Woe ( Romans 1 v 18. / 2 v 16 )

 In Isaiah 6 the prophet has a vision 0f God, and he hears the angels calling out,'' Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty'' ,and he is overwhelmed, and he cries out, ''Woe is me,.... I  am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips''. Leupold  makes the following comments', 'He felt sin as we would feel it if our insight were not so blurred and dulled'. Valerie Hervo runs Les Chandelles ,the infamous  sex club in Paris, it is interesting how she speaks of and how it is described, saying it is a group sex club. It is visited by the country's political, economic and cultural elites to live out their sexual fantasies ,the word  libertinage is used to describe what takes place ,meaning freedom from  moral  restraint, in the area of sex. The badly dressed , the ugly, vulgar, have no hope of getting in, no only the beautiful, intelligent and well educated are welcome. Ordinary mortals are not welcomed, the club itself is bathed in  lambent red light. ,Someone described her visit there as beautiful, alas it is anything but beautiful, it is far from what God's gift of sex is meant to be , and no matter how one would tries to sanitize such a place and what takes place in it, it is wrong morally. It reminds me of what Isaiah wrote ,'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.'  Isa 5 v 20.

We are all in it together( 2 ) ( Revelation 20 v 11 - 15 )

 Yes we are all in it together, life and death, but we don't have the same destiny, for there is existence after death. Death is not the end ,it brings us into the eternal realms, it is hard for us to grasp  the idea of the term eternal.it means simple no beginning and no  ending, it will go on and on ,and on. The most important question we need to ask ourselves is, where and how shall we spend eternity?. The first thing we will face ,is God,  the one we thought did not exist, or the one we never give much thought to, occasionally we may have given him a thought. But we just got on with our lives, shutting him out, living as if he had no place in our lives, to busy to give him a second thought. On that day you will be held accountable  for all the sins you have ever committed, by  the one the you ignored  and rejected ,you will face your judge, Jesus. The one you heard about in Sunday school, or from godly parents, or a workmate, or from a minister at a funeral service. On that day forgiveness will not be an option, only judgement from which there will be no escape. Many talk about change ,but God is not in their reckoning, forsaking their sin is not in their reckoning, Christ is not in their reckoning. I want to finish  with words from a hymn by Hank Williams, called ,'The great judgment morning'.

                                              I dreamed that the great judgment morning,

                                              Had dawned, and the trumpet had blown;

                                              I dreamed that the nations had gathered,

                                              To judgment before  the white throne.

                                               And, oh, what a weeping and wailing,

                                               As the lost were told of their fate,

                                                They cried for the rocks and the mountains,

                                                They prayed but their prayer was to late.

Let Him choose. ( Psalm 18 v 30 )

 Many years ago when my then wife and I felt the call to full time Christian service, feeling it was to some missionary work in some foreign country. We found ourselves  on a journey, initially we applied to a particular mission ,but it did not happen. We  then sought advice, and were advised to go to Bible college, which we did. When that finished we applied to another mission, it didn't happen. So a very challenging time in our lives began, knocking seeking, an occasional door would open. At times we were very disappointed but God kept leading us on, it goes  without saying we continually sought God's guidance, one verse meant a lot to me in those days, it was Psalm 47 v 4 ,it reads,' He shall choose our inheritance for us'. In God's providence He has been our faithful guide, his way has been perfect, and I praise him, a very godly man called Horatius Bonar wrote a hymn, I will leave you with a few verses from that hymn.

                                          Thy way ,not mine ,O Lord, However dark it be;

                                          Lead me by Thine own hand, choose Thou the path for me.

                                          I dare not choose my lot; I would not if I might;

                                          Choose  Thou for me, my God, so shall I walk aright.

                                          Not mine, not mine the choice, in things or great or small;

                                          Be Thou my guide, my strength, my wisdom and my all.

My Hero. (2 ) ( Isaiah 53 )

Last time we declared Christ was God ,in every way ,now there is only one God, and it is hard to grasp the being of  God ,he is so awesome, He created all things, sustains all things, upholds all things, he cannot be compared to anyone else, in Isaiah 40  v 25 we read,' To whom will you compare Me?' Or who is my equal?' says the Holy one'. Alec Motyer wrote the following on these words,' It is not only His power, wisdom, dignity, sovereignty, authority, that put Him beyond compare . Of far more significance is His unattainable, unassailable moral perfection, he is the Holy one'. Yet the unimaginable happen  that divine being the Son of God became a man, entered into into this world. Each  step was a step down, from where he was, and who he was, and what he became.  He always knew ,who he was, and why he came, and knew what it would  cost him. He knew that Herod would try and kill him, that those he called his own would hate him, and that their battle cry would be ,'Crucify him'. Yet in spite of this  he marched boldly to a death on a cross. That horrible yet glorious death would enable people to have their sins forgiven, to became children of God and receive eternal life, to all who put their faith in him. My wonderful Saviour and my hero.

Heroes. ( Philippians 2 v 5 - 11 )

 There is used to be song about me in the song charts (well not really),it was called, 'Billy don't be a Hero'. of course it was not about me. I wonder if you have a hero?, or if you have been a hero?. There are all kinds of heroes in life, you have your sporting heroes, great explorers, civil right heroes, military  heroes ,and so the list goes on. Often they get medals awarded for acts of bravery, or achievements ,then there are the unsung heroes, who  are not mentioned in dispatches. What does it take to be a hero, the first word that comes to mind is courage, not just on the battle field, once in the troubles ,in  N. Ireland,  my and mother and sister  stood against a crowd of people who wanted to get their hands on a dear  Catholic, they managed to get him away, I suppose that made them heroes. I consider my wife a hero ,and I am serious about that .well as I said, many things make a person a hero .Now who is my greatest hero?, the answer is very simple, Jesus ,in fact I would say he was the greatest hero, who ever lived.  Why do I say that ? ,well consider who he was ,and what he became, who was he?, as Christians we believe in one God, but that God is a triune being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this is a great mystery. Each are co equal, we are told that Christ was in very nature God, and equal with God.  Philippians 2 v 6.We will continue to look at this next time. 

Only God. ( Psalm 43 v 11 )

I knew a person who was having difficulties, there appeared no way out, at that time God give him a word from  Exodus 6 v 1 , which read ,'Now you see what I will do', this is what God said to his people .So he delivered Israel, likewise he delivered  that person, and he can deliver you or me in his will. I mentioned the words ,'in his will', God will not aid you or me if what we desire, is outside his will.( 1 John 5 v 14 ) Often we find ourselves   face to face with situations we cannot do anything  about ,we have tried everything, used up all our human resources ,but it was in vain  I read these words recently, 'Only God  can achieve results like this', whatever he was referring to, the fact  is without God we can achieve nothing ( John 15 v 5 ) . God has many lessons to teach us, one of them is dependence on him, so he brings us to a place ,when all things we have tried  failed, and we realise  our only help is in our God. There are people whose lives are so distorted humanly speaking, it is only God  that can make them change. There are situations that are beyond us ,we realise only God  can change everything, for the better.. And when he does, we can say,' the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes ( Psalm 118 v23 )

Replaced (1) ( 2 Thessalonians 2 v 5 - 12 )

 Sin effects us , effects others, and it effects us and God, we should never make light of sin ,to do so is the height of folly. In our secular society the wrongs that people  commit are never spoken of as sin, even the worst of things, like child abuse or whatever. One writer asks the question ,'Whatever  happened to sin? When did it get deleted from our cultural lexicon? Why have we been told that it's  now one of those '' politically   incorrect terms? Today it's been replaced by  words like error , mistake, tragedy, addiction, sickness, misdeed , faux pas, failure, weakness, or fault. And on that last one, more often than not, it's someone else's fault'. Could it be that we have replaced sin with those words, because we want to replace God having  any jurisdiction over us. And  we further ingulf ourselves in the lie ,saying there is no God, but there is, don't be fooled by so called scientist, who come out with all their pathetic nonsense. Such as the world we live in, just happened, we sinners are good at accepting lies, from the father of lies ,the Devil. The media highlights atheists scientist, as those we should believe. We will continue this next time.