Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
What things were previously gain to Paul? Paul had just laid out his religious qualifications. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. No one among the group he was describing, the Christian ministers from Jerusalem, was more qualified than he was. And yet these qualifications merely led to “the righteousness of the law.” These men who boasted of their qualifications in order to elevate themselves had their mind set on the things of the world. They desired to be elevated in the eyes of men. They boasted. Yet, Paul says that their God was their belly and their glory was actually their shame.
Brothers and sisters, we are either heavenly minded or earthly minded. You cannot be both, its a mind set. Its the seat of your affections. It will determine the words that come out of your mouth and the way that you live your life before the world. Paul is having the same problem in this chapter as he had in 1 Cor 12. There he spoke of the dangers of talking about your spiritual revelations, calling himself a fool, but having been once again compelled to put a certain group of people in their place and call them out. Both in 1 Cor 12 and in this chapter he boasts about first, his infirmities and secondly his losses. For in speaking in this manner, he is humbled and Christ is elevated.
And so what is the key teaching of this chapter three? It is the dichotomy between having a “righteousness,” that comes from the law, and having a righteousness “which is from God by faith.” The first puffs you up. It seeks to elevate you. It causes you to become “enemies of the cross of Christ.” It shall destroy you. It shall cause you to worship worldly things. Your god shall be “your belly, meaning your lifestyle, gains made by merchandising the things of God, thus enriching yourself. You will seek and often attain fame and that fame, in the spiritual realm, is your very shame. The second righteousness , that which is from God by faith enables you “to know Him and the power of His resurrection.”
To know Him intimately it to gain the everlasting life, resurrection life! To have this kind of righteousness causes you to walk in resurrection power, the power of the risen Christ. This righteousness grants you the right, yes that’s right, the right and the privilege to enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. In this way we are conformed to His death, even the death of the cross and to His life, yes even the life of His resurrection. All of this leads to eternal life. Might I suggest you refrain from boasting in anything other than the cross of Christ and your infirmities and loss, that the power of Christ may rest upon you. What kind of righteousness do you have?
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.(Eph 4:4-6)
There is one Body and one Spirit and that’s the plain truth of it. Whoever attempts to divide the Body is on a fools errand. The catastrophic failure of denominationalism flows from the root failure to understand our calling. To walk as one in Christ, this is the hope of our calling. We endeavor to keep the unity of Christ which means we diligently work to tear down walls of separation just as the walls that separated the Jews from the Gentiles were torn down on the bloody battle-field of Calvary. The Body of Christ spans the world and churches and denominations. Christendom, all that calls itself after Christ is not the Body, but for the most part the Body dwells within the confines of Christendom. Christendom needs them but they do not need Christendom. For by our new birth we were born into Christ, into the Body and it is one. One faith, one baptism and one God the Father who is in us. If the Father is not in you then you are not in the Body of Christ, no matter what “church,” you belong to. If the Father is in you then you belong to the Body of Christ no matter what “church,” you belong to.
Being a member or an attendee of a “church,” is of no consequence to those in whom the Father does not dwell. Circumcised or uncircumcised has no spiritual value. Church goer or non church goer has no spiritual value outside of the Spirit of God that dwells with us. Among the true Body of Christ there are some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Their purpose is to bring the saints to maturity and to edify the true Body of Christ until Christ comes again. They are not for the amusement or the hiring of the unsaved or the religious. No one outside of the Body can be edified by those whom the Lord calls, for the calling is to the one true Church. In Christendom we see “the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” (Eph 4:14) The plotting is always in association with self-serving. Every wind of doctrine is employed by the trickery of men to build themselves up, and build for themselves a kingdom. Yet God will always have those of the Body who shall speak the truth in love, seeking only to edify and protect the Body. It is incumbent upon you, O saint, to discern these things by the Word of God and His Spirit.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
We are living in a day where the Gospel is under more threat than it ever has been in the last 2000 years. Quite an incredible statement when you consider the history of martyrs and persecution that took place century after century. We seem to believe that we must not condemn anyone who preaches “the gospel,’ and that the motivation must not be questioned, rather as long as the message is preached then we simply leave the motivation of the preacher to God. I agree with this. Let the Word go forth and let the Lord be the judge. Yet in the scripture we see something entirely different in regard to “another gospel.” If “another,” gospel is preached other than that which was delivered, then the one who engages in this is cursed. And unless we did not get it, Paul repeats himself ” I say again, if anyone preaches any gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.” We should let that sink in for a moment. Paul pronounces a curse over those who preach a false gospel.
In the immediate context Paul is talking about legalizers or Judiazers. People who professed faith in Jesus but still were under the law and desired to see others under the law. Yet this curse is more than appropriate to ascribe to the “cheap grace” or the “prosperity gospel,” and the myriad of other so called gospels that exists today. We hear so many say “well as long as Jesus is being preached.” Jesus was being preached by those whom Paul was speaking of. In the end brothers and sisters, the Gospel is something that we receive through the Holy Spirit. And those who receive it recognize it in others. Paul did not receive it from anyone. In fact, after his salvation he was gone for three years into Arabia. And when he finally came to Jerusalem he only stayed for fifteen days where he conferred with Peter and James only, and then he was gone again for fourteen years. No one knew him personally in Judea, they had only heard of him. This “training,” that Paul received from God himself would mean that Paul would show no personal favoritism to any man, no matter what that man was perceived to be by others.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.(Rom 1:16) The Gospel is simply the good news about Christ and His Kingdom. It is personified in the fact that He has set you free from the bondage of sin and death. He came to set the captive free.He came to restore the broken. He has redeemed our fallen souls. He has made a way for us to the Father and it comes only through Him. He loved you while you were yet in your sin. He who the Son sets free is free indeed, he is completely liberated from the curse of the law. And that last point is why he was so hated by many of the legalizers and why he would confront Peter to his face. Brothers and sisters, if we want to be friends with the world then never confront anyone about anything. Stay hiding in your silence. Peep out from behind your twitching curtains and watch as false gospels are taught everywhere and do and say nothing. Doing that will make you the exact opposite of Paul. There is nothing loving about fearful silence wrapped up in virtuous overtones. Its the truth that sets men free, not your love. Your love only makes a difference when it is aligned with truth. Jesus alone and His gospel is the way the truth and the life.
2Co 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
The desire for authority and position is an ancient one. It marks humanity. Indeed, it marks the fallen angels and Lucifer who desired God’s position. He wanted to be exalted. He wanted to be worshiped, he desired an opportunity to be regarded as God. When he speaks to Jesus face to face in the desert, his true heart is revealed for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. In the three temptations of Jesus, the first two he refers to Jesus as “If you are the Son of God.” Yet the third temptation he drops that accusation and shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and tells Jesus that they are all His ” if you will fall down and worship me.” You see, he knew exactly who Jesus was and now we see exactly what Satan wanted. He wanted what was not his, he wanted Jesus’ position.
Paul says, in regards to the false Apostles “that I may cut off their opportunity to be regarded just as we are.” You see what the false teachers wanted? They wanted to be regarded like Paul. They wanted what Paul had. The false Apostles desired the position so that others would serve them. So that others would elevate them and so they would be held in high regard. In other words they wanted what their master, Satan, wanted, and in order to get that for him they would be turned into angels of light and ministers of righteousness. Now remember brothers and sisters, this is all happening in the “early church.” There is nothing new under the sun. For three years Paul warned about such men, night and day, with tears, calling them out, calling them, in effect, devils in disguise. The church of today could not handle such teaching. Paul would be banned from almost every pulpit in the world.
These false teachers would share about their hard times in order to get the sympathy (and the money) of the folks. And Paul says that they gladly put up with them, he actually says that “you gladly put up with fools.” He says to the Corinthians that they put up with these men even although they lead them into bondage. Even although they devour them and take from them everything that they have and even beat them. The very essence of religiosity was threatening to consume them and they were giving themselves over to it because it is easier to be religious than it is to die to yourself and rise again in the beauty of holiness. Paul tells them that what he is about to tell them is foolish. Yet, he tells them that if suffering were the high water mark of Christianity, then he had suffered much more than any of these men. Yet, he had suffered for Christ’s sake. And he counted it all as nothing so that he may be found in Him. If he was going to boast about anything, he would boast about his weaknesses so that Christ may be elevated. Brothers and sisters, mark those who elevate themselves. Only if Christ be lifted up, only if Jesus has the preeminence can we know that the Holy Spirit is indeed among us.
A sister in the Lord sent me an article about about someone who had visited a church and it was dark. Now, the author was speaking of physical darkness, the lights were turned down so low that she could not read. The irony was not lost on her that the opening song was about the Lord being the light in the darkness The last time I was at a church it was also dark. It had stadium seating as they do in the cinema. It was not dark when I entered, but soon enough the lights were dimmed, I guessed the “show,” was about to begin. Now why are countless churches operating in the dark? Could it just be a trend? Another fad? An attempt to appeal to a younger generation? Or, could it be as simple as the fact that this darkness truly represents their spiritual state? I tend to go with the latter.
“Entertainment.” Without the presence of God we must entertain the masses. So, just like the movies and secular concerts, we dim the lights and highlight the platform, put a spotlight on it. The platform in and of itself is an idol. I believe Luther tore down the idol of “The Eucharist,” and helped raise up the idol of the pulpit, the platform, the elevated place. People can sit in darkness because nothing is required of them. All the “action,” is taking place front and center and elevated. Then add the dry ice smoke machines and you have the whole ghastly package. Entertainment rules supreme, concert style worship and dimmed lights make sure the spotlight is on “the front.” Actual congregational worship and the proper 1 Cor 14 setting is dead, and in its place Hollywood rules supreme. Hollywood meaning that which is contrived is made to look real. May God bring down the curtain on this abomination.
1Co 14:24 But if all prophesy, and if an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
Note the word “all”. Over and over we see the word all. And again in verse 31 we are told “for you can all prophesy that all may learn and all may be encouraged. Six times in two verses the Scriptures hammer home the truth “all.” Genuine saints are all priests in a royal priesthood. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light! (1 Pet 2:9) All the saints have been called forth to cry out the praises of the One who called us out of darkness to show the world His marvelous light. We are His excellent ones. Specifically anointed to move under the manifestation of the Spirit and speak as He leads us to speak. And when we do as we are instructed to do , then, according to the Scriptures the unlearned or the unbeliever will fall down on his face and worship God because the secrets of his heart was revealed and he shall then reports to all that “God is truly among you.”
This is the plain reading of the scripture saints. To do it any other way is to be in direct conflict with God. To sit under the clergy/laity system is to directly violate the principles and the instructions here laid down by God Himself. What audacity to think we know better. The greatest injury perpetrated against the Church was robbing the Body of its fellowship, of its actual breaking of bread, its communion together. How it fellowshiped together, how it gathered together, how it worshiped together under the auspices of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, who oversaw, who hovered over all things, all of this was rejected by the professional clergy. To wait upon the Lord so that only He speaks, is the simple gathering of the brethren. Let us wait upon the Lord. Who shall He speak through? What shall He say? How will He encourage us? How will He discipline us? What song shall He have us to sing? The Holy Spirit knows all this and empowers all of this by being manifested among us through “all.” Not one man.
The devil himself has worked feverishly over the centuries through religious hands to tear down what is real and erect empty meaningless rituals that are then idolized. The modern day church is like a ship at sea that has lost its power and is now driven by the winds and the tides and the currents of the world. Lost and drifting, waiting to be swamped by the next big wave, the next modern thing, the next hellish doctrine of the world. And yet the true Body of believers are still operating under power, the power of the Holy Spirit manifesting Himself in our lives. The day is coming soon saints, when the pressures from a very hostile world will draw us back together. The weak will fall away, the feeble will fall away. Lovers of the world more than lovers of the Lord will fall away. Little by little the saints are being purged from the world and this is good, the hand of the Lord Himself is doing this. We shall come back together, and we shall worship as we have read in 1 Cor 14. The great persecution will soon be upon us but the gathering of the saints takes place at the same time. We shall truly be united in our sufferings and in the persecution. And there we shall find the same power that stopped the mouths of lions, that overcome the fiery furnace, that shook the prison and turned the whole world upside down.
Freedom is totally unconfined
And surely break the cords that bind
It set me adrift in the midst of an endless sea
It swallowed and consumed me, now I am surely free
Freedom is the reason that He came from up above
Freedom is His work and the consequences of
The Fathers love and His desire to set the captives free
And every saint in all the earth shall surely all agree
That freedom is the narrow path as wide as the Fathers heart
And freedom is the cords of love that never comes apart
It is the mighty rushing wind, an unstoppable incoming tide
It is the depths of the Fathers heart, the place where I shall hide
The Kingdom of God, my heart cries out, and calls it freedom land
It is the solid Rock in a sinking world, where I forever stand
It is the air I breath, each beat of my heart, which He gave unto me
It is nail pierced hands and wounded side that set my spirit free
Calvary alone attests to the work that Christ Himself has done
And to freedoms glorious victory that He alone has won
Who could have ever known that to nail Christ to a tree
Would destroy the power of bondage and set the captive free
Many many years ago my mother and father attended a Baptist church, and they would go to the prayer meeting. The minister was quite a strict man and gave firm instructions that no one was to pray for “personal,” issues. The prayers were to be on whatever the subject of the teaching had been prior to the prayers beginning. As someone who has”operated,” in the prayer ministry over the years, I understand where the minister was coming from. It can often be frustrating to hear someone pray for what an old friend of mine used to call “aunt Flo’s big toe.” Prayer meetings can devolve into praying for all the different body parts. A long list of peoples ailments. The whole world can be in flames and the church can be falling away, and yet, even if you are fortunate enough to have a prayer meeting, aunt Flo can play a prominent roll in it, or at least her big toe can.
One night at the prayer meeting, before I was saved, my mother “felt the calling,’ to stand and pray for the salvation of her son. It was so strong she could not resist. So, she stood to her feet, trembling, and very clearly breaking the rules, she prayed for something that was very personal to her. She felt what she called “the breakthrough.’ She knew something had happened in the realms of the Spirit. Very shortly after that I got saved, a man on the brink of suicide and ravaged by sin and the lashes of a a dark world.
I think it is great to have structure. I think it is great to have direction. I think it is great to have some kind of instruction. Yet in the end, all of that must be held very loosely or we shall certainly miss the mark. The tension between man’s order and God’s moving is a perilous one. It has to be revisited over and over again. Whether in a prayer meeting or a Sunday morning service, get it wrong and the preeminence of God is usurped. Outside of His preeminence there is only shades of grey at best, which is nothing more than darkness masquerading as something that it is not.
The Spirit of God is always the Spirit of liberty; the spirit that is not of God is the spirit of bondage, the spirit of oppression and depression. The Spirit of God convicts vividly and tenesly, but He is always the Spirit of liberty. God who made the birds never made birdcages; it is people who make birdcages, and after a while become cramped and can do nothing but chirp and stand on one leg. When we get out into God’s great free life, we discover that that is the way God means us to live “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Oswald Chambers)
There are two main types of garden in this world. There is the garden designed by man. Wonderful and regulated in its design, measured distances between flowers, well thought out patters that please the eye. And then there is the seed that has committed itself to the Wind of the Spirit which carries it and deposits it where it will, and there it springs up and flourishes in the garden of our God. The wide open fields of God’s great free life. The so called wildflowers that grows in open meadows or drainage ditches. or in the side-streets of slums or in valley floors or mountain ranges. Who knows where the wind of the Spirit shall deposit them. God knows.
So, shall you commit the seed of your life to the wind of the Spirit? Shall you surrender yourself to be taken wherever you shall be taken? Or shall you commit yourself to the hand of man? To the designs of men? To the relative safety found in regulation? One of those choices involves great risk but also results in great freedom. The other guarantees certainty and the price is conformity. Imagine a bird, designed to fly in open skies, trapped in a birdcage. What a tragedy. Guaranteed food and shelter but the cost is no flight in open skies. Maybe the one who constrains you lets you out of your cage every now and then and you fly straight to the window. There is something in you longing to be free as you gaze at open fields or eternal skies. It’s Gods calling. Are you free today or are you being called to freedom today?
Can you imagine what it would be like if we witnessed 20 year olds being breast fed by their mothers? Consider how offensive it would be to see adults being breast fed. We would recoil back from that in horror. Yet we have, for the most part, a never weaned church. Here is the definition of weaned-accustomed to managing without something on which they have become dependent or of which they have become excessively fond, or-accustom (an infant or other young mammal) to food other than its mother’s milk.
Most children by the age of one, have been weaned from the breast. In the past and in some cultures it could be two or three years olds, but certainly young children have begun to eat solids early on. They develop a stomach for solids, for meats. Imagine only ever drinking milk gleaned from your mother. If you can imagine that and the undoubted physical and psychological problems that it would create, then you can imagine a building full of people who are reliant upon one man, other than the man Christ Jesus. This is the un-weaned church.
First and foremost, we as Christians must be completely reliant upon Jesus our Lord and the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to teach us and to bring us into all truth. The Holy Spirit would never feed one of His children on an all milk diet. As babes, yes. As children, as young adults, as mature saints, no, never. Getting meat is a far cry from drinking milk. In the natural our milk comes from our mothers breast, a cow or a goat. Getting meat requires a hunt. One must track something down, patiently employ skills across a broad spectrum, endure weather and deprivation, and all that just to trap or kill the animal. It then has to be skinned, broken down and carried back.
The church has become dependent on something they are very fond of, and is in and of itself the path of least resistance. To sit week after week and allow another to feed you and make no efforts to feed yourself is akin to being a baby. The notion of getting meat and devouring it is alien to this modern day church. It is also alien to society in general who rather than have to hunt for food, simply go to the supermarket. Or to the fast food restaurant, and even then, the drive through. If this system ever breaks down, tens of millions of people will starve to death. If the one man system of church ever breaks down, the same would happen spiritually. I would argue that it is happening, a long slow starvation on a vast crowd of adults who have no “protein,” in their diet.
A man needs to know how to hunt. A man of God needs to know how to communicate from and learn from and hear from God. If the man cannot hunt, he is reliant upon the systems of this world to feed him. If a man who claims to know God but cannot hear from God, cannot learn from God and His Word, does not have the wherewithal to desire to diligently seek out His Truth, then he is reliant upon the one man systems of churches to feed him.
If you have only ever had milk, then you cannot stomach the meat of God. You must wean yourself from the milk and go out and hunt for the meat. If you only know milk you will undoubtedly be carnally minded. You will say you are of this church or that church. You will elevate a man up onto a pedestal. That man, probably your pastor, will become preeminent in your life. When you meet other people and have a chance to share about Jesus, you will share about “your pastor.” You will say things like “you have to come to my church,” or “you have to hear my pastor.’ Your milk diet will exclude the possibility that you simply share about Jesus. Whoever is preeminent in your life, that is who you will share with others.
God calls people out from behind the walls of their strongholds. Outside the camp. Out into the wilderness. Places that require you to be dependent upon Him alone. He will teach you how to catch fish and you will rejoice and praise God for the fish on the line. He will teach you how to trap meat, and you will rejoice that He will bless you with meat. You will become strong and dependent upon Him. You will help to feed others with meat and show them and share with them how you caught it and how they too can get this meat.
None of this will happen while you reside on your mothers breast. None of this will happen when you are dependent upon another to do your hunting for you. Will you diligently seek Him and where He may be found? Or will you sit, week after week and be fed on fast food? Even it were not fast food, the fact that you would become dependent upon another to feed you would mean that you would become atrophied in your spirit man. Overweight or starving, an eating disorder all the same. Stand up, be a man, be a woman and allow God Himself to teach you how to find meat and how to eat meat.
In Wales there are plans to inspect and register so called unregistered churches, youth groups and so on. “The plans would require any out-of-school educational setting that taught children above a certain threshold to register with the government. Many church youth groups could fall above the threshold and therefore have to join the register and face inspections by government officials.”
Brothers and sisters, this will spread across all regions of the Western world.The days are coming soon when teaching our children the truth will be considered child abuse and it will be outlawed. It would be wise for all saints in the West to begin to gather in small groups of at least two or three in preparation for the inevitable rise in persecution from an increasingly aggressive secular society……………..bro Frank
You have gathered here today in defiance of darkness and tyranny. You have come here to fight as free men and free men you are, for it is I that gave you that very freedom. So you see with your eyes that you are few and they are many, you see that you are vastly outnumbered. Will you fight today?Read the rest of this entry »
There is a time for shouting and praising God, but if we are ignoring the knocking, then we must stop shouting. If our lives are not reflecting the Glory of God, if we are not becoming like His Son, daily, then all of our shouting and praising God will just be so much noise. How tragic for the church of the living God if, when He looks down, He does not see praise but just a group of people making a noise.”Read the rest of this entry »
“Jesus has many who love His kingdom in heaven, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting.All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of the bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of His passion. Many admire the miracles, but few follow Him to the humiliation of the cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them.”
This is a vision that I had as I stood on a terrace in Croatia. My wife and I went there last year on our 25th anniversary. Before I went the Lord had shown me that I would meet someone there and that it would be significant, just did not know that He was talking about Himself. The whole piece was my vision, He gave me a new way of writing my testimony and of writing about coming into His presence, then the Word that He gave me for the church, I wrote in red at the end. I pray that this will challenge and convict you………….
They will gather together and throw in their gold and rise up and play, or in this case, fall down and play. You see the people are without leadership, and the Lord has with-held His rain. So the people have demanded gods to go before them, listen to what they said to Aaron…”make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. “
She put her head back against the wall and looking upwards told me that she was in no position to even try and refuse this. She was blown away that God had answered her and her husbands prayer so immediately (she did not know that I had messed around for several week) She could not wait to get home and share this with her husband. Higher critics could explain this in the natural, but the supernatural is God talking to His people, directing them and of course, His perfect timing.
A Call To The Remnant 