The voice of Jesus

(Matthew 5:19) “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

 

With my head in a spin this morning I am earnestly seeking out a particular truth and my commitment to the will of God in my life. To what degree am I taking the call of God upon my life seriously? All it takes to jolt us into action is for a faithful brother to share a particular truth, even if that message may not be a popular one. Thank you brother, you know who you are. The truth of God’s Word has cut deep and it’s this that I need to examine with honesty. The teachings of the Lord Jesus known to most as “the sermon on the mount” has left me wanting. Read Matthew 5, 6 and 7, but do yourself a favour and remove any preconceived ideas your may have with that chunk of scripture and ask God to reveal His truth behind it all. Do not look left or right, just come as you are and stand naked in front of a full length mirror and let the Spirit of God lead you into all truth. If we lack wisdom, all we need to do, is ask God for it and He will obliged, just as long as we ask in faith.

 

I am persuaded that although we have been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb and the work of our beloved Saviour is finished, His work is done and He has received His glorified body but we await ours, our race is not yet finished. 

 

Because of His achievements we cannot now rest on our laurels and sit back and still allow sin to dominate our lives. We are new creatures in Christ and we have been born again of His Spirit. The question we need to answer, is that an obvious truth in our lives. The deeds of our lives, what do they look like. In particular, the secret society of what we do behind closed doors is what I bring into question. God sees it all and yet we believe that we will get away with so much because others do not see what we know to be true about ourselves. The life of the criminal substantiates the point. Why would a murderer dispose of a body if they didn’t believe they would get away with it? The heart of a man, the inner core to our being is tainted with sinful intention; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “ (Jeremiah 17:9) – The King James translation translates like this; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  The word “sick” and “wicked” is use to explain the depths of deceitfulness we are willing to travel in order to get away with sin. It is who we are. Until we arrive at such an understanding about ourselves we will never breach the need for the grace of God in our lives to live lives like Job and Daniel. Thank you father God for the eye salve you have given me to see a truth about myself, now please help me find the grace to overcome. The complete work of the cross is to get people to shift their intent from a need to quench their own passions onto the will of God.

 

In the beginning God's will for Adam and Eve was not to eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ignored His command and where banished from the garden. There are two very interesting points we must not miss, both deception and wilful sin will result in the same outcome, banishment! Although the serpent deceived Eve it did not excuse her and for this reason - “deception” - I do not permit a woman to teach nor usurp authority over a man. See Timothy chapter 2.  To my beloved sisters in Christ do not be sucked in by the voices out there, which cry, it’s now the time for women to usurp authority over all and to hell with the order of God. Find grace to overcome, we all have our cross to bear and this is a hurdle you now need to navigate, I am praying for you. Adam knew what Eve had done was wrong and yet he ate what was on offer. James makes this very clear to men; “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. “ (James 3:1)  - God will judge the teacher with a greater strictness and it a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The Bible warns us, what we should be on the lookout for and a lot of that is about false teaches and false teachings. 1 Timothy chap 1, 6 - 2 Peter 2:1- and then Jude 1:4

 

False teachings of any kind are always shrouded with selfish gain. It always looks to make allowance for sin in one form or another and there is never an exception. It gives the individual a pass to indulge in quenching a sinful desire and the list is vast. But until we own our sin in its entirety we will always be half baked Christians. And I realise we cannot achieve this objective without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. For revival to happen we need to see ourselves clearly in the mirror, God help us is my earnest prayer. We will never lay our lives down for other if this truth isn’t address correctly. And we will never accomplish this without the grace of God in our lives, so everything hinges on us finding grace to overcome. But in order to seek out God’s grace we must stop excusing our sinful behavioural patterns as a right to our existence.

 

This is what the Lord addresses…

·        Murder - our anger is like murder

·        Adultery - Lust of any form and what we expose our eyes too.

·        Divorce – the grounds for it

·        Oaths – to swear falsely

·        Revenge – We must go the extra mile in the opposite direction

·        Enemies - we must love them

These are the topics that have been addressed by our Lord and Saviour, read those chapters with an absolute willingness to be found wanting, the old adage, if the shoe fits wear it. It is not our responsibility to expose the sins of others as that only sets us up to excuse ourselves. The Holy Spirit is the one who does a perfect work. I am convinced that until we acknowledge our need for change in our lives, nothing will change. But if we see ourselves for who we are, repentance will follow and then we will be in a position to seek out God’s grace to overcome. Repentance does or should not only happen the day we are saved. Ongoing or daily sanctification must be our priority.

 

Let the grace of our God play a major role in our lives bringing Him the glory He alone deserves. Help your children Father, we need you now more than ever. The apathy we clutch is deafening. To God be the glory now and forever more, Amen!

 

Signing off

 

Tyrone