Against The Spirit

It is such a tragedy, and yet it surely is an unfortunate reality. I see it all the time, whenever I have the opportunity to be around some of God’s precious souls. God’s people have been, and are being taught against the leading and teaching of his Spirit. His redeemed are being taught almost in all things to tune out the voice of his Spirit, rather than to “hear what the Spirit is saying unto the [congregations]” (Rev. 2:29). How is this happening? Well, in too many ways to list here, but I’ll show you the foundational errors that have caused the remainder of the house to be unlevel. First of all it’s by having the biblical new birth experience of the baptism of the holy Ghost [evidenced by speaking with other tongues] replaced by the traditional ’Christian’ ”new birth” methodologies. “Getting Saved,” which is supposedly accomplished through any one of a number of methods, has replaced good old fashioned repentance from sin and persevering humility and faith toward Jesus, until being baptized by him with his Spirit, and having his witness of the experience, which is speaking in other tongues, as it was in the beginning (Acts 2:4; Acts 15:8; Acts 10:46). I’m sorry friends, but there simply is no record in the scriptures of anyone “getting saved,” “accepting the Lord as their personal savior” [Seriously, US accept HIM?], or any of the other accepted modern Christian traditions that supposedly stipulate the new birth experience. And the tradition of getting saved also includes the enormous error of stating that salvation is at the beginning of our faith in Jesus, rather than at “the end of [our] faith,” as the scriptures plainly show (I Pet. 1:9; Mat. 24:13; Philip. 3:11-14; I Cor. 9:24-27; Rom. 11:19-22; Rom. 13:11; Jn. 15:5,6; etc.). So in this grievous traditional error regarding the new birth, God’s people have been basically taught in a backward manner of the teaching of the Spirit of God. And this major falsehood has diluted and polluted the fellowship of God’s people by causing them to believe that those who are not yet in the body of Christ, are born again. It also has occasioned a great number of God’s people to be “unequally yoked together” in marriage to those who are ‘Christians,’ but not actually born of his Spirit (baptized with the Spirit into the one body - I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:5). And whether it be in fellowship or marriage, an unequal yoke always brings those who have the Spirit down to the carnally minded level of those who do not. Those who are without the Spirit cannot come up to the level of those who have the Spirit, unless they know that they must receive the Spirit in order to be born again (Jn. 3:5; Rom. 8:9). And it is certain that “to be carnally minded is death” (Rom. 8:6).

And in the same way the body of Christ has been conditioned and taught to have godly reverence for ceremonies that Jesus lived, suffered, died, and rose again to fulfill. The two main ones are water baptism and what is commonly known as communion. Jesus clearly stated that water baptism was under the law, and also that he came to fulfill it (Mat. 5:17; Mat. 3:15). Also the apostle Paul who was sent to the Gentile believers to establish the understanding of the fulfillment of the law, clearly said that there is “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). There is one baptism because Jesus has fulfilled the other one that only pointed the way to him, and symbolized his baptism. The worship of God by spiritual means is the only worship accepted by him under this covenant (Jer. 31:33; Jn. 4:24; Philip. 3:3; Rom. 8:4; Rom. 10:4). The same is true with communion. What Jesus and his disciples were partaking of at the last supper was the Passover, not communion. When he said “Do this in remembrance of me,” he didn’t mean for them to continue with that ceremony, but rather to supply spiritual meat and drink to one another when it became available to do so. They could not do that then because they didn’t have the Spirit to do it with (Jn. 16:7; Jn.7 :37-39; Acts 1:4,5). He had told them earlier, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life” (Jn. 6:53,54). In the same sermon he went on to say, “What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (J. 6:62,63). So he was speaking to them spiritual things using a natural similitude, even as he was doing at the Passover; and he stated clearly that the things he was speaking of could not be done until he went back to heaven. And he also confirmed the same thing at the Passover: “But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom" (Mat. 26:29). ”For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). So again we see that his disciples could not carry out his command until the holy Ghost came to them. But after it did, we see what the true communion of the new testament is: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). And this is what the apostle Paul was referring to when he said, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the holy Ghost, be with you all” (II Cor. 13:14). Friend, Jesus died and rose so that we could have true communion with him and with one another. He did not die for the Passover, or for a broken off fragment of the Passover. Neither did he die for water baptism. When we partake of the spiritual worship that Jesus did die for, only then do we ”shew the Lord’s death till he come” (I Cor. 11:26). So in these things God’s people have been taught in the opposite direction of the leading of his Spirit (Gal. 5:18). And these foundational errors, as well as many, many others, have destroyed the “unity of the Spirit” among God’s people, both with him and with one another (Eph. 4:1-5; Jn. 17; 21-23; I Cor. 1:10; Rom. 5:6). Sadly this is not what Jesus suffered, died and rose again to give us (Jn. 17:22-24). Amen.