NREC 2011 English Session - Sermon's Summary

NREC 2011

Reformed Millennium Center Indonesia Kemayoran-Jakarta, 23th-25th Dec 2011

This transcript has not been reviewed by the speakers.

NREC 2011 23th-25th Dec 2011 at RMCI, Jakarta Preacher

Session 1 – Opening Ceremony Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong

: Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong

Why do we have this kind of convention? Why do we believe in God and why do we serve Him? As a Christian, we should not just want blessings but have union with Christ. We should live for him and bring His gospels to others, to lead people back to God, our Creator. Our ministries must always be renewed. What is the difference between Christianity with other religions? There are two kinds of religions: religion of being and religion of doing. Religion of doing is doing something to please God. But the Christian faith does what God wants us to do: believe in Him. It is not something that we do. The Bible says without faith, no one can please God. It means you should respond before Him. God created the material world, and some things have life, but only human beings are created in the image of God. It means we should be like God. We should think about our relationship with God, who is invisible but created us with the essence to understand things far beyond the phenomenal world. This ability is implanted in human being. Those who say they cannot believe, already have their belief, namely that they cannot believe. No one can please God, except through faith. Faith itself is a response. God commands us to believe in Him. We know that Abraham is called as the father of faith. But faith does not come from Abraham. God is the source of faith. Abraham sets the example for people who believe. Heb. 11:8-12 speak of one man, Abraham, whom God called. Abraham was different from the others. He responded to God properly. This kind of people is so few and so valuable. This man immediately obeyed the calling of God. By faith, he was ready to receive God's calling. So many times we are not ready to hear God's calling and respond to Him. But Abraham was a man of faith and had high-sensitivity to His voice. He had the conviction that God is there, so that we cannot run away from His presence. The problem in our disobedient lives is the lack of reasonable conviction of God’s existence. Abraham was called without knowing all the details of God’s plan. God needs not to tell you everything in detail, but we need to obey Him. We should admit how limited our understanding is. If one claims that he can know everything, he is too arrogant. You should say yes to the Lord before knowing everything. Paul says, I know whom I believe. Nowaday many people change the order: I want to know everything, then I will follow God. God will not use this kind of people. If God gives you the grace, He gives it step by step. The guidance of the Holy Spirit will bring you into the depth of God's mystery. If God can be understood by human beings, then that God is too small. Nowadays, in a church planning program, everything must be so organized. But the Bible is so different. When Jesus ascended to heaven, there was not one single program given to His disciples. He sends them to go to the whole world to preach to the whole nations. But not even one cent was given to them. Jesus said, I have all the authority in heaven and on earth. The will of God is that you should have the power, given by the Spirit, to be a witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and all over the world. It doesn't mean your family must be a Christian family first, and only then you may preach to others. Abraham is the example of all believers. The city of Ur was the biggest city at his time, possibly inhibited by up to 100,000 people. It had houses with up to 100 rooms. Abraham Page 1

NREC 2011 23th-25th Dec 2011 at RMCI, Jakarta

Session 1 – Opening Ceremony Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong

himself had 318 male servants. He was a very rich man. But he was called to leave his father, his city, his country, and go to some unknown places. And he obeyed. What if God called you to Madura and you have to leave your house, wife, and children? Abraham obeyed because it was God's will. People who understand God's will and do it are so blessed. I was called by God when I was 17. To enter a seminary was so difficult for me. But God's calling is never wrong. His provision is so beautiful. I learnt to obey God. I had been teaching for so many years. Then God called me to move to Jakarta. Why? I did not know. The call was so strong in my heart. I have preached here before. Why Jakarta and not just in Malang? I told my wife to go to Jakarta. I should go, and I brought my whole family to Jakarta and started Reformed Evangelical Movement. It is a movement, not an organization. It is not an administration. Movement is to move, not the body, but heart and the mind of people to the purpose God has prepared for us. It is so difficult for people to understand what I did. But my family obeyed me. I had no support from any church. First we stayed at a friend's house. Houses in Jakarta are so expensive. The money from selling my house in Malang was enough to buy 3 toilets only. But if you see my house now, it is much bigger than any other preachers' house. Abraham left when he was 75 years old, and died when he was 175 years. It means he spent 100 years traveling – a century of following God's plan without returning to his own land. God promised him the land. God did not tell Abraham the time. Abraham's response was only obedience. God does not tell us all. Yet that is faith, not knowing everything but still obeying God, total submission to God’s plan. The promised land was given to Abraham's descendants. We should have the same spirit just as of our ancestors, to obey in spite of the difficulties. A life in the hand of God is so valuable. Faith never fails, it always gets the victory, in the hand of God. Not according to man's evaluation but God's judgment. What is honorable in human system is considered nothing in God's eyes. Abraham followed and obeyed. His God is never wrong. He knows the future and He is the same God who holds your hands. Put your trust in God, and keep your heart calm and peaceful. Let us all say God’s will be done.

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NREC 2011 23th-25th Dec 2011 at RMCI, Jakarta Preacher Bible verse

Session 2 Ev. Inawaty Teddy

: Ev. Inawaty Teddy : Jos. 2

If we did not have Joshua 2, the story would flow fluently from chapter 1 to chapter 3, telling us about the spies. We want to know what happens to them, but Rahab’s story interrupts the story about the spies and the dire situation they were facing, like breaking news. Breaking news is more important than the story preceding it. Joshua 2 focuses more on Rahab's confession rather than her lie. It is her faith that we should ponder upon. In the NT, Rahab was mentioned 3 times. In Hebrew 11:30-31, regarding the fall of Jericho’s wall, Joshua was not even mentioned, but Rahab was. In James 2:25, Rahab was also mentioned, about faith with works. The writer of James only took two examples: Abraham and Rahab. She also appeared in Matthew 1 as one of the 5 women mentioned in the list of Jesus’ ancestors. Verses 8-13 are the center of the story. When there are dialogues in the Bible, it means they are very important. We need to hear from the characters themselves. What is so important about Rahab's faith? 1. Verse 8-9: the knowledge of God. Rahab had heard about what the God of Israel had done. She had some knowledge about what God had done. Before we believe in God, we need to have some knowledge. The Bible says faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Our faith must grow through increasing knowledge about God. Many people think you have to leave your brain outside when you enter the church’s door. That is not what the Bible teaches us. It is important for God’s people to know what God had said and done, so we know who He is. In Exodus 10: 1-2 the ten plagues were given so that God's people may know that He is the Lord. Not only God gives us His words but also His deeds. When things happen in our lives, God is teaching us that we may know more about him. God is revealing Himself to us. Every time we should ask, “What are You teaching me?” John 20:31 shows us that the gospels were written so we know who Jesus is. We have become a Christian for so many years. Do we know the story of His people and the story of the church in these 2000 years? We must have the knowledge of what God said and done. Having said that, knowledge alone is not enough. You may have knowledge and still not have faith in him. James 2:19 says that demons also believe there is one God, and yet they shudder for they do not obey Him. 2. Verse 11: more than just the knowledge of God, we also need conviction. He is the God on heaven above and on earth beneath. Why is this verse amazing? During that time, they believed not in one God but in many gods. Even now, all the religions that believe in one God do so because they believe in Torah of Moses, Christians, Jews, and Moslems. But here we see one Jericho woman, a gentile, who had not heard the God of Israel before and only heard about what happened in Egypt. Even God's people themselves did not believe so much in His sovereignty. The first generation did not want to fight for Canaan. They did not think their God is sovereign enough. In the world of Scripture, they believed our world is secondary world, and the primary world is the world of gods. In a war, the ones who win a war are not the stronger ones, but the ones with the stronger gods. 1Kings 20:23 tells how Israel was fighting against Syria. The Aramaic people wondered how their gods could be defeated by Israel's God. The battle was on the mountain, so they concluded that the God of Israel was the God of the mountain and their gods were the gods of the plain. They decided to

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Session 2 Ev. Inawaty Teddy

fight the Israelites on the plain. But we see that God, with a sense of humor, gave victory to Israel so they knew He is the Lord over all, mountains and plains. The Israelites did not understand God is a sovereign God, but Rahab did. I believe many of us intellectually understand God as the God of heaven and earth, but is it also in our conviction? How do we test that: How many of us believe in superstitions? Even in Jakarta, many office towers do not have floor #4. We have 3 and 3A. To avoid number 13, we have 12 and 12a. People have superstitions, even Christians. If we believe in feng shui, in astrology or “good date” to get married, we do not have the kind of conviction that Rahab had. If you believe in superstitions, you believe there are other powers besides God. You do not believe that God is sovereign. Our God is the God of heaven and earth. He is sovereign. Everything can happen only because He permits it, even the suffering of His people. 3. Verse 12-13: the evidence of faith. James says, faith without work is dead. We can see Rahab’s faith in her works. Her faith is so amazing. She puts not only her life but her household’s lives in the hand of God of Israel. She believed that Jericho will be defeated. She made the spies promise to save her and her household. That's why James praises her. We may consider Rahab as a new Christian, that she had only heard of what God had done in Egypt, and yet she could put her life and her family's lives in God's hand. Can we put our lives in God's hand? Or our career? Do we believe God has the best for us in store, or do we think we know what is the best. How many of us ask God, what course we should choose when we start our undergraduate program? Or when we get a work? Most of us say we believe in God but do not consider what He wants, what His will is. We usually choose the program that could get us a lot of money. We should understand that each of us has a calling from God. Our worship to God is not only on Sundays, but we worship God with our whole life, with our career, when we raise our children, when we serve our neighbors. Rom 12:1 says; present your body as living, holy, sacrifice. This is your spiritual act of worship. Our whole life is a worship to God: the kind of career that we should do, the kind of company should we work for. How can we believe He is sovereign, when we do not trust God with the important things in our life? Can we put our life into God's hands like Rahab?

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Session 2 Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong

: Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong : Heb. 11 : 1-6

When I preached in Russia, I asked the congregation about denominations. They answered, “We don’t care about denominations, whether Presbyterians, orthodox, Baptist... There are only believers and non-believers. So many of those who call themselves Christians do not believe the commands in the Bible.” I agree with them. Even children of priests, elders, deacons are not necessarily believers. Are you a believer? What should you believe? Unless one believes in God, no one can please God. A man who draws near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Since God is invisible, how do I know He exists? God already implanted a common general revelation in our hearts, a revelation which is clear to everybody. General revelation is given to man in two realms: the external testimony and internal testimony. The external testimony is the creation of God. The internal testimony is the conscience of our hearts. The creation of God manifests the glory of God. His power and wisdom are shown there. If you understand God's universe more deeply, you will know that there is no such thing as there is no God. If you do not believe in God, you need to have a bigger faith than the faith in God. The people who try to get the hidden wisdom of God are called scientists. Scio means to know. How do you know what you know? That is epistemology. How can you be certained that knowledge is possible? How to make conclusion of knowledge? I know because I discover, I speculate, I count, I reason, etc. Before you discover those things, they are already there. Science only discovers what God has created. 2+2=4 begins even before the existence of heaven and earth. You can learn it from your teacher, but this reality exists prior to the teacher. The knowledge is within your brain, but the knowledge needs not be there. When God creates everything, He is outside the created things. The Creator must not be held equal to the creatures. God is the Creator, not creature. He is above all things. There must be one Creator. By His great work we know this. It is the external testimony that God exists. Not only from that, but also the internal testimony from your heart, alongside the external, confirms that there is God. If you still do not believe, it is because you suppress the truth. If you suppressed the general revelation, probably you could not understand the special revelation. God had given us the inner and outer, the internal and external witness. Those who will come near the Lord must first believe the existence of God. People who deny the existence of God are atheists. They purposely reject His existence. If you are chosen by the Lord but suppress this knowledge, be careful. You cannot and will not be successful in rejecting God. It is like putting your hands over your eyes and proclaiming there is no sun. Unless you accept the existence of God, you will not have peace. God's existence is an objective fact. It will not cease being the reality simply because your theory tries to deny it. Just to know that God exists is not enough. You should believe in the grace of God; that He rewards those who seek Him. “If with all your heart you truly seek Me, you will surely find Me.” Are all religious people seeking God? Definitely no. They are seeking the blessings of God, money, wealth, security, but not God. That is why God says 3 times, I looked down from heaven to see if anybody seeks me. Not even one. They have gone astray. They never truly understand me. They never truly walk on the path. That is the reason you should make a decision to take off your mask and confess you do not love God. To believe the existence of God requires the general revelation. But people also need special revelation. The second realm of faith is to believe God's grace. How can I know God is the God of grace? By the written word of the Bible. Special revelation is the key to understand Page 5



general revelation. We can understand God through the word of the Bible. In the Bible, we understand how to understand everything in the universe. It is the key to general revelation. Special revelation consists of two things: the written word of God and the Word that became flesh – the Scripture and the Incarnated Word of God. God is gracious. There is common grace of God in the whole universe. And there is also saving grace, where Jesus Christ gave His own life. We become righteous people according to His grace. We become His own. We become the children of God. We call Him our Father in heaven. Faith is the belief in the existence of God and the grace of God. Man is created by God and for God. He is the source of our existence. Man is like our God, as we are created in His image and likeness. If you don’t believe in God, you cannot understand your existence. To exist is to be in front of God. You are created to face Him, to relate with Him, since you are created to exist before God. Søren A. Kierkegaard says this. We know that our existence is not absolute temporal existence. It is an existence to respond to God. You are not what you think. You are not what you feel. You are how you react before God. If you react wrongly before God, you will live wrongly. If you react rightly before God, you will live righteously for eternity. Only by faith you will be justified. You have hope for eternity. The grace of God transforms us. We are hoping to have life for eternity. When people say, show me God so that I can believe. This is a wrong presupposition. Is it true that after seeing God, you will automatically believe in God? Human beings already live in sin, so they are blind. Some people ask for proof of God, so they can believe. This is also wrong. Once, when I was in Amsterdam, a girl protested loudly against an Indonesian preaching the Gospel shallowly. She said that Jesus is ancient, and things like that must be thrown away. She studied philosophy and believed in logical positivism which says “things that cannot be verified in the laboratory do not exist.” Yet this logical positivism theory itself has not been verified in the laboratory. So what you believe is self-contradictory. You cannot simply reject the Gospel. Reformed evangelical is important, because it is not enough to be reformed. You need to evangelize to lead people back to God. “Reformed” without “evangelical” will die. “Evangelical” without “reformed” becomes weak. We should evangelize and bring more people to God.

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Morning Chapel Rev. Romeo Mazo

: Rev. Romeo Mazo

There are 4 kinds of people: ‐ Non-believer ‐ Growing believer ‐ Mature/advanced believer ‐ Serving believer Are we saved only to get into heaven? What do you do while living in this world? God has provided the salvation, and we cannot pay for what God has given to us. Even the richest man in the world cannot pay for our salvation. Why salvation is free? Because we cannot afford to pay it. But we can respond to this salvation. A patient in hospital asked me to pray for his healing and promised if he is healed, he would serve the Lord for the rest of his life. I wondered what if God doesn’t heal him; whether he realizes that serving God is a privilege. All disciples must be believers, but not everyone who calls themselves a believer is necessarily a disciple. In the parable of the sower, we see how not all seeds become a true disciple (full growth), even if they are received at first. Faith must grow into maturity. Faith is acting upon what you believe. Maturity is not the same as how long you have been a Christian. We will take the apostle Paul as an example. 1. Humility Rev. Tong defined a humble person as someone who keeps searching and studying the Word of God and applying it in his life. In 1Cor. 15:9 Paul confessed that he was an unworthy apostle, because he was the least, the smallest among all the apostles. In Eph. 3:8 he called himself the least among the saints. In 1Tim. 1:15 he is number one among sinners. We tend to feel good when we see someone worse than us. But Paul looked at God and recognized himself to be nothing worthy of the great grace given to him. 1Cor. 15:10 says everybody is given unique talents, and every talent must be used to serve the Lord. Whether you have one, two, or even ten; the more is given to you, the harder you must work and depend upon the Lord. In the Philippines I rebuked the people to return to God, instead of worshiping the Virgin Mary. One man was enraged and looked like he wanted to fight me. I thought, bring it on. I used to be a karate instructor. But later I realized I depended upon myself instead on God. 2. Compassion 2Cor. 2:4 shows Paul’s love towards the Corinthians. He urges them to love one another and forgive one another.

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Session 3 Rev. Timothy Conkling

: Rev. Timothy Conkling : Rom. 10 : 1-15 (Living Faith and the Evangelistic Pattern)

Two questions: 1. What do you really want in your life? If you can have anything you have, what do you want? 2. What do you pray for? Is the answer of the two questions the same? Paul prayed for what he really wanted, namely the salvation of Israel. When I was a child, Christmas is the time to give my parents a list of the things I want. Now as a father, my child gives me such a list, only now it is more expensive and difficult to obtain. After flying to California from Taiwan, hoping to bring back a play station for my kid, I had to fly to Hawaii to buy one of the last two play stations in the whole US. Too many times in my life, I want something of this world that money can buy. My desire and my prayer is not the same as that of the apostle Paul. His kinsmen are Israelites, whom privileges had been given. They should have known their Messiah, but they missed it. They have the zeal and strive for legalistic righteousness, work righteousness. They do not have the righteousness of God. We are sinners. We are not able to fulfill the law of God. We cannot attain God's favor apart from the righteousness from God. God provided faith righteousness for us: Righteousness that comes from faith in Jesus Christ, who died in our place and was raised for our justification. What do you pray for? We’re mostly concerned about our health, our financial situation. That is important, but I fear that prayer meetings are only concerned about temporary things. Where is the compassion for the lost in your prayers? Paul prayed specifically for his countrymen. I did not want to be a missionary, but my wife secretly prayed a different prayer. We went to the New Life Church, the church of many of the who’s who in Westminster Theological Seminary. Pastor Jack Miller would pray for missionaries by their names 15 minutes long. I prayed for those missionaries I never knew. We reached out to the Chinese students in the US. I started praying for China. In 1988, God moved my heart so that we went to Beijing, leaving our own house, the church where I was pastor. In Matthew 9, Jesus said to the disciple, pray that God sends workers for the harvest, for it is plentiful but the laborers are few. In the next chapter, Matthew 10, there were people being sent. Who were they? The same people who prayed. Who are you praying for? What is the result of your praying? I prayed for a former student every day 15 years long. He was an orphan and went through much hardship. His wife divorced him and in order to get their child’s custody, she hit herself with a hammer and told the police he abused her. After 15 years, on Christmas Eve, I interrupted our family Christmas tradition of reading the Bible, praying, and opening the presents. I had an impression God wanted me to visit the man’s grandmother who lived down the street. I went there, not knowing how I could even enter the apartment. But I met the man in front of the mailboxes. Not being his public school teacher anymore, I could finally share the gospel with him. I shared my faults and the change in my life. He showed me a gun and said he had planned to kill himself. But after hearing how messed up I was, he said, “If God could save you, God could save me.” He believed in Christ.

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Session 3 Rev. Timothy Conkling

Paul’s passion was for his countrymen. Verses 9-11 are the message of the Gospel in 3 verses. When God wanted me to go to China, my wife was going through chemotherapy. She said, let’s pray and see who God would bring up to take care of her while I was gone. A friend who was a registered nurse came in that exact period of time. I had only been 2 years in Taiwan and brought professional translators, but when I preached they became scared. I spoke in my kindergarten Chinese and seven people believed in Christ. One of those seven led another 200 people to Christ. The number grew so that I was faced with a dilemma, which group of people I’d minister to first. We can come up with 1001 excuses to not preach the gospel. But they are just excuses, not solutions. There are two necessary conditions for salvation: confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that “God raised Him from the dead.” One person said he believed in Jesus, but wanted to become a secret Christian. There is no such thing in the Bible. What you confess is what you believe in your heart. It goes together. In China such a confession opens the way for persecution. A man shared with me the hardship he had faced. Because of his faith, he lost his job, his family, his belongings, but he showed a wide, joyful smile and said he would do it again. It was worth it because he knows his living Savior. Sometimes we dare not share the Gospel, because our life is still messed up. In the period between Justification and Glorification, we live in Sanctification. Do not let what’s still wrong in your life shut us up. When people point to something wrong in my life, I will admit I need Jesus as my Savior. We preach an objective truth of the Gospel; that is, for everybody. Nowadays, I afraid there are 2 extremes of evangelization. First, those that are never personally saved in their heart. On the other hand, a lot of people stress on personal faith, subjective experience, but did not proclaim the fact of the Gospel. Throughout the book of Romans, Paul emphasized the theology of resurrection to show that Jesus is Lord. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. During my stay in Indonesia, my former student’s parent told me, “If you need anything, just call me.” First I didn’t dare and just texted him so he could ignore me if he so choose. He gave me his number and I called, and he did not only help me with our big problem, he took us to the most delicious seafood place. How did it come to that? Because I wasn’t afraid to call him. No matter how messed up a person is, God offers salvation. The God of the nations abounds in richness. It’s not enough just to hear the invitation; it is those who call which will be saved. Paul continued with a series of rhetorical questions whose answers are “They can’t.” After some time we might turn apathetic. We just don’t care anymore. I am concerned about my body. It is wearing out. My eyes, my ears don’t work so well anymore. When Paul talks about the body, he makes a special mention of the “feet” in verse 15. “The beautiful feet” is followed by two more adjectives: glad and good, because they take this message to the world. I pray that in this convention, that you have these beautiful feet to carry this message.

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Session 4 Ev. David Tong

: Ev. David Tong : 1 Pet. 3:15

1 Pet. 3:15 explains first of all the task of apologetics, in Greek: apologia. Apologetics is not being sorry for what we do, but the defense of what we believe in. Not being sorry about what we believe. Second, the task of apologetics is for all believers. It is not only for elders and deacons. It is addressed to all elected persons: you and all Christians. Third, the task of apologetics is to give reason. If you have NIV, in your heart set apart Christ as your Lord and “give an answer” is incorrect. We need to give reason. In Greek: logos. Our faith is one that we can reason for; it is a reasonable faith. Fourth, always be prepared for it. Always be ready whenever it is required. A lot of Christians are not only lazy, but not ready, because nowadays they do not understand what they believe. Fifth, do such with gentleness and respect. We are not trying to win the arguments. We are trying to win the person. Often time we win the argument, but we lose the persons. Apologetics is not for the arguments’ sake. Last, and more importantly, respect Christ as the Lord in your heart. Sanctify Him, let Him become the center in your heart. A lot of apologists have done apologetics, but not all arguments take the Lordship, the Deity, Triune God as the center, exalted Christ as Lord. Not all apologetics are Christ-centered apologetics. If we did not realize this, we did not really realize the power. In this modern world, there have been a lot of philosophical thoughts for the last 200 years. Modern people are influenced by Humian skepticism; by the secularism that is proposed by Kant; by positivism, that only material world matters; by Feuerbach materialism; by the process of becoming; by Darwinism; by Naturalism, that for everything an explanation can be found in the nature; by Materialism, that everything can be reduced to material. A lot of Christians have this kind of understanding. How do we make sense of our faith in such a world? How do we make sense of historical Adam who fell in sin? How do we make sense of the damnation of man? How do we make sense of sin? That Christ was born of the virgin? Ironically, some Biblical scholars also deny virgin birth. They try to understand the Bible naturalistically. They said that the term “virgin birth” is invented by the Bible writer only to explain the difference of Christ from every other human being. He is just a human being like you and me, but the difference is, He is the most exalted of human being. True Christians understand what virgin birth is: the birth of Jesus Christ from a virgin. Also, the concept of resurrection, second coming, etc. of Christian faith is thoroughly supernatural from end to end. But for modern world, this supernatural religion does not make sense. I reject the dichotomy between sacred-secular, religion-science. I believe that the only conflict there is, is between two different kinds of belief, two worldviews that oppose each other: Christian Theism worldview and the Naturalistic worldview. A lot of arguments try to prove that God exists as the end of the arguments. Let me give you as example the argument of the existence of God, the so-called classical arguments of Page 10


Session 4 Ev. David Tong

existence of God. Universe is complex, not simple. The universe is like a watch. Universe is more complex than watch, so the conclusion: there probably is a powerful designer whom you call God, who created this universe. A universe that existed by itself is impossible. Design shows the existence of a designer. Much more complex, bigger, so much more vastly is the Creator. Such designer is God. Now, do you accept such argument? The question is what’s wrong with such argument? 3 things: 1. They only talk about the possibility that God exists. It never argues for the certainty that God exists. It’s highly possible that such a God exists. The chance that the universe existed by itself is 1:10282; too small. It is more probable that God exists. Such an argument does not exalt God. It is not good enough. 2. If such a God exists, why should it be a Christian God? Why not a Moslem God, Buddhist, or Hindu? It’s not an argument for the existence of a Christian God. If there’s God, you can substitute this God and explain the arguments. Such an argument doesn’t exalt God or Christ. 3. If the existence of design of the world points out to the designer, what do you make of the designer if you see evil in the world? There’s something wrong about the world. It might imply that the designer is imperfect. This kind of argument can lead to a wrong conclusion about God. These classical arguments do not honor God, Christ. It does not give the certainty concerning the consistency of God. Cornelius Van Til rejects all these classical arguments because he wants to sanctify Christ in his apologetics. In exchange, he proposed presuppositional/transcendental argument. The beauty of a presuppositional argument is that, unless you presuppose the Christian Theistic God as the only God, nothing will ever make sense to you. The only way to sanctify and to make Christ holy is to sanctify Him from the beginning. The argument must start from a firm belief that God exists. You will not understand fully, unless you take Christ seriously as your Lord in your reasoning. Van Til reasons that Christ is the reason why you can reason in the first place. Christ is the reason why you can understand things; remove Christ, and you won’t understand anything. Not between facts and values, science only give facts, faith only gives values. The problem is to believe, presupposition. You believe God exists, I believe Triune God exists. The opponents, unbelievers, believe that God does not exist, their presupposition is naturalism. The way to argue forward is by presupposing otherwise. I will let you take your presupposition, but let me also take my present presupposition grandly. From this state, let us see which presupposition leads to a better understanding of the world. This is the beauty of Van Til. Only the Christian presuppositions lead to a better understanding of the world. By that, he also includes, Buddhism, Muslim, Jewish, all those presuppositions which do not believe in Triune God, will not make the world meaningful to you. My professor in Westminster Theological Seminary, Scott Oliphint called this: covenantal apologetics. The faith is not separated from this world. The fool says in his heart that there is no God. Deny God from your presupposition/argumentations, and that you can achieve is the probability that God exists. Even if such a god exists, it is not God. As for you and me, we are believers, our sinful mind has been redeemed by God. We understand everything through the light and saving power of Christ. Your faith, brothers and sisters, is rational; this makes everything reasonable.

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Session 5 Michael Liu

: Michael Liu : Isa. 6:2-5

Michael Liu started studying the Bible at 15, because he read the word of God, and the word of God spoke to him and opened his eyes. He started to give out tracts at 19, because he heard Rev. Tong had started to give tracts at 17. He thought he was a bit late. In age 22, he left God, he left church and everything he heard about the righteousness of God, and turned to his own righteousness. With self-righteousness, one day God will beat you down to such a degree where you can hope for no one but Christ. And, why is he here? He is not ashamed of the Gospel. Have you ever heard that you need to do every single thing that is possible to be done in order to please your God? Age 27, God brought him back to his presence. Today I want to show you the holiness of God in the Gospel itself. When the time has been fulfilled, it shall only tell us one thing: the Bible is trustworthy indeed. It should be accepted with full acceptance. God promised Abraham that there would be a son; a nation from his son, and this nation will bless all other nations, in fact saving the whole world. He gave Moses His holy law to urge people into repentance. Why is that that everyone needs to be led into repentance? It is because the standard is not ours, but His. Return! And go back to the righteousness of God. Righteousness is not in you. Psalms 1 said: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” When we see this, we see it in a worldly view, a legalistic view. Of course, God want us to be blessed. God in OT promised Eve, that from the woman the seed of salvation will come; and the seed is coming. The time has been fulfilled. Jesus comes to fulfill the Law. You who long for the Kingdom of God, let me tell you one thing, he has already fulfilled it! In Romans 1:2, the word “beforehand” implies that the time it is near, it is almost here. War will cease, blessing will flow. Is not ‘the kingdom is at hand’? God is holy, the kingdom of God is at hand. Do you remember in Revelation, the rich man shouts: “Mountain, rocks, cover us, because the kingdom of God is coming, the wrath of God is coming!” The kingdom of God is at hand. Psalm 15: God is holy, and who shall dwell on His holy hill? He who walks blamelessly. The non-believers, regarding many things, think that we deserve the holy reward, a kind word that we have done this and that. Two days after Steve Jobs died, I wrote in my Facebook whether he has heard the Gospel. But my friend said he should go to heaven, for he seems better than Christians. When Isaiah saw God’s holiness, he said woe to me, he knew his lips to be unclean, and he knew he did not walk in righteousness. Even Christians who think things that are holy, I ask you, do you always walk in righteousness? Then “speak true in the heart.” Most of the time the argument for our being good enough stops there. But we can still say I am blameless. At 16, I liked to read the Bible. I took it as my righteousness. “Who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.” We tend to look into our righteousness. Like the adulteress will laugh at the thief and said ‘You are thief,’ and the thief will laugh at the adulteress, and said ‘You commit adultery.’ We often bring this attitude to the church. “In whose eyes a vile person is despised.” God has saved me and forever He has put in the path of repentance. Whose eyes “a vile person is despised,” were you ever at the movies and Page 12


Session 5 Michael Liu

felt that the bad guys are cool? At the end of the movie, they have good endings. But do you love this? Do you ever despise them? “Who honors those who fear the Lord.” I honor Dr. Tong now, because he is the servant of my God. In the church in New York, they say to the people who fear the Lord, “Are you trying to be spiritual in front of us?” When a sister sings in the choir she will pray, “Please let me sing for you, God. It will make you happy.” Do you have that in your heart? “Who keeps his oath even when it hurts.” Many times we love being violent people. We forget that Jesus comes to saves the sinners. Do you ever swear to your own hurt? God has sworn that He will save us and will not change, though we turn faithless. In contrast, we want things that benefits ourselves, we do things that bring us benefits. But we speak about the holiness of God. “Who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.” You might say, “I am not a banker, what does it have to do with me?” We don't have holiness. A lot of time I don’t tell the Gospel to the person sitting next to me. That is a little thing that we do because “I am shy,” and we spend our own time with things that benefit ourselves. Satan often bribes us. There is a rumor going that Michael Liu studies the Bible 4 hours a day. That’s not true. I was reminded of myself 10 years ago, when I was self-righteous. I would have remained silent. If somebody said, “What a good person you are,” do you give glory to God or take His right? “Who does these things shall never be moved.” David knew nothing in him was holy. Though you know the things you must do, only one can fulfill it. The Gospel of Mark: The Kingdom of God is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is good news to the chosen people who repent. Is it good for sinners? For evil people? God's holiness will appear. Jesus Christ will come again. This is theocracy, God's rule. Psalm 2: When He comes, He will break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And in verse 12 said: Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. If Jesus Christ was just like one of us, he could not have fulfilled the work of God. Today we are talking about holiness. You probably think you know how to attain it. When we preached the gospel, we need to show the holiness of God. Do not be fooled to show a different Gospel. Don't show the holiness that you have achieved, but show them the holiness of God. We cannot say we have the life of repentance, unless you bear fruit daily. Are you comfortable to repent every day? Will you walk like Christ walk? The full course of a tree will bring the gospel’s fruit. Whether we read our Bible, when we say we really trust in the word of God.

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Sinful people have wrong presuppositions. First wrong presupposition: If I can see God, I will believe in Him. They ask for proof of God’s existence. This is the second wrong presupposition. Third, if you can let me think and reason about God, then I will believe. Fourth, if you can let me experience, I will believe. These four presuppositions are wrong; that we need to see, prove, understand, or experience in order to believe God. All four contradict the Bible. But this is common to the fallen reason of man. Bible’s teaching is different from man’s idea. In Isa. 55:8-9, My way is not your way and My thought is not your thought. Søren A. Kierkegaard said this is the qualitative difference between God in the heaven and man on earth. Kierkegaard gives 3 comparisons: heaven-earth, God-man, eternity-temporality. I make a conclusion: thought and way. Thought is something inside, way is something applied outside. Thought is ideology, way is the behavior. When you combine both, you have culture. I can tell 50 more definitions of culture, but nothing describes culture better than the Bible. Culture means ideology + way of life. In our soul we have ideologies and concepts. And outside we have daily behavior of life. Interior and exterior combined together is human's culture. Isa. 55:8-9 means the Word of God is superior to the human culture. If I can see, prove, understand, experience, then I will believe. These four presuppositions are wrong. The first presupposes that believing is the result of seeing. You have never seen electricity, freedom, democracy, independence, or the grandmother of your grandmother, but you believe them. Why do you ask to see God? The Bible says: If you believe, you will see. Read Heb. 11:1: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. You have conviction on what you haven't seen. The Bible teaches us: first you believe then you will see. This principle is shown in John 11:40. Jesus told Martha: Believe (first), and you will see the glory of God. I can testify to you that this is true. When I am old, my ministry is confirmed by God. People know that Stephen Tong is the servant of God, because he did not believe in the promise of human, but God. God is faithful, immortal, honest, and sincere to us. Those who hold on to God will never fail. Second: Without proof, faith in God is superstitious. This means you believe that God can be proven by arguments. The Bible never says you can prove God. That's why Calvin rejected all natural arguments: cosmological, teleological, ontological, etc. They are not sufficient to prove God. How can the unlimited God be proven by limited arguments? Arguments are great but still too small to prove God. The Bible said if you believe, you will get the proof. Human’s thinking is countered by God's thinking. Third, if you can let me understand, I will believe. What we believe, our faith, is reasonable. But rationality is not the cause of faith. Our faith is rational. Reformed people are rational but not rationalists. What is the difference? A rational Christian is the Christian using his reason to understand the revelation of God, guided by the Holy Spirit. Rationalists use reason to comprehend everything, including God, who is beyond our reason. God has given us reason to understand Him, and to stand under him. The biblical principle is if you believe, you will understand. Reformed goes by the motto “Faith seeking understanding” unlike some charismatic motto “Faith seeking blessing.” A true religion seeks after God. False religions make the effort to escape God.

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Fourth, if we can experience we can believe. The Bible says if we believe, we will experience God’s promise and presence. Our God is honest to us. He tells us the right methodology. When you search honestly you will find that He is right. In Heb. 11:1 we read: Faith is the certainty and assurance of that which I hope and which is unseen. The Bible says so clearly to us: Because you believe, you understand.

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Christmas Eve Service Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong


I want to share what Christmas day is. The Bible says, when the time has come God sent His son. 700 years before that day, God already prophesied through Isaiah of a child’s birth, who will be given the name Immanuel. What is the meaning of virgin birth? An unmarried virgin gives birth. This has never happened in history and happened only once. Why through a virgin? Gen. 3:15 promised the seed of woman. Because of what Adam has done, sin is inherited to all mankind. The second Adam, the last Adam, is not the same as the first Adam. The whole mankind is represented by two Adams. The first is the failure in the first Adam and the second is the obedience through the second Adam. The Word became flesh. God revealed Himself in flesh. Christ Himself became man, lived among man, full of grace and truth. That is the beginning of the gospel. This is the beginning of the new source of life. The reason of “Word became flesh” is that God wants to be with man. When Adam sinned, the whole mankind is separated from God. It is not that the hand of God is too short that He cannot save, but because of our sin. God is holy but man has fallen into sin. Man receives death as the wages of sin. Paul in 1 Tim. 2:5 says there is only one God, and one mediator between God and man. Jesus Christ was the second Person in the Godhead. The Triune God is something reason cannot acknowledge and cannot be accepted by Moslem. How can it be that one is three and three are one? God is one and eternal. This is what we accept as truth, whether we are Jews, Christian, or Moslem. These are the three greatest religions that believe in Monotheistic God. But Christianity also says God is love, not that He has love. Love is not only God’s character but also His essence. Before He created everything, God was alone, and He is love. Before the creation whom could He love? Only the Bible can answer it. The Triune God is one, eternal, and love was His essence. He is the Subject and the Object of love. God the Father can love the Son, and the Father can love the Spirit, and the Son can love the Father, and the Son can love the Spirit, and the Spirit can love the Father, and the Spirit can love the Son. By this Triune inter-relationship God has already exemplified His love. The love of God becomes the foundation for man to love each other. This is the basis for community life. The relation between men is based on God's inter-relationship. God expanded His love by giving His love to mankind, so that mankind can love each other. The inter-relationship is then possible. Since the relationship between God and man has been cut off, we have left the righteousness, the love, the holiness of God. That is why in this world we do not have justice, truth, righteousness, love, and holiness. We do not have the power to love the other. We do not have power to be just, no power to do good deeds, and no ability to live a holy life. But as the image of God, we still have the concept of holiness, the concept of goodness, the concept of justice, and the concept of holiness. Because of this, we can argue about ethics and morality. We have the concept of love, we can love each others. We have the concept of knowledge, we can discuss about education. We have the concept of justice, we can discuss about law. We see that all of these became mere theory; those who talk about love are full of hatred, and those who talk about justice are unjust. We talk about truth, but we live in wickedness. We are separated far away from God. We can only judge God and rebel against God. We are not willing to submit ourselves to God. This has become the history of the mankind. God has not left us in sin and not left us to rebel against Him. When we are far away from Him, He called

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Christmas Eve Service Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong

us to repent. When we lived in sin, He came to save us. What method did God use to portray His salvation? Through the incarnation of His Son, Jesus Christ. When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, Adam should submit to God, but he submitted to his wife, and the woman should submit to husband, but she submitted to serpent. Adam blamed God for the woman that God created for him, and Eve blamed God for the serpent that tempted her. The authority of God cannot take it lightly, that is why God cursed the land. However He gave the promise, that one day the seed of the woman, the descendant of woman becomes the enemy of the serpent. The serpent will injure the heel of the seed of woman. And the seed of woman will crush its head. And this story continues along the history. We are descendant of man. In all of our life, we are our father’s seed. We have received the original sin inherited from Adam. Therefore in the whole mankind, there was no seed of woman. Until Mary, when the angel said that she will give birth to a son, and He should be called the seed of the woman. Mary was a virgin, he conceived from the Holy Spirit. This was the work of the Holy Spirit. The Word became flesh, from the womb of Mary. Through Him the new nation was born. Jesus Christ is God. He came to the world and limited Himself. In history, there is one Mediator. This Mediator is the One who gives peace between God and man. Why did Jesus want to be man, with flesh and blood? So He could receive the punishment due to us. If He is only Divine, He cannot represent man and He cannot die. If He was only man, He did not have the power to die for all mankind. Why did He have to die? Because the wages of sin is death. Anyone who sins has to die. But the grace in Jesus Christ for us is eternal life. How is it possible? By experiencing the death, and gaining the victory. We can have no power to fight against Satan. We only submit to sin. But Jesus has died for us. He represented us and he won the battle on our behalf. That is how death is no more master over us. That is how we can be set free from the power of sin. That is the meaning of Christmas, of the Word becoming flesh. Nobody knew the time of Jesus’ birth. But we know for sure, that the Son of God came in our midst and dwelled among us. Infinite God once limited himself to be with us. Paul said I am what I am by God's grace. Paul said to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Today I have clearly explained the meaning of Christmas. This Christ that has come from heaven, has He come to your heart? The Bible says, He came to His own, but His people did not receive Him because of the human’s evil deeds. I could easily challenge those who rejected him; what wrong has He done to you? He was sinless and faultless. Mankind hated him, but He returned it with love. Man made him bleed, and He forgave man's sin. God loves you. That's why He sent His only begotten Son. He sacrificed His life in order to save you. Those who receive Jesus, will be received by the Father. God gives them the right to become the children of God. Are you willing to open your heart, to humbly come before God?

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Session 7 – Closing Ceremony Rev. Dr. Stephen Tong


We are men of faith, descendants of Abraham, accepted by God. We have nothing to boast other than Jesus, because God accepted us through Jesus. When God sees us, we have nothing good, we oppose Him. When God sees Jesus, He sees His beloved Son. How come we are accepted? Jesus was the second representative of man. The first one is Adam. Evangelism is to move people from the first representation to the second representation. If people follow Jesus, they have hope of life. How do we obtain faith? Yesterday we talked about four wrong presuppositions. But it is not because I see, I proof, I experience, that I believe. The Bible says because I believe, then I see God, I get testimony, I can understand Him, and I experience grace and power of Him. So it starts from faith. The starting point is faith and the ending point is faith. First, when we believe Jesus, faith is given to us. So many people think faith is a product of man. The Bible does not say that. The Christian life is a new life to believe in Jesus. After we believe, we enter a journey to follow Him and obey Him until the end point of faith. Who makes this possible? Heb. 12:1-2 give us the answer. Verse 2 says Jesus is the founder and perfecter of faith. He was in the world as example to obey. So He endures the cross, a cruel terrible punishment of men. So to serve people you need to go through suffering. You see the true joy through suffering. The joy is in the end of suffering. His cross ends with glory of eternity. Verse 2 says shame, which is the shame of the cross. The cross is shameful, naked, and bleeding. And verse 2 ends with sitting at the right hand. What does it mean? It means acceptance from God, acceptance of His obedience, offering through crucifixion. What is the meaning of the throne? Victory. Jesus is accepted as the victorious general of war. Jesus brings us back to God. The throne also means power to rule. Jesus will guide us. So as Christians, as we follow Jesus, we will struggle, but Jesus is the perfecter of our journey. We are called descendants of Abraham. It means the One who starts is the One who finishes. Even though we are weak and we fail, but He is more powerful to accomplish. I hope that you can bring this message in your heart. Nowadays so many people are blurred to what Reformed faith is. In this convention you are being taught to know what Reformed faith is.

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NREC 2011 English Session - Sermon's Summary

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