JOB 17

9 “Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his ways,
And he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.

HOLD ON TO CLEAN HANDS

Job is one of my favourite characters in the Bible. He went through so much! Allied to that he had a difficult wife. It seems that she went the course with him as he had more children at the end!

He also had the three friends. These guys were ok… until they started talking!!!.

Do you remember what Job’s wife said to him at the end of chapter 2, “Curse God and die.”

 Do you remember what happened to Job at the end of the book?, although he was told off by God, the final word was that Job hadn’t sinned against God with his mouth.

David poses a wonderful question in Psalm 24:

3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Job was one who could stand in the holy place of the Lord?

Why? Because he had all the attributes outlined in verse 4 above.

If you have clean hands like Job had, you will grow stronger. Both Job and David were blessed by God, because their hearts were right with God.

 How clean are your hearts and hands?

God bless

kk

JEREMIAH 17

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

THE HUMAN HEART

How often have we heard this phrase:

He/she has a good heart.

Jeremiah speaking over two thousand years ago, said these true words, he pulls no punches.

The human heart is deceitful, look at Romans 1：

29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

You may hear people say they are good at heart, have you watched the news, been to a prison? The human heart is full of deceit, rebellion and unclean thoughts and motives.

So is there any hope for the human heart, God sees everything, nothing is hidden from him, if anyone could see inside your heart, they would never talk to you again, your thoughts, motives and actions would not be a pretty sight, they aren’t to God either.

So what’s to be done, is there any hope? Christianity is the only answer, why? it addresses the heart of the problem, it deals with the blackness of the human heart, Jesus died and rose again, so man could have a new relationship and a new heart, the prophet Ezekiel said in chapter 36:

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Every believer has had a heart transplant, the old heart has been replaced and the new one put in, does that mean we don’t sin and fail, no our mind hasn’t been and that is being changed constantly as we are renewed by the word of God. Romans 12:2

My question is, have you had a heart transplant, you can only get one by coming to the foot of the cross in faith and repentance.

Come and have a heart transplant today.

God bless you

KK

Hebrews 5

12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

MEAT OR MILK?

The wonderful book of Hebrews gets really tough here, it poses one of the most important questions in the whole of the bible.

This question is this: What are you eating/drinking?

So many in the church are like the people in verse 12, they should be teachers, but they need to be taught.

If you have a baby you feed him/her milk.. YES, but do you feed a 20 year old milk constantly.. NO, they graduate onto meat. so why are so many believers still on milk when they should be eating meat.

Believers nowadays like comfort and they like to hear what they enjoy. An example, how many times do you hear the books of Ezekiel or Leviticus preached in churches. How many Christians read their favourite bible chapters time and time again?

Have you graduated from milk to meat yet?

You should be a teacher, but you still need to be taught.

Vs13-14 make it clear that those who are still babes are unskilled in the work of righteousness, they cannot use the word of God properly.

Those that are babes cannot tell what is good and what is evil, they are under the control of the evil one, those who are able to handle meat can tell between good and evil.

Why is this, because they are skilled in the use of the word of God. Remember the word of God is a sword, and you don’t put a sword into the hands of a child.

Remember Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 2

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Are you eating meat or drinking milk?

So how can you move from milk to meat?

You have to study, that means you have to dig into the word of God. You have to dig deep to get anything, babes scratch the surface, but mature Christians dig deep.

Are you able to handle strong meat?

God bless you

Kk

MATTHEW 23

1 Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

MOVE YOUR FINGERS

Jesus spoke harshly and exposed the religious leaders of His day.  Many times Jesus warned His disciples about the Pharisee’s hypocrisy;  And He sternly charged His disciples to not follow their example of self-righteousness and pretentious worship.  Which raises the following question: Where did the Pharisees go wrong?  Well, here are three things amongst many:

   PRIDE: The Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses.  Not only did Moses lead Israel out of Egypt…he also judged them.. The seat of Moses is a place of prominence and influence.           

   It is a place where everyone can see and applaud you. This high place caused them to be lifted up in pride.  Proverbs reminds us, “Pride comes before a fall…”

HYPOCRISY: The Pharisees placed burdensome rules upon the people that they themselves were not willing to follow.

CORRUPT: The Pharisees abused their authority by setting expectations on the people to keep them in bondage.

We are not to be like them, in these three ways:

Firstly, we are not to sit in judgement over people. I wonder do we like to sit in the place of judgement and decision making. (See Matthew 7:1-3). Are you craving the best seat in the house?   Do you seek your own glory?

Secondly, we are to do what we say. The greatest form of hypocrisy is to tell people to live a life that we are not willing to live ourselves. For example, if I say to someone, that they must share the gospel and never share it myself, I am acting like a Pharisee. Romans 2:19-25

Thirdly, we are here to liberate people by the gospel of Christ. The Galatian church had a rule book longer than my arm.  Their useless rules were like a ball and chain around their leg, stopping them going forward.  The gospel is not about rules, it is about relationship.  It is about grace.  It is about mercy.

Jesus said that the Pharisees didn’t move even one of their fingers to ease the burden of the people.  And moving your finger is the smallest movement you can make.  We need not only to move our fingers…but we are to move our hearts to serve and to love and to liberate those in bondage by sharing the gospel of Christ.

God bless you

Keith