Sall a spade a spade. ( Romans 3 v 23 )

A minister I know rarely mentions sin,and objects to people preaching about it or its consequences, I heard him saying once,sin is mentioned in the Bible,of course that's were he would prefer to keep it,when I mentioned a certain practice was sinful,he replied ,that's your opinion, it certainly was  not his opinion.A psychiatrist wrote a book called,'Whatever became of sin?'.Selwyn Hughes writes,'The point he made was that behind many people's mental and emotional problems ( though by no means all)   tlie issues that were once called sin are now described in more euphemistic terms. This tampering with the labels adds clutter and confusion and leads to additional misunderstanding of just what sin is, and therefore the true remedy for sin- redemption and forgiveness- cannot be applied.'Let me remind you again that we live in a fallen sinful world,forget about what your sinful hearts tells you,or what society tells you,listen to what God's word says.It is time we stopped fudging the issuses,we need to call a spade a spade,and accept the fact that we are sinners,and we need Jesus the Saviour of sinners.

People go astray.why? ( Isaiah 66 v 2 )

One of the important  verses in the Bible is Proverbs 3 v 5,'Trust in the Lord with al your heart and lean not upon your own understanding'. I once said to a minister that he sounded like a Jehovah Witness,for he was doing exactly that, leaning upon his own understanding ,instead of by faith,instead of accepting the Word of God for what it is. Selwyn Hughes commenting on  on Isaiah 66 v 2,which reads,'This is the one I esteem ; he who is humble and contrite in spirit,and trembles at my word'.said this,' Sad to say  ,much of the clutter in the well  from which the truth of scripture is drawn has been cast there by ministers and leaders who sit in judgement over the Bible rather than sitting under it in humility. Isa 66 v 2 tells us that God esteems those who tremble at His Word. Those who deny the   authoritative nature of the Bible do not tremble at His Word they prefer it seems ,to tamper with it instead,'

Turn Back ( Jeremiah 2 )

In Jeremiah 6 v 16  we read ,'Stand at the crossroads and look ; ask for the ancient paths,ask where the good way is, and walk in it'.Jeremiah  lived through dramatic times,awful times,his ministry lasted about 40 years.They were bad times,what was left of the nation, mainly Judah,had learned no lessons from what had happened to to the other ten tribes of Israel,because of their sinful ways.God had to Judge them,removing from the land.It was Jeremiahs task to call them back to God whom they had forsaken. Jeremiah 6 v 16 is a cry for the nation to return the old paths, devotion to  God and to his ways ,a way of holiness,  faithfulness ,to the way of justice, to the way of obedience,to the way of love.We live in times when many of Gods  are turning away from Gods  ways.,and that is very serious,and sadly it is not an exaggeration . We will consider this in relation to our present times, we will do this with the help  of a devotional by the late Selwyn Hughes,and of course with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Building . ( Matthew 7 v 24 - 27 )

We have been considering the importance of  hearing and doing,as regards the word of God, as opposed to hearing and not doing. In James 1 v 22 ,we read,'Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves'. We are often quick to judge the preacher, for their ineffectiveness ,a certain well known preacher,preached a sermon that was full of  elegance,people praised him, his reply was ,'but did it accomplished'?.It could it be that it accomplished little because the people were not really listening. All preachers want their sermons to accomplish  something,consider the prophets they preached wonderful sermons,but the people refused to listen. And as for obeying the word of God ,that's something else,the greatest preacher ever Jesus, stressed the hearing and the doing. William  Hendriksen wrote the following  ,''The sensible man ,who shows by his deeds that he has taken  to heart the words of Christ, and is therefore building upon the Rock ( Christ) will never be put to shame, he quotes from a well known hymn'The soul  that on Jesus has leaned for repose,I will not,I will not desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. '( Words by John Rippon )

Hear and Do.. ( Matthew 7 v 13 - 14 )

So what else can we learn from the parable of the two people and the two houses in Matthew 7 v 24 ff ,what was the purpose  of  this parable Jesus told.Kenneth  Bailey,sums it up ,''hear and do '', Jesus had just finished His sermon on the Mount,the sad commentary on the Jewish nation was one of hearing and not doing,they never appeared to really grasp the importance of doing what God  said,and when the trials came they suffered .Disobedience always has a price tag on it, always.How safe Israel would have been, by simply doing what God told them.The safest thing in all the world is obeying God and.the most serious thing for Christians is to  ignore Gods word ,and of course it is even more serious for the non Christian who hears the Gospel and does nothing about it.no matter how prosperous they are as to this life, their doom awaits  in eternity (  Hebrews 9 v 27 )

Face Reality. ( Job 1 - 2 )

Continuing to consider the parable of the two houses in Matthew 7 v 24,we mentioned that both houses experienced a storm. I have already pointed previously why  we have so many wrong things happen in life, because of the fall,when mankind sinned. It was Oswald Chambers who said,'Life is more tragic than orderly',commenting on this Selwyn Hughes said,'Chambers knew that unless we are willing to grapple with this truth and accept it, we will be plagued by inner oughts and shoulds  that  lead us down the road of illusion. We can find ourselves sayings,'It ought not be like this or'Things should be different'- and sadly the only the only thing this kind of demandingness  produces is frustration and anger.......This is reality-  and the sooner we face it, the better. True faith is not  built upon illusion but upon reality'.

Not Yet. ( 2 Corinthians 11 v 2 1 ff )

In the parable of the two builders in Matthew 7 v  24 - 27, we have two  two builders,who built houses, one built on rock, the other on sand, Jesus said that a storm hits both houses,,Kenneth Bailey ,points out that ,'Faith in Jesus does not provide magical protection from the storms of life'.So many Christians are seeking to be free from suffering,,the late  Selwyn  Hughes,wrote the following,''The fall has turned this fair universe of God's into a shambles much about the world is still beautiful,accidents,disasters. And will continue until the time when God brings all things to a conclusion''.Much of the New Testament is full of people who suffered ,why? this a fallen world as Selwyn Hughes  pointed out. We will consider more on this next time.