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READ:

John 11:26

²⁶ And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

EXHORTATION:

Those are Jesus’ words to Martha, who was grieving over the death of her brother, Lazarus. Although four days had passed since Lazarus was buried (v.39), Martha and Mary were still in anguish of heart. Jesus assured her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (v.25). Jesus then roused her soul, with the words of our verse: “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” Just as in Martha’s case, these words of Christ offer great peace and comfort for anyone who is bereaving over a departed Christian relative or friend.

In life, if one has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord, he is immediately granted eternal life. Jesus said, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15). Jesus will never permit the life which He has bestowed on a believing soul to perish. He will preserve it forever. It is not “never-lasting life” that Jesus promised, but everlasting life (cf. Jn. 3:16, 36). Jesus also said in John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Had it been left to us to protect the gift of eternal life, we would surely lose it. But Christ, the giver of the eternal life, shall preserve it forever. Perpetuity or permanence of the life that Christ gives is in His own hands. Because He lives forever as our Redeemer, He shall keep our souls for ever and ever. Paul said unto the believing Corinthians that Christ “shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8).

Jesus said that the believer “shall never die”. Though his body would die, his soul, having received eternal life from Christ, shall live in His presence for endless days. Neither physical death nor “second death” (which is the eternal judgement of the unbelievers in hell [Rev. 20:6; 21:8]) will affect that soul. So in the face of death, being sustained by Christ’s precious promise of eternal life, we shall not mourn like the unbelieving. In bereavement, we shall boldly confess that the departed believer lives in heaven, to the glory of the Giver of eternal life, even our Lord Jesus Christ!

READ:

Ephesians 2:5

⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).

EXHORTATION:

No one has become a Christian by his sheer power of decision or action. Man has no power or disposition to save himself, for “we were dead in sins”. This is a dreadfully emphatic pronouncement — “dead in sins”! Could there be a worse spiritual state than this? To be dead in sin is to have no real spiritual ability or experience. Whatever a man who is dead in sin might do, it cannot be a genuine expression of spiritual life! All his physical, rational and moral experiences and activities are under the overwhelming power of sin and spiritual deadness. Even charitable actions of the unregenerate man are tainted by his sinful nature, which is the natural condition of every man. Man is totally incapable of awakening himself from his spiritual deadness.

But what man cannot do, God does. He “hath quickened us together with Christ”. Christ’s resurrection from the grave insured the resurrection of all for whom He died to save. Only Christ’s resurrection power that has brought Him from death to life can awaken a soul that is dead in sin unto spiritual life. The risen Lord Jesus alone can give us life eternal. His resurrection secured and sealed our spiritual resurrection from deadness in sin. He has implanted within us the principle of spiritual life.

What a great and mighty salvation we have received! We are now made alive with Christ. What God has accomplished in Christ, He has also accomplished for believers. It is in union with Him that spiritual death is vanquished and new life is received. Christians live and serve with the resurrection power of Christ. Through our risen Lord Jesus Christ, the power of sin and spiritual death over us have been vanquished.

At the end of our verse, Paul proclaims in parenthesis that a mighty rescue has been carried out by the grace of God through Christ’s resurrection – “by grace ye are saved”, declares the apostle. What a joyful acclamation! It is God’s gracious initiative that has made us alive together with Christ to grant us salvation. God lavished His grace on us through the resurrection of Christ who died for us. His grace has brought new life into our souls, reviving our soul’s spiritual senses, powers and faculties which were once deadened by sin. Now we can live unto God in the power of Christ’s resurrection.

READ:

Ephesians 2:4

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us.

EXHORTATION:

The worldly man speaks of riches in terms of material wealth. He yearns for money, jewellery, big houses and luxury items. Sadly, even churchgoers of our time are overly concerned with material riches.

But a godly man, like the apostle Paul, will be extremely vigilant and cautious towards material wealth (cf. 1 Timothy 6:9-11). In fact, such a man will also be overwhelmingly fascinated with the riches of God. In his epistles, Paul spoke glowingly of “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), “the exceeding riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7; 1:7), “the riches of his glory” (Romans 9:23; Ephesians 1:18; 3:16), “the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering” (Romans 2:4), “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Romans 11:33), etc.

Our text for today declares that God is rich in mercy. The riches of His mercy far outshine all the wealth of this world. While man becomes rich by hoarding things for himself, God, being “rich in mercy”, shall endlessly bestow His goodness and glory on those who need them. He is so rich in mercy that no one who comes to Him for His mercy shall be turned away for lack of it.

What sinners like us need most from God is His mercy. Shall we dare to approach His awful throne for His blessings? The answer is that He is rich in mercy! Are we then worthy to ask favours from Him? The answer is that His mercy is abundant to those who seek Him. You need not possess any merit nor meet any eligibility requirement. Just come to Him, and you shall have mercy; His mercy shall supply all your needs.

What is the guarantee of the bestowal of His mercy? The apostle assuredly says, “for his great love wherewith he loved us”. The love of God towards His people is immensely great and abundant, and His loving hands are always stretched out to receive those who come to Him and to bestow upon them His rich mercies. The richness of His mercy and the greatness of His love are both now extended to His children in full measure. Oh, how blessed we are in Christ to have God’s inexhaustibly rich mercy and inexpressibly great love! Oh, what great encouragement we are given to come to God! There is no reason why we should hesitate to come to Him. He says to us, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3).

READ:

Psalm 103:9

⁹ He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

EXHORTATION:

Though God’s people have often provoked the LORD, He has not dealt with them according to their sins. Psalm 78:38-39 tell us, “But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.”

If the LORD were to chide us on every occasion when we sin, we would have been totally devastated. How consoling it is that the LORD will not always chide, though we often offend Him and deserve His chiding! The LORD is unlike those who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to stop! What would become of us if God had dealt angrily with us on every occasion of our sin?

Our text also says, “neither will he keep his anger for ever.” In the preceding verse, the psalmist testified that “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (v. 8). Because He is merciful and gracious, He is also “slow to anger”. His patience towards us is very great. The LORD knows how feeble we are, and shows His pity on us by withholding His anger from us. In Isaiah 57:16, the LORD proclaimed, “For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.” The LORD does not chide us for every fault; neither does He chide us for a long time nor hold any grudge against us. If He had always chided, our spirits would have failed altogether. That would have crushed our spirits!

Such longsuffering and compassion should not be taken for granted. We must quickly put off our sins and turn to Him in repentance and gratefulness. Nothing is more foolish than trying to exploit God’s grace and patience by continuing in sin!

Also, having received plenteous mercy and patience from God, every child of God must now show the same kind of longsuffering to others. Too much chiding might lead others to be disoriented and disillusioned. Some parents, by their constant rebuke and bitter dealing with children, drive them away. So let us be slow to anger towards those who have erred. Let us pay heed to Galatians 6:1a, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness”.

READ:

Hebrews 3:15b

^15b Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

EXHORTATION:

Today, not tomorrow! Now, not later! Nothing is said in this verse about tomorrow. To God’s people, every day is an opportunity from God to know His will and fulfil it. How they respond each day to the Lord matters! They are warned against hardening their hearts towards the Lord and against provoking Him to displeasure.

A new day of defiance would mean another day of aggravation and provocation of the just wrath of God. However, His gracious voice today extends another opportunity for all the defiant ones to repent and escape His wrath. It is for our sakes that He exhorts us to obey His voice without delay. Our hesitation to obey His voice is a serious violation of His sovereign authority and utter contempt for His gracious voice.

Often the Lord protested and lamented Israel’s unwillingness to listen to God’s voice. For instance, in Psalm 81:11-13, He said, “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!” While Jesus was here on earth, He told His Jewish hearers, quoting the prophet Isaiah, “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15).

Like Israel of old, many in our modern-day church despise and reject God’s voice, and squander the mercy and the opportunity He has extended to them. They are also dull of hearing. Mercy upon mercy has been shown by the Lord, but they repeatedly despise and reject them. They seem to be hearing, but they would not yield.

Have you been turning a deaf ear to the Lord’s voice against your sins? If you put off your repentance to another day, your sins will linger and abound that many days more, while opportunities of that many days would have been lost on you. Do not make your heart callous anymore! Do not flee from His presence to ungodly company! He is calling you. So, today is a very favoured day; seize this opportunity and turn to the Lord.

READ:

Psalm 95:7a

^7a For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

EXHORTATION:

All who claim that God is theirs must first prove that they are truly His; and they can prove it only if, as our verse states, they are always found in His pasture and they are led by His hand. It is nothing more than a phoney claim when those who would not sojourn with God or be led by Him make claims that God is theirs.

However, to all those who truly abide in God’s pasture and rejoice in His guidance and supervision, He is an eternal inheritance unto His people. In Exodus 20:2, the Lord told Israel, “I am the LORD thy God.” In Hebrews 11:16, we read that “wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God”. In fact, He is our Emmanuel, God who is with us (Matthew 1:23). Oh, how wonderful it is to know that the Lord has given Himself to us, that He may be ours now and for ever! We have no reason to doubt whether He is our God. We can certainly affirm, as we read in Psalm 48:14, “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.”

Could we have ever asked a greater favour from God than to have Him for ourselves? Whatever we may think of asking God for ourselves, He wants us to remember that we have Him for ourselves. In Romans 8:32, Paul reminds us, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Since God is ours, His pasture is ours, and the guidance of His hand is also ours. Christ, the great and good Shepherd of His people, shall lead us by His hand into the green pastures, and He shall protect and provide for us. He told us in Matthew 6:31-33, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Oh, what great privilege and blessing belong to those who can sincerely say that “He is our God”! Let our souls rejoice that we have the Lord as our God. Oh, let us gladly proclaim our joy of having Him as our God. Others may reject Him, but we must cheerfully and openly declare Him to be ours. Our confession of Him will glorify Him and strengthen our faith.

READ:

Psalm 95:6

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

EXHORTATION:

What a testimony to the commitment that a child of God should have towards the public worship of God! Now and then, I come across people who claim to be Christians but would not join others to worship Him. There are also those who ‘drag their feet’ to church, and find it a chore to spend a few hours to worship and serve Him on the Lord’s Day. But this verse, together with many suchlike ones, shows that God’s people count it their pleasure to gather and worship Him.

The palmist is eager not only to worship God together with others, but also to urge others to join him in the worship of God. He beckons to all God’s people, saying, “O come”. The fact that he could say “come” to others, clearly implies that he has already been to the place of worship or he is on his way there. So by beckoning to others, he is testifying to them the blessing of worship, and also being an example and encouragement for others to consider the joy of worship.

In order to encourage others to worship the Lord, the psalmist repeatedly uses the phrase “let us”. Though this phrase of exhortation is found only twice in our English translation, if we carefully read it we would see that it is meant to be used with all the three verbs in the verse, namely “worship,” “bow down” and “kneel”. In fact, in the Hebrew text, all those three verbs are presented as a plea to the hearers. The repeated mood of imploring in the psalmist’s exhortation makes him a great promoter of congregational or public worship of God. True worshippers of God are great advocates of His worship. They spare no effort to promote worship for the ultimate glory of God and further blessing of others.

The psalmist is also careful to remind the people that God is “our maker”, thus making another effort to compel them to join him and all other worshippers to bow before Him. He reminds one and all that it is their individual and collective obligation to render praise to the One who has made them all. Isn’t our Creator worthy of our adoration? Ironically, there are those who bow before the idols, which they themselves make. Rather, we must kneel before our God who created and redeemed us to be His own people. Hence with profound postures of worship (“bow down” and “kneel”), let us exalt Him as His thankful and reverential people.

Dear Pastor, the Board of Elders, and all the members of the Church,

Greetings to you all in Jesus’ name!

I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the faithfulness and goodness of our Lord upon all of you. We all believe with firmness the doctrine of God’s providence. Therefore, I am compelled to say again that all the good things that have happened in my life, family, and ministry are indeed from the mighty hand of God. To Him be the glory alone. I play no part in them. I plan not, nor do I expect them. Yes, I prayed unceasingly. It is the Lord then, in His sovereign will, who answered the prayers.

Therefore, I thank my God for His unchanging promises and loving kindness. At the same time, I thank God for all of you, dear saints. The way He does things is beyond my imagination, in a way that amazed me! Dear saints, you have become a blessing from the Lord. He moved you to support the work over here. Your generosity and support humbled me, and I will always be grateful. Your reward will come from the Lord. Dear saints, eternity will tell, and you will be remembered for all the sacrifices you’ve joyfully endured to extend your helping hand for the Lord’s work in our place.

Your care for us is an example to follow. I have learnt from you all. A desire to have the same zeal to bless others the same way you’ve blessed me stirs in my heart. The Lord did provide through you. We praise God for whatever He has done. Blessed be the Lord, O my soul. Brethren, we remember you all very dearly in our hearts. We do that through our unceasing prayers for you; that’s all we can do for you now. We pray that the Lord will help you in your Christian walk, so that you may “shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). The Lord will also provide for all your needs, as promised in Phil 4:19 - “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

Brethren, I don’t know what will happen to me tomorrow. The ministry is very tough here. But I take that as a privilege. If it is His will, I want to wake up each day to serve Him, or if it is His will that I should go to be with the Lord, then I want to die serving Him. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). I know that planting the seed of the Gospel will not go in vain. Pray for boldness and strength, not to believe in the lie that the ministry done in the Lord’s name will always go smoothly. 

Thank you for the Christmas gifts, continuous support, the calendars, etc. Lastly, please pray for the work in our town and another village. Pray for this whole year’s outreach programmes. We will be travelling to various villages and markets to preach the Gospel. Pray that the Lord may give us the grace to serve and to be faithful.

We wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. The Lord be with you all. Amen. SOLI DEO GLORIA!

Pastor J and family

Dear Pastor and Gethsemane BPC, 

Every day, the challenges grow heavier, the opposition stronger, and the road steeper for God’s people in India. I, too, face such trials and feel the weight of these struggles daily. Yet, we stand firm, not by our own strength, but by the grace of our Lord. The battle is real, the trials are many, and the cost of faithfulness is high—but our hope remains unshaken.

I desperately need your prayers. Pray for endurance in suffering, courage in confronting opposition, and unwavering faith in the face of trials. Pray that the light of Christ will shine ever brighter, even in the darkest moments. Your prayers strengthen, uplift, and remind me that I am not alone. Keep me and all God’s people in your intercessions, for the days are growing difficult – but our God is greater still.

Pastor K and family

Sermon Text: Psalm 103
Speaker: Pastor Prabhudas Koshy
Date: 16th February 2025

READ:

1 John 2:17

¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

EXHORTATION:

The world is passing away. Its passing is depicted here as an ongoing process. Nothing in this world is permanent and sure. Our experience on earth is one of constant uncertainty and ruin. So Jesus cautioned us in Matthew 6:19, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal”. No reasonable person would lay up treasure where moth and rust destroy and thieves break through and steal, would he?

The material world around us would soon be no more. A fiery end is predicted concerning the world and all that is in it. 2 Peter 3:7, 10 says, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men... But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” Since everything in this world is rushing towards a calamitous fiery furnace and will end up in flames, is it not asking for heartache and misery if you set your heart on it?

Not only is the world passing away, but also the lusts thereof. 1 Corinthians 7:31 also reminds us of this fact when it says, “the fashion of this world passeth away.” So if you cherish the philosophies, trends and pursuits of the world, all of your passions shall also pass away with them. You will lose not only your treasure, but also your soul. If you love the world, it will pass away and take you with it.

Would you buy the stocks of a business that is heading for bankruptcy? Would you think of spending a day relaxing on a sinking ship? Would you want to dance the night away in a nightclub that is on fire? So, if you are pursuing a worldly kind of living, be forewarned of your sure destruction.

Let us take note that only “he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”. Doing God’s will, first of all, involves avoiding the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride in possessions of this life. Secondly, it involves obeying His Word that endureth forever. So, let us put away worldliness that distracts us from delighting in things that abideth for ever, even God’s will. Let us rejoice to do His will as children of His eternal kingdom.