Romans 11 looks at Paul’s continuing discussion about the Israelites and further reiterates his belief that salvation, whether for the Israelite or the Gentile, is by faith and not by works. He cannot say that God has rejected the Israelites, for he himself is proof that God pursues and can turn around even those who have been zealously pursuing their own righteousness rather than the righteousness that comes by faith. He reminds us that God is always working His purposes out, even as He did in the time of Elijah, when the prophet believed he was the only one left following God. God reminded Him that in fact there were 7,000 who had not given way to Baal worship (1 Ki 19:10-18); in fact, Obadiah had been working for the Lord even in the king’s palace! (1 Ki 18). We rarely see the whole picture and it can be easy to become discouraged when we look at only a small part of God’s picture; how important it is for us to see things from God’s perspective!

It’s easy to become confused and fixated upon who exactly Paul means by ‘Israel’ in these chapters. Is he talking about the modern-day nation? Is he talking about the genetic descendants of Abraham? Is he talking figuratively about all those who believe, as Abraham did, and are therefore in some way his descendants? It is true that God has always had people who love Him and serve Him. They are the ‘assembly’, the ‘called out’ ones, the ‘elect’. In the New Testament, they are most frequently referred to as the ‘church’ (Greek ekklesia, literally ‘called out ones’), but it is clear that this particular word is also used in the Septuagint (Greek version of the Old Testament), so that we could say that God’s chosen ones can be found in both ancient times and modern times! The fact remains that the blessings God promised to Abraham were to the whole world, not just to one nation, and the fact that Israel genetically did not all believe does not nullify God’s plans. Paul uses the image of an olive branch and ‘graftings’ to talk about the blessings that God works even in the most difficult situations. The Gentiles – the very Romans to whom Paul is writing – have been grafted in, but that does not mean all hope is lost for the Jews. On the contrary, “if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” (Rom 11:23)

The key, for them and for us, is faith. We can rely on the kindness of God, but need to continue in that kindness (Rom 11:22), for He is also stern. We need to fear God and understand that the life of faith does not only begin with faith, it continues with faith, something the Galatian church appeared to have difficulty in understanding… and which remains a stumbling-block to us today unless we can really grasp the desperate need we have for mercy and grace.

Just to let you know that things will be a little bit different this weekend.

On Saturday (1st October) it will be the Macmillan Coffee Morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon – all proceeds will go to the Macmillan charity, which provides nursing care for those with cancer.

On Sunday morning (2nd October), we will be holding a joint service with the Furlong Road Methodist Church (in Bolton-on-Dearne) which will start at 10.30 a.m. This will take the form of a Harvest Festival, so please bring along any fruit, vegetables or tinned food (to be distributed amongst those in need after the service by the Methodist Church.) There will be no service at Market Street in the morning.

In the evening, we will have our usual monthly Family Service, starting at 6 p.m.

Hope to see you at one of these events!

Stephen gave us a case-study on Noah last night, looking at Genesis 6:9-22.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless, who walked faithfully with God (like Enoch.) He was a family man with three sons and three daughters-in-law. He was a unique man, for he was a man of perservering faith, who heard God’s call to do something that must have seemed utterly bizarre and did it faithfully. He was a preacher man (2 Pet 2:5-6), taking the opportunity to preach God’s message to all around him.

God communicates his heart to Noah. He is distressed by all that He sees on the earth and commands Noah to build an ark. Stephen reminded us of the skills in carpentry that would have been required to build a boat that was 450′ long, 75′ wide and 45′ high.

There have been many attempts to reconstruct what the ark must have looked like:


The scale of the boat (30:5:3) has proved to be a scale that produces a seaworthy vessel, as the S.S. Great Britain demonstrates:

How amazing that God knew this long before engineers could demonstrate it and that He was able to make provision for all the animals to come to Noah.

We can think that the story of Noah is just for Sunday School, a ‘nice little story’ about boat-building and animals. It’s a lot more than that. It shows us God’s heart for the world, that judgment will indeed come, that persevering faith and continued work are necessary in God’s kingdom and that God is faithful to do what He promised, even if it takes a lot longer to do that than we expect (some estimate it took Noah between 80 and 120 years to build the ark.)

Where do we stand with God? Where is our walk with God? What do we do when we hear God’s commands? May we be as Noah, obedient and faithful, persevering and diligent in telling others all we have heard from God.

Mark preached on Ecclesiastes 3:11 this morning, looking at the question of beauty: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

The beauty industry is thriving at the moment. And whether it’s beauty products:

… or jewellery:

… or fashion or exercise…
we all like to make ourselves more beautiful. But God is not so much interested in outward beauty as in the inner beauty. He works from the inside out, changing our hearts.

God created everything beautiful and will beautify His people with salvation (Ps 149:4 NKJV). He has given us beautiful feet (Is 52:7) – the fact that we have good news to bring makes our feet beautiful. Jesus Himself may have not been physically beautiful (see Is 53:2), but the fact that He brings us salvation makes Him beautiful in our eyes!

1 Pet 3:3-4 talks about the kind of beauty God is looking for: ‘the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.’ Again, using the analogy of a Dairy Milk bar, Mark reminded us that it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

The wrapper may be attractive, but it doesn’t taste nice!

Inside the wrapper is what we’re interested in: chocolate!

Truly tasty and beautiful!

Romans 10:14-21 continues Paul’s discussion of the gospel, particularly in the light of the Israelite’s refusal to believe it. We sometimes use these verses to advocate preaching the gospel to the whole world – and this is undoubtedly something we are called to do (Matt 28:18-20) – but there is a sense in which hearing the good news is simply the first step. Israel had heard the gospel. “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Rom 10:18). What was required was not just proclamation, not just hearing, but faith and obedience, and this had been lacking: “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” (Rom 10:21)

Again, Paul reminds us that “not all the Israelites accepted the good news.” (Rom 10:16). Not everyone to whom we proclaim the good news will accept it, either. That doesn’t remove the responsibility of witness from us. Paul is at pains to show us that there is a logical progression on the journey to faith: people must call on the name of the Lord to be saved and therefore they need to hear of the One who can save before they can call on His name! They will only hear of Him if He is preached to them (and the word here must be understood in its original meaning of proclamation, of being a ‘town crier’, rather than in the narrower ‘church’ sense of giving a sermon in a church building!)and it is our duty, responsibility and privilege to spread the good news (“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Rom 10:15). Nonetheless, despite urging us to do our part in sharing the gospel with others, Paul is well aware that faith is a personal response. It comes from hearing the message, to be sure, which gives us a great job to do in speaking out the word of God so others can hear, but it is not in our power to save people. Their response to God’s word and to God’s revelation is between them and God.

Paul will go on to show that the Gentiles’ response to the gospel is yet another means by which God wants to startle the Israelites into faith. God is able to use even situations that to us make no sense or seem impossible for His glory. He used a heathen nation of Babylonia to discipline His chosen people (Habakkuk 1-3). He used a non-Jewish king to issue a decree to allow Israel to return from exile. (Ezra 1:1-3) He used the apparently selfish and vindictive response of Jewish and Roman leaders in conducting the trial and crucifixion of Jesus as the means by which we would be saved.

Three things, therefore, emerged from the study last night.
1) Our job is to proclaim the good news. God is the One who will save. We don’t know whom He will save and have no right to restrict our preaching because someone doesn’t ‘look’ like they will respond.
2) God is in control of all situations, even those which baffle us and cause us heartache and confusion.
3) Faith is a personal response. It wasn’t that the Israelites didn’t know the good news. Their problem (as ours often is) was not believing it.

Recent sermons have looked at parts of Jesus’s body, including His eyes, hands and heart. Just this week I came across a statement (for a travel company) that made me pause. In the ‘About Us’ section of the company (http://www.fusiontravel.co.uk), it says ‘His vision is Our vision’, talking about the founder member’s vision for the company and how this has shaped company policy.

That mission statement seems to me to be a pretty accurate summary of what a Christian should be saying. God’s vision should be our vision. We need to see things the way He sees them. That will mean looking at ‘hopeless’ situations and people with the eyes of hope and faith rather than despair. It will mean looking at ‘impossible’ situations and people with the eyes of love rather than scorn. It will mean looking at situations that are beyond our control with the eyes of faith. It will mean saying “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen 18:14). It will mean acknowledging the truth of Jesus’s words: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matt 19:26)

Twenty-five years ago today, the place where I work (Barnsley Christian School) was opened, the result of Christians catching a vision for Christian education. His vision became their vision and vision led to action. It always will. May we see with God’s vision until that vision becomes ours.