Gospel Preacher

Hope

“Who against hope believed in hope,” Romans 4:18.
When things look hopeless in your life, and it seems impossible that the outcome can be anything but loss, if that be the loss of your health, or your relationships with members of your family and friends, or anything at all, we must still believe and have hope that everything will be well.

The biggest hopeless thing that seemed to ever happen on this earth, which shocked God’s people was when Jesus was crucified on that bloody cross at Calvary. Here hung the Son of God, the perfect spotless lamb who knew no sin, yet took upon himself the sins of the whole world. He became a curse by hanging on a tree, for the scripture says, “curseth is he that hangeth upon a tree.” He bled and died and was laid in the grave, what a hopeless spectacle that seemed to be to all of the world.

But, hallelujah, praise God, for God who called things that be not as though they were, raised Jesus from the dead, and the earth shook with a mighty shaking as the stone was rolled away, and the glory of His Christ shone forth as a brilliant light, to show man that there is hope for all mankind, for even at the cross we see that God has the final say.

Now your problems may look and feel hopeless, because the mortgage lender is calling in his loan, or the doctor says, “You are never going to get better.” You may not have any money, and feel quite sick, but still your hope must be in God. For this kind of hope and faith makes our Father glad, He will surely bless and help you to triumphantly come through any trial that you face today. For we know when our hope is in Him, we are surely standing on solid ground.

So you may be assured that your problem might be as big as a mountain, and it may be in your mind impossible for you to change, but have faith and hope in your God, for we can see that even death itself was defeated when our Lord and Saviour was raised from the dead. What joy filled the hearts of the believers that day, and what joy will fill your hearts as you begin to see and hear your God say, “Have hope and faith in me, for I will make all things right for you, I will bring you through, you will have victory.”

Psalm 146:5-8 says, “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein in is: which keepeth truth forever: Which executeth judgement for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: The Lord loveth the righteous.”


It was down at the feet of Jesus, Oh the happy day! that my soul found peace in believing , and my sins were washed away. Let me tell the old story, of His grace so full and free, for I feel like giving Him the glory, for His wonderful love to me.

Fruitful

Fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ
Today we have so many Christians that want to be used of God. Many feel that they are compelled to be enrolled in Bible schools, and theology colleges, some even try hard to gain favour by giving large amounts of money to ministers, so that they too can aspire to leadership in their particular denomination.

Yet, they still fail to be used of God, because they refuse to recognise that they must seek first to clean up their own lives, as the Bible commands them to do.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 5:25, “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.”

The scriptures use many illustrations, for example, make your vessels clean then it will be fit for the Masters use, I quote from the scriptures taken from 2Timothy 2:19,21, “Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, if a man therefore purge himself, {which means to rid ourselves of harmful or undesirable things} he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the masters use, and prepared unto every good work.”

You see God will not use in His church dirty vessels. Can you imagine the vessels that were used in God’s temple? Do you think they were unclean? No, the priests would make them very clean before every service. So, if we want to be used of God today, let us all seek as the Bible says to add to our faith the most valuable attributes that will make our lives clean.

Virtue, which means showing high moral standards. Knowledge, a good understanding of God’s word. Temperance, being moderate in all things. Patience, waiting for God’s deliverance being at peace. Godliness, obeying the commandments of Jesus. Brotherly kindness, loving one another in Christ. Charity, kindness and understanding when judging others.

So, let us all be fruitful in the whole knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, as the Bible says that we might live worthy of the Lord pleasing Him always, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. If we do this our Father in Heaven will indeed be pleased to use us, I’m sure of this because the many people who have been used by our Lord in the Bible, were very rich in these attributes.

Colossians 1:9-11, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness.”

Cast into the sea

Today many people are so concerned about the environment, saying, “what shall we do with all our rubbish?” Well, God has no problem with rubbish, for He just casts it into the deepest sea. Do you remember where the evil spirits ended up which Jesus cast out of a mad man?

Well, they entered into a herd of pigs which ran off a cliff into the sea. Now Jesus is aware that many of us have huge amounts of rubbish in our lives, which we need to get rid of and for many of us these problems are as big as mountains. So, Jesus has provided the answer for us to get rid of them, in Mark 11 v 23, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he sayeth.”

If it is sickness, or financial or darkness of any description that afflicts you, then cast it into the deepest sea. I guess that is why the deeper the sea, the more hideous the sea creatures become. We have seen this in recent times as deep sea exploration has taken place. The explanation for the evil looking deep sea creatures must come from all the evil that has been cast down to them over the centuries. In that darkness we see creation in it’s most darkest and hideous forms. But when we come into the light, hallelujah, we see creation at it’s most beautiful, like the birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea. That is why we must always seek to walk in the light as Christ Jesus is the light of the world, and there is nothing more beautiful than Christ Jesus our wonderful Lord and Saviour. So cast your problems into the sea, and walk in the light.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” St John 8 v 12.

Woven

Christianity is woven throughout our entire nation, being the very fabric that makes up these islands. It keeps the judgement of God from falling on us that is why we have been preserved from the many wars that have buffeted our shores. We need never feel that the darkness that comes upon us is permanent, for the light of Christ will always prevail by dispersing it with his glory. We need not be troubled by wicked people, for our God is surely dealing with them. I am amazed when I see Christianity in all our great institutions, I cannot begin to speak of all our workforce, builders, lawyers, nurses, miners, factory workers, who make our nation so great and confess Christ Jesus as Lord, Well, the list is never ending, where God’s people can be found, Christianity is literally everywhere. It cannot and will not ever be removed from these islands.

Do not listen to doom prophets, when you hear them say things for example, like the abortion issue, they say, “surely this will bring God’s wrath upon us all, for that wicked thing that people do to our unborn children.” Well, God’s judgement will fall on them that commit such horrific killings, but I assure you, the righteous will not be included in God’s judgement. We remember how God’s mercy is shown to us in Genesis 18:24-26, I quote, “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee: Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

You can see from this scripture that God will surely spare our nation, because there are more than fifty righteous Christians living here. Now Jesus has told us that this world is inhabited by the children of the kingdom and the children of the wicked, and that He will not bring final judgement on the wicked until the end of the world, because He will not destroy the wicked while the righteous are here. At the end of the world Jesus said in St Matthew 13: 41, - 43, “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”And so, that is how we can be confident that God will not let us be overwhelmed by these recent troubles that we face in our nation. Praise God, for every born-again believer that God has placed in our lands.

Circumspectly

The further a man falls away from the Lord, the bigger fool he becomes, for sin will always make people do things that they do not want to do. We have seen that on the television screens, how celebrities make huge fools of themselves. You will find that all people who do ridiculous things like that will have no knowledge of Christ or His Words. Some of them confess that they know God, but in words and actions they deny Him, Romans 1:22, “Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools”.
Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”

I guess this is the first sign that will give man’s character away, for it tells us about the way he leads his life. Characteristics of a fool as defined in the Bible. - First you cannot trust him, for he has no fear of God. He despises Christians who follow Christ’s teachings, he hates the knowledge of God’s Word when he hears it, he becomes a companion with other foolish people and he will desire to be with them, drinking heavily and speaking profanities, he also becomes very crooked in his transactions.

Full of deceit, this must surely describe many that are in the world today. I guess that this is a picture of sin itself in our world, and an example of how we must not let sin reign in our hearts. For if we do, then sin will make us also do foolish things, things which we would be very ashamed of. Let us always come to Jesus, asking His forgiveness, for He is the power and the wisdom of God. “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.” Ephesians 5:15.

Now the word circumspect means to be weary and watchful in our conduct. An example of this can be found in Exodus 23:13, “And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.” You see from this scripture that a man may ruin himself through careless speaking, so, let us walk in the wisdom and the power of God by being circumspect.

“Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things. For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them. For wisdom is better than rubies; and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.” Proverbs ch 8:6-11.

God’s will

Matthew 26:39, “Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

I will never forget the time of learning how I had to surrender my will to God. It was a time during those seven years of affliction, which plagued my life. It was a truly horrific time for my family and I.

I received many iron infusions, at Poole hospital, walking down those long corridors was near impossible for me to do because of my lack of breath. I really hated doing this, they would hook me up for a transfusion, the needle would cause severe bruising as it entered my veins. Many times leaning against the corridor walls, pale as a ghost, saying, “Lord, why do I have to do this, why don’t you give me more iron in my blood?”

Then one time I prayed “Well Lord, if you want me to do this, if this is your will for me to have these infusions, then I surrender to you.” That was the very last time that I needed any more iron in my blood, and my breath returned to me, and I never needed to return again for any more infusions, the Lord completely healed me, after saying “I surrender to you Lord.”All to Jesus I surrender all to Jesus I freely give.

Now Christ had to surrender His will to His Father completely, so that if we will surrender our lives to Him, and totally trust Him for all that He has accomplished on that cross, then healings and blessings will abound for us. For whatever comes our way we will have the victory, because Christ has the victory over all the powers of darkness.

Dear Christians, today you may say, “Why have I got to go through this trial,” as you cry unto the Lord. Well, I can say from experience that Jesus will be with you, and bring you out of that fiery furnace, just like He was with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, and brought them out. You may be in a place where you just do not want to be, just like I was, now this will be a time for you to surrender your will to Christ, and say, “ Lord if it’s your will for me to go through this fiery furnace, then your will be done.” You can be assured of this that Jesus will bring you out just like He did for countless others who have put their trust in Him.

Sometimes through testing times I go, dark seems the way, and full of woe; but in the furnace though I be, my great Physician healeth me, Lord, I would spread this truth abroad, the mighty power of thy word; It’s just the same, the blind now see, and demons at thy presence flee, for sin and sickness doth depart, when thou doth reign within my heart; and I from all the curse am free, since Christ, my Saviour healeth me.