18th March 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (1 John 5:18-21 focus v18) Message (Alan Burke) Will ye have a cup of tea. ah, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on. Many of you will know you I’m referring to. I remember watching Father Ted when it first aired and there were many lines taken from the show that made it into every day speech in our family. go on, go on, go on, go on, go on and you will, you will, you will especially when someone wasn’t convinced by the offer of a cuppa tea or a wee biscuit or one of granny’s scones or cakes those words of Mrs Doyle “go on” or “you will” somehow got pulled out and most people gave in. When it comes to sin today we take it as seriously as giving into taking a wee cuppa tea and wee biscuit or scone or cake when we are trying to be good, sure it would have been better not to but it’s not really that serious. Look though to what John says here, “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin”. This isn’t that we are when we believe in the Lord Jesus we are to have some kind of sinless perfection, we know that is not true and John has already said back in chapter 1 that 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (8). It is not that we have a sinless perfection but that we who are born of God do not allow sin to define us. Think of Paul in Romans 7 who talks about that daily battle with sin in our lives, we battle with the old sinful self until we get to glory. But that sin should not control us, it should not be who we are. What this means for the believer, if we are in Christ Jesus, if we have been saved from our sin is that we are to live according. It doesn’t mean that you will not sin or never fall into sin but that as we are born of God there will be a transformation within us. When we are born of God we should be those who are changed, transformed, we are not like what we once were. It is not that we have a sinless perfection, no it is that we are those who are desiring to not be like what we once were, we do not want to sin. And when we do sin then we confess it, we desire to repent of it and when we bring it before the Lord we are forgiven. What we desire is to sin less, we desire to be transformed more into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we want the Spirit to work within us we know that we are his children. We will bear a familial likeness, we will resemble each other in how we love, how we obey and how we testify to the truth that Jesus is Lord to the Glory of God the Father. For the believer we do not continue to sin and we are kept safe by God so that the evil one cannot harm us. What this means is that our God will keep us safe in him, Satan is not the Lord’s equal, far from it, Satan is a created being and a defeated foe. For the believer this knowledge that God keeps us safe is a wonderful assurance, our God will keep us safe. But does that mean for the christian you’re never going to get sick, does it mean that you car will never be hit by some numpty who was on their phone, does it mean that you’ll avoid loosing your job? No, of course not, for we live in a fallen world, sins curse is clear in every one of our relationships in every part of our lives. This isn’t a promise that we will be spared from the effects of the fall or spared from trial and temptation, that we will be free from pain and hurt but that our eternal destiny is secure, that we are the Lord’s. Satan will never overpower us, we are secure as a child of God, whatever Satan throws in our way we will overcome and spend eternity with our heavenly Father. Today you are being kept safe by the Lord God himself. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q96 What is the Lord’ s supper? The Lord’ s supper is a sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’ s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment, and growth in grace. (1 Cor. 11:23–26)
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