The natural man loves the order
and orthodoxy of organized religion. The flesh takes great comfort
in having liturgies and hierarchies, which require chief seats occupied
by various officeholders and those with clergical distinctions.
In these matters he shows the law written in his heart, which
principle causes him to desire and impose limits upon the degree
to which he is required to go in his exercises of religion,
and this same notion would ultimately place boundaries on the extent
to which he should show mercy and deference to others. The
principle of liturgical worship, that is, that which follows a
prescribed or predetermined order, is adhered to by many, probably
the majority, since such does not require them to wait upon
the Lord, but they can fulfill their religious obligations by
following this order. They are assured by these predetermined
orders of service that they can neatly package their worship
into a particular time frame and ensure that everything runs
smoothly and nothing unexpected can occur. I have been told by
some that doing so enables things to be done decently and in order. If that is the primary goal when
they meet together, then I suppose that they get exactly what they
desire. Yet, if we read the scriptures, we find no such liturgies prescribed
or practiced, but simply some wise instruction concerning the
general course that the meetings of the saints should take. God
is not the author of confusion. And he does not need clergymen
to ride herd in order to avoid confusion. Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty. And if he is present, there will
be that order which he alone can provide. What other order
would we desire to see manifested? Peter asked the Lord this question,
How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
Since he had been raised in the Jews' religion, he assumed that
there had to be a limit upon just how much forgiveness was
required, since there were limits upon how far he could go on the
Sabbath and on the particular foods he could lawfully eat.
This is the reasonable expectation which the law would set forth.
So, being somewhat magnanimous in his estimate, he opined the
figure seven times. The Lord's reply laid the ax
to the root of his legalistic consideration and gave him an
answer which was quite astounding to Peter's natural line of thought.
This was not the answer that Peter expected, and certainly
not one which was welcomed by him in his flesh. In essence,
the Lord told him that there was to be no limit upon such
mercy and forgiveness. I can think of no other of Christ's
teaching that is any more contrary to the natural man's legalistic
thought processes than his Sermon on the Mount. More has been written
and said by men trying to explain why the Lord didn't really mean
what he said here than has been written declaring that this teaching
is the very essence of the kingdom of God and is necessarily at
odds with flesh and blood, which he said cannot inherit that kingdom. While every desire and natural
inclination of the flesh has a law of one type or another
against it, there is no law which is against the fruit of the Spirit.
This is the true expression of the freedom and liberty which
the sons of God have in Christ Jesus. This is also the very
principle of light and life which the flesh wars and struggles
against in the born-again sons of God. When we are offended,
and some are more easily offended than others, yet all have their
points of weakness, our natural tendency is to seek revenge.
This is seen by the natural man as quite necessary in order to
teach others a lesson. The principle of an eye for an
eye is indelibly written in the heart of the natural man and
rages against the principles which the Lord clearly set forth
in His earthly ministry, where He said recompense to no man
evil for evil. Vengeance is mine, I will repay. But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
A man who will not forgive others cannot enjoy the forgiveness
which flows from the very heart of the Lord towards those whom
he loves with an everlasting love. Thus he instructs his children,
if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. This is true freedom indeed. If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at 4the4 at windstream dot net.