All posts by David Ude
“The Passion as I Remember It” – Peter – Guest Preacher Pastor Neal Radichel
Invocavit Sunday – Romans 10:8-13
“The Passion As I Remember It” 1 – Malchus – John 18:1-12
Transfiguration Sunday – Luke 9:28-36
January 31st 2016 – Luke 2:41-52
The Absolute Truth
Isaiah 8:16-22 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…
Information is one of the most important, most coveted, and these days most taken for granted things in our world. It’s right at our fingertips. Want to know how to make chicken noodle soup (as I did last week)? Google it. Or, if that doesn’t quite give you the recipe you want you can call your mom! Information has never been so easily attainable – we are rich in words which teach, direct, and entertain. And yet though we have all the riches of this world’s words, we are desperately poor if we have not God’s Word. That’s what Isaiah is really saying here, that God’s Word – His promises are, in the end, the only things that really matter. As it is written, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our Lord Endures Forever. And this is the word which was preached to you!”
Don’t take His Word for granted: because it is certain! Isaiah notes that even though God was “hiding his face” He would trust His Word. In this world, there are often things that seem to prove God wrong. In Isaiah’s days it would be the people turning away from God and Him removing His protection, yet His promises would come true – the Savior would be born.
Today it might be evolution, called scientific fact by many even though it has never been witnessed, tested, or proven in any scientific way. Evolution seeks to tear down God’s Word but it won’t succeed. God’s Word stands and will stand even after the very heavens and earth created by God in 6 days are destroyed. God’s Word is more certain than anything that anyone could ever tell you. So when it seems like God is hiding his face, when it seems like man is right and God is wrong, listen to God!
For God’s Word also creates family. Isaiah says “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.” These words find their final fulfillment in Jesus of whom they are quoted in Hebrews 2:13. Jesus, the word made flesh, came to fulfill the Word and to preach the Word and through that Word He makes us to be His children, His brothers, His family. He forgives our sins and draws near to us in love.
This is why we should listen only to His Word as Isaiah says “And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”
Only God’s Word is really, ultimately true. We live in a world that claims there is no such thing as absolute truth (a ridiculous and self-defeating argument). But God’s Word is the light which breaks this darkness. It will remain when all man’s ideas and philosophies are gone and those who believe it, those who cling to it and the promises of grace in Jesus Christ that it offers, these will live forever by that Word.
In Christ
Pastor Ude
Don’t Be Afraid, Be With Jesus
Isaiah 8:9-15 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…
Fear is often the most fearful enemy. When people are afraid the can do some pretty terrible things. There are many who know this and try to use it for their advantage – Adolf Hitler was like that. He fed the people on fear so that he could sell them his solution.
Isaiah brings a warning and a comfort to his people and to us in these verses. He says – don’t be afraid of anything except God. Don’t listen when people say “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” Don’t get carried away by doomsday predictions or by political rhetoric. These things all distract, they all ignore the wonderful truth expressed in verse 10. There we find what is really to be the cry of the church in the face of any and every foe, “Bring it on, God is with us!”
When you rightly fear God, that is stand in awe of Him, His power, His law, His works then you know that there is no one who can stand against Him, no one who can defy His will or thwart His plans. That’s terrifying if you’re against Him, it’s wonderful and awesome if He is with you. And in Jesus that is exactly what God is – He is with you by birth, by water, by blood, by suffering, by death, by resurrection. He is with you and through faith you are with Him.
If He alone is your fear and He alone your dread, He who is so awesome in majesty and power and holiness who yet graciously stooped to be with you and forgive your sins, then what could you have to fear? Don’t give in to fear, just be with Jesus.
In Christ
Pastor Ude
Up To The Neck
Isaiah 8:1-8 – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/…
Have you ever been up to the neck? In deep water where you couldn’t swim, standing on the tips of your toes just trying to keep your head above water? That is where Isaiah predicted the Israelites would be before long. The kings of Israel and Syria which now appeared so threatening would soon be swept away but that same river would flood the land of Judah all the way up to the neck. Isaiah even named his son “Maher-shalal-hash-baz” which means something like “swift is the booty and speedy is the prey.” Before, God says, this child will even know how to say “my Father” or “my mother” the Assyrians will come down like a wolf on the fold, and the sheen of their spears will be like stars on the sea. They will flood into the land, they will surround Jerusalem (the head of Judah, Immanuel’s land, hence “up to the neck”) and it will seem like there is no hope for God’s people, no ground to stand on.
But remember, these are God’s people, this is Immanuel’s land and He will deliver them as Isaiah records in chapters 36-37. He will do it because it is Immanuel’s land and they are Immanuel’s people. He has just pointed Ahaz to that sign and remember that sign cannot possibly fail. Immanuel will come and on the cross it will be He who has the water come up to His neck, indeed He will drown in the flood of the sins of all time. It was what should have happened to you and me. Because we like Ahaz and the people Isaiah spoke to then are far too easily impressed by the things and people of this world and far too easily distracted from loving and serving and trusting the True God. But Jesus drowned under those sins for you so that you might be raised up to stand on solid ground in the forgiveness of your sins!
In Christ
Pastor Ude
Abortion – The End of the Story
I was listening to a book. A young girl found out she was pregnant. She was distressed. As the writer described her thinking through her various options, I knew something. I knew that she wasn’t going to have an abortion. I knew it because no one ever gets an abortion in books or movies do they? I mean I’m sure there are a few out there but it pretty much never happens.
You know why? There is no story in Abortion. At least not one that anyonewould want to hear. Abortion is the end. It’s legalized murder. There’s no story in abortion because abortion ends a story. It ends a life with all of it’s limitless possibilities and countless tales. With abortion, there cannot be any “happily ever after.”
Except for in Christ. The true story of the child, both God and Man, who lived righteously and died vicariously, that story can replace all the stories and all the happiness ended by abortion. His story, the story of the cross and of an empty grave, that can give peace and forgiveness to all including those who have done what authors can’t seem to bring themselves to write about. His story can bring the happily ever after of heaven to those children. It can shine an eternal light on eyes cheated of ever blinking into the light of the sun here on earth. Because Jesus’ death is not the end of the story for those who believe in Him. It’s just the beginning.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”