Before man fell in the Garden of Eden, he walked and talked with God. Then in the chapter immediately following the account of the fall, we read, Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 4:26b. Man’s religious search after God, and the awareness in his conscience that he was a sinner, began after the fall; and this became a part of his fallen nature. Man did not have religion in the Garden of Eden; he had a walk with God. After he sinned he could no longer walk and talk with God, but something in his very Adamic nature—fallen and depraved as it was—drove him to seek another way to reach God, such as good works and endless sacrifices that he could make to God.
Genesis 4 relates the story of Cain and Abel. Even though Cain killed his brother, you cannot say that Cain was not religious. He offered the fruit of the earth to God. When his offering was not accepted and Abel’s was, he killed his brother. Cain’s reaction was typical of religion. In a measure, it still responds that way.
There remains in the old nature the desire to be religious, but being religious will not please God. God desires that we break through into an awareness of Him and move from religious dead works into living works. Hebrews 6:1 indicates that before we can press on to spiritual maturity, God brings us to a repentance from dead works. Hebrews 9:14 also speaks of dead works: How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
What is the difference between living works and dead works? Jesus said, “Greater works than these shall you do because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). This indicates that there is a different type of work other than that produced by the flesh. Dead works may appear to be almost identical to living works. Let me illustrate this. Suppose that someone volunteers to clean the church and prepare it for the next service. As he sweeps the floor and scrapes gum off the chairs, he becomes quite frustrated, thinking, “Boy, this is a dirty job, but I guess I have to do it.” With that attitude, is the work that he is doing glorifying to God? Now suppose that someone else cleans the church the following week. As he cleans each chair or pew, he prays, “Lord, bless the person who comes to the house of God and sits in this seat. Meet him, Lord.” It is one thing to do a task with an anointing of the Lord, inspired by a flow of the new nature in you. It is quite another thing to do it out of a sense of duty, and then wonder how many “brownie points” the Lord will give you for it. It is quite evident that there is a difference! Similarly, preaching in many churches is done as a dead religious work; but how marvelous it is to bring forth a living flow!
Hebrews speaks of repenting from dead works and having your conscience purged from dead works. Most people would insist that we need a conscience. In reality, our conscience is a degenerate and depraved part of the Adamic nature, and is largely the result of conditioning. The various tribes and nations and cultures in the world each have their own standards and ways of doing things. Some practices that are considered to be sin in most Christian countries are thought of as acceptable, or in some cases even honorable, in other countries. People are also very different in their attitudes and ways of thinking. In some mid-eastern countries, the relationship that exists between many husbands and wives would be considered criminal here. For a man to have a life-and-death control over another person and to treat her like chattel property would be totally rejected by our culture. Many people who live in the ghetto areas of large cities have a conscience against informing the police of a crime, even that of murder. To inform on a criminal is considered a violation of a man’s conscience, and others would feel justified in killing him for it.
The conscience is a depraved part of the Adamic nature and it is the product of whatever people condition it to do. The Communist conscience, which is difficult for us to understand, is an example. Since the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Communists have had enough time to condition the conscience of each generation of Russian people, so that in the present generation a child would not hesitate to betray his parents for reading the Bible. He would think that he was doing the right thing, even if his parents were imprisoned as a result.
Satan will use a conscience because he uses anything of the old Adamic nature. Do you realize that it is possible for us to carry a religious conscience from the past into the house of God, making us think it is our duty to do certain things? Because of past conditioning, we could follow many dead and empty rituals and forms. That conditioning would be just as real as a Communist conditioning, a ghetto conditioning, or any other type of conditioning. We are going through a deep reconditioning in which the Lord is giving us a conscience purged from dead works. What will He do after that?
Hebrews 9:14 speaks of cleansing our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. If we are to serve the living God, then He must inspire living works within us. We read about this in Hebrews 10:19–22. Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way (everything is new and living—there is a new and Living Word, a new and living way, and new and living works) which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience…
First we are told to repent of dead works and to have our conscience cleansed from dead works. Now we are told quite bluntly that our conscience is evil. Anything that does not produce righteousness is evil. The most wicked thing of all is that which parades as righteousness and is not. And this is done in the scope of religion when it fails to produce true righteousness. We are told to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). If what we do does not bring us into His righteousness, it is wrong.
We must be made clean from an evil conscience and (have) our bodies washed with pure water. In order to understand the references to “sprinkling” and “washing,” we must realize that the book of Hebrews refers back to the book of Leviticus which describes the sacrifices and what was done to those who came to worship. The priests washed their hands in the laver. The sacrifices were cleansed before they were presented to the Lord. When the sacrifice was presented, the guilty person laid his hands upon it; thus his guilt was transferred to the sacrifice, and the innocence of the animal was transferred to him. Then he was bound over to a covenant. When the Law was read, the priests sprinkled blood on the covenant of the Law and upon those who heard it, binding them together. Hebrews 9:19–20 speaks about this.
Continuing in Hebrews 10, we read in verses 23–24: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. It is in the moment of your wavering that the enemy hits you. It is in the one moment when a fighter lowers his guard that he gets a bloody nose. Beware of that one wavering moment. Do not waver!
And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. This statement is difficult to understand. Is it saying, “Let’s see how we can stir up the people so that they will clean the church”? No, it is not limited to that; it has a broader meaning. Is it saying, “How can we bring up the whole level of this move of God until we are not just coming together with a religious conscience, trying to cooperate and be a part of various projects”? No, it goes even beyond that. There must be a deep stimulation, until out of our innermost being flows forth a desire to do the will of God, a desire to please Him. This is not done by manufacturing more religious zeal, more religious efforts, or more religious works, all of which are based upon a revival of that innate religious conscience which is a part of the fallen Adamic nature. We must eliminate that thinking.
The Scripture in Ephesians 2:8–10 explains this further. For by grace are ye saved through faith… Not of works, lest any man should boast. Notice: It is not the result of works! For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works… We are not saved by works; we are created for works. We are a new creation working with God. We need to be stimulated and provoked to the good works that God wants us to do. How can people be provoked to the greater works? How can they be stimulated to do a miracle? You keep prodding their faith and their spirit until they begin to flow in the living works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
What a difference there is between the living works and the works which people do, hoping to merit salvation! There is a statue in front of a famous Roman cathedral and the toe has been kissed so many times that it is now gone. Kissing that toe is not only unsanctified; it is unsanitary! And it definitely will not merit any favor before God! On the other hand, when a simple soul reaches out with a heart of faith, he will surely be met by God in whatever he does. With just a little tug at the hem of Christ’s garment, a woman’s living faith was turned loose (Mark 5:27). What you do is not so important, as long as the Spirit of Christ is coming forth in you, provoking you to move out in God to do the living works that He wants you to do.
No doubt all of us would like to be free from the drudgery in our lives. We do not want to expend our energy in an endless effort that is pointless and without goal or objective. As we work, we demand with every breath, every cry of our heart, every exertion of our energy: “Thy Kingdom come, O Lord! Thy will be done, O Lord, in earth as it is in heaven!” (Matthew 6:10.)
Revelation 14:13 speaks of those who died in the faith. They … rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. There was a living vibration in the things they did. They set something in motion and their works seem to go on and on endlessly, circling like a boomerang, and then coming back. II Kings 13 gives us a good illustration of this. While a dead soldier was being buried, a marauding band came along. Hurriedly, the body was cast into the grave of Elisha, the prophet of the double portion. Upon hitting Elisha’s bones, the dead soldier was reanimated. He jumped up and ran after the rest of the soldiers.
Acts 9:36–42 speaks of Dorcas, who made clothing for the people and ministered to their needs. She was more than just a good seamstress, however. There was a blessing in the Spirit that circled around her and lit upon her. When she died, everyone grieved, until Peter came and raised her from the dead. What fantastic things happened!
Living works are coming forth today too—works which will follow us. The things that we set in motion will circle about and seem to return over and over again. We need to realize that what has held up the greater works is the religious spirit that has tried to produce works by striving to gain merit or favor with God and man. This is the reason that certain religious leaders publicize every little healing or miracle they produce. The day that a healer walks down the street incognito, healing the crippled, or he walks through a hospital and empties it, that day I will believe in his healing ministry. I do not believe in the works that exalt man. It is not in the tradition of the Scriptures to exalt man. The Scriptures speak continually of giving God all the glory and all the praise. A famous evangelist at one time made a promise to God that he would not touch the gold or the glory, and yet he is now guilty of doing both. As long as a man’s greedy hands are laid upon the sick, we must question how productive his ministry is. Then what are the greater works? What is God telling us to do? He is telling us to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
Hebrews 13:15–16: Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased. The way this passage is usually expounded does not convey what it is actually saying. This Scripture tells us, “Do not neglect to do good and share, for God is well pleased with such sacrifices.” Does this mean that by sharing and giving to the poor we are making a sacrifice to the Lord? Not necessarily. Does it mean that when giving poses a hardship for us, God considers it a pleasing sacrifice? No, it does not mean that. It means something else entirely.
The book of Hebrews speaks of our presenting ourselves holy to God, of being purged from dead works. But it tells us also to get busy and do the works. This is not a contradiction. When we enter into the place of deep worship before God, then what we do is counted as a sacrifice to Him. It is one thing to do something; but it is another thing to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for His glory. The religious sacrifice may lead to the act of giving, but all giving is not necessarily an act of holy sacrifice to the Lord. If you are talked into giving money, it might not be a sacrifice pleasing to the Lord. But if you are motivated by your spirit, and you give as unto the Lord, then your gift will be a living thing from your spirit and God will be well pleased with it. It will be a sacrifice well pleasing unto the Lord.
Where do the greater works start? We must first get out of the religious conscience of the flesh and get into the entire devotion to the Lord, as Adam did when he walked and talked with God. Religion was not invented until after the fall in the Garden of Eden. Who says we have to be religious? Who says religion is an open door to God? But weren’t the Pharisees very religious? Yes, and their religion held them back! It was contrary to what God wanted. Consequently, the harlots and the publicans entered in ahead of them.
Luke 7:37–39 tells of a sinful woman who came and washed the feet of the Lord with her tears and dried them with her hair. Jesus blessed her, but the Pharisees sat watching with critical spirits and with no worship in their hearts. Once we understand that the religious instinct is a part of the fallen Adamic nature, we will see why the present move of God in the earth has become such a living thing. As much as we are able, let us totally throw off the religious chains that we might be free in the Spirit to worship God, to walk with Him, and to commune with Him. We must grasp this truth! Is this not one of the clearest definitions we have ever had of the religious conscience, of the difference between that and true spiritual devotion?
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:20–21a. To do His will—that is our true goal, is it not? How many religious works are simply a matter of people doing their own will and then asking God to bless it! They say, in effect, “Lord, I am working on this project of mine. I have made the blueprint. Now Lord, please bless it.” Why not first find what His will is?
I was criticized when I came into this move of God and ministered to only a handful of people. I was told that I was missing a great ministry, when I could be out evangelizing, holding revival campaigns, and promoting many things. By other’s opinions, I was wasting my time. Actually, I was doing only what God told me to do. It is hard now to remember or imagine the difficulties of those early days; yet it was the Living Word that was preached and recorded at that time that people live and thrive on today. Even if there had been no one on earth to hear the Word then, God would still have brought forth this end-time walk with Him. After He works in us that which is pleasing in His sight, then the Word flows forth. Do His will!
Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we are His workmanship. The Greek word for workmanship is poiema, from which the word poem is derived. A poem is the expression, the workmanship, of a poet. The poet is its creator. We are God’s workmanship! He wants us to yield to Him! Then He will work in us that which is well pleasing in His sight. He will equip us to do His will in everything. Christ will be seen in us. People will look at us and say, “Oh, God made another poem, another living oracle, another living epistle.” Then when they look at our good works, they will not say, “Oh, what a good worker he is.” Instead, they will glorify the Father! We are His workmanship, created in Him for living works.
From the very beginning, God has frowned on man’s religious effort to reach up to Him. We see the first evidence of the futility of mankind’s search for God not too many centuries after the fall in the Garden of Eden, when men tried to build a tower at Babel. They did not want to be scattered on the face of the earth, nor did they want to have the memory of their existence blotted out in future generations. So they tried to build a tower to reach up to God, up to the heavens. But God brought it all to naught.
There is no way that man, in his fallen state, as religious as he tries to be, can reach up to God. God must reach down to him. And He has provided a way in the Spirit through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. He tells us, “Do not try to climb the stairs of religion; they will not take you high enough. Take My elevator of grace; it will bring you all the way up to My presence.” Religion is the stairs; it is always a little short. But the elevator is His divine, holy love. He loved us and gave Himself for us through the sacrifice of His precious blood. That brings us right into His presence. Then we can work that which is well pleasing in His sight.
The elevator boy is asking, “Where do you want to go? Which floor?”
“Top floor, please! To the King’s mansion! To His throne, please!”