When we go to visit our grandchildren in Cambridge we often drive past the Chemistry Department where I studied for four very happy years, just along the road from the college and the rooms where I lived. Those historic surroundings reminded me of a story I heard from the Dean about a student who turned up in the Dining Hall one evening and demanded a tankard of ale with his dinner. The Dean, who is responsible for all discipline in college, was summoned. He consulted the rule book and discovered that, yes indeed, ancient regulations did require the college to supply a free tankard of ale at Dinner to any student who demanded it. But as the first sip was taken the Dean promptly fined the student half a crown for daring to turn up to Hall improperly dressed – the student was wearing his gown, but he was NOT wearing his sword!
Surfing the internet I was not surprised to discover that all over the world there are all kinds of silly laws and regulations about food. Across America in New Jersey, a person can be arrested for slurping soup in a restaurant. In Indiana it is against the law to ride on a bus or enter any theatre or cinema within four hours after eating garlic. Kentucky has a law forbidding anyone from carrying an ice-cream cone in his pocket. In Oregon, young ladies are not allowed to drink coffee after six o’clock in the evening.
Then there are many weird and wonderful laws about other matters. In Florida if an elephant is left tied to a parking meter, the parking fee has to be paid just as it would for a vehicle. In Alaska it is a specific offense to push a live moose out of a moving aeroplane. And you should beware that NOBODY is allowed to park or land a flying saucer in any vineyard in France. You probably know that in English Law there is still a specific offence of being found drunk while in control of a cow.
Even the church does not escape such ridiculous laws. Apparently in West Virginia, it is a specific offence for a clergyman to tell jokes or humorous stories from the pulpit during a church service. Ooops!
With so many ridiculous laws in place, it is no surprise that many people rebel against any and all rules and regulations. Respect for authority and the legal system has been eroded and in recent days we have seen too many examples of our politicians and lawmakers simply ignoring altogether the laws they themselves have imposed. The world is full of people with no regard for the law, and many with no idea at all of right and wrong. The other day I read this slogan, “The only rule is there are no rules.” Many people are living their lives by that slogan! Many people are living as if they never have to answer to ANYBODY else for their actions. “The only rule is there are no rules.”
Of course, through the years there have always been people who have broken the law and refused to be answerable to other people. But in earlier generations it was different. Even people who “feared no man” would fear God. Even people who weren’t afraid of being caught and punished by human law still were still afraid of being caught and punished by God. They knew they would face a reckoning one day. Today life is different. The vast majority of people today live their lives as if there is no God – as if God doesn’t exist. Some people respect man-made laws, some do not. Many people pick and choose which laws they will obey and which they will ignore. Very many people are content to live just by the eleventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not get caught.”
That’s why I was particularly struck by a book I found entitled “Hell’s best kept secret”. What is the great truth that all the powers of evil want to keep secret? What is the truth which would change the world if people really believed it? Simply the truth that God is a Holy and righteous God and every single human being will one day face judgement for all the wrong things they have done!
What I want to make very clear this morning is that people should not live a life which ignores God. Human beings are NOT free to live life any way as we like. We are not free to choose which laws to obey and which laws to disobey. Human beings are not free to ignore God, because God has a claim on every one of our lives. In fact God has TWO distinct claims on our lives – a DOUBLE claim on each of us. God has a first claim on our lives because He made us – God is our CREATOR. And God has a second claim on our lives because he has provided a way for us to be saved – God is our REDEEMER. Creator and Redeemer – The DOUBLE CLAIM. Let me explain what I mean
The first claim on our lives – God is our CREATOR
This world is not an accident. It is not here by chance. The whole universe is here because God created it! Our planet exists because God created it. We are only alive today because God made us! If you already believe that God created everything you don’t need me to tell you. If you don’t then we haven’t really the time to go through all the philosophical arguments for the existence of God. To many people it is intuitively obvious that the whole universe could not have just come into existence from nothing. Something had to make it all happen – there had to be a “first cause.” For other people, even better proof that God exists comes from the evidence of design in everything we see. Two hundred years ago William Paley expressed this “argument from design” something like this in his “Parable of the Celestial Watchmaker”.
Supposing you were walking along the road one day and happened to find a watch. You could look inside at its intricate mechanism. You would not imagine for one second that the watch was a purely natural object. You would recognize at once that it was man made – that some person had designed and manufactured the watch. In the same way, Paley said, if we look around at the intricacies of the natural world, we see evidence of design. And those signs of design point to the existence of a designer, the architect of the whole of Creation, the Celestial Watchmaker.
I saw a film a long time ago which I can still remember vividly. It looked at fascinating animals like the trapdoor spider and the archer fish and the bombardier beetle, and many others which demonstrate the inventive genius of God. Studying and then teaching science I became more and more convinced of the truth of this “argument from design.” Consider the incredible way in which the human eye works, or even more amazing the human brain. Look at the immensely complex way inheritance works, the way DNA and RNA and so many different proteins all interact to pass on genetic information. Look at the way that biological catalysts, enzymes, work at a molecular level. The probability of a wonderful world full of such amazing designs coming into existence by random chance is vanishingly small. Design points to the existence of the divine designer, the architect of the universe, God. Psychologists and philosophers find it impossible to explain how human beings developed consciousness and conscience, and appreciation of beauty and spirituality, the desire to pray and worship. Evolution never claims to explain these things, and never could! The Christian explanation is simple – God made us this way. The argument from design. So after decades of study, like many other scientists who are also Christians, I agree more than ever with Louis Pasteur, the biologist who gave his name to the process of pasteurization which gives us fresh milk to drink. Pasteur once said,
“Posterity will some day laugh at the foolishness of our modern materialistic philosophy. The more I study nature the more I am amazed at the Creator.”
If you want to read some more about this, two chapters in my book Prepared To Give An Answer deal with the questions, “What makes you believe that God exists?” and “Just how did God create the world?” If you haven’t got a copy, please take one today. If you are watching on Zoom or Facebook, or reading this online, and you would like a copy of the book, just send me a message.
God is our Creator. And that gives God a claim on our lives. Because He made us, that gives God the right to tell us how we should live our lives. He has done so, in the Bible, the Maker’s instructions. God has given us the rules we should live by if we want to be healthy and productive individuals and communities. Rules like the 10 commandments. Not silly rules, but basic obvious rules like respect family life and marriage, don’t steal and don’t murder and don’t tell lies and don’t be envious of each other. Other simple rules like love your neighbour and do to others as you would like them to do to you. Just the kind of rules that so many people are choosing to ignore nowadays because they think they know better! It is no surprise that the world is in the mess it is in, when so many people ignore the Maker’s instructions.
One of my hobbies is doing all kinds of things with computers. I enjoy the challenge of making computers do what they should do and of mending computers when they are broken. And over the last 40 years I have discovered that there is one simple secret of success in working with computers. RTM. Read The Manual. If a computer isn’t doing what it should do – read the manual. If a program or a website isn’t working like you want it to – read the manual. If your technology isn’t working at all – read the manual. That is good advice for the whole of life. The world would be a much much better place if everybody followed the Maker’s instructions! Read the manual! God HAS this inescapable claim on our lives – He is our Creator. He has revealed to us how we should live. And the Creator has warned us that we will be accountable for our actions!
Romans 1 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
People have no excuse – Judgement Day is coming! God has this first claim on our lives – He is our creator!
The second claim on our lives – God is our REDEEMER
The reason this wonderful world is so messed up is because people don’t follow God’s rules. Every single act of disobedience puts a barrier between the Creation and its Creator. Every occasion when people reject or ignore God’s claim on their lives takes them further away from God. Every single one of us is trapped in a prison made up of our own greed and selfishness and pride. By rights God could just give up on us all. Scrap the whole earth and everybody on it and start again from scratch. But God hasn’t done that. Alternatively God could just sit back and watch us human beings take ourselves to destruction. God doesn’t do that either.
The Bible tells us that God has done something entirely different. God really cares about His creation. So God chose to enter into His creation, to be born as a human being, to put the world right again, the author appearing in his own play to write the perfect ending because all the actors keep on getting their lines wrong. The Almighty God became a human being in Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect human life to show us how to live. And then the Creator became so identified with His creation that he experienced human death, the death of a common criminal, death by crucifixion. And the Bible tells us that by his dying on the cross, Jesus Christ has made it possible for this damaged broken world to be put right again. Jesus has rescued us. Jesus has saved us.
One word for this rescue which the Bible uses almost 150 times is the word “redemption” God redeems us. We have been redeemed. God is our redeemer.” We heard it in our reading from the first letter of the apostle Peter.
1 Peter 1 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
We have been redeemed. God has bought us back. We have been saved from the mess we have got ourselves in to by Jesus and his death on the cross. It’s as if we are criminals, thrown in jail because we can’t afford to pay the colossal fine which is the just punishment for our crimes. But then somebody else comes along and pays the penalty we could never pay. Or it’s a bit like as if we have been kidnapped and held hostage. Our kidnappers demand an enormous ransom, so much more than we could ever afford to pay. And then a complete stranger pays that ransom on our behalf. We are free to go. The price has been paid. We have been bought back. We have been redeemed. But this rescue does not come to us automatically. It is not forced upon us. We have to accept it individually for ourselves. The prisoner is freed to walk out of that prison any time – but he has to choose to walk out into freedom. The hostage is freed to leave – but she has to choose to accept that freedom.
Tis is why God has a second claim on the lives of each one of us. Because God has redeemed us. He has paid the penalty. He has paid the ransom. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” Jesus Christ has died on the cross for us. He has paid the ultimate price – paid on the nail! So we owe a debt of gratitude to the one who has paid such a high price to make it possible for us to become free. That puts us under an obligation to walk out of the prison, to leave the kidnappers, to claim our freedom, to live our lives with God instead of without Him. We have an obligation to read the manual and live life according to God’s rules! We are in God’s debt because he is our redeemer.
There is a true story about Winston Churchill. A wealthy English family once invited friends to spend some time on their beautiful estate. The happy gathering was almost plunged into a terrible tragedy on the first day. When the children went swimming, one of them got into deep water and was drowning. Fortunately, the gardener heard the others screaming and dived into the pool to rescue the helpless victim. That young child was Winston Churchill. His parents were deeply grateful to the gardener and asked what they could do to reward him. He hesitated, then said, “I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor.” Churchill’s parents replied, “We’ll pay his way.” And so they did.
Years later while Sir Winston was prime minister, he was struck down with pneumonia. The king was very concerned and summoned the royal physician, the best doctor who could be found, to the bedside of the dying leader. That doctor was Sir Alexander Fleming who just happened to be that son of that gardener who had saved Winston from drowning as a boy! In 1928 Fleming had just discovered a brand new treatment, the antibiotic penicillin And penicillin saved the Prime Minister’s life. Years later Churchill said this. “Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same person.”
Every one of us owes our life to God, not just once but twice! Almighty God has given us the gift of physical life. And then in Jesus Christ, God also offers us the free gift of eternal life. God is our Creator. And then God also offers to be our Redeemer. God has this double claim on each of our lives. Each one of us must decide – what are we going to do about that?

One of the things I miss about most about being a schoolteacher is the incredibly inventive excuses children make up.
• I was late for class because I was fighting with a kid who said that you weren’t the best teacher in the world
• On the way to school I was feeding the ducks and my homework fell in
• I made my homework into a paper plane and it was highjacked
• I ate my homework because I didn’t have any ice cream, but it had all the answers on it so it made me smarter.
• Best I ever heard, from my own schooldays. “The train had a puncture.”
Mind you, in ordinary times adults make all kinds of excuses, expecially for missing work.
• I can’t come to work because I lost the house keys, I’m locked in.
• It is against my religion to work on Mondays and Wednesdays.
• I’d love to come to work today, but I got on the wrong train and I’m now in Edinburgh.
• I can’t come to work because the aliens are coming tonight and I’m baking cakes to give to them as peace offerings.
• I am not coming in because I tried to dye my hair blonde, but it came out green!
• “I am busy converting my calendar from Julian to Gregorian.”
• “The dog ate my car keys. We’ve got to hitchhike to the vet.”
I’ve come across some other bizarre reasons for avoiding doing things over the years.
Id love to but… I’m teaching my cat to sing … my dog is teaching me to bark ……. I’ve got to go and walk my turtle. I’d love to but… None of my socks match.
All kinds of wild excuses – but none as crazy as the messages sent by the party guests in the story Jesus told.
16 Jesus replied: ‘A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.”
18 ‘But they all alike began to make excuses.
The excuses they made could sound like plausible reasons for missing even a great banquet, until we read carefully and see that the excuses came on the very day of the great feast. Let’s take a minute to see the background to this story. In those days people didn’t have diaries or organisers or even calendars. So when they gave a banquet, the host would do the invitations in two stages. Firstly, weeks or months ahead, he would say, “Would you like to come to my banquet?” and people would say yes please or no I can’t. Then, ON THE DAY, when the banquet was prepared, the host would send a message to those who had already accepted his invitation saying, today’s the day, the banquet is ready, come and eat! So that’s why these excuses are not just crazy. They are also incredibly rude. These are people who had ALREADY accepted the invitation to the feast. It was only ON THE DAY that they are saying, “I can’t be bothered to come!
18 ‘But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.”
In Jesus’s time NOBODY would buy a field without seeing it first, getting the lie of the land and feeling the quality of the soil!
19 ‘Another said, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.”
That’s ridiculous. Nobody would think of buying oxen without trying them out first and seeing if they ploughed straight!
20 ‘Still another said, “I have just got married, so I can’t come.”
In Jesus’s day weddings took even more planning than a great feast. Nobody would get married on short notice! When they accepted the invitation to the banquet the person would have fixed their wedding date already! Field. Oxen. Wedding. These weren’t even the feeblest of excuses. They were red herrings. In each case the person was saying, “I can’t be bothered to come to your feast.” And that was just plain rude!
Jesus told this story of the Great Banquet on an occasion while he was eating a very special meal at the house of a prominent Pharisee.
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, ‘Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.’
The feast in the kingdom of God. For centuries the Jews had been looking forward to the day when God would send their Saviour, the Messiah to them. One of the important pictures of salvation in the Old Testament which we looked at in our Advent Reflections is the promise of a wonderful banquet.
Isaiah 25 6 On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine— the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death for ever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces;

The Messiah’s banquet with the best of meats and the finest of wines, where God wipes away every tear and even destroys death. That is the feast in the kingdom of God, the banquet which Jesus is talking about in this parable. God is the one giving the feast, offering all the blessings of salvation.
What is the most lavish meal you have ever eaten? In Brentwood I got invited by the Mayor’s Office to the Civic Dinners. They were very posh occasions, black tie and all. As chair of Churches Together in Brentwood I was invited to say grace before the meal. One year I was talking beforehand with the Mayor and the Bishop of Brentwood. It occurred to me to suggest that surely it would be more appropriate for the Bishop to be the one to say Grace and that I would gladly defer to him. Bishop Thomas graciously explained to me that when it came to saying grace, that duty always fell to the least of the clergymen present rather than the greatest.
The greatest banquet I ever attended was in the historic Main Hall of Durham Castle when I was a teacher as a guest of the Salters’ Company. I can’t actually recall whether there were 11 courses or 13 courses. Only that every one of them was delicious and champagne sorbet featured between some of the courses to cleanse the palette. We started at 7 and were still eating and drinking at midnight. My memories of that banquet in Durham castle give me a tiny glimpse of the Messiah’s banquet, the feast which is a picture of salvation,
The feast in the Kingdom of God. Wonderful food, wonderful companionship, celebration. A picture of God’s amazing salvation which is not just pie in the sky when you die but cake on your plate while you wait! Life in all its fulness, eternal life which begins now and which even death cannot take away.
Jesus came to announce that salvation. Those who ate with him during his earthly ministry were enjoying a foretaste of God’s banquet which is the greatest joy anybody can experience. So when Jesus came and announced that God’s salvation had arrived, how crazy it was that some people were making excuses and rejecting that salvation!
The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
Some people put their possessions and their money before God. But Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 6 19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We must not allow money or possessions to come between us and God.
Then in Jesus’s story, 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
Lots of people say they haven’t time for God because they are too busy with work. But God is more important than fortune and success! Jesus told a parable about a rich fool who tore down his barns to build bigger barns to store all his crops in and then put his feet up and said to himself, “Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
Luke 12 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ (And Jesus said)
21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.”
Nobody should put work before God. Then the third excuse in Jesus’s parable of the Great Banquet is about relationships.
20 “Still another said, ‘I have just got married, so I can’t come.’
For lots of people, their relationships are more important to them than God is!
Luke 8 19 Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told him, ‘Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’
21 He replied, ‘My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.’
GOD is more important than anybody else. Knowing God is more important than any other relationship.
The salvation Jesus offers us is like a marvellous banquet. There are many people who think they would like to accept the invitation God gives, but then don’t turn up for the banquet! People who want God’s blessings but when the time comes can’t be bothered to turn up. People who like the idea of salvation but let other things get in the way. CRAZY!!
The parable tells us just how much God really wants everybody to enjoy the blessings of his salvation!
21 ‘The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.”
22 ‘ “Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.”
23 ‘Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” ’
God doesn’t want anybody to miss out on the blessings of his salvation.
One of the things people are missing most in these times of lockdown is getting together. We really missed our family Christmas dinner. Lots of delicious food and drink and spending time with family. We all love to receive invitations to those special occasions. I am very sure that when the time arrives, or somebody comes to collect us to go to a special meal, we don’t make silly excuses. We don’t say, “I can’t be bothered to come.” We would never be so rude!
The feast in the kingdom of God gives us a picture of salvation. Isaiah chapter 55 holds out this wonderful invitation to God’s banquet for EVERYBODY!
Isaiah 55 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. ….
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Your soul will delight in the richest of fare. What a wonderful invitation God gives to US ALL! You have been invited. God’s banquet is ready and being served. What is your answer? Will you come?

We all enjoy receiving invitations from our friends. Weddings, trips, special events, birthday parties, dinner parties, any parties really! There are some wonderful invitations in the Bible and Isaiah 55 is one of the best! I say ONE of the best. Here in this one chapter there are at least seven invitations.
A. An Invitation to Drink – v. 1
B. An Invitation to Hear and Listen – v. 2
C. An Invitation to Come To God – v. 3
D. An Invitation to Seek the Lord – v. 6
E. An Invitation to Call Upon Him – v. 6
F. An Invitation to Repent – v. 7
G. An Invitation to Return to the Lord – v. 8
And that’s just in the first eight verses! Perhaps we ought to entitle the chapter, “an offer you can’t refuse!”

GOD’S WONDERFUL INVITATION (vv 1-2)

Isaiah 55:1 ¶ “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

The world is full of so many people racing around, looking for something to give their lives meaning and purpose, looking for something that will satisfy, and failing to find it. People living on the junk food of entertainment and consumerism, and buying into the New Age in all its many deceptions.
“People today like to worship their work, work at their play and play at their worship.”

So many people are left dissatisfied, still hungry for the bread of life and thirsty for the living waters. In a world which is only looking for spiritual fast food, here is God’s gracious invitation:-

2 Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
GNB – Isa 55:2 Listen to me and do what I say, and you will enjoy the best food of all!

HERE IS THE BEST FOOD OF ALL! Come and be satisfied – satisfaction guaranteed!

And it’s all without money, without cost – Christ has already paid the bill! Its like one of those restaurants – fixed price, eat all you like – except the fixed price is free!

God’s wonderful invitation. And what is this “best food of all”? It has several parts and the first is

AN EVERLASTING COVENANT (v.3)

3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
All the blessings of covenant relationship with God. Your soul will live! I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly – life in all its fullness. Snatched from death to life, from darkness into light. And what God offers us is everlasting – eternal life. A life that death cannot take away! The happy certainty of heaven!

This earth makes many false promises about what will satisfy, through everything from success and popularity to sex, drugs and rock and roll. But God , and only God, offers the best food of all, which begins in this life but will continue into glory.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, All his boasted pomp and show,
Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion’s children know.

An everlasting covenant. Made possible by
MERCY AND PARDON (vv 6-7)

6 ¶ Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will
have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

Here is the message we so urgently need to hear. Those of us weighed down by sin. Trapped in selfishness and pride and greed. Cut off from God
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Here is the best food of all – God will freely pardon, God will abundantly pardon us all.

Are you feeling guilty about anything tonight? Is your sin separating you from God?

Mercy and pardon – and with it:-
GOD’S UNSEARCHABLE WISDOM (vv 8-9)

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

There are so many things in the world we cannot understand. Things our minds cannot grasp. And things which tear our hearts apart: the mysteries of sickness and bereavement, of accident and family crises, of the suffering of innocents. We do not understand these things – but God does. The immortal invisible God only wise who knows everything and has all things in the palm of His hand. WE won’t always understand what God is doing in our lives!! But we can trust Him that He DOES understand. We can trust that the plan of salvation is unfolding according to His perfect wisdom.

Romans 11:33 ¶ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” 35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be
the glory for ever! Amen.

1 Corinthians 2:6 ¶ We … speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not
the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”-

God’s unsearchable wisdom – and also

THE POWER OF THE WORD OF GOD

10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and
bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me
empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

So many of the blessings of the richest of fare God has for us come to us through His word, the Bible.
During World War II when the Nazis occupied a new territory, they immediately placed all Christians in concentration camps if they made public commitments to the Word of God. They had found that those who clung to the Bible would not compromise their faith or yield to the evil edicts of a godless dictator.
When a Soviet official was asked why a study of the Bible was frowned upon in his country, and why those who dared to print and distribute it were severely punished, he replied, “We find that the reading of the Book changes people in a way that is dangerous to our state!”

So we should take every opportunity to receive God’s word, to study it, to meditate on it, to believe and to obey God’s word. That will release the power of God’s word in our lives.

And through all of this God promises us
JOY AND PEACE

12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”

Here is God’s wonderful invitation to enjoy the best food of all, an everlasting covenant, mercy and pardon, God’s unsearchable wisdom, the power of God’s word, joy and peace.

So how can we enjoy these blessings? In one simple word, COME. “Come”. Somebody has counted 642 personal invitations in the Bible to “Come”. 642 occasions where God invites us to “come”! Three of these occasions in our first verse:-
Isaiah 55:1 ¶ “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

And again in verse 3
3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.

As the Americans would put it, “Ya’all come now!!”

But how should we come to God?

Simply respond to the simple invitation to everybody in any kind of need or distress.
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Whatever difficulties or problems you face tonight – God IS near – call on Him for help.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Seek the Lord! And if we want to receive God’s blessings, we must come in repentance.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.
We must call upon God acknowledging and bewailing our manifold sins and wickedness. And then we can claim this wonderful promise. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

As we turn to Him, God in his grace promises to give us the things we need more than anything else: mercy and forgiveness and pardon and a new relationship with God,

And we should do this while we have opportunity. This invitation is urgent.
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
If you knew for certain that Jesus Christ was going to return in glory tomorrow (as indeed He might!) what would you do tonight?

Remember the message of the risen Christ to the church in Laodicea, lukewarm, complacent and apathetic, spiritually poor and prayerless. Here is God’s gracious invitation:
Rev 3: 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

“Well I’m giving away gifts, you don’t need no money to pay.
Take what you want, if its no good then throw it away.
Don’t pass up the chance of something entirely free.
Open your door and come out and come over to me.”

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (The Message)

God has so many blessings for us as Christians

Forgiveness of sins

Life instead of death

Freedom instead of slavery to sin

Life in all its fullness here and now

The Happy Certainty of Heaven

The Holy Spirit living inside us

Being God’s children

Being part of God’s family

Access to God through prayer

And all of these blessings are God’s FREE GIFT to us as Christians.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Reasons we find it hard to accept God’s gift
We think that things that are free aren’t worth having

Debate “the best things in life are free”
We tend to think that things that are free are cheap and not worth having- the throwaway plastic gifts in the cornflakes packets of life.
But God’s gifts are always worth having!

Pretty amazing grace is what You showed me
pretty amazing grace is who You are
I was an empty vessel You filled me up inside
and with amazing grace restored my pride

Pretty amazing grace is how You saved me
and with amazing grace reclaimed my heart
love in the midst of chaos calm in the heat of war
showed with amazing grace what love was for

You forgave my insensitivity and my attempt to then mislead You
You stood beside a wretch like me
Your pretty amazing grace was all I needed.

Came to You with empty pockets first
when I returned I was rich man
didn’t believe love could quench my thirst
but with amazing grace You showed me that it can

You overcame my loss of hope and faith
gave me a truth I could believe in
You led me to a higher place
showed Your amazing grace when grace was what I needed

Reasons we find it hard to accept God’s gift
We know we don’t deserve it!

Eph 2:1 ¶ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

The Bible tells us what we know in our hearts to be true. Without God we are all dead in our sins, running away from God, led astray by the ways of the world and by the Evil One, the Tempter, the devil. This is true of ALL of us, living to satisfy our sinful nature and following its desires instead of pursuing God. Because of our sins we all face God’s judgement – we are all objects of (God’s) wrath. We are rightly judged to be guilty and deserving to pay the penalties for our sins.

Without God we are lost. Not just lost like you’ve missed your turning and you have to turn round and go back and take the right road. Not even lost like you’re up a mountain and you can’t find the way down, because usually when you are up a mountain most ways down will get you to the bottom. Lost like you’ve crash landed in the middle of the jungle and you don’t need to decide which path you want to take because there aren’t any paths – and those lions over there are looking rather hungry. That kind of lost.

Without God we are lost and we are doomed. Doomed! Up the creek without a paddle. Drifting in your canoe where there’s no point in trying to swim for the shore because if the crocodiles don’t get you the hippo’s will. And you are drifting faster and faster towards the edge of the waterfall crashing down over the cliff. That kind of doomed. Only much much worse.

But here’s the GOOD news!!!
Eph 2:4. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We were dead because of sin. But Jesus has died for our sins on the cross. As we share in His death our sins are forgiven. But even more than that! We were dead– but God has brought us to life with Christ! We are raised up with Him and seated in heavenly places! We share Christ’s resurrection life, eternal life, life in all its fullness! That’s grace. Getting the punishment we deserve for our sins would be justice! Being spared that punishment which we deserve would be mercy. But sharing the benefits of Christ’s glorious resurrection, receiving blessing upon blessing, that’s grace!

We know we don’t deserve any of those blessings. In our hearts we confess that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – there is none who is righteous, no not one!”
Reasons we find it hard to accept God’s gift
We like to think we can earn anything we need

I read about an instant cake mix that was a big flop. The instructions said all you had to do was add water and bake. The company couldn’t understand why it didn’t sell—until their research discovered that the buying public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. Apparently people thought it was too easy. So the company altered the formula and changed the directions to call for adding an egg to the mix in addition to the water. The idea worked and sales jumped dramatically.
That story reminds me of how some people react to the plan of salvation. To them it sounds too easy and simple to be true, even though the Bible says, “By grace you have been saved through faith.; it is the gift of God, not of works” (Eph. 2:8-9). They feel that there is something more they must do, something they must add to God’s “recipe” for salvation. They think they must perform good works to gain God’s favor and earn eternal life. But the Bible is clear—we are saved, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy” (Titus 3:5).

In most religions there is a cost – so sometimes people think there should be a cost in Christianity too.
The article stated, “A West German businessman has completed his conversion to the Hindu faith by piercing himself through the cheeks with a 1/4-inch thick, 4- foot-long steel rod, and pulling a chariot for 2 miles by ropes attached to his back and chest by steel hooks. Others walk through 20- foot-long pits of fire, don shoes with soles made of nails, or hang in the air spread-eagle from hooks embedded in their backs.”

The truth is we can never earn or deserve the blessing God gives us! Never ever!
“Grace is everything, for nothing, for those who don’t deserve anything.”!
Like for the thief who died on the cross next to Jesus.

LUKE 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
Reasons we find it hard to accept God’s gift
We don’t like to be in anybody’s debt

The story has been told of a wealthy man who became a Christian. He tried to reach his friends for Christ and told them, with tremendous enthusiasm, what had happened to him, how the Lord had changed his whole life and even saved his marriage. But he found that his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. His friends were not interested.
Since this man had great wealth, he developed a plan that would use this wealth to reach his friends. First he wrote out a check for a million dollars, which everyone knew he would easily be good for. He then visited his friends in turn and said, “I have always highly regarded you as a friend and have wanted to do something for you. Would you receive this check as a gift from me?”
People would look at the check and, when they saw the amount of it, they would hand it back and say, “I can’t take that from you.” He tried to give the check to many of his friends, but no one would take it, although it was a valid and sincere offer. Finally the man realized that people are not willing to receive great gifts without having some part in it.

John 8:7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?”
11 “No-one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve God’s wonderful salvation! All we have to do is accept it!

Reasons we find it hard to accept God’s gift
It seems too good to be true – where’s the catch???

There is no catch. Only grace. The Free gift of God! Grace that welcomes back that wasteful prodigal son. Grace that welcomes a slave trader like John Newton, and tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus, and thieves like the man who hung on his own cross alongside Jesus. Grace that welcomes sinners of all kinds, prostitutes and murderers and drunks, “scumbags, every one”. Even miserable sinners like you and me!

A young man came forward in a Gospel meeting, earnestly asking, “What can I do to be saved?” The Counsellor replied to the anxious inquirer, “You’re too late!” “Oh, don’t say that,” the distressed seeker cried, “I really want salvation; I’d do anything or go anywhere to obtain it.” “I’m sorry,” replied the other, “you’re too late for that. Your salvation was completed many hundreds of years ago at Calvary. It’s finished work! All you have to do is simply receive Christ. Then the blessed gifts He offers will become yours. At last the young man found peace by realizing that his great debt was paid by Christ.

A young boy had just given his life to Jesus and sat on a bench next to old man who looked upset. The little boy said to the man, “Sir, do you need to get saved?”
The man replied, “I’ll tell you I’ve been a Sunday School teacher and a youth leader and Deacon in this church for over 30 years!”
The little boy responded, “Sir, it doesn’t matter what you done, Jesus still loves you and He’ll still save you!”

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Acts 8:26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

Here was an important man, the Ethiopian chancellor of the Exchequer. This man was not a Christian. Nor was he a Jew – because Jewish Law said that a eunuch was not allowed to become a Jew. But this Ethiopian was a God-fearing man. He had been to Jerusalem to worship. He was searching for God. And he may well have heard stories about Jesus. He may have heard about Jesus’s teaching and His miracles. He may have heard about Jesus’s crucifixion, and maybe even about Jesus’s resurrection. The Ethiopian was serious enough in his search for God to be reading his Bible, what we know as the Old Testament, in the chariot on the way home. And he was asking questions. He wanted answers.

30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This Ethiopian Official was desperate to get to know God. He was so keen to understand what the Bible meant that he invited a complete stranger Philip to join him in his chariot and explain the Bible to him!

CAN YOU UNDERSTAND? Philip asked. HOW CAN I UNDERSTAND unless somebody guides me?

32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

The good news about Jesus. The Ethiopian was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah 53 verse 7 which says this.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Philip will have explained that Isaiah was not talking about himself, but was looking forward to what would happen to the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ. It was Jesus who had been oppressed and afflicted, Jesus who had been arrested and falsely convicted in a travesty of a trial. Jesus who had been mocked with a crown of thorns on his head and flogged to within an inch of His life. Jesus who had been nailed to a cross like a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter, Jesus who had been called the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Philip will then have pointed the Ethiopian to the preceding verses in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:5-6
5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Philip will have explained to the Ethiopian how when God made the world, it was perfect. But then human beings rebelled against their Creator and disobeyed His laws so now we all face judgement of the holy and Righteous God.
But then Philip will have explained from Isaiah 53 how Jesus the Son of God came and took the place of sinful human beings. How Jesus on the cross took upon himself the punishment for sin we all should pay. How Jesus dying for us offers us forgiveness and gives us new life.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

So knowing Jesus changes us from God’s enemies into God’s friends, and even more than that, into God’s beloved children. So we can come back to God again.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood—
Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah, what a Savior!
MY LORD, WHAT LOVE IS THIS That pays so dearly?
That I, the guilty one, May go free!
Amazing love, O what sacrifice, The Son of God given for me.
My debt He pays, and my death He dies, That I might live, that I might live.

That is the good news about Jesus which Philip explained to the Ethiopian Official from the Book of Isaiah. The good news of forgiveness and eternal life which God offers to everybody who puts their trust in Jesus Christ. And Philip must have said much more because next we read this.

36 As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptised?”

Then the verse that comes next in the story doesn’t appear in our translation of the Bible. That is because it isn’t found in the earliest versions of the manuscripts. But very early on the Early Church added two more sentences to the Book of Acts. The Ethiopian asked, “Why shouldn’t I be baptised,” and Acts 8:37 tells us, “Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Luke only records the decision to be baptized. Baptism implied a number of other things. But saying `baptism’ was enough. Philip had obviously explained what we have to do to receive God’s wonderful free gift of forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve God’s love. All we can do is simply to put our trust in Jesus and accept what God offers us. And then the way that all those first Christians showed that they did believe in Jesus was to be baptised. Which is why the Ethiopian had asked, “Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” He did believe in Jesus. He declared his faith. “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And the New Testament way of demonstrating that faith was in the act of believer’s baptism. That is the pattern throughout the Book of Acts.

We saw it before the summer when we looked earlier in Acts chapter 8 at the story of how Philip had preached the gospel in Samaria. Acts 8:12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women

Whenever people were saved in Acts, whenever people believed the good news about Jesus, they showed their faith by being baptised. This happened after the very first sermon Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. He preached the gospel and then made this appeal.

In Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

When a person is saved, when a person becomes a Christian we can see that event from the human point of view. The person repents and believes the good news. At the same time we can see what happens from God’s side. God forgives our sins and gives the gift of eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit. And always the outward sign of these inward realities will be baptism.

So it was on the day of Pentecost thousands of people responded to Peter’s preaching.
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
This is the pattern everywhere in the New Testament. Baptism was not an optional extra for Christians in the Early Church. Baptism was an essential expression of faith at the start of the Christian life for every Christian.

38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

In the Bible and the Early Church baptism marks the beginning of discipleship. In Acts 8 the baptism of the Ethiopian was relatively private action. Just Philip, the Ethiopian Official and his entourage, because a person as important as that would not have been travelling alone. Baptism is a sign between each individual believer and God. Even though God who searches all our hearts knew that man’s faith and repentance were genuine, the outward sign of baptism was still required. And on both occasions when Jesus commanded his disciples to go and preach the gospel He also commanded believer’s baptism.

Matthew 28:19 … go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Mark 16:16 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.

We read in Act 8, They went down into the water . . . they came up out of the water:
Clearly, Philip immersed the Ethiopian in water. This was not sprinkling, but immersion. And in just the same way Shilpi will be baptized today. .

And also the Ethiopian’s baptism was baptism as a believer. The Ethiopian believed the good news about Jesus as Philip had explained it to him. He believed that Jesus really was the Son of God, God born as a human being. He believed that Jesus had died on the cross in his place so that he could be forgiven, as Isaiah 53 explains. He believed that Jesus has risen from the dead – that Jesus was alive again! He believed, so he wanted to be baptized to make his faith in Jesus public.

Baptism usually comes near the beginning of the Christian life. It marks a new birth, not just turning over a new leaf but starting a new life. Sometimes people get baptized immediately when they become a Christian. For a variety of reasons, other people wait a while before they are baptized. I had been a Christian for almost ten years before I was baptized as a believer. Shilpi has been a Christian for many years, but she is getting baptized today to demonstrate to everybody that she loves Jesus and she is going to follow him.

“Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality” Baptism is like a wedding ring; they both symbolize things that have happened. A wedding ring symbolizes a marriage which has taken place. Baptism symbolizes salvation which has been received. Wearing a wedding ring does not make a person married any more than being baptized makes anybody saved. But still today most women and many men choose to wear a wedding ring to show to the world that they are married. And Christians show they want to follow Jesus by doing what He said and being baptised as believers.

“Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptised?”

I am sure there are some people here today who are at the place the Ethiopian Official was at the beginning of the story. He was looking for God but he needed somebody to explain the good news about Jesus to him. If anybody wants to know more about what it means to follow Jesus and become a Christian, please do just ask.

Other people may believe in Jesus but have never got round to telling anybody that they are His followers. They like to keep their discipleship a secret. The reality is that you can’t be a secret disciple of Jesus. Either the secret will kill the discipleship or the discipleship will kill the secret. The Ethiopian Official had believed the good news about Jesus. He had accepted God’s free gift of eternal life and he wanted everybody to know that he was a Christian. So he asked, “Why shouldn’t I be baptised?” There may be some Christians here who have not made their faith public. They may not have been baptised as believers. If that is you, again, please just ask.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This is the Good News about Jesus!

Do you remember that hilarious sketch on Comic Relief from a few years ago where comedian James Corden was telling the England football team where they were going wrong and how they should play the game. Players like David Beckham, Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch were being lectured by somebody who clearly had never kicked a football in his life. But the world is full of armchair footballers or cricketers or athletes who can talk about the sports even though they have never played them. There are music fans who rave about their favourite artists or bands or orchestras even though they the fans couldn’t play an instrument or even sing a note. Never mind the world of critics in art or literature who can wax lyrical about paintings or sculptures or books or poems but have never produced anything creative themselves. There are so many things in life which it is very easy to talk about but very hard to do.

You can talk the talk. But do you walk the walk?

Which of the two sons did what their Father wanted? Not the one who said he would go and work in the vineyard but changed his mind and did not go. It was the son who at first refused to work, but then changed his mind and actually went, who did what their father wanted.

This simple parable makes a clear point. What we say about things matters less than what we do about them. Many churches rightly put a great emphasis on what we BELIEVE. To use long words, we care a lot about ORTHODOXY – saying the right things and believing the right things. God cares a lot about what we say and what we believe. But the parable of the two sons reminds us that God cares even more about what we actually DO. God cares more about ORTHOPRAXIS – doing the right things.

You can talk the talk. But do you walk the walk?

We talk a lot about love. We know that God commands us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Jesus commands us to love each other as He has loved us – by this will all men know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. We may believe the right things and we say the right things about loving other people. But what God cares about even more is that we DO the right things and actually get out there showing his kind of love to the world.

We talk a lot about prayer. We know the privilege of prayer – that we have access to the throne of Almighty God, that we have a heavenly Father who listens to us. We know the power of prayer. That God moves mountains in response to faithful prayers. We may believe the right things and we say the right things about prayer. But what God cares even more about is that we DO the right things and actually spends time praying!

We talk a lot about Christian living. Honesty and integrity. Storing up treasures in heaven and not treasures on earth. We believe the right things and we say the right things about Christian living. But what God cares about more is that we DO the right things in all the complicated issues of living as a Christian in today’s world.

We talk a lot about sharing our faith. We know how much God loves us and we know we should share that wonderful message with the whole world. We know that our friends and neighbours are going to a lost eternity without Christ. We believe the right things and we say the right things about sharing our faith. But what God cares about even more is that we DO the right things and actually get out there showing his kind of love to the world and telling people that Jesus loves them.

In so many areas of life – You can talk the talk. But do you walk the walk? What we believe is important. What we say is important. But what we do is more important!

When Jesus told this parable of the two sons, who was he talking to? Was Jesus thinking about something specific when he was criticising people for saying something and not doing it? Indeed he was.

The parable is about “changing your mind”. Both sons changed their mind. One said yes and then changed his mind and didn’t do what he had said he would do. The other said no and then changed his mind and went. So the parable is about changing your mind. And Jesus isn’t saying that changing your mind is a bad thing. For the second son, it was a bad thing. For the first son, changing his mind was a good thing. So when is changing your mind a good thing?

Jesus followed this parable with a brief commentary which explains what he was talking about.

Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

So here Jesus is making clear who the parable of the two sons is all about. The second son represents the Pharisees, the most respectable hard-working hard-praying Jews in Jesus’s time. They talked the talk. But they didn’t walk the walk. Because they rejected John the Baptist’s message. The first son represents the tax collectors and the prostitutes, the lowest of the low in Jewish society. Time and again in their lives they had rejected God. But when John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, it was the tax collectors and prostitutes and all the “sinners” who accepted John’s message. They repented – they changed their minds and they changed their lives. The Pharisees were the opposite. They did not repent. The Pharisees would not change their ways.

MATTHEW 3 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”
4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt round his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptised by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptising, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.11 “I baptise you with water for repentance.
That was John the Baptist’s message. Repent. Change your mind. And prove you have changed your mind by changing your life! And the tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners wend out and confessed their sins and were baptized. But when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to John although they said all the right things, they weren’t ready to change their lives and truly repent. Which is why John says to them, “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” It’s not enough just to talk the talk. You have to walk the walk!

The parable of the two sons was a rebuke to the Pharisees who said all the right things, but in their hearts did not truly repent of their sins. So what was God looking for from the Pharisees which they were not doing? What kind of repentance does God look for from all of us? Jesus told another parable which helps us to understand.

Luke 18:9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
It was a parable with a very obvious “goody” and a very obvious “baddy”
10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
Goody = Pharisee….. most religious guys around \THUMBS UP
Baddy = tax collector … collaborator, professional thief \ THUMBS DOWN
11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
All this is true!!
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Jewish men do not beat their breast as a sign of grief – only women do that!
Now every Jew thinks they know what the ending of this story will be. God will bless the goody, the Pharisee, and God will bring judgment on the baddy the Tax Collector. But Jesus has a surprise for His listeners.
14 “I tell you that this man, (the Tax Collector) rather than the other (the Pharisee), went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
What a punchline! The Pharisees thought they would be saved because they did and said all the right religious things. But Jesus told them they would not. They would never be saved by the good things they did. On the other hand, the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners were being saved – because they were the ones who recognized they had sinned and that they could do nothing to save themselves. They were the ones who threw themselves on God’s mercy! They knew they couldn’t talk the talk – but they knew what God required and they walked the walk.

Remember the parable of the Shepherd who went out to find his lost sheep.Luke 15:5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Of course the 99 righteous people DO need to repent. The problem is they think they are OK so they never do repent.

You may remember me telling you before the story about Frederick II who was King of Prussia back in the eighteenth-century. One day the King went to inspect the prison in Berlin. The prisoners all fell on their knees protesting their unjust imprisonment. There were endless tales of innocence, of misunderstood motives, and of exploitation. While listening to these pleas of innocence, Frederick’s eye was caught by a solitary figure in the corner, a prisoner who seemed unconcerned with all the commotion.
“Why are you here?” Frederick asked him. “Armed robbery, Your Majesty.”
“Well,” remarked the King, “I suppose you are an innocent victim too? Were you guilty?”
“Oh yes, indeed, Your Majesty. I entirely deserve my punishment.” At that Frederick summoned the jailer. “Release this guilty man at once,” he said. “Before he corrupts all these fine innocent people in here!”
Repentance means admitting our sins. To use the words of the old Anglican Prayer Book, to acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness. What about us? Are we truly repenting of our sins? Or are we ever like the Pharisee who thought he was alright because of the good things he did? Where does our hope of salvation lie? When it comes to true repentance we may talk the talk, but do we actually walk the walk?
A young boy had just given his life to Jesus and sat on a bench next to old man who looked upset. The little boy said to the man, “Sir, do you need to get saved?”
The man replied, “I’ll tell you I’ve been a Sunday School teacher and a youth leader and Deacon in this church for over 30 years!”
The little boy responded, “Sir, it doesn’t matter what you done, Jesus still loves you and He’ll still save you!”
We go to church every week. That won’t save us. We read our Bibles every day. That won’t save us. We pray every day. That won’t save us. We try to obey the ten commandments. That won’t save us. We try to love our neighbours. That won’t save us. We give generously to the church. That won’t save us. We share our faith with everybody we meet. That won’t save us. I’m a minister – a deacon – a Home Group Leader – a missionary. That won’t save us. Only one thing will save us.
“God have mercy on me, a sinner.”
The parable of the two sons. Which son are you like?
You can talk the talk. But do you walk the walk?

This morning I want to answer a very important question. “What exactly is a Christian?” Many people think they know the answer – but the answers many people give are wrong. What exactly is a Christian?

Let’s begin like this: Complete the well known phrase or saying …..

Christian ______ ?????

If you ask most people who are not committed to a church to complete that phrase they will not say “Christian Bible” or “Christian church” or “Christian life” or “Christian God” or “Christian faith”. They will say “Christian AID”.

Christian Aid is such a popular charity that the very phrase “Christian Aid” has become part of the English language.

Of the all the things that Jesus Christ taught, perhaps the most well known is the parable of the Good Samaritan. The call to love your neighbour as you love yourself! Jesus calls us to show compassion on all who are in need, all who are suffering or deprived, even enemies. And whether they are Christians or not, very many people do just that by giving to Christian Aid.

In one way, it is good that people associate the word AID with the word CHRISTIAN. Giving aid, helping the poor and needy IS a Christian thing to do. But there is also a problem with the way the words “Christian Aid” have become so closely linked in so many people’s minds. The problem lies in the mistake which some people can so easily make.

Christians give AID, help people, give to charity, love their neighbour. RIGHT
Therefore, some people say, what makes a person a Christian is giving aid, helping people, giving to charity, loving our neighbour. WRONG CONCLUSION!!!
YES – giving aid is something Christians do but NO – that doesn’t make a person a Christian!!

There are so many people who make this mistake. If you ask very many people, “are you a Christian?” they will answer something like this.
I always try to do good to others. I always do my best to “love my neighbour.” Of course I am a Christian!!
Those are good things to do. But being a Christian doesn’t mean the same as somebody who does good things. Being a Christian does not mean the same as “being a good person.” Some people can get quite offended if you gently try to explain to them that the words “Christian” and “good person” are not interchangeable!! A Christian SHOULD give aid, help people, give to charity, love our neighbour.

But to equate being a Christian with giving aid or loving your neighbour is a mistake– it’s a logical fallacy. It’s the same mistake as saying
Women give aid.
Therefore every person who gives aid is a woman.
Therefore what makes a person a woman is giving aid.
That is an invalid conclusion.
Similarly, “giving aid” or “loving your neighbour” are not what “being a Christian” means! So what DOES it mean to be a Christian?

When you ask people, “Are you a Christian?”, there are others who will reply This is a Christian country. We’re all Christians aren’t we?
No. Being a Christian is nothing to do with where we live or how we were brought up. Britain may have a heritage of Christianity, but that certainly doesn’t mean that all British people are Christians!

Other people will say I believe in God.
Many religions believe in a god or gods. Many people know about God but that doesn’t make you a Christian.

Other people will tell you Of course I am a Christian – I go to church. Here I am this morning!!! That’s great and it’s lovely to welcome so many guests and visitors here today. But going to church doesn’t make a person a Christian. After all, as Billy Graham once said, sitting in your garage doesn’t make you into a motor car! Going to Starbucks every day doesn’t turn you into a Cappucino!

Others will say I read my Bible. I say my prayers every day.
These are good things to do!! But they don’t make a person a Christian, any more than loving your neighbour and being a Good Samaritan make a person a Christian. Being a Christian isn’t to do with ANYTHING that WE can do at all! It’s all to do with WHAT GOD HAS DONE!

So what is a Christian?
Well it’s all tied up in these words of Jesus Christ: 3 Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Born again! A Christian is a person who has been BORN AGAIN.

That phrase “born again” is used in all sorts of contexts nowadays. Do a quick internet search and you’ll find that “Born again” is the name of all kinds of shops, from Born Again Second Hand Book Shop to Born Again Motocycles to “Born Again Bear”, which recycles old fur coats into teddy bears! And the phrase “born again” is also given meanings way beyond that religious sense in which Jesus used it. A man changes jobs, and his career is “born again.” A restaurant changes its menu, and its labeled “born again.” A man in later years buys himself a motor cycle and becomes a “born again biker”. A rugby team gets some new players and starts to win and they become the Born Again Springboks! Politicians changes their allegiance, and especially if they become passionate and crusading for their new cause they become a born again Conservative or a Born Again Euro-sceptic or a Born Again Environmentalist.

So the phrase “born again” refers to anybody who has had almost any kind of a life-changing experience, – a dramatic change of direction, a U-turn.

I did find one news story which tells us a little bit better what being born again is all about.
A born-again Christian who moved to New Zealand has paid out £400 for hundreds of unpaid Tube fares. May 2005
Transport for London (TfL) said the man anonymously posted them eight £50 notes apologising for years of fare dodging. In the letter, signed A Christian, he said that since becoming a born-again Christian he realised his years of persistent fare dodging were wrong and that he had deprived London Underground of much-needed income. He wrote: “My life is radically different to what it was then. I can’t stand the thought of stealing and therefore I enclose £400 to cover my fares.”

Born again: “My life is radically different from what it was then!”

John 3:3 Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” 4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
The root of the idea of being born again is this RELIGIOUS idea of a dramatic personal experience of God which turns your life around – a spiritual rebirth.
In many people’s minds, being “born again” is linked to former American President Jimmy Carter, who was the first world politician who publically identified himself as a “born-again Christian” Jimmy Carter explained it like this.
“The first time we’re born, as children, human life is given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it’s a new life. That’s what “born again” means.”

“You must be born again.” It’s one of Billy Graham’s favourite phrases. Back in the 18th century there was an English evangelist who was the Billy Graham of his day, a man called George Whitefield. At 16 he became deeply convinced of his need of God. He tried everything to become acceptable to God. He wrote, “I fasted for 36 hours twice a week. I prayed formal prayers several time a day and almost starved myself to death during Lent, but only felt more miserable. Then by God’s grace I met Charles Wesley, who put a book in my hand that showed me from the Scriptures that I must be ‘born again’ or be eternally lost.” So Whitefield understood that he had to put his trust in Jesus Christ. He believed and his life was transformed. The transforming power of Christ – power to save from the guttermost to the uttermost. After he became a preacher, Whitefield preached at least a thousand times on that subject, “You must be born again”!

A century before Whitefield, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, put it this way:
The egg’s no chick by falling from the hen, Nor man a Christian till he’s born again.

But, you may ask, why do we NEED to be born again?
John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

We are born physically into this world – but we are spiritually dead. If we want to be alive spiritually, we need to be born spiritually too. We can’t enter the kingdom of God, we can’t even SEE the Kingdom of God, unless we are born again. Jesus Christ the Son of God said so! And we know Jesus is right. Nobody needs me to convince them of the truth that we are spiritually dead. God seems far away. Heaven is an impossible dream. The reason why most people can’t find God is the same reason that the burglar couldn’t find the policeman – he was too busy running away from him. God seems impossible to find because most people are living life the Frank Sinatra way – My Way

One of most popular karaoke songs and a song recorded by more people than almost any other:-

And now, the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain. (don’t worry, Im not going to sing!)
My friend, I’ll say it clear, I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain.
I’ve lived, a life that’s full, I’ve traveled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.
I did, what I had to do, and saw it through, without exemption.
I planned, each charted course, each careful step, along the byway,
and more, much more than this, I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew, When I bit off, more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up, and spit it out.
I faced it all, and I stood tall, and did it my way.

For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things, he truly feels, And not the words, of one who kneels.
The record shows, I took the blows — And did it my way!
I did it my way.

Human beings are spiritually dead because they want to live their lives “my way” instead of “God’s way”. They can’t see God’s light because they have turned their backs on Him and all they can see is the darkness and their own shadows. And we can’t find our own way back to God. We can’t change ourselves! Only God can change us. Only God can give us new life!

Can a man change? Gordon Bailey

Can a tadpole turn into a dog? Can a tiger change into a frog?
Can a hippo turn into a flower? By exercising willpower?

Can man, by super self-restraint Change himself into a saint?
Can he cease being decadent By making a God of good intent?

Can a man change, as he intends? Well, not until he yields, he bends.
If he won’t bend, the stubborn ox He’ll never even change his socks!

We can’t change ourselves!! We can’t find our own way back to God. The only way we can see God and see heaven is to be born again, to be born spiritually!

So, you may be asking, just HOW can a person be born again??

John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that whoever BELIEVES in Him should have eternal life.

We are born again when we believe is Jesus – when stop living our lives “my way” and we put our trust in Jesus and ask Him to help us to live life God’s way.

Ro 10:9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

When a person believes deep down in their heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead. That Jesus Christ is alive today and that Jesus Christ is Lord! At that point, the Bible says, we are saved – we begin a new life!

The apostle Paul puts it this way: When a person becomes a Christian they become a brand new person inside. Nothing is the same any more – a new life has begun. 2 Cor 5:17

So when a true believer claims, “I am a Christian”, they aren’t in any way boasting about who THEY are or what THEY have done. They are actually talking about what GOD has done, the difference Jesus makes in their lives. “I was dead, now I am alive. I was lost, now I have been found. God has given me new life – I’ve been born again!

We are NOT born again by being baptised – but baptism in Bible is God’s appointed way of showing that a person has been born again – an outward sign of an inward change – telling the world, Jesus has washed away my sin, because Jesus died on the cross God has forgiven me and because Jesus is alive again, risen from the dead, He has given me a new life to live.

So to recap, what exactly is a Christian? A Christian is somebody who is living a brand new life because he or she has been born again.
A Christian is somebody who has recognised that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God, God born as a man to be our Saviour.
A Christian is somebody who believes that Jesus died on the cross to bring us back to God, so that we could be changed from God’s enemies into God’s friends.
A Christian is somebody who knows that Jesus Christ is alive today.
A Christian is somebody who has accepted God’s free gift of eternal life.
A Christian is somebody who knows God personally as Father.

So whether a person is a Christian or not is not to do with them loving their neighbour, or believing in God, or going to church or reading their Bible or saying their prayers. Being a Christian isn’t really about what WE do at all – it’s about what GOD has done in our lives – in giving us NEW LIFE in Christ. You must be born again!

Have you ever thought what you would do differently if you could live you life all over again? Have you ever wanted to know God personally? Have you ever wondered how we can get to go to heaven? Have you ever wished you could have a fresh start in life? Listen again to these words of Jesus!

John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.’

This morning I want to talk about one word. One of the most exciting words which we find in the Bible more than a hundred times. That word is grace.

A few years ago we marked 200 years from the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies. And one Sunday was designated “Amazing Grace Sunday” – a day for very many churches to sing that marvellous hymn by the converted slave trader, John Newton.

AMAZING GRACE! how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me;
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
’Tis grace that brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

Amazing grace! The word grace is at the heart of the gospel message. It occurs 124 times in the Bible. But what is grace?

Grace is the mercy and active love of God, God’s undeserved favour;

Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues. John R. W. Stott (1921– )

Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused inclination to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just condemnation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus. A. W. Tozer

Eph 2:1 ¶ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

The Bible tells us what we know in our hearts to be true. Without God we are all dead in our sins, running away from God, led astray by the ways of the world and by the Evil One, the Tempter, the devil. This is true of ALL of us, living to satisfy our sinful nature and following its desires instead of pursuing God. Because of our sins we all face God’s judgement – we are all objects of (God’s) wrath. We are rightly judged to be guilty and deserving to pay the penalties for our sins.

Without God we are lost. Not just lost like you’ve missed your turning and you have to turn round and go back and take the right road. Not even lost like you’re up a mountain and you can’t find the way down, because usually when you are up a mountain most ways down will get you to the bottom. Lost like you’ve crash landed in the middle of the jungle and you don’t need to decide which path you want to take because there aren’t any paths – and those lions over there are looking rather hungry. That kind of lost.

Without God we are lost and we are doomed. Doomed! Up the creek without a paddle. Drifting in your canoe where there’s no point in trying to swim for the shore because if the crocodiles don’t get you the hippo’s will. And you are drifting faster and faster towards the edge of the waterfall crashing down over the cliff. That kind of doomed. Only much much worse.

But here’s the GOOD news!!!

Eph 2:4. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We were dead because of sin. But Jesus has died for our sins on the cross. As we share in His death our sins are forgiven. But even more than that! We were dead– but God has brought us to life with Christ! We are raised up with Him and seated in heavenly places! We share Christ’s resurrection life, eternal life, life in all its fullness! That’s grace. Getting the punishment we deserve for our sins would be justice! Being spared that punishment which we deserve would be mercy. But sharing the benefits of Christ’s glorious resurrection, receiving blessing upon blessing, that’s grace!

If someone brutally murders your son and you take things into your own hands, that’s revenge. If you’re content to allow the law and the courts to arrest and punish the offender, that’s justice. But if you pardon the murderer, adopt him, and take him home to live with you as your son, that’s grace! And that’s what God has done for us!! All we deserve from God is punishment for rejecting Him and running away from Him. But instead we are alive with Christ, raised up with him, seated in the heavenly realms with Him – THAT’s grace!!

It’s the kind of love shown by the father in Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son. The father who doesn’t treat this wasteful son as he deserves for squandering the family estate, but instead welcomes him home. The Father who is always on the lookout ready to welcome the wanderer home.
20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21 “The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, `Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate.
24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Grace that welcomes back that wasteful prodigal son. Grace that welcomes a slave trader like John Newton, and tax collectors like Matthew and Zacchaeus, and thieves like the man who hung on his own cross alongside Jesus. Grace that welcomes sinners of all kinds, prostitutes and murderers and drunks, “scumbags, every one”. Even miserable sinners like you and me!

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.

That’s how much God loves us! THAT is grace – God’s undeserved favour!
“If in my foolishness I stray, returning empty and ashamed, I love the way you father me.
Exchanging for my wretchedness your radiant robes of righteousness, I love the way you Father me.”

When a person becomes a Christian God pours down so many blessings on them!
Forgiveness of sins
Life instead of death
Freedom instead of slavery to sin
Life in all its fullness here and now
The Happy Certainty of Heaven
The Holy Spirit living inside us
Being God’s children
Being part of God’s family
Access to God through prayer

And all of these blessings are God’s FREE GIFT to us as Christians. We know we don’t deserve any of those blessings. In our hearts we confess that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – there is none who is righteous, no not one!”

Pretty amazing grace is what You showed me
pretty amazing grace is who You are
I was an empty vessel You filled me up inside
and with amazing grace restored my pride

Pretty amazing grace is how You saved me
and with amazing grace reclaimed my heart
love in the midst of chaos calm in the heat of war
showed with amazing grace what love was for

You forgave my insensitivity and my attempt to then mislead You
You stood beside a wretch like me
Your pretty amazing grace was all I needed.

Came to You with empty pockets first
when I returned I was rich man
didn’t believe love could quench my thirst
but with amazing grace You showed me that it can

You overcame my loss of hope and faith
gave me a truth I could believe in
You led me to a higher place
showed Your amazing grace when grace was what I needed

Pretty amazing grace!

Grace is all those blessings we could NEVER earn or deserve, lavished upon us by our loving heavenly Father!

Eph 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.

When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award–yet despite that he receives all these and much much more – that is God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God. We could never be good enough for God. We could never earn or deserve our salvation – it’s all of grace! Praise God!

John Newton said that when we get to heaven, there will be three amazing things:

(1) who is there
(2) who is not there, and
(3) the fact that I am there!

So many blessings! “Grace is everything for nothing for those who don’t deserve anything.”!
Grace – God;s undeserved favour. And that grace carries on throughout our lives.

Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Good works prepared in advance for us to do! Reminds me of Blue Peter – “Here’s one I prepared earlier!!”
Or of ten-pin bowling – the skittles set up ready to be knocked down.
God’s grace not only saves us! Grace also leads us on and equips us to serve God for the rest of our lives, doing those good works God has planned for us to do!

When we think we haven’t the strength to continue, God’s grace is there for us! Whether it’s in our church life together or in any part of our lives, home, work, family, if ever we are weary and discouraged and want to give up, God’s grace is there for us! When we are dragged down by illness or discouragement or grief, God’s grace is sufficient for us!

A Minister (and this isn’t a personal story) once had to make a very long and urgent journey, but wasn’t sure he would have the money for the whole trip. One of the elders of his church who was very wealthy came to his home to offer a word of comfort and encouragement. As he left, the elder slipped a piece of paper into the minster’s hand. He looked at it and was surprised to find that it was a check made out to him and signed by this rich friend. But the figures to indicate the amount of the gift were missing. “Did you really mean to give me a signed blank cheque?” he asked. “Yes,” the elder replied. “I didn’t know how much you’d need, and I wanted to be sure you would have enough.”

Grace means that God has given us a signed spiritual blank cheque to provide for every genuine need that arises in our lives. With God there is always ENOUGH when we need it – “my grace is sufficient for you!”

And none of it earned, or deserved. God’s undeserved favour. God’s love that cares and stoops and rescues!

Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.

THROUGH MANY DANGERS TOILS AND SNARES WE HAVE ALREADY COME
TIS GRACE HAS BROUGHT US SAFE THUS FAR AND GRACE WILL LEAD US HOME

What is faith? Some words can appear to be “religious” – distanced from every day life in the “real world” One such word is FAITH. People talk about a “leap of faith”, and living “by faith not by sight”. It is so easy to be misunderstood. Some people even think that “faith is believing things you know aren’t true”

I want to answer a simple question this morning. What is faith? What does it mean to have Christian faith? What does faith really mean?

Some people think that faith is a “religious” word – that only religious people have “faith”. But faith isn’t a religious word. Faith is an EVERYDAY word. In everyday life we believe things, believe people, trust people. Faith simply means trusting! Trusting somebody. Putting our trust in something or somebody.

Faith is central to the whole of ordinary life. You are feeling poorly so you go to your doctor. He gives you a prescription in handwriting you cannot read. You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before. He gives you a chemical compound you do not understand. Then you go home and take the pill according to the instructions on the bottle. All of that is trust, it’s faith!

We press the light switch without checking to see if the wiring in the house is still safe – we just trust it is all OK. We drop an important letter in the letter box but never wait around to see if any postman picks it up. We trust it will be delivered. We get on to a bus or a train plane without ever asking whether the driver knows where he is going. When I get in a car and turn the ignition key, I have faith that my car will start. The kind of faith Christians have is simply an expression of the same kind of trust. But trust directed towards God.

We trust the news when we hear it on television, most of the time anyway. We trust a SatNav is going to take us where we want to go. We trust all kinds of people all of the time. Faith in God is the just same kind of trust.

Christian faith is a relationship with GOD – EXACTLY like other relationships with people. That’s why faith, hope and love go together – they are all things which make up relationships with people! Abraham was called a FRIEND of God – because he believed God, he trusted God.
The action of Christian faith is EXACTLY like action of trusting anybody else

Some people think is must be different because “we can’t see God”. But I spend lots of time writing emails to people I can’t hear or see. Young people seem to spend half their lives texting or chatting on Facebook, often with people on the other side of the world who they will never ever meet face to face. We’ve had telephones for decades and letters for centuries. Every week all of us communicate with all kinds of people who we will never see. The taxman! The person I booked our holiday with. Family and friends hundreds of miles away. God is not the only person we trust without seeing them face to face. MOST of our trusting is like that.

Most of life is built on trust in one form or another. One of my hobbies is “mending other people’s computers”. Over the years that is something that lots of people and churches and schools have asked me to do. Somebody who might not know me very well, sometimes a person I have never even met before, comes and says, “my computer is broken, can you fix it? I want to upgrade my computer, can you do it for me?” I explain the risks. I warn them that things might go wrong and that they might end up having to buy a new machine if I break it even more than it is already! But they always agree to take the risk. So far they have always decided to trust me. And so far things have never gone wrong.

People trust me that I am not going to deliberately wreck their machine, or steal bits out of it, or get them to buy new parts which they don’t need and I don’t use but slip into my own computers instead. People trust me that I actually do know what I am doing, and that I wont take risks but will do my best to help them.

I don’t know why people trust me in those ways. Perhaps they think I’ve got an honest face. But life is full of examples of people trusting each other. And trusting God is just the same kind of thing. The only difference between trusting God and trusting people lies in the character of God!!!!! God is more reliable, more trustWORTHY, than ANYbody else!

So how does faith in God work? What does trusting God involve?

When I left teaching science a long long time ago to become a minister, a few colleagues very kindly said things like, “I admire your faith.” Or “I wish I had faith like yours”. I tried to explain to them that they DO have faith. Everybody has faith. And then I explained what it involved to have faith in God.

Christian faith involves at least three things
Trusting the Bible –
Somebody once said that we should start off treating the Bible like any other book – after a while we will realise that the Bible is unlike any other book!

Trusting what Christians say –
When Christians talk about God answering their prayers, some people assume they are just making up stories. How much better to assume that when Christian friends talk about the difference Jesus makes in their lives, the peace he gives them, the help and the guidance, assume that they are telling the truth.

Trusting your own experience –
We can all discover for ourselves God is real, that God is there, that God will help anybody who sincerely searches for him! Try reading the Bible. Try praying.
My family never went to church when I was growing up. I grew up thinking that God didn’t exist. I was studying science and I thought that science had proved the Bible was wrong, that science had proved that God didn’t exist. I was sixteen when God surprised me and showed me that he does exist, that he is real! So I began to see the world in a very different way.

6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Faith in God begins by making the assumption that God exists and deciding to live our lives to please the God we believe in. Other people may live lives based on possessions or money and things in the here and now which they can touch and feel. But Christian believers base our lives on the God of the Bible. We trust in His acts of salvation. We believe His Word the Bible as God’s word to us even today. We claim God’s promises. So we depend on God.

(C. S. Lewis) who wrote the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe once said, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

Hebrews chapter 11 is full of the examples of men and women who trusted God.

NOAH
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Even if nobody else hears God’s voice, if we believe then we hear, and we trust, and we obey. It may make us look foolish to everybody else. But we still rely on God!

ABRAHAM

8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11 By faith Abraham, even though he was past age- and Sarah herself was barren- was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Faith means clinging on to God’s promises, even when they seem impossible.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) “Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will!”

It was that great theologian Cliff Richard who said, “The more we depend on God, the more dependable we find he is.”

Some people seem to think that trusting God is irrational. I would argue that putting faith in God is just as rational, just as sensible as trusting anything or anybody else.

“Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God”. (the preacher John Stott)

It is rational to put our trust in God because of His character. When we trust other people, there is always the risk that they might lie to us, or cheat us. But God will never do that! Because God is infinitely Good –

God is good and just: He will never deceive us – so it should be EASIER to trust Him than it is to trust other people. We should be able to trust God MORE than we do other people!

Then when we trust other people there is also the risk that they will hurt us in some way. But that will never happen with God because God is all loving. God IS love. “I have loved you with an everlasting love!” God says. Oswald Chambers wrote, “Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God.”

God is all-loving: He will never let us down: it should be EASIER to trust God than to trust anybody else. We should trust God MORE than we do anybody else.

Then when we trust other people there is always the risk that they will mess up. That however much they try, they might fail to do what they have promised. But there is no risk of that happening with God. Because

God is all-powerful – God is Almighty. God can do whatever He chooses to do!

God is all-powerful – He CAN keep His promises: it should be EASIER to trust God than it is to trust other people. We should trust God MORE than we do anybody else!

We trust other people – put our confidence in them, have faith in them, believe in them –
Then people are fickle and fallible – But God is GOOD;
Human love is partial, limited – But God is ALL LOVING;
People can fail because of their limitations – But God is ALL-POWERFUL:
So we should trust Him most of all!

The Bible given us many examples of heroes of faith, but there are many modern examples of heroes of faith too.
Corrie Ten Boom was a dutch Christian during the second world war who with other members of her family helped many Jews escape persecution but was herself put into Ravensbruck concentration camp. Corrie Ten Boom said these things about Faith.
“You don’t need great faith, but faith in a great God.”
“If all things are possible with God, then all things are possible to him who believes in him.”
“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.”
“Faith is a Fantastic Adventure in Trusting Him.”

Faith isn’t something religious which only religious people have. We all have faith. We all exercise faith all the time. We all put our trust in things and people. The important question is – what do we put our faith in? What do we trust? Who do we trust?

I am fan of science fiction. Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. Star Trek and Star Wars and of course Doctor Who. By far the best television science fiction series in the last decade was called Babylon 5 and its sequel called Crusade. Each episode of Crusade introduces the plotline and the main character by asking five questions. And those five questions are so good that they are worth everybody stopping to think about them sometimes.

WHO ARE YOU?

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

WHO DO YOU SERVE and WHO DO YOU TRUST?

What is faith? Putting our trust in God is just like trusting anybody or anything else. Questions well worth thinking about. WHO DO YOU SERVE and WHO DO YOU TRUST?

School dinner was being served. One boy had several minutes to wait as others were receiving their portions and in silence he contemplated the plate of fish and chips before him. When the chaplain stood and said grace, the boy was sure that he heard the chaplain pray, “We thank thee Heavenly Father for the piece of cod which passes all understanding.”

Sadly many people have as little understanding of the meaning and the reality of peace of God – the peace which God gives, as that schoolboy had.

“Peace” became a catchword and a slogan for many in the nineteen sixties and “pacifism” seemed to claim the idea of peace as its own exclusive possession. Regrettably the Peace Camps and the Peace Marches of the Hippy generation almost discredited the idea of peace. But on this day, Remembrance Sunday every year we come to remember and celebrate not war, but peace. We come to honour those who gave their lives, not for the cause of war but the cause of peace. We claim for them the promise of Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Songs of God.” And our remembrance causes us to reflect that peace has meaning on at least three levels.

1st Level of Peace – Peace between nations

Historians from Norway, England, Egypt, Germany, and India have come up with some startling information: Since 3600 B.C. the world has known only 292 years of peace! During this period there have been 14,400 wars, large and small, in which around 3.7 billion people have been killed. The value of the property destroyed would pay for a golden belt around the world 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick. Since 650 B.C. there have also been 1656 arms races, only 16 of which have not ended in war. The remainder ended in the economic collapse of the countries involved. Moreover, in excess of 8000 peace treaties were made–and broken. In the last 3 centuries there have been 300 wars on the continent of Europe alone.

Romans 14:19 Let us make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.This is as relevant and important in the affairs of nations as it is between individuals. But the slogan “Peace at any price” is misguided – those who would compromise anything for a quiet life dare not do so.
It was Oliver Cromwell who said, “If we would have peace without a worm in it we must lay foundations of justice and righteousness.” Peacemakers do not look for peace at any price. Sometimes passive resistance to evil will not suffice. In some countries at some times, and over some issues within our own nation, God’s peace, God’s righteousness and God’s justice demand action against injustice, corruption, immorality and indifference against violations of human rights. Love of neighbour calls us to overcome evil with good, by prophetic witness, by social and political action, and as a last resort by physical force.
And the world stage needs peacemakers as much as every. Bringing peace in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the middle east. Peace within Europe, peace in the War on Terror, peace with justice between the exploiting global North and the oppressed and resentful global South.
God calls us all to play our part in being peacemakers between nations? By prayer, by prophetic witness, by political action? Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

2nd Level of Peace – Peace between Neighbours

Romans 12:18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyoneEach of us is called to live at peace with our neighbours. We cannot know peace with God if we are making war on our neighbours. But living at peace doesn’t make us peacemakers. The challenge to Christian people is to bring the peace of God to our own community. Even within North Springfield, our neighbours face all kinds of problems. Our neighbourhood needs peacemakers for broken hurting families with partners fighting, children at war with their parents, and neighbours not speaking to neighbours. North Springfield needs to discover the peace of God which passes all understanding, which sets people free from pain and anger and fear. And Christian people must follow Christ the Mediator and work to spread His peace.
In 1960s Pope Paul VI said, “A love of reconciliation is not weakness or cowardice. It demands courage, nobility, generosity, sometimes heroism – an overcoming of oneself rather than of one’s adversary. At times it may even seem like dishonour. In reality it is the patient wise art of peace, of loving, of living with one’s fellows after the example of Christ, with a strength of heart and mind modelled on His.”

Being a peacemaker isn’t always easy of comfortable – remember Terry Waite.

God calls each one of us to be a peacemaker between neighbours. A mediator, a reconciler, a source of peace here in North Springfield. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

3rd Level of Peace – Peace with God

John 14:29 Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled – do not be afraid.
If we want to be peacemakers we must first receive for ourselves that peace which passes all understanding , that peace of God which Christ alone gives us – which is peace WITH God.

God’s peace is not just the end of war, absence of conflict. God’s peace is not just negative, an absence of something, but very positive:- calm, tranquillity, serenity, harmony, reconciliation –
Peace = HEBREW shalom – wholeness, completeness, soundness, well-being: very positive experiences- the peace of God which passes all understanding.

Peace with God. That was Billy Graham’s great slogan and the title of his first best-selling book: And that is the peace we all need most of all. More than peace between nations. More than peace between neighbours. Each one of us needs to be at peace with God.

Isaiah 48:22 AND Isaiah 57:21 `There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.” There’s no peace for the wicked. That is absolutely true. Selfishness, rebellion, greed, pride, disobedience, all the things which the Bible calls sin are ENEMIES of God’s true peace. Only God can set us free from these things and let us experience His peace, His love, His joy – and God does this through His Son, Jesus Christ.

The peacemaker’s task is to change enemies into friends. And this is what Jesus offers us as a free gift – to change us from God’s enemies into God’s friends as we follow Him – peace with God.

GOOD NEWS BIBLE: 2 Corinthians 5: 17Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. 18All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. 19Our message is that God was making the whole human race his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.
20 Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends! 21Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.OUR PEACE COMES FROM WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR US
It was Christ’s death on the cross which dealt with the barrier of sin between human beings and the Holy and righteous God.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
And we receive that peace by having faith in God.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5:1
And what is faith?

When John Paton was translating the Bible for a South Seas island tribe, he discovered that they had no word for trust or faith. One day a native who had been running hard came into the missionary’s house, flopped himself in a large chair and said, “It’s good to rest my whole weight on this chair.”
“That’s it,” said Paton. “I’ll translate faith as ‘resting one’s whole weight on God.'”

We receive God’s peace as we put our trust in Jesus Christ and rest our whole weight on what Christ accomplished on the cross dying in our place for our sins.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God. But if we are to be peacemakers we must first receive God’s gift of peace for ourselves.

High up in the Andes Mountains on the border between Argentina and Chile there is a giant statue of Jesus Christ in the rock. It was built after the end of the war between those two countries and it bears this inscription.
“As long as these mountains stand, peace continues between Chile and Argentina – founded on the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Jesus Christ is the true Peacemaker – the only source of peace between man and God, that peace which passes all understanding. And those of us who seek to be peacemakers must follow in His steps.