In The Garden
Sunday Message
"Binding
and Loosing 101"
Pastor Wayne Clabaugh
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Scripture: "And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. And I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Matthew. 16:18-19, (KJV)
I don't feel there is any more powerful
stronghold today than that of our will.
In our text today, Jesus was speaking to (Simon) Peter and he
had just asked the question, "Who do you say
that I am?" (Simon) Peter Responded with, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the Living God". Now
friend, Jesus
got excited about that - but it wasn't just
because He needed followers or wanted People to
be subservient to Him... He got excited because
He "witnessed it" in Peter's Spirit. He knew
that he meant what he was saying. This was the
foundation for the Gospel and that is why He
says to Peter...
"...thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it."
What Rock? The Rock of Petra? No! "The
precept" of the witness deep in
Peter's soul when he declared that "Jesus was
the Christ, The Son of the Living God". (ref.,
Matt 16:16)
But Jesus goes on to say something else that
often gets left out because it is misunderstood
and often misused. He said....
"And I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven."
Have you ever heard the legend that St. Peter
will meet you at the Gates of Heaven and decide
whether or not you can go in or not? This
scripture is where that principle comes from.
But that's not what it means.
I don't want to take a long time teaching on
this this morning but in short, what Jesus is
saying here can be better understood by looking
at the meaning of the word "bind".
That word "bind" in the Greek is "Deo". This is
a primary verb; meaning "put under obligation".
It is used in reference to such things as the
Law, or one's duty whether in the military, or
in one's career. It speaks of being bound to one
wife / husband in marriage and more importantly
in Covenant, ie., the Bride of Christ bound
to the Lord.
We find the same meaning in Matthew 18: 18-19,
yet Jesus adds a phrase in there that isn't
included in the verses there in Matthew 16. He
says here in the 18th chapter...
"Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven. 'Again I say unto you, That if
two of you shall agree on earth as touching any
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for
them of my Father which is in heaven'."
So what is this "Key" we're speaking of here?
Authority. The discretionary authority by the
disciples, "in the Spirit", to "bind" believers
to the Church doctrines as they saw fit, and the
discretionary authority, "in the Spirit", to
exclude or "loose" the NEW Church from those
things of the LAW that were no longer applicable
nor appropriate. (ie., such things as the
different ways to wash your hands)
However, and friend this is important to grasp
here this morning; at any time that we are
"bound" to the Church (bride of Christ), we are
also bound "in covenant" with God "through Jesus
Christ" and with those who are believers in
Christ. Again, the inference here is the same as
the binding together in covenant of a husband
and wife in marriage.
Now let me take that one step farther. What you
bind (or declare) becomes who you are... or
should I say, who you "declare" that you
are.
In this life, we are either bound to the Church
through Jesus Christ and being Christ-like or we
are bound to the world through the fleshy
natures of our first parents Adam and Eve.
There is a purpose for this. You see, being
bound together in this way gives us
"spiritual identity". It shows whether we are
"in fellowship" with the Kingdom of Light or the
Kingdom of Darkness. If we are bound to the Adamic Nature of our first parents we can have
no part of the Kingdom of God. The opposite is
also true. If we are bound to Christ and His
Kingdom, that old "sin-nature" was crucified
with Jesus on the cross, and we are free from
it... but the problem is, we are still free
moral agents. By God's Grace and Great Love for
us, He has still made it possible for us to
choose. Why is this a problem?
Too many Christians today want yet to be "free"
to live what they term, "the good life". In
fact, many Christians tomorrow (Super Bowl
Sunday) will forego paying their tithes or even
going to church at all, but you will find them
in a bar somewhere tomorrow night, drinking and
spending their tithe money on pretzels and beer,
as they watch the "Super Bowl" on giant TVs.
Again... It's a case of "covenant".
What does covenant really mean? The word
"covenant" means a solemn agreement between the
members of a church to act together in harmony
with the precepts of the gospel." Thereby, a
covenant with God would speak of a solemn
agreement between and individual and the Lord to act
in harmony with the precepts of the
gospel." Things such as tithing; marriage; even
the major political issues such as abortion and
same-sex marriage; all stem from a matter of
covenant. Are we bound to the Kingdom of God or
are we bound to the Kingdom of man or mammon?
Now, when Jesus gave Peter the "keys of the Kingdom"
He did so knowing full-well that Peter would
betray him, but He also knew that on the Day of
Pentecost, the Foundation that had been laid in
Christ would be established in Peter and in all
who followed Christ.
As followers of Christ, how we act is determined
by what we think or believe. In other words, do
we have a heart for God? Do we have a
Resurrection mind-set? Are we in the attack mode
against Hell... or are we allowing the Devil and
his minions to keep us always on the run?
Friend, demonic powers recognize who we are in
the "spiritual realm" - Just look at
Acts 19: 13-16. In that passage of Scripture, Paul was
"bound" to (in covenant with) Christ
and this identified him clearly. The identity of
the seven sons of Sceva was not found in
Christ because they were not "bound"
(covenanted) to Him, and it cost them dearly.
Now, stop here for a moment and grasp what that
means to you and I in our Christian walk on a
daily basis. If we are not not "bound"
(covenanted) to Christ, we will not have (CAN
NOT have) authority over the flesh or the enemy,
and it doesn't matter how much we scream and
holler at the enemy to "get out" or "be gone" or
"shut- up", if we're not "bound" (covenanted) to
Christ we're just wasting our time. We're
talking about a precept that is more than just
words. The power of "binding and loosing"
is not in the speaking of words alone, but they
are the imparted authority we receive by
being "bound" (covenanted) to Christ.
Now I've taken this farther than what I wanted
to for today and perhaps I can write a paper on
"binding and loosing" and release it should anyone want to study it
a bit deeper... but the point I'm trying to
make here today is that when you "cop and attitude" about paying
your tithes or giving offerings when you are
prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so... when you
know that
voting for a candidate that is pro-abortion and
pro gay rights when you know the Bible and the
Lord stands against those things... you are
binding yourself to the flesh and not to the
Father. You are not just leaving a door open,
by accident, for
the enemy to come in and tear apart at your
heart and mind and your foundation of faith - but you
are opening the door to allow him
to do so.
On the other hand, by getting in the WORD and
listening to His voice and modeling your life
after his... we find that the "gates of hell can
not prevail against our confession".
Quickly let's look at that portion of the
verse once again there in Matthew 16:18c where
it says...
"And I say also unto thee, That thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." Matthew 16:18c
Just as the disciples and the followers of
Christ throughout the ages became "gates" that
hold back evil, "in Christ" the gates of hell
cannot prevail against us. Did you hear that?
That's the WORD! But you must be "bound" (in
covenant) to Christ. We become the "brick and
mortar", as was said at the beginning - the
foundation of the very Gospel of faith.
(For those of you who have been taking our
Prophecy Notes we have been speaking about this.
ref., II Thessalonians 2:7)
Why is that important to anything I have
mentioned here today? Well friend, we live in a
world where the unseen spiritual realm often
influences the natural seen realm by "influencing
people". We say
things we never meant to say, go places we never
meant to go and do things we never meant to do...
and in many cases it's because of the
influences of those people we deal with everyday
as we react to some very challenging
circumstances all around us. In other
words... people become "gates" through which the
spiritual world can allow spiritual ideas and
concepts to come into the natural world in order
to shape this natural world. If we are "bound"
(in covenant) with Christ, these will be very
positive and often reap world-changing results.
If we are bound to the World... bound to the
flesh... our lives become filled with darkness
and before you know it we have lost our way.
Let's pray....
Father. I seek Your will for my life and I ask
that in all things you will keep me from
compromising. Help me to feed on Thy Word so that
even in the hardest of times... I will know what
I should do and how I should react in every
circumstance. Father, whether it be my tithes,
my offerings, my service to my fellow-man; let
me
find myself always "bound" (in covenant) to
you. I surrender all my life, my talent, my
money, my mind, my all.... to you. In Jesus'
Name, Amen.
