IS MANKIND MAKING PROGRESS?

                                                                                                                                 Genesis 11

If we define progress as material achievements, we can say “Yes, mankind is making progress!” Japan, for example, has a tower one kilometre high – much higher than the Tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible! But in the year 2000, the world celebrated 2000 years of Christian faith.  And to mark the occasion, the City of London built the world’s largest ferris wheel. Doesn’t it give you a feeling of security, knowing that London has this special landmark? I mean, yes, you do get quite a good view from up there (I’ve been there already) but to me it’s a sad commentary on human progress that we celebrate our faith in this way!

The truth is, that in the 5000 years since the Tower of Babel, the human race has learned very little of real significance! How can I say this? Because we are still making the same mistakes now that the Babylonians were making all those years ago:

1.       Pride – Making a name for ourselves!

 In other words, by glorifying ourselves rather than God, we are concentrating on Humanism – the idea that human beings can ultimately achieve anything! When Tony Blair became the Prime Minister of England for example, he declared in distinctly humanist tones, that the world was about to experience a generation of peace!  I said at the time that this was a ridiculous assertion, especially since Neville Chamberlain, a previous prime minister had declared, “Peace in our time” just before Britain and Germany declared war on each other!  And sure enough, during Tony Blair’s term of office, England became embroiled in two impossible wars – one in Afganistan, and one in Iraq! The Bible has a comment to make on this kind of pride, in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “While people are saying ‘peace and safety’, destruction will come upon them suddenly!” I must admit that I’d much rather believe the Bible than the Tony Blairs of the world any day! “Whereas John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He must become more important and I must become less important (John 3:30), most people would prefer to believe the opposite!

We can fall into the same trap as the rich fool in Jesus’parable, who kept building bigger and better buildings for his own importance, until God took him unprepared! A quiz champion of the sixties named Frank Partidge had a new home, a new wife, became a father, etc, but was wiped out in a head on collision! I don’t know whether he was prepared for eternity, but he got it!

Adam and Eve developed such pride that they sought equality with God, but even today, most people make gods of themselves, leaving the true God out of the picture!

2.       Prominence  -  Trusting in ourselves, rather than in God! “Let us build ourselves a city!”

These days, humans feel a sense of self-achievement because they’ve put a man on the moon! Scientists are even claiming that computers which focus on data from outer space can reveal the origins of the universe! And members of SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, claim that by training their computers on outer space, that sooner or later they will pick up signals from other life forms in the universe! But God’s universe is far greater than man or his computers! It is convenient to leave God out of the picture – but not very realistic!

Medical science is now trying to play God by creating life from nothing as God has done! But they will never succeed! We must recognise, as Hebrews 2:10 tells us, that it is GOD “for whom and through whom everything exists!” Not only have scientists and others declared God redundant, but people try to use made-up religions to get into God’s Kingdom! They forget that ‘religion’ means to bind up, while Jesus declared, “The truth will set you free!” (John 8:32) We cannot get to heaven by our own efforts, no matter what we try to do to achieve it! Jesus even tells the story of one man who tried to crash His party by his own efforts, but instead was thrown into ‘outer darkness’!  Jesus also said that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9) It is only when we make a point of total surrender that God can really work in us! St Augustine said, “Man will never find rest until his soul finds rest in Thee!”

3.       Pressure from Peers – the idea of safety in numbers! 

One of the fallacies of modern (and ancient) society is that “the majority is always right!” But originally the majority thought that the earth was flat! These days, most people live for themselves rather than God, and in the process, they follow the easy path to destruction! (Matt 7:13) But Christians will always be in the minority! E.g. Lot in Sodom! While I was living in the Republic of Nauru, I noticed that the motto of this so-called Christian country was “God’s Will First!” But when I asked the pastor’s son how many of the people were ‘real’Christians, he estimated that 18% would be generous! People forget that when we die, we will face God alone! We won’t have family and friends there to back us up! Our only ally will be Jesus Himself, who will either welcome us into His presence, or say, “”Sorry, I never knew you!”

Babel was language confusion and no effort can unite our languages (e.g. UN) Only the Holy Spirit can unify languages as a Pentecost! Let us not continue making the mistakes of Bable, and instead surrender to our Maker! Our eternal life begins the moment we do!

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FOUR REACTIONS TO JESUS

                      Mark 4:2-9

During World War 1, a group  of Turkish soldiers held a cliff top vantage point to protect the Turkish army near an location called Michmash. The British army was ordered to wipe out the Turkish opponents, which was easier said than done. But one of the British officers remembered an incident in the Bible at the exact location – where David’s friend Jonathan found a trail which led him and supporters to the top of the cliff where the enemy were defeated. The British searched and found the same trail used by Jonathan some three thousand years earlier – and history repeated itself – all because one British officer remembered an episode from the Bible. Remembrance is important, and our theme for communion, where we remember Jesus’ amazing sacrifice for us. Jesus left us this memorial ceremony so that we could remember the greatest of all truths – that He died for our salvation!

Today’s parable shows us not only the four types of response to Jesus and His Word, but it also shows four different reactions that we can make to Him at different times in our lives! The first group are the people who hear the Word of God, but it goes “in one ear and out the other!” In other words, these people are quite indifferent to God’s Word, and it makes no impact on their lives whatsoever! These are the people who turn up to church for an infant baptism or a funeral. They sit with their ears closed throughout the service – especially for what they see as the ‘religious bits’. In the book Hey God, the Italian momma, on the day before she dies, approaches a man walking past her home and she says, “Sir, you better accept Christ and accept Him quickly because you haven’t got long!” But the man keeps repeating, “I don’t want to hear it!” Momma’s son attended that man’s funeral four days later! Most people just don’t want to hear about Jesus, and most of them just prefer to commit the only unforgiveable sin – which is leaving Jesus out of their lives forever!

The second group we are told have shallow soil and the seed sprouts quickly but is soon scorched and withered! These are the people who at first respond positively to Jesus and His Word, but for them it’s just a brief novelty – “here today and gone tomorrow!” I once took a small group of students to a Pentecostal church, and by the end of the meeting, they were all speaking in tongues! They were so excited on the way home and of them wanted to be baptised the following week. But there was no depth to their decision, and by the following week, after getting the usual tormenting from their friends in the dormitories, they had put the whole experience behind them and were happy just to go to the usual service at the Anglican church!

The third group are those who take notice of the Word of Jesus, but the world quickly chokes out what they’ve heard! For them it’s a case of “easy come, easy go!”  They get easily sucked in by the temptations of the world, and their faith is easily swept away when their friends say, “Come with us and have some fun!”  The so-called fun though is usually self-indulgent and self-destructive, and doesn’t allow any room for Jesus! There is no shortage of worldly activities which lead us downhill if we’re ready to go looking for them!  People often fall for one of the three the three p’s:   pokies,  pubs and pot! One of my students once insisted on seeing a priest so that he could become a Christian! I said, you don’t need a priest, you just need to turn to Jesus! And I prayed the sinner’s prayer with him! But then he was so keen to ‘share’ faith with his mates,that he headed straight to the pub to tell them about it! And that’s where it ended. He quickly joined in the drinking and swearing and his new faith was swept away in no time!

But the fourth group hear the Word of Jesus, and are willing to accept Him in place of their empty lives once and for all! The book Hey God, which I’ve already mentioned, tells of several members of Momma’s family who resist Jesus for many years until finally they surrender their lives to Him and can’t wait to share Him with everyone they meet! A lady I know came from a non-Christian family, except that one of the four daughters attended Sunday School. Gradually however, the mother and the other three daughters turned to Jesus and finally the father surrendered  also. The father was so full of the joy of the Lord, that no-one could stop him talking about Jesus at every opportunity. The mother developed a similar zeal. Today it is only the first daughter who gave up the faith and married a non-Christian! She clearly fell into the second or third group which we’ve already described! What about you? Do you give up too easily, or are you willing to face the fact that only with Jesus do we have a real purpose for living and a real confidence in dying!

HOW SHOULD A CHRISTIAN LIVE?

High in the Italian Alps is a cross on one of the peaks, and each year at Easter, many people gather around this cross to celebrate Jesus’ death on our behalf. But one day, someone walked beyond the cross, to find another monument – an open cave, to celebrate the empty tomb which Jesus left behind when He arose from the dead. How often do people finish the story of Jesus with His death and forget what is even more important – that He conquered death by rising from it! Likewise, America’s third President, Thomas Jefferson admired the Bible – but only parts of it! He produced a special edition which removed all the supernatural sections and finished the story of Jesus with the sealing of His tomb! Today we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us as we celebrate communion, but because today is Resurrection Sunday, we also celebrate the new life He offers us when we surrender to Him!

When I worked about 100metres along this road at Springfield Lodge as the caretaker, one night an American lady approached me and said, “My fridge isn’t working!” I know nothing about fridges, but I thought perhaps if Id looked at it, she may feel a little better, even if we had to get an expert in next day.  As we approached her room, she said, “There’s a mouse in my room!” and I thought to myself, “This lady really does have problems!”  When we arrived I saw the “mouse” immediately! Her room was a mess, but she pronounced “mess” as “mouse”. That one was easily solved. Likewise the fridge problem wasn’t too difficult even for me! I just had to turn it on at the power point! Fridges, like humans, can only function if they are turned on and tuned in! As Christians, we need to be plugged in to Jesus, our source of Power – turned on and tuned in to Him! Those who play electric guitars won’t get far without a source of power – unless they use acoustic guitars, which rely on their own power! But Jesus doesn’t have any acoustic Christians! If we rely only on our own power, we won’t get very far! Christians then, need to KNOW HIM, GROW IN HIM, and SHOW HIM to the world!

1.       KNOW HIM. The best way to do this is to read His Word and listen to His Word! But when a mate of mine told me once that God doesn’t guide us through our circumstances, I became upset and prayed for assurance that He really does guide us through the circumstances He provides for us! I woke at 5.30am next morning while it was still dark and a voice in my head said, “Look up Isaiah 48:17!” I waited until daylight, and read this: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you, and leads you along the paths you should follow!” In other words, God used the Bible and my prayer to Him to show me that He does guide us by going ahead of us and preparing paths for us to walk in! His Word tells us in Psalm 119:105, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path!”

2.       GROW IN HIM. If we keep watering our plants (which I sometimes forget to do) we sometimes almost see them grow before our eyes! Water in Scripture represents the Spirit of God Himself! As we receive more of Him, we continue to grow! As you probably know the Ku Klux Klan in America are very hostile to black people! Yet when two of their members became Christians, the Holy Spirit urged them to send the sheets they had used as uniforms to the Red Cross, who used them to make bandages for black refugees in Africa! As we grow in the Holy Spirit, He transforms us to do things for Him that wouldn’t have been possible before we became part of His team!

 Having fellowship with other Christians is also a growing mechanism! Two friends of mine were members of our church youth group when I was a teenager, but when they married, they gave up going to church. As a result, they stopped growing as Christians, and eventually the husband ran off with a younger woman. Meanwhile his wife, recognising her need for acceptance, started going to church again and now, years later, her two grown-up daughters are also Christians and are married to Christians. But what happened to the husband? He died of cancer last year, and at his deathbed, one of his daughters read Scripture to him, and he groaned in acknowledgement. We don’t know whether his groans expressed repentance or whether his hostility to the things of God was expressing itself in this way! It is said that church members are like cars – they start missing before they stop altogether!

3.       SHOW HIM.  A former flatmate of mine in Wollongong claimed to be a Christian because he attended church about once a year. When smoking pot, he told his friends about Jesus, but no-one took him seriously! When he had sex with the women he met up with, he told them he was a Christian, but they didn’t take him seriously either! Someone once said, “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it!”  Do people take you seriously if you tell them you’re a Christian? Do you even take yourself seriously?

Queen Elizabeth I was probably Britain’s greatest monarch of all time! She even inspired her tiny navy to defeat the great and powerful Spanish Armada! And she once made this comment about her Christian faith: “I would like to be alive when Jesus returns, so that I can be the first monarch to lay my crown at His feet!” He attitude was one of total surrender to Jesus! And if we are going to influence others for Him, we have to surrender each part of our lives to Him also.

I would say that when we surrender to Jesus, we are no longer the boss of our own lives! Instead, we could wear a familiar sign we often see on shops: “Under New Management!”But the advantage of this is summed up by the Apostle John in 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son, does not have life!”

Colossians  2: 6,7 gives us a final thought for today: “Continue to live in Him, planted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you’ve been taught, and overflowing with thankfulness!”

WHY READ THE BIBLE

In 1856, my great great-grandfather came from England to live in Melbourne and he received a letter from his brother back home. The letter told him that he could no longer live a selfish life, just doing what he wanted or he was headed to hell! The letter also told him he needed Jesus as the Lord of his life, but sadly, I don’t think my ancestor, or his son, or his granddaughter took any notice of this message! Finally my father came along and in 1978 I was born! After I became a Christian, my father did the same, but it was too late for our forbears! Each of us has a letter from God Himself, and it’s called the Bible.  Three generations of my family ignored the warnings of one letter, but you and I can’t ignore God’s message that Jesus died that we can be forgiven for our selfishness and we can start afresh! We remember His sacrifice for us this morning as we take communion together!

Back in the 1950’s an engineering professor told his class to buy the most expensive slide rule they could afford because it would serve them “all their professional lives”! Within ten years, engineers were using calculators instead of slide rules! Since that time, technology has been changing much faster than we can keep up! By contrast, Isaiah 40:8 tells us that “The Word of the Lord endures forever!”  God never changes and His Word is always relevant! The Bible is more up to date than tomorrow’s newspaper – and much more reliable! The more the world changes, the more security we have in reading God’s unchanging truth!”  Three significant questions are:

1.       Can we still trust the Bible?

A mate of mine some years ago told me that the Bible is a “load of rubbish”! I replied that as an English teacher, I insist that the students read the book first – before giving a book review! Years later he became a Christian and lined me up to run a Bible study at his home, which I did for seven years until I moved to Cronulla. Seven years later, the group is still running in the Gong– even though he and I have both moved away. He is now more active in his church than ever!

The famous evangelist Dwight Moody said, “The Bible was not just given to increase our knowledge – but to change our lives! I once met a young man who was working in the cane fields in Queensland, when he saw a tiny scrap of paper on the ground with writing on it. He found that it was a verse of Scripture, and even though I can’t remember what it was, it made him think about his life and he became a follower of Jesus! 

Proverbs 3:5 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart!” I once needed an assistant for a job I was doing in the city and none of my friends wanted to help! I prayed in church one night for a helper and when I turned around, here was this young man I mentioned above! I’d never met him before and I asked him if he was looking for work. When he said he was, I simply said, “You start tomorrow!” And he did – and stayed working with me until the job was finished three weeks later!

A young boy once gave his grandmother a Bible for Christmas and wrote in it what he’d seen in another book, “With compliments from the Author!” This reminds us that the Author of the Bible is also the God of the Universe – who controls our lives and calls us to account on Judgment Day!

2.       Can we still live by the Bible?

A more important question is, “Can we still live without it?” I’ve never heard of someone reading the Bible and then committing suicide! And I’ve never heard of people who support euthanasia quoting the Bible to back up their choices. Instead, Jesus said, “Man cannot live by bread alone!” And he added, “but by every word which comes from the mouth of God!”  We may feel that we can get through life in our own strength, but without God’s guidance, our lives are likely to be random efforts to fill in time and to make as much money as we can so that we can keep filling in time! It makes so much more sense to allow our personal God to help us make wise choices which keep us on the path to eternal life!

A Chinese scholar who was not a Christian was employed to translate the Scriptures into his language. One day he stood up and said, One who made that Book made me, for it tells me things about myself that no-one else knows and even things that I didn’t know!” One of my former flatmates was from Communist China, but he read the Bible aloud in his room every day, and he knew without any doubt,  that only the Bible can show us how to live! 2 Timothy Chapter 3 tells us that Scripture is useful to teach us, correct us and train us in righteousness. In other words, the Bible helps us see things through God’s eyes instead of just our own!

                3   Can the Bible still point us to heaven?

I met a young man who was serving a part-time prison sentence on weekends and he told me that because he was about to become a father, he needed to know about the Bible so that he could teach the truth to his child! I gave him a copy of the Daily Bread notes which are sent out free to anyone interested! The next time I saw him, he was really excited, and he said, “Now I know that God is willing to forgive all my sins!” This is confirmed in Psalm 32: 1,2, which says, “Blessed is he who has forgiveness of his sin – whose sin does not count against him!” Without forgiveness of our sins, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

A caretaker in a university, a very simple man, was once seen reading the Book of Revelation (the most difficult book in the Bible to understand!) Someone asked if he understood what it means, and he answered, “Of course I do! It means Jesus is going to win!”

The Bible tells us in graphic detail how Jesus died for each of us so that we might live forever! How can we possibly ignore it unless we want to spend eternity alone and in outer darkness! If you would like to read the Bible for yourself, please take a copy of Luke’s Gospel, or apply for Our Daily Bread notes to help you read it, or start with the free book, Ultimate Questions, which I can offer you this morning!

The Bible has a message for you every day of your life! If you don’t read it, you won’t know what God wants to say to you today!

HOW DOES GOD SPEAK TO US?

1 Kings 19: 9-18

Last week I told of the death of my dear friend Viv – a decent lady who suffered a great deal in her sixty years of life. Once when she asked to stay at my home in Kandos while doing practice teaching at the nearby primary school, I offered to pick her up at her Penrith home and drive her to my place personally. But Viv liked to do things her way and she insisted on taking her own car. A few weeks later, on her return journey, she had a head-on collision and spent almost a year in hospital! To her this was just bad luck, but God had known what lay ahead for her and had offered Viv an escape opportunity through me, which she didn’t take. Unfortunately, the same thing happens on an eternal scale. God can see the disaster which lies ahead if we don’t heed His message at the opportune time! So often God speaks to us through His other servants and we ignore Him! Let’s look at the main ways He does speak to us, and be willing to listen to His voice!

In our reading today, we learned that although God is capable of doing spectacular things, like sending cyclones and earthquakes, He often chooses to speak to us in a “still, small voice” by just giving us a thought or a prompting or a sudden understanding, or even the solution to a problem! Sometimes we can only hear His voice where there is stillness and quietness around us and we tune into Him through prayer!

Mainly though, He speaks to us through the three S’s:  His Scriptures, His Son and His Spirit.

The Scriptures – (His written Word) Sometimes God speaks through Scripture to His people generally. E.g. Hebrews 10:25. “Let us not give up meeting together...but let us encourage one another!” But other times He gives us specific answers to our needs. On one occasion, while pasturing the church down in Berry, I felt that visiting people down there was a real waste of time! But when I arrived home, my Scripture reading for the day said, from 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain!”

A girl I once taught with had felt rejected right through her childhood because her parents had never really wanted her. But one day she read in Psalm 22 the words, “You made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you!” With these words she realised that God had never rejected her, but had been at her side from the very moment she was born! So often like this, God speaks to us directly from His Word. We need to read the Scriptures regularly to see what He is saying to us personally!

The Son – (His living Word) Jesus has spoken to us all through His birth, His death and His resurrection. At His birth, He indicated that as God, He was willing to reach out to us by becoming one of us – a human being! Through His death, He demonstrated His great love for each of us by dying in our place, and through His resurrection, He has told us of His power over death! I once had a boss named Bob, who wasn’t a Christian, but he turned out to be the brother of my school French teacher, who was a Christian. When I told Bob that the whole Christian faith rested on the resurrection of Jesus, He couldn’t believe his ears!  He said with excitement, “That’s exactly what my brother has been saying to me all these years!” In other words, the Resurrection speaks to us with a message louder than thousands of Christians could ever convey!

Jesus speaks to us through His example. Back in the 1890’s a book was published with the title,  In His Steps – telling of a small American town where the townsfolk set out to ask themselves in each situation, “What would Jesus Do?” This became a catchcry throughout America, and even today you sometimes see people wearing the badge, “WWJD?” But Jesus speaks to us most by His presence with us. He says, “Come unto Me all who are over-burdened and I will give you rest – I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls!” For this reason, I urge people always to take Jesus with them – into the workplace, into exams and job interviews etc! Jesus will not only speak to us but will often speak through us on these occasions!

The Spirit – (His spoken Word) The Holy Spirit speaks to us generally of our sinfulness and our need for Jesus!  But the Spirit also speaks to/through us through 1) what we say, 2) what we pray and 3) what we display!

1.       Sometimes the Spirit gives us what we call a ‘word of knowledge’. For example, a mate of mine once told me that his father was undergoing tests for cancer. I said to him quite confidently, “Your father will be okay!” This message came to me through the Holy Spirit, and sure enough, his father after the tests was perfectly all right!

2.       I once advertised for a buyer for my first apartment in Kings Cross and no-one replied. I prayed that if I went into the street, the Lord would show me a suitable prospect. Sure enough I walked about one hundred metres from the building and there was a young Asian man with a newspaper, looking at real estate signs in the street. I said to him, “Are you looking to buy an apartment?”and he replied that he wasn’t but he was acting on behalf of a friend who was! I took him to my apartment and shortly afterwards the friend came along and agreed there and then to buy it!

3.       In the 1800’s a blind lady used to write rowdy drinking songs for use in American pubs. But when she became a Christian, the Holy Spirit led her to write hymns instead, and she wrote thousands of them – many of which are still sung throughout the world today. In fact last Tuesday, Annie and I sang one of these at a church service at my mother’s nursing home!

Let’s read the Scriptures, seek the presence of Jesus, and pray for the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so that we know in our hearts what God is saying to us! And in Matthew 28:20, Jesus says, “Be assured that I am with you always – even to the end of the age!”

CAN I FACE DEATH?

 Luke 12:16-21

You may have seen a movie called The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford.  But in the past, The Fugitive was a television series starring David Jansen.  Now Jansen didn’t just ignore God, as many Hollywood stars do.  He also made a TV min-series called The Word, which denied the truths of the Bible. Is it surprising then that one night Jansen had a dream in which he saw himself carried out of his house in a coffin? He was so frightened by this, that he rang all his friends and cancelled a party he’d planned for that night! A day later, he was carried out of his house in a coffin! Jansen lived a life denying God, and as a result was terrified of death! But Jesus died to take the sting out of death for us! He died to open a way into eternity where we could rejoice in His loving presence!

There are three mistakes people make in facing death:

1.                   Denial:  A former prime minister of England when told by his doctor that he was soon to die,  replied, “Die? That’s the last thing I’m going to do!”And it was!  But the great evolutionist, Professor Julian Huxley denied God all his life, and as he lay dying, he looked up at something unseen to others in the room and said, “So! It is true!” But by this time it was too late for poor old Huxley! Contrast this with the words of Stephen, the first Christian martyr: “I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”  I had a relative who couldn’t face the fact that one day she would die. She made no will and as far as I know, made no preparation to spend eternity with Jesus! The police had to break into her house when she died to free the six or seven cats who were left there to starve, and my parents had to shovel up the mess that the cats had left behind in the house. The house itself went to another relative who hadn’t seen her for fifty years! And before World War 11, a grave in Germany containing an atheist was sealed with a granite slab and bound with strong chains, with the tombstone inscription, “Not to be opened throughout eternity!” But a small acorn had somehow fallen into a crack, and its outer shell had died! Years afterward, a mighty oak tree had now broken up the slab covering the grave! This man had tried to deny God’s power over death and eternity!

2.                   Delusion: I saw a TV movie in which a woman dying of cancer spent her remaining days trying to line up a new lady for her husband! But she forgot to prepare for what lay ahead for herself!

A dear friend of mine was dying of cancer a few years ago, and as she wasn’t a Christian, I wrote to wish her a happy birthday first, and then added, “Viv, you are one of the nicest people I know, and if niceness were an assurance of a place in heaven, you would get there with the best of them. I then went on to explain that we’ve all failed to reach God’s standards and that only by accepting Jesus can we enter heaven. Viv wrote back and said, “Yes, I had a great birthday. My kids shouted me a sky-jump as a special treat!”  She ignored the fact that I was trying to offer her something far more exhilarating and far more lasting! Sadly, Viv showed no interest, to my knowledge, of spending eternity in the presence of Jesus! But some people even try to bribe God. An earlier King of England, King Ethelred, had this written on his tombstone, “In order that I may be worthy to enter the Heavenly Kingdom, I give Almighty God three farms to be held forever for a monastery!”  Imagine trying to pay your way into heaven when Jesus offers free admission! And anyway, Ethelred’s  gift was probably abolished by King Henry VIII, along with all the other monasteries!

3.       Delay:  2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “Now is the day of salvation!  I once invited a man along to church one Sunday morning, and since I was preaching, he may have missed out on the chance of salvation that day! Sadly, he didn’t have any more Sundays! He had a turn of some kind during the week and by the following Sunday he was in his grave! This could happen to any one of us at any time! I know of many, many students I’ve taught as teenagers in the past who are now in their graves! Let us spend each day with God now, and until we meet Him face to face! We should heed the words of Amos 4:12, “Prepare to meet your God!” (This could not be said of the man in today’s reading! It could not be said of Professor Huxley or my relative, or my friend Viv, or the man who refused to come to church, or even of poor old King Ethelred! But let’s be sure your family can say of you, “He/she was ready to meet God!”

How great would it be to have the attitude of the famous evangelist Dwight Moody, who said, “When you see my death notice in the paper, I’ll be more alive then than I am now!”