Archives for 12 月 2019

By Chengshi

The Lord Jesus said, “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). These words tell us that only righteous people can enter God’s kingdom, and enjoy the blessings of the heavenly kingdom. So what kind of people are righteous? Most Christians reckon that as long as we accept the Lord Jesus’ salvation, persistently attend meetings, often pray and read the Bible, show others tolerance, patience and love, can suffer, work, trek and expend, we will then be righteous people in God’s eyes and be people after God’s heart. Is this view right? Does it accord with the Lord’s will? It’s necessary to fellowship about this topic, because only if we correctly understand the standard for being righteous people can we seek in accordance with God’s requirements and enter the kingdom of heaven in the end. Let’s fellowship about this issue.

We should first figure out what basis we have for believing that as long as we follow the Lord, accept the salvation of the cross, labor and sacrifice for the Lord, then we’ll be righteous people in God’s eyes. Did the Lord Jesus say this? Did the Holy Spirit testify to this? If the answers are both no, then does it please God’s heart if we pursue this way? Let’s look at what the Lord Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? and in Your name have cast out devils? and in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23). We can see from these words that for many of those who prophesy and cast out devils in the name of the Lord, labor for Him and have good behaviors, not only does the Lord not praise them, but instead brands them as evil-doers. Why is this so? Recalling 2,000 years ago, though the Pharisees traveled over sea and land spreading the gospel, worked hard for God, and appeared to do some good deeds, they didn’t know God while believing in Him and didn’t have a place for Him in their hearts at all. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus came to work, they didn’t seek or investigate in the slightest, but instead frantically condemned God’s work according to their notions and imaginings and obstructed believers from examining the true way. In the end, they even colluded with the Roman government to crucify the Lord Jesus to protect their positions and livelihoods, committing the most heinous of sins and thereby receiving God’s punishment and curse. From this, we can see that God’s measure of whether people are righteous or evil is not based on their outward dedication or good external behaviors. Let’s look at ourselves. When our life is going smoothly, we are grateful to God, but once we meet with adversities or difficulties, we are full of misunderstandings and complaints; we work and preach not simply to exalt God, testify to Him, or bring the brothers and sisters before Him, but to honor ourselves, make others exalt us by speaking letters and doctrines, competing with God for status; and so on. How can we receive God’s approval by simply making sacrifices and dedicating ourselves to Him in this way? Can such behaviors be considered to be righteous deeds?

In God’s eyes, what exactly are righteous people like? God’s words say, “‘Righteousness’ does not mean giving alms, it does not mean loving your neighbor as yourself, and it does not mean not fighting, arguing, robbing, or stealing. Righteousness means taking God’s commission as your duty and obeying God’s orchestrations and arrangements as a heaven-sent vocation, regardless of the time or place, just like all that was done by the Lord Jesus. This is the very righteousness spoken of by God.” We understand from these words that God determines whether people are righteous or evil not based on how many superficial good deeds they have, but on whether they put God’s commission first and whether they can truly obey God, fear God and shun evil. Only if people have God’s heart as their own heart in everything, abandon their own interests when meeting with all manner of trials and refinements, and don’t misunderstand or complain about God, but follow God’s will, sincerely submit to Him and love Him, can they be compatible with God, be called righteous and praised by God. Take Noah for example. When God commanded him to build an ark, he absolutely believed in and obeyed God’s words, and acted according to God’s instructions and requirements. It took 120 years for him to build the ark, and during that period, though the people of the world mocked and slandered him, he still upheld God’s commission. When Noah finished building the ark, God began to destroy the world, and in the end only Noah’s family of eight received God’s protection and survived. God saw Noah’s pure obedience and so called him a righteous person. There was also Job. When all his possessions were taken away in an instant, he obeyed first and sought God’s will, and through that he realized that everything he had was bestowed by God, not obtained through his own labor. Whatever is conferred or taken away by God, a created being should not have any demands of God or complain against Him, which is the sense man should have. This is why Job said, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). When he was covered with sores, he chose to rather curse the day of his own birth than complain and betray God, thereby bearing resounding witness for God. Because Job feared God and shunned evil, he was called a perfect man by God.

We are able to sufficiently understand from the above facts that though we do good deeds, we can still sin and resist God, which proves that we are still not truly righteous people. So, how can we become truly righteous people? As we all know, the Lord Jesus once promised, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12-13). And another passage in the Bible says, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). From these prophecies, it can be seen that when the Lord returns, He will speak and express all truths to purify and change people, and allow us find the path to break away from sin. Only then can we get the chance to enter God’s kingdom.

Let’s take a look at two passages of God’s words, “The sins of man were forgiven, and this is because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live within the corrupt satanic disposition of old. This being so, man must be completely saved from his corrupt satanic disposition, so that his sinful nature may be completely extirpated, never to develop again, thus enabling the disposition of man to be transformed. This would require man to grasp the path of growth in life, to grasp the way of life, and to grasp the way to change his disposition. Furthermore, it would require man to act in accordance with this path, so that his disposition may gradually be changed and he may live under the shining of the light, so that all that he does may be in accord with the will of God, so that he may cast away his corrupt satanic disposition, and so that he may break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation.” “When people cast off the filthy, corrupt things of Satan, they gain God’s salvation. But if they still do not divest themselves of filth and corruption, then they are still living under the domain of Satan. People’s conniving, deceitfulness, and crookedness are all things of Satan. Saving you is allowing you to escape from these things. God’s work cannot be wrong; it is all in order to save people from darkness. When you have believed to a certain point and can divest yourself of the corruption of the flesh, and are no longer enshackled by this corruption, will you not have been saved? When you live under Satan’s domain you are incapable of manifesting God, you are something filthy, and cannot receive God’s inheritance. Once you have been cleansed and made perfect, you will be holy, you will be a proper person, and you will be blessed by God and delightful to God.”

God’s words make it very clear that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption to absolve mankind of sin, making us righteous through faith and saved through faith, but our internal sinful natures remain unresolved. As a result, we still often involuntarily commit many sins and resist God. For example, we frequently express satanic dispositions such as arrogance, cunning, deceit, selfishness, despicability, etc.; we often lie and engage in deception in pursuit of reputation and status; when confronted with natural and manmade disasters, or trials and tribulations, we misunderstand and complain about God, and even betray Him; though we may nominally believe in God, we still worship and follow people; we are unable to get along with others in a normal fashion, we fight openly and maneuver covertly and have jealous disputes with other co-workers, and so on. So, in the last days, according to our needs and based on the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, God does a higher and more thorough stage of work, which is the work of cleansing mankind through words. God uses the expression of the word to carry out the work of judgment and chastisement, and we should pursue and practice the truth in accordance with God’s words. When God’s words have become our life, we will no longer be controlled by satanic corrupt dispositions or bound and constrained by satanic nature. At that time, we will have achieved changes to our life disposition and become compatible with God, and then we will no longer resist or betray God but will truly worship and obey God, and be people who conform to God’s will. When we will no longer sin or resist God and have achieved purification, we will then be qualified to see God’s face and share in the good blessings of God. Therefore, accepting God’s work of judging and cleansing in the last days is the only path for us to become righteous people and gain complete salvation.

Brothers and sisters, through the above fellowshiping, we have some new understanding of what it is to be a truly righteous person. If we want to become a righteous person praised by God, it is crucial to accept God’s work of judgment in the last days. Only by accepting God’s work of judgment and attaining cleansing and salvation, can we become truly righteous people and enter God’s kingdom.

By Li Zhi

I believe that everyone knows well the story of Job. When his property was all taken away, his servants were murdered and his children had their lives taken, Job still revered God and shunned evil and didn’t sin with his tips. Moreover, he said a famous saying that cowed Satan, “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah” (Job 1:21). No matter whether God gave or took away, Job praised God’s holy name and willingly obeyed in the presence of God, creating a beautiful and resounding testimony for God. But Satan was not yet convinced and it continued to attack Job, causing him to be covered in sores. Despite this, Job still didn’t abandon God. The Bible records, “And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself with; and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife to him, Do you still retain your integrity? curse God, and die. But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips” (Job 2:8–10). The testimony of Job is worthy enough to be admired and emulated by the later generations. I really liked reading the Book of Job, which increased my faith, but there was one thing that I didn’t understand. God knew that Job had fear and reverence for Him and stayed away from evil, so why did God allow Satan to tempt Job and subject him to such great suffering? What is God’s will in this matter? Recently, through reading a book, I came to understand a little about God’s will …

First, God testing Job was to verify his reverence and obedience to God.

That book says, “And what did God do when Job was subjected to this torment? God observed, and watched, and awaited the outcome. As God observed and watched, how did He feel? He felt grief-stricken, of course. But, as a result of His grief, could He have regretted His permission to Satan to tempt Job? The answer is, No, He could not have. For He firmly believed that Job was perfect and upright, that he feared God and shunned evil. God had simply given Satan the opportunity to verify Job’s righteousness before God, and to reveal its own wickedness and contemptibility. It was, furthermore, an opportunity for Job to testify to his righteousness and to his fear of God and shunning of evil before the people of the world, Satan, and even those who follow God” (“God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II”). After reading this passage, I understood that God allowing Satan to tempt Job was to test Job’s reverence and obedience to Him. After years of God’s work on Job, whether it be Job’s humanity, faith in God, knowledge of or reverence to God, they had all become perfect. At that time, God was going to test Job, and He used the service of Satan to subject him to trials. That gave Job an opportunity to testify to his reverence and obedience to God before Satan and all people. Through this, Satan was utterly convinced and acknowledged God’s words are the truth, and thereby it was humiliated and defeated. Meanwhile, that enables us humans to have discernment on the essence of Satan—not only wickedness and despicableness but also the utmost foolishness. Amid these two times of Satan’s attacks, Job bore resounding testimony, which proved that he was a man that feared God and shunned evil, and which particularly made Satan utterly convinced and not dare to tempt him any longer. In the end, Job escaped the bondage and constraints of Satan, lived in the light of God and gained true release and freedom. That was God’s blessing of Job.

Similarly, as we believe in God and follow Him, God will also put us into different tests based on our own statures. This means that we will encounter Satan’s temptations and through them we can verify whether we are true believers in God. Take me as an example. I, after believing in God for several years, already understood some truths through reading God’s words, and I was resolved to bear witness to God. But when unpleasant issues continuously happened at my home—my child was ill, my husband was injured at work, and then I got into a car accident—I felt weak inside and even complained, “I sincerely believe in God. Then why did these unfortunate things befall me?” Through praying and seeking guidance from God, I remembered the testimony of Job, and I suddenly saw the light. It turned out that these things I encountered were the battles of the spiritual world and that Satan’s temptations came upon me. Satan tried to use these environments to make me deny God and betray Him and achieve its aim of consuming me whole. Yet from God’s side, that was also God testing me to see if I had true confidence in God when facing unpleasant matters. At that time, I finally realized that my stature was really small, and that my faith in God was not true faith and couldn’t stand His test at all. When only something unpleasant happened to my family, I complained against God—there was no comparison with Job’s obedience and reverence to God. In the past, when nothing happened to me, I resolved before God that I was willing to obey His orchestration and arrangements and bear witness to Him. However, only through the revelation of these trials did I realize that that was not my real stature, and that I didn’t have any obedience or reverence to God. I still needed to keep working hard at pursuing the truth, diligently pray and draw near to God and read God’s words more. Only by taking God’s words as a weapon to battle with Satan could I overcome Satan’s temptations. Afterward, I relied on God and got through those gloomy days, and not until then did I truly comprehend God’s kind intentions. God arranging these situations to test me was His love and salvation of me. I truly saw my stature and deficiencies and was inspired to pursue the truth. Thank God for saving me!

Second, God testing Job was to allow man to know Satan’s wickedness and despicableness.

The Bible records, “And Jehovah said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil? Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? Have not You made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 1:8–11). “And Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will he give for his life. But put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 2:4–5). And that book says, “Through these words, Satan completely lays bare the attitude toward God and the loathing of Job’s fear of God that it holds in its heart. When this happens, its maliciousness and evil nature are completely exposed. It loathes those who fear God, loathes those who shun evil, and even more so loathes Jehovah God for bestowing blessings on man. It wants to use this opportunity to destroy Job whom God raised with His own hand, to ruin him, saying: ‘You say Job fears You and shuns evil. I see it otherwise.’ It uses various ways to provoke and tempt Jehovah God, and uses various ways so that Jehovah God hands Job over to Satan to be wantonly manipulated, harmed and handled. It wants to take advantage of this opportunity to exterminate this man who is righteous and perfect in God’s eyes. Is its having this kind of heart a momentary impulse? No, it is not. It has been long in the making. God works, God cares for a person, looks upon a person, and Satan dogs His every step. Whoever God favors, Satan also watches, trailing along behind. If God wants this person, Satan would do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ways to tempt, harass and wreck the work God does in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is its objective? It does not want God to have anyone; it wants all those that God wants, to occupy them, control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they commit evil acts alongside it. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? Normally, you often say that Satan is so evil, so bad, but have you seen it? You can only see how bad man is and have not seen in reality how bad Satan actually is. But have you seen it in this issue concerning Job? (Yes.) This issue has made Satan’s hideous countenance and its essence very clear. Satan is at war with God, trailing along behind Him. Its objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants, to completely extinguish those whom God wants. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession to be used by it—this is its objective.” From the means that Satan adopted to tempt Job, we can see that each time when it abused him, Satan grew more and more wicked and contemptible. First, in just one night, Satan made Job lose a mountainside of livestock, all of his immense wealth and all of his children. Yet despite this, Job still didn’t abandon God. But Satan was unwilling to give up, and began a second round of attacks upon Job. It put forth its hand to harm his bones, had his body covered with sores and used his wife and friends to attack and judge him. We can see from these facts that Satan is so evil and despicable. It doesn’t allow man to love and follow God. It uses various means to attack and afflict those who sincerely follow God, and looks for opportunities to thoroughly destroy our faith in God and reverence for Him, so that we will wallow in the mire with it and follow it in alienating and betraying God. This way, it will be able to completely control and toy with us in the palm of its hand, making us betray God along with it and ultimately be punished and destroyed by God.

These facts about Satan’s harming Job allow us to see through Satan’s tricks and intentions, so that we will be able to forsake and betray it and won’t fall for its schemes. For example, when many brothers and sisters were enthusiastically expending for God after first starting their belief in God, misfortunes unexpectedly befell their families. At that time, the unbelievers around them sneered, “Since you believe in the true God, why does your family meet with bad things? Look, we don’t believe in God but have better luck than you.” Then we developed doubts of God, “Right, why do we believers suffer disasters?” Besides, when some brothers and sisters who spent for God were arrested and imprisoned by the CCP government, the evil police mocked them by saying, “Why don’t you let your God come save you?” Hearing this, we generated misunderstandings about God, “I’ve been spreading the gospel and expending for God. Why doesn’t God protect me?” … We had come across so many such temptations, but we never understood why these unfortunate things befell us, and thus we were filled with conceptions and misunderstandings about God in our hearts. All this is caused because we lack true faith in God and knowledge of Him and are unable to see through Satan’s cunning schemes. Now, it seems that all the situations that we encounter are the battles of the spiritual world, just like Satan accusing Job. Satan tries to use its evil and despicable way, through many unfortunate things, to make us develop misunderstandings of and barriers to God and even betray Him, so that we will return under the domain of Satan and continue to be controlled and afflicted by it. That shows us Satan’s treachery and evil. God allowed Satan to tempt Job, and also allows it to tempt us, with the aim of letting us have discernment about Satan’s wickedness. In so doing, no matter how Satan tempts us in the future, we will be unlikely to blame or betray God, and will be able to stand witness and follow Him resolutely.

Thank God! Through this period of reading the Book of Job and pondering why God allowed Satan to tempt Job, I’ve known that the disaster Job was faced with was a battle in the spiritual realm. Therefore, if I am tempted by Satan in the future, I’ll be able to see through its schemes and understand God’s kind intentions, and have resolve to stand firm in my testimony to God and put Satan to shame.