God Loves You

GOD LOVES YOU!
I want to concentrate on chapter 11 verses 1-11. This is the amazing story of God's grace towards this sinful, wayward and immoral people.
Verses 1-7 A wayward Son?
"Is everything normal?" is one of the first questions many parents ask at the moment of a child's birth. From that moment on however they never want their child to be normal again. They want them to talk and walk before all their contemporaries do. There is such excitement when a child begins to walk. All the concentration, the taking of them by the hand and leading them on those first few faltering steps. The letting go as they take those steps and tumble forward. It is a picture of love, of care, of pride and of hope. Just such a picture is painted of the people of God here in Hosea 11.
Look at verse 1. God refers to Israel as His child. The literal translation is as His adopted son. God called them out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage and slavery. In Exodus 4.22 Israel is described as 'God's first born son' to Pharaoh. Whilst they were in Egypt God loved them and provided a deliverer, a saviour, for them - Moses. God led them out of slavery and fed them on the journey to the Promised Land. He was a loving and attentive father towards His children. How did Israel respond to such love and blessing from God? Look at verse 2. The more God called them the further they turned away from Him. Their stubborn hearts and self-pride led them to worship Baal. The more God, out of love for them, called them to come home the more stubborn they became and persisted on their path of idolatry and immorality. Some of you know how painful an experience that can be with children who do not listen to advice and wander far from the path of God. You know the amazing thing is that when they were in slavery in Egypt they called out to the living God and did not worship the gods of the Egyptians. They remained faithful to God in Egypt but when they entered the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey they became an adulterous people. Why? How come? Because they thought they had arrived and that there was nothing left for them to do. The same is true of many Christians who think that all that matters is that you make a commitment to Christ Jesus, that you are born-again. That is only the beginning, an important beginning, but only the beginning. You see if you are truly an adopted child of God you take on the family likeness and obey your Father. You live according to His ways.
In verses 3 and 4 we see the tenderness and relentless compassion of God toward His people Israel. Look at the picture painted here of a loving father who has helped his children grow and often without their knowledge. The father was there to help when the child took those first faltering steps. He was there to pick him up when he fell down. He was there to heal the hurts and mend what was broken. He did all this out of selfless love for the wellbeing of the child. The people had forgotten or taken for granted all that God had done for them. They failed to appreciate his tender mercy in lifting the yoke of slavery from off their necks and of his condescension in bending down to feed them. Let me read some verses to you from Psalm 121.3-8 and Isaiah 40.11. That is the tender compassion and love that God has towards these people and towards you. In Isaiah 42.3 he says that a bruised reed he will not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out - that is the gentleness he shows towards you. Here he tells the people he lifts the yoke of slavery from off their necks and not only sets them free but he also provides sustenance and nourishment for them. When we come to the NT we see this love displayed in Christ Jesus and his death on the Cross. By Christ's death and resurrection God lifted the yoke of sin from our lives. By sending the Holy Spirit he gave us the spiritual sustenance and nourishment we need to daily live for him.
Yet in verses 5-7 we see the consequences of the determination of the people to go their own way, a way other than God's way (verse 7). The rhetorical question of 5a is answered by 7a. The people will not turn to God because they are determined to turn from him. The result will be they will return to a life of slavery, as in Egypt, under the rule of the Assyrians. God makes it clear because of their refusal to repent they will endure captivity. Friends listen to that warning. If you do not repent of your sins and turn to God in Christ then you will be carried off into captivity. That is one of the saddest things about people who persist in their sins. They often make comments about 'rules and regulations' of Christian living and yet they are the people held captive in their sins. Ruled and regulated by their desires and impulses. Ruled and regulated by their addictions and by others. Know that as you read this post. Understand where sin leads - to captivity. But even more horrifying is that death will come to all who are taken captive - the sword flashes in their cities (verse 6). They had put bars on their gates and laid all sorts of plans to live in security, of their own making. But such plans and such bars proved futile in the face of the Assyrians. Such plans and such bars that you put up in your life to protect your life from 'whatever' will prove futile when God comes in judgement on your life. The things that you thought made you secure simply splinter under the hammer blow of the coming judgement, like the bars on the gates of Israel's cities before the advancing Assyrians. Yet even such a warning provoked no response other than stubborn determination to do their own thing from the people of Israel. In their apostasy they remain stubborn. The end of verse 7 may seem strange to us. We could never envisage God not answering his people but you must not lift it from its context. The context is that these people are stubbornly remaining in their sin and idolatry and refusing to repent. God has told them, time and again, that they are to turn from their sin and to turn to him but they will not listen. So God tells them he will no longer exalt them even if they cry out to him to do so. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry for God to exalt them, to deliver them from the Assyrians who have invaded their cities. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry of 'help, get us out of here.' You have done that haven't you? You have cried out to God for deliverance but with no repentance for the sin which led you into the captivity in the first place?
Well in verses 8 and 9 we see the resolve of the Father and the tender mercy and relentless compassion of God for his people. Here we see how much God loves these sinful people. Here we see how much God loves us, sinful as we are. These verses are really a window into the heart of God. Look at verse 8. Four times God asks "How can I….?" Each time the expected answer is "I cannot." The picture here is of God weeping over the very thought of the total destruction of his people. His anger towards them because of their sin turns to grief at the coming judgment because of their sin. Admah and Zeboiim had been destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 10.19 and 19.24-29. Then we hear some of thee most tender verses in all of Hosea - 8b. Can you hear Hosea saying these words to Gomer? His anger roused towards her unfaithfulness, wanting judgment to fall upon her but yet his love for her will not let him see her utterly destroyed. His love for her rouses his compassionate heart. How much more is the heart of God, the One whose love is perfect, roused to compassion towards his people? The idea of abandoning his people to their fate and to extinction rouses compassion in the heart of the Father. So how did these events unfold? In 722 BC the Assyrians took the people of Israel off into exile but a faithful remnant had travelled south to Judah and these are the people who were taken captive by the Babylonians (1 Chronicles 9.1-3), people such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abidnego. In verse 9 God gives three reasons why he will not utterly destroy Ephraim - He is God and not man, He is holy and his love for his people is inexhaustible (I will not come in wrath). Even when God comes in judgment his love is leading. When he called Adam and Eve in the garden his love was leading. When he was allowing his Son to take the punishment for sin on the cross his love was leading. God's love leads him to have compassion on these wayward people. Listen to these words from Isaiah 57.17 and now listen to the next verse, verse 18. God will punish sin but he will also heal and restore those who repent and turn from their wicked ways.
Verses 10-11 The welcome homecoming.
There is nothing like coming home when you have been away a long time? Some of you know the experience of relatives who have emigrated coming home. The welcome, the excitement and the sheer joy. Jesus spoke of such joy of coming home to the Father in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. God speaks here of a time when the people will follow the Lord and not the gods of Baal. When will such a thing happen - when the Lord calls, when the lion of Judah roars his people will come to him. The roar of a lion is heard by all for many miles around. It is a clear call of authority. It strikes fear into all the other animals of the plains and yet the other lions respond to that call and come towards him. But if you watch them coming they come timidly and with humility before the lion who rules over them. The same will be true of the people of God when God calls them to assemble before him. They will not come with arrogance or pride but with humility and timidity but they will come. It is like that moment in The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe where C S Lewis has Aslan roar and all tremble before him. It is a magical moment in the book surpassed only by the final scene in the Last Battle - but you will have to read the book to learn that.
Look at these two verses. They will come from the all the nations around them. From the west, from captivity in Assyria and Egypt the people of God will come to follow the Lord God. Out of Egypt, where they spent years of bondage God's people will come. Out of Assyria, where they endured captivity, God's people will come. When they come they will no longer be a nomadic people, carried off here and there by every nation of power but God will establish them in their own homes. When God calls them they will come out of every nation because as Christ says in John's gospel his sheep will recognise and obey his voice. When they come they will find permanent security in the presence of God.  Read  Revelation 21.3-4. That is what Hosea was prophesying here in these two verses. The day when God calls his people and they dwell together in the new Jerusalem. A little earlier in the book of Revelation John described those people as a multitude that no man could number from out of every tribe, nation and language on this earth. Are you going to be in that multitude?
. This chapter speaks of judgment but it is outweighed by God's love for these people. Just as Hosea's relationship with his wife Gomer is governed and guided by his love for her - so God's love directs all his dealings with the people of Israel, and with us. God will not let them go and in punishing them he will not destroy them because of his great love for them. Hosea longs for Gomer to come home to him which is an illustration of how God longs for his people to repent and come home to him.
Amen.

ARE WE READY

2 Peter 3

 Peter is reminding his readers of the basics. VERSES 3-7 GOD'S POWERFUL WORD. Peter now addresses one of the key issues before the believers he is writing to, namely the delay in the second coming of Christ. Peter points out that scoffers will come in the last days to pour scorn on the belief that Christ will return. Now the 'last days' is not some date in the future. The 'last days' is the time between the first coming of Christ and his second coming. The believers Peter is writing to are living in the last days and we are living in the last days. Look at what Peter says in verse 3 . These scoffers justify their indulging of their evil desires by raising questions about those points of belief which condemn them. they sound sophisticated with their questions but in actual fact they are just sinful and seeking to justify their sinful desires. On the surface their question of verse 4  seems perfectly fair but Peter points out that all it does is prove they are biblically illiterate. In answering their question (verses 5-7) Peter cites two biblical examples and draws a conclusion from them. In verse 5 he points out that God spoke and creation came to be, in verse 6 God spoke and judgment (in the flood) fell upon the earth and therefore if God has in the past by His Word intervened in time and space then we can be assured that He will keep His promise for the return of His Son, Jesus Christ. Peter points out that God is absolutely in control and the fact that God is patient in delaying the return of Christ is not that it will not happen but is an act of mercy on the part of God to allow people to repent and to be saved. God's patience, says Peter, is to lengthen the days during which a change of heart is possible. And there are some of you who  need to hear that fact. God is patient so that you might have the opportunity to respond to Christ before He comes again and it is too late. These false teachers argue that everything in creation just keeps going on the same. Peter points out that the same Word which guarantees the world's stability in which they delight also guarantees the judgment to come which they mock. Because God is patient with the world does not mean that the world is closed to Him, the flood shows how He can intervene in time, history and space. VERSES 8-10 PROMISED PATIENCE. To reinforce what he has taught about God's patience in delaying the second coming Peter quotes Psalm 90 verse 4. In the NT when writers quote the OT we should assume that they want us to understand the whole passage and not just that single verse. If you look at Psalm 90 you realise that there are five things taught concerning God, and I believe those are what Peter wishes for his hearers to understand. Psalm 90 teaches that God is an eternal God, a creating God, a judging God, a saving God and a moral God. Peter wants them to understand that God sees time from a perspective that they, and we, lack and with an intensity that they cannot possibly understand. God can see the broad sweep of history in a moment, yet stretch out a day with patient care. Therefore (v9) the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises but is patient so that all who wish may be saved. Eternal life, says Peter, is open to all. The sad reality is that many, choose to perish. Peter then goes on, in verse 10, to speak of the judgment to come and he paints a terrifying picture of destruction. Look at verse 10, a harrowing picture of judgment by fire. Peter says God is patient so that you have the opportunity to respond to the gracious offer of salvation but there will come a day when there will be no more delay. Peter speaks of day that will come as a shock to all. It will be when we least expect it. Christ said two men would be walking together one would be taken and the other left. Jesus warned that if the house owner had known when the thief was coming he would have been prepared. Friends, Peter warned the believers that the return of Christ would come when they least expect it. When it does come it would be a dreadful and dread filled day of judgment. It will be a day when God pours out His wrath upon sin and sinners. It will be a day of salvation for some and perishing for others. Question is which will it be for you? VERSES 11-16 THEREFORE HOW SHOULD YOU LIVE? Peter now moves to bring out the practical implications of what he has just written, in the whole letter, not just this chapter. Look at verses 11-13. Peter says the day of Christ's return will bring destruction so they should seek to live 'holy and godly lives.' The whole of their lives are to be lived in the light of that day, not moaning about the slowness of its coming. Let me ask you - 'Do you mean it when you pray 'Thy kingdom come…?' Are you prepared for it coming? Are you living in the light of that day dawning? That is what Peter calls the believer's to here. Peter says for those who belong to Christ and live in the expectation of His imminent return there is no fear of that day because they have the promise of God of a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness - which is with Christ for eternity. Peter reaffirms (verses 14-16) that they are to live lives that are 'spotless and blameless and at peace with Him.' The hope of this new heaven and new earth should drive them on to live as 'new people' and not as the 'old man' lived. Peter then calls on Paul's writings to support what he is teaching them here. Scripture is in agreement concerning the lives that believers in Christ should live. Peter points out that those who choose to live other than according to what they teach do so, not because Peter and Paul are wrong, but because they wish to distort the Word of God to justify sinful lives. Friends the temptation for us all is to distort the Word of God so that our sinful life choices are justified. Satan distorted the Word of God in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve to sin. There is nothing new in this today. Men still distort the Word of God to justify sin. But bring it closer to home - what about you and me? Look at what Peter says at the end of verse 16 - 'to their own destruction.' Friends, there is the warning to us all. You can choose to distort the Word of God in order to live as you choose, to salve a conscious and justify a sinful choice but the end will be your eternal destruction. It is a timely warning and one we should take very seriously.. Let me say to you all, the loving thing for me to do is to graciously confront you with your sin and turn you back to the Word of God. VERSES 17-18 PETER'S CONCLUSION. Peter hasn't taught them anything they do not already know. It has been a revision class of basic Christian teaching so that they might be on their guard against the false teachers of their day who distort the Word of God in order to justify immoral lives which in the end will lead to eternal damnation and destruction. Peter concludes this letter by warning them to be on their guard so that they wont be carried away by false teaching and fall from their secure position, which some of them are in danger of doing. I believe God would have me say to you all that same danger resides in each and every one of our hearts and it resides in every church. It is easy to be swayed by false teaching and to drift away from the secure moorings of the Word of God. Friends, remember to whom Peter is writing - believers. Remember where the false teachers are resident - in the church. I have said it to you before and I think it is worth repeating - just because a pastor may  say it from the pulpit does not mean it is 100% correct. I don't believe Bible believing churches have ever taught false doctrine, they patiently study the Word of God and prayerfully seek to interpret it correctly but that is no substitute for you examining it for yourselves. Let me give a bible verse to help you in this - Acts 17 verse 11 read. So be like the Bereans.Finally let me end with Peter's words from verse 18 - read. How appropriate. Friends, may we all grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ because to Him alone belongs the glory for ever and ever.

The Parable of the Sower

As we begin 2011 we need to ask ourselves, how deep the message of the Gospel has gone into our lives. There will be times this year when life is very hard and difficult and our faith will be tested. The depth of our faith will be put to the test and some may find their faith and understanding has no real depth-then I urge you now to read on. Some may have a very deep faith but I also urge you to read on and continue to grow in faith and understanding of God's word


Matthew 13v1-9 & 18-23
The Parable of the Sower
  I want to begin a sermon series on parables told by Christ Jesus in Matthew's gospel. Some of the parable will be very familiar to us all but we should not allow that familiarity to close our minds to hearing God speak to us again through His Word. Most of you will have heard a parable described as 'an earthly story with a heavenly (or spiritual) meaning.' That is a simple definition of a parable. A parable is a comparison of two subjects for the purpose of teaching. It usually proceeds from the known to the unknown in order to teach something spiritual. There is generally, but not universally, one salient point to the parable. A parable holds the attention of the hearer, enables them to see themselves and whilst dealing with something well known adds a twist which fascinates and makes the hearer reflect.
Why did Jesus teach in parables? Well if you look at verse 1 of chapter 13 we see that He has moved from teaching in the synagogue to teaching in the open air, by the seashore. This move is significant in Matthew's gospel. Having been rejected by the religious leaders of the day He moves now out into the open air and addresses the crowds of common people. By telling parable He holds their attention, to fascinate without alienating them. Secondly if you look at verse 35 you will see that they are an instrument of revelation but only for those to whom it is given to see (verses 11, 16-17). The parable revealed truth to those who were hungry to receive it but concealed it from those who were too lazy to seek its meaning. Verse 12 tells us that the law of atrophy is at work amongst the hearers of the parable - if you don't use the muscle it withers and dies, the same is true spiritually of Jesus' hearers and of ourselves. The parables bring light to those who look for it but for those content in the darkness, it intensifies that darkness. Thirdly, the parables are a spur towards decision. The kingdom of God cannot be understood from outside. 1 Corinthians 2 verses 14 - read. Finally the reason Matthew groups parables together is to clarify them and to make it simple to understand them. For example these parables in chapter 13 mark the hinge upon which the whole gospel of Matthew turns, from this point on Jesus leaves Galilee and turns towards Jerusalem and the cross. As people hear these parables they are challenged to see where they stand in relation to the kingdom of God which Christ brings. Put another way they ask 'What will you do with Jesus?'
Verses 1-3 The parable begins with Christ using a familiar everyday sight - the farmer sowing seed in a field. The seed which 'the farmer' sows is able to transform the soil. The seed is the Word of God proclaimed by the Sower of God. The kingdom of God comes when the seed and the soil come together. And the kingdom comes in to a life where the seed takes root and begins to germinate and shoot.
Verses 4, 19 - The Shallow Soil/Seed. The fields in Galilee would have been unfenced with many paths running through them. The paths would have been rock hard with the countless feet, hooves of animals and cartwheels travelling over them. Jesus uses the imagery of a hard path which the seed finds impossible to penetrate and hungry birds which come to snatch it away as illustrations of how some hear the word of God but do not digest it, understand it or appropriate it in their lives. They are very vulnerable to losing it all as the devil comes quickly into such a heart and snatches it all away. Hebrews 4.2 tells us that for the seed to be effectual it must not only be heard but also combined with faith. The seed planted on to a hard heart that does not receive it with faith is easily snatched away and bears no fruit at all. It comes to nothing. Ask yourself this: Has the seed (the word of God) bounced off me like a seed bouncing off a hard path? You see the word which is only heard and not acted upon is easy prey for satan to snatch away. C S Lewis in the Screwtape Letters writes of such an account of a man who was beginning down the path to belief in Christ and how easily he was distracted by hunger and the news headlines on a billboard. We are easily distracted from the word of God when our hearts have been trampled hard by sin. As Malachi so rightly told his hearers - there comes a time in life when you have to plough up the unploughed ground in order to receive the seed. For some  that is the very challenge you need to hear in 2011 - your heart is a hard path and though you hear the word of God it is so easily snatched away, even before the end of this post it is gone.
Verses 5-6, 20-21 The Superficial Soil/Seed. Jesus explains that this type of soil receives the seed with great enthusiasm, makes a great start but as soon as trouble or persecution comes they fall away because there was no root, no depth to their belief. This person can be jollied along in the right atmosphere and company but they have no roots to stand on their own and once on their own they fall away quickly. They will blow with the prevailing wind. They are superficial in their faith. This seed comes to nothing in the life of the hearer and bears no fruit in the world. Let me say as humbly as I can there are too many such Christians in churches today. Many of you started off great but now you blow with the prevailing wind of the company you are in - Christian at your church but not at work or in with some of your other friends. This seed died, it bore no lasting fruit, why would you think you would be any different?
Verses 7, 22 - The Secular Soil/Seed. This seed too seems to start very well. There is growth, there even appears to be roots going down into soil and yet all is not well. This soil has never been weaned from the secular world around it - it still contains the thorns and thistles of the old worldview and way of life. Look at what Jesus says of this soil in verse 22. It is deceived or delights in the wealth of the world. Such a person is concerned with the things of this world, his status and financial standing and these things are the priorities of his life and they slowly take over, grow stronger and choke the shoots of faith. Again this seed comes to nothing in such soil. Let me ask you seriously this morning: Are you a secular seed? Is your reputation before men more important than your standing before God today? Are you more concerned with the labels on your clothing than the label of your character? Are you more Christian Dior than Christian? The seed took root and shoots began to grow but the concerns and cares of this world were more important in this life - you know weeds, thorns need to be dug out early before they take root and become persistent problems. Such thorns are very subtle in a life - taking root unseen and then growing to choke the life of faith. Left even for a short time they quickly spread and begin to take over. The same is true in our lives - we need to be ruthless in digging out the worldview which is not biblical. We talk so easily and freely of things today that the bible considers sin. We embrace lifestyles and life choices that are sinful and we think we can embrace them and live as Christians. The truth is such things choke the life out of our faith and it comes to nothing in our lives. You know such temporary disciples of Christ are very common in churches. The warning of this seed is timeless.
Verses 8, 23 - The Successful Soil/Seed. You know this man is no different than any of the other three soils mentioned before. It is scattered in the same way upon the soil of his heart. He hears the exact same word (seed) as the first soil. He hears it with excitement like the second soil. He lives in the exact same world with all its deceits and temptations as the third soil. The difference is the roots go deep and it produces fruit in due season. But how did this seed become fruitful.? Jesus said 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds' John 12.24. There is your answer. The price of being fruitful is dying to self so that the life of Christ might be seen in and through our lives.
In this parable the sower is always the same. The same seed is sown on to each soil. It is the soil which determines the results and how much fruit is produced. This parable held up before Jesus' hearers a mirror for them to see where they stood in relation to God in Christ and it does the same for you this morning. So which soil best describes you? Which soil do you want to be? 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

I PRAY THAT YOU AND THOSE YOU LOVE WILL BE BLESSED IN EVERYWAY

TRUST IN GOD'S WILL BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT WE ALL NEED