Ceremony, Communion and the Sabbath

Thought for Today
May. 11

MATTHEW 16:13-19, PART FOUR

No one on earth was in the kingdom of God until the holy Ghost came on the day of Pentecost and baptized Jesus' disciples into it. Paul said that the kingdom of God is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17). When you receive the holy Ghost baptism, you enter into the kingdom of God.

When the holy Ghost first came on the day of Pentecost, Peter was anointed by God to lead men into the kingdom; first the Jews (Acts 2), then the Samaritans, or half-Jews (Acts 8), and lastly, the Gentiles (Acts 10). Every person on earth fit into one of those three groups, and the "keys" that Jesus promised to Peter was the power to open the door to the kingdom of God to each of those three groups, one at a time. Once Peter had opened the door, other anointed men could lead Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles into the kingdom, but Peter was first because he had the keys. He was the man anointed to open the door. (For more, send for my tract #27, "The Keys of the Kingdom".)

It is sobering to consider the fact that, just as there was an opening of the door to God's kingdom, there will also be a closing of the door. That, too, will be done by a man with an anointing from God. Paul was ordained by God to preach a gospel that Jews hated, and in effect, Paul's gospel closed the door for the Jews. Their rejection of the revelation given to Paul may at first appear as though they slammed the door in God's face, but it never really is the case that man shuts the door. God, through Paul's gospel, closed the door in the face of Jews who would not believe, and so it has remained until this day.

Paul said that God revealed to him that in His sight there is no longer a difference between Jew and Gentile, that physical circumcision no longer means anything to God as a mark of His special people. That doctrine infuriated the Jews, and they hated Paul for teaching it. Jews pursued and persecuted Paul wherever they could find him, and in Acts 21, a Jewish mob failed to bludgeon Paul to death only because Roman soldiers stopped them. What the Jews did not understand was that by their rejection of Paul and his message, their door to the kingdom of God was being closed.

God will turn again to the Jews, and it appears from Paul's writings that the re-opening of their door to the kingdom will coincide with the closing of the door for the Gentiles. Paul wrote that God has blinded the Jews "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25). When the fulness of the Gentiles has come into God's kingdom, that is, when the last Gentile has sought for and received the holy Ghost baptism, their door to the kingdom of heaven will be shut forever. May God grant us the wisdom to take advantage of the open door we now have! When that door is shut, we may still seek but we cannot find. Jesus said that when he sets before us an open door, no man can shut it (Rev. 3:8). It is also true that when he shuts a door, no man can open it. Man is not in control of the doors, whether to open or to close them. The best that we can do is to enter through the door of the kingdom that God has set before us.

THE CLOSING

How will it end, the time when Gentiles are called into God's kingdom? What will God use this time to change the status of the doors, to close the door of the Gentiles and to re-open the door for the Jews? From painful past experience with Gentile believers, it seems clear to me that Paul's gospel will again be the principal tool used by God for this purpose.

The apostles and prophets, and Jesus himself, taught that a person receives the Spirit of God when he receives the baptism of the holy Ghost. They also taught that in every case, the baptism of the Spirit is evidenced by speaking in tongues. This means that the baptism of the holy Ghost is the new birth, for if any man does not have the Spirit, he does not belong to God (Rom. 8:9). This also means that no one is a child of God unless the Spirit of God has spoken through him, either with stammering lips or in a clear language (Isa. 28:11-12; 1Cor. 14:21-22).

This truth also exposes Christianity as a false religion. And this is the truth that may well cause many Gentile believers to blaspheme and to have their door to the kingdom forever shut. When Paul received his revelation, the Jews' hearts were deeply entwined with their ceremonial traditions, in large part because those ceremonies made them feel special to God and superior to other people. However, God revealed to Paul that the ceremonies of the Jews that He Himself had ordained were fulfilled in Christ and were now just dead works. He was finished with them. God had ordained the priests of Israel to burn incense; He had commanded Israel to offer animals as sacrifices for sin; He had commanded the priests to pour oblations of wine at His altar. But now, because of Christ, all those ceremonies had become empty of spiritual value. Indeed, because God was no longer in those ceremonies, it had become sin for the Jews to continue to perform them. What an amazing change! It became sinful rebellion against God to perform ceremonies that God Himself had once commanded Israel to perform! Isaiah foretold of this astonishing development centuries before Paul (Isa. 66:3-4). He described how the Almighty would view Israel's continuation in dead ceremonies after His dear Son Jesus had suffered to fulfill them:

"He that killeth an ox as if he murdered a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations."

This is one of the most stunning prophecies found anywhere in the Old Testament. In this verse, God is calling the sacred rites that He Himself ordained "their ways" and "their abominations". In this verse, God was foretelling of the day when Israel would choose to continue in ceremonies than to be filled with the Spirit of life and be free. This happened. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial works of the Law, became the perfect sacrifice, provided for humans a circumcision of the heart, a baptism of the Spirit, and a communion with God. But God's own people, the Jews, would not cease from their ceremonies because performing them made them feel superior to the Gentiles. Pride held them bound to their religion.

Because Jesus fulfilled the Law, the holy rites that God had once commanded the Jews to observe became sin to perform, sin that was worthy of death! The pride that comes through religious ceremony held them fast. They rejected the Messiah, and so, they became slaves to the ceremonial works of the Law. Christ asked the Father to do this to the Jews to avenge his suffering at their hands. He said, "Let that which should have been for their welfare become a trap!" (Ps. 69:22). And so, the Jews were trapped by their prideful obsession with the Law's ceremonies. The very God-given blessings that should have helped them to recognize and love Jesus as the Messiah became their prison!

GOD'S PEOPLE NOW

Almost everyone who has received from God the baptism of the holy Ghost today has joined some sect within Christianity, but Jesus has revealed to us what Christianity really is. He dearly loves his children who are still in Christianity, but He abhors that religion they have joined. God's dear children have a profound attachment to the religion of Christianity that is eerily similar to the fatal attachment that Jews had for their religious ceremonies in Paul's day. When Paul preached the truth, many believing Jews chose death rather than life. They chose ceremony rather than the holy Ghost. It is frightening for me to consider what some of God's children now in Christianity will choose when the truth about Christianity is made known to them.

So attached are God's people now to the religion of Christianity, it may be that when they finally hear the truth about it, many will choose that religion over the Spirit of life. What will God's children do when they are told that Christianity is not of God? Will they listen to Jesus, who is calling, "Come out of her, my people"? Or will they reject his call and stay within the whitewashed walls of that hated city? Who among God's people now can believe that in order to follow Jesus into perfect holiness, they must forsake Christianity? Who among them will choose life over death? Oh, God! Help your people!

For those of us who do understand the truth, it is required that we walk in love toward the children of God who still are in Christianity. If by ungodly behavior, we provoke a child of God to reject the truth and refuse to come out, then we will be held responsible for their disobedience. We must never lay a stumbling block in the path for our brothers and sisters who are searching for the right ways of Jesus. If our brothers and sisters reject the truth, let it be because of the condition of their hearts, not for any ungodliness in us.

The door will close for the children of God who refuse the truth, just as it was closed for the Jews who rejected the gospel. Foreseeing this awful event, Paul wrote of saints who would one day "receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." He said, "For this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they might believe a lie and be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2Thess. 2:10-12).

May God help us, and help His people, to believe the truth He sends our way. When the door closes for the Gentiles, we want to be outside the gates of Christianity with Jesus, not on the inside, trusting the vain promises of ministers who have not been sent by God.