God blesses but does that mean he approves?

I ask this question because I have been studying Jacob this week in preparation for Sundays ministry.
The situation is this Jacob deceives his father - that's right he lies to him, in order to obtain the family blessing. He then subsequently has to flee from home, and as he spends the night with the stone for his pillar, he has that tremendous dream of the ladder from earth, to heaven. In that dream the LORD blesses him. This is no ordinary blessing but is the blessing of Abraham.
So do we take it that Jacobs actions in deceit, in sin, were approved of by God. We must not. As Paul will later write "shall we abide in sin that Grace may abound?"
The answer he gives is an emphatic no.
Abraham's sin is not to be excused because God blesses him, neither Joseph's brethren because that is the way they were naturally saved from the famine. We can think of those wicked hands that crucified Jesus. Some of them later believed.
It is not the sin but the grace of God. God blessing in spite of our wickedness and unworthiness.
I have heard this being used to justify all sorts of anti biblical and extra biblical practices in services of worship and church life.
So to answer the question. We can not take the blessing of God as an approval of our actions, especially when they go against his revealed holy standards. All we can do is be amazed at the grace of God towards us, upon which we depend.

A John Owen Day - Covenant of Redemption

I have spent an taxing but enjoyable day at LTS London  John Owen Centre,considering the covenant of redemption. We looked at the parties, the terms and the benefits/ promises. Dr Gary J Williams presented his paper, which will need further digesting. Varies issues were raised and discussed. One area that was particularly beneficial was the application of the paper to ministry of, and the studying of various texts. Gary particularly focused on the assurance that the covenant of redemption gives. This was the forth such day Gary has given. I would thoroughly recommend them to anybody in ministry.

Romania Day 4

Day 4 was Sunday. We traveled to some village baptist churches in which we were due to speak. The countryside was beautiful,and the villages were traditional with a few modern houses.The road tough reminded me of the old Romania. A good mechanic should have no problem earning a living here!
For morning worship we went to Hincris baptist church. When we arrived most of the congregation were already there, and the children were reciting from Hebrews Chapter 4. I understand they had already been there for an hour, much of that time spent in prayer. There was about 120 people present, which is a little lower than thier usual numbers As usual they sang many hymns, and there was a male voice choir from the Baptist Church in Arad. I was asked to preach and Dinu translated for me.
I spoke from 1 Corinthians 15 v 3 "Christ Died for our Sins". A Romanian man who was visiting was also asked to speak and he spoke about resurrection.
We were then given dinner in a traditional Romanian house. The food was good, the soup was a little warm than Laodocian soup.
This was followed by chicken and Potatoes with Salad, and  then cake.
Next we were taken to the neighboring Village of Baleni. There is no church here of any description, not even orthodox and so the baptists are planting one. I will post more on its beginnings later.
On Sundays they met in a school in the afternoon. The school seems rather run down. Again we were treated to children reciting scripture, about the crucifixion of Jesus.
After some singing I was asked to preach. I used Acts 11 v 26 to ask the question what is a Christian?
We then headed back towards Oradea.
In the evening I preached at Cihei Baptist Church on Acts 12 v 5 "Peter was in Prison, but prayer was made by the church for him".
There were about 40 people present. Many were missing as they were attending thespecial graduation service at Emmanuel Church, Oradea,
After another meal of chicken, and this time rice, we retired after a busy day.

The painful gospel message

From a testimony of  a dear brother in Christ, concerning his time in national service, during square bashing ...

There was one incident at the end of the six weeks training that I was there for. We had had six very hard weeks of marching and exercise and doing all those things we had to do to become a soldier first before we got back to our trade. Towards the end of the six weeks was over and everybody was so relieved, they were doing silly things, throwing things about the billet, having pillow fights and spraying people with a stirrup pump hose as they came in the door. One young fellow, fellow from London, I can still see him now. He was only a young, quite a small insignificant lad, he had got the hose, and somebody opened the door and he let them have it. He sprayed him with water, and it turned out to be the orderly sergeant!

To say he wasn't pleased was to put it very mildly. I can see him, he got him by the collar and he said “Lad I am going to teach you a lesson you will never forget.” He said” I am going to take you down the gymnasium, we are going to put boxing gloves on, and I am going to give you a beating you won't forget. The lad was terrified.  He literally was frightened, shaking he was. My friend John, the Christian lad came up, put himself between the sergeant and the little lad, and he said “ Sergeant , If you want to beat somebody pick somebody your own size I will come down and stand in his place.” He said I don’t care you are all as bad as each other."

So he took this lad , they went down the gymnasium.  John came back with black eyes, nose bleeding, tooth missing. All the lads in the billet crowded round him, and said” why on earth did you do that?”

And it was one of the most poinent Gospel messages I think I have ever heard. He preached the gospel to them and said somebody did something far, far more than that for me 2000 years ago. And he told the billet, all the men and they gathered round him and he preached that gospel to them and it was wonderful. 

Preparing a Place

Rather inevitably at the end of one year and the beginning of another we think of the second coming. With that in mind preached Sunday afternoon on John 14:3 - I will come again.
On New Years eve we had a prayer meeting and I looked at I go to prepare a place for you.
We noted that this is what God did from Eden.. through the promised land and finished in Revelation 12 - where a place was prepared for the woman for 3 1/2 years.
We remembered that this place is in Jesus Fathers house .. not a connected village or in the same town, or even an out building  - but in our Father House.
A place is prepared for us .. but are we ready to be there?

A happy new year to you each .... maybe I will blog more often..

New Year - Same message

I know its been months since I blogged. But here I am again. Who knows I may change the look soon.

Preached this morning about preaching - in particular from Galatians 1 - where Paul warns against the false gospel - which is not another gospel. Quite challenging when you are the only preacher there.
True preaching is to bring Gods message. I sent the boundaries from which the message could come as being the word of God. We thought about how the message should be prepared and received, the importance of a prepared and studied message that is delivered in an understandable way. How important it was to mix faith with our hearing. (Hebrews 4),
I emphasized the responsibility of the hearer to discern the true message - that which speaks of Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.

Condemnation?

Last Sunday I preached to a small congregation, but a listening congregation .
My subject in the morning was "Who is he that condementh?", from Romans 8. We look at the condemners - the law, Satan the accuser of the believers, other people, and our own consciences. We found that all these truly condemn us.
But we also noted the answer - It is Christ that died - yea rather is risen again. Jesus took our condemnation, suffering what we deserved - so we go free.

Giaus - 3 John

I preached this evening from 3 John. The greater part of the sermon was about Giaus. he was clearly a man who knew difficulties with health and wealth, and in the church with Diotrophes.  His main characteristic is his relationship to the truth. The truth is in him and he walks in the truth. We remembered that Jesus said he is the truth.
This produced 4 fruits - spiritual prosperity, a good testimony, faithfulness, and charity.
May we learn from his example.

looking for redemption

This Sunday was a trip to London. I preached in the morning, rather unseasonably from Luke 2 about Anna speaking of him (Jesus) to all that were looking for redemption in Jerusalem (v38).
We considered the character of Anna – devoted to God, before thinking of the nature of redemption, which is the act of buying back something that has been lost through the paying of a ransom.

We considered this redemption from the historical point of view in the passover lamb, and were reminded that Jesus gave his life a ransom for many.

It was important to stress the need to be looking for this redemption , and seeking we will find– else we will be eternal lost.

Anna spoke of him – and when it comes to redemption Jesus is the only redeemer. Hence she pointed those looking and expecting to Jesus.

There was no other good enough

to pay the price of sin

He only could unlock the gate

Of heaven and let us in

Your Fathers good pleasure

On Sunday Morning I preached from Luke 12 v 32. Fear Not little Flock-it is the fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
This verse comes in an exhortation not to be anxious about the supply of our earthly needs. - your father knoweth you have need of these things (v30). Rather we are encouraged to get our priority right and seek the kingdom of God. It is to encourage in our seeking further that Jesus reassures us that God will give us the kingdom.More than this it is our heavenly fathers pleasure to do so.There is no grudging no necessity just his holy pleasure - a good pleasure. As an aged preacher commented recently God wants you in heaven infinitely more than you want to be there And if he gives us this ultimate gift so willingly and lovingly so he will do with lesser gifts. What a wounderful God we have.

Psalm  115:3  But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased

Good Friday

Good Friday is an interesting description to give to this day of particular remembrance of the crucifixion.Let us remember what happened. A truly  innocent man suffered a cruel death. Not the first and not the last time this would happen. Yet this punishment to death was just.
Let us never forget that Jesus suffered for sin. Let us never forget what sin is, and what the righteous punishment of it is. Let us never forget it was our sins that Jesus suffered for, as they were laid upon him.
The events of this day show the seriousness of offending God. On this day he forsook his only begotten Son, so that we might never be forsaken.
A good day - Jesus did all that was necessary for our salvation, leaving nothing for us to do. A good day - the righteousness of God completely satisfied, that we might have fellowship with him. A Good day and this is the message we should proclaim - seeking to know nothing among else, but Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The ultimate fulfillment of the Abraham's prophecy "God,himself, shall provide a lamb for the sacrifice".

The house of the LORD God

Last Sunday I preached from Davids sin in numbering the people (1 Chr 22). This was followed by the judgement of God upon the people. God in his mercy repented of the evil (not morally evil - but the awful consequence of sin) but David was shown the place of sacrifice, which was "accepted" by fire from heaven.The Oxen were the substitute for the people.
This surly points to Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of all the Temple stood for, and our substitute, whom the wrath of God fell on, and which sacrifice was accepted. This is where God meets his people.

Esther - part 2 - God works his purposes out

 Sunday morning we looked at Esther 4,5,6 & 7. In this section we find that Haman who had hoped by hanging Mordecai what would happen to people who wouldn't honour him by hanging him from a 20 metre high gallows,ends up leading him through the city wearing the kings clothes riding the kings horse declaring that this is what happens to the man whom the king delights to honour! what a God we have. What encouragement for these times of Christianophobia! Haman is eventually hung on his own gallows.

Esther - part 1 - God prepares

Preached Sunday Morning on Esther ( the first of two or three sermons). Esther is only one of two books where the Gods name is not mentioned. Yet his finger is clearly seen.
I titled the Sermon - "Now it came to pass..." which are the first words of the book.Probably not the most interesting sermon ever. I tried to set the scene by looking at the four main characters, - the Wicked King, The Beautiful girl, The faithful servant, and the self important Agigite. Then we looked at a few side issues like the the place of feasts and fasts, and respected cival government and what it means to submit to it.
I am looking forward to preaching next time on the exciting chapters 5,6 & 7.