Our chief end. (John 17 v1 -5 )

 I read the following in ,'Word for Today' one of my devotional readings ,'There is a story about an American tourist's visit to the home of a nineteenth-century Polish rabbi. The tourist was surprised to find it sosparsely and inexpensively furnished. The living area ,a simple room lined with books,contained a table an a bench. When the tourist asked the rabbi,'Where's all your furniture? he replied, 'Where's yours? The man asked,'What do you mean?' I'm a visitor I'm just passing through.' 'Me too!' replied the rabbi This world is not my home,I'm just a passing through', so goes the old gospel song,and of course it's true,Moses the man of God wrote the following,' Our days may come to seventy years,or eighty,if our strength endures;yet  the best of them our trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass,and we fly away'. (Psalm 90 v9-10) Yes life is very brief ,and yet we over focus on it, life is precious,it is a gift from God,and during our brief time here, what should be our aim?,The Westminsters Shorter Catechism tells us that our chief end should be to glorify God,and to enjoy Him for ever',yes we were created to bring glory to God.Our  Saviour's life was short, but everyday of his life He glorified God.(John 17 v 4)In His death the glory of God was manifested in it's fullness.

                                                          'Jesus said follow thou me'

The wrath of God. ( Luke 16 v23)

I have a book about Heaven and Hell written by Bruce Milne its in ,'The Bible Speaks Today' series. I have read part of it and am puzzeled why he quoated a writer,who said we would have sex in heaven,when Jesus taught ,that in the resurrection we will not marry , or be given in marriage,but we will be like the angels.  (Matthew 22 v 30-31) Now lets move on from that and let us consider hell,I beleive in hell,I know its a difficult subject to bring up,but one must be faithful to what the scripture says. It is a painful subject to consider or even preach on,and that's why many  avoid even mention it in their sermons. There are many references in the Bible that speaks of the unsaved  eternal destiny,and none of them  are  very nice,in fact they are awful.We cannot  eradicate ,deny ,or ignor these scriptures ,there are many reasons that we may want to,when we think of are unsaved loved ones.Or we consider some nice people we know. We must put sentiment out of our minds,also flawed human reasoning .People may say that God is a monster,He's not,for God is love(1 John 4 v 8),but as John Stott says ,'it is a holy love.' Here are some scriptures as regard the wrath of God  ( Psam 9 v17/ John 3 v36/  Romans 1 v18 /Revelation  6 v 16-17/,I will mention also scriptures as regards Hell.(Psalm 9 v17/ Daniel22 v2/ Matthew 13 v 42/ 25v 41/ Luke 16 v23/ Revelation21 v8'.If you are not saved,take these scriptures seriously,and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16 v31)

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The holy Spirit. (Matthew 28 v18 - 19)

 As Christians we do not have temples to worship in,why?,because we are a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells,yes these bodies of ours,are temples.The apostle wrote 'Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives among you.' (1Corinthians3 v16 ) In 1Corinthians 12 v13 we read,'For we were all bapised by one Spirit so as to form one body whether Jews or Gentiles,slave or free and we were all given one Spirit to drink'. This has nothing to do with water baptism ,rather it is that  spiritual experience that occurs whan a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Consider the all incllusiveness  what Paul writes there is no hint of an elitist group.The Pentecostal or the Charismatic movement,make Christians feel inferior they say they don't have the Holy Spirit.You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit,it is the Spirit himself who bears witness with our spirit that we are God's children,the fact is ,'if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ' (Romans 8 v 9)So the Holy Spirit dwells in all God's children.Just a footnote the Holy Spirit is not just an influence, I read the following,'He is fully God,and described in scripture as possessing personal attributes like intellect, will, emotions,enabling Him to teach,comfort,guide,empowering followers with spiritual gifts for preaching Christ,and convicting the world of sin'.

Remembering John ( Acts 11 v 24)

In July  14/2025  John Macarthur died aged 86, he was a very godly man, I have a number of his books,he was a man of the word,a  man of Christian character, In Hebrews 11 v 4 we read  ,'And by faith Abel speaks,even though he is dead',that's the testimony that John leaves behind, yes he's  dead,but he continues to speak to us,though his literature,videos,and in our memories. Proverbs 10 v7 reads,'The memory of the righteous is blessed,' so true ,this applies not only to John Macarthur,but to all godly men ,and women,if you have had a godly parent, or a godly friend,their memory is blessed,and you thank God for them,we will never forget them.'.John was a watchman,sounding out a warning to God's people, to stay faithful to His word,He warned us as regards the errors being proclaimed by false prophets and preachers,sad to say there are many of them,millons of people are being led astray by them, our Saviour called them 'thieves and robbers.(John 10 v 1)I would call them soul murderers for that's what they are,clouds without rain,I will finish in the words of of our Lord in Revelation 14 v 13.

                                                Then I heard a voice from heaven say,Write this:

                                                Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from 

                                                now on.' Yes ', says thev Spirit,'they will rest 

                                                From their labour,for their deeds will follow them.'

Learn ( Luke 15 v11ff)

After Solomon died his son Rehoboam reigned,but he lacked the wisdom of Solomon,the result was the nation split in two,ten tribes became known as the northern kingdom,the other two became known as the southern kingdom . It was not long before the northern kingdom deteriorated spiritually.It reached it's pinnacle under king Hosea,in 2 Kings 17v16ff ,we read that they forsook  all the commands of the Lord' They committed idolatry,and worshipped the starry hosts,and sacrificed their children  in the fire,and many other things.The result was God sent the army of Assyria against then defeating them and taken them into exile, so all that was left was Judah. Spiritually they also declinded and ,they would suffer the same fate as the northern kingdom,when God sent the army of  Babylon against them.(2 Kings 25). It leaves me asking questions,why did they not learn a lesson from their own history?,but they never did.I  watched a video on Utube  as regards John Wayne,it talked about his finance.and how he left it in the hands of someone he trusted,but he made a mess of it,and lost a lot of money.He did the same again,trusting a family member,and the same happened again,but then the penny dropped ,and he started to manage his own affairs,and that went well he learned from his mistakes Judah didn't ,time and time again they repeated the same old folly.Let us all learn from the mistakes we have made in our history,and stop making the same mistakes again and again.In my early life I went away from Christ a number of times,and I suffered,it took me a long time to realise there are no advantages in walking away from Jesus,again and again.

Be discerning. ( Acts 20 v 25 -31)

 In ancient Rome when people were being tried for a crime they didn't have lawyers to defend themselves ,they had orators ,and one of the greatest of them was Cicero.By their elegance of speech rather than by evidence they sought to sway the senate ,even though they were guilty.Think of Hitler people were captivated by what he said,even though what he said was lies.Lets now consider,those we could call men of the cloth in other words Christian ministers,I think of two,who will remain nameless ,one  captivated people by what he wrote the other by his speech.Both of them were found wanting in relation to truth they both denied the divinty of Christ and threw doubt on the virgin birth.One of them denied Christ's  resurrection,and basically preached a social gospel,never mentioning the true gospel,that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners I was fooled by both of them as were many,and indeed many people still are,even though they are both dead. Most of them would be offended and angry if I said their names,I write this as a warning to all believers,be on your guard no matter how eloquent the preacher  may be,if they don't speak the truth as regards  Christ and all the truths concerning Him, it may be time that you changed your church.

Hallowed be Thy name. ( 1Samuel 2 v30)

I would to share some thoughts by another Puritan Thomas Watson,from his book on the Lords prayer. He is writing on Romans 14 v 8,which reads ,'If we live,we live to the Lord,and if we die,we die to the Lord,' It  will be great comfort to us when we die if we have hallowed God's name in our life; (Hallowed to honour  or to dedicate ) if  we have loved Him with our hearts,praised Him with our lips,and honoured Him with our lives(Eph 1 v6) At the hour of death,all your eartly comforts will vanish, and thinking of riches or pleasures you have enjoyed will not give you one ounce of comfort. Ah , but to have a conscience  witnessing that you have hallowed God's name, what a sweet peace and satisfaction this will give! How sweet will death be when they who have spent their lives honouring God, shall receive their reward! Abraham honoured God  by his faith, Moses by his meekness,David by his zeal,and Paul for his love of Christ'

                                                       ' I give you all the honour

                                                        And praise that's due Your name,

                                                        For you are the King of glory,

                                                        The Creator of all things'

                                                              Words Carl Tuttle