Young People’s Blog

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

This is an important verse that we all need to remember, but it is especially important for young people. In school you will learn many things, and it is good to learn things like mathematics, geography, history, etc. But sometimes teachers may teach things that involve moral and spiritual values, and then it is important to remember this verse. On any moral and spiritual subject, the Word of God is the absolute authority. If anyone says something that is contrary to the Bible, this verse tells us that “there is no light in them.” We should immediately reject what they are saying, and believe what the Word of God says.

For example, you may be taught that thousands of years ago, our ancestors were “hunters and gatherers,” and that they lived in caves. Then supposedly they got smarter and learned how to plant crops and build houses. But this is all nonsense. It is an idea that has been brought forward to support the theory of evolution. Adam was clearly the first man, and his wicked son Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord…and builded a city” (Genesis 4:16-17). He knew how to build a city; he did not live in a cave.

Yes, we know that at some points in man’s history, some people did live in caves, but that is because they got away from God, and lost some of their knowledge. But man did not start by living in caves, and then learn how to build houses.

“And he [one of the thieves crucified with the Lord Jesus] said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

This is a very touching story. We know that the Lord Jesus was crucified between two thieves, both of whom at first mocked Him, asking Him to save Himself and them too. But then one of them realized who the Lord Jesus was. The sign on the cross of the Lord Jesus said that He was the King of the Jews, and one thief saw that it was true. The Spirit of God worked in his heart, and instead of mocking the Lord Jesus, he asked Him to remember him when He came into His kingdom.

What a wonderful answer he received! He did not have to wait, for the Lord Jesus has not received His kingdom yet. The Lord reassured this dying thief that on that very day, he would be with Him in paradise. What a change from all his suffering! It is true that he had been a bad man and was suffering the penalty normally given to thieves. But the blood of Christ was able to wash all those sins away and make him fit for the presence of God.

“Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30 JND).

In these verses for today, there are two types of burdens, and two types of rest. I have used the Darby translation, as it makes it clearer. The first burden is the burden of our sins. When we realize that we have sinned against God, our sins become a heavy burden, but the Lord Jesus suffered on Calvary’s cross in order to take away that burden, and give us rest. When we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we can have perfect rest before God, for the Lord Jesus takes that burden away.

But then there are the burdens that have to do with our life in this world. Even as Christians, there are many burdens in our lives, and the Lord wants us to bring them to Him. He wants us to share the yoke with Him, and learn of Him. When we walk with the Lord, He shares bearing the burden with us, and then we will find that the burden is light. The world is very confused today, but you and I can have rest in our souls, if we enjoy the company of the Lord Jesus.

“Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

Today’s verse is very similar to yesterday’s, for both of them mention that awful word hell. It is often used as a swear word today, and many people speak of it very lightly. But hell is a real place.

Some people have interpreted the word “destroy” to try and prove that people who go to hell are annihilated, which simply means that they cease to exist. But this is not the meaning of the word destroy. The word destroy means to make something unable to be used for the purpose for which it was made. You could take an ax, and in a few minutes you could destroy a wooden chair, but the wood would not cease to exist. The chair would just not be usable for someone to sit on.

According to Revelation 4:11, all things, including you and I, were made for God’s pleasure. Those who go to hell will never give God any pleasure, and in that sense they are destroyed. But they will not cease to exist. It is a most solemn thought.

“Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him” (Luke 12:4-5).

The world “hell,” properly translated, is found only twelve times in the Bible, and all are in the New Testament. Other words are translated this way in our KJV, but often the word should be “hades” (in the New Testament) or “sheol” (in the Old Testament). These two words simply mean the condition of a soul without a body. Hades is Greek, and Sheol is Hebrew, and they refer to a condition, not a place.

The word translated “hell” is a solemn word, and of the twelve times it occurs in the Bible, all but one of them is spoken by the Lord Jesus Himself. Why did He speak of it? It was because He knew, better than anyone else, what an awful thing it is to go to hell for all eternity. He spoke more often of the terrors of hell than of the joys of heaven, for He wished to warn people to come and be saved.

The place called hell is referred to in other terms in the Bible, such as the lake of fire, or the blackness of darkness forever. All these expressions are meant to show us what an awful place hell is, and to warn us where we will spend eternity if we reject Christ.

“And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger” (Luke 17:17).

If you read this story (Luke 17:11-19), you will find that ten lepers came to the Lord Jesus, asking to be healed. He did not heal them right away, but told them to go and show themselves to the priests. As they went to do this, they were all healed. We may assume that all of them went to the priests and showed clearly that they were healed, for according the law of Moses, there were certain things that had to be done when a leper was cleansed.

However, there was one of them who took the trouble to go back to the Lord Jesus and thank Him for healing him. The Lord Jesus really appreciated this, and He felt it keenly that the other nine did not bother to come back. They were so overjoyed that they were healed that they did not take the time and trouble to go back and give thanks.

If you are truly saved, have you thanked the Lord Jesus for what He did for you? Did you remember Him at His table this morning, as He asked us to do?

“He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:8).

Everyone in the United States of America recognizes today’s date as inauguration day. Of course this year is not an inauguration year, but every four years, on this date, someone takes the oath of office and officially becomes the president of the United States. The last inauguration occurred on January 20, 2021, when Joseph Biden became president.

Inaugurations did not always occur on this date, but in 1933, a law was passed making this the date of the inauguration, and the first president to be sworn in on this date was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937.

According to our verse, someday there will be a change of administration in this world, when the Lord Jesus takes His rightful place. We do not know the exact date, for by that time, you and I will be in heaven with the Lord. But after the Lord Jesus deals with this world in judgment, He will take His place as Head over all things in this world, and He will rule in righteousness. It will be a wonderful time for this world, but not as wonderful as what we will enjoy in heaven, with Christ. Our joy will be to be with and like Him, but we will also rejoice to see Him have His rightful place in this world.

“And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it” (Matthew 9:30).

“Jesus…saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (Mark 5:19).

Here we find the Lord Jesus healing two men who were blind, and in another place, casting demons out of a man. Yet He gave totally opposite instructions to them! He told the two men who had been blind not to tell anyone, but told the man with the demons to go home and tell his friends what the Lord had done for him. Why was this?

The two blind men lived right in the same area where the Lord Jesus spent a lot of His time. Sad to say, many people came to the Lord Jesus just to see the miracles He did. They did not really believe on Him, and when they crowded around Him, they only hindered His work. The Lord Jesus already had enough publicity!

But the man with the demons lived on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and the Lord Jesus did not normally spend much time there. Those people needed to hear about the Lord, and the man who had been healed was well known. He had been so violent and offensive before he met the Lord Jesus that no one could pass by the cemetery where he lived. When he was no longer under Satan’s influence, he was an excellent witness of the power and goodness of God. The Lord Jesus gave each one the right instructions.

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares [farming equipment], and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not rise up against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

Over sixty years ago, a sculptor from the Soviet Union by the name of Evgeniy Vuchetich, made a statute of a man with a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other. The man was using the hammer to make the sword into a plowshare, and the work of art was entitled, “Let us make swords into plowshares.” It won the highest award at the Brussels World Exhibition in 1958, and was donated to the United Nations in 1959. It still stands in the north garden of the United Nations headquarters in New York, NY, U.S.A. Yet as I write this in January 2022, the world is on the verge of another war, provoked by the massive buildup of Russian troops on the border of the Ukraine.

We are not writing this to say that countries like Russia are responsible for the wars in this world, but only to point out that this verse will not come to pass until the Lord Jesus comes and reigns in righteousness during the millennium. Only then will there be true world peace. All of man’s efforts to promote peace are doomed to failure, for this world has rejected the Prince of peace.

“Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

Here we find one more centurion, the one who was responsible for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He had likely seen many men crucified, and was used to seeing men suffer this way. But when the Lord Jesus was on the cross, he saw things he had never seen before. He saw darkness over the whole land for three hours, then an earthquake, and the breaking apart of big rocks. He also heard the Lord Jesus cry out with the loud voice, just before He died. All of this impressed this centurion and others with him so much that he exclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

The Jews would not admit that Jesus was the Son of God. They said that He was just an ordinary man, although they would admit that He was a prophet. But God had His way of making the truth obvious to these Roman soldiers. It does not say that they really believed on the Lord Jesus that day, but they recognized that God was showing them who the Lord Jesus really was. Only God Himself could make all these things happen.