Good News for everyone: Jesus Christ is our Redeemer.
‘I,
the Lord, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob’. We
are not to keep this to ourselves. God wants ‘all mankind’ to ‘know’
(Isaiah 49:26). ‘Jesus, the Name to sinners dear, the Name to sinners
given, it scatters all their guilty fear, it turns their hell to
heaven’- This is not something to keep to ourselves. We must make Christ
known to others - ‘Oh, that the world might taste and see the riches of
His grace! The arms of love that compass me, would all mankind embrace.
His only righteousness I show, His saving truth proclaim: ‘tis all my
business here below to cry: “Behold the Lamb!” Happy, if with my latest
breath I may but gasp His Name: preach Him to all, and cry in death:
“Behold, behold the Lamb!”’ (Mission Praise, 385). ‘Go into all the
world and preach the Good News’ (Mark 16:15).
Good News for everyone: In Jesus Christ, there is “full redemption.”
We
are not to pray to God with superficial words that don’t mean very much
to us. Our prayer is to be a real cry from the heart: ‘Out of the
depths I cry to You, O Lord’ (Psalm 130:1). We are to ‘cry for mercy’
with a deep awareness of how sinful we really are: ‘If You, O Lord, kept
a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?’ (Psalm 130:3). We must come
to God with deep humility - ‘My heart is not proud, O Lord’ (Psalm
131:1). When we truly confess our sin, we receive God’s ‘unfailing love’
and ‘forgiveness’ (Psalm 130:4). ‘In the Lord’ we have ‘full
redemption’ (Psalm 130:7). It is for ‘now’- ‘The vilest offender who
truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives’. It is ‘for
evermore’- ‘But purer and higher and greater will be our wonder, our
transport, when Jesus we see!’ ‘Praise the Lord!... Give Him the glory!’
(Psalm 131:3; Church Hymnary, 374).
Let’s share the Good News in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As
‘servants of Christ’, we must concern ourselves with one thing - being
‘found faithful’. This is not a matter of pleasing people - ‘it is a
very small thing that I should be judged by you...’. Pleasing God - this
is the most important thing (1 Corinthians 4:1-4). Serving Christ is
not easy. There are always those who are quick to pass judgment on the
Lord’s servants. What does God say about this? - ‘Do not pronounce
judgment before the time, before the Lord comes’ (1 Corinthians 4:9-13,
5). Being ‘found faithful’ is not just a matter of ‘saying the right
words’. We must be the right people. This is what Paul means when he
says, ‘The kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power’ (1
Corinthians 4:20). ‘You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses’(Acts 1:8; Romans 12:11).
Let’s share the Good News by living for Christ.
On
the one side of Christ’s disciples, there are the hypocrites. On the
other side, there are ‘the Gentiles’ (Matthew 6\;32). The hypocrites
represent religion without reality. The Gentiles represent the world,
living for material things only, refusing to take spiritual realities
seriously. We are to be different from both the hypocrites and the
Gentiles. Our top priority is pleasing God, not impressing men. We are
to live for God’s eternal Kingdom rather than living for a world which
is passing away. Living for Christ is very different from worldly
living. Our life is to be governed by heavenly, and not earthly,
priorities (Matthew 6:19-21). We are to walk in the light, refusing to
be overcome by the darkness (Matthew 6:22-23). We are to trust the Lord,
refusing to let unbelieving anxiety rule our lives (Matthew 6:25-34).
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