Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
Remembering Dr Tow
Our pastoral advisor Rev Dr Tow Siang Hwa went home to be with the Lord on 8 March 2019. I thank God for Dr Tow who prayed over the phone on a Saturday in August 2013 where he committed to the Lord the beginning of Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church, the last church that he has an active part in planting at the age of 88.
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
Unfeigned means “sincere, without hypocrisy, genuine”. The Apostle Paul speaks of God’s love manifested itself in his life. He served His Master with sincerity of heart, with a love that is unconditional, sacrificial, that will impact for eternity. This was how Jesus served in His earthly ministry.
Dorthy B. Gurney articulated such an eternal love and life very well in the hymn “O Perfect Love”:
O Perfect Love
O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,
Humbling we come in prayer before Thy throne,
That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,
Whom Thou forevermore doest join in one.
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
How can we discern the leading of the Holy Spirit? The warning in Jude 3 to “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints” was most pertinent for saints after Christ ascension at the founding of the first church (Acts 1:9-10), how much more pertinent it is today for Christians living in the last of the last days (1 Peter 1:20), two thousand years later, where the signs of the imminent return of Christ are manifested fully (Matthew 24), splashed in headline news daily to herald the His second coming, the greatest event in human history yet unfulfilled. Natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, famine and pestilences proliferating. Israel, God’s covenant nation is back in the Promised Land for the past 70 years and flourishing. The warning of false Christ and false prophets was sounded three times (Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 23-24). Making a survey of Christendom today, a Bible-believing Christian cannot but agree that there is a falling away (2 Thessalonians 2:3) from the fundamentals of the faith, with the rise of the Pentecostalism, Charismatism and the Ecumenical movement. How do Bible-believing churches today engage in missions and church growth that is not Pentecostal, Charismatic and Ecumenical?
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
“By the Holy Spirit” is the most profound words of what constitutes the transformed Christian life. The impact on society is tremendous! The cultivation begins with the reading of God’s written Word with prayer. We recall the Apostle Paul was an avid learner of the Old Testament before his conversion. Without the Holy Ghost, his study under Gamaliel seemed to be futile until his conversion. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, began to indwell him and teach him the truth of God’s Word.
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
Kindness speaks of a gracious attitude undergirded by goodness. It is manifested by gentleness, of temper, and of spirit. By endeavouring to evince this spirit to all, whatever may be their treatment of us, and whatever may be our provocations. Paul felt that if a minister would do good, he must be kind and gentle to all. [Barnes]
Jesus taught His disciples “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This teaching of benevolence is the outworking of this character of kindness. How is it that when we give, we lose something that we have given away and yet we are more blessed? This truth has to be understood by faith. I believe this is true and therefore I do as instructed and experience God’s greater blessing. This is a perspective that is beyond the carnal mind. It can be understood only in the context of God’s supernatural love, as it were injected into our bloodstream, enabling us to give sacrificially and unconditionally. We are in our natural self, self-seeking and self-satisfying. This change is the power of the gospel experienced when the believer put to death the old man and put on the new man.
Hymns: RHC 327 All Things Work Out for Good; 358 What a Friend We Have In Jesus; 324 Trusting Jesus
Job 3:11-19
11Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? 12Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? 13For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; 15Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. 17There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. 18There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19The small and great are there; and the servant isfree from his master. 20Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; 21Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave? 23Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? 24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. 25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 26I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came. (Job 3:1-26 KJV)
Lamentation of a Depressed Soul (2)
OUTLINE
(1) Why Was I Born? (v1-10)
(2) Why Did I Not Die Earlier? (v11-19)
(3) Why Am I Still Alive? (v20-26)
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
Longsuffering describes the state of emotional quietness in the face of unfavourable circumstances [Friberg Lexicon]. This word means forbearance, self-restraint before proceeding to action. The quality of a person who is able to avenge himself yet refrains from doing so. Here in this verse, it describes more wholesomeness constraint toward others, a state of emotional calm in the face of provocation or misfortune and without complaint or irritation. [Louw-Nida Lexicon]
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
The Apostle Paul’s preaching and teaching were divinely endowed, enabling him to pen the larger part of the New Testament Scriptures. He shared the Source of his knowledge when he revealed in 1 Corinthians 2:12-16 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. What privilege it is to be endowed with the wisdom of God that enabled him to understand the eternal things of God!
2 Corinthians 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
The Apostle Paul, in the work of the gospel, exemplifies a quality of behaviour that is morally clean – purity, sincerity, blamelessness. [Friberg Lexicon] He understood well our Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. He sought to live a life of holiness understanding that he is a sinner saved by grace. He understood our Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:3-4 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Without making right with God, he has no strength to stand before men.
No Melons But Manna (Numbers 11:1-11 c.f. selected verses of Psalm 78)
It was in the wilderness outside Egypt that the children of Israel faced acute food shortage. God met their need by raining food from heaven. This heavenly food was called “manna” – Exodus 16:15 “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.”
What does “manna” look or taste like and how did they eat it? Numbers 11:7-9 tells us “7And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium. 8And the people went about, and gathered it, and round it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. 9And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it.”
The psalmist recounted the response of the children of Israel to God’s provision of manna in Psalm 78:22-24, “22Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, 24And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. 25 Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.”