Year: 2015

Blessed Are The Meek For They Shall Inherit The Earth. Matt 5:5.

“…It was the meek and lowly Jesus who with an upraised whip of cords expelled the mercenary traders from His Father’s house. Nor is meekness mere good-naturedness which will take anything from anybody. Essentially it is that attitude of mind which does not insist on its own rights and is always ready to waive its privileges in the interests of others…” – J Oswald Sanders.

The world thinks of the meek as one who does not count for much but Jesus our Lord said he will inherit the earth. This is a steely character who is willing to yield to others when the principle of God’s laws is not at stake. Such a person may claim nothing in his own right but he truly inherit the new earth that is coming. He is wise to claim nothing that is perishable to inherit that which is imperishable. The meek Moses chose rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking forward to the reward – the new heaven and earth.

Blessed Are They That Mourn, For They Shall Be Comforted.  Matt 5:4.

“It is not the sorrow itself that is a blessed thing, but rather the comfort which God ministers to the sorrowing. There can be no comfort where there is no grief…The happiness of the Gospel message is that it alone professedly deals with the common lot of sorrow, and gives the oil of joy for mourning. This is its initial undertaking : its final guarantee is “no sorrow; nor crying.” – J Oswald Sanders

Because we are living in the overlapping times of the Kingdom of God is already here and the coming Kingdom of God in glory, we still live in tension in the present fallen earth while waiting for the new heaven and earth.

Psalms 8

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

God alone is worthy of worship for His works are so majestic without peer.

Consider the infinite micro universe with atoms and molecules expanding all the way to the infinite macro universe of galaxies of stars with His laws setting in motion everything we can see. Consider the beauty and wonder in His creation of organisms, plants, insects and animals with His laws guiding all to depend on each other in harmony. Consider the delicate eco-system working in perfect order for all life to survive. How majestic are His works !

God alone is worthy of worship for He is holy without peer.

Consider how we look at pests in our environment which we are ever so ready to annihilate and we can perhaps understand a little of His absolute abhorrence of our sin. Consider how abhorrent we are – not even a speck of dust as compared to the whole universe – and yet we believe we can be like god. We are nothing but pests destroying the sanctity of His holy and beautiful created world.

God alone is worthy of worship for His love without peer.

Consider how incorrigible it is for a wayward self scented creature to believe he can replace the Creator in control of his own destiny. Yet this Sovereign Creator God is willing to incarnate and propitiate Himself to reveal Himself as the Truth, the Way and the Life for His creation.

God alone is worthy of worship for His grace without peer.

Consider what do we, creatures, deserve such honor and love from our Creator ? Nothing. Absolutely nothing ! And yet He is willing to make us sons and joint heirs of His Kingdom with His only Begotten Son.

Let’s exalt His Wonderful and Holy Name for all eternity !

Eph 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Law which Paul talked about is the Halakha, the Jewish Law, of 613 prohibitions so devised so that the Mosaic Law could be legalistically complied. The Jews believed that their own effort in religiously complying with this Halakha, which Paul called Works of the law, would earn them salvation.

Paul said that he was blameless in compliance as a Pharisee. Phil 3:6. Yet he was merciless in persecuting the church and even approved of the stoning of Stephen.

The Pharisees could be blameless in complying with the 613 prohibitions outwardly but you know from Scripture that they were mean, covetous, prideful and hypocritical in their hearts.

So we see that there can be no evidence of a new heart and new spirit even when one can comply with the Halakha.  That is, we cannot earn salvation by these law-works.

By nature, we are spiritually blind and in order to see this fallacy, God must open our eyes and melt our hearts of stone into flesh – that is Grace.  By grace,  when we are born again in Christ Jesus, a new heart and new spirit will be given us and the Spirit of Jesus will also be given to move us to fulfill the law.  Ezek 36:26-27,  John 3:5-7,13-15.

Psalms 19 tells us the law of the Lord revives the soul, rejoices the heart and make wise the simple. Without understanding that the law is Good which is the blueprint of our image of God, do we really know God ?

Jesus our Lord often talked about the heart or character conforming to this blueprint rather than the silly outward compliance of rules so devised to conform to the law. As silly as those who legalistically follow rules without true circumcision of the heart so is the silly ignorant believer who rubbishes the law.

(The Law of Christ, which is to love God wholeheartedly and to love one another, will fulfill the Mosaic Law.  Rom 13:10.   So when we bear each other’s burden by loving one another,  we have fulfilled the law of Christ.  Gal 6:2.)

The righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us when we believe in Jesus and accept Him as our Savior and Lord. Phil 3:9.  Though the righteousness is imputed, the training to be Christ-like in character only just begins.

Titus 2:11-13. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

John 16:13. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you THE THINGS THAT ARE TO COME. ….

As far as the greater sense of prophecy is concerned, the revelation of God is complete in the Scripture. That is, no teacher can claim that the Spirit says some new truth to him that is different from what Jesus said because the Spirit will only speak what He hears from Jesus. John 16:14. Eg. Jesus said that those whom He loves, He will rebuke and discipline. Rev 3:19. So any teacher who claim a new truth from the Spirit of Jesus that He will not convict or rebuke a Christian of sin is a false teacher.

John 9:1-3
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

John 15:1-17

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

The analogy of the Vine and branches is very instructive. As how the branch remains in the Vine structurally and vitally, that is how we should remain in Christ, the true Vine. Though the branch is structurally attached to the Vine, it also needs the vital sap from the Vine to produce good fruit.

For the branches not bearing fruit, the Gardener will cut them off. These branches may be structurally attached but they are not receiving the vital sap through them so they are not bearing good fruit.

Even if we are to hold on to all the words of Christ, we need to receive the vital sap from the Vine  – the sanctification by the Holy Spirit – to produce all the good fruit of the Spirit. So not only we need to abide in all the words of Christ, we must also allow His Spirit to do His sanctifying work in us.  Though we are clean (justified), we have to remain in Christ.

Those who sear their conscience by ignoring the conviction of sin by the Spirit and His sanctifying work will be like those branches who deliberately stop this vital sap from flowing into them. That is what Scripture meant by quenching the Spirit of Christ all the time to their peril.

Our Lord Jesus clearly said that these people do not really remain in His love because they do not obey His commands.

So any believer, who deliberately trivialize obeying God’s commands and quench the Spirit of Christ by ignoring His conviction of sin and sanctifying work, does not remain in His love at all.

Deut 8: 2-7.

2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands…5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you…7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; 8 a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; 9 a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing..

Acts 16:6-10

Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia,but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas. That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.

We see how Paul was guided by the Holy Spirit not to preach the Good News to Asia but to move on to Macedonia instead. It would be logical for Paul to travel and preach around Asia, but logic is not the basis for calling. Though the Holy Spirit forbade Paul and Silas to preach in the province of Asia, Paul still attempted to go to the province of Bithynia in Asia. Yet again, the Holy Spirit stopped them.  We are not told how the Holy Spirit prevented them.  The Holy Spirit did not leave Paul clueless as to the next destination since He had forbidden him to preach in Asia. He was given a vision to go to Macedonia.

In the above passage and other passages of Acts, we saw the active guidance of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of Paul and other Christians in the following ways :

1. Through the direct prompting of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 16:6. How the Spirit exactly prevented Paul from preaching the word, the Scripture did not reveal.)
2. Through vision. (Acts 16:9).
3. Through prophets. (Agabus predicted a famine. Acts 11:28)
4. Through angels. (Philip was guided to the Ethopian eunuch. Acts 8:26-39)

Before I go on, I must stress that Scripture is the primary way of God’s guidance.  All other ways have to be tested against it.  But sadly,  many dismiss all other ways of guidance and miss the joy of the close walk with the Spirit of God as we surrender to His guidance.

The Holy Spirit may prompt us through an inner voice (John 16:13) or our conscience (Rom 9:1).   How do we discern that it is really His prompting and not our own thoughts or from other sources ?  We have to test it against the Word of God because the Holy Spirit will not prod us to do something against the Word of God, and our conscience is suspect at times.  On the other hand, do not over-ride the prompting of the Spirit by our own logic or our own preference at times.  (Do not get me wrong that we do not exercise prudence for prudence is also a cardinal virtue of a Christian. We are exhorted to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.  I am only exhorting not to trust ONLY logic ALL the time and dismiss His prompting unknowingly.)  God must have the best interests of Paul in disallowing him to go to Asia but to send him to Macedonia.  Many Christians suffer for making the wrong decisions in life by quenching the Spirit through insensitivity and disobedience to His prompting.  I have seen missionaries, who claimed that God had sent them to a certain place but it was really their own preference, came back with fruit-less ministry for several years while being there.

Many believers do not believe in visions and so why will God give them one ?  As long as the visions are not extra biblical revelation and do not contradict the whole counsel of the Word of God, why should we dismiss them as not one of the ways in which God may prod us to do something ?

Do not despise prophecy but to test each and every one.   If the Antioch church did not believe Agabus on his prophecy of a coming global famine and take definitive preparatory action,  the Judea church might suffer terribly without the relief aid from them through the hands of Paul and Barnabas.

Heb 13:2 exhorts us to show hospitality to all strangers in case angels are sent to minister or to guide us.