Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom

In the previous verse to this quote from Mark 15:38 Jesus had cried out from the cross with a loud voice, and breathed His last. John tells us that His last words were “It is finished.” He had finished the work the Father had sent Him to do. And then, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The veil separated the Holy place in the temple from the Holy of Holies. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that in this latter place , the high priest alone went once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins. He also tells that the presence of the veil was the Holy Spirit indicating that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest, and that gifts and sacrifice, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect, were it all symbolic of the perfect gift and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (Hebrews 9:7-9). And so the tearing of the veil from the top to bottom is symbolizing for us that it is God who did the tearing, and that there is a now a new and living way into the Holy of Holies made possible by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19, 20).

But let us take careful note here of the goodness and the severity of God (Romans 11:22). Indeed the write to the Hebrews is careful to warn us about these things saying “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away,” and “For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:1-3). There is not even a hint here of the validity of the presumption of some who pray the words of the sinners prayer, and then go away unchanged, but still expect to be saved. To exhibit such presumption is a sure way to ensure that we have neglected so great a salvation. We also neglect it be failing to heed the many warnings of Scripture. We do not want to be among those for whom Jesus will say on that day “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22).

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). Peter tells us that in order to make our election sure, we need to ad to faith in a number of ways (2 Peter 1:10). This is not to earn our salvation, because salvation is a gift that cannot be earned (Ephesians 2:8, 9; Romans 4:4). No, rather it is to not neglect salvation. When we do these things and abound, we can come boldly before the throne of Grace to obtain mercy and Grace to help in time of need (2 Peter 1:8; Hebrews 4:16).

Father, the writer to the Hebrews admonishes us to have grace, by which we may serve You acceptably with reverence and godly fear. He then He ads “For God is a consuming fire.” Indeed “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Nevertheless we come boldly before Your throne of Grace this morning to obtain mercy and grace to help in these hours of need. Thank You Jesus for all You have done and do, in Your precious Name Amen

Your sons shall ... bear the brunt of your infidelity

The context of this quote from Numbers 14:33 is of the children of Israel giving into fear and refusing to go up to conquer the promised land. The Lord had reminded them that He visits the iniquities of the fathers on the children. This is not as some translations have it that He is punishing the children for the father's sin, for this would contradict Ezekiel 18:20. But what is true, is that the children either suffer or reap the benefit of the legacy we the fathers leave. The people had seen the Lord's glory in what He had done in Egypt and in the wilderness, and by giving into fear had put the Lord to the test ten times (verse 22). Each time they had wanted to go back to Egypt, and this time they had even wanted to select new leaders to take them back (verse 4).

As punishment, except for Joshua and Caleb, not one over twenty who had seen His glory would enter the promised land. Commenting on this in the New Testament, the writer to the Hebrews admonishes us to”Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12). Note that God regards unbelief as evil! We are likewise warned in one of the most severe warning in the New Testament, those of us that is who have “tasted of the heavenly gift, ... the good Word of God ... and the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:4-6).

I have seen so much of His glory, I have received healings in my own body, I have been used to heal others and have seen many, displays of His healing power.  And yet I continue to find pockets of unbelief in my heart.  And I found myself in tears this morning and crying out to God to have mercy on me,  and on my children,  and my children's children. You know most of us when are children are ill would gladly take their place. How much more should we live for Him knowing that one way or the other we are leaving them a legacy? 

Father, You reminded me this morning that “The LORD is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.” And I pray Lord please pardon the iniquity of us Your people “according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people ... even until now” (Numbers 14:18,19; 1 John 1:9). Lord keep us, keep me, close to the flame, and please burn off all unbelief in Your consuming fire. Help me Lord, for I want to leave a positive legacy for my children, and my children's children, and my children's children's children in Jesus Name Amen

When pride comes, then comes shame

.... But with the humble is wisdom (proverbs 11:2). Pride is said to be the excessive belief in one's own abilities, it interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It is said all other sins arise from it. I remember in my pre-Christian days being accused of pride, and being told it was a sin. I was angry and called that person naive. But why was I angry? “Like water off a ducks back is an insult undeserved.” Clearly it was deserved! It was my pride denying I was proud! We must not fail to see the destructive nature of pride, it leads us to think that we know best. I did that, and it lead me down a very destructive path. Pride was the Devil's sin he told himself “I will be like the Most High.” But Jesus told us “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). To exalt oneself in this sense is to think more highly of oneself than he aught (Romans 12:3). The same verse suggests that we aught to measure ourself in accordance with the faith God has given us.

The word translated shame in this morning's proverb also means personal dishonour or disgrace. Another proverb puts it this way “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Rick Warren rephrases part of the first step of twelve step programs as “Admitted that I am not God.” In fact trying to play God in our lives is at the very root of our destructive habits. We reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7). And again as we have been saying these things lead to shame and humiliation. As much as we like to think of ourselves as independent of God, we are in fact dependent on Him, even for the very air that we breath. He is the potter and we are the clay (Isaiah 64:8). And He has designed reality in such a way is that life only goes well when we are in right relationship with Him.

Humility is the opposite of pride, but there is also such a thing as false humility. And there is a lot of it in the Church! Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities, but timidity and pride are not the same thing. Timidity is thinking less of myself than what is true. Humility does  not deny what's true, it does not think less of myself than what's true. Humility does not deny the gifts that God has given, and it's not thinking less of myself than what God thinks of me. And like the loving Father He is, He thinks you are I are amazing. When somebody complements you, the correct and humble response is “Thank you.” To say “It was not me, it was Jesus,” is to invite the response “It wasn't that good!”

Father, I want to come back to Romans 12:3 where Paul admonishes us “not to think of himself more highly than he ought, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” In terms of faith I have certainly not arrived Lord, and I am immune to neither pride nor false humility. But I want to thank You this morning Lord that I am not what I once was, and that You who have begun a good work in me will keep right on working on me in Jesus Name Amen

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit

.... A broken and a contrite heart O God, You will not despise (Psalm 51:17). Last day we were talking about the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. And these things are sacrifices when we we are doing them in spite of the negative circumstances in which we might find ourselves. This morning it is a different kind of sacrifice, the type that needs to accompany true repentance. I love it that the Bible does not try to sugar coat its heroes. David had messed up big time. He commuted adultery with the wife of one of his warriors,  and then tried to cover it up by having him murdered. The Lord had sent Nathan the Prophet to uncover his deception the the way only the Lord can (2 Samuel 11, 12).  And this Psalm is what David penned about his repentance.

The Old Testament sacrifices were but a shadow of things to come, for “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins” (Hebrews 10:1, 4). And here in this Psalm, in the face of his blood guilt of a man murdered (verse 14), David sees their inadequacy. He prays “You do not desire sacrifice, You do not delight in burnt offerings” (verse 16). And he goes on to pray the verse in the title. Please don't get me wrong here, I am not advocating sin, but what I want to say, is that there is an advantage to having utterly failed. In verse 4 he says “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” And the advantage is that we start to truly see that what he says about us, about our fallen human nature is true. We start to see the little old me is capable of the most heinous of sins, and that given the right (or perhaps the wrong) circumstance, we could do almost anything. So yes, God would be right and just to condemn each and every on of to hell!

There is a “but” here, but God is not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). And since all sin is ultimately against Him (verse 4 again), He can forgive us of anything, no matter how bad or evil. He does require repentance of course, heart felt repentance. The sacrifice God desires is a contrite heart that is willing to put the self life to death, that is willing with His help, to crucify the deeds and the desires of the sinful nature (Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:24). He is talking about a brokenness that out of love and gratitude for the deliverance from self, produces a zeal for the Kingdom and  lives that are no longer all about me. Indeed, it is because of the tender mercies of our God that Paul admonishes us to be living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).

Father, I want to offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving this morning, as well as presenting myself as a living sacrifice. Thank You Lord that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. Thank You Jesus that You were willing to come and live and die, so that the Father could be just and the justifier of all who believe (Romans 3:26). Break our hearts Lord with what breaks Yours, and give us the Grace to bear it, in Jesus Name Amen

Sacrifice to God thanksgiving .....

...... fulfill your vows to the Most High, Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:6, 7). The concepts of thanksgiving and praise, and of glory and honour, are closely linked to each other, but also together in Scripture. In particular the word translated here as thanksgiving, is translated praise in verse 23 (NKJV). But it is also translated as thanksgiving elsewhere. The NIV translates 23a as “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honour me,” while the NKJV translates it as “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me.” There things are, of course because the Hebrew words have both of the respective meanings. But the two concepts are also linked in the New Testament. I quote “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21, 22). Paul is saying here that the slippery slope to reprobation, the process of a person becoming unprincipled or depraved, starts by failing to be thankful, and by not glorifying God.

This is pretty scary, I mean who has not been there at times? I certainly have. And I am thankful this morning that I don't have to earn my salvation by being perfect in this, or any other way. But what these thoughts are doing this morning, is brining my attention how important are thanksgiving and praise and honouring and glorifying God. In particular, to fail to do these things is the start of a darkened mind. It is interesting to me that the Bible talks of thanksgiving and praise in terms of sacrifice. Under the old Covenant of course they were actual costly sacrifices on the alter. A sacrifice could consist of bull or a sheep. But there is a real sense in which in times of difficulty and distress that it costs us to give thanks and praise, because many times we might not feel like it! Choosing to give thanks at such times certainly feels like a sacrifice.

But the alternative is to wallow in negativity and self pity. And the attitude that pleases God is that of Job who, when his wife told him to curse God and die (Job 2:9). Job refuses saying “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” And in all this Job did not sin with his lips (verse 10). The Joseph story too shows how with God's help we are able to rise above the circumstances. And the Christian is commanded to count it all joy when we find ourselves in manifold and diverse trials (James 1:2).

Father, these things are very challenging, and I find myself needing to repent again this morning for allowing the trails of life to take away my joy. I need Your help Father, please restore the joy of my salvation, and grant me a thankful heart to praise honour and glorify You in Jesus Name Amen

Are you not therefore mistaken (II)

The Sadducee had asked a question and Jesus has essentially answered that they were wrong because they “knew nether the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Mark 12:24). Last day we discussed the fact that questions themselves can be wrong. This morning I want to talk about the question I get asked all the time “Can't you make the Bible say anything you want?” Well certainly people do, they even take a clear “no,” and turn it into a “yes.” I sometimes give the tongue in cheek answer “Yes you can, and using the same rules of interpretation you can make the dictionary say the very same thing! And since I discovered this, I have stopped using the dictionary!” So there are good interpretations and bad interpretations and a whole host of in between ones too! Last day we were saying sometimes you need to interpret literally, and other times not? But how are we to know?

What you must not do is use the Bible as a kind of magic book closing your eyes opening it and putting your finger on a verse. One man did that and got “Judas went out and hung himself.” Shaken he tried again “Go and do likewise.” A third time he got “What you do, do quickly” (Matthew 27:5; Luke 10:37; John 13:27). I am talking of course about the need to read things in context. In fact there is a whole science of interpretation it's called hermeneutics, and clearly we are not going to get too much into that in three paragraphs and a prayer. But perhaps what I do need to say, is that the Bible is its own best interpreter. In particular, as Jesus says, we tend to be mistaken when we don't know the Scriptures. Take last day's verse about hating father and mother. It is not only necessary to understand that there are different genres (Google it), this is hyperbole (over exaggeration). But it is also necessary to compare scripture with scripture (1 Corinthians 2:13). So for example in this case we need to see the command to love one another and to honour father and mother. But then we also needed to see that Jesus would not be put off by his mother an brothers trying to prevent His ministry.

But to come back to the question of making Scripture say what you want it to say. I need to say that Scripture itself condemns this. Peter telling that some of the things Paul says are hard to understand says “which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16). We need to be particularly careful when we want to do something the Scriptures condemn. Scriptures speaks about the deceitfulness of sin, and we can easily “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Hebrews 3:13; Romans 1:18). It is called rationalization and denial. There is wisdom in many counsellors (proverbs 15:22)

Father, Peter says of prophecy that it is of “no private interpretation” (2 peter 1:20). The same is true of Scripture. Help us Lord to study to be approved unto God a workman who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Keep us from error Lord we pray,  in Jesus Name Amen

Are you not therefore mistaken (I) ..

... because you know nether the Scriptures nor the power of God (Mark 12:24)? The Sadducees had taken their turn trying to trap Jesus with their questions. The Sadducees said that there is no resurrection, and they had a story about a woman having seven successive legal marriages with seven brothers, each one dying before the next marriage. The question is “In the Resurrection whose wife shall she be?” And the above verse is the start of His answer. You can read the rest of it yourself, but what I want to start to do this morning is to draw from this, among other things, that questions can be wrong. I hear two wrong questions all the time. Firstly “Do you take the Bible literally,” secondly, usually by unbelievers, “Can't you make the Bible say anything you want?”

Concerning the first consider the question “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Whether I say yes, or no, I'm in trouble. What I am saying, is that the question hides an assumption, in this case at the very least, that the wife has at some point been beaten. There is an assumption too behind the “literal” question, and it is that the there are only two possible answer yes, or no! Consider two verses, firstly “Unless you hate your mother and father, you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Secondly “You shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). Obviously this last one is meant to be taken literally, but what about the first? Well the statement is hyperbole, an “obvious exaggeration not intended to be understood literally.” Taken literally it would contradict the commandment to honour father and mother (Exodus 20:12). It is meant to be startling and cause us to pause and think. Thinking, is about loving the Lord with all our mind, and it is about knowing the Scriptures.

The NLT paraphrases the Luke reference with “you must, by comparison, hate everyone else.” And well yes, but this is to spoon fed us. When Jesus makes such outrageous statements, it is meant to catch our attention, and to cause us to interact with the text. You can read the NLT without pause, and it is likely gone in the next five minutes. Certainly we must honour our father and mother, but how far are we to go with it? As adults should we allow them to overrule what we understand to be our calling? Well maybe, I mean we can get things wrong, and there is wisdom in many counsellors (Proverbs 15:22). But certainly not always, Jesus told us “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:36, 37). In fact there was a period when his mother and His brothers “went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, 'He is out of His mind'” (Mark 3:21).

Father, Your Word tells us that we are to study to be approved unto God (2 Timothy 2:15), and that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth (John 16:13). It is not by Word only, but it is by the Word and the Spirit, and it is in iron sharpening iron sharpening iron that we lean the truth. Forgive us Lord for our arrogance and pride. thinking we are the only ones who know truth. Bring us together Lord in unity and humility to the foot of the cross in Jesus Name Amen