Jesus’ Saving Work In His People Is Tested With Fire!

Phil 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Rev 15:2
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

1Cor 3:13
each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

When you take a look at the above 3 verses carefully, you will notice that these verses come together to describe the identity of Israel as described in Gen 32:27-28. We therefore see that the Church is simply the Israel of the New Covenant and the reason we prevail in our striving against God and men is because of the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ that is taking place in us. So, like a noble metal (gold/silver) is purified in the furnace, the Word of God that germinates a living spirit in the believer who was foreordained to saving faith, gives the believer nobility (Rev 1:6). This living spirit grows in the believer, eventually overpowering the flesh in him/her. This is the process of sanctification, where God puts a series of trials in the believer’s life, which acts like a furnace in his/her life (Psalm 119:71, 75), and unlike the unbeliever who goes from bad to worse after going through a trial. The believer comes out a better person after going through a trail, as these trials appear to burn the dross in him/her in subduing the flesh and empowering the spirit in him/her, which all happens according to the will and for the glory of the Triune God Almighty.

Isaiah 48
9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to destroy you completely.
10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Zechariah 13
And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Have you ever noticed how hard it is in this world for a righteous man of God to make a living? As for the wicked, no matter how easy it is made for them to make a living, those self-righteous fools still cannot make it. For those who can understand spiritual truth, the reason for this is explained in the above two scriptures but the foolish self-serving world we live in however, has discerned that it is better to stay wicked than live by the precepts of God. The Bible however says God is looking for those who will worship him in Spirit and Truth. For instance, as God did with Peter, He did also with Job, in handing him over to Satan to be sifted, that when Satan is through with him, Job/Peter may come forth as gold (Job 23:10) and return to strengthen their brothers/friends (Luke 22:31-32/Job 42:10). In all this sifting, it is our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ who stands with us that we may not perish under the sanctifying hand of God (Isaiah 41:10/Mat 28:20). He was there with Shadrach, Meshack & Abednego helping them prevail in the furnace, which was heated 7 times the usual (Dan 3:25). He was there with Daniel in the den helping him prevail in the midst of hungry lions (Dan 6:22). Also from the two verses mentioned above, we see that God in a manner of speaking, sanctifies the unbeliever too but not as He does so with the elect because the spirit of Christ is not there working in the unbeliever to sustain him/her in the furnace of affliction. So, the progeny of the unbeliever continues, for who knows, may be there is a believer in there somewhere whom Jesus will not lose (John 10:29/Luke 15:4) because He has already paid the price for the Salvation of all God’s elect (Heb 7:27 & 9:12).

John 15
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Heb 10:15
For by a single offering he (Jesus) has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 12
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

Like the first 3 verses mentioned in this post, the above three pieces of scripture shows us how Jesus endures with us & empowers us under the sanctifying hand of God in this world with us. God is sovereign and this unbelieving world is the furnace He uses to sanctify His people. Salvation however, is God saving us from Himself, where God puts us believers in this kiln while His Son sustains in the furnace. The Bible says, we were made in the image of God, which was broken in the fall of Adam. So, we are like broken pieces of pottery fixed with the knowledge of God presented to us scripture (2Tim 3:16-17) and sustained by the spirit of Christ in that furnace, that we may come out of that furnace being conformed to the image/character of the Almighty Son of God (Rom 8:29). So like the Parable of Sower, where the true Christian yields crop thirty, sixty and a hundred fold in Mat 13:23 & like the Parable of Talents in Mat 25:14-30, where the true Christian stewards gains and pays back their Master, 5 & 2 more talents respectively, as over what they had received… similarly, it is with the Christian who comes forth from the furnace as gold or silver for the glory of God. It’s important to note that this is not the work of the individual but these fruits are simply the evidence of saving faith (James 2:17-18) the believer has been granted by saving grace.

What we must ask Jesus in our prayer time: Dear God, Teach Me Your Law!

Psalm 119:108
Accept, Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.

Mat 28
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Many people say they pray and pray but God doesn’t seem to be listening. The real problem is that it is these people who are really not listening. It is these people who don’t trust and believe in God. They have taken neither the interest nor the time to read God’s word from cover-to-cover but they want God to hear them out. They will pay through their nose for an education to secure a comfortable life for themselves but they will want a Bible to be given to them for free, and will only read it only when there is nothing left to occupy their time with. This is the priority people give God and they expect to be heard when they pray to God, when they themselves are the ones who are not listening. The Bible says, God only hears the prayers of the righteous (Prov 15:29/Ps 119:155) because these are the people who have taken the time and effort to know the Lord. These are the ones the God has called out from the world by His Sovereign Might and brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Ezek 36:26-29), which is Salvation in itself. Please note that we are not saved by the works of the law, we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, & conforming to God’s Law (Mat 7:21/Rom 2:13) is simply the fruit/evidence of God’s saving grace (Jam 2:17-18), we have received in Jesus Christ.

John 16
22 So also you have sorrow now, but I (Jesus) will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 1:1-2
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

So, what is knowing God? Well, it starts off by overcoming that hatred for righteousness and the bitterness in truth through repentance unto the Lord Jesus Christ and thereon believing in the Gospel. So, what is the Gospel? Well, it is God revealing himself in the Lord Jesus Christ to mankind, through inspired (God breathed) scripture (Gen 2:7/John 20:22/2Tim 3:16). So knowing God, is essentially God overcoming our enmity towards Him and restoring His purpose in us, which is making us share in His nature, because we were made in the image of God (Gen 1:26). An image that was broken in the fall of Adam but restored by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-10) in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17).

Mat 10:25
It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Rom 8:29
For those whom he (God-the-Father) foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

In 2Pet 3:11-12 we are taught to pray for the hastening of Jesus’ second coming, by living righteously, and Jesus isn’t going to come to a bride (Church) who isn’t ready for her groom (Rev 21:2/Jn 3:3). As much as we look to be equally yoked in marriage (2Cor 6:14), then in the light of Rom 8:29 & 2Pet 3:11-12 we see that God has decreed His called-out-ones (Ecclesia/Church) to conform to Jesus/God’s nature at the earliest. This nature is the very law of God that is written on the believer’s heart (Jer 33:31-34), which makes us a new creation in Christ… the old is gone and the new is here (2Cor 5:17)! So, as believers, we must pray as David did (Ps 119:29), asking God to “Teach Us His Law (Ps 94:12), because God’s Law is God’s very nature which God’s people are sanctified to, each passing day. His law teaches us to put God first and love our neighbour as ourselves (Mat 22:36-40).

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Mat 6 (the blessing of putting God first in our lives)
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Today, what the world suffers from is lack of purpose because they have estranged themselves from God in the fall of Adam, the believer on the other hand by the redeeming power of God, finds purpose in conforming to the image of Christ. God says in 1 Sam 15:22 & 1Cor 13:3 (Rom 13:8-10) that God places obedience even over sacrifice, & God also says in John 4:24 that He is spirit & those who worship Him must do so in spirit & truth, which is precisely what the Law of God is according to Rom 7:14, 8:4 & Psalm 119:142. So, if we understand a Christian’s journey in this world as being sanctified to conform more and more to the nature of God as revealed to us in Jesus Christ, then we must understand that as we are instructed to pray according to the will of God (1John 5:14), we must therefore pray for ourselves in asking God to teach us His Law each day.

Who Is My Brother?

Mat 12:46-50
46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

I have seen people using the term brother, sister, mother, father, uncle and aunt in referring to others with endearment. A believer who grows up in these cultures, also naturally follows these same terms of endearment in referring to others. The problem however is not in the endearment but in expressing love which is devoid of truth because when a person is saved, he is no longer in fallen family of Adam but in saved family of Christ. The Bible says life is in the blood (Lev 17:11) but the Bible also says that the Spirit of Christ is a life-giving spirit (1Cor 15:45), which every true believer shares in. So, just as people can be related by a bloodline which they share in, so too people can also be related by the Spirit of Christ, which they share in.

Gen 17:4-5
“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

Gal 3:16
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

If you were to dwell a little on the above two verses, you will understand why Islam is a liar concerning Ishmael being the promised son of Abraham because Christ who is the seed of Abraham came through the bloodline of Isaac not Ishmael. So, today you have Christians all over the world because they all share in the living Spirit of Christ, who is the seed of Abraham. However, it seems Mohamed did not think his lies through in denying God-the-Holy-Spirit because with Mohamed denying the Triune Godhead, it implies that Muslims all over the world are all of the bloodline of Ishmael.

Psalm 61:5
For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

It is said blood is thicker than water because it is far easier to be thick with someone you are related to that be thick with someone you are not related to by blood. So too, it is the same for those who are share in the Spirit of Christ. It is not that we are not to love those who are not in Christ. People who are not in Christ but within our area of influence, are our neighbours and these we are to love as ourselves (Mat 22:36-40) but what you do for a brother/sister in Christ is akin to doing it for Jesus himself (Mat 25:40). That is how thick we are commanded to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ (1Jn 3:23), because after all the life that is in the Spirit of Christ is greater than the life which is in the blood. I must however repeat saying that this does not mean we are to hate our own family, on the contrary that is for your family to naturally do for seeing the expression of God’s righteousness in your life (Mat 10:36), which they will unrighteously try to suppress unless God grants them repentance (2Cor 7:10). Despite this as a believer, you are not called to hate your neighbour but love them and be concerned about them as you are about yourself (Luke 6:27-33).

Mat 23:9
Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Eph 5
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

James 1:17
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

If there is one peculiar thing about family, it is that they share certain common traits. The world recognizes Pathans for instance are brave, simple and sincere in their dealing with others, as these are the values inculcated in them by their parent in their upbringing. Similarly, there is a certain amount of pride that runs in the family. For example, Pashtuns swear before the world that “Pashto is the language of lions, jackals cannot understand it”. So also, as God has fathered/adopted us in His son Jesus Christ, by the very design of family, there are certain traits, which inherently exists in every believer (Eph 5:8-10 & James 1:17); and as much as a Pashtun will never be proud of calling himself a Pathan, so too a believer can never ascribe to the values he has learned as coming from the world. Rather the Christian is proud that he is taught of God (John 6:45 & Mat 23:9) and takes immense pride (Jer 9:23-24) in knowing Almighty God revealed to him in God’s Son Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 9
23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

Another detrimental aspect that exist in a believer calling a non-Christian a brother or sister is that calling someone brother is synonymous with sharing fellowship but as much as the Bible says light cannot fellowship with darkness (2Cor 6:14), so to a person who delights in sin cannot share and enjoy fellowship with one who delights in exercising the righteousness of God. So, the next time you as a believer wants to call someone who is not a believer with endearment, call them either politely as friend if you don’t their name or call them respectfully by their name but never as brother, sister, uncle, aunt, mother & father, that is unless they are related to you by blood in that way.

Salvation: God’s Will Over Man’s Will!

John 1:12-13
12 But to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

It is said that two wrongs don’t make a right. However, ever so often we come across Arminians who believe it is by our human will that a person believes in Jesus and possesses salvation. So, given the vacillating nature of our human will, the Arminian secures this lie with another lie (confirmed in John 6:39), which is that Salvation is losable because it is after all secured by the vacillating will of man. Now for man to be able to choose God, it must mean that man inherently is not totally depraved and knows what is good when he sees it. So, this is another lie (confirmed in Rom 3:12), which goes into securing man’s ability to choose Salvation. Now if man can choose salvation, it must mean Salvation is an open invite, which is another lie (confirmed in Acts 13:48). Also if Salvation is an open invite, then it means that man wilfully keeps the love of God presented to us in Jesus Christ waiting on him, till he is ready to accept Christ but then this is another lie (confirmed in Eph 2:1 & Mat 13:13) because the Bible says that man is dead in his sins, and concerning the Gospel it is said that man hears but cannot hear, looks but cannot see and listens and does not understand. Such are the five lies of Arminianism, which tries to suppress God’s sovereignty in Salvation. Why is this so? It’s because the Arminians typically cannot trust God with their salvation, and as vacillating as their nature could be, they feel more secure believing the onus of their faith is in their own hand, than in the hands of God.

Mat 15 (the reprobate heart)
11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
…
17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?[d] 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person.

Jer 31:33 (the regenerate heart)
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2Cor 5:17 (the regenerate heart)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

You may ask me, does man have such a thing as free will? Well, the answer is yes obviously but it doesn’t supersede the sovereign will of God in Salvation. In the fall (Gen 3:2-6), man became a law to himself, forsaking the law of God and receiving a righteousness of self. In doing so man was sold into the slavery of sin but in Christ (Mat 11:28-30), man is reconciled back to God, going from being enslaved to sin to being enslaved to the righteousness of God. By his own will a man cannot change his own heart because his heart is the source of his being, from which his will which delights in wickedness springs forth. The free will therefore follows after the heart. So, in the reprobate state when the man’s heart is a stone (Ezek 36:26), his will delights in lawlessness/sin (Mat 15:19) but when he is saved, God gives the person a new heart (Jer 31:33), which matures delighting in God, His will and His righteousness (Ps 37:4). It is for this reason it is said that David was a man after God’s own heart, because he delighted in God’s law (Ps 40:8), which was the very nature and character of God, that was written on David’s heart to follow after.

I need to mention that just because God’s will supersedes man’s will, it does not mean that God makes man sin (James 1:13-15). Man sins by his own free will and God simply lifts his restraining hand and hands man over to his lusts (Ps 81:12/Rom 1:24). It is therefore man’s free will that makes man culpable of his sin, but man being the hypocrite he is from fallen Adam, blames God when he is tempted by his own sinful desires, & when it comes to salvation, he somehow sees his own free will as the instrument by which he chooses God’s salvation, as though his reprobate will ever had the desire for anything that is genuinely good.

Ezek 36
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Ephesians 2
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.

If you care to notice, there is great similarity in the above 2 verses of scripture. We see salvation is by grace through faith, it is 100% the work of God in us (Phil 1:6) and we cannot boast of those things which God has brought about for us to do because those things are the works of God’s Holy Spirit in us. By ourselves, we would have no desire for God and to know him. We would all be just like the world, who couldn’t care less about God and doing the right thing, unless it served their own vested interest. So, don’t say that it was by your will and you chose to believe in God because that would be like a wolf saying he loves to eat grass. From the fall, all of mankind loves sin and hates the truth about God. So, as I have proved to you from the Bible, Salvation is not by the will of man but by the will of God, who gives us a new heart, from which springs a new will/desire that freely enjoys doing the good will of God.

Psalm 3:8
Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!

God & His Law Is Love!

1John 4:8
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

I have come across a lot of these so-called born-again Christians who claim to saved, yet their new found faith seems to have made no change in their lives. They still love their sin, it’s just that now they are happy to know they are going to heaven because of the lip service they have offered God in accepting Jesus into their hearts. Biblically, no one can receive Jesus unless they repent (Mark 1:15) because from the fall every man has received a righteousness of self that is contrary to the righteousness of God (Gen 2:17 & 3:4-7). A fallen man’s heart is an idol factory because his chief end is himself and he has only asked Jesus into heart with the hope of a better life. There is no repentance or conversion of heart in such a man, & the love God represents to such a person is a love which accommodates his sin. It doesn’t strike such a man in the least, the price Jesus paid for sin (Is 53:3-11), because such a man loves his sin more than he loves Jesus Christ.

Rom 6
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? …
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

While the hyper-grace antinomian sees lawlessness as grace, the Bible on the other hand refers to lawlessness as sin (1Jn 3:4). Very often I have read bumper stickers which say “My Life – My Rules”, this is nothing but indicative that people in general, who naturally estranged from God, being in Adam… wise in their own eyes (Gen 3:5-6) and a law to themselves (Is 5:21). The natural man therefore pictures God as a love which is hippie fashioned, where you can live as you please… do drugs, fornicate, steal etc. and God will just keep loving you just like the hands of a clock, which keep turning. Yes, the Bible does say that it was while we were still sinners that Jesus died for our sins (Rom 5:8), and yes, Jesus did come to call sinners, not the self-righteous (Luke 5:32/2Cor 7:10), and yes, saving grace is unmerited favour (Eph 2:8-10), it is not earned; but if you claim to know Jesus and without any obedience to show for it (Jn 14:15), then you are only fooling yourself if you think you are saved because though we are not saved by obedience but by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the obedience that makes the saving grace we have received in Jesus evident in our lives (James 2:18).

Gal 5
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Rom 7:22 to 8:2
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in [p]the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from [r]the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

It is said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and this is true in the case of the hyper-grace antinomian who believes that law has to do only with sinners/punishment, and has nothing to do with those who are under grace. We ought to understand that what attributes are true of God are true of His Moral Law because the Law is the very nature and character of God. So, if we look at the above two passages of scripture, we notice that those who are a law to themselves, living in direct opposition to God and His Law (nature & character), these die by the law (Rom 2:12/Prov 8:36), because if we are to live in this world, we are to live by his terms but for those who are a new creation in Christ, these are by nature the doers of the law (Rom 2:13) because this is their new nature in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). The law is written on their hearts (Jer 31:33), and these believers are truly born-again, the image/nature/character of God that was broken in Adam is restored to them in Christ (Rom 5:17).

1Cor 13
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Now from the above verse we know what Biblically is love. So, let’s go verse by verse to show how this is the very nature of God and His Law. Looking at 1Cor 13:4-5 you will notice it is saying the same thing as Eph 4:32, which teaches us to “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” This is strikingly similar to John 13:34 where Jesus says “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Still, we know from 1 John 2:7-8 that this is not a new commandment but an old one, because it contextually speaks of not breaking Gods commandment as Cain did, as mentioned in 1 John 3:11-12. So, we see that 1 Cor 13:4 is a teaching that is coming straight out of the Law/commandment of God, which is love in itself because God is love and His Law which is His very nature, is also love. Now coming to 1Cor 13:6, we know from Exo 9:27 & Deut 32:4 that God is righteous and truth, just as we know from Ps 19:9 & Ps 119: 142, 151 that the Law of God is righteous and truth. Hence the definition of love which is in 1Cor 13:6 is describing the very nature of God, which is His Law. Coming to 1Cor 13:7, in the light of Job 4:6 we understand that these things talk about waiting on the Lord, and concerning waiting on the Lord, the Bible says in Isaiah 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” Now take a look at Isaiah 42:4, which says “He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.” It’s almost as though Isaiah 42:4 rephrases Isaiah 40:31 but this is because the Law is the very nature of God who is love. Hence the Law is also love. Now, from 1Cor 13:8 we understand that Love is pure, perfect and eternal, which is just as how the Bible describes God in 1Jn 3:3, Deut 32:4 and Gen 21:33 as being pure, perfect and eternal respectively, and this same way, the Bible also describes God’s Law in Ps 19:8, Ps 19:7 & Ps 119:7-8 as being pure perfect and eternal.

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Rom 5:17
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

To conclude, the only love the world knows, is a love for sin viz. idolatry, fornication, avarice, covetousness, drunkenness and substances abuse. It’s no wonder that the Bible says in Jer 17:9 that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The love of God on the other hand is not one of lawlessness, but it is the very nature of God, presented to us in His Law. The fallen man from Adam however, hates discipline (Hebrews 12:8) and therefore fails to see God’s Law as love because it doesn’t serve his own wicked interests. Nevertheless, if you were to look at the Ten Commandments from Exo 20:2-17 in the light of Mat 22:36-40, you will see that these are instructions teaching us how we are to love God first with all our strength and second how we are to love our neighbour as ourselves, but this cannot just happen, because this is not within the nature of the fallen man. This is only possible in Jesus Christ (Jn 1:12-13), who paid the wages of our sin in full (Rom 6:23) while imbuing his nature in us through God-the-Holy Spirit (John 14:26).

The Friend You Have In Jesus!

John 15
13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Today, we have such a thing called #BestFriendsForever and the truth is there is no best friend forever but Jesus, because we human beings while we were still in the loins of Adam, we disobeyed God in the garden of Eden. How? In the same way Levites paid Melchizedek their tithes in the loins of Abraham (Heb 7:9-10). So, coming back, the wages of that sin is death, which the God-the-Son bore in our stead, by taking on human flesh in the womb of a virgin, to become that perfect substitutionary sacrifice and save us from our sins. You know, there is this saying “a friend in need is a friend indeed”. The fall of Adam sold us into the bondage of sin & our very nature turned sinful, to the effect that every child born to this day, is born into sin. Nobody needs to teach a child to be disobedient, they naturally disobedient thanks to the fall of human kind in Adam. It’s almost like we are locked up in this prison called Sin & no one is willing or able to bail us out, but then Jesus comes, and He doesn’t just bail us out, but clears us of every charge by take all those charges upon himself, which were all deserving of death because whom we have sinned against, is a holy God. Take a look at what the prophet Isaiah prophesied about Jesus who was to come…

Isaiah 53
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

The above scripture shows you that there is no true friend like Jesus. To proceed, the Bible says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and men (1Timothy 2:5), interceding for God’s elect (Rom 8:34), before God. Not just that, He has been the very medium through which God-the-Father has revealed Himself to humankind from the very beginning (John 1:18). In the Old Testament, He was known as the Angle-of-the-Lord, where He promised to make Ishmael a great nation (Gen 21:18), & He could only do so, because the Angel-of-the-Lord in the only begotten Son of God, who is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. In the New Testament, we know Him as Jesus, as He took upon Himself human flesh to be that perfect/sinless sacrifice for all sin (Luke 1:35/Mat 1:21). So, it is by faith in Jesus, that we human beings who were spiritually bastardized by Satan unto death in the fall (Rom 5:17), are adopted into the family of God unto eternal life through our Lord/King & Saviour Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13).

1Peter 2
6 For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” 7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,” 8 and,“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

On expounding the above scripture, I would first like to say that though the prophet of Islam’s Allah: Mohammed, who often tries to duplicate Biblical Christianity is claiming to be sent by God. This Mohammed tried to replicate the citation of this corner stone as being the Kaaba, when Biblically this is actually, the Son of God: Jesus Christ (Eph 2:19:20), upon whom the believer builds his life and is not disappointed (Mat 7:24-27). This Rock is not the Apostle Peter either, whom Roman Catholics claim was the first Pope so as to bring the Church under the Pope. The Church is not under the Pope but under Christ, & the scripture (Mat 15:16-18) which Roman Catholicism misinterprets to support its Papacy [since they claim Peter was the 1st Pope], actually refers to the rock like foundation of the apostles have laid (Eph 2:20), in building the Church (body of believers), as established through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Ezek 36
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. 28 You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. 29 Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. 30 I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.

A beautiful aspect about friendship is how you rub off on each other, and how the happiness of the other becomes your own. So, when you are brought to desire what God righteously desires, you are filled with more joy than you could ever hold because which fool can stop God from getting what He wants. In knowing Jesus as a friend, it so happens that we don’t have anything to offer Him but our sin, which He willing took upon Himself at the appointed time (Rom 5:6), and what He offers us instead is a new spirit, a heart of flesh, in exchanged for our hearts of stone, which He bore almost as though we stoned Him with our sin filled stone hearts, by which He suffered death on the cross for our sins. So, while Jesus bore the chastisement for our sins, He offers us a new Spirit, a spirit of righteousness, a spirit of obedience unto God, where we delight in the righteousness of God & His Law, instead of our sin. This is what is theologically referred to as the double atonement, where on one hand Jesus pays the penalty for all our sins, and on the other hand, He shares His own righteous nature with us through God-the-Holy-Spirit. Where can you find such a friend, but in Jesus!

Mat 11
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Mat 6
31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

So, if you are genuinely looking for friends in “high places”, and I mean genuinely looking, then look no further because Jesus is all you need and when you have a friend in Jesus, then you will also find a friend in fellow believers, who although not as perfect as Jesus, delight in the Law of God and fear the Lord (Ps 119:74, 79) unto receiving wisdom and understanding (Ps 111:10) to love the Lord with all their strength and second their neighbour just as they love themselves (Mat 22:36-40).

Happy Friendship Day!

The Christian Triune God!

I have always felt my calling lies in feeding Jesus’ flock (John 21:17). I have no seminary degree but I have studied my Bible from cover-to-cover, studied the Westminster Larger Catechism, read a few Reformed authors, spent a lot time in reformed circles/discussions, & the fear of the Lord governs my life. I love feeding his flock with spiritual meat but once in a while I feel the strong urge to feed malnourished and stunted believers some spiritual milk… this is one of those times where I feel the urge to exposit on God’s Triune identity.

Gen 1:26 (Old Testament)
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Col 1 (New Testament)
13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Rom 8:29 (New Testament)
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

Gen 1:26 sites the creation account of man, stating that God created man in His image, an image which was broken in the fall of Adam because in the fall when Adam ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, in doing so he (Adam) forsook the nature of God and God’s Law to become a law to himself and serve himself chiefly in all things. So today, while God teaches us not to steal, commit adultery, murder, covet, steal and put God before all things even ourselves… what we do is murder and support murder through abortion, so we could continue with our lifestyle of fornication… then we steal through piracy… we are also covetous by nature which is evident through the friendships we maintain because we don’t want to hang out with nobodies, we want to hang out with people who have something we are running after… & we do all this by denying abortion is murder, denying piracy is stealing, denying our self-centered friendships is covetousness… but how is this possible? It is possible through that misplaced knowledge of right and wrong which Adam received to himself in forsaking God’s Law, & so today man is as Satan tempted him to see himself… as a god to himself (Gen 3:5), because it is in being a law to himself that man commits the most heinous of atrocities in serving himself as the chief end of his being. So as God serves Himself through righteousness because the truth is the Triune God Almighty is God, man on the other hand serves himself through deceit and wickedness because there is no truth in the law (knowledge of right & wrong) he lives by, estranged from God in the fall of his great forefather Adam. Another destructive outcome of this law which man received in the fall of Adam is unbelief, since fallen-man doesn’t believe that his best interest lies in putting God first, even before himself that is. Why?… because the Triune God Almighty is God & man is not God.

Rom 5:17
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Mat 28
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

John 14:26 (Jesus is Speaking)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

You might wonder why am taking you through all this to explain God’s Triune identity. Well, the Bible clearly sites the role of Father, Son & Holy Spirit, and a person cannot be saved if he/she denies the Three Persons of the Trinity, who are the One Godhead. The Bible says that in God’s salvation involved sending His Son to take on Human flesh in the womb of virgin Mary because He being God could not be stained by human procreation through which the nature of fallen Adam is passed down to all of Adam’s posterity. So, in this manner Jesus was both fully human and fully God. The Bible says that none but God is perfect in God’s sight, so if you go by the sacrificial requirement, you understand that the animal had to be without blemish (fault), & this was so simply because they were a shadow of Christ who was to come (Heb 10:1)… the lamb of God who was perfect in God’s sight (1Pet 2:22) because Jesus was God Himself, and One with the Father (John 10:30). This spotless lamb of God bore our sin though He was sinless Himself and God the Father crushed Him under the weight of our sins because the wages of sin is eternal death and as much as God is perfect Love, His Justice is perfect as well… His justice demanded the wages of sin be paid but His love provided us His own Son to be that substitutionary atonement for our sins. Yet, I feel what must hurt Jesus most were not the stripes He bores for our sin but the broken communion in those moments in which God-the-Father forsook God-the-Son on the cross as He poured out the full force of His wrath which Jesus endured because it was His Father will (Luke 22:42) to bear His strong right arm Jesus and save His people from their sins (Ps 44:3 & 98:1).

John 10 (Jesus is speaking)
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are One.”

Now look closely at Mat 28:20 & John 14:26… the Holy Spirit is a person, which you can tell because the Holy Spirit is referred to as a He. Also notice that Jesus says in John 14:26 that He is leaving us with the Holy Spirit who will bring to mind everything He has taught us… and then when you look at Mat 28:20 Jesus says He will be with us to the end of the age… by which He (Jesus) is implicitly saying that He and the Holy Spirit are One just like He said that He and the Father are One in John 10:30. Hence proved the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are One Godhead.

Dedicated to my friend Daniel Friedemann, who is struggling with Unitarianism.

The Feminist Gospel – A Load of Humanist Crap

I have been meaning to write on this topic for quite some time now as I have noticed most humanist Churches have a significantly large female attendance as over a male attendance & then when you listen to the preacher preaching, he is doing nothing more that sharing a load of sentimental mush that’s shared by people over the internet. Today, I attended a Good Friday Service at this Anglican Church and I was left distraught at the preacher focusing on the Agony of Mary at the foot of the cross. I mean, just think of it, this fool misses the whole picture of Jesus being scourged and beaten beyond the point of not being recognizable as a human being (Is 52:14), He is dying on the cross, an innocent Man given the death penalty of the most vile criminals in his time and this fool on the pulpit misses all that and focuses on the heart-breaking agony on Mary, and that too on Good Friday where we are to be moaning for Jesus, not Mary. This preacher then goes on to call the Gospel a Feminist Gospel and said he wished a woman, either Mary the mother of Jesus or Mary Magdalene would have written one of the Gospels, fully forgetting that Bible commands women are to shut up in Church (1Cor 14:34), so that they may not try to self-righteously dominate men in the house of God.

Gen 3:16
16 To the woman he said,
“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”

Mat 19 (note that the eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven, are not castrated men but celibate men & women who are not overpowered by sexual lusts)
10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

1Cor 7
8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

In the light of Gen 1:28 & 1Timothy 4:3, 5:14, I would like to state that I am in no way forbidding marriage and I do recognize men and women as having equal dignity before God but differing in the roles lived out for the glory of God, where I have a problem is that in an unbelieving atmosphere where people have no sight of God and find no fulfilment in obeying His commandments. In such an atmosphere, equality is not considered from the sight of God as revealed in the Bible, rather it is seen from the perspective of doing what the other is doing. So it follows that today, humanism/feminism encourages women to wear men’s clothes, do men’s job, play men’s sport, smoke, drink and hustle like a man because human equality supposedly comes from being like a man and doing as men do.

So having stated the above, I would like to come to what this post is about and that is this humanist feminism that is this rotting the Church from within. This world loves to entertain thoughts of a god, who is so full of love that he is ever ready to forgive whenever you feel like coming to him. With this kind of sentimental mush preached in humanist Churches today, it is no wonder that Church pews are filled with twice as many women as there are men because the women of the world love baseless sentimental nonsense. The Bible teaches on the contrary that the Triune God Almighty is a formidable (Heb 10:31), who’s every attribute is perfect. His justice is as perfect as His love and that is why Jesus died that we may have life. It was our sins He bore in all that scourging, beating, humiliation and death on the cross. If you understand this, it should be clear that sin, or shall I say immorality is not something God takes lightly out of love.

If you were to read the account of fall in Genesis 3, you would notice that God first curses Satan, then the woman & then man. The severity was also likewise and the reason I am stating this because I would like expose self-righteous feminism/humanism for what it really is. Now from the fall, be it the fallen angels who followed after Satan, Adam, Eve & their posterity, they are each a law to themselves, for they foolishly forsook God & His Law to be a god to themselves. So, the woman’s curse as sighted in Gen 3:16 mentioned above is that, from the fall she is not God-centred but self-centred & since God has decreed that man is the head of woman (1Cor 11:3), from her guilt she is subconsciously driven to rebel against what God has decreed by trying to dominate the men her life, whether that be her father, her son, her brother, her friend or even her colleague for that matter. The worst case scenario is her husband/boyfriend, he bears the worst of it because here she feels the need to rebel very strongly against submitting to her man (Eph 5:23) and so from self-righteousness she will dominate and belittle him to make herself feel in control. Now, here’s something interesting, though all women do their best to control the men in their lives, the natural response of the unbelieving man is to savagely silence the woman who is trying to dominate him, despite which she will stay but only if she really loves him. This rebellious desire for absolute control over her man which arises from a woman’s self righteous insecurity, causes a lot of infighting among women, like a mother who has held the reigns over her son suddenly has to deal with a daughter-in-law who is even more desperate to dominate her man and so there is a clash between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law concerning who the son/husband should listen to. This is precisely why advises men and women alike not to marry, unless they are burning with passion and this why Jesus also says that who can accept living a celibate life, should accept it. Just in case you’re curious to know how a guy ought to handle things between his mother & wife, the guy calls the shots, he is to honour his mother but makes his own decisions as per what he believes would honour God best, he protects his wife from his family but at the same time he lets his wife know who wears the pants in the house because the man is the head of the house/family.

1Timothy 2:11-15
Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

It’s funny that Churches today believe that humanism/feminism is the right approach to the Gospel and then go about sucking up to patriarchal (male dominated) societies like Muslims and Punjabis. This very much reflects how counterfeit Christians (Ps 49:14-15 & Jn 10:25-27) are not as Sheep unto God & His true Gospel but lions, while being sheep (not Lions) unto Satan’s lies & his tyrants. Like the Serpent who was cursed to slither despite being a vertebrate, is the humanist who appears to have no backbone to live in the truth and believe in a God who is formidable, a God who curses Satan, binds him in chains (Mark 3:27) and makes him do His will in the area of sanctifying His people (1Cor 5:5). Whenever I have been invited to Churches, I have seen people texting, playing with the slippers, looking around when the preacher is preaching and this is understandable when you consider, the preacher almost never admonishes his congregation against the evils, or shall I say the immorality that is so prevalent in society today. You know, when Charles Spurgeon would preach, people in his congregation would actually grind their teeth in anger against what he would preach from the pulpit & Spurgeon to then preach saying you may grind your teeth now at the Gospel but if God has counted among His elect, you will love Him… then there was also Martin Luther, who actually forbade people from participating in the Lord’s Supper, if they were leading an immoral life, this given because at that time the Church was pretty close-knit, just like a family. Today nobody wants to preach out against homosexuality, fornication, piracy (stealing) & abortion because all these things are prevalent in these humanists congregations itself, & so the elders are given not to admonish immorality and lead the people to repentance but only to supposedly keep encouraging them so that they continue to occupy the pews during Sunday service and make the Church seem full, so as to outwardly reflect well on the Church leadership.

Hosea 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

To conclude, I would like to say that though we are not saved by the moral law of God but by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Moral Law gives us that picture of what man or woman should be in the sight of God. As Paul said he would not know covetousness is sinful had the law not forbade it. So, I believe Churches today should use the Moral Law as guideline to admonish the believer that he/she may repent in his heart (without performing any Charismatic backflips over the chair) in feeling no longer ashamed of the Gospel but of his/her wretched state before God and graciously receiving Jesus’ mercy to live righteously for the glory of God.

Wearing the Full Armour of God!

Mat 7
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

John 14:26
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

I am writing this because I thought I should exposit a little on spiritual warfare for the benefit of Christian Living. We must remember that we live in a fallen world that hates truth, and this is evident by the fact that the people of the world don’t mind it so much if you use the foulest language on them but tell them the truth about themselves and they are agitated enough to get rid of you for good. The armour of God is the battle raiment of every Christian in a world where the battle is not just against the reprobate but also against Satanic spiritual forces that has the masses in their sway. The armour of God is therefore a Biblical discipline we are given to have in righteously reclaiming the stewardship of this world from self-serving fools, who use everything that is around them including people to serve their sinful appetites. We were made in the very image of God, meaning we share in His very nature. We are obviously not omnipotent, omniscient & omnipresent but we were made to share in the very nature and character of God but after Adam sinned against God by eating the fruit of knowledge of good and evil despite being warned not to; but in doing so Adam forsook the Law of God to become a Law to himself which he passed to us all through procreation and we have all sinned in Adam because just as the Levites paid Melchizedek their tithes while still in the loins in the Abraham (Heb 7:9-10). So too, all of mankind sinned against God in the loins of Adam during the fall. For those of you who are still on spiritual milk, please note that even though am going to be quoting outside Jesus’s word in the 4 Gospels, this is still very much Jesus speaking because scripture itself says that all scripture is written under the influence of his spirit (2Timothy 3:16-17).

Ephesians 6
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Now Ephesians 6 sites the full armour of God and this is what I will be expositing. It starts with verse 13 & 14 saying that we are to stand our ground and gird our loins with the truth. If you have heard the term, he’s got balls then this is easy to understand because from the testis flows a man’s masculinity, so too when the believer girds his loins with truth, he is able to look another in the eye and speak the truth without even flinching because in learning to be unashamed of the Gospel, which is the truth concerning God, a person also learns to be unashamed of the truth concerning himself. So, while the world emasculates themselves of the truth, the Christian learns to man up and gird his loins with the truth because he draws his strength from the teachings of Christ that is in the Gospel, which is the ultimate truth.

Jeremiah 9
23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

Coming to the breastplate of righteousness, we all know a man will only puff his chest up when he is proud of some thing and so to where the breastplate of righteousness is to wear that pride of knowing God, as mentioned above in Jer 9:23-24, & reformed theology is therefore more like having 6 pack abs where knowing we are heirs in Christ of God who is sovereign, gives us the attitude that says as Paul said in Rom 8:31… If God is for us who can be against us! It is a pride backed by our very heart… not the heart of stone from the fall of Adam but the obedient heart of flesh and enjoys the exercising God’s pleasure (Ezek 36:26-27) because on this new heart God wrote His Law that we may die to being a law to ourselves and live for the Lord (Phil 1:21). This breastplate doesn’t just protect our heart, it reflects that righteous pride we have in God which we puff up as we march against self-serving unrighteous goats and the dark forces that accompany them to their destruction.

Rom 10
14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!”

Coming to Eph 6:15, where the believer is called to wear shoes on his feet alludes to being ready to go out and preaching the Gospel of peace as mentioned Rom 10:14-15. As believers we called to live in peace with everyone if possible (Rom 12:18), after all as adopted sons of God in Jesus we are called to be peace makers (Mat 5:9) but very often you come across people who hate you, simply because the nature of Christ you exhibit convicts these self-righteous fools as sinners, which is unbearable for them as they go about life serving their own selfish interests. Eph 6:15 therefore very much bears reference to the Great Commission mentioned in Mat 28:18-20 where we are called to bear witness for the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of Salvation that is in the Gospel while making disciples at every opportunity that presents itself from God and teaching them His commandments. I am reminded of Deut 29:5 at this time because after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years the footwear of the Israelites did not wear out, which brings Isaiah 40:31 to mind because it was God who sustained them through all the hardships they faced. So also, God will see us through all the hardships which serves to sanctify us instead of wearing us out, in our passionate labour for His Gospel. After all we are His Church, the new Israel who have overcome all by the saving power of Christ, having striven against God & men because after all, salvation is about God saving you from Himself as the wages of sin is death and it was Jesus who graciously substituted us in death by taking the wages of our sin upon Himself.

Psalm 91
2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
My God, in whom I trust!”
…
5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;

1John 5:4
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

Coming to the shield of faith that extinguishes the flaming darts of the evil one as mentioned in Eph 6:16, we understand from Psalm 91:2 that it is our faith in God which is our refuge and fortress. It’s as 2Cor 4:8-10 says, though we are hard pressed on every side, we not crushed; though we are often perplexed, we are not in despair; though we are persecuted, we are not abandoned; because through faith we carry the death Jesus died for our sins, so that His righteousness and life may be revealed in our bodies. This how we walk in faith and not by sight (2Cor 5:7) and not even the gates of hades shall prevail against such faith (Mat 16:18), which is established on the rock that is Jesus Christ (Mat 7:24-25).

Mat 16
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Coming to the helmet of Salvation mentioned in Eph 6:17, we understand that just as a deadly blow to the head can be fatal. So also, spiritually the helmet of salvation says that even if one were to lose his life for standing by the precepts of God, so be it, though he may die in the body, he shall live with God forever and when the new heavens and new earth is created, he will receive a new body, one which is not tainted with sin. The helmet of salvation is beautifully reflected in Ps 84:10 which says that better is one day living in the courts of God than living a thousand in the tents of the wicked… because His court is symbolic of God’s presence in our lives and a particular moral discipline we are to live by in his presence. Remember, in life we have only two choices either we worship God in His righteousness as revealed to us in Christ or we suck up to people in their sin as revealed in our fallen Adamic self-righteousness.

Hebrews 4:
12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

2 Timothy 3
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Come to wielding the World of God that is the Sword of the Spirit, we understand that the knowledge of God’s word is a formidable weapon because as shown to us in Hebrew 4:13, it exposes the wicked intentions of people, as Scripture is the very life breath of that gives life to His elect and condemns the reprobate. To explain this to you in a manner you would understand, I would compare the piercing discernment the believer is blessed with through his knowledge of scripture to the Eye of Sauron in Mordor in the Lord of Rings story from whom little is hidden. It’s like the sea of glass the ungodly masses of this world are compared to in Rev 15:2-4, which is mixed with fire indicating their persecution of believers. The reason these masses are called a sea of glass over whom the elect are victorious is because before the sight of God these self-righteous fools can’t hide anything. Their intentions and their sin is all laid bare before God. This power is given us in the knowledge of scripture where the believer can slice through the deceit unbelievers operate under and exposes the spiritually rotting corpses they really are deep down in their hearts and minds.

1Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

To conclude, just like martial arts encourage a combination of different blows, kicks, headbutts and throws, so as a believer matures in the Lord, he is to master the use of his heavenly armour in his life as mentioned in above in 1Timothy 6:12.

The Deception of Loving Yourself & Believing in Yourself!

Gen 3 (The Biblical account of the fall of man)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4 The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

The reason I have sited the Biblical account of the fall of man above is because I want to show you that in the fall, man became a law to himself, he became a god to himself, from the fall the chief end of man is to serve himself and he does so through the most devious means because from the fall there is no truth in him and so man can only pursue his own selfish interests through the most devious means. Unlike the Triune God Almighty, who radiates righteousness in pursuing His interest, man does not radiate righteousness but exudes wickedness in the chasing after his own interest because the truth is man is not God… the Triune God Almighty alone is God. Men & angels were created to serve God and it so happens that it is in our best interest to put God before ourselves (Mat 6:33).

John 12
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. 26 If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honour him.

Psalm 37:4
4 Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

The problem with loving and believing in yourself is that people of the world don’t understand that this is not the solution but root of the problem. We were made in the image of God, as human beings we were made to carry His own image/nature as if it were our own. This gracious privilege has only been given to mankind, even God’s holy angels were not blessed with this purpose. In this unbelieving world, it so happens that people are spurred into this believing & loving yourself nonsense when they are spurned by their peers. So, these people are then moved to prove themselves and the means of doing that is by believing in themselves and loving themselves but even if one should succeed in the material world while remaining spiritually empty, what use is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul (Mark 8:36)? That spiritual fulfillment can only be found in relationship with God, which is only possible through Jesus Christ. To console a person by urging him or her to believe and love himself will only light up his/her eyes for moment just as it did for Eve who was deceived by Satan into believing that she was the chief end of her own being (Gen 3:6) and we know how that went for her because we are still bearing the consequences of the fall of Adam.

Jeremiah 9 (Stressing on put God first)
23 Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

Luke 17 (Stressing on the fact that God is our King)
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

From the fall, man has this perspective of God that he will only believe in God if God will prove himself to him through some miracles & the reason man feels this way is because from the fall man foolishly believes he is a god to himself and even Almighty God must serve his interests, for a man to believe in God Almighty. When the people of the world are rejected by their peers, they do not turn to God instead they turn to people who are blind guides just like themselves, who fill them in how special they are, make them feel proud of themselves and in doing so teach them to love and believe in themselves. However, if you were to read Jeremiah 9:23-24 you would understand that for a man to boast in his wealth or strength or intelligence is shallow and cheap but for a man to boast that He knows God revealed to him in Christ, is to truly lead a rich and fulfilling life. From the fall of Adam, we are by nature sinners, we naturally hate God because we naturally love sin, that’s how corrupt we are. What we need to focus on is how great, loving and merciful God is, that for a bunch of worthless wretches who hate Him, He offered up His only Son, that by His blood we would have atonement for our sins. He certainly did not do this because we are special but because He is a great, merciful and loving who ransomed a people for Himself from the damned family of Adam, saving us from our sin. Take a look at Luke 17 mentioned above, this does not fit the world’s perspective of God in anyway because it shows we were made to serve God and not the other way around. To give you a gist of what your conduct should be before God, I would like you to consider yourself as citizen of a country that is ruled by a monarchy, the respect, awe and fear you would have for your king in that land is the honour, respect and fear we are to have of God & it is in our own best interest to put His interest before our own.

Mark 10
29 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, 30 but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

Mat 13
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The Bible teaches us that there are two great commandments in Mat 22:36-40, the first is to love God with all the strength our being can muster and the second is to love our neighbour as ourselves. However, for the person who learns to love and believe in himself, he loves his neighbour only in a manner where it will serve himself in return and so this person loves out of covetousness, honouring and pleasing only those who are in a position to serve his purpose because the man of the world from the fall, is a god to himself and in learning to love and believe in himself he excuses every sin, simply because that is the only way he can continue serving his own interest. The Man of God on the other hand is commanded to love his neighbour as himself, even if that neighbour is in no position to return the favour & so the man of God is called to help the destitute because of Jesus, whom the Man of God puts before himself, commands him to do so (Luke 14:13). A look at Mark 10:29 mentioned above shows you the extent to which we are to put Jesus first, that even if following after Jesus with the regenerated heart we are blessed with to keep His law, makes us fall out of our peers with whom we previously shared the likeminded pleasure for sin or if our family abandons us, so be it, because Jesus comes before ourselves. This is emphasised beautifully in the parable of the precious pearl mentioned above in Mat 13:45.

Acts 16
29 And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Isaiah 28:16
16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
will never be stricken with panic.

Acts 4:11
11 Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.

If you are familiar with masonry, you will know that the cornerstone is what determines the entire architectural structure of a building because the entire structure is built in reference to it. Now the Bible says Jesus is the cornerstone of our lives and we to build our lives in reference to what is taught to us in scripture. Jesus is that precious cornerstone which was tested through the suffering that bore the chastisement for our sins. On this Jesus, those who rest their faith in Him are saved, as God blesses them with a new heart, on which is written His law that the believer may live a life of natural obedience in building his/her life in reference with God’s word given to us in the Bible. Like in James 4:13-15 it teaches us that if we are to undertake a certain task, we are to speak of it as if “the Lord so wills”, or if we are employed somewhere we are to work sincerely as though working for the Lord, that’s in Col 3:23. We also have to take care of our bodies because the Holy Spirit of Christ dwells in our bodies working His Salvation in our lives (Eph 2:8-10). We are taught not to look lustfully at women, so that we do not commit adultery in our hearts. We are also taught to honour the Redemption Sabbath and keep it holy & so we have a moral code that teaches us to put God first and love our neighbour as ourselves while the State is given the judicial law that those who transgress the Moral Law by committing murder, stealing or fornication are convicted in an attempt to hedge the Moral Law.

Luke 6
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

I would like to leave you with some advice for those times you feel dejected and rejected by the world. The solution is not loving and believing in yourself but instead loving and believing in the Triune God Almighty because as much as reading the manufacturer’s manual helps you understand your appliances, so too reading and mulling over what is written in the Bible will teach you more about yourself than you every knew or cared to realize. However, loving and believing in the Lord is something that is going to take you a long time because you need to acquaint yourself with scripture from cover to cover and understand that character and nature of God which will slowly rub off on you in time because the very work of Salvation is to restore that image/character of God that was broken for us all in the fall of Adam.