Dear saints,
It is the time of the year again when the whole world is eagerly looking forward to and busy preparing to celebrate Christmas. Most people celebrate Christmas on Dec 25th which is claimed to be the birthday of the Christ child. However, this date is by no means accepted by all those who observe and celebrate Christmas. A significant minority of those who are part of the Eastern Orthodox churches in Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia Minor do not celebrate Christmas on this date but on either 6th or 7th January However, there is very wonderfully absolutely no record anywhere in the Bible of the exact date when Christ was born. Is this not wonderfully strange? Would not someone who wants us to remember his birthday and celebrate it every year leave us a record of exactly when he was born? However, neither did Christ nor those any of those disciples who knew Christ very intimately and were eyewitnesses of His majesty (2 Pet 1:16) leave us such a record anywhere in the Scriptures, or in any of their other writings, or in church history.
The classic King James Version of the Bible has 66 books and 1189 chapters. There are 23145 verses in the Old Testament and 7957 verses in the New Testament giving us a grand total of 31102 verses. We cannot find a single verse among all these verses nor any portion among all these chapters which tells us the exact date of Christ's birth or from which it can be derived with certainty. While there is absolutely no Scriptural record of the exact date, we thank the Lord for leaving us a "carefully investigated" record of His birth based on eyewitnesses accounts. This brief but absolutely accurate. straightforward and surprisingly detailed narrative of the Christ's birth is found in the gospel of Luke chapter 2 verses 1 to 20. Luke tells us that he wrote this account only after "having carefully investigated all things from the first". "All things" refers to the events of Jesus birth, life, ministry, teaching, death, resurrection, and ascension. When Luke wrote his gospel, there were already many oral traditions and more than one written narrative regarding these events (Luke 1:1). Luke carefully investigated them all by seeking out and hearing from those who "from the beginning were eyewitnesses" to all these events. He heard from the first group of New Testament believers who were with the Lord during His ministry on earth. He then wrote his carefully investigated narrative "in an orderly fashion" in order that "we may fully know the certainty of the things concerning which we are instructed" (Luke 1:3-4) and not follow some cleverly devised myths (2 Pet. 1:16). Luke 2:8 reads : "And there were shepherds in the same region, spending their nights in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night." From Luke's record, it is clear that Christ's birth cannot be on December 25th or January 6th or 7th as alleged for these are in the middle of winter and are the coldest time of the year in Palestine. It is also one of the wettest time of the year. During these bitterly cold and wet winter months which begins from early November and lasts to late January, the shepherds will not be spending their nights in the fields and keeping watch over their flocks by night as was carefully recorded by Luke. Rather, as good shepherds, they will keep their precious new-born lambs and sheep fed, safe, and warm within the protective and sheltered confines of the sheepfolds (John 10:1) during the night and not outside in the fields exposed to danger, to the freezing winter rains or the biting cold of the winter winds under the clear starry skies.
Concerning the facts that the date is unknown to all, that there is no record of the date anywhere in the Scripture, and that it cannot be in December or January, most Bible scholars have been in full agreement since the beginning of the twentieth century. Even the massive 16 Volume English Language Catholic Encyclopedia (first volume appeared in 1907) that was designed to exclusively serve the Catholic church and exclude all non-Catholic churches and "to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine." acknowledge these conclusions. It is ironic and self-serving that the Roman Catholic Church continues to strongly advocate and teach, and observe and celebrate Christmas Day as the birthday of Christ even though their own exhaustive and authoritative encyclopedia unequivocally states otherwise. This is a deceitful self-contradiction. This indicates that men love superstitions, rituals and traditions more than the pure and holy Word of God. Men would tolerate error and compromise the truth of God rather than forsake the centuries old traditions of their fathers and the endless faulty commandments of men. As believers in Christ, we should not be like this. We should listen to God's Words. We ought to obey God rather than men. In Acts 5:29. Peter and the apostles answered the Sanhedrin and said, "It is necessary to obey God rather than men." If we wish to obey God rather than men, we need to put aside all the commandments of men and totally forsake any time-honored ritualistic religious traditions. We need to be absolute for the pure truths as revealed to us in God's words that endures forever and ever.
Despite the weight of overwhelming evidence and the majority opinion today that the date Christ's birth is unknown and could not be in the winter months of November to January, there are a few respected Bible scholars who still do not think so. They argue that while it is improbable, it is still possible for Christ to be born on Dec 25th. They cite ancient weather records of some winter months in Palestine being unusually warm and during which the shepherds were out with their flocks in the fields at night. With respect to the year and the date of Christ's birth, this is purely speculative since we do not know for certainty the exact year when Christ was born and thus have no way to know if that year's winter was unusually warm. Furthermore, the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24:19-20 said, "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. / And pray that your flight may not be in winter, nor on a Sabbath." Those days refers to the days of the intense persecution and of great tribulation that is to come suddenly upon all the Jews in the land of Israel. The persecution was so sudden, swift and terrible that the Jews had to flee hastily for their lives. In these verses, the Lord mentions those who are pregnant or nursing babies. It will be very difficult for these people to escape. He said "not in the winter" as winter in Palestine is a time when escape is especially difficult because of the bitter cold and the freezing rains. He also mentioned "not on the Sabbath" as one was allowed to walk only a short distance on a Sabbath and that would not be adequate for escaping. In speaking these, the Lord could be alluding to the events of His own birth which occurred just a little over thirty years ago and still fresh in living memory. Luke recorded that His mother Mary was heavily pregnant with Him when she was compelled to travel with Joseph to their home town Bethlehem to be registered there for a census because of the decree by Caesar Augustus. Luke also said that this was the first census (Luke 2:1-3). It is stretching the imagination to believe that the emperor would order the first census to be conducted in the depths of a typically bitterly cold, wet and dark winter where travel would be extremely inconvenient for all his citizens and the official census takers. If we consider all these little facts as were so carefully recorded only in the gospel of Luke with what the Lord Jesus spoke in Matthew 24, we can say that Christ could not have been born during the winter months.
What then would be the most probable time of the year for Christ's birth? Many Bible scholars today are of the opinion that Christ, the Savior of the world, was born to us in David's city, Bethlehem, during the cool dry autumn months. Some say it is in September and others say it is in October. Autumn would have been the time of the feast of the Tabernacles that was to be kept for seven days by all the Israelites (Deut. 16:13). This feast was also being observed during the time of the Lord Jesus (John 7:2). It is the last feast of the year. It is also one of the three great annual feasts where all the Israelite males had to go up to Jerusalem to present themselves before the Lord. This feast, also known as the feast of weeks or the feast of the Pentecost, was celebrated after the full harvest and the Jewish people came together to worship God and enjoy what they had reaped. The Lord Jesus could most probably be born at this time for the apostle John said: "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us ... full of grace and reality." If it were so, it would also be a most crowded time when there would be no room in the inn (Luke 2:7) even for such an obviously heavily pregnant young woman who was about to deliver. This is not merely because of the census as decreed by Augustus as many had thought but because of the multitude of devout Jews coming to Jerusalem and the neighboring villages from every nation under heaven to celebrate this greatest and most joyous of feast (Act 2:5). The autumn season would also be the most pleasant one throughout the year where the diligent shepherds would be out in the fields pasturing their flocks by day and by night in preparation for the coming winter months. Since it is a time after the harvest had been completed and all the work done, all the people would be at rest and free to travel back with their families to their hometowns as required for the census.
Whatever it could be, the date of Christ's birth is left unrecorded and Christmas was completely unknown to the Apostles or any of the early disciples. These Christians loved the Lord Jesus to the uttermost. Many died for Him by being burnt alive at the stake, torn to pieces by wild beasts and even cruelly crucified. However, they clearly never honored, celebrated or even thought about His birthday or for that matter the birthdays of any one. While their pagan countrymen observed and loved celebrating the birthdays of their countless gods and beloved goddesses and the nations also celebrated the birthdays of their rulers, emperors or some famous and mighty men, the early believers in Christ never celebrated any birthdays. Not only so, they were against celebrating the birthdays of any one living or dead, in heaven or on earth, or under the earth. The early disciples were pure in their love towards the Lord's Jesus and simple in their heart in the way they live, meet, serve and worship.
These early disciples worshipped only Christ as God. They had no other gods nor do they erect and venerate any images, statues or icons. They wear no special distinguishing clothing nor do they adorn themselves with ornaments, amulets or religious objects. They also celebrated no birthdays. They considered the birthdays of all men, including their own, totally unworthy of any remembrance. All men have been born in sin and born to die, and after death to perish forever in the lake of fire forever unless they have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, God's Son from God's righteous judgment and His just condemnation. If there ever was a human birth that should be remembered and celebrated, it would have been be the birth of Christ, the unique sinless and perfect God-Man. However, they also never celebrated His birth. Christ did not intend nor commanded them to do so. During the three and a half years of His earthly ministry prior to His crucifixion, the Lord spoke and taught them many things but He never once told them to remember His birth. After His death and resurrection, He was with them for a period of forty days. For forty days, He spoke with them the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3) but never once mentioned that they should remember His birth. He never charged them or hinted to them that they should remember His birth even as He ascended although He had charged them to disciple all the nations and teach them to observe all that "I have commanded you." (Matt 28:20). It is not the Lord's intent, teaching or command that His believers should remember Him by remembering and celebrating His birth. To honor and remember the Lord by remembering His birth is purely a product of the fallen and darkened human mind and a relic of the flesh of man, not a divine injunction. Therefore, the early disciples never remembered the Lord in such a way. They never celebrated the birth of Christ, never considered doing so, and they never taught others to remember Christ by celebrating His birth in any way. It was not among the Lord's commandments and they dare not do what the Lord had not commanded.
According to the verifiable historical records, it was only in AD 221 that Dec 25 was first identified as the supposed date of Christ's birth by one named Sextus Julias Africanus. Sextus Julias Africanus was the first Christian historian who attempted to produce a universal chronology of human history from the time of the creation of Adam till AD 221. He produced a massive five-volume work by relying on the recorded chronology in the Bible and amalgamating it with known Egyptian and Chaldean chronologies, Greek mythologies and Judaistic history. The result was that he fixed 5499 BC as the year of the creation of Adam. He also fixed Dec 25th as the birthday of Christ after he produced a further two volume work on the live of Christ. This date was based in part on the record of Christ's two genealogies in Matthew and Luke and his misguided massive almagamated universal chronology. While Dec 25th may have been identified by him as the supposed date of Christ's birth, it was not immediately and widely accepted by every one, much less celebrated at by any of the believers. It would take a few more long centuries before Dec 25th would become ingrained and more universally accepted as the date of Christ's birth. This was caused by a historical confluence of some conspiring circumstances.
One of those circumstances that helped established Dec 25 many centuries later was that this date coincided perfectly with the date of the pagan solar feast - Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti is a Latin phrase which literally means the 'birthday of the unconquered Sun'. This was a purely pagan feast that celebrated the birthday of the Sun-God. There were many pagan religions within the vast Roman Empire. Among them was a cult of sun-worshippers who worshipped the Sun in the sky as their god. These sun-worshippers celebrated the birthday of their Sun-God on Dec 25th. This day is the day of the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year. It was considered by the sun-worshippers as the birthday of the Sun-God as the days would gradually lengthen and the nights become shorter from that day onwards. The superstitious sun-worshippers regard this as the triumphant rebirth of their 'unconquered Sun-God' who had in their eyes dangerously nearly disappeared during the dark winter months. In the agrarian society, this important mid-winter festival grew to become the single biggest, most significant and the most popular pagan feast among all the different nationalities in every part of the far flung empire. The Roman Emperor at that time was struggling to unite all his quarrelling subjects and consolidate his power. He cleverly utilized this grandest, most popular and most influential religious pagan feast as the common uniting factor. He had also declared Christianity, which has become the most widespread "religion" within his empire inspite of all the terrible persecution through the centuries, to be the national religion for all his subjects. He would combine the two in a devilish inspired mixture and decreed that December 25th to be the true birthday of Christ to be celebrated by all his subjects, pagans and Christians alike. Even so, many believers would not celebrate Christmas and they were ridiculed or persecuted for not doing so. It was only from that time on that the Christmas feast on Dec 25th became gradually ingrained to become wrongly known and celebrated as the birthday of Christ.
Whatever the murky mythical origin and the so-called date is, Christmas has by now become established as an almost universal celebration. It is enthusiastically celebrated alike by secular society, by peoples of other faiths and traditionally by most Christians who have accepted it as something very biblical. The word Christmas originated as a compound word meaning "Christ's Mass". This compound word is derived from a very old Old English word Cristes Maesse (in AD 1038) and a Middle English Word Christes-Messe (first established in AD 1131. "Cristes" is an old anglicized form of the Greek word "Christos" meaning Christ, while "Maesse" is derived from the Latin word Missa. Christes Maesse literally means the Mass of Christ. This Old and Middle English compound word has been shortened to become Christmas. Therefore Christmas is Christ plus something else. To have Christmas, something other than Christ has been added to Christ. Christmas is Christ plus Mass. Mass is a stunning human invention and not something in the Bible. It was invented by the Roman Catholic Church. It is contrary to the teaching and practice of the New Testament of how believers should meet. It is a way of meeting and service that the Lord hates very much. The early disciples never had any masses. Christmas today is not merely Christ plus Mass. It has become Christ plus plus plus. The modern day Christmas is Christ plus Mass plus many other things such as Christmas trees and Santa Claus. However, as believers in Christ, we want only Christ, purely Christ. We do not want Christ plus something. In the Bible, God gave us only Christ, His beloved Son. God wants us to receive, love and enjoy and be fully occupied by only Christ.
From the very start, the churches in the Lord's recovery, being very clear about the truths in the Bible and not bound by any creeds or traditions, do not celebrate Christmas. We do not encourage the observance of Christmas nor that of any of the so-called many holy Christian festivals. The Lord's recovery is a recovery raised up by the Lord Himself and founded only upon the pure words of the Bible, God's written Word. We do not have any Christian creeds nor follow any oral or written time-honored religious traditions. We also do not have nor impose any formal, outward and systematic human regulations to regulate all the churches and the believers in Christ. However, we are not wild and without any regulation where every man is free to decide and to do what is right in their own eyes. What the Lord's recovery have and what the Lord's recovery treasure, keep and follow is solely the Bible. The Lord's recovery is based solely upon all the truths that are in the Bible which she believe is the complete divine revelation verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit. She is entirely directed and regulated in all her affairs and practices by the Bible alone. In the Lord's recovery, the Bible is the only standard and it is also the highest standard. This means that the Bible is her constitution. It is her heavenly constitution under which everything is judged and decided upon. What man says does not count, only what the Word of God says. Concerning the matter of Christmas or any other traditional Christian festivals or practices, as long as they are not found in the Bible, we do not keep them. As believers in Christ and disciples of Christ, we should only keep what is in the Bible which is our divine and heavenly constitution. By grace, we who were earthly and fallen have been reborn to be a heavenly people and to become the citizens of the heavenly kingdom of God. As such citizens, we no longer live by any human concepts and traditions but are now learning to be directed, regulated and governed by the heavenly constitution which is the Holy Bible, the pure word of God. It alone is our standard, the highest standard. In everything that we do, think or feel, the Bible alone has the final say. We will observe everything that the Bible commands and will not do anything that it does not command.
We must also understand that the Lord's recovery does not have any intention to be against Christmas or for that matter any other misguided Christian practices or teachings as long as they are not heretical. The Lord never raised up or commissioned His recovery with the intention to embark on a holy crusade against wrong or misguided practices. This is not the nature of the Lord's recovery. We do not have the time or energy for any kind of negative testimony. We are called to participate in Christ, to enjoy Him and to be a positive and shining testimony of Jesus. We only have the time and energy to enjoy Christ in His Word diligently and to faithfully minister Christ as truth and life to others. However, because we are faithful to enjoy Christ purely and are absolute to God's word without any compromise, we cannot help but spontaneously expose many of the things which are evil or are mixtures in the course of our positive testimony. For the sake of the saints or any new ones in the Lord's recovery, I am attaching once more a brief compilation regarding this matter. It was compiled a few years ago by some brothers from the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. I hope this will refresh us and remind us of what the Lord wants.
As I read the compilation, I am very much touched by one point found in the concluding portion. Brother Nee said: "Only one who believes in the Bible will know that the things which God did not command and the things which God did command have the same significance .... how do we dare to do the things which God did not command? " In asserting that the Bible is our only standard and our highest standard, in taking the Bible alone as our constitution, this is the heart of the matter. There are many things that God command in the Bible and there are also many things that God did not command in the Bible. We, the believers, need to be aware of what God did command and what He did not command. In the Bible, the things which God did not command and the things that God did command have the same significance. This means that they have equal weight. Only a person who is sensitive in his spirit and who absolutely believes in the Bible will realize and know this.
There are many things that God did command in the Bible. For e.g. in the New Testament, the first and perhaps the most important command to fallen man is to believe and to be baptized into Christ (Mark 16:16) in order for him to be fully saved. To be saved here is not merely to be saved from God's condemnation but to be also saved from the present evil world and all its vain manner of life. This is just like Noah being saved through the Ark and also through the flood. Noah is not only saved through the Ark but also saved through the flood. The Ark, Christ, saved Noah and his family from perishing in the great universal flood which represents God's righteous judgement upon the condemned word. While the Ark saved Noah from God's judgment and condemnation, the flood itself which destroyed and buried everyone and everything of the evil age saved Noah and his family from the world that was and all its corrupt and vain manner of life. A vain manner of life is not necessarily one that is sinful or evil but one that is spent in dissipation every day, without any meaning, purpose and goal. The flood typifies the water baptism that buried everything of the old world, the old creation. To believe and be baptized is a command of God. All the early disciples believed and were baptized without delay (Acts 2:41, 8:12, 8:38, 9:18). They obeyed the Lord's command and they also taught us to observe that (Acts 2:38, 10:47). However, today many believers do not keep this command or compromise it to some degree. Many Christians believe but are not baptized, or are baptized only very much later, or are baptized improperly. As a result, many Christians today are not clearly and cleanly saved. They do not enjoy full salvation. They remain in the world. They continue to lead largely meaningless lives day by day just like everybody else. They are still ensnared with the vainglory of the world and its lusts, unable to rise up to walk, serve and reign in newness of life.
The Lord also commanded us to celebrate the Lord's table as often as we can in true remembrance of Him by enjoying Him as our true food and true drink until He returns (Matt 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 11:26). The early disciples did just that and they were full of joy and vitality (Acts 2:42,46). The apostles also taught us to observe the Lord's table (1 Cor. 11:23-25) and they warned us that we need to examine and judge ourselves to be worthy to participate in it. It was the practice of all the churches everywhere to observe the Lord's table at least once a week on the Lord's day, the day of the Lord's resurrection (Acts 20:7). To observe the Lord's table on the day of the Lord's resurrection is not to have a formal and dead ritualistic observance but to keep it in the newness and the freshness of the resurrection life. However, many believers do not have the Lord's table meetings every week. Many of those who do attend do not come in the freshness of the resurrection life. They do not come eagerly with wide open hearts and an exercised spirit in order to touch and receive the Lord once more as their spiritual food to fill them inwardly and the true spiritual drink to satisfy them inwardly. Many believers today have put aside the Lord did command and replaced it with a cold, degraded and formal religious practice called the communion service. As a result, many saints are spiritually weak and sick as the apostle Paul indicated. They live empty, sad and unsatisfying Christian lives when our Christian life should have been a life-long feasting and enjoyment of Christ. Can we or should we put aside God did command? Will not the Lord one day call each one of us to render an account to Him of all that He did command in His word to us? When we come to the Lord's table every week, we need to come with a wide-open heart and an exercised spirit in the freshness of resurrection to receive the Lord anew as our bountiful and inexhaustible life-supply. In this way, we remember Him as we ought to according to His command and we also display His death till He comes again.
In Mark 12:30, the Lord commanded us to love the Lord our God with our whole heart and our whole soul and from our whole mind and from our whole strength. To love the Lord our God in this absolute way is also a command of God. This is a very unusual command. We all know that of all things, true love is something that cannot be compelled or forced but must be given willingly. In other words it cannot be commanded. Yet, here, the Lord clearly commanded us to love God and not only love Him but to love Him with our whole heart! Is this not marvelous? How can this be so? This can be so because God loves and He Himself is love. Love is the essence of God's nature. Concerning loving God and even loving the brothers, the apostle John says in 1 John 4:10 "Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins." Herein is love - the love for God expressed in loving the brothers. What is this true love, this "agape" love? According to the apostle John, true love is not that we have loved but that He loved. We love God because God is love (1 John 4:8) and He loved us. Then John further clarifies this understanding of love by saying that God first loved us (1 John 4:19). John inserts the little crucial word "first". We love because He first loved us. In the footnotes, brother Lee explained that God first loved us in that He infused us with His love and generated within us the love with which we love Him and the brothers. God is love. He visits us. He then enters into us and fills our hearts with Himself as the essence of love causing us to love Him in return with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Thus, this unusual command for us to love God is actually a command for us to enjoy God's love and to enjoy God as love. However, how many believers today are keeping God's command to enjoy the love of God and God as love every day? We should be recipients and enjoyers of God's boundless love. By this, we become beings of love and even love itself.
Through the apostle Paul, the Lord has commanded us not to abandon our own assembling together, as the custom with some is (Heb. 10:25). This is the command for us to meet together regularly, habitually and in mutuality to feast upon Christ and to exhort one another. God's people are a meeting people and they should frequently flock together. Many believers are not doing this. They neither come together habitually in the Lord's name nor do they meet in mutuality when they come together. The millions of so-called church meetings where there is one man or only a few persons speaking and the rest listening are not the assembling of ourselves together as commanded by the Lord in Hebrews 10:25. Christians may be meeting regularly but meeting in a way that God did not command. One brother wrote that many Christians will be terribly shocked when they meet the Lord in the clouds and discover that they have never attended a true church meeting their entire Christian life on earth. What they had thought and labelled as church meetings were never church meetings. The meetings that the Lord commanded are "our own assembling together". Our Lord commanded us not to forsake our own assembling together. Surely this means that we should not stop meeting. We must gather ourselves together as frequently as we can for the Christian life is a meeting life. However, in the context of Hebrews which was written mainly to the Jewish believers, to abandon the assembling of ourselves together actually means to abandon the proper way for Christians to meet as the church, which is to meet in mutuality, and to meet in another way which is to meet religiously as the Jews do. This is to meet as the Lord did not command. In this sense, most Christians today have abandoned our own assembling together although they may continue to meet regularly. Most Christians for centuries have met together in a way that the Lord did not command. They are woefully ignorant of how the church should meet. Only a blessed minority through the ages have continued to meet as the Lord commanded and not meet in a religious way.
"Our own assembly together" means that Christian meetings are not pre-arranged by human hands or presided over by human beings. Rather, they are meetings of the saints that are in mutuality under the direction and presiding of the Holy Spirit in which all the attendants come exercised in spirit and prepared with the rich Christ to minister Christ as truth and life to one another and to exhort one another unto good works. In these meetings, every one is both a keen learner and a skilled teacher; everyone is both an active obedient follower and a cherishing shepherding leading one with only the Holy Spirit directing and presiding throughout. We are commanded to regularly and habitually meet in such a way and warned not to abandon this way of meeting to meet in any other way as the Jews and the Gentiles do. For the Jewish believers, to abandon "our own assembling together" is for them to turn back to the legalistic, ritualistic and old testament way of meeting. This is to go back and meet in the synagogues or in the holy temple or to adopt its ritualistic and Judaistic way of meeting. One of the pillars of the Judaistic way of meeting is the priestly mediatorial class. This is not how the New Testament believers should meet. There is absolutely no mediatorial class in the New Testament nor is there any hierarchy among the New Testament believers. No New Testament believer should allow himself to be called or to call another "rabbi," or "father" or "instructor" (Matt. 23 8-10). This was the practice among the Jews and the Gentiles alike when they meet. When the believers in Christ gather together to meet, there are three big absolute "No"s - No, No, No. These are no Rabbi or Teacher/Master other than the Lord Jesus Who is our only Lord and Master, no Father other than their heavenly Father Who is our only Source and Fountain, and no Instructor or Guide / Director other than the indwelling Holy Spirit Who is our only Comforter, Counsellor and the anointing within every believers that teaches all truth and guides them into all the reality. The proper Christian church meetings are meetings of the Divine Trinity with all of His chosen, redeemed and regenerated people in which they enjoy the Triune God and in which the Triune God is corporately expressed in and through the believers. Are our church meetings, big and small, like this? Do we know how to meet as the church? Let us consider our present meetings in the light of God's words. Do we always meet in mutuality as the Lord has commanded us? In the divine life, all the New Testament believers are brothers to one another with no one regarded as being more or less honorable. There is absolutely no thought of rank or hierarchy. In the divine service, all the believers are bondslaves of God to be a lowly bondslave to all the believers. They have no demand or expectation that others should serve them but that they ought to serve all the saints with Christ according to God's feeling, preference and way. If we would all cleanly forsake and destroy all other forms of meeting and gather together to meet only as the Lord commanded us to meet which is in mutuality, we will quickly come to the full knowledge of the truth through mutual teaching and learning, grow in life rapidly through mutual shepherding and feeding, and build the Body of Christ concretely by prophesying one by one to one another. By these few examples, we realize that God has many marvelous commands in the Bible. All what God did command are not at all grievous but are spiritual blessings to us. They supply us with Christ and enable us to receive, experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as our life and our life-supply for us to live Christ unto the organic building of God's habitation in spirit.
There are a great many things that God did command in the Scriptures. We have to thank the Lord for all of them. Men should not put aside or compromise what God did command. To do so is simply to discount the bountiful grace and subtract the spiritual and heavenly blessings that God has bestowed upon us for our eternal profit. Alongside what God did command, there are also a great many things God did not command in the Scriptures. Men should not add to what God did not command. To do so is to cause us to suffer loss in this age and to lose our great reward in the coming age. One of the things that He clearly did not command His believers to do is to remember Him by remembering and celebrate His birth. If we read the Bible carefully and know the Bible thoroughly, it is clear that celebrating Christmas is something that He did not command in the Scriptures. There is clearly no record anywhere in the Scriptures of the exact date of His birth nor is there any record anywhere in the Scriptures that the apostles, or the saints, or any of the churches were told to do so and had observed such a day. This is unlike baptism and the breaking of bread.
Concerning what God did command and what He did not command, we need to know that the things that God did not command and the things which God did command have the same significance. A very spiritual brother once said that what the Bible is silent about can sometimes be more significant that what is written in the Bible. Concerning what God did command, we will be committing the sin of omission, the sin of disobedience, if we do not do as God commands. It is a serious thing to put aside God's words and disobey Him. When we worship God and serve God in the church life, we need to worship and serve Him according to His word, not according to our feelings, concepts, background or traditions. It is not only a matter of doing something for God. We must worship and serve the living God as the living God commands. 1 Samuel 15: 22 says: " And Samuel said, Does Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As much as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed, than the fat of rams." Men cannot just meet, worship and serve God according to his fancy and traditions. Men must take heed to God's word and obey God's commands. Men must meet and worship God according to the commands in His word. This is the first aspect.
The second aspect is that in our worship and service to the true and living God, we should not do what the living God did not command in His word. What God did not command is as significant as what He did command. If we do the things that God did not command, this is to commit the sin of presumption. It is to be presumptuous. When we are presumptuous, we are rebelling against God. This is also a serious sin and could be even more serious than that of the sin of disobedience. Satan is not only one who disobeyed. He is a rebel. If Satan had merely disobeyed God, he does not necessarily become Satan which means God's adversary, God's opponent from within. Satan became Satan, God's adversary, because he rebelled. To rebel is more than just to disobey God's commandments or go against God's wishes. It is to overthrow God and to take the place of God. It is to bring in and set up another source other than the unique source in the universe which is God. This is very evil. We need to tremble and pray to the Lord that He may open our eyes to this devilish sin and preserve all of us from the hidden sin of presumption all the time. To be presumptuous is to have iniquity in our heart, to have pride and ambition in our being and not just be sinful in our outward conduct. We should not speak what God did not speak, have any intention other than what God intends and do what God did not command.
In Psalm 19:12-13, David cried out to God saying : "Who can discern his errors? Clear me of my secret faults. / Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Do not let them have dominion over me; Then I will be blameless and cleared of great transgression," We need the Lord to keep us from doing what He did not command. How can we do so? It is by enjoying Christ, denying the self and allowing the living Christ to speak and live in us day by day. When Christ Who is the life becomes our life and actually lives in us day by day and we live Christ, then we will do all that Christ commands and not do what He did not command. This is truly what God wants. The Lord Jesus was such a one on earth. In His earthly life, the Lord Jesus as a Sent One never spoke what the Father did not speak and never did what the Father did not do. The Lord told us that whatever He did and whatever He spoke were not out of Himself but of the Father who sent Him (John 14:10,24). He as the Sent One was not only obedient to God the Sender in everything, even unto the death on the cross but He was never presumptuous at all. The Lord Jesus was a Man who was filled with God and Who lived by God to live God. We need to be such a man and live such a life.
We need to be warned of the deep-rooted sin of presumption that can easily erupt at anytime from anyone of us because we all have iniquity within us. There are many examples in the Old Testament of persons who committed this sin in their worship and service to God. When men do not worship or serve God, there is no opportunity for the hidden sin of presumption to be manifested. Such sins are most commonly committed in the worship or service of God. Among mankind, the first presumptuous one was Cain who murdered his brother in his worship of God. He worshipped God and served God according to what God did not command. Cain was the first but not the last to presumptuously worship and serve God. It is right to worship God. It is right to serve Him. God did command all men everywhere to worship and serve Him. However, Cain brought an offering to Jehovah from the fruit of the ground (Gen 4:3), not from the firstlings of the flock as Abel did. In worshipping and serving God, Abel did what God had commanded and Cain did what God did not command. Cain was presumptuous. Jehovah had no regard for Cain and for his offering. In the end Cain rose up in great anger and burning hatred against his younger brother and became the first human murderer (Gen 4:8). When God in His longsuffering mercies came in to seek him after he had killed his brother, Cain did not repent as Adam did. He rebelled by outright lying to the seeking God Who had come to find him and daring to question the God of grace Who had come to save him by saying "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9). Unrepentant Cain totally rejected God and became the first man who was driven from the face of God (Gen 4:14). In Genesis 3:24, Adam and Eve were merely driven out of the garden of Eden for their own protection but not from the face of God. As a rebel, Cain did not care a bit about not having God's presence, only about his own survival. Having rebelled and lost God, Cain became a fugitive and a wanderer. He was the first man who lived alone, who lived completely by himself and absolutely for himself. He lived a life that is totally independent of God and devoid of the presence of God.
Another one who committed the sin of presumption just once in his priestly and prophetic service to God was Moses, the meek servant of God. The Lord testified that no man in the Old Testament who was as meek as Moses, His servant (Num 12:3). Moses was indeed the meekest man for otherwise how could he had borne and pleaded time and again oh behalf of the murmuring, contentious and stiff-necked children of Israel during their forty years of journeying in the wilderness. In Exodus 17, the people were thirsty and murmuring. In verse 6, Lord commanded Moses to strike the rock with the rod in his hand. Moses did as the Lord had commanded and water flowed forth from the rock for all the people of God to drink to their heart's content. God and his people were happy and satisfied. Then there was an aalmost similar incident later recorded in Numbers 20 where the people were thirsty once more. They gathered themselves together and contended with Moses and Aaron (Num 20:2-3). In verse 8, the Lord commanded Moses to take the rod in his hand and to speak to the rock so that it yields its water for the people and their beasts to drink. Numbers 20:9 records that Moses took the rod from before Jehovah as He had commanded him. Then Numbers 20:11 records that Moses spoke and did something out of himself, something that the Lord did not command. Moses flared up in great anger and condemned God's people as rebels. He then lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice. Water still flowed forth from the rock abundantly for the people and their beasts to drink. However, Moses had acted presumptuously. Moses felt what God did not feel. Moses spoke what God did not speak. Moses did what God did not command. Despite His peoples contention, God was fully at peace and not feeling angry. He did not regard them as rebels. However, Moses felt very angry and remained in his feeling of anger. He did not put aside his feeling and take God's feeling as his feeling. He did not take God's view of His people as his view and he did what God did not command. It was a serious sin. Moses was not permitted by God to bring God's people into the promised land and to enter into it with them. He could only ascend Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah and gaze longingly upon all of God's promised land as Jehovah showed him (Deut 34:1-4). Then Moses the servant of Jehovah died there in the land of Moab at the very edge of the good land according to the word of Jehovah. He was also buried somewhere in the plains of Moab (Deut. 34: 5-6). Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died after he had expected and waited all his life to enter into the good land. Although he was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, he died as an ancient man and did not die of old age as an old man for the Bible says, "his eyes was not dim, nor had his freshness left him" (Deut. 34:7). Moses died according to the word of Jehovah for the presumptuous sin that he had committed before the people of God in Numbers chapter 20. He had accused God's people of being rebels but he himself was found out to be also a rebel. In the end, all the rebels among God's people fell in the wilderness including Moses, the servant of Jehovah. No rebel can enter into the good land. We may be God's redeemed people and we may be among His called and anointed servants but we need to realize with holy fear that there is rebellion hidden deep in our heart. We need to pray to the Lord to mercifully purge out every germ of rebellion from the deep and hidden recesses of our heart that we may enter into God's rest in the millennial kingdom. To do what God did not command is a sign of rebellion against God.
David the King in his kingly service to God also acted at least once presumptuously. David was a man after God's heart. However, 1 Chronicles 21:2 recorded that David as king acted presumptuously by charging Joab and the captains of the people to go and number the people of Israel. It was clear that was neither the intent, the command or the feeling of God. The feeling of God was expressed through the feelings of Joab and all the captains. They were greatly displeased with David's proposal and distressed by David's command (1 Chron. 21:3). They pleaded with David but they were over-ruled as David did not want to listen to them (1 Chron. 21:4) When Joab and the captains carried it out, they hated what they had to do and did not fully carry it out (1 Chron. 21:6). God was displeased and God came in to judge by offering David three hard choices - 2) three years of famine, 2) three months to be swept away before his adversaries or 3) three days of the sword of Jehovah through pestilence in the land by the hand of the destroying angel. David repented, chose the third option and cast himself and God's people upon the compassions of God. Seventy thousand fighting men eventually perished before the destroying angel was stopped from continuing (1 Chron. 21:15) by the righteous and compassionate God. Because of hidden pride deep in his heart, David was instigated by Satan to presumptuously number God's people when God did intend nor not command him to do. This is unlike what occurred in Number 1:2. There, Jehovah had commanded Moses to number the assembly of the children of Israel (Num 1:19) that they may be formed into the fighting army of Jehovah their King. Just because Moses had numbered God's people there does not automatically mean that God has a similiar intention here and David can do likewise here. It all depends on whether the true and living God had commanded or not commanded. All the Israelites are God's people, not David's people. If they had been merely David's people and the kingdom had been merely David's kingdom and not the kingdom of God on earth, then David the king has the final say. David as king can initiate anything and do whatever he intended at anytime he liked without having to wait for God's command. We need to do only what God did command and also not do what God did not command. We are God's people, the citizens of God's kingdom. The God we worship and serve is the true and living God, not some dumb and lifeless idols. Therefore when we worship and serve the living God in the church, we need to worship and serve according to the living God.
It is really wonderful and merciful of God that in the Lord's recovery we can know the Bible. We can know the Bible not superficially but in such a deep and clear way through the great help of the ministry. Those who know the Bible know that what God did not command and what God did command is of equal significance. We cannot put aside anything of God's word and we cannot add anything to God's word. To put aside God's word is to disobey God. We would lose the heavenly blessings of God in Christ in this age if we wilfully disobey God. This is to lose the enjoyment of the Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as our daily enjoyment and our bountiful supply for us to magnify and live Christ. To add anything to God's word is to be presumptuous and rebel against God. This is the sin of pride, the exaltation of self. If we do what the Lord did not command, we will lose our reward in the coming manifestation of the kingdom of God in the next age. We will not be able to enter into the Lord's joy and God's rest. This is the fuller Sabbath rest, a rest that still remains for all the people of God as a reward to all those who follow the Lord Jesus by denying their self in this age. May the Lord be very merciful and compassionate to us in the church life today that we may enjoy God's full blessings of the Spirit in this age and receive our reward in full in the next age of the kingdom. In our church life week after week, we need to be shorn of all our natural self and life, pruned of all our oldness and deadness and purified from all the mixtures that are not of God, of Christ and of the Spirit that can be found in the Bible. Nothing should remain in our being and in the church life except the wonderful living Christ Who is all and in all to God and to men.
lai-huat
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