|
WEEKLY
Volume 4 Number 22
25 October 2009
A Brave Heart
(Message delivered by Rev Hien Nguyen at the
Worship Service, 2:00 pm, Oct 25, 09)
Text: 2 Tim 1:7
Today is Reformation Sunday, the day
we commemorate Martin Luther, whom God raised up to start the 16th
Century Protestant Reformation. On the 31st of October in
1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door in
Wittenberg against the wrong doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC),
especially against the salvation by good works and Indulgences.
According to the RCC teaching, the souls of the dead have to go through
Purgatory to be purged by fire until they are pure enough to enter
Heaven. It is worse to teach that the Pope has authority to lessen or
remit the sufferings of the dead in Purgatory by Indulgences someone
buys for them! That is the way they raised funds to build big
cathedrals!
God’s Word confirms that salvation is
by grace through faith alone and the souls of those who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ will enter into Heaven when they die, “to be absent
from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:8) without
going through any such “suffering state” like Purgatory! “For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God” (Eph 2:8). Knowing God’s Truth, what would you have
done if you were in Martin Luther’s days, when the RCC was so powerful,
always ready to ex-communicate you, persecute you and execute you as a
heretic?
Knowing God’s Truth with his strong
personal conviction, Martin Luther did not fear the fierce opposition
and death-threatening situations when he encountered the mighty enemy of
God’s Truth. He was ex-communicated by the Pope in 1521 with a
threatening notice that if he did not recant what he had written, he
would receive the death penalty due for heresy.
In April of 1521, Martin Luther was
summoned by Charles V, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (included
Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria) to appear before the Diet
of Worms in the presence of the Emperor and “powerful” leaders of the
Empire and the RCC. Martin Luther was ordered to recant, but by God’s
grace and strength, he did not recant, saying, “My conscience is bound
in the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is
unsafe and dangerous to act against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot
do otherwise; so help me God.” Then, Martin Luther was condemned, but by
God’s grace and sovereignty, he was hid by a friend and after one year
he returned to Wittenberg to continue his work of Reformation, and his
most important contribution to the Reformation was to translate the
Bible into German, which brought many Germans back to God’s Truth when
they could read the Bible in their own language. And then the
Reformation spread to Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, England,
Scotland, etc. By God’s sovereignty, providence and timing, through King
James’ command, God used His faithful, godly, and highly qualified
scholars and church men to confirm and translate His inspired and
preserved Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words in the Traditional Hebrew
Text of the Old Testament and Traditional Greek Text of the New
Testament into English, even the King James Bible, just on time to be
printed and used by His people during the great Protestant Reformation.
Praise the Lord!
What do you think if Martin Luther had
not been brave enough to stand firm for God’s Word and God’s Truth
before the “powerful” majority of the RCC and the Emperor? Thank God for
His sufficient grace and “For God hath not given us the spirit of
fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7).
Many terrorists nowadays do not fear death, but they do not have the
spirit of love and of a sound mind to know and understand the Truth, so
they do the wicked things without awareness. God never wants to use the
cowardly. When Gideon gathered 32,000 men for the battle, God asked him
to “proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful
and afraid, let him return and depart early from
mount Gilead. And there returned of
the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand”
(Judges 7:3), and then God asked him to try the manner of the men when
they drank water in the river, and in the end only 300 men was chosen,
who did not only have a brave heart but also a sound mind.
It is very vital for you and me to
have a brave and loving heart with a sound mind (self-control with sound
judgment) to be faithful unto the Lord and His Word unto death. Then how
can you and I have a brave heart for God’s Truth?
Know God’s Truth with Strong Personal
Conviction: It
is so dangerous to be brave to do the wrong or wicked things without
God’s love and Truth like terrorists. You and I must personally know
God’s Word/Truth before we can contend for it. And to know God’s
Word/Truth, you and I must be born again. Those who are not born again
to see God’s Truth are like the seed on the stony ground, sooner or
later, they will be offended and fall away when they encounter
temptations, persecutions or tribulations because of the Word, “Yet
hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when
tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is
offended” (Matt 13:21). Dear friends, if you do not know and
understand God’s Word/Truth with your strong personal conviction, you
must be born again. Just humbly set aside all your pre-understanding,
prejudices or worldly mindsets, come back to the Lord in repentance, cry
unto the Lord Jesus Christ for your forgiveness and salvation, and then
read God’s Word with a teachable, prayerful, trusting and submissive
heart, then the Holy Spirit will “guide you into all truth” (John
16:13). Once you have seen, known and understood God’s Word/ Truth, you
will be “rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith”
(Col 2:7) and able to stand firm despite the opposition from the
“powerful” majority of non-Bible-believing people and professing
“Christians.”
Humbly Acknowledge Our Weakness:
Our Lord Jesus Christ warned Peter that he would deny Him three times,
but he was so confident about himself that he said, “Though I should
die with thee, yet will I not deny thee” (Matt 26:35). Sadly, he
failed and cried bitterly in repentance. The mindset of the world is to
promote human “self” with self-esteem, self-image, self-importance,
self-righteousness, self-confidence, etc. No matter how it seems wise
before men, it is foolish before God to trust in oneself because “God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6),
not to mention that before God “we are all as an unclean thing, and
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a
leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isa
64:6). Our Lord Jesus confirms, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not
into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”
(Matt 26:41) and “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without
me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Dear friends, do you and I
humbly acknowledge that without the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot obey
God or keep His Word or be faithful unto Him and His Word unto death in
the days of temptations, trials, or persecutions? This knowledge will
keep us humbly dependent on our almighty Lord, and that is wise and
safe.
Humbly Trust in the Lord and Submit to
the Control of the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit is “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of
the LORD” (Isa 11:2). If we are filled with or controlled by the
Holy Spirit, we shall be brave to stand firm for God’s Truth and even to
contend for God’s Truth. Let us take a look at some brave characters in
the Holy Scriptures.
First, we must look unto our Lord
Jesus Christ, “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” (Heb 12:2). The
Lord Jesus Christ does not have self-confidence, but wholeheartedly
depends on and trusts in His Father, “Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for
what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise…I can of
mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;
because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath
sent me” (John 5:19, 30). Our Lord Jesus was always filled with the
Holy Spirit, so He could faithfully stand firm before the fierce
opposition of the enemies and “became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross” (Phil 2:8).
Although Jesus’ disciples followed Him
for about three and a half years, directly heard His teaching, witnessed
His miraculous works, and were even given power to heal the sick and
cast out demons, but when Jesus Christ was arrested, all the disciples
left Him and ran away for life, and Peter denied Jesus three times! Our
Lord knew that His disciples needed the power from the Holy Spirit so
that they might be faithful witnesses to Him and God’s Truth unto death,
so He commanded them, “tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be
endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) and “But ye shall
receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall
be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And
after the Holy Spirit fully took control of them, they had boldness to
preach Christ and His Gospel and said before the Jewish leaders, “We
ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Praise the Lord!
How about the judges whom God chose to
deliver His people from the enemies? How could they be brave to fulfil
their task or mission? Because “the Spirit of the LORD came upon”
Othniel (Judges 3:9-10), Gideon (6:34), Jephthah (11:29), Samson (14:6,
19), etc. Then shall not you and I wisely submit to the control of the
Holy Spirit to be faithful witnesses unto our Lord wherever we are?
Humbly Pray to the Lord:
When Esther was asked by Mordecai to appear before the King for the sake
of her people Israel, she wisely asked her people to pray for her,
“Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast
ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also
and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king,
which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish”
(Esther 4:16) and thank God that she bravely went in unto the king and
God did preserve her and use her to save her people from the evil plot
of the wicked Haman.
When the apostles and brethren were
threatened and persecuted, they gathered together and cried unto the
Lord, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were
assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and
they spake the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Dear friends,
are you and I afraid or frightened when encountering threats, opposition
or persecutions from the enemies of God’s Truth? Are you and I ashamed
of the Lord and His Gospel in this sinful world? Let us pray and ask our
like-minded brethren to pray for us so that we may faithfully stand firm
for God’s Truth even unto death, “When I cry unto thee, then shall
mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me” (Ps 56:9).
Acknowledge God’s Presence:
When Elisha’s servant was frightened before the big Syrian army
surrounding him, he cried, “Alas, my master! how shall we do?”
Elisha did not panic at all, answering, “Fear not: for they that be
with us are more than they that be with them” and then he prayed to
the Lord to open his servant’s eyes to see “the mountain was full of
horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:15-17).
Dear friends, may God open our spiritual eyes to see His glorious and
mighty presence with us, so that we may not panic in all situations.
Bravely Fight a Good Fight of Faith:
We are like
Christ’s soldiers in the battle against sin, worldliness, wrong
doctrines, apostasy and Satan’s temptations and persecutions, “Thou
therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim
2:3). We must “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil” (Eph 6:10-11). God does encourage you and me
to be strong and brave as He did to Joshua, “I will be with thee: I
will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage:..
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to
do according to all the law… Have not I commanded thee? Be strong
and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the
LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:5-9).
It should be noted that our experiences of victory in small battles are
vital for us to stand firm and encounter the giants in our big battles
like David against the Giant Goliath (1 Sam 17:37, 45).
Conclusion
Dear friends, God honours those who
honour Him by trusting in Him and bravely standing firm for His
Truth/Word. May God help you and me acknowledge our weakness and His
almighty presence, trust in Him, depend on Him, and bravely and
faithfully stand firm and contend for His Truth/Word unto death. Amen.
Top
/ Back
|
