty and deliverance with all of his non-scriptural methods of how to get and stay right with God, but he has only buried himself in his sin and his shame in so doing. The only way to stay right with God after initially being made right, is to continue to do the things that it took to first be baptized with the Spirit; namely submitting ourselves to Jesus with humility and faith, and praying through daily to the renewing of the heart by the cleansing power of God which is in his Spirit that we've received (Col. 2:16). If we practice that then everything else will take care of itself because we will be able to "walk in the Spirit" and thereby be "led by the Spirit" into all of God's ways (Gal. 5:16; Rom. 8:14). Today God's Spirit is calling to his people, pleading with the same question that he asked Israel of old: "O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?" (Psm. 4:2). Jesus suffered and died and rose again to provide us with the same Spirit of holiness and power that he walked in when he was here, and yet God's people have exalted their own ways of obtaining 'righteousness' before and above the experience of attaining to GOD'S righteousness by being baptized BY JESUS. True faith in Jesus and justification thereby can ONLY be administered to anyone BY JESUS, who is the ONLY mediator and baptizer under the new covenant (I Tim. 2:5; Mk. 1:7,8). But it truly has happened to God's people today even as it happened to Israel: "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God" (Rom. 10:2,3). And it has happened by means of man taking the Gospel into his own hands and making it something other than what God established for him. The mess that man has made of the Gospel of Christ is akin to the mess that he has made of the world that God gave him to be blessed in, and it can truly be said according to the wise observation of Solomon: "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions" (Eccl. 7:29). The only solution is the same solution that God proposed to Israel by Jeremiah: "Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein" (Jer. 6:16). Maybe a few souls can learn the lesson of history. God bless.