Misunderstanding Grace Without a Proper Grasp of Holiness of God

For all saved believers, children of an absolutely Holy God, our call to holiness is inextricably linked to the Holiness of the God we worship. We must have a grasp of God’s holiness based on biblical truth so that we know and believe who He truly is. Without a proper grasp of God’s holiness, we won't know who we really are and any understanding we may have of His grace would be meaningless. For we are wretched and hell-deserving sinners saved by His grace. Once we grasp the truth of God’s holiness, it will truly and must impact our walk and our worship.

'As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.' 1Peter 1:14 -16.

'Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.' Hebrews 12:28 - 29

The grasping of the truth of God’s holiness must certainly impact our walk as His disciple and our worship of the God. As we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, we grasp the truth of God’s holiness as revealed in His Word. The Holiness of God will put the God's grace bestowed on us in its proper place. Jesus Christ, our truth and grace, will be our greatest Joy and Treasure.

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Reflections on the Doctrine of the Trinity

The Trinity being of the One and only living God is something a finite creature, which man is, cannot fully grasped or explained. It is the very being of the One everlasting and ever existing God, who is The Creator. How can we fully grasp or explain it ? However, the scriptures are abundantly clear that God has revealed Himself as such. To worship God in spirit and truth, in exercising our biblical faith, we need to know God as fully as He has chosen to reveal Himself, our reliance must be based on His written Word.

What do we mean when we say the Bible declare that God is incomprehensible? When the Bible states that God is incomprehensible, we mean God through scripture is saying that there is much about Him that is still mysterious. God is simply beyond our understanding and comprehension. Augustine of Hippo was trying and struggling hard to understand the Trinity nature of God without success until he recognized the humbling fact that as a finite creature he was merely trying “to cram the ocean of God’s truth about Himself into his little box of brains”.

"There is nothing that the Father is that the Son is not, except that the Son is not the Father." * Quote from Notes on Hebrews 1:1-4 by David Linden

There is nothing that the Father is and the Son is that the Holy Spirit is not, except that the Holy Spirit is not the Father and the Holy Spirit is not the Son.

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." Mat 3:16-17

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14

In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. (Of God, and of the Holy Trinity. Chapter 2 - III. THE WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH -1646)

Here is a sermon by Pastor Alistair Begg expounding the Trinity truth based on the teachings as revealed in the bible.

Baby filled with the Holy Spirit, leap for joy !

John the Baptist as a baby filled with the Holy Spirit, leap for joy !

Joy to the World !

The Lord Has Come.

Let Earth Receive Her King

Luk 1:39-45“In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, ….” Gal 5:22

Jesus Christ the “Root of Jesse”

Who was Jesse ? King David’s father was “Jesse” or Yishai (Hebrew: יִשַׁי, Yíšay, meaning “God’s gift”). King David was sometimes simply referred to as “Son of Jesse” (Ben Yishai) - (Luke:3:31-32). Jesse was the son of Obed, and the grandson of Ruth (Luke 3). Jesse was a Bethlehemite.(1 Samuel 16:1). God specifically told Prophet Samuel to choose a king from the sons of Jesse.

David, son of Jesse, was anointed by God to be the second King of Israel. In 1 Sam 16:1: And the LORD said unto Samuel, ….fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. God guided Samuel to David, His choice. Unlike man, looking at the outside, the “LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Sam 16:12-13 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. ….”. With and through David, God established the Davidic Covenant whereby God established the Kingdom through David and his seed forever. (see here What is the Davidic covenant?)

More than 700 years before the birth of Christ in David’s home town in Bethlehem, the prophet Isaiah revealed the prophecy on the “Root of Jesse” ? In Luke 3, we see the genealogy of Jesus Christ traced down through Joseph (Jesus’ earthly father) and then right down to King David (Luke:3:31-32)- “David, Which was the son of Jesse”. In Isaiah 11, we see clearly the “Root of Jesse”, Jesus Christ as King, will rule and reign over the earth with righteousness, justice and power.

Isaiah 11:1-5, 10
1. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins……..In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

“Root of Jesse” stood as a sign for the people. All people, Jews and Gentiles will look to Jesus Christ, “of him shall the nations inquire”.

Paul re-stated Isaiah in Romans 15 and pointed to Jesus Christ as the “Root of Jesse”. In Rom 15:12 “And again Isaiah saith, “There shall be a Root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles trust.” Paul reminded Christians, as non-Jews were not the original receivers of the Abraham’s Covenant, by faith trusting in the “Root of Jesse”, we are now saved from His wrath and graciously grafted by Jesus Christ to into His body: “you,although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree” Rom 11:17. All born again Christians are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ and are the spiritual children of Abraham and by God’s sovereign grace enjoy God’s blessings promised to Abraham.

Rom 11:8 “Now I say, that Jesus Christ was a minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy; as it is written: “For this cause I will confess to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto Thy name.” And again he saith, “Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people.” And again, “Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles, and laud Him, all ye people.”

Lets be always thankful to God for His Grace in revealing and giving us the faith in the “Root of Jesse”: our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When the Holy Spirit Moves and Brings Revival

When the Holy Spirit moves and brings revival, people are found turning away from their selves, they are found humbling themselves before a Holy God, there will be much prayers, tears, repentance, confession and forsaking of sins and souls will be saved. Evangelist John Sung, the anointed servant of Jesus Christ, knew from his own experiences that these sovereign works of the Holy Spirit in convicting sinners are clearly evident in the 1931 Nan-Chang revival when the Holy Spirit came mightily to draw men and women to Him and revived the churches in China.

During that revival, he recounted an occasion when one of the teachers brought five students who had already heard about the Gospel to see him .While their hearts were prepared but they had yet to come before God in faith to repent and believe. He wrote, “I asked everyone to kneel and pray, and said: “Lord, you have greatly suffered for us on the Cross, and they have doubts or are still unwilling to accept this unprecedented salvation. Those who are proud or doubtful are but seeking their own demise. Who can enter the Kingdom of God but he who is like a child? As I prayed, I felt that my “self” had died, and it was the Lord who was speaking to them. At that hour, the Holy Spirit descended upon us and Li Yun Ding started to cry bitterly as she felt heavy with sin. All five of them finally turned to the Lord.”

Clearly the message that John Sung was saying to every sinner that is seeking salvation, with a child-like faith you must humble yourself and look to the Lamb of God on the cross and cry out to God for mercy and grace and be born again. Through the preaching of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit calls the sinner, convicts him of his sins and draws him to Calvary. The sinners saw their sins and they saw Jesus Christ, the pure and perfect Lamb of God, offered as their atoning sacrifice and their only hope.

Walking very closely with God, John Sung himself fully immersed with the Word of God and prayers before God. He shared with foreign missionaries and teachers, “I read 11 chapters of the Bible every day. After each chapter, I will ask the Lord to reveal to me my sins. The Bible is His Precious Blood meant to cleanse my sins. I cannot leave the salvation brought about by His Precious Blood for even one minute.” He urged foreign missionaries and teachers to attend a particular meeting to be held in the night and he revealed “as this was the day the Holy Spirit would descend upon us mightily.”

In the afternoon before the meeting, it was already evident that the Holy Spirit was already working amongst attendees, he wrote “Many were tearing amongst the audience even before the service was due to begin that afternoon.” John Sung pointed them to the Savior, the perfect Lamb of God dying on the cross for the transgressions of sinners. He wrote,”I preached from Luke 23:26-46. Before long, the entire congregation and I were in tears and everyone raised their hands. The hall was reverberating with heartfelt prayers.”

In a meeting with the teachers and preachers just prior to start of the meeting, he pleaded with

them, “If a preacher could not identify his own sins and empty himself, he would lack the power to penetrate the strong citadels in other people’s hearts. Destroy not what the Holy Spirit has wrought in your heart, lest God be grieved. God loves to work with him who has an obedient heart.” He stated “There is now a spiritual revival amongst the students, and the leaders will be guilty of a great sin if they themselves do not experience a spiritual revival.” Surely, John Sung clearly understood that a preacher of the Gospel must have spent much time before the Lord praying and preparing his heart and dealing with known sins and seeking to rely and call upon God’s power to bring forth the Gospel to illuminate sinners who are spiritual dead and blind. He mentioned, “In my prayers, I lamented the fact that I do not even have a tiny fraction of His Love, and begged for His forgiveness. May He give me His love and save all the prodigal sons who have been led astray. During the meeting that evening, John Sung recorded the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit: “At that hour, the Holy Spirit came upon us …… broke down and cried as she confessed and gave her heart to the Lord.” Sins were confessed, lives and focus priorities of leaders were aligned.

He believed that The Holy Spirit will sustain the revival already begun but it was important that weekly prayer meetings be held for people who are saved to come together to pray and ask for God’s “cleansing by the Blood of the Lamb”. Weekly prayer meeting were the focal points where people of God come together to seek His face and seek His interventions in their lives and for the work at hand. On 7 March 1931 in another meeting, he delivered a sermon warning about hypocritical attitudes will take over if people who are saved do not come often before God. He wrote, “I asked the audience to pray when I had finished. At this juncture, I heard the sound of the Holy Spirit descending in my left ear. More than 50 people continued to pray incessantly, confessing their sins in a deluge of tears, and were unable to continue with their prayers. All but three girls from the high school accepted salvation on that day.”

When hearts of God’s people are prepared and they earnestly seek His presence, He will come !

Holy Spirit's work in convicting all sinners before God

From his diary, John Sung revealed the key to the 1931 revival in Nanchang, China . In any true revival, he confirmed the vital works of Holy Spirit in convicting men and women of their sins. John Sung wrote then: “Suddenly, I felt deeply touched to speak on sin and salvation”. God must prepare the hearts of his messengers in a revival.

This distinct aspect of the Holy Spirit's work in convicting all sinners before God is clearly stated by our Lord Jesus Christ in John 16:8 – 11 : “And when He is come, He will reprove the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they believe not in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to My Father and ye see Me no more; concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”

It is evident that John Sung was convinced that for evangelism to be effective, God must send the Holy Spirit to open the hearts of men and women through the clear preaching the Gospel. John Sung was sure that those“who have not been touched by the Holy Spirit are not aware of sin.' and those “who are not aware of sin cannot accept salvation from the Lord”

This is an important point in any effort to evangelise to sinners. It is not about the making the message more “seeker friendly”, toning it down to the “unchurched” or “pre-believers” and relying on the man-made method to claim “decisions for Christ”. God centred evangelism is to sinners and must faithfully declare the Truth as proclaimed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit of Truth who will show sinners their sinful and lost state and point them to their only hope and Savior.

John16-13-15 “However when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak from Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine; therefore I said that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”

“I have come to understand more clearly than ever that the Lord did not come to teach us or set an example. Indeed He came to take away our sins and die for sinners. A sense of great guilt burned within me as I recalled that my past sermons were ineffective for lack of emphasis on confession and salvation. Henceforth, I shall be a fisher of men! The Lord will only glorify the teachings of those who spread His Truth. As the Lord loves me, He allowed me to experience the many weaknesses of the ministry workers and showed me the path to church revival. I knew in the past that the Lord had come to cleanse our sins, but I knew not that He had come to do just that. A miss is as good as a mile indeed! One who is truly born again can spot sin with ease and repent because he knows what sin is. He will surely be concerned for the salvation of those around him.” Pg 119 “The Journal Once Lost”

Everyone who thirst, Come To Me and Drink!

John 7:37-39 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The feast mentioned here is the Jewish festival of Sukkot and there is a ritual of the drawing of water from a spring and bringing it to the altar as an offering to be poured out. The “Pouring of the Water” (nisuch hamayim) was an important feature of the festival of Sukkot. It was already at the end festival of Sukkot, when all the celebrations including the ritualistic pouring of the water at the altar of the Temple are already finished, our Lord Jesus Christ stood up and cried out …..EVERYONE WHO THIRST, COME TO ME and DRINK !

Background to the Jewish festival of Sukkot and “Pouring of the Water”
“When the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, the “Pouring of the Water” (nisuch hamayim) was an important feature of the festival of Sukkot….; .. The drawing of water for this purpose was preceded by all-night celebrations in the Temple courtyard, with music-playing Levites, torch-juggling sages and huge oil-burning lamps that illuminated the entire city. The singing and dancing went on until daybreak, when a procession would make its way to the Shiloach Spring which flowed in a valley below the Temple. A golden pitcher, holding three lugim, was filled from the Shiloach Spring. When they arrived at the Water Gate, the shofar was sounded…. [The priest] ascended the ramp [of the altar] and turned to his left … where there were two bowls of silver … with small holes [in their bottom], one wider and the other narrower so that both should empty at the same time–the western one was for the water and the eastern one for wine…” - The Taste of Water-Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; adapted by Yanki Tauber

From what the Lord said, there are three things to happen : you must thirst, you must come to Him and you must drink from Him.Unless you thirst after righteousness of God, why would you go and get a drink ? Would any man or woman “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph 2:1) thirst after God’s righteousness and seeks after God ? Rom3:11 says it: “there is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God.”. No no one will seek after God unless God draws him or her to Him. Our Lord said in John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

Can we claim our drink from Him on the basis we earned it by our “works of righteousness” ? Simply put, can we seek to claim salvation from God on the basis that we have always striven to live better and behave better. No! Why would you come to the Divine Physician unless you acknowledge that you are sick in sins and it is incurable and terminal without God’s remedy and power? “But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.” Matt 9:12 Every one has to humble himself or herself, leaving behind all our “self righteousness” claims, come to Jesus Christ and ask Him to give us a drink. In our Lord’s encounter with the Samaritan woman, he revealed that it is “the gift of God” and she will only ask if she really knew who Jesus Christ is. Yes, Jesus Christ is greater than Jacob, only Jesus Christ can give us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can give us living water of eternal life through born again and regeneration because Jesus Christ has provided the only Way to God and the only Truth to come to God and the only Life Everlasting.

John 4:10-13Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”"Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Only By His Grace, God the Father upon His begotten Son’s victorious work on the cross has raised Him from the dead, sent the Holy Spirit into all who come and believed in Him. Our rebellious kneels and hearts must have bowed to the our Sovereign who is absolutely Holy and absolutely Just. Our faith must be in Him as our sin-bearer, the Lamb of God. We have to look to Lamb of God lifted up and live. We in our bodily temples are cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb, the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us.

All life on earth needs water, without water, all life will die sooner or later. Without water, we will die ! The Holy Spirit is the living water of eternal life, we have to come to Jesus Christ to drink of the Holy Spirit. He alone can quench our spiritual thirst and will continue to abide with us and give us “the rivers of living waters” ! He will be a “spring of water welling up to eternal life”. The Holy Spirit will do His mighty works of righteousness in us. The Holy Spirit is the gift of our risen Lord Jesus Christ to all who heard Him stood up and cried out, we have come to Him and we have drank and we have Life Everlasting. Hallelujah ! To God be the Glory !

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