Perfection. ( Matthew 5 v 38-48)

 Always remember the best of men and womem are all imperfect,remember that preacher in the pulpit he is not perfect,I am not being cynical.But the fact is as long as we live none of us will be perfect,there are degrees of perfection,and there are degrees of evil.We should not despair ,but rise to the challenge  which our Saviour said ,'Be perfect, therefore,as your heavenly father is perfect'( Matthew 5 v 48) One writer says the word perfect,has the meaning,of complete,whole,or fully grown.These words spoken by Jesus, are a command,must be obeyed,even though we struggle and fail in our struggles,we must never give up,this quest to be perfect.Proverbs 24 v16 reads,'For though the righteous fall seven times,they arise  again'. Someone said the following,'Even good and godly people experience failure ,commit mistakes,and even sin,like David did ,and Peter.Jesus knew we would still sin that is why he taught us ,to pray,'forgive us our trespasses'. (Matthew 6 v 12) Praise God we can recover from our sins,when we repent and ask for forgiveness in Jesus name. We imperfect Christians must never give up by the grace of God in pressing on to perfection.

                                                             

Escape from the wrath of God. ( John 3 v36 )

 In Psalm 89 v 48 we read these words,'Who can live and not see death,or who can escape the power of the grave?' In the Bible we read of two people who escaped death,Enoch and Elijah,two very godly men,we don't  why they escaped it,only God knows that.We read in Hebrews 9 v 27,'And it is appointed unto to men once to die,but after that the judgment'.We all have to bow to  the inevitable,no matter how much we protest it will not change anything,there is no cure for death.There is no human cure that stop us ,because we cannot  undo the pass ,A Pink wrote the following,'Death is something more that the result of physiological law; the same God who sustained  Methusalah for nigh on a thousand years, would have sustained Adam's body for all eternity,had he never fallen.Sinless angels are immortal. 'Adams sin brought death upon the whole human race,but it did not only bring death,for we read after death the judgment.True we cannot stop death,but we can escape the judgment of God. For we read,'So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many',(Heb 9 v 28) It is vital that we grasp the meaning of Christs death on the cross,it was a sacrifice for sin,not His sin,no  he was sinless.1Peter 2 v 24 tells us,'He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross',that means he bore the wrath of God for our sins,that all who believe in him may escape that awful judgement  which every unbeliever will experence when they die.We cannot escape death ,but we can escape judgment by seeking forgiveness by accepting Jesus as our Saviour.

Judgement ( Romans 1 v 18)

The book of  Zephaniah  is taken up with the theme of judgement,but not entirely,it commences with judgement on the whole earth, this will take place when Christ  comes back again (2 Peter 3 v 10 -12) It then is followed by naming  nations including Judah, Jerusalem and different Gentile nations.Let us remember God judges people for a reason,he does not rejoice in judging  nations .or individual people.If you read the book of  Zephaniah all those nations including Judah are involved in very sinful practices. They were all involved in worshiping other god's.and as we say Judah is included in those practices,there were those who said,'The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad'( Zep 1 v 12)the world is like that ,but they are wrong,even if they are children of God, Exodus 34 v 7 reads 'He does not leave the guilty unpunished'.  Gordon Bridges writes 'God is just,and he must act in a way that is consistent with his character,and then he adds,'Thank God we live in a moral universe ,where ultimately justice will be done and be seen to be done'.

A false god ( Psalm 23 v 1)

In the OT we have false gods mentioned,one of them was Baal,the meaning of their name is,'Master/Lord/,Possessor. Gordon Bridger writes that  Baalism was a prosperity religion,a  sexually  corrupt religion,a frenzied religion, and a cruel religion. The prosperity religion was a belief  based on the pleaseing and stimulate him,and if you did that you would have prosperity .This reminds us of the modern prosperity gospel people, to their shame,you gave and the greater prosperity you will have,the more you give the greater the prosperity.Sad to say it is preachers of this so called gospel are millionaires,and they glory in that.I have never heard any of those prosperity preachers, preach the true gospel.Jesus said 'Give,and it will be given to you.A good measure,pressed down,shaken together and running over,will be poured  into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you'.GB  writes,'Such open-heartedness does not go unrewarded- but the essence of it is that  this must never be our motive for our giving.Paul wrote ,'I have known hunger and thirst and have often  gone without food; I have been cold and naked'  (2 Cor11 v 27) But he also wrote ' And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus'.that word 'needs' is important to remember.

Temptation (Matthew 26 v 41)

 Someone said,'It is never easy being a Christian',we must not be surprised at the difficulties we may face, there will always be challenges.One of the worst things we have to face is ourselves,the enemy within, when we are faced with temptations,always remember being tempted is not a sin, when you yield to it,it becomes a sin ,I remember a verse the Lord give me as regards temptation,it reads,'The temptations in your life are no  different from what others experience.And God is faithful. He  will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted,he will show a way out so you can endure.' ((1 Corinthians 10 v13) 'All you need to remember is that God will never let you down;  he'll never let you to be pushed past your limit;he'll always be there to help you come through it'. So call on him when you are tempted,he will not fail you.

Our greatest need ( Luke 3 v 7)

 I went out with my wife to a once every year agricultural show,but it had many none agricultural things going on,like a large tent with different stalls in it.I went to look at paintings displayed,there were a lot of them and they where very good.I started  up a conversation with man who painted them,he wasn't very friendly,but I persevered ,I asked him how he was and it turned out he had cancer.I then asked him had he ever thought about God,he said no,he then went on to tell me that his wife had died suddenly,and he blamed God for not doing anything. I mentioned death and the importance of knowing God,and that there is a heaven and there is a hell.That finished the conversation,but I managed to say I would pray for him which I have.I wondered if I should have said something else,but it was not to be. His greatest need is to be saved,and that goes for everyone,I am responsibly  not to tell people  what they want to hear,but what they need to hear,I do not want people to go to hell,but they will if they do not know Christ as as their Saviour.

What we really need( John 10 v10)

Last time I brought to your attention that the bible is a history book and a religous book ,from Genesis to Revelation we have a sovereign God at work.It is God's world,most people forget this,or reject it ,God made us in  his image,but he also made us for himelf.We were meant to live in perfet harmony with Him, he placed eternity within our hearts,we were never meant to be seperated from him.That bond between God and man changed drastically a seperation from God took place because of sin.The holy one. God could not have fellowship with us ,sin blinded us to the fact that our greatest need is God, after all we were made for him, A Christopher Walken wrote,'We are born alone,we die alone,we spend our lives looking for something,some connection,that's all we want'.There is more lonliness around than you think. That great Christian Agustine  touches on it ,when he said,'You have made us for yourself,O Lord and our heart is restless  until it rests in you'.We touch on two aspects of life, lonliness, and restlessness,let us consider the first one ,lonliness,God said it was not good that man should  be alone,so he give him a wife,we do need friendship,but it must not stop at human friendship, we also need God's friendship and companionship,that is vital.Then there is restlessness,look out on this world, it is a restless world.Solomon was a very restless man,so he tried everything and he declared,'All is meaningless, a chasing after the wind'(Ecc 2 v 17)Our Saviour said ,'Come to me,all you who are weary and burdened,and I will give you rest,.....For I am gentle and humble of heart,and you will find rest in you souls'(Matthew11 v 28-29)