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Thought for Today 2003. 04-27 No More Tarrying From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. The risen Lord Jesus sent his disciples back to Jerusalem when he ascended to the Father. On the Mount of Olives, he "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father". They obediently returned from the Mount of Olives , as the Lord had commanded them, into the holy city, where they gathered in an "upper room". The reason the disciples had to wait for the "promise of the Father" (the holy Spirit) to come was that Jesus had not yet offered himself to the Father for the sins of the world. The killing of Jesus took place on earth, but the sacrifice for our sins took place in God’s temple in heaven. That is why the Spirit was not given to those who believed in Jesus until after the Lord ascended and was glorified in heaven (Jn. 7:39). Jesus ascended into heaven to complete the work of redemption. This is why Paul told the saints in Corinth that if Christ had not risen from the dead, they would still be in their sins (1Cor. 15:14-18). As soon as Jesus’ sacrifice was offered to God in heaven and accepted by Him, the holy Spirit was poured out upon those humble Jewish disciples gathered in the "upper room" (Acts 2). The Spirit was given as God’s witness that Jesus’ sacrifice had been accepted and that, at long last, cleansing from sin was available in his name. The disciples were born again on the day the holy Ghost came upon them, in Acts 2. From those days, recorded in Acts, when God poured out His Spirit on the Jews and Gentiles, the baptism of the holy Spirit has been available to all sinners from the moment that their repentance is complete. The disciples were waiting in that upper room for the holy Ghost because the price for its coming had not yet been paid, not because they had failed to completely repent. They were in a spiritual condition in which no man now can be: clean and right with God without receiving the holy Ghost baptism. After God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice and poured out His Spirit as a testimony to that fact, all who "hunger and thirst after righteousness" immediately receive the holy Ghost when they repent in full. There is no more waiting on God to do His work. "There is no more tarrying for the holy Ghost." So Preacher Clark said in that meeting in 1975. And this was his point: The Spirit is here! We no longer must wait for God to do His part so that the holy Ghost will be made available, as the disciples were waiting in that upper room for the Father and His Son to do their parts. Rather than that, God waits on sinful man to do his part, to repent and to seek Him with the whole heart. And every time that anyone does that, the holy Ghost baptism is given and received.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-24 Dishwater From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. Over fifty years of preaching the gospel of Christ taught my father much about the Lord and his people. Sometimes, his observations were easy to appreciate; other times, it took me years to perceive their value. The following comment, from a sermon in 1975, was one that he occasionally made but that I only recently came to understand and appreciate. Referring to the typical doctrine of Spirit-baptized people, he was wont to say, "God’s people use the blood of Christ like dishwater." My father died on April 20, 1989. That strange saying of his remained a mystery to me even until the day he left this world. A couple of weeks ago, as I was listening to that sermon he preached in May of 1975, it happened to be one of those sermons in which he made that strange statement again. I was there that day, sitting among those old folk gathered in Grandma’s farmhouse for that Sunday afternoon prayer meeting, a twenty-three year old just getting started in the Lord. I heard him make that statement, and I remember wondering how it was true that Pentecostal people use the blood of Christ like dishwater. After struggling for over a quarter century to persuade the children of God that the holy Ghost baptism is the new birth, I understand what my father meant. The holy Spirit is the Blood of Christ. It gives life to the body of Christ. This is a fundamental truth of the New Testament, often mentioned by the apostles in the Bible, even though it is a truth not well known. The Blood of Christ that is still flowing and washing souls from sin is the holy Ghost. The natural blood of Jesus, the natural fluid that flowed in his natural body, ran out of his veins onto the ground at Calvary. It is not available now, and would do no one any good if it were available. The holy Ghost is the blood of Christ that is treated like dishwater by God’s own people. People use dishwater to clean the dishes and then discard it. People receive the holy Ghost; it cleanses their souls. Then, they discard it, saying that it is not necessary for salvation. Because of the doctrines God’s children are taught, the very Spirit that has cleansed them becomes, in practice, like dishwater that women have used. It becomes disposable. The holy Ghost baptism is not a disposable commodity to the person who hopes to be saved from the coming wrath of God. It is precious; it is essential; it is the life of God that guides and leads those who desire eternal peace. The holy Ghost is NOT like dishwater that is made dirty when it washes used dishes. Dishwater becomes dirty as it cleanses, but the holy Ghost is never polluted with the sins that it washes from the souls of sinners. The holy Ghost is never weak or confused. It is never impractical; it is never dull; it is never unnecessary. We need the holy Ghost every moment we breathe, and we will need the holy Ghost even more afterwards. The Spirit is the light of life to those who believe. It is the way to salvation. It is our only access to the Father. It is our only hope of the resurrection. Without the Spirit and its daily guidance, we will be damned. Many people who have received the holy Ghost baptism in the past would today be embarrassed if it would fall upon them now. They were cleansed by it once upon a time, but to worship the way they worship now, God’s Spirit is not necessary. Besides, what would others think if they praised God out loud or spoke in tongues in the midst of the congregation? And, my goodness, what would the pastor say? No, the holy Ghost is not necessary in order to worship God as He is worshiped now by many of His own children who are entangled with Christianity. Neither is God’s Spirit required in order to live the way they now live. They needed the Spirit to cease from sin. They needed the Spirit to feel their need of cleansing from God; they needed the Spirit to confess who Jesus is; they needed it to bring tears to their eyes and to enable them to humble themselves before God. But now they have discarded the Spirit, as far as their daily lives and their faith are concerned, in the same way that women discard dirty dishwater they have used to wash their dishes. It would be far better for God’s people if, instead of setting the holy Spirit aside, they would discard the worthless Christian doctrines and ceremonies they have been taught by their rented ministers and learn to hold as their most precious possession the holy Spirit of truth that was given to them from God.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-23 Knowing the Doctrine From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. "If any man will do [God’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." Jn. 7:17 I remember the day, long ago now, when I had learned Greek well enough to (slowly) read the New Testament in the original language, and I came upon John 7:17. I excitedly dashed to the phone to call my father and tell him what I had just learned. I had previously understood that verse to mean that if we obey the will of God, then we will be able to recognize and understand God’s one true doctrine, but that is not at all what Jesus was saying. Jesus was saying simply that if anyone desires to do God’s will, then God will make certain that person is able to distinguish the truth from every other doctrine taught by men. How exciting that was to me! And how much more loving God is revealed to be when are given a right understanding of those words from Jesus. God does not require us to do His will before He shows us His doctrine. He only requires that we be sincere in our desire to please God. Think of it! Jesus has promised that if we truly are willing to obey God, then God will show us what His truth is. If we really want to do God’s will, we shall come to know THE doctrine of God! In the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, this is what Jesus is recorded to have said: "Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know whether [my] teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own." What a great promise from God! We are not required to possess the knowledge of God’s doctrine when we start our walk of faith. We only must have a sincere desire to do God’s will, and He will lead us into all truth. If the sincere desire of your heart is to do God’s will, God will not allow you to be deceived or confused for long. Jesus has promised that you will come to know what is the one right way of God! A Doctrine In that long ago prayer meeting, my father quoted the words of Jesus, "If any man will do God’s will, he shall know of THE doctrine", but then added, "And if any man will not do the will of God, he will believe A doctrine." Amen. Every wrong doctrine taught is the result of somebody unwilling to do the will of God. And every person who trusts and supports a minister teaching a wrong doctrine is doing so because that person is also unwilling to do God’s will. Believe the words of Jesus! God’s promise to reveal the truth to whoever desires to obey God leaves us with no decisions to make concerning why there are so many doctrines and why there are so many people who believe them. Jesus said everyone who is willing to do the will of God will come to know the one true doctrine of God. Then, if we believe Jesus, we must say that everyone who does not understand and believe the doctrine of God has not desired to do God’s will above his own. In the face of the promise Jesus made to all who desire to do God’s will, what else can we say? I’m pinning all my hopes on Jesus. He always told the truth.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-21 What The Bible Is From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. The aged apostle Paul wrote Timothy (2Tim. 4:9-13) and asked him to come to him as soon as possible and to bring several things, "but especially the parchments". Paul loved the Scriptures that God gave to ancient Israel and described their value to man in that same letter to Timothy, saying that those precious scriptures were "given by inspiration of God" and that they were "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2Tim. 3:16). The Word of God The Scriptures are precious and holy; they are from God to help us in our pilgrimage through this sin-scarred life; the Scriptures record accurately many of the times that God’s Word came to certain men. But Paul did not say to Timothy, and never said to anyone else, that the Scriptures themselves are the Word of God. The Word of God is whatever God says, and He has never stopped talking to those who are willing to hear what He has to say. Moreover, since God communicates to man only through His Son Jesus, Jesus himself is called the Word of God (Jn. 1:1; Rev. 19:11-13). And because God reveals His thoughts and feelings to man only through the holy Spirit that Jesus’ death purchased for us, the Spirit also is called the Word of God (Eph. 6:17). Misguided Christians elevate the Bible far beyond what is reasonable and right by calling it the Word of God. The Bible is holy, but it is not the Word of God. The Bible is profitable for our spiritual growth, as Paul noted, but it is not the Word of God. The Word of God is alive (Heb. 4:12)! It is not a book. The Book tells about the Word of God coming to men, changing them, and revealing to them the will of their Creator, but the Book is not the Word. The Book can be bought for money; I recently bought another one. The Word of God, however, cannot be purchased, except with the currency of faith. The Gospel Nor did Paul ever say that the Bible is the gospel. The Bible tells us about the gospel. It tells us that the gospel of Christ "is the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16). The gospel is "not in word only", as the Bible is. The gospel comes in power (2Thess. 1:5). "When I came to you," Paul reminded the Corinthian saints, "I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. . . . and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God" (1Cor. 2:1-5). God’s power can save you; repeating a few Scriptures cannot. God’s power can heal you, just as the Bible says it can; but the Bible itself cannot. The power of God cleanses souls from sin; the Bible alone can only condemn and kill, as Paul taught: "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." The Bible is letter. The Spirit is life. Which do you trust to save you? Do you have only the Bible and a particular Christian doctrine to trust in, or do you have the Spirit that the Bible tells you Jesus gives? It is superstitious to believe that any book, even God’s Book, will save you. To Pharisees who thought they would be saved because they were authorities on the ancient Scriptures, Jesus made this arresting statement: "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. But they [the Scriptures] are they that testify of me. But you will not come to me, that you might have life!" This is the condition of many millions today who trust the Bible, virtually as a god, to save them. But it can do nothing. It is a dead letter that tells us about Jesus, who gives eternal life. Many Christian zealots who wave their Bibles high in the air, demanding that others submit to it as God’s Word, will be condemned in the Judgment because they never went to Jesus to receive the eternal life that the Bible talks about. How sad! The religion that promotes the Bible as being God’s holy Word is the thing that has deceived and brought into captivity the children of God. It looks good; it sounds good; but it is evil. It claims to be the family of Jesus, the bearer of light to the whole earth, but it is full of darkness and vain promises. It cannot save. Come out of Christianity, my dear brothers and sisters, and escape the wrath to come.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-18 The Seal of God From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. "And grieve not the holy Spirit of promise, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Throughout most of earth’s history, historians say, the vast majority of people in every society could neither read nor write. So, a person’s seal took the place of a signature. A seal was intended as a sign to be looked at and immediately understood to belong to a particular king or other well-known individual. A person’s seal was the equivalent of his name written out. It was designed to make its owner clear, so that even if a person was grossly ignorant and knew nothing of reading or writing, he could look at the seal and know whose seal it was. Paul said that the saints have been sealed by God with the holy Ghost. By that statement, Paul was teaching that, upon seeing the saints moved by the power of the holy Ghost to praise God, and upon hearing the saints speaking in tongues, any reasonable person would recognize that those people belonged to God. God knows how ignorant humans are of eternal, spiritual things. He knows that man cannot find God through human knowledge. So, in great love for everyone, God sets an unmistakable seal on His people. It is a seal like no one else’s, so that all men can easily recognize the seal of God as being God’s when they first see it. Some people will admit that they recognize the seal of God as being God’s seal, but those who are proud and rebellious will not confess it. The proud cannot confess that they know the sign is of God because if they confessed that, others would ask them why they are not also sealed with it. A man has to humble himself to acknowledge the works of God. Whether or not anyone admits it, however, every man’s conscience knows that the holy Ghost is of God when he is confronted with it. Paul said that the miraculous event of speaking in tongues was ordained by God to be "as a sign to unbelievers" (1Cor. 14:22). The congregation that meets in my house believes that God is perfect in wisdom. That being so, we also believe that God designed as His seal a sign that always communicates with man’s heart. Because it was God, not man, who chose speaking in tongues as the "initial evidence" of God’s seal being placed upon His people, we KNOW that seal does exactly what God intended for His seal to do. There is not a better sign to sinners than to see and hear the saints speaking in tongues by the power of the holy Ghost. God Himself chose speaking in tongues as His sign; therefore, it must be perfect. Sinners do not have to be educated in God’s ways to be able to know that the people speaking in tongues belong to God. They just have to look at the seal. The seal of God communicates to the heart of man, not his mind, the very first time that he witnesses a person speaking in tongues. It still points all people to the way of Christ Jesus. Those who have seen the seal may afterward be indoctrinated by false teachers against it and, so, forget what they felt when they first heard one of God’s children speak in tongues, but that changes nothing. It does not alter the fact that speaking in tongues is God’s chosen sign, His seal on those whom He has redeemed to Himself, nor does a man’s rejection of the sign mean that God’s perfect, chosen sign has failed in its purpose. It only means that men are still liars, easily deceived. Without God’s seal, no transaction is legitimate in the kingdom of God. The claims of conversions to Christ by hundreds of millions of Christians on earth are shown to be false by the absence of the seal of God on their lives. You must be sealed by the holy Ghost, and you will be sealed when your faith and repentance have pleased the Father. Do not look to men to tell you when your soul is prepared to meet God in peace. Look to Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith". He is the one who sets the seal of God on a person’s soul, and when he seals you with that "holy Spirit of promise", you will speak in tongues and become one of those who provide sinners with the sign of the way to eternal life.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-17 The Two-miler From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. "Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight" (1Jn. 3:21-22). Ancient Romans soldiers, we are told, had authority to force people to carry their baggage for one mile. Jesus said to his followers that if they were compelled to go a mile, they should volunteer for a second mile. He also told them that if someone sued them for their coat, they should let that person win the lawsuit and give that person their shirts. He also taught that if a person strikes you on the cheek, you should turn to him the other cheek, making it easy for him to strike you again. These are the kind of deeds that are beyond the basic, moral commandments of God. Keeping God’s commandments will lead to eternal life, but going beyond those commandments in order to please God makes for a very happy and contented life right here and now. It also saves the heart from the burning weight of condemnation. You know who they are, those very happy souls in Jesus. They are the ones whose conversation always seems to drift toward spiritual matters. Somehow, they just manage to bend the conversation toward Jesus, or to an experience in the Spirit, a dream from the Lord, or some other spiritual matter. When the Spirit falls in a prayer meeting, they are always happiest about it. They seem most at home when someone, or the whole congregation, is testifying or praying, or singing, or just talking about the things of God. They are what my father called a "two-mile believer". The phrase, a "two-mile believer" is another way of saying someone is a "wise virgin". Such a person is one who loves the feelings that come when he gives the extra mile of service for Jesus. He has kept God’s commandments, but then has also done other things which, though not required by God, are pleasing in His sight. When Jesus stood outside Lazarus’ tomb, he paused to speak for a moment to his Father, saying, "I know that thou always hearest me . . ." How did Jesus know that? Listen to Jesus as he continued his prayer: ". . . because I always do the things that are pleasing in thy sight." Yes, Jesus knew his Father was listening because he knew he had not only kept his Father’s commandments but also had done those things that pleased God beyond the commandments. As a boy, my father worked hard one day to do all the chores that his father had given him to do while he was at work. Then, he went beyond those commandments to do other chores that he knew needed to be done. He knew that his father would be well pleased by that when he returned home that evening. He eagerly anticipated his father’s return from work that day. So it is when we have kept the commandments of God and then gone beyond that to do more than is required. We then eagerly look for the return of Jesus our Lord. We know in our hearts that Jesus will be well pleased with us. The apostle James wrote that "mercy triumphs over judgment" (2:13). By this, he was saying that a life that is lived in the will of God has no fear of the Judgment to come, just as the hard-working little boy had no fear of his father’s return home. But how would the little boy have felt if he had not even done the chores that his father had commanded him to do? He would have felt the same way that men feel who have not obeyed God’s commandments: fearful of the coming Judgment. May God help us to become the kind of people who are not satisfied just to keep the commandments. Let us strive to go the extra mile and do also the things that please Him. The effect on our spirits will be obvious to all those around us.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-16 The Door From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. Facing a mixed group of believing and unbelieving Jews, Jesus told them, "I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. . . ." (Jn. 10:7-9). When Jesus said, "I am the door", he meant that through him men can enter into eternal life. On another occasion, he plainly said, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." After Peter was born again, he boldly preached to the Jews that salvation from the coming wrath of God can be obtained only by faith in Jesus, "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). And referring to Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, Paul wrote, "There is one Lord" (Eph. 4:5), for "God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phip. 2:9-11). Jesus said that it is the will of God for men to honor Him as they honor the Father (Jn. 5:23). Jesus is precious; he is unique. He is worthy of "power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing" (Rev. 5:12). Indeed, he is worthy of worship, and beginning with the wise men who traveled from the east in hope of seeing him (Mt. 2:2, 11), all who fell at his feet to worship him while he was on earth were blessed by God, not rebuked (e. g. Mt. 8:2-3; Mk. 5:6; Lk. 24:50-52; Jn. 9:35-38). Jesus is the door. He has been given all power and authority over the creation of God (Mt. 28:18). He must take a person into God’s family, or that person remains forever on the outside, regardless of what that person believes or desires. Jesus is the door into the kingdom of God, not what we think or do. We cannot make ourselves right with God; only Jesus has the power to do that. Thank God that Jesus has that power and that God loves us and sent Jesus to save us! Do you want to be a member of the body of Christ, the earthly family of God? Believe the gospel, call on Jesus for mercy, and repent of your sins. He will wash your inner man with his Spirit and make you clean in God’s sight. This sacred experience of inner cleansing is called many things in the Bible. It is called being "born again", and "converted". It is described as being "translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of [God’s] dear Son." The holy Spirit comes upon repentant men only in the name of Jesus, and to be cleansed by it is to be "redeemed from sin", and "sanctified", and "justified with God", and "reconciled to God". It is also called being "baptized with the holy Ghost and fire." John the Baptist told men that Jesus would baptize with the holy Ghost and fire, and he does. Jesus’ baptism is the new birth, the entering into God’s family, "for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body" (1Cor. 12:13). Religious teachers all over the world offer to mankind many different ways to enter into God’s eternal kingdom, but Jesus is the only one who can really take us in. Every minister on earth, regardless of his religious affiliation, who is telling people that there is some other way into the household of God than the baptism of the holy Ghost "is a thief and a robber" who has climbed up "some other way". The sheep of God will not listen to their voices, for in their hearts they hear the admonition of the Lord: "Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge."
Thought for Today 2003. 04-15 Saved by Life From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. In the early 1950's, a scandalous report began to circulate in central North Carolina concerning a doctrine being taught at the Duke Divinity School. According to these reports, the seminary students at Duke were being taught that the death of Jesus on the cross saves no one. My father was one of those who were concerned about this report. As God would have it, he found himself one day seated on a bus beside a young man who, as he learned, attended the divinity school at Duke. My father was about to be educated by the Lord, using this young student to teach the experienced elder. In the conversation that developed, my father asked the young man if it was true that the seminarians were being taught that the death of Jesus on the cross saves no one. The young man replied in the affirmative. When my father asked him to explain, the young man obliged him. He took my father to Romans 5, where Paul told the saints in Rome that the death of Jesus justifies those who believe and reconciles them to God, but that Jesus’ resurrection and his ascension into heaven is that which saves the saints. Paul said it this way (v. 9): "Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." And again in verse 10, "For if, when we were enemies [of God], we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Paul’s phrase, "We are saved by his life", teaches us two important things. First, it teaches us that we are not saved yet. Second, it teaches us that Jesus is alive to keep us from sin all along the way. The life of Jesus is the hope of the saints, though they have already been reconciled to God by faith in the death of His Son. The truth which the young seminarian spoke immediately became clear to my father. Every one of us has made some kind of blunder in our walk of faith, most likely, more than one. We may not have committed a great sin, but all of us have stumbled somewhere along the way. The difference between the wise and the foolish in God’s kingdom is not that the foolish fall and the wise do not; rather it is that the foolish stay fallen, and the wise, when they stumble, humble themselves to cry out to Jesus for help. Then, he lifts them up again and restores to them the joy of holiness because He loves them and because they love him and trust him to help in time of need. This is how Jesus’ life saves us. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us when we need it most. Jesus said he would never leave us nor forsake us, and he meant it! As my father preached in that little farmhouse that Sunday afternoon, "‘We are saved by his life’ . . . . ‘seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us’. . . . Every error you make has to be corrected. And Jesus is sitting there to do it." Praise God for Jesus! The Apostle Peter labored to persuade the family of God to understand that our hope for salvation depends entirely on Jesus’ mercy and patience with us (2Pet. 3:15). And the Apostle Paul insisted to the saints in Corinth that if Jesus has not risen from the dead [to help us], then our faith is in vain (1Cor. 15:17). Another important lesson that this story teaches us is to remain humble in the fear of God. God has often chosen someone despised, even a sinner, to deliver His word to someone, just to see if we have become puffed up because of what He has shown us. If we become proud of the blessings we have from God, then we will become like the Pharisees, who angrily despised the goodness of God in Jesus. But if we stay humble and slow to speak, as my godly father did when the seminary student began to speak to him, we will discern the voice of our Shepherd, no matter how his voice comes to us. Peter submitted to the voice of God when he spoke to him through the crowing of a rooster. Balaam humbled himself to the angry voice of God in the speech of his beleaguered donkey. David was rescued from sin by listening to the tearful pleas of Abigail. Judah was made ashamed of himself by the right words of his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Elijah submitted himself to the importunate cries of the wise Shunnamite woman. These and other men of God were tested to see if they had become proud of their knowledge of holy things. Some passed the test; some did not. But all were tested, and so will all of us be. Be slow to speak; try the spirits to see if they are of God or not. The apostle Paul counseled us to "prove all things". Some among God’s own children apparently have been taught to "reprove all things" that don’t go along with the doctrines they have been taught. But that is a dangerous attitude. What if Jesus tests you by sending a bit of his wisdom by the mouth of a fool? Stay humble, and stay safe. You’re not saved yet.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-14
The Carnal Mind From a sermon at Grandma's farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975.
When you are reading the Bible, what do you think of when you read the words, "carnal mind". Most of us would think of murderers, thieves, and immoral people as having a carnal mind, and they do. But there is much more to the carnal mind than that. Did you know that most carnally minded people despise murderers, thieves, and adulterers? You remember the story of the woman caught in adultery, in John 8. She was certainly a carnally minded person. But then, so were the men who brought her to Jesus, trying to trap him in his words. Those carnally minded men hated both the adulterous woman and the Son of God. They wanted to kill her and Jesus. The carnal mind is the ordinary mind of humans. It is the mind with which all human babies are born. "Carnal" just means "natural" or "fleshly". Here are the principal New Testament verses that speak of the carnal mind:
Rom. 8:5-6 "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
In these verses, Paul teaches us that a carnally minded person is a person who has his mind on earthly, or "fleshly" things. He also states that to be this way sets a man at enmity against God. What is a "fleshly" thing? It is anything natural, anything that is of this world and its spirit. Jesus also warns us of the danger of being worldly, or carnally, minded. In fact, he taught that it could cost us our souls for our minds to become consumed with anything of this world. He said that "cares and riches and pleasures of this life" could rob us of our faith and make us unfruitful in God's kingdom (Lk. 8:14). It is necessary to take care of our ordinary business. In this world, there is no way to avoid that. We must eat; we must wear clothes; we must work; we must attend to the business that the authorities and customs of this earth require of us. But to become consumed with such matters is deadly. To be obsessed with fashion or with food is ungodly; one cannot live that way without opposing the sweet guidance of the Spirit of God. To love money and to hoard it or to covet the possessions of others turns a person away from the Spirit of truth and love. To be a newsmonger, absorbed into every new headline, brings into the heart fears and produces the same vain talk that troubles the hearts of sinners. Jesus told us to rejoice when we see the dreadful events that he predicted would come as this age approached its end. You won't develop that happy attitude if you are addicted to this world's reporting of the news. A carnal mind is simply a mind that is occupied with things of earth. Things of earth are not eternal; they are temporal. Earthly things are not always immoral, socially unacceptable things. They can be things as simple and innocent as cooking, or exercising, or working around your house, or hiking on mountain trails, or studying the stars, or a million other such things. But none of them is eternal; none of them is of the Spirit. They are earthy. They are fleshly, natural, "carnal" things. In their places, and in moderation, each of those earthly things could be perfectly acceptable to the Lord. But out of their place, any one of them could consume a person's attention so that he neglects his spiritual life and loses his soul. Those who "mind earthly things" have difficulty comprehending the things of the Spirit. God's doctrine often troubles and confuses them. That is why Paul said that "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." When God speaks to a spiritually minded person, it is the joy of his heart, but when the true Word of God comes to a carnally minded man, it darkens his countenance. In 1Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul mentioned this difficulty in communicating the truth of Jesus to the carnally minded. He said, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you have not been able to bear it; neither yet are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" So, we see from this that saints of God can fail to develop the "mind of Christ" and remain carnally minded, remaining like little infants in God's family. Please note that these carnally minded saints in Corinth had many gifts of the Spirit (1Cor. 12-14). The grace of God operated among them mightily. Still, they were carnally minded and in danger of making shipwreck of their faith. Their own opinions, and those of some false teachers, had become more important to them than God's true doctrine. The congregation in Corinth was split into groups, each naming itself after an apostle–one even naming itself after Christ. Paul condemned them all. --- The family of God in our day is divided, isn't it? What is it, do you think, that divides the family now? Paul told us that being carnally minded divided the saints in Corinth. Would he say anything else to the family of God now? I don't think so. The mind of Christ unites God's people; the carnal mind divides us. The only cure for being carnally minded is to develop the mind of Christ and become spiritually minded. If the family of God today will repent of worldliness and turn its attention away from the carnal things that have stolen its attention from Christ, God will heal us. What prevents the family from doing this? What persuades the saints now that they have no need of deliverance from the carnal mind, when we are so divided and weak and confused? The answer is as shocking as it is true. Christianity itself is that thing that makes it difficult for the family of God to feel its need of deliverance. It comforts the saints in their divided state; it flatters them in their sin; it rewards with titles and authority the congregation's failure to seek the face of God ands be made one. It will allow the saints to sorrow a little for the divisions that exist among God's people, but offers no hope whatsoever of any remedy. So long as the saints refuse to come out of Christianity, it will remain divided. It is a vile, carnal religion that offers the saints nothing but divisions and confusion. The fact that it does so in the name of Jesus is what confuses God's dear little children, who themselves are like infants in God's kingdom, understanding nothing. They are carnally minded, and Christianity keeps them enslaved to its dead rituals and ungodly teachings because of it. The children of God can deliver themselves from the bondage of Christianity if they will seek God's face in spite of Christianity's comforting words and vain promises of eternal life. Christianity has nothing that can elevate a person's mind above that earthly realm. Christianity has never cleansed a single soul from sin. The carnal mind is nothing more than the natural, earthly mind. It is what normal people on this earth have. It can be sensible and organized. It can be highly intelligent and motivated to make things better for people. But it is not holy, and never will be. It does not understand the law of God and can never do so. Man is locked into spiritual darkness, locked into his carnal mind, and he cannot extricate himself from its power. The power of the holy Ghost can re-create and sanctify a man's heart and re-shape the mind to think like God thinks. That is why Jesus came and died, to set us free from both our good ideas and our bad ones, and to reveal to us the precious thoughts of God, the God who told us, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways." You need the holy Ghost thinking God's thoughts for you in your mind. You need the holy Ghost feeling things for you in your heart. When Paul said, "Christ liveth in me", this is what he was talking about. There is no other way to escape the prison of our own carnal mind and its thoughts.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-08 The Spirit Is Life From a "Pioneer Broadcast" radio program, about 1977. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but THE SPIRIT IS LIFE because of righteousness. Romans 8:10 The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. 2Cor.3:6 It is the Spirit that [makes alive]. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. John 6:63 Some people want to believe that the holy Ghost is not necessary for salvation. Since one must repent in order to receive the holy Ghost, what these people are really attempting to do is to enter into heaven without ever truly repenting. But Jesus can fix that. It is easy to see that receiving the baptism of the holy Ghost is essential for salvation once a person understands and really believes the above three Scriptures. In Romans 8:10, Paul said, "the Spirit is life". Trust that. Life is what the Spirit is. The Spirit is not a person; it is God’s life, the eternal life that is within Him. It is the life that God gave to His Son (Jn. 5:26). Think on that. God gave life to the Son! That means God gave His Spirit to His Son because "the Spirit is life". Jesus said that the Spirit is what makes men alive. Then, no one is alive without it. Paul said it this way, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, [that man] is none of His" (Rom. 8:9). Without God’s life, the holy Ghost, in a man, that man does not belong to God. He has no life and no hope of salvation. Many years ago now, the Lord gave me a sermon for our radio program based on this simple truth: "the Spirit is life". I took Scriptures from the New Testament that mentioned life and taught on them as I read them aloud. Then I read them again, teaching the same message but this time substituting "holy Ghost" for the word "life" in each verse I read. You can do it. All the verses below have the word "life" in them, but I have removed that word and left a blank there instead. Put "holy Ghost" in the blanks and see what a better understanding will result. John 1:4 In him was___________; and the ______________was the light of men. John 8:12 I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of _________________. John 5:26 For as the Father hath _________________ in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have ________________in himself. John 17:2 "Father . . . Thou hast given [me] power over all flesh, that [I] should give ___________ to as many as Thou hast given [me]. John 10:10 I am come that they might have ____________, and have it more abundantly. John 6:33 For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven, and giveth _________to the world. John 10:27-28 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them ____________, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk no as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the ______________ of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His _____________. 1John 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even ____________________ (cp. Acts 1:4-5; Gal. 3:14).
Thought for Today 2003. 04-07 "Live!" "I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, ‘Live!’ Yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in they blood, ‘Live!’" Ezekiel 16:6 In 1931, 90-year-old retired Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes gave a farewell address via the still-new invention of radio to an admiring nation. In that address, he quoted the admonition penned by an ancient Latin poet who wrote, "Death plucks at my ears and says, ‘Live! I am coming.’" There is wisdom in that saying; but the poet, being ignorant of the God of Israel, could only "almost" tell the whole truth. I say "almost" because the truth is that death is not what is plucking at men’s ears; rather, it is Jesus who lovingly calls men to real life. He is the one who is coming, and he is the one who is pleading with men to live while they can. In Jesus’ hands are the keys of both death and hell (Rev. 1:18), and it is his displeasure that wise men fear instead of death. "Kiss the Son," David said in Psalm 2, "lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." The writer of Hebrews told us, "It is appointed unto men to die, and after that, the judgment." We could re-write those wise words in this manner: "It is appointed unto men to die, and after that, the judgment of Jesus." For Paul said that God "hath appointed a Day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man [Jesus] whom He hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). Yes, death is coming, but there is something far more serious to contemplate than the coming of death, and that is, the coming of Jesus, the righteous Judge of both the living and of the dead. He is the one who plucks at the heart of man and says, "Live! I am coming!" And the life to which he calls us is a pure life of peace and holy joy. You are not yet dead. Jesus is still calling to you. Rejoice in that. Then take Jesus up on his offer, and live.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-04 Mother: The Beauty Queen Peter told women in the congregation to adorn themselves with spiritual riches instead of concentrating on decorating the flesh (1Pet. 3:1-6). To honor my mother, who as a young woman did exactly as Paul directed, I offer the poem below that I ran in the local newspaper after her death. She was born April 4, 1927 and lived exactly 57 short years on earth. Nevertheless, I am confident that she still lives, no longer on earth but now in Paradise with the Lord Jesus. During her earthly sojourn, she touched the lives of many people for good. She was respected as a godly woman and loved by all who knew her. Her doctor told us that he had never seen such a large tumor in a person’s lung as he had found in her lung, and that he had never had a patient with a sweeter spirit than she had. I am thankful that I can say I am her son. A few days before she died, I stopped by the hospital one evening to visit her on my way to teach an Old Testament class. By then, her lungs were so filled with fluid that she could not breath easily if she lay down, so she sat up in her bed. During my visit, I asked her to tell me her secret. I wanted know why people who met her, even those who had met her only once, loved her so much. She could no longer speak, but she could whisper, and in a low, raspy voice, she looked up at me and humbly said, "Look for the good in people." We would all get along better if we would put that simple advice into practice. THE BEAUTY QUEEN to mother, 1983 I've never seen a beauty queen
True beauty's test is not the flesh,
For beauty true is what we do
While others pranced and sang and danced
So, plaudits raise upon the stage-
Oh, beauty's face is filled with grace.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-03 Whatever It Is From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. The old saints who taught me the right ways of God told us often that "whatever keeps the holy Ghost out of your life will keep you out of the glory world." This is a true saying. Think about it. Jesus suffered and died to make it possible for us to receive the holy Ghost baptism, and Peter said that every one who obeys God receives it (Acts 5:32). Now, if every person who obeys God receives the holy Ghost, then it can only be disobedience that keeps it out. What will be the end of those who do not obey Christ? It will be death, according to Romans 6:23. It will not be salvation, for Jesus is the author of eternal salvation "unto all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:9). Whatever it is that keeps the holy Ghost out of your life is sin, whatever it is. Sin is the only thing that can possibly keep the holy Ghost out of you. Forget the theological excuses and sophisticated dogmas; forget the flattery of fools who tell you that you are right with God. Get real with God and yourself and admit that if you have not received the baptism of the holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues (or "stammering lips" - Isa. 28:11-12), then there is sin in your life and you are on your way to hell. Without holiness, no one shall see God (Heb. 12:14). And how can one partake of God’s holiness without partaking of God’s holy Spirit? To be sanctified is to be made holy, and we are sanctified by the holy Ghost (Rom. 15:16). "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ," wrote Paul, "he is none of His" (Rom. 8:9). The good news is that we can be His. The good news is that "whosoever will" may repent of his sins and "drink of the waters of life freely". Are you thirsty enough for God’s righteousness that you will cease from sin? The door to life is still open for you, my friend. But to pass through it into eternal life, you will have to leave sin, even secret sin, outside. People may not see it for what it is, but the one who baptizes with the holy Ghost and fire sees all. He is never fooled by appearances and titles, as men are. Men will take you into their congregations, even appoint you to high office with a lofty title, if you appear to believe in Jesus, and even if you are continuing to live in sin. They solemnly sing, "Just As I am", and welcome sinners into the fold. But there is a congregation into which no sinner has ever been welcomed as long as he was sinning, nor ever shall be. Do not come to Jesus just as you are, unless you are full of heartfelt contrition for the filthiness and pride of your past. There were some who came to John the Baptist expecting to be baptized even though their hearts and their deeds were still unclean. All they received from John was a stern rebuke (e.g. Mt. 3:7-9). John came as a symbolic figure of the Messiah, to introduce the Christ to Israel. What kind of figure was he if Jesus demands no such repentance as John demanded, and if his standard of holiness is lower than John’s? If you fail to repent, you will perish in the Lake of Fire forever. If you turn from your sins, then you will receive the gift of God, the baptism of the holy Ghost. That is the beauty and the simplicity of the gospel. And how will we know when repentance is complete? "The Spirit is the witness because the Spirit is truth" (1Jn. 5:6). Every time God sees a repentant heart, he gives His witness of it (e.g. Acts 15:8). Flattery is cheap. Forget what any man has told you about yourself, my friend, and answer this question: What has God said about you? Has He given you His witness that your heart is right with Him? If He has, your heart is clean; if He has not, do not despair, for the door is still open. And do not complain and argue with Him (or with me) about it. Just repent, and He will give you His witness, the baptism of the holy Ghost, just as He has given it to every person since the time of the apostles who has obeyed Him.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-02 The Happiest Day Ever From conversations with Preacher Clark, late 1970's. Solomon said that it is not wise to think that former times were better than the present (Eccl. 7:10), but that is the way multitudes of unhappy and unwise people speak of times gone by. There is no day that has ever been as full of opportunity for blessing as this day. "Today is the day of salvation", wrote Paul, not yesterday, nor even tomorrow. Today, we can hear His voice; today, we can "go about doing good"; today, we can edify one another and provoke one another to love and good works. One of the worst spiritual conditions a person can be in is to look back on an earlier time in his life and wish that he were living then rather than now. All of us have been through times when our circumstances were less pleasant than some of those in the past. There is no evil in desiring to live in pleasant times again. That is perfectly normal and right. In his most agonizing moments, righteous Job wished that he were again "in days when God preserved me" (29:2). But he was longing for days then past because his physical pain was great, not because sin had crept into his life and severed his connection with God. Job was a wise man, and no matter how bad his condition grew or how hopeless it appeared to be, he continued to do the will of God, knowing that at some point in the future his Redeemer would come and set him free (19:25-27). His pure heart was set like a flint on the living God, the God of Job’s NOW, even while his thoughts were drawn to a more pleasant past. Job esteemed God’s words to be more necessary than food (23:12). The words of God that had come to him in days past, however, were not his greatest joy. No, not at all. His greatest joy, the very reason he lived, was to hear that Voice again, today and in each day he lived. Fellowship with God was his life because his heart was pure. There may have been great blessings in your life yesterday, my friend, but the heart of the wise builds upon the past; it does not mourn for it. This is true even concerning the day a person receives the holy Ghost and is born again. If the day of your being baptized with the holy Ghost into the body of Christ is the happiest day of your life, something is terribly out of order in your life. I have met a number of people who wish they could be as free and happy as the day they were born of the Spirit of God. This is a tragic condition to be in. It is an indication that since they were born of the Spirit, they have either not been fed or have been rebellious against the Spirit they received from God. The new birth is a gateway to the knowledge of God. The new birth is a beginning, the first day in God’s school; it is not the goal of the believer’s life. It is to be built upon, not longed for, years after you receive it. When the congregation is in a good spiritual condition, those who receive the baptism of the holy Ghost increase in the joy and knowledge of God, so that years later they do not look back on the day of their new birth and wish they could be that happy again. On the contrary, when a person is spiritually healthy, when he has been fed the truth and grown in the grace of God, he would not return to the time when he was born again for any amount of money because he is happier, he is wiser, and he is more godly in his conduct now than then. If there is any day in your past in which you were closer to Jesus and more content in spirit than you are today, then, my dear brother, you are in a backslidden state. What happened to you? Who robbed you of your joy and peace? Why has your oil run low, and why is your lamp now so dim? You have lost something, or something ungodly has crept into your life. Renew your zeal for holiness and cast out the unclean thing, and today will become the sweetest day that you have ever lived. Only the foolish want to go backwards. For the wise, today is the most wonderful day of their lives, and the best is yet to come.
Thought for Today 2003. 04-01 "What God Hath Joined Together." From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. What God joins together, no man can possibly break apart (Mt. 19:6). This phrase from Jesus is mentioned often, and rightly so, in reference to marriage. But that is not by any means the only condition in life in which God puts people or things together. Important relationships are established by God within the body of Christ, and whenever God does anything, "it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should fear before Him" (Eccl. 3:14). It is impossible for man to change what God has done, and it is dangerous for man to try. When the Spirit of God makes a child of God a part of a particular spiritual family, it is the work of God. It is not something that anyone, including that child of God, can change without risking his soul. Likewise, when a servant of Jesus is given the responsibility of being a shepherd over any one of God’s lambs, it is for life. In the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as a congregation member leaving one assembly and joining assembly; neither is there any such thing as a pastor resigning from his position with one congregation and being hired by another. Such things are contrary to the ways of God and are an abomination to Him. In Christianity, pastors are often elected to their positions after the congregation listens to several would-be pastors auditioning for the part ("trial sermons", they are called), or pastors are hired by a "board of deacons" (after those deacons have fired someone else), or they are appointed to the job by their superiors. None of this is of God, and man has the power to change such situations because of that. Christians do not even know that God actually joins saints together according to His will, apart from the will of man, and that no man can change what He has done. From what I have witnessed, Christians join the congregation of their choice and then just say that God put them there. Or they hire a man to be their pastor and then say that God sent him. I don’t believe any of it. If God had done it, no one could ever change it. Every child of God on earth needs a spiritual home, a place where they are responsible to others for their conduct, and a place where they are loved and wanted. I am persuaded to believe that God will give every one of His children just such a home if we all would stop doing things the way Christianity would have us to do them and wait on our heavenly Father to guide us to where we truly belong. When God makes you a part of anything, He is in dead earnest, whether it is part of a marriage or part of a spiritual family. When God does anything, it is eternal; it becomes a condition that none but God Himself can ever change. In my case as pastor of the congregation that meets in my house, I have never once gone out into the community looking for members. A larger congregation is not my desire. Years ago, Jesus told me, "Neither expect nor desire any big thing; but make your work perfect." Since that time, he has added to the assembly in my house one or two at a time as it pleased him. Every person he has added to my care has been added to my care for life. I cannot refuse to minister to them the good word of God, and they cannot leave me or fire me. Our relationship is the work of God, and it is for life. The congregation that meets in my house is the work of God, not of me. I did not choose a single person that is here. And none of them chose me. God put us together, one at a time over the years, and we are inseparable, unless, of course, someone among us turns from righteousness and rejects the light of God which was given to him, which unfortunately has happened a few times along the way. The members of the assembly that gathers in my home can tell you that I am not concerned about how few people come here; on the contrary, they know that it concerns me more that so many are beginning to come. Why this concern? Primarily because I know that if many people come here, soon will follow that disgusting group of believers who go only where many others go. I cannot reject anyone whom God sends, but my personal preference is that the assembly in my home remain small. I prefer to be confident that the only reason people come here is that they have heard from Jesus, that they love feeling the power of the holy Ghost, and that they love the truth that Jesus teaches. I love knowing that God has added a person to the assembly in my house rather than having to wonder why that person is really here. A large congregation in itself can be a source of much trouble. I believe that these are the kind of thoughts any pastor will have if the assembly for which he is responsible is truly given to him by God. Rather than trying to increase the size of his congregation, he will be laboring more to feed it, to keep it washed by the water of the Word, and to keep it a chaste, wise virgin, waiting for the midnight cry of the Bridegroom.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-31 What Do You Know? From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. "Anything you believe could be a lie, as far as you know." So said Preacher Clark in his sermon. After Jesus had his famous conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, the woman ran into the city of Sychar and told everyone of her life-changing experience. "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’" This kind of believing, however, is worthwhile only if it is pursued so that the believer comes to know that what he believes is true. To believe because someone else has personally experienced something will not save anyone; it is insufficient in itself. The Samaritans who heard the testimony from the woman wisely did not remain in the city while the Savior sat by the well: "When the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them. And he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world’" (Jn. 4:39-42). Those who come to God "must believe that he exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). Believing that God is "out there" somewhere is a good start, but that kind of faith will wither when the fiery trials of life come. A personal knowledge of God must be pursued! We must not remain in the city when Jesus is outside, sitting by the well. If you remain in the city, content merely to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, you will never know whether or not you are believing a lie. Until you come to Jesus, until you hear his voice and are filled with his Spirit, you are running the risk that what you believe about him is not true. Until you act on the testimony of those who have met him, the way the Samaritans acted on the testimony of the woman, until you go out to the Savior and know him for yourself, everything you believe about him could be a lie, as far as you yourself know. The Christian doctrine of "salvation by faith alone" is a very strange thing. It keeps people inside the city of Sychar because it teaches them that their only need is to believe, that there is no need to go where Jesus is to find out if what they have heard and believed about him is true. It prevents people from pursuing the knowledge of God as they should. The effect of that doctrine is to hinder people from seeking God so that they might experience Him for themselves and know that what they have believed is not a lie. "Salvation by faith alone" is an evil doctrine, designed to trap souls thirsty for the knowledge of God inside the parched city of Sychar. Jesus is still sitting beside the well. He is outside all the cities men have built, even the "holy cities" that men love: the cities of Catholicism, Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, Methodistism, Baptistism, and all the other Christian cities of man’s vain imaginations. And the pastors those cities hire and ordain for their service are telling the people within who believe in Jesus that, yes, he is there, but there is no need to go out and seek him because they already believe he is Lord. The question is, how can people possibly seek him until they believe that he is Lord and that he is out there by the well? The woman at the well was not made a Pentecostal by her experience with Jesus. How do I know that? I know that because Pentecostals are they who hunger for God so much that they cannot listen to the false teachers who tell them they have no need to know Jesus for themselves. They go out of the city; they meet Jesus and hear his voice. Pentecostals are immersed with God’s Spirit by Jesus; they are washed from their sins and made happy. Then they return to the City of Sin and tell everyone to listen to those hired men, the pastors who tell them that there is no need to go out to the well. They do not confess to the ones who need it most that life is at the well, not in the city. They are ignorant of and ashamed of what they have from God. This is Pentecostalism, the religion that says to the people of Sychar, "You do not need the baptism of the holy Ghost that Jesus gave to us. You are blessed and happy as you are. We are refreshed by the waters of life because we hungered for God’s righteousness until Jesus gave us his water to drink, but you don’t need it. Just believe he is out there, as your pastors tell you, and you will be fine." Jesus told the woman at the well that if she drank the water he gave, she would live forever. Do you know why he told her that? Because she had come out of the city; she was at the well! She was thirsty; she had left the dusty city of dry sermons and dead rituals and had gone to the well where Jesus sits. She had obeyed the ancient call of Isaiah: "Ho! Everyone that thirsteth! Come ye to the waters!" And when she drank, she felt different. She went back to town and confessed to everyone who would listen that Jesus is outside the city, sitting by a well of water that could make them free! She knew there was a difference between somebody (her) who had been to Jesus’ well and others who had not met him. What will God do with those who know, in silence, that Jesus is sitting by the well? What will He do to the ones who have been beyond the walls of Christianity and have "taken of the water of life freely", but then have returned to the parched city and sat with thirsty Christians in their congregations, silent about the Savior sitting by the well? What should be done to those who drink living water for themselves, but when they return to those within that city’s barren walls and say nothing about the life that Jesus gives? Sometimes, they who live in Sychar and have been to the well gather on certain nights to drink of that water again among themselves, but they act like the others inside the city at other times. They are ashamed of their blessing and quench it so that the the other people will not be angry or embarrassed. This is Pentecostalism, and it is an abomination not only to God but to all who know Him, all who have remained with Jesus at the well long enough to know and to love both him and his truth.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-28 Signs From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. I read a magazine article last year that described how certain Christian churches had learned how to better market their services by studying the advertising techniques of large American corporations, especially those in the entertainment industry. The copying of marketing techniques of sinners is an indication of a spiritually bankrupt assembly. God’s obedient people do not, indeed cannot, market what they have from God. When the saints of God walk in the Spirit, they do not need to advertise who they are. Jesus said that all men would know we were his disciples by the love that we have one to another, not by our slick advertising campaign. If the fruit of the Spirit in us draws someone to Christ, then that person really wants Christ. If a slick televison commercial draws people to us, then what they really want is to be on television. If the presence of the joy of the holy Ghost in the body of Christ attracts people, then those people really want joy. If the power of God in the body of Christ attracts people, then what those people want is healing and spiritual strength. A godly assembly full of the holy Ghost does not need to spend one dime on advertising. A clean, holy spirit in the assembly attracts those who want a clean, holy spirit in themselves. Paul said that prophecy in the congregation could convict unbelievers (1Cor. 14:24-25). What is it that attracts people to your congregation? Puppet shows and singles camping trips? Or is it the power, joy, and light of the holy Ghost? Jesus confirms his word "with signs following" (Mk. 16:20). That is what wise men look for when they begin to grow hungry for God. It is exactly as Preacher Clark said in his sermon that Sunday afternoon in Grandma’s house, "If you have the signs, you don’t need one." Amen.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-27 The Receipt From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. John the Baptist’s baptism did not wash away sins. Sin is a matter of the heart, and no physical substance such as water can ever cleanse the heart from sin. John’s baptism (which the earliest, Jewish congregation practiced) was a kind of "receipt" showing that the person baptized had "paid" for the baptism of the holy Ghost that Jesus would give. Repentance was the price that they had paid, and John’s baptism was their receipt. Until God began baptizing Gentiles into His kingdom in Acts 10, no one ever received the holy Ghost baptism without having that receipt. What causes some people to be confused at times concerning John’s baptism is that the Bible refers to John’s baptism as "the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (e.g., Mk. 1:4). Some even today understand that phrase to mean that John’s water baptism remitted sins, but it did not. Water cannot do that, and that is not what the Bible means by that phrase. John’s baptism was a person’s proof that he had truly repented and was prepared to receive the remission of sins that comes with the holy Ghost baptism. John would not give his baptism, their receipt for repentance, to anyone who had not truly repented, and God let him know who they were. He brutally rebuked hypocrites who came to be baptized of him just for show (e.g., Mt. 3:7-10). Paul’s gospel for the Gentiles excluded the need for any such receipt. The receipt and the remission of sins, according to Paul, is all the same thing now: the baptism of the Spirit that Jesus gives to all who obey him. Referring to the Gentiles receiving the Spirit’s baptism, Peter told the council in Jerusalem, "God, who knows the hearts, bear them witness, giving them the holy Ghost, even as he did unto us" (Acts 15:8) Those Gentiles obeyed God and receive the proof of it. It is still true today as it was then that, as Peter again said, that God gives the holy Ghost to all who obey Him (Acts 5:32). That is God’s receipt for our repentance, and it is a far better receipt than the one John gave the Jews.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-26 Greater Works, Part Three Jesus healed the sick, restored missing body parts to maimed people, raised the dead, prophesied of things to come, changed water into wine, fed multitudes with just a little food, walked over water, commanded storms to be still, and performed other mighty miracles that no man had ever done before (Jn. 15:24). The night before he died, however, he told his disciples, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father" (Jn. 14:12). The glory and power of Jesus is often and rightly emphasized, but when the humility of Jesus is presented to us, it can be very touching. In his time, Moses was the meekest man on earth (Num. 12:3), but when Jesus came, he took humility to a new level. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Mt. 11:29-30). He is the master of life, the governor of the universe, the ruler by whom all things continue to exist and function. He holds the power of life and death over every creature everywhere, visible and invisible, yet he has never been cruel or unjust. He is full of humility, tenderness, and the love of God. Paul said that the love of God never "vaunts itself" and that it "is not puffed up" (1Cor. 13:4); that is, someone living in the love of God never grasps after a higher position or more glory than that which he has received freely from God. Satan is the prime example of the absence of the love of God; he was unthankful for the perfect beauty and great wisdom and honor that was freely given to him in the day when he was created. Instead of being thankful, he became proud and envious, and foolishly grasped after an equality with God (Isa. 14:12-14). On the other hand, Jesus was the greatest example of the love of God in action, in that when he was created by his Father, he was content with his station and never grasped after equality with God (Phip. 2:6). Instead, "he made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phip. 2:7-8). Jesus said that those who believe in him will do greater works than he did. He did not envy those who would do those greater works; it was their place, not his, to do them. Neither did he sulk about not being allowed to do those greater works; doing them was their gift from God, not his to do. Jesus knew his place, and he honored his Father by being content to stay in it. Jesus was "a man under authority" (Lk. 7:8), and he was always aware of that. When James and John, with their mother, approached Jesus with a request that they be given the highest seats of honor in his coming kingdom, Jesus replied to them that only his Father had the authority to assign seats in the kingdom of God (Mt. 20:20-23). Jesus never crossed the line to interfere with or claim the power and the wisdom that belonged only to God. Only God, according to Jesus, knows when the Son will be sent to earth to gather the saints together to him (Mk. 13:32). Only God, Jesus said, had the power to do the mighty works that He did through Jesus (Jn. 14:10). Even on the day he ascended into heaven, he was still acknowledging to his disciples that there were things he did not have the authority to decide or to do (Acts 1:7). Jesus was the epitome of humility. Before the coming of the holy Ghost, Jesus’s disciples were hampered in their spiritual walk by the domination of their own corrupt nature, and they would remain limited by that nature in their knowledge of God until the Spirit filled them on the day of Pentecost. Therefore, Jesus used parables and examples to communicate to their spirits concerning the life he was living and that they would soon share with him. He told them that those who wanted to be the greatest in God’s kingdom had to humble themselves the most (Mt. 23:10-12) and that the rulers that God would appoint over His people would have to learn to rule differently from the way men on earth ruled over others (Lk. 22:23-27). He acted as a servant for them, telling them to follow his example. He washed their feet and served them their bread and wine. He took a little child and, setting him in the midst, warned his disciples, "Except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 18:3-4). "Let this mind be in you", Paul wrote, "which also was in Christ Jesus." When the family of God attains to the mind of Christ, there will be no controversies among us, no envying, no strife, no misunderstandings, no harsh words, no doubting, and no fear. A carnal mind leads us to death, but "to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6). A congregation with the mind of Christ has peace among themselves and joy in their hearts. A congregation with the mind of Christ knows the will of God and is happily doing it. Our greatest enemy is not the devil; our greatest enemy is whatever it is that we don’t know about our heavenly Father. Whatever we lack in obtaining the mind of Christ is our greatest enemy because the mind of Christ knows God. And to know God is to participate in eternal life (Jn. 17:3). Do not seek to advance yourself, and do not seek to please men so that they will advance you. "Lift not up your horn on high; speak not with a stiff neck. Promotion cometh not from east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is the Judge. He putteth down one and setteth up another" (Ps. 75:5-7). Carnally minded men pursue their own wealth and status; but let those who seek eternal honor from God listen to the wisdom of the apostle Peter: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" (1Peter 5:6).
Thought for Today 2003. 03-25 Greater Works, Part Two From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. Jesus healed the sick, restored missing body parts to maimed people, raised the dead, prophesied of things to come, changed water into wine, fed multitudes with just a little food, walked over water, commanded storms to be still, and performed other mighty miracles that no man had ever done before (Jn. 15:24). The night before he died, however, he told his disciples, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father" (Jn. 14:12). It is difficult to imagine a man working the same miracles Jesus performed, much less greater miracles, but if Jesus said it, then that is the truth. Nevertheless, there are two things that Jesus’ disciples did after his departure that were far greater than anything Jesus ever did while on earth. First, Jesus was unable to lay his hands on a person and cause that person to receive the holy Ghost. Jesus had to die and ascend into heaven to offer himself to God for the sins of the world before the holy Ghost would be made available to mankind. Only after he returned to his heavenly Father did the holy Ghost baptism come (Acts 2). The apostles were then given power to lay hands on people so that they would receive the holy Ghost baptism. That experience of being born again by being baptized with the holy Ghost into the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:13) was an experience that Jesus could give to no one while he was here on earth, and it is a greater miracle than any miracle Jesus ever performed. To be born of the Spirit is greater than being healed of anything. It is greater than being raised from the dead. It is immortal life entering into a mortal body. It is the promise of the Father that makes a human being a partaker of God’s divine nature. It is the gift of God that "maketh rich". It is "the pearl of great price", for which a wise man will give all that he has, including his own life. When Jesus’ disciples returned to him rejoicing for all the mighty miracles that they had done in his name, he told them, "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven" (Lk. 10:20). The baptism of the holy Ghost is the proof that your name is written in heaven. How precious it is! But it is an experience no one could have until after Jesus ascended to God, and for Paul or Peter, or anyone else, to lay hands on someone to receive the holy Ghost is greater than anything Jesus did or could do while he was here on earth. His death was the price for that blessing. The second work that Jesus’ servants performed that was greater than any work Jesus did while on earth was to take the message of the gospel beyond the boundaries of Israel. Jesus was sent only to Israel (Mt. 15:24; Rom. 15:8), and he refused to go beyond his mandate from God (Mt. 15:21-26). He dropped a few crumbs of blessing along the way for non-Jews, as it pleased his Father, but that was not his mission from God. When Peter was sent to a Gentile’s house to bring the light to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, the congregation in Jerusalem rebuked him (Acts 11:1-3). They did not expect that to happen; it was something more than Jesus did. More than that, it was something that Jesus has explicitly told his disciples not to do (Mt. 10:5-6). But after Jesus ascended, he kept giving commandments to his disciples. His commandment to Peter to go to Cornelius’ house contradicted what he had commanded to his disciples previously, and Peter had a little difficulty believing it himself (Acts 10), but he obeyed Jesus’ new commandment to go farther than Jesus had ever gone, and the door to the kingdom of God was at last opened to all people. By obeying Jesus, Peter had used his last "key to the kingdom" to open the door to the fountain of life for all nations. That was a far greater work than Jesus did, or was able to do, while he was on earth.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-24 Greater Works, Part One Jesus healed the sick, restored missing body parts to maimed people, raised the dead, prophesied of things to come, changed water into wine, fed multitudes with just a little food, walked over water, commanded storms to be still, and performed other mighty miracles that no man had ever done before (Jn. 15:24). The night before he died, however, he told his disciples, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father" (Jn. 14:12). When I look around today for the same indisputably miraculous works that Jesus did, I don’t see them. Some claim to have the power of God, but I have noticed that Jesus never did that. Jesus never claimed to have the power of God, and the reason he never claimed that he had the power of God is because he really had it. No one holding a hammer in his hand needs to claim that he is holding a hammer in his hand. What he has is obvious. And no one who is truly anointed with the power of God has to claim that he has it. His works speak for themselves. Christian "charismatic" teachers today who claim to have God’s power do not have it; if they had it, they wouldn’t need to claim it. Those with it don’t need to say a word. The body of Christ in our time is cursed and has been cursed for almost two thousand years because long ago it traded its spiritual power and purity for political advantage when it merged with the Roman Empire and became the religion of "Christianity". The body of Christ today is virtually powerless, completely divided, utterly confused, and thoroughly polluted with superstition and sin. The body of Christ is not alive and well; it is dead to much of what is true and holy, and it is desperately sick in spirit. Still, false teachers claim to have the same power Jesus had, and they encourage God’s poor children to claim the same thing. But as long as the family of God clings to phony confessions and refuses to confess its need, the congregation will never receive God’s real power and be healed. There was a pastor in ancient Laodicea who boasted of his greatness before the congregation of the Lord. He said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing!" Jesus told him, "You are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked!" (Rev. 3:17). Claiming something does not make it true. We who believe in Jesus are virtually powerless. Isn’t it obvious? Dear Father, have mercy on us and show us your power! We who believe in Jesus are divided. Can anyone say that is not true? Oh, God, have mercy on us and make us one! We who believe in Jesus are confused. Who knows how to heal the broken body of Christ? Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and teach us your truth! We who believe in Jesus are polluted with sin and superstition. What else could be the cause of our divisions and weakness? Dear God, have mercy on us and make us holy and free! My prayer is that God will not allow us to be satisfied with anything but His perfect will for the body of Christ. If Jesus said that the one who believed in him would do the works he did, and even greater works, then that is what those who believe in him will do. He also said, "These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mk. 16:17-18). With such words, Jesus was describing a healthy congregation, one that is untainted by the world and not encumbered by entanglements with it. May God rescue us all from the curse of Christianity and the death of its doctrines and ceremonial forms. May He restore to His people the beauty of His holiness and the blessing of peace. I feel certain that He will, if the family of God will stop claiming to be in good health, if the family will confess its very great need of His power and truth, and if the family will obey His call to come out of Christianity.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-21 Government in the Body of Christ From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. I have met a sizable number of believers over the years who were not members of any particular spiritual group. Based upon those encounters, I have concluded that most of God’s children who have no spiritual home and are not a part of any sect of Christianity (Xty) are outside of Xty because they are stubborn, rebellious, and despise government. These people might improve their poor spiritual condition if they would join one of Xty’s sects, submit to its rules, and to respect authority. Such self-willed saints are worthless to God in their present condition. Contempt for government is one of the marks of ungodly men (2Peter 2:9-10). "Presumptuous are they, and self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignified things." In the eyes of God, government in the body of Christ is a very "dignified thing". Every child of God needs a spiritual home. Every child of God needs to be part of a family unit in Christ. Every child of needs to be in meetings with other saints, so that he can speak of "our meetings". Every child of God needs a pastor that he can truthfully call "our pastor". Every child of God needs a home where there is order and discipline, where there is accountability for actions and responsibilities to fulfill. Except for the growing number of obedient children of God who have come out of Xty because they heard the call of Jesus to do so, loners in God’s kingdom are almost always mere rebels who will not submit to authority. God has ordained government in the body of Christ, but "foolish virgins" refuse to acknowledge that truth and humble their souls to those men whom God has anointed to govern in his family. This truth has to be learned, sometimes by painful experience: freedom in Christ is not a license to sin; it is freedom from sin to obey the will of God. In the 1950s, Preacher Clark finally admitted to himself, after much heartache and persecution, that the truth of Christ was never going to be received in the denominational structure of Xty. So, he began to hold home prayer meetings. A number of saints of God were attracted to the liberty and joy of those meetings. However, while some were attracted to the liberty and joy of the Spirit, the liberty and joy to which others were attracted was the liberty from any structure or government. The joy that certain unwise saints felt was the evil joy for the absence of authority over them in the body of Christ. As time passed, my father grew heavier and heavier with sorrow because of these self-willed, unclean children of God. They were unconcerned about the filthy habits they had: smoking, drinking, and other such things. They felt "free" to commit fornication, adultery, and similar immoral acts. They were set in their ways and refused to acknowledge any authority over them. They were never going to change. In sincere prayer concerning this troublesome attitude in his little home prayer meetings, he took his burden to the Lord, and the Lord gave him his answer. Jesus told Preacher Clark to organize his work and to institute rules for conduct for those who were a part of it. He did it immediately. He announced in the next meeting that there would be government in his meetings with a standard of conduct (ten simple rules to follow) and that obedience to those rules would be required of all who wanted to be a part of his meetings. Over half of that small congregation walked out and never returned, but he was not sad; on the contrary, he was relieved. In fact, felt as if he had gained. Every soul there who was clean in heart loved the feeling of having government in the body of Christ. Every one who was self-willed and ungodly despised God’s government and departed. Good riddance! The congregation that meets in my house has no part in Xty, but we readily acknowledge that God has ordained government in the body of Christ for the protection of the flock. Those who teach that there is no structure in the true family of God and no such thing as one saint being "over" another have great difficulty with such verses as these from Jesus’ apostles: "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the Word of God, whose faith follow. . . ." (Hebrews 13:7) "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account. . . . " (Hebrews 13:17) "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder . . . Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind." (1Peter 5:1-2) "We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake." (1Thess. 5:12-13) "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine." (1Timothy 5:17) Paul mentions authority to rule in the congregation in a list of gifts that God gives to some, and he exhorts those in the congregation who have been given that gift to rule "with diligence" (Romans 12:6-8). And in the famous twelfth chapter of 1Corinthians, Paul mentions "governments" as part of the structure that God "sets in the congregation". Everywhere God is, there is government. It is sweet; it is pleasant; and it is holy. It cannot be done away with, although it can be denied and rejected. Refused or accepted, however, government is ordained in God’s family just as it is ordained by God in the nations of earth. Without government, there is no peace, and where there is no peace, there can be no learning. And where there is no learning, there is no growth in Christ. The body of Christ must have government in order to grow in the knowledge of God. There must be order, God’s order, in the body in order for His children to attain to maturity in spirit. If they will be damned who disobey and resist the governmental authorities that God has instituted among men of earth (Romans 13:1), what will be the end of those children of God who refuse to submit their souls to the government that our holy God has instituted in His family? If public officials of earthly governments are "God’s ministers" (Romans 13:4) and a man’s refusal to submit to them brings upon him wrath from God (Romans 13:2,5), how will it be in the Final Judgment for those who refuse to hear what the Spirit is saying to the congregations, spoken by God through the men that He has anointed to proclaim it? The responsibility of ruling in the body of Christ is a grave one. Jesus held the pastors of the seven congregations of Asia personally accountable for the conduct of the members of those congregations (Revelation 2-3). If I am a reasonable man, and if I know that I will be required to give an account to Jesus for the conduct of those over whom the Lord has given me rule, then I will fear God and speak out against evil when it shows its ugly head among us; I will not allow false doctrine to be taught in my house; I will want people to be holy and happy instead of ungodly and oppressed. King Saul lost his soul and ruined the nation of Israel in ancient times because he feared the people over whom he ruled and obeyed their voice rather than the voice of God (1Sam. 15:24). When time for his judgment came and the prophet Samuel called him to give account to God, he was "weighed in the balance and found wanting." He was turned over to the power of Satan (1Sam. 16:14), and God became his enemy (1Sam. 28:16). Every man of God who fears God’s people instead of God will fail to enforce the government of God. He is foolish, and he will suffer the vengeance of God’s wrath because he did not love and protect God’s children. This truth exposes the fundamental sinfulness of Xty’s system of hiring and firing ministers. What man can speak the truth of God as he ought to speak, when he knows that the people hired him to teach them what they already believe and that if they do not like what he says, they will fire him and hire another? Xty’s tradition of hiring ministers is one of the surest evidences that it is a wicked, Godless religion that is far from the heart of Jesus. It may at first appear to some who observe us at a distance that we have no government or that we despise it, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We love government; in fact, it is because that we love God’s government that we came out of Xty. We learned by experiences that not one of the governments within Xty are of God and that they never have been. Xty does not protect the children of God from wolves in sheep’s clothing; on the contrary, it demands that they submit to them. The precious children of God are not safe anywhere in Xty. That is why God is calling His children to come out of it. Jesus wants us all to enjoy the liberty and peace that government from God will provide for us, and that holy and good government is found in no Christian sect. We need government in the body of Christ, and the congregation that meets in my house has it. Thanks be to God!
Thought for Today 2003. 03-20 Zion’s New Name From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. In the Old Testament, the congregation of God’s saints is sometimes referred to as "Zion". For example, under the Old Testament, a man’s first, natural birth made him a child of God. To be born naturally of Jewish parents, regardless of where on this earth it happened, automatically made a person a member of God’s people Israel. But prophesying of the new, second birth of the New Testament that would make a man a part of the new Israel of God, the Psalmist said, "And of Zion it shall be said, ‘This and that man was born in her’, and the Highest Himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count when He writeth up the people [His people], that ‘this man was born there.’ Selah." (Ps. 87:5-6). Every Israelite belonged to Zion, in the Old Testament. In this New Testament, when a person is born again by the incorruptible Word of God, no matter where on earth it happens, that person is also born into Zion. The only difference is that now, Zion is called by a different name. God, through Isaiah, foretold of the event: "For Zion ‘s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name." (Isa. 62:1-2). When did this astonishing event transpire? When did the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ give the people of God a new name? We find the event recorded in Matthew 16:18, when Jesus, speaking to Peter, bestowed upon the congregation of the Lord the new name of "congregation". "And I say also unto thee that ‘Thou are Peter’, and upon this rock I will build my congregation, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Yes, "the mouth of the Lord"Jesus Christ gave to Zion a new name, the name "congregation", just as Isaiah had prophesied hundreds of years before. Now, in this New Testament, whenever a person is born again, he is born again into the congregation, the earthly family of God. The congregation is the new Israel of God into which, on the terrible Day of His Judgment, the Lord shall note when He writes up the people that "This or that man was born in her." I hope that your name is on the list.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-19 Preaching and Teaching From a sermon at Grandma’s farmhouse by Preacher Clark in mid-May, 1975. The gospel of Christ cannot be taught. It must be preached because it is the power of God (Rom. 1:15-16). God alone can ordain men to preach His gospel (e. g. Lk. 4:18; Acts 10:42), and in every case, those who are ordained by God to preach His gospel have the power of the holy Ghost working through them to prove it. A man’s deeds prove whether or not he has been sent by God to preach. He does not have to claim anything. Likewise, the "kingdom of God" cannot be taught; it must be preached (Lk. 4:43) because, like the gospel, the kingdom of God is "not in word, but in power" (1Cor. 4:20). There is no place in the Bible that speaks of "teaching the kingdom of God". The things concerning the kingdom of God can be spoken of (Lk. 9:11; Acts 1:3; 19:8); but the kingdom itself cannot be taught; it must be preached. "The kingdom of God", wrote Paul, "is righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" (Rom:17:14). So, the kingdom of God cannot be taught to men any more than the holy Ghost itself can be taught to men. It must be experienced, and only by preaching the kingdom of God can men experience it. Doctrines, whether true or false, can be taught (1Tim. 1:3; Mt. 15:9); the way of God can be taught (Mt. 22:16); things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ can be taught (Acts 28:31); but the gospel can only be preached because, as with the kingdom of God, the gospel of God is "the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1:16). Paul said that he was "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ". This means that he was not ashamed of the power of God. He was not ashamed to speak in tongues; he was not ashamed to prophesy; he was not ashamed to heal the sick; he was not ashamed of those saints who trembled so greatly under the power of God that ignorant men thought that those happy saints were drunk with wine (Acts 2:13). Preaching can be done silently with the hands, such as when a servant of God lays hands on the sick and they are healed, or verbally, as when a servant of Jesus is empowered by God to speak something in His name. Either way, miraculous things happen whenever preaching takes place. Peter was preaching under the anointing of God at Cornelius’ house when the holy Ghost fell on everyone there, and Gentiles were taken into the kingdom of God (Acts 10). Search your Bibles; you will find that there is no such thing as a "false preacher" in the congregation; there are only false teachers in the congregation (2Pet. 2:1). Why are there no "false preachers"? Simply preaching can only happen when the anointing of God is present. What the Bible calls "preaching" is possible only when the power of God moves through a man. There are no false preachers because there is no false power of God; if it is the power of God, it cannot be false. The power of God cannot be imitated. This is the reason that there is no such thing as a false preacher mentioned in your Bible. Teaching can be true or false because there are such things as false teachers, but preaching can be nothing but true. Most Christian ministers call themselves, or are called by others, "preachers", but in all but an extremely few cases, they are not; they are only teachers. To call a man a "preacher" who does not have the miracle-working power of God moving through him is unbiblical. That ungodly tradition is simply another of Christianity’s worthless ways. Such ministers are teachers, and they are all false, to one degree or another. If they were not false, to one degree or another, they would obey God and come out of Christianity. No Christian minister understands that merely being a part of the religion of Christianity makes him false, to some extent. For the many Christian ministers who are sincere and pure in heart, I feel certain that Jesus will rescue them from that vain religion somewhere along their way. Until then, as long as they remain a part of the Great Whore, their vision is clouded, and their teaching is always to some extent polluted by Christianity’s rebellious spirit. Not For Hire; Not For Sale The Scriptures indicate the difference between teaching and preaching in several places. For one example, we are told that Jesus departed "to teach and to preach in their cities" (Mt. 11:1). The "preaching" Jesus did was demonstrating the power of God with miracles and healing; the "teaching" was what Jesus told the people about His Father and His ways. He was preaching when the power of God rose up in him and he shouted, "Come out of her, you unclean spirit!" He was teaching when he said to those who gathered about him, "A sower went forth to sow. . . ." The apostles were commanded by the elders of Israel no longer to teach or to preach in Jesus’ name (Acts 5:42). Apparently, even Israel’s elders recognized that the apostles were doing more than talking about Jesus. They wanted to put an end to both their teaching about Jesus and the miraculous works the apostles did in his name. Nature can teach us (1Cor:11:14). But it cannot preach. Experiences can teach us, but no experience ever preaches. The holy Ghost can teach us (Lk. 12:12; Jn. 14:26; 1Cor. 2:13; 1Jn. 2:27), but there is no Scripture that says the holy Ghost preaches. Only men can preach, and only those men can preach who are anointed with the power of the holy Ghost sent down from heaven (1Pet. 1:12). Christian ministers can be hired to teach certain doctrines (2Tim. 4:3), but no man can be hired to preach because the power of God is not for sale. "Preaching" is an act that is impossible for a man to do in himself, for supernatural power from God is required for "preaching" to be possible. Men have the power in themselves to teach, but unless Jesus has taught a man the mysteries of God’s kingdom, the only thing that man can teach is lie. No man can teach the truth of Christ without hearing directly from God any more than he can preach without the anointing of God’s miracle-working power. The truth of the doctrine of God is no more for sale than is His anointing with power. If a man is hired to teach, he is already a liar because God’s truth is not for sale. Christianity’s religious system of hiring and firing of ministers is as much of God as is a worldly business’s hiring and firing of workers. That system is altogether of man; it is of the will of man; it serves only to please the men in charge of that business. In the kingdom of God, there is no such thing as hiring a man to be a minister because God cannot be persuaded by money to call and to anoint a man with power. Neither can He be persuaded by "filthy lucre" to anoint a man to teach the truth. "To hell with you and your money!" angry Peter declared to one foolish man, "because you think the gift of God can be bought with money!" (Acts 8:20). Hell is where Christianity and its entire money-driven system will be sent. Its ministers are hired with money; its doctrines are financed with money; the substances of its communion suppers are purchased with money; its congregations are built with money; its robes for worship are woven for money; and its "word" is a dead book printed for money. God will destroy Christianity, the Babylon of the New Testament. For this reason, Jesus is pleading for his beloved people to come out of that vain religion before His Father determines that it is time to destroy it. This is a message that cannot be taught by man in himself, nor yet understood by man because it is truth that only comes through the anointing of God and can only be received by a heart that has been touched by God to receive it. It is a message that is so pure and true that there is no place in Christianity for it. No one will pay a man to teach it because the teaching of it will destroy the religion that hires men to teach. It is freely received and freely given, and it sets free every person who embraces it. In this message, you are being taught things that you cannot judge. Rather, these things are of God and are judging you. Have you been found worthy to receive them and to rejoice in the truth?
Thought for Today 2003. 03-18 Just Ask From a message to the congregation on October 1, 2000. Solomon told his young son (Prov. 3:1-4), "My son if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding, Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." If you want to understand life, if you want to know what God thinks, and how He sees your situation, He is waiting to help you to understand. He will speak to you if you will ask Him. Just wanting things from God is not enough. We must open our mouths and tell Him what we desire from Him. Jesus is faithful. "You have not because you ask not" wrote James. And Jesus said, "Ask, and ye shall receive. . . . For EVERY ONE that asketh receiveth." That saying is true. He is waiting. Don’t miss out on healing, or understanding, or eternal life just because you didn’t open your mouth and ask God to give it to you.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-17 Wrong Ideas About God A message to the congregation, sent out September 14, 2001. Men are foolish if they think anything other than what the ancient wise man said: "Safety is of the Lord." It is God alone who determines the fate of nations. On September 11, 2001, God gave to a mere handful of deceitful and murderous young men a success much greater than they ever hoped for in their efforts to harm the United States of America. What can we say to that? Where was the greatness of the United States on that morning? Who gave those men their very great success against such a powerful nation? The United States is not the eternal kingdom. It can be destroyed, and at some point in time, it will be. Long ago, King David sang, "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God." The United States is certainly a country that has forgotten the true God and will be turned into hell. The root of all trouble on earth, now and throughout earth’s sorrowful history, is simply this: wrong ideas about God. Muslim ministers have corrupted the youth of many nations with wrong ideas about the Creator, and Christian ministers have done the same to the youth of many other nations. Men are perfectly capable in themselves to hate and to be malicious, but when they are persuaded to believe God approves of their evil designs and that righteousness demands that they destroy, there is nothing that those men will not do. In such cases, men consider it sinful to be merciful. There is no hatred on earth that burns as deeply as religious hatred, no cruelty as merciless as cruelty in the name of God. The Lord Jesus taught in John 8 that only the knowledge of the truth can make men free from wrong ideas about God. God’s truth alone can free men from the bondage of darkness and death. If men come to know that God is not just a big one of us, that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God", and that the Creator abhors cruelty and deceit, it is less likely that men will be cruel and deceive. The young, murderous men who caused so much pain and destruction at the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, were fully persuaded of, and fully committed to, wrong ideas about God. That is the root cause of that and every other catastrophe that has ever occurred on earth. Pray for the spread of the truth of Jesus. It is the only thing that will set men free from sin. Pray for mercy from God. Jesus told those who followed him that they are "the salt of the earth". God preserves nations for the sake of His beloved children. And without the family of God interceding with God on the behalf of those who are ignorant, there is no hope at all for the mighty United States.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-14 "Save Your People From Hurting Us!" From a message to the congregation, April 15, 2002 Why did so many of God’s own people reject Jesus when he came to save them? "He came unto his own and his own received him not." Days before he was betrayed by one of his closest friends and then crucified, he stood broken hearted on the Mount of Olives and wept for the deep and abiding love he felt for God’s rebellious children. Why did so few of God’s own people love Nehemiah after he had traveled from distant Susa to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem for their good and safety? Why was tender-hearted Jeremiah falsely accused and thrown into prison by God’s own people, the very people he was sent by God to help? Why was Paul beaten within an inch of his life by his fellow Jews, rescued from death only by the intervention of Roman soldiers? While listening to some of the music God has given to us lately and feeling the great love God has for His people, this prayer rose up in my heart: "God, save your people from hurting us." The most difficult sufferings of God’s servants have always been those inflicted upon them by God’s own children. Paul grieved continually for the hard-heartedness of the people who belonged to God. Jeremiah knew that disasters were soon to befall Jerusalem and Judah and wept bitterly because his beloved fellow Jews hated him for warning them of it. "Rivers of waters run" from David’s eyes because God’s own refused to walk in the light of God’s Law. It seems that we who serve Christ Jesus can endure any misunderstanding and contempt as long as it is the world that is rejecting his light. But to see God’s own people turn away from hearing the truth and condemn those who bring it is so hard! "Lord, save you people from hurting us!" I feel that in giving me that prayer to pray for His people, God was inviting me–us–to pray for the family of God, that they will be patient and wise. Oh, that all of God’s children would be wise as the Jews in Berea were, who having heard Paul preach, "searched the Scriptures daily to see if such things were true" (Acts 17:11). Pray for God’s children, that they will not join forces with the world against those who know and love the precious truth of Jesus. They have been badly taught. They have been trained not to be wise as the Bereans were, but to trust in the wisdom of the ministers they have hired to teach them. But Jesus is their Friend. He offers them his wisdom because his truth belongs to them. The promises of God are theirs, and we are their servants. Dear God, help your precious people to understand how very much you love them, and save them from doing us harm who are your servants for their sakes.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-13 Church and State When I was in Junior High School, we would start the mornings with a Bible reading and a prayer over the intercom for all the classes. At graduation exercises, public reverence for Jesus was expected and welcomed. Not too long ago, I watched a re-run of a Lawrence Welk Christmas program in which, without strain or shame, the name of Jesus was mentioned routinely. After those days, a foolish woman named Madeleine O’Hare sued to have recognition of Jesus, or any god, removed from public life. Her case reached the Supreme Court of the United States, and she won. The court decided that it was in the best interest of this nation, and that it was in keeping with the principles established in the Constitution of the United States, to order that such things as prayer in schools and other publicly run institutions should be abolished. In short, God was expelled from the school. It became public policy to exclude Jesus from the public institutions that most affect our children. For years, until I learned the truth about Christianity (Xty), I marveled that when the Supreme Court said, "Stop praying!", almost everyone stopped. Isn’t that strange, when you pause to think about it? However, Jesus helped me understand that Xty is a religion, just like Islam or Buddhism, that is a part of human culture; it originated with man; it is led by man’s wisdom; and it is controlled by man. That being so, when men on the U. S. Supreme Court commanded men in this country to stop praying in public places, Christians dutifully stopped. By ceasing from prayer according to the Court’s decree, Christians were merely acknowledging the fact that the earthly Supreme Court of the United States possesses authority over their earthly religion. The way of the Spirit, on the other hand, is neither of man nor is it subject to the rule of man. The children of God are free in Christ Jesus to pray whenever the holy Ghost says to pray, and they are free to stop praying when the Spirit is finished. Human will, including human law, has no authority whatsoever over the holy Ghost, and never will. The will of man means nothing to the mind of the Spirit. Throughout my nearly twenty years of teaching in the Community College system, I always prayed in class and with the class when I was led to do so by the Spirit. I never prayed out of a spirit of rebellion against anything; I prayed only according to the will of God, and there were very many of classes in which I did not pray because I felt no leading to do so. In 1978, when I began teaching, I felt that if I was fired for praying when the Spirit said to pray, then the school was unworthy of my presence, or of the presence of anyone led by the Spirit of God. I would have been happy, not bitter or sarcastic, if asked to leave, as long as I knew I was pleasing God. After all, it would have been the school’s loss, not mine. I simply would have taken it as a signal from God that I no longer belonged there. There was never a problem for me with praying in the college situation, but there was for others. I would occasionally hear of someone being reprimanded or even fired for praying in class or for talking too much about Jesus. News reports of such events would anger some people, but not me. Why should we be angered when we see the world govern what belongs to it, including worldly religions? If man’s courts want to dictate to members of man’s religious organizations what they can and cannot do, what business is that of God’s family? None at all. Stay out of man’s business. Remember King Josiah. But if, as sometimes happens, man’s courts attempt to intrude into the holy places of God and dictate to the Spirit what it can and cannot lead God’s children to do, then we are not required by Jesus to submit to that rule. We are to be respectful and obedient to "every ordinance of man", as Peter told us. But that same apostle, when commanded by one of man’s courts to cease from preaching the gospel, said, "We ought to obey God rather than men." So, the standard by which we are to live is to obey every law of the society in which we live (regardless of how foolish those laws may appear), but only up to the point at which those laws contradict the clear will of God. We are always to submit to "the higher power", and God is the highest power of all. That is all the thinking that we have to do concerning this issue. It is not a mind thing; it is a spirit thing. There are laws in effect now in this country that seem foolish, but that is none of the congregation’s business. As long as those laws do not contradict the will of God for the saints, they are to be obeyed. And at all times, even when governors of a nation or state are foolishly trespassing into holy places, the governors of this country, states, and cities, are to be prayed for and respected, if not obeyed. They need the saints' prayers and compassion. After all, remember that you yourself could have been cursed by God to be a mayor, or senator, or congressman, or even president (God forbid!), instead of being called into the precious kingdom of Christ. Be thankful and stay out of man’s business, and ignore them when they meddle with ours. Be like Jesus, who humbly submitted to man’s legal authority to kill him, but refused man’s claim of authority over what he should preach, or whom or when he should heal.
Thought for Today 2003. 03-12 God who? Immediately after the attack on America on September 11, 2001, there was a sudden and enormous increase in references to "God" by public officials. Unfortunately, and in keeping with this generation’s fear of saying right things if some may be offended by it, public officials failed to make it clear which god they were invoking. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who raised this nation up out of a wilderness to incredible heights of power and wealth was not once specifically mentioned, except in vague ways which, if questioned about it, they could easily deny. The precious name of Jesus is avoided in public like the plague by this country’s elected officials, from the President and downward. Public respect toward the name of Jesus is the very reason God once so blessed this nation, and Western Civilization in general. What, then, can we expect to be the result of the modern embarrassment to acknowledge His Son in public? The arrogant confidence in military victory exhibited by the pundits and political leaders over the many enemies of this nation is founded now upon faith in superior technology and arsenals. But we are taught in the holy Bible that "Safety is of the Lord." The Lord to whom safety belongs is the Father of the Lord Jesus, who now is routinely as dishonored by the nation as once he was publicly praised and respected. In the days after the September 11th attack, the word "God" was mentioned so much that it was nauseating. The cowardice of Christians to confess the name of Jesus publicly was obvious and revolting. After hearing the generic word, "god", a hundred times, my weary spirit cried out, "God who?" There are, as the Apostle Paul said, "gods many and lords many". I wanted to know to which god were all those people referring? What is his name? What has he ever done that men should love or fear him? How does he demand that men live? "Whosoever shall confess me before men," Jesus said, "him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 10:32-33) "But Jesus, some people will become angry if we speak your name in front of them. They will say that we are narrow minded and that we think we are the only ones right. And some of my own relatives will be very upset with me." "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household" (Mt. 10:34-36). "But Lord, I love my family." " He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Mt. 10:37). "But Jesus, if I mention your name in public, I won’t win re-election next year, and you know how valuable I am to you in my position as Governor. I can do a lot of good for people as long as I stay in office." "And me too, Jesus! Do you know how valuable I am to you in my position as President?" "Oh yes, I know exactly how valuable you are to me. My, my! It is difficult to imagine how I managed to hold the universe together for all those millennia before you came along to help me. What a great relief it was to me to see you born! Would you mind keeping the earth turning and the sun shining for a few hours so that I can finally get some rest? "You blind guides! Now, it is my turn. Answer me. Do you know how valuable I am to you in my position as your God?" (There is no Bible verse for this, but Jesus must have thought it a thousand times in response to man’s stubborn pride.) To mention God in public is apparently coming into vogue again–as long as the god mentioned is a generic one who demands nothing and knows nothing about our sin. But to be ashamed or afraid to mention publicly the holy name of Jesus is to demonstrate lack of faith in the only true God there is. Such cowardice is a hallmark of a sinful generation. Jesus is Lord of all. There is no other name given to men by which we can be saved from sin and the coming wrath of God. I won’t win an election to public office by saying such things, but then, that is not the race I am interested in winning. How about you?
Thought for Today 2003. 03-11 Seven Lies That The Children of God Believe, Part 7 As I was in prayer early Sunday morning, February 13, 2000, the Lord put it in my heart to write about the seven lies His people believe. I had no idea when I began to write what even the second lie would be, much less the third or fourth. I just knew they would come to me as I went along if it was indeed the Spirit of God that prompted me to begin writing. And they did. Here is the last of the seven principal lies that Christians have persuaded God's children to believe. Lie #7: The Devil is the god of Our Sufferings The family of God has been misled by Christianity to believe that the Devil is god over bad things that happen and that our heavenly Father is God of all good things that happen. This idea constitutes modern Christianity's form of idolatry, and it is now deeply imbedded in the minds of God's own people. His Old Covenant people were taken in by this very deceptive doctrine, His New Covenant people have been no wiser than they. If God has numbered to you the hairs of your head (Mt. 10:30), if He is involved in the death of the smallest of birds (Mt. 6:26), if he designs the colors of the most insignificant plants of the field (Mt. 6:28), how, then, will He not be intimately involved with the trials of the faith of His people? "The Lord trieth the righteous", wrote the wise men of old (Ps. 11:5). Then, whence cometh the notion that the devil is trying our faith when bad things happen? And whence cometh the notion that if we err, "the Devil will get us"? It is much more terrifying, and much more comforting, to know that if we err, our heavenly Father will "get us". In whose hands would you rather be when you are hurting? In the late afternoon of August 23, 1981, the Lord spoke these life-changing words to me, "It tickles the Devil for God's people to blame their troubles on him." And I understood immediately why that is true: As long as we are blaming the Devil for the troubles that our heavenly Father has designed for our spiritual growth, we will neither seek for nor accomplish His purpose for sending those trials our way. We can never come to know our Father while trusting Satan to hurt us, for "The Lord is known by the judgment which He executeth" (Ps. 9:16). If we believe, as some do, that the Lord never causes pain to anyone, and if we believe the "judgments" we sometimes suffer as from Satan, then how can God ever be known to us? Whom does the Bible say cursed Adam and Eve (as well as the serpent)? The Devil? Did the Devil send the flood that destroyed the earth? Did the Devil confuse the languages of men at the Tower of Babel? Did the Devil send the awful plagues upon Egypt? Or did the Devil anoint Elijah to call for a three-year-long famine upon Israel in the days of her transgression? Did the Devil design the wondrous, gruesome, saving work of Jesus on Mount Calvary? When Peter was determined to fight to the death those who came to arrest his Master, didn't Jesus say to him, "The cup which my Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it?" Whom do you trust to be God over the unpleasant circumstances of your life? I can assure you that the answer you give to that question will be a determining factor in how well you come to know and be made like your heavenly Father. No one who trusts Satan to determine his sufferings for him can ever be perfected in Christ. And no one who loves God and steadfastly trusts Jesus to be Lord of both the pleasant and unpleasant circumstances will be disappointed with the results. For "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose". And that is true only because it is our loving heavenly Father, not our adversary, the devil, who is working the "all things" of our lives. That the Devil is the god of our troubles is the Sevent |