Heaven ( Revelation 21 v 1-5)

 Paul writing to the church in Colossae,exhorts the believers,'To set your hearts on things above ,where Christ is'.....Set your minds on things above,not on earthly things; (3 v 1-2)I really don't know what heaven is really like,I know who will  be there,our great triune God,plus angels,and the saints of God.The rest  is hidden from us,the apostle Paul had a great revelation of heaven where he,' heard inexpressible things'Of course John was given a revelation of heaven,which encourages us to press on  towards heaven and home. In that lovely little book,'The valley of Vision', I read the following.'There is no joy like the joy of heaven, for in that state are no sad divisiions, unchristian quarrels,contentions,evil designs,weariness, hunger,cold, sadness,sin,suffering, persecutions,toils of duty. O  healthful place where none are sick! O happy land where all are kings! O holy assembly where all are priests! How free a state where none are servants except to Thee! Bring me speedily to the land of Joy'.

                                                We read of a place called Heaven

                                                 It's made for the pure and the free,

                                                These truths  in God's word He has given,

                                                  How beautiful Heaven must be'

                                                       Words  Gloria Gaither 

Those flies. ( Matthew 24 v14)

     Today we had a few unwanted visitors,flies ,we cannot find out how they are getting into our home,but war has been declared on them.It is not to serious ,but there was a time when it was serious for the nation of Egypt.We have to go to the book of Exodus,I'm sure you  know all about it, how God sent 10 plagues on Egypt for they refused to let His people go,the plague of flies was the forth one,the last one was the worst one,when all the firstborn of the Egyptians died.It need not have been that way,if only Pharaoh had obeyed God and let Israel who were treated as slaves,go. The Pharaohs were ruled but they were considered more than rulers they were seen as god's,just like the Caesars who ruled Rome,and the Emperor's of Japan. The history of Humanity is one of opposing God,this was manifested by a rejection of the only true God,even when He came in the person of Jesus Christ, that shows the extent of humanites depravity.There was a moment when God said,enough is enough,and He dealt with Pharaoh,and so it will be when God will look on this world that has forsaken Him ,and He will say,'enough is enough',Yes it is coming,what I would say to you is this,if you do not know Christ as your  Saviour,it's time you did,before it's to late.

                                                               'The end is near'

His sufferings ( Isaiah 52 v13- 53 :12)

 In Isaiah 53 v 7 we read these awsome  prophetic words,'He was oppressed and afflicted,yet He did not open His mouth;He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,and as sheep before its shearers is silent,so He did not open His mouth.'These words are so profound  so graphic and so majestic.Here we have Jesus the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world,betrayed by on of His followers for thirty pieces of silver as was foretold by Zechariah chap 11 v12.One needs to read  Isaiah 52 v v13ff to grasp the awful brutality afflicted on our Saviour ,we read,'His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness' We cannot sanitise what our Saviour went through,it was awful beyond degree, yet consider His demeanour ,and His bearing as He was lead as a lamb to the slaughter,,'He did not open His mouth',think of the majesty in His divine silence.He could have called legions of angels to rescue Him(Matthew 26 v53,but He didn't. He voluntary bore all that was being afflicted on  Him,for He knew that was why He had come( Matthew 25 v 54) So silently He walked bravely on towards His destiny ,to die on a cross,All that He suffered had a purpose in Gods eternal plan,it was not a after thought,Revelation 13 v 8 reads ,that He was' the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world' Why all this terrible suffering?,it was simply this,it was God's will to crush Him by bearing our sin,he took upon Himself the consequences of our sim , that when we trust Christ as our Saviour the wrath of God is removed from us ,for He bore it on the cross.

                                                     'He took my sins and my sorrows,

                                                      He made them His very own;'

                                                      

                                                                

Being overwhelmed.(Psalm 42)

 Sometimes when trials fall upon us, it is like being engulled by a Tsunami wave that leaves us devastated to the point were all we can see is darkness,each day is a struggle,nothing seems to help. One of the examples of this is Job,his answer to one of friends goes like this,'If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales!It would surely outweigh  the sand of the sea'(Job 6 v 1-2) Another example example is seen in Psalm 42,written by the sons of Korah but Spurgeon attributes it to David,it starts with his longings for God ,indeed a holy thirst for God,for the living God,it progresses to a continual time of sorrows and tears.He remembers the good times,and questions himself as to why he feels so sad,yet he declares his hope in God and praises Him.He is discouraged but he did not lose sight of God.He expresses the depth of His suffering and declares,'All your waves and billows have gone over me'yes a Tsunami has gone over him.Yet in it all he acknowledges God's goodness,yet feels forgotten by God.His enemies press him sore,and the end of the psalm finishes with the words 'I will put my hope in God', and a declaration of  faith and praise ,that God will deliver him.

                                           'If I am weak,may I faint upon the  bosom of eternal love;

                                                   If in extremity,let me feel that he can deliver me;

                                                   If driven to the verge of hope and to the pit of despair,

                                                   grant me grace to fall into His arms.

                                              O God,hear me, do for me more than I ask,think,or dream.

                                                                                      Amen

                                                                         (From the valley of vision.)   

God's moral code.( Exodus 20 v3 -17)

 1Thessalonians 4 deals with what John Stott says are the three major human preocupations,'Sex,work and death'. He also declared,' that one of the weaknesses of contemporary evangelical Christianity is our neglect of Christian ethics,in both our teaching and our practice' He goes on further to say,as regards the neglect of teaching,because we are afraid of being branded 'legalists.we are not under  law,we say piously,as if we were free to ignor and even disobey  it. Whereas what Paul meant  our acceptance before  God is not due to our  observance of the law. But Christians are still under obligation to keep God's law and commandments'(Taken from his book on 1/2 Thessalonians in the 'Bible speaks today series) Let us consider one thing Paul deals with,(1)  Sex,lets face it,it is a very big preoccupation in most people lives,the Bible makes it clear what right sex is ,and what is wrong sex,Hebrews 13 v4 tells us that 'Marriage should be honoured by all ,and the marriage bed kept pure'.Genesis 2 v24 reads 'That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife,and they become one flesh'.To go outside marriage for sex is a sin,'For God will judge the adulterer and the sexually immoral (Heb 13 v4) ,and I would add fornication that is having sex outside of marriage .The NIV has sexually immoral,but the AV is better it defines it as fornication which I believe is more clear and helpful.Just to add a keynote  sex is only ligitimate between a man and a woman ( 1 Cor 6 v9 -10)

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The miracle of salvation ( Romans 3 v11)

 It was Charlotte Bronte who said,'I am no bird,and no one ensnares me,I am a free being with an independent will'.We understand what Charlotte is saying,but it leads unto the question have we got free will or do we believe as Martin Luther wrote that our will is in bondage?Yes we all have a will,but the question is how far has our fallen nature affected our will?,do we have a free will?.Romans 8 v7,tells us that the natural man has a mind that is at enmity with God. Romans 5 v 10 tells us of  humanity being enemies of God.an in Romans8 v7 ,we read of our inability to submit to God's laws.Jesus said.'No one can come to the me unless the Father who sent me draws them.(John 6 v 44).He also said ,' Light has come into the world,but people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.( John 3 v19) The problem with most of us we do not appreciate the awesome awful condition of our fallen nature. When we put our faith in Christ it is a miracle of God's grace,it takes God to move in our hearts, to enable us to turn from our ways to His ways.W Pink writes the following,'The sinners is biased towards evil,and therefore is ''free'' in one direction only,namely,in the direction of evil.The sinners will is enslaved because,.....it is in bondage to a depraved heart' ,again he says our will is regulated by our nature. What we have is the ability to make a choice,that is our responsibility,but only by the grace of God  can we make the right choice.

                                      'My will is not my own till  Thou hast made it thine;'

                                                            George Matheson

                                     

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Don't ignore Him.( Isaiah 53)

I was up in London recently ,there were a lot of people about, I noticed a street preacher,ministering warning about their eternal destiny and telling about Christ,no one appeared to be listening. In Lamentation 1 v 12 we read,'Is it nothing to you,all you that pass by?'The context is this Judah had been invaded by the mighty Babylonian army,Jerusalem was destroyed, likewise the temple.Jeremiah survived this ,as he gazed over the carnage,and he speaks those words from 1 v12.It appeared that no one cared  for the awful suffering they had experienced.But lets broaden it out ,and lets us look to the cross,and see Christ dying on the cross ,prophetically  Isaiah described His awful suffering.'His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form beyond human likeness' (52 V 14)That is the degree of His human suffering,I know that there was a deeper suffering,when the wrath of God  was poured out on Him'  The fast number of people in the world  walk on the other side of the road,ignoring His suffering as if it means nothing.If one goes to the national gallery in London,there are many paintings depicting Christ on the cross.I wonder does anyone  take it in His awful suffering?, and why He suffered ,Charles Wesley applies that verse to Christ in a hymn ,it reads.

                                                    'All ye that pass by, to Jesus draw nigh;

                                                     To you is it nothing that Jesus should die?

                                                     Your ransom and peace,your surety He is;

                                                      Come ,see if there ever was sorrow like

                                                                               HIS'