16th February 2024

16th February 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 John 4:13-21 focus v17-18)


Message (Alan Burke)


Many moons ago I sat with a lady who was struggling was assurance of salvation. This lady had been taken to hospital and ended up in for surgery and when they opened her up the surgeon stopped and did not carry out the operation. Afterwards it was explained that she was riddled with cancer and there was nothing that could be done. I remember sitting with her and she was struggling and this is the passage that I took here to with my little experience and knowledge of here. Look at the wonderful assurance that John gives to us, v15 “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God”. Do you confess that Jesus is the son of God? Well then v16, "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” This love is perfected or completed with us so that we have as v17 tells us confidence in the day of moment. For that lady she confessed Jesus as her saviour and she loved so well, she loved in a way that I desire to love. She could know that in what lay ahead that she was God’s child because of this. 


For the believer there is a very clear reality to how we live and in what lies ahead in the coming judgment, the confidence that we have. For there is a day coming when we will stand before the Lord our God and we will be judged by the one he has appointed to judge the living and the dead the Lord Jesus Christ and we will all be held accountable for our actions. For the believer as his love is completed in us we have no reason to fear the day of judgment because we have been saved by the work of God, through the son applied to us inwardly by the Holy Spirit. We have confidence not because of what we have done, confidence that we have been saved because of God’s work within us now that is being completed in us, perfected in us. It means that we do not need to fear what lies ahead in the day of judgement because for the believer it will mean that shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted on that day, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God, to all eternity. It will mean the end of sin and the beginning of a new and better external life face to face with our saviour Jesus Christ. In this life as we live more according to his word, obediently, in love then we can have confidence in what lies ahead, love completed in us will drive our fear, remove the doubt that we have. It doesn’t happen all at once, it is progressive, on going in our lives. 


For the believer our God will not cast us out when we make a mess of things, when we fall into sin and the love that he shows towards us should give us confidence in what lies ahead, it will lead us to love more and more, to obey him more and more and tell of who he is more and more. It should be the love that God has shown us in Christ that is applied to us by the Holy Spirit that should be our motivation, not fear, for we are his children, redeemed, forgiven, adopted and nothing we do can change that. If you are living in fear of punishment instead of running form the Lord you need to run to him, repent of your sin and trusting in him and his forgiveness and his love will be completed in us. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q70 Which is the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exod. 20:14)
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