Genesis 22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” ² He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Abraham called by the Lord to sacrifice his own son Isaac unto the Lord in Genesis 22: If we were to preach it along the redemptive historical approach, we will have to treat Isaac as Christ and Abraham as God? No way!

Now there’s a huge difference between Isaac and Christ being sacrificed.

Isaac had no idea as a young kid what his dad was really trying to do even though when Abraham was trying to kill him, bound him up ,there’s no mention about his struggle in whatever. However in the case of the son of God, Jesus Christ when he was commanded and called by God the Father to be sacrificed on the cross as a substitutional redemption for mankind, he obeyed and he knew exactly what’s he’s going in for.

Even though he struggled greatly in the Garden of Gethsemane including dropping of sweat and blood, it is astounding as a human , Jesus asked God the Father to take away the cup of sufferings but he also asked finally, after much struggle, that the Father’s will be done. And the angels came and strengthened him and he settled on that end and proceeded to be whipped and scorned and pierced, crucified, suffered the most painful death on the cross and most shameful way for the sake of redeeming mankind. He knowingly and willingly to be sacrificed. Whereas Isaac was not willing and he did not know what the heck was going on. That’s a huge difference between the two.

Its Exemplary sermon, not Redemptive Historical

Therefore we cannot force the passage into the redemptive historical approach sermon. The real sermon will be on the obedience and faith of Abraham to the call of God which in a sense is also redemptive historical. That’s an exemplary approach sermon.

Because Hebrews 11 says Abraham believed that God will raise his son even after he has sacrificed him and therefore that empowered him to proceed to obey God in this brutal and unfathomable command of God. In other words God gave the Providence to empower and help Abraham to obey his call by who God is.

The secret of obedience to Christ is to really know who God is and his character of goodness and faithfulness. Amen

Revelation 3:1–2  

“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

The mild & meek and suffering and loving Jesus turned around in his glorious powerful figure with fire flame in his eyes, voice like a thunder speaking to the seven churches via John the apostle.

In Revelations 3,  Jesus criticized and warned the church in Sardis to wake up from spiritual complacency. The church they thought they were alive, but Jesus blatantly told them in the face. They are dead. Therefore, Jesus exhorted them to keep what is right in their lives and repent. And if they don’t repent, Jesus is going to come in an hour, they don’t expect, and they will be taken off the book of life. (Revelation 3:1–3)

The words used by the Lord before his return in this period of time is full of fire and expectations and blunt speaking in the sense of speaking the truth in love. Only people who loves you enough, will tell in your face what’s wrong with you. Pastors or churches trying to accommodate the culture of the world will lose out big time in the end.

A pulpit that doesn’t provide the piercing word of Christ that cleanses our souls, the fire of God to stir us, is the main culprit to spiritual complacency

I just put out a video on the spiritual complacency, and how to resolve that. Spiritual complacency, in my mind, is largely from the lack of expository preaching to the hearts and minds, and the souls of the people.  I believe puppet is the main culprit among other things surrounding which may be challenging, like church polity and constraining circumstances like long commute, etc. But largely a pulpit that doesn’t provide the piercing word of Christ that cleanses our souls, the fire of God to stir us up into actions, is the main culprit to spiritual complacency. A sermon that focuses on largely the horizontal distance of exemplary sermon is the least helpful to the congregation and all the redemptive history sermon preachers would know what I’m talking about. But preaching exemplary sermons, one make reference primarily to the horizontal relationship between one another. Redemptive historical or RH preachers hate the “do’s and don’ts”  sermon because they are so lack of fire because its all man will power. They are devoid of the vertical transcendent power, and the glory of God. This is very much like, a Arminianism kind of self-help, self-determination, self will kinds of prayer kind of  sermons.

They are saved and we are brother sisters in Christ, but it is very hard to do what the Lord asked for example in the book of Revelations, his expectation, his desire for a blameless bride. Spotless, bright, and a beautiful bride for the bride groom, the return of Christ. It is impossible! People get exhausted, and the next thing you know they slipped into spiritual complacency. The worst thing is people in complacency do not know that they are actually in one. It takes a jerking out and it needs a pulpit that preaches the transcendent God to empower, to feed the sheep with real transcendent God kind of sermons, which is really redemptive historical.
Jesus said ” If you don’t repent, I will come back in an hour that you do not expect, like a thief. Jesus called him up, saying you have a reputation of being a life, but you were dead.” Look at the words he said straight in your face he said, “you have a reputation….”, it’s almost being cynical, but that is the reality. The church needs the kind that speaks to the reality of the hearts, and not just to the likes of our minds. V2 Jesus said wake up and strengthen what remains and it’s about to die, for that not find your works complete in the side of my God. Jesus is warning the churches to wake up and strengthen what is remaining and it’s about to die, that is scary. If we don’t realize that complacency is a deadly disease with whatever we still got left, we will eventually die as well and that’s not the way to proceed in our spiritual journey with Christ on this side of the world.

May God bring us fire, will renew war and revival. Amen.

Galatians 4:22–24 (ESV)

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴ Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.

Abraham and Sarah were childless even up to his and her very old age in the 90s. They have been waiting for a long time for a child but to no avail. It is at those crucial time of waiting and waiting in an extended period of time that Abraham and Sarah began to doubt God’s promise. In all natural circumstances their question and doubt is totally legitimate. I think that’s where the challenging point is as Christians as we wait upon God because from the natural circumstances we seem to have exhausted all means of bringing the redemption and correction we so desired. We just don’t know what’s going to happen next? Even though God has promised repeatedly two to three times the Abraham will have a son and he shall be his heir. God actually fulfilled that promise when Sarah was in her 90s and was barren, a truly miraculous act of God.

But Galatians 4 woke me up because one it’s a son by a slave woman and the other one by a free woman. Galatians 4 verse 22 says the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman was born through promise. Verse 24 says this may be interpreted allegorically. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery she is Hagar. The other one is Jerusalem like Isaac are children of promise.

In our exasperation, who could be very well tempted to act like Sarah and Abraham to speed out the process to fulfill the promise of God. But the problem is that will not be the fulfillment of the promise of God, but that would be the work of the flesh. This notion of the work of the flesh is deadly and a true wake up call for us Christians as we seek to do God’s will. Flesh is our default value and action mode unless and until we are sanctified and glorified more and more in our personal relationship with Christ. We have to understand that even if we have rushed like Sarah and Abraham, on the surface it seems that we have solved the problem that we have but in reality, we just messed up the good plan of God for us. And of course by the grace of God, he didn’t let this completely screw up Abraham’s calling, but he continued to honor them and provided miraculously the pregnancy of Sarah to give birth to their promised son Isaac.

 “²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.” (Galatians 4:22–23)

This is exactly what happened and is very significant. Hagar gave birth to her son according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. These are two very important words. The flesh speaks of all human endeavor, human effort, our own planning and agenda, while the promise is the promise given by God to Abraham and to us in his calling. You can see that our flesh works against the promise of God. We must have the promise of God overwhelms and defeats the flesh the human effort which is carnality. Therefore in our waiting to see God’s promise fulfilled in our lives, we have to be patient and be focused on God continually through meditation of the scripture, through prayers, and continually submitting our hearts’ desire unto the Lord. We should mortify our flesh giving the flesh no chance of raising its ugly head. Do you want the promise of God or do you want the works of your flesh?

We could wait upon the Lord and trust in him to break about the calling just like at the right time God cause Sarah to be pregnant. And if God could do that with the 90 years old barren woman to give birth to a son, God could do that with us giving us his promise for his calling upon our lives. I begin to realize that even if we succeeded via flesh, or the human efforts, my own efforts, then I may find life to be really miserable because of the oppositions, politics, and tough times. We could run ahead of God and circumvent the true calling of God which is from him, and that will be exactly what Abraham Sarah did we Hagar their slave woman and the result didn’t look pretty. We should be scared that by further asserting our own effort we could produce a fruit according to the flesh and missing out the true calling of God through God’s promise.

I would just say I surrender all to the Lord O God and trust in Him. Amen.

Churches struggle with Pride Month

In America this is the month what’s called Pride Month, unprecedented around the world, probably the only nation they’re celebrate LBGT officially. President Biden and Administration put out a Pride flag right in front of the White House last week with two American flags on the left and the right, sending a strong message and a stench in the sight of God. Can you even imagine we put out the birth of Christ in the Manger banner on Christmas Day in front of the White House by the President? Apparently inclusivity only applies to the liberals and not the moral values of God in this country. The book of Revelations gives stern warning of such behavior and it’s called the spirit of Jezebel. We praise God that He’s working in the midst of apparent silence, not to be mistaken by the nation that God is not watching and he is irrelevant.

Jezebel’s false teaching on sexual immorality

Revelation 2:20–23 talks extensively about the spirit of Jezebel who led Israel astray into sexual immorality. And Jesus warned that he has given time to her to repent but refused. Now in Rev 2, Jesus is really pointing towards the end time before he returns that the church will go through the same situation and the church will have a Jezebel spirit inside the church. Remember the entire book of revelations is mainly spoken to the seven churches which speaks metaphorically to entire universal church today. It’s not talking to non-believers for non-Christians but it’s speaking to Christians today.

We are not talking about sexual immorality that a man of weakness falls into temptation and slept with another woman outside of marriage as a Christian. We are talking about believers being influenced by false teachings propagated by their pastors/bishops that it is acceptable to embrace certain sexual immorality. You know the biggest challenge today to all the churches is on sexuality gender and homosexuality.

Woman exchanged natural relations for those contrary to nature. Men gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, committing shameless acts with men and receiving them subdue parity for the error (Rom 1: 27). This is talking about woman with woman with passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and that is homosexuality, in the book of Romans 1.

The Bible says neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers no male prostitutes no homosexual offenders nor thieves ,greedy ,drunkards, slanderers, swindlers will enter the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). What this is saying only those who continually persisting in committing this sexual immorality will be rejected from the eternal life in the Kingdom of God. So the Bible is not talking about homosexuality exclusively but in all the other categories mentioned, in a persistent manner. Not saying that they will not be accepted into back into the Kingdom of God if they repent just like any other since sin.

The abundance of scripture is self-explanatory and will not need further Greek or Hebrew analysis or exegesis and we must call it as it is and not to be spinning around to be neutralized.

That is what the spirit of Jezebel was doing to the modern church today because she is teaching and also seducing God’s servants & leaders to practice sexual immorality. Isn’t that’s happening too for example the many churches that have split? Who initiated and instituted and caused this splitting of the churches? It’s not the people, it’s not the congregation, it’s the bishops and archbishops and the leadership and pastors. They are the problem. It’s all those liberal theologians and scholars writing books to bend the scriptures to suit their intention and agenda to nuance to justify same sex marriage and spinning around to neutralize the abomination. This is exactly what Jezebel wife of Ahab did to Israel by misleading and seducing the people of Israel into sexual immorality, bowing down to their sex gods, and even offering child sacrifice.

Hence leadership is everything

That’s why Jesus exhorted Peter upon his resurrection saying:

John 21:15–17  Jesus said he three times, “Feed my sheep”. He knows God’s leadership must protect the flock of God, this is God’s people, not the Bishop’s or archbishop’s people. Jesus will come back and destroy all those false shepherds. Paul also warned that wolfs were sneak into the church after he’s gone, he prepared and equipped the church to the utmost that he could. All of this is happening before our very eyes now in America especially in this hot month of June called pride month.

Acts 20:29–30 ²⁹ I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; ³⁰ and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.

The wolves are from within the church!!

Expose the dark works & false teachings

My conclusion on this short article is that treacherous leadership has been silent on this and they’ll refusal to speak out and make their stands it’s a real concern in the body of Christ.

Ephesians 5:11 ¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Paul exhorted and pleaded clearly with the emphasis church that do not become partners with darkness because we now are children of light. And we need to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. And he said take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them!! Just how in the world are many evangelical church pastors and theologians and bishops and archbishops don’t speak out on this matter is disobeying the Lord as in Ephesians 5: 11. Because they don’t want to offend anybody and stay winsome!