The answer ( Romans 5 v 1 )

 This question is asked in Job 9 v 2  ,'But how can a man be righteous before God?',that's a very important question,consider one of the greatest of the prophets Isaiah.He had a vision of  God,a Holy God,and was so overcome ,he cries out,'Woe to me,...I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips  ( Isaiah 6 v 5 )',Then consider the greatest of the apostles,Paul ,who declared himself to be the worst of sinners ( 1 Timothy 1 v 15 )  When the Bible says ,all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,no matter who we are. The answer to the question ,can a man be righteous before God?,is no, it is beyond us,so how can we be justified and accepted with God?. The words of the disciples come to mind,''who then can be saved?''our Saviour give this answer, ''With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible''( Matthew 19 v 25 - 26 )Only God has the answer, and the answer is  Jesus, in 1 Peter 3 v 18 ,we read,'For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,, the just ,( righteous man ) for the unjust (unrighteous ones),that He might bring us to God'.First of all we note He died once,only once, it cannot be repeated ,that death on the cross was for sins,He was sinless, it was for sinful humanity..  On the cross Christ took the  place of sinners ,and bore the sinners punishment,that means when we trust  Jesus,we are free from Gods wrath and judgement,in other words we are Justified and  accepted by God. Charles Wesley wrote,' No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all  in Him ,is mine.Alive in Him, my living Head,and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne,and claim the crown,through Christ alone'.

Spiritual cancer. ( Romams 3 v 23 )

 John Stott writes, 'Salvation is a comprehensive term ( Past) Justification . (Present ) Sanctification. (Future) Glorification. Consider Justification,what does it mean?,it is a very important question ,it involves our standing,and acceptance before a holy God..How can a person achieve this?,first of all no one  can,if you are religious and keep all the rules of that religion,that will not give you a right standing and acceptance with God. If you are a moral person, and most people think they are ,human morality fails also, The term ,the milk of human kindness comes to mind,I recently met a man who said he was not a sinner, and then he went on to relate how he had helped someone ,that also will fail. Why you may ask do all these things fail,for none of them deal with the real problem that we are all sinners,it is no use saying ,well no one is perfect,that's right,but that term is often a way of ignoring the more serious truth ,that we are in Gods sight ,a sinner. Our sin cannot be expunged by anything we can do,no matter how sincere we are,and so the problem remains,which means we have no standing or acceptance with a holy God..That means we will never go to heaven and we will go to to hell.The answer to our sinfulness can only be  dealt with if first of all we acknowledge our sinfulness,to stop minimising it,it  is to serious,to do that.sin is spiritual cancer,it is fatal, you cannot beat it,the result is certain,eternal separation from God,and that is more awful than one can ever imagine..There is an answer to this problem we will consider it next time.

New growth. ( Hebrews 12 v 4 - 12 )

 In Yorkshire England,there are estates were grouse are reared,the birds nest on the ground among the heather, these estates are run as a business,people pay to come and shoot grouse,they don't shoot them on the ground, but people I think they are  called beaters, walk among the heather and scare them into the air. Now in order to maintain the heather,part of it is set on fire,they do this to encourage new growth. If you read the Bible you see people who experienced  good times,but they also  experienced great trials,  indeed our dear Saviour told us that in the world we would have tribulation, ( John 16 v 33 ) ,even now many dear Christians are experiencing great tribulations.In the  that old hymn,'God leads us along, by B.Gaither, we read how He leads,'Some through the waters, some through the flood,but all through the blood.Some through great sorrow ,and all the day long'.Why such trials? well there is a reason, the man of God ,Job who was experiencing great trials,declared ,'but he knows the way I take;  when he has tested me,I shall come forth as gold' ( Job 23 v 10 ). The fact is, in our trials God is with us,and through the trials he will purify us, a verse from a hymn ,puts it like this.'When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie. My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply; The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design,thy dross to consume , and thy gold to refine'Yes .like the heather, the fire that God brings into our lives,it is to encourage new growth.

Little foxes. ( Acts 24 - 16 )

In the Song of Solomon 2 v 15,we read, 'Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vine', not just foxes but little foxes.One could look at the little foxes and think,O they are lovely, so cute, I would love to have one for a pet,the dear wee things,but the reality is this,these little foxes are destructive being,they are not playthings,no they are pests,that need to be put down.Let us never underestimate the destructiveness of those things that can be likened unto ,'little foxes'.A person I  respect was asking me to do something ,he used  the word pretend,I asked him what he meant by pretend,he explained what he meant,it did not sound right to me ,it sounded like he wanted me to do something that was wrong,so I said no. I like football ,I was told that one could watch games, for free, I asked a friend about it,he said it was not legal, so I will not be watching  that.These things could be seen as  not important,and yet they are important,for they are the little foxes,likened unto little sins, and they can do us a lot of harm,The first sin was that of eating of the fruit of a tree, such a little thing,but it had horrendous consequences.Let us never think that little sins are of no importance,they are ,don't  be fooled or deceived,and don't think they don't matter to our Holy God ,they do.

Hope ( Romans 4 v 18 - 22 )

 I wonder why Bibles have a black cover?because the Bible is full of hope, hope is not a dark thing,  because it is placed in God.Not in anything or anyone but in God and in God alone.P.E.Hughes writes  that 'Christian faith and Christian hope enjoy the closest association'.In writing to the gentile believers at Ephesus  ,the apostle Paul reminds them how it used to be,'Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise,without hope and without God in the world'.What was written of them applies to us, to come into a place of hope   we had to put our faith in Christ,then all was changed,we were no longer strangers but part of God's family.In Hebrews 10 v 23 we read,'Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,for he  who promised is faithful'.P.E Hughes writes ,We might well have expected to read here'the confession of our faith',no it is ,'the confession of our hope'. No matter how dark things are for the Christian we can have hope,in a bright future. We can have hope in hopeless situations,,we have hope because our faith is in the God of hope, This is my prayer for  you dear child of God,'May the God of  hope, fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him,so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit,' in Jesus name. Amen.

If only. ( Romans 11 v 33 )

 Many ,many people live with an ,'if only,thought pattern,I guarantee many sports people,live thinking ,'if only' ,I had.Marriage must be full of people who think if only,I could trade him or her  for a new model.I joke but I think there is some degree of truth in it.One can think of so many who can look at their lives,and the decisions they made, and with regret ,say if only.Some things we can change,and it may turn out well,and then again it may not.Well how should we look at the ,'if only, in our life's history?.let us remember, some things we cannot change,better accept that fact, and move on,stop dwelling on it.We can learn lessons from the ,'if only',in our lives,that will us help,to avoid making the same mistake again. As a Christian one can leave the ,'if only' with God,and rest assured that , He can work  out everything for our good ( Romans 8 v 28)   Joseph is a person we can learn a lot from, for he looked at things differently, he experienced tremendous injustice in his life, sold into slavery by his own brothers, Later he was thrown into prison for something he did not do, he could have spent all his time thinking how he could get his own back,on those who had harmed him, but he didn't. Why? because he looked with the eye of faith, and  saw that God meant it for good.  ( Genesis 50 v 20 ) .Remember,'His ( God's) purpose  will ripen fast, unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste,but sweet will e the flower'  (Words  William Cowper)

Wait ( Joshua 1 V 9 )

 We come to the end of Psalm 27 by considering the last verse 14,which reads,' Wait for the Lord ,be strong,and let your heart take courage wait for the Lord'.Here is a man facing difficulties,as indeed you may be,here is what is required,simple, 'Wait for the Lord', but of course one thing we human beings find difficult, is waiting. Yes  waiting, but it is not just waiting it is waiting in faith. When Israel came out of  Egypt they came to a place were they were being pursued by a  powerful Egyptian army,we read about it  in Exodus 14 .It appeared to them that they had been led into a place of destruction,it looked to them that their fate was sealed.Bur Moses the man of God spoke,'Do not be afraid,yes they were afraid,yet God would not desert them ,Moses continues to speak,' Stand firm and you will see the deliverance  the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be  still'.We must wait,and show a degree of courage,if  we but wait and trust,all will be well'Yes the battle was the Lords. Let us remember we are pilgrims,that will involve times of testing,but in spite of the challenges,  as you wait for the Lords deliverance,you will hear God's voice saying ,'go forward'  'Workman of God, O loose not heart, but learn what God is like,and in  the darkest  battle field,thou shalt know where to strike,' remember,'Thrice blest is he to whom is given,the instict that can tell,that God is on the field,when he is most invisible.  (Words by F.W.Faber)