KwaZulu Mission

SALVADOR AND DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number:122.     Dec 2014

P.O. Box 1481

Vryheid 3100

KwaZulu Natal

South Africa

+27 (0) 728311008

+27 (0) 723843786

Email: msindisi@gmail.com

salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

KwaZulu Mission Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

Phumulani headed away to Stanger this month for a few days visiting Calvin and the Stanger fellowship. Calvin asked him if he would be willing to come and teach some of the Zulu speaking people in the congregation. He returned with a big smile and enjoyed it. In the future he will return.

This month we continued sorting as much of the paper work as possible for Sal’s visa transfer and Di’s renewal application. Before we went to Durban is that we stopped in for a night in Dundee to catch up with Shane and Chrissy Van Niekerk en route to checking if Di’s visa transfer had arrived in Newcastle. Before reaching them we visited Isandlwana where the British lost against the Zulu. In the middle of the month we took a trip down to Durban to submit Sal’s application for his transfer. This involved two trips as the information that he was given was incorrect and another form needed to be completed. After much driving about to search for an Internet place, the form was completed, so we could return the next day for the interview.

While in Ballito we also had a quick catch up with believers from Coming King Ministries along with some of the Stanger believers. Sal was asked to bring a teaching for the Monday night meeting. Our visit was short and busy as this month we will be returning again to collect Sal’s successful transfer document and to submit Dis renewal for visitors visa for another 3 years even thou she still has not received her transfer from Home Affairs. We will have to return again or we may submit Sal’s visitors visa renewal for another 3 years in Pretoria depending on the time of arrival of Sal police clearance from the UK.

The two Pre school crèches that we sing and teach the children at in Vryheid had their end of the year concerts this month. Joyland had theirs first, where Sal got to share with the parents. Then Carebear was at the end of the month. Each year this is always such a special time for us as well as the kids.

Di has continued, when time has permitted, to help Celani learn to sew. She has been so eager to learn. So far she has completed 3 dresses for her daughters, a fleece jacket for herself, a skirt for herself and now she is in the process of starting a dress. She absolutely loves her machine. Next year Di has been asked to teach others.

Kids club has its end of the year party this coming Saturday, this was kindly provided by Glenys in New Zealand who had given some funds earlier in the year. Sal is finishing off the New Tribe Mission material particularly for Zuzu and Zanele, as Sal’s group was put on hold for many weeks while Zanele and Zuzu had to attend school during weekends to study for their matric exams. They did their last two lessons today. Both girls will be leaving Saturday morn teaching for the kids as they are older now.

Ibandla Lendlela Eyodwa (name of the church Phumulani teaches and we attend) got to visit another small group of believers at their sunday morning gathering at Cibilili. Everyone piled into the truck and on the back, the scenic drive their is beautiful. Phumulani    is making time to speak more with the pastor there to get a better understanding of their understanding of scripture. Sal and Phumlani have just finished evangelizing the area of Cibilili and have started in an area called KwamaThema. They did their first preaching there and while Sal preached Phumlani was approached by two men in the community. They asked who gave us authority to preach in their area and asked why we didn’t go to the leaders of their area. Phumlani explained that we had already asked the chief who gave us permission to do the Lord’s work throughout the various areas under his jurisdiction. They warned Phumlani to stop Sal preaching for there would be people who would beat Sal and Phumlani up as they are influencing the children to stop ancestral traditions. Please pray that the Lord may grant us peace in that area so that the word of God may continue unhindered. We do get people who do not like our preaching but they generally ignore the message. But we must continue to preach the message. It is not a big area to work through and pray that the Lord will touch the hearts of people living there.

We are pleased to say Tholakele has now got her floor laid in her hut with cement and her door will attached soon. It has taken a long time to complete but as we have been able, it is now nearly finished. She has truly been blessed and is most grateful for the help she has received. Thank you to all those who have contributed to this whether through finances or labour.

Prayer needs:

Sal and Di are both mindful of the anniversary of Bhabekile’s murder that is almost here. Please keep the family in prayer. Both her children are doing well with their Gogo.

For Zuzu and Zanale as they finished their time in kids club.

Safe travels as this month will involve a lot of traveling and meeting up with people.

Di and Sal’s visitors visa renewal for 3 years.

For the area of KwamaThema and that the Lord will do a work in the people’s lives.

Thank the Lord for our 7 years of marriage

Thank the Lord for the wonderful opportunity  to serve and share the gospel here in

South Africa. May He continue to bless the work of His hand and may it produce much fruit.

FOUR

 

THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

ROMANS 4

 

 

Acts 17:11

“11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

Before we start looking at Romans 4, I want to ask a question. When Paul preached the Gospel to the Bereans, which scriptures did they search daily to see if these things were so? Obviously, it was the Old Testament. Now herein lies a great truth. The Truths of the Gospel are right there in the Old Testament scriptures and were not a complete innovation of the Apostles. This chapter could be entitled ‘The Evidence of Justification by Faith.’ Before we continue, we need to remember a few things:

Firstly, remember that God had a unique relationship with the Jewish people and set them apart from every other nation. He gave them His commandments with the promise that ‘He who practices them shall live by them.’ So how could Paul disregard 2000 years of a relationship between God and Israel by saying that they had nullified their circumcision and that the Mosaic Law would not give them a right standing before God? How could he substitute obedience to the Law with simple faith as the means of their justification?

We should call two considerations to mind from the last chapter. The first consideration was to do with the word ‘Law’. The Law of Moses was not Moses’ invention it but was God’s law. So how could Paul speak of it in the way that he does? The second consideration was the Abrahamic covenant that God made with Israel as a nation. God made this covenant and God took sole responsibility for its fulfillment. One cannot simply disregard circumcision because it is a symbol of a perpetual covenant. The Abrahamic covenant guaranteed the land of Israel as their possession but the Mosaic covenant regulated their dwelling in the land.

Paul had and still has some explaining to do. In the last chapter, Paul explained that there is great advantage in being Jewish because their relationship with God was unique. From the viewpoint of its heritage, circumcision had great value, but from the viewpoint of righteousness, it was nullified. Like us Gentiles, all of Israel were sinners. Paul goes further to say that, God did not introduce the Law to justify the Jew but to show him his sin. Therefore, Jesus had to pay the debt of his sin and it is faith in Him that justifies the believer. Faith is not contrary to the Law. Rather, by having faith, we establish the Law because we place our faith in the one who is the perfect embodiment of all that the Law requires. In this chapter, Paul presents the evidence that God always intended to impute righteousness based on faith. To do this he goes right back to the father of the Jewish nation, Abraham. The Jews are not betraying Moses and Abraham by accepting Yeshua. Rather, by doing so, they are following in Abraham’s footsteps.

We will examine Romans 4 in three sections.

1,         The nature and the result of Abraham’s faith.

2,         The invitation of Abraham’s faith.

3,         The reality of Abraham’s faith.

VERSES 1 – 8:

THE NATURE AND THE RESULT OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH

Paul already taught that the righteousness of God is apart from the Law, and that the Law and the prophets even attest to this. However, Paul did not proceed to prove this specifically. Paul just finished the last chapter by saying that we do not nullify the Law through faith, rather we establish it. I can imagine the response to Paul from the Jew would be, “Is that the case? Well, prove it!” Note in verse 1, Paul speaks as a Jew to the Jews because Abraham is not the father of the Gentiles according to the flesh. He is not our physical father. Some commentators say that Paul is not speaking as a Jew, but the phrase ‘according to the flesh’ refers to the words, ‘has found’. That is to say “What has our forefather, Abraham, found according to the flesh?” Yet this does not make sense. This chapter is not looking at Abraham in regards to his works done in the flesh, but rather it is looking at his faith. Secondly, the term ‘our forefather’ has to relate to physical Israel because Paul has not yet taught that Abraham is the father of the believing Gentile as well as of the physical Jew. Why is this an important point? If we do not recognize the ongoing context of this epistle, and if we strip it of its Jewish elements, then we will misunderstand Paul’s arguments about election and the salvation of Israel in later chapters.

HOW WAS ABRAHAM JUSTIFIED?

Now concerning Abraham, the father of the Jew, we must make a note of the following. In whatever way Abraham was justified is the prototype for the justification of all his descendants. That Abraham was justified before God there is no argument, he most definitely was. In Isaiah 41: 8, God called Abraham His friend. The question is not, ‘Was Abraham justified?” Of course he was. Rather, the question is “How was he justified? Was it by his doing, his works, or was it by his faith?” Paul argues that if Abraham was justified by his own works he would have something to boast about. But how could he boast before God? God says in Isaiah 51: 1 – 2, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father And to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain; When he was but one I called him, Then I blessed him and multiplied him.”

In other words, if you are looking for righteousness, remember this. Abraham was nothing when God chose him. He was not naturally great. God blessed him and multiplied him. He had nothing to boast of before God. Rather, on the contrary, Paul tells us in verse 3 that Abraham’s righteousness was credited to him because of his faith in God. Paul takes this from Genesis 15: 6. Yet Acts 7: 2 (ff) tells us that God called Abraham when he was living in Ur of the Chaldees, before he lived in Haran. He told Abraham to leave his country and his relatives and to go to the land that God would show him. Abraham obeyed, but he obeyed partially. He left his country but not his relatives. He went with his father’s household to Haran. It was when his father died that God called him again in Genesis 12: 1 – 3 and told him to leave his country, his father’s household and his relatives and to go to the land that God would show him. Abraham obeyed but again he obeyed partially. Although he left Haran, and his father’s household, he still took one of his relatives with him; his nephew Lot. It was not until Lot and Lot’s servants had departed from Abraham to settle in Sodom, and after Abraham had delivered Sodom and Gomorrah that God made the covenant with Abraham that we call the ‘Abrahamic covenant’. It shows us the patience of the Lord! How often are we like Abraham? However, God understands. He takes us at the point that we are at and then He leads us on. Abraham either discounted or spiritualized the promise that God made in Genesis 12. God said He would make Abraham into a great nation. Abraham was going to fulfill it himself in his own cleverness because he had appointed Eliezer, his servant, as his heir. God contradicted him and said that one from Abraham’s own body would be born and he shall be heir. And then the scripture says in verse 6 “Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Paul quotes from this verse and it teaches us a handful of things about Abraham’s faith.

• Firstly, it tells us that Abraham’s faith was informed. It was informed by God’s word. It was not Abraham’s imagination. He did not sit around doing mantras, or thinking about what he would like to bring into being. He did not visualize it or confess it. God spoke it and Abraham believed it.

• Secondly, and this is linked to the first point. Abraham’s faith was objective, i.e. Abraham placed his faith in something. He did not believe in the power of his own faith. He did not have faith in his own faith. He had faith in something far greater than himself that was powerful enough to bring the promise to pass.

• Thirdly, Abraham’s faith was relational. Abraham placed his faith in a person, namely God. He did not place it in a force or in a law. God is a person and, as such, He has feelings, intellect and a will. Thus, God can make decisions. Therefore, we cannot treat Him in a way that thinks that if we press the right buttons then we can get the right results. As Francis Schaeffer wrote in his excellent book, ‘True Spirituality’, “We can never deal with God in a mechanical sense, and we shouldn’t deal with him on a merely legal basis, though there are proper legal relationships. Our relationship with God after we become a Christian must always be centrally a person-to-person relationship.” The minute we think we can snap our fingers at Him, then we dishonor our Creator and Lord and therefore we derive our fourth point.

• Fourthly, faith is subservient to God. It accepts whatever He says and willingly submits itself to the will of God. Abraham had to lay aside his own ideas concerning Eliezer being heir. He had to lay aside his own will and fully accept what God said without manipulating it to serve his own agenda.

• Fifthly, Abraham’s faith was effectual. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Simply put, Abraham’s faith resulted in righteousness being credited to him.

• Sixthly, Abraham’s faith made an imprint in outside, real life. What I mean by that is that it did not simply stay in his head. It was not only a professed belief but it was a real belief that affected his whole life. I say this because Abraham had nominated Eliezer as heir but now God had promised Abraham a son. We definitely know that Abraham told Sarah about God’s promise because she was the one who suggested him having a son through Hagar and word spreads. ‘What! Abraham is to have a son? How is this possible?’ It would have sounded crazy. Yet faith is something that faces up to reality and affects the decisions we make in reality. This is the quality of the faith that God accepted and, because of it, declared Abraham as righteous. It is to whole-heartedly trust in God’s promises.

Therefore, righteousness is a gift. It is not based on what we have done but is solely based on God’s promises. Righteousness is credited. The word for ‘to credit’ here is the Greek word ‘logizomai’ which means, “to take an inventory” i.e. an estimate, to count, to compute, to calculate, and to consider. It is God’s equation that equals ‘free gift’. As soon as works go into the equation then the equals sign is followed by the word ‘wage’.

TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF WORKS

The works of someone who has salvation and the works of someone who is trying to attain salvation are different. The one who is trying to attain salvation works because he is his own man, employed to carry out a task. He is aware of his own rights. At the end of the day, he seeks a wage packet. Then he can go home and do whatever he wants to do. This is the attitude we find among some remnant of the religious in the world. ‘I go to church, I do my bit, do not tell me what it is to be a Christian, I will do what I want!’ Conversely, the believer works because he is a servant. Jesus bought him with the price of his blood and he willingly remains in his master’s house, working his master’s will. Concerning righteousness, the Master declared us righteous when we believed in Him, not because of our goodness. As Paul says in verse 5; ‘God justifies the ungodly’. Even David attests to this in Paul’s quote in verses 7 – 8.

7 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8 BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.””

This is at the very heart of what it means to receive Christ’s righteous. What stops God from counting us righteous? Is it not our sin? Therefore, when God takes away our sin, what then stops Him from counting us righteous? Nothing. Paul takes this quote from Psalm 32: 1 – 5. What was the quality of David’s faith in this psalm?

• Firstly, he stopped hiding his sin.
• Secondly, he confessed his sin to the Lord.

There are things in my life that I would never share with someone unless I wholeheartedly trusted them. Yet that is what we must do with God. David had to trust the Lord and open up to Him. What was the result of David’s repentance? The result was not eternal punishment from God but the forgiveness of sins.

VERSES 9 – 15:

THE INVITATION OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH

Paul has not yet proved that there is no need for circumcision. Rather, we could argue that he has proved the opposite. Who was it that God declared righteous? Was it not Abraham, who was circumcised and whose descendants were to be circumcised? If we are exhorted to follow Abraham’s example in order to be counted righteous, then does it not stand that we should also be circumcised too? In addition to this argument, we must acknowledge that God brought circumcision in before the Mosaic Law. Thus, one could argue that Circumcision is a separate issue to the Mosaic Law and is part of ones identification with Abraham in his righteousness. Therefore, would it not stand that circumcision is part of the new covenant as well as the Mosaic one? This is what Paul addresses next. God credited faith to Abraham as righteousness. However, Paul asks in verse 10, “When was Abraham counted as righteous? Was it while he was circumcised or while he was uncircumcised? It was while he was uncircumcised.” Thus, Paul proves that circumcision has nothing to do with one’s righteous standing before a Holy God. Can you see how amazing God’s timing is? God knew that one day a circumcision party would try to compel circumcision on Gentile believers. Therefore, in His providence, God brought about Abraham’s justification before He instituted circumcision. Abraham did not even have a clue about all this but we can see it in hindsight. We do not understand why God does things the way He does, why He lets things happen the way they do, but when we look back with the eyes of faith, we will understand it in hindsight. There is more on God’s agenda than you or I even realize. So what was the point of circumcision?

CIRCUMCISION IS A SIGN

In verse 11, Paul says that Abraham received the sign of circumcision. In other words, circumcision is not the reality in itself; it is a sign pointing to something else. To what does circumcision point? It was pointing to the fact that Abraham was already circumcised in heart and that he was already set apart. This sign was God’s seal on the fact that Abraham had already been declared righteous. Therefore, the righteousness that Abraham received can be extended out, not exclusively to the circumcised, (Jew or proselyte), but also to those who have the same faith as Abraham. The bible calls these people the ‘God fearers’ from among the Gentiles. When we believe, and are justified, we immediately identify with Abraham. His experience has become our experience and therefore God counts us as his children. Before Christ, we were alienated from God and His people but when we were saved, we became part of a community. This was not the case in the old covenant, even for Proselytes. Proselytes were Gentiles that adopted Israel as their people and Israel’s God as their God. According to FF Bruce in his commentary on Romans, “Even Proselytes, who might have been regarded as Abraham’s children by adoption, were not permitted to call him (Abraham) ‘our father’; in the synagogue liturgy they called the patriarchs ‘your fathers’ when Jews by birth referred to them as ‘our fathers’.” The idea that Abraham could be the father of uncircumcised people was completely revolutionary. Paul is taking pains in this whole epistle to cover his steps and to thoroughly prove the truth of the Gospel.

In verses 13 – 15 Paul demonstrates the necessity of righteousness being imputed by faith and not by the Mosaic Law. The Law was only for the Jew and was conditional upon obedience. One had to gain merit that would be weighed in the balances with ones sins. But a little foolishness is heavier than wisdom (Ecc 10:1). Therefore, how could anyone have perfect assurance of salvation without perfect obedience? Perfect obedience was impossible and therefore the absolute guarantee that God’s promise to save me would be nullified. Yet does God really promise something that cannot come to pass? The promises of God are yes and amen in Him and therefore faith is the only way God can fulfil this promise.

VERSES 16 – 25:

THE REALITY OF ABRAHAM’S FAITH

What do I mean when I say, ‘The reality of Abraham’s faith’? I mean that Abraham’s faith was not an illusion or a mind trip. It withstood the testing and the trial of faith (James 1). Faith is not only a reality but what it hopes for is a reality too. As Hebrews 11: 1 says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is not the ultimate reality, though it is real. Faith speaks of a future hope as fact and equates what is future as if it is a present reality. We will look at this in Romans 8, where it says, “in hope we have been saved.” But for now we will say that the difference between false faith and true faith is the difference between one person having a vague hope that something will come to pass and another person having utmost certainty that the promise must not only come to pass, but by faith is already here. Paul claims in verse 16 that justification has to be by faith. The reason for this is not only that it must be a free gift, but also that the promise will be guaranteed to Jew and Gentile who believe. Faith gives us the guarantee of the promise. Paul takes this as the fulfillment that Abraham would be the father of many nations. Other nations were descendants of Abraham, such as the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah. However, these nations only had Abraham as their father in the physical sense of the word. The other aspect of being someone’s son lies in the practice of walking in his father’s ways. As Jesus said to the Jews in John 8: 42 “If God were your Father you would love me.” And again, in verse 44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.” We are the children of Abraham, who walk according to the faith of Abraham. Abraham’s faith was real because it is rooted in the God who is real. Paul writes in verse 17, “God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” We do not call into being, He does. One can interpret this text on different levels.

• Firstly, it takes us back to Genesis, back to creation. The same God who framed the heavens and the earth, who brought it about out of nothing, is the one in whom we are putting our faith.
• Secondly, Abraham was as good as dead, for he could not have children, but God brought life out of death.
• Thirdly, it speaks on the level of our salvation and the salvation of those around us. God brings life out of those who are dead in their sins. Maybe you have friends and family who are not saved. They may be hard-hearted when you speak of the Gospel. They are dead. Have faith, because God is the God who brings life out of death.
• Fourthly, as verse 24 shows, it speaks of the reality of resurrection. In Hebrews 11: 19 we read that Abraham believed that God could raise his son up from the dead. His faith speaks, in type, about Jesus’ resurrection.

GOD’S HOPE OVER OUR HOPE

In verse 18, Paul says, “in hope against hope Abraham believed.” This verse is speaking about Abraham’s experience in Genesis 15. In one hope against another hope, Abraham believed. But in verse 19, speaking as if referring to the same situation, Paul is actually speaking about Genesis 17 for he says that Abraham was about 100 years old (Gen 21: 5 says that Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born). How can Paul deal with two different situations as if they were the same? This is because, in essence, they were the same. In Genesis 15, Abraham held up the hope that Eliezer would be his heir and in Genesis 17 Abraham held up the hope that Ishmael would be his heir. Both represented Abraham’s attempt at fulfilling God’s purpose according to his own cleverness, according to the strength of his own flesh. In both situations, God puts forth the hope of bringing forth a son from Abraham’s own body. In hope against hope, Abraham believed. This belief was not a leap in the dark, because verse 19 shows that Abraham considered the problem, his own body. Abraham was well aware of the human impossibility. As a former pastor of mine, Paul Wilkinson, said, “Abraham did not rebuke his old age. He did not say ‘I rebuke you old body, you will become younger, and I confess it’”. He faced up to the reality and in the midst of it, he believed in God. His faith was real.

Verse 21 says that Abraham was fully assured that what God had promised He was also able to perform. It does not matter what obstacles, or obstacles were in the way Abraham was fully assured. He did not waver in unbelief. Abraham resorted to the flesh at times but he never rejected God’s promise. He was quick to obey and grew strong in faith. The word ‘to grow’ speaks of a process. Abraham was not made strong in a moment of time. Faith was something that grew.

• First his obedience was in merely leaving his country.
• Then he left his father’s household.
• Then he shed himself of his nephew.
• Then he accepted the promise of a son coming from his own body.
• Finally, he accepted the promise of the son coming from his union with Sarah.

It was not all there in one day. He grew strong in faith. Lastly, Abraham gave thanks to God. This is the opposite of the Pagan nations’ attitude towards God, in Romans 1: 21. They did not give thanks to God nor did they honour Him. Therefore, they moved away from knowing God and turned to idolatry and wickedness. Abraham, on the other hand, with his attitude of faith and thankfulness drew near to God in righteousness, given to him as a gift. What is the final evidence that this righteousness can be a reality in our lives too? The answer lies in verse 25.

25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

The answer is the empty tomb. Jesus rose again in real history. We do not trust in a fairy tale. It is reality and it is sure. Therefore, we may have absolute confidence that when we believe in God’s promise of Salvation, by real faith, God will also declare us righteous. Because it happened to Abraham, it can happen to you and me today.

SALVADOR AND DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number: 121 Oct 2014

P.O. Box 1481

Vryheid 3100

KwaZulu Natal

South Africa

+27 (0) 72 8311008

+27 (0) 72 3843786

Email: msindisi@gmail.com, salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission WEBSITE: http://www.kwazulumission.com

KwaZulu Mission Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

Greetings all

Our biggest news is that electricity has arrived in the community and we are now hooked up. Our second biggest news is that Di’s application for transferring her visa from her old passport to her new passport has finally been granted. She applied in February so it is welcome news. We will be fetching it on Friday and applying straight away for her extension of permit so that we can remain in South Africa for another three years. Salvador’s new passport has arrived and so he is also applying for transferal of visa from old passport to new. After that has been granted he will also apply for extension of permit. This is proving a real test of our sanity, as most documentation in South Africa does. To have his current visa transferred the VFS Global company, that handles the applications now, has a new policy which requires he has another X-ray and medical report though he has an existing permit. We are not sure yet if this will be required again when he re-applies for his visa extension.

In the last newsletter we travelled to Pretoria to submit paper work for police checks and Salvador to get his Portuguese ID. This month we headed back to collect them. We left after kids club on the sat and stayed with Riaan and Debbie. Over our time in Pretoria and in Springs we were able to see Mark and Paula Hibberd and family who came to fellowship on the Sunday with Riaan and Debbie. We shared a lovely meal with Morne and Doret and Sean and Catherine on the Tues evening, Wednesday night we caught up with Morne and Vicki at Alan and Sues. Our dear friend Lillian was in hospital so we also got to visit her with Sue which was a blessing.

While in Gauteng we were blessed by Morag who had a couple of second hand sewing machines she wanted to give away. Both Di and Celani have very big smiles and are enjoying sharing their skills with each other. It’s a whole new experience for Celani having never used an electric sewing machine before. We told her she is able to drive now, her pedal action can go from 0 to 120 in seconds.

Salvi has started going through teaching material with Johnny which is basically workshops in studying the bible and putting messages together. Johnny has been asked at the Baptist church to teach a couple of times and we have had him teach at the cell group.

There has been a huge postal strike in SA so if you have sent anything over and not had a response from us this will be the reason.

Salvador has just completed proof checking the NTM material creation to Christ firm foundations in Zulu and has now passed it on to Phumlani for his checking. Salvador’s main input has been to check for mistakes and inconsistency with spelling and grammar. Phumlani is checking material for accuracy and spelling. Once this is finished it will be returned to Tony and Maria Verlaan who will be in contact with the printers.

Phumlani and Salvi continue to go out twice a week giving the gospel in Cibilili. Discipling continues as does cell group on a Friday night and kids club Saturday morn and fellowship Sunday morn. Salvador was also asked to share a little message a the wedding of a couple in an area not too far from where we are.

This coming month is when the crèches have their end of the year concerts. Sal will be sharing so please keep him in prayer. Last week he was at Mange Primary School, Eastmine, and shared the gospel during their farewell of grade 7 pupils and congratulations of the grade R children. On Saturday he preached the Gospel for the grade R students Joyland concert. This week he is doing a pre-concert recording at the graduation of grade R students at Care bear crèche and playing a few songs.

At the end of the week Phumlani will be heading down to Stanger in order to support our dear friend, Calvin Josiah preach the Gospel and teach Zulu speaking people there. We will be going down after church on Sunday to catch up with the brethren in Stanger and Ballito that we have not seen since the beginning of the year. On the Tuesday Salvador has to submit his paperwork and do biometrics at the Visa centre in Durban to complete his application for transfer of visa. We trust that by this weekend we will have made Di’s application after collecting her visa so we trust we will able to book her appointment for the same day in order to save us another trip down to Durban.

Salvador is working hard at his assignment at the moment. He is doing an 8000 word dissertation on Matthew 1-2. He has done most of his research and is collating his notes. Once he has written and submitted this assignment he will have completed his course.

We would like to congratulate Jacob and Raewyn Meads on their recent wedding. May the Lord bless you both as you settle into married life.

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Prayer needs:

• Visa transfers and renewals.
• Phumlani who is going to visit the fellowship in Stanger. He leaves 7 Nov till the 10th. He will be teaching.
• Safe travels on the road as we also travel to Durban for Salvador’s, and hopefully Di’s, interviews at Visa centre.
• We give thanks for electricity and water in the tanks.
• We thankful for both being in good health.
•  When we look at the huge persecution that Christains are under around the world. It reminds us to be faithful in pray and fellowship. May we continue to endure and labour while we are able.

Much blessings in Christ

Salvador and Di

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THE PRIVILEGE OF THE JEW, THE CONDEMNATION OF MEN AND THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH 

ROMANS 3

 

Paul’s mindset recognizes that, because man is spiritually and morally bankrupt, God must therefore initiate Salvation. Man’s part is to respond in belief with an attitude of humility and servitude. Paul demonstrated this mindset in his salvation, in his calling to be an apostle and in his desire to see the Christians in Rome. Paul wanted to see them in order to preach the Gospel to them. In the last chapter, we looked at the beginning of the Gospel message, which spoke of God’s wrath. God’s anger is against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who suppress truth in unrighteousness. All the nations of the earth are descended from Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth who originally knew God. However, from the time of Babel and onwards they turned to idolatry. Because of their rebellion, God gave them over to impurity in the lusts of their hearts. As a result, they began to commit flagrant homosexuality. God also gave them over to a depraved mind. Even the moralistic Gentiles, who spoke out against these things, broke God’s law that was written on their consciences. As such, they proved themselves worthy of condemnation also. Yet, even the Jew, who had God’s law and all the privileges of being set apart as special unto the Lord, became like the Gentiles and nullified their circumcision. It seems like Paul, with one fell swoop, has done away with God’s purposes for Israel. It seems that Paul is advocating that God has done away with the Jews. This is what Paul will deal with next. We will look at Romans 3 in three sections. Firstly, we will look at Israel’s unique position. Secondly, we will look at the condemnation of all men, and lastly we will see the answer of the Gospel, which is Salvation by faith apart from works of the Law.

VERSES 1 – 8: 

THE UNIQUE POSITION OF ISRAEL

Now before we start analyzing these verses I want to highlight two main things for our consideration. I am not highlighting them for the sake of this chapter alone. I want us to bear these things in mind during the next few chapters of this book. The first consideration is to do with the word ‘Law’. When Paul uses the term ‘Law’ and says ‘we are not under Law but under grace’, he is not saying that we are without law.

THE LAW OF MOSES AND THE LAW OF CHRIST

Let us read 1 Corinthians 9: 20 – 21. “20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the Law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.”

Paul makes a distinction between being under the Law and being under the law of Christ. Now this is, in one sense, difficult to grasp. The Jewish word for ‘law’ is ‘Torah’ and it refers to the 10 commandments, the first 5 books of the Bible, to the Bible itself and to all the words given to Moses. It was all from God. It is all Torah: that is to say, that it is all God’s teaching. The Law of Moses was not Moses’ invention but God had commanded it. So why would Paul discard something that God had given? Leviticus 18: 5 promises life to those who do its commandments. This has nothing to do with faith; it is down to sheer obedience. Therefore, Paul has some explaining to do. Was the Law of Moses of no consequence? Biblical Judaism, is not a religion just like any other religion. It is special in the sense that it is a religion given by God. It is not a false man made religion despite the unbiblical additions in the unbiblical mixture known today as Rabbinic Judaism. Throughout the next six chapters, Paul will explain how he can speak of the Mosaic covenant in the way he does.

In 2 Peter 3: 16, Peter said of Paul’s writings “in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction.” People misunderstood Paul’s teachings and that misunderstanding of the Law of Moses is the first thing he wants to deal with in Romans 3: 1. Paul was not against the Law of Moses; he was for it. In Acts 21: 20 – 24 James and the elders commissioned Paul to pay the expenses of some Jews. Paul also purified himself along with them to show that he walked orderly and kept the Law. Just because the Jew is as guilty as the rest of us does not mean that there is no benefit in being Jewish or in circumcision. On the contrary, Paul says that the advantage of being Jewish and the benefit of circumcision are great in every respect. It is true that the Jew is guilty but even in his unbelief he is recipient of the Abrahamic covenant. Yet Paul’s primary claim of that benefit is that God entrusted the Jew with His oracles. What a good job they did of preserving them by the grace of God, despite their many apostasies! This is one reason why the manuscripts that we have of the Old Testament are so reliable. They painstakingly checked every page and if they found any error, they would have to discard it. The bible texts are not a result of “Chinese whispers” as the higher critics would have us believe.

The Law of Moses does not save but there is still value in it because God gave it. If you have read ‘The Shadow of the Almighty’, the biography of Jim Elliott, you will remember that one of the main themes was the relationship between Jim and Elizabeth developing as friends before they eventually entered into marriage. Their friendship was not the same as marriage, and was not as intimate as marriage but it still had a value of its own. It is also this way with the Law of Moses. It is not salvation but it still has a value of its own apart from salvation, simply because it signified a relationship with the Lord.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

The second consideration we must bear in mind throughout the following chapters is the covenant that God has with Israel as a nation. In Genesis 15 God made the covenant with Abraham. God established this covenant before making the Mosaic covenant, and circumcision was its seal. In the Abrahamic covenant God promised the land to Abraham’s descendants as a possession. The Mosaic covenant, however, regulated their dwelling in the land. Hence, God exiled Israel out of the land because they did not walk according to His laws but went after other gods. Though the judgment stopped Israel from dwelling in the land, the land never stopped being their possession. When God made the covenant with Abraham, as proof that Abraham would possess the land, God told Abraham to cut up a 3-year-old heifer, a 3-year-old female goat, a 3-year-old ram, a turtledove, a young pigeon all into two. Abraham laid the two pieces opposite each other. The parties who passed through the pieces would make the covenant. However, who passed through these pieces? Only God passed through the pieces signifying that only He was obligated to fulfill the conditions of the covenant. Therefore, the Abrahamic covenant is an everlasting covenant. Afterwards Abraham received the mark of circumcision as a seal of the covenant. God cannot reject Israel as a nation, even if they are disobedient. We can see that circumcision is of value concerning the Abrahamic covenant. Paul must have been alluding to this covenant in verses 3 and 4 where he says that the unbelief of the Jews will not nullify the faithfulness of God.

This is the issue. Does God break His promises? If so, then He is a liar. Even if He could break the Abrahamic covenant then what would make us think that He would be faithful to the covenant that we are in? Rather, Israel’s disobedience served to highlight God’s faithfulness and His Truth. This is because God is always faithful but He is more especially faithful in the face of His people’s unfaithfulness. To prove it, Paul quotes the words of the greatest king Israel ever had before Yeshua (Jesus) came. Paul quotes David’s words, a man after God’s own heart, in Psalm 51: 4. Here King David speaks of his sin against God when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and practically murdered her husband. David said that the reason he sinned was so that it would reveal God to be the righteous one and not him. Obviously, that was not David’s motive for sinning but it was the effect of his sin against God.

GOD IS NOT TO BLAME

In Romans 3, Paul introduces a voice of doubt (what is technically known as a ‘diatribe’) that seeks to go against what God is saying. In doing so, it seeks to place blame on God and justify man. This voice is not so obvious here but it will become more obvious as the letter goes on. It started with verse 3 saying ‘Is God unfaithful?’ Why does Paul ask these questions? The Roman believers would undoubtedly encounter people who would raise these questions. Paul did not shy away from difficult questions. So from now on, we will refer to this ‘diatribe’ as ‘The voice of doubt’. So what does the ‘Voice of Doubt’ ask next?

 5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)

In other words, he is saying, ‘I am doing God a favor by being unrighteous. So is it wrong for God to judge someone who is benefiting Him in this way?’ This person believes that he is sinning to the glory of God. God has to judge this person and the entire nation of Israel from which this person is supposed to be from (as is indicated by the context of verses 1 – 5). God has to judge Israel; otherwise, He would be a God of partiality when He judges the world. He would be a God who would say to the world that He hates sin, however if you are in His camp He will turn a blind eye. Verse 8 demonstrates that those who misunderstood Law and Grace are looking for any excuse to sin. Paul’s reaction to them was that they stood justly condemned. All people, therefore, stand justly condemned before a perfect and holy God. We should have recognized by now that Paul is predominantly speaking to the Jew and concerning the Jew. It should not be any wonder that Paul is doing this for a church that was predominantly Gentile because the God of the Old Testament is the same God as the One of the New Testament. Paul must deal with all these issues in order for his readers to gain a good understanding of the Gospel and to show that the New does not contradict the Old.

VERSES 9 – 20:

THE CONDEMNATION OF ALL MEN

Paul asks, ‘Are we Jews any better than the world, than the Gentiles’? Paul has already shown us that this was not the case in the last chapter. Despite all the privileges they had of being the chosen nation, Jews are sinners as Gentiles are. The pagan nations, the moralistic Gentiles and the Jew are all guilty before a Holy God and are deserving of God’s wrath. In verses 10 – 18, Paul puts a sledgehammer to the last vestiges of self-righteousness these Roman Christians might boast in by quoting from Psalm 14: 1 – 3, Psalm 53: 1 – 3, Psalm 5: 9, Psalm 140: 3, Psalm 10: 7, Isaiah 59: 7 and Psalm 36: 1. King David wrote most of these scriptures. He witnessed fallen human nature and the behaviors described here not only describe the Gentiles but also Israelites too, especially concerning Saul and his men. Even David had committed murder. Isaiah speaks of Israel in chapter 59. The truth is that we are all guilty of these things. Yet note that most of these things are to do with our mouth and the mouth is an indicator of the condition of the heart (Mt 12: 34). The Law of Moses promises life to those who keep its commandments. Paul claims that it is of great benefit in every way. Circumcision separates the Jew from every other nation and speaks of God’s faithfulness to Israel, regardless of their obedience. Therefore, how can one reconcile these things with Paul’s claim that they do not profit in Romans 2: 25, and verses 28 & 29? It is because in Romans 2 Paul was speaking of having a right standing before God. He was speaking of man failing to obtain salvation and deserving God’s wrath. Though the Law promises the Jew life, it does not give life because it is conditioned upon the Jew’s obedience to it and every Jew has failed to render perfect obedience. David could not have merited salvation based on the Law, for the Law required the adulterer to be stoned to death. There was another basis to David’s salvation than his own obedience to God’s law. Romans 3:19-20 argues that the purpose of the Law was never to justify the Jew. The Law was introduced to show him his sin.

VERSES 21 – 31:

THE ANSWER OF THE GOSPEL

Paul says that God must introduce another law because the first law is rendered ineffective for the salvation of the Jew. The answer lies in the righteousness of God as a gift by faith. We looked at this at the beginning of the last chapter. God administers this righteousness to us, as we believe the Gospel. This law of faith is not contrary to the Law of Moses in its requirement of righteousness. Paul states in verse 21 that the Law and the prophets all witnessed unto this righteousness that is apart from the Law. This is great news, fantastic news for us Gentiles, because the Mosaic Law was only enacted with the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yet because this righteousness is apart from the Mosaic Law then it extends an invitation for us to be recipients also; to be incorporated into the body of Jews who believe in their Messiah. There is also another reason why it is good news. Unlike the Mosaic Law, its promise of life does not rest on our obedience but upon what Jesus did on the cross. Therefore, I receive it by faith as a gift without earning it or buying it.

What about God’s wrath against our unrighteousness? God cannot forgive us simply because we ask for it. In verse 25 Paul supplies us with a word that deals with God’s wrath. The word is ‘propitiation’, which, being the translation of the Greek word ‘hilasterion’, means, ‘an expiatory place or thing’.  It is to make amends for what has been wronged with a view to reconciliation. Terry Miethe claims that this word means to satisfy God’s wrath. With this, the words of Isaiah 53: 10 agree, which state that God was pleased to crush His servant, putting Him to grief. Only when God’s anger has been satisfied and his justice and holiness appeased by dealing out punishment for our sin can there be reconciliation. That means that God is righteous in the fact that he has to judge unrighteousness. Yet God is also righteous in His forgiveness of sinners because He has not let anyone off the hook and thus perverted the cause of justice and the requirement of His holiness.

I once watched a movie called ‘National Treasure’. I do not think that it is a great movie, I am not saying that I recommend it, but there was something in it that was true. The main character steals the national declaration of independence in order to save it from others who would also steal it. He had good motives. However, when the FBI agent has apprehended the character who stole he says, “Someone has to pay the price. Someone’s got to go to jail!” Jesus took our punishment on the cross and His spilled blood appeased God’s holiness and justice. The life is in the blood and therefore Jesus gave His life for ours, as a payment to redeem us. Therefore, because salvation is based on Christ’s merits and not ours, the only thing that we can boast in is the cross. From verses 27 – 30 Paul upholds the law of faith for justification for both circumcised and uncircumcised against the works of the Law of Moses, which God only made with the circumcised. Is it that the law of Christ is against or contrary to the Law of Moses? No, the Law of Moses and the law of Christ in essence are the same because the Law is one and because God is one. However, the Law of God in Moses is contained in outward ordinances and rituals and is a dim picture of the law of God in Christ. Think of it in this way. The heart of both laws is the same. The heart is to love God with your whole being, and to love your fellow man. It is all God’s law. It is in essence the same law but it wears two sets of clothes. It is one but it is also two. There are similarities because the same God gave both. At heart they are both one but they are applied differently to Israel according to the flesh and to the body of Messiah. If you take two countries, say England and South Africa, you will find that most laws are the same but there are some differences. If you travel 120 on South African Motorways, you are within the law and therefore there is no problem. However if you were to travel 120 in the UK you would be heavily penalized because in South Africa you use kilometers and the UK uses miles. The two laws work within different contexts. Paul asks in verse 31, ‘do we nullify the Law through faith? May it never be!’ Jesus said in Matthew 5: 17 that He did not come to abolish the Law or the prophets but to complete, to fill them, to fulfill them. Jesus did not terminate the Law but rather He is the embodiment of it. He is our Sabbath, He is our Paschal lamb, and He is our scapegoat. We do not sacrifice a paschal lamb in the body of Messiah. However, with the exception of the Samaritan community in Israel, neither does the Jew sacrifice a paschal lamb. Yet the believer in Yeshua has a paschal lamb whereas the Torah observant Jew does not. As Paul said of these things in Colossians 2: 17 that they are “things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” Therefore, the Law of Moses is not something that the Jew can forget about. For the Jew who believes in Yeshua as his Messiah, he cannot be under its jurisdiction. This Law cannot justify him. It rather it convicts the Jew of his sin. The reason that the Law convicts the Jew of his sin is so that he would find himself in the position of poverty in spirit (Mt 5: 3) so that he would see his need for Jesus.

SALVADOR AND DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number: 121          Oct 2014

 

P.O. Box 1481

Vryheid 3100

KwaZulu Natal

South Africa

 

+27 (0) 72 8311008

+27 (0) 72 3843786

 

Email: msindisi@gmail.com, salv.di@gmail.com

 

KwaZulu Mission Website: www.kwazulumission.com

 

KwaZulu Mission Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

 

 

 

Greetings all. It’s that time again to start renewing visa’s. Di’s current visa expires in Feb of 2015 and Sal’s in June. This means facing the challenge of Home Affairs!!!! Presently Di is waiting for her current visa to be transferred into her new passport. We started this process in Feb but still have not received any news back as yet. Please could you keep this in pray as she is unable to submit anything for the renewal of her visa until this current visa is transferred into her new passport? Salvador is waiting for his new passport from the UK and then he needs also to apply for transference of visa before he can apply for his visa extension. The requirements for visa renewal generally include; police checks from UK, NZ and SA, letters of contracts from Road to Recovery with our voluntary work, X rays to check that we are TB free, doctors letters, bank account details and forms etc. Apparently as of this year, Home Affairs have contracted out this service. This makes it more pricey to apply but hopefully more efficient. We will wait and see.

 

Sal has many things on the go presently. He is cracking on with his studies and jamming in reading at all hours of the morn and night. He was able to have a Skype chat with his American tutor concerning his dissertation while we were in Gauteng for a week (more on that later) .He was very encouraged by this. Alongside his study, he is recording the Zulu discipleship material that was written between himself and Phumlani, they want the book to be printed with website links to audios on how to teach and go through the material. This will give solid material alongside with New Tribe Mission foundation material for new believers to be grounded in the history of Israel and the ongoing understanding of the fundamentals of the faith. They will help prevent what is often common of us, taking Israel out of consideration, and applying the scriptures to ourselves, without seeing things in context. Sal is hoping that this will be finished by the end of the year. Sal is also working on a book concerning Israel’s importance for the unity of scripture, which we hope will be published as the first book in a series.

 

 

Evangelism and discipling, kids club, cell group etc., continue each week. This month we were so blessed the have the baptism of Mkhulu’s wife. The discipling group meet at their home every Tuesday. She had never been interested and always disappeared when we arrived. Mkhulu shared one week that she wanted to repent, come, and follow the Lord. After she started to come to a few of the meetings, and the gospel was shared clearly, she asked if she could be baptised. We pray that the Lord will ground her in the word and use them as a couple to speak to many by their lifestyle and words.

 

As we mentioned earlier in the letter, we had a trip to Gauteng, namely Pretoria and Springs in the month. This was primarily due to getting our SA police check clearance certificates and Salvador’s application for his Portuguese ID. We coincided this with attending the opening of our friends’ Midek paint shop in Fourways. Riaan and Debbie Roux are good friends. It was their daughter Bianca and Braam’s wedding that Salvador took at the beginning of the year. They have had an extremely difficult and testing few years so we pray that this business will be successful for them all.

 

While in Springs, we were able to stay with Allen and Sue for a few nights. It is always good to see them all. The children can no longer be called children apart from the smaller ones! All have taken on their own interests. They are doing well in their individual learning and also are maturing with their walks with the Lord. Lizzie, who will be turning 21 this year, has completed Trinity Guildhall London grade 8 recorder and is going to do her Performance diploma for recorder next year. She has grade 5 for piano, flute and theory and will be completing grade 6 for flute, piano and theory exams this year. This will qualify her to study for a diploma in instrumental teaching, which she wants to do. She also has 3 students that she teaches recorder to. Thoko, who turned 19 this year, has completed the Basic Educare Teachers Training course for early childhood and gained 24 credits on NQF level 4. She would like to continue studying possibly the Montessori Method and find employment as a teacher’s assistant in a nursery school. Thabo hopes to do an American GED (General Education Diploma) in the middle of next year, which can be converted to a South African Matriculation qualification. Both he and Ernest are busy with non-accredited online courses in logic. Ernest did a computer science course, and music appreciation course, all through Stanford University in the US and is also doing an introduction to accounting. All the others have completed non-accredited “How to do Maths for students” with Stanford online. The younger ones are doing this with Sue. Walter, who is now 18, is now doing voluntary work each day in a sheltered workshop and has settled well. We could go on and on …. When we visit we are always inspired by this amazing family. They continue with their ministry without fuss and faithfully do what the Lord requires from them. Alan and Sue Wells are such a picture of the Lords faithfulness as they teach and equip their children His ways and prepare them for their futures. When Di looks back at when she first met them in 2007 she is blown away, 7 years in a flash !!!!!!

 

 

We had the privilege of doing a Passover with Morne and Doret Lombard and their bible study group while there in Boksburg. There were about 32 people. This was a great night of fellowship, laughs, and reminding us again of the significance of the Jewish Passover to our own walk with the Lord.

 

 

This month we are so pleased to tell you that electricity has come to the area. Eastmine, where Celani (Phumlani’s sister) lives, and where we meet for church, has power already. We are still waiting but it should be by us within the next few weeks. Sal has been out digging a ditch for the wire and we have purchased a few light switches and power point plugs. We do not intend to go crazy but do hope to have a fridge up and running for the warmer weather. It is amazing to think that we have had no electricity for 5 1/2 years but as Phumlani said he was not in a hurry for it and there are many blessings in having it and also in not having it.

Sal was been able to show the older children at kids club a DVD by Dr Randle Smith on Psalm 23. Tembelihle has been sharing the teaching of the younger children with Celani.

Sal had an amazing experience this month when some friends from Australia, who we met while visiting earlier in the year, got to meet up with his grandmother and some of his family in China. Lionel and Suzanne Letcher were missionaries in China for several years and had planned a trip to return and see everyone again. After meeting Sal and hearing the story of his grandmother, they decided to include visiting her in their trip. We were able to see photos and watch videos of their visit. She went to be a missionary in her homeland of China in her late 70s. She has been feeding the poor and sharing the Gospel. Unfortunately she has fallen ill lately and her health is not good. Please pray for her. If you would like to watch her story you can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLu1YMugZ4I 

 

 

At the end of this month, we thankfully got RAIN! It has been incredibly dry and our one tank had just a small amount remaining. After the evening of rain all, the tanks are full! This of course means that Di will be out planting up the veggie garden with peppers, lettuce, basil etc. It is secure from goats, chickens, dogs, cows etc.

Please can you keep in prayer:

 

• Our visa applications
• The health of Salvador’s Grandmother
• Give thanks for the rain and electricity
• The ongoing spiritual growth of Mkhulu’s wife.
• A suitable house for our friends Alan and Brenda MacKenzie in Port Elizabeth
• Persecuted Christians around the world
• Thank the Lord for His faithfulness to the Wells family

 

Many thanks for your support, love, encouragement may our Lord bless you and keep you as we put our hand to the plough and don’t look back. We pray this letter will encourage and bless you all.

 

Sal and Di

 

 TWO

 

MAN’S GUILTY STANDING BEFORE A HOLY GOD

 

ROMANS 1: 16 – 2: 29

We have already seen that Paul was writing to a congregation that were predominantly Gentile but had a Jewish contingent. He expressed his desire to share the Gospel in Rome and this Gospel was to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles. This Gospel speaks of God initiating salvation and man responding with an attitude of humility and servitude. We lay down and God raises up in His own time and it is when God raises up that we may get up. Paul exemplified this Christ like attitude and that is why he wanted to share the Gospel. He did not do it out of his own initiative, but because he was commissioned by the Lord. He wanted to be obedient. Paul wanted to share the Gospel with these believers in order to remind them of it. We need to be reminded because the Gospel is something that we must continually remain in for Salvation. Paul also wanted to be mutually encouraged by this group whose faith had made its mark upon the whole known world. He also wanted to share it because the Gospel is the power (Dunamis) of God unto salvation to those who believe.

 

We are going to look at the beginning of the Gospel message. You could call this ‘a history of religion’ and it is going to lead up to chapter three in what is some may call “the condemnation of all men”. Firstly we will look at ‘The Guilty Standing of the Gentile Nations’, secondly we will look at ‘The Guilty Standing of the moralistic Gentiles’ and lastly we will look at ‘The Guilty Standing of the Jew’.

 

 

ROMANS 1: 16 – 19:

THE TWO REVELATIONS

 

In verses 16 – 18 we read about 2 different revelations. There is a revelation of God’s righteousness and there is a revelation of God’s wrath. God has, and will show His wrath against all men because it is against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness. If you are in Christ, then you saw this revelation when the Holy Spirit convicted you of your sin. As Ephesians 3: 2 teaches, before we were in Christ, we were children of wrath. God’s anger was against us but now God has forgiven us our sins. That was the revelation of God’s wrath. However, God only gives the revelation of His righteousness to those of faith. The righteousness referred to here is not simply righteousness as an attribute of God’s nature. Read the argument preceding it from verse 15 onwards. Remember to note terms of contrast and conclusion. The word ‘for’ is a conclusive word, it ties together two verses and brings out an explanation for what was said in the previous verse.

 

Read verse 15: “So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.” Why is Paul eager to preach the Gospel to the believers in Rome?

Read verse 16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Why is it the Gospel that is the power of God to salvation? How is it so?

Read verse 17: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” Because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.

 

The Gospel is the Power of God to salvation because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. But what happens when we come face to face with God’s righteousness character? Is the result salvation? Just look at Isaiah 6: 1 – 5.

 

“1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted; with the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.””

 

Isaiah saw God in His holiness and such holiness exposed him for the sinner he was. He said ‘Woe is me, I am undone’. Paul cannot be referring to God’s righteous character because God’s righteous character results in the condemnation of our guilt. Rather, Paul is speaking of the righteousness of God as a gift of God imputed and imparted to us. God not only grants us righteousness in our standing before Him but also begins to make us right in our nature, as He changes us from glory to glory.

 

Romans 3: 21 – 24. “21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus:”

 

Philippians 3: 8 & 9. “8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of the knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith:”

 

We need God’s righteousness because we do not have a righteousness of our own. This is what Paul sets out to show us in this next passage of scripture. Let me put it this way. What can God do with a rebellious, sin-ridden person like me? I know the power of my flesh nature. I know that I have backstabbed God. So how can God bring salvation to me? It is because the Gospel itself is a dynamic power. Through it, as I believe from faith to faith, God installs His righteousness into my heart and this righteousness starts to change me. Yet, even if our hearts condemn us, God is bigger than our hearts. What Jesus did on the cross is sufficient to cover any sin. Nevertheless, we must receive this righteousness by faith. Thus receiving is essential and the next verse explains why. God has revealed His wrath against all who suppress the truth. If we read these verses in reverse order we get the basic Gospel message.

 

1 – We are sinners and God is angry about it.

2 – God has given a remedy for our sin. He can give us His righteousness, which satisfies His holiness. This is because Jesus satisfied His wrath on the cross.

3 – Therefore, the Gospel is powerful enough to save because as we believe it, God reveals His righteousness in us.

 

Note that the Gospel first starts with our guilt and God’s anger. That is the starting point.

 

 

 

ROMANS 1: 18 – 32:

THE GUILTY STANDING OF THE GENTILE NATIONS

 

God has revealed this wrath against a certain group. It is against those who suppress the Truth in unrighteousness. We were once in this group before God saved us and there are times where we can still act like this group. The problem, however, is that many people do not believe that there is anything wrong with them. They claim that they are not bad enough to deserve God’s anger. For God to be angry with them would be unloving, fussy, pedantic and just plain harsh. Is it any wonder why Paul spends the last half of this chapter and the whole of chapter 2 to go to such lengths to prove that all have sinned? When we observe the Truth and it comes into view, it is obvious. When pushed to it all of us know and acknowledge that we do and think evil things. The verse under consideration says that these men suppress the Truth (lit. they hold it down). The same word for suppress is used in Romans 7: 6, which speaks of the unsaved Jew being bound up by the Law. Therefore, these people are trying to shut the Truth up, to silence its voice, to ban it, to bind it up. They are doing it today in Canada, in America and in the UK to a certain extent. In the West, people are becoming more antagonistic to the Gospel message and especially to the Bible.

 

Proverbs says of wisdom, that she stands at the top of the heights and cries out, “Unto you, O men, I call; O you simple, understand wisdom and you fools, be of an understanding heart.” Yet alas, just as the Jewish leaders did with Stephen in Acts 7: 54 – 60, so the pagan nations did and still do today. What does it say of the Jewish leaders? They stopped up their ears and they silenced the word of God. They resisted the Holy Spirit because at the end of the day they knew that the Truth was right. The Truth is not a vague message that only a few can discern. Look at Romans 1:19. That which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. Almost every tribe on earth knows that there is one Creator God above all others. There is such a thing as natural revelation. Look at verse 20. There are three things that the Pagan nations, though fallen, all knew. In fact, these things were not ambiguous but they were clearly seen. How could people understand them? They understood them through the things, which God made. These things are as follows.

 

1 – God’s invisible attributes.

2 – God’s eternal power.

3 – God’s Divine nature.

 

Just look at DNA. It is a genetic code of information way more complex than the most complicated computer program. Information implies intelligence, selection implies choice and the desire for variety is a hallmark of personality. The light of the night stars speaks of the concept of eternity. The order of creation tells us that God is a God of order. The fact that there are laws that govern the universe speaks of a lawgiver and the fact of creation speaks of a Creator. This general revelation is not as vague as some may make it out to be. In fact, verse 21 says that originally these Pagan nations actually knew God.

 

Now how can that be when there is such an ignorance of God today? This is because all the nations go back to Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth who knew God. God, also, made a covenant with Noah and his descendants to preserve humanity from another worldwide flood. They originally knew God. That is why so many tribes have a creation narrative and a flood narrative in their mythology. Then something happened. They willingly turned to idolatry. Why would they do such a thing? It is a bewildering thought that people would turn away from the True to falsehood. Yet people do this all the time. The scripture shows us clearly that they did this because of their lack of honour for God and because of their ingratitude. So therefore, they made gods in images that suited them. This links with Nimrod and the tower of Babel. These nations at the time of Paul’s writing were suppressing God’s Truth just like they did back in Nimrod’s day and just like they are doing today. What happens when nations, whom the Truth once influenced and molded, turn against the Truth and turn against God’s glory? God gives them over to three things.

 

• In verse 24 He gives them over to impurity in the lusts of their own hearts.
• In verse 26 He gives them over to degrading passions to commit flagrant homosexuality, in which they receive a judgment in themselves for such perversions. Some people think that this penalty refers to AIDS and HIV or various STDs. However, I am not convinced about that. The word for ‘their persons’ in Greek in the 3^rd Person plural pronoun ‘eautois’ which is in English ‘themselves’. It relates to the person and not to the body. However, whether it is to do with STDs or just refers to a change in personality, as happens when certain people come out of the closet, one thing is certain; they are given over to it and this is a penalty in itself. This is not to say that they cannot be saved. 1 Corinthians 6: 11 says that some of the Christians there were homosexual before getting saved. In this context, we are talking about the giving over of whole societies to perversions.
• Thirdly, in verse 28 God gives them over to a depraved mind, which then opens the door to the following. Read verses 29 – 32. What used to be influenced by biblical precepts has, since getting rid of the Truth, since kicking the Bible out of the school system, since getting into a multifaith agenda, has gone degenerate and eventually becomes like Sodom. Just like Revelation 11: 8 says, Jerusalem will mystically be called Sodom and Egypt when Antichrist is on the scene. God’s city, where He has put His name, will become a cradle of sin, witchcraft and depravity.

 

So we see how God dealt with the Pagan nations but let us move on to the second section.

 

 

ROMANS 2:1 – 16:

THE GUILTY STANDING OF MORALISTIC GENTILES

 

 

Not every single Gentile went to the same lengths as society. Nor did all Gentiles agree with the evils of their society. There were ascetics who saw it all as evil. They deplored all sorts of physical pleasures. According to FF Bruce, Paul’s contemporary Seneca, who was a Stoic Moralist, would have deplored these things publicly as much as Paul did. Now how does God deal with these individuals?

 

Firstly, in their condemnation of others they condemned themselves. Theirs was not a judgment where they were merely identifying good and evil. Neither was it a judgment of exposing and eradicating evil to purge out the leaven of sin or wrong teaching. Rather, they put themselves in a superior moral position and condemned others without paying heed to their own vices. God’s judgment is still reserved for these individuals but notice that God deals with these individuals differently to the way He dealt with the pagan nations on mass.

 

God is rich in kindness, tolerance and patience to these people. Why? Because He endeavours to bring them to repentance. Now this kindness has a twofold effect. It is there to bring men to repentance but it will never be in vain. To those who would think it heavy and important it brings them to repentance but to those who think light of it, they store up wrath for themselves in the Day of Judgment.

 

 

 

CAN WE BE SAVED BY DOING GOOD?

 

Those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory, immortality and honour will get eternal life. However, those who are selfishly ambitious, do not obey the Truth, but obey unrighteousness; they will get wrath and indignation. It seems from a superficial glance at the text that Paul is claiming that it is possible for this group of people to get to heaven by good works. Just by persevering in doing good they may get eternal life. Nevertheless, look at the context. He does not say of them that they could attain to eternal life by doing good. Rather he says concerning these individuals, that they do not even know that God’s kindness is bringing them to repentance. He also says that they are stubborn and have an unrepentant heart. How much sin do you need for God to regard you as evil or a sinner?

 

James 2: 10 & 11. “10 For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY”, also said, “DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”

 

When we break the law, it does not matter if we break 0.5% of it or 99.5% of it. In either case we have broken God’s perfect law and are counted lawbreakers.

 

Ecclesiastes 10: 1. “1 Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness it weightier than wisdom and honor.”

 

This verse compares perfume to foolishness. Flies would land on the perfume, due and turn its sweet smell into a putrid stench. However, a fly is a small, little thing. Yet mixing it in with the perfume has such great consequences. Sin is like that. Sin is like the cordial that you pour into a glass of water. It stains the whole of it and the more you add the stronger it gets. God is patient towards this people, and endeavours to bring them to repentance but they are stubborn and unrepentant. There are times when unbelievers show a form of obedience to God’s law. Even Paul admits this in verse 14. Yet this does not make them good people. Even Jesus said of the fathers in His audience in Mt 7: 11, “If you being evil know how to give good gifts”. Just because I might be a nice person, charitable and polite does not make me a righteous person, any more than you can call a glass of orange cordial ‘a glass of water’. It is mostly water! Nevertheless, a little foolishness is heavier than wisdom. A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough. It is only a little leaven but a little leaven is a powerful thing.

 

Just because the Gentiles can instinctively do things that the law commands does not make them righteous because even then they still go against their own consciences. It rather shows that everybody knows it is wrong to murder, everybody knows it is wrong to commit adultery; everybody knows it is wrong to lie, to cheat and to steal. God is not going to judge those people without the Law by using the Law. He will simply use their consciences. Even with their watered down moral code, the Gentiles are even guilty of breaking that. God is not unjust. Nevertheless, every one of us will be without excuse on the Day of Judgment. Both the Pagan societies and the morally upright among the Gentiles are all under sin and children of wrath. What about the Jews?

 

 

ROMANS 2: 17 – 29:

THE GUILTY STANDING OF THE JEW

 

 

The Jews were a chosen race of people. Romans 11: 28 says that from the standpoint of God’s election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. According to Zechariah 2: 8, anyone that touches Israel touches the apple of God’s eye. With this knowledge of their privileged position, Jews tended to boast “but we are Abraham’s descendants!” We see this dealt with at the preaching of John the Baptist in Matthew 3: 9 where John told them not to boast that they were Abraham’s descendants. Paul turns his gaze in this chapter to the Jew and looks at that fact that he also is guilty of being a sinner.

 

What we notice first, is the criteria of the person to whom he is referring. It is not just that this person bore the name, ‘Jew’ but that also that he boasted in God. This is just as the Jews said to Jesus in John 8: 41. They said, “We have one Father, even God”. This ‘Jew’ also knows God’s will and approves the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law. The Pharisees and scribes were masters of this. According to Elwell’s encyclopedia of the Bible, the Pharisees regarded the traditions of the Elders on a par with the books of Moses. As Jesus said in Mt 23: 2, the Pharisees sat themselves in the seat of Moses. Paul also says that this Jew claims to be a guide to the blind. In Mt 23: 24 Jesus said of the scribes and the Pharisees that they were blind guides. Paul said that this Jew was a light those who were in darkness, a corrector of the foolish and a teacher of the immature. According to Jesus, it was the scribes and Pharisees who took this title of Rabbi, or teacher, to themselves. The Pharisees are the group that Paul seems to be dealing with here. If this is so, then why did Paul choose this group of people to speak of all Jews?

 

• Firstly, as a pastor of mine once said, people tend to get the leaders they deserve. We just have to remember the type of prophets in the Old Testament and the rulers who ruled by their own authority but God’s people loved it so.

 

• Secondly, the Pharisees tried to observe the Law meticulously. So if they, who “upheld the Law of God” in outward show of righteousness were sinners, then what chance, did anyone else have of being righteous?

 

It seems that Paul is using the scribe and Pharisees to describe a race of people who saw themselves as a people, who were supposed to teach, lead, correct and exhibit God’s righteousness to the Gentiles. They were supposed to put them on the straight and narrow path.

 

What does Paul do with the person who boasts in the Mosaic Law? He uses the Law that this person boasts in to convict him of his sin. Psalm 19: 7 says, “The Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul.” The Law of the LORD is like a mirror, which shows up the real condition of our soul. It is like a light that shows us the filth, muck and grime of our lives. Yet the way Paul used this Law was different to the way that the person he is addressing used it. This other person is a person who is using the Law, believing that he is somehow morally superior to others. He is seeking to make a show of correcting others without acknowledging that he himself is a sinner. On the other hand, Paul is using the Law to show this person his sin so that he can bring him the remedy that is in Christ Jesus. It is wrong to proclaim ourselves judge and jury over everybody else’s lives so that they may come to us to be pronounced guilty or innocent. It is unloving to point the finger at everyone else without looking at our own faults first. However, when someone is dying of TB and is in denial of it, would you not alert them to it and try your best to get them to a physician that can help them? I saw this happen when I lived in KwaZulu Natal in 2003. We had a neighbour called Mr. Danisa who had TB and must have had AIDS. Both his children and his wife had died. It was evident that there was a problem. The signs were in others before and now he was displaying the same symptoms. I, and others, repeatedly told him that he needed to go to hospital. It was only when his foot swelled up badly that he decided to go. However, it was too late, for that weekend he died. People need the doctor. Jesus Christ alone can save.

 

What is the result of this Jew breaking the Law?

 

24 For “THE NAME OF GOD IS BLASPHEMED AMONG THE GENTILES BECAUSE OF YOU,” just as it is written.

 

This verse quotes from Isaiah 52: 5. It had said in the previous verse that, first, Egypt oppressed Israel, and then Assyria and finally Israel was taken away by Babylon. Yet Israel had not done anything to these nations. These nations did this to Israel without cause. According to Ezekiel 36: 20, when they were dispersed into these nations, God’s name was profaned because the nations did not see the dispersion as a judgment from God. They saw it as indicating that Israel’s God was weak and unable to save His people. Through Israel’s breaking of the Law, they dishonored God in two ways. Firstly, in behaving like the Pagans around them, they communicated the lie that God was no different to the Pagan deities around them too. Secondly, because God had to chastise Israel, they had given the nations an occasion to mock God. This also happens in the churches also. TBN airs its money-grabbing preachers and people then think that Christianity is no different to a TV sales business. Not only that… When the miracles turn out to be bogus and the prophecies fail to happen, the world mocks and exposes it and then says, “See, your God cannot heal, He does not have any power, it is all a con, a show, an illusion.” We must take heed when we make a stand for Christ. If I am preaching the Gospel but I contradict the message with my life, then God’s name gets blasphemed among the Gentiles. As an old pastor of mine said about your witness, ‘It takes a life time to build it up and only a minute to lose it.’ This judgment in Isaiah and Ezekiel that led to the dispersion and the blaspheming of God’s name among the Gentiles would happen again to the Jews in the future. In Paul’s day they were not only breaking the Law but also many of them rejected their own Messiah. Therefore, from 12 years of the penning down of this letter, God’s judgment would come. The Romans would destroy the Temple and God’s name would be blasphemed.

 

 

MAN’S GUILTY STANDING BEFORE A HOLY GOD

 

Paul demonstrates that when Israel acts like Gentiles, they are regarded like Gentiles. The Jews regarded circumcision as fundamental to their identity as the people of God and this was a symbol of them being set apart from every other nation. God commanded Abraham that all his descendants should be circumcised on the 8^th day. They were circumcised because they were Abraham’s descendants and thus special to God. However when they behaved like the Gentiles, this symbol lost all its significance and therefore turned it into uncircumcision. The reality is in the heart. As a Gentile, if my heart is circumcised, my uncircumcision is regarded as circumcision. Just like conversion. The Christian who is born makes the baptism real. The baptism does not make the Christian real. The real Jew is the Jew who has the inward reality of being circumcised and does not rely on outward appearances. Therefore, the external trappings of Jewish culture and society, do not count whatsoever to a Jew’s salvation, The Jew has broken the Law of God and by this has nullified his circumcision. The Pagan, the moralistic Gentile and the Jew all have a guilty standing before a Holy God.

 

 

SALVADOR AND DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number: 120          Sep 2014

 

P.O. Box 1481

Vryheid 3100

KwaZulu Natal

South Africa

 

+27 (0) 72 8311008

+27 (0) 72 3843786

 

 

Email: msindisi@gmail.com, salv.di@gmail.com

  

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

  

KwaZulu Mission Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

 

 

 

August ………. First thoughts are no rain, dust, grass fires. Although it is sometimes difficult to rack my brain and try and remember what took place over the  month. It’s good to look back and see or the opportunities we were given.

 

Our usual routine always continues around anything else that may crop up.

On sat morning we have been continually ministering along side Celani and Thembisile at kids club. Sal taking the older kids and the three of us taking the smaller ones.

 

 

Sunday is collecting brothers and sisters from a area about 15 kms away and fellowshipping together at Celani home in Eastmine.

Tuesday is discipling at Mkhulu homestead, this month Phumulnai and Sal were very excited to see Mkhulu’s wife attend one of the meetings as usually she avoids them. But recently Mkhulu shared that she has repented and given her life to the Lord. Please pray for her as her understanding in the gospel grows. We have given her a bible which she is excited about but she needs to start growing in the faith. We have also experienced a couple of people in the Cibilili community express a decision to follow the Lord but we have not been able to follow up concerning discipleship. Please pray for the people in the community.

Wednesday is our town day, with a list a mile long to try and get done while power and Internet are available. This as you know includes teaching at Carebear and Joyland crèche once a month while Sal teaches Joyland teachers each week on the Thurs morn.

On the Wednesday night we attend the baptist church for a prayer meeting and bible study. Jannie the pastor there has been going through the book of John and its been a wonderful blessing to us.

After returning from town on a Thursday, Sal and Phumulani with Thembisile head off to Cibilili which is about 20 kms away for evangelizing. Phumlani has been asking prayer for a Gogo their called who he has been sharing with. Friday afternoon we all try to head out again before we have cell group meeting in the evening at various homes want to host it for that week. This month we had to say a sad farewell to Nicky who has been coming as she and her husband are moving away from Louwsburg to Richards Bay. With farewell to here comes however a warm welcome to Mandla Nxumalo. Mandla attended the NTM workshop we had in town in the month of May and since then has been coming along to the cell group. He is a blessing to us all.

This month we are pleased to say that the roof has been finally completed on Tholakele’s hut. After several attempts from some locals who said they could do it and then failed to to the job it’s wonderful to see it completed thanks to the skills of Phumlani and his helper.

Now we would like to see the floor cemented. Tholakele is a widowed mother of 4 herself and the girls will benefit greatly from it,she is very thankful.

After fighting a grass fire close to the homestead one night, much to Di’s disappointment as she had just finished washing curtains that day. We had to take a woman into hospital who had been waiting from until 3pm that afternoon for a ambulance. She had had TB, we left her with her family and the hospital had admitted her but all seemed well. It was with much shock that we received the news the next evening that she had passed away.

It is always difficult not to get enraged at the lack of enthusiasm and support patients get when they first arrive at the out patients. When we asked for a wheelchair and some help as the woman was very heavy due to her collapsed state non was forth coming. It took Sal and the two woman with Di to get her into a chair… Then they wondered out. We won’t mention the blood on the floor !!!!!!

 

Sal was asked to preach at the Bethany baptist church at the end of the month. He spoke on 1 Peter 1-9 concerning the persecution of the elect and it was a blessing to those who came.  On the next day we went to visit the Sicelo crèche to take some donations from Guy and Nicky. The young woman who runs the crèche, Khanyisile, is so full of energy and enthusiasm for the crèche. She is making the best of what she has access to and runs the crèche very professional.

Di was also invited to attend the birthday party at a neighbour’s home

Salvador and Phumlani have started making recordings of instructions on using the discipleship material in isiZulu. Once they are done and uploaded the discipleship book can go to the printers. Phumlani has also been busy buying and selling and providing for his needs. Salvador is making good progress in his research for his dissertation. We praise the Lord for the same sponsor who paid for his studies last year, has with some others paid for the remainder of his studies this year too. When Salvador started the course he believed that the Lord led him into it but at various times his faith was stretched, not knowing how his studies would be paid for. Through the Lord’s guidance, His people and through divinely orchestrated timing the final payments for the degree have been completed.

 

THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS AND THE NEED OF THE GOSPEL

ROMANS 1: 1 – 17
___________________________________

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The book of Romans is of extreme importance. It is the first apostolic epistle in the New Testament, and its placing in the scriptures is not there by accident. Nor is it there because of its chronology as the letters to the Thessalonians, Corinthians and the letter to the Galatians all preceded the letter to the Romans that was written between the years 54 and 58 AD. It is the first epistle because it explains fundamentals of the faith. In 1 Corinthians 3: 6 Paul described himself as a church planter and then in verse 10, of that passage, Paul stated that according to the grace given to him by God, he laid the foundation, and another was building on it. Paul’s ministry was to lay the doctrinal foundation for the churches he planted. The words ‘the grace given him’ in verse 10 are very similar to what he says in verse 5 of Romans 1 and speaks of the gifting that Paul is demonstrating in this letter. Paul had never personally met this church before, but he did know certain people connected to this group of Christians, such as Prisca and Aquila. Though this church was predominantly gentile, as Romans 1: 13, 11: 13 and 15: 15 and 16 all indicate, it also had Jewish people in it as seems to be evident from the list of names in Romans 16. So there would have been issues concerning the Gentile relationship to the Mosaic covenant. One can know from Acts 18 that Claudius, who was Caesar before Nero became Emperor in 54 AD, had expelled the Jews from Rome. However, this must since have been repealed because in Romans 16 Paul asked them to greet Prisca and Aquila. Therefore, they must have been able to go back to Rome. Prisca and Aquila were Jewish.

Romans is a letter of the foundations of the faith, as is evident from verse 15. Paul’s desire was to share the gospel with them, and this is what he did in this epistle. In this epistle, he also deals with the implications of the gospel message. The central theme in this epistle is ‘How can a sinful man obtain a righteous standing before a holy God?’ Is It through works of the Mosaic Law or faith in Jesus? Therefore, this letter is important. Another evidence of its importance is the fact that, along with 1 Corinthians it is one of the longest two epistles in the New Testament. (Revelation is usually classed as apocalyptic literature). Both Romans and 1 Corinthians have 16 chapters in them, and Revelation has 22. However, 1 Corinthians is dealing with many different issues whereas Romans has 11 chapters devoted to explaining issues of the Gospel with its implications on the Jewish people and the Mosaic Law. All scripture is inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul was a very busy man carrying the burden of this church and others too. He also had the burden of witnessing and fellowship. Another clue to its importance lies in its use in Evangelism. This letter has been instrumental in the salvation of numerous people, such as John Bunyan and John Wesley. One only has to look at the use of the ‘Romans road’ in evangelism to know that the message contained therein is potent and powerful enough to convict and to convert the hearts and minds of men and women.
THE PRINCIPLE OF GODLINESS

1 Timothy 3: 16 and Philippians 2: 5 – 11.

“By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.”

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The fact that Jesus was vindicated in the Spirit means that He was wronged in the flesh. One can only be vindicated if one has wronged or has been wronged. As Jesus was sinless it stands to reason that He did no wrong so He could only have been wronged. People did not see Jesus for who He was while He was on the earth. It was a rare occasion that someone like Peter would say, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’ However, Jesus was seen by angels. He only preached to the people of a tiny country, Israel. He said that He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. God had promised Abraham that, through his seed, all nations would be blessed. However, in His vindication Jesus was proclaimed among the nations, as documented in the book of Acts. In the flesh, no one believed in Him. 5,000 people followed Jesus for the food but left at His teaching. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, no one believed that Jesus could do it. Even Martha’s faith failed. She had displayed faith concerning the fact that God would give whatever Jesus would ask, and concerning the fact that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God. She had also believed in the resurrection on the last day. When it came to the actual raising of Lazarus, her faith failed. However, in Jesus’ vindication He was believed on in the world. Also, lastly Jesus died a cruel, shameful and humiliating death. He died the death of a convicted criminal, though He did nothing wrong. However, in His vindication He was taken up in glory. Jesus did not snatch at His vindication, but He trusted on the Lord. He waited for God to initiate it, and He responded to God’s leading.

GODLINESS: GOD INITIATING AND MAN RESPONDING

The Gospel shows a relationship between God and man where man is helpless to save himself and has no righteousness of his own. Therefore God, out of His initiative, stepped in and initiated salvation by what Jesus did on the cross and by the Gospel call to repent. God offers salvation, and man must respond. God’s initiation is not only true of salvation but is also true with every blessing. Faith is trusting in God and believing that what He has said, He will bring to pass. Mark 11: 22 says “Have faith in God”. Therefore, faith is not neutral but objective. It is based on something, and its expectancy is derived from the character, will and nature of that object. Faith is, therefore, responding to what God has said in belief. This truth is demonstrated numerous times in the first half of Romans 1 of Romans.

GODLINESS IN SERVITUDE

“1 Paul, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,”

Firstly Paul refers to himself as a slave before calling himself an apostle. The Greek word here is Doulos and comes from a word meaning ‘to bind’. This is probably why the New American Standard Bible uses the word, ‘bond-servant’ and is very instructive in a few different ways.

• Firstly it shows the position of servitude. Paul demonstrates that, first and foremost, his identity was in being Christ’s slave. All Christians are in the position of being slaves, but not all are called to be Apostles. So Paul identifies himself as being in the same condition and status as all true Disciples of Christ and not above them. First and foremost he was a Christian. The associate pastor of a local Church I used to attend was sponsored to go to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Israel. He went there to attend lectures on how to teach the Holocaust. Everyone had to introduce themselves to the group, and many gave impressive titles. However, he said, “Hi, my name is Paul Wilkinson, and I am a Christian.” Before anything else, before stating that he was an associate pastor or that he was doing a PhD with Manchester University he wanted them to know that he was representing Christ. What is our identity today? What do we pride ourselves in being known as? I went to drama school, and one of the first classes we did was called Celebration and Confrontation. In this class, we looked at the history of the Actor. However, the tutor would speak to us as if we were there. He would say that we were the actors that the people classed as vagabonds, and this would give us a sense of identity. So one of the questions a fellow student asked me in the first year was “are you a Christian who is an actor or an actor who is a Christian?” He was asking, ‘Where does your identity lie?’ ‘What is more primarily you?’ ‘Does your identity rest with Jesus or your acting?’ Because there are Christians who want to be known as Christian rock stars, Christian artists, Christian this and Christian that. However, Paul, who was a Pharisee before he got saved, said that all these things that were gain to him, he counted as loss for the sake of knowing Jesus. All else should be second place or out of the equation altogether. First and foremost Paul was a bond-slave of Jesus Christ.

• Secondly there is the nature of servitude. Paul was Jewish, and his readers had a background understanding of the Old Testament scriptures. In Exodus 21: 2 – 6 the only type of permanent slavery that God condoned concerning the enslaving of other Hebrews. If a Hebrew bought another Hebrew as a slave, he could only remain a slave for six years and then he had to be released. However, if the slave grew to love his master and wanted to remain in his master’s household, he could willingly opt to become a slave permanently. This voluntary servitude was attested to by having his ear nailed to a door. Now the ear was significant of obedience. The Hebrew word ‘Sh’ma’ meaning to hear, also means to obey. Jesus, as a bond-servant, did not have his ear nailed to the door, He had his body nailed to a cross signifying (in this context) that he was completely obedient to the will of his Father. Philippians 2: 7 & 8 depicts Jesus as the prime example that Paul was following when he said ‘Paul, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ’. So believers are also commanded to carry their cross daily, to live a life of submission and obedience to the Lord. However, it has to be done willingly. Even though, believers are called to do this they still have to choose to do it. Just as Joshua called out ‘Choose this day whom you will serve.’ Just as Jesus being in the form of the True God, chose to humble Himself and take on the form of being a bond-servant, so believers too (being false gods on the thrones of their lives) must want to humble themselves and become bond-servants. It is not the initiative of the believer to become servants. God has called them to it. However God calls all believers to be servants. Moreover, though it is His initiative, believers must willingly choose to bend their knee. Paul did this. He was a bond-servant. He decided to take the position of being a slave. However, though Paul wanted to be a slave, he could not choose his ministry. Moreover, even though he was set apart from birth to preach the gospel he could not step into his missionary journeys at the point of his conversion. In Acts 13: 2 the Holy Spirit told the prophets and teachers who had gathered together, to set apart Barnabus and Saul for the work. The Holy Spirit initiated, and it was down to them to respond. Jesus did not exalt Himself. He was manifested in the flesh but was vindicated in the Spirit. He entrusted Himself to the One who was able to save His soul from death. Paul referred to this in Romans 1:3-4. “3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,” Jesus was revealed in the flesh as a descendant of David. That was Jesus’ willing choice. Philippians 2 said that He emptied Himself. This word ‘emptied’ is in Greek ‘Kenosis’, and it does not mean that He left His Divine nature aside but that while He was on the earth He continually refrained from using His Divine power though He could have done so at any time. It meant that he remained subject to the will of His Father as a bond-servant. Look at Jesus’ temptation. Jesus could have turned stones into bread, but He would not because He did nothing of His initiative but only what He saw His Father doing. No, He did not raise Himself but God exalted Him. Ps 37: 34 says “Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land”. 1 Peter 5: 6 says “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.” Why do people have to wait on God? Why does it seem that God is taking His time? Because God has got more on His agenda than people think! There is a work He must do during the period of waiting that most people do not know about. He can do more than anyone can even ask or think. God’s people must wait on God’s timing and then they can respond. Now there are many things that believers do not have to wait for because they have already been provided in the Word of God. Therefore, these things are purely a matter of obedience. However, with other things they must learn to be patient and with petition wait for God’s initiative and answer to prayer.

• Thirdly there is the reason for Paul’s servitude. Compare Paul with Judas. Paul was an apostle, so was Judas. Paul preached the Gospel, so did Judas. The miraculous happened with Paul, as it did with Judas. As Geoffrey B. Wilson said “By contrast, the defection of Judas supplies impressive proof that an external call is no substitute for regenerating grace.” That is why Paul said that he beat his body and made it his slave so that after he had preached to others, he would not be disqualified. Is there any greater calling than being Christ’s slave? What other way could God’s people keep the flesh humbled than to be in the position of servitude? The flesh is powerful and self-serving. It does not want to be subject to God’s law. Therefore to be Christ’s slave is a high calling because it pulls the flesh off its false pedestal. Whoever would be great in the Kingdom of God must be the servant of all. Do not come to God with an attitude of being ‘King’s kids’. When a person gets saved, he comes as a servant. That is why there are false conversions and people backsliding. It is because they are told that they can be gods and kings and have a prosperous life. So when the hard times come, they fall by the wayside. Yes, God adopts us as His children, and we have the spirit of adoption even now. However, that is God’s doing, it is his elevation of His people. The manner of coming to Christ should be that of the prodigal son who purposed to say, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as your hired men.’ However, before he could say ‘Make me as one of your hired men’ his father said, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him… this son of mine was dead and has come to life again.’ Have the attitude of being a servant and then endure the hard times as servants of Christ. God elevates His people in due course.

GODLINESS IN RECEIVING GOD’S PROVISION

Paul was raised up to be an Apostle. However, it was not only his calling that came from the Lord. God also supplied the provision to do that which he had been set apart for, as in verse 5. Not only is salvation a gift but also everything we need in order to minister and to walk the Christian life, to fellowship, to be sanctified all come from God too. Everything in the Christian walk is down to God initiating and man responding. 2 Peter 1: 3 says “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.” When Israel marched into the land who secured their victory against their enemies? It was the Lord who did it in accordance with their obedience! When Samson performed his acts of strength, it was when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. Before the Apostles were to perform the Acts of the Apostles, they were to wait for the equipping of the Holy Spirit. So man’s part is to receive this equipping and to exercise it by faith. Look in Romans 1: 5; even obedience is the product of faith. Moreover, this obedience is wrought for God’s names sake. The Creator God is the One who loves, the one who forgives, the One who is holy, righteous and the One who saves. He has to save because it is in His nature, and He has to love because He is love. However, obedience must also be wrought because obedience is to do with holiness. God is holy; therefore, those who follow Him must become holy too.

In verse 7, Paul also wishes them grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Even here things must be given by God and received by men. A gift received by grace. However, according to the Strong’s exhaustive concordance grace not only means a gift. It also means God’s influence on the human heart. Therefore, God will cause His people to walk in His ways, to minister in the calling He would have them do, as they hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit and obey, trusting in Him by faith. This is godliness; God initiates and man responds.

The godly attitude of waiting on God’s timing is also demonstrated with Paul’s desire of visiting the Roman Christians in verse 10. Paul was a Roman citizen and as such he could have gone to Rome any time he liked. He was a tent maker and so could have saved up the fare to get to Rome. He travelled much. He would have known how to get by. So if he wanted to get to Rome so badly, then why did he not quickly get up and go? It was because God had other matters for him to do presently. Paul had been prevented from going to Rome because there was a work that God had for him to do in ministering the gospel in places where people had not preached about Christ. We read this in Romans 15: 14 – 22. This is why he says that he hoped that he would get to Rome by the Will of God back in verse 10 of the first chapter. It took a long time for God to answer this prayer but in time it did get answered as one can read from Acts 28.

WHY PAUL WANTED TO GET TO ROME.

However, why did Paul want to see them? Maybe he had a desire to preach at the centre of the known world. Maybe he was being compelled by Prisca and Aquila to bring some Doctrinal foundation. All this is speculative, but there are some reasons in the text itself.

• Paul had been impressed by the reputation of this group’s faith. Like the Thessalonians, their faith had been proclaimed throughout the whole world. When Claudius expelled the Jews out of Rome, it was at a time after he had granted certain rights and privileges be restored to the Jews that had formally been lost. So what made a man who had been very sympathetic to the Jewish people suddenly expel the Jews from Rome? According to the historian Suetonius, the Jews were engaging in constant riots because of a person called Chrestus. One supposedly pronounced the name, in the same way, as Christus. Judging from the example of how many Jews treated Paul in the book of Acts; it would seem that the faith of the Roman Christians spread because of the persecution that they went through. So we can see that these Christians in Rome were the genuine article, ‘the real McCoy’. Again, they were not ‘King’s kids’ expecting a comfortable ride but, they were suffering servants. Also, Paul was a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, who was THE suffering servant. Paul relates to them from the very first line of this epistle. Therefore, they were all in a position where they could build each other up. It was not simply a matter of Paul deciding he would go in to teach them a thing or two about the faith, but Paul himself wanted to be edified by their faith.

• However, there is another reason he wanted to go to Rome. He wanted to preach the Gospel and to see people saved and become disciples, he wanted to see ‘fruit.’

GODLINESS IN PAUL’S DESIRE TO PREACH IN ROME

In verse 15, we read that Paul wanted to preach the Gospel to Christians in Rome. Why would he want to do that? Should he not have rather said ‘I desire to preach the Gospel to those in Rome who do not know the Gospel and have not a faith unto salvation?’ No doubt Paul wanted to reach unsaved people but why preach the Gospel to the saved? Why do people who know the Gospel need to hear the Gospel again? Paul answers this question in Romans 15: 15 where he says that he wrote boldly on some points so as to remind them. One main reason that people need to hear the gospel again is that people are thick headed. They forget. That is why there is repetition in the bible, so that God can drum some valuable lessons into these stupid heads. People can get distracted and set off course from the Gospel by the flesh. They need to keep remembering. Another reason they need to hear the Gospel again lies with 1 Corinthians 15: 1 and 2.

“1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”

One is saved by the Gospel if one holds fast to it. The first verse of 1 Corinthians 15 says that one stands in the Gospel. It must be noted that this gospel is not something that belongs to the conversion experience and then is left behind and forgotten about so one may move onto the next thing. It is true that one needs to move onto meat and not only milk, but one does not stop drinking milk. A person cannot let go of the Gospel. He is still to crave the pure milk of the word. Rather the Gospel is something that the believer continually stands in for the rest of their lives.

Paul was not ashamed of this Gospel in verse 16. He would preach it fully and faithfully even if he were to be rejected by his people. This rejection is what happened to him in Rome in Acts 28. He would continue to preach that gospel even though he would be persecuted and imprisoned. Even though Nero had now become Emperor and at a later stage would unleash a mass persecution against the Christians, Paul would not be ashamed of the Gospel because the Gospel message is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. What good news to a people who would feel utterly powerless when the persecution would come.

Who is the Gospel power to? It is powerfully saving for the Christian Believer. If a person is saved today then, the Gospel message is for him as much as it is for any other believer in Christ Jesus. Moreover, note, it is to the Jew first and then to the Greek. Why to the Jew first? Jeremiah 31: 31 says that God made this new covenant with the Jewish people. God is a faithful God, who will never lie, and that is why it has to be to the Jew first.

BELIEVERS NEED THE GOSPEL

Finally, the truth of the Gospel is not merely there to convert people but the Gospel also reveals to man the righteousness of God from faith to faith. People do not get it all in one shot. It is sheer arrogance to turn round and say, ‘I do not need to hear the gospel, I have been there, done that and bought the T-Shirt.’ It is amazing that the Gospel that believers call the ‘simple Gospel’ took Paul 11 chapters to expound. So this Gospel is not only something one may study in Bible College. It is something as fundamental to life as the food that people eat. Because whether a person believes it or not it will affect his and her eternal destiny. So the Gospel is not something one may leave behind at conversion. It is not only a message of being justified by faith. However, faith, being man’s response to God’s word in belief, is something that continues throughout the Christian life. Verse 17 does not say ‘the just shall get converted by faith’, or that ‘the just shall have been justified by faith’. It says that the just shall live by faith. Day to day, moment by moment believers are to live in relationship to God. Believers should do all things by faith and whatever is not of faith is sin. If God is continually teaching us and we are always responding in obedience, giving back to Him what He gives with our thanks, praise and worship, then there is communication, interaction and fellowship. Therefore, the Gospel is not only the means of entering into salvation but it is also what keeps people saved.

SALVADOR AND DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number: 119          Aug 2014

P.O. Box 1481

Vryheid 3100

KwaZulu Natal

South Africa

 

+27 (0) 72 8311008

+27 (0) 72 3843786

 

Email: msindisi@gmail.com, salv.di@gmail.com

 

KwaZulu Mission Website: www.kwazulumission.com

 

KwaZulu Mission Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

 

 

 

We landed back in SA on the 3 rd of July. Both of us were very grateful for a few days with Allen and Sue as we were feeling exhausted. Our day was now night and we had to fight to stay awake for a few days. While in Joberg we took the opportunity to visit Tony and Maria Verlaan for a night. We had arranged before we left to take them to visit the Pretoria brothers Mujuru, Clayton etc. Sal was asked to bring a message.

On the Mon we headed back home to the homestead. It was very strange not to have Gogo there. As we look back it’s hard to believe so many changes have taken place. Gogo is now gone, Babhekile who was shot. The two children of Babhekile are now with their Gogo in NewCastle and Thabi, Phumlani wife has still not returned. Things are very different. So it is now Phumlani, his brother Walter and ourselves in the homestead. It was wonderful to see our brother again !!!!!! Sitting over a fire in the kitchen to keep warm.

After catching up with everyone’s news and Di returning everyone’s hair to normal length. One a hair dresser always a hair dresser. We started back into our routine of cell group, discipling, kids club, evangelism etc. Good progress has been made with getting the gospel to the area of Cibilili. Many questions have been asked concerning aspects of the gospel. This is the last area that we had on our hearts for reaching out with the gospel. We need prayer concerning how we will revisit areas with the gospel and how the gospel should next be presented.

Before we had left for NZ we had tentatively made arrangements for Tony and Maria  Verlaan to come to Vryheid and do a workshop  covering the New Tribe Mission foundational teaching material. When many showed interest it was given the green light. It really was wonderful to see how many people sacrificed their time to travel long distances for the four evenings. We started at 6 pm and went through to 9 pm.

The workshop was very good covering cross cultural issues, communication, and the NTM  understanding of how to present the gospel. Many came away encouraged and have taken the material and applied it already. While Tony and Maria were here they stayed with us at the kraal and a night in town. During the stay Tony and Phumlani were able to work on the Zulu material that is getting transposed and critiqued for the Zulu material that will be coming out in the future. We are all very excited about this!!!!!!

On returning to the cell group we were also very encouraged to see how the group had bonded and was functioning as a body with each part doing there part. Phumlani and Johnny had both taught and the two visiting teachers had been from the baptist church. Everyone had continued to meet from house to house, sharing a meal, praying, sharing and having teaching from the word. Sal has purposely stepped back and encouraged others to take up certain roles. So Johnny and Phumlani are taking turns with Salvador to lead the meetings and they are also being roped into the teaching, though we will go easy on Johnny as he is a busy farmer. But we thank the Lord and we can see that our time away was instrumental in getting this to take place.

We started back at Carebear crèche at the end of the month. This was delightful. With the usual happy faces and cheering as we enter ( lol we feel famous ) Di will be going through the New Tribe Mission material with them and also with the Joyland creche children in Vryheid. Salvador will start it with the staff at Joyland.

Phumulani has had to make many difficult decision after the death of his mother –

Gogo. Not long after we returned the family was doing a superstition ceremony, which involved killing a goat to get rid of bad luck. This turned out to be quite funny as after they had killed the goat the dogs from across the road came over and ate all the meeting, leaving nothing for the people who came to partake of it in the morning. So much for ridding the place of bad luck. This however shows sadly how everything has its ritual and there is no freedom. Salvador was able to talk with the family concerning what the bible teachers on sacrificing and respecting Phumlani. He is saying his family is respecting him now however pressure will be on him from other family members. Please keep him in prayer. Thabi also arrived at the funeral and this ceremony, Phumlani is asking her to return at another time so they can talk some issues through however she has not returned at this point. Please keep her in your prayers also.

 

Could you please keep these things in prayer:

 

Thabi, willingness to talk things over

 

Strength, wisdom and clear communication for Phumlani

 

Give thanks for the New Tribe Mission material, and the restored health of Tony and Maria

 

Israel and persecuted Christians around the world

 

Give thanks for the continual growth and maturing of the cell group

 

 

For those in South Africa, we are pleased to announce that Bill Randles’s latest book, “A Sword on the Land” which is a timely book concerning end times prophecy and the Muslim world in bible prophecy. For those interested the book is available from our wonderful brother Alan Mackenzie who writes the following,

 

“The topic is relevant to every Christian, particularly with the extraordinary growth and influence of Islam, throughout the world, affecting politics, finance, governments and… Dare we say it… Christendom.

 

The rise of Chrislam, recent statements by the Vicar of Rome, abduction of Christian school girls in Nigeria, worldwide persecution of believers in Jesus The Messiah, all have their roots in the Muslim world.

 

So what does Biblical Prophecy have to say about the Muslim world, it’s origins and influence?

 

Pastor Bill Randles lays it out for us in layman terms and gives great insights into this age old deception and blood thirsty religious system.”

 

The book is priced at R100 (and R30 postage and packing for those who live outside of Port Elizabeth).

 

If anyone is interested they can contact Alan Mackenzie by email address r2r@exconcc.co.za or by phone 0824523278.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 9

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE HUSBAND

 

In this last chapter we continue to follow our framework that has been established from Genesis. The last chapter looked at the calling on the wife and this chapter looks at some of the obligations that are on the husband. The woman was called to be a helper suitable for her husband. The man also has a calling too as a husband. But what is that calling?

 

Genesis 2:23-24.

23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

 

In Genesis the man is called to leave and cleave. This is not merely something the man must do at the beginning of his marriage. This is not something that belongs only at the process of getting married. There has to be a continual leaving and cleaving.

 

The Necessity of Leaving.

In Hebrew, the word for ‘leave’ is ‘Azav’. It mostly means ‘to abandon’ or ‘to leave something behind’. This is seen in Genesis 39:15 where Joseph left behind his cloak. He had it with him but then he did not have it any more. In Genesis 50:8 Joseph’s family left their little ones, their flocks and their herds behind in Goshen in order to bury Jacob. Genesis 2:24 is also quoted in the New Testament.

 

Mark 10:6-8

6But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. 7For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, 8and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

 

Jesus quotes the Old Testament verse to teach that God’s people should not divorce and remarry. But the Greek word for ‘leave’ in this text is ‘kataleipo’. This word also means ‘to leave behind’.

 

Matthew 21:17

17And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

 

The same Greek word is used in this passage. What has Jesus just done in the city? He cleansed the temple and then he left it behind, with all the drama going on, and then went to Bethany and, I believe, he went to spend time with His Father. He did not concern Himself with resolving the business at the temple. He now turned His consideration to spending time with His Father.

 

 

Luke 15:4

4″What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

 

The shepherd leaves behind the ninety-nine in order to look for the one. Does he not care for the ninety-nine? Of course he cares for them but he needs to take his consideration away from them for the sake of the one.

 

There is a sense, when a man leaves his father and mother, that he is taking away his attention from his father and mother and putting that attention onto his wife. Thus he may be devoted to her. This is not to say that there is a total abandonment for scripture tells us that we must honour our parents. Therefore, we are responsible for them in their old age. It is not an absolute abandonment but a relative one. When something is relative it is in comparison to something else. So the question remains, in what sense does the husband leave his parents? He is breaking the tie that he had in comparison with the tie that he is now making with his wife. Thus, the parents are no longer the first priority but his wife is after God. The parents are still a priority but compared to the wife, they are not the priority.

 

 

Luke 14:26

26″If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

 

When Jesus speaks of hating ones father and mother, he is not speaking of absolute hatred but relative hatred. It means that God has first priority so that the love that we have for our parents is hate compared to the love that we have for God. Therefore if our parents require us to contravene God’s word we will disobey our parents rather than disobey God. In that sense we are hating our parents.

 

Notice that the call to leave ones parents is given to the man. Scripture does not say that the wife shall leave her father and mother. But in the culture of biblical times the woman would literally leave her family’s home and make her new home with her husband’s family for her husband would build his home within his family’s home. First the man pays his bridal price, then he builds a house in his father’s property and afterwards he goes back to fetch his wife and they marry. She left her family but he did not leave his. But the call to the husband still stands nonetheless even in this situation. Yet it must be a reality psychologically and emotionally. I personally believe that this is one of the reasons why God says that it is the man’s responsibility to leave his parents and cleave to his wife. The man must leave because in his mind he needs to tell himself “I might be living near my parents but I am the father of my house. This is a new family. I am not under my parents.” The parents must not interfere with the marriage for the husband has left his father and mother. With the act of ‘leaving’ there is a change of loyalty.

 

The word ‘Azav’ not only means to ‘leave behind’ but it also means ‘to forsake’ or ‘to break loyalty’.

 

 

Jeremiah 1:16

16I will pronounce My judgments on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

 

 

Jeremiah 2:13

13″For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water.

 

 

Jeremiah 2:17-19

17″Have you not done this to yourself By your forsaking the Lord your God When He led you in the way? 18″But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt, To drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria, To drink the waters of the Euphrates? 19″Your own wickedness will correct you, And your apostasies will reprove you; Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter For you to forsake the Lord your God, And the dread of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord God of hosts.

 

Israel forsook the Lord and in doing so it meant that they broke their loyalty to God. In contrast, the word ‘to cleave’ is used in Deuteronomy 4:4; 10:20; 11:22 to speak of clinging to the Lord. In these contexts the meaning is to be loyal to the Lord. So when the man leaves his father and mother, he is ending one primary loyalty in order to place his primary loyalty on someone else. This means that the husband must not gang up with his family on his wife. This is not to say that he must agree with his wife all the time. The man can agree with his family and disagree with his wife. But the man should not gang up with his family, creating a team, with his wife on the outside. There should not be any picking on his wife. Even if he disagrees with his wife he still stands with her. He needs to communicate to his parents that no one, whether his parents or his children, comes between him and his wife. This passage of scripture is also a warning to mothers who have sons. When their sons marry that there should be no comparison of the wife with themselves. “She is not looking after him properly! I have been cooking for him all these years and he does not like his toast like that!” Leave them alone. You will probably find that his tastes may well change! His tastes may change. His clothing definitely will change. There is a new oneness and the couple will rub off on each other. A godly mother must be careful not to interfere too much and let them become united. Therefore, the man and his wife form an inseparable unit and that is why the leaving is so important. The new husband should not run back to his mother when there is a problem and he wants someone to complain to when something has gone wrong. The man should work it out with his wife.

 

 

The Necessity of Cleaving.

 

The Hebrew word for ‘to cleave’ is ‘Davaq’ and it means ‘to stick’. The word signifies the act of clinging with commitment. This is why Adam and Eve’s union was a covenant, it was a marriage. They did not simply live together. There was a clinging together with commitment. But it comes from the man first. The husband is responsible to cling to his wife. According to Robert Mounce, there are two concepts bound to the word ‘Davaq’; devotion and affection. Devotion signifies commitment and affection signifies fondness and the warmth of true care and nurture. The idea bound up with these two concepts is that they are to be shown with the person being right next to you. There is a closeness and intimacy bound up in this word. The husband is to hold his wife close to his heart with devotion and affection.

 

During the time of Jesus Jewish marriage was comprised of several aspects. The first aspect was called ‘kiddushin’ (sanctification). Today, Jewish bridegrooms will use a ring and say “With this ring I sanctify you to myself according to the laws of Moses and Israel.” But in Jesus’ day they would simply say “I consecrate you to myself according to the laws of Moses and Israel” and they would use any precious article as a token of the marriage. Why a precious object? Because the wife is precious. The wife is sanctified and set apart and therefore, she is special. A wife is not common but sacred. When something is holy it is set apart for special and exclusive use. When God told Israel to make the tabernacle and all its articles one of the things they had to make was incense. God had a certain recipe. There could be so much of each ingredient. He told the people that they were not to perfume themselves with this incense. It was not for them to use but only for tabernacle use. Nor would God want them to bring another recipe into the tabernacle. God called that strange fire. Only the high priest was sanctified to go into the holy of holies. So when we think of sanctification we should think ‘special privilege’. That is how the wife should be regarded by her husband. She should be sacred and special to him.

 

The second aspect of the wedding was introduced just prior to the time of Jesus and that is called, the ‘ketuvah’ (writing). It was introduced by a gentleman called Simeon Ben Shetach. Ben Shetach introduced this marriage contract for the protection of the wife because she is the most vulnerable partner in the marriage. If the wife is left stranded, how will take care of herself? On the marriage contract it would read, “Be thou my wife according to the law of Moses and of Israel. I will work for you, I will honour you, I will support and maintain you, in accordance with the custom of Jewish husbands who work for their wives and honour, support and maintain them.” The husband also took on a further obligation to fix a certain price or sum in case anything went wrong. These words were also attached, “All my property, even the mantel on my shoulders, will be mortgaged for the security of this contract and the sum.” The wife was therefore protected. This custom was in existence during the time of Jesus. The husband was responsible to protect and provide for his wife.

 

The third aspect of a Jewish marriage was the recital of seven blessings. Two of the blessings that would have been recited were “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has made man in Your image, after Your likeness, and has prepared to him out of his own very self a fabric forever.” Another blessing reads as follows: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has created joy, gladness, bridegroom and bride, mirth and exaltation, pleasure and delight, love, brotherhood, peace and fellowship. Soon, may there be heard in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the jubilant voice of bridegrooms from their canopies and of youths from their feasts of song. Blessed are You O Lord who makes bridegroom to rejoice with the bride.” Notice that marriage is associated with joy and happiness. But this blessing is only going to be realised when the Messiah comes. It is only then that Jerusalem will be filled with that kind of joy. There is a connection to creation in the wedding. There is also a connection to Jesus’ return. But when Jewish couples got married it is like there was an awareness that their marriage, somehow, connected to this bigger picture. It is not just another wedding. It is like a re-enactment of creation. Jews believed that, as the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters at the creation, so the Holy Spirit also hovers over the marriage bed. There is so much more significance in marriage to this act of cleaving to the wife.

 

The fourth aspect, which was not there at the time of Jesus but was there at the time of the early church, after 70AD, is that they would take a wine glass or the cup and the bridegroom would stamp on it and smash it with one step. That symbolised the destruction of the temple. Just as one step can smash a cup or wine glass so one act of unfaithfulness can destroy the trust and the happiness of that marriage. It is a good warning because unfaithfulness is the opposite of cleaving. There is a huge witness, a huge sanctification, a huge responsibility of protection and provision, a huge responsibility to protect and nurture the joy and blessing, as well as to remain faithful in this concept of cleaving. And this starts with the husband.

 

 

What are Some of the Ways that a Man should Cleave to his Wife?

 

 

Ephesians 5:25-31

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,30because we are members of His body. 31For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

 

 

The are four ways that a man can cleave to his wife suggested in these verses.

 

 

1. Cleaving in Love.

 

The first way of cleaving that we are faced with is that a man should love his wife. But what does it mean to love. There is a lot of talk about love. Sometimes it is so easy to tell someone that you love them when you feel it. But love is not about the merely external but is about a sincere devotion to that person’s good.

 

 

1 Corinthians 13:4

4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,

 

When Paul writes that love is patient it means literally that it has a long soul. In Hebrew thought it means that it has a long nose. Anger is communicated with the nose so when a person is long of nose it takes longer for the anger to come out. Some one who is patient is slow to anger and does not show anger quickly. Love is not only patient but it is also kind. The idea of kindness is the opposite of judgment. It is either taking away judgement, forestalling judgement or delaying it. How does kindness do this?

 

 

Romans 2:4-5

4Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

 

Kindness is concerned about bringing a person to repentance so that they do not have to suffer God’s judgement. So when love is kind it does not mean that love winks at sin but it means gently coming alongside and helping that person to overcome. If I, as a husband, am to love and if love is kind then I am to be concerned about her walk with the Lord. I must carefully seek both mine and her repentance if there is something we both need to work through. I do not need to come down on her like a ton of bricks and tell her to sort herself out in such dismissive overtones.

 

Love is not jealous either. Therefore a husband should not be envious because something good is happening for his wife and not him. The converse of that is that the husband should not brag. They are two sides of the same self-serving coin. It is like the husband is locked into his own ego trip where any praise accorded to his wife is a threat to his own ego but any success on his part is revelled in. The husband’s role as leader and head is not merely to half the ultimate decision making power but to esteem and uphold his wife. The type of bragging here is the type of boasting you engage in that makes the other person feel small. This comes from the arrogance, antithetical to love, which is to be inflated with self importance. “I am so good, I am so wonderful and important that all I seem to talk about is how wonderful I am or what I have achieved.” That should not be the way I am. I am called to cleave to my wife and that means, not just a marital commitment of covenant but also to communicate to her my love for her in honesty and integrity.

 

 

1 Corinthians 13:5

5does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

 

Love does not act unbecomingly. In other words, love is well mannered, not rude and it is not disgraceful. So when I am with my wife, and especially when I am with other people, do I talk down at my wife? Am I rude to her? Just as a woman should not shame her husband so a man should not disgrace his wife. As the head, he is responsible to uphold her good and her dignity.

 

Love does not seek its own. He should not be looking for his own gratification. He is not trying to manipulate his wife and speak sweetly to her with the agenda that he will get something out of it, whether emotional, physical, or sexual. When I love my wife it must be in all sincerity without the thought of how she will repay the compliment to me.

 

Love is not provoked, which means it is not stirred up, not irritable, or touchy. The reason that a husband can love his wife without being irritable towards her is because he is deeply aware that it is not “all about me”. When I am so self consumed, I can become so sensitive that I take everything the wrong way. My wife should not be walking on egg shells around me. If my wife is walking on egg shells around me and continually scared that she may be saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing, then there is a problem with me!

 

Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. As the Lord has loved and forgiven me, with everything that I have done against Him, which is far, far worse than anything I have done against anybody else… as the Lord has forgiven me I dare not hold someone else in with an attitude of unforgiveness. I am not to put up a white board in my heart and jot down every little thing my wife has said or done against me so I can refer to it at a later date as ammunition against her. When someone does something wrong, deal with it and let it be forgotten. Keeping a list of wrongs is merely a tactic that you and I develop of justify ourselves. “You are one to talk! You think I was wrong to say that? What about ….” And so we ward off any sort of criticism or negative statement about ourselves because the list we make of the other person’s faults, mistakes and past sins far outweighs anything we have done today.

 

 

1 Corinthians 13:6

6does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

 

Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. When you keep a list of all the wrongs you get happy when someone does something else wrong. There is a secret joy and relish concerning this. Why? Because there is something else juicy and significant to put on your list. More ammunition! When you have something against someone else, or you do not like them, when you hear that they have made a mistake or done something wrong, we betray an attitude of rejoicing in unrighteousness when we say “Typical, just typical. I knew they would do something like that!” We should not be rejoicing in unrighteousness but rejoicing in the truth. We should rather mourn those sins and mistakes.

 

 

1 Corinthians 13:7

7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 

When scripture says that love believes all things it does not mean that when the papers say that you can catch flu just by thinking negatively that we are to believe that. The verse is rather saying, “Love always bears.” In other words, love never stops supporting. The word ‘bears’ is today with a roof. It is a covering of protection. It supports the person. You should never stop supporting. “Love always believes” and thus you should never stop believing in the Lord and be faithful to Him. It does not matter what negative things come your way, never stop trusting in God. Love never loses biblical faith. “Love always hopes and love always endures”. Love never gives up. Thus, in marriage, as a husband, if my marriage is very rocky, I am not to say “It is over, it will never work, I have tried but there is no light at the end of the tunnel.” But so often a husband can continually point out the flaws in his wife without realising that he is not loving her and that it is major failing of his calling and responsibility to cleave to her. But because love never fails, then if I love my wife I would rather say, “It is not over” no matter how tense things are. As a husband, I have to tell my wife that it is not over. It does not matter how big a disagreement we have, I say I never regret getting married to my wife. It does not matter how bad our arguments can be I would never want to go back to the single life. I am going to stick this out. I cleave to my wife. Today, so many people do not know what it means to love. In this self seeking, self interested western culture we have lost the ability to stick things out for self is at the centre and God has taken second place. Divorce is rife in the churches and in many cases it is because Christians are lying through their teeth. They sing that they love God and ‘will have no foreign god or any other treasure’ but they lie. Self is their god and when their wife spoils their happiness, and they do not want to live with that, they split. There is no sticking power because there is a form of godliness but a denial of its power. Love is totally centred on God and then on my wife. But the problem is that we cannot naturally love with this love.

 

 

1 John 4:19

We love, because He first loved us.

 

In other words you can love after you have received God’s love. You have to receive it first before you can give it out. We should be like a sponge. When it soaks up orange juice, when you squeeze it it releases orange juice. When you receive God’s love you can then give out God’s love. Thus, it is so important that we realise the extent of what He has deposited in us so that we can live up to the call of showing that to others.

 

 

2. Cleaving in Sanctification.

 

The second way that I should cleave to my wife is in sanctifying her. Jesus sanctifies His bride, the ‘ekklesia’ (commonly translated ‘church’ but really means ‘an assembly’), with the washing of water with the word.

 

 

1 Timothy 2:12

But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

 

 

1 Corinthians 11:3

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

 

If the man is to have authority over his wife and if he is to be the head then it means that the man has to be concerned about the spiritual health of himself and his wife. There are situations where women are married to unsaved husbands but here we are talking about a husband who is saved. But so often we can have a situation in churches where men are following their wives. Their wives are the motivation for the men to be at prayer meetings, at bible studies etc. It should not be that way because he is the head of the home. He should be leading by example. Jesus sanctifies the ‘ekklesia’ with the washing of water with the word. She does not sanctify Him!

 

 

Ephesians 5:18-20.

18And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;

 

In these verses that precede this discourse about how a husband should love his wife, we find that we are exhorted to speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Do I do that with my wife? Am I always giving thanks to God? I need to lead by example. I heard an American pastor once say, “You teach what you know, you reproduce what you are.” If I am to sanctify my wife, then I need to be sanctified. But I cannot sanctify my wife until I have started with loving her. If I try to sanctify her without having that genuine love for her why should she listen to me. I am not sanctifying her, I am just trying to correct her and modify her behaviour in a controlling manner. This is not the sanctification that Christ has for his bride. I am merely a hypocritical armchair critic. I need to lead by example. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and then he told them to wash one another’s feet. In Jesus’ society you would walk about in the dusty and dirty streets of that village. Therefore, when you visited someone, it was common courtesy that the host would call someone, possibly a slave, to wash your feet. It was not an important job but was a lowly job. Jesus, our master, took a lowly place. God’s view of leaders are that they should be servant leaders. Therefore, as a husband, I must ask; “How am I serving my wife?” Even though scripture says of the godly wife, that she calls her husband ‘lord’ (1 Peter 3:6) the husband must see his role as one of loving service and not lording it over his wife. That is why biblical submission, with a godly husband, is not abusive.

 

 

3. Cleaving as Nourishing.

 

Just as the husband nourishes his own body so he must realise that his wife is his body. She is bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Therefore part of my responsibility as a husband is to nourish my wife. The Greek word for nourish is ‘ektrepho’ and it means ‘to promote health and strength’. When you look at Genesis 3:17-19 God tells Adam that by the sweat of his brow he will eat his bread. Adam is the provider. There is a sense that Adam is to provide for his wife and his family. Though, in the last chapter we saw that the wife also provides for the family, the man is the fundamental provider for his home. A man naturally feels that obligation to be the bread winner because that is the way that God made us.

 

 

Ephesians 6:4

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

 

The term for bringing up children in this verse is the same word in Greek. It means to nourish. Here, nourishing does not speak of physically feeding your children, though without that they will never grow, but it means to educate. When we speak of nourishing it is not merely physical but incorporates body, soul, and spirit. This is not only his concern for his children but he should be concerned about the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well being of his wife. But to do this you have to know your wife. You have to pick up the signs of when she is down, or feeling weak, or when she is struggling with something. He needs to attend to her and nourish her in promoting her good. This is Christ’s selfless love for us. He even lay down His life for us and so the husband has such a high and holy calling to emulate that in his relationship with his wife. How much we, as men, need the grace and leading of the Lord in our lives.

 

 

4. Love as Cherishing.

The Greek word for ‘Cherishing’ is ‘thelpo’ and it means ‘to impart warmth’. How do you keep your wife warm when she is cold? You hug her nicely. Thus you are to cherish, to nurse, and to comfort your wife. If nourishing concerns what you say and do for your wife’s well being, cherishing concerns the way you say it and do it. You cannot simply nourish your wife but you must also have tenderness towards her. Nourishment without cherishing is ugly. God wants us to cleave with both nourishing and cherishing.

 

 

1 Thessalonians 2:7

But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

 

The Greek word for ‘tenderly cares’ in this verse is the same word meaning, ‘cherishes’. Think of the following situation. In a family, a child has a terrible day and is so upset because everybody laughed at him. The mother just holds him and says “I know, I know”. Sometimes, with cherishing, it is not about what you say but it is just the fact that you are there and you understand. Sometimes that is all that matters. That does not feel very masculine. There is a joke that men make that says “Come to me with a problem only if you want help fixing it. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.” That is off the mark. Sometimes you need to be there to hold your wife and comfort her. Yes it is an emotional need and showing emotion is to make oneself vulnerable, but we are to cherish our wives.

 

 

Colossians 3:19

Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them.

 

We, as husbands, are not to harden our hearts but to exercise heartfelt compassion and we are to demonstrate gracious forgiveness. In Colossians 3:14 we are told to put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. This is what undergirds everything when husbands are not to be embittered against their wives. The love and the unity that springs from that love is what God commands me as a husband to demonstrate to my wife.

 

 

1 Peter 3:7-12

You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. 8To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; 9not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. 10For, “THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS, MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT. 11HE MUST TURN AWAY FROM EVIL AND DO GOOD; HE MUST SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT. 12FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE TOWARD THE RIGHTEOUS, AND HIS EARS ARE ATTENTIVE TO THEIR PRAYER, BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL.

 

A husband is called to live with their wives according to knowledge. You need to get to know your wife. Some people say, “That is impossible. I thought she liked this but she doesn’t like it any more. She keeps changing her mind.” It is a never ending research project that you never seem to be able to get to the bottom of. It is hard to understand your wife when she does not even know why she feels the way she does. It is an ongoing learning process. There will never be a day when we have everything figured out.

 

Calling women weaker sounds very derogatory and chauvinistic. But that is not the case at all. The same Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:22 that the weakest parts of a human body are necessary or indispensable. You cannot live without them. The bones in your body are strong but your eye is a weaker part of the body. You could poke your eye and blind yourself quite easily. But you need your eyes. Weakness does not mean worthless! But, in society, weakness can mean worthless. Babies with disorders are terminated. There is a call from certain people in society to euthanise the old and frail. They are not seen to contribute anything of worth to society so society can dispose of them. But in Paul’s mind a weak member is something to be prized, cherished and protected, like with a baby. You would give your life for your baby because that baby is precious. That is the way a man should be with his wife. In Roman-Greek society women were looked down on. “You cannot trust a woman to run anything because they are weak.” Paul says, it is because she is weak that you need to understand her and esteem her. In Paul’s society women were not only regarded weak, physically, but she was also socially weak, she was socially un-empowered. Therefore the man should stand up for her.

A man should also show his wife honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. The reason that I am to honor Di is, not that she is weaker, but that we are equal before God. She is equal in Messiah as an heir. When I live with her in an understanding way then I condescend. If I am stronger than I have a greater responsibility to the weaker one, that is because God is true and his word true. But I honor her because she is my equal. She is my equal because in the resurrection there will be no marriage covenant between us. There will be the unity and the fellowship but not the marriage roles. I will not be her head and therefore it is very possible that in the resurrection that my wife may be entrusted with more responsibility than I. If I disgrace my wife, therefore, then God will not answer my prayers. Why will God not answer my prayers? God hears the prayers of the righteous and is attentive to them but His face is against those who do evil. When I disrespect my wife I am doing evil. How can I speak to my wife harshly and berate her, belittle her, make her feel worthless and like a nothing, and expect God to listen to me. I expect God to listen to me but I will not listen to her? I expect God to honor me but I will not honor her? That is such a delusion! God is on the wife’s side in that case. God will stand for the widow, the orphan and the helpless. If I do not treat Di rightly then my relationship is de facto not right with God. It does not matter how much I preach, how much I teach or how much God works despite me it does not count for anything in terms of my relationship with Him. I must be gentle and respectful to my wife. There are times when I may say something strongly and exert authority. But I must remind myself that she is my equal and I must honor, esteem, and respect my wife.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number: 118 Jul 2014

PO BOX 1481

VRYHEID 3100

KWAZULU NATAL

SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

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Email: msindisi@gmail.com

salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

KwaZulu Mission Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

We write this newsletter from Sydney, Australia before we fly out in 2 days. It’s a beautiful day here and this morning over coffee we looked back over the last 2 months and thought of all the people we got to met and the places we saw and the incredible time we got to share with family and friends. Wow !!!!!!!

We had tried to set the month of June aside mainly for family. This proved to be church family and Di’s family.

A special time was had with Di’s brother Bruce and his wife G and the kids in Masterton. The kids had their cross country races, netball and soccer. Not to mention dad also with his scocer. Every win was accredited to Aunty Di being there.!!!!!!!! Lol

William had been 3 when Di had last seen him so it was wonderful for him to finally meet this Aunty Di and Uncle Sal who lived in SA.

A day was set aside to travel to Wiaknae tomeet up with Aunty Stella who was turning 96 on the 19 th June and another Aunty called Verna.

Between family time we were asked to speak to the youth at Emmanuel on a sat evening and also Sal got to share morning and evening at Emmanuel on the 8 th and 22 nd. After Sal had shared in Wellington in May, Lester Fensom had arranged another meeting in Bulls with a assembly called ” my fathers house” . This turned out to be twice as he was invited back for the last Wed night before we flew out.

Of course one of the main reasons for coming to NZ was to celebrate Di’s mum birthday. After booking the tickets it was discovered it was her 79 th not 80 th as was first thought. Of course everyone stayed quiet not wanting the trip postponed for another year.

The time we all shared together was amazing, family from around NZ and Australia all got together for a lunch on the 15 th. With many laughs, photos and food we reminisced and shared our news. On the 19 th June it was the immediate family. This time was so special for us all. We were all amazed to be together under one roof sharing this occasion with our mum and dad. The last time we believe was over 14 years ago.

While in Palmerston North we were grateful for some time to work on our rental property and meet the tenants. The garden was hugely over grown and neighbour’s  at been complaining. So we set to work, pruning, sawing down, dragging trees, water blasting etc. we left happy that the place was acceptable and manageable and having made some new friends with the tenants who helped.

We recieved some very sad news when we heard that Gogo ( Phumulani mother) had passed away. We lived along side her in the homestead. She had been instrumental in welcoming Di when we had first arrived. She was like Di’s Zulu mum. Many times she would call Di to come sit beside her when there was community meetings. They had a special bond although both were limited in their communication they always managed to understand each other. She will be sadly missed. We are unsure if she gave her life to the Lord but Phumulani did say that she was thanking him for His grace and mercy to her. The funeral was on the 28 th so we both wrote words to be shared at the funeral to express our deep sorrow and love for the family and how she had impacted our lives and many who had visited the homestead.  Gogo had suffered much over the last few months with the shootings, her grandchildren moving away and her cancer.

The last few days we were blessed to see Pam Mott and Marg Goodwin again on kiwi soil. Pam shared a night with us and Glenys and was able to attend the meeting in bulls. While Marg, Lester, Lawrie and ourselves talked over a meal before heading to the airport.

Departing NZ ( the land of the long white cloud ) was very difficult, the time we had shared was so precious that it made pulling away very hard. Many tears, hugs and sadness mixed with much gratitude that it had been possible. We take with us wonderful memories……. and some heavy suitcases.

Arriving in Sydney, we have spent our last few days with Lee and Lorraine Wardle and family. Sal shared twice on the Saturday afternoon. Lee had invited friends and neighbors over to have fellowship over a barbeque. On the Sunday, Sal spoke again at Lee’s assembly, Gospel Light Evangelical Church.

It’s been lovely getting to know everyone, Lee and Lorraine thank you for your hospitality.  May the lord bless you.

On the 3 rd of July at 5 am we are heading to the airport for our 14 hour flight home. What a time we have had, what amazing people we have meet, we will continue to re- live our time away over and over again when we share our stories that side with family and friends.

Please can you pray:

 

Phumulani and the family after the loss of Gogo.

 

The New Tribe Mission workshop that is happening in July when we return.

 

Visa renewal ……. Coming up in Feb and June next year. We will start the process on our return.

 

Thank the Lord for the many opportunties that were given to share His word and the networking of believers. May the Lord who plants seeds help them to grow and bear fruit.

 

His amazing gift of getting us to NZ to see our loved ones, friends and fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord. We praise and thank you.

 

CHAPTER 9

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE WIFE

The Reason why Woman was Created.

The wife was given to be a helper, suitable for her husband. In this world where following ones own dreams and aspirations, a world where realising ones own, personal authentic existence is the highest goal defining the role of the wife as a helper is seen as a negative. Especially when the common philosophy is that anything that denies people’s equality is morally wrong.

1 Corinthians 11:9

for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.

Scripture says that the woman was made for man’s sake and not the other way round. This has much to do with the obligation for the wife to be a helper suitable for her husband. Many people not believe that the Bible is right in this area. Feminists perceive the biblical world-view to be oppressive and abusive of women’s rights. They believe that there should either be complete equality or women should have priority over men. But when we look at the various components of what scripture portrays concerning being a helper it actually cuts against some traditional understandings. One traditional view of a woman being a helper suitable for her husband was that once a woman got married she should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. But that is not the biblical picture.

Genesis 2:18

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

The Hebrew term translated as “a helper suitable” is “ezer k’negdo”. The word “ezer” means help and it is where we get the name Ezra from. And there are three letters in that word. The letters are ayin, zayin and rosh. The first two letters in the word spell the word “Uz” which means strength. Thus in Hebrew, the word for help has the concept of strength in it. The wife is a strength for her husband. She is not merely there to serve her husband but she is a strength to him also. And there are places where being a helper means to contribute a strength that the other person does not have. God is a helper and you cannot imagine God lacking in strength and weaker than us. He does not walk behind us in fear and trembling and He is a helper for us.

Joshua 1:12-15

12To the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, 13″Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God gives you rest and will give you this land.’ 14Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan, but you shall cross before your brothers in battle array, all your valiant warriors, and shall help them, 15until the Lord gives your brothers rest, as He gives you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to your own land, and possess that which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.”

The Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh already gained their inheritance but they were to help the other tribes gain theirs. In helping they were to supply more strength because without the extra help, the battles would be harder.

Exodus 18:4

Now when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand about you from morning until evening?”

Moses named his son Eliezer, which means “My God helps”. In this context the idea of help incorporates the concept of deliverance. Therefore God’s help is to do with salvation. And what did Eve help her husband with? She saved her husband from solitude or loneliness. The wonderful thing about overcoming loneliness and having companionship is that companionship is a two way thing. The wife is not only there to overcome his loneliness but because of the nature of companionship the husband is also there to overcome her loneliness too. But the Lord used Eve to save Adam from loneliness and the reason I believe that God brought all the animals to Adam was that he would then truly value his wife. Adam stood in front of the animals and they did not look like him. But when Adam stood in front of Eve, Adam could see that here was a helper suitable for him. The term “K’negdo” means, “as opposite”. The word “Neged” is also found in Ezekiel’s vision of the temple and is used to speak of “opposite the table”, “opposite the wall”. Therefore Eve stands opposite to Adam and she corresponds to him. Adam sees the animals coming to him, four legs, wings, thick skin, etc. and they do not correspond to him. Eve stands in front of him, and though there are obvious differences she is like him. Two arms, two legs, fine skin, the proportion of nose to ears, to eyes, to mouth etc. But this is not simply a physical correspondence. It is also emotional and spiritual. Because Eve was taken from Adam, and because she corresponds to him, therefore she is also made in the image of God. So there is a sense of equal worth and dignity between Adam and Eve. Thus, on the side of being a helper, there is a sense of a woman’s first obligation being to her husband. She is a helper for him. She was made for him, not him for her. But because she is opposite him, because she corresponds to him, they are equal also. And those two words, ‘helper’ and ‘suitable’ need to be held together.

The man has met his match.

The other aspect of the Hebrew word “k’negdo” lies with the Jewish idea of match-making. Eve was a match for Adam. If you have ever seen the film, “Fiddler on the Roof” you will remember that there was a Jewish lady who was a match-maker. She was a Shadkan and the Shadkan was responsible to find a match for someone’s daughter. But in match-making, the Shadkan would look at the education, they would look at the personal moral virtues, at the personality, they would look at the stock of the family (which was very important), and they want to find a match so that the future couple will correspond to each other. That is based on their understand of a helper being suitable for her husband. But the wonderful thing about marriage, is that even if we do not naturally correspond in every way, if we meet the challenges with a godly mindset, then marriage will find a way to cause a couple to come to correspond to each other. All those jagged edges that prohibit a neat fit get filed down, and get knocked off through friction until we correspond. Even if we did not correspond when we got married, God can cause us to correspond. So the woman is a match for her husband, they are in a partnership, they are mutually dependent on each other and she is supplying things that he lacks. In my own marriage, Di supplies a lot of attributes, skills and perspective that I lack.

The Woman is a Home Builder

Genesis 2:22

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

Even though the English translation states that God made Adam from the rib, literally it means side. This probably means that God took the rib and some of the flesh around the rib because Adam says that “She is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” In the English it says that God fashioned, or made, the Rib into a woman. But the literal word for ‘fashioned’ actually means ‘built’. God built Eve from the side of Adam. The reason for this is that the woman is going to build the family. The woman is very important for she is the one who produces the children. The hebrew word for children is ‘Banim’ while the word, ‘to build’ is ‘banah’. There is a similarity between these words. She is primarily building the home through having children. However, when we get into the area of Hebrew word associations, we find some very precious truths. The word ‘binah’ means understanding, intelligence or knowledge. These concepts in the Hebrew scripture really do come together.

Proverbs 14:1

The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.

If you want to build a house you must employ wisdom. Some Rabbis, understanding these things, claimed concerning Genesis 2:22 that because God built (Banah) Eve, God has endowed her with more ‘Binah’ (understanding) than the man.

The Virtuous Woman

Proverbs 31:10-31

10An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. 11The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain. 12She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.13She looks for wool and flax And works with her hands in delight.

14She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar. 15She rises also while it is still night

And gives food to her household And portions to her maidens. 16She considers a field and buys it;

From her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong. 18She senses that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out at night. 19She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle. 20She extends her hand to the poor, And she stretches out her hands to the needy. 21She is not afraid of the snow for her household,

For all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22She makes coverings for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple. 23Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. 24She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies belts to the tradesmen. 25Strength and dignity are her clothing, And she smiles at the future. 26She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 27She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. 28Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: 29″Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all.” 30Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. 31Give her the product of her hands, And let her works praise her in the gates.

This woman is one such woman who is building up her house. A lot of people call her the virtuous woman. Some people say that such a woman does not exist and would only read this allegorically. But this woman teaches us that a woman’s place is not just behind a sink. She is not barefoot. She is a dignified, respectful and very capable woman. The virtuous woman’s value and what she has to contribute is exceedingly great. In this passage Solomon’s mother is speaking to him. She warns her son to walk carefully, not in drunkenness and spending his strength on lewd women. Rather, she calls Solomon to attach himself to a godly wife. And this is why I believe that this passage is not primarily allegorical or symbolic though it may have that level of meaning. Solomon’s mother is telling him what kind of woman he should be looking for. The worth of such a woman is rare and therefore she is precious. She is trustworthy and leaves her husband entertaining no suspicion. Her husband trusts in her and his trust is not disappointed in her. She lives up to his trust. He does not have to worry about what she is doing. He knows within his heart that she is not up to anything that would harm him. There is complete security in their relationship. One of the callings of the wife is to do her husband good as long as they both shall live. As she does her husband good, the trust of her husband can only grow.

In verses 13-14 we can she that this woman has the ability of outsourcing materials and food. She does not make beans on toast (and there is nothing wrong with beans on toast), but rather she puts her heart and soul into the food she prepares and clothes that she provides for her family. This is no mere cooking but rather culinary science. I once visited a family who were having a shabbat meal. They did not judge me for working on Saturday but they chose to do a Shabbat. The husband was preparing spiritual food upstairs and the wife and the daughters were preparing the physical food downstairs with special ‘challah’ bread in the oven with all kinds of pastries. The virtuous woman is no simpleton. She is skilled, she outsources her materials and ingredients, she knows what to look for, she travels far to get the things that she wants and needs because she puts her heart and soul into what she does. This is very important because by getting the materials and ingredients in order to make the virtuous woman is mirroring God to some extent. In creation God made the universe in a state of chaos. The earth at that stage was filled with water. The bible states that the earth was formless and void. In the first three days of creation God produces form. Day and night, Sky and ocean, land and sea. God produces the spaces first and then in days 4-6 God fills those spaces. Sun and moon and stars, sky creatures and ocean creatures, land creatures. God overcomes the void. God does not create by merely clicking his fingers and everything spontaneously appearing in a twinkling of an eye. God firstly prepares His work and then brings things forth by means of a process and plan. A lot of wisdom and thought went into God’s work. God does not merely speak things into existence, though He does that. God is also preparing His work. God did not merely call Adam into being but formed his body from the dust of the ground. It almost feels like God’s hands were there moulding and shaping Adam. The same thing can be said of the virtuous woman. She prepares her work and much thought and wisdom goes into her work.

In verse 15 we can she that she is providing the needs of the whole household. She has a big household to look after. She has maidens and therefore she has personnel management skills. She can delegate tasks. But in verses 16-19 we see that she is also industrious. She is also into real estate for she considers a field and buys it. To consider a field means that she has to weigh up the options. She is not an impulsive buyer but an intelligent student. To consider property she would have to have some knowledge of the weather in that area, of the kind of soil she is dealing with, a knowledge of what she can plant there, a knowledge of the value of that land etc. She is not stuck in the kitchen but she is earning wages and investing her earnings into this vineyard. The overriding idea is that everything she touches is fruitful. Everything she does is a stepping stone within a process of continual increase. She is also a fashion designer. She can design and create clothes that make her family look good. She is a farmer, for she plants that vineyard. She has many different skills and abilities.

In verse 20 we she that she is a woman of compassion and charity. Her first focus is on her own family. She does not neglect her family for the sake of helping others. But as she meets the needs of her own household, this overflows into meeting the needs of the poor around her. Therefore the virtuous woman is also engaged in ministry. She is not only called to be a wife and mother, though those are her primary callings, but she is also called to serve the Lord. But everything she does, whether is is culinary science, buying a field, planting a vineyard, making clothes, whatever she does is always geared towards her family and afterwards that overflowing to others. You do not meet such people often, but sometimes there are families where the daughters might be raised with the expectation that she will be a stay home mother. She may feel that there is no point in going to university because she is just going to be a wife. She does not want a career. There are lots of reasons why it is good to get an education and/or training and skills. It will in some way benefit the future family especially if the parents choose to home school. The virtuous woman does not merely provide for her family but provides nice things. In verses 21-22 we see that she clothes her household with scarlet. Yet she does not neglect herself in the process. She puts her family first but she also looks to herself also.

Through her hard work and skill, the virtuous woman has made herself the influence behind her husband’s fame and success. Her husband is known in the gates. The gates were the place where the elders, judges and people of importance sat. In gates decisions were rendered by judges, taxes were paid and leaders ruled in the gates. The husband is well known and respected in the gates. There is no reason given in the text of why he would be so respected except for the influence of his wife. She seems to be the reason that he is in that position. Everything so does, not only carries value but increases the value of her whole family. As some people say, “Behind every great man is an even greater woman.” But not only does she make enough to feed her family and the poor, but out of her abundance of her production she also makes linen garments and sells them and also supplies belts to the tradesmen. Therefore she is also involved in sales. She is continually fruitful and nothing goes to waste. She finds a use for everything. Primarily she finds a use for her family, then for the poor and finally she sells the remainder.

If you stopped there, your focus would then be on nice clothes and good food. But that is not the focus of this passage. If you look at verse 25ff you will see that the most important thing, which transcends all of these qualities, is her inward, personal attributes; the kind of woman that she is. She is adorned with strength and dignity. Her mouth is full of wisdom and speaks the teaching of kindness. What makes her a virtuous woman is not all her skills, her industry, her clothing or her food. What makes her a woman of excellence is her heart. If you compare this passage to the rest of scripture you will see that financial wealth is no indicator of spiritual standing. James says that God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith. We are not to judge anyone by the clothes that they wear, nor treat one person better than another simply because he wears better clothes and has gold jewellery. We are to treat people the same, no matter what station of life they come from. We are not to look at the face but to discern the heart. According to 1 Timothy 6:3-11 we should not set our hearts on getting rich. The true riches of the virtuous woman lies in the virtues of her character. All the rest is surface and superficial in comparison.

1 Timothy 2:15

But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

When a woman is preserved through childbearing, she is preserved from the same danger Eve fell into which is leading her family astray. The woman must teach her children and has great influence over them. Thus they are preserved from leading their families astray “if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.” These are the attributes that scripture emphasises. These are the very things that make the virtuous woman truly rich. In verse 27 we see that she examines her own household. “How is this child behaving?” “Why does that person look downcast?” She looks to bear a godly influence in her household. And as a result her children and her husband commend her in verses 28-29. Her whole family blesses her and esteems her highly. It is so important that we who are husbands, with genuine sincerity, affirm our wives and not take them for granted. It is important to affirm the children, not to boost their sense of ego and self importance, but genuine praise for genuine virtues and endeavours. Behind verse 29 lies verses 10-28. The husband is not saying these words because it is his duty to affirm his wife as a good husband. Neither is he saying this for psychological reasons, merely to make his wife feel good about herself. His claim is substantial because of what she has done. He is acknowledging her. When we esteem our wives and we give genuine reasons our compliments mean something. Husbands need to take note of the work and sacrifice of their wives. When Paul affirms the Corinthians or any of the other churches, he does not do so in order to make them feel good about themselves but he has sincere and genuine reasons as to why he thanks God for them. It is not about having a positive state of mind and fostering that in others. It is no psychological management of people’s emotional well being in order to get the best response from them to do what you want them to do. It is not a manipulation technique. It is from a genuine heart based on Paul’s observation of those people. The virtuous woman’s husband really believes that he has married the cream of the crop and that is highly possible as she lived millennia before my wife was born.

Yes she wears scarlet, yes she wears jewellery, yes she has fine clothes but that does not make her beautiful. Those outward things by themselves are deceitful. The whole advertisement and entertainment business is built upon this deceit. They draw people’s eyes to the beautiful people, and it is superficial. Keith Green once gave a message where he warned the men against merely praying for a gorgeous, beautiful and good looking wife. He said that God may well give them the gorgeous, beautiful and good looking witch on the face of the earth. Outward beauty fades and clothes fray and lose their colour. But the fear of the Lord grow more beautiful every day that it is nurtured and fostered. Paul said that, even though the outer man was decaying, the inward man was being strengthened day by day. Therefore, we should get more beautiful as we get older.

The Woman is called to be a helper.

When I speak of the word ‘helper’ the main person that comes to my mind is not my wife but the Holy Spirit. He is the model helper and, therefore, if we want to know what it is to be one we would do well to study the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a helper in several different ways and the woman is to emulate the Holy Spirit without trying to be the Holy Spirit to her husband. And as a helper the woman is to allow her husband to be the head of her home. The husband is the head and she is under him but being under him is an active and not a passive thing. That is similar to the Holy Spirit role in comparison to Messiah. The Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Father and the Son. There is no precedent, in the whole of scripture, for direct prayer and worship to the Holy Spirit. We can pray to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in His “three-in-oneness” but not to the Holy Spirit in reference to Himself. We do not see this practised in scripture. There is only one place where you may get the impression that it is possible and that is with Ezekiel and he is told to prophesy to the wind. But that is in a vision, which is a prophecy about what was going to happen to the nation. He is prophesying to the wind, not the Holy Spirit, even though the wind in the vision is a picture of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Father and the Son even though He is equally God and equally important. We need to give the Holy Spirit equal attention in our understanding of scripture and our lives. We need to yield to Him. The Holy Spirit is so vitally important and yet He seems to take a back-seat role. He directs our attention to Yeshua and not to Himself.

John 14:16-17

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

The word ‘Helper’ in this passage is the Greek word, ‘Parakletos’, and this word means, someone who comes alongside someone else. It is used to speak of encouragement. Many times, encouragement means to take a metaphorical stick and to prod someone into action. But this ‘Helper’ is also called, ‘The Spirit of truth’. The Holy Spirit encourages and comes alongside us, prods us into action but He also speaks the truth to us.

Proverbs 8:7-8

7″For my mouth will utter truth; And wickedness is an abomination to my lips. 8″All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.

Just as wisdom is, and just as the Holy Spirit is, so should we all be but in this context, especially the wife. Our wives’ lips should preserve truth as a helper for her husband.

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

What does the Holy Spirit do in this situation? He helps us to remember what Yeshua has already told us because we forget the words of the Lord. Yeshua has already told us but the Holy Spirit reminds us of those words. I do not know about other men but in my case one of my deficiencies is that I can forget a lot of things but my wife will remember much of what I forget. I am better than I used to be. One of my wife’s strengths is that she can remember things that I forget. My wife gladly and willingly reminds me of the things that I forget. It also works the other way around but in reminding me of the important things that the Lord has spoken at those times that I forget, my wife is being my helper. I should not be offended by that because Di is fulfilling the Lord’s call on her life. I have seen numerous cases where wives will advance spiritually way ahead of their husbands and the wives end up reminding their husbands of important things concerning the Lord. The idea is not that the wife should drag her husband along but that she should remind and provoke her husband.

John 15:26-27

26″When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

The Holy Spirit bears witness and bears testimony about Yeshua. The Holy Spirit directs our eyes and attention upwards and not to Himself. The Holy Spirit honours the Head. The women should also honour her head. She is the glory of the man.

Proverbs 12:4

4An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, But she who shames him is like rottenness in his bones.

When the woman is performing her role as God desires her husband is honoured by her. She is the crown of her husband. Without her he would not be the man that he is. But the flip side is that when she shames her husband she is like rottenness to his bones. The word for ‘bone’ in Hebrew is ‘Etsem’. It has to do with something strong. Rottenness in the bones is like having brittle bones. When someone has brittle bones, the bones cannot take impact for they have lost their strength. They will break easily. When a woman shames her husband he loses his strength and dignity and he will become the very thing that she will hate him for. She needs to affirm her husband and honour him. If you need have a grievance do not contradict and ridicule him before others. He is just a human being. He is not as strong as others think him to be or how he appears before men. But with your help he will be as strong as you need him to be. Just as the Holy Spirit affirms our groom, you affirm and honour your husband. A wife is selfless. When I was born, my parents had nothing. The first Christmas after I was born, they only had one piece of Christmas cake for food and my mother went without so that I could have some food. She was naturally selfless for her baby boy.

John 16:7-8

7But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

As the ‘Helper’ the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness and judgement. There is a function of the wife’s role as helper, that helps her husband to address certain things in his life. Being a helper does not mean that you do not carefully confront blind spots in your husband’s life. The question that lies before the wife in this aspect of being a helper is ‘How?’ The attitude that needs to be avoided and that is sinful is “Well, as a helper, I am going to get in my husband’s face and tell him exactly what he needs to look at and if he does not respond to it I will get in his face even more until he sorts himself out!” The wife needs to be like the Holy Spirit. She must be holy, humble and His whole purpose centres on glorifying the Father and the Son. Thus, as a helper, the woman needs to first look at her own life. She needs to have the right attitude. What happens in the case where the husband is completely ungodly and does not want to heed sound counsel? How does the woman convict her husband then?

1 Peter 3:1-4

1In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, 2as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. 3Your adornment must not be merely external-braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; 4but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.

The woman is to use her behaviour to convict her husband. When we speak of a behaviour that convicts, we mean a genuine behaviour and not a vindictive and demonstrative act to be flaunted in front of him behaviour to show him a thing or two. God is not calling us to play self-righteous games of one-upmanship. But when there is genuine submission and gentleness, chaste and respectful behaviour it may perhaps be used by the Lord to bring the husband under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The focus is not on the outward appearance of things but on the inward beauty of the heart. The role of bringing conviction is not one of giving another person a good telling off but it is one of submitting oneself to the Lord with all self-control and restraint. If the husband is so heart-hearted the work of conviction must be without a word which should stress the importance of a wife praying for her husband. God must do the work in him because if the wife tries to manipulate him to do the right thing it will be ugly and superficial. If God does the work in your husband’s life you will become more attracted to him if the Lord is at the centre of your life. When I act more godly my wife finds me more attractive.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit often comes through His still small voice. When Elijah took on the prophets of Ba’al, God’s fire came down from heaven and the people saw that YHWH was the true God. Elijah expected the whole nation to repent but instead Jezebel repays him with death threats. Elijah is despondent and asks God to take his life because he is no better than his fathers. Elijah felt like a failure. God shows Elijah a violent wind, earthquake and fire and God is not in any of them. But God was in the still small voice. God is telling Elijah that He is not going to win the nation through the wind, earthquake and fire but through the Holy Spirit convicting their hearts with a still small voice. Thus, how should a wife attempt to win her husband? With a still small voice and not by railing at him.

A wise woman builds her house but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. It takes wisdom and when we do not have wisdom we are to ask God for it who gives it liberally. In1 Samuel 25:13-35 David approaches Abigail’s husband as requests hospitality which was an expected courtesy in the society of that time, especially when respect and courtesy has been shown to him. It was an honour to show hospitality and a shame to refuse it. Nabal dismisses David’s request. David wants to take an army and deal out justice to Nabal but Abigail attempts to save her godless husband by taking food and begging David from following his proposed course of action. Abigail does this in such a respectful and tactful manner that David praises the Lord on her account and refrains from seeking his own vindication. But through the tact and the wisdom of this lady David was spared from bringing guilt upon himself. This is the kind of wisdom every woman should seek in being a helper for her husband. Women need to be very careful to refrain from trying to nag their husbands into submission.

Proverbs 27:15

15A constant dripping on a day of steady rain And a contentious woman are alike;

Proverbs 19:13

13A foolish son is destruction to his father, And the contentions of a wife are a constant dripping.

Drip, drip, drip, drip! When you have said what needed to be said, you have said it. You do not need to keep going on about it. You must say it and you must make suggestions and highlight things because you are a helper. You cannot let your husband continue in folly without alerting him to certain things but at some point you are going to have to leave it and let it go because you cannot change your husband and the more you try to change him the more he is going to resist. He probably will not like being manipulated or controlled. Rather than trying to nag and control him, use wisdom and sometimes you will have to do so without words. A woman must be clever in building her house.

Proverbs 24:3-4

3By wisdom a house is built, And by understanding it is established; 4And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches.

If you want to build your house you cannot do it without wisdom and understanding. This is very interesting because it is the husband’s role to understand his wife but without understanding a wife cannot perform her role either. It is better for a man to live in the corner of a roof than to live in a house with a contentious wife. By God’s grace make the home a lovely environment to be in and that not merely in an external sense but by the atmosphere that you are modelling, promoting and encouraging in the lives of the people you live with. The atmosphere is not created by slavishly following a recipe book. Such an atmosphere needs to be nurtured and cultivated. When you cultivate your garden it does not all go according to plan. Sometimes there are pests and sometimes the weather is not conducive for growth. Unpredictable issues affect the way you will work in that garden. Therefore one must pay attention and take note. You must have wisdom and understanding for problem solving. It is no less necessary for the helper to foster a godly and lovely environment within the home.

 

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

Number: 117 Jun 2014

PO BOX 1481

VRYHEID 3100

KWAZULU NATAL

SOUTH AFRICA

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Email: msindisi@gmail.com

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KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

KwaZulu Mission Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

 

 

The 31^st April was the start of our travels to Australia and New Zealand. After our 12-hour flight to Aussie, we landed feeling remarkably fresh and ready to meet new friends and catch up with faithful friends and supporters.

 

Our first stop was catching up with Josh and Pricilla in Sydney and meeting up with the David Mule who visited KwaZulu Mission in 2003.

 

 

3rd May – we travelled onto Melbourne where our dear brother Michael Chamberlain met us. He drove us to the home of Lionel and Suzanne who had been missionaries in china for several years. Their son Jad organized a radio interview with us hosted by himself and a brother called Chris for 7 pm that evening. After a lovely meal and much chatting and sharing of musical talents, we travelled to the studio. Salvador answered questions and shared of the work in South Africa. That night, our dear friends Pam and Vic Mott came to collect us and take us back to their home.

 

The next day was a special meeting with Pilgrim Fellowship. We got to catch up with our dear friend Marg Godwin and finally meet the Shaftons who we had only had contact with but never met. It was a wonderful day with Salvador sharing the word and then a fellowship lunch. Over the next few days, we meet up again over lunch dates and got to chat longer. Pam and Vic were amazing taking us to tourist spots whenever there was a spare moment. We got to stroke Koalas and Kangaroos and take a tour of the Wonthaggi State Coal Mine.

 

 

The night before flying out to Christchurch, New Zealand, we met up again at Lionel and Suzanne’s home where there was a home-cell group meeting. After meeting the group and sharing the work in South Africa, we had to say our quick goodbyes to catch our midnight flight to NZ.

On the 8th May, we landed in the land of the long white cloud. Marijke had visited us in KZN in 2009 with Lina from Australia, while they were at Ebyown children’s village in Springs with Dave and Lyn Royle. This was our first time meeting up again. Since last seeing, her she had married Jake Harrison and they had had their first child Caitlyn. The day we arrived their second child Joel had come into the world only a few days earlier. It was a special visit. That evening we also shared about the work in SA then reminisced catching up on the time between last seeing her.

Then the day arrived 10^th May when Di would get to see her family in Palmerston North. We had last visited in 2008. As you can imagine there was lots of hugs, tears, and stories that day. We had such grateful hearts that this time was possible.

 

 

The next day Sal was sharing at Emmanuel, Di’s home church. He spoke on the stilling of the storm in Mark’s Gospel. In the morning and the evening meeting was on having a zeal for God’s house.  Between meetings, we shared a lunch with the fellowship. This gave us time to chat with Jacob Meads and meet his wife to be Raewyn Bellringer.

 

Our arrival in NZ provoked many thoughts. For several days, it felt like we were in a movie set. Everything was very neat, clean and precise. The ease of jumping into a shower, running a tap with instant hot water, and flicking on a light switch day after day gave us such gratitude. May we never take these common things for granted. Our hearts often returned to Phumlani and Celani and the difference in their lives.  We had the pleasure of meeting up with Lindsay and Eril Shotton who started the radio ministry www.truelightfm.co.nz  . They have had to remove themselves from the running of the station due to health issues and a new board has been appointed. We also had much joy when we got to see Joan, the mother of Glenys, who is a friend of Di’s. Joan 92 was recovering from surgery. Di had been praying she would get to see her as 2 years back she had given her life to the Lord and been born spiritual again. It was a wonderful reunion however she is still very unwell and having to go through many changes in her life.

 

Between family and meeting up with people, we were invited to speak in a couple of fellowships. There was an evening set aside for sharing at Emanuel, Di’s home church along with fellowships in Wellington and Auckland. While in Wellington, Lester Fensom had organised a meeting where Sal spoke again on having a zeal for God’s house and in Auckland with Fanie Du Toit  “Crossroads Christian Congregation”, he spoke on the adoption as sons. These have been precious times; we have met some wonderful people.

 

During the month of June we will be staying around Palmerston North, as Sal has more teaching appointments at Emanuel on the 8^th and 22nd and a meeting in Bulls on the 11th.

June has been set aside to spend more time with family and friends. Di’s sister from Australia is arriving and family will be celebrating their mum’s birthday on 15th June. This will be the first time all the family has been together for 15 years. We depart NZ on the 27^th of the month for Sydney.

 

Prayer needs:

 

• Please Pray for Gogo, Phumlani’s mum. We hear she has deteriorated with her cancer. Please pray for her salvation.

 

• Please pray for the Lord to lead us and use us here in New Zealand.

 

• Please pray for the meetings in Palmerston North, Bulls and in Sydney.

 

CHAPTER 8

THE COMMITMENT OF MARRIAGE: MARRIAGE IS A COVENANT

There was a couple I and my wife knew who went to a wedding and met some people that had been married three years previously who our friends saw had been divorced within two or three years. It seems so common today that people enter marriage and easily break up with the excuse that the marriage is not working out. Apparently the divorced couple had gone to a psychologist who had counselled them that they needed to have a child to try to unite them. But as the last chapter argued, a couple can not base their marriage on children. So the couple still split but the husband was left with a child. Many people do not seem the concept of the covenant. There are three basic aspects to a covenant:

 

We will see what a covenant is composed of, or the fabric of a covenant.

 

We will also understand that a covenant comes with conditions.

 

And lastly we will uphold the truth that a covenant is permanent.

 

 

The Fabric of a Covenant

 

The difference between a contract and a covenant lies with the fact that a contract is usually for a period of time. So if you sign a contract with someone you sign and agree to adhere to the terms and conditions and will give a period of time as notice for the termination of the said contract. The contract can be terminated by agreement. You can agree to terminate the contract, but you cannot agree to terminate the marriage covenant. A covenant is meant to last.

 

 

Proverbs 2:17

That leaves the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

 

Marriage is not cohabitation between two people. God regards marriage as a covenant before Him, whether the couple got married in Church or not. So the covenant is a binding agreement between two parties and its consists of at least four strands.

 

The first strand is “complete oneness”. Different covenants have different levels of oneness. There are covenants between friends. There are covenants between nations. However, the marriage covenant is to be stronger. The couple is called to a total oneness.

 

 

Genesis 2:23-24

23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

 

Adam states that Eve is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh, which means at least two things. The word for bone in Hebrew is “Etsem” and derives from the same word “tree” in Hebrew and which denotes the “fastening of the eyelids together” which symbolizes strength. Bones are the strength of one’s body. So when the Bible speaks of dryness of bones it means that there is no power or poor health. When bones are brittle, a person has lost their power. The flesh, however, can speak of weakness. Notice in the New Testament it speaks about the weakness of the flesh. So it is almost like an old Hebrew way of saying, “in strength or weakness”. In a similar vein, people today make the vow “for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health”, though there was no sickness before the fall. However, in another sense Adam is saying that she is the same bone as his bone and the same flesh of his flesh, which speaks of the compatibility of man and wife. A certain Jewish teacher put it this way: “If you are married, tough luck. It is too late. However if you are looking to get married, look for compatibility.” Thus, this is to do with the Jewish idea of matchmaking. God wants a match, and the next chapter will examine this truth. Ideally a marriage should be formed out of matching two individuals. If a couple is married, it is too late. The couple has live with each other, even if the partners are not compatible. So in this context of “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” there is the communication of the concept of unity. There is a unity in sharing of weaknesses and strengths. There is a legal unity, an emotional unity, and there is a physical unity. A man leaves his father and mother, cleaves to his wife and the two become one flesh. Marriage should entail unity in every sense of the word. Thus, the marriage covenant brings with it a unity between a man and a woman; it is a publicly evidenced covenant which has witnesses. One must recognise that God and the angels are witnesses to the marriage vows. Marriage joins two parties and makes them one. Thus, there is complete oneness. Part of this call to unity lies a second strand: “A solemn binding.”

 

 

Jeremiah 31:31

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

 

 

Genesis 15: 18

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:”

 

In both these verses the Hebrew reads that God cut a covenant, though English translations read that He made a covenant. In Biblical Hebrew thought people do not make a covenant, they cut it. The concept of cutting is seen in:

 

 

Genesis 15:7-16.

7And He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?” 9So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. 11The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. 12Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.14But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”

 

At this time in history, there were nations that would make covenants with one another. Some would cut animals into two halves and set those halves opposite each other. Then the two parties would walk in between the animal pieces. These parties were putting themselves under a curse if they would fail to keep the terms and conditions. By performing this ritual they were saying “If I do not keep this covenant may I die.” The picture of being torn into pieces was before their eyes. At a later stage in history, two kings could also make a covenant. One of those kings would be superior, known as “a Suzerain” and the other inferior called “a Vassal”. The superior king would not go through the animal pieces but would send the inferior king through those animal pieces. Therefore, the Vassal would be taking the curse on himself and not the Suzerain. Another enacted covenant in the ancient near east was one where the Vassal slit the animal’s throat and by this ritual took the curse upon himself and the covenant would be inaugurated.

 

 

Jeremiah 34:18-20

18I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts- 19the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf- 20I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

 

Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people that they would release their slaves. However then they changed their minds and took them back. Remember that when Abraham had to cut the animal pieces in two he had to chase away those birds. The birds were coming for those animal pieces. Therefore, God said “You passed through these animal pieces. You swore, but you went back on your covenant so now as you cut up those animals I will cut you up too!” Thus, the covenant makers bind themselves up with the notion that they cannot break their word at all. It is so serious because they have put themselves under a curse if they break this. It is those who pass through the animal pieces that take on board the terms and conditions. When someone cuts a covenant that is what is entailed. However in Genesis 15, who passed through the animal pieces? It was not the inferior party that passed through but the superior one! God alone passed through them. However one cannot say that God has placed Himself under a curse because God never fails to keep His word. Thus, the curse will never be realised because God never breaks His promises. There are a cutting and also a solemn binding. The third strand of the fabric of covenant is that there is “a sign”. The is a sign of the covenant. This is seen when God repeats the covenant to Abraham in:

 

 

Genesis 17:9-14.

9God said further to Abraham, “Now as for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.10This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: every male among you shall be circumcised. 11And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12And every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, a servant who is born in the house or who is bought with money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. 13A servant who is born in your house or who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised; thus shall My covenant be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.14But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

 

God’s covenant with Abraham was an everlasting covenant. The sign of the covenant was circumcision. That is why Jews, even Christian Jews, have a biblical mandate to circumcise their baby boys. However the sign of the covenant in this case was given to the men and it is a sign that the men would see every single day of their lives. So this sign of the covenant is a literal cutting, and this is indicative of the fact that the covenant has been cut with Israel by God. However when they circumcised the baby boy where did the ritual take place? It did not take place in a corner. They circumcised Jesus in the temple. It was a public event with a physical sign that everybody could see. There was also a physical sign of the Sabbatical covenant. (Exodus 31:16-17).

 

Sabbath is both a covenant and the sign of that covenant. It is also an everlasting covenant that God made with Israel. The same holds true of western marriages. There is a covenant, and there is also the sign of the covenant that is the rings, that the partners wear. The ring on my wedding finger is a sign of my covenant with my wife, Di. I love my wedding ring because my wedding band is a simple 8 carat gold band. My band is made of gold which speaks of eternity, as does its shape that is a circle that never ends. The only time that this symbol of an ongoing marriage will not belong to my finger is when I or Di dies. When I take my wedding ring off, it leaves a mark or impression. On my wedding ring I engraved the Hebrew words “Ani l’dodi, v’dodi li.” “I belong to my beloved”. That means I am her possession. “And my beloved belongs to me”. That means that she is my possession. We belong to each other. My friend, Allen Wells, once spoke of the significance of this sign when he said that in years gone by, when men wanted to cheat on their wives at the night clubs, they would take their wedding rings off. At least at that time, the wedding ring meant something. He would take the ring off to try to hide his status as a married man. Marriage is a public thing. Marriage is not a secret thing. What did Jesus say concerning the believer’s relationship with Him? “Whoever denies me before men, I will deny them before My Father in heaven. Whoever confesses me before men…” It is public and not secret.

 

Lastly, people make a covenant in blood. When God made Eve, He took out from the side of Adam ‘bone and flesh’ and there was the shedding of blood. Therefore, when God opened up Adam’s side there had to be a cutting. There was both cutting and blood. Then afterwards God closes the flesh up in its place. There was blood shed when God inaugurated the Abrahamic covenant when Abraham cut the animal pieces in two. A baby boy’s circumcision on the Eigth day entails both cutting and blood. Even in marriage to a virgin, there would have been bloodshed as the hymen was broken. In Jewish culture, and even in others such as old Italian culture, there would be a token of her virginity. If the husband laid the charge, that his wife was not a virgin when they married, Jewish parents could take this token and prove that she was chaste when she got married. It is similar in what was portrayed concerning the Italian culture in the play “A little like drowning” by Anthony Minghella. When the groom and bride wed, the whole family and community would gather round the house looking up to the balcony on the morning after the wedding night. The couple was to present the blood stained sheet after which the people would cheer that the marriage was not only consummated, but that the bride was a virgin and thus there were witnesses to her virginity.

 

Thus, the covenant is made in blood in various ways. What does the blood represent? The life of a living being is in the blood. There is a loss of life in some way. There is some death that must take place. So, in these cultures, that death is more acutely felt in a woman than in a man. Even though the man is called to leave his father and mother but the woman would leave her family and go into a new home. She would enter into a completely different life. She would gain a new identity. A married person cannot live as a single person anymore. They are now married. There is a death to one life and the start of a new one.

 

 

The Covenant comes with Conditions.

So with marriage there is a complete oneness, there is a solemn binding through cutting the covenant, there is a sign, and the partners cut it in blood. The covenant is so serious that, in the case of Ancient Near Eastern Covenant treaties, some people would pass through animal pieces when they made a covenant together. There is a sacrifice made or a spilling of blood. A person cannot be in covenant and simultaneously be a completely free agent. Thus, one cannot enter marriage and expect to behave like a completely free agent. They are stuck or trapped within the marriage covenant. Some people speak like they feel trapped inside their marriages. However, this is good because it is the reality of the situation. One cannot simply walk out on marriage when it does not suit. That is why scripture speaks of marriage as a bondage. One is bound, not free, and; therefore, one cannot do whatever he likes. Those people who do whatever they want to do, and do not care about their spouse are heading for serious trouble in their marriage. Marriage is a yoking together of two different people with their own wills and causing them to work together. The yoking together of these two different people takes place with making vows or promises, and God is witness to those vows. Submission applies to both man and woman and in Christian marriage it is to be unto the Lord in both cases. The only way a person can make it work is if they do it as unto the Lord. If they do it for their spouse, they are going to be greatly disappointed at the numerous times it the spouse does not reciprocate and may at times seem undeserving of godly treatment. However when a person does it as unto the Lord he or she remembers that He deserves it. It does not make it easy. It makes it easier because a person can know that the Lord is worth it. Therefore, it does not matter what reaction a person gets from the spouse. It does not matter whether they show enough appreciation or not. A believer does it for the Lord.

 

It is always dangerous when one does something with a certain outcome in mind. It will not work to say, “I am going to submit to him so that he will love me more.” “I will do this and then he will feel guilty” but then he does not feel guilty, so you get frustrated and angry. However, you did not act the way you did with genuine sincerity. You did it to get your outcome, to realise your agenda. The same works for the husband. Someone tells you that you should love your wife more and then she might respect you. So you cook her a wonderful meal to try to win her heart, and she looks at it and walks off! It is not going to work because you are doing it with an agenda. However when you do it for the Lord, there is a sense in which it does not matter whether your spouse does not respond in “the right way” because you are not doing it for them, but for the Lord. It does not make it easy. It makes it easier.

 

So people are bound by law in their Marriage covenant. In Genesis 17:9-14 Abraham had to circumcise all the males in his house. That was a very simple command. It can comprise a very simple commandment. Alternatively in the case of Exodus 19:3-12 Israel agree to the covenant and between those verses and when they make the animal sacrifices in Exodus 24:21-28 there are many laws expounded. There is a great law code involved in this covenant. There are the ten commandments and many other laws. In our marriage covenants we have promises that we are to abide by, “I will love you, I will honour you…” These are the things that bind married people and so they are not free any longer. We also promise that “forsaking all others keep you only for me as long as we both shall live.”

 

Joshua brings together a number of these aspects of covenant making. In Joshua 5, he has already circumcised all the men who had failed to be circumcised. Therefore, there has already been enforced the sign of the covenant.

 

 

Joshua 8:30-34.

30Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, 31just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no man had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32He wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel. 33All Israel with their elders and officers and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had given command at first to bless the people of Israel. 34Then afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

 

There were also sacrifices, so there was the shedding of the blood. There is also the mention of the law and thus there are conditions to the covenant. Then everybody agrees because there must be an agreement between parties. Lastly, there is mention of the blessing and the curse. Thus, a covenant is made up of at least five things.

 

• Complete oneness
• Solemn binding
• The making of a sign of the covenant
• The covenant is made in blood
• The acceptance of conditions to the covenant

 

 

The permanence of the covenant.

 

A covenant is a wonderful revelation of God’s character. When a couple faithfully lives out their marriage according to God’s principles people can then see God in action. One cannot physically see God but when one sees a functioning marriage, there is a sense that one is seeing God with their very eyes. Hosea demonstrated God’s love to Israel. God’s relationship with Israel was like Hosea’s relationship with Gomer.

 

 

Hosea 1:2-3.

2When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.” 3So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

 

There are many times that people are not aware of how they treat the Lord. People think that they can do whatever they want to do, and God should forgive them at the end of the day. They treat God as this unemotional, completely forbearing God, who can only feel love, to whom they can spin a story to convince to be tolerant and forgiving. Therefore, they can continue living the way they want, but without any compulsion that they must change. They think that God gets over hurt easily, or feel cheated on, because He is God, and that is what He does. To err is human and to forgive is divine, so they say. Sometimes people treat God like some children treat their parents. Some kids hit their parents and do not think they are hurting their parents that badly. It is just mum and dad. Some people act in the same way towards God. So what God did to Israel is bring the issue of their faithlessness to Him right down to their level. God demonstrates it in such a way that they would be horrified. Hosea takes a wife, and she repeatedly cheats on him. She is a whore! So when one sees a person cheated on in this way one starts to think to oneself. “How can Hosea take her back after everything she did to him? I would not take her back!” So throughout this terrible ordeal that Hosea goes through God is saying to Israel “But that is what you are doing to me!” You are cheating on Me repeatedly by chasing after these other gods and following these other religious practices!” That is what God is saying to churches of this age that embrace Yoga, contemplative spirituality and other forms of new age practices dressed in Christian terminology within the so called emergent movement. The ecumenical agenda is the very thing that we are witnessing with the multifaith agenda when the pope stands with witch doctors, Immams and the Dalai Lama and they all pray together as a sign of unity. When God’s people get involved with this movement for unity, God feels cheated on! People do not all worship the same God!

 

God commissioned Hosea to demonstrate to the people what they were doing to Him. Gomer gave Hosea a child whom he calls Jezreel. Afterwards, Gomer gives birth to two more children. The scripture does not say that those children are Hosea’s. They were likely children of adultery.

 

 

Hosea 1:9

9And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God.”

 

Lo-Ammi means “not my people”. That sounds like a divorce. God says, “You have cheated on me so much that you cannot be my wife. You cannot continue like this!” Notice that Israel is not merely committing adultery but they unrepentantly continue to commit adultery. God does not look for a single reason to get out of a bad marriage. He does not say “Ah, she committed adultery. I can get rid of her now.” The very fact that she continued to walk in her adultery is what causes God to say that she can no longer be a wife. It is not the fact that she fell into sin one time. Rather she has sold herself to adultery. She is given over to promiscuity. However the way God speaks, it sounds like a divorce.

 

 

Hosea 1:10-11.

10Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” It will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God.” 11And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, And they will appoint for themselves one leader, And they will go up from the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel.

 

So Hosea has a wife who cheats on him every day. Eventually, the husband cannot take it anymore and says “How can you be my wife?” “You are not my wife; I am not your husband!” So Hosea sends her away. However, the husband later says, “But I still love you and I want you back.” Have you ever heard of a man like Hosea who would take back a wayfaring wife? The only one that I can think of is the Lord. God sets forth the great example. “Even though you cheated on me, my marriage is permanent.” ‘Till death do us part’. God is trapped within this marriage by His own covenant. Therefore, even though there is a temporary separation because of sin, and even though God acts as Israel is not His woman because He cannot accept their sin, after His people have repented He says, “But you always will be my people.” In Isaiah 50:1 God asks, “Where is the certificate of divorce by which I sent your mother away?” Where is it? Yes, she went away but there was no certificate. Israel were not sold into slavery by God. In that time, when a man could not pay his debts his family would be sold into slavery. God is saying that he is not a debtor to anyone. “The only reason you went into slavery was because of your own doing.” God is saying that He never divorced Israel even though He spoke like it was a divorce. He never gave a certificate of divorce. God, therefore, is testifying that His marriage is not over.

 

When two people have many marriage problems, and there may be a cause for temporary separation both must resolve to confess that they are still married. When one partner says “Our marriage is going nowhere” there must be a reminder “God says our marriage is not over.” There must be that reminder from the Lord if people are to save their marriages.

 

 

Jeremiah 31:35-37

35Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name:

36″If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever.” 37Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the Lord.

 

 

Romans 11:28-29

28From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

 

God will be faithful to Israel in the future.

 

 

The relevance of a covenant to marriage.

 

Death terminates marriage.

 

 

Matthew 5: 31-32

31″It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’;32but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

 

Immorality, in this context, is not that of any kind but speaks of unrepentant adultery as is evidenced by the fact that such a divorce makes that woman commit adultery through remarriage. The reason that a divorce does not cause a woman to commit adultery, if it is because of immorality, is because she is already an adulterer. In other cases, divorce causes the wife to commit adultery through remarriage. Why would divorce cause adultery? Because Jesus assumes that she will get remarried. In that culture, it was likely that she would have to remarry in order to survive, especially if she had no children. Thus, she would marry another husband to look after her. He makes her commit adultery because even though they are divorced, and though she has a certificate of divorce, God says that the first marriage is not over. Therefore, entering another marriage is an act of adultery. She is still one with her husband but with remarriage she becomes one with someone else too.

 

 

 

 

Matthew 19:3-9

3Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”4And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,5and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ 6So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”7They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

 

There were two Rabbis prior to this time that were followed by many Rabbis of Jesus’ day. Those Rabbis were Hillel and Shammai also known as Tannaim, which were prominent rabbis during the Roman occupation. Shammai did not believe that divorce was permissible except for immorality. Hillel said that a man could divorce his wife if she burned his dinner. He said that if her brown rice looks blacker than brown the man can get rid of her. In this passage, the Pharisees ask Jesus if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason. So the question is “Are you with the school of Shammai or the school of Hillel?” Jesus goes back to Genesis to answer their question. You are going to cut through many arguments when someone asks if you agree with such and such a bible teacher if you turn round and say, “what does the Bible say?” “What does God say?” God says that in the beginning He made them male and female and said that for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife and the two will be one flesh. When one looks at the marriage covenant think of the first part of this chapter, marriage entails a complete oneness. Therefore, they are no longer two but one flesh. So if God has joined two into one nobody should separate them because when a person separates he is ripping apart something that is one into two. The Pharisees, upon hearing Jesus’ response ask why Moses commanded the man to give a certificate of divorce and send her away. However Moses never commanded divorce. Moses only allowed divorce because of the hardness of Israel’s hearts. That is not how God had designed marriage to be in the beginning.

 

“Whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” Jesus only gives one exception for divorce and remarrying, and that is for the reason of unfaithfulness. If the wife has not been immoral, unrepentantly unfaithful, then there are no grounds Jesus provides for divorce and remarriage. Because of other factors separation may be inevitable but if the parties recognise the one flesh principle of remarriage, with repentance, humility and forgiveness there is always hope for reconciliation. Even in a case where a legal divorce has been granted, if the parties have not remarried, there is the possibility of reconciliation. The marriage partners are one, and they are in covenant. The only legitimate reason that terminates the covenant is death.

 

 

Romans 7:1-3.

1Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? 2For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. 3So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

 

Paul is arguing that a person dies to the Mosaic Law when they get saved; therefore, the Law does not have jurisdiction over that person. It is impossible for a believer to be under the curse of the Law, whether Jew or Gentile. Paul is not arguing that it is wrong to do a Shabbat or Passover meal. Paul is saying that believers are not under the Law. The Law cannot sentence a person to death for failing to keep the Law. To illustrate this truth Paul uses the analogy of marriage. A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is still alive. However, when her husband dies she is not bound from that law. So before her husband dies if she takes another man she is an adulteress. While the man is living she cannot be joined to another man. However if her husband dies she is free from the law she is free to remarry without being classed an adulteress. Before a husband dies she was been joined to one man, and then when she remarries she is joined to another man. Therefore, a woman has been joined to two men but not at the same time. The first covenant has been terminated before the second joining commenced. A part of the first husband will still be part of her, but she is not an adulteress because the covenant has ended. Thus, the law is terminated. It is a legal matter. A remarriage caused by divorce defiles the marriage partners. Moses allowed Israel to divorce. That is taken from

 

 

Deuteronomy 24:1-4.

1″When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, 2and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, 4then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

 

Even though the King James presents the injunction concerning divorce as “let him write her a bill of divorcement”, the Hebrew does not read in this way. Verse 1 starts with the phrase ‘When a man takes a wife’. The word for ‘when’ in Hebrew is the word ‘Ki’. The word ‘Ki’ can mean when but it can also mean ‘if’. The word is being utilised to say that this is a particular case. You could say when, but it makes it clearer if you use the word ‘if’. It is conditional. The passage is presenting a number of conditions in order to apply the law that Israel must follow. The point of the whole passage is not to argue that a person should follow a particular course of action if he wants to divorce his wife. Moses is saying “If a man takes a wife and marries her”. So there is a particular situation that a man has taken a wife. The second condition is “and if she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her”. The word indecency is “the nakedness of a thing”. It is very hard to define what this nakedness of a thing is. However it helps when one thinks of nakedness as something shameful. In this context, it is something very shameful but it is not adultery in this case because the Law for adultery of a woman commands the stoning of a woman. But the man has found something shameful that brings great shame on them. Hillel understood this shamefulness as even constituting the spoiling of a meal. But the passage says, “If he finds that shamefulness in her, AND he writes her a certificate of divorce.” It is not commanding the man that he must write a certificate of divorce. This writing of a certificate of divorce is something that the people were already doing.

 

Rather God is commanding them that when they do so, and they send away the woman, if she then remarries, regardless of whether her second husband dies or divorces her, the first husband cannot remarry her because she has been defiled through the second marriage covenant and that is an abomination before God. The commandment does not lie with how a person should divorce his wife but with verse 4 in the prohibition of remarriage in a particular context. That second husband could die, but she still had a marital union with another man. Even though the covenant has ended the imprint of that union still remains. Any sexual union, within marriage or outside of marriage, leaves some kind of imprint on the sexual partners.

 

 

1 Corinthians 6:19

19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

 

When someone sleeps with a harlot, he has become one flesh with her outside of a marriage context. There is no discussion of leaving and cleaving, but there is a one flesh union. Every time you have had a sexual union with someone you have become one flesh with them. Their union is not a marriage even though such a union is central to the marriage covenant context. The only correct context to have one flesh union is within the marriage covenant. Therefore, illicit sexual intercourse always defiles the parties. We know that God is always faithful.

 

 

Hosea 3:1-5

1Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” 2So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. 3Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.”4For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols. 5Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

 

Even though God would reject His people for a time, eventually He would take them back. Hosea could take his wife back because she never remarried. Gomer had gotten into such a state that she had to be sold into slavery. God not only told Hosea to take her back but also to love her. Hosea had already paid a bridal price for her when they got married. But because she was sold into slavery Hosea was paying another price for her. It is almost like he is marrying her again. Love is always paying a price. And that is how God is with us. Jesus paid a huge, once and for all, price for us which covers all debts. So if that is the way that God is with us and that is the nature of marriage we can understand that divorce and remarriage for the believer is not an option except for a few exceptions.

 

 

Malachi 2:13-15

13″This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 14Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth.

 

These Israelites prayed and cried out to God. They also offered sacrifices to Him. But God is not listening. Why is God not listening? Because they had divorced and remarried. They had despised their marriage covenants. Today there is so much divorce and remarriage in churches that we need to ask a question. Is God listening to their prayers? Does He accept their sacrifices of praise when they have no sense of shame or wrong doing? Israel contested and wondered what their problem was. They did not think that they had done anything wrong. But they had dealt treacherously with the wives of their youth. God tells them that He is a witness to their vows. Marriages always have witnesses but the ultimate witness is God. God hears every promise that any person makes. When you enter marriage, you do so with an oath or vow and, therefore, you have to keep it. Literally, verse 15 reads, “Not one has done”. The word ‘one’ here is ‘echad’ in Hebrew and is used in Genesis to speak of a man and wife becoming ‘one flesh’. God made them one. Therefore the ones who have been faithful in their marriages they are the ones who are still ‘one’. “Not one has done what these others have been doing.” Those who remained faithful to their covenantal oneness have not acted treacherously. “Not one has done so, who have a remnant of the Spirit.” They have a remnant of the Spirit in their marriage. “And what was the one seeking, a godly seed?” Why did they persist in faithfulness, working out their marriages? They wanted their offspring to be godly. Although not the reason a couple should stay together, but it is one reason why you desire this sacred covenant to work because you want your offspring to be godly. Divorce and family breakup will impact the children. There are so many children who have been impacted adversely because of absent father figures, abusive parents and absent mothers.

 

The righteous in Malachi were seeking a godly seed because ultimately, through Israel, God was going to send THE godly seed, Jesus the Messiah. God hates divorce and this world spits that back in God’s face. This generation hates God, hates His decrees and limitations. Marriage is so easily discarded because people want to put their own “happiness” before God. They are their own God. They are traitors to their own marriage. When you divorce your believing marriage partner, except for the cause of adultery, you are a traitor to your marriage partner and a traitor towards God. “But our marriage was going nowhere. We were trapped and unhappy. God will understand.” That is the talk of a traitor. You betrayed God! Therefore, there needs to be repentance when we have gone astray. God hates divorce and the person that covers his garment with wrong. Women generally needed husbands or children to look after them. If an Israelite divorced his wife, such an act was an act of violence against his wife.

 

 

1 Corinthians 7:10-17

10But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should not divorce his wife. 12But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 15Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 16For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife? 17Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches.

 

Although the covenant of marriage continues till death, there are two exceptions. The first exception is the situation of adultery. Adultery does not terminate a marriage but when a person divorces and remarries except for the cause of adultery he has committed adultery. This indicates that if there is unrepentant adultery by the wife, the husband can divorce and remarry without the guilt of adultery being credited to him. The second exception concerns someone who has married and then gotten saved. When Paul is saying that he is speaking and not the Lord, he is not saying that his words are not inspired by the Holy Spirit. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Paul is only saying that he has not received a direct commandment from the Lord. Now in the case of a marriage between two believers, divorce is not an option and separation should not be encouraged. But there are times when separation is needed, as in the case of an abusive husband, etc. When a husband is beating up his wife, I do not think, Paul would expect a woman to remain in that danger. If a woman does leave, if it is necessary Paul is saying that the women is still bound to her husband but she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. A husband should not divorce his wife. This lies in the context of a Christian couple. Thus a separation should be limited and temporal in order to sort out the issues. The longer you are separated, the harder it is to reconcile. Therefore in the forefront of the mind a person needs to have an idea, “I need to work this out, I need to reconcile.” But in the context of a person who gets saved after he is married but his wife remains an unbeliever it is different. That absolute oneness is not there. It is there physically and to a certain extent emotionally, but there is not spiritual oneness. In a marriage, the Lord calls the believer to a complete oneness, body, soul and spirit but you cannot have that with an unbeliever. It is a spiritually mixed marriage, and as we see in the book of Ezra, God was against spiritually mixed marriages. This is nothing to do with race. It is religious. Added to that is the fact that in Messiah the saved person is a new creation. The old has gone and all things are new. In the case of someone who gets saved after they got married, Paul tells the believer to remain in the marriage if the unbelieving partner is happy because no one can know whether or not the unbeliever might get saved. The believer should not leave. But when the unbeliever wants out of the marriage and cannot stand being marriage to a believer, let the unbeliever go. The believer is not bound in this case. When a person gets saved they must, with the exception of sinful things or of things contrary to God’s will, the believer should continue in the same life he was living before he got saved. The believer does not need to change all their circumstances but are called to serve the Lord within those conditions.

 

Therefore in summary, a marriage covenant is a covenant calling for a complete oneness between a man and a woman. It is a solemn binding of those two people. It is heterosexual. The idea of a ‘homosexual marriage’ is an oxymoron. A covenant is cut and made in blood and there is a sign of the covenant made or given. Therefore, there are stipulations to the covenant. You are not free for you are bound by law. Marriage is for life and thus, for those who profess to be saved, marriage and divorce is not an option unless there is unrepentant immorality or one of the marital partners is unsaved and wants out on the marriage. Only death terminates the covenant and this is because the Christian marriage is supposed to be a picture of God’s relationship with His people. God is faithful to His people, even through the most difficult, heartbreaking moments of His relationship with them.

 

AUSTRALIA

 

3rd May          Radio interview with the Impact Show, Frankston Victoria. (7-9pm)

4th May          Pilgrim Fellowship, (AM) Victoria. Contact: Marg Godwin +61356332300

7th May          Home group meeting at Frankston, Victoria. (Cornerstone Gospel Church) Contact: Lionel Letch +61439039079.

 

NEW ZEALAND

 

7^th May          Christchurch. Bible study. Contact: Jake Harrison +6439802159

11th May         10:30am & 6pm Service. Emmanuel Congregational. Palmerston North. Contact: Lindsay Shotton:  +64272836736

17th May         7:30pm. Talk at Emmanuel Congregational. Palmerston North. Contact: Lindsay Shotton: +64272836736

25th May        7pm. St Columba. Lower Hutt, Wellington. Contact: Lester Fensom +6421936403.

1st Jun              9:30am. Crossroads Christian Congregation. Auckland. Contact: Fanie Du Toit +6494795663

 

AUSTRALIA

 

28^th Jun         Preaching 2 sessions at home group. GLEC. Near Sydney. Contact: Lee Wardle +61429818136

29^th Jun         Preaching at GLEC (AM). Near Sydney. Contact: Lee Wardle +61429818136

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 116 May 2014

PO BOX 1481

VRYHEID 3100

KWAZULU NATAL

SOUTH AFRICA

+27 (0) 728311008

+27 (0) 723843876

Email: msindisi@gmail.com

salv.di@gmail.com

KwaZulu Mission Website: http://www.kwazulumission.com

KwaZulu Mission Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

Here we are in Springs on the last day of April. We have come up because today we are heading off to Australia and New Zealand until the beginning of July in order to visit Family, friends and Churches. The Lord provided us with the ability to visit by the generosity of certain brethren in the Lord and we are so grateful.

But it has taken some time for the trip to sink in. And now it is upon us. This last month the regular activities have continued. At the end of March Salvador preached at the Bethany Baptist Church on having a zeal for God’s house and concerning the participation of all the believers in ministry. Since then the pastor has asked a couple of men to share in a bible study and Church meeting. Johnny, a farmer who is in our cell group, was asked to preach on Sunday the 4^th May. It is a daunting task for him and one that he would have declined had it not been for his conviction that the Lord is calling for him to to this. Please pray for him as he has never preached before.

We have given out the rest of the jumpers the Australian ladies have knitted for the children out here in northern KwaZulu Natal. We have given a lot of them to Clinics who are distributing them as well as to various children in the local community and in town through friendships and through crèches. One such crèche we visited was in our local community. It has been operating for 2 years without government funding, though with some assistance from the department of Child Welfare. The children are taught in both Zulu and in English even though the teachers are not fluent in English. It was amazing to see the children recite their English rhymes and songs which is a testimony to the discipline, structure and faithfulness of the teachers who teach these children who are not yet old enough to go to school. The school at present is housed at the homestead of one of the teachers. The room set aside is a mud hut and there are many posters on the walls, some games and there is a very good filing system and documentation. The level of professionalism was equal to that of surrounding schools and a crèche like this is so important for the community. They have run out of food for the children’s meals which are valuable sources of nutrition for children in this impoverished area. The teacher told us that after one more year they will be able to apply for Non Profit status and then with that they will be able to apply for government funding. They are presently building a Crèche out of wattle and mud. The principal is a young lady who is has a lot of zeal.

As there were school holidays at the beginning of the month we picked up Asimbonge and two of his uncles to visit Gogo from his grandmother. Those of you who read our newsletter at the beginning of January may remember that Asimbonge’s mother, Babhekile, was murdered at the home stead. While visiting Babhekile’s mother, Tembilihle, she mentioned that Gogo had planned an ancestral ritual at the beginning of May. Salvador responded by saying that “Satan has got hold of people”. She was shocked to hear this association of ancestors to Satan. She believed that some things in scripture disagreed with ancestral traditions and other scriptures agreed with them. Salvador showed her that nothing in scripture agreed with ancestral traditions and left her with bible verses to read for herself. The same kind of conversation arose with Phumlani’s sister in law after we took Gogo to hospital in order for her to be transferred to Grey’s hospital near Pietermaritzburg. Gogo has full blown cancer and has received little help from Vryheid. When Phumlani’s sister in law, Philisiwe, went with Gogo we took her back home. Philisiwe said that she would read the scriptures to search these things out. Please pray for the salvation of Philisiwe, Tembilihle and Gogo.

Our teaching at the Care bear crèche was plentiful this month as we were asked to make up for the two months we would be away. The kids are a real blessing and full of energy as they sing the songs with all their hearts. Our prayers are that the Lord will help them to remember the lessons when they are older so that they may be saved. Salvador has continued to teach the teachers of another Crèche called Joyland and we teach their children once a month.

This month at Cell group we did a Passover meal and it was such a blessing to see Messiah in this supper and also to look forward to Yeshua’s return. There was a sizeable group who met in Johnny and Kim’s home. The food was lovely and the message touched hearts.

Salvador was asked to teach at the Zulu congregation this month and taught a message on Deuteronomy 27-28 concerning the blessings and curses of the Law within the context of the Land (Palestinian) covenant of Deuteronomy. Discipleship has been constant in Alpha and Phumlani has just finished taking the guys through 2 Chronicles. We continue to teach the kids at Kid’s club. Unfortunately last Friday evening the car lights went as the fuse had melted. Therefore we had to cancel the last kids club to get them sorted before travelling up to Springs on the same day. Fortunately the short occurred with the wires that connected to the fuse itself so it was an easy problem to rectify. We have also taken the gospel well into the area of Cibilili.

The local government has commissioned the electricity company to provide electricity to our local areas. The company has been working hard to get the infrastructure in place to wire up to each homestead. Before we left the company arrived at our home and installed the wiring to Gogo’s hut. We also had a meal provided by a sweet Indian lady called Kogie at the Bethany Baptist bible study. She wanted to bless us before we left.

So we are about to embark on our trip to Australia. We will be in Australia till Wednesday 7^th when we will travel to Christchurch for two nights before heading to the North Island. Our itinerary for Australia and New Zealand is still in working progress but up to now the itinerary is as follows:

• Thurs 1^st May-Sat 3^rd May In Sydney, Australia visiting brethren.

• Sat 3^rd May Fly to Melbourne. Radio Interview.

• Sun 4^th May Preaching at Pilgrim Fellowship (AM) Melbourne Contact: Marg Godwin 0061356332300

• Wed 7^th May Fly to Christchurch, NZ. Bible study. Contact: Jake Harrison 006439802159

• Sat 10^th May Fly to Palmerston North.

• Sun 11^th May Preaching at Emmanuel Congregational Church (AM and PM) Contact: Lindsay Shotton: 0064272836736

• Sun 1^st Jun Preaching at Crossroads Christian Congregation, Auckland. Contact: Fanie Du Toit006494795663

• Fri 27^th Jun Fly to Sydney

• Sat 28^th Jun Preaching 2 sessions at Home group. Contact: Lee Wardle 0061429818136

• Sun 29^th Jun Preaching at GLEC (AM) near Sydney. Contact: Lee Wardle 0061429818136

• Sun 29^th Jun Preaching at Congregation (PM) in Sutherland, Sydney. Contact Details to Follow

• Thurs 3^rd July Fly to South Africa.

When the itinerary is updated and finalised we will post it on this website and on the KwaZulu Mission facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/kwazulumission

Items for Prayer

• The Salvation of Gogo, Tembelihle and Philisiwe

• Phumlani as he leads the congregation and continues the preaching ministry

• Johnny as he teaches at Bethany Baptist Church on the 4^th May.

• For our itinerary and visit round Australia and New Zealand.

CHAPTER 7

The Purpose of Marriage: Communion, Sharing, Fellowship.

The need for Communion, relationship and community

Genesis 2:18.

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

God created everything good, but even before sin came into the world there is one thing that God said was not good. God said that it was not good for the man to be alone. Now if you look at the primary context of that in verses 15-17 you see that God put man there to cultivate a garden and in Genesis 1:28 God gave mankind a mandate; to have dominion, to be fruitful and multiply. You cannot do that by yourself. You cannot be fruitful by yourself, either physically or spiritually. We need the Lord in our lives, and we need each other. But look at what God said concerning Adam. He said that it was not good for ‘the man’, that is Adam, to be alone. Even though Adam has the meaning of red, it is used consistently throughout the Old Testament to speak of mankind. I believe that there is a special significance to the name Adam when it says, that it is not good for Adam to be alone. As human beings that we need a sense of belonging, fellowship, communication and sharing. We need people in our lives. I want to stress for the benefit of those with the grace of singleness or who are not married; there is a very special call for singleness. Singleness is a gift, and it is precious in God’s sight. But nevertheless, to be part of a community is part of being human, and this is no less exemplified in the marriage relationship. I once watched a DVD of the false teacher called John Bevere and in the course of the teaching he said that God made man because He was lonely. Before God made anything, before He made angels and the heaven and the earth, God was never, ever alone or lonely. God is Father, Son, and He is alsoHoly Spirit. God always had a perfect relationship, fellowship and sharing. God was never lonely and, despite the invention of John Bevere, God did not need to make us in order to add any sense of fulfilment to His existence. We are the ones who need fellowship; God does not need it. But if you are unmarried, there is a sense where the body of Messiah becomes your family and community. Outside of the marriage context, to be part of the family of God is so important because God has made us that we should be social beings.

If you look at Genesis 2:19ff, God brings to Adam all the living creatures to see what man would call them. And imagine all these animals are coming to you, and you are Adam. You see a male lion, a female lion. Male giraffe, female giraffe. Male Zebra, female Zebra. Male this, female that. And you see yourself and you say, “Male me… No one there.” It must have driven home the point that there was no one comparable to him. The second reason that God brought the animals to man is because you do not appreciate something unless you know what it is like to be without it. And personally speaking, this is one reason I think that God brought all these animals before Adam, so that Adam could see what he was missing in his life. Therefore, when God gave Adam that special person he would treasure her.

The Significance of Marriage Companionship

But in the Bible we see that the main reason for marriage is companionship. In Hebrew and Greek there are a few different words that speak companionship.

Malachi 2:14.

Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

This verse uses a significant word for a marriage partner. The woman is the man’s marriage partner by covenant. The covenant is a very significant concept. When you enter a covenant you are in effect binding yourself to an agreement whereby you swear “If I break this agreement, may I be broken!” It is a binding agreement. The word companion in the verse is ‘Chaver’ in Hebrew and the word comes from another Hebrew word, “Chavar” which means to bind together. Therefore, this person, your friend, your wife or husband, is joined together with you. If that is so in regular friendships, how much more in marriage where you are one. In a marriage, you are allied and fastened together. You harm my wife; you harm me. It is as close as that.

Proverbs 2:17.

That leaves the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God;

This verse speaks about an adulteress, an unfaithful woman. It calls her husband “her companion” but the Hebrew word is “Aluf” that comes from a word meaning “to tame”. It is just like when you tame a wild animal. Now I know that some women may say that that is the effect of their marriage on their husbands, but taming here suggests the idea of gentleness. What you have with your spouse is precious, and there is a tenderness and intimacy about it. Your spouse is your intimate friend. When you think about friendship, there are different levels of intimacy. You should have a real intimacy with your spouse. That is part of the calling of marriage.

In the New Testament there is a Greek word that summarises this idea of partnership and sharing. In Greek, the word is ‘Koinonia’ which comes from the word ‘Koine’. Whenever you hear a bible teacher say, the Apostles wrote the New Testament in ‘Koine Greek’; it is the same word. ‘Koine’ means ‘common’, thus ‘Koine Greek’ was the language of the common person. Everyone spoke it; they made business contracts with it. Therefore, ‘Koinonia’ carries the idea of commonality, from where we get the word ‘communication’. You can communicate because you have a common understanding of what symbols mean and how to put them together. You can encode your message and another person can decode it. Thus, you can communicate with another person. You have a commonality. The word ‘Koinonia’ means ‘partnership, sharing, fellowship and communion.’ Whatever we experience of ‘koinonia’ in the body of Messiah applies in a very special way in marriage. It is something that is very precious. The primary reason that God gave marriage was for companionship. The man was not to be alone.

False Foundations for Marriage

But when you look at how God brought about the marriage you have to ask, where was the romance when the man and the woman got married? Where do you read that Adam saw Eve and told her his best chat up lines? The premarital romance did not exist. Whatever romance might be in a relationship before marriage or not, is not relatively important. The romance should come after marriage. Whether there is romance before a marriage is not as important. In some societies, they have arranged marriages. A guy may not meet his wife before the marriage day. How do those marriages work? They do not base their marriages on romance. And there are false foundations that people build their marriages on. One of the false foundations for marriage is ‘having children’.

a) To Have Children

Some people may want to get married in order to have children. Children are not part of the fabric that makes a marriage. Your marriage is complete without children. Your marriage is complete. On the wedding night, you complete the marriage process, and you consummate your marriage. You are man and wife in the total sense of those words. One author compared marriage to a tent. God is the top corner of the tent. In another corner, you have a man and in the other corner is the wife. That is the three corners of your tent. So where are children to be placed in that tent? Which side do they belong? Children do not belong in the foundation and the structure of that tent. Rather you put children in the centre, and that is where children will find their protection. When marriage is strong and is built on the Lord, without the children, marriage will be strong for the children. Children are a part of the calling of marriage. God said, ‘be fruitful and multiply’. But when a couple remains without children it does not make them less married, or their marriage inferior. But some people have regarded their marriages as inferior, especially in traditional cultures. If a woman does give birth to children, he will take another wife until he finds a wife that will give him children. But that is not an ideal marriage. God did not create polygamy in the beginning. In the beginning marriage consisted of one man and one woman. I once knew a couple who were fighting over the love and loyalty of their children. The husband placed his children before his wife because he wanted the children to look after him when he got old. We explained to him that he must place his wife before his children and the children will feel secure. Thus, when they are older they will look after both father and mother.

b) Falling in Love

The basis of marriage is not “falling in love”. Falling in love is a very passive thing. One day you see someone, and bang!!! There are stars and birds, and you are on top of the world. You have fallen in love. Five years later and you have fallen out. Emotions are funny things. You cannot build anything on emotion. Emotions are important. God is the God of emotion, but emotion must not lead us. Such love is not strong enough to take the pressures of life.

John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

When we look at the word ‘so’ in this verse we need to recognise how important that word is. Often the word ‘so’ is taken to mean ‘so much’. We think that God’s love is so great that He just had to send His son for us. And there is a level of truth in that. God’s love did compel Him. This verse is not saying that. In the Greek, the word ‘so’ is ‘houtos’, and when you follow this word with an adjective then it speaks of quantity.

Galatians 3:3.

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

What is the first question of this verse? “Are you so foolish?” The word “foolish” is an adjective. “Are you ‘houtos’ foolish?” Here the word ‘houtos’ speaks of quantity, how great their foolishness was. However, without an adjective, the word ‘houtos’ speaks concerning the way someone does something.

1 Corinthians 7:7.

Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner, and another in that.

In this context Paul wishes that his readers were single like he was, but he recognises that not all have that gift. Each person has a special gift from the Lord. Both marriage and singleness are gifts. Each person has his own gift, “one in this ‘houtos’ and one in that ‘houtos’.” In in this way and one in that way. One in this manner and one in that manner. We should understand John 3:16 according to the second meaning of houtos. “For in this way God loved the world.” How did God love the world? “That He gave His only begotten Son.” I am just stressing the fact that God did not love us because one day He just fell in love with us and thought that we were so wonderful. He did not think “I just have to send my Son for them, I cannot help it for I cannot live without them in my life!” It is not that romantic love. It is a love that cost God. It was a value that He placed on you that was not intrinsic to you and He placed that value on you by what He did. He sent His son. God’s love is not passive. It is active. How do you know God loved you? Because of what He did. Modern people think, “I have to sense it” “Can you feel the love tonight?” But real, genuine love will cost you. You must love even the feelings are not there. What did we do to provoke such love in God? What was there so lovely about us that caused God to love us? Nothing! It was all from Him. He loved because of who He is and not because of what we are. We have a very different concept of love. If you want real, enduring, sustainable marriage love, you cannot base it on the fact that you fell in love with someone. It has to be deeper and more substantial than that or else your marriage is not going to last. Just as easy as you fell into love you will fall out. What did you do to fall into love? Nothing, it just happened. It is passive. God’s love is active.

c) For Personal Happiness or Fulfilment.

You cannot base marriage on personal happiness. “I want to be married because I want to be happy.” “Surely they should be allowed to be married. Why are they not entitled to happiness?” If personal happiness is the foundation of your marriage, it is not going to last. Or even if getting more out of your life is the reason to get married it will not last. Marriage is not about getting more out of your life. Marriage is like getting born again. It is a brand new life.

Genesis 2:24.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

This verse tells us that merely living together is not a marriage. Marriage has to entail more than that. Simply having a sexual relationship with someone does not make you married. “A man will leave his father and mother, and cleaves to his wife.” That word “cleaves” is like being super glued to someone else. There is a commitment. That is why shacking up together is not marriage. There has to be a covenant; there has to be a commitment. You have come into something new, and you become one flesh too. There is a oneness that never existed before that is special and unique. And this oneness will never exist again. It is personal, specific and unique to you and your spouse. Therefore, marriage is not an addition to your life. It is like a new life.

1 Corinthians 7:3-5.

The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.4The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Marriage is not about my personal happiness nor about getting more out of my life. The husband must fulfil the duty to his wife. Notice that Paul does not follow the culture of his day. In the culture of his day the woman was there to please her husband. But Paul contradicts that world-view and argues that there is a mutuality. The husband must fulfil his duty to his wife. Now that does not sound like falling in love. That sounds like obligation. That sounds like the man has a job to do. Yes, the man has a duty to his wife! The same goes for the wife. Notice that love is centred on the other person. “The wife does not have authority over her own body but the husband does and likewise with the husband also.”

1 Corinthians 7:32-34.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; 33but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,34and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

This is the reason why Paul states that singleness is a very special calling, which Paul preferred in light of the society and the world in which Paul lived. An unmarried person is free from concern. If you want to go to the mission field you do not need to arrange for your wife and children to go with you. You do not need to worry about schooling and raising a family. You just go. “But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.” Why does Paul refer to marriage as something worldly? Do not think Paul is referring to marriage as something sinful or fleshly. Rather think that Paul is referring to marriage as something temporal.

1 Corinthians 7:31.

and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.

Marriage is temporal. Your marriage lasts till one of the partners dies. Your marriage is not eternal. Your marriage belongs to your life on this earth. Now if you are both saved, your relationship with your spouse is eternal but the marriage itself is till death do you part. And that is why a widow can get remarried without sin. “But the person who is married is concerned about how he may please his wife… and his interests are divided.” If you do not have a spouse you can be solely focussed on pleasing the Lord. When you are married you must please the Lord and your spouse. Your spouse is central to your life, just like God is. So it is not about you. It is about your spouse. Marriage is a great way to overcome selfishness because you have to if your marriage is going to last.

Ephesians 5:25-27.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.

There is only one thing in these three verses that Jesus did concerning Himself. He presents to Himself a glorious bride. That is the only point that Jesus did something for the bride that concerned Himself. Every other act is focussed on His bride. Messiah loved his assembly. He gave Himself up for her. He sanctifies her and He cleansed her. Notice Jesus’ mindset. Jesus is always focussed on her, her, her. That is the example that we, as husbands, must follow. And how much of His life did Jesus lay down? 50%? 60%? 70%? No He gave up all of His life. Marriage is not 50/50, but it is 100/100. Messiah is the model. We are to be that way with our spouse.

Romans 15: 1-3.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 2Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.3For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

We are to please each other in the assembly. We are to accept insults by being united with other brethren in Messiah. Accepting insults is especially the case with young people. Young people in the world regard some youth within the congregation in derogatory terms, like “losers”, etc. I am not speaking of brothers and sisters who are rude to others or arrogant, but those who are just plainly odd or are not culturally in the “in crowd”, they just do not fit in. Maybe they are Jewish or African or whatever. When you associate with them what will the world call you by association? You are hanging out with that ‘loser’ so you are a ‘loser-lover’. You have to bear that reproach. You die to yourself that you may please your brother in Messiah. Even Messiah did that. “The reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me.” If that is true in regard to your brothers and sisters in Messiah, how much more true should that be concerning your spouse who is to be closer than other brethren in Messiah?

Look at your vows. When you made your vows you were asked, “Will you love her, honour her and protect her and forsaking all others keep yourself only for her as long as you both shall live?” You said “I will”. There is no ‘If’ clause. There is not condition. You never said “I will love her, honour her if she cooks my food every night.” That is not what you promised. You promised to concentrate on her, not yourself. Those were your vows. That is your platform for your marriage. In the Jewish wedding vows, your vows are written on the marriage contract, the ‘Ketuvah’. But with the actual vows the man takes his wife, puts a ring on her finger and he says “With this ring I separate you to myself according to the laws of Moses and Israel.” What do the laws of Moses and Israel cover? Everything. Therefore the person cannot say, “Well that was not part of my vows. I never promised to do that!” Their whole life was governed by what God gave to Israel through Moses. Marriage in this context was not something you promise to do. It is something you do right there and then. Marriage is a fact. You are consecrated, separated to that person and that person is separated and consecrated to you. Thus, that person is now your intimate friend. And any other person that you would dare set your affection on is a stranger, a strange woman or a strange man.

The Calling to Intimacy

Marriage not only concerns sharing, or concentrating on the other person, but marriage is also about intimacy.

Genesis 4:1.

Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”

Adam had relations with his wife. The word ‘relations’ is the Hebrew word ‘Yada’ which means ‘to know’. There is another word in Biblical Hebrew that communicates the idea of ‘knowing’ and that is ‘biyn’. ‘Biyn’ speaks of wisdom, understanding, and discernment. In some cases, it can denote general knowledge. The difference with ‘Yada’ is that it denotes all of that, it includes general knowledge and perception of the mind but it goes beyond that. Adam knew his wife by coming into her. God knows us, and we know God by Him coming into us by His Holy Spirit. There is something of intimacy, experience and relationship in this knowledge. In the Greek, the word is ‘Ginosko’ but there again it means the same thing. Therefore, a full knowledge of something not only incorporates the mind but it is also a thing of experience. And that is why God said to Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God was not saying that he did not want him to learn about it. God meant that He did not want Adam to experience it. It was for God to know it alone. But Adam and Eve wanted to taste it, feel it and touch it. They wanted to know it. We can know about drugs, heroine, speed etc. But we are not to know them. We can know about sexual reproduction but we must not know it experientially until we get married. God comes into us and He knows us in a manner that no one can. That is the same in a marriage. The husband and wife know each other in a way that no one else can. It is exclusive. But because of that intimacy, and that experiential oneness, there are two other things that come with that. The first thing is vulnerability and the second is nakedness. Nakedness was part of the original marriage. Nakedness means that you have nothing to hide and you are open. Your spouse can see everything about you. You are vulnerable.

Let us look at the relationship between sharing, opening up and intimacy.

John 15:15.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

So what is the difference between a slave and a friend? You share more with a friend than you do with a slave. If that is true in this sense how much more in the context of a marriage. The more you share, the more intimacy there is. The more you share of yourself, and the more you open up of yourself, the more intimate you will be with your spouse. The more you open up of yourself to the Lord the more you are going to know Him and He will know you. He knows everything about you but I am speaking in terms of having a relationship. It is scary to open up but there is something beautiful about it. The late Art Katz did a message on ‘Intimacy’ and he put it this way: “A real and genuine relationship has to be two-way and it can only work on a personal level.” You cannot have a personal relationship with a school. You cannot have a personal relationship with a church constitution. You cannot have a personal relationship with a political party. You cannot have a personal relationship with a machine. You can only have a personal relationship with another person. So if your relationship is to be real and authentic then the people in that relationship need to be real and authentic.

Deuteronomy 34:10.

Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,

The Lord knew Moses face to face.

Exodus 33:11.

Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

You see the significance of this face to face encounter. The friendship that Moses had with God was unlike any other person. No one knew God the way Moses knew God because Moses knew God face to face. In Numbers, God tells Miriam and Aaron, “If I speak to a prophet, I will speak to him in a vision or dream but not so with my servant Moses. With him I speak mouth to mouth. Not in dark sayings.” A vision or a dream must be interpreted. But Moses needed no interpretation. God’s message was clear and direct. Mouth to mouth and face to face. It was the closest any person could get to God.

In this regard, Art Katz said something that was very profound. “It is perhaps no coincidence that, unlike the mating of many animals, human intimacy is face to face.” Therefore, we should not let anything interrupt this face to face encounter with God or our spouse. You cannot be fake with each other. You have to be open. So when you hide secrets you are withholding something and, therefore, in those areas, you have no intimacy, no communion, and no fellowship. It is the same with the Lord. A woman will feel it first when one breaks that bond of intimacy. My wife feels it before I do. A woman feels it before the guy does. And a woman will express how she feels, and the guy will ask, “What are you talking about?” She is looking for intimacy. The break in intimacy may result from various causes. The husband may be withholding something. There may be unrepentant and unconfessed sin. Sometimes husband can set his affections on something or someone other than his wife. Thus, something comes in between them. The same can be for the wife. This shows us that we should work towards intimacy. It is not a mechanical thing. In marriage, relationship works on the physical level, it works on the emotional and it works on the spiritual level. Because it is emotional that means that it cannot be a mere passing through the motions. You cannot fake it. Because it is spiritual that means you cannot marry an unbeliever. If you got saved while in the covenant of marriage it is different. If your unbelieving spouse is happy to remain married to a believer then God tells you to remain in that marriage. But if you are a believer do not even think about entertaining an unbeliever for your spouse. You cannot have that spiritual oneness with an unbeliever. It is so important to marry a believer in order to attain to the greatest possible union and intimacy that you can attain to in fallen bodies. God means for you to enjoy oneness because it is precious that this world often does not know.

Ephesians 4:25-26.

and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 25Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry, and ye do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

In the context of sharing and opening up verse 26 shows how realistic God is about the issue of intimacy. “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” When you give up falsehood and you speak truth you are going to get a reaction, especially when that truth that you are opening up to is a sin.. People do not look at truth in a purely intellectual way. When you open up with repentance and confess your sin that person does not acknowledge your confession in a robotic way. They will be hurt, upset and feel betrayed. They will be angry. You have to accept that there is going to be a reaction. But when your spouse opens up to you about something serious, know that if you ever did something else to them, you would have to open up to them. Be angry but make sure your anger does not lead to sin. Seek the Lord concerning His will and humble yourself before Him. If your spouse is truly repentant and willing to accept discipline, by God’s grace there is nothing that you cannot work through and bring glory to the Lord in the end.

Because your spouse is your focus and their spiritual well being, their repentance and confession is God’s opportunity to use you to help them overcome. When that person opens up to you, they are going to know that the next time they are in a situation where something like that can happen again, that your eyes are going to be burning in the back of their necks. You will be watching them, not maliciously, not to hold something against them but because you know they are weak in that area. This will help them to overcome. We need to be mature and have Messiah at the centre. We need to be selfless and put the other person first. It is hard but it is possible. When you work through these problems you are cemented together through the problems.

The Call to Transparency

1 John 1:7

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we must walk in the light to have fellowship with God it indicates that walking in light opens up more fellowship. Thus if we walk in the light with our spouses we will have more fellowship with them.

John 3:19.

This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

When we walk in the light, it shows up our dirt. But our sin is shown up so that God may clean it up. Intimacy costs us. It is challenging but it is rewarding.

Marriage is a Liberating Bondage.

Marriage is a liberating bondage and it is the second greatest death.

1 Corinthians 7:31.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

The word for bond signifies slavery. The word slave ‘doulos’ comes from the word ‘to bind’. Marriage is a slavery because you cannot just do what you always wanted to do. You have a spouse to think about. Humanly thinking, we think that this is a bad thing, but it is a positive thing.

1 Corinthians 6:18.

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

When you sin with sexual sin, you are sinning against your own body. All sin is wicked, but there is a particular self-loathing and self-deprecation that is attached to sexual sin. Not only this but there is something heinous about such sins in comparison with other types of sin. And that is that you, spirit, soul and body belong to God. Thus, sexual sin is hatred towards God because you are Christ’s slave. But you cannot see God. He does not speak every time you make a wrong move and tell us “I see everything you do”. It is easy to forget that God is watching. But when you go home your spouse is there. You can see them, and you can hear them. Therefore, marriage helps you to be a slave of Messiah.

2 Timothy 3:2.

For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Loving self is negative. Here it is seen as the root of other kinds of sin. This loving of self puts self at the centre of everything. Matthew 22:39 says “Love your neighbour as you love yourself.” According to psychological thought, it is asserted that we need to love ourselves more in order to love other people more. That is not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that we naturally love ourselves. Jesus wants us to show the same care and consideration we naturally show ourselves and direct it towards others. When you are hungry what do you do? You make something to eat. When your spouse walks in and looks hungry and tired what do you do? Do you even notice? We love ourselves more than we even realise. You look after yourself. Therefore, show that same care towards others.

Matthew 16:25

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

When self is there in the centre, there can be no lasting intimacy, no enduring fellowship. Self will destroy fellowship because, when someone says something off hand, you will be offended. You will say “How dare he speak to me like that!” “How dare my wife talk to me like that!” “How dare my husband speak to me like that!” We naturally feel this way. Jesus is telling us to love God first and others second. The same way you think you should be spoken to, make sure you speak to others that way. The cross is at the centre of our walk with the Lord. But when we are married we no longer walk by ourselves to heaven. If we are married to a believer we are walking with someone else to the same destination. We are pilgrims but in marriage we have a pilgrim partner by our side. So if the cross is at the heart of our pilgrimage so the cross must also be at the heart of our marriages. Jesus’ attitude was “I would rather not go to the cross. That is what I would rather not do. But Father, I know Your will. I have to go to the cross to do Your will, so therefore, I will do what You want me to do.” Marriage is, therefore, like a cross. You have to say “I would rather not do this but I know that for my marriage’s sake I need to.”

Thus, when self is out of the way and I start to experience this, I am portraying Christ’s relationship with His assembly.

The Call to Love

1 John 4:20.

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

If this is true about your brother in Messiah, how much more your spouse? Our relationship with God concerns our relationship with one another. Our knowledge and love of God should mirror that of my fellow brother and sister in Messiah. If I do not love my wife, I can claim that I love God all I want, but God says that I am a liar! The same goes for the wife. She cannot love God if she does not love her husband. If we want to represent Messiah to this lost world and we want to show forth a solid and meaningful relationship with Messiah, we need a solid and meaningful relationship with our spouses in the Lord. Therefore, if we get our marriages right, we show forth a true and meaningful relationship with Messiah to this lost world.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.23For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30because we are members of His body. 31For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

If a husband does not love his wife, he does not love Jesus. We, as husbands need to be concerned about our wives’ spiritual well being because Jesus is concerned about His bride’s spiritual well being. If you hate your wife, it is a disgusting form of self hatred. You have this terrible view of yourself. When you do something malicious to your wife, you are doing that to yourself because you are one with her. If you hurt my wife, you hurt me. So if I disparage my wife, I disparage myself. It is the same with Messiah. The same oneness that we have in our marriages is the same oneness that Jesus has with His assembly. And that is why Jesus told Paul, “You lay a hand on my little ones, you are touching me.” “You are persecuting me.” There is this union with Messiah and finds its parrallel in marriage. There is no greater picture of Messiah with the Assembly that this world can see than a godly marriage. There is nothing greater that you can demonstrate to this world what Jesus did for His bride and what the Bride is to do for Messiah than to have a godly marriage.

Which Gospel Do We Portray in our Marriages?

Therefore, let me conclude with the following questions:

Husbands: What Messiah are we portraying to the world? Are we presenting a Messiah that is off-handed with His bride? Do we, by our actions, say to this world “You better be careful how you come to Jesus because He is ready to blow? He does not understand you. Jesus does not want to attempt to understand you. He has no patience and is abrupt!”? Is that the Messiah that we are portraying to this world?

Wives: What picture of the Assembly are you presenting to this world? Are you portraying an Assembly that is trying to elevate herself about Jesus? In the modern western world, we have feminism. Feminism claims that a woman is equal to a man in everything and should enjoy the same position and privilege in everything. It claims that a woman should not be submissive to her husband in anything. A woman should be equal to her husband in every single way possible. That is feminism. Feminism goes further and argues that a woman should be able to lead her husband and be above him. Well, what is happening in Christian assemblies, especially in the west? Christians are demanding from God and commanding God by the word of faith. And we expect God to do what we tell Him to? Women are climbing into the pulpits and assuming the role of Bible teachers over men and women in defiance of Paul’s instruction to Timothy that women should not teach over men nor have authority over men. Is there not a parallel between this Christianity and feminism? What picture of the Bride of Messiah are you giving to this world through your relationship to your husband?

What Gospel are we preaching in our marriages? When we have a greater intimacy it is something between us and our spouses which other people are excluded from. When you have that with someone and the world can see it in your eyes, that you have this unique thing that they are not a part of, you may arouse their intrigue, you may even arouse envy but you do not leave them unaffected. “What do you have with your marriage that I do not have with mine?” Are we getting deeper with the Lord and deeper with our spouse? The Lord will use our marriages to cause us to get deeper with Him. It is a high calling but when you compare what the world offers in marriage to this, the world’s marriage, by comparison, is shallow, empty, meaningless and cheap. By comparison, that is. If we sacrifice and die to self, along the lines of God’s way, our marriages will be substantial and priceless. God designed marriage so, therefore, if marriage is going to work, it must be according to His principles.

SALVADOR & DIANNE’S MSINDISI MONTHLY

NUMBER: 115 Apr 2014

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Here we are in April. As we look back over the month of march.

Always we are grateful for the Lords mercy and grace in our lives. We have thankful hearts that He goes before us, He never leaves us, He is our provider and constancy help in times of troubles. He is our maker and we want to knowledge Him and thank Him for all He has done in our lives and wants to continue to do in our lives.

We started the month with the funeral of our friend, Belinda’s, mum, Dawn. Sal was asked to sing at the funeral. Belinda will sadly miss her mum but has the promise of seeing her again as she was a believer of Jesus and has the word says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. John 3 v 16-18

We have been continuing in the usual routine of teaching at Care bear crèche,

Joyland crèche, kids club, discipling, cell group, evangelism, prayer meeting.

Di has been getting the Aussie jumpers out to the hospital and clinic’s as the cooler weather will soon be starting. We once again thank the knitters who bless so many mothers with these for their babies.

 

 

Sal was asked to bring a message at “Coming King Ministry” earlier in the month. Lesley Crickmay has been suffering with health issues but is slowly returning to his usual self. The message was Psalm 69 v 9 “ For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.”

 

We had the opportunity to catch up with Kevin and Michelle Edwards and the boys one night for dinner. It was lovely to see the way the Lord is moving in their lives. Also Sal was asked to bring the word to our brothers and sisters in Stanger at their weekly bible study. We continue to pray for all our friends and brethren that side. On the Friday night cell group meetings we continue to go through the foundations of the faith, however we had a pause over the Jewish festival Purim, which shows God’s faithfulness to save his people, and went through the book of Esther together.

Preaching of the Gospel continues in Cibilili and Thembisile has been coming out to witness to the lost. We have been very encouraged at her involvement with the Gospel. We trust that it is a blessing for her also.

 

Sal was asked to help with interpreting for a group from the Cape who were visiting the baptist church and doing ministering in the prison, rest homes, school’s and rural communities. As a result of this we were asked to return to Louwsburg school to help the children with any questions they may have had. This proved to be a amazing day. We were able to speak to all the grades and many questions were asked and some wonderful discussions took place. We have been asked to return once we have returned from Australia and New Zealand to speak on a regular basis.

At the end of this month we visited Ncedo and Asimbonge in Newcastle.( they are the children of Bhabekile who was killed). The kids have a week school holiday, so 3 of the boys came back for the week to visit with Gogo. Asimbonge did very well in his first school report.

At the end of this month we head up to Joberg as we fly out to Australia and New Zealand at the end of the month. We will be visiting family, friends, supporters and Sal will be sharing the word in different places along the way. She has also been attending the discipleship in Alpha village. We have been blessed concerning how much the brethren are sharing with one another, especially Mkhulu, in whose home we meet. Electricity is coming into the area and it has been encouraging to see it come nearer to Phumlani’s home stead.

 

 

Please keep in prayer:

• Leslie Crickmay for his health issues. 
• Thabi (Phumlani’s wife) she continues to stay away and have no contact with him. Di has visited several times.
• For the up coming trip away to Aussie and NZ. For us and Phumlani while we are away.
• For Phumlani and the family as his mother (Gogo) is deteriorating with her cancer.
• Thank the Lord for the help and love shown to Ncedo and Asimbonge.

CHAPTER 6

The Shared Fruitfulness

By Caleb Massey

I have three children. Malachi is nine and he was born in South Africa. Abigail is six and was also born in South Africa and we have an almost two year old. He was born at home in America. I like to tell people that two of my children are Afro-Americans and they give me very funny looks. “Are they black?” “No. But they are African.”

So we are looking at this idea of fruitfulness. In Genesis two we have a little more detail concerning what happens than in Genesis 1. We know from Genesis 2:7 that the Lord formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life and he became a living soul. Man is a three part being. It says in the passage that God formed man from the dust of the ground. So the outside part is matter or the body, which we can all see. When the body is dead then it turns back into dust. We have to eat food to keep out body going. It is physical. And then the passage says that God then breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life. Therefore all of us have a spirit. This is not the Holy Spirit of God, it is just the spirit of life. That is the top part. But then it says that he became a living soul. That is the middle part. So every person is body, soul and spirit. You obviously can see your body. The soul is typically defined as your mind (what you think), your emotions (what you feel), and your will (your ability to make decisions and to choose). You could probably say that males tend to lean more towards mind and women tend to lean towards emotions.

God made Adam, which means man, as the first man. And it says in Genesis 2:19

Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

Now people talk about this idea that Adam saw that there was two cats, male and female, Adam saw that there was two birds, male and female etc. And he finally realised, “Wait a minute! How come I have no counterpart?” May be that is what happened. The text says that there was no helper comparable to him. In other words, Adam realised that he was different to all these creatures. A couple of weeks ago, Malachi (and we have chickens and cats), so we had chicken for dinner and we threw the chicken-bones to the cats and one of our chickens came up and pecked at our chicken bones. And Malachi stood there and said “Dad, the chicken is eating… Chicken!” And I said “That is what makes us different from the animals!” We don’t eat our dead. So Adam saw he was different from the animals. And so God decided that He would make woman. So the Bible says that God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and He took one of the ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. And the rib which God took from the man He made into woman. We are made in the image of God. God made the guy first. So it would appear that God took whatever He deemed of His image that was going to be put in man and somehow split that between the male and the female. So when the female was made God took the female qualities of Himself and applied it to the woman.

Genesis 2:23

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”

There is this idea of leaving father and mother, cleaving to the wife and becoming one flesh. Interestingly enough, when you look at Genesis as literature, this is the author, or narrator, making his own comment. This is commentary on what had just happened. So the author says, they will be one flesh. When a man and a woman get married, even if my wife is a very long way from me, in a spiritual sense we are still one flesh. When you look at the word ‘one’ there, the Hebrew is ‘echad’.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

The Hebrew word for ‘one’ in this passage is the exact same word ‘echad’. So when Deuteronomy 6:4 says that God (“Elohim” – plural) is “echad” (one – oneness) it is saying that this is the same kind of oneness that we have in a husband and wife. It is “echad”. That is a strange thing because there are two people, man and woman, but the Bible says “one flesh”. There is a oneness there. Now it seems to me that the oneness is in regard to the spirit of the relationship as well as in physical union. But there is a spirit of relationship that exists between the man and his wife. Another married couple will have a totally different spirit of relationship than I will have with my wife because I married her. That oneness exists only between that one man and his wife. Millions of people have gotten married. I do not know if you have done this but when we got married we talked about our parents. “My parents are like this and yours are like this.” “Well, I liked this about my parents’ relationship and the way they raised us.” “I didn’t like this about my parents and their relationship.” Do you do that? I did that, especially when you start having kids and then you do it. “When I was a kid my parents did this.” But even though we both come from an example of marriage and families, now we are two people who never existed before coming together into one flesh. It is a totally unique relationship. It has never existed before anywhere else in the world. So obviously lots of challenges will be the same, and lots of experiences may be the same with other couples, but you are two new people who are joining into an ‘echad’ that has never existed before. So it is different.

But in the Godhead it is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And that is why I say that it is husband, wife and there is a spirit of the relationship between them. This is why it becomes exceedingly dangerous when you get into divorce and remarriage because now what have you done? You have shattered the oneness that existed and you have ‘onenessed’ yourself with someone else. But the Bible never says that you disconnect from the previous individual. There is always some sort of attachment there. It is a spiritual thing. And that gets messy. I am sure you have met people, in America we are full of them, who were divorced and remarried. They all have baggage. There is never a clean break. If you have a man whose wife has died and he’s remarried, that is no problem. But if there is ever a living spouse somewhere that is divorced there is always baggage somehow, unless it happened before they got saved or something like that. That even applies if you have slept with someone before you got married because it is still a ‘one flesh’ union. Paul talks about it when he speaks of sinning against the body with sexual immorality. It will inevitably cause problems.

Now you could say, in a sense, that the woman in creation was the fruit of man because she came from the man. Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses. If we are going to have fruitfulness we need to understand our strengths and weaknesses. Nobody is perfect. What we will note here is not an exhaustive list. This is a short list.

One of Man’s strengths is that he is the head like Christ. Man is related to Christ. That is a good thing. Men have a greater responsibility. But after the fall we see from Genesis 3:17 that the ground is cursed. One of the weaknesses of man is that he is stuck with toil. Unfortunately I have met a lot of men who are just lazy. There is always this toil and work, or labour. That is the curse of man. The Bible says that in the sweat of his brow man shall eat bread. That is an interesting statement. The idea of bread in the Bible relates to the word of God. Jesus is the bread of life and the manna was bread from heaven which is a type of the word of God. Typically men are less interested in reading the Bible than women. They have to work at it. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread. A lot of men are just lazy when it comes to studying the word. Women are more spiritually in tune.

Just as the man represents Christ, so the woman represents the Church. That is a good thing. The Church is to be a glorious bride. It is easier for me to pick on myself and my gender but when I start saying negative things about women I get nervous. But one of the weaknesses of women is that women can be deceivers and manipulators. Notice it says of the woman in Genesis 3:16 that her sorrow and conception would be greatly multiplied. The Rabbis say that man’s sorrow begins on the eighth day, when they are circumcised. Woman’s sorrow begins at childbirth. In pain she brings forth children and her desire will be for her husband and he will rule over her. This is the result of sin even though there is no pronouncement of curse. Look at Genesis 4:7

If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

Cain was angry at Abel because Cain and his offering was rejected whereas Abel and his offering was accepted. Therefore God warns Cain that if he does not do well, sin was lying at the door, and its desire was for him but he must rule over sin. The same two words, ‘desire’ and ‘rule’ are there that were in Genesis 3:16. Sin’s desire was for Cain but was to rule over it. The woman’s desire would be for her husband but he would rule over her. The verses reflect each other. Sin and the woman have the same desire; the man but the man should rule over. This is where you get your Jezebels, immoral women of proverbs, church of Thyatira, etc. It is this kind of thing. The woman can, if left to her total own devices, personify sin and bring down anybody.

I knew someone who had an over possessive mother in law. The mother in law was so controlling and possessive that she said that God put her over her future son-in-law’s ministry. He did not agree with that but she was so obsessive and controlling that she tried to get a hit man to assassinate him before the wedding. That is an extreme example. Not every mother in law tries to knock off their son-in-law. But there are these examples in the Bible. In the end it will be mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. So women either become a picture of the Church in either its glory or of the counterfeit in its terrible disgusting apostasy. Men are types of Christ in all sorts of good things unless they get so obsessive with the things of the world that they are picturing the Antichrist. So they picture both. Praise God for our salvation.

Let us move onto the idea of fruitfulness.

Genesis 1:11

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.

When we talk about fruitfulness we have to talk about where the fruit comes from. Fruit comes from seeds. Eve was told that the seed of the woman will crush Satan’s head. In a sense, what ever fruit comes from her body will become her salvation. So fruitfulness comes from seeds. In the New Testament there are two definitions of seed.

Matthew 13:37-38

37And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, 38and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;

The good seed in this parable are the sons of the kingdom.

Mark 4:14

The sower sows the word.

The seed is the word of God. Not the money that you sow. It is the word. So in the Bible you have the seed representing both the sons of the kingdom and the word. How did the sons of the kingdom get to be sons of the kingdom? Because of the Word.

As we see in Genesis the seed of the woman is biological so we have a biological seed also. The Church grows in one of two ways. Either through purely a spiritual birth, from an unsaved background but getting saved, or through saved families having children, raising them to be godly that they may have a spiritual birth. So it is either in the context of outward evangelism in the world or in the context inward evangelism with raising children.

1 Timothy 3:2

An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

In order to have a spiritual position, as an elder, in the Church there is an absolute necessity for the person to have one wife and not one wife at a time. The theological reason why is that man is the head and the bride is the body as Jesus is the head and the Church is the bride. Jesus does not have lots of brides. He just has the one bride.

1 Timothy 3:12

Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households.

Deacons are also to be the husbands of one wife. Elders and deacons must be faithfully married. When you have that, the family unit is a picture of the Church. In my family we are five but we are all unified in that we are one family. It is one family but there are five within the one family. When you are part of a fellowship there are lots of you but there is one fellowship in distinction to other local fellowships. You have your own dynamic. As a family we do certain things because we are an odd mix. I am American and my wife is English. My kids are African. So we tend to have an international outlook on things. Other families that we know that are just American are all American. We are a bit broader but that is just our family. Churches also have different feels or ways that are not necessarily wrong or bad, it is just the way they do things. But when you have that unit of the husband, the wife and the children it then becomes a little bit of a template. You also get this in the Old Testament too. You have the whole nation of Israel, which is then broken down into various tribes, which developed out of independent families. The tribe of Judah, the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Manasseh, etc. And they are even broken down into smaller units. That is the same thing in the Church. One gigantic worldwide idea of Church broken down into family units; that is what it is. In the Bible God wants families to be saved. On the day of atonement the high priest went into the holy of holies, actually twice. Once for himself and his family and again for the whole nation. Who did Noah get onto the ark with? His wife and his three sons, with their wives. It was a family. So that is the picture that we get. That God is after family units. So you see this consistently. And even in the New Testament. Why do we say that such and such a person is my brother? We do not say it because we have the same parents but because God is our Father. We use family terminology, even in the Church. It has been that way from the very beginning. The regular example in terms of meeting places has always been in homes. In Romans Paul says, “greet those of so and so’s home.” So it is always home based, it is always family based; familiar stuff.

1 Timothy 3:3-5

3not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5(but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),

There has to be a reflection. The Church cannot be run effectively unless the men in the Church are running their homes effectively. It has to be a reflection, one reflects the other. In those days, because there were no independent buildings, they went to each other’s homes. It was therefore easier to see. “Oh yeah, that guy. His home is tidy, his home is neat. His wife seems to be at peace with her position.” You could see that sort of thing. It is kind of harder now. There was a Church that I was part of for a little while. I never became a member there. It was a bit of a scandal there. The pastor’s daughter was married to the youth pastor and filed for divorce. But the pastor was defending his daughter! The end result was that the leadership of the Church asked for his resignation unanimously. They said “You will resign!” Why did they do that? Because obviously he messed up at home. It caused a huge problem. They rightly asked for his resignation. It was a bad situation.

But fruitfulness in the Church is dependent on the faithfulness at home when it comes to leadership. The focus of the Bible is on the man. He has the role of deacon, bishop, elder etc. But the wife needs to be an active participant because she has to be faithful. That is why it says that he must be the husband of one wife. He rules his own household well, having children in all submission with all reverence. That is a partnership. It is a husband and wife team.

Titus 1:5-6

5For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, 6namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion.

So here the children have to be faithful.

Titus 2:1-5

1But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. 2Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. 3Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

So he deals with four groups. Older men, older women, young men and young women. But notice that the ‘older women’ flows into the ‘younger women’. So if the man has to be faithful, reverent and sober minded then the wife, like wise must be reverent, not a slanderer, not given to much wine (which means not to be addicted, or a servant of wine), and a teacher of good things. The slander there is actually relating back to ‘women talk’, gossip. Then here is a place where women are required to teach younger women. So when you have a couple that are older and all their kids are grown up they are in a position that they can start fulfilling this role; to teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children. Now this is spiritual fruitfulness. This is a ministry of the woman; to pass on to the younger generation, to the daughter or the younger women in the Church to love their husbands, to love their children. They should be better at it because they have had more years of practice. But like in all Jewish discipleship, the idea is that the disciple watches and learns everything that the discipler does.

In rabbinic circles it was how you walk, how you talk to people, how you do your business, how you look after your home, etc. It was that serious. They wanted to know everything about how to live like that guy. He is the righteous guy. He is the one who’s walked with God. So with the kind of mindset that Paul would have Paul is saying, “You older ones teach the younger ones to love their husbands, but you do it by showing them.” If they are coming into your home because your husband is the elder, you demonstrate to them how you are loving your husband in your home. You can talk all day long but you have to demonstrate it. They want to see an example. And if they are not these things? What does it say? “That the word of God might not be blasphemed.” The word of God can be easily blasphemed. If there is animosity or if there are issues happening in the house.

It boggled my mind when I moved back to America. I worked in some nursing homes and hospitals. I could not believe the number of women in their twenties who had already been divorced. Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four years old. “You are divorced already? Come on! Did you not stick it out for more than two, three or four years?!” It is crazy! I really was surprised. But it is happening more and more. People are getting married when they are twenty or twenty-one years old and in two years they can be divorced. It is just sad. And the statistics in America say that half the pastors are divorced and remarried. Now what example are they being? What example are their wives being? They are not an example of anything.

Ephesians 5:22-23

22Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.23For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

Wives who are not submitting to their own husbands might as well be disobedient to God. That is what Paul says. You also hear people say, and I even heard this some time ago, “Who was that lady who came out of your house?” The guy was in his sixties, I guess, and the lady was not that old. He said “Oh, I got myself a new wife.” Then he said “You know how they always say about marriage, ‘It’s fifty-fifty’? Nah, it’s more like it is eighty-twenty.” And then the other guys said, “Nah, it’s more like sixty-forty”. I was thinking “You guys are crazy”. But that is the way the world thinks. “When you get married, it is like a business partnership. You do your bit, I’ll do my bit. If you don’t do your bit then I have a right not to do my bit.” Is that not how a lot of people operate? But ultimately the idea is one hundred-one hundred. You put in a hundred percent and she puts in a hundred percent. And if she does not put in one hundred percent? Tough! You still put in one hundred percent. That is the way it is. Did not God give one hundred percent? And are we not then required to give a hundred percent back to God? Our life, our resources etc. Is it sacrificial? Yes. Did Christ die for the Church? Yes. Does the husband have the easier job? No. He is the one who is like Jesus, the one who had to die on the cross. The wife is the one who has to be washed? And that is what the husband is supposed to do. “That He might present her to Himself, a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish.”

I am quite a passive person. I do not get wound up too often. My wife says to me, “You need to tell me off more often.” She wants me to tell her, “You need to be doing…” And I do need to do it. She is basically reflecting this. There is something in her that is saying, “I want you to tell me what I need to do better. Because I want to know that from you.” And it is what husbands need to do. Not just say “I’m the man! Do what I say, not what I do!” You need to be the sacrifice. So when Paul writes from verse 22-23 he so interweaves the husband-wife relationship with Christ and the Church that you cannot tell them apart. It is so that picture. The husband and the wife is the picture of how Christ and the Church should be. And when you see a well operating man and wife it is such a good thing. It really is a fantastic thing but when you see a badly operating man and wife it is painful.

Let us quickly talk about children.

Luke 2:51-52

51And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Jesus was about twelve and we read about four things in His personal development. Wisdom, stature, increase in favour with God and increase in favour with man.

Spiritual education.

Man = Social growth.

Wisdom = Intellectual.

Stature = Physical.

Jesus increased in all four. When it comes to growing up, children grow physically, intellectually, socially and spiritually. As Jesus was human, God in the flesh, He had to grow up like this. You have to have a balance in these things. But one of the questions I get, because we home school our children, is “Don’t they socialise?” As it that is the most important thing, socialising with other kids their age. My response is that I want my children to grow up to be adults. I do not want them being like little children. So when they are around me, their mother, their grandparents, aunts and uncles, they are learning how to be responsible adults. That is how we do it in our family. But I often hear people saying, “But they don’t socialise with children their own age.” Well I do not really care because my son has his sister. They are children. They can socialise with each other. That is how I look at it. But some people put a lot of emphasis on socialising. That is the only reason you send kids to school, to hang out with other kids. Well, other kids are childish. I do not want my kids to be childish. I want them to grow up and be mature. That is partially the reason why we home school. One Thursday there was a bible study at his grandfather’s house. I was not around but my son, Malachi, went there by himself. He sat there with a whole bunch of grown-ups in a bible study. I thought “Great. He is nine years old but he has the maturity to do that, to go over there and hang out with his grandma, his grandpa, and the people in the Church that are all in their thirties, forties and fifties.” So he is moving into that. You have to have a spiritual education. It says in Deuteronomy 6 that we must teach our children the ways of God and how to grow in the faith. When they grow up they will have to do that independently.

There is an Australian in America called Ken Ham who has a ministry called “Answers in Genesis” and he wrote a book called “Already gone.” In his book he talks about how in America most children, when they leave home and go to university they do not care about God, the Church or spiritual things at all. They have lost it. I am sure it is true all over the world. Why is that? It is because parents are not instilling a spiritual education in their children. So they hit eighteen and get sucked away.

There is the physical side. Michelle Obama is big on this because she thinks a lot of American children are fat. And a lot of American children are fat. Childhood obesity is a very big problem. You need to emphasise the physical but not to the exclusion of everything else. There are parents who raise their kids saying, “You are going to be a rugby player”, “You are going to be a football player”, “All you got to do is get to university and play, play, play and you’ll get signed on a team and then you are set for life”, “Just play football”.

And then there is the intellectual aspect. There is a kid in England that my mother-in-law thought should marry her youngest daughter. I am sure he was a nice lad. But he was pale, kind of thin and spent a lot of time in front of a computer. But he was too far on the intellect and not enough on the other aspects. But some people do push, “Study, study, study, study” but neglect all the other aspects. The kids can quote every fact in the encyclopaedia but they cannot look you in the face.

So when Jesus grew up, He grew in all four of these areas. This is even good for discipleship purposes. If you have a new, young Christian you can talk about all four of these things. You can say, “Look, we are a Church. We have to fellowship together. Gluttony and other abuses are not helpful if you destroy your temple. You always talk about Spiritual things but there is also a certain mental renews of your mind also.” So all these things interact together and then when a child grows up in a godly family and you have these four things, you are going to have a stellar kid. But this is long term fruitfulness. It is a long road to travel. You have fruitfulness in Marriage, fruitfulness in children and fruitfulness in church.