Honorable

Isa 42:21 NKJV

The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable.

Jesus uses the Law in His sermon on the mount to get people to understand that they are sinners. Thanks to John the Baptist going before Him preaching of repentance, the Jews knew such a thing was needed. Many of them did repent and John baptized them. Let’s look at some of the first verses from the Sermon on the Mount.

Matt 5:3-10 NJKV

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 

5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. 

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, or they shall be called sons of God. 

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

He is describing a repentant heart which would be needed to understand the rest of His sermon of what God would do for them.

A proud heart is not going to claim it is poor. It will not mourn over sin. It is not meek or lowly. It does not thirst for righteousness. It can only show mercy at the shallow level the world can. It is not a pure heart. The proud heart is looking out for itself first and we are supposed to be putting God and then all our neighbors next in what we love. We are to love our enemies.

I still find I need to repent because my heart still needs work to fit into these blessings. Thankfully I know when I mess up and I know foremost I must repent to God. Once I am repentant, I can honestly show love to the person with how I have to apologize or whatever else I must do to correct the wrong I may have done.

We must do the same as Jesus did in His sermon. We cannot convince the world it needs Jesus if it does not realize it is broken. God’s Law is the moral standard of where our standing is with God. We must be living like we truly believe this and showing how to repent when we know we have broken the Law. A true believer would do the following with joy and be blessed as God’s child.

Isa 58:13-14 NLT

"Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD's holy day. Honor the LORD in everything you do, and don't follow your own desires or talk idly. If you do this, 14 the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and give you your full share of the inheritance I promised to Jacob, your ancestor. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

Don’t be scared if you have broken the Law. Take this moment to repent and get right with God through Jesus Christ. If you do, you will be accepted by God.

Peace Comes Through Christ

Peace is a hard thing to find in our diversified world with many conflicting ideas. No matter what, we can find peace with God.

Psalms 119:165 NLT:  Those who love your law have great peace and do not stumble.

We’ve already discussed that just following the Law does not make us right with God, but we should know it. If we follow how we are to treat others and how to react to them when they don’t treat us right, we can actually find a way to peace. It might only be a peace of mind that we did it by God’s Law.

Hebrews 13:20-21 NLT

And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ all that is pleasing to him. Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with his blood. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

God will produce in us through the power of Jesus what is pleasing to Him. He does not just give us the Law anymore and expect us to get it right on our own. He helps us with His power through Christ. Once Jesus returned to heaven, He sent us the Holy Spirit as our helper and counselor to understand the Law more fully and be able to see how to apply it to life like Jesus did.

John 16:33 NLT

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

Jesus wanted us to find our peace in Him. He knew this world would not be friendly or easy to live in. There will always be that one person that doesn’t get it and keeps on irritating people. Your kids will probably argue about doing chores or their homework on time. You might be overlooked at work or even lose a job due to no fault of your own. It takes a lot of work to feel at peace with it all and then handle it like Jesus did. However, we have His power and He already overcame the world and all that is in it. If you are following Jesus, you are following the ultimate winner and He did not have it easy here on earth because He chose to remove His godly mantle when He came to be with us.

Romans 5:1 NLT:  Therefore, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

And I like how many epistles in the Bible, since they were letters, end with a blessing of some sort. In the case of Romans, is that God would be with them.

Romans 15:33 NLT:  And now may God, who gives us his peace, be with you all. Amen.

If you don’t have an inner peace despite how life is going, where are you looking for it? I suggest going to Jesus. You will still have trials and tribulation, but you will gain an inner peace no one can take from you.

I Know God is True

John 3:33 NLT:  Those who believe him discover that God is true.

I have followed Christ for the last sixteen years of my life. I still have plenty to learn, but the more I study the Word and study how our world works, I know for sure that God is real and is telling us the truth.

For one, the world was created with a very fine tuned intricacy that could not be a random accident. It would have to be millions of random accidents that coincided. I think I would have better chances winning a jackpot with a Power Ball ticket than the world forming as is out of random nothingness. So when I read Genesis chapter one, it makes more sense because there is a cause for the universe. Maybe the Big Bang was God’s voice in the void. At least, there is a plausible cause with this theory unlike the Big Bang that assumes something could come out of nothing without giving us a cause.

I'd rather get some wisdom from Him rather than the world. The world only knows the face I put on for them. God knew me before he knit me in my mother’s womb. I can believe this far better than being a random hiccup in the great universe that will someday die into nothingness again. That sounds rather bleak and hopeless. It definitely has no love in it or any need for a moral code, but the world is always looking for both despite denying God.

The following verses show further how God and His Law are true. After all, it is His commandments that contain our moral code. We try to say we can do three through ten on our own, but we really can’t because we need the first two for knowing and understanding how love works. Then the rest can be handled properly.

1 John 5:20 NLT

And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we are in God because we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

Nehemiah 9:13 NLT

You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and instructions that were just, and laws and commands that were true.

I’ve gone from believing what I was fed in school about evolution and such, to knowing God created it all. I’ll take Jesus at His word about claiming to be God when He was on the earth. To say He came only as a great teacher would put all His teaching at fault because He claimed to be God to the Jews.

What facts are your beliefs based on? Do they give a plausible cause to things we can’t explain nor test scientifically? Do they give any guidance to using the moral code we all have implanted on our hearts?

To compare this to our study on Truth posted on January 8th, 2018 follow this link: http://lifebythebible.blogspot.com/2018/01/truth.html.

God is Righteous and It Is His Gift to Us

Psalms 145:17-20 NKJV

The LORD is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.

18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.

19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.

20 The LORD preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.

Note the word all throughout the verses above. Not only is God righteous about everything He does and how He does it, He is gracious about it. We should never fear going to Him. In the end He will save us and put wickedness to an end.

Jeremiah 23:5-6 NKJV

"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. 6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called:

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

This is talking of Jesus, who died on the cross for us. His blood allowed a cleansing no other sacrifice could. He is God and we should love Him and accept His gracious gifts.

Rom 9:30-33 NLT

Well then, what shall we say about these things? Just this: The Gentiles have been made right with God by faith, even though they were not seeking him. 31 But the Jews, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law and being good instead of by depending on faith. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. 33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed."

We act much like the Jews did in the verses above. We work to keep to the rules of going to church, doing work in some ministry, giving our offerings and trying to be nice enough. This is not how we earn anything from God. We cannot earn anything from God. He is giving it all as a gift to anyone who accepts Him as His Word States. God’s plan is for us to realize that we can never be good enough on our own power and that we must depend on Christ. Be sure you are more dedicated to God than to His Law. Once you accept His Gracious Love, you will want to abide properly in His Law and use the help of the Holy Spirit to guide you for the rest of your life.

Ps 119:172 NLT

Let my tongue sing about your word, for all your commands are right.

Let this desire be your own. His Word is our weapon against the darkness of this world and it will lead us into the light where He can help us live a righteous life by the covering of His blood. Let God be foremost in your life and help you acquire His righteousness correctly.

God Gave Us Life

John 14:6 NLT - Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

As we learned in an early post of this study, God is also truth. He can’t lie, so we need to take this seriously.

Matthew 19:16-17 NLT - Someone came to Jesus with this question: "Teacher, what good things must I do to have eternal life?" 17 "Why ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "Only God is good. But to answer your question, you can receive eternal life if you keep the commandments." 

Jesus is pointing the rich young man to the Law so he could see where he has done good or bad. He went away miserable because he realized he could not follow the first two commandments by giving away his belongings to others and fully follow God.

Proverbs 3:1-2 NLT - My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart, 2 for they will give you a long and satisfying life.

We can’t forget the commandments because they help us have a long and satisfying life. God is faithful to those who are faithful in following Him in return. There is no way we can pay Him for any of the things He does, but we can show Him proper appreciation by loving Him.

This psalmist truly understood God in the following verses:

Psalms 36:5-9 NLT

Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.

6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD.

7 How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings.

8 You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your rivers of delight.

9 For you are the fountain of life, the light by which we see.

This is why we should put God first in everything like the first commandment tells us to. He already loves us regardless of what we do. We will receive His many blessings, including eternal life, if we put Him first in our lives. Jesus as both God and Man came to give us the way back to God. Will you chose His way and obtain an eternal life?