WHY JESUS DID NOT GIVE IN TO THE GRACE HATING SPIRIT EVEN FOR A MOMENT!

The following is an excerpt from Rob Rufus' The Grace Hating Spirit (part 1) from August 22,2004.


But when we read the Scripture you are going to be tempted to feel sorry for the Pharisees and Sadducees and I encourage you don't be sorry for them. But it's going to sound like Jesus is being very harsh and very rude and very unfair to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but we need to understand that these Pharisees and Sadducees were the self-appointed religious orthodoxy of the day, they were religious bigots, and they were the number one hindrance stopping the multitudes coming into salvation and coming into grace. And Jesus discerned that he must not give into these grace hating people for even a second. (And so let me just read it to you:)

He realized that they were operating under a grace hating spirit: they were religious bigots. Jesus perceived and discerned that they were the number one hindrance to the vast multitudes of people entering into the freedom and joy that is in God's salvation through his wonderful grace. Jesus was not beguiled by the cunning politically correct exterior of these religious bigots. They could put on such a good show of appearing hospitable and nice but Jesus knew how controlling and manipulative they were. His heart went out to the multitudes that were sick and oppressed and struggling under the weight and burdens of religious condemnation that had been loaded on them by these religious leaders who Jesus called false gods. So not only did Jesus go around and preach good news and pray for the sick and see great miracles among the crowds and multitudes that followed him, but he also realized he had to expose these bigots for who they were because the grace hating spirit would want to enslave the people again. So he was not being rude to these religious leader , on the contrary they were being rude to him. They saw Jesus as a threat to their control over the people so they thought that through flattery and offering hospitality they could disguise their hostility and weave their manipulative charm over him. They arrogantly presumed that they could get Jesus safely into their camp and under their control and then they thought they could work on him and sterilize him and emasculate him of his spiritual testosterone. But they took on far more than they bargained for, for the the Son of God is not only the Lamb of God, he's also called the Lion of the tribe of Judah and lions were never meant or created to live in cages. The great roar from the lungs of Jesus is so full of supernatural power from heaven that it shook these religious leaders to the very core of their perverted hearts. Jesus understood that you cannot submit to the grace hating spirit for even a moment. Today so many Christians are naive and deceived by the grace hating spirit. Many Christians are beguiled by smiling faces and false humility that hides, camouflages, and masks an ugly and sinister face that hates freedom and stops the multitudes of desperate people entering into salvation.

Rob then reads Luke 11:-37-52

After verse 44 (Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.) Rob injects:

Now if you know anything about Hebrew culture that is the most insulting thing you could say to a Jewish person and I wish I had an hour to teach on that. But let me just sum it up: He's saying "you guys are so obsessed with exterior performance of religion and you don't deal with the supernatural dynamic of internal life on the inside, you're so full of death that when people come under your ministry and they touch you , you touch them with death and they don't even know that they're touching graves they're touching death. You kill their dreams, you kill their vision, you kill their hopes, you kill their aspiration, you bring death to everything that you're involved with. You're like unmarked graves that people are contacting without even knowing they're touching death." Isn't that pretty heavy going? Don't you think more preachers should be like Jesus? ...


Now folks these Pharisees and Sadducees didn't say 'Oh that's very nice Jesus. We thank you for being honest with us and we will now repent and really be your friends from now on." What happened was their cover was blown, the Son of God had seen right through that exterior political correctness and now the true nature of these religious bigots comes out. Notice the next verse:

"When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions waiting to catch him in something he might say" (verses 53,54)

Notice these words 'oppose him'. Who were they opposing? The one who was full of grace. They were opposing grace, there was a grace opposing, grace hating spirit behind these men. Notice it also says 'fiercely'. This grace hating spirit is not against grace in some half-hearted way, it is fiercely opposed to grace. It said they besieged him. That sounds like a fully committed assault on a castle and it says they asked him questions. Not to learn from him, but to trick him and to undermine him, and then to catch him. The grace hating spirit wants to catch you and enslave you.