Victory ( 1 Corinthians 15 v 57 )

 1 John 5 v 4-5 ,reads , ' For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world,even our faith.Who is he who overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. C.H. Dodd  commenting on these word writes the following.

''The way to victory is not a confident assertion of our own better selves, but faith,and faith necessarily refers to something beyond ourselves. The victorious faith of the Christian is trust in God as He is revealed in Christ Jesus His Son. It means committing ourselves to the Love of God as it is expressed in all that Jesus Christ was and all that He did,''

                                        ' Victory! victory! blessed-blood -bought victory,

                                          Victory! victory! vict'ry  all the time.

                                           As Jehovah liveth, strength divine He giveth,

                                           Unto those who know Him vict'ry all the time.'

The elephant in the room. ( Job 19 v 25 - 27 )

A well known preacher said that many preachers never mention ,'the elephant in the room ', death,and yet we are all going to die. Alright you may say ,so what. who wants to hear about such a depressing subject as  death,lets us talk about the good life.There are many so called churches that ,make people feel good, ignoring the reality of the totality of our existence ,that means having an objective reality. We live in a time when people are living much longer than former generations,advances in so many things,have granted us longer lives.Here is something that it can't do ,it can't stop us dying,it just prolongs it,our dear queen lived a long time ,she was fortunate not to have any serious illness during her life,but for so many people long life is not a blessing because of mental and physical ailments.Here is what we are told about death,it is a certainty Hebrews 9 v 27,many people  would say what's wrong with that,when your dead your dead, but  the bible clearly teaches that after death there is judgement. Maybe for you the elephant in the room that you have ignored is becoming a realty in your mind,could be the fear of death is filling your heart,what will it hold for you?. There was custom in ancient Egypt,in social meetings among the rich,as it ended a servant would carry a coffin to some of the guests,in the coffin there is a wooden image of a corpse, as he showed it to each he would say,'Gaze here,and drink and be merry,for when you die ,such will be you',Not much hope there, but here is what Jesus said.

                                            'I am the resurrection and the life.

                                            The one who believes in me will live,

                                             even though they die.'

                                                          John 11 v25

                                              

The challenge. ( 1 Corinthians 13 )

Recently I attended one of my granddaughters wedding,I wasn't ask to speak at the reception ,afterwards I thought if I was asked to speak, what would I say?. 'Well here is what I would  have said,aiming it at the groom.''Now there are many lovely ladies here today ,who is the most lovely lady in the room?,and I would say my wife Daphne.'' Then I would say to the groom whose name was Tom,''Tom I hope you will always be able to say,as to your wife,that she is always the loveliest girl in the room'.  Marriage is God's  plan for humanity,it is a perfect plan, but marriage is made up of imperfect people,we are like snow flakes,we are all different.It is only in fairy tales that we read that the marriage couple lived happily ever after, in reality, there will be occasions when you will not be happy, for whatever reason,and there will always be reasons.As a husband the words that I find most challenging as to my marriage relationship,are to be found in Ephesians 5 v 25,'Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for it'. I will not comment on these words but leave you with them,to think,and to pray about,and by God's grace to live it out.

What a day that will be.( 1 Corinthians 15 v 35ff)

 The fact is I am 78 yrs of age, yes I am old,my sons are getting older,they are not very old,but they are like me showing signs of  wear and tear. That's the nature of life,but thankfully as a Christian we are assured that one day all will be changed, our dear Saviour assured us that when the body finally gives up ,we will be resurrected / John 11 v25/.Now what that means for those who are believers?. in 1 Corinthians 15 v35 ff,we read that we will have a new body, a heavenly body,the old perishable body ,will be replaced by  an imperishable body, Paul likens our death to a seed that sown in the ground ,it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory;it is sown in weakness,it is raised in power,it is sown a natural body,it is raised raised a spiritual body.He tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. We are creatures of time but  in our  resurrection body we will put on immortality,then the saying that is written will come true,' Death will be swallowed up in victory'.Yes death will die ( Revelation 20 v 14), imagine what that will be like,what a wonderful future we will have as children of the living God.

                                          'What a day that will be ,when my Saviour I will see

                                           And I look upon His face,the one who saved me by His grace;

                                          When he takes me by the hand, lead me to that promised land.

                                           What a day, glorious  day that will be, '

                                                                    Bob Joyce.

                                            

What must I do to be saved? 3

 To include works in salvation ,is to say that His sacrifice is not sufficient to save,when Jesus cried it is finished,He meant just that.So let's consider the importance of works,they are  not important  for salvation,  but they are important.In his letter James points out that faith without works is a dead faith, bear in mind that James is writing to believers,so he is stressing what they should manifest after they are saved, so in 2v 18, he declares ,'Show me your faith', in other words he is saying ,show me the evidence of your faith. They are but an evidence that we are truly Christians,but a very important evidence.on judgement day,no empty profession will be be accepted, CP Matthew 25 v 34 ff. Our Saviour expects us to help people,to show them practical love. John the Baptist declared,'produce fruit in keeping with repentance',Luke 3 v 8.He went on to say say ,it is not enough to say Abraham is your father v8,so it is not enough to mouth words,like I am a Christian.I would just add living a debauched life,is an evidence that one is not a Christian. Matthew 24 v 48ff. We must take these things seriously,just to get a little bit   balance into what I am saying ,these are extreme examples, so let us not get paranoid. If you profess to be a Christian do your best to help others,and seek to be holy,none of us will be perfect,but we must seek to be.

What must I do to be saved?2

We continue on in considering the question what must I do to be saved?,it is vital that we get this right,if we don't we will not be saved. Any so called,' adds on's', undermine the finished work of Christ, must be rejected,because it becomes another gospel . The book of Galatians was written to a church that were in  danger of turning to another gospel ,which in fact was not a gospel,there were those who were teaching that faith in Christ was not enough you needed to be circumcised.They were seeking to draw back these believers to a gospel based on the law, so they are told,' Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God , because the righteous shall live by faith . ( 3 v 11) How was Abraham justified?,the answer is,'He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness'. ( 3 v 6)So like Abraham ,the moment we trust Jesus, we are saved, there can be no add on's. We read in the book of Jonah that salvation is of the Lord ( 2 v 9)it means what it says,the man who said this ,could do nothing to save himself,God had to do it all.  The work of salvation is unique without equal or like,we read in Hebrews 9 v 22,'Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness'. When Christ died on the cross, it was a sacrifice for sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus can save ,when I say nothing I mean nothing. It is important to add,that sacrifice cannot be repeated,Christ was sacrificed once to take away sin ( 9 v 22), Christ put an end of sacrifices, by His one time sacrifice. CP Hebrews 10 v 1 - 14 .So were do works fit in?,we will look at this next time.

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What must I do to be saved? 1

 Yes ,what can one do be saved?,it is a very important question, is it faith and works?did the reformers get it wrong when they declared we are saved by faith alone,or  did the Roman Catholic Church get it right when they said faith and works save?. Surely the Roman Catholic church were right,after all they were the established church,what right had anybody to question,what the church said?.I have mentioned before the book  called ,'The Bad Popes',it is not a anti Catholic book,the writer is just telling how it was,it was deplorable,in the extreme.The foundation on which the reformers based their belief that one is saved by faith alone,was the word of God.The Roman Catholic Church  foundation for their beliefs, is built on the Word of God ,plus church tradition,and church teaching,in their eyes they are all equally valid. The question is this, what does one do if church tradition,and church teaching goes against the word of  God?. In Ephesians 2 v 20,we read,that the foundation of the church  ,'is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,with Christ Jesus Himself  as the Chief corner stone.'The truths that we have  been given are to be found only in God's word, inevitably those,'add on's', contradict God's word,and must be rejected. We will continue this next time.