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STAND & COMFORT Newsletter January 10, 2002 #1 A QUICK NOTE ABOUT PURPOSE Emails concerning the newsletters have continued to be positive and encouraging. More and more, I've come to see this newsletter as encouragement in the simple things of God within a time of apostasy, confusion and great change. It was bothering me greatly in the last year when I'd hear people say, "Where is the gospel?" and I've come to see the need to constantly uphold the simplicities of Christ and His message. The truths of the gospel, who our God is and who we are in Him are our basic discernment for these times, along with seeking a a more mature knowledge of the Scriptures. Hopefully, these newsletters present a gentle, loving mix of the basic truths of our faith and the truth about the spiritual eruptions and great church controveries of the times which numb the mind to the simple truths of God. Scripture in itself is a still a two-edged sword so I trust it to do its work. Scripture says, 2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve No other "Jesus, message or spirit" teaches the simplicity that is in Christ: Without Calvary, the blood of Jesus Christ would never have been shed. Without the resurrection, our High Priest could not have entered the Holy of Holies by His shed blood on our behalf. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit couldn't have been sent through our Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator, to convict the sinner and indwell the believer. This is the simple message concerning God's Son come in the flesh, a message we are called to contend for at every opportunity. #2 WILL THE CHRISTIAN BE THE ONLY ONE REJOICING ON THAT DAY? How often do we think, "I wish Jesus would come back. Things are such a mess and they persist and grow worse little by little, day by day. Oh, that day will be a glorious day when we see Him face to face." Weariness in the body of Christ causes these thoughts to rise in our hearts because everything is being shaken. These times have brought major changes in religious circles, fed by apostasy and the emerging efforts of other religions to find common ground. So the heart of the Christian, recognizing changes that will eventually lead to the birth pangs of Matthew 24, turns to the coming of the Lord. Peter described this anticipation in his first epistle: 1 Pet 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: We haven't seen Jesus yet, but we love Him. The Christian only "sees" Him by faith: Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Our faith is a conviction that comes from having heard God's word about Christ and knowing that word is true without seeing the visible realities of it in the present. We have believed God's word, and the Holy Spirit has witnessed to the truth of it, and that gives us our foundation in Christ: SALVATION IS A PRESENT REALITY WITH A FUTURE HOPE THAT POINTS TO A COMPLETION OF THAT SALVATION WHEN HE RETURNS. Our faith and hope, then, rest in God: 1 Pet 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Our faith is that Christ, God become flesh, did come 2,000 years ago, that He did die as the acceptable sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world. We don't have to hope that God will establish the reality of salvation. Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ has risen. The Holy Spirit has been sent into the hearts of believers. But our faith has within it a hope for something God has planned for the future. We walk in this world by faith in the Son of God, and when trials come and temptations come, when we wonder, "Will it ever end?," a sure hope rises out of our faith: Christ will come again. Things will have an end. All will be restored by Him alone during His visible reign on earth. The foundation of salvation laid 2,000 years ago was only a part of the complete work of God to totally save man. As awesome as Calvary is, if Christ had just died for our sins, there would be no way for man to take part in God's free gift of salvation. And without the resurrection, there would be no witness to the fact that Jesus is indeed God's sinless Son, that sins indeed had been atoned for, and that all men can return to the Father through faith. But there must also be more than Jesus' resurrection for God to continue His work of reaching man to save him. I'm not implying that these works of God are insufficient or lack anything regarding His establishing salvation. But they are not the whole of God's plan. They are perfect parts of a complete plan that God Himself will bring to completion. Calvary and the resurrection were perfect works that established salvation, but God must also provide a way for man to personally partake of this wonderful free gift. Without the sending of the Holy Spirit, man would be unable to participate in the salvation God has provided. There would be no way for God to convict man of sin regarding Christ, bring him to repentance and indwell him. Without the Holy Spirit, no fellowship could be established with God in order for that established salvation to be worked out in the believer. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was also a necessary part of God's working out His established salvation in all who believe. In all of God's complete plan, the resurrection is the pivotal point: 1 Cor 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. But our faith in the resurrection also points to our future hope, at which time we will receive the full inheritance of our salvation: Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Peter called this event the saint's "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time": 1 Pet 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Salvation has been fully accomplished, but it is not yet fully manifested. It will be, when Christ returns. What delays this manifestation is the forebearance of God towards sinful men that they repent before He returns. Peter goes on to say how the Christian, though, rejoices to see that day: 1 Pet 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That day will be a day of great rejoicing for all who have believed. But do we realize that GOD WILL BE REJOICING ON THAT DAY AS WELL. In Zephaniah, we see first that God's people will rejoice in that day: Zep 3:14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. And then Zephaniah continues his prophecy: Zep 3:16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack. God is going to rejoice over His people - in their midst - with joy - with singing. This rejoicing of God over those who are His at the end will be the fruit of Christ crucified and risen, and He will be satisfied: Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Isaiah writes, ". . . it pleased the Lord to bruise him." David describes another aspect of the pleasure of the Lord: Psa 149:4 For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Even now, the pleasure of the Lord is prospering in His hands. In spite of a world that has no use for Christ, in spite of apostasy, in spite of sin and death, God moves at a steady pace through time and history towards a specific, definite end with all centering on His Son. Isaiah describes the Messiah and says that the Lord was pleased to crush Him and make Him an offering for sin, but that the one crushed would see His offspring (Is 53:11). Know that God will rejoice over you on the day Christ returns, that He will joy over you with singing because it was His good pleasure to save you and glorify you and make you His through His Son. We will see Him face to face, and we will not only see His glorious face, but we will see His own satisfaction shining forth from it. Scripture indicates that Jesus had joy because He would accomplish the purposes of the Father and then return to Him, and it pleased Him to bring many sons to glory: Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; WHO FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM ENDURED THE CROSS, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus endured the sufferings of the cross because of "the joy that was set before him." The Christian today rejoices even though he is "in heaviness through manifold temptations" (1 Peter 1:6). In all of these verses, we see the end of the age when our God and all His people will rejoice together, as the manifestation of our salvation is brought to completion. Now there is heaviness and sorrow, but there is also a joy within the Christian because of the hope inherent in his faith: Rom 5:2 By whom also we have ACCESS BY FAITH into this grace wherein we stand [the established salvation], and REJOICE IN HOPE of the glory of God [the future manifestation of a full salvation]. Paul said we are even now to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God at Christ's return. That is well enough, but then he says we are to "glory in tribulations also." "Glory" here means, 2744. kauchaomai, kow-khah'-om-ahee; from some (obsol.) base akin to that of aucheo (to boast) and G2172; to vaunt (in a good or a bad sense):--(make) boast, glory, joy, rejoice. The boast here is in the Lord, not in the heaviness of the tribulation and our efforts to endure. One example is given in Timothy: 2 Tim 4:17 Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. It is one thing to mumble our way through trials. It is quite another to go through them in silence. It is still yet another to patiently go through them rejoicing: tribulation works patience. Do, or will we, patiently endure tribulations while rejoicing in God and His keeping power? I believe this was the faith-filled attitude of the apostles in the early church. They knew that tribulations were opportunities to walk in the reality of Christ formed in them. They understood their lack and God's sufficiency, and, therefore, that they were His. Therefore, they patiently endured through all that came their way. When trials came, they knew these things weren't forever, that there was an end to them. Within the trials, they realized that their weakness was only an opportunity for His stength to carry them through: 2 Cor 6:4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, 2 Cor 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Just as tribulation works patience, Romans 5:3 tells us that patience leads to experience. Various commentaries and dictionaries define "experience" as the proving of a person within a trial, or the approval of that person after the trial. The sense then, is the proving of our faith through patience within the trial with a view towards approval by the Lord after the trial. This approval is benefical to the Christian after tribulations because it firms him up in the fact that he is indeed saved by grace, he is the Lord's, and it was the strengthening of the Lord and nothing of himself that brought him through. With these assurances and growth that the trials bring, hope is built up that one can indeed persevere through them and share one day in the glory of God. The Lord wants us to rejoice in the midst of our little trials and tribulations now in order to build our faith that He will be faithful to us in the midst of bigger ones tomorrow, because we are His own. Thus He will have a Church that can rejoice in hope through the Great Tribulation period, passing through it in patient endurance. He will have a Church that will be glorified at the time of His appearing. He will have a Church that rejoices in Him no matter what comes and will eventually rise to His visible presence as He joys over them with singing. The Church in America does not know tribulation. We feel the threat of it coming, but we don't know what real tribulation is. We read about persecution and underground churches and the jailing of Christians in other countries for sharing the good news, and we're appalled and shocked and saddened, but we don't really know what that is. To hear and ponder these things is one thing, but to experience them is quite another. It's the experience of something that brings out its true meaning and emotion. What comes to mind is this analogy. I eat red peppers once in a while and they have a tinge of being hot. I could say I have experienced the burning taste of peppers. But I was once given a small green pepper about an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide. It was just a little thing, but when I bit into it, my entire mouth and throat and face filled with burning, stinging pain and I gagged and had trouble getting my breath. It was unbelievable. My thoughts were this: I never realized what was meant by a hot pepper. I was told one man died from tasting one. There was no comparison between what I thought was a hot pepper and what one really was like. The analogy may be weak, but it makes a point. We haven't experienced unrelenting persecution in this country. We talk about it as though we know, but we don't. That we've had freedom in America is a marvellous thing considering today's world. Exactly how long that will last is uncertain, but such blessings will not last forever. Scripture indicates that. But now is the time to prepare for persecution by the daily trials of life, small and big. Personal trials are innumerable and any number of examples could be given, but they are all situations in our daily lives when we may be tempted to grow impatient and doubt the Lord's care and provision. It is in walking through these things that we learn that God in us will make a way. Real persecutions are described in Scripture as arising when there must be a defense of the faith. These are the attacks and persecutions against Christianity that the Bible speaks of. The personal trials I mentioned are certainly opportunities to strengthen our faith in the Lord for those times when real persecution comes upon Christians in America. When it will come and how it will come is somewhat uncertain, but this we know: after it is all over - whatever "all" entails - God and saint will rejoice together, as the Lord carries on with His good pleasure into His millennial reign. ============== This newsletter will be sent out whenever I think there is something the body of Christ needs to consider, to build it up, to give it encouragement or comfort in hard times. To sign up for this newsletter, email Ed at ejt@ncinter.net ============== This newsletter will be sent out whenever I think there is something the body of Christ needs to consider, to build it up, to give it encouragement or comfort in hard times. To sign up for this newsletter, email Ed at ejt@ncinter.net |