19th August 2026

19th August 2026


Pray (ACts)


Read - (Romans 3:3-4 focus v3)


Message (Alan Burke)


Today we make a contract in many situations; party A says they will do this, party B says that they will do this in return. Like a phone contract, for example, your phone provider, whoever it is, provides you with a service that is dependent on you keeping your side of the contract, which is, of course, paying the bill or putting ‘credit’ on your phone. The provider will only provide you with the service if you keep your obligation. 


The Jews were the people of God; they even had the sign of the promises of God in circumcision, but the promises are only effectual if they are embraced; you need to believe in the promise, you need to have faith, you need to receive the promise. The problem is they hadn’t. God’s people had obligations; they were faithless to the promise of God. We see the pattern throughout Scripture; God has to constantly call His people back. His people did not keep their side of the covenant; they did not love the Lord their God with all their heart. Faith is not just believing in something to be true; it is living in response. That is why if you look back to Romans 1:5, we are reminded that we are called to the obedience that comes from faith. 


To this objection, Paul says not at all; these things do not nullify God’s faithfulness. Just because His people did not have faith does not nullify the years of God’s continuing faithfulness to the promises that He had made and He kept in spite of their faithlessness. For God is true, and every man a liar. That may not sit well with you, but all men are liars; all mankind, humanity, men, women, and children, we are all promise breakers. Only God is the one who has kept His promise completely. 


As Christians today, for those of us who love the Lord, it should not surprise us. God is true; we are not. We break promises, we lie. Thankfully, our salvation isn’t dependent on us; it is dependent on God himself through Jesus Christ. For God cannot lie because he is truth. He cannot lie; just because we do does not mean that God does. Just because his people were faithless, they did not have faith, does not mean that God’s faithfulness was nullified. Again, fast forward to today. We are not Jews but Christians; we are likewise, though the covenant people of God today. The sign of the  promises of the covenant has changed, from circumcision to baptism. The sign and seal today is baptism. If some who were baptised did not come to faith, should we simply do away with baptism? Should we forget the signs that God has given us? No, because baptism does not guarantee salvation; rather, it is an expression of God’s promise to all who believe. It points to God’s promises, His faithfulness, not to ours. If no one who was ever baptised had faith, it doesn’t nullify God’s faithfulness because God has kept His part of the covenant; it is we who haven’t kept our obligation. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q43 What is the preface to the ten commandments?
A. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
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