TREASURY OF SERMONS
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Without Recognising Jesus to be the Risen Saviour,
the Jews are Blind Guides of the Blind
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30am Service, Mar 2 2003)
Text: Matt 16:1-12
When the Pharisees and Sadducees would see some
supernatural manifestations from our Lord, He referred to their
ability to interpret the signs from the skies. When the sky is red
in the evening you know how to say it will be good weather the next
day. And if it be red and cloudy in the morning bad weather will
come in the evening.
Then Jesus condemned both Pharisees and
Sadducees, the high churchmen and theologians of His day, blind
guides of the blind. If they wanted a sign it would be none other
than the sign of Jonah who came alive out of the great fish after
three days and three nights. But did the Jews believe Jonah? By no
means.
There was a Methodist bishop in my school days
who preached in Kuching. It was reported how he had stated, "If you
believe that the whale swallowed Jonah you can also believe Jonah
swallowed the whale." He was a liberal and a modernist, neither did
he believe the Resurrection of our Lord. To prove my point let me
tell you the story of Dr Van Dusen, professor of theology of a
modernist seminary in New York. When he was over 80 years old he
took sleeping pills with his wife one night and both died the next
morning for having committed suicide. If they believed in the
Resurrection of our Lord they would not have taken such a sorry
step.
Neither did all of Paul’s disciples believe the
Resurrection. Paul told Timothy to beware of Hymenaeus and Philetus
who denied the resurrection and overthrew the faith of some. In I
Cor 15 Paul rebuked again those who denied the resurrection. Then
our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins. It is possible there are
Lifers who think there is no more resurrection. So we will perish in
our sins.
If you read Acts of the Apostles you will see
how the apostles converted 3000 and 5000 a day by the power of the
Risen Saviour, and how multitudes were healed of their body and
soul’s diseases. All events that transpired were seen in the light
of the Risen Saviour, and in the proper perspective. But the
Pharisees and Sadducees, being unbelievers, could neither believe
the man born blind had received his sight by washing at the Pool of
Siloam at Jesus’ command. Sad to say our church has been dominated
by modern day Pharisees and Sadducees, the modernists of the last
generation and in this generation by present day neo-evangelicals
like Fuller Seminary who believe not the Bible fully but in a
limited inerrancy. They believe in God preserving a correct doctrine
but not in an errorless history, geography, and other branches of
knowledge.
How do they view present day world events?
Without looking to the Risen Saviour and His imminent Second Coming
they may condemn President Bush’s plan to destroy Saddam Hussein of
Iraq. But they brush aside the prophecy of Rev 9:13-16 on the 3rd
World War (as interpreted by Dr Walvoord of Dallas Seminary, USA) to
break forth from the great Euphrates River which is modern day Iraq.
But there is the sovereign hand of God that controls all events,
great and small, in the affairs of men which they cannot see.
What teachers of God should tell the world is in
order to be saved we must repent and come to the Saviour. This
Saviour, the Son of God, having died in our stead and risen again is
to be the coming Judge. He will come personally to save those that
trust in Him from the clouds of heaven. The graves will open and
Christians will be resurrected with new bodies and we who are alive
will be raptured (be caught up) to meet Him in the air. Those who
have overcome will reign with Jesus on earth for a thousand years of
peace.
Jesus in his discussion on the end-time says,
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt
24:14). This means accelerated missions.
Now, while we must henceforth watch constantly
for His Second Coming we must occupy till He comes. We will not be
thinking of making more money but rather extending His Kingdom,
winning more lost souls for God, by every means. In Singapore 85% of
the population still have not known Christ. In a Buddhist country
like Thailand or Japan, the percentage is as low as 1%. It does not
mean that we must reach 100% of the nations. What is required of us
is to be busily and fully engaged in the work of soul-saving while
we are keeping an eye on His coming.
Without recognising Jesus to be the Risen
Saviour and the soon coming Lord to judge this world and King to
rule the new earth for a thousand years of peace, leaders of the
Church, pastors and theologians are no better than the Jews of
Jesus’ time, the blind guides of the blind.
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