Watchman Radio Hour

We need to ask ourselves when we fast if our fast was from the heart. Are we doing it for the right purpose or is it just some mechanical thing we do just to say we have fasted? We should fast in the presence of God. It is something that Christians should do at times but it should be done not to please men but to please God and in His presence.

We are called to a life of forgiveness. We are to forgive others as we have been forgiven. Jesus has called each of us to be peace makers and forgivers. This is our calling as Christians as followers of the One who forgave us.

Jesus teaches us what it truly means to love our neighbor. The Jews hated the Samaritans. Yet, Jesus taught in his parable that a hated Samaritan stopped and helped a Jew who was in need. He showed love to his enemy. Jesus said that what the Samaritan did was showing love to his neighbor. Jesus did not accept a surface interpretation of the law but he went to the heart of the law and taught us that this is the way we should live. As Christians, we are called to live by God's moral law in our daily lives and by so doing to influence the world around us. When Christianity is truly lived in a community, it will be a tremendous influence. True Christianity is where the Kingdom of God is and where the Kingdom of God is, good will come to those who encounter it. Our nation today needs Christianity. It needs the Kingdom of God in our midst. The Kingdom of God has been in our midst in the past and it has brought tremendous influence for good on the land. Today, we need that influence to come back again.

Today, we are living in a retaliation society. Every time you turn around you hear about someone being sued. Lawyers advertise on television and seek clients to help them file lawsuits. All lawsuits are not wrong but today it has gotten out of hand. Jesus taught something quite different that our society could learn from. He taught this attitude of turning the other cheek. It was not necessarily that we should turn the other cheek literally in every circumstance but that we should have a turn the cheek mentality. It was to teach us to curb our tendency to want to retaliate in every situation.

We should always be truthful. What we say is important. How we live in our daily lives and conversations is exposed to God and He cares about what we say and how we live. Today, we live in a society that ignores God's moral law and we will pay the price if we do not repent of our terrible sins. Jesus shows us how we are to live under God's moral law. He calls us to repentance.

Our society needs to repent of its divorce problem. We today have a very loose view of divorce. As a result we have become a society of adulterers and adulteresses. We have a great moral problem. If we don't repent of this moral problem, we face certain judgement for our sin. We are greatly hurting our children and breaking up the foundation block of society - the family. We need to repent and turn back to the faith and morality of our forefathers. If we don't, our nation is doomed. It will not stand.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount gives us an exposition of the Moral Law of God and shows us what it really means and how we should live under it. Jesus said the sixth commandment means more than just not to murder someone with a gun. He said we can break it with a word or a thought. Jesus gets to the heart of God's Moral Law. Be carefyul to keep good relationships with others. It matters how we relate to other people. It matters what we say and think about other people. It matters how we treat other people. If we find ourselves at enmity with our neighbor, we need to do something about it, Jesus said. We need to promote peace in our relationhships with others.

Obedience is better than sacrifice. God looks on the heart. Our outward worship without heart obedience in life misses the mark and stinks in the nostrils of God. We can have the most perfect worship services with the most acoustically and technologically up to date sound equipment and musical instruments and professional-like singers and musicians and think we are pleasing God yet miss the whole point of what true Christianity is all about. God wants obedience not outward sacrifice.

The Sixth Commandment is broken by sinful thoughts and words and not just by outward deeds. The Jewish Teachers taught only an outward obedience to that commandment. If you don't outwardly kill someone, then you are okay. Jesus taught differently by telling us that we are all murders because we murder from the heart with our thoughts and words.

The Bible is being attacked today. The devil does his best to eradicate it or to remove its influence from society. He deceives the hearts and minds of people and tries his best to destroy the Bible and its influence in the world. Yet, he will not succeed. Jesus has promised that the Devil will not succeed. Though Satan and all his demons attack the Bible, it yet stands. It cannot be destroyed or removed from the world. It will abide. It cannot be stopped.