The holiness of God. ( Isaiah 6 v 3 )

 God is holy, I have never heard a sermon on the holiness of God,I find that very strange,I wonder why?,of course it is mentioned by most evangelical preachers in their sermons,but as I have said I have not heard anyone preaching on that subject. The hymn writer wrote'Only Thou art holy'.this applies to all the Godhead ,Father ,Son,and Holy Spirit'.In 1 John 1v 5, we read,'God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all'. J.I.Packer writes,When John says that God is 'light', with no darkness in Him at all, the image is affirming God's holy purity'. He also writes,'Every facet of God's nature and every aspect of His character may properly be spoken of as holy, just because it is His. The core of the concept however is God's purity,which cannot tolerate any form of sin '.(Habakkuk 1 v 13 ) It is important to stress there is only one God  Isaiah 46 v9, we don't have two different god's,the God of the OT is the God of the NT. When man sinned that created a major problem, for sin separates us from God. It means there is a gulf between us and God, (Isaiah 59 v 2/ John 3 v 36 ) and that includes every human being.The holiness of God will never change,that will never be compromised,unlike humanity who see holiness as something oppressive,that takes the fun out of life,ignoring the fact that much we engage in ,destroys life.We will look at this next time, I will leave you with this thought,the holiness of God is something to be feared,Bruce Milne writes of the terror of the holiness of God.

Fear not. ( Hebrews 13 v 5 - 6)

I was looking at what some people are saying as regards  the elections in the land of the free,USA, some were expressing fear,indeed  one can understand that,not just for that great country,but for the world. The war in Ukraine, climate change,and so the list goes,in the UK the government are doing their best to help people,but they cant help everybody financially.There are so many things that cause us to be afraid and we can't make light of them.As a Christian I at times have felt fear different ,I am 78 I have had my moments when I have been afraid, I have not always smiled in the storm. Looking back at my life I have taken risks,some would have said foolhardy, stepping out to go to bible college  for 4 yrs with no money, it proved to be difficult and testing, we had a young family to care for,but God brought us through. I come from a troubled land,we lived through the troubles,God looked after us. I will always remember coming to England to be a minister,we had a little car,and we drove down from the ferry in  Scotland, that morning I read these words,in my daily reading, 'He laid them on safely' (Psalm 78 v53) 'Behold ,I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.  (Exodus 23 v 20). In spite of not having a satnav, of getting a puncture,and the fan belt getting loose,we reached our destination.

Sam Ryder ( Luke 15 v 11- 32 )

 Sam Ryder  a popular singer said,'I'm still an idiot, but  I'm nowhere near as much of an idiot as I once was',I can identify with that, I suppose we can all identify with these words, well I hope we can. Buying a car brings its pitfall,I have never bought a new car, so a number of years ago we bought a particular car,it was a small inexpensive car,and was semi-automatic,we went and looked at it, it appeared a nice little car,so we bought it,but as we were driving away,it didn't appear right.the seller assured  us it was alright.Well we had it for a while,not very satisfied with it.So I enquired as regards this car from a local dealer,I was not  not happy with what he told me,so we traded it in for an other car.Well recently I asked myself the question, what did I do wrong when I bought that car ?,the answer was very simple ,I hadn't asked for a test drive,That should be priority when you buy a car,what an idiot I was,hopefully I won't make that mistake again. When I was a lad I was following the Lord, but I remember the moment I walked away from Him, what an idiot I was, If only I had not done that,if only,but I did,yet God is the God of the prodigal.and in mercy He brought me back to Himself,could be you once walked away from Christ,or your struggling spiritually and thinking about walking away,don't be an idiot like I was, its not worth it.

                                                     'There are no advantages in walking 

                                                       away from Christ'

Desert island Disc .(John 14 v 6 )

 There is a program on the radio, called 'Desert Island Disc,' it has been going for 80 yrs, still popular,The baes of it,is as follow's,imagine you were cast away on a desert,what ten pieces of music would you like to have with you?. All sorts of personalities have appeared on the program,they play part of each piece of music,then they are asked what luxury would one like on their desert island,and what additional book they would choose,as each castaway automatically gets the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.One recent castaway the author Sue Townsend said,'I won't need the Bible or Shakespeare,you can keep them'. Because the book I am taking is better than both of them,it is ,' The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole,Aged 13 '   3/4 's, she said that the Bible was an uptight  bag of woe. It is very sad to hear someone speak in such a way, as regards the Bible.,for it is the most important book of all time.It tells us so much,that we need to here,and if ignored has dire consequence .The Bible is important,for it tells us about Jesus who died on the cross so we can be forgiven, sets us free,who saves us from Hell,not only that , he will take us to heaven.

What's the answer?. 2 (Psalm 119 v 98 )

 Last time we considered the importance of prayer ,as we are faced with so many challenges in this troubled world,the next thing we need to stress is the importance of God's word.It might surprise us to know that many Christians fail to read God's word, there are a number reasons for that,but whatever the reasons are,it's vital that we begin to read God's word. The word can help us in relation to sin,Psalm 119 v 11, reads,' I have hidden your word in my heart that I  might not sin against you'.How do we hide God's word in our hearts? by reading it,studying it,memorizing it, Spurgeon writes,'If we keep God's word in our hearts ,it will keep us from sin'.When Eve doubted God's word she fell into sin, every time Satan tempted our Lord ,He answered him ,by the word of God,so the devil never got a foothold.It is in v10 we have the following words, 'do not let me stray from your commands',when you stray from God's word you stray from God, I have seen it happen in so many lives. For the Christian the word of God gives comfort ,faith,a reason to live,an assurance that God is with them,In Psalm 119 v 105 we read that the word of God is a lamp unto our feet,and a light to our path. When we walk in the darkness there is always danger that we will stumble. While driving recently at night,I was struggling to find my way home,but I have a satnav ,and it was such help,the word of God is our perfect satnav, it will guide us through this dark world,safely home.

What's the answer?. ( Luke 18 v1 ) 1

The world is a very uncertain place, in these last number of years we have had Covid still ongoing, Ukraine still ongoing,and all the problems it has brought with it.We have political problems in our country,and the world is full of problems ,sickness,death depth,crime,and so we could go on.Paradise has been lost, what can we do?,as a Christian stay close to God,pray,pray and pray.I read this recently as regards our dear Saviour ,that He was in constant communion that His prayer is His life. In all His thoughts He stands constantly in His Fathers's presence'.We can only hope  to get through this life ,like our Saviour did,by  constant communion with our loving heavenly Fatherly.The hymn writer said that prayer was the Christians vital breath,let us make it so.

                                                       'From every stormy wind that blows,

                                                       From swelling tide of woes,

                                                       There is a calm, a safe retreat;

                                                       'Tis found beneath the mercy seat'

                                                                  James Montgomery.

A good person. ( Romans 3 v 23 )

Augustine  said,''There are many who, according to a custom of  this life, are called good people,-good men, good women , innocent, and observers as it were of what is commanded in the law; paying respect to their  parents ,  abstaining from adultery,  doing no murder, committing no theft, giving no false witness against any one, and observing all else that the law requires-yet are not Christians..... Pagans may say, then,We live well.  If they enter not by the door, what good will that do them ?''. The answer is nothing,for  although people from a human point of view  may be considerate good,they  are sinners,and they need a Saviour, who alone can forgive sin. Let us not be deceived into thinking that some people don't need to be saved,even those we would class as being good.We rightly say no one is perfect,but it also true that no one is sinless,and what do sinners need they need a Saviour, and  Jesus is the  only Saviour ,there is.

                                         'Human goodness,does not mean human sinlessness'