Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is . . ."
There are verses from the Bible that are especially useful to Satan because their meaning can be more easily twisted than can other verses to promote the religion he invented, the false religion which calls itself after the name of the true Lord (Christianity). After having examined several examples of this previously, I will now venture to suggest a verse that has not been one of his very favorite Scriptures but will become one of them in the future.
The Spirit of God is pleading with all of God's children to "Come out of her, My people!" All of God's children hear that voice, but as of yet, few have understood it. Still, an increasing number of believers are coming to understand that the "her" out of which God is calling His children is the religion of Christianity. In response to this increase in understanding among the saints, I predict that Satan's ministers will turn with increasing frequency to the verse in Hebrews 10:25, in which the man of God warned the saints to "forsake not the assembling of ourselves together". As more of God's people forsake various Christian sects to follow the call of Jesus, the more likely we are to hear that verse repeated by Christian ministers. Hebrews 10:25 is finding a place among Satan's favorite Scriptures.
When the writer of Hebrews said "forsake not the assembling of ourselves together" the "ourselves" in that sentence did not refer to Christian churches. Christian churches didn't even exist at that time. The "ourselves" in Hebrews 10:25 refers only to the blood-washed saints of God. To those saints who hear the call of Jesus to forsake Christianity, Christian ministers frantically repeat the words, "forsake not the assembling of ourselves together", but as usual, they have it backwards. The very reason God is calling His children out of Christianity is so that they can assemble together!
The whole issue is, "Who is the 'ourselves' with whom we are told by God to assemble?" Obviously, the "ourselves" in Hebrews 10:25 are those who belong to God. But what people belong to God? Paul tells us. He wrote that "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. 8). By that holy measure, there are multitudes of Christians everywhere who do not belong to God because there are multitudes of Christians everywhere who have not received (and are not even seeking) the holy Ghost. Why should the children of God feel obligated to assemble with them? Those people are not a part of "ourselves"!
No Christian church is the body of Christ. God's children are the people who have been baptized with the holy Ghost, with the Spirit's witness of "stammering lips" or "other tongues". The author of Hebrews was exhorting God's people to stick together and not to be divided by participating in the religions of men. In essence, he was commanding the saints to refrain from becoming a part of any Christian church. He was exhorting the saints to assemble together with themselves instead of assembling together with religious people who were not of God. The reason Jesus is calling Spirit-baptized people to come out of Christianity is so that they can assemble with "ourselves"!
Christian ministers who use Hebrews 10:25 to pressure you to assemble to worship with those who are not God's children are pressuring you to disobey that Scripture, not obey it. In 1Corinthians 6:15-20, Paul exhorts us to honor God by NOT assembling for religious reasons with those who are unsanctified. The love of God compels us to reject "the church" because "the church" is not of God. God's children who have joined Christian churches are the ones who have "forsaken the assembling of ourselves together", and the only way to repent for doing so is to undo the crime and come out of Christianity!
God's children who belong to Christian churches are disobeying His commandment to "assemble ourselves together" because they are assembling with those who do not belong to God. For many generations now, God's children have been deceived by Christian ministers to partake of a religion that accepts as born-again children of God those who have not repented and received God's holy Ghost. They claim to believe in Jesus, but they have no witness from the Spirit at all. Do not trust them, and do not assemble with them.
Your minister is one of these deceivers if he is telling people without the baptism of the holy Ghost that they are born again. Such men are not of God; they want God's Spirit-baptized saints to join their churches in order to further legitimize their religion. Do not trust them. God's Spirit is the only trustworthy witness of who is born again and who is not, because the Spirit is truth (lJn. 5:6). Trust the words of Paul who said, "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
Child of God, do you love your Lord enough to "assemble yourselves" ONLY with those who also belong to Jesus? That is the only group of people God has ever commanded His children to assemble with-and that is the assembly that we are not to "forsake". Can't you hear the tender voice of Jesus saying to you, "Come out of her, My people" and "assemble yourselves together"?
Christian ministers who use Hebrews 10:25 to keep God's children inside their religion have not been sent by Jesus. They don't know what they are talking about. They love Hebrews 10:25 only because they do not understand its meaning, and they would hate the author of Hebrews now if he were to be sent from God to explain it to them.