At the end of Message Five TAS was very burdened for the ones listening to his words. He had such a strong desire that all Christians would really see how completely and totally the Lord Jesus Christ “wiped out” the old dispensation. Surely we all know that our Lord terminated all the outward aspects of the old dispensation – the temple, the priests, the altar, the offerings, the holy days, the holy diet, etc. But now, based upon the Samaritan woman’s challenge to Jesus about the “right place to worship” and Jesus’ answer to her in John 4:19-24, TAS desires us to see something much deeper. What TAS wants his listeners to see is the fact that our Lord terminated all attempts to limit God’s people to a certain place, a certain form, or a certain way. There is no longer any place or form or way which alone is acceptable to God. Christ is now the One unique “place”, the One unique “form”, and the One unique “way” that is acceptable to God. Our heavenly Father longs to gather us into Christ for worship that is in spirit and in truth. Christ terminated everything else!
For any group of believers to say things like “You must meet with us!” or “You must do it our way or you are not the Church!” is to go back to what the Lord Jesus wiped out in the beginning. It is to set up an additional “ground” beyond that which is in spirit and in truth in Him.
Excerpt from Message Five:
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“Now Jesus says this tremendous thing. The hour cometh and now is, when neither in Jerusalem nor in Samaria, neither in this special place nor in that special place. Everything is not going to be centered and contained in some special places. The worship of God is no longer going to be in a certain form. Neither - nor! That is wiping out with one stroke the whole dispensation. That is a tremendous thing. Suppose you were to write on the blackboard and fill the whole blackboard with all your doctrine and your practices, how things had to be done. You said that is Christianity. Someone came along with a wet sponge and wiped the whole thing out and said, 'That is nonsense; that is not it at all.' What would you do with that one? You will crucify him. That is what Jesus did. He wiped out the whole dispensation with one stroke of His hand. Then He puts something else in its place. What did He put in its place? God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
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