How can we sinners be counted righteous in God's sight? Romans 3:19-31

Hosea tells of God's attempts to chastise and wake up the northern kingdom of Israel because of the people's lack of knowledge of the LORD God and their participation in the idolatry of the nations and peoples around them. God desires to show them mercy, but because their repentance is empty and shallow, His judgments are coming upon them. These warnings are so fitting for our people and time, as well!

Jesus is zealous for God’s house, as the Scriptures say, “Zeal for Your house has eaten me up” (Psalm 69:9). Not only is Jesus concerned for the earthly temples built with our hands; He is concerned with the temples of our bodies which He has created and redeemed. What would He cast out and cleanse away in your body or in your life?

Sermon was on Romans 3:1-20

Though the time of mercy for Israel had run out, God's mercy is seen in His promises to redeem them and bring them back again. We, too, by our unfaithfulness and lack of knowledge of God, bring on ourselves God's judgment and wrath. He desires that we repent now and turn back to Him for mercy and a knowledge of the truth before it is too late!

Worship at Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rogers on February 19, 2023. The sermon text is from Romans 2:19-29.

Hosea 2 speaks of the coming judgment of God upon a people who were unfaithful to Him, who turned aside into idolatry instead of worshiping and serving the true God who had so richly blessed them. But Hosea 2 also promises mercy in Jesus Christ so that those who had not received mercy and were not God's people now receive God's mercy and are God's people.

The Parable of the Sower from Luke 8:4ff.

As we read the parable of the sower and its explanation, we are quick to identify people we know with the poor kinds of soil and ourselves with the good. But, when we do this, we miss the warning and comfort of this parable for ourselves.

Through similitudes, God warned the people of the northern kingdom of Israel that God's judgment was coming, that His mercy had come to an end, and that they were no longer His people. Yet God promised to gather His elect under one Head, Jesus Christ, and keep His promise to make spiritual Israel an innumerable company, His own people, through faith in Jesus and His cross.