My Journal

New International Version
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Tim Keller had said this in 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmaUtbayGY

However, according to Stephen Tong, in his KL 2020 sermon, Keller seemed to have implied that Christians don't necessarily face pain. Perhaps a slip of mind. Of course, Keller never really emphasizes pain as something we should thrive above with God's grace. More like "just hang on and trust God" part of the truth.

Claims 11,000 viewers on average on Chinese & Indonesian services combined weekly. Exceeded the Roman Catholic churches in Indonesia.

The expository on this passage is far superior than that of John MacArthur, etc. Those who fell for the trap of legalism: You have an affair, I can now divorce you legally, with clean hands. Very few of these preachers touch on the forgiveness of the spouse who had an affair. Though Tong definitely did not critic on divorce harshly here, perhaps due to Ahok's case, when touching the seriousness of marriage, he referred to Hebrews 13:4. Broke that verse down into 3 parts. Emphasized on the first word "Marriage" so strongly that he even corrected the interpreter's translation which did not put the word "marriage" in the beginning of his sentence to make it stand out by phrasing it in passive form.

v. 32: Once everyone learns of the exception clause "saving for the cause of fornication", they love it as an excuse to divorce their spouses, so that they can be "free" again, to go out with whomever they wish. But in the previous verse, Jesus once again used the phrase "It hath been said"...meaning this is human's interpretation of God's word. Thus, it is flawed or in this case, insufficient. For Jesus gave an incredibly deep lesson in this verse. That those with ulterior motives are clearly proven to be sinful as they only cared about themselves, they do not care about the well being of their spouses. They do not care about their neighbor. They defended themselves with the law. It is not perfect in God's eyes. There's no forgiveness, it is not Christian.

In this verse, there's a cause and effect. Cause is, wife committed adultery, but the effect is you make her commit adultery even more. You didn't solve the problem, but you've created new problem. Thus, outside Christ's salvation, sin cannot be solved. Here also confirms that Jesus affirmed that divorce although is not something can be avoided by all.

However, this is not God's heart. Otherwise, there will not be salvation upon the Adam and Eve and their descendants.

Tong: I cannot say you shouldn't follow the law justify your divorce, but is this the best option?

You can do it, justify yourself by the law, as Tong recollects a pastor's message...but if this problem can be resolved by simply divorcing her when she commits adultery, then that means that there are sins such as these, that cannot never be forgiven. This is not the principle of the Bible. There should be forgiveness, hope for repentance, return to the original love, union.

We should find the best principle from the Bible to obey God and follow His heart. Instead of turning the law of God into a human cultural regulation that's no after God's heart.

Ancient China has 7 great reasons for divorce （七出三不去）:
1. No child
2. Always quarreling
3. Talkative wife
Tong gave only 3.
4-7：不顺父母 (probably same as #2)，淫，妒，有恶疾，窃盗
那三不去也挺有趣的：三不去包括：一、“有所娶无所归”：指妻子无娘家可归；二、“与更三年丧”：指妻子曾替家翁姑服丧三年的；三、“糟糠之妻不可弃”：指丈夫娶妻时贫贱，但后来富贵的。

Multiple wives was practice as a side way against the rules against divorce in China's tradition. As an excuse not to "offend" the first wife or to keep the reputation of not divorcing. Such is for self-satisfaction, reputation and not act act according to the truth.

Tong: Such is the difference between Chinese culture and Western culture:
Western: Don't like spouse, get rid and get new one. So always just one wife.
Chinese/Eastern?: Many families with multiple wives.

Examples of marital struggles in the Bible:
Tong: The most foolish thing a woman can do in this world is to introduce another woman into her husband's room. God created a woman with a narrower heart than a man for a purpose: The create a perfect family without the intrusion of sin. Unfortunately, Sarah equated God's will to her own will.
When Hagar became Abraham's child bearer, could Abraham divorce Sarah? One night became thousands of years of wars.

2nd example: Joseph, who had no opportunity to marry one from his own people. He had to marry an Egyptian. But he never sinned in this.

3rd example: Moses, who was accused of marrying an (possibly) Ethiopian, a black woman. Not of Israel. But he did no wrong and Tong believes that he committed no sin against marriage though the Bible did not clarify.

4th example: Samson. Is he a womanizer? No. But he loved Delilah too much, the product of the gentiles, which does not accord God's will. Samson's love for a gentile woman, is of the Lord...so hush. (I've only found this verse in Judges 14:4, where it's the woman in Timnah, not Delilah the harlot, in fact the Timnath woman was Samson's only wife of his life, perhaps Tong got this mixed up, because I don't see what else I would have missed) Note that not all our marriages are of God's will.
God's 4 wills:
1. Eternal Plan = You abide, you're blessed.
2. God's guidance in history = While you're confused. God shows his love by guiding you to His eternal will.
3. God's permission = When you do not obey, when you rebel, God allowed you to proceed. Lots of marriages are like that. Not of God's plan, not of God's guidance in history, but temporal allowance of God. Man often thought he's in God's guidance, but actually just to please himself. Samson is likely such example. He loves Delilah, but not God's will. He's attracted to her. God allowed. This kind of allowance is 2nd of the two cases in the Bible. First was when God allowed Israel to split with Judah. Usually don't end well.

Don't critic people's divorces too much. Nothing else we should be doing other than grieve and pray that God will blessed they separate lives that may still continue to love God. If they remarry, we hope that they will have a better marriages and lives. There's only one man that's after God's own heart, so though David committed adultery and killed Uriah, in other words, none of us is more favored by God than David in the entirety of our lives. God nevertheless blessed David's descendants => Jesus. Must God bless through such heinous sin to the conception of Christ?
Tong: I won't touch on this, but instead I will speak that even after horrible sins, God can still bless you, your descendants. Of course, Jesus Christ was not completely descended from David, for He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Thus, Christ did not inherit the curse of Adam and Eve.

Now let's look at Paul. Was he celibate? Pharisees must be married (I'd researched and questioned this before, in previous entries, that the members of Sanhedrin though are better married but not required. A married man is preferred because he's more merciful.) So Paul must be married. But he had no wife in his ministry. So where's his wife?
1. Died and he vowed not to marry again.
2. Wife splits with him after his conversion as she remains in Judaism. Tong believes that Paul may have been divorced. Paul once said, if wife does not follow husband's conversion, let her be, even separate. So if that's the case with Paul, we can only use this teaching to understand Paul's situation.

Thus far, Joe Yu has given great responses on multiple occasions. I was impressed starting last week's.

This week: Great responses especially by Joe Yu on ethnic churches & wearing masks...

https://www.youtube.com/embed/DRG_mJXhW00

Psalm 122:1 I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. 

A good verse for a Covid19 situation, where everywhere is in lock-down.

I have the recordings in both Mandarin and Bahasa.

Incestral relationships were against God, though permitted for animals. Particularly Spain, lots of such relationships in the royal families, for they cannot marry a commoners. Thus, King Edward VIII who fell for an American divorcee had to abdicate his throne (voluntarily) in 1936 - Per Tong.

God placed most sensitive organs in sex, physically and emotionally.

Tong: Adultery = Any heterosexual relationship outside of the proper one.

Two types of Adultery:
1. Pre-marital Sex. God's law forgives (if you were not married and be responsible for your sin) such and they must be married. Tong: There's a "Deon" Society in France, announced (1860) huge reward to those married couples who were proven virgins before marriage. No one claims it for 100 years. In the 1500s, the Magellan voyages brought many European sailors home after contracted Venereal Disease, VD from prostitutes around the world, and infect their wives. Europe, the only Christian place in the world at the time, was in trouble. 500 years later (1928), penicillin was shown to cure VD. This discovery happened between World War I & World War II, (1928). 500 year punishment from God.

The physical freedom of human kind is superior to all animals. We can hug, etc.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery" from God vs. from men. They are different. If one's sexual lifestyle does not break the rule of family, this is God's will, otherwise, it's considered adultery.

Homosexuality: Our skin is double layered, except for the anus. So, when gays have sex, it will cause injury. This unholy behavior brought AIDS, God's punishment in Romans 1.

After the discovery of penicillin that cures the 500 year VD, instead of repentance, more daring sexual sinful acts were committed and thus, in the 70s, God allowed AIDS which has no cure until today.

Look proper. David's example was brought up.
Tong: Women, bath with door shut tightly, preferably do not sing. David's one look, had 4 children died.
Job 31:1 我与眼睛立约，怎能恋恋瞻望处女呢？Tong: Meaning before marriage, my eyes are permitted, because I need to choose a wife, but after marriage, NO.
Therefore, beware what you watch, one false look falls into the devil's hands.

v. 28 Tong: Lust = when you look on a woman married to someone else. For if both are unmarried, for the purpose of marriage, it is ok to "lust".

More on to be continued in next week's sermon.

I have the recording.

This is the summary of the Mandarin version.

The Law reveals 3 natures of God: Justice, Holiness, Kindness (motive of the law giving of the law giver).

From the Law, if one sees God's heart, he surpasses the Law.

Augustine & Martin Luther's righteous war concept allowed killing.

John 8:11 on "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.", NT reveals that the salvation of Jesus is here and he wasn't condemning but to forgive at the time.

Contrasting v. 21: "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill" vs. the 6th Commandment:
Same but not the same. One of men (i.e. Moses, preachers, man's interpretations), the other of God. Do not absolutize the word of man using the Word of God.

Example of Copernicus vs. The Church on heliocentric was brought up on the Church's false interpretation of the Word.

1905 The revival of Azusa Street from 5 people to 238 millions of the fake holy spirit revival also brought up as the fake apostolic revival, against the True Word of God. Resulting in the spread of Prosperity Gospel. And now God is using Covid19 to deal with them because when they stream live, they have no good sermons to preach, as they've shortened their sermons for entertainments. And GRII now has 8k-9k local viewers online (foreign viewers number cannot be determined?).

How can any religion teach proper human inter-relationship, unless it learn it from above - The Trinity example!
(My thought: Many American preachers now focus on respecting human rights based on the doctrine of Imago Dei But this is less than the Trinity!!!)

Jean-Paul Sartre was mentioned. His famous principle: Do not let others determine your value, you determine it yourself! Thus, he refused the Nobel prize, because, according to Tong, he refused his value to be determined by the Nobel. Tong admired him able to do what he preaches. But Tong said that he learned later that the true motive of Sartre's refusal of the Nobel was due to his jealousy of his rival Albert Camus who won the Nobel before him. Thus, showing his famous philosophy: "L'enfer, c'est les autres", usually translated as "Hell is other people." Fitting verse 22.

Sartre's "every existence is a lonely island" -> individualism. He said one should run over a old lady who's in the way if you're driving in heavy rain, because of the risk of accident that's going to cause you harm, per Tong on one of Sartre's writings.

Covid19 taught us much lessons. It forces us into separate "islands". Tong has phoned old members (and donating to those of musicians who obviously have no job now) to check on them. We must have interpersonal relationship, to care one another.

v. 22, now we can touch on imago dei. (Although Tong never used imago dei in this sermon, but simply, "created by God") Treating a person so low is not just insult to him, but actually an insult to God, for God created him. Raca is the insult to the person's mind, while Moros is an insult to the person's heart. When one devalues a person as such, it's equivalent to killing.

Jesus already corrected this: Do not use your love for God to love others (for our love for God changes often). But use God's love for us to love others. Another principle better than imago dei on loving others.

v. 23-24. Tong's hymn: 無論何處去我心已備妥, was based on a reminder of him seeing a British missionary lady bathing in the river, as he recollect her love for the locals, and himself following the example in his missions where on one occasion he was nearly bitten by a cobra as he came out of the waters had not someone threw a rock at the snake, as he was walking in the forest studying the Bible pondering on the love of God, the tune of that song came to him, as a principle, when one thought of a tune or some important idea, it must be taken down immediately or else one will lose it in a short time. But Tong couldn't find papers in his Bible to write with his pen on, so he wrote on a leaf, which he had wished to keep for good for sentimental value but it's gone now. So likewise, reconcile with your brother QUICKLY!

Why Jesus mentioned sacrificial altar along with "thou shalt not kill"? Because the first murder of a BROTHER is committed due to the sacrificial altar.

Tong: If you don't like a person, you can dislike him, but you cannot unreasonably scold him. You should see him as God's creation and value him as such. Jesus, unlike us, when seeing a lame, a blind, we call them the blind is here, behold the lame, etc. In John 9:1 "he saw a man...blind". Parents should also refrain from scolding their children as such (raca, moros).

Carlos Kleiber mentioned. Famous conductor, a match for Herbert von Karajan (Karajan even gave his spot to Kleiber when Kleiber showed up in public) or Leonard Bernstein. Living poorly due to his refusal to conduct much, because his father despised him.

Reflection: I certainly should try my best to reconcile with anyone I've harmed in such manner. And to show love and care to those around me, starting with church members and family. May God have mercy upon me. Amen.

Today, my wife and I as usual in these past weeks, did online service via Redeemer's LSQ's online. Chuck Armstrong was the one preaching. I won't comment this time on Chuck's sermon as it's similar to the majority of Redeemer. I would add that I still think Joe Yu's foundation is firmer and has better message.

I've enjoyed their Q&R in these last 2 weeks, and have recorded them. Today, Jeff Yu answered a question (regarding his stands against "Jesus does not picket against the government") beautifully.

We visited Holmdel Park for the first time. About 10 min drive from home. Google Map shows that this park would look great in the Fall with the Fall color. It has a clean lake, which we walked around after a full meal of fried chicken from Walmart. It has a hiking trail which we didn't try but I intend to next time. Lots of families doing fishing by the lake. There's an interesting majority of Jews.

Recalling we've also visited Cheesequake Park a day before (Saturday), doing the Blue Trail (3rd longest = 2 miles). We did the shortest (Yellow), Red trail, and now the Blue one. Last one, Green Trail, will we attempt next time, as it's the last trail and the longest (3 miles).

Also recalling, about a week ago, we went to Gasko's Family Farm for the first time and bought some plants for outside our house. Joe our neighbor was right indeed, Gasko's the greatest in the area...the space is just like Costco, if not bigger.

Prior to that, probably on a Saturday (I think we visited Gasko on Sunday), we visited a new farm just slightly further than the one we checked out last year (Giamarese Farm & Orchards: for weighted strawberry & sugar pea picking). We visited the Von Thun's Country Farm this time. Bought the reservation online as it's claimed to be required on the website (not sure if that's true as I had the feeling not everyone reserved and paid online). $18 total ($6 each of 2 bucket that holds a bit more than 1 lb, $3 each for entrance). Flat fee, not weighted like Giamarese.

Now before I sleep, I listen to catch up with Dr. Tong's 5/31 Chinese sermon in GRII and here's some brief notes:
3 phases of change in convert's life:

1. knowing Christ. Accepting Christ. Become spiritual. All Christians should experience this. Jesus is the Savior in one's heart, the authority of one's heart. (Christians)
2. Change of life, love studying Bible, prayer. Having relationship with the Lord. (Growing Christians)
3. Following reformed principle. Most Christians don't have this as they don't care too much about the truth. (Reformed Christians), a life that's in union with Christ.
4. Filled with the Holy Spirit.
   

"The spirit is willing but not the flesh": Getting the calling of becoming a preacher vs. not actually doing it. A sign of not being filled by the Holy Spirit. ~ Tong.

Any one who doesn't focus his work/message on glorifying Jesus, is not filled by the Holy Spirit ~Tong.

Did the government shut the door of the Gospel? Not it's internal, Christians' fault for shutting their door from outside ~Tong.

A week before that, 5/24, Tong's Bahasa sermon mentioned Tim Keller, DA Carson in KL which he also attended (around January 2020). And that Tong objected to Keller and Carson's assessment that Christians can live without suffering today. Tong claimed that Keller and Carson, after listening to Tong's sermon criticizing this point, changed their teaching to adhere to Tong's "suffering is a necessity to a Christian life". The Mandarin service did not have this part about Keller in KL. I sure hope I could find that KL recording. Already emailed info@kl2020.com for possible recordings to purchase.