Recap
In the previous sermon, the speaker briefly summarised all 10 articles of faith that the True Jesus Church has, and one main idea from each of these that can guide us in our lives. This sermon will begin on the first one in more detail; on the doctrine about God.

Prior to that, the speaker would like to make a correction regarding his previous sermon.

What was said: “In Iceland, it was compulsory to kill all Down syndrome children.”
The exact is actually: “It is compulsory for all parents with Down syndrome foetuses to be told that they could have counselling. In this counselling, which most of them would agree to, is very biased towards getting rid of the Down syndrome child. Due to the compulsory counselling, there have only been 3 Down syndrome children since the implementation of this law. It is hence not a law to kill Down syndrome children but a law that mandates counselling that has results in the killing of many Down syndrome children.”

He thanks the brother who corrected him and encourages mutual correction.
Teaching from AOF 1: Sovereignty
The first article of faith is about God. God is the Creator. In this doctrine we learn about the sovereignty of God. Today, Man rejects the sovereignty of God. In the past when we read the Bible and the conquest of Canaan, we find it a very exciting story. But today, people criticise the Bible and say the conquest of Canaan is genocide. Genocide sounds very bad because God tells the Israelites to kill ALL the inhabitants of Canaan. People say, “What right does God have to commit genocide?!” Also the killing of the firstborn of Egypt makes God in the Old Testament seem murderous. In both these cases they forgot that the people to be punished have been very very wicked; how the Egyptians wanted to murder all the Israelites male babies.

If we understand the sovereignty/authority of God, from the perspective of a judge, we can accept what happened in Canaan and Egypt. But the people of the world reject that God has this authority even over His own people.

Homosexuality as an abomination is seen by people of the world that God is not loving. Eating of animals is seen as usurping the equality of all living things. In all these funny perspectives, which older people would say, “This is funny because when we were young all these were wrong.” But young people today have been turned. Underlying this is the rejection of the authority of God.

1 Sam 2:6-7 (read)
Do we believe this? Today some will even question this; that God kills and makes alive, brings down to the grave and brings up.

Even amongst ourselves when we are weak, and we murmur against God, and we ask always always, “Where is the love of God?” In our sorrow and in our failures, in the lost of our loved ones, we do not believe this anymore. We do not accept it. Because of that, our life is miserable.

If we believe this with all our hearts, as Hannah did. In her desperation, in her lack of a child, she turned to God. She believed that the Lord kills and makes alive; brings down to the grave and brings up. Life and death is in the hands of God. And so she asked.

It’s a simple thing. If we believe in God, we must believe in the authority of God. We must believe He has the right over our lives, and every other life in this world.

If you only read the mainstream media, you’ll find it is very subtly biased. Recently South Korea legalised abortion. For people in Singapore we may think: eh? It was legalised long ago. How come South Korea only now?

Because whenever there’s a country where Christianity is strong, abortion and homosexuality wouldn’t be legal. But the unbelievers/the atheists are gaining strength all over the countries.

So if you read the news, you’ll find that: “Oh it’s a great celebration what happened in South Korea!” People interviewed say, “At last we have rights over our own bodies!” “No government should tell me what to do what’s in my own body (the foetus)” “The foetus is not a living thing as long as it’s in my body.” The media will report all this as if it is a fact. The young people who read this will say “yeah!”

But if we believe in God and His sovereignty; His authority over all life, we wouldn’t have the audacity to say, “What’s inside me belongs to me. I can kill it if I like it.”

It’s a slippery slope. We can say, “My children also belong to me. I can do anything I like to their lives.”

We live and try our best to accept this very simple fact: God has authority over our lives.

Matt 28:18
The authority of God is given to Jesus. Of course Jesus is God. What it means is that if we want to know what God wants us to do, listen to what Jesus said. That is the meaning of the New Testament, where God reveals Himself through Himself as Jesus in this world. We have to recognise the authority of Jesus in our lives. So God and Jesus.

There’re more than a hundred mentions of the word ‘God’ in the book of Job. We find a contention between Job and the authority of God. It’s good reading if we read Job 34-37. That’s where Elihu speaks and defends the authority of God. Let us read a sample.

Job 34:10-19
v14 “If He should set His heart on it, if He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath.”
Sometimes people complain about God. There is a man who recently sued his parents. He said, “I sue you for bringing me into this world.” Seems like a joke. But there’re many people who say the same to God. “Why did You create me?” “Just because you brought me into this world, do I have to obey You?”

“If He should set His heart on it, if He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath.”

What would happen? We would perish and turn to dust. We’re alive today because of God.

When the speaker reads this verse he’s reminded of one of the earlier vampire shows. When the vampire is slashed with a special sword the vampire bursts into dust.

If we complain about God and He takes His Spirit back, we’d just turn to dust.
We live and enjoy life because of the grace and mercy of God. It IS the end of the world.

The speaker has never seen so many people so daringly challenge the authority of God. On social media. In the media. With their own ideas of freedom, righteousness and justice. Cursing God and those who believe in God. They reject the authority of God.

As for us, let us learn to accept the authority of God. Why should we?
Reason one, because we should. He made us. But of course God is better than that.

Job 37:23
So many people with power abuse it. But our God is most comfortable with power. He’s excellent in power. As Christians we have already experienced the grace of God in our lives. Our sins have been washed away. We have a hope of salvation. If we just continue to believe that God is in charge, this is one of our articles of faith. Our life will be very steady. It’s not so easy to murmur against God. The most steady people are those who don’t murmur against God. It’s a sad thing that when something happens to us, among all people we murmur against God. We say, “God I don’t know if You exist?” How can we come to that? How can our small troubles make us challenge the Supreme Being? Instead we should turn to the Supreme Being and say, “Help me!” Murmuring and challenging God does not help.
Authority of God in the world
Rom 13:1-3
God has delegated authority to governments in this world.
v1 For there is no authority except from God. Authorities that exist are appointed by God.

What does it mean to us? Nowadays, even in Singapore, there is the habit of complaining against the government. They feel like they want to be like Americans, complaining about everything. What if we live in North Korea? Can we accept that Kim Jong Un was appointed by God?

When Paul wrote this, it was a letter to the Romans. We know that the Roman Empire was starting to persecute Christians. And yet Paul Daud, “Obey them. They’re appointed by God.” For Christians, this means that we have to obey the authorities. At least on one scale, we find that all governments are the same.

v3 For rulers are not a terror to good works but to evil.
This is to say that in any country, if you steal and kill, the government will get you. Any government in the world. That’s the basic basic thing to do. Whether the authority is corrupt is another thing, they may be the ones doing the killing. But the law says not to kill.

The idea is that there needs to be a government. But the people of the world are different today. They think anarchy is the way to go. They speak of democracy but if they lose they’d protest.

2 Pet 2:10, Jude 8
When people reject authority simply because no one should govern them, and therefore anything any authority that goes against their thinking, unless they themselves are the authority, everything else is no good.

We’re not supposed to despise authority. Leave politics to the politicians. We should not get involved in politics. Let God appoint the authorities. If you’re not happy living in a country and its government, if you live in North Korea, try to escape. Don’t gather up people to fight. That’s not our job as Christians. If you get too caught up in politics, you forget our kingdom is not of this world.

What if you’re from Malaysia? Recently everybody has been caught up in this euphoria. “We’ve gotten rid of Najib! Happy!” They forget they put back another guy who’s the same. So we don’t get involved in politics. We accept and obey the authority in the country we live in.
Authority of God in the church
The authority of God is delegated. But it’s not absolute. Unless it is directly from God. How do you know it’s directly from God? It’s from the Bible, from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit.

John 7:16-17
God as we know in spirit is the authority. He then delegated this authority to earth. And the ONLY human being on earth that He gives absolute authority to is Himself, Jesus. So anything Jesus says is ABSOLUTELY the authority of God.

John 16:13
Now that Jesus has resurrected and returned to heaven, He has sent the Holy Spirit to His Church. Whatever the Spirit tells us is the absolute authority of God.

So only God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have absolute authority.

What’s the point? There’s no one, nobody in the church who has the absolute authority of God. That is why we always have discussions. That’s why the truth is in all of us. That’s why we study the Bible by ourselves. Then we discuss with each other. We cannot say, “Just because some elder says so. It IS from God.” There’s no set up like that. It’s important.
Authority of the ministers
2 Cor 10:8
We should talk next about the authority of the ministers. The authority is given by the Lord. It’s meant for edification. The ministers are ordained/appointed to administer the church. The church in total is given the Holy Spirit. So the truth resides in everybody who has the Holy Spirit and is guided by the Holy Spirit. But the church needs to be administered so God appointed ministers to do so. The truth is already available in the Bible.

Mark 10:42-45
The authority given to the ministers is that of a servant. It’s not that as of the gentile rulers. It’s very special.

1 Tim 3:13
Those who serve well are blessed. That’s the blessing of serving in the house of God. So the Christian idea of authority and leadership is that of a servant. Countries with a Christian heritage call their leaders ‘ministers’. People in government ministries are called ‘civil SERVANTS’. It’s in contrast in monarchies/non-Christian countries where the leaders were called ‘lords, dukes, earls’.

This authority is not complete governance of the truth. Because the truth belongs to everybody.

1 Tim 5:19-20
While those who serve well are blessed, those who are sinning ought to be rebuked. This is very important. Why do we come to church? Because we want to go to heaven. Why do we want to be a minister? Because we want to work for God? Because there’s some status? Shouldn’t be. It should be for the same reason: because we want to go to heaven.

For that reason, if you make a mistake, those around us should not say, “Oh you know. He’s already done so much. Give him a break lah. Save his face.” Sweep it under the carpet. Don’t let people see. That’s exactly what happened with Yang Yuh Ming. And John Lo. And Yang Shi Guang. “Give them a break, they’ve served God. Do we not care for their spiritual lives?” If we catch them early, then we will save them and save the church.

So the ministerial job, is one that should edify the church, and edify one to salvation. If one cannot handle power, then we should relieve ourselves of this power.

Eccl 8:9
“A man ruled over another to his own hurt.”
If we find that power corrupts ourselves, then we should not take up the power. We should serve God. There’re various ways to serve God. There’re times we really really need to examine ourselves.

Luke 7:6-9
Jesus praised this centurion for his great faith. At first we may think: wah this man doesn’t know how to receive Jesus man!
But if we hear his explanation, “I am a man placed under authority and I have authority over people.” He’s under authority and has authority over others. While having authority over others, he knows what to do. While under authority, he knows what to do. And he recognises the greatest authority of all. “This is the greatest authority. I don’t even need to see Him. Just say the word and it’ll be done.”

So while we serve God, while we have authority over others, let us recognise we are under authority also. Everything we do must be under the authority of God.
Conclusion
In summary, what is a Christian response to authority?

Questioning authority should not be a norm to Christians. Don’t make it a habit that whenever someone comes to talk to you, you complain against the government/church authorities.

We only question authority out of reflection and care for others. We should be guided by biblical teachings and the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus against the Pharisees and the apostles against the Jewish leadership.

Our True Jesus Church youths in western societies like to challenge the church. They have been brainwashed by the media into thinking democracy and freedom is the greatest. In one of the US theological seminars, the preacher asked the youths attending, “How many of you believe True Jesus Church is the one true church?” Do you know how many hands were raised. Zero 😨

What are they doing in True Jesus Church? They’re just swayed by the idea that everybody is right, they all have their own point of view. There’s no absolute right unless I’m saying it.

Rev 13:4-8 (read)
People reject the authority of God. They think they are getting freedom. But actually they’ve given the authority to the beast and to Satan. And they blaspheme against God, curse God and go against all the goodness of God. When we reject the authority of God and the church, do not think that you have gained freedom. You’ve merely given authority to the devil.

What’re we going to do?

Rev 22:8-9
We worship God.
We don’t worship Man, don’t worship angels, don’t worship ourselves, don’t worship ideas. Just worship God. And we will be right. We’ll be on our way to heaven.

May God guide us.