29th January 2025
Pray (ACts) Read (Ezekiel 20:1-44 focus v5-26) Message (Alan Burke) Back in the day things were better weren’t they? It’s a matter of opinion of course, I’ve been told recently how awful things are these days. The individual in question was thankful that they weren’t my age and having to do it all again. We can all be a bit like that, long for times past although I’d dispute that things were actually better back in the day, different yes, better hmmmm. Like after all I remember as a wain scraping the ice of the inside of the window in the bedroom, hearing the siren sound and the bombs going off, wondering was the family ok and watching news of the tit for tat murders although LW Atlantic 252 was still on the radio, a 5p mix had a right few sweets and I could eat Ricicles for breakfast without the government interfering because they had too much sugar like these days. The Lord here takes his people on an overview of their history, there might have been a perceived golden age, when things were better back in the day but in reality it was a nonsense the same issues were there. The story of their history is of continuing sin, their detestable practices, how throughout the generations they had rejected the Lord’s rule over them. Even though he had by his grace chosen the people elected them not because they deserve it but by his gracious choosing and they had rejected him. This was a path not only that their forefathers had chosen it was the path that they had chosen, that they had embraced. We are told of the Exodus Generation in v5-10, the Wilderness generation in v11-15 and then the children of the wilderness generation in v18-23. Each generation failed to obey the word of the Lord. Each time they rebelled, v8, v13, v21, each time the Lord warned them he would pour out his wrath on them but he relented. They though did face his judgment. Each time the people went not after the Lord but to sin and their detestable practices. So while the Lord had given them good decrees and laws to live by he handed the children of the wildness generation over to v25 we are told “to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by”. This was the Lord handing them over to their idolatry, idolatry that saw them become defiled, where they offer other first born sons to the fire of Molech, sacrificing their own children. The Lord had redeemed them so that they may serve and worship him but instead they did not serve and worship the Lord and the Lord handed them over to their sin and detestable practices. Things were not better, things might have been different but the Lord confronted the elders of Israel with were broad bush strokes their history, showing how he chose them, how they rebelled against them, how judgement came. We might look back and think things were better, I especially miss Kellogg's Start cereal, things might have been different but sin has been the constant feature of every generation and this generation and it is just manifested in different ways. When we repent and believe, when we are born again then because of the work of Jesus Christ within us we have been freed us from our slavery to sin. But our flesh is so corrupt, so sinful that even as we have been born again it is a loosing war until we are given a renewed will, for when we die we will be made perfect in holiness. Until then even thought we are justified, regenerate we are still sinners nonetheless, our problem is sin and we are prone to love our own sinful flesh more than we love our sinless saviour. It is a daily fight against sin, we must never think that we are on top of it, we must look to the Lord, praise him for his grace towards us. For here the Lord God had promised his wrath on his people, they deserved it and likewise we deserve his wrath, but we know his grace. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q100. What doth the preface of the Lord’s Prayer teach us? A. The preface of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, Our Father which art in heaven,” teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.
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Alan
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