A tale of two cities. ( Isaiah 53 v 5 - 6 )

You may not have heard of Sydney Carton ,well he is one the fictious characters from the novel,'A tale of two cities', written by  Charles Dickens. It is set in the time of the French revolution,Sydney is a cynical drunkard,but he falls in love with Lucie  Minette, he tells her ,but she informs him, that she is about to become engaged to a Charles Darnay, he confesses he will always love her and if she needed him to let him know.Charles Darnay was a french noble man, but had renounced his title, he ended up taken residence in England , mean while the revolution breaks out n France,Charles feels he has to return to France,on his return he is arrested and sentenced to the guillotine.Sydney travels to France to see if Charles can be freed, but this came to nothing,so Sydney devises a scheme that would enable him to exchange places with Charles ,who is smuggled out of the country, Sydney goes to the guillotine,before he dies he says,''It is a far, far better thing I do,than I have ever done. It is a far ,far better..rest than I have ever known''.Whither we die by the guillotine,old age,sudden death if we know Christ we can have a sure and certain hope for eternity,a far, far better hope, because of Jesus who took our place on Calvary on that cross.

Amazing Grace. (Ephesians 2 v 1 - 10 )

I like old movies ,as I watched a very famous actor, playing an heroic part,I thought ,why could he not have been like part he was playing.He acted in many movies he was good looking,and usually played a character one could admire,but again I say why could he not have been more like the characters he played?.In real life he was a charmer, he wrote a book about his life,it was called,'My wicked wicked ways'.He was not exaggerating ,he seduced many women over a thousand, many were under age.He was tried for seduceing two young girls ,he got off but the girls lives were ruined.Why could he not have been like the person he played in the movies?.The fatal flaw in us humans is ,we are all like that actor to some extent ,Jesus saw beyond the religious leaders of his day,here is what he said, ''On the outside you appear to people as righteous  but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness''. ( Matthew 23 v 23 ).How many priests have been abusers,how many seemingly nice young people are into phonograph.I am thankful to God that he alone knows my sinful heart, the thing is we truly are like that actor,sinners. The good news is, Christ loves sinners,and died for such,that we may be forgiven, and become new creations,all things are possible ,do not despair ,I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see.

A Skull . ( Galatians 6 v 14 )

Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge is not someone I know much about,he was seemingly a great Theologian it is said that he was one of Netherlands greatest. He never wrote a systematic theology ,but his theology was mainly in his sermons. I want to leave  a quotation  by him, here it is. ''When I die- I do not die anymore, however - and someone finds my skull, let this skull still preach to him, and say; I have no eyes, nevertheless I see  Him , though I have no lips, I kiss Him. I have no tongue, yet I sing praise to Him with all who call upon His name. I am a hard skull, yet I am wholly softened  and melted in His love; I lay exposed on God's acre, yet I am there in Paradise, All suffering is forgotten , His great love did this for us when for us He carried  His cross and went to Golgotha''

Experience a miracle. ( Acts 16 v 31)

Miracles,what do you think when you think of miracles?,healing is the most obvious answer,and often the dubious get involved and hoodwink vulnerable people,in relation to money.It is dreadful that people should do such a thing,but it reminds us of man kinds fallen nature.The greatest miracle in all the world,and in all of history is the miracle of salvation,we have to appreciate that salvation is of the Lord. Think of the barriers to salvation,I have already mentioned one,mans fallen nature ,because mans nature is sinful they are blind to spiritual truths. Consider the following,'The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned' ( 1 Corinthians 2 v 14).Next  we are told,' The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,who is the image of Christ. ( 2 Corinthians 4 v 4 ) Now Christ has ,come into the world , but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil ( John 2 v 19 ) If  anybody is to be saved it will take a miracle ,miracles are Gods business,and the good news is you can experience the wonderful miracle of the new birth,by trusting Jesus,call upon the God who works miracles,seek forgiveness and turn from your sins,and God will  do the rest.

Belief based on ?. ( Matthew 16 v 21 )

Yesterday we spoke of God's word being the truth, it is not based on mythology but on historical happens,take present Jews,they are an historical  people,and every year they celebrate an event that actually happened. It is know as Pesakh or the Passover it is a remembrance  of their deliverance from being slaves in Egypt.This is not celebrated as a myth  but of something that actually happened, likewise the writings in what we Christians call the old covenant  is actual history and religion. most people  know about the ten commandments,these were given by God to the the Jews, they still exist .Moving on ,there was a man called Albert Henry Ross, better know as Frank Morrison,the author of a number of books. The book he is best remembered for is called',Who moved the stone'.it came about when he decided to investigate the resurrection of Christ, he did not belief in the resurrection, believing it to be a myth. But as he studied the subject he  became convinced in the truth of the resurrection. ( C P . 1 Corinthians  15 )

Truth ( John 14 v 6 )

When a person appears in court they put their hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth ,and nothing but the truth.Now that truth may send someone to prison, in former days it would have sent someone to the gallows ,but it could have saved someone from prison and the gallows.    Telling the truth is important,most of us know about George Washington's confession to his father ,that he had cut down his cherry tree,''I cannot tell a lie, I did it''. But the fact is, it never happened, it was an invention by his biographer,it is now known as the ,'Cherry tree Myth'.The  ancient Greeks invented many myths,the important thing about myths, they are not true,but of course they may convey certain truths.Are you a seeker after truth? well the only place,let me repeat this,the only place one can find the truth,the whole truth,and nothing but the truth, is in Gods word.  So seek and you shall find ,the truth, and you will find Him who alone is the way,the truth, and the life,even Jesus.

Buying a blessing. ( Acts 8 v 20 )

In Acts 8  v 9 ff, we read of a man called Simon the sorcerer who had great influence with the people of  Samaria with his magic arts. The people were so impressed with him they believed he exercised divine power.but things changed,when  the gospel was preached by Philip, The result was, many believed in Christ and were baptised, Simon professed also faith  in Jesus, he was astonished at the great signs and miracles performed by Philip.In the meanwhile, Peter and John appeared on the scene.Many were receiving  the Holy Spirit and this impressed Simon, so much so , that he went to the apostles and offered them money to receive the Holy Spirits power.Peter said to him ,''May your    money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money ''( v 20 ) One of the things that  kicked off the reformation was  the practice by the Roman Catholic church selling indulgences as payment for peoples  sins being forgiven,also there was also a charge when a mass was carried out,no money no mass. Well what about the prosperity preachers,by your giving you will receive a blessing,now they way they teach it appears that one is buying a blessing of God. All these people are followers of Simon the sorcerer, and they need to repent of this wickedness.