Soul man
Member
The need for persecution
The fourth thing we see is that before he had a revelation of Christ, Paul greatly persecuted those who were going deeper with God. Now, that is almost necessary in your walk with the Lord, the phase of your persecuting those entering into Christ-life living. If you can hear preached this gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and not retaliate, then something is really wrong.
If it does not excite you and upset you and make you say "I am going to take my Bible and see if that preacher knows what he is talking about," or if your first reaction is not "that preacher is crazy, he is leading all those folks astray," then you probably have not heard the true gospel.
You see, I am more worried if you do not have that reaction then if you do. If you do not have it, then there are not necessary seeds being planted for Christ to come forth.
The apostle Paul plainly States that he persecuted those who believed. He even sought letters to kill them. No, you do not enter into the Christ-life when you first hear the message if you say "that sounds just right."
Now, most people will say that, if they are spiritually inclined to do so. They say, "you know brother, for 20 years God has been dealing with me on that subject, that is just what I believe.
Let's do something about it, I believe it."
So I say "if you believe it, let's join together, because there are not many of us, let's try to get this message out to the world that has been denied it."
"No brother, I cannot do that, I don't want to get into any bondage."
Then his persecution starts, that is inevitable when coming into a revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul said, "I persecuted the brethren who had the message of Christ, mercilessly before Christ was revealed in me."
Not only this, but Paul says in these verses that he profited from his stand. He profited from the Jews religion. You know, if you fight anything that is of God long enough, hard enough and intellectually enough, you are going to raise up a following.
There is always enough flesh around that does not want to follow Jesus or want anybody to put pressure on them to live the Christ-life, who will prosecute those who do and gravitate a following.
Thus, they literally profit from it. But this is a normal course the believer takes before entering into Christ-life living.
The fourth thing we see is that before he had a revelation of Christ, Paul greatly persecuted those who were going deeper with God. Now, that is almost necessary in your walk with the Lord, the phase of your persecuting those entering into Christ-life living. If you can hear preached this gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and not retaliate, then something is really wrong.
If it does not excite you and upset you and make you say "I am going to take my Bible and see if that preacher knows what he is talking about," or if your first reaction is not "that preacher is crazy, he is leading all those folks astray," then you probably have not heard the true gospel.
You see, I am more worried if you do not have that reaction then if you do. If you do not have it, then there are not necessary seeds being planted for Christ to come forth.
The apostle Paul plainly States that he persecuted those who believed. He even sought letters to kill them. No, you do not enter into the Christ-life when you first hear the message if you say "that sounds just right."
Now, most people will say that, if they are spiritually inclined to do so. They say, "you know brother, for 20 years God has been dealing with me on that subject, that is just what I believe.
Let's do something about it, I believe it."
So I say "if you believe it, let's join together, because there are not many of us, let's try to get this message out to the world that has been denied it."
"No brother, I cannot do that, I don't want to get into any bondage."
Then his persecution starts, that is inevitable when coming into a revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul said, "I persecuted the brethren who had the message of Christ, mercilessly before Christ was revealed in me."
Not only this, but Paul says in these verses that he profited from his stand. He profited from the Jews religion. You know, if you fight anything that is of God long enough, hard enough and intellectually enough, you are going to raise up a following.
There is always enough flesh around that does not want to follow Jesus or want anybody to put pressure on them to live the Christ-life, who will prosecute those who do and gravitate a following.
Thus, they literally profit from it. But this is a normal course the believer takes before entering into Christ-life living.
