11th November

11th November 


Pray (ACts)


Read - Romans 2:16


Message - Alan Burke 


What comes into your mind when I say beach? Or what about trees, or coffee? We could pick any word or anything and more often than not our minds start to imagine that thing, don’t think of an elephant what ever you do stop thinking of an elephant. I hope you don’t spend the rest of the day thinking of elephants. If we got a group of people together and asked them what came to mind when I said beach they might all have the same or similar mental image, whereas they might have completely different ones. When it comes to Jesus, if I asked what comes to mind with His name many of us would recall different things from His life and ministry, the really eager among you might even say Genesis 3:15 the serpent crusher, maybe psalm 110 David’s Lord. I’m sure if you asked you would get many varied response and more than likely just from the gospel account. 


What is it for you? Is it that of the manger with the angels singing declaring the coming of the saviour, is it of Jesus at his baptism coming out of the water with the Spirit of God descending on Him from the heavens in the form of a dove, is it healing the sick, welcoming the children, teaching surrounded by throngs of people, is it breaking the bread that night in the upper room, giving us the new covenant in His blood which we will celebrate later, is it of Him before Herod, or on the cross, maybe the resurrection in triumph, but what about as the Judge?


Throughout his ministry Jesus spoke of himself as the judge but it is one that we think of least, yet Jesus is the one who on that final judgment day will judge all, He is the one who has been appointed by the Father revealing all that is secret. The law of God can only make us righteous if we obey it perfectly. The problem is that we are fallen and we are sinful (Rom 7:7-25), our sin makes us unable to keep the law perfectly and that is why the law cannot justify us. There is no redemption in the moral law or in immediate revelation, but there is redemption in Jesus Christ who alone obeyed the law perfectly for us.


None of us by our nature deserve anything but to perish, because of sin that because of the fall have lost communion with God and are under his wrath and curse and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself and the pains of hell forever (WSC19). But God did not leave all making to perish in the estate of sin and misery, instead out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life… bringing them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer (WSC20), for through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ our sin has been dealt with. But what we need to do is to trust in Him, the redeemer of God’s elect. 


When we do we have His righteousness imputed to us, it is given to us, that although our secret thoughts will will be judged, we will not be condemned for He took the condemnation that we deserve. And something else happens in this life, for our relationship with the moral law changes, no longer do we try to keep the law in order to earn our salvation, but rather we strive to keep the law because of our election, how God has chosen us to be his people, because of our justification, how God has declared us just before Him, because of our adoption in how we are made a child of God, in our sanctification in how we are made holy and are being made holy and our glorification how we when we die immediately pass into glory. We are seeking to live in obedience to the Father because of the grace that He has shown us, the love that was displayed in how that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q102 What do we pray for in the second petition?
In the second petition, (which is, Thy kingdom come, (Matt. 6:10)) we pray, That Satan’ s kingdom may be destroyed; (Ps. 68:1,18) and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, (Rev. 12:10–11) ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it; (2 Thess. 3:1, Rom. 10:1, John 17:9,20) and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened. (Rev. 22:20)
​