Hung parliament

The British people have spoken. We have a hung parliament, as no one party wins enough votes to gain a majority in government. We continue to wait and watch as political deals and manoeuvrings take place to determine our future government. All this in a time of economic meltdown when decisive leadership is required.

I believe one reason this has occurred is because there is now no clear difference between the 3 main political parties. They all seem to have converged onto middle ground. The conservatives felt they had to move to the left to remove their ‘nasty party’ tag. They felt they had to offer the electorate something more palatable in order to gain power. That strategy has backfired spectacularly.

I believe the same thing is happening within the church. In order to increase numbers in the church, the gospel is watered down to something more palatable – ‘come to Jesus Christ and fulfil your potential in life’, rather than the orthodox Christian faith which slays the sinner, states that our good works are as filthy rags, and instead we need to come to God as spiritual beggars to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ by faith.

Yet the leaders of the church cannot alone be blamed for changing the message. Jeremiah faced the same problem with Israel: “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way.” (Jer 5:30-31). And Paul prophesies the same thing will happen to the church: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim 4:3). I believe God is giving us over to what we want – the British people an impotent government because firm convictions and principled politics are no longer acceptable, and the church an impotent gospel message unable to bring salvation due to the pursuit of entertaining sermons and psychobabble.

May God have mercy on this land.

Earthquakes

At the beginning of January this year, we were all shocked to hear of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, which resulted in the loss of 230,000 lives. Now this last weekend we hear of a more powerful earthquake of magnitude 8.8 in Chile. Thankfully it seems that the loss of life will be much smaller in Chile, and the threats of the tsunamis seem to have disappeared too.

This Chile earthquake is apparently the 7th largest earthquake on record. Over the weekend, Japan was also hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. It does seem as though there is an increase in earthquake activity just in this last few weeks alone. "Relative to the 20-year period from the mid 1970's to the mid 1990's, the Earth has been more active over the past 15 or so years," Fox News quoted Stephen S. Gao, a geophysicist at Missouri University of Science and Technology, as saying.

So what is going on?

When Jesus was asked by his disciples "what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" he replied "You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pangs" (Matthew 24:3-8).

I believe we are nearing the time for the return of Jesus Christ. There is the War on Terror, war in Afghanistan and Iraq; the rumours of war in the Middle East seem to be growing daily; only at the weekend the president of Niger said his country is facing famine, whilst 4million people in Somalia also need emergency food aid. Put all this together with the huge earthquakes, and I do believe that the signs that Jesus spoke about are increasing in intensity.

If we are seeing the beginning of the birth-pangs prior to the return of Jesus, then we need to ensure we are ready for his return. That means for those who do not yet recognise him as their Saviour and Lord, now is the time to repent and believe in him. "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him" (Hebrews 9:27-28). When Jesus returns, it will be as our Judge, and none of us will be able to stand before him unless we have trusted in his sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. But we need to do this whilst we have the opportunity.

The return of Jesus is being delayed to give people the chance to repent and be saved. "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). God desires everyone to have the opportunity to learn of what his Son Jesus did when he first came to this earth 2,000 years ago, of his birth, death and resurrection, and to trust that his sacrifice paid the penalty for our sins, and to put their faith in him.

For those of us who have been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ, we also need to ensure we are ready, and use the time we have left to proclaim the gospel message to those around us.

A big problem - and a great solution!

A big problem
As I read the Bible, I become more and more convinced that we all have a big problem. That problem is – God is good. Why is that such a big problem? Because as I read the Bible and see the standards God expects I realise that I am not good. I may look around at other people and think I’m not really that different to most people, in fact I probably lead a more moral life than most people. Apart from a few points on my driving licence I’ve never been in trouble with the police, and I’m generally a good citizen. But according to the Bible, I shouldn’t compare myself with other people, but with God’s standards.

There’s a story of a little girl who saw some sheep standing on a green field. She said to her mummy how clean the sheep looked. Then it snowed. When the grass was covered in snow, the little girl said to her mummy that the sheep looked dirty against the snow. We need to compare ourselves with the “snow” – God’s standards, and not the “grass” – other people.

The Bible teaches that our “acts” must be good – our behaviour – are we being kind to others all the time, loving others as ourselves all the time? Not only must our acts be good but our thoughts must be good too –Jesus says that whilst we may not have killed anyone, if we have ever been angry with someone then we have broken God’s Good Law. Not only must our acts be good, and our thoughts good, but also the words we say – who has never told a lie, which is forbidden by God’s Good Law? Then there is the First Commandment – to have no other gods before the One True God, and to love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength. I don’t believe any of us can say we have kept that commandment all the time. According to God’s Good Law, I am guilty. According to God’s Good Law, we are all guilty.

So we all have a big problem. If God is good, and we are not, how can we approach God? How will we live with Him for all eternity? The Bible teaches that God will one day bring all of us to account and He will judge us. By the standards of God’s Good Law we will all be found guilty, and we all deserve to be condemned for that.

Thank God that He hasn’t left it there. Thank God that He sent His Son Jesus who lived on this earth, who lived a perfect, sinless life – the only man ever to have done so. Then he died on the cross – and on the cross He was punished in our place. And after He died He was raised from the dead and is now exalted to the right hand of God the Father. Our sins were put on Him, and He was punished so that we might go free. “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God”. A double exchange takes place – our sins are placed on Him, and in their place His righteousness is given to us.

If we repent - turn away from our sins, and turn to God, accepting by faith that Jesus did what we could not do, that He lived in complete obedience to God’s Good Law, and suffered our penalty, then we will be forgiven, set free and will be at peace with God. Our sins are left at the cross and dealt with there, and in their place we are clothed with the goodness of Jesus Christ.

A parachute jump
Ten years ago I did a parachute jump. I went up in a plane 10,000 feet, and then jumped out with a parachute on my back. (Don’t ask why!). After a few seconds of falling to the earth at 120mph, I pulled the cord on my parachute, it opened, and I sailed calmly(ish!) to the earth. I knew that the parachute was what would save my life, and there was absolutely no way I would have jumped out of that plane without that parachute on my back.

All of us are headed for a parachute jump. The Bible says “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.” If we don’t have a parachute on our back, we won’t make it. The only parachute that will work is Jesus Christ.

3 Parachutes that will not work:

We may try to put on other parachutes. We may try to put on our good works as a parachute, hoping that somehow the good we have done will outweigh the bad things we have done. The Bible says this parachute will not save us – “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it”.

We may try to put on another religion as a parachute, following say, Mohammed, or Buddha, Hinduism, or New Age spirituality. The Bible says this parachute will not save us – “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” other than Jesus. Jesus is the only one to have died for our sin and risen again so that we can be reconciled to God.

We may go to church, thinking this will save us. However, the Bible says this parachute will not save us – it takes more than attending church to be saved. Each of us has to do business with God personally. “If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”.

If we put on any of these 3 parachutes, we will jump out of the plane, pull the cord to open the parachute – and the cords will get twisted, the parachute will not open properly, and we will not be saved.

The One Parachute that will work:
The only parachute that will work is the one the Bible tells us about – Jesus Christ. We need to put Him on, and put Him on today. Trust in Him, believe in Him, follow Him.

Conclusion to Beatitudes

The beatitudes seem to sum up the whole gospel message, showing on the one hand our desperate need of God, yet on the other hand the amazing promises that will be ours once we have acknowledged all that God has done for us in Christ.

Look at the promises Jesus makes – the kingdom of heaven will be ours, we will be comforted, we will inherit the earth, we will have our hunger and thirst for righteousness satisfied, we will be shown mercy, we will see God, we shall be called sons of God, the kingdom of heaven will be ours. These blessings seem to encompass everything that a man could ask for, and so much more besides. All these blessings are promised to those who respond to God’s grace at work in their lives, and respond to the great gift of salvation in Christ through repentance and belief.

The paradoxes seen in the beatitudes are echoed again in Luke’s gospel: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:23-25).

It is by losing our lives that we will save them. As we acknowledge we are sinners and have no entitlement to ask anything of a holy God, by pleading for His mercy, we lose our lives. We lose our self-esteem, our pride, any sense that we have done anything to deserve merit before God. In looking to Christ as our righteousness and as the one who has obeyed the law perfectly on our behalf then we are saved – and share in the blessings of Christ as we are clothed in His righteousness. As we deny ourselves and our egos, our self-centred living, and recognise that everything is completed in Christ and finds its fulfilment in Him, we will receive the promise of sharing in that glory when all is revealed. As we take up our cross daily, dying to ourselves and crucifying our sinful nature and its passions, and live to God, then we will discover that it is no longer we who live but it is Christ who lives in us, and that we are being conformed to the image of Christ. As our eyes are taken off ourselves and fixed more fully on Christ, we will see how everything points to Him, has its goal in Him, and how one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Praise God!

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10)

The final beatitude is a final paradox – those who are persecuted are blessed. This seems so counter-intuitive – and yet Jesus promises that God’s face is shining on those who are persecuted.

Taking the beatitudes progressively, then those who recognise their guilty standing before God and trust in Christ to redeem them, those who mourn over their sins, those who conform themselves to God’s will, who hunger and thirst for righteousness because they have none themselves, who are merciful to others, who are given a pure heart by faith, who are peacemakers, then these are the people who will be persecuted. It is easy to see why, for all these attributes are opposed to the worldview, of self-seeking, prideful living.

Peace with God, reconciliation with God, transfers a person from death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Peace with God brings a new enemy – the world. In his final speech to his disciples, Jesus said “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master’. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15:18-20). Paul confirms the teaching of his Lord, saying “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12).

The history of the early church confirms this teaching, and the experience of the church today in countries all around the world confirms this teaching. Even here in the West persecution of Christians is increasing as the uniqueness and exclusive nature of Christ is incompatible with the tolerant, all-inclusive worldview. The church needs to ensure that in the face of such opposition it does not compromise the Biblical view of Christ to escape this persecution.

For Jesus promises that those who are persecuted are blessed. The apostle Paul suffered many persecutions in his ministry, yet he could proclaim “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows” (2 Cor 1:3-5). As our sufferings for the sake of the gospel increase, so too will our experience of the comfort and compassion of Christ. The experience of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, demonstrates this, for as he was about to be stoned, “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look’, he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (Acts 7:55-56). This vision must have given Stephen great comfort in his final moments.

Not only are those who are persecuted blessed, but the kingdom of heaven is theirs. “And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years”.(Rev 20:4). This passage seems to be suggesting that those who are persecuted will reign with Christ in his millennial Kingdom. What a reward this is! No matter how bad things in this life may seem, we need to maintain an eternal perspective. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:17-18). Even in the midst of great persecution, we can have hope that all is seen by God, all will be rewarded, and that one day persecuted believers will be in the New Jerusalem, where God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21:4). What hope is this!

Hope in the Beatitudes - peacemakers called sons of God

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9)

Remembering that the first 4 beatitudes are linked with the second set of 4, we can see that those who are meek will be peacemakers. Those who are submitted to the will of God will seek to make peace.

What kind of peace are we talking about? I believe this is referring to peace between God and men. Paul says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:17-21).

Prior to being in Christ, man in his natural state is under the wrath of God – “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36). We are at enmity with God. Peace with God is impossible whilst we continue to rebel against Him. Yet “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Once God in His grace opens our eyes to receive the gospel message, we can then be reconciled to him through repentance and trust in Christ. We go from being enemies of God to being at peace with God. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5:1-2). How awesome is this! Jesus himself is the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Nothing is more important for man than to be reconciled and at peace with the One True God.

So a peacemaker, having himself received peace, will seek to bring peace between other men and God. Those who are meek and submitted to God’s will seek this peace for others too. For this is God’s will: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The return of Christ is delayed so that God can have mercy on all those who seek peace with Him. Just as God delayed the judgement of the flood in the days of Noah because of his mercy, so too he delays judgement now because of his mercy. Genesis tells us that when Enoch had a son, he called him Methuselah, which means “his death shall bring”. It appears as though Enoch was given some kind of prophecy regarding the coming flood (see Jude 14-15), hence the name of his son. In the very year that Methuselah died, the devastating flood came on the earth. Methuselah lived the longest of any man in history, he was 969 years old when he died. This demonstrates the mercy of God in withholding judgement to the very end. Today, God is showing mercy in allowing men time to repent and come to Him and be at peace with Him before the return of Christ.

This then is the heart of evangelism, to bring peace between men and God, through proclamation of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. Oh God, I pray you would bring opportunities for me to proclaim your message of salvation, that men may come to be at peace with you through Christ.

The promise given by Jesus is that peacemakers will be called sons of God. Those who believe in Him are born again into a new family, born of God, transferred from darkness to light, from death to life. We receive a spirit of sonship, of adoption when we believe, that cries out "Abba, Father". We can now relate to the awesome God of the universe as our Heavenly Father, instead of fearing His wrath. Thank God for this amazing news! How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God!

Hope in the Beatitudes - pure in heart will see God

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8)

I confess at the outset that this beatitude has caused me some problem. The other beatitudes seem to be focused on our recognition of our sin and a longing for righteousness external to ourselves. This beatitude at first sight seems to be suggesting that our hearts should be pure – the very opposite of what I know to be true about my heart.

Prior to the flood that God sent in Noah’s generation, the Bible tells us that “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Even after the flood nothing has changed, for the Lord said “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21). I don’t believe there is anything in the Bible to tell us that this state of affairs has changed, that the fundamental nature of humanity has somehow improved over the years. Jeremiah tells us that “the heart is deceitful beyond all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). Jesus confirms the wickedness of the human heart, saying “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19).

So what hope do we have of having a pure heart? The answer, in our own strength, is none. Trusting in our own efforts to improve ourselves is pointless, fruitless.

Thank God that he gives us hope of a pure heart. The Lord says through Jeremiah “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord’, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more”. (Jeremiah 31:33-34). The Lord promises to Israel through Ezekiel “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

As Gentile believers, we are grafted in to both these promises of a new heart. Repentance and trust in Christ leads to rebirth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. “[God] anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor 1: 22). The Holy Spirit will create a pure heart in us, conformed to the likeness of Christ. We can’t do this work of sanctification, it is all of God and all of His grace. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out ‘Abba, Father’” (Gal 4:4-6). This Spirit of Christ, dwelling in our hearts, is pure and holy. Praise God!

Thus those who mourn over their sin and repent will receive a new heart, indwelt by the very Spirit of Christ. The believer is then exhorted to live by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the sinful nature – “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (Gal 5:17). So begins the daily battle against the flesh.

Thank God that with this new heart though, we have the promise of seeing God. Throughout the Bible we are told by God that “no-one may see me and live” (Ex 33:20). I believe the reason for this is the presence of sin in us, which can not come before a holy God. Thus our need for a mediator between God and ourselves in Christ. Yet one day, when all things are made new, “the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Rev 22:3-4). There will be no need for a mediator in those days, after all sin and unholiness is banished. We will see God, face to face. How amazing! How utterly amazing is the grace of God.