Look ( Luke 23 v 26 -43)

 Charles Hadden Spurgeon  was  born June 19 , 1834,he was born into a godly family,his grandfather,and father we're both ministers, so was he a Christian?. No he wasn't, when he was about fifty  he wrote ,'Grace does not run in the blood'.Everyone needs to trust Jesus as their Saviour, everyone ,yes even children. It wasn't until he was 16 that he became a Christian, he struggled against becoming a Christian, and then he struggled as how he could become a Christian,then by the grace of God things changed.One Sunday he was hindered from going to his fathers church,and he found himself in a Primitive Methodist Chapel were an unlearned Methodist rose to give a brief message on Isaiah 45 v22''Look unto to me and be ye saved,all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else''. He addressed Spurgeon personally.to look to Christ and to obey the text....It wasn't a matter of lifting a finger,or a foot,or going to college or being rich,Look,Look,Look,the man said,look to Christ and live.'Spurgeon did just that and trusted Jesus as his Saviour.'

                                                 'Have you looked to Jesus to be your Saviour?'

Deep darkness ( Psalm 27 v1 )

                                                 'Who among you fears the Lord

                                                  and obeys the word of his servant?

                                                  Let the one who walks in the dark,

                                                  who has no light, trust in the name

                                                   of the Lord and rely on their God.'

                                                                 'Isaiah 50 v10'

The most godly people have experienced very dark times or as one person put it ,they find themselves in situations of '' deep darkness'',even to the point where ''not even a glimmer of light guides them''.William Cowper was a very lovely Christian,yet for most of his life he suffered from mental illness,(always remember it is an illness,so don't  judge Christians who are mentally ill') There was one period that lasted for 5 years without a glimmer of sunshine.But he wrote a hymn with the following words,' Sometimes a light surprises,the Christian when he sings; It is Lord who rises with healing in His wings; When comforts are declining,He grants the soul again, A season of clear shining,To cheer it after rain'.The book ,'The Hiding Place',tells the story of the Ten-boom family who were imprisoned for helping Jews, Corrie and Betsie were together during that time. All their possessions were taken from them,but Corrie managed to keep a Bible, in the midst of all their suffering  Corrie said,'The blacker the night around us grew,the brighter and truer and more beautiful burned the word of God'.

                                                  'May God's word sustain us in our 

                                                                darkest night'

                                         

The will of God. ( Romans 12 v1 - 2)

 A dear child of God became very ill to the point of death ,said 'that he had no fear of death,for Christ had died.but he prayed for recovery,if it was God's will'. When our dear Lord took that tremendous step to come from the glories of heaven to a sin cursed earth, it was to do the will of God,He would let nothing stand in the way of that,be it family, friends, foes,or whatever. He knew why he had come and He knew what it would cost him,yes the price He would have to pay, a death on cross,a shameful death,an horrendous death.Horrendous in the physical suffering,but it went much further than that ,He would 'drink the cup' the Father had given Him(  John 18 v11) what is our Lord referring to? we find the answer in the following scriptures ,Isaiah 51 v 18 , Jeremiah 25 v 15-28 , which speaks of a 'cup of wrath.' Consider that ever human being dwells under the wrath of God  (John 3 v 36) ,we all face the wrath of God when we die,hell is real,but in drinking that cup Christ would suffer the wrath of God,so that those who trust Jesus would escape God's wrath.All this was involved in Christ  doing the will of God,whatever you and I as Christians face,we must follow in the footsteps of our Saviour submitting  to the will of God,it may mean a recovery from illness,it may not,it may mean that God will open doors ,but it may not,we can apply it to so many areas of life.

                                        Jesus prayed,'Father ,if  you are willing,

                                        take this cup from Me; yet not my will,

                                        but yours be done'.

                                                        Luke 22 v 42

He knows best ( Psalm 47 v4)

 Our Lord said before He was taken back to heaven, 'You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem,and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth' Acts 1 v 8.These words indicate a steady progression outward to the ends of earth,in other words the church would longer be a Jewish church.It is significant fot there were  those who felt that the Gentiles should have to be circumcised and obey the law,and this caused a lot of problems.(Acts 15 v 5 )In Galatians 2 v 11ff  Paul had to challenge Peter and Barnabas who sided with these people,and thankfully they retuned to the fold. Many Jews  wanted to keep the status quo to accept the fact that old convenant was now null and void,like circumcision,temple worship,food laws ,clothing laws, tithing laws,and so many other things.the Christian is not under any of these laws,The gospel liberated us from the Jewish swaddling clothes,and points us away from Jerusalem to a church where Jew and Gentile are one,a people saved only by the grace of God.Under Peter we have an ingathering of Jews 3-4v5,  under Philip we have ingathering of Samaraitans (Acts 8) ,and then we have Peter who  opened the door for the Gentiles (Acts 10) Then we have the conversion of Paul who became the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11 v13),and it is interesting that Peter is not mentioned after Acts 15 v 7, from then on he disappears,and as John Stott mentions Paul replaces Peter,and Paul who pushes on beyond Asia and into Europe.One the reasons  that this happened was , Paul who was born inTarsus a Roman city, was very familiar with Gentiles,God places us where  we are best suited to serve Him.

Total Depravity ( Roman 3 v 10 - 26)

 There are many people who are not Christians,in other religions,and in the secular world,who do good, this was borne in upon me as I watched a TV program.A retired top footballer is doing an awful lot to raise money for a certain charity,a young girl appeared on the show,who suffers greatly from a terrible condition,the ex-footballer had befriended her and helped her greatly.I was moved as I watched the program.,Now let me ask you a question, that I asked myself, are people like that lost? ,are they going to be excluded from heaven?, and will they be going to hell?.What is the answer?.From a human point of veiw many would say,if there is a heaven,they'll be there,but will they?.The answer is no ,for no matter how much good one does ,there is that other aspect of humanity,our sinful nature,you can't balance them against the other,God doesn't. He declares very clearly that there is no one who is righteous,and there is no one that does good,not even one ( Romans 3 v 10 /v 12) John Stott ,'mentions the doctrine of 'total depravity'It has never meant that all human beings are as depraved as they could possible be.Such a notion is manifestly absurd and untrue,and is contradicted by our everyday obervation.No,the 'totality' of our corruption refers to its extent,not to its degree.In other words as JS says ,'every part of our humanist,is twisted and tainted.'Dr J.I.Packer puts it like this,'No one is as bad as he or she might be, while on the other hand'no actions of ours is as good as it should be'.We all fall short of the glory of God, without Christ that short fall will take us to a lost eternity. If one is to be saved and go to heaven we must acknowledge our sinfulness,and throw ourselves on the mercy of a holy God.

Buried Treasure. ( Mark 10 v 17-23)

 You often hear of people finding treasure by using metal detectors,and one of my favourite stories is Treasure Island,written by Robert Louis Stevenson, every child should read Treasure Island.Well in the Bible our Saviour tells about someone who found treasure in a field.( Matthew 13 v44)But the field wasn't his ,so what did he do? he hid the treasure then sold all that he had and bought the field,and so the treasure became his. Was he ethically wrong in doing that?,no by Jewish law,the rabbis said,'If a man finds scattered money,it belongs  to the  finder'.Tell me what is the greatest treasure in all the world? Jesus ,the following scriptures describe Him as being king. ( Matt 2 v2/2v 15/ 27v 37/Rev 17v 14/ 19 v16) J.C.Ryle comments,'That the purpose of v44 and 45 is to stress of the importance of salvation  to the point that we are willing to give everything up to win Christ and eternal life, or you can put it like this,'that it's worth any sacrifice to enter God's kingdom'(W.Barclay)and to come under the authority of King Jesus.

                                                  'I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold,

                                                   I'd rather be His than have riches untold;

                                                   I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands,

                                                   I'd rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

                                                   Than to be a king of a vast domain,

                                                    And be held in sin's dread sway;

                                                    I'd rather have Jesus than anything,

                                                    This world affords today. ( Words Beverly Shea)

                                                

Witnessing. ( 1Peter 3 v15 )

 The times they are a changing, over my 80 years I have seen many changes,especially in relation to church atendance.Unlike years ago when the churches had two services on a Sunday,and a Sunday school in the afternoon,that has changed,most churches have one service on a Sunday, attended mainly by believers  ,but what about the unbelievers?.For they need to hear the gospel, they need Christ,that is the challenge to Christians everywhere to reach out to the unsaved. The Alpha course has been reasonally successful in reaching people with the gospel.But there is still a vast amount of people who are unreached with gospel, we all need to prayerfully ask God how we personally can  witness to people, if you  pray then be prepared for the answer to your prayer by God.If you know of an evangelist see if you can, invite them to your church, so you can get some ideas as to how to evangelise. Remember Jesus did not always speak to multitudes,he spoke to individuals,I can here some people say I would find that to hard, with God's help it can be done.One way which will help you to get talking to someone about Christ ,is to offer to pray for them, some may say no ,don't worry about that, move on to the next person. let us do what we can to reach others for Christ,things have changed  but people still need Christ that will never change.