The Lord is patient ( 2 Peter 3 v9 ) 1

Nahum  1 v3  reads ,'The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished'.These words  emphasise three aspects of our great God,Let us consider, 'The Lord is slow to anger' Nahum was a prophet whom God raised up,to proclaim judgement against Nineveh the capital of  Assyria.One hundred years before Nahum spoke to Nineveh, God sent the prophet Jonah  to tell them that God's judgement was about to fall upon them in 40 days (Jonah 3v4),well they immediately  repented and this included the King,and God spared them,in mercy he withdrew his judgement.But now a hundred years later,they have returned to their old ways,it was a deja vu moment.This time God's mercy would not be held back this time,nor was it,for in 612 BC a combined army,made up of the Babylons, Medes,and Scythians overthrew them.I believe that God is patient with every generation,that they may repent and turn to Jesus. but in the end God's patience runs out,then Judgement will fall,if your not saved take heed to this message.

Great in power( 2 Chronicles 32 v20-22) 2

Last time we looked at,'The Lord is slow to anger',now we look at,'but great in power', it is important to look at the context. It is about a world power Nineveh the capital of Assyria ,they were cruel and very wicked,in their desire for power they had slain mulitudes,Nahum declares  that they had enslaved nations. What could anyone do,other than submit,in order to survive,if one lived in those days,one may have thought,no one can deliver us.When the Nazies were at the hight of their  power what could one do against them? Assyria had conqured the ten tribes of Israel let these words find a place in your heart,'God is great in power' .Assyria came against the small kingdon of Judah,he had conquered the cities in Judah,but then he turned his eyes towards Jerusalem,he and his army arrived at the city gates,making all sorts of threats, he said that the god's of the nations he had conqured could not save them,and threw scorn on Israels God. Hezekiak  did not surrrender and declared ,'there is a greater power with us than with him.With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles' (2 Chronicles 32 v 7-8)Let us all take encouragement no matter how great the  difficulties we are facing,no matter if the enemy of our souls is at the gate ,and we feel overwhelmed,have faith in God, for power belongeth unto Him.  

Disunity ( Psalm 133)

I served in two churches,one as a full time minister and the other as a joint leader,in both Chuches you had people who were very unkind.I said in a lightherted way to the pastor of the church I attend,that I was glad  that I was not in a pastoral role now,for it seems that you always seem to have people who stir things up,usually for the minister. It is not nice but it happens,I heard R T.Kendall who became the minister of Westminster Chapel London,and the problems he had with certain people in that church.It is sometimes hard to know what can one do with such people.In the end we have usually to leave them with God ,but they can cause a lot problems in the church. God is not pleased with those who seek to cause disunity in the church.One person wrote the following,'Disunity in the church is a harmful division among believers, that damages relationships,weakens spiritual strength,and hurts Christian witness' 

                                                                         Jesus said ,

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; just as I  have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

                                                                         John 13 v34-35

Add on's ( Hebrews 9 v 12 ) 4

 Let us continue to look at what the RC church calls the mass and their very strange way they look at it,to say the least, it does not get any better,in fact it gets much worse.It clearly underminds the atonement,and when anyone does that it is very serious.We have pointed out their wrong interpetation of the bread and wine,the question is what do they believe the mass is,to them it is a literal sacrifice ,everytime they have a mass it becomes that self same sacrifice that happened on calvary .Every mass is a re-enacting of Calvary. Hebrews 9- 10  deals with Christ sacrifice ,the writer points out that the animal sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year was imperfect,they did not deal effectively with sin.They could never do that they were only a shadow, he points to the impossiblity of the blood of bulls and goats taking away sin.God had a bigger plan, Jesus the Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world (John 1 v29)Jesus one sacrifice would effectively  deal with sin ,Cp Hebrews 9 , read v23ff were it clearly tells us that He does not need to be offered again and again v25 reads,' Nor yet that He should offer himself often.' v28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many'. To say that Christ has to be sacrificed continully is really saying, it is not effective in dealing with sin. I have a friend who was ardent RC,as a RC he felt that his sins were not forgiven,that all changed when He trusted Jesus one time sacrifice on the cross.

Add on's ( Luke 22 v 17 -19)3

The last one of the add on's is the 'Mass', what is it? it is one of the core doctrines of the Catholic faith, the core of  this is the death of Christ .All Christian churches do what Christ told us to do ,when he eat bread and drink wine,the bread stands for his body,and the wine stands for His blood,these remind us, of his death on Calvary,He said do this in rememberance of me. (Luke 22 v14-20) The simplicity of it is wonderful,there is nothing complicated about it.But the mass turns it iinto more than that,based on John 6 v53 were Jesus says,'unless you eat the flesh of the Son of  Man and drink His blood,you have no life.'There were those who heard those words, took it literally,and they stopped following Jesus.No Jew would drink blood,and none of us would eat flesh,it was never to be taken literally.The simplest answer is this 'the taking of Christ within oneself  that is by the metaphor of eating and drinking'( Dr .Leon Morris) When Jesus said He was a door in John 10 v9 ,he was using a metaphor,when He said he said He was the good shepherd,he was using it to illustrate something people could identify with ,I suppose one could say that was a metaphor also,He never was a literal shepherd .Coming back to the mass,the RC church takes  what Jesus said literal,which to say the least is wrong,they believe the bread miraculously turns into the body of Christ so that  they believe they are literally eating the flesh of Christ,and the wine likewise when they drink the wine  they belive they are literally drinking the blood of Christ.

Add on's . (Colossians 2 v13) 2

 Now let us consider the next add on 'Purgatory', what is purgatory?It is seen as a tempory state or place after death where souls are cleansed and purified of remaining sins before entering heaven.This purifying is done by a spiritual fire which is agony.It did not become  official Roman Catholic doctrine until the 13th-15th centuries.I wonder what happened before then?The RC base it on a verse 2 Maccabees 12 v46,but the problem is that 2Maccabees was never accepted as being part of the cannon of scripture,by the Protestant church,and Jewish authorities. This teaching weakens the atoning death of Christ,which is the only thing that deals with sin 1John 1 v 7, make that clear,it reads ,'the blood of Jesus his Son,purifies us from all sin.' Hebrews 9v22 reads,'Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness'.There is no such thing as a spiritual purifying us from our sin after death.Nor is there any bases of going to a place called purgatory, we read of the dying thief in Luke 23 v43 'Jesus answered him,'Truly I tell you today you will be with me in paradise'2 Corinthians 5 v 8 reads,'We are confident,I say,and willing rather to be absent from the body,and to be present with the Lord' It is very clear that Enoch went straight to heaven.(Hebrews 11 v 5)The biggest argument against purgatory, there is no mention of it in the Bible it is just one of those add on's.

Add on's ( Romans 6 v23 )1

Beware of the add on's,for once  they start, who knows where they are going to end ,the result is they take people further and further from the truth.The greatest culpit who does this well, I won't mention them by name but we will consider the add on's they have brought in,well some of them. The first one is, we cannot be saved by faith alone,the next one is a place which they call purgatory,were one is purified by fire.and the next one is  the mass. Let us consider the first one,we can't be saved by faith alone,is that true?,no it's not,  they add on .'good works'. they base this on what James says in his epistle chap 2 v14ff in understanding what James says ,we must consider v18  which reads,'Show me your faith without deeds and I will show my you my faith by my deeds'. Our deeds are the evidence that our faith is true,as James says twice,'show me'.If we are showing no evidence of being a Christian then we not a Christian. We read throughout scripture,that we are saved by simple faith in Christ and his finished work.The thief  on the cross did no good works John 23 v43.Abraham did no good works to be saved Cp  Romans 4 v1-6. v3 reads 'What does scripture say? Abraham believed God,and it was counted unto as righteoudness' Rom 5 v1 'Therefore,since we have been justified by faith,we have peace with God through our Jesus Christ.I could go on but I leave  you with  Ephesians 2 v  8-9,'For it is by grace you are saved,through faith,and this is not from yourselves,it is a GIFT of God, not by WORKS,so that no one can boast.'

                                           'Martin Luther said 'We are saved by faith alone

                                            but the faith that saves is never alone'