<TITLE>08. Par 52-58</TITLE>L-52 Then when they went in, not with your old dirty shoes on, those fine rugs, they'd have a little, like a little house-slipper, and they would walk in, And then the--the guest would go in and--and then the host would--would kiss them welcome. And ,see, you wouldn't want the host to kiss you if you smelled bad. You wouldn't want to walk on the rugs when you were dirty. And then the host would kiss you welcome, and then you were just one of the house.

L-53 And now, God has such things. Before we are really ready for the communing of God, we must first be washed by the waters of the Word. Separation, the waters of separation separates us from our sins. Now, the first, you cannot talk to God, and you cannot commune with God, and there's... First, you have to repent for what you have done, because you cannot believe right until you are repenting, "Lord, forgive my unbelief. (See?) Forgive my unbelief." You have to repent first. And when you repent, then you are--your back sins are forgiven, then you're a candidate then for the baptism. Now, then, He promised the Holy Ghost after the baptism.

L-54 Now, the thing is, that on this communing we find out that there was a--a foot-washing and things associated with that, also, to wash our feet, as a symbol of the cleanliness of the Holy Spirit.
Now, then there must a mutual feeling. If you are at edge with your--your host, then you--you cannot commune. No, you--you can't do it, because you're disagreeing with him. But if you are in agreement, then you can commune. So that's the way it is when we come to the Lord's table; we've got to be in agreement with His Word. See? We must be borned again, the Spirit of God in us saying "Amen" to every Word that He has written, then we can commune with Him.

L-56 This we have of God, if our hearts condemn us not, then we have favor with God. We know we get our requests and our petition, is because that our hearts condemn us not. Now, if God tells us we must be borned again, and we have not received the new birth, then we'll feel a little funny about going, asking Him anything (See?), because we know we haven't met His requirements. Only thing then is a sinner's prayer. But we talk with Him when we are in fellowship with Him; that brings communion.

L-57 Now, this means of communion, I'd like to explain for a little while. Now, we take, what we call communion, is the bread and the wine. Now, that has been so misrepresented, till it's not even good to speak of it. Oh, how that has been misrepresented down through the years. That is really not communion; that is just keeping a commandment. See? Now, the reason we call it communion, is because it come from the Catholic association of being the "Holy Eucharist, which is literally the body of the Lord Jesus." But it isn't the Lord Jesus' body. It's only in commemoration of His body.

L-58 And I don't care how many priests or preachers, or whoever blesses that, it's still bread and wine. There is no priest as we'll--they tell us, that God is obliged to listen to the priest when he turns the communion (what they call communion, the Eucharist) into the literal body of the Lord Jesus, then the believer takes that, and that is communion. That is wrong.
"Commune" is "to talk to, commune with, something that you can speak to and it'll speak back to you." That's communing. A wafer cannot speak back. So, really, the real communion is the Holy Spirit speaking back. When you ask Him, then He speaks back; that is correct communion. This is a memorial to take the... of His crucifixion and His resurrection, and not a communion. We call it that, but it isn't. It come from the Catholic church of taking this wafer as we went through the other day in the order, and talking about it on "Paganism Versing Christianity," how that this little round wafer is the literal body of Christ. Now, the Catholic church believes that.


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