© 2012 Jasper Life Publications 1st Edition in English – May, 2012 1st Edition in Portuguese – February, 2011 Called to Promote the Faith Chamados para promover a Fé Translated from Portuguese with permission of Editora Árvore da Vida All rights reserved by Jasper Life Publications Inc. Jasper Life Publications Inc. 725 Viscount Road London, Ontario, Canada N6J 4G9 Phone: (519) 472-6620 www.jasperlife.com info@jasperlife.com ISBN 978-1-926970-35-6 Printed in Brazil All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Other versions of scripture are indicated as follows: NKJV NU‑Text New King James Version variations according to the twenty-seventh edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament and the United Bible Societies’ fourth edition ASV American Standard Version DBY Darby Translation lit. Literal translation
CONTENTS
Preface........................................................................ 5
1 The Faith.....................................................................7
2 Promoting the Faith..................................................21
3 Keeping the Faith..................................................... 39
4 God’s Economy Revealed by the Apostle John....... 53
5 Until We All Arrive at the Oneness of the Faith...... 69
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PREFACE
We are very grateful to God for the opportunity He has given us to publish and make available to you, one more book of our dear brother Dong Yu Lan: Called to Promote the Faith. In this book the author covers in a very special way the objective aspect of Faith—its origin in the Greek language and all its contents in accordance with the healthy teachings of the apostles in the New Testament. These teachings present the plan, the administration, the arrangement of God to dispense to man all that He is, has done and achieved. Only then can man do the will of God and establish His kingdom on earth. By reading this book you will see a bit of the practice of the church in Ephesus and of those who were called by God to promote the Faith: the Lord’s disciples, Stephen, the apostles Paul, Peter and John. From each of these experiences we can draw many lessons of life. 5
However, the responsibility of promoting the Faith is not restricted to the servants of God of the past. He now wants to make us useful vessels, ready to proclaim the gospel and bring many people to faith. For this, we must be those who receive the speaking of the Lord and practice it. We hope that the contents of this book may produce a positive reaction in the children of God to immediately practice these words. We know, however, that this capacity of practicing the Word comes from the Lord, and for this reason we encourage you to read each chapter with a spirit of prayer. “Teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith” (1 Tim. 1:3-4). Enjoy your reading!
São Paulo, March, 2011. The editors.
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Chapter One
THE FAITH
Whenever we hear about faith, we think about the act of believing in God, to believe in His promises. Even though this is correct, it refers only to one aspect of this subject in the New Testament, which is the subjective aspect, produced by God within us when we believe and receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior. We do not have faith of ourselves: “... and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). In this book, however, we will cover another aspect, the objective aspect of the Faith1. The word faith, of Greek origin, is always used together 1 The use of an initial capital in this book for the word Faith is intended to highlight that it refers to the objective faith, differentiating it from the subjective aspect of faith for which we used lowercase. 7
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with the definite article the when it refers to the items which we believe and that were revealed by the healthy teachings of the apostles in the New Testament. These teachings present the plan, the administration, the arrangement of God to dispense to man all that He is, has done and has achieved. Only then can man do the will of God and establish His kingdom on earth. Each country has a government which plans to a certain extent to dispense, to distribute its riches to their citizens. We call this plan its economy. One can say that, the better this dispensation or distribution of wealth, the better the economy of the country. This is also true in the spiritual realm. God has an economy, a plan which is to dispense Himself to us with all His riches and spiritual blessings. Therefore, in order to fulfill His economy, He needs ministers who are faithful to Him, to whom He can reveal all things that He wants to do. In the Old Testament, God’s economy was revealed through Moses. All events narrated in the fifty chapters of Genesis, as well as all the details of the law and the erection of the tabernacle in Exodus, were obtained by Moses through revelation given by God on Mount Sinai, during the period of forty days and forty nights when he was there (Deut. 9:9). 8
The Faith
In the New Testament, God showed His plan, His New Testament economy, to the apostle Paul. The Lord preserved his life in the midst of countless situations of danger, so that he would write in his letters about the economy of God that we may know and practice it today (Eph. 3:3-5; Col. 1:25). What great love and care God has for us! Paul received these revelations while serving the church in Damascus at a time when he traveled to the regions of Arabia (Gal. 1:17). There, according to his own descriptions, he received a vision in which he heard inexpressible words (2 Cor. 12:4). Perhaps he was also there for forty days receiving the revelations of God’s New Testament economy. In any case, the words that were spoken to him and the revelations he received had a great impact on his life and service. Before that, Paul knew only the writings of the Old Testament which he learned at the feet of Gamaliel, a teacher of the law (Acts 22:3). How could God use him with only the knowledge of the old covenant? But after he received the revelation of God’s New Testament economy, Paul boldly preached the gospel, raised churches and built them up. At the time of his ministry when he was directly involved with the churches, Paul wrote only six 9
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letters: Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans. Then, during and after his imprisonment, he wrote eight more: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. The first four of these were written in a Roman prison (Eph. 4:1; 6:20; Phil. 1:13; 4:22; Col. 4:10; 18; Philem. 1, 9-10, 23). After he was released from prison for a time, Paul took the opportunity to visit some churches and wrote the first epistle to Timothy, probably in Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3), and the Epistle to Titus, somewhere near Nicopolis (Titus 3:12); Hebrews and 2 Timothy were written during his second imprisonment in Rome.
God’s Economy Revealed in the Epistle to the Ephesians Among all his epistles, the one Paul wrote to the Ephesians can be considered the best in revealing God’s New Testament economy. In the first three chapters, the apostle detailed the revelation of this economy, and in the last three chapters, he covered how to practice it. Chapter 1 of Ephesians begins by making reference to all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. These blessings are of three aspects—the blessings of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy 10
The Faith
Spirit. They are the operating of the Triune God Himself in us, His chosen ones, in order to make us the Body of Christ, the church, so that we would be the fullness of God, the expression of all His riches (vv. 3-6, 7-12, 13-14, 22-23). The blessings of the Father are mainly related to Him choosing us before the foundation of the world and predestinating us to sonship [according to the original Greek], that is, to be mature children, ready to inherit His kingdom and reign with Christ. For this to become reality, the Son of God had to redeem us. In Christ, we have the forgiveness of sins through His blood. This refers to our being saved by grace—the blessing of the Son—who is heading up all things in Himself, that is, is putting everything in order, under His authority and government. Finally, we have the blessing of the Spirit, who applies in our lives all that the Father planned and the Son fulfilled in His redemption. We receive the Spirit when we believe in the gospel, and He seals us from then on, confirming each righteous act, every action made according to God’s will. The Spirit is the pledge, the guarantee of our inheritance in Christ. The more we contact the Spirit, the more the Triune God is dispensed into us and we are filled with His riches. Thus, we 11
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become His expression and fullness, the church which is His Body. Chapter 2 says that the church consists of people who were dead in trespasses and sins, but they were redeemed by the love, mercy and grace of God. Because we have been redeemed and have gained the divine life by believing in Christ today in the church, we are being worked on and carved by Him. God is the sculptor who is making us His masterpiece. Carving a rock involves removing pieces and cutting it with sharp tools. This means that the work of God can be a painful process. Several aspects of our being must be scratched, grooved or even removed. In the church, the Lord is carving us every day and will continue to do so until He reaches His goal (vv. 1-10). Chapter 3 of Ephesians shows that in order for God to dispense what He is and has, He needs ministers, who are like stewards who administer and dispense His riches to His children. Stewards help us to grow in life and to know God’s economy, practicing it in the love of Christ. Love is the expression of life. When we call Jesus, calling on His name, we gain life in spirit, and this life is expressed as love for people. Therefore, we should always call on this wonderful name so that 12
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our love does not become cold. When we call on the name of the Lord with the saints (2 Tim. 2:22), we receive life; thus, we are able to express love. Many testimonies declare this love among us. One of them is that someone was driving a patient to a hospital. Along the way, the tire blew out. The car stopped right in front of the meeting hall of the church, where the driver sought for help from the saints who were there. They immediately helped him. They put the patient in another car and took him to the hospital right away. Once they got there, they helped the young man to call upon the Lord. After some time he was well and as a result, all his family opened their houses to have meetings with the brothers who call on the Lord. Something important that was also evident in this testimony was that the church meeting hall was open to the public most of the time and not just for a few hours during the week for some meetings. This way, we can help more people to call on the name of the Lord and enjoy His rich word. The church is the place where we are grounded in love. By calling on the name of the Lord, declaring His lordship over our lives, each of us is learning to deny ourselves. Thus, we are no longer the center of attention, and our problems are no longer the focus 13
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of our lives, little by little the divine life grows and love for people is expressed. In chapters 4-6 of Ephesians, we have the practice of that which was revealed in chapters 1 through 3. Paul mentions the verb walk five times (4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15). In 4:1, he speaks of walking worthily of the calling with which you were called by God. Grace is implicit here. We must walk according to the call of grace. The second mention of walk is in verse 17: “…no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.” Futility in verse 17, is opposed to truth in verse 21. So the first type of walking is in grace, and the second, in truth. In Ephesians 5:2 Paul says, “walk in love, as Christ also has loved us.” Thus, we see that the third type of walk is to walk in love. In verse 8 he says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Walking as children of light is the fourth type of walking. The fifth type of walking is in verse 15: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.” How can we walk wisely? The way is by being filled with the Spirit (v. 18). In other words, we must walk in spirit. Therefore, for the church to be real to have the practice of the Word, our walk must be in the Triune God: walk in grace and truth or reality (Son), walk in love and light (Father), and walk in the spirit (Spirit). Praise the Lord! 14
The Faith
The Situation of the Church in Ephesus at the Time of Timothy Paul wrote the book of Ephesians when he was under house arrest in Rome. But before being tried by the Roman Empire, Paul was released for a period of time in which he took the opportunity to visit some churches. He hoped that, when seeing the saints again in Ephesus, they would be practicing the good and healthy teachings which he wrote to them from prison, which would certainly lead them to grow in faith. But when he came to Ephesus, he was disappointed with the condition of the church, for they were not practicing the words of the epistle he sent to them. Paul found the church in Ephesus involved with fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes and profit nothing. At the end of his stay, Paul decided to leave Timothy there to lead them back to the Faith, as he wrote in 1 Timothy 1:3-4: “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.” These words show that, far more than theological discussions or debates, we need to 15
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promote godly edification, that is, the oikonomia [according to the original Greek, which means the economy or dispensation] of God in faith (vv. 4, 4:6). The apostle Paul had much confidence in Timothy whom he had taught and who had been his coworker for a long time. Timothy knew that the Faith, which is the content of God’s New Testament economy, needs to be fully worked into our faith. That is, our subjective faith needs to grow until it comes up to the standard of the objective Faith, of that which is revealed in the New Testament. Despite their efforts, the situation of the church in Ephesus did not improve.
Be Children No Longer In Galatians 4:1-7, we see that during the time that the heir is a child, he differs from a slave in nothing, though he is lord of all. He must be under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. So after being saved, we also need to be placed in the church, the reality of the kingdom of heaven here on earth, in order to grow in life and be perfected by the brothers who shepherd us and help us practice the Word. This kind of equipping will certainly transform us to no longer be children who do not yet have 16
The Faith
firm beliefs or attitudes (Eph. 4:14). Being easily influenced and misled by what you hear is to be like children in the Faith. If someone speaks to them in a certain way, they get distracted and go that way; if you tell them something different, they go somewhere else. The reason some withdraw from the fellowship of the church is because they fall into the sleight of men by following their childish preferences and they are induced to express their dissatisfaction and criticism and become divided from others (2 Tim. 4:3-4; Tit. 3:9-10). Besides that, they easily isolate themselves because of being spiritually immature and have difficulty in coordinating with other members of the Body of Christ. Mature people are firm and do not waver. They are not carried away by arguments or by disagreements with other saints. They know themselves and they do not allow disagreements to take over their heart or their thoughts. In addition, those who are spiritually grown in life always seek coordination with other brothers to serve the Lord and accomplish His will. Because they live in the spirit, they are sensible, not letting pride dominate them and trap them in the snares of the devil (2 Tim. 2:26). They know their function and position in the Body of Christ and they value the function of other members (Eph. 4:16). 17
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Therefore, those who are grown in the Lord should help their younger brothers to grow in the life of God, lest they fall into the deception of those who want to lead them away with their vain talk. We must remind them that mere biblical knowledge does not mean spiritual growth. We need to warn them to beware of people who are proud, bragging because of their work and exalting themselves because of their skills. It is good to always remind them that spiritual service done by mere human effort or based only on human capacity, no matter how good it is, cannot please God. This was the example that Cain left us; because God was not pleased with him and his offering, he was angry, became arrogant and unhappy, and killed his brother (Gen. 4:3-8). God also wants to make us useful vessels, ready to preach the gospel and promote the faith, but to do so, we must avoid the error of the Ephesians. We need to be those who pay attention to the Lord’s speaking and practice His Word. Let us spend our life in the church with a sincere heart, serving with other saints. Let’s grow in the divine life, so that the winds of doctrine never lead us away from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ.
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