Build your house on a rock solid foundation Flipbook PDF

Build your house on a rock solid foundation

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Introduction The studies in this book were originally published as a series on my facebook profile where we looked at the “Sermon on the Mount” which some people call the Constitution of the Kingdom of the Lord. Jesus concludes the sermon by saying “everyone who hears these words of mine and does them I will compare to a wise man who build his house upon a rock” and we will look at what “these words” are. The person who learned the most during these studies, is of course myself. I am humbled at what the Lord taught me and ever conscious that this gives me a greater responsibility than others to make sure that my foundation is indeed on the Rock. May you be blessed as you read and learn with me. Surely, the storms are coming and if we are as close to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory as I believe we are, we better make doubly sure that our foundation is solid.

Charlotte (Nomandla) von Stade January 2020

There is no copyright on this book and it may be reproduced but not sold.

Index Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day Day PS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Chuck your independence Mourn Meekness Hunger and Thirst Purity of Heart Persecution Be salt, be light Perfection demanded Reconcile quickly Watch your thoughts Deal ruthlessly with sin in your life Do not divorce Don’t retaliate Do the unexpected Don’t post it on facebook Correct your worldview Don’t stress - Trust Judge not Discern well Pray without ceasing The “Golden Rule” Judge the Fruit Judge the Fruit (continued) The Lord’s Prayer The Lord’s Prayer (continued) The Lord’s Prayer (continued) Forgiveness Forgiveness (continued)

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 25 26 28 30 33 35 36 38 40 42

Day 1 Chuck your independence (Mat. 5:3) Today we start our journey to look at what Jesus meant when he said in Mat. 7:26 “everyone who hears these words of mine and does them I will compare to a wise man who build his house upon a rock and the floods came, and the wind beat upon the house, but it did not fall because it was built upon a rock. What are the floods and the wind? I think it is the natural storms that we all encounter in life. It can be as mild as an illness or “cash flow” problems or as severe as a sudden death of a loved one or long term joblessness or bankruptcy. Keep in mind that in both Greek and Hebrew the words “hear” and “obey” are very closely related. Jesus starts in Mathew 5:3 with the first and most important thing of all – and this you need to keep in mind throughout this series – Realise just how absolutely dependent you are on God. If you are anything like me, you will at times experience an almost devastating sense of impotence as you contemplate what is needed to build your life on the Rock.

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Day 2 Mourn (Mat. 5:4) The word for mourn used here, is not just a fleeting and casual sadness, it indicates an intense sadness. But why should you be sad? Because of the hardness, the unresponsiveness, the rebellion of your own heart against God, the hardness of others and of the world in general. Do you, child of God, sometimes feel almost overwhelmed by the evil in this world, the sheer malice displayed, the lack of love? Do you at times despair because of your own sinfulness and non-conformity to what you know to be God’s will? I believe this is the mourning that Jesus talked about. Be of good cheer! You and I will be comforted. If this is something completely foreign to you, you need to examine yourself deeply to see if you really belong to Christ. Ask the Lord to reveal the state of your own heart to you, to enable you to see yourself and the world through His eyes.

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Day 3 Meekness (Mat. 5:5) Biblical meekness does not mean to allow others to push you around. The word meekness rather means something like “strength under control”; like that of a horse that is trained. I think David Guzik’s commentary (available online for free), gives an excellent explanation of this word: “(it is the) willingness to submit and work under proper authority* and to disregard one’s own “rights” and privileges”. This is something only possible if your heart has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Do you start to see why Jesus started off with “know how much dependent you are on God”? (*I see proper authority as firstly, God as revealed in the Bible, secondly, spiritual leaders who fear and obey God, thirdly (and equal to the former) fellow believers who speak, encourage, teach or correct in line with the Word of God. Thereafter of course, also “kings and other persons of authority” because they are all ultimately appointed by God and therefore accountable to God for their actions).

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Day 4 Hunger and Thirst (Mat. 5:6) Desire, as a matter of life or death, righteousness. What is righteousness? It is to be in right standing with God; it is to do things the way God desires and instructed us. How hungry are you for righteousness? Are you able, right now, to stand in righteousness before God? (Hint: yes, you can – but our only righteousness is in Christ Jesus because of His work on the cross). Have mercy (Mat. 5:7) Mercy is to be kind to those in need, whether they deserve it or not. Mercy is not just giving material stuff, it can also include friendliness, patience, forgiveness, empathy, etc. I once heard that the difference between grace and mercy is this: Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Have we not all received both grace and mercy in abundance from the Lord? Let us then have both grace and mercy towards others.

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Day 5 Purity of heart (Mat. 5:8) Keep your heart, your motives and your principles pure. Don’t engage in outward acts of righteousness only. In plain English, don’t be a hypocrite! Peacemakers (Mat. 5:9) Don’t stir up strife; work actively to restore harmony in relationships; relationships between you and others, between people outside yourself and above all, between others and God. Sometimes it can be fairly simple to do as the picture here illustrates so well. Simply step away.

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Day 6 Persecution (Mat. 5:10) Be ready and willing to face persecution … but not persecution or hardship because you were foolish in some way, persecution for the sake of righteousness. Believe me, if you consistently strive to live a life that pleases God, you will be called names and you will be persecuted. Persecution might be as mild as either being made fun of or treated with disdain by family and friends or it might cost you your life. According to Open Doors, 4305 Christians were killed for their faith in 2018 – 40% more than in 2017. But when you are so treated, because of righteousness, REJOICE for great is your reward! We live in a time where one can almost see weekly, how pieces of the puzzle leading up to the glorious return of Jesus Christ is falling into place and we know that Jesus warned of great persecution before His return. Already we see all the mechanisms in place that will enable the person known as the anti-Christ to be an absolute dictator such as never have been before. (If you are not familiar with China’s social credit system which is also used in Venezuela - I suggest you Google it). We need to be willing and ready to face persecution for the sake of Christ more than ever before. But fear not. Fear not! Fear not! A godly man once said “God’s grace will be there when you need it; not a moment before the time”. Jesus said when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. (Mat. 10:19) This gives me peace.

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Day 7 Be salt, be light (Mat. 5:13 – 16) Salt preserves against decay. Light drives away darkness. In my lifetime, I have never seen more decay and more darkness than now. How do we do this? Look what Jesus says – “you are salt” and “you are light”. If we do all these things necessary to build our house on the rock, we are salt and we are light. Salt don’t need to do anything to preserve or to add taste, it just needs to be present. Go back to day 3 – 5 of this series. If you have mercy, if you are pure in heart, if you are a peacemaker, people will see it and Jesus says they will give glory to our Father in heaven. At the end of the week, let us recap what we have learnt: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Realise just how dependent you are on God. (Remember, this is the foundation of everything else that will follow). Mourn because of the sin and apostasy of yourself, others and the world. Be meek – submit yourself under the hand of proper authority and disregard your own rights and privileges. Have an intense desire for right standing with God and living the way God wants you to live. Be merciful. Don’t be a hypocrite. Endeavour to maintain and restore harmony in relationships both between people among themselves and between individuals and God. Be willing to face persecution for righteousness’ sake. Be salt and be light.

Very important: Jesus did not say “those that hear or read these things will build their house on a rock”, but those who hear and DO these words, will build their house on a rock. Let us not be hearers of the word only, but let us act upon it. How utterly dependent we are on God! for in and of ourselves, it is impossible to do. 9

Day 8 Perfection demanded (Mat. 5:17 – 20) Jesus says our standard of right living needs to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. To explain to you just how serious Orthodox Jews regard the law, let me retell you an incident David Guzik relates: “In early 1992, tenants let three apartments in an Orthodox neighborhood in Israel burn to the ground while they asked a rabbi whether a telephone call to the fire department on the Sabbath violated Jewish law. Observant Jews are forbidden to use the phone on the Sabbath, because doing so would break an electrical current, which is considered a form of work. In the half-hour it took the rabbi to decide “yes,” the fire spread to two neighboring apartments.” As a non-Jew, my first reaction was “REALLY???” And then I asked “How on earth is it possible to be more righteous than this?” The Holy Spirit showed me two things, and the first refers to Day 5 of this series: Purity of heart. We need to do things from a pure motive, not just as an external exercise. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for washing the outside of the cup while the inside is full of filth. The second, and more important, is that there is just one person who is truly righteous; Jesus Christ, the Perfect One who had no sin. Only when you are clothed with Christ, when you are in Christ and He in you, do we have such perfection – not because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done. Oh Lord! how desperately we need you! How utterly dependent we are on you! For there is no way whatsoever that we can be perfect without you.

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Day 9 Reconcile quickly (Mat. 5:21 – 26) Be slow to get angry, and be quick to reconcile and forgive. Anger progresses if not held in check. First you despise someone’s intelligence (Raca) and then you despise his character (fool). Have you ever been in a situation where your imagination ran away with you and you thought someone did something wrong and the more you thought about it, the angrier you became …. only to find out later that you were completely mistaken? I think this is one of the things Jesus meant when He said “angry without cause”. Other times it may just be that for some or other reason you completely over-react. (I am so guilty of this!) Peace between you and your brother is more important than religious duty, so get your priorities straight. Reconciliation with your brother is better than getting legal justice. Anger puts you in a prison of bitterness and depression. Read 1 Cor. 6:5 – 7 for context, but listen to what verse 7 says: To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? Anger and contempt are both sins before God. Paul writes, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit: Be angry, but do not sin. (Eph. 4:26) so anger is not necessarily sinful; it is what we do with it.

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Day 10 Watch your thoughts (Mat. 5:27 – 28) Take whatever sin you want: gossip, adultery, theft, murder – they all start in the same place – in the heart or mind of a person. Let’s take adultery. I’ve heard it more than once that people caught up in adultery say “we never asked to fall in love with each other; it just happened”. This is a blatant lie. Let me tell you how it usually starts. Two people start an innocent conversation and just feel there is such a connection between them. Then the thoughts start rolling “I wish I could talk like that to my husband/wife”. The thoughts soon progress to “I should not have married so young/this other person would be a much better mach for me” or even “This person and I would be able to do so much more for the Lord than me and my spouse”. Continue in these thoughts and I guarantee you, the next step is having a coffee together. And another, and another and the thoughts keep coming and the contact increases until suddenly it just “happens” that you discover that you have fallen in love with each other. I’ve even heard people say “The Lord told me to marry this other person”. This, of course, is blasphemy since God will never contradict his Word as revealed in the Bible which clearly states “God hates divorce”. Being on this topic, let me state unambiguously that marriage according to God’s purpose is between one man and one woman. Anything else, is a perversion of God’s intent since a godly marriage on earth is a shadow of the heavenly marriage of Christ with his bride, the faithful believers. It is relatively easy to stop sin in your thoughts; it is much harder to stop it once it has progressed from there.

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Here is something mostly for the ladies. Ladies usually freak out (and rightly so), when they find out their boyfriend or husband watches pornography, but tonight they curl up with a raunchy love story. Do you really think there is a difference in what it does to your soul and spirit? The one is visual porn and the other literary porn, but both is porn. Remember the children’s song? “Watch your eyes, watch your eyes what they see”. Therefore, watch your thoughts and watch what you allow to enter your mind through your senses! If you catch yourself thinking about anything sinful, be it a juicy story you just need to tell your very best friend or how you would love to take revenge on someone, STOP! Confess your wrong thoughts to the Lord, repent and follow the advice of Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, in Phil. 4:8 “… whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, *think about these things*”. Prov. 23:7 “as a man thinks in his heart, so he is”.

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Day 11 Deal ruthlessly with sin in your life (Mat. 5:29 – 30) Never think that a particular sin is less serious than another just because it is socially acceptable. As I said yesterday, start dealing with sin while it is still in its embryonic stage, in your thoughts. (Heb 12:4) You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. (Eph 4:27) and do not give the devil an opportunity to work. (James 4:7) Submit1 yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Do whatever you need to do to root out sin in your life. It may hurt and you may feel that your heart is shattered, but it is nothing compared to the pain and loss you will later suffer if you don’t cut that sin, in whatever form it may be, from your life. Again I refer to Day 1 of this series, the first layer of the foundation: how utterly dependent we are on God!

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the Greek word for submit can also be translated “obey reflexively” which is how we should obey God; it should be second nature.

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Day 12 Do not divorce (Mat. 5:31 – 32) Do not divorce and don’t try to reason loopholes into God’s commands … being engaged is not the same as being married, so it is not OK in God’s eyes to sleep together if you are engaged. The Word of God gives very clear guidelines of when divorce is allowed. 1) because of sexual immorality and 2) if an unbelieving partner leaves the marriage (1 Cor. 7:1 – 16). Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Heb. 13:4) Where there is violence and abuse in a marriage, it is wise to leave that partner but then you must remain faithful to your marriage vows. If the other party in such a case remarries or moves in with another person, then h/she is committing adultery which is biblical grounds for divorce, but until such time, you as a believer, have to remain faithful to your vows and remain such until you are officially divorced. A piece of advice from someone who has been married for 35 years: any one-on-one contact with a member of the opposite sex that is not related to you by blood or that is strictly business related, is off limits – even (and perhaps especially) if you pray together. Make it a rule to never council or pray with someone of the opposite sex alone. If your spouse or any third person cannot be present, rather wait. Don’t give the devil any opportunity; he will surely grab it.

Do not swear (Mat. 5:33 – 37) Do not take an oath (make a solemn promise or invoke a divine witness). Remember KISS: Keep It Simple Saint. Let “yes” mean yes and “no” mean no. 15

Day 13 Don’t retaliate (Mat. 5:38 – 39) No “tit for tat” allowed. Ask any one who took revenge a week after the fact if they feel better after taking revenge. Revenge does one thing only; it makes you more bitter. It can also only create an unending cycle of mutual revenge. Remember the picture of Day 6 – the power of stepping away? When someone slaps you on the right cheek it means, if the person who slaps is right handed, he slaps with the back of the hand, symbolizing a supreme insult. Don’t return an insult for an insult or an injury for an injury. Rather suffer a second insult. How hard this is! We will look at the command to forgive and the power of forgiveness at a later stage. If it is difficult (and it can be humanly impossible!) ask the Lord to help you to forgive. Remember the message of Day 1? O Lord! how we need you! How completely dependent we are upon you!

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Day 14 Do the unexpected – (Mat. 5:40 – 48) Surprise people and do the unexpected. Turn an obligation into an act of love. If your mother-in-law asks you to wash her car, do that and also mow her lawn for her. If your boss asks you to do clean out the filing cabinet (which is not your job), do it and arrange everything alphabetically as well. If you greet someone and they don’t greet back, keep on greeting them – always in friendly manner. (It once took me almost 3 weeks, but eventually they started to return my greeting)  Let’s recap this week quickly: * * * * * * *

Be perfect (only possible in Christ) Be slow to get angry and reconcile quickly Watch your thoughts Deal ruthlessly with sin in your life Be faithful in marriage, do not take an oath Don’t retaliate Do the unexpected – turn an obligation into a deed of love

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Day 15 Don’t post it on facebook (Mat. 6:1 – 18) Don’t do your good deeds so that people can see it, but do it for the glory of God and because you want to be as He is – perfect (Mat. 5:48). Pray in public the same way as you do in private. Be real in your prayers; you are speaking to the King of kings, but you are his child and He is your loving Father. I will never forget how, many years ago, I was in a desperate place. I said “Lord, I am going to pray in tongues, but please, I need an interpretation”. The Lord was faithful and gave me the interpretation, but frankly, I was a bit shocked at the plainness of the language of the interpretation; it was really childlike. I always remember that when I pray. The same principles are valid for any other religious exercise, such as fasting. This command links strongly with that of Day 5 – keep your heart, your motives and principles pure and decide now whose praise is more important to you; that of people or that from your loving, all-knowing Father? The Lord’s prayer is a topic all on it’s own – we will look at that in more detail at a later stage.

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Day 16 Correct your worldview (Mat. 6:19 – 24) God’s first priority is NOT to let you be wealthy, happy and rich in this life – no matter what some preachers may tell you. If this is your “best life now”, how truly wretched you are! (Mind you, I am not saying poverty is a blessing, but neither are riches necessarily a blessing). Our true treasure should be in the unseen. Everything on this earth will eventually either be taken away from us in death or be destroyed when Jesus Christ returns in glory. Mat. 6:22 - 23 – my paraphrase – if your worldview is based on what is eternal, your priorities will be right, but if it is based on what is temporary, you will be thoroughly messed up. It is impossible to have it both ways. Choose therefore wisely. Read 2 Cor. 4:17 - 18 for a fuller perspective on this topic.

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Day 17 Don’t stress - Trust (Mat. 6:25 – 34) Don’t miss the important word that Mat. 6:25 starts of with: “Therefore…” Here are the signs that your worldview is wrong: if you worry about the stuff that God says He knows you need it and will provide for you. ** Take note** I do not say that you don’t need to work and sit back and wait for lunch to arrive. God feeds the sparrows – but they go out early every morning to find the food God provides for them. I know there are people who read this and who are much more qualified than I to testify of God’s provision for what we need. From my own life, I can just say, that we have always had enough, and even more than enough. We have been in business for more than a quarter of a century now. You get up and most days start off without any work, any source of income. Things have been tough at times, but never, not once, has our Father failed to provide for us in what we need, materially, emotionally and spiritually. What a faithful God have I! If this is not your experience and you have had lack of daily necessities for an extended period of time, you need to spend serious time with God to find out why this is so. He is faithful and will answer you if your heart is really turned to Him and His Kingdom.

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Day 18 Judge not (Mat. 7:1 – 5 and 7:15 – 20) This is the one scripture almost every carnal person, believer or not, knows and uses at liberty and invariably quotes it with great passion using the old King James translation: “Judge ye not, lest ye be judged”.  In verse 1 Jesus says “judge not” and in verse 15 He says “beware of false prophets”. So, if we may not judge at all, how are we to decide whether a prophet (or teacher) is false or not? Read verse 1 – 5 carefully. Jesus does not say that we must either ignore or leave the splinter we notice in our brother’s eye. What He says, is the same as what Paul writes in Romans 2:1 – 3 : don’t judge someone if you are still guilty of practicing the same sin. First deal with the same sin in your own life before you go to your brother. When you have dealt with sin in your own life, we can have real empathy for and compassion on a brother or sister who still struggles with the same sin in their life. Notice, Jesus says when you see your brother … not a stranger (unbeliever), but your brother. To an unbeliever, we witness only and don’t criticize. (In this regard you may also read 1 Cor. 5:9 – 13). Believers (brothers and sisters) however, are commanded to warn one another if you see someone sin and even to take drastic measures against such a person who persists in sin in an attempt to bring such a person to repentance (Mat. 18:16,17, 2 Thes. 3:14). Restoration must always be our aim when judging. We as believers, have a momentous responsibility towards one another. If I see you sin and I do not warn you, God will require your blood from my hand. (Ezekiel 33:8,9).

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Let me conclude this portion by saying this: there are things we must judge and there are things we may never judge. We must judge fruit in people’s lives (Mat. 7:16) and we must judge doctrine (2 Pet. 2:1, Mat. 7:15). We may however, never judge people’s motives and we may never judge their salvation – because we simply do not know. God only can be the judge of that.

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Day 19 Discern well (Mat. 7:6) What does it mean when Jesus says don’t give what is holy to the dogs and don’t throw your pearls before pigs? Look at the context in which Jesus says this. Yesterday we looked at judging and we saw how it is necessary - no, essential, to correct our brothers and sisters. What Jesus says here, is that we need discernment. What is that which is holy, what are pearls? Holy is that which is consecrated to God, that which is pure and pearls are the precious spiritual truths, wisdom and riches that is given to us by the Holy Spirit from the Word of God. Dogs and pigs are those that are impure, opposed to the Gospel, vulgar, wicked or irreverent. Sometimes it is wisdom to keep your pearls to yourself. This does not mean that we should not share the Gospel amidst opposition and persecution – indeed, we should! (1Pe 3:15 … be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you…) I will try to give a practical example: you may be at some function among people who drink, swear and tell vulgar jokes. If you start telling them about the peace and joy you found since you started walking with God, that will be throwing your pearls before the pigs. Keep quiet and pray for them; ask God to give you a gap to share the Gospel and do so if you find that gap and if you are so led by the Holy Spirit. In my community you would often find people who attend church very regularly and have at least a fairly broad knowledge of the Bible, but who does not know God, who has never been regenerated by God. I’ve found that in social settings, they might agree with you and take part in the conversation to a degree when you share a testimony or the Word with 23

them, but would move right on to their gossip or dirty jokes afterwards. I’ve stopped throwing my pearls before the dogs. In a one-on-one situation with one of those same people, I would still share with them whatever God lays on my heart in a prayerful hope that they will come to true salvation. May the Lord grant us wisdom and discernment as we move through the minefield called this present age. May He, above all, give us a genuine love for those who are being lost and may none of us ever become unappreciative to the pearls of the Word of God.

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Day 20 Pray without ceasing (Mat. 7:7 – 11) I’ve heard it say that we must ask God for something once only and then wait for His answer because to keep on praying for the same thing shows our unbelief. Here we see in Jesus’ own words, that this is not true. In the original Greek it is written in the present continuous tense “ask and keep on asking”; “knock and keep on knocking”. When you pray, and pray and pray, trust a loving Heavenly Father. He will give you only good things. (As co-text you could also read Luke 11:5 – 13). Listen carefully to what I say: trust a loving Heavenly Father. Don’t trust Him only for that which you ask for. Trust Him. Especially when your prayer is not answered, trust Him. We may not understand and your unanswered prayer may hurt because you don’t understand, but trust Him. Why? Because we only see dimly, but He sees everything. Because He is a loving and good Father. Because if He did not spare His only Son, but gave Him up to die in our place for our sins, how will He not freely give us all things? (Rom. 8:32) Therefore, keep on praying and trust God.

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Day 21 The “Golden Rule” (Mat. 7:12 – 14) It was a well-known saying at Jesus’ time “Don’t do to others what you don’t want to them to do to you” (David Guzik commentary) but Jesus takes this further so that it demands positive action from us. This summarizes all God ever said about how to conduct ourselves among our fellow human beings. Will it be easy? No, not at all. Few people will find it, therefore don’t expect too many travel companions on your journey. The Greek word for “narrow” in vs. 14 can also be translated “suffer tribulation”. It reminds me of Acts 14:22 … (Paul) encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Will it be worth it? The narrow way leads to life and the word for life here is the same as the one Jesus uses in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”. How can you live without the life of Christ? Yes, you can live in the sense that you breathe and work and even find enjoyment in things like a beautiful sunset or the smile of a loved one because God let it rain on the just and the unjust. But to live, really live, you have to know the presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ in your spirit through the working of the Holy Spirit. There is no delight, no sense of absolute contentment, of peace and overwhelming joy such that which saturates one when you are in the very presence of the Lord. It is at such times when I so experience Him, that I know that only an eternity will be long enough to satisfy us with His glorious presence. To review this week:  Do your good deeds not so that people can see it, but do it for the glory of God. 26

     

Make sure your worldview aligns with that of God. Trust God. First remove the log from your own eye before you judge – and be careful what you judge. Discern who to give your precious things to. Pray without ceasing. Remember the “Golden Rule”.

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Day 22 Judge the Fruit (Mat. 7:15 – 23 & Mat. 12:33 – 37) Beware of false prophets. A prophet in the context of the Bible simply one who conveys the Word of the Lord to others; we might also call them teachers or preachers. This is not a casual warning, but one we should regard with utmost solemnity especially as we see the Day of the Lord approaching at a rapid pace. The problem with false prophets is that they look just like the real thing. So how will we recognize them? Jesus says by their fruit, but what is the fruit we are looking for? Is it holy conduct? Is it someone who can gather a crowd around him or her? Is it good works? If we look again at Mat. 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Outwardly the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees was impeccable, so we see here that fruit is not behaviour. This idea is repeated in vs. 22 and 23 where people will say ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Notice that the Lord will not deny that they did these things, but yet the terrible, terrible reply will be ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ What a terrible warning. But we are still stuck. How do we recognize them? Mat. 12:33 – 37 gives us an indication. Listen carefully to what teachers and prophets say. Sooner or later that which is in their hearts, will spill from their lips. To recognize falsehood though, we have to know what the truth of the Word of God is. Listen, take notes, compare with the scripture and trust no one, no not even me. Read the text, then read it in the context of what it was written, then read co-text (other texts on the same subject) and ask the Holy Spirit to 28

interpret the Word for you. (By the way, never read the Bible without first asking the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to what He wants to show you in the Word). Also, do not read something into the text and do not “spiritualize” it. Just listen to what Stanley Frodsham said in 1956: I warn you to search the Scriptures diligently concerning these last days. For the things that are written shall indeed be made manifest. There shall come deceivers among My people in increasing numbers, who shall speak forth the truth and shall gain the favour of the people. For the people shall examine the Scriptures and say, 'What these men say is true'. Then when they have gained the hearts of the people, then and then only then, shall they bring out their wrong doctrines. This is to me such an important subject that we will continue tomorrow and see what other scriptures say about how to recognize false teachers and prophets.

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Day 23 Judge the Fruit (continued) (Mat. 7:15 – 23) Today we look further into how we can discern false prophets. Yesterday we said that good conduct is NOT proof of good fruit. Neither is prophesying, casting out demons and other miraculous works. We saw in Mat. 12 that we have to evaluate the words of people, because sooner or later the truth will come out. I recently came across a post from a prominent but false teacher and what shocked me was how, in the piece that he wrote, he puts side by side, truth and lie, truth and lie. Even reading it, you had to go slowly to catch on the wrong teaching that he laid out. Honestly, if I only heard it, I would have missed it all. So listen very carefully. Scripture of course gives us indications what to look for to distinguish between good and bad fruit. Let’s first look at 2 Peter 1 and see what true teachers/prophets look like and what they produce: 1) they don’t have to make up stories (1:16) because they spent time with God (1:18) 2) preaching focuses on Jesus as the centre of all (1:3,4) 3) their teaching helps you to escape the decay, the corruption that is in the world 4) they encourage growth towards holiness (1:5-7, 10) 5) their teaching brings light where there is darkness 6) they don’t try to interpret scripture by their own wisdom but knows that they need to depend on the Holy Spirit Now we will look at the marks of false teachers in 2 Peter and in Col. 2:8: 1. They are not far away, they are “among you” (2:1). 2. Their heresies are not harmless, they are destructive (2:1). 30

3. They will not openly declare it but introduce it secretly, on the sly, buffered with truths or half-truths (2:1 – it sounds just like that which I described in the paragraph 2 above). 4. They deny the Lord who saved them – the word “deny” is “arneomai” in Greek, and also means to contradict – so they contradict what the Lord has said (2:1) 5. They give people reason to talk badly about Christianity (2:2) 6. They take advantage of or exploit their followers because they are greedy (2:3) for money, for power, for fame. Keep in mind that this is usually done with extreme subtlety. 7. They are fleshly (2:9). A great give-away is if such a person is jealous of the success (spiritually or materially) of another. 8. They use fancy words (2:18). This links up well with what Col. 2:8 says – philosophy and empty deceit. Philosophy in the sense of Col. 2:8 means vain speculation, those ego flattering intellectual arguments. 9. They attract people by appealing to fleshly passions – that is why the money preachers and the word faith movement (name it and claim it) are so successful. They appeal to our fleshly desires for wealth, success and health (2:18) but it is all empty promises (2:18) because they themselves are still “slaves of corruption”. 10. They draw on human traditions (Col. 2:8). To better understand this, also read Mark 7:1 – 13. 11. They make use of external ceremonies or rules (called “elemental principles” in Col. 2:8). I want to add one characteristic of false teachers, one that I have observed but that is not in the Bible. They are generally unteachable. Perhaps we can group this with point 4 above – they contradict the Lord Jesus Christ. I post here a link that I highly recommend reading, a short but excellent teaching: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-traits-of-false-teachers/ What a mouthful! I trust that this will enable all of us to distinguish sooner which trees are bearing good and which are bearing bad fruit. A word of warning though: do not go nit picking (focus on small, unimportant issues). 31

Pastors and teachers are human. They can and do make mistakes. If the mistake is serious or if it is an error that is repeated, you must go to him/her with an attitude of love and respect and point out the mistake using the Word as foundation. If he does not listen, take a brother or sister with you and talk to him again. If he still refuses to listen, ask the Lord for direction what to do next and if the Lord shows you to leave, do that. Let’s continue building our house on the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, because the storms will come and He is our only sure anchor.

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Day 24 The Lord’s Prayer (Mat. 6:9 – 13) Remember we said that we will revisit the Lord’s Prayer? Much has been written about this topic. With the help of the Strong’s Dictionary, we will look closer at the meaning of some of the phrases. Our Father – the Greek word here is Pater, not the more informal “Abba” which is close to our word “Daddy”. When we approach the Lord in prayer, it must be with the full realisation of Who it is that we approach; it must be with utmost respect and love. Our Father is God most high and Creator of heaven and earth, Creator of visible and invisible things (Gen. 14:19, Col. 1:16) in heaven – He is not on earth, He is not from the earth and therefore we should not try to understand Him with an earthly mindset (Isaiah 58:8) and His kingdom rules over all (Ps. 103:19). This too should increase our respect and reverence for Him. hallowed be your Name – in plain English, may your Name, everything that You stand for, everything that you are, be kept holy. May your Name not be treated with disrespect, but may it be honoured. To me, this is a wistful sigh, a deep longing, especially when I look at the state of affairs in the world, at how everything that the Creator of heaven and earth stand for, is mocked and treated with utter contempt, how this Name above all names is used as a swear word, then my heart’s cry is “hallowed be your Name!” May Your kingdom come – again this is a prayer, a cry from our hearts. In the New Testament this is used to refer to the triumphant reign of the Lord at His glorious coming. Authority and dominion of earth was originally given to man, but when Adam and Eve sinned, they relinquished their authority, their right to rule, to Satan. When that “lease” comes to an end, Jesus Christ will return in glory and He, as the second Adam (Rom. 33

5:14; 1 Cor. 15:45) will reign on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords (Deut. 10:17, Rev. 19:16). As everything in the Word of God, this phrase has more than one meaning. It is also a prayer that expresses my desire for His rule to be made evident in every aspect in my life and in the lives of others. “Lord, may your kingdom come in the way I think, talk and do”. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven – this ties in so closely with the previous, that I am not going to say more except that in heaven, God’s will is done perfectly, there is no discord, no tension, just His perfect will.

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Day 25 The Lord’s Prayer (continued) Give us this day our daily bread – think of the manna in the dessert. It was there, enough for every single day. For 40 years, the Lord never failed to provide what they needed as nourishment. This of course does not speak of physical necessities only. In Mat. 4:4 Jesus says “man will not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. So when we pray this, we also ask of the Lord to speak to us words that bring life and nourishment to our souls. We ask for bread for today – it shows us not to worry about what we need for this life, because our heavenly Father knows what we need. (Mat. 6:31) and forgive us our debts – the Greek word for forgive can also be translated “divorce”. It speaks of a complete separation; He removes our sins from us as far as the East is from the West (Ps. 103:12) and we know the East and the West never meets. Debts are that which we justly and legally owe or a moral fault. If we look at Ps. 32:5, there are three words used to described what is here termed “debts”. Sin, iniquity and transgressions. Sin = offence, sometimes habitual sinfulness. Iniquity = perversity, moral evil. Transgression = rebellion. Sin, if not checked, leads to iniquity which in turn leads to transgression. All these, the Lord graciously forgives us when we ask with a sincere heart. as we also have forgiven our debtors – this is such an important aspect, that we will spend a whole section on it. Sufficient to say that we need to regard Jesus’ words in vs. 14 – 15 with utmost seriousness “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Jesus means what He says. 35

Day 26 The Lord’s Prayer (continued) and lead us not into temptation – this can be a difficult one, because does James 1:13 not say God tempts no one? Ps. 141:4 gives clarity on this “Don't let my heart turn toward evil or involve itself in wicked activities with men who practice iniquity. Let me not feast on their delicacies.” This prayer says: Temptation is inevitable, but Lord, let me not be drawn into it, give me the strength to submit to You and to resist the devil until he flees from me (James 4:7), with temptation, also give the way out of it (1 Cor. 10:13). but deliver us from evil – the Greek word for evil is ponayros and it has a wide variety of meanings such as labours, annoyances, hardships, pressed and harassed by labours, bringing toils, annoyances, perils. We are tempted by Satan (Mat. 4:3, Heb. 4:15) but we are also tempted by our sinful nature (James 1:14). Although we are new creations in Christ, our old sinful nature tries ever so often to resurface and from time to time succeeds. This prayer then asks the Lord to deliver us from Satan as well as from the evil in myself, everything in my character that does not yet reflect Christ in me. For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory. For ever and ever. Amen. This praise to God does not appear in the oldest manuscripts, but I nevertheless include it here, for how can our prayers be complete without bringing praise and honour and glory to the Lord? Yours Lord, is the Kingdom, the rule, the authority. 36

Yours is the power - inherent power, power for performing miracles, power consisting of armies/forces. Yours is the glory – magnificence, excellence, authority, dignity, grace. For ever and ever – an unbroken age. Amen – let it so be.

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Day 27 Forgiveness I want to conclude this series with the serious consequences of unforgiveness. If we read Mat. 6:14, 15 it is very clear that God forgiving our sins and trespasses depends on our forgiving others. Read Mat. 18:21 – 35. How often should we be prepared to forgive? Jesus said 70x7. Don’t even bother, you are going to lose count anyway! Then Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant. The first servant owed the king 10 000 talents. It would take a servant 200 000 years (yes, that is not a typing error) to earn that amount of money, so this debt was definitely beyond what he would ever be able to return. His fellow servant owed him 100 denarii – equivalent to 100 days’ wages. Now think of how much money you earn per year and take roughly 1/3 of that. In South Africa, calculated at the minimum wage, that would amount to R13 600. It is a substantial amount, but no where near 10 000 talents (R2 720 000 000 if calculated at the minimum wage again). If you have not realised it yet, you are the person owing 10 000 talents, but your debt has been written off – or rather, it has been paid by the King himself. God does not say what others owe you is insignificant; He does not negate your hurt and your loss, but He commands forgiveness. When Jesus says “if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” and “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (Mat. 6:15, 18:35) Jesus did not mean in Mat. 18:35 that we will not be forgiven if we are struggling with forgiveness, this is about a determined resolution not to forgive. 38

Let’ s look at what forgiveness is not. It is not a feeling and it is not saying that what someone did to you was unimportant. It is also not necessarily agreeing to resume your relationship with the person concerned. An example would be where someone tried to sow discord in your marriage or molest a child. You can (and must) forgive such a person, but it would be wisdom not to let that person close to you again. Luke 17:3,4 speaks about repentance being a condition of forgiveness. But what if someone does not repent? This certainly does not give one the right to hold a grudge. Forgiveness is to let go of your right to hold on to a grudge, to trust God to deal with that person (Rom. 12:19). Forgiveness is to realise that you too, need forgiveness. Look what Paul writes in 2 Tim. 4:16 when his fellow Christians surely disappointed and hurt him. “May it not be charged against them!” These people did not apologise to Paul, but he forgave anyway. Go back to 2 Tim. 2:14 where a false brother did Paul “great harm”. What did Paul do? He left him for God to deal with. How do we deal with those outside the church who hurt and harm us? Jesus says we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Look at the example of Stephen, the first Christian martyr in Acts 7:60. Jesus of course, is our ultimate example of forgiveness when He asked the Father to forgive those that crucified Him. How do we forgive? Start by telling God that you are willing to forgive that person and that you need His help to do so. Prepare your heart so that should the other person repents, you may freely confess your forgiveness towards them. Forgiveness often is a process rather than an event. It is never easy, but it is always liberating.

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Day 28 Forgiveness (continued) We will conclude today with testimonies from my own life where I will share with you what the Lord taught me about forgiveness. It is not that I think my stories are unique or required a special level of forgiveness – there are people who have dealt with and forgiven much greater issues that I had to – but it may give you practical guidelines if you are struggling with forgiveness right now. I once had a situation where people lied about me and their lies had severe financial implications for me. I was angry, so angry that if I could, I would have wiped them off the face of the earth. But I knew I had to forgive and I was honest with the Lord. I said to Him “Lord, you know I don’t want to forgive these people, but because You say I must, I will. Help me to forgive them. Lord, I forgive …. (I named every person concerned). Father, I pray that you will bless …. (again all the names).” Really, I had to clench my teeth to get this out, it was so hard. Every time the hurt and bitterness surfaced – which happened plenty times every day – I would firstly ask the Lord to forgive my unforgiveness and then again confess my forgiveness towards them and ask the Lord to bless them. After about 3 months of doing this (it did get easier over time), I was free from the hurt and anger. If I did not forgive, no doubt I would have struggled up to this day with bitterness, self-pity and hatred. The other incident involved a close family member who used to bring hurt and dissention wherever she went and it was the other person’s fault. For two years the Lord would speak to me to forgive and I would always say to the Lord “But Lord, you know, I am not the one in the wrong – the other person is”. Eventually I stopped hearing the Lord’s voice to such an extent that when other people would say that the Lord showed them this or that, I thought they made it up. Every time I would see this person, I would start shaking because of the rage and indignation inside me. 40

After about two years of this, I relented. The Lord impressed it on me that I was not to tell her that I forgive her, for that would convey a condemnation from my side. So I went to her and said “Please forgive ME for holding things against you and so keeping you in bondage”. Honestly, I don’t think she understood what I was talking about, her being in bondage because of my unforgiveness, but I did not care; I just said to her the words as the Holy Spirit gave to me at that moment. And you know what? She did not change, not even one bit. She remained part of our lives for another 15 odd years, but she lost her power to hurt me or make me angry. I cannot explain it to you, except that it is what God did because I was willing to be obedient. In fact, I had such compassion for her (certainly not because of anything good in myself, only because of what the Lord had worked in me) that on her deathbed I willingly and lovingly assisted in making her comfortable. I could only do this when she was delirious and not aware of who I am, because for some reason, she really hated me (and a few other people as well) and told people that she did not want to see me. Through her, the Lord really showed me the power that there is in forgiveness and that it is possible to love our enemies. If there is someone you need to forgive, I plead with you to take the words of the Lord Jesus very seriously. He never said something that was not absolutely true and He said plainly, more than once, that if we do not forgive others, his Father will not forgive us. Is forgiveness easy? Never. Is it worth it? Absolutely. Not only here and now but more importantly, for eternity.

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PS How do we know if we interpret God’s Word correctly? Jacob Prasch always says: “Text without context, without co-text is pretext”. If you follow these pointers, it is unlikely that you will end up in serious error. 1. Read scripture within context – don’t just read one verse and come to a conclusion. Read the chapter, ask who was it written to and why. 2. Ask yourself what is the natural interpretation of what is written. Take 2 Peter 3:9 for instance: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. “All” should reach repentance. Who is all? “All” is not just those God has “chosen”, it is not just people who look and think the same as you, it is simply, ALL. 3. Read co-text – that is all other scripture that deals with a subject. For instance Rom. 9:13 “Jacob I loved but Esau I hated”. Here we have to go back to the original story in Gen. 25:23 where God said to Rebecca “two nations are in your womb”. So Rom. 9:13 does not speak of individuals, but represents nations. To take this then as that God has chosen some individuals and rejected others would be 1) to take the scripture out of context, 2) eisegesis and 3) a contradiction of 2 Peter 3:9. Technology has made things so easy for us. It is now possible to quickly find every occurrence of a particular word, even in the original languages, in the Bible and so enable us to find the correct meaning.2 2

I use “MySword” Bible app, e-Sword for computers and David Guzik’s online commentary

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4. Practice exegesis – that is take OUT of scripture what is written there, do not practice eisegesis – that is to read INTO scripture what is not written there. Take the example in par. 2 again. If you read “all” to mean just certain people, that would be eisegesis. 5. Remember that God will never contradict Himself, so if there is an apparent contradiction in the Word, it just means one thing: you need to search further. 6. Lastly, and this is the most important: Always asks the Holy Spirit to open the Word for you, since He is the one who inspired the whole of scripture. (1 Pet. 1:21 & 2 Tim. 3:16).

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