“THEY FOUND FAULT” AND THEY ALWAYS DO!

The Lord Jesus Christ, God in flesh, walked among men and they had every opportunity to behold Him in His glorious perfections and to hear His gracious words. Mark records the attitude and observations of the Pharisees when they saw Christ and His disciples. "Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault." (Mark 7:1,2) Did they hear the gospel that He taught or notice His sinless perfection and mighty power? No, they noticed that His disciples ate with unwashed hands! They did not say, "What good news for sinners such as we are." They did not say, "Tell us more about who you are and why you've come." No, the scriptures say that they "found fault." It is not hard to find fault with other sinners. We are all full of faults, full of sin and corruption. When God's standard is applied, we are all found coming short of the glory of God. But these self-righteous religious hypocrites applied their man-made standard. They scrutinized the followers of Christ by their own traditions and in their blindness missed the Lord of glory and His wondrous salvation. Christ said, "It's not what goes into a man that defiles him but what comes out!" It is not a matter of clean hands but a clean heart. It is not a matter of externals in the flesh but of the spirit! Their comment and complaint was over the disciples not washing their hands before they ate and the blind leaders considered the followers of Christ as unclean and defiled. Christ charged them with teaching the doctrines of men as the commandments of God! Oh, but thank God, we shall not be judged, we shall not be rejected or accepted by God and we shall not be unclean in His sight on the basis of whether or not we've washed our hands! What utter foolishness! They did not see or understand or enter in to the great issues between God and men. And sadly, it has not changed much today. The issues of religious people in our day are matters of dress, drink, and personal liberty. But the all important issue remains, "What think ye of Christ?" Do you know Him? Have you heard His gospel? Are you trusting His precious blood to put away your sin and His perfect righteousness as all your standing before God? Will you debate issues like unwashed hands while you hurry out into eternity to meet God in His holiness and justice? Unwashed hands, when your filth and defilement is of the heart? This proves you know nothing of God or yourself! You worry about how men conform to your traditions and rules when you are condemned before God? It's like Nero fiddling while Rome burns! There is no fault in the Perfect Christ!

Gary Shepard

How did the widow who gave the two mites live after she had given them? Christ said she gave "all she had, all her living" She may have given all she had, but she gave it to One who hadn't given all He had!

GS

All religious error is born out of a wrong view of God. The only place to get the right view of God is to hear what He says of Himself in scripture. It is no surprise when you speak to men and women in our day and they tell you about "their god" that you soon see their ignorance of God's word. They have too long taken the word of those who lie about God. God is as He says He is!

copied

Every discontented heart is a proud heart. Instead of being angry with Providence for not making us greater than we are; the meanest (lowest) person of us all, if he rightly knew himself and God, would fall low at His footstool and adore Him for condescending to bestow ANY thought upon us, or take ANY care of us whatever. As I once heart a valuable person remark, "God is often better to us than our fears; and always better to us than we deserve." We should be perfectly at ease, under every possible combination of circumstances, if we could but give credit to infinite Wisdom for doing all things well.

Augustus Toplady

A naked sinner can be clothed, but a sinner covered with his own righteousness must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that has to do with self or we cannot be clothed with that which pertains to God. We are called to live by faith; we can see nothing with the eye of sense. The Lord Jesus has gone up on high, and we are told to wait patiently for His appearing. God's Word carried home to the heart in the power of the Holy Spirit is the basis of confidence in all things: temporal and spiritual, present and future. He tells us of Christ's completed sacrifice. We by grace believe and commit our souls to the efficacy thereof, and we know we shall never be disappointed.

Scott Richardson

TOWARD THE NEW YEAR NOW WE FACE

Toward the new year now we face

Asking Lord Your guiding grace.

May we now all grace possess

All our weakness now confess.

Cause us now at first to seek

From Your word we hear You speak:

“Seek My kingdom to possess

And the Lord Your Righteousness.”

Now with Moses hear us say

“Be thou with us night and day.

If without Your presence known

Let us not go up alone.”

Be our Bethel in the night

Be our Captain in the fight.

Be our Light when all is dim

Peace when conscience does condemn.

With an eye to Christ alone

Let us walk till it be known

All your providence brings near

For us in the coming year.

As these coming days begin

Till God bring them to an end

We lift up our voice with praise

To the Ancient One of days.

77.77 ( Depth of Mercy)