The Spirit of Sheep's Clothing, pt 5

This issue concludes the study of the most evil and treacherous spirit that walks the Earth—the religious spirit.

The following are six encounters Jesus had with the religious spirit that are recorded in Luke and John: 

And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21)

In other words, “Being religious is what pleases God. Being like Him is blasphemous.”

So close, yet so far away—the Pharisees asked who can forgive except God while they were looking directly at God. Even with God manifested in physical form, the Pharisees could not see Him because they were blinded by the religious spirit.

The pure in heart will see God. 

Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. (Luke 16:14)

“I am rich because I am godly and because I am godly, I can ridicule anyone.”

Money is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. The religious spirit poisons people with the love of money which then opens them up to all evil desires, lusts, thoughts, uncleanliness, and the like.

A man accepted Jesus as his Savior and started attending church the very next Sunday. The leaders of that church quickly befriended him. Within weeks, they promoted him to the position of Elder.

Why? This man was a millionaire and the church was in the midst of expanding their facilities. For the next three years, this baby Christian—ignorant of God’s Word and how to be led by the Holy Spirit—was made a leader of a very large church. He created havoc and many needless headaches. But, that church was able to coax enough money from him to complete their building project. It was the religious spirit that orchestrated this man’s rise to elder. “But why would an evil spirit help build and expand a church?” Because that’s where the religious spirit resides where it accomplishes its purpose—it will gladly help any church to grow in number and structure as long as it is in charge.

Ministries that use every kind of tactic and manipulation to beg for money do so for usually one or two reasons. One, they love money. Two, they love money, but they are losing financial support because God is judging them. The body of Christ would do well to recognize that the religious spirit is operating ministries like these and withhold giving to them. It’s okay to let those ministries die.

One extremely wealthy pastor said, “We have to come bearing gifts. When you come before the priest and he gives a word to you, then it's your duty to meet the needs of the priest." But with a net worth of at least five million dollars, what kind of genuine “needs” could this pastor possibly have? 

When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (Luke 18:37–40)

“When we come to God, we must be quiet, solemn, ceremonious, and somber.”

The religious spirit restrains true and pure worship. While there are times when we should be quiet and still in His presence, the Bible clearly states that worship can include dancing, clapping, raised hands, shouting, loud singing, and contemporary musical instruments. King David had his musicians play worship music day and night and with the instruments that were available at that time.

Today, some religious churches refuse to allow drums or electric guitars to be played during worship because “these are instruments that are used in rock music”. Jesus said that if people didn’t praise Him, that rocks would cry out in praise. How’s that for adding “rock” to the worship service? 

A lot of nonsense is spoken from the religious spirit regarding worship. “Well, drums create a beat that speaks only to the physical man—the flesh.” But the Bible says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.” Certainly “all” this includes the physical man! David used his physical man and danced before the Lord. We are to use all of who we are: spirit, soul, and body.

“We use only a piano or an organ because that’s what the great old hymns were written for.” Those great old hymns were cutting edge at their time. But, hanging around only in centuries-old songs is religious. God wants to continually reveal Himself to us and we can’t grow if we’re always looking to some past revelation. 

Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. (John 8:3)

“It’s okay to ignore part of God’s Word if it serves your purpose.”

It takes two people to commit adultery and the Pharisees brought only the woman—the religious spirit perverts God’s Word by subtracting or adding doctrines.

For example, the reason many, if not most Christians do not drink wine is that they believe it is a sin. Where did they get that idea? From the religious spirit.

There were specific people that God has told to not drink wine (e.g. John the Baptist). There were specific occasions when God does not want His people to drink wine (e.g. when entering the Tent of Meeting, Leviticus 10:9).

But, there are no scriptures that command Christians to abstain from wine. We are told, though, not to get drunk on wine (Ephesians 5:18).

A lot of us have accepted many religious doctrines believing that they are God’s doctrine. But God said in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 

Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a command, that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it, that they might seize Him. (John 11:57)

“Get as many people on your side when you feel threatened.”

The presence of a religious spirit is easily seen when a Christian who has just had a run-in with another Christian goes to others and criticizes and slanders that person. In the attempt to get people on their side, they injure the other person and create division within the body of Christ.

We are to walk as Jesus walked. He was falsely accused, criticized, arrested, and crucified. And yet He did not command His disciples or God’s angels fight for Him. 

Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; (John 12:42)

“Make others fear you and use that fear to control them.”

The religious spirit is concerned only with its own success and will destroy those that are no longer supporters. It intimidates others with consequences if they do not follow “the rules”. You can see that the religious spirit wants people to fear and to follow man, rather than the Shepherd.

For example, there are churches where if a person leaves to attend a different church, the people and leaders actually place a curse on them by saying such things as: “You’re out from under our protection and the devil will destroy you”. Unbelievably, this demonic filth goes even further by proclaiming that any accident, illness, and the like that might have befallen those that left as actual proof that they were right!

We should never fear what a man or a group of people can do to us. And we should definitely never fear what a religious spirit might do to us.

Jesus came that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.

Summary of Matthew 23

In Matthew 23, Jesus identified ten characteristics of the religious spirit:

The first characteristic of the religious spirit that Jesus reveals is hypocrisy.

The second characteristic is pride: the religious spirit has the attitude, “Aren’t I great!”

In His first “Woe”: The religious spirit tries to prevent others from entering into the kingdom of God and have a one-on-one relationship with Him.

Second “Woe”: The Pharisees took advantage of helpless widows—using religion to justify their attempts to steal their homes and livelihood.

Third “Woe” reveals the religious spirit is not only a stumbling block, but it actually develops more stumbling blocks. 

Fourth “Woe”: The religious spirit by-passes God’s Word and determines what is sin and what is not sin. It bases these determinations on what serves its purpose: gaining power over the people and obtaining wealth

Fifth “Woe”: The religious spirit causes people to major in the minors and minor in the majors, losing sight of the entire purpose of the cross of Christ.

Sixth “Woe”: The religious spirit teaches that having a pure heart is not necessary. 

Seventh “Woe”: Jesus says that outwardly, they appear beautiful, but inside, they are full of the dead remains of those that they have killed—physically and spiritually. Inwardly, their hearts are full of a stench and filthiness like that of decaying flesh.

Eighth “Woe”: Jesus speaks about the darkest, most wicked aspect of their character—the Pharisees are not only liars but are the killers of God’s prophets.

Other Characteristics in the Gospels

“You must be seen with people that make you look good.”

“Any display of the power of God is actually from the devil.”

“We can criticize you if you do not believe as we do.”

“It’s okay to destroy anyone who is a threat to our religious system.”

“I’m religious, therefore you must honor and respect me.”

“Being religious is what pleases God. Being like Him is blasphemous.”

“Gain is godliness.”

“God wants us to be quiet, solemn, ceremonious, and somber—to have an “air” of being religious.”

“It’s okay to ignore or add to God’s Word if it serves your own purpose.”

“Get as many people on your side if you feel threatened.”

“Make others fear you and use that fear to control them.”

The Religious Spirit's Successes

We have all seen the many ungodly changes in churches and denominations that have occurred in recent years. For example:

A church that was founded in an old, run-down building many years ago that had the fire and presence of God is now in very large and beautiful structure, but now the message of prosperity and God’s blessings over-shadow the message of the Cross.

Churches that once preached fiercely against divorce are now accepting it as a by-product of modern life. 

Denominations that a decade ago preached against homosexuality are now accepting gay clergy and gay marriages.

These are just a few examples of the power and the success that the religious spirit has been able to accomplish within the Christian community.

All of us have or will encounter the religious spirit, directly or indirectly. We should not be ignorant of its characteristics and methods.

The next teaching, "Encountering the Religious Spirit", brings this subject of sheep’s clothing to a more personal level and includes how to discern if you have the religious spirit operating in your life and how to react if you discover that your church is being controlled by a religious spirit.

It is my prayer for you that Father will continue to help you to hear His voice, and more and more frequently.

With God’s grace and in His peace,

Gary

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