5th December 2025

5th December 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20:16)


Message (Alan Burke)


Now as we think of what this commandment requires of us I want you to think of the truth. Now of course there are times when things are not black and white, like when the Mrs asks if you’re enjoying your dinner and it’s almost inedible you know as well as I do you’ll say that it’s lovely. Of course I jest but when it comes to the truth we should be those who tell the truth, we should be known for our words that they are truthful and the church is to be the buttress of truth (1 Tim 3:15). Yet if we are honest we’ve all told lies, we’ve stretched the truth, we’ve bene selective with the truth, there are many times that we have not been truthful as we should have been. 


Then there are the times that we have lied to save face, or lied to make ourselves look better, the lies that we have unwittingly told when we have been told something and we pass it on when we do not know it is truth, when we exaggerate a story, when we put two and two together and end up with not four but something totally totally different. What about flattery, what about saying something that is technically true yet is intended to deceive, what about painting a one sided picture of the events, what about exaggerating other peoples failings, what about misquoting?


In 1 Jn 3:11 we are commanded to love one another, in fact how we know that (15) we have passed death into life is because we love one another (1 Jn 3:11,15). That love is seen in many ways but in how we speak of one another. Our tongue is a good barometer, for if we really love our neighbour, if we have passed from death into life, our tongue is a good barometer if we truly love Jesus our Saviour. 


If we really are saved from our sin then it will be seen in two we speak of others. In James 3 we told of how the tongue can do both good and evil it says… 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. 13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. (James 3:10-13). If there is a reality to who we are in Christ then gossip no more, then slander no more, half truths should not been told. 


None of us are guiltless when it comes to this command, if anything this command is the one that God’s commands and we fall shorter than any of the commands that the LORD gives. The good news of the gospel is this, while all of us are guilty, the Lord Jesus Christ who was guiltless, in whom there was no deceit (1 Pet 2:22), though his active obedience in his life, lived perfectly and through his passive obedience on the cross died making an atonement for son so that while none of us can claim to deserve anything other than the second death we may be credited with his perfect righteousness. So that while we are sinners he has atoned for our lying lips. Jesus has redeemed sinners, he restores us to relationship with God the Father as the Spirit applies that salvation to us. What we need to do is to look to the Lord Jesus, to know what he has done, we need his grace for we cannot cure ourselves of the sin within us, only the grace of God can, if you have not turned to him, repented and believed then do it now, trust in the one who died so that we might become the righteousness of God.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q37 What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves until the resurrection.
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