Will you please turn again to 1 Corinthians 2:15?
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man.
Please turn also to Matthew 23, beginning with verse 1.
Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to His disciples,
Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat:
All things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not.
Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.
But all their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
And love the chief place at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
And the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called of men, Rabbi.
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even He who is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted.
But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Ye fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?
And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift that is upon it, he is a debtor.
Ye blind: for which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
He therefore that sweareth by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon.
And he that sweareth by the temple, sweareth by it, and by Him that dwelleth therein.
And he that sweareth by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by Him that sitteth thereon.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous,
And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?
Now turn to Matthew 5, beginning with verse 1.
And seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain: and when He had sat down, His disciples came unto Him:
And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.
May we have a word of prayer?
Lord, as we come into Thy presence, and as we are before Thy Word, we do tremble. We acknowledge, Lord, that Thy Word is all life and spirit. We pray, Lord, that Thy Holy Spirit will quicken Thy Word to our hearts, that it may not be just the letter that killeth, but the Spirit that giveth life.
Lord, we do acknowledge that we are all completely at Thy mercy. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
Thank God for bringing us together.
The theme of this time together is the spiritual—in other words, true spirituality.
We mentioned last night that in the past we have considered together a number of spiritual truths. We talked about spiritual vision—how important it is that we have vision. We talked about spiritual responsibility: that each one of us is responsible for what the Lord has called and given to us.
We also talked about spiritual ministry: that we are not only to minister unto our brothers and sisters as the Levites, but that we need to minister to the Lord as the priests. We also mentioned spiritual authority, how important it is, because without spiritual authority there can be no building of the house of God.
Together with this, of course, there is spiritual submission, required of everyone: submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. We also talked about the spiritual house, how we need to be built together into a spiritual house, the holy habitation of God in the Spirit.
But as we mentioned last night, all these truths can only operate among spiritual men and women. If we are not spiritual, none of these spiritual truths will be effective or workable. So the first thing needed is that we be spiritual in the sight of God.
You know, brothers and sisters, we all want to be spiritual. And, in a sense, I am afraid that we try to appear spiritual more than we really are spiritual. It may not be our intention, but unconsciously, probably every one of us is in such danger.
That is the reason why we need to consider very seriously before the Lord this matter of spirituality: false or true.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world to bless. Yet you find that at one time He proclaimed woes to a certain class of people. In Matthew 23, seven times our Lord Jesus proclaimed woe to the scribes and Pharisees. He called them hypocrites, fools, and blind.
In verses 13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, and 29, seven times you find our Lord Jesus proclaiming woe to the scribes and Pharisees. Why? Because they were hypocrites. They were acting. They were playing a part on the stage. They were not real.
This is something to which our Lord Jesus is deadly opposed.
If you turn to Matthew 23, you will find these scribes and Pharisees. Now, who were they? They were people who sat, or set themselves, in Moses’ seat. They considered themselves disciples of Moses. As a matter of fact, they even sat in Moses’ seat.
They were not only those who studied the law. They were not only those who claimed that they kept the law. They even became interpreters of the law. They decided what was lawful and what was unlawful. They considered themselves teachers of all.
Yet they put burdens upon people’s shoulders, but would not themselves even lift a finger. The Lord said, “You may listen to what they say, but do not do what they do,” because they did not do the things that they taught. They were hypocrites.
Did they do anything? Yes, they did. But what they did was all for the sake of being seen and praised by men.
They broadened their phylacteries and enlarged the borders of their garments to show how pious they were. Instead of keeping the law in their hearts, they put it on their foreheads and on their garments to show that they were godly people.
They loved the first seats in the synagogues. They loved to be called “Rabbi, Rabbi.” Now, the very word rabbi means “the great one.” They were the great ones—not only rabbi, but even father; not only father, but even instructor or guide. They considered themselves the guides of all those innocent people.
They were not instructed; they were the instructors. These are the people upon whom our Lord proclaimed His woes.
In Matthew 23:13, the Lord said:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.
The first woe was proclaimed to these scribes and Pharisees because they stood in the way of the kingdom of God. They did not enter themselves, and even when people were entering in, they forbade them to do so.
How did they do this? They considered themselves the teachers, the interpreters. They considered themselves those who were in the know. They knew everything. Because they thought they knew everything, their pride kept them away from the kingdom of God.
When John the Baptist came and said, “Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” they rejected John the Baptist because they thought they had nothing to repent of. They might need some improvement, but they had no need to repent in such a drastic way as to be baptized—to bury the past as if there were nothing good in it, and to start all over again.
They thought they were too good for that. They considered themselves orthodox. They were the mainline religious people. Their pride kept them away from the kingdom of God, and their jealousy kept people who were going in from entering it.
That was their situation. It was just the opposite of what the Lord said on that mount in the Beatitudes. You remember the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The poor in spirit—why are they poor in spirit? It is not poor spirit; it is poor in spirit. It is because they know they are nothing. They know nothing. They acknowledge their spiritual poverty.
And in that kind of attitude, the kingdom of heaven is there. You see, they are the very opposite of the scribes and Pharisees.
Now, brothers and sisters, are we poor in spirit? Or do we think of ourselves as the orthodox—that we know everything, that we are right, and that only we are right? If we have that kind of attitude, we are hypocrites.
This is false spirituality. Brothers and sisters, in Christianity today there are more scribes and Pharisees than we realize. I wonder whether we ourselves are on the road.
Are we sitting in Moses’ seat? Do we think that we are the keeper, the guardian, and the interpreter of the law of God? Are we telling people what they should do, yet not doing these things ourselves?
Are we seeking the glory of men—to be seen, to be praised, to be called rabbis or teachers? Is that our secret desire? Is there pride in our hearts, thinking that we are the elite, that we are the people who know?
If that is the case, then, brothers and sisters, woe to the scribes and Pharisees. We are not entering into the kingdom of God, and probably our jealousy will keep people from going in. There can be dead orthodoxy.
In Matthew 23:15, the Lord said:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.
The scribes and Pharisees were very zealous. They would go to the end of the world to bring one proselyte. But unfortunately, they did not bring people really to God. They brought people to their tradition, to their own system. And after they got people into their tradition and system, they made them worse than themselves.
In the Beatitudes, it is written, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Now, who are the mourning ones? They refer to people who mourn over their sinfulness and mourn over their weaknesses. They know they are not what they should be. Because they have such an attitude, they shall be comforted.
In Isaiah it is said that heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain our God, but God will abide with the afflicted and contrite in heart, and with those who tremble at His Word.
Again, you find these scribes and Pharisees to be the opposite of the mourning ones, because they were so confident of themselves and zealous for their tradition. They did not have that right attitude before God.
Brothers and sisters, is it possible that we also may be very zealous? What are we zealous for? Are we really zealous for the Lord and for His interests, for His kingdom? Or are we just zealous for our tradition, for our religious system?
You find that many people will fight for their tradition, but they will not fight for the name of the Lord. Religious fanatics—are we such people? Or do we maintain a constant spirit of repentance before the Lord?
I do believe that repentance is not just to be done once in a lifetime. I believe repentance is a spirit, an attitude, that we need to keep every day before the Lord. Otherwise, we can easily become religious fanatics.
In Matthew 23:16, the Lord said:
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Ye fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?
This is the third woe which our Lord proclaimed. Is it not strange to your ears when you hear that they said, “If you swear by the temple, it is nothing”? The temple was where the Lord put His name. It was the dwelling place of God. Yet they taught that if you swore by the gold of the temple, then you were a debtor.
You can see their mindset from what they taught. They were not spiritually minded at all. They did not really see what the temple was. Their minds were on the gold. The gold was more important to them than the temple. The gold meant much more to them than the temple itself.
In the same way they said, “If you swear by the altar, it is nothing; but if you swear by the gift upon the altar, then you are a debtor.” The Lord said, “Which is greater: the altar that sanctifieth the gift, or the gift?”
Their minds, you can see, were reprobate minds. They looked at material things as more important than spiritual things. They looked at man’s effort—humanistic things—more than what is from God. Yet they taught this as though it were truth.
So the Lord said, “You are fools. You are blind.”
In the Beatitudes, the Lord said, “Blessed are the meek.” Now, who are the meek? To put it simply, the meek are the teachable. The meek are those who know that they know nothing, or know very little, and are teachable. They are humble, lowly, and meek in heart.
But the very opposite of meekness is this attitude of self-importance, self-assurance, and self-confidence. They teach people as law. Such blindness!
Brothers and sisters, what is our condition? Are we spiritually minded, or are we carnally minded? If we are carnally minded, our teaching will be in the same condition as that of the scribes and Pharisees. It is ridiculous to consider the gold more important than the temple, yet many are teaching in the same tenor.
In Matthew 23:23, the Lord said:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel.
These scribes and Pharisees were very careful in paying their tithes—one tenth of mint, anise, and cummin. Even in these very small things, they were careful to give one tenth to the Lord. Yet the Lord said there were weightier matters of the law that they completely neglected: justice, mercy, and faith.
In other words, they were very legalistic. They were the most legalistic people in the whole world. They kept to the very small letter of the law and missed the whole spirit of the law.
In the Beatitudes, the Lord said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” In other words, are we hungry for righteousness?
Not only Christ as our righteousness. You know, when we come to our Lord Jesus as sinners, He clothes us with the best robe—that is, Himself as our righteousness. But the righteousness in the Beatitudes is more than that.
It is not only that we take Christ as our righteousness, but that we seek after practical righteousness. Because He is righteous, therefore we must be righteous—righteous in our everyday life, righteous as the result of Christ being incorporated into our very being.
We seek for righteousness. But these scribes and Pharisees did not seek for righteousness. They just sought an outward show. They paid one tenth of anise, cummin, and mint—physical things—and yet neglected the real thing. So they were hypocrites. They were blind.
Dear brothers and sisters, where are we? Are we legalistic, or are we spiritual? The Lord Jesus said that unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was just a façade, an outward good thing. They did not have real righteousness within them. And how easily we can fall into the same trap.
In Matthew 23:25, the Lord said:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also.
To put it in one word, they were very careful about external appearance, but they neglected inward cleanness. They washed the outside of the cup, but the inside was full of extortion and excess. That is what they were.
Everything was external. There was no inward reality in their lives.
In the Beatitudes, the Lord said, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” We who have received the mercy of God need to be merciful. Mercy is an inward quality. The Lord said that God does not delight in sacrifice; He loves mercy.
Those who only look after outward appearance and external things, and not inward reality, are hypocrites. To put it another way, they are pseudo-spiritual—not really spiritual, but pretending to be spiritual.
Then again, in Matthew 23:27, the Lord said:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
They whitewashed the tombs, but within the tombs were all those rotten bones. In other words, they had the form of godliness, but without its power.
The Lord said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Who are the pure in heart? They are single-minded towards God. Because they are pure in heart, they see God.
By seeing God, they are transformed from glory to glory and conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God. These are the truly spiritual ones.
But people who only attend to the form of godliness and do not have the power of godliness—the life within them—are false spirituality.
Then in Matthew 23:29, He says:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous,
And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets.
Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
These scribes and Pharisees built the tombs of the martyrs and repaired the tombs of the righteous, thinking, “If we had been there, we would not have done these things.” But the Lord turned it around and said, “This proves that you are the sons of those who killed the prophets.” As a matter of fact, they filled up the cup of their fathers’ sin.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.” Those who are not only at peace with God, but who bring peace among God’s people and peace to the world—these are sons of God.
But here you find these scribes and Pharisees. Even though they tried to build the sepulchres of the prophets, they were the very ones who persecuted and killed the prophets. They even wanted to kill the Savior, our Lord Jesus.
These scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites—pseudo-spiritual, false spirituality. What a class they were.
Finally, the Lord proclaimed His judgment over them. He said, “Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell?”
You know, brothers and sisters, even though our Lord Jesus proclaimed woes to the scribes and Pharisees, He did it not out of hatred, but out of love.
Yes, He was angry. His spirit was stirred by hypocrisy. Yet our Lord Jesus did not proclaim these words out of hatred. He spoke the truth in love, hoping that light might come upon some of the scribes and Pharisees, that they would turn away from their false spirituality and become truly spiritual. That was the intention of our Lord Jesus.
So, brothers and sisters, we need to be searched by God’s light. The psalmist said, “In Thy light shall we see light.” If we surround ourselves with the light that we ourselves kindle, we will lie down in sorrow because we are deceiving ourselves.
But if we are willing to expose ourselves under the light of God—now, I know that Matthew 23, as you read it or as we fellowship on it, seems to carry a kind of heaviness. It is heavy.
But, brothers and sisters, we need to be honest. We need to put ourselves under this light—even Matthew 23, these sevenfold woes. We need to put ourselves under this light.
Not that we try to examine ourselves, because self-examination and self-introspection only get us into a worse situation. But we must put ourselves under the light of God’s Word and let His light search us out.
Let Him see whether there is any deception in our lives, whether we think more highly of ourselves than we actually are. Sometimes people look at us more highly than we really are, or lower than we really are. That is people’s judgment.
But whatever it may be, brothers and sisters, we need to put ourselves under the light of God, under His Word, and let His Word examine us, search us, and prove us. If there is anything, then His Word will touch us to repent, because that is why the Lord put these words before us.
Thank God, if there is a counterfeit, there is bound to be a genuine thing. In this world there are so many counterfeits, but thank God there are genuine things in this world too.
The same thing is true in Christianity today. There is so much pseudo-spirituality. It is everywhere. But this only proves that there is true spirituality. So that is what we are going into.
It is the will of God for His children to be spiritual. God is Spirit. He wants every child of His to be spiritual.
But remember: He wants us to be spiritual, but He does not want us to be spirits.
We have a false concept. We think that to be spiritual, one has to be a spirit, like the angels. The angels are spirits.
We may think, “If only we could get rid of this body—this body is evil—then we could be spiritual. If we could get rid of this soul and become soulless, then we would become spiritual.”
We may think that it is this body and this soul that are evil and keep us from being spiritual, so that we want to get rid of them in order to be spiritual. Remember: this is heathen philosophy. This is not Christian truth.
In heathen philosophy, whether Eastern or Western, they consider the body itself as evil. Therefore, the way to overcome evil is to get rid of the body. If you can get rid of the body, then you are free.
In heathen philosophy, the evil is the soul. If you can be reduced to being a soulless person—thinking not, feeling not, willing not—then you arrive at nirvana. You are complete. You are spiritual.
That is heathen philosophy. That is not Christian truth.
God created us with a spirit, a soul, and a body, as our brother mentioned last night.
God created us with a spirit that we may commune with Him, who is Spirit. God created us with a soul that we may think, feel, and will. God created us with a body that we may touch and know what is around us. This is God’s creation.
It is the will of God that our spirit should be at the top. The divine order is that our spirit should be master of the being. Our spirit is in touch with the Spirit of God.
Then our soul is the steward. It receives from the Spirit God’s will and God’s order, and passes it down to our body, which is the servant, to act and carry it out. This is the divine order.
Unfortunately, because of the fall of man, our spirit is dead towards God. You remember in Genesis that God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, but physically they continued hundreds of years. They had sons and daughters. They were very much alive physically and soulishly. But their spirit was dead on the day they ate of that forbidden tree.
In other words, it was not that the spirit was no longer there. They still had a spirit, but the spirit was dead so far as God was concerned.
The scientific definition of death is the cessation of communication with its proper environment. That is death. Your body communicates with the physical world, but when your body ceases to communicate with the physical world, that is death.
Your spirit’s proper environment is God. When you cease to communicate with your proper environment, God, your spirit is dead. The organ is still there, but it has lost its function towards God, although it has not lost its function towards the spirit world.
As a result of the fall of man, the human spirit became dead to God. What was left active was the soul and the body. Man became flesh. Flesh is a combination of the soul and body without the spirit.
Sin entered into man and dwelt in the body, so the body became a body of sin and of death. It became the body of sin because it can do nothing but sin. It became the body of death because it cannot do what it should do.
The soul is so contaminated by sin that the self—the self-life dwelling in the soul—is a selfish, corrupted, sinful self.
It is not that the body itself is evil; it is indwelt by sin, and that is evil. It is not that the soul itself is evil; it was created by God. It is the fallen self, as the life of the soul, that is evil.
So, brothers and sisters, what we need is deliverance. First of all, our spirit needs to be quickened into life. Then our soul needs to have self dethroned and Christ enthroned.
Then our body needs to be delivered from being an instrument of sin and death into an instrument of righteousness unto God.
People today are dealing with the symptoms. They do not deal with the source. Trying to get rid of the body does not solve the problem. Trying to be soulless does not solve the problem.
You need to have your spirit quickened, your soul sanctified, and your body delivered. That is where the salvation of the Lord comes in.
The first step towards true spirituality is the quickening of our dead spirit.
You know, brothers and sisters, if our dead spirit is not quickened, there is no possibility of being truly spiritual. Spirituality begins in the spirit. Anything that does not begin from the spirit is a counterfeit. It is false spirituality.
People may have beautiful, noble thoughts and ideas. People may see beauty in this universe. People may have very warm feelings and affections. People may have very strong determination and will, even a strong determination towards God.
They may have very warm feelings towards God. They may even have noble and beautiful thoughts about God. But if these do not originate from the spirit, they are substitutes, counterfeits. They are false spirituality.
You remember the story of Mary in Luke 1:
My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
It is true that her soul magnified the Lord. There was warm feeling towards the Lord. But where did it originate? Not from the mind, but from the spirit. “My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”
So, brothers and sisters, anything that does not originate from the spirit—if it comes from the soul as its source, and the soul can really soar very high—is false spirituality.
Anything that does not come from the spirit, but from the body, is likewise not spiritual. You may be very energetic. You may have good plans. You may be very successful in Christian work. But that does not mean that it is spiritual. It has to come from the spirit.
There is no possibility for people who are not born again to be truly spiritual. No possibility.
The first step toward true spirituality is new birth. He that is born of the Spirit is spirit. He that is born of the Holy Spirit has a new spirit. Our spirit, which was dead in sins and transgressions, needs to be quickened into new life.
As Ezekiel 36 says, God said:
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.
And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them.
Brothers and sisters, this is the beginning of true spirituality. Thank God, He has begun, probably with all of us. I wonder whether there is anyone here who has not yet trusted the Lord and believed in Jesus as your personal Savior.
Let me tell you one thing: unless you are born again, there is no possibility of being truly spiritual. How are you going to be born again? You cannot do it yourself.
But when you come to the Lord Jesus, confess your sins, and accept Him as your Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit will at that very moment touch your dead spirit and bring it to life.
Immediately, your communication with your proper environment, God, will be resumed. You will cry, “Abba, Father.” And that starts you on the road to true spirituality.
Now, brothers and sisters, let me go a little step further. Spirituality has to come from the spirit, but not everything that comes even from our renewed spirit is spiritual.
We may think, “Well, if it comes from the spirit, it has to be spiritual.” No. It can be false. As a matter of fact, spirituality comes from the Holy Spirit. He is the agent of true spirituality.
It is He who glorifies Christ. It is He who constitutes, incorporates, and builds Christ into your very life.
The Holy Spirit is the agent of true spirituality. Thank God, He dwells in your spirit.
Everyone who is born of the Spirit not only has a new spirit, but God has put the Holy Spirit into your spirit. So the Holy Spirit dwells in your spirit, bearing witness with you that you are children of God.
Thank God, the Holy Spirit is there. If your spirit is in tune with the Holy Spirit—listening to the Holy Spirit, obeying the Holy Spirit, receiving from the Holy Spirit, and being taught by the Holy Spirit—then what comes out of your spirit is spirituality.
Otherwise, something can come from the spirit, but if it is not from the Holy Spirit, it is a counterfeit.
In Luke 9, our Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. He set His face toward Jerusalem as a Lamb going to be sacrificed.
As they passed through the Samaritan villages, one village would not receive Him because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. They had such hostility against the Jews that they would not receive the Lord.
You remember the two sons of thunder, James and John—how they thundered. They said, “Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did?”
Oh, they had such faith. They believed that they could call fire down, and that fire would come down and burn them up. They had such love and zeal for the Lord. They were all for the Lord. How could people not receive the Lord? To them, judgment was the only consequence.
And you remember what the Lord said. The Lord said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
The Lord’s Spirit is the spirit of the Lamb going to be sacrificed, not the spirit of a lion going to devour.
So you find that even what came out of the spirit of these two sons of thunder was not true spirituality. It was false spirituality. It could do much harm.
Why? Because our spirit can be invaded by our soul. When our spirit is invaded by our soul, even if it is good flesh, it contaminates.
Not only that, our spirit can also be invaded by evil spirits. That is why not everything that comes from the spirit is true spirituality.
It has to come from a spirit that is in subjection and cooperation with the Holy Spirit who dwells within our spirit. Then you have true spirituality.
In 2 Corinthians 7:1, it says that we need to purify ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, thank God it is His will that we be spiritual, and He has opened a way for us to be truly spiritual.
It begins with a reborn spirit. As we learn to be in subjection to the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, then we are on the way to true spirituality.
I think this morning we will just stop here. Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to thank Thee that it is Thy will for us to be spiritual. Thou hast made every provision for us to be truly spiritual, to the praise of Thy glory.
So, Lord, we do pray that Thou wilt continue to examine us, bring us under the light, and open our understanding, that we may really be delivered from all that is false and enter into that which is true, that which will glorify Thy name.
We commit ourselves to Thee in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.