Jude 1:24-25
1:24
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present
you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
1:25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.
The epistle of Jude
refers to the covering of badger's skin in the pattern of
Tabernacle, meaning the protection of God toward the true church as
well as the separation with the false church. The true church and the
false one will be separated as wheat is separated with tares. The
false church that is as the tares seems faster in growth and higher
than the true church or the wheat, but someday they will be
separated. The wheat will enter into the barn because of prioritizing
the Word and the tares will totally be burnt.
The end of the
epistle of Jude is in the verse 24 and verse 25, namely about the
seven appearances of the Lord Jesus as follows:
- He who is
able to keep you from stumbling.
- He who presents
us faultless before the presence of His glory.
- God who alone
is wise.
- God our Savior.
- The Lord Jesus
Christ.
- Being worthy of
glory and majesty, dominion and power.
- Being eternal,
both now and forever.
We reread
Hebrews
13:813:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
What can prove the
eternality?
Hebrews
13:9a13:9
Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines.
The eternality is
proven with His teaching which never changes because the true
teaching is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We are studying
about the earthquake causing the islands and mountains shake in
devotion in Malang. There will be spiritual earthquake shaking the
sons of God about the teaching. Nowadays the Lord shows Himself with
the seven appearances up to the last one that He is the eternal God
forever. The evidence is His everlasting teaching none may shake
because it is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I hope we can
understand.
We have heard about
the seven appearances of Jesus as the seven lamps of golden
candlestick or the seven lights of glory shone to the true church.
The true church is protected and preserved or shone to undergo the
seven spiritual growths until being perfect or shown as the golden
candlestick. The seven Churches are shown as the seven lamps of
candlestick. I hope we can understand.
We will learn
about the seven spiritual growths in the system of Tabernacle as
follows:
2 Peter 1:
5-71:5
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your
faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
1:6 to knowledge
self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance
godliness,
1:7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly
kindness love.
- FAITH.
We have to have it first because our spirituality cannot grow
without faith.
The faith in Tabernacle refers to entering the
gate of heavenly kingdom
(http://www.gptkk.org/tabernacle_the+gate.html)
or believing in Jesus.
Romans
10:17
10:17 So then faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Thus,
the faith comes from hearing the Word of Christ or the Word in the
anointing of Holy Spirit. The anointing of Holy Spirit cannot be
limited by intelligence, time, et cetera. In the anointing of Holy
Spirit, the congregation can hear the Word solemnly until there is
belief or faith to the Word. We have to be alert with our manners in
hearing the Word of God because it is the core if we want to pass
through the gate.
Luke 8:18
8:18
"Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him
more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to
have will be taken from him."
The
time we hear the Word of God determines the growth of our
spirituality toward perfection besides the time we pass through the
gate. We cannot be perfect without hearing the Word. I hope we can
understand.
On the other hand, being bored, or sleepy or not
solemn hearing the Word, what he seems to have will be taken from
him. Meaning the faith is not added but decreased until someday
there will be no faith anymore, he falls from the faith. There is no
salvation because of going out of the gate of heaven. It is very
horrible.
Likewise, a pastor will preach the Word well if he
is in the anointing of Holy Spirit. The congregation will neither
understand nor believe the Word if the pastor preaches it based on
knowledge or experience.
- VIRTUE.
It
refers to the Altar of Burnt Offering
(http://www.gptkk.org/tabernacle_the+altar+of+burnt+offerings.html)
in Tabernacle.
It means good deeds related to the cross of Jesus
or Christ's sacrifice. The good deeds are not ordinary deeds but
they must be related to the cross. The good deed of Jesus is real
through His death on the cross to redeem humans' sins. All Jesus'
good deeds such as healing the sick people, et cetera would have
been meaningless if there had been no His death on the cross. It has
no meaning that a poor person can turn to rich person but s/he has
to enter into the hell. Therefore, all things must be started or
related to the cross.
Likewise, our good deeds must be
related to the cross. It means we repent, referring to the Altar of
Burnt Offering. Our good deed God waits is repentance or stopping
sinning to return to Him. Many people say that they do not need to
believe in Jesus or to go to church because they always do something
good. In fact, all good deeds, such as sacrificing or committing
service to the Lord, without the repentance are vain or
meaningless.
Repenting, we are being increased until we can
give. The repentance begins with throwing away the lies because one
cannot repent even s/he does not want to repent because of keeping
lies.
Jeremiah 9:5
9:5
Everyone will deceive his neighbor, And will not speak the truth;
They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves
to commit iniquity.
Liar is
lazy to repent even does not want to repent until s/he is unable to
repent as Satan because Satan is the father of liars. Repenting
means confessing the sins and not repeating them after being
forgiven. Therefore, there must be no lies in us, me first. This is
the meaning of the virtue, namely repentance.
- Knowledge.
2
Peter 1:5
1:5 But also for this
very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to
virtue knowledge,
It refer to
the Brazen Laver in Tabernacle
(http://www.gptkk.org/tabernacle_the+brazen+laver.html)
or water baptism. It is the beginning of what we hear about Jesus'
death and resurrection. What may we know as knowledge in the water
baptism?
Philippians
3:10-11
3:10
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
3:11
if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the
dead.
This is the knowledge,
that is to say we know Jesus, who has died and risen. We know Jesus'
death and resurrection through the water baptism. Thus, the water
baptism is important. It is not a ceremony in church but our
surrendering solemnly to Jesus, who has died and risen.
Romans
6:4-5
6:4
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.
6:5 For if we
have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we
also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
We
have been united together in the likeness of His death and
resurrection, meaning we experience the death through being dead to
our old life or life in sins, and we experience the resurrection
through having new life we get from the water baptism.
We
know His death and resurrection as well as we have to experience
them because there are many Christians, including the priests,
confessing in mouth only that they know Jesus but they refuse to
hear God's Word or become sleepy hearing the Word whereas the
faith comes by hearing the Word.
What
is the meaning of new life?
It
is heavenly life.
We
were born by our mothers to have worldly life in flesh and blood
that is suitable to live in the world with the limit for some years
and then we will be dead. We will live until Jesus comes a second
time if God gives us mercy, and we will keep being with Him if He
allows it to happen. Worldly life in flesh and blood is unable or
not suitable to live in heaven.
For example, we feel hungry
in our flesh but we will never feel hungry in heaven, as well as we
suffer pain in our flesh but there is no drug store in
heaven.
Therefore, we have to be reborn through water baptism
or being reborn spiritually by God to become spiritual life suitable
to live in heaven. We have known the kind of worldly life that likes
to eat the food in the world, but what is the manner of heavenly
life?
Heavenly life begins with heart
that has been changed.
1
Peter 3:20-21
3:20 who formerly
were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that
is, eight souls, were saved through water.
3:21 There is also
an antitype which now saves us--baptism (not the removal of the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God),
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
New
life or heavenly life has good conscience, namely obedience.
On
the contrary, worldly life in flesh and blood has disobedient heart
for sure. Here are the examples of life in blood and flesh who is
disobedient and rebels always:
- Children do
not obey their parents at home when their parents advise them, even
they rebel the parents because of supposing that the parents are
not modern.
- Employees
rebel in heart to the employer's order in the office.
- Students will
shout and protest when the teacher announces that there will be a
test.
Men like to
rebel, beginning in the days of Noah, even there were no children's
being saved because only four couples, referring to mature people
who have gotten married, were saved. Children were not saved because
their hearts were disobedient. Therefore, we have to be careful
about the children. Parents have to pray seriously for them, and the
Sunday school teachers do too.
How can the children rebel?
They do not want to hear the Word. They are quiet when someone tells
them a story or fable but they will cry when the Word is preached.
It is a kind of rebellion from the children, that is to say they
do not want to hear the Word until they become disobedient.
It is a serious matter. Parents have to pray for them seriously and
surrender fully to God because it has been proven in the days of
Noah that children did not want to hear the Word or they were
disobedient.
We will know whether our life is heavenly life
or new life from the obedient heart or good conscience. The
good conscience is a strong foundation whose functions are as
follows:
- To receive
blessings from heaven, namely spiritual blessings and physical
ones.
Do not think about the blessings first but the foundation,
namely obedient heart. We often say that we have not been blessed
with money, or spouse but we should think about the foundation
first. Having not strong foundation and forcing the blessings to
come, both the aircraft/ the blessings and the foundation/ the
person will be destroyed so all things become useless.
Let
us now not think about the blessings because the blessings are
God's concerning. What we have to think first is the foundation,
namely obedient heart as the strong foundation to receive God's
blessings.
A husband has to love the wife as the obedience
to the Word as well as strong foundation. A husband has not had the
foundation to receive the blessing from God if he does bitterly
toward his wife because he does not obey the Word. Likewise, a wife
has to submit her husband. We can imagine if a wife rebels her
husband and God gives her blessings, that she will "kick" her
husband. The wife must obey first. It means she has strong
foundation and then spiritual blessings and physical blessings will
come.
The strong foundation is not only to become the place
of an aircraft for landing but also for the second function as
follows.
- To become a
place of an aircraft for taking off.
Meaning the strong
foundation will orbit us or lift us up so we are employed or lifted
up by God day by day. There is no need of human's orbiting in
God's employment.
Fellow servants of God, we need no
politics to get position in organization. Let God lift us up in His
employment toward us as long as we have the strong foundation,
namely good conscience. We are lifted up continually until someday
we are glorified in the world and lifted up to reach the throne of
God. Being orbited by human, one will fall. God's employment
depends on the strong foundation, namely good conscience, and we
will be with Him forever. I hope we can understand.
In
shorts, the water baptism is to know
Jesus' death and resurrection, so we are dead to old live and we
are resurrected in new life.
What
is the meaning of the new life? It is
heavenly life, beginning from changed heart to become good
conscience.
- Self
control.
2
Peter 1:6
1:6
to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to
perseverance godliness,
It
refers to the Door of Tabernacle
(http://www.gptkk.org/tabernacle_door+of+tabernacle.html),
referring to the anointing or the fullness of Holy Spirit. Only Holy
Spirit can control our flesh because we are flesh and blood humans
who are full of lusts, emotion, ambition, et cetera, which will
burst someday. We may see a person with quiet character but someday
there will be an explosion because s/he cannot control
herself/himself. Only Holy Spirit can control our flesh so we can
control ourselves.
Here are the examples of controlling our
flesh:
- We can get
angry but we can control our anger.
- We have our
own will but we can control it because we have Holy Spirit. We can
wait the time to buy something when we have not had the money yet.
If we cannot control the will, we will owe or do anything to get
what we want. I hope we can understand.
Romans
8:6
8:6 For to be carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and
peace.
Holy
Spirit kills carnal will, which is death. Thus, Holy Spirit kills
the flesh will so we can receive the will of God although it is
contrary to our flesh will or it hurts our flesh.
The
Lord Jesus prayed in Gethsemane and there was an angel coming to
strengthen Him. The angel refers to Holy Spirit.
Jesus' will in
His flesh was obvious in His saying "Father, if it is Your
will, take this cup away from Me;" that He did not want to be
crucified because it would hurt His flesh and He had no sin at all.
Holy Spirit worked and he could say "nevertheless not My will, but
Yours, be done."
Our flesh will must be killed or thrown
away although our flesh is hurt, in order to do the will of God. I
hope we can understand.
Controlling ourselves so we can do
the will of God, we can live in peace. On the contrary, there will
be no peace following the flesh will, even spiritual death will
come.
In addition, there are carnal deeds Holy Spirit must
kill so we can receive the will of God and live in peace.
Romans
8:13
8:13
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will
live.
Galatians
5:19-21
5:19
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
5:20 idolatry, sorcery,
hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish
ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
5:21 envy, murders,
drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you
beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who
practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Idol
may be in statue or charm to create salvation or riches. Modern idol
may be something hindering us to commit service to God or to
pray.
Sorcery can be in the form or predictions like
horoscope.
Drunkenness begins with smoking, and consuming
narcotics. All of them can be killed only by Holy Spirit.
"will
not inherit the kingdom of God" means perdition in epistle
Romans.
Let us now control ourselves as follows:
- Flesh wills
such as emotion, and ambition can be limited and killed by Holy
Spirit, so we can live in peace.
- Flesh deeds
such as fornication, idolatry, sorcery, envy, et cetera, are killed
so we can live eternally together with the Lord. I hope we can
understand.
- Perseverance.
2
Peter 1:6
1:6 to knowledge
self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance
godliness,
- Godliness.
It
means committing service or bringing ourselves to come to God.
The
fifth is combined with the sixth, namely perseverance and godliness
or perseverance in godliness, that is to say perseverance in
committing service to God.
This
is the spiritual growth we get when God shines us with the seven
lights of glory. We get the spiritual growth as follows:
- Repenting or
entering water baptism. We have new life and good conscience or
obedience.
- We have the
fullness of Holy Spirit or the anointing of Holy Spirit, referring
to the Door of Tabernacle, so we can kill our flesh will and flesh
deeds.
- We persevere
committing our godliness.
This is the
real spiritual growth. Do not measure the spiritual growth by
ourselves. I often hear someone's saying that s/he has grown in
her/his spirituality. How can one grow if s/he is often absent in
church or sleepy hearing the Word? One sign of the spiritual growth
is faith by hearing the Word.
In addition, do not measure the
spiritual growth from the quantity of the ministry. The righteous or
natural spiritual growth begins with hearing the Word. We have to
pass the Gate first. It refers to the faith. Martha was busy serving
the Lord but He said that she had anxiety. On the contrary, Mary
only sat at Jesus' feet to hear the Word but He said that she had
chosen the best part. Afterward, we repent and have water baptism
and Holy Spirit baptism until we persevere committing our services
to the Lord.
Such is the righteous spiritual growth and it
must begin in a pastor first. How is the growth of his faith? Is he
bored of preaching the Word or committing three main services to the
Lord in perseverance? There is sign of spiritual growth if he has
perseverance.
Likewise, there will be spiritual growth of the
congregation when they have perseverance. Once again, I give thanks
that we have the teaching Word, so we can understand
clearly.
Perseverance means all
things are done continually, being unwilling to be hindered by
anything to reach final purpose. Our final purpose is perfection to
become the Bride of God or New Jerusalem.
Do not want to be hindered about it.
The perseverance in
service to the Lord or being shepherded in the Holy Place of
Tabernacle, in which there are three equipments, refers to the
perseverance committing three main services to the Lord as follows:
Satan always
hinders us so we do not persevere or we do not serve God. It has
happened in Old Testament and now Satan still uses the same
way.
Israelites were slaves in Egypt and they were commanded to
make bricks to build Pithom and Raamses. They were given the straw
to make the brick until Moses went to Pharaoh and said to Him to set
the Israelites free to serve God in the wilderness. As soon as he
heard it, he got angry and ordered to make the burden of Israelites
heavier. The quota of brick they had to make was still same but they
had to seek the straw by themselves. Meaning the facilities were
made decreased but the need was still same even increased so the
Israelites could not be free from the slavery to serve God. It is
the old trick of Satan.
Likewise, Satan hinders us with the
same trick in the last days so we cannot serve God. The facilities
are decreased but the need increases. The prices of many things are
higher so the sons of God or the servants of God cannot serve God
freely because of seeking the daily life needs until someday economy
is ruled by antichrist entirely. Many people do not want to serve
God because of seeking worldly things and they will worship
antichrist.
We have many necessities even they increase while
there are many difficulties to get the facilities. Let us now keep
our perseverance committing the service and ministry
seriously.
Hebrews
10:35-36
10:35 Therefore do not
cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
10:36 For
you have need of endurance,
so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the
promise:
There are many
necessities of the sons or the servants of God nowadays while the
facilities are difficult to get but the main necessity is the
endurance/perseverance because we find
the promise of God in the perseverance. It is the promise to
preserve our life in the world until He comes a second time so we
get eternal life together with Him.
Do not be fooled by Satan
because he perverts our condition, so we are made race to hunt the
daily life needs until we cannot persevere. Consequently, all things
will be used up even we lose both the present life and the eternal
one. In such condition, Satan claps his hands. This is the trick of
Satan, therefore we have to be very serious because the perseverance
is very useful to help us. All we need become God's concerning and
He works through our perseverance. I hope we can understand.
- Love.
2 Peter 1:7
1:7
to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
love.
The brotherly kindness
and the love are the perfect love, including the love to enemy.
We
still choose in our brotherly kindness, whether s/he is one tribe or
one family or one church with us or not, but it must be continued
with the love to all people, including to enemy.
Matthew
5:43-45
5:43 "You have
heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate
your enemy.'
5:44 "But I say to you, love your enemies,
bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray
for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,
5:45 "that
you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise
on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust.
This is the perfect
love, namely the love as the sun which God gives to good people and
to the bad or sinful ones.
One practice of loving our enemy
is we can pray for them that they can be forgiven and blessed by
God. It is also the kind of our spiritual growth. We often measure
the spiritual growth with our capability in preaching the Word but
it is not the measurement. The measurement of the spiritual growth
begins with our faith up to our love, that we can love our enemy and
there is no strife. We have had the faith, the virtue, the
knowledge, the self-control, the perseverance and godliness, and the
love. It means we know Jesus in His glory shining us with the seven
lights of glory or Jesus as Heavenly Bridegroom.
2 Peter 1:81:8
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren
nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The
Bride tidings shining us must be practiced through having the faith
up to the love.
If we are shined with the seven lights of
glory, our spirituality will increase, beginning with the faith. It
is increased to become the virtue, up to the love.
The results we
will get if our spirituality increases is as follows:
- We will get
the love as the sun or the perfect love from Heavenly Bridegroom
which will become a shield protecting and preserving us.
Psalm 84:11
84:11
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and
glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk
uprightly.
Wearing the shield,
one will be protected from all weapons miraculously because we get
the sun miraculously from God. We know nothing and the sun always
rises for us.
We may have nothing but we can be preserved
because of God's miracle. Do not be afraid because as long as we
can see the sun rising we can have the protection and preservation
of God in our growing spiritual life.
- The goodness
and grace of God that are as the sun help us from all problems. As
long as the sun keeps rising in the earth, the help of God is there
for us even when we face impossible matters.
- The glory of
God that is as the sun changes or renews our life.
Let us now have
the love as the sun as follows:
- Hearing the
Word earnestly.
- Repenting until
we can be obedient.
- Being baptized
of water and of Holy Spirit until we can control ourselves and
persevere committing three main services in shepherding.
- Loving God or
having the love of Heavenly Bridegroom, so we have guarantee for our
life.
The meaning of
the love as the sun is as follows:
- The
shield of God's protection and
preservation.
- The mercy
and goodness of God to help us
from all problems even the impossible one.
- God's
glory changing our life.
Revelation
1:161:16
He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in
its strength.
Jesus' face shines
as the sun. We will also be changed, beginning with our face or five
senses, two of which are ears and mouth, so we will never become deaf
and dumb.
The ears
are shined by the sun or the light of God's glory until there is
renewal to ears that can hear the Word, and we become obedient.
The mouth
is renewed so we can confess our sins, bear witness, and worship God.
If the ears and
mouth become good, God will be able to make everything good in our
life until we can become perfect as Jesus is.
Mark 7:37
7:37
And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done
all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to
speak."
The ears are renewed
to be obedient, and the mouth is renewed from mouth which likes to
blame other people and to say corrupt words to mouth which confesses
sins, bears witness, and worships God. The deaf and the mute can be
renewed and God is able to make all things good. Our future life,
marriage, and job are good, until we have the best thing when Jesus
comes a second time, that is to say we are renewed to become same
with Him. We are perfect to welcome His second coming. I hope we can
understand.
Let the light of
glory makes our spirituality grow until we get the love as the sun
through praying for other people hurting our heart, loving all
people, even our enemy.
God is with us as long as the sun keeps
rising. Hallelujah.
God blesses you.1