I'm off to China

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to thank you all for supporting the Acts 27 Blog Spot. I’ve been amazed at how many people have been encouraged by these writings, praise God for the work He has done! I wanted to let you all know that my wife and I will be going to China tomorrow morning for 2 and a half weeks as part of a second reception (since we only got married less than a year ago). So I wanted to let you all know in advance since I won’t have any access at all to The Acts 27 Blog Spot for 2 weeks. The amount of people who keep visiting this blog spot is every reason why I keep writing blogs, I do this first and for most for the Lord and also to encourage each of you on as you serve the Lord with your many gifts and talents. I would appreciate it if you would please keep both my wife and I in your prayers as we travel around China as it is still very much a closed country. We plan on sharing the gospel in an uncompromised way during the reception, please pray for strength and that the Lord would open the eyes of the blind. I will miss blogging even for these 2 and half weeks. In the meantime, you are more than welcome to check out the links relating to Sola YouTube videos or the links relating to the downloadable sermons from Sermonaudio.com. Thank you once again, God bless and I shall return blogging as soon as I get back from China J

The Expounding Joy of Certain Hope

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

Often in my walk with God I question whether or not I’m ‘lukewarm’ (Revelation 3:15-16). And this morning (without going into great detail) I was praying that the Lord would free my mind from such confusion. I often wrestle with what lukewarm means and I end up thinking about that passage in a seemingly unhealthy way. But praise the Lord that He had freed my mind from such confusion this morning from my confusion of sin, waking up to it and never fully recognising the Lord’s holiness, sovereignty and supremacy. Now I know that in dwelling on these things is unhealthy enough, since these great attributes of the Lord can only be expressed in eternity.

As I was reading Romans 10:9, it was as if a wave of pure and wonderful joy had hit me then and there. Certainty of salvation is found in this one amazing verse! Now in knowing these beautiful truths, I know that I cannot express the sheer depth of what this verse truly means. But since a wave of joy had struck me, I felt it was my joy and duty to share likewise the truth of this wonderful verse. Now I know that many Christians use this verse in an unhelpful way, a way to defend their carnality and friendship with the world. But surprisingly enough in reading this verse, I would think that such a verse with tremendous depth would be enough to rebuke such people, allow me to explain.

Paul is describing a Christian here in this verse a bit like a well-oiled machine. For in confessing that “Jesus is Lord,” one must also believe in their heart that the Lord did in fact raise Jesus from the dead. Paul in NO WAY means a partiality of heart, what do I mean by that you say? As I mentioned earlier of Christians who use this verse to defend their trivialities with the world, they themselves would have to agree that there is division of the heart, one that seeks after worldly desires and one that simply attends church on a Sunday. I believe that when Paul wrote “believe in your heart” he actually expects us to first examine ourselves to see where our heart truly is!

This verse expresses the conditions of salvation! Jesus Christ has provided the foundation to build on, we’re to confess and believe in our hearts. I don’t believe that Paul means a flippant way as well! Let us never forget that Romans was written to a church that suffered extraordinary persecutions which is exactly why Paul thanks the Lord for the faith of the Roman church being heard throughout the world (Romans 1:8). What does it mean to believe in your heart then? To believe in Christ is to live for Him that each and every day is set aside for His desire, His calling and His shaping of you. This is what it means to believe! And in believing you are unwavering in your confession of Christ regardless of what opposition you may face, even if that is certain death.

Christianity is a battle against the self. It is a battle against the self when we become so caught up with not wanting to offend others or ‘rattle a few cages’ regarding the message of the gospel. But let us learn from this perfectly well put verse and spur one another on in representing Christ with a believing heart and a confessing tongue.  

It Is Finished!

When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” Then bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:30

Often when I know I’m in sin, I’ll try running away from God before seeking Him in forgiveness. The guilt is too much to come to God with, which is nonsense when I think about it. But I do this so often! Only moments ago after praying for forgiveness I was thinking to myself “Even my prayers don’t recognise the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God or His supremacy!” I had burdened myself with a larger problem. As I was stuck in my ways thinking about the calamity of my sin, I was listening to a song by reformed rapper IV Conerly. And in this particular song, I’d found the answer to my problem.

When Jesus spoke those eternally beautiful words “it is finished” there are a number of great things attached to this statement. We cannot do anything to improve, deepen or strengthen our salvation since Christ has done everything! I will never know the depth of the Lord’s holiness, sovereignty or supremacy (at least in this life time). But when Jesus said “it is finished” I believe that He truly meant that. Now in no way does this give me a free ticket to sin (says in Romans 6:1). But it does mean that when I do sin, I forget the depth of what Christ has done in order to free me from that which I enslave myself to.

Naturally the Lord reminds me of my sin, and I repent and repent again and again. For in being reminded of sin, the Lord keeps me from dwelling in sin. It hurts, and Christ knows it hurts as well! In Matthew 21:44 Christ mentions the one who falls on the rock will be broken into pieces. And that is me through and through! Despite the amount of blogs I write or encouraging notes I post on Facebook for people to read, the Lord knows me better than I know myself. That’s a humbling thought! I may read a hundred books on reformed theology and wonderful preachers who have inspired many people to look to Christ. But if I have no fear of the Lord, then all my reading becomes futile.

I’ll share the truth and a truth I believe many reformers struggle with. It is so easy to become ensnared in the trap of reading up on great preachers and miss the message that it was Christ who moved these men all along. Recently I had to go back and re-read the gospel of John just to be refreshed of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe we’d do well to be reminded of the gospel on a daily basis, so not to see our joy shift to trivialities of this world. I’m in no way attacking reformed preachers; I think that Spurgeon, Luther and Calvin have had wonderful impacts regarding the gospel of Christ. But I believe we can often overlook the gospel, or perhaps presume that we even know the gospel. If the apostle Paul is so convinced that the gospel is something not to be ashamed of since it is the power for salvation (Romans 1:16) than we ought to adopt the same mindset and trust in Christ for our strength to deliver such a powerful message of hope.