2 CORINTHIANS 1

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19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea.

20 For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

YES AND AMEN

Man is incapable of saving himself from the penalty of sin which is death.  All of his attempts to improve himself can do nothing to make him right with the living God.  As Jesus said in John 15,  “Without me…YE CAN DO NOTHING.”

Becoming a Christian is the most significant thing anyone can do, because it deals with the root cause of their pain – alienation from God.

Paul who was preaching the gospel in Corinth, says in verse 19 that the gospel he had been preaching was not yea or nay, or yes or no, but it was the truth completely and utterly. Jesus does not say one thing and mean another, he is not yes and no…but YES.  To love, He says, YES.  To Joy, He says YES.  To Peace, He says YES.  To you, He says YES!

Therefore every promise that we have is based on Him and if He is truth then we can depend on the promises He made. When He says that HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US…count on it.  A promise is only as good as the person making it.  In Christ their is “no variableness or shadow of turning.”  His promises are sure and His Word is truth.  Lean on Him.  Depend on Him.  Trust in Him.

MATTHEW HENRY PUTS IT LIKE THIS:

 For God is true, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is true. The true God, and eternal life. Jesus Christ, whom the apostle preached, is not yea and nay, but in him was yea (v. 19), nothing but infallible truth. And the promises of God in Christ are not yea and nay, but yea and amen, v. 20. There is an inviolable constancy and unquestionable sincerity and certainty in all the parts of the gospel of Christ. If in the promises that the ministers of the gospel make as common men, and about their own affairs, they see cause sometimes to vary from them, yet the promises of the gospel covenant, which they preach, stand firm and inviolable. Bad men are false; good men are fickle; but God is true, neither fickle nor false. The apostle, having mentioned the stability of the divine promises, makes a digression to illustrate this great and sweet truth, that all the promises of God are yea and amen. For, 1. They are the promises of the God of truth (v. 20), of him that cannot lie, whose truth as well as mercy endureth for ever. 2. They are made in Christ Jesus (v. 20), the Amen, the true and faithful witness; he hath purchased and ratified the covenant of promises, and is the surety of the covenant, Heb. 7:22. 3. They are confirmed by the Holy Spirit.

Have full confidence in God’s promises.  He will speak peace in the midst of your storm.  Keep praying.  Keep believing.

God bless you

Keith

MATTHEW 23

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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.

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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

HEBREWS 10

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them

TRUE COVENANT

During old testament times, God made covenants with his people.

He made a covenant stating that never again would a worldwide flood happen,

he made a covenant with Abraham, that he would be the father of many nations,

he made a covenant with the children of Israel through Moses that they would go back to the promised land.

In Ezekiel 36, we have these words in verses 22-38, this is a long passage, so you must read it yourself.God promises a new covenant with his people, through Christ.

Matthew Henry says:

1. That he will pour out his Spirit upon his people, so as to give them wisdom, will, and power, to obey his word; he will put his laws in their hearts, and write them in their minds, Heb. 10:16. This will make their duty plain, easy, and pleasant.
2. Their sins and iniquities he will remember no more (Heb. 10:17), which will alone show the riches of divine grace, and the sufficiency of Christ’s satisfaction, that it needs not be repeated, Heb. 10:18. For there shall be no more remembrance of sin against true believers, either to shame them now or to condemn them hereafter. This was much more than the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices could effect.

The old covenant, was not able to change people’s hearts, it was not able to return people to God.

But this new covenant completely changes the landscape.

It allows men and women, boys and girls to come to a living faith through Christ, this is done by a new and living way, as it says in verses 19-22 of Hebrews 10:

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The new covenant allows people to come in faith, through the vicarious death and glorious resurrection of Christ.

We are under the new covenant, we have our hearts sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Hebrews 10:22

The law has been fulfilled by Christ, he has completely obeyed the law and his righteousness and obedience are now credited to our account. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Praise God, that we are now under the new covenant.

We live in a loving relationship with God, not obeying God, out of slavery, but out of love towards our heavenly Father.

What a glorious truth.

God bless you
KK

1 JOHN 4

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

THE EVIDENCE OF GOD’S LOVE


John is the apostle of love; he is the one who was closest to Jesus. He was the one who leaned on Jesus at the last supper. He was one of the three on the Mt of Transfiguration and he was the only one standing at the cross, so he above anyone else can give us the unique perspective on God’s love.

The love that God gave and has given us is completely unearned and undeserved. In fact, we deserve Hell, judgement and punishment. I know that I do. 

Now God could have kept that love to Himself. He could have said, “Well, I really do love humanity and indeed I feel sorry for them, but they got themselves into this mess. Let them get themselves out of it”. 

Now there is a long word at the end of the verse, what does this word mean? In the Greek it means Hilasmos. It means a sacrifice that turns away God’s wrath and turns it into favour. 

The problem man had was impossible for him to conquer on his own. Someone had to come down and deal with Sin. What Jesus did was to take God’s full righteous anger and justice to declare us righteous and justified. I, for one, can’t get my head fully round what God did in reconciling us to himself. 

God’s love was in evidence in Him dealing with sin. Jesus came to be the propitiation for our sins; He came and died to turn our judgement into righteousness our condemnation into justification and our bondage into freedom. 

We now have God’s favor because of the sacrifice of Jesus. Let us never lose sight of the glory of the cross. 

Archibald Brown penned these amazing words. 

Before God could forgive a sinner in accordance with His infinite holiness and perfect justice — think what had to be done, sacrificed, and suffered! Measure God’s pardon, by the obstacles His pardoning love overcame— and then you can form some idea of its intensity. 

God has fathomed His love and pity in one text, “God SO loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” That little word “so” contains more than Heaven or Earth can describe. In it, is the heart of God; in it, is the depth of pardoning love. Oh think for a minute what that pardon cost, which now makes your soul sing for joy. You received it freely enough, because Another paid the price; but what was that price? 

God’s love is most in evidence at the cross, but let us realize what it cost His Son to put us right with God. 

The cross.. the cross.. is such a place
A place of beauty
A place of pain
A place where sin was destroyed
Where The saviour bled and died
For me.. for me 

God bless you 

kk

ARE YOU IN THE RIGHT PLACE? 

2 Samuel 11:2-3 

2 And it came to pass in an evening tide, that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king’s house:  and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. 

3 And David sent and enquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of  Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? 

David usually made a point of asking the Lord about everything. So why didn’t he enquire of the Lord here? Probably because David wasn’t in the place where he s

When we aren’t at the place that we should be with God. Then we are more liable to fall into sin and to leave ourselves wide open to temptation.  David was a king, and so he had probably faced this temptation before, but victory in the past, was no defense to Him. 

Whatever victories we have had in the past, this will not guarantee victory in the future. We must die to self and to crucify the flesh daily to be victorious. Amen 

These verses should act as a warning to us.  David knew who Bathsheba was, and still, he went and enquired after her. 

How often do we know that something is wrong for us to do? But do we still enquire after it? 

We fall into sin so often because we make the wrong choices, we know the right thing to do, but we don’t do them. Amen 

We need to feed on the word of God and pray at all times.  Also, we need to discipline our minds. David sin, started with laziness but continued with a look.  

Then he took action; this is the same for us; inactivity brings laziness, which leads to us looking at things we shouldn’t do, which leads to us taking wrong actions. 

Let us not be lazy in reading the word and prayer and serving God. Let us not be one of the ones who is walking the rooftops instead of fighting the enemy. 

God Bless you 

Keith 

WINNING GOD’S FAVOR OR MAN’S 

“Now am I trying to win the favour of men, or of God? Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I should not be a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah)…Galatians 1:10.”  

The above verse presents an interesting question for all of us, especially those of us, in ministry. Who are we really seeking to please? It is God who we serve? So why are we constantly trying to please men? Someone once said, Man is looking for better methods.   God is looking for better men.

What are you doing to please men?    Are you moving away from the tried and trusted ways of scripture?   Are we using the latest how to do church from the latest author, who take something of scripture, but adds their input to create a formula that works?  We have a how to plant churches manual and how to preach manual, in the book of Acts and yet, we want to formulate some new ideas to please men.   Why?

We all seek revival in our churches, but we seek to put it in a way that is comfortable for men.   Revival comes when the conditions of true repentance and humility are met.   I hear of revival meetings here and there but revival is a sovereign act of God not something that man can organize. If we as the church or as individuals even become popular with the world that is the sign that the church is heading in the wrong direction. 

We as a church and individuals are not to strive for the popularity of men; we strive for the pleasure of God. If you or I are striving to win man’s approval, then as Paul says, we are not bond servants of Jesus.    We are nothing short of religious frauds. It is time to seek the pleasure of God and not the approval of man.

God bless,

Keith

ALL NATIONS PRAISING GOD

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, on the clouds of the heavens came One like a Son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.   And there was given Him [the Messiah] dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed…Daniel 7:13-14.”

Isn’t this awesome?   One day we will be part of the biggest and best meeting of people from every single country, language and people. Nations and peoples that have fought on earth, will live in peace, as the scripture says, the lion will lie down with the lamb. 

Yes, Americans will be with the Cubans; the British with the Germans and the Chinese with the Japanese. We often ask what we will be doing in heaven, well the Scriptures tell us this, and it is that we will serve Him. It will be wonderful to be reunited with so many friends from down here on earth.  Indeed, we often wonder if we will be able to recognize each other, well certainly we will have perfect bodies, so a big change for me then, but our main focus and occupation will be in the service of Our Lord. To be in the presence of His glory and that of the Father is something seriously amazing.  

No light will be needed as the Father and Son will be the light. The above passage shows Jesus being given one of His many titles, the Son of Man.   And here is the beauty of the Trinity: The Son separate from the Father who is the Ancient of Days. Daniel was writing this from exile in Babylon and this probably brought him great comfort.   And he, like us, will see God in all his glory when we get to heaven.

It is the Father’s pleasure to give power and dominion into the hand of the Son so that we can live with them both in a kingdom that will not fade away and is eternal.   What a glorious truth, this is, it should thrill our souls.   It certainly does mine.

God bless you,

Keith