A very kind doctor used to keep an account book, and every so often would go through the accounts to check which bills hadn’t been paid. Whenever he found an account where the patient could not pay the bill, the doctor would simply put a red line through it and write alongside, “Forgiven, umable to pay”. After his death, his wife went through the book and decided that she could benefit from all these outstanding debts. She therefore went to the local courthouse to sue the debtors for the money in the civil claims court – which is where I often work. But the magistrate looked at the doctor’s account book and said, “No court in the world will give you a verdict against those people, when your husband, with his own pen has written, “Forgiven, unable to pay”!
Likewise, Jesus, in His Book of Life, has acknowledged against each of our names, “Forgiven, unable to pay for our sins!” He knows that although we deserve to go to God’s prison (called Hell) to pay the debt for our sins, we can do nothing to offset the sins which stack up against us, except to claim His forgiveness which He paid for on the Cross! As we share communion today, we thank Him for His forgiveness, which frees us from the penalty we so richly deserve!
We live in a world which treats the symptoms rather than to seek a cure!
Examples: 1. Provide clean syringes for heroin users – but don’t offer the users a new lifestyle!
(The Principal of one of my former schools raided the ISCF meeting because we had a guest speaker talking about drugs – he was addressing how prayer meetings have provided rehabilitation! Some people see the Christian solution as more dangerous than the symptoms themselves!)
2. Youth centres and even schools provide condoms for teenagers – but don’t offer celibacy as an alternative lifestyle! It’s almost compulsory to experiment with sex these days! This is like offering a pyromaniac a fire-proof suit for protection – but not exposing the dangers of the practice!
3. Drunken riots at Bondi Beach are addressed by Waverley Council be roping off a special area for getting drunk – but no celebration of Jesus is offered at Christmas!
4. A careers adviser told a mother not to offer counselling to her daughter who is sexually active –just provide the pill – as “She’s going to do it anyway!” And another careers adviser offered a girl the chance to have an abortion instead of the chance to keep the baby!
5. If teenagers rebel – just give them more freedom! My elderly neighbour in Taree complained about the noise caused by my teenage tenant using a basketball hoop on his side of my house. He even offered to provide a hoop in the park on the other side, but the boy’s mother defended his actions by refusing to cooperate with the neighbour!
The world’s solution is to offer more fun, more pleasure, more freedom to disturb and destroy! But Jesus offers a new Way, new Truth and new Life!
A NEW WAY: (Hope)
The great evangelist John Wesley was once assailed by a robber who demanded “Your money or your life!” Wesley not only handed over the few coins he had in his possession, but he added, “Stop! I have something more to give you!” And he told the man, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin! As the robber rode off, Wesley prayed that the words would sink into his heart! Many years later, as people came out of a church where Wesley was preaching, the former robber himself stepped forward to meet him. He was now a successful businessman and a follower of Jesus. He told Wesley, “I owe it all to you!”to which Wesley replied, “No my friend, not to me but to the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses us from all sin!” This is the way of Jesus! And the only way to receive eternal life!
A NEW TRUTH: (Purpose)
The real truth is very narrow! If your doctor was a very sincere man, and had lots of ideas but knew nothing about medicine, would you trust him to heal you? Jesus said in Matthew 9:12, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick! For I have not come to heal the righteous, but sinners!” Jesus, as our Creator, not only knows how to heal our bodies, but more importantly, He can heal our souls and spirits! If we are only willing to trust Jesus and no other religious leader, we are being narrow minded, because, Jesus said, “No-one comes to the Father except through ME!” When Jesus declared Himself to be truth, He wasn’t just claiming to speak the truth, or to speak about the truth, because He proved Himself to be God, He actually is the truth, and everything we say and do is measured against Him!
A pastor was once asked to conduct the funeral of a gangster and the dead man’s brother gave the pastor a generous donation for the church if the pastor promised to say that the deceased was a saint! When the pastor got up to preach, he said, “This man is a liar, a cheat and a crook! When he saw the horrified look on the brother’s face, he added, “but compared with his brother, this man is a saint! Likewise, when we measure ourselves against Jesus, we see the truth of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God!”
At another funeral, the pastor said, in front of the open casket, “Here lies Joe, who would probably have loved to give his life to Jesus, but now it’s too late! But it’s not too late for you who are here! Now is the day of salvation. You don’t have to suffer the fate of poor Joe! You can receive eternal life today!” On his way home, one man said to his wife, “I thought that message was in very poor taste!” His wife agreed, but added, “Yes, but it’s true! It’s not too late for us!”
A NEW LIFE: (Direction)
Another writer I studied in my first year at university was John Donne – a poet who lived a very licentious life, and wrote poems about the sexual relationships he had with many women in his younger life! But in due course Jesus gave him a new life, and eventually he became the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London! He continued to write poetry, but changed his theme from sexual love to the love of God! (At uni we studied both sets of his poems!) And in one of his sermons he wrote this, “For I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of glory, and shine myself as that Sun shines! I shall rise from the grave, and never miss this city (London), for I shall see the city of God – the new Jerusalem!”
When i was going through one of the most difficult times in my life a number of years back, the pastor of my church gave me this verse from Psalm 27:13, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” Jesus offers us new life – both in this world and the next! Will you take the opportunity to begin a new life with Jesus today?
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