Date archive for April, 2008
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Sermons – 2008 Week 17 – Apr Wk 4
The Power of a Surrendered Life Part 1
Life in Egypt, The Passover and The Red Sea are used to illustrate the Victorious life that we have in Christ.
A life of “unrest” dishonours God. He wants us to have this victorious life but we will not have it unless we live a surrendered life. We have not claimed the promises of God if we do not first surrender ourselves. The Head received in trust for the Body. I may claim all that the Head received, Christ being the Head.
A life without power is contrary to His plans for us. Ph 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
I. Life in Egypt
Egypt epitomizes the perfect type of the world of sin in which God found us. Ephesians 2:12, “that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Egypt was a place of bondage to the Israelites. When Israel dwelt in Egypt, they were unable to worship God. There is no deliverance from the sin if we remain in Egypt.
Romans 6:12-14,” Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
II. The Passover
Exodus 12:21-22,”Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.”
It is not enough that the Passover lamb had been slained. We must apply the His blood on the lintel, that is, to our own souls. The Passover lamb is Christ, and the act of applying the blood to the lintel with the hyssop is “faith”. It is not the appreciation of the blood of Christ that saves us but our faith. Many stop at believing, many remain in Egypt. But in these situations there is no power in our lives.
III. The Red Sea
The Red Sea experience is equal to the death of Christ, atonement ad redemption delivers us from the control or dominion of sin. Many people stop here and have no peace in their lives.
The death of Christ delivers us from the control or dominion of sin. In Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” While Christ may have delivered us from the control or dominion of sin we must have Christ live in us as stated in Galatians 2:20. Otherwise we will be as if we were remaining in “Egypt”, living in sin. We must get out of Egypt. If we remain, we will have no power in our lives. We remain in bondage
At the Red Sea, the Egyptian pursuers were slained. Yet Egypt as a nation still remains. The world of sin remains tempting us. Although we are tempted we may yet not sin. Put Christ and His death between us and sin and we will gain victory.
In summary, the three events, Life in Egypt, the Passover and the Red Sea symbolizes our life in Christ. Our life of sin is “Life in Egypt”. Our faith in Christ and salvation is “The Passover” and finally our separation from sin is “The Red Sea” event.
1Corinthians 10:11,” Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
Mr and Mrs ET Chua
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Sermons – 2008 Week 16 – Apr Wk 3
More Like the Lord Jesus Christ
Pleasing God Part 31 Peter 1:15-16
“but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Colossians 1:10, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” We must walk to please God.
What is this “walk”?
In Deuteronomy 8:6, keeping God’s commandments and to walk in His ways and to fear Him is what is required. Without the Word, none of us can know how to walk. And if God is holy as stated in our key verses today in 1Peter 1:15-16, then we would have to walk in holiness.
1Peter 2:9 tells us that we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation, called out of darkness into His marvelous light. We are the chosen generation when we accept Christ as our Lord and saviour. We are the royal priesthood basking in His marvelous light. If so, we should be holy in every aspect of our lives. 1Th 4:3 tells us that it is the will of God that He wants sanctification for us, He wants us to be holy. Holiness is a way of life, affecting every thing we do, and not compartmentalized into only the religious part of our lives. It is not conformity to a set of rules. Holiness is to choose to march to the beat of a different drummer – God.
In objective holiness, we have Christ which is equal to our positional sanctification. In subjective holiness, we grow to be more like Him, which is progressive sanctification. In our union with Christ, God sees His holiness as our holiness.
What are some of the practical aspects of sanctification?
Let us look at marriage and the Word of God. In Ephesians 5:25, husbands are exhorted to love their wives as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her. Similarly, wives are to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. These are not empty words but the word of God that we keep dear to our hearts and manifest them.
Children often run the homes today because parents are too afraid to discipline in love, but give in to their every want. Children are to obey their parents in the Lord. In work, we are to be good employers, as well as good employees, all under the guiding principle of the presence of the Lord.
Our money is yet another area of the practical aspect of our sanctification. We learn to give right, from the beginning, setting aside a certain portion and not waiting for more to come, because when we earn more, it will very soon become apparent that we do not seem to have enough.
Strange with money, isn’t it?
It keeps getting less when we have more, our expenses goes up with our incomes.
In 1Th 4:3 we are told, “that you should abstain from sexual immorality.” Sexual immorality is deviation outside of marriage. Sexual sin does not come out of the blues. A mind susceptible to sin is cultivated. Temptation may come suddenly, but the mind of sin has already been molded through time. Guard against temptation by cultivating a pure mind (Proverbs 4:23).
How do we do all these?
Be Spirit-filled. 1Ti 4:7 tells us to discipline or exercise ourselves towards godliness. We do not drift towards godliness or holiness, we drift into sin. Discipline is the key to progressive sanctification. Discipline is doing what we don’t want to do, to accomplish what we always wanted.
Do we not always want to be holy?
Mr and Mrs ET Chua
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Sermons – 2008 Week 15 – Apr Wk 2
Pleasing God Part II
Proverbs 15:8
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD,
But the prayer of the upright is His delight.Colossians 1:10, “that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”
2Cor 5:9 “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”
How we view God determines how we please God.
We know God is self sufficient. He has no deficiencies and He has no needs.
So, if God is self sufficient even in His love in the Trinity, what can we give Him to please Him?
The answer must be nothing because He does not need anything. But one thing He wants from us is that we go to Him not to give but to get – we have need of Him in every area of our lives.
Psalm 147:10-11, “He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.The above verses from Psalm 147 tell us clearly that it is not our strength that he delights in. In short, He does not delight in what we can achieve but, instead, takes pleasure when we depend upon Him, when we revere Him and when we hope in His mercy.
There is no such thing as secular and sacred. Every job we do is important. Every bush is a burning bush and every ground is holy ground. We all come before God equal. (Before God, we are no king, before God, we are all paupers depending upon Him for our lives.)
“Religion lives off the excess of culture” (Peter Drucker). It means we often indulge in religion like a hobby, something only in our spare time! Not so Christianity.
You live Christianity! What does that mean?
God is pleased when we live in obedience to His Word. Obedience is better than sacrifice. He delights in obedience more than in ceremonies and sacrifices. Disobedience equals idolatry. The idol is our own self.
When we disobey God, we must obey someone else and that is self! So we have substituted self for God! Isn’t this true?
Why do people often see the Christian God as a sort of damper in their lives, no enjoyment, no fun with all the rules and, worse still, with omniscient eyes watching everything?
When parents fuss over the child and all the seeming restrictions that they impose, it is always because of love and because they do not want the child hurt. Similarly, God imposes restrictions because we know all too well that, unrestricted, we are going to hurt ourselves. All these supposedly pleasurable things end up hurting us: drinking, illicit sex, gambling.
Is there such a thing as a too restrictive God?
Proverbs 15:8, the Scripture text today, sums up what God’s delight is – the prayer of the upright man. Prayer shows the richness of our poverty. God is magnified and the wants of our soul are satisfied.
What is upright?
It means to be straight or even. It does not mean perfect.
Psalm 51:17 tells us that we should come to God broken. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.” We should come to God in humility and tremble in His presence. In prayer, we must trust in the willingness and power of God to show mercy.
The relationship with God is maintained through prayer. Prayer teaches us to depend on God. There is nothing too trivial to ask of God for we depend upon Him for everything.
The importance of prayer should not be underestimated. It overcomes obstacles. In 2Th 3:1-2, Paul asks that they prayed for him, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it was with them. The triumph of the Word will not come without prayer. The preaching of His Word hangs on the prayers of the saints.
Mr and Mrs ET Chua
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Sermons – 2008 Week 14 – Apr Wk 1
More Like the Master – Pleasing God (Part 1)
John 8:29
What does God expect from us? Does God expect anything?
God certainly expects something from us. We were created in His image to glorify Him, yet most Christians live as though God does not expect anything.
John 8:29, Jesus says “I always do those things that please Him.”
What about us, should we not be more like the Master?
One example in the Scriptures is David. In 1Samuel 13:14, “The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart.”
What does this mean?
It was the examples by which David sought God’s heart and will. He did not do anything on his own accord without the overarching presence of God and his obedience to God.
Have we done this? Have we pleased God by our obedience?
In 1Samuel 17, David defeated Goliath by faith alone and the Word of God.
Surely we can do this? The question one should ask of ourselves is how strong is our desire to please God? Is our life structured in such a way that we please God in all we do?
If your answer to the above is a resounding “yes”, then you would want to know how to do it.
We start with the prerequisite. As believers, we stand righteous before God. Our debts have been paid in full. We cannot go into debt again. We often do fail or fall short of His glory but we will never suffer His wrath. We also know that in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” This tells us plainly that we have been saved by God’s grace through faith. It emphasizes that works is not going to save us unlike the belief in many other religions. We do not perform services for God because we want to score points. We perform services for God because we love Him and we are obedient to Him.
What does God want in order that we may please Him?
He wants faith in Him. Hebrews 11:6 gives us the answers, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Well, do we trust God as our very, very first yet continuing step?
It is not just that first step, it is the trust we manifest throughout our lives. It is the hardest thing to do because “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Yes, it is not seen, not experienced by our physical senses. When we fail to trust, God we question His sovereignty and we doubt His goodness.
In Psalms 78:19-22, God’s anger was finally manifested because, in times of adversity, the people failed to trust God and began to doubt His sovereignty.
Do we fail to trust God in times of adversity when we start to gripe and complain?
Another area where we often do not please Him is in the area of worship.
What is worship?
We know it primarily as formal or ceremonious rendering of reverent honor and homage paid to God. However, it is not only the Sunday worship that is in view here. True worship comes from the heart, if it is only a ritual, it will not please God. Worship is honour and adoration directed at God, the idea of giving of ourselves, our attitude and our possessions. Worship can be expressed by sharing love with fellow believers. Sharing the Gospel with unbelievers is also worship. Giving is also worship. It incorporates the attitude to honour and adore God.
True worship must come from the heart.
Do you truly worship God?
Mr and Mrs ET Chua
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