Merciful Savior Online

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.

We are all without excuse under God's law.

This parable of Jesus is a warning to us that, wherever the Gospel is sown and true believers are in this world, the devil will also sow his lies and false teaching to lead people into false security and hope based on their own works and righteousness or upon some other lie or deception of the evil one. They may appear to be a part of Christ’s church in this world but they are not. They remain impenitent and unbelieving. In the end, they will be gathered up and cast into the fires of hell!

The Apostle Paul shares greetings from fellow Christians ministering with him in the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We can learn much from a study of these individual believers and their service to the Lord Jesus.

Worship at Good Shepherd on Jan. 29, 2023.

Sermon on Romans 1:18ff.

Online Bible Study in Colossians, beginning at 3:18 and ending at 4:6.