The Last Days and Israel

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory" (Col. 3:1-3). If you are hoping to be with Jesus at his second coming to this world, then follow the instructions above. As the apostle said, IF we are dead [to sin], THEN our lives are "hid with Christ in God" (Rom. 6:2). And if our lives ARE hid with Christ, then we are naturally "seeking those thing which are above." The problem is that there are not many folks who are doing these things. A whole lot of God's people have been conditioned by the Christian traditions and doctrines of today to hide somewhere else other than in Christ, and to seek those things which are "on the earth." Bear with me for a moment and I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about. The prophet Hosea gave us a really enlightening prophecy that is more true today than it was in old testament Israel: "They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good" (Hos. 4:13). The problem then was that Israel was worshiping God in places other than where God ordained. And why were they doing this? Because their deeds were not wrought in righteousness, and therefore they were inclined to worship somewhere where they could hide out; like under the SHADOW of the trees mentioned. Jesus said that new testament believers "MUST worship God in SPIRIT and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). Very simply put this means that nobody can worship God OTHER than in spirit, and that only by means of true holiness; which is to say without sin (Philip. 3:3; II Tim. 2:22). Those who do so remain honest and humble, and seek God diligently to "purify [themselves] even as he is pure;" so that their worship might be found acceptable to God (I Jn. 3:3). And they worship and serve God by no other means than with their spirits, which have been "joined to the Lord" (I Cor. 6:17). Peter said it this way: "Ye also, as lively [spiritually alive] stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 2:5). When it's just you and the Lord, and you know that your worship, not to mention your life, must be without sin; then there simply is nowhere to hide BUT in Christ, and in his holiness. But Christianity, including the Pentecostal communities, have provided ALL KINDS of hiding places where people don't have to come clean and stay clean. There are the modern replacement doctrines for the new birth, which are summed up in the non-scriptural tradition of "getting saved." That's a nice hiding place because with that tradition you don't have to actually come fully clean of your sins, as you have to do in order to be accepted by Jesus and baptized with his Spirit with the heavenly sign of speaking in tongues [as the Spirit give the utterance.] With "getting saved" you can decide when you have the remission of your sins on your own, and you can have plenty of help from other 'Christians' to help you decide that. But if you want it real you will wait until "God bares [you] witness" with HIS sign of speaking with other tongues, as it was in the beginning of the covenant (Acts 15:8,9; Acts 10:44-46).

Plenty of folks however HAVE come clean and been baptized by Jesus with his Spirit, and go on to find some of Christianity's OTHER trap door hiding places. One of the biggest, if not THE biggest, is water baptism. Anyone who stoutly upholds and promotes water baptism, does so because they have sins that they are trying to hide. In this instance, as long as they are justified by the fact that they have "obeyed God" in water baptism, well they can hold right on to those other 'insignificant' problems and they'll be just fine. Not to mention that water baptism is a "shadow" of the baptism that Jesus died and rose to provide, that being the Spirit baptism that came to us "by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (Mat. 3:15; Heb. 10:1; I Pet. 3:21). So like Israel of old, God's people of the new covenant are still prone to hide under shadows. The same is true with "communion," which is not communion, but rather it is a fragment of the Passover which Jesus and his disciples were partaking of at the last supper. Somebody has missed the part where Jesus told them AT the 'last' supper, that what they were doing there would be later fulfilled by spiritual means: "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. 26:28). And, "For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Lk. 22:16). He had told them the same thing at an earlier time, with a little more clarity: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you... 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" (Jn. 6:52,62,63). So these things that Jesus commanded to be done, were of spiritual meaning and value, and could not be done UNTIL he "ascended up where he was before." And what is it that happened AFTER he ascended back to heaven? "And they were all filled [baptized] with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!! And when they received the holy Ghost there on the day of Pentecost they began eating and drinking with Jesus in the kingdom of God as he said they would. As it is written: "For the kingdom of God is NOT meat and drink; BUT [God's] righteousness, and peace, and joy IN the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). And again; "For BY ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized into one body... and have been all made to DRINK into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13).

Anyone who feels justified because they "take communion," is hiding sin and believing a lie thereby. And once again we are talking about a ceremony, or part of a ceremony rather, that was of the law and therefore was a "SHADOW of good [spiritual] things to come" (Heb. 10:1). Some do the same thing by magnifying the "Sabbath," though the apostle Paul clearly said that it was a "SHADOW of things to come" (Col. 2:17). Then you have foot washing ceremonies, dress codes, hair codes, special 'days,' and the like (Jn. 13:5,7; Gal. 4:10). I know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that there are MANY who feel that as long as they are keeping up on these kinds of things, they are right with God. Not only so, but these same commandments and doctrines of men by which many justify themselves, also condition those who love them to condemn those who do NOT keep them. What a mess! You might have noticed by now that every single thing that I've listed here, after the headliner of "getting saved;" are CARNAL things. Do you remember that Jesus said that the "true worhippers MUST worship God in spirit and in truth?" Well, carnal things are NOT spiritual things. That's pretty simple isn't it? There ARE NO carnal commandments in the new covenant! To go back to our opening text passage, this is EXACTLY what the apostle Paul was speaking of when he wrote this: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are ABOVE, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, NOT on things on the earth." He wasn't talking about wine, women, and song here; but rather he was speaking of the worship and service of God. Just back up a chapter and you can see that this is what he was dealing with. The effort of Christianity to worship and serve God through carnal means is as misguided and backward as it gets. The same apostle clearly said that we cannot do this and be led by God's Spirit at the same time (Gal. 5:18). And if we do NOT learn to be led by God's Spirit we will ultimately be found to NOT be the children of God (Rom. 8:14; Eph. 5:1). The reason for this is plain: The only place one can be if they are NOT being led by the Spirit of God is in sin. God is not a sinner, his Son is not a sinner; and those who follow the SPIRIT of God are not sinners, because the HOLY Spirit does not lead ANYONE into sin. It rather give them power OVER sin (Acts 1:8; Rom. 8:2; I Jn. 3:3; Rev. 21:7,8). But there is a worldly religious spirit that leads people into 'shadows' where they can hide their sins in self righteousness, while setting their affections on "things on the earth." My friend, while there is still time to do so, loose yourself from any and all of these carnal shadows and traditions of men; and "seek [only] those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." There very simply IS NO justification except by, through, and in the Lord Jesus Christ himself: "Now the Lord is THAT SPIRIT: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY" (II Cor. 3:17). Amen.