Man’s Traditions and God’s Way (DCLC – July ’86, Part 4)

And brothers and sisters, until you get free of some of your hangups about the Christian faith, you’re never going to know how great a revolution was the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ destroyed everything that was, except Him, who was to be destroyed by it. Everything was destroyed by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And worship has moved from days and buildings in Jerusalem to an all-time affair right inside here, right inside here, and you are free from moons, hours, times, dates, festivals, observances, and all the traditions of men. That was the attitude of an angry God walking around in Galilee.

Now, when He got a chance, he took it all, destroyed it, and brought it into reality. You know what He did? He didn’t say He’d do it and then wait 2,000 years. You read this, and when you read it, you thought He’s going to do that someday. No, He’s already done it. I would admonish you to catch up with Him. You know what He was going around in Judea and Galilee, thinking? He was listening to His Father talk about horticulture. Horticulture. Agriculture. That’s what He’s doing. His Father was talking about horticulture. Agriculture. His father said, “I’m going to tear that down.” I’m going to tear that down. I’m going to tear that down. And I’m going to tear that down. And I’m going to rip that up. And I’m going to rip that up. And I’m going to rip that up. I didn’t plant those things. That’s not what I planted. And everything I didn’t plant, I’m going to destroy.” And He did on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He took the temple. He took the law. He took the Sabbath. He took the rituals. He took the rules. He took the traditions of men. He took sin. He took death. He took all religion and all things not religious, the negative things, and He nailed them to the cross, carried them to the grave, and they did not come out again. Praise the Lord.

Now then, why don’t you join your Lord? Now, I want you to know something, I’m still on agriculture. Brothers and sisters, when you go home, take a plant with you. Take a plant with you. The only plant God ever planted, just one. He has torn up all the other plants. I don’t know if you understand this or not, but there has never been on this earth but one religion that was ever raised up on this planet that was free of buildings, forms and rituals, and a hierarchy.

There has never been but one religion on the face of the earth that met in homes. One and only one. All other religions build physical temples. One was started on this earth by your Lord Jesus; by your Lord. Jesus started a religion, the Christian faith, if you please, born in …, free of tradition, no clergy, utterly without ritual and form, with only one thing as its center, and that was a plant that God had planted. God said to the Lord Jesus inside of Him, “I’m going to tear down what I was furious with Isaiah and what I am sick and tired of hearing coming out of Jerusalem. I’m going to tear it all down, and You are going to be the only plant left standing.”

I tried to stay away until tonight from the application, and this is as simple as I can get. Will you go home and plant a plant? You can do this symbolically if you want to, and say from henceforth and evermore I will have nothing more to do with the plants my Father did not plant. I will only recognize the plant He planted, His Son, my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Go home and make Him central. While you’re at it, make Him circumference and then fill in the difference with Him, too. Brothers and sisters leave the conference, go home, and make it Christ. Make it Christ. Christ in your experience, not Bible knowledge, not rituals of men, not traditions. Lay them down and make it Jesus. And those of you who are in some kind of experience of church life, I’d say make it primitive. Keep it simple. Let it grow up organically. Be just what is natural to the human race that is redeemed. And it’ll stay simple. I commend to you without ritual or form the God and Savior of us all, the Lord Jesus Christ.