Public Service at Surabaya - Sunday, March 04, 2007

We have finished conferring around Jude 1:1, so now let us turn to Jude 1:2
2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. This verse is a greeting.

Many people do not know that greetings in service/the word of God have deep understandings. Below are the deep understandings contained in Jude 1:2 :

1. Exultation in fellowship (not a mere common greeting like “Good morning!”)
   The right fellowship must be based on the true teaching word / revelation of the word / the word of life (the word which have become life experience). Thus, if ‘A’ has accepted and experienced the true word and so have ‘B’ and ‘C’, it is not hard to gather themselves together.
   1 John 1:1, 3-4
   1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life––
   3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
   4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
   “our hands have handled” = “we have practiced”
   As the Word of life abides forever, fellowship encouraged by the Word of life will also abide forever. But if a fellowship is taken just because of money or compulsion, it will not abide forever.
   There are two kinds of fellowship:
   1. 1 John 1:3
      3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
      Fellowship of the Body of Christ (“you also may have fellowship with us”) – association of branches. It is an eternal fellowship. After this service we will go home. Nevertheless, it will be an eternal fellowship although we do not meet one another again because we are united by the living word we have practiced. On the contrary, a fellowship encouraged by money or compulsion will never be everlasting. Fellowship of the body of Christ starts in marriage. Thus, a marriage will never become everlasting without the bound of the living word. It is written in 1 Peter that all things in the world are vain except the eternal word of God.
   2. “and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” = fellowship between the Head and the body, which is everlasting in nature. Fellowship in marriage is not permanent yet as quarrels sometimes may occur. Therefore, the marriage must be persistently advanced by the Word of life. In the same way, it is not always easy to develop close relationship with God; we ordinarily have strong spirit to pray, but sometimes no spirit at all. Nonetheless, as long as the Word of life continuously works in us, the everlasting fellowship between the perfect body/Bride of God and the Head/Heavenly Groom will one day take place at the time of Jesus’ second coming and we will enter into the marriage supper of the Lamb and never be separated from God anymore.
      This is the deep understandings of greeting based on teaching word, i.e. exultation in fellowship encouraged by the word of God.
      Revelation 19:9
      9 Then he said to me, "Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’"And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God."
      It is the fellowship between Head/heavenly Bridegroom and His perfect body/Bride.
      1 John 1:4 (“… that your joy may be full.”); meaning that where there is fellowship, there must be joy, even the greatest joy of marriage supper of the Lamb “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”
   Let us have joy in our marriage through our fellowship. The more we have intimate fellowship, the more we have joy. Likewise, shepherding/fellowship of the body of Christ encouraged by living word/true teaching word which is practiced will reach perfect joy. On the contrary, those who do not practice the word will go out or become thorn inside although he heard the right teaching word. Flowing from that, the separation between grain (those who practiced the word) and tares (those who do not practice the word) is obvious. Students of Lempin-el, after you graduate there will be a permanent separation if you do not experience the living word.
2. Preface of teaching word
   Perhaps you wonder why I always greet you with an old greeting: “Good morning, brothers and sisters! May peace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you!” I do not mind you considering me outmoded because I have a principle: this greeting is the preface of teaching word; if it is changed over and again, I am afraid if the content of the teaching will also be changed. Thus, I learn from the three late pastors: Rev. Totaijs, Rev. In Juwono, and Rev. Pong Dongalemba, that they never changed their greeting until God took them into His kingdom. I do not talk or object to other greetings, but please know that this greeting is the preface of teaching word.
3. Prayer for salvation
   Let us compare Jude the brother of James with Paul the apostle.
   Jude 1:2
   2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
   1 Timothy 1:1-2
   1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
   2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
   It is evident that the greeting contains prayer for salvation and blessings from a pastor to the Church so that the Church keeps ministering God and not stumbling forever.

That concludes the greeting from the teaching word’s point of view, which is not a mere lip service, but really has three deep understandings as follows:

• exultation in true fellowship, which is encouraged by teaching word which is everlasting
• preface of teaching word, which is always fixed and never changed so that the content of the teaching is not changed as well.
• prayer of blessing, so that the Church will never stumble but keep on serving and ministering God.

The substances of the prayer of salvation are explained below:

Jude 1:2
2 Mercy, peace, and love (1 Timothy 1:2 grace) be multiplied to you.

1. Grace
   John 3:16
   16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
   Grace is the unmerited favor of God towards men, who is unworthy, that is, God gave Jesus, His only begotten Son, to die on the cross to redeem/save sinful men.
   The grace of God is undoubted and we just need to believe and accept Jesus / hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, which means that we receive grace. We should have perished for our sins, but we may receive forgiveness by His grace. So, lest we reject or doubt His grace!
   Acts 26:18
   18 ‘to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
   The accounts in Acts were written by Apostle Paul who had ever been sent to gentiles.
   Acts 26:17
   17 ‘I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,
   Only if we receive grace by our faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ, we will not be destroyed, but be saved / receive forgiveness and eternal life. Therefore, the grace of God is defined Jesus’ goodwill to bear the sins of all people in the world.
   Forgiveness of our sins is received as our heart believes and our mouth confesses sins to God and the others. Everyone receiving the grace of God must be always stirred up to confess/finish his sins. On the contrary, those rejecting the grace must hide their sins, so that they will be destroyed for nothing is greater than grace.
   Let us now connect with Paul’s experience in the first epistle to Timothy. It has the same greeting with that in the epistle of Jude. Thus, a person say greetings because of his experience like Paul. “Mercy, peace, and love in the name of Jesus Christ” is a greeting said by a man whose heart is peaceful. It is not good that one whose heart is not peaceful says a greeting of peace because it shows that he does not understanding the meaning of such greeting. Thus, a priest/pastor has to experience the greeting of peace that is to say the peace itself.
   1 Timothy 1:14-15
   14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
   15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.
   Paul has given examples about grace. He had received the grace so he dared to confess his sin. Timothy is one of his young students. Although usually a teacher feels greater than his student (a teacher is not willing to confess his sin), Paul dared to confess about his flaws and sins to Timothy. It can happen because of the grace he has received. We see that the grace of the Lord can reach the sinners, even to the chief. Therefore, it is not God’ fault if there is still a man receives punishment in hell. None may say that his sin is as red as scarlet because there is no reason. As long as a man is willing to receive the grace of the Lord through believing in Jesus and confessing sins to God also to men, he will be saved. On the contrary, an arrogant Christian who rejects the grace, not confessing his sins, will go into hell because of his own fault. Let us not make the grace useless.
2. Mercy, that is, God in His glory in heaven willingly became a Man of sorrows to save sinful men afflicted with various torments. If God had not become flesh, we would have perished.
   Let us see what happened to sinful men in the Garden of Eden. I have a thousand times shown you the atmosphere in the Garden of Eden; all needs are provided and those living there will lack of nothing. Because of sin, however, men were grieved/naked.
   Genesis 3:8-10
   8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
   9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
   10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."
   A sinful man must be afraid and ashamed/naked so that he feels sorrows. The late Rev. Pong Dongalemba said, “A man may be poor, but lest he be naked. Even though he is poor, but not naked, he can still go out. To converse, although he is very rich but naked, he cannot go anywhere.” Such a man must suffer.
   Thus, sinful man is full of fear, naked, and ashamed. Such condition has happened in Eden Garden in which there is everything. Imagine if such condition happens in this dry world full of thorns, men will suffer much more. Therefore, the Lord is willing to become a man. Besides, the condition becomes worse because sinful man in fear and nakedness has no ability to return to God or to cover his nakedness. The Lord has come because they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. It was a chance for men but they ran because they had no ability to cover their nakedness although the Lord had come to them. Now, the sound of God’s step is the preaching of hard teaching word. If the steps had not been loud, men would have not heard it. Seeing that only thief has slow steps. On the contrary, the Lord has loud or obvious steps, meaning we must hear hard teaching word in which God is. Thus, a pastor must be brave to preach the word without any fear whether the Churchgoer will be angry and not come into the church anymore. It is all depends on the churchgoer whether they want to hear the hard word or not.
   Loud steps point to the hard word to save sinful men; unfortunately, many pastors/Christians even hide not to hear the loud steps. At this moment the word is introspecting us and we should not hide our sins. Let the word reveal them that we may confess to God! Adam and Eve tried to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, but it withered and remained no longer. For nobody was able to cover nakedness / to return to God, God initiated to cover their nakedness.
   How did the Lord cover the nakedness of men?
   • Genesis 3:21-23
     21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.
     22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" ––
     23 therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
     God slain and skinned animal to make tunics.
     Despite men had clothed with tunics of skin, they were still driven out from the Garden of Eden because it was shameful to live there with tunics of skin. God is great, He did not cease saving men. Therefore, He tried to bring men back into the Garden of Eden through this second act.
   • God in the flesh of Jesus died on the cross; He was stripped off to cover men’s nakedness that they could put on His clothes and return to the Garden of Eden.
     John 19:23-24
     23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece.
     24 They said therefore among themselves, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: "They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.
     In short, the grace of the Lord is obvious for men whose sins are forgiven. So that they do noy receive judgment/death and the mercy shows that God in the flesh of Jesus is willing to be stripped off to cover man’s nakedness because of sins.
     None could not return to the Garden of Eden by tunics of skin, but only by Jesus’ clothes. There are two kinds of Jesus’ clothes given to cover nakedness:
     1. garment made four parts = garment of salvation = garment of righteousness
        Four parts denote four corners of the earth; meaning everyone anywhere and anytime they are must obtain this garment to cover the nakedness. It is wonderful to have this garment, but not enough as there is still one more garment.
     2. the tunic which was without seam = tunic of ministry
        Men, who have not been naked anymore, have to wear not only the garment of salvation (walking in righteousness) but also the tunic of ministry. It is only because of the mercy of God if we can minister Him. If Jesus had not become man and been naked on cross, we would have become sinners. Not mention to minister God, men ran when God came. We can see obviously the mercy of God that He is willing to become man in Jesus and to die on cross to lift men up become priests having the tunic of ministry. For example is Paul, he was sinners but had the trust of God to minister Him.
   1 Timothy 1:12-13
   12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,
   13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
   There is no reason; the tunic of God is enough to give us priests’ offices whoever we are, even we are naked. We just need to receive it. The grace is evident that sinful men are saved by God and the mercy is obvious that sinners in fear and sorrow may serve God because he is willing to become a man to cover men’s nakedness. Paul was lifted up to become faithful and trustworthy minister by the mercy of God. Just remember how Jesus is stripped off so that we minister Him with His mercy through our being trusted and faithfulness. Soon after we become unfaithful and lazy, we have to remember Jesus’ nakedness on the cross is to cover our nakedness and to give us garment of salvation and tunic of ministry.
   How do we know if we obtain the mercy of God?
   • Being faithful and trustworthy to the end of our lives.
     There are two kinds of the end of one’s life:
     • dying
     • living till Jesus’ second coming
       Both life and death are settled according to the will of God; the most important thing is to be faithful and trustworthy to the end of our lives.
   • 1 Timothy 1:16
     16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.
     Becoming a pattern/role model/witness wherever we are:
     • to disbelievers for their salvation
     • to Christians for their perfection through the true teaching word
3. Peace = union and no separation with God
   What separates men from God and the others? Sins do.
   Isaiah 59:1-3
   1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
   2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
   3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
   Sins in the form of conducts, words, and thoughts turn away peace and separate men from God and the others. For that reason, nowadays we should make peace with God and the others.
   Matthew 5:23-25
   23 "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
   24 "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
   25 "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.
   adversary = God
   making peace with God = confessing sins to God by bearing any risk and not repeating them after being forgiven.
   making peace with the others = confessing and forgiving one another by bearing any risk. for example, a husband committing adultery with another woman must dare to confess to his wife. A man said to me, “If the man confesses to his wife, his marriage will be broken.” Yes, this is the risk, but I told him if the man confesses his sin because of the word of God, God by the Blood of Jesus will reconcile him and his wife. Also, if a man confesses his sin to us, we must forgive and forget it. This is called peace. As long as a sin is not covered by our confession, there will be no peace even though we live in a palace or even in the Garden of Eden. Satan always scares us not to confess our sins.
   Jesus is an innocent Man, but He willingly confessed men’s sins by bearing a high risk, that is, He had to die cursedly on the cross.

We must pursue peace from now on because sometime it will be taken from the world, seeing that after the revival of white horse (peace), the revival of red horse with big sword will take away the peace until there is no peace at all. There will be no peace between husband and wife, brother and sister, servants of God also in shepherding. Therefore, do not postpone making peace while there is Jesus’ blood that the chance is still opened.

Revelation 6:3-4
3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come and see."
4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.

The revival of red horse makes there is no peace in the world but hatred/murder only. There is no blood of Jesus to reconcile at that time. Therefore, we must seriously make peace because of the encouragement of the sword of teaching word, not of man’s command. Not being reconciled because of the sword of the teaching word, one will face great sword which will judge, not sanctify anymore. Thus, do not play about peace!
USA has spent tens of thousands dollars to make peace in the Middle East. Likewise, in Poso I met the regent. He said that five generals was sent to make peace in Poso. Such effort is done by men to make peace because all men long for peace. This is an example on how men try to create peace as everyone longs it. Men of the world try to live in peace, how about us as Christians/pastors? If we do not want to make peace, it means that we are less than the world.
One who does not confess his sins nor forgive other’s sins, not living in peace, he is a wicked who ministry God will not receive because it is an abomination.

Proverbs 21:27
27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; How much more when he brings it with wicked intent!

The wicked are those who do not want to confess sins / walk in sins and do not want to forgive the others, so that their sacrifice is an abomination to God. Seeing that, we should pray to offer to God an offering in righteousness and peace. Therefore, it is written in Matthew 5: If you bring your gift and there remember that your brother has something against you, lest you first offer the gift / give sermon / do any ministry, but first be reconciled to your brother!
Our Lord is called the God of peace and High Priest whose ministry is to have reconciliation. If we do not want to make peace, He could do nothing for us. By peace, however, we will reap these results:

• Romans 16:20
  20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
  God will crush Satan, which is the source of sins and troubles; meaning that sins are destroyed and troubles are settled. Satan always makes the good bad. So, if Satan is crushed, everything must go well. Peace is very important to face all problems, seeing that Jesus slept when wind and waves came. His disciples awoke Him, asking help from Him but Jesus said “Peace, be still” and all become calm. Now the waves of all aspects in the world become greater but we must stay in peace even more so that God will crush Satan, the source of all bad things.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
  23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
  The God of peace sanctifies our body, soul, and spirit little by little until we are presented holy and without blemish to be the Bride of God.
  sanctified = preserved
  pastors are not preserved by the number of congregation, but how much they are sanctified.
  Students of Lempin-el, who will preserve you in the field of God? Not the Church but God will, as long as we are willing to be sanctified. As the lesson about manna, each day each person of Israelites took one omer for five days, referring to sanctification of five senses. Servants of God need daily sanctification, not rice first, because preservation comes directly from God through the sanctification. God is able to give manna to His servant who does not have rice. He is able to give everything we need if we are sanctified.
  In short, we will by peace be sanctified to perfection as well as preserved directly by God in the world and in heaven.

By peace and holiness, we may see and worship God (Hebrews 12) until the last worship when Jesus returns the second time as King. There will be a great voice, crying out Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

Apostle Paul had experienced it.

1 Timothy 1:17
17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Just because of mercy, grace, and peace obtained, he could see and worship Jesus as King of kings and Heavenly Groom.

The same as Apostle Paul, if we have the grace, our sins will be forgiven. Besides, with the n\mercy of God we can have the tunic of ministry to minister God and with peace we can have holy and peaceful heart to see and worship God. Such condition will continue that we are sanctified until perfect as Jesus is and we enter into eternal joy.

Revelation 19:6-7
6 And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
7 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."

We will day and night worship Jesus the Heavenly Groom.

Brothers and sisters, let us keep these three matters:

• grace for our forgiveness
• mercy for our ministry
• peace for our holy heart to obtain God’s help and attention and to worship until He comes the second time, even until forever more.

God Bless You!