"Heavenly Father,
We come before you today, to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says,
By A W Tozer
GOD'S THE TRUTH IS A LOVELY SONG, BECOME SWEET BY LONG AND TENDER ASSOCIATION
Charles G. Finney believed that Bible teaching without moral application could be worse than no teaching at all, and could result in positive injury to the hearers. I used to feel that this might be an extreme position, but after years of observation I have come around to it, or to a view almost identical with it.
There is scarcely anything so dull and meaningless as Bible doctrine taught for its own sake. Truth divorced from life is not truth in its Biblical sense, but something else and something less. Theology is a set of facts concerning God, man and the world. These facts may be, and often are, set forth as values in themselves; and there lies the snare both for the teacher and for the hearer.
The Bible is among other things a book of revealed truth. That is, certain facts are revealed that could not be discovered by the most brilliant mind. These facts are of such a nature as to be past finding out. They were hidden behind a veil, and until certain men who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost took away that veil, no mortal man could know them. This lifting of the veil of unknowing from undiscoverable things we call divine revelation.
The Bible, however, is more than a volume of hitherto unknown facts about God, man and the universe. It is a book of exhortation based upon those facts. By far the greater portion of the book is devoted to an urgent effort to persuade people to alter their ways and bring their lives into harmony with the will of God, as set forth in its pages.
No man is better for knowing that God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. The devil knows that, and so did Ahab and Judas Iscariot. No man is better for knowing that God so loved the world of men that He gave His only begotten Son to die for their redemption. In hell there are millions that know that. Theological truth is useless until it is obeyed. The purpose behind all doctrine is to secure moral action.
What is generally overlooked is that truth as set forth in the Christian Scriptures is a moral thing; it is not addressed to the intellect only, but to the will also. It addresses itself to the total man, and its obligations cannot be discharged by grasping it mentally. Truth engages the citadel of the human heart and is not satisfied until it has conquered everything there. The will must come forth and surrender its sword. It must stand at attention to receive orders, and those orders it must joyfully obey. Short of this any knowledge of Christian truth is inadequate and unavailing.
Bible exposition without moral application raises no opposition. It is only when the hearer is made to understand that truth is in conflict with his heart that resistance sets in. As long as people can bear orthodox truth, divorced from life, they will attend and support churches and institutions without objection. The truth is a lovely song, become sweet by long and tender association; and since it asks nothing but a few dollars, and offers good music, pleasant friendships and a comfortable sense of well-being, it meets with no resistance from the faithful. Much that passes for New Testament Christianity is little more than objective truth sweetened with song and made palatable by religious entertainment.
Probably no other portion of the Scriptures can compare with the Pauline Epistles when it comes to making artificial saints. Peter warned that the unlearned and unstable would wrest Paul's writings to their own destruction, and we have only to visit the average Bible Conference and listen to a few lectures to know what he meant. The ominous thing is that the Pauline doctrines may be taught with complete faithfulness to the letter of the text without making the hearers one whit better. The teacher may, and often does, so teach the truth as to leave the hearers without a sense of moral obligation.
One reason for the divorce between truth and life may be the lack of the Spirit's illumination. Another surely is the teacher's unwillingness to get himself into trouble. Any man with fair pulpit gifts can get on with the average congregation if he just "feeds" them and lets them alone. Give them plenty of objective truth and never hint that they are wrong and should be set right, and they will be content.
On the other hand, the man who preaches truth and applies it to the lives of his hearers will feel the nails and the thorns. He will lead a hard life, but a glorious one. May God raise up many such prophets. The church needs them badly.
From the book 'Of God and Man,' published by the Christian
Publications, Inc., 25 South Tenth St., Harrisburg, PA. 17101.
By Kenneth S. WUEST
THERE ARE four grammatical rules in the Greek language which lead us to four truths relative to this great subject. The words in Ephesians 5:18 are, "Be filled with the Spirit."
First, the verb is in the imperative mode. That is, it is imperative that we be filled with the Spirit, first, because God commands it, second, because the fullness of the spirit is the divine enablement in the life of a Christian which results in a Christ-like life. Failure to be filled with the Spirit is sin and results in failure to live a life honoring to God.
Second, the tense of the verb is present, and this tense in the imperative mode always represents action going on. We learn from this that the mechanics of a Spirit-filled life do not provide for a spasmodic filling, that is, the Christian is not filled only when doing service such as preaching or teaching. But the Christian living a normal life of moment by moment yieldedness to God, experiences a moment by moment fullness of the Spirit. No Christian can do with less and at the same time live a victorious life.
Third, the verb is in the plural number, which teaches us that this command is addressed, not only to the preacher and the deacon, and the teacher in the Sunday School, but to every Christian, to the business man, the laborer, the housewife. It is the responsibility of every Christian to be always filled with the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, the verb is in the passive voice. This grammatical classification represents the subject of the verb as inactive but being acted upon. This teaches us that the filling with the Spirit is not a work of man but of God. We cannot work ourselves up to that condition by any amount of tarrying, praying, or agonizing. A simple desire for that fullness and a trust in the Lord Jesus for that fullness will result in that fullness (John 7:37-39).
But what is meant by the fullness of the Holy Spirit? We find the answer in James 4:5, "Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, ‘The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy’?" The word "lust" is an obsolete English word meaning "to earnestly desire." The translation reads, "The Spirit who has taken up his permanent abode in us constantly and earnestly desires to the point of envy."
Now, what does He desire even to the point of a divine envy? In Galatians 5:17 we read, "For the flesh has a strong desire to suppress the Spirit, and the Spirit has a strong desire to suppress the flesh, and these are firmly settled in an attitude of opposition to one another that you may not do the things which you constantly desire to do." The constant desire of the fallen nature is to sin. The Holy Spirit is the divine provision against sin in the life of a Christian. The evil nature wishes to use the faculties of the believer for sinful purposes. The Holy Spirit desires to use them for God's glory. The choice is with the Christian. He chooses which of the two will control his faculties. Thus the passage in James reads in paraphrase, "The Spirit who has taken up his final abode in us jealously desires the whole of us."
Yieldedness to and dependence upon the Holy Spirit results in the Spirit putting down the evil nature in defeat and producing in the believer a life pleasing to God. Thus, the fullness of the Spirit refers to His control over the believer. The translation of our text is, "Be ye being constantly filled with the Spirit."
♦ ♦ ♦
Source: Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Three Volume Edition, 1973
To know God, we must also recognise that He is absolutely holy and just and righteous. Sin cannot come into the presence of God. No man, sinful as we are, can stand in the light of God’s holiness. Therefore He has declared, “Without holiness, no man can see the face of God”. “But what is sin?” you may ask, or “I have no sin,” you may say.
First of all, sin means “missing of the mark” or falling short of God’s standard and glory. When God made man, He made us in His image, that we should be holy, as He is holy. God did not set an arbitrary standard for what constitutes holiness; He Himself is the standard! Sin also means “transgression of the law” which includes all acts of disobedience to Divine law. Not to obey the first commandment is sin. Not to obey the second commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:19, James 2:8) is sin. Not to obey the commandment, “Honour thy father and thy mother” is sin. Which of us is there who has not sinned and come short of the glory of God? No, not one! (Romans 3:23).
But what of all our good deeds then? God’s Word tells us that all our good works are as filthy rags and by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight. For God does not judge outwardly by appearance, even as men judge each other, but He tries our innermost hearts and weighs our motives and judges the thoughts and intents of our minds. None shall stand before Him. Out of our hearts, proceed a flow of sin and iniquity: evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness and blasphemies, which defile us. For this reason, we cannot save ourselves. Any religion that teaches us that we can or must do good deeds or penance in order to cleanse away our sins and save ourselves, fail to understand God’s holiness and the basis of His judgement. No one shall be able to pretend or hide our true hearts before the Great Judge.
If that is the case, what shall we do to get saved? How shall we stand right with God? If we could live holily on our own abilities and could stand right with God on our own righteousness, God would not have had to send a Saviour to interpose on our behalf and save us from our sins. But ever since our first forefather Adam chose to sin, sin entered the world, and we all like him have continued to sin. But what our good deeds cannot do and trying to keep the law cannot do, God did! Sending His Son to be born of a woman, to take on human flesh, to die on the cross on our behalf and to rise again on the third day, God both paid the penalty of sin and justified the sinner. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Sir/madam, this is why I have taken the liberty to quote from the Bible, which is God’s Word to the world, which alone tells us the only way of salvation. Yes, there is one God and only one way of salvation and only one mediator between God and men, which is the man Christ Jesus (1Timothy 2:5). When He was on the earth, this Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Today, He sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, ever living to make intercession for those whose hearts have got right with God.
If today, you have heard God speaking to you, do not harden your heart but take the first step to respond to Him. Begin to search after Him and start praying that He will help you to find repentance toward God and faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Pray that He will forgive your sins and save, change and transform you and send His Holy Spirit to live in your heart and fill you. As you seek after Him in repentance, He will bless you and own you as His own. You will begin to enter into a relationship with Him, as between a child and his father. And even as you start to know Him in an experiential and personal way, you will stand in an approved relationship with Him, justified by the blood of His Son Jesus. You will know that you are His because God knows you as His own (2Timothy 2:19).
It is our prayer that God will bless you with mercies and grace and that you may find peace and the true knowledge of God through Jesus Christ His Son.
This may seem a strange question, but Sir/Madam, when I saw you, the burden on my heart was whether you stood in an approved relationship with God our Maker, with whom we all have to do. One day, we will all have to stand before the Judge and give an account of our lives on this earth. Some of us may then say, “Lord, Lord, we have done many good deeds, and even miracles, and also preached and prophesied in your name”. But will He answer in response that He recognises and own us? Or will He sadly say, “I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity”?
To have a two-way personal relationship with God means we have to know God in a personal experiential way and He in turn would know and own us as His blood-bought children. Please let me elaborate.
To know God, we must recognise that God is not a lifeless and dumb idol but is the
True and Living God Who loves and cares for us
Idols, images and icons may have eyes, but they cannot see; mouths, but they cannot speak; and hands but they cannot move. God made us and we have eyes and can see. Can God not see? We have mouths and can speak; can God not speak to our hearts? We have hands and can move. Is God’s hand so short that He cannot save us? Hence in the Ten Commandments, God says, “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:2-6). This first commandment is also summed up as “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:30).
If you have been worshipping idols or had been superstitious or have a low view of Almighty God, may God grant that you repent quickly and turn back towards Him for forgiveness and healing. May you recognise the True and Living God, Who from heaven has clearly revealed His eternal power and Godhead to all men, even through the creation of the world. When you consider the stars and moon, and all that God has created, may you realise you have no excuse to say, “I did not know God.”
The gospel calls for repentance1 towards God and faith2 in our Lord Jesus Christ. Only this complete response to the good news of God’s redeeming grace and love in sending His only begotten Son to die for us will result in a changed heart and life, that the Bible calls the “new birth3”. Anything less, is to be short-changed, leaving us still as old creatures in the bondage of sin and its regular practice, from which Jesus came to free4 us.
If you have not exercised repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, being baptised and a church member or even being a deacon or pastor does not mean anything. You still need to be converted, to have a changed heart and transformation, a release from sin into fullness of life5, and the filling and flowing with joy of the Holy Spirit, even as rivers of living waters from your innermost being6. This does not refer to a subsequent experience after salvation, but to salvation itself. Jesus made this clear in His sayings, “I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish” and “he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Given their eternal importance, let us look at what these terms, “repentance towards God” and “faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” mean.
Repentance is not “penance” as some think. The “doing of penance” by the drudgery of repeated prayers or the self-infliction of wounds by carrying the kavadi, running through fire or other means, is a futile human attempt to atone for one’s own sins on the basis of one’s own merits. Just as Cain’s offering from the ground was accursed, all our good deeds are as filthy rags in the sight of God. Since the time of Adam, mankind is a fallen race and our natural hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. God who searches the heart and tries our thoughts, motives and intentions, gives to every man according to our ways (Jer17:9-10). Will He not see in our “penance” our deceitfulness in still loving our sins and intending soon afterwards to repeat the same? In contrast, our Lord Jesus once and for all made an end of sin in His finished work on the cross (Heb10:11-14). The call to repentance is the call to turn away from sin with finality.
In the New Testament, the term repent is made of two Greek words, “to change afterwards” and “to perceive, as from the mind as the seat of moral reflection.” Hence to repent is to change one’s mind or purpose with reference to sin. The term “towards God” completes the picture. Repentance is turning away from sin and turning towards God. This is well illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son who came to his senses and returned to his father saying “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in they sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son” (Luke15:21). Similarly, David’s psalm of repentance towards God, “I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (Psalm51:3-4).
Rom2:4-5 tells us that “the goodness of God leads us to repentance, but men’s hardness and impenitent hearts resist the love of God, choosing rather to treasure and store up unto ourselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God. May this not be for you, dear reader, but may your heart melt in gratitude when you consider the great love of God in providing all you need and furnishing you with talents and strength and showing you mercies and kindness in sparing you in accidents and illnesses. Often, it is because we have no gratitude that we are not repentant. 2Cor7:10 adds that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death”. Remorse and self-pity for the evil consequences of our own sins is not repentance. A godly grief and pain of what our rebellion means to the heart of God is what will produce genuine turning away from sin leading to salvation and deliverance.
Finally, the fruits of repentance must accompany repentance. John the Baptist, forerunner of Jesus, preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” To those who came, John said, “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance” and “the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire” (Luke3:3-9).
Faith is not a mere intellectual assent or a passing knowledge of something. Knowing some facts about Jesus does not mean that you know Jesus in a vital, personal, experiential way that places you in an approved relationship to Him7. The New Testament Greek noun rendered “faith” and its verb form rendered “believe” means primarily a firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing (Rom10:17).
Romans10:10 also tells us that “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness”. The heart represents man’s entire personality including his mind, emotion and will. To believe with the heart is to believe fully, resting all in the Lord and accounting Him absolutely worthy to be trusted. Abraham believed in God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he became the father of all who will walk in his example of faith8, in a life of complete dependence on God.
Today, there are many who think they are Christians who sadly have not or do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, the one unique and only Promised Messiah (1John5:4) or that He came in human flesh (1John4:2-3) and died for our sins on the cross and was buried, and rose again on the third day (1Cor15:3-4).
Genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour must include 1) a firm conviction producing a full acknowledgement of Him as to His claims and His teachings, 2) a personal surrender to follow Him and obey His commandments and 3) a changed life and conduct inspired by such surrender9. Only then would a man deny himself and take up his cross and follow Jesus. Yes, we must all look back to Calvary’s cross where Jesus in love died for all “my sins” and there realise the viciousness of sin and our own condemned, lost and helpless estate deserving of hell. Then, we would realise that if there were no other sinner in the world, the Lamb of God would still have died for “me”. O what marvellous grace that God my Creator would die for such a worm as I!
What a hatred for sin faith would instil in the heart of a true believer? And what comfort of joy to know that Jesus has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, ever interceding for us! This will spur us on to live an abundant life, filled with fruit, joy and genuine holiness, with our values transformed towards the things of God above.
We know that there may be friends in churches today, who have not heard this message of repentance and faith or have not experienced its reality. May the Lord speak to you and help you. Unless you have truly repented and believed and experienced the new birth, your religious life, no matter how active or demanding, if you would be honest in the sight of God, is really a tiresome losing struggle against sin and dryness of bones. For if you have not truly believed in Jesus and Him alone, how shall rivers of living water flow in your belly?
If God is speaking to you in His mercy, may you not harden your heart? Take a first step in response to Him, for He will draw near to those who draw near to Him. Examine your relationship with Jesus Christ and earnestly pray that God will help you to find genuine repentance and faith. He stands willing to forgive and to change and transform you and bless you with the presence of His Holy Spirit10 to help you live worthily of Him.
1 Matt3:2, 4:17, Mark1:15, Luke13:3-5, 24:47, Act2:38, 3:19, Rom2:4, 2Cor7:10
2 John3:15 – 18, 7:38, 9:35-38, Act16:31, 20:21
3 John3:3, 2Cor5:17
4 John8:34-36, Rom6:18, 22
5 John10:10
6 John7:38
7 Matt7:22-23, John10:27-29, 2Tim2:19
8 Rom4:11-12, 21-22, Gal3:6-7
9 Matt28:20, 16:24-26, Mark8:34-38, John14:21-24, Eph4:22-24, Col3:7-10, 1Jn3:24
10 Act5:32
Abraham was ordinary except for his faith. He was not perfect but it is too easy to over-estimate his weaknesses if we do not consider the context in which he daily faced trials. Abraham was called to be a sojourner in a land, whose wickedness was so great that God had decreed to destroy its inhabitants and to give the land to his descendants half a millennium later when the sins of the Amorites were complete. Moreover, he was told to walk all over the land to claim every part by faith for his descendants. From city to city where they travelled, he requested Sarah to say that she was his sister, lest the people there were godless enough to kill him for her, for she had exceptional beauty. Once, under Pharaoh in Egypt where they sought refuge during a famine, and again under Abimelech in Gerar of the Philistines, this tactic proved a useful preventive. Both Pharaoh and Abimelech in turn took Sarah and when chastised by God, pointed at Abraham in turn who was only being wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.
Abraham’s faith knew no anti-climax or turning back. When very old, after God had blessed him with all things, he forgot not God’s Covenant extending to his Seed and sent his eldest servant to Haran to take a wife for Isaac, seeing that the Canaanites were under God’s judgement. One cannot read this account without being touched by God’s goodness in leading this faithful servant straight to Rebecca and completely answering his prayer outside Nahor’s city, even as he was still praying! Abraham lived to see Jacob born. Isaac and Jacob in their turn took Abraham’s God as their God. Jacob’s descendants sojourned in Egypt until God raised Moses to lead them out, accompanied with mighty acts of wonders, “for God remembered His holy promises and Abraham his servant.” 14 generations from Abraham, God raised up King David, a man after God’s heart! 28 generations later, Jesus Christ was born.
It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondmaid and the other by a free-woman. Human weakness made Abram yield to Sarai’s insistence to have Hagar bear them a child. In their days, powerful men and kings were allowed to have more than one wife, and this was not considered adultery so long as the wives were not another man’s , but it is not so today with progressive revelation of God’s perfect will for one man to have one wife. As a result, Ishmael was born, who became the father of 12 princes and Arab states that till today are still enemies of the descendants of Isaac, the child of promise. After Sarah’s death, Abraham married Keturah, whose descendants and those of his concubines were also sent to the East, adding to the Arab nations. This would be difficult to understand except that God’s promise that Abraham would be the father of many nations was to have physical fulfilment. But as for the multitude of children by the free-woman, we all are who follow in Abraham’s footsteps and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory!
Is Our Faith Right?
Dear friends, are we sojourners in the steps of faith in which Abraham walked, leaving behind Ur’s worldliness, idolatry and ecumenical compromise to be separate and holy unto the Lord? Biblical faith is not visions and positive visualising commonly found in today’s religious circles, that do not result in godly living but only stimulate base senses and serve no spiritual value . Rather faith is simple and sincere and starts with a grateful, seeking heart that will respond in obedience to God’s revealed truth and will. And that is all there is to it, as Abraham’s life and faith shows!
Today the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every believer, for therein the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. If we in faith obey Jesus’ commands, we too shall be accounted His friends. Trials and tribulations that may come shall only serve to perfect our faith for we shall have sanctified the Lord God in our hearts as our blessed hope ! O may we yearn to enter into that experience of fellowship that Abraham found with God!
When Isaac was a lad, God put Abraham’s faith to its severest possible test. He was to journey to the land of Moriah and offer up Isaac, “thine only son, whom thou lovest” as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that God will show him. The Bible kept silent what happened that night, when perhaps the darkness accentuated the twinkle of the stars, reminding Abraham of God’s promise of numberless descendants through Isaac. What secret solace had he when his soul was pierced as when the Lord of Glory cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” But Abraham “rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, took two of his young men and Isaac his son and clave the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went into the place which God had told him”. On the third day, he lifted up his eye and saw the place afar off, and left behind the two servants and proceeded with only Isaac. His faith resolutely marched on, in the victorious blessedness of holding all for the Giver! And throughout the 3 days journey, he must have tasted what it was like for the Father to agonize until Jesus rose from the grave! If he showed nothing to Isaac, inside cried, “Trouble is near; there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.” But heart and mind struggling blended into God’s will – this sacrifice is to bless all mankind!
Isaac asked, “My father: Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. We know that later, when Abraham was about to slay Isaac, God, satisfied with Abraham’s complete devotional obedience, intervened from heaven and provided in Isaac’s place a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Thus Abraham called the place of sacrifice, Jehovah-Jireh (“the Lord will provide” or “in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen”). Are we constantly looking to God as our Provider?
Abraham’s motive in offering Isaac contrasted sharply with that of the pagan Canaanites who offered up their children to idols, or of wicked King Manasseh who made his son pass through fire, bringing down God’s judgement! He did not callously exchange his child’s welfare in superstitious fear and selfish greed without hope, but in faith “accounted that God was able to raise Isaac up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.” And later, as he worshipfully placed the ram on the altar, he foreshadowed the day when his Promised Seed, Jesus Christ, God’s Son would die on the cross for lost humanity. God was well pleased. “The angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore… and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
God’s testing of Abraham was amazingly humbling – to think that Almighty God could in such great condescension allow a man to experience His deepest emotion point at history’s most crucial hour when Jesus Christ was offered in love as our Passover Lamb! And Abraham’s passing the test with his faith soaring to eagle’s height was incredible too! In this, he uniquely entered into and shared God’s heart like no other could. There is no mistaking the common points. Jerusalem, the city of David, outside whose gates Jesus was crucified, was in the land of Moriah. Solomon’s Temple, holiest place of the Jews, where annual blood offerings were made for the nation prefiguring the blood of the Lamb of God, is built on the very Mount Moriah where Isaac was offered! Abraham also shared 3 days of agony during his journey, resolving to sacrifice his only begotten son! And finally, God’s Son dying on Calvary’s cross was his promised Seed, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham! Thus fittingly and comprehensively, Abraham is God’s friend.
In Canaan, God blessed Abram and Lot adding to their servants and flocks until their combined substance became too great for them to dwell together so that they had to separate. Lot chose to journey east towards Sodom, after which God promised Abram and his seed all the land that he could see, north, south, east and westward forever. More years and events passed which included the invasion by King Chedorlamoer of Elam with his allies, of Sodom, Gomorrah and their allies, wherein all including Lot and his possessions were taken as spoils. Abram had then armed his 318 trained servants and with the help of 3 friends, pursued after and defeated 4 powerful kings and brought back all the captives and goods. After this `breathtaking feat, he declined the king of Sodom’s offer to keep the goods. Mechizedek, king of Salem and high priest of God then blessed Abram and received tithes from him. Abram’s extraordinary courage and valour were energised by pure, unfeigned faith for truly he belonged to the Most High God who had delivered his enemies into his hand! In later years, his brave intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah, though insufficient to stay God’s judgement of brimstone and fire called for by heinous sins, won reprieve for Lot and his daughters.
Abram’s wait for his promised son was to be a long one in the patience of faith. To encourage him, God visited in a vision, “Fear not Abram: I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward”. He was getting old but Sarai’s passing years mattered more and each year as she got older, his faith had to increase! Rom4:18-22 describes it thus: “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And not being weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” Abram therefore obtained righteousness through faith before Isaac was born! But Sarai could not wait and brought to Abram her maid, Hagar, resulting in the birth of Ishmael. God blessed this child nevertheless because he was Abram’s child, though not the promised child that was to be through Sarai.
Abram’s faith was not misplaced or self-seeking. He did not insist on his way but was willing to have Eliezer his steward or Ishmael made his heir, if this was God’s will. But 13 seemingly long years after Ishmael’s birth, God finally visited, re-affirmed that Abram would be father of many nations, gave him circumcision as a seal of his righteousness and changed their names to Abraham and Sarah (father and mother of nations). The following year, Sarai at 90 bore a child, called Isaac because she laughed and he brought laughter into their lives, and Abraham saw the first fruit of God’s marvellous promises.
If our faith is weak and needs to be increased, may we learn from Abraham and look to the living and true God alone! He created the universe and is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we dare think or ask! Abraham’s faith was childlike, as from a servant’s heart marked by patience even in unanswered prayer. The secret to more faith then is servant-hood and Abram’s long wait was timed in God’s wisdom to perfect him.
We live in times of faithlessness and contradiction. On one hand, we see religion thriving and growing as never before, and on the other hand, are perplexed by the lack of godliness and the presence of aimlessness, evil, immorality, crime and violence even in the churches. These signs poignantly point to the fact that we are living in the last days of mankind’s sojourn on this earth, very close to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming for Judgement, which the Bible prophesises shall be similar to the days of Noah, and of Sodom and Gomorrah. There will be wars and rumours of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places, increase in knowledge and travel, and men will have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof, so that Jesus said, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” .
For this reason, we ought to look at the life and example of Abraham who stands in history as the man whose faith brought untold blessings to all nations, counted to him for righteousness, and reckoned him the father of all that believe and the friend of God. In doing so, we safeguard ourselves in case our profession turns out false, for it is those who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham that are his true children !
Believer and Sojourner
Terah and his sons, Haran, Nahor and Abram, lived some 4,000 years ago in prosperous but moon-worshipping and idolatrous Ur of Chaldee in the Mesopotamian valley. Terah was a man of faith and very old when God moved on his heart to leave Ur and bring his family into Canaan. He had his first son Haran at 70, and was over 130 and 140 years old respectively when Abram and Sarai were born. Nahor married Milcah, Haran’s daughter while Abram married Sarai, his half-sister.
Abram inherited his father’s faith and gratefully acknowledged the Almighty Creator of the Universe and Giver of all things good. He would have been grieved by the foolish idolatry of those who vainly exchanged God’s incorruptible glory for images of men, birds, four-footed animals and creeping things in the darkness of their imaginations. Haran died before his father, after which, the family departed from Ur, forsaking all its security and comforts. Probably because of Terah’s age, they did not quite reach Canaan but settled more than midway to there in the land of Haran, in northern Mesopotamia.
After Terah died, God called Abram to leave his inheritance at Haran and continue on into Canaan, giving him a 7-fold promise to make of him a great nation, bless him, make his name great, make him a blessing, bless those that bless him and curse those that curse him: and assuredly bless all the families of the earth in him. Abram at 75, departed in obedience, taking Sarai and their possessions and his nephew Lot, Haran’s son, and proceeded with God’s leading into a land previously unknown to them. A sojourner for the rest of his life, he sought only God’s approval and looked not for a city made with hands but for a heavenly.
Abram’s faith was not mere mental credence but obedience from the heart; his faith wrought with his works and by works, was made perfect! And as he obeyed, God blessed with more truths and drew him nearer to Himself, from faith to faith! Physically and emotionally, he was ordinary with fears and weaknesses and his faith cost him! They said a final goodbye to Nahor and Milcah who chose to stay on at Haran. We know that he did not forget his brother and in old age after Sarah’s death, sent by faith for a bride for Isaac from among Nahor’s descendants. And God had promised that everywhere he set foot on shall be his descendants’ (and so it was in the conquest by Joshua 470 years later), thus they journeyed from city to city to claim all Canaan by faith, facing trials and dangers `and famine in the process. But his enduring confidence in God saw them through !
The Perfect KJV (KJV-Onlyism, KJV Onlyism, or KJVO) heresy is an abandonment of the Historic Reformed Faith and the Westminster Confession of Faith and comes in two forms: –
"We, the undersigned Bible-Presbyterian ministers, wholeheartedly believe and affirm that the inspired Word of God has absolutely no error in the Original Autographs. However, we reject the theory of Verbal Plenary Preservation propounded by some, who dogmatically claim that the Greek and Hebrew copies immediately underlying the King James Version are an exact replica of the Original Autographs. The insistent promotion of this theory has resulted in schism among brethren."
This statement has been signed by:
This is promise that Bible has given to everyone. It is only Truth, nothing but Truth will be able to set you free. Jesus said "Seek, thy shalt find it, ask, thy shalt be given." Seek the Truth, while it is purely personal duty, God has provided graciously to everyone who has sincere heart and sound mind. It is our pray that you shalf find truth and truth shalt set you free.
