WHY YOU CAN GO ON IN LIFE
Scripture Reading: Hebrew 10:15-38
Last week I shared about facing discouragement in our life and the need to make that One Great Prayer before God. And definitely God will come to us and give us a little space for the Grace of God to work in us. Also He will put a nail in a sure place, representing we will have a sure Jesus with us all the way, a sure heaven waiting for us and a sure blessing. And this blessing will be double-fold. For our captivity, God will restore to us double. I read to you about Job that God will turn our captivity around, and when we have prayed for our enemies, the Lord will gave us twice as much than we have before. We shall have the double fold blessing in our life. This is the word of God to me and to this church. Job 42:10 says ‘And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.’ The third point I shared last Sunday is that He will give us a little reviving so that we can set up the house of God.
This morning I want to talk about the need to move on with faith. We have to press on. We have to fight the good fight of faith. Let us go on to do some great things for God. This morning I was just telling Pastor Lily that God has been telling me in my mind about something. We asked why God did not answer this prayer, or that prayer. Why is God not doing something in the world today? Then God showed me the changes that he is doing in the Middle East. How he is allowing major disaster in the world today. How He is allowing the rise of China. How He is even preparing a false peace in the Middle East. I believe God is even preparing a big plan for the church. And only when we flow with that plan will we see tremendous anointing and favor and power alongside us. If we flow with that plan, then there is a high calling for us. Pastor Lily shared this with me. She said, ‘We can only line up with God’s purpose. God will not do anything outside his purpose. When you fulfill God’s purpose, Jesus will call you great. Find out the purpose of God and flow with it. It is the purpose of God that will be achieved at the end of the day and not your purpose.’ So with this purpose we need to move on in life.
A believer can become stranded because of discouragement and I am speaking from experience. He can become trapped, cut off, left high and dry because of persecution; hardship or depression. All these are very real but because we have a living Savior, He wants us to get up and move on. I told you that for Pastor Lily and me, we can only obtain our inheritance through fighting for it. We had to fight the good fight of faith. The same goes for the children of Israel. They had to fight to conquer all the land of Canaan. It will not be easily given to us but we have to fight for it and claim and then we will get it. Joshua 1:3 says ‘Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses’.
Just to give you a little example. For many years, I have been looking for a resort that we can purchase for our church. I always dreamt of a place where it is spacious and also near the sea, where we can swim. Then last week when I was in Valderama, Pastor Ronilo Vegas told me that one of his members offered to sell his land in Tibiao, to us for Php 110,000.00. He told me that it is a 4.5 hectares land that is worth Php 110,000.00. I was kind of excited and I went with Pastor Ronilio, Benjie Bachoco, Roger Roquina and Rizaldi Sampani to see the place. Then gladly, I realize that it is at a place called Bug tong Batok Fall (or in English translation one big rock fall). It was the same place that they have the kayaking in Antique, because of the rapids coming down from the mountains. I have heard of this place mentioned by people and on newspaper but never know where it is. Many foreigners love to go there for Kayaking. We drove towards the mountain and after one or two kilometers, I saw on my left side a fast moving river flowing. I was beginning to get excited. Then immediately Pastor Ronilio informed me we had arrived at our destination. That made me even happier because it means the two plots of land are near the running river. Of course I went straight to the flowing river and the river reminded me of the fast running water when I was climbing Mount Ophir in Malaysia, in 1986. There was a group there enjoying the swim. The opening was very beautiful because it was paved with carpet grass. I want to let you see the pictures of the running river. Of course I was excited. I finally bought the two plots of land. The first plot of land is half a hectare and it is just 20 meters, no exaggeration, across the road from the flowing river. This lot costs Php 30,000.00. Then the next plot of land is 4 hectares worth Php 80,000.00. Actually the owner made me climb the 4- hectare land, to survey it. I had to stop climbing a few times because it was kind of steep. And on top is a plateau which has rice fields and other agricultural crops. I already paid for the half a hectares and had the tax declaration paper. Then when I was trying to get the second tax declaration paper for the 4 hectares, I found out that they put 4,000 meters instead of 40,000 meters. I know the land belongs to the owner because we walked on the land and he was showing off the whole land to me. There was a problem and we now need a surveyor to do the boundary for the 4 hectares of land. The owner then told me that I don’t have to worry because he owns the whole barangay land which is 50,000 hectares. But what I am trying to share is that I realize that every blessing we want to obtain, we have to fight for it. Like right now I have to go through a surveyor to redefine the land. Pastor Lily and I had to fight so hard to build the church in Tabu Subac. Joy and Jan have to fight to obtain their blessings in Singapore. We have to fight with the devil to see a revival come upon Evangel. We have been fighting to preach the gospel for the past 25 years and we are stilling fighting.
The Christian life is a fight. Just back to the story, we will buy these two plots of land, 4.5 hectares worth Php 110,000.00. I have already paid Php 30,000.00 for the half hectares land. I hope to obtain the service of Michael Supetran to come up with a master plan for the whole land and we will call it Evangel Mountain Resort. There is a lot of trees and also rice field. We will plant 1000 Mahogany trees to lay the boundary of the whole land. Whatever produces from the mango trees, the rice field, bananas and wood from the trees and even the Mahogany trees, will be used to construct cottages so that one day, JECPP church planters and even Evangel Iloilo can have a proper retreat center.
Indeed, Joshua 1:3 says ‘Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses’. We have to move on in life and fight the good fight of faith to obtain our promises.
You remember the story of the French Huguenots. They were persecuted, and they were betrayed. When France destroyed them, it destroyed the best of French manhood and womanhood. The French Huguenots went into Battle, knowing they were facing certain death, and their motto was: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ We believers today need a motto like the Huguenots, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Oh, my Christian friends, the whole tenor of this marvelous walk with God is ‘Let us go on’, ‘Let us go on for God’.
My sermon title is “We Must Go On For God”. I want to share a few truths why we can go on for God.
We can go on in life because:
1. GOD HAS MADE A NEW COVENANT WITH US
Hebrew 10:15-16 says ‘Wherefore the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us; for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.’ We can go on because God has made a new covenant with us. When Christ died on the cross of Calvary, something very important happened: the veil was rent in twain. We can now boldly come to the throne of Grace. We can access God, access grace, access help directly. God has filled us with His Holy Spirit. The New Covenant can be called the New Covenant of the Spirit.
I remember the first thing I received when I was born again was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Immediately after I was baptized I also realized something is awakened within me. Now God put his laws into our hearts and in our minds. Of course I should be reading the word of God, but many times God talk to my minds and my hearts about certain things to encourage me, to guide me, to direct my steps. I experienced many times God speaking to me like I was telling you just now that God has been speaking to me that He has a plan for the world and the church and we have to flow with that plan. Job 33:14-15 ‘For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumbering upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.’ I am trying to learn to listen and perceive it when God speaks and put laws into my minds and my hearts. We can go on because constantly the Holy Spirit is putting laws into our hearts and minds, directing us, guiding us.
Recently I just e-mailed a member from this church and asking how is he. He wrote to me this. ‘I think God let you keep in touch with me because I missed your sermons; because I can really relate to most of your sermons…. like, any angle of a situation that I am in or when I’m making some tough decisions, then you will preach about it on a Sunday service, and what you have preached is somewhat I’ve been doing in the previous days or even the previous week. It’s something that God is telling me that I am doing the right things/ways…’ What he is trying to say is that I seem to know his mind, what he has gone through the week and then on Sunday as I preached; I seemed to know what he was going through and telling him the right way to walk. No, it is not me. It is the Holy Spirit. We are in the new covenant and God puts the laws into our hearts and minds, directing us, guiding us. So why can we go on? Because in the new covenant of God, the Holy Spirit is constantly with us and aiding us.
2. GOD HAS FORGOTTEN OUR SINS
Hebrew 10:17 says ‘And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.’
Again and again without fail, God comes to remind me that he has forgiven my sins and forgotten my sins. But of course I must treasure this forgiveness. Because David says in Psalms 32:1 ‘Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.’ The only truly happy people are those who have received forgiveness of their sins from God, so that the guilt of their transgressions does not weigh upon their hearts and minds and their conscience are no longer troubled. Such blessedness is upon a child of God.
David describes God’s forgiveness in three ways; one- He forgives the sin, that is, pardons it; two- He covers the sin, that is, put it out of sight; three- the sin is not counted against him, that is, the guilt is cancelled from the record. We treasure this forgiveness by not going back to sin again.
Of course, God told me that I must not go back to my previous sinful lifestyles again. I told you many times, people and the devil will come and tell you that you have committed the most terrible, unpardonable sin and you are hopeless and God has left you. But if you truly have repented, God tells you that He has memory loss. God says that He will not remember our sins and lawless deeds. Typically a sign of degenerative disease, acute memory loss is one of God’s great promises to us – His own memory loss concerning our sins. Think of that friend you’ve offended. Right now I remember one. Reparations may have patched wounds, but the memory remains. Actually that person says, I forgive but I will not forget what you did. Think of that former spouse and your hurtful divorce or separation in this country. Counseling may settle your anger but never erase your memory. But when God forgives, He forgets. That is what David is driving at.
Now, how can an all-knowing God forget anything? In this way: there’s no more separation between offender and offendee over the offense. There is no strain in your relationship between God and you. There is no awkwardness. There is no reminder to the offended. There is no cynical looks. No. God only sees you with love, care, compassion. It’s gone, completely disappeared. Such forgetting is a something that few people can give, and none so completely as God. When you pray in faith today for forgiveness, you can forget your sins too. At the altar call afterwards, I want you to pray for forgiveness for some sins you are always reminded of and I will pray that God will help you from today onwards to forget them. Don’t hurt yourselves by holding on to guilt over sin that God has wiped from his memory.
But of course we cannot go back to our sins, our old sinful lifestyle. God liken it to the dog eating back his vomit and the pig wallowing in the mire/mud immediately after it was washed. Hebrew 10:26-27 says ‘For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.’
3. GOD COMMANDS TO HOLD ON TO OUR FAITH
Hebrew 10:22-23 says ‘Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised). ‘In full assurance of faith’ means ‘in fullness of faith’.
This has nothing to do with the amount of faith. It has everything to do with the object of our faith. Real faith depends on the object of our faith. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ. You see, faith can be misplaced – you can put your faith in some individual on earth and be disappointed. Oh I have put my faith in people and I was totally devastated by them, that I nearly lost my faith. But the object of our faith is Jesus Christ. I have told God many times. I have no other people to depend on except you Jesus. Where can I go away from you? You are the source of my life, the author of my life.
‘Let us hold fast the profession of our faith’ means ‘let us hold fast to our creed’. That is to say, let us never lose grip of what we believe. The world is changing so fast. The bible says ‘iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold’. Our core belief, our core values is being challenged again and again. Now many Pastors all over the world are saying you can drink. A pastor says you cannot be invited to his church if you don’t drink. The world doesn’t believe in sex after marriage. They don’t even believe in marriage. They just sleep together. The church is coming to a point that its members can believe in God and still does everything the world does.
I thank God I came from a church that has very godly core values in life. We must not lose grip of what we believe. I am not asking you to be a Pharisees which is the worst of all sins but I am saying we must not lose the biblical teachings of God.
The word ‘hold fast’ speaks of remaining true to tradition and doctrine. I thank God, I was taught not to drink wine. The High Priest Aaron and his children were specifically instructed not to drink wine. Personally I believe that if you want to attain certain power, anointing, favor and great works of God, there are something you have to abstain from. The cynical people may try to take away our faith, others may make us forget God or curse God and die, the event of life may conspire to shake our faith. But like Stevenson says ‘he so believed in the ultimate decency of things (the ways of God) that if he woke up in hell he would still believe in it.
‘Holding fast to our faith’ is defined as sincerely coming to God and believing in His goodness. By coming to God, we find mercy, grace, help, salvation and cleansing of sins. But this also implies that if we don’t draw near to God, then there is no saving faith.
The Christian life is lived by faith. The battle of the Christian life has always been not just to believe, but to keep on believing. This is how we will see the fulfillment of God’s promises in our lives. Hebrew 10:35-39 sums this up in a very famous passage. ‘So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded, you need to preserve so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ Real faith is produced when our hearts draw near to God himself and receive his promises deep within you. There, by its own divine power, his Word will work supernaturally. I want to emphasize a point in verse 23. ‘For he is faithful that promised’. We must understand that God is One that cannot lie regarding his promises to us. And He has great and exceeding precious promises given to individuals here this morning. In running this race, we must never forget an important principle. Because of the unique place God has given to faith, his grace flows along the channels of his promises – not his commands. It means that God’s promises flows to us when we exercise faith, holding on to our faith in God, not in good works, our characters.
It sounds contradictory and promises are fulfilled in our lives because of faith not of works. God said the children of Israel entered not the Promised Land because of unbelief. These are the promises of God that, when trusted (you believe) it releases his supernatural grace in and through us and brings the promise to fruition. Faith is the ability of the human spirit to open up and receive impressions from God that are born from his Words and made alive by the Holy Spirit. This brings about a supernatural conviction of certain facts apart from the senses. And by faith we perform miracles, stop oppression and receive our promise.
4. GOD SAYS, ‘VENGEANCE BELONGS TO HIM’
Hebrew 10:30 says ‘For we know him that hath said, ‘Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense saith the Lord.’
I know that many bible commentators talks about this verse as punishing those who sins against God. Well there is another part of this story. We are God’s children. God doesn’t executed vengeance when we sin against him. He chastised us. God doesn’t punish His children but He chastises and disciplines them. But God executed vengeance upon our enemies or when we become the enemy of God. God punishes the unbelievers. You must remember that Hebrew is addressed to those who have gone through great trials and especially from wicked people. The believers have a lot of enemies. They had known persecution and seen enemies plundering their goods, their lives, their emotions, and their family, their every thing. We are the apple of God’s eye. On these enemies, God will take vengeance. God does not take vengeance in a spiteful or vindictive manner. But God is going to judge sin and that is something that needs to be emphasized in our day.
Listen again to the Psalmist: ‘For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.’ (Psalm 75:8). You see the psalmist as well as the prophet spoke of judgment as a time coming when the cup of wrath will be filled up. And it is filling up today. God is in no hurry to move; He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that cup of judgment is filling up. And my friends, it is a bitter cup. I shared that as Christians we have many enemies. And God says ‘It is mine to avenge. I will repay. God’s judgment will come and will be severe. God, the sovereign of the universe, has the right to punish those who disobey him. God’s holiness and perfect justice demands that he punish those who sin. So we can move on in life because God will take care of our enemies.
There was this ex-mayor of a town, a lady who got a surveyor and redefined the land where Pastor Ronilio Vegas’s church is located. She brought along goons when doing the survey. The whole neighborhood near Pastor Ronilio’s church was affected. This ex-mayor cut off the parsonage of Ronilio telling him that the part of the land belongs to her. One of the neighbors of Ronilio has her whole land cut off until she is left only with the dirty kitchen. Hey you think you are the ex-major and just come to the house of God and say that is your land. Well, just a few days ago, her son, the ex-major’s son was driving a Fortuner, high on drugs with his friend. He did not put on his seat but his friend had the seat belt on. The Fortuner crashed into a street light post and he flew out and instantly was killed. The friend with the seat belt on was totally unharmed. I saw the Fortuner while trying to buy the land for the resort. It was totally smashed up. It is totaled. The whole Fortuner cannot be salvaged. Brothers and Sisters don’t be afraid of our enemies. God knows what to do. She cut away the house of God and God took vengeance upon her by cutting down the life of her beloved son.
5. GOD HAS A GREAT RECOMPENSE OF REWARDS
God is encouraging you believers when facing persecution and pressure to preserve in faith and conduct. We don’t usually think of suffering as good for us, but it can build our character and our patience. During times of great stress, we may feel God’s presence more clearly and find help from Christians we never thought would care. Knowing that Jesus is with us in our suffering, and that He will return one day to put an end to all pain can motivate us to grow in our faith and relationship with him. We are encouraged not to shrink back from faith in times of persecution but to show by our endurance that our faith is real.
Faith means resting in what Christ has done for us in the past; it also means hoping for what he will do for us in the future. Therefore if we hold on to our faith and loyalty to God, God will see us through our present situation. The victory only comes to those who hold on. But we must not shrink back. God is not pleased when we shrink back. Today if you say you don’t want to go on the life with God anymore, God is not pleased. Today if you say you don’t want to be faithful to church and God anymore, God is not happy.
But if we continue to go on with God, there is a great recompense of reward awaiting us. The Bible promises that only those who endure to the end will get to enjoy the full reward and a faithful man abounds in blessings.
We have great reasons to go on with life and not give up. We have a new covenant of God’s grace; He has forgotten our sins; we are exhorted to hold on and not give up; God will execute vengeance on those who wrong us and there is a great recompense of rewards awaiting us if we don’t give up. What better reasons are there for us than these? So, let’s go on with our life with God!
END OF SERMON
SERMON OF PASTOR TOH NEE
Preached in EFC Iloilo ON April 17, 2011
