Preparation for the work

Sermon notes from Sunday 24 February 2019 am

Acts 6 verses 1 - 7

Preparation for the work

Look at this situation that arose in this early church.  We see here there was a dispute which caused a divison and because of that division we see a delegation.  What was happening?  A dispute arose over monies that were coming into the church.  The disciples were to share that money out but some of the widows felt they were not getting their proper share.  The congregation decided to delegate this probem and sort it out but there was also a determination here.  The apostles said "we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word."  Jesus followers looked at the situation, examined it and showed great discernment.  There are things we could be doing in the church to allow others to be doing what they should be doing.  Church should be like that - everyone doing what they can for the honour and glory of the Lord.  

They recognised the functions that were under attack.  Satan was working - verse 1.  Notice it is in the present tense, it was ongoing.  The disciples were multiplying around Jerusalem in those early days, people were trusting in Christ, were baptised and being added to the church numbers.  Satan did not reveal himself.  He was listening to the dispute that was going on.  He kept firing and filtering it up.  Satan uses small things to build them up until eventually the work of God has increased so much that people became divided.  Think of Job with all his flocks and herds.  One day Satan decided to examine all that was going on.  He saw a man who loved the Lord and he hated that.  He hates you with a vengeance today.  Satan looked at Job, a man who turned from evil.  He examined his life, rising early in the morning before anyone was up, going out to sacrifice for his family.  God sees you early in the morning when you get to prayer.  Satan could see a God fearing man.  He looked out on the fields, looked at all he had, the flocks and herds.  He was examining everything.  He could not raise a finger against him.  Nothing in his power he could do against him.  He is a defeated foe today.  He must ask permission of God first before attacking us.  God had allowed it and God will not walk away from the situation.  He could see the disciples in the Upper Room, sitting together.  He was watching them.  He watches as Peter stands to his feet in Jerusalem and he sees 3000 souls saved that day.  He couldn`t do a thing against him.  Peter empowered by the Holy Spirit, one after another was getting saved.  Satan couldn`t lift a finger.  "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not previl against it."  Acts 2 verse 47 he followed after Peter and John.  I am sure he was looking for some opening to bring them down.  He sees a man lying at the gates of the temple.  The man cries out to Peter and Peter tells him "silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you."  He lifts him up and raises him to his feet.  Verse 4 many people were saved that day - 5000 in total.  Satan could do nothing to prevent it.  He comes down and gets in behind a murmuring bunch of women, they were grieved, he gets in amongst them trying to get at the preaching of the word, worship and praying.  "We will give ourselves to prayer and the preaching of the word."

The responsibility they felt.  We have to guard the place of prayer and the preaching of the word.  We must watch who we allow into the pulpit, those who may water down the word of God so that church becomes a social gathering.  These people had great discernment.  There was an attack on the word of God.  Prepared to stand against it.  Satan had been watching, could not prevent 3000 souls being saved as a result of Peter`s preaching.  He could not prevent the healing of the man at the gates of the temple nor of 5000 hearing of this mircle and being saved.  Coherts of the devil, hovered over the church in Jerusalem, they relayed back to the devil himself, they found a dispute, a divison.  If Satan can get at you in prayer, stop you praying and studying the word of God he will.  Nor will he stand before you tonight to stop you reading God`s word, not at all.  He wll tell you things like there is a hypocrite in the pulpit, he will  add to that, taking you away from the word of God and the place of prayer.  We need to guard the word of God and thee prayer meeting and in our own lives.  Are you guarding that special place in your own home today, where you spend time with God, to keep your family as they go out into the world today?  Revelation 3 verse 2 shows there is a responsibility there - "be watchful and strengthen the things which remain."  They are ready to die.  The Lord tells us to guard them.

The readiness to step up.  Not just depending on someone else - "we will give ourselves."  This is your responibility as well as mine.  Not just the pastor and elders.  Your responsiblity.  If you are a child of God.  The disciples realised this - they were committed to do it, would not allow the devil to get the victory.  That is what the devil wants to do today - wants to bring you down.  The fellowship down.  Your family down.  He is not interested in the big places where there is no gospel but where he gets the 1 or 2 meeting together for a time of prayer he is there already.  It will take that responsibility, readiness on your part and mine.  Daniel 9 verse 3 "I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes."  He knew the time was near, when the people would go down to their own land.  He began to count it up, read through the book of Jeremiah, set his face unto the Lord.  He prepared his heart, readiness to start to pray.  Peter in Acts 3 verse 1 went up to the temple at the time of prayer.

The response of their actions - verse 7.  What started as divison as a result of a dispute, these men got together and prayed and planned.  The Lord honoured their situation and blessed the word of God as it went forth.   Daniel knew the promises of God, was sure but he set his face to see the Lord.  The Lord wants to save your family and mine, wants us to come together to pray and plead for it.  We want to see the same response, that the word of God will increase.  We have got to recognise that the devil is against us.  To take the responsibility to pray is yours and mine, to be ready to commit and then maybe God will answer prayer.  A preparation for the work is seen here in Acts 6 verse 4.

One touch that stopped a street in its tracks

Sermon notes from Sunday 17 February 2019 pm

Mark 5 verses 25 - 34

As we come to this portion of scripture it is very familar to us, we have read it many times, perhaps it has come to us during times of sickness.  It all began when Jesus was in the land of Gadarees.  There he met a man possessed of demons.  He had his dwelling in the tombs, had to be bound and fettered for his own safety.  No-one would walk past until one day Jesus did.  Jesus healed him.  You would have thought everyone would have beeen rejoicing that day.  The people saw the young man sitting, clothed and in his right mind.  The rulers of that land started to count the cost.  The demons had been cast into pigs who rushed down the hill and went in to the water below.  The cost was too great for them to bear.  They thought of what it would cost them and they asked Jesus to leave them alone.  Similarly when the spirit of God begins to move in people`s hearts today there is a cost to be involved.  "What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world yet lose his own soul?" (Mark 8 verse 36)  They told Jesus they had no time for him.  Jesus took those men at their word.  Just as he turned their back on them they too turned their backs on him.  The Lord is taken away from them.  We need to be careful as we listen to God`s word, as his voice speaks to us, that we are not saying for the last time "I don`t want to be saved, I have too much to give up."  The Lord might take you at your word, leave you in your rebellion and rejection.  I want us to look here at a touch that stopped the crowd.  A touch that caught the attention of the Saviour.  Is it possible to have that touch tonight?  Yes it is.  Notice this woman.  The Lord stops in his tracks and says "who touched me."  He realised someone had touched him that day.  

It was a touch that was sought.  Look at the start.  She was part of the multitude of people thronging that area.  The people were attracted to him and gathered around him.  For 12 years she had suffered terribly.  She rose day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.  She suffered in a way that was unbearable.  She tried every doctor and remedy, spent all the money she had, wanted to be better but couldn`t be.  No doubt all these doctors and physicians promised something special but nothing happened.  See this woman in the street, in the midst of the multitudes coming forward and touching the hem of the Lord`s garment, enough to bring healing to her body.  It brings a question from Jesus - "who touched me."  Are you prepared to reach out and touch the Lord?  She knew she needed something that was not in herself, something the doctors could not give her.  She came to the place where she decided "if I don`t touch this garment I wll never be healed."  Maybe you have thought "what happens if I don`t get saved, I will be lost for all eternity."  D L Moody said "a man will never get saved until he realises he is lost."  That is simple but true.  Look at this woman - "one day she heard of Jesus".  Jairus the ruler of the synagogue had gone to bring Jesus to his house to heal his daughter.  He had brought Jesus down the very street this woman was on - isn`t it wonderful to know there is no coincidence with God.  Verse 28 "if I may but touch his clothes I shall be whole."  She realised there was something she had to do.  She had heard much about this man, his healings, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, making the lame to walk again.  Now this was her opportunity.  She knew she had to do something, to press through the crowds, to touch the Lord`s garments.  You have to believe tonight.  Paul writing to Timothy said "we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe." (1 Timothy 4 verse 10)  Jesus came into the world, died on the cross, suffered the terrible agony there, his back was like a ploughed field, his side opened up, all for us.  All that you have to do is believe, repent and confess your sins and you will be saved.  Pilate had to listen to all the witnesses and whatever his wife had to say.  He looked at the crowds and asked "what shall I do with Jesus?"  It is all about what you will do with Jesus.  Something has to be done by you.  Jesus has done everything to save your soul.

A touch that was done in secret.  Not one other person was aware of this touch.  She had been ill for 12 years, sought every possible cure, now she is here.  The multitude is around her.  She touches the hem of Christ`s garment and not another person knew about it.  Jesus asked "who touched me?"  The disciples told him to look at the crowds - and he was asking who touched him.  They didn`t know about her touching Jesus` hem.  No-one was there to help her.  It was between her and the Saviour.  She touched in secrecy.  If you realise you are not saved, that you have never been to Calvary, trust Christ as Saviour, you can do it in the quietness.  Not another person will know about it.  Doing business with God.  It is between you and him.  You can touch the Lord in secret.  You can tell him you have sinned, that you need a Saviour.  He died on the cross for you.  Not one other person will know about it.  Nicodemus made his way through the shadows of that night.  No-one else knew about his encounter with Jesus.  Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple.  Not one knew until he came in and asked Herod for Jesus` body.  You can do it secretly but you must confess it.  The woman had to stand up and say to Christ before the people that it was she that touched him.

A touch that was sincere.  She knew if only she could touch the hem of his clothes she would be healed.  She realised that she would never have that opportunity again.  The opportunity was now.  She was there and she was going to touch him and be made whole.  She did it in sincerity.  Weak and frail as she was, she needed to touch the Lord`s clothes.  Think of the man in scriptures who had a son who was tormented with evil spirits.  Those spirits would cast him into the waters or fire day in and day out.  He brought his son to the Lord, took his problem to Jesus.  He explained his problem - Mark 9.  The father knew all about the condition but he asked Jesus "if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us."  He brought the problem to the Lord.  He realised Jesus needed to do something for him.  "If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth."  You come in sincerity and in truth.  That man cried out from the depths of his heart "Lord I believe help thou my unbelief."  In Acts 16 when the Philippian jailer rushed in to where Paul was, he cried out "what must I do to be saved."  Paul told him "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."  It is possible to hear of your great need of salvation and even believe it but not to be sincere and rely on it.  

The touch was simple.  She crept in through the crowd.  All she could do was touch.  This was just a touch not a clinging onto.  For 12 years she had suffered, her body was weak,  She used all the strength she could muster.  Maybe there was just a small gap in the crowd but it was enough to reach through.  The simplicity of the task yet for her it was a difficult thing.  Maybe it is the most simplest of tasks yet it is the most difficult thing you have every thought of doing.  She could have thought this would be just another failure.  You have to simply believe and accept Christ at his word.  The message hasn`t changed from that day.  You don`t have to go out and climb a mountain or walk across broken glass.  It is simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul.

The touch was sufficient.  The moment she touched the virtue or power fled from Jesus` body and went into her body.  The healing came to her body immediately.  If you were to trust Christ at this moment in time he would save your soul.  What will you do with Jesus?  One touch that stopped a street in its tracks.  One touch that brought healing to this woman`s body, saved her life - what about you tonight?

Not everyone shall enter the kingdom of heaven

Sermon notes from Sunday 10 February 2019 pm

Matthew 7 verses 13 - 29

The Lord was speaking to the people one day when a young scribe stood up.  He was willing to take a stand against the Pharisees and scribes, to take the Lord`s side.  He agreed to all Jesus said, stepped forward and then asked "what is the greatest commandment in the law?"  Jesus replied "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment."  The young man said "Well Master thou hast said the truth; for there is one God and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."  Jesus responded "thou art not far from the kingdom of God." (Mark 12 verses 28 - 34)  I am sure this young man thought in his heart he was on his way to heaven and home.  Remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus, he thought he was on his way to heaven, then Jesus said "except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven."  The scribe had the appearance of a good man but not a saved man.  There is a difference in being a good living person and a saved person by the grace of God.  In 1 Corinthians Paul speaks to the church.  They were coming around the Lord`s table eating and drinking.  Paul told them "let a man examine himself."  Salvation is personal.  It matters not about the person beside you or in front of you.  Are you saved?  Have you trusted in Christ?

The grave warning the Lord gives - verse 23 "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity."  Why did he not know them?  Because they never began at the cross of Calvary, never acknowledged the sinfulness of the heart, that they needed a Saviour, that they had to be humble and bow at the feet of Christ.  Jesus spoke here of a day when many will say "Lord, Lord."  There is a day coming, a day set aside when we must appear before the judge of all the earth.  In Acts 17 when Paul preached in Athens he said "God hath appointed a day when he will judge men and women."  If you were to stand before the Lord and be asked "why would I allow you into heaven?" what would be your reply?  "Because I have done such and such".  Jesus will turn to you and say "I never knew you.  Take a look at the seriousness of this grave warning.  He is pointing to a day when people will stand before God.  There is a deception in it and it all comes from Satan himself.  He blinds us with all sorts of things.  Imagine for a moment and put yourself in their shoes.  Born into this world to good families, taught to be a good person, kept a middle distance, not outspoken, came to where Jesus was and turned away.  Jesus warns them "I never knew you."  What would it be like for you?  Salvation is not something to be toyed about with.  Will you look at the invitation to come to the cross as something that far surpasses anything else you have.  Salvation is something to be assured of.  It is God that witnesses with my spirit that I am a child of God.  Or the very same spirit witnesses that you are not saved.  It is awful to get to the door of heaven for God to say "I never knew you."  People can say "I have my own church and I worship there every Sunday morning."  Here`s a people who have the language.  The Lord will say to you "I never knew you."  Did this young scribe ever take that step I wonder?  God has spoken to you before, you are not far from the kingdom but you are not saved.  

In Acts 8 we read of a young man who went down to Jerusalem.  He had a great job, he worked for the queen of the land.  On this occasion the desire was in his heart to go down to Jerusalem to worship.  He was involved in all the activities going on in Jerusalem but in the midst of it all he was not saved.  The Bible says if I want to be saved I need to repent of my sins, acknowledge my sin, acknowledge that there is but one way - through Christ and his death on the cross of Calvary.  Elijah on the day going up to Mount Carmel to meet the prophets of Baal.  They were worshipping but not sincerely.    400 prophets of Baal were calling on their god but heard nothing.  They were so sincere.  They began to cut themselves with their knives but still no response.  In Acts 16 we meet a woman named Lydia.  Remember how she went out to a riverside and sat amongst the woman.  She could probably have said "Lord, Lord" yet she was not saved.

  

It is not of words either.  Salvation is a work of God in the heart.  "If thou shall believe in thy heart and profess with thy mouth."  You have to do it in the right way.  The people only had lip service.  In Acts 8 Philip goes to Samaria where souls were being saved and healed of sickness, rescued from demon possession.  The city was full of joy.  A man called Simon was saved and he followed after Philip.  He was interested in the mighty things God was doing.  He was so absorbed in all that was happening but he had no real profession in his heart.  He was not right before God.  Salvation is a heart religion.  It is not about the words we say.  Verse 22 "and in thy name cast out devils."  

It is not of works.  Here`s a people so active.  Ephesians "it is by grace that you have been saved not of works lest any man should boast."  It is nothing else, not church and God, not your works and God, it is the Lord and him only.  These people are seeking access to heaven by the works they are doing.  There are those depending on works to get them to heaven.  "I have taught Sunday School for years, I will be in heaven."  "I have visited the sick for years, surely I will be in heaven."  When you look at Christ hanging on that cross suffering and bleeding for you, he was doing it for you.  When Naaman went down to the prophet, thinking he was a mighty soldier, one thing he did not acknowledge was the state of his leprosy.  When he was told to go and wash in the Jordan river he thought "I would never do that."  He was so angry at what he was told to do.  People have done that even today - "what right does that give him" they ask.  Naaman didn`t find consolation in battles, he found it only when he obeyed the voice of God.  

It is not of wonders.  Remember the plagues in Egypt, the severity of each one.  It wasn`t the great wonders that brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, it was the blood of a little lamb painted on the doorposts.  How simple it was to walk out that night.  How easy it is to come under the blood of Christ, trust him as Saviour and Lord.  Here are a people who have come to the door of heaven, so confident they will get in.  They have prophesied, cast out devils and did many mighty works.  The Lord will say "I never knew you."  Jesus said "him that cometh to me I will not cast out."  If you come to that place where you are prepared to say "I have sinned and because of that you have died, because of that I am taking you as my Saviour."

Can these bones live?

Sermon notes from Sunday 10 February 2019 am

Ezekiel 37 verses 1 - 14

The God of heaven keeps his promises.  Peter looking at the last days said "there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.  And saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation .... For God is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3 verses 3, 4 and 9)  If the Lord was to come today there will be those who will perish.  How many will be left standing on earth and how many will rise to meet him in the air?  God has delayed his coming because there are those of us not saved.  In Genesis 12 God called a man Abraham.  He took him out of Ur of the Chaldees.  He gave him a promise "unto a land I will show thee."  He was told to leave his nation, to leave his home, everything behind him.  He wanted him to go to a land God would show him.  Then he promised through him a nation - Genesis 12 verse 2.  The nation of Israel would be built through Abraham.  When you hear about Israel today take in what is happening out there.  Do not think `it doesn`t concern me.`  God is beginning to work with Israel because we are in the last days.  We have been thinking of the last days when the Antichrist, the false prophet, Satan and the Lamb of God are involved but also included in our thoughts has been the nation Israel.  "I will bless thee and make thy name great and through thee all nations shall be blessed."  God has promised his blessing to Israel but also a curse on those who do not think about Israel.  God blesses the nations that bless Israel and curses the nations that curse Israel.  God will take up his dealings with Israel and that has already begun.  One day the Lord is coming to the air with the voice of the archangel and the dead in Christ will rise first.  If the Lord were to come to the air now how many will go to be with the Lord immediately?

What has God done through the nation Israel?  He has given us the word of God.  The Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world.  God will take up his dealings once again.  The regathering of a nation - Ezekiel 37 verse 14 Israel is going to be in its own land.  Jeremiah 31 verse 10.  The picture we see before us.  Chapter 37 verse 1 "the hand of the Lord was upon me  and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones."  Ezekiel looks down into the valley and sees nothing but a mass of bones covering the whole land.  He not only sees these bones but in verse 2 he describes them as "very many" and "very dry".  They had been here for a long time.  The bones are a picture of the house of Israel.  In verse 11 as Ezekiel looks on these bones he realises this is Israel.  God will deal with them.  He sees these bones coming together rattling, sinews, muscles, flesh coming on them, skin covered them.  The skeletons were standing on their feet.  God gave them breath.  Israel would be revived again.  In Genesis 15 we read that Israel will be in a foreign land.  400 years later God didn`t forget about them.  He brought them out of Egypt.  It took God 400 years to make a nation in Israel to be what he would have them to be.  He sees them taken out of Egypt into Canaan.  They turned their backs on God through unbelief so that they couldn`t enter into the land and it took another 40 years before it happened.  The same thing happens to you and I.  We come to that place of Kadesh Barnea, where we look into the Promised Land but somehow we turn our back on God.  How many have sat in gospel meetings, come to that place in your heart of hearts where you would love to be saved but you know very well you will not be able to keep it.  If you have sinned, come short of the glory of God, time after time you are brought to that place of reality, want to give yourself to the Lord but nothing happens.  You walk away from Christ once too often.  Many times we come to Kadesh Barnea.  We know what we have to do, somehow through our own unbelief we cannot do it.  God has something powerful for you.  A ministry for you.  Somehow we cannot go through with it.  You would love to come to know Christ as your own but somehow you cannot go through with God.  God will bring Israel back together, God will give them back to their land.  Even when God dispersed them into the land of Babylon after 70 years he brought them back again.  There are many in this valley and they are scattered across the land.  Ezekiel is a chapter about revival too.  This is not the church however.  We see God is speaking to Ezekiel and lets him see this great vision.  That is how revival comes.  People see souls lost and going out into a lost Christless hell.  That person gives themselves to prayer and God answers that prayer and sends revival.  Ezekiel had this great burden and vision - verse 15.  He takes 2 sticks and brings them together.  God will unite the nation of Israel again.  Moses at the burning bush, another picture of Israel feeding and leading his sheep.  He sees this bush burning and stops to look into the bush and meets with God himself.  Israel is a burning bush yet it is not consumed.  It is still burning.  We can see that through the affliction of Israel on many occasions.  Pharaoh tried to wipe out the nation of Israel by putting babies to death but still it burned.  In the time of the Medes and Persians Hamaan tried to wipe out the Jewish nation in one day.  God overruled and sent one little girl to turn the tide.  That is all God is looking for - individuals to do a work for him.  Isaiah 5 shows a picture of the vineyard with the walls broken down yet the Lord still used him.  Hitler tried to anialate the Jews with the gas chambers yet that nation is still blossoming.  Sadaam Hussain tried to cast the nation of Israel into the sea.  They are still there today - why - because they are God`s people.  He did not succeed.  God is reaching out to that nation and bringing reviving power.  The picture that is presented.

The penalty that is paid - verse 11.  Look at what the nation is saying "Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts."  Paul writing in the book of Ephesians said "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2 verse 12)  These bones were not lying in a orderly fashion.  James 1 verse 1 "James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings."  Ezekiel sees these bones scattered.  They have been there for such a long time.  They are scattered because of their failings.  God only had good things for them.  Jeremiah 29 verse 11 "for I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end."  The nation of Israel has known the persecuting hands of many nations through the years - Syria, Nebuchadnezzar.  Time after time Jeremiah refers to himself and the other prophets speak of the message of God but the people turned their backs on God.  God has not forgotten about this nation.  God will bring them back together one day, to settle them in the land he has given to them.  On 15th May 1948 Israel was recognised as a nation.  2000 years before that a man called Isaiah the prophet had much to talk about Israel.  God speaking through him said the nation would be born in a day.  Isaiah saw that day when the nation would be brought into the land of Canaan in one day.  Not another nation in the world can boast of that.  That they were brought together in a day.  Nations are built up, evolve but Israel was different.  After years of depression caused by fighting.  Israel came from the 2 sons of Abraham - one of the sons of promise Isaac and one son of the bond woman Ishmael.  Ishmael would be a son born in conflict - they are the Arabs today.

Notice also here a programme that is running - verse 11.  These bones are the whole house of Israel.  Stand back and see what I will do with these bones.  They are a nation without hope but God will now do a mighty work.  We might say we are living in difficult days but these are also exciting days.  Was there ever a generation that lived as close to the Lord`s return?  We can go back to God`s word and see things happening as he said they would.  God is now saying it is time to go home.  Jeremiah 31 verse 31 "behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the houes of Israel and with the house of Judah."  Verse 15 "from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together, a great company shall return thither."  One day God will speak to the nation of Israel and will bring them into their land.  That is happening even today.  Ezekiel 36 is the setting of that scene, a programme that is running even now today according to chapter 3.  God asks Jeremiah in verse 3 "can these bones live?"  Jeremiah responds "Lord thou knowest."  God knows where Israel is today and he is bringing them back.  God knows where you are today.  God knows all about it.  He knows where we are in relation to himself.  Ezekiel was asked to preach.  Imagine standing in front of these bones.  The Lord is speaking to our hearts about something strange and difficult, will we say like Peter long ago when the Lord asked him to launch out into the deep after fishing all night and catching nothing, "nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." (Luke 5 verse 5)  "There was a noise" - verse 7.  Nothing confusing.  Perhaps it was the noise of Syria who decided to let these people go back to Israel and rebuild it.  The sinews and muscles speak of strength.  Then the muscles and skin came together.  The skin speaks of protection, giving them balance, bringing them into their own land.  The last thing that would happen was the breath of God to bring them to life.  These things are happening before our eyes today.  It signifies the coming of the Lord to settle his kingdom.  He will reign for 1000 years.  Jerusalem will be the centre, the hub.  Where will we stand on that day?  Saved by the grace of God or lost in a Christless hell for all eternity?  I trust that we will be up and doing in these days.

Sermon notes from Sunday 17 February 2019

Ezekiel 37 verses 15 - 28

Ezekiel saw nothing in this valley but dry bones.  As he gazed around he saw many parts and they were dry.  This was the nation of Israel in its state at this moment in time.  In verse 15 God comes to Ezekiel to pick up the 2 sticks lying there.  We can see him looking at the 2 sticks, then God tells him to write the name of Judah on one stick and the name Ephraim on the other.  Then Ezekiel was told to join them together.  God was going to unite them again.  This is a continuation of the first scene.  God is adding more details.

First of alll we see a people that God is regathering.  As Ezekiel looked at the bones God asked him "can these bones live?"    Isn`t it wonderful how God teaches us lessons, he reaches down into our situations today and speaks to us.  God perhaps uses sickness to show a person their need of salvation or perhaps to trust in him more.  Remember Moses in the desert when he saw the burning bush.  God spoke to him right there and then.  Maybe God is speaking to you in these past days.  Peter was told by the Lord to launch out into the deep.  Peter told the Lord he had been out fishing all night and had  caught nothing but despite that he would cast the net down again.  Sometimes we have to be careful that we don`t set these things in the past history.  The God of heaven who spoke to Abraham, to Peter and to Moses still speaks to you and I today.  He is speaking into your heart even now.  Maybe there is something specifically on your heart and mind and God has been dealing with you this past week over it.  Ezekiel was asked if the bones could live.  He was then told to prophesy, pray and preach over them.  Maybe there is a situation in your life.  It is dead, no hope.  This morning God tells you to pray over it.  Pray for that child, that mother, that brother, that uncle, that friend, just pray for the situation.  Ezekiel has proclaimed the word of God over it and life has returned.  Israel was a nation divided, dispersed but now would be delivered.  God would reunite them.  He would bring them into a reunion and he would reign over them.  What a day we are looking forward to.  God called Abraham our of Ur of the Chaldees, told him he would give him a land he would show him.  God would now gather them once more.  When Abraham and Lot came up out of Egypt they had so much by way of herds and flocks that the land could not hold them.  God spoke to them about division.  Abraham told Lot to choose the land he wanted to live in.  Lot saw Sodom and Gomorrah and chose it.  God then told Abraham to look and see the land before him.  He told him that all he could see would be given to him and his family after him.  God gives his promises but never breaks them.  Leviticus 26 verse 42.  God has still his eye on Israel.  He will regather the nation.  He will also reunite them - verse 17.  Ezekiel is told to put the 2 sticks together.  Verse 21.  Israel is at present a divided nation today.  God gives us a picture.  In Matthew`s gospel Jesus spoke of the fig tree and when the buds come out we know summer is coming.  The nation of Israel is beginning to stretch forth and get a hold.  God will do a mighty thing with them.  Not since the days of Samuel, Saul or David has there been a united nation.  Rehoboam, Solomon`s son gathered together the old and young people around him when his father died.  He sought their advice.  The young told him to increase the taxes while the old said to lower them.  Rehoboam was very discontented, he rebelled against the word.  Jeroboam split the kingdom by taking 10 tribes to the north and left Rehoboam 2 tribes.  Assyria cam down and carried that northern kingdom into captivity.  140 years later Babylon then came down and took the northern kingdom into captivity.  Some were allowed to eventually return after 70 years but not all did.  One day God will regather and reunite the nation.  He is going to resettle them in the land.  Although the nation has rebelled against him, rejected him, God will regather them and resettle them in the land he has promised.  God has so much for you and I.  He has a great love for us.  There is no human love like it.  The love of God - that he would take his son and send him into this world and there he would watch as he was taken into Pilate`s judgment hall to be beaten and abused and then taken to an old rugged cross outside Jerusalem.  There God would turn his back on him.  Jesus was dying for your sin and mine.  There had to be a darkness on the land at that time.  Is there any love like God`s love for you and I?  That is the love God has for Israel.  Israel has only partially been in her own land.  This is a fulfilment of the promise to Abraham.  Ezekiel 36 verses 24, 34 and 35.  God will bring a reunion once more.  How could a people come back into this land and resettle there?  Israel was never really content, always looking for something else.  As a child of God we are guilty too - is God enough for us?  Paul said "I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I find myself in."  Even in the days of Samuel the people asked for a king to lead them into battle against the nations around them.  God will have to renew this people - verse 23.  What a relationship - is that what we really have today?  Have you got that relationship with God today?  People say "I would love to be saved but I could never ever keep it up."  No-one could keep the standard God has for us but he renews us.  He gives us a new heart.  The old things have passed way, all things are become new.  New thoughts, new ambitions, new goals are all given to us.  We will not want to live the way we used to live or do the things we used to do.  Ezekiel 36 verse 23.  Ezekiel 37 verse 22 God will reign over them.  The Lord will reign in Jerusalem.  Other nations will flock unto Israel.  There will be no negotiations in that day.  God will bring it to pass, he will bring the nation into the land, resettle them in their own land.

Revelation 14 - the 144,000

Sermon notes from Sunday 3 February 2019

Revelation 14 verses 1 - 5

Here we find in Revelation 14 the 144,000 take up our thoughts.  These are the same 144,00 from chapter 7 verse 4.  There we saw them going into the great tribulation, sealed, set apart, sanctified during the 7 year period which Jesus himself described as never like it before nor will be like it again.  In verse 1 we read of "Mount Zion" which is earthly Mount Zion.  They have come through the 7 year period, are at the end of it, standing on the brink when Jesus will set up his earthly kingdom and reign for 1000 years.  At that time the devil will be locked away, the Antichrist and the false prophet are in the lake of fire.  Now here in chapter 14 the 144,000 are coming out of the tribulation period.  The suffering has ended and they are going to reign with Christ.  Look at their ministry during the 7 years.

They were faithful.  These people have spent  years preaching in the most discouraging, downtrodden of times.  What will the Lord have to say about our ministry as we stand before him one day and give an account of ourselves?  In verse 1 John says "I looked".  He sees firstly a Lamb before he says anything about the 144,000.  The Lamb is in the midst.  In other chapters we read that he saw the AntiChrist, the False Prophet, the Devil but now he sees the Lamb.  What a tremendous sight that is to see before you see the people.  When we look at the Lamb we see the one who came to seek and to save that which is lost.  He is standing with outstretched arms today, he wants us to cast our burdens on him because he loves us and wants us to know that genuine love.  The Lamb was last seen in chapter 5 when the book was handed to him.  The 144,000 are selected for this particular task and time.  Remember Esther and Mordecai.  Mordecai told her to stand up for the nation of Israel because "you have been brought to the kingdom perhaps for such a time as this."  He has brought you into his family for such a time as this.  These men were given this set period, selected, separated, sanctified, sealed but also surrendered.  Here were a people who would go into the worse time they would ever face, they would preach the word, there never would be a period like it again.  It does not matter what you will go through, make sure God is with you.  Romans 12 verse 1 reminds us that we are offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.  We are to offer ourselves afresh each day because maybe the Lord has set us out for a different role, a different pathway to follow.  We must surrender it to him.  Have we really come to the Lord as this 144,000 did?  Ever really surrendered ourselves?  Asked the Lord "whatever you want me to do, where you want me to go I will go?"  In verse 7 the people came through their ministry.  The Lord has a ministry for you.  Have you found it yet?  Paul said to Timothy "stir up the gift that is in you."  Have we a ministry today?  One day we must give an account of it.  Remember the story of the master who gave his servant one talent.  The servant went and buried it.  When he was called to account for what he did with the one talent, he returned it to his master saying he knew he was an austere man and so hid it until he returned.  He was not accepted for it.  Remember the story in Matthew 20 of the vineyard the workers.  The master came and asked them "why stand ye all the day idle?"  All they had to do was be employed yet they were still standing around.  We are not to be idle.  We are not saved to be sitting around.  We are saved to serve.  The 144,000 were faithful.   They were in the keeping of God himself.  No doubt Satan came against them but God kept them through this period of time.  Satan cannot put us down.  He cannot overpower us.  The only power he can use is the power we allow him to use.  1 Peter 1 verse 5 we "are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."  It was no different for the 144,000.  They were kept by the power of God through faith.  They faced every obstacle, kept at it though.  "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed." (James 1 verse 14)  There was no Demas here who chose the love of the world.  Here were a people who were prepared to die for souls.    They didn`t turn back at the ministry given to them.  The whole world was worshipping the beast at this time.  The Antichrist came in and an attempt was made on his life.  He was raised to life again.  God still had his remnant left.  Their priority was the Lord`s calling and mens souls.  There are many today going away from that priority.  

They were fearless in their ministry.  They were not promised an easy time or an easy task.  Here were a people who would have to stand against the powers of hell and Satan in an unprecedented way.  There were evil powers let loose in the world at this time.  The forces of hell would be allowed to roam and reign on this old earth.  Here were a people standing against that.  During their minstry the Antichrist said "if you do not receive my mark you cannot buy and sell."  God looked after them.  The 144,000 "were not defiled with women" verse 4.  We should take that in the spiritual sense.  We read often in scripture about going after other women meaning to commit adultery.  Israel left God many times and went after other gods.  They committed fornication.  The 144,000 were fearless in their task because they relied on the Lord at all times.  We can allow things to come and take us from God.  That is fornication and adultery.  Our leisure and relationships can be put in front of God.  If we are asked to do a task and we put that before God we are committing spiritual adultery.  Daniel as a young boy sat at the kings table in Babylon.  Everything was there that he could enjoy eating.  The king was nurturing them up to become the wise rulers of the empire one day.  Daniel looked at the table and decided not to defile himself with these things.  He stood firm with the Lord.  He showed his faith in the Lord.  It didn`t matter to him that he could have faced death as a result.  We live in an easy age.  We can approach people with tracts and they will accept them but imagine if we lived in a world where we could be arrested for doing such a thing.  How would we cope with that?  We need to be careful that we have counted the cost.  It is easy to take the place of Christian in this era.  Daniel did not fear the old king Nebuchadnezzar.  Nebuchadnezzar built an image and gave the order that everyone must bow down to it when they heard the music.  Daniel and his 3 friends refused to do it.  They were then cast into the fiery furnace but God delivered them.

They were focused in their ministry.  Verse 4 "these are they whch follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth."  These preachers were focused on Jesus the Lamb.  It is only when the preaching gets away from the Lamb that there are problems.  They had Jesus before them.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Philippians 4 verse 13)  These men were going to reach out with the gospel, they could do it because God told them to do it.  Is there something and the Lord says to do it and you say "I can`t do it"?  Maybe it is because you don`t want to do it or is it because you have not the ability to do it?  What a wonderful testimony these men had.  They were called and sealed and pushed forward with the preaching of the gospel.  The Antichrist had set up an image in the temple but they did not worship it.  Their intention was to lead as many to hear the wonderful message of the gospel.  In Revelation 7 verse 9 there is a multitude around the throne.  They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.  They are there because of the 144,000.  The gospel challenge today is the same.  Luke 9 verse 23 "if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."  The reason God sealed these men was to evangelise, to bring others to Christ.  Agabus was a prophet in Acts of the Apostles.  He lifted a girdle one day and said "the man who wears this girdle will be bound and sent to Jerusalem to be imprisoned."  That girdle was Paul`s.  Paul said "even though they chain and fetter me, take me to Jerusalem, even take my life, I am prepared to go." (Acts 21 verses 10 to 14)    

They were fruitful.   Notice that a multitude stood around the throne.  They were there because of the ministry of the 144,000.  They would be saved just like you and I would be saved - through the minstry of the 144,000.  That seed you sow - do not be discouraged because you see no fruit for it here and now!