A Pastor

Jeremiah 17:16-17 KJV
As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before thee.
Be not a terror unto me: thou art my hope in the day of evil.

Though Jeremiah did not believe himself to be "qualified" to be the man of God he had been called to be, yet he was not hesitant to follow the Lord in this calling. Jeremiah could foretell that his ministry was going to be one of trouble and woe and he did not enter into it lightly.

Jeremiah could also foresee that the message he would bring was one of judgment to the people of Israel and he was quick to say that it wasn't a message he was anxious to see come to pass.

A pastor is called of God to preach a difficult message to a stiff necked people, yet:
His ministry must be one of following the Lord
His message must be right before the Lord
His manner must be tender toward the congregants and
His hope must be in the Lord

It Will Be All Right

Jeremiah 15:11 KJV
The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

This is a great promise in God's Word.

The Prophet is speaking about the remnant of those faithful to the Lord. Among the Jews, though the most of them had completely turned from a true walk with the living God, still there were some that had remained faithful. To those God promises that it would be well with them.

They were sinners just as the rest of the Jews were. We all are. And as sinners they would also experience the chastisement of God.
They would too be captured by the enemy.
They would too be dispossessed of their land
They would too be carried off to foreign places
But God said of them that, though they were chastened, it would be all right. It would be well with them.

We live in sinful times. And even those Christian who today strive to live for the Lord get caught up in the sins of the present evil world. We do things that are wrong and sometimes we have trouble seeing the error of tem because they are so prominent in our world. For these sins we must be corrected. But it will still be well with us. God's chastening in meant to be corrective on our part and not punitive. Our judgment has been paid; the wrath of God has been revealed for us against Christ Jesus. Yes; God longs to make us Christlike, but He has no intention of destroying us.

Praise God, it shall be well with thy remnant.

Why We Wait Upon God

Jeremiah 14:22 KJV
Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

The Prophet gives good reason to wait upon the Lord....

First, because the gods of the Gentile world are just vanities.They are false
They are useless and
They are powerless

The land was in a drought when the Prophet spoke these words. And none of the vanites of the Gentiles could have done anything to correct it.

Secondly, the Lord has made all thingsGod is real
God is alive
God is powerful and
God is capable to answering the prayers of those who call upon Him

It is obvious why a man would wait upon the Lord. There is no other one upon whom to wait.

I Think The Christians Controlled This

Acts 5:27-28 KJV
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

This passage just caught me as hilarious this morning. Here are the Sanhedrin. They think they are the great leaders and in charge of their nation (though they were under subjection to Roman authorities) They saw themselves as having the power to command men both politically and spiritually.

In an attempt to squelch the preaching of Christ they had the apostles arrested and imprisoned. But the angel of the Lord released them the first night. The apostles did not flee in fright but went right back into the most public place in Jerusalem and began to preach the very message they were originally arrested for. When the soldiers came for them, they were taken without violence and the Bible says the reason they took them so peacefully is because they, the soldiers, were afraid of being stoned by the people. Then these apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin where the Bible says the high priest "asked them."

It is ironic. The ones who were really in authority here are the Apostles.

We, who are Christians, sometimes allow this world to intimidate us more than we think. It is true that we are the fewest in number and that this world appears to be the great authority of this world. It might appear that Satan has the upper hand and we might thnk our only recourse is to "hold the fort." That is not the case. We in fact are the salt and light of this world. Without us this world would collapse into sinful anarchy and chaos. We do not need to fret. We do not need to panic or pick up a sword and fight. All we need to do is obey God rather than men.

Who Would Not Fear Thee?

Jeremiah 10:7 KJV
Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
Jeremiah exclaims one of the most obvious and important truths in the world; that there is none like God. God is so much above all that is in the world Jeremiah retorically asks, "Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?"

The Lord is the true and living God; who would not fear Him?
vs 10

All of the gods of this world are no only less gods than is the living God, they are no gods at all, they are false gods. They are fake, powerless and worthless.

Not so the Lord. He is true. His Word is real and His existence is evident. He is living; He is aware, He is present, He is thoughtful and He cares.

The Lord is great; who would not fear Him?
vs 6

This greatness has to do with magnificence and wonder. God is truly good. The Lord is mighty and high. He is all glorious.


The Lord is powerful and the Creator; who would not fear Him?
vs 12

All that is exists because of the will of Almighty God. He ordained it to be so and then He spake and it was so.

Any thinking person, who has the conviction in his heart that this God exists, would be wise to fear Him and come to Him for salvation and for service.

Reasonable

Jeremiah 8:4 KJV
Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
The questions in this passage are meant to be rhetorical. Of course when a man falls he he gets up again. of course when ne takes a wrong path he eventually wants to get back on the right path.

If that is true in the physical world, then it ought to be true in the spiritual world as well. It is meant to reason with and bring logic into the discussion of the spiritual. The only right, sensible and reasonable thing for a man who has gone away from God to do is to come back to him.

Mankind as a whole has fallen from God.
Adam and Eve brought sin into the world and through them all of mankind once knew God but is now out of fellowship with him. It is only reasonable to insist that men should arise and return to God

Individuals turn from The Lord in their own self will
So we can't blame all our spiritual problems upon Adam and Eve. Truth be told, we would do as much or worse tan they. The sensible thing to do is get up and make things right with God.

Christians slip out of close fellowship with the Lord too.
And when that happens the thing to is confess it and get right.

It is only sensible, logical and reasonable.

Power

Acts 1:7-8 KJV
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

There is a play on words that happens in verses 7 and 8 that caught my eye this morning.

In verse seven Jesus told the disciples that the Father had put the knowledge of times and seasons (referring to His kingdom) in His own power. But in verse eight, just five words later, Jesus offers those same disciples a power they could possess. Though they could not possess the power to know when God's kingdom will come, they would possess the power to be witnesses for the sake of Jesus Christ.

The two Greek words translated power are different. The first is a word meaning privilege. The Father's position as the Almighty and omniscient One gives Him the privilege of being the only One to know when the kingdom of heaven will come. The second is the word from which we get our word dynamite. It means a force or even a miraculous power.

It is not for us to know the time when our Lord will return, call the Christians to glory and establish His kingdom upon this earth. That is something that belongs only to the Potentate of the universe. But God has given to us a power, more remarkable than anything we could have ever really imagined; the power to be witnesses and to see souls converted from children of darkness to children of the light.

Only

Jeremiah 3:12-13 KJV
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

I don't know that I had ever considered this before, but these words have a missionary impact as well as an evangelistic one. Jeremiah is a preacher to the southern kingdom. His focus will be on Jerusalem and an effort to get them to repent and accept the judgment of God upon them through Babylon. But that does not mean that he has no interest in the northern kingdom of Israel. God calls upon him to preach to the north that they ought to return to the Lord as well as should the southern kingdom.

My focus this morning is on the longsuffering nature of God. The northern kingdom was in such poor spiritual condition that God would soon send them into such devastation that they have not regained their full heritage even today. Records were so destroyed that no one to this day knows which Jews are of the 10 northern tribes, only that they are Jews. And yet, God calls to them through the prophet
Return
I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you
I am merciful

And then God gives them such a simple step to return, "Only acknowledge thine iniquity..." If they would have simply acknowledged that they had "transgressed against the Lord" they could have been spared judgment.

God's call to us is not complicated and impossible to do. It isn't something that takes years of counseling and strict discipline to accomplish. It is this easy to return to the Lord and be restored to His side; "Only acknowledge thine iniquity..."

No; For I Have Loved Strangers

Jeremiah 2:25 KJV
Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
The bondage of sin is incredible. Here is God offering the best for His creation. Here is God reminding them of that time when they were young and kind, when they were in love and when they followed after God through the wilderness.

And yet over time these people had turned from the Lord. False gods and people of strange lands had turned their hearts from following the Lord to other and varied sins.

And now, though God was still calling them to come unto Him, their own testimony was "There is no hope"

They felt that way not because God had abandoned them
They felt that way not because God was unable to forgive them
They felt that way not because false god were more powerful than is the true and living God
They felt that way because they loved their sin and refused to turn away from it.

Though the sin offered them no hope
Though the sin was destroying them and they knew it
Still, they refused to turn from it.

Lord, open our eyes! Help us to see the bondage of sin and cause us to break free and turn to You alone. In You there is always hope!

Behold

Isaiah 65:1 KJV
I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.

I am always fascinated with the missions thrust of the Old Testament. The Jewish people thought of themselves as the exclusive love children of the Lord. The truth is though, that God had given them every reason to know that God's heart was not merely for the Jews, but for all the world.

Now see what God's call is to those who had found Him thought they had not sought Him; "Behold me, behold me...."
If only a man will take a good long look toward the Lord
If only we will behold Him

How can we then refuse Him?
He is altogether good
He is supreme
He is glorious to behold
He is righteous and pure
He is wise
He is caring toward His creation
He is forgiving
He is longsuffering
Behold Him. And walk with Him.

We Can't Imagine!

Isaiah 64:4 KJV
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
The Apostle Paul said,
Romans 8:18 KJV
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Paul was well aware of Isaiah 64:4 and quotes it in 1 Corinthians 2:9. He knows of what he speaks. The reason why the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us is because what God has prepared for those who wait for Him are unimaginable to the man who is trapped on this planet.
Men have not heard
Ears have not perceived
Eyes have not seen
Only God knows what He has prepared for those that wait for Him.

Now I did want to explore briefly the fact that Paul's quote of this verse is not exact, especially that he said love Him rather than wait for him.

The word wait means to adhere.
The Greek word in 1 Corinthians 2:9 translated love is agape.

The translators did the right thing by using the word "love" in the New Testament text. The answer for the difference is found in the fact that the Apostle Paul, who is as equally inspired as Isaiah was in his text, gives us us a further definition of what it means to love. Love waits. Love lingers and tarries and takes all the time it must for the subject of its affections.

Security

John 17:11 KJV
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
Scofield's notes on John 17:2 says in part,
"...It is Christ who commits the believer to the Father for safe keeping, so that the believer's security rests upon the Father's faithfulness to His Son Jesus Christ. "

What an encouraging thought and what a security this brings to the believer when we come to see that Christ asks His Heavenly Father to keep us through His own name.
Our security is not found in our strength to live the Christian life
Our security is not even found in Christ's all powerful ability to keep what we have committed to Him
Our security is found in Christ's relationship with His Heavenly Father.
We are as eternally secure as is the relationship Jesus Christ has with God the Father.

God Wondered

Isaiah 59:16 KJV
And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

I wondered at the word "wondered" this morning. The word means to be stunned, amazed, stupefied. And the word is ascribed to God.

Now this does not mean that there is anything that God is shocked at and stunned it could happen. This is anthropomorphism. It is God describing Himself in a characteristic that is human like for our benefit. It is similar to portions that describe God taking us under His wing: it does not mean that we should insist that God actually has wings. The phrase is meant to describe an action of the Lord in a term that we can embrace and grasp.

So look at this. God wondered that there was no intercessor. He studied and looked across the field of humanity and was stunned that no man would or for that matter could mediate between Himself and mankind. Out of the billions of people who have been born into this world
There is not one that is sin free.
There is not one who searches after God.
There is not one who would or could offer Himself on the behalf of fallen man

Imagine that!
Meditate upon that!

God does!

But then move on to the next portion of the verse. God could not find a man who would or could intercede so look what God did.

God Himself brought to man salvation
God Himself brought a righteousness that could sustain man

No man would make peace with God
No man could make peace with God

So God made peace for man.

Praise God.

Abide

John 15:7 KJV
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

I liked what Scofield's Notes has to say about abiding;
"To abide in Christ is, on the one hand, to have no known sin unjudged and unconfessed, no interest into which He is not brought, no life which He cannot share. On the other hand, the abiding one takes all burdens to Him, and draws all wisdom, life and strength from Him. It is not unceasing consciousness of these things, and of Him, but that nothing is allowed in the life which separates from Him. "

It must be the desire of every believer that we abide in Christ and that His words abide in us. In the world in which we find ourselves we must allow our minds to occupied with thoughts other than of Christ and the Word of God.
We must concentrate on our families and give them time and attention
We must reach out to others and give them care and concern
We must be honest with our employer and give them due diligence on the job

But even thought there are times when our mind may not be able to be fully devoted to thoughts of Christ and meditations of Scripture there is no moment in the life of the believer when we need to be separated from Christ and His Word through unconfessed sin or other things that cause a separation from the Lord.

For A Small Moment

Isaiah 54:7 KJV
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.

Gill says of this passage,
"...Some interpret this of the seventy years' captivity of the Jews in Babylon, which was but a very short time; others of the times of ignorance in the Gentile world before the coming of Christ, which God winked at, when he overlooked them, and took no notice of them; but I choose to understand it of the time and state of the Christian church, during the ten persecutions of Rome Pagan, when it seemed to be forsaken of God, and to be triumphed over by her enemies..."

What an encouraging promise this is the the believer in his time of trouble. Sometimes a moment seems like an eternity for us. Seventy years was a lifetime for some Jew
Those Christians who endured the tortures of Pagan Rome were oftentimes taken to their deaths in that moment.

But these things are true even in the midst of the trouble
First, God has not truly forsaken His own. It only feels like that in the time of purging and refinement. It is in reality God's hand molding us into a far better image.
Second, a lifetime here is but a moment of eternity. Any degree of suffering here is nothing compared to the blessings of heaven. Paul said
Romans 8:18 KJV
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
The second half of the verse is reminiscent of the rapture. What a glorious day that will be when the saints of God, both those who have entered into rest from their sufferings and those who are still suffering in life on this planet, are gathered together to meet the Lord in the air.

Even so come, Lord Jesus!

Look

Isaiah 51:1 KJV
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

God has a clear message for those who follow after righteousness and seek the Lord. We are to do two things:

Look unto the rock whence we are hewn
Look to the hole of the pit whence we are digged

From the following verse it becomes obvious that the first interpretation is to look to Abraham and Sarah. Look back to what the Lord has done through plain people.

Abraham and Sarah were not super human by any means. When the Lord called them they were people of a pagan land. When God called them they only partially obeyed at first, thought they did obey. And through their lives they faced struggles and trials,
Some physical
Some natural and
Some spiritual
Yet from them God raised up
A nation for Himself
A Saviour for His people and
A hope for all mankind

We are not much. But we never had to be. What we need to be is simply encouraged to keeping following after righteousness and keep seeking the Lord. In those pursuits we might change eternity for souls around us.

The Judgment of this World Is Done

John 12:31 KJV
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

Though the world was not judged in the same sense it will be judged when the wrath of God is poured out, the world was judged in a more significant way at this time; this is when the judgment of the world was poured out in all of its fury upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Others had died the death of crucifixion but
Of no other did God make them to be sin for the whole world.
Of no other did not sun refuse to shine at the noon time and
Of no other does the Bible say their visage was so marred it was almost not possible to make him out as a man

When Christ went on the cross, the righteous for the sinner, all of the wrath of God, His judgment of the world, was focus on that one Person at the one time. Truly that was the judgment of the world. Now, any and all who will flee to Christ may find shelter and eternal safety from the wrath of God.

That this passage is specifically speaking of that judgment is demonstrated by our Lord's next statement, "...now is the prince of this world cast out." This judgment sealed the doom of Satan. This judgment finalized God's sentence against the devil.

Prayer, Promise and Preaching

Isaiah 45:8 KJV
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
Isaiah 46:3-4 KJV
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.


Isaiah 46:12-13 KJV
Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness:
I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
Having read chapters 45 and 46 together in my devotional time I came to place these three passages together as unit. IN them I find:

A prayer
Isa 45:8
I am praying today that the skies will pour down righteousness and bring forth salvation.

A promiseIsa 46:3-4
What a promise for God's children. He has made us and He will
Bear
Carry and
Deliver us
Some preaching
Isa 46:12-13
To the stouthearted and those who do not know the Lord, God says "Hearken!" "Hear this!" "I will bring my righteousness, ...and my salvation shall not tarry..."

The time to trust Christ for salvation is now!

Just Speak the Truth

John 10:40-42 KJV
And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.
And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true.
And many believed on him there.
The thought of this is tender to me, here is Jesus Christ returning to the place where John the Baptist had baptized Him. I do not know if the Lord did that for sentimental reasons, but the occasion did cause those who were following Him to reflect back on John the Baptist.

Their reflections brought them to this conclusion; while John the Baptist did no miracles, he did speak the truth about Jesus Christ.

And the Bible says that many believed on Him there.

This is good news to me. I do not need to be a miracle worker to be a servant of the Lord. I don't have to do fabulous and striking things in order to bring people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. All I need to do is to tell them the truth about Jesus Christ.

John's message concerning Jesus was, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of world." And that is the only message I need to preach. Be faithful with that and there will be people who believe on Him.

For My Glory

Isaiah 43:6-7 KJV
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

The passage is specifically to the Jews but has an equal application to present day believers. The Word of God says God will call to the north and to the south (and I believe by way of implication to east and west as well) saying, "...bring my sons from far..."

God is calling men and women from every corner of the earth to come unto Him and be saved. Of those that hear and respond the Bible says,
I have created him for my glory
I have formed him
I have made him

When we respond to the gospel we may be assured that we did that because of God's interest in us and not of our own free will. God did what God did in us and not we ourselves.

And we may be assured of this, He did what He did in us for His own glory.

God use me for thy glory.

God's Doing What Can't Be Done

Isaiah 41:18-19 KJV
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:

It has not been that long ago where I read of Scofield's notes a commentary about the Christian prayer life. He said that prayer is a son making request of His Almighty Father and therefore the requests may transcend natural boundaries. Here is an example of just that. God is promising to Israel things that are outside of the natural boundaries. They exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think.

Rivers where no rivers are
Pools of water in wilderness and dry land areas
Trees in the desert places

The prophetical record reveals that all of these will happen, not figuratively, but literally in the Millennial Kingdom.

But I am asking for their spiritual counterparts in our ministry today.

There are people whose spiritual lives are like high places. They cannot be scaled by the average believer. They are unapproachable in order to reach them with the gospel.
There are people whose life is so spiritually parched and barren it is difficult to see how the gospel could ever spring to life within them
There are those whose lives have no fruit, no evidence of the Spirit's working in them

I am praying that our Heavenly Father do what seems impossible and unnatural.
I am praying that the most unreachable be reached
I am praying the the most barren and dry, spring forth with living waters
I am praying that the least likely to bear fruit would abound in the trees of God

Comfort

Isaiah 40:1-2 KJV
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

Scofield says, "The first two verses of Isaiah 40 give the key-note of the second part of the prophecy of Isaiah. The great theme of this section is Jesus Christ in His sufferings, and the glory that shall follow in the Davidic kingdom. "

While we can't know how long before the Lord will come and bring such comfort to the Jews as a people, we can be thankful for the wonderful privilege of preaching this comfort to all who trust in Christ. It is as if the change in temperament that begins in Isaiah 40 is a micro picture of the change that happens between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament we are made aware of the sin of man against a holy God. We learn that man can never do well enough to please God and that even the very best of men are, at best, still sinners.

But the New Testament offers the answer to the predicament mankind finds itself in. Knowing that man will never satisfy the justice of God for the penalty of our sins, God Himself offers the one sacrifice that could forever satisfy God; Himself. God came in human flesh and named Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life to demonstrate His holiness and then He died as our substitute on Calvary's cross.

And through Jesus Christ there is comfort.
Praise the Lord.

It Is The Spirit That Quickeneth

John 6:63 KJV
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Up to this point in the ministry of Christ, His following was huge. Thousands of people came to see and hear Him. But Jesus said they only came for the food and not because of the miracles. In other words, they did not believe He was the Son of God, they just believed they could benefit from hanging around Him. Jesus was not interested in attracting large crowds of people though. His concern was only for the soul and the soul, in order to be saved, had to trust Christ as the Christ.

Our world is filled, I think, with the same problem that we find in this chapter. We have congregations filled with people who only come for the personal benefit. They have been taught to stroke their "What's in it for me?" flesh. It might begin with the personal benefit being "heaven instead of hell" but even that, for them, isn't built upon a sound foundation. And these followers will all eventually fall away when the benefits to them dry up.

The only sure reason to follow Christ is revealed by the apostles. The reason we follow Christ is merely because He has the "words of eternal life." We follow Christ because we believe and are sure that He is Christ.

Now here is the thing; Jesus said "It is the Spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth nothing...." There is no amount of logic, reason or salesmanship that can quicken the soul. The best that human flesh can ever do is gather a crowd based upon some sort of selfish motive. Jesus was content to let the crowd go away, not willing to stroke the flesh but minister instead to those whom the Spirit had quickened.

A tougher road to be sure, but one that really does have eternal rewards!

The Scriptures

John 5:39 KJV
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

These words were spoken to an unbelieving crowd of Jews seeking to kill Him because He had said God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. To that Jesus responded by giving the crowd four witnesses of the truth of His relationship with God
God the Father
John the Baptist
His own works
The Scriptures

Concerning the Scriptures, Jesus laid upon them a responsibility; they were to search the Scriptures. All of the truth we need to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is found in the Word of God. No man will be without excuse if he does not know Christ through the Word of God.

Search the Scriptures and see the other witnesses of Christ's Person
Search the Scriptures to know Jesus Christ
Search the Scriptures to have eternal life

I Know That Messias Cometh

John 4:25 KJV
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

The woman is a Samaritan. She is despised by the Jews and she is a soiled Samaritan woman at that. And yet she knew and believed the promise that one day the Messiah would come and "tell us all things."

I was reminded today that we never know who it is whose heart is just searching for the truth. Here is a woman whose life appears to be a total wreck, yet she is searching, hoping, longing for the day when the Lord will help her to know the truth of the spiritual life. I wonder how many people just like her live and work and walk the streets around us and we never realize they are looking for the answers we as believers are sure to have?

And then, when this woman saw te truth, she turned out to be the key to reaching almost a whole city. The most unlikely soul may be the very person who could turn a ministry from one that is ding little for Christ to one that has major impact in a community.

It is never a waste to go out of our way to witness to the least of all people.

The Wind Bloweth

John 3:8 KJV
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

My wife and I were watching the game show Jeopardy a week or so ago when one of the contestants was introduced as a scientist. He worked on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States studying hurricanes. He speculated that if they could understand a hurricane, perhaps they could control its impact. Alex asked "Do you understand hurricanes?" to which this scientist quickly and authoritatively answered, "No!" Even with all of our advancements, we still do not know "whence it cometh and whither it goeth."

The same is true of the spiritual life. The new birth is work that God does. Men would love to know how to control it, how to get people saved we want to be saved, how to control the work of the spirit of God in a person's life. But the truth is, we cannot. The best we can do is create a shallow and superficial form of religion that will not last in a man's life and cannot change a man's soul.

So what do we do? We wake up each morning trusting the Lord to do as He pleases in the hearts and souls of men.
We serve the Lord
We study His Word
We worship and glorify Christ

And we let the wind blow where it listeth.

My Strength

Isaiah 27:5 KJV
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
This passage is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ.

Gill says
"Not on the law, as the Targum and Kimchi; but on Christ, as Jerom rightly interprets it; who is the strength and power of God, the man of his right hand he has made strong for himself; a strong tower, as the word signifies, a rock of defence, to whom saints may betake themselves, and be safe; in him they have righteousness and strength; in him is everlasting strength."

I love that title for Jesus Christ; "my strength."
The person who takes hold of Christ so "that he may make peace" with God will find that "he shall make peace" with God. It is a sure thing.

Jesus is God's strength for countless reasons, but none more significant to the soul in need of forgiveness than that He is the strength of God for salvation.

He is strong and will not fail
He is strong and able to hold on to that which We have committed to Him
He is strong and well able to defeat al our adversaries

God's Vineyard

Isaiah 27:2-4 KJV
In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Fury is not in me ...

This is a tender and precious pieces of Scripture. Gill spends some good deal of time expressing how this vineyard is like, not only the Jews but also the New Testament Church. See what the Lord does with His vineyard....

First, the Lord keeps it HimselfHe has ministers and servants who are called of him into the fields but still He keeps this Himself. If any of the workers should fail in their duties, the Lord will not fail.

Secondly He waters it
And not just sporadically and from time to time; He does so every moment.
He never lets off
He never forgets
He never quits
Though there are times when we may not sense His loving care and presence still we may be assured of it through the promise of the Word of God.

Thirdly He keeps it night and dayIn the times of darkness and in the times of light; in the good times and in the difficult times, God is about the business of tending to His vineyard. History has seen some dark days for the believers in Christ. This should not be taken to mean that those were days when God had left off His vineyard. The tending may have been painful, but it was not without purpose and meaning and the hand and supervision and blessing of God upon it.

Jesus Himself

Luke 24:15 KJV
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

Several thoughts came to mind:

"And it came to pass"
Things happen, some good and some not so good. The disciples had just experienced terrible tragedy with the death of Christ. They were reeling with the news that His body was missing and the talk of His possibly being alive. All of a sudden, "Christ Himself drew near." We never know when our own troubles will be dissolved away as Christ Himself draws near.

"While they communed together."
This is the appropriate and Scriptural activity of believers; we commune together. We do that for our mutual benefit and exhortation. We do that to grow in our faith. We do that to be held accountable in our walk.

"Jesus Himself drew near"
It is probably stretching the passage to assert that He drew near because they were communing together. But it is certainly not wrong to suggest that He is more likely to draw near when believers are doing what believers ought to be doing.

"and went with them."
More than merely brushing close by and then escaping their presence, Christ drew near to them and went with them. This is the goal of my life. I long to live in the presence of Christ, with Him going with me in all things.

The Spoiler Spoileth

Isaiah 21:2 KJV
A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

Many years ago I heard a pastor say that, while he could not prove it Biblically, he believed that people will be trapped in all eternity in the same place they were in when they finished life.
The envious will be trapped with the spirit of envy
The angry will be trapped in anger
The stingy will be trapped in that same spirit eternally

He went on to say that He believed
Those who were givers will be giving eternally
Those that were cheerful will be cheerful eternally and
Etc

This verse is not a proof of his assertion but it does tell us that a tree always produces it own manner of fruit.

The treacherous dealer does what is natural for him, he deals treacherously
The spoiler does what a spoiler would do; he spoils

I have observed this truth in men
Those who are given to anger get angry
Those who are given to gossip, will gossip
Those who are problem causers cause problems

It might be that for a time they put on a different face and appear to have changed their ways
It might be they have excuses for why they have done what they have done in the past and they convince us they will not do it again....

But it never fails
Those who are quitters eventually quit
Those who are complainers eventually complain
Those who are thieves eventually steal
Those who are adulterers eventually offend

It is their nature.
It is who they are.

And their is only one hope; they must confront their very nature. They can't coddle it, and neither can they allow others to coddle it with them. They can't excuse it, hide from it or find a new place to begin again. Unless they confront their nature and slay it in Jesus Christ, they will only do what is natural for their nature to do.

Sighing won't help
Apologies won't do it

Only one thing will work; the sin nature must be besieged, starved out and destroyed.

They Sought How

Luke 22:2-3 KJV
And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.

I am always amazed when I read this.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of the universe. He is in control of all things. He has the power to cause anything to happen that He chooses. The Bible says, Proverbs 21:1 KJV
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

Obviously God could have worked it out that the chief priests and scribes did not wat to kill the Lord, and surely the Lord could have seen to it that, though they sought how they might kill Him, they could not find a way.

Not so. As soon as the Bible says they sought how, Satan entered into Judas and compelled him to betray Him.

Three enemies, all coming together at the one moment when Christ was vulnerable.

I am reminded once again not to allow my attachments to this world to be too strong and not to place my hopes in Christ upon what sorts of "blessings" I experience in this world. This world is not a friendly place to believers. We have perhaps been given a few years of ease as Christians, but not for our good. They may have just been tools of Satan to cause us to get our eyes off of what real faith is so that, when the troubles begin we have false expectations of the Lord and are disillusioned when God doesn't do for us as we thought He would.

Father, give me true faith and the heart to follow You wherever You lead me.

The Cares of This Life

Luke 21:34 KJV
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

The context is, of course, the imminent and surprising return of Jesus Christ. His coming will be in such a manner that the greatest number of people on the earth will be caught unprepared. In this passage Jesus lists three things that can so overcharge our hearts that we would be caught unawares

Surfeiting -It means an illness due to overindulgence either to food or alcohol. Americans may be the guiltiest of anyone in the world for this. The medical community tells us that the leading causes of death and serious illness in the United States are almost all caused by our habits of eating.

Drunkenness -
Means just exactly what it sounds like.

Cares of this life-
Here is the surprising one and the one I focused my attention on this morning. Jesus lumped the cares of this life in with such obvious evils as surfeiting and drunkenness. Things like,
Paying the bills
Making a living
Raising our children
Carry with them the same spiritual risk as does obviously sinfulness if we allow them to so preoccupy or minds as to not seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. The best of intentions can leave a man spiritually destitute if they are only intentions pertaining to this life.

Our attention needs to be solely upon the things of the eternal life. Our efforts in this life need to be efforts to prepare ourselves and others for the life that we will all live when this life is done. The best and most fulfilling life on earth is a life lived for the life in heaven.

Crushed For Good

Luke 20:18 KJV
Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
All of the commentaries in my possession make the "but" in this verse more "and,"
Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; [AND] on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

In doing so they make it that one judgment builds upon the other rather than one being a contrast of the other.

The context seems to support that sort of thinking. In verse 19 the Bible says that the chief priests and scribes perceived that this parable was a judgment against them. In that case, each statement would be negative and neither having any positive application.

However I would like to consider the two as contrasting. The language of the passage, I believe, at least gives occasion to discuss the possibility of that application.

To fall upon the stone willing and voluntarily is to submit or to surrender to that stone.To those who surrender to Jesus Christ, the Bible says they shall be broken. The word means to be "shattered" or "dashed together" also to be crushed. Oh how the sin nature of a man needs to be crushed, dashed and shattered. Nothing of the sin nature is worth remaining. It all needs to be destroyed altogether.

To have the stone fall upon us means that this is something God does to us.In the negative sense it may speak of the lost man who, despite his protests that there is no God or that God has no right to judge him, finds one day that the almighty God does in fact not only have the right, but the authority and the power to do so.
What a tragedy it is when a man lives without God and finds in the end that God is the judge of all men, only this man's judgment will be eternal in hell.

In a positive sense, however, I think of the one who has fallen upon the stone and having so fallen, the stone now falls upon him. In one sense I may fall upon Jesus Christ and surrender my sin nature to Him. I may humble myself and call upon Him and ask Him to cleanse and make me whole. But in another sense, for that cleansing to be effected something else must happen; it cannot stop with my voluntary submission because my sin nature is too quick to pick itself up, dust itself off and take charge again. If I am to be cleansed of sin, Christ must take on the work of "grinding that sin nature to powder."

May the Lord complete His work in me.
May I not be content until my sin nature has been ground under the Stone Jesus Christ and blown away as chaff in the wind of the Holy Ghost.

That Day

Isaiah 12:1 KJV
And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.

For the Jews as a people this day has not yet come. But for any who have placed faith in Christ this day is already a reality.
Because of the Lord Jesus Christ God's anger is turned away and
Because of the Holy Spirit of God, we have a present Comforter.

What a blessing it is to be a child of God!
That the anger of the Lord has be dispatched and that we today enjoy the blessing of fellowship and relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ makes this the most marvelous of times in which to live.

To bask in the radiant joy of sonship
To revel in the liberty of peace with God
To look heavenward to the soon coming of our Saviour
Truly these are joys beyond compare!

For

Isaiah 9:6 KJV
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Sometimes we see those well known verses in the Bible so clearly that we fail to see those other verses that are in their context. I noticed this morning that there is in this chapter a growing promise that climaxes with vs 9-10

For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden
Vs 4
Of those that have been in darkness. What an amazing act of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised, not in the middle of Jerusalem, but in the area of the northern kingdom.

For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise
Vs 5
He broke the yoke and eased the burden and confused the enemy of His people.

For unto us a child is born
Vs 6
And He did it all through a child. He is not any child, I'll give you that. He is Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God.....
Christ is the answer to the dimness and darkness of this world
Christ is the answer to the burdens and bondage of this world and
Christ is the answer to the battles and enemies we have in this world

The Bottom Line

Luke 17:5 KJV
And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

This is perhaps the purest prayer any believer can ever pray. I notice

The ground for itVs 1-4

Jesus had just instructed them that they were to forgive those who trespass against them as many times as they trespass against them. Human nature tell us the difficulty of the command and thus they ask, "Lord, Increase our faith."

The encouragement toward itVs 6

The power of faith is virtually unlimited except for our ability to possess it. It is as if the Lord answered their request for increased faith by saying, "That is certainly a worthy request."

The bottom line concerning it
Vs 7-10

This parable comes back, not to the subject of faith, but to the subject of forgiveness. As powerful as faith is and as much as the disciples of Christ need that faith, the bottom line is, we just need to do what is our duty to do.

We are told to forgive.
It may be difficult
It may be distasteful to us
It may be the last thing we think we should do

But the bottom line is that Jesus told us to do it.

The Lord Himself

Isaiah 7:14 KJV
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The coming of Christ was not something that men asked for or could have dreamed up. It was "the Lord Himself" who gave us Christ.

Truly the coming of Christ is
Ephesians 3:20 KJV
..... exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

The grace
The love
The longsuffering
Of God that is demonstrated in His planning and giving His only begotten Son that men would have opportunity to be saved is remarkable in the extreme.

Heavenly Father, I am without words to give praise to You for this unspeakable gift.

Wild Grapes

Isaiah 5:2 KJV
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

I one time heard a pastor say that his pastor's last advice to him before he took a pastorate was "Just don't be a wild grape" and referenced this passage. The problem with counsel like that is that it is open to a pretty broad range of interpretation. I personally believe that young pastor is a wild grape, ignoring the cause of Christ for his own advancement. Just what is this wild grape of the passage?

The wild grape is not what the master desired
Our task as believers is not merely to be, not merely to be active, not merely to do.
We are to be what God creates us to be
We are to be active about the work that God ordains and
We are to do things in obedience to His Word

The wild grape is bitter and useless as a fruit
The wild grape merely gobbles up the resources and choke out the potential for the good fruit. The wild grape leaves a bad taste in the mouth and makes the fruit of the vineyard that much less desirable to others.

The wild grape may produce much, but it has no profit
Like those whose reward is wood hay and stubble, though the wild grape may fill houses full of people and make much ado about their achievements, what they have produced is worthless and they will suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ.

We do not need to drive to accomplish anything. What we need to do is simply let the Lord work us in His own vineyard until He is able to produce from us that fruit which pleases Him. Anything else will just turn out bitter.

It Shall Be Well

Isaiah 3:10 KJV
Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

Gill says,
"The Lord always has some righteous ones, in the worst of times, whom he can and does distinguish, single out, and take care of....."

This word of encouragement ought to be on the lips of every believer today. Though our times may not be as terrible as things were in Isaiah's day, still they are are not moving toward better times but worse. Though there has been a kind reprieve in of Christian suffering (at least in the United States) we should not expect it to become easier to be a Christian.

• Evil men will, as the Bible foretells, wax worse and worse.
• Unbelief will become more and more dominant.
• False Christs and false prophets will rise in greater numbers and
• False believers will be the result

Through it all we have this comfort to all genuine believers, "it shall be well with him." God will distinguish, single out and take care of His own.

For a video version of this post click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLDpBpELv7c

An Invitation

Isaiah 2:5 KJV
O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Every Christian ought to be heard making this invitation to the souls of men and women around them.

O house of Jacob
It is a specific invitation. It calls on a name. I know that the house of Jacob refers to all of Israel. But this name is personal. Let us be personal with people. Let us get to know them and give them personal and thus more compelling invitations.

Come ye
Not just "go ye" as in "this is something you should do", but "come ye" as in "with me."

Mike Riggs was the man who brought me to church. Mike was not content merely to invite me. Mike came and got me and drove me to church.

Let us walk in the light of the LORD
Let's do more than just go to a service and put in our time. Let's make this our way of life. Let's let the LORD illuminate the path of our feet and let us walk in that well lit path together.

Striving Versus Seeking

Luke 13:24 KJV
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

I am looking at the difference between striving and seeking.

Jesus said many would seek but only a few will find salvation.

The word strive means to struggle, contend or labor fervently.
The word seek means, positively, to worship or negatively to plot or desire.

Salvation is more than a worship experience
It is more than a desire
It is more than a plot or plan
While there is no work involved in being saved, it does not come by wishful thinking or the cunning of religion. There is a struggle involved. A man ust wrestle with his sin. He must realize the awful condition his sin has left him in and he must through faith that only God can give him become convinced that only through Christ is salvation to be gained.

Churches are filled with people who want to be saved, want to go to heaven, but their desire will not be fulfilled. They have worshiped, they have plotted, they have hoped in salvation, but they have missed Calvary.

John 10:9 KJV
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Father, let us see Calvary.

What We Should Speak Of

Song of Solomon 6:1 KJV
Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.

There is a change in heart toward the bridegroom among the daughters of Jerusalem. As soon as the bride begins to give witness to the character and beautify of the bridegroom those daughters of Jerusalem also ask to seek Him.

Prior to this they persecuted the bride and despised the groom.

Our place as Christians is not to speak about
How well we have it as believers
How wonderful it is to be chosen
How great are the Lord's promises to us

Our place is to speak of the glory and honor and majesty and beauty of the Lord. When we do that others will be interested in seeking His with us.

More Than Science Can Suppose

Luke 11:2 KJV
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Scofield's notes were particularly encouraging this morning:

"In the Sermon on the Mount Christ had announced the new basis of prayer, namely: relationship. The believer is a child of God through the new birth.

The clear revelation of this fact at once establishes the reasonableness of prayer; a reasonableness against which the argument from the apparent uniformity of natural law shatters itself. God is more than a Creator, bringing a universe into being, and establishing laws for it; more than a decree-maker determining future events by an eternal fiat. Above all this is the divine family for whom the universe with its laws exists.

When ye pray, say, Our Father." What God habitually does in the material universe concerns the reverent investigator of that universe. What He may do in His own family concerns Him, and them, and is matter for divine promise and revelation. Science, which deals only with natural phenomena, cannot intrude there."

Natural laws mean nothing to the believer in prayer. He is beseeching
His own Father concerning things
His Father controls

Nothing is too big for God.
Nothing is beyond reason for the believer to request so long as it is honoring to God.

That Needful Thing

Luke 10:42 KJV
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

Below, the Words from Albert Barnes Notes
"From this interesting narrative we learn:
That the cares of this life are dangerous, even when they seem to be most lawful and commendable. Nothing of a worldly nature could have been more proper than to provide for the Lord Jesus and supply his wants. Yet even “for this,” because it too much engrossed her mind, the Lord Jesus gently reproved Martha. So a care for our families may be the means of our neglecting religion and losing our souls.
It is of more importance to attend to the instructions of the Lord Jesus than to be engaged in the affairs of the world. The one will abide forever; the other will be but for a little time.
There “are” times when it is proper to suspend worldly employments, and to attend to the affairs of the soul. It “was” proper for Mary to do it. It would have been proper for Martha to have done it. It “is” proper for all on the Sabbath and at other occasional seasons - seasons of prayer and for searching the word of God - to suspend worldly concerns and to attend to religion.
If attention to religion be omitted at “the proper time,” it will always be omitted. If Mary had neglected to hear Jesus “then,” she might never have heard him."

While Barnes takes religion too far, indicating that the neglect of it may lead to one losing salvation, still the truth is accurate. The neglect of those spiritual disciplines, even at the expense of worldly "necessities" is unwise and wicked. A person may trouble themselves much over the cares of this world, but in eternity it will mean nothing. On the other hand, even if we did let all worldly cares go (trusting the Lord to see to them) in eternity we will have what can never be taken away.

When He Comes

Luke 9:26 KJV
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.
Jesus said that when He comes again He will do so with

His Own GloryGill says,
"...in the glory of his human nature, when his glorious body, as now, in heaven, shall be seen by all; and
in the glory of his office, as mediator, and the judge of all the earth; and
in the glory of his divine nature, which will appear in the resurrection of the dead, in the gathering of all nations before him, in separating one sort from another, and in passing and executing the definitive sentence on them.... "


The glory of His FatherAs the express image of His Father, His own glory and that of His Father's are the same. Yet here we see it two fold, His own and His Father's together.

The glory of the holy angels
On top of this divine glory there will be added unto it the created glory that belongs to the angels as they attend to Him.

What a sight this will be when all of this glory explodes upon the face of mankind. Those who have come to know Christ and have been thereby humbled in this world will revel in the exaltation. But those who have been ashamed of Christ, who would not submit themselves to His kingdom and His sovereign rule upon them; Such glory as that day will reveal will cause them to cower in the shadows, seeking to hide from the light of this radiant glory.

Personal Assurance

Luke 7:44-50 KJV
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?
And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

Scofield's Notes are helpful here,
"When Jesus would justify the woman in the eyes of Simon, He points to her works, for only through her works could Simon see the proof of her faith; but when He would send the woman away in peace, He points to her faith, not her works.

His own works can never be to the believer his own ground of assurance, which must rest upon the work of Christ. "

On the subject of assurance of salvation, the only way an outsider can tell if a person is saved is by observing what they do, their works. However, when dealing with a person concerning their own salvation only one thing matters, their faith.

Personal assurance cannot and must not be built upon our own works for surely they ebb and flow and they would place our trust on ourselves instead of Christ. True assurance comes when we have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit testify to our own spirit that we are a child of God.

Surely I Know

Ecclesiastes 8:17 KJV
Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.
Ecclesiastes 8:12-13 KJV
Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:
But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
Here is the way I think I see the book of Ecclesiastes; Solomon has gone through a period of infidelity to God. Through his many wives, he has been led astray and sought after other gods. He writes the book of Ecclesiastes after he has repented of all of that come returned to the Lord. In this book he describes his thought process during those years of wandering and interspersed among this description, he interjects the thinking of a sound man.

In verse 17 he declares a fact; the wisest of men seek to find out and understand the work of God. Wisdom compels a man to seek to understand the things of the Lord, though the truth is none of us are able to fully grasp it. We get glimpses into the mind of God but we never get a firm grip of it. God is simply too far beyond us.

We do not know why good men often die like an evil man should nor do we understand why evil men often live like we believe the good men should.
We can't pretend to know why a young child will be killed and a murderer wil be set free.

Solomon admits that even in the wisdom God had given him, he still had not found out the work of God.

But he did say this much he knows (vs 12-13)
It shall be well with him that fears God and
It shall not be well with the wicked

We may not be able to explain everything. We can't always give an answer why something that is evil seems to go unpunished and those who strive to do right seem to suffer. But we can know this as fact,
It shall be well with him that fears God and
It shall not be well with the wicked

It all comes down to trusting God rather than our own observations.
It shall be well with him that fears God and
It shall not be well with the wicked

Comparisons and Contrasts

Luke 5:11 KJV
And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

In John 6:26 KJV Jesus said
..... Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

I see these two passages for their comparisons and contrasts.

Both passages are predicated upon a miracle having to do with personal need
Both passages have the people following Jesus
The difference between the passages are
In John's passage, the people did not grasp the message of the miracle. All they saw is that Christ could provide for them; they did not comprehend that Christ could do the miracles because He is the Son of God.

In Luke's passage, however, three men, Peter, James and John, all forsook their newly successful livelihood to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not follow so they could earn a better living, they had just forsaken that in order to follow. They followed because the miracle opened their eyes to the truth that Jesus was the Son of God.

Some people only want faith for what they can get out of it.
Others willing forsake all so they can have real faith.The difference is the difference between heaven and hell.

It's Not Your Mouth or Even Your Hands; It's Your Heart

Luke 6:46-49 KJV
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

While verse 46 is my focus this morning, it is clearly connected with verses 47-49.

Hear the accusation of the Lord; some call Him Lord, Lord, even emphasizing His Lordship, but prove that He is not really Lord to them because they do not the things which He says.

I visited a funeral today. The congregants were clearly a religious sort. They quoted religious phrases and Bible verses in such a fashion that it was obvious they had quoted them hundreds of times. Still, in their actions outside of the services it was also obvious that what they said with their mouths they did not believe with their hearts.

The only thing that saves is our faith in Christ. But the evidence of salvation comes in our obedience to His Word.

Life and Labour

Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 KJV
Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

Perhaps Solomon could already see the direction his Rehoboam was taking in the course of his life. Perhaps Solomon already had hints as he observed his son's relationship with companions his own age that he might not make the right choices as King of Israel.

All that David and Solomon had built was effectively decimated by one decision of Rehoboam. Maintaining the kingdom had always been a fine line for David, holding together only by the choices David made. Solomon's kingdom did not seem to have as many issues, but there were potential divisions even in his day. But all that they had seen God do through them was so corrupted through sin that, before it was all over, God promised that none from the lineage of Solomon would sit on the kingdom.

There is no reason, however, to hate either life or labor if we keep it all in the proper focus. When man follows event he good counsel of the Lord, but does it in human wisdom and power, the results will be short lived. What makes the Word of God have eternal value is not that we obey it but rather that through Jesus Christ God has blessed it into an eternal future.

The fruit of our life and labor is not what will follow us on earth but what will follow us in eternity.

Genealogies

Luke 3:23 KJV
And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

My daily visits with the Lord are not meant to be purely devotional. I want to learn from the Lord to be a better handler of His Word, the Sword of the Spirit. In that light I saw this in my Scofield Reference Bible today.

"In Matthew, where unquestionably we have the genealogy of Joseph, we are told (Mat_1:16); that Joseph was the son of Jacob. In what sense, then, could he be called in Luke "the son of Heli"? He could not be by natural generation the son both of Jacob and of Heli. But in Luke it is not said that Heli begat Joseph, so that the natural explanation is that Joseph was the son-in-law of Heli, who was, like himself, a descendant of David. That he should in that case be called "son of Heli" ("son" is not in the Greek, but rightly supplied by the translators) would be in accord with Jewish usage.

The conclusion is therefore inevitable that in Luke we have Mary's genealogy; and Joseph was "son of Heli" because espoused to Heli's daughter. The genealogy in Luke is Mary's, whose father, Heli, was descended from David. "

I don't even remember where I first learned that one of the genealogies is Joseph's and the other is Mary's but I have always just accepted that. And then over the years there have been times when as I preached I have told that to the congregation. On one or two occasions I can remember trying to figure out which one is which and having a little problem because Mary is not mentioned in either genealogy, and Joseph is mentioned in both.

Here is an explanation as to which one is which and why.

Peace, God Will

Luke 2:14 KJV
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

I want to consider for a moment the hope that exists withint the angels' pronouncement, "on earth, peace, good will toward men."

Certainly that has not been the reality of Christmas historically. Christ's entrance into this world did not bring with it peace and good will. Christ Himself was targeted for assassination as a baby and his own life was cut off at a mere 33 years of age by
An unjust government
A corrupt religion and
An angry mob of sinners
Jesus said in Matthew 10:34 KJV
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

Christian history is filled with bloodshed and terror. Certainly this world has stood in opposition to the kingdom of Jesus Christ but what is worse, it does not end there. So called Christian denominations have had their own part in exacting terror, bloodshed and death upon others who professed the same Christ as they, only worshiped Him in a different congregation as they.

And then there are the false Christs and false teachers producing false professors making it necessary that even the most sincere of Christians find themselves in te same position as Jude when he said, Jude 1:3 KJV
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

This world is a mess! We are far from having "on earth peace, good will toward men."

Were the angels wrong?
Is the message of Christmas flawed?
Has God failed in answering the Christmas promise?

Not at all!
We merely need to align our thinking with the Lord's. He is not trying to make this world a paradise. He is pointing men to a paradise that is available through Jesus Christ.

Good Tidings

Luke 2:10-11 KJV
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

I have always been one to enjoy the Christmas season. I liked it before I was a believer, I like it more now.

I like the festive spirit that pervades the Christmas season.
I like the decorations and lights
I like the songs and carols
I like the presents and packages
I even like the bustle of the shopping centers at Christmas time

That it is also the season we remember the birth of Christ just accents the joy of all of that.

But this year in particular I have been blessed with an increased awareness of the wonder of what is Christmas.
That God became a man to dwell among us is so much more gracious than I am able to imagine. And
That He came to dwell among sinners in order that He could take away that sin is even more marvelous. And then
That He takes away that sin through His own sacrificial death; holy God dying for sinful man - I am in awe!

Truly these are good tidings of great joy!

Good News

Mark 16:6 KJV
And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

I am writing this in the month of December. Christmas is upon us and the focus (at least for true Christians) is upon the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But it is appropriate and good that the Lord allowed me to see this passage as a part of my daily visit today. As joyous and magnificent a truth as that God became man and dwelt among us is, that truth would have little bearing is it had not found its culmination in the death burial and then the resurrection of our Saviour.

"He is risen; He is not here"
That indeed is good news!

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Diligent in Business

Proverbs 22:29 KJV
Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.

The Bible says that the man who is diligent in his business will stand before kings and not mean men.

The first thing that comes to mind is that he will be promoted above the average person; the word "mean" can refer to the average.

However there is something more to this than that. The Hebrew word translated "mean" is one that is defined as "dark" and "obscure."

And then there is the word "kings" that the Bible says the diligent man will stand before. There is only one king I desire to stand before, that is before my Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.

I see the passage then this way; the one who is diligent about the Father's business, which is prayer and the ministry of the Word, will stand before the King of Kings, Jesus Christ and not be numbered among the dark souls of this world.

Peter

Mark 14:29 KJV
But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I.

Much of the rest of this chapter sees Peter as a secondary figure (Jesus Christ being, of course, the central figure of the passage). I came to see Peter's role in this chapter as a summation of what is the case of many professing believers.

Peter DemandedIn this original text Peter demands or insists that his faith is strong and, should it come to pass that everyone else turns from Christ, he will not. We, of course, know that in the end this was not the case. Many people make an emphatic statement of faith. They will claim that they love the Lord believe in the Lord and have been saved by the Lord. They demand that this is true of them.

Peter Dreamed
vs 37
Though Peter's words were strong and full of supposed faith, he wasn't able to do the spiritual work necessary to sustain the faith he claimed to have. Too many people claim a faith but are spiritually asleep, failing to be faithful in prayer, Bible study and in church attendance.

Peter Deniedvs 68, 70

It really doesn't matter what a person says, what matters is what a person is. Peter proved himself to be a coward when placed in the midst of those who have rejected the Saviour.

This is the exact place where too many so called Christians are; they talk a good talk, but their lives demonstrate something entirely different than what they claim. They are at best asleep spiritually, if they have any spiritual life at all and they prove it by eventually turning against the Lord and His work.

But Peter's story does not end there.

Peter Died for ChristI am not so much speaking about his physical death. Tradition tells us that he was crucified upside down because he did not believe he was worthy to die in the same manner as His Saviour. What I refer to is that, after the resurrection of Christ, Peter offered himself a living sacrifice for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Someone once said it is not how you begin that counts, it is how you end. While true salvation is a work that Jesus Christ alone does in a man's soul, the tell tale sign that this work has been accomplished is not in what we say, it is how Christ has effected our lives to the end.

Strong Tower

Proverbs 18:10 KJV
The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.

Gill says
By "the name of the Lord" may be meant, either the attributes and perfections of God, by which he is made known, and which are the strength and security of his people;
His goodness, grace, and mercy, are their defence;
His favour encompasses them about, as a shield;
His justice protects them from all injuries and insults;
His truth and faithfulness preserve them; they are kept by his power, as in a garrison; and
His unchangeableness is a reason why they are not consumed:or else the Lord himself; his name is put for himself, and may be well interpreted of the Messiah, ... in and by whom God is manifested unto men as the God of grace; in whom He proclaims His name, a God gracious and merciful; whose name is in Him, and who has the same nature and perfections with Him; his name is Jehovah, our righteousness;

It occurred to me that a characteristic of the righteous is that they run to the name of the Lord for their safety. It is no mere one time thing. Of course, we must only run to Him once for our eternal salvation, but the righteous run to the Lord for everything, every day. The righteous see this world as a strange and hostile place and find reason to flee frequently into this Strong Tower. They do not pretend to be brave and they certainly do not want to either make friends with or else surrender to the ways of the world so they have just one recourse; run into the name of the Lord.

Husbandmen Judged

Mark 12:5 KJV
And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.
The description the Lord is making in this parable is chilling when we consider it. The Heavenly Father sends servant and servant, some being killed, some being beaten and handled shamefully. Jesus simply says that the Heavenly Father sent "many others."

And yet those who treated them shamefully and so brutally had so little discernment that when the Father sent his son they could not see the judgment they would face for killing Him.

Things have not changed much over the years. True, the physical violence has lessened, but the abuse of those whom the Father sends has not lessened nor has the blindness of their abusers.

People still believe they are doing God service when they do things that are hurtful to preachers and to the churches of the Lord. Woe is our state when even those who claim to be in the ministry in jure the cause of Christ for their own benefit.

Surely the Lord will destroy those husbandmen.

Believe

Mark 11:24 KJV
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Once again we see the power and importance of faith. Pat of receiving answer to prayer is simply believing that you will have the answer while you are praying.

There is no possibility of human effort here
There is no hint that because we believe strongly enough we will do what we have to do in order to get what we want.
This is a condition of faith and can only be given as God grants that faith.

The possibility in prayer in enormous but
The hindrance to answer is huge

What might we see in answer to prayer if only we believed.

We cannot work up faith but
We can exercise faith and see it grow

Lord, increase our faith!

No Death

Proverbs 12:28 KJV
In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.
The Bible gives us a fantastic promise in this verse; there is a pathway that does not include death.

We do know that Hebrews 9:27 KJV says
.... it is appointed unto men once to die....
And this death is inevitable for all but one generation of believers who will experience the rapture of the Christians to heaven.

Nevertheless there is one path with not death.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:14 KJV
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

There is just one path that leads to life. On this path the death that we must all face will one day be destroyed.

1 Corinthians 15:54 KJV
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

And we, who have trusted Jesus Christ, will one day dwell with Christ in a place where there is no death.

Revelation 21:3-4 KJV
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
The pathway thereof is strait and narrow, but well worth the walk.